My friends've deserted me-JONATHAN

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62402

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

We're leaving behind solid economic 8 legacies — OKONJO-IWEALA

My friends've deserted me — JONATHAN

By Ben Agande & Caleb Ayansina

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•Says: I'm leaving office a happy, fulfilled man •Hope my wife will not divorce me •I'm ready to lay down my life for Nigeria •My aides, ministers should be ready for persecution

BUJA—THE reality of life has dawned on out-going President Goodluck Jonathan as he lamented, yesterday, that his so-called friends have deserted him having lost the last presidential election to the opposition All progressives CongressAPC, candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari.

Speaking at a thanksgiving and farewell service in his honour at the Cathedral Church of the Advent, Life Camp, Gwarinpa, Abuja, President Jonathan said, however that he expected more of his friends to leave him. The president Continues on Page 5

Foreign exchange dealers push for policy change 8 Mr & Mrs THANKSGIVING/FAREWELL SERVICE—President Goodluck Jonathan (M) flanked by the Primate of Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, His Grace, Archbishop Nicholas Okoh with his spouse, Mrs. Okoh (3l), First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan (2r) and others after a Special Thanksgiving and Farewell Service in honour of the First Family at the Cathedral Church of The Advent, Life Camp, Abuja, yesterday. Inset: Archbishop Okoh, with other clergy men praying for President Jonathan, the First Lady, and members of Jonathan's cabinet, during the service. Photos: Abayomi Adeshida.

The worth of a Nigerian •P.19

COLUMNISTS:

CONSTITUTION AMENDMENT:

Lawmakers must The oppressive folly of fuel choose their subsidy •P.44 leaders •P.20

Supreme Court can't stop NASS — SENATE 9

2 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

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POCKET CARTOON the people but it might affect people differently.

So for ministers and aides who served with me, I sympathize with them, they will be persecuted.

And they must be ready for that persecution”.

While expressing appreciation for what God has done for him and his family, President Jonathan said he had all the reasons to thank God. “Very few of those in my age bracket have been that lucky. All through my education I was on government scholarship. I have not suffered lack not because I worked harder, but it was by God’s grace.

Ready for the supreme price

MEETING—President Goodluck Jonathan (L) in a handshake with Chairman, PDP Post Election Review Committee, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, after a meeting with the committee at the State House, Abuja on Friday night. Photo: NAN.

My friends've deserted me—GEJ Continues from Page 1

declared that he was ready to pay the price for his refusal to interfere with the electoral process which he ensured was carried out to its logical conclusion.

He also said his decision to concede defeat at the election did not go down well with some of his ministers and aides and jokingly expressed

the hope that his wife, Patience will not follow the example of the wife of former South African Apartheid leader, F W De Klerk, who divorced her husband for his decision to end the minority rule in the Republic of South Africa (RSA).

He then expressed appreciation to Nigeria and Nigerians for giving him the opportunity to serve in various

TAKE HEART

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BY ELLA RANDLE

F life says ‘No’ to your request, remember that ‘No’, could mean, just wait a little while, life is going to bring something much better than you’re asking —Take Heart quotes A mother was about to prepare lunch for her family, she took out a fresh mackerel from the freezer but noticed her young toddler was watching her every move. Suddenly, the two years girl started crying and demanding for the raw fish. She tried to all avail to placate and explain through whatever means that the fish was not ready to eat, it has to be spiced, and the bones taken out, then cooked before it will be ready for consumption but the toddler wouldn’t agree and choose to cry the way little children do when they are not getting their way, refusing to be comforted.

The mother decided to ignore her and went ahead to prepare the meal, and when it was ready, the child relish it, and didn’t even remember the drama she had put up during the preparation.

The lesson in the story reminds one how typical most people act like this child, when they are asking for a change in their life’s circumstances. How many times have we cried that a blessing that we ask for is delayed, and just maybe this supposedly delay is life’s way of telling us that things are being spiced for us, just like the mother getting the mackerel ready, taking out the bones, so we have a better meal.

Just like the child, if we knew this, we would be patient, instead of being anxious. Be still, be calm and know that things happen for us and never against us. In the appointed time, a change will come, an uplifting change for your life.

capacities, reiterating his willingness to make the ultimate sacrifice in the interest of the nation.

My costly decisions

His words: “I believe there are reasons for everything. Some hard decisions have their own cost, no doubt about that.

I ran the government in such a way that stabilized certain things like the electoral process and other things that brought stability to this country and took very costly decisions which I must be ready to pay for.

“Some people come to me and say 'look at this person or that person, is he not your friend who benefited from you, has this person not benefited from your government ?

Imagine what he is saying'? I often tell them that worse statements will come. If you take certain decisions, you should know that those close to you will even abandon you at some point. And I tell them that more of my socalled friends will disappear. When FW De Klerk took the decision to abolish minority rule in RSA, even his wife divorced him. I hope my wife will not divorce me.

But that is the only decision that has made RSA to still remain a global player by this time.

If we still had that minority rule there, by this time, nobody will be talking about RSA. “If you take certain decisions, it might be good for the generality of

“When I look at the whole picture of my life up to when I became the president of this country, I give glory to God. And I tell myself that if soldiers and police officers who never received 0.5 per cent of the benefits that I have received from the state can lay down their lives for this country, I should be ready to do anything in the interest of Nigeria including paying the supreme price.

“As long as I live, I will continue to do my best for the state because the state has helped me as a person.

“I have to thank Nigerians especially my state for giving me the opportunity to serve as deputy governor and the whole country for giving me the opportunity to serve as Vice President and then president. First to complete the tenure of the late President (Umaru Yar'Adua) and later serve as president from which I am now exiting as a very happy and fulfilled man”.

Speaking on his decision to concede defeat which he said did not go down well with some of his ministers and associates, President Jonathan noted that the most important thing is that “the ordinary people appreciate what we did.

“It is not what the elite or the privileged few talk or say about you but it is what the majority of the Nigerian public think about your actions and inactions that matter. We came to Abuja peacefully and we are returning peacefully ”, he emphasised.

While thanking the church and Nigerians for standing by him, President Jonathan went philosophical, saying that the outcome of the elections was the will of God. “Even for the election, we had people who supported us all over the country but things went the way they did because God wanted it that way for a purpose. We will

continue to pray for the peace of the country and for the success of the incoming administration.

“When the country is in good shape, people benefit. When things are going well, people are happy. You don’t need to know Mr President or Mr Governor. The issue is not about Jonathan or Buhari or any other person. The issue is how the government functions. Stability, buoyant economy that will enable Nigeria to move forward and live happilly is our interest and that is my prayer point. All religious groups should pray for the country”, he said.

Thanksgiving

In his sermon, Primate of the Anglican Communion, Nicholas Okoh, said thanks giving is for good things and not bad situations.

Reading from 1 Thess 5:18, the Primate said the will of God can mean some uncomfortable situations.

“When Jesus was going to the cross it was not a pleasant experience but today we have Good Friday. To give thanks the christian must be a strong believer, so a child of God’s role is to bow to the situation. We are here to join the president to give thanks to God as he rounds off his tenure.

When he started he gave thanks to God. “The first one is the privilege to be President of Nigeria. We are over 170 million, and if the qualification was the tallest, wisest, strongest, he would not have qualified. Having been deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president and president, God has been good to him. It is a rare privilege which may not come in many years”, he said.

Okoh commended the President for his contribution to the country’s development saying that the legacy of the Jonathan presidency will last for a long time.

“We also thank God for your contribution to the growth of our country.

Some of the projects you initiated have been completed, some at advanced stage or at foundation stage, whatever stage it maybe, generations yet unborn will read about Jonathan that he governed from so so time to so so time. It will be studied by our children in history books, so we should thank God. “Again, you are leaving the Villa alive. Only God knows what would have happened; there is nothing greater than life."

He's a man of favour— Gana

In his comment, former Minister of Information, Professor Jerry Gana described President Jonathan as a “a man of favour, highly favoured

by God. “If you seek to understand this man you will fail because he is anointed by God for such a time as this. And, therefore, we want to thank God for this opportunity, thank God for what He has done for Nigeria through this man. A man of honour, a man of character, a man that is godly, a man that has actually held most of the executive offices in the Nigeria constitution.

"One of the things that I have been tremendously impressed by this man, is that his humility is awesome” he said.

In his remarks, the Minister of Power, Prof.

Onyeabuchi Nebo praised president Jonathan’s leadership saying that he “served selflessly, altruitiscally, m a g n a n i m o u s l y, c o m p a s s i o n a t e l y, humbly, meekly and most diligently.

“Never have we had such a humane, gentle and unassuming person as President Jonathan."

He had no death squad, no statutory persecutors, no empowered witch hunters, no organised retaliators, and no penchant for vindictiveness."

6—Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Gunmen shoot pastor in Delta

By Perez Brisibe

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GHELLI— A fiveman robbery gang, over the weekend at Ughelli, Delta State, shot the pastor and founder of an Ughelli-based prayer group while attempting to steal his Jeep.

The pastor, identified as Steve Akpokomuaye, was said to be driving home from church along OviriOgor Road where he had gone for a prayer session when the gunmen, using a car and two motorcycles, overtook his car.

According to an witnesses, the pastor who was alone in the car, was asked to get down from the vehicle with the intention of stealing the car.

The witness, who gave his name as Efemena, said: “An argument ensued between the gunmen and the pastor leading to the shooting of the pastor on the leg.

“Though the bandits failed to abscond with the car, they fled the scene immediately they shot their victim.”

Confirming the incident to Vanguard, a senior member of Ughelli vigilante who spoke on condition of anonymity, stated that a combined team of vigilante and police chased the gunmen to Agbarha-Otor, where they abandoned their car and fled into the bush.

‘My wives know I'm a criminal’

By Esther Onyegbula

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27-year-old suspected kidnapper, Rasheed Adetunji, who was paraded alongside other suspects, has confessed that his two wives knew he was a criminal and not a kidnapper.

He also revealed that he used part of the ransom money collected from victims to get married to them.

According to the Osun Stateborn Adetunji, his love for women is responsible for his having two wives at his age and had hoped to marry more before he was arrested.

He told Vanguard that one of his wives had a premonition of his current travails and warned him to stay away from members of his gang.

He regretted that he would miss his wives and family who, he claimed, he was trying to make happy.

On how he joined the kidnapping gang, he said it was Niyi Omosola that introduced and placed him and other members of the gang on an oath administered by a

native doctor, known as Baba.

The other suspects are Ifeanyi Chukwuleta, 25, from Oguta in Imo State, and Kolawale Alani, 26, from Ekiti State.

The suspects were arrested after the kidnap of a 62-yearold woman, Kudirat Adeboye, along Eleko-Epe Expressway by six armed men.

It was gathered that the gang contacted the victim’s family and demanded N50 million but eventually accepted N3 million after six days of keeping the victim.

The kidnappers directed the victim’s son to drop the money at a spot on Ijebu-Ode Road, where one of the kidnappers came out from the bush to collect the ransom.

Operatives of Special Antirobbery Squad, SARS, who were deployed to the area pursued the kidnappers and one of them, Niyi Omosola, was caught.

He said it was Omosola that took operatives to a forest along Epe Road where the victim was rescued. Omosola later died from the gunshot injuries he sustained.

The suspect, Rasheed Adetunji.

Car kills 13-yr-old girl inside mother’s shop

By Gbenga Olarinoye

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SOGBO—IT was wailing and weeping, yesterday, at Ile-Olowola compound at Ilobu, Irepodun Local Government Area of Osun State, as a 13year-old girl was knocked down and killed by a vehicle.

It was gathered that the girl was inside her mother’s shop when a gold coloured Toyota Camry car with number plate JJJ 825DB, veered off the road and hit the girl inside the shop.

The girl, it was gathered,

died on the spot.

The incident which occurred around 10.30a.m., has been confirmed by Osun State Police Command.

Consequently, a mob set the car ablaze, while the driver of the car was rescued by the quick intervention of policemen from Ilobu.

An eyewitness said the driver of the car, Gbenga Ayangoke, 28, of Ile Iyaloja compound, Erin-Osun, was on high speed, lost control, veered off the road and knocked down the girl inside the shop.

The state Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, DSP Folasade Odoro, confirmed the incident.

She explained that normalcy had been restored to the area, adding that the driver of the car was helping police in their investigation.

She disclosed that the remains of the girl had been deposited at General Hospital mortuary, Ilobu, for autopsy.

Mrs. Odoro said further that the matter would be taken to court after the completion of investigation.

AREPO SHOOTING: Pregnant woman killed by stray bullet buried

Late Damilola Fajana.

By Evelyn Usman

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HE remains of Damilola Fajana, the pregnant woman who was hit by a stray bullet during a cross fire between members of Oodua

People’s Congress, OPC, and pipeline vandals two weeks ago in Arepo area of Ogun State, was interred weekend.

The deceased, who was six months pregnant, was reportedly on her way from the

hospital where her husband, Bukola Fajana, was admitted, when she was killed.

Late Fajana, a lawyer who was said to be in her car when a stray bullet hit her in the neck, was planning to leave for the United States of America, USA, this month to have her first baby.

Following her husband’s illhealth, she was said to have postponed her visit to immigration office, for her data capture, to the next day (Thursday, April 30), only for her life to end on arriving the entrance of her Beachland Estate abode.

An eyewitness, who gave his name as Onaja Michael, said Fajana was rushed to a private hospital where she was rejected, adding that she died while being rushed to Lagos

State University Teaching Hospital.

It would be recalled that the armed vandals came out in droves penultimate Wednesday, and fired indiscriminately, in protest of the alleged killing of one of their members by OPC, on April 25.

Some residents had reportedly fled their abodes due to the gun battle between the vandals and OPC members.

Efforts to reach Bukola Fajana, the widower, on phone failed as all calls were diverted.

A family source said the demise of the Ekiti State-born lawyer came as a shock to her widower, as they had barely lived together as husband and wife for a year.

OAU lecturer kidnapped, driver killed, car burnt

By Gbenga Olarinoye

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SOGBO—A lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, Dr. Femi Omisore, was kidnapped by unidentified persons at the weekend.

It was gathered that the lecturer was kidnapped at Ado-Ekiti, while on his way to Oye-Ekiti.

The lecturer, it was learned, works at the Department of Environmental Design Management of the institution.

According to a source, the kidnappers also killed Omisore's driver and burnt his vehicle to ashes.

The source added: “A car was trailing him and his driver tried to escape but he was caught. The driver tried so much to avoid being overtaken by the unknown men, but it is painful that he did not succeed.

“They eventually killed him. The kidnappers came back to the area and shot at the petrol tank of the vehicle, resulting in an inferno that burnt the car.”

Chairman, OAU Academic Staff Union of Universities, Dr. Caleb Aborisade, confirmed the incident.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 7

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

We're leaving solid economic legacies behind — Okonjo-Iweala zSays sweeping, negative statements not in nation's interest

By Emma Ujah

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BUJA — THE Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, said yesterday that despite the economic challenges the country is facing, the Jonathan administration is leaving some solid economic legacies for the incoming Buhari government.

Insisting that “the allegations that the economy is in ruins are absolutely untrue,” the minister warned those she claimed were running the economy down for political gains, saying there could be unintended consequences of loss of investor confidence in the Nigerian economy.

According to her, “we cannot take away the fact that the Jonathan administration, in spite of the challenges caused by 50 per cent decline in the price of oil, has made a clear and measurable difference in many important areas and anyone who says nothing has been done and nothing is being left behind is being very unfair to facts and to history.

“Attempts to rewrite history will not stand. You cannot just wipe the slate clean for political reasons. We are not perfect but no one can take away the fact that we are leaving some good legacies behind.”

Sweeping, negative statements not in nation's interest

The minister also advised politicians and opinion leaders not to talk down the economy because negative and unfactual comments on the economy can have negative impact on the economy, the exchange rate and the stock market and reduce investor confidence.

Her words: “These negative and unsubstantiated comments are not wise because they can lead to what we do not want for the economy.

“There is nothing wrong with factual assessments of the economy. I have always told Nigerians the truth about the economy. But sweeping and negative statements are not in the interest of the country. The statements being made by some personalities about the economy collapsing are not only incorrect they are also potentially dangerous.”

Sectors that witnessed great revolution

She identified the agricultural sector which has seen the rise in food production

with attendant positive effect on food prices as one major legacy of the Jonathan government.

She then listed other sectors that witnessed great revolution which include "the National Industrial Revolution scheme and the Automotive Policy whose implementation has led to the opening of factories for

car manufacturing and assembly for the first time in the country.

"The impressive rise in the cement production due to positive government policies.

Nigeria is now a net exporter of cement "The creation of about 1.4 million jobs a year out of the 1.8m needed.

"Various job creation and job

enhancement schemes such as Youwin which has seen the creation of over 27,000 jobs by young entrepreneurs sponsored and trained by government for other youths; the Graduate Internship Scheme.

"The creation of the NMRC which is helping to create a mortgage market and is helping to provide affordable

housing for Nigerians.

"The recently launched Development Bank of Nigeria which will help to achieve strong growth of small businesses by providing SMEs, for the first time in recent memory, affordable interest loans of up to 10 years.

"The support for the creative industries which has helped to strengthen the capacity of script writers, producers, directors and other professionals in the motion picture industry and led, in turn, to the production of higher quality films, and creation of more jobs."

Foreign exchange dealers push for policy change

By Emeka Anaeto, Economy Editor

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AGOS — ANOTHER major shift in foreign exchange market policy may be underway after some months of controlled market as authorized dealers begin moves to redress a perceived imperfection in the current market structure and rules.

Banks through Financial Markets Dealers Association are meeting with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to fine-tune the policy and make it more liberal while fashioning ways of managing frivolous demands.

A proposal to this effected has already been made to CBN while the apex bank may be holding talks with the dealers this week.

Some observers believed that the push for a change was necessary at this point to secure acceptable policy environment before the incoming administration reigns in political considerations which may be anti-market.

Banks have quietly bemoaned some measures introduced by the CBN towards end of last year which was aimed at curbing demands considered frivolous by the apex bank but the policy ended up creating further distortions mainly in the interbank/black market interface as well as in the acceptance of the overall currency market architecture involving foreign investors.

Consequently, the parallel market margin had grown to over 10 per cent while arbitrage has heightened.

In the run-up to the current policy, the concern of the apex bank was that speculative demands had put pressure on the stability of both the exchange rate and the foreign reserves, apparently a situation which had forced the two into negative trend in the past six months.

AGM: From left: Chairman, Transcorp Hotels Plc and APC governorship candidate for Delta State, Olorogun O'tega Emerhor; Canadian High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr Percy Calderwood; Transcorp Plc Group President/CEO, Mr Emmanuel Nnorom and Board Chairman, Mr Tony Elumelu during Transcorp's 9th Annual General Meeting, in Abuja.

Order-based system

In addition to narrowing the trading window in December 2014, CBN had in February this year further restricted the market by introducing the order-based system in which banks can only buy foreign currency when they have matching orders from clients that need to import goods.

But many industry observers were sceptical that the policies, obviously aimed at stemming the depreciation of Naira amidst other fiscal challenges of the Federal Government, were also designed to prevent further erosion of the political capital of the incumbent president facing stiff electoral challenge.

Now the election is lost and won, the market dealers are equally worried that the pronouncements of the winner, Muhammadu Buhari, regarding exchange rate may point to a further control policies that would worsen the market environment.

Hence, they would rather want CBN to demonstrate its independence by rolling out market policies independent of

political considerations or whatever the in-coming government perceives as what the exchange rate should be.

In the wake of an accusation of political influence in the roll out of the current foreign exchange policy, CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele said: “The Central Bank remains a very independent institution, just like it was under my predecessor. We have never been influenced by any political consideration. No politician talks to us to try and influence us.”

$5bn defending exchange rate

CBN spent USD5 billion defending the exchange rate in the last three months of 2014, reducing reserves to a threeyear low of USD34 billion, while devaluing the midpoint of the official exchange rate to 168 per dollar from 155 and raising the benchmark borrowing cost to a record 13 percent.

It was at this point that the current foreign exchange policy

measures were introduced. But conditions of these components of the forex market have worsened leading to significant decline in foreign reserves to a 10-year low last month.

Trading restrictions introduced in December last year were needed to cut “spurious or speculative demand” for dollars, Emefiele said. “Any investor that wants to go out is able to do so freely, without any hindrance.”

The local currency held steady against the green back last week, hence the Naira closed flat at N199.10/USD1.00 at the interbank market as the local currency traded within a tight range throughout the week.

Similarly, the CBN’s clearing rate steadied at N197.00/ USD1.00 for the week.

However, the parallel market margin remains high and there was significant instability. In the BDC segment of the forex market last Monday, the value of the naira appreciated by 2.4 per cent to N217.56/USD1.00 from the previous week’s close of N223.10/ USD1.00.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015—9

Constitution amendment: S-Court can’t stop N-Assembly —Senate

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

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BUJA— THE Senate, yesterday, vowed to proceed with the alteration of the Constitution, saying the Supreme Court lacked the powers to stop it from conducting its constitutionally enshrined legislative duties.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Information and Public Affairs, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, said this while reacting to the ruling of the Supreme Court on the matter brought before it by the Presidency challenging the recent amendments enacted by the National Assembly which the President vetoed.

The Supreme Court had in the ruling last Thursday directed that the National Assembly should maintain the status quo in its bid to amend the Constitution.

The action of the Presidency challenging the constitution amendment in Supreme Court had jolted members of the National Assembly, who had reasoned that the Presidency had enough opportunity to point out areas it was not satisfied with the amendment process during the public hearing.

Even before dragging the National Assembly to the apex court, President Goodluck Jonathan, while withholding his assent, however, failed to return the original bill passed on to him,

including the signature page.

Some lawmakers have alleged that the president signed the bill but subsequently turned around to veto it.

While returning the constitution, the President had raised a number of issues including the failure of the lawmakers to produce evidence that it secured the mandatory four fifth majority in amending Section 9 of the Constitution.

This action infuriated the federal lawmakers who had planned to override the President’s veto after a review by the Constitution Amendment Committees of the two chambers.

In its meeting last Wednesday, a source privy to the meeting by the committee in charge of the amendment had hinted that the National Assembly had planned to override the president.

But the Senate spokesman,

yesterday said: “The Supreme Court is wrong. The law does not allow one arm of the government to stop another arm of government from performing its duties.

“The Supreme Court cannot stop us from legislating and if they say that the Supreme Court is stopping us from making laws, it is misleading and it amounts to misreading the powers of the Supreme Court.”

CONFERENCE: From left: Chairman, International Media Committee, All African Music Award, AFRIMA, Steve Ayorinde; Director, Communications and Sponsorship, Matlou Tsotsesi; winner, 2014 Album of the Year, Olamide Adedeji; (aka Olamide Nigeria), and member, International Media Committee, Loye Hamzat, during a joint conference by African Union Commission, AUC, and AFRIMA, at the African Union Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

NASS leadership contest: N-East Govs-elect set to collide with incoming legislators

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

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BUJA — SOME incoming governors of the All Progressives Congress, APC, from the North-East are set to battle the incoming legislators from the zone over their (governors) opposition to any of them taking the office of Senate President or Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The inclination of the incoming governors has, however, been rebuffed by the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd) who, it was learned, has given a cold shoulder to the moves as he is said to have insisted on the legislators being given a free rein to determine their leaders.

Some of the North-East governors-elect, it was learnt, are canvassing the zoning of the two offices away from the region on the fear that anyone of their legislators occupying the office could lead to a power tussle with them.

That nonetheless, there were

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indications in Abuja, weekend, that supporters of a leading candidate for Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, were pushing to re-enact the scenario that projected Aminu Tambuwal to overcome the challenge put forth by his party in the 2011 leadership contest.

The governors-elect, it was learnt, had almost successfully penetrated a five-man committee of APC governors constituted to resolve the problem of zoning of the different positions available.

That committee, it was gathered, had zoned the two offices away from the region, a development that serving and incoming lawmakers backing Dogara were said to have warned would be inimical to party coherence during the leadership contest.

The decision of the committee has raised anxiety among senators-elect and members-elect especially from the region who are

backing the aspiration of Dogara.

Buhari not interested in zoning

Vanguard also gathered that the President-elect has stuck to his decision not to interfere on the issue.

It was learnt that one of the governors took the decision of the North-East governorselect to Buhari who was said to have pooh-poohed the idea.

Had Buhari signed the decisions, it would have been made public last Friday. But the source said that the President-elect, as at yesterday, hasn’t touched the document and not likely to do so soon.

The sources said: “One of the governors took the governors’ decision to the President-elect on Thursday thinking it would be signed for him to announce it on Friday, but Buhari didn’t do that. And he may not even touch it.

“If for anything, Buhari

would even show more interest in the Speakership of the House than the Senate president. But the man has consistently said that the members should be allowed to choose their leaders.”

A repeat of Tambuwal’s case imminent

The development, it was gathered, has fuelled suggestions of the prospect of the incoming legislators defying whatever zoning permutation that is contrary to their liking.

According to the source, a lot of old and incoming parliamentarians from the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and APC have decided to queue behind Dogara no matter the level of pressure from any conceivable quarters.

“The size of Dogara’s camp is increasing. And with Buhari’s position not to interfere, he is most likely to win the speakership,” the source told Vanguard.

Desist from criminalising commercial, civil cases, IGP warns policemen

By Evelyn Usman

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AGOS — ACTING Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, weekend, warned policemen to desist from criminalising civil and commercial cases, charging them to restrict their intervention in any matter to Alternative Dispute Resolution, ADR, pattern of investigation.

This is just as he has directed the withdrawal of policemen from unauthorised persons in the country.

Handing down the warning during his maiden briefing of officers and men of the Lagos and Ogun States Police Commands at the Lagos State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, Arase reminded them of his zero tolerance for corruption, insisting that acts of arresting and subsequent detention of anyone must be done after discreet investigation with sufficient evidence.

Urging the policemen to adopt human right driven policing during investigation, Arase directed that abuse of police power through unauthorised detention, long trial and incivility to members of the public should stop henceforth, pointing out that such would hamper intelligence gathering.

He said: “I am allergic to corruption. I have a zero tolerance for it and I will not tolerate it. One area where I have had serious problem is in the area of criminalising civil and commercial transactions. If a matter is civil, then it should be treated as such and if it is commercial, its commercial. If you cannot intervene and resolve both parties, then advise them to go to court.

"This means that before you arrest anyone in your various State Criminal Investigation Departments and divisional crime departments, you must have sufficient evidence.

Situation where you arrest somebody before you go looking for evidence means you have bridged his constitutional right. Our investigation has to be intelligence-driven."

Insisting that the ban on road blocks across the country would be enforced to the latter, Arase lamented that road blocks had become nuisance and points of corruption where “the dignity of the average policeman has been rubbish."

10 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

8,700 pupils seek admission into 15 Lagos model colleges

Lagos starts distribution of Permanent Residents’ Cards

By Olasunkanmi Akoni

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AGOS—THE Lagos State Government on Saturday conducted placement test for 8,700 primary schools’ pupils seeking admission into its 15 Junior Model and Upgraded Secondary Schools for 2015/ 2016 academic session.

Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye, the State Commissioner for Education, who monitored the exercise, said 18 out of the candidates wrote the examination on a pilot Computer-Based Test (CBT).

Oladunjoye said the CBT mode of examination had come to stay in the state.

“We do not want to be left behind. There is the need to prepare the children to be computer literate.

“The last examination that JAMB did was computerbased hence our children should be conversant with it.

“That is why we thought that at this stage of our development, we should experiment and see how it goes.

“And we can see that the candidates coped very well; I am pleased with the conduct of the examination and I am fulfilled because this is what I had always wanted.

“The pupils are seriousminded and I can see the enthusiasm in them,” the commissioner told newsmen.

Oladunjoye commended the examination board for improving on the mode of writing examinations every year.

She said the state government would accommodate the increasing number of candidates in future examinations.

L

AGOS—FOLLOWING successful registration of over three million residents, the Lagos State Resident Registration Agency, LASRRA, has concluded plans to distribute Permanent Residents’ Cards, PRC, to those captured from upper Friday.

Meantime, as part of effort to curb the increasing cases of kidnapping in the state, the state

CONFERENCE: From left; Mrs Dolapo Osinbajo, wife of the Vice President-elect; Mrs Pauline Tallen, former Deputy Governor of Plateau State and Princess Adejoke OrelopeAdefulire, Lagos State Deputy Governor, at the 7th international conference of African Women in Leadership Organization held at Sheraton Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos.

...Supplies 5mw solar power to schools, others

By Olasukanmi Akoni

L

AGOS—THE Lagos State Government is

Court orders NDLEA to re-instate suspended officer Defendants in the suit were the

By Innocent Anaba

L

AGOS—THE National Industrial Court sitting in Lagos, has ordered the National Drug Law and Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, to reinstate the suspended Borno State’s Assistant Commander, Prince Benjamin Saliu Ikani, who was suspended from duty recently.

The trial judge, Justice O. Obaseki-Osaghe, also ordered the anti-narcotic agency to pay the Assistant Commander all his remuneration till-date.

The court order was sequel to an ex-parte application by the Assistant Commander, Ikani, who was suspended for duty by the agency on February 16, 2015.

government has charged residents to register with LASRRA to make the job of tracking criminals easy.

The General Manager, LASRRA, Ms. Olayinka Fashola made the appeal after presenting awards of recognition to some registered residents in line with the customary recognition of every landmark 100th registration.

While lamenting the low turnout of residents for the registration exercise, Fashola stated, “Of the

over 20 million residents of the state, only three million have been captured since the exercise started two years ago.”

She noted, “Many residents of the state were so busy that we had to sometimes visit them in their offices to register them.”

Fashola said the agency has sophisticated infrastructure to assist the police and other security agencies in the area of crime investigations.

She said, “We can actually identify people with the infrastructure we have in LASSRA. So with the kidnapping

chairman of NDLEA, Mr. Giade, NDLEA and the agency’s Director General/Secretary, Mrs. Roli Bode-George.

The court, meanwhile, adjourned till May 14, 2015, for hearing on the applicant’s motion on notice.

NDLEA had in letter dated February 16, 2015,nformed Prince Ikani of his suspension from duty.

Prince Ikani, had averred that the current administration of the agency under the chairmanship of Mr. Giade had declared war on him following his appointment by the AttorneyGeneral of the Federation as the Secretary of a seven-man Presidential Committee for the reform of NDLEA.

currently supplying five megawatts of electricity powered by solar system to some public schools and Primary Health Centres, PHCs, in remote and riverine areas of the state.

Speaking at the launch of the Lagos Solar Project in Ikeja, Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State, described the project as an attestation of the state’s quest for groundbreaking achievements; expressing the optimism that other states would key into similar project.

According to Fashola, the project would create a conducive environment for learning in benefitting schools and facilitate the provision of 24-hour services in the PHCs affected.

The governor, who was represented by his deputy Princess Adejoke OrelopeAdefulire, added that, “We have been consistent with the PATH agenda, which are Power, Agriculture, Transportation and Housing. There has never been any government in Nigeria that generates own power like Lagos State did. This project is our

initiative to provide power for schools in rural areas.”

Also speaking the General Manager Lagos State Electricity Board Mrs. Damilola Ogunbiyi said the vision behind the project was not only to address one of the state’s key agendas, but to achieve the goal with a project that offered far reaching socioeconomic benefits to the people of the state.

She explained that the first task the board carried out was an energy audit of all 655 public junior and secondary schools across the six educational districts and 260 PHCs within all 20 Local Government Areas in the state.

“This audit was undertaken to determine each school’s energy requirement, actual consumption, power infrastructure as well as an assessment of how energy supply gaps are currently being met.

The interpretation of the results formed the basis of the system design, costs, planning and selection of solar technology required to provide sustainable, dependable, clean and costeffective energy supply,” she said.

incident that involved the Orekoya family in Lagos in which their house maid kidnapped their children, we could actually verify if that lady is who she said she was.

“We have facial recognition application where if we have a good photograph of her we can quickly run through our system and verify if that was her. From there we can look at her address.

From what we have gathered most people register with someone else, so we could have looked at the registration before and after to see if the addresses are the same.

“We could give the police a starting point for their investigations because we have the information.”

Fashola explained that a byproduct of LASRRA’s registration process is the ability to identify and locate specific individuals as long as they reside in Lagos and are registered with the agency.

The LASRRA boss also disclosed that the agency has already deployed infrastructure and manpower to scale up to the next stage of registering residents by focusing on its social media and other online platforms.

Harping on the importance of

Lagos Solicitor-General expresses concern over impunity

By Abdulwahab Abdulah

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AGOS—THE SolicitorGeneral of Lagos state, Mr Lawal Pedro (SAN) yesterday said the culture of impunity has become the way of life of majority of Nigerians, saying this may stop the nation from achieving her goals Pedro, who chaired the Annual Law Week 2015 of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Ikeja branch, added that; “Our challenge is the seeming acceptance of impunity as our way of life. Our worry is the lack of condemnation of instances of impunity by the society. It appears that our society has ‘normalised’ acts of impunity. We appear to have accepted that impunity is part and parcel of our society.”

According to Pedro, who spoke on the Bar programme in Ikeja, said there is no institution or person that appears to be exempted from the culture of impunity.

“Rather than outright condemnation, we now appear to be glorifying disobedience to law and order. We celebrate corruption and applaud perversion of law”, he added.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 11

APC, Fayose bicker over kidnappings in Ekiti z‘Ekiti always ungovernable whenever APC loses power'

By Leke Adeseri, South West Regional Editor

zIt's Fayose fault — APC

O

A

S the wave of kidnapping in Ekiti State reaches a critical level, the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state and Governor Ayodele Fayose are pointing accusing fingers at each other.

Barely a week after a nurse working with the Federal Teaching Hospital, Ido Ekiti , Mrs Margaret Aladeneka, was kidnapped by unknown gunmen, former Chief Medical Director of the Ekiti State Teaching Hospital, Dr Patrick Adegun, was last Thursday abducted.

Adegun, who is a staff of EKSUTH was kidnapped at about 8.00pm alongside his wife, Kikelomo and taken to an unknown destination. They were kidnapped few metres from the gate of their house located at Goshen Avenue, Oke Ila within Ado Ekiti, the state capital.

Also, a lecturer at Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife, Dr. Femi Omisore was at the weekend kidnapped by unidentified people in Ado Ekiti, while on his way to Oye Ekiti, where a new Federal University is located.

The lecturer, it was learnt, works at the Department of Environmental Design Management of the institution.

According to a source, the kidnappers also killed Omisore’s driver and burnt his vehicle.

It's Fayose’s faults – APC

The APC in Ekiti has alleged that the failure of the governor to fulfil his promises to his rough-necks after using them for political violence had exposed the state to all manner of characters that now stalk the residents after the governor’s refusal to adequately finance security agencies to protect the people.

APC Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatubosun, said in statement that so far, the governor had failed to deliver on all his campaign promises, regretting that besides house-breaking and robbery incidents, six persons, including medical doctors, have been kidnapped in the state in the last five months. According to him, the horror of the kidnapping of medical doctors has forced medical practitioners in the state to down tools.

“We raised the alarm when the trend started, calling the attention of Ekiti people to the governor’s refusal to fund security agencies like his predecessor, which was responsible for low crime rate between 2010 and 2014; even though Fayose increased his personal security vote to N200 million per month “What is happening now is a confirmation of our earlier claim that the 19 APC lawmakers were targets of kidnapping to reduce their

BRIEFING: From left: National Secretary, Unity Party of Nigeria, Yusuf Alli; National Chairman of UPN, Dr Fredrick Fasehun; DG, Nigeria Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Prof. Bola Akinterinwa, and Eze Ndigbo, Shomolu, Eze Leonard Agha, at the first national post-election summit of the party tagged: Revolution through the ballot box, in Lagos, yesterday. Photo: NAN. number in order to stall his impeachment. This would have been done if they had attended the meeting at ABUAD where we were reliably informed that an ambush had been laid for them,” Olatunbosun said.

He added that the recent kidnap incidents could not be detached from the earlier state of siege and insecurity by criminals after the government unleashed thugs, miscreants and Ado Ekiti jail break escapees to harass political opponents.

“The thugs, who are still currently being lodged in the Government House, had in the past unleashed terror on opposition members in every town across Ekiti State. We have every reason to believe that it is the same criminals and their colleagues from neighbouring Ondo State that are responsible for the recent kidnapping in the state,” Olatubosun said.

He added:”We raised the alarm about the state of insecurity in Ekiti in the last six months that Fayose mounted the saddle as governor. It was first jailbreak, followed by the reign of armed robbers, next was the reign of thugs who maimed opponents in all towns in Ekiti and now it is kidnappers.

“We call on security agencies, especially the Acting IGP Solomon Arase, to revisit our petitions on the thugs sheltered in the Government House by Fayose who he has been using to harass APC members, including the 19 lawmakers. They should be arrested and prosecuted now. Their details are with the security agents already.

“We sympathise with Ekiti people who were deceived by Fayose into believing he is the best for them.

They now know better, as the difference between a government that really cared for the masses and a government of stunts and deceit is becoming clearer by the day.”

The APC vampires are back, Fayose alleges

According to the assertion by governor Fayose’s Media Aide on New Media, Mr Lere Olayinka; ‘’No doubt, Ekiti State is always made ungovernable whenever the All Progressives Congress elements lose power in the state. ‘’When Engr Segun Oni of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was governor, they made Ekiti ungovernable, using organised crime – Kidnapping and armed robbery. ‘’In just one year (2009 - 2010) that they invaded Ekiti State with the Charles Ojo Ovie-led gang; here are a few of what they did;

January 3, 2009 - Kehinde Fasubaa was killed in Ado-Ekiti; August 2, 2009 - Three officers of the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) - SP Mohammed Manua, CPL Wasiu Olatunbosun and CPL Simeon Obadero were killed at Fajuyi Park area, Ado Ekiti; August 3, 2008 - The then Trade Union Congress (TUC) Chairman, Barrister R.K. Olaiya and his wife, Barrister Franca Olaiya, Chief Olayode Olusola and two others were kidnapped at Ikole-Ekiti. The victims were coming to Ado-Ekiti in a Toyota Corolla car with registration number EK 621 A01; October 7, 2009 - One Rev Jeje, Sanusi and Odigie Harrison were killed at Ifaki-Ekiti during an armed robbery; January 30, 2010 - Attah of Aiyede, Oba Adeleye Orisagbemi, Provost of the College of Education, Ikere, Dr. Gabriel Olowoyo and two others were kidnapped and murdered.

According to him; ‘’Now that their evil plot to impeach Governor Ayodele Fayose has failed, they have resorted to their old tactics - organised crimes! ‘’Kidnapping is now rampant in Ekiti as it was in 2009 when they desperately wanted to snatch power from Engr Segun Oni of the PDP.’’

Cement firm relocates Ogun community away from pollutants

By Daud Olatunji

A

B E O K U TA — A multinational cement making company, Lafarge Africa has commenced relocation of no fewer than 1000 people and deities in two communities in Oke-Oko. Sekoni community in Ewekoro Local Government area of Ogun State over environmental hazards faced during

blasting of limestone.

The Managing Director, Lafarge Africa (WAPCO Operations), Adepeju Adebanjo disclosed this at the inauguration of housing facilities held at new Oke-Oko, Sekoni in Ewekoro at the weekend.

Adebanjo who was represented

by Ewekoro plant manager, Thierry Terriere, noted that the relocation of the people and their deities was initiated by the

Police arrest man for murder in Osogbo

management to properly secure its host community from the environmental hazards of limetone blasting and mining.

She said “Oke-Oko, Sekoni is one of the two communities we have found genuine reasons to support in realizing their potentials by completely relocating them to safer locations newly-acquired by us as part of our community development projects for this year.''

SOGBO—THE Police Command in Osun yesterday said it had arrested one Olagbaju Tajudeen, 45, in connection with the murder of one Dare George during the April 11 governorship elections in Ile-Ife. The Police Public Relation Officer, Mrs Folasade Odoro, disclosed this in a statement in Osogbo.

The statement said Tajudeen was arrested on April 30, in Okerewe, Ile-Ife. It said a pump action gun, six live cartridges, 29 new cutlasses and one forest guard contractor harmer were recovered at the suspect’s house.

Other items recovered include a sword, a wrap of weed suspected to be Marijuana, one unregistered Mercury villager bus and unregistered KIA Jeep.

It also said Tajudeen had provided useful information that would assist the police to unravel the circumstances surrounding the murder.

It said the suspect had during investigation confessed that the single barrel gun and the 29 cutlasses were being kept in his car trunk for self defense.

The statement said anyone found involved in the case would face the wrath of the law.

Ondo Election Petition Tribunal begins sitting in Akure today

By Dayo Johnson

A

KURE—AS the Election Petition Tribunal Akure, starts sitting in the Ondo State capital today, 17 petitions have been filed by candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and the opposition All Progressive Congress APC who lost in the last general elections.

Findings by Vanguard in Akure showed that the APC filed 12 petitions while the PDP filed five.

The APC is challenging the four National Assembly seats won by PDP and eight of the seats won in the state house of Assembly.

Findings from the Secretary of the tribunal, Jemilu Bako, over the weekend showed that the tribunal will commence sitting today.

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

INEC denies APC's allegation on April 11 election documents in Rivers

By Jimitota Onoyume

P

ORT HARCOURT— THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, in Rivers State, has dismissed as untrue, allegations by All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state that it was frustrating the party's effort to access documents used for the April 11 elections in the state.

Administrative secretary of the commission, Mr Roy Obijuru, in a statement, weekend, said the party was merely standing the truth on its head, adding that the party had been given certified true copies of forms ECBC 1 and EC4OG, for the governorship and House of Assembly elections in the 23 local government areas of the state.

He said that INEC received application for the documents from the APC and other political parties, adding that it got the documents between April 16 and 29.

Group rejects Assembly poll result in Ndokwa East

T

HE Ndokwa Youth Coalition, NYC, has rejected the result of the April 11 House of Assembly electiont in Ndokwa East, Delta State, over alleged massive rigging and result manipulation by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Briefing newsmen in Aboh, spokesman to the group, Emeka Ifeanyi, alleged that irregularities trailed the election with the connivance of ad hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC and members of the PDP in the area.

Accordingly, to him, “We have been witnessing massive election rigging in Delta State for the past 16 years, but nothing compares to what transpired in the recently concluded election.”

It added that Charles Olise of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and Emerhor O'tega, the party's governorship candidate, were robbed of their mandate in Ndokwa East. He called for the restoration of the alleged stolen mandate to the rightful candidate.

He said the second application for documents the APC sent was received on April 28, adding that the documents were already being photocopied to be forwarded to the party.

INEC in its statement yesterday attached the

application letters for the documents by the APC and its state Chairman, Mr. Davies Ikanya and how the mails moved within its office.

The electoral body also attached photocopies of other documents including staff movement chart to strengthen

its positions that there was no attempt to frustrate the APC. It will be recalled that the APC had alleged that the electoral body had denied it access to documents it requested to prosecute its case at the tribunal.

DINNER: From left: CEO Stanbic IBTC Bank, Yinka Sanni; Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mrs. Sarah Alade; CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele; CEO, Standard Bank Africa, Mr. Chris Newson; Head, Investor Services, Standard Bank, Mr. Mark Kerns and Head, Investor Services, West Africa, Standard Bank, Mr. Segun Sanni, at a dinner organised

by Standard Bank with international investors in London.

Uduaghan tasks leaders on value re-orientation

By Festus Ahon

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SABA—GOVERNOR Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has charged the nation’s leaders to embark on a value re-orientation in the country so as to unlock the vast potentials of the country.

He also urged the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to learn from its defeat at the presidential poll and reinvent itself to provide a robust opposition in the country.

Speaking, weekend, at the second University of Ibadan

Alumni Association National Public Lecture titled Good Governance as a Catalyst for Development: The Delta State Experience, Uduaghan said: “The leadership of Nigeria must collectively fashion a new value system. This is because it is the responsibility of leaders to mobilise the people towards effecting the necessary change in attitude.

“It is the duty of leaders to impart a sense of nationalism and patriotism in the people.

The leaders have the sacred task of ensuring that there is

sincere popular participation in conducting public affairs, rather than indifference, cynicism and apathy. I believe that the key to unlocking the great potentials of Nigeria is to increase popular participation. The people must be involved.”

He called on the ruling class to take the developmental yearnings of Nigerians as expressed in the last general elections seriously, observing that the voting pattern of the elections has thrown a challenge of unification and healing process on the ruling class, especially the in-coming administration.

Only 141,000 people pay taxes in Edo —STATE IRS on highways where innocent

By Gabriel Enogholase

B

ENIN—CHAIRMAN of Edo State Internal Revenue Service, Chief Useni Elamah, has disclosed that only 141,000 of the over four million people in the state pay their taxes, adding that over 90 percent of the dues, levies and taxes collected from the citizens were illegal.

Useni spoke at the launch of a video album titled, I will

Expose Bad Market Leaders, by Traders’ Welfare Union of Nigeria in Benin.

Represented by Mr. Emmanuel Usoh, an Executive Director and member of the State Internal Revenue Service, he said that the state government had set up a committee involving the 18 local government chairmen to clear all illegal and dubious collections of rates, levies and taxes as well as the barricades

Nigerians are forced to part with their money through intimidation thus giving the state a bad name.

He said that the government has made up its mind to ensure that no Nigerian residing and doing business in the state was illegally deprived of his money without due receipt, adding that the greatest challenge facing traders in the state today was undue harassment by illegal tax collectors.

We're committed to paying workers' salaries —BAYELSA GOVT

By Samuel Oyadongha

Y

E N A G O A — BAYELSA State Government, weekend, said it will not compromise the payment of the salary of its workers and will continue to give priority to the welfare and wellbeing of its workforce despite the shortfall in allocation from the Federation Account.

The state government was reacting to a comment by Finance Minister, Mrs Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, blaming governors for their inability to pay their workers’ salaries due on their alleged failure to heed the advice to make the issue of wage a priority.

The state Information and Orientation Commissioner, Mr Dan Kikile and Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Daniel IworisoMarkson, said though the federal allocation to the state had dropped drastically, “the government is committed to the payment of workers’ salaries.”

Ibori, Oru, others bag Delta Poly award

By Perez Brisibe

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G H A R A — F O R M E R governor of Delta State, Chief James Ibori and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Chief Steve Oru, bagged fellowship awards during the first combined convocation of Delta State Polytechnic, Otefe-Oghara, weekend.

Also bestowed with awards were the pioneer Rector, pioneer Bursar and pioneer Registrar of the institution, Dr. Stephen Ijaha, Chief Stanley Sagboje and Dr. Y. M. Ovwigho, respectively.

In his remark, the state Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan who was the guest of honour, applauded former Governor Ibori for his foresight in the establishment of the polytechnic and other institutions of higher learning in the state.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015—13

Buhari'll be president of Nigeria not APC …Hold Executive responsible for president —TAMBUWAL failure to fight corruption—Ihedioha

By Simon Ebegbulem

B

ENIN—SPEAKER of the House of Representatives and governor-elect of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, said yesterday that the President-elect, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, will be the president of Nigeria and not the president of All Progressives Congress, APC, adding that the Presidentelect will ensure justice to both the people of the South South and South East in the sharing of political positions.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Emeka Ihedioha, has blamed the executive arm of government for failing to curb the widespread corruption in the country.

Tambuwal added that the leadership of the party was consulting on how to zone political offices across the country, noting that contrary to the belief that the APC is torn apart over sharing of political offices, “The party is consulting and I am sure that after consultation, the party will announce its decision.”

Tambuwal spoke shortly after he was confered with a traditional title, the Onosejile (God sent) of Opoji Kingdom by the Onojie of Opoji, HRH Ehidiamen Aidonojie I, inEsan West Local Government Area of Edo State.

The Speaker, in company of Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, had earlier paid a condolence visit to the Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Mr Samson Osagie, at Urhokosa, Uhumnwonde Local Government Area of Edo State.

Ihedioha, in Benin, when he led other members of the House to condole with Mr Osagie, on the demise of his father and responding to

questions from newsmen, said that the 7th Assembly had done its best to expose corruption in the country.

“It is unfair for anybody to indicate that the Assembly did nothing about corruption.

First, the leadership of the House and the entire 7th Assembly discharged itself as a House that leads by example throughout.

“We led the House transparently and we kept our

books open for any group or individual to appreciate how we ran the affairs of the House. That is why, in the 7th Assembly, there are no banana peels.

“We also did everything that we could to expose corrupt practices by any branch of government and by any member of the society. We have done all we needed to do and we have asked the executive to do its own part.”

INAUGURAL LECTURE: From left: Prof. Mashudu Davhana-Maselesele, Rector, NorthWest University, Mafikeng, South Africa; Professor Eno Ebenso, Vice-Rector, Research and Planning; Professor Victor Ojakorotu, former Head, Department of Politics and International Relations and Dr. Marilyn Setlalentoa, Dean, Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, during the Inaugural Lecture of Professor Victor Ojakorotu, at the North-West University, Mafikeng, South Africa.

HANDOVER: Rivers PDP tasks Amaechi on Transition Committee C

HAIRMAN of Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Mr Felix Obuah, has said that Governor Rotimi Amaechi’s admission of readiness to hand over on May 29 should be backed up by inauguration of a Transition Committee to interface with the Transition Committee inaugurated by the governor-elect, Mr. Nyesom Wike.

Obuah insisted that Amaechi was obstructing the process by not co-operating with Wike's Transition Committee.

In a statement by his media aide, the state PDP chairman, regretted that just a few weeks to the swearing-in date, Amaechi was yet to set up a complementary Transition Committee to ensure a smooth handover.

According to him, Governor Amaechi has no reason not to comply with the rule of law by doing the needful, which is handing over to the governor-

elect, Wike, on the scheduled date.

“It is a moral obligation and he is duty bound to do so, as not doing so is not only

undemocratic but also felonious.”

Obuah noted that the reason Amaechi had refused to inaugurate his Transition

Committee to interface with the governor-elect’s Transition Committee borders on fraudulent practices of his government.

Group alerts Uduaghan on looming Ogbe-Ijoh, Aladja clash

By Emma Amaize

W

ARRI—A GROUP, Concerned Citizens of Ogbe-Ijoh, in Warri South-West Local Government Area, Delta State, has alerted the governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, of a brewing inter-communal crisis between Ogbe-Ijoh and the neighbouring Aladja, an Urhobo town.

In a Save Our Soul to the governor by Mr Friday Deinghan and two others, the group, said: “We, wish to draw the attention of the governor of Delta State and chief security officer of the state to the imminent inter- communal clash and possible breakdown of

law and order between OgbeIjoh and Aladja communities as a result of consistent attacks on Ogbe-Ijoh people.

“The governor of the state and members of the public are aware that for some years now, the people of Aladja have been carrying out persistent attacks and extortion on people carrying building materials to Ogbe-Ijoh through Aladja.

“Ogbe-Ijoh people had written several letters to security agencies and even to the governor of Delta State and President Goodluck Jonathan. As a result of these attacks, on the invitation of the governor of Delta State, there was a meeting

between leaders of Ogbe-Ijoh and Aladja communities at Government House, Asaba and presided over by Deputy Governor, Prof Amos Utuama, with the Commissioner of Police, Department of State Services, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Delta State and some other commissioners in attendance.

“It was resolved that Aladja indigenes should stop preventing the movement of building materials to Ogbe-Ijoh through Aladja town which is the only access road to Ogbe-Ijoh town and also that no body should build on the buffer zone between the two communities as identified by government.”

Police kill six armed robbery suspects in Delta

By Festus Ahon, Perez Brisibe & Ochuko Akuopha

U

GHELLI—SIX suspected armed robbers have been shot dead by the police in the Delta State.

It was learned that three of the suspects were killed in a gun duel with the police Friday night in the Ughelli metropolis, Ughelli North Local Government Area of the state.

Two suspected armed robbers were killed in Afiesere community and another in Iyede, Isoko North Local Government Area.

Briefing newsmen on the Friday incident, Area Commander in charge of the Ughelli Area command, Mr. Alali Pedro, said the police had engaged a gang of armed robbers operating in the metropolis “and three of them were gunned down.”

I won't stay on as head of Amnesty Programme —KUKU

By Soni Daniel

A

B U J A — CHAIRMAN, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Mr. Kingsley Kuku, has said that he was not plotting on staying on as the head of the organisation after May 29.

Kuku, who is the Special Adviser to President Jonathan on Niger Delta, was reacting to calls by some influential Niger Delta individuals and groups on the incoming administration of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to scrap the programme.

Kuku, in a statement by Head of Media and Communication in the PAO, Dan Alabrah, said he was returning to his village in Ondo State, rather than plotting to continue under the new government.

“The chairman wishes to disappoint the plotters as he is not interested in continuing in that office, more so as his boss, President Goodluck Jonathan, is leaving office on May 29, 2015," he said.

14—Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Imo royal fathers charge Buhari on good governance

By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

N

NEWI—THE Council of Traditional Chiefs of Alaoma Owerri Ebiri in Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State, has said that for the government of President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari (retd), to succeed, it must reduce the cost of governance, strengthen the judiciary, ban unnecessary importation of goods, encourage industrilaisation, fight corruption and practise true federalism.

Chairman of the council, Chief Cos Damian, who gave the charge while speaking with journalists, weekend, said: “If General Buhari fails in this his last bid to change the country for good, there may not be any hope again for the country because no other good Nigerian will have the courage, sincerity and patriotic spirit like him to serve the country.

“Other areas of life of the country the incoming administration has to pay attention to are growing indiscipline in the country, refineries that have defied rehabilitation, power sector that has refused to work, regulating the cost of major contracts in the country and senseless party politics aimed at amassing wealth, instead of service to the people.

“The cost of governance must be drastically reduced if we must make headway in Nigeria, legislative work should be part time job with work allowance only.

“It has been revealed that Nigeria runs the costliest government in the whole world, where it is said that the remuneration of a legislator in Nigeria is higher than that of the President of America.

PDP jittery over six arrested INEC staff in Abia —APGA .We've no business with them —PDP

By Anayo Okoli & Akoma Chinweoke

T

HE ALL Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, has alleged that the ruling party in Abia State is working round the clock to compromise the Assistant Inspector-General, AIG, of Police, Zone 9, Umuahia, Mr. Usman Gwary, to release unconditionally the six members of staff of

Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, arrested in Umuahia for allegedly attempting to take away seven card readers and result sheets from the Commission’s office.

But the PDP in a quick reaction, dissociated itself from the activities of the INEC staff.

Quoting an impeccable source at Zone 9, the party said the PDP had offered irresistible and mouth watering sum of money to the AIG to release the suspects and kill

INSTALLATION: Clan head of Okpokpo at Igede, Benue State, Chief John Okponyo (right), giving an item of office to the new Ad’Igede 111 in Anambra, Chief Matthew Omenka (left), installing him as the new head of Igede in Onitsha, weekend. With them are members of Igede Development Association, Anambra chapter.

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HAIRMAN OF Oluwakemi Memorial Foundation, Ms. Oyindamola Jaiyesimi, has called on the Federal Government to increase awareness of asthma and position it as a national priority disease.

The call was made during an

Isialangwa North local government areas during the governorship poll.

The list of arrested INEC staff includes the Head of ICT Dept., Engr. Herbert Ejiofor, Mr. Nnamdi Nwabuko, who was driving the materials out of INEC office at the time of his arrest, Amauche Ebi Dike, Charles Mba, Nkem Ichita, Uche Enyioma, Innocent Dire, all members of staff of the ICT department and the Secretary to the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Esther David.

Meanwhile, Abia State chapter of PDP has dissociated itself from the activities of some INEC staff who were arrested with some card reading machines illegally removed from the Commission’s state headquarters in Umuahia.

Abia PDP said it roundly condemned such an act and blamed it on the main opposition party in the state, APGA, which had earlier accused PDP of being behind the removal of the card readers, which it alleged were meant to be used to rectify the controversial votes from Obingwa Local Government Area.

But PDP said the report of the illegal removal of the card readers from Umuahia INEC was like a thunder bolt for the PDP in the state.

Speaking in a press briefing at the party’s state headquarters in Umuahia, the party’s Secretary, Mr. Charles Eseonu, said it “must have been a planned act orchestrated by enemies of free and fair elections in the state."

Court issues warrant of arrest on Eze Odimegwu

By Chidi Nkwopara & Chinonso Alozie

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WERRI—AN Orsu Chief Magistrate court, presided over by Mr. G. C. Okoli, has issued a warrant of arrest on the former Managing Director of Nigerian Breweries, Eze Festus Odimegwu, for allegedly refusing to appear before the court to answer charges bordering on conspiracy and stealing levelled against him.

Apart from Eze Odimegwu,

who was absent when the matter was called up, the other persons named in the suit, MOS/35C/ 2014, were Moses Okafor, Ichie Peter Chukwumero Obidike, Innocent Edom and Orji Boniface.

Before issuing the warrant of arrest, the presiding Chief Magistrate expressed dissatisfaction over the refusal of Odumegwu to appear in court to answer the charges.

The Chief Magistrate said: “It is, hereby, ordered that a warrant of arrest be issued and is, hereby, issued for the arrest

Foundation asks FG to position asthma as national priority disease

By Bartholomew Madukwe

the report.

The party also noted that the missing card readers and result sheets were deployed in Obingwa Local Government Area, where a whopping 82,240 votes were credited to PDP against 1,952 votes for APGA, even when elections did not take place in the area.

However, sources at INEC said that no card reader was used for accreditation in Obingwa, Osisioma, Ugwunagbo and

Inter-School Drama, Art & Poetry Competition in Lagos, organized by the Foundation.

The event, entitled, 'You Can Control Your Asthma,' was attended by children from various schools across the country, as judges were drawn from professionals in the health and education sectors.

Speaking at the event,

Jaiyesimi pointed out that there was need to educate African communities of the underestimated effects of Asthma, how to minimise it and emergency procedures during an attack.

Praise Oluwarinu, a pupil of Vivian Fowler Memorial College, told Vanguard that there was a lot to be done in Nigeria concerning asthma.

of Eze Festus Odimegwu for him to aid the police in their further investigation of this case. ‘’It is also ordered that the office of the Inspector General of Police shall aid the men of Imo State Police Command to carry out his arrest.”

Addressing the court earlier, counsel to the accused person, Mr. Vitalis Ekwem, told the court that the order for Odimegwu to appear before it should have been served personally and not by substituted means.

Ekwem also accused the police of “not being cooperative,” adding that the office of the State Attorney General requested for the case file to make a legal opinion on the matter but the police frustrated and has continued to sit on the case file.

Responding, the prosecutor R.O. Ayogu Eze, denied seeing any such letter and asked the court to give him (Ayogu) a short date to enable the police conduct a complete investigation on the matter.

He also prayed the court to issue a warrant of arrest on Eze Festus Odimegwu, who he said was at large, stressing that Eze Odimegwu was one of the accused persons, but had constantly refused to obey the order of the court to appear for the case.

The charge read: “That you, Moses Okafor, Ichie Peter Chukwumero Obidike, Innocent Edom, Orji Boniface and Eze Festus Odimegwu now at large, on the 24th day of April, 2013, at Orie Amachi Orsu, in Orsu Magisterial District, did conspire to steal the following items: 15 Ton Roller valued at N10million, Reversing Drum Concrete Mixer N5million, Mercedes Benz Tipper Lorry valued at N3.5million, Cat 966 Pay Loader 5 valued at N60million, O&K Motor Grader N50million, 1.5 Ton Roller N1million, Copco Compressor valued N1.5million, and Tilting Drum Concrete Mixer to the tune of N1.5million.”

Meanwhile, the case has been adjourned to May 22, 2015, for continuation of hearing in the matter.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 —15

ABA: Motorists accuse FRSC of

extortion

By Felix Ogbonna

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OTORISTS PLYING Enugu- Port Harcourt Expressway have accused personnel of the Ab Unit of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, of extortion.

They insisted that if the activities of the Corps personnel were not checked, their action would tarnish the image of the agency.

A cross section of motorists, who spoke to our correspondent, said: “It doesn’t matter if your vehicle papers are complete or your driver's licence is genuine, the FRSC officials on the highway must find a way to intimidate and extort money from motorists."

The motorists called the authorities of the agency to ensure that they carried out surveillance on their men on the highway in order to curb their excesses.

Narrating his ordeal to Vanguard, a commercial driver who gave his name as Chidiebere Nwadiuba, alleged that he was delayed for almost an hour even before he was asked to continue with his trip because he refused to bribe some officers of the agency who stopped him on the highway.

Another driver, Mr. Enemuo Chika, also narrated an encounter between his friend and an FRSC officer in front of their Aba Unit Command headquarters which nearly degenerated into fisticuffs.

“On my way to work at Umuahia, an official of FRSC suddenly appeared on the

expressway to stop a motorist on speed. The driver nearly hit him but managed to stop, close to the FRSC van.

"They blocked him as if he was running away from them and when the man stopped, the FRSC personnel became very aggressive and pounced on the

guy’s front door, opened it and started fighting the driver trying to forcibly take his car key.

“The official ruffled the man in the presence of his wife seated right in front with her husband and later took the car key from the ignition, bending it in the process," he said.

VISIT: From left, President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Maitama Sule, and Senator Joseph Waku, during the Northern Elders' visit to the President-elect, at the All Progressives Party, APC, Campaign Office, in Abuja. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan

SGF: Group drums support for Onu meeting in Lagos, Coordinator of the group in South-West, Chief Ajayi Adekunle, said the position of the SGF was not to LEADERSHIP and good serve the South-East governance group in the geopolitical zone alone, but All Progressives Congress, APC, Nigerians generally and as Voice Forum, has called on the people of South-East geopolitical zone to present a strong personality for the position of Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF.

By Bartholomew The group also said the zone Madukwe had eminently qualified leaders as Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, who had national acceptance and GROUP, International technical competence.

Society for Civil Liberties Rising from its general & the Rule of Law, has called

By Gbenga Oke

A

such, should be occupied by a person with competence, trust and integrity.

He said: “Consistency and loyalty should be the hallmark and character of the person of the new SGF, which Dr. Onu

possesses, having been the first executive governor of Old Abia State, former University lecturer, presidential candidate, former national chairman of a political party and national leader of the APC.

Govs owing workers' salaries should be impeached —Group

A

for the immediate impeachment of debtor governors over unpaid workers salaries.

In a statement by its Board Chairman, Emeka Umeagbalasi, the group said

ABIA GOV POLL: Court reserves May 27 for judgment in

Ufomba’s case against INEC

By Felix Ogbonna

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FEDERAL High Court sitting in Umuahia, Abia State, has reserved judgment till May 27 in a case of unlawful exclusion from election instituted by factional candidate of All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, in the April 11 governorship poll, Chief Regan Ufomba, against the Independent National Electoral Commission.

Also joined in the suit is the APGA candidate for the election, Dr. Alex Otti.

Ufomba, who claimed to

have been validly nominated by his party but unlawfully excluded by INEC, had instituted a suit at the Federal High Court, seeking for the cancellation of the April 11 governorship election in the state and called for the conduct of a fresh one where he would be recognized as APGA candidate.

When the matter came up last Thursday, the presiding Judge gave May 27 date for judgment.

This was after counsels to both plaintiff and defendants had argued and adopted their

written addresses which lasted for three hours.

Counsel for the plaintiff, Clement Onwuenweunor, had told the court that the National Chairman of APGA, Chief Victor Umeh, forfeited his right to nominate any aspirant, being a candidate himself, just as he was restrained by a court order.

However, counsel for the respondents, Awa Kalu (SAN), in a counter argument, said the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit and should strike it out.

it was condemnable for the likes of particularly Governor Okorocha to blame the Federal Government for his failure to pay those working for his administration, despite budgeting and spending a staggering sum of N779.72 billion or $3.9 billion in the last five years, 2011 to 2015.

“The governor should be held wholly responsible to account for this or be impeached without further delays. ‘’It is an elementary knowledge to every Tom, Dick and Harry in Nigeria that the common revenues of the Federation of Nigeria are not kept in the Account of the Federal Government of Nigeria, but in the Federation Account."

“The governors owing workers’ salaries should be impeached without further delays in accordance with the gross misconduct provisions in Section 188 (11) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended in 2011.

Give us another leader, Awka community begs Obiano

By Vincent Ujumadu

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WKA—THE people of Awka have appealed to the governor of Anambra State, Chief Willie Obiano, to approve a new leadership for the community, pending the election of another President-General, to avoid a leadership vacuum in the area.

The tenure of Mr. Tony Okechukwu as the President-Peneral of Awka Development Union Nigeria, ADUN, expired in March this year and because the former leadership did not prepare for another election, the community wrote the state government complaining that the people were not prepared to tolerate tenure elongation.

However, as Okechukwu moved to conduct the election on March 7, 2015, which was 10 days to the expiration of his tenure, he was stopped by the state government, in view of the approaching general elections.

Church refutes claim of Paul Emeka’s sack

By Francis Igata

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NUGU—THE Assemblies of God Church Nigeria, AGN, has reiterated the position of Prof. Paul Emeka as its G e n e r a l Superintendent,GS, of the church.

This came as a dissident group, led by Chidi Okorofor, alleged that the judgment of an Appeal Court, Enugu, affirmed the suspension of Paul Emeka as GS, even as it purported Emeka’s removal as a Trustee of the AGN. Reacting to the development, the Public Relations Officer, PRO, of AGN, Mr. Chinedu Kalu, said: “The report by the Okorofor group is false and malicious. We urge the general public to discountenance such antics.

“There is no judgment order that affirmed the suspension,dismissal of the GS. The court set aside the judgment of the High Court in Enugu."

16 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015—17

LAGOS CARNIVAL... LAGOS CARNIVAL... LAGOS CARNIVAL

From left— Mrs. Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire, Lagos State Deputy Governor; Governor Babatunde Fashola and his wife, Abimbola, at Tafawa Balewa Square, during Lagos Carnival, weekend. PHOTOS: Bunmi Azeez.

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18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2014 THE character of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, as a party its key officials pleased themselves, is playing out in the rancourous management of the party’s loss of the 2015 elections. Neither the party, nor the polity anticipated reactions of PDP members if they are the opposition. We may only be at the beginning of the implosion that could be an explosion.

How could the party that predicted 60 years dominance of our politics disintegrate so fast? PDP’s demise built up over its 17 years of existence. There was ample evidence of a party in trouble with its 11 chairmen in 17 years-Only one of whom was elected. For a democratic party, the absence of internal democracy was a major flaw.

It was not only in the party executive that trouble brewed. In the first eight years of civil rule, the

PDP - Implosion To Explosion PDP, which dominated the Senate, posted five Senate presidents. It was another ignored signal of the fractious tendencies of a party the attainment of power glued into place. If PDP did not know how to manage power (success), it would not be surprising that it is eating itself up after losing the elections.

PDP is just being itself, the only difference is that its grip on power has slipped and the common denominator for all its interests has gone with the loss of the elections.

PDP is a lesson on how Nigeria has spent the past 16 years of democratic rule. Leaders, followers, admirers and ordinary watchers all had their eyes on power and its allure, not on serving the people. Does anyone have to ask those associated with the PDP loss to resign?

Everybody is denying responsibility for a trouncing that should bring the party to sobriety it requires to share a common woe. It is obvious that the only thing common to PDP – power – has gone.

Senate President David Bonaventure Alechenu Mark proudly stated that PDP was comatose.

If PDP is comatose, in what state are its members?

An over-dose of party indiscipline has taken its toll on PDP. Calls are raging for the resignation of party chairman Alhaji Adamu Muazu, who has the unenviable record of leading the party to its first defeat in 16 years. The loss is enough reason for Muazu to resign; after all, chairmen who led the party to its four earlier victories were still disgraced out of office. Muazu is not ready to resign.

What should worry Nigerians is that with PDP prostrate, the All Progressives Congress, APC, could be without strong opposition to stem temptations to abuse power.

With a weak opposition, we could end up with change we never imagined.

OPINION Boko Haram: Jonathan's finest hour

By Godwin Etakibuebu

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OKO HARAM, interpreted to mean “Western education is evil”, did not begin with President Goodluck Jonathan's administration. It did not even come into existence with late President Shehu Yar’Adua [Jonathan's predecessor] tenure.

It was the creation of Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration – 1999 to 2007 - when one of the governors then, Ahmodu Sheriff of Bornu State, rode to power through the formation and financial sustenance of this religious sect, which was to become deadly. Lieutenant General Jeremiah Useni, a one-time Chairman of the defunct All Nigerian People Party [the political party that produced Ahmodu Sheriff as governor of Bornu State] attested to the fact that “Ahmodu Sheriff created Boko Haram”.

It is however a statement of fact that this organisation [Boko Haram] was to grow beyond measure of control during the life of the present administration for many reasons.

Some of the reasons, if properly evaluated, are internal while some are external. It may be prudent, if only for purposes of historical documentation, to put the reasons in perspective, as doing so will help in identifying areas of blames whenever the need would arise in the future.

First and major was the incident that preceded Jonathan’s coming to office as President during the “eve”, so to say of Yar’Adua’s tenure, when the leader of the sect; Abubakar, was arrested by the Military

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in Maiduguri and properly handed him over to the Police for diligent investigation and prosecution but the Police turned around to do one of the things they know how to do best – extra-judicial killing, as the man was summarily executed without approaching the judiciary. It came to pass, for that reason, that even before the death of President Yar ’Adua, and before the assumption of Goodluck Jonathan to office, through the “doctrine of necessity”, the Boko Haram sect had declare war against the Nigerian State.

This was followed by religious factor as the sect quickly found a more dangerous ally in the most dreaded Al’ Qaeda movement, strongly rooted in the Middle East with its stupendous financial empire. The Nigerian Government under President Jonathan, was either ignorant or entirely naïve, to acknowledge and understand the enormity of the enemy. This was to become its great undoing for the government and people of Nigeria.

The events of 2011 general elections did not help matters as far as Boko Haram was concerned. Some people believed, with measure of religious and tribal emotion though, that the presidency must “return to

President Jonathan, at his exit point, is dancing a victorious dance in sambisa forest

the North, at least to complete Yar’Adua’s tenure”. For this group of people, Goodluck Jonathan “dare not compete” and “if he did and wins”, this group warned, “We shall make Nigeria ungovernable for him”. Of course, Boko Haram “operational base” was strengthened by this declaration of “making Nigerian ungovernable”, more so when Boko Haram is viewed from its Islamic religious background. Jonathan made it to the presidency of course, but not without paying the price of the threat quoted above, which partly helped the escalation of the insurgency with its total siege over three States of North/East Nigeria: Adamawa, Bornu and Yobe. The rest is now history.

The war began when Boko Haram hoisted its flag and set up administrative and governmental headquarter units around that part of the country and re-named it a Caliphate of sort. It was glaring at the beginning that the Nigerian Military was not ready for the “ rule of operational engagement” as our Armed Forces was losing ground, men and equipment to the insurgents daily . People could not comprehend why the Nigerian Armed Forces they expected much from had become such a rag- tag before Boko Haram until some appalling facts began to emerge.

One, the Nigerian Military, unknown to many, has outlived its operational efficiency in material equipment of modern warfare.

It was to be proved later that more than 35 years before Jonathan’s arrival to the Presidency, successive Nigerian leaders [either Military or civilian] refused to equip the military with modern weapons of war.

So, the Armed Forces President Jonathan inherited from his predecessors, was a bunch

of professionals without professional equipment. And President Jonathan himself did not understand this dangerously intricate situation on time until, as Commander-in-Chief, he presided over deployment of his troops for slaughter by the more equipped Boko Haram insurgence.

This lack of modern fighting equipment was again compounded by lack of professionalism in means and ways of deploying field commanders to the battle fields. How on earth the President’s Service Chiefs would deploy, sometimes “relation of the enemy” [as reflected in deploying core Northerners and die-hard Muslims as General officers Commanding - GOC] to the warfronts shall remain a big puzzle for students of combat warfare. Yet this is just one of the many blunders that bordered on deployment of troops. What about the great sabotage of some key service personnel which of course resulted into the multitude of deserters and those for Military Court Marshals, where conviction for death and imprisonment became easily secured? With all these calamities the conclusion drawn by majority around the globe was that “a clueless President Goodluck Jonathan” could not defeat Boko Haram as he could not PENETRATE SAMBISA FOREST, the fortress and symbol of hostility.President Jonathan, at his exit point, is dancing a victorious dance in sambisa forest. THIS VICTORY, MR PRESIDENT, IS YOUR FINEST HOUR. We salute you on your way out as we welcome Muhammadu Buhari to continue from where you stopped.

•Mr. Etakibuebu, a commentator on current affairs , wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 —19 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com

The worth of a Nigerian T HE world knows the worth of an American citizen. The United States (US) insists that its citizens be ruled by American, not international laws. The US can use African Americans and Latinos for target practice. But outside its shores, the American State can stake all it has to defend an American citizen of whatever colour.

If its citizen were to commit serious crimes outside the country, the first American reaction is likely to be that such citizen be allowed to return home to face justice. If this fails, then it provides or ensures legal services.

But in many instances, such Americans especially if they are in its services, go free. This has been the case during the Vietnam, Cambodian and Afghan wars.

One of the few exceptions involved four Blackwater mercenaries who, angry that they were held up in traffic at the Nisour Square, Baghdad, Iraq, opened fire on passers by killing seventeen including nine-year old Ali Kinani and injuring twenty. America refused to allow the mercenaries

face justice in Iraq. It was after seven years of foot dragging and eventual court process they were tried and sent to prison in America The argument here is not to justify impunity, it is simply to illustrate how much value US puts on its citizens. This is why if an American were arrested abroad, his first insistence is to talk to his embassy. In contrast, if a Nigerian were arrested, his first reaction is to beg or make a plea. He knows even if he has access to the Embassy, the officials may never show up.

We can contrast the reaction of Nigeria and Australia to the recent execution of their citizens in Indonesia for drug offences.

Australia made very strong protests, even threatening future ties with Indonesia. In contrast, Nigeria said it had in the past made a plea for clemency. Officials blamed the Nigerians for drug trafficking in a country which has capital punishment for such offence. While Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbot was actively trying to stop the executions, Nigerians were asked to pray. The

implication is that in future, Indonesia will think twice before executing an Australian, but it will not bat an eyelid before executing Nigerians.

We can also analyze the on-going battle between two countries who place a high value on their citizens.

Canadian, Omar Khadr 28, was accused of throwing a grenade in Afghanistan in 2002 which killed an American Army Sergeant. He was 15 at the time and the Americans held him in Guantanamo Bay until 2012 when under the International Transfer of offenders Act, he was moved to a Canadian prison where he is expected to spend eight years. But a Canadian judge has ruled that Khadr be granted bail while he appeals his conviction. The Americans are shouting blue murder, but Khadr is likely to walk out of prison tomorrow, May 12, 2015. What is more, the Canadian courts are likely to upturn his conviction given the fact that he was a minor, had been held for ten years before sentencing, was detained and tried not in the country he allegedly committed the offence and was likely to have been tortured or pressured to

My submission is that if you sell your citizen for a cent, his value internationally, will be a cent

Obiano's infantile promenade and lessons to learn

By Tony Nwaezeigwe

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HE Igbo are a unique people in Nigeria. Often hated with a ferocious clout of jealousy by their neighbours for the reason of their manifest industry and trajectory adventurism, being the most vulnerable to unpleasantness of any society they have found themselves as sojourners.

Yet, they have always held their heads high as a people with a culture of taciturn personality and reflective pride in their ethnic nationality. Mendicancy as a culture is an abhorrence among the Igbo. When it actually occurs, it is only reflective of a crack at the nexus of a particular extended family.

Otherwise what garb of pride will any Igbo man wear before his peers if it is discovered that a member of his family, whether close or extended is shamelessly involved in public begging? As a people inveterately excluded from most plum jobs at the Federal level since the end of the Nigeria civil War in 1970, exception being the brief period of President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure, the Igbo have long learnt how to endure the hard nut of political exclusion in a nation they have continued to sacrifice so much for her sustainable development. They remain till date the least dependent on the economic largesse of the Federal government for their economic and educational developments of all Nigeria’s peoples. Yet, they have remained foremost in these two major areas of national development by the single act of habitual enterprise.

The number one problem of the Igbo has been their inability to urinate at one point to generate solid and strong political foam, in line with the Igbo saying that “a yuko nwammiri n’otu ebe o gbaa ufufu”. Their second problem is their inability to court the confidence and support of their immediate neighbours of the South-South region. These two problems seem to have

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evidently reached the point of virtual solution with the recent re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan. At least the Igbo can now beat their chests and say to their South-South brothers look, we have shown you the test of brotherhood and thus we must now stand together as one people and work together no matter the circumstances.

This is the stance every patriotic Igbo expect from the like of Governor Willy Obiano of Anambra State at the present critical moment of Igbo sit-down-and-look strategy, and not to hastily rush to bow to the very man he campaigned against few months ago. Igbo leaders should learn the hard culture of holding their heads high by allowing their actions to be dictated by the political vibrations of their people.

Governor Obiano cannot say that his hastily jumping into the bandwagon of General Buhari’s victory was at the very behest of the majority of Anambra people.

The point has to be made here and now that the majority of the Igbo like the present writer who worked for the re-election bid of President Jonathan did so for the sake of the Igbo question and chequered historical experience under the dominance of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy of which the President-elect is an archetypical player. If General Muhammadu Buhari decides tomorrow to revoke the contract for the construction of the second Niger Bridge, and if that was the reason for Governor Obiano’s

Anambra State symbolises the gateway to Igbo nationalist spirit and manifest destiny as an ethnic nation

confess.

You can contrast this USCanada struggle with how Nigeria willingly yields its citizens to foreign countries. There was even a case, we allowed the kidnap and transfer of a Nigerian out of our country. Today, there is the issue of Senator-elect, Buruji Kashamu who has told Nigerians he fears powerful Nigerians are working to get him bundled to US for alleged drug offences. If the reverse were the case, America will not be keen to have its citizen or Senator deported to Nigeria over such allegations.

We can also learn from Zambia which decided to call Multichoice/ DSTV to order over arbitrary fee increases and exploitation of Zambians. Here, where the DSTV is doing same, Government does not appear to be interested in protecting the consumer. That is why the company has the impunity to disregard court rulings.

Our foreign policy has not always laid primacy on the protection of Nigerians; we tend more to be moralistic. Malvinas or Falkland Islands is Argentine land populated by Britons. But when the former tried to reclaim the place, the United Kingdom went to war.

Today, Britons continue to live on the islands which are 8,000 miles from Britain. Colonial France and Britain carved up Nigeria and Cameroun and put Bakassi, populated by Nigerians in Cameroun. Rather than defend the right of Nigerians, we opted to go to court, relying on the same colonial documents. We lost and evacuated the Nigerians; offloading them in Cross Rivers State.

If our focus were the protection of

untypical desperate visit, because the Igbo did not vote for him, to God be the Glory.

No Northern or South West governor of APC stoop so low to beg President Jonathan for favour in what was considered his inalienable right as a component administrator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The Igbo need not lobby for ministerial and ambassadorial positions as if there are no prominent Igbo personalities in APC. The onus is on General Buhari under the present democratic dispensation to court Igbo support and not the other way round.

Igbo leaders should desist from chasing wild political goose in the name of soliciting for support for their people. Governor Obiano will soon learn that that desperate political promenade to General Buhari while his people are still reeling in political mourning will definitely generate a political backlash on the integrity and invincibility of his party APGA as a core Igbo political party..

What needs to be stated here is that General Buhari’s victory has not in any way changed the general Igbo view about him. The only factor of change in this regard will only come by way of his performance as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria the next four years. Beyond this nothing else can change it. If the people of Taraba State could stand firm by their conviction to have a Governor of their choice in the midst of the wild-wind of bandwagon in the North, the Igbo can do even much better.

Most importantly, the Igbo are anxiously awaiting the much orchestrated change coming particularly to the NNPC and the Armed Forces to ascertain the level of General Buhari’s inclination to equity in one united Nigerian.

For most of us, we stand convinced that our decision to work for President Jonathan reelection bid is eternal and ancestrally sanctioned by the blood of the Igbo people shed before, during, and after the 1966 pogrom.

There is therefore no reason for any Igbo leader to chaotically jostle for General Buhari’s recognition at this moment. The onus is on the President-elect to prove the many unsavory tales about him through the act of governance. We are anxiously awaiting this magical change of our time.

Nigerians, no international community would have insisted we move such huge population out of Bakassi even if the territory were Cameroonian. Our resolve seemed weakened by claims that the Gowon regime had ceded the area to Cameroun.

Good boy diplomacy will not protect Nigerians. Our founding Prime Minister, Abubakar TafawaBalewa was humoured by the British as the ‘Golden Voice Of Africa’ Having listened to some of his speeches, I discovered that it is not literarily, his voice that was golden, but the pro-British message he was carrying around the world. It was only during the Murtala-Obasanjo regime (197579) did we have a sound foreign policy. In contrast, the Shagari administration went to the ridiculous extent of attempting to break up the African Union and endanger African unity at the instigation of the West. The Obasanjo administration (1999-2007) played a similar role by handing over Charles Taylor, who was in exile in Nigeria based on African agreement, to the West.

The incoming Buhari administration needs to put the Nigerian and African at the centre of its foreign policy. Buhari’s promise to return American military trainers who had been kicked out of our barracks by the Jonathan administration is not a good move. If our foreign policy is like the chaff blown around by the wind, no country will take us serious, and we cannot defend the Nigerian. My submission is that if you sell your citizen for a cent, his value internationally, will be a cent.

What the Igbo need at this moment are leaders who are ready to sacrifice their wealth, time and brain, risk their personal interests at the expense of commanding Igbo interests to bring up the Igbo as a formidable democratic political force in Nigeria, not by boot-licking the APC ruling oligarchy, but by standing up to the challenges of opposition as did the Yoruba nation first under the NADECO, then AD, before the emergence of Bola Tinubu’s ACN to now dominant APC. Again, has the Upper North not stood firm with their traditional AP, which later became APP, before metamorphosising to ACN to form APC? It is striking to note that throughout the two years of Umaru Yar’Adua’s presidency and subsequent six years of Jonathan’s presidency, no Yoruba occupied any of the eight highest positions at the Federal level namely------: President, Vice President, Senate President, Deputy Senate President, Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Federation and Secretary of the Government of the Federation (SGF). Yet, neither did the opposition ACN led by Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu nor the Yoruba in PDP go cap-in-hand begging President Jonathan to reconsider their apparently disadvantaged position. The Yoruba opposition rather than cry wolf resolved to sit down to do the necessary political mathematics and subsequently overturned the political table.

This is the lesson our Anambra State Governor should learn from the Yoruba. To most of us, Anambra State symbolises the gateway to Igbo nationalist spirit and manifest destiny as an ethnic nation. We pray that this spirit should not be desecrated by the single act of unwarranted political mendicancy. The people of Anambra State are admirably too politically conscious, intellectually sophisticated, patriotically self-willed, morally assertive and economically adroit to be so easily stampeded into the status of the political black-sheep of emergent South East- South South regional political solidarity.

•Dr. Nwaezeigwe is Acting Director, centre for Igbo Studies, UNN.

20—Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

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HE taste of the pudding, they say, is in the eating.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) will do well to heed the advice of their fallen People’s Democratic Party (PDP) foes:”talk less and think more”. The time has come for them to produce the “change” they campaigned for.

On May 29th 2015, the APC President, General Muhammadu Buhari, will collect the instrument of authority from Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. The Executive Branch will be effectively installed pending the appointment of the cabinet. Thereafter, the nation will turn its attention to the inauguration of the APCdominated National Assembly – the Senate and House of Representatives. How the leadership of the Legislative Branch takes shape will go a long way in showcasing the APC Federal Government’s democratic credentials and seriousness to provide good and stable governance.

Even though the APC Federal Government will have its own share of teething problems, it will, however, benefit from the experience of Buhari as a former (albeit military) occupant of the seat of the Chief Executive of Nigeria. It might also fall back on the experiences and charted routes established by the PDP in the preceding sixteen years.

Incidentally, many hands that will pilot the affairs of the APC Federal Government had been part of the PDP experience. It is now a question of whether they will have the good sense and patriotism to apply the lessons of the PDP past to ensure that they avoid miring themselves and the nation in in needless impasse due to the screaming blind ambition of individuals and party leaders.

In constituting the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives, it will be interesting to see how the party leadership will proceed. Will they adopt the PDP zoning method of ensuring that all the six geopolitical regions are given a chance to occupy elective and appointive offices in the National Assembly, such as President of the Senate, Deputy President,

Lawmakers must choose their leaders Senate Leader, Minority Leader, Majority and Minority Whip; as well as Speaker of the House of Representatives, Deputy Speaker, House Leader, Minority Leader, Majority and Minority Whip? Or will they throw it open to the legislators to choose from among themselves the most popular, experienced and acceptable leaders to occupy those positions? Left to me, I will prefer that the APC does not merely travel the road beaten by the PDP unless there are no two ways to an issue. Rather, they should come up with innovations that are uniquely those of the Party. We want innovative and thinking governance.

We have seen that while zoning gives every geopolitical region the opportunity to produce candidates who will have a slice of the “cake”, it also gives party

If Dogara, a Christian is blocked, the main offices of the Federation such as President, Senate President, Speaker House of Reps and Chief Justice of Nigeria will be occupied by Muslims, with Christians relegated to mere Deputies

leaders the opportunity to flex their political muscles and manipulate affairs of the Legislative Branch. It thus compromises the independence of the Legislature and predisposes it to instability and corruption. Prolonged instability due to manipulation in the National Assembly eventually produces an opposite reaction from the lawmakers: it turns them rebels. We saw how former President Obasanjo’s interferences led to the emergence of five Senate Presidents and three Speakers of the House of Reps in his eight years in power. When the lawmakers started rebelling, they defeated his third term, exposed his bribe cash on the floor of the Assembly and nearly got him impeached. In the same vein, an attempt by the President Jonathan regime to implement an unpopular zoning pattern in 2011 led to a rebellion that produced Speaker Aminu Tambuwal, who played a leading role in the loss of power by the PDP Federal Government.

But whenever the Senate and House of Representatives chose their leaders in those PDP-led turbulent years, the National Assembly was competently led and there was stability. This was evident when Senators Pius Anyim, Ken Nnamani and David Mark were in charge at the Senate. The same thing was obvious when Hon. Umar Ghali Na’Abba and Tambuwal presided over the House of Reps.

It is, therefore, worrisome, to see the unhealthy interest that a principal leader of the APC, Chief Bola Tinubu, has been showing

in who emerges as Senate President and Speaker, House of Representatives. There are clear indications that Tinubu had initially wanted to push the candidacy of Senator George Akume from Benue State for the presidency of the Senate.

Suddenly, Tinubu reportedly shifted his interest to the North East, where he is eyeing Senator Ahmed Lawan for Senate President to permit his homeboy, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to emerge as the Speaker, House of Reps. What goes round comes round. What makes Tinubu think that the lawmakers will not pay him back in his own coin by going against his candidate, in the same manner that they went against the PDP’s choice for Speaker in 2011; a “coup” he (Tinubu) financed?

Is it not instructive that General Buhari, who is set to assume presidential power, has not been named as showing interest in those that will lead the parliament? If Tinubu does not take care, he might exhaust his goodwill among the APC legislators and leaders too early in the day.

Should the APC decide to go with zoning of offices, it is obvious that the Senate President must come from the North Central, where all six former PDP states went over to the APC, thus becoming the second strongest base of the Party after the North West. The Speaker should come from the North East, which like the SouthWest, gave the winning party four states.

The North East is the most politically marginalised of the six

geopolitical zones in our renascent democracy. In terms of scale of influence in the past sixteen years, North West is indisputably tops. It has produced two Presidents and three Speakers of the House of Reps. It is followed by the South West, which has produced a President, a Vice President and two Speakers.

Third is the South-South, which produced a President, Vice President and two Deputy Speakers. Next is the South East, which has produced five Senate Presidents in eight years, one Deputy Senate President and one Deputy Speaker, while the North Central has produced one Senate President for eight years and two Deputy Senate Presidents. The North East produced only one Vice President and two Deputy Speakers.

Time for affirmative action A time comes when you apply affirmative action without necessarily compromising quality or competence. The North East requires this affirmative support due to its poor take in the zoning of principal offices of the Executive and Legislature since 1999. Powerful political forces outside the legislature should not try to prevent a candidate highly favoured by the members-elect, Hon. Yakubu Dogara from the North East, from emerging as the next Speaker. If Dogara, a Christian is blocked, the main offices of the Federation such as President, Senate President, Speaker House of Reps and Chief Justice of Nigeria will be occupied

by Muslims, with Christians relegated to mere Deputies. It will confirm the APC Federal Government as Muslimdominated. This will be the case if Tinubu imposes Lawan and Gbajabiamila as Senate President and Speaker of the House respectively.

The burden of sacrificial balancing is one that the APC will always have to carry with care until it can attract more adherents from the South East and SouthSouth.

OPINION

Cry not for the Igbos

By Nwobodo Chidiebere “Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable. Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

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HE 2015 general elections might be over but the indelible footprints it left on our political shore will remain trans-generational in the annals of history.

Historians will continue to make reference to 2015 as a year that redefined Nigeria’s political voyage, when taken into considerations landmark successes recorded during the course of this noble exercise and the entrenchment of democratic principles in the polity, which ultimately made Nigeria the true winner of these elections.

It is no longer news that President Goodluck Jonathan of PDP, gallantly lost to Gen. Muhammadu Buhari of All Progressives Congress, who is now President-Elect of Nigeria. Congratulations to the nation’s indefatigable President-Elect, Gen.Muhammadu Buhari, who defiled all the hurdles placed on his way to emerge as the nation’s democratically elected president, but a million

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congratulations should go to President Jonathan, who made it possible for the long-silenced voice of Nigerians to be heard now by creating an enabling political environment that enabled our votes to count, by providing Prof. Attahiru Jega’s led INEC adequate resources and true independence it required to deliver the much-needed free and fair elections. President Jonathan transcended into heaven of statesmen and engraved his name in gold when he made that historic call to congratulate Gen. Buhari, which secured the much needed post-election peace in the country. This courageous step has not only deepened our democracy, but has set the pace for losers in the just concluded Governorship and State Assembly polls to President congratulate the winners.

The story of 2015 general Jonathan did a lot elections would not be complete without to heal the mentioning the roles played by Igbos in wounds of civil deepening Nigeria’s war which democracy. I was inspired to write this piece when I endeared him to came across articles written for the sole purpose the Igbos

of portraying Igbos as being politically naïve for throwing their weight behind President Jonathan. Some of the so-called voodoo analysts described Igbos as a race wallowing in ‘political wildernesses’ because of their massive and formidable support for President Jonathan.

Unfortunately, all these baseless and ignoble attacks on Igbo nation for making their choice were borne out of sheer ignorance of what truly defines an Igbo man or woman. These media tigers pouring venoms on Igbo race are simply bereft of the reasons why Igbos voted for Jonathan. Igbos voted for Justice, Equity and Freedom not Jonathan, fortunately for him, he represented the three main reasons why Igbos voted for PDP in bloc.

President Jonathan did a lot to heal the wounds of civil war which endeared him to the Igbos; he gave Igbos a sense of belonging by integrating Igbos both politically and economicallyinto the nation’s centrifugal equation of governance. He made Igbos understood that this country belongs to all of us, irrespective of our places of birth, tribe and religion.

I can say it authoritatively without mincing words that Igbos will still vote for Jonathan a thousand times again Continues tomorrow on pg 18 *Mr. Chidiebere, a social commentator, wrote from Abuja.

MAY 11, 2015

By YINKA KOLAWOLE

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he inability of prospective homeowners to readily come up with the required equity contribution on mortgages has been identified as one of the factors slowing down the process of mortgage origination in Nigeria, Financial Vanguard investigation has revealed.

It also partly explains the nation's huge housing deficit of more than 17 million homes.

Equity contribution is the initial amount of money to be paid by a potential home owner towards the purchase of a property.

Under the National Housing Fund (NHF) scheme, managed by the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), a borrower is entitled to a maximum loan of N15,000,000, or as determined by the bank. Borrowers are expected to make equity contribution based on the loan amounts as follows: N15 million — 30 percent (N4.5 million); N10 million — 20 percent (N2 million); and N5 million — 10 percent (N500,000). No individual can be given a loan in excess of 90 percent of the cost or value of the property to be mortgaged under the scheme.

Financial Vanguard's findings show that majority of applicants for the Lagos State Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS) did not succeed in owning homes under the scheme mainly due to their inability to come up with the required 30 percent equity contribution of the value of their desired properties.

Under the scheme, applicants are required to make 30 percent down payment (equity contribution). This amounts to a down payment of N1.5 million for a N5 million house, which is beyond the ability of an average salary earner.

According to the Chief Executive Officer of Lagos Mortgage Board, Mr Akinola Kojo Sagoe, as at March 2015, a total of 1,716 people have applied for the scheme, out of which 1,348 (78.6 percent) have been prequalified and over 600 applicants have emerged as beneficiaries. This shows that less than 45 percent of those pre-qualified for the scheme or about 35 percent of total number of applicants, actually emerged as

Why Nigerians shun mortgage schemes zProspective home owners can't pay required contribution zNMRC, PenCom to the rescue zPension fund can now be used as equity payment

CONFERENCE - From left Chairman, Centre of Excellence, University of Lagos, Prof. Ralph Akinfeleye (left) Deputy Chancellor, Management and Services, University of Lagos. Prof. Duro Oni and President, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, (NIPR) Lagos Chapter, Barrister Joseph Okonmah at the 2nd NIPR Lagos Stakeholders' Conference held at Julius Berger Hall, University of Lagos, Akoka, last Thursday in Lagos. homeowners.

This development has prompted the state government to initiate the Rentto-Own housing policy which will waive the 30 percent equity contributions largely for artisans, traders and non-salary earners in the state. Governor Babatunde Fashola said the rent-to-own scheme would allow artisans and traders to access Lagos HOMS without having to pay

the 30 percent down payment before they move into their apartments.

“We are working on the new housing policy. It simply means that once they are qualified for the scheme, they will be allowed to move in under the rent-to-own scheme. The beneficiaries will be paying rent which will eventually lead to mortgage. But in an instance where a beneficiary loses his job and cannot continue with

the scheme after some years, such a person will get back all he has paid.

Already, another person will be waiting to buy the apartment,” he stated.

Similarly, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, while giving a progress report on the 10,000 Continues on page 22 C M Y K

22 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Economy Airlines record more flight delays, cancellations in April

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AWARD: Maurice Newa, Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria (right) receiving the CEO’s Brand Personality of the Year Award on behalf of the Airtel CEO, Segun Ogunsanya, from former President, Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), Mrs. Bunmi Oke during the prestigious Marketing Edge Awards, held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Why Nigerians shun mortgage schemes Continued from page 21 mortgages scheme launched last year by the federal government under the Nigeria Housing Finance Programme, noted the challenge people face in getting bulk money to pay off the mortgage equity. Under the scheme, an initial payment of 20 percent of total cost of house is mandatory. She said that only 33 of the over 66,000 applicants have been granted mortgages after being successfully pre-qualified.

“66,000 people applied for the scheme. As at date, 23,000 have been prequalified and 9,700 have been cleared as being eligible to get it. And 33 people have actually had money being disbursed to them to own a home,” she said. The minister also noted that the federal government is considering the Rent-to-Own mechanism to help people own their own houses. “We are trying to work out down the line, so that if you cannot put a down payment, you can after years of renting, be able to own your own home,” she added.

NMRC reach-out Prof. Charles Inyangete, CEO, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), also agreed that the slow take-off of affordable mortgages scheme under the National Housing Programme is partly due to the equity deposit requirement. He however C M Y K

A lot of the people actually found out that the properties they want are much more expensive than they expected and so the deposit is a bit of a challenge

noted that concerted efforts have been made over the past year to address the problem. “A lot of the people actually found out that the properties they want are much more expensive than they expected and so the deposit is a bit of a challenge.

However, with this new arrangement coming in, we would see that becoming easier. We are also reaching out to the insurance industry to bring in a new product that allows you to pay through insurance for your deposit.

“We are reaching out to developers as well, not only for the purposes of affordability but for quality also, and to ensure that they don’t just build, but they build something that Nigerians want. Something that looks good and still affordable. We have drafted and completed a model

mortgage and foreclosure law which we are going to put as a pilot through the 21 states that signed up, so that process is also starting. That will bring to bear more standardized and more streamlined mortgage process. We do not have to go through the NASS. We drafted it as a state law. So, each state will have to adopt it by itself, that way it will be faster to pass into law,” he stated.

Pension fund Meanwhile, the coast is now clear for pension fund to be used as equity contribution on mortgages.

In a chat with Vanguard, Prof. Charles Inyangete, CEO, Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC), said the nation’s pension fund regulator, Pension Commission (PenCom), has amended its guidelines to accommodate this. “If you do not have a 20 percent down payment, you would not qualify to be refinanced. Remember we are not primary lenders, we refinance. But the primary lenders have to meet our underwriting standards. So there is a 20 percent requirement, and so in order to make sure that it does not become a burden, we have reached out to other industries. Now the pension industry will allow you to use your pension as part of paying your deposit for your home. That is Continues on page 23

he country ’s Aviation Industry recorded more flight cancellations and delays in the month of April 2015, the airlines' performance report has indicated. According to the report, from the Aviation Passengers Service Portal in Abuja, a total of eight airlines were involved in operations during the month. The airlines are First Nation, Dana Air, Arik Air, Air Peace, Overland Airways, Aero Contractors, Medview and Azman.

The report said a total of 7,364 flight operations were carried out in April, of which 1,235 flights were on-time, 3,699 delayed and 2,430 cancelled.

A breakdown showed that First Nation Airways had 229 flights of which 80 flights were on-time flights, 123 delayed and 26 cancelled during the period. It also showed that Dana Air had 505

flights of which 146 were ontime, 313 delayed and 46 cancelled, while Arik Air had 2,506 flights with 464 on-time, 1,336 delayed and 706 cancelled flights.

Air Peace, according to the report, had 782 flights with 122 on-time, 288 delayed and 372 cancelled flights while Overland had 490 flights with 55 on-time, 213 delayed and 222 cancelled. Aero had 1,844 flights with 287 on-time, 1,036 delayed and 521 cancelled, while Medview had 465 flights with 58 ontime, 286 delayed and 121 cancelled flights during the period. A further breakdown showed that Azman Air had a total of 543 flights of which 23 were on-time, 104 delayed and 416 cancelled. The report also indicated that the average airlines performance for the month was 17.68 per cent.

Stakeholders blame Apapa gridlock on tank farms

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ctivities in the Maritime sector closed for the week with stakeholders blaming the week-long traffic gridlock in Apapa and its environs on the concentration of tank farms in the area. The gridlock which arose from the blockade of the highways leading to the Apapa depots, literally brought vehicular movement to a standstill in Lagos.

The traffic situation was actually the point of focus for the week as the situation worsened by the day since the beginning of the week. Mr Bolaji Akinola, the Spokesman for the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria (STOAN), said that the tank farms must be de-centralised as a major solution to the problem of traffic jams in Apapa. He noted that the association had always suggested that petroleum products could be piped closer to different geopolitical zones, moved through rail wagons and barges to avoid the extended pressure on the road.

Mr Lucky Amiwero, President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents (NCMDLCA), said the concentration of tank farms in Apapa was not in the interest of the maritime industry. He said the nation

should first consider critical actions like building of refineries, rather than remaining importdependent for petroleum products.

Amiwero urged the ministries of transport, finance, works and petroleum resources to convene a critical meeting where the issues should be addressed in the interest of the nation’s economy. He blamed the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) for not working with the provisions of the NPA Law, Section 32A, which prescribes that the Authority should regulate traffic within particular radius of the port. He stressed that if the NPA had acted accordingly, the ports would not have been subjected to what it was exposed to for the whole of the week.

In the same vein, Mr Nasir Mohammed, the Port Manager, Lagos Port Complex, Apapa, said the traffic situation degenerated because petrol tankers came for loading simultaneously from across the country. He said that the NPA has continued to work with the security and traffic agencies, to resolve the imbroglio to enable trucks to have free access to the ports. The port manager, however, expressed fears that activities in the port may be greatly affected if the situation persisted.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 23

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ast week, Presidentelect, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) surprised Nigerians when he said that he is currently at a loss on how best to tell Nigerians that his promise of turning the economy around quickly upon assumption of office on May 29 may not be feasible. One would have expected the renowned general to know better. He was swept into office by the propaganda of change. Nigerians bought the slogan line, hook and sinker and voted him to power.

Change, it is said, is the only constant thing and does not come by wishes. It is no news that whenever there is downturn in oil prices, the economy experiences financial stress. The economic circumstance that brought about a military coup that made Buhari head of state in 1983 has not changed. It was the fall in oil prices that made the Shagari-led Federal Government to introduce the very first austerity measure in the country. Buhari knew what followed during his 18 months in the saddle. It should not be news to him that the economy is down, almost on its knees because there is no money to share at the federal level.

APC and Buhari must note that it is by dint of hard work that change comes about. If there was surplus money in the treasury, I am sure Nigerians would not have voted for Buhari. They voted for him to lead a team that will change the political, as well as the economic situation in the country. Whatever it will take, Nigerians expect Buhari and his APC co-political travellers to find a winning formula to restore the economy and not give lame excuses.

Buhari is already looking for excuses to explain possible failure on his part and those of his governors and party in the future.

Buhari premised his fear on the perception that the

economy has been battered by the out-going government of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP. This was even as governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, APC,

APC and Buhari, no excuse for failure, change must be change economy. They failed in their respective states to build a viable economy, depending totally on proceeds from the federation account shared on monthly basis. How many of the 36 federating states were able to attract direct foreign investment in their domain in the last four years? How many new factories and industries were established in the states during this period? How have the governors built the economy of the various states?

Those who went to Buhari did

Buhari

Buhari is already looking for excuses to explain possible failure on his part and those of his governors and party in the future

said empty treasuries may be awaiting them in their respective states. The governors cried out that most state governments had gone bankrupt and, therefore, cannot pay workers’ salaries.

According to them, it was obvious that they were going to inherit huge debts which may delay speedy progress in their respective states.

The state governors that went to Buhari were shedding crocodile tears. Governors are the major problem of the

not tell him that APC states like Lagos, Edo and Osun, are currently the most indebted in the country.

They did not tell the President-elect that Lagos which was run by APC all this while, had an economy where its internally generated revenue has been on the increase. In 2010, Lagos State’s internally generated revenue was N149.966 billion.

It rose to N202.761 billion in 2011. It further went up to 219.202 in 2012 and again rose

to N384.259 billion in 2013.

Figures for 2014 are yet to be made public. If the economy of Lagos was damaged, how come its internally generated revenue had been on the rise?

In the same vein, Kano State governed by APC had internally generated revenue of N6.618 billion in 2010; it was the same for 2011 but rose to N11.051 billion in 2012 and further to N17.142 billion in 2013. Rivers State that was initially PDP but later APC had an internally generated revenue of N49.632 billion in 2011, N52.711 billion in 2011, N66.275 in 2012 and N87.914 in 2013. In Edo State, the internally generated revenue stood at N10.651billion in 2010, N14.764 billion in 2011, N18.88 billion in 2012 and N18.89 billion in 2013.

In all the states sampled, the internally generated revenue was rising rather than falling.

It thus suggests that states which took steps to boost their revenue sources had increased revenue profile.

Curiously, the external debt profile of states has shown that Lagos State has the highest with a profile of $1.087 billion, followed by Kaduna State with a total of $234 million. Cross River State followed closely with an external debt profile of $131.469 million. Other states with relatively large external debt are Edo - $123 million, Ogun - $109 million, Bauchi $87million, Enugu - $62 million, Katsina - $78 million, Osun - $67 million and Oyo State - $72 million.

Cover Wh tgage sc hemes Whyy Nigerians shun mor mortgage schemes Continued from page 22 starting as we speak. The Nigeria Pension Commission (PenCom) has changed its rules and guidelines to allow that to happen,” he stated. The pension fund has so far pooled under the contributory pension scheme is over N4.5 trillion.

Relevance of insurance Speaking to Vanguard on the relevance of the insurance industry to the mortgage sector, Mr. Olorundare

Thomas, Director General of the Nigerian Insurers Association (NIA), said: “The insurance industry is quite central to sustainablity of policy initiatives within the housing sector. Much more so, when you talk about mortgage. It’s a case of, right from the beginning to the end; insurance becomes quite relevant because the lender is interested in recovering his facilities. So whatever happens to the borrower, the lender is quite interested.

And the insurance sector is

there to provide the security and assurance that will reestablish the fact that what is being given out is not going to be lost in the process.

“For example, mortgage life insurance will guarantee recovery in the event of death.

Of course, there are riders, should in case there is an accident or something happens to the borrower and he loses his job and cannot continue, the insurance can also package a product that will take care of that. When even the building is in the

course of construction, if anything happens to it, insurance can also take responsibility, a product is also available to take care of that. When the building is standing, and something happens like flood, fire and all of that, insurance takes responsibility. So in the totality, insurance is there to re-assure the lender that the initiative is not misplaced, is sustainable and that they are there when the need arises.”

NMRC is a vehicle set up to bridge the funding cost of

A breakdown of the debt showed that $3.146 billion of the debt owed by states were borrowed from multilateral institutions while $118.9 million were bilateral loans.

Based on the rising debt profiles of state governments, the Federal Government last year directed banks not to grant fresh loans to state governments until they got the relevant approval and clearance from the Federal Ministry of Finance. The Federal Government had defended its decision to dissuade banks from granting unsecured loans to state governments, saying it was to protect the states from excessive accumulation of debts.

States have not done enough to boost their revenue profile. They have relied mostly on federal allocation to survive.

If Buhari wants to make a difference, he should begin by implementing true fiscal federalism. The change that brought him to power should embolden him to change the financial anomaly that implements a unitary fiscal policy in a federation.

Whatever line of action the APC-led Federal Government would want to take that is not based on fiscal federalism, the hues and cries about damaged economy will continue whenever there is no money to share.

So, APC and Buhari, no excuse for failure, change must be change.

residential mortgages and promote the availability and affordability of good housing to working Nigerians by providing mortgage lending banks with increased access to liquidity and longer terms funds in the mortgage market.

Its role is to provide mortgage-lending institutions with access to long-term finance at an affordable interest rate, thereby enabling mortgages to be issued by these institutions to Nigerians, at longer tenors and affordable rates.

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24 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 25

Business & Economy

High interest rate‘ll pressurize operating costs in the economy –LCCI

BY NAOMI UZOR

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he Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, has said that the implication of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) decision to sustain the tight monetary policy regime is that interest rate would continue to remain high and continue to put pressure on operating costs in the economy.

In a parley with pressmen in Lagos, the President of LCCI, Alhaji Remi Bello, said MPC at the end of its last meeting decided to sustain the tight monetary policy regime and retained Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 13per cent; CRR on Private Sector deposits at 20 per cent; CRR on Public Sector deposits at 75 per cent; and liquidity ratio at 30 per cent.

“The implication is that interest rate would continue to remain high and continue to put pressure on operating costs in the economy. For now, lending rate of commercial banks including fees and charges range between 22 and 34 per cent depending on the customer profile, tenor and collateral quality. High interest rate is a concern we have expressed at every turn in our advocacy activities engagements” he said.

According to him, with the apparent floating of the naira exchange rate, it has become necessary for the CBN to commence the gradual easing of monetary conditions to stimulate growth in the real economy through cheaper credit. Fiscal operations of government need to be better managed to reduce money supply pressures on macro-economic conditions to create room for a growth oriented monetary policy.

“High interest rate regime is good for the attraction of portfolio investments, but it penalizes the real economy and impedes the capacity to create jobs. We call on the CBN to reduce charges on bank deposits, especially the 0.5 per cent fee to NDIC, and another 0.5 per cent for AMCON.

AWARD - From left: Benson Oraelosi, Regional Manager, Ikeja Region, Diamond Bank Plc; Ashaka Victory Thona, First-Prize Winner - painting category, Vision of the Child 4, Foluke George, Festival Secretary, Lagos Black Heritage Festival and Nike Okundaye, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nike Centre for Art and Culture at the Award Dinner for Vision of the Child 4 sponsored by Diamond Bank PLC in Lagos.

AUN set to enter Guinness World Record

BY EBELE ORAKPO

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merican University of Nigeria’s Office of Sustainability is set to place the institution in the Guinness Book of World Records (GWR) via its unique waste-to-wealth management programme.

On Friday, April 24, an unprecedented 485 people ended 20 minutes of simultaneous crocheting, using plastic yarn made from waste polythene.

The Most People Crocheting Simultaneously record, was achieved five years ago in New York City at a Stitch ‘N’ Pitch event organised by the National Needlearts Association, at the Citi Field stadium, New York during which 426 people crocheted for 15 minutes using yarn.

The unique thing about this event is the ecological twist where the crocheters’ use plarn, the yarn made from used polythene bags.

Members of Yola EcoSentials (YES), a group of female social entrepreneurs promoted by AUN, took participants through the process before the kick-off of the simultaneous crocheting.

The event served to enlighten the community about the university ’s waste-to-wealth initiative.

The group needlework was sponsored by the Student Government Association of AUN, to sensitize residents of Yola, the Adamawa State capital about the hazards of nonbiodegradable litter. It was

also aimed at surpassing the current Guinness World Record held by Americans.

“We have yet to receive official notice from the Guinness World Record administrators who are based in the USA,” according to Jelena Zivkovic, the Director of the AUN Learning Resource Center and coordinator of the GWR committee.

Ms. Zivkovic read out the rules of the competition and

urged the participants to adhere strictly to rules to avoid the AUN attempt being disqualified. The activity ended at exactly 20 minutes.

There were external observers as witnesses.

“You can make money from it,” says Jennifer Che, Coordinator of Sustainability Outreach Programs and Laboratories.

Chief Information Officer, Mr. Julius Ayuk Tabe, representing the AUN President, Professor Margee

Ensign at the kick-off, said: “In the light of negative news coming from the north-east, whenever the story of tenacity and togetherness is told, your achievement today will be a reference. This is what your sense of togetherness, teamwork, and can-do-it spirit has made possible today.”

The GWR attempt was an illustration of AUN’s sustainability programs and demonstrates commitment to challenging the status quo getting AUN students involved in world events by promoting recycling and sustainability.

In Yola, the lack of a conventional waste collection system and bins/dumpsites is one of the main reasons residents dump their waste (including grocery bags), and then burn it, causing a major health hazard for humans and animals, including respiratory illnesses, gastric problems, and shortened life expectancy.

The University began a program some years ago to address local unemployment and this environmental hazard. As a result, Yola women, under the auspices of YES, have made waste plastic (plarn) into colourful, ecofriendly accessories.

“It is our hope,” says Ms. Che, “that this event will raise awareness on how recycling our products, in this case, plarn, can keep the environment clean and healthy, and as well provide an income for the needy in the community.”

Appeal court sets aside order winding up Afribank

BY INNOCENT ANABA The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos, has set aside the winding-up of Afribank Nigeria Plc by an order of a Federal High Court, Lagos.

The lower court had following a petition by the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation, NDIC, wind-up the bank.

The appellate court, set aside the winding up of Afribank following the appeal by shareholders of the bank, who had appealed against the judgment of the lower court.

The shareholders Igbrude Oke, Rasak Mumini, Akinsanya Sunday, Suleiman Babatunde, Igba Olatomide, for themselves and other Afribank shareholders, had at the lower court, challenged the petition by NDIC, seeking to wind-up the bank, arguing that there were other pending cases against the take over of the bank that would be

prejudiced if the lower court goes ahead to wind-up the bank.

The shareholders had at the lower court, in challenge to the petition, argued that it was an abuse of court process, as there was a case pending in court, challenging the power of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, in the way they did and without that being resolved, NDIC went ahea to file the petition to wind-up the bank, claiming that since Afribank license had been revoked by the CBN, the bank is dead and should be wind-up.

The lower court on 07/02/ 2012 after being told that there other pending applications in the case, including a preliminary objection, challenging the petition, adjourned the matter for mention. The lower court also on 02/04/2012 further adjourned the case for mention. On 02/07/2012, the lower court, on the day the matter was fixed for mention,

and in the absence of the shareholders counsel, went ahead to hear NDIC counsel argument on the petition and preliminary objection, contrary to decided Supreme Court judgments, that on the day a matter is adjourned for mention, major applications would not be taken unless with the agreement of counsel. The lower court on the same day went ahead to wind -up the bank. The shareholders had asked the appellate court to determine “Whether it is open to the lower court to proceed, on a day date in which the suit was expressly and specifically fixed for mention by the court, to strike out the appellant hearing’s notice of preliminary objection to the competency of the suit and/ or to entertain the petition comprised in this suit without any prior notice to the contrary and in the absence of an order setting aside its earlier ruling to wit: That there are suits that may be prejudiced.”

26 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Banking & Finance

Citibank announces winner of the 2015 journalistic awards

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itibank Nigeria concluded the 7th edition of its prestigious Citi Journalistic Excellence Awards on May 6th 2015. The program culminated with an awards ceremony to honour this year ’s finalists. The competition was open to business journalists in all forms of media including the internet, print, radio, television and wire services.

Mr. Peter Dele Olowa of BusinessDay has been named winner of the 2015 competition in Nigeria. Mr. Olowa was selected as a winner for his article titled “The òmò-onile phenomenon” which was published in Business Day on December 12th 2014.

Likewise, Mr. Francis Ezem of the National Mirror and Mrs. Omobola Tolu-Kusimo of the Nation emerged as the first and second runner ups of the competition respectively.

This year, Citibank Nigeria received twenty-eight (28) entries from business reporters across various media outlets, including Business Day, Daily Independent, Global Media Mirror, Guardian, Leadership, Nation, New Telegraph, Punch, Thisday, TVC and Vanguard.

In Nigeria, the three finalists were selected by a distinguished panel of judges which included Mrs. Betty Irabor, Chief Executive Officer of Genevieve Magazine, Mr. James Plasman, Economic Officer of the US Consulate General in Lagos and Mr. Richard Ikiebe, Director and Senior Fellow of the Pan-Atlantic University’s School of Media and Communications.

The Citi Journalistic Excellence Awards competition sends winning journalists to an elite seminar at Columbia University in New York. The international journalist’s conference is a special program sponsored by Citi and administered by Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism. For over thirty years, the program has served to improve the quality of business journalism in the developing world by exposing leading local journalists to the issues and people that drive the global economy.

Study recommends floating exchange rate for Naira STORIES BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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study on the impact of exchange rate on domestic prices has recommended a floating exchange rate for the naira.

This, according to the study is because the impact of exchange rate on domestic prices is low, incomplete, and it takes about two years. “.

In other words, the fear of floating that the authorities exhibit in Nigeria may be unfounded”, the study asserted.

Published by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in Economic and Financial Review, the study titled, “Exchange Rate Pass-Through to Domestic Prices in Nigeria: An Empirical Investigation”, was conducted by three economic experts Abdulrasheed Zubair, George Okorie and Aliyu R. Sanusi.

The study stated, “The major finding is that, in line with Aliyu et al., (2009), exchange rate pass-through in Nigeria is incomplete and low. This is in contrast with the findings of Essien (2005) who found that the pass- through is complete in the long run.

Secondly, the total impact is attained after eight quarters, suggesting that it is quiet slow.

“This is consistent with the literature on African countries, for example Ghana as found

in Sanusi (2010). One interpretation of this low and slow exchange rate passthrough is that exporters to Nigeria practice a substantial degree of pricing-to-market strategy. Instead of allowing the naira price of their products to vary whenever there are changes in the exchange rate, these firms

allow their mark-ups to vary as they change their local currency prices in the opposite direction of the change in exchange rate.

“We argue that this is plausible in Nigeria being a large market for fairly all its imported commodities. Firms would therefore strive to keep their competitive advantage

in the domestic market as exchange rate changes. This explains the low passthrough observed.

“One implication of this finding is that the cost of true float may not be as large as it would under complete passthrough. There is therefore a good potential for de facto float, since only a small fraction of the excessive variations in the exchange rate that such a regime would entail will be passed onto inflation. In other words, the fear of floating that the authorities exhibit in Nigeria may be unfounded.”

AWARD - (L) Managing Director and CEO, Citibank Nigeria Limited, Mr. Omar Hafeez and the Deputy Editor Business Day ,Mr. Agomuo Zebulon (R) presenting a plaque to the winner of the 2015 Citi Journalistic Excellence Awards Competition, Mr. Peter Dele Olowa of Business Day at the recently concluded competition in Lagos.

MSME: Heritage Bank building network of entrepreneurial leadership

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eritage Bank Limited is committed to building a network of Entrepreneurial Leaders necessary to drive the growth of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria Managing Director/Chief Executive of Heritage Bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo stated this adding that the bank has developed and introduced wide range of services which address the capacity and financing needs of MSME businesses.

“The goal of Heritage Bank’s MSME offerings is to build a network of entrepreneurial leaders that will drive the growth of the sector. This would enhance the ability of the MSME sector to effectively play its role as the engine growth of the economy”, he said.

Heritage Bank’s commitment to leadership building in the MSME sector is reflected in the bank’s SME Clinic. “The Heritage Bank SME Clinic is designed to enhance the entrepreneurial capacity of our SME customers. Through the Clinic, Heritage Bank understands the different aspects of the customer’s business in order to identify areas where it can add value. As a result we are able to develop customised products and services based on the identified needs of each SME customer,” Sekibo added This is complemented with Heritage Governance Model, through which the Bank introduces Corporate Governance

Framework to its MSME customers. The Phase one of the Scheme focuses on issues around statutory and regulatory obligations and incorporates the following four services: Company Secretary Services; Auditing & Assurance; Accounting Services; And Tax Consultancy. These services are rendered to SME customers of the bank at subsidised fees by network of consultants.

To further demonstrate its commitment to the growth of the MSMEs, the Heritage Bank developed the Paris Club Scheme in partnership with RSL Derivatives Limited. This is a credit enhancement scheme specially designed for SME’s to collectively help each other create a platform that will accelerate growth and give SME’s easy access to funding.

The solution provides a platform for SMEs to adopt best practices in managing their businesses and also enable them to access loans from Heritage Bank without any hard core collateral.

In addition to these, Heritage Bank is using the mass media to help MSME businesses across the country. This is done through the Enterprise Stories, a radio programme in partnership with Enterprise Development Centre of Pan African University. The Enterprise Stories is aired on Classic 97.3FM every Sunday at 7pm and on Inspiration 92.3FM at 3:00pm every Tuesday.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 27

Banking & Finance

AGM - From left: Oluwole Ajimisinmi, Company Secretary, Wema Bank PLC; Adeyinka Asekun, Chairman and Segun Oloketuyi, Managing Director during the Wema Bank 2014 Annual General Meeting held in Lagos. Photo Lamidi Bamidele.

Fidelity Bank raises N30bn to boost lending to SME

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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idelity Bank Plc has commenced measures to raise N30 billion for the purpose of increasing lending to small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

This week the bank will offer to the investing public a N30 billion, seven years bond at interest rate of 16.48 percent.

The application for the bond, which would mature in 2022, will open and close on Thursday May 13th 2015.

Speaking at the completion board meeting for the bond offer, Chairman of Fidelity Bank, Chief Christopher Ezeh said that the purpose of the bond is to fund the long term and financial activities of the bank, especially in the Small and Medium (SME) sector of the economy. He added that the bond is fully and firmly underwritten, and it qualifies for investment by pension assets.

The prospectus for the bond show that 80 percent of the net

proceeds of the offer, which amounts to N23 billion would devoted to SME lending, while 15 percent or N4.3 billion would be devoted to retail lending. The balance of five (5) percent which amounts to N1.43 billion would be devoted to enhancing the retail infrastructure.

Eze said that in terms of SME lending, the bank would provide loans to the SMEs in manufacturing, educational institutions, agriculture, health and general commerce.

The N4.3 billion devoted to retail lending would be use to provide loans to retails and individual customers in the form of automobile loans, home loans, cash advance loans and general loans.

He said that the N1.43 billion devoted to retail infrastructure would be used to purchase retail lending infrastructure technology. The retail lending infrastructure technology are processing platforms that will be used for loan application, loan scoring, loan approval, loan monitoring, loan collections, and consumer analytics.

Fidelity Bank Plc recorded 72 percent increase in its profit before tax for the year ending December 31st 2014. The financial statement showed that the bank recorded 21 percent increase in Interest income to N104.3bn from N86.3bn in 2013, while Operating Income increased by 15 percent to N72.6 billion from N63.3 billion in 2013.

Total expenses increased by five percent to N57.1 billion from N54.3 billion, while Profit after Tax increased by 79 percent to N13.8 billion from N7.7 billion in 2013.

During the year, Customer Deposits increased by two percent to N820.0 billion from N806.3 billion while Net Loans and Advances increased by 27 percent to N541.7 billion from N426.1 billion. The Bank’s Total Equity increased by six percent to N173.1 billion from N163.5 billion while Total Assets increased by 10 percent to N1.187 trillion from N1.081 trillion in 2013.

Sterling Bank’s expansion plans on track, says CFO

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hief Financial Officer ( C F O ) / Executive Director , Sterling Bank, Mr. Abubakar Suleiman said that it the bank’s expansion plans unveiled in 2013 is on course and it would soon proceed with the next phase of its growth strategy.

Suleiman disclosed this at an interactive session with Business Editors in Lagos recently.

According to him, the bank currently has 1.5 million customers and has been able to achieve over three per cent market share from 1 per cent a few years ago. He revealed that from 84 branches in 2006, the lender ’s branch network should hit the 200 mark by the end of the year adding that it would increase the number of its Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) to 1000 by the end of this year.

He also stated

that the bank will soon deploy a new core banking application which would significantly boost the quality of its operations and service delivery.

The Executive Director said that the bank’s goal was to be among the top five lenders in the industry not in terms of balance sheet size but in the areas of quality service delivery and compliance to regulations.

He pointed out that there were banks with much bigger balance sheets which were not meeting customers’ expectations in key areas, stressing that as Sterling Bank expands and becomes a bigger financial institution, it will continue to outperform its peer group.

As he put it, “We have consistently outperformed our peer group and we will

outperform the next group. We want to be there when it comes to service delivery, in terms of compliance to regulations and how we are perceived as good corporate citizens.”

He disclosed that the lender would raise between $100million (N20billion) and $150millon (N30bilion) in Tier 2 capital this year to fund its expansion plans.

The CFO noted that regulatory headwinds, especially the hike in Cash Reserve Requirements (CRR) on public sector deposits had impacted banks’ profitability and restricted their lending capacity to finance economic growth.

He argued that the amount of bank deposits that the CBN had sterilized as a result of the 75 per cent CRR on public sector deposits and 20 percent CRR on private sector deposit was “unprecedented”

and had constrained banks’ capacity to lend.

He pointed out that the deposit with the CBN were non-earning adding that not only does this impact banks’ bottom line but it also prevents lenders from funding businesses.

He however emphasized that despite the tough operating environment Sterling Bank was still committed to meeting its expansion targets.

Abubakar Suleiman dismissed suggestions by analysts in some quarters that the Bank would not be able to achieve its capital raising targets this year due to regulatory headwinds, recalling that such skepticisms were similarly expressed in 2013 when the bank announced that it plans to raise additional capital via equity issues.

FBN Capital wins ‘African Deal of the Year’

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BN Capital Limited has been awarded the Africa Deal of the Year at this year ’s edition of the M&A Atlas Awards for its role in the Acquisition of Oasis Insurance by FBN Insurance.

The awards were organized by the Global M&A Network in London , UK on the 30th of April 2015.

FBN Capital’s Head of Energy and Natural Resources, Ms. Rolake Akinkugbe has also been recognized by Energy & Corporate Africa as the Best African Oil & Gas Analyst of the Year, as well as the Most Valuable Player on the Oil Patch for her commitment to the oil & gas industry through her display of knowledge, the provision of industry insights and analysis which has helped governments and organizations maximize investment opportunities and manage risk. The awards were presented at the eighth edition of the Annual SubSaharan Africa Oil and Gas Conference 2015 which took place in Houston, Texas.

Receiving the M&A Atlas award, the Head of Financial Advisory at FBN Capital, Mr. Afolabi Olorode stated, “This recognition is a reflection of the dedication and hard work the team, the client, and all parties to the transaction put into making this deal a reality.

We are honored to receive it on behalf of the entire team.”

Speaking on her awards, Rolake said, “It is indeed an honor to receive this recognition from a prestigious body such as E&C Africa. It simply serves as an encouragement to build on my current efforts, and I look forward to seeing my passion and contributions continue to add value.” She also made a presentation during the event entitled ‘Sub-Saharan Africa’s Re-shaped Oil and Gas Future’ which took a critical look at the current global dynamics on the Sub-Saharan African oil and gas industry.

Speaking on the awards, the Managing Director of FBN Capital Limited, Mr. Kayode Akinkugbe, expressed his pleasure saying, “We are delighted to have been recognized for our M&A track record among other players across the continent.

28 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Corporate Finance

Strong corporate governance critical to current low-price environment – FBN capital

BY PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

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BN Capital Limited has said that strong corporate governance structures are critical to attracting funding for Oil and Gas development in the prevailing low-price environment.

Rolake Akinkugbe, Head of Energy and Natural Resources at FBN Capital, disclosed this at the eighth edition of the annual subSaharan African Oil and Gas Conference 2015 themed, ‘Optimising innovation and investment opportunities in the upstream, downstream and service sectors’organized

by Energy and Corporate Africa which took place in Houston Texas.

Speaking on the topic ‘SubSaharan Africa’s Re-shaped Oil and Gas Future,’ took a critical look at the current global dynamics on the SubSaharan African oil and gas industry, and said: “In the current low-price environment, it will even be more critical for firms to focus on implementing strong corporate governance structures, and be flexible and willing to explore funding options that may be more dilutive from an equity perspective, than would have been preferred”.

The presentation also highlighted the inherent challenges in the current scenario stating that “Local companies in SSA, could be particularly vulnerable without the right technical and financial capacity to quickly monetise reserves. It is at this juncture, that the search for valuable partnerships with experienced E&P firms and IOCs should quickly yield fruit.” She further noted that though oil prices would eventually recover, it was unlikely that the region would see the triple digit highs recorded prior to June 2014.

“From a macro-perspective, there’s been a structural shift for many of SSA’s crude oil exporting economies, as they cope with the significant fall in export revenues from oil – in some cases revenues have fallen by as much as 40%.

Access Bank shareholders okay N5.7bn dividend, laud cost reduction STORIES

BY PETER EGWUATU

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ccess Bank Plc shareholders have unanimously approved the N5.7billion dividend proposed by its Board of Directors for the financial year ended December 31, 2014, just as they commended the management of the bank for its prudent management of cost of operations.

The shareholders at the bank’s Annual General Meeting, AGM held in Lagos appreciated the Board of Directors for the proposed dividend which translates to 60 kobo per share, including the 25 kobo interim dividend.

According to the shareholders “It is better that you gave us this dividend knowing the tight business environment you operated upon during the period under review. But we still hope you will pay us higher dividend come next year.”

In his comment, the Chairman of Access Bank Plc, Mr. Gbenga Oyebode said “In

CEREMONY - From left: Executive Director, Business Development, Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri; Managing Director/CEO, Wema Bank Plc, Mr. Segun Oloketuyi and Executive Director, Market Operations and Technology, NSE, Mr. Ade Bajomo at the Closing Gong Ceremony in commemoration of Wema Bank’s 70th anniversary at the exchange, in Lagos.

2014, there was a significant change in the bank’s operating climate precipitated by changes in key economic variables-the

oil price shock, currency depreciation and an increasingly bearish market.

Our bank remained resilient as it improved its business

Diamond Bank to leverage technology for growth, profitability

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iamond Bank Plc has disclosed its readiness to leverage on technology to boost its services to customers and make higher returns to its shareholders.

Addressing Journalists at a press briefing in Lagos recently, the Group Managing Director of the Bank, Mr. Pascal Dozie, who expressed optimism that the bank would emerge the best retail bank in Nigeria in a near future, said the bank has rolled out new technology solutions that would sustain it in its new market.

According to him “There is optimism that Diamond Bank would emerge the best retail bank in Nigeria in a near future. We have rolled out new technology solutions that would sustain the new market.

He pledged the bank’s commitment to continually offer value-added solutions that conveniently fit into the lifestyle of its customers as an innovative and technologically driven financial institution, adding that the bank has introduced several novel solutions that have transformed the

Nigerian banking space.

Speaking on the Diamond Mobile App solution, Dozie explained that the solution was recently upgraded with a ‘Touch ID’ feature which allows users seamless log on to their accounts by simply identifying their fingerprints as an alternative to entering a User ID and password.

The feature, available on the device, according to him, marked the introduction of the service in Nigeria and also positioned Diamond Bank as an innovative institution that is progressively changing the face of banking in Nigeria with best-in-class customerfocused solutions.

“It is safe, easy to use and specifically developed for the success minded individual who are focused on maximizing all life’s moments whenever or wherever they are.”

Other features of the Diamond Mobile App include funds transfer, bills payment, events ticket purchase, movie tickets purchase, online shopping, wallet top-up as well as searching, booking and making payment for both

local and international flights.

“We have one of the lowest cost of fund in the industry.

We are rated number 37 in terms of credit card issuing in Africa and Middle East. When you create an enabling environment, more people will be financially included into the system and that is what we are doing” he explained .

It is safe, easy to use and specifically developed for the success minded individual who are focused on maximizing all life’s moments whenever or wherever they are

performance whilst managing these macroeconomic challenges.”

In his own remark, Group Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Mr. Herbert Wigwe commended the shareholders for their loyalty to the bank, saying “In 2015, we remain focus on lifting our customer experience in line with our mantra of speed, service and security. This effort, part of an initiative called Take Tomorrow, represents our commitment to our customers to join hands with them to help build their successful tomorrow.

In looking ahead of the future, Wigwe said “We will continue to ensure that our business ethos is focused on enhanced customer satisfaction across all business lines, maximizing shareholder returns as a result. While, we approach 2015, with great optimism, there are macro economic realities that we cannot ignore. We are aware of the challenges ahead and are determined to face these challenges from a position of strength and stability.”

The financial position for 2014 shows that the bank increased its revenue generation as gross earnings rose to N245 billion, up 18.5 per cent from the previous year 2013. Similarly, Profit Before Tax grew by 21 per cent form N43 billion in 2013 to N52 billion in 2014. The cost to income improved more than 10 percentage points to 62 per cent from 73 per cent in 2013.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 29

Corporate Finance

BY PETER EGWUATU

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tandard Chartered Bank has forecast that Nigeria is likely to raise capital from the international debt market by the second half of the year, 2015 to meet some of its obligations.

It also stated that Nigeria’s weakening fiscal buffers as a result of the sustained low oil price may result to a current account deficit in the country ’s balance of payments this year.

The Managing Director/ Head, Africa Research, Standard Chartered Bank, Razia Khan made the prediction during an interactive session with select journalists in Lagos recently.

The economic analysts stressed that policy makers in the country failed to effectively utilise the opportunity created by the high crude oil prices in the past years, saying that it would be difficult for the country to rebuild fiscal buffers in a low oil price environment.

Khan, however, predicted that crude oil price would average at $76 per barrel by the second half of the year.

“We are going to see oil prices moving higher and there is going to be some overshooting in the second half of the year. We see oil prices averaging $76 per barrel over the course of this year and we think that this means that by the second half of the year, there is a likely hold that oil prices would be $80 to $90 per barrel.

FBN Holdings dismisses plan to raise Tier 1 Capital in 2015

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VISIT - From left : Mrs. TelemaObi, Head of Admin NIWA, CSP Austine Gbaraba, Commander, Niwa PoliceCommand Lagos Area Office, Mr. Richard Nta, Mr Tarzan Balogun, Mr. MuazuSambo (GM NIWA), Engr. Sarat Sulaimon, Head of Marine, NIWA and Mr. Japhet Maisaje – Accountant NIWA during a fact finding visit by the management of Lagos area office of National Inlandwaterways Authorityn NIWA, to Tarzan boats jetty in Badore, Lagos recently.

‘Nigeria'll borrow by mid-year to meet obligations’ — Khan, Standard Chartered's Africa research head “But that would be only short-lived. We shouldn’t discount the fact that these very deliberate strategy on the part of Saudi Arabia in particular, to move away from the price targeting. So, for countries like Nigeria, the important take away is that it has moved away from that world of triple digit oil prices

and what we would see going forward, is more like a double digits oil prices scenario. “We know about the extent to which Nigeria failed to capitalise properly in the boom years in terms of oil production when the oil prices were high. So, it is not going to be that easy necessarily given the demands from the

fiscal side, to rebuild fiscal buffers in a low oil price environment,” she explained.

According to Khan, given the willingness by the federal government not to crowd out the domestic market so much with excessive domestic borrowing, the country might borrow from the international debt market before the end of the year.

NB shareholders to approve N27.7 bn dividend

BY PETER EGWUATU

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hareholders of Nigerian Breweries, NB Plc are expected to approve N27.7 billion dividend that would be proposed by the Board of Directors of the company at the forth coming 69th Annual General Meeting, AGM of the company.

The Managing Director/ CEO, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Nicolaas Vervelde at a pre AGM Press briefing in Lagos disclosed that the Board of Directors of the company would propose N27 billion dividend ( (translating to N3.50 per share ) to the shareholder at the company’s 69th AGM that would hold next week Wednesday in Lagos.

According to him “ Having earlier paid an interim dividend of approximately N9.5 billion that is N1.25 per share which was declared in

October 2014, the total dividend will now be N37.2 billion, representing N4.75 per share.”

Speaking, Vervelde explained that the operating environment witnessed in 2014 was very challenging as the country witnessed insurgency in the North East, lower revenue arising from drop in oil revenue and devaluation of naira. All these factors and more affected the activities of our customers as the purchasing power of the people dropped

which affected our operations.

However, our cost leadership agenda enabled us to become more efficient in all area of our operations Also, our 2015 innovation agenda has kicked off with Ace Roots .

While explaining the company’s merged position with Consolidated Breweries Plc, he said “During the year under review, we commenced and concluded the merger process resulting in our enlarged company. At the end of 2014 and arising from the business combination, we had

We are confident about the future and we will be able to return good results even in the face of the expected challenging operating environment in 2015

eleven brewery locations as well as nineteen products in our portfolio of brands. We are also the second most capitalised company on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE. Our enlarged company executed the biggest innovation agenda ever in one year.”

On the financial position of the company, he said “ Revenue declined by 0.8 per cent for the 2014 financial year from N266.8 billion in 2013 to N266.4 billion.; Revenue resulting from operating activities declined by 3.3 per cent to N66.861 billion from N69.2 billion, while net profit dropped by 1.3 per cent to N42.5 billion from N43.1 billion in 2013.

Looking at the future, he said “We are confident about the future and we will be able to return good results even in the face of the expected challenging operating environment in 2015.”

BN Holdings Plc has explained that it has no plan to raise Tier I capital this year, 2015 due to some unfavourable market conditions.

The Chief Executive Officer, FBN Holdings, Mallam Bello Maccido told capital market community during the company’s 2015 facts behind the figures presentation on the Lagos floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE that “ FBN Holdings has no immediate plans to raise Tier1 capital within the next 12 months given the low market liquidity, depressed valuation levels, and significant dilution risk for existing shareholders.”

He explained that the company’s capital position is being enhanced through increased profit retention, interim capitalisation of profits, more efficient balance sheet management and more conservative loan growth.

On its efficiency drive, he said “We are rationalizing unprofitable branches and minimal branch expansion. We are also restructuring the procurement processes and streamlining operations as well as cutting back on cost.

We are centralizing processes across the Group to reduce transaction const and processing cycles. The company is leveraging transaction banking to increase the share of wallet thereby optimizing revenue.”

On its financial position, Maccido said “FBN Holdings remains resilient across key financial metrics despite the ongoing challenges faced. Our balance sheet remains strong as we are still the largest bank in Nigeria in terms of assets and deposits. We recorded 21.3 per cent year on year growth in gross earnings to N480.6billion in 2014 as against N396.2 billion in 2013.

This was largely attributable to growth in interest income from loans and advances to customers which grew by 14.2 per cent and for banks 10.3 per cent, with a strong Non Interest Revenue, NIR growth of 66.1 per cent. Also our operating income grew by 19.8 per cent year on year to N355.1 billion in 2014. It was driven by an increase in non interest revenue growth of 66.1 per cent.

C M Y K

30 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Homes & Housing

NMRC set to refinance N10bn mortgages Goldman Sachs to face $120m mortgage suit

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ew York Court of Appeals has revived a bond insurer’s $120 million lawsuit claiming Goldman Sachs Group Inc lied about a pool of securities backed by subprime mortgages during the period leading up the financial crisis.

The court in a 5-2 decision said the suit by ACA Financial Guaranty Corp should move forward because the insurer had raised issues about the role of billionaire John Paulson’s hedge fund in a collateralized debt obligation called Abacus. ACA Financial said Goldman had deceived it into believing hedge fund Paulson & Co was a long investor in Abacus when it knew Paulson was betting the underlying mortgages would fail. ACA said it lost approximately $900 million on the deal when the subprime mortgage market collapsed.

Under state law, a fraud case may only proceed if the plaintiff can show it “justifiably relied” on representations made by the defendant.

Lagos builds 10,000 houses

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he Lagos State Government said it had built over 10,000 housing units as parts of efforts to tackle housing deficit in the state.

Commissioner for Housing, Mr. Bosun Jeje, who disclosed this, said the number represented the houses that the state government had constructed since the inception of the Governor Babatunde Fashola-led administration in 2007. He said the administration had been determined to reduce housing deficit in the state, adding that the houses are being handed over to the residents of the state through several strategies. “One of the strategies is the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme, popularly called Lagos HOMS. By this month, we will start the Rent-To-Own home ownership scheme,” he said.

Jeje explained that the Lagos HOMS draw by the government had produced over 603 winners.

C M Y K

Stories by YINKA KOLAWOLE

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n line with its mandate of bringing liquidity into the mortgage market, the Nigeria Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) has concluded plans to refinance N10 billion mortgages in the market this month.

Prof. Charles Inyangete, CEO, NMRC, disclosed this at a Public Awareness and Capacity Building Workshop organised by the company in Lagos. Participants at the workshop included representatives of International Development Finance agencies, primary mortgage banks (PMBs), local and international capital market operators, industry regulators, and policy experts. According to him, a critical objective of the workshop was to prepare, educate, and position mortgage operators and stakeholders for the constructive boom in mortgage refinances, and investment vista from the much anticipated successful issuance of the NMRC Bond in the Capital Market.

Inyangete remarked that the first refinancing of existing mortgages in the market, also known as legacy loans, by NMRC involves about 600 loans that are already in the market, adding that 8 mortgage firms are participating in the transaction. “We are starting this month with the first refinancing of existing mortgages in the market, which we call the legacy loans. That is N10 billion transaction and we are about to conclude that. And it involves close to 600 loans that are already in the market, and that’s the first of the kickoff of our refinancing. There are 8 mortgage firms that are part of this first transaction, but we have 20 primary mortgage lenders as part of the NMRC market as we speak, and there are many more waiting to join the market,” he stated.

The NMRC boss asserted that the company has made significant impact in the last one year. “NMRC has brought in uniform underwriting standards into the market.

And so for the first time in Nigeria, we now have underwriting standards that really determine how loans are originated and evaluated for the purpose of being given a facility. So that levels the playing field for everybody,” he declared. Inyangete noted that NMRC is a private

company with a public mission which has the mandate to facilitate the availability of affordable housing, through the provision of long term mortgage refinance to primary mortgage lenders. “The successful delivery by NMRC on its mandate will unlock quantum opportunities in deepening and expanding Nigeria’s mortgage industry, the capital market, and pivoting Nigeria’s GDP to new heights,” he stated.

NMRC’s mode of operation (refinancing cycle) involves an initial step by a borrower to take out a mortgage loan from a participating mortgage lender based on the uniform underwriting criteria set by

We now have underwriting standards that really determine how loans are originated and evaluated for the purpose of being given a facility NMRC; in return the borrower will provide regular repayments of the loan principal plus interest. The borrower will also provide collateral in the form of a mortgage over the property to be purchased. Secondly, the participating mortgage lenders will refinance the loans with NMRC, which will

refinance the mortgage loans of banks with recourse to the financial institutions. The participating mortgage lender will in turn, provide security over its mortgage portfolio in favour of NMRC. The third step is for NMRC to raise its own funding by accessing the capital markets and issuing bonds.

Typical mass housing estate

Owning a house under Lagos mortgage scheme

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ll over the world, the ability to own a home without financial assistance is beyond the ability of most people.

Mortgage schemes have evolved with the purpose of providing financial support to prospective home owners, providing a loan facility to secure a property and pay the outstanding amount (the principal) back over time, typically with interest on the loan.

In Nigeria, mortgage schemes are still very much at an infancy stage in their adoption.

Prospective homeowners around the country typically save up to purchase property in cash or buy land with the intention of building a home in phases according to the availability of funds. Typical mortgages by deposit money banks are

available for up to 20 years at 20 percent to 25 percent interest.

The Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme (Lagos HOMS) is unique in being one of the few existing mortgage schemes able to provide interest rates below double digits. The state government has delivered housing units across the state specifically for this purpose.

Lagos HOMS was established to provide first time property buyers in Lagos with the opportunity to become homeowners. Specifically, the government is providing subsidized mortgages for ordinary citizens of Lagos, and a pool of houses in which winners can set up their new residence. Winners of the subsidized mortgages are drawn out of a lottery on a monthly basis. In order to be

eligible you must fulfill the following criteria: an applicant must reside in Lagos State; must be able to provide proof of a job and regular income.

He/she must be over 21 years old; must have a clean credit history; and must have been working for your current employer for a minimum of 6 months.

In order for the application to be processed, the following must be provided by the applicant: Two passport-sized photographs with applicant’s name and signature on the back; Evidence of tax payment covering the last 5 years; Personal Bank Statement for the previous 6 months; Pay slips covering the previous 6 months; and Letter of reference from your current employer, which should contain affirmation of your job title, annual salary, obligations and status within the company.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 31

Insurance

Kenya regulator opens takaful market to conventional insurers

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enya’s regulator h a s

DRAW - From left: Odili Ogwu, Customer Experience Executive, Diamond Bank PLC; David Otukpe, Product Manager, DiamondXtra; Ikechukwu Monye, Winner, FiftyThousand Naira prize reward; Echezona Okelue, Brand Executive, Diamond Bank PLC during the DiamondXtra Month-end Draw held at the Ladipo Spare Parts Market in Lagos

Royal Exchange Prudential Life targets market leadership Stories by ROSEMARY ONUOHA

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oyal

Exchange Prudential L i f e Assurance (REPLA) has been urged to focus on customer service excellence, among other major initiatives, to drive its quest for market leadership and enhance the company ’s status as a dominant player in the life insurance industry in the next three years.

Speaking at a national retreat for management staff of the company, Group Managing Director of Royal Exchange Plc, Mr. Chike Mokwunye, encouraged staff of Royal Exchange Prudential Life, especially those in customer-facing departments, to make service excellence their guiding principle and watchword in their interactions and dealings with clients of the company.

Mokwunye said, “The customer is at the heart and soul of every organisation’s growth and success and it is very important to keep them satisfied if one wants to remain in operation. If the customer is treated well, he/ she stays with you, but if they receive shabby and unsatisfactory treatment, they (customers) will take their business elsewhere.

“The future of insurance in Nigeria is the life business, which has not been fully tapped into, and for Royal Exchange Prudential to seek market leadership, an effective and efficient policy of customer service, loyalty

and retention must be in place in the organisation”, Mokwunye added.

In his remarks, Mr. Wale Banmore, Managing Director of the company said in addition to service excellence, his company’s focus is also on the deployment of a robust retail marketing strategy to take insurance to the grassroots, as well as training/ upgrading of its marketing personnel, in line with current realities.

“The attainment of these goals, amongst others in the

current financial year, will impact positively on the fortunes of the company, (profitability), improve service delivery to our clientele and boost our premium income”, Banmore added.

He further added, “Management believes strongly in the Royal Exchange brand and its people, it’s most important resource, are more than capable of delivering outstanding service to existing and potential clients, nationwide”.

Banmore further commended all staff of Royal Exchange Prudential, for their drive and resourcefulness, which has resulted in ‘ winning ways’ for the company.

He further challenged them to “ work even harder in the years ahead, in order to achieve our objective of becoming a world class company by 2016”.

Royal Exchange Prudential Life Assurance Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Royal Exchange Plc, licensed by the National Insurance Commission to offer the full range of life and endowment insurance products. With years of experience in the Nigerian insurance market, Royal Exchange Prudential Life Assurance has an enviable reputation for reliability, integrity, professionalism, technical competence and financial strength.

NEM, Stanbic IBTC, others emerge winners in online award

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EM Insurance Plc has emerged the 2014 Businesstoday Online insurance company of the year.

NEM was named winner at the second edition of Businesstoday Online Insurance and Pension Industry award 2014.

The award which is in nine categories had 20 nominees of which nine emerged winners.

This year ’s award also recognised the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, (SAN), being the first governor in Nigeria to enforce the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS).

Other winners are Stanbic IBTC Pension Managers Limited, pension company of the year; Group Managing Director of Mutual Benefits Insurance Plc, Mr Akin Ogunbiyi won insurance man of the year; Managing Director Premium Pension Limited, Mr.

Wilson Ideva was named pension man of the year; Prestige Insurance Brokers, broker of the year and Mutual Benefits Insurance Plc, micro insurance company of the year.

Guinea Insurance Plc emerged CSR insurance company of the year and Goldlink Insurance Plc won the most innovative insurance company of the year.

With over N56billion in its joint pension contribution fund the Lagos State Pension Commission (LASPEC) clinched the most pension compliant state of the year award.

The event also featured the unveiling of Businesstoday Online weekly programme titled: “Insurance & Pension Today” which is expected to commence on one of the television stations in the country soon.

The programme will focus on educating Nigerians on the need for insurance and plan for their retirement.

introduced new takaful (Islamic insurance) rules which will allow the entry of conventional players into the sector, part of efforts to boost capital markets in East Africa’s biggest economy.

Takaful is seen as a bellwether of consumer appetite for Islamic finance products. It is based on the concept of mutuality; the takaful company oversees a pool of funds contributed by all policy holders.

Islamic finance, which follows religious principles such as bans on interest payments, accounts for roughly 2 percent of total banking business in Kenya, where Muslims make up about 15 percent of the population of 40 million.

The rules will come into effect in June with firms required to adhere to the requirements by December, according to a document from Kenya’s Insurance Regulatory Authority. This would see Kenya join the countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia in allowing takaful windows, which enable firms to offer sharia-compliant and conventional products side by side.

The rules require separate financial reporting requirements for takaful windows from their parent firm, and their operating model must be approved by a board of religious scholars.

Operators must also maintain separate takaful funds for their general and life businesses.

Kenya’s first full-fledged takaful firm was launched in 2011, Takaful Insurance of Africa. Islamic lender First Community Bank also operates a takaful scheme while Kenya Reinsurance Corp has developed a shariacompliant reinsurance product of its own.

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32 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Interview

Nigerians have not discovered the Senegalese market –Ambassador Jackden

BY FRANKLIN ALLI

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rs. Katyen Jackden, Nigeria’s Ambassador to Senegal and Mauritania, spoke recently with Vanguard at the Embassy in Dakar. In this interview, she disclosed that there are lots of business opportunities Nigerians can tap into in Senegal, especially in agriculture, tourism and housing sector. Excerpts: Tell us about Nigeria and Senegal relationship since the time you have been here; what business opportunities exist for Nigerian industries?

Thank you very much and let me say good afternoon and welcome to Nigeria House, your House in Dakar, Senegal. By way of introduction, I am Katyen Jackden. I am Nigeria’s Ambassador to Senegal and Mauritania. I cover Mauritania from here. You asked about the relationship between Nigeria and Senegal. I want to believe those C M Y K

relationships are very strong. It has been very cordial, very brotherly and it is waxing very stronger. I served here as an officer

When I was here in the Embassy as an officer, Nigerian textiles and plastic products used to sell here a lot.

When I came back in 2012, I found out that other people have taken that market from us

in the Embassy before I was appointed Ambassador, so the relationship has been waxing very strong.

Our bilateral relationship is very good at political level, and it is also very good at economic level.

What is the percentage of Nigerians living in the 14 million population and the attitudes of Senegalese toward Nigerians?

We are a little bit more than ten thousand Nigerians but we have only five thousand registered in the Embassy. The Senegalese are very hospitable to foreigners. You know in every community, there are bad eggs, but generally, I would say the Senegalese are very hospitable toward Nigerians. There are mixed marriages between Nigerians and Senegalese; so I think the relationship is good.

What is the trade volume between Nigeria and Senegal?

In terms of trade volume between the two countries, I have always said that it is mostly done at the informal level.

Although, we are not able to quantify the trade figure, I would say it is in favour of Senegal because Nigerians come here to buy Senegalese products, especially textile

•Amb. Katyen Jackden

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 33

Interview and fashion products. A lot of Nigerians every week come here to buy items and take them home and apart from that, the main thing that we sell to Senegal is oil but now that Senegal has discovered its own oil, I wonder what is going to happen next. Therefore, I can say that trade is mostly at informal level. We are trying to see how the b u s i n e s s community can come together and form NigeriaSenegal Chambers o f Commerce t o further improve trade ties.

market. Senegal is import economy and there are lots of things Nigerians can bring into Senegal.

What is your take on the attitude of Nigerians here?

We estimate there are about 10,000 Nigerians here.

Generally, Nigerians are very tolerant and are going about their businesses. That is not to say there are no bad eggs among them. Some Nigerians that come here find themselves in detention because they default in immigration laws. The reason is because Nigerians believe ECOWAS is free movement, so people come here to stay; they don’t bother to regularize their stay after three months. It is good to know that right from home, when you come here, you are allowed to stay for three months and after the three months, you are expected to regularize your residence in terms of showing that you have a means of livelihood and not to live on the society. Those are some of the challenges we have, otherwise, Nigerians are generally well-behaved.

Katyen Jackden Do you think the discovery of oil by Senegal will affect the relationships?

In fact, the discovery of oil is a welcome development; what we want is for our region to grow.

The oil they have discovered will be used to the benefit of their people; it is going to be a healthy competition. Don’t forget that we also import refined crude oil from some of these neigbouring countries. So I don’t think it is going to affect the relationship, negatively.

What do you think government can do to make your job easier?

What are the challenges you face in marketing N i g e r i a n products to t h e Senegalese?

I believe Nigerians have not discovered t h e Senegalese market.

That was why last year, because of our engagement with Senegal government, Nigeria was designated special honor at the Dakar International Trade fair.

The aim of that was to come here and showcase made –inNigeria products to the Senegalese market. When I was here in the Embassy as an officer, Nigerian textiles and plastic products used to sell here a lot. When I came back in 2012, I found out that other people have taken that market from us.

So, it is for Nigerians to be very aggressive in marketing their products to this market. We are trying to see how we can work with the traders and industries to come and showcase their products to the Senegalese.

That is part of the plans we are putting in place, to promote trade and investment forum; we are also going to organize road shows to make sure that Nigerian products come to the Senegal C M Y K

The current government of President Macky Sall has development agenda which Nigerians can key into. There are opportunities for investment in agriculture sector, tourism and housing sector

Let me say that my work can be made easier if I am assisted to make Nigeria much visible in Senegal. Before, we used to have publications to share with people who come here to enquire about this and that in Nigeria.

This day, we don’t have publications to share. We do write to the Ministry of Tourism and Nigeria Export Promotion Council, NEPC, but we don’t get feedback. There is limit to what you can do once you are outside the country. Again, our own media is too critical of our country, and we forget that these things are actually read outside the country. If we paint ourselves as good people, people will see us as good people; if we paint ourselves bad, people will see us as bad people.

What is your take on Dangote’s investment in this country?

In terms of single foreign direct investment, I think Dangote is the biggest African foreign direct investor in Senegal. All the African countries put together, Danagote is the biggest investor from Africa. I think what Dangote is doing in terms of cement is helping to promote regional integration. Of course, there are a lot of opportunities for Nigerian industries. The current government of President Macky Sall has development agenda which Nigerians can key into. There are opportunities for investment in agriculture sector, tourism and housing sector.

LAPO boss earns doctorate in Microfinance

BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

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anaging Director of L A P O Microfinance Bank, Mr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe, has earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree from Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma.

His thesis with the topic: Policy Instruments and Financial Inclusion: A Comparative Study of the Ethiopian and Nigerian Microfinance Policy and Regulatory Frameworks earned a distinction and is considered as relevant to the improvement of microfinance policy environment in Africa.

Ehigiamusoe is one of the leading lights for microfinance in Africa. In the late 1980s, he founded LAPO (Lift Above Poverty Organization) a successful pro-poor development organization with microfinance operations in Nigeria and Sierra Leone.

He had earlier earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology and Anthropology and Master’s degree in Development Studies from the University of Benin, Benin City. He has attended several capacity enhancing courses at local and international institutions, including Harvard Kennedy School; Lagos Business School; IESE Business School, Barcelona, and INSEAD Business School (Singapore Campus).

Dr Ehigiamusoe won the FATE Foundation’s Model Entrepreneur Award – Nigeria in 2008; the Schwab Foundation’s Outstanding Social Entrepreneur in Africa Award in 2010; and Lagos Business School’s Distinguished Alumni Award in 2014.

He has authored Understanding NGOs (1998); Poverty and Microfinance in Nigeria (2000); Issues in Microfinance: Enhancing Financial Inclusion (2011).

He is currently the Managing Director, LAPO MfB, a regulated national microfinance bank.

34 —Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Economy

Key facts about the Pension Reform Act 2014

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ince it’s all about reducing the risks, it is quintessential we all know the facts pension entails whether as a business person or an individual. These facts can and will serve as a guideline for everyone to understand their place and row. In this analytical insight by OLUBUSOLA MAKINDE, Relationship Manager, Leadway Assurance Company Limited, we present these as facts about the pension reform act 2014.

First, effective July 01, 2014, the Act governs and regulates the administration of the contributory pension scheme for both the public and private sectors in Nigeria.

The Act encourages participation in the contributory pension scheme which applies to two categories of employees. These categories comprise of all employees in the public sector and those in private Organizations with employees numbering 15 and above.

There is a provision for Private Organizations with less than three employees based on guidelines issued by the National Pension Commission (PenCom).

Under the Act, both employer and employee are required to make a minimum of 10% and 8% respectively of the employees monthly emoluments.

There is a review of the definition of

‘monthly emoluments” to mean the total emolument defined in the employees’ contract of employment provided it is not less than the total of the employee’s basic salary, housing and transport allowance.

Pension funds can be invested and this includes specialist investment funds and other financial instruments as approved by the Commission.

There are penalties for offences of misappropriation of funds, reimbursement or payment by a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) or Pension Fund Custodian (PFC) to a staff, officer or director.

In situations where the PFC fails to hold funds to the exclusive preserve of the PFA and PenCom or where it applies the funds to meet its own financial obligations, the Act will sanction such appropriately.

Jurisdiction resides in the High Courts of the Federal, State ,Federal Capital Territor y and National Industrial courts respectively.

A fund known as the pension protection fund is created to protect the benefit of contributors. Proceeds from this fund are paid to contributors in the form of minimum guaranteed pension. The National Pension Commission (PenCom) determines how compensations will be made where shortfall in payments arise.

Continues on page 35

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Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 35

Economy Stories by EMEKA ANAETO, Economy Editor

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merging economies of Nigeria, Indonesia and Mexico could push the UK and France out of the top ten economies of the world by 2050 provided they are able to build their institutions to global standards, diversify their economies and sustain growth friendly policies.

This is one of the key findings of the global report from PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) economists titled ‘‘The World in 2050: Will the shift in global economic power continue?’’ This presents longterm projections of potential GDP growth up to 2050 for 32 of the largest economies in the world, covering 84 per cent of total global GDP. According to the report, the current global economic power shift away from the established advanced economies in North America, Western Europe and Japan will continue over the next 35 years, despite a projected slowdown in Chinese growth after around 2020.

The world economy is projected to grow at an average of just over 3 per cent per annum from 2014-50, doubling in size by 2037 and nearly tripling by 2050.

But there’s likely to be a slowdown in global growth after 2020, as the rate of expansion in China and some other major emerging economies moderates to a more sustainable long-term rate, and as working age population growth slows in many large economies.

Nigeria, Vietnam and the Philippines are notable risers in the global GDP rankings in the long term, reflecting relatively high projected average growth rates of around 4.5-5.5 per cent per annum over the period to 2050.

According to Mr Andrew S. Nevin, PwC Nigeria’s Chief Economist and co-author of the report, “Over the past decade, Nigeria has boasted superior economic growth and, with the right reforms and investments, Nigeria could become one of the world’s leading economies by 2030, with further progress by 2050. Nigeria’s potential advantages for future growth

Nigeria, Indonesia, Mexico to displace UK, France out of top 10 largest economies include a large consumer market, a strategic geographic location, and a young and highly entrepreneurial population’’.

He continued, ‘‘however, at the same time, we are all aware of the significant headwinds (adverse trends) created by the rapid drop in the oil price, putting pressure on the fiscal and monetary systems, as well as reducing economic growth in the short term.

To achieve its long-term economic potential, Nigeria will need to manage the oil price decline effectively at all levels of government and create a sustainable platform for diversification

into the sectors that we know will drive the economy in the future – including power, agriculture, manufacturing, telecoms, hospitality and real estate’’.

Nevin concludes, “according to our long term projections, Nigeria could sustain average growth of around 5-6 per cent per annum in the long run, following projected growth of around 6-7 per cent in the rest of t h i s decade, assuming broadly growthfriendly policies are pursued.

W h i l e foreign investment has in absolute terms long been focused

•Okonjo-Iweala

on the oil sector, portfolios are becoming increasingly diversified, moving towards the power, agriculture and mining areas of the economy that have demonstrated a comparative advantage in emerging markets vis-à-vis the West’’.

Recent experience has however underlined that relatively rapid growth is not guaranteed for emerging economies, as indicated by recent problems in Russia and Brazil. It requires sustained and effective investment in infrastructure and improving political, economic, legal and social institutions.

Overdependence on natural resources, according to the analyst, could impede longterm growth in countries such as Nigeria, Russia, and Saudi Arabia unless they can diversify their economies over time.

Nevin further concludes that ‘‘while our analysis confirms that emerging markets have huge potential, they can also be an institutional minefield – both managers and investors need to tread carefully.

Overall, Nigeria continues to be an attractive place to invest

not because it is an oil producer, but because of the immense size of its domestic market and the extraordinary commercial energy of its people, which remains largely untapped.”

Beyond Nigeria, the PwC Report projects that China will be the largest economy by 2030 on any measure. However, it also expects its growth rate to slow markedly after around 2020 as its population ages, its high investment rate runs into diminishing marginal returns and it needs to rely more on innovation than copying to boost productivity. Eventual reversion to the global average has been common for past high growth economies such as Japan and South Korea and we expect China to follow suit.”

The report also contains projections based on GDP at market exchange rates, without this relative price adjustment.

On that basis, China is projected to overtake the US in around 2028, while India would clearly be the third largest economy in the world in 2050, but still some way behind the US. Other highlights from PwC’s projections are: India has the potential to sustain its higher growth rate for longer and become a $10 trillion economy by around 2020 in purchasing power (PPP) terms, or around 2035 at market exchange rates.

But this relies on India making sustained progress on infrastructure investment, institutional reforms and boosting education levels across the whole population.

Key facts about the Pension Reform Act 2014 Continues from page 34 An employee who disengages from employment before the age of 50 and is unable to secure employment within four months of disengagement is allowed to make withdrawals from the account although not exceeding 25% of the total amount credited to the retirement savings account.

To be appointed to the office of the Director General, the possession of relevant and professional qualification in pension matters and at least 15years cognate experience is required.

Any member of board, employee or agent, officer engaged by a PFA or PFC is expected to maintain confidentiality with respect to information obtained in the course of their duties.

Failure to comply will be sanctioned.

No action can be taken against an officer or employee of the National Pension Commission (PenCom) for any act done in execution of the Act or any other law if not commenced within three months of the act or in the case of a continuous act,

within 6 months after the act ceases.

There is tax exemption on any interests, profits, dividends, investments and other income accruable to pension funds or assets.

Any Company that is set up by the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) under the Pension Reform Act No.2 of 2004 shall continue to operate as a PFA. Funds Contributed to PFA’s shall be computed and credited into the respective retirement savings account opened under the Act. Any individual who has retired before the commencement of the Act shall be entitled to make withdrawals from the account although not exceeding 25% of the total amount credited to the retirement savings account.

Any employee aggrieved with his employer or PFA is obligated to approach the Commission for a redress before exploring arbitration or commencing an action at the National Industrial Court.

36 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

“Forensic audit report prepared without Bank Statement, says PwC.” THE NATION, April 29, 2015, p 4.

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he report written by Nduka Chiejina revealed the following. “The forensic audit report on the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, compiled by PricewaterHouse Coopers (Pwc) was done without bank statements, the report said.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), according to the report, shunned the auditors’ request for the bank statements.”

PricewaterHouseCoopers should be ashamed of itself that the internationally highly regarded auditing firm ever got itself into this mess – at any price. No local auditing firm in any country in the world would ever conduct what it calls a forensic audit report without obtaining bank statements in respect of the organizations it has been called upon to audit. Even, a freshly minted ICAN Chartered Accountant anywhere in the world knows that most everything in audit ends in the bank accounts.

Certainly, PwC must have assigned this monumental task to some of its most experienced national and international auditors – given the magnitude of the amount in dispute.

PwC, and the auditors assigned to this particular audit have done the company’s reputation a great deal of damage with this self-made confession and its implications. To be sure, PwC

PwC’S audit report or cover up? had accomplices in what can only be regarded as deliberate cover up.

Among them is the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, where the whole palaver about missing funds started in the first place.

It was the former Governor of the CBN who raised alarm in late 2013 that $47bn had not been remitted to the Federation Account by NNPC. Later, under interrogation, the amount outstanding to the Federation Account was reduced to $20bn.

Meanwhile, for blowing the whistle, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi was hounded out of office by the Jonathan administration, which under public pressure promised a “forensic audit”.

What PwC eventually produced last month, again under duress, must have been the longest delayed audit on a matter of urgent national importance.

Ordinarily, one would have expected PwC, with its international reputation at stake, and Nigeria’s vital interest involved, to conduct and release a report on which everybody from the Chief Executive Officer, CEO, would be prepared to stake his life for its veracity. Unfortunately, that was not the case. PwC, for whatever reasons

known to its managers and the auditors assigned to this project, has now become part of the problem and not the solution. Let me point out some of the problems the staff assigned have created for the auditing firm – starting from the first.

PwC’s first problem is one of credibility – allied with integrity.

Unfortunately, for the company, integrity is a 100% issue for an auditing firm. Even 95% is not good enough. An auditing firm which issues a “forensic report” without copies of the bank statements has already violated one of the primary professional requirements of an audit.

Hoe, on earth would the auditors know that funds that were supposed to be transferred to bank accounts actually got there? Even student of Business Administration, who only obtained theoretical lessons in auditing know that it was totally unprofessional for PwC to continue with the assignment once it was made clear that bank statements were not forthcoming. So, the report lacks credibility because it was professionally flawed.

The possibility of deliberate collusion to cover up several frauds by PwC’s staff arises from what was written before. If, non-professionals knew that an audit, forensic or routine, is not

complete without bank statements, how could the well experienced auditors of PwC, on this assignment fail to see that they were about to issue a report which, at best, is fit only for the dust bin? Surely, all those involved must be aware that they were issuing a report which fell far short of the highest professional standards; at a time when only the very best was required of them. That they probably knew they were being unprofessional, yet going forward and risking their company’s reputation, as well as their own, naturally leads to the next set of questions.

The first one is: who engaged them?

Was it the Ministry of Petroleum? Or the NNPC? Or the Ministry of Finance? Or the Auditor General’s Office? Or the Secretary to the Federal Government of Nigeria? Or the Presidency? Irrespective of who paid them for this, obviously shoddy job, Nigerians, and, indeed, the entire world wants to know the Terms of Reference, TOR, for the audit. Were they specifically forbidden to request for and obtain bank statements? And, if not, why was there no demand for those documents, through their principal for them? And, why did PwC fail to honourably resign when it was clear that a credible “forensic audit” was not possible under the circumstances?

Finally, if they were told to back off from obtaining bank balances, they need to tell the whole world who did it.

Micro-Finance

Most confident women entrepreneurs are from Sub-Saharan Africa —WEConnect Stories by PROVIDENCE OBUH

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omen in SubS a h a r a n Africa, has been identified as most confident entrepreneurs in the area of doing businesses by WEConnect International.

WEConnect International is a Non -profit Organisation connecting women-owned businesses with multinational corporate purchasing organisations outside of the United States, while weconnect international in Nigeria identifies, educates, register and certifies women business enterprises that are at least 51 percent owned managed and controlled by one or more women.

In a media chart at the just concluded WEConnect International Exhibition and Matchmaker, held in Nigeria, Executive Director, WEConnect International, Nigeria, Ms. Comfort C M Y K

Sakoma, said that the number of Nigerian women owned businesses that joined the group has grown to over 600 from zero at which it started.

To join, she said its free registration on it website to get sense of the business and a certification process begins with facilities tour to know the strength of the business.

Sakoma highlighted that women entrepreneurs face the of having a mind set that innovation is not a priority and a mind set that they cannot do businesses with multinational operations.

According to her, “One benefit of Wecoonect is that the Nigerian woman entrepreneur gets access to market. Sub-Saharan Africa has the most confident women entrepreneurs, what

that means is that the women entrepreneurs in this part of the world feels most confidence of their ability to be successful as business owners.”

In the same vein, CEO/ CoFounder WEConnect International, Mrs. Elizabeth Vazquez, added that women entrepreneurs must learn to think big and about its role in the society, saying, “men cannot be the only one

creating jobs, we must think how to translate our dreams into a business and identifying the huge opportunity available to buy and sell.”

However, the exhibition was Co-Chaired by Ernest and Young, Accenture and ExxonMobile while the Gold spensors include: Etisalat Nigeria, Dana Air, Nigeria Bottling Company (NBC) among others

ITF challenges trainees on entrepreneurship, skills acquisition D

irector General of Industrial Training Fund, ITF, Dr. Mrs Juliet Chukkas-Onaeko has challenged Trainees to brace up and live up to high academic standards expected of them, in order for them to contribute their quota towards national development.

The ITF said it remains committed towards its objectives of producing middle and high level skilled

manpower that will drive the nation’s economy forward, through the provision of global standards technical and vocational education that will eradicate unemployment, particularly amongst youths.

Highlighting how the fund is initiating proactive measures to achieve its mandate, Chukkas-Onaeko, said students under its training programmes are challenged to impart

knowledge provided by the fund, and take charge of leading the nation and the continent into an era of sustainable economic development.

She said the vision of economic leadership on the continent by the country can only be achieved when adequate attention and commitment is shown by all stakeholders in the quest to imbibe the nation’s youths with continuous training vocational and technical training knowledge that can

create jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities for them and other citizens.

The ITF DG noted while Nigerian students has excelled in various technical and vocational opportunities around the world, that it was important for those getting the benefits of the world class training that the Fund provides in Nigeria to make the most of it, become entrepreneurs and contribute to the development of the economy.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 37

E-Commerce

FORUM - From left: Sales Manager, AFP Furniture Production, Mr. Uche Uzoewulu; Sales Officer, Abuja, Hope Amadi; Lagos Project Coordinator, Frank Joos and Media Relation Officer, Julius Berger, Susan Obi at the Architects Forum at Eko Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos

How payment on delivery threatens e-commerce growth in Nigeria

BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

F

ounder/CEO of Drinks.ng, Lanre Akinlagun has identified payment on delivery, prevalent among online retailers in Nigeria, as one of the greatest impediment to the growth of the sector.

He disclosed this at a news conference to announce the acquisition of a 200Sqr ft warehouse in Lagos, in a strategic move to integrate offline platform into the online drinks seller to drive visibility while boosting distribution.

He said, “Payment on delivery is a bad idea and it is bad for businesses in Nigeria.

In a country where you are introducing new concept, it is very bad to introduce new bad habit at the same time.”

Akinlagun said payment on delivery is a bad idea because consumers are as indecisive as they are choosy thereby raising businesses’ operational cost when they reject delivered items.

“Generally as a people, we are very indecisive, but we are also very choosy. So when a delivery person arrives your house and you don’t like the item, you send it back at the cost of the company that is trying to deliver. So I just think that because of the indecision of the consumers, payment on delivery is not a good idea.

Also there is high cost of logistics. And there is also the issue of inconsistency in fuel delivery, including lack of time keeping by consumers,” he added.

On the integration of the offline platform, Akinlagun told the newsmen that the move was basically to connect with more consumers through

effective offline distribution system He said, “We have integrated offline into our platform for two reasons. The first is to improve our distribution. Nigeria is a very unique country. A lot of things happen differently here. So drinks are one of the things that as much you can get them

anywhere, it still relies much on impulse purchases. For instance, people know they want to drink but they don’t necessarily plan for it. This makes it very difficult for people to purchase drinks online. But there is a trend we noticed with other online ventures which we are building on. We have realised

that a lot of people research online and purchase offline.

So people are able to go to our website, see our stock and the prices we offer, and then book it and tell us to keep it at the store and then come by the store later and pick it up.

“It is that physical element that is prevalent in Nigeria’s business environment that we are trying to key into. People will not impulsive buy and pay for drinks online, they want to see it first and that is why I think the Iroko style where people research online and buy offline is what is most suitable for products like ours” He added: “The reason why we have moved offline is not to become big player in the offline world but to merge our online visibility with our offline distribution. And also to give people more reason to trust with our physical presence. It’s also for an extension of our marketing tool because it is easy for us to get referrals through word of mouth, if we have offline presence. But the main point is to increase our distribution.

There are people who come into our stores and make orders now because with certain products, there has to be a physical element.”

Akinlagun said this business model will also help the business reduce operational cost and improve logistics.

Lamudi releases updated Android App Online real estate marketplace, Lamudi.com has released an updated version of its Android app to make it easier for house-hunters in emerging markets to buy or rent property on the go.

Version 2.0 of the app, Lamudi: Property for Sale & Rent, offers overall better speed and performance, making it easier to browse through Lamudi’s global catalogue of more than 900,000 property listings using an Android device.

The app has been optimized for devices with lower storage space and the overall application size has been reduced, ensuring downloading the app is also much faster.

Push notifications that lead users directly to newly published listings have also been introduced.

Contacting agents via email has been simplified, with users’ existing contact details saved for future use. The app has a new product detail page and a fresh design for saved searches. It also now supports the Android Lollipop operating system. The app is also available on iOS. Lamudi’s Co-founder and Managing Director, Kian

Moin, said: “Anyone who works in the real estate business knows just how important mobile has become.

This is particularly true of the emerging markets in which we operate, where the smartphone penetration rate is soaring and demand for mobile Internet services is ever increasing.

This is why we are focusing our efforts on mobile - to ensure Lamudi is delivering a high-quality app that meets

the changing demands of house-hunters in emerging countries.”

The app has customised search functions, allowing users to easily filter results by country. A key feature is the match alerts, which notify users as soon as a property that suits their needs hits the market. Users can also create a list of favourite properties, which can be accessed at any time and on any device.

eTranzact boosts financial inclusion with NewPocketMoni

N

igeria’s mobile money operator, eTranzact International has given a boost to its financial inclusion drive with the introduction of the NewPocketMoni, an updated version of the PocketMoni app.

The NewPocketMoni app comes with several features including the ability for direct deposit of salary through the app, withdrawal of cash via any ATMs without the use of cards and institution of banklike standing orders. Also, features like money transfer, airtime purchase and bill payments have also been simplified, thereby giving

more financial control to consumers without relying on traditional banking processes.

Speaking at the demo event in Lagos, eTranzact’s Executive Dircetor, Strategy and Corporate Development, Mr. Ike Eze said the new features is part of a strategic move to use mobile money to drive the growth of businesses in Nigeria.

He stated that eTranzact has done a retake of what mobile money can be with a recreated game changing mobile experience, and that the new features will truly lead the next generation of mobile payments platforms in Nigeria.

Amazon unveils drone delivery plans

D

etails about how Amazon’s proposed delivery drones may work have been published by the US Patent Office.

According to the patent, the drones will be able to track the location of the person it is delivering to by pulling data from their smartphone.

The unmanned vehicles will also be able to talk to each other about weather and traffic conditions. Amazon faces many regulatory hurdles before its plans can be turned into reality.

Amazon submitted its drone patent in September 2014, but the details are only now being published by the US Patent and Trademark Office, after it approved the ideas.

For many, Amazon’s idea of delivery via drone was seen as pie-in-the-sky, but the details it provides in its patent application suggest that the firm is taking the idea seriously and working hard to overcome a variety of technical obstacles.

According to the plans, Amazon’s drones will be able to update their routes in realtime. A mock-up delivery screen suggests that people will be able to choose from a variety of delivery options from “bring it to me” to nominating their home, place of work or even “my boat” as places for packages to be dropped.

EU launches cross-border ecommerce investigation

E

uropean Union antitrust regulators opened an investigation into cross-border e-commerce last week in a move aimed at removing borders to online sales as part of a broad strategy to overhaul the bloc’s digital market.

European Competition Commissioner, Margrethe Vestager had announced her intention in March to open the sector inquiry The European Commission said the probe would focus on barriers to online sales in electronics, clothing and shoes, as well as digital content.

While U.S. online retailers such as Amazon and e-Bay dominate the e-commerce industry, traditional companies are boosting their presence as well.

38 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

People in Business

Metal component manufacturing is a unique area of manufacturing — JUDE OKPALA

BY EBELE ORAKPO

Raw materials: He said they source their raw materials both locally and internationally. “The major component of our activities is metal sheets and metal coils.

We do not have rolling mills in Nigeria to produce metal coils, especially steel coils. So we import them. There are other inputs that we get locally. For example, we can source for the metal blocks locally to make moulds. We actually scavenge to use discarded materials to be able to produce our moulds. Other inputs, especially the consumables used in the tools shop such as quenching oil and drill beads, we get locally.”

M

r. Jude Okpala is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Lagos-based Cliché Limited, a metal component manufacturing company engaged in precision engineering, metal stamping and finishing. He has a first degree in Civil Engineering from West Virginia University, USA and a second degree in Management and Business Administration from the University of Lagos. In this chat with Financial Vanguard, Okpala speaks on his business which he describes as unique, the challenges and hopes the business model has come to stay in Nigeria as it will help develop the economy. Excerpts: According to Okpala, metal component manufacturing is a unique area of manufacturing that is supportive to bigger organisations “in the sense that we produce components out of metals used by other manufacturers as inputs. We are designed to take up any sort of component that comes out of flat sheets, design it, make prototype, send it to the customer and once it is approved, we mass produce.

The business is modelled after what obtains in SouthEast Asia.”

South-East Asia model: “Manufacturing today, is mostly about assembly. You design a product, tear it apart, out-source the production of the components to different companies, then you gather those components and reassemble them. This takes place in every aspect of the production cycle. The trend in the western world is that when you do such designs, you out-source the components to South-East Asian companies. That is why you see manufacturers of vehicles, aircraft, computers and household products, out-sourcing the production of components to smaller organisations in China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia etc., and when they produce the prototype, they give it to the organisation and when it is approved, they sign a long-term agreement for material supply for final production.

That is why if you open a computer made in the US, you will see that the components are made in different countries. That is the trend in manufacturing now. So Cliché Limited is modelled after such, where we can set up a metal component manufacturing company in Nigeria and get bigger organisations to do the same with us – outsource part of their metalbased production to us and we can design and produce for them and have a longterm supply agreement.

“We are at the early stage where we are developing the business and trying to see how that model can catch up in Nigeria. Our products are quite extensive depending on what the customer brings. It is what he brings that we are going to design and produce,” he stated.

Scope of operation: “We cut across almost all the sectors of the economy – household products, packaging, just name it. It is a matter of discovering what and what we can do in a given industry.

So our marketing strategy is to look for our type of activity in every productive line. For example, we go to Mr. A who manufactures mosquito coil and say ‘ok, there is this metal you use in your production, let us go and do a sample and send to you.’ If he approves it and signs a delivery order

Jude Okpala like buttons, ranks etc., for the armed forces, small containers used for canned foods, accessories used in producing

short-term so we are hoping that someday, that model will completely catch up with Nigeria where we can sign a

Manufacturing today, is mostly about assembly. You design a product, tear it apart, out-source the production of the components to different companies, then you gather those components and reassemble them two, three-year supply arrangement with bigger organisations. Abroad, big organisations outsourcing components manufacturing to smaller organisations in Asia, actually invest in building up the smaller companies in order to ensure that the supply chain is not broken,” he said.

with us, we produce and supply to him and he uses it to finish his product. We do the same with other companies. We can make metal components used to secure currency by the CBN, Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company and companies that do note sorting. We make seals used to secure ammunition; metal seal used to secure graded produce, uniform accessories

mechanical press, feed metal coils through that mould and then the press will punch out the shapes needed,” he explained.

electrical appliances and so many others. Once we produce the prototype and send to them and they approve it, then we have an agreement with them to start producing and supplying them. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, we have not developed the habit of having a structured inventory management where you can sign a long-term agreement with suppliers. Everything is

Our workflow: “Enquiries come in form of either samples or designs and sometimes concepts.

When we receive enquiries, we first go through the computer and do the electronic design, we then simulate the mould of that design and transfer that design to some other machines that produce the different components of the mould and when those machines produce the different components, we put them together and simulate them and if they suit what we need them for, we do metal treatment where we harden the mould components after which we assemble the parts.

We now have a complete metal contraption called mould. We then put the mould into hydraulic press or

Challenges: On the challenges, Okpala mentioned power as number one, saying: “The size of Cliché is such that any little increase in cost of production tells a lot on our bottom line.

Power is the major channel through which our profit margin is eroded. Second is funding. It is difficult to secure long-term funding for SMEs here so a business like this is hugely funded through savings by the owners. It gets to a point where savings can no longer drive growth so you keep looking for external funding which never comes because it is difficult to get long-term funding.

Acceptability and policy somersault is another challenge. An organisation like ours is expected to have some sort of protection through government policies; that is how it is done in South-East Asia and that is how small businesses grow.

They are given long-term protection in form of policies that ensure they are not exposed to unnecessary external competition. Our economy is more like a dumping ground for foreign producers so it is difficult for us to compete with similar products that come from abroad because of high cost of production. Then also this idea that nothing produced in Nigeria can be better than what comes from abroad. That is what I mean by acceptability. It is taking us time to make our people realise that we can produce better quality products than what comes from abroad if we are given the conducive environment. So when you go to government establishments or individuals or even bigger organizations to offer your services, they will ask if yours will be better and cheaper than what they are getting from China? That is

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 39

40 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

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Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 41

Aviation Airport passengers groan as FAAN introduces new shuttle bus rules

Airlines operators lack knowledge, experience to operate PBN —Experts

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irport passengers have been groaning as they are left stranded at various bus-stops along the IkejaAirport road due to shortage of airport shuttle buses because of the new rules introduced by Federal Airport Authority of Nigerian, FAAN. FAAN had instructed the drivers to replace their old buses with new ones and the operators have been finding it difficult to purchase new buses.

Vanguard investigation revealed that the shortage of the airport shuttle buses was as a result of the phase out of the old shuttle buses and the replacement of new ones which began on Monday, May 4th 2015.

One of the passengers contacted, Mr. James Onyike said that the new rule by FAAN was the reason why the buses that ply the road were few just as he affirmed that with the development on ground, the drivers have pegged a fix price for transport at N100 irrespective of any bus stop that the passenger will alight.

Another passenger, Mrs. Juliet Oghene said that the situation was becoming unbearable and called on FAAN to ensure that the buses were deployed in due time to alleviate the sufferings of the passengers.

When contacted on phone, General Manager, Public

E

INAUGURATION - From left Mr Christophe Pennick, Chief Executive Officer, Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Ltd; Mr Wale Babalakin, Chairman; Chief Osita Chidoka, Minister of Aviation and Mr Kayode Odukoya, MD, First Nation Airways during the Inauguration of Common User Passenger Processing System (CUPPS) at the Murtala Muhammed Airport 2 (MMA2), Ikeja Lagos . Photo Lamidi Bamidele.

FAAN’s Director of Finance appointment not terminated — FG

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

T

he Federal Government, through the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAA N , w e e kend explained the recent controversy surrounding the appointment of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, Director of Finance, Mr. Tochuku Bede Uchendu.

It was reported by a section of the media that he was

sacked by the Aviation Minister, Chief Osita Chidoka because he granted an unauthourised waivers worth over N1 billion.

Explaining the Federal Government's position to newsmen, General Manager Corporate Affairs, FAAN, Mr. Yakubu Dati said that Mr. Uchendu was only asked to wait for the conclusion of all formalities regarding his appointment as Director in

Domestic airlines lack service delivery mechanism, says Chidoka

By LAWANI MIKAIRU & DANIEL ETEGHE

A

viation Minister, Chief Osita Chidoka has said that most domestic airlines in the country lacked effective passengers service delivery mechanism as most of them treat passengers poorly.

Speaking at the Eight anniversary celebration of BiCourtney Aviation Services, operators of the Murtala Muhammed Domestic Terminal 2 ,MMA2 , and the launch of Common User Passenger Processing System (CUPPS) and upgrade of facilities at the terminal building of Murtala Muhammed Domestic Terminal 2 (MMA2), Lagos, Chidoka noted that in dealing with issues in the aviation industry, the passengers, processes and technology were key factors to make travel seamless for the passengers.

The Minister who also commissioned the Self check-in Kiosk, Screening point and

check in counters at the Terminal pointed out that domestic airlines do not have good passenger services mechanism, citing an incident where Aero Contractors airline had to abandon its passengers at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja and Lagos Airport instead of activate their hospitality partnership with the hotels in Abuja and Lagos.

According to Chidoka, with the deployment of facilities that aid easy travel experiences by Bi Courtney Aviation Limited, MM2 terminal was maintaining its status as the best airport terminal in the country.

“MMA2 has offered a template to the Nigerian government to improve our airport. Apart from passengers rating the MMA2 as one of the best airport terminals in Nigeria, ground handlers, pilots and other operators also said that MMA2 is a befitting airport terminal” he said.

While expressing his gratitude, Chairman of Bi Courtney Aviation Limited, Dr. Wale

Babalakin pointed out that the company would continue to improve the terminal with adequate facilities to ensure seamless travel experiences for the passengers.

Babalakin affirmed that he feels impressed that the minister acknowledged the fact that Bi Courtney operated terminal was the best airport terminal in the country. According to him, aviation is global and Nigeria will strive to compete favourably in the international scene adding that the airport terminal was attaining such height and feat because of the strategy the company put in place and facilitated with money to make things work effectively.

“We thanked the minister of aviation for his sincerity for acknowledging that MMA2 was the best airport terminal in Nigeria. Aviation is international, we must seek to comply with international standard and even exceed it” he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bi Courney, Mr.

FAAN. This misinformation from the Federal Ministry of Aviation may have resulted to the recent redeployment of the former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Mohammed Abbas, to the Federal Civil Service Commission and his replacement with Hajia Binta Bello, who is the current Permanent Secretary of the Aviation Ministry.

Dati said “On his appointment, Mr. Uchendu was only asked to wait for the conclusion of all formalities (due process). That process is still on-going”. He also debunked the story in the media alleging that the Minister of Aviation had sacke d M r. Tochuku Uchendu over irregularities in his appointment and the granting of unauthourised waivers worth over one billion naira by him.

According to him “The Authority hereby wishes to state that the story in question was not only false but also malicious as Mr. Uchendu’s appointment was neither irregular nor did he ever grant waiver to any FAAN customer, not to talk of waiver amounting to over one billion naira” “The Director of Finance of the Authority does not have the power to grant waiver to any customer. On his appointment, Mr. Uchendu was only asked to wait for the conclusion of all formalities (due process).

That process is still on-going . We therefore urge members of the public to discountenance the said story” he added.

It would be recalled that

xperts in the aviation sector have decried the inability of most airlines operators to effectively use the Performance Based Navigation (PBN) due to lack of adequate experiences and knowledge on the part of the operators.

They however argued that even though the PBN was a new phase in the aviation industry, that for it to be effective and fully operational in the aviation industry, it was expected that operators should be well grounded in it with a lot of experiences.

Speaking on the topic, Presentation on PBN implementation: Approval Process at the NCAA annex, Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA) Lagos, General Manager, Flights Operator Inspector, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Captain Sunday Arome said that the PBN was adequately analysed in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s, ICAO document 9613.

Captain Arome pointed out that Nigeria had not fully started using the PBN because of lack of adequate knowledge and experiences stressing that, that was the key factors that should be considered before the PBN could be fully operational in the aviation industry.

According to him, the approval process of the PBN consists of five phases including what the operators need to do, the application been submitted to the regulatory agency, the acceptance of the application by the regulatory agency, demonstration of flight and the approval stage.

He emphasised that PBN required an approval from the regulatory authority before any operator can use it stating that there were three conditions to be satisfied by the airlines operators before they can fully use the PBN. Captain Arome said that the operator must be cleared for airworthiness element, flight operator element and all other necessary process that would help the operators to effectively use the PBN.

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42 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Tax Matters

LSDP: we’ll use medium term sector strategies to deliver - LASG

BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

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agos State Government has assured to use Medium Term Sector Strategies (MTSS) to deliver on the Lagos State Development Plan (LSDP) in the medium term, while the impact assessment reporting would be used to review the plan on a regular basis of five years intervals as documented.

The LSDP 2012 - 2025 was formally launched and presented to the public by Governor Bababtunde Fashola, on December 2014, to provide overall direction for long term growth and development of the state.

Speaking at a Stakeholders’ Sensitisation on the LSDP 2012 – 2025 in Lagos, Commissioner, Ministry of Economic Planning and budget, Mr. Ben Akabueze, said that the plan will set overarching long term framework for government’s planning and budgeting system, stating: “It is important to note that a plan will however not achieve anything by itself except it is executed.

Therefore the planning teams have developed an implementation programme to identify those actions and responsibilities which will ensure that the plan is implemented and becomes a mechanism for realising the vision for Lagos by the year 2025.”

Akabueze who was represented by Special Adviser to the Governor on Economic Planning and Budget, Mrs. Iyabowale Aluko, said that the preparation of the LSDP began by looking at the main issues and challenges facing the state, drawing upon previous state reports, current statistics, especially those published by the Lagos Bureau of Statistics and other relevant documents/ reports made available by Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs), adding “ Our vision for LSDP by 2025 is to become “Africa’s Model Mega-city and Global Economic and Financial Hub that is Safe, Secure, Functional and Productive” by 2025.

According to him, “Lagos as the fastest growing megacity state is geographically well placed to serve all the major markets of the world.

C M Y K

Administration of withholding Tax (11)

T

he organizations making the payments are required to withhold tax from such payments and pay over the withheld amounts to their respective relevant Tax Authorities within 30days of receipt of payment or credit by the person or entity suffering

activities covered under the withholding tax regime shall include company (Corporate or noncorporate), Government Ministries and Department, Parastatals, Statutory bodies, Institutions and other established organization approved for

The relevant tax authorities to receive the WHT tax transactions made by companies is FIRS and for individuals and unincorporated bodies subject to Rules of Residence is SIRS or FIRS the Tax. The relevant tax authorities to receive the WHT tax transactions made by companies is FIRS and for individuals and unincorporated bodies subject to Rules of Residence is SIRS or FIRS. Person liable to deduct withholding Tax The payer of withholding tax in respect of any of the

the operations of Pay As you Earn System.

Who is Taxable *All Persons, Companies etc. who’s Incomes are liable to income tax, are subject to Withholding Tax. *However, exempt entities like Educational Institutions, Government Ministries, Parastatals and other Agencies of Government, are Agents for

the collection of WHT. They are required to deduct WHT on any payment made to a taxable body and remit same to the relevant tax authority.

Withholding Tax implication on foreign transactions Non Resident Companies/ Enterprises The Revenue practice is that non-resident companies are not empowered to deduct any type of WHT. These categories of enterprises are practically outside the regulatory monitoring and control of the FIRS. It will be impracticable for Revenue office to inspect the accounting books of these companies in order to confirm due deduction and remittance of WHT. Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) Transactions that are ordinarily not liable to tax in Nigeria are not liable to WHT in Nigeria. Thus contracts and supplies of goods and services performed entirely outside Nigeria by non-resident individuals are not liable to WHT. Nigeria has treaty agreements with about eight

(8) countries and these countries are granted a reduced rate of WHT deduction, usually at 75% of the generally applicable WHT rate. 7.5%. These countries include UK, Northern Ireland, Canada, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Pakistan, and Romania.

Permanent Establishment (PE) principle exists under nigeria taxation The rules construe a PE where: *The company has a “fixed base” in Nigeria. *The company operates in Nigeria through a dependent agent authorized to conclude contracts or deliver goods on its behalf, *The company is executing a turnkey project in Nigeria, or *The operation between the company and its Nigeria affiliate does not appear to be at arm’s length. *“Fixed base” implies some degree of permanence and will include: *Facilities, such as a factory, office, branch, mine, oil or gas well *Activities, such as building, construction, assembly or installation.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 43

Advertising & Promotions Stories by PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

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ll around Nigeria, Legend extra stout is going about rewarding loyal consumers in a campaign it dubbed “Legend Taste and Tell’ contest.

The brand which has traversed parts of Lagos, Enugu, Owerri, Ibadan and now Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, precisely at Halmond Entertainment bar, a popular hangout at the MKO Abiola Stadium, rewarded consumers who engaged in the blind taste game, ‘Taste and Tell.’ Whilst rewarding winners of the game who were able to distinguish the brand from filled cups marked ‘A’ to ‘C’, eventually carted home prizes ranging from generating sets to LED televisions and refrigerators.

The star of the night was Iyanu Ogunrinde, a 26 year old Abeokuta based businessman who emerged winner of a brand new generator in the ‘Taste and Tell’ contest. Ogunrinde revealed that it was the first time he would ever taste Legend Extra Stout that night, yet he was able to correctly identify the drink from the array of stout brands during the blind taste test.

An elated Ogunrinde also added that he attended the event after he reluctantly accepted a friend’s invitation to hang out at the bar. He stated: “I am so happy that I won this generator. Thank God that I agreed to accompany my friend here.

Legend is truly a unique stout brand and that is why I did not find it difficult to pick out the brand from others during the blind taste challenge”.

Other winners of the night were Adekunle Gafar, a student and Jamiu Lawal, a technician, both based in Abeokuta. Gafar, a 25 year-old HND 1 student of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, won a refrigerator during the blind taste contest, said he came well prepared to win. In his words: “I am not surprised I won because I came here prepared to win. I have been drinking Legend for the past five years and today I am excited about winning this fridge. To me it shows that Legend is not just looking for avenues to make money from consumers. It is also looking at ways to reward loyalty. I am so happy today and I will keep drinking Legend. To me Legend is the best.”

On his part, Jamiu Lawal, the winner of a brand new 32" flat screen television on the night expressed his joy at winning the feat. He stated:

Analysts hail Chivita 100%, Man U partnership

I

CSR - From Left: Onilogbo of Ilogbo, Oba Samuel Ojugbele, Managing Director, Intercontinental Distillers Limited, Engr Patrick Anegbe, and a Chief inside one of the classrooms built by Intercontinental Distillers Limited for Ilogbo Community High School, Ilogbo, Ota, in Ogun State.

Is Legend making reward system a policy?

“I am very happy to have won this TV. I did not expect to win but I am happy I won all the same. My favorite drink is Legend and I feel rewarded, winning this night.”

The event also featured a cultural display by the Ogun State Performing Troupe with

live music by Lagos-based Platinum Blazers.

Speaking, Key Account Executive, Nigerian Breweries Plc., Abeokuta, Mr. Adeyanju Babatunde stated that Legend is the leading stout brand in Abeokuta, that the brand owns its rising profile to its unmatched quality as well as its willingness to reward customers through events

such as the ‘Taste and Tell’ challenge.

The trip to Ibadan for the taste and tell contest was not different from what was witnessed in Abeokuta. In Ibadan, Solution Oguniyi, Adekunle Adeyinka, where all consumers who went home with refrigerator and generating set respectively, but Moshood. S. Abiola, 39year, a native of Oyo State had decided to end a three years self-employed imposed break from drinking Legend Extra Stout, that night he was lucky to go home with 32-inch LED flat screen Television.

According to Abiola, he was a regular consumer of Legend Extra Stout until three years ago when he decided to quit alcohol.

Magic Mirror, new OOH ad medium enters Nigeria

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new vista has been opened in the Nigerian out-of-home, OOH advertising industry with the introduction of Magic Mirror advertising option by Soundz & Meknitz Limited.

The product, world’s latest OOH advertising technologies, is the first in entire Sub-Saharan Africa.

Classed under the emerging media and below the line/indoor advertising category, works by interfacing a specially designed mirror with an in-built LCD video and audio programme that also doubles as a viewing mirror. The television commercial, TVC is seen playing on the mirror, with an inbuilt sensor that squeezes the advert message to a corner on approach of a user to present a full mirror and returns after use.

Speaking on the new innovation, Managing Director of Soundz & Meknitz

Limited, Mr Felix Ugbechie, said already his company has been granted exclusive permit to install the new generation advertising technology in all the rest rooms in all airport lounges in Nigeria, a factor he is sure will give maximum value to Nigerian advertisers.

Ugbechie said the advertising medium is unique because it offers the advertiser the opportunity to have something close to personal conversations with individuals who come in contact with it.

“The mirror, as simple as it is, is a very important tool for managing personal relationships. We must always go to the mirror to appreciate ourselves and determine if we are looking good enough for that all important meeting. It is a personal tool that enables us to have a conversation with ourselves before we go out to

meet other people. What we are doing is take this conversation even further by enabling brands to talk to their targets in their most intimate periods. This is a period when conversations are best appreciated and ensure long lasting retention,” he stated.

Ugbechie explained that the Magic Mirror advertising has the distinguishing capability to pass the message personally and without interruptions and also overcomes the challenges of no tune out, trashing or flipping pages that have been the disadvantages of electronic and print media advertising in recent time.

“The Magic Mirror is like a welcome companion to the often disconcerting privacy of the rest rooms. That is why we say it holds personal conversations because advertisers have the privilege of talking to individuals in this secluded privacy and be able to arrest their attention throughout their stay.

n today’s busy world of brand marketing, utilizing the strength of partnership brand marketing to gain incremental marketing exposure is not only smart, but an essential tool for brands to remain more competitive in today ’s constantly changing marketplace.

Brand partnerships such as the one between Nigeria’s fruit juice flagship brand Chivita 100% and English Premiership side Manchester United FC has continued to generate massive interest within the sporting community and consumers of the brand.

According to Adewale Okoya, a marketing communication consultant and former Editor with Marketing Edge Magazine in Lagos, “seven months after the partnership was signed, the management of Chi Limited seems to be doing an excellent job of projecting the partnership and the benefits to its numerous consumers. The communication tactics deployed to create awareness for the Chivita 100% fruit juice and Manchester United partnership has been so effective that both brands have become synonymous with each other in the consciousness of Nigerian consumers”

APRA set to project Africa to the world

I

n a renewed bid to reposition Africa’s image within and outside the continent, African Public Relations Association, APRA is set to hold its annual conference. th The conference’s 27 edition which is billed to hold in Cameroon between May 12 through 14, 2015, aims to analyse and project to the world the true image of Africa.

Addressing the press in Lagos at the Pre-APRA Yaounde 2015, the Secretary General of the Association, Mr. Yomi Badejo-Okusanya said that the programme is pertinent considering the image crisis plaguing Africa continent on frequent occasion.

“For instance, the outbreak of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease and the recent Xenophobic attack on foreigners of African descent in South Africa.

C M Y K

44 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 Email:lesleba@lesleba.com, lesleba@gmail.com Blog page:www.lesleba.com/blog2 Website: www.lesleba.com Tel:0805 220 1997

The oppressive folly of fuel subsidy The data released on fuel subsidy outlays from responsible Agencies of government have, overtime, regrettably remained divergent, such that, it has become a challenge to obtain definitive estimates.

Nevertheless, the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala recently explained that the inconsistent figures often quoted were unavoidable because subsidy payments is a continuous, rolling process, therefore, relevant government agencies could only provide specific data relating to approved claims that have passed through each department at any point in time.

The above notwithstanding, what is clear however, is that we are spending a disproportionate amount of our Federal budget to fund subsidy payments, which add up to about N500bn, or an average of about 10% of annual Federal budgets since 2011. Incidentally, despite the obvious severe social deprivations caused by our dismal infrastructural deficit, critical sectors such as Education and Health, were never so favoured.

Well, if you are already concerned at the apparent misplacement of priorities, then you may be alarmed, that actual subsidy values may have exceeded 20% of total Federal budgets in recent years. This is because, in addition to the N500bn or so average actual subsidy payments annually, the value of unsettled bills may approach or indeed exceed another N500bn annually.

Infact, according to the Coordinating Minister, subsidy values, which were never

captured in annual appropriation bills, have nevertheless been settled ultimately by her Ministry without recourse to Legislative approval as constitutionally required.

Why the National Assembly condoned this blatant violation of annual fiscal Acts, despite the unathourised monstrous outflows involved, is not clear.

This tradition of impunity has obviously been stepped up with possibly, over N200bn additional commitment which was recklessly incurred this year without Legislative consent as penalty for bank interest on delayed payments and exchange rate differentials on a ‘core’ subsidy bill of N40bn according to Thomas Olawore, the Executive Secretary of the Major Petroleum Marketers (see report titled: Daily Subsidy on PMS rises to N1.7bn on Pg. 38 on Punch newspaper edition th of 30 of April, 2015).

Clearly, if this bizarre fiscal trajectory continues, cumulative fuel subsidy values may ultimately exceed 50% of annual budgets, particularly if crude oil prices remain above $60/barrel and or the Naira exchange rate depreciates above the current N197=$; eventually, the oppressive folly of government’s subsidy strategy may become so embarrassingly glaring when we become constrained to obtain high priced loans to fund our debilitating subsidy habit.

Conversely, however, if subsidy is abolished under the prevailing crude oil price and Naira exchange rate, fuel price will rapidly shoot up to about N150/litre, and ultimately push the average price index

Business & Economy

for goods and services closer to 10%. Consequently, unless all wages and salaries rise by 10% annually, income earners may lose 50% of the purchasing value of their Naira incomes every five years; thus, more Nigerians will need to cut down on their families’ standard shopping list, as incomes increasingly lose purchasing power and deepen poverty, particularly for those families who depend on the existing minimum wage of N18000/month.

Until price imposition is abolished, investors will continue to stay away from establishing new domestic refineries Furthermore, consumer demand will contract if inflation spirals to create adverse consequences for manufacturers and other employers of labour who will become compelled to scale down on their workforce; clearly, this will further worsen the already socially disturbing rate of unemployment.

Thus, government may seem to be caught between the devil and the blue sea, on this matter of subsidy. Indeed, if government’s response to this persistent dilemma remains pedestrian as usual, the incoming administration would predictably seek a truce with Organised Labour to once again share the burden of

these refineries may characteristically still take forever to complete.

However, even if refineries operate at optimal capacity, the ex-refinery cost of fuel will not be significantly different from the f.o.b. prices invoiced by the overseas suppliers; clearly, the price gain from deduction of freight and local charges may not exceed 10% off the domestic pump price in a fully deregulated market, unless crude oil is allocated to refineries at a heavy discount (another subsidy through the back door)!

Consequently, if crude oil prices rise significantly or Naira exchange rate further depreciates, fuel pump price will faithfully spiral uncomfortably to make the accommodation of subsidy inevitable. Besides, until price imposition is abolished, investors will continue to stay away from establishing new domestic refineries because of the clear challenges related to the payments system of the present subsidy scheme.

However, savvy investors, such as Dangote, who establish new refineries, would hedge their investments by selling their products strictly in dollars ex-refinery gate to marketers who would still need to source the required forex for their purchases. In such event, the forex outlay for fuel will still remain substantial despite the new private refineries established.

Conversely, however, owners of domestic refineries would readily price their fuel in Naira if the Naira reestablishes a reputation as a safe store of value, rather than a currency that is perennially beleaguered and remains on life support.

subsidy, by raising the current fuel price of N87 to about N120/litre instead of a subsidy free actual market price of about N150/litre.

Regrettably, however, this arrangement will collapse as soon as crude oil prices rise above the current $60/barrel and, or the Naira exchange rate rises above N197/$, as such price movements will push deregulated petrol price well beyond N150/litre to create a wider margin of subsidy than the N30/litre earlier projected.

Furthermore, if CBN’s rapidly depleting reserves increase pressure on dollar demand, Naira exchange rate would simultaneously spiral closer to or above the current black market rate of N220=$.

In such event, fuel prices will rise and related subsidy values will again increase to precipitate the usual train of inadequate funding, delayed payments, etc, etc, until a brokered resolution between government and Labour once again sets in motion another cycle of folly with an agreement for partial subsidy in fuel pricing.

Sadly, it is not generally known that almost 50% of our forex earnings are currently repatriated abroad as payment for imports for the 40m litres of fuel consumed daily.

Conversely, a huge reduction in external payments, may be possible, if more refineries are built or if at least existing government’s refineries become fully operational. Nonetheless, the reality is that even at full capacity, existing refineries may provide barely 20% of national requirement; besides, Turn Around Maintenance for

CBN may consider easing naira rules this week

T

he central Bank of Nigeria has started talks with banks and currency dealers on how to loosen foreignexchange trading restrictions while still maintaining stability in the naira. The Financial Markets Dealers Association, a Lagos-based industry body, met last week to put a proposal together that may be presented to CBN this week.

The FMDA will recommend ways to increase trading and liquidity in the foreignexchange market, while at the same time avoiding speculative demand that might significantly weaken the naira.

C M Y K

Recall that the CBN has implemented several measures since December to bolster the naira, which has weakened 19 per cent against the dollar since the end of June, by limiting the buying of dollars in the interbank market. The central bank hasn’t made any decision to change the trading rules currently in place, Ibrahim Mu’azu, CBN spokesman told Reuters by e-mail.

David Adepoju, the Lagosbased president of the FMDA, said by phone that he was on holiday and referred requests for comment to Adebayo Adeyemo, the vice president, who didn’t immediately

respond to an e-mail.

The CBN probably won’t make any changes to the foreign exchange regime until after the new government is sworn in on May 29, two of the people who spoke to Reuters said.

Head of Africa economic research at Standard Chartered Plc, Razia Khan had told reporters in Lagos last week: “The central bank will probably have to let market forces have a greater say over the exchange rate if Nigeria is to preserve its reserves. It makes sense to assume that there will be some adjustment in the regime to allow for greater flexibility.

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Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015— 45

Oncologists urge Buhari to prioritise cancer care under NHIS

By Chioma Obinna

W

ITH over 80 percent of Ni gerian cancer patients paying out of pocket, the need for the incoming administration of General Mohammadu Buhari to include cancer care under the National Health Insurance Scheme, NHIS, has been stressed.

Making a passionate call to the President-elect last week in Lagos during the media flag-off of Sebeccly Cancer Care and Support Centre's 2105 Light Lagos Pink, Consultant, Clinical and Radiation oncologist, Dr. Omolola Salako, said many Nigerians have died of cancer due to lack of money to pay for their treatment.

Salako who is Executive Director of the Support Centre, said the only way more Nigerians will survive cancer, particularly the indigent, is for the new government to implement cancer care under the NHIS. She argued that if cancer care is accommodated by the NHIS, Nigeria would increase cancer survival rates as well as reduce out of pocket payment by 30- 40 percent.

"We are not saying government should take care of the entire bill but they should take care of the chunk of the cost of treatment. If the patient pays for surgery, government can pay for radiotherapy.

If the patients pay for chemotherapy, government can pay for target therapy. There should be a shared formula. That way more women will access care and they

• L-R: Mrs Laduna Ogunbanwo, who represented the Lagos State First Lady; Chioma –Apotha, Sebeccly Care Ambassador; Dr Omolola Salako, Executive Director, Sebeccly Cancer Care and Support Centre; Adetoro Omojole, Board Member during the flag-off of Sebeccly Light Lagos Pink recently. will have a better chance of surviving," she added.

Salako identified challenges of cancer care in Nigeria to include; lack of a comprehensive cancer centre, late presentation by patients, diagnosis and cost of care.

"Cost of cancer care is outrageous. Government needs to step in if we want our patients to survive. We need a comprehensive cancer centre. Cancer is killing more people in the developing world than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria combined.”

Stating that 70 percent of all cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, she

If cancer care is accommodated by the NHIS, Nigeria would increase cancer survival rates as well as reduce out of pocket payment by 30- 40 percent

added that cancer has already surpassed infectious disease as the leading cause of death in many of these countries.

"One-third of these cancers are preventable, and an additional one-third of cancers can be detected and treated while there is still hope. Breast cancer is the most common cancer and principal cause of cancer deaths Breast cancer accounts for 27,304 new cases and 13,960 deaths annually. Over 80 percent of breast cancer patients present in stage III and IV.” Speaking on Sebeccly 2015 Light Lagos Pink, Salako said the

state-wide collaborative campaign seeks to promote breast awareness, initiate action among women as well as raise funds for indigent cancer patients.

Launched in 2014, the campaign is targeting to support 400 breast cancer patients as well as building the first ever cancer survivorship centre in Nigeria where recently diagnosed women can go and access information on how to cope with the disease. The centre will promote survivorship information and access to cancer care.

A Patron of Sebeccly, Prof.

Josbert Duncan, dismissed the insinuation that breast cancer is a death sentence saying, "It is only a death sentence when a patient pronounces it to be."

“Cancer is not a death sentence; early diagnosis of cancer saves life. What is a death sentence is over drinking. Over eating is a death sentence. Lack of exercise is a death sentence."

Lamenting that cancer care in Nigeria was not good enough, he said the problem is not because Nigeria or the professionals are incapable but the whole system has been engulfed in corruption.

"I am a trustee of African cancer centre. Tinubu and his group gave us land 14 years ago. Government gave us N400 million three or four years ago, a particular minister of health diverted it."

On her part, Nollywood actress, Chioma- Apotha who is the Ambassador, Light Lagos Pink, urged more breast cancer survivors to speak out as part of efforts to give hope to others.

She explained that the campaign will raise N250 million to build cancer survivorship centre as well support treatments of indigent breast cancer patients.

I’ll pay every HIV-positive South African N0.84m to wear a tatoo — ZUMA

By Sola Ogundipe

C

ONFIRMED HIV positive South Africans that volunteer to be marked near their genital area with a tatoo depicting their status, will in addition to free counselling and medication. be paid an equivalent of N840, 000 (50 000 Rands) each, according to a bill newly signed by President Jacob Zuma.

The bill, according to a report by Radio City, a local South African radio station, is widely regarded as one of the greatest steps in the history of combating the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the country which has the highest HIV prevalence in Africa.

Zuma who is reported to to have volunteered to be the first South African citizen to get hisHIV status tatted near his genitals, however announced that only the first 10 million people (who already tested positive) to volunteer to have their HIV statuses tatted on their genitals would be given the money in form of a funeral expense voucher.

C M Y K

After signing the bill, Zuma was quoted as saying: “The mark is to protect those who can't say no to sex. I mean if you can't read between the lines you should read between the legs because that's where the status would be tatted.

“The choice to be HIV positive is now in your hands or your genitals for that matter…. We also encourage those who had been living with the virus to go to the nearest public hospitals to get their status tatted in,” he noted.

South Africa has the world's highest HIV caseload and premature deaths of 300,000 people. The government is distributing life-prolonging anti-retroviral drugs to people infected with the virus.

Particularly, HIV-positive infants and children under one year obtain free ARVs, while pregnant women and patients with tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS with CD4 cell counts below 350 are treated free.

In 2006, Zuma faced charges of raping an HIV-positive family friend, and was ridiculed for testifying that he took a shower after sex to lower the risk of

infection with HIV. His determination to help millions South Africans infected with HIV and around 60,000 babies born HIV infected each year.

"Let there be no more shame, no more blame, no more discrimination and no more stigm. Let the politicisation and endless debates about HIV and AIDS stop," Zuma noted.

Many factors contribute to the wide spread of HIV in the country. These include: poverty; inequality and social instability; high levels of sexually transmitted infections; the low status of women; sexual violence; high mobility (particularly migrant labour); limited and uneven access to quality medical care; and a history of poor leadership in the response to the epidemic.

HIV and AIDS estimates by UNAIDS (2013), show that the number of people living with HIV in South Africa averages 6.3 million. Adults aged 15 to 49 have average prevalence rate of 19.1 percent while youths aged 15 and above living with HIV number 5.9 million.

• President Jacob Zuma.

Women aged 15 and above living with HIV number 3. 5 million while children aged 0 to 14 living with the virus are 3.6 million in number.

Total deaths due to AIDS range between 170,000 - 220,000, while an estimated 2.4 million orphans aged 0 to 17 months due to AIDS are on record.

46—VANGUARD, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

President Jonathan has put me forward as Nigeria’s candidate for that job. I am humbled because it is a mark of confidence that he and Nigerians have in me.

That is why I am grateful to the president and the president-elect for throwing their weight behind me in this contest. It is a Nigerian project and as you know a Nigerian has never won this position since the bank was set up in 1964 and so it is a great opportunity for Nigeria to head the bank. So I don’t look at it as a personal thing at all; I look at it as something that I am coming in to serve.

I am not looking for a job but I am putting myself at the service of Africa to put the whole of my experience which is vast. I have lived in more than 15 African countries in West Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, and Southern Africa.

I have lived and worked for more than 10 years in Francophone countries, I am totally fluent in French. I have lived and worked in Niger Republic, Mali and Burkina Faso.

•Adesina: I want to say that I have what it takes to run a successful AfDB

Why there have been no food riots in Nigeria — Adesina, Agric Minister •How I rejected car bribe DR. Akinwumi Adesina, Nigeria’s celebrated Agriculture Minister has used his vast experience to revolutionise the nation’s agricultural sector and is now vying to be the first Nigerian president of the African Development Bank. Adesina, who enjoys the support of both President Goodluck Jonathan and President-Elect, Muhammadu Buhari for the top continental job, stands tall among other contestants, having worked in all regions of the continent before taking up the agriculture portfolio in Nigeria. In this interview, Adesina speaks on his bid, his service to Nigeria and unfolds his agenda for transforming Africa’s economic development to give succour to the people of the continent. Excerpts:

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

W

HY are you interested in presiding over the affairs of the African Development Bank at a time when the continent is beset with serious economic and developmental woes?

I want to say that I have what it takes to run a successful AfDB in the midst of the economic situation in which it has found itself. Before delving into that let me first and foremost, thank President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan for giving me the C M Y K

opportunity to serve Nigeria as a minister of Agriculture. In everything in life, one needs a platform to showcase what he can do before he can excel or fail. I have been working in many parts of Africa and the world for over 25 years before President Jonathan invited me to join his administration.

Before then, I had never met or discussed with him. He never knew me apart from what he was told about my capability and high level of exposure. So I am grateful to him for that opportunity to serve my country because there is nothing more

important than serving your country.

I am also very grateful for the fact that Nigerians have also supported me here in what I have done; all the state governors, the private sector, the bankers and other stakeholders have been enormously supportive.

So it is not just my success on what we see in agriculture today but a national success that so many people played a lot of roles and as we look towards the African Development Bank, I am so grateful and humbled that

Huge amounts of experience I worked in Ivory Coast for five years during which I supervised 10 PhD students from the Faculty of Social Sciences in the University of Abidjan’s Ivorian Centre for Research in Social Sciences.

Almost nine of my 10 students got excellent; they were all taught in French. I am totally fluent in French.

I lived and worked in Cameroon and as such, I believe I bring a huge amount of experience that cuts across Africa. I was the Regional Director of the Rockefeller Foundation New York for

I am yearning for an Africa that is open to the rest of the world so that we can be globally competitive

Southern Africa where I was in charge of all the countries in Southern Africa from Malawi to Zambia to South Africa itself to Mozambique to Botswana to Namibia.

When I was Vice President of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, working with the former United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Anan, I was in charge of all of Africa in terms of policy.

So all I am saying is that I bring vast amount of knowledge on the ground on what the challenges are from small countries to large countries to fragile states. I am comfortable in every part of Africa. So I see myself as a Pan African candidate and so I bring to this thing what motivates me.

Beyond my experience on the job, I have an unassailable passion to eradicate poverty because I am a product of poverty. I have seen and experienced poverty in its raw form before becoming what I am today.

So, at all times, I want to do something to bring hope and succour to those who are poor and to lift them out of poverty to good life because poverty is an abnormality and should not be made to remain in our society as a normal way or life.

You see I grew out of poverty and having lived and grown out of poverty, I know what it is to be poor. That is why in all my life, I have devoted to helping the poor.

Vision for Africa My vision for Africa is to have an Africa where you have a lot of significant and inclusive growth. A growth that you can call a shared prosperity by all, an Africa where each country is linked to the other so that you have good regional integration.

I am yearning for an Africa that is open to the rest of the world so that we can be globally competitive. An Africa where you have a lot of peace, hope, security and stability, an Africa where our young people are not moving out in masses, running here and there but an Africa where we are proud to call home.

But given what you have marshalled out, do you think the AfDB has really the kind of funding that can help to achieve these laudable targets?

The bank’s total capitalization is $100 billion, the amount of money that is paid out by the bank every year is over $80 billion so it is not small but given the size of the problem in Africa we can’t reduce

Continues on page 48

VANGUARD, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015—47

Ogboru is welcome to APC, but... — Emerhor

By Egufe Yafugborhi

Y

OU lost the recent governorship election in Delta State although your party, APC, won at the national level, what is your perspective on the outcome and your next line of action?

We did not truly lose the gubernatorial election in Delta, PDP stole the election. Elections are only lost if they are conducted according to the rules and a winner emerges. In the election in Delta as was also the case in Rivers and Akwa Ibom, the card readers were discarded, result sheets confiscated and fabricated results announced in connivance with compromised INEC staff. A smokescreen of violence and intimidation and ballot boxes snatching was unleashed to provide cover for results manipulation. As you may be aware, we have filed our petition at the tribunal to cancel the purported elections.

So you believe APC can win in a rerun election?

After the Buhari win, Delta was set and ready for APC. Delta did not want to remain in opposition. Even stalwarts of PDP were with us on this and are still are.

Free and fair election PDP knew they would not win a proper free and fair election and that was why they did not allow an election on the field but resorted to snatching it in the air, so to speak.

Under a Buhari government, a rerun election, I believe, will be free and fair and in an environment of neutrality by INEC and the security forces, if Deltans are truly for once allowed a free hand to choose between the 16 years of PDP misrule and APC wind of positive change, they will definitely choose APC. What is the position of Chief Great Ogboru and Labour Party in all these? It is alleged that he is already in touch with APC leaders?

You are aware we had an ugly and rancorous election struggle with Ogboru/Labour. Ogboru invested all his political capital in President Jonathan’s reelection bid which failed.

He partnered with PDP to try to kill APC in Delta state and was rewarded with a second place position by PDP in allocating the April 11 gubernatorial election results.

There exists a bitter and antagonistic divide between APC and Labour faithful in the state.

Be that as it may, we must not C M Y K

NOTWITHSTANDING that the APC lost the April 11 governorship election in Delta State, its political relevance has shot up because of the materialization of General Muhammadu Buhari (retd) as President-Elect and unexpectedly, there are loads of intrigues by politicians, both from PDP and LP , including two former governorship candidates who want to defect to the party. TAPC's governorship candidate in the last election, Olorogun O’tega Emerhor, who maintained that PDP stage-managed the election, spoke to Vanguard on his plan to overturn the result, the growing influence of the party in the state and underground moves to terminate PDP’s domination in the South-South region. forget that both parties come mainly from the same stock of opposition that has always before now wanted PDP ousted from the state. So Ogboru should be free, if it is now his desire to join forces.

Does this mean you are ready to work with Ogboru?

There is strength in unity of numbers and purpose! But this has to go through a process! For example, after the elections, the first place I ran into Ogboru was at the house of one of my leaders in Abuja. As I did not know his mission, I did not make it my business.

Eventually, the said leader invited both of us to a meeting, which turned out to be a meeting to get both of us to cooperate to cancel the governorship election at the tribunal.

But I get the impression from Ogboru that he continues to rate himself as the most popular candidate and appear to suggest to our leadership that he/Labour be admitted to supplant the current APC, which some assume not to be on ground.

In Delta, such approach aimed at going over our heads

Ambitious people

•Emerhor: Ogboru continues to rate himself as the most popular candidate

I am confirming my interest to be of continuous service to my party and people of Delta state.

Ministerial appointment is the prerogative of the Presidentelect through the instrumentality of the party

Akwa Ibom into the APC fold.

This is why the three candidates in these states where the outrageous daylight election robbery took place are being encouraged and supported to go cancel these elections at the tribunal.

Now, it is my belief that apart from competence and other qualifications, the other yardstick that may be applied to these South-South states would be how the potential minister can use his position to foster the party’s objective of winning these states to the APC fold.

Do not forget that the PDP also held on to these states for strategic reasons with a plan to use these resource rich states as a launch pad for their 2019 renaissance.

Under these circumstances, not to talk of my sacrifices and contributions in building the APC in Delta state, starting from my senatorial bye election in 2013 to my governorship candidacy and elections in 2015, I wonder what disqualifies me from a ministerial appointment such that it will create a crisis as you alluded.

and discounting us, I can say definitely will be unhelpful.

Apart from the fallacy of it, we in APC , Delta, not only invested in building a strong party but also took the risk of going against the PDP and a sitting president who is a Niger Delta son.

Common objective Ogboru ran from this risk and pitched his tent with Jonathan.

He cannot, therefore, be coming after the failure of Jonathan, with a mindset.

So what are your leaders telling him?

Like I said, as a common objective, there is sense in cooperating to cancel the rigged election. The question then is after that, what next?

We, as a party, have an objective to regroup, cancel the election and bring Delta into the APC fold.

Any defector that will further this objective is welcomed. Our national leaders share in this objective and would not encourage any group,whether Ogboru or PDP, to come to supplant the APC in Delta.

In fact, they are quite supportive of liberating and bringing into the APC fold, the rest of the South South.

It is believed that your ministerial ambition, after your loss of the governorship is at the heart of the emerging crisis in your party in Delta State. Is it true?

I believe the APC national leadership is putting a special dispensation in place in other to bring the three South -South states of Delta, Rivers and

A few ambitious people who may seek to reap without sowing will always be there, but I do not think I am the source of any crisis.

Is that a confirmation of your interest in the ministerial slot for Delta state?

I am confirming my interest to be of continuous service to my party and people of Delta state. Ministerial appointment is the prerogative of the President- elect through the instrumentality of the party.

How do you think the zoning of key positions in the APC will play out?

Of course zoning is designed to ensure a fair and balanced spread of key political offices across the nation reflecting our federal character.

The APC being a party championing change will ensure this is done quite well.

Nonetheless, few hiccups are visible.

As you must now know, because of the massive rigging that took place in the South South and South East by the PDP with the active tolerance of people from these zones, these zones are consequently short of APC NASS members.

This is already reflecting on the zoning of offices. By and large, however, the leadership of APC will in no time resolve on this crucial issue.

48—VANGUARD, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

How I rejected car bribe — Adesina Continued from page 46 solution of the problems of Africa to the balance sheet of the African development bank.

The bank needs a president that can articulate Africa’s agenda, that can work effectively with African governments, that can work effectively with donors, that can put Africa’s issue constantly on the centre of global dialogue and that is where my experience comes in and this is really where I believe I bring a whole set of skills to help this bank to lift itself globally for relevance.

From what you have done in Nigeria in the last four years, carving a niche for yourself and Nigeria in the Agriculture sector of the economy, is there any lesson you can replicate for Africa using the AfDB, if you eventually get the job?

Let me speak on the issue of agriculture sector. When we came here I said that we must change how we look at agriculture. I told Nigerians not to see agriculture as a developmental activity or as some way of life.

I told Nigerians to look at it as a serious business that can bring in money and support for families. I insisted that we must change our attitude towards agriculture and make it the centre of our development.

Domestic food supply We worked very hard and with the President’s big support to deliver. In four years, we added an additional 21 million metric tonnes of food to our domestic food supply. We created 3.5 million non-farm jobs in Nigeria, all the people that used to come from the north to go to Lagos to go Abuja to work as night guards, where are they today?

They are not there anymore but happily working in the farm and earning real money. As a result of our strategies, our food import bill declined from N 3.1 trillion in 2011 all time peak down to N35 billion at the end of 2014, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics.

Again, look at what has happened today, despite the depreciation of the Naira and the falling oil price; you can hardly notice any significant increase in the prices of food.

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, and others have continued to congratulate us on the effective management of our resources to produce abundant food to cope with the C M Y K

crisis arising from oil crisis. An IMF team came to us the other day and said that they were coming from Venezuela and that they saw that they were food riots everywhere but not in Nigeria and wondered how we did it.

So the amount of food we produced created fiscal buffers for us to save us in these hard times and we can say with pride that agriculture saved Nigeria from food crisis.

The other thing that we did was that we also got the banks to lend to the agriculture sector.

So, I want to say that I will take what I did in Nigeria to other African countries to increase food production and create wealth for farmers. I cannot forget the impact of the electronic wallet system to agriculture in Nigeria and it is something worth extending to all part of the world.

With the introduction of the e-wallet, we ended corruption of over 40 years in the nation’s agric sector in just 90

refused to pay for what they had already imported. My only offence is that I insist that everybody that owes must pay.

It is as simple as that. I did not approve any waiver for any importer as claimed by my traducers.

I insist that there must be rule of law and accountability wherever I operate. These people are just trying to confuse a clear and straightforward issue: They owe money and they must pay up and nothing more. I didn’t give waivers to anybody because it is only the President that can give waivers.

The former Attorney General of the Federation, Chief Mike Andooaka, who is a rice miller, testified at the public hearing in the House of Representatives in Abuja that it was under my leadership in the Ministry of Agriculture that allocations had been given out transparently. He said that he never believed that he could get allocations without knowing anybody in the ministry and lobbying to be given one as was the practice before I came on board.

•Adesina: I am a public servant and not a boss as some people do

days. Through the same scheme, we are giving our famers seeds and fertilizers by mobile phone thereby eliminating middlemen, corruption and ensuring transparency and accountability in the sector.

In spite of the transparency measures you have introduced into the Ministry of Agriculture, you are being accused of approving waivers for rice importers thereby making the Federal Government to lose revenue to the tune of N36 billion? Why did you do that?

Look let me tell you the truth.

I am the one who blew the lid on the scam. I have never approved a dime for any importer because in the first place I don’t have the power to approve any waiver in Nigeria.

Proceeds of corruption What is happening now is that the people I stopped from corrupting the system and rejecting their bribe money are using the proceeds of corruption to dent my image.

It is all mischief; it is all misinformation; it is all mischaracterization.

I was the one that alerted the nation in January this year that

the government gave allocations for people to bring in rice and that some of the companies have refused to pay government and I said the amount they owe is N36 billion.

I am the one who called a press conference in Lagos and released all the data for all the companies.

I wrote to the President that

One of the companies even tried to bribe me with a car and I rejected it outright. I can’t be corrupted and I can’t be influenced

the Nigeria Customs Service must be made to collect every single dime from the importers.

I published the list of the companies but you know when you fight corruption, corruption fights back and in this case I find it very funny and ridiculous that the hunter is being hunted.

The fact of this matter is a very simple one; the NCS must collect from everybody what they owe, my job is to set the policy direction and I have done that already. I was the whistle blower and I published all the names of the companies.

It is funny that these companies now go round media houses trying to spoil my name. Look, these people must realise that Nigeria is not a banana republic, everybody that owes must pay.

Now in this particular case what was even quite funny about it was that companies went ahead and imported rice above their allocated quota.

They all signed an agreement with the NCS that if the allocation they get is lower than the amount of rice are bringing in -which custom allowed them to bring in- that they would pay the cost.

Now, when the allocation was done and they didn’t get what they wanted and they bluntly

Public hearing At the public hearing, I openly challenged those making noise over waivers to say if I have at any time asked for anything from them in order to get any allocation from my ministry and everyone was quiet and I challenged them to say if I have ever collected a biro pen from anyone in the course of doing my duties, yet nobody could face me.

You see for me as a minister I am known for this, you don’t have to beg me for anything, you don’t have to plead with me for anything, you don’t have to lobby for anything.

I am a public servant and not a boss as some people do. I asked the importers if any of them had ever given me a kobo in the course of their interaction with me or any of my staff, and that they should expose me there before the world or keep shut forever but yet none was forthcoming. So, where did the waiver approval come from?

Some people are just out to tarnish my name for nothing.

One of the companies even tried to bribe me with a car and I rejected it outright. I can’t be corrupted and I can’t be influenced. I am in a public office and I serve Nigeria with all of what I have and they attempt to spoil me for being a whistle blower.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015—49

7 injured, vehicles vandalized as hoodlums go on rampage in Lagos

By Esther Onyegbula

N

O fewer than seven persons sustained injuries when armed hoodlums attacked residents of Giwa Street, Adeniyi Street and Cole Street along tollgate in Mushin area of Lagos State.

It was learned that the hoodlums, numbering about 20, stormed the streets, beginning from Fadeyi Bus Stop, attacking motorcyclists, traders and vandalizing vehicles parked on the streets.

The incident saw residents scampering for safety, while the hoodlums robbed passers-by of their belongings and valuables at gunpoint.

When Vanguard visited the streets, damaged vehicles littered everywhere.

One of the victims, Mrs. Biola Omotosho, a resident whose son, identified simply as Muiz, was attacked by the hoodlums, said: “My son was coming from Ijora, when the

hoodlums attacked him, beat him and stole his phone and wallet. ”I was at home when some people, who knew him, came to tell me that my son had been attacked by the hoodlums. When I got there and tried to stop them, one of them hit me on my head with a plank.

“I ran back home to inform my family members who could help rescue my son.

“Before I got home I fainted on the road due to the blood I had lost.

SOS to Lagos govt

“My son is an easy-going person; the hoodlums have turned our peaceful community to a battled field. We call on Lagos State government to come to our aid.”

Johnson Omobolaji, a commercial motocyclist, who was not spared by the hoodlums, said: “My friend, Emmanuel Ojo, and I were

zPolice arrest bakery workers coming from Fadeyi Bus Stop, when we suddenly heard the cry of a woman shouting for help and I persuaded my friend to help the woman.

“When we got to the spot where the woman and his son were being beaten by the hoodlums, we approached them and begged them to allow her go. One of the boys cut my friend and I on the shoulder.”

Loot shop

Mrs. Kudirat Olushola, who sell groceries at Giwa Street, had her shop looted by the hoodlums and her money stolen.

She said: “I was inside my shop attending to customers when suddenly I heard a gunshots. Immediately my customers and I fled.

“When I came back from hiding, they had looted my shop and stolen N300,000 cash

kept in the shop.

“I am tired of this hoodlum’s harassment; we want the Lagos State Police Command to come to our rescue, because we do not have another place to run to.”

A commercial motorcyclist, who identified himself as Tunde Azeez, told Vanguard: “About 10 of my friends' motorcycles parked at a mechanic workshop were taken away by the hoodlums and they told us to come and bail them with N10,000 each or forfeit them.”

He lamented that innocent residents, who were caught in the crossfire, were arrested by policemen from Alakara Police Station.

He said: “I wonder the kind of police we have in Nigeria.

They left the hoodlums and arrested my boys who were working in the bakery.”

HOMELESS: Internally displaced persons, IPDs, from the North-East at their camp in Sokoto. NAN PHOTO.

Man jailed 5 years over employment scam

By Gbenga Olarinoye

O

SOGBO—A Federal High Court sitting in Osogbo, Osun State, has sentenced a middle-aged man, Eboh Meschach, to a five years imprisonment with hard labour for conspiring to dupe unsuspecting job seekers.

He was arraigned before the court on a four-count charge of conspiracy impersonation, stealing and advanced fee fraud by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, Osun State Command.

According to the charge sheet, Meschach committed the crime in Osogbo between January 30 and May 7, 2013, with Innocent Uwadiale and Urieto Omomene Franca, now at large.

He was said to have obtained N5,000 from Issa Musa under the false pretence of securing employment for him in the NSCDC, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 8 (a), (b) and (c) of the Advanced Fee Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

The accused person was also said to have impersonated as an officer of NSCDC, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 484 of the Criminal code Cap 138 Vol. 4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

He was further accused of stealing, an offence contrary to Section 383 (1) of the Criminal Code Cap 138 Vol. 4 and punishable under section 390 (9) of the Criminal Code Cap 138 Vol 4 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria.

Woman, 70, kidnaps 3-yr-old-girl in Kwara; use her for begging

By Demola Akinyemi

I

LORIN—IT was drama in Ilorin, yesterday, as Kwara State Police Command arrested a 70-year-old woman (names withheld) for allegedly kidnapping a three-year-old girl (names withheld).

Speaking in an interview with journalists, a relative of the girl’s mother, Mrs. Maryam Abdulganiyu, said the girl was

found in a worship place, popularly called Ori-Oke at Basin area of Ilorin, being used by the suspect for begging.

She added that the suspect had claimed that she used the proceeds from the alms begging to feed and clothe the girl.

Vanguard gathered that the girl was declared missing on March 25 by her parents, who reside at Old Shao Garage,

Ilorin.

Father of the girl was said to have approached a cleric at Ori-Oke. While the search for the girl was on, her grandfather, Mallam Isa, went to the same Ori-Oke to worship and saw the septuagenarian with the missing girl.

He was said to have alerted the man of God in charge of the centre that he had seen his missing grandchild with

an unknown person.

They accosted the woman, who claimed the child was her grandchild. An argument followed and t he matter was reported to the police at Basin Divisional Police Station, Ilorin.

Police reportedly detained the two persons laying claim to the child and another suspect, while investigationý into the matter was still

ongoing.

However, relations of the victim requested the police to probe the suspect thoroughly, saying the girl appeared to be psychologically imbalanced and could hardly remember her name.

Contacted, the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Ajayi Okasanmi, who confirmed the arrest, said the victim had been released to her parents.

50 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 51

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54—Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Don’t be northern Nigeria's president, Maitama Sule charges Buhari A

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

Mahatma Gandhi, nonviolent, bloodless revolution with the philosophy of Sathia Gria. A revolution is a change of attitude.

“Glory be to God, having listened to our prayers, he

gave us somebody who has a good record of being a man of God, a truthful man, a man of integrity, a man of discipline. ‘’Yes, you (Buhari) were a military leader. I’ve always said it that when you were a

military leader, you instilled discipline into our society.

You fought corruption and you gave Nigeria a sense of direction.

“I am sure you will not compromise your principle but

you’ll bring justice, wisdom and diplomacy. I’m sure you’ll not compromise your principline. Let it be the same Buhari that gave the country a sense of direction when he was a military leader."

BUJA—ELDER Statesman and former Nigeria’s Permanent Representatives to the United Nations, UN, Maitama Sule, has charged President-elect, General Mohammadu Buhari, to see himself as a Nigerian President and not only President of Northern Nigeria when sworn in on May 29.

Referring to Buhari's election as an act of God, Sule also asked him to use the opportunity to correct the social ills of the past.

Maitama Sule spoke yesterday, when he led a delegation of northern elders, including Professor Ango Abudalhi, to pay a congratulatory visit to Buhari in Abuja.

According to him, God BURIAL: Chief Magistrate Martina Iluobe, Chief Magistrate From right: Chief Gideon Ubiebor; Mr. Isaiah Bozimo; granted Nigeria a peaceful Ojobo Mabel (1st &2nd right); former Minister of Police Justice Roseline Bozimo (rtd.); Alaowei Broderick Bozimo; election against scary Affairs, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo, his wife, Joyce Bozimo, Mrs. Joyce Bozimo and Sen. Emmanuel Edesiri predictions that the country and Chief Magistrtae Eshieshi Stella, during the burial Aguariavwodo, at the occasion. would disintegrate in 2015. ceremony of Late Chief Ezekiel Ukodie, at Erhowa community Extolling the virtues of in Isoko South Local Government Area, Delta State. discipline and uprightness in Buhari, the elder states man also urged him to relentlessly pursue justice and make truth his watch word throughout his tenure.

TUPL’s medium term management were alBy Emma Ujah, He said: “You are the plan is to increase ready exploring a coal Abuja Bureau Chief president of Nigeria, you RANSNATIONAL generating capacity at alternative to feed the are not the president of Corporation of the plant to over 2, 500 plant rather than gas, Northern Nigeria by the Nigeria, Transcorp, Plc MW in the next three which had been grace of God. Your has raised Ughelli Power years.” subjected to supply excellency, we have Plant’s capacity from 160 Mr. Elumelu told the disruptions due to come to congratulate Mega Watts, MW, to 610 owners of Trasncorp that attacks of saboteurs who you.

MW, chairman of the members of Board and blew up the pipelines. ‘’We first of all thank group, Mr. Tony God. What has recently Elumelu, told its happened to Nigeria is shareholders at the 2014 an act of God. Nobody Annual General Meeting can claim credit for it. in Abuja at the weekend. months of our training, we Allah has done it for us.

According to him, the M N E S T Y were promptly paid our Allah has listened to our plant which Transcorp d e l e g a t e s weekly feeding/hotel prayers and our pleas to acquired in 2012 at the deployed in Glassfa allowances as promised by bring about this change, cost of $300 million, is Continental Limited and the Federal Government a change for the being positioned to be a Jimco Global Concept Amnesty Office. Thereafter, betterment of all. leader in the Nigerian “Nobody expected that power industry, with a Limited’s training centres in the office resorted to the elections would be medium term plan of Warri, Delta State, for monthly payment, and peaceful, nobody generating two 500 MW training in pipeline welding then, stopped payment and fabrication, have about few months to the end expected that the in the next three years. appealed to the Federal of our 12 months training. elections would not lead His words: “Our Government to settle their “We were then asked to to the disintegration of ambition of generating at fees to enable them to go on Christmas break, and the country. By the grace least a quarter of receive their certificates. that we would be called to of God, the elections Nigeria’s power The delegates said in a resume training were held peacefully. consumption remains statement by the group immediately after the New ‘’We are living in peace firmly on course as we with one another. By the continue to consolidate leader, Ariri John, that those Year celebration. We are at Glassfa now five months into the grace of God, power will the gains made at the trained Continental Limited's year 2015, but we have not also be handed over to Ughelli Power Plant. training centre were heard anything from the you (Buhari) and we’ll “Power output at the through with their training, Amnesty Office even after be living peacefully plant increased from 342 thereafter by the grace of MW in December 2013 to but noted that due to non- many pleas from us.” payment of their fees and John noted that this was God. 610 MW by December hotel bills, the vendor has a breach of terms of “On many occasions, 2014, as we diligently refused to issue them with agreement on the part of I’ve called for a executed our the Amnesty Office. revolution but I made it r e h a b i l i t a t i o n certificates.

John added: “We were He said the group was quite clear that I was not programme. posted via Bradama issuing one week calling for a violent or “Our goal is to increase Training Centre on August ultimatum to the Amnesty bloody revolution. output at the plant to 850 "I wanted a kind of MW by December 2015. 28, 2013 and October 14, Office to pay their 2013. During the first three outstanding arrears. revolution led by

Transcorp raises Ughelli Power Plant capacity to 610 MW

T

Settle our fees, Amnesty trainees beg FG

A

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 55

SENATE PRESIDENCY: Akume in shuttle diplomacy, meets OBJ, Tinubu, Atiku, Kwankwaso A

S the leadership of the All Progressives Congress, APC, continues to brainstorm on the zoning of offices in the executive and legislative arms of government, top contender for the senate presidency, Senator George Akume, at the weekend intensified his consultations.

The Senate Minority Leader, who has adopted a quiet, discreet and unobtrusive approach in his quest for the exalted position since he was listed as a potential holder, hit the road on what a close confidant described as a ‘strategic cross-country diplomatic shuttle.’

Akume, who was in the South-West last week, met prominent national figures and respected political bulwarks. Notable among them were Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, APC National Leader, Bola Tinubu and former Osun State governor, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola.

The former Benue State governor who is returning to the Senate for the third time, met the leaders in their respective domains in Abeokuta, Lagos and Okuku, respectively.

Akume served as Benue State Governor, concurrently when Obasanjo was President and both men maintained a good relationship until the end of their tenures in 2007, despite Obasanjo’s brushes with Akume’s kinsmen like Dr Iyorchia Ayu, who was Minister in the Obasanjo government and Senator Barnabas Gemade, who succeeded the late Chief Solomon Lar as PDP National Chairman.

And while Akume served in Benue,, Tinubu was Governor of Lagos, both of them belonging to the ‘Governors’ Class of 1999 to 2007.’

Oyinlola succeeded Chief Bisi Akande, former Interim Chairman of the APC as Osun State governor on the platform of the PDP in 2003, but all three men have since found common grounds in the progressives’ camp.

While there was no official communication after each of the meetings, the interactions may not be unconnected with the topical issue of the Senate Presidency.

Akume has also had several engagements with former VicePresident, Atiku Abubakar, who may likely emerge as Chairman of the APC Board of Trustees. Akume was governor when the highest Tiv honorary traditional title, ‘Zege Mule U’Tiv’ was conferred on Atiku.

Akume’s backstage consultations have also taken him to see Kano State Governor, Rabiu Kwankwaso, who has also been elected Senator to represent Kano State, Prof Ango Abdullahi, Vice-Chancellor Emeritus of the Ahmadu Bello University, ABU, former Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Coomasie and former Kogi State Governor, Abubakar Audu.

Sources in Akume’s camp will not readily draw a link between his recent travels and the issue of the Senate Presidency. As one of his aides volunteered, however, ''Senator Akume is a very highly regarded statesman in his own right.

Consultations with like-minded leaders on issues bothering on our socio-politics should be a routine affair.''

Pressed further, the source said: ‘If the APC is truly about change, that change should

reflect in the way we do things, so we send a very strong message to all Nigerians that they can be assured of a sense of belonging irrespective of where they come from. We have produced a President-Elect from

a majority ethnicity, we have produced a Vice-President-Elect from another majority ethnic group, APC must be sensitive to the sensitivities of the minorities, across both divides of the Niger.’

Continuing, he said: ‘Come to

ALL FOR DOGARA: Arewa Youth and Women Coalition for Good Governance rooting for Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Speaker, House of Representatives in Kaduna. Photo by Olu Ajayi.

Yoruba rights group tasks Buhari on appointments

C

OALITION of Oodua Self-Determination Group COSEG has warned that all Nigerians would be adversely affected if the tremendous goodwill enjoyed by President-elect Muhammadu. Buhari is sacrificed on the altar of ethnicity.

COSEG said in a statement issued weekend that it was disturbed by comments credited to northern leaders such as Kano State governor, Dr Rabiu Kwankwaso and Justice Mamman Nasir insinuating that the North single-handedly gave victory to the president-elect.

Reminding the leaders that the North had voted massively for Buhari in earlier election but could not make him win, COSEG stated that it was the alliance between the Hausa-Fulani and the Yoruba that produced the remarkable victory.

“Let us begin by stating some incontrovertible facts. Firstly, Gen. Buhari had tried and failed at three previous attempts to become the President of Nigeria. Secondly, on his fourth try, he has now emerged as President-elect.

Thirdly, Buhari is presidentelect today by the grace of God and the political sagacity of the Bola Tinubu machinery. No amount of noise and hyping of the so-called almajiri vote by some people can change this fact. The almajiris did not just start voting for Gen. Buhari. So what made the difference

between Buhari’s past serial failures and his success this time around? The only credible explanation, in our view, is the intervening variable of the involvement of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Yoruba nation on the side of Gen. Buhari for the 2015 election.”

It expressed surprise that the arrowhead of the alliance, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is being criticized for seeking to ensure that the South- West and its allies are adequately compensated for its efforts in making victory possible.

According to COSEG: “Since the elections, however, and as the euphoria of victory has set

in, some curious causes for concern have arisen. Many new faces that were nowhere to be found on the hustings have suddenly emerged to claim space in the emerging Buhari presidency. Their objectives seem clear enough. Firstly, they wish to reap where they did not sow. Secondly, and more worrisome, they seek to deny those who labored valiantly in the wilderness of opposition of the fruits of their labour.

Signed by its chairman its chairman, Dayo Ogunlana and Secretary, Razaq Olokooba, the group urged the Yoruba not to forget its structures of protest as it may

EBOLA: How Liberia ended 7 months of nightmare

By Sola Ogundipe & Gabriel Olawale

T

HE campaign to eliminate the Ebola virus marked a significant milestone on Saturday 9 of May, as the World Health Organisation, WHO, declared Liberia free of the Ebola disease.

At the time the announcement came, 42 days after the safe burial of the last confirmed Liberian victim of the Ebola, a period equal to twice the virus’ incubation period, Liberia was the first of the three worst affected countries to be rid of Ebola.

To date, Liberia recorded the most deaths with 4,716, followed by Sierra Leone with 3,903 and Guinea where 2,386 have died.

The success, which was described by WHO as a “monumental achievement for a country that reported the highest number of deaths in the largest, longest, and most complex outbreak since Ebola first emerged in 1976.”

“At the peak of transmission, which occurred during August and September 2014, the country was reporting from 300 to 400 new cases every week. During those 2 months, the capital city Monrovia was the setting for some of the most tragic scenes from West Africa’s outbreak: gates locked at overflowing treatment centres, patients dying on the hospital grounds, and bodies that were sometimes not collected for days.

Reacting to this, Liberia’s president, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf urges caution and vigilance, saying “Let us celebrate, but stay mindful and vigilant.”

Emerhor faults Uduaghan, says South-south, South-east did not vote PDP elections of March 28 and April subjugation of their voting rights

A

LL Progressive Congress, APC, governorship candidate for Delta State in the April 11 election, Olorogun Otega Emerhor, has faulted Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan's recent claim that the South-South and South-East geo-political zones voted 90 percent for the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, while the rest of Nigeria voted for the APC. Governor Uduaghan, at a lecture delivered at Trenchard Hall, University of Ibadan a few days ago, was reported in a national newspaper (not Vanguard) as claiming that the

11 had revealed a deep division in the nation, which in his opinion had placed a huge burden on the President-elect, General Muhammadu Buhari, and his team to begin a unification and healing process of the entire country.

In vehemently disagreeing with Uduaghan’s submissions, Emerhor pointed out that the people of the two zones were not even allowed to vote in the first place, having been criminally prevented from expressing their electoral preferences even though they had all along been yearning for the wind of change represented

by APC and were poised to vote for the party but for the

by PDP governments in the zones.

Insisting that far from voting PDP, the party systematically rigged both the national and state elections by confiscating result sheets while fabricating and arbitrarily writing results in its own favour.

Accusing the out-going Delta State governor of merely trying to rationalize electoral fraud, Emerhor accused Uduaghan of carefully avoiding the embarrassing fact that while the combined card reader records for Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom amounted to about 1.3 million votes, the PDP miraculously received a total of over 3 million votes in the three states.

56 — VANGUARD, MONDAY, MAY 11 , 2015

Nigerians hail victory of compatriots in UK poll

By Hugo Odiogor,

Foreign Affairs Editor, with Agency feed.

N

IGERIANS yester day hailed the victory of five Nigerians in the Biritsh general election, as Prime Minister David Cameron faces the challenge of uniting his country.

A Senior research Fellow at Nigerian Institute of International Affairs Dr. Fred Aja Agwu said this is a big lesson for Nigeria where some of its citizens are being described as immigrants in their own country.

Dr. Agwu said Nigerians in UK have been accepted and accommodated in the UK to the extent that they could stand for elections on the platform of the two leading parties and won re-elections or win for the first time. He said this is an indictment on the Monarch and the socio cultural groups that were threatening the Igbos during the recent elections in Nigeria.

Dr. Lawrence Fejoku said this is a great lesson for emerging democracies as Nigerians who have been accepted, assimilated, empowered have been give the right and platform to express themselves in the British society. He said Nigerian Women should imbibe the culture and value of public service. Dr. Fejoku said politics is not showmanship and Nigerian women should stop lining up behind men to hand over power to them.

British Prime Mister David Cameron is adjusting to a new political landscape arising from the shock election victory for a second term

*David Cameron and his wife, Samanta which bolstered secessionists in Scotland and decapitated the opposition parties.

This came against the report that a fifth Nigerian Mazi Victor Eni who hailed from Aro in Abia State won the Borough Council seat in last general election. He won under the conservative party The other Nigerians who won are Mr. Chuka Umunna, Kate Osamor, Chi Onuorah and Helen Grant in the victory train.

Chief Ken Iwelunor, the Alibor of Onicha Ugbo said it is “fantastic to have Nigerian got elected into the British Parliament but we must recognise that these are British citizens with Nigerian blood, but their affinity with Nigeria is limited”.

He said Nigeria should feel proud of their feat but in reality they cannot influence any thing for Nigerian until they rise in the hierarchy of their parties and occupy positions of influence.

According to the investment Banker, it will take some of them three

Hollande visits Cuba today

F

RANCOIS Hol lande will become the first French president to visit Cuba in more than a century on Monday, cementing Paris’s leading role in the European Union’s rapprochement with the communist island.

The EU suspended relations with Cuba in 2003 over a crackdown on journalists and activists, but it began talks to restore them in April 2014, aiming to persuade Havana to improve its human rights record. It was under the

French presidency of the EU in 2008 that political dialogue was first resumed between Brussels and Havana. Raul Castro had just assumed power from his brother Fidel and announced a series of economic reforms. “France has always been a leader in the European Union. The fact that the French president is coming shows France’s very important role in the dialogue between Cuba and the European Union,” Eduardo Perera from the University of Havana told AFP.

to four re-elections before they could rise in their party positions. Nigerians have been up beat in their appraisal of the British election where some of its nationals performed well.

Cameron spent the weekend drawing up his new team of ministers, the Scottish National Party (SNP) was celebrating its bold gains, insisting it would not be sidelined in the new parliament.

Despite pollsters predicting that Cameron’s Conservatives would lose ground in Thursday’s vote, they won 331 of the 650 seats in parliament, giving the prime minister a second term in office — this time with a majority for his centre-right party.

While there were dramatic gains for the Conservatives and the Scottish National Party (SNP), the opposition was left in disarray after

Chuka Umunna

Victor Eni

Hellen Grant the Labour and Liberal Democrat leaders quit over their parties’ drubbings.

The victory gives the Conservatives a free hand than in Cameron’s previous government — a coalition with the Liberal Democrats — but the slender majority leaves them prey to rebellion from within their own ranks. Cameron had already agreed to hold an in-out referendum on Britain’s European Union membership by 2017 due to pressure from the

Kate Osamoi Conservative right wing and a rising UKIP, and he was quick to confirm his pledge on Friday.

The SNP’s dynamic leader, Nicola Sturgeon, was the unexpected star of the U.K. election campaign, arguing that the party would work with Labour in Parliament to deliver progressive policies distinct from Cameron’s budget-cutting Conservatives.

Both the SNP and the Conservatives used nationalist arguments to winning effect in the

Chi Onwurah election.

Sturgeon gained more than half of Scottish votes for her party by saying the SNP would make Scotland’s voice heard in London.

The four regions of the U.K. — England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — have always had distinct identities, but for a long time most citizens also considered themselves British.

In recent years, though, rising regional identity has undermined the “united” in United Kingdom.

Russia snubs West, stages victory parade

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ERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday paid tribute to Soviet soldiers killed in WWII as she called for

cooperation with Russia amid tensions over Ukraine.

Merkel flew to Moscow to lay a wreath at the grave

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday

of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin walls, in an apparent compromise gesture after she skipped Russia’s main festivities on Saturday.

Meeting her host Vladimir Putin for talks at the Kremlin, she stressed the importance of cooperation.

“It’s necessary for us to work, to cooperate including over complicated situations — the way the situation is now — and try to find diplomatic solutions,” Merkel said at the start of the talks after the wreathlaying ceremony.

The two leaders were set to discuss the Ukraine crisis over and address reporters afterwards.

Russia at the weekend

staged a huge parade to mark the 70th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany but most Western countries boycotted the festivities over Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. It showed off new machines of war, including a highly sophisticated tank, in the annual Victory Day military parade through Red Square that marks the surrender of Nazi Germany and the Red Army’s key role in the defeat. The Armata tank drew a round of strong applause as it rumbled through the square, part of a long convoy that ranged from the World War II era to the most modern.

VANGUARD, MONDAY, MAY 11 , 2015 — 57

Djibouti President warns Yemen

D

JIBOUTI’s president has warned that Yemen’s civil war and a resurgent Al-Qaeda pose a threat to the Middle East, but pledged continuing support to refugees fleeing the conflict, he told AFP in an interview.

Ismail Omar Guelleh said the war in Yemen, on the other side of a narrow sea channel from the Horn of African nation of Djibouti, was stoking dangerous rivalries between Shiite and Sunni Muslims, bolstering AlQaeda’s franchise in the country and posing wider risks for the region.

Guelleh also warned the violence could allow the Yemen-based AlQaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) franchise to expand its power and control.

AQAP “is taking advantage of these renewed tensions

between Sunnis and Shiites... this may create a big gap between Yemeni people, who had never felt the difference between the two communities,” Guelleh said in an interview at the presidential palace in Djibouti.

In late March, a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes against Shiite Huthi rebels, after the insurgents, who are backed by ex-soldiers loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, seized control of large parts of Yemen.

Guelleh said the Saudi-led military action was necessary, but worried the war would split communities, with Shiites becoming a target for both Saudi airstrikes and AlQaeda’s Sunni extremists.

The fighting in Yemen has already sent

thousands fleeing across the sea to Djibouti, with many more expected.

“Our borders remain open, they have always been,” said Guelleh, president since 1999 of the strategic former French colony, whose port guards the entrance to the Red Sea and Suez Canal. At its narrowest point, there are only some 30 kilometres (20 miles) between Djibouti and Yemen, across the Bab al-Mandeb strait, the key shipping channel that separates Africa from Arabia.

*Djibouti’s president Ismail Omar Guelleh

China negotiate military base in Horn of Africa

C

HINA is negotiating a military base in the strategic port of Djibouti, the president told AFP, raising the prospect of US and Chinese bases side-by-side in the tiny Horn of Africa nation.

“Discussions are

ongoing,” President Ismail Omar Guelleh told AFP in an interview in Djibouti, saying Beijing’s presence would be “welcome”.

Djibouti is already home to Camp Lemonnier, the US military headquarters on the continent, used for

covert, anti-terror and other operations in Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere across Africa.

France and Japan also have bases in the port, a former French colony that guards the entrance to the

Burundi’s opposition leader set to contest presidential poll amid row

B

URUNDI’s leading opposition figure on Saturday registered to run in a coming presidential election against Pierre Nkurunziza, whose quest for a third term has sparked two weeks of protests.

Nineteen people have died in the demonstrations against Nkurunziza’s bid for another term,

which opponents say violates the constitution and a peace deal that ended an ethnicallycharged civil war in 2005.

“I presented my candidacy to respect Burundi’s constitution and the country’s electoral law,” Agathon Rwasa, who like Nkurunziza led a Hutu militia in the war,

told reporters.

“I want to clarify that I have not filed my candidacy to endorse the unconstitutionality of President Nkurunziza. It is a way to block his path as he is obviously forcing to be the single candidate.”

Rwasa has asked the electoral commission to postpone the parliamentary election in May and

the June presidential vote, saying it is not possible to hold peaceful and free elections. Nkurunziza formally registered his candidacy on Friday, provoking a fresh round of protests in Bujumbura that left two people dead.

Opposition leaders responded to the deaths by calling for a day-long pause in protests.

South Africa’s opposition elects first Black leader

S

OUTH Africa’s main opposition group yesterday chose its first black leader at a party congress, seeking to expand its appeal in a country whose ruling party has dominated since the first all-race elections in

1994.

Mmusi Maimane was elected by delegates of the Democratic Alliance party who convened in the city of Port Elizabeth.

He replaces Hellen Zille, a white who is the premier of Western Cape

province, the only one of nine South African provinces that is controlled by the opposition.

In a speech, Maimane said many South Africans are struggling under the burden of poverty, unemployment and economic

*South Africa’s main opposition party, Democratic Alliance new leaders Mmusi Maimane who replaces Helen Zille.

inequality and that more must be done to create jobs and promote small businesses more than two decades after the end of white racist rule.

“Freedom means nothing without opportunities,” Maimane told party members. Maimane had been head of his party’s caucus in parliament, where he sharply criticized President Jacob Zuma over a spending scandal at his private home. Despite the scandal, Zuma led the ruling African National Congress to another victory in elections last year.

The Democratic Alliance has its roots in white liberal opposition to apartheid decades ago and has struggled to shed perceptions among some South Africans that it primarily represents the interests of South Africa’s white minority.

There were no signs of unrest in the capital on Saturday, and long queues formed outside shops and banks as people took advantage of the calm to stock up on food and cash.

“We asked protesters to suspend demonstrating for one day before resuming the movement on Sunday,” protest leader Pacifique Nininahazwe said.

Nkurunziza’s bid for a third term has plunged Burundi into its worst unrest since the war,

Red Sea and the Suez Canal, and which has been used by European and other international navies as a base in the fight against piracy from neighbouring Somalia.

China is already financing several major infrastructure projects estimated to total more than $9 billion (8 billion euros), including improved ports, airports and railway lines to landlocked Ethiopia, for whom Djibouti is a lifeline port.

“France’s presence is old, and the Americans found that the position of Djibouti could help in the fight against terrorism in the region,” Guelleh said.

“The Japanese want to protect themselves from piracy - and now the Chinese also want to protect their interests, and they are welcome,” he said.

CAR peace forum recommends election delay

A

FORUM aimed at helping resolve Central African Republic’s two-year-old conflict has called for transitional authorities to delay planned elections amid concerns the country will be unable to prepare for them on time.

The country descended into chaos in March 2013 when the predominantly Muslim Seleka rebels seized power, sparking reprisals by “anti-balaka” Christian militia, who drove out tens of thousands of Muslims from the south in a de facto partition.

A transitional government is currently in place charged with organising elections and restoring democratic rule, but polls initially scheduled for February have already been pushed back to June or July.

A report from the national elections authority presented to a forum of armed groups, political parties, civil society and the religious communities meeting in the capital, Bangui, said that elections even during that period were now impossible.

58 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 YOUR LUCK TODAY

LEISURE

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139

CANCER; You will be in good position to consolidate on progress made yesterday. However you will need to watch your mood from 9.46am to 12.43pm.

LEO; It is important you don’t take things for granted around mid-morning and early afternoon period so that you will not run into avoidable disappointments.

VIRGO; If you are in position to control your actions you would fare better if you can wait till after 12,43pm before you make an important move. Be family minded.

LIBRA; Your being receptive can enhance your prospects but that is not to say you have to be naïve, especially during mid-morning and early afternoon periods.

SCORPIO; Success is boldly printed on your cards and like yesterday if priority attention is given to money the scope of your success will be wider.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Richard Eromosele

T

HERE is only one thing that humans don’t want in life and that is change. But whether we like it or not, change will come.

It either comes on its own or is provoked. Of all the things in life, change is the only constant.

It is

The Change Factor senseless to work against change. For everyone that works against change either ends up consumed or destroyed by change.

For change to be effective, we must act

TERROR MUDA

the change as individuals and as a collective. If our attitude, our lifestyle, our values, our ethics and etiquettes remain essentially the way they have been, then

in “Never say goodbye”

we are not sincere.

Change means new ways, new things. If i change and you change, then Nigeria will change. Do you deserve a change?

Then be the change you desire.

Think about it!

By Lanre Kehinde

SGITTARIUS; Although things may be happening around you, you are the right person to make things happen and give others opportunities.. Be wise.

CAPRICORN; Take note that others may break promises made before early afternoon period; that is to say you should not take anybody for granted before 12.43pm AQUARIUS; Although friends are willing to assist you circumstances may not allow complete help as expected. 9.46am to 12.43pm can be a bit sensitive.

PISCES; Emphasis will continue to be on career related issues. However you will not be wrong if you take matters-of-the-heart more seriously now. Be more loving.

ARIES; Mid-morning till early afternoon period may bring more promises than it can actually deliver; your being clever will see you through. Be very practical.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Pretty Lunatic’

By Andy Akman

TAURUS; Continue to attach necessary importance to your family values. Here is a day when joint ventures can bring you under pressure between 9.46am and 12.43pm.

GEMINI; Other people will continue to feature in your activities; that is to say you will need to be as cooperative as reason permits. Watch it between 9.46am&12.43pm

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING Send yyour our dat th ttoo the As tr ological datee and place of bir birth Astr trological Counselling, PP.M.B .M.B 1100 00 7, Apapa, Lagos 007,

Who is me?

Dear Joshua, I don’t want my data published but tell me everything I should know about myself. Sometimes I am confused the type of a person I am, especially when others misunderstand me. Thus I am asking you who is actually in me- Astrologically.

Segun, Ogun.

Dear Segun, At face value one may be tempted to wrongly take you for a very soft person but, with the preponderance of fixed quality and fire element in your Astrological make ups here is a determined and ambitious Soul with stronger will-power (actually once your mind is made up on any important issue you rarely change). Saturn as the only planet at home when you were born pointed to a person who will always take important decision when and if his career will not be put in danger; meaning my career first.

Although, the Sun is the Centre of the Solar system and wherever is placed in any given horoscope is the heart of that horoscope, by implication placement of the mighty Sun in Cancer here means that you are mainly a Cancer born person, with more than two (there were actually four) heavenly bodies placed in Kingly Leo when you were born, you are equally a Leo born person as Leo was serving as the stellium during your birth hour.

Equally it is important to point out prominence of bold Aries in your chart as it hosted your natal Moon.

Anyway equal distribution of planetary placement in push-full and non-push-full positions will ensure balanced personality with powerful LEADERSHIP skill in you. Your natal Sun, Moon and Stellium in Cancer, Aries and Leo respectively are indications of your being mainly a Cancer born person and partly Aries/Leo; meaning that basic characteristics of the three Star signs mentioned (namely Cancer, Aries and Leo) are highly pronounced in your inner-self.

VIRGINIA

HOME & ABROAD

dadadekola@yahoo.com

By Lawrence Akapa

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 59

Vanguard CLASSIFIED UDONEME—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ukamaka Maryann Udoneme, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ukamaka-Sylvester Maryann Ekenobi. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

ADETULA—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Adetula Atolani Olufisayo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Akanbi Atolani Olufisayo. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

ADEKOYE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Adekoye Susan A d e w u n m i Oluwadamilola, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Oluwadamilola Susan Ajayi. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

AREMU—I, formerly known and addressed as Aremu Suraju Oladipo, now wish to be known and addressed as Olufemi Odeyemi Oladipo. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

O K WA R A — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss Lauretta Nnenna Okwara, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Lauretta Nnenna Anyagwa. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

U K A N WA — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss Ukanwa Chidiadi Chiamaka, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ugo-Nwakanma Chidiadi Chiamaka.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OKPE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Vivian Nkiru Okpe, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Vivian Nkiru Okpara. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

IBENEGBU—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ibenegbu Ifeoma Chiamaka, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ohazurume Ifeoma Chiamaka. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

EZIUKWU—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Eziukwu Kelechi Ursula, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ndoh Kelechi Ursula.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

We refer to the Public Notice published on page 11 of Vanguard newspaper of Friday, April 10, 2015. The name given as late Mrs. Florinda Chinyere Udebiuwa is incorrect.

The correct name is late Mrs. Florinda Nnenna Udebiuwa.

General public please take note.

Correction of Name

CHUKWURE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Chukwure Clara Adaku, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Egeolu-Obimezie Clara Adaku. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

DORCOOKEYGAM—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Rita Nnena Dorcookey-Gam, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Rita Sunny Emagurehor Eshon Omowera. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OSEH—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Katherine Ozozoma Oseh, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Katherine Ozozoma Nwaka. All former documents remain valid. UNIABUJA, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and the general public please take note.

OGWUCHE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Patience A. Ogwuche, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Patience A. Ibeneme.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

O N A K P O YA — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss Freda Oke Onakpoya, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Freda Oke Okafor. All former documents remain valid. Bells University, Ota, Ogun State, Crownfiled University Bedford, United Kingdom and the general public please take note.

AY O - B A N J O — I , formerly known and addressed as Mrs Mobola Afolake AyoBanjo, now wish to be known and addressed as Miss Mobola Afolake Akintola. All former documents remain valid. The general public please take note.

ENEMALI—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Enemali Mary-anne Chizoba, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Onyedinma Maryanne Chizoba. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OGBONNA—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ogbonna Nneka Mary, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Lebechukwu Nneka Mary. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and general public please take note.

OYOVWIKIGHO—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Oyovwikigho Juliana Amrevweatevwerhe, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Juliana Abudu Aaron Aruna. All former documents remain valid. Niger Delta University, NYSC and general public please take note.

O G H U M U — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss Oghumu Clara Elohor and Miss John Clara Elohor, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Clara Elohor Oboro. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

GOIN—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Goin Miebi, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ineife Miebi WoseEbi. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

IKOLOMI—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Helen Ikolomi, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Helen Nnamdi Uchegbule. All former documents remain valid. Niger Delta University and general public please take note.

Correction of Name My correct name is Lasiru Momoh Rabiu, but it was wrongly spelt on my IBTC Pension Form as Wasiru Momoh Rabiu.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

BRAIDE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Beside Enenimibo-Ofori, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Efere Enenimibo-Ofori Ederekumo. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

EMELE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Jessica Chidinma Emele, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Chidinma Chielozona Jessica Abuah. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OKOYE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Okoye Mary Joy Ngozichukwu, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Mary Joy Ngozichukwu EmordiDaniels. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

AKPOTURI—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Akpoturi Stella, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Collins-Odili Stella.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OFOR—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ofor Vivian Chioma, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ajala Vivian Chioma.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

UWUSEBA—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Usiwo Oluwaleke Uwuseba, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Usiwo Oluwaleke Akegwure. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

IHENEBIRI—I, formerly known and addressed as Ihenebiri Ogonna Karin, now wish to be known and addressed as Dlibugunaya Ogonna Karin. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

NWORIE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Nworie Sylvia Amangurie, now wish to be known and addressed a Mrs. Oyiborhoro Sylvia A m a n g u r i e Akpomiemie.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OGEGE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ogege Margaret, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs Othegbudu O. Margaret. All former documents remain valid. Post primary Education Board, Asaba and general public please take note.

OKPAN—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Jessica Okpan, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Jecinta Jessica Ukperi. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

YUSUF—I, formerly known and addressed as Fadhilat Temitope Yusuf, now wish to be known and addressed as Falilat Temitope Sanusi. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

JIKANTOR-YUSUF— I, formerly known and addressed as Abdulkadir JikantoroYusuf, now wish to be known and addressed as Abdulkadir Oluwadamilare Jikantoro. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

JIKANTOR-YUSUF— I, formerly known and addressed as Mariam Jikantoro-Yusuf, now wish to be known and addressed as Mariam Jikantoro. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

MBANEFO—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Doris Chibuogwu Mbanefo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Doris Chibuogwu Azegba. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

EZEMENIKE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Cynthia Chinwe Ezemenike, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Cynthia Chinwe Nsude. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

YOU CAN BOOK YOUR ADVERT AT: MURPHY'S PLAZA 2 7 , S A N U S I F A F U N WA S T R E E T, VICTORIA ISLAND. CALL, 08038092373, 08033163424

TRINITY MALL 79/81 OBAFEMI AWOLOWO WAY, IKEJA. CALL 08035449960, 07031322957

60 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

I

Kalu Uche nets fifth Levante goal IGERIA striker N Kalu Uche scored his fifth goal for Levante on Sunday in a 2-2 draw at home with Atletico Madrid in the Spanish La Liga.

Levante are 15th on the league table with 36 points from 36 games.

The former Espanyol hit man gave his side a 2-1 lead with a 63rd minute strike, before Fernando Torres made it 2-2 10 minutes to the end of the game. Uche joined Levante in January.

*Shittu

*Kalu

is Dr. Uduaghan. Thank you sir.

On behalf of Davidson Owunmi and the Warri Wolves team I am also thanking your Excellency for the timely release of funds to get the Wolves on their way to Congo for their crucial Confederation Cup tie against A.C. Leopards.

That Mayweather victory

Defusing the Okagbare time bomb

,

LOVE track and field. Truly I do. I regret the football madness and infection that prevents us from paying more attention to this sport that has the potential of wiping away our sports tears.

As a Consultant to Mobil for the AKS/NNPC/MPN Schools Athletics Championships for the past fourteen years, I have been exposed to the AFN big guns who have always kept faith with the championship, always sending a strong delegation to the finals in Akwa Ibom.

The last time I checked, I was a member of the Marketing sub committee of the AFN, yet I stand accused of not helping the sport enough in the area of publicity and exposure. Last week in this column, I was happy to write about the botched trip of our youth to Mauritius and prayed for the guarding against a re occurrence. In that piece I postulated that we were stacking all our athletics eggs in the basket of Blessing Okagbare.

Two days later I stayed awake with my wife to watch the World Athletics relays in Bahamas as Blessing led out our 200 metres relay quartet. When my wife saw the Americans and Jamaican and the Bahamas teams she lost hope and prayed for a bronze.

I told her that you never can tell. That one of the favourites may just be involved in a faulty baton change drama and pronto, we could land with a silver. How prophetic.

The next morning the newspapers went to town, celebrating the prestigious gold, some of them on their front pages. Less than twenty four hours later, the bubble burst when Blessing took to the social media criticizing the AFN and claiming glory for selecting the quartet themselves, that if the officials had done so, they would not have won.

I smelt the proverbial rat. Something was definitely amiss. Was Solomon Ogba no more the President of AFN? Was it not the same Blessing that the Delta State Government courtesy Ogba had milked to stardom? I started making calls.

While I was at it, Blessing released another bomb, accusing the AFN of sacrificing grass roots development of the sport, of neglecting Nigerians and fielding “ foreigners” in their places, foreigners who were not better than the Nigerians they had displaced especially as regards age and potentials.

When did the romance between Chief Ogba and Blessing end?

My first reaction was that it was an act of indiscipline for Blessing to go to town with the news that the athletes chose the team themselves ( Coach Gabriel Okon has since come out to debunk the

My happiness this morning is that the Sports loving governor of Delta State His Excellency Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has decided to step into the matter

,

claim) Secondly, if Blessing felt so bad about the “foreigners” why did she “pick” Duncan ………to run alongside her. Her sight offended me. Green lipstick, tattoo all over her body….very un -Nigerian and nobody’s role model. ( Again I was told that she may not have had a choice, not forgetting that she had even threatened to drop the baton before the race) Meanwhile the AFN has threatened disciplinary action against her. Softly…..softly……

Depending on who you talk to, the AFN-Okagbare story has a twist. Of passports, sports festivals, adopted Nigerian names etc. What is however evident is that we have to tread carefully, very carefully as this issue is capable of blowing the Federation to smithereens.

My happiness this morning is that the Sports loving governor of Delta State His Excellency Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has decided to step into the matter. If there is anybody Blessing will listen to it

Dike gives San Antonio Scorpions first win

N

IGERIA interna tional Bright Dike was the match winner for his USA NASL team San Antonio Scorpions when they beat Carolina Rail Hawks 1-0 on Saturday.

The FC Toronto striker who is on loan at the club gave his team their first victory of the season in his second game for the side and he told Af-

rican Football.com he is looking forward to more goals.

San Antonio Scorpions have four points from five games now.

Dike has endured a torrid time at Toronto after a long-term injury and the move to San Antonio is expected to get him more playing time at least.

Millwall sack Shittu ELEGATED Eng fender has been deR lish Championship clared surplus to reside Millwall have quirements.

shown ex-Nigeria international Danny Shittu the exit door as he won’t be offered a new contract when it expires this summer.

The London club were relegated at the end of the 2014/2015 Championship to League One and the former QPR de-

However, his compatriot Fred Onyedinma has been retained.

This season, the 34year-old Shittu scored a goal in in eight games for Millwall.

Onyedinma played on loan at Wycombe Wander-ers, where he netted eight goals in 26 games.

Mon Page 60

*Dike

10/05/2015

Last week I came out here screaming blue murder, accusing the American judges and referees of conniving to rob Manny Pacquiao………my phone never stopped buzzing. Readers for and against transferred the debate to my ears and we debated heatedly.

However when I listened to Dr Rafiu Ladipo and Trigo Egbegi, masters in the “noble art of self defence” I have come to the total agreement that Mayweather won the fight. Another look at the match under a relaxed atmosphere has heightened my current decision.

Recent happenings have also made me to rebuke Manny. If you knew you had a bad shoulder, why did you fight? Those who paid millions to watch are asking for their money back. I wish I can ask him to refund the cost of the diesel I used to fuel my generator throughout the duration of the fight.

Linus Mba on Cloud 9

The NFF Consultant on refereeing and FIFA Referees Advisor Mr Linus Mba is on cloud Nine.

The press has been awash with news of good refereeing by referees and Linus Mba is a happy man.

Mba as member of the NFF Referees committee spends his life grading and training referees and the icing on the cake for him was the sending of referees on human capacity training to Britain and the decision to institute the Referees Assessors programme.

At the Sports Veterans Association, Nigeria annual get together on Sunday, Mr Mba seized the microphone to thank the Pinnick Amaju led NFF for the innovation even as he attributed the commendable showing of the referees on the hard work being done by the Alhaji Fresh led Refereees Committee and the new leadership of the NRA with Tade Azeez in command.

He promised that all the stakeholders will not relent in flushing out the bad eggs in refereeing and called on them to be of good behavior henceforth.

Can we shout Hallelujah.

See you next week.

T

HE Cross River State chapter of the Sports-writers Association of Nigeria SWAN has congratulated the state Governor elect, Professor Ben Ayade, Senator elect for Cross River Central Mr John Owan Enoh and all other elected political office holders, on their victory at the recently concluded general elections.

In a statement, the CRS SWAN Chairman, Comrade Eddie Bekom, equally felicitated with the President elect, Alhaji Muhammadu Bihari on his endorsement by majority off Nigerians as their new President, come May 29.

Comrade Bekom lauded the visionary decision of President Goodluck Jonathan in approving the appointment of Alhassan Yakmut as the Acting Director General of the National Sports Commission, describing Yakmut as a round peg

CRS SWAN salutes Ayade *commends Jonathan over Yakmut in a round hole. He expressed confidence in the ability of Yakmut to steer the NSC to greater height. The CRS SWAN Chairman prayed the new NSC helmsman to collaborate with the incoming Professor Ben Ayade administration towards a memorable 19th National Sports Festival code named Paradise Games.

Comrade Bekom said Alhassan Yakmut as a former athlete as well as a former director, grassroots and elite athletes, has the requisite pedigree to turn things around in the NSC, especially in overseeing the organization of the National Sports Festival.

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 61

Champions League: Rummenigge expects miracle from Bayern

B

AYERN Munich face a mammoth task in their UEFA Champions League semi-final second leg against Barcelona, and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is praying for a “once in a century” display.

In last week’s opening leg at Camp Nou, Bayern matched Barca for 75 minutes until Lionel Messi inspired Luis Enrique’s side to a commanding 3-0 lead.

The Argentine maestro scored the opening two goals before setting up Neymar for the third in stoppage time as the Catalan giants moved to the brink of their fourth final in the past 10 seasons.

Bayern’s preparation for this clash has been less than ideal, with Pepe Reina - who started in goal in place of the rested Manuel Neuer on Saturday- lasting just 13 minutes before being sent off in their 1-0 home defeat to Augsburg.

However, already crowned Bundesliga champions, the defeat is of little consequence to Bayern, and chief executive Rummenigge is hoping his club can achieve what is seemingly an impossible task at the Allianz Arena on Tuesday. “It is going to be very hard,” he said.

“Barcelona were the favourites in the first place and after the game that status grew. This is normal when you get this sort of result. “But nonetheless, it is the duty of Bayern Munich to put on their best performance on Tuesday. We will see if it will be enough. Our chances are very, very small, but in football there is always one game in a century where you can turn the tides.

“They are rare, I know, but it is our responsibility to give all we can. If it is not enough you can’t change it but you at least have to try.”

Bayern’s build-up to the game has also been disrupted by rumours that head coach and former Barca boss Pep Guardiola has signed a pre-contract agreement to move to Manchester City at the end of this season.

The opening leg of the 2012-13 semi against Barca, they won 4-0 on their way to a 7-0 aggregate success, but against a frontline of Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez such a repeat seems unlikely.

C M Y K

*MAGICAL: Barcelona forward, Lionel Messi scores his second goal in the first leg

We will suffer in Munich —Enrique B

ARCELONA coach Luis Enrique said he is still preparing for a tough 90 minutes, despite his side’s significant lead in their UEFA Champions League semi-final with Bayern Munich.

The Bavarian giants are in a rut, going scoreless in their past three fixtures - all losses heading into their second leg against Barca at the Allianz Arena, a tie in which they trail 3-0.

Bayern lost 1-0 at home to Augsburg in the Bun-

*Enrique

desliga on Saturday, but Luis Enrique said - despite not watching the match - the German champions still showed their qualities after losing Pepe Reina to an early red card.

“They played more than 70 minutes of the game with one player fewer, but they had the 80 per cent of the possession. Finally they lost, but I didn’t see the game,” the Barca boss said, after seeing his side go four points clear in La Liga. Luis Enrique

said Bayern’s significant deficit does not ensure Tuesday’s fixture will be stress-free for the Catalan club. “I know we will suffer in Munich,” he said. “I have no doubt about that and neither do my players, because they are a strong rival. “It looks like it is difficult for them to win the semi-finals, but they could do it against Porto in the quarters.

“So we cannot think it will be easy to progress through. “It is a game we want to win, we will compete, we will have to defend and it will be difficult against Bayern.”

Star Football Super Fans: Arsenal fans stun Chelsea fans

S

TAR SuperFans, the popular game show, witnessed an explosive matchup in the fifth episodeat the weekend. Featuring two evenly-matched teams, Ultimate FC made up of five Chelsea fans and Five Star FC made up of five Arsenal supporters, the episode became the first to go to penalties since the inception of

the game show, and it saw tension and excitement reach an unprecedented level.

Ultimate FC’s Patrick Oti kicked off proceedings with a 20-pointer, which he missed, and Five Star FC’s Chinedu Mmadu did likewise.

Babatunde Clement and Ejike Madueke both missed for Ultimate FC and Five Star FC respec-

tively before Timothy Ike of Ultimate FC scored the game’s first 20-pointer, moving his team deep into Five Star FC’s territory. James Samuel and Collins Ugwu then missed questions for Five Star and Ultimate before Kelechi Ohaju of Five Star replied with a correctly answered 20pointer. Ultimate’s Chukwuma Oragui then

missed his question and Trust Monday Andah of Five Star scored a 10pointer to end a tense first half delicately poised with the scores at nil-nil.

The second half followed in the same pattern as the first, with both teams missing all their questions until Ultimate FC scored a 10pointer.

*Clement

62 — Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

NFF rejects Bassey’s resignation

By Tony Ubani

T

HE Nigeria Foot ball Federation, NFF, has rejected Paul Bassey ’s resignation from the Technical and Development Committee of the NFF. Bassey, a veteran Sports Journalist and member of CAF and FIFA Media committees had said he would resign from the Committees if Stephen Keshi was hired to coach the Eagles after Nigeria failed to qualify for the Equatorial Guinea African Cup of Nations which was won by Cote d’Ivoire. ‘’I feel pained that we are still talking about whether to hire or not to hire Keshi. As for me, I”ve decided that the day they announce Keshi as coach, I’ll relinquish my job as a member of the Technical Committee”, Bassey had threatened. At the weekend during the annual get-together of Sports Veterans, Bassey reiterated that he would not attend any meeting of the Technical Committee with Stephen Keshi as Coach of the Eagles. He said that he knew what he went through with when Keshi was boss of the Eagles and the sacrifices he made. ‘’I wish him well. It is nothing personal but I’ve said it before he was hired and will not go back on it’’.

But Vice President of the NFF, Seyi Akinwunmi said that the Federation had the last say on whether to accept or reject his resignation as a member of the Technical and Development Committee of the NFF. ‘’One thing is for an employee to resign his position and another thing is for the employer(s) to accept it. We’re not accepting Bassey ’s resignation and there is nothing more to talk about it’’, he ruled as rapturous applause followed.

*Bassey C M Y K

W

HEN the end game arrived QPR politely ushered themselves out with barely a flicker of resistance. There was no arguing at the door, no recriminations or any real sense that they expected anything else. The worst team in the Premier League fetched their coat, left the premises and it was not particularly easy to imagine they might be back any time soon.

QPR look a good fit for the Championship if they can fold this meekly and did anyone really believe that Clint Hill, Bobby Zamora and Karl Henry were the men to keep them in the top division?

“He was here when we were shit,” the home fans sang about Richard Dunne, one-time Manchester City captain and prolific own-goal connoisseur. They meant it affectionately but, in another sense, it says something that the man

Rangers relegated after Aguero hat-trick assigned to subduing Sergio Agüero once went by the nickname of Honey Monster on this patch, back in the days when the wind howled and the curtains trembled.

That particular battle was predictably one-sided as the Argentinian’s hat-trick moved him to 31 goals for the season, his best total at City despite his recurring injury issues. QPR’s wage bill in the last few years has been higher at times than that of Atlético Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, both recent Champions League finalists – and not far off the entire total of Major League Soccer.

Gebrselassie retires SURE BET: Taiwo Awoniyi (r) sure to make Manu's squad for the U-20 W/Cup

I‘ve got my W/Cup squad –Manu

F

LYING Eagles coach Manu Garba has disclosed that he has a clear idea of the 21 players he will take to the U20 World Cup in New Zealand later this month. “I am fully clear on my final squad for the World Cup, but that is not to say there could

not be one or two gate crashers,” said Manu Nigeria will submit a final 21-man squad on Friday, May 15, to FIFA. Genk defender Wilfred Ndidi is expected to join up with the rest of the squad on Monday, while three other Europebased stars – Isaac Suc-

cess, Kelechi Iheanacho and Moses Simon – are still being awaited.

The Flying Eagles have been training in Nurnberg, Germany, for a week now. They will play their first test match in Germany against Hoffenheim U23 team tomorrow afternoon.

H

AILE Gebrselas sie has announced his retirement from competitive running.

The 42-year-old Ethiopian confirmed his decision after finishing 16th in the Great Manchester Run yesterday.

It brings to an end a 25-year career in which he claimed two Olympic gold medals, eight world championship victories and set 27 world records. “I’m retiring from competitive running, not from running.

You cannot stop running,

this is my life,” he told BBC Sport. Gebrselassie remains the world record holder at 20,000m and the one-hour race.

He had announced his intention to retire five years ago after injury problems, before returning to racing months later.

Gebrselassie failed to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics but won the Great Scottish Run in Glasgow a year later, as well as his third consecutive Vienna City half marathon.

AFN ‘ll not close doors to any Nigerian based abroad *We’ve been fair to home-based athletes —Ogba

T

HE President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Evangelist Solomon Ogba, has described as incorrect, accusations and media reports that the federation is neglecting athletes based in Nigeria and supporting athletes based abroad.

Ogba, who led Team Nigeria track and field athletes to win a gold medal at the IAAF World Relay in Bahamas penultimate week, said the board of AFN, since its inauguration in May 2013, has done more for athletes based in Nigeria than any other federation.

“This season alone, we have had three camps for athletes that participated in the African youth and junior championships and those that went for invitational relay in Kenya. We have also organized two competitions, the All Comers in Abuja and Lagos, apart from the Olukoya junior championships”.

Ogba revealed that though it is the responsibility of states athletics associations and athletics clubs to organize conditioning camps and prepare athletes for a new season, yet the AFN has taken up the responsibility to ensure our

home based athletes are in good shape for the start of each season.

Despite zero subvention from the National Sports Commission (NSC) and lack of support from corporate bodies, Ogba revealed that AFN still organizes a league, “We don’t get any support either from the government or corporate Nigeria, yet we have consistently organized a Golden League, thanks to great sacrifice from my board members and staff of AFN. We give cash incentives to home based athletes with prospect of doing well in major

championships”.

The president also said that many of the home based athletes, especially those with very good prospect have enjoyed generous assistance from the federation.

“For our home based athletes to get the needed international exposure, we arranged for them to participate in about five international competitions this year alone.

*Okagbare

*Ogba

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015 — 63

C M Y K

Vanguard, MONDAY, MAY 11, 2015

Rangers relegated after Aguero hat-trick — Pg 62 STAND-UP FOR CHAMPIONS!

RESULTS GLO PREMIER LEAGUE Taraba 3 Gabros 3 Enyimba 0 Giwa 0 Bayelsa 2 Dolphins2 Lobi0El-Kanemi 0 Wolves 4 Nasarawa 1 Rangers 1 Heartland 0 Akwa Utd 0 Wikki 0 Sunshine2 3SC 0 Pillars 2 Sharks 0 Ab/Warriors 2Kwara 0 EPL Man City 6 QPR 0 Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1

Gebrselassie retires! —Pg 62

CHELSEA 1-1 LIVERPOOL - MATT BARLOW AT STAMFORD BRIDGE: For Brendan Rodgers and his team, the awkwardness went beyond the guard of honour they formed to welcome champions Chelsea before kick-off. Only a win would have changed that, and Liverpool’s inability to find one at Stamford Bridge means they require a miracle to return to the Champions League next season. John Terry headed Chelsea into a fifth-minute lead and Steven Gerrard levelled before he was warmly applauded from the pitch by all sides of the ground.

I’ve got my W/Cup squad –Manu

NFF rejects Bassey’s resignation

— Pg 62

AFN ‘ll not close doors to any Nigerian based abroad

Bassey

— Pg 62

TODAY'S

PUZZLE

— Pg 62

*Gebrselassie

QUICK CROSSWORD

FRI DAY'S FRIDAY'S

ANSWERS

Across 1, Convince (6) 5, Knife (4) 8, Paramour (5) 9, Sick (3) 10, Unite (4) 11 Ballot (4) 12 Heron (5) 13 Affix (6) 16 Throw (4) 18 Paradise (4) 20 Lettuce (3) 22 Groove (3) 23 Lair (3) 24 Gasp (4) 25 Rush (4) 28 Submissive (6) 30 Vessel (5) 32 Warmth (4) 33 Jot (4) 34 Wrath (3) 35 Skirmish (5) 36 Expired (4) 37 Proper (6)

Down 1 Beast (6) 2 Answer (8) 3 Spurn (6) 4 Clogged (9) 5 Cut (7) 6 Jog (4) 7 Ale (4) 8 Untruth (3) 14 Appalled (9) 15 Chicken (3) 17 Prosecute (3) 19 Decided (8) 20 Tin (3) 21 Began (7) 26 Give (6) 27 Soften (6) 29 Hut (4) 30 Arrived (4) 31 Foot-digit (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS Across: 3, Essay 9, Afloat 10, Gentle 11, Taken 12, Edam 15, Nice 17, Manager 20, Rot 21, Denim 23, Aver 25, Ring 26, Rival 28, Bet 30, Literal 33, Edit 35, Dale 36, Heath 38, Toilet 39, Legion 40, Renew.

Down: 1, Harem 2, Clean 3, Eat 4, Stated 5, Aged 6, Yen 7, Stair 8, Beret 13, Damaged 14, Maker 16, Congeal 18, Regal 19, Fir 22, Mined 24, Rip 27, Little 28, Berth 29, Timid 31, Rabid 32, Leant 34, Fete 36, Her 38, Hew.

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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C M Y K