Buhari: Suspected militants fire first warning

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BUHARI: Suspected militants fire first warning •Blow up main gas pipeline in Delta

Shoot-At-Sight) as well as the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, led by Dr. Frederick Fasehun and Gani Adams.

About seven companies were said to have been allocated “regions” or operational areas as follows: Egbe Security River One (Bayelsa); Gallery Security (Mosinmi -Ore); Close Body Protection (Edo State); Adex Energy Security(Rivers) ; Donyx Global Concept(Lagos and Ogun); Oil Facilities Surveillance-(Delta) and New Age Global Security (MosinmiIbadan).

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), it was said, would coordinate the jobs.

Nigeria has been battling with huge revenue loss due to vandalism of oil and gas pipelines.

BY PEREZ BRISIBE

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RE the Niger Delta militants posing a threat to the incoming administration of the former Head of State and president- elect, Major General Muhammadu Buhari as they did to current and past regimes?

This question has become relevant because, barely four days after Buhari was declared winner of the Presidential election, beating incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, suspected militants have blown up a major high pressure gas pipeline at Ighwrenene Community in Delta State, warning the President-elect that he may have his hands full in containing the economic sabotage.

The incident allegedly occurred around 2:30 am yesterday.

The economic sabotage was coming about one week after some former leaders of the Niger Delta militants threatened to return to the creeks and resume their war against the Nigerian state in response to General Buhari’s election victory over Jonathan.

But Jonathan’s quick congratulatory message to Buhari even before INEC, the electoral body, officially declared him winner doused tension in the land and forced some of them to retract their words. However, yesterday ’s incident made the situation hazy.

Also, a group of Urhobo youths under the aegis of Urhobo Gbagbako yesterday claimed responsibility for the March 22, bombings of the Nigeria Petroleum Development Company, NPDC, oil pipe lines in Ekiugbo, Ughelli Local Government Area “on a massive scale.” It said that the aim was to give vent to their demand for pipe line surveillance contracts.

Nigeria is almost a oneproduct economy with oil contributing to about 90 percent of her wealth.

Late former President, Alhaji Musa Yar ’Adua had to grant amnesty to the Niger Delta militants who fought from the creeks to drive home their demand for derivation and resource control in the country.

The Federal Government also approved 13 percent derivation as well as other programmes aimed at cushioning the effects of degradation occasioned by oil exploration for the oil producing states.

However, as at 10am yesterday when Saturday Vanguard visited Ighwrenene Community, an official of the NPDC accompanied by two mobile policemen were at the scene making frantic calls on how to extinguish the inferno which was ravaging the area.

Another official attached to the Pipeline Surveillance Unit, PSU, in the area who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the affected pipeline was a trunk line which convey the product from Eriemu, Kokori, Afiesere, Uzere, West-End at Kwale, Ogini, Olomoro and Owhe to the Ughelli Quality

•L-r: President Goodluck Jonathan; Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State; Executive Secretary Christian Pilgrims Commission, Mr. John Keneddy Opara; Senator Emmanuel Aghavariodo and the Permanent Secretary Ministry of Water Resources, Chief Godknows Igali singing during the church service to mark Good Friday at the Aso Villa Chapel, State House, Abuja. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida

Control Center, UQCC. Attempts by fire fighters from the NPDC, SPDC and the Delta State Fire Service departments to extinguish the fire had not been successful even as one of their trucks got stuck along the road to the scene of the explosion making access to the spot almost impossible.

Meanwhile, the Commanding Officer of the 222 Battalion, Agbarha-Otor, Lt. Col Mathew Oyekola told Saturday Vanguard that 15 suspects have so far been arrested in connection with the incident.

Pipeline surveillance contracts: Urhobo Youths Commence Bombings of Oil installations

In a statement yesterday, leader of Urhobo Gbagbako, Priest Omodjuvwu, said the

group carried out the latest round of bombing along the Afiesere and Ekiugbo axis of the council area, during which it shut down all the oil fields in Urhobo and Isoko nations.

Omodjuvwu said, “We have earlier warned NPDC and the Federal Government on the pipeline surveillance contract to no avail. ‘’The contract is going on without the inclusion of the Urhobo, and that is injustice being meted to the Urhobo, which we will resist to the end.

We need the pipe line surveillance contract now or the bombings will continue.

“We have now commenced bombings of oil and gas installations in Ekiugbo/ Ighrenene/Afiesere areas and we will continue in an unprecedented scale, until we get the pipe line surveillance contracts in our area.”

He also, added that the group’s quest for oil contracts was immediate, in the absence of which the youths would continue the assault on oil facilities in their domain, without waiting for the expiration of the 14 days ultimatum earlier credited to it.

The Federal Government was said to have on March 16, reviewed its new plan to safeguard the waterways and oil pipelines by allegedly directing the Police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, to quit the job for some companies, which had been signed on by the government.

The companies were reportedly owned by some former Niger Delta militants and prominent citizens including Government Tompolo; Mujaheedin Asari-Dokubo, Chief Bipobiri Ajube (aka Gen.

Dokubo threatens to resume militancy in response to Buhari’s election victory

NIGER Delta militant leader Asari Dokubo had threatened to return to the creeks and resume his war against the Nigerian state in response to General Muhammadu Buhari’s election victory over President Goodluck Jonathan.

On Saturday, Nigerians went to the polls to elect a new president and Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, beat incumbent President Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. This was even as the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, MEND, sent Buhari a congratulatory message, saying that Nigerians made the right choice.

However, Mr Dokubo, who earlier promised to unleash violence on the country if President Jonathan was not reelected, promised to return to the creeks, blaming the Yoruba and Hausa for working against Ndigbo and Niger Deltans.

Don’t attribute Jonathan’s defeat to S/West, North conspiracy — N/D group tells Asari-Dokubo

By SIMON EBEGBULEM

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OLLOWING the statement credited to the Niger Delta People Volunteer Force (NDPVF) led by Alhaji Mujahid Asari Dikubo, that the North conspired with the South West to deny President Goodluck Jonathan a second term in office, another group in the Niger Delta, the Niger Delta Peoples Confederation, yesterday faulted the comment asserting that Gen.Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence reflects the wishes of majority of Nigerians and not a conspiracy.

The Co-ordinator, NDPC, Mr Iyamu Osaro Culture, in a press statement in Benin City, reminded Alhaji Dokubo that the entire Nigerians voted for President Jonathan in 2011 because he enjoyed the support of Nigerians then, adding that rather than

attributing ethnicity to Jonathan’s failure, Niger Deltans must all support the new administration so as to fast tract development in the region and Nigeria as a whole.

According to the statement, “Let no one see the emergence of General Muhammadu Buharias a conspiracy against the Niger Delta people because it is the voice of the people. In 2011 both the North and the entire South supported Jonathan because we all wanted him. But now people said they needed change let no body attribute it to ethnicity. Let us all take example from President Jonathan for congratulating Buhari, that is democracy in practice and the world will continue to respect him for that.

“At this critical time, we the people of Niger Delta wants rapid development of our region, countless youth

empowerment and above all want the president –elect when sworn-in to retrieve all our oil wells that belongs to

individuals and perhaps reallocate them to Niger Delta states for aggressive transformation of our region.

Buhari meets Jonathan

BY BEN AGANDE, Abuja

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RESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan and Presidentelect, Gen. Muhammad Buhari (retd.), met behind closed doors yesterday in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The meeting, the first between the two leaders since the Presidential Election which saw incumbent President Jonathan losing to the opposition leader was said to be a private meeting devoid of media coverage.

General Buhari had indicated during his acceptance speech that he would meet with Jonathan “in the next few days’ ostensibly to streamline the transition process. He described the

President as a statesman.

The meeting was held inside the new Banquet Hall inside the President’s office and was said to have been attended by the President and the President-elect with their few aides Though details of the meeting were not available, it may have been a preparatory meeting to the setting up of a transition committee preparatory to Buhari taking over the reins of power.

Others at the meeting included the chairman of the PDP, the chairman of the APC as well as the chairman of the Peace committee of the Presidential Election Committee, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

6 — SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Buhari’s nickname is Akali, only surviving sister opens up on their childhood

BY ISIAKA OYIBO

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AURA, the country home of the president-elect is still agog with celebrations since the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC declared him winner of last weekend presidential and National Assemblies elections.

Since the pronouncements of the results, residents of the town had not relented in ceaseless celebrations as party faithful and supporters of the All Progressives Congress APC were seen rolling out drums with victory songs when vanguard visited the town yesterday.

A joyous mother, Hajia Rekiya Adamu, popularly called Amadodo who incidentally is the only surviving sister out of the 24 family members of the President-Elect.

Mohammadu Buhari was also in celebration mood. In an interview with Saturday Vanguard, the Octogenarian revealed how the President-elect was raised, his childhood and relationship with members of the community.

Hajia, now that your only blood brother has emerged as Nigeria’s President-elect, what do you have to say about his upbringing?

Buhari, since he was a boy has always been a calm person. He doesn’t talk so much and he avoids trouble with others. He is very caring, he is very close to his relations, he is such a person that doesn’t like to break family ties. He tries as much as he can to link up with others anywhere. He lived with me before when he was schooling in Katsina.

I was married then and every one was amazed by his conduct because no one ever reported him to me. He is intelligent and I remember during his childhood he was outstanding. He has no enemy. Even now, go around Daura town, he has no enemy. His attitude has endeared him to all.

How close is he to the family, having been such a public figure?

I’m his only elder sister, he always visits me. Even during tight schedule especially during election campaign, he always found time to see me. I mean he would sneak in

It’s blessing to Nigeria because he had held that position before, but as a military man. He is honest and trustworthy and these attributes are still his

hallmark. We pray God to see him through this national assignment. We call on Nigerians to give him the needed support to enable him transform the country.

Nigerians in the Diaspora hail Jonathan, Buhari’s victory

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IGERIANS in the Diaspora and former leader of the group, Chief Amina Temitope Ajayi have congratulated the President-Elect, General Muhammadu Buhari describing the victory as God’s favour.

Ajayi, a.k.a Mama Diaspora, who spoke with Saturday Vanguard from United States yesterday stated that the

•Hajia Rekiya Adamu

to see everybody.

Anything that I or any distant relation needs, he never hesitates to provide. He tries his best to make the family happy.

Among his siblings, how do they see him?

We were 24 in the family, all others have died remaining Buhari and me. They used to call him Akali during his childhood. That is the name our parents and relatives call him. I cannot recall why they

called him that, because I was small then but I know that is the name we called him. We also call him Leko because he was born after twins.

How did your parents regard him?

They held him in high esteem. He returned when he was held in prison when our mother died, they really loved him and showed all of us love and care.

Now that he is the incoming president how do you see his victory?

•General Buhari

peaceful conduct of the election and the emergence of Buhari were as a result of the determination and fervent prayers of all Nigerians including the Diaspora for a violentfree election.

She said: “It’s never too late for God’s Favour. As we celebrate this victory, we should continue to show appreciation to our dear President Goodluck Jonathan for delivering a peaceful election. We are overwhelmed by the avalanche of commendation and praises being poured on Nigerians and indeed our dear President worldover for accepting defeat and averting bloodshed after election. Its highly Democratic and commendable to have him as the first African President to accept defeat. This should be emulated across Africa.

We are very proud of our dear country Nigeria,” she stated.

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015 — 7

Tragedy: Kano REC, wife, two daughters die in house inferno

By Abdulsalam Muhammad & Aliyu Dangida

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HE Kano State resident electoral commissioner Alhaji Munkaila Abdullahi has died in a fire outbreak in his house in Kano.His wife and two daughters also died in the incident.

The incident that occurred at his Nassarawa GRA official residence yesterday morning was said to have been triggered by fire from a split air conditioner in the sitting room.

Briefing reporters on the tragic incident in his office, the Kano State Police Commissioner, Ibrahim Idris ruled out sabotage, pointing out that detectives from the command and men from fire service have started to investigate the circumstances leading to the incident.

Idris said, “today (yesterday) at about 4.30am, the policemen on guard duty at the official residence of the Kano Resident Electoral Commissioner, Alhaji Munkaila Abdullahi located at 2 Sir Kashim Road observed a fire emanating from split air conditioners in the sitting room. “ The official residence of the late REC is 500 meters away from Government House and 10 meters away from the heavily fortified security checkpoint in front of the official residence of the Assistant Inspector General of Police in Zone 1, Alhaji Tambari Yabo The police commissioner further explained that efforts by the officers severally to get in touch with the victims failed.

He said that the officers were banging on the doors and attempting to break windows of the toilet. They could not.

The police Commissioner said that at the point the officers on duty and the local guards se-

cured entrance into the building, they discovered the sitting room was engulfed by fire and smoke.

Idris further said that the bodies of the deceased REC, his wife and two daughters were discovered in the toilet of the master bedroom while still unconscious.

“They were quickly removed and moved to the Murtala Mohammed Hospital where doctors confirmed that the family of four died from inhaling hot and black smoke.”

The Spokesman of the Kano State police command, ASP Magaji Majiya, confirmed the fire incident incident, saying that the REC and his family died as they tried to escape through the window of their apartment. He said the fire

was suspected to have been caused by a spark in the family’s generator at about 4.30 am.

The National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Muhammad Jega accompanied by Governor Sule Lamido of Jigawa State and his cabinet members, as well as the Emir of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Muhammad Sanusi and other traditional title holders were among dignitaries that attended the funeral prayer for the late REC, Alhaji Abdullahi in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital yesterday afternoon.

Abdullahi who was born in Gantsa village, Buji Local Government Area of Jigawa State, held many positions in the Jigawa State civil service rang-

ing from Director, Administration and Finance to Permanent Secretary before his retirement and later appointment as INEC Commissioner representing Jigawa State but posted to Kano.

The funeral prayer was led by the Chief Imam of Dutse Central Mosque, Dr. Abubakar Sani and attended by thousands of sympathisers most of who cried uncontrollably.

The deceased were laid to rest according to Islamic rites at Sabuwar Tasha Dutse graveyard along Kiyawa road.

Meanwhile, some neighbours, who declined to be named in this story for fear they might be harassed by the police, said the fire was strange, and suggested the police should not consider the incident an ordinary one.

BRIEFS Don’t forget, your mandate is for change, Ndoma-Egba tells Buhari

BY JOHNBOSCO AGBAKWURU

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ENATE Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, SAN, has congratulated the President-elect , Gen. Muhammad Buhari, retd, for his election victory in the just concluded presidential election and told him to bear in mind that the mandate given to him, was for change. Meantime, the Presidential candidate of the United Progressive Party, UPP, Chief Chekwas Okorie, has also felicitated with the victorious All Progressives Congress, APC, presidential candidate in the just concluded election and also told him that his party which will be in the opposition will engage his government in a constructive criticism. The Senate Leader who described Gen. Buhari’s victory as “the high point of Nigeria’s democracy”, commended President Goodluck Jonathan for conceding defeat just as he described it as “a defining moment in our history.”

10 guber candidates step down for Ambode

BY OLUFEMI AJASA

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O fewer than 10 Lagos governorship candidates have stepped down to declare their support for the candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, Akinwunmi Ambode in the forthcoming April 11 governorship election.

According to the governorship candidate of the Independent Democrats, Mr. Obadia Akinola, who spoke on behalf of the other candidates at the declaration event, the candidates stated that they shelved their individual ambitions to be the governor of Lagos State in the interests of the people of Lagos State.

He furthered,” Without mincing words, we collectively as candidates of various political parties, have decided to join hands together with Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode of APC to give Lagosians a deserving government at this time.

Igbo should have toed Azikiwe’s footsteps by supporting Buhari —Osifo

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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One of the houses suspected to be kidnappers den being set ablaze by area boys at Adekile Orita Aperin in Ibadan recently. Pix by Dare Fasube

Man, 42, falls inside well, rescued

BY BOSE ADELAJA

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MALE adult of 47 years was, on Thursday night rescued having been trapped in a domestic well for about four hours.

The depth of the well was said to be 150 ft deep.

The rescue operation was carried out by men of Lagos State Fire Services after a distress call.

According to the account of eye witnesses, the incident which occurred around 6.30pm at Adekunle Tobun Street, Iraye, Epe area of Lagos threw the community into pandemonium as residents ran helter skelter to rescue the victim.

It was difficult and all hopes were lost until the arrival of fire fighters who moved to the scene with sophisticated

equipment.

Eye witnesses said at about 10.30pm, the shout of joy rented the air when the rescue operation was successfully carried out.

Saturday Vanguard gathered that he was engaged to dig the well and the exercise was successful until the lowering of the rings when suddenly the entire project caved in and the man was trapped for hours.

Director Lagos State Fire Services Razaq Fadipe, who confirmed the development to Saturday Vanguard said the rescue operation was performed by the Epe station.

ARRISTER Eddy Osifo, a veteran politician from the South South and political ally of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, yesterday declared that the Igbos of the South East will regret not toeing the footsteps of their political leader, late Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe by supporting the President-elect, Gen.Muhammadu Buhari, who is from the North. Osifo who is one of the leaders of the defunct Action Group, pointed out that the Igbos have always aligned with the North in the politics of the country, saying that it is regrettable that they abandoned their history by supporting President Goodluck Jonathan who allegedly did nothing for the people of the South East in his six years presidency.

He noted however that they may have been deceived due to the dominance of Yorubas “because they find it difficult to trust Yorubas”, adding however that they should have looked at the candidate rather than the people behind the party.

His words: “The South East will learn their lessons from what just happened and I feel sorry for them. Next time they will vote more on principles than on sentiment and emotion. The South East have always made this mistake because their first leader, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe led them to believe that the West was not reliable and gave them the impression that the North was more reliable based on his experience in 1952.

“Dr Azikiwe had to walk out of the Western House of Assembly and became internally bitter against Awolowo and the Western region. So his alliance with the North was born out of this experience. Azikiwe was prevented from becoming the Premier of Western Nigeria by reason of ethnicity, he also used ethnic majority to push away Eyo Itta as Premier of Eastern Nigeria. That caused the Eastern Nigeria crisis of 1953.

8 — SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

B-R-I-E-F-S

Card Reader machines supplier slams N100m suit against DSS

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

•Prays court to free him

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consultant to Act Te c h n o l o g i e s Limited, one of the firms that supplied the Card Reader Machines, CRM, that were used for the Presidential and National Assembly elections last week Saturday, Mr. Muhammad Sani Musa, has dragged the Department of State Security, DSS, before the Federal High Court in Abuja over his continued detention by the security agency.

In a Fundamental Rights Enforcement application he filed through his lawyer Mr. Mahmud Magaji, SAN, Musa, who stressed that he has been in the custody of the DSS since March 24, begged the court to promptly order his release.

The applicant through his suit marked FHC/ABJ/ CS/292/2015, further prayed the court to declare that the action of the DSS was unconstitutional, illegal, and a gross abuse of his constitutionally guaranteed fundamental human rights.

Consequently, aside urging the court to order his release from detention, the consultant, asked the court to award to him the

•From left: Mr. Adeyemi Wasiu Onikoro, President, Student Union, Lagos State University, (left) recieving Key of bus from Gov. Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State and Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, All Progressive Congress[APC] Governorship candidate in Lagos State, (right) during the presentation of Buses to Nigerian Students Unions in Lagos House, Alausa, Ikeja, yesterday. Photo: Bunmi Azeez

sum of N100 million as general and exemplary damages against the SSS for its unlawful action.

Likewise to issue an order of perpetual injunction restraining the Respondent (DSS), and its agents, from further harassing, intimidating, arresting and detaining him again upon his release, especially in relation to the Card Readers that were deployed by the

Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, for the March 28 poll.

Narrating how he ended up in detention cell, Musa, said he was on March 24, summoned through the telephone by the Director General of the DSS, to appear at the headquarters of the security agency in Abuja.

He said upon getting there, operatives of the agency grilled him for

Okoye tasks Buhari on security, power, education

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE

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RESIDENTIAL candidate of the United Democratic Party,UDP, in last Saturday’s election,Barr.

Godson Okoye, has asked the presidentelect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari,rtd, to concentrate more on areas of education,security,power and agriculture in his administration.

Okoye,who is also the National Chairman of UDP, insisted that Buhari can only win the hearts of Nigerians if he gives priority to the development of health, education, agriculture, power and security sectors of the country.

Speaking in an interview,yesterday,in Abuja, Okoye,who hailed the emergence of Buhari as successor to President Goodluck Jonathan, said: “If I am to set an agenda for him, security, power and education should occupy the pride of place; this should be like in the short term.

“In the medium term, he should be looking at the transport sector, especially the railway transportation as no country could attained

desired development without functional rail lines.

“A country in the size of Nigeria, there is no rail line that connects the Federal Capital Territory with other part of Nigeria, what a heck.

He said that the development of rail lines would not only enhance the countr y ’s development but also boost its integration and job creation for

Nigerians.”

He urged the president-elect to have combination of youths and the elderly persons in his cabinet and administration saying.

“He should use the experience of the elderly people and the strength of the youth.

He said that the raw energy of the youths should be channel into productive use of the nation.

hours, and subsequently detained him without entering any charge against him.

He said he has been kept under detention since then alongside the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, of the firm, Act Technology, whose name he however did not disclose.

The applicant wants the court to order his release and declare his arrest, detention and continued intimidation by the respondent (DSS), in relation to the card reader issue, as illegal, unconstitutional and a violation of his fundamental rights.

Premising his application on three grounds of law, Musa argued that the violation of his right to liberty over the procurement of the card reader machines was unconstitutional.

Besides, the applicant’s wife, Mrs. Sa’adatu Musa, in an affidavit she deposed in support of the application, lamented the fact that she has been denied access to her husband by DSS officials, since the day he was arrested.

Buhari’s victory has brought change to Nigeria — Sam Nda-Isaiah

BY SONI DANIEL, Regional Editor, North

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HAIRMAN and Publisher of Leadership Newspaper, Sam Nda-Isaiah, has said that with the victory of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 election, change has come to Nigeria.

Nda-Isaiah made the remark in a congratulatory message to the president-elect in Abuja Wednesday.

In the message he personally signed the newspaper boss said that there was no iota of doubt that God truly

loves Nigeria by effecting change in the country through the emergence of Buhari at a time many thought it was impossible.

He said: “If there are still people who doubt that God loves Nigeria, then the event of March 31, 2015 is their answer.

What was thought to be impossible happened yesterday. The peoples’ votes counted. For the first time in the history of Africa’s biggest country and its biggest economy, a sitting President was defeated. This is a defining moment in our nation’s history.

“I congratulate General Muhammadu Buhari for this feat. The political rescue mission that started with the 2003 presidential election through the 2007 and 2011 presidential elections and which cost the lives of people like Marshal Harry, Chuba Okadigbo, and many others, has finally come to fruition. But I also sympathise with the President-elect because the majority of Nigerians want change in their lives like from the day after his swearing in as President. That would be expecting magic.

Guber polls: Don’t replant PDP’s seed in Nigeria, Fashola urges

BY MONSURU OLOWOOPEJO

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OVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State yesterday said the result of the presidential elections finally uprooted the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP from the country, saying “Don’t replant its seeds on April 11th, when you will be casting your vote for the governorship and House of Assembly elections.”

Fashola made the warning while handing over 12, 18-seater buses to Student Unions of public and private tertiary institutions in the state in Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja. He said “We have spent 16 years trying to uproot what was inflicting pains on us (Nigerians); the PDP thorns. We have finally uprooted it. And please don’t replant its seeds back in Nigeria especially in Lagos.”

He added “Everyone should at this time begin to imagine what will begin to happen if same party (APC) control the state and the federal. It will increase number of facilities in the state.”

Addressing the students, the governor said “I need to remind you (students) in Lagos that the forthcoming elections are about your future. And that was why we worked so hard to ensure that you all get your Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs. And I will implore you to use those PVCs to choose the future that you want for yourself.”

DELTA 2015: Emerhor hails Buhari’s victory, commends move to unite Urhobo nation

BY FRED OGHENESIVBE

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LL Progressives Congress, APC, Governorship candidate in Delta State, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, OON, has described the election of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari as a blessings packaged by God for Nigerians at this time of our democratic experience, adding the APC would remodel the socio-economic fortunes of Nigeria.

The APC candidate made this call yesterday at the Osubi Airport, Warri, Delta State, while speaking to journalist on his arrival from Abuja after attending the unique ceremony of the collection of Certificate of Return by the PresidentElect, General Buhari.

“My message to Deltans and my supporters is that we should all work together in unity and ensure that we move into mainstream politics of the country because that is the future of Nigeria.

And we will make that statement very clearly on April 11, the same way Nigerians made that statement very clearly on March 28. Deltans cannot afford to be in oppostion, Deltans will vote for the APC and O’tega Emerhor,” said Emerhor.

Emerhor said Delta State is too strategic for it to be left behind in the polity of the country, pointing out that with the victory of General Buhari, Nigerians have agreed that they needed a change that will move the country forward.

Ndi Igbo congratulate Buhari, demand true Federalism

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DI-IGBO Germany (NIG), the umbrella Or ganisation of all Igbo ethnic groups and Associations in the Federal Republic of Germany has sent its Congratulatory Message to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. According the National Coordinator, Chief Joe Mmeh, “We rejoice with Gen. Buhari on his success at the Polls in the just concluded presidential elections in Nigeria and urge him to be President of all Nigerians irrespective of tribe, religion and political affiliation. Electioneering campaign has come and gone, it is now time for national healing and governance. In every civilized society, no one takes personal all that is said during electioneering campaigns, so Gen. Buhari should look forward to unite Nigerians and avoid advice from all former Office Holders who brought hardship and corruption into governance in Nigeria.

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015 — 9

BRIEFS

I didn’t declare Abia North Senatorial zone result – Returning Officer

BY ANAYO OKOLI

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HE returning officer [RO] for the Abia North in last Saturday’s Senatorial election, Dr. Chukwugozie Ihekwuaba has said that he did not declare any result for the election which INEC has published.

According to Ihekwuaba, who alleged that he has been receiving threat calls since after the election said he could not in his good conscience append his signature on the documents said to have been presented to him as the result.

Addressing journalists in Umuahia Thursday evening, Ihekwuaba said that there was widespread manipulation of the National Assembly elections in the zone which prompted him to recommend a re-run of the senatorial election in the zone.

He said apart from results from Arochukwu and Ohafia Local Government councils, which were recounted at the INEC state headquarters, results from other councils of Bende, Isukwuato and Umunneochi were manipulated and he disassociated himself from them.

He claimed that fake INEC documents such as result sheets were filled and later substituted with original ones.

In Ohafia council, according to him, there were massive

irregularities which prompted youths and hoodlums to take over the place with sporadic shooting renting the air.

The protest against the Ohafia and Arochukwu result led the INEC REC to set up a committee that

recounted the results of the two councils but results of the other councils where more irregularities were alleged were not reviewed.

“After looking at Arochukwu and Ohafia

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HE senatorial candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, for Anambra North, Chief Dubem Obaze, has called for the cancellation of the March 28, 2015 polls in the zone in view of alleged massive rigging allegedly committed by the agents of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Addressing reporters in Onitsha yesterday, Obaze alleged that PDP

•L- r: Mr Chaninomi Godwin,Vice President Lagos Branch Otu-Oma Iwere Cultural Society of Nigeria, Mr Amoma Joseph and Mr Sunday Amorioye Miller, CSO, representing the Publisher/Chairman Vanguard Media Ltd.in group photograph with a Masquerade during the 21st Annual Masquerade Carnival 2015 of Otu-Oma Iwere Cultural Society of Nigeria in Lagos. Photo By Diran Oshe

Ojukwu’s son set to drag PDP, INEC to tribunal

BY NWABUEZE OKONKWO

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HUKWUEMEKA Odumegwu Ojukwu Jnr. son of the late Ikemba Nnewi and Biafra warlord, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

yesterday said that he has concluded arrangements to drag the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC to the Election Petitions Tribunal in Anambra State to

connived with security operatives to harass and intimidate voters and urged the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to cancel the polls for the area.

He recalled that some PDP henchmen nearly attacked the state governor, Chief Willie Obiano physically, while one of the personal staff of the PDP candidate for the senate worked as INEC ad hoc staff in Ogbaru.

He said: “What happened on March 28

in Ogbaru and Anambra North senatorial zone was a shame and it was a replica of what was happening during elections in the state some years ago.

“What we had here in the state was not an election.

Even drivers hired to convey election materials to the polling units collaborated with INEC and PDP and refused to transport materials to their designated centres until late in the evening, which gave room for the manipulation that took place.’’

recover the mandate stolen from him during last Saturday’s National Assembly election for Nnewi North/Nnewi South/Ekwusigo Federal Constituency in the State.

Ojukwu Jnr who was the candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA for the election said he was surprised that rather than declaring himself winner of the election, INEC declared his PDP rival, Hon Chris Emeka Azubogu winner after some PDP bigwigs in the constituency stormed the collation centre at the INEC office at Ukpor, the Headquarters of Nnewi South Local Government Area with written results when collation was still ongoing, chased away INEC officials and ad-hoc staff, scattered already recorded INEC sensitive materials all over the premises and then conspired with INEC to declare Azubogu winner in such a commando style.

I’ll stop Obiano from joining APC – Ogene

BY VINCENT UJUMADU, Awka

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MID intense speculations that Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State is contemplating defecting from the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), to the All Progressives C M Y K

BY WOLE MOSADOMI

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EN immediate past Local government Chairmen in Niger state have defected to All Progressives Congress APC few days after the Presidential and National assembly election.

Among those who defected yesterday were, Jibril Kallamu from Tafa local government area, Hon. Dauda Umar from Magama local government, Hon. Musa N. Tessan, from Lavun local government, and Hon. Ibrahim Isah, from Rafi local government area.

Others are Hajia Zainab Waziri for mer Caretaker/chairman Borgu local government, ASP Yerima Abdullahi Rtd, from Shiroro local government, Hon. Nasiru B. Shambo from Rijau local government and Hon. Mohammed Saidu Pissa, from Borgu local government area.

They all defected in Minna, the state capital yesterday.

Speaking at the ceremony, Publicity Secretary of All Progressives Congress, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa, stated that the defection is a boost for the party especially in its bid to win the governorship and house of Assembly elections coming up on the 11th of this month.

He assured the decampees that they will be counted as one of the old members and should therefore work towards the success of APC at the polls next week.

Easter: Pray for peaceful, united Nigeria, PDP urges Nigerians

Obaze calls for cancellation of Anambra North polls

BY VINCENT UJUMADU, Awka

results, there was a massive irregularity.

Security operatives were also aware because they were also taking their notes. So I found it very difficult to append my signature on the manipulated results.

Ten Local govt Chairmen defect from PDP to APC in Niger

Congress (APC), a chieftain of APC and the member representing Ogbaru Federal Constituency, Mr. Victor Ogene, has vowed to stop the governor from defecting to APC. In a statement in Awka, Ogene, said the gover nor ’s entr y into

the APC would only stunt the expected resurgence of the party in the state and the entire South East geopolitical zone.

Ogene, who is the deputy chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, wondered what

value the governor would add to the APC, after abysmally leading APGA down the path of extinction through a combination of a u t o c r a c y , vindictiveness, haughtiness and a crass disposition of selfadulation.

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BY HENRY UMORU

S Christians in the country join the rest of the world to celebrate this year ’s Easter, national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has charged Nigerians to use the period to pray for peace and end to insurgency.

In a statement yesterday by PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, the PDP urged Nigerians to pray for the nation for the sustenance of the peace and understanding inspired by President Goodluck Jonathan.

In the Easter message, PDP asked the people to “use the period to imbibe the spirit of love, forgiveness and good neighbourliness especially given the success already achieved by the PDP administration in the fight against terrorism in the land.

Delta Guber: Onuesoke enjoins Urhobo to support Okowa

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ELTA Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has appealed to eligible voters of Urhobo in Delta State to maintain their support and cast their votes en-mass for Delta State PDP Governorship candidate, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa in the forth coming election.

Onuesoke who made the appeal while speaking to a group of newsmen in Abuja after the declaration of Gen Mohammadu Buhari as the winner of the Presidential election urged Urhobo nation to vote for Okowa in the forth coming election.

The PDP henchman explained that despite PDP losing the Presidency to the opposition it is glaring that the party has a strong structure in Delta State and such cannot afford to lose the state to another party.

Jonathan has won more hearts to his leadership — Cleric

BY OCHUKO AKUOPHA

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ENERAL Overseer of Trinity Gospel Mission, Delta State, Rt. Rev Diamond Emuobor, has applauded what he described as the magnanimity of President Goodluck Jonathan in conceding defeat to General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) in the just concluded presidential election, saying he has won more hearts to his leadership than he had done in the last six years.

Emuobor, in a statement, said that Jonathan’s slogan of ‘my ambition is not worth the blood of any Nigerian’ has “become a national heritage for our do-or-die affair politicians.”

Congratulating Jonathan, the statement added; “I join all world leaders to celebrate your leadership, wisdom and accommodation,”, saying that “ your words, your actions and behold, what you have just done alone by congratulating Gen Buhari on his victory in the presidential elections held on 28 March, 2015 has spoken volumes.”

10 — SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

B-R-I-E-F Glo greets Christians at Easter

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ATIONAL Information Communication and Telecommunication solutions provider, Globacom has congratulated Christians in Nigeria on the successful completion of the Lenten fast and the commencement of the Easter celebrations.

Globacom, in a statement, encouraged Christian faithful to be sober and circumspect as they celebrate the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Globacom advised Nigerians to use the occasion to remind themselves of the lessons of the season, which are entrenched in “love and sacrifice.” It admonished Christians to use “Easter period to further reflect deeply on the sacrifice that Jesus Christ made on the Cross, and engage in acts of sacrifice, peace and love for one another during this season and beyond.”

Guber Poll: Presidency urges massive mobilisation for PDP candidates Members of St. Dominic Catholic Church dramatizing Jesus on the Cross, to celebrate Good Friday in Yaba, Lagos.PHOTO;AKEEM SALAU

Amaechi appeals for forgiveness •Sues for peace during guber poll

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OVERNOR Chibuike Amaechi has appealed to those he has offended with his actions and inactions in the state as governor to forgive him, saying he acted in the interest of the state.

The governor in a preelection broadcast yesterday in Port Harcourt, also urged people of the state to shun violence during the coming governorship election.

He said people of the state should note that

the election was for the progress of the state, adding that the common good of the state should be the concern of.all.

“As we prepare for that election, we have a little time to reflect on the

Nigeria Defence Adviser to UN commends US military counterparts

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HE Nigeria Defence Adviser to the United Nations, Maj.Gen. Lincoln Ogunewe, has paid tribute to his UN military counterparts for standing by him at a time of grief.

Some accredited UN military attachees to their various countries were in the country for the funeral rites of late Dr Kenneth Okoye, his (Ogunewe’s) father-in-law.

The deceased, Okoye, 82 was a medical doctor and former Chief Medicine Director, Nnamdi Azikiwe Teaching Hospital, Nnewi as well as Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee of the hospital.

Late Okoye was buried at his ancestral home at Umuenem, Otolo Nnewi, Anambra on March 14.

Ogunewe, then commended his colleagues who came to “share in the grief over the death of my in-law.

“Your valued presence here at Nnewi has helped me and my wife to overcome the grief.

We pray God to grant you journey mercies as you return to your various destinations.

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“I recall that during the Church service at the St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Umuenem Otolo, Nnewi, Ven. Chike Nwizu had admonished that no amount of prayers could raise the dead. “l feel deeply sorrowful because this was a man who was not only a father-in-law to me, but a friend, who was full of compassion.

“He had passion for God and man. He was never influenced by power or affluence.

“When I came to marry his daughter, there were many suitors, some of who were rich,

Ogunewe but he counseled the daughter with a wise saying: ‘not all that glitter is gold’.

“My consolation is that he had good relation

issues at stake. It must be about Rivers state. It must be about its progress and the prosperity of all who live here and are from here.

“It must be about development, good governance, peace and security. We need to stand firm as a people for what we believe in.

“When that day breaks, I encourage you all to come out with your Permanent Voters Cards, walk to the polling station to get accredited.

“Even if it rains, stand to be counted. This election is about your life, your safety, the wellbeing of your loved ones, your business, and the future of your children, and ultimately, our great state.

“Let it be said of you in the future that you stood up to be counted.

Deep down inside everyone of us, we want a peaceful, transparent, credible and violencefree election.”

Buhari’s election came when Nigerians needed new direction — NASFAT

By Abdulwahab Abdulah

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ASRUL-LAHI Fathi Society of Nigeria, NASFAT, has congratulated Presidentelect, General Mohammadu Buhari over his victory at the last presidential election, saying his election came when Nigerians needed new direction. In a statement

signed by the society’s president, Engr. Yomi Bolarinwa, NASFAT also saluted all the major stakeholders in the recently concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections.

It stated, “We wish particularly to congratulate the President-elect, General Mohammadu Buhari, on his historic vic-

tory. This has come at time when Nigerians desperately needed a new direction, new values, discipline, love and brotherliness. There is no doubt that the resounding victory is Nigerians’ expression of hope and confidence in General Buhari’s ability to direct the affairs of our great country.”

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HEAD of next Saturday’s governorship and House of Assembly elections, the presidency has called on all members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to mobilise heavily to ensure the victory of the party’s candidates at the various states during the conduct of the poll. The Special Adviser to the President, Political Affairs, Prof. Rufai Ahmed Alkali, who made the appeal while speaking with journalists yesterday in Abuja, on the outcome of the last weekend national elections, said the party’s victory at state level will enable it consolidate on its Transformational principles.

According to Alkali, “We have one more lap to go with the state elections scheduled for April 11, 2015.

Let us all come out and ensure that the transformational ideals of President Jonathan are instilled in our various states by mobilizing heavily for the PDP.” He said, “I wish to use this opportunity to thank those who believed in the candidature of President Goodluck Jonathan and sacrificed time, energy and

Cleric identifies corruption, electoral malpractice, others as bane of democracy

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HE Catholic Archbishop of Onitsha Catholic Archdiocese, Most Rev. Valerian Okeke yesterday identified corruption, electoral malpractice and 10 other vices as some of the factors militating against the growth of democracy and democratic tenets. This was contained in a Pastoral Letter of 2015 which he delivered at the Basilica of the Most Holy Trinity, Onitsha, Anambra.

In the letter with a theme: “Democracy and Christian Values”, containing his Holy Week and Easter message to Christians, Archbishop Okeke mentioned other vices as politics without the sense of mission, political butterflies (moving from one party to another) and politics of winner takes all.

Asagba, symbol of Anioma nation — Azinge

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ORMER Director General, Nigeria Institute of Legal Studies, Prof Epiphany Azinge (SAN) has described the Asagba of Asaba, Prof Chike Edozien as the symbol of Anioma nation, following his productive ability in the affairs of the people.

Azinge who stated this while briefing newsmen on the90th birthday anniversary of the Asagba, Wednesday, said role being played by the Asagba for the past 25 years has placed Asaba and the entire Anioma Kingdom at a higher pedestal.

According to him, apart from being the state capital, Asaba was adorned with cultural monuments that has made the community a beautiful place for residents and accommodating for visitors. He added that plans were on to put Asaba on good stand as a motivation for tourism.

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—11

VP Sambo, President Jonathan and Muazu

PDP’s rough pathway to opposition life

BY HENRY UMORU

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HE Peoples Democratic Party’s loss of the March 28 Presidential and National Assembly elections to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) came to its supporters across the country as a rude shock.

It is the first time a ruling party would lose the presidency or control of the National Assembly after an election. The loss meant that the PDP, whose leaders once boasted that they would rule the country for 60 years had their dream cut after only 16 years.

However, signals that the party would lose the elections were palpable long before the elections. Though the party did not enter the fray as a divided house, there was no doubt that the PDP entered into the elections a greatly diminished

entity.

How he lost The problems in the party were greatly inflamed during the chairmanship of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, who was elected national chairman in March 2012. Tukur was elected simply because the president wanted him and not for any other reason as he did not get the support of his state chapter or of the zonal caucus of the party for his election.

His election seemed to have inflamed passions within the party especially as Tukur ’s administrative style created divisions within the party.

Instead of helping to unite the party, Tukur’s style helped to aggravate tensions. The appointment of numerous aides some of whom were adversaries of the party’s governors did not help matters.

Tukur’s style of administration was criticised as unnecessarily dictatorial, and a rival structure was nurtured around the national chairman who remarkably, ran the party mostly from his house.

Statutory meetings of the party were not called by the national chairman and governors and other major stakeholders regularly heard of policies from afar.

It did not take long before the problems began to surface. The national secretary, Chief Olagunsoye Oyinlola was prompt to challenge what he flayed as the effrontery of aides of the national chairman running the party and usurping his duties.

Inevitably, as the problem between Oyinlola and Tukur festered, President Jonathan sided with Tukur.

As the problem continued,

Tukur’s style of administration was criticised as unnecessarily dictatorial, and a rival structure was nurtured around the national chairman who remarkably, ran the party mostly from his house

former President Olusegun Obasanjo increasingly withdrew from party affairs and not long after, Oyinlola lost his position as national secretary through a court ruling that many party stakeholders believed was sponsored by those aligned with the president.

Besides Oyinlola, who was seen as an Obasanjo loyalist, other Obasanjo loyalists in the National Working Committee, NWC were also wielded out through court orders.

Tukur was severally accused of using his party position to fight personal battles especially in his local Adamawa State chapter of the party. It was believed that Tukur wanted his son, Awaal Tukur to run for the

Continues on page 12

12— SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Northern Governors Forum

PDP’s rough pathway to opposition life Continues from page11 governorship in the 2015 election and was accused of using every opportunity to shift the gears towards his son’s advantage.

The problem led to the suspension of the Adamawa State executive of the party which was aligned to the state governor, Murtala Nyako.

That inevitably led to a problem with Nyako, and in the ensuing media war, both the Tukur and Nyako camps tore at one another, a development that eventually led to the suspension of the chairman of the party aligned to Tukur.

It was not surprising that the PDP governors led by the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF Rotimi Amaechi sided with their colleague and soon, the swansong of the governors was that Tukur must go.

Jonathan, however, dithered and thence the conflict widened.

Meanwhile, at the same time, Governor Amaechi was also developing a personal problem with the Jonathans. No one

knew much about the origin of the problems at that time, and it was only later that the governor was quoted as alleging demands on him from a family member of the first family.

By May 2013, the problem that was once the problem of Nyako had turned into an Amaechi problem and for the first time in the history of the PDP, a governor was suspended from the party. The suspension of Governor Amaechi was followed by the suspension of Governor Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto State, allegedly for not picking the phone call of the national chairman.

The sophistry in that was read by many who traced the suspension of Wamakko to the open conflict between the governor and Tukur’s political adviser, Senator Bello Gada who had contested the governorship of the state with Wamakko and had continued to bicker with the governor.

The suspension of Governor Wamakko was, however, overturned, but not that of the ‘bad boy’, Amaechi.

The president’s intervention into the election of the chairman of the NGF did not help his image in the party.

The victory of Amaechi over Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau, who was purportedly sponsored by the presidency to unseat Amaechi was an embarrassment. Though Amaechi scored 19 votes to beat Jang, who scored 16 votes, the presidency chose to recognise Jang making a mockery of the democratic values of those in authority.

The crisis in the party came to a head on August 31, 2013 when the party held its 15th anniversary at the Eagles Square. Governor Nyako predictably was not invited by the Tukur led NWC for the event despite pleas from many stakeholders.

On that day in a plot that was actually pre-planned, five of the governors at the event led by former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar staged a walkout on the president and the party and proceeded to inaugurate a factional leadership of the party led by Alhaji Kawu Baraje, a

It was not surprising that the PDP governors led by the chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, NGF Rotimi Amaechi sided with their colleague and soon, the swansong of the governors was that Tukur must go

former acting national chairman of the party.

The governors who staged the walkout were Governors Aliyu Wamakko of Sokoto; Ahmed Abdulfatah of Kwara, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano, Sule Lamido of Jigawa and Babangida Aliyu of Niger State.

They were followed by a number of senators, members of the House of Representatives and their supporters.

Pleas by the president to the G7 governors, as they were known, fell on deaf ears as the governors insisted on fundamental reforms of the party and for Tukur’s dismissal.

Remarkably, two of the G7 governors, Aliyu and Lamido refused to leave the party in November 2013 when the other governors defected to join the then fledgling All Progressives Congress, APC that had just been formed.

Meanwhile even with the exit of the G5 as they were known, the party still did not find peace as the remaining members of the NWC continued to find issues with Tukur ’s administrative style.

In early 2014 with the 2015 election approaching,

Continues on page 13

SATURDAY

Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—13

PDP’s rough pathway to opposition life

APC National leaders, Akande, Buhari, Atiku, Onu, Tinubu and other

Continues from page 12 President Jonathan finally found the courage to shove Tukur aside and in came, the former governor of Bauchi State, Alhaji Ahmadu Mu‘azu, who was styled as the game changer.

Mu‘azu changed the game for the president by bringing unity into the party.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo; Speaker of House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; former Minister of State, Trade and Investment, Dr. Samuel Ortom; former PDP National Chairman, Senator Barnabas Gemade; former Governor of Oyo State, Chief Adebayo Alao- Akala; and Prince Tonye Princewill, among others dumped the PDP for the APC and Labour Party, LP respectively after the PDP primaries.

As he approached the point of re-election, a major mistake on the part of the president was said to be the appointments he made to manage the campign.

Reflective of this is the fact that the party national chairman, the director-general of his campaign, Col. Ahmadu Ali (rtd.) from Kogi

C M Y K

State and even his campaign spokesman, Chief Femi FaniKayode all lost their states to the APC in the last presidential election.

Indeed, prior to the Wednesday, December 10, 2014 Special National Convention when President Jonathan’s ratification as PDP’s candidate for the presidential election was carried out two aspirants, a son of Nigeria’s late prime minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Dr Abdul Jelil and wife of late Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, Prof.

Akasoba Duke- Abiola signified interests to contest, but they were initially dribbled about as the party refused to make the forms available to them.

However, the forms were eventually sold to them, but the willingness of the party to turn itself against democratic culture in foisting the president on the party as a sole candidate was planted.

The same culture was repeated in several states including Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ebonyi, Imo, Jigawa, among numerous others in gross violation of the

party’s 2014 Electoral Guidelines for Primary Elections.

President Jonathan’s ministers and his special advisers appeared to have worked against their boss which did not go down well with some stakeholders in the states.

It was also rumoured that some of his aides only pretended to be working for him, but did not, as they were only accused of getting the available funds for themselves.

They failed to tell Jonathan the truth especially about the election, just as they were accused of not campaigning for him which then led to the President carrying his cross by campaigning.

Nigerians were also not comfortable with the Director, Media and Publicity, PDPPCO, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode who was said to be having credibility problem and saddled with such a very sensitive position to market the president and the PDP. He was also accused of driving away people because of his attack on Buhari, either about

President Jonathan’s ministers and his special advisers appeared to have worked against their boss which did not go down well with some stakeholders in the states

his certificate, his age, his health status, among others as well as other APC leaders.

He was accused of attacking persons rather than issues, thereby creating more problems for his boss.

The president was also not helped by the attacks on his critics by some of his Ijaw kinsmen who seemed to create a division between the president and the rest of the country.

The role of the NWC of the party was also one major reason Jonathan fell. It appeared throughout that while the President had his plans, the leadership of the party was not working in tandem with the President. The leadership of the party saw the PDP as too powerful that there was no need to sell the policies of government and the manifesto of the party.

Now that President Jonathan has been defeated as the first sitting president to lose an election, he deserved commendation from Nigerians and the international community for his non-interference. With the defeat, the PDP would in the next couple of weeks become an opposition party.

14—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

2015 PRESIDENTIAL PREDICTIONS:

Clerics who got it right and those who failed Compiled by OLASUNKANMI AKONI

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any clergymen predicted the outcome of the March 28 Presidential election. A few got it right and many got it wrong.

Knowing how people claim that God speaks with them almost only daily basis, it is safer to refer to the statements of these clergymen as predictions and not prophecies.

President Jonathan visited many churches calling for prayers before the elections. In his visit to Bishop Oyedepo’s Winners Chapel he particularly made reference to the predictions of the clergymen and called for more prayers.

“There are various predictions concerning the election, but I trust God to take control of the situation,” the President said during service. Here are some of them: Primate Babatunde Ayodele, Primate Ayodele, founder and spiritual head of INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, Lagos: “Despite the fact that PDP will break up, it will still win the 2015 elections.

President Jonathan will win the presidential election for a second term and he must pray to avoid taking a wrong step.

“The move to reconcile the northern PDP governors will fail while the president needs prayer to sustain his health.”

Ayodele also predicted that 2015 elections would lead to crisis in the land and Jonathan will not have the support of South West top politicians.

According to him,” the ACN, APGA, ANNPP and CPC merger will fail.

“Let us pray fervently for Nigeria. Natural resources and sharing formula will cause disaffection. Let us pray against bloodshed in the country.”

Pastor Elijah Babatunde Babatunde is the popular Lagos Pastor and founder INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church, who also joined Catholic Priest Ejike Mbaka and Tunde Bakare of the Latter Rain Assembly to predict a difficult election for the president in February.

“President Goodluck Jonathan will be the last PDP president to rule Nigeria,” he said C M Y K

•Ayodele

•Iginla

The cleric who had many negative prophecies as the regards the country in 2015, said even though it will not be a landslide victory for the opposition, the President will lose. “No matter what, Jonathan will be the last PDP President in Nigeria. I don’t see a landslide victory in the presidential election. To be frank, neither the victory of Jonathan or General Muhammadu Buhari can guarantee peace except we pray well.

“Jonathan will not take Nigeria to the Promised Land. Let us pray against the death of an ex-President. There will not be election in some states.

“The elections will be characterised by advanced rigging as both PDP and APC will share victory across the country particularly in the South-West and the North”.

Brother Joshua Iginla Abuja based Pastor, Brother Joshua Iginla of Champions Royal Assembly, said in his 2015New Year message that the country would remain whole and will overcome its challenges.

According to him, despite the attempt by APC to take over Aso rock, President Goodluck Jonathan would still win the elections. He said that APC would definitely win more states but will also lose some states. He said that the party that would overthrow the PDP was yet to be formed.

Apostle Moses Abdullahi Apostle Abdullahi is the General Overseer (GO), The Messenger of God Assembly, Adavi, Kogi State. He predicted that God has a purpose for Nigeria in view of the forthcoming general election.

•Suleiman Contrary to some men of God who have spread different messages indicating that President Goodluck Jonathan has lost God’s favour in his aspiration for reelection, the general overseer, Apostle Moses Abdullahi said he got a revelation that Jonathan was part of God’s plan for 2015. He said, “The Lord took me in to the realm of the spirit, and showed me a revelation that has to do with our great nation. Specifically, it is about the forthcoming 2015 general election. In one of the revelations, the Lord made me to understand that Jonathan is part of his plan for 2015 and that his role in 2015 political landscape is to locate and bring to light the anointed one, set apart by God, for the time of his work in Nigeria.”

In case of any doubting Thomas, Abdullahi said, “The Lord said I took Jonathan to that office to prepare a ground for my anointed one so that my purpose for Nigeria will be fulfilled. The Lord said, Be patient with Jonathan, for I have carried Nigeria on my shoulder. “ Giving predictions on Vice President Namadi Sambo, Abdullahi said the prophetic revelation indicated severe consequences if people “refuse to follow the true plan of God concerning Nigeria in 2015”.

Similarly, the church leader said God has assured First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan of protection, adding that God has protected her from several dangers in the past because of her “good heart towards the people. Therefore, do to all men, women and children that which is good and acceptable by me and do everything you can to take Nigeria out of the state of war.”

Apostle Johnson Suleiman

•Olabayo Abuja preacher and founder of Omega Fire Ministry, OMG. Apostle Johnson said that three popular Nigerian artistes and a former president may pass on to glory in 2015. Suleman in his New Year message said that the 2015 election will be bloody, reminiscent of the violent protest that trailed the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential elections. He also said Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal will win the Sokoto Governorship Elections. The prophecies include the following among many others: Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Bode George and king of Onitsha need prayers. I see President Goodluck Jonathan coming back but troubles. Buhari’s health needs attention”.

Prophet Michael Olubode Prophet Micheal Olubode aka Micadeolu of Celestial Church of Christ, in his prophecy said that although President Goodluck Jonathan will have many troubles, he will defeat them all and be used

by God to build the country’s economy. According to him, “I want to let the people of Nigeria know that the Lord will return His Excellency, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to his presidential seat.

Despite many hatred for him, it pleases the Lord God of Celestial to increase his tenure at the Presidential Villa in Aso Rock. The Lord revealed to me that the

Continues on page 15

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—15

2015 PRESIDENTIAL PREDICTIONS:

•Oyedepo

•Bakare

•Mbaka

•T.B Joshua

Continues from page 14

instead of diagnosing the problems carried by the year.”

purpose of making him remain in government is to use him to build Nigeria’s economy. He will surely bring good luck to us.”

Rev. Father Ejike Mbaka Mbaka is the Catholic Priest and founder of the Adoration Ministry in Enugu.

During his New Year prophecy declared that President Jonathan would lose the election. He claimed that the “President has become a bad luck.”

Primate Theophilus Olabayo Primate Olabayo, is the pastor and founder of the Evangelical Church of Yahweh, Lagos. He said, “God told me that they are going to rig the election and this will cause an upheaval and the results of the election will not be declared and if the result is declared, the winners of the election will not govern. But my advice to our politicians is that they should let the President Jonathan go peacefully and retire to his village.”

Prophet, Anthony Nwoko Nwoko , an Enugu based Prophet, on his part predicted that, “Neither Jonathan nor Buhari will be president after the election”.

Prophet Williams Onuoha, Prophet Onuoha, the General Overseer of Galilee Christian Centre, Lagos predicted thus: “The current governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, would become Nigeria’s president unless the governor failed to adhere to God’s direction.”

Bishop Tom Samson The founder of the Christ Royal Family Church, Lagos Bishop Samson on his own warned Nigerians to brace up for some “hardship and darkness in the first half of this 2015 election.”

Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, Pastor Matthew Ashimolowo, is the senior Pastor of Kingsway International Christian Centre, KICC. He said when the president’s name is announced as winner of the election, 20 percent of a certain part of the country will not agree.

Eventually, after negotiation they will. We will agree that we

•Ashimolowo

•Adeboye are one.”

Other predictions on Nigeria Pastor T.B Joshua The General Overseer of the Synagogue Church of all Nations, SCOAN, was not left out of the predictions frenzy. The miracles and deliverance pastor had a turbulent 2014, following the death of many worshipers in a building that collapsed in the church late last year.

In his statement on the 2015 elections, Joshua said the exercise might fail to happen in a few states battling against the menace of Boko Haram.

Speaking to his congregation on Sunday, March 29, 2015, the prophet said, he saw the death of a prominent politician due to ‘heated up’ politics in the wake of the closely contested Nigerian elections.

“I am seeing Nigerians heating up politics.

“They will heat up politics and a great man among the politicians will likely lose his life… I am seeing this kind of thing happening in the night.

Wednesday and Thursday of this coming week and next week, make sure you fast and pray.”

He urged members of his congregation to remain prayerful on those specified days so as to save souls.

Earlier in the service, the cleric reminded congregants of a prophetic message he had shared last year concerning a ‘dark cloud’ hovering over Nigeria. He said God is beginning to remove the cloud.

Explaining what the ‘cloud’ represented, Joshua stated that it

•Kumuyi meant a situation whereby two political parties would declare themselves as election winners, leading to a state of ‘lawlessness’.

“Whoever wins the race, let us put Nigeria first, the nation first.

“The dark cloud I saw last year was two declarations but I can see the finger of God. Thank you for your prayers.”

He urged his congregants to avoid violence, and not allow themselves be used by politicians to cause bloodshed, while adding that do or die is not politics.

Pastor E. A. Adeboye The General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye divided his prophesy into four segments such as individual, international, RCCG and Nigeria. He did not prophesy on the elections and has remained very respected and revered.

For individual, he said; “Those who fasted for 100 days last year, the Lord says the harvest for the 100 days fast will be given this year 2015.” He added that this year will be full of testimonies, and those who have none before will have this year. Daddy G.O. as he is fondly called says many believers will swim in the river of abundance this year; there will be miraculous completion of projects; fulfillment of dreams; miraculous restoration and the songs of many will be – The Lord has been good to me.”

According to the G.O there will be scientific and medical breakthroughs particularly in the areas of insomnialack of sleep, dreams and brain disorders at the international level, Ebola Virus disease would die out, insurgencies all over the world will be considerably weakened.

He asked for prayers against massive calamities like earthquakes, strong hurricane and typhoons.

Dr D.K Olukoya. For the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Ministries, General Overseer Dr D.K Olukoya, it’s going to be a mysterious year. “I will speak in parables. This year is going to be a mysterious, cautious and dribbling year, so, you will have to find the solutions

Bishop David Oyedepo In his New Year message, the General Overseer of Living Faith Church Worldwide (Winners Chapel), Bishop David Oyedepo said 2015 would be a year of turnaround for every believer, this message was delivered during the closing day of 2014 Annual Shiloh inside Canaanland Ota, Ogun State.

“In 2015, nobody will doubt those who serve God; It will be clear that we are only in the world, not of the world; in 2015, my God will wipe away all your tears; There shall be no occasion for mourning or weeping; Throughout 2015, you are not permitted to bury anyone in your life because there shall be no more death; in 2015, some things that cause you sorrow will be far from you and in 2015.

“Your night season is over; God will be all you need for triumphant life, victorious living all through 2015; There shall be a rise of many giants – giants in all sectors of human endeavour; Men like nations will rise in the year 2015; Men that will command attention of many nations shall arise in 2015 and God has brought us into the realm of heaven on earth, where men will live like angels.”

Pastor W.F.Kumuyi The General Superintendent of Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi in December 2014 during a media briefing ahead of the Deeper Life Bible Church threeday crusade at Eiyenkorin in Ilorin, Kwara State said Nigeria will remain an indivisible entity despite all her challenges. “God has a purpose for Nigeria. When people talk of division, the truth is that once you start the process, it never ends. Once you say, ‘people in the North, go your way and those in the South, go your way,’ there are other people who will also rise up to say they too want to go their own way even within you. You know what happened in the 1960s; several sides will begin to be asked to go away but I know that God has a purpose for bringing Nigeria together and we shall remain one.” He did not also say anything on the election.

Pastor Tunde Bakare Giving a ray of hope, Senior Pastor of Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare said that the abducted Chibok girls would return home this year, 2015. He gave this prediction during the church’s crossover service into the New Year..The cleric told his congregation that Nigeria would enjoy extraordinary grace from God this year, which would see the return of the missing girls. He said, “The Chibok girls will be returned this year; some people will say they are just using religion to deceive themselves.

How will the girls be rescued?’ You will see. I didn’t say it, it is what God said and I believe it.

“Whether you are from the East or from the West or from the North or the South, you will experience joy in 2015. Other nations will say ‘how did they do it.’ It will be indescribable joy. The nations of the earth will testify. I bring good tidings of joy to every part of the nation…”

16 —SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

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SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4 4, 2015—17

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18—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

What Ambassador Olisemeka said about Buhari before his election victory On popular demand we reproduce an opinion written by Ambassador Olisemeka which we published on February 7. It may help you have a better picture of the Presidentelect. Enjoy your reading:

By Ignatius C. Olisemeka

W

ithout ever knowing or meeting me, Buhari gave me a chance. As I now write, I have never met him one-onone. We have never spoken to each other. It is an extraordinary experience of an unusual man.

I was sitting on my desk in the Ministry of External Affairs, 40 Marina Lagos in 1984, when I received a letter appointing me Ambassador to the United States of America. My place of origin did not matter. Incidentally, I am from Ibusa, a famous town now in Delta State; then, in Bendel State. My religion did not matter either. I had no worthwhile contacts with Dodan Barracks. All I knew, and had always known, was to work hard and to express my views as candidly and as courageously as I could, regardless of the consequences; provided I was convinced they were right. It was never easy or smooth-sailing. Of course, that had its bitter consequences; but at the end, now at 83, looking back, it worked out just right.

Of all the Nigerian leaders, with the possible exception of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Buhari has been the one that has most approximated my dream of what a Nigerian leader should be. Without any attempt at self-advertisement, but simply as a matter of fact, I knew and had worked and interacted with most, if not all of our leaders. I worked with Sir James Robertson, the last colonial Governor-General of Nigeria, after graduating from the University College, Ibadan in 1957.

I served as Clerk to the Privy Council and as Assistant Secretary (Administrative Officer) in charge of Security. I worked up to my

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immediate boss, Mr. C. O. Lawson, the then respected Secretary to the Cabinet in the Governor-General’s office. As part of my schedule of duties as officer in charge of security, I had the privilege and honour of being a member of a 3man-panel, two of them British, which interviewed and recruited the first batch of Nigerian military officers into the Nigerian army in 1958. This batch included Olusegun Obasanjo.

In 1958, I transferred to the Ministry of External

•Buhari

Affairs, making a career in the Diplomatic Service which lasted forty-two (42) years, from where I eventually rose as Foreign Minister, having served as Ambassador in Nine (9) countries, a few with concurrent accreditation, including Kenya under Jomo Kenyatta, Botswana under Sir Seretse Khama, Lesotho under King Moshoeshoe I, Spain, The Holy See under three Popes, (John Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II), the United States of America, Canada and, lastly, in Israel for six (6) years, a mission I established and rose to be Doyen of the Diplomatic Corps. In between, I was Chief of Protocol of the Federation to Zik and Balewa, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as Directing Staff in the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, for two years (1988/ 1989).

I am now a retired pensioner, carefully minding my own business and tending my personal affairs. I do not belong to any political party and have never belonged to any. In the best tradition of the colonial public service of my days, I have remained strictly anonymous and aloof; occasionally, making my views and opinion privately known to the appropriate authorities of the day on any issue I feel strongly about. I seek no office and no financial or material favours.

All I am doing is to put on public record my private opinion, views and experience, which may not be available and known to many Nigerians.

Major General Muhammadu Buhari not only gave me the opportunity to serve Nigeria as Ambassador in the United States, he did even more than that. He entrusted to me the care and welfare of his family; still without our

knowing or meeting each other.

He sent his wife and two children to me in Washington D.C. for medical treatment. He took his chance and dealt with me strictly on a professional basis. His family were with me in Washington D.C. when the General was overthrown in a coup d’etat. We did the best we could and sent them back home safely under the trying and traumatic circumstances they found themselves- still, never a word from this unusual person. In 1988 after I returned as Ambassador from Washington D.C., I was assigned as a punitive measure as Directing Staff to the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, for two years.

The subject of our research in that year led the Syndicate I headed to visit Buhari’s State of origin. With the approval of government, members of the Syndicate visited Buhari who was then under house arrest in his home town, Daura. This most extra-ordinary man received us with warmth and courtesy. We found him living in a modest, sparsely furnished three or four bed-room bungalow which was his house. He still did not know who I was; nor did I disclose my identity to him. It was unbelievable, even in those days, that a former General in the Nigerian Army and a former Head of State could live in such a modest, spartan abode.

What further struck me was a complete lack of bitterness; unless the Fulani in him, concealed and dissembled it!

What do all these tell me about this man, Buhari? Others may have a different opinion of him. I absolutely concede to them the right to hold their views. As far as I am personally concerned, four short phrases summarise my overall impression and opinion of Buhari. An incorruptible man. A patriotic Nigerian devoid of any trace of ethnicism and parochialism. A deeply religious man.

Above all, a stern disciplinarian.

We so often talk glibly of the giant strides Asian Tigers have taken to leap from the state of underdevelopment to developed nations. We refer tirelessly to the achievements of men like Lee Kuan Yew. I have, personally, met Lee Kuan Yew in Singapore. I did so in the company of General Yakubu Gowon when he returned from exile from the United Kingdom. Little do we know or appreciate the agonizing hardship, pains and sufferings all Singaporeans, Chinese, Malays, Indians and other ethnic nationalities, had to endure for Singapore to attain its present height as a respected nation. Gold must be smelted in hot burning furnaces before unleashing its shine and purity. Lee Kuan Yew was a benevolent democratic autocrat. He subjected his people to a good dose of rigorous healthy discipline. No country makes that type of progress Singapore made

Continues on page 19

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—19

Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe

Alhaji Tafawa Balewa

Continues from page 18 without an unwavering sense of disciplined direction. Moreover, Lee Kuan Yew was an inspirational leader of his people. He governed by example.

It is not just the question of the number of kilometres of roads you build that elevates a nation. It is not a matter of the megawatts of power you generate nor the number of buildings you erect for the populace.

Not even the refineries you build or the volume of agricultural products produced and exported. These are important. Any leader surrounded by brilliant experts, excellent technocrats and loyal advisers can achieve those basic and essential needs. Leadership calls for much greater attributes than the performance of those feats. A leader must have a strong, solid, moral and disciplined background, the inspirational ability to galvanize his people to higher, lofty and common purpose. These are not ordinary attributes available to every man.

They are uncommon gifts and talents dispensed and bestowed only to a few.

This makes the difference between one man and the other; one woman and the other. It is not often we have a Ghandi or a Mandela; an Ataturk, or a Winston Churchill, a Charles de Gaulle, or a Konrad Adenauer, who became one of the most respected Chancellors of Federal Republic of Germany at the ripe age of 81, a Margaret Thatcher, or even our own often quoted Obama. Nearer home, with all their imperfections, considering that a prophet is without honour in his own country, we must reckon with Azikiwe, the Sardauna, Awolowo, Aminu Kano and J.S. Tarka, the real and genuine ‘founding fathers’ of our nation.

Buhari, in my view, belongs to the last and passing generation of this group of Nigerian leaders. It was a pity that fate thrust him into leadership limelight at a period in time when military revolution and coups d’ etats were in vogue and held sway. In a democratic setting, as we now have, I believe that the real worth and essence of this man, encapsulated in an exemplary and enigmatic personal life, will blaze through and shine forth. It will soon be clear that those of his followers of questionable and dubious pedigree who think they can latch on to the reputation of this rare Nigerian would be the first to be highly disappointed.

I also believe that what is badly needed at this stage of our national life is a leadership that will turn the country around; and rescue us from the depth of chronic indiscipline, disorder and decadence we have, over the years, gradually descended and slided into.

What I believe we need is a strong

Yakubu Gowon

Sir James Robertson

The BUHARI of my personal experience hand at the helm, with the support of our people, who will instil in us a much needed sense of order and discipline; inspire us into patriotic zeal and sacrifice; bring out the best in each one of us; and encourage in us the love of nation.

The nation’s sense of indiscipline and disorder is evident and all pervasive even in very simple things and matters of the day and moment. A road-side mechanic claims to be an Engineer (Engr) and insists on being so styled. A traditional herbalist insists he must be called and respected as a professional medical Doctor (Dr) and, indeed, hugs the appellation. An ordinary traditional village community leader who flamboyantly styles himself a Chief and clownishly attired in a self-designed robe, is addressed not only as “Your Highness”, but takes offence if he is not properly addressed as “Your Royal Highness”. A number of respected Kabiyesis no longer have regard for their beautiful traditional titles, unless we, their ‘subjects’, address them as “Your Majesty” or worse still, “Your Royal Majesty” The same applies to the ‘Ran kadades’, most of our Emirs and prominent men in authority revel in when interacting with the poor subservient so-called talakawas. May I also observe that the awkward title of ‘His Eminence’ is a misnomer which should be revisited and reconsidered.

Members of our legislative houses feel incomplete and uncomfortable until they are addressed as ‘Honourables’ or ‘Distinguished Senators’. They are no longer plain ‘Mister’ or ‘Madam’.

I believe it is time we became a little more creative and find suitable traditional and local substitutes for these foreign appellations which portray us as caricatures and ridicule us as people and nation in the outside world. What a pride and beauty to have one of the foremost traditional rulers of the land being regaled with the title Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo Oba Erediauwa! Why can we not start emulating and adopting this practice in most of our national institutions? It will give us a sense of pride and self-worth.

Ambitious pseudo-intellectual selfpublicists cleverly thrust their mediocrity and opinions on us and

flaunt their borrowed, half-baked, illdigested ideas, concepts, jargons and clichés. Pages of our national newspapers are replete with lavishly self-serving advertisements of obituaries, weddings and birthday celebrations. Why not severely tax those who place these wasteful advertisements to rake in and release funds to charities or other good causes such as sporting and educational development of the country.

Hitherto decent, pretty, confident young ladies on our television sets in order to make themselves more attractive and acceptable, bleach their skin to pale sickening white, with their veins thinly exposed; their bare knuckles and elbows still looking jet black. They should be reassigned to the back room offices, decorated with mirrors, left to rue their new look which has become an eyesore to many viewers. Our television channels have suddenly become a babel and cacophony of crude and embarrassing noise makers, reflecting the values of a sick society, drunk with democratic excesses.

Honorary degrees are sold, bought and conferred on undeserving personalities by many of our Universities and these personalities shamelessly parade them at will. A few prominent church leaders have relocated their pulpits from their churches to the seats of secular power while a number of Imams have not been able to teach their adherents the purity of their religion which preaches respect for human lives.

Our youths need impeccable high level connections before gaining employment at any level, both decent or menial. Impunity freely reigns in the land more than ever before. The temples of justice are daily being desecrated. The Lady now has her eyes wide open; seductively beckoning and soliciting for favours.

More painful still, is the nearabsolute control of our entire being and lives as a people by others. We appear helpless to cast off that yoke and burden even though we claim to be independent; helpless to govern ourselves with any modicum of selfrespect and dignity and take our destiny into our hands.

Buhari, in my view, belongs to the last and passing generation of this group of Nigerian leaders. It was a pity that fate thrust him into leadership limelight at a period in time when military revolution and coups d’ etats were in vogue and held sway.

The list is endless. Am I a part of this messy order? Certainly, yes.

None of us can pretend not to be part of it, in one way or the other, in differing roles. Only that some exacerbate it more than others. This situation calls for a man who, by personal example, can firmly and fearlessly put an end to these vulgarities and inanities.

This is one side of the coin. There is another side of the coin to our national life for which we can proudly hold our heads very high. This is the side no other single country in the world I know can ever match. The list is inexhaustive and much longer than our shortcomings. We do not, however, necessarily need to dwell on them or spell them out here, as we search for positive measures and values that will enhance and edify our nation.

Buhari represents, in my opinion, the last opportunity we have to get things reasonably right before the baton passes permanently on to the next and coming generation. After him, the generation of the ‘founding fathers’ would have faded away; with their legacies, left behind, hopefully for good. He should be given the chance to restore and consolidate the disappearing values of that ‘golden age’ so sadly disrupted by the military, to which paradoxically and tragically, he and those in that generation, and that before him, were willy-nilly pressed into being a part of.

He carries on his frail, ageing but reliable shoulders a historic responsibility and burden of getting it right. He has a bounden duty to realign the nation towards achieving its manifest destiny. He has no excuses for failure.

Otherwise, why should he be seeking power at his age? It makes absolutely no sense. Why not take a comfortable and relaxed back seat like most of us. History will judge him very harshly should he fail.

The immediate challenge before him, I feel convinced, is how to curb the excesses of the teaming mass of followers who, undoubtedly, adore him. The next, is to rein in the display of empty, hollow pompousness and offensive arrogance by a few of his elitist, lazy patronage-seeking associates; who, if victorious, will flock to him without discrimination. I had always instinctively recognised and resented this feeling at first hand, even from a distance.

I believe it is time for us to begin anew. Let us begin to lead our lives as normal human beings; and not in self-delusion and self-deceit. This is the real transformation needed. This is the revolution we yearn for at this point in time in our national life. I can now start understanding what drove past Chinese leaders into staging the “Cultural Revolution”.

Nigeria is ripe; indeed, over ripe for a non-violent revolution which will shake us all up like a volcanic eruption from our present national stupor. Who will sweep out the quacks and charlatans in our midst?

Who will guarantee us enduring values? Who will cleanse the cobwebs from our national home?

All said, let no one forget there is no better country than Nigeria in the whole world. I feel happiest when I am in Nigeria; despite the agonizing frustrations; despite the infuriating hardship; and even when I am being driven daily to the brink of desperation.

Ambassador Ignatius C. Olisemeka, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs

20—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

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SATURDAY Vanguard Vanguard,, APRIL4, 2015—21

T

God is who He says He is would do what He says He would do. He is never late. He is always on time. He has never purposed anything without accomplishing it.

Absolutely nothing is too hard for God to handle. He can reverse the irreversible. He can and will deliver the prey of the captive.

There is nothing that He has ever said that He did not do. There is no power anywhere that can stop Him. All over the scriptures He has accomplished everything He says and your life is about to become the next testimony of what He has said concerning you.

Remember Jesus said no man had the power to take His life but that He will lay it down and on the third day He will raise it up again. And just as He said, He laid down His life and conquered death, defeated the enemy and took away from satan the key of hell and death and resurrected on the third day just as He said. Believe God that whatever He has said He d will make good.

God is a God of integrity. He can never lie. I tell people always that even if God tries to lie, he cannot lie. It is not His nature.

The one that lies is Satan. The bible calls Satan the father of all liars (John 8:44).

Since Satan is the father of all liars, it obviously means that Satan cannot be the father of truth. So you can see now that the enemy has been lying to you and not God. The book of John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth”.

Can you hear this in your spirit? God’s word is truth. What word are you holding unto? Is it the lie of the devil that says it is not possible, for it is too late or is it the truth of

God is at the window Singaporean counterpart before or after his presidency. This comparison was to come from our incumbent President whose earlier campaign ads compared him to some historic figures. Nothing, I mean nothing can be more incongruous than comparing Jonathan with Yew. Neither can be the other if they were to re-incarnate ten times.

One had a strong, almost dictatorial character while the other has a weak, seemingly benign character. One had a determined, fiery desire to transform his country and ruthlessly rooted out any obstacle that stood in the attainment of his goal. The other merely mouthed transformation but did

,

omorrow is Easter Sunday; one of the most important dates in the Christian calendar. It commemorates the day Jesus, our Redeemer, rose from the dead thereby destroying the power of death. It also signifies an end to the six week Lenten season. To us in Nigeria, it also signifies an end in a way, to the season of campaigns that had turned out to be very divisive and bitter. Whatever happened to the Christian charity, prayerfulness and humility that the season was supposed to promote? I do not think that our Christian politicians acquitted themselves well on that score. And to think many of them profess to be born-again or even pastors!

Easter reminds me for some strange reason—maybe because of its symbolic power over death- of friends who have passed on. Today, I remember particularly, an old friend who died about 15 years ago. Steve Fagbemi was so full of life and fun to be with. We were looking forward to a landmark birthday when the shocking news of his sudden death filtered out. Sleep on Stevo! May your soul rest in peace.

Speaking of death, in the week when the rumoured death of a former President of Nigeria, Alhaji Shehu Shagari which turned out to be false, took over the social media, the one of Lee Kwan Yew, the former President of Singapore which also filled the social media, actually turned out to be true.

Both were Presidents a bout the same time and both had unique opportunities to transform their respective countries. Both were incidentally, about the same age. One transformed his country, a small, impoverished port city that no one really wanted, into the First World while the other who ruled a country rich in mineral and material resources, led his country into debt, impunity and corruption. He can only in these twilight years, rue the chances he had to make his country great which he squandered on the altar of indiscipline, nepotism and greed. In fairness, he never compared himself to his

,

Nothing, I mean nothing can be more incongruous than comparing Jonathan with Yew

everything to undermine his own agenda. One was a man of ideas who galvanised his people to pick the best from the East and West while the other never really left Otuoke his fishing village in ideas and temperament. But the one area that stood out the most was in the area of corruption. One fought corruption to a standstill and succeeded in making his country the least corrupt Asian country and one of the top ten least corrupt countries in the world while the other encouraged corruption with comments like stealing is not corruption and made his country one of the world’s most corrupt countries.

behind whatever I did is honourable’.

Now, how many of our leaders in the private and public sectors can say that?

How many have not put personal or other interests before the country’s interest? Where is the honour for example, in giving your word and not standing by it? Where is the honour in undermining the very institutions that got you into power –either State or National?

Among those who will throng the church tomorrow will be those who will be thanking God for electoral victories.

Many of them would have out rigged and out harassed their opponents.

God will do what He sa ys says God that says all things are possible to him that believeth, for that which is impossible with man is possible with God. You see, with God it is never too late.

Satan lied to Abraham and Sarah that it was not possible for them to have the promised child and that it was already too late. But God showed that it was possible for them to have His promised child even at old age. It was not too late. At the end of the day, who told the truth? It is God. Who lied?

It is the devil. What about Mary and Martha? Satan lied to them that their brother was dead and could not be raised up again so that they can give up in life. But again the truth manifested His glory to destroy the lies of Satan by raising up Lazarus who was dead.

I pray that the power of Satan’s lies be broken in your life in Jesus name. Receive the light of God’s word in your life that will enable you break free and enter into God’s

For more details, contact us at Christ Reality Church, beside Gossard Hotel, opposite First Bank Sports Ground, Community Road, Satellite Town or P.O.Box, 3196, Yaba Lagos. Tel: 08023062635 08168955932; 08033378769. E-mail: Johnson_crm@yahoo.com. Website: www.christrealityministries.org.

Our account details are Pastor Johnson Omomadia, Guaranty Trust Bank, A/C Nos. 0005171407; Christ Reality Ministries, Zenith Bank A/C 1011711622.

Worship with us on Sundays, 1st Service: 745am-9:15am; 2nd Service 9:1511:30am. Wednesdays Word Revelation 6pm. Counseling days Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. 11am-5pm daily or by appointment. Showers of blessing every 2nd - 4th Sat. of each month, 6 a.m - 7.15 am.

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One promoted merit and looked for the best irrespective of geography while one promoted nepotism and hardly looked outside a particular section of his country. Dr Adegoroye, formerly of the Presidency alleged in a report that the Yoruba race lost almost 40% of appointive positions under Mr Jonathan’s government. If this is true, someone may have to explain it.

Anyway, the achievements or otherwise of the shoeless one, will be left for another day. Today, being Easter, is on character.

President Yew once said in an interview ‘I didn’t always do everything right. But the purpose

rest in Jesus name. Numbers 23:19 says, “God is not a man that He should lie; neither the son of man that He should repent: hath He said, and shall he not do it? Or hath He spoken and shall He not make it good?”

Anything that God has said or spoken can be trusted. He will always fulfill it. There is no power that can stop its manifestation.

Lets look at Genesis 28:12-15; “And he dreamed and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father and the God of Isaac; the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to they seed; and thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth and thou shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. And behold I am with thee and will keep the in all places wither thou goest and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of”.

From the text, I want you to know that God was not just

Many would have plotted the arrests and assassinations of perceived enemies. Let them realise as they go out for thanksgiving and reach out to take the Holy Communion, that God is at the window of their soul and watches everything.

A politician I used to respect said the other day that all politicians are liars.

My respect for him flew out of the window. Why would an honourable man go into a vocation he knows to be dishonourable? Or having found himself there, flaunts the very thing that is dishonourable in the vocation?

Why have our politicians turned the terms ‘Honourable’ and Excellency’ into misnomers?

A Nigerian leading light in the corporate world in the 80s and 90s whom I have a tremendous respect for once told me. ‘People call me Mr Integrity and so on without appreciating the importance of God in my life. Now, many people would do the right thing if they felt they were being watched or if there was a likelihood of a sanction. I believe that God is watching me and requires me to try to do the right thing at all times.

That is the difference between them and I’. I believe it behoves our public officer in and out of politics to strive to be honourable. They owe it to posterity and that impartial verdict of history.

The tributes poured forth following the death of Mr Yew. But he had already anticipated them. In one of his latter interviews, he said ‘The real legacy is not what comes at your obituary. Much later, scholars and PhD students will go into the archives to dig out your speeches, interviews etc. to understand your vision. They will compare your vision with what you accomplished. That is your legacy.’

Let me add that whatever the scholars and the PHD students miss either because the documents are not available or because the researchers themselves are human, will definitely not be missed by God. He is at the window of your soul. He watches everything. He documents everything.

Happy Easter. talking rather he was declaring what he was going to do. He fulfilled His promise to Jacob and would also fulfill His promise concerning you. Please know that God is Alpha and Omega. He knows the end from the beginning. This means that He knows about all the things that will contend with you but still He says “For I will not leave thee until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of ”. God is not moved by battles. You will overcome the enemy through his son Jesus Christ who causes us to triumph always.

Do you want to experience fruitfulness of God in your life? Then you must receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

Pray this simple prayer. Father, you said that whosoever shall call on the name of Jesus, shall be saved. I call on the name Jesus. Thank you for saving me and giving me the gift of eternal life. I praise you and give you all the glory.

For your praise report, prayer requests, testimonies and financial support, you can contact us through our contact details below.

God shall surely change your situation and make you to experience His realities.

22—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Ugoegbujo@gmail.com

Of Igbos and political naivety

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he Igbo man’s shrewdness and foresightedness is the envy of many. With a keen sense of competition and a culture that greatly rewards industry, the Igbo man seeks success wherever it can be found. And the Igbo is not just one of the most dispersed groups in the world but also one of the most successful. And while they are reputed for outstanding commercial instincts they can match any other African ethnic group in their aptitude for learning and academic achievements and excellence in sports and other professional endeavours.

The success of the Igbo has always been individualistic for the Igbo culture is steeped in republicanism.

Without Kings and kingdoms, existing in small communities run by the ordinary men, everyone aspired to be better than his mates. Families climbed up and came down social ladders purely by merit and industry.

Though predominantly atomistic in their efforts , the “onye aghala nwanne ya” spirit of the Igbos has meant that while individual success is appreciated, contributions to the community are greatly valued and honoured.

The Nigerian civil war left a deep scar in the collective psyche of the Igbos. Though they are still assertive and ambitious, their faith in the Nigerian project may have suffered a small but irreparable dent. And because they are the most widely dispersed group in Nigeria and because they settle and own properties wherever they find themselves, they are naturally especially vulnerable to incidents of widespread violence anywhere in the country. While they may be remotely associated with the events leading to chaos , once disorder sets in , mayhem is visited on the Igbo man and his properties. And whenever these eruptions happen, the Igbo man is haunted afresh by the ghosts 1966 pogrom and the war and his doubts about Nigeria are reawakened. How these affect the political calculations of the average Igbo is still being examined but it is incontestable that the average Igbo man in Ihiala or Aba continues to view with grave suspicion anything suggestive of a re emergence of a Hausa Fulani political hegemony or enthronement of ethnic supremacy by any group. Does the Igbo man suffer some kind of political paranoia?

While the events of the war and their aftermath may have conditioned the political attitude of the Igbo, the Igbo as a group, have been undone by unbridled individualism and resultant unhealthy rivalry and C M Y K

commercialism. It is great to be a tribe of ambitious people amongst whom rivalry is intense but when insane competition allows a prioritization of individual attainments above collective group aims in a multi ethnic primordial society like Nigeria, the group is in clear jeopardy. There no longer exists any concerted attempt to articulate the group’s interest and there has been no forward -looking deliberate and coherent strategy to harness the resources and numerical strength and versatility of the Igbo to enhance the group’s political fortunes. Some may argue that it is retrogressive and atavistic and perhaps divisive to treat the country as a collection of ethnic groupings and to prioritize ethnic interests. I understand those sentiments. But the reality is that Igbos have in some sense continued to reject certain political tendencies because of long held prejudices against certain groups. It is therefore important to assess and articulate their collective group interests so that certain harmful assumptions can be challenged objectively and hopefully dismantled. It is sadly true that amongst Igbos, those who are materially endowed have voice and are worshiped and those who are intellectually endowed have little influence and are not envied. This affliction may however be a national epidemic. The Nigerian polity has suffered a moral degeneration and the society no longer has cherished values. Known criminals are now leaders and role models. When the wise is despised , fools reign. In many Igbo communities the man who has the most money has the most honour and the most influence.

So even intellectuals, pauperized by domestic economic circumstances , have come to envy the moneyed men.

But the bane of Igbo politics is not the collective assault on it by a college of semi literate wealthy traders who rule the town unions but the existence of a special virulent breed of freshly minted horsewhip bearers, political houseboys of the lords in Aso Rock and the political culture that their emergence spawns.

A variant of god fatherism where the local godfather ordained by Abuja is a conceited barely literate , shortsighted , crumbs seeking , cudgel bearing, cowardly businessman in political robes.

When the colonial masters came those who managed to become their domestic staff also managed to pick

up their language and before long became all powerful interpreters and messengers. That rested soap opera on NTA “ICHOKU” dramatically depicted the phenomenon . The messenger in inter-mediating between the community and the white district officer became an indispensable agent of the colonialist and an unscrupulous extortionist of his people.

The colonial masters have left but their legacies live on . All the politically emancipatory works of Zik, Mbakwe, Mbadiwe, Collins Obi, CC Onoh , Ekwueme, Okadigbo, Ikemba Ojukwu have practically come to nothing. Igbos once the major factor in Nigerian politics are now so peripheral that they can be taken for granted.

Neo colonialists in Aso rock are now always adept and proficient at producing lackeys of Igbo origin .

Occupant after occupant, Aso rock , nearly always contemptuous of Igbo intellectuals , will mint a new head boy for the Igbo by transforming an erstwhile pliant court jester or half witted messenger or political tout by investing him with cash and security operatives and impunity . And though they will employ a handful of Igbo intellectuals and technocrats like Okonjo Iweala or Chu Okongwu or Soludo or Ezekwesili to render technical service to the nation but they will always reserve and concentrate real political powers in the hands of the anointed sycophants.

Abacha had a few and they were allocated oil blocks and they became prefects over the Igbos. Obasanjo came and sidelined Ekwueme who built the party, the platform , on which he was delivered the presidency on a platter. He looked around picked two of his semi illiterate errand boys and set them over the Igbo nation . And they tormented people . Who could doubt their ‘omnipotence’ ? They once kidnapped a governor and destroyed the state capital and made late Chinua Achebe reject his national award.

President Goodluck Jonathan who prefers his middle name Ebele when he needs Igbo votes may not have been politically adventurous and did not mint a head boy. But with that TAN and their coarseness and obtrusiveness he had one in the making.

When Igbo intellectuals are made vulnerable by the sudden elevation and political empowerment of touts whose only virtue is fierce loyalty and sycophancy, technocrats become wimps and bootlickers themselves . Professors grovel at the feet of nitwits to be recommended for political appointments.

Leaders who are essentially political middlemen situate themselves between the lord in Abuja and the people of Igbo

President Goodluck Jonathan who prefers his middle name Ebele when he needs Igbo votes may not have been politically adventurous and did not mint a head boy

land. They fill their pockets, get bits for their cronies and wallow in self deceit. They are too self absorbed to think of the people they purport to represent. They hang around the gardens in Aso Rock and tell the president he should not worry about Igbos because they , his loyal serfs can handle them. So the second Niger bridge can be promised and forgotten and any who complains of Igbo neglect is demonized not by the lord but by his Igbo political domestic servants. They collect money, stuff ballot boxes and brag about their ability to deliver their localities.

And you can always hear them frothing during campaigns : “Sir you shouldn’t have bothered coming here , this region is 100% percent yours.” Of course the OnitshaEnugu expressway was not done.

And neither Sullivan Chime, whom I must confess has performed fairly creditably, but who wants to retain the party machinery ahead of another rival nor Gov Obiano who seeks political protection from Jonathan can make that road a condition for supporting Jonathan.

The leaders are too weak , too shortsighted , too preoccupied with self preservation.

Gov T. A Orji has left Aba decrepit.

Refuse and pot holes have seized the town. He tells many that the roads are federal roads and yet he tells all that Jonathan is the savior of Igbos.

He had to become a Jonathan minion to save himself from his estranged god father Orji Kalu. And since he had Jonathan the people of Abia who should have been his protection no longer mattered.

APGA will adopt Jonathan as presidential candidate even before his party PDP has given him the party’s ticket. And they will make political caricatures of themselves by the variety of adjectives and superlatives they manufacture to eulogise him. You look at Victor Umeh and you see APGA – chaos and opportunism. And what about Ohaneze? Lets spare that disoriented body .

The presidential elections have come and Igbos have shown their preference. They rejected the APC rather reflexively , out of prejudice and paranoia. They shut markets in Lagos down for the PDP rally but not for the APC that controls Lagos .

And Igbos will seek positions in the new government but they have no senator and only two federal legislators in the ruling party and no one knows if they would even have a governor.

And no one quarrels with the right to make a choice. And no one quarrels with an unpopular choice if the choice is made objectively.

One must wonder then what the interests of the Igbos are. And I will submit that a highly competitive group that is well dispersed would above anything else seek a Nigeria that is peaceful and stable where freedom and justice and ‘meritocracy’ and equity reign. The Igbo man seeks not advantages but seeks a level playing field, seeks an opportunity to maximize his potentials. These aims can only be advanced and protected by a Nigeria where institutions of democracy are well established, by a truly federalist Nigeria where multi party democracy thrives.

Then you have to wonder how the Igbos collectively failed to see that the entrenchment of a second national party was to their advantage. This is not to suggest that Igbos are expected to reject the PDP and embrace the APC but they are not supposed to demonise or hate the APC. From Zik, Okpara, Mbadiwe, Mbazulike Amaechi , Ikemba , Mbakwe , Ekwueme and co to the current breed? How did it happen?

Igbo politics needs a renaissance.

Igbos must approach politics with clear eyed objectivity and not unhelpful emotions. Collective interests must be paramount and long term interest must have priority. Untamed materialism cripples. Beggarliness is shortsightedness. Igbos must assert themselves.

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL4, 2015—23

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nd when all is said and done, what we all want is change. It is an organic element of the cosmos charting out the essential route of benign development, or otherwise, as humanity chooses. “Forward, forward let us range,” cries the poet, “let the great world spin forever, round the grooves of change.”

Consider the two watchwords of the principal political parties in the recent election, the Peoples Democratic Party, the PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, the APC. The former held out “transformation” which the dictionary depicts as: alteration, conversion, development reform,, change. The latter, the APC, simply proclaimed the word itself, change, which is described as alteration, modification, variation, transformation. The two words are, in fact, synonymous with one another. And in a dramatic fashion, it came on the heels of the election from the man who bore the brunt of it, President Goodluck Jonathan. He instituted a change in presidential elections in the country when, having lost the contest, he congratulated his victorious opponent on the phone even before the last result had been announced.

That had never happened before, especially after a bitter period of electioneering marked by some rather vicious exchanges.

That is all in the spirit of “forward, forward let us range”; the manifestation of healthy and preferable change has to be for progress or it would be ruinous. The action of the president therefore deserves the wholehearted support of all patriotic Nigerians, irrespective of their political affiliation. Apart from the obvious quality of •President-elect Muhammadu Buhari sportsmanship in the

*Buhari sstteps in

It is a popular sentiment that the Buhari government should “hit the ground running”

,

president’s acceptance of defeat in the election is also the immediate deterrence of violent reaction which the result could have aroused among the more unruly elements of party members and supporters. President Jonathan proved that he sincerely believes that no ambition is worth the shedding of blood any Nigerian.

It would appear though that his acceptance of the election result is not shared by some members within the powerful hierarchy of the PDP are not exactly on the same page with him about throwing in the towel. They are, of course, free to explore how right their cause is within the law. However, it would be unfortunate if they are allowed to whittle away all the advantages we have already won in reputation within and without the country on the edge of protracted law suits and C M Y K

,

prolonged court cases.

That has usually left a sour after-taste in election matters, but it’s heartening that the Chief Justice of the Federation has already promised not to encourage any attempt to turn the courts into an extension of electioneering efforts, as it were.

It is a popular sentiment that the Buhari government should “hit the ground running”. Such language lacks common good sense, of course. That is clearly the best way to end up on your face. Any athlete will testify to the fact that the first few steps in a race must be controlled and deliberate; then having secured a firm grasp of the course, speed may be increased. Rushing into issues immediately, and there are a number of

them aflame, would definitely be without good judgment. Even the obvious ones like power supply, still require a thorough examination to either correct what has been installed in error before substituting a new process. That is meaningful change, and we urge the incoming administration to also look into other areas of deficiency like road construction, education, health, water supply, agriculture, housing, jobs – the whole lot, not in that order, of course.

Every adviser—and that is what we all are at the moment—has his own priority, though subjects like power supply are common to all of us. We cannot relegate the issue of security to the sideline, either. The Boko Haram menace has gone on for too long. It has definitely affected the direction of the election results. Many people depend on the military antecedents of the president-elect to execute a final decision, and soon.

A resolution of the Chibok

appalling situation is of great importance. Along with the prosecution of the insurrection, however, should be a re-vamping of the military ethos of our nation which seems to have suffered untold battering in the recent past. It would be fruitful to examine the morale of the entire army and consider its improvement beyond the rigid imposition of court martial punitive measures. The other aspect of security which directly affects the citizenry is to do with our police system and operations. There are still some police officers and constables in this country today who believe in law and order. That might be difficult to believe, but it is

true as I have met some of them.

What is more factual, however, is the high-handedness and unfair behaviour of the generality of our policemen. It all derives from the pervasive corruption which holds the entire society in thrall. It might take more than the efforts within the tenure of one administration to curb this national malfeasance, so deep has it eaten into our social culture.

It embodies the attitude of police officers who see themselves as “lions” out to conquer a state governor, with the support from the highest quarters. The removal of such “politician-policemen” from the scene would serve as a beginning in the necessary exercise of restoring respect and honour to the image of the police force.

The issue of corruption, generally, has to be left with the in-coming government to deal with, any day. It was intertwined with the maxim of patriotism which has one its aspects as the “War on Indiscipline” – WAI. We all remember the “cue culture” which largely remains with us till this day. We welcomed it, swiftly breaking the dreadful habit of disorder which even the harsh colonial direction of decades could hardly touch. But we accepted it and complied with it because, in my own way of thinking, we are basically decent as a nation. The return of WAI, which made us learn our National Anthem with pleasant results, would by itself mark a revisit to the path of nationalism.

However, the new government must avoid distraction in any form.

Nothing can cripple the realization of good intention like lack of concentration. Spanners will of course be thrown into the works of their operations, especially with regard to the repair of the economy.

That hangs squarely on the situation of the oil industry. And that money provider, at the moment, hangs between the devil and the deep blue sea. It is almost strangled by our thieving and mismanagement, and throttled by international falling prices. With the global distress of poor market, we just have to be patient. With thieves and manipulators, however, we need care and expertise in handling the people and establishing good order in the industry. Here, if we may point out, is a wide-open arena for distraction.

Fortunately, the president-elect is no stranger to this terrain.

In such a messy situation, management of an ultraprofessional calibre is key. The men and women who would be call to service in the new dispensation must be highly-principled and highly-skilled technocrats. Without mentioning names, the profiles that we see looming behind the shoulders of the resident-elect already, fill us with hope. We wait for the first one hundred days.

Time out.

24—SATURDAY

Vanguard , APRIL 4, 2015

Why I mostly take on tough guy roles – Gbenga Richards P

opular Nollywood veteran actor and director, Gbenga Richards, is known for his serious, tough-guy roles in movies.

In this interview, he shares his experiences as an actor and how his stint with the military has helped shape his career and general outlook towards life. Excerpts:

By JULIET EBIRIM and KEHINDE AJOSE

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ow would you a s s e s s the Nigerian movie industry?

The industry has grown. We have more liquidity flowing into the business. But do we have a structure on ground?

No! That’s our major challenge. So far, so good, you see the evidence all around the world. There’s nowhere you go to today that you don’t find Nigerian movies. So, we are doing great. Though, the government still needs to play an important role by bringing down the tariffs on some of the equipments that we bring here. I think what we should do right now is get more investors involved in the industry. Structure is very important because a house without a solid foundation will definitely crash. It’s just the love we have for the industry and the response and love from our fans that’s keeping us.

How do you see the new crop of talents we have in the industry?

There’s one thing the young ones coming up lack – they are too scared to branch off a little bit. Most of them don’t even want to take a short course in maybe directing or acting. We have very few people who possess the inbuilt talent.

Some actors are made while some are born with the talent.

I’m relevant in the industry till now because I’m versatile and I can easily play any role at any time.

So far, how has it been for you?

Interesting and challenging, though challenges are supposed to propel us to move ahead. So, I’m doing great.

C M Y K

What are some of the personal challenges you’ve had in the course of y o u r career?

O n e challenge is the fact that they found me to be very stubborn.

‘Stubborn’ because of what I laboured for. In 1991, I went to work for NDLEA. I’m the only officer in NDLEA that never applied for an appointment. I was offered an appointment by the then chairman of the agency. I was brought in as an image maker but along the line, they found out that I had much knowledge about how to help the agency intercept and arrest some of these people. Later, I became a trained officer. I left the agency as a deputy Zonal Commander in 1999 and I came back to the industry in 2000. All the experiences I acquired while working in that paramilitary organisation is helping the industry today.

Sometimes, they invite me to some productions just to come and teach actors how to handle the gun.

You seem to prefer playing tough roles in movies. Has it got to do with your background?

Funny enough,my dad was a professor in UNILAG. I grew up in UNILAG and I went to CMS Grammar School, Bariga. With the kind of background I have, you would expect that I should be an ‘Ajebutter’. I wasn’t cut out for the ‘Ajebutter’ thing. Yes, I came from an ‘Ajebutter’ background, but I grew up on

•Gbenga Richards the streets. Those days, I moved with people like Fela and I went to places with him. I feel the pulse of the people in the streets. If you get close to them, you find out that they are very interesting. They are just victims of circumstances. So, I try to portray them, even the bad ones – armed robbers, drug dealers and so on. I don’t promote crime, there’s a message I try to pass across with all the characters I play, so that no matter how ‘hard’ or ‘tough’ you are, the law and nemesis will finally catch up with you. I like to project our roots, but that doesn’t mean I can’t play other roles. I have a programme on air called ‘Together ’. It’s a family programme, where I play a father role in a model family.

It’s not as if I always play a hard man.

How long have you been in this profession?

Three decades.

Going down memory lane, what was your first movie and your first time on set like?

My first TV appearance was on NTV now NTA in a programme the ‘Hermit. It was

I grew up in UNILAG and I went to CMS Grammar School, Bariga. With the kind of background I have, you would expect that I should be an ‘Ajebutter’. I wasn’t cut out for the ‘Ajebutter’ thing a one-man drama piece played

by Larry Williams, it got me glued to the TV. I said to myself that I have what it takes to be like this man. After that, I did a political satire film ‘Blues of a prodigal’ by Wole Soyinka.

How’s your family life going?

We’re doing great. I’m married with two wonderful boys. My first son is in the university.

Do you look at yourself and say ‘I’m where I want to be’?

I’m not there yet. Though I know that this year there’s going to be an international breakthrough where I’m going to act with the likes of Nicholas Cage. I’m yet to be tapped.

How has your paramilitary experience shaped your outlook towards life?

Life is as you see it.

Whatever you find yourself into today is as a result of where you are coming from.

Everything I’ve experienced till date has helped me to be in charge of any environment I find myself. I understand the waves. Each breeze that blows gives me a signal. It has given me more grip on life and has made me more mature. It has also given me wisdom to deal with each situation as it comes.

That’s just the advantage I have. I can counsel anyone doing one thing or the other because I’ve been in almost everything – women, drinks and so on. I’ve been there.

With the infusion of sexually explicit scenes in movies, have you done any sexual roles?

If I’m to play a role where I’m expected to make love on set, I’ll first of all, look at the pay package.

4 2015—25 SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4,

Beyonce and Jay-Z on verge of divorce

Joni Mitchell in Intensive care

…as Bey reunites with Destiny Child band

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anadian Singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is currently receiving intensive care after being found unconscious at her Los Angeles home on Tuesday.

A statement released on her website said she “ regained consciousness on the ambulance ride to a Los Angeles area hospital”.

The 71year old is “currently in intensive care undergoing tests and is awake and in good spirits,” it added”.

But recall that in December 20014 she told Billboard magazine that she had a rare skin condition, Morgellons disease, which prevented her from performing.

“I can’t sing any more, I can’t play anymore, I’ve got all these instruments laying around and hopefully one day I’ll pick them up,” she was quoted as saying.

Her 1971 album, Blue, is ranked 30th on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.

•Joni Mitchell

•Destiny Child band

Celine Dion makes a comeback

•Celin Dion

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After dedicating every ounce of her strength to her husband’s health through his cancer scare, five-time Grammywinning artiste Celine Dion, is finally plotting her return to her Las Vegas residency.

Seventy-three-year-old Rene Angelil, Celine’s husband of more than 20 years, was first diagnosed with throat cancer in 1999 and had a tumor removed from his throat in Dec. 2013. Last summer, Celine, 46, put all of her show business activities on hold so that she could focus on her family of five, but the singer ’s rep disclosed that she will resume her residency at Caesars Palace’s Colosseum in late August.

This wasn’t the first hiatus Celine took from work to concentrate on her family. She took a two-year break from her career at the time of Rene’s original diagnosis 16 years ago.

“It is very emotional for me and I’m anticipating the emotions to grow even more as the date gets closer,” Celine disclosed.

eyonce and Jay-Z are allegedly on the verge of divorce over their fertility woe and cheating scandals which has finally taken a toll on their marriage. And with everyone buzzing about her husband Jay-Z’s love child Rymir Satterthwaite and their divorce, Beyonce reunited with her former all girl band Destiny’s Child.

The band recently took the stage at the Stellar Gospel Music Awards in Las Vegas on Saturday March 28th and surprised the audience with a live

performance. Also, Beyonce, Michelle Williams, and Kelly Rowland wooed fans with a performance of Michelle Williams’ song “Say Yes.” The special reunion performance took place to celebrate Michelle’s first time winning a Stellar Gospel Music Award, which was for the Music Video Of The Year category.

According to sources close to Beyonce’s bandmates reveal, “Beyonce is trying to disassociate herself from Jay-Z before the divorce goes public. She doesn’t want to be one of those celebrities that falls apart in front of the world when she gets divorced, she wants to be strong and empowered.”

Although Beyonce seems to have her Destiny’s Child comeback all planned out, there is no news on whether Kelly Rowland or Michelle Williams will agree to be Beyonce’s pawns and give up their own solo careers.

Casper Smart, Jennifer Lopez spotted together amid dating rumours

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mid rumours of a rekindled romance, friendly exes Jennifer Lopez and Casper Smart were yet again seen enjoying each other’s company.

On Sunday, the 45-year- old entertainer and her 27-year-old former beauty were spotted kissing, as they looked very much together leaving The Gill Restaurant in Hollywood.

As the ex-wife of Marc Anthony kept her hands hidden in her trouser pockets seemingly holding back from walking hand-in-hand with Casper.

Jennifer was dressed in a plunging white top and color coordinated loosefitting trousers for a chic casual ensemble.

The mother-of-two covered her shoulders with a light knitted cardigan and accessorized with aviator sunglasses and strappy studded

•Casper and J.Lo sandals. Capser also looked casual sporting a black T-shirt, khaki trousers and black sneakers.

The choreographer to the stars tried to keep a low profile with a printed bucket hat and dark shades.

He and Jennifer were also seen leaving Nick Jonas’ Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in LA. But on Wednesday, things did not appear that way when she locked lips with Casper in West Hollywood outside the American Idol studio.

Jennifer appeared to be apparently more mindful of onlookers when she made a separate entrance during another rendezvous with the dancer on Saturday.

26 — SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

By KEHINDE AJOSE 08024212530

I love to be kissed — Eva

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emale 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”. No one really knows what prompted the statement, but what we are sure of is that men can’t resist the charm Eva oozes

Our mum sold her pr oper ty ttoo suppor proper operty supportt our music — Edifice music—

•Eva

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hough they are not twins, but the duo of Moses and Emmanuel Aloja are budding artistes who remind one of the music style of Psquare.

The upcoming brothers go by the name Edifice and are making waves with their groovy hit song Body Control.

In a chat with Showtime,the Edo State born graduates of Ambrose Alli University said the greatest price they have had to pay to pursue their music careers was having their mum to sell her property to support their music career.

According to them: “We have made several sacrifices in the pursuit of our music careers, but the greatest one was when our mum sold her land and gave us part of the money to promote our music. We have also had to borrow

•Edifice money in order to pursue our passion for music If you are passionate about your dreams, no price should be too much to pay” they chorused

Some Celebrity tweet jokes on the presidential election Since the announcement of the results of the presidential election, some celebrity have taken to social media, especially Twitter to express their opinions. Here are some of the comic ones;

Cobhams is Nigeria ’s answer to Nigeria’s Quincy Jones — Bumi Thomas

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IGERIAN born London based Bunmi Thomas, is a jazz folk singer whose sound resonates of the abundance talent in Nigeria. In a recent chat with Showtime, the talented guitarist who has shared the stage with the likes of Asa and Keziah Jones, describes Cobhams as Nigeria’s answer to Quincy jones.

She puts it this way: “Cobhams is a genius. I have heard his productions of the songs of other artistes. I have so much respect for him as a musician and also

as a music producer. I feel like he is Nigeria’s answer to Quincy Jones and Steve wonder” She advises Nigerian artistes to learn about their craft and embrace personal development. “Don’t be afraid of learning about what you do.

Give what you do the time it needs to sustain you.”

Commenting on her most embarrassing moment on stage,she said it was the moment when her guitar wasn’t well tuned. “It was horrible. It felt like being blind. I felt helpless. I will never do that to myself again” she said.

•Bumi Thomas

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hen this is over, Jega needs to write a book on how to chill in mad situations. One thing is sure, if Jonathan wins this election, he will remove Kano from the map of Nigeria – Nkem Owoh

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ediocrity is in full flight in Nigeria because some people will always want to shoot down corrections... what is not good, is very very bad!

- Ali Baba

ow that Patience Jonathan is out N of Aso Rock, she

mustn’t allow her dramatic talents and tendencies to go to waste.To this end, I want to announce that Patience Jonathan is going to be a leading cast in my next movie.I have no doubts that she will do well in a comic role – Aniedi Noba

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015 —27

By KEHINDE AJOSE By 08024212530 AYO ONIKOYI, 08052201215

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hen singer, architect, and goodwill ambassador, Adokiye Kyrian, confessed in an interview with Vanguard last year that she was still a virgin, she generated a storm of bewildering comments. Then at 23, few believed her. But Adokiye has a price tag to her virginity and threw the bait at any daring suitor who would buy her mother the private jet she long promised her.

After the kidnap of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram, Adokiye made a detour on the price tag by offering her virginity to the dreaded lot in exchange for the release of the abducted girls.

But if the picture sent to Showtime is anything worth its salt, Adokiye might have some questions to answer concerning her virginity as she was caught redhanded frolicking with two White men in bed. Showtime isn’t saying anything has gone down but you don’t have a girl in bed with guys just for the fun of it. Or do you?

Caught in the act

Question mark over Adokiye’s virginity I get scared when people call me a legend - 2face Idibia

You don’t see me of oftten because I’m a legend - Olu Maintain

T

By TOFARATI IGE

‘

Y

ahooze’ crooner, Olu Maintain, has finally cleared the air on the reason why he has not been so visible in the public arena in recent times.

According to him, he is scarcely seen because he is a legend. In his words, “It’s not everyday you see legends, and that’s why you don’t see me often. Just keep your fingers crossed as to what next is coming from me, but be rest assured that something is cooking.”

On whether he participated in the elections, he said, “Of course, I voted. I have my Permanent Voters Card (PVC) and I used it well and it counted. I voted four years ago too.

The state of the country is nowhere near where it should be. As the leaders of tomorrow, it’s our obligation to air our views. I’ve never been affiliated with

•Olu Maintain

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•2face

By TOFARATI IGE

alented and well-loved singer, 2face Idibia has confessed that he gets scared when people refer to him as a legend.

The African Queen singer made this assertion in a chat with Showtime during the week while responding to a question on how it feels being referred to as a legend. He said, “It’s always a very heavy responsibility, and sometimes, I get scared of being addressed as a legend. I’m still trying to get there, but they already address me as one. It’s nice though.”

On his perceived humility, 2face simply said, ‘I thank God that I’m described as a humble person.’

Meanwhile, 2baba, as he is sometimes called, also cautions people on their utterances and actions regarding the elections.

In his words, “I always talk about one love; and this is what it boils down to. We should respect each other’s choices. The people they’re killing for are somewhere enjoying themselves...no matter who wins, they’ll still come together and celebrate. Let’s respect each other ’s choices. We should not allow people kill themselves needlessly.”

Da vido learns lesson of Davido lif e fr om homeless man life from

H

ip-hop top act, Davido, may have a billionaire for a father and a millionaire himself but when it comes to worldliness the singer has a lesson or two to learn as he learned from this homeless man abroad.

Davido took to his Instagram account to recount what he learned from a homeless man whom he thought he could help with few dollars. Davido spotted the man sitting dejectedly at a street corner, looking forlorn and lost to the world. The sight must have sparked something in

the singer who approached him to lend a helping hand.

This is his experience as he tweeted: “It hurts me that this man was homeless... he spoke to me yesterday for an hour about life and how people come around when you are doing well but as soon as you lose everything they disappear.

It felt like God sent a message to me through him.

He also refused the money I gave him and requested

•Davido and homeless man me to buy him food instead of giving him the money because he is trying to get over drug addiction. This is a good man right here, hope God sends a message through him again!”

28—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

R-E-D C-A-R-D TO NOLLYWOOD?

What they will miss about Jon

The controversies and the odds

**When President met with showbiz stars recently in Lagos

BY BENJAMIN NJOKU

I

“

want to let everybody know that I will be supporting and voting for President Goodluck Jonathan. I am making this decision because he has affected my immediate

constituency which is Nollywood more than any president in the history of Nigeria.” This statement by actress Rita Dominic before the presidential election that produced General Muhammadu Buhari as the President-Elect, summed up the feelings of thousands of Nollywood practitioners and other stakeholders of the nation’s creative industry that backed President Goodluck Jonathan’s shattered re-election campaign.

Nollywood practitioners remain one class of Nigerians that will not forget in a hurry Mr. President’s magnanimity and patronage of the industry. Since 2013, the industry has enjoyed robust relationship with the outgoing President after he hosted the operators to a dinner, at the State House, Marina, Lagos, an outing that brought him close to the industry than ever.

During that historic dinner, the President splashed N3 billion to help turnaround the industry, which has been heavily criticized for low content quality. He assured the practitioners that his administration would continue to give 'N'ollywood every possible support and assistance to take the Nigerian movie industry to even greater heights of success. “ Apparently, to some of the operators, Jonathan remains the only Nigerian President in history who has demonstrated genuine support for the industry. In 2010, the president announced a revolving loan scheme of $200 million which he called Intervention Fund for the country's entertainment industry.

Although, the fund was initially

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plagued by complaints of inaccessibility, the likes of London returnee, Kene Mrakpu of FilmHouse, and USA-based Nigerian film maker, Mr. Tony Abulu were among the industry operators that benefitted from the fund. The president later explained that only N766 million of the loan had been disbursed by NEXIM and the Bank of Industry, adding that “I have asked them to redouble their efforts in assisting the industry to access loans.”

While the industry operators are still talking about the intervention fund, the president recently established a presidential intervention scheme to improve the technical and professional capacity in the value chain of the Nigerian movie industry. Tagged ‘Project ACT Nollywood, this new initiative is reportedly designed to address pressing challenges of poor distribution system and menace of piracy, which are stunting the growth of the Nigerian movie industry.

It would be recalled, however, that early this year, Jonathan held a closed-door meeting with major players in the indsutry, in Lagos. The outcome of that meeting was the launch of N2 billion Innovation Distribution Fund,IDF, aimed at improving the distribution of audiovisual content, cutting down on piracy, and protect intellectual property in the industry. The idea, is to properly reward those who put their efforts into film productions.

As explained by the Special Adviser, Media to CME, Paul C. Nwabuikwu, “IDF is targeted at businesses that operate or plan to operate in the film distribution space. This is with the sole aim of making pirated Nollywood movies unattractive to consumers and experts.' Interestingly, since the federal government announced the

It is certain that Nollywood practitioners are going to miss Jonathan’s patronage and support for the industry. But after his exit on May 29, the question on the lips of many practitioners is whether Buhari will be willing to sustain the flourishing relationship?

new loan scheme, different departments of the industry have been consulting frantically with their members on how to benefit from the fund.

It’s also on record that time without number, the president donated millions of naria to facilitate the treatments of some of the ailing Nollywood stars. One of the beneficiaries of this gesture was the President of the Scriptwriters Guild of Nigeria, Chike Bryan, who last year was diagnosed with kidney failure and needed a transplant in India. Jonathan was said to have donated the sum of N10 million for Bryan’s treatment abroad. Call the president, a friend of Nollywood, and you may not be wrong. On numerous occasions, the president has dined and wine, with the industry operators. Just before the presidential election, he met with Nollywood stars and other entertainers at the event tagged “the Showbiz Interactive Session with Mr. President,” where the entertainers openly declared their support for Jonathan's re-election bid as they did in 2011, when he was first contesting for the presidency.

Also, the industry operators will not forget in a hurry the political appointments that Jonathan gave to their colleagues. He has equally conferred national awards on some of them. Veteran actor, Kanayo O Kanayo is one of the beneficiaries of these appointments. The prolific actor was made a board member of the National Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Studies. Though KOK, as he is fondly called, has long been romancing President Jonathan’s administration before his appointmen. Legendary music star, Onyeka Onwenu, is another star that benefitted from this

gesture. She was appointed as the Executive Director/Chief Executive Officer of the National Centre for Women Development, Abuja. Those who were given national awards included, Genevieve Nnaji(MFR), Stephanie Okekere(MON), Osita Iheme(MON), Olu Jacobs(MFR) among others.

His patronage, support for the industry

Meanwhile, it is certain that Nollywood practitioners are going to miss Jonathan’s patronage and support for the industry. But after his exit on May 29, the question on the lips of many practitioners is whether Buhari will be willing to sustain the flourishing relationship?

As noted by the sacked President of the Actors Guild of Nigeria, AGN, Ibinabo Fiberesima who once led a delegate of industry operators to meet Jonathan in Abuja, the President has made an indelible impact on the industry.

According to her, “He sets up a $200 million loan scheme residing with bank of Industry and Nexim bank, already accessible to numerous stakeholders, building big screens, DVD/CD replicating plants…

Through Project Act initiative, 240 practitioners have benefited in skill enhancement trainings in the US, India, UK, South Africa and Nigeria respectively. I am one of the beneficiaries.

Also, he approved film production grant of an average of N7million to 120 film producers and directors. I am also a beneficiary of this project. In addition, he provided N2 billion through project Act for the development of Nigerian film distribution among others. No Nigerian president has

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015 — 29

Meet John Dumelo, Majid Michel’s secret admirer U

nathan:

s

demonstrated such huge love, respect, and support for the creative sector.”

Collaborating Ibinabo’s views, veteran actor, Bruno Iwuoha was quoted as saying that “ What President Goodluck Jonathan has done for Nollywood is unprecedented.

He has made Nollywood the best through his monetary support but only God knows how the money has been managed.”

Playboy actor, Ramsey Nouah, equally revealed that his decision to endorse Jonathan’s re-election was informed by the impressive support the present administration has rendered to the industry. “I’ve been in this industry for 25 years, no government ever spoken about my industry like this one. He gave us audience, he listened to us, he gave several grants to help the industry, he sent so many of the practitioners outside to big film schools … he’s giving money for distribution-so for all these reasons,” Nouah asserted.

Jonathan, Buhari, tore the industry apart But despite all these claims, Nollywood stars apparently were divided in their decision to support Jonathan’s re-election campaign. While some support Mr. President, many others looked the other way. Recall that top actress Foluke Daramola and renowned critic, Charles Novia, threw shades at each other over their choice of candidates for the 2015 elections. “Alan Poza” producer had allegedly said 99% of Nigerian entertainers were behind Goodluck Jonathan; an assertion Foluke didn’t subscribe to. The actress reportedly replied: ‘You are obviously wrong with that. Maybe that’s a figment of your imagination. You can’t make collective statement on behalf of everyone. On the contrary, many of us voluntarily support Buhari. In the time of OBJ we knew how he favoured artistes, even without him giving us a dime but in GEJ’s time, all of us are being wooed by appointments, money and recognition in Aso Rock. A lot of us feel we need someone that would teach us how to fish, not one that would always give us fish. True value can never be bought with money. So, Mr. Charles Novia, don’t make a collective statement because people like us that have values don’t take it lightly.’

Movie stars misplacing priorities

Notwithstanding the foregoing, industry watchers have repeatedly frowned at the new trend where actors and actresses have become part of the crowd hired or rented by political parties to political rallies in Nigeria is worrisome to the stability of the industry. Lamenting the ugly development, Jerry Uhuo, an Abuja-based Public Affairs Analyst, once stated that “It is common these days to see actors and actresses in Presidential and governorship or even National Assembly campaign rallies rented through their leaders, some even on their own lobby for recognition and with some amount of money jump to campaign podium to endorse and show support to politicians yet without any concrete reason such support is given other than that money

has exchanged hand.

It is a sad story today that our “celebrities”

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•Alex Eyengho

Alex Eyengho

callscolleaguesJonathan jobbers

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resident of the Association of Core Nollywood Producers, ANCOP, Comrade Alex Eyengho during the week slammed Nollywood practitioners who openly endorsed the failed reelection bid of President Goodluck Jonathan.

In a statement titled ‘Where Are The GEJ Jobbers In Nollywood?’, Eyengho described his colleagues as “Jobbers”, who almost became the Mr. President’s puppet. He accused them of creating a pseudo picture that the entire industry had endorsed the second term bid of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

Eyengho said, “The die is cast. Losers and winners have emerged in the Presidential and NASS elections. From Nollywood perspective, we all know what some of my jobber colleagues did to create a pseudo picture that the entire industry had endorsed President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ).

Nothing can be poles away from the truth!

Apart from Chief (Dr.) Harris Chuma, my humble self and a few other practitioners in the industry who were circumspect by spearheading and coordinating the “Nollywood Team Buhari” with our personal meager resources, most of the regular jobbers in the industry reduced themselves to clappers and dancers for GEJ, Orubebe, Oronto Douglas, Kingsley Kuku and other failed politicians at various events of these politicians like birthday parties, burial ceremonies, political rallies, house warming, presidential dinners etc. These colleagues of mine were in most cases reduced to servers of food and drinks at these gatherings.

These guys have seriously misrepresented Nollywood before the general public. I don’t need to mention names. You know them as much as I do. I only hope we will have the opportunity to redeem our battered image and integrity as from May 29, 2015 when General Muhamadu Buhari takes over officially. I will not be surprised if these same set of shameless Nollywood jobbers th, crawl back to Aso Rock as from May 29 2015! But guess what, we will mess them up big time when we get to that point. These are set of ingrates who benefitted immensely from the Fashola APC-led government in Lagos State. Again, these parasites know themselves. Fashola, Tinubu and indeed the APC government know them better now.”

p and coming actress, Princess Abigail Yonwuren who acted in Zeb Ejiro’s latest film, “The Merciful” has confessed to secretly admiring two Ghanaian star actors, John Dumelo and Majid Michel.

The Delta State-born actress made this revelation while in a chat with HVP recently in Asaba.

According to Abigail, “I like John Dumelo’s acting prowess. I am one of his secret admirers. From the first day I watched his movie, I fell in love with his acting skills. It was an epic movie and he played the role of a king. I like his carriage and the fact that he is a good actor. Then I didn’t know he was a Ghanaian. But he’s indeed, every ladies’ man. I also like Majid Michel. He is a good actor too. I look forward to acting alongside these actors.”

The actress said she ‘s looking forward to playing a romantic scene with either John Domelo or Majid Michel.

However, despite having a crush on these two actors, Abigail said she’s in Nollywood to carve out a niche for herself. Revealing that she developed passion for acting while she was a child, the Asababased actress frowned at those rising actresses who take pleasure in exchanging their bodies for movie roles. She declares, “I will not subscribe to exchanging my body for a movie role. Rather, I will believe in myself and the stuff I am made of as a rising actress.”

•Abigail

30—SATURDAY

Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

DNA testing: Who is your father?

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here have been many celebrated cases where testing procedures have been questioned or otherwise accepted conclusively. However, DNA testing remains the sole definite and conclusive means of establishing biological relationships between people. The number of DNA tests, for example, paternity DNA tests and ancestry DNA testing, is constantly on the increase. We hear more and more about DNA testing and its vast applicability remains are identified, links are made between historical figures, and paternity suits are solved amongst actors, singers and the likes. Here are five of the most celebrated cases in history.

Eddie Murphy, who has made a name as one of the greatest Hollywood comic actors, was in paternity dispute with British pop star Mel B. Melanie Brown who insisted her daughter Iris, was the daughter of Murphy as the two stars had had a relationship for a time. Murphy would never acknowledge the child as his unless a blood test proved otherwise. A DNA paternity test confirmed that Murphy was Iris’ father; however, Melanie claimed Murphy has not sought a relationship with his child and has not contacted to see her.

Murphy already has seven other children and Iris is his eighth.

James Brown’s Paternity DNA test James Brown, the “Godfather of soul”, was a highly influential figure who left an indelible mark in the history of music and whose unique and fluid style of dancing became his very trademark. After his death in 2006, a number of paternity disputes arose and several alleged people came forward claiming to be the children or have children of James Brown. The former backup singer for Brown, Tomi Rae Hynie, brought forward the paternity claim saying that her six-year old child is the biological son of the “Godfather of Soul”. Trustees handling all the singers assets denied the claims on the basis that the son and mother are not anywhere included in the child’s Will; thus, given this dispute between the two parties, solving the issue relied on a DNA paternity test. The paternity test proved that Brown was the father and the judge allocated a quarter of Brown’s trust to Rae Hynie.

Eddie Murphy and X-spice girl’s child C M Y K

•Eddie Murphy billionaire and Smith was able to live an extravagant life. After his death, Marshall’s son and Smith went through a bitter battle over his estate. Smith was left withnothing in her husband’s will. Smith’s attorney through her legal battle was Howard K. Stern, who she also had a relationship with. Smith’s pregnancy, Stern claimed, coincided timely with their relationship and thus, he was sure to be the child’s father. The birth certificate recorded Stern as the father.

However, her X-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, insisted that he was father to the child and not Stern.

Such an issue warranted a DNA paternity test to solve it. A paternity DNA test proved that Birkhead was the biological father.

•Anna Nicole Smith The paternity test results ensure Iris got her rights as Murphy’s daughter.

Anna Nicole Smith’s daugther Anna Nicole Smith’s name took off when she was selected as a Playboy girl by Hue Heffner in 1992. Following this, she married J. Howard Marshall when she was 26 and he 86 years old. Marshall was the oil

French Queen: Marie Antoinette Marie Antoinette was the wife of Louis the XVI who resided in the French capital city of Versailles. DNA analysts wanted to establish whether the son of the monarchs had in fact died in a prison in France or had, as some people claimed, been taken away to a safe place and escaped the gory French revolution. The DNA testing involved taking samples of DNA from the heart and aorta of the alleged 10-yearold king and compare it with living and dead relatives of the royal blood line. The idea was to

establish whether this heart belonged to Louis XVII as has been maintained for centuries. Although the DNA fragments were not in the best of conditions, they proved enough to draw up a DNA profile. Moreover, the dauphin’s DNA profile was compared to the DNA profile of Marie Antoinette, his mother, which was taken from a hair sample of the queen in what is known as a mitochondrial DNA test. The test proved that Marie Antoinette was the biological mother of dauphin and thus, that this heart was the heart of Louis XVII. Thomas Jefferson’s child controversy President Jefferson left an indelible mark on the American constitution with his Declaration of Independence.

Through his work, his stance on the black race still transpired; Jefferson considered black people to be inferior to whites. There have been many accounts and speculations that Jefferson had an affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings and that he fathered children from her. Jefferson was against marriages of mixed race and this issues means his writings and his life style diverged radically.

DNA testing, specifically Ychromosome DNA testing, was carried out with samples of Thomas Jefferson and his children and people who claimed to be his decedents. Results proved that there were biological relationships, and that Jefferson was likely the father of Eston Hemings Jefferson. The DNA investigation also involved Jefferson’s younger brother, who is believed to also be the father of the five Hemings children.

SATURDAY

Vanguard,APRIL4, 2015—31

Lifestyle

Tuberculosis: What you should know W

hat is it?

Tuberculosis or TB for short is an infectious disease that spreads through the air. It is an infection that is caused by certain bacterium called mycobacterium tuberculosis.

TB usually affects the lungs however it can affect other parts of the body. It is spread when someone who has active tuberculosis coughs, sneezes or spits. The bacterium is then inhaled by another person.

Many people have latent TB. They have the TB germ but their immune system protects them from its spread. Latent TB is not infectious. There is a 10 percent risk of developing active TB if you have latent TB. How is it spread?

The bacteria are spread from person to person through small droplets in the air. The droplets are usually released when someone Handling TB... who has TB disease coughs or sneezes.

Other people breathe these droplets into their lungs, causing an can occur from the disease. tiredness, weakness, infection. You can be infected Who gets it? chest pain and coughing with TB, but not have the If your immune system up blood are common disease. If you only have the is not strong enough, you symptoms. If you are infection, it is called latent TB can develop active TB. People infected, but do not have infection. Only a few people in close contact with TB the disease, you won’t who are infected (about five to patients, who have reduced have any symptoms. If 10 in 100) actually get immunity, people who live or you have the disease, you symptoms. When you have work where there are many may have coughing that symptoms, it is called active TB people, like jails, nursing lasts longer than two to disease. homes, or homeless shelters, three weeks, fever, night Symptoms health care workers with highsweats, or weight loss.

Cough, fever, night sweats, risk patients and infants or You may cough up blood. weight and appetite loss, children who are around Without treatment, death

adults that are at high risk are likely to get the disease.

People who are HIV positive, diabetic, malnourished or smokers have a higher chance of developing TB. Some people who have TB infection are more likely to get the disease. People who have had TB infection for two years or less, children younger than four years and people with a

SEXUAL ISSUES & SOLUTIONS SEXUAL ISSUES AND SOLUTIONS AMAZING FACTS ABOUT PENIS SIZE (III)

Do you know that There are two kinds of penises: 1) a grower, which expands and lengthens when erect and 2) a shower, which looks big most of the time, but doesn’t get much bigger after an erection.

Approximately 79% of men have growers and 21% have showers. In other words, a man whose has a small flaccid penis might have a surprising big erection. Conversely, a man with a big, limp penis might not get a significantly larger erection Hello Viewden, Thank you for helping so many men including me to ameliorate erection problems. I got Vimax with the Noto Tea from you two weeks back and I discovered that my diabetis level has also drastically reduced which I ascribe to the efficacy of the Noto tea; I now have very strong erection that takes me more than one round; im so happy. I have serious case of arthritis. Do you have what I can use to help my bones &the arthritis? Kola Hello Sir, so good to know that Vimaxmade you go more than one round. Vimaxwith the Noto teais the best combination for anybody with either diabetis or hypertension for good erection result and it has proven to work in most impossible cases. To help your arthritis and osteoporosis which causes pains in your waist and legs, I’d advise you go for the Vitamin soft capsule the anti-arthritis tea. The Vitamin soft capsulecures osteoporosis related with age and maintains the skeleton’s health. This alongside the Anti-arthritis teareelieves swellings and pains and cures rheumatism by activating the circulation of blood.

I have been trying to get pregnant for about 6 years after my marriage all to no avail. I don’t have fertility problem as confirmed by the doctor and anytime I have sexual intercourse with my husband, the sperm flows out and I also have menstrual disorder. What can I use?

Boluwatife It is normal for sperm to flow out of the vagina after intercourse, but since you are trying to get pregnant, it is advised that after sexual intercourse, you raise your legs and put it against the wall immediately your C M Y K

husband ejaculates and be in that position for about 10 to 15 minutes before dropping your leg. And to your menstrual disorder, Sheep placentacapsule with the Ganoderma teawill stabilize your period and when the stability is achieved its easy to get the ovulation period , which is the best time to have intercourse so as to get pregnant.

I got Vigrx plus and plump cream from your store a month ago to increase the size of my penis. I started noticing thincrease in the fatness of my penis in the 4 week of usage, but the most amazing thing is that I have suffered very weak erection for a long time and in the course of using Vigrx plus, I noticed my erection is stronger, harder and last longer. Is Vigrx plus also good for erection aside using it for enlargement?

Chukwuebuka Vigrx plus is a herbal supplement that help to enlarge the penis especially when you used for about 2 to 3 months alongside the plump cream.

Increase of the penis starts with the width increase before it progresses to the length and im happy you have noticed this , which shows Vigrx plus is working on you. Yes, Vigrx plushelps corrects weak erection in all men.

I m a 55 year old man and I got Stiffnite from you for weak erection and it worked excellently well for me. Can I have another pack? I snore a lot when I sleep& my neck gets stiffened up sometime, my doctor recommended the Masage pillow for me. Can I get it?

Yes, stiffnitis available and you are welcome anytime to have another pack. Massage pillowhelp prevents snoring, neck pain, waist pain etc it helps alleviates nerve pains just like the Dolphin massager.

These are all we can take for this week. Adults who needs these aphrodisiacs can call 08034666358, 07059294782 or place your order at www.viewden.com . For further enquiries,send an email to us at: vieweden@yahoo.com , viewden@ymail.com .

Kemi Fawole (MD Viewden)

SEXUAL ISSUES & SOLUTIONS

weak immune system (e.g., those with diabetes or cancer) Can it be treated?

Yes, there are medicines that treat TB. Talk to your doctor about what medicines are available.

Your doctor can also tell you about the benefits and length of treatment, possible side effects of the medicine, and the cost of treatment.

Prevention/protection If you have TB infection, but not the disease, you can’t spread it to other people. But, your doctor will still treat you so that you don’t get TB disease.

If you have TB disease, you should wear a mask over your nose and mouth to help protect other people from getting the disease. Your doctors and nurses may also wear masks. Once you start taking medicine, it should take time before you can’t spread the disease. Your doctor will let you know when it is safe for you to take off your mask around others.

32— SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

By JULIET EBIRIM and KEHINDE AJOSE

P

retty, sexy and busty Peggy Onah has come to find her place in the competitive movie industry by sheer hard work and talent.

Unlike most ‘wannabes’ in the industry who would pull off their clothes to flaunt what Mother Nature has endowed them with, at the drop of a hat, Peggy would rather want to keep them on.

Though she’s heavily endowed in the chest region, the Enugu State University graduate of Mass Communications believes her boobs shouldn’t be her calling cards. In this engaging session as our Showtime Celebrity, she talks about her career, love, lust and other things that make her tick.

Why are you based in Enugu and not Lagos?

It’s because Enugu is where you have more jobs as an actress. Lagos is the centre of entertainment in Nigeria, but many of the stars you see started from the east.

How has the experience been for you?

It’s been very challenging, because a lot of girls are going into acting. When you think you know how to act, you realise that there are many others that are better than you. When you think you are well endowed physically, you discover that there are also many who are much more endowed than you are and are willing to flaunt it. When you think you have swag, others have it too. That is just one of the challengescompetitions In the face of all this competition, how have you been able to stay relevant?

When I recently started acting, I went for auditions and that was how I got to meet most of the marketers that now give me jobs.

These days, I stay on my own and I get called for jobs. It means that I’m being appreciated.

What was the special thing about you that attracted marketers to you in the first place?

It’s not as if there was any special thing about me. I didn’t get my first job through auditions. One of my friends introduced me to a marketer, who agreed to try me. He gave me five scenes to do and he was impressed.

When I go for auditions, I also do my best and I get the jobs. So, it’s not as if there’s a special thing.

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever been asked to do during auditions?

There was one audition I went for and I was asked to act like a mad woman and I started displaying. People were surprised because I wasn’t even shy and I eventually got the role.

Has any marketer ever demanded sex from you?

I haven’t met any marketer who has asked me for sex. Most times, they see some of the works I’ve done and call me up.

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Iw tale

wanted to do something crazy that was just the motive behind it.

How crazy can you get when you are on set?

I can interpret any character as long as it doesn’t include going nude

H

ave you ever been paired with someone you are attracted to?

Jim Iyke used to be my crush until I was paired with him. Then, I realised there isn’t such a big deal about it. The whole thing went well. It wasn’t as if we messed up. He is my crush though, I like him.

What do you like about him?

I love the way he acts, the way he talks and the way he dresses.

Why is it that most actresses like to claim that they can’t date their colleagues?

That is their problem. For me, I don’t think there is anything wrong in that.

What will you regard as your most challenging movie role?

That will be the previous work I did though it’s not yet out. I played the role of a sixteen -year old girl that got pregnant and later was sent out of her father’s house. It was challenging because I had to play the role of a young girl and that of an adult.

What part of your body do you consider the sexiest?

That will be my boobs. It’s my selling point but it’s not as if it has made way for me. For the jobs I do, I don’t even expose my boobs. I won’t say it’s my boobs that made way for me in the industry.

What’s so special about your boobs?

It’s my selling point. It’s full, cute and sexy.

Have you gotten a role on account of your sexy boobs?

Not really because of that alone. The job I got, I was supposed to play a bad girl role and I used the opportunity to flaunt it, because I’ve never flaunted it before. I had to flaunt it so that they would see what I have and maybe get similar jobs by so doing.

How has the acceptance of your movies been?

It’s been amazing. There was this place I went to and met some people who had watched my movies. They requested that I take pictures with them. It’s been encouraging

Was that the only time you got a role where you had to flaunt your boobs?

No. I’ve had some which I refused to do for personal reasons. I want to work with my talent and not with boobs and if I have to flaunt it while I’m working, It will depending on the character I’m playing. It’s not as if I want to be getting jobs with my boobs.

What inspired the photo shoot you had some time back?

I just wanted to do something crazy and decided to go for a photo shoot. Bloggers fed on it and I started seeing it on people’s phones, Facebook and other social networking sites.

How did it make you feel when you started getting those responses?

I anticipated the responses, so I didn’t really feel bad. I knew it will get to that. I

What kind of character do you have special ability to play?

I like playing bad roles so that people will see the other side of me because I look very innocent. Besides, most of the jobs that come my way are good girl roles. Lately though, I’ve been doing some bad girl roles.

It’s a good thing for me because people will get to know that I can also play other roles.

B

eing that you like taking up bad girl roles, is that to *Peggy Onah say you have some bad streak in you?

Acting is make-believe. As an actress, one has to be versatile and be able to interpret any role doesn’t affect your job. properly. That I like playing the bad girl in movies doesn’t mean I’m bad. It’s just that Have you ever fallen in love with anyone I’ve been playing good girl roles and I don’t in the industry? want to be stereotyped. I just want people No. to see another side of me.

Why not, there are lots of handsome guys What’s your take on actors dating in Nollywood? themselves in Nollywood?

Still searching, but I’ve not really seen the I don’t see anything wrong with that, you one my spirit accepts, though there are lots can fall in love with your colleague if you of nice guys there. guys understand each other as long as it

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015 — 33

I want to work with my alent, not with my boobs — Peggy Onah What’s your take on actors dating themselves in Nollywood?

I don’t see anything wrong with that, you can fall in love with your colleague if you guys understand each other as long as it doesn’t affect your job.

Can you marry a civil servant with a low salary?

I can, as long as we are comfortable and he’s able to cater for the family. What matters are my children. I would want my kids to be comfortable.

Have you ever fallen in love with anyone in the industry?

No.

What if he lives in a one-room apartment?

Of course, we can start somewhere. If he’s hardworking and with my support, we’ll get somewhere.

Why not, there are lots of handsome guys in Nollywood?

Still searching, but I’ve not really seen the one my spirit accepts, though there are lots of nice guys there.

None of them has asked you out?

Some of them have toasted me.

Do you prefer older men to younger guys?

I don’t like my age mates, I prefer older persons because they are more understanding.

How about a man who is old enough to be your dad?

No, I’ve never dated a man who is old enough to be my dad.

It’s my selling point but it’s not as if it has made way for me. For the jobs I do, I don’t even expose my boobs. I won’t say it’s my boobs that made way for me in the industry.

C M Y K

When do you hope to settle down?

When Mr. Right comes along.

Are you looking for Mr. Right?

It’s not as if I’m looking for Mr. Right, because I’m not really ready at the moment.

But I’ll be ready whenever he comes.

What kind of man are you looking for?

A man who is hardworking, God-fearing, understanding and loving.

So you’ve not seen the man yet?

Not yet, but hopefully soon.

What kind of person are you off camera?

I’m just an easy-going person, Godfearing and fun to be with. I let you know when I’m angry or unhappy with you.

You recently wrote on your Blackberry wall that you were getting fat …. (Cuts in)?

I don’t want to get fat. I’ve been slim all my life. I’m not known to be a fat girl, that’s why it’s really bothering me that I’m adding weight. I really have to watch it because of my career.

W

hat are you doing to fight off the extra weight?

I watch what I eat and when I eat. I’ve also started working out.

Are you in a relationship at the moment?

No. Do you mean a pretty girl like you doesn’t have a guy?

For now, I don’t.

So you were alone this Valentine?

I don’t necessarily have to celebrate Valentine’s day with a guy. I usually celebrate Valentine with motherless babies in the orphanages. Even when I was with my ex-boyfriend, we would go there together.

C M Y

*Peggy Onah

What was the most romantic Valentine you’ve had?

That was in secondary school, the first time I fell in love.

So what happened between both of you?

It’s been long and I don’t want to go into details.

Did he decide to walk away because you decided to be an actress?

Something like that.

Was he scared that you’ll be snatched from him?

That’s it. I don’t know how most men view acting. It isn’t the way they see it.

So he felt bad when you told him you wanted to be an actress?

Yes, he asked me to quit and I was just beginning to pursue my acting career. I couldn’t quit, besides, if he really loved me, he would have stayed.

Does that mean you can’t sacrifice your career for anyone?

I can sacrifice my career when I’ve gotten what I want to get or where I want to be.

Now that I’m still striving to get to a particular level, I can’t sacrifice it.

So no one has walked into your life since he walked out?

I’ve been meeting people but there’s nobody I’m serious with right now.

What will a guy do that will turn you on?

(Laughs) When he kisses me.

34— SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

W

hen it comes to dressing down, nothing helps your course more than a pair of jeans trouser or a cute mini jeans skirt. A pair of jeans paired with a simple top-another jeans blouse, tank top or an embellished chiffon blouse helps you look really laid back.

But your typical weekend look can even look better with a pair of distressed jeans trouser of skirt.

Wearing a pair of distressed jeans shouldn’t mean looking drab. This look can be glammed up with a pair of interesting shoes like Toke Makinwa’s, a nice oversized clutch bag like Genevieve’s or opt for a statement bag like that of Yvonne Nelson’s.

Finish the look a pair of sunglasses. Draw inspiration from this retro version here and where applicable, wear a statement necklace.

Want to copy this style, see how our celebrities have put their looks together.

Genevieve Nnaji

Omotola Jalade

Retro designer sunglasses

Tie waist crop jeans blouse

A pair of distressed jeans

Yvonne Nelson

C M Y K

Gold and black pointee courts

Leopard skin chain bag

Toke Makinwa

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—35

Michelle Mason Asymmetric NOUGAT Ruched Stretchjersey Dress

Alexander Mcqueen Embellished jessy gown

Silk Cady Full Length Dress

Alexander McQueen

Be Red Carpet Savvy — 8 Ways A-listers and celebrities show up to red carpet events looking so polished and put together, it makes us go green with envy. However, it turns out, though, that a lot of this celeb flawlessness is nothing more than clever makeup tricks. Here are the creative ways they fake red-carpet perfection.

•Omowunmi Akinnifesi

1. Glossy Lips

Ever noticed how celebs have shiny, glossy lips, yet never seem to get hair stuck to their lips? Make up experts say the secret is to tap shimmer pigment in white, yellow or gold on the inner lips with a slightly damp Q-tip to give that wet look without actually using gloss.

2. Bigger And Better Hairstyles

Whether they wear it up or down. Though most of the time it isn’t natural (extensions and hair pieces are used in abundance), it’s hard for viewers at home to tell, the secret is Hair Building Fibers to conceal extensions, as well as any scalp that might show through thinner hair.

3. Picture-Perfect Makeup

Keep your makeup looking matte, not caked by dipping a makeup brush in moisturizer, removing the excess cream, and then dipping it into powder before applying it to the skin. This offers coverage and shine control without giving skin a dry, powdery look.

C M Y K

4. Flawless Figure

If you have to wear a dress that show off the arms, use a tanner under the tricep muscle to look more toned.

5. Pearly Whites

While most stars probably hit up their dentist’s office before awards season, not all of them have the time. “If celebrities don’t have time to whiten their teeth, but want a sparkling white smile, I’ll use a red lip stain on the gum line,” says Scott-Vincent. “This instantly makes teeth look whiter.”

•Oreka Godis

6. Bright Eyes

We’ve heard of putting frozen teaspoons on the eyes, but this tip is new to us: “To reduce puffy eyes, place an ice cube on your tongue and hold it to the roof of your mouth for ten minutes,” suggests Scott-Vincent. This method results in eyes that look refreshed and bright.

7. Instant Facelift

Botox isn’t the only way to get a prered carpet boost. Some hair stylists place tiny, hidden braids at the temples and pin them back tightly to pull their

famous clients’ facial skin taut, giving the look of a mini-facelift.

8. Glowy Goodness

Stars are subject to thousands of photos during a red carpet event. To give skin a supernova glow, cosmetic experts suggest applying two drops of any argan oil to foundation before applying. This trick helps evens out light reflectance from the skin, so photos look flawless.

36—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

08 116759 759 081 6759759

Model shrinks her waist to just 20 INCHES by wearing a cor se or 23 hour ver or six yyear ear s... corse sett ffor hourss eever veryy da dayy ffor ears...

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aist training is all the rage these days, with stars such as Kim Kardashian, Jessica Alba and Nicki Minaj all giving it a go.

But one woman has taken taken the fad to extreme levels. Curvy Aleira Avendano achieved an eyewatering 20-inch waist wearing a corset 23 hours a

day. The busty model, from Caracas, Venezuela, has been wearing the waistshrinking garment for the last six years and even refers to it as her second skin.

And despite doctors’ warnings that the corset poses seriously health risks, Aleira continues to turn heads with her extreme shape.

Aleira said: ‘I am completely obsessed with belts and corsets - I even sleep with them on.

‘I love the feeling of pressure and only take it off for an hour a day to rest and to wash myself.’

The 25-year-old model began waist-training while still in her teens and now with her enhanced 34DD breasts

she draws stares wherever she goes. She said: ‘People stop what they’re doing and stare - everywhere I go I get attention.

‘People shout at me in the street - they can’t believe that my figure is real. But wearing a corset took some getting used to - at first it was terrible and uncomfortable.

‘After a while it became a

Husband, 63, hac ks his wif aiw an af hacks wifee ttoo death in TTaiw aiwan aftter she made fun of him not being able to get an erection

A

husband hacked his wife to death with a meat cleaver after she made fun of him for not being able to get an erection. Chang Yihsin flew into a rage at the couple’s family home in Yunlin, west Taiwan, after his wife Lin Yue-gui ridiculed his use of Viagra.

During the argument the 59-year-old told her husband, 63, that the only thing his

penis was good for was going to the toilet.

Police said Chang then took a meat cleaver from the kitchen and slashed her head, before hacking her body to pieces. He then went outside to try and take his own life, by lying under his garage’s rolling door and trying to flatten himself. When he got stuck the blundering murderer rang the fire

brigade to rescue him – but didn’t tell them he had killed his wife in their living room, just metres away. A police spokesman said: ‘When the firemen arrived they found him trapped under the door.

‘He said he had been depressed and had wanted to kill himself, but didn’t mention the fact that he had just killed his wife until later when the firemen asked if he lived

Hear tbreaking moment a ffour our -y ear -old Syrian Heartbreaking our-y -year ear-old boy ‘surrendered’ when a photographer pointed his camera at him when it was shared on

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h is is the heartbreaking moment a four-year-old Syrian boy ‘surrendered’ to a photographer when he mistook the man’s camera for a gun. Taken at the Atmen refugee camp on Syria’s border with Turkey, the image shows the young boy frozen in fear with his arms raised and his lips tightly pursed.

C M Y K

Turkish media identified the child as Adi Hudea, whose father died in the 2012 Hama massacre and who has been living with his traumatised mother and three siblings at Camp Atmen ever since.

The image is believed to have been taken in 2012 by Turkish photojournalist Osman Sagirli but went viral earlier this week

social media.

Palestine-based photojournalist Nadia Abu Shaban tweeted the image along with the caption: ‘Thought he has a weapon not a camera so she gave up’.

Turkish media researching the origins of the photograph later identified the Adi Hudea as a four-year-old boy, not a

alone. ‘He then told them: ‘Oh, I also stabbed my wife.

I hope she’s not too badly injured.’' Wife Lin was discovered in a pool of blood and rushed to hospital, but pronounced dead on arrival from the injuries sustained in the attack.

A hospital spokesman said: ‘She suffered terrible injuries to her head and back resulting in severe loss of blood.’

Chang has now pleaded guilty to murder and faces life in jail. The police spokesman added: ‘He deeply regrets what happened but says he did it because he felt humiliated about his erectile dysfunction.'

girl, and revealed he was a resident of the Atmen refugee in Syria.

Ms Shaban’s tweet has since been reposted more than 14,000 times and prompted emotional responses from social media users.

One wrote: ‘I’m actually weeping seeing this. We’ve made this planet a horrible place, haven’t we?’, as another said: ‘We are failing the younger generations and those still to come. SHAME ON US.’ The five-year-old Syrian Civil War has so far claimed more than 220,000 lives, including an estimated 10,000 children.

Millions of people have been displaced by the conflict, with more than 12 million people - including five million children - still in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.

necessity and when I’m not wearing it my skin would itch. But it’s not pain - it’s more pleasure, I like the pressure. I don’t feel a thing, it doesn’t bother me at all.’

But Aleira’s doctor fears that her stringent regime could lead to complications later on in life.

Dr Andrés Ruiz, said: ‘In my medical opinion she should stop this

immediately.Thank God she has not done any damage so far but she should stop before it’s too late.

‘It happens because the floating ribs at the bottom of the rib cage are easier to mold - it’s definitely possible to achieve this waist without surgery.’ Along with the waist training, Aleira tries to keep her hourglass shape by eating right and dieting.

She added: ‘I only eat very small portions mainly egg whites, pineapple, lots of fruit and a little bit of meat - I have a very balanced diet.

I do crunches, weights and whatever I can to stay in shape.’

But a strict corset regime and a healthy lifestyle can only go so far in gaining a cartoonlike body.

She added: ‘I have to admit that I have had some surgery. I’ve had my nose done and my breasts three times. I’ve also had buttock implants and some liposuction - so quite a bit.’

Romanian brunette who ‘doesn’t want to waste time with relationships’ adver tises on FFA ACEB OOK advertises CEBOOK

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omanian brunette who ‘doesn’t want to waste time with relationships’ advertises on FACEBOOK for a man to impregnate her... and offers to pay £350 A Romanian woman has become an internet celebrity after she posted a picture of herself online asking for men to have sex with her so she can get pregnant.

Adelina Albu, 25, from Timisoara, in western Romania, is offering €500 (£350) to the right man, who will perform the bedroom necessities and then leave.

Although the man will provide the sperm, he will have no parental rights over the child whatsoever.

According to The Mirror, Adelina posted the advert on her Facebook page with the words: ‘Meeting men is not a problem. Meeting one who wants a baby is.’

‘So, rather than wasting my time on a pointless relationship I’m going to pay for it.’

Before she agrees to sleep with the potential

partner or hand over any money, the man will have to undergo a fertility test and sign an agreement to waive rights as a father.

Adelina added: ‘Men are so immature all they think about is themselves.

‘I am a mature, independent woman and I want a baby - not a man who behaves like one, but a proper one.’

Adelina now has more than nine thousand followers on Facebook and even has her own fan page.

Her announcement comes just a couple of weeks after a Russian woman advertised for a man to impregnate her online.

Elena Komleva, from Cheliabinsk in southern Russia, placed the advert on a social media website and was soon flooded with offers.

SATURDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4, 2015—37

Jonathan’s defeat deflates

Keshi

•Keshi

BY JOHN EGBOKHAN

W

hen the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was told by President Goodluck Jonathan to reinstate Stephen Keshi as Super Eagles Coach, little did the former Eagles captain know that events of the 2015 presidential elections were going to contrive against his ambition to boss over the senior national team.

The President was believed to have given the directive during his meeting with NFF President, Amaju Pinnick at the Aso Rock Villa on October 29.

It came after the NFF axed Keshi in the thick of the 2015 African Nations Cup qualifying campaign. But with the order from the nation’s number one citizen, it appeared that the hands of the Pinnick-led NFF body were handcuffed by circumstance.

Despite bungling Nigeria’s 2015 AFCON hopes and setting our country’s football development backwards, the NFF was unable to do away with Keshi. Tempers flared as stakeholders mounted pressure on the Pinnick to

•Buhari

get a new manager for the team, which sadly it could not do because of the Presidential order. The President was advised by a top security man who is a friend of Keshi to retain the former Eagles captain.

Jonathan heeded the man’s advice and asked Pinnick to reconsider Keshi. He had no choice. But Keshi grew wings, looking down on the federation and even calling Pinnick a liar in a radio programme. On the weight on Jonathan’s seeming protection Keshi felt larger than the federation and said that failure to qualify Nigeria to the last Nations Cup would not determine his job as Eagles coach. He eventually failed to qualify and lorded himself on the board members who even quiver before him.

The board offered Keshi contract more than three weeks now but Keshi was said not to be happy with the terms especially the one that compels him to report to the technical director of the federation, a position now occupied by Amodu Shaibu.

He wants to report directly to the NFF President.

Upset by the offer, Keshi cried wolf, saying he was offered a slave contract, which he strongly objected to, pointing accusing fingers

Upset by the offer, Keshi cried wolf, saying he was offered a slave contract, which he strongly objected to, pointing accusing fingers at the NFF for being economical with the truth

at the NFF for being economical with the truth.

The NFF, in its response through the Chairman of the Technical Committee, Felix Anyanwi-Agwu berated Keshi for his unprofessional conduct in talking about the contract offer in public, instead of communicating his grouses directly to the NFF All these were playing out as the presidential electioneering process entered its zero hour, with President Jonathan having little time to mind the business of the NFF and its search for a new Eagles coach. Directing a football federation on the appointment of a coach was one of the low points of President Jonathan.

But not wanting to be seen to be disobeying orders from above, Pinnick, with two days left to the presidential elections, told reporters in Abuja that the contract of Keshi was ready and all that was missing was for the former Mali and Togo coach to sign the dotted lines.

The elections finally held on Saturday, March 28, with President Jonathan losing to General Mohammadu Buhari (retd) although the NFF had told Keshi before now to apologise publicly and take the job. He had called NFF President a liar on radio and still wanted the Eagles job.

Despite Pinnick’s claims that election stopped the signing of the deal by both parties, observers believe that the football governing body was only playing for time to know where the pendulum of powers would swing before taking a decisive stand on a matter that has been on for 10 months. Keshi was also said to have delayed signing the contract, waiting for Jonathan’s victory to boldly tell the federation to amend the supposed offending terms in the contract.

Jonathan’s defeat, we gathered, has deflated his ego and he is expected to cringe before the federation now.

South Africa, Equitorial Guinea, Burkina Faso were among the countries that were said to have shown interest in Keshi. None signed him.

•Pinnick

38—SATURDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4 , 2015

F

ormer boss of the Nigeria Football Federation, Anthony Kojo-Williams, in this interview with JOHN EGBOKHAN challenges Presidentelect Mohammadu Buhari to run sports the way he wants to fight corruption.

Excerpts

H

ow has our football fared under President Goodluck Jonathan?

Our football has not grown under the outgoing leadership. The success we think we achieved by winning the 2013 AFCON was a fluke, when put in the context of things happening to the team now.

The concept of development is something that those managing our football do not even understand. When you talk about development, you have to talk about many things, from the right structures, youth development, school sports programme, proper club management and the right frame work for the national teams. We are still playing primitive football and that is a function of the kind of leadership we have We have no plan for clubs.

The only noise we make is when our national teams are playing, yet we don’t care about the development of the players. Most of the coaches in the country do not have the proper certification to coach the players and we think they are suitable to handle the national teams. They are not because even though we have talents in this country, we still need the right coaches so that the talents will have good transition. It is one thing to have talents.

It is another to get them transit from the potentials that they are to finished products. That’s where we get it wrong and it is because we lack the qualified and certificated coaches.

What bothers me is that you can’t isolate sports from the rot in the system, until we have an able government, with vision, a government that can enact the proper legislation to ensure that multinational companies invest in sports, I make bold to say that we are not going anywhere.

That is why this outgoing government failed in terms of developing our football, ditto for sports. I had a chat

with the D.G. of the Stock Exchange who wanted to know how company can invest in sports and my response illuminated his mind. .

The best team we have had remains the 1994 team and that was so because the right persons managed the team. Players were always in camp then because the government of that time, was supportive and not meddling like this President did with the issue of Stephen Keshi.

I wish we were able to build on the gains of the 1994 team but we destroyed it with poor leadership.

These days, things have been turned upside down, with some players being called home-based. In those days, all the players were the same. Now, we have set that segregation pattern, which is affecting our players’ psyche.

Now we don’t even have a vibrant professional league and yet we still call players home-based. We are not helping these players. I recall that over 30 years ago, we used to have the possibles and the probables in our team .We had solid players form the academicals, who were the breeding ground for the national teams But now, everything has been killed by poor leadership.

But it was not that bad under the outgoing President?

It was very bad because we didn’t develop and whatever we won a fluke.

The junior teams, who won were over the stipulated age limit. You want to talk about Blessing okagbare in track and field? Will you attribute her Commonwealth Games success to Nigeria?

Common, you know how it happened? And should a country like Nigeria have only one top athlete? What has the government done for track and field federation?

And what is the structure of the federation? How buoyant are they and what plans do they have? When you talk about real development, the coaches should show the way but in our case, they are not qualified. All our coaches are not qualified.

When you don’t have qualified coaches, what you do is to get expatriate coaches, who can do the job.

We must have structure in place, all the coaches should have a philosophy, which has to run down the system, they must play into space, run into space, one-touch football, which sadly, we don’t have here and there is no way we can develop that way. All these happened because of the wrong

leadership. Ghana and Ivory Coast realised that their coaches were not good enough and went for expatriates, who delivered results at the last AFCON. In modern football, you have to be technical, you have to understand the dynamics of moving the ball from defence to the attack quickly. Even the goalkeeper has a role to play in this style of football. Football is about philosophy. Nigeria has not developed its own football philosophy and the next challenge is to have an identity. Teams like Barcelona, Real Madrid have their philosophies and that is the way to go..

So unlike Jonathan, you feel that our football will thrive under President-elect Mohammadu Buhari?

President Jonathan did not have a vision, which didn’t help our football development because if he had, he would not have asked the NFF not to sack the coach. When you you have a military training like Muhammadu Buhari, who is more exposed than all the people we have around, you can be sure that things will take a new shape when he comes on-board.

A military person has about the best training to lead a society. I am talking from experience because I was a cadet in the UK military and as an officer, you are trained to be bold, analytical in

When they were attacking Buhari of not having a certificate, I felt people were ignorant because there is no way Buhari would have risen to that position in the military without having the required certificates

•Buhari

Buhari sho corruption, same way —

...says Nigerian co

things, you are trained to understand tactics and above all, bold.

When they were attacking Buhari of not having a certificate, I felt people were ignorant because there is no way Buhari would have risen to that position in the military without having the required certificates. They learn about policy statements, they write thesis

or projects, and pass examinations. They are sound to the core and are exposed more than the civilians you have in power..

Agenda for Buhari I want him to get the right people to run sports. He should run sports the way he wants to fight corruption.

That will also develop the youths who have been

SATURDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4, 2015—39

Keshi said that was the way it is done. So that explained why the players always tired out easily. It is after building up their fitness level and during competition that you may train once a day in order not to burn them out.

That is why I continue to maintain that Keshi’s era has come and gone. He was a great ambassador of Nigeria. But you have to understand that being a very good player does not qualify one to become a successful coach. To be a good coach, you must have the proper certification and prove it on a consistent basis on the pitch.

In today’s Nigeria, all explayers want to coach the national team. It does not work like that. They have to get the proper certification and prove their mettle from the clubs to the junior national teams before they can get into the senior level.

If I bring a coach from Serbia and pay him less than N5m, he will do better than our local coaches

ould tackle , sports —Kojo

•kojo

oaches need help abandoned by the leaders.

Eagles and Keshi I get angry when I hear people call our national team Super Eagles. They are not super at all because they have not done anything super in the last 10 years.

They are ordinary. I remember asking Aminu Maigari when he was in office, how many times the

Eagles trained daily and he said they only trained once for an hour under Keshi. I told him that they were not going anywhere, with that regimen, which later showed as they were not fit .

In the days leading to 1994, Eagles trained three times a day at Ota and sometimes two times. I asked why he didn’t call Keshi to order and he responded that

What was practiced in the last six years was bad.

Nigerians were enslaved, it was apartheid in a different colour

But is that not colonial mentality?

It is not. I believe in Nigeria, our doctors are excelling because they are qualified, have gone to through the right certifications and examinations to get to where they are. So why can’t our coaches go through such tests? we have not exposed our coaches, NFF has not sat down to plan for our coaches. They just want success overnight.

Our coaches must prove themselves. And the coaches must help themselves too. I look forward to the day our coaches will win the World Cup. It is possible. If we set up a good league structure, then our football will grow again.

The doctor of the Super Eagles in 1994, Dr. Amao was asked to do a report on where we got the stamina from because our players were so fit at the World Cup. He did an excellent report, which FIFA commended. He is a Nigerian, so why can’t our coaches improve their profiles by getting the right training?

We have everything to be great but allow selfish deeds to undermine our growth. I hope and pray that our football will thrive again, What was practiced in the last six years was bad.

Nigerians were enslaved, it was apartheid in a different colour.

Amokachi as Eagles stand-in coach Our standards have so fallen that we know longer know which coaches to allow handle our teams. Amokachi has not got the right certification to handle such a position.

40—SA TURD AY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015 40—SATURD TURDA

Vanguard’s religion edit or’s daught er w eds editor’s daughter weds

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anguard’s religion editor, Sam Eyoboka, was a complete happy man when he gave the hand of his daughter, Eloho Blessing Eyoboka, to Andrew Osita Anyasi’s family. The marriage held at Warri South Council Marriage Registry on Saturday, March 21 followed by a traditional marriage at the country home of Sam Eyoboka in Ohrerhe, Agbarho in Ughelli North Local Government area of Delta State.

Photos by Akpokona Omafuaire

Women De Devvelopment Centre dedicated in Asaba

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he dedication ceremony of the Women Development Centre at Asaba, Delta State by the Women Fellowship of Christ Holy Church International held on Saturday March 14th 2015.

The ceremony attracted the presence of top Christian leaders as well as top government functionaries.

The Couple with both parents.

His Grace, the Most Rev. (Dr.) Daniel Okoh flanked By The College of Bishops and other dignitaries at the dedication ceremony

L-R: Mr. Dan Gumm-Okoro, Mr. Sam Eyoboka, bride’s father, Mr. Peter Okotie, retired CBN director, Mr. Joshua Oronimighwu, Mr. Sunday Orode and Mr. Felix Oregbeyiwa of Vanguard’ Media Limited.

Vanguard Religion Editor, Mr. Sam Eyoboka receiving the bride prize paid on his daughter, Miss Eloho Blessing, from the spokesman to the groom, Mr. Ominimi while the bride’s spokesman, Chief Irikife Oghenebrume (c) looks on.

The couple, Mr.&Mrs. Andrew Osita Anyasi.

R-L: Mr. Perez Brisibe, Mr. Akpokona Omafuaire, Mr. Joshua Oronimighwu, Mr. Sam Eyoboka, Mr.&Mrs. Akpobasa Owhofasa (left) and a dinstinguised guest.

L-R: Chief of Staff, Delta State, Chief Paulinus Akpeki congratulating the General Superintendent’s wife, General Deaconess Ngozi Okoh at the dedication ceremony while the Archbishop smiles in admiration

The dedicated Women Development Centre at Asaba, Delta State by the Women Fellowship of Christ Holy Church Int’l

Ik otun/Igando LLCD CD A cchairman hairman giv es daught er in marriage Iko CDA gives daughter

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oly matrimony between Adewale Abdul Lateef Shittu and Afolashade Esther Ogunleti held at Igando IkotunLCDA Registry, on Saturday March 21st ,2015. It was a high class affair as important dignitaries from far and wide graced the occasion.

L-R: Bride's mother, Mrs Oshibeluwo, the groom's father, Mr shittu Omobolaji Safi,the couple, Mr and Mrs Ademola Oshibeluwo, the bride's father, chairman, Ikotun/Igando LCDA and the groom's mother Deaconess Shittu.

C M Y K

L-R:The bride's elder sisters, the couple , lateef Shittu, Afolshade Ogunleti and frineds of the family.

L-R:Groom, Adewale Lateef Shittu, bride, Afolashade Esther Ogunleti and bestman

SATURDAY Vanguard Vanguard,, APRIL 4, 2015—41

T

here was a time when we heard… and

it was as if things happened in a different world… but now we witness and we tell… because things now happen before our very eyes. Thanks to God for all these and also to the honourable people who make things happen. These, we want to believe, are happening because there is LOVE for the country. th We heard of Abraham Lincoln, the 16 President of the United States of America, and how he persevered and eventually became the president of United States of America.

We were told, as children, that he contested various positions several times unsuccessfully and never gave up until he won the presidential polls. Whether this is true or apocryphal, it served and still continues to serve great purposes. It did motivate and gladden us.

We also heard of Nelson Mandela, who was jailed for life but along the line received a parole and as he got out of jail, he became the winner of the first popular election in South African presidential polls. It never occurred to us that such things are for the love of the country. The same way we

C M Y K

For the lo ve of countr love countryy now can tell of General Mohammadu Buhari of Nigeria, who was a military dictator, who forcefully took over government, was subsequently forced out of government and has, since the advent of civil, democratic government, contested three unsuccessful times to return as head of state and at the fourth time, was elected the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His resilience is commendable and admirable. We want to suggest that such should be imbibed by our younger generation, in all, for the love of country.

My excitement is not even with Genaral Buhari, but with the outgoing president, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, who also has maintained a consistent character both

in the professional and political spheres and undoubtedly, for the love of country.

For whatever it may be worth, his story must start now. I want to join those who have proposed that he becomes the first African to be admitted into the hall of fame of great African democrats.

Although some people are of the view that he should be second to Madiba Nelson Mandela, but I think that given his circumstances, he should be the first. My reason is that Madiba did not wait to consolidate the popular governance by contesting and testing again, to either win or lose and in a case of loss, not only showing willingness to go, but also putting in check, those

who would insist on continuity. But Dr. Goodluck Jonathan indeed contested, was declared loser and his magnanimity in accepting the verdict proves that he is a true democrat. I do not know and cannot even imagine what would have happened if, Madiba had, by any means, recontested elections in South Africa and lost to the opposition. I should think that the story would have been sour. My comparison is only tangential because I recognize that Madiba and GEJ operated under different

circumstances.

Dr. Jonathan came into the top political position in Nigeria in a very peculiar way. He was selected as the Vice presidential candidate to Late President Umaru Yardua in the 2007 elections. He was actually an experimental card, played by the then ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and after their success at the polls, President Yardua became ill and eventually the country lost him.

Part of the dignity and magnanimity of Dr. Jonathan started manifesting during the period of President Yardua’s illness. He was practically humiliated by those who were then politically and rhetorically referred to as “the cabal.” It took the efforts of few brave political office holders to set the flow of event right again and he eventually became the acting President, was later sworn in and was also going to win an election in 2011.

President Goodluck Jonathan has been deliberately humiliated and insulted by those he presides over, yet he maintains his cool. He has endeavoured to give consideration to all facets and interest groups, even individuals in his country Nigeria. He has never returned insult for insult, mischief for mischief, hate for hate, but has all along demonstrated that he is the father of the nation and as a father, is bound to accommodate children of sundry temperaments. He made himself available to serve all. He would be willing to meet with farmers, traders, low level transport operators, women, youths, entertainers, students and one would never forget the historic 13 hour meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities. At a point, one would want to ask, what has he done wrong and the answer is he has not done anything wrong. Even in conceding defeat, he still has not done anything wrong.

At this juncture, some serious points need to be raised. I have interacted with many people in course of this presidential election and as a writer; I have also carefully noted their reactions. Virtually everybody believes that Dr. Jonathan is a good man.

More than 60% of those who think so also want him out of his job. The reason is that his time is up and it is time for change. I believe Dr. Jonathan did not catch that fever at all. I give one reason for this: he was advised by those who saw the need for change that he should change the Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, but he did not respond to change. He believes in progress, consistency and consolidation; then a need to watch before making a decision for change. This is as a result of his experience as a scientist and a researcher. Nobody blames him for that, but in cases like he found himself, the humanistic approach gains ascendancy over the scientific method. It is therefore, not always gains. Sometimes one gains and sometimes, one loses. My own point is that whether in the advent of gains or losses, let love prevail.

42 — SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

SER VICE OF SONGS IN HONOUR OF LA TE SEGUN JOSEPH SERVICE LATE Service of songs in honour of late Segun Joseph was held in Benin City recently. Friends and well wishers were in attendance to honour the deceased. Segun Joseph was a popular sports writer with the Observer in Benin before he moved to Lagos to join Vanguard Newspapers in the late 1980s. He covered so many beats, distinguishing himself in aviation coverage and later started producing the weekend paper before he left for the United States in the early 90s. Segun passed on in New York on January 13 and has since been buried in the United States.

From right; Bukky Usifo,Ms Fumilayo Joseph sister of the deceased & Seyi Audu

Late Segun Joseph

From right Gbemisola Idiodemise, Middle, Funke Okoro and Toyin Isele

CNPP wants Presidential/NASS elections in A’Ibom cancelled BT TOM MOSES

P

EEVED up by the o b s e r v e d irregularities and fraud which characterized the last Presidential/ National Assembly elections in AkwaIbom State, the Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), AkwaIbom State Chapter has called on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to nullify those elections in the state.

The CNPP made the call at a press briefing yesterday in Uyo, the Akwa-Ibom State capital alleging that accreditation did not take place at various polling units in the state between the hours of 8AM and 1PM as stipulated by the INEC before the commencement of voting.

Following a resolution of the group endorsed by the chairmen and secretaries of 16 political parties’ excluding the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chairman of the Conference, Mr. Martins Inyang who spoke on behalf of his

colleagues also alleged that the electoral officers did not present materials such as ballot papers and result sheets for the parties agents to inspect before the commencement of voting.

Inyang further said result sheets were not found in most polling units while in some of the units, photocopies of result sheets without INEC security seal were used.

“Thugs hijacked ballot papers and other

electoral materials to unknown places where they stayed to vote.

“The votes were allotted to non-existing and non-participating political parties such as CPC, ACD, HOPE and others.

“Party agents at various levels were not allowed to sign the result sheets at the few units where they were available.

“With the above mentioned facts, CNPP can make bold to say that INEC in Akwa-

Ibom State did not follow due process in the conduct of the elections and therefore could be seen as having compromised.

“Therefore, the CNPP as a body, recommends and strongly too, that the said Presidential and National Assembly elections in AkwaIbom State were not in line with the stipulated electoral guidelines and therefore, not credible and should be cancelled”, they prayed.

Easter: Fashola preaches peaceful coexistence

BY MONSURU OLOWOOPEJO

G

OVERNOR Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State yesterday urged Nigerians to eschew violence and live with one another in peace as they celebrate the Easter season.

Fashola in his Easter message said that the seasons precede the April 11th Governorship and

House of Assembly elections, and peaceful coexistence is the best strategy that will bring a peaceful polls.

According to the governor in a short interview with press men at the State House Alausa Secretariat, Ikeja, said “God has answered those prayers you made even with the very peaceful elections that were held in the country. And I expect that the next election scheduled for April 11th will also be peaceful

and the result will count.”

He noted “as I wish you a very happy Easter seasons, I hope that the lesson of Easter will endure beyond the seasons of Lent.

“And I prayed that the sacrifices and deprivation of food and sustenance during the period will be rewarded. And I pray t h a t a l l y o u r s u pplication will also be rewarded,” Fashola added.

Mother of the deceased Dorothy Joseph

BRIEFS Egyptian President congratulates Buhari over victory

BY SONI DANIEL, Abuja

E

GYPTIAN President, Addel Fattah el Sisi, has congratulated President-elect; Mr. Muhammadu Buhari, over his victory at the presidential election in Nigeria.

In a congratulatory message released on Friday, Sisi also extended his hand of fellowship and brotherly love to Buhari and the people of Nigeria for the successful conduct of the election last week.

“It is with immense pleasure that I extend to your Excellency heartfelt congratulations on winning the presidential election and the deep trust that you achieved from your brotherly people. “I take this opportunity to confirm our deep interest in promoting mutual cooperation between us and developing the deeply-rooted brotherly historical relations between us.”

...As Calabar residents celebrate

BY TOM MOSES

R

ESIDENTS of Calabar, Cross River State yesterday went into frenzyover the emergence of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), of the All Progressives Congress as President-elect following his victory in the March 28 presidential polls.

The people, mostly youths sang hilarious songs as they marched through major streets of the ancient city thanking God for His benevolence and magnanimity to the President-elect and the APC. Business outlets were hurriedly shut by their owners to avoid falling prey to hoodlums. Cross River State Coordinator of one of the jubilating groups, Buhari Support Organization-BSO, Comrade Ubong Sam who spoke with newsmen said the victory by the APC Presidential candidate was a victory for all Nigerians.

SATURDAY

Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—43

with

BY EMMANUEL ASUQUO

S

hola Animashaun is one of Nigeria’s leading photographers with exploits dotting the lines in and outside the country. An Accounting graduate turned photographer who specializes in editorial, wedding, event, commercial concert, model and sport photography. He is a member of Professional Photographers of America (PPA) who has five awards to his credit. Shola teaches photography in his photography Academy.

His camera lens has captured great Nigerian acts like Tuface Idibia, P-Square, Don Jazzy and Femi Kuti, just to mention a few. He has equally shot international acts like Akon, Jay-Z, Beyonce , Rick Ross, Rihanna, Chris Brown and so on.

His expertise has earned him big contracts from the Nigerian Telecom giants and this has expanded his clientele from countries like the USA , Brazil , Egypt, Dubai , Adis abba , Barbados and South Africa. The photo genius was on a photography assignment for one of his corporate clients to Brazil at the FIFA World Cup 2014. In this interview, Shola shares the story of his rise to the top, his early life, influences and other vital issues with YOUTHFUL VIBES. Enjoy.

Your journey into the world of photography My journey into the world of photography started while I was waiting for my call-up letter (NYSC) way back in 2003. I noticed that I could use the waiting period to learn a lot about how to create photographs. My dad had Polaroid cameras while we were growing up and I remembered that all you had to do was take a picture, flip it and you would see the images taken only moment before. I thought about that and believed it will be a good experience if I can document my life as a Youth Corps member.

There is more appreciation for photography

—Shola Animashaun How was your growing up : family, education and social?

Memories of growing up was beautiful. I grew up in Ilorin with three brothers and two sisters,and had my primary education at Chapel Nursery and Primary school, Ilorin, and my secondary school at St. Anthony’s Secondary school , Ilorin. I studied Accounting while in Kwara State Polytechnic and graduated with HND in Accounting. As regards my social life, I was not the outgoing kind then.

When did you discover your photography potential?

That was when I gave up on photography to pick up a white collar job. Prior to the time, the only thing I was doing with my camera was taking pictures of myself and other Youth Ccorps members while I was serving in Katsina State.

When and how did you venture into full time photography?

I ventured into full time photography in 2006, that was after writing various job aptitude tests and doing several job interviews. I later landed a job with an accounting firm in Abuja but I rejected the offer. I was advised by two of my brothers that it may be a good time to start practising what I’ve been passionate about. So I had a meeting with the Accounting Firm’s CEO and told him that I won’t be able to resume work

anymore. He asked me why and I told him that I would like to be my own boss. He wished me well and I left knowing I just burnt my bridge to a white collar job. I decided that I must make photography work for me and by the grace of God, it worked out well.

How did you manage the reactions from quiting a paid job for photography?

Well, some pitied me. I recall seeing one of my neighbours staring at me and shocked when she saw me at a wedding taking pictures. Some believed it can work and even gave me examples of people who had done in photography. You know people always have the opinion of what you should do and if they think you are going astray, they advise you. My mum wanted me to find a white collar job and do photography as a backup.

The journey so far: best and worst moments The best part of the journey is that it gets better every day, you meet people who need photography services to project their businesses, and when you are able to solve problems with what you do, you are joyful.

The worst was when I fell off a bike in Maiduguri while on assignment for a particular client. I still have the scar on my hand.

Assess the industry generally The industry is growing and there is now an improved appreciation for photography than it was years before when people perceived

•Shola ‘passion’ teaching his at his aca demy.

US Embassy Spok esman visits VVanguar anguar d Spokesman anguard

•Shola Animashaun

photographers as nonentities.

Now people want to learn the art of photography and even study how viable the industry is. In my opinion it can only get better.

Early and current influences My early influences in photography includes Ade Plumptre, Kelechi Amadi, Mario Testino and current influences are George Oshodi, Joe Mc Nally, Chase Jarvis, , Trey Ratcliff , Scott Kelby , Philip Bloom, Lori Osterberg, Aaron Nace and so on.

Advise to the Nigerian youths who are interested in photography and those who are already in the business.

Please read widely , research always and share your knowledge and experience.

That way you will help other people grow which will impact positively on the industry.

○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○

Sean J. McIntosh observing Vanguard Press as Mr. Kolawole Adisa takes him through the printing operations.

From left:Temitayo Famutimi, Information Specialist, US Consulate General; Vera Anyagafu, Foreign Affairs Correspondent; Sean J. McIntosh, Press Attache , US Embassy and Victor Gotevbe, Administration/HR Manager at Vanguard Newsroom.

Sean J. McIntosh, addressing representatives of Vanguard Management. Admin. Manager Victor Gotevbe(L) and Fred Odueme, AGM Brands listen...

44—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Nigerians speak on their expectations from President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari T

Provide for the aged — Babatunde Afonboye, mechanic

BY ADERONKE ADEYERI

He should bring back our refineries – Adekunle Adebesin, civil servant

T

he President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, will liberate Nigerians from our sufferings. Some Nigerians believe he should probe most of the corrupt leaders, but I think he should concentrate on restructuring the system, especially the executive arm of government. He should see to the construction of refineries and resuscitate abandoned refineries.

he new administration should invest in our agricultural sector. Many farmers are old and suffering in many villages. I also want him to work on making provisions for the aged.

President Jonathan led administration favored only the rich.

He should implement confab report

G

en. Muhammadu Buhari is a man of integrity. He is the best man for the country at this point in time. However, the first thing expected of him is to learn from the mistakes of President Goodluck Jonathan. The President had good intentions for the masses but was negatively influenced by the people around him. The President-elect should implement the reports from the National Confab immediately he assumes office. Also, reducing pump price will also better the economy. I believe General Buhari will take Nigeria to greater heights.

He should provide employment –

Buhari's military experience is a plus for the country – Stephen Adenayajo, printer

Bunmi Aregbesola, businessman

The President-elect once said he was concerned about the scandalous level of unemployment of millions of young Nigerians, the poor security situation in the country, corruption and the impunity in government. All these should be his priorities when he assumes office.

G

en. Buhari will transform the country in the next four years. His experience as a military ruler is a plus in the present situation of the country, especially in combating Boko Haram. We want a safe country where we can sleep with our two eyes closed.

He should probe the past administration – Bukky Adeeyo, an actress

H

e is the best man for the job. Besides, he has capable hands to work with him. I just hope he doesn’t follow the wrong steps of his predecessors. Also, he should not go after the past administrations but work on how to serve his fatherland better.

We need a new Nigeria – Johnson Oyenekan, marketing representative

N

igerians were yearning for change. Also, I learned he is one of the ex-leaders who rejected the N3million monthly offer by the Jonathan administration. We want a new Nigeria, where an average Nigerian can afford three square meal a day.

Transparency and credibility should be his watchword – Barry Imafidon

G

oing through Gen. Muhammadu Buhari's biography and pedigree during his military regime, he appears to be an honest man . I expect him to fight corruption to the barest minimum Transparency and creditability should be his watchword . He is an aged man and I feel he’s going to be slow in decision making. I also have a strong belief that he his going to work without Godfathers as presumed by some people.

Probe every corrupt leader – Ogun Fagade, businessman

H

e should concentrate on building more prisons, ensure maximum security in our prisons and probe every corrupt leader in the country.

He will fulfill his promises – Mary Adufe, an actress

Please bring back Chibok girls – Christiana Ewah, secretary

I

am happy my dream leader won the election.

He's the right person because he has zero tolerance for corruption. He knows the best for Nigeria. He's a rare leader in this era and I believe he will fulfill all his promises.

T

he President-elect should look into the rise of dollars. This has affected our economy even in the global market. Many politicians also used the Chibok girls to campaign for votes. Going by his antecedent as a disciplined soldier, I believe he is the kind of leader Nigeria needs now.

He should build affordable houses – Adekunle Wasiu, petrol attendant

I

want the President-elect to work on the legacy of Alhaji Lateef Jakande by building affordable houses for the masses. Many families in Nigeria sleep in a room apartment. Again, he should work on our private schools because the cost of sending our kids to private schools is alarming.

C M Y K

– Semiu Adetayo, a civil servant

Set up a team of economists – Bukola Kajero, estate consultant

T

he President elect has what it takes to govern a complex country like Nigeria. Some people see him as an old man but I believe age is a number. However, he should set up a team of economists to revive our economy. He is an administrator, not an autocrat as some people perceived.

SA TURD AY SATURD TURDA

M

y interest in this year ’s elections goes beyond casting my vote. I have been attending campaign rallies and town hall meetings. During this time, I take time to observe people, especially youngsters in the villages, as they mill around. I have noticed some very disturbing trends among youths in the villages.

Youngsters in the villages seem to suffer from identity crisis. I do not know how it came about, but it looks like over time many virtues and attributes associated with villagers were labeled as inferior and these youngsters now deadly when money and women are struggle to ape city life in the villages involved. It is not uncommon to see and this brings about a great strange incisions on parts of their disconnect. The first thing I noticed is bodies; some perform certain rituals that the young men and women are before they eat or drink. Others poor and desperate for cash. There are abstain from okra soup or ogbono no white-collar jobs in the villages and soup or even local exotic delicacies that leaves them with limited choices. like snails in order to “retain their Many were not trained to use their powers” to “head bullets”, “hold initiative either, so much of their bullets” and “make knives to break” enormous talents stay dormant. Many if stabbed, or machetes to “bounce off” of them have haphazard or limited if dealt machete blows. Please do not formal education, so even if jobs were available, they could not take advantage of the opportunities.

Farming is the predominant occupation in the villages, but few youngsters are willing to take to farming. Farming is seen as old fashioned and not for youngsters. The ask me if it works or how it works. I gospel of mechanized large-scale am totally ignorant on these issues. farming has either not been preached I also found their fashion a poor or not yet imbibed or the opportunity imitation of punk culture. Sagging is not yet there. Not surprising, villages trousers are rampart. Boy, I saw are filled with idle and unemployed boxers: Some of these youngsters youths. ought to be charged to court for The resultant frustration of such a making their boxers public nuisance. situation is taking its toll. Many of I jokingly asked one what the belt these unemployed youths are short- was doing around his waist if it could fused. Seeking alternative outlets, not hold the trousers. The girls are many and possess intoxicating physical not left out, although not as daring; and “spiritual” powers which they are their tops are tucked into their eager to unleash. Therefore, scuffles, trousers and they stay in place until arising sometimes from non issues, they hop on motor bikes. often end up in sizing up one another.

In those days, city bachelors used Such scuffles easily turn violent and to go the villages to hunt for well-

Elections’ side attractions behaved (sometimes virgins) girls to marry. But with what I saw over the last few weeks, I just wonder. Teenage mothers abound and when it gets dark, the villages, especially those with electricity, come alive. Boys and girls, some of them under-aged, party, drink and get busy. Just as in the cities “good girls” now seem to be a family affair, rather than a village matter.

Very heart-wrenching is the erosion of the local language. Among the

Many of these unemployed youths are short-fused

,

youths in the villages, badly-spoken Pidgin English has replaced vernacular as the medium of communication. I guess it flows from the erroneous belief that only ogb’Urhobo (bush people) speak Urhobo. So they abandon their illustrious and much-cherished heritage for Pidgin English. Those in the cities are swimming against the tide to teach their children how to speak local languages; those in the villages for whom it comes naturally are running away from it. Only the old people converse entirely in vernacular; this is very painful and depressing.

Vanguard,APRIL 4, 2015—45 One thing is clear; Delta State is sitting on a keg of gun powder over this vibrant, restive and unemployed army of youths. Something urgent must be done to engage these young minds. They need direction and guidance. The lull in kidnapping and militancy can only be temporary. That is why the elections are very important, especially those of officials closest to the grassroots, apart from local governments. (The running of local governments and even how the officials get elected are stories for another day and probably outside the scope of this column). The electorate needs to revisit the manifestoes of the governorship candidates and the house of assembly candidates. Any candidate, who does not have clearcut programmes for the youths, obviously does not know what he is going to do in government and does not deserve to be voted for. This is very important for my state, Delta, in particular, and Nigeria, in general.

Our future is at stake.

But if my experience over the last few days is anything to go by, then many of these youths are not helping matters. Some will not vote unless induced. It is very painful to hear statements like: “ you don’t vote with an empty stomach.”Some youths are the thugs that are being used to subvert the will of the people. They are by extension truncating their own future. That is partly why we continue to dance in circles. Who will help to educate the youths to jettison temporary pecuniary gains for more enduring gains that will secure their future? There is plenty of work to be done. In the meantime Saturday April 11, is another day. Get ready to use your voting power to vote for a better Delta State and Nigeria. May the allseeing and all-knowing God guide us to make the right choices.

,

(Text Only) Head-to-Knee echnique: Sit with feet stretched in front of you.The forehead must touch the knees with the bent elbows touching the mat. Remain in the posture for a few ten seconds.Try again for same duration or about a period of 15 to 20 seconds and repeat thereafter for two or three times.

T

Benefits:This

Wonder ful ttonic onic ffor or pain and sstress tress onderful exercise is a veritable tonic for the spine wonderful for the hamstrings.It is of great help to females who suffer from periodic pains.It's also helpful to back muscles, and enable you move freely at all times.

The shoulderstand Though the classic

•Shoulderstand variant

•Head-to-Knee shoulder stand forming a neat slant from is executed without a prop, feet to shoulder. Place the hands a little away from the the variant sides.

Breathe in slowly, under rhythmically and deep into discussion the abdomen.

A minute or here is done with the aid of two will do at the initial stages. Follow that up with chair. the dead man’s pose of lying completely still on your back.

Technique: Place a chair Benefits: The shoulder on the practice stand affects the thyroid mat at one gland which normalizes end. Lying on your back Yoga Classes rather close to the chair, raise STARTED both legs and @ 32 Adetokumbo Ademola, rest them on Victoria Island Lagos.

9.00am — 10.00am the chair on Saturdays

C M Y K

metabolism and the production of heat and controls the heart rate.

Triangle Pose Technique: Standing with the feet rather wide apart, turn the trunk to the left and lowering it, place the palm of the left hand flat down on the outside of the left leg while raising up the right hand and straightening it at the elbow.

Breathe normally and retain the

•Triangle Pose position for about 10 10 or I5 seconds.

Benefits: The triangle stretches the leg, spine, and trunk muscles.

It promotes flexibility of the hip spine and legs. It tones the nerves of the spine and the abdominal organs.

It reduces pain in the lower back and invigorates the circulation.

46—SATURDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4, 2015

He proposed love to me and I blocked him

Dear Julie, I met a guy at a party and fell in love with him. But all these while, it’s like the love is one-sided and I seem to be the one showing all the love.

He’s so dormant about everything and it’s frustrating.

I like the guy but I want to get him to like me. How can I do that?

Annabel, Lagos Dear Annabel, As a young lady, it’s normal to start having feelings for other people. It might be a friend you’ve had for a long time, someone in your trade or someone you know through activities or hobbies outside of school or work.

Unfortunately, we can’t make someone like us. But if we start to talk with them and get to know them, they can learn more about us and they might start to like us or look at us in a different way, as more than just a friend and

How do I get him to like me? possibly a girlfriend.

It helps if you have something in common with them, like a favourite issue or football team—anything where you share a common interest. This will give you something to talk and have a connection about.

Once you start talking to them and feel more comfortable, you may get a sense of if they like you or not. If you’re feeling brave, you could ask them how

they feel about you or let them know that you like them, and see what their response is.

A lot of people get embarrassed about telling someone they like them. Instead of saying it directly, you could show him in other ways, such as mucking around and trying to have fun with him, teasing him in a playful way, or by flirting with him.

Sometimes it helps if you

know one of their friends and can find out that way if they like you, if they already have a girlfriend/boyfriend, or if they have someone else.

The best thing to do is be yourself when you’re around him. This way, he will get to know you for who you are. If he likes you, that’s great. If not, there are plenty of guys out there who will.

Good luck!

I really want to ask her out but I get so nervous Dear Aunty Julie, I really like this course mate of mine. She is so nice and caring and kind and generous, and also really pretty. I’ve tried flirting with her but it doesn’t work. Also, I always try to say hi to her seductively so it sounds sexy, but her voice is so cute and it makes me feel dreamy.

I’ve caught her gaze in class a few times and her big brown eyes are so beautiful. I have also hugged her once and I think I was so caught up day dreaming that I didn’t hear her saying to let go. I also play dumb so she can help me with my projects.

I really want to ask her out but I get so nervous trying to ask. How do I do it?

Fabian, Lokoja Hello Fabian The quickest way is to just ask her on a date, straight up.

Something like during the weekend . But if you feel like it’s too direct for you, maybe there are some other ways you can spend more time to-

gether, like hanging out in a group, or helping with homework, or even doing something together where you share the same interest.

Basically, it boils down to a bit of creativity, patience and courage. You choose your own adventure. Honesty helps. If you’re happy to hang out as friends, then get to know her that way. Friendship can be the best start to some fantas-

tic relationships. But if you’re frustrated because really you want a more romantic relationship, the only way to fix that is to ask her out straight up.

You’ll risk rejection, but you won’t waste time agonizing about whether she likes you or not. Just remember that everyone has personal preference about their own taste, and it’s human nature that sometimes someone will be

attracted to you but you might not like them. It’s just preference.

I hope this lady shares your feelings and you have a great time together. You certainly deserve to have a fun, romantic relationship.

Everyone does. Enjoy yourself, whatever happens in your own adventure, and feel free to write back!

Should I continue trying for her ?

Hello Aunty Julie, I’m a 28 year old man. I’ve loved this lady for two years but sometimes when I talk to her, it feels like she’s just talking to me so as not to offend me. I also feel like she’s never noticing me but everyone does.

I have recently been asked out by some ladies in the past two months and I rejected all of them because there was the one lady who I truly care about. I need help on whether I should continue trying for her or to give up and walk away.

Yinka, Abeokuta

*A minister was called to a local nursing home to perform a wedding. An anxious old man met him at the door. The pastor sat down to counsel the old man and asked several questions. ”Do you love her?” The old man replied, “I guess.” ”Is she a good Christian woman?” ”I don’t know for sure,” the old man answered. ”Does she have lots of money?” asked the pastor. ”I doubt it.” ”Then why are you marrying her?” the preacher asked. ”She can drive at night,” the old man said. *My husband-to-be and I were at the county clerk’s office for our marriage license. After recording the vital information—names, dates of birth, the clerk handed me our license and deadpanned, “No refunds, no exchanges, no warranties.”

Hello Yinka, I really admire you for that.

Sounds like you’re reaching the end of your patience though. Should you give it one last try, or is it time to let go and move on?

How much do you like her?

Is there anyone else who you find attractive? If there is, what would you lose by starting something with them? Let’s argue it out...

There are so many ladies you could choose from. Ladies came up to you, and you weren’t even trying. Massive chance that there’s another one who is

just as good as this one you’re after. Good chance that you will find another who’s even better—there’s always that possibility. You can always be surprised by something turning out even better than you had imagined.

So, stop wasting time and energy waiting for this lady. She clearly is not interested in you, she’s just being polite. I mean, she doesn’t even notice you, but everyone else does.

But if she’s the one you truly care about, make sure you do everything you can to build a relationship with this lady. You

C O C K - T A L E S ”A nun?” his father exclaimed. ”That’s right. None in the morning, none at night and none unless I beg.”

The father nodded knowingly, and patted his son on the back. “Why don’t we all get together for a nice talk tonight?” Toms face brightened.

“Say Dad, that’s a great idea.” ”Fine. I’ll call and tell Mother Superior to set two extra plates.” *A woman told a marriage counselor that her husband’s complaint that he leads a dog’s life is probably well founded.

“He comes in the house with muddy feet,” she said, “tracks across my clean floors, barks at nothing, growls at his food and makes himself comfortable on my best furniture.”

Not long after the marriage, Tom and his fa*The elderly pastor was searching his closet for his ther met for lunch. “Well son,” asked the dad, collar before church one Sunday morning. In the back “how is married life treating you?” ”Not very of the closet, he found a small box containing 3 eggs well, I’m afraid. It seems that I married a nun.”

C M Y K

Aunty Julie, Several months ago, I met a guy online through Facebook. He was nice, and as we started talking over the next month or two, he expressed his affection towards me. He was 36 by the way. He told me I was perfect, beautiful, that he loved me. I got nervous because a total stranger was telling me these things, so I blocked him. Now I feel guilty, because he wasn’t really doing anything wrong. What should I do?

Josephine Dear Josephine, His comments were nice but a bit over the top and it sounds like they made you feel uncomfortable. When something makes us uncomfortable it’s okay to protect ourselves.

Sometimes, guys or ladies can say things that are over the top and it’s too much too soon because we feel like they don’t even know us.Are you worried about him? Is there anyone else on Facebook who knows him too and can let you know he’s okay? On the internet sometimes, people pretend to be someone young to contact ladies for creepy reasons. If you ever feel uncomfortable, you have a right to stop it or leave.

Look after yourself .

should either wait patiently for her, or you should do as much as you can to get her attention and ask her out until she says yes or no for good.

So, what do you think? Which one wins: option A or option B? If you’re having trouble, go with how your gut feels, or your heart. Then, if there’s anything that stops you from choosing A or B 100%, ask yourself, what do I need to feel more happy with this decision?

Maybe you need to check out if there’s another lady you like first. Maybe you need to talk with this lady a little, or ask her something. You choose.

and 100 $1 bills. He called his wife into the closet to ask her about the box and its contents.

Embarrassed, she admitted having hidden the box for their entire 25 years of marriage. Disappointed and hurt, the pastor asked her, “WHY?”The wife replied that she hadn’t wanted to hurt his feelings. He asked her how the box could have hurt his feelings. She said that every time during their marriage that he delivered a poor sermon, she had placed an egg in the box. The pastor felt that 3 poor sermons in 25 years was certainly nothing to feel bad about, so he asked her what the $100 was for.She replied, “Each time I got a dozen eggs, I sold them to the neighbors for $1. * A husband visited a marriage counselor and said, “When we were first married, I would come home from the office, my wife would bring my slippers and our cute little dog would run around barking. Now after ten years it’s all-different. I come home, the dog brings the slippers and my wife runs around barking.” ”Why complain?” said the counselor, “You’re still getting the same service.”

SA TURD AY SATURD TURDA

Vanguard,APRIL 4 , 2015—47

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

How low would you sink for money?!

A

S to be expected, the current economic melt-down has created a lot of people who apple with the menace of the credit crunch—not only have they lost their jobs, the prospect of finding any other, not to talk of one commensurate in remunerations is zilch! When Eunice, a personnel director of an insurance company was asked to reduce the work force by a third, she felt like a real hatchet man.

“It was a most heart-wrenching experience dolling out retrenchment letters and watching the bleak expressions on the faces of staff who have lost their jobs”, she said sadly. A few weeks later, it was her turn to get the dreaded ‘golden handshake.’

In her wildest dreams, she never even believed she would get the chop.

made the whole encounter less sordid—on top of which was his word that I would get the contract.

“From then on, it became easier to have ‘lunch’ with a few of my contacts. One or two have now become regulars. Others were oneoffs. Some of these men are heavy weights’ in the society and quite goodlooking, some are rude, but I’m lucky so far that a lot of them have kept their promises and as soon as most of our debts are cleared, I will stop...”

When Jumi got admitted into one of the universities, she was ecstatic. “When I was growing up,” she explained, “my dream was to make a name in the fashion industry, and my admission was a step towards achieving my goal.

I was just 20, pretty, slim and had many friends. In my naivety; I started to feel a bit invincible. But when I arrived at the university, everything started going wrong. Most of the girls on my course were really lovely—and from well-off families. Some shopped abroad and carried the latest ‘it’ bags and knew about all the leading fashion houses.

In contrast, I was from a small town and my style was more second-hand ‘grade, As’ than glossy and well groomed.

‘It was as if I’d come from another planet. I withdrew into myself and became disheartened. On my first holiday home, my friends didn’t behave quite the same as I noticed. They believed I was now a bit more superior. Determined not to sink back to the level of a’ town girl’ I agreed to go on “dates” that were so common on campus, especially the ones organized by worldly-wise girls with their ‘aristo’ money bags. It was plain

,

“One morning” she alleged, “my boss called me into a meeting. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, not quite catching my eyes, ‘the company’s in a bad shape here as you know. We have to let you go’. I drove home in a terrified daze. I’d come to work that morning with an official driver.

Now, I had to drive myself home as the driver too had got the sack! How could this happen to me with no previous official warning. How were we going to cope, feed the kids and keep a roof over our heads! We needed my salary to meet the mortgage payments and the children’s school fees. The kids were in very expensive schools and I was panicky. My redundancy money wouldn’t last forever. My husband’s business had depended heavily on bank loans that he often quickly paid back but now that the banks are being whipped into shape, the loans have simply dried up. He was as shocked as I was by my redundancy and tried to be sympathetic as I made efforts to get a job—any sort of job.

“Then a friend approached me to start a sort of financial consultancy. We would work from her home by sourcing for capital for budding businesses. It was hard going at first, and I was too proud to accept I’d failed. So, I contacted mostly business associates from my insurance years. I never used to understand why people suffered from depression, because I always thought that if you knew things were bad, you’d soon change them for the better. As I hit the brick wall with most of my contacts, a friendly one asked out of the blues if I wanted lunch in his office. I’d had so many failures that I was frustrated enough to give things a go. After all, my proposal with him was at stake. If I wasn’t happy with what he had to say, I’d leave, it was as simple as that. He was a nice man, in his 50s with sexy graying hair, a bit of a paunch and a friendly smile. He made my visit much easier than I’d expected.

What surprised me the most was the speed with which things happened. If it were a real date for instance, there would be a long intimate build-up, lots of chatting, kisses and foreplay. But this one wasn’t interested in all that —he told me he had less than an hour to get back to the pile of files on his table. So, within minutes of arriving, I was completely naked and we were about to have sex. At first, I just found it really weired. It was odd having sex with a virtual stranger, but he had positive sides I could focus on which

told myself, I’d only do it for as long as it took to pay-off my bills at the university.

“I stopped as soon as I graduated and had enough money to set up my own business. Now I love my new life and I’ve never once felt ashamed of how I got where I am today. In fact, more students than we want to admit turn to prostitution to pay their massive debts. The way I see it is that I made a smart business decision, and it saved my life. So what’s there to feel guilty about...?” Are our women getting too hardhearted? I was still mulling over the blatant declaration of these women when my friend called.

“Have you heard of the number of women who ‘share’ their good fortunes with their friends?” She asked in between our chat. ‘What do you mean?’ I wanted to know, ears perked.

“Three of four women could now

Three of four women could now share the prowess of a stud

prostitution, and if I wanted to buy the expensive books and clothes I needed to get by, it would be a small price to pay. You may think all the reasons I’ve given are lame excuses for deciding to sell my body. But the truth is that taking my destiny in my hands actually turned my life around. I had a focus and

,

share the prowess of a stud, that’s all”. So what was new? We already knew of gigolos who go after rich women. ‘Are you listening,’ she asked impatiently. According to her: “These women are friends and well connected. As soon as one of them gets on to a good stud, she calls another in the group to inform her to expect a new

find. “O dun b’aje’ she coos, meaning ‘he’s as tasty as hell’. So on trots super stud to his next customer until he does the round of all four or five and is well rewarded for services well rendered.

I took this news with a shovel full of salt as I recounted its probability with an older male friend I always use as a sounding board. ‘Of course, it goes on all the time,’ he agrees. “At say 40 upwards, most men are rearing to go and wifey is too busy running the home, looking after the kids and holding down a job. Where else would such husband and single adventurous men find solace but in the arms of bored women with money to burn and less than their ration of sex? They (the women) are always a delight to be with—they scream and yell and are grateful as hell! In short, the man gets handsomely compensated by making his clients purr like a well-tuned engine— both sides to the contract are happy, end of credit crunch for him and a fulfilling sex-life for the mama kes”.

15 Sur -f ire w our self unhapp Sur-f -fire waays ttoo mak makee yyour ourself unhappyy ?

a) Always look on the dark side of life.

See the glass as half empty rather than full, regard changing circumstances as disasters rather than opportunities, always expect things to go wrong, and your negativity will remain intact. (b) Repress your anger. Become accustomed to feeling as if you’re about to explode with rage, get used to a racing heart and a throbbing head, ignore the increased risk of heart disease, depression and - as people start to avoid you - unstable relationships. (c) Be unreliable. Ensure that people never expects anything of you by forgetting birthdays, turning up late and never completing tasks. (d) Catch the news again and again.

Maintain high levels of misery and “ what’s the world coming to?” syndrome by becoming a news addict, reading the papers first thing and topping up with bulletins throughout the day. (e) Become a couch potato. Reject the overwhelming evidence that regular exercise is good for your body and emotional well-being, use the car, avoid the gym and slouch on the sofa instead.

Add a few high-fat snacks while relaxing and you’ll soon feel too tired and heavy even to think about a healthier routine. (f) Stay home alone. Give up your social life and you’ll never have to meet those annoyingly happy types who remind you that you’re missing out. (g) Neglect your appearance. Keep your low self-esteem intact by not bothering to wash, apply make-up, or do your hair. (h) Hit the bottle. Drink too much alcohol,

refusing to accept that it’s disrupting your sleep patterns, affecting your work performance, depriving you of nutrients, reducing your bank balance and causing arguments with loved ones. (i) Play the victim. Convince yourself that your problems are caused by other people, and that you have no hope of changing your life. (j) Be a stick-in-the-mud. Remain safe and unchallenged by adhering to the same routine and carefully avoiding anything new and different. (k) Ignore aches and pains, soldier on regardless of an aching back or stomach pains in the hope that they’ll go away, ignoring the fact that you may be making any problem worse by not seeing a doctor.

(1) Shop till you drop. Spending more than you earn keeps your credit - card company and your bank manager happy.

While guaranteeing those familiar monthly headaches as you attempt to juggle finances. (m) See people as potential enemies. Be suspicious of everyone, sticking to your belief that people are always out to get you. This way, you don’t have to worry about making any new friends, dating or finding a new job. (n) Reveal nothing. Assure high levels of feeling put upon and misunderstood, by not saying what you really mean or feel also a great way to drive people away and ensure your continued isolation. (o) Focus on what you don’t have.

Convince yourself that everyone else has more by focusing on their wonderful house.

48—SATURDAY

Vanguard , APRIL 4, 2015

YETUNDE AREBI

Perception, sometimes far from the truth!

T here are always two sides to every story or event, especially when it involves two or more persons. Our perception may depend on which side of the account we hear. We forget that disputes occur when people disagree on issues, especially when they fail to see things from each other ’s perspectives, regardless of what is right or wrong.

Unfortunately, the loudest or most popular arguments may not always be the correct or true account of events. And for this, we all often make grave mistakes and take unwarranted actions.

This was perhaps the case with the story of mummy and daddy Samson, my neighbours until a couple of years back. I considered the duo, one of the most beautiful couples around the neighbourhood. A tall, curvy, fair complexioned, Calabar lady married to a very soft spoken, tall, dark complexioned Yoruba guy who works in one of the second generation banks. Together, they birthed four children, two boys and two girls.

Two of the girls and the first boy, already took after their mother ’s good looks. To me, they seemed like a perfect ideal couple, until that fateful night.

I was already half asleep when I began hearing the noise. It was obviously coming from the compound. I strained my ears to be sure the voices did not belong to strangers and also, to ascertain what the thrust of the argument was about. Once I was able to figure out that the voices were those of mummy Samson and her husband, I concluded it was a lovers tiff that would soon be resolved and the whole compound could retire to bed peacefully. But I was wrong.

The voices not only became louder, but threatening too. Mummy Samson’s voice rang out more, renting the silence of the night. She rained abuses and curses on her husband and father of her four children, insisting that he must kill her that night. After listening to the drama for almost an hour, it occurred to me that I was not hearing any other voice besides theirs. In a compound of four flats and a BQ, I definitely could not be the only one awake at that time of the night at a little after midnight. And even if I was, the noise was enough to wake anyone asleep. So, why had no one bothered to come out to settle the fight between the couple? Though I had only moved into my flat less than six months then, I was aware that the family who occupied the flat above the fighting couple’s were quite close. Their young children attended the same school and after school lesson, so, why were they ignoring the commotion going on downstairs? I decided to go and see exactly what the matter

C M Y K

was and if possible, assist in bringing peace.

Besides, I knew whatever the problem would be of benefit to me. So, I scampered into my clothes and made my way down the stairs. Hmm! my amebo just no de gree me rest!

As I had suspected, they had left their flat and were outside the door, accounting for the loud tempo of their voices. Mummy Samson was holding on to her husband’s knickers, demanding to be killed. As soon as they both saw me, it appeared as if their energy instantly became recharged and they launched at each other again. Mummy Samson threw up her loudest wail yet and still holding fast to his waistband, dealt him a hard blow with the other hand. Instantly, her husband tackled her to the ground with slaps and blows of his own. I winced realising how painful that must be for the woman, especially imagining what she would look like after the wrestling bout because of her very fair skin complexion. I rushed towards them, shouting at the husband to stop, else he might indeed kill her. But just then, I realised that the slippery substance on their bodies was not sweat but blood and I was forced to pull back. Personally, I am averred to any form of violence because of my zero tolerance for pain of any sort. So, I steer clear of conflicts with anyone, either verbal, psychological or physical, no matter how close or remote the person might be.

The scene before me was therefore very difficult to handle.

My voice must have attracted other neighbours and so, one after the other, they began coming out.

At the end, each flat was represented except for the couple’s friends. Daddy Samson stopped beating his wife and stood up, but she continued to hold on to his shorts, shouting very vicious abuses at him. The man began apologising profusely to everyone, especially me, insisting that he was sorry to have caused me such distress. He declared that everyone was aware of his wife’s silly behaviour but that I was the only one witnessing her tantrums for the first time. The elderly of the two men informed me that he only bothered to come out after hearing my voice and that he had told them after their last boxing bout that he would never interfere in their matter again. The couple from BQ expressed the same view, which only made Mummy Samson angrier.

She lashed out at them immediately and announced that she was not surprised since they were birds of the same feathers and were actually encouraging her husband to be unfaithful to her. She turned to us, (myself and the other woman) and asked if we could take it if our husbands brought girlfriends to the place we call our matrimonial home. Perhaps, the expression on both our faces gave her the answer she wanted. She told us that was exactly what happened. The husband interjected that

she was lying and we should pay her no attention.

According to her story, she had been hearing stories about her husband and a certain young lady in the neighbourhood for some time.

She said she’d confronted him but he’d naturally denied. But later, her children told her that their daddy was bringing a lady to the house anytime she was not at home. She said she laid several traps but never caught them and that perhaps gave him the guts to get bolder with his dirty acts without regards for her and the children. She said, that a few days before, she walked into her husband’s room early in the morning and found tell tale signs of a woman having been in his bed. An empty condom pack as well as several pieces of tissue paper laid on the floor. She said he insisted that he had masturbated in the course of the night because he did not want to disturb her sleep. So, what was the condom for? Perhaps so the bed spreads won’t get stained! It was at that point that she became convinced that something very terrible was going on in her home and resolved to catch the woman who was so bold as to be sneaking into another woman’s home in the dead of the night. Her siege paid off that night but her husband held her and allowed the lady to escape. She shoved out her thigh, indicating where he had stabbed her because of his lover. Once again, she launched into another round of slaps, biting and curses.

We turned to daddy Samson but all he had to say was that she was lying and had only imagined things based on what Samson had told her. To everyone’s surprise, he blurted out that he was tired of the relationship and wanted his wife to pack out of their matrimonial home. He said it was obvious that they could no longer live peacefully as husband and wife and it was apparent that he was wasting his time, thinking that he could be a good husband and father to their children. He said she was fond of pitching the children against him and encouraging them to be rude and disobedient to him. He insisted that everything that happened that night was engineered

by Samson and his wife and he no longer felt safe living under the same roof with them. He asked why no one is asking about the stab wounds on them and disclosed that it was Samson who had stabbed him on the orders of his mother during the scuffle and that had he not managed to wrestle the bottle out of his hands and stabbed his wife in the thigh with it, they both would have killed him. Realising that he’d overpowered them and might kill the mother, Samson had surrendered and he’d managed to lock all four children in one room so they would not have to watch their show of shame. He said his wife had never been faithful to him which was not a secret to many in the compound. He was only paying her back in her own coin he concluded. He apologised once again to me because I was the stranger in their midst and told everyone to go back into their flats as nothing could change his decision from then on.

As he spoke, mummy Samson kept interjecting all through, revealing one family secret after another. At least, so it appeared to me. She said she wanted to have more children but he refused to allow her on the excuse that he could not afford it, only to start talking about taking another wife. Is it not children that she would bear for him, she asked. She revealed that he would sometimes deny her sex for several months while chasing some dirty girls all over the place.

She claimed he refused to give her money to improve her business and even refused to refund all he’d borrowed from her. Apart from the stabbing bit, I must admit that I began feeling sorry for mummy Samson at that point. Not many women would condone what she was going through in silence. Going by Samson’s age, one might be correct to say the couple must have been together for about 14-15 years at least. The two made a very beautiful sight to behold, I called them ebony and ivory. I’d always thought of mummy Samson as a beautiful and respectful woman, along with their equally lovely children, so, I was really surprised by all that was unfolding. And as I listened to her stories, a resentment for daddy Samson began building up inside of me. How dare he treat his wife and mother of his four children with such disrespect? If he must have affairs, why bring the women to his matrimonial home and bed? Was it that he could not afford a hotel room? I know that such things do happen, but not when the wife is a stone’s throw away from the house such as theirs. (mummy Samson’s shop is on the next street) He claimed to be a good father but parades his other women in front of his children with disregard for the psychological implications of his actions on them. Besides, what sort of low life woman would allow herself to be led into another woman’s den in the dead of the night?

Daddy Samson was a terrible man and ought to cover his face in shame. At least, so I thought.

But was this true? Let’s meet here again next Saturday please. Do have a wonderful Easter celebrations.

SATURDAY

Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—49

BY LAJU IREN 07017860213 ELLEJAYMEDIA@YAHOO.CO.UK

He served as Interim Director (19992000) and Director (2000-2006) of the Institute on Black Life and Centre for Africa and Diaspora at the University of South Florida (USF).

•Jega

•Adewole

•Etu-Efeorto

•Mohammad

•Okogbaa

•Njodi

•Ekpo

Meet the Profs who made the 2015 elections

BY LAJU IREN

A

lthough there were various challenges with the process, experts have hailed the just concluded presidential elections as the most credible Nigeria has had since 1999. The doggedness of Gen. Muhammad Buhari, the gentlemanly grace of President Goodluck Jonathan, combined with the resilience of the Nigerian people were determining factors, but the contributions of quite a number of renowned professors working behind the scenes did not go unnoticed. There were quite a number of them, but here are some that really stood out: Professor Attahiru Muhammadu Jega As Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Jega is arguably one of the most respected persons in Nigeria today. Despite attacks on his person by the opposition in 2011 and from some quarters of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP in these elections, the former Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, has worked efficiently and kept his calm in the face of adversity.

Jega was the President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities between 1994 and 1998; a time when the union constantly opposed Major Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s military government. Jega earned a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University, Illinois in 1984 after which he returned to his alma mater, BUK as an Assistant Lecturer.

Professor John Etu-Efeorto Not many people will forget the collation officer of Rivers state in a hurry. Whether it is post-election ruckus which ensued in the oil producing state, or the mild drama that preceded his reading of the election results, Prof. John Etu-Efeorto is part and parcel of the 2015 elections history.

Beyond that however, Etu-Efeorto is an astute academic. He was appointed Vice Chancellor of Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun in 2013.

Before then, he was Director, Centre for Petroleum Geosciences at the University of Port Harcourt. He studied at the University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, where he earned a First Class C M Y K

Honours Degree in Geology in 1971. He later proceeded to the Harvard University, U.S.A in 1972 and obtained a Masters degree in Geology in 1974. With these academic degrees, he was appointed a Lecturer in July 1977 at the University of Port Harcourt and he rose to the rank of Professor on May 8, 1999.

Prof Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi Despite the insecurity in Yobe state, elections still held there.

It was no mean feat and Prof Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi was the collation officer in charge of the state. Njodi is currently the Vice Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri and reportedly scored 90.1 per cent in the selection interview jointly conducted by the council and senate selection board which is the highest for all interviewed. He joined the institution as a Graduate Assistant in the Department of Physical and Health Education in 1987 and became a Professor in 2006.

Professor (Mrs.) Comfort Memfin Ekpo Professor (Mrs.) Comfort Memfin Ekpo was the Collation Officer for Cross River state, was the only woman among the Collation officers.

The Vice Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof. (Mrs.) Comfort Memfin Ekpo is a professor of Educational Technology. Her university career started in March 1981 when she participated in part-time lecturing at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. She was appointed lecturer III in January 1983 at the then College of Education, Uyo which became the University of Cross River State (UNICROSS) and later, University of Uyo in 1991. Prof. (Mrs.) Comfort Ekpo was promoted to Associate Professor in 1998 and Professor (the first female professor in the University of Uyo) on October 1, 2001.

PROF. OBITOR GEOFFREY OKOGBAA Prof. Okogbaa also played a sensitive role in the elections as he was collation officer in charge of Adamawa state; a state still plagued by insecurity. He is the Vice Chancellor of the Federal University, Wukari, Taraba state.

He obtained his B.S.I.S.E and M.S in Industrial and System Engineering at the Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio in 1977 and 1979, respectively and PhD in Industrial and Mechanical Engineering in 1984 from University of Cincinnati, Ohio. He joined University of Cincinnati as an Assistant Professor in 1984. He is currently Professor of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering and Guest Professor of Public Health at the University of South Florida.

Prof Isaac Adewole During the 2015 Presidential elections, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, Prof Adewole was the collation officer in charge of Lagos state. Adewole was for many years the Head, Department of Obsterics and Gynaecology at the College of Medicine before becoming the Vice Chancellor of Nigeria’s premiere university in 2010.

Adewole gained his MB BS degree from the University of Ibadan in 1978 with the Glaxo Allenbury prize for the best performance in Paediatrics. He joined the services of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology as a Senior House Officer in 1981 and underwent further medical training to become a Senior Registrar in the Department in 1984. Professor Adewole was appointed Lecturer I at the College of Medicine in the University of Ibadan in 1989.

Prof. Hamisu Muhammad The Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja was a defining terrain for the 2015 Presidential elections.

Former Vice Chancellor, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, ATBU, Bauchi, Professor Hamisu Mohammad was the collation officer of the state.

Muhammad finished from Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria with Bachelor of Engineering (Mechanical) degree in 1985. From the same university, he obtained his M.Sc in 1990 also in Mechanical Engineering He bagged his Ph.D in Production Engineering from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi in 1998. Prof.

Muhammad started his working career as a graduate assistant in 1986 in ATBU and rose to the rank of Professor in 2005. Prof.

Muhammad holds the membership of four different professional bodies and has actively participated in many consultancy projects.

EDUC ATION BRIEF EDUCA My Government will focus more on basic education —JImi Agbaje

By Esther Onyegbula

Gubernatorial aspirant of the Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Mr. Jimi Agbaje has assured Lagosians that when elected, this government will focus more on Basic Primary education. He disclosed this at the Charloedony School family fun day celebration in Lagos.

He noted that “in Lagos State more of our children failing O’ levels, there are more failing than those that are passing, for that reason government must accept responsibility that there is something wrong with our education. You also find out that government has not placed enough emphasis on primary education, so our children don’t have good foundation so when they get up the ladder they cannot really cope with the world.”

50—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Lagos Guber election: Police boss vows to remain in INEC until winner emerges

were not even disturbed at all because we knew that nobody would tamper with the votes while we were in charge. We had that confidence that nobody will be able to manipulate the outcome of the vote. We are not going to allow it. That was the instruction of the Inspector-General of Police that we should do everything to be apolitical and non-partisan.

POLICE COMMUNICATION LINES Yes, people called in. You know one thing with our training, any single information or hint that we get, we will work on it. When you call me that there is problem in a particular part of the state, we are not going to discountenance it.

We go there to verify . But 90% were found to be false. I advise Lagosians to make use of the hot lines. They are still active. I encourage Lagosians to report incidents requiring our attention through the following dedicated lines domiciled at the Operations room; 08079279349, 08127155071, 08053299264. complaints can also be forwarded to the following; presspolla@yahoo.com, compolbeeops@yahoo.com. Our twitter handle @policeNGlagos and on faceboo.com/PolicePRO Lagos.

•Recounts how they recorded violencefree Presidential election in Lagos

L

agos State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, could thumb his chest and say eureka! This is because, his constituency recorded a rare feat in the just concluded Presidential and National Assembly elections. In the past, elections in the city witnessed skirmishes and violence. This time it ended peacefully. In fact, the police recorded the lowest number of arrests in election matters in the state.

Crime Guard spoke with the police helmsman in the state and he opened up on how the feat was achieved.

Excerpts: How did you do it?

Just simple. Planning, planning and planning. We were able to put in place a comprehensive plan for the election. We really planned ahead of the election. And in planning, it involved a whole lot of areas; that is my personnel side, the logistic side and everything. We organised trainings for the officers, articulating their roles before the election, during the election and after the election.

This we did in partnership with some NGOs and that which we organised for ourselves. Then, in order to actually get this thing rolling, logistically, I went out of my way to ensure we had very solid deployment.

Let me give you an idea of what we put in place to ensure we had a very successful election. I put in place 500 patrol vehicles; 100 buses, 100 motorcycles, seven trucks, three black Maria for the bad boys , one luxury bus, 12 Armoured Personnel Carriers spread round all our Area Commands.

So, each Area Command had one standby APC to ensure we were able to sort out any problem that might crop up, which never did , snyway. We had five gun boats and 10 speed boats deployed to secure the water ways. The gun boats were spread around areas such as Badagry, Epe, Ikorudu, Takwa- Bay and the like. Then we have two helicopters to complement it. One thing I tried to do was to ensure that my men were able to be deplored and at the same time, have the capacity to respond to any security challenges that might crop up during the election. On the eve of the election, I ensured that all my men were deplored. I had no problem because we had more than enough vehicles. And C M Y K

aside that, we made provision for fuel. So, we were able to maintain the gun boats and speed boats. We had almost two trucks s of PMS and one truck of AGO. We went out of our ways to get things done. In addition, in the area of welfare, I can confirm to you that every personnel in the command including all other police formations in Lagos state, were all paid their allowances two days before the election. They were paid in full as directed by the Inspector-General of Police.

SYNERGY WITH OTHER SECURITY AGENCIES I really understand the role of the police in security architecture, most especially the internal security architecture. Apparently, the fact is that the police are supposed to play the leading role in any security challenges that we have . Its only when we have problem that we can call the military to give us back up. But, what I did was to have an inter- personal relationship with almost all the security chiefs; the Army, the Navy, the Airforce, even Civil Defence, Road Safety, Federal Fire Service, Immigration , Customs. Everybody was on board with me and whenever we attended meetings, they understood that it fell on the police to spear head whatever we were going to discuss. So, I was able to show that leadership and through that exemplary leadership, they were able to trust me as a person and trust the Nigeria Police. All the security agencies deployed their men.

But one thing was clear, you never found them within 30 metres of any polling boot .

FORTH- COMING ELECTIONS Let me seize this opportunity to assure Lagosians that they are in for a very good deal during the final election that is coming up on April 11, that we are going to be there for them.

They should go out and cast their votes.

They should enjoy themselves. We are going to ensure that their votes count and also ensure that the sanctity of that ballot is upheld.

We will not allow anybody to hijack or do anything that is against the electoral act. We have all the offences attributed under the electoral act. We are going to ensure that all those things are met. In addition to that, like what I did in last

•CP Aderanti Saturday’s elections, I was at INEC headquarters, which is very very unusual. I was there on election day. I was there the second day until the final results were collated. I did not leave that place and I ensured that whatever security problem the Resident Electoral Commissioner had, I was addressing it. If I was not there, there would have been a lot of problems. My presence helped a lot. So, I am going to repeat the same thing . Until the winner of the governorship election emerges, until all electoral officers turn in their results, I will be at REC after voting to ensure they are timely and we have a successful election.

PROBLEM AT THE CREEKS I have a magic and you want to know my magic? I am just an optimist. Failure is never in my lexicon. I was telling people that they were going to see wonders during last week’s election in Lagos. And in Lagos, nothing happened. When I say nothing , I mean nothing because I was everywhere.

I was in Badagry, Epe, Ikorodu, Takwa- Bay, there were no skirmishes. People of this state love peace and I assure you come Saturday, April 11, people will go out, they will do their accreditation , cast their votes and just relax.

You know what baffled one in the Presidential election, after casting their votes, people were just sitting in relaxed moods. Even those flashpoints that people thought crisis would happen nothing happened.

POST- ELECTION TENSION You know, it is natural because the stake was so high. So, don’t blame them. Its like one being tensed to hear the outcome of his result after writing an exam. Even our children after writing an examination they worked so hard are philologically affected while waiting for the result. We understood the psychology. So, we

Failure is never in my lexicon.

I was telling people that they were going to see wonders during last week’s election in Lagos.

And in Lagos, nothing happened.

When I say nothing , I mean nothing because I was everywhere.

SKELETAL ARRESTS About nine arrests were made.

You know in Lagos, it was just marvellous that the fraction was just too minimal. This is a surprise because I was physically on ground. We had an incident around Ojuelegba. I was there assuring the electoral officials , the Youth corps members as well as the electorate of their security.

ASSISTANCE FROM GOVERNMENT The government tried a great deal without which this feat would not be achieved. My appreciation goes to the IGP for making welfare available for all officers and men of this command.

And this helped us,. He provided fuel for us and other logistics.

ADVISE TO LAGOSIANS First, I need to thank Lagosians for actually conducting themselves in a most peaceful manner. For their their maturity and patience. Without that, there would have been problems.

Notwithstanding the malfunctioning of the card readers, everybody waited patiently until solution was provided. Instead of taking the laws into their hands, they were very law abiding. So, I urge them to please maintain same composure come April 11, 2015.

To my men and officers, they should know that their welfare is number one. What they have started, lets us compete it together so that Lagos State Command will be number one command in this federation because they have done extremely well and comported themselves in a most professional manner. ...AND TO CRIMINALS You know, our motto in this command is that you can not come here to commit crime and go away. We will get you . We advise them to move out of criminality and imbibe decent living. That we are not going to tolerate any act of criminality, we are going to be very hard on them.

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—51

Ireland assisting Nigeria fight terrorism through EU —Irish Ambassador

T

he Ambassador of Ireland to Nigeria, His Excellency, Sean Hoy has described Ireland Nigeria relationship as cordial and prosperous.

Ambassador Sean who disclosed his country’s strong commitment to ensuring a most cordial bi-national relationship with Nigeria also expressed the need for Nigeria to look further within for increased economic growth.

In this session with Victoria Ojeme, Victor Gotevbe and Vera Anyagafu, Ambassador Sean opened up on areas his country has been assisting the government of Nigeria, the country’s coordination with European Union to ensuring that Nigeria puts an end to terrorists attacks and many other issues of concern.

Excerpts; Your Excellency, you came to Nigeria at a time Nigeria is experiencing the height of terrorists’ attacks. What has Ireland done to assist Nigeria in its fight against terrorism?

When it comes to these bigger issues, Ireland is very much an active member of the European Union and the European Union has been and continued to be a strong partner with Nigeria in that regard.

If all the European Union countries try to break down into different levels of assistance, especially on a very difficult issue like terrorism, Ireland would have a very fragmented approach which will not be in the interest of the Nigerian government.

What you don’t need is a little bit of support. What Nigeria needs is coordinated support and Ireland coordinates very closely through the European Union.

Ireland is very actively involved in trying to understand the terrorist threats here in Nigeria. It does not stop at just the terrorist threats, but the implications also. I travelled to Yola, and that was the closest I could get to the north east, last November, and I visited some of our citizens who are doing some construction works there. I also visited some of them in missionaries, who are helping in Nigeria for a very long time, and the American university, including the state government and the security forces and I was left with the impression that there is really a huge humanitarian situation that is not getting the attention that it needs to get in Nigeria.

People are trying to cope, but the way they are surviving the situation is somehow unimaginable.

About 90 per cent of the displaced people in Yola are living in houses of other Nigerians. Although I have worked in many other parts of Africa and worked in refugee camps, I think Nigerian people should be very proud that they are helping each other in this way.

In a sense, I think they are masking their sufferings and this makes it a little more difficult for the Nigerian government and the international community to respond the way they should.

However, my government is actively looking at this, and we have given a large contribution to the region to support C M Y K

*Ambassador Sean Hoy

Nigerian refugees in Cameroon and Niger.

This is done through the international organisations and we do need to monitor the situation here in Nigeria with the view to giving support, for fact that no one benefits from terrorism or violence.

What is the state of relationship between Nigeria and Ireland at present?

Relationship between Nigeria and Ireland is very positive and Nigeria is our oldest partners in Africa.

Ireland established its embassy in Nigeria in 1961, and it was the first embassy Ireland established on the continent of Africa.

This goes to show that our relationship is very special and rooted.

What you don’t need is a little bit of support.

What Nigeria needs is coordinated support and Ireland coordinates very closely through the European Union.

Ireland is very actively involved in trying to understand the terrorist threats here in Nigeria.

It does not stop at just the terrorist threats, but the implications also.

I will also like to add that just before I assumed office here in 2014, Nigeria was designated as country of special priority for our export market and we need to drive that new relationship to increasing our trade and economic relations What is the volume of trade between Nigeria and Ireland It is progressive and in 2014 Irish’s export to Nigeria was about 339 million euro from 323 million euro the year before and that includes the food products partly related to the Guinness factory in Lagos.

As you know, Guinness is an Irish company right in the center of Dublin so there is still a direct relation between Guinness Ireland and Guinness Nigeria.

We also export a lot of dairy products to Nigeria and we hope to significantly increase that as well as some fish and food flavoring.

Our imports from Nigeria are almost totally petroleum products and this cannot be described as relationship between the two governments, but between traders from both countries.

What areas are you intending improving on both countries relationships?

When we look at relationship we have to look at the change in dynamics.

Nigeria is the biggest economy in Africa, and it has the biggest population, which is half the population of United States of America.

Ireland is looking at the potentials short term and medium term because you also have a large population of young people who have a lot

of interest in modern technology.

And in terms of basic commodities, we are interested in exporting more dairy products in Nigeria and many other countries across the globe.

Interestingly, we already have one Irish company, by name ‘GLANBIA’ and they are investors in Nutricima, Nigeria. This company deals on dairy based products that are sold throughout the country.

On our part, we send the white gold which is milk and we buy the black gold which is Crude from Nigeria. We are also very interested in the financial services in Nigeria especially around Lagos, just as Nigerian banking sectors bring in technology and security that allows external investors to have increased confidence in the financial services.

In other words, we are working in a number of ways in traditional exports of materials that we produce and it is quite exciting.

How encouraging is foreign trade investment in the last 3 years?

It is not always easy to calculate that because when you have found the right investment into Nigeria it could be by a number of companies merged together.

For example, in GLANBIA, where we are working with some other Nigerian partners, it does always come up as FDI from Ireland alone and some of the Irish companies maybe HeadQuartering the operations in the Middle-east and then investing in Nigeria. The issue does not often come up in our trade unions, but certainly, Ambassador Ketabe in Dublin is very interested in getting more fund raised investment from Ireland into Nigeria and we are working in good partnership and Ambassador Ketabe and I are committedly representing Ireland and Nigeria.

So we co-ordinate closely, and try to look at those opportunities and the challenges to a progressive partnership for both countries to thrive. This is in addition to potentials that will attract long term investments to both countries.

What lesson can Nigeria learn from Ireland in terms of industrialisation?

Ireland is very successful at attracting foreign direct investment into the country and this is as a result of good strategic banking by our government. Although, it took a long time, the first thing we did was to market our image, expressing why one should place Ireland over another country.

52—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Change has been in the air since last year, only Ndigbo refused to see it — Ogene •Says Gov. Obiano cannot join APC now

BY VINCENT UJUMADU, Awka

H

onourable Victor Afam Ogene, the member representing Ogbaru federal constituency in the House of Representatives and deputy chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs was the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for Ogbaru federal constituency in the March 28, 2015 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

In this interview with select journalists in Awka, Ogene said he feels sad that the Igbo nation that used to have the finest crop of political strategists in Nigeria lost out in the country’s political chessboard in 2015 because its leaders failed to do their homework well.

He also spoke on the reasons for quitting his former political party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) for APC; why he lost his reelection bid, expectations from the incoming APC federal government of General Muhammadu Buhari, fate of Igbo nation in the country’s political power equation, among other issues. Excerpts.

You are representing Ogbaru Federal constituency, Anambra State. You were elected on the APGA platform before you defected to the APC on which platform you recontested on March, 28, 2015.

What is your assessment of the election in your constituency?

Well, for me, the elections of Saturday, March 28, 2015 had come and gone, but, its ripples will continue to reverberate. I set out on that contest, primarily to ensure that my people of Ogbaru Federal Constituency are not denied the right to choose their elected representative. You will recall that the leaders of my erstwhile political party, APGA, in strong indifference to the position of the party members, imposed a candidate for the House of Representatives seat on the people of Ogbaru. It was, not just in Ogbaru that this happened, it was a statewide occurrence. And some of us felt that as elected representatives of our people, we must stand up to fight such imposition, such a charade.

So, my contest or participation in that contest was primarily to stop APGA candidate, Mrs. Chinwe Nwaebili as represented by Governor Willie Obiano and, national chairman of APGA Victor Umeh from imposing their will and caprice on the people of Ogbaru.

C M Y K

And I will say that despite what transpired , including, anomalies that attended that election, ranging from missing result sheets, non-provision of ballot papers in some polling units, deliberate instigation of violence in some polling units, we achieved our major goal, which was to stop the orchestrated imposition of a particular candidate on the people of Ogbaru. And to the glory of God, we did achieve that guest.

The APGA national chairman, chief Victor Umeh did state when you and your collogues in the House of Representatives left the party that your defection will not affect the party’s popularity in any way because according to him, none of you made any contributions both politically and financially to grow and strengthen the party while you were in the party. What is your take on this?

In terms of political contributions, I think that some of us did much more than Chief Victor Umeh. Yo u will recall that when former Governor Peter Obi, first muted the idea that the governorship slot of the state should go to the North senatorial district of the state, one of the vehement opponents of that proposal was Sir Victor Umeh. In fact, it got to a stage that some people said that people from the Anambra North senatorial district did not have the personality and the financial capability to run for the governorship. I took the campaign upon myself. I was the first politician from the Anambra North senatorial zone to put up bill-boards contending that we have the men and materials to produce a governor.

I went beyond that to insist fiercely that if we are to be considered a part of the tripod that make up Anambra state, then equity, justice and fairness demand that a governor should come from that part of the state. And I pushed that agenda on radio, television and in the print up until the emergence of Chief Willie Obiano as candidate of APGA in the 2013 gubernatorial election. The rest as they say is history.

In terms of financial contributions, I don’t think that Victor Umeh contributed more than any of us. He was rather the receiver and recipient of the financial largesse from the elected members of the House of

•Victor Ogene Representatives under APGA. Yes, at the time that some of us decided to call it quit with APGA, he granted an interview where he said that from their records, we made only about N500,000 contribution to the party. And none of us at the time wanted to dignify him with an answer because political players know that financial contributions are hardly receipted. If I make financial contribution directly to the national chairman or secretary of a party, will I be expecting a receipt? All the monies that former Governor Obi was donating to the party, how many receipts did Victor Umeh issue him?. All the financial contributions I was making during the court cases when I was giving him cash physically he didn’t issue receipt; all our allowances because we had a certain percentage paid to him as a party, he didn’t talk about them. Even the governor and his wife during the contest for the party primaries, some of us were coerced and compelled to contribute to the Governor ’s wife’s pet project. I contributed no less than N10 million to the pet project of the Governor ’s wife, Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano.

Again, it wasn’t receipted, but, we have proof of some of these contributions.

So, if you compel an elected representative or party stalwart to support a project and, he or she does as stated, then at the end of the day you turn round to say that such a fellow has made no contributions, It is the height of ingratitude.

And anybody who shows ingratitude to any cause always has the law of Karma staring at him. And remember that the same man came to my empowerment programme on March 9, 2014, wherein he not only endorsed

Change has been blowing in the air, at least over the last one year.

The only people who refused to see it, take it, are my people of the South East.

me; he actually said, let me quote him: “Victor your re-election by the out –pouring of love and support from your people has been concluded today . The only thing left now, is for the INEC to declare the result”. This is what Victor Umeh said on March 9, 2014.

How can the same man, six months later make a 360- degree turn around to say that I contributed nothing? It is some of us who kept the name, APGA aglow on the national scene. Since we left, let him tell us how many people have spoken for APGA. Who recognizes that APGA is a serious political party over the last six months? Here are posers that only Victor Umeh and Willie Obiano can answer.

It was amazing that despite your popularity in Ogbaru Federal Constituency before the election, you did not win. What could you attribute to this?

Well, in my constituency, Ogbaru, we had two heavy- weights running for senatorial election. One is former minister Stella Adaeze Oduah, senatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for Anambra North. And we also had Chief Duben Obueze, the senatorial candidate of APGA, he is also from Ogbaru. They are not just from Ogbaru federal constituency, but, Ogbaru Local Government. So they are indigenous Ogbaru people. They have their own supporters. So, while the generality of Ndi Ogbaru stood with me in the House of Representatives election many of them found it difficult differentiating which ballot to cast their lot. So in the midst of that confusion … and don’t forget that I ran on the platform of APC which had erroneously been stigmatized by not just Ogbaru people, but, all people of the South East. So, it was

Continues on page 53

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—53

OGENE: We should have listened to Father Mbaka What is Governor Obiano taking to the APC table when he does not have even one elected senator? He managed to smuggle two House of Reps seats that are still contentious. I would rather advise that he stays in APGA and cleans the mass. He should try to see that Anambra still maintains a hold on APGA instead of trying to abandon an empty shell he created. Some of us will not allow him. We will block him.

Of course the link is obvious. Like the national leader of our party, Senator

Continues from page 52

quite a tall order for the people to come to terms in terms of political platform upon which I stood. But it was not just that. The political party that was in charge of the state, APGA, and, the PDP using the federal might, all descended on us, by ensuring that illegalities and anomalies attended that election. They ensured that materials left late to the polling units.

In my own polling unit for instance, voting materials got to my polling unit at 4pm. The exercise was also marred by missing result sheets, deliberately so.

In some others, they instigated violence, which was why, there was no election at all in Mputu / Umunankwo Ward. There was no election in Ochuche/ Ogbakuba Ward; there was no election in Ogbe-Ukwu which was part of Odekpe Ward; there was no election in Ohita community.

Ask anybody in Ogbaru, those are my strongholds. And the influence of the security in the entire charade.

It was such that at a time, the Governor himself, Willie Obiano had to come to Ogbaru to try to manipulate the process. And you would ask; why would a Governor

leave his own polling unit, his own local government, his own federal constituency to come to

another place like Ogbaru. It is because he had sworn that even if it is only one seat that APGA was going to capture in the House of Representatives election, it was going to be Ogbaru federal constituency because he imposed the speaker of the state legislature (Mrs. Chinwe Nwaebili) on the federal constituency. But the people of Ogbaru typical of them resisted him successfully. That was what happened. We were shortchanged, but, unlike some other politicians we are not crying about it. We take it as part of the sacrifices we must make for the sustenance of democracy.

How do you see the in-coming APC –led federal government?

What should we be expecting as Nigerians.

Well, it is not change by itself in the name. Change has been blowing in the air, at least over the last one year. The only people who refused to see it, take it, are my people of the South East.

They are the only political zone that was blinded when people of other zones knew that change was imminent.

As for expectations arising from the victory of the All Progressives Congress, I can tell you straight away that it can no longer be business as usual as we have seen over the 16 years of the PDP administration. If not for nothing, everybody knows that the President elect, Muhammad Buhari is not one who would condone corruption; he is not one that will condone the current ways of doing things in Nigeria where by service, there is widespread corruption, there is nepotism.

Those are things we are sure he will fight, beginning with blockage in the leakages in our oil revenue. If we get only that right, I can assure you that Nigerian economy will pick up once more if we can block the leakages in oil exploration, oil production and oil receipts. So the

•Ogene

change that is already here with us is sure to usher in a new dawn in Nigerian nation.

Would you challenge the outcome of the result of the election in your federal constituency during the March 28, 2015 presidential / National Assembly election in the tribunal?

There are two levels of seeking redress in an election.

One is the party. The party has a right to seek redress, individual also has a right to seek redress. But if you followed what happen in Ogbaru, you will know that the people of Ogbaru feel elated, and, I am not going to spoil their joy.

They felt emasculated by Governor Willie Obiano. And any way by which they get their freedom, I am sure that they will be happy with that, rather than truncating that joy. So the APC in the state is at liberty to seek redress. My lawyers are also studying the papers.

Don’t forget that all the papers haven’t come in. They are still studying the situation. I am saying that all in all, I, as Honourable Victor Afam Ogene will side with the people of Ogbaru in ensuring that no imposed candidate will represent them.

Do you regret quitting APGA. No regret at all. Given another opportunity, I will do it all over. However, the only regret appears to be the fact that a Pharaoh who does not know Joseph came to the Throne. And so, instead of taking the people to the expected Promised Land, he has decided to maroon them in Egypt. And we can now see the consequences of his bravado.

For a man who met five elected representatives at the national level to drop so abysmally to a point where he had to use raw state power to maintain just two seats in the House of Representatives, then I think that something is not adding up . And going ahead to lose three senatorial seats as a sitting governor who has been

prancing up and down as not only the national leader of the party, the BOT chairman and at the same time as governor, in the same spirit that Victor Umeh has held APGA in the jugular in the past ten years, it is the same way that Chief Willie Obiano has decided to conscript APGA and its members into his pockets. But his pockets are not big enough to contain all the people to make APGA what it should be. And as you may know, impunity does not last forever.

A political party whose national chairman does not have the glory of an elected person, even as a counselor, he has never won an election even as a councilor, and goes ahead to fail a senatorial election; losing to a female cocontestant who only a few months ago, you described as a political prostitute coming now to trounce you in an election who will have any regret leaving a party of egoistic individuals? I don’t think anybody will have any regret. We have rather proven to them that power belongs to the people. And that is why I also told you that in my reelection quest, all my campaigns, I never asked the people of Ogbaru to vote for me; all I told them was ‘don’t allow an impostor to impose a candidate on you’. And to the glory of God the people listened to me. So, the governor and his candidate failed woefully. That is enough victory for me.

The irony now is that while you are saying that Governor Obiano has destroyed APGA, we are hearing that he is making plans to cross over to APC where he chased you to.

What is your reaction?

Yes, I also heard the rumour that Governor Obiano summoned his party stalwarts, party executives in all the local governments to his Aguleri country home where he made veiled reference to the fact that he might be looking to the way of the APC. My immediate response was that he is not welcomed because he should first clean up the mess in APGA before thinking of jumping ship.

APC, if you followed the history of its formation welcomed people who had something to bring to the table.

What will he bring to the table? Every single governor who joined the coalition that metamorphosed into APC brought something to the table.

Isiwaju Bola Tinubu would always say, ‘power is not given to anybody freely; you fight for power, you canvass for power, and in extreme cases you should be ready to make extreme sacrifice in defence of your beliefs, and ideals.

It is the executive arm that took that decision to remove the speaker.

The legislature is a different arm of the government. Our resolute stand at the time was against high handedness wherein the executive branch of government would always interfere in the activities in the legislature.. But don’t forget that in June, 2011, we decided that we will regulate our conduct by choosing our own leaders in the national assembly. But in each step on the way, as the executive tried to bring down the legislature, and, I thank God we resisted it, and we are still going to resist it to the very end, until such a time another session takes over.

What is your next line of action considering that you didn’t scale re-election.

I don’t have a next line of action.

Shakespeare says what concerns us will be last said; it is not about me. I keep re-iterating; it is about the people, the people, the people. At the end of the day, I, as Victor Afam Ogene, I am fine. I am a professional.

So I wouldn’t be looking for job. But what is paramount is: What happens to your people? What is their stake in the scheme of thing? And that is why I feel so sad that Igbo nation which used to be top political strategists, this time around got it all wrong such that even outside the political spheres somebody like Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka had to even come into the equation.

And I thought that my people will take heed of his message out what happened. They threw the baby away with the bath-water. If you look at the configuration today, the Presidency is gone, Vice-Presidency, the Senate presidency, speaker of the House of Representative, the CJN are gone; no Igbo man is there. What it means is that where decisions will be taken pertaining to Nigerian nation over the next few years, there will be no Igbo man sitting in those meetings.

Even in this out-going dispensation, even though we were fringe players, at least we had Igbo man attending such meetings intermittently. This is because if the senate president was not attending such meetings, his deputy, Ike Ekweremmadu was there. If speaker Aminu Tambuwal was not attending such meetings, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, as his deputy, would attend. But in the next dispensation no Igbo man will have such opportunity.

As the court will say, ‘there is no Father Charismas in Politics’. This is because out of the 15 senators from the Continues on page 52

54—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

By CHIOMA GABRIEL

W

hen it was just a few hours to the end of campaigning before Nigeria’s presidential election, there was an unruly crowd at the headquarters of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The crowd was not there to cheer PDP. The crowd was there to collect their money.

Amongst them was a group from Lagos which was demanding N10million, about $50,000 (U.S.) for its campaign efforts for the incumbent president. The leaders of the group reportedly said they were offered only N100,000 a small fraction of what they originally demanded, and they were shouting at the guards at the gate.

Close-by, another group, mostly women were seeking payment for attending a campaign rally. “We want our money,” they were also shouting.

In Nigeria, money is what makes politics go around. Money buys votes, buys bags of rice as gifts for voters, buys the support of local leaders, and buys the wall-to-wall campaign advertisements that have dominated Nigeria’s television channels and newspapers for several months.

Last Saturday’s presidential election where about 70 million eligible voters voted is widely believed to be the most expensive in African history.

The history of Nigerian politics is replete with money-bag politics.

Although, there is hardly any country in the world where instances of bribery or political corruption are not present in their national politics, researches on Africa’s post colonial history, have however shown that, in Africa, corruption is an institutionalized and a systemic practice affecting the majority of the citizenry.

Election advertising is so massive that it squeezes out most other commercials on television. The PDP and its wealthy supporters paid for a 36-page glossy advertising supplement in major newspapers for weeks in addition to the dozens of full-page ads it bought every day for three months.

The PDP also paid for lengthy documentaries which attacked the main opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

An assault All over the world, democracy is adjudged to be the best form of government but it is being constantly assaulted in Nigeria due to the phenomenon of money politics and vote buying.

Since May 29th, 1999, when Nigeria enthroned democratic governance in the fourth republic, the dividends of democracy have been very scanty. One main reason for this is the fact that the concept and practice of democracy appears to be at variance in Nigeria.

Money and vote buying have vitiated the good qualities of democracy in the country. The destructive power of money politics has over the years undermined good governance. Money and vote buying have earned many a dominant position in the election of officers into position of authority where C M Y K

•Jonathan

DEMOCRACY:

It’s not always about money they authoritatively decide who gets what, when and how.

A recent survey of 2,520 randomly selected Nigerians this year, conducted for the Washington-based International Foundation for Electoral Systems, found that 48 per cent of those interviewed said they would “take the money” if offered for their vote; 45 per cent of those surveyed said they would not sell their vote under any circumstances.

Others said they would collect money and still vote for who they want to vote.

Financial inducement to voters at campaign rallies is standard practice in Nigeria.

Politicians often give out money, bags of rice and other gifts to Nigerians at their events.

According to estimates by observers, politics is expensive even at lower levels. To run for a seat in Nigeria’s House of Representatives, candidates need a minimum of $500,000

to $1-million (U.S.).

To contest for the Senate is even more expensive.

It is a common belief that at the end of the day, elections are bought and this is so widespread and blatant, and it’s such a fundamental part of the problem in Nigeria.

Money played a key role in the contest between incumbent president Jonathan and General Buhari.

At a stage during the contest, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation, APCPCO accused the incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan campaign organisation of frittering away N1tr of tax payers money to sponsor hate campaigns to tarnish the image of leaders of the APC. The APCPCO said the money was spent on advertorials in newspapers as well as sponsorship of damaging documentaries on the APC presidential candidate, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari(retd.), and other party leaders.

The Peoples Democratic Party,

PDP, denied the allegation and accused the APC of paranoia and desperation in its futile attempt to claim power.

The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, said, “It is now clear that the APC has nothing else to tell Nigerians, who have made up their minds to return President Goodluck Jonathan and the PDP. Ask them, how much is Nigeria’s budget? They should talk on issues and stop this propaganda.”

But Garba Shehu had responded, “A panoramic view of how much Nigeria’s resources Jonathan and PDP have laboriously and wantonly spent on print, broadcast and social media campaigns just to damage the unassailable credential of Gen Buhari’s integrity will confound any casual observer of the polity in recent times.

The APC campaign also accused Jonathan of crisscrossing Nigeria and giving an average of N50m each to traditional rulers, most especially in the SouthWest and the northern parts of Nigeria.

The race was more of a conflict of personalities and organizations. And it’s clear, from the advertising, that PDP had far greater financial resources.

The integrity question But if indeed money answers all things, there is one thing it will always fail to buy, and that is credibility.

Although both parties used financial inducement, the campaign between Buhari and Jonathan was more of campaign between money and integrity, Continues on page 55

SATURDAY

Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—55

Democracy: It’s not always about money Continues from page 54

there is one thing it will always fail to buy, and that is credibility. Although both parties used financial inducement, the campaign between Buhari and Jonathan was more of campaign between money and integrity, Jonathan representing money and Buhari representing integrity. The credibility of Nigerian politics has been absolutely mired by the role money plays. Money is not evil in itself, but its use in the pursuit of power has broken the fragile conscience of even the youngest breed of the Nigerian citizen.

Before the politics of wanton and reckless showmanship of mammonism, politics was about a good and revered name. In the days of the Azikiwes, the Awolowos, the Eyo Itas, the Enahoros, the Margaret Ekpos, and those in their exclusive class, politics was about integrity.

These politicians were not fabulously rich but they had a good name and an undying passion to deliver their people from the shackles of colonialism and imperialism.

But since the incursion of the military into Nigeria’s politics, Nigeria witnessed a gradual putrefaction of patriotism and seeds of corruption began to breed, maturing into today’s monetised politics. Money became the only way men could secure their living.

Moreover, INEC placed a heavy price tag on those seeking public office and for that also, money will always mess up the process. As long as a huge

monetary commitment is required of those who want to serve, the system will hardly be rid of dubious men. All what this has produced is more and more business politicians, who invest money to gain power and reap a harvest of funds for the public good. The presidential candidates in last Saturday’s election paid N27m to obtain their forms.

The concept of god-fatherism has also played out across states in Nigeria. We still remember the case of the self-styled strong man of Ibadan politics, Lamidi Adedibu and the case of Chris Uba and Dr. Ngige which was the messiest evidence of politics of trade by barter going on in Nigeria. Chris Uba had the effrontery to declare war on the Ngige government because his monetary investments were being threatened.

The fraud perpetrated by politicians during elections since 1999 and the big money that exchanged hands overtime is monumental. The last presidential election was explicit . Critics would agree that big money in politics, used mostly to buy votes, electoral officers and political thugs to clobber the opposition has exacerbated the “kleptomania” in the society.

Politicians have the obsessive

C M Y K

•Bola Tinubu desire to steal and amass enough money to enable them sludge it out politics. The money-induced political power struggle has corrosive effect on the political process.

At present, a specter is haunting Nigeria - the specter of corruption fueled by moneybags. The Nigerian politicians have not yet imbibed the democratic principles that permit them to act as true democrats, except to steal and destroy others.

During the 2003 politics, the moneybags made billions of Naira donations toward the reelection campaign of the then president Obasanjo. His party (PDP) served as conduit for corrupt governors and public servants to channel their loots to his campaign.

Nevertheless, whenever the President felt that his administration was sliding into irrelevance, he would create a ripple in the polity to drum his reforms programs. But his diversionary tactics did not tame corruption or curb the politics of “give and take” and “kleptocracy.”

Why money failed Jonathan Despite the outrageous sum he squandered for the election, Nigerians still preferred an opposition government and a new breath of life. Although both parties spent a lot of money, the ruling party , the PDP spent more.

Yet, the incumbent President Jonathan lost.

In a situation like this, one point at which friends, admirers, foes and detractors agree upon

the person of General Muhammadu Buhari is the issue of his transparent, honest and incorruptible nature. Based on his antecedents, many believe that a man with strict disciplinary qualities can tame the behemoth of corruption and liberate Nigerians from that scourge’s destructive impact. If corruption in Nigeria is reduced by 50% , over 70% of our problems will be solved. And it takes an incorruptible person to sincerely fight corruption.

Another possible reason is a strong yearning for change. In Nigeria, many people are yearning for change and the person who is entrusted to facilitate the change must be that person who can make the difference. In today’s Nigeria, General Muhammadu Buhari is a solid character and indisputable political leader with the largest number of ardent followers across the country. His followers are not induced, purchased, coerced or brainwashed. They follow him based on the admiration of his trustworthiness, honesty of purpose, courage, patriotism and disciplined nature.

Former military president, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, recently said President Goodluck Jonathan lost the presidential election to Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress, APC, because Jonathan failed to meet the yearnings and aspiration of Nigeria’s citizens.

In his congratulatory message to Buhari, he said: “Buhari deserves this victory. The country had witnessed a downward trend and wanted a leader who would salvage it. Nigerian politicians

Despite the outrageous sum he squandered for the election, Nigerians still preferred an opposition government and a new breath of life

have a lot of lessons to learn from the election and Buhari’s victory and one of this is that an incumbent could be defeated if he did not do well as President. “ This victory to me conveys two significant statements on our political history and evolution.

First; that incumbents can be defeated in any democratic process if the people’s aspirations are not fulfilled. Second, that there is good reward for perseverance and hard work.

General Buhari has been very consistent in pursuing his political aspiration. In fact, he reminds me of President Abraham Lincoln of the American fame, who was very dogged in pursuing his political aspiration and enriched the contents of democracy in America.

General Buhari lives true to his military calling by remaining very consistent, resilient and courageous right from 2003 till date. This enviable feat to me further enriches our democratic process and matures us into the top echelon of nations where democracy has taken firm root.

That President Jonathan has indeed conceded defeat and congratulated the President-elect is also cheering news.”

Nigeria is consistently ranked as one of the world’s most corrupt nations and the north is wracked by the brutal Boko Haram Islamist insurgency.

Jonathan was accused of failing to take on endemic problems but sitting on them.

“He has always said ‘Oh yes, we will take care of that,’” said Pat Utomi, a professor at Lagos Business School and prominent political commentator. “I think he meant to do well... but it seems there was never clarity in his head of where he wanted Nigeria to be.”

56—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

BY JULIET EBIRIM

he isn’t going to sign the document.

A

gain, national commentator Jimi Disi was on Classic FM for his usual Front Page News, a review of newspaper headline news on Wednesday, the morning Mohammadu Buhari was declared winner of the March 28 elections. Below is what he said: Everybody knows that Buhari is our new presidentelect. Let’s do a quick review of how we got to where we are; Why did Jonathan lose generally? I think the major problem was that he didn’t seem to have a concrete plan and he couldn’t control his environment, both domestic and official. He didn’t have control over the security agencies, remember what happened with the Chibok girls and so on. All these things he could have taken care of. His government wasn’t well run. He was giving out appointments like candy in appreciation for loyalty and he was unduly loyal to his associates. Then his campaign strategy was wrong from beginning to the end, it made Buhari the issue. His biggest problem was the PDP, because they didn’t allow democracy to prevail in that party. Close your eyes and imagine if some of the people in APC today who defected from PDP were still in the PDP, we wouldn’t be talking about an APC victory today. They ran the primaries and refused to sell forms to others. This is a lesson to the PDP and other parties. You don’t impose candidates. People are not cattle, they can react.

BUHARI NO MORE SAME He got quite a number of things wrong and to be fair and honest, I don’t really think that in reality he’s a presidential material, though he put in his best, but his best wasn’t just good enough. I don’t think he was prepared for governance and these are the things we need to watch out for in future.

Let’s not get carried away with this victory, because Buhari himself is going to have his own shortcomings and we are going to see how he’s going to handle them. A lot of people will be surprised that it’s not the Buhari of twenty something years ago that we have there now. So we are going to keep our eyes on the ball. I like the way the president quickly conceded defeat, but what we don’t know is whether he C M Y K

PDP vows to challenge Buhari’s victory at the Tribunal.

I’m going to give the PDP some free advice. What they need to do is, go back and re-strategise. There are very few people in this country who would want to hear that they are not going to have Buhari sworn in on May 29th, not after the president has conceded.

They should go back and get themselves organised for the next four years. Their party is in tatters, rather than waste their time going to the tribunal, they should go to their inner recess and sort themselves out. We need a formidable opposition to the APC. People should have it at the back of their minds that politicians generally are the same, so be on your guard.

•Jimi Disu

PDP was Jonathan’s biggest problem — Jimi Disu was pushed to the wall by certain people, because about a day to the announcement he seemed to be surrounded by certain people.

YORUBA FACTOR AND FANI KAYODE’S HATE CAMPAIGN One of the lessons Jonathan is going to learn is that if he had courted the Yorubas early in the day and hadn’t shoved them aside, not at the last minute when he started visiting the Obas, maybe the outcome would have been different today, just maybe. But then, three million votes are a lot of votes. It’s also a lesson to all politicians never to go on a hate campaign to win elections. What has all what Femi Fani-Kayode said come to now? People always sympathise with the underdog. People want peace

in their lives. When you go attacking a man, people sympathise with him. I hope that lessons have been learnt.

Next time you want to run a campaign, go get a professional public relations person to handle your media.

PRESIDENT JONATHAN’S PHONE CALL TO BUHARI Well, we don’t know whether he was pushed to the wall or if he did it voluntarily, but it was still magnanimous of him and it just doused all the tension. I think President Jonathan has made his exit in a statesmanly manner and it’s a lesson for Nigeria.

ON PDP AGENT WHO DECLINED TO SIGN RESULT SHEET The agent who refused to sign is Dr. Bello Fadile

who should have been in his office in the NSS monitoring the Boko Haram crisis.

That’s part of what we are saying - a man at the NSS office who should be more concerned with the Boko Haram issue was made a party agent.

This is part of the poor co-ordination I’m talking about. As soon as the president knew that he was going to concede victory, he would have put a call through so that the agent would sign in the name of peace, even if they were going to go to the election tribunal. Refusing to sign the result sheet took the shine away from the president’s congratulatory move – the president congratulates on the one hand and his agent refuses to sign on the other.

He disgraced the president by not signing because it means that he didn’t agree with him. I can’t congratulate and then a subordinate says

On Elder Orubebe’s apology after his show of shame I’m glad that he regretted his actions because it was totally unbecoming. I thank God that Jega was cool. It was Jega’s soft words to him that seemed to calm him down. He told him you are a former minister, you need to know how to conduct yourself. He behaved like a thug, but because he has apologised, we are going to leave it at that. Our politicians need to learn how to control themselves, he’s as bad as those who climbed the fence at the National Assembly the other day. Look at Fadile, a retired colonel, he doesn’t know the process of sending in petitions. When you want to send a petition to INEC, you send it to the office. At his level as a senior officer in the NSS, is that how they run government? Is that how things are done? I’m calling on the APC for God’s sake, this is an opportunity for them to flush out the system.

Now that we have a new dawn, Buhari as an elder statesman also has to set a moral code of living and he will start with himself. I’m looking forward to a Buhari who will demystify a lot of things and all these power show. I’m looking forward to an active government. Elder Orubebe has apologised and I think we should forgive him.

What I don’t know is if he has written a formal letter of apology to Prof. Attahiru Jega because he insulted the man and called him all sorts of names.

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—57

proper trial. And take note that there is nothing stopping the defence lawyers from raising another fresh preliminary issue again that they may warrant them going on appeal again and asking for a stay of proceedings again. And this kind of game can go on and on.

Surely, this situation does not augur well for both the accused and the prosecution because even the accused person has a right to have his fate decided as quickly as possible. So the solution is to go back to that document I submitted to the National Assembly some three years ago.

R

enowned lawyer, social crusader and activist, Mr. Festus Keyamo was one of those who stuck his neck out for General Muhammadu Buhari.

Throughout the campaign, he was unrelenting in his vocal support and mobilisation for Buhari. In this interview, he talked about the victory and his suggestions on the fight against corruption amongst other issues.

Against the barrage of attacks poured on Buhari, how would you describe the victory ?

I think this victory was divinely ordained, because in the history of politics in Nigeria, no politician has been so battered and vilified by the opposite side as General Muhammadu Buhari was. No ordinary politician could have survived those heavy pounding. But then General Buhari is not an ordinary politician. All over the country he has a cult following amongst the ordinary people, and it is that image that repelled those heavy defamatory artilleries that were directed at him. His longacknowledged integrity and incorruptibility saved him from those negative adverts at the end. In fact, for me personally, why I stuck out my neck for him was the incorruptible image of Buhari that my late boss, Chief Gani Fawehinmi created in my mind some twenty-three years ago when I started my practice with him.

So it was difficult for that mental image I had of him to be rubbished overnight by some stupid documentaries by some desperate politicians. And that is why for a politician, image is everything and money is nothing. It is also a lesson to some of us that at a much younger age, it is better to develop a legacy of integrity and honesty. These are more enduring possessions than money.

How do you think Buhari can repair Nigeria?

I must confess that the challenges are huge because the damage that has been done by the PDP government at the national level in the last sixteen years has been enormous. There is no doubt that General Buhari has the requisite determination, courage and integrity to deal with the problems. But that is on the one hand. On the other hand, the people he picks to work with him must also key into his own vision and have equal determination and courage to deal with the problems. And yet there is one more angle: The level of the rot left behind by the retreating scavengers of our economy will only be known when Buhari finally has access to the books left behind. It is then we can know just how quickly the repair would take.

What critical sectors of the economy do you think need urgent attention?

The first thing he must develop is a template to address the issue of insecurity.

The economy in many parts of the North has collapsed as a result of insecurity. No economy can grow in the throes of insecurity. Then there is the power sector. Something urgent needs to be done, either by way of finetuning what is already on the ground or by a complete overhaul. The free fall of the Naira is also a cause for concern. Something has to be done to halt it immediately. Issues surrounding the economy must be addressed quickly.

Then there is the problem of unemployment of our teeming youths across the country. And by this, I don’t mean letters of employment should start issuing to everybody immediately! What I mean is certain policies and programmes to revive small and medium scale industries in C M Y K

•Festus Keyamo

We have just witnessed a bloodless revolution — Keyamo

particular must be urgently developed to empower them to absorb many unemployed persons over a period of time. This is because the private sector is still the key to solving the problem of mass unemployment and not government.

Another problem is the almighty issue of corruption. The public must see a change in the approach of the new government in respect of the fight against corruption. The issue of backlog of pending corruption cases in our courts must be urgently addressed and the issue of cases swept under the carpet because of politics must also be addressed.

Talking about the fight against corruption, the major impediment has been the delay in dealing with corruption cases in court, what is the solution to this?

Well, if you remember, I sent a comprehensive proposal to the National Assembly some few years ago on how to address this problem but it was ignored. I wish they can take a look at it again. This is because the delays in the administration of criminal justice in Nigeria, especially corruptionrelated cases, have become a notorious fact. Well-meaning Nigerians have consistently raised alarm about this issue. And it is a well-known fact that justice delayed is justice denied. Justice is denied

to the generality of the people of Nigeria when those who are alleged to have committed heinous crimes against the State make nonsense of the law and delay their trials by clever tricks and continue to walk the streets and work their way into public offices to perpetrate more crimes whilst their criminal cases are pending in different courts. At the end of the day, the cases are lost because of the death of witnesses, loss of memory by witnesses, loss of exhibits, loss of interest and zeal by prosecutors and the aggrieved by effluxion of time, the compromise of witnesses by the accused, e.t.c.

In all criminal trials in Nigeria, especially the corruption-related cases, no matter how good the case of the prosecution is, the accused persons, through their lawyers, have now devised a common scheme or strategy to delay the trials and invariably thwart the whole legal process: they simply raise all manner of PRELIMINARY OBJECTIONS to either the Charge, or the proof of evidence, or the appearance of counsel or relating to jurisdiction of the court. They may also wait for the prosecution to lead evidence and then make a no-case submission.

Once they are overruled, (which happens in most cases as most of the Courts find those applications or submissions frivolous) the Accused persons would immediately file interlocutory appeals to higher courts and would always request the lower courts to stay trials pending the appeals. Once the trials are stayed by the lower courts, the appeals take a number of years to get to the Supreme Court before they are referred back to the courts of first instance to begin the

How would you advice the President-Elect against the backdrop of many pitfalls of the Jonathan’s administration?

It is simple: The President-Elect must watch out for those hawks who are now swirling around him and who were never there before. They are called Any-Government-in-Power.

These are people without principles, without integrity and without conscience. They will just come in and mess up his government for him.

But I trust he has the experience to know how to weed off such people.

He should also not take for granted the present goodwill he has enjoyed across Nigeria. He must never take the people for granted. He must stick to his words and his campaign promises. He cannot solve all the problems overnight but the people must see some genuine efforts on his part and that of his team.

Do you believe in an ‘All-inclusive/ Unity’ government as envisaged by the President-Elect?

Look, we are all Nigerians, whether we belong to the APC, PDP or any other political party. So, wherever the President-Elect can find capable hands, he should bring them on board.

When Buhari introduced War Against Indiscipline, WAI, he was a military Head of State. How can he inculcate or bring back discipline in our behavioral attitudes in a democratic setting? Nigeria is about the only country a bus driver stops on the centre of the road to pick passengers, Okada riders drive against traffic and people drop refuse on the streets, things that WAI stopped but are now common with us The problem has always been enforcement of our laws. If the law enforcement agencies do their jobs, you don’t have to drag the office of the President into this issue. So, the job of the President is to empower, encourage and mandate the law enforcement agencies to enforce the laws of the land, no matter whose ox is gored.

What does this victory portend to Nigeria considering the fact that it is the first time opposition was winning, something many thought would not happen in our lifetime?

For once, the people have used their power to change a Federal Government through the ballot box.

It has never happened before. No single shot was fired to achieve this change of government. It is what we call a bloodless revolution. It has lifted our spirits as citizens of this country and it has polished our democracy. The people have now scented blood with power of their PVCs and they will not look back again in using it effectively to change unpopular governments.

58—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Why I fell out with Tinubu — Gani Adams ‘Money answereth all things.”

So, an organisation that has over 6million people with structures in over 33 states needs money to survive. Any part of the country that you have Yoruba, you will have OPC led by Gani Adams. We dissipate a lot of energy to mobilise people. We work not like those who do theirs on pages of newspapers. What you saw on the Monday we demonstra ted was just three per cent of our members, about 300,000.

•Otunba Gani Adams

How did your relationship with Tinubu get to this point?

BY ISHOLA BALOGUN & EBUN SESSOU

N

ational Coordinator of the Yoruba SocioCultural group, Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, Otunba Gani Adams, in this interview reveals that his rusty relationship with the leader of All Progressive Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was as a result of his resolve to free himself and his group from the servitude of the opposition. He discloses how the leader of the party truncated the peace move brokered by Governor Aregbesola of Osun State; the pipeline contract President Jonathan awarded OPC. This interview was on the eve of the last Presidential election.

Excerpts.

OPC is believed to be a social cultural organisation, but the recent rally organised by you in support of Jonathan shows that it has become partisan. Why is OPC delving into partisan politics?

Well, every human being is a political animal. Politics is everywhere even in your homes.

If you have four children, there is possibility that two of them will support everything the father does while others will

pitch their tent with the mother.

That is politics within the family.

You also have politics with your community or in landlord associations, social clubs including your business ventures. We were only supporting a candidate without involving in what went on within the political parties. Here in my office, you cannot see anything reflecting PDP as a party. We also did not use the symbol of PDP, or that of any other party. I am a leader of Oodua People Congress and convener of Coalition of Concerned Nigerians and the Convener of Oodua Progressive Union in abroad as well as the Promoter of Olokun Festival Foundation and Chairman of Donyx Global Concept, all these are nonpartisan organisations.

Human resources are the most lucrative resources in the world but we don’t even appreciate the value of what we have. In the 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 elections, we did not issue a statement that we were going to support candidate A, B or C. Our followers were scattered in all political parties without coordination. We later realized that when these politicians get into power, they don’t even bother to know whether we are existing, they don’t even believe we are relevant with our human

resources.

How do you mean they did not believe you are relevant?

We gathered from a reliable source that ACP as a party, under the instruction of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu will not empower Gani Adams and OPC. The belief is that Gani and OPC are growing and you can only stop him when you starve him of their needs. Six months to the end of the tenure of Bola Tinubu as a Governor, he asked Dr Fedrick Fasehun to collapse his structure into the then ACN and promised he would provide everything he (Fasehun) wanted. Fasehun ignored him and you know no reasonable person will honour that agreement. Somebody asked him to contact Gani Adams’ group who has 90 per cent of the men, Tinubu maintained that Gani was stubborn and he would not accept that arrangement but resolved that the only option was to starve the group of funds, drain their pipe of resources and they will come begging. This was shortly before Tinubu’s exit as the governor of Lagos state. We realised that somebody who could go to such extent can do anything to suppress you.

The truth also is that, there is hardly anything you do without money, just like the Bible says

We gathered from a reliable source that ACP as a party, under the instruction of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu will not empower Gani Adams and OPC

Nobody was close to Tinubu than I was. I used to stay with Tinubu and I would be the last man standing with him. We ate on many occasions around 3am on the same table. Most of my meetings with him were during the wee hours. I know Tinubu very well and Governor Aregbesola of Osun State.

My take is that you cannot continue to enslave me. I am a breadwinner of my family. I am a stakeholder in my State and my community. My followers also want freedom. We give them various opportunities to make a living and they are happy with what they get. I cannot continue to donate my resources to somebody who do not want to empower me.

Politics is about interest. It may interest you to know that about seven to eight months to the election, the president sent some people to consult me in Lagos on his intention to run and seek my support. I immediately debriefed the National Co-ordinating Council on the issue, we deliberated on it and we agreed to support him.

Did you consult with other Yoruba elders before taking that decision of supporting Jonathan?

Do we have a Yoruba leader now? There is no Yoruba leader.

And on what capacity do you

Continues on page 59

SATURDAY

Continues from page 58 call the Yoruba elders to take a decision on election? It has never happened in the history of Yoruba and I don’t think it will ever happen. This is because if you have 70 per cent going a particular way, you will have others going another direction. So, you will still have majority and minority decisions.

You saw there was a summit in Akure, another one in Ibadan and yet another summit in Lagos formed by the APC where they goofed by saying Olubadan endorsed Buhari which was immediately refuted by the monarch through a paid advert. So, it is not easy as you said but the limit we have is our own organisation, OPC.

“Why he backed Jonathan ”

Why didn’t you meet him on your grievances and reconcile with him?

We met about three years ago when Aregbesola tried to broker peace but Tinubu was not ready to reconcile with me. His response that day proved that he was not ready for reconciliation. He justified his position that he had assisted me on several occasions and saved me from possible death. I tried to make some comments but Aregbesola stopped me, asking me to accept everything Tinubu said for peace and I obliged.

But, Tinubu himself truncated the peace move.

During my 43rd birthday celebration, I was advised to meet him and I went to him, gave him an invitation letter. I waited at the reception for about three hours. I couldn’t have waited like that to see Jonathan.

When I eventually saw him, he called one of his aides and said: “Dare, give him N1million” Then, I said, it is not about money, but your presence or you send a representative.

Then, he said, he would send a woman to the ceremony. But surprisingly, nobody came. The Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola also did the same on my 40th birthday. I called him severally to the wee hours of the day of the programme. He assured me of his presence, but he later disappointed me. My investigations showed that he was instructed by his boss not to honour my occasion. The Speaker of Lagos State, Ikuforiji also did the same. His was very surprising because, he had already sent his advance team to the occasion, an indication that he would come, but he did not show up and his advance team left suddenly before the end of the programme. It was only the then Governor Gbenga Daniel that attended that occasion. As a Yoruba man, we value recognition more than money.

Another scenario was during the burial ceremony of his

•Otunba Gani Adams mother. I was offered a seat by one of the honorable members but I decided to go and greet him (Tinubu). To my greatest surprise, his head of task-force, Bayo Lawal stopped me while Tinubu watched. I was surprised to see Tinubu behave as if nothing had happened. I walked out of the place immediately.

It is not in my character to heroworship. If I don’t have enough money on me, I swallow my pride and stay at home. There are other issues that I cannot tell on the pages of newspapers for now so that, people will not think I am being petty. As Yoruba, we should strive to lift one another.

Tinubu was assisted by Afenifere and within one and half years that he got into power, he kicked them out.

Within two years, he impeached the main Afenifere product, Kofoworola Bucknor. He used three deputy governors during his tenure because of his

intolerance. The only people Tinubu wants are boot- lickers, paupers and people without conscience. The Yoruba race is being misrepresented by those who profess to be Yoruba leaders.

I am a long runner and a trained fighter, you can’t rubbish me. I have more than 20 means to fight my enemy, not with weapons but with different strategies. I have the structures on ground and I will use them to the letter.

About the pipeline contract They are only calling for change on the basis of fallacy. We are not fools, we are not desperate. We did not negotiate with Jonathan.

The pipeline issue they are talking about started two years ago. Several organisations submitted proposals to NNPC and because the heat was so much then, they slowed down the process. They arrived at a conclusion on it last December and we could have gotten the contract in December, but it was

If a Yoruba Governor did not empower the Yoruba and someone from SouthSouth decides to do so, I wonder what such people want

Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015—59

delayed because of logistics.

The problem was that the Bayelsa State Governor insisted that they should incorporate some guys in the project, which was one of the reasons for the delay in President’s assent. It was not awarded for the purpose of election and it was never made to induce us to compromise our principle. If it was because of the election, the President would have given cash, if not in naira, it would be in dollars instead of contract.

I have been in relationship with Jonathan since he was vice President. He knows how to manage people and maintain relationship. He would call me and say: ‘Gani, how are you doing?” Ask Tinubu who is a Yoruba man, the last time he called me.

Only Aregbesola and Gbenga Daniel do that. Daniel is wonderful, he will tell you the last time you called him or visited him and ask you if you are angry with him. Late Agagu was another caring person. I was in Brazil sometime ago when he asked Femi Agagu to call me to send the CV of my candidate, and he gave Segun Ajiboye an appointment. So, if we play politics like that, we will not hesitate to die for you, we will stick out our necks for you. You are now complaining that Jonathan gave us contract, a contract that will empower no less than 15000 youths in the South West. The leas will get N50,000. As big as Lagos State, its work force is not up to 30,000 and how much is the minimum wage? The people of the Niger Delta have been enjoying these benefits. The budget of amnesty is about N90billion every year and they have been disbursing this money to that region for the past six years. We are not part of the amnesty package because there was no reason for that. We are only freedom fighters. Thank God for that and that was the reason we were favoured. At least the presence of OPC has helped other agencies to reduce insecurity even on the meagre allowance of N15,00 to N20,000. Now we have to empower another 15,000 young men. My group is 5000 men, Dr. Fasehun has 5,000 while Gen Shuwa in Ondo has 5000 too. Do you know how many families that will touched?

They tried to stop it two years ago and now they are harassing again. You do not empower us and you don’t want Federal government to do so.

If a Yoruba Governor did not empower the Yoruba and someone from South-South decides to do so, I wonder what such people want.

Anyone who is against the pipeline contract is an enemy of the Yoruba.

60—SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Cheer yi ttak ak es campaigns ttoo sstree tree ts, mar Cheerss as Ugwuan Ugwuanyi akes treets, markkets

BY FRANCIS IGATA

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pparently relieved and reinvigorated following the validation of his candidature through the judgment of an Abuja High Court on March 2, Enugu State Peoples Democratic Party,PDP,governorship candidate, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, weekend,took to the streets and markets propagating the programmes, policies of his administration if elected April 11.

The National Chairman of PDP,Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu had during the presidential rally in Enugu held at the Nnamdi Azikwe Stadium described Ugwuanyi as the,”most popular governorship candidate PDP had ever had since 1999".

Mu’azu’s description of Ugwuanyi’s blistering popularity was again, at play when Ugwuanyi and his running mate,Mrs. Cecilia Ezeillo and other party officials visited Aria,Timber,Abakpa,Ogbete markets in Enugu metropolis, disseminating programmes and polices of his administration hinged on,”Consolidation and Continuity” of the Governor Sullivan Chime-led administration.

A mammoth crowd trailed the campaign train as they visited the major markets in the state even as the traders closed shops in support and solidarity of his governorship ambition.

A discerning look at the components of the crowd depicts that women thronged the campaign venues massively giving a new horizon beckoning for women empowerment in the state. The women were auspiciously excited and full of expectation on the plank of Ugwuanyi’s deputy, who they

see as a good representation of the womenfolk and who could help to address challenges facing them.

Spokesperson of the Traders

and Chairman of Timber Market Association, Chief Levi Obi revealed that, “Ugwuanyi was an experienced hand who

has knowledge of the needs of the people and expressed confidence in his ability to address them satisfactorily.

“We are also confident that Ugwuanyi would fulfill his promises to us especially in the provision of essential amenities and infrastructure in the markets.

“I therefore call on all to come out en masse on April 11 to vote for Ugwuanyi and other candidates of the PDP.” Chairman, Enugu Unity Forum, EUF, Mr. Tahil Ochi whose organsiation has been frontal towards the realisation of Ugwuanyi’s governorship ambition urged other governorship aspirants in the party to make sacrifices in the interest of peace and progress of the party.

His words:”The massive followership Ugwuanyi enjoys is a testament that he is the peoples choice. Every other member of the party should queue behind him and support his ambition. “The important thing is that Chime in the spirit of equity,justice and fair play zoned and supported the emergence of his successor from Enugu-North senatorial zone that had not produced a governor. All the litigants should shed their sword and support Ugwuanyi whom the court has vindicated.”

In his address, Ugwuanyi assured the traders that he will make frantic efforts to provide basic amenities in the market such as roads, firefighting equipment, electricity and portable water supply to improve their services and comfort.

He also promised that his administration will constitute a committee that will ensure that these amenities were provided, adding that he also would provide ultra-modern machines to enhance efficiency and productivity in the market in line with international standards.

A copious peep at the political crystal ball depicts that PDP may well be coasting home with victory as no other political party in state is seriously campaigning to woo voters ahead of the gubernatorial election.

It is left to be seen how Ugwuanyi, if elected, will meet the peculiar challenges of all his support groups that dot Enugu firmament with the burgeoning depth profile in state and dwindling federal allocation.

‘Gov. Obiano cannot join APC now’ Continues from page 53 South East none is of APC; of all the House of Representatives seats from the South East, none is APC. So how would you get Speaker of the House of Representatives or President of the Senate? So, clearly it is not about our collective destiny.

And that is why I would at any given opportunity, eulogise the foresightedness of the late Chuba Okadigbo.

People know that even as the Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo was part of those who set up APGA. When they got the APGA certificate, the very first person it was taken to was the late Chuba Okadigbo.

He was not selfish. Even

though he was a top PDP member, he contributed to the setting up of APGA so that his people will have a fallback position. But our current leaders, because of their mercantilist disposition have decided to look after themselves while neglecting the interest of the entire people of the South East geo-political zone. So, while the victory of APC was a happy day for me, it was also a sad reminder for the low depth that my people have sunk politically.

Rev Fr. Ejike Mbaka of the popular Catholic Adoration Ministry, Enugu was almost crucified based on his prophesy about the just conduced presidential election.

But the result has vindicated

him. What is why reaction to the way Ndigbo reacted to his prophesy considering that they refused to take the prophesy seriously?

We should have listened to his voice. But we neglected both man and God because like I pointed out earlier, Igbos used to be the finest crop of political strategists, but what has happened to us since 1999, we have missed every major position we have gone for through some very deliberate and obvious political miscalculations. Is it from 1999, when Dr Alex Ekwueme who appeared like a president in-waiting was disappointed up to the musical political chessgame that was played on us?

We had senate presidency and we were rotating it around the various states in the South East until 2007 when we could produce neither the president nor

the vice-president nor even the senate president, nor even the speaker till date. So, I don’t know really what has happened; why we have descended from our Olympian height in which other regions held us in awe to such low depth that we have become the scorn of other people, and, a laughable race for other political zones to spite on. It is such a disgrace that out of the eight or nine protocol list of Nigeria, no Igbo man will be found in the coming dispensation. And all those people who led Ndigbo to this political Golgotha, they will account for their sins on the Igbo nation because it was their deliberate mercantile policy for their families and pockets that contributed to this mess. The Nigerian federation will not wait for an Igbo to catch up. PDP zoned speakership of the House

of Reps to the Yorubas, but it did not materialize. Who will come and beg you to be given any position in Nigeria? Yo u must strategize for any position that you want. People of the South East did not strategize for any of those positions and nobody is going to reward them for their indolence; equity does not reward indolence.

If Governor Obiano and the other leaders of the APGA come to you tomorrow and apologize for the alleged unjust treatment meted to you in the party and plead with you to come back to APGA to help in rebuilding the party, will you accept?

I will prefer to answer you this question with an Igbo proverb because I know you are Igbo person. Madu a narapu ebe a na echi ozo we gaba ebe an aru agwu (Should one leave the place of coronation to the place of mourning?).

SATURDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4, 2015—61

I

t is no longer news influence or that Skye bank pressure from recently acquired ownership.

Mainstreet Bank, The enterprise formerly Afri Bank of is devoid of Nigeria. What is news is investors’ whether this is going to influence be Nigeria’s newest which leaves it mega bank.? wholly to It was late literary professional giant, Prof Chinua management.

Achebe that stated in his At home novel, Things Fall Apart with mergers: that a chick that will grow The recent into a cock will be spotted history of the the very day it was bank shows hatched. that, in 2006, The question now is, is P r u d e n t this popular saying Merchant coming true in Nigeria’s Bank Limited banking sector with Skye merged with Bank’s acquisition of four other MainstreetBank.? Which banks to is set to help it grow into become Skye one of the top five banks Bank Plc. The in Nigeria. four other As presently constituent constituted, Skye Bank is banks were; a product of five banks E I B that merged, as a result International of the banking reforms Bank Plc., engineered by former Bond Bank INVESTITURE : L-R:Newly conferred fellows/ commercial Director Promasidor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Limited, CBN, Governor, Kachi Onugbogu) 1st Vice President National institute of Marketing of Nigeria; Reliance Bank Chukwuma Soludo in Rotimi Olaniyan, West Africa Managing Director Kimberly Clark, Mrs Lola Limited and Daniels, and Managing Director PZ-Healthcare Mr. Alex Goma, at the National Co-operative 2006.

Interestingly, the Institute of Marketing of Nigeria…held in Lagos.

Bank Plc. merging units had to To the credit amicably resolve to of the prune to five to ensure management seamless business of the bank at combination, sustained its take-off, strength and guaranteed that seamless returns to stakeholders, consolidation including investors, exercise soon customers and saw the bank employees. evolve into According to one of the top information at the bank’s financial website, the bank has a institutions in cumulative wealth of the country. experience spanning That high over 50 years, which historically makes on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE score, analysts posited is set to count in the bank, one of Nigeria’s oldest with a shareholder list of over 450,000 favour of the bank as it takes this bold step banking institutions. names, made up of individual and to leapfrog contemporaries from being a tier The major strengths of the bank corporate investors. This, industry two bank to one of the top five banks in include its diverse ownership analysts are quick to point out, is a vote Nigeria by number of branches. structure, quality management and of confidence by the investing public in The bank signaled its intent shortly after staff, prudent financial management the banking institution. the consolidation in 2006, when in the first and strong reputation on service One of the striking things about the nine months of the exercise Skye Bank delivery. To this, the bank has added ownership structure of the bank, unlike posted profits of 2.5 billion naira. By the size by the acquisition of Mainstreet some of its competitors is that, the end of the same period in 2007, the bank’s Bank, which sees it spring to being shareholding structure puts no more management, led by then Chief Executive ranked among the top five banks in than five per cent in the control of any Officer and Managing Director, Akinsola Nigeria by branches. one individual or company. This fact Akinfemiwa, was also able to more than Even before acquiring Mainstreet ensures that, the bank is scientifically double the figure to 5.5 billion naira. This Bank in late 2014, the bank was quoted managed devoid of any external reinforced the belief of the investing public

Skye Bank: Is this the evolution of Nigeria’s newest megabank?

Stanbic IBTC Group CEO honoured at leadership awards arely a month after Stanbic IBTC line with its vision to provide end-toStockbrokers Limited won the ‘Best end financial services and also build B Dealing Member’ on the Nigerian Stock a franchise capable of generating Exchange (NSE), Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc, Mrs. Sola David-Borha, has been named among the top chief executives of companies listed on the Exchange.

At the 2015 ‘Top 25 CEOs Awards’, organized by Businessday, which held on Friday, March 20, 2015 at the Wheatbaker Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos, DavidBorha was honoured for her contributions in the evolution of the Stanbic IBTC Group into a leading endto-end financial solutions provider, and a blue chip quoted on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

According to the organizers, the awards recognized personalities whose performance, influence, and commitment have contributed to the growth of the capital market in a given year, while the awardees’ companies must have outperformed the All Share Index of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The four banking companies, including Stanbic IBTC Holdings, which made the list this year contributed over N93.33 billion to their market capitalization in 2014, the organizers said.

In her remarks, David-Borha said the recognition reflects the strategic insight that underscored Stanbic IBTC’s decision to adopt a holding company structure a few years ago. The move, she said, is in

sustainable and respectable returns to its stakeholders.

David-Borha said the future holds great promise for its stakeholders as the group continues to seek opportunities in high growth sectors of the Nigerian economy to grow its business while maintaining its robust business model anchored on the prudent management of resources. “I am especially pleased to receive this highly-respected recognition for our efforts. It is further confirmation of our role in nurturing leadership in business,” said David-Borha, adding: “Stanbic IBTC will continue to play a leading role in accelerating Nigeria’s economic development. Thanks must go to all our clients and staff who made this possible.”

Mrs. David-Borha had in 2012 won the “Young Global Champion” award and the “Service and Integrity in Financial Sector” award at the 16th and 17th Thisday Awards.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc is a full service financial services group with a clear focus on three main business pillars - Corporate and Investment Banking, Personal and Business Banking and Wealth Management. Standard Bank Group,

in the management of the bank.

Analysts point out that, the result could only have been achieved because the bank’s proactive experienced management team put in lots of hard work and dedication to offering customers the innovative products necessary to improve their lives and their financial situations.

Given the strong investor base garnered from the acquisition which actively supports its investments and strategies, Skye Bank having identified the Shipping and Real estate sector as a growing market that offer excellent opportunities for profit, introduced the first Real Estate Investment Trust unit (REIT) to be listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, helping investors benefit from growth throughout the market while at the same time reducing their investment risks.

How the new Megabank is likely to evolve Building on the solid foundation of the regulator induced consolidation supervised by two central bank governors Soludo and Sanusi Lamido Sanusi now the Emir of Kano, forward looking banks have moved to strengthen proactively.

Consistency in prudent management has seen Skye Bank continue in steady growth to the point that, Central Bank of Nigeria classified the leading tier two bank among eight banks strategically designated as ‘Systemically Important Banks.’ This accolade is an eloquent testimony to Skye bank’s industry leadership, strong market share, diverse location spread and strong brand equity.

In a statement to the media in October 2014, Head, Corporate Communications Strategy at AMCON, Kayode Lambo announced Skye Bank as the preferred bidder for the acquisition of the entire issued and fully paidup ordinary shares of Mainstreet Bank Limited. Skye Bank emerged the preferred bidder after a rigorous bidding exercise that spanned five months with over 20 bidders in contention.

According to Lambo, Skye Bank’s purchase of Mainstreet Bank was subject to fulfilment of conditions set out in the Share Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) which among other things set limited days for payment for the transaction as well regulatory approvals from the CBN and SEC.

CSR: Airtel empowers more Nigerians he Corporate Social Responsibility of one of the leading T telecommunication in Nigeria, Airtel

Nigeria has continued to empower more Nigerians who are need through its programme, Airtel Touching Lives, as beneficiaries continue to celebrate.

More of this is seen in rural communities where people still struggle to have a decent life. The story of a barren woman, Mama Mercy who has no one to assist her is laughing as Airtel Touching Lives really touched her life for better.

Before she was nominated by one James Whiloyii, Mercy Wbiabia from Nonwa, a rural community located outsketch of Port Harcourt city lives in a mud house.

She is struggling to look after herself and her sister son, Sunday Nomubari who is like a son that was left with her.

According to James Wbiloyii who nominated Mercy, he said, whenever he travels home to meet his Aunt, she always tells him how she has been humiliated; intimidated; sometimes beaten and also robbed of her food. So he nominated her if she can receive help from Airtel Touching Lives programme.

Nomubari was unable to complete his school because there is no money. He is helping her because he was born out of wedlock and was left with her. Today both of them are excited and very happy as Airtel Nigeria supported her with sixty plastic chairs; ten plastic tables and two

canopies. Airtel also promised to build one bedroom bungalow for her.

The second person is Akinwale Adesina who despite his own limitations, has been rendering a selfless service to train hapless youths in the community for free.

Adesina was born and bred in Ogbomosho, Osun State. He went to primary and secondary school at Ogbomosho. Unfortunately, Akinwale was unable to finish his secondary education due to family problems and financial issues but was encouraged by his mother who took him to a church where he assisted in organising computer centre named Glorious Computer Institute. He said he is always happy to teach children about computers.

Adesina is always motivated when he sees children or youths willing to make good their lives.

According to Mr. Akanbi Samson Olawale who nominated Adesina, having known him for four years as gentle, kind, willing to learn, and hardworking.

Airtel Nigeria has decided to empower Adesina and his computer institute by donating 4 computers; a generator; UPS; Internet modem; A Black/White & Colour Printer; 2 external drives; 2 card readers; scanner and laminating machine and a one year shop rent.

62 —SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

C M Y K

SATURDAY VANGUARD, APRIL 4, 2014

— 63

Emirates rumble for Arsenal, Liverpool Continued from page back page

Champions League: Enyimba, Pillars risk elimination

Striker dies after tackle

•PILLARS...will they celebrate today?

A

ll two Nigerian contenders are in danger of being eliminated from the Champions League this weekend at the last32 stage.

Nigerians Enyimba defend a precarious 1-0 lead over Egyptians Smouha on Sunday in Mediterranean city Alexandria.

And Kano Pillars must stage a miraculous comeback in Kano today to survive having crumbled 4-0 away to Moroccans Moghreb Tetouan.

Also, South Africans Mamelodi Sundowns are in a similar position to Enyimba after establishing only a 1-0 lead over Democratic Republic of Congo visitors TP Mazembe.

Soweto side Kaizer Chiefs are much worse off as careless defending at a free-kick led to a 1-0 home defeat by Moroccans Raja Casablanca three weeks ago.

Sundowns play on Sunday afternoon in mining hub Lubumbashi and Chiefs go into action five hours later in the Moroccan commercial capital.

Nigeria and South Africa are the economic giants of Africa and boast two of the most competitive domestic leagues on the continent.

But both nations have struggled to make their mark in the premier Confederation of African Football club competition with back-to-back victories by Enyimba a decade ago the only Nigerian triumphs.

South Africa have been even less successful with a lone Champions League - then called the African Champions Cup triumph coming through C M Y K

goals over the month, completed the double to pick up the player accolade.

Arsenal welcomed back Jack Wilshere, Mikel Arteta, Mathieu Debuchy and Abou Diaby to first-team training this week in a boost to their squad.

The Gunners boss was however concerned over forward Theo W a l c o t t ’ s plummeting confidence after his disappointing run Arsenal players target defender Laurent Koscielny (centre) with out for England in a friendly slap during training on Friday at London Colney Turin.

Wenger will have a heart-toheart chat with Walcott ahead confidence. He’s sensitive and I’m a bit of Saturday’s crunch top-four concerned about the damage that game can have on his mind. clash.

‘He’s not completely there yet (after the injury).

With Alex OxladeBut being exposed like that, people have a harsh Chamberlain out of Liverpool’s judgement on him that is not deserved because visit due to a hamstring strain, he does well. and Danny Welbeck a major ‘At the moment he is frustrated, but that is doubt after sustaining a knee normal.

I will speak with him, but I think he is problem on international duty, strong enough.

He is not fragile mentally, he is Walcott could start on Saturday. strong mentally but he is disappointed because But Wenger said: ‘Yes, I’m when you come back from an injury you always worried about Theo’s think you are ready.

Orlando Pirates 20 years ago.

While Enyimba, Pillars, Sundowns and Chiefs face tasks of varying difficulty, the quartet were speaking optimistically this week.

Kadiri Ikhana, who coached Enyimba to 2003 Champions League glory, said he had a plan to combat the cold

•Van Gaal

T

RIBUTES have been paid after a footballer died in a freak accident when he slid off the pitch following a tackle and slammed his head on the clubhouse wall.

Ben Hiscox, 30, was knocked out after the incident and, despite being rushed to hospital, died three days later.

The accident happened as popular Ben played at home for Stoke Gifford United in Bristol where the clubhouse lies just feet behind one of the goals.

After running to the byline, striker Ben crossed the ball into the box but in doing so tangled with a defender, hitting the floor and sliding into the perilously close clubhouse wall.

Just feet from the pitch, his back hit the concrete wall first, followed by his head, which was whipped

backwards and knocked him unconscious.

Since the accident, tributes have been flooding in for the insurance worker, who has left behind a long-term partner and step-daughter.

His mum and dad, speaking from their home in Bradley Stoke, paid tribute to their “amazing son” Mum Gloria Hiscox, 67, said: “No one ever had a bad word to say about him.

He would do anything for any body.

He was an amazing stepfather and he had a brilliant relationship with his stepdaughter and partner.

Man U can be champs —LVG

L

OUIS VAN GAAL insists Manchester United can still win the title.

United have trailed leaders Chelsea all season but have hit their best form in recent weeks.

Back to back wins over Tottenham and Liverpool have strengthened United’s place in the top four and boosted their confidence.

Van Gaal’s men still trail the Blues by eight points but the Dutchman is

refusing to give up hope of catching them to be crowned champions.

Van Gaal, whose men host Aston Villa at Old Trafford today, said: “It’s a rat race and Tottenham and Liverpool are still in it.

“We have given them a blow, but we still have to play the top two teams (Chelsea and Manchester City) and a lot can happen.

“But still we can win the title, mathematically, we can do that.”

•Late Hiscox and his girlfriend

SATURDAY Vanguard, APRIL 4, 2015

Buhari should tackle corruption, sports same way—Kojo

Jonathan's defeat Emirates rumble for Arsenal, deflates Keshi Liverpool >>37

38&39

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RSENAL appear in high spirits ahead of hosting Champions League qualification rivals Liverpool this afternoon.

The Gunners take on Brendan Rodgers’ side at the Emirates, third in the Premier League and six points clear of fifthplaced Liverpool in the race for the top four.

And in training ahead of the showdown, Arsene Wenger’s side managed to appear relatively relaxed ahead of such a vital contest.

Pillars, Enyimba risk Champions League elimination >>63 4pm

EPL Arsenal Everton Leicester Man Utd Swansea West Brom Chelsea

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Liverpool Southampton West Ham Aston Villa Hull QPR Stoke

1:45pm 4pm 4pm 4pm 4pm 4pm 6:30pm

LA LIGA Sevilla Cordoba Almeria Malaga

v v v v

Athletic Bilbao Atletico Madrid Levante Real Sociedad

4pm 6pm 8pm 10pm

BUNDESLIGA Leverkusen Frankfurt Hoffenheim SC Freiburg Werder Bremen Wolfsburg Dortmund

v Hamburg v Hannover v M'gladbach v Cologne v Mainz v Stuttgart v Bayern

3:30pm 3:30pm 3:30pm 3:30pm 3:30pm 3:30pm 6:30pm

CROSS WORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1) Akwa United Goalkeeper, Iboro - (8) 5) Ethnic Group in Nigeria (4) 7) Vapour (3) 8) Sportswear Outfit (4) 9) 3SC Shooting Stars Defender, Chima - (4) 10) Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Umar - (5) 12) Swaziland Currency(9) 16) Nigeria Vice President, Mr. Namadi - (5) 18) State in Nigeria(5) 19) Ethnic Group in Rwanda(5) 21) Isreali Prime Minister, Mr. Benjamin - (9) 24) Chief of Defense Staff, Air Marshall Alex - (5) 27) Anambra state Capital(4) 28) Japanese Word for”Crab”?(4) 29) Greek Alphabet(4) 30) Notion(4) 31) President, Kenyan Football federation(KFF),Mr

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Solution on page 21

Printed and Published by VANGUARD MEDIA LIMITED, Vanguard Avenue, Kirikiri Canal, P.M.B.1007, Apapa. EDITOR: ONOCHIE ANIBEZE Advert Dept: 01-7924470; Hotline: 01-4544821; Abuja: 09-2341102, 09-2342704. E-mail:news@vanguardngr.com, letters@vanguardngr.com. (Text) 08053068728; Advert:advertproduction@yahoo.com Website: www.vanguardngr.com (ISSN 0794-652X) All correspondence to P.M.B. 1007, Apapa Lagos.

C M Y K

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Sam - (8) DOWN 1) First Man on Earth?(4) 2) Strategy(4) 3) Former Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC), Mr. Funsho - (9) 4) L.G.A in Borno State(5) 5) Akwa United FC Chairman Isong - (5) 6) L.G.A in Niger State(8) 11) Ibo Girl’s Name(3) 13) Country in Africa(5) 14) L.G.A in Akwa- Ibom State (4,5) 15) Exeunt(4) 16) L.G.A in Zamfara State(8) 17) Protein Source(4) 20) Prosecute(3) 22) L.G.A in Lagos State(5) 23) Basel FC Coach, Murat (5) 25) Super Eagles Striker, Bright - (4) 26) Greek Goddess(4)

Strik er Striker dies af aftter tackle

Continues on page 63

•Sterling

Today’s Matches Champions League Kano Pillars v Moghreb (Morocco)

Wenger must be in high spirits having seen his side win all six matches they played in March as the Frenchman picked up the Manager of the Month award.

Free-scoring Olivier Giroud, who fired in six

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