Obasanjo wants to run my govt-JONATHAN

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62342

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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

OIL PRICE: Nigeria risks losing Asian market to Arab producers 9

Obasanjo wants to run my govt — JONATHAN •Says that's the reason ex-president is attacking him •PDP pulls back plans to sanction Obasanjo •Northern governor chides him over attack on Jonathan

THE BAYELSA AUTO TRAGEDY

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North, Henry Umoru & Chris Ochayi

A

B U J A — PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan, yesterday, described former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s attacks on him as the consequence of his failure to surrender his administration to the former leader.

Responding to the tirades of the former president last week, President Jonathan said Obasanjo was so bent on controlling his protégées that he would not mind installing the devil in power so long as he can Continues on Page 5

COLUMNIST

So, we were fooled! •P.20 Mr & Mrs

Above: Scenes of the auto crash.

Mrs Ayabowei : Only survivor in the fatal accident.

BAYELSA AUTO TRAGEDY:

Govt declares 3-day mourning in honour of SSG's 13 wife, other dignitaries

Mrs Acha Perekalama ,one of the accident victims

Female suicide bomber kills 10 in 9 Damaturu

2— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015— —3

C M Y K

4— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015—5

POCKET CARTOON

DINNER—President Goodluck Jonathan with victims of the Boko Haram terror attacks at a Presidential Dinner in honour of fallen heroes in the North East at the State House, Abuja, weekend.

Obasanjo wants to run my govt — JONATHAN Continues from Page 1 control him.

Meanwhile, it was learned at the weekend that the Presidency and the Peoples Democracy Party, PDP, have decided to pull back from earlier plans to sanction Obasanjo over his perceived anti-party activities. Besides, there were indications that Obasanjo’s support among some northern governors, who deferred to him in the past, may be waning. One serving northern governor in the PDP known as an Obasanjo associate, weekend, flayed the former president for crossing the line in his attacks on the president and party.

Addressing journalists, yesterday, in Abuja, Director, Media and Publicity of PDP Presidential Campaign Organisation, Chief Femi Fani- Kayode stressed that soon after Jonathan won the 2011 elections, the former president tried everything possible to control and teleguide him, adding that he asked the President to do a number of things that

were simply wrong and unacceptable to a government with plans for the people.

Why Obasanjo is attacking Jonathan

He said: “After Jonathan came to power, Obasanjo not only tried to control and teleguide him, but he also asked him to do a number of things that were simply wrong and unacceptable.

It is for President Goodluck Jonathan himself to divulge those things and I am sure that he will do so at the appropriate time.

“Needless to say President Jonathan refused to be teleguided and told what to do though at all times he showed Obasanjo maximum respect and accorded him all the privileges, access and courtesies that are due to a former Head of State and a father and mentor.

This continued to be the case even after Obasanjo consistently attempted to undermine his government and ridicule his efforts.

“Yet President Obasanjo could not be

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

Money alone can buy you happiness, but not much —Robert Putnam

H

APPINESS is something that we all strive for, yet many of us find it challenging to grasp and even harder to maintain. Especially during challenging times, happiness can feel like it is hiding just behind your next pay check, a new job, or an expected pay raise. However, it appears that happiness has less to do with money than we might imagine, and more to do with the people around us, how we live our lives, the way we spend our time, and how we perceive ourselves and understand our life experiences.

No matter where they are or what they are doing, happy people recognize that they always have something to be grateful for. Scientific research in positive psychology reveals that people who practice gratitude are happier, less stressed and less depressed!

appeased and was not satisfied. As far as he was concerned, he must either control Jonathan or Jonathan had to go.

That is why he decided to secretly support the APC and became their 'navigator in chief'. He was determined to pull the whole house down rather than allow Jonathan to return to power. This is simply because he believes that if he cannot control someone, that person must be destroyed.

Control and domination is an obsession for Obasanjo. That is the bottom line. He is prepared to put even the devil in power provided he can control him,” Fani-Kayode, who also served President Obasanjo as a senior special assistant (public communication) and later Aviation Minister said.

Genuine democracy

“Obasanjo does not want genuine democracy.

He only pretends to want it. What he wants is control and a stooge in power. It does not matter what type of government it is as long as he controls it and it is headed by his puppet. It can be a military government, a civilian one, a democratic one, an interim government or a government of National Unity. To Obasanjo, it does not matter as long as he can control it. That is his objective. That is why he hates Jonathan so much and that is why he wishes to stop him at all cost.

“The bottom line is this: President Obasanjo’s grouse with President Jonathan is personal and it has nothing to do with Nigeria. He should leave Nigeria out of it and let us all be. If he has a personal score to settle with Jonathan, he should not do so at the expense of the peace and stability of Nigeria.

“If he wants to stop

Jonathan, then let him attempt to do so through the democratic process and through the ballot box and not through foul and unconstitutional means.

We said it before and we will say it again: Gone are the days that any president can be teleguided and controlled because we have all come of age.

“President Olusegun Obasanjo’s allegations are serious and grave.

They are also reckless. He has raised issues and made assertions that are capable of derailing our democracy and creating chaos in the land. It is vital that we consider his motives for this latest outburst and his credentials as a leader and an elder statesman.

“The truth is that he knows that President Goodluck Jonathan will win next month’s presidential election and that is why he wants to destroy the credibility of the whole process right from the outset.

“What he is trying to say in his latest contribution is that if President Jonathan wins, then the election must have been rigged right from the outset.

This is not only wrong but it is also unfair and uncharitable. If President Obasanjo has any evidence to prove his weighty allegations, he ought to present it before the Council of State and take it up there.

“He should also report to INEC itself and present the data of whatever sinister plan he believes that President Jonathan has to stay in power 'by hook or by crook' to them. He should tell INEC whatever it is that Jonathan is doing in order for him to stay in power by all means and he should give them all the details. That should be the starting point."

Postponement of polls

Asserting that the postponement of the election was not a sufficient reason for Obasanjo to lampoon Jonathan given that polls have been postponed in the past, the president’s campaign image maker faulted the comparison between Jonathan and former Ivorian president, Laurent Gbagbo.

He said: “President Obasanjo spoke about President Laurent Gbagbo and he claimed that President Jonathan was attempting to do a Gbagbo in Nigeria. The question that must be put to him is this: "Who got Gbagbo out?" Was it not Jonathan’s government that played a key role in ensuring that democracy was fully established in the Ivory Coast and did he not play a key role in

ensuring that the Gbagbo 'stay in power forever plan' did not work? If anyone doubts this, they should ask President Alhassan Outtara of Cote D’Ivoire the role that Jonathan and Nigeria played in helping to restore democracy and stability back to his country.

“They should also find out the role that former President Obasanjo played in attempting to keep President Laurent Gbagbo in power at all costs and the deep friendship that exists between the two men. It is a matter of fact and public record that when he was President of Nigeria, Obasanjo, perhaps more than any other African Head of State with the exception of President Jacob Zuma of South Africa, propped up and supported President Gbagbo and it is an irony of fate and history that he is now condemning the actions of his old friend and accusing others of trying to emulate him.

“Again it is ironic that President Obasanjo has accused President Jonathan of having a grand plan to stay in power at all cost and by all means yet it is the same Obasanjo that tried to stay in power for a third term even though the Nigerian constitution specifically forbade it. He tried all he could to change the constitution but the whole thing failed and he was compelled to leave power.

“We continue to hold Obasanjo in high esteem but his recent actions and utterances are beyond the pale. He has been unfair to Jonathan, to Nigeria and even to himself. Most importantly the days of intimidating others with his harsh words and overbearing influence are long over. Obasanjo is not God. Only God is God and He alone determines the fortunes of men and the destiny of nations."

Will of the people

F a n i - K a y o d e continued: “We sincerely hope that Obasanjo appreciates the gravity of what he is attempting to do and we shall continue to pray that God will guide him and deliver

him from whatever it is that makes him want to destroy all those that love him the most.

Whether he likes it or not, democracy has come to stay in Nigeria and the will of the Nigerian people will be done in next month’s presidential elections and thereafter. We believe that it is God’s plan and not even one million Obasanjos can stop it."

PDP backs out

Meanwhile, the presidency and the PDP may have opted not to tackle Obasanjo on the development and rolled back plans to sanction the former leader on his recent activities.

“The position is that the party does not want to come out outright to take action on Obasanjo so as not to heat up the system further. We believe that with time he would see the need to stop attacking Jonathan,” a party official said last night in Abuja.

This is coming as a Northern governor, who is close to former President Obasanjo, has described him as lacking the democratic credentials to attack Jonathan on the issue of democracy.

The governor, who pleaded anonymity, pointed out that Obasanjo took more undemocratic steps to frustrate his opponents, including his Vice, Atiku Abubakar, in the 2003 Presidential election.

The governor, who is working closely with Jonathan to deliver his agrarian state to the PDP, pointed out that Obasanjo should not claim to be more democratic than Jonathan since he masterminded a devious third term bid to the detriment of Nigerian democracy.

“The governor said: “Nigerians should be wary of Obasanjo, who wants to launder his image as the father of modern day democracy in Nigeria. They should not forget in a hurry that the former president never even wanted to leave office after eight years in the saddle."

6— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015—7

Driver, 25, in Police net over mutilated corpse found in his car

By Esther Onyegbula

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AGOS — THE Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Yaba, is currently investigating the murder of a man whose corpse was discovered recently in an abandoned Previa vehicle at Agbala, in Ikorodu area.

Vanguard gathered that the body of the yet-to-be identified victim was found in the pool of his blood inside the abandoned vehicle after it reportedly got sunk in a swampy area where the suspects purportedly went to dispose the corpse.

The corpse had several cuts in different parts of the body, and a slit on the neck, with his hands tied.

Vanguard learned that although the alleged perpetrators of the crime are currently on the run, the driver of the vehicle, Akorede Hameed, is in police custody.

It was gathered that one Mr Joseph Emmanuel bought the vehicle on hire purchase and handed it over to Akorede last August who had been paying N4,000 as daily delivery to Joseph.

Suspect's account

According to the suspect, Akorede: “I use the vehicle for commercial purpose in one of the parks located in Ikorodu area.

On that faithful day, one Sunday pleaded with me to allow him use the vehicle for one

trip. I agreed because we both work in the same park and I was very tired that evening.

“Unknown to me that Sunday had ulterior motives.

After waiting several hours for Sunday to return with the vehicle and did not, I knew something was wrong, although I could not place my hand at what exactly it was.

“I felt maybe he was arrested by police or LASTMA officials. I also tried to contact him via his mobile but it was switched off.

“I called Mr Joseph to notify him of what was happening because each day after the close of work, I take the vehicle back to him.

“The next morning, two members of the park where I work informed me that they saw the vehicle at Agbala

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BEOKUTA — OGUN State Police Command has arrested three Fulani herdsmen a few weeks after they had allegedly robbed the residents of Atoba Estate in Sabo area of Abeokuta of their belongings.

The command said its operatives attached to Ilupeju Sabo Division arrested the suspects who were identified

Anxiety as suspected ritualists invade Agbor

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

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GBOR — RESIDENTS of Alisimie, an agrarian community, in Agbor, Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, are now living in perpetual fear, following alleged presence of people suspected to be ritualists.

An investigation revealed that residents in the community have lost sight of sleep in recent time due to attempts by the prowling ritualists to unleash mayhem in the area.

It was learned that the incident started about two weeks ago when a nursing mother in Aliren quarters, within the community, was attacked by one of the unidentified ritualists on her way to the farm.

The woman, a mother of two, who is in her late 20s, was said to have miraculously escaped from the assailant after the latter had inflicted a machete injury on her head.

This development, it was further

By Samuel Oyadongha

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The suspect's car area in Ikorodu. Immediately I rushed to the location only to discover a corpse inside the vehicle that sunk into the marshy area. I don’t know the victim or what happened or led to his death."

Confirming the incident, the

spokesperson, Lagos State Police Command, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, said the case was still being investigated at Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Yaba.

Ogun Police arrest 3 suspected herdsmen for robbery as Haruna Ibrahim,Usman Toyota Highlander SUV at

By Daud Olatunji

learned, made residents in Aliren and Ahima quarters to swiftly comb the bush with a view to finding the suspected ritualist, to no avail.

While residents in Aliren quarters were still in shock over the attack, another woman in Idumukwu quarters was also attacked on her way to the farm by suspected ritualists nine days after the Aliren incident.

Again, on Thursday, February 12, 2015, another case was reported in Idumukwu but no life was lost to the three incidents.

However, an atmosphere of fear has enveloped the community as they are now afraid of going to farm alone.

Reacting to the incidents, chairman of Alisimie Central Executive Committee, Mr. Augustine Uwagwu, said the people of the community at home and in the Diaspora, were deeply worried over the reported cases of ritualists attacks in the area.

DSS operatives invade Thomas Reuters' correspondent residence

Burani, and Haruna Usman.

The Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Muyiwa Adejobi in a statement, said members of the community,who had placed the suspects under surveillance, sighted them while rearing their cattle around the area and were able to identify them as those that robbed them.

“The community leaders contacted the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the area, CSP Gbenga Megbope,who led a team of his anti-robbery team to the scene where the suspected robbers were arrested.

“The arrested herdsmen led police to their hideout in a jungle called Igbo Olodumare along Igboora Road, Ogun State where other two Fulani herdsmen were arrested and guns with cartridges were recovered from them. Other weapons recovered included cutlasses, expended cartridges and assorted charms.

According to the PPRO, the state's acting Commissioner of Police, DCP Haliru Gwandu, has directed that the matter be immediately transferred to the Department of Criminal Investigation, Eleweran, Abeokuta, for a thorough investigation.

He also assured the people of the state of adequate protection of lives and property, adding that the command will not relent in its efforts to achieve effective policing of the state .

Three suspected robbers

Meanwhile, the joint team of the State Police Command and OP MESA attached to 35 Artillery Brigade, Alamala, Abeokuta has arrested three susspected robbers at Ibafo area of the state who snatched a

Festac Town, Lagos, on February 4.

The suspected robbers, who were on high speed after the operation along Lagos-Ibadan expressway were intercepted by the team who was on routine patrol along the expressway.

The PPRO explained that the team forced the vehicle to a stop when they noticed the suspicious attitude of the occupants.

According to him, the suspected robbers had kidnapped the owner of the car (name withheld) and dropped him along the road.

He said: “The vehicle was demobilised and stopped at a point along the expressway but the suspects hired a rewire man (technician) to start the engine again where they continued their movement before the arrest.

“Amuche Chukwuemeka, 22, who is a graduate of the Federal Polytechnic, Nekede, Owerri, Imo State, is the ring leader; Blessing Edottie, 26, from Bayelsa State and Santos Peter, 25, from Delta State, all graduates, were all arrested.

ENAGOA — OPERATIVES of the Department of State Services, DSS, weekend, invaded the home of the correspondent of a foreign news agency, Thomas Reuters, Mr. Tife Owolabi, over alleged suspicious act of espionage and carted away personal computers and electronic working gadgets.

The armed security operatives searched the home of Owolabi, claiming to be acting on order from Abuja.

The DSS men, after the search, left with the working tools of the Reuters' correspondent.

It was gathered that the invasion of the DSS men followed the invitation extended to him on Friday for a brief chat.

Owolabi was quizzed for hours and released to the state Chairman of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Comrade Tariyon Akono.

Confirming the development, the Thomas Reuters correspondent, Owolabi, in a text message to newsmen in Yenagoa said: “The DSS men stormed my apartment on Saturday to conduct a search and claimed it was based on the order from Abuja. The DSS men claimed that I am unpatriotic owing to my job and relationship with Thomas Reuters.

“They claimed that they gathered that I sent or planning to send ‘negative‘ report to the outside world.

I believe it is a deliberate clampdown on international journalists.

“All my working tools, including cameras, laptops, iPad and hard drives are with them. I was asked to report back on Monday.”

Catholic Bishop of Aba Diocese dies at 73 2015, and was rushed to a

By Chidi Nkwopara

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WERRI — THE Catholic Bishop of Aba Diocese, Most Rev. Vincent Ezeonyia, is dead. Ezeonyia died in an undisclosed hospital in Owerri, Imo State.

A competent source close to the Catholic Archbishop of Owerri Ecclesiastical Province, His Grace, Dr. Anthony Obinna, revealed that the 73-year-old Ezeonyia took ill February 5,

hospital in Owerri, where he died.

The late cleric, who was born April 5, 1941, was a member of the Holy Ghost Fathers and ordained a priest August 3, 1968.

He was appointed Bishop of Aba Diocese on April 2, 1990, and was ordained the pioneer Bishop of the diocese July 1, 1990.

Meanwhile, the late Bishop will be burried on February 27, 2015, at the Bishop’s Vault, Christ the King Catholic Cathedral, Aba, Abia State.

8—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

We’ll run market based economy, zero tolerance for corruption —Buhari

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

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BUJA — PRESIDENTIAL candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, General Muhammadu Buhari, has assured that if voted into power next month, his government would run a market based economy.

He also stated that the system would be operated with clear, unambiguous regulatory framework, effective enforcement mechanism and zero tolerance for corruption.

Buhari further promised that APC-led government “will insist on and cut out wastages and run a lean and efficient administration in order to have funds available for capital and development projects that will assure prosperity for all Nigerians.”

In a statement, yesterday, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation, APCPCO, quoted Buhari as saying ahead of his town hall meeting at the Nike Lake Resort in Enugu today, that his envisaged presidency would deepen a viable free market economy in the country.

The statement signed by the Director of Media and Publicity of the APCPCO, Mallam Garba Shehu in Abuja added that Nigerian citizens in business, foreign investors and young entrepreneurs under the APC presidency will enjoy equal incentives and friendly business and investment climate.

“It is envisaged that this will help them to participate and engage in productive economic and entrepreneurial activities geared towards the resuscitation and revamping of the nation’s economy and its capacity to generate millions of direct and indirect job opportunities for our teeming citizens,” it said.

It further stated that APC’s national economic policy would support and insist on diligent implementation of annual budgets to guarantee accountability and transparency in public resources management.

On corruption, the campaign organisation said the envisaged Buhari government would discourage over-bloated contracts.

POLLS: INEC threatens to jail anyone caught with fake PVC zINEC'll conduct elections as scheduled —IBB

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BADAN— THE Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, warned yesterday that any voter caught with fake Permanent Voters Card, PVC, during the general elections re-scheduled for next month will go to jail.

INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner in Oyo State, Amb. Rufus Akeju, disclosed this in Ibadan even as former military president, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) expressed optimism that INEC will conduct the elections as scheduled.

Akeju, who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Ibadan, yesterday, vowed that INEC would not allow any form of rigging during the elections.

He said: “Any voter who is

thinking of voting with a fake PVC during the general elections should shelve the idea now because doing so would land them in jail.”

The INEC boss also said mechanisms had been put in place by the commission to check rigging and ensure credible elections.

“For example, it impossible for anybody to steal ballot papers in the name of rigging because there cannot be more than 750 ballot papers in any polling unit,” he said.

Akeju also said that a total of 1,563,800 PVCs had been distributed by INEC in the state.

INEC'll conduct elections as scheduled —IBB

Meanwhile, former military President, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida (rtd) says he is optimistic that INEC will conduct elections as rescheduled.

He spoke in Minna when he received members of Arewa Citizens Action for Change on Saturday. He said people should not look at insecurity as a problem restricted to a particular zone of the country but as a problem confronting the entire country.

He said: “I think people should not see the insecurity as restricted to North-East alone; it is the problem of the entire country. Nigeria is under insurgency not only North-East. Nigerians should see it from that perspective

and for that, they should support the military to end the insurgency.”

On whether the shifting of election date will affect the outcome of the election, he said the election would be conducted peacefully considering the arrangement on ground.

He also urged INEC to improve in the provision of information in respect of PVCs, especially on where to collect them.

Babangida commended members of the group for propagating the gospel of peace, particularly at this period where electioneering was at its peak.

In his remark, state coordinator of the group, Malam Mohammed Mohammed, appealed to INEC to conduct peaceful and credible elections.

EKITI ELECTION RIGGING TAPE: Real reason PDP, Jonathan pressed for polls shift —Falana zTake audio clip to court, Fayose advises Fayemi

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By Gbenga Ariyibi & Bashir Adefaka

AGOS — HUMAN rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN), has identified other reasons for the recent postponement of the general elections other than insecurity and poor preparations on the part of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. According to him, the People’s Democratic Party, PDP-led Federal Government connived with the military and other security forces to pressure the INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, to postpone the election when they discovered that the Ekiti governorship election rigging tape had exposed their antics because they planned to use the Ekiti State rigging style for the entire country.

Falana spoke on a day Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State asked his immediate predecessor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to proceed to court and tender the audio clip where it was alleged that soldiers were used to rig the June 21, 2014 governorship election in the state.

Fayemi had said that soldiers were ready to testify.

Why PDP, Jonathan pressed for polls shift —Falana

Speaking at the maiden edition of a “Sit Out,” described as service of warning notice to antidemocratic forces in Nigeria, held at the Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota, Lagos, weekend, Falana said the election postponement was to enable the Presidency and PDP return to the drawing table and re-strategise.

He, however, warned the National Security Adviser to

MOU: Managing Director, Shell Petroleum Development Company Nigeria Ltd. and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Mutiu Sunmonu (right); CEO, GE International Operations Nigeria, Mr. Lazarus Angbazo (second right); and others, at the signing of the Shell-funded N1 billion Oloibiri, Bayelsa State Health Project in commemoration of Nigeria’s centenary, in Lagos. remember that he was not national security adviser to the chairman of INEC but to the President and so he and the security chiefs should keep off electoral matters and allow Jega do his job as constitutionally specified.

Falana also warned the Assistant Inspector-General of Police, AIG, Zone 2, Mr. Joseph Mbu, over a recent comment credited to him that he would kill six persons if one policeman was killed.

“No one wants any policeman to be killed but we must let Mbu know that he is not a judge. When you have a case of murder, you should arrest the suspected murderer and take him before a judge

in the court for his case to be decided. So, you do not have any right in law to kill anybody,” he warned the AIG.

Audio clip is not authentic – Fayose

While dismissing the authenticity of the audio clip, Fayose said it was amazing that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has such a weighty evidence and yet refused to tender it at the election petition tribunal.

Speaking with newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, Fayose, who was apparently reacting to Fayemi’s interview aired on an Akure, Ondo State-based radio station last Thursday, declared that he was ready for the soldiers

Fayemi is bringing to the court, Fayose said it would be good and in the interest of justice for the APC to invite the soldiers who were allegedly used to rig the election He said: “By inviting the soldiers,they would be able to explain and produce evidence of how and where they committed the electoral fraud in a court of competent jurisdiction.

The soldiers should come to give evidence and explain where and how they were instructed to rig the election, whether they were instructed to thumb print ballot papers, or they were instructed to snatch ballot boxes.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 —9

By Evelyn Usman, Ndahi Marama & Bala Ajiya

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AGOS — THE Nigerian Air Force, NAF, said yesterday that it had succeeded in disrupting the Boko Haram sect’s communication supply line in the North eastern part of the country, stating that efforts had been intensified to ensure that the war against insurgents comes to an end in six weeks.

The Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu, disclosed this at the National Air Defence Corps, NADC, while flagging off a military operation exercise just as a female suicide bomber launched an attack at a motor park in Damaturu, Yobe State capital killing 10 persons while 31 others were injured.

Amosu declared that to meet the six weeks deadline onslaught against terrorists, as earlier declared by the Federal Government, the military had commenced special trainings for its personnel and platforms in Lagos for onward deployment to the northeast.

He, therefore, revealed that during the training period, there would be sounds of gun shots as well as movement of military platform in Lagos, calling on Lagosians not to panic.

According to him, “we are set to decimate the Boko Haram terrorists by first gaining air and ground intelligence to deny them the freedom of action and movement, to destroy their communication and supply line and deny them the possibilities of regeneration.

“We have done this sufficiently and their command and control is already disrupted and what we need to do now is an exercise to complete the project.

"It is so easy for people to say what you could not do in so many years, how come you are going to do in six weeks. It is an operation and it gets to a point where you can categorically say that within a period you can complete the operation and this is where we are right now.

“As part of ongoing operations in the northeast, we needed to show up in Lagos to bring additional capabilities to the fight against insurgency. We are incorporating some new systems.

Some new ammunition have shown up and we need to incorporate this into our existing platforms and intensify day and night operations.

“We need to let the citizens know that occasionally they will hear gun fires and we will have ammunition being delivered.

They should not panic. We have been in the air for the past few days and we are notifying the citizens accordingly that the ongoing operations are to recalibrate our weapon system and fine tune our tactics.

“We are satisfied that the period allocated should be enough to carry out this project.

Do not forget that you need time too for the displaced citizens to be able to go back to their

Female suicide bomber kills 10, injures 31 others in Damaturu market zAs NAF disrupts Boko Haram communication supply line while 31 are critically injured zFlags off military operation exercise in Lagos and are lying at the General Sani Abatcha Hospital in Damaturu. zAdvises residents not to panic We have condoned off the area locations. So we are almost there.”

Female suicide bomber kills 10 in Damaturu

Meanwhile, Police in Yobe State have confirmed the killing of 10 people and 31 injured in a suicide attack that was carried out by a female suicide bomber.

The attack took place at the Damaturu Central motor park near the A Division Police Station

that was on January 9, 2015 burnt by the Boko Haram insurgents.

The Police Public Relations Officer for Yobe State, Toyin Gbadegesin, disclosed that the bomber made several failed attempts to bomb the military outfit inside the park before she boarded a half-loaded Sharon car and blew off herself killing 10 people on the spot.

According to him, “at about 12.10 hours, a hijab wearing female suicide bomber came into the park and went to the security vehicle there and she was turned away after they suspected her movement. She then went to a commercial Sharon vehicle that was half loaded and detonated her explosives.

“In the blast, 10 people died

and investigation is currently ongoing.”

The PPRO informed that the suicide bomber is about 21 years of age. A shop owner in the park, who requested anonymity, said an angry mob prevented rescue workers from evacuating the remains of the bomber.

“They gathered the pieces (body parts) and set them on fire,” he said.

FALLING CRUDE PRICE: Nigeria risks losing Asian market

to Arab producers zExperts urge FG to form alliances with int'l refiners z2015 budget also threatened

By Clara Nwachukwu

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AGOS — Nigeria’s share of the Asian market is now seriously being threatened by the ongoing price war among the big Arab oil producers.

Asia became Nigeria’s safe haven after the loss of the American market, but this may not be sustained for much longer, a development that has made oil industry experts to urge the Federal Government to form alliances with the Asian customers to cushion the effects.

The Arab producers, who have always been on constant price war last week even pushed the notch higher because of the sliding crude oil prices, by offering discounts as high as above $4 per barrel, the highest in over a decade in order to retain their respective market shares.

Bloomberg recently reported that Iraq, Kuwait and Iran have joined Saudi Arabia in cutting their March crude prices for Asia, signaling the battle for a share of OPEC’s largest market is intensifying.

According to the report, “Iraq’s Basrah Light crude will sell at $4.10 a barrel below Middle East benchmarks, the deepest discount since at least August 2003, the Oil Marketing Co. said Tuesday. National Iranian Oil Co. said its official selling price for March Light crude sales will be a discount of $2.10 a barrel, the widest since at least March 2000, according to a company official who asked not to be identified because of corporate policy.

Kuwait Petroleum Corp. said Wednesday its discount will be $4.10, the biggest since August 2008.

“The cuts come after Saudi Arabia, the largest crude exporter, reduced pricing to Asia last week to the lowest in at least 14 years. The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, left its members’ output

VALENTINE'S DINNER: From left: Kaduna State All Progressives Congress Governorship candidate, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai; daughter of the APC Presidential candidate, Stephanie Buhari; Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; and another daughter of APC Presidential candidate, Halima Buhari, during a Valentine's dinner tagged 'Love Buhari, Love Nigeria' organised for Gen. Buhari in Lagos, weekend. Photo: Joe Akintola, Photo Editor. targets unchanged at a November meeting, choosing to compete for market share against U.S. shale producers rather than support prices. Iraq is the second-biggest producer in OPEC, Kuwait is third and Iran fourth.”

The report further added: “Middle Eastern producers are increasingly competing with cargoes from Latin America, Africa and Russia for buyers in Asia. Oil prices have dropped about 45 percent in the past six months as production from the U.S. and OPEC surged.”

Nigeria’s budget'll be distorted

Assessing the impact of this price war on Nigeria, industry experts argued that the price war will further distort Nigeria’s 2015 Appropriation Bill, as

according to them, if the price war continues, it will increase pressure on the oil market, particularly for the buyers, until it gets to saturation point.

Speaking in a telephone interview with Vanguard, Managing Director/Chief Executive, International Energy Services Ltd, Dr. Diran Fawibe, said: “Nigeria’s budget plans are already in trouble, so government now has to look for other ways to finance its expenditures.

“As it is, there is no way we can succeed with the budget without cutting down significantly on the import of unnecessary goods. This is because the Naira is under severe pressure, and with declining reserves, there is no other way out.”

Fawibe insisted that the situation called for further financial prudence, particularly

on the part of the state governments, whom he said are “financially undisciplined” and lacked good leadership.

In view of the foregoing, Fawibe suggested that in the absence of processing our own crude, thereby adding value and cutting down on fuel importation for domestic need, government should consider buying interests in refineries in Asia and Europe, since the Asian market can no longer be taken for granted.

Similarly, the President, Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists, NAPE, Dr. Chikwe Edoziem, told Vanguard exclusively that government needed to engage in serious economic restructuring.

10— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

APC debunks plan to rig 2015 polls in Lagos •Accuses PDP of buying PVCs

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By Olasunkanmi Akoni

AGOS State chapter of All Progressives Congress, APC, has described as baseless allegations by Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, that it planned to use teachers to rig 2015 elections.

The party rather accused Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, of using some groups and individuals to induce people with money to buy their voters’ cards. This came against the backdrop of a statement by one Mr. Felix Oboagwina on behalf of PDP governorship candidate, Jimi Agbaje, that the party wanted to use teachers and civil servants to swing the forthcoming election for the APC. State Publicity Secretary of APC, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, said the statement was another baseless hoax and childish prattle that had characterized the campaign of a party that has nothing to show for its 16 years in power.

Igbokwe said, “We find the allegation of PDP as laughable considering the fact that the PDP

African Bar gets interim Executive committee

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HE outgoing President of the African Bar Association, AFBA, Mr. Charles Idehen, has appointed a new Executive Committee to pilot affairs of the association.

Idehen said in a statement, that “arising from the meeting of concerned lawyers of the African Regional Forum of the International Bar Association, IBA, on the continued docility of AFBA and the several meetings held to effect its resuscitation, a steering committee was formed in September 2014 in Dar es Salaam Tanzania, during the IBA Regional meeting.

“The steering committee later submitted its report to me and after due consultation with stakeholders and leaders of AFBA, I constituted the interim Executive Committee to pilot the affairs of the association till its next conference. It is necessary to refresh the essence of AFBA in the consciousness of every lawyer in Africa and around the world.

“Members of the interim Executive Committee are Mr. Hannibal Uwaifo, president (Nigeria); Dev Eriah, VicePresident (Mauritus); Mrs Flaviana Charles, General Secretary (Tanzania); Nyamordi Ochieng-Nyamogo, Director of Protocol and Publicity (Kenya); Mrs. Obele Akinniranye, Deputy General Secretary, and the current chairman of the International Bar Association Human Rights Council, Sternford Moyo (Zimbabwe).”

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in Lagos has discovered that the false bubble on which it built its wild expectation of taking over Lagos is busting on its faces as the campaigns gather momentum.

‘Whatever makes the PDP to think it will be allowed by the people of Lagos to replace the government of Lagos, which has become the redeeming light in a Nigeria the PDP had totally crumbled, beats us. But we know that the hallucination of the PDP that it would be allowed to wreck Lagos the way it wrecked Nigeria despite trillions of oil wealth it plundered is premised on its legendary rigging prowess which is bound to fail as Nigerians yearn for a change in the stale polity the PDP has diligently erected since 1999.

“It was this belief that made the PDP indulge in large scale mopping up of voters cards using large amount of money for the purpose of rigging the forthcoming election. It is well known that today, the PDP is using amorphous groups and self-named NGOs to launder heavy cash as inducement for people to either surrender their PVCs or their PVC PIN numbers for ulterior motives during the forth coming election.

We know the groups, mainly Igbo groups and traders organizations the PDP is using to buy and con the cards of voters in Lagos and in due season we shall reveal the groups and individuals involved in this shady practice.”

AP, therefore, urged residents to disregard the diversionary allegations of the PDP and monitor closely some groups and individuals inducing innocent people all over Lagos with money to buy their voters cards.

From left: Mr. Kayode Opeifa, Commissioner of Transport, Mr. Ade Ipaye, Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice, Mr. Lateef Ibirogba, Commissioner of Information and Strategy and Mr. George Nuah, Lagos State Signage and Advertisement Agency, LASAA, at a news conference on activities of the Federal Road Maintenance Agency, FERMA, agents in Lagos state. Photo: Bunmi Azeez.

Tony Elumelu Foundation names new CEO

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HE board of Trustees of Tony Elumelu Foundation, yesterday, announced the appointment of Professor Reid E. Whitlock as Chief Executive of the Foundation. Professor Whitlock’s appointment follows Dr Wiebe Boer, the inaugural Chief Executive of the Foundation, becoming Director of Strategy at Heirs Holdings, Mr. Elumelu’s pan-African proprietary investment company.

Founded in 2010 by serial entrepreneur and philanthropist, Tony O. Elumelu, the Foundation is Africa’s leading advocate for entrepreneurship, responsible for programmes designed to ensure that entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship become the primary driver of Africa’s economic growth and social transformation.

Professor Whitlock brings thirty years of experience as a business school rector, diplomat, entrepreneur, strategy

consultant and advisor to leaders in Africa, Asia and the Middle East on economic development.

He received his Ph.D. and law degree from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. He also holds a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and is a cum laude graduate of Princeton University.

Commenting on Professor Whitlock’s appointment, Founding Patron of the Foundation, Professor Michael Porter said: “Tony’s commitment to African entrepreneurship is unshakeable and I salute his appointment of Professor Whitlock as the CEO of his Foundation.

Professor Whitlock has unique experience in driving competitiveness and entrepreneurship growth in Africa, including Rwanda, that has achieved remarkable progress. I look forward to continuing to support Tony, as he

Lawyers flay election postponement

By Bartholomew Madukwe

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WO Lagos based lawyers, Dr. Wilfred Mamah and Derin Fagbure, have stated that the postponement of Nigeria’s general election 2015, by INEC chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, raises a structural challenge of disorder and lack of accountability in the country.

In a statement, the lawyers posited that INEC’s admitted un-readiness, after four years of costly preparation, was a clear demonstration that the Nigerian people who have been counting on February 14, 2015 ,as the day to exercise their ultimate power of choice had not received value for their money.

The statement read in part: “The fact that Nigerians were led to believe that INEC was ready for the election raises

serious questions of transparency and credibility. The issues involved in this postponement are beyond the textual interpretation of the Constitution and/or Electoral Act. The Nigerian people, as the embodiment of laws, should be the benchmark for testing the reasonableness of this postponement.

By this postponement, the new date for the Governorship and Legislative elections has been set for 11 April 2015.”

Mamah and Fagbure explained that with the postponement, INEC has shown itself to be either incompetent or grossly negligent. “Their actions and inactions had caused serious psychological dent on Nigerians, home and abroad. The attendant social, political and economic costs are massive. Internationally, INEC’s lethargy gravely affects

our national image and fuels the growing perception of corruption and disorder.

“In an ordered society, there should be a price to pay for incompetence or negligence.

Therefore, it is right and proper that INEC be reprimanded for this breach of trust. For all the political parties, this delay and general disquiet it has caused should send a clear signal that there is a higher stake in the 2015 elections. That stake is the very survival of the State itself. Therefore, all political actors must cautiously guard their words and actions.

“For the general public, delay is not denial. Let this postponement serve as a wake-up call for all eligible voters to pick up their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) and prepare to exercise and defend their ultimate right to affirm or revoke power, they asserted."

furthers Africa’s revival through the great work of the Tony Elumelu Foundation.”

President Paul Kagame of Rwanda stated: “I am delighted to hear of Reid Whitlock’s appointment as the CEO of Tony’s Foundation. Reid’s work was instrumental in improving Rwanda’s public sector service delivery, competitiveness, and business education. As CEO of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, he now has a unique platform to ensure this work continues across Africa.”

Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Tony Elumelu said: “As Dr. Boer becomes Director of Strategy for Heirs Holdings, I want to thank him for the leadership he has provided, helping transform the Tony Elumelu Foundation from just an idea into a preeminent global philanthropic institution."

Man kills neighbour with scissors

By Esther Onyegbula

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HE Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Yaba,has detained one Ibrahim Tijani for allegedly killing his neighbour at Okun, Ogombo area of Ajah.

Vanguard gathered that the suspect purportedly used a pair of scissors to stab his neighbour to death after chopping off his hands during a minor misunderstanding which degenerated into a fight.

The victim, Bashorun, it was gathered, sustained injuries on his chest before and reportedly bled to death before he could get help.

The case, which was initially reported to Ogombo Police Division on the first week of February, had been transferred to Lagos State Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Yaba, for further investigation.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015—11

Obasanjo, Nigeria’s Number One enemy —FAYOSE E

KITI State Governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as the number one enemy of Nigeria, saying: “He is a confusionist who has lost his status as a statesman and Nigerians should simply ignore him.”

The governor, who expressed confidence that President Goodluck Jonathan will be reelected to complete his eight year-term, added: “Obasanjo is only fighting President Jonathan because he prevented him (Obasanjo) from ruling Nigeria from his Ota Farm.”

In a statement issued yesterday by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said: “Obasanjo is a cancer that may never get cured in a lifetime.

The moment Obasanjo is not the one controlling a house, he will want the house pulled down but this time around, he has failed.

“Obasanjo has always benefited from the misfortune of others and he is living with the impression that he is the wisest person in the whole world.

When Murtala Mohammed was murdered in 1976, Obasanjo was the beneficiary.

In 1993, he said the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, late Chief MKO Abiola, was not the

messiah Nigeria needed.

Instead of Obasanjo to join the clamour for the actualisation of Abiola’s mandate, Obasanjo was canvassing for an Interim National Government, which he schemed to head.

“MKO Abiola died in detention in 1998 and Obasanjo became the beneficiary of his (Abiola) death. Despite the fact that it was the blood of MKO Abiola that Obasanjo marched on to power, not even a street

was named after Abiola throughout Obasanjo’s eight years as president.

“Today, Obasanjo is fighting President Jonathan, the man who has done what he failed to do for Abiola, the Yoruba people and Nigerians as a whole when he was president for eight years, simply because he does not want anyone to equal his record as Nigeria’s longest serving president.

“President Jonathan has made

VISIT: Oyo State Labour Party governorship candidate, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, (right) and Asigangan of Igangan, Chief Lasisi Olaoye, during a visit to the monarch in his palace during campaigns in the area.

POLLS SHIFT: Group tells Jega to resign

By Anozie Egole

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the 2015 general elections linger, a civil society group, Move on Nigeria, has asked the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, to resign over allegations that he is being partial and having an affiliation with a political party. The group also said that Jega has failed in the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, which is one of the major materials for the election.

Addressing newsmen in Ikeja, the National Coordinator of Move on Nigeria, Mr. Clem Aguiyi, urged Jega to allow Nigerians vote with their Temporary Voter Cards, TVC’s if the PVCs are not available.

His words: “The reason for the poll postponement as advised by the National Security Adviser at Chatham House, London, on the 15th of January, is that INEC’s attempt to disenfranchise 23 million Nigerians, something that has never happened before in the history of this country, is a security risk. The National Security Adviser was concerned that such an unprecedented

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it impossible for Obasanjo to run his presidency for him and for this reason, he is supporting Buhari, hoping that he will be the one to nominate ministers for Buhari if he becomes president. However, I have this bad news for Obasanjo. Nigeria is not his football that he can kick around as he likes.

President Jonathan will be reelected and Nigeria will be freed from Obasanjo's bondage once and for all.”

disenfranchisement could lead to an avoidable civil strife which our armed forces would have to deal with at a time when the army should be focused on the current war against insurgents. The major issue is that INEC has failed Nigerians in the distribution of PVCs and seeks to blindfold millions of Nigerians whose right to vote he seeks to truncate.

“We make bold to say that the INEC chairman is playing poker

with the distribution of PVCs. He has decided to help the opposition party, All Progressives Congress, APC, rig the election by depriving parts of the country that would traditionally vote for Jonathan of their cards while the part of the country that would traditionally vote for Buhari are armed with the cards. He should give people their PVCs and if that is not available, he should make provision for people to vote with

their TVCs. In 2011, Jega conducted a free, fair and credible election with the TVCs. I don’t know why he chose to waste the country’s money on PVC’s which can lead to anarchy if not controlled." Jega is an honourable man and he should honourably resign if he is not ready to conduct a free, fair and credible elections. The President has made every effort to ensure that every voter’s vote counts but the question now is, how independent is INEC?"

PDP, greatest threat to democracy, says Osun APC

By Gbenga Olarinoye

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LL Progressives Congress, APC, in Osun State has described the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s recent tactics to elongate the transition programme as the greatest threat to democracy in the country.

The APC, in a statement in Osogbo, yesterday, by its Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy, Mr Kunle Oyatomi, noted that the PDP, “unless it pulls back from its desperation to stay in power at all costs, it may very well self-

destruct and in the process, terminate the current democratic dispensation in Nigeria.”

The statement read in part : “In a clinical assessment of the actions of the PDP in the last four weeks, which has led to the postponement of the February 14 presidential polls, and in the run up to the new date of March 28, the PDP is again flying two dangerously destructive kites."

The APC claimed that it had come to the conclusion that the PDP has become the greatest threat to the survival of the current democratic

dispensation in Nigeria.

According to the APC: “The foremost leadership of the PDP and its strategic operatives appeared to have lost all sense of caution, responsibility and concern for the survival of democracy in Nigeria and would do any and everything abominable to retain power. The PDP is not even bothered that already what it has caused the country, in terms of economic and political instability as a result of its abortion of the February 14 presidential election has patently overheated the polity."

Polls shift, opportunity for INEC to get ready — OSUNTOKUN

By Dayo Johnson

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KURE—THE postponement of the election is an opportunity for the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to remedy “its apparent lack of preparedness to conduct a minimally credible presidential election."

South-West zone of the Presidential Campaign Council of the Peoples Democratic Party said this in a statement in Akure.

The campaign council Chairman, Publicity subcommittee, Chief Akin Oshuntokun, said it is a matter of great concern that INEC appears unconcerned about such potentially explosive and puzzling lapse of sharp disparities in the distribution of the Permanent Voter cards PVCs, which systematically puts a section of the country at clear advantage while putting others at severe disadvantage.

He said: “A distribution pattern in which insurgency ravaged areas record over 70 per cent collection rate of PVCs to the 40 per cent average distribution rate in the relatively stable and peaceful South-West calls for concern and most certainly requires a lot of explanation.

“The more puzzling still is the surprising acquiescence of the All Progressives Congress, APC, leadership in the South-West in an emergent electoral situation in which majority of voters in the zone would have been disenfranchised.”

It said further that there is no more eloquent demonstration of this tacit endorsement and connivance than the description of the postponement as a ‘coup against democracy’ by the APC national leader Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu.

“For the APC leadership to have referred to the postponement of the election dates as a coup against democracy, even as it became apparent that about 60 per cent of the people of the region would not have been able to vote, is sheer wickedness and a coup against the people they claim to lead.”

12—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Ignore Obasanjo, concentrate on your good work, Bozimo tells Jonathan

By Akpokona Omafuaire

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ARRI—FORMER Minister of Police Affairs in the administration of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Alaowei Broderick Bozimo, has advised President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to ignore his former boss and focus on educating the electorate on the developmental strides of the Jonathan administration.

Bozimo, in Warri, Delta State, weekend, during a chat with Vanguard at his waterfront country home, said: “Obasanjo's attacks on Jonathan don’t worry me. As you know, Obasanjo remains my boss. He is a friend and I respect him a lot. We worked well together but you know, Obasanjo the politician is not Obasanjo the friend that I know.

“So, in politics you don’t have permanent friends, you only have permanent interests. It doesn’t worry me because I remain totally loyal

Ex-militant leader alleges threat to life

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FORMER militant leader, Mr Aboy, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police, Suleiman Abba, over an alleged threat to his life by a serving senator in Delta State.

He alleged that the senator was threatening his life with militants and thugs over what he described as failure of the said senator’s favoured aspirant to clinch the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, ticket for the National Assembly seat in Bomadi/Patani federal constituency in the PDP primaries.

In the two-page petition, Aboy said that during the PDP primaries for the House of Representatives, he (Aboy) worked against the favoured aspirant of the senator, hence the plot to take his life.

He explained: “At the end of the recent PDP primaries in Bomadi Local Government Area, the aspirant I supported came victorious. Since then the Senator has been after my life by trying to use policemen, militants and men of the Department of State Services to arrest me in the guise that I didn’t submit my arms when the amnesty was declared for former fighters."

to the Jonathan Presidency and I believe that, because President Jonathan is not a do or die president.

“I believe that we should be patient. Like I said before, we will be surprised at what will happen on election day once the process is free and fair. It is not by how many bigwigs

who are throwing their weights behind them.

“Eventually, the Nigerian electorate must decide the outcome of this election and I would advise the President to go on patiently, reminding Nigerians and the world of his achievements.

“The PDP should go into the

social media. That is where the opposition seems to be making all the noise from. PDP should go to the social media and meet them word for word, project for project and I believe that the superior argument will prevail, more so when there are hard facts of Jonathan’s achievements.”

VISIT: PDP governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, at the palace of the Paramount Ruler of Ika, Obong Stephen Isonguyo, during the visit of Governor Godswill Akpabio and the PDP governorship campaign team to the area.

A-Ibom monarch tasks politicians on peaceful campaigns

By Chioma Onuegbu

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YO—PARAMOUNT Ruler of Ikono Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Edidem Nyong Obop, has advised politicians and the different political parties to adopt peaceful politicking as they traverse the local government areas of the state soliciting for votes in the forthcoming general elections.

Obop, who gave the advice during an interaction with newsmen, weekend, at his palace, said politicians must understand that winning an election must not be a do or die affair.

He frowned at the ongoing campaigns that have been dominated by calumny, character assassination, and blackmail, thereby creating tension and heating up the political atmosphere, adding that for the state and country to achieve a credible and violence free elections, peaceful campaigning should be the watchword.

He said: “Politicians should learn that they must play

politics in peace and not in pieces. It is not a do or die affair for someone to win in an election. I don’t like the character assassinations and blackmails being employed by politicians and political parties in their ongoing campaigns.

“So, my advice and prayer is that they should carry out politicking in peace. And my

advice goes to all of them including the political class in Ikono council. It is my responsibility as the Edidem of Ikono to ensure that there is calm, objectivity, and peace before, during and after the elections.

“So, I am making sure that I achieve those parameters in my domain in the coming general elections."

POLLS SHIFT : Onuesoke warns against attacks on Jonathan

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PEOPLES Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has warned critics to desist from vituperations against President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that despite the name calling, the President has performed better than most of those attacking him.

Onuesoke, who addressed a group of Urhobo residents in Ajegunle, Lagos, said critics must stop attacking the person of the President because it was undemocratic, uncivilised and

immature for anyone to point fingers at Mr. President.

He pointed out that it was wrong for anyone to make derogatory comments to spite Mr. President in order to score cheap political points, stressing that such acts cannot happen in developed countries such as America, France, Britain, Germany, among others.

“Whether we like it or not, Jonathan as the sitting President of Nigeria is the symbol of the country. Abusing and calling him names will not take us anywhere," he said.

Edo North senatorial candidate unveils blueprint

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LL Progressives Congress, APC, senatorial candidate in Edo North, Major Francis Alimikhena (rtd), has presented his development blueprint to the people of Edo North senatorial district, saying that the blueprint can be used as his appraisal list to examine him and judge his performance when voted in as a senator in the forthcoming elections.

Presenting copies of the blueprint to a cross section of supporters and chiefs at the Club three ward comprising Agbede, Anwai and Jagbe all in Etsako West Local Government Areas of the state, he assured the people that he will bring back the glory of the senatorial district if elected.

He said: “The strength to deliver on my promises is not coming from my physical capacity but an indomitable will.”

Gbaramatu youths drum up support for Jonathan

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OLLOWING the postponement of the general elections to March 28 and April 11, youths of Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area, Delta State, have appealed to Nigerians to re-elect President Goodluck Jonathan to enable him consolidate on his laudable achievements.

The youths, led by Timi Oluba, also commended Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan for supporting the reelection of President Jonathan.

Oluba, who spoke, yesterday in Benin, Edo State, said: “Governor Uduaghan is committed to the re-election of President Jonathan and we want other Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governors to emulate Uduaghan and ensure Jonathan wins the election.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015—13

BAYELSA AUTO TRAGEDY: Govt declares threeday mourning in honour of SSG's wife, others

By Samuel Oyadongha

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ENAGOA—FRESH facts have emerged on the status of some of the women, who died on Saturday in Bayelsa State, in a tragic accident near the old Ahoada Market Road along the Rivers State stretch of the EastWest Road.

The victims, mostly women members of the nongovernmental group, Women for Change Initiatives and members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were returning to Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital after a private visit to the First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, in her country home of Okrika in Rivers State.

The Bayelsa women leaders, who lost their lives in the accident include former member of the state House of Assembly from Akassa and former Special Adviser to Governor Seriake Dickson on Women Mobilisation, Mrs. Ruby Benjamin; a former Commissioner for Women Affairs under the administration of Governor Timipre Sylva, Mrs Gimbra Pamowei, and a Permanent Secretary simply identified as Mrs. Perekalama.

Others include the wife of the Secretary to the State Government, Mrs. Elizabeth Alison-Oguru and a Woman Leader from Otuoke Community in Ogbia Local Government Area, Madam Consider Amadi and Mrs. Abila.

Also killed in the accident was the owner of a popular Montessori school in Yenagoa, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained.

It was gather that one of the women and former Bayelsa State Commissioner, Ebisinte Ayabowei survived the accident but in bad condition.

The former Commissioner for Transport, Mrs. Marie Ebikake, who was also in Okrika on the private visit was reported to have driven back to Yenagoa in a separate vehicle and escaped being part of the ill-fated journey.

The three vehicles involved were identified as a Toyota Hiace Bus numbered GBB 591 FS, which caught fire, Toyota Siena numbered ABU 640 AE and Toyota Highlander Jeep numbered YEN 371 RJ. The cause of accident was blamed on a burst tyre of the vehicle in front while the other rammed into it.

The injured were taken to Madonna Hospital in Elele by the Police who first got to the scene.

The corpse of one of the victims was deposited at Oepdem Mortuary in Ahoada while police took another corpse to Rumuji.

Nine others were burnt beyond recognition.”

Meanwhile, the Bayelsa State

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Government, has declared three days mourning in honour of the women.

Governor Henry Dickson of Bayelsa State, yesterday expressed pains, shock and grief over the accident.

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Organisation, APCPCO, has commiserated with the people and government of Bayelsa State over the death of the prominent women in the state in the accident.

Dickson in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, described the

incident as tragic, monumental and painful loss to the state, adding “The women that lost their lives in the accident are our mothers and sisters.”

He prayed God to grant the bereaved families the courage and strength to bear the very painful and irreparable losses.

He added: “All official engagements of the governor have been suspended for three days as a mark of honour and respect for the souls of the departed women.”

A statement by the Director of Media and Publicity of APCPCO,

Malam Garba Shehu, urged families of all those who may have lost their loved ones in the tragedy to take solace in the comfort of God. It said: “It is with a painful heart that we commiserate with the people and Government of Bayelsa over the ghastly auto crash involving some supporters of the First Lady.

“We pray that God will grant the bereaved families the fortitude to bear the losses. We urge the people and government of Bayelsa State to be comforted and strengthened by God as they grieve over the loss of dear ones.”

AUTO CRASH: Scene of accident which claimed the lives of the wife of Bayelsa SSG and other prominent women of Bayelsa State, at Ahoada along the Rivers State stretch of the East-West Road, Saturday.

INEC raises alarm over alleged ploy by politicians to infiltrate adhoc staff

By Simon Ebegbulem

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ENIN—THE Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, in Edo State, Mr. Mike Igini, has raised alarm over alleged plot by politicians who are making frantic attempts to infiltrate adhoc staff of the Commission such as the National Youth Service Corp, NYSC, members with a view to manipulating the elections.

Promising that INEC was set to eliminate rigging in the forthcoming general elections, he admonished politicians to look for popular candidates else they will lose the elections no matter how they try to manipulate the process.

Igini disclosed this weekend, in Benin City, during a meeting with leaders of political parties in the state.

He said: “If you look at the history of INEC, it was initially making use of civil servants at the state level and primary

school teachers as obtained in other parts of the world. But because of the level of collusion and connivance, INEC decided to go into partnership with NYSC and other federal agencies.

“What do we find today in the political class? Politicians are

now doing everything to infiltrate the NYSC, as you can see fake corpers these days. Because of the shift, we are going to do a refresher course for them again, particularly for the NYSC people. I don’t know what this country is turning into."

POLLS: Cleric endorses Jonathan, Wike

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HE Archbishop of ElShaddai Ministries, Rt. Rev. El-Kannah Hansen, has endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan, saying that the president’s transformation agenda should be executed to its logical conclusion.

Archbishop Hansen also endorsed the Rivers State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, governorship candidate, Mr Nyesom Wike, to emerge as the next governor of the state.

Hansen, yesterday, at the Royal House of Grace International Church in Port

Harcourt, said that all those conspiring against President Jonathan’s second term will fail as the President has been ordained by God to lead Nigeria at this time.

The cleric said in Rivers State, Wike will emerge as governor because he has been prepared by God to take critical steps that will revive the state.

Speaking at the church service, Mr Wike said no amount of blackmail and false propaganda will stop President Jonathan’s reelection.

Uduaghan assures farmers of protection from herdsmen

By Festus Ahon

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G H E L L I — GOVERNOR Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State has assured farmers in the state of adequate protection from the aggression of some cattle herdsmen.

Uduaghan, weekend, while commissioning a network of nine internal road projects at OvworOlomu in Ughelli South Local Government Area of the state, said that his administration will not tolerate situations where herdsmen would continue to make farmlands unsafe for farmers.

He said: “We are ready to accept visitors who have genuine business in our state but our visitors should not be problem to us. Let me assure our farmers that government is doing a lot to secure our people, especially, farmers. We have never heard of cattle herdsmen carrying AK 47 rifles, raping women or even killing people in the bush, but, it is happening now and we must stop it.”

Stop this war, Ijaw nation urges Jonathan, Obasanjo

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HE newly inaugurated President of the Ijaw National Congress Worldwide, INC, Chief Boma Obuoforibo, has called on former President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Goodluck Jonathan to stop the war of attrition between them.

Obuoforibo made the call while fielding questions from journalists at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja, yesterday.

He said: “As the leader of the umbrella socio-cultural organisation of the Ijaw, kinsmen of President Jonathan, I find the unending display of bitterness between the two Nigerian leaders as an illwind that blows no one any good.

“I appeal to all former heads of state to quickly intervene and reconcile these two leaders in the interest of the our dear nation.”

14— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2014 — 15

Polytechnics workers threaten to resume suspended strike

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru & Bartholomew Madukwe

A

BUJA—WORKERS in the nation’s Polytechnics weekend threatened to resume their suspended nationwide strike over failure of Federal Government to implement agreements entered into with the workers through their unions.

The workers are also aggrieved following alleged circular from the office of the Minister of Education suspending the implementation of CONTISS 15 in the Polytechnics contrary to the agreement entered into between the sector and the government.

On the platform of the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, Senior Staff Association of Nigeria Polytechnics, SSANIP and the Non Academic Staff Union of Educational Associated Institutions, NASU, in a statement titled, “Breakdown of Industrial Peace looms in the Polytechnic sector”, they said; “The attention of the unions has been drawn to

a circular FME/S/66/C.2/11/ 270 dated 26th January, 2015 emanating from the office of Honourable Minister of Education purported to have suspended the implementation of CONTISS 15 in Polytechnics without recourse to the spirit and letters of agreement with the unions in the sector.

“Recall that the unions in the sector were on strike throughout the preceding

year following the refusal of government to act responsibly and honour agreements signed with the unions. In deference to the then newly appointed Hon Minister’s plea for time, and to his strong assurances that the thorny issues would be resolved within three months, the unions resolved to give the government a benefit of the doubt and suspended the strike in July 2014.

Obiano inaugurates youth empowerment scheme

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N E W I — GOVERNOR Willie Obiano of Anambra State, has said the inauguration of the State Youth Skills and Empowerment Scheme at the Technology Incubation Centre, Nnewi is a fulfillment of his promise to establish three vocational centres, one in each of the three senatorial zones of the state.

Trainees at the Nnewi centre in Anambra South Senatorial zone are expected to undergo three

weeks training on ICT, soap making, spare-parts fabrication and production of car wash liquid detergents, among other products.

Governor Obiano said this was the first batch of the programme which involved five hundred youths selected from the twenty-one local government areas of Anambra State.

He said the second batch of trainees would involve youths from all the councils until the two other centres designated for Anambra Central and Anambra North zones came on stream.

VALENTINE RAVE: From left, DJ Jimmy Jatt, Nigerian Musician, Chidima Ekile and Former Super Eagles Captain, Austin JJ Okocha at the MTN Valentine Rave in Eko Hotel, Lagos on Saturday.

ALLEGED BIAS: Resign now, ex-envoy tells Jega

By Chidi Nkwopara

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W E R R I — F O R M E R Nigeria’s Ambassador to Congo, Chief Greg Mbadiwe, has called on the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Altahiru Jega, to resign immediately, over alleged inability to respond to allegations of partisanship and gross dereliction of duty leveled

against him.

Chief Mbadiwe, member of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP’s Presidential Committee on Media and Publicity, claimed in a statement in Owerri that since it was obvious that Prof Jega had compromised himself before the rival All Progressives Congress, APC, PDP no longer reposed confidence in his ability to conduct elections.

“It was a matter of regret

that Prof Jega lied to the nation when he had earlier declared that INEC was ready to conduct the elections whereas even materials were not yet ready,” Mbadiwe said.

He claimed the PDP was in possession of proof of Jega’s alliance with APC to rig out PDP in the coming elections, noting that the pattern of distribution of Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, was a pointer “to the unholy alliance”.

16— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 — 17

18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 THE scandalous performance of governments, with very rare exceptions, should be one of the issues to be judged as Nigerians vote for their future,a future that exceptional incompetence has suspended in the past 16 years. It is frightening that those who failed to make positive changes in Nigeria’s affairs, are once again at the verge of hijacking it to sustain their selfish interests.

Either through surrogates, who are promising a freshness alien to them, or directly by themselves, they want to consign the future of Nigerians to the inattentive treatment it received since 1999. It is up to Nigerians to resist this with their votes.

Only those who can govern well and individuals who have the potentials of making laws that could improve the lives of Nigerians should get the votes.

The last few months have witnessed attempts at confusing the people. Security, food, housing, education, health, water, electricity,employment, and justice are being promised more stridently. Nigerians have endured unnecessary hardship since 1999 because state governments with the

By Chuks Iloegbunam

W

OLE SOYINKA knows that, in linguistics, there is something called register. Yet, while addressing students at a recent Lagos gathering, the Nobel laureate employed an elevated language suitable for addressing an international literary convention. Why? The answer must be found in the acute dilemma Soyinka found himself in. This author of such books as Death and the King’s Horseman and The Trials of Brother Jero, could easily have toned his speech to a level his listeners would readily understand. Instead, he delved into polysyllables, incessant subordinations and wanton opacity. Not without a good reason.

Soyinka, intelligent as he is, was aware that his speech on the occasion represented a total redefinition of all he had stood for through his adult life, a complete repudiation of his national philosophy, a philosophy that, through time, guided his writings, his pronouncements, his actions and his associations. We are talking of the man who, in October 1965, seized an Ibadan radio station at gunpoint, to make an anti-feudal statement. We are talking of a man who, during the Second Republic, ventured into partisan politics by aligning with the likes of Chinua Achebe and Uche Chukwumerije, to pitch tent with Mallam Aminu Kano’s left-leaning Peoples Redemption Party (PRP). We are talking of a man who, in the politics of the First and Second Republics, came down heavily C M Y K

Nigerians, Their Future connivance of the powers in Abuja elected backwardness, and at best a blurred future, for the country. Ravaging poverty has reduced the people to helplessness never seen in these parts.

Yet the obscene opulence of the campaigns, funded mostly from public funds, is another reminder to voters to be careful in choosing who manages the country from May 29.

Democracy and the people are hurting.

Those who want to play by the rule have been taught the bitter lesson that lawlessness is order. The overbearing conduct of our leaders saw many of them breaching laws to have their ways in

appointing their successors, and foisting on us future parliamentarians who belong to the same retrogressive past. Voters should choose wisely.

All those who have abused their offices, neglected the people, created communal conflicts to feather their interests, must be denied the chance to continue the waste of our people and their opportunities. The choices made would either help us or hurt us for the next four years, and more.

Clashes within the political class keep exposing the secrets about the despoliation of Nigeria in the last four years. Many of those who participated in ruining the country are so full of their self-importance they continue to count their contagious crimes as blessings for this country.

The search is on for leaders who will retrieve Nigeria from the precipice many of those in power condemned it to since 1999.

The new leaders should be able to put Nigeria firmly on the path of irreversible prosperity, security, law and order, even with the economic challenges.

Such men and women abound - voters should find them, elect them.

OPINION Soyinka's seismic shift and stood resolutely on the side of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Does Professor Soyinka regard Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), as a credible successor of Chief Awolowo as the Yoruba leader? Does he in any way confuse the posturing of the APC as remotely or tangentially related to even the widest interpretations of political progressivism?

As the man who declaimed that, “Justice is the first condition of humanity”, did he critically look at all sides of everything, and did he adequately assess the administration of President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, and did he arrive at his damning verdict based on findings valid on the crucible of justice, equity and fairness? Apparently, it didn’t occur to Soyinka that those certain to be shocked by his about-face would be deserving of some explanation, he being the only high priest on whose altar Ifa divination is

A man with a contemporary Draconian past seeking the people’s electoral mandate deserves better than being studied “from a distance"

possible. He, therefore, couched his speech to school children in obscurantism, thinking obviously that, the less easy to grasp his presentation, the less flak he would get for what amounts to a disservice to history.

To be sure, Soyinka has the right to refuse to vote, as the Nigerian Constitution does not censure or criminalize non-voting by citizens. He has the right to campaign against any candidate. But he set tongues wagging by stating that, “It is pointlessly, and dangerously provocative to present General Buhari as something that he probably was not. It is however just as purblind to insist that he has not demonstrably striven to become what he most glaringly was not, to insist that he has not been chastened by intervening experience and – most critically - by a vastly transformed environment – both the localized and the global.”

There isn’t any doubt regarding what Buhari was not. He never was a democrat!

But it is disingenuous to state that the former military dictator has “demonstrably striven” to shake off his authoritarian past, to insist that Buhari has “been chastened by intervening experience” and “a vastly transformed environment.” Soyinka may have been addressing school kids. But his audience breached his toddlers’ perimetres. Where is the evidence of the chastened Buhari? If “most critically”, “a vastly transformed environment” left previous despots

chastened and amenable to democratic propensities, what has the world been experiencing under Egyptian General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s democratic government? Was it not under a “democratic dispensation” that General Olusegun Obasanjo wiped out Odi and Zaki Biam?

It has become Soyinkaesque to posit that an elected Buhari would not be repressive because he would be operating under a democratic dispensation! Was apartheid not practiced under a democratic dispensation? Did not Hitler become German Chancellor by the democratic vote? It appears the only answer Soyinka has to these and similar questions is a string of sentences strewn together by an unconvincing statement. He is now rooting for a Buhari presidency because he has “studied him from a distance, questioned those who have closely interacted with him, including his former running-mate, Pastor Bakare, and dissected his key utterances past and current.”

A man with a contemporary Draconian past seeking the people’s electoral mandate deserves better than being studied “from a distance”. Little wonder Soyinka came by the conclusion that he found “A plausible transformation that comes close to that of another ex-military dictator, Mathew Kerekou of the Benin Republic.”

Continues tomorrow •Mr. Iloegbunam, an author, wrote from Lagos.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015— —19

By Dan Amor

P

OOR Attahiru Jega! The distinguished Professor of political science and Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is once again in the dock. Indeed, the first salvo against Jega in the court of public opinion is that he is biased. Those who say that Jega is biased cite his now aborted plot to create 30,000 polling booths eighty per cent of which would have been located in the North as evidence of his ploy to give his side of the country an edge over the rest of the country. Another charge against Jega is to the effect that the umpire has kowtowed to pressure from the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to disenfranchise voters who are seen to be sympathetic to President Goodluck Jonathan and his ruling Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP). The story making the rounds in Lagos is that INEC, in solidarity with APC, has denied the Igbo who constitute more than 46 per cent of the population in Lagos the Permanent Voter Card (PVC).

According to fillers from the nation's commercial headquarters, INEC has asked Lagosians to go get their PVCs from the 20 local government areas and the 37 local council development areas created by its immediate past governor, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu who is currently the national leader of the APC. According to The Guardian of Thursday February 5, 2013, "There are sordid tales of woe from many Lagos residents and environs, four days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) extended the deadline for the collection of Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to Sunday February 8, 2015 as they troop

INEC in a season of high profile inanities out to their various registration centers to collect their PVCs without success. For those residents, the collection of their cards, a prerequisite for casting their votes in the February 14 general elections has either been deliberately made difficult by some individuals for selfish reasons or a deliberate plot to smear INEC's image and efforts towards superintending a successful election."

In the usually conservative orientations of the paper, its report was very correct but not very elaborate enough to give its readers the benefit of forming their opinions on this very topical issue at the apogee of our national discourse. A more detailed report would have included the fact that almost one hundred percent of those facing the logic of being disenfranchised in Lagos much against the tenets of the Electoral Act, are Nigerians of South East and South South origin, an aspect of political persecution.

How the PVCs got o the hands of APC political jobbers must be investigated right away. It is benumbing that INEC stooped so low as to hand over the distribution of PVCs to politicians who ask the electorate to thumb print before they are given the voter cards in Lagos. The reader should read about the plight of prospective registered voters from the South east and South south who are resident in Lagos in the February 8 edition of The Niche On Sunday. More alarming is the fact that without adequate preparation, INEC told the world that it was ready for the elections.

How ready is INEC for elections when more than 20 million prospective registered

By Egheomhanre Eyieyien

T

HE above statement is one of the many promises that Mr. Muhammadu Buhari has made in his bid to be our President, the fourth time around.

I had not noticed the bill-board carrying that promise till a few minutes ago in the Gbagada area of Lagos. I was actually on the watch for it this time because a friend called me last night to draw my attention to it. This is what he said about it: "It is either that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, APC, have not done their home-work or they are sure most Nigerians do not critically analyse electoral promises. At a meager N100 (One hundred Naira only) per meal for each child and at the current School Enrolment Level nationwide, an APCled Federal Government would require at least N700,000,000,000 (Seven hundred billion Naira only) per annum to fund the One Meal A Day Promise.

And we know that no Nigerian government would award a contract of N100 per meal".

Anyone who is familiar with public finances in Nigeria can immediately see that the One Meal Per Day Promise is not worth the billboards that carry it! With a Federal Budget that now averages N5Trillion per annum, it is clearly impossible to commit about 14% of the total budget just to feed primary school pupils once a day. And no child can be fed at N100 per meal even if it is Soaked Gari and Sugar that the APC plans to give the children!

C M Y K

voters are yet to get their voter cards? How prepared is it when even its 700,000 ad hoc staff are yet to be trained and the training manuals yet to be released? Why try to blackmail Jonathan and the military with the half-truth that it is postponing the elections because of insecurity in the North-east when it is obvious that it failed to do its work well? Why the hoopla over shift in election date when it is certain that INEC is not ready for the exercise? The Electoral Act states clearly that elections could be held at least not less than 30 days to the hand over date. What this means is that INEC has the mandate to shift any election to a date not exceeding April 26. Apart from politicising the PVCs distribution in Lagos, Kaduna and Kano, the initial refusal of

They are trying to criminalise the Federal government and the Nigerian military for what is clearly the shortcomings of INEC. Is the military and government to blame for the failure of INEC to distribute the 23 million PVCs to registered voters?

the Prof. Attahiru Jega- led electoral body to shift forward the date of the elections inspite of its obvious shortcomings was the height of impunity. In a more serious and fundamental sense, Jega must explain to Nigerians why and how the distribution of the PVCs suddenly become the sole responsibility of the APC. I refuse to see this as a manifestation of the muchtalked-about elite conspiracy against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan.

Iam inclined to say here that my joy springs from the fact that Nigerians have now come to the realization that democracy is better than dictatorship. The President's Spartan outing in his campaign rallies across the country to confirm his transformational strides and his overwhelming endorsement by various interest groups across the country is a huge testimony to the fact that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is once again coasting to victory in the Presidential and National Assembly elections. The rallies depicted Jonathan's persona, his exuding energy, dogged political savvy, unprecedented achievements in all sectors of the economy and commitment to the Nigerian project. What some of us are saying is that we have come to the stage in our political development when every Nigerian must adhere to the tenets of democracy. No matter your commitment, real or imagined, to the fight against corruption, no matter your plan to curb insurgency in the land, if you don't adhere to the principles of the rule of law you will end up promoting more corruption and insecurity in the country. What we must first address in our country is the

Of one meal a day and real change The APC knows it will not keep this promise. It is just about sloganeering.

It's pretty much like its promise that it would "not tolerate corruption" when public funds are being used blatantly to finance Mr. Buhari's electoral campaigns.

So why does the APC make such irrational promises?

Simple: DECEPTION. The party's strategy to take power is to deceive the people. The David Axlerod strategists have told the APC that all it need do to win over most Nigerians (and especially the young, educated, patriotic, middle-class types) is to speak about "change". After all, who does not want some change? Who does not aspire for something better? Life is about aiming higher, achieving more faster, better and more efficiently. Every product or service provider knows the power of offering more, faster and better.

You can't fail with your customers with such hype.

Nigerians must insist on truth from the APC. And from the PDP too. We must no longer countenance deceit in our politics

And the APC has adopted that strategy.

But it is not offering anything better. It is merely about packaging or, more accurately, REPACKAGING. So Mr. Muhammadu Buhari has been repackaged into a suave, sharpdressing, urbane, metrosexual, alphamale....much like something airbrushed and which you would ordinarily see in a magazine like Gentleman's Quarterly, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Men's Health or Ebony.

His history is revised. His past is forgotten. His hideous sins are forgiven.

The APC would have Nigerians believe that old things have passed away and all things about Mr. Buhari have become new. He is now "born-again"! A New, Improved Buhari.

So they ensure Mr. Buhari does not speak much. They know if he opens his mouth too much and too long as he used to do, the packaging will fall apart. He will speak from the abundance of his heart and it will be evident that he has not changed and so cannot offer change.

This is why he speaks for no longer than two minutes even at campaign rallies in the north where he can speak in his native tongue (Hausa) and not make the Queen squirm at his spoken English.

And this is why he cannot be part of any Presidential Debate. He would have to speak for more than two minutes and the facade of repackaging would fall apart for the entire world to see the Real Buhari.

Deception is a powerful thing. Lucifer uses it to great effect. He is the Father

culture of impunity which has degenerated to a rhythm of lawlessness. It is a season of highprofile inanities!

This culture of impunity is alien to the African setting. It is an authoritarian and totalitarian culture which was instituted by the military in our country.

General Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate and his supporters who are apologetic to this culture of impunity, are still threatening fire and brimstone if there is any further postponement of the elections. They are trying to criminalise the Federal government and the Nigerian military for what is clearly the shortcomings of INEC. Is the military and government to blame for the failure of INEC to distribute the 23 million PVCs to registered voters? Are they to blame for the failure of INEC to produce enough training materials for the elections? Are they to blame for INEC's inability to conduct training and simulation exercises for the over 700,000 ad hoc staff on the Card Readers and other necessary aspects of the election and deploy enough Card Readers to the states? Are the military and government to blame for INEC's inability to deploy new and functional printing machines to the 36 states and the FCT to print voters registers or revisit the PVCs contracts where the contractor for the software production is holding three others to ransom? Do we expect INEC to sweep all these facts under the carpet, go ahead to conduct elections and in the end cook up figures as authentic results? What constitute free, fair and credible elections? INEC should apologize to Nigerians and save us from hysteria in this season of high-profile inanities.

•Mr. Amor, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos.

of Lies and he knows how to deploy lies effectively. It worked with even God's Angels. A third of them followed his rebellion against God! It worked with Eve. It worked with Cain. It even worked with Abraham, God's Friend and the Father of Faith. Abraham almost lost his beautiful wife, Sarah, to Pharaoh and King Abimelech because he was deceived into thinking he needed to lie about their relationship so as not to lose her. The age-long contention between the Jews and the Arabs is also a consequence of Abraham succumbing to the sincere but deceitful counsel of his wife when tarrying for God's Promised Child didn't seem to make any more sense to her.

There is a panacea for deception. There is an irrefutable answer for lies. TRUTH. Nigerians must insist on truth from the APC. And from the PDP too. We must no longer countenance deceit in our politics. Do not make promises you have no plans to keep. Of course, because men are imperfect and only know in part at any given time, men can be sincere and make promises which they may eventually become unable to fulfil due to extraneous factors outside their control. With the best of intentions, men still fail. That is understandable. Only God is infallible. Only God's Promises are Yea and Amen.

But we are talking about political promises which are bare-faced lies ab initio. Promises conceived from hearts which were never meant to be kept. We must shine the Light of Truth on such lies.

•Mr. Eyieyien, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Lagos.

20—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

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OMETIMES you have this feeling that Nigerians can be a very gullible lot. Some of us can be very easily hoodwinked. We have a penchant to leave things that matter and pursue things that have only empty noise value.

Perhaps, people like General Olusegun Obasanjo discovered this long ago. That is why, in spite of his atrocities against the people and the country, even at his sensitive family level, some people still attach some importance to his words and activities when he ought to have been consigned to absolute ignominy long ago.

I am led to this sad conclusion after PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) submitted its forensic audit report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In a nutshell, PWC reveals there was no such thing as “missing 20 billion dollars” as alleged by former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who today sits pretty atop the royal throne of Kano as the Emir. The company says the National Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the NNPC needs to complete the process of remitting to the federation account the outstanding sum of 1.48billion US Dollars being an amount it earned from the sale of its assets. It also recommended the reform of operations of the NNPC, as they are no longer in tune with modern best practices.

PWC is a world class professional services company. There are only three others in its rank: KPMG, EY and Deloitte. PWC is the second largest of the lot. If PWC conducts a forensic audit and concludes that there was no “stolen” or “missing” money, that is case closed.

Indeed, even the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), which has the habit of demonising every institution of state, such as the Directorate of State Services (DSS), the NNPC, the Nigerian Army, Police and others for “ working for” the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the discharge of their duties, could not summon the venom to discredit PWC’s forensic audit report. All that the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said was that the NNPC “cooked” the report from the start, adding PWC merely audited documents submitted to it by the Corporation.

Lai’s statement betrays a limited knowledge of how genuine audits are carried out. The auditor usually summons every stakeholder or interest involved in the matter and extracts all the information they need to turn in a credible report of what actually happened. If all that an auditor does is

So, we were fooled! to audit only documents submitted to him, then it means he adds very little value to the process of looking for stolen, misappropriated or missing funds. An auditor is essentially a financial investigator.

When the Senate Committee on the “missing billions” started its work, it summoned every entity connected to oil revenue gathering and spending, such as NNPC, NPDC, Petroleum Pricing and Regulatory Agency, Federal Ministry of Finance, Minister of Petroleum Resources and a host of others.

After an exhaustive investigation, the Committee headed by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, submitted its report on May 29th 2014, with the conclusion that the alarm raised by the man who originated the confusion, former CBN Governor, Lamido Sanusi, was “incorrect” and “misleading”; a diplomatic way of saying he lied to the nation. The report was voraciously debated by a senate which by then had

For me, Sanusi making peace with the president does not amount to a presidential pardon.

Rather, the FRC report should be subjected to a forensic review to enable him clear his name.

Anything less amounts to Sanusi successfully fooling us and escaping under the cloud of the confusion he created

almost equal number of senators drawn from the ruling party and the opposition.

It came out with a firm verdict that there was no missing money, even though it indicted the NNPC for spending unappropriated funds on petroleum subsidy.

No missing money The Senate Committee and PWC investigations of this matter have made the total reform of the NNPC a task that can no longer wait. As long as the NNPC continues to operate under its current secret cult modus, there will always be questions surrounding its handling of our oil revenue.

Now, with the conclusion of the PWC forensic audit and the establishment of the fact that there was no missing money, what next? Should we just move on? I do not think so. Somebody took this nation for an expensive ride. Someone lied to Nigerians for his own personal closure. Does the law not have any punishment for that?

Mallam Sanusi was once a very vociferous defender of the economic policies of the President Goodluck Jonathan administration. We can remember very vividly how he stood solidly beside the Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi OkonjoIweala, in defending the bid to remove the subsidy on petroleum imports in January 2012. Somehow, towards the end of his five-year tenure at the CBN, Sanusi became drawn into the undercurrent moves to snatch power from President Jonathan and give it back to the North. According to reports released by the Financial Reporters Council of Nigeria (FRC) Sanusi was doling out huge sums of the CBN’s monies to schools and higher institutions in the North, including leaders of opposition parties from the North.

It was while this scandal was making its way to the public arena that Sanusi launched his counter-allegations against the Federal Government, Minister of Petroleum Resources and the NNPC. He started by saying that 49.8 billion US Dollars was not remitted to the federal coffers. When he came under fire by Ngozi-Iweala, Sanusi brought the amount down to 12 billion Dollars. Then, just before he was asked to proceed on a compulsory terminal leave, he jerked it up to 20 billion Dollars. For some Nigerians, it did not matter that a Central Bank governor was flip-flopping with figures which suggested he either did not know his job or he was simply playing political skittle with the rest of us. All that mattered was that Sanusi was a “brave whistleblower” “exposing” a large-scale “looting”, for which he was being “hounded” out of office. It has since become a powerful weapon in the hands of the opposition to brand the President Jonathan regime with unprecedented corruption.

It is up to Nigerians to decide if the man who caused this false commotion should get away with it. It is also up to them – and the government – to decide if Sanusi’s own alleged squandering of the CBN’s funds as reported by the FRC, should be swept under the carpet because he has become an emir and visited Aso Villa several times to “mend fences” with President Jonathan. For me, Sanusi making peace with the president does not amount to a presidential pardon. Rather, the FRC report should be subjected to a forensic review to enable him clear his name.

Anything less amounts to Sanusi successfully fooling us and escaping under the cloud of the confusion he created.

Let it, however, be noted that the President Goodluck Jonathan administration is the first presidency to probe itself. It has never happened before. This regime probed itself twice within eighteen months and successfully proved its innocence. It went beyond the Senate, which is constitutionally empowered to carry out the probe. It brought in a world class firm to confirm it. Before now, it was either successive regimes that probed earlier ones to buy legitimacy, or they simply did nothing about alleged missing moneys. Obasanjo even probed Buhari’s Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) and it was discovered that 25 billion Naira was “misappropriated”.

Yet not only did Obasanjo sweep the report under carpet, he has even come forward to endorse the same Buhari for election as President.

That is the country we live in.

OPINION

By Ibrahim Danbaba

A

GRICULTURE used to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. As oil revenue increased, successive governments out of lack of leadership vision ignored this economic multiplier until President Goodluck Jonathan administration made agriculture a top priority of his government. So far, the present government’s agricultural programmes have recorded appreciable gains that can be further leveraged to ensure self-sufficiency in food production and possibly economic stability in the face of dwindling oil price.

Nigerians, especially Christians who observe Christmas celebration and other end of the year festivities have always attested to the price hikes in almost all food types , especially rice. But December last year was a month that could be referred to as a signposted to the gains made by the Jonathan administration in the quest to boost food production and ensure that the journey towards self-sufficiency in agricultural practices reflects in practical terms in the quality of life. This was due to the 70 per cent growth in food production following the present government’s commitment, investment and efforts in the agricultural sector. The development is unprecedented in the history of the country since the oil boom.

It would be recalled that in 2011, the Jonathan administration took giant steps towards food sufficiency by initiating the Growth Enhancement Scheme (GES) through the Ministry of Agriculture. The GES programme was essentially designed to plug all the leakages in the fertilizer and agricultural components distribution programmes and ensure that farmers, rather than profiteering middlemen, access the components and the subsidies attached to them.

Last year’s Christmas celebration provided a window for an C M Y K

Return of an agro based economy assessment of the programme. In 2013, rice prices shot up by about 25 per cent during this high demand period. But in 2014, prices largely stabilised and citizens were able to purchase almost at the same rate they bought the previous year.

The Minister of Agriculture, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, recently said the current rice transformation policy would lead to the national goal of rice self-sufficiency.

“Nigerian rice farmers have increased output by over 2.8 million metric tonnes of rice paddy. The total output of paddy in the 2012 wet season and 2012/2013 dry season brought to the market an additional 1.409 million metric tonnes (MT) of paddy or 916,137 MT of milled rice from 403,222 hectares of cultivated land. By the 2013 wet season and 2013/2014 dry season, output more than doubled to 2.96 million MT of paddy or 1.92 MT of milled rice from 802,108 hectares of land.

“What this means is that if the current tempo is sustained and the area of land devoted to rice After two years cultivation were doubled, Nigeria of attempts, the would produce over and above the quantity of rice being imported, decision to leaving room for export.

“This has happened because embark on such through the GES programme, an ambitious government has given massive support to farmers. Without this, programme has the quantum jump in production proved would have been elusive.”

With increased farming worthwhile activities, government has also

solved employment problems along the way. Agriculture, being a critical employment enabler, experts say, has capacity to reduce the spiraling unemployment rate in the country significantly. There is no doubt that, so far, tremendous gains have been recorded in the sector that was comatose before now. It was a result of the progress made in the sector that some yam sellers in the North donated N5 billion to General Muhammadu Buhari’s campaign funding. Speaking on the progress made in rice production recently, Special Assistant on Media and Strategy to the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, said the upbeat in rice production activities in the 2012 wet season and 2012/2013 dry seasons resulted in 751, 248 jobs produced in rural communities. This, according to him, was in addition to hundreds of thousands of other indirect job opportunities for input suppliers, farm labourers, transporters, warehouse operators and other stakeholders in the value chain.

“The rice transformation agenda under the Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) was truly ambitious, but realistic. After two years of attempts, the decision to embark on such an ambitious programme has proved worthwhile.

There are many areas in which efforts of the government have restored hope and brightened prospects and we will continue to work on these areas to ensure that in a few years down the road, greater gains would be recorded,” he stated.

Citing the example of cotton, a product that was high in the country’s export list in the 60s and 70s, Oyeleye said plans were already underway to ensure this class of agro products grow as high as rice in the coming years. *Mr. Danbaba, a farmer , wrote from Otukpo, Benue State.

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

AWARDS - From left, Mr Demola Kolade, Executive Director, Mr Thompson Ajayi, Chief Accountant, and Mr Paul Omekwe, National Sales Manager, all of Brian Munro Limited, and Mr Okey Akpa, Managing Director, SKG Pharma Limited, during the 2014 Distributor Awards held by Brian Munro Limited, last Wednesday in Lagos. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

Industry leaders move against mandatory listing on NSE zManufacturing, oil and gas sectors to be worse hit zWe disagree with compuslory listing - NSE

BY FRANKLIN ALLI & NAOMI UZOR

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NDUSTRY LEADERS in the country are making frantic efforts to halt passage of the Private Companies Conversion and Listing Bill into law by the National Assembly. They said the bill being sponsored by the Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Capital market, Hon. Chris Emeka Azubogu, would not help the business climate in Nigeria and should be withdrawn.

The draft bill which is premised on the provisions of Section 16(2) (a) (b) and (c) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 has passed the second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives as at the last quarter of 2014.

The Industry leaders drawn from multinational corporations like PricewaterHousecoopers (PWC); Shoprite, British America Tobacco; Shell and Chevron, FrieslandCampina including leaders of the Organised Private Sector (OPS) have unanimously kicked against the Bill and are now harmonising their

position ahead of the Public Hearing of the Bill.

Financial Vanguard learnt that the sponsors of the Bill had advanced the following arguments to justify the introduction of the bill: “Conversion to public companies and listing on the Stock Exchange would increase the hitherto private companies' access to long term funding from the capital market , leaving the banks to cater for the funding needs of the real sector.

“The Bill will boost operations at the Stock Exchange and increase the sector ’s contribution to the

GDP which is considered smaller compared to other emerging economies. The sponsors also argued that the Bill will promote financial inclusion and move the economy from the current dominance by informal sector to formal sector.

Also, section 1 of the Bill provides that existing private companies that should convert to public liability companies and be listed in the Stock Exchange market within 12 months of their conversion, shall have shareholders’ funds in excess of N 40 billion, annual turnover in excess of N40 billion and total assets in excess of N80 billion.

According to the bill, the asset value of a private company shall be determined based on the gross values of the company’s assets as recorded in its balance sheet at the end of the last audited financial year, while the annual turnover shall be based on the gross revenue of the company from income, into or from Nigeria, arising from the sale and rendering of goods and services, and the use of the company’s assets in a manner that yield interest, royalties and dividends.

The bill, however, makes no provision for the minimum percentage of the share capital to be offered to the public but seeks to grant tax incentives to companies caught by the bill. The tax incentive, which is for five years after listing, varies with the percentage of shares listed by the qualifying companies.

The proposed tax incentives offered by the bill are “(a) companies that list at least 40 percent of the issued share capital shall be eligible for a tax incentive at a rate up to one-third of its applicable income tax. (b)Companies that list 30 percent of its share capital shall be eligible for a tax incentive up to one-fourth of its applicable income tax; (c) Companies that list 20 percent of its share capital shall be eligible to a tax incentive at a rate up to one-eight of its applicable income tax.

Qualifying companies will also be entitled to tax deductible expenses on: “All expenditure incurred by the companies for the purposes of listing on any securities and 60 percent of Securities and Exchange Commission related fees for listing.

It was also learnt that Section 8 of Continues on page 22 C M Y K

22 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Cover Story

Vocation and technical education – A key to improving Nigeria’s Development (4)

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PROMO DRAW: From left: Miss. Simisola Abass, representative of the Lagos State Lottery Board (LSLB); Mrs. Nwosu Esther, representative of Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and Miss. Yetunde Kotoye of Retail Proposition, Sterling Bank Plc at the third Sterling Gunners Promo Draw held at the weekend in Lagos.

Industry leaders move against mandatory listing on NSE Continues from page 21 the bill creates offences and penalties: “A person who contravenes any of the provision of the bill commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a period of not less than two years. Where the offence is committed by a body corporate, the corporate body shall be liable on conviction to a fine of 10 percent of its annual turnover for each year of default. And where the offence was committed with the knowledge, consent or connivance of a director, employee or secretary jointly or severally, all the directors, employees and secretary that have taken part in the commission of the offence shall be liable on conviction to a fine of N1 million for each month of default or imprisonment for a period not below two years or both.”

Reacting to the bill, Alhaji Remi Bello, President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, noted that the bill under consideration has elicited concerns from various stakeholders in the business community, especially LCCI member companies. “Our preliminary review of the proposed bill shows that it will impact negatively on local and foreign investment and the broader economy.

It may also lead to considerable loss of revenue to the government and break up of companies to circumvent the requirement of the Bill. Also, the Nigerian Stock Exchange may not have the depth and liquidity needed for the investment arising out of the mandatory listing of these companies,” he said.

He urged the Organised C M Y K

Private Sector to harmonize its position with a view to positively influencing the direction and content of the bill before it is passed into law.

Corroborating this position, Mr. Bimbo Atlola, Deputy Chairman LCCI Commercial Law & Taxation Committee, also warned that the bill, if eventually enacted into law either by the 7th or 8th National Assembly, has serious implications for the private sector, especially the manufacturing, energy and telecommunications sectors.

He said that the bigger picture is that the manufacturing, the oil and gas, power and the telecommunications sectors will certainly be the worst hit by this obnoxious bill in the unlikely event that same is passed into law by the government.

According to him, foreign companies operating in these sectors, especially in the last two and half decades, and the assets acquired by these corporate players in these sectors will make them easy preys to this scheme.

“The bill certainly has serious implications for the oil and gas sector. Exploration and production including ancillary technical services are highly capital intensive and as such, key operators in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, especially in the upstream sector, are automatic candidates for the compulsory conversion and listing contemplated by the bill. Indeed, it may be safely argued that every active oil block owning private companies including some marginal field operators will be caught by the regime of this bill and a few private key

players in the downstream sector will also not be left out.

The recent liberalisation and privatisation of the Nigerian electricity sector following the enactment of the Electricity Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act of 2005 also makes the emerging Nigerian electricity and power sector another target of the bill.

Continuing Mr. Atlola said “All the Global System for Mobile (GSM) communication operators in Nigeria are certainly automatic candidates of the bill as they will be caught by the qualifying threshold created by section 1 of the proposed bill. The Private Companies Conversion and listing bill is retrogressive in several respects. The passage of the bill, in its current form, signifies a drastic shift in Nigeria’s policy on foreign direct investment with implications for the Nigerian energy sector.

According to him “It is important to reiterate that the bill applies to enterprises owned by Nigerians and nonNigerians alike and this will certainly discourage foreign investments in virtually all the major business sectors in Nigeria including the oil and gas, emerging electricity and power sector. The tax incentives contemplated by the bill also appear discriminatory and unfair as same is available to private companies listed on the stock exchange pursuant to the provisions of the proposed Act but not available to those companies that got listed voluntarily. Nigeria can also hardly afford the potential revenue loss to be occasioned by the tax incentives Continues on page 23

he focus is on the roles of technology and vocational education in enhancing entrepreneurial skills that will equip students for entrepreneurship education in Information and Communication Technology (ICT.) driven technological environment. The world has become globalized and the future prosperity depends on comparative advantage. This comparative advantage hinges on people and their technical or technological sophistication. Towards this, some crucial entrepreneurial and technical skills needed by the students in colleges of education (technical), polytechnics and universities to meet the trends in a global economy is analyzed.

Technology education is to be considered as the key agent of technology development, either as a way of developing human capacity, increasing the shield work force for modernization, industrialization, environmental development or as a matter of personnel freedom, developing capability and empowerment. Technology education is increasingly recognized to be central to both the origins of technological development and challenges and to the prospects for Technology successfully dealing with them (Alam, 2009). Decision education is makers at all levels, need increasingly timely, reliable access to knowledge generated by recognized to be technology and technical central to both education to introduce the origins of rational policies that reflect a better global understanding technological of complex technical, development and economic, social, cultural challenges and and article issues concerning the society, and our to the prospects environment. Technical for successfully decision making and priority dealing with setting is an integral part of overall development them planning and formation of technology development strategies. Above all, technology education is a human right and, as such, should receive priority in the allocation of national resources. It has become very necessary not to only keep technology education bound to the role of manufacturing skilled manpower but also to economic development and global economy. In Nigeria, technology education was previously not seen as fundamental for national development, or for the economic development, but for the school dropouts, and other social and political development within the nation and for individuals. Hallak (1990) argues that technology education is also linked to human resources development and that this has an impact on more than just economic growth, but also an impact on the wider development of individuals and societies. According to him, it contributes to: (a). Individual creativity, improved participation in the economic, social and cultural roles in society. (b). Improved understanding of an individual and heir respect for others, thus promoting social cohesion and material understanding (c) Improvement in health and nutrition. (d). Improved chances of economic development. (e). Improved technological development. (f). Socio-cultural change. (g). Democracy and equality (h). Ecological development/quality of life (increasing people’s awareness of their environments).

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 — 23

There has been series of reactions to the story: Diesel mafia are ripping off Nigerians. Here is one of such reactions

BY EMEKA AKABOGU ESQ. y home generator is no guzzler, yet my heart always skips a beat at the sight of my monthly diesel bill. In my side of town on the Lekki-Epe Expressway, the price of diesel is between N145.00 and N160 depending on the station. Interestingly, it often costs me less to buy at the stations that sell for N155.00/litre than at those that sell for N145.00/litre. That however, is the subject for another day. The truly befuddling question is why the more than 50% crash in crude oil prices has left the price of diesel unaffected. The bigger concern is that diesel is a deregulated product, and challenges that seem to (but I have been one of the fiercest do not necessarily) justify the advocates of deregulation of prices that we pay. First off, petroleum prices in the last with the naira in limbo against few years. Is there now cause the dollar, banks have been to question the argument for extremely circumspect about opening Letters of Credit in deregulation? favour of oil marketers. The The Facts In January 2015, the forgettable and tragic international price of gas oil experiences of 2008 are still (as diesel is technically very fresh for many, and have referred to by oil traders) encouraged an abundance of averaged $445 per metric caution.

More directly, banks have tonne. A metric tonne of diesel could yield an average been seeing the short end of of 1,120 litres of diesel, the stick in the RDAS market, depending on the density of regularly getting only a slim the particular specification. percentage of what they bid Converted to naira, the for. Diesel not being as much international price of diesel of a priority as PMS for LCs, per litre has been about has to contend with fewer N74.00 in the period under opportunities for opening of and necessarily, review. Factoring collateral LCs, costs including foreign importation. There is also a exchange, freight, port and nagging suspicion by many storage, the landing cost of that the naira is going to fall diesel in Nigeria per litre is further, and many do not want between N85.00 and N90.00. to be caught in-between a Actual ex depot price in transaction when that January has averaged happens. As a result, fewer N95.50k. Diesel is therefore LCs are opened for diesel and being sold at a minimum there are fewer persons able premium of N50.00 in to import the product.

Yet the ex depot price of Nigerian stations for every diesel (for January 2015) litre. averaged N95.50. For the very Perception and Reality Marketers of petroleum fear of foreign exchange risk, products are often seen as a many importers are ready to cartel of rampaging shylocks quickly sell-off stock from the that will stop at nothing to jetty tanks. With no such risk make profit. They are attaching to retail distributors, however faced with significant coupled with the slow turnoperational and business around for supply from the few importers, retailers look to

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Why price of diesel remains high padding profit from the pumps. The result is the N50 premium per litre of diesel.

Competition seems meaningless in this context as obvious pricing agreements amongst retailers ensure that consumers are robbed of the benefit of a deregulated and potentially competitive

players sitting over champagne glasses can agree a minimum price with no correlation to global or even local market realities and trends. The prospects of innovativeness, customer appeal and expanded options that are the drivers of the deregulation advocacy could

The forgettable and tragic experiences of 2008 are still very fresh for many, and have encouraged an abundance of caution market. Profiteering is the name of the game, and consumers seem helplessly at the mercy of its hard-nosed players.

Deregulating PMS This diesel scenario does not bode well for the deregulated PMS regime that I have severally advocated. I know as a fact that many market operators are also keen on having that market deregulated.

Such deregulation will be meaningless if some dominant

be stillborn, with the real fear that Nigerians will be left the worse for wear. Even the operators would lose in such a scenario, as the market will not be one of skills or expertise or uniqueness but an open sesame for all comers and a sure road to oblivion.

Obviously, successful deregulation needs effective regulation.

Regulatory oversight The truth is that retailers and marketers who have struck price agreements are

not breaking any law in Nigeria. In the first place, there is no regulatory framework for competition, or in this case, anti-competitive practices. Though the Minister of Petroleum has the power to fix the price at which any particular class of petroleum products may be sold (section 6(1) of the Petroleum Act), President Umaru Yar ’adua had by executive order in 2009, removed diesel from the class of price-regulated petroleum products. However the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (Establishment) Act of 2003 states one of the agency ’s functions to include prevention of “collusion and restrictive trade practices harmful in the sector ”.

This is the nearest provision there is to prevent abuse of market positions through cartelisation. Unfortunately, this provision on its own confers no powers on the PPPRA to rein in anticompetitive practices since neither precise price nor price range has been fixed which retailers could be alleged to have colluded to breach. This is expected to be one of the areas where a strengthened legal regime for the agency under the Petroleum Industry Bill will ensure more precise powers of regulatory intervention.

But pending the PIB what should be done? I think the Honourable Minister of Petroleum Resources should use the strong suasion powers of her office and prevail on retailers to temper their greed simple.

Emeka Akabogu is the Chairman, OTL Africa Downstream

Cover Continues from page 22 proposed by the bill, especially now when emphasis is being placed on tax revenues following the dwindling oil price in the global market.

“It is also my view that the objectives sought to be achieved by this bill can otherwise be achieved through other lawful means.

This bill and the underlying rationale for same, in my view, simply reinforces the need for an amendment of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, provisions of which had

Indus tr s mo or ting on NSE Industr tryy leader leaders movve agains againstt mandat mandator oryy lis listing long become obsolete and largely devoid of contemporary relevance.

The CAMA simply need to be amended to address the challenges giving rise to the bill.

“While increased listing of companies on the stock exchange is healthy for the economy, compelling private companies to do so will be patriotism taken too far,” he stated.

“The Private Companies Conversion and listing Bill, 2013 is retrogressive and

unconstitutional. What the government should do, in my view, is to put in place a legal framework that will encourage private companies to fall over themselves to get listed. The National Assembly may make laws granting irresistible and mouth watering tax waivers and other incentives to private companies seeking public status and thereby creating a compelling business case for listing. While increased listing on the floor of stock exchange is good for the economy, to force private

companies to list is unethical and smacks of dictatorship.

Some Nigerian families would rather have their companies dead than to go public.

“The bill, if passed, will make Nigeria less attractive for foreign investors and starve the emerging energy sector the much needed foreign investments. No prudent foreign investor will invest in an economy that guarantees no security of investment. The bill is ill conceived and should be vehemently opposed by the organized private sector,”

Atilola maintained. In his remarks, Kola Adeeeko, Head Corporate Services Division, NSE, gave the perspective of the NSE, saying “The concept of compulsion is totally unacceptable to the Exchange; NSE wants quality companies to be on the Exchange. We are not in support that the Bill should be thrown out outright but any company that will be listed on the Exchange should have good corporate governance; we disagree with the whole

C M Y K

24 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Insurance

Insurance products to be sold at parks, filling stations — NAICOM Stories by FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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he National Insurance C o m m i s s i o n (NAICOM) is making plans to introduce parks and filling stations as selling points for insurance products.

The Commission said the need to provide multi-channel outlets to sell insurance products

has become imperative for the industry’s customers to buy insurance products at ease.

Commissioner for Insurance, CFI, Mr. Fola Daniel, made this known to insurance correspondents, in Benin, Edo State.

Daniel said, “The major parks could serve as agents of insurance companies even the filling stations as

outlets to sell insurance products.”

He stated, “The Commission will come out with a guideline that will include them into the multi-channel outlets for insurance products” Daniel believes that multi channel strategy for underwriters offers a prime example of a key piece of the experience puzzle as mobile and social media provide

convenience and ease of use to customers, and will continue to grow.

According to him, “It is only in this country that one buys a new car and drives on the road without a number plate and insurance. If one buys a new vehicle in the US, it is right at the showroom that a number plate is fixed to the vehicle and insurance to go with it.”

The CFI said the

introduction of parks and filling stations will not only entice more people to buy insurance but will serve as touchpoints to sell insurance products in addition to insurance agents and brokers.

To build trust, Daniel maintained that insurers will therefore need to design distribution strategies that can cater for present day-to-day demands of their clients

and also position them to serve tomorrow’s need thus making multi-distribution strategy critical for revenue generation and expansion.

He said insurers need to maintain strong customer acquisition and retention rates to ensure sustained organic growth, adding that the multi-distribution will not only help insurers to address changing customer needs but also help them address a range of technical issues that are having profound effect on both the life and non-life market.

Multi-channel refers to the distribution of insurance products through multiple distribution networks, ranging from direct networks and agents to brokers, garages and filling stations including major supermarkets.

…Says low public trust, awareness biggest challenge of industry

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ow public trust and awareness are still the biggest challenges confronting the nation’s insurance industry, and has continued to be worrisome to the National Insurance Commission, NAICOM. Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, sated that regrettably, the biggest challenge of the insurance industry is still low public trust and awareness.

Daniel said, “The biggest challenge of insurance industry still remains low public trust.

If the public do not trust insurance companies, people will not buy insurance. The other challenge is awareness.

People are still not aware of insurance”.

He cited an instance, when a rich man was educated on insurance and the need to buy insurance, he remarked that the man was shocked by the percent of premium he was to pay and quickly insured all his property, adding that the said man has since imbibed the culture of insuring his property and promptly too.

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Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 — 25

Business & Economy

Transparency Int’l seeks crackdown on money launderers …says 100, 000 suspicious accounts exist in Swiss banks

By EMMA UJAH, Abuja Bureau Chief

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r a n s p a r e n c y International, TI, has advocated a crackdown on money launderers and the banks that aid them in the illicit funds transfers across the globe. A statement by TI yesterday challenged national authorities and their security agencies to halt money laundering which deny citizens the muchneeded resources for national development.

According to the global antigraft body, national judicial processes are often inadequate in tackling money laundering as those indicted are often given light sentences.

It disclosed that as many as 100,000 accounts are held in Swiss banks by individuals and corporates where investigations have shown that many of them actually hold concealed funds.

“Banks need to oversee their employees and enforce higher ethical standards, which have to be reflected in the tone from the top, the performance management system and remuneration.

Evidence of money laundering abounds, but for the greatest part, investigations have only

resulted in corporate fines with almost no criminal prosecutions of individuals.

“Actions by national judicial authorities to end this criminal behaviour are largely absent.

This lack of senior management accountability sends a signal to the corrupt individuals and corporations laundering cash, and to their banks, lawyers and other agents who assist them in their crimes, that in this area

there is impunity. This is wrong,” the Chairman of the Board of Directors of TI, José Ugaz, said.

TI said that UBS, one of the largest banks in Switzerland, has already confirmed that it was being investigated by the US authorities to determine whether it helped Americans evade taxes or otherwise.

Much of stolen funds from Nigeria by past leaders were traced to Switzerland which

has been considered as a haven of stolen money.

A recent report of the African Union and the UN Commission for Africa, revealed that Africa loses more than $50bn every year in illicit financial outflows as governments officials and multinational companies engage in fraudulent schemes aimed at avoiding tax payments to some of the world’s poorest countries, impeding development projects and denying poor people access to crucial services.

CONFERENCE - From left Kunle Osilaja, Head, Ecobank Capital Nigeria, with panel speakers, Kamar Bakrin, Helios Capital; Wole Famurewa, Moderator, Markets Editor, West Africa, CNBC Africa; James Vincent, Qatar National Bank; and Edem Dzakpasu, Nedbank at the Ecobank Capital 2015 Investment Banking Conference held in Lagos.

Indigenous consortium plans two 1,000 MW plants in Nigeria …Plans training, engagement of 74,000 youths

By CHRIS OCHAYI

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consortium led by FirstGate Group has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Federal Government to build two separate 1,000MW gas-fired and solar plants in Nigeria. The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, signed the MoU on the project with a timeline of four to five years on behalf of the government Chief Executive, FirstGate Business Intermediaries Ltd, Kelvin Asogwa who signed the dotted lines at the Ministry’s headquarters in Abuja, promised that the project will assist in the realization of Mr. President’s Power Sector Transformation which is cruising at a high

speed.

Asogwa said the consortium will train a total of 74,000 Nigerian youths in various technical trades, just as he disclosed that the capacity building platforms overseas will take place in South-Korea and Turkey.

According to him, “the partnering overseas companies have accepted to train Nigerians after which they would be engaged when the plant must have come on stream”.

Tagged Tax-Holiday, the scheme is designed as part of the MoU for these countries to train Nigerian youths he said.

When asked about its financial and technical capabilities, Asogwa said that the Group has the muscle and assured that the dream will come true, adding that the process is like

a circle; from the beginning, it entails training, and later trainees will be absorbed to work in these plants. Already, the group has acquired 27,000 hectares of land in Kogi State, he stressed.

The Minister after the signing ceremony spoke about Government’s resolve to do anything that would bring more electricity that could be accessed by Nigerians.

He commended FirstGate Group for this initiative and indeed working closely with the South-Koreans who have developed solar energy technology well ahead of others.

Prof. Nebo said SouthKorea has developed solar energy to power a cluster of industries and trade zones adding that FirstGate would benefit immensely from the

Asians in developing appropriate technology for battery storage systems and other Hi-tech uses from solar technology.

The Minister warned FirstGate Group to make haste while the sun shines by executing the content of the Agreement, stressing that MoU not realized soon will become dead.

He also raised the issue of financing, as key in the realization of the project, for the 2 plants it would be in the region of 2 billion USD times 2, Nebo said.

The Minister also promised to assist in the areas of licensing, permits and reports, stressing that the ministry will ensure that all these processes are hastened.

Oil tops $60 for first time in 2015

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il rose above $60 a barrel on Friday for the first time this year, bringing gains this week to 4 per cent, supported by signs that deeper industry spending cuts may curb excess supply.

Also supporting oil, euro zone economic growth a c c e l e r a t e d unexpectedly in the final quarter of 2014 as the bloc’s largest member, Germany, expanded at more than twice the expected rate.

The price of Brent crude collapsed from $115 in June to $45.19, the lowest in almost six years, in January due to oversupply.

Since January, mounting signs of lower industry spending have helped prices rally by more than 30 percent. Apache Corp, a top U.S. shale oil producer, said on Thursday it would cut capital spending and its rig count in 2015 following the price collapse, keeping its output growth mostly flat.

Brent for April delivery was up $1.12 at $60.40, after trading at a high of $60.54 earlier in the session. The March contract expired overnight. U.S. crude was up 80 cents at $52.01.

“During the last weeks, crude oil rebounded driven by improved market sentiment and by expectations that low prices will lead to lower supply growth in 2015,” said Daniela Corsini, analyst at Intesa Sanpaolo, in a report.

Besides Apache’s update, Royal Dutch Shell’s chief executive said supply might not be able to keep up with growing demand as companies reduce budgets, and France’s Total announced investment and job cuts.

“Seeing today ’s prices, supply will probably not keep pace with this growth. It may even decline, as prices are close to cash costs,” said Shell Chief Executive Ben van Beurden.

26 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Interview

Postponement of election has led to investor paralysis —REWANE I think from the beginning, 15 to 20 percent devaluation is more than adequate. So anything around N195/$ and N200/$ will give you fair value and the currency will still be fragile but it will begin to strengthen after that.

In a developing and mono-product economy like Nigeria’s, what should be the priority of monetary policy? Is it inflation targeting and currency defence or economic growth and employment?

B

ismarck Rewane is the Managing Director/Chief Executive of Financial Derivatives Company Limited.

He is one of the leading economic analysts in the country. In this interview, he proffered solutions to the continued depreciation of the naira, and also commented on how investors are reacting to the tension generated by the postponement of the election. He also offered some advice to the eventual winner of the election, while highlighting opportunities in the stock market for investors.

BY BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE & JONAH NWOKPOKU The CBN is trying to avoid further devaluation, is it the right thing to do or is it achievable?

I don’t think the CBN is trying to avoid devaluation. I think what they are trying to do is to time it and do it appropriately but we don’t have the luxury of timing anymore. We have to do the right thing now. And the right thing to do is to actually reduce the amount of uncertainty, and therefore the nervousness, the jittery and the panic. We have moved from a situation where we had

the luxury to pick our choices to where our choices are now picking us. And the question is that we now need to bite the bullet. When you bite the bullet, the market will correct it. That is, if you move the currency to as much as a fair value, then the amount of naira available to everybody to buy the dollars will be reduced and naturally the naira will appreciate in the long run. But in the short run, there will be devaluation and everybody will absorb it and when they absorb it, we will now have to deal with how to make the forward adjustment

which is an appreciation of the naira that will come after devaluation.

I know that in the past you predicted that this is what the value of the naira is supposed to be like, given the current situation, what will be your estimate of what the naira exchange rate should be?

So what are the unknown unknowns?

We don’t know whether there will be an election? We don’t know what is going to happen in the North East? We don’t know whether the election will be postponed again. We don’t know whether there will be an interim government, we don’t know whether there will be an annulment

No, monetary policy has limited things to do with growth. Monetary policy is about stability. It is short term oriented. The fiscal policy is that which has to deal with growth where you have to deal with taxes, revenues, investment and expenditure and all the other things, including incentives. So the ministry of finance, the ministry of economic development and ministry of investment would deal with that. The monetary policy authorities look at inflation, currency, the economic value and the reserves and use the monetary policy to make sure that they control inflation, money supply and exchange rates. That is what we call the holy trinity of monetary policy. So the Central Bank has nothing directly to do with growth but it helps and reinforces fiscal policy.

Therefore monetary policy looks at monetary conditions and uses monetary policy on a countercyclical basis to slow down our economy when it is overheated or to engineer and accommodate our economy when it is contracting, to make it grow again or to make it more accommodative.

There is this idea that the Central bank should be targeting more of growth instead of inflation.

Maybe that is a new thought but there is what is called leading and lagging indicators.

We look at growth to see whether monetary policy is being counterproductive. Growth is an output measure while monetary policy issues are financial measures and you can measure it in naira, dollar or interest rate terms. But GDP growth is output, if you produce 200 tubers of yam, 200,000 barrels of oil that is the output that you measure. So, if the monetary policy is accommodative, it will naturally lead to an increase in growth but that does not make monetary policy to be in charge of fiscal policy activity. There are certain circumstances where the fiscalist, who are in charge with stimulus, stimulating an economy

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Interview or curtailing with austerity, that is a different set of responsibility and activity whilst the inflation targeting is a monetary policy framework where you have the nominal anchor. The nominal anchor is the interest rate but at times, you have the dual anchor, the interest rate and exchange rate and they are used to bring down inflation if you think that inflation has gone out of the range. And that is a different set of skills, different set of variables and a different mindset, totally different when you are chasing growth on one hand and to an extent development. Development is institutional and physical infrastructure. I want us to distinguish this. But you see, because we are in a confused state, we are comingling so many things by trying to comingle fiscal issues with monetary issues.

But the problem with comingling issues is that your vision gets blurred, you are not focused. You begin to chase many things with a conflicting agenda.

How has the election, the preparation, the campaign and the postponement impacted the financial market?

P

olitical Science is a study of struggle for power while politics is a struggle for power. In both cases, it creates its own uncertainties. Uncertainties are the by-products of risks.

Risk has a price. And the price of risk ends up in what we call volatility. So, the higher the uncertainty, the higher the risk, and the higher the risk, the higher the volatility and the higher the volatility, the higher the premium that you pay for this volatility. So anything that increases risks, increases volatility, and anything that increases volatility, increases the price of the product which in this case could be currency or the interest rate. So a certain level of risk is required. So that level of risk which is acceptable risk, when you cross a threshold where it becomes difficult and the premium begins to get higher. So what has happened because of election uncertainty, that is one, the postponement even heightened the uncertainty, which has increased the risk and increased the volatility and increased the price which Nigeria is paying for these unknowns. So like somebody said, the known unknowns are now more than the unknown unknowns which leads to INVESTOR PARALYSIS. So what we now

need to do is to increase the known unknowns, so that they are higher than the unknown unknowns and that will give us a positive quotient which naturally will reduce the risk.

So what are the unknown unknowns? We don’t know whether there will be an election? We don’t know what is going to happen in the North East? We don’t know whether the election will be postponed again. We don’t know whether there will be an interim government, we don’t know whether there will be an annulment. You see, what you see, is what you get, but what you don’t see is what gets you. So until the unknown unknowns are less than the known unknowns, w begin to get worried and my natural reaction is to run away.

So in the face of where we have gotten ourselves to, what do you think Businesses should do?

Nothing! But you see, people just vote in favour of their fears, once I am afraid, I run. So if you douse my fears, I won’t run. For instance, if you see a man standing on the road with blood all over him and with a cutlass in his hands, do you want to find out if it is a human blood? I don’t think so.

At your presentation recently, you said that for the past three years, the FDI has been on a continuous decline, beyond the election, what do you think must have been responsible for this?

First of all, oil prices are

challenges facing the nation’s economy, what will be your policy recommendations to whoever wins the elections?

I

When you have a son and someone from outside comes and says, it’s like this your son has a malaria and the child denies it. It is because he does not want to be given an injection.

That is where Nigeria is, they don’t want the injection.

coming down, you didn’t pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), and there are so many things. Inflows come as a result of so many things. Some of them are global. In this case, the global inflows to emerging

markets have increased, ours have reduced. So if you are of good behaviour, people will come. If you are a good musician, there will be a lot of people in your audience, but when you see the audience start reducing, one year, two years, three years, then maybe you have to change your song.

Irrespective of the outcome of the elections, do you see the stock market closing with significant gains?

N

o! I think the market will go down until after the elections. And then it starts to recover. It will not be positive but it would have recovered towards the end of the year and starts recovering by the beginning of next year.

Given

the

current

t is to accept the reality that Nigeria is an oil poor country, not an oil rich state. Oil poor because we produce, 12, 000 barrels for every one million people, compared to 295, 000 barrels per every one million people in Saudi Arabia. We cannot call ourselves an oil rich country. Therefore we have to manage our resources more efficiently. We have to reduce leakage and we have to be strategic. What do I mean?

We cannot do everything that we wish to do. We have to prioritise on those things that will make impacts. What are those things? Road and rail transportation, oil and gas, education, health, and then refinery, ports and all the rest. So basically, we have to emphasise those things that have a multiplier effect. And we have to give up a number of things. We have to disequilibrate our economy and make adjustments we can on factor prices. We have to shift subsidies from intermediate target to final targets. That is, rather than subsidise universities, we subsidise the students.

You create university autonomy so that universities charge the correct fees, but then the students will get scholarship from their states.

Despite the challenges in the economy, definitely there must be some opportunities for investors, what are these opportunities and how can they take advantage of it?

There are big opportunities on things that are not import dependent like stocks, insurance, fast moving consumer goods, food processing, logistics stocks, etc. So anything that is not too import dependent, or company that is not over borrowed provides opportunities for investors.

What is happening in the economy now was predicted by several analysts, including you, about three years ago, why did the authorities ignore these predictions?

You see the policy maker and the Nigerian public are in denial. For example, when you have a son and someone from outside comes and says, it’s like this your son has a malaria and the child denies it. It is because he does not want to be given an injection.

That is where Nigeria is, they don’t want the injection.

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Corporate Finance

SEC, NAICOM pledge better collaboration to discipline erring coys

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he Securities and E x c h a n g e Commission (SEC) and the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) will collaborate for better enforcement against insurance companies that misappropriate funds raised from the capital market.

This disclosure was made by the Acting Director General of SEC, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, who hosted the Management of NAICOM on a courtesy visit at his office in Abuja.

The Deputy Commissioner, Technical, NAICOM, Mr. Muhammad Kari, had highlighted a few cases currently being investigated by NAICOM where funds were raised from the capital market and applied for personal gain.

According to him, the cases necessitated the involvement of SEC as apex regulator of the Nigerian capital market with the responsibility of protecting investors.

Responding, Gwarzo suggested closer cooperation between the two regulatory bodies to ensure erring persons or institutions are swiftly brought to book. “We are ready to work closely with NAICOM to resolve these cases” Gwarzo said.

Presently, collaboration between the two institutions happens within the framework of the Financial Services Regulation Coordinating Committee (FSRCC).

However, Gwarzo believes the collaboration could be even stronger and more result oriented if the two bodies were to set up an inter-agency committee.

He said “The FSRCC was established to facilitate collaboration across the entire financial system.

But beyond that platform, we need to create an interagency committee involving specific contact persons between our two institutions who will strengthen the synergy between our respective areas of oversight”.

Market conditions not favourable to IPOs this year — EXPERTS

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

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he present market sentiment which is expected to be sustained in the first half of the year does not support any market listing or an Initial Public Offer, IPO, in 2015, experts at United Capital Plc have said.

This is contained in their end of year review titled, “Nigerian Economy and Financial Markets, 2014 Review and 2015 Outlook: ‘Tales of Two Halves’.

Already, the stock market started the year on a negative footing and has been down for most part of the year.

Resultantly, the market capitalization of all listed equities dropped by 16.6 percent in just one month, closing at N9.847 trillion as at the close of business on Friday, January 30, 2014, from N11.478 trillion at the end of transactions on December 31, 2014.

They noted that: “Following the twin stellar performance of the equities market in 2012 and 2013, the market saw two major listings in 2014 by Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc and Caverton Offshore Support Group in April and May respectively.

The dual listing of Seplat on the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, and the London Stock Exchange, LSE, in April 2014 marked the first IPO on the NSE since the market crash in 2008.

“Seplat listed its shares on the main board at N576.0 (£2.10) per share, making it the first upstream oil and gas company listed on the NSE. Following this, Caverton listed its 3.35 billion shares at N9.30 per share, adding N32 billion to the total market capitalization of the exchange.”

They however stated, “Though we expect to see capital raising exercise by listed companies, a public offer is not expected.”

They further observed that the equities market in 2015 would be shaped by key global and domestic factors, ranging from interest rate hike in the US and UK, falling oil prices, exchange rate instability and possibility of further devaluation of the Naira.

Others include the effect of falling oil prices on government finance, expenditure and

SEMINAR - From left, Dr Gbolahan Elias, Partner, Gbolahan Elias and Co; Mr. Tola Adeyemi, Partner and Head, Audit Services, KPMG; Chief Timothy Adesiyan, President, Nigerian Shareholders’ Solidarity Association (NSSA) and Mr. Goodluck Obi, Partner, Audit Services, KPMG at the Nigeria Shareholders’ Solidarity Association (NSSA) Seminar organized by KPMG in Lagos. consumption and the ripple effect on company’s earnings, effect of the CBN’s tightening stance on banks’ performance and earnings, pass-through effects of devaluation of cost of imports and inflation, bearish sentiment, as well as attractive pricing and dividend yield. They noted that given the dominance of foreign investors in the

equities market, the impact of a capital flight from frontier and emerging markets on the back of interest rate hike in the US and UK will have a significant impact on the market.

“The benchmark rate which have been at a low of 0.25% since 2009 coupled with liquidity boost from

quantitative easing drove capital flows into emerging and frontier markets. A hike in interest rate by the US Fed coupled with impressive numbers in the US which could lead to a better performing US equities market would lead to capital flight and also reduce inflow into Nigerian equities,” they said in the report.

Stockbrokers seek close ties with CBN to resolve market downturn

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

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tockbrokers in the nation’s capital market have called for a closer cooperation with the Central Bank of Nigerian, CBN, to tackle the dwindling fortune in the market.

Speaking on behalf of other stockbrokers during the visit of the CBN governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, and his team to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Mr. Sam Ndata, who is the doyen of the stockbrokers, said that the cooperation became necessary in view of the negative impact some monetary policies of the CBN have on operation of the market.

He assured the apex bank of their readiness to work with it in developing the market, saying, “I can assure

you that we are ready to cooperate and work with you, particularly in developing local talents because we believe that we have the resources like you said, we have the talent and we have the answer to turn around this exchange to the delight of whole Africa.

“It is not just the largest in terms of size, it is also the largest in terms of resources, and that is why we want to work very closely with you.”

Ndata also called for a more regularly meeting between the capital operators and the central bank to thrash out issues in the CBN’s monetary decision that could have the capacity of undermining the growth of the capital market.

He said, “We hope we can formalize this meeting so that there will be regular interactions and regular exchange of views between

us because some of the measures that are taken by the monetary side, even when they are good measures, often conflict with the interest of the capital market.

“We believe that if we have an established forum (we used to meet with your predecessor, but that is when the occasion demands), it will augur well with the market.

“I will suggest that we formalize this and met more often with the central bank to exchange views on how some of your monetary policies are going to affect the capital market and iron out the differences, so that you can help us in developing the market.”

He, however, decried the preference by regulatory authorities for foreign experts in the country, saying that more attention should be paid

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Corporate Finance

PZ Wilmar invests N12.4bn in vegetable oil production plant

BY PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

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Z Wilmar Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of PZ Nigeria Plc, a quoted company on the Nigeria Stock Exchange, NSE said it invested about N12.4billion ($75 million) in its vegetable oil production plant , as it expects 100 percent local content input in five years.

The Managing Director of the company, Santosh Pillai disclosed this at the reward ceremony of Devon Kings vegetable oil ‘Cruise promo,’ where its trade partners were rewarded with prizes worth over N30 million, which included cars and cash prizes in the Lagos zone of the promo for their performance in the 2014 financial trading year. Speaking on local material input in the company ’s production process, Pillai said, currently, 15 to 20 percent of its local production comes from local raw material, “this is because we just stated the plantation in Cross river state .” He noted. He stated further that the 26,000 hectares farmland in Cross River state on which the plantation rests is part of the company’s object to see that in the next five years 100 percent of the plantation will form significant portion of the company’s products.

Explaining the rationale behind the promo, Pillai who said PZ Wilmar is a Joint Venture between PZ Cussons and Wilmar International started operation in 2013 in Nigeria clarified that the purpose of any promotion is to ensure that trade partners are able to reach their consumers in a much more attractive manner and get the right kind of returns for the investment they have made.

He said Kings is a significant brand and when the company introduced the 5 litres “ we wanted to ensure that the consumers understood the value of the product. We cannot reach the consumers fast unless we create incentives for the trade partners and make the product available and equally make the consumers aware of it”.

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INTERACTION - From left : Secretary General, Association of Professional Bodies of Nigeria, Jacqueline Odiadi; 1st Deputy President, Dr. Omede Idris; President, Mr. Foluso Fasoto; and 1st Vice President, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers, Mr. Oluwaseyi Abe, during a board meeting on Extra-ordinary General Assembly Political Interaction in Lagos.

NB declares N37.2bn dividend STORIES BY PETER EGWUATU

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he Board of Directors of Nigerian Breweries, NB Plc has declared a total dividend of N37.2 billion for the 2014 financial year. The amount represents a pay out of N4.75 (four naira seventy five kobo) per ordinary share of fifty kobo each.

According to the company, the total dividend of N37.2billion has been recommended by the board for shareholders’ approval at the 2015 Annual General Meeting, AGM. A statement released by the Board, said the company had earlier paid an interim dividend of N9, 453, 380, 540.00 (nine billion, four hundred and fifty three million, three hundred and eighty thousand, five hundred and forty naira only) that is, N1.25 (one naira twenty five kobo) per ordinary share of fifty kobo each in October 2014. Thus the final dividend will be N27, 751, 853, 108.00 ( twenty seven billion, seven hundred and fifty one million, eight hundred and fifty three thousand, one hundred and eight naira only), that is, N3.50 per ordinary share held. If the proposed final dividend is approved, it shall be paid subject to a deduction of withholding tax, on the 14th of May 2014 to all shareholders whose names appear on the company ’s Register of Members at the close of business on the 4th of March 2014.

The statement signed by Mr. Uaboi Agbebaku, Company Secretary and Legal Adviser revealed that the company recorded a

revenue of N266.3 billion in 2014, a 0.8 per cent decline from N268.6 billion revenue in 2013. The results from the company ’s operating activities showed a profit before tax of N61.4billion and a profit after tax of N42.5billion for the year under review.

Agbebaku said despite the challenging circumstances in 2014, the Company was able to return creditable results for the year due in part to her Cost Leadership and

Innovation agenda. “In the course of the year under review, the Company concluded the legal process which culminated in a merger with Consolidated Breweries Plc resulting in an enlarged company. The effective date of the merger was 31st December, 2014. The reported performance does not include the results of the dissolved Consolidated Breweries Plc”, the statement said.

“The beginning of 2015 has

seen a continuation of the challenging business environment with even more impact on disposable income.

However, our Company is poised to maximize the economies of scale arising from an enlarged company formed from the merger with the dissolved Consolidated Breweries Plc, with a view to creating more value for shareholders. Our innovation and Cost Leadership agenda will be enhanced in 2015 and, the Company is also in a position to take advantage of any upswing in the economy and maintain its market leadership”.

CIS, consulting firm sign MOU on frontier partnership

A

s part of strategic move to boost its revenue base , the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on frontier partnership with Business In Nigeria Events Limited(BINEL).

Under the frontier partnership, BINEL Limited would assist the institute to coordinate its high profile events and ensure profitability. The events which include the famous Annual National Stockbrokers’ Conference and Annual National Workshop require high capital outlay in view of their professional and national relevance.

The institute’s major events thrive on attendance by top government functionaries and eminent people from the Organised Private Sector, OPS including top class professionals. By the new business partnership, BINEL would henceforth package, and market the high profile events of the CIS in order to generate revenue, sponsorship and ensure maximum attendance quality audience subject to the agreement between the two organisations.

Commenting on the MOU, the President and Chairman of Council of the institute, Mr Albert Okumagba described it as historic.

In his words “ The institute has a strong

strategic plan that requires huge capital to execute; hence, the partnership agreement would advance the realisation of the vision, mission and core values of the institute.

Okumagba explained that the broad objective of frontier agreement is to raise the bar for the institute’s revenue base for enhanced execution of its laudable programmes.”

BINEL’s Managing Director, Mr Christian Udechukwu explained that the company would deploy all its platforms to enable the CIS realise its revenue mobilisation objective. Udechukwu expressed optimism that his company is blessed with human capital that can drive the new relationship with the institute.

BINEL is a frontline professional consulting firm renowned for assisting clients to organise high profile events that can generate income in the final analysis. The firm would work very closely with the Programme Committee of the CIS to have relevant information needed for organizing any event.

Meanwhile, the institute had signed an MOU with many notable organisations to mobilise 150,000 young graduates to enrol for its Professional Diploma in Securities and Investment Examination.

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Homes & Housing

By YINKA KOLAWOLE

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he Federal Government recently r e-appointed Mr. Gimba Yaú Kumo as Managing Director of Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN) for a second tenure of four years. In this interview, he assesses the mortgage industry in Nigeria and the plan to recapitalize FMBN for better performance. Excerpts.

How would you describe the mortgage industry in Nigeria at the moment?

The mortgage industry in Nigeria is just starting if you look at the size of our contribution to the GDP is less than one percent but my target before I leave here is that we should be able to contribute at least 15 percent. That is why we are putting a lot of issues on ground to be able to drive this process. And how do you do that? If you look at the National Housing Fund (NHF) that we are managing, out of the 170 million population less than one percent are the one contributing so we said this is not good, how do we reach the other segment of the society that are not in formal employment.

Have you resolved the issue of NHF concerning some of the states that pulled out?

As at today, we have only six states that are not in NHF and most of those states, particularly Lagos, what happened is that they have formed co-operative societies on their own. They have registered with us, so they are contributing indirectly to NHF. The other states, we are talking to them and as soon as possible we will see what we can put on the ground.

This is because workers want to see actual action; they want to see the mortgages created.

This is what we are trying to do in all the 36 states, to be able to build the houses, create the mortgages and at the end of the day we will be able to convince them. But I can assure you that in the next 10 to 11 months all the states will be back.

How many mortgages do you hope to create in the next four years?

It depends on availability of funds, but I hope to create based on the memorandum of understanding with NLC, TUC and NECA, we should be able to do at least four million.

With your re-appointment as MD, how do you intend to improve the fortunes of FMBN? We will work to continue to provide quality and affordable houses to Nigeria and strive

Nigerians can’t afford more than singledigit mortgage — FMBN MD to improve the bank’s balance sheet to modify its standing as a financial institution Our strategy will involve developing pro-active and effective strategies to attract offshore funding for affordable housing to Nigerians as well as improving service delivery to NHF contributors across the country. We also plan to look at improvement of members of staff welfare across board to ensure a well motivated workforce and profitable operations.

The new management will also ensure the completion of ongoing housing estate projects under the Ministerial Pilot Housing Scheme nationwide and the completion of the Goodluck Jonathan Legacy Estate in Kaba District in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT will be vigorously pursued.

As a returning member of the team, I have had the privilege of experiencing the various challenges facing the FMBN as well as the housing sector in general.

We have tried to improve on the little we find on ground, people say we did well but we are just starting and we hope within the next few months we will be able to do more so that the results of the efforts will be realized. We have set an agenda for ourselves and chief among them is the recapitalization of the bank. We have made substantial progress on that, in the next few weeks we will see results on the table.

How soon is the recapitalization and how much are we looking at?

Very soon, timing is very essential. There are few issues now. You know we are in politics so government will concentrate more in that area now but we have been promised as soon as possible.

What we have requested for is N250 billion. But at the moment there are a lot of competing needs, security, infrastructure but I know that they will do it.

Do you think a single digit mortgage rate can be sustained given available economic indices?

Yes, our rate has always been single digit, our estate development loan or construction loan is 10 percent, our mortgages are at 6 percent and we also intend to extend that same rate to the informal sector so that we can make the houses affordable to them. Nigerians

*Gimba Yaú Kumo, MD, FMBN

Nigerians cannot afford any anything above single digit because the average income is very low, that’s why we are providing a buffer whereby they are able to pay cannot afford any anything above single digit because the average income is very low, that’s why we are providing a buffer whereby they are able to pay.

Like we took the minimum wage of N18, 000 as a base, with that you can be able to do a mortgage of N450 monthly. So this is the minimum the informal sector beneficiaries are expected to pay but this will be difficult for some of them so we are looking at a subsidy.

Is there any way that PMBs can be prevailed upon to charge single digit interest rates?

If you say government, you are talking in terms of agencies that deliver mortgages.

On the

government side for now it is only FMBN that is really delivering mortgage. And our mortgage is single digit, six percent. We charge our mortgage at the rate of 6 percent on a long tenure basis, 15, 20 and even up to 35 years Why is it difficult for developers to give Nigerians affordable houses?

The houses are expensive in the sense that cost of materials for constructing these houses are also high.

So, there is need for reduction in the cost of cement, there is need for a reduction in the cost of iron rod and other accessories that will make up the houses.

Once that is done, I think it will go a long way in reducing the cost of the houses.

These are the issues we are trying to address. If you look at the earning of Nigerians, particularly somebody who earns N18, 000, which is not up to 100 dollars going by today’s exchange rate, that person is not in a position to buy even a one bedroom apartment going by the present structure. So what we are working together with the ministry to see if we can have discount on some of the inputs that make up the house like discount on cement, discount on rods for construction and also hat we are trying to do on our own

is to introduce new building methods that will now reduce the cost of houses.

We just came back from Thailand with officials of FCDA, Ministry of Lands, and Housing and Urban Development. After the Tsunami, they commissioned seven universities to do research on affordable and sustainable housing. We have seen the development in that country. We took sand from Kuje here and they took it to three of the universities. It was discovered that it is even 17 times better than their sand. So they are producing some blocks for us with less than 5 percent cement content. So if we do that, that issue of affordability will be addressed. Apart from addressing the issue of affordability, we want to address the issue of delivering quality houses. This is because most of the houses, particularly in Abuja, for which some of the mortgages have been created; you will end up paying for a mortgage for 20, 25 years. How are we sure that these houses will also last up to that time? We want to check that aspect because for us to be able to give you mortgage for a particular tenor, we have to make sure that the house will be able to stand within that period. With the support of Nigerians, these are some of the things we want to do.

Accessibility to land is still an issue, how do you plan to tackle it?

I agree with you, but we have put a MoU in place whereby we are working with various state ministries of land and we are also working with the various labour organizations for the land to either be allocated to us as a government bank or to be allocated to labour directly.

Why we are doing that is to reduce the cost because if you allocate it to the developer directly he will put any cost he likes on the property. And we insist that particular government that is allocating whether it is a state, federal of even a local government that the land should be allocated freely particularly on the houses that we are building for NHF contributors. I am happy to say that as at today in all the six zones where we have pilot projects we are doing on the ministerial pilot scheme all the land that have been given to us is donated free by the various state governments.

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“People are saying you people said you will do [by December 2014] 6,000MW, yes! We have the capacity standing..”

Professor Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Finance, PUNCH, January 28, 2015, p 38.

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hat statement by the Minister was tucked into a report which screamed, POWER GENERATION DROPPED BY 2,042MW. The story went on to state that “Peak generation for the country as of Tuesday was out at 3,865MW, while 3,331MW was the figure for the off-peak generation.” Meanwhile, the first month of the year has come to an end and the nation is still receiving less than 4,000MW steadily, despite the lies by the PDP and the Minister’s widening credibility gap. Professor Nebo simply cannot stop making promises which will not be redeemed; he can also not keep his mouth shut. And, when he opens it, another futile promise drops. What sort of a Minister is this?

Hundreds of Ministers have graced the offices of the Federal Government since Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of Nigeria, formed his cabinet in 1959. None had made as many promises as Nebo and

Can this man be serious? 2 none had been so devoid of remorse when he fails to keep them. What sort of man is this? On the occasion in reference, he was up to his old tricks again. According to him, “by 2016, we expect to get up to 10,000MW; and, by 2017, to get 12,500MW’. Who in his right senses will believe this man anymore?

Who will believe a man who had failed each and every time he promised? Yet trillions of naira worth of investment is riding on this; not to talk of the future of Nigeria.

While the man’s credibility has been eroded to nothing, he can nevertheless be counted upon to ensure that everything that will work against the interest of Nigerians is implemented.

Last week, Nebo was at his worst when he proclaimed as follows: “Less than 50 per cent of Nigerians are metred.

How do you collect your money? The commercial losses are huge and

We can also stop being so responsible, consume power and pass the bill to others to pay. Even the village idiot can easily see that if enough people select that option, the DISCOs will be liquidated in no time at all unfortunately somebody has to pay for it. And unfortunately again, it is those who are paying that are penalized to pay for those who are not paying [underlining mine].”

Since the Minister has not denied making that statement, then it must be assumed that he was correctly quoted. And, if so, it stands as the most irresponsible statement by a public official ever in history.

The plain meaning of the

unfortunate (to use Nebo’s words) declaration can be reduced to LEGALISED ROBBERY by the Federal Government of Nigeria and its unfortunate (to use the word again) Minister who would have been better left in the classroom. Like several million Nigerians, honest and responsible citizens, who pay their bills monthly, I deeply resent being told by a thoroughly misguided Minister that we must be forced to pay somebody else’s

bills simply because both the Government and the stupid owners of DISCOs, who invested in the sector, started off without asking the question “How do you collect your money?”

While still on the issue of resentment, the Minister needs to be told that he had made a statement which might form the basis of a class action suit involving several thousand customers of Eko Electricity Distribution Company and me and the Company. We would not only demand for restitution but for punitive damages for willful embezzlement of our hard earned money. To be quite candid, it is remarkable that a Professor could not understand the full implications of what he said.

The Professor had also inadvertently raised another option available to those of us who have been responsible.

We can also stop being so responsible, consume power and pass the bill to others to pay. Even the village idiot can easily see that if enough people select that option, the DISCOs will be liquidated in no time at all.

The banks, which also financed their investment will also be in deeper trouble than declining crude oil prices had already brought upon them.

Micro-Finance

CIBN pledges support for MFBs, lauds AMfB's financial inclusion strategy Stories by PROVIDENCE OBUH

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hartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) has assured continued support for banking industry, especially the Micro-finance Banks (MfBs) sub-sector operating in the country to realize their objectives, commending Accion Microfinance Bank (AMfB) for its commitment to financial inclusion.

President/Chairman of Council, CIBN, Mrs. ‘Debola Osibogun, gave the commendation during her visit to the bank’s head office in Anthony, Lagos. She further commended the bank’s relentless support for the development of microfinance and efforts towards empowering microentrepreneurs and lowincome earners.

Osibogun said that the bank contributions to the institute’s endowment fund would further engender professionalism and stimulate improved performance by students writing the CIBN Microfinance Certification Examinations.

“This is a valuable contribution towards supporting capacity building for the microfinance banking sector and by extension, the economy at large,” she said, encouraging MfBs in the country to work out processes of accessing the intervention

fund provided by the Central Bank of Nigeria for economic development as well as develop business strategies that would enable them attract targeted customers.

She stated that the Institute’s core mandates includes determination of the standards of knowledge and

skill to be attained by persons seeking to become members of the banking profession; conduct of professional examinations leading to the award of certificates as may be prescribed by the Institute and ensuring the furtherance, maintenance and observance of ethical standards and professionalism among practitioners of the banking profession in Nigeria.

ChamsMobile, Skye Bank to launch virtual Visa card in Nigeria added: “the bank chose to

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hamsMobile in collaboration with Skye Bank Plc has entered into agreement to launch a Virtual Visa Card in Nigeria an entirely digital payment card for online and mobile use.

In a statement, Deputy Managing Director, ChamsMobile, Mr. Gavin Young, expressed

excitement in partnering with Skye Bank on the new virtual payment solution, developed with the company ’s international joint venture partners Bancore and Global Technology Partners (GTP).

Young explained that with the virtual visa card offering on mobile phones, millions of Nigerians will have access to payments and make purchases, along with a range of other services, by using a

Visa card from their phone and other electronic devices, with the benefit of access to the global digital economy.

“E-commerce savvy users can shop securely online and those without a formal banking relationship will suddenly have the means to make their money work for them and move towards financial inclusion,” he said.

Head, E-Channels, Skye Bank Plc, Mr Akinwale Ojo,

work with ChamsMobile, and its card processing partner GTP, based on careful consideration of the benefits all parties could bring to the table and in consideration of how the bank could best serve the millions of Nigerians with this product and particularly those who may be financially excluded, requiring a low cost yet fully inclusive financial services offering.”

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38 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

People in Business the type of business we do are not ruled out.

We are fully aware that the security of lives and property is the focus of every well-meaning government, and as such, we are up to date with all the regulatory expectations in respect of our services.

Consequently, we have gone into partnership with the government in areas of customised hybrid security products to assist in balancing their obligatory mandate towards safe- guarding lives and property of citizens.

We cannot overlook the urgent need for prevention of kidnappings, armed robberies and other related criminalities that occur on a daily basis across the country.”

Okafor also added that, “ A c c e s s Telecommunication Link Ltd has given birth to a new company, Eagle Eye followed by Access Gold.

We are enhancing lives through improved technologies — OKAFOR

BY VERA SAMUEL ANYAGAFU

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r. Edwin Obiora Okafor is the CEO/MD, Access Telecommunication Link Service Limited, an indigenous company with Head office in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Noted for his remarkable commitment to telecommunication and hybrid security technology, Okafor was determined to ensure that all Nigerians receive the best of his services at an affordable price.

Shortly after his university education, he ventured into entrepreneurship, then manufacturing and provision of security services across countries, including Nigeria.

With his research and development centre in Jakarta, Indonesia, Okafor was able to provide reliable and advanced security system to enhance and deal with some of the security challenges facing Nigeria.

In this interview with Vanguard, the IT wizard spoke on many issues, especially the need to have Nigeria properly equipped with the necessary IT products for the security of all and those who may have come into Nigeria for one business or the other.

Excerpts; Background Shortly after obtaining a Higher National Diploma (HND) in Electronics Engineering, Mr. Edwin Obiora Okafor proceeded overseas for further training on hybrid technology to compete with other hybrid technology experts.

Back in Nigeria, his expertise was sought by two N i g e r i a n Telecommunication service companies, followed by a foreign telecommunication service company, where he relentlessly contributed his quota towards providing quality telecommunication services to Nigerians.

Striving to be on top of his game, Okafor floated Access

Telecommunication Link Service Limited in 1992 and with a research and development outfit in Indonesia, he was able to accomplish his vision and dreams of giving Nigerians the best in respect of hybrid technology.

What we do Okafor said that Telecommunication Link Service’s hybrid security solution is customised to

No country will overcome challenges of insecurity by using a commercialised security products to fight crime help citizens and governments checkmate various levels of criminality in the society.

“The service ensures that citizens and foreigners in the country go about their businesses without fear. The fact is that management of companies in Nigeria, especially foreign investors are not comfortable with the security challenges facing the country.

Most foreign investors are afraid of investing in Nigeria because there is no security solution. It is worthy of note here that no country will overcome challenges of

insecurity by using commercialised security products to fight crime.

“Our solution can streamline insecurity and assure a track record of any criminal action any time, any where, because we specialise on building a customized security solution based on the nature of the insecurity they intend fighting, “In addition, we have invested resources and energy into operational development initiative that will support our chronological growth target. Our company has trained engineers on the board which give R&D support service for any product developed by us, we go the extra mile to train our customers in any product developed by us and ensure that our products are customerfriendly and stand the test of time.”

Challenges "We are rarely challenged with having to deal with counterfeiting products.

Although we may encounter hurdles arising from technical issues in some situations, it never hampered provision of quality services to our customers.

The issue of maintenance appears worrisome sometimes, but in all, we have been able to maintain a standard unequalled.

Gathering components “A good number of the components we use come through our head office in Kalibata city square in Jakarta, Indonesia, and for the fact that we have proven our worth in terms of providing quality services, most telecommunications companies in the country have signed us on as strategic partner to produce, install and maintain their customised security base devices, PABX equipment, hybrid security technology telecom products, etc.

“We are technically driven

to deliver the utmost service in security system, IT and Telecommunication support services.

We are synonymous with building excellence and specialised services and will continue to introduce innovative products to satisfy the needs of our new and existing valued customers.”

Business regulatory requirements “Of course, the regulatory requirements expected for

“In the past, we have had cases of kidnappings, assassinations, bank ATM frauds, and robbery attacks, where lives and goods worth several billions of naira were lost.

On many occasions, these unfortunate incidences occur at nights and odd hours, and being aware of that we are in the age of technological advancement, we have worked tirelessly to improve the quality of human existence by protecting and enhancing their lives through our improved technologies.

“With the presence of these companies in Nigeria, Nigerians are sure of receiving the best of a world class security device to fight crime, as our security solution surpasses the security devices currently being used in both government and private establishments across the country.

Same is applicable to our telephone sets, Digital PABX equipment, GPS Tracker and other devices."

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 — 39

Aviation

AON decries redundancy of 327 pilots NCAA to sanction airlines over indebtedness

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he Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA has declared that it would sanction all airlines that are indebted.

The Director General of NCAA , Captain Usman Muhtar, who made the declaration, added that erring airlines who fail to pay up their outstanding debts and remit their current payments would face appropriate sanctions.

According to him,”all operating airlines who are indebted to the authority should commence remittance of outstanding and current payments or appropriate sanctions will be applied in full” Captain Usman however appreciated the airlines operators including the foreign airlines for their efforts to ensure safety and security in all their operations.

He said that while the primary safety lies in the purview of the operators, the regulatory authority would continue to provide the regulatory framework that would increase their value chain.

The NCAA DG further urged the operators to adhere to their maintenance schedules and train their staff to allow for symmetrical working relationship with the well trained staff of NCAA. While enumerating his policy for the year 2015, Captain Usman stressed that his focus was anchored on the training and retraining of staff of the agency.

According to him, the Authority will not rest on its oars but will ensure a greater efficiency and sustenance of the robust regulation that has been the hallmark of the NCAA. He said this while speaking to the management and staff of the Authority on his policy outlook in 2015 at the aviation house premises.

Usman reiterated that quite remarkably 2014 was an accident free year, however, complacency will have no place in our regulatory functions rather it will be strengthened by adequate training of staff this year.

Stories By LAWANI MIKAIRU & DANIEL ETEGHE

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hairman of the A i r l i n e s Operators of Nigeria, AON, Captain Nogie Meggison has decried the inability of the Federal Government to provide job opportunities for about 327 pilots who are currently in search of jobs in the aviation industry.

This is coming on the heels of the statement credited to the Minister of Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka that all the private jet operators must have a Nigerian pilot onboard as this would help in creating employment for them.

According to Captain Meggison, “as at today, we have about 327 unemployed pilots who are registered and looking for jobs. The Minister made a statement, he said there are 90 airplanes and private jets operating in Nigeria with foreign registrations. If you take that alone, there are two sets of crew per airplane so if you even say 90 - and we are saying its about 140 or 190 but he says 90 - but even if we take 90 alone 90 are two sets of crew per airplane because they cannot fly continuously” To him, it was logical for the government to create jobs for the people noting that any private jets operator or anybody flying in Nigeria was expected to take Nigerians in the cockpit as this would create jobs and take people.

He said “it is only logical and mutually benefitting and makes more sense

SEMINAR- From left: Mr Paul Uduk, Managing Director, Vision and Talent Ltd; Mrs Jameelah Ayedun, Chief Executive Officer, CR Services and Mr Ibrahim Salau, Managing Director, Environmental Accord Nigeria Ltd, during a 'Train the Trainers' seminar on mastering Training and Facilitation Skills organised for Chief Executive Officers by Vision and Talent Ltd in Lagos. and when any airline operating and taking from the government create avenues to create jobs for the people. It is not a novel idea that Nigeria is standing alone to say that any cockpit operator or anybody flying in

Nigeria is expected to take Nigerians in the cockpit.

This will create jobs and take people off the street” “A country with 180 million people you can count the number of people flying. As they say, one in every four

NAHCo partners NSCDC to boost airport security T

he Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCoAviance) has entered into a partnership with the National Security and Civil Defence Corps in order to enhance security at the Murtala Muhammed

International Airport, MMIA, Lagos.

Disclosing this development to newsmen, Head, Corporate Services, Nahco aviance, Mr. Bashir Ahmed Gulma said that the agreement brought about the deployment of about 25

Dana Air to commence daily flight operations to Owerri the country.

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ana Airline has indicated its readiness to begin its daily flight operations to Owerri airport in a few weeks time.

Disclosing this development to newsmen, Chief Commercial Officer of the airline, Obi Mbanuzuo said that such move was part of the airline’s expansion plan to convey passengers to their various destination across

black men is a Nigerian why can’t we have one in every four African aviator to be a Nigerian? If you take the position today, you will probably be talking of one in every one hundred aviator out of Africa to be a Nigerian”

According to Mr. Mbanuzuo “Dana Air is prepared to commence daily flight operations to Owerri in the coming weeks as part of its expansion drive to make its unique services readily available to all” The Airline’s Chief Commercial Officer further pointed out that in the spirit of valentine season, the airline has introduced a promotional fare in its business class which was pegged at N27,000.

While unveiling the valentine promotional fares, Mr. Mbanuzuo stressed that with such fares in place, it would afford most of the airline’s guest to travel at ease and comfort with a lot of leisure during their trips.

“We want to encourage our guests to travel for leisure and business in style and comfort this season and this initiative is part of our commitment to continually offer pocket friendly fares across our sales channels” he said.

NSCDC operatives at the Cargo terminal of the airport.

Mr. Gulma pointed out that Civil Defence operatives were deployed to assist in improving security at the cargo terminal since the fracas ensued between men and officers of the Nigeria Customs Service and licenced agents in November last year which led to the closure of the Cargo terminal for about two weeks by the Federal Government.

According to him ,”Armed operatives of the NSCDC had since January taken up positions in various sections of the terminal. They would have the responsibility to further enhance the security of the terminal. The operatives who are about 25 in number would complement other security arrangements already put in place by the ground handler, who also has a subsisting MoU with the Nigeria Air Force”.

40 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

E-Commerce

Carmudi, Berger auto dealers renew deal to boost online marketplace

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igeria’s online car marketplace, Carmudi has renewed its partnership with auto dealers at West Africa’s largest auto market, the Berger Auto Market in Lagos.

The dealers, under the auspices of United Berger Motor Dealers Association expressed their desire to continue their partnership with the online car marketplace, Carmudi in Lagos last week.

Speaking at the event, the General President, United Berger Motor Dealers Association, Hon. Metche Nnadiekwe, told journalists that the Carmudi platform has brought a new dimension to their business especially by helping to boost their market exposure.

“The world is changing and we have to change with it.

And that is why we have been enjoying the partnership with Carmudi. They have been helping to sensitise our customers through the internet. Their platform has helped us to reach more customers event beyond Lagos state which was hard before now."

WaraCake.com launches officially in Lagos

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araCake.com, an online cake making platform has launched officially in Lagos.

WaraCake which means ‘Come buy some cake’ now operates as an e-commerce gifting platform. The platform works by aggregating different cake merchants and bakers across Nigeria to provide customers with a myriad of gift options.

Waracake’s model allows it eliminate the bottlenecks associated with the conventional cake purchase process.

WaraCake had a soft launch and has been operating offline since October 2014; delivering cakes to customers across Lagos state. Also, in early 2015, WaraCake started accepting orders from customers in Abuja.

It has now officially launched on February 13, 2015 and orders are now being accepted on the online platform.

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PARTNERSHIP - From Left: Mr. Arnuad Davigne, Managing Director, Online Classifieds, Africa Internet Group, Hon. Metche Nnadiekwe, General President, United Berger Motor Dealers Association, UBMDA, Apapa, Lagos, Monday Otabor, Chairman, Sahen Park, UBMDA and Christian Keller, Managing Director, Carmudi Nigeria at a partnership renewal event with Berger auto dealers in Lagos.

N50bn Aba Mega Mall to go online Stories BY JONAH NWOKPOKU

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REENFIELD Assets Limited says its Aba Mega Mall being constructed at the cost of N50 billion (about three-hundred-million

dollar) will go online on the day it is commissioned.

“We are going to have Aba Mega Mall online. So the ecommerce of this mall will commence operation at the commissioning. What that means is that if you can’t come

Konga, NIPOST partner to drive e-commerce logistics

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he Nigerian Postal Service has launched its partnership with Konga.com, Nigeria’s online mall, with the opening of a collection centre at the University of Lagos Post Office.

The UNILAG collection centre is the first in a series of collaborations by the two parties to address logistics and delivery issues experienced by e-commerce operators in Nigeria. These include a shortage of secure and conveniently located places where customers can pick-up their purchases, and also return items that do not meet up to their expectations. Remarking on the launch of the partnership between NIPOST and Konga, the Honourable Minister of Communication Technology, Dr (Mrs) Omobola Johnson reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment to transforming NIPOST into a viable, socially conscious yet profitorientated entity.

According to her, “The first Post office in Nigeria was established over 160 years ago and NIPOST has been fulfilling its mandate of

providing universal access to postal services ever since.

Furthermore, the Post office has grown to become the most extensive retail network in Nigeria.

down to the mall to shop, you can shop online, wherever you are in the country. Even if you are in Lagos or Abuja, you can shop from any shop in the mall and it will be delivered to you at your location,” said Paul Obanua, Group Managing Director of the company.

According to him, the project when completed and operational will stimulate economic activities in the state and the entire SouthEast and South-South regions of the country.

He also stated that on completion, the project would be the first mall with a dry port in Nigeria and Africa as well as the biggest mall in the continent.

“The dry port is going be a 30,000 square meter bonded warehouse, which affords people of the South-East the opportunity of getting their goods in, on time. So, they don’t suffer time wastages, due to port congestion at our various sea ports.

“We are going to also offer good storage facilitiesautomated climate controlled facility. So this mall is going to be a one-stop-shop. And by the second phase, you are going to have a 100-room hotel come up here at the Aba Mega Mall.

“So, we are going to have a section that will be called the Aba Business Resort, so that you have your events here, like conferences and when you are in the South-East, you can also lodge in and do your business.”

Elite Employee Quest debuts, targets 5000 job seekers

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lite Employee Quest competition, an initiative of the online enterprise solution, PushCV .com has unveiled officially in Lagos.

The Elite Employee Quest, according to CoFounder of PushCV, Somto Ifezue is aimed at searching out 5,000 of the best qualified job seekers and placing them into gainful employment in organisations.

“The programme is aimed at testing and assessing these candidates, to test their employability before we could place or publicise them to the companies in the labour market,” Ifezue told Vanguard on the sideline of an event to announce the competition before stakeholders in Lagos. He said interested and qualified candidates who want to be part of the competition “can apply online and take a couple of tests on online and we get back to them after a week.”

“The programme is expected to run for six weeks. Every week, the candidates are given tasks and are assessed by our stakeholders and partners. Every week they enter a different stage until the end of four weeks. By the fifth week, we start doing real interviews and at the end of the day, we come up with ranking process based on how fast a candidate has been able to complete a task. In the end, we have the final 5, 000 and

their names being published in the media,” he explained.

Also speaking on the competition and its place on addressing the challenge of unemployment in Nigeria, Olumide Soyombo who is a board member of Leadpath Nigeria, a PushCV Investor, told Vanguard that the Elite Employee Quest initiative does not just seek to employ job seekers but to empower them with the requisite skills needed to thrive in the labour market.

“Platforms like these are here for enablement and capacity building. Most times we talk about unemployment in the country but what about employability? How many of these people are actually employable? So what is different from what PushCV is doing apart from job placement is that they also have initiatives around capacity building,” he said.

PushCV which started operations in March, 2014 and has processed over 70, 000 applications as a recruiter, said its key drive is to provide a level playing field to help talented individuals secure jobs based on skills, knowledge and experience and put them in front of appropriate employers.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 — 41

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42 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Banking & Finance

FCMB boosts cashless policy with mobile POS terminals

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irst City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited has unveiled a Mobile Point of Sale (MPoS) terminal, called FCMB PayPad. The Bank said the introduction of the new product is a demonstration of its commitment to further support the growth of Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (SMEs) and the success of the cashless policy initiative in Nigeria.

The FCMB PayPad is a portable device that allows merchants securely process payments in a seamless manner, driven by a robust mobile application on a smart phone or tablet. It can easily be customized to suit the needs of merchants. This could range from inventory management to airtime vending. The device can be obtained from any FCMB branch across the nation at no cost to the merchant.

In a statement, the Bank

said that the FCMB PayPad provides a more secure, simple and efficient payment solution to merchants in the Nigerian market. It easily synchronises with any smart phone or tablet running the customised application that is freely downloadable from the app store. The benefits of the device, includes availability of transaction details via SMS, email and paper print and long lasting rechargeable battery which ensures fewer recharging frequency. It is also portable (smaller than a mobile phone) which makes handling very convenient.

According to FCMB’s Executive Director, Service Management and Technology, Mr. Nath Ude, the robust nature of FCMB PayPad makes it very reliable for secured transaction processing for merchants that run mobile businesses and also for small, midsize and large merchants. He added that, ‘’it is also the device of

choice for businesses in the ecommerce space that operate door-to-door delivery and need secured payment processing”.

Mr. Ude continued by saying, “the FCMB PayPad is truly a payment device that will revolutionize how

secured payment processing is done in fixed locations and on-the-go. It is one of the innovative products from FCMB designed to enhance customer experience across all touch points and help merchants to grow their businesses in a sustainable manner ”, he said.

First City Monument Bank (FCMB) is a member of FCMB Group plc, which is

one of the leading financial services institutions in Nigeria with subsidiaries that are market leaders in their respective segments. Having successfully transformed to a retail and commercial banking-led group, FCMB expects to continue to distinguish itself by delivering exceptional services, while enhancing the growth and achievement of personal and business aspirations of its customers.

Ecobank Capital hosts maiden Investment Banking Conference

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cobank Capital, the Investment Banking subsidiary of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (‘ETI’) hosted its maiden Conference recently in Lagos, Nigeria. The Conference themed “Nigerian Economy Navigating the headwinds of Oil prices” brought together business and industry thought leaders to discuss the Nigerian Economy and how to navigate through the current headwinds.

The event was attended by domestic and international investors, with the panel speakers including representatives from Helios Capital, Dangote Cement, Nedbank, Qatar National Bank and First-EPDC. Experts from Ecobank Research reinforced the need for the Nigerian economy to diversify. The team hailed the current Agriculture Transformation Agenda and emphasised the need for Nigeria to continue in its value capture

in key soft commodities value chain; On the Energy outlook, the need to recalibrate local crude oil funding dynamics was also raised.

The Group Executive, Corporate and Investment Bank, Charles Kie highlighted the strength of the economy despite the headwinds. He stated that Ecobank is strategically positioned to provide the required support for industry players given the bank’s scale and industry experience.

As closing remark, Moyo Kamgaing, Managing Director of Ecobank Capital announced that the investment bank recently closed a $1.5 billion landmark deal for Societe Nationale Des Petroles Du Congo (SNPC) for the company’s 5-year capital expenditure program and noted that Ecobank Capital is committed to providing innovative solutions for its clients.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 — 43

Advertising Keeping hope alive with 'Airtel Touching Lives'

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t was especially pleasant to see that following the emotional and thought- provoking premier episode of C S R - f o c u s e d television series, Airtel Touching Lives, the tempo and delivery on promise has not dropped.

The dynamics, emotion canduor of the beneficiaries, creativity and settings used as the backdrop

of the first episode remains a recurring decimal in episode 2. In fact, all the elements put together form a harmonious blend in the delivery of a truly captivating show that leaves one yearning for the repeat episode and the next episode – showing on Sundays on AfricaMagic channel 154.

The second episode’s opening story was a breath of fresh air, a

reminder of how powerful and real the stories of the beneficiaries are and how this could be the lot of the viewer. Blessing Danladi, a young poet living with her widowed mother Rhoda, shows us with her simple, unassuming demeanor that dreams can be dreamt and can also be made to come alive. She has turned her love of spoken word into a skill, amazingly beyond her

years and circumstance.

Her delivery of a poem she wrote rivals that of many a spoken word artists and gives hope

that this blooming artform has a body of upcoming practitioners.

Her dream to be a doctor to in her words “to take care of people so they feel better ” is reminiscent of many of our childhood dreams.

However, I make bold to say we may have a Nigerian Maya Angelou on our hands. Her nominator, Joseph Yaba, proved that there is a river of human kindness still flowing in the hearts of Nigerians.

AAAN condemns unhealthy political campaigns

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he Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN has condemned in totality the spate of unhealthy smear campaigns by the political parties and shadow interest groups

across the various media channels.

The Association said that this is in utmost disregard of the advertising code and ethics of, Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria, APCON and

the AAAN, of which most of these political advertisements have been exposed without going through the vetting procedures and consequent approvals from the Advertising Standards Panel (ASP) of APCON. Our concerns are that the professional values of the advertising practice and indeed public sensibilities, as well as the very stability of the polity have been severely undermined by the continued character assassinations, wanton abuses, unrestrained attacks, threats and counter threats that have become the bane of the political communication building up to the elections.

Unilever plans increased sales profile for Close-up

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nilever Nigeria Plc says it has put plans in motion to increase the sales profile of its Close-up brand during Valentine’s day celebration by spreading love with its ‘cupid game.’

The company disclosed this while introducing the game to the media where Davido and Yemi Alade who are brand ambassadors to the game explained the mechanics of the game.

Speaking, Brand Building Director of the company, Mr. David Okeme, said the brand through the game is developing a deeper relationship with consumers, particularly with young people which will invariably increase visibility of the brand in the market, as well as affect its market share positively during the val celebration and beyond.

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44 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 Email:lesleba@lesleba.com, lesleba@gmail.com Blog page:www.lesleba.com/blog2 Website: www.lesleba.com Tel:0805 220 1997

“The report of the 14 Nigerian banks which were appointed as Asset Managers of Nigeria’s reserves was carried on the back page of The Guardian Newspaper of the 5th of October 2006. The report confirmed that “already deposits worth $7bn representing part of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s share of foreign reserves estimated at about $38bn had been released to the consortium of bankers”, according to CBN’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Festus Odoko.

“In this event, CBN made good its promise to invite Nigerian banks which have consolidated a minimum $500m capital base to a “foreign reserves banquet” if they showed evidence of collaboration with internationally recognized financial houses.

The Guardian report further confirmed that all 14 Nigerian banks are already associated with reputable affiliates, but it is not clear whether or not the M.O.U. between the parties involves joint responsibility for profits and loss, with global best banking practice and ethical standards, or if collaboration is simply formalised glorified correspondent banking!

“Nonetheless, critics wondered if the 14 banks which had just raised their capital base under duress to N25bn could also raise additional capital of about N35bn in so short a space of time to qualify for management of CBN’s reserves; conversely, the apex Bank may have quietly dropped this requirement so as to pursue its declared agenda!

“But whose interest is CBN serving? The sum of $7bn is a huge sum of money in any currency and disbursement of such huge

Where is the $7BN CBN loan to 14 banks? public funds should not be treated with levity.

Although in the Guardian report “Mr. Odoko confirmed that the appointment of the 14 banks was ratified by the Investment Committee of the CBN on Tuesday, 3/10/06, the deposits worth $7bn had already been shared by Thursday morning, 5/10/06!

The question is whether or not the returns from this huge investment will stimulate productivity and employment, and improve our social welfare. If not, who will benefit from this biggest ever single investment paid upfront by the Nigerian nation? Yes, you have got it, the 14 banks who will wear broad smiles to their overseas vaults! Although CBN did not declare what returns it demands from the 14 fattened beneficiaries, it is unlikely that banks will pay more than the prevailing international cost of about three per cent interest per annum for such placements!

“Incidentally, the 14 favoured banks are at liberty to invest anywhere in the world! Thus, while we are pleading with foreign investors to come to Nigeria to support economic and industrial development, we are simultaneously exposing our hard earned foreign exchange, for minimal gain, to a consortium of Nigerian banks which have a consolidated capital base of less than $3bn, without asking for some measure of audit control or equity participation.

“Nigerian banks have for so long found it unattractive to invest in the real sector, particularly the income and employment generating SMEs; so, it would be

foolhardy to expect that the largesse of an uncollateralised $7bn low interest loan would change their attitude to the Nigeria economy.

The bizarre strategy of a minimal return of three to five per cent for a $7bn investment without an overtly declared time limit is amplified by CBN’s willingness to conversely pay interest rates of between 12 and 17 per cent for monies it borrows from these same banks.

I beg your pardon!

Apart from the very lucrative business of changing naira for federally allocated dollars, what work did the CBN do to earn $7bn?

“Nonetheless, in the event that the 14 banks are free to repatriate all or part of the $7bn back to the Nigerian capital market, it is not difficult to predict where their interests would lie: you have got it; the obvious destination would be further patronage of government’s treasury bills

and bonds where they can earn rates of return of up to 17 per cent from government borrowings! “Worse still, moneys so collected for sale of government bills and bonds are regrettably just kept idle in CBN vaults.

“Mr. Odoko, the CBN mouthpiece had also claimed in the Guardian report quoted above that “the $7bn represents the apex bank’s share of the foreign reserves!’

I beg your pardon! Apart from the very lucrative business of changing naira for federally allocated dollars, what work did the CBN do to earn $7bn? The Constitution does not distinguish a share of dollar reserves, especially for the CBN; our crude oil earnings belong to the Nigerian people as constituted by the three tiers of government; the Senate and the House of Representatives would have defaulted in their constitutional duties if CBN is not invited to defend why $7bn of our reserves should be ‘given’ to 14 banks without oversight approval!”

The preceding is a summary of the above article, which was first published on the 9th October 2006 in the Vanguard Newspaper.

Not surprisingly, less than two years after Prof. Chukwuma Soludo’s lauded banking consolidation and assurances, most Nigerian banks tittered on the verge of collapse.

There has never been any confirmation that the 14 banks repaid the $7bn “soft loan” granted by CBN before the 2008 banking crisis; consequently, it is possible that Nigeria’s $7bn reserves may have ultimately ‘gone with the wind’ during the ensuing financial meltdown!

Nonetheless, such probable

default did not stop the banking sector from receiving additional largesse in excess of N5tn ($30bn) from lifelines from CBN and its surrogate, the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria’s interventions, less than three years thereafter, between 2009 and 2010!

CBN’s misguided generosity notwithstanding, the banking sector has remained resistant to providing the real sector with loanable funds at affordable rates to stimulate industrial rejuvenation, economic growth and increasing employment opportunities.

If anything, the CBN’s selfstyled “own reserves” increased well beyond $40bn to fund CBN’s sporadic multipronged cash interventions to various subsectors; paradoxically, in spite of a still comatose real sector, the banking sector has since bounced back with bountiful profit postings, while unemployment, oppressive mass poverty and increasing national debt persist!

In the above event, it may be necessary for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to take a closer look at the circumstances and the ultimate fate of CBN’s extraordinary loan of $7bn to the banks in 2006; Nigerians surely have a right to know.

After all, if the CBN made the $7bn largesse to banks, a widely reported media affair, one should, indeed expect that successful application and liquidation of this soft loan should even be heralded by a much more ‘in your face’ media blitz to assure Nigerians of the wisdom of such intervention in the first place.

Save the Naira, Save Nigerians!!

Business & Economy Seplat to defer oil projects, boost gas to beat plunge

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eplat Petroleum Development Co., a Nigerian oil producer that bought assets from Chevron Corp., plans to defer some oil investments while expanding gas output to survive low crude prices, company Chairman Ambroise Orjiako said.

“We’re looking very strongly to compensate for the revenue drop by increasing gas production,” Orjiako said in an interview with Bloomberg TV Africa broadcast Thursday. There will also be “a lot of

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tightening” with the company deferring “nonessential” capital projects, he said.

Seplat currently pumps about 70,000 barrels a day and is on course to meet its target of 85,000 barrels a day by next year. Small Nigerian oil companies pumping less than 100,000 barrels per day, have seen their revenue eroded by the more than 50 percent drop in crude prices since they peaked in June last year, analysts including Pabina Yinkere of Vetiva Capital Management Ltd said.

They’re further squeezed by higher production costs of about $30 for a barrel, compared with $15 a barrel for bigger oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ExxonMobil Corp.

Seplat expects to double its gas-processing capacity to 280 million cubic feet per day by the end of first quarter when it completes expansion projects, Orjiako said. This would enable the company take advantage of higher domestic gas prices of $2.50 per thousand cubic feet approved last year by the government.

Omoh Gabriel Babajide Komolafe Clara Nwachukwu Peter Egwuatu Yinka Kolawole Favour Nnabugwu Godwin Oritse Godfrey Bivbere Michael Eboh Franklin Alli Ifeyinwa Obi Rosemary Onuoha Nkiruka Nnorom CONTRIBUTORS Princewill Ekwujuru Jonah Nwokpoku Naomi Uzor Providence Obuh LAYOUT

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Group Business Editor Deputy Business Editor Energy Editor Asst. Business Editor Snr Bus. Correspondent Insurance Correspondent Maritime Correspondent Maritime Correspondent Energy Reporter Industry/Agric. Reporter Maritime Reporter Insurance Reporter Capital Market Reporter

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46— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015— —47

48—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

•Buhari: It is an embarassment that the military cannot defend Nigeria

Why you cannot compare military rule to a democracy — Buhari THE presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari last Wednesday drew questions from CNN International Correspondent, Christine Amanpour on a number of issues relating to his aspiration and his record as military head of state. Excerpts:

W

HAT is your reaction to the delay in the elections by six weeks, and President Goodluck Jonathan’s promise that the military will make inroad in the area of security of the North-East in six weeks?

My reaction is that of disappointment because the presentation made by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was that they were ready to conduct the elections on the dates they fixed a year ago, and for them to be forced virtually by the military, which said that they cannot guarantee the safety of INEC staff, which made the commission to concede to the demand of additional six weeks...

But since six weeks is within the time stipulated by the constitution, we had to advise our supporters to remain calm, resolute and obey the law.

You are a former military general, and you ruled the

country briefly. Why is it that the Nigerian military, today, cannot take on Boko Haram, and has failed to combat that

terrorist organization?

The issue was made much clear when the National Assembly attempted to conduct a hearing after soldiers sent to the front without proper weapons were granting interviews to the foreign media.

Competent leadership

All those things you mentioned with a degree of accuracy were what actually happened but they were under a military administration

The National Assembly attempted to conduct a hearing by getting the budgets approved by it in the last three years and inviting the service chiefs to come and explain why weapons were not procured and sent to the soldiers under competent leadership, but the hearing was scuttled.

This shows misapplication or misappropriation of resources and funds provided by the government, and also explains why the Nigerian military was unable to defeat Boko Haram.

You recently got a huge

endorsement from a former ally of President Jonathan; that is former President Olusegun Obasanjo. How do you react to that and what will that do to your campaign?

It will certainly bring more supporters to us and more confidence again to us from those who were sitting on the fence before now (especially) because General Obasanjo is highly respected as far as the Nigerian nation is concerned. There is no serious issue that can be discussed without people seeking for his opinion and listening to it.

The headlines around the world are that the Nigerian presidential election is a contest between a failed president and former dictator, and you are the former dictator according to these headlines.

Some people say that you expelled 700,000 migrants years back, thinking that it would create jobs; that you banned political meetings and free speech; that you detained thousands of people; set up secret tribunals; executed people for crimes that were not capital offences. Have you changed, or are these what the Nigerian people should look forward to if you win the election?

All those things you mentioned with a degree of accuracy were what actually happened but they were under a military administration.

When the military under my leadership came on board, we suspended those aspects of the constitution that we felt would make it difficult for us to operate under the circumstance we found ourselves.

But I think I would be judged harshly as an individual by what happened during that military administration, or to extend what happened under a military administration to a democratic system.

Now that you say that you are a democrat, what do you think you can do to combat Boko Haram and the galloping corruption in your country?

We know how Boko Haram started. Certainly the Nigerian military has built a reputation for effectiveness, but it is a great embarrassment to the country that the military has not been able to secure Nigeria’s territory, losing 14 out of 774 local governments.

Equipment and training I believe that it will not be difficult for an APC government to deal with Boko Haram because we know that the Nigerian military is competent. What we will do is to make sure the funds voted for equipment and training are properly utilized.

On corruption, there are complains by many people in your country over massive corruption. Can you face up against that? Are you committed to rooting out corruption?

We have to because there are serious citizens of our country who say that “unless Nigeria kills corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria.”

And this was best illustrated by the hearings conducted by the National Assembly on the pension fund, power sector and petroleum industry, on which the country depends on for about 90 per cent of its external revenue.

The National Assembly conducted the hearings here in Abuja and the six-geopolitical zones of the country.

They sent their recommendations to the executive but they have been there collecting dust in the last 18 months.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015—49

ELECTION SHIFT:How to stop Boko Haram in six weeks by Gen. Olanrewaju GENERAL Tajudeen Olanrewaju, a former Minister of Communications, during his service years served as commander, Corps of Artillery and General Officer Commanding, Third Armoured Division of the Nigerian Army, Jos, a post once held by General Muhammadu Buhari at the beginning of the eighties.

Olanrewaju, now a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in Lagos State in this interview reviews issues emanating from the shift of the elections among other things.

By Bashir Adefaka

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HAT was your reaction to the shift of the elections?

If we really want a free and fair election, we must create a conducive environment for it.

And I believe that the last two or three weeks for INEC have been a very, very difficult time for them not being able to meet the responsibility of ensuring that most people have access to their PVCs. And it would be unfair to the large segment of Nigerians to be denied the opportunity to exercise their rights of voting.

So, that alone is a positive thing towards ensuring that there is a free, fair and transparent election.

But on the other hand, the issue of security is something beyond INEC. It is beyond our own understanding because in the last few days we now have other foreign forces working together with us in ensuring that we are able to tackle this problem once and for all.

Superior capability They will need sometime to work together in order to ensure that they nip this problem in the bud. It will require some time.

This is what we call time and space in military warfare…

(Cuts in) But do you see the military doing in six weeks what they failed to do in five years?

I am not going to dip my finger on that to say that the war definitely will take about six weeks. There is this subregional effort with the collaboration of the United Nations.

It will command a formidable and superior capability that can respond more actively in the battlefield. The air force and the ground forces must work in a collective, integrated and fashionable manner to keep the enemy ceaselessly on the defensive and keep the initiative off their hands because attack is the best of defence. If they can adopt this strategy it will go a long way to work within the time and space available.

Logistics and administration must be sustainable so that there will be no break and finally some confidence building will be

of the situation and they must have come to the conclusion that, that time will be sufficient for that.

But then, if you want to lay that to preparation for the elections, it means that there must be concurrent activities. While the war is going on then INEC itself must be going on with some of its own electoral plans and arrangements to ensure that, at least, there is no time lost.

It is not that one has to stop for the other. No. It has to be a thing of continuous effort on both sides to ensure that while the fighting is going on, INEC itself is doing its own job ensuring that people now have their PVCs and at the same time, there are other arrangements that must be put in place in ensuring that polling units are ready.

This is because people have only been concentrating on the PVCs whereas there are other things that are supposed to be done. So, everything must work concurrently: making sure that logistics are put in place, personnel are trained in the use of voting materials.

Voting materials

•Olanrewaju: It would be unfair to deny eligible voters their PVCs

attainable if all these measures are properly co-opted and directed.

This is just my own analysis of the threat perception that I can get from the media reports and, on the basis of this, being a

It would be unfair to the large segment of Nigerians to be denied the opportunity to exercise their rights of voting. So, that alone is a positive thing towards ensuring that there is a free, fair and transparent election

former GOC of the area, the 3rd Armoured Division, and of course you forcing me to talk (laughs) that I have given my own advice in the interest of the nation.

This operational concept which I have suggested is becoming a worldwide answer to insurgency that is ravaging some part of the globe. The regional force is also what the USA, United States of America is adopting in collaborative alliance with other national forces to counter insurgency that is ravaging some parts of the world.

So, the dimension that Boko Haram has taken will require a regional force and ground strategy to deal with the threat posed by it, particularly in some West Africa countries. This is so also because it is not only that they are adopting guerrilla tactics, but they are coming out en-masse in carrying out their threat. They are in the open and also fighting conventionally.

It is a combination of the two. They are identifiable forces when they are fighting in their own uniforms

and boots. So you need to employ a lot of intelligence to peep into their assembly area and carry the fight to them there.

At the end of this phase of the Boko Haram war, there should be a retraining programme on counter-insurgency for our armed forces.

Retraining programme This is so because it is no longer the issue of guerrilla war alone but they are also combining it with conventional war. It is one of lessons the US learned from the Vietnam war and I know this because I also trained there.

And this is the new concept of warfare with which America responds to insurgency.

Time is of essence. Do you think this will not affect the election time frame required for a smooth constitutional transition?

I believe that those who were able to give that timeline of six weeks must have considered so many factors in their anticipation

In fact, this extension is even good for INEC so that they now have enough time for their own preparation.

Given that the elections were fixed over a year ago does this not mean that the security agencies were not working in tandem with INEC? Well, I am working on the basis that there is no general awareness on the part of INEC because those issues they have just raised have not been on the discussion table where people have been commenting on them and so on. But we have been hearing that they are going to use a new electronic system. I don’t even know how it looks like and I am just going to see it for the first time when I get out there on the day of election.

We have been used to a semielectronic system whereby you thumbprint and that is all. But this time it is PVC and a card reader that will have to clear you.

I think the card reader system should be put into practice at this time so that all the shortcomings of the system will have been discovered and corrected ahead of time. This is important because we are going to have this PVC card reader thing for the first time in the electoral history of this country and there has not been any kind of rehearsal for people to be able to know this is how this thing works.

That is why I think the extension is a blessing, as far I am concerned, to the political parties themselves as well as the INEC. So, you now have time.

But the only thing I cannot put my hands on is that, after failing in six weeks time, what is next?

50— Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015—51

When Igwe Ekpeh celebrated 5th Igu Aro in class and style

By Sam Ekpe

I

T was colourful, it was classy, it was memorable, it was grand, it was grandiloquent. It was indeed a carnival. The occasion was the 5th Igu Aro celebration of His Majesty IgweSirRalphObumnemehEkpeh, Okpalanakana Ukabia Nri IV, Eze Enugwu Ukwu na Igwe Umunri, Igwe Ono na Nkpume Agu Aro. It was also the 57th Igu Aro in the history of the town, the late Igwe Osita Agwuna III having performed the function for 48 years before his demise 9 years ago.

Enugwu Ukwu is the clan head of Umunri clan in Anambra State, located a few kilometers from Awka the state capital. The progenitor of thetownOkpalanakanaUkabia,was the oldest son of Nri the deified royal progenitor of Umunri clan.

Royal progenitor Nri had five sons, the ancestral father of Enugwu Ukwu, Okpalanriam, ancestral father of Nawfia, Menri, the ancestral father of Akamkpisi and Agukwu (now jointlyreferredtoasNriTown,Aguiyi theancestralfatherofEnugwuAgidi and Nwaora Onuora in that order of seniority. With the demise of Nwora Onuora in very early times due to internecine war, the remaining four towns became constituted into Umunri clan.

With the demise of Nri, the first and oldest son Okpalanakana Ukabia by reasons of natural status at Okpala Nri (first son) succeeded Nri as the first Eze Enugwu Ukwu na Igwe Umunri. This historic and incontrovertible fact is very well recorded in the Archives and documents of Government of Eastern

Region of Nigeria.

Nri gave the Igbos their first marketdays–Eke,Oye,AforandNkwo, the prestigious Ozo title, abolished the killing of twins and accommodatedthealbinosandmidgetspopularlyknownasakanris.TheNripeopleabhorsheddingofinnocentblood and in their respect for human dignity have since abolished the Osu castle system – Hence there is nothing like Osu in Umunri clan. The Ofo which the Nri hold in high esteem has continued to be a symbol of justice, peace and fair play.

Thesignificantaspectofthisyear’s Igu Aro celebration was that it was held in a brand new Palace ground – Umunri Palace Arena, a stadium shaped arena that can seat 5,000 persons comfortably. The structure which contains Offices, Reception Halls, Meeting Rooms was constructed in record time (about 9 months)onthegroundsoftheformer UmunriHall(EnugwuUkwuSports Club) at Nkwo Enugwu Ukwu. The super structure attracts instant attentionofanypasserbygoingtoOnitsha fromAwkaandviceversaontheOld Enugu Onitsha Road. The edifice was put up with the contributions of many indigenes of the town.

The Igwe at the occasion recalled that within the Eri/Nri dynasty Igu Aro represents a period of deeper communioninthanksgivingwiththe AlmightyGod,theownerofallthings andparticularlythelandA ‘ na….This is why our forbears have particular reverenceforland.Everythingcomes from God and nearly everything is gottenfromland.Thisisaccountable for the reverence given to the goddess of the land for fertility, the strength to farm and for greater increase in the effort of man. The yam, the cocoa yam, the fish, the minerals, trees, fruits, rivers and rivulets

HRH Lady Dorathy Ekpeh leads the Otu Odu Eze to the arena

Igwe Ekpeh and his cabinet entering the arena and held for our use by the land as the Almighty had ordained. Apart from water, air and sunlight, there is no other gift from God to compare with land. The Igwe then ‘decreed’ as prayers answered by our God that more people would get married and have children, greater longevity to all, adequate rain and sunshine, better fertile said, more harvests from poultries and aquatic culture. The

Many visitors to the Igu Aro ceremony appreciated the significance of the event and vowed to make it a regular event on their yearly calendar

Lord has willed it and so shall it be.

To which the congregation responded with chorus; ISEE, so shall it be.

The Igwe further recalled that Ilu Ogbo, celebration of senior indigenesofthetownwhohaveattained 80years commenced in Enugwu Ukwu last year and would be held every two years. The aim is to honour and celebrate our octogenarians before they join their ancestors.

Therebylivingthestatementkwaam na ndu “mourn me while I am still alive by celebrating me”.

The Igwe noted with pride that Enugwu Ukwu people gave the Willie Obiano Administration one of thetown’sbestinhumility,diligence, integrity and honesty in the person ofDr.NkemOkeketheDeputyGovernor of the State. The town would therefore unite to oppose anybody thatwouldbeahindrancetotheWillie Obiano Administration. He regretted that the outgone Peter Obi Administration showed a dislike for EnugwuUkwubutsincethatisnow history, the people expect that their tearswillbewipedbyGovernorWillie Obiano.

Provision of security He joined in singing the chorus of Willie is working by extolling the governor’s efforts in providing security in the state, the sanity on our roads particularly at Upper Iweka Area, now denuded of hoodlums and the upgrading of the Enugwu Ukwu general hospital to a specialist hospital.

This writer joins the Igwe in singing the chorus of Willie is working but is of the view that the song will be more melodious if Willie works on the Enugwu Ukwu bye pass, the only one from the Enugu Onitsha Express Road to the Old Road that is yet to be given attention. Recall that at the twilight of the Peter Obi Administration, I called attention to this road which was ignored, neglected/abandonedbyGovernorPeter Obi and prophesied that since Peter Obi is not the god of Enugwu Ukwu people, his era will come to pass and the road will see the light of day. Ka Chineke mezie okwu.

A number of indigenes of the town and non indigenes were honoured at the occasion. They include Dr.

Igwe Ekpeh pours libation at the ceremoney Charles Agbakwu, Chief Innocent Chukwuma, the famous Industrialist of Nnewi and Enugu, Sir Anayo Akametalu, Prince Ejikeme Okechukwu Nduka, Chief Sir Goziem Chidere and Hon. Charles Amilo the State Commissioner for Information during the Chris Ngige Adminstration.

The procession of the Igwe and members of his cabinet all dressed in their colourful regalia; followed by their wives the Otu Odu Eze led by Her Majesty Lady Dorathy Ekpeh who turned out in their colourful uniform was indeed a sight to behold. Many visitors to the Igu Aro ceremony appreciated the significanceoftheeventandvowedtomake it a regular event on their yearly calendar. A reputed philanthropist and humanist Prince Engr. Arthur Eze, Ozo Igbondu was so impressed with the turnout, colour, pomp and pageantry of the event that he presented a cheque of 50 Million Naira to the Community.

He however called on the people to ensure that they cast their votes for PresidentJonathanduringtheforthcoming Presidential Election. The one week celebration had earlier been heralded with a number of events – visit of the Igwe to some historical sites in the town, Obu Okpalanakana–theancestralhome of Enugwu Ukwu in Uruekwo Village,theNkpumeOnyilenyiinOsili village and the Ezi Ngboto in Uruogbo village.

•Sam Ekpe is a Media and PR Consultant

52—Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Soludo and his missing trillions (3) This is the concluding part of this discourse. The second part was published last Friday

By Chuks Iloegbunam

I

N Reforming The Unreformable: Lessons From Nigeria, a book published in 2012 by The MIT Press, Massachusetts, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala makes this point: “I solicited written inputs from members of the Economic Team already working on important areas of reform – privatization, budget monitoring, and price intelligence linked to public procurement reform.

For example, over a weekend, using their inputs, I produced a 17-page paper outlining the major economic and social problems and especially highlighting the problem of Nigeria’s huge external debt overhang, which was a drag on investment and economic growth. I proposed a set of macroeconomic and structural reforms focusing on budget management and priority setting; fiscal reforms; liberalization and deregulation of important economic sectors; privatization of important public enterprises; governance and institutional reforms, including public service reform; and anti-corruption actions, especially concerning public procurement.” (p13)

Public procurement

President Obasanjo had requested that Okonjo-Iweala should return to Nigeria and be his Economic Adviser for six months.

Soludo wasn’t anywhere around Abuja at this time. Writes Okonjo-Iweala in her book on the subject: “My work in those six months focused on sorting out the extent of the country’s most important financial liabilities (including its US$30 billion in external debt), on getting the seven different offices managing different parts of the debt to cooperate with one another so we could begin to reconcile figures, and ultimately on creating a national Debt Management Office (DMO) to bring some clarity and rationality to debt management. This work laid the foundation for my return as Minister of Finance three years later.”

It is the work, commitment and patriotism of this woman of professional caliber and timber, as the inimitable Dr. Kingsley Ozumba Mbadiwe of blessed memory would have put it, that Charles Soludo has indiscriminately been deriding without grounds. OkonjoIweala graduated magna cum laude with an A.B. from Harvard University in 1977, and a Ph.D. in regional economic development from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1981. Ever since her formal

Soludo has read the book but has never education, questioned any of its contents. Unlike she has Okonjo-Iweala who gave credit to President h e l d Obasanjo, and to the Economic Team for challenging NEEDS’ success, Soludo, the eternal and high Solution, has claimed to be the only Iroko p r o f i l e tree in Nigeria’s economic forest, forgetting positions that a tree cannot make a forest. He would at the not give credit to Okonjo-Iweala for the debt W o r l d relief that Nigeria received.

Bank and This is Soludo to the Finance Minister: in the “You alluded to debt relief in your response d i r e c t Prof. Chukwuma Soludo and tried to take credit. Well, your CV is service of her fatherland. honest enough to admit that your two Yet, Soludo found it fit to claim that achievements in office as Finance minister her economics had become “a bit rusty”! under Obasanjo were that ‘you led the He even professed to Okonjo-Iweala a Nigerian team that struck a deal with the belief that “Nigeria should have gotten Paris Club’ and that you ‘introduced the far better terms than you negotiated. Of practice of publishing each state’s monthly course, with your eyes on returning to financial allocation in the newspapers’. You the World Bank after office, I did not are right about the two achievements. Let expect you to boldly stand up to the me put on record that Nigeria would have donor community in defence of Nigeria.” secured debt relief under anyone as Minister of Finance.”

Donor Really? Did Obasanjo not have a Finance Minister in his first presidential term? If debt community relief was a piece of cake, why didn’t that But Nigeria was not indebted to the minister achieve it in four years? Elsewhere, Soludo addresses Okonjo-Iweala as follows: World Bank. Apart from that, why didn’t “Before you were sworn in as Minister of Soludo, the only expert that had Finance, President Bush visited Nigeria and Obasanjo’s ears, move in with precision both of us accompanied President Obasanjo to earn “better terms” on Nigeria’s debt relief? The most disingenuous aspect during the of Soludo’s latest outing is in the title: meeting. There, Okonjo-Iweala and missing trillions!

Mr. Bush promised This was obviously intended to titillate to support Nigeria the gullible, and excite headline writers with debt relief and asked our president Nowhere in his with an eye on bumper sales.

Nowhere in his political, not economic, to ensure that he political, not epistle is to be found any sound met the conditions reasoning in support of the trillions he economic, epistle of the Paris Club.” claims are missing.

This means that the Soludo’s objective is to be found only thing actually missing is the word in the opening “empiricism”, which does not exist in any sound phrase of the first Soludo’s dictionary.

More worrisome is sentence is to claim reasoning in that he is scandalously unaware of this that he got into support of the disturbing shortcoming. Little wonder Obasanjo’s that, untenable as his position is, the administration trillions he man is proposing a debate with Dr. before Okonjo- claims are Okonjo-Iweala.

Iweala. But that is •Iloegbunam was a former Anambra not so. In 2000, missing State Government Chief of Staff.

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 —53

End in sight for producers of fake sachet water

By Chioma Obinna

T

HE end of the road appears to have come for producers of fake, substandard and unregistered producers of packaged water sachets popularly known as “pure water” as the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration & Control, NAFDAC, in collaboration with Emani Global Network, EGNL, is carrying out on- the- spot analysis of packaged water in Rivers state.

The activity is being conducted with mini mobile laboratory to ascertain the quality and standard of packaged water sold to the public.

Chief Executive Officer of ENGL, Mr. Emmanuel Osiegbu, a renowned international consultant, stated that the exercise is geared towards safeguarding public health due to unsatisfactory results of NAFDAC laboratory analyses of some registered packaged water in the country.

"Laboratory analysis of packaged water by NAFDAC has shown that some of the brands are below standard

•Sachet water. without the right pH, lead content and other parameters.

This exercise will find out and address all the shortcomings observed and proffer solutions where necessary," Osiegbu stated.

He said that most packaged

water producers lack mini lab in their facilities to ascertain the quality of water being produced adding that the exercise has the backing of the National Assembly's Committee on Health and will be conducted throughout the federation.

The exercise is to be annually conducted in South-South states of Delta, Edo, Akwa Ibom and Cross River among other states in the country.

NAFDAC Coordinator in Rivers State, Mrs. Mercy Ndukwe, said that the annual

water monitoring exercise is mandatory for all packaged water products in Nigeria. She admonished producers of sachet and bottle water in Rivers state to participate in the exercise to ensure that safe and wholesome water is given out to the public.

"All packaged water producers (about 400) in Rivers State are expected to take part in this exercise and this will exempt them from going to public analysts during the renewal of their products.

“Sanctions will be meted out to those whose products are not analysed which may include shutting down of the affected water factory and or withdrawal of NAFDAC license", Ndukwe warned.

She said that "NAFDAC has been waging a relentless war against unwholesome water producers in the state and will not hesitate to clamp down on any producer who compromises standards."

The Chairman of the Association of Table Water Producers, ATWAP,. Rivers State chapter, Engr. Alex Erikosima lauded the initiative and urged his members to cooperate with NAFDAC to make the exercise a huge success. He implored water producers in the state to maintain proper GMP and adhere to standards to prevent water borne diseases.

12 diabetes, hypertension clinics coming as Sanofi, govt partner

By Sola Ogundipe

T

WELVE new dedicated diabetes and hypertension clinics are in the pipeline for 2015, in selected states of the Federation as part of efforts to support patients with the disorders to enable them better manage and control the burden of the two ailments.

The first of such clinics which are being set up by the health authorities in collaboration with Sanofi Nigeria, was recently inaugurated, at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH. Speaking in Lagos during the introduction of its brand of human insulin “Insuman”, General Manager, Sanofi Nigeria-Ghana, Abderrahmane Chakibi, noted that the company was reinforcing its commitment to diabetes through new treatment.

“In 2015, across Nigeria, we will support the creation of 12 clinics for diabetes and hypertension in partnership with health authorities. These clinics will be established in dedicated healthcare centers to increase screening, disease awareness and patient education. They will also provide better management and monitoring of people with diabetes though dedicated

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nursing and physician support,” Chakbi stated.

With the introduction of the new insulin product from its range of diabetes treatments, Sanofi is now the only company to provide a full range of both oral and injectable treatments for patients with diabetes in Nigeria.

Chakbi said the 12 new clinics would deliver innovative treatments and a full portfolio adapted to the needs of patients locally.

In 2015, across Nigeria, we will support the creation of 12 clinics for diabetes and hypertension in partnership with health authorities

“In 2016, we aim to deploy 24 more clinics. The availability of the new range of human insulin, the injection pen and the support of clinics for the better management of the disease is in direct response to the healthcare needs of patients with diabetes in Nigeria.”

In Nigeria, around five million people are afflicted with diabetes and the figure is expected to double within the next 20 years, with 63 percent undiagnosed and

many that are diagnosed, not correctly controlled. Worse still, 76 percent of deaths due to diabetes are in people under the age of 60 on the African continent.

Patients are exposed to many complications including vascular complications, blindness and limb amputation, which can be prevented by treatment with Insulin and effective, close management of patients. The diabetic product range allows for

individualised treatment (basal, rapid and premix) available in both Vials and Cartridges that use a unique innovative technology that ensures a more accurate dosing. I The insulin brand which has been licensed in 90 countries is manufactured to the highest international standards in Germany, and has accummulated more than five million patientyears.

• Regular blood pressure checks are essential in monitoring hypertension and diabetes.

54 — Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Stock market suffers setback as investors lose N594bn in 5 days

By Peter Egwuatu

T

HE Nigerian stock market suffered a major setback last week as all the performance indictors declined for the five consecutive trading days with investors losing not less than N594 billion.

Capital market operators have attributed the decline in performance indicators to massive sale of shares in the Nigerian Exchange, NSE as market capitalisation which represents the value of stocks traded on the exchange dropped from N9.796 trillion on Monday to close on Friday at N9.204 trillion.

In the same vein, stock market gauge, All Share Index dropped by 1,795.29 points, from N29,360.55 points it closed on Monday to 27,585.26 points on Friday.

Analysis of trading of shares at the stock market on Friday showed that the Financial Services sector led the activity chart with 337.506 million shares exchanged for 3.628 billion.

Consumer Goods came next with 97.843 million shares traded for ¦ 2.029 billion, Conglomerates, Industrial Goods, Agriculture sectors followed in that order on the activity chart. Guaranty Trust Bank Plc,, UTC , Transcorp, ETI and Zenith Bank were the most active stocks by volume.

Cadbury, Caverton, Okomuoil and Air Service emerged the highest price gainers on the chart, while Presco, Transcorp, Livestock, Guinness and UACN topped the losers chart.

Further review of the stock market in terms of activity on Friday showed that turnover recorded a solid 513,886 million shares valued at N7.07 billion ($34.60 million).

There were cross deals in the names like; GT Bank, recording N1.94 billionn ($9.51 million), Nigerian Breweries, NB N1.66 billion ($8.14 million) followed by Dangote Cement: N798 million ($3.90 million ), ETI: N707 million ($3.46 million).

Others were Zenith Bank: N516 million ($2.52 million), WAPCO: N246 million ($1.20 million) and First Bank Nigeria Holdings, FBNH: N180 million ($879k).

BOTCHED NLC ELECTION: Maritime workers, Falana demand thorough investigation

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

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ARITIME Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, and Lagos Lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN, weekend described as unacceptable and a big embarrassment, the circumstances that led to the botched election of Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Abuja last Thursday.

In a statement by the President-General of MWUN, Comrade Emmanuel Tony Nted, the union demanded for a thorough investigation into the alleged printing of multiple

ballot papers with different serial numbers among others.

Comrade Nted, a Vice President of NLC in the outgoing executive and who only returned to the country on Friday, a day after the fiasco, insisted that all those who directly and indirectly caused the ballot papers problems must be severely punished to serve as deterrent to others.

Recall that the 11th National Delegates Congress, NDC, of NLC which commenced on Monday, February 9, 2015, was Thursday morning, aborted during voting to elect a new set of leaders to run the affairs of

HANDING-OVER: Maj. Gen. Lincoln Ogunewe, Nigeria’s Military Adviser to the United Nations (right) presenting handing over instrument to the Dean of Military and Police Advisers Community (MPAC) to Lt. Gen. Paolo Serra, Military Adviser, Permanent Mission of Italy to the UN in New York.

the Congress for the next four not be swept under the carpet.” years, because of alleged multiple voting, multiple ballot Disruption, a national papers with some candidates embarrassment names appearing two or three —FALANA times, while some candidates’ On his part, Falana in a names did not appear in some statement, said as Counsel to the of the ballot papers.

Congress, he was invited to the conference, lamenting that to the Election fraught with embarrassment of the country the alleged multiple voting, conference was violently disrupted. multiple ballot papers He called on the leadership of There were also allegations that, in some ballot papers, the Congress to probe the where one of the presidential disruption of its conference, candidates name appeared, reconvene as soon as possible and there was no serial number conclude the conference with the election of its national officers. among other anomalies.

Falana equally urged labour According to the MWUN President-General, “What leaders to ensure that the election happened on Thursday was was conducted in strict compliance very sad, a shame and a big with the provisions of the embarrassment. I was not in the registered Constitution of the country during the conference, Congress.

According to him, “The as I came in on Friday, I was briefed and I felt very bad. This conference was abruptly disrupted is foreign in labour movement. while the election of the national I do not want to believe it was officers of the Congress was done because of desperation postponed indefinitely. Coming so for power. I was even told that soon after the simulated some unions brought only postponement of the nation’s delegates from a section of the General Election, the failure of the country. What sort of thing is Congress to conduct its election has further exposed the country to that?

Something is definitely wrong. ridicule before the international We call for thorough community. ''The last time that the Congress investigation into this matter.

Those responsible for the witnessed a similar disruption of printing of those ballot papers its election was at Benin, Edo State must not go unpunished. They in February, 1988 when the should be brought to book and Ibrahim Babangida junta they must face severe sanctions. instigated an imaginary If they are secretariat staff, they factionalisation, which led to the should be dismissed and dissolution of the structures of the prosecuted. And if they are Congress. For four years thereafter, labour leaders, they should be the Congress was in disarray while expelled from NLC for giving the Structural Adjustment labour a bad name. We are Programme was imposed on the supposed to be a watch dog to Nigerian people at the behest of the society, fighting for the imperialism. ''Hence, without a coordinated oppressed and upholding truth and justice. No, no, this is resistance from the labour unacceptable; it is embarrassing movement, the junta successfully and a show of shame. It must prosecuted the anti-people’s economic agenda of currency devaluation, retrenchment of workers, withdrawal of funding from social services, privatization of public assets and other antipeoples’ economic agenda.

Although the Congress was restored in 1988, it was again said Nigeria is a good place to proscribed together with the invest. God has given us in Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Nigeria what many other Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) countries don’t have and keep and the Petroleum and Natural searching for. We have got fertile Gas Senior Staff Association of land for agriculture, we have the Nigeria (PENGASSAN) in 1994 by minerals resources and we have the Sani Abacha junta for oil. All we need to do is to harness demanding that a democratically elected government be them for our good.

“The present challenges we inaugurated on the basis of the are facing should not deter us results of the June 12, 1993 from growing our economy. It presidential election.

As the 1993 scenario is being shouldn’t stop us from investing.

It is just a passing phase. Other replayed by the service chiefs, in countries referred to as cahoot with a faction of the ruling developed started from class, the country is once again on somewhere and all experienced the edge of a precipice. As the most some of these challenges in the organized civil society body in the past. So, I want us to see these country, the Congress cannot afford challenges as obstacles towards to be distracted at this critical period in the life of the nation.'' attaining greatness.”

Nigeria still investment destination, despite challenges — DANGOTE

By Peter Egwuatu

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AGOS—PRESIDENT of Dangote Group and Chairman of Dangote Cement Plc, Aliko Dangote, has advised Nigerians to see the current economic challenges being faced by the country as a wake up call for all to re dedicate themselves to the task of building the nation through production activities.

Dangote, who has always expressed his faith in Nigeria as an economically viable nation, told a delegation of cement distributors from across the country who paid him a visit in his office in Lagos that Nigeria still remained the destination of choice for investments despite the economic

and security challenges.

The business mogul said though the economic downturn was ravaging most countries of the world, including Nigeria but that the situation was sumountable if properly addressed. He noted that it could also served as stepping stone that will make the country economically stronger in the future.

Dangote explained that with support for the government of the day in the task of tackling the challenges and the transformation agenda of the Federal Government, the current challenges would soon be a thing of the past and Nigeria would come out stronger from it.

According to him “I have always

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015— —55

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US accused of fuelling political tension in Nigeria ...Group asks Emir Sanusi II to apologise to Jonathan,Diezani

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OVE on Nigeria, a civic action group promoting d e m o c r a c y , transformation agenda and good governance in Nigeria has accused the Obama administration of fuelling political tension in Nigeria so as to achieve the US prediction of Nigeria’s disintegration this year.

In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Mr Clem Aguiyi, the group said “it is interesting that the Obama administration that has refused to do anything to help Nigeria in the fight against insurgency, has continued to publicly magnify every failure Nigeria’s government experienced and also working behind the scene to assist Buhari, who ruled Nigeria with iron fist to unseat the incumbent president.

The Obama administration cannot pretend not to know that the Buhari military government was known for harshly cracking down on civil rights, arresting opposition forces, and intimidating critical journalists”.

Meanwhile, the group has also urged former Central Bank governor, who is now Emir of Kano, Alhaji Muhammed Sanusi II to apologise to President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani AlisonMadueke following the

audit report on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, which indicated that only $1.48b was yet to be remitted to the federation account as against $49b alleged by Sanusi as missing.

The group said, as a mark of honour, the onus now falls on the Kano Emir, who as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), raised the initial alarm that led to the probe.

According to the group, the allegation gave rise to more international attention on Nigeria just like the audit report did, adding that with the world watching, those who initially raised the allegation, and indeed, “all those who reached j u d g e m e n t a l conclusions, ought to swallow their pride and tender public apology to the president, the minister and also the senate of the Federal Republic”.

“As a group which was in support of the call for a probe, we now feel that having had the result with the allegation of $49billion missing proven to be false, we therefore call on the Emir of Kano, and indeed, all those who worked to heat up the polity and insulted the President of the Federal Republic and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, to own up to their faults and apologise to the nation”, it said.

Isoko socio-cultural group cautions on UPU crisis

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SOKO Community Development Alliance, ICDA, has appealed for caution and temperament in the resolution of the present crisis in the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU. Addressing newsmen in Oleh, yesterday, the group called on its Urhobo cousins not to allow outsiders to destroy an illustrious organization like the UPU, which through the efforts of the late Mukoro Mowoe became the envy and model for other socio-cultural bodies in Delta and elsewhere.

In a statement by its publicity secretary, Emmanuel Abada, the ICDA while bemoaning the harsh treatment meted out to the Isoko nation by the PDP in denying the Isokos any post of relevance in the coming dispensation, opined that the Isoko nation was banking

on a united Urhoboland to deliver an opposition candidate to defeat the PDP in the coming election.

According to Ababda, “Whether anyone likes it or not, we need a united block Urhobo vote to save Delta from PDP. We were banking on O’tega Emerhor of APC to lead the liberation of Delta but now that Great Ogboru and Joe Omene seem to be pandering to the dictates of Aso Rock in favour of Ifeanyi Okowa of PDP we can only say we are quite dejected as our only hope of rescue from PDP misrule is slipping away.”

Abada said: “While we are looking up to our Urhobo cousins to put their house in order, for now we remain committed to O’tega and hope we can all deliver him as our next Governor across the state as the most detribalized candidate.''

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BRIEFS Turkey rallies over murder of woman who ‘resisted rape’

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Ukrainian ceasefire takes effect amid mistrust on both sides A

FTER days of ferocious attacks, a ceasefire went into effect after midnight yesterday in Ukraine, followed by brief accusations of violence.

President Petro Poroshenko ordered the Ukrainian military to hold its fire against pro-Russian militants in the nation’s East.

The separatist Donetsk People’s Republic also announced a truce.The ceasefire aims to end 10 months of violence in eastern Ukraine.

But less than 90 minutes after it started, Ukrainian officials reported mortar shelling at a military post near Zolote in the Luhansk region.

Meanwhile, CNN teams in Ukraine said the shelling quieted shortly after midnight.

Ceasefire holding The “ceasefire is holding,” according to chief monitor Ertugrul Apakan of the Organization for Security

HOUSANDS of women in Turkey have protested at the murder of a young woman who allegedly resisted an attempt by a bus driver to rape her.

Police discovered the burnt body of Ozgecan Aslan, 20, in a riverbed in the city of Mersin at the weekend..

They have arrested three men in connection with her death - a minibus driver, his father and a friend.

The Turkish president and prime minister called

Ms Aslan’s family to offer their condolences.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu promised the family to hunt those responsible for the crime and punish them.

Ms Aslan, a psychology student, was kidnapped on Wednesday on her way home.

The driver allegedly tried to rape her. She reportedly fought him off with pepper spray, but was then stabbed to death.

She was also hit on the head with an iron pipe.

A Valentine’s Day wedding for Benedict Cumberbatch

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•French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius (left), Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attend a meeting on Ukraine in Berlin. and Co-operation in Europe.

Referring to the first 12 hours of the ceasefire, Apakan said the ceasefire was being respected overall, with some exceptions.

Apakan noted violations in the town of Debaltseve,

where an exchange of artillery fire began after the ceasefire was implemented.

In the area around the city of Donetsk, there were reports of a mortar round, three uses of a multiplelaunch rocket system and small-arms fire in the first hour of the ceasefire, but

the “situation was calm,” the chief monitor said.

There were also violations reported before dawn in the city of Luhansk, he said.

The OSCE mission “calls on all parties to fully adhere to the ceasefire in all locations,” Apakan said.

AD news, Benedict Cumberbatch fans: The Oscar nominee is officially off the market.

The star of “The Imitation Game” and “The Hobbit” married pregnant fiancee Sophie Hunter on Saturday in a quiet ceremony on the British Isle of Wight.

“Benedict and Sophie were married yesterday surrounded by their close friends and family,” Cumberbatch’s representative Karon Maskill told CNN. Everyone’s favorite

modern “Sherlock” announced his engagement the oldfashioned way — in the newspaper — back in November.

The “Star Trek Into Darkness” actor, who has a massive following online, is expected to attend the Oscars next Sunday, where he is nominated for best actor for “The Imitation Game.”

Hunter is a British playwright, actress and singer, known for directing theater productions.

Congo spurns UN support for campaign against Rwandan rebels

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S/Africa slams Japan newspaper column praising apartheid

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OUTH Africa has protested after a prominent columnist in leading right-wing newspaper in Japan praised racial segregation under apartheid as a model for Japanese immigration policy, the paper said Sunday.

Mohau N. Pheko, South Africa’s ambassador to Japan, accused novelist Ayako Sono of glorifying the system of apartheid in the column published on Wednesday in the Sankei Shimbun.

Sono, who was previously an adviser to the government of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on education reform, wrote that Japan needs immigrant workers to help care for its rapidly ageing population — but that those workers should “live apart”, as they did in South Africa under apartheid.

Pheko’s letter of protest, according to a story published in the Sankei on Sunday, branded apartheid “a

•Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe crime against humanity” and said it “must not be justified in the 21st century”.

All countries, the Sankei quoted her as saying, must fight discrimination “against others based on skin colour or other standards”.

The newspaper did not publish the full letter online, and there was no immediate comment from the South African embassy in Tokyo or from officials in Pretoria on Sunday.

Sono’s column had sparked a backlash on

social media, with commentators on Twitter branding it “madness” while others said it was “shocking” that the Sankei had published it.

When asked about the column on Friday, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters the government would “ refrain from commenting on the personal views of a private individual”, adding that while Sono had been a member of a government panel she had left it two years previously.

E M O C R AT I C Republic of Congo, President Joseph Kabila has spurned a United Nations offer of support for a military campaign against Rwandan Hutu rebels inside the country, and criticized international interference in its affairs.

U.N. peacekeepers were due to support an operation against the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) but suspended cooperation last week because two Congolese generals tapped to lead the campaign are accused of human rights abuses.

The MONUSCO peacekeepers say their support is key to defeating

the estimated 1,400 rebels, who have been at the heart of conflict in Africa’s Great Lakes region for two decades.

But Kabila told diplomats in the capital the operation in the east had already started without help from the M O N U S C O peacekeepers, and the

Italy suspends operations at Libya embassy, evacuates nationals

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TALY yesterday said it was pulling out staff from its embassy in Libya and suspending operations there because of mounting insecurity in the troubled country.

Italian coastguard in rescue operation of over 1,000 migrants

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HE Italian coastguard launched a major rescue operation yesterday for more than 1,000 migrants in difficulty between the Italian island of Lampedusa and the Libyan coast.

Around 150 migrants aboard two vessels from Libya have already been helped to safety, emergency officials told AGI news agency.

A coastguard source said as many as 1,300 migrants in 10 boats could

government would work alone.

“The Democratic Republic of Congo today renounces, in the most official manner, the support of MONUSCO to track the FDLR. We are going to track them alone,” government spokesman Lambert Mende quoted Kabila as saying.

be in need of rescuing.

Several cargo ships in the area were assisting the coastguard with the rescue.

Last year, more than 3,200 people died while attempting to reach Italy by boat from North Africa, on what the United Nations has described as the most dangerous route in the world.

In the latest tragedy last week, more than 300 died when their overcrowded rubber dinghies collapsed and sank in stormy seas.

The move came as Rome reiterated its willingness to lead a multinational force to tackle the growing jihadist threat in Libya, a former Italian colony.

In total, about 100 Italians were being evacuated by ship from the north African state, foreign ministry sources said.

The ministry said the embassy the last Western mission to remain open in Libya — has “suspended its activities because of the worsening security situation”.

But it said in a statement that “essential services” would continue.

Rome had on Friday warned its nationals against travelling to Libya and urged those already there to leave as the jihadists gain ground.

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Jovetic: Pellegrini killed me J

UVENTUS prepare their move for Stevan Jovetic after he said Manchester City Coach Manuel Pellegrini “killed me.”

The Montenegro international was sensationally left out of City’s Champions League squad, making way for £28m January buy Wilfried Bony.

“I deserve to play in the Champions League - I know that,” ex-Fiorentina star Jovetic told the Sunday Mirror.

“The manager has killed me with this decision. I feel I deserve my place and other people have told me the same.

“People have told me I am a great player, but it is clear that the manager doesn’t think the same way.”

A summer departure now seems inevitable and Juventus had already been heavily linked with the 25-year-old during the January transfer window.

•Messi

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IONEL Messi scored a hat-trick on his 300th La Liga appearance and Luis Suarez netted a bicycle kick as Barcelona smashed Levante 5-0 yesterday.

Suarez had appeared to be hitting form in La Blaugrana’s attacking trident alongside his fellow South Americans, but with the midweek Champions League match against Manchester City in mind, he was dropped to the substitutes’ bench.

Consequently Pedro Rodriguez was named in

Bayern hammer Hamburg I

F there were any doubts about FC Bayern München struggling for form before this game, Pep Guardiola’s charges well and truly dispelled them with an astonishing display of muscle-flexing to beat Hamburger SV 8-0 at the Allianz Arena on Saturday afternoon.

Thomas Müller opened the floodgates with a 21st minute penalty and was involved in another three, scoring once more and setting up two as the hosts ran riot. Arjen Robben and Mario Götze likewise struck braces, with Robert Lewandowski and Franck Ribery also getting in on the act.

•Robben C M Y K

Barca back to their best

the No 9’s absence, joining fellow newcomers Claudio Bravo, Martin Montoya, Marc Bartra, Adriano, Ivan Rakitic, Xavi Hernandez and Sergio Busquets, none of whom started the recent 3-1 Copa del Rey victory over Villarreal.

Unsurprisingly, the Catalans dominated the opening stages, continually playing the ball between themselves without breaking a sweat, while Lucas Alcaraz’s strugglers were forced to adopt a counterattacking game, camping in their own half for most part.

Wawrinka wins Rotterdam title

•Jovetic

FA Cup: Arsenal march on F

A Cup holders Ar senal produced an assured display to reach the quarter-finals and end Middlesbrough’s impressive run in the competition.

Santi Cazorla split the away side’s defence with a through ball for Kieran Gibbs, who squared for Olivier Giroud to steer home the opener.

Giroud added a second with a delightful volley at Boro’s near post after slack defending from a corner.

Spanish striker Kike headed against the post late on but Boro created little.

•Wawrinka

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•Giroud

TAN Wawrinka beat Tomas Berdych 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Sunday to claim the first indoor title of his career in the ATP Rotterdam World Tennis event.

The Swiss fourth seed lifted his second trophy of the season after winning in Chennai to start

the year and reaching an Australian Open semifinal last month.

The 29-year-old ranked eighth in the world, who won the Australian Open a year ago, now owns nine career titles. He came good for his latest trophy after last playing Rotterdam a decade ago.

C M Y K

Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 — 63

Toure: I’m through with Elephants L

IVERPOOL defender Kolo Toure has confirmed his retirement from international football with Ivory Coast, a week after helping the Elephants to a Nations Cup triumph.

The 33-year had indicated that the recent competition in Equatorial Guinea would be his last for his country.

Toure, who made his debut against Rwanda in April 2000, played in all six matches as the Ivorians secured their second African title after a dramatic 9-8 penalty shootout win over Ghana in the final.

Speaking to the local media in Abidjan, Toure said: “It is with great emotion that I inform you that it is time to say goodbye.”

“My goal was to win the Africa Cup of Nations and I must admit that it was a very difficult decision to make.

“I do love my country and especially love football, but at some point, there comes a time to stop.”

Toure was part of Ivory Coast’s 2006, 2010 and 2014 World Cup squads, but played in only one match at last summer ’s finals in Brazil, in the final group game against Greece.

He also played in seven Africa Cup of Nations, losing two finals on penalties - to Egypt in 2006 and to Zambia in 2012.

“Sometimes it plays in your mind, but with this incredible success you have to forget the past and enjoy the moment,” he said.

CAF CON-FED Cup: Dolphins lose to Leones Vegetarianos

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HE Leones Vegetarianos of Equatorial Guinea weekend defeated Nigeria’s second representatives in the CAF Confederations Cup, Dolphins of Port Harcourt, 1-0, in the preliminary round.

The first leg tie was played in Malabo, the Equatorial Guinean capital.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that the hurriedly prepared Port Harcourt side had to fend off their

Wolves pip Racing Bobo 1-0

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ARRI Wolves Football Club at the weekend pipped hosts Racing Club de Bobo-Dioulasso (RCB) of Burkina Faso in the first leg match of the preliminary round of the 2015 Confederation Cup. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the match saw substitute Abu Azeez scoring the lone goal.

This means War ri

K

I'M DONE••• Ivory Coast and Liverpool's star, Kolo Toure raises his hands as he retires from international football.

Eaglets Niger fought hard in search of goals but the Eaglets did well to contain them.

Nigeria’s next game will be against Guinea on Wednesday, while their final group A match will be on Saturday against Zambia.

The opening match was preceded by a colourful ceremony depicting Niger ’s history, culture and song and traditions.

Wolves have a foot in the next round after the attacking midfielder came off the bench to net the only goal of the keenly-contested encounter.

Azeez punished the hosts when he found enough space to score in the 84th minute off a corner kick by Ikechukwu Ibenegbu who delivered a welltailored ball.

Pillars victory excites Emordi ANO Pillars coach Okey Emordi has described their 2-0 win over Al-Malakia of South Sudan in the first preliminary round game of the CAF Champions League as satisfactory.

Goals from Gambo Mohamed and Christian Obiozor sealed an important away win for the Nigerian champions, and their coach, Okey Emordi has expressed his thoughts.

Ideye Continues from BP

shabby preparation for the away tie.

The team left for Malabo by 8:00 p.m. on Friday, barely 24 hours to the kick off.

However, against all odds, the Dolphins started the competition the better of the two teams.

The Port Harcourt boys, however, lost concentration in the crucial moments of the match and crashed by conceding a lone goal to the Leones Vegetarianos.

It was attended by the host republican president Mahamadou Issoufou, CAF president Issa Hayatou, Executive Committee of CAF and members of the Organizing Committee of the CAFU17 championship.

The semifinalists will qualify to represent Africa at the 2015 FIFA U17 World Cup to be hosted by Chile in November.

Continues from BP games.

However, the 26-year old believes the most important thing for the Baggies at the moment is to keep winning.

“We have to keep winning,” he said after the game. “I thought it was a good game for us and considering the margin, I would that I am impressed.”

But despite his seeming modesty about his recent rich vein of form, the former Dynamo Kiev striker says he is

delighted to have scored and helped his team.

“I feel delighted obviously. It feels good to score and help the team and the feeling is even better when you win.

“I hope we can continue this way, and hopefully I will still score more goals.”

The 26-year old has now scored 6 goals in 20 games in all competitions for the Baggies, after a slow start to life at the Hawthorns.

“It was a good game of football and the result I would say was satisfactory,” he told SL10.ng.

“It is just the first game of the competition, so it was nice seeing the players play as well as they did.”

It was Kano Pillars’ first game in this season’s competition, and their first away win in the competition in four years, but Emordi says they are not getting carried away by the feat.

Yobo Continues from BP spent six months on loan at Norwich City last season, left Turkish side Fenerbahce in August 2014 after his contract was ended by mutual consent.

But the free agent, who has not played competitively since last summer’s World Cup in Brazil, believes he still has plenty to offer.

“I have really looked after myself and I know I can still play at the top level,” Yobo told BBC Sport.

“The most important thing is to stay in good shape and that’s exactly what I have been doing.

“I still have some clubs who have shown significant interest in me.

“I’ll be the first to hang up my football boots if I feel I can no longer perform to the best of my ability or expectations.”

His country ’s most capped player, Yobo called time on his international career following the Super Eagles’ exit from the World Cup in Brazil.

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Vanguard, MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Ideye: We have to keep winning W

EST Bromwich Albion striker, Brown Ideye, says the most important thing for him is for his club to keep winning, after bagging a brace in their

CAN U-17:

Eaglets off to winning start

CELEBRATION . . . West Bromwich Albion’s Nigerian striker Brown Ideye celebrates after scoring twice in their 4-0 FA Cup win over West Ham United at the weekend. Photo: AFP 4-0 FA Cup win over West Ham United.

The Nigeria striker scored in the 20th and 57th minute to help the

•down Niger 2-0 T

HE Golden Eaglets yesterday got off to a winning start in the African U17 Championship after they defeated hosts Niger 20 Striker Victor Osimhen gave the Nigeria U17s the lead after 18 minutes, before skipper Kelechi Nwakali doubled the advantage two minutes later through a free kick goal.

In the second half, Continues on Page 63

Baggies to an impressive 4-0 win over the Hammers, making it four goals in his last three

Continues on Page 63

Yobo eyes top-level football F

ORMER Super Eagles captain Joseph Yobo is keen to find a route back into top-level action despite his six months of inaction.

The 34-year-old, who Continues on Page 63

CHEERS! . . . Golden Eaglets captain Kelechi Nwakali celebrates with a teammate after beating Niger Republic 2-0 at CAF U-17

•Yobo

Toure: I’m through with Elephants — Pg.63 QUICK CROSSWORD

TODAY'S

PUZZLE

FRI DAY'S FRIDAY'S

ANSWERS

DOWN ACROSS 2 Number (3) 1 Oil (5) 5 Unsophisticated (6) 3 Horrifies (6) 4 Eggs (3) 8 Authority (5) 5 Framework (4) 10 Colour (6) 6 Combines (6) 11 Flower (4) 7 Rubber (6) 14 Tasks (6) 9 Incorrectly (7) 15 Walking (7) 12 Regret (3) 18 Fish (3) 13 Shelf (4) 19 Received (3) 16 Gentle (4) 21 Insinuation (4) 17 Automaton (5) 23 Permit (5) 20 Loomed (7) 24 Combines (4) 22 Desire (4) 27 Tree (3) 24 Fisherman (6) 29 Strike (3) 25 Fall (4) 31 Threatened (7) 26 Fierce (6) 32 Gauntlets (6) 28 Package (6) 34 Track (4) 30 Caress (3) 35 Elude (6) 33 Close (4) 38 Excessive (5) 36 Drink (3) 39 Reiterate (6) 37 Write (3) 40 Machinery (5)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Nicety 5, Cull 8, Onion 9, Aim 10, Made 11, Nine 12, Drift 13, Belief 16, Rife 18, Rent 20, Bid 22, Rot 23, Mad 24, Lane 25, Exit 28, Common 30, Stood 32, Oath 33, Risk 34, Nap 35, Alike 36, Bury 37, Frisks.

DOWN: 1, Nearby 2, Complain 3, Temper 4, Energetic 5, Confirm 6, Unit 7, Lees 8, Odd 14, Fireworks 15, And 17, Fox 19, Earnings 20, Bat 21, Deathly 26, Talker 27, Snipes 29, Bomb 30, Star 31, Die.

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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