Police uncover bombs in Owerri church

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...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62166

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

We'll crush Iran —Keshi

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Cost of clearing goods at ports up by 200% 17

Police uncover bombs in Owerri church

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

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•Six suspects arrested; Okorocha lauds security agents •Says it would have been a huge disaster

WERRI—THE po lice, yesterday, averted what could have amounted to the worst disaster in the southern part of the country by terrorists, as it defused Continues on Page 5

COLUMNIST:

Treasury bills: Can NASS stop this treasury looting?

P.40

Army's tangle with the Press

•P.46

Mr & Mrs

AFRICAN LEADERS—Front row, L-R: Presidents Ibrahim Boubacar Keita (Mali); Boni Yayi (Benin); Macky Sall (Senegal); Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria) and President of the African Union Commission, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, after a meeting of African heads of state dedicated to the development objectives of NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development), yesterday, in Dakar, Senegal. AFP PHOTO.

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POCKET CARTOON

LAUNCHING—From left: Sheik Dahiru Usman Bauchi; Speaker House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal; Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo; Sultan of Sokoto Alhaji Sa'ad Abubakar; at the launching of N1.9 billion Appeal Fund for the construction of International Islamic Centre in Abuja,yesterday. Photo: State House, Abuja.

Police uncover bombs in Owerri church Continues from page 1 three improvised explosive devices, IEDs, carefully planted in the Living Faith Church, (Winners Chapel), Owerri that accommodates more than 10,000 worshippers.

Imo State Governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha, in his reaction, said “the bombs had the capacity to cover about 500 metres and could have been a huge disaster if they had exploded as planned by the terror-

ists”.

Following the report that the police had uncovered and defused the explosives, palpable tension and confusion enveloped Owerri, Imo State capital as residents were apprehensive that members of the dreaded Islamic sect, Boko Haram, must have been responsible for it.

Already, all the security chiefs operating in the state, have visited the church premises, located off Port Harcourt Road, Owerri, to have a first hand assessment of

LIFEWORDS

BY PASTOR ITUAH

‘Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.... Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand...’

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

The majority of men meet with failure because of their lack of persistence in creating new plans to take the place of those which fail — Napoleon Hill

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APOLEON Hill, in one of his famous books made a distinction between people. And he said the difference between people who are able to live a fully functioning life and to attract riches and wellness and happiness and abundance and prosperity into their lives is that the people who do that have something that he called a “burning desire.”

And a burning desire is very different than just, “Oh, I’d really like to do well, I’d like to have my book do well, I’d like to have this music that I’m writing do well, I’d like people to know about it,” and so on.

A burning desire is much deeper, it’s like having an inner candle flame that, no matter what goes before you, it doesn’t even flicker. And this is something that you can experience if you believe in yourself.

There are so many people, who don’t give enough, and maybe just a little more effort would have made a difference – they have a desire but they don’t have the willingness and the fearlessness and the determination to follow through with their dreams.

the planned bomb attack.

Addressing newsmen shortly after inspecting the area, the Commissioner of Police, CP, Mr. Abdulmajid Ali, confirmed that six persons have been arrested in connection with the planned bomb attack The CP explained that soon after getting information about the strange objects, the anti-bomb unit of the Command was immediately despatched to the scene.

According to Ali, “the police have disabled the devices, while serious investigations have commenced to uncover those behind the plot”.

He appealed to residents of the state not to panic but to be more security conscious, especially as the foiled attempt ought to be an eye opener to all.

“We are worried about the development but people should be vigilant. People should be very curious about anything they see within their surroundings. People should however not pick up anything. They should contact the security agencies any time they see strange objects”, the CP cautioned.

The police boss pleaded with the citizenry to be conscious of what is happening in their surroundings, adding that people must learn to see any strange fellow with suspicious movement as a suspect.

Although the pastor in charge of the church, Moses Oyedele, declined to speak to journalists on the matter, a member of the security group in the church, Pas-

tor Chike Odenigbo, said it was one of his colleagues who noticed the two explosives planted at the gate and another at the church auditorium, which he said accommodates more than 10,000 worshippers at a time, that alerted them of the suspicious devices.

“The founder of the church had said it about three weeks ago that we should not allow any vehicle to come into the church premises. So, we started the stop and search process last week. We are expecting that God will continue to work for us”,Odenigbo said.

At press time, the police had cordoned off the area, thereby restricting both human and vehicular movement, while worshippers were diverted to the Heroes Square along Concorde Avenue, Owerri.

When Vanguard visited St. Mulumba’s Parish, Owerri, the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. George Ahamefula, confirmed receiving the security alert pointing out that “serious measures have been put in place to forestall any attack from the dreaded sect”.

It would have been huge disaster — Okorocha Governor Rochas Okorocha, in his reaction said the improvised explosive devices planted in the church, would have been a huge disaster if they had exploded as planned by the criminals.

Okorocha, who stated

this, while speaking to journalists, yesterday, in Government House, Owerri, equally disclosed that the bombs had the capacity of covering about 500 metres range.

“It is true that bombs were planted in Winners Chapel, today (yesterday). These bombs had the capacity to cover about 500 metres range and would have been a huge disaster if they had exploded as planned by the insurgents”, Okorocha said.

What was also worrisome to the Governor was that the church is located in a densely populated area of the municipality.

He thanked God for saving the lives of innocent citizens.

Answering a question, Okorocha affirmed that some suspects have already been arrested in connection with the crime and commended the security agencies for being alive to their duties.

While assuring the citizenry that “the state has applied necessary measures to stop further occurrence of the ugly situation”, the Governor added that there would be an emergency security meeting at the International Convention Centre, Owerri, where further security briefing would be made available to Imolites.

“The situation is under control. Imo State is not known for such ugly incidence. I, therefore, appeal to all Imolites and other Nigerians resident in the state, to be more security conscious and alert the police about any suspected objects, vehicles or persons around their vicinity”, Okorocha pleaded.

Reacting to the development, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dr. Theodore Ekechi, said although government was visibly worried about the ugly development, it would allow the security agencies to do their job.

“No responsible government and no respon-

sible people would be happy when reports of things like this begin to challenge the tranquility and serenity of a state like Imo”, Ekechi said.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up in the state, following the foiled attempt to bomb the church in Owerri.

Vanguard recalls that the Owerri residence of former Governor Ikedi Ohakim which was gutted by fire on May 15, was suspected to have emanated from an incendiary bomb thrown into the building.

The Imo State Police Command has also warned members of the public, especially churches, schools, markets and motor parks in the state, to be more vigilant and security conscious about their surroundings.

A statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Mr. Andrew Enwerem,said any strange objects observed in the form of refrigerator or air condition compressor, either hidden in sacks or otherwise, should be reported to the police immediately.

The statement advised members of the public to go about their lawful business without panic, as the Command is determined to ensure the safety of life and property of the residents in the state.

Shettima's warning Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima had last week warned that Boko Haram had the capacity to extend havoc across the country, if they succeeded in overrunning the NorthEast. He said: “If Boko Haram succeeds in overrunning the North East as they seek, they will surely want to extend greater havoc to other parts of the North and if they overrun the North, they would want to extend to the South.

Crisis of any type has got a life of its own which depends on something for survival.”

6 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

TASUED protest: Anxiety over SUG president's health

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

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BEOKUTA — THERE was anxiety over the health of the President of the Students Union Government of Tai Solarin University of Education, TASUED, Ijagun, Comrade Sunday Ekeyokpa, who was reportedly hit with gun butt by one of the security men during last week's students protest.

Vanguard reliably gathered that the SUG President is in a critical condition and had been rushed to his family house in Abeokuta for urgent attention.

The students and men of Nigerian Army code named: OP MESA, clashed last Tuesday during a protest against the school management which allegedly did not allow some of them to write the first semester examinations.

Sunday was said to have suffered head injury after he was hit with a gun butt by one of the soldiers during the protest.

One of the students leaders in the state, Hamed Falola confirmed the health condition of the students president, saying he had contacted some government officials over the matter.

He said: “Yes, Sunday is not okay, his health condition is now questionable because of his attack by the OP MESA in the school last week.

"We were told by some medical experts that he should be attended to by some psychiatric doctors because of how he has been behaving and that was why we brought him down to his family members at Abiola Way in Abeokuta.

“We are appealing to the state government and philanthropists in the state to help save the life of our President."

Another students leader who pleaded anonymity said: “Some of us tried all we could but his action shows that he is not mentally fit. His responses to issues are distorted. So we rushed him to his family house in Abeokuta."

Two students, four others die in Osun auto crash

BY GBENGA OLARINOYE

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SOGBO — TRAGEDY struck, weekend, when six persons, including two students of the Bells Secondary School, Ota, Ogun State, lost their lives in a motor accident along Ife/Ibadan road.

The accident, according to sources, which involved a Toyota Hiace bus with number plate, Ogun AP555TP, occurred at about 6.30 p.m in Ikire,

headquarters of Irewole Local Government Area of Osun State.

The bus, which conveyed some students of the Bells Secondary School, Ota who were returning from an excursion to Abuja, according to an eye witness, had one of its rear tyres burst while on motion.

An officer of the Federal Roads Safety Commission, FRSC, at the scene of the accident, told newsmen that the

fatality of the accident was as a result of high speed by the driver of the bus.

However, the driver of the 18-seater bus survived the accident, but sustained serious injuries.

The FRSC officers and officials of the Osun Ambulance Service took the survivors to the General Hospital, Ikire while the corpses of the victims were said to have been deposited at the mortuary of the hospital.

The management of Bells Secondary School in a telephone conversation confirmed that some students of the school went on excursion with the approval of the school authorities.

An official of the school who picked the call put across to the school management said “we are already aware of the incident and we are making efforts to recover their corpses from the hospital.”

6 killed as NDLEA, drug peddlers clash in Ogun

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

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Scene of an accident where a truck fell under Iganmu-Apapa Wharf link bridge after downpour in Lagos, weekend. Photo: NAN.

Six suspected kidnappers shot dead in Edo

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

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ENIN CITY—SIX sus pected kidnappers were shot dead, yesterday, along Igbanke-Ewohinmi road, in Esan South-East Local Government Area of Edo State, during a gun battle between Police and the kidnappers.

The bodies of the deceased suspects were displayed for newsmen at the state Police Command, yesterday.

According to the Edo State

Police Commissioner, Folunso Adebanjo, the incident happened when operatives of the command went to the kidnappers' den with four suspects following the kidnap of a woman who was kept in a forest around the Igbanke-Ewohinmi road.

He said: "On getting to one of their hideouts, immediately our operatives disembarked with the suspects from a vehicle, the kidnappers opened fire on our men.

One dies, 4 injured as rainstorm destroys houses in Dutse

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BY TINA AKANNAM

UTSE — HEAVY rainfall in Limawa town in Dutse, the Jigawa State capital left one dead, four people seriously injured and at least 100 houses destroyed.

Vanguard gathered that the houses were destroyed as a result of the heavy rainfall in Limawa, Galamawa, Ma’ai and Ketare towns in the local government area, Saturday night.

Speaking to Vanguard, some residents affected by the

strong wind and the downpour said the rainstorm started around 6:30 pm.

According Mallam Mohammed, a resident in Limawa town, all the houses in the area are affected, adding: "I’m on my way to buy some roofing materials to repair my two rooms destroyed by the rain storm.

“I am lucky I was not injured. Four people living in my house are currently in the hospital receiving medical attention as a result of injuries."

"The Police engaged the gang in a gun battle and two of the kidnappers were shot dead. Simultaneously, the other four suspects who took to their heels were fatally injured in the cross exchange of fire and they eventually died.

"One pump action gun with four rounds of live cartridges were recovered from the assailants. We also embarked on a search around the scene and huge sum of foreign currencies and arms were recovered.

"The four injured suspects during the shootout were rushed to Stella Obasanjo Hospital for treatment but were certified dead by the medical doctor in the emergency ward. Our men are still combing the bushes for those who escaped with bullet wounds."

Some of the items recovered at the kidnappers' den include a Mercedes Benz C-Class car with number plate AGL 133 CX, $8,200, CFA20,000, five Dirham's United Arab Emirate currency, N8,500, 12 sim cards, four cut to size single barrel gun, 72 live cartridges and one locally made Revolver pistol.

BEOKUTA — NO fewer than three National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, operatives and three suspected drug peddlers lost their lives, yesterday, during a clash between the operatives and suspected drug peddlers in Sabo area of Owode in Yewa South Local Government Area of Ogun State.

An eyewitness told Vanguard that the clash occurred following an attempt by the NDLEA officials to arrest some drug dealers in the area.

It was gathered that several suspected drug dealers lost their lives during the shoot-out.

Confirming the incident, the state commander of the NDLEA, Bala Fagge, said some of his men were attacked by the suspects.

Fagge who did not give the exact figure of the number of his men that lost their lives in the violence, said he could not comment on the incident as he was still mourning his men.

Vanguard’s checks, however, revealed that the drug dealers had got the hint of their impending arrest by the operatives and laid ambush for the officers.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—7

15 killed in fresh Borno village market attack

BY NDAHI MARAMA

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AIDUGURI — NO fewer than 15 people, including traders, were killed, yesterday, when some suspected members of Boko Haram terrorists stormed a local market in Daku village in Askira Uba Local Government Area of Borno State and set ablaze several shops, houses, vehicles and motorcycles.

Askira Uba is about 190 kilometres from Maiduguri, the state capital and shares boundaries with Biu, Chibok, Gwoza and Hawul council areas that have witnessed series of deadly attacks and killings in recent past.

Vanguard gathered from reliable sources that the gunmen, numbering more than 20 and armed with AK-47 rifles, Improvised Explosive Devices, IEDs and petrol bombs invaded the market square on motorcycles and a Hilux Toyota vehicle at 11 am and opened fire on traders, killing 15. The gunmen also carted away food items, unspecified amount of money before fleeing towards the Sambisa forest.

A local petty trader who gave his name as Bulus Gadzama said he had to abandon his wares and run for safety He said: "I have to give thank to God almighty for sparing my life today. I just finished my church service at about 10:00am.

I then proceeded to the market after dropping my Holy Bible at home, and all of a sudden after displaying my wares, we started hearing sounds of gunshots and explosions which forced everybody to scamper for safety.

"It was when the attackers fled before some of us summoned courage to go to the scene of the

incident. It was then we realised that over 15 people were killed. Most of the shops in the market were set ablaze after looting food items.”

Also, a Maiduguri resident who hails from Daku and lost one of his friends in the inci-

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AGOS — THE Petrol Station Workers, PSW, branch of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, weekend in Warri, Delta State, threatened to close all filling stations nationwide over the lingering crisis in the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, which the union said had stalled negotiation for improved working condition for members.

PSW in a statement lamented that members were today paid between N5,000 and N8,000 as salaries monthly by IPMAN members- owned filling stations, describing it as “modern day slavery.”

In the statement by its Chairman, Mr. Roland Abu, the union

Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gideon Jubrin, could not be reached on phone, but a top Police officer, who was not authorised to talk to the press confirmed the incident, saying many people were killed while no arrest was made.

From left: Mr. Julian Norford, Chief Operating Officer, Jabo Industries; Mr. Haziq Beg, Chief Operating Officer, IL&FS Energy; Mr. Oti Ikomi, Executive Vice Chiarman, Proton Energy Ltd and Prof. Chinedu Nebo, Minister of Power, during a courtesy visit by the management staff of Proton Energy Ltd & International Consortium Team to the Minister of Power in Abuja on the development of 500MW power plant.

24-point demand: Doctors issue 14-day ultimatum

BY CHIOMA OBINNA & GABRIEL OLAWALE

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AGOS— TOTAL collapse of healthcare services in the country is imminent as the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, yesterday threatened to shut down health

Petrol station workers threaten strike over condition of service

BY VICTOR AHIUMA-YOUNG

dent, confirmed the attack, explaining that he received a call from the village that one of his close friends, who went shopping for his wife that just gave birth last week, was among those killed.

Contacted for confirmation, the

said: “The Petrol Station Workers cannot continue to watch the damage the crisis has caused on its members in the depots and filling stations across the country, who are in the chain of petroleum dispensing in the country. The lingering crisis has affected our members adversely, as they are being treated by their IPMAN employers like slaves due to the factionalisation in the body.

"Because of the division and protracted crisis in IPMAN, Petrol Station Workers have not been able to negotiate conditions of service for its members.

Currently, our members are paid pittance as salaries ranging from N5,000 to N8,000 a month by IPMAN membersowned filling stations, which is modern day slavery."

care system if the Federal Government fails to meet their 24-point demand by July 1.

This came on the heels of earlier 30-day ultimatum issued by members of the Joint Health Sector Unions & Assembly of Health Care Professionals, JOHESU/AHPA, to the Federal government over unresolved demands.

The doctors who expressed displeasure over what they described as "government lackadaisical attitude to its demand since the association suspended its strike on January 5" urged the government to address the issues with more seriousness.

The NMA is opposed to the appointment of directors in hospitals and appointment of non-doctors as consultants, skipping of Grade 12 (CONMESS 2), adjustment of the doctors' salary to maintain the relativity, implementation of the January 3, 2014 circular, immediate adjustment of the doctors' salary to maintain the relativity, passage of the National Health Bill (NHB), and extend universal health coverage to cover 100 per cent of Nigerians.

Others are appointment of Surgeon General of the Fed-

eration, upward review of clinical duty allowance for honorary consultants and hazard allowance, immediate release of circular on rural posting, teaching and other allowances, immediate withdrawal of the CBN circular authorising the Medical Laboratory Science Council of Nigeria (MLSCN) to approve licensces for the importation of In-Vitro Diagnostics (IVDs), immediate release of circular on retirement age for medical doctors as agreed with the Federal Government, among others.

Addressing journalists in Lagos, the NMA state Chairman, Dr. Francis Faduyile, said the association would embark on an indefinite strike within the next 14 days if the issues related to the appointment of Chief Medical Directors and other federal appointments in the health sector were not resolved.

His words: "Nobody wants to go on strike. It is an obvious fact that even many of our members have died during strike. We are expecting government to re-right some wrongs but instead of changing position of things, they are making things worse.

Enough is enough. If the government fails after the expiration of our ultimatum, we will resume our suspended strike."

Ex-militants move to free Okah, others

BY SONI DANIEL

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BUJA — FORMER Niger Delta militants have begun moves aimed at stalling the trial of the alleged mastermind of the October 2010 bomb blast in Abuja, Henry Okah, and the release of those already convicted for the deadly act.

Already, the ex-militants under the aegis of The Leadership, Peace and Cultural Development Initiative (LPCDI), a forum of leaders of former agitators in the Niger Delta, have made a passionate appeal to the Federal Government to consider a review of the ongoing trial of Mr Charles Okah and the conviction of Mr Edmund Ebiware, who was sentenced to life imprisonment over the October 1, 2010 bombing.

The group in a release signed by its president,'Pastor' Reuben Wilson, and made available to Vanguard last night, urged the government to explore a political solution towards reviewing the conviction of Mr Henry Okah by the South African authorities over the same incident in Abuja.

This appeal is on the heels of the visit by the Presidential Committee on Prerogative of Mercy to some prisons in the country in order to grant amnesty to suspects incarcerated for various offences by the federal authorities.

The group's action is also coming in the wake of the ceasefire declared by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), who have accepted to dialogue with the Federal Government through the Special Adviser on Niger Delta and Chairman, Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku, on pathway to lasting peace in the Niger Delta.

According to the group, "for us as former leaders of militant camps in the region, we cannot but commend the Committee on Prerogative of Mercy on one hand and MEND on the other for these initiatives that will usher in absolute peace in the land.

"We have always advocated for this and will support any sincere move that will promote peace in our region and country. This is the only way that the much needed development can be noticed and appreciated in the region.

"Our confidence in the person and ability of Hon. Kuku has never been in doubt. We believe he has the magic wand to handle matters of this nature."

8 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Akunyili for burial August 28

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ORMER Minister of Information and Communications, Prof.

Dora Akunyili, OFR, will be buried on August 28, 2014, the family has announced.

“Details about the funeral arrangements will be made available to the public in due course,” Prof.

Akunyili’s husband, Dr. Chike Akunyili, said in a statement yesterday in Awka, Anambra State.

Dr. Akunyili thanked Nigerians for the great love they extended to Dora both in life and at death.

He also expressed his family’s appreciation to President Goodluck Jonathan for the special valedictory session of the Federal Executive Council, FEC, held in honour of the deceased.

I’m excited by outcome of APC convention — AMAECHI

BY SONI DANIEL

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BUJA—GOVER NOR Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State has dismissed insinuations that he is upset with the outcome of the just-concluded convention of the All Progressives Congress, APC, which threw up a new chairman and other national officers.

Amaechi, who defected along with four other governors of the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC last December and played a key role in last Friday’s convention in Abuja, told Vanguard last night that it was not true that he felt betrayed by the outcome of the convention.

The governor said having played a leading role in the events leading to successful conduct of the convention it was not possible for him to be upset with the outcome of an event that he helped to organise.

He was reacting to claims in the social media that he felt betrayed by the party for not making a man purportedly preferred by him to emerge as the National Chairman of the opposition party.

World Bank, ADB commend Nigeria’s power sector privatisation

BY BEN AGANDE

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BUJA—THE World Bank and African Development Bank have commended the Federal Government on the successful completion of the power sector privatisation, saying the Nigerian experience was worth emulating by other countries in Africa.

The two international bodies gave the commendation at the opening session of the African Union’s Summit on Financing Infrastructure Development held in Dakar, Senegal.

Similarly, the African Development Bank has also hailed President Goodluck Jonathan for investing proceeds from partial removal of fuel subsidy on infrastructure development.

The summit, which was convened by President Macky Sall of the Republic of Senegal and Chairperson of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee has as its theme, “Leveraging Public-Private Partnerships for continental infrastructure transformation” .

The Vice President Africa, World Bank, Mr. Mukhtar Diop, who commended Nigeria for the electricity reforms, said it represented a major infrastructural achievements in Africa.

He said: “We must commend the leadership in Nigeria for the successful completion of the privatisation of the country’s power sector. The electric reforms in that country is one of the ways of solving Africa’s problems by Africans.

We commend the country for that,” Diop said.

PUBLIC PRESENTATION: From left—Prince Lateef Fagbemi, chief presenter; Prof D.O.S. Noibi, Executive Secretary, MUSWEN; the author, Prof Muibi Opeloye; Amb Hamzat Amadu, representative of Sultan of Sokoto and Olori Ladun Sijuwade, representative of Oba Okunade Sijuwade, Ooni of Ife during the public presentation of the book "The Qur'an and the Bible: Common Themes for Peaceful Co-existence" authored by Prof Opeloye at the NIIA, Victoria Island, Lagos over the weekend. Photo by Shola Oyelese.

On his part, the President of African Development Bank Group, Dr. Donald Kaberuka, commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the partial removal of subsidy and for using the money saved on infrastructure and education, among others. He noted that a lot still needed to be done as energy supply still remained the major problem in almost all African countries.

“We, however, commended President Goodluck Jonathan for the partial removal of subsidy and using the saved fund on education, infrastructure etc. We urge other African leaders to borrow a leaf from him in this regard,” he said.

President Jonathan, who also spoke at the summit, emphasised that Africa could no longer afford to rely solely on budgetary resources to finance the de-

velopment of infrastructure.

He said his administration was mobilising domestic financial resources for infrastructure development, noting that by using the Sovereign Wealth Fund, Pension Funds, issuance of Dedicated Infrastructure Bonds, establishment and capitalisation of the Infrastructure Bank and the use of Public Private Partnerships, Nigeria was overcoming some of the infrastructure funding challenges.

US lawmakers in Nigeria, urge fund for Boko Haram victims

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OUR visiting United States lawmakers, have urged Nigeria to establish a special fund for victims of the Boko Haram insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives.

“Today, we call upon the government of Nigeria to establish a national victim fund for all the victims who are suffering at the hands of Boko Haram,” delegation co-chair, Sheila Jackson Lee told reporters in the capital, Abuja.

The delegation was in Nigeria as part of global efforts to drum up support for the rescue of the teenage girls kidnapped on April 14 from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok.

Lee said the special fund should provide help “for the girls who are still missing, for the girls who escaped, for their families, for the father who came and spoke to us about his missing daughter,” adding that “they need compensation.

“It is time for economic empowerment and jobs, to ... give the young people of the north and all

around Nigeria the opportunity for jobs and education,” she said.

Delegation leader, Steve Stockman said the US Congress realised that “the best thing that could happen is if we have a fund set up for those that lost their lives and for the families that remain here on this earth.”

Congresswoman Frederica Wilson said their mission in the country was to put pressure on the international community, including the US and Nigerian governments, to help bring back the girls, who range in age from 16 to 18. “Everyone around us has a responsibility to find these

young girls. And we cannot afford to give up until we find all (the) young women who were kidnapped from a school which is supposed to be a safe place,” she said.

Two of the girls who escaped attended the news conference but were not allowed to speak.

Falana raps Obasanjo over statement on abducted schoolgirls

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AGOS lawyer and hu man rights activist, Mr Femi Falana, SAN, has condemned statement credited to former President Olusegun Obasanjo that some of the abducted schoolgirls from Chibok, Borno state may not reunite with their parents while some may become pregnant.

In his address delivered at the rally held by the “Bring Back Our Girls” Coalition in Lagos in solidarity with the Chibok Girls weekend, Mr

Falana said, “unlike other individuals and groups who have been working quietly to secure the release of the abducted girls the former President, General Olusegun Obasanjo has been making some unguarded statements over his intention to reach out to the Boko Haram sect”.

According to Falana, “notwithstanding that the mental and psychological agony which the abduction caused the parents of the girls has led to the sudden death of two of

them General Obasanjo said last week that some of the girls would not be reunited with their families while others might have become pregnant.

“From the information at my disposal such callous and insensitive statements have continued to dash the hopes and accentuate the agony of the parents and friends of the missing girls. No individual or group should play politics with the tragedy of the abduction!

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 —9

I miss my mother dearly – TINUBU ...As Fashola, Buhari, Atiku, others grace ex-gov's mother’s Fidau prayer

BY MONSUR OLOWOOPEJO

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AGOS—PROMINENT Nigerians and All Progressive Party, APC, stalwarts yesterday, stormed Lagos for the one year remembrance ceremony of the mother of former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji. She was until her death the Iyaloja General and President General of Market Men and Women in Nigeria.

Among those at the ceremony were Governor Babatunde Fashola, former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

Others were Deputy governor of Lagos State, Adejoke OrelopeAdefulire, Senator Gbenga Ashafa, a member of the House of Representatives, Mrs Abike DabiriErewa, former interim chairman of APC, Chief Bisi Akande, first lady of Osun State, Mrs. Serifat Aregbesola, Senator Babafemi Ojudu, Justice Utman Muhammad, retired judge of the Supreme Court.

Also in attendance, were Chief Molade Okoya-Thomas, Speaker of the Lagos and Oyo states House of Assembly, Mr. Adeyemi Ikuforiji and Mrs. Monsurat Sumonu respectively, Hon. James

Faleke, among others.

The late Mogaji, died on June 15th, 2013 at 96 in her house in Lagos.

The one-year fidau prayer held in Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, Lagos attracted eminent personalities, politicians, captains of industry and thousands of traders, who defied the early downpour to offer prayer for the repose of the soul of the late Iyaloja Gen-

eral and President General of Market Men and Women in Nigeria.

Speaking on the demise of his mother one year after, Tinubu said “I miss my mother dearly but I know that all of you who have come here today are there for us. All those who have come here today, I pray that your son will also achieve greatness.”

On the legacy of the late ma-

triarch, Faleke in an interview said “The greatest legacy she left behind was to be the mother of all. For instance, I am not from Lagos but she accepted me as her son. Throughout her life time, I was very happy that I had someone like that as a mother.

“I learnt from her how to pray and how to love everyone. I miss her prayers dearly and the role she played as a mother to all.”

FIDAU PRAYER: From left: Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, leader of All Progressives Congress, APC; Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, Chief Bisi Akande, APC leader and General Muhammadu Buhari, APC leader, during the one-year fidau prayer for Late Alhaja Abibatu Mogaji, former Iyaloja General at Lagos yesterday. Photo by Bunmi Azeez.

APC thanks Nigerians for successful convention

A

LL Progressives Con gress, APC, weekend said it would not look back until Nigeria was rescued from rapacious cabal.

The party in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, thanked all Nigerians for their congratulatory messages and words of encouragement, following the party’s hugely successful inaugural national convention in Abuja on Friday that saw the emergence of an elected National Executive Committee, led by the highly-respected Chief John Oyegun, to guide the affairs of the party. ’’We are encouraged and gratified by the goodwill messages from a cross section of Nigerians, many of them from

outside our party, especially on the openness and transparency of our convention.

‘This massive support from Nigerians has strengthened our resolve to continue with our efforts to move our country forward. Now, we are back

to work and we will not look back until Nigeria has been rescued from the grip of a rapacious cabal intent on stifling the country’s progress.’’

APC also thanked all its members and supporters for their demonstrated commit-

Fashola’s aide resigns, Folarin-Coker appointed successor

BY OLASUNKANMI AKONI

L

AGOS—GOVERNOR Ba batunde Fashola of Lagos State, weekend, accepted the resignation of his Special Adviser, SA, on Central Business District, CBD, Mrs. Aderinola Disu, and appointed the Managing Director of the Lagos State Number Plate Production

Agency, Mr Folorunsho Folarin-Coker as successor.

Disu, a lawyer by profession, was appointed SA on CBD on July 2011 and served the agency, created in 2007 till her resignation.

According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Hakeem Bello, the resignation followed

Hike in tariff of imported vehicles'll cause inflation — EXPERT

BY GODWIN ORITSE

L

AGOS—A maritime econ omist and Executive Director of ABN Consults, Mr. Harrison Agada, has advised the Federal Government to halt implementation of the hike in tariff of imported vehicles to save the masses from further hardship.

He said contrary to claims by senior government officials, im-

ment to the sustenance of democracy and the upliftment of Nigeria, saying even when a rainstorm started midway into the convention, the delegates were undaunted as they defied the weather to protect the ballot boxes and cast their votes.

plementation of the import duty hike will place the cost of vehicles beyond the reach of about 90% of Nigerians, increase the cost of transportation by at least 50% and increase inflation before the end of this year.

While speaking with journalists in Lagos yesterday, Agada said: “I believe the new automotive policy will be bedeviled by several problems. First, there is a huge gap between demand and

local capacity. Local production capacity of automobiles by all the assembly plants in the country today stands at a pathetic 45, 000 units per annum while demand stands at 800,000 units per annum.

“Secondly, the price of locallymade vehicles is way out of the reach of average Nigerians and this is mostly as a result of the collapse of public infrastructure including power supply.

months of consultation during which Disu explained the need for her to devote her full time to her family reluctantly accepted her decision to step down from the State Executive Council, SEC. While wishing her the very best in all her endeavours, Fashola thanked Disu for her immense contributions as a public officer of several years standing and, most especially, her distinguished service as the SAd on the Lagos State CBD from 2011 to date.

The new SA on SBD, was born 27th July 1965 to the Agoro and Coker families of Lagos, and attended St Gregory’s College in Obalende.

Meanwhile, Lagos State Government weekend urged Lagos residents not to panic with occasional flash flood on the road and in their communities during rain fall, saying such flood would not last.

NIMASA partners Navy to sanitise waterways

BY IFEANYIWA OBI

N

IGERIAN Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, NIMASA, and the Nigerian Navy, are partnering to arrest cases of piracy and other criminal activities in the Nigerian water ways.

Director General of NIMASA Mr. Ziakede Patrick Akpobolokemi, who disclosed this when Rear Admiral Samuel Ilesanmi Alade, the Flag Officer Commanding Western Naval Command of Nigerian Navy paid him a courtesy visit, noted that the importance of the Navy to the development of the nation’s maritime sector could not be overemphasized.

He spoke of NIMASA's commitment to fighting piracy, developing human capacity, ensuring safety of vessels, removal of wrecks, preventing and mitigating the effects of pollution, among others, towards the growth and development of the maritime sector.

LASG, group partner to tackle child, maternal mortality

BY OLAYINKA LATONA

L

AGOS—THE Lagos State Government and Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre, WARDC, in collaboration with Mac Arthur Foundation, have promised to intensify efforts at reducing incidence of under-five and maternal mortality before 2015.

The Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Adeyemi Kuforiji and the Executive Director of WARDC, Dr. Abiola Akiode-Afolabi, announced this during the official launch of “Not Again Campaign”, a nationwide grassroots advocacy for the reduction of maternal mortality in Nigeria.

Launching the programme, Kuforiji noted that such campaign was key to achieving the goal of bringing the level of child and maternal mortality in the state down to the barest minimal.

10—Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Obasanjo was a school dropout, Kashamu tells court ...You’re a drug pusher without reputation, Obasanjo fires back

BY IKECHUKWU NNOCHIRI

BY DAYO JOHNSON

A

BUJA—JUSTICE Valen tine Ashi of the Federal Capital Territory High Court has fixed July 28 to commence hearing on the N20billion libel suit instituted against former President Olusegun Obasanjo by a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the South-West, Mr. Buruji Kasham u .

This came as the duo engaged in a fresh war-of-words, with the plaintiff alleging before the court that the erstwhile President was a school dropout.

Piqued by the fact that Obasanjo in his statement of defence to the suit, described him as “a drug pusher with neither local nor international reputation”, Kashamu fired back, calling the ex-president ''a social misfit.'' ''The plaintiff acknowledges that the defendant (Obasanjo),was a povertystricken dropout from school and otherwise a social misfit who eventually found fame and fortune by joining the Armed Forces of Nigeria and benefitting disproportionately from opportunism of military adventure into governance in Nigeria.”

Kashamu told the court that “Obasanjo’s vaunted international acclaim was tested in 2008 when the former President contested for the position of the Secretary-General of the United Nations with a barely known diplomat from Egypt. The defendant (Obasanjo) was put in his place as he failed to fly the flag of the nation successfully and lost the contest disgracefull y . ” Kashamu insisted that Obasanjo’s claims in his statement of defence constituted “an aggravation of the libel charge before the court.”

He said Obasanjo’s use of his “touted national and international acclaim to malign more productive members of the society is uncalled for and could be symptomatic of megaloman i a . ” Meanwhile, the former President who had earlier resolved not to personally testify in the matter, had in his statement of defence, described Kashamu as a notorious debtor and a man lacking in local and international reputation.

He urged the court to dismiss the suit for being “frivolous, speculative and gold digging”, insisting that no reasonable cause of action was established against him.

Kashamu had in his suit, claimed that Obasanjo, ‘murdered’ his reputation via a letter he (Obasanjo), sent to both President Goodluck Jonathan and the immediate past National Chairman of the PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur.

Ondo makes N6bn IGR in 5 months

AWARDS: From right; Senior Special Assistant to the President on Energy Matters, Prof. Abubakar Sambo; Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Prof. Adedayo Fashakin; Director of Administration, Ibru Group, Dr. Henry Mougho and Head of Department, Electrical and Electronics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Prof. Ogbonna Oparaku when Mougho, Sambo and Oparaku received awards of Excellence from FUTA in Akure.

Kashamu told the court that the defendant, maliciously and recklessly published a letter titled, “Before it is too late,” which he said contained distorted f a c t s .

He argued that the criminal imputation made against him by Obasanjo in his letter, greatly injured his public image.

He prayed the court to award in his favour, and against the ex-President, N20 billion for the damage suffered as a result of the allegation.

The plaintiff told the court that the former president spe-

cifically referred to him in the said letter as a fugitive wanted in the United States.

However, in his statement of defence, Obasanjo stood his ground, saying he had no reason to retract the words in the said letter as requested by Kas h a m u . ”The statement/words are correct, true and justified”, he maintained, adding, “The plaintiff has no iota of good reputation locally and internat i o n a l l y .

“Aside the plaintiff ’s illicit drug business for which he

was indicted and wanted in America, the plaintiff has penchant for taking loans from unsuspecting banks/financial institutions with intention to permanently elude/avoid repayment or liquidation of such loans. ''Further to that, the plaintiff has been judicially adjudged/confirmed a debtor by a competent court of law in Cotonou, Republic of Benin.

And the plaintiff presently occupies a choice position on the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria’s list of notorious bad debtor.”

APC chieftains applaud Oyegun’s emergence as National Chairman

I

BADAN–THE Oyo State chapter of the ALL Progressives Congress, APC, has expressed satisfaction with the emergence of Chief John Oyegun as National Chairman of the party.

Chairman of the party in the state, Akin Oke, said the state chapter would support Oyegun because he represented the ideals of the party.

“We are satisfied with the election of Oyegun as APC national chairman. He is a democrat and a man of vision on whose shoulder the party would navigate the ship of Nigeria state to designated harbour.

“He was the most acceptable among candidates that vied for the position.

“We have confidence in him because we worked with him in the days of Social Demo-

cratic Party. We were satisfied with his leadership quality.”

Oke further said Oyegun was best suited to take over from the immediate past Interim National Chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande.

“At this point in the party, we need someone who has a similar ideology with Akande and who will not sabotage the party’s tenets.”

Mr Kunle Oyatomi, Director of Publicity, Research and Strategy of APC in Osun, congratulated the party’s national leaders and delegates for their maturity in its just-concluded convention.

Oyatomi, in a statement weekend in Osogbo, said those who had doubted the success of the convention would now have a rethink.

“The party has scaled

through the hurdle of putting together a formidable national executive led by the former Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun.

“The task ahead now is to marshal a plan to assume the mantle of leadership at the centre through a democratic process come 2015.

“With the success of the party’s convention in Abuja on Friday, internal democratic process has gained a firm foothold.

“The leadership consensus building approach to solving difficult issues has also matured significantly,” the statement said.

Oyegun emerged at the first national convention held in Abuja on Friday.

He contested against former Bayelsa governor, Timipre Silva and Chief Tom Ikimi, a chieftain of the party

A

KURE—ONDO t a t e Government weekend said it generated over N6 billion through Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, in the last five months.

Information Commissioner, Kayode Akinmade, said in Akure that the state’s Board of Internal Revenue was able to generate the money within the period According to him, the state’s Board of Internal Revenue, had by the development demonstrated that efforts and determination of government to shore up its IGR were yielding fruits.

He said the state government was determined from the beginning of the year to improve on its internally generated revenue in view of the prevailing circumstance.

Akinmade said within the first two months of the year, the state was able to rake in N2.93billion The Internal Board of Revenue Chairman, Mr Akinolu Akinsehiwa, said the outfit had to apply some strategies to meet its target.

S

8 Ogun colleges demand N1bn from state govt

BY DAUD OLATUNJI

A

B E O K U TA — EIGHT government-owned technical colleges in Ogun state have demanded N1 billion from the state government for total overhaul and resuscitation of the schools.

Chairman, Ogun State Technical and Vocational Education Board Doyin Ogunbiyi disclosed this weekend, while addressing newsmen in Abeokuta on the plan of the Board to turn the schools round and make them attractive.

Ogunbiyi flanked by all the principals of the colleges across the state, lamented that the equipment in the schools had become obsolete, saying judging by the trends in the technology sector, all equipment in the schools must be replaced with new and upto-date ones.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—11

Tension in APC as Oshiomhole, Atiku others beg Ikimi

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

B

ENIN—THERE is tension in All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State, following fears that the former Foreign Affairs Minister, Chief Tom Ikimi, may dump the party for Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, with the emergence of Chief John Odigie-Oyegun as the National Chairman of the party.

Vanguard learnt that the state governor, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole and some leaders of the party in the state went to beg Chief Ikimi at his Abuja residence, weekend, when it became clear that the party hierarchy of the party had settled for Oyegun.

Chief Ikimi, who spoke to Vanguard on telephone, said: “I was not at the convention venue. I bought the chairmanship form, but I did not fill it when I found out what they wanted to do. I still have the form with me. I never stepped down for anybody. I did not participate in the exercise, I boycotted it.

“But I will come up with a statement soon, where I will explain what transpired,” he said.

Vanguard was informed that Chief IKimi had been under intense pressure to go back to

his former party the PDP for some time.

The fear amongst members of the APC in Edo State is that he may capitalise on the recent development to join the PDP, even though it was learnt that the new National Chairman of the party, Chief Oyegun, the former Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who is one of

his bosom friends, are making frantic efforts to ensure that he remains in the party.

It was learnt that Ikimi is particularly pained that all his efforts towards the formation of the APC were not appreciated by the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and other

South-West leaders of the party, who opposed his national chairmanship ambition.

However, Oyegun’s emergence will be the first time, the Binis from Edo South senatorial district of Edo State will produce the national chairman of a political party.

DEMOLITION: Demolition exercise at Olympia Roundabout in Sapele, Delta State.

Don’t plunge Warri into fresh crisis, Ijaw group warns Ugborodo

BY EMMA AMAIZE & EGUFE YAFUGBORHI

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ARRI—THE Warri Ijaw Peace Monitoring Group, WIPMG, an Ijaw assembly in Delta State, yesterday, warned the people of Ugborodo, an Itsekiri community in Warri South-West Local Government Area of the state, not to cause another crisis in Warri with their allegedly unproven claims to the ownership of Warri lands.

Meanwhile, a joint team of the Nigerian Navy, Airforce and Police stormed Ugborodo community, weekend, to recover all arms employed in the crisis which engulfed the community in January before the Federal Government-brokered peace last month.

The disarmament team which spent the whole of Saturday searching all houses and surroundings in Mandagho, Ajudaibo, Ogidigben and Aruton (Ode-Ugborodo) for illegal arms, however, discovered no weapon, but the organisers stressed that the result does not detract from the significance of the exercise.

The Commander, Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Delta, Navy Captain Musa Gemu, who led the operation, had before combing the communities, told settlers that, “You are aware that the Federal Government, through the Navy, Police, Directorate of State Services, DSS, and the Delta State Government met with your leaders and resolved the crisis which has involved the use of weapons over the proposed Gas City Development in your community.”

Meanwhile, WIPG chairman, Chief Patrick Bigha, in a statement, said: “We write to warn our Itsekiri neighbours of Ugborodo to be careful with their statements in the media so as not to take us back to the dark days in Warri.

“They should remember that an ill wind does no one any good. The Itsekiris should stop the unsubstantiated claim to the ownership of Warri lands.

“It is true that out of the 2,800 hectares of land earmarked for the Export Processing Zone, EPZ, project, the Ijaws of Gbaramatu and Ogulagha have 2,500 hectares. But for the influence of the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan on the project, it wouldn’t have started from Ogidigben, which made them to name the project after Ogidigben.”

Fresh oil spill hits Bayelsa community

BY SAMUEL OYADONGHA

Y

ENAGOA—IKARAMA, one of the six communities in Okordia clan, Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, has been hit by a fresh oil spill from a facility owned and operated by Shell Petroleum Development Company.

The spill, which was noticed last Wednesday by the community folks, spewing high from Shell’s Okordia manifold, is believed to have been caused by suspected vandals.

The Okordia manifold, it was learnt, receives crude oil from

oil wells operated by Shell in JK4 (Edagberi/Betterland community, with over 40 oil wells) and those it has in Biseni.

Though the spill, it was learnt, was clamped two days after by personnel deployed to the area by the oil major, the natives decried the incessant spills and the adverse effect on their environment.

The latest incident is coming less than three weeks after the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, organised what it called commu-

nity-based disaster risk reduction plan on the dangers of oil pipeline vandalism and the resultant environmental pollution in Yenagoa.

The two main communities invited were Ikarama and Kalaba.

The Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth led by its Bayelsa Field Coordinator, Alagoa Morris, told Vanguard that when they arrived the spill site Thursday morning, crude oil was noticed spraying into the air like a fountain, higher than some palm trees above the ground.

Students hail amended Rivers High Court law

BY JIMITOTA ONOYUME

P

ORT HARCOURT—STUDENTS of various institutions in Rivers State have hailed the amended 2001 law of the Rivers State High Court, saying that it will make the judiciary to be alive to its duties as the third arm of government.

Rising from a meeting, weekend, the students condemned the appointment of Justice Daisy Okocha as an Administrative Chief Judge, saying that the National Judicial Council, NJC, had no powers to make such appointment.

Assistant Secretary General, National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, Lah Amabu, who read a communique at the end of the meeting, said the crisis in the judiciary was not good for the state, adding that the amended Rivers State High Court Law will bring an end to the ugly situation in the judiciary.

Uduaghan eulogises Ubeku

BY FESTUS AHON

U

GHELLI-THE remains of the former Managing Director of Guinness, Nigeria Plc, Chief Abel Ubeku, were weekend, laid to rest in his Araya hometown, Isoko South Local Government Area, Delta State, amidst tears and eulogies.

Speaking during the funeral ceremony, the state governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, described the late Chief Ubeku as a very good personality that Deltans and Nigerians as a whole would greatly miss.

He said that Chief Ubeku was well known across the country and beyond. “He was one of our proud sons. He gave some of us insight into what we should do in our communities. Ubeku would tell you the truth at all times.”

He urged his children and the Araya people to emulate Ubeku's virtues and commended the widow, Beatrice, whom he said stood by the late Ubeku until he breathed his last on March 9, 2014.

12 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Itsekiri leaders back Orubebe's guber ambition

Be cautious over Ugborodo crisis, Navy urged

HE Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, has asked former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Elder Godsday Orubebe, to continue the prosecution of his gubernatorial ambition with dignity and honor that characterise it.

The group said that what mattered was for a competent person to mount the saddle after Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan and continue to pursue developmental programmes in the state.

The Itsekiri leaders, when they hosted Orubebe to an interactive season on his governorship ambition, said all the people of the state share the same environment and characteristics that bind them always.

Speaking earlier, Orubebe commended members of the committee, led

by Chief J. Ayomike, describing them as precursors of peace in Delta State.

He assured them that as an aspirant, he was pursuing his ambition very seriously as he had already developed a roadmap which encompasses all the programmes he will implement if elected as governor.

W

T

Jonathan commended over Oru’s ministerial nomination

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RHOBOS in Delta State have commended President Goodluck Jonathan for his nomination of former Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Vice Chairman, SouthSouth, Dr. Steve Oru, as a minister in his cabinet.

Former Vice Chairman of Ughelli North Local Government Area, Chief Paul Okogu, in a statement, said: “Dr.Oru’s nomination can only be described as a square peg in a square hole as the ministerial nominee is a detribalised Deltan, whose humble background has made him accessible to all people.

“We thank the President for nominating one of our own as a minister in his cabinet and we promise to deliver the Urhobo nation to the president in the next election in 2015.”

VISIT: Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State (middle); Mr. Ron Yeffet, President, Yeffetmesika Group (left) and Alhaji Mohammed Wakil, Minister of State (Power), during a courtesy visit to the governor at Bayelsa House, Abuja.

Anxiety in Edo as Assembly reconvenes today zSuspended PDP members vow to attend sitting

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM & GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

B

ENIN—AHEAD of today’s sitting of Edo State House of Assembly, the suspended Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, lawmakers in the state, yesterday, said that no amount of intimidation or threat would stop them from attending the sitting.

Meanwhile, the Benin National Congress, BNC, has warned that the people of the state will hold political leaders responsible in the event of any blood bath if the warring lawmakers failed to heed the call by the Oba of Benin for a cease fire.

Oba appeals for peace

The monarch had, while hosting lawmakers following the crisis rocking the House, said: “Taking into consideration what has been happening since the beginning of this week (last week), I am appealing to you not to engage in the destruction of lives and property for whatever reasons. I also appeal to you, as you leave here, to have the interest of Edo State at heart and amicably resolve whatever political disagreement you may have, which I am sure, you are well capable of resolving for peace and security to reign in the state.”

The monarch, Vanguard learnt, became worried when it was gathered that political thugs were being mobilised to storm the Assembly complex today with a view to doing the bidding of their bosses.

Tension particularly heightened following the insistence by

House on Wednesday, but PDP that the four suspendfor the involvement of the ed lawmakers will attend state government, which he today’s sitting. said asked the APC lawmakThe PDP lawmakers, who ers to renege on the agreespoke to journalists in comment reached by the warring pany of the state Working lawmakers during the Committee of the party at Wednesday meeting. the party’s secretariat, said He added that the visit of they would attend today’s APC lawmakers to the House sitting, despite an order of Assembly on Friday, barring them from going when plenary had been adinto the Assembly and the journed to Monday, was legislators' quarters. questionable.

Their decision to resume sitting today is coming on the heels of the state party chairman, Chief Dan Orbih’s position that the administration of justice in the state was putting the state on the precipice of political anarchy.

Explaining why the suspended members would attend plenary today, one of the eight PDP lawmakers and the Minority Leader of the House, Mr Emmanuel Okoduwa, said the two reliefs granted the APC lawmakers were strange and unworkable.

Unworkable reliefs

“We said the order that lawmakers cannot enter the legislative quarters is strange because as lawmakers, we pay monthly rents to live in the quarters.

There is no order that will say that you cannot stay in an apartment for which you are paying N27, 000 monthly.

“The second relief which says the purportedly suspended members should not disturb the business of the House is simply asking someone, who was elected to represent his people, not to do so. As a matter of fact, legislative business can never be complete without such persons. So, the orders are not enforceable if they were granted in the first place,” he said.

Orbih, on his part, regretted that the crisis rocking the Edo State House of Assembly would have been resolved after a meeting of the 24 members of the

ARRI—THE Naval High Command in Abuja has been charged to direct its officers and men in the Warri axis, Delta State, to be cautious in handling the crisis in Ugborodo community, particularly in its efforts to reconcile the different groups in the community, so as not to become tools in the hands of some individuals who intend to use the Navy to achieve selfish purposes, including the settling of personal scores.

Reacting to the movement of Naval personnel into Ugborodo community last Saturday, Mr. Toritseju Ereku, spokesman of Ugborodo Community for Justice, a community- based organisation, said: “In the history of crises between groups, achieving peace and reconciliation between hitherto warring groups has never been achieved with the application of force.”

Ereku said that the present strategy adopted by the Navy to allegedly hoodwink the Ugborodo community to reversing its sanctions on some individuals will only be counter-productive and exacerbate the crises.

Vanguard, MONDAY,JUNE 16, 2014 — 13

Kano youths endorse Okorocha for President

ILOMUANYA TO CITIZENS: Don't believe Imo govt's lies against me

BY CHIDI NKWOPARA

BY ABDULSALAM

K

MUHAMMAD

ANO—THE Kano State Youth and Stakeholders Council weekend endorsed Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, for Presidency come 2015 general election.

A press statement issued by the group, after its meeting in Kano, noted that “the track record of Okorocha in chosen areas of development qualified him ahead of others.”

The statement, by Ambassador Bashir Bello Roba read in part: “We wish to draw the attention of other Nigerians that if truly hard work and purposeful leadership are considerable basis for a person to contest for the highest political office in the country, Chief Okorocha is the best qualified man for the top job come 2015.”

Oko Poly, German firm in new deal

BY VINCENT

A

UJUMADU

W K A — AUTHORITIES of the Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra State, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with a German company for the installation of multi-million naira stateof-the-art vehicle maintenance equipment in the institution.

Rector of the polytechnic, Professor Godwin Onu, said it was part of efforts to reposition the institution as a model tertiary institution in Nigeria, capable of meeting the technical needs of the country.

Onu, who spoke when members of the United States of America, USA, branch of the alumni association of the polytechnic donated books and computer equipment to the school, said the equipment from Germany would arrive Nigeria next month, adding that a modern workshop for the installation had already been completed.

C M Y

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WERRI—THE embattled traditional ruler of Obinugwu autonomous community in Orlu local council area of Imo State, Eze Cletus Ilomuanya, has appealed to his people to disregard the lies being peddled by Imo State government about his alleged dethronement.

Government had in a recent release by the Senior Special Assistant, SSA, Media, to the Governor, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, linked the recent withdrawal of Ilomuanya’s certificate of recognition to the resolution of the State House of Assembly.

Eze Ilomuanya, who doubles as the Chairman, South East Council of Traditional Rulers, reminded Okorocha that Justice Paschal Nnadi had, in his judgment of March 20, 2013, in suit number HOW/ 103/2012, ordered that the said resolution of the House was made in contravention of Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution.

“The resolution of the House against Eze Cletus

Ilomuanya, having been done in contravention of Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution, is null, void and of no effect whatsoever,” the court had ruled.

While noting that in the eyes of the law, the kangaroo resolution was dead and

worthless, Eze Ilomuanya expressed regret that government was still making reference to the obsolete resolution.

His words: “It is shameful that reference is being made to this obsolete resolution by the SSA Media to the

Governor, in a civilised society like ours, all in a desperate effort to justify a heinous agenda.”

It would be recalled that Ilomuanya had been battling to regain his tenured position as chairman of the State Council of Traditional Rulers.

THANKSGIVING: From left: Princess Stella Oduah, Adaezechukwu of Ogbaruland, Rev. Father Felix Ezeonu, Parish Priest, and Mr. Cyprian Chukwuma, Secretary, Parish Council, St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Akili-Ozizor, Ogbaru LGA, after the thanksgiving service to commemorate the title bestowed on the former Aviation Minister by Anambra North traditional rulers and people of Ogbaru, Anambra State, yesterday.

Anambra LP chairman suspended zThey have no authority to suspend me —Chairman

A

BY VINCENT UJUMADU

WKA—THE leadership crisis that engulfed Anambra State chapter of the Labour Party, LP, after last year’s governorship election took another dimension last weekend, with the state executive members of the party announcing the suspension of the chairman, Mr. Sam Oraegbunam, over alleged high handedness and refusal to account for N200 million.

The money is said to be the amount realised during the sale of governorship forms last year.

But Oraegbunam dismissed his removal with the wave of the hand, saying the executive members had no authority to remove the state chairman, insisting that there was no such money as claimed by the officials.

State and 21 local government officials of the party, led by the state secretary, Mr. Anthony Oraeki, had assembled at the state headquarters of the party in Awka for a meeting convened purposely to announce the sacking of the chairman.

However, because they could not gain entrance into the office which was securely locked, they held the meeting in front of the office with security operatives providing cover for them.

They accused the chairman of

contributing to the apparent inactivity of party in Anambra State, accusing him of not convening a meeting since the governorship election of

November last year to brief members on the reasons for the abysmal performance of the party in the election, despite enormous financial resources at its disposal.

The motion to suspend Oraegbunam was moved by the deputy chairman, Mr. Sam Okoye, and seconded by the state legal adviser, Mr. Festus Afubero.

Enugu CTDA to prosecute 20 over street trading He warned that the goods government to commence the

E

BY TONY EDIKE

NUGU—ENUGU Capital Territory Development Authority, ECTDA, weekend, impounded goods worth millions of naira and arrested several street traders who have refused to heed government’s warning against street trading within the state capital.

Officials of ECTDA arrested no fewer than 20 traders at the New Haven/Bisalla Road junction which had been turned to a major trading centre by hawkers of all manner of goods, including fruits and other home-made goods.

Two truck-loads of their wares, kiosks and tables were carted away, while the traders/hawkers were taken to the ECTDA office along Okpara Avenue in two commuter buses for prosecution.

The state Commissioner for ECTDA, Mr. Ikechukwu Ugwuegede, had announced last week the intention of the

arrest and prosecution of people found trading on the streets or on the newly constructed walk ways in the Enugu capital territory in accordance with an existing ban on street trading.

seized from offenders would also be forfeited to the government, explaining that the ban on street trading was, among other things, aimed at preserving the city ’s environment and infrastructure.

Ebonyi denies abandoning World Trade Centre project

BY PETER OKUTU

A

BAKALIKI—EBONYI State government, weekend, denied abandoning the construction of the ongoing World Trade Centre in Abakaliki which was awarded during the administration of Governor Sam Egwu.

Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Dr. Ifeanyi Ikeh, made the denial in Abakaliki during a one-day seminar organised by the World Bank, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and Corporate Affairs Commission,

Abuja in collaboration with Ebonyi State Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

The commissioner, who stressed that there was no way Governor Martin Elechi of Ebonyi State could abandoned such a project with huge financial investment, added that N100 million had been earmarked for the completion of the project before the end of the year.

The 10-storey trade centre was one of the gigantic projects inherited by Elechi’s administration but has continued to suffer some setbacks in its projected period of completion.

14— Vanguard , MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

BURIAL OF LATE HIGH CHIEF (DR) ABEL UBEKU, OFR, AT ARAYA, DELTA STATE, WEEKEND. PIX: NATH ONOJAKE.

From left: Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, his deputy, Prof. Amos Utuama, SAN, Mrs. Beatrice Ubeku, widow (right) and Hon. Flora Ubekuand his wife, Mrs. Nelly Utuama, during the burial of late High Chief (Dr) Abel Ubeku, OFR, at Oddiri, daughter.

Araya, Isoko-South Local Government Area, Delta State.

From left: Mr. Fred Odueme, AGM, Brand, Vanguard Media Ltd, Mr. Emeka Nkwocha, Advert Manager, Vanguard Newspapers, Mr. Jackson Otuseso, Assistant Advert Manager, and Mr. Sunny Awevia, Operations Manager, Vanguard Newspapers.

General Paul Omu and his wife, Senator Stella Omu.

From right: Chief Solomon Ogba, Comrade Ovuozourie Macaulay, SSG, Delta State, and Mr. Joel Onowakpo,Chairman, Delta State Board of Internal Revenue.

From left: Senator James Manager, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, and Chief Benjamin Elue, former Deputy Governor of Delta State.

Hon. Leo Ogor, Senator Emmanuel Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan (right) and Mr. Aguariavwodo, and Hon. Basil Ganagana, Deputy Fred Odueme, AGM, Brand, Vanguard Media Ltd, Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly at the event

Mr. Ubeku, first son of the deceased.

Hon. and Mrs. Abel Oshevire.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—15

C M Y K

16— Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 THE Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, is in a pitiable state it may never recover from, if it continues operating in its current ways. The 14-year-old inter ventionist agency, while defending its 2014 budget, claimed it had 4,000 uncompleted projects.

While this could have been said to elicit more funds for the commission, it portrayed NDDC as an organisation without focus.

How could it have piled up 4,000 uncompleted projects – an average of 286 uncompleted projects per annum? Would these projects ever be completed?

According to its official website, “NDDC was established in 2000 with the mission of facilitating the rapid, even and sustainable development of the Niger Delta into a region that is economically prosperous, socially stable, ecologically regenerative and politically peaceful”.

Its failure accounted for the

NDDC’s 4,000 Uncompleted Projects creation of the Ministry of Niger Delta and other sub-agencies that are dealing with issues NDDC did not manage well. The 4,000 uncompleted projects summarise NDDC’s performance. It became a contract-driven commission from inception.

NDDC has a master plan completed in 2005. It never uses it. Contracts are awarded without care about funds for their execution. Of all its mandates, the one NDDC implements most fervently states, “executing such other works and performing such other functions, which in the opinion of the Commission are required for the sustainable development of the Niger Delta region and its peo-

ple”. NDDC “executes such other works”, though “sustainable development of the Niger Delta region and its people” is distant from its intentions.

Community projects, States, and oil companies are executing are replicated. Attention is on awarding more contracts from roads to lodges for National Youth Corps members.

The uncompleted contracts are doomed. Many of them – some were awarded more than 10 years ago - have become irrelevant.

Others are subject of litigations from aggrieved contractors. Yet, some would never be completed because payment NDDC makes to contractors is too small to

continue the work.

Complete records of the contracts are also not available, so it is even more difficult to estimate the cost of completing them, but its N322.6 billion budget proposal for 2014, if solely applied to the projects, is reportedly too small to complete them. NDDC compounds the situation by awarding new contracts to meet “new needs”, the needs of new board members to be seen as “relevant”.

It is time the National Assembly insisted that NDDC applied its budget to completing awarded projects. The new contracts it awards go through the same funding system. They would result in more uncompleted projects.

More importantly, a review of NDDC’s mandate is long overdue.

No agency can do “everything”, as NDDC does, and expect not to have uncompleted and abandoned projects lining the landscape.

OPINION

BY OLISAEMEKA OBIANWU

F

C M Y K

OLLOWING the spate of advertorials in our national dailies recently one notices a war going on between a cross section of cement producers and a civil society group over the newly enacted cement standardization policy. In the new policy, enacted by Mr Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investments, the 32.5 grade is strictly allowed for plastering only; grade 42.5 is approved for concrete, brick masonry, plastering, pointing, flooring and general construction works; and 52.5 grade is approved for use where high early strength (in the first 28 days) is required and it is basically utilized by builders of heavy infrastructure such as bridges, fly-overs, large span structures and high rise structures.

In the media war, the opponents of the standardization policy are of the view that there is no cement adulteration in Nigeria, saying that the standardization was unnecessary and an act of demarketing by some un-named cement producers.

They claim that their 32.5 grade of cement is strong enough for various construction works.

The supporters of the standardization policy, on the other hand, are not only calling for strict implementation of the new policy but an outright ban of the 32.5 cement grade. According to these advocates, the 32.5 cement grade has been a major cause of building collapse in the country. For them, the new standards will help in curbing the loss of lives that always follows most building collapses in the country.

For one who has been following this controversy, it is curious to note that the companies that kick against the new standards even acknowledge in their advertorials that they do not have the details of this new regulation, so I wonder why people

Battle for cement standardisation just shout ‘wolf’ for no just cause. If not, why would a company rush to the press to countermand a policy when it does not even have the requisite information about it?

While I do not intend to hold anybody’s brief on the issue of cement standardization, I am of the opinion that the issue of building collapse in the country has gotten to such an atrocious level that even if an outright ban of any grade of cement, or any other building or construction material will put to an end this issue, I will support the ban. We have lost so many people to building collapse that any other loss is one too many.

It is even more atrocious to note that the major issue with cement is not only the wide level of ignorance among Nigerians, but as a result of profiteering on the part of cement manufacturers and wholesalers. These 32.5 grade manufacturers use less limestone to produce their brand of cement, saving costs and selling at almost the same price with their 42.5 grade counterparts thereby making unholy profit.

They revel on the ignorance that pervades the Nigerian cement market to not only reap-off Nigerians their hard-earned money but also put them and the on-site workers and passers-by in danger. This is a typical definition of blood money.

It may look too harsh to call for an outright ban of 32.5 grade but the reality is that the issue of misuse or misapplication of cement grades in Nigeria is largely due to inadequate enlightenment. The 35.2 grade cement manufacturers and their distributors do not educate their customers on the appropriate use of their products but leave these uninformed buyers to their fate.

The level of ignorance in the Nigerian cement market would have been checked by strict regulation and enforcement of the standardization policy, but our regulatory agencies lack the requisite human and logistic resources to enforce strict compliance of the regulations concerning the use of various cement grades. This lack of efficient regulation is the cause of Nigeria’s alarming rate of misapplication of the cement grades in Nigeria.

The combination of ignorance and lack of effective regulation in Nigeria makes it imperative for Nigeria to harmonise the standard for cement in the country to 42.5 and gradually phase out the production of the 32.5 cement grade. This is the best and easiest way out of the danger posed by this misuse and misapplication of cement grades in Nigeria.

For me, the fear being created by the manufacturers of the 32.5 cement grade is unwarranted as a gradual phase out will give them ample time to overhaul their process to start the production of 42.5 cement grade. Actually, it only needs these manufacturers to take a decision to commence production of 42.5 grade to begin doing so. It does not require a change in machinery, personnel or new wares, just more limestone and nothing more. Sorry, it also demands of them to take a decision to be more consumer-friendly and cut down on their propensity to make more profit to the detriment of hapless Nigerians. *Mr. Obianwu, a public affairs analyst, wrote from Onitsha, Anambra State.

JUNE 16, 2014

176.1

4.15

3,147.00

+62.00

16.93

0.23

113.22 +0.20 106.75 +0.22 CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL SELLING DOLLAR 154.73 STERLING 259.6988 EURO 209.6592 FRANC 172.056 YEN 1.5173 CFA 0.3006 WAUA 237.1243 RENMINBI 24.8414 RIYAL 41.2547 KRONA 28.0914 SDR 237.8664

155.23 260.538 210.3367 172.612 1.5222 0.3106 237.8905 24.9221 41.388 28.1821 238.6351

155.73 261.3772 211.0142 173.168 1.5271 0.3206 238.6568 25.0028 41.5214 28.2729 239.4037

CBN Exchange rate as at 13/06/2014

Cost of clearing goods at ports up by 200%

By GODFREY BIVBERE

C

learing agents operating in the nation’s seaports have cried out over alleged reintroduction of the controversial benchmark for all imported consignments, saying that the introduction has hiked cost of clearing goods by 200 per cent.

Customs has however claimed that

the new scheme was brought back to enable the Service meet its revenue target.

National Secretary of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, NCMDLCA, Uchu Block, who disclosed this to Vanguard, explained that the re-introduction has driven up the cost of clearing goods from the ports by over 200 percent.

Block noted that items like grinded corn for the production of Noodles which costs about N5 million to clear up unti l last year, now costs about N17 million for the same item and the same quantity.

The NCMDLCA scribe pointed out that the situation is affecting clearing process at the port and worse still, there is no one to complain to. He

Continues on page 18

African tech start-ups dream of Silicon Savannah

By OMOH GABRIEL, with Agency report

I

MEETING: Vice President Namadi Sambo exchanging pleasantries with DG Securities and Exchange Commission, Ms. Aruma Oteh while the DG Budget Office, Mr. Abraham Nwakor (r); Chairman Visafone, Mr. Jim Ovia (2l); Former Industries Minister, Chief Kola Jamodu and former MD Access Bank Plc, Mr. Aigboje Aig Imokhuede (3l) watch during the meeting of the economic management team chaired by the Vice President at Aso Chambers, State House, Abuja.

Photo by Abayomi Adeshida.

n a bid to play the catch up game in technology, many young Nigerians, Kenyans, South Africans and others are creating technological clusters that could help bridge the digital divide between Africa and the rest of the world.

Although many of these initiatives are still in their infancy, Africa’s technology start-ups matter for the continent because they have the potential to help solve problems in basic services such as education and health. Microsoft plans a second round of innovation grants for Africa in June after giving a total $100,000 to five ventures in Kenya, Uganda and Nigeria. The recipients include a school textbook subscription service that saves users up to 60 percent of costs and a mobile gaming company.

In Ghana, for example, a mobile

Continues on page 18

18 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Cover Story

The Basic Guide to Starting Your Business Part 3

O

INAUGURATION: From left: Deputy Group Head, Programmes, Bincom ICT Solutions, Mr. Bade Adesemowo; Head of Strategy, Sterling Bank, Mr. Ighodalo Aimienwanu; Head of Social Media, Sterling Bank, Mr. Kelvin Steve-Igbodo; Head of Brand Management, Sterling Bank, Mr. Abiola Aloba, at the inauguration of “Social Lender” Scheme in Lagos.

Cost of clearing goods at ports up by 200% Continued from page 18 further noted that even when there is a channel for complaint, people would not want to come forward as the delay may cost them more in terms of demurrage.

Responding to the above however, the Public Relations Officer of Tin-can Island Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, Chris Osunkwo, said that it is not true that the Service has reintroduced the contentious benchmark.

Osunkwo told Vanguard that the Service is only carrying out government directive on the issue and explained that the current duty rate is based on the international standard set by the World Customs Organisation, WCO. In his words, “There is no iota of truth there but there is a procedure for determining value for any imported item. No body gets up and determines the value of a product, there are lay down procedures and standards for determining it.

“If what they call benchmark is the application of the standards, so be it because valuation matter is not a Nigeria Customs matter alone.

It is a universal thing which was introduced by the WCO. “As such we (Customs) must play by the rules of the game.

So these are standards set by the WCO because we are a member.”

"Does Customs still charge different duties on similar goods at the various ports across the country, no, there is uniformity because we receive our directive from government based on its policy and it is this policy that determines how

much the Service will collect as duty from any import into the country.

“Take for example duty on imported vehicles, there is a government policy that says collect 35 percent more on all imported vehicles and there is

a government circular from the ministry of finance to that effect and that is what Customs is implementing.

"We cannot act in isolation.

We cannot just wake up and jack up the value on imports.

Some people criticise out of ignorance,” he noted.

African tech start-ups dream of Silicon Savannah Continued from page 18 application developed in Ghana by “social enterprise mPedigree” verifies whether medicines are genuine. Fake medicine is a scourge in Africa and people often have no way of telling whether they are buying the real thing or not.

Africa has nearly 90 technology hubs, research bases often funded by international firms such as Microsoft, Google and Intel, to incubate early-stage firms in cities such as Abidjan, Accra and Addis Ababa. But while developers have plenty of ideas, many lack the technical or business skills needed to make money from them. “We are really short on great startups that are actually ready to take off,” said Amrotte Abdella, director for start-up engagements for Microsoft in Africa.

“What most angel investors and venture capitalists are looking for is to find start-ups that are tech ready and business savvy,” Amrotte said.

Microsoft and its network of partners listens to an average 20 pitches a month from startups looking for initial funding or mentoring to get them to the point where international

investors start to get interested. Venture capital firms are typically looking for returns of two to three times their investment in less than five years, according to Ustart’s Guidotti.

Young techies hunched over laptops in small offices across Africa want to create their own versions of California’s Silicon Valley and some are beginning to attract investors prepared to take a risk in the hope of high returns. One such start-up, a South African social photography app called Over, last month beat 19 others from around the world to win funding from Ustart, an advisor that matches mainly European investors with fledging businesses.

Italy-based U-start has 3.8 billion euros ($5.2 billion) under management and aims to allocate as much as 15 per cent of that to technology firms in Africa over the next couple of years. “We are convinced that there are great business ideas that have the chance to become global players, not just local ones,” said U-start Chief Executive Stefano Guidotti.

Nicknames like “Silicon

Continues on page 19

make up the mindset of successful business men.

Optimism Optimism continues to be a primary factor in whether or not an individual will stay focused on goals rather than be thwarted by the negative events that would impede progress. It is the absolute ideal that leads to achievement as nothing can be done without hope. Therefore, it is the very essence of success.

If you want to have a successful business, it is important that you start out as an optimist, refusing to see impossibilities and obstacles.

An optimist is not discouraged, but rather looks for other ways to make things better. A good business man will always diligently search for answers that will work. He possesses

,

WHAT IS NOT BUSINESS? ften time people engage in all sort of shady deals and call it business. This should not be, because any act/trade that is not genuine and is to the detriment of others cannot be called a business, especially if it doesn’t fall within the confines of the law or is aimed at getting profit wrongly. Some of these wrong businesses include, money laundering (government officials), abuse of office, stealing, defrauding, internet scam otherwise known as yahoo-yahoo, 419 and a host of others. If you are involved in any of the above, then you cannot say that you are in a business as the above named are prohibited by the laws of the land and they do not create opportunities. Rather they ruin or cripple the country, portraying it in a very bad light to the rest of the world. It is only a lazy man that looks for an easy way out all the time, not wanting to go through the right process and procedures.

THE MENTALITY OF A BUSINESS MAN: We have discussed what a business is in the previous chapter and what business is not; we have also looked at the importance of self analysis in starting a business as well as the disadvantages and advantages.

Now it’s time to talk about the mentality a business man should possess. We cannot underestimate the power of the mind and I make bold to say that that is where every idea and dream is born. The good book also emphasizes this by saying “as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is”.

When starting a business, you would need to ask yourself if you possess what it takes to run it efficiently and get the desired results. Every successful business man has a mentality and should possess a strong sense of character. That is why it is important to carry out a self analysis before commencing a business. The business man does not see failure as a reason to quit; to him failure is a stepping stone that launches him to his next level. He is not afraid but is a risk taker, possessing the utmost desire to succeed; he is not just out to make money, but rather to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

He is a sharp thinker and very witty, seizing every available opportunity to meet the demands of consumers. The following

If you want to have a successful business, it is important that you start out as an optimist, refusing to see impossibilities and obstacles

,

the “ yes I can” aura and mentality which will endear him to clients and friends alike.

Before you start a business it is very important that you have a very optimistic mentality, one that is not easily swayed by various obstacles you will encounter in the course of carrying out your business.

This is because nobody wants to do business with a pessimist.

Creativity A creative ability is a very vital tool in the hands of a person who intends to start a business, although sometimes even as a business owner there is a risk with being creative; it is not possible to do something the same way and expect a different outcome. You have to be very dynamic in your choice and approach to the business you intend to start. Brainstorm a list of possibilities no matter how wild it seems. Look for the unusual but plausible.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 19

importation were quietly run out of business. The story of how Peak Merchant Bank management imported a ship load of rice into the country and how the ship and its contents under mysterious circumstance sank at the Apapa quay is fresh in the minds of those familiar with the hatred the average Nigerian businessmen has for competition.

The Federal Government of Nigeria seems not to be concerned about this. In an attempt to put the private sector on the driver’s seat of the economy as the engine of growth, the government must provide a level playing field for all who want to participate in the economy. Privatisation of government enterprises presupposes that the government is set to take the back seat in business and economic matters and restrict itself to regulation.

If that is the case, Nigeria needs urgently an Anti-trust law that will regulate business practices in the country.

If there is Consumer Protection Agency, there must be an Anti-trust body that will from time to time hear cases of unfair business practices in the country. Competition law is law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conducts by companies.

Competition law is known as Antitrust law in the United States and Anti-monopoly law in China and Russia. In previous years, it has been known as Trade practices law in the United Kingdom and Australia. At the moment, Nigeria does not have such law in place and if any of such exists, it is just in the statute for its own sake.

The history of competition law reaches back to the Roman Empire. The business practices

Nigeria needs competition/ anti-trust law of market traders’ guilds and governments have always been subject to scrutiny, and sometimes severe sanctions.

,

N

igerian businessmen do not cease to amaze me. Each time I see a typical Nigerian businessman, I see contempt for fair play and good business practice. Every one of them hates competition. They believe in zero-sum game, winnertakes-all. The fact that many of these businessmen are now part of government economic management team has made those of them at the top to take undue advantage of the economy and corner the juicy business opportunities in the country for themselves and their surrogates. They are the ones who rose to the current position they occupy now because they had access to political power and secure waivers for themselves and concessions for their pockets and stomach. It was not for the sector they claim to represent.

These men represent no sector. If in fact this administration means well for the economy, the government should have called for membership of the economic management team from the organised private sector where members discuss and debate issues affecting the entire economy not just companyspecific issues. In the last few months, the issue of the right standards for cement has been in the news. While not holding brief for any of the parties in the dispute, any discerning mind in the Nigerian business arena would see that there is a hand pushing for the strangulation of some cement manufacturers. In the days of sugar and rice importation, it was the exclusive preserve of some few Nigerian businessmen who have access to political power.

Those who were not privileged to be in the exclusive club of rice and sugar

nation-states.

National competition law usually does not cover activity beyond territorial borders unless it has

Every day in America and Europe, companies are fined heavily for anti competition.

If it is happening in Europe and other developed countries, why is it not happening here?

Since the 20th Century, competition law has become global. The two largest and most influential systems of competition regulation are United States Antitrust law and European Union Competition law. National and regional competition authorities across the world have formed international support and enforcement networks.

Modern Competition law has historically evolved on a country level to promote and maintain fair competition in markets principally within the territorial boundaries of

,

significant effects at nationstate level.

Nigeria needs Competition or Antitrust law for three main reasons. Such a law will prohibit agreements or practices that restrict free trading and competition between businesses. This includes in particular the repression of free trade caused by cartels as is happening now in the cement industry. The law should ban abusive behaviour by a firm dominating a market, or anticompetitive practices that tend to lead to such a dominant position. Practices controlled

Business & Economy African tech start-ups dream of Silicon Savannah Continued from page 18 Savannah” are starting to crop up in reference to the tech scene, although there is still hardly any manufacturing of hardware on the continent.

A handful of companies are assembling low-cost mobile handsets as more Africans swap basic phones for Internet-ready smartphones and tablets, but most hardware is still imported.

Internet usage is still patchy with only about one in five Africans having access as many are constrained by lack of electricity, broadband or devices. One Kenyan start-up is attempting to bridge that gap with a hardy portable Internet router made for hot and dusty

African conditions. Known as the BRCK, the router will cost just under $200 and charge off car batteries, solar panels or mains

electricity. Its battery can run for at least eight hours, essential in a region with frequent power outages. But

the rugged brick-shaped equipment will be produced in the United States, not Africa.

“Can we truly add that silicon

in this way may include predatory pricing, tying, price gauging, refusal to deal, and many others. Competition law will spell out terms of supervising the mergers and acquisitions of large corporations, including some joint ventures. Transactions that are considered to threaten the competitive process can be prohibited altogether, or approved subject to “remedies” such as an obligation to divest part of the merged business or to offer licenses or access to facilities to enable other businesses to continue competing.

Protecting the interests of consumers, consumer welfare, and ensuring that entrepreneurs have an opportunity to compete in the market economy are often treated as important objectives. Competition law is closely connected with law on deregulation of access to markets, state aids and subsidies, the privatisation of state-owned assets and the establishment of independent sector regulators, among other market-oriented supply-side policies. In recent decades, competition law has been viewed as a way to provide better public services.

Every day in America and Europe, companies are fined heavily for anti competition. If it is happening in Europe and other developed countries, why is it not happening here?

Government agencies generate extra revenue from these fines which run in billions of dollars. Nigeria needs the law and the money.

name into Silicon Savannah.

We don’t have hi-tech manufacturing here yet. But we are starting to,” said Juliana Rotich, one of the creators of BRCK.

Ghana eases foreign-currency rules to boost supply

T

he Bank of Ghana reversed some restrictions on the use of the dollar and euro to boost foreign exchange supplies after companies said the rules made it more difficult to obtain cash. The central bank overturned a rule that requires exporters to convert proceeds from sales abroad to the cedi in five days, Benjamin Amoah, head of

financial stability, told reporters in Accra, the capital.

Foreign companies will be allowed to pay local businesses using currencies other than the cedi, and exporters can retain 60 percent of revenue in foreign denominated accounts and convert 40 per cent within 15 days, he said. “We’ve seen that some economic agents, because

of misapplication of the rules, are having problems, and we’re streamlining it,” he said. “With the review it is expected that availability of foreign currency on the market will increase.”

The bank had issued orders in February requiring all companies use the cedi in local transactions to prevent the economy from becoming dependent on foreign

currencies. The bank also limited the use of dollars and euros to exporters and importers and set limits on who can have accounts denominated in foreign currencies. The cedi gained 2.7 per cent to 3.035 per dollar as of 12:22 p.m. Thursday last week in Accra, paring losses this year to 22 percent, the biggest drop among 24 African currencies.

20 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Business & Economy

IFAD to inaugurate new value chain programme in August

T

he International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) will, in August, inaugurate the Value Chain Development Programme for rice and cassava in some middle belt states of Nigeria. Ms Atsuko Toda, the Country Programme Manager, West and Central Africa Division Programme Management Department, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja last week. “We have a new programme called the Value Chain Development programme in the middle belt, which will be in the states of Niger, Ogun, Anambara, Ebonyi, Taraba and Benue. We are looking at the rice and cassava value chains and we are hoping to take smallholder farmers to a different level of profit.”

Toda said that the programme, which would be implemented over a period of six years, was aimed at boosting the economic status of smallholder farmers in rural areas.

Why FG is hosting 2014 African Fashion Reception,

by Duke

I

N a bid to create free trade and partnership among fashion practitioners throughout the world, Nigeria has been selected by the World Fashion Organisation (WFO) to host the 2014 African Fashion Reception (AFR).

The Minister of Tourism, Culture and National Orientation, Chief Edem Duke disclosed that the event would generate not less than 150,000 jobs annually for women and youths in various fashion vocations, using a world class designing application.

Duke, who stated this while receiving the delegation of AFR in Abuja, said the event will “attract global attention to Nigeria’s rich and diversified dress culture, which can be explored as a catalyst for the socioeconomic growth of the world textile industry.”

Duke maintained that fashion industry is one of the strongest tools to fight poverty, and if well promoted it would help in bringing the much desired peace and stability in the country.

PROMO: From Left: Segun Akpata, James Maxwell, winners of Star Trip To Brazil tickets, Victor Famuyibo, Human Resources Director, Kufre Ekanem, Corporate Affairs Adviser, both of Nigerian Breweries Plc., Steph Nora Mba, another winner, Tokunbo Adodo, Marketing Manager, Star, Goldeberg and Exports and Timothy Victor, also a winner, at the farewell media parley of the winners of the Star Trip To Brazil consumer promo, held at the Lagos Bar, Nigerian Breweries Plc in Lagos

NEITI, CSOs sign MoU to recover debts from multinationals

BY CHRIS OCHAY I

N

igeria Extractive I n d u s t r i e s Transparency Initiative, NEITI has signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, with the Civil Society Organisations, CSOs, aimed at ensuring speedy remediation of its audit reports’ recommendations before the National Assembly.

This step is one of the numerous strategies being deployed by the agency to enthrone transparency and accountability in the extractive sector of the economy, particularly, in the oil and gas, which is before now entangled in corrupt and other sharp practices.

In his address shortly after

the signing ceremony held in Abuja, the Chairman of NEITI, Mr. Ledum Mitee charged the civil society to independently take on those key issues of remediation and recoverable debts identified

by the NIETI audit reports.

Mr. Mitee who was represented by a member of the National Stakeholders Working Group, NSWG, Hon. Bassey Ekefre, added that, “these debts were as a result

Power: Benin Disco secures USTDA grant B

enin Electricity Distribution Plc (BEDC) has become the first distribution company to benefit from a grant funding

by United States Trade and Development Agency (USTDA).

The grant funding is offered for the purpose of Technical Assistance (TA) to update and

modernise the electricity distribution network for BEDC in Nigeria.

Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo, had earlier hinted that the global lenders were beginning to evade investment in Nigeria’s power sector due to fears that the electricity tariff order in operations in Nigeria

Nigeria partners Cameroun on products standardisation

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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of under assessment, underpayment and variance between what companies paid and what government received in form of royalties, taxes, signature bonuses, levies and sales of equity crude.”The civil society according to him “can no longer sit down to watch and allow these recoverable funds remain in the hands of the companies at a time the Federal Government is searching for funds to finance the deficits in the annual budgets.” The chairman who explained that, “the MoU was developed to further broaden scope of civil society’s participation and strengthen its engagement in the NEITI process,”, added, “let me state unequivocally that NEITI’s commitment to work with the civil society is irrevocable.”

“I wish to assure you that under the NSWG which I chair, the relationship will continue to be strengthened in a manner that will not jeopardise the independent of the civil society,” he said.

igeria and Cameroun h a s signed pact with Cameroun on product standardisation between the two countries in order to combat the import of substandard products into the two countries.

The duo signed a Memorandum of Understanding! MoU in Abuja on Tuesday to also boosting trade and investment relations between them.

Director General of the Standards Organisation of Nigeria, SON, Dr. Joseph Ikem Odumodu signed the agreement on behalf of Nigeria while his Standard and Quality Agency of Cameroun, ANOR counterpart, Mr. Charles Booto endorsed it for his country at an event held in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.

Odumodu, who is also the president of African Organisation for Standardisation, ARSO, explained that the MoU was meant “to foster a closer working relationship that would bring the two countries together using standards”.

According to him, the agreement would help improve both countries’ economies by removing all technical barriers to trade and

also enhance trade volumes between them.

“Today is indeed marking a turning point for our business men who seek and desire removal of hindrances to free flow of goods and services.

“Beyond signing this MoU, a faithful implementation of all aspects contained therein is expected to benefit our countries in fostering regional integration using standards”, he stressed.

The director general, who said cordial relationships exist between the two countries contrary to negative reports in the media, disclosed that over 8million Nigerians presently live in Cameroun and stressed the need for both countries to harmonise quality standards issued by their standards bodies in accordance to international and regional specifications so as to remove technical barriers to trade.

Odumodu added that his focus as the ARSO president is to ensure the integration of Africa regional economies through the common language of standardization, adding that this is expected to be ratified during the forthcoming general assembly of the organization in Kigali.

could not guarantee good return on investments for the new owners. He maintained that the situation on ground at the power industry made efforts to make the electricity tariff competitive necessary. The BEDC however, overcame these challenges by securing funding from USTDA. A statement issued by the company said that its core investor consortium, Vigeo Power Limited (VPL), with the assistance of Citi Asset Management Limited (CAML), initiated this process in order to ensure that strategic investments initiatives to be taken by BEDC, will be based on adequate research and planning.

The signing ceremony was witnessed by the Minister of Power, Minister of Trade and Commence, Ambassador to United States, Deputy Ambassador to United States, Director of USTDA and USTDA Country Manager West Africa. The BEDC team present at the signing, was led by the Executive Director Abu Ejoor. Others include Major Bhaskhar, the Chief Technical Officer, Lucky Ayemoto, the Legal Counsel and Gbenga Ade Sonuga, the Chief Operations Officer, CAML.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 21

Business & Economy

Germany boosts entrepreneurship in Nigeria with N4.2bn

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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erman Agency for International Corporation, GIZ has earmarked 20 million Euro to boost Nigeria’s Micro, Small and Medium-Size Enterprises, MSMEsf for the next three years. GIZ Country Director, Mr. Thomas Kirsch made this known last week while announcing the second phase of the Pro-poor Growth and Promotion of Employment in Nigeria programme, SEDIN, in Abuja.

Kirsch said the funds, allocated by the German Ministry for Economic Development and Cooperation, BMZ for a three extension until March 2017, would be particularly spent on agricultural sector and other value chains like housing and energy, among others.

He said that the programme, which would also cover vocational training in different trades, will work at the federal, states and local levels, especially in Niger, Ogun and Plateau States.

The director recalled that GIZ had been supporting Nigeria in its business environment reforms through funding of SEDIN in the past 10 years with the aim of increasing income and employment with MSMEs through financial sector reform, value chain development and economic integration.

Also speaking, the Head of SEDIN Programme, Mr. Christian Widmann said SEDIN would continue to partner with various public and private sector stakeholders at all levels of government in order to increase its focus on addressing the needs of MSMEs. Widmann said this would be done in four areas of the programme interventions like supporting financial system development, improved enabling business environment, trade policy and facilitation; and value chain promotion.

He listed objectives of the programme as sustainable economic development; renewable energy and energy efficiency; sustainable cocoa business; competitive African rice initiative, and support of economic integration into ECOWAS. He explained that the financial system development unit of the programme’s approach would improve the regulatory environment for microfinance, and activities to foster financial literacy and consumer protection in the financial sector.

Widmann added that the business enabling environment reforms would enhance the regulatory and institutional environment for MSMEs at local, state and federal levels while trade and facilitation would reduce administrative hurdles to domestic and intra-regional trade by removing physical barriers and supporting border management reforms as well as promoting Nigerian

exports into ECOWAS sub-region, among others.

He further stressed that the value chain promotion would help to diversify the economy and enable the programme to ascertain the effects of the reforms promoted in all four units and design reforms in line with value chains-specific to target group needs.

According to him, the programme adopts an integral capacity development approach and interfaces with the public and private sector as

well as with the real and the financial sector.

In his remarks, president of Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Entrepreneurs, NASME, Alhaji Ibrahim Garba Gusau advised operators in the private sector to consider the sector as the main engine for the nation’s economic growth.

While underscoring the importance of the sector as the major facilitator of Foreign Direct Investment, FDI, he urged the federal government to give more priority attention to its development for additional jobs creation in the country.

From left: Minister Finance and Coordinating Minister of Economy, Ngozi OkonjoIweala with German Minister of Economy and Planning, Mr Gerd Mueller addressing at a meeting to discuss $200 million support for the new DFID in Abuja. Photo by Gbemiga Olamkan

FG sources $200m for Nigeria Development Bank …as Safe Schools Initiative takes off

BY EMMA UJAH, ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF

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he federal government is sourcing a $200 million facility from Germany for the establishment of the Nigeria Development bank.

The Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi okonjo-Iweala who met with a German business delegation, in Abuja, last week, described it as “a soft loan” which would enable the country build a veritable development finance institution cable of providing low-interest, long-term credit with which to build the nation’s industrial sector.

“I am particularly delighted that one project in which we are working with the Germans is the project of the Development Bank of Nigeria. We need to build a bank that can provide funds for the industrialization of the nation. We need a bank that can give long-term loans at an affordable rate. That was how the industrialized nations did it and that is what we want to do”, she said.

According to the minister, in spite of the impressive macro-economic performance in recent years, the nation still faced the challenges of job creation and a growing inequality – the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

Her words: “On per capital basis, Nigeria still remains a low middle-income country, with per capita of $2,668 that makes us a low middle-income country. It is true that we are the largest economy in Africa, we have been growing at an average rate of 7 per cent per year for almost a decade now.

“So, it has been a very consistent performance, and I think we have done it because we have carried out several reforms and we have also maintained a very stable macro economy. This growth rate takes into account the fact that we have some turbulence in the North East, so it has already been factored in.

“Debt to GDP ratio is about 11 percent and I am sure many countries will like this kind of ratio. Our fiscal deficit is low. Under the old GDP numbers, it was 1.8 per cent, but now, under the new rebasing, it is about 1 per cent.

“Inflation is down to a single digit of 8 per cent- we brought it down from 12 per cent; our current account is in surplus; our reserves are relatively strong -about five months of import. I think on the macro economic side, we have fared very well.

People know that we have been growing well; we have two challenges, the challenges of jobs, just like everywhere in the world.

In Nigeria, we have a job problem."

Farmers apply for N1 bn agric loan in Enugu

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o fewer than 9,000 farmers in Enugu State have applied for the state government’s one billion naira agricultural loan facility. The Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Chief Alfred Eneh, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu.

Eneh said the farmers had been registered by AFAN for the exercise, stressing that farmers were waiting for the loan, which they had long expected. “The information is that the money is now in the state and we are instructed to fill our forms for the disbursement. During the last registration of farmers in the state, we registered 9,939 and that is not to say this is the overall number we have in the state.

“There are farmers that have not shown interest to identify with us and we are encouraging them to make themselves available in order to benefit from this government largesse,” he said. Eneh appealed to the state government to ensure that the loan was disbursed to genuine farmers in the state.

Kwara to license timber operators

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he Commissioner for Environment and Forestry in Kwara, Alhaji Usman Mora said the state government would soon commence issuance of licence to all timber operators in the state. Mora made the disclosure at a meeting held with the executive members of the Timber Chainsaw Miller Association in Ilorin. He advised timber operators to procure the newly designed registration form for the collection of licence in the ministry.

The commissioner said the form contained detailed information about individual timber operators which would ensure proper monitoring and supervision of forestry activities in the state. Mora said that the association would be duly informed about the tariff for forestry activities when due processes had been completed.

He warned members of the association to desist from any

22 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Banking & Finance

ICC NIGERIA holds AGM, inducts new members

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he International Chamber of Commerce Nigeria (ICCN) will this week hold its Annual General Meeting and the induction ceremony for new members.

According to a statement signed by the Secretary General, ICC Nigeria, Mrs. Olubunmi Osuntuyi, the ICCN Annual General Meeting is being sponsored by First Bank of Nigeria Limited.

She further ascertained that the traditional Post AGM Talk will be delivered by two high ranking government functionaries, Alhaji Ibrahim Dikko Addullahi, OFR Comptroller General, Nigeria Customs Services (NCS) and Mr. Oscar Onyema, Director General/CEO, Nigerian Stock Exchange.

The former will speak on the workings of the Pre-Arrival Assessment Reports (PAAR) while the latter will dwell on the Impact of The Nigerian Stock Exchange on Economic Sustainability. It is an annual event that provides an excellent opportunity for members to network and promote trade and investment in the country.

The Chief Host, Mr. Babatunde Savage, Chairman of ICC Nigeria and other Board members, will formally welcome all the new members from last AGM into the Chamber.

Winners emerge in Verve ‘Breeze to Brazil’ promo

By WILLIAM JIMOH

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ineteen Verve cardholders have emerged winners in the Verve ‘Breeze to Brazil’ promotion launched in February.

The reward exercise run for three months by Verve International, an indigenous payment card brand in partnership with 13 commercial and two microfinance banks.

The lucky winners emerged after a draw conducted among Verve card users. They used Verve channels including buying movie tickets at Quickteller.com, PoS, Online payments and ATM transactions. They will spend seven days in Brazil and attend two matches at the tournament, including the opening game for the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

AGREEMENT: From left: Marcel Hotchet, Country President, Schneider Electric.

Ambassador Goodnews Igali, Permanent Secretary Ministry of Power. Engr Reuben Okeke, Director General, National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) during the signing ceremony of the MoU agreement between Schneider Electric and NAPTIN in Abuja.

Mobile Money: NDIC proposes N100,000 maximum insured deposit for customers

By BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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igeria Deposit Insurance Corporation has proposed to insure the deposit of customers of mobile money operators to a maximum of N100,000.

This was the highlight of a new deposit insurance scheme for customers of mobile money operators unveiled last week during a roundtable on mobile payment services organised by the Corporation.

In his opening remarks at the roundtable, Managing Director/Chief Executive, NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, said, “The NDIC is considering extending deposit insurance coverage to mobile banking subscribers, with each subscriber guaranteed up to the sum of N200,000 or N500,000 (as applicable to MFB/PMBs and DMBs, respectively) in the event of a bank failure.

Alternatively, if a bank fails, then the insured mobile account can be transferred to another sound bank.

This is to further engender public confidence in the system thereby promoting financial stability. The NDIC framework for extending deposit insurance to individual customers of mobile payment services is being

finalized”.

It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) in 2012 licensed eleven mobile payment operators (MPO). It subsequently licensed additional eleven MPOs bringing the total number to twenty two.

Zacceaus Anate, Director, Insurance and Survellance department, NDIC, however noted that under the present framework for money payment services, MPS in Nigeria,

there is no deposit insurance cover for individual customers of MPOs. He said that under the present framework, what is insured is the account of the MPO with banks. “The MPO’s Pool Account is domiciled in the Deposit Money Banks.

The Pool Accounts Fund is covered as one deposit account in the name of the MPO with the maximum insured sum of N500,000 in the DMB and N200,000 in MFB/PMB.

The disdvantages of this is that: The customers of the mobile payment scheme will not be covered individually; Insurance coverage would be grossly inadequate; the customers are therefore exposed to risk of loss; It will grossly undermine public confidence and success of the mobile payment scheme.

Hence the Corporation is proposing a Pass-Through Insurance (PTI), whereby the MPO Pool Accounts would not just be regarded as Single Accounts, but that the benefits of the Deposit Insurance will be enjoyed by the individual subscribers/customers of the MPO Pool Account.

The advantages, according to Anate is that: Each customer of the Mobile Payment Scheme as a subscriber to the MPO Account will be covered to a certain limit; PTI will encourage the MPS and enhance financial inclusion; PTI will further engender public confidence in the financial system thereby promoting financial stability.

He said, the NDIC therefore recommends: Adoption of PTI to cover mobile payment subscribers to help fulfil the DIS public policy objective of engendering confidence in the banking system.

Consequently, the extension of the Deposit Insurance to the mobile payment subscribers, with each subscriber guaranteed in the sum of N100,000 in the event of a bank failure. The Corporation can therefore transit from two to three levels of N500,000 for DMB, N200,000 for MFB/ PMBs and N100,000 for subscribers of the Mobile Payment Scheme.

Sterling Bank introduces Social Lending Scheme

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terling Bank Plc, in collaboration with BINCOM ICT has introduced the ‘Social Lender Scheme.’ Speaking at the launch of the product in Lagos, Head, Social Media, Sterling Bank, Mr. Kelvin SteveIgbodo, said the platform, the first in Nigeria, is a modified peer-to-peer lending solution using social media to offer micro-credit.

The scheme, according to him, provides a platform for online fans, followers who are customers of Sterling Bank to obtain microcredit loan via social media channels starting with facebook and twitter. “This application will integrate with existing financial structures of the bank such that users of the online platform can access small loans by normal methods of withdrawing cash without collateral. These funds are easy to access and are delivered via a convenient platform,” he explained.

Commenting on how the service works, he said Sterling Bank customers who are friends of the bank on facebook or twitter can apply for micro-credit by visiting the Social Lender site. According to him, users who request for the loans on the social lender platform are rated by the algorithm that calculates their social reputation using various criteria.

“Based on this, the loan is either granted or rejected by the back-end social credit officer.

Most importantly, the applicant must have an account with the bank. “At Sterling Bank we realise that one of the basic functions of a bank is to provide loan access for its customers, but we have also observed that the inconvenience of the processes often dissuades potential customers from applying for loans. “With the emergence of social banking on our various online platforms, the need to issue loans online has become relevant and this is why Sterling Bank has taken the initiative to develop a service that would make it easy for those who are active online to access micro credit.

“Sterling Bank as a responsible financial institution cannot overlook the importance of social media in today’s society as it continues to play a unique role in the lives of people on a daily basis. Social Lender can be accessed from www.sterlingbankng.com/sociallender,” he added. On his part, the Deputy Group Head (Programmes), Bincom, Mr. Bade Adesemowo, explained that both institutions are working towards putting in place a process to be able to manage loan default as part of the system.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 23

Banking & Finance

ICAN plans fund to promote ‘whistle-blowing’ Stories by BABAJIDE KOMOLAFE

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nstitute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) said it would set up a Fund to encourage Whistle-blowing on corrupt practices.

This was disclosed by the President of the Institute, Mr. Chidi Ajaegbu in his inaugural address delivered during his investiture as the 50 th and Golden Jubilee President of the Institute.

Ajaegbu said that under his leadership, ICAN will pursue public interest and policy advocacy. He said among other things, ICAN will encourage ‘ whistle-blowing’ by setting up a Fund.

Promising to defend the ideals of the Institute, Ajaegbu said, “In line with our public interest mandate, we will continue to provide thought leadership on business, finance and economic issues to enhance the leading edge of the Chartered Accountant. As part of its increased strategic advocacy role, the Institute will partner with and support the government in its quest to build a progressive and caring society by contributing to public policy discourse. In other words, we will play

leadership role in influencing public policy, standards and regulations in the public interest. As the conscience of the nation, our Institute will be at the forefront of the crusade to curb sharp practices in the society, by promoting compliance to global best practices and proactively raising the bar of accountability and transparency in governance.

We will continue to provide technical support to government to ensure that the on-going transition to International Public Sector Accounting Standards, as the

new financial reporting framework, is pursued to its logical conclusion and sensitise the public and private sectors about the irreversible match towards accrual accounting (IPSAS) and IFRS respectively.”

Ajaegbu also promised that his leadership will work towards raising the quality of financial reporting in the country. He said, “The Council, in line with its statutory mandate, will provide support to small and medium practitioners (SMPs) by encouraging joint audits, alliances as well as

NDIC, CBN to strengthen collaboration strengthen, its on-going Practice Monitoring Initiatives. Similarly, we will sanction any infraction without fear or favour in line with our enabling Act. Our goal of enhancing and sustaining the confidence of stakeholders in our attestation obligation is non- negotiable. Indeed, the driving philosophy for this year shall be the conscientious defence of the public interest essentially a strong advocacy disposition.”

COURTESY VISIT: From left: CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, NDIC MD/CEO, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim and Hon (Mrs.) Lola Abiola Edewor, (Executive Director, Corporate Services, NDIC), when senior management of NDIC paid a courtesy call on the CBN Governor.

Sanctions alone can't deter fraudulent activities — CBN Dep Gov D eputy Governor, Financial Surveillance, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Adebayo Adelabu has said that sanctions alone cannot deter fraudulent activities in the financial sector. Adelabu said this in a keynote address delivered at the 2014 Compliance Conference organised by the Committee of Chief Compliance Officers of Banks in Nigeria (CCCOBIN).

He said, “Having a sanction regime alone is not sufficient to ensure compliance, if no attention is paid to supervision and monitoring. Thus, the risk of none or less compliance will do more harm to the system.”

Quoting the 2013 Global Fraud report, Adedibu noted that fraud has continued to rise in Africa, especially in Nigeria. He said that one of the factors responsible for this is the collusion of officials of financial institutions with fraudsters.

Adedibu said, ”While the crimes of fraud and corruption are international in coverage, their incidence has become predominant in third world

countries, including Nigeria as a result of perverse incentives. In many jurisdictions, fraud and corruption are committed by those entrusted with positions or public funds, who override controls to perpetrate the crimes. In order to overcome this challenge, financial institutions are required to keep close check on transactions involving high risk customers such as Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs) and Financially Exposed Persons (FEPs).

However, these criminals often collude with officers of legitimate organizations and financial institutions to perpetrate the crimes. The proceeds realized could be used in funding activities that are dangerous and injurious to society. It is because of these negative and adverse consequences of these crimes amongst others, that regulatory bodies, domestic and international, have set up standards and regulations to curb the menace.”

This development, he said is a challenge to compliance with laws and regulations to curb the incidence of fraud. He said, “There is no doubt that

in Nigeria, we have adequate legal and regulatory measures that cover areas such as Know Your Customer (KYC), Customer Due Diligence (CDD) and Enhanced Customer Due Diligence (EDD). The application of these key KYC provisions is meant to reveal illegitimate sources of funds and trigger enquiry/investigation by relevant stakeholders. However, it should be noted that no matter how good our laws are, they will be ineffective, if they are not enforced or complied with. Like in many developing countries, compliance has been a major regulatory challenge.

“There is no gainsaying that, institutions and countries face serious challenges in their efforts to institute and maintain effective and efficient compliance functions in their business operations. It has been noted that compliance is hampered by a number of factors, including: inadequate legal structures, absence of institutional structures, absence or lack of will power to enforce standards or regulations.

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he Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has reiterated its commitment to strengthen its collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) towards ensuring safe, sound and stable financial system in the country.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive of NDIC, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim said this when he led the Senior Management of the Corporation to pay a courtesy call on the new CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele.

He congratulated the Governor on his well deserved appointment and expressed confidence in his ability to continue to transform the nation’s financial system.

Ibrahim observed that over the years, the two institutions had played complimentary roles in the banking supervision, particularly in the aftermath of 2008 banking crisis and the emergence of the Bridge Banking which was a novel initiative in Africa.

The NDIC boss pointed out the need for both institutions to continue to work more closely to ensure the vibrancy of the nation’s banking sector.

Ecobank launches “Go Team Africa” campaign

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cobank Group has launched a new multi media campaign “Go Team Africa” in support of African teams participating in the 2014 World Cup. The campaign encompasses television commercial, press and radio advertisement amongst others,and expresses the Ecobank’s mode of sharing panAfrican passion.

Ecobank is the official broadcast sponsor of Optima Sports’ coverage of 2014 FIFA World Cup in Nigeria and official broadcast sponsor of Octagon in the rest of Africa.

The Head, Marketing & Communication of Ecobank Nigeria Adetola Oshomah said “the launch of this campaign is in line with our pan African vision. We are again showing our commitment to the African continent and we are highly optimistic that the teams representing Africa will do the continent proud in Brazil”.

According to Mrs. Oshomah every arrangement is in place to ensure maximum support for the participating African teams in the tournament, stating that apart from the campaign, the bank is also sponsoring some customers in an all-expense paid trip to Brazil to lend their support to the

24 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Corporate Finance Stories by NKIRUKA NNOROM

U.S. stocks drop after retail sales, jobless claims data

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.S. stocks retreated, with the Standard & Poor ’s 500 Index falling a third day, after data showed a rise in jobless claims and a smallerthan-estimated gain in retail sales.

The S&P 500 (SPX) fell 0.1 percent to 1,942. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 10.08 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,833.80.

“People are looking for a reason to sell stock right now,” Dan McMahon, director of institutional equity trading at Raymond James and Associates, said in a phone interview. “The numbers were a little disappointing. You can’t make new highs everyday.”

The S&P 500 lost 0.4 percent Wednesday and the Dow average halted a five-day rally as the World Bank cut its forecast for global growth and investors weighed equity valuations. The broader index trades at 16.4 times forecast earnings, up from a multiple of 14.8 at the beginning of February. The gauge had closed at a record for four straight sessions through June 10.

Emerging stocks decline, S-Africa's Rand weakens

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merging-market stocks retreated for a third day as South Korean builders declined with Indian equities and concern mounted that violence in Iraq will drive crude prices higher.

Indian Oil Corp., the nation’s largest state-run refiner, slumped the most in 11 months. Hanwha Corp.

(000880) and Daewoo Engineering & Construction Co. each tumbled 4.5 percent on speculation their projects in Iraq will be delayed. Iron-ore producer Vale SA led Brazil’s Ibovespa lower as prices for the raw material sank. The rand lost 0.1 percent after Fitch Ratings revised South Africa’s credit-rating outlook to negative. Iraqi bonds were set for their worst week in a year.

The MSCI Emerging Markets Index retreated 0.4 percent to 1,050.22, trimming last week’s gain to 0.5 percent.

West Texas Intermediate and Brent crudes headed for the biggest weekly gains this year as escalating violence in Iraq threatened supplies from OPEC’s second-largest producer.

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ortland Paints and Products Nigeria Plc (PPPNP) returned to profitability as it recorded 148 percent in profit after tax for its financial year ended December 31, 2013.

Specifically, the company's post tax profit grew to N107.5 million from a loss of N222.7 million in 2012.

Operational Profit also grew from a loss position of N130.8 million in 2012 to N224.4 million in 2013.

Addressing members of the company at the Annual General Meeting, AGM, in Lagos, the Chairman, Mr. Larry Ettah, attributed the turnaround in the fortune of the business to s u c c e s s f u l implementation of innovative and proactive policies during the year.

“The Nigerian economy faced enormous socioeconomic challenges in 2013; however, as shown in this report, your company was able to successfully weather the storm and post an impressive result,” he stated.

He expressed optimism on the prospect of the

BRIEFING: From left: Executive Director, AIICO Insurance, Mr. Jide Orimolade;Deputy Chairman, Nigerian Insurance Association (NIA)/MD/CEO, Linkage Assurance Plc, Mr. Gus Wiggle; Chairman/Chief Executive, Brickred Consult Limited/Senatorial Aspirant, Owerri Zone, Dr. Dan Okehi, and MD/CEO, Mansard Insurance, Mrs. Yetunde ILori, during Dan Okehi’s briefing of CEOs of insurance industry on his Senatorial Ambition in Lagos.

Portland Paints back to profitability, grows PAT by 148% company ’s business going forward, saying that the benefits of investments made in the previous year are expected to begin to trickle in the current year “For our company, we are poised to reap the benefits of

the current investments in the business. The company will continue to implement its strategies for the enhancement of its service delivery through the restructuring of its operations and, in particular, the route

Fidelity Bank wins Deutsche Bank’s STP Excellence award

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idelity Bank Plc has been awarded US Dollar STP Excellence Award 2013

by Deutsche Bank for the fourth consecutive year. The Straight Through Processing (STP) or Error-free award is given by Deutsche Bank annually to banks with high volumes of foreign currency transaction, but yet with little or no error.

The awards are granted only to institutional and corporate clients which Deutsche Bank cooperates with at an international level that have achieved a specific level of operating excellence in the area of payments in US Dollars and Euro and it is given for highest level of efficiency.

On a global level, the average STP ratio is about 89-90 percent, which means that at every 100 payments, 89-90 are according to all the standards.

Fidelity Bank achieved 98.8 percent STP rate to rank second out of three Nigerian banks that were presented with the award this year. It had recorded 97.9 percent STP ratio in 2012 to also emerge one of the top two Nigerian banks to bag the award.

Speaking at the award presentation dinner in Lagos, Mr. Charles Weller, Country Head, Deutsche Bank, Lagos, said the bank possesses extremely high benchmark for its STP rates, adding that the award is given to its partner banks that are highly successful in the performance of their services department. Mrs. Adeola Azeez, Deputy Country Head, Deutsche Bank AG,

Lagos, said the award was instituted 10 years ago to recognise banks that implement commercial payment without recourse to manual operations.

She said the bank had adhered to best global practices to have won the award.

Receiving the award on behalf of the bank, Mrs. Chijioke Ugochukwu, Executive Director, Shared Services, Fidelity Bank, said the award means a lot to Fidelity Bank to be adjudged one of the top three in a field that is as competitive as commercial payment, adding that the bank has always been strong in commercial payment.

“Clearly, though we are one of the top three, the standard has continued to rise and we know what we did to get this far – massive improvement in training of our staff, welfare of our staff, upgrading of our technology, provision of infrastructure, and conducive work environment. We are going to go back to the drawing board to ensure that we do not fall back,” she said.

Also speaking, Maxwell Izuogbe, Head, Operations, Fidelity Bank, said, “From what you have seen today, clearly we have demonstrated that we have the capacity to satisfy our customers because the award is all about excellence.

“Most importantly, we were the first to win this award in Nigeria in 2010 and that maiden award showed that Fidelity was the first bank to win the award in Nigeria and West Africa and second in Africa.”

to the market and focus on areas of its core competencies, enforcement of procedures and processes in tandem with the group’s policies.

“These initiatives have repositioned our company for sustainable growth and improved performance in 2014 and in the years ahead,” he added.

He noted that the company has continued to implement strategies for enhancing the quality of the service delivery through restructuring of its operations, increased investment in technology, infrastructure and enforcement of procedures and manpower development.

He noted that as the country moved closer to the forthcoming elections in 2015, it was imperative for political representatives and policy makers to ensure that their activities impacted positively on the business environment.

Commenting on the economy, he said: “Although most analysts expect foreign reserves to decline marginally, due to CBN’s strategy of using the external reserve to stabilise the Naira and the likelihood of modest currency depreciation, we are optimistic of the growth prospect of the economy in the medium term due to the likelihood of continued sustenance of the Federal Government’s reforms in the power, transportation and agriculture sectors of the economy.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 25

26 —Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 27

Micro-Finance

UBA targets future generation customers with new account STORIES BY PROVIDENCE OBUH

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nited Bank for Africa, (UBA) Plc has unveiled NextGen, a product targeted at future generation of customers with a view to inculcating savings culture.

“Next-Gen” is a suit of personal current accounts designed to meet the needs of young person’s from teenage years at 13 to adulthood at 34 and a partnership where the bank is taking on a mentorship role of guiding into a future life.

Speaking during the launch of Next-Gen, Managing Director, UBA, Mr. Phillips Oduoza, said that the product is about capturing and engaging the next generation of educated and e n l i g h t e n e d professionals, e m p l o y e e s , entrepreneurs and self employed persons, early in their financial life cycle.

Oduoza, represented by his Executive Director, Treasury and International Banking, Mr. Femi Olaloku, said, “With an established track record of supporting individuals, businesses, institutions and governments, we strongly feel the time is ripe to build another generation of highly successful people in a world that is changing fast and where young people are the majority.

Africa’s population is predominantly full of young people with an estimated 70 percent of the population under 30.

The young people of today have needs that are totally different from the needs of their parents.

“Despite the challenge we have in our country today, the future of our country is dear for us and for those who will lead this country into the next generation to understand and pick up certain values at an early age, especially when it comes to managing and handling money.

“And the product will take care of the needs of teenage customers

when they are in secondary school through university to when they get their first job, start a family and even consider building their first house. At each of these critical stages in their lives, the account provides financial options and opportunities to make life more comfortable for them and their family,” he said.

On his part, Head, Current Accounts and Credit Products, UBA, Mr. Iyke Idukpaye, said that the teenagers who

open a next-gen account will become part of the “UBA Teen Fan Club,” which offers opportunities for networking.

Idukpaye explained that as teenagers with the account grows and gain admission into tertiary institutions, they will enjoy m e n t o r s h i p , internships, exclusive invitations to job and career fairs as well as entrepreneurship workshops and career advisory reserved only for account holders.

NNEW to explore ways SMEs can benefit from agriculture

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ECA’s Network of Entrepreneurial Women (NNEW), is set to explore ways in which Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from Federal Government’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda.

This will be made possible as its annual conference holding on Wednesday, June 18, 2014, at NECA House, Alausa, with the theme: “Agriculture: The Pivot for Economic Development in Nigeria”.

Publicity Secretary, NNEW, Mrs. Edobong Akpabio, said that the conference will bridge the gap between potential and key stakeholders in the agriculture sector so as to enable SMEs tap into the sustainability of the nation’s prosperity through agriculture.

ICAN launches professional examinations syllabus The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria, ICAN, has launched its newly reviewed Professional Examinations Syllabus.

The new Syllabus consists of sixteen subjects structured into three levels as follows: Foundation Level five subjects; Skills level six subjects and Professional Level five subjects, said President of ICAN, Alhaji Kabir Mohammed, adding that traditionally, it reviews the syllabus every five years in appreciation of the profundity of changes occurring in the business environment and the need to align its training processes with the developments both in the local and international economies.

Mohammed said that the initiative to review the outgoing syllabus launched in 2010, barely two years into its use, started when it received a World Bank grant in the sum of $499,030 in 2012 to finance its capacity building

initiatives and reposition it as the leading professional accountancy body in the African region.

He said that the grant which was implemented through a twinning arrangement with the institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) was aimed at enhancing the capacity of the institute in three core areas: Governance and Capacity, Professional Qualification, Audit Quality and Regulation.

He explained that examinations under the new syllabus which will commence in November 2014 will be conducted in three days as against the current two days, also that mechanisms have been put in place to ensure a smooth transition from the old to the new syllabus.

“These mechanisms will be reinforced by capacity building sessions for teachers of accounting in tertiary institutions, tuition providers and other key officials involved in the examination processes,” he said.

28 —Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Interview

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r Kunle Elebute is Partner & Head of Advisory Services, KPMG Nigeria. He spoke to Vanguard in an interview in Abuja. Elebute, supported by Mr Josphat Mwaura, Senior Partner and Chief Executive Officer, East Africa Region, during the interview, talked extensively on the challenges of Public Private Partnership, PPP in Africa and why the continent is not yet effectively maximising the gains of PPP.

BY FAVOUR NNABUGWU How can Public Private Partnership be an effective vehicle for inclusive growth in Africa?

Let me start by putting this in perspective; when you look at the needs of the continent in terms of the infrastructure that we need for growth, whether you look at electricity, roads, railway, or airports, these are significant to the continent. The entire continent has what I call a significant development deficit and when you look at the resources available to the government, the government has no capacity to meet those needs and if we were to look to the government to meet those needs, then we will not be able to bring the bulk of the population in the economic net and that is where PPP comes in.

Also, if you think about it traditionally, all those were just exclusive priority of the government to invest in roads, rails, airports and over the years, the government has not invested enough in those sectors and even in the areas the government has invested, they haven’t had the cash to maintain them to the quality and standard required for growth. Many African countries have roads but the roads are not up to standard, they have electricity but it needs to be maintained properly.

So again, PPP can help to ensure that if you use private capital to invest in these areas, they can be more efficient in the government, they can actually run and maintain them properly such that the deficit Mr. Josphat Mwaura: Partner, Head of Advisory Services for West Africa Region, KPMG Nigeria that we described will not continue to grow. So we want to close the deficit but to use also private capital and expertise to build, maintain and run the infrastructure properly and sustain it. he best example to give in this area is in the telecom space; how private capital, partnering with the government can unlock growth for the majority of people. When you look historically, telecoms are provided by state corporations and parastatals but under those regimes, the access to telephony was very limited and then we had the period of privatization where we brought in private operators be complex and that complexity the needed monies for PPPs and even currency financing for a PPP venture, which and introduced mobile telephones. requires skills and in some cases, we if the government says we want to do the local user is going to pay you in local Now, Africa has transformed from have not invested in the skills that are PPPs but you have not raised the sector currency, there is a currency risk.

So these are amongst the challenges and limited 20 million access to over 700 necessary to set up the appropriate in a way that we can raise the capital, million having access to mobile framework for facilitating PPPs. So in then clearly it is not going to happen let’s be frank, they are using more capacity phones and then you can see how that some of the cases, we have burnt our and even when capital is available on the ground in Africa so even if you say transformed the lives of every single fingers and as a result of burning our internationally, if you take foreign you want to build a standard road, where are the companies that will build those person. So that is just one example of fingers, some governments have been roads? They are mainly American or how investments can transform lives hesitant to go on with some of these European companies or South American and bring a lot of people into the transactions. companies that build good roads and economic bank. part from skills, one of the key therefore if you want foreign companies to elements and requirements for come and build your own infrastructure for The continent is yet to fully access PPP is financing because as we said you, they have to be able to accept the risk PPP, why do you think that is so? before, instead of government building that is involved in that process and one of the main risks is change of government. In The PPP model has had what I will roads or hospitals, you are now many countries, governments change and call mixed result within the continent. transferring that responsibility to the policies change and when policies change, In some places, we have what will be private sector. Private capital now the investor is at risk. So unless they see considered state assets and some of needs to fund building the hospitals some pilot programs work successfully, they these countries were hesitant to let go or building the roads and these are are not likely to step into the plate. of the assets and we needed long-term assets and investments. So convinction to demonstrate that it is the nature of the financial market in What are the fiscal imperatives for PPPs? not so much about ownership that is Africa is such that most countries have ell, I think you have to put a fiscal important, it is access and service that short-term money; funding that cannot package of incentives together to are important, that it didn’t matter who do one to two years type of investment but if you want to do PPP properly, make it attractive to the investor because the owned the telecom service provider. investor has alternatives for geography What is more important is the access you need funding mechanism that can investing; so if you want to do a PPP in Africa, to the service and the quality of the provide funding for 10, 15 to 20 years. it is going to be compared with a PPP in India service that is being provided. So that These are assets that will last over a or in Brazil and if he thinks the Brazilian is one of the issues. The second issue long period of time and if you make environment is more attractive and safer for is that PPP framework depending on financial market deep enough for him, he will go the Brazilian way so I guess which one you are implementing, can investors to access and be able to raise

KPMG: PPP model has mixed res the continent

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We needed convinction to demonstrate that it is not so much ownership that is important, it is access and service that was important, that it didn’t matter who owned the telecom service provider

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Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 29

Interview

Which particular sector of the economy do you think PPP can work best?

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nitially, telecom was actually considered to be the most valuable asset. Now we have seen how that has transformed. The second major area is the deficit in electricity or power generation and the reason we are talking about some of these things is that it is possible to actually set out the specific project that you want to invest in, you can actually identify the cash flows, you can identify the market and you can package this in a manner that is attractive to a partner.

Then there is an area like railway construction because again, we don’t have sufficient railway coverage on the continent, you have got the trade that is already demonstrated between Africa and Europe, between Africa and China and India, between Africa and Brazil so when you look at ports, roads, railway and pipelines, these are areas that can actually be packaged and you can

demonstrate the economic benefits of investing in this in terms of feasibility of these projects. So at the moment, we sought what President Jonathan called a Greenfield, even in schools.

Again, access to schooling, access to health, the number of opportunities available for public partnerships, are many.

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ne of the things you should know is that PPP is all about risk allocation between public and Mr. Kunle Elebute: Partner, Head of Advisory Services private sectors for West Africa Region, KPMG Nigeria because in the past,

the public will take the entire risk, the risk of contracting to the contractor, the risk of ensuring the contractor will finish the project on time, sometimes the contractor runs out of cash and abandons the project and even when the contractor finishes the project and hands it over to the government, the government is the one who has to run and maintain that asset, hospital, school, road, so PPP is about allocating risk between public and private sector in a more efficient manner than the government taking the risk themselves.

So if you can allocate the risk in a way you provide the necessary incentives for the private sector to want to participate in that venture and the government says you know my role; if it is a prison for example, my role in the prison is to bring prison inmates and once the court has said somebody is guilty, I take him to the prison but I don’t need to run the prison, I can actually outsource the building of the prison and the running of the prison to the private sector because they can do it better. Of course it is a prison, a prison is like a hotel which you check in on one day and check out in 30 years time. So that’s the thing about PPP, it is about where can you allocate risk in a way that both parties can do it in a more efficient manner than the government doing it on its own. n Nigeria for example, all the ports have been concessioned and are being run by the private sector, there are some international airports that are also under the private sector, railway lines, roads, bridges. So the scope of PPP is enormous but it is all about allocating risk, when the risk is too high on the private sector, you will never get private capital and that means government should do it on Mr. Josphat Mwaura: Partner, Head of Advisory its own but when you can Services for West Africa Region, KPMG Nigeria

sults within

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the issue in Nigeria is if government wants to mobilise capital from private sector, they have got to put in place fiscal incentives that will make it attractive enough for them to consider Africa as a place to invest.

Remember we talked about this development deficit, so the first fiscal imperative is just the capacity of the government to finance this development deficit. That is really important. The second issue is that the risk which we have talked about that is associated with some of these projects, you do require incentives to make this more attractive to the private partner and thirdly, in some cases, if there is regime change, there is uncertainty and investors require gaurantee of their investments.

PPPs can’t be used for every s i n g l e situation, it is only when the risk can be allocated between both parties that you can use PPP

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allocate the risks between both parties then you can do PPP. So PPPs can’t be used for every single situation, it is only when the risks can be allocated between both parties that you can use PPP. So if I am constructing a standard road for example and the traffic is not there, somebody has to guarantee that traffic and if the guarantee costs more than building the road, why not allow the government build the road themselves?

Challenges still abound in PPP for Africa, what are the challenges and how best can we harness the strength in PPP?

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e mentioned a number of them in terms of legal framework for example, skills to start up PPPs, I have mentioned things like financing for example even the capacity of private sector to actually deliver those PPPs for example so there are a number of challenges and the capital market as well. But I think we need to do one or two projects successful, if you do a bad project, a lot of people will say this thing can’t work which will give an excuse and in doing so you need to have expertise within Africa to locate the risk, that is one thing we at PMD do very well because we do have a fairly large group of practitioners in this sector based in South Africa and we are trying to replicate what is in South Africa to Nairobi and also into Lagos.

Today we have about 50 professionals in the continent; we want to grow to a 100 professionals across the continent in different sectors. So once we have the skills we can help the government to actually structure this kind of thing and even if the government employs somebody else to do the structuring for them, we can help to actually identify the misses, raise the finally scene and put the petals together.

So like we said power is one area for example but if you see in Nigeria, government has privatised, in Kenya for example Kenya is raising money to expand its whole network because they need more power so there are things already happening in the continent of Africa even though it is not as quick as wanted but the reality of life is that you can’t move quicker than the skills available.

One of the challenges with those who are unfamiliar with the continent will be coating the political risk and unfortunately I used the term unfamiliar with the continent deliberately because when you sit in the world economic forum or when you sit across a table with the private actors many do not understand the specific projects that they are dealing with.

Already today there are hundreds of practitioners; private partners who are working within the continent and reaping benefits.

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or example Kenya and Nigeria are facing more or less similar problems right now but we have got people in the energy sector, we have got our railways under constructions, we have a port construction in progress. So there are a number of people who will be looking at what I call the superficial risk but not understanding the value and that is part of the challenge so we have to tell the story and that story is required to be told by people who are sufficiently prepared in the government, acquiring the right skills, the right advisers to work with them, to package this story properly and to be realistic as well because you can’t be projecting numbers for traffic or for consumption of electricity or for telephone usage that are not realistic.

So that’s where the technical advice is required or even in terms of the procurement process because eventually when you want to bring in an operator, a player or builder you need somebody with the capacity to help you evaluate that so that both of you are very clear on the transaction you are getting into.

In the financial market, the government has a role to de risk the sector because you need long term financing, you need 15, 20 years money at fairly low interest rate to make it attractive enough to make projects bankable and if you don’t have the right mechanism to make projects bankable, nobody will come to the table. So it is a mixture of different things, management risk, political risk, risk of the sector itself, having the right skill, the right legal framework, having the right financial market. So it is a complete package of different things that will make it successful.

30 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE16, 2014

Homes & Housing Finance

BoE get powers to cap mortgages

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ritish finance minister George Osborne said he would give the Bank of England stronger powers to curb mortgage lending and reduce the risks that the housing market poses to financial stability.

British house prices have risen by 11 percent over the past year and are close to precrisis levels. The International Monetary Fund recently urged Britain to take steps to cool the housing market and reduce the risk of a bubble.

Osborne said the housing market was not an immediate threat to Britain’s financial stability but could become one in future. “I want to make sure that the Bank of England has all the weapons it needs to guard against risks in the housing market,” he said in a speech. The central bank will in future be able to stop Britons taking out mortgages that are too big compared with their income or the value of their home, rather than just make suggestions to lenders as it does now.

The move was welcomed by BoE Governor Mark Carney, who said in a separate speech that the housing market still posed the biggest domestic risk to financial stability.

US mortgage rates surge continue

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ortgage rates in the U.S. rose for a second week, extending an increase in borrowing costs from an eightmonth low.

The average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage was 4.2 percent this week, up from 4.14 percent, Freddie Mac said in a statement today. The average 15-year rate climbed to 3.31 percent from 3.23 percent, according to the mortgagefinance company, McLean.

Homebuyers got a temporary reprieve when rates unexpectedly dropped for five straight weeks beginning in early May. Economists expect loan costs to climb in the second half of the year as the Federal Reserve continues scaling back bond purchases that have helped support housing demand. Policy makers next meet on June 17-18.

“Mortgage rates have confounded expectations by falling in the face of a strengthening economy this spring. But now it would seem that interest rates are behaving a little more normally,” Keith Gumbinger, vice president of HSH.com, a mortgage-data firm, said.

Mortgage banking reforms to boost home ownership — ETTAH Stories by YINKA KOLAWOLE

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uccessful reforms of the mortgage banking sector and effective take-off of the National Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) will boost affordable home-ownership in the country.

Chairman, UACN Property Development Company (UPDC) PLC, Mr. Larry Ettah, stated this at the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) in Lagos. He projected a positive outlook for the real estate sector.

According to him: “It is expected that the revised guidelines for Primary Mortgage Banks (PMBs) and a fully operational National Mortgage Refinance Company will provide a wider scope of activities and opportunities for estate developers and ultimately result in affordable mortgages and increased home ownership for middle and lower income earners.”

Reviewing the company’s performance for the 2013 financial year, Ettah assured shareholders that the firm’s growth momentum has increased significantly. “We successfully completed the floatation of the UPDC Real Estate Investment Trust

(REIT) in 2013 on a capital value of N26.7 billion, of which UPDC currently holds 62.2per cent. The REIT was listed on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on July 1, 2013. It is our plan to reduce our holding to 40per cent in line with our strategy.

“In the luxury residential category, we completed and delivered to buyers the prestigious 32-unit ‘Cameron Green’ Ikoyi.

Phase 1 of Metro City, Abuja comprising of 88 units of

mixed residential apartments was also completed and is being gradually handed to buyers, while construction work on Phase 2 has commenced. We also took advantage of the lack of a formal retail channel in the FESTAC axis of Lagos State by undertaking the ongoing Festival Mall development, which is expected to open to customers by end of 2014,” he said.

Ettah said the hotel arm of the company, Golden Tulip, also improved in

performance during the year, with room occupancy averaging 44 percent, representing an increase of 91per cent over 2012 performance. “With five international airlines currently utilising the hotel’s facilities and continuing upward trend in residential conferences by blue chip corporate customers, the hotel is set for improved performance from 2014. We plan to develop the adjoining Block B of the hotel into residential apartments in 2014, “he added.

•A prefabricated building

Rising rent: NIESV advocates sanctions for unoccupied buildings

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n view of the rising cost of rents in major cities across Nigeria, Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV) has called for imposition of special taxes on unoccupied buildings to curb the trend.

Mr. Rowland Abonta, 2nd Vice-President of the institute, who stated this at an event in Abuja, noted that high cost of rents is responsible for high rate of unoccupied completed buildings in some parts of the country, especially in Abuja.

He opined that imposition of taxes on properties that are vacant for years continuously would force owners of such buildings to reduce the cost of rent to attract tenants.

“There are quite a number of vacant houses in Abuja, yet rent is high. The reason is that there is pressure from the low and middle income earners and a lot of people in that category can’t build their own houses because they depend on rented houses. So, many of these houses are built by very

rich people who didn’t suffer so much for the money and so they can afford to lock up the houses when they build the houses and fix the prices and people don’t rent them. But there is a way out government should start imposing taxes on such

accommodation when these houses are built. They should be able to pay government such taxes and this could be used to put pressure on them to rent out the houses,” he said.

Abonta also noted that current security issues in some

parts of the country, particularly in the North-East, are affecting the real estate sector. “Security affects every aspect of the economy, particularly residential and office accommodation and the effect is serious, especially for real estate business.” he stated.

Realtors urged to leverage on online marketing

By NKIRUKA NNOROM

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eal estate practitioners in Nigeria have been urged to take advantage of opportunity in online market space to give their businesses global visibility and attract foreign investment into the real estate sector.

Mr. Mark Coetzee, Chief Sales Officer, PrivateProperty.com.ng, a South Africa-based online property portal, gave the advice at a real estate conference organised by the company. He said that taking property business online would make their businesses more accessible and open it up to more international and local audience.

According to him, the population of the country and trend of mobile users, especially those on the internet, make online an irresistible option for real estate business. “Nigeria is full of technology savvy people; nearly everybody is on facebook. About four million Nigerians possess smart phones and anybody that possesses smart

phone is online,” he noted.

Coetzee said the company was ready to partner with local Nigerian entrepreneurs, adding that Privateproperty.com.ng would provide the platform and resources that allow real estate operators to market their products and services to its unique customer base with high purchasing power. “What we do is that we look for opportunity in countries that possess potential for growth, of which Nigeria is one, and we look for entrepreneurs that have already started business that understand the dynamics of the country they live in and we partner with them. We provide the right resources to them to be able to do what they want to do. We don’t want to just go into countries we don’t understand very well; we want local entrepreneurs to do the business themselves with the help of our resources and technological backing and they will earn more income,” he said.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 31

Insurance

STI to raise additional capital through rights issue Stories by ROSEMARY ONUOHA

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he management of Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc, STI, has put plans in place to embark on another rights issue aimed at consolidating the ownership of the underwriting firm by its existing

shareholders.

The move is in fulfillment of one of the resolutions reached by the shareholders at the 18th annual general meeting held last year, which empowered the directors to raise additional equity capital by way of special placement or public offer/rights issue or a combination of any of them.

The rights issue which is due to

commence very soon will put on offer one (1) new ordinary share for every three (3) ordinary shares of 50 kobo each held in the company as at the close of register during the last Annual General Meeting.

Consequently, the management enjoins all shareholders of the company to take full advantage this second time around, by fully exercising their rights

in the proposed rights issue as a way of consolidating and increasing their stake in the ownership of this very dynamic and forward-looking insurance company in the country.

The company, more than ever before, is poised to take the insurance business to a greater height as it gravitates to the next phase of its growth agenda.

Mr. Wale Onaolapo, Managing Director of STI said the management of the company has set a growth agenda which is aimed at positioning the underwriting firm as one of the top players in the insurance industry, particularly, in the oil and gas sector where it has developed very unique expertise and professionalism.

Brazil 2014: Munich insures match delays, cancellations with $400m

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unich Reinsurance has up to $400 million on the line insuring against delays or cancellations of world cup matches.

The world’s largest reinsurer is counting on Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff to do whatever it takes to avoid the embarrassment that would result from interruptions.

The company is confident events ranging from street protests to strikes to failing infrastructure won’t disrupt play, Andrew Duxbury, a Londonbased underwriting manager, said in a New York interview.

The firm has experience insuring sporting events such as the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa and the 2012 Olympic games in London.

“I’m sitting here as comfortably as I was at this stage prior to the South African World Cup,” Duxbury said. “There’s an alignment of interest.

The primary issue for Brazil is the legacy reputation. They want everyone to leave having had a great experience and promoting Brazil as a country.”

Duxbury’s optimism clashes with the assessment of Jerome Valcke, the General Secretary of FIFA, who said last month that his organisation had “been through hell” trying to arrange the event in Brazil.

In recent weeks teachers and police officers have walked off their jobs demanding pay raises in the run-up to the World Cup, while strikes by transit workers have worsened traffic snarls in the country’s biggest cities.

In a victory for Rousseff, Rio de Janeiro airport workers didn’t strike last week after a court said it would fine the labor union 500,000 reais ($223,900) per hour. Sao Paulo’s metro union decided not to resume a walkout as Brazil’s biggest city held the tournament’s opening game, a 3-1 triumph for the host country over Croatia.

Munich Re, whose customers include organisations that sell television rights as well as local governments, will pay if there’s a delay, relocation or cancellation of one or more games caused by unforeseen events, from civil unrest to torrential rains.

Mass civil disobedience is the greatest threat to the games’ insurers, according to Duxbury. The World Cup’s $11 billion price tag has angered Brazilians faced with quickening inflation, slowing growth and poor public services. Last week, a group of about 300 protesters in Sao Paulo clashed twice with police about 13 kilometers (8 miles) from the stadium where the opening match was held.

“If the civil unrest spread, then ultimately it would be the government’s call to say, ‘We need to get a handle on this, we can’t hold the World Cup anymore,’” he said. “There’s no sign of that happening.”

32 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

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ast week this article ended with the plunge in the price of crude oil from $28 in 1982 to N9.95 during Babangida’s regime 18951993. At Kuru, IBB explained how we got into the mess which would later bring an end to our attempt at car manufacturing. Nissan had re-started the journey. Will history repeat itself?

By 1985, the automobile plants, established and viable in the first few years, were struggling to survive.

Furthermore, some of the policy initiatives, designed to sustain the vehicle assembly ventures, e.g. the Ajaokuta Steel complex failed to deliver the flat iron required, two car battery, as well as, two tyre manufacturers failed or were in trouble, before they could support the vehicle assembly plants. The number of policy initiatives aimed at strengthening the automobile industry which were later not implemented will call for a book. Somewhere in Nigeria is a plant which was supposed to supply windscreens.

As if those were not enough problems, in 1986, the Federal Government of Nigeria announced the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP. Peugeot and Mercedes remained the most resilient of the assembly plants. Eventually, PAN also succumbed to imported used vehicles, and later, less expensive new vehicles – oddly enough, from Japan – the home of NISSAN. OBSTACLES FACED BY LOCAL ASSEMBLY PLANTS IN THE 1980s.

Then, as now, the Federal government, which remains the biggest customer for vehicles,

Thank you Nissan; but will history repeat itself? (2) promised to patronize only car assembly plants in Nigeria. State governments, under military governments readily fell in line. Most of the Organised Private Sector, OPS, also reluctantly agreed. The problems started with private individuals, especially those with contacts at the highest levels of government. They posed two challenges to the assembly plants. First, they were not convinced about the quality of locally assembled vehicles; and they knew that imports were generally less expensive. So efforts were mounted two ways; one, get government to relax its guidelines regarding imports; and two, engage in smuggling cars into the country.

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“It is true that we have run through one of the greatest financial bonanzas that ever happened to a nation truly in need; so fast and so recklessly that we may wonder if it ever happened at all!” President Ibrahin Babangida, October 26, 1985, at NIPSS, Kuru .

Several factors will ultimately determine the success of the new initiative, not only by NISSAN but with respect to every other company intending to enter the Nigerian market

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Suddenly, containers listed as containing raw materials would be discovered to be loaded with new cars.

Because government felt that the assembly plants might not produce enough for local consumption, they imposed high tariffs which would

discourage imports. But, the implementation of the tariff structure allowed sufficient latitude for the officials of Customs Service and car importers to render the protection worthless. If all else failed, the professional smugglers move to neighbouring countries to set up shops for import of cars destined for Nigeria. Given Nigeria’s porous borders and corrupt licensing offices in Local Governments vehicles, which legally should not be licensed are permitted to be operated with impunity.

The local assembly plants operating under conditions in which the preference for imports is extremely high; imports are less expensive and enforcement weak sooner than later fold. Will history repeat itself?

FACTORS FOR SUCCESS OF THE NEW INITIATIVE. Several factors will ultimately determine the success of the new initiative, not only by NISSAN but with respect to every other company intending to enter the Nigerian market. Not necessarily in order of importance, but the following will certainly play major roles in the success or failure of the venture(s).

1. Crude Oil Price Stability Our first venture into automobile assembly ended in fiasco when the price of crude oil, formerly on an upward moving escalator reversed itself and started clattering downwards. By then, the nation’s external debts, which had been rising based on the assumption of perpetual price increase became unbearable.

Credits to Nigerian manufacturers dried up and eventually the nation was forced into devaluation of the

currency – not once but for ever several years. The inflation spiral put paid to the dreams of many Nigerians to buy new cars. The Age of Used Cars, called Tokunbo, was upon us.

If crude oil prices once again reverse themselves from over $105 per barrel today to under $80 in the near future, the new car assembly plants will experience the same difficulties as the first generation assembly plants.

2. Governments The Shagari administration which approved and encouraged the establishment of the first assembly plants simultaneously announced a battery of other initiatives to support the vehicle assembly policy.

Unfortunately, not only the Shagri administration, but, its immediate successor, the Buhari regime, failed to push through the supporting initiatives. It was well understood that cars assembled from Completely Knocked Down parts, premanufactured elsewhere would prove to be more expensive than fully built vehicles given the advantages of economy of scale as well as proximity to the parts manufacturers.

Governments’ tariff regime designed to protect our infant auto industry did not go far enough and, at any rate, were frequently circumvented. There is nothing to show that Nigerians, in and out of government, had learnt their lessons. And the lesson is simple. If Nigeria is to have a sustainable auto industry, we would collectively, have to sacrifice and hold the Nigerian Custom Service strictly accountable for lapses.

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Business Economy 'Nigeria cannot achieve vision 20-2020 without agriculture'

BY PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU

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ellowship of the Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International, FGBMFI, has said that Nigeria’s dream of becoming one of the 20 industrialised nations of the world will become an illusion except food security challenge is addressed.

Eddy Eworo, Chairman , Organising Committee of the FGBMF I, South West 3 District seminar, made this assertion while addressing newsmen at the press briefing announcing the commencement of the 2014 Business seminar titled: Business and Career Growth Essentials, which held th th between 13 to 14 June, 2014 in Lagos. He said that improved and sustainable agricultural development are the answer to Nigeria’s intractable food problem, while noting that opportunities

abound in the sector for only those who are informed and empowered, and that is why this year ’s tutorial is centered on agriculture The Chairman who itemised the objective of the seminar, said the program aims to among other things help participants have full understanding of the role knowledge plays in business growth. Secondly that it will help the participants develop interest in financial management and controls and thirdly, that participants will inherit skills for business growth, and fourthly develop self confidence in starting a new business.

He observed that Nigeria like every other nation desires to grow economically in a global environment full of competitions, challenges and opportunities. “The collective growth of the individual businesses and careers defines the growth of the individual businesses

Speaking further, Eworo said that Nigeria’s dream of 20-2020 will become an illusion except food security challenge is addressed. His words, “Nigeria today depends largely on importation to feed over 160 million people.

“In pursuance of our belief in the total wellbeing of our members and the members of the society at large, we are organizing this seminar to empower and equip the participants with the essential ingredients for business and career growth.”

Ajaokuta Steel: 2.13m tonnes iron ore required to start production

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he National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe, Kogi, said no less than 2.13 million tonnes of iron ore were required by Ajaokuta Steel Company to enable it to begin production. Sole Administrator of NIOMCO, Malam Abubakar Ibrahim, stated this on Wednesday at Itekpe while receiving the Minister of Mines and Steel Developmet, Mr Musa Sada. Ibrahim said that with that quantity of iron ore, the steel company would be able to produce 1.3 million tonnes of steel annually. He, however, said that for NIOMCO to meet the iron ore need of the steel company’s first phase production, it would need to produce and process seven million tonnes of raw iron ore annually. He also said that for the steel company to sustain uninterrupted production of steel for some years, NIOMCO needed to stockpile iron ore at its premise at Ajaokuta. He, therefore, stressed the need for the iron ore company to begin production of iron concentrates well ahead of commencement of production of steel by Ajaokuta Steel Company.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 33

Appointments & Promotions NIGERIAN Institute of Management, NIM, has appointed Engr. Mohammed Sulaiman, a Fellow and former Council member of the Institute, as its substantive Registrar/Chief Executive.

The appointment took effect from June 1.

Prior to this appointment, according to a statement by Mr. Emmanuel Emeasoba, Principal Manager, Corporate Affairs & Marketing, NIM, Sulaiman was the Director of Membership Services for several years and the immediate past acting Registrar/Chief Executive of the Institute.

A graduate of Mechanical Engineering and Masters of Business Administration of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Emeasoba said Sulaiman is also a registered member of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria, COREN. Sulaiman joined the services of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) in April, 2002 as the head of its Abuja Management Centre. In the field structure of the Nigerian Institute of Management, he served as the Zaria Branch Chairman and North Central Zonal Chairman, a Council position in 1995 and 2001 respectively.

He was a member of Education, Training and Consultancy Committee of NIM Council in 1996 and started his career at the Nigerian Tobacco Company PLC (Now British American Tobacco Company PLC), a multinational company with Headquarters in Southampton, United Kingdom as a Mechanical Engineer from September 1980.

The new NIM registrar rose

LBS to honours LAPO MD

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SEND-FORTH: From left: Gbenga Oyebode, Chairman, Access Bank Plc; Mr. Cosmas Maduka, former Director of Access Bank; Mr. Tunde Folawiyo, former Director of Access Bank and Mr. Herbert Wigwe, GMD, Access Bank at the send-forth party organized for the two directors by the Bank in Lagos.

Sulaiman emerges NIM's Registrar/CEO

zMohammed Sulaiman to the position of an Assistant Factory Engineer in 1983 and later appointed Plant Manager in 1991.

Added to this responsibility was the Environment Health

and Safety (EHS) Manager.

He was later trained as an EHS Auditor in the United Kingdom by Arthur D. Little Limited, and became a visiting International Auditor for Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya and Ugandan Factories of the British American Tobacco Company.

Sulaiman led the team that worked for the attainment of high EHS Standards and received several awards for the Nigerian Tobacco Company by the Kaduna Environmental Protection Agency (KEPA), Federal Environmental Protection Agency, FEPA, and International EHS Award Bodies.

Following his performance

as Plant and EHS Manager, he was appointed to the position of Systems Manager for the whole company.

This was a Senior Management Position which he held before he left the services of the company in September 1999.

He was a Board Member of the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Committee which later metamorphosed to Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA. Sulaiman has attended several leadership programmes locally and internationally including those run by Albion College (London Graduate School), United Kingdom.

NDE trains unemployed youths on skills acquisition

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HE National Directorate of Employment, NDE, Lagos, has commenced its Rural Agricultural Development Training Scheme, RADTS, for 50 unemployed participants interested in developing skills / self employment in Agricultural production.

A statement by Mrs. Roli Olowu, Assistant Director, Information and Public Relations Unit, on behalf of State Coordinator, Mr. Joseph Modey, said participants would be taken through two months theoretical training and one month of intense practical training.

At the flag-off ceremony, Mr. Modey, said the RADTS

,

programme was designed by the NDE to create sustainable employment and reduce reliance on none existing white collar jobs, saying “this is in line with the Federal Government’s policy on employment generation and job creation among youths.

The scheme will allow participants to master modern techniques in agricultural production. NDE agricultural programme is designed to reduce rural-urban migration.

To this end the NDE developed a synergy with local and state government for a successful implementation of the RADTS programme in Lagos State.”

Mr. Modey expressed his

appreciation to the Lagos State Government for the harmonious relationship between NDE and state government since inception of the directorate in Lagos State.

Present at the flag-off ceremony was Mrs Abiola Ayoade representing the Permanent Secretary – Lagos State Ministry of Agriculture.

Meanwhile the state NDE also organized a one-day orientation programme for 20 unemployment graduates under its Graduate Attachment Programme, GAP. The programme was organized by the Special Public Works Department of the Directorate, SPW. During the orientation, the

selected unemployed graduates were tutored in building rapport in the workplace, etiquette in work place, team building in work place and how to handle job interview among others.

The NDE being the foremost job creation agency of the Federal Government has consistently carried out various job creation schemes through its four core programme department which are: Vocational Skills Development Programme Department, VSD, Small Scale Enterprise Department, Special Public Works Department and Rural Employment Promotion Department.

ANAGING Director of LAPO Microfinance Bank, Mr. Godwin Ehigiamusoe, has been honoured with the Distinguished Alumni Award for 2014, by the Lagos Business School, LBS, Alumni Association.

Mr. Ehigiamusoe was honoured alongside the former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi, at the 20 th Annual President’s Dinner, in Lagos.

According to the alumni association, an alumnus so honoured “must have expanded the ideas of what is possible and what can be done in the society, setting new standards in the process.”

In the letter of notification of the award, Executive Council of the Alumni Association, said “ we recognise your immense contributions to nationbuilding through your microfinance company. And added that it “notes with pride how you have touched many lives, empowered the poor and given hope to the hopeless through your social entrepreneurial-brand of business.”

Ehigiamusoe founded Lift Above Poverty Organization, L APO, as a pro -poor development organization with programmes in health, social development and economic empowerment.

LAPO currently operates a foremost microfinance bank with over one million clients.

In 2013, LAPO Microfinance Bank disbursed N62.2billion.

In 2008, Mr Ehigiamusoe won the FATE Foundation’s Model Entrepreneur Award, and the Outstanding Social Entrepreneur –Africa of Professor by Schwab Foundation in 2010.

zMr.Godwin Ehigiamusoe

34 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Economy

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Nielson visits correctional centers to mark Global Impact Day

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n commemoration of the 2014 Global Impact Day, Nielsen Nigeria has visited the Children Transit Homes, IdiAraba, Lagos. The Home houses three Correctional Centres: Special Correctional Center for Girls, Children Correctional Centre for Girls and Children Centre.

Speaking on the motivation for the visit , the Country Manager Nielsen Nigeria, Mr. Harshvardhan Sarda said, “It is not just about giving back to the society but to have an experience where we understand what is happening in other people’s lives and it is very important to have this time out.

“Nielsen is a great believer in terms of giving back to the society; globally we started this programme by allocating one day in a year to spend time with the people in the community where we operate.

“This programme is done across hundred countries globally on a particular day through visit to similar correctional home or community centre. In Nigeria, aside the fact that we have donated writing materials, exercise books, cartons of noodles and biscuits; carbonated soft drinks, household items, toiletries as well as furniture to these homes,the children were taken through mentoring sessions by staff of the company.

Also, our participation level is higher this year and we have been able to interact more with the kids.

The programme is a bit unique in terms of mentorship with the kids, not just coming and donating materials”.

Harsh also said other brands have been supporting this dream and that all the companies are always looking forward to supporting this project.

Mr. Peter Odum, NGID 2014 project lead said that this year’s theme is “Simple skills makes a difference” and for him the key skills that will make a difference in the lives of these little children revolve around making the right career choice, staying focused and growing into adulthood. These he said, were the focus of the speed mentoring sessions.

idel is a global provider of liquid packaging solutions. It was awarded a major project in Ikeja, Nigeria, by the Nigerian Bottling Company, a member of the Coca-Cola HBC. Olivier Fraisse is the Regional Commercial Director Africa, Sidel in this on line interview he gave insight into the company’s operation in Nigeria How many such contracts is the company handling now?

Nigeria is one of our focus markets this year.

The country is experiencing a massive growth in the beverage industry and thus it offers a huge potential for our business to flourish and grow. We have done business in Nigeria with big producers such as Nestle and Coca-Cola, as well as independent customers and bottlers.

So far, we have an installed base of over 500 pieces of equipment in Nigeria, ranging from blowers, fillers, labelers to tunnel machines and other equipment.

What is the value of its contract in Nigeria?

Being a private investment, we would refrain from disclosing the cost.

Has it done similar contract in Nigeria before?

Yes, we have installed many Complete Lines in Nigeria, providing turnkey solutions to beverage producers from blowing the bottle to final delivery. We also provide standalone machines when requested, and of course, offer after-sales and maintenance services as well as training for the technical staff on how to use the machines. Apart from that, we give customers options on saving energy and cutting costs on an existing machine or line.

We are also able to sell and deliver spare parts at very high speed.

What is the capacity of the company to deliver on schedule?

We are a global organization with over 31 offices around the world. Our experience dates back to over 50 years in blowing bottles,

How long will it take to deliver on this project?

All equipment is on site right now. Installment will commence within the next four weeks, while the entire project will be completed within approximately four months from the start of the installation process.

Nigeria is one of our focus markets this year — FRAISSE so in terms of expertise, we are proud to be considered a leader in the industry. With the establishment of the Greater Middle East and Africa Zone last year, we are now much closer to our customers than we were before, able to attend to their after-sales needs at a

greater speed and efficiency. The Zone’s staff is mainly based in offices located in the United Arab Emirates and South Africa and we do have agents operating across the entire African continent. This allows us to deliver on time with the highest quality.

Is it going for any new contract?

We are constantly working on providing added value to our customers by presenting the most innovative solutions that fit their particular market needs.

Nigeria has its own specificities as a country, characterized by its infrastructure, matured market, very young population and increasing urbanization. Hence, we work on projects that are customized to meet those specific needs, keeping in mind our customers’ focus on lowering cost and increasing efficiency. So yes, we are being approached by different customers all the time and the work is continuous in the country.

Who are its Nigeria partners?

SBA is Sidel’s agent in Africa with offices in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Congo, Angola and Kenya.

A new office in Lagos will be opened in June. We have been working with SBA for over 15 years and they are our representatives in most African countries both commercially and technically and for aftersales services.

What is their stake in the company?

Sidel and SBA work together in African countries, but neither company owns the other.

Dufil flags off search for 7th IIDA hero

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ufil prima foods Plc, manufacturers of Indomie noodle variants, has flagged off search for the seventh edition of the Indomie Independence Day Award, IIDA reward scheme.

Speaking, Head of Marketing, Dufil Prima Foods, Manpreet Singh, at the media conference announcing the commencement of the search and call for entries, said that it is with great delight that the company is officially announcing the commencement of the search for “our inestimable heroes for this year.”

According to Singh, “there is no gainsaying that the future of every nation and by extension the world is largely dependent on the youth, many of whom are children.

Hence, it is pertinent for a nation that

indeed wants to grow make conscious efforts to provide a better future for them as the nation’s destiny lies in their hands.

He also noted that since the inception of the IIDA initiative, Dufil has continued to communicate the rationale behind the award which is to identify, recognize and celebrate selfless children who at one point or the other, have put everything aside for the good of others, risking their lives in the process.

“Our motivation rests firmly on the fact that a lot of kids are out there who do the extraordinary day by day, yet are unsung heroes who have never been celebrated, that is why Dufil has resolved that every year we would not relent in our search all around Nigeria for children who have performed unique acts of bravery/ heroism, worthy of celebration”.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 35

E - Commerce

Essence of cashless policy is to drive e-commerce — AMAFONYE ichard Amafonye is the Chief Information Officer of Skye Bank Plc. In this interview with JONAH NWOKPOKU on the recent introduction of the Skye Plus, an internet banking platform by the bank, he argues that the cashless policy is designed to drive electronic business and that banks need to retool in order to remain relevant in the face of increasing digitaisation of payments.

Excerpts: What is Skye Plus all about and what motivated your renewed drive for online banking?

Let me start by saying that what we are deploying now has been as a result of a major information technology transformation initiative that we started about two years ago.

You know that Skye Bank is a merger of five banks and you understand what necessitated the merger. It was regulatory induced, so we quickly came together and had to couple our systems together in order to get to the market quick enough because the completion didn’t give us any opportunity to take our time to do that. After five years of that merger, we felt that it was time for us to take one step back in order to accelerate, so we decided to put a pause to all of our investments in technology to be able to appreciate where exactly the bank is going. We wanted to know exactly where our strategic aims lie and how to leverage technology to achieve those strategic aims.

We went to the business segment of the bank and asked them what their expectations from IT are, in relation to where the bank was headed to.

So based on the business strategic objectives of the bank, we did a business requirement gaps analysis, looking at our current IT deployment infrastructure then and then the requirements and expectations for the future. So based on the gaps, we came up with ten initiatives that we needed to execute in order to move from where we are to where we want to be. But we know that ten initiatives are too many, so we decided to execute around priorities. So, we identified three core driver projects that we needed to execute on.

The very first one was the data centre remodeling. This is because change starts from the data centre and we needed to rebuild the data centre. The second project is network security and optimization.

The third project is the overhaul of our core banking system or the implementation of a new core banking system. So these were three projects that we decided that we needed to quickly execute on. So, we have a world class data centre that we have built on and we have also deployed a new network that is fully redundant to provide us maximum availability. This is because if you are asking your customers to use your debit card, ATM and to do internet banking, one major challenge that you will face is system availability.

But then the core banking system underpins nearly 90 percent of our operations. We were on Oracle Flexcube Core Banking System 6.2 but the latest from the Oracle stable in universal banking is version 12.0. So we needed to upgrade from version 6.2 to 12.0.

That was what we recently cut over to. We did that a month ago and having stabilized on the core banking system we decided to unveil our new ‘Skye Plus’ which is a direct banking platform comprising the internet and mobile banking.

How does Skye Plus position you for the cashless policy that is kicking off nationwide by July?

The cashless movement is more or less about alternate channels. It’s all about do-ityourself and that is what ecommerce is all about. Rather than coming to the banking halls, we have provided customers alternate channels through which they can transact. And I can tell you one thing, trust is a major factor here. No matter what we do, and no matter how sophisticated our offerings are, if our platforms are not reliable and they do not work most of the time, such that customers will have the confidence that they will use their cards wherever they are, and any time, until we are able to guarantee that the systems will

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If you digitize payments, it simply means you are doing away with the intermediaries, the banks

be available all of the time, all of the technologies and the implementation back office will amount to nothing. So that is the more reason why we started with our data centre and networks, to ensure that the back office is solid to provide us that platform to deliver services all of the time. If you are guaranteed that anytime you go to the ATM you are able to get your cash, then you will not have that need to withdraw all your money at once and keep them at home. If you are sure that when you travel abroad, your debit card will work on every PoS, you will not want to carry dollars, or travelers’ cheque. It is even no longer fashionable now to carry dollars. People prefer to carry their cards. If you are sure that if you want to make that payment that you will log on to the internet, into the banking platform of your bank, and you are able to transfer that fund, there will be no need to begin to issue cheques for people to take to the bank. So availability is very key. We know we‘ve got infrastructural challenges but things are being dealt with

,

gradually. And that is why we have sufficient redundancy to ensure that when one goes down, another will pick. This is because availability is one of the major challenges that will either make or mar the cashless society. That is why we have taken the time to build our infrastructure to ensure that our services are available at a greater percentage of the time.

In addition, we are launching the internet and mobile banking that will give the customers the opportunity to transact across multiple channels.

Internet banking is not new in Nigeria, what makes Skye Plus different?

Bill Gates made an assertion sometime in 2008. He said that, “banking is important but banks are not.” It was controversial then but Bill Gates could see into the future because, as far back as 2000, we have started to see improve in digitization of payments and the process of delivering payments. If you digitize payments, it simply means you are doing away with the

intermediaries, the banks.

When you digitize payments, the role of the intermediaries becomes challenged. That was what Bill Gates saw many years and made that assertion.

Technology has brought about extraordinary changes in people’s lives. Think of Facebook, Instant Messaging, mobile phones, what these offer are instant access to whatever anyone wants. So we now live in a culture where people get things they want right away. Some people call it the microwave society, in order words; we have b e c o m e accustomed or programmed for immediate gratification. So what’s now happening is that individuals extend this new behaviour to various areas and expect s i m i l a r experience as customers interacting with banks. Customers are very demanding and they are very impatient. So the only way you can meet their expectations today is for you to also offer platforms that convenience of anywhere and everywhere banking and across multiple channels. And that is exactly what our Skye Plus sought to achieve. It’s our direct banking platform that comprises internet and mobile banking and what we are promising our customers is that whatever they can do in the banking hall, they will be able to do the same through our internet and mobile banking platforms. We are pushing the same service across multiple channels.

What do you think is the future of banking in the face of increasing payment digitisation?

Banks need to reinvent in order to remain relevant in the scheme of things. In the first world countries, we are beginning to see retailers, fish in ponds that were predominantly the exclusive preserve of banks. We are beginning to see retailers begin to offer credit faculties, cash back facilities. Even locally, I saw an ad by some Telcos offering some form of credit. For instance, if you run out of credit, you get a credit and when recharge they will deduct it and charge you some premium. Now imagine if CBN lifts some restrictions on money transfer services and allow Telcos to also play in this field, they will begin to compete with banks for money transfer services. So banks must begin to offer additional values.

36— Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE16, 2014

Aviation

By DANIEL ETEGHE

Air Peace plans take-off with Boeing, Dornier planes

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he Chairman of Air Peace, Barrister Allen Onyeama, has revealed that the airline will commence operation with seven aircraft comprising of Boeings and Dornier airplanes.

This is just as he disclosed that the airline has entered into maintenance partnership with BCT Aviation Maintenance Company, United Kingdom.

Onyeama, who said this shortly after taking delivery of a B737—500 series with registration number 5N— BQS flown in from Texas, United States to the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMA), Lagos, added that already the airline has commenced demonstration flights.

Air Peace, he said is being maintained by major British maintenance; BCT Aviation Maintenance Company, United Kingdom, who according to him maintains aircrafts around the world.

He pointed out though that the maintenance agreement is at a huge cost but that it demonstrates the amount of seriousness Air Peace attaches to safety.

“One of the airlines in Nigeria is using the Germans in the maintenance of its aircrafts and that is good but Air Peace has gone British .Air Peace is being maintained by major maintenance company; BCT Aviation Maintenance Company, United Kingdom, who also maintains so many airlines in the world,” he said.

The Air Peace Chairman further said the airline has zero tolerance for unsafe practices hence the seriousness attached to safety with the signing of agreement with a UK based maintenance company.

On what motivated him to venture into airline business, the Chairman said that he decided to set up an airline to create jobs for Nigerians, and not to make money. He added that if his intention is to make money, he would leave his money in the banks where he would be paid double digit interest rate.

According to him,” It is about my vision to plough back to the society the blessing God has given to me .I know that the aviation industry is a very turbulent industry.”

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ust about three days into the high season which begins on Sunday, June 15, 2014, Foreign Airlines operating in the country have already hiked their airfares astronomically due to the high demand for airlines’ tickets by Nigerians who are travelling abroad.

Vanguard was at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, (MMIA) Lagos to observe and find out the cost of airfares on major foreign routes and gathered that various airline’s airfares had risen astronomically above what it was sold at the low season.

A ticket on United Airlines at the low season as at January was sold between N180,000 to N200,000 on the Lagos to Huston/Texas in the United States of America but at the moment, the price has risen to between N30,2544 to N30,8677 just few days into the high season which is still subject to changes, this represent a 54 percent increase in the airfare.

Also on United Airlines, airfare on Lagos to London was pegged at N120,000 during the low season but has also risen to around N200,000 and above.

While on Delta Airlines on the Lagos-Huston route, the airfare is N348,433 far higher than it was sold at the low season which was around N200,000 to N250,00.

On the Lagos-London route, the prices of airfare have also increased as most Nigerians travel a lot to this destination.

Airlines like British Airways, Etihad Airways, Royal Air

UNVEILING: From left Mr Lanre Adekola, GM, Engineering and Maintainance, Skyway Aviation Handling Company Ltd SAHCOL; Mr KingsleyNnokoma, President Association of Foreign Airlines in Nigeria; Mr Christophe Penninck, CEO, Bicourtney Aviation Services Ltd; Mr Olu Odebiyi, GM, Operations, SAHCOL and Basil Agboarumi, GM, Corporate Communications during the unveiling of new modern equipment at the MM Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

Foreign airlines hike airfares astronomically Maroc amongst others who are competitors on the route have also hiked their airfares in relations to the peak season and demand of tickets by passengers.

On British Airways on Lagos-London route, at the low season passengers were paying between N120,000 and N170,000 on a return trip but currently, just three days to the beginning of the high season, the airfare is pegged at N254,300 which is a sharp increase from what was obtainable in the past representing a 50 percent increase in the airfare.

Also KLM Airlines on LagosLondon is currently N20,8846 on a return ticket

when compared to between the ranges of N120,000 to N 170,000 that was paid at the low season. Airlines that flies to London from Lagos

Aviation agencies are not contributing money to my campaign —Ortom

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

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upervising Minister for Aviation, Chief Samuel Ortom, has denied reports that he has been compelling Aviation parastatals viz Federal Airports of Nigeria, FAAN, Nigerian Airspace

NAMA partners NAF on airspace co-ordination, management military coordination, training man the equipment.”

By LAWANI MIKAIRU

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he Nigerian Airspace Management Agency, NAMA, is to partner and collaborate with the Nigerian Air Force ,NAF, on strategic management of the country’s airspace to enhance the overall safety of both military and civilian flyers.

According to Mr Supo Atobatele, General Manger, Public Affairs , NAMA ,a high-powered delegation of the Nigerian Air Force paid a courtesy visit to the Managing Director, NAMA, Engr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam in Lagos and held crucial discussions with NAMA management on issues “ bordering on collaborative airspace management, civil-

of Air Force officers by NAMA and the military radar which is the military equivalent of TRACON.” Atobatele also said the leader of the delegation and Director of Air Traffic Services, Comdr. Bello Garba , explained that the visit was to strengthen the existing mutual relationship between the Nigerian Air Force and NAMA, stressing that “this synergy is particularly critical in view of the nation’s current security challenges”.

“Comdr.

Garba who appreciated NAMA’s role in quelling the on-going insurgency in the NorthEastern part of the country solicited the agency ’s assistance in the provision of technical expertise in the installation of a military radar and the needed capacity to

includes British Airways, Royal Air Maroc, Arik Air, Virgin Atlantic Airlines amongst others.

In his remarks, the Managing Director, NAMA, Engr. Ibrahim Abdulsalam said the Nigerian Air Force has always been an ally of NAMA as the statutory role of the two organizations are complimentary, stressing that NAMA has always been at the forefront of the Civil-Military Coordination meeting.

Engr. Abdulsalam further said the “ on-going multilateration project “ in the Gulf of Guinea would effectively capture low-level aircraft in the area including military helicopters. He promised that “ NAMA would provide the Nigerian Air Force with the needed manpower training and technical information on the military radar and other logistics.”

Management Agency, NAMA, and Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA to make monthly payments for the funding of his governorship campaigns in Benue State.

According to Chief Ortom “ My attention has been drawn to reports in some national newspapers ( not Vanguard) that there is another crisis rocking the Aviation Ministry as some parastatals in the ministry are being compelled to make monthly payments to me for the funding of my governorship campaigns in Benue State.”

“I state categorically that no parastatal or agency under the Aviation Ministry or any official under any of them has been tasked or is being tasked to remit any money and has ever made monthly or any payments to me to fund my campaign. I challenge any one with proof of such to step forward and publish for the general public.”

Minister also alleged that there is political undertone to the allegations as he said “ It has also come to my knowledge that the masterminds of this deliberate campaign of mischief, blackmail and calumny have also syndicated the spurious reports to several other newspapers, magazines, as well as the social and electronic media.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 37

38 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 39

Advertising, Media & Marketing

TVC: Dangote deploys ‘Jeolous’ to differentiate 3X Stories by PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU RECENTLY, the cement segment of the market in Nigeria witnessed an intense competition following Dangote 3X cement emphasizing differentiation cement grade through campaigns, showcasing the 42.5R grade, while explaining the ‘X’ embedded in the cement as Extra strength, life and yield.

The TV commercials and Radio commercial created by X3M Ideas, an ad agency barely three years old in the industry under the tutelage of Steve Babaeko, in a TVC titled ‘Jeolous,’ a sharp and simple TVC that one can easily relate with. Multiply this action by any seven digit number, then you have highly contagious content –a ‘viral.’ The life in the campaign depicts the dexterity with which the TVC was delivered.

The lead model in the TVC, Segun Remi, known as ‘Kanran,’ an accomplished Yoruba actor of many years’ experience. He has however been away from the industry until he was brought back in this TVC. The story: He walked into his block making factory and was puzzled by lack of patronage while he noticed that a competitor at the other side of his fence was doing well with customers flocking to his shop, and business was booming.

He decided to spy on the rival business by looking across the fence with the aid of the one of the blocks (his product) to support his short

height so that he could see what was going on across the fence.

The competitor’s business was booming, he saw trucks off-loading sand,while the blocks looked stronger, and customers were taking deliveries. It was revealed that the factory was using Dangote cement. Having satisfied his curiosity, the model decided

VISIT: From Left;Dr Celey Okogun, publicity secretary,Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, AAAN, Mr Kelechi Nwosu, Vice president, Mrs. Bunmi Oke, president, AAAN, Prof. Attahiru Jega, INEC Chairman, during a courtesy visit by exco’s of AAAN to INEC Office, Abuja.

NIMN, SAIM partners to boost marketing profession in Nigeria

By PRINCEWILL EKWUJURU & WILLIAM JIMOH

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he National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN, in conjunction with the South African Institute of

Boulos Foods enters juice market

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to step down from the block on which he stood. Unfortunately the block gave way, his legs got stuck and he fell down, furious questioning the workers why the block had to give way . He visited his annoyance on the workers, beating them with his cap. The “Foreman” delivered the message: “Don’t use your money to buy Wahala.”

ew Comer into the fruit juice market, Boulos Foods and Beverages, a subsidiary of Boulos Group has introduced two products into the market: Frootzy and Frootz.

Frootzy, a fruit nectar and Frootz, a fruit juice are targeted at different age groups.

Speaking, Senior Sales & Marketing Manager of the company, Visilis Katsikakis, said the products which are in the Apple and Orange variants will be formally launched into the market this week.

Katsikakis said the company wants to make a huge impact in the Nigerian market with its products. The Marketing Manager stated that the products are coming into the market with less sugar as consumers are privy of the health implication of sugar, but noted that the products can only be found in Lagos and western part of the country with plans to extend to other parts of the country soonest.

The Marketing Manager said the company is introducing the products into the Nigeria market considering the potential that abound in the market. His words, Nigeria is the fastest growing market in the world and Africa in general, this makes it a potential market for every brand, he pointed out.

Management, SAIM has completed plans to commence professional management programmes in Nigeria.

This is in line with NIMN effort to develop Nigerian marketers to a status whereby they can compete favourably with their counterparts across the globe whilst contributing their quota to the development of the Nigerian economy.

President and Chairman Governing Council of NIMN, Mr. Ganiyu Koledoye stated this during the institute’s 2014 international marketing convergence held in Lagos, tagged, “Nigeria as an Emerging Market: the Role of Marketing,” adding that the courses will complement other professional courses currently being run by the institute.

Koledoye noted that the programme which will take off later in the year became imperative following the alarming number of unprofessional marketers in the country which has hindered it from contributing effectively to the growth of Nigerian economy.

Moments of Difference

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oment of Truth. That expression is already a cliché in customer service-speak. Customer service trainers, most times, use the expression without bothering to explain it to their audience. I first encountered that expression some time in 1998. My trainer kept using the expression without giving any information about its origin, although we, the trainees, understood it to mean the point at which a customer encounters the service of an organisation – face-to-face, by email or even by phone. I kept wondering the origin of the expression.

Years later, I realised the expression was first used in the service management context by the Swedish management scholar, Richard Normann, who borrowed it from the sport of bull-fighting. In that morbid sport, “the moment of truth” is the point at which the bull-fighter comes face-to-face with the bull. In Nigerian political parlance, it is a “do-or-die moment” because the matador either kills the bull or gets killed by the bull. The expression was popularised by the former CEO of Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), Jan Carlzon, with his top-selling book, Moments of Truth, published in the late 1980s. Many people will see this expression as a gory way of describing an encounter with customers. Is it really so?

When you realise that each If you want encounter with a customer is a your business moment that can make or mar a to survive relationship, you’ll probably see long-term, I Normann’s point. Interestingly, suggest you like the bull-fighter, the customeri r e facing employee is usually on h their own when relating to a e m p l o y e e s great customer. At this critical moment, with the employee’s great attitude, a t t i t u d e , training, empowerment, train them experience, initiative – or lack of very well all these – are usually on display for the customer to see. At this point, this single employee holds the ace on the fortunes of the company. At this moment, this employee can help the company keep or churn customers. At the moment of truth, even the CEO of the company isn’t as powerful as this employee facing the customer because that single employee is the embodiment of the brand.

All the great marketing communications, coupled with fantastic physical facilities, will come to nought if that single employee fails to impress the customer. For a nation of football lovers, perhaps the best way to capture the moment of truth is to compare it to the last and (usually) decisive shot of a tense penalty shoot-out at the end of a pulsating 120-minute football game. Will your last player score? Or will he miss and let the other team carry the day?

It’s amazing that many corporate leaders around here don’t get it. No matter how much you spend on the look of your corporate office and creative advertising, it is the actual customer contact with your people – by person, email, phone – that will make all the difference.

It beats my imagination how organisations will spend fortunes to attract customers only to hire lowly-paid, poorly motivated, ill-trained, ill-equipped, rude employees to attend to those customers. A case in point usually comes to mind whenever I ponder this matter. Years back, someone decided to build a good hotel in Ibadan. The rooms were well-appointed and the halls good for events. Unfortunately the hotel staff looked scruffy, dirty, unhelpful and clueless.

They could not say “yes” to anything without getting clearance from their supervisor. Talk about emasculation!

Those people had no idea what they were hired to do.

They wasted so many moments of truth. Today, that hotel is less than a shadow of what it used to be.

If you want your business to survive long-term, I suggest you hire employees with great attitude, train them very well, motivate them, empower them and appreciate them.

They will turn your moments of truth into moments of difference!

40 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 Email:lesleba@lesleba.com, lesleba@gmail.com Blog page:www.lesleba.com/blog2 Website: www.lesleba.com Tel:0805 220 1997

Treasury bills: Can NASS stop this treasury looting? less than 4%. Nigeria’s accumulated long term domestic loans (bonds) currently exceed N10tn ($60bn) and will attract over N700bn as debt service charges (i.e. almost 70% of total capital expenditure of N1.2tn) in 2014. This already bloated debt service charge exclude over N300bn also projected for servicing short term loans (Treasury bills) which CBN, impulsively, regularly raises to remove perceived surplus cash from the money market at double digit cost, in order to restrain inflation.

Ironically, CBN’s antiinflation strategy deliberately instigates obnoxiously high interest rates which crowd out investors’ access to the alleged existing surplus cash; furthermore, it is inexplicable that surplus cash can exist side by side with scarcity and restrained access to cheap loanable funds to the real sector; surely, no commodity becomes more expensive when there is market surplus of that item. Regrettably, our government may have spent over $20bn (over N3tn) since year 2001 on interest payments to banks for the simple joy of keeping the surplus cash of commercial banks as idle deposits with CBN. The Apex bank has often defended this disruptive monetary practice by insisting that, when there is systemic excess Naira supply, it is imperative to stop the threat of inflation (i.e. too much money chasing too few goods) by reducing the available amount of spendable /loanable funds in the market.

In reality, the challenge of excess liquidity (surplus cash) is not peculiar to the Nigerian

economy, but surely, no successful economy pays double digit interest rates for borrowing funds which are intended to be ultimately kept as idle deposits! Indeed, the European Central Bank (ECB) recently tackled this same issue in favour of its citizen’s welfare, by directing that European banks would henceforth pay the ECB a modest interest rate of 0.1 percent on the surplus-cash balances which commercial banks mandatorily keep in the custody of Europe’s Apex

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n a report titled “FG’s Monetary Policy injurious to job creation” in the Vanguard newspaper edition of June 7, 2014, Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo State Governor described the Central Bank of Nigeria’s Monetary Policy framework as injurious to job creation. Oshiomhole observed that “current monetary strategy would discourage employers of labour from setting up businesses because interest rates are very high”; in the Governor’s words, “it is like telling someone to live long and then giving him poison”. “How can you create jobs, by pricing money out of the reach of investors in the name of achieving market stability?”

Oshiomhole concluded that rapidly increasing job opportunities will not be possible without appropriate supporting infrastructure and liberal access to cheap funds.

Incidentally, The Guardian newspaper edition of 6/6 2014 (Pg 17) had also carried a report that the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), at its recent annual general meeting, advised that “government should consider a complementary policy for free returns on Treasury Bills and bonds”. The Chairman of the Institute, Mike Chidolue pointed out that this would stimulate “free flow of bank credit so that the private sector could gain better traction, than it presently does”; i.e., if government refrained from paying inordinately high interest rates to remove perceived excess Naira supply from banks, a larger flow of cheap loanable funds will become available to the real sector for investment and job creation.

Indeed, Nigerians must wonder why government’s risk free sovereign loans should attract interest charges as high as 15% when infact similar loans in focused, disciplined and successful economies cost

CBN’s antiinflation strategy deliberately i n s t i g a t e s obnoxiously high interest rates which crowd out investors’ access to the alleged existing surplus cash

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Bank.

Clearly, nothing stops our own CBN from pursuing a similar negative cost strategy for managing perceived systemic surplus cash.

Expectedly, the profitability of Nigerians banks have, over the years, benefited significantly from continuously receiving government deposits at zero percent while the Central Bank turns round to pay double

Business & Economy Iraq conflict sparks oil price rise

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il prices have risen to a nine-month high amid concerns that developments in Iraq may affect global supplies. Brent crude futures rose 3 per cent to $113.27 per barrel, while US crude gained more than 2 per cent to $106.71, the highest reading for both since September.

Insurgents have taken over two Iraqi cities, prompting the US to say it was considering “all options” to help Iraq.

Iraq is the second-largest oil producer in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) group. “If this conflict knocked out Iraq as an exporter, that would have significant impact on prices,” said Christopher

Bellew, a trader at Jefferies Bache.

The developments have also hurt global stock markets.

Sunni Islamist insurgents have taken control of the Iraqi cities of Mosul and Tikrit.

Led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIS), the insurgents are believed to be planning to push further south to the capital, Baghdad, and regions dominated by Iraq’s Shia Muslim majority.

Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor, says the success of ISIS can only make the turmoil in the Middle East worse.

He explains that ISIS is an ultra extremist Sunni Muslim group and its success will

deepen the sectarian conflict between Sunnis and Shias that is already the most dangerous fault line in the Middle East.

Middle East is one of the biggest oil producing areas in the world and there are fears that if this conflict escalates further, it may hurt global oil supplies.

US President Barack Obama said his government was looking at “all options”, including military action, to help Iraq fight Islamist militants. “It’s a bit of a crisis mode here,” said Timothy Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management LLC. “Geopolitical concerns have

digit interest rates for the simple joy of warehousing the “excess” cash balances of these banks, while ironically, the same beneficiary banks of such largesse offer barely 5% for the custody of their own customers’ deposits?

Ironically, our Economic Management Team, respected public analysts, and indeed the general media, have often mischievously applauded this predatory strategy as best practice. Nonetheless, in its efforts to control money supply, the CBN has always, surprisingly clearly ignored consideration of other more socially responsible strategies which support industrial and economic growth with increasing job opportunities.

For example, the CBN could in reality, effectively, easily modulate the problem of perceived surplus cash by simply increasing the mandatory cash reserve and liquidity ratios for banks.

Thus, if for example, the mandatory cash reserve requirement for commercial banks is raised across the board from the current 15% to even beyond 50 percent, (for both public and private sector deposits) the CBN would more efficiently reduce the erstwhile eternal burden of systemic surplus cash without the collateral of liberally subsidizing commercial banks with over $20bn which could have been better applied to infrastructure and real sector funding since 2001.

It is undoubtedly more socially responsible to control the unceasing CBN selfinstigated burden of ‘surplus cash’ at no cost to Nigerians as currently practised by the

definitely taken over. It’s a very fluid situation and things

European Central Bank rather than wastefully support exceptionally bounteous commercial bank profits at the expense of the welfare of our people.

If CBN emulates the people and growth supportive ECB monetary strategy, the decades long free lunch enjoyed by banks in receiving bonanza interest rates on government’s free funds would be over and the banks would have no other alternative than to pay serious attention as recently demanded by Oshiomhole and the CITN Chairman, to enthusiastically collaborate with the real sector to provide increasing investment funds at reasonable cost.

Curiously, however, our monetary authorities have remained in denial that the true cause of eternally surplus Naira which fundamentally distorts our economy is actually, CBN’s monthly substitution of Naira allocations for dollar derived revenue.

The critical question however is, who will bell the cat; certainly not the Economic Management Team which consciously condoned this antipeople subsidy of banks for so long; certainly also not the CBN, whose steady accumulation of comparatively buoyant reserves were made possible with the crazy strategy that eternally creates surplus cash with Naira substitutions for dollar revenue to poison the whole economy. Regrettably, our internationally acclaimed experts, in the Federal Executive who surprisingly gloated over CBN’s socially oppressive strategy for so many years may not also rise to the task! The question is can the National Assembly stop this blatant economic mismanagement or are we to assume that they may also be complicit in the ongoing treasury looting?

SAVE THE NAIRA, SAVE NIGERIANS.

are happening very fast, it seems.”

Omoh Gabriel Babajide Komolafe Clara Nwachukwu Peter Egwuatu Yinka Kolawole Favour Nnabugwu Godwin Oritse Godfrey Bivbere Michael Eboh Franklin Alli Ebele Orakpo Ifeyinwa Obi Rosemary Onuoha

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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 Energy Reporter Maritime Reporter Insurance Reporter

CONTRIBUTORS Princewill Ekwujuru Nkiruka Nnorom Jonah Nwokpoku Naomi Uzor Providence Obuh LAYOUT

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Media/Marketing Capital Market E-Commerce Industry Micro Finance Graphics Department

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—41

C M Y K

42 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Vanguard, MONDAY,

JUNE 16 16,, 2014—43

Child birth: Lagos Trado-Medical Board seeks proper documentation

BY GABRIEL OLAWALE

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•Left: The new Ibijola Medical Centre. Right: Former Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Leke Pitan (centre) w ith Dr. Adeyeye Arigbabuwo, Medical Director, (2nd left) and other community members during the official opening of the Centre in Ibiye Community, Agbara area of Lagos last week.

New health, new life, as Lagos community gets 1st medical centre

BY CHIOMA OBINNA

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ON-AVAILABILITY of functional and accessible private or public health facilities in several communities is a major contributor to child and maternal mortality. Hundreds of communities across the Federation are currently faced with such challenge and quite often, it is the women and children who bear the brunt. The result is often the unacceptably high maternal, chld and infant deaths recorded in the country.

A case in point is Ibiye community in Agbara area of Lagos. Until last week when a modern health facility with ultra modern equipment was officially commissioned, numerous incidences of maternal and child deaths were order of the day especially as the nearest General Hospital to the community is about 30 kilometres away in Badagry.

Following the condition of the road, on a good day, it will take a patient about 45 minutes to get there. The nearest Primary Healthcare, PHC, to Ibiye, though not as far as Badagry, may take about 30 minutes if traffic is good.

Ibiye community is one out of the hundreds of communities across Nige-

ria lacking health facilities.

However, respite came on the way of the community when Ibijola Medical Centre was officially opened in the area.

Residents of the community can now heave a sigh of relief that at last much anticipated help has arrived At the commissioning, former Health Commissioner in Lagos, Dr. Leke Pitan, said there is need for government to encourage building of hospitals in rural areas.

Pitan, who opined that government should buy into private facilities in rural areas stated: “There is need for government to adopt facilities like Ibijola as healthcare providers on behalf of the government for the community.

“That is the kind of phase governance must now follow to ensure better and quality healthcare services. Whether public or private, they must be seen as one part of the health system. There are various things available that have been time tested in other climes. When government adopts these hospitals, other facilities will strive to meet up to standards. It will serve as a stimulus in the health sector.” he explained.

Pitan who described the opening of the hospital in such a rural area as an un-

common development lauded efforts of the Chief Medical Director of the Hospital, Dr Adeyeye Arigbabuwo.

“The hospital is certainly going to help people in the community; it is a place all of them who need medical help will run to.” Giving an insight into the establishment of the hospital, Arigbabuwo, the Founder, who noted that the vision of Ibijola is to ensure that mothers and their children die no more, said Community Based Health Insurance would be introduced as part of efforts to ensure that medical services are affordable for all in the community.

The hospital was established to provide affordable, accessible and available healthcare services for the community and environs.

Health education programme Arigbabuwo noted the vision of the hospital was to ensure better life for mothers and their children said the hospital has fashioned out a health education programme for women in the community, particularly pregnant women. “Mother must live, babies must live, it is no more acceptable to us the high mortality rate for mothers and children. We have fashioned out health education including support for traditional birth attendants. We will catch the pregnant women young. If you cannot afford the cost of treatment, we will give you a buffer.

Executive Chairman of Ato Awori, Local Council Development Area, LCDA, charged Ibiye community and environs to take ownership of the hospital as well as support the facility. “I advice that they tap into the health insurance, the medical director has promised. The high point of the commissioning of the 12 – bedded facility with basic equipment was the free screening for blood pressure, urine, blood sugar, and cholesterol checks amongst others.

HE Lagos State Traditional Medi cine Board, LSTMB, has called for proper documentation of pregnant women referred to the hospitals with a view to clearly defining the referral destination of patients.

Making the call last week during the presentation of certificates to 400 graduating Traditional Birth Attendants, TBAs, Chairman, LSTMB, Dr. Bunmi Omoseyindemi noted that most deliveries taken by different bodies are often wrongly classified as the handiwork of Traditional Birth Attendants, TBAs. “The reason why we are calling for proper clarification and documentation is that most deliveries are taken at home non-medical personnel and when complications arise and the patient is referred to the hospital, the attendants tend to classify such cases as the work of TBAs.” Reasons for proper documentation Omoseyindemi posited that if such referrals were from the TBAs, the hospital should provide evidence.

“What we are agitating for is that if it is the TBA that causes the complication let us know which TBA. How many maternal deaths have we committed, because if a person is not trained and is practicing such person is not a TBA.” He revealed that part of their effort to put an end to quackery included the assistance of Community Health Officers, CHOs, who spend 80 percent of their time in various communities with the aim of educating people on their health, collection of data and looking for disease in different community.

“Since 2013 that our CHOs began their work fully, a lot of practitioners have been coming to register for training.”

“With the 2,350 TBAs who had been trained before in addition to 400 attendants given certificates today, we will would continue to provide our support in reducing neo-natal death and improve maternal health in Lagos State.”

On his part, Professor Adebukola Adefule-Oshitelu urged the TBAs to utilise their instruments and skill in checking the status of their patients health and report and refer complications to the hospital without any delay.”

“Complication is bound to arise once a while but anytime there is signs of complication kindly refer them to the hospital without any delay.”

44 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

BY EMMANUEL AZIKEN, POLITICAL EDITOR, OKEY NDIRIBE, DAPO AKINREFON & SIMON EBEGBULEM

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Convention venue “I was not at the convention venue, I bought the chairmanship form, but I did not fill it when I found out what they wanted to do,” Chief Ikimi told Vanguard over the telephone.

“I still have the forms with me.

I never stepped down for anybody I did not participate in the exercise, I boycotted it,” he added saying “I will come up with a statement soon where I will explain what transpired.”

The questions about Ikimi are, however, not new as party insiders revealed that for some time, party officials had feared about the continued loyalty of the party for some time especially given his recent vituperations against alleged highhandedness by some party chieftains from the Southwest.

In the end Ikimi refused to step down, but another contestant for the post of national chairman, Chief Timipire Sylva after much dithering procrastination succumbed and stepped down

•New National Chairman of APC flanked by party leaders after his emergence last weekend

APC: Reality beckons!

THE All Progressives Congress held its first national convention last weekend. The intrigues that shadowed the convention may well position the party on its own path of crisis if not successfully managed for the favoured choice of the top hierarchy, Chief John OdigieOyegun who was favoured for his ideological purity.

But the way and manner Ikimi, Sylva and another contestant, Dr. Sam Sam Jaja were coerced to step down exposed to some extent a kind of similarity between the APC and the ruling party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP which the former had consistently ridiculed as antidemocratic.

APC leaders Vanguard gathered were determined to enter the convention ground with a consensus list of candidates for the most high profile positions, notably, national chairman, deputy national chairmen, national secretary, national publicity secretary and national

organizing secretary.

Party leaders like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who championed the consensus option were seriously rebuffed by Ikimi and Sylva.

In some cases, the consensus candidates were chosen by zonal caucuses and after serious deliberation. For example one of the favoured candidates for a legal office zoned to the SouthSouth was dropped at a caucus meeting presided over by Governor Rotimi Amaechi after party chieftains raised issues about his legal qualification.

In other cases, candidates were picked as consensus on the whims of influence moulders in the party. Tinubu was indisputably the major force behind the ascension of OdigieOyegun and he successfully

ISSUES •Ikimi boycotted the convention because he felt he was not wanted •Atiku making moves to bring back Ikimi •Tinubu did not have his way completely, his man Kashim Imam was stepped aside for National Secretary •Convention was delayed by eleven hours because of intrigues •Accreditation was poorly managed by the media sub-committee •Party disappointed critics as no open quarrel emerged C M Y K

marketed him through Senator Bukola Saraki to the northern caucus of the party.

Chief Bisi Akande who also strongly backed Odigie-Oyegun to emerge as his successor was said to have seriously canvassed his ideological purity as he said that those who had in the past been the face of the PDP should

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RESH cracks may have emerged within the ranks of the nation’s leading opposition party, the All Progressives Congress, APC as a fall out of its national convention which ended Saturday morning in Abuja.

The convention which was slated to commence by 10.00 a.m. did not start until about 9.00 p.m.

In between the about 11 hours while delegates waited inside the Eagles Square convention ground, party chieftains were in different locations in Abuja, and through telephones, were aiming to settle disputes between senior contenders and stakeholders that threatened to scuttle the first national convention of the party.

In the end, the trouble shooting efforts were partially successful.

But not totally.

Chief Tom Ikimi, the man who announced the birth of the new party last year and who hosted and chaired most of the meetings of the merger committee absented himself from the convention ground.

former foreign affairs minister.

Ikimi was the one who announced the merger, chaired and hosted many of the meetings that gave birth to the new party.

By weekend many party leaders including former VicePresident Atiku Abubakar, Vanguard learnt were moving to halt Ikimi’s exit from the party.

Party leaders, however, agreed to give those from the PDP a sense of belonging by zoning the office of deputy national

Ikimi’s refusal to withdraw and Sylva last minute decision to step down were reasons behind the late commencement of the convention

not become the new leaders of the PDP. That was the argument that derailed the candidacy of Sam Sam Jaja and Ikimi. Sylva, Vanguard learnt was sidestepped on account of the court issues bordering on corruption he is currently facing.

Party chieftains said they could not afford to have their national chairman being dragged to court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, something, they believed President Goodluck Jonathan would be well pleased to do.

However, the failure to take Ikimi’s major role in the merger of the legacy parties to form the APC is said to have rankled the

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chairman to those from the former PDP. Ikimi was not the only one that came out with a beef from the convention. Sylva even if he announced he was stepping down apparently did it very reluctantly albeit, belatedly.

Ikimi’s refusal to withdraw and Sylva last minute decision to step down were reasons behind the late commencement of the convention which commenced 11 hours late.

After party leaders belatedly got an assurance from Sylva to step down, the decision to proceed with the convention was taken irrespective of Ikimi’s plans.

Even by then, Tinubu and the Continues on page 45

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—45

APC: Reality beckons Continued from page 44 other pro-Odigie-Oyegun canvassers had successfully locked down whatever votes that would have been needed to push their candidate through.

Ikimi was not the only loser at the APC convention. Alhaji Kashim Imam, who served as Presidential Liaison Officer to the Senate in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s first term was another loser. Imam had been packaged

by Tinubu for the position of national secretary. Many at the convention ground had believed that he was a shoo-in for the office given the momentum and force of the Tinubu forces.

However, other interests in the party, notably the northern caucus was said to have bucked at the idea of allowing Tinubu produce the national chairman and national secretary. So, in the end, despite the earlier momentum, Imam was sidestepped.

However, besides the two major offices of national chairman and national secretary, the election of other national offices proceeded almost uneventfully.

The unopposed election of former Ekiti State Governor, Engr.

•Oyegun: I will cage the PDP Violence broke out after two members were beaten up by some party faithful from Abia and Ebonyi states while policemen looked on. One of them who was labeled as “Ngige boy” was stripped naked near the gate of

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The unopposed election of former Ekiti State Governor, Engr. Segun Oni as National Deputy Chairman, South arose from the decision of the national caucus to reward those who came from the PDP

Segun Oni as National Deputy Chairman, South arose from the decision of the national caucus to reward those who came from the PDP a sense of belonging given the strong objection by ideological purists not to give them the post of national chairman or national secretary.

Others who emerged at the convention were Senator Lawal Shuaibu, as National Deputy Chairman North Lai Mohammed who retained his position as National Publicity Secretary; Hon. Zakare Ede, National Vice-Chairman for NorthCentral; Hajia Ramatu, National Woman Leader; Jock Alamba, Deputy Welfare Secretary; Hajia Hassan, North-Central Zonal Woman Leader and Hon. Nelson Alapa, ex-Officio member for the North-Central.

Besides Ikimi, Chief Timipire Sylva is another top party official who came out of the convention unhappy. Though Sylva, apparently may not go to the PDP given that his nemesis, President Goodluck Jonathan remains the de facto leader of the ruling party.

Convention Day: The day began with what could be described as political fireworks during the accreditation of delegates at the secretariat of the Convention Planning Committee of the party along Emeka Anyaoku Street, Area 11, Abuja.

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the Secretariat.

Investigations by Vanguard revealed that the fighting erupted between delegates of different factions of the party from Abia and Ebonyi States. Some of the aggrieved delegates from both states who spoke to Vanguard alleged that although they were elected as state and local government officers of the party and therefore automatic delegates for the party’s convention, they had been denied accreditation by the Convention Planning Committee headed by Sokoto State Governor Alhaji Aliyu Wammako with Senator Chris Ngige as Secretary.

One of the delegates from Abia State who identified himself as Uche Emeka accused Ngige, Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha, former National Chairman of All Nigeria Peoples Party, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu and Interim National ViceChairman of the party for the South-East, Mr Nyerere as being responsible for their plight.

According to Emeka: “We were reliably informed that Ngige and Okorocha have instructed that our Chairman who is Fabian Okonkwo and the rest of us from Abia State should not be accredited.

Another delegate from Ebonyi State who spoke to Sunday Vanguard identified himself as

Ali Christian and Secretary of the party in Ishielu local government.

Said he: “ There are two factions of APC in Ebonyi. One is led by Chief Ogbonnaya Onu while the other is led by Senator Julius Ucha and because of that, there seems to be a power tussle between the two of them.

The Eagle Square venue of the convention, located opposite the National Assembly Arcade and sandwiched in-between the Office of The Head of Service of the Federation and the Federal Secretariat looked like it was about to host a major carnival Friday morning.

APC contingents from the 36 states of the federation jammed all the adjoining streets in the area.

Many of them were adorned in

different attire while some came with their band which played music while the delegates danced.

Many APC faithful had arrived the vicinity Thursday evening and slept in the open with their mats. By Friday morning, the entire area, including the access roads leading to the Presidential Villa had been jam-packed with people and vehicles. A total of 6,855 delegates attended the convention from the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Security was also tightened at all entry points into and within Abuja.

This notwithstanding, the commencement of the convention proper was delayed for hours as the National Caucus

of the party held series of meetings which deliberated on choice of candidates for the key positions in the party.

Earlier in the week, the National Caucus had allocated different positions in the party to different zones.

When the business of the day eventually began, ratification of the party’s constitution and its code of ethics were handled first.

The motion for the ratification of certain sections of the constitution was moved by Senator Kabiru Gaya and seconded by House of Representatives Minority Leader, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamilla. The constitution was adopted by voice vote. This approach also applied to the adoption of the APC code of ethics. Senator Osita Izunaso moved the motion which was seconded by the Deputy Governor of Osun State, Mrs Grace Tomori.

The election of the party’s new leadership was preceded by speeches delivered by the Interim National leaders.

Former Interim National Chairman of the party Chief Bisi Akande who spoke first.

Going down memory lane he said: “When we consummated our merger, we said the aim of that unprecedented and historic achievement was to create a credible alternative platform for Nigerians, who were tired of the perpetual misrule of the PDP. “Now, I can say clearly that Nigerians have heard us and have reacted in joining our party in huge numbers. Our membership registration attests to this, as we all know by now that the membership registration, which started on February 5, was supposed to be over by February 10 but the response of Nigerians was so overwhelming that we had to shift the exercise to February 12.”

It was a great success – Lai Mohammed

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HE APC newly elected National Poblicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed has meanwhile described the convention as a huge success which defied the predictions and intrigues of mischief makers.

Mohammed who is returning to the position he held in interim position and the same position he successfully held in the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN praised the discipline of party members who defied rain and rumble to protect the ballots. In the opinion of the APC spokesman, the fact that no single theft of violence and pick pocketing was recorded on the convention ground makes the party an Eldora do. ‘’We are encouraged and gratified by the goodwill messages from a cross section of Nigerians, many of them from outside our party, especially on the openness and transparency of our convention,’’ the party said in a statement issued in Lagos on Sunday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed. ‘’This massive support from Nigerians has strengthened our resolve to continue with our efforts to move our country forward. Now, we are back to work and we will not look back until Nigeria has been rescued from the grip of a

rapacious cabal intent on stifling the country’s progress,’’ it said. ‘’When the entire public address system succumbed to the rains, our members moved from one state delegation to another to mobilise them to vote. When the rain started, they were more interested in protecting the ballot boxes than shielding themselves from the rain. ‘’It is also noteworthy that no cases of violence and pick-pocketing were recorded despite the massive turnout at the Eagle Square for the convention. Not even the threatening text messages sent to the phones of many delegates at the convention, over a purported impending bomb attack, could shake their resolve. There can be no better testament to commitment to a cause, the cause of rescuing Nigeria, than this,’’ the party said ‘’Based on the nationwide scientific poll we conducted across the 36 states and the federal capital, we have identified three sectors that would command special attention. They are job creation, war against corruption as well as security. These sectors will get immediate and special attention from an APC-led federal government, starting on May 29th 2015, by the votes of Nigerians and the Grace of God,’’ the party said.

46—Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

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HE adage: “the pen is mightier than the sword”, sounded foolish to me the first time I heard it as a freshman at Nsukka over 30 years ago. How can anyone in his right mind make such a nonsensical assertion? Even the Great Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, the greatest media mogul Nigeria has ever produced till date who fought the British colonialists with his acerbic pen, reportedly once whispered to his disciples: “only a mad man can argue with a man carrying a gun”.

Zik’s alibi notwithstanding, the pen is mightier than the sword.

It was not a mere psychological tranquiliser coined to give writers and journalists a false sense of importance when it was first deployed by Edward BulwerLytton in 1939. Even Napoleon Bonaparte, one of the greatest

Army’s tangle with the Press the new, unscrupulous social media.

The armed and security forces made the miscalculation of clamping down on the newspaper industry, confiscating and destroying some editions of

Obasanjo, a tested hand in running the affairs of Nigeria, stomped all over the political class but carefully and methodically desisted from harassing the media and civil society; he decided that the best way to deal with the media and civil society was to do nothing

,

military generals of all time, said so. The mind is mightier than the muscle. The muscle works for the mind.

The Nigerian armed forces had, for the first time in its illustrious history, become the butt of (mostly snide) comments over its apparent inability to destroy Boko Haram, an Islamic insurgent group that started like a rag-tag band of overgrown, over-excited almajirai in 2009. It has blossomed into the most savage, notorious and dreaded terrorist outfit in the world today. Our once feared armed and security forces seemed at a loss what to do, as we started hearing allegations of internal sabotages, alleged mutinies, poor equipment, “low morale” and unwillingness to confront the nation’s enemies. Boko Haram’s “exploits” are reported everyday on both the orthodox media and

,

newspapers, detaining the drivers of newspaper distribution vans and generally disrupting operations in the industry reminiscent of the dark days when the military was in power.

Their action was described by some military sources as “routine security checks”. Later on, the spokesman of the Nigerian Army, Major General Chris Olukolade, explained that newspaper vans were stopped at the various checkpoints because Boko Haram had resorted to disguising their supplies, including armaments and logistics, in vans painted in media colours, apparently taking advantage of the privileges that the media are given on the highways by the security agencies. Boko Haram has resorted to all sorts of new tricks, including the abduction of girls and the enlistment of

women as suicide bombers and informants, and hence the need for the armed forces and security agencies to be more thorough in their checks.

While the disruptions were going on, media practitioners started reading the action of the military as a declaration of war on the Press. It did not make any sense to seize and destroy newspapers and magazines because of the stories they carried in these days when most newspapers have their online editions which are read all over the world. It is futile and an unwinable war, as the history of the government-media relationships in Nigeria has shown. The Nigerian Press moves into its true elements when it is faced with dictatorship or impunity of any kind. The Zik Group of Newspapers set the tone in fighting the colonial masters, and the industry became the greatest obstacle to the perpetration of prolonged military rule in Nigeria.

W

hen General Olusegun Obasanjo was elected president of Nigeria in 1999, he mounted a civilian dictatorship.

He was determined to use roughand-ready methods to force the legislative arm of government to dance to his tune. He changed the personnel running the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP at will. He manipulated the affairs of the major opposition parties to make sure they did not become a threat to him. He intimidated state governors, got one of them abducted by the police and declared state of emergency or engineered the impeachment of governors in Plateau, Anambra,

Ekiti, Oyo, Bayelsa and others.

He also wired the judiciary and the concept of “black market judgements” became rampant during his eight years in power.

He even tried to change the Constitution to give himself a third term in office.

But Obasanjo, a tested hand in running the affairs of Nigeria, stomped all over the political class but carefully and methodically desisted from harassing the media and civil society. He decided that the best way to deal with the media and civil society was to do nothing.

The media was harsh and critical over his roughneck handling of our democracy.

Writers often went beyond criticism and actually hurled insults at him. Baba Iyabo ignored them. In fact, he displayed his contempt by saying: “I don’t read Nigerian newspapers”. Writers and their readers got to a point where they wondered aloud whether the people in government read what was being written.

Something strange happened, shortly after Obasanjo came down from the presidency in 2007, which convinced me that Obasanjo did read Nigerian newspapers. His apparent refusal to engage them was deliberately meant to make them feel unimportant and irrelevant.

Shortly after he was appointed as the Corps Marshall of the Federal Roads Safety Commission, FRSC, Mr Osita Chidoka invited me to his office in Abuja July 2007. He asked me to accompany him to see someone at the Transcorp Hilton. Not having much else to

do that day, I agreed to go with him and we rode in his official car. My curiosity was stoked when we were taken to the top floor of the hotel where the super VIP’s usually stay. At the end of a long passage, we came to a door guarded by beefy, stern-looking security men in suits. I was told to wait outside while Chidoka went into the suite. He later got the security men to allow me in.

Shortly, an elderly man in shabby dressing gown came out of an adjoining room. Everybody in the suite got up and Chidoka went to greet him, calling him: Baba.

It was then that it dawned on me that I was in the presence of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the man I spent the last eight years bashing over his dictatorial handling of the polity! After greeting Obasanjo, Chidoka introduced me: “Baba, this is my friend, Ochereome Nnanna of Vanguard Newspapers…”

President Obasanjo, who had extended his towards me for a shake, quickly withdrew it as though I had suddenly become a coiled black mamba, the most dangerous snake in the world. He gave me a baleful, withering look and walked away! I quickly walked out of the suite, went down and returned to my hotel.

As I went, I kept telling myself: the man reads Nigerian newspapers!

However, the challenge the nation is facing is different. We are faced with a terrible enemy, Boko Haram, and military is putting its personnel on the line to save Nigeria and secure Nigerians.

It is in our collective interests to cooperate with the military, rather than ridicule or embarrass them. Even when they make mistakes, such as the disruption of media business, we must be patient. Luckily, their leaders are willing to correct their mistakes and eager to work with the rest of society to succeed in the war on terror.

This is our army, and this is our country. The media and the Nigerian armed forces are NOT at war. We are comrades at arms in the service of our nation.

OPINION

BY ABBA ADAKOLE

T

HE appointment of Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi as the Emir of Kano last weekend was a fulfillment of the former CBN governor’s long-standing craving for that symbol of traditional power. It is at once a personal victory as well as a sweet ‘revenge’ against the forces that battled and ultimately banished his late grandfather, Alhaji Muahmmadu Sanusi, the Emir of Kano from 1953-1963, into exile in Azare.

Muahmmadu Sanusi’s 10-year tenure as emir was tempestuous, highlighted mainly by his power tussles with the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello. It was a war waged on many fronts: from the political to the traditional, but the Sardauna ultimately prevailed. Muhammadu Sanusi’s grandson, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, who was named after him, is no less hungry for power and has, over the years, shown an inclination to be controversial. He is a chip off the old block, so to say, and many are already worried he is toeing the path of defiance which brought down the elder Sanusi.

His tenure as governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank was anything but distinguished, owing to the inglorious manner in which he exited.

By 2009 when he was appointed by the late President Umar Yar’Adua, his predecessor,

Paradox of Sanusi's emirship Chukwuma Soludo, had brought so much clout to the office with his wide-ranging reforms which created some of Africa’s biggest financial services institutions and deepened the country’s capital markets.

With Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, the expectations were even higher, but as it turned out, the expectations were far-fetched.

In his nearly five years at the helm of CBN affairs, Sanusi did not only stray from the primary focus of the bank, he went down the path of profligacy and hugged all forms of controversy. He was roundly accused of politicizing decision-making at the apex bank and his financial indiscipline had led to his tenure being investigated for breaches of enabling laws, due process and mandate of the CBN. Not only was he alleged to have signed off over N160 billion by fiat, he had run the CBN as a fiefdom. By the time he was suspended by President Goodluck Jonathan in February 2014, he was seen by many as a distraction to the bank’s primary functions.

In a story that went like his grandfather’s, he also lost that enviable position before the due date. His resort to the courts to extricate him from the allegations and possibly to return him to the CBN chair he sorely missed, were fruitless until June 3, when he was

effectively replaced by Mr. Godwin Emefiele.

His elevation to Kano’s emirship has no doubt raised some questions. While the CBN tenure has ended, did the plethora of allegations hanging over him evaporate with the tenure lapse? Does his recent elevation render the allegations of financial impropriety a nullity? Why did the All Progressives Congress (APC) government in Kano break all the rules to make him emir, even when his large gown is dripping with official malfeasance?

The implication of his appointment as emir of Kano, is obvious: not only has the governor of Kano state, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, brought the stool to ridicule, a large chunk of respect it once commanded will be difficult to attract henceforth. Since he became emir, Kano has not known peace, owing largely to the belief that it was manipulated. His ascension has generated so much bad blood that the APC government in the state has relentlessly tried to explain how it arrived at the choice of Sanusi.

If the people’s will had mattered, the Ciroman Kano, Sanusi Lamido Ado Bayero, would have succeeded his father, but the kingmakers of Kano, prodded by the state government, thought otherwise. With the former CBN governor’s grouses with

President Jonathan, it was obvious the APC governor will be more comfortable with him as the emir, at least to spite the President. So for Kano state governor, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who was all the time the selection process lasted in his best partisan political elements, Sanusi’s choice was a fait accompli.

The rioting which followed the announcement of Kwankwaso’s choice was to be expected, just like the chants of “Ba muso, ba muso’’, meaning, “we don’t want, we don’t want’’. While the shouting may die down sooner or later, the headache will not. To the average Kano man, the emir is next to God; he is revered by all and sundry but he must also earn their trust and their reverence. As one who sits in judgment over them, he must be above board and must maintain a certain level of decorum. Will Sanusi ever fully recover from the smear of his disastrous tenure in the CBN and the allegation against him that may never be settled? And that brings the other question, will he ever fully earn the trust and respect of his subjects?

It is bad enough that he has taken off on a controversial note. Though he has been made the emir, the challenge is shunning the temptation to walk the inglorious path again, or to go like his grandfather. *Mr. Adakole, a public affairs commentator, wrote from Abuja.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—47

48 —

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014, YOUR LUCK TODAY

LEISURE

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

By Joshua Adeyemo Phone 08056180139 TAURUS: Mercury will start to go on backward motion soonest, therefore you will need to re-examine both your personal ideas and advice given to you by other people.

Be family minded.

GEMINI: Avoided you don’t allow others to mislead you, things will not go wrong. The more willing you are to take the initiative the better for you. Take your love life more seriously.

CANCER: Although you will need to be as secretive as you can, your success will attract others’ attention to you to the betterment of your cause. Be ambitious.

LEO: People who more influential than you will be willing to support your cause but you will need to make the necessary move. The more self assertive you are the better.

VIRGO: Challenges of yesterday will today bring you good opportunities along your career/business lines to the betterment of your finances seek supporters of powerful ones.

By Richard Eromosele

I

F I may ask you which is the best way to advertise yourself today, I guess many people will be mentioning the different media through

The Best Advertisement which you do this. Some will even go beyond naming them to talking about their exorbitant prices.

However, I want

TERROR MUDA

to let you know that you do not need to pay money in order to get the kind of advert that can promote you.

How? Fine! Let

in “Never say goodbye”

me ask you a question: Who does Tiger Wood pay to get publicity? What of Ali Baba? Want to be advertised?

Just do s o m e t h i n g newsworthy no matter how little.

By Lanre Kehinde

LIBRA: Think of the best way to improve on your working pattern in order to enhance your career prospects if you listen to your creative self, things will work out fine for you. Be more loving.

SCORPIO: Success is boldly printed on your cards today. Think of both immediate and far future while you are savouring goodies offered you but mother nature.

SAGITTARIUS: You should not have it tough while trying to win the needed supports of others. Take good advice from some of your friends who are creatively gifted.

CAPRICORN: Your creativity ...... is enhanced today and if you demonstrating this within your working arena, you’ll earn success and consolidate on your recent progress.

AQUARIUS: As mercury prepares to go on backward motion it is important you don’t take things for granted.

Watch carefully what you agree to do.

KAPTAIN AFRIKA

in

“Pretty Lunatic’

By Andy Akman

PISCES: Better than yesterday. Others will be willing to give you the needed co-operation both at home and within your working arena. This is a good day for lovers.

ARIES: Those of you who are more enterprising will have much to show for your efforts. The more cooperative you. Don’t neglect love.

ASTROLOGICAL COUNSELLING Send yyour our dat th ttoo the As tr ological datee and place of bir birth Astr trological Counselling, PP.M.B .M.B 1100 00 7, Apapa, Lagos 007,

What does future have for me Dear Joshua, I don’t want you to publish my data. However, I want to know how the planets lined up when I was born.

And which day of the week was I born, would I record success in life ? When would my success come?

Kolawole, Lagos.

Dear Kolawole, You were born on a Jupiter ruled day - Thursday. You’ll succeeded earlier than you think.

Your Horoscope Data DAY OF BIRTH: THURSDAY SUN SIGN = PISCES: SUN IN 25TH DEGREE OF PISCES MOON SIGN: PISCES: MOON IN 21ST DEGREE OF PISCES MERCURY IN 28TH DEGREE OF AQUARIUS VENUS IN 28TH DEGREE OF ARIES MARS IN 7TH DEGREE OF CANCER JUPITER IN ZERO DEGREE OF AQUARIUS SATURN IN 27TH DEGREE OF CAPRICORN URANUS IN 22ND DEGREE OF LEO NEPTUNE IN 11TH DECREE OF SCORPIO PLUTO IN 6TH DEGREE OF VIRGO NORTH NODE IN 6TH DEGREE OF PISCES CARDINAL AND MUTABLE STAR SIGN HOSTED THREE PLANETS EACH, FIXED AND WATER FOUR EACH, FIRE EARTH AND AIR HOSTED TWO EACH. PUSHFUL INFLUENCE = 40% NON-PUSHFUL INFLUENCE = 60% HIGHLY HIGHLIGHTED STAR SIGN = AQUARIUS FINAL DISPOSITOR = SATURN ANALYSIS OF THE HOROSCOPE DATA Saturn as the final dispositor-the most influential planet at home when you were born, pointed to you as an ambitious person who must have a well developed career. You are a disciplined person with higher degree of leadership quality in yourself. Although, you can be emotional, you are stable and reliable. Less than 50 per cent of push-full influence in you is an indication of your being an amiable person.

VIRGINIA

HOME & ABROAD

dadadekola@yahoo.com

By Lawrence Akapa

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—49

C M Y K

50 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014 — 51

Vanguard CLASSIFIED

ASDEV club wants Osadebay immortalised

BY AUSTIN OGWUDA

P

RESIDENT of AS DEV Club of Asaba, Ogbueshi Tony Molokwu, has said it was saddened that the first and only Premier of the defunct Midwest region and one-time acting President of Nigeria, late Chief Dennis Osadebay has not been immortalized since he passed on two decades ago, despite his immense contributions to national development.

Molokwu who spoke at the first Chief Dennis Osadebay Memorial Lecture in Asaba, said the Club, which is made up of indigenes of Asaba and intellectuals will not rest on its oars until that was accomplished.

He said, “ we have tagged today’s event as inaugural because it is our intention to organize such lecture in his memory periodically. Moreover this would be the first time that any organized group outside his immediate family would be coming out to publicly acknowledge and honour this late astute politician of immense stature.

We are saddened that we are only just waking up to

acclaim our son after over three decades of our existence as a club as nobody else would do this for us.

We are hopeful that this series of lectures in honour of our great son will expose Asaba further and put records in correct perspective as to its place in history of our great country, Nigeria so that denials of what is due to this great town will

be curtailed”.

Also speaking, the son of the late Premier, Mr. Chinedu Osadebay said his family was wondering if their late father was just a mere option in the nation’s politics as they were unable to fathom why such a man who served the nation meritoriously was sidelined in such a glaring manner.

Kabang attack: Adamawa stakeholders sue for peace

BY EMMANUEL ELEBEKE

A

BUJA— THE Ad amawa State Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Stakeholders, yesterday condemned in strong terms the recent bomb attack in Kabang, a suburb of Mubi Local Government Area of Adamawa State, which occurred, Sunday, June 1. The group described the incident as a huge let down to residents, victims and their relations, who live around the vicinity and an attempt to decimate a large population of Nigerians by Boko Haram insurgents. .

The stakeholders said, “The entire members of this

pressure group wish to express our extreme anguish and regret over the wanton decimation of a large population of Nigerians by Boko Haram insurgents.

Specifically, we condemn in strong terms the recent bomb attack in Kabang, a suburb in Mubi Local Government Area of Adamawa State which occurred, Sunday, June 1, 2014. The incident was a huge let down to residents, victims and their relations who live around the vicinity. The bombing, which occurred at a football viewing centre claimed over 20 lives, and several others injured from the incident."

F A S A W E — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss O m o t o l a Oluwafunmilayo Fasawe, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. O m o t o l a Oluwafunmilayo Jituboh. All former documents remain valid. University of Benin and general public please take note.

IGWEGBE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Sylvia Chinonye Igwegbe, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Sylvia Chinonye Igwe. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OGBAH—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Rosemary Uyoyo Ogbah, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Rosemary Uyoyo OluYoung. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

PEMU—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Peace Pemu, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Peace Achere.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

MBEH—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Mbeh Margaret Ibor, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Jones Margaret Adirimo. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

C H U K W U — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss Joan Chinonye Chukwu, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Joan Chinonye Egesimba. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

POLOAMINA—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Yengibi Rhoda Poloamina, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Yengibi Poloamina Uzorka. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OGUJI—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Oguji Chiamaka Frances, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Adogu Chiamaka Frances.

All former documents remain valid.General public please take note.

OKE—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Maureen Oke, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Maureen Tobokapoh Adike. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

OLADEPO—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Victoria Oluwatoyin Oladepo, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Victoria Oluwatoyin E m m a n u e l Umunnawuike. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

CHIKELU—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Chikelu Vivian Adaeze, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Ezeilo Vivian Adaeze.

All former documents remain valid. Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Mainstreet Bank and general public please take note.

CHUKWUNJOKU—I, formerly known and addressed as Maria N. Chukwunjoku, now wish to be known and addressed as Maria N. Ugwu . All former documents remain valid. General Public please take note.

N W I G W E — I , formerly known and addressed as Miss Ugochi Uzochukwu Nwigwe, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. To n y - N w a b u e z e Ugochi Uzochukwu.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

O N O M E — I , formerly known and addressed as Onome Irikefe Orhie, now wish to be known and addressed as Irikefe Orhie. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

MAYUKU—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Juliet Mayuku, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Juliet A. Chukusa. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

SAKPOBA—I, formerly known and addressed as Prince S a k p o b a Oritseminone, now wish to be known and addressed as Prince Oritseminone Edemaogun.

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

SEGUN—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Segun Mercy Tseghriri, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Olowo Mercy. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

IKEGBUSI—I, formerly known and addressed as Miss Ikegbusi Uche Appolonia, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Iheonu Uche Appolonia (Osuoha).

All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

O K A F O R — I , formerly known and addressed as Chizoba Chinwe Okafor, now wish to be known and addressed as Chizoba Joyce Chinwe Nwandu. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

VANGUARD'S LAGOS OFFICES YOU CAN BOOK FOR OR: A SPACE AT: IKEJA OFFICE AT TRINITY LAGOS ISLAND MALL, 79/81 OBAFEMI OFFICE AWOLOWO WAY, VANGUARD MEDIA BETWEEN ZENITH & LIMITED DIAMOND BANKS, (LAGOS OFFICE) IKEJA. CALL COMFORT KIOSK 48, EAST ON 07031183371, OR PAV I L I O N CECILIA ON 08035449960 TBS, LAGOS.

52 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Nigeria's might against Iran's hope Eagles ‘ll crush Iran — Keshi

A

F R I C A N champions, the Super Eagles will tonight flag off their World Cup campaign when they battle Iran at the Arena da Baixada in Curitibia.

It is the first time both teams will be clashing at the World Cup, with Eagles fancying their chances of picking all three points, in a group, which also comprises Argentina and BosniaHerzegovina. .

This is Nigeria’s fifth World Cup while it is the fourth for Iran, who qualified for the tournament thanks to their mean defence, which conceded just five goals in 10 Asian qualifying matches. ”Iran’s qualification was like a crossing through hell”, admitted coach Carlos Queiroz after his team achieved their objective, and for the Portuguese, today’s match offers the best chance for them to cross to heaven.

But Nigeria are not a team prone to gifting games to the opposition and Coach Stephen Keshi wants to show in Brazil why they are the current champions of Africa.

The Super Eagles arrive in South America hoping to improve on their best return from a World Cup; they reached the round of 16 in 1994 and 1998.

Iran do not habitually create much chances but their strength, aside from their mean defence, lies in their aerial threat, and it is this which laid the foundations for their qualification.

Queiroz’s men go into Group F as heavy underdogs but if they are able to keep things tight at the back and get the ball into the penalty area from the flanks, they are capable of confounding the doubters.

Nigeria, for their part, are not the same team which finished bottom of their World Cup group in South Africa in 2010.

Keshi has built a strong, dangerous team who were deservedly crowned kings of African champions last year.

Keshi varies his system depending on the opponent, but usually sets his

S

PEP TALK: Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi giving his wards final tips on how to beat Iran team up in a 4-3-3 formation or a 4-2-3-1 which can become as attacking as a 4-2-4 when the situation allows it.

In team news, Germany-based Iranian Daniel Davari can expect to get the nod in goal over veteran Rahman Ahmadi.

He faces a busy afternoon against the likes of Premier League stars John Obi Mikel, Victor Moses and Osaze Odemwingie.

At the other end, Nigeria will call on the formidable Vincent Enyeama, who denied Lionel

Messi with impressive saves in the 2010 finals in South Africa.

Iran coach Carlos Queiroz favours a 4-2-3-1 formation, with captain Javad Nekounam the midfield fulcrum to allow Charlton’s Reza ‘Gucci’ Ghoochannejhad and Fulham winger Ashkan Dejagah to counter-attack Iran are the top-ranked side in Asia with an impressive defensive record and a manager with plenty of tactical acumen in former Manchester United assistant and Real

Madrid coach Carlos Queiroz.

Neither side has enjoyed much World Cup success.

Likely Starting 11 Iran (Possible, 4-2-31): Davari; Beitashour, Hosseini, Sadeghi, Pooladi; Nekounam, Teymourian; Haddadifa, Shojaei, Dejagah; Ghoochannejhad.

Nigeria (Possible, 4-42): Enyeama; Ambrose, Oboabona, Omerou, Oshaniwa; Mikel, Onazi, Azeez, Moses; Odemwingie, Emenike.

Referee: Carlos Vera (Ecuador).

NFF delegation lands in Brazil T

•Maigari

HE delegation of Nigeria Football Federation to this year’s FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil landed in Sao Paulo on Saturday and will also fly to Curitiba for Nigeria’s opening session with Iran.

Led by Chairman of the NFF Media and Publicity Committee, High Chief Emeka Inyama, the delegation traveled aboard an Air Asia Airbus 340 plane that departed Lagos on Saturday morning and landed in Campinas,

outside Sao Paulo in the afternoon. It was received

by NFF’s Marketing Director, Adama Idris and members of the local organizing committee of the FIFA World Cup. There were also on board members of NFF Executive Committee Muazu Suleyman, Shehu Adamu, Felix Anyansi-Agwu, Ayodeji Tinubu, Dilichukwu Onyedinma, Yusuf Ahmed, Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande, Effiong Johnson and Ahmad Muazu.

Ecuadorian referee for Eagles against Iran

C

ARLOS Vera from Ecuador has been appointed by FIFA as the centre referee for today’s Group F first game between Nigeria and Iran.

Vera’s appointment is coming nine days before his 38th birthday. The Ecuadorian has been over-

seeing international matches since 2007 and officiated at several CONCAF competitions, including the Copa America 2011 and the Copa Libertadores since 2008, as well as at the FIFA Club World Cup 2012.

Germany against Portugal will be refereed by Mi-

lorad Mazic from Serbia.

He is 41 years old and worked at the FIFA U-20 World Cup 2013 and at several UEFA competitions.

Match 14, Ghana v. USA, is the second match in Natal and will be covered by Jonas Eriksson, 40 years old and from Sweden.

TEPHEN Keshi is banking on the combination of youth and experience to see the Super Eagles, last year’s African Nations’ Cup champions conquer Iran Keshi believes getting the better of his opposite number Carlos Queiroz will be the biggest challenge for his side as they take on Iran in their World Cup opener tonight.

The Super Eagles have taken two points from six matches in their last two World Cup appearances, but have higher hopes this time around after winning the African Nations’ Cup last year.

“Their coach is their biggest weapon because he’s well experienced, he knows the game well,” Keshi told Fifa.com “For the Iran game, we have to be focused. We have to concentrate and do our job. We’re not going to take Iran lightly because they’re not going to take us lightly, so we have to go out with everything that we have.

“They have a very good coach and I’m sure they also have some quality players. We don’t know Iran very well, but we’ll see them.”

Doubts over Musa’s fitness

T

HERE are fresh doubts over the fitness of Ahmed Musa for Nigeria’s first group game against Iran today in Curitiba.

There are strong indications that the CSKA Moscow player may not play the match due to injury which could also rule him out of the second game against Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Musa was active all through on Friday during the last training session of the team in Campinas which was open to the fans and media.

But Media Officer of the team, Ben Alaiya, denied that the player was in any way injured to miss the match.

Alaiya said; “Musa is very fit. He took part in the training session on Saturday and will be available for the match depending on what the coach is planning to do in the encounter. We have no injury concern generally.

“I don’t know where people got that information but the true situation is that Musa and all other players are fit for Iran.”

Federer captures 7th Halle Crown

S

ECOND seed, Roger Federer picked up his 14th grasscourt crown with a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) victory over Alejandro Falla, who had been attempting to capture his first ATP World Tour trophy. The match lasted 89 minutes.

“It is great to have won seven times here,” Federer told ATPWorldTour.com. “It is very special and I hope to come back here next year, where it is a [ATP World Tour] 500-series event.”

“I really enjoy winning titles. It is what I play for, to play and receive a standing ovation at the end. I am very pleased with my performance. I work hard and travel the tour to win these titles and not lose in the quar-

ters or semi-finals. With all the success I have had in the past, I need to aim for titles. I think I deserved the title this week.

Federer, who improved to a 46-5 record in Halle, received $128,860 in prize money and earned 250 Emirates ATP Rankings points.

The 32-year-old Federer has now won 79 tourlevel titles. He has also lifted the Wimbledon crown seven times.

“In the past, when I have played well at Halle I have usually played well at Wimbledon,” said Federer. “They have been two of my most successful tournaments, so I hope that this title will bring me luck again. Last year it didn’t work out, but it did many times before. So I hope it will be back to the good old days.”

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—53

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54 — Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

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Do Nigeria proud, Danagogo charges Eagles •As team battle Iran

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the Super Eagles open their 2014 World Cup account in Brazil today, Sports Minister, Dr. Tammy Danagogo has told them to put in their best and ensure they post a positive result against Iran to ensure they play with less pressure in the other two group matches against Bosnia Herzegovina and Argentina.

Dr. Danagogo who reminded the players and their officials that it is no longer business as usual, disclosed to the players President Goodluck Jonathan’s resolve to give sports men and women every support to succeed because “sports is one of the key points in the g o v e r n m e n t ’ s Transformation Agenda.”

“Sports is one of the key points in Mr President’s Transformation Agenda that was why the government held the sports summit after the not too S

impressive performance of Team Nigeria at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Nothing will be left unturned to see that Nigerian sports men and women excel and do the country proud at i n t e r n a t i o n a l competitions,” the minister said.

He charged the Super Eagles not to limit themselves to qualifying from their group and getting to the either the quarter finals or semi finals but aim to get to the final and even winning the cup for the first because “it is achievable if you are determined and remain focused.”

He said the National Sports Commission will encourage all sports within the limits of its resources and expressed joy at the result posted by Team Nigeria at the recently concluded African Youth Games in Gaborone, Botswana.

Super Eagles, no excuses... this is it

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S at Saturday evening when I sent in this piece, the World Cup was on its head.

Twenty eight goals in eight matches with thirteen of them scored in four matches on Saturday.

Then there is the scary story of the under dogs upsetting form books and messing up FIFA Rankings. Start with the Netherlands thumping of defending world champions Spain. Roll on to the unbelievable and emphatic 3-1 defeat of Uruguay by Costa Rica.

When the World Cup draw was made, the world heralded Group D as the Group of death because of the presence of three former Champions in Italy, England and Uruguay. They forgot Costa Rica existed. Today with a match played each, Cosata Rica is on top of the Group!

According to FIFA Statistics, Cosata Rica is the 28th best playing football playing country in the world. Uruguay is 7th, Italy 9th and England 10!

In summary, more shocks expected on the cards.

But God let it not be Iran against Nigeria. Despite the superior placing of Iran over Nigeria in the FIFA Ranking, there is no doubt on the global stage that Nigeria is considered a superior soccer playing nation.

The popular Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo last month requested I do a preview of the Nigeria-Iran match for their publication today. As member of the Technical committee of the NFF they were very convinced I will do an ‘accurate’ preview especially as regards the starting eleven of the Nigerian team.

My preview was straight to the point. That no one except the coach can sometimes explain why certain players are used and others dropped. I said going by the not too impressive friendly matches that we had going into the competition, the task of picking a starting eleven becomes even more difficult.

But that with about ten days to perfect strategy after the USA friendly, only the coach and his assistants can come out today to explain the starting

It is the belief of Nigerians that if there is any team to beat the quarter final record of Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana, then that country is Nigeria and that 2014 is the year.

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eleven.

The task becomes even more worrisome given some knocks here and there, malaria, match fitness and psychological readiness for the big stage……

However, since the paper insisted that I should try my hand and brains at being Keshi, I replied that ‘……Nothing in the world, not even injury (don’t laugh 0) will stop Vincent Enyeama from lining out today between the sticks.

I wrote that the full recovery from injury of Chelsea youngster Keneth Omeruo may determine the starting role of aging skipper Joseph Yobo, but that I can see Keshi lining out Omeruo, Egwuekwe, Obaobona and Efe Ambrose in a solid 4-4-2 formation where the midfield will benefit Moses and Ahmed Musa as wingers while Mikel Obi and Onazi Ogenyi will be re-

quired to hold.

If I were Keshi, I will take a chance on Osaze and start him on a striking role with Emmanuel Emenike.

Interestingly, this line up does not have any respect for the Iranians. No it does not. Nigerians, the world expects the Super Eagles to win. Anything less will be a disappointment to a team, a country that has gone to the world cup four times previously and expects to do better than the round of sixteen record.

It is the belief of Nigerians that if there is any team to beat the quarter final record of Cameroon, Senegal and Ghana, then that country is Nigeria and that 2014 is the year.

Where does the confidence come from? In this team, you may not count stars on the fingers of one hand, but you will do well to listen to a lucky Coach who says the discipline and the determination, the camaraderie and unity in the present squad is a plus going forward.

That is why he did not hesitate to diffuse the tension between Emenike and Mikel, that is why Nigerians are disgusted to still hear about distractions called ‘bonuses’, ‘appearance fees’ and ‘allowances’. I share the view of the Senate President who strongly wonders why the issues were not settled before now.

As a departure from the past, the NFF did get the Eagles coach fully involved in the choosing of the Base camp and other training facilities, and it is not too pleasant to hear the players now wanting to move hotels……because it is too isolated………pray are they in Brazil for a party?

Ominous signs that helped to derail our plans in South Africa.

Moving forward, no excuses will be entertained if we do not trash Iran today. Iran was heralded as the luck of the draw, one that was expected as a pedestal to greater things against Bosnia and Argentina who played yesterday affording us a glimpse of what to expect.

The question is, “if we no beat Iran today, na Argentina we go beat? Abeg” Good luck Nigeria.

See you next week.

Vanguard, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014—55

VANGUARD, MONDAY, JUNE 16, 2014

Today’s Matches

Germany Ghana

v v

Portugal 5 p.m.

USA 11 p.m.

•Keshi •Queiroz

Eagles ‘ll crush Iran — Keshi Pg.52

•Vera

Ecuadorian referee for Eagles/Iran match — Pg. 52

Kick-off time: 8 p.m.

"The world 'll respect Iran after we beat Nigeria" — Pg A4

Nigeria's might against Iran's hope — Pg.52

Huge crowd expected in Eagles-Iran match — Pg. A4

QUICK CROSSWORD

TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S YESTERDAY'S

ANSWERS

ACROSS 4 Whim (5) 7 Decayed (6) 9 Nothing (3) 10 Free (3) 12 Subsequently (5) 13 Cradle (4) 15 Allude (5) 17 Water-boiler (6) 19 Manhandle (4) 20 Guide (5) 22 Sprite (3) 24 Twisted (7) 27 Vegetable (3) 28 Fragrance (5) 31 Boss (4) 33 Stocked (6) 35 Ascended (5) 37 Breeze (4) 38 Singer (5) 39 Call (3) 41 Promise (3) 42 Safe (6) 43 Pale (5)

DOWN 1 Brawl (6) 2 Hit (6) 3 Through (3) 4 Rasp (4) 5 Frighten (5) 6 Angels (8) 8 Soil (4) 11 Deputed (9) 14 Chard (4) 18 Snare (4) 21 Insensitive (8) 23 Dread (4) 25 Headland (4) 26 Sketched (4) 29 Loathsome (6) 30 Confused (6) 32 Motored (5) 34 Responsibility (4) 36 Press (4) 40 Wager (3)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Pair 4, Inn 6, Pass 9, Rim 10, Disputed 11, Omen 14, Ant 16, Dealt 19, Provided 21, Repel 23, Director 24, Tally 27, Dig 31, Pity 33, Evidence 34, Lee 35, Bear 36, Tun 37, Drew.

DOWN: 2, Avid 3, Ripe 4, Intended 5, Nude 6, Prone 7, Aim 8, Smell 12, Spout 13, Royal 14, Air 15, Tepid 17, Acute 18, Thorn 20, Derision 22, Leg 25, Agile 26, Layer 28, Meet 29, Deed 30, Ache 32, Tea.

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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