BOKO HARAM Kills 18 in Borno

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SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014 — PAGE 5

24 HOURS AFTER CEASE FIRE DEAL

Boko Haram kills 18 in Borno Continued from page 1 Hawul Local Government Area of Borno State.

In an earlier development, suspected Boko Haram insurgents, Friday evening, killed 10 persons in an attack in Malamfatori, the headquarters of Abadam Local Government Area of Borno State, bringing the number of people killed in the two attacks at the weekend to 18.

Federal Government officials were, yesterday, unwilling to comment on the attacks amid the truce talks.

However, one of the officials, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, said: ‘’Our attitude is simply wait and see.’’

Meanwhile, sources said that the alleged killing of the leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, and the attendant effect on the operations of the group may have forced it to negotiate with government.

It was equally learnt that President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid may have played a role in the latest efforts to resolve the Nigeria–Boko Haram conflict.

Sunday Vanguard learnt that government’s calculation was that the resolution of the Boko Haram insurgency would be viewed favourably by Nigerians to Jonathan ahead of his declaration for second time.

The release of the more than 200 students from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State, kidnapped by Boko Haram in April, more than 180 days ago, also fea-

tured prominently on the truce talks held in Saudi Arabia.

The eight persons killed in yesterday ’s attack around the Borno hilly communities included motorists and passengers whose vehicles were reportedly ambushed by insurgents.

Ambush Dzur is a mountainous community harbouring terrorist camps along the Biu- Garkida- Gombi- Yola road where the late Emir of Gwoza, Alhaji Idrissa Timta, and some other people were ambushed and killed by suspected Boko Haram gunmen early this year.

Just two weeks ago, some insurgents stormed Shaffa community, about 10 kilometres from Azare, the council headquarters, and killed over 20 people including a pastor of Living Faith Church, Eluid Gwamna Mshelizza, who was slaughtered on his way to his house after delivering a sermon at about 10pm in the community.

In that attack, no fewer than six churches were razed while several houses and shops all belonging to Christians were looted and destroyed.

A motorist, who narrowly escaped yesterday’s attack, Mallam Yakubu Ali Biu, told our correspondent that the assailants, numbering over 50, armed with rifles and rocket propelled launchers, barricaded the highway and opened fire on motorists and passengers from Biu to Yola, which led to the killing of

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

TOTAL SUCCESS —1

By Richard Eromonsele

I believe by now we all know what success is. But if you are still in doubt about what success mean, it simply means to achieve your goal in any area of your life, it could be in your marriage. It could also be in your career and or profession. There is also financial success etc. Total success therefore is the aggregate of success in every aspect of your life. Can a man or woman possess total success? Can a man be successful in his marriage? Be successful in business? Be successful in his profession all at the same time?

A cross section of supporters during the rally organised by the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria to support President Goodluck Jonathan's presidential bid in 2015 at the Eagle Square, Abuja, yesterday. Photo by Abayomi Adeshida. eight persons while many others sustained gunshot injuries.

On how he escaped, he said, “ My brother, it is by the grace of God that I and some passengers survived. I was coming from Biu to Gombi when I sighted motorists running into the bush and in different directions. I began to hear sound of gunshots. I quickly made a U-turn back to Biu. A taxi driver who overtook me on the road around Tashan Alade was among the victims”.

A resident of neighbouring Shaffa community, Mr. Mwajim Anjili Balami, told our correspondent on phone in Maiduguri that the insurgents came through Kwokshar village and were trying to enter Shaffa.

“As I am talking to you now, residents have run away from Shaffa because of lack of security presence. Our local hunters and vigilante groups tried to resist the attack, but they were overwhelmed.’’

The 10 people reportedly killed by gunmen in Malamfatori, Abadam local government area, on Friday, were said to have included a brother to a Director in the Ministry of Poverty Alleviation in Borno State.

Abadam is north and borders Niger and Chad Republic, about 270 kilometres from Maiduguri.

Sources told Sunday Vanguard that the insurgents, numbering over 100, were fleeing from Marge, Monguno and Dikwa axis towards the Lake Chad basin when they were confronted by vigilante youth, a situation which forced them to open fire on residents killing 10 and leaving over 30 others with gunshot injuries.

A resident who lost a brother said the incident took place at about 5pm on Friday.

Efforts to contact Borno State police Public Relations Officer, DSP Gideon Jubrin, were unsuccessful as his phone lines were not

reachable, but a security source confirmed the attack.

Losses Sunday Vanguard was informed, yesterday, that the death of Shekau, leader of Boko Haram, “forced its upper cadre to reach out to President Idris Deby Itno of Chad to help it enter into truce with the Nigerian authorities.’’

Also, it was learnt that the pounding of the group’s bases in some parts of the North East, coupled with its losses on the field, played a role in the deal.

In fact, during negotiations, one of those who spoke for the insurgents was said to have explained that some of the terror acts attributed to Boko Haram were not its handiwork but that it appropriated and claimed them because it instilled fear in the people.

Sources also said the continued abduction of the Chibok girls had made it very impossible for President Jonathan to be seen

making statements regarding his re-election.

“There was no way he could have come out to talk about his re-election when the girls were still in captivity’’, a presidential source said.

“The President himself was more or less a hostage to the entire situation.

“Now that the release of the girls is imminent, the pace of activities regarding the President’s re-election would be revved”.

In a related development, the senator representing Borno Central, the hot-bed of Boko Haram attacks, Ahmed Zana, when contacted to react to the ceasefire agreement, yesterday, said he had no comment as he would watch unfolding events.

Another Borno senator, Ali Ndome, representing Borno North, said though he was not aware of such agreement or cease fire, what was important to him was the release of the abducted Chibok girls and in good health.

I wasn’t ready to be Head of State — Gen. Gowon

BY JOSEPH ERUNKE AND GABRIEL EWEPU

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FORMER Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, yesterday, revealed that he was not ready to become the Nigerian leader after the July 1966 coup d’etat that caused the death of his predecessor, General Aguiyi Ironsi.

Gowon stated this during an interactive session on mentorship with youths, organised by Stand Up Nigeria to celebrate his 80th birthday.

The former military ruler also stated that the decision to become Head of State was made by junior military officers who had mistrust about senior officers, and he rejected the offer.

He, however, added that he was bent on discharging his constitutional role as an officer to defend the territorial integrity and

sovereignty of Nigeria, and also to maintain law and order at that time.

He narrated: “Honestly, it was not my intention to be a Head of State. It was by providence. I never planned to be Head of State. If there was anything I planned to be, it was to rise to be General Officer Commanding the Nigerian Army but not becoming the Commanderin-Chief of the Nigerian armed forces.

“The next six months was a period of anxiety after the coup that took place in Lagos and Kaduna, and we did everything to hold back that reaction, but, unfortunately, that reaction could not be kept back. In July, we had another crisis that took the life of the GOC and for two days there was no Head of State.

“In the midst of all these, there was so much mistrust between the senior officers and junior officers, and they said they wanted me, but I

told them I did not want that; let them give it to any other officer that was interested and disciplined to restore law and order in the country, but they insisted it should be me.

“The civil servants demanded who was now the person they should take instructions from, and, in consultation with senior army officers, endorsed me to take over as Head of State.

I must tell you the fear that came over me at that time.

I was not trained to be in government. I had to go on my knees and prayed to God, because it was never my intention, and I asked God who protected me from being killed in the coup to give me the courage of David and wisdom of Solomon to do what was right. After the prayer, that fear vapourised.”

Meanwhile, the octogenarian was against the creation of additional 19 states as part of the resolu-

tions reached at recent National Conference, describing the decision as destructive to the nation.

“At the moment, states are demanded based on ethnic groups. The 36 states are reasonable but creating states to take care ethnic nationalities is destructive,” he said.

Gowon, defending his administration’s decision to balkanise the then four regions into 12 states, said it was to remove the fear of political domination that was threatening the unity of the country.

The celebrant, who received an award as Grand Custodian, Nigeria Unity Football Tournament from Youth for Unity for Peace Sport Development Initiative, said he welcomed the negotiation between the Federal Government and Boko Haram. He expressed optimism on the release of the kidnapped of the Chibok school girls.

PAGE 6—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Financial Products

Detained Speaker:Edo House leadership accuses Jonathan of using EFCC to intimidate opposition

BY SIMON EBEGBULEM

T

HE leadership of the Edo State House of Assembly, led by Speaker Uyi Igbe, has accused President Goodluck Jo nathan of using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to intimidate the opposition, asserting that any attempt to use federal might against the APC in the state will be resisted.

Speaker Igbe, Majority Leader, Philip Shaibu and the Chief whip of the House, Folly Ogedengbe, declared this when they arrived Benin Airport Friday from Abuja, after they were granted bail by the EFCC. The lawmakers’ arrival to Benin City was like a triumphant entry as thousands of APC supporters and members of the Edo State Executive Council, throng the Benin Airport to welcome them.

Shaibu, who spoke to journalists charged that, “we cannot be intimidated

by EFCC, we cannot be intimidated even by the President or the PDP. The Presidency is using the EFCC to intimidate perceived opponents. As far as I am concerned,

Nigeria remains one, Nigeria will grow from strength to strength and nobod y can derail the destiny of this country. And we are ready to fight intellectually. We will not arm our youths but the power of the tongue we shall use to defeat them.

On his part, Speaker Igbe narrated that “last week we were invited by the EFCC and they claimed that they were doing some investigations and that we will be able to contribute to it. So we went there on

Tuesday, on Wednesday we went to the EFCC office.

And I was of the impression that the EFCC means Financial Crimes Commission, and therefore I was under the impression that they were going to investigate financial misappropriations only for us to get there and issues that concerns the House of Assembly was what they brought up.

“What they were telling us was that somebody alleged that we forged the signature amongst the signatures that

we used to impeach the former Deputy Speaker Festus Ebea. And therefore that was the reason they invited us. I was taken completely aback. But then again I was not too surprised because we all know that this is the systematic way that they use to harass and intimidate us.

Udonsak buys PDP guber form, pledges to lift Akwa Ibom economically SONI DANIEL

From : left; Mr Adegboyega Ogunosun, Publicity Secretary of Ultimate Circle of Nigeria, Mrs Bamidele Awere, representing the Management Committee of Beth Torrey Home, Miss Ijwoma Okoro, and Master Ebun Agunbiade, receiving the N500,000, cheque from Mr Adelaja Adeleye, President Ultimate Circle of Nigeria, and Dr Wale Oduwole, Immediate Past President during the group’s visit to Beth Torrey Home in Lagos. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi

A Port Harcourt-based medical practitioner, Dr. Samuel Udonsak, has joined the race to succeed Governor Godswill Akpabio by purchasing the Peoples Democratic Party’s nomination form.Udonsak, a native of Eket, where the PDP gubernatorial ticket has been zoned to in the state, obtained both his expression of interest and nomination forms at the PDP National Headquarters, Wadata Plaza, Abuja at the weekend.

Udonsak said he was joining the race to take Akwa Ibom State from where it is to the next level.

NEF can’t dictate to govs, others over Jonathan brothers in the opposition or the people. re-election —Onuesoke governors that their political times “ Ango-Abdullahi

Delta State Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) governorship aspirant in 2007 general elections, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has argued that Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and its leader, Professor Ango-Abdullahi, cannot decide for northern governors and the people on the issue of President Goodluck Jonathan re-election in 2015.

Onuesoke,s reacting to the statement of the Secretary of NEF, Abdullahi, who said northern governors should be bold to tell Jonathan that he has no

davebaro_thomas@yahoo.com

EcoBank's Rapid Transfer (1) F

Chief Ademola Seriki, APC Lagos West Senatorial aspirant, seated in the middle with Prince Sunday Ajayi, APC Orile-Agege LCDA Chair (left) and Alhaji Rafiu Seriki,Ward chair of the party during an interactive session with members of the ward last week

right to contest election in 2015 based on a purported agreement on rotation, said in a democratic setting, th3e NEF scribe has no right to decide for northern

should tell us the reason he wants northern governors to tell Jonathan that he has no right to contest 2015 election? AngoAbdullahi could tell his

have expired. Their offsprings shall serve their tenure in 2037.

Before then every other zone would have served its own term because we all are one Nigeria..

Lagos Speaker, Ikuforiji, picks APC governorship form

BY EBUN SESSOU

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peaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Adeyemi Ikuforiji, has purchased All Progressives Congress (APC) expression of interest form for the state governorship race at the APC secretariat.

Ikuforiji, who was

accompanied by his campaign manager, several aides, said this was not his first time of contesting election, adding that he contested to get to the assembly and become Speaker. ‘’So, contesting is not an issue because members of the party

know who is the best candidate,’’ he said.

On his chances for the coveted office in the APC, Ikuforiji said he was confident of coming top at the party primaries even as he did not rule out the primaries producing a consensus candidate at the end of the day.

REVIEW

with Dave Baro-Thomas

or a bank operating over 746 branches and offices in about 30 African countries, the capacity to drive a truly continental financial product should not be a problem. In Fact, anything short of this would amount to operational inefficiency and management ineptitude on the part of those that run Ecobank. However, amidst its plethora of products, the Rapid Transfer offering appears to hold lots of prospects in the continental market.

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Against this backdrop, the product will on the long run, seek to progressively capture and migrate regional transactions from the informal sector to the formal sector, thus signaling economic development and transformation.

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The product is structured in such a way that it accommodates both account holders and walk-in customers.

While customers of the bank could make transactions to the limit of N1.5 million per customer (equiv. to US$10, 000 at prevailing rate), walk-in customers i.e.

Non-Account Holders have a limit of N500, 000 after presenting an acceptable identification i.e. National Drivers License. However, both customers and non-account holders have a maximum of three transactions per week for each customer, and importantly, all transactions are done in the local currencies of the countries involved. The beauty of the Rapid Transfer is that funds received are made available for payment in any Ecobank branch within a 5 minutes delivery period except in countries where remittance laws differ on this rule.

For a product that is available to all categories such as Workers, Parents/Guardians, Students, Individuals, Small businesses (predominant players in the informal sector), Traders, Churches and Organizations with large followers, spread across Africa, and Travelers within Africa, the Rapid Transfer offers lots of benefits.

From its primary core offering such as being a convenient, safe, reliable and rapid means of transferring money across Africa, the platform is a fast and secure means for fund remittance. Also key is that, the Rapid Transfer financial product allows for funds to be sent in local currency while the receiver gets it in his/her local currency. Thus, it completely eliminates the need to source for foreign currencies before a transfer is made. In addition, since the product allows for account to account transactions, senders and receivers are saved the risk of carrying cash about, but it is worth the mention here that while full amount is delivered to receiver; the sender takes care of the charges.

Rapid Transfer is now available in Nigeria and is known as Domestic Rapid transfer offering unlimited frequency of transfers with a transaction limit of N500, 000.00 per transfer for both account holders and walk-in customers.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 7

•Primary and secondary recipients at the Global Fund/Ecobank Partnership Finance Training/Buddy session held in Abuja.

POWER SHOW: Fayose dissolves council caretaker committees

By Gbenga Ariyibi, Ado-Ekiti

E

KITI State gover nor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, has dissolved the caretaker committees put in place by the immediate past administration of Dr Kayode Fayemi in the 16 local government areas and the 19 newly established Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) of

the state.

A statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Mr Idowu Adelusi, in Ado Ekiti yesterday, asked the caretaker committees members to hand over government properties in their care to the Directors of Administration in their different councils.

The immediate past administration in the state had operated the

16 LGAs and the newly created 19 LCDAs with caretaker committees since October 16, 2010 when it came on board.

Fayose pledged, during his inaguration on Thursday, to recognize and fund only the 16 constitutionally recognized local governments in the state listed in the 1999 constitution.

Meanwhile, the state government has ac-

cused the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Hon Adewale Omirin, of desperate bid to frustrate the new administration by ordering its members to go on one month recess.

A statement by Adelusi faulted the excuse given by the Speaker for his action.

Omirin had in a statement by his image maker, Wale Olujobi, said the lawmakers would be going on recess to allow for possible change of guard by the personnel of the assembly.

Adelusi said the reason the Speaker declared the recess was to frustrate the passage of the 2015 Budget by his colleagues, so that the government would be incapacitated from performing its statutory functions to the people of the state.

He reminded Omirin that being a critical stake holder in the development of the state, he (Omirin) should see himself as one of the leaders rather than pursuing parochial selfish interest.

The gover nor ’s spokesman urged the Speaker to swim with the tide of the moment by supporting the Fayose administration to deliver dividends of democracy to the electorate who voted Fayose in as their governor in the June 21 governorship election.

Orji Ogbonnaya Orji loses mum

T

HE death has oc curred of Elder (Mrs.) Oyidia Orji. She was aged 87.

Until her death, she was Eze-nwanyi (women leader) of Ugwuavor Village and Mother-General of Christ Ascension Church, Arochukwu, Arochukwu LGA, Abia State.

A statement by the family says Madam Oyidia Orji’s funeral rites would begin with a Christian Wake in her family compound, Eziukwu, Ugwuavor Village Arochukwu, Friday October 3, while her body will be interred on November 1, after a commendation Service.

The late Mrs. Orji is su4rvived by six children, grand and great grand children, among them, Dr Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, a renowned broadcaster and journalist, currently, NEITI’s Director, Communications, at the Presidency Abuja.

*The late Mrs. Oyidia Orji

Imoke takes London College to Ugep

By Emma Una, Calabar

S

ENATOR Liyel Im oke, the Cross River State governor says High Bury College, London, academic standard will current play in Ugep, Yakkur Local Government Area with the establishment of Institute of Technology and Management there in spite of the chal-

lenges. Ugep, said to be the largest native community in West Africa is about one hundred kilometres away from Calabar, the Cross River State capital and is populated

by Bantu descendants said to have emigrated somewhere in Central Africa and settled in Central Cross River State.

RIVERS: Dagogo-Jack joins guber race

By Chris Ochayi

T

HE Chairman of Presidential Task Force on Power, PTFP, Engr. Beks Dagogo-Jack has resigned his appointment to join the race for the 2015 governorship election in Rivers State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. Engr. Dagogo-Jack, who

made his intention known during an interactive session with newsmen weekend in Abuja, said his resignation will take effect from October 19, 2014.

The aspirant said, “there are two groups in the polity; society group and jungle group. In the society group, the people matters, while in the jungle group, the master dictates.”

ANAMBRA NORTH: Oduah picks PDP form for Senate

By Nwabueze Okonkwo

A

FTER months of intense pressure from stakeholders in Anambra North Senatorial zone, former Minister of Aviation, Princess Stella Oduah, has at last, yielded to popular demand and picked the nomination form from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to contest the 2015 Senatori-

al election for Anambra North zone.

Reacting to the development, former PDP governorship aspirant in Anambra State, Dr. Alex Obiogbolu and former Chairman of the party in the state, Chief Edwin Pandola Okwuosa lauded the positive response from Oduah describing it as a sign of political and economic renaissance for the people.

UPU urged to shop for credible guber candidate

A

chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Tony Erukeme, has called on the leadership of the Urhobo Progress Union, UPU, not to gamble with the selection of who will best represent Delta Central Senatorial district as the next governor of Delta State come 2015 general elections.

Addressing newsmen during a sensitization rally of the party on the forthcoming local government election in Okpe local government area of Delta State, the party stalwart from Ethiope East local government, Chief Erukeme said that this is most crucial and challenging time for the Chief Joe Omene -led UPU

to begin the search for a credible, trusted and God fearing person with good relationship in all senatorial districts to take the mantle of leadership as the next governor of Delta State.

His words: “I want to equivocally mention hear that on no account should any Urhobo son and daughter go against the decision of the leadership of UPU and l want to commend the stand of the President General, Chief Joe Omene who has been steadfast over the declaration of Uvwiamuge and still stand by it after the demise of our amiable President General late Patrick Newton Aziza.”

Group endorses Jonathan, Dickson for second term •Mounts pressure on gov’s aide to contest

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HE Gbarain-Ekpe tiama Political Vanguard has endorsed President Jonathan /Governor Dickson for second term respectively due to visible developmental strides.

Furthermore,the Group supports the Zoning formula approach for National Assembly and the State House of Assembly elective seats.In another Development the group is aligning forces to build consensus candidacy especially for those with proven track record,good antecedents and character to effectively represent the people even as the group called on Governor Dicksons Senior Spe-

cial Assistant on Small & Medium Enterprises Development, Ebiekure Eradiri to contest the 2015 State Assembly Elections inorder to provide effective representation for Yelga 2,Gbarain Ekpetiama in Bayelsa State.

According to the release, ‘It is worthy of note that the governor’s aide has been tried, tested in his assignments and his performance has been impressive with records showing that the SME Sub sector in the State has received global & national attention amongst several other benefits arising from his efforts but approved, supported by His Excellency, the Governor.

PAGE 8 —SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014 themselves classified with ruffians, might be wary about attending the next meeting.

Political murders are in the air as race to 2015 progresses –1

NOTE: This is not going to be pleasant reading for the squeamish; but, it will be the truth and nothing but the truth. ong before Niccolo Machiavelli, 1469-1527, warned people in politics that “he who abandons what is done, for what ought to be done, will rather bring about his own ruin than his own preservation”, Critias, an Athenian statesman, had already foretold the use of murder as a political weapon. Since 1999, Nigeria had experienced political murders as we approached the Presidential and governors elections – in 2003 (Marshall Harry, Bola Ige), in 2007 (Funso Williams) and again in 2011( ten, in the “Arc of Evil” (Abia, Akwa Ibom

L

and Imo alone). The bodies are about to start falling before the 2015 elections. Men of God should step up their funeral sermons, undertakers should get ready for a bumper harvest, the print media will benefit surely, and the graveyards, Federal Republic of dust and ashes, will soon be home to people who were once c o n s i d e r e d indispensable – despite the chilling warning from late President Charles De Gaulle, 1890-1970, of France, who proclaimed that, “The graveyards are full of indispensable people”. (VBQ p 102).

The dress rehearsal for the mayhem, to be unleashed later, increasing the number of “my fellow widows” and fatherless kids, were in full view last week at the PDP Maitama Office – where several opposing groups from the South South, Rivers and Akwa Ibom, in particular, were supposed to assemble for what was billed as an Integration Meeting.

Self-delusion had never been better defined by

the purported attempt by the PDP leadership, sitting in Abuja, and wanting the “ wolves” and the “lambs” to sit together in perfect harmony at Maitama and at home.

Some of the “lambs” from Rivers State walked into the ambush set for them by the “ wolves” and got so brutalized as to ensure that they will

,

“It is quite impossible for those who want to gain power to avoid getting rid of those who are most likely to form an opposition.” Critias, 404 B.C. (VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 196)

OUTH-WEST Leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has advised members of the party in the zone to close ranks while efforts to return the SouthWest PDP into the mainstream of governance in 2015 are in top gear.

The former PDP National Vice Chairman South-West, who spoke with journalists in Lagos, yesterday, said efforts were on to bring together the leaders of thought and royal fathers in Yoruba land to a roundtable for talks on how to re-position the zone for full participation in the affairs of Nigeria through the PDP. He said such efforts would be more meaningful with the full support of the Yoruba intelligentsia, politicians and artisans who, he said, are expected to be part of the quests for revival of the south-west and its politics.

The A’tona Yoruba (Yoruba Torchbearer), however, dismissed

insinuations about leadership tussle among the Yoruba leaders on the current efforts, stating that any well-meaning Yoruba leader will not get involved in such a tussle which, according to him, is meaningless, needless and irrelevant.

He said, “We just put together a Unity Rally in Lagos which attracted a huge crowd of President Jonathan’s supporters from the south-west and other zones, during which the

In all these, the Nigeria Police officers, posted to the venue, played two roles. When they were not obtaining ring side seat tickets, to better see “eminent” Nigerians making

The United Nations established October 1 as Old Peoples Day and elsewhere it is celebrated as a special day. Here in Nigeria, we care very little for the old.

The appeal, on this page, for support, for several weeks, has yielded mostly a loud yawn

attend the next meeting like someone invited to dine with the devil – armed with pitch forks ten feet long!!! The report is scanty about the outcome of the Akwa Ibom meeting. But, Governor Akpabio was quoted by various newspapers complaining about “miscreants” taking over the venue.

Eminent citizens, from AKS, suddenly finding

2015: Bode George lists means of ending South-West marginalisation

S

To appreciate the gravity of the dangers ahead, the reader has to remember that these are supposed to be members of the same party shedding (or is it sharing?) their own blood. It is like players of the Super Eagles setting out to maim each other during practice in preparation for the match against Ghana. And, this is the ruling party? God help us!!!

President, Vice President, the Senate President, PDP National Chairman and other top government functionaries were in attendance.

“For that rally, this needless tussle of leadership did not arise.

It will not arise because there are no petty minds among the Yoruba leaders.

In any case, petty minds don’t do great things. No. one will hear of any leadership tussle among us.”

,

minced meat of one another or getting flogged by thugs, they, reportedly, actually joined some tag teams in mugging their opponents. So, if you think the Nigeria Police will prevent political murders or solve them, you better forget it….

DO WE LOVE EGGS MORE THAN MUMMY AND DADDY? “World

By Abiodun Alade

M

R Ajayi Peters, the N a t i o n a l Coordinator of The Salvage Group, TSG, a professional arm of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has predicted that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, will fail in Lagos State governorship election in 2015.

Peters argued that the PDP does not have the structure to wrest power from the APC in the state, stressing that Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has outperformed other governors in the country.

“First of all, the name PDP is just on paper, not on ground. It is a paper tiger.

Egg Day was established at the International Egg Commission in Vienna, Austria, in 1996 and it is fixed for the second Friday in October”. This year’s fell on October 10, 2014. Two adverts appeared in newspapers to celebrate the day. That is N1 million worth of adverts.

Meanwhile, the United Nations established October 1 as Old Peoples Day and elsewhere it is celebrated as a special day. Here in Nigeria, we care very little for the old. The appeal, on this page, for support, for several weeks, has yielded mostly a loud yawn. Is it possible there aren’t twenty Nigerians willing to contribute N50,000 or 50 N20,000, each to start a movement to give a befitting end to our parents? I doubt it.

Kindly send your contribution to: Mrs Toun Giwa (Nee M a c a u l a y , granddaughter of the great MAN).

GBT (Lagos) 001-216-3187.

God will bless you and help you to age gracefully. Amen.

THE CRUMBLING ECONOMY Have you heard a Nigerian leader – President, Governor, Minister etc –talking about wanting “all hands on deck”? If you believe

it, then, you will believe anything. The last thing our leaders want is unsolicited advice. For months, I have been drawing attention to the fact that with plummeting oil prices and export volumes also nose-diving, Federal and State governments will find it increasingly difficult to even pay staff salaries. I have also called for an Emergency Economic Summit to discuss how the nation will cope next year and the years after – in the event the lull in crude oil bonanza proves to be more intractable than we imagine. Nobody in the corridors of power had taken notice. No Minister or Special Adviser to the President has taken it up.

No Special Adviser to the Federal Minister for Finance has observed that I am, in fact, doing their dirty work for them by providing the President with an alibi for the calamity which might befall the nation.

Yet we need to put politics aside, even if for a few days, and address the economic catastrophe confronting us. The World Bank recently forecast 7% GDP growth for Nigeria in 2015. That is stupid. I was in Nigeria, on the eve of the Structural Adjustment Programme, SAP, in 1985, when they predicted 710% annual growth for us if SAP was adopted.

IBB’s government did and the average growth for six years was less than 1%.

2015: Why PDP will fail in Lagos —APC chieftain It cannot bite. PDP is not a threat to our party. Talk is very cheap, and there is no crime in talking. In 2007 and 2011, they tried it and failed. Where are the people from the PDP that will do the job? There is a clear difference between light and darkness. That is how I can relate APC and PDP. Can you compare the development in the APC states with PDP controlled states? The answer is no.

Their governors are not accountable”, he said.

“Without mincing words,

Lagos is the best state in Nigeria, in term of infrastructural development, security, transportation, education, social welfare of the workers, road construction and so on. As a matter of fact, the transformation agenda of the party in Lagos is second to none.

Lagos people cannot accept any other party in the state”.

The Ejigbo LCDA chairmanship aspirant added that APC will not rest on its oars as the electorate will be mobilised to vote for the party.

Sapele Okpe seeks political equity

O

KPE communities in Sapele Local Government Area, Delta State have stressed the need for equity in the struggle for elective positions in the local government area as the nation heads towards the 2015 general elections.

Mr. Friday Otugwhor and Elder Lucky Abeke said out of the five communities making up Sapele Local Government Area, Amukpe, Sapele urban, Elume, Ozue and Ugborhen, Sapele urban

has been shortchanged in terms of elective and appointive political offices in the local government.

Listing political officeholders of Sapele extraction that have held positions since the current political dispensation, Otugwhor said the only person from Sapele urban to occupy a political office was Hon. Godwin Atose following the crisis that ensued between Chief Monday Igbuya and Chief

Ejaife Odebala over who should be the local government chairman, in 2008.

Abeke stressed the need for Sapele urban to produce the next House of Assembly member to represent the local government considering the fact that other quarters have enjoyed the privilege in the past calling on the electorate to support Chief Lucky Ayomanor for Sapele seat in the Delta State Assembly.

•L-r: Manager, Talent Hunt , Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Mr. Paul Bakare, National Treasurer, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management (CIPM), Mrs Ifeoma Adeniji, President/Chairman of Council CIPM, Mr Victor Famuyibo and MD/CEO, NLNG, Mr Babs Omotowa, at CIPM's on going 46th Annual National Conference in Abuja.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 9

place if Nigeria qualifies to be called a democracy.

Last week however, the group was stopped from moving into the Presidential Villa-a location from where the man they voted to rule operates. Their mission was to intimate their President in person with their viewpoint on the subject of the safe return of the Chibok School girls abducted since April. It could not have been President Goodluck

,

A

LL over the world, there is considerable consensus that democracy is the best form of government. While some applaud its people-oriented nature, others are attracted to the freedom it gives to every individual in society.

Hence, everyone in a democracy is free to move about in pursuit of any lawful desires. At the same time, people are free to associate by determining those they wish to interact with while excluding others from their groupings. On this score, the Nigerian group which is asking our government to “Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) falls within the confines of democracy. The group is uniquely decisive in speaking out on a matter of public interest about which many compatriots are too frightened. It also has its dress code, place, date and time of meetings as well as modalities for its conduct.

No one ought to disturb the association just as no one should hinder its freedom to move around the public

Our Girls Campaigners, especially for piling up pressure on us on the issue”. If so, why were members of the group stopped from interacting with the nation’s number one citizen who can pass for a member of the team by association?

Jonathan who authorized their stoppage having asserted at another event that he was on the same page with the protesters.

According to the media,

PhD, Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos,

Ebola virus disease and belief in an omnipotent good God

E

VER since the Ebola virus disease (or EVD) bumped into public consciousness worldwide in March this year, a lot has been said and written on the subject both by experts in the relevant fields and those who know very little about the disease.

Incidentally, and sadly too, the disease broke out in West Africa, and is gradually but steadily spreading across the world.

The worst hit countries are Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone, although there are a handful of cases in Africa's most populous country, Nigeria.

Unfortunately, the situation in the first three countries mentioned above is very serious; but thankfully, it appears that the disease has been contained in Nigeria.

Now, the health infrastructure in the affected countries is below global standard mainly because, aside from the devastating effects of civil war in Liberia, over the years, corruption and p e r s i s t e n t misappropriation of public funds by leaders of these countries led to chronic underfunding of the health sector, resulting in chronic shortages of well-trained health workers and wellequipped hospitals.

Additionally, the aetiology of the disease makes it very difficult to contain; Ebola virus is transmitted through

the President told a national conference on environmental security in Abuja that the policy of bringing back the adopted girls safely remained his priority. In the words of President Jonathan: “As an elected official, I want to solve the problem of the Chibok Girls. It is a priority on my-to-do list as President” Jonathan was quoted to have added that “I agree with the Bring Back Our Girls Campaigners, especially for piling up pressure on us on the issue”. If so, why were members of the group stopped from interacting with the nation’s number

bodily fluids from an infected person or from objects contaminated with the deadly virus. EVD is very deadly: its mortality rate is about fifty percent, with the possibility of climbing to seventy percent in the next few months if effective containment measures are not aggressively implemented.

Reports indicate that Ebola patients suffer from fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, bleeding, severe pains and other debilitating conditions - in short, it is not a pleasant way to die.

Presently, there is no effective cure or vaccine for EVD; available drugs for managing it are at the experimental stage. Hence, there is no guarantee that those treated with such medicines will survive.

Indeed, the result of administering the experimental drugs is mixed: while some patients recovered, the unlucky ones died. Globally, there is increasing awareness about the disease, just as scientists are redoubling their efforts to perfect an effective treatment regime for the disease. The World Health Organisation (WHO) leads the global effort to combat the disease, and different governments are introducing measures to prevent it from spreading to their respective countries.

Overall, the key strategy is containment to reduce potential Ebola patients to

,

one citizen who can pass for a member of the team by association? We are therefore dissatisfied with the two main groupsfemale ministers and

a manageable level, and eventually eliminate the disease where it originated.

It must be observed that the initial response of the international community to EVD was sluggish. The United States and European countries started taking action when their citizens working in Ebola endemic countries, particularly Liberia, tested positive with Ebola.

Gradually it dawned on everyone that no part of the world is immune from Ebola affliction, owing to increasing tempo of international travel. The Ebola phenomenon is a tragic validation of the cliché that the world has become a global village in which what happens in one place oftentimes rapidly affects another either for good or for evil.

The perennial philosophical problem of God and the existence of evil in the world leaps into bold relief in my consciousness sometimes anytime I watch television news reports and footages of the agonies of Ebola patients and the valiant but futile efforts of doctors and nurses to save them from imminent death. In other words, the occurrence of evil, especially those horrifying ones beyond human provenance and control, always poses a challenge to belief in the existence of an omnipotent good God for whom nothing is impossible. In the case of EVD, for example, one wonders what God's motivation was in creating such a deadly virus. What exactly did God intend to achieve with the virus - to punish people for their sins or demonstrate that he has power to inflict pain and death?

Theodicy, the reasoned

have known the real feelings of their Principal before purporting to represent him. How could the President have been too busy to deal with a subject concerning his priority?

As for the second group, that is, the security operatives, they were as usual overzealous last Tuesday in stopping the protesters from seeing Mr. President. What our law enforcement agents should have done was to have escorted the protesters to their destination while ensuring no breakdown of law and order. If they had done that, the team would have delivered their message and would have received assurances from President Jonathan of the commonality of interests of both parties. The team would then have returned to their BBOG centre leaving many Nigerians to see their President as a caring leader. Instead, the opportunity was again botched as was done earlier when government lost the gains of getting the President to visit Chibok and empathize with the people. When is it in order for the mountain to move to Mohammed?

It is not impossible that our security operatives are yet to overcome the hangover of the military era which criminalized public dissent and in which people were whipped to fall in line.

It is however time to appropriately sensitize them on the need to depart

from those days of tyranny and dispense with the mundane requirements of the obnoxious Public Order Act. One security “expert” the other day supported the stoppage of the protest because he imagined that government had said over and over again that it was doing its best on the Chibok abduction issue. Pity, the expert did not know that saying something many times does not mean everyone would hear or assimilate it. What is more, security is not a viable alternative to effective communication This is why this column is today calling for a new approach to street protests in Nigeria. We are in a democracy now in which those who applaud government actions may not appreciate its inactions.

Besides, the pan-Nigerian mandate Jonathan got as President in 2011 includes the votes of his Chibok admirers. Even if they voted against him, he became everyone’s President after securing the majority of votes. Thus, neither should those who are aggrieved be stopped from ventilating their grievances nor should they be shielded away from the people’s President only to become destructive.

President Jonathan needs to know the size, nature and disposition of the aggrieved; otherwise he would dangerously rest on his oars believing that we are all Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria

attempt to vindicate belief in an all-powerful good God who created a world that contains plenty of evil cannot help us here. Baruck de Spinoza, one of the most morally cultivated philosophers of all time, argued that if humans can see things sub specie aeternitatis, that is, from the perspective or context of eternity, they would realise that nothing is really evil, since every individual thing is a manifestation of God, the one true reality. But the problem is that Spinoza's deterministic metaphysics makes evil seem necessary and useful, since anything that happens no matter how horrific can always be accommodated and explained away as having a role to play in the cosmic arrangement.

Even if it is the case that the presence of evil in a world supposedly created

dovetail to a paradox related to the Ebola problem and belief in miracles. In Nigeria today, Christians and Muslims believe that God is a miracle-working God. Indeed, the biggest attraction of the new, noisy Pentecostal Christianity - its biggest selling point - is the claim that God uses "anointed pastors" to perform all kinds of miracles. Most days of the week and on special programmes, believers rush to different worship centres to receive prayers and special anointing for financial breakthrough, freedom from demonic attack, instantaneous healing, and so on.

In well-packaged television programmes and digital recordings, popular pastors such as T.B. Joshua, Chris Oyakhilome, David Oyedepo, Daniel Olukoya etc, purportedly perform

outbreak became public and healed miraculously those infected, or at the very least healed one or two Nigerians that had contracted the disease. Not surprisingly, up to now, there is no wellcorroborated case of miraculous cure of an Ebola patient by any pastor anywhere.

Christians who dogmatically believe in miracles should challenge their pastors to demonstrate the reality of God's miraculous healing power through the developing Ebola epidemic.

Of course, they cannot do so, because of gullibility, fear and intellectual docility.

Aside from spontaneous remissions and the body's amazing healing powers sometimes triggered by strong faith, virtually all reported cases of miracle cures by pastors are attributable to psychological mechanisms such as hypnosis, auto suggestion and the mind's powerful ability to simulate both the real and the unreal.

In my view, the idea that laws of nature that took millions and billions of years to crystallise can be suspended to effect a miracle just because a pastor or prophet prayed to a certain deity is preposterous. It is an invitation to intellectual cul-de-sac and theological legerdemain.

As usual, scientists would eventually create a vaccine or medicine that would cure EVD. Resort to prayers and other religious rituals will worsen the situation, just as taking refuge in churches and supplications towards God to fight the bubonic plague actually led to countless number of unnecessary deaths in the Middle Ages.

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Wanted in Nigeria: A new approach to street protests

security operatives who did it.

In the case of the first group- the female ministers, it is a pity that they recruited themselves into the assignment which the President was ever ready to be personally involved in.

Our position here is underscored by the portion of the President’s speech at the environmental conference where he said: “I refuse to pass it onto somebody else. Our security interests will not permit us to withhold legitimate actions that will bring back the girls... And neither should our conscience”. Which of the female minister who sought to represent the President would have become a minister if she was abducted as a young girl and was not rescued?

Which of them would have been able to counsel any protester if any of the abducted girls was her daughter? Which of them would have been satisfied to see a minister instead of the President if she was a mother to any of the abducted girls?

Introspectively, the ministers would have done a better job if they had the courage and passion to advice that the President should see the protesters in view of the sensitive nature of the subject, more so as the BBOG family came to reiterate what the nation now knows to be the priority of the President. As ministers, they ought to

The Ebola phenomenon is a tragic validation of the cliché that the world has become a global village in which what happens in one place oftentimes rapidly affects another either for good or for evil

by an all-good, omnipotent God is not logically contradictory, it is quite reasonable to maintain that the reality of evil makes it very unlikely that such a God exists. Thus, contrary to the dogmatic assertion in the first verse of Psalm 14 in the Holy Bible, which claims that an atheist is a fool, it is rational to deny the existence of God in the presence of so much pointless evils in the world.

The considerations above

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miracles by using supernatural powers to heal the sick and the afflicted that is why large numbers of gullible Nigerians and non-Nigerians flock to their churches. I think that if these claims were true, these "anointed men of God" should harness such powers to cure patients suffering from EVD. Specifically, Joshua and others should have quickly gone to the Ebola endemic countries when news of the

PAGE10 — SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

(PVC), witnessed several expressions of concerns by State Electoral Commissioners whose appraisal of the PVC distribution process was mostly unsatisfactory,’’ a source at the meeting said.

“They insisted that the Commission was moving too slowly and that the limited time barely three months left for the election may be insufficient for the exercise if things were not fasttracked”.

•Jega

30,000 PUs: JEGA, COMMISSIONERS’ STORMY MEETING

Nor th/South division tears INEC apar t **Despite stalemate, Jega issues orders for allocation

I

By JIDE AJANI

f there were doubts as to the real intentions behind the determination of Professor Attahiru Jega, National Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to foist on Nigeria an electoral process that gives unparalleled advantage to his northern part of the country through the instrumentality of a lopsided allocation of some 21,000 Polling Units, PUs, as against slightly over 8,000 PUs for the states of the South, the doubts disappeared at his ast week’s meeting with Resident Electoral Commissioners, RECs. At that meeting, like a “pulpit bully”, and against

convention where decisions at INEC are reached through consensus, Jega insisted that RECs should be involved in the admittedly primitive mode of open voting on a matter that was as controversial as PUs allocation. This report presents Jega’s systematic approach to see through his scheme, starting with his attempt at power mongering.

MEETING WITH RECs Driven by a messianic desire to confer electoral advantage on northern Nigeria against states in the South, the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Professor Attahiru Jega, upped the ante last week at a meeting with Resident Electoral

Commissioners, RECs. The meeting took place at the INEC Headquarters in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja.

It was a stormy meeting, held Wednesday, October 15, 2014.

Inside sources at the meeting expressed shock at what was described as the “pulpit bully” attitude of the INEC Chairman.

Sunday Vanguard gathered that what was meant to be a meeting of minds, where the main focus would be the now controversial lopsided allocation of Polling Units, PUs, turned out to be a farcical engagement, with Jega, practically “coercing the commissioners” There were 30 RECs in attendance.

What was strange, however, was that the RECs did not

know that they were being led into an ambush by Jega, whose proclivity for maximum control of INEC had, sometime last year, seen him write to the Attorney General of the Federation, seeking clarification about the powers of his office (details are provided below).

CONCERN RAISED BY RECs IGNORED REC after REC, most of those in attendance expressed concern on the PUs controversy and “actually counseled that the idea be shelved until after the 2015 general elections.

“The meeting, which also reviewed the ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and the distribution of the Permanent Voter Card

THE DICTATOR CHARGES The source further disclosed that Jega waxed dictatorial: “Jega insisted on conflating the time pressure by pressing forward with the much criticized allocation of new Polling Units. This came against sound advice by some commissioners who warned that given the prevailing public perception regarding the Polling Units allocation, it may raise unnecessary ethnic tensions’’.

“Even when he was reminded of the letter from the Senate Committee on INEC”, the source continued, he was said to have reacted angrily that the letter was not a decision of the whole Senate and has no effect.

Similarly, he was said to have been reminded of the fact that some groups of Nigerians and even a political party have gone to court over the matter and there was need to suspend the exercise, but he bluntly responded that, except there was a court order, the Polling Units must be created.

He may be right on that score: only a court order, in the strictest sense, can stop him, especially based on the seeming messianic inclination.

But more was to come.

For a Chairman who treats some of the commissioners as his staff, Sunday Vanguard learnt that even the letter from the Senate Committee calling for the suspension of the allocation was read on the pages of newspapers like most Nigerians.

The letter has not been discussed at any formal meeting apart from the tangential mention it got last week.

Jega, it was gathered, had also been sent a security advisory given the dangerous dimension the lopsided PUs had taken; but this was ignored.

Even then, it was gathered that RECs from the SouthWest, South-South, SouthEast and, interestingly, North-Central, verbally cautioned Jega.

Sensing that the tide was turning against his desperation, the INEC Continues on page 11

SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 11

chairman’s powers.

ADOKE CLARIFIES LIMITS OF CHAIRMAN’S POWERS

*A typical election day

**Details of how electoral top shots voted Continued from page 10 Chairman, the source went on, called for voting which was agreed to.

PRIMITIVE OPEN VOTING But he ambushed the commissioners by directing that the voting process should be open.

“In the end”, the source went on, “voting was conducted - in which three, RECs who had previously advised against the policy and still maintained their objections, abstained from participating in the voting because they were angry and disappointed that, despite the clear voices of the majority who advised against it, the Chairman surprisingly called for vote thereby allowing the matter to degenerate and brought to a clear-cut sectional dichotomy.

“After the voting, Jega got 13 votes for his lopsided PUs, and 13 votes against.”

But this was a stalemate.

Althou it would have been 14 for him but one vote was voided because the administrative secretary who represented the REC from Benue State had his vote voided. Now, had the three abstaining RECs been counted and the votes of six who did not attend as well as some Administrative Secretaries who did not vote, because they erroneously thought the voting was for commissioners only were taken to account, it was clear even to Jega that he

was swimming against the tide of internal and external stakeholder opinion.

Despite this, less than 24 hours after the stalemate, the INEC Chairman directed a Director, one Musa H. Adamu, through a letter dated, Thursday, October 16, 2014, to all RECs, to submit report on the implementation of the PUs

local governments creation engenders a regime of unequal resource allocation in a nation of clashing socio-political and economic interests.

It is under this same condition that Jega had sought extra-legal platform to capture all available powers in INEC, part of a grand scheme to ride rough

Sunday Vanguard gathered that what was meant to be a meeting of minds, where the main focus would be the now controversial lopsided allocation of Polling Units, PUs, turned out to be a farcical engagement, with Jega, practically “coercing the commissioners in their respective states on or before Thursday, October 30, 2014.

Nuru Yakubu, who is seen as the architect of the allocation, Musa Adamu and Jega himself are all from the North and appear to be pushing an agenda that places undue advantage in the hands of the North against the states of the South.

This was the same way the northern dominated military regimes created for Nigeria the lopsided 774 local governments with the North preponderantly favoured against states of the South; just as state creation has left the South-East geo-political zone with just five states whereas the North-West has seven states.

Meanwhile, the lopsided

shod over his colleagues.

JEGA SEEKS MORE POWERS To get the legal backing to his enormous power-grab, Jega had written a letter dated June 19, 2013, to Mohammed Adoke, Attorney General and Minister of Justice, asking for clarification on who should be the accounting officer of the body.

He noted: “Since our assumption of office as a new Commission in July 2010, having regard to the fact that neither the Constitution nor the Electoral Act defined the role of the Secretary to the Commission as the Accounting Officer, I have considered myself as such, relying upon provisions of

the Procurement Act, particularly Sections 18, 19 and 20 of the Act and Regulations issued by the Bureau of Public Procurement to the effect that in an MDA/Corporate procuring entity, the Chief Executive is the Accounting Officer.

“I have also done this, given the weighty personal liability which the Procurement Act places on the shoulders of the Accounting Officer. The tradition in INEC had been that a Permanent Secretary was posted as the Secretary, until 2008, when INEC, having regard to the provisions of the Constitution and Electoral Act appointed its Secretary.

The functions/roles of the Secretary as specified did not say or imply that he is the Accounting Officer”.

Jega told Adoke that the clarification was necessary in the light of the restructuring and reorganisation going on in the commission as it prepares for what he described as “better, effective and efficient service delivery towards 2015 and beyond”.

He insisted that it was “pertinent to seek this clarification for the avoidance of doubt and in order to put lingering matters to rest.”

The “lingering matters” Jega spoke about, it was learnt, might not be unconnected with what a source described as the frosty relationship between the Chairman and other commissioners over the

In a July 26, 2013 reply to Jega’s request, Adoke declared categorically that the Chairman is not the accounting officer of INEC. Adoke said: “I have examined relevant provisions of the law particularly, the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the Electoral Act, the Public Procurement Act and extant Financial Regulations in order to determine whether the law has expressly provided for the position of either the ‘Chief Executive Officer’ or ‘Accounting Officer’ of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

“Regrettably, it would appear that no such terminology was used in the statutes examined. Item 14(1)(a) of Part 1 to the Third Schedule of the Constitution only provides that the Chairman shall be the Chief Electoral Commissioner. The provision does not state that the ‘Chief Electoral Commissioner’ is the ‘Chief Executive Officer.

“I have similarly examined the functions and powers of the Commission as provided for in item 15 of Part 1 of the Third Schedule to the Constitution and sections 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the Electoral Act and wish to observe that these are functions and powers that can only be exercised by the Commission and not by the Chairman or any individual Commissioner except as may be delegated by the Commission under Section 152 of the Electoral Act or item 15(h) of Part 1 to the Third Schedule to the Constitution.”

“Consequently, in the absence of any clear donation of the powers of a Chief Executive Officer or Accounting Officer by the relevant statutes, and in the absence of any evidence to indicate that these functions and powers of the Commission have been delegated to the Chairman, I am unable to come to the reasoned conclusion that the law contemplates that the Chairman of INEC shall be the Chief Executive Officer or Accounting Officer of the Commission,” Adoke explained.

He added that the Electoral Act confers on the Secretary enormous administrative powers akin to those of Directors-General, who are “statutorily the Accounting Officers and Chief Executive Officers of their various Commissions”.

Adoke pointed out that this is what obtains in similar commissions, such as Police Service Commission, National Population Commission and Federal Judicial Service Commission.

PAGE 12—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

AFTER DEADLY ATTACKS ON LAWMAKERS

Curious EFCC arrests in Edo! SIMON EBEGBULEM, BENIN CITY

T

Edo APC lawmakers protest in Benin City over arrest of Speaker Uyi Igbe, Philip Shaibu by EFCC IN Abuja

the APC of masterminding the attack. Many people believed the APP lawmaker’s sympath, could strike back. It was amid that mindset that penultimate Saturday morning at about 6:30am, armed men stormed the Assembly quarters and unleashed mayhem on APC lawmakers. Curiously, policemen attached to the complex were said to have been withdrawn prior to the attack. And for over 40 minutes that the armed men unleashed the mayhem, there was no resistance from the police. The Majority Leader, Shaibu, said to be the prime target, was lucky to have escaped with his family. But over 36 cars and houses at the quarters were riddled with bullets. Governor Adams Oshiomhole visited the scene and described the attack as callous. He disclosed that they were already aware of the plot to invade the quarters but expressed sadness that the police probably aided the attack since they were allegedly informed of the plot 48 hours before it was executed. However, Oshiomhole, under pressure from APC youths to allow them unleash mayhem on PDP leaders, declared he would not retaliate but urged the APC supporters to ensure that the PDP is kept out of power in the state.

“I want to advice all those who are preaching violence that Edo State cannot be conquered by a bunch of criminals. We have the capacity and the capability to protect ourselves. We will not go for anybody’s blood, we don’t need it”, the governor said. Reacting also, the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, expressed

,

HERE has been tension in Edo State since armed men invaded the state House of Assembly quarters in GRA, Benin City, penultimate Saturday, destroying over 36 vehicles while some lawmakers sustained injuries. The political crisis in the state started when a chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, led four lawmakers to defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That gave the PDP nine members in the House while the APC maintained majority of 15.

Events took a turn for the worse after Deputy Speaker Festus Ebea was impeached and four other PDP lawmakers suspended for alleged misconduct. The PDP lawmakers lost their cases both at the High Court and the Appeal Court after they were accused of deliberate attempt to ridicule the judiciary following their alleged failure to obey the High Court order which upheld their suspension from the House. Following the fight that led to the destruction of part of the Assembly complex at Ring-Road and the subsequent renovation work at the complex, the House moved to the old Assembly complex at Osadebey Avenue. But the PDP members refused to move, arguing that there was nothing wrong with the complex at Ring-Road. While the APC 15 continue to have their proceedings at Osadebey Avenue, the PDP nine, with the protection of the police have been holding their separate proceedings at the Ring Road complex.

The situation was like that until the invasion of the Assembly quarters last Saturday.

But prior to the invasion, one of the PDP lawmakers, Rasaq Momoh, was beaten up at the Assembly quarters after he allegedly scaled the perimeter fence when he was refused entrance by security men at the gate. The reason was that the House had in July declared the seat of the lawmaker vacant due to his defection to the PDP. Besides, there are court injunctions restraining him and others who were suspended from entering the Assembly quarters and premises. It was learnt that his insistence in entering the quarters led to a heated argument between him and some youths around and security men which eventually led to a fight. He was beaten to a pulp and currently receiving treatment in hospital. The PDP in the state accused the Majority Leader of the House, Philip Shaibu, and

Innocent people are being picked up on the streets of Benin, the real people have not been arrested.

But as a people, we will not fold our hands and allow this injustice continue

,

anger over what he described as the alarming rate of political thuggery and violence perpetrated by supporters of political parties in the country and urged political leaders not to plunge the nation into crisis.The Oba told the political leaders to be mindful of the fact that “only the living can play politics and not the dead”. The Oba who, spoke through the Iyase of Benin (Traditional Prime Minister), Chief Sam Igbe, said political leaders will be held responsible if anything goes wrong with the nation’s democracy.

His words: “As political leaders, you are supposed to show good examples for the younger generations to emulate , rather than recruit them as thugs”.

While stressing on the need for politicians to refrain from politics of bitterness, the revered monarch directed the Enigies, chiefs, Igiehon and the Edionwere in Benin Kingdom “to pray for the country’s peaceful co-existence and also to move to their various dukedoms to sensitize political aspirants, political parties and their supporters in their areas of the need to live in peace

and harmony”. Tempers rose further in the state on Wednesday when the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Uyi Igbe, Majority Leader, Shaibu and Chief Whip, Folly Ogedengbe, were invited and detained by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja for alleged forgery. They were accused of forging the signature of Rasaq Momoh to impeach former Deputy Speaker Ebea.. APC lawmakers and supporters led by the Chairman House Committee on Information, Kabiru Adjoto, protested the EFCC action/. Addressing journalists Adjoto, who hinted on the resolve of the APC lawmakers to protect themselves with vigilante groups due to alleged conspiracy between the police and the PDP in the state, asserted that “the EFCC arrested the Speaker, Majority Leader and Chief Whip, not minding their health conditions. He went on: “We are reliably informed that the Speaker of the House collapsed two times this morning.

Philip is bleeding profusely and they are being denied medical attention. As we speak, the reasons for their ar-

rest is that the EFCC said they forged the signature of Rasaq Momoh when former Deputy Speaker Festus Ebea was impeached. Our concern is this, when did the EFCC become an agency to investigate forgery of signature. When has forgery of signature? become a financial crime? Impeachment of either the Speaker or Deputy Speaker is purely the business of the House. EFCC has no business what so ever with it. We are surprised that the EFCC can reduce itself to investigate a crime that has already been spelt out as a criminal matter according to the Constitution. “The EFCC is not set up to investigate forgery of signature and that they have reduced themselves shows that they are not just acting. As we speak the leadership of the PDP in Edo State is at the headquarters in Abuja. And the most worrisome is that the President of the country has given directive that these three principal officers of the Edo State House of Assembly be charged to court and be remanded indefinitely. That is giving us serious concerns. One will expect the police to investigate that matter what has EFCC got to do with forgery of signature. Last week, these same people came here to kill us. As we speak, innocent people are being picked up on the streets of Benin, the real people have not been arrested. But as a people, we will not fold our hands and allow this injustice continue. We are giving EFCC an ultimatum to release these principal officers. If they refuse to release them as a people we have resolved to organize a one-million man march to Abuja and Abuja will know that we have arrived”.

However the Edo PDP leadership, fearing its members may be attacked, raised an alarm that the lives of some of their leaders were in danger.

Chief Frank Erewele, who spoke on their behalf, said, “”I want to seize this opportunity to call on law enforcement agencies that they should watch Oshiomhole in this state. If anything happens to Dan Orbih, Lucky Imasuen, Dr. Mayor. Osarobo Idehen and other leaders of the party, including myself, we know who to hold responsible because he struck first and he is the first to start complaining” . But the State Commissioner for Information, Louis Odion, described the PDP leadership’s claims as rubbish and urged the people of the state to critically look at the antecedents of Rasaq Momoh whom the PDP accused the APC of beating up.

SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 13

Delta 2015: My aspiration is divine — Owumi

BY DAPO AKINREFON

here have been talks about you holding con sultations with some people you identified as stakeholders . What was the reason for doing this and what were you hoping to achieve?

Delta is a very complex state.

It is multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and hypersensitive in terms of politics. Anything you do is bound to have some interpretations and if not well handled, meet with unintended consequences. So, you must identify key stakeholders that are vital in shaping opinions and have become role models to many. I’m not talking of political godfathers or people sometimes referred to as political jobbers. And so because T

,

MR Paul Owumi was Senior Special Assistant to former Delta State Governor, Chief James Onanefe Ibori. He was appointed Executive Assistant on Foreign Relations by incumbent Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan, a position he has maintained for over seven years. The activist cum politician recently began what many has termed as upsetting the apple cart by holding state wide consultations in a bid to formally join the 2015 governorship race for Delta State.

In this interview, Owumi reveals why he’s the best man to succeed Governor Uduaghan whose tenure expires May 29, 2015. Excerpts:

I am the voice of the youth in Delta State. I am the hope of the women and other marginalised groups. You must agree that the youths and women constitute the bulk of the active population.

I represent the future for them

,

Mr. Paul Owumi

of the seriousness and importance attached to the issues at stake, I thought it wise to meet with some elders of my party, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Some of those also consulted are community leaders and religious elders all of whom are vital and critical in determining who would become the next governor of Delta State.

Your entry into the governorship race has come as a surprise to many especially the zoning of the governorship seat to Delta North senatorial district. Knowing that you are from Delta Central, is your entry into the race not an open challenge to the powers that be in the state?

This is why I keep talking of a pan-Delta mandate. I am not running as the candidate of

any particular ethnic group. Of course I am aware of the agitation by the Anioma people for power to shift to the North.

Am also conscious of the desire of Delta Central to have the governorship returned to them. It may interest you to know that I satisfy the aspirations of both groups. I belong to the centre and the North.

You may say I am a bridge builder if you like. For those who may not know I have the blue blood of Asaba running in me. My grandmother was the eldest of the Achuzia family, senior to the celebrated civil war hero, Colonel Achuzia.

So I can claim Asaba and indeed Anioma as a matter of right. No one can ask me not to sit in the gathering of Asaba people, neither can anyone prevent me from speaking

when the Anioma people have their assembly. Similarly, I am an Okpe man from Sapele as a true son of the revered Chief B. T. Owumi, the Adani of Okpe Kingdom. My full name is actually Paul Otomiefe Achuzia Owumi. Let me also add that Okpe people are as agitated as the Anioma in this governorship race is concerned. Of course, you should know that Okpe has the dominant population in Delta Central. Yet the governorship has eluded them. The two elected governors from the central, Chief Felix Ibru and my boss, Chief James Onanefe Ibori are not from Okpe. In the same vein, the Anioma are worried that despite having nine local governments, with the central and south districts having eight each, the zone has not been able to produce a governor. Fortunately, both aspi-

rations find perfect expression in me. You may say I am a personification of the marginalised Okpe and Anioma people. This is why I talk of a pan Delta mandate. And the mandate is divine because it is ordained by God Almighty.

What are your strategies for winning the PDP primaries and become candidate of your party?

I am the voice of the youth in Delta State. I am the hope of the women and other marginalised groups. You must agree that the youths and women constitute the bulk of the active population. I represent the future for them. Ultimately, they are the ones who will tell the party and the entire people of the state that I am their man.

So what policies should Deltans expect from you if you become governor of the state?

It is my belief that God has used my father and current governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan to lay the foundation for a modern Delta State. First the renaming of Delta from the Big Heart to Finger of God is a master stroke. This for me is the watershed of Governor Uduaghan’s policy thrust. Together with the Delta Beyond Oil programme of the administration, I believe that the superstructure has been laid.

What is left is the building of blocks which God has ordained me to do for his people from May 29, 2015.

2015: Seriki, ex-Defence Minister’s case for Lagos West Senatorial District

BY BILESANMI OLALEKAN

T

HE list of persons vy ing for Lagos West Sen atorial District, Lagos State, ahead of 2015, appears to be growing by the day. The latest entrant into the race is Chief Ademola Seriki, a Minister of State for Defence in the Yar ’Adua presidency. Seriki is a chieftain of the All Peoples Congress. It was supposed to be an interactive cum introductory meeting at his ward - Amao, Agege Local Government Area-but, as it turned out, it was a carnival of sort where virtually all those who matter in the locality were present. The programme was supposed to be short, fixed for 5pm, but as early as 12 noon, the whole primary school was congested. Even when he arrived at about few minutes after five, it took another ten minutes or so before he could walk to the podium. He said the electorate would be better for it with his entrance into the race, because, according to him, it will increase the quality of people, campaign and, ultimately, assist the electorate to choose among those in the race. He reminded the

gathering that his success in life could be traced to his roots at Renner Street Agege where he grew up and had his elementary education including his Higher School Certificate, HSC. Among other reasons, Seriki said he is convinced to vie for the senatorial seat . His words: “Since Ashiwaju Ahmed Tinubu left the Senate during the botched third republic as member of the Senate Committee on Appropriation, there has never been any other member from Lagos in that committee, and you and I know that whatever that is not in the bill of the committee sent to the president to assent, there is no way one’s needs can be attended to. Are you not surprised that none of our representatives is in that committee since 1999? Appropriation Committee is where your fate is decided economically and infrastructure wise. I have and know what it takes to go to the National Assembly to effect these changes. Having been a federal minister, I know who to call, where to go, on your behalf, to change things for the better ”, the senatorial aspirant said.

Growing up in Agege was very important to him because

that this district is enough to be called a state. And that is why I think we hold the future of Lagos and Nigeria. It is for that reason that I think we ought to get more than what we are getting at the federal level.

We need more federal presence here, majorly infrastructure. That can only Chief Ademola Seriki

it one’s there his future was shaped. “ I could have started from Amuwo-Odofin or Badagry because they are all still under West. But this is where I started from. This is where I first got married and had my first child. When I was growing up here then, who could have thought I would still be coming here to represent the same district? This West area of the state is very crucial to Lagos and Nigeria.

Do you know that the population of this district is more than a lot of states in the country? We have about 12 million people residents in this west alone. If you juxtapose that to other states, you will discover

be done by someone who can pull the right strings. The peculiar needs of this district, I think is mainly infrastructure.”.

Agege Local Government chairman of the APC said that, given the Seriki track record, the local government would support him whole heartedly.

“He is somebody I have known for a very long time. He is not new to this local government and I guess that is why we have this large turn out, even at a short notice. This is supposed to be meeting, nobody bargained for this carnival like meeting such that there is no where to pass. If for the purpose of meeting, we have this large crowd, I won-

der what would happen when we are having the real campaign, especially after the primaries. I am glad that we have a popular person, even before the real contest.We can attest to what he did while as minister in Abuja. If somebody like him goes to National Assembly to re present us, I think we shall be better for it, because if it is about education, he is well read. If it is about exposure, you cannot have a better person that who is before us. I am particularly happy that a caliber of his type is in the race because with somebody like him, I am sure that that race will not only be interesting but sound in terms of debate that may arise there in.

You don’t have his type quite often vying for such electoral office, so it is a great pleasure having him to represent us in the senate. What I can guarantee him is that this local government would give him its total support because this is an APC local government”, the party boss said.

For now, if the morning shows the day, then one may not be surprised if Seriki becomes the next senator representing Lagos West in 2015.

PAGE 14— SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

BURIAL OF JOHNSON AMEYE ITE OSERAGBAJE

*The burial ceremony of Mr Johnson Ameye Ite Oseragbaje, elder brother of Chief A Ben Oseragbaje (APOLLO), was held at Arhagba-Okpe, Okpe Local Government Area of Delta State yesterday. Chief Ben Oseragbaje (APOLLO) (left) and Mr. Sam Amuka, Publisher, Vanguard Newspapers, at the occasion. Pix by AKPOKONA OMAFUAIRE

L-R: Mr. Arthur Riemu, Mr. Ben Oseragbaje, Mr. Orukomayon Scott and Mrs. Rose Riemu.

L-R: Children of the deceased: Efe Oseragbaje, Adogbeji Oseragbaje, Akpomudiare Oseragbaje and Mr. Kingsley Oseragbaje.

A cross section of officiating ministers from God's Grace Ministry.

L-R: Mr. Adogbeji Oseragbaje, Mr. Ben Oseragbaje (Apollo), Efe Oseragbaje, Akpomudiare Oseragbaje and Akpevwe Oseragbaje.

SUNDAY Vanguard,OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 15

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SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 17

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Did Clems Onyeka see death coming?

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I am a born-again Christian but not stereotypical one – Uti Nwachukwu M

any people have said it is really an arduous task to fix former Big Brother Africa winner, Uti Nwachukwu, in any particular setting. Just when you think you have got the guy all figured out, there is always a part of him sticking out for you to put a tag on.

If you call him names, you wouldn’t be veering way too far from many others. He’s handsome, stylish,charismatic and voraciously ambitious. He is one of those guys who always get the girls. At least, that is the image the actor/ compere seems to ooze. But you are dead wrong.

“Of course, I am born again, I found Christ in 2006, I have always believed in Christ but I answered the altar call in 2006. But I must tell you I am not still perfect” he told Potpourri at the Warri Again show in Warri, Delta State on Independence day. “ Being born again, means accepting Christ as your Lord and personal saviour. He didn’t come to the world for the righteous, Christ came for the imperfect ones like me and you. I genuinely want to change, Christ is right there soliciting and interceding for me, because he is the way, the truth and the life. People fail to see that it is we, the imperfect, that Christ came for, I am extremely imperfect. I am not the stereotypical type of born again, I am the type that is aware of the love and grace” he explained. When I asked him to explain what he meant by being imperfect, he highlighted a host of circumstances.“Personally, I would not want to have sex before marriage but sometimes you fall and when you fall, you repent and beg God for forgiveness; it’s not easy.

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n Tuesday afternoon, Nollywood actor, Clems Onyeka breathed his last after being mercilessly cut down by stray bullets, arising from a gun battle between cops and robbers in Asaba, Delta State. Suddenly, the quiet actor, who was never celebrated by the media became a subject of media jamboree.

But by some design of fate or poetic twist of ordinary events of life, Clems probably saw his death coming and even made a joke of it. Though it never occurred to the actor what he was talking about could turn out to be what

has been written in his own book of life.

Barely two weeks before the fateful day, the actor called Potpourri and demanded to have something written about him. Then, he had just won an award and he wanted it written on the Potpourri column.

“My brother, I enjoy your column so much but nothing has ever been done on me yet, or are you waiting until I am dead before you write about me?”, he queried. To which I replied, “Clems give me something good to write about you and I will do it”.

Then he told me of the award he had just won but didn’t give me enough material to work on. He said he would get back to me but it seems that will never happen now.

I still haven’t got over his death because it was something that told me in clear terms life has no sense of fairplay. I doubt if any story or interview had ever been done on him until his death.

May his gentle soul rest in peace.

I am going to take on more daring roles now – Uche Ogbodo N

ot most women would walk out of a marriage, waiting for a reception committee with a red carpet to applaud her and even give a medal. But then most women are not like Uche Ogbodo, fiesty Nollywood actress who walks mostly in the path of controversy and most often than not, comes off it like a rubber ball bouncing off the wall.

She is a toughie, never at the mercy of life or circumstances. When her marriage didn’t live up to her expectation, she walked off, not minding the fact that the marriage was not even up to a year. “The marriage didn’t work out. My marriage was based on lies” she declared brusquely.

After the marriage crash and a baby to look after Uche is set for another life, which according to her, is definitely going to be better than living with lies and under the shackles of marriage.

She has everything all figured out and the first thing that counts now is her acting career.

“Of course, I’m going to take on more daring roles, that’s my career and I’m only going to keep improving myself.

As an actress, there’s

nothing that I cannot do. There’s nothing I can’t do in a movie, once it’s a movie. I can even take up a lesbian role. But in real life I’m not a lesbian, don’t get it twisted. That’s why I’m an actress, its make-believe, it’s not who I am. I’m only going to do my career the way I’m supposed to do it and it puts food on my table so you don’t feed me, you don’t judge me, that’s it” she told Potpourri in a chat.

Concerning her music career, “I haven’t come around to releasing a single but I have it at the back of my mind, really. I’ve done some previously, but I didn’t release any one. I’ve done about six tracks produced by Phyno some years ago” she said.

PAGE 18—SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014 Onikoyi68@gmail.com

Play your roles faithfully and money will come, Sunbo and Kenny Fasipe charge

BY OSA AMADI

S

unbo and Kenny Fasipe, like Tunde and Wumi Obe, are two of a kind. Unlike Tunde and Wumi, however, Kenny and Sunbo’s musical footsteps are printed both on the popular and academic music. The man is a multiinstrumentalist, musicologist, composer, music director and adroit music producer. The woman is a highly gifted soprano soloist, composer and worship leader. Kenny founded and led the Young Stars Band of Comprehensive High School Christian Church of God, Ayetoro in the 70s and the Survival Band of the Obafemi Ikeja, Ladipo Oluwole.

Prior to that, he was an Awolowo University in 1986 instructor at the National which later became the Baptist Music Workshop in O.A.U. band in 1990. The Nigeria for many years. bass guitar is the musical In January 1996, Kenny instrument for which Kenny and Sunbo, a HND is best known. In 1991, at graduate of the Polytechnic OAU, as an undergraduate, Ibadan, got married and are he won the Best Bassist blessed with lovely Award in Nigeria. children. Sunbo featured as A Bachelors of Arts degree a soloist in many concerts holder in Music, Kenny has and oratorios with the trained many choirs, groups Nightingale Choral Voices and musicians around the founded and led by world. He has also produced Reverend Yemi Akinpelu. successful popular artists She also worked as a among who are King Sunny backup vocal for many great Ade, Dr Bola Are, Jumoke musicians such as Dr. Bola Dada, and others. Kenny Are, Rev. Father Ilesanmi, served as music director and Jumoke Dada, and others. instructor at The Redeemed

Hospitality czar, Stephen Omamuli honoured D ignitaries who witnessed the 5th edition of Young Achievers Nigeria Award held couple of weeks ago at the prestigious Balmoral Event Hall applauded the organizers for selecting the boss of Class Hospitality Limited, Stephen Omamuli as its winner of Most Outstanding Entrepreneur of the Year considering the rich profile he has garnered in the past few years in the business.

Other winners on the night were Mr Babatunde Fowler, Hon Funmi Tejuosho, Arc. Tunde Ojo among many others.

The MD/CEO, Class Suites, Class Law Chambers, S.E Omamuli & CO. Legal Practitioners has risen to be one of the most sought after hospitality consultants in Nigeria and humbly boasts of over 500 staff across its eleven branches in the country. The handsome dude, is also a close associate of notable politicians like Hon. Kayode Amusan and Hon. Abiodun Akinlade; two governorship aspirants from Ogun State.

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*Omamuli and wife

Kenny worked with his brother, Rev. Sola Fasipe of SBTS Louisville, USA, to improve the standard of church music by teaching and writing church music, training band leaders, instrumentalists, recording, and performances.

In year 2000, they started Glory Music, a music production company in Lagos, Nigeria, with a standard recording studio.

Now, they are directors in Glory Sound Solution, a complete sound analyzing and Reinforcement Company. Presently, Sunbo and Kenny have a CD in the market titled Spiritual Songs

1 marketed by Tune Core and available at Amazon and other music stores all over the world.

The duo look up to Don Moen as mentor. “We have been touched by his ministrations, manners and methods,” say Kenny and Sunbo. “His personality and humility are impressive. We have also been blessed by Bill and Gloria Gaither ’s ministry.” The ministry aspect of Kenny and Sunbo’s music are not for commercial purposes. That’s why they are not always moved by peoples’ appraisals after a ministration, so long as

Who’s won Juliet Ibrahim’s heart?

S

ince breaking up with her husband, many would have been waiting in line to woo Juliet Ibrahim, an actress and singer many have tagged the most beautiful in West Africa. She was our celebrity on Potpourri last week and she told us in clear terms that she is still looking to marry again.

As expected, that started a riot which was easily quelled by Juliet herself in midweek when she took to Instagram that she has found love again. “ No need to rush things.

When you meet the right one you will simply feel it deep down in your soul.

All smiles, grateful to God I am alive and happy. He calls me his African Princess” she gushed.

The divorced mother of one refused to disclose the identity of her prince charming but if what she told Potpourri in her interview last week is anything to go by, all fingers point at Chris Brown, whom the actress shamelessly agreed he’s her celebrity crush. It should also be noted that everything Chris Brown tweets Juliet Ibrahim retweets. My African Princess? That doesn’t sound like a man of African origin; or does it?

people are blessed by that ministration. They advise gospel artistes and other ministers to stay focused and not to be distracted or carried away by peoples’ praises.

“Money is not the only reason for your calling.

Play your roles faithfully and money will come. Sunbo and Kenny have a vision to make the kingdom of this world the “kingdom of our God and of His Christ. We are determined to go to all nations, beaming the light of the gospel, teaching and leading the people of God in quality worship and spiritual songs as well as helping them develop lifestyles of worship.”

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 19 Onikoyi68@gmail.com

Yoruba movies lead again as Censors Board approves 79 films T

he National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) has verified and approved a total of 79 movies for the month of September 2014. Eleven of the movies approved are feature length films for cinema exhibition while 68 are for home viewership.

The September breakdown from the NFVCB indicates that approved movies for home viewership place Yoruba language content in the lead with 31 movies, English language 20 movies, Hausa 16 and Bini two.

The September approvals show a marginal improvement of nine films over the August figure of 70 movies.

Among the movies for home viewership, 29 have “15” classification grade, 38 classified “18” for adult viewership. one “12” and one “PG” ( Parental Guidance) for both adults and children accompanied by a known adult.

•Ms Patricia Bala, NFVCB boss

CHRIS BROWN’s DJ set to storm Heineken Green Light par ty party T

he Green Light party, which kicked off on an extraordinary note at Club Escape, Victoria Island Lagos on October 4th with Akon’s official DJ, Benny D, is set to continue next week at Spice Route, Victoria Island with official DJ for Chris Brown and other superstars, DJ Babey Drew, r eal names; Andrew Bisnaught.

The superstar DJ is set to touch down Lagos in a few days and has been reported to be very excited about his visit. ”Last time I was in Lagos with Chris Brown, it was absolutely electrifying and I can’t wait to come back, Lagos better get ready to party hard” said an elated DJ Babey Drew.

The internationally renowned DJ Babey Drew, who is in Vibe magazine’s list of Top 100 DJs, has also made a name for himself as the official touring DJ for Grammy Awardwinning R&B sensation Chris Brown and has since then worked with a number of artists including Lil’ Wayne, Jordin Sparks, Kelly Rowland and spins regularly for •DJ Babey Drew with Beyonce the Kardashian family.

Skales boasts as he hits second spot on Naija Top Ten S

kales has got the goods and for a good measure too as the artiste is beginning to rouse the musical scene with his ‘Shake Body’. Skales was this week’s co-host on MTV Base’ Official Naija Top Ten with MTV VJ Ehiz.

During his freestyle session, the artiste talked about his rapid growth since the release of his monster track, “Shake Body”.

In the process, the singer sent out word to his fans and even scored one with Governor Basbatunde Fashola of Lagos. “Tell Fashola I run Lasgidi” he said.

He also called out the executive •Skales Governor of Lagos State in his freestyle as he said, “Tell Fashola I run Lasgidi”.

The hitmaker, whose video is number two on this week’s chart following The Mavin’s “Dorobucci” expressed his gratitude to fans and the music industry for appreciating his work and how hard work pays in the end.

Skales also gave his view on some of the top ranking tracks on the show.

Mavin All Stars ‘Dorobucci’ has held on to the number one spot on the Official Naija Top Ten for four weeks straight. “Dorobucci” holds off all contenders for another week with its stunning video, directed by South African based cinematographer, Nick Roux. Other artistes on this week’s chart include, Wizkid, Banky W, Kcee, Burna Boy, Waje Featuring Tiwa Savage, PSquare Featuring TI and Ice Prince.

Why I worked with Nelson Jombo on Stolen Lives - Emmanuel Williams S

•Cast of Stolen Lives

tolen Lives the new movie from Nelson Jombo and Emmanuel Williams, that features O.C. Ukeje, Ruth Kadiri, Beverly Osu, Jide kosoko, Bukky Wright, Toyin Alausa, Alex Ekubo, IK Ogbonna and other Nollywood stars would be released in movie stores across the nation soon.

Stolen Lives is the story of four girls from different backgrounds with different stories to tell. The story revolves around Amarachi, Janette, Jumoke and Anita.

Amarachi who is the lead character in the movie was raped at a tender age, while her cousin Janette ended up being HIV Positive.

Jumoke fell in love with a cultist and Anita found solace in the arms of older men.

Speaking on why he joined forces with Uche Jombo’s brother on this project Emmanuel Williams, one of the producers of the movie said “Nelson has an eye for perfection and professionalism. Working with him on the set of Stolen Lives was

a humbling experience for me. The way we worked together with a singleness of purpose, to bring out something that we can boldly say would be worth the time and effort was an experience that I would not trade for anything. Moreover he has experienced working with one of the best movie producers in the industry Uche Jombo” he said.

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PAGE 20 — SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014 Onikoyi68@gmail.com

The gains of winning BBA – Dillish Mathews

By FLORENCE AMAGIYA

I

n this lovely chat with Florence Amagiya, pretty and sexy Dillish Mathews, winner of the 2013 edition of Big Brother Africa reality show, tells us how winning the show has opened doors and brought her more fame and fortunes.

The Namibian sexpot with a curvy shape also speaks passionately on other issues concerning her person and career. Enjoy the encounter.

What informed your decision to participate in BBA? I’ve always been a great fan of the show. So I promised myself that once I was old enough I would enter the show and the rest, like they say, is now history.

How did you feel when you saw yourself as one of the last four standing in the house?

It was confusing! I never imagined I would go that far in the game, but thank God I finally won.

Were you prepared when you were announced the winner of BBA 2013?

No, no one can ever be prepared for news like that.

It took me two weeks to realise what had happened to me. It was a dream come true and I cannot stop thanking all those that made

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it possible.

What happened after you became the winner?

I’ve been travelling a lot since then. I just opened my salon, finished shooting my first movie then I recently launched my lip stick line.

Things are way better now, I get lots of free stuffs and more smiles from people.

Sincerely, the love and support have been overwhelming

Visit www.vaultcosmetic.com, for more info. In fact, I’ve been extremely busy, working and impacting lives positively since winning the crown.

How has your life transformed since then?

Things are way better now, I get lots of free stuff and more smiles from people.

Sincerely, the love and support have been overwhelming and I hope

and pray it continues to grow.

What has fame done for you?

It has opened a lot of doors for me and people are more willing to do business with me now and that’s important to me. You cannot quantify the gains of winning such a continental reality show.

What can’t you do now; that you loved doing before BBA?

I can’t always say what I wanted to and I can’t really go to certain places anymore. Don’t forget that stardom has its own challenges too. The important thing is for one to adapt and make appropriate changes in line with your new status.

You seem to have fallen in love with Nigeria as a country; what are you doing here at the moment?

Oh, I love Nigeria, yes. I just finished my first Nollywood movie and hoping to do more jobs here in your country. It has been fun and cool working here in Nollywood. I love the warm reception here.

You did a fantastic video with Flavour; how were you contacted for that job?

They reached me through an ex housemate. I’m so happy they chose me for the job , and also I look forward to doing more jobs with Nigerian entertainers.

What else should Africans be expecting

from the stable of Dillish?

Lots of work, especially charitable activities, unity of African business women and the rest would be a huge surprise to all, mostly my fans.

You were in a serious relationship with someone from your country before BBA; how far has that relationship gone?

We are not together anymore, due to irreconcilable reasons. And I want to keep that issue private.

What’s the relationship between you and Melvin?

Melvin is my good friend.

It was fun sharing the house with people like him.

The news making the rounds is that you are very close to some politicians in Nigeria; especially the Edo State governor?

Well, yes, I like his works, nothing else. He is now like a father to me. He had no idea who I was then and he has hosted so many pageants in Edo State, which was part of what attracted him to me.

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 21

Are you a good lover?

B

EING a good lover is a challenge because not all of us are born with the gift of being able to please people easily. But when it comes to dealing with someone we profess to love, it is important and absolutely necessary that we must put in some effort. This conscious effort when performed over time becomes a habit and can only win you points from your lover.

Being a good lover does not mean that you need to shower your partner with gifts and make them feel like royalty, or hero worship them, bending over backwards just to please them. In fact, it is much simpler than you think. Let's go through these few simple tips and you'll soon have your partner purring all over you.

Love yourself first: To be a good lover, you must be able to love yourself first. After all, how can you truly know how to treat a partner well if you do not know how to treat yourself right? It is said that charity begins from home. Find out more about yourself and determine your strengths so you can build on them. This can help you build selfesteem and improve selfconfidence, which in turn can make your partner more attracted and comfortable with you. These will help you determine what you want from a relationship and how to identify those signs when you see them in a potential partner.

Learn the art of flirting: Flirting does not only happen in

the early stage where you are trying to attract your partner. In fact, if you want to keep your relationship healthy, you should also continue flirting with your partner once in a while. Flirting gives a sense of intimacy, intrigue and suspense at the same time,

TV or scroll through your pads and phones, these might sometimes be very irritating. Try to notice the small things about them by watching them closely.

With time, you'll discover that they have certain habits and things that you will come to

If you want to keep your relationship healthy, you should also continue flirting with your partner once in a while. Flirting gives a sense of intimacy, intrigue and suspense at the same time, adding spice to your love life adding spice to your love life.

This keeps things fun and spontaneous between the two of you. Try never to feel embarrassed to get intimate with your partner.

Pay attention to your partner: Once you fix time to be together, the person to whom you intend to show affection must become your single point of attention. You must be able to make them feel like they are the only person in the world at that moment. Always be attentive to what they are saying, there is a difference between listening and hearing.

Don't take random calls, watch

adore about them. This discovery may even come in handy when getting them gifts because it helps to define their personality.

Most people only get to know these things after a long time in their relationships but if you start early, you will start feeling closer to each other quicker.

Explore your partner: This is a must if you want to be a good lover. Never forget that when things get intimate, this is the canvass you want to work on.

After all, you must know where and how your partner wants to be touched. People are sensitive

Onyejeosa, Nancy Oyailo, Christy Nwaokolo, Patricia Osemena and Fidelia Ebumordi, theyu lost contact, in 80s.

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serious relationship.

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in all sorts of places and to all sorts of degrees. A friend recently told me that she just discovered she could get so aroused from a simple foot massage. You too may find that your partner goes nuts if you kiss them on the back of their knee or nape of the neck. You'll never know until you try!

Learn to be a super kisser: This is a must, since all forms of intimacy begins from, evolves around and ends with this simple action. Being a great kisser is very important. It may earn you points and land you in places you'd probably thought might be difficult to get to faster than you imagined. Just as it can be a real turn off, making you wonder where you went wrong even before getting started. Learn how to enjoy your upper lips as a couple. Lick, nip, bite, suck and chew if possible.

However, always remember that the more gentle you are, the more sensuous your kisses.

Spark up the romance: This may get you to your final destination faster than you imagined possible.

When you master the art, it can only keep your partner coming back again and again for those special and sensuous moments. Guys should learn to kiss and give pleasure without expecting or demanding to end it with sex. It makes a woman feel comfortable that she can trust you to take care of her and protect her. Go dancing.

Invest in good music and you can even have your own special favourite love song. I love "endless

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DISCLAIMER!

love" by Celine Dion. Exchange gifts for special dates and just for the fun of it. It shows that you appreciate your partner.

Remember, gifts don't have to be expensive, just as they must not be ridiculous. Always let your partner know that you desire them with your action and not just words. And if you are intimate, don't let it become a routine.

Making it a routine takes away a lot of the romance and enjoyment, so choose a different location, position or even time of day as often as possible.

Never use intimacy as weapon: This is very cruel and women are usually the culprits in this game. Never use your intimate relationship as a weapon in arguments. Never negotiate intimacy for rewards or benefits with someone you claim to be in a loving relationship with. Leave that for your boss for your next promotion! (just kidding). Guys often use sex as a weapon to teach a lesson, even scores or let a woman know that he can always seek his pleasures elsewhere, among other reason. Whichever way, this is definitely a no, no, in a loving relationship. And don't promise sex and not deliver.

Using sex as a weapon will hurt both parties in a long term relationship as it will teach you to associate sex with negative emotions and disappointment.

Please note: For further discussions, consultation and answers to your questions on relationships and intimacy, you may reach me via e-mail a d d r e s s : inthesunlovezone@yahoo.com Do have a lovely Sunday!

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PAGE 22—SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Email: vanguardwoman@gmail.com

There is a huge difference evident in today’s world — Lawson D abota Lawson, a Real Estate Public Relations event manager, business woman and the Head of Corporate Communication Sujimoto Construction, a real estate developing company that majors in luxury real estate. Most people in the society know her as an ex beauty queen.

However, she is an accountant by profession. In this interview with Esther Onyegbula she talks about life a public relation manager of a real estate firm and other sundry issues.

gym, a lounge, a bar, 24 hours electricity and security around the clock at far less than that. So in terms of growth, I think there is a huge difference with great value that is very evident in today’s world especially in the real estate market.

ow long have you been in the Real estate sector?

H Off and on for about two years, I

first started up with my family; my parents are very much into property investment. I manage my father’s estate and I used to promote the sales of their properties in Port Harcourt until I moved to Lagos and started working with Sujimotor, who is the CEO of Sujis motor constructions. It has been 3years now since I moved back from the UK. My passion for corporation communication landed me in the real estate business. And right now we have just completed six unit town houses in Ikoyi which we just launched.

So what do you look out for when you develop a house?

What we look out for primarily is the location. For us the location is the key when we want to acquire a real estate or we want to buy a real estate, which start from acquiring the land. So we play extreme level of attention on research on why must we buy this land, why must we partner with this land and how can whatever we put into this place play a great role in the lives of people that will live in this place.

So we put into consideration security, we put into consideration the location, including schools, for examples people who have one or two kids how far are the children to you, the social contribution of the environment also plays a great role to purchasing a location.

How would you describe the Nigerian real estate sector?

The Nigerian real estate sector, especially in lagos there is a lot of development more refined homes, better designs, beautiful estates, more of them are similar houses.

People now prefer to live in smaller lovely houses. And we have luxury apartment that are more affordable for young people.

These days it is becoming increasingly difficult to get land space to build castles and big homes but we make that available. In Nigeria now we have gone ahead of most African countries and we are now doing things that people in first world countries do. We now live a lifestyle like people in the developed world. Things like service apartments. Generally even the light situation that people have in their living environment is a lot better. I think there is tremendous growth and difference in the past four years.

How does your brand stand out from the crowd?

The way we stand out from the crowd is by guarantee that whatever we are doing would not only meet the Nigerian challenges but will meet international standards, when it comes to luxury estate. Our attention to details is one of our core foundations of who we are. We want to make sure that anybody that works with us will also be contractors that pay extremely level of attention to details. In their flooring, in their paintings, roofing, in anything we are doing our works always stand out from the crowd.

Since you started how would you rate your business goal?

So far so good, I think in this new age, because of our focus in Ikoyi, Banana Island, we always compare our projects with the old Ikoyi. What you are used to seeing, the type of building, how they cost and what it took to actually create what they call luxury apartment. And I believe that so far so good even when you come on our site. You will see a tremendous difference. Not so much of a different price. For instance some luxury apartment in Ikoyi maybe three bedroom apartments will be going for about three hundred million. We have town houses with a penthouse, a

Our attention to details is one of our core foundations of who we are. We want to make sure that anybody that works with us will also be contractors that pay extremely level of attention to details

What is the future of real estate in Nigeria?

I see a bright future and Sujimotor is going to be part of that future. We have got the project that is called the Casimo a semblance with the empire state building in New York. That will be a standard set for the future of the real estate. I know there is a bright future ahead for Nigeria as a whole. But if we are going to talk about what the future holds lets talk about the casimo.

What are the challenges in being a real estate developer?

Some of the challenges that we

face as real estate developers are issues that has to do with our Corporate Social Responsibility, it is not easy to please people but it is important for us to give back in every community that we are developing in. Other challenges that we face is health and safety, people are generally exposed to hazardous situations and some of these situations you can’t really contain them which is why we continually educate people onsite and off-site during construction. Attitude to work, wearing of safety gargets as you know some of the people who work on our site are not all educated. So another challenge we have is trying to educate them. Not practicing what they know from man no man but to practise the real construction as a real professional. To carry out the ethics, health and safety rules, maintenance to be able to educate the security staffs to know what to say to someone who wants to make enquiries. These are some of the challenges that we face.

Before I became PR to sujimotor, I was into Public relations event and what I do right now for the company is corporate communication, putting the company in a good light, own company called diamond ink. I moved into corporate communication which is more challenging, and more detailed.

Growing up I used to be a beauty win of former Miss Nigeria UK, I have done a couple of films, I have done TV presenting, those are things I do as a hobby that comes natural to me, modelling internationally in US and UK South Africa and West Africa.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 23

08112662589

Do unto others before they do you!

N

EVER let it be said that you deliberately sent your husband packing. Over the years, women have devised numerous methods of getting rid of difficult husbands in such clever ways that they (the women) always look like the wronged party.

Otherwise, how would you explain a wife who always goes to the market just around the time her husband is crying for his lunch? Or the wife who gives the only bottle of beer to her husband’s friend, knowing well that he wouldn’t eat his dinner satisfactorily without his bottle of beer?

Not only that, she can’t hide her sadistic pleasure at her husband’s fury as she opens the bottle of beer – for another man!

For the 12 years she was married to her husband, Folake, an executive officer in one of the ministries, avoided cooking bush-rat stew because it was taboo in her husband’s village.

Recently, the tactless man announced with relish that he was taking a second wife and he did.

In no time, at all, mealtimes were divided between two wives.

“Three weeks ago”,

Folake told me, “a friend of his travelled to his village and brought me smoked bush rat. The thing was edible after all, and I quickly made vegetable soup with it.

My husband couldn’t praise my cooking enough as he ate his pounded yam. I felt guilty so I decided not to say anything about the meat.

But when I remembered the arrogance with which he told me of his taking a second wife, I just had to have the revenge I planned for. When I told him what he was eating, he yelled, hurriedly depositing a lump of half-masticated bush-rat into his palm and gagged! He looked so apoplectic that I almost felt sorry for him. He swore I could have poisoned him if I had the opportunity. He was over-reacting, of course, I told him. I showed my resentment the only way I knew how, that didn’t mean I wanted him dead”.

So, if suddenly, the stew madam dishes out starts tasting too salty, the meat too tough and the wrong type; or if tears run freely down your face from too much hot pepper in the stew, ask

yourself if your wife isn’t trying to send you a message before the message turns into text messages from her lover.

A few mishaps could be overlooked but when it becomes a daily occurrence, you must be doing something wrong!

Sanni has just had the most nightmarish experience, he confessed.

He’s apparently still reeling from the impact of the blow of his humiliation.

But, as he bravely puts it, the price of love is pain.

It all started five years ago when Sanni met Ify, a 45-year old ‘general’ contractor who had more

money than she knew what to do with. A stark illiterate, she has more than her share of intelligence. She also believed she had the misfortune of always falling in love with men who took one look at her and saw a punching bag!

Sanni, now in his early 50s, swore he was never a violent man. That it was Ify ’s arrogance and contempt for him that always brought out his violent streak. He took me that “six months after I met that witch, I had deserted my wife and kids to move in with her. It was at her insistence, but she was like a fever in my

blood. I would have killed for her.

“Through my office, I helped her to get yet more contracts. She bought me two brand new cars in appreciation of all the business contracts I got for her. I also travelled abroad regularly on trips for her.

I sometimes, took a girlfriend who happened to be a casual friend of my woman;s daughter.

This daughter got to know about it and told her mum. That was where my hell started. Shortly after, I lost my job – and the contracts I could wangle for her stooped.

“She didn’t find that funny at all. I had to depend totally on her, financially, as my own money went into a house I was building at that time.

“She always handed me money with a sneer. To crown it all, she brought a lover to the house. It was her house, she insisted, and she could bring whoever she wanted into it. I knew what to do if I didn’t like the idea. That did it.! A wave of fury took over the pain and humiliation of the last few months. I slammed my clenched fist into her smug face over and over again; deriving

a morbid sense of satisfaction from her yelps of pains as she cowered in fright.

“When she broke free, she ran to the police.

Told them I had fraudulently bought the two cars in my name after I took money from her. She told them she couldn’t read, or write and didn’t detect the fraud until her daughter pointed it out to her recently. She alleged I started pummeling her when she confronted me with my `crime’. |”I was locked up, of course, pending full investigations. She pulled a lot of strings to put me behind bars, but after a couple of days, my friends got me out.

I was told she’d already sent my things to my elder brother ’s place.

There were thugs with wraps of Indian hemp guarding the house when I later called for the rest of my things she hadn’t sent. I fled. Any man could easily kill that kind of a woman out of provocation. She is wicked and heartless.

She always complained that her men beat her up. She’s lucky she still has breath to tell her tales of woe!”

08052201867(Text Only)

Good posture through the years

M

Y yoga teacher was of the opinion that old age sets in when one throws away good posture to the winds. He would say “do your exercise regularly to avoid that sort of stiftness which starts from the nape to the neck down to the heels of the feet.’‘ I, myself, have found out through the years of teaching Yoga to others that even a little boy of less than six years could be incapable of doing the head-to-knee posture, whereas, someone of 30 who exercises regularly has no problem with the same posture.

That fact drives home the point that the deteriorating of the tone of the muscles can occur even while a child is growing up. Loss of muscle tone will not wait C M Y K

till you have attained the same age as Methuselah.

This means that we owe it to ourselves to start to keep the body healthy very early in life. Parents should, therefore, realise the importance of fitness not only for themselves but also for those that they bring into the world to delight their days on earth!

Parents do not have to breathe down the necks of their children to get them to exercise.

Children almost always learn by example. Seeing their parents exercise will in most cases inspire them to follow lead. Typical of this situation was what existed between my own Yoga teacher and his children.

He would tell me that because his children thought most of the ex-

ercises were funny, they would want to join in the fun by doing them too.

The end result being that his children of both genders became very good at doing the exercises, enjoying all the therapeutic benefits of the practices.

He would tell me, for instance, that none of his daughters suffered from period pains or had problems at child delivery. And, he would put all that down to their practice of Yoga.

After a few weeks of Yoga classes, I once told

a group of ladies that one of the benefits of the head-to-knee posture was that of painless periods and one of them said, ‘’no wonder, I have not had to take pain relievers for some time now during my periods.

I see,’ I want the reader to know that this was an honest-to-God incidence.

For a good posture, which means an ab-

sence of a round back, the following exercise is to be practised.

Lie flat on the back raising the legs vertically and making sure the small of the back remains on the ground.

Now, while you breathe in, bring down the right leg to the right side of the body to touch the floor. Exhale and raise again upwards. Thrice in all.

Repeat with the left leg to the left side of the body.

For the stronger individuals doing the exercise with both legs at the same time is encouraged. This exercise will strengthen the spine and expel fatigue in the small of the back.

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

9.00am — 10.00am

Leg Raise

on Saturdays

P AGE 24—SUND AY Vanguard , OCTOBER 19 , 2014 SUNDA

bunmsof@yahoo.co.uk

08056180152,

SMS only

Is there a right time to leave a bad marriage?

W

ill the average p e r s o n experiencing problems in their relationships know whether or not to walk away? It goes without saying that divorce now is quick and with little rancour, single parenthood are on the increase and more men now opt for the single life despite the fact that eligible women are two a penny (seemingly). Yet, never before has there been that fear of uncertainty in abandoning a relationship that was obviously going nowhere than now. A few months, ago, I ran into a friend’s daughter and asked after her mother. Sheepishly, she told me it was a long time she saw her mother last as she was now living with her fiancee.

That would have been perfectly in order if it was what she wanted too. “I would have preferred for us to get married”, she shrugged, “but he doesn’t want to commit himself until I’m pregnant”.

What happens if she gets pregnant, gets married, and later has a miscarriage? Will the man abandon her some two years later if she can’t conceive again? These questions and lots more ran through m y mind but I didn’t want to make the poor girl more miserable than she already was.

She is currently hopping from one gynecologist to the other and when I asked her if the lover of her life had gone for a test too,k she said it wasn’t necessary as he’d already fathered a child.

I wanted to tell her that was no proof. That I knew a few ‘surrogate’ fathers who’d made a few ‘barren’ women mothers.

The legal fathers are none the wiser and the “

mothers are now free of criticisms and jibes from their in-laws. Their marriage seems to be on an even keel. The situation that gives a lot of concern is where the couples know that their marriage is lying on its back with its hooves virtually in the air but sit tight and hope that things will get better.

Unfortunately, they seldom do. Boma, a retired industrial nurse in her sixties now sits alone in her lovely house, wishing she’d had the common sense to kick her wayward husband out of their matrimonial home when she realised he was a bum despite the fact that he was a medical doctor.

“I had a very shrewd father who believed in putting a bit by for the rainy day ”, she said.

“When I was working after my training in England, he was always urging me to save and send whatever I could home so he could buy me

Y

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

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

I'm in love

The first time I heard you say the words, "I love

some property. His letter bothered on an irritation at times but his insistence goaded me into doing temporary jobs – and petty trading along with my regular job so I could send him money. He always made up for the balance and thanks to him, when we came back, I had a few plots of land here and there.

“My husband went into one of the armed forces and there was a house thrown in with his job, I got a good job too as an industrial nurse, and thanks to my family connections, I was able to get quite impressive contracts. In no time, at all, I had developed the two-plots I had in choice areas then sold the other plots to build another one house in Victoria Island.

My darling husband, in the meantime, was having the time of his life sampling the delight of the dames around him. It would have been alright if he hadn’t been

obsessively jealous. Any man I talked with was a potential lover and he was often violent with whoever he suspected.

I’ve lost count of the black eyes he gave me, the disgrace with which he’d marched me out of parties because he believed I was too friendly with men. There had been occasions, when he’d come to our official clinic to roughhandle senior colleagues I was attending to because he thought they’d come under the guise of having quickies with me in my office!

The man’s imagination was dangerously fertile.

“I was often regarded with pity and the children too were fearful of him. But as long as he had his Cognac and Benson, he was alright until he got drunk – then it was bedlam. When I left regular employment, I started travelling and he would pinch shoes, costume jewelry or any fanciful female things I

you", it was like I have been taken to Cloud 9 and I haven't gone down until now. Right after you uttered those words I asked myself, "Do I love you?", and as I look for the answer, I again asked: have you given me any reasons not to? No. I then realized that I have already fallen in love with you, and yes ... I am so in love with you!

CENT OBAMA +2348061379003

My love for you

If there's anybody I will give out my heart for a safe keeping and still found the heart ever fresh,vibrant and unchanged, it is you. Oh,my favour.

had to sell and give them to his girlfriends. I actually saw one of them wearing a set of jewelry and exclusive shoes that I’d earlier imported, but found missing, at a party and challenged hi. He called the lady over and boomed for everyone to hear that she should tell me where she got her shoes from as I thought they were mine. You can imagine the type of reactions we got from other guests.

“I had a few flings of my own, of course who wouldn’t under the circumstance? But I never had peace of mind and my kids didn’t have much respect for him.

When he died suddenly five years ago, I couldn’t believe the number of women that showed up as mothers of his children! There was even one spotting an advanced pregnancy! It was hard convincing them that the love of their lives was so busy enjoying life he didn’t even bother to buy a piece of land not to talk of building a house in spite of his connections.

Tongues are now wagging more furiously than ever before that I’d sat on the property my husband acquired in my name when he was a public officer, that I was denying his other children fund out of spite. Whereas, if I’d left when common sense dictated I should, all these wouldn’t have happened. How many accusers would I show documents!

“These days, I look at my married children and marvel at the ease with which they communicate with their spouses. I’m glad they’ve learnt from the harsh treatment I received from their father. Whenever any of

their friends tell of illtreatment they receive in their matrimonial homes and I tell them not to stick any abuse that could rob them of their pride, they look at me in wonder, believing old people like me should advocate matrimony at all costs.

Well I don’t You should always stick a situation, good or bad, as long as you’re comfortable with it.

Once you’re not, you should think of an alternative – otherwise you’ll be bitter for the rest of your life. ...”

Between father and son (Humour) A successful executive decides it’s time to make a man of his son so he takes him down to the local brothel. The son disappears into a room with one of the girls while he waits outside – but can’t help listening through the door. Now the son is very well endowed and the girl gasps at the amazing sight. As they begin the business, he takes it very gently but the girl begs for more.

“Just put it in another inch”, she says and I’’ knock N500 off the price.

So he does but still she begs for more. “Another inch and I’’ knock off another N500", she informs him. And so it goes on, the girl is so delighted with the man’s performance that she promises to take off more and more money.

“Please, please”, she moans till eventually she cries, “a little bit more and it’s free”. Now all this time, the father has been listening outside the door and when he hears this, he bursts into the room and shouts, “Move over son, leave this to me. It’s time to make a profit”.

No human language can adequately convey the deep sentiment of my love for you because it is beyond estimation. Books indeed will be written to capture the entire gamut of my love for you.

Akachukwu Ferdinand.

08063819314

You are everything I need

Anytime I hear your voice I am always happy. I am so glad to have someone like you in life,you are everything I need in my life. Come with me to make better dream in our lives. I love you.

Peter Edet edetpeter74@gmail.com 08069201348

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014—PAGE 25

ALLEGED N20M DONATION FROM ASO ROCK

How they used Jonathan’s name to dupe us — UNIPORT students •Bid to honour NDDC boss leads to scam

I

S a top official of the Presidential Villa, Abuja (names withheld) involved in a case of extortion lodged by some students of University of Port-Harcourt (UNIPORT) and for which two suspects are now being held by the police, or was it simply a case of impersonation?

This is a puzzle for the police to resolve after the President of the National Association of Akwa Ibom State Students, (NAAKISS), Rivers State Chapter, and a law student of UNIPORT, Udo Odud Joseph, and his colleagues in the association, alleged that the top Aso Rock official’s name was used to extort them of N480,000.

The bait was the N20 million allegedly donated by President Goodluck Jonathan to NAAKISS in aid of the inauguration of the Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Sir Bassey Dan Abio, as the association’s Grand Patron.

Jonathan had been invited to the occasion as the Special Guest of Honour, and especially for appointing Abia, an Akwa Ibom indegene, as the NDDC chief helmsman.

The two suspects were said to have been arrested on Friday, September 19 by operatives at Asokoro Police Station, Abuja as they attempted to collect another N560,000, being the balance of the N950,000 described as public relations money to facilitate the C M Y K

*

release of the N20million allegedly donated to NAAKISS by the president, from their victims.

It was not clear if the suspects were still being kept by the police.

Sunday Vanguard also could not obtain their statements to the police.

Meanwhile, the top Aso Rock official, whose name was used in the scam, denied involvement.

A report on the alleged scam by the NAAKISS leader, Joseph, for the attention of Jonathan, was reportedly copied to the Chief Security Officer to Mr President, Mr Gordon Obua.

Obua could not be reached to comment on the matter at press time.

The report, according to a source, however, insinuated there might be an insider’s collaboration in Aso Rock in the scam, notwithstanding the top official’s denial of involvement.

The students association leader narrated their story in the 54paragraph report made available to Sunday Vanguard.

“I, on behalf of my association made a publication on Vanguard Newspaper of Monday, 11th August, 2014 on felicitation/ appointment of our illustrious son, Sir Bassey Dan Abia as our Grand Patron”, Joseph wrote.

He continued: “On Tuesday 12th August 2014, one Mr. Timi Ekiyo, who introduced himself as the Personal Assistant (PA) to the MD of NDDC called me.

“He said the MD of NDDC asked him to call me regarding the publication of our association

of Monday 11th August, 2014 to thank me. That I will be called later.

“After a week or so I called the said Timi Ekiyor and to ask him that the executive members of NAAKISS RSUST Chapter wanted to present a formal certificate of appointment to the NDDC MD as our Grand Patron.

“After some days, the PA (Timi Ekiyor) called and told me we should write formally and request

to grace the occasion.

“The DHL report of who received the letter of invitation of Mr. President: Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, as our Special Guest of Honour is hereby attached and marked exhibit 8. In the DHL report attached, is one Muyiwa that received the letter from the DHL personnel. From my conversation with the DHL personnel, I was made to understand that letter

,

By Wale Akinola

The two suspects were said to have been arrested on Friday, September 19 by operatives at Asokoro Police Station, Abuja as they attempted to collect another N560,000, being the balance of the N950,000 described as public relations money to facilitate the release of the N20million allegedly donated to NAAKISS by the president, from their victims

,

for audience but put the date not later than 14 days precisely 3rd of September, 2014.

I also sought the advice of the said PA (Mr. Timi Ekiyor) that we intended to invite dignitaries to grace the occasion for us. He asked me to carry him along.

“Since we expressed our thanks to Mr. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in our publication in newspaper for appointing our illustrious son, Dan Abia, as the MD of NDDC, we decided to invite Mr. President

from DHL is usually received at the pilot gate at the Villa, State House, Abuja.

“On 29th August 2014 somebody called me on phone.

He said our letter of invitation to Mr. President dated 18th August, 2014 had been received by the president. However, he said the president will not be able to attend the occasion because that date is a state council meeting day but he has approved N20m for the Association, as his own

support. “I then asked him: `who are you?’ He said he is a top Presidency official (names and designation withheld).

I further asked him: how do we get this support from Mr. President? He said we had to go through the Accountant -General of the Federation.

“The first thing I did was to inform one of our outside Patrons, Elder Justus Ekere, staying in Abuja to investigate for me the following information: (a)Whether there is a designation as that of the State House official. (b)If so, what is the name? ( c)Whether if the president makes this kind of support to the association, the official was supposed to be aware.

Our Patron, with the assistance of his friend who works in the Villa, confirmed the information to be true. .The following points made me to believe: (a)The caller pin pointed my letter of invitation to Mr. President dated 18th August, 2014 which was not published but sent through DHL and could not have been known by anybody except an insider. (b)The existence of the position of State House official which the caller said he is and was confirmed by our Patron Elder Justus Ekere with the help of his friend who works in the Villa to be true. (c )The name of the official

Continues on page 26

PAGE 26—SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

The prayer Nigeria needs ahead of 2015,

by Pastor Talabi •His soul winning quest at One Night with the King Crusade

P

ASTOR Ade Talabi is Senator Pastor of Christ Healing Evangelical Church, South Holland, Illinois, US. He flew into Nigeria last week ahead of the three – day crusade of the interdenominational ministry for soul winning, tagged, the Outpouring, and scheduled to start on Thursday at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. Billed to minister at the occasion are Dr Panam Percy Paul, Lady Evangelism Dupe Olulana and Dr Broda Martins, among others. “I believe that in this crusade, people will receive their healing, breakthroughs and blessings,”Talabi told Sunday Vanguard in an interview.

What is One Night with the King Crusade all about?

This is an interdenominational ministry called One Night with the

King Crusade Ministry. The ministry is sent to the nations for evangelism. Primarily the purpose of the ministry is to win souls for Christ.

Why must souls be won for Christ?

The scripture tells us that people have need for Christ. The Bible tells us that the gift of God to us in Christ. According to Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus commanded every believer to go into the world and evangelise, baptise the people with the holy spirit and teach them to observe the things that He has taught us. It is the Great Commission for every believer.

What do I gain as an individual for winning souls?

If someone comes to Christ, he has a new life and hope for heaven.

The Bible says God loved the world so much that he gave His only begotten son and whosoever

believes in him will not perish. Not only will you have a good life on earth but also everlasting life in heaven.

Inspite of the growing number of churches, you find that societal problems keep multiplying. Does it means our men of God aren’t doing much to affect the lives of the people?

The problem is that sometimes we pastors leave our primary purpose – that is, to preach the gospel. Preaching the gospel is the first stage to bring back the people back to God. Our crusade is primarily geared towards that purpose. The church and pastors sometimes engage in building up the individual. They have their roles as shepherds. However we must win people first to Christ. In 2010, as I was praying, He called us to the nations, He asked us to go and preach the gospel. That is the reason we are here in Nigeria.

So what is this crusade all about?

This ministry is run overseas. We have been asked by God to come to Nigeria. We have the local arm in Ketu, Lagos. This is a ministry that operates in North America, East Africa. In 2014, God has

*Talabi commanded us to come to Nigeria.

The crusade is tagged, The Outpouring, which signifies God’s intention to pour out His mercy, His miracles, His blessings upon all those who are oppressed.

So what do we expect at the crusade?

People should expect to meet Jesus Christ who is the Saviour of our souls, expect miracles, blessings, the outpouring of God’s Spirit and mercy. A lot of people have great needs – and the biggest need any man can have is Christ,

to know him as God and personal Saviour. I have personally seen people who have been healed from various kind of illnesses as a result of their seeking Him. I believe that in this crusade, people will receive their healing, breakthroughs and blessings. Great things will happen to a lot of people.

Who is Pastor Talabi?

Pastor Talabi is senior pastor of Christ Healing Evangelical Church, Chapel of Praise, US. I am a regional superintendent of Christ Evangelical Church in Europe and North America.

About 27 years ago after graduating from Yaba College of Technology and finishing my NYSC, I had the calling of God upon my life but I did not know that He was sending me out of the country. My wife and I were sent abroad as missionaries to reach out to the nations. So we have been pastoring for over 27 years. In 2010, the ministry called One Night With the King Crusade Ministry came into being.

We went preaching the gospel all over the US, Uganda, etc. Now it is the turn of Nigeria. So we are believing God to do great things.

Nigeria is due to elect, new leaders in 2015. What advice do you have for the people?

I am not a politician. However, first of all, need to pray for the country. Nigeria is the most populous nation in African, it is well known all over the world. I think we can do better than we are doing right now. Our leaders know that.

If politics is all about the people, it is time for our leaders to think more about the welfare of the people.

‘How they used Jonathan’s name to dupe us’ Continued from page 25 which the caller said is his name was also confirmed to be true. (d)That the official was in position to treat such case was also true and confirmed. (e)That the Accountant – General is also in position to pay the money.

‘PUBLIC RELATIONS’ “It was in line with this belief that I called the `official’ through the number he used to call me to guide me on how to go about collecting the N20m.

The ‘official’ told me that he knew that we are students and that it may not be easy for us to be coming from Port Harcourt to pursue the payment. He then informed me that he will help to arrange the payment, but we must do PR otherwise for one year that money will not reach our hands. I told him whatever is the PR they should deduct it from the N20m when they pay.

“The `official’ told me that in the Villa, every PR is paid cash.

That is because many people had shown untruthfulness to them.

After helping them to get what they want they show them their back.

“He told me that he would see what he could do but we should let

him find out how much PR the people wanted to bring out the support of Mr President to us.

“He then called me and told me that there were three offices involved for the file to pass through for payment: (a)The Chief Security Officer (CS0) (b)The Office of Accountant – General (c )The Office of the Director of Administration.

That these three offices, the PR is N950,000.00 .

He then said he will pay half of that money so that we also pay half. That when the N20m is paid we can re-emburse him for the half he paid and then we can appreciate him if we wanted for making things easier for us. He then said we should pay N480,000.

“He then sent the account number to me to pay, but the account holder’s name was not the name of the `official’ he said he is. I asked him that the account holder’s name is different from his name. He told me that the account holder’s name is the name of the personnel in Accountant – General office that will pay the money.

“I believed him and borrowed the money and paid in.

He started to communicate with me and asked me to prepare a proposal and bring to him.

I prepared a proposal comprising seven items which are listed in the letter titled: Expression of thanks/creation of legacy for remembrance purpose.

PROPOSAL “The `official’ then invited me to come to Abuja with the proposal to collect the N20m. I went with my Vice President. The cost of what we spent in Abuja is N450,000 which we borrowed to pay back when we returned with the hope that we will get the N20m support of Mr. President. “On reaching Abuja I called the `official’ who told me that I should wait as he was busy, that he will call us to come to the Villa when the N20m was ready.

He said he was going to meet the Accountant – General himself to tell him that the President and Vice of the association were in Abuja for the N20m, he should help.

“He called me again to say he was sorry as the Accountant – General said the PR we did was for the office staff. That his personal PR is N560,000.. I begged him that I was not informed when we left Port Harcourt, he should plead with the Accountant – General to pay us and deduct from there. He told me that he had earlier

informed me that people in the Villa do not agree on that because of their experience of how people showed their back when they get what they wanted.

“It was then I reported the matter to our Patron Elder Justus Ekere and he linked us with his friend in the Villa.

They then paved way for me to see the ‘official’ in person on Friday 19th of September, 2014.

“On entering the office of the `official’ I introduced my self as the president of the National Association of Akwa Ibom State Students Rivers State Chapter (RSUST). I told him that I came in respect of the appointment he gave me concerning the N20m support he informed me on phone that Mr. President donated to our association in respect of our invitation to him on the occasion of our formal presentation of certificate of appointment to Sir Bassey Dan Abia.

“He then told me that he was not aware of it. I brought out documents and showed him about the invitation of Mr. President and the number he usually used to communicate with me. He asked me to call the number in his office, which I did.

“The phone rang and the person who usually communicated with me in his name picked the phone

and asked me where I was. The authentic official told me that I could see that he was not the person that used to communicate with me. “I was disorganized but God gave me wisdom immediately. I went out of the official’s office and called the impersonator and told him that I called my people in Port Harcourt and told them what happened and they sent the N560,000 cash to me to ensure I pay him and come back with the N20m donation of Mr. President.

“He asked me where I was. I told him I was at First, Bank, A.Y.A. Asokoro Branch with the cash. But I was going to my hotel because I was afraid people may snatch the money from me. “He said he was sending his PA to come and collect the money and the proposal from me.

It was at that point the friend to our Patron went to Asokoro Police Station to get the police to arrest the impersonator while I was heading to my hotel to see him and played along with him until the police came.

“This was how we succeeded in arresting the impersonator’s PA who then led the police to arrest his boss. The two of them: the PA to the impersonator and the impersonator himself are in Asokoro Police Station, Abuja”.

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 27

Mariam Umar

‘Children heroes’ go to school!

BY FUNMI AJUMOBI

T

he future of any country lies on the values it places on making sure every child has access to education. Education is not only a right but a passport to human development. It opens doors and expands opportunities and freedoms.

It contributes to fostering peace, democracy and economic growth as well as improving health and reducing poverty.

Without a doubt, investing in children’s future is a key to ensuring economic salvation for the good of all.

That is why many renowned people have continued to clamour that all hands must be on deck, especially from those that are integral to the growth of the Nigerian child; namely schools, parents, religious societies, private organizations and government.

It is a general belief that government alone cannot do everything. It has to be with the support of stakeholders and that is why some states in Nigeria,

especially Lagos, which has witnessed rapid growth, encouraged public private partnership.

Keenly following the 21 awardees of the seven editions of the yearly Indomie Independence Day Award organized by DUFIL Prima Foods Plc since 2008, the company has gone beyond recognizing and celebrating acts of heroism in children by contributing its quota to the educational development of the Nigerian child. The awardees scholarship is deposited in a trust fund where it is accessed for their educational pursuit.

Little drops of water to the lives of these children by the makers of Indomie Noodle is already becoming an ocean. The testimonies of the awardees show that involving corporate organizations in educational development will reduce the present practice in the system that shifts to individual the burden of pursuing his education.

14-year-old Mariam Umar, a physically challenged girl, who lost her limbs from birth, pushed beyond

Wembly Uchenna

,

Funmilayo Bello

Treasure Obasi

She decided that she will use what she has to live a good life. She uses her legs to wash plates, clothes; drink and light stove if she wants to cook

,

limit of disability. She decided that she will use what she has to live a good life. She uses her legs to wash plates, clothes; drink and light stove if she wants to cook. Indomie did not only award the act of heroism with a plague but awarded her N1,000,000 to pursue her education. Today, Mariam is in JSS 1 in JUHEL ACADEMY, GOMBE doing well. Mariam said she has dreams to one day enter university and says the awarded money is what she is using to finance

her education.

Treasure Obasi, who has just finished writing her West Africa School Certificate Examination, was a third place winner in 2010. Indomie awarded her not knowing she lost her father few months before then.

The award, according to her, will make her achieve her dream in life as she will use the prize money to settle outstanding bills in school. Today, as a child that has passion in broadcasting, she is seeking admission into university to study mass communication.

Wembly Uchenna, a second place winner in 2009, was awarded N750,000 for saving a four-year-old trapped in the mud. Wembly has written his West Africa School Certificate Examination and has hope of gaining admission into Nigerian Defence Academy to study aeronautic engineering. He said the awarded money was deposited in a trust fund for him where he has access to whenever educational bills arise.

Funmilayo Bello, who won N1,000,000 as the first place winner in the 2012 edition for helping and caring for an abandoned baby with deformities, has just finished at Idia College Benin with impressive grades and hopes to study nursing at the tertiary level. She says winning has only made her more determined to help others when the need arises. She said the awarded money was deposited in a trust fund to withdraw for schooling expenses and to take care of the rescued baby (Zaccheus Bello) who she said was already pronouncing mummy.

This year award, which is the 7th edition, saw Aniema Udokang (15) from Cross River, as the winner. He saved an accident victim on IBB Way, Calabar; the 2nd place winner is 14year-old Semiya Modashiru, who also helped save the lives of two babies by apprehending and confronting a kidnapper at a bus park in Ogijo, Ikorodu, Lagos. The third prize went to 10-yr-old Bassey Itam who helped a boy bitten by a snake.

According to the keynote speaker at this year’s award night, Mrs. Olufunto Igun, Executive Director, Corona Schools Trust Council, said, “The future of any nation or entity lies heavily on the children, whatever legacy we pass on, whether good or bad could make or mar us as a nation.

We therefore must rise up to our responsibility as parents, guardians, school, and government to ensure that the right values are inculcated in the children.”

Addressing the winners as “the salvation for the nation’s future and the economy,” she charged more organizations to toe the line of Dufil Prima Foods by also contributing efforts similar to this, which is bound to ensure a more secure and blissful future for our kids.

The Group Managing Director, Dufil Prima Foods, Mr Deepak Singhal, in his welcome address, said awarding heroism in children is noteworthy as it seeks to fill the gap that exists in celebrating and rewarding the positive efforts, strong character, and achievements of many young children who have exhibited various acts of courage and heroism at one time or the other within the country.

According to Singhal, Dufil Prima Foods identified this gap in 2008 and decided to take up the challenge by not only recognizing these young heroes, but also providing scholarship opportunities for these children to achieve their educational pursuit in life.

PAGE 28—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

SUNDAY Vanguard,OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 29

.....CRIME AND NATIONAL SECURITY

THE RISE OF TERRORISM

‘How Boko Haram, Islamic State, others recruit fighters’ Aina

M

r. Eduardo Cue is the international affairs editor with the French network France24.

The Mexican born graduate of the School of Journalism, Colombia University, in this interview, relives his experience as an international journalist. He also speaks on terrorism.

Tell us about your journey in journalism and experiences.

I started in 1975 and I have had a very unique experience.

I began my career actually in Spain. I was working for the radio network of the Associate Press wire service. I was also working for Washington Star which was an afternoon paper published in Washington but died in 1980 or 1981. I was able to write a great deal about the Spanish transition from dictatorship to democracy. As a result of my work there, I was linked by the Washington Post where I worked for about two years covering local news at the metropolitan region of Washington DC. Then I went to UPI in New York. Later, I went to France to begin freelancing until I joined the TIMES of London where I was sent to cover South America. I came back and worked for a financial news agency, then went back to UPI in Paris, Brasseux. I finally joined the Mexican National Network Televisa in Washington. I am now with France 24.

Have you worked with any Nigeria media organisation?

I have not worked with any Nigerian media organization but I was here in 2007 at the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ) for one week where we did a week training program on the techniques of journalism reporting and writing. And this time, I’ve been here for a week and will still be going to Abuja What exactly brought you to NIJ? Like I said earlier, I was here in 2007 for one week and they wanted me to come back. And so this time, I talked about C M Y K

making serious gains; the group will not give up until it is pushed back and that will have to be through military means.

Again, the causes of terrorism are the same whether it is Nigeria or Syria or Iraq. But the issue is that the society should eliminate corruption to give young people hope, to improve health and education services.

When the government doesn’t respond to these basic needs of the population, then the way is opened for extremism.

topics that I think are very important especially for students of journalism so that they understand the important role journalism plays in democracies. We talked about journalism ethics which are important and improvements have to be made. We also spoke about politics and elections. I wanted to give them a perception of how people live. Generally speaking, journalist should work in a democracy and the values of fairness and equity.

Why Nigerian Institute of Journalism amongst other communication schools?

I have done the seminar in 32 African countries and I get invited usually by schools.

I get invited through the US embassy. The US embassy works with local journalism associations and with journalism schools and, when they want me to come, I come.

What happened this time was that I did a program for Paris on a DVC with a group of journalists about election coverage; and after that program, they asked me to come to Nigeria.

During your speech, you were talking specifically about terrorism in Nigeria.

Talking about Boko Haram, what do you think about the rise in terrorism?

It’s a combination of different factors. I think one of the factors is the tremendous poverty of the world. A lot of

,

By Iyabo

*Mr. Eduardo Cue... terrorism doesn’t respect human lives alternative. And terrorist groups have taken Islam and completely distort and interpret it. But a lot of young men heed the call to fighting jihad, “the holy war ”, and they feel in many ways that they are valued in the society that they live where they are totally alienated. They feel

The causes of terrorism are the same whether it is Nigeria or Syria or Iraq. But the issue is that the society should eliminate corruption to give young people hope, to improve health and education services

people live in abject poverty; when there is no hope, when there is no chance of improvement in the situation, people tend to search for the alternative and terrorism perhaps gives them that

,

they are not cared for, that they have no future and here they feel they are fighting for something holy, sacred and I think this is what attracts them.

It is happening in the West as well, there are certain

thousand Europeans who have joined the group such as ISIS and fighting in the Syrian civil war. But I think a lot of it comes from desperation in the case of Europe. Also, high unemployment is immeasurable, people believe the propaganda of these terrorist groups.

What do you think is the way out?

That is a difficult question. I think the way out is for people to understand that this terrorist group is exactly a terrorist group. That it doesn’t respect human lives. That it has an ideology that is insane, and that it does not represent in any shape or form the teachings of Islam. That is an abnormality and if people can come to understand, that would be one of the ways out.

But again the difficulty is that lots of the young people in this society have absolutely no future, no hope; so it’s a question of developing the society by easing out poverty or improving the living conditions. Boko Haram is

I learned you were once detained. Can you tell us about it?

Yes, that was a very long time ago. It’s really wasn’t a big thing. I was covering a demonstration that had not been authorized and I was arrested even though I had a press card. I thought I was going to be able to talk my way out of it but I couldn’t. And we were taken to jail. We were stripped, put against the wall, searched and put in a cell. It lasted like 17 or 18 hours.

How should the press maintain honesty with government regardless of their deceit?

That is the nature of politicians and political campaign. Politicians make as many promises as they can.

The journalist has to make sure that he challengse politicians, ask them how they want to keep the promises; ask how they, specifically, with details, going to resolve problems. It is not a question of being honest with government, it’s a question of doing your job honestly with everybody, whether with government, the opposition parties, the civic society or the economic powers.

Back to my previous question, did the incident affect you in anyway after you were released from jail?

The incident put a lot of publicity in the media. It was on the front page of Los Angeles Times and on the radio. But it didn’t really affect me in any way in the sense that maybe I don’t want to be a journalist anymore.

PAGE 30—SUNDAY Vanguard,OCTOBER 19, 2014

.....CRIME AND NATIONAL SECURITY

By FAVOUR NNABUGWU

area.

Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan welcomed the support provided by regional leaders in the efforts to combat Boko Haram.

“I believe that if we cooperate more and monitor our borders closely, the movement of criminals and terrorists as well as small arms and ammunition across our shared borders will also be drastically reduced,”Jonathan said.

The visiting ministers were accompanied to the Presidential Villa by Wali and the Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh.

The President said that

T

C M Y K

5-NATION ACTION PLAN AGAINST BOKO HARAM

‘One for all, all for one’ insurgent group in the subregion.

Wali said the ministers agreed on the need to put in place an appropriate legal framework for military operations against insurgents in the sub-region, in view of Resolution 1556 (2004) of the United Nations Security Council which considered terrorism as the greatest threat to international peace and security.

The minister, who addressed journalists after the meeting, expressed the determination to coordinate the MNJTF in the Lake Chad Basin and commended the pledges by the LCBC member-states and Benin Republic to deploy contingents along their common borders.

According to him, the LCBC states deliberated on the draft common resolution to the United Nations Security Council and the African Union. He added that they adopted the resolution and agreed to forward it to the Heads of State and Government of the LCBC member-states and Benin Republic.

“The ministers committed to the implementation of the decisions of the heads of state

and government on the establishment of the MNJTF Headquarters by November 20, 2014. The ministers committed to the deployment of the pledged contingents by the LCBC member-states and Benin Republic within their national borders by 1st November, 2014,” he stated.

Wali stated that the meeting requested Niger Republic to introduce the draft resolution

,

he existence of militant groups is not a new phenomenon in Africa but their increasing presence and violence has become a growing concern for countries in the continent. As a result of religious fundamentalism, tribal and ethnic tension, continued regional and political instability, and the extremist ideologies of groups to establish new states and reform old ones, Africa offers fertile ground for extremism.

This year alone, scores of people lost their lives in attacks orchestrated by terrorist groups in various regions of the continent. The main groups are Boko Haram in Nigeria, al-Shabab in Somalia and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), based in Algeria.

Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful”, is an Islamic jihadist organisation based in Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon.

Founded in 2001, the group is fighting to reform West Africa into an Islamic region ruled by Sharia law. It operates in a cell-like structure and is popular for its use of motorbikes. Their leader, Abubakar Shekau, who was said to been been killed but claimed he is still alive, has been deemed a global security threat by the United States.

Boko Haram is a diffuse, grassroots based radical insurgency that has waged a bloody campaign against the Nigerian state since 2010. It operates across northern Nigeria. It also traverses the porous borders into Niger, Cameroon, and even into Benin and Niger.

Five African countries, Nigeria, Cameroun, Chad, Niger and Republic of Benin, came together last week to fight terrorism together. They are determined to tackle terrorism in one of the countries all together using the pay off, ‘one for all, all for one’.

They, therefore, formed a Multinational Joint Task Force, MNJTF, to combat the activities of Boko Haram in any of the countries and agreed to send their troops to begin counter-terrorism operations against the group along their national borders on November 1, 2014 while they have concluded to establish MNJTF in Baga, a town in Kukawa Local Government Area of Borno State by November 20.

Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Aminu Wali, noted with deep regrets the continuous atrocities of the

The phenomenon of Boko Haram’s insurgency is complex, intriguing and not understood by many. And within the interstices of Boko Haram activities lay the criminal and political dimension of its character, activities and operations.

The world over, terrorists do society no good. They are harbinger of pains, sorrow, destruction and death.

This is the way to go because terrorism is something that requires cooperation and solidarity and collective action

to the Peace and Security Council of the AU, while the Republic of Chad, and Nigeria would introduce the resolution to the UNSC. “The ministers further directed their Permanent Representatives in New York and their Ambassadors in Addis Ababa to hold consultations with a view to ensuring the adoption of the resolution by the UNSC and AU, respectively,” he said.

,

Destruction, arson and kidnappings are increasingly becoming permanent features of terrorists in Nigeria.

In view of the cacophony of divergent figures of the dead and the plethora of criticisms, the military has lately made it sufficiently clear that Baga is open to local and international assessment. The MNJTF has shown readiness to provide security cover for individuals and groups willing to visit the

with their collective experience and professionalism, he expected the visiting ministers and their Nigerian counterpart to come up with an effective action plan for the successful implementation of the decisions reached by the leaders of Nigeria, Chad, Niger, Cameroon and Benin Republic.

His words: “This is the way to go because terrorism is something that requires cooperation and solidarity and collective action. This again is consistent with the outcome of the meeting in Niamey, which is a meeting Nigeria and its neighbors taking an assessment of the security situation and seeking to define a common strategy in the fight against terrorism within the region”.

The Lake Chad Basin Commission Heads of State and Government as well as the representatives of the Republic of Benin, also penultimate Tuesday, in Niamey, Niger Republic resolved to fight in synergy against Boko Haram wherever it rears its ugly head among the member states in the region.

On the outcome of the deployment of the MNJTF, Executive Secretary, Lake Chad Basin Commission, Engr. Sanusi Imran Abdullahi, said MUJTF “is to give us a tool for the fight against all forms of terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin and in the member countries or at least in the member countries that have signed this declaration at the extra ordinary summit.

“We are going to join security forces on military hard wares and the troops will work together on the borders of Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger, under a special task force unit”.

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 31

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SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 33

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PAGE 34—SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 35

L-R: The Chief Medical Director, First Consultans Hospital, Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri, and the Ebola survivors; Dr. Ada Igonoh and Dr. Akinniyi Fadipe .

AS NIGERIA BECOMES VIRUS-FREE TOMORROW.....

15 days of Ebola survivors horror in isolation centre! *First Consultants Hospital doctors tell their stories

By CHIOMA OBINNA AND GABRIEL OLAWALE

I

t is no longer news that Nigeria has not recorded any Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, case since the last Ebola patient was discharged from the isolation centre at the Infectious Disease Hospital, IDH, Mainland Hospital, Yaba, Lagos. What is news, however, is that many countries of the world are impressed about the strategies applied by Nigerian experts to contain the spread of the disease .

To this effect, Nigeria has received accolades from various organisations including the World Health C M Y K

Organisation, WHO. In fact, tomorrow, Nigeria will be officially declared by WHO Ebola-free.

Four of those who died were healthcare workers who treated Liberian government official, Patrick Sawyer, who brought the virus into the country from Monrovia.

Most of the victims were from First Consultants Hospital where Sawyer was admitted. Sunday Vanguard was at the hospital alongside some WHO representatives who were there to get first hand information on how the personnel managed the Ebola crisis. The doctors gave vivid accounts of how they survived and the

I took banana with the aim of increasing my potassium level because I knew that due to the diarrhoea involved, I had lost a lot of body fluid therapies that worked for them.

According to them, some of the therapies they undertook through the 15 days period in the isolation centre in Lagos were not easy. They said they took Paracetamol and consumed 4.5 litres of Oral Rehydration Solution,

ORS, daily Their heart- rendering stories:

I was determined to survive

*Igonoh

— Igonoh “A couple of days after Mr. Sawyer died, I started to feel unwell but I didn’t have Continues on page 36

PAGE 36 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

15 days of Ebola survivors horror in isolation centre!

Continued from page 35 fever; so I thought it was as a result of stress. I had joint pains, general feeling of unwellness. However, soon I developed fever and that was when my blood sample was taken for investigation and I was confirmed to be positive to EVD. I was taken to the isolation centre at IDH, Yaba where I was attended to by Dr. David who was contacted by our Chief Medical Doctor, Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri, because he was an Ebola specialist.

He told me that 90 per cent of the treatment will be solely dependent on me and I needed to do whatever he asked me to do which was to remain hydrated, to rehydrate and monitor the fluid loss arising from the diarrhoea and vomiting. And no matter how bad I felt, he said, I should take the oral re-hydration which he mixed for me and told me how to mix it and I started mixing it by myself ”, Dr. Adah Igonoh, one of the doctors who treated Patrick Sawyer, said.

For the young beautiful doctor, it was an emotional period for the members of staff at First Consultants Hospital, because some were kept in the hospital and some at the isolation centre.

“Although, we were separated, we were all in it together. We received prayer support and materials from our colleagues”, she stated.

She continued: “It was a matter of strong will to survive because you shouldn’t give up on yourself. I knew I had to do what I was asked to do, take the medication, oral rehydration solution, Paracetamol for pains. I continued to take this until the diarrhoea and vomiting stopped.

“I took banana with the aim of increasing my potassium level because I knew that due to the diarrhoea involved, I had lost a lot of body fluid and there was no means to check my electrolyte level because many tests that should have been done were not done because, Lagos State government was not prepared to cater for the situation at the early stage.

So, gradually, volunteers came to help because initially it was only Dr. David who was doing everything.

The pressure was too much C M Y K

*Health workers attending to an Ebola patient

I think when I contracted the disease was when I opened the door to the room where Sawyer was admitted. I wasn’t that close to him. In his room, there were two beds and I was only communicating with him from a distance for him because he also had to limit contact and there was a number of times he should come in on daily basis.

“But when volunteers came to assist, the treatment got better and there was a lot of improvement and we were moved to a better isolation centre where we were properly catered for.

“My CMD sent us supplies, such as Vitamin C, anti-malaria drugs, tissue paper, buckets, bathroom slippers, diapers, all the basic things that we did not have the first time we came to the hospital.

“I had fever, vomiting and diarrhoea. For the fever, I was given Paracetamol which was supplied by Dr. Ohiaeri, and I was given oral rehydro solution which Dr. David had already told me

about when I first came to the isolation centre, he told me I had to consume at least 4.5 litres a day regardless of how I felt.

“My urine initially was dark. I was told to drink more electrolytes until my urine got lighter.

What kept me throughout my staying in that isolation centre was my belief that I will survive. Initially when I started taking the Paracetamol, the fever was not going down. My temperature was around 38.6. Sometimes, it will come down to 38.4 which did not make any sense. The reason for taking Paracetamol was not to bring the fever down but to relieve the body ache and pains.

“The ORS, I was supposed to consume 4.5 litres. So my

*Fadipe strategy was to have a bottle on my hand, as soon as I vomit, I will drink it. Once I visit the bathroom, I must go with the ORS. The secret is that you must not be lazy in drinking the ORS”.

Compliance with doctor’s instruction was the only way out — Fadipe “Ebola is an illness that requires commitment to the cause, you must be determined to fight the

battle”, another survivor, Dr. Akinniyi Fadipe, also of First Consultants Hospital, said..

“I think when I contracted the disease was when I opened the door to the room where Sawyer was admitted.

I wasn’t that close to him. In his room, there were two beds and I was only communicating with him from a distance and I washed my hands each time I had conversation with him”, he narrated.

“I never knew that from that point I could contract the disease. We were thinking that by August when the incubation period would have been over, we will all celebrate not knowing that almost all of us will be infected with the deadly virus. As time went on, I started feeling sick and I took my temperature which was very high. The following day, I decided to go to a laboratory to run a test. I wished it was malaria but when the result came out it was written in capital letters that malaria was negative.

“When I got home, I checked my temperature again, it was high. That was the point I contacted the ministry of health and they Continues on page 37

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 37

Galileo boards technology will 15 days of Ebola survivors boost students' ability to code applications — Intel

horror in isolation centre! came and pick me up.

When I started manifesting the symptoms I knew it was Ebola, but I had read in the papers that it was possible for people exposed to the virus to survive; so I made up my mind to fight it.

“I was taken from the hospital to the isolation centre. My parents were not happy because they thought I was taking steps towards death.

Getting to the isolation centre, I spent a lot of hours inside the ambulance. Later, Dr. David took my blood samples and kept me in a room.

“When I got to that room I knew Nigeria was not in any way prepared for Ebola.

The environment was dirty you could not even describe the bed there as bed. At a point, I was asking Dr. David where will I stay, and where was the rest room? And where he pointed to me I doubted whether I will survive because the environment was not going to in anyway help my recovery.

“The 15 days I spent at the isolation centre, I experienced frequent vomiting, diarrhoea, fever, pains and there was a particular time I felt I was going to succumb to Ebola.

“This was particularly so when I remembered that before the ECOWAS guy died, he was doing well at a point.

“I remember they will bring food to us to eat; he was the only one taking solid food.

He would ask for Semovita, but all of a sudden, he said he was not taking those things again.

“When he stopped taking ORS, one particular night, precisely on August 15, I called a nurse to come and look at him, that was the day he died. His sudden

death made me to shiver. I was afraid. I was shaking and I asked myself whether this was how Ebola was going to be taking us one-by-one?

“One scary thing that happened to me was when rashes came out of my body; red spots but to God be the glory, they disappeared the following day.

“What actually helped us was the fact that we are medical personnel and we understood the fact that compliance with the doctor’s instruction was the only way out.

“The absence of doctors at the isolation centre at the early stage of Ebola outbreak did not help some people. If things had been different, probably those who came there before I was admitted might not have died.

“I was happy when

Medical Director, First Consultants Hospital

“Mr. Patrick Sawyer came to Nigeria with Ebola Virus Disease.

The medical team at First Consultants Hospital, led by one of the best physicians this country would ever produce, Dr. Ameyo Adadevoh, detected after 24 hours that it was possible that this man had Ebola virus subject to confirmation”, Dr. Benjamin Ohiaeri, Chief Medical Consultant at First Consultants Hospital, said..

“We have always had one of the best personnel.

One of the greatest challenges of the Ebola virus saga was when Mr. Sawyer said he needed to be discharged. He said he

On the day I was discharged, August 18, some people came around asking us about stigmatisation, whether we would be able to go back to work. I told them I was not scared of stigmatisation.

Concerning my belongings that were burnt, promises were made, but up till now nothing came out of those promises we were moved to a new site, it was perfect.

Later, everything got better. During that time I became closer to God. On the day I was discharged, August 18, some people came around asking us about stigmatisation, whether we would be able to go back to work. I told them I was not scared of stigmatisation.

Concerning my belongings that were burnt, promises were made, but up till now nothing came out of those promises.

When I left the centre my family members received me and threw a party for me”.

Our greatest challenge Ohiaeri, Chief

was not going to wait for any test to be done.

To do a test is one thing and the time the result is going to come out is another. So we had 48 hours window between when we did the test and when the result will come out.

“We lost four of our key staff. We were not prepared. More awareness still needs to focus on hygienic life style. However, we have paid the price.

The fight is not over.

In a few days time, Nigeria will be declared Ebola free but awareness needs to continue because now it is Ebola; something else may come tomorrow; whatever it is, you (WHO) must support us”.

R

ECENTLY, eight N i g e r i a n universities received Galileo boards from Intel Corporation as part of the chip maker’s strategy to encourage research and developments in Information and Communications Technology in the Nigerian educational system. The Corporate Affairs Group Director, Intel Africa, Mr. Moise Adams Leye, in this interview with Vanguard explained why Nigerian Universities should embrace the technology as enabler for innovations while strengthening student’s ability to code applications.

He said that the idea is to encourage learning and creating things that solve challenges.

Excerpt?

HY Intel Galileo boards We decided that the technology should enable people to create solutions, enable people to create things either for the good of the society or simply for the fun of being involved in innovation. This passion is shared amongst our staff.

The board is a small electronic device which enables students to develop prototype applications in engineering, computing or other simple activities such as controlling a robot or controlling lighting

W

,

Continued from page 36

BY EMEKA AGINAM

•Mr. Moise Adams Leye universities. This is just our push for the time being.

Universities apply depending on what their applications..

The allocation is done country by country. And within the same country, we provide the same board to each university. There is no hard and fast rule. It depends on the capacity of each university to not only use the board but also spread their knowledge, activities and the products.

What Intel does is really about seeding. We showed interest in the activities of these universities. We have showed interest in their activities in the sort of initiatives that the universities can do with those boards and then expect these universities to replicate the activities and spread the word.

Having the board included in the curriculum of higher education, and

In the next few decades, Africa will need to create up to 200 million jobs for young people coming out of the educational systems

systems from smart phones.

We are taking it to every continent and country where our technology is available so that people create their own applications and devices. It is our way of enabling people to be innovative and to create applications.

Cost of the boards The cost of the board ranges from $50 for one board. It varies from country to country depending on the cost of shipping and customs and other cost factors. That said, it is very affordable in all the countries that we have introduced it to including Nigeria.

Allocation to Universities Based on the application and capacity, we are giving out 140 to the beneficiary

,

that of computer sciences is what we really want to see happening in the near future so that more students can take advantage of that ability to create programmes and to code applications and devices, using our board.

This is a donation programme of up to 50, 000 for universities that applied qualified for automatic donation. This is the first phase of our plan that will see Intel donate 50, 000 boards. This was initiated this year.

Expectations What we expect is for these universities to discover what the board can do, to familiarize themselves with the technology, to get involved, for those who are able to participate in the workshop

we are planning to organize so that they can understand what we have done with the board. We expect them to interact with the very advanced specialist who would be able to showcase some examples of applications that can be developed with the board and together build a comprehensive curriculum.

The curriculum can then be shared among higher education institutions in Africa, in Nigeria, so that all students, perhaps using that curriculum embedded in their own training will be able to take advantage of it.

Beyond that, we will really be excited to see students getting involved in that to make a movement. This is because that is where the innovation starts. It is when they take it upon themselves to build their own applications, to use their own creativity.

In the next few decades, Africa will need to create up to 200 million jobs for young people coming out of the educational systems.

Those jobs will only be created when we are able to drive our own innovations, create companies, products and solutions. Importing everything is not sustainable.

Subsidizing the cost of the boards We do not have plans to subsidize the boards. The price of the board itself is globally pretty reasonable.

It is not an expensive device. And it is a device that can be shared.

Commitment to Nigeria, African market We are committed in many different ways. First of all, by our presence, in our coverage; the fact that we are involved in campaigns and we are involved in long run; we invest in local staff.

We believe in building local capacities as opposed to importing foreign experts for example.

PAGE 38—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA

How to make banks listen to farmers, by World Bank chief

BY JIMOH BABATUNDE

On his take from the AGRF 2014 and the benefit to small holder farmers This forum has done some few things. Number one, it has elevated the fact that climate change is real and has enormous impacts on agriculture in Africa. Number two, it has elevated the fact that climate smart agriculture is crucial to addressing the twin problems of food insecurity and climate change. Number three, this forum has also made us aware that smallholder farmers must be at the centre of agricultural development policies. They produce 80% of the food we eat in Africa , so they need support, public and private to move agriculture forward, to improve productivity and reduce poverty in Africa.

T

HE Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) recently released its annual African Agriculture Status Report which focused on climate change and climatesmart agriculture at the 2104 African Green Revolution Forum held in Addis Abba, Ethiopia.

A Nigerian, Dr. Ademola Braimoh, a senior natural resources management specialist with the World Bank, was part of the team which worked on the report. Braimoh, whose principal area of focus is climate smart agriculture, spoke with Sunday Vanguard after the presentation of the report.

On what Climate Smart Agriculture is all about Climate Smart Agriculture does three things. It increases agricultural productivity through improved agricultural practices. Two, it enhances adaptation and the resilience of the agricultural sector to climate change; and three, it reduces greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. So three things: increases productivity, enhances resilience and reduces greenhouse gas emission as well as increases carbon in soils and biomass. I should also mention that managing climate risk is central to climate smart agriculture. And of course you have to plan and help farmers make the necessary adaptation to farming systems.

On how it increases productivity Climate Smart Agriculture increases productivity in a sustainable manner through proven agricultural technologies. One of them is integrated soil fertility management. This means you combine improved seeds, inorganic and organic fertiliser, with good water management. It has proven to increase yields substantially for farmers.

We also have agroforestry – a situation in which you combine trees – those trees might actually be fruit trees – with annual crops like maize, sorghum or millet or pasture on the same land. Agroforestry combines agricultural and forestry technologies to create more diverse, productive, profitable, and sustainable land-use systems.

Another example of Climate Smart Agriculture is conservation farming, This entails the use of crops residues or cover crops, minimal soil disturbance, as well as use of crop rotation. Crop rotation is the deliberate order of specific crops sown on the same field, for instance maize or sorghum followed by legumes. These three things taken together are collectively referred to as conservation farming.

On the success stories of the Climate Smart Agriculture Climate Smart Agriculture has been applied in many parts of the world including Nigeria. We have

that help them to improve the production of high value crops, because if they are able to market high value crops their incomes will improve and life will be better. So rather than just encouraging faster rural –urban migration, we should rather encourage faster and quicker rural development.

From left: Dr. Ademola Braimoh with Dr. David Ameyaw and Dr. James Kinyangi at the press briefing heralding the launch of the 2014 African Agriculture Status Report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) held at the Africa Union building, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. example of agroforestry and conservation agriculture in Zambia. In Niger farmer managed natural regeneration has helped to rehabilitate land expanse of degraded land. We also have examples in Ethiopia through the sustainable land management program.

Integrated Soil Fertility Management is embedded in Soil Health Programs across Africa. In all of these places, we have seen increases in yields and improvement in environmental conservation. Erosion has decreased drastically and these are all good examples of Climate Smart Agriculture in different environment. And of course, in Nigeria there is the Climate Resilient Development, and National Agricultural Resilience Framework (NARF) that articulate the strategies to reduce food and nutrition vulnerability whilst enhancing environmental resilience. These are based on climate-smart principles. However, there is an urgently the need to rapidly scale up these technologies given the magnitude of food security and climate change problems in Africa.

On the growth of agriculture in Africa on this scenario When you are talking about climate change, you see it just adds a new dimension to the challenges that farmers face. Let us start with the problems that we are used to like soil fertility; access to improved seeds; access to fertilizers; access to markets; and access to storage facilities.

When you take all of these problems and add climate change, then the problems multiply. Climate change means increased weather variability. A situation where farmers will now be operating under conditions they were never used to. Rains may come early sometimes, delay at other times and the pattern might be so erratic that the farmers will not just know what to do. There will be

increased risks due to increased frequency of droughts and flooding as witnessed in Nigeria in 2012.

Climate change means higher frequency of failed seasons, that is, a situation where more human efforts have been expended than the yields harvested from farmlands. That is not pleasant for the farmers at all. It means that their income will reduce; it means food security will be significantly curtailed. As a result of climate change, there will be high temperature at times; more than enough for crops and humans to cope with.

E s t i m a t e s b y researchers indicate that for

food insecure. So that is a significant problem for the region.

You know that poverty will also increase, because when agriculture yields go down, when agricultural performance goes down, it also means that rural poverty will increase. You know that poverty reduction is very much linked to agricultural growth in Africa.

In fact, growth in the agricultural sector has been found out to be two to four times more effective in lifting people out of poverty compared to growth in other sectors like mining and other industrial activities. So if governments want to invest in

If governments want to invest in development and poverty reduction, they should consider Climate Smart Agriculture every one degree Celsius rise in global warming, yields can decrease by as much as 5%. This means a lot as far as income and food security is concerned.

Taken together, climate change will have severe consequences.

One, it will lead to food insecurity, just like I mentioned. It also means that economic growth will be significantly curtailed because if agriculture remains stagnant, Africa will not grow.

That is what we are talking about here and that is what climate change will cause. And when you talk about the whole of subSaharan Africa generally, currently we have about 240 million that are food insecure, by the time we get to 2050 and if we do nothing we will have over 300 million more people that will be

development and poverty reduction, they should consider Climate Smart Agriculture.

On the position of smallholder farmers in this The smallholder farmers are very important; they are in the rural set up and when they have difficulties they tend to migrate to urban areas. But what we have found out is that rural-urban migration is not a guaranteed pathway to moving out of poverty.

What we need to do is to place smallholder farmers at the centre of policy development. What can we do to help them? Create policies that help them to increase yields and access markets; create policies that provide non-farm employments in the rural areas; create policies

On institutionalizing agriculture policies in Africa Let me commend the Nigeria’s Agriculture Minister, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, for the work he is doing, and the President of Nigeria for giving him the support to transform the agricultural sector. We have seen changes in the way farmers access inputs, we have seen changes in the storage of agricultural produce and other infrastructure needed for agriculture to grow. So what do we do to continue? There are other areas where we need improvement. We are talking of smallholder farmers, to what extent do they have access to credits? Not many of them have access to credit because they simply do not have the type of collateral that banks require.

This is one of the areas in which policies can do better. Also, can we also create institutions in which farmers are empowered not like cooperatives, but like companies that can access funds from the banks? Banks will listen to companies more than cooperatives. We have so many agricultural cooperatives in Nigeria, but how many of them do banks listen to? In terms of research, climate change will mean that we create a new paradigm for research. We have to strengthen our research institutes to make sure that new crop and livestock varieties that can withstand the challenge of climate change are bred. Then also in the livestock sector, we have to promote competitiveness in terms of dairy and other livestock products. There must be marked improvements across the value chain and we must also emit less greenhouse gas per unit of product. We need to build our institutions, develop their technical capacities, so that they are able to compete favourably.

On GMO We have to nationally evaluate GMOs and go for the ones that are compatible with our needs. There are well established standards for carrying out the evaluation.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 39

Problems crippling manufacturing in Nigeria,

by Ibikunle, IPWA Plc MD *‘Our stand on anti-bank loans defaulters court’

BY UDEME CLEMENT

P

OWER infrastructure has been a major challenge facing Nigeria’s economy, even as privatisation of the power sector is yet to yield the desired result to resolve perennial electricity shortage in the country.

Currently, the power generation capacity stands at between 4,000 and 5,000mega watts, which is quite insufficient for a population of over 160million. To further improve power supply and sustainability, the Federal Government has approved N3.9billion for power transmission infrastructure.

This came few weeks after the National Economic Council (NEC) approved N1.3billion for manpower development and training of 3,700 people under the National Power Sector Apprenticeship Scheme (NAPSAS). The managing director, IPWA Plc, manufacturers of industrial coatings, marine and building paints, also the Chairman, Paints Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Tella Sulaimon Ibikunle, in this interview, spoke on the measures government must put in place to revamp the sector, the need for government to grant manufacturers licenses for independent power generation and the demand for a commercial court by Bank of Industry (BoI) to tackle non-settlement of bank loans.

Government approved N3.9billion for power transmission infrastructure weeks after the approval of N1.3billion for manpower development and training of 3,700 people under National Power Sector Apprenticeship Scheme (NAPSAS). Why is government still spending so much money on power projects after privatising the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN)?

What is happening to the economy and the power sector inclusive is lack of political stability in our system. For our economy to achieve optimum growth, there must be stability to enhance sustainability both in the medium term and long-run expectation. The greatest challenge, especially for the industrial sector, is power crisis, which is why local manufacturers cannot compete with their foreign counterparts. For instance, a company can run its plant 16 hours a day on generator. In fact, Nigerians should be able to challenge the electricity distribution companies for poor services.

They give us estimated bills instead of pre-paid meters that we ought to use. For instance, last month they gave us at IPWA an estimated bill of over N600,000 for the month. You can imagine that huge amount for a manufacturing firm for one month, even when electricity supply is not stable. Other manufacturers are paying similar

Mr. Tella Sulaimon Ibikunle

Government should grant manufacturers licenses to generate their own power, because refusal to give us approval to generate electricity for our own use is affecting our operations electricity bills, yet they spend so much buying diesel on daily basis to power their generators.

Looking at the way things are going, it appears as if government’s effort to resuscitate the sector is not making positive impact. What is your take on this?

I believe government does not have information about the true picture of the industry.

Government is trying but the barriers are with those handling government projects. Some of them are conscientious while others are not. Look at the Local Content Act for example, government came up with the policy for local industries to thrive, but implementation is the issue now.

As a manufacturer and major player in the industrial sector, what exactly do you think government should do to turn around the sector?

It is very simple. Government should grant manufacturers licenses to generate their own power, because refusal to give us approval to generate electricity for our own use is affecting our operations. Aside from that, each state should generate its own power, rather than depending on the Federal Government. The 36 states must be involved in

electricity generation and distribution for us to have constant power supply.

Generally, the power sector should be flexible like telecommunications. When GSM started in Nigeria over 10 years ago, I bought a SIM card for about N45,000 but today, it is free because different companies were given the opportunity to come into the sector to invest.

The question is, why is government still spending so much money after privatisation of PHCN? Apart from power crisis, insecurity in the country is affecting many manufacturers.

For example, Vita-Foam has a manufacturing plant in Jos, which has been closed due to insecurity in the northern region.

In fact, the last bomb blast in Kaduna was very close to our depot. In Niger-rite, the managing director was kidnapped along with his wife.

Yet, the people perpetuating this evil live within the same economic environment we operate. The Bank of Industry (BoI) is demanding the establishment of a commercial court to tackle the issue of nonsettlement of bank loans. Why do some entrepreneurs take credit facility from BoI and are not willing to pay back?

The issue is that any

entrepreneur taking loan from a financial institution has a proposed business plan in place and works towards achieving such objective within a specific period. But the problem now is, what if the entrepreneur is unable to achieve that plan? So, the reality is that a manufacturer may have a good business plan but, at the end, he is not able to improve his margin due to some constraints arising from dearth of infrastructure to harsh operating environment. So, we need a condusive operating environment and adequate infrastructure for industries to grow. I believe government will have a way of addressing the issue brought up by BoI. Currently, the manufacturing sector contributes less than 10 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). What do you think is fundamentally wrong with this sector?

The problems facing the sector are numerous as I explained earlier. Government should look inward to ascertain the real picture of the industry in order to fine lasting solution to the problems. Also, the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), should be adequately funded and equipped with standard laboratories for products testing and subsequent certification.

For instance, for a locally made product to be accepted in the international market like Europe, the product must meet specific quality certification in European standard. For the paint industry, it requires a lot of money for our products to get European certification.

Can you give us statistics in Naira and Kobo on how much a locally made paint product needs to get European quality certification?

This means the company making the product must spend

as much as $50.000. This translates to about N8.5million for certification of just one product to meet acceptable European quality standard. Only few local companies can afford this huge amount. That is why SON needs to be provided with central laboratories for testing of local products to meet international standard. Another thing we must realise is that some locally made products are far better than foreign or imported goods. So, the consumers need to look inward and patronise Nigerian products for our industries to thrive.

With enormous challenges facing the sector at present, how do you raise fund to stay afloat in business?

Well, at the moment, the company has a workforce of over 152,000 staff and women constitute 30 percent of our staff strength.

We have good machines and technical-knowhow. What is lacking is sufficient working capital. Due to the economic climate, we have not been able to raise money from the Stock Exchange but we hired a consultant to see how we can raise funds through private placement either local or foreign.

What is the difference between getting loan from a commercial bank and a private placement?

Getting money from a private placement either local or foreign is good for a manufacturing firm because it is a long term money with a payment period of between 7 to 10 years. Also, the interest rate is single digit, which is less than 5 percent. This kind of facility allows a company to get into full production circle and continues in business for many years before paying back the loan. In order words, it allows for long term production and stability before the company begins to pay back the money, while the interest rate from a commercial bank is as high as 25 percent and the pay back period is very short.

Customs rake In N21bn revenue at Tincan port in August

BY IFEYINWA OBI

N

IGERIA Customs Service, Tincan Island Port command in Lagos, said it collected N21.2 billion revenue in August, 2014.

The command said that the collection during the month dropped by N2.2 billion from the N23.4 billion it collected in July.

The revenue profile of the command during the period is contained in a statement released in Lagos by its Public Relations Officer, PRO, Mr Chris Osunkwo.

The monthly revenue collected by the command has been fluctuating since the beginning of the year.

According to the statement, the command collected N21.5 billion in January, N21.6 billion in February, N16.6 billion in March, N26.3 billion in April, N26.5 billion in May, and N26.1

billion in June.

It attributed the fluctuation in revenue collected by the command in the months to “manmade” issues.

“We have been lamenting the poor state of the ports’ access roads. We believe that the deplorable state of the roads can lead to a drop in accruable revenue into government coffers,” Osukwo said.

He however stated that the command had begun to gradually recover from the impact of poor state of the ports’ access roads on its operations.

He further disclosed that a 40feet container loaded with rugs, used tyres, used clothes, shoes, vegetable oil, carpets and rice which contravenes the imports rules was impounded by the command in August, adding that 15 suspects were arrested in connection with the seizures.

PAGE 40—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Brand Jonathan (2) “… Before I forget, it pained me hard, that the Late Dr.Adadevoh who stopped Sawyer of Liberia from killing us all with ebola was not one of those honoured at the last national honours award. Bernard, please stop talking to me about patriotism, as the Nigerian nation honour only those that are not honourable”. Unanimous. like to think the theory of SOCIAL CONTRACT is a carry-over from the not-aspopular terms of contractual engagement between a consumer and a brand. In one of our earlier articles on nation-state as a brand, we did establish the interrelationship between both considerations; on the one hand, the brand, by reason of its offer, makes certain promises by which it is responsible to the consumer.

It is on the basis of the brand’s promise/offer the consumer engages (with) the brand.

In terms of competition, as among alternative leadership camps in a political system, it is on the basis of persuasive presentation, and the TRUST infused in making promises, that the consumer engages a given brand as against the competition or possible alternative(s).

Taking from the target consumer ’s choice from among available alternatives, he/she projects into a futuristic experience that unveils at brand usage, it remains for the chosen brand to deliver on its promise.

As in political setting, it is the responsibility of the brand of choice, to earn the trust of its target consumer. By reason of the consumer’s decision to invest his/ her funds in the purchase of the given brand, as invited by the promises the brand makes, both parties enter into a definite contract (in this case let us use commercial contract). The consumer ’s payment for the chosen brand is a VOTE for that brand as against competing other brands.

In brand management, consumer experience is key and fundamental. As a deciding factor, the consumer’s experience determines whether the brand will succeed in the market place or not.

We all look out for the consumer’s experience, as brand managers. If the consumer is happy as a result of the initial experience, the brand wins. If on the other hand, the consumer’s experience is negative, the brand might as well go to retirement. Simply put, the contract between the brand and the consumer is determined by the consumer’s experience.

The electorate’s vote is an investment.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, submits in his consideration of the need for a government, as separate from the sovereign (the populace), that …when the government exceeds the boundaries set in place by the people, it is the mission of the people to abolish such government, and begin anew.Suffice, therefore, there are set boundaries. In other words, there are expectations, as in the case of the Brand-Consumer relationship. In governance,

I

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ow, in the presence of this freedom in the po litical space, there is DEMOCRACY. I am not one to ascribe perfection in democratic system and operation to any one country or group of countries in the name of ‘developed world’. To me, time and chance happen to all men. Democracy can thrive everywhere in the globe, in so far as the system and operators permit it. In the first and second republic Nigeria, in comparative terms, I enjoyed some measure of democracy. Electorates could tell

what Awo block is stood for, as indeed the other political groups.

At worse, it was easy for electorate to make their choices based on INFORMATION from the political parties. In comparative terms, patriarchs of our democratic system are perfectionists, compared to what we have today.

That takes me to the brand

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such expectation are as determined clearly by the people who have invested their votes, as a representation of their individual rights, in establishing THE GOVERNMENT. Let us go back in consideration of the brand-consumer relationship. Here, there is a fundamental institution premise for co-relation, and that is FREEDOM of participation. In brand management this freedom is commonly referred to as free market or perfect market. The age-long theory of perfect market, underscore free competition, free (market) entry and exit, commonality of information (including price movement), presence of options, free choice and independence of purchase decision.

All of the above encapsulates consumer ’s freedom of choice and competitive environment among brands. In the face of this freedom, competition and freedom of choice thrive. It is this same freedom of choice that underlines political leadership and governance.

thing. It is a professional; one to be left to professionals. So far, this practice is not regulated, consequent upon which so many brand failures and their attendant impact on the aggregate economic growth of our economy. Perhaps it has not sank in the thinking of stakeholders, but let it be known that the consequence of engaging non-professionals in brand management goes that far.

This is one area some of us practitioners find the Advertising Practitioners’ Council of Nigeria (APCON) wanting. APCON should be effectively representative in regulating the practice of advertising (and indeed brand management) to the extent that non-professionals and non-registered practitioners are not allowed to render services in this market.

Managing political brands require deeper professional engagement than even the brands…the stakes are much higher, compared to commercial consideration. The team that managed political brands in the first and second republic demonstrated meaningful professional engagement with quantifiable value. In juxtaposition with what obtains today, brand management no longer exist. Professionals in political brand management and marketing communication in the days of real men like those that led us then, had and demonstrated a working understanding of the principles of communication, brand positioning, competitive analysis, target audience/market profiling, and brand performance measurement and evaluation. Then the political brands made clear the gaps in the market, structured their brand offerings to meet identified market needs, tailored promises to persuade patronage

Managing political brands require deeper professional engagement than even the brands…the stakes are much higher, compared to commercial consideration. The team that managed political brands in the first and second republic demonstrated meaningful professional engagement with quantifiable value

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management aspect of the responsibilities we owe to the success of our indigenous democratic system and process.

We once published a piece on the critical nature of brand managers, as a fundamental pre-requisite of successful brand management. In it we laid out the need for professional engagement and the dangers of engaging nonprofessionals. Let us state it here again in a nutshell as in all other defined professions, brand management is not an all-comers’

and stood to be accountable for the promises they made.

At every election and electioneering period, political parties presented carefully designed manifestoes. Those strategic documents represent brand profiles, in the commercial sense. The parties were sold and identified on the basis of their manifestoes.

Then we had strategic planners who worked tirelessly to position their parties.

There was service. Men and women worked to make the sys-

tem work; promises were made, the electorate was clear on the options available to them. Nobody worried about the election process management commission, like we do with our present INEC. The focus was on persuasive communication based on established manifesto. Then we had political parties prepare and execute political campaigns. We all remember the innovative way Awolowo reached out to the people in those day, including the use of helicopters, to create iconic references. He made impression that is indelible among Nigerians then.

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mong the promises Awolowo made then was FREE EDUCATION. Can any Nigerian alive today, from the age of 53 upwards, say he or she does not remember BRAND AWOLOWO? Preparatory to 2015 general election, the dance has started. I have an advice for political brand owners in the present dispensation: ENGAGE PROFESSIONALS. Leaving the management of your brand(s) to non-professionals (we know such assignments are considered freebies for political patrons and hangers-on), will only create more confusion and financial wastage.

I listened to two political messages in recent times that I will like to end this piece with: From the camp of the President, there is this message which theme is an endorsement of President GoodluckEbele Jonathan as the best President Nigeria ever had.

I do not want to concern myself with creative rationale for such theme or the strategic thinking behind such message, but the question I like those that developed that message is what is it they are communicating, to who and for what purpose…when Nigerians are faced with poor education (see last WAEC result, and JAMB scores), security is a major issue, economic development is only on paper, infrastructural development is still suspect, etc.

It cannot be said that the present administration has not tried in these areas, but the communication I heard did not take whatever gains so far made into consideration. I see what TAN is attempting, but one would not bother to follow their attempts because of poor planning and execution. It all boils down to professionalism.

On the hand, from Atiku’s camp, came a radio campaign I listened to. Of interest is the central theme of the message that met the following action standards: · Made as offer (says AtikuAbubakar offers himself to work for a better Nigeria) · Invited trial patronage (calls on well-meaning Nigerians to come join hands with him in his quest) · Made a promise (to make Nigeria one of the prosperous nations in the world – once again) We will leave our readers to decide which of these two messages is likely to be appropriately functional and effective, till next week.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014---PAGE 41 sameyoboka@yahoo.com

08023145567 (sms only)

$9.3m arms deal: `Questions Okotie must answer!'

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SENATORIAL aspir ant in Edo State, Mr. Egheomhanre Eyieyien in a letter addressed to the flamboyant General Overseer of Household of God Church, Rev. Chris Okotie, who had called for the resignation of the CAN president over the botched cash-for-arms deal, expressed disappointment about the uninformed comments credited to the respected man of God. The letter reads: "Dear Rev. Chris Okotie, "It is most disappointing reading your article on the botched Cash-For-Arms Deals. Could it be that you have not been following the issue in the media that you would write such a belated statement which has essentially been overtaken by events?

"Surely, you cannot be unaware that another $5.7m was seized by the South African Government and that the documentation for the botched transaction clearly showed that it was Col. Sambo Dasuki, the National Security Adviser, who signed the Cerificate of EndUser issued with regard to the transaction as was the case in the $9.3m deal.

The only "crime" those who are determined to politicise the issue have adduced to Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor is the fact that the airplane used in carrying the people who took the $9.3m

cash to South Africa is owned by him. As a lawyer, I am sure you would not ascribe culpability for a misdemeanor allegedly committed by a lessee of a vehicle to the owner of the vehicle which had been leased to another for charter services as was the case with Pastor Oristejafor's plane.

"Rev. Okotie, as a man of God and one who is known to be versed in Scriptures, does one need to remind you that a Christian ought not to rush to judgment; especially when the matter relates to an elder both in the faith and in the ministry? You have been most unfair to Pastor Oritsejafor and CAN. How is it possible for whoever is the CAN President to distance himself or herself from the President of Nigeria when there are several official state functions which include Church services at the Ecumenical Centre, Abuja, and at which the CAN President is always called upon to officiate? If you, Rev. Okotie, were the CAN President, would you boycott the Church Services which are held to celebrate Independence, Democracy Day, Armed Forces Remembrance Day etc.?

"It is a pity that your article has given yet another occasion for enemies of the Church of God to insult CAN and its President," Mr. Eyieyien stated.

From left Pastor Ronke Olusile; Pastor Iyabo Ladipo; Asst Pastor Yinka Almona and Mrs Amaka Mbonu, all members of Arise Committee at the press briefing on the forthcoming Annual Arise Women's Conference held at the Redeemed Christian Church of God, City of David, Oniru, Victoria Island, Lagos on Thursday. Photo Lamidi Bamidele

Mrs Clara Moritan, A.C.I.E making the donation to Mr Francis Ovi, Acting President General on behalf of Deeper Life Bible Church

GKS gives recipe for peace in the world

BY SAM EYOBOKA

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EACE and security will continue to elude the world unless world leaders make deliberate efforts to back off from the path of hypocrisy and insincerity and make the word of God their guiding principle, the God’s Kingdom Society has declared.

Addressing a large congregation at the Freedom Day celebrations, in honour of the birth of Christ, held at the GKS Service Hall at Kubwa, Abuja, chairman of the Executive Board of GKS, Brother Godwin Ifeacho regretted that whereas the leaders were effusive in declaring their commitments to peace, they were steeped in the very acts that gave rise to conflicts.

He spoke of the mindless violation of the laws of God and the no-holds-barred struggle for control of the limited resources of the world, adding that there is “so much selfishness, crime, drug abuse, poverty, kidnapping,

cultism, election rigging, corruption and stockpiling of arms, among the nations”.

In the address entitled: “How can the world attain true peace and safety?” Brother Ifeacho pointed out that the obstacles to peace were being erected by the religious, political and commercial elements in the world and quoted the words of St. Peter to wit “While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” (2 Peter 2:19).

He asserted in the address read on his behalf by the Station Minister, Brother Timothy Esimagbele, that it is a forlorn hope for people to expect peace in this world as that is the prerogative of God Almighty in His kingdom fully established.

The GKS leader referred to the words of the SecretaryGeneral of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki-Moon who declared at the observance of the World Peace Day on Sep-

tember 21, 2014 that “much remains to be done to douse the fires of extremism and tackle the root causes of conflict” and that “too many are suffering today at the brutal hands of war mongers and terrorists”. For the world to have relative peace the GKS said,

the people must have the accurate knowledge of God and the faith to act on what they have learnt. He said they must love their neighbours as themselves and be tolerant, long suffering, respectful and kind among other qualities which will enable them to be at peace

with one another.

The annual commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ in the month of October which the GKS designates as FREEDOM DAY is spread through all the Sundays in October and is marked by divine services, songs and dances.

Deeper Life donates education materials

BY AKPOKONA OMAFUAIRE

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EPRIEVE came the way

of Opete Community of Udu Council Area weekend when the Deeper Life Bible Church, Delta State headquarters donated education materials as part of the church's contribution to the community development.

Deeper Life State Pastor Obinna Nkemjika made the donation to the Udu Council Chief Inspector of Education, Mr. Michael Ogefere, represented by Mrs. Clara Moritan, Assistant Chief Education Officer on behalf of the church.

Njemjika represented by Pas-

tor Elijah Okpigben said that Opete community as the chief host to the Deeper Life High School has been of immense assistance to the Church institution.

He stated that aside the donation of 50 desks, books and writing materials for students of the community; the church has earlier donated a water project and N500,000 to the host community.

“Since the establishment of Deeper Life High School in Opete, the church has steadfastly demonstrated its commitment towards all round development and progress of the community. It is therefore in consonance with our unflinching commitment towards the

development of Opete Community that we are making the presentation of 50 classroom desks capable of sitting 150 students.

“We are also grateful to donate assorted notebooks, biros and pencils to make learning easy.

We would therefore like to use this medium to solicit for continued support and cooperation in ensuring that peace and tranquility continue to exist in the school and community,” he stated.

Mrs. Clara Moritan, Assistant Chief Education Officer on her part thanked the church and community, soliciting for protection of government projects in the town.

PAGE 42—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

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Jesus or Moses One major area where Jesus’ commandment is honoured more in the breach than in the observance is on the question of fighting and going to war. Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” (Matthew 5:38-39).

The person who prescribes an eye for an eye is Moses. (Exodus 21:23-25). Which one then is the word of God? Is it Moses’ “an eye for an eye”; or Jesus’ “turn the other cheek?” Obviously, the one contradicts the other. Since it cannot be both, then not everything in the bible is the word of God; and not every biblical injunction is of God. God himself prescribes the simple resolution of such contradictions in the bible. Differentiating at the Mount of Transfiguration between Jesus on the one hand, and Moses and Elijah on the other, God affirmed the supremacy of Jesus, saying: “This is my own dear Son, with whom I am pleased- listen to him!” (Mat-

SHOULD CHRISTIANS FIGHT WARS? thew 17:5). This means in any discrepancies in scripture, we are to listen only to Jesus; his word is absolute.

Jesus differentiates between his word and that of Moses. He says the word of Moses will pass away when heaven and earth passes away. (Matthew 5:18). However, he maintains his own word will never pass away. (Matthew 24:35).

According to Jesus, the word of Moses is not from the beginning: “from the beginning it was not so.”

(Matthew 19:8). Therefore, the word of Moses cannot be the word of God. The word of God is not only from the beginning; it is eternal. (Psalm 119:89).

Love for enemies Should the disciples of Jesus join armies and fight wars? Jesus’ position is unambiguous: those who belong to the kingdom of God do not fight over the things of this world. Jesus says to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then my servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, my kingdom is not of this realm.”

(John 18:36).

Jesus is against self-defense in preference for God-defense. He says: “Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

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HRISTIANS claim to be followers of Jesus, but deny him at every turn. We don’t do what he asks us to do; but we do what he tells us not to do.

We talk Jesus but contradict him at every turn. We call Jesus our Good Shepherd, but refuse to follow him. Jesus says: “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” (Luke 6:46).

Very early in the apostolic age, a quiet decision must have been made by the so-called Christian Church to ignore the doctrine of Jesus on the grounds of its impracticability. Jesus’ precepts are deemed to be unrealistic. However, what is “realistic” is often ungodly.

Modern Christianity has given us a Messiah without a cause

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(Luke 9:24). When they came to arrest Jesus, Peter drew a sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest. Jesus healed the man and admonished Peter. He said to him: “Put your sword in its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.” (Matthew 26:52).

The word of Jesus can hardly be used to justify warfare. Jesus says: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” (Matthew 5:43-44).

Only the blind will continue to insist that there are no contradictions in the bible after reading this.

Jesus’ insistence that we love our enemies contradicts a significant part of the Old Testament where the Israelites not only hated their enemies, but sought to annihilate them and inherit their land. David,

the champion of the Old Testament, boasts of hating the Lord’s adversaries with “perfect hatred.”

(Psalm 139:22).

Christian war-mongers The truth of the matter is that the Christians of today prefer the old wine of the Old Testament to Jesus’ new wine. Jesus’ precepts are deemed to be unrealistic while Moses is believed to have dealt with the real world. Therefore, if the Israel of old fought wars on the way to the Promised Land, then wars become validated, no matter what Jesus says. Indeed, Moses declares categorically that: “The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is his name.” (Exodus 15:3). If so, then wars are justifiable.

Solomon is also brought into the equation. He says: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.”

(Ecclesiastes 3:1/3/8). This is understood to mean there comes a time when men have to go to war in the name of peace. Some also insist that sometimes peace has to be enforced.

Paul, of course, also provides a position that goes against the grain of Jesus’ commandment, even if in a more subtle manner.

He says: “If it is possible, as much

as depends on you, live peaceably with all men.” (Romans 12:18).

This means we should only live peaceably with men if it is possible. Otherwise we should go to war. However, Jesus permits no such loopholes.

What we find now, therefore, is that men and women call themselves Christians in name only.

However, in their words and actions they contradict and disobey Jesus with impunity. Neglecting Jesus, Christians rationalise war.

They claim to be followers of the “Prince of Peace” (Isaiah 9:6); but come up with “doctrines of just wars.”

Some argue that righteous men must take up arms in defense of their fatherland. Others insist war is permissible if its object is the protection of innocent lives. Indeed, the view of many so-called Christians is that Jesus’ pacifism becomes immoral if interpreted to mean unconditional surrender to evil. Augustine even says a Christian can love an enemy in his heart, but kill him justifiably for religious or national purposes.

Non-violent Jesus In effect, modern Christianity has given us a Messiah without a cause. It asks us merely to profess certain beliefs instead of having us adopt Jesus’ ethical lifestyle. It refuses to acknowledge Jesus as “the way, the truth and the life.”

(John 14:6).

Is warfare permissible if it seeks to protect and defend human lives?

No it is not, according to Jesus.

The Christian life is not the temporal life. The Christian life is eternal. Eternal life does not need protection for it cannot be lost by physical death. The death that is of concern to many is a lie. Bullets don’t kill. Bombs don’t kill. The only thing that kills is sin.

In the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, God validated Jesus’ way of non-violence.

Nigeria will overcome challenges, says Adeboye

BY OLAYINKA LATONA

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ENERAL Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adejare Adeboye has assured Nigerians that the country will overcome all the current security challenges including terrorism, unemployment, economic turbulence as well as the prediction of the collapse of the nation before 2015.

Speaking at the church's National Headquarters in Ebute-Meta, Lagos where he conducted a worship service themed: "A Sure House", the man of God said rather than being troubled over these challenges, Nigerians should move closer to God, who has the ultimate solution to every challenge of life.

Pastor Adeboye who was represented by his Special Assistant on Administration and Personnel, Pastor Johnson Odesola said that since human efforts have failed to restore hope and peace in the country, it is crucial to seek divine intervention to numerous challenges confronting the country.

In his words: “The prayer that a new Nigeria will emerge

by our father in the Lord is a prophetic word regardless of whatever the nation is going through now. You will recall that Elisah prayed and prophesied in the midst of uncertainty and we see the result. We trust God that history will repeat itself in Nigeria too. Nigerians should shun all forms of

unrighteousness, move closer to God with their heart and not with mouth and diligently seek the face of God in prayer”.

He emphasized the need for those in positions of authority to seek the face of God in everything they are doing while also admonishing the followers to adhere to the

basic truth and biblical doctrines. Speaking on the growing housing deficit in the country, Pastor Odesola said effective policies should be developed to address this as it is done in other parts of the world, adding that provision of affordable houses can address several social challenges in the country.

Pastor Adeboye

Ok oh tasks religious leader Okoh leaderss on national unity

By CALEB AYANSINA

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HE Primate, Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh on Sunday called on religious leaders across the country, to preach gospel of unity, and dwell less

Most Rev. Nicholas Okoh

on tribal issues capable of destroying the Church and the nation in general.

The Primate said absence of unity in the Church was affecting the progress of the nation; urging religious leaders to always promote national unity.

Okoh made the call at the official flag-off of activities, marking the 25th Anniversary Celebration of the Diocese of Abuja, Anglican Communion, with the theme; 'Celebrating the Faithfulness of God', held at the All Saints' Church, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja.

The Diocese created from Kaduna Diocese on November 26, 1989 now has eight archdeaconries, and it had produced two dioceses,

namely, Diocese of Kubwa and Diocese of Gwagwalada.

Okoh maintained that the Church and the nation were suffering from same type of ailment, and the Church had what it takes to help the country back to its stand, noting that the country made slow progress due to drums of disunity and disintegration being beaten by some people.

“The challenge facing the nation, which is also affecting the Church, is the issue of tribalism, the absence of unity.

You will agree with me that, today we have a country but we are not united, if we are united, our country would have made much progress,” he said.

According to the Primate, the

Anglican Church wants to unite the people in the Church and make the issue of tribalism less attractive, and "hopefully by the grace of God, we lend that also to the nation.

“In the Church, we want to teach it, emphasise it, make everybody accept it, and give it as a gift to the nation, so that anybody who has gone through teaching of the Church will have no difficulty in relating with people from any part of the country.”

The former Executive Secretary, National Human Right Commission, Barr.

Kehinde Ajoni, said the Church in 25 years had recorded a lot of achievements especially in the area of youth and women development.

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 43

By FAVOUR NNABUGWU

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he emergence of radical evangelism in Christianity and Islam, aimed at sustaining the membership or winning new recruits, has generated some problems within and between religions.

In places where Christians and Muslim religious revivalism is in geographic proximity, the results can be explosive.

The onerous and cardinal duty of Muslim clerics and Christian ministers is to remould the character of people.

Instead, some Muslim clerics are busy radicalizing their followers to become suicide bombers while some pastors engage in hoodwinking naïve people in order to fleece them of their belongings.

Nigerians cannot forget in a hurry the story of a Christian woman who was allegedly converted to Islam without her parents’ consent and held in the palace of a traditional and Muslim ruler.

That woman, Aisha Uzoechina, made headlines, and the case around her conversion grew to involve several religious institutions in Nigeria, including the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, the traditional ruler and the Sharia Court.

The daughter of a pastor at one of the largest and most influential churches in Nigeria, Aisha, in her own words, did not feel safe around her father, and so sought protection from the monarch, the Sharia Court and other Islamic organisations in Nigeria, fearing that her father would react violently towards her becoming Muslim.

In another development, this reporter was around Kubwa and saw a young man dressed in suit but without a tie, prompting me to say aloud, ‘This Aboki na corporate one o’. A man nearby replied, ‘Madam, this boy no be Aboki o’. It was at that point that I requested that the boy be called for an impromptu interview. He told his story.

A Christian Ogoni boy from Rivers State, he claimed to have been converted four years ago to Islam when he was 16.

Christened Barineka by her parents, but renamed Yusuf by his captors, Barry, as he was fondly called, was just about going to SS3 when he walked into a girl who derailed his dream of

Mystery girl converted me from Christianity to Islam — Ogoni man in Abuja * Parents fault his claims

Barry...claims mysterious convertion becoming a minister of God. He was allegedly hypnotised in 2010 at the National Youth Service Corps Orientation Camp in Kubwa by the girl who gave him some groundnut which he ate after which his life’s journey took a new turn. All he knew was that he obeyed whatever the girl said and followed her to a mosque where he was forced to perform ablution and undergo blood initiation.

“A girl came into the NYSC Orientation camp on Friday, 28th September, 2010 and gave me groundnut eat.

After I ate the groundnut, she told me to drink water which I also did.

Consequently I seemed to lose all my senses. She told me to accompany her to the market. On getting to the market, she took me a mosque and asked me to perform ablution which I did,” Barry told Sunday Vanguard.

He continued: “After the ablution, they asked me to take a bath with water they brought for me. After the bath, they gave me blood which I cannot say whether it was human or animal blood. They told me to use

the blood to wash my private part and also drink it. The same girl also washed her private part with the blood and drank the blood too.

That was how my problem started.

“My father has done the best he could to deliver me by taking me to churches all to no avail. He spent so much also.

When he takes me to school, my body will not accept to stay there. Each time they take me to church,

mother died while giving birth to him, saying his father remarried and his step-mother has three girls for her father, thus making him the only son of the family.

“I am the only son of the family. My mother died while giving birth to me.

My father remarried. My stepmother has three daughters. I am the only son and the first child. So I have made up my mind that if it is the will of God for me to remain here, let His will be done but if it is not His will, let this situation be taken from me. Initially they said they will train me as a soldier and I will go to Sokoto only if I kill somebody that Allah will give me 12 virgins”.

That is what they asked me to do but I refused because I know the 10 Commandments and I live by them, but it is very difficult for me to leave the mosque for now. They will attack me if l leave”.

He further told Sunday Vanguard he recognizes his father, but does not have any feeling for him. “I look at my father as if he is nothing to me even though I know is my father”.

According to him, he had wanted to be a minister of God. “I had nurtured the dream of becoming a minister of God right from when l was two years only to

“My father has done the best he could to deliver me by taking me to churches all to no avail. He spent so much also it will be like my body is on fire. I don’t know where else to run to”.

Barry said he had been sleeping outside the mosque the said girl took him to in the last four years while he helps one Hajia who lives behind the mosque to sell ‘pure water ’ and gets only N50.00 each day on which he survives..

Born on November 9, 1993, Barry claimed that her

entrapped in this slavery”.

Sunday Vanguard traced Barry’s father who obviously felt pained by the situation of his only son. If men could cry so easily, the father, an assistant director in one of the Federal government agencies, was just a drop away from tears.

He said he had not given up on Barry, having done all within his power to bring him back home without

success.

The father claimed Barry’s biological mother was very much alive contrary to the story of his son that his mother died while giving birth to him 21 years ago.

According to him, he has only one wife, who is Barry’s mother, and had never married a second wife, yet Barry keeps running in and out of home like a lost child.

The father said he made efforts to bring him back home but he kept running away, saying the son even attempted suicide twice.

The father explained that he was compelled on an occasion to lock Barry up in the house just to be sure he would not run away with everything he might need including food, but when Barry saw that there was no way to ‘escape’ from the house, he drank petrol kept for generator.

He narrated that it was when the family returned home that they discovered that he did not touch his food. The father said he forced him to eat that night after which he started complaining of stomach pain.

Barry had to confess when the stomach pain persisted that he drank fuel and they had to rush him to hospital.

On the second attempt he tried to commit suicide, he wanted to set himself ablaze but for timely intervention.

Sunday Vanguard also spoke to Barry’s mother who confirmed that he was her son.

She said she didn’t understand where his son got the idea of a step-mother and three female siblings from.

She lamented on phone that she didn’t know what went wrong with her only son.

Sunday Vanguard also visited the school which Barry last attended, Jewel Model College, Kagini and spoke with the Principal, Mr Nweke Onyemenkan.

Onyemenkan said Barry was transferred from the day section of the school to boarding after his JSS3 and only spent two years in the boarding section (SS2) when he quit in 2010.

The principal described Barry’s problem as psychological but said the boy was at a time stable and was picking up on his performance before he finally stopped attending school.

PAGE 44 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

2015: Why FCT Minister Bala jettisoned guber ambition

BY RABIU GARBA

I

t was with considerable joy and a huge sense of relief that Nigerians, especially indigenes, residents and other relevant stakeholders in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) received the news of Sen. Bala Mohammed’s decision to subordinate his narrow personal interest to that of the larger national interest by dropping his much speculated gubernatorial ambition.

In all ramifications, Bala, the incumbent minister of FCT, is eminently qualified to vie for the governorship seat of his home state of Bauchi. As a matter of fact, of all the aspirants vying for that seat, Bala stands pole over all other aspirants. That he finally decided to hearken to the voice of reason to forgo his ambition is an attestation to his great leadership qualities as a listening and humble leader.

According to the late British Field Marshal, Bernard Montgomery, ‘’leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence”. Bala, from all intents and purposes, epitomizes the above definition of leadership.

Prior to the last Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting at the Villa in Abuja, the nation’s media was awash with reports that Bala and some of his ministerial colleagues with gubernatorial ambition would quit the federal cabinet to pursue their ambition in their respective states. This did not go down well with the indigenes, FCT PDP executive members and other stakeholders, who were completely enamoured of Bala’s

stunning performance in the territory, a development that culminated in public protests and calls for him to shelve his ambition to continue with his good works in Abuja.

So, it was with bated breath that all Nigerians waited for the outcome of the FEC meeting of Wednesday, 15 October, 2014.

Happily enough, after the meeting, news filtered out that Bala has decided to hearken to the voice of the people by forgoing his ambition in the overriding interest of the nation.

A deeper introspection of the factors underpinning Bala’s decision to align with the aspirations of the people could be tied to some fundamental reasons to be outlined here shortly. The most outstanding of this reason is the several ongoing multi-billion dollar projects personally initiated by the minister that are scattered all over the territory. These projects require the Minister’s close supervision and monitoring in order to nurture them to maturity. Leaving them at this juncture for another minister could spell disaster for them.

Some of the projects are: the Abuja Centenary City ($18bn); Jabi Lake Resort ($3bn); Abuja City Centre ($2.7bn); World Trade Centre ($1.2bn); Aerotropolis City ($2.5bn); Abuja Industrial Zone project ($3bn) and Land swap ($4.5bn) with the richest man and woman in Africa, Aliko Dangote and Folorunsho Alakija respectively participating.

Also on the card is the 2nd phase of Abuja Railway project connecting the ever-busy Nyanya—Mararaba axis valued at $750m, whose contract was recently signed by the minister.

Another interesting dimension

Sen Bala Mohammed to this whole saga is that at a recent 2014 Conference of Nigerians in Diaspora held at Ohio, United States of America, Nigerians in Diaspora, who likened Bala’s developmental initiatives to that of his namesake, Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Prime Minister of Dubai, have signified their interests to come and invest in the FCT, especially in transportation, Health, housing, power and environmental sanitation etc.

It has equally been revealed that considering the minister’s closeness to the President and as one minister that has been adding value to the Jonathan Administration, quitting the cabinet at this critical juncture in the life of this administration could spell disaster for it.

Pundits have said it times without number that Bala has authored so many social policies aimed at bridging the hiatus between the haves and have-nots, a development that has generated a huge followership for him in the territory. Through his exemplary leadership, public and civil servants in FCT have imbibed the philosophy of ‘’business unusual” of the present administration, which is a euphemism for paradigm shift in all facets of government life.

It has often been said that performance in office is not

factored on age. Capability and performance are contingent on so many dependent variables.

Experience has taught us that you do not need the age of Methuselah in order to have the Wisdom of Solomon, but at the same time, the spring of wisdom tells us that experience is the best teacher.

In spite of the relatively short period of time he has sojourned at the FCT as minister, Bala— take it or leave it—has outperformed his predecessors in terms of the enormity of the projects he has initiated. In all, the principles which he espouses and the stake of development that he has raised; sets Bala out as a national icon.

According to a popular adage, ‘’when an intelligent person is given a room to manage and administer, he uses his great skills to turn that room into a country; but when a lowly placed person is given a country to manage and administer, he transforms that country into a room due mostly to myopic reasoning and narrow-mindedness”. Development experts attest to that fact that Bala represents that person that was given a room to manage, but succeeded in transforming it into a country.

His giant strides in virtually all sectors in FCT since he took over the driver’s seat as the minister in 2010 confirm the authenticity

of this conclusion.

Considering his awe-inspiring nay publicly-acclaimed achievements that has put the FCT on the path to attaining the status of a world class federal capital city; his chummy relationship with the indigenes and above all, the rising confidence of his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan in him (Bala) as the most legitimatizing factor of his Transformation Agenda, Bala’s patriotic decision to kiss his gubernatorial ambition goodbye (for now) deserves commendation and applause from all and sundry.

In taking this critical decision of abandoning his guber ambition, Bala also factored in his legendary relationship with his principal, President Goodluck Jonathan. As a close confidante and faithful ally of the president, he has the ears of the nation’s number one citizen.

He has remained unwaveringly committed to the president.

Even on issues where chickenhearted contemporaries will not hesitate to denying their master, President Jonathan three times before daybreak like Apostle Peter did to Jesus Christ, Bala has remained steadfast like the rock of Gibraltar.

It is this untainted loyalty and a host of other critical issues that the minister brought to bear while taking this decision. At least, with the crucial 2015 presidential election around the corner, Bala, as one of the copilots of the President’s muchcherished Transformation Agenda, will not abandon his master midstream at this juncture. At least, over these years, he has proven his unquestionable loyalty to his boss so much so that analysts view him as a favoured minister.

What even makes the minister’s present action deserving of utmost commendation is that he will have enough time to closely monitor and supervise the clinical execution of all his multi-billion dollar projects that have the potentials of transforming the nation’s capital city to one of the best capital cities in the world. With this decision, he has made the entire nation proud, especially the founding fathers of Abuja.

Garba, a public affairs analyst, lives in Bwari Abuja.

2015: Georgewill storms Benue to unfold vision for Rivers

BY PETER DURU, Makurdi

A

s the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, draw nearer, one of the contenders in the Rivers State race, Engineer Emmanuel Tubotamuno Georgewill, has taken to prayers. Some weeks ago, he came calling in Makurdi, Benue State capital, where he spent part of his early life, to seek the prayers of his bosom friends and associates.

Georgewill told the gathering that he needed the prayers of his friends to reposition Rivers State as the treasure of Nigeria.

He disclosed that his decision to join the race was informed by his conviction in the saying that, “If good men have apathy towards public

affairs, evil will prevail.”

The gubernatorial aspirant, who hails from Abonnema-Akukutoru local government area of Rivers State, after engaging in long sessions of consultations with his people, party and critical political stakeholders in the state, the response to his aspiration was that of reassurance from a people who saw him as the bridge-builder that the state craved for. ”The people have already keyed into my dream and vision which is premised on building and strengthening our institutions, restore family values, create wealth and equal opportunities, upholding law and order and promoting peaceful and harmonious co-existence in a clean and healthy environment,” Georgewill said.. ”We certainly cannot afford to be careless any

more but have to be careful with our resources and plan for the future of our children , youths , women and the weak in our communities, otherwise history will not forgive us”.

He stated that if elected, his mission and vision for Rivers would be accomplished through focused leadership with a selection of the best and finest team to run a trusted and open system of government. ”We will undoubtedly accord special attention to regenerating a commercial and enviable industrialized state where we can all live and work peacefully,” he said. ”It is not lost on us that our society and communities are bedeviled with poverty, decay in moral

Continues on page 45

SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 45

2015: Georgewill storms Benue to unfold vision for Rivers Continued from page 44 values and most of all, fear of what the future holds”.

The aspirant, however, assured that his administration would usher in a better and secured future for the people in a peaceful and clean environment; “because my priority will be to plan my work and work my plan.”

While acknowledging the polarization of the political class in the state, Georgewill vowed to bring everybody on board the train of his administration, after instituting good governance at all levels of government.

He said that as a member of the G8 Group of Businessmen and Technocrats of Rivers Origin who put together the first and successful internationally acclaimed Rivers State Investment Forum in 2011, he is well grounded on the challenges the people face. ”We are in the 21st century living in the 19th century in our communities and country at large. Therefore the need to invest in projects that will

C M Y K

Georgewill impact on the people of Rivers State.”

He said his four years as governor, the state average per capita income should increase over 10-folds while “For the first time in history, the living standard of the masses and ordinary people would witness sustained growth. ”There is a lot of work to be done, therefore all hands must be on deck to fix our communities. After all we are first, one Rivers people before any other affiliations.” He retorted.

On his chances of emerging

governor in an All Progressives Congress, APC, controlled state, Georgewill said the people of Rivers would decide who becomes the next governor, and we all know that “PDP is the party to beat and I also stand out among other aspirants.”

Asked if the zoning arrangement of his party would favour his aspiration, the former Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, board member insisted that his aspiration would not be inhibited by zoning.

According to him, “the primary focus for entrusting leadership responsibility is the content of the character of the aspirant first before any other secondary consideration, hence I am not encumbered.”

Reacting to Georgewill’s decision to join the Rivers governorship race, his international partner and Managing Director of ALS Oil & Gas from the United Arab Emirate, UAE, Pascal Bartette, said Rivers people would live to celebrate the aspirant if he emerged the governor of the state. “ In my view, a person who

has, as it is the case with you, proven in all his career, deeply rooted values of honesty, integrity, respect for his colleagues and ability to work very hard and go the extra mile, has within himself all that is required, and more importantly expected, from a person occupying a public function,” Bartette said. ”Associated to that, is your leadership qualities and charisma which speak for themselves and I am absolutely confident in your chances to be selected for the highest responsibilities of your state. ”This is somewhat not a surprise, as I know the larger role that you have been playing in your community and I am also a good witness that you have in you all the skills and values that are required to act effectively in that role.” He added.

Childhood friend and classmate of the aspirant, host and moderator of the meeting, Prof. Isaac Itodo of the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi, described the aspirant as one who had over the years courted friends across the length and breath

of the country.

He described him as a true Nigerian having been born in Ilorin, grew up in Lagos and Port Harcourt, studied in Jos and Makurdi. ”As a man of character and proven Integrity, there is hardly any discipline or sector that our friend Engineer Emmauel Tubotamuno Georgewill does not have a friend; that is the kind of person he is,” Itado said/ ”A quintessential production engineer who happens to be the first Nigerian Coring Engineer in the oil and gas industry. ”That is the more reason why his aspiration will continue to gain support from far and wide, because everyone believe that he is the only candidate in the Rivers state governorship race that would crumble the divide that pervades the Rivers political landscape. ”And at this time of our fledging democracy, we actually require men of immense character, and goodwill, who can unite Nigerians, at the helm of affairs.

PAGE 46 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

AWARD WINNING ACTRESS OMONI OBOLI:

Women Make Great Leaders *‘How I escaped sexual harassment’ *Says she likes Tyler Perry because he is phenomenal

D

ylan Jones, Editor of GQ, describes Harland Miller as “un-self-consciously cool”. That is also an apt description of Nigerian actor and producer, Omoni Oboli.

Disarmingly unassuming, Omoni Oboli is an exception rather than the rule in an industry where a whiff of success leaves many with egos as big as the World Wide Web. Ever since she played a lead role in the award -winning film, The Figurine, her stock continues to rise. She recently premiered her new movie, ‘Being Mrs Elliot’ - a story of a successfully married woman torn between two worlds after a life-changing event. Oboli is also successfully married with three children. In this exclusive interview on www.samumukoro.com, she talks about Nigeria’s biggest problem and how she would solve it if she were president, why the new movie was premiered at Aso Rock, the Nigerian Presidential Villa, and her admiration for Tyler Perry.

As usual, this is another exclusive interview with a subject like you have never read anywhere else.

Pix by Funmi Daramola Enjoy and follow us on twitter: @SU_Interview What’s the inspiration behind ‘Being Mrs Elliot’?

When I was going to do Being Mrs Elliot, I thought about a story that would make people happy because I wanted people to go to the cinema and forget about everything that is going on in their lives and just have a good time, have a good laugh, watch a movie that C M Y K

would just relax them, and that they would come out of the cinema being in a better place that was my inspiration.

What were the challenges you faced putting the movie together?

My initial challenge was getting funding for the movie.

Writing the script to actual shooting took almost four years because it was a nightmare trying to get funding, and also because I wanted to do a good story. I wanted something that is very detailed, it won’t be business as usual, of course that kind of thing costs money as they say, ‘soup wey sweet, na better money kill am’. So, I needed to have somegood funding for it and I wasn’t getting it. But then, sponsors came along the way and with the help of my sponsors I was able to put the movie together.

You premiered the movie in the Nigerian Presidential Villa, what informed that decision?

As a child growing up, when you did something you were really proud of, the first person you wanted to show it to was your father or your mother.

When I did the movie, I was really proud of it and I wanted to show it to someone in authority, someone who will ‘bless’ the movie. So, I wondered, who is like a father that I can show this movie to?

And I said to myself, why not the president, he is like our father, you know he is the father of the nation. That was the thought process behind

*Omoni Oboli

When I was going to do Being Mrs Elliot, I thought about a story that would make people happy because I wanted people to go to the cinema and forget about everything that is going on in their lives and just have a good time, have a good laugh showing the movie at the Presidential Villa.

The ‘presidential’ premiere must have open doors for you?

Yes, it has opened a number of doors. I have met a number of bigwigs who are partnering with me at different levels.

Back here (in Nigeria) people don’t like talking about the budget for their movies, but how much did ‘Being Mrs Elliot’ cost you?

You started with saying ‘back here we don’t like talking about

the budget’, so let’s just leave it as ‘back here’ (laughs).

Let’s break the norm, how much did it cost you?

Let’s just say I can’t say categorically how much the movie cost me.

I read somewhere where you mentioned N20 million I never mentioned N20 million; it’s definitely more than N20 million. But then, I also got a lot of favours, which I cannot or have not quantified, and in proper budgeting for a movie, you

have to quantify all your favours because at the end of the day, if you just give out the figures that you spent on physical cash then you don’t have a proper budget and that would mislead another film maker.

So, they are going to think, oh if she spent X amount, then I can spend X amount and get the same quality of movie, not knowing that you probably got a lot of favours along the way. For example, we shot in Asaba (Delta State), Ekiti and Lagos; it would have cost us a lot of money to shoot in Asaba, but we got a lot of favours shooting there because my dad lives in Asaba.

So, feeding in Asaba was actually free. The whole cast and crew, as huge as we were, my father fed us the whole time we were in Asaba and transportation was absolutely free, and the locations were far away. So, I really can’t quantify the favours that I got - it runs into million - just favours, not to talk of the actual cash that was spent on the movie.

So, it really is a big budget by our standard.

What’s a big budget movie by your standard?

By our standard in Nollywood, anything over 20, 25, 30 or 40 million naira is a big budget movie.

Can we categorically say that ‘Being Mrs Elliot’ cost over N40 million?

We’ll be close if we said that.

Do you see a Nigerianproduced movie winning the Oscars very soon?

There’s nothing stopping us from winning the Oscars, it depends on the mindset of producers and directors when they are doing their movies.

There are certain things you have to put in place if you are gunning for the Oscars, when I didBeing Mrs Elliot, I wasn’t gunning for the Oscars in any way, I just wanted to do a movie that Nigerians would

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SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 47

‘How I escaped sexual harassment’ Continued from page 46 watch and would be happy about. If we do have our mindset on winning the Oscars, I think we will.

You married quite young, at 21. It’s been 13 years and still counting, how have you been able to manage a healthy marriage, raising three wonderful kids and also being an actress?

One of the phrases I use a lot is, “I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do”, so I know that I’ve got to be a wife, I’ve got to be a mum and I’ve got to be an actor, producer and director. I try to make sure that all the aspects of my life have the attention that they require. So, when it’s time to just be with the kids and spend time with them and be a mummy, I don’t hesitate to do that, I just give them all the attention they deserve; it’s not just about spending time, it’s about spending quality time.

So, my boys and I take time out to bake together, we play, have fun, watch movies, but when it’s time for production or time to act, I give that total attention as well and they are fine because they know that when I’m around, I’m around, because they know that I’m going to give them all the attention they deserve. It’s always a very difficult balance but one has to try to achieve it.

Luckily, God has given women the ability to multitask, so I think it makes it easier.

Has there been a time you’ve been overwhelmed by being a mum, wife and an actress?

I would be lying if I said there has never been a time.

What did you do during those moments?

What you do is try and relax, first of all, because you can get allworked up about the fact that, ‘oh, I’m not giving the kids enough attention; I’m not giving my family enough attention; I’m working a little too hard’. So, one needs to realise that this intense work that one’s doing right now is for a season; and when this season has passed, then I can now go back to giving them the attention they deserve.

Thus, there is no point worrying myself sick about it right now, I just need to relax, focus on what I’m doing right C M Y K

Oboli...acting is my first love now, and then move on from it when it’s donebecause you know getting so worked up about it doesn’t make it easier.

Your kids are also involved in acting. Was that a deliberate guidance on your part or was it something they wanted to do?

The first one says he wants to be an actor, and he is doing a good job of it. He’s featured in a couple of movies, he has won a couple of child acting awards,and he’s actually a good actor. The other two, I don’t think that’s what they want to do, but they happen to be handy when I was shooting, so I put them in the movie.

If you had to choose between acting and directing, which would you choose?

It would probably be acting because acting is my first love, I can do it at the drop of a hat; but in directing you have to prepare for it.

people don’t know how it’s very difficult to produce, direct and act at the same time; it almost drives you crazy.

Women are beginning to play quite significant roles in Nigeria, but we’ve not had a female president yet.

Do you think having a female president will augur well for Nigeria, or do you think women make better leaders?

I don’t want to say better or worse, I just want to say women make great leaders.

Like I said earlier, they can multitask, so they are able to do a number of things at the same time. What would totally overwhelm a man might not overwhelm a woman, not because women are better than men but because women were created that way. Obviously, God knew we were going to be taking care of the home, as well as working and doing other things, so He had to put that skill and knowledge of multitasking in us. That’s why I think women would actually make great leaders because they would be able to juggle different things at the same time. Also, women are more compassionate by nature, women think with their hearts a lot of time, because they are more compassionate, they would be able to actually feel

I’m not saying you don’t have to prepare for acting a role, but it’s such a part of me that it is almost easy to act at the drop of a hat, I cannot direct at the drop of a hat, I have to prepare for it

Every time you have to direct a movie, you have to absolutely prepare. I’m not saying you don’t have to prepare for acting a role, but it’s such a part of me that it is almost easy to act at the drop of a hat, I cannot direct at the drop of a hat, I have to prepare for it.

I know you admire Tyler Perry a great deal, why is that so?

Like me, Tyler Perry wears multiple hats in production - he is a scriptwriter, an actor, a producer, a director, and he plays multiple roles. I think he is just phenomenal because

what the people’s needs are and try to meet them. So, yes, I do think that women would make great leaders.

Did you have any fear of being accepted back after a 10-year break from acting and what were the difficulties you encountered coming back to the movie industry?

I didn’t have any fears when I was coming back, but when I got in, I realised I should have those fears because nobody remembers you from 10 years before. When I got back I was the new girl, whether I liked it or

not, and nobody wanted the new girl; everybody had their position and they wanted it to stay that way. So, it was a struggle trying to get back in and I would go to some of the people I knew in the industry, but a lot of them weren’t as relevant as before or they just weren’t doing it anymore. I met Emem Isong, I met Lancelot (Imasuen) who I’ve known before and we got to do one or two movies together, and then I did Kunle Afolayan’sThe Figurine and it was like, ‘Boom! ‘Who is this girl, where has she been?’ And then,I did Anchor Baby and that was it, the rest is history.

We’ve had complaints of harassment in several forms and indecent proposals in the movie industry, have you ever been harassed?

No, I’ve never really had that because obviously when I came back to the industry, I came married with three kids. I don’t see why anyone would think a married woman with three kids would make a great whatever... I do think it’s there and I’ve heard one or two people talk about it, it’s not peculiar to Nollywood, it’s in every industry - doctors sleep with nurses every day, teachers sleep with themselves, bankers sleep with their customers or their MDs - so, it’s in every industry. It’s not peculiar to Nollywood. Unfortunately, because we are in the limelight, people get to hear everything that happens to us, both the ones that really happened and the ones that didn’t really happen. Well, it just never happened to me, but I guess it is there.

Sometimes you hear celebrities complain about the burden of fame, do you ever have that kind of burden?

I always say; the whole fame comes with its good and its bad sides.Unfortunately, you can’t take the good and leave the bad. Like I said, you are in the limelight, everything that you do or even the ones that you don’t do happen to go public.

Have you had a bad side?

Everyone has had a bad side.

What particular example comes to mind?

Everyone has had a bad side, every once in a while; one story would come out about you that you don’t like, that is not entirely positive, and

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PAGE 48 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Continued from page 47 people have all sorts of comments or things to say about it. I think it happens to every one of us.

How do you react when that happens?

My reaction is that, the people who matter to me know who I am and what I can do; the people who believe everything they read don’t matter to me.

You love acting, and you’re now a director, and most people don’t know that you are also a writer; which comes first for you? (laughs) Wow, I would still say acting, but then the writer comes first because everything starts with a story. If I’m producing a movie, the writing comes first because it starts with a story; if it’s not a great story, then it doesn’t end up being a great movie.

What has been your most challenging role so far and which is your favourite movie from all the movies you’ve featured in?

Every single one of the movies that I’ve been part of has been challenging for me.

Are you trying to be politically correct…?

No, because I see each of them as a new project, and I want to give each project 110 per cent of myself, I say, I’m going to give everything I have and more to this project.

So, that challenge is always there, I never go into any movie thinking, ‘business as usual, let’s go and act’, no, I don’t. I try to make sure that I look at the character very well, no matter how short the notice that I have for the movie, I look at the character and determine what the characteristics of the character are, what can the character do, what can the character not do, how they react to certain things? I try to become the character. So, that in itself is always very challenging. But then,there have been movies that have actually not been just challenging in acting, but also physically challenging.

‘Figurine’, for instance, was very physically challenging,’Anchor Baby’ was very emotionally challenging, it was one of the few times where I have become a character and it was actually difficult for me to get out of it. Yes, I’ve had a number of challenging roles.

Was there a time in your career that you felt like C M Y K

Oboli: Why I like Tyler Perry giving up and how did you surmount that particular obstacle?

I don’t know if I’ve ever felt like giving up, I don’t know if giving up ever really came to mind, but I’ve felt discouraged and disappointed, and I’ve gone over that with just falling back on the passion that drives me on the job, which pretty much happens to everybody.

You get to a point where you are just tired, but then you think about the fact that this is what you really love, this is why you wake up in the morning and you can do this for free sometimes. So, I think about the passion and I just dust myself up and move on.

If you weren’t acting you said you would have been a surgeon, why?

I just love medicine, I love medical drama, but of course that’s just on TV, but honestly, I don’t cringe at the sight of blood, I feel like I would have loved to stitch people up and...

Cut people open? (laughs) No, let’s concentrate on stitching them up, stitch people up and make them feel better. Yes, I would have loved to be a surgeon. I’ve actually been part of a surgery for a woman that was giving birth through caesarean operation. I thought it was a lot of fun, they cut her open, she was really chubby, just all the layers of fat they had to cut through to actually get to the baby and then they took the baby out. It was a really big baby, she was so huge, she was just sitting there, not even trying to come out, and they had to kind of smack the baby around a little bit because she wouldn’t cry, she was just tired and almost distressed. Then, stitching the woman up took some time, because they had to stitch through different layers of fat, and I said to the doctor, ‘why don’t you just take out all these fat?’ He replied, “well she didn’t sign up for that, she didn’t ask us to get the fat, maybe her husband likes the fat like that (laughs)”.

A lot of young women look up to you as a role model. What’s your advice to them if they want to succeed?

My advice to anyone who wants to succeed in any profession is, first of all, you have to be sure that’s what you

really want to do because the only way you can really be happy is if you really want it, I mean you can be successful doing what you don’t really want to do but are you happy?

If you have all the success in the world and you don’t have happiness, then what are you?

You are nothing. So, the first thing to determine is - is this thing going to make me happy?

Is this what I really want to do?

When you actually answer these questions, then you’ve got to go at it with everything you’ve got, you have to give it a 110 per cent of yourself. You have to study, even the bible says “study to make yourself approved”, you have to study, even in acting. The fact that I didn’t go to a film school to study acting doesn’t mean I didn’t study, I didn’t get a formal education but I educated myself; I would read

about acting, I would check my expressions in the mirror, acting out scenarios with myself and all that is what you put in your craft. So, you have to study to make yourself better, you have to think, what can I bring to the table that no one else has, what is that thing that is going to make me standout, that is going to make me the go-to-person in this field, or in this industry? So, you have to put all that together and then trust in God. Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

I think in the next five years I would be extremely successful as a director, of course I would be more successful as an actor, and I would be a lot older too.

Are you going to concentrate now more on producing or directing?

I’m going to be doing both

I just love medicine, I love medical drama, but of course that’s just on TV, but honestly, I don’t cringe at the sight of blood, I feel like I would have loved to stitch people up

*Omoni Oboli...talks about intriguing roles

of them side by side.

Besides writing, acting and directing, what are your other areas of interest?

I love business. What I do is business in a sense, it’s empowering people as well.

During production, you are responsible for so many people, the crew, the cast, you have to take care of a number of people for a certain period of time, so you encourage people, and you are making sure some people get food on their table for that period of time and that just gives me so much joy.

I’m trying to work towards making this a proper production company where we always have something going on, so there would be people who can actually depend on me 12 months in a year. So, it’s not just about when we are shooting, what if we don’t have a shoot for three months? What if they don’t get any other job with any other production companies? I would love to have a production company where the people who are working with me for 12 months in a year need to be taken care of, they are part of this company and they get paid their salaries regardless, so for us to achieve that, all hands have to be on deck to make sure that we get everything in place.

What is Nigeria’s biggest problem and how would you solve it if you were president?

I think our biggest problem is the Boko Haram insurgency, people always want to feel secured and when there is a threat to security, a lot of other aspects of everyday life are threatened because if I don’t feel like I’m safe, I don’t give my best in my job or at home.

I’m not at my optimum because I don’t feel safe. So, I feel like that this is a really big problem that just crept in from nowhere and if I could solve it, I would just wipe them off. I mean it doesn’t make sense, a handful of Nigerians cannot hold over 160 million people to ransom, they are not even up to one per cent of the population and they want to hold us to ransom, I think it’s unacceptable, they just need to wipe them off, that’s the only way.

Would you appoint more women to your cabinet if you were president?

I definitely will.

SUNDAY, Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 49

From South-South with lo o the W est lovve tto West

T

.

L-R: Mr Monday Ukpong, representing bride's father; Mrs May Ukpong, bride's mother; the couple, Mr and Mrs Adewole Odusote; Omoba Ademola Odusote, father of the groom and Mrs Toyin Adeyemi, mother of the groom.

he story of former Miss Suzzie Ukpong and that of her heart-throb, Adewole Kelvin Odusote is a classic love story that knows no boundaries or colourations; it is a story that reminds all that there is indeed unity in diversity.

Suzzie hails from the South-south zone while Adewole hails from the South-west but that has not stood in the way of their love for each other. The lovebirds were joined as man and wife penultimate Saturday at The Redeemed Christian Church of God, Grace Tabernacle, Onipanu, Lagos. . Photos by Lamidi Bamidele.

L-R:Pastor Dan-Habu; Maryam Dan-Habu and Pastor (Mrs) Halima Dan-Habu

R-L: Pastor Wale Adeduro, Chairman, Cashcow Microfinance Bank Ltd; his wife, Pastor (Mrs) Kenny Adeduro; Mr Yomi Isafiade, Chairman of the occassion and his wife, Abimbola.

Celebration as Ofuani declares tto o run L-R: Alhaja Abibat Odusote; Mrs Arinola Odusote; Mrs Ayodele Odusote and Mrs Funke Odusote.

L-R: Dr Yomi Obajinmi; Mrs Alaba Pinheiro and Mrs Funmi Ayo-Odugbesan.

I

t was celebration and jubilation all the way when Chief Clement Ofuani declared his intention to run for the Governorship of Delta State in 2015.

The event held at Orchid Hotel, Asaba, Delta State.

C&S marks 5th Har er sar Harvvest anniv anniver ersar saryy

I

t was celebration galore recently at Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos premises of The Holy Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church, Ibudo-Ayo, Jah to Fun Wa (Ayo Ni O) when the clergy and members of the th church rolled out drums to celebrate their 5 Harvest. The event started with a thanksgiving service and ceremoniously brought to an end with entertainmen. Photos by Joe Akintola, Photo Editor.

Chief Clement Ofuani flanked by supporters From left; Mr S.D. Talent aka Dugbe, entertaining guests and Evangelist Sunday Ogo

L-R; Snr Apostle G K Alo, Chairman of the occasion; Prophetess/Pastor Desola Alo, Mother in Israel and Senior Apostle Olatokunbo Alo, Special Guest.

L-R: Mr Isiaka Zubair, Church Adviser; Mrs Christianah Dipeolu; Mrs Folake Ajibola; Apostle Tunde Olaewe, Church Secretary; Mrs Dayo Idowu, Deputy Secretary; Mother in Israel Y. Odejayi, Church Matron/ Chairperson, Anniversary Committee

L-R: Apostle Tunde Olaewe, Secretary of the Church; Most Snr Apostle Gbenga Oyegunle, Special Guest and Most Snr Apostle A. Ajibola, Leader in Charge

AY PAGE 50 — SUND SUNDA

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

A

labo-Graham Douglas is a senior member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from Rivers State. A founding member of the PDP, he served as minister under the Obasanjo administration.

He is currently a member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT).

In this interview, Douglas speaks on the rift between President Goodluck Jonathan and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and political developments in the state among other issues.

It is believed in some quarters that there is a misunderstanding between your family and the family of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Is that a fact?

There is no iota of truth in the claim that there is misunderstanding between myself and the first family; it is a speculative and mischievous propaganda. The president is of the Ijaw extraction as myself and, with the zeal and enthusiasm with which I have always promoted the Ijaw cause, I do not see how I could ever have any form of misunderstanding with an illustrious Ijaw son like the president of the country.

You will recall that, at the inception of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), I was one of those who contested for the office of the president of the country. I contested with former President Olusegun Obasanjo. I did not win, but in recognition of my hard work for the party, especially in the South-South, Obasanjo appointed me as one of the early ministers of the PDP administration. Throughout the period and up till the moment

— Alabo Graham Douglas *`How we tried to resolve Jonathan, Amaechi feud’

President Jonathan assumed office, we had impeccable relationship. I still maintained this posture; except the president holds a contrary view, he is my brother and nothing can separate us.

But the belief is that the Soku oil wells dispute separated you...

I would not like to discuss

Is it true that you took sides against the president by supporting Governor Rotimi Amaechi in their political feud?

This question I would regard as a figment of hallucinatory imagination. At my age and political maturity, more so, having played a fatherly role to

,

You have for some time now been quiet on the political situation in Rivers State and Nigeria in general. Why has that been so?

For over one year, I have resisted granting press interview as I elected to critically observe the various events at the federal level as well as my state of origin, Rivers State, as they develop. I was very vibrant and committed actively in the 2010/ 2011 campaign efforts.

But as you would note, age is catching up with me; at 75, I can no longer criss-cross the country. That apart, I observed a new set of gladiators parading the political scenes, with a stock in trade of intrigues, manipulations, conspiracies and telling destructive lies against persons to procure favour.

When I also observed that people at the echelon of the illustrious class are susceptible to accepting and making conclusions of malicious stories, I decided to preserve my honour and pedigree. I am a strong believer that any leadership that judges third parties through the perception and lips of such characters is likely to fail. Suffice to say that I have remained to be a consistent, undeviating and loyal member of my party which I helped to found in the nation and especially Rivers State.

2015: PDP National Chairman sending wrong signals on endorsement

For it therefore to attract the dimension of conflict between the two-sister states is unfortunate, but I believe it will be eventually resolved for unity and our great love for each other

anything with regards to the Soku oil wells and the boundary adjustment of the conceptualised annexation of Kalabari oil producing communities to Bayelsa State.

So many stories are being peddled, but as an Ijaw elder, it is my duty always to ensure that the situation is normal at all times, resolved with brotherly love. The communities involved have settled as Kalabari communities for over 200 years; and the boundaries separating the two states (Bayelsa and Rivers) have existed for decades, throughout the periods when both Ijaw and non-Ijaw administrators governed the old Rivers State.

For it therefore to attract the dimension of conflict between the two-sister states is unfortunate, but I believe it will be eventually resolved for unity and our great love for each other.

,

both the president and the governor, I could never have taken sides. My responsibility is to ensure that if there was any feud whatsoever, my role will be to foster reconciliation and restoration of brotherly love between them. The president is the father of the nation and, in this peculiar circumstance, the father of the South-South states and their governors.

The relationship between the governor of Rivers State and the president immediately after the 2011 elections was impeccable and without blemish. Disappointedly, many politicians become either bystanders or indulge in fuelling any little crack in relationships. Such circumstances are used to disseminate lies and unimaginable stories. Some begin to create division between the parties and go as far as brandishing anyone who

cultivates any form of relationship or contact with the less advantageous member of the conflict as an enemy. And, with no intervention of elders, the situation degenerates to a point of no return. I made unlimited overtures by personal contact and writing, as well as utilising established political institutions like the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) and other well-meaning agencies. It is indeed a pity that we found ourselves in the current quagmire which, by the grace of God, shall come to pass amicably.

As an elder, both within the state and at the national level, what is your view on the current political situation in Rivers State?

The current political situation in Rivers State is sensitive and volatile from the point of view that malice, hatred and vicious rivalry have been brought in by the political class in order to arrest power and control the polity. To have equity, fair play and justice, the political class must bring Godfearing conscience into the power matrix.

In 1999, when PDP was established in Rivers State, the party structure and control was primarily in the hands of the people of the riverine Ijaw extraction. We took cognisance of the fact that during the military era and thereafter, during the brief civilian dispensation, persons of riverine Ijaw group had ruled the old Rivers State. We unanimously decided for power to shift to the upland group.

Considering the prevailing circumstances at the time, to give the upland group a sense of belonging and togetherness, Dr Peter Odili was favoured on the platform of PDP to govern

the state. It was implicitly agreed that we were to practise a turn-by-turn power sharing mechanism between the three main component ethnic nationalities of the Ikwerres and other groups of common affinity, the riverine Ijaw and the Ogoni and neighbouring mainland communities.

It was unambiguously agreed that at the expiration of the tenure of Odili, power would shift to the riverine Ijaw group and, at the expiration of the rulership of a riverine Ijaw governor, it would move to the Ogoni group. Unfortunately, that was not to be as the era was characterised by confusion, ethnic conflicts and beginning of militancy. There was financial recklessness, infrastructural decay and phantom projects. Two illustrious sons-Messrs Marshal Harry, the first PDP Chairman of Rivers State and another founding member, Aminasoari Dikibo-were assassinated without the regime making any effort to track down the assassins.

That era left with no significant landmark except that instead of handing over to a riverine Ijaw aspirant, a unilateral decision was made

by Odili to hand over to Honourable Rotimi Amaechi of the Ikwerre extraction. The upland group, primarily of the Ikwerre extraction, has now governed Rivers State for 16 years, at the expiration of the tenure of Governor Amaechi in May, 2015.

The desire of Chief Nyesom Wike, Minister of State for Education, to contest the governorship in 2015 does not augur well for peace and harmony in the state. It is unacceptable to the generality of the Rivers people, especially the riverine Ijaw group, the Ogoni group and large members of the Ikwerre group.

If Wike is allowed by the

Continues on page 51

SUND AY SUNDA

misread and misunderstand the action to be ‘a seeming endorsement’ kind of thing.

Knowing how things are being interpreted in the political parlance, people will still spread it to the generality of the people of Rivers State that the PDP National Chairman came, largely to endorse the candidature of Wike. This will have negative repercussions on the Ogoni and the riverine/Ijaw people of the PDP family. I feel a bit disillusioned about it and I think if the Chairman was coming, he was coming as the PDP Chairman and not as the Chairman of the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) faction of the party.

Continued from page 50 leadership of the PDP to emerge as governor of Rivers State, it will mean that for 24 years, the people of Rivers mainland would have ruled the state at the expense and great marginalisation of the other major ethnic nationalities.

Such a situation arising will not be tolerated and may have unsavoury repercussions, which no one for the time being can predicate.

It is therefore in the best interest of the people and the state and for the sake of Godfearing conscience, equity and justice to ensure that power shifts to the other groups that have never been given the opportunity to govern the state.

What is your opinion on the recent reconciliatory and re-integration meeting of the PDP in Abuja?

*Alabo Graham...Rivers elders speaking with one voice

‘Rivers political situation volatile, sensitive’ From the innocent and unsuspecting perceptual view point, the intention of the party hierarchy may seem plausible and commendable. I personally presented myself and briefed the reconciliation committee where I found men and women of honour and character. I am confident that they would provide an unbiased, non-sentimental and God-fearing report that will consolidate their already acceptable credibility. I do believe that the committee will do an assessment of one of the Rivers State governorship aspirants, Nyesom Wike, his chief promoter, Dr Peter Odili, and some party officials who are working towards the emergence of Wike without ever appraising its positive and negative repercussions on the state.

In a system where a serving minister would single-handedly organise party structure, provide party paraphernalia and pay monthly expenditure without anyone challenging him, or where someone will govern a state and ask a court of competent jurisdiction to grant him perpetual injunction not to be examined is not good.

Enough is enough; and I can assure you that never and never again shall the riverine Ijaw and Ogoni group be marginalised and deprived. I also believe in Mr President’s assiduity, morality and Godfearing disposition to provide the judgement of Solomon, subsequently.

Recently, the PDP National Chairman, Alhaji Adamu Muazu, visited Port Harcourt. Chief Nyesom Wike and his supporters received him at the party secretariat while other governorship

aspirants were conspicuously absent. What does this portend for PDP in Rivers State?

I am surprised that the PDP National Chairman was in Rivers State on Monday. I saw him in Lagos and we chatted. If he was coming to Rivers State, as a senior party member and

,

As a founding member of the PDP BoT, what are you doing to consolidate on the party’s gains in the 2011 elections?

From the evolutionary trend and antecedents since 1999 in Rivers State, PDP has been the dominant, unbeatable and acceptable political family in Rivers State. The performance of the PDP in 2011 in Rivers State was phenomenal, producing the highest result in the country. Politics, we know, is a concentric circle of intrigues, manipulations, obscure self-interest, phantom lies and all manner of societal lies and evils, which accordingly destroyed the very fabrics that united the PDP family in Rivers State. The imbroglio that arose gave rise to the current disharmony, suspicion and conflict in the PDP family, resulting in a group moving away under the leadership of the state governor to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Much as the state remains a PDP state, with the riverine Ijaw group absolutely supportive of their son, the president’s election for a second term shall be without rancour or problem. But that of the election of the governor could tear the state apart. This is why it is my fervent and strong solicitation that PDP must not field another Ikwerre aspirant but someone from the riverine Ijaw or Ogoni groups.

There is a propaganda that without the Ikwerre vote, no governor can emerge in the next dispensation. This is absolutely incorrect because, in the 1999 elections, whereas the Ikwerres, Ogonis and few other groups did not vote for Odili who had just one ward, the combined undivided and consolidated votes of the riverine communities led to the emergence of Odili as the governor of Rivers State.

I would summarise that, if by carelessness or inattention to the realities we take for granted the PDP support and neglect the concealed strategies of the opposition, we may have some dents in our family. This is why we have in the past few months galvanised the party elders and leaders in the state to speak with one voice and select a governorship aspirant. God being our help, we shall succeed.

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 51

While the chairman was addressing party supporters at the party secretariat, he said, “Wike, you are on course”. What does this portend, given the fact that other aspirants were not there?

I will have a very liberal interpretation to it; “Wike, you are on course”; on course to destruction or on course to ascension or on course to have a seizure of the political party, with the formulation of the GDI? I think it should be very subjective and individualistic in interpretation.

Is it right for the PDP National Chairman to have gone to the house of the Minister of State to have lunch after the visit?

If they are friends and he so elects to do, since this is not a PDP state and since he cannot come to my place-as my house is as good as any Government House-or the house of any other member of PDP and he wanted to go to somebody who wanted to give him free lunch, it is discretionary. I will not

I think if the Chairman was coming, he was coming as the PDP Chairman and not as the Chairman of the Grassroots Democratic Initiative (GDI) faction of the party

,

member of the BoT, at least, he should have extended some courtesy by telling me that he was coming to my state. Of course, I would be very willing to meet him. But these are the things we are talking about.

Three of the aspirants have also telephoned me to say that they were not invited; that they did not know anything about the visit. This further goes to complicate things. And from the information I had, in his discussion with the people at the party secretariat, Muazu gave a lot of adulation and praises to Wike who he described as having spent a colossal amount of money to do a lot of things for the party and also organised a party with a small unit of the total electorate in this state.

It is very unfortunate that happened, but people will

condemn him since Uche Secondus (the PDP Deputy National Chairman) was there and he is a good friend of Wike and they are all working together. So, it is possible that he wanted to pay a courtesy visit to one of the ministers, a minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

About three weeks ago, the PDP state executive said a member of the PDP BoT from Rivers State met with Governor Rotimi Amaechi and endorsed some aspirants. It also threatened that if that particular member does not retrace his steps, he would be sanctioned very soon. The accusation was seen as directed at you. Could this be right?

That is absolute nonsense, complete madness. Amaechi is the governor of Rivers State, my state of origin. It will be

foolhardy for anybody to think that I should severe relationship with him.

President Jonathan is my younger brother and I may have played a fatherly role to both himself and Amaechi.

During the course of the problems, I moved into it with documentations. I have tried as much as possible but it is very painful that Anaechi left PDP for APC because of mismanagement. I blame our leaders: why are we elders?

What are we afraid of? What do we gain in this politics? If two of your children are quarrelling, you, as an elder, should be reconciliatory instead of taking sides. I have never met any of the aspirants; I have never held meeting with them. May be someone else held meetings with them and they are mistaking me for that...

But they said a BoT member...

I am a senior PDP BoT member, but I am not the only BoT member in Rivers State. I have never and, I repeat, I have never held any meeting of any nature with the aspirants but we have been having elders’ meetings to arrest the imbalance and strategy of eliminating the rest under the aegis of GDI. Rivers State PDP is synonymous with GDI and the Rivers PDP Chairman, Felix Obuah, is the campaign manager of Wike. He is not giving chance to any other person and he has no respect for any of the senior party members. So, it is a complete trash. I am friendly with Amaechi, but I have never discussed politics with him.

My position to Amaechi is that a riverine person must be the governor of Rivers State. I am a founder of the PDP and I can never leave the party.

Therefore, by party support and affiliation, we know where our loyalties are and they are specifically for the president.

But when it comes to the governorship candidature, it has to be a riverine or an Ogoni man in 2015.

Before and after the allegation by the Obuah-led PDP state executive committee, did you, at any point in time, meet with the governor to discuss the issue?

The last time I saw the governor was at the independence day church service and, after the church service, he invited a few of us to his residence. Of course, I went there, as a father! Must I kill one child for the other? That is immaturity and that is the failure of this country. A lot of things that went wrong with our system and leaders is because of taking sides; leaders become sycophantic and lean to one side, instead of bringing peace. What type of peace are we talking about in this visit of the PDP National Chairman to the state, if you cannot bring real, true reconciliation and peace? I am a BoT member and founder of the party. All of them are in the office they are occupying today through me; they are very hypocritical and I don’t believe in their hearsay. As a matter of fact, I saw the publication they issued and some of my boys replied with a number of questions.

PAGE 52— SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

2015, JONATHAN AND PDP GOVS

Anatomy of anointed candidacy!

BY HENRY UMORU

T

hose without work should stay away from the PDP secretariat. I am here to work, there is no doubt that all has not been well with our party.

I will restore the lost glory of the PDP, with your total support.”

Those were the words of Alhaji Adamu Muazu when he took over from his predecessor, Ambassador Bamanga Tukur, January 20, 2014 as National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. To achieve his goal of restoring the lost glory of the PDP, Muazu, on September 12, inaugurated what he called PDP National Integration Committee for the six geo- political zones of the country.

The committee was saddled with the task of reconciling estranged members with the party.

The North East zone has former Senate President Ken Nnamani as Chairman; North Central, former Acting National Chairman and former Minister of Defence, Dr. Mohammed Haliru Bello as Chairman; North West has the Chairman, Board of Trustees, Chief Tony Anenih as Chairman; South South, Senator Iya Abubakar; South East, former PDP National Chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Ali as Chairman and South West, Senate President David Mark as Chairman.

Inaugurating the committee, Mu’azu said : “We should, therefore, go beyond being a reformed party to a reformminded institution that is proactively committed to mid-wifing the accelerated transformation of our dear country.

“You have been assembled as great party leaders with great party spirit; men and women of high strength of character who, by your wealth of experience, are well-equipped and disposed to create value, add value and protect values within the PDP family.”

A peep into the past Before the National Integration Committee inaugurated by Muazu, his predecessors had tried to find ways to resolve political quagmires that reared their heads. After the 1999 presidential election which brought in former President Olusegun Obasanjo, the late Chairman of the party and former governor of Plateau State, Chief Solomon Lar, set up a reconciliation committee headed by former Vice President Alex Ekwueme. The committee had a former Kano State governor, the late Abubakar Rimi; a former

*Jonathan

*Muazu

*Chime

*Jang

governor of Old Anambra State, Chief Jim Nwobodo; Chief Richard Akinjide; a former governor of old Kaduna State, Alhaji Lawal Kaita, among others, as members.

It had become imperative for Lar to unite all in the party, following issues before the 1999 election that saw Ekwueme stepping down for Obasanjo because it was clear then that the colleagues of the latter in the military were backing him to win the PDP’s ticket. Ekwueme was pressurised to settle for the Senate where he would be the Senate President, but he refused.

There was also, in 2002, a PDP reconciliation committee on the executive/legislature impasse.

Still on the moves to bring back members who were forced out of the party, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua raised a committee also with Ekwueme as Chairman.

The Ekwueme committee, at the

To achieve his goal of restoring the lost glory of the PDP, Muazu, on September 12, inaugurated what he called PDP National Integration Committee for the six geo- political zones of the country end of the exercise, discovered to its chagrin that only six of the 34 founding members were still in the party. The committee recommended that those who left be allowed to come back while there must be rule of law, internal democracy, among others.

Rather than implement the recommendations of the the committee’s report, soon after he came in as the PDP National Chairman in 2008, Prince Vincent Ogbulafor set up another 18-member committee to review the report with his then deputy and former Minister of Defence, Mohammed Haliru Bello as

Chairman.

Soon after Bamanga Tukur came in and with the determination to implement his 3R agenda of Reconciliation, Reformation and Re- building the party, he set up an eight–man committee with Chief Alabo Graham Douglas as Chairman to reconcile members in Kano State.

He also set a committee headed

by Alhaji Shuaib Oyedokun to reconcile aggrieved members of the PDP in Benue State, just as there was that of Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State to resolve the issues in the South

West.

There was also a 30-member Reconciliation Panel headed by Governor Henry Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State, just as former Governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State was in the wake of crisis in the state appointed to chair the PDP Elders Forum to reconcile all.

Tukur, while inaugurating the Dickson’s committee, asked members to pay special attention to non-PDP controlled states, especially the six states in the South West; Anambra and Imo in the South East; Edo in South South; Nasarawa in North Central; Borno and Yobe in the North East; and Zamfara in the North West. The former PDP boss also told the committee that the party was determined, more than ever, to reclaim the the South West, even as PDP, between 2003 and 2007, controlled five of the six states in the zone. He asked the committee to evaluate the trend in the National Assembly in relation to the party’s interest and progress.

But the problems continued in all the zones even after the committees. The last one before Muazu came into office was that which was set up by President Goodluck Jonathan in the wake of the logjam in the party during Tukur’s tenure where five governors and members of the National Assembly supporting them left. The president’s committee was chaired by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, which recommended that Tukur should resign. Tukur did. Muazu stepped in.

Muazu’s National Zonal Integration Committee saddled with the assignment of returning unity to party immediately took off. While other chapters held their meetings in the zones, that of South South met at PDP campaign office, Legacy House, Maitama, Abuja. For three days, the South South chapter with the Zonal National Chairman, Dr. Cairo Ojuogboh, as the rallying point, received petitions from the states, except Bayelsa where there was no single petition.

At the venue, tempers rose, especially from Akwa Ibom with former Governor Victor Attah leading others against alleged imposition and claims that the membership register was hijacked and taken to Government House, warning that if the committee did not do a good job, it would have grave consequence on the party in

Continues on page 53

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Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PPA AGE 53

Continued from page 52

a fifth time in the Senate, just as Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma- Egba, representing Cross River Central, was at a rally in Ikom, endorsed to return to the Senate for a fourth time.

Of the 19 PDP governors, those who want to come back for second term are Murktar Ramalan Yero of Kaduna State; Acting Governor of Taraba State,

2015, but Governor, Godswill Akpabio immediately denied the claims, promising a level playing field for aspirants.

Akpabio said, “That is falsehood, there is nothing like

that. All the wards and chapters have their membership registers. The state party chairman also has his own copies. The allegation is baseless and you have to understand that this is political time and people are doing their best to blackmail one another,

bring about falsehood in an attempt to win elections, primaries or gain political power.

“I focus on good governance in my state and the PDP is out to ensure electoral independence. I have a lot of respect for elders and the fathers of the party and the president found it expedient to make me a member of the party`s inner caucus.

“I am a strong party man. I identify with the Working Committee in my state, the people and the founding fathers. The problem in my state is that we have one or two founding fathers who lost primaries in 2016 and, from that period, they lost interest in the PDP.” Strong indications also emerged, at the South-South Committee hearing that all is not well with PDP in Rivers State, especially as the immediate past Minister of State, Education, Nyesom Wike, will engage in battle with any who opposes him for the party’s ticket ahead of the 2015 gubernatorial poll, ,even as the other groups will not fold their arms, especially the Ogonis.

When it came to the turn of Cross River State, the battle was not as fierce as that of Rivers and Akwa Ibom States, just as Edo was equally calm.

In South West, Senator Mark appears to have won some estranged members for the PDP with former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, and Governor Olusegun Mimiko, returning to the party.

In the case of Delta State, there are issues as some aspirants from northern part of the state are insisting that perimaries preparatory to 2015 must be open to all aspirants.

They do not want imposition by Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan.

Contenders like former Speaker

Victor Ochei, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa; Professor Sylvester Monye, among others as well as party members who have been around want credible primaries.

To give credence to open primaries, Delta State PDP, in an advertisement, said the race for the House of Assembly, National Assembly and governorship, is for all with the setting up of a five-member committee headed by Evangelist Solomon Ogba to handle the exercise.

The South-East chapter of the PDP reconciliation

*Orji

*Akpabio

Anatomy of anointed candidacy! committee, did not find things easy in Abia, Ebonyi and Enugu States. In Enugu, it is no longer a secret that there is cold war between the camp of Governor Sullivan Chime and Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu over the PDP gubernatorial ticket ahead of the 2015 polls.

In Abia, Governor Theodore Orji is blocking all moves to ensure that his predecessor, Chief Orji Uzor Kalu returns to PDP. It is on record that Orji marched to the National Secretariat of the party during Tukur’s tenure with stakeholders warning against the party having the former governor back to the party.

Orji, who is the Chairman of South-East Governors’ Forum, also led a similar delegation to Abuja to caution Mu’azu against romancing with Kalu because, according to him, his predecessor was not a PDP member.

Also in Plateau State in North

Central, it may be a difficult task for the committee owing to the fact that Governor Jonah Jang was already closing the doors against those who want to return to the PDP, just like he did in 2012 when he stormed the PDP National Secretariat and appealed to Tukur, the then

National Chairman, not to welcome those he claimed were not after genuine reconciliation.

He was apparently referring to former Governor Joshua Dariye and a former deputy governor, Pauline Tallen.

In fact, Jang told the integration committee that Tallen; and a former FCT Minister, Jeremiah Useni; would only be reabsorbed into the party after the primaries for the 2015 general elections.

As the truce committee submits its report, one issue the PDP governors are contending with is that of cancellation of endorsement of candidates, saying that since President Goodluck Jonathan was endorsed as the sole presidential candidate of the party, they should be allowed to pick their successors.

It will be recalled that rising from its weekly meeting, Thursday, the National Working Committee, NWC, of the PDP had warned the governors, Zonal and state Chairmen to jettison the party’s anointed candidate ahead of the November 29 primaries where gubernatorial candidates ahead of the 2015 race would emerge.

A statement by the PDP National Secretary, Prof. Wale Oladipo, read, “The National Working Committee (NWC) at its meeting today, Thursday, October

9, 2014 noted that some elected officers of our great Party at the state level have continued to engage in processes aimed at endorsing candidates for the 2015 general elections despite warnings from the national leadership that they, as unbiased umpires should not involved in such.

“The NWC strongly frowns at this development and issues this as a final warning to all elected party officials and chapters at all levels, and shall not hesitate to sanction such erring officers or chapters.

“The sanctity of our nomination processes must be protected at all times. We therefore wish to assure all party members that there shall be a level playing ground for all aspirants intending to participate in the nomination processes.

“Consequently, the NWC will not hesitate to protect any of our members who in any way stands to be shortchanged, cheated or victimized by such endorsements.

Garba Umar; Ibrahim Dankwambo of Gombe; Henry Seriake-Dickson of Bayelsa; Idris Wada of Kogi and Adamawa State governor, Bala James Ngilari, among others.

Besides Governors Sule Lamido of Jigawa; Jonah Jang of Plateau and Babangida Aliyu of Niger, some outgoing governors of PDP have got the machinery of the party and some persons in their states to anoint them for the Senate.

They are Governors Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom; Gabriel Suswam of Benue; Saidu Dakingari of Kebbi; Theodore Orji of Abia; Sullivan Chime of Enugu; Ibrahim Shema of Katsina and Isa Yuguda of Bauchi.

As the governors plan to move from their various government Houses to the Senate, they have anointed sons to take over from them. In Enugu State, member representing Udenu/ IgboezeNorth in the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Marine Transport, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, has been endorsed by Chime as his possible successor.

In Akwa Ibom State, Akpabio is said to have settled for the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, while Martins Elechi of Ebonyi State has endorsed the Minister of Health, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu. Immediate past Minister of State, Education, Nyesom Wike, is being looked at by the Rivers State chapter of PDP as the prospective gubernatorial candidate while in Bauchi Governor Yuguda may not have made up his mind on who should be his successor

At the venue, tempers rose, especially from Akwa Ibom with former Governor Victor Attah leading others against alleged imposition and claims that the membership register was hijacked and taken to Government House “The NWC charges all our members and supporters therefore to disregard all such endorsements as the PDP will conduct primaries to duly elect our flag bearers in line with the provisions of the Electoral Act and the constitution of our great party.”

The statement was preceded y a rash of endorsements by some PDP governors. Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State announced the endorsement of Senate President David Mark for

between the former PDP Acting National Secretary and Chairman, Governing Board of Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND), Dr. Musa Babayo, and a former Minister of State, Health, Dr. Muhammed Ali Pate.

As Muazu receives the report of the PDP National Zonal Integration Committee from their Chairmen, stakeholders hope the recommendations would be implemented and not to go same way of those in the past.

PAGE 54 — SUND AY SUNDA

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Looming Chibok girls’ release, Boko Haram ceasefire zThe 12,000 lives lost to terrorists

BY BASHIR ADEFAKA

N

igeria seems to be on the way to a truce with Boko Haram following a meeting with the Federal Government and the Islamist group’s representatives.

The talks in Saudi Arabia also raised hopes, at the weekend, of the release of the more than 200 schoolgirls of Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, abducted by Boko Haram almost six months ago, precisely on April 14, 2014.

Principal Private Secretary to President Goodluck Jonathan, Ambassador Hassan Tukur, confirmed the news on Hausa Service ofVoice of America.

Nigerian government and the Boko Haram group were duly represented at the meeting with particular note of one Danladi Ahmadu standing in for the sect. The parley, Sunday Vanguard

gathered, was not conclusive as it was agreed to continue later this week.

Others present at the meeting included representatives of the Chadian government.

Meanwhile, the Chief of the Defence Staff in Nigeria, Air Vice Marshal Badeh, at the weekend, directed all military formations involved in prosecuting the war against Boko Haram to comply strictly with the ceasefire agreement reached at the Chadian meeting.

Over 12,000 lives have so far been lost since the inception of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Prominent among the lives lost are the former GOC II Division of Nigerian Army, Major-General Muhammadu Shuwa on 2 November 2012 in Maiduguri; Sheikh Mahmud Ja’afar Adam in Kano; an ANPP gubernatorial candidate Mr. Modu Fannami Gubio in Maiduguri on 28th

January 2011 and separate attempts on the lives of General Muhammadu Buhari and Sheikh Bauchi on 23 April 2014 which left no less than 90 dead in Kaduna while many lives were lost in attacks on churches, This

for a market bombing, following which 92 of its members were arrested by the police. * 28 January, 2011: The Borno State candidate of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) for the April 2011 gubernatorial elections, Mr.

The talks in Saudi Arabia also raised hopes, at the weekend, of the release of the more than 200 schoolgirls of Government Girls Secondary School Chibok, Borno State, abducted by Boko Haram almost six months ago, precisely on April 14, 2014 Day and Leadership offices in Abuja and Kaduna, respectively. Other killings include: * 7 September, 2010: Boko Haram attacked a prison in Bauchi State freeing over 700 inmates. * December, 2010: Blamed

Modu Fannami Gubio was assassinated, along with his brother, four police officers and a 12-year old boy. Boko Haram was blamed for the killings that other commentators noted was politically motivated especially that of Fannami Gubio.

* 8 February, 2011: Boko Haram offered conditions for peace, which included a demand that the Borno State Governor at that time, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, should step down from office with immediate effect and also allow members to reclaim their mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. It would be recalled that later that year on 9th May 2011 the group rejected an offer for amnesty made by the governor-elect of Borno state, Kashim Shettima, before he was later sworn in elected governor. * 29 March, 2011: The police thwarted a plot to bomb an ANPP election rally in Maiduguri. The threat was blamed on Boko Haram. * 1 April, 2011: On the day before the original date of Nigeria’s legislative elections, suspected Boko Haram members attacked a police station in Bauchi. * 9 April, 2011: A polling center in Maiduguri was destroyed. * 15 April, 2011: The Maiduguri office of the Independent National Electoral Commission was bombed, and several people were shot in a separate incident on the same day.

Authorities suspected Boko Haram. * 20 April, 2011: Boko Haram killed a Muslim cleric and ambushes several police officers in Maiduguri. * 22 April, 2011: Boko Haram frees 14 prisoners during a jailbreak in Yola, Adamawa State. * 29 May, 2011: Boko Haram was blamed for a series of bombings in Northern Nigeria that left 15 dead. * 17 June, 2011: The group claimed responsibility for a bombing attack on the police force headquarters in Abuja that occurred the previous day. Officials believed that the attack was the first suicide bombing in Nigeria’s history and that it specifically targeted Police Inspector-General Hafiz Ringim. * 26 June, 2011: The sect carried out a bombing attack on a beer garden in Maiduguri, according to officials and witnesses.

Militants on motorcycles threw explosives into the drinking spot, killing about 25 people. * 27 June, 2011: Another bombing in Maiduguri was attributed to the group. It killed at least two girls and wounded three customs Continues on page 55

SUND AY SUNDA

Continued from page 54 officials. * 03 July, 2011: A bombing in a beer garden in Maiduguri was attributed to the group. It resulted in the death of at least twenty people. * 10 July, 2011: The bomb attacks on the All Christian Fellowship Church in Suleja, Niger State. * 11 July, 2011: The University of Maiduguri temporarily closes down its campus citing security concerns. * 12 August, 2011: Prominent Muslim Cleric Liman Bana was shot dead

by Boko Haram. He died after sustaining gunshot wounds. He was walking home after conducting prayers at the main mosque in Ngala. * 26 August, 2011: The UN House in Abuja was blown up by a suicide car bomber, leaving at least 21 dead and dozens more injured. A Boko Haram spokesman later claimed responsibility for the UN Houses, which was generally believed was done by the group to attract global attention to their demand for justice over the killing of their 800 members and leader, Mohammed Yusuf. Four men were produced in an Abuja magistrates’ court, they were charged with organising the bombing and were remanded in custody for a federal high court hearing. * 16 October, 2011: Another politician Modu Bintube was killed outside of his home in Maiduguri and the police suspected that members of Boko Haram was responsible for it. * 22 October, 2011: Spokesman Abu Qaqa indicated that the militant group had slain Alhaji Zakariya Isa, a Nigerian Television Authority journalist, claiming that he was a government informant. * 5 November, 2011: A series of coordinated attacks in Borno and Yobe states, primarily around Damaturu, killed at least 67 people leaving a new police headquarters in ruins, and government offices burned.

A Boko Haram spokesman told a national daily (not Sunday Vanguard) that it was responsible for the attacks and promised more. * 25 December, 2011: Boko Haram claimed responsibility for bomb attacks on a Catholic Church

Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PPA AGE 55

CEASEFIRES THA OBAL CONFLICT S THATT SHAPED GL GLOBAL CONFLICTS

BY CHARLES KUMOLU

Since the end of First World War , there have been many peace plans and many negotiations among warring camps globally.Some of these have been successful, while others failed to achieve peace. Here are some peace proposals and what happened to them.

1914 Known as the Christmas Truce. World War One had raged for fourl months but German and Allied soldiers stepped out of their trenches, shook hands and agreed a truce so the dead could be buried. The soldiers also used that truce to chat with one another and even played a football match.

1967 UN Security Council Resolution 242. -It was passed on 22 November 1967 and embodies the principle that has guided most of the subsequent peace plans, especially the exchange of land for peace.

1978 With past peace deals, failing to ensure lasting peace, it became imparative for then United States President, Jimmy Carter to convene a peace talk in Camp David. This was known as the Camp David Accords.

He capitalised on the new mood and invited President Sadat and the Israeli Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, for talks at the presidential retreat at Camp David near Washington. The talks lasted for 12 days and resulted in two agreements.

1991 Known as the Madrid Conference. The forum was cosponsored by the US and the Soviet Union, was designed to follow up the Egypt-Israel treaty by encouraging other Arab countries to sign their own agreements with Israel.

1993 The international pressure on the Hutu-led government of Juvénal Habyarimana in Rwanda, resulted in a cease-fire with a roadmap to implement the Arusha Accords that would create a power-sharing government.

1993 Oslo Agreement Backed by then US President, Bill Clinton, the dialogue tried to tackle the missing element of all previous talks - a direct agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, represented by the Palestinian Liberation Organisation ,PLO. Its importance was that there was finally mutual recognition between Israel and the PLO. 1994 Israel signed a historic peace deal with Jordan.

1994 The Lusaka Ceasefire Agreement‘ attempted to end the Second Congo War through a ceasefire, release of prisoners of war, and the deployment of an international peacekeeping

force under the auspices of the United Nations.

1995 The Dayton Accords, resulted to the deployment of IFOR consisting of American, British, and French troops to police a cease-fire agreement according to which Bosnia remained essentially intact.

1996 The warring factions in Liberia signed the Abuja peace agreement and concurred to hold elections, which Charles Taylor won. Between 1997 and 2000, Liberia experienced a flawed and fragile peace 2003 The continuous failure of previous initiatives, resulted to this which was also held in Camp David. Like others, it failed leading to another Palestinian uprising known as intifada.

2O12 Colombia’s left-wing Farc rebels announced a unilateral Christmas ceasefire, on the first day of peace talks in Cuba.

The truce will ran from Tuesday to 20 January.

June 2014 The Afghan government reportedly commenced negotiating a “peace deal” with the Taliban in Sangin, which was overrun by the jihadist group.

Negotiations between Taliban militants and Afghan officials continue in southern Helmand province of Afghanistan in a bid to end violence.

2014 Pakistan Taliban agreed to ceasefire to help Afghan allies.

Pakistani militants said the ceasefire with their government was to preserve militant bases used to stage cross-border attacks 2014 Colombia’s rebel group FARC declared a cease-fire during Colombia’s presidential runoff. This came amid peace negotiations between Bogota and the rebels.

The cease-fire was announced in a letter addressed to right-wing presidential challenger Oscar Ivan Zuluaga.

2014 The Myanmar government and the ethnic armed groups agreed on a fourth draft nationwide ceasefire accord after five days of talks at the Myanmar Peace Centre in Yangon.

Looming Chibok girls’ release, Bok am ceasef ire Bokoo Har Haram ceasefire Madala, Abuja, which left about 47 killed and others injured. They claimed to be revenging the massacre of over one thousand Muslims

by Christians of Jos on Eidul-Fitri praying ground on Sallah day earlier in August same year. The terror group had warned the Christians in Nigeria that it would begin to attack churches if Christian leaders in Nigeria and Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau State failed to condemn the massacre of Muslims on that Sallah Day. * 5 January 2012: Boko Haram gunmen stormed a church in Northern Nigeria Thursday and killed six people while they were praying. The pastor said

President Jonathan the attack was done at the expiration of ultimatum from the Islamists for Christians in the region. * 2 November 2012: Four gunmen believed to be members of Boko Haram killed former GOC II Division of the Nigerian Army, Major General

President Idriss Deby Muhammadu Shuwa in his home in Maiduguri. They shot him dead, along with one of his visitors. * I February 2014: Boko Haram killed Kaduna State based Islamic cleric, Sheik Auwal Adam Albani, his wife and son at the Gwagwaje area of Zaria.

Air Vice Marshal Badeh * 13 April 2014: More than 70 people were killed in a bomb blast at the crowded Nyanya bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja. * 1 May 2014: Scores died in another bomb attack at the same spot in Nyanya bus station.

Page 56 — SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

Of NAFDAC and Orhii’s Agenda for Transformation VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF Gains of the war against fake drugs

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HERE is a widespread perception that Government Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) are hotbeds of slothfulness and inefficiencies.

Indeed, so prevalent is this view that many Nigerians routinely write off all MDAs as incapable of innovation, let alone transformational change.

However, the story is different at the Dr. Paul Orhii-led National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

To be fair, NAFDAC had a better-than-average image even before Orhii’s appointment as the agency’s Director-General.

Due credit must be given to Orhii’s predecessor in office, the late Professor Dora Akunyili, who worked hard at combating the menace of fake and substandard drugs in Nigeria and thereby raised NAFDAC’s profile in no small way.

First appointed as DG of NAFDAC in 2009, Orhii has built on the foundation that Akunyili laid and has taken the agency to new heights. As a result of his result-oriented

VIEWPOINT

Orhii’s tenure has been marked by four major innovations which have transformed the role of NAFDAC as a medicine regulatory agency tasked with safeguarding the health of the nation

,

of NAFDAC in December 2013.

Orhii’s tenure has been marked by four major innovations which have transformed the role of NAFDAC as a medicine regulatory agency tasked with safeguarding the health of the nation. One of the most prominent of these four innovations is the use of new technologies to combat the menace of fake drugs. Among these new technologies are Truscan, a handheld device for detecting fake drugs; Black Eye, a device that can screen several drug samples at the same time; Mobile

and other substandard products from China into Nigeria. As a direct result of NAFDAC’s collaboration with Chinese authorities, six Chinese counterfeiters who specialized in the manufacture and exportation of fake anti-malaria drugs were charged to Chinese courts, tried and sentenced to death.

Moreover, NAFDAC is also collaborating with Indian authorities to stop counterfeiters from exporting fake or substandard drugs from that country into Nigeria.

The third major innovation being canvassed by the Orhiiled NAFDAC is the need to stipulate stiffer penalties for those found guilty of drug counterfeiting offences. Orhii has taken the position that the present punishment of 15 years in prison, with an option of N500, 000-fine for drug counterfeiting offences is too mild.

The fourth, though perhaps the most important transformational innovation Orhii has introduced as DG of NAFDAC, is providing a conducive and worker-friendly environment for the staff members of the agency. Orhii has ensured improved staff training (including courses abroad), acquisition of new skills, timely promotions and

•Momodu lives in Benin City, Edo State.

APC leaders and the anti-Metuh fixation

BY RICHARD IHEDIWA VIEWPOINT IN BRIEF Question for the opposition against the PDP spokesperson and the reason is not farleaders fetched. Since his emergence as PDP spokesperson, Metuh has N recent times, there has become for members of the been a series of personal opposition party, a thorn in the attacks sponsored in a section flesh for matching their of the media by some All propaganda machinery by Progressives Congress (APC) effectively projecting the leaders in a spirited plot to positive image of the PDP while discredit officials of the Federal exposing the many inherent Government and those of the negatives of the APC. ruling Peoples Democratic Party The APC is distraught (PDP).

The overall because Metuh has been able Machiavellian purpose of these to adequately communicate the attacks by the APC leaders is unique selling points of the very clear: to bring respected PDP and the major difference officials of the Federal between its content and Government and the PDP to character and those of the public odium.

APC. They are bitter because Typical of a desperate their party has been opposition, as the 2015 general appropriately and correctly elections approach, the APC profiled by Metuh as an antileaders have scaled up these Nigeria platform which does attacks. In the last couple of not have the interest of the months, they have engaged an people at heart. army of consultants The APC leaders have been masquerading as columnists having sleepless nights and writers in local and foreign because Metuh not only media to sustain this devious stripped their party of its fake enterprise by employing their messianic robe, making a stock-in-trade of lies, insults public display of its true identity and blackmails. as a party on a mission to This is in addition to the destroy Nigeria, but also unleashing of APC thugs in the showed that it is no alternative social media who use multiple to the PDP, a message which accounts with pseudonyms to has stuck, forming a strong attack PDP, its people-oriented foundation for informed programmes and post lies and electoral choices for 2015 insults against President general elections based not on Goodluck Jonathan. propaganda but on reason and Of particular note is the facts as was the case in the June endless personal attack on the 21 Ekiti State governorship PDP National Publicity election.

Secretary, Olisa Metuh. In the It is against this backdrop that last few months, the APC has the PDP National Publicity concentrated its onslaught Secretary has become a critical

I

Authentication Service (MAS) using Short Message Service (SMS); and Mini Laboratories that can be used in the field for speedy evaluation of medicines.

It is worth noting here that NAFDAC is the first medicines regulatory agency in the world to deploy Truscan in detecting fake and substandard medicines and other regulated products at the nation’s ports of entry. Also, under Orhii’s leadership, NAFDAC scored another world first when the agency introduced the MAS. What remains unique about the MAS is how the technology effectively empowers every Nigerian who owns a mobile phone to be able to confirm the authenticity of any medicine or regulated product by simply scratching a bar code on the pack of the product and texting the number found there to a designated short code number.

Another area where Orhii has been remarkably successful is challenging the ability of counterfeiters who operate with impunity across international borders. For instance, Orhii signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Chinese Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) to put a stop to Nigerian and international criminals seeking to import fake or expired drugs

,

BY JOHNSON MOMODU

leadership, President Goodluck Jonathan did not hesitate to reappoint the Benue-born Orhii to a new four-year term as DG

,

VIEWPOINT

the initiation of an additional reward system for staff members who go the extra mile in the call of duty. Furthermore, as part of his efforts to keep morale and motivation high by instituting a favourable work environment for the staff of NAFDAC, Orhii has embarked on revamping old laboratories and building new ones. Some of these include new laboratories in Agulu, Anambra State and Yaba, Lagos State.

It is near-impossible to showcase within the scope of one newspaper article the many innovations that Orhii has embarked upon in order to bring transformational change to NAFDAC. However, what is clear from the foregoing is that with these four major initiatives, Orhii is putting his stamp on the agency in a way that would ensure his legacies live on long after he may have finished his second term as the DG of NAFDAC. Having performed so well at NAFDAC, and having proved that this is one government agency where slothfulness and inefficiencies are nonexistent because of his leadership, the hope is that when Orhii’s tenure expires, he will be given an even higher national assignment to enable him continue contributing his quota to the betterment of Nigeria.

Characteristically, Metuh has maintained his high moral ground of decency and equanimity in the face of the attacks by APC leaders

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assignment for the APC. He must be stopped.

Characteristically, Metuh has maintained his high moral ground of decency and equanimity in the face of the attacks by APC leaders. He has refused to join issues with them or to allow himself to be distracted. However, it is very important to place on record that there is no statement by Metuh on APC or its leaders that has not been based on facts. This explains the reason APC leaders and their paid writers have continued to indulge in stretching their imagination but always end up with insults and threats.

A typical example of the lies that constantly lace APC statement was its news release of June 19, 2014 where it averred that a plane carrying Kano State Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso to attend its rally in Ekiti was denied landing permission in Akure, only for Kwankwaso’s Director of Press

Affairs, Baba Dantiye, to announce that his boss was at another event in Kano on that day and had no plans to travel to Ekiti.

Having been exposed, APC leaders are very bitter with Metuh. They are now desperate and want to use every means including circulating negative publications to stop him. Of particular reference is a publication in a section of the media by Sunday Dare, the Special Assistant to the former governor of Lagos State and APC leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. A similar article written by one Tobi Idaomi appeared in some online news sites.

Typical of the APC, the Dare article, meant to be a response to the well-articulated PDP statement wherein it urged Nigerians to quit the APC because of its anti-democratic stance and the dictatorial tendencies of its leaders, left the issues and dwelt on insults.

Tinubu and his co-travelers in APC must be extremely bitter because Metuh’s wellresearched statement, issued on Saturday, September 6, 2014 completely exposed their despotic tendencies. Instead of responding to the issues raised in the PDP statement, Tinubu’s handlers went wild with abuses further confirming Metuh’s position that the APC is a party of intolerant politicians.

The questions Nigerians must ask are: why has Tinubu refused to answer Metuh’s query regarding how he emerged the

leader of APC? Was he elected?

Does this not show the APC as an undemocratic party “where despots crown themselves national leaders without recourse to appropriate democratic process?”

Tinubu should answer Metuh on why he barred a member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Bamidele Opeyemi, from contesting the June 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State on APC platform. He should explain the role he played in stopping former Senate Minority Leader, Olorunnimbe Mamora, from recontesting the Senate seat in 2011.

Did he not impose his son inlaw, Hon. Oyetunde Oladimeji Ojo, as a member representing Ijero/Efon/Ekiti West Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives? Did he not impose his sister in-law, Lola Fibisola Akande, as a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly and his daughter, Mrs. Folashade Tinubu-Ojo, to replace his late mother, Abibatu Mogaji, as President-General of the Association of Nigerian Market Women and Men? In any case, the APC must understand that no amount of sponsored media attacks, blackmails, insults and threats will subdue the resolve to stand for the truth, which Metuh now personifies in the current political scenario.

•Ihediwa is Special Assistant to PDP National Publicity Secretary.

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014,

VIEWPOINT

BY EMMANUEL AJIBULU TRIBUTE IN BRIEF A accomplished politician and former minister on his birthday

Femi Fani-Kayode @ 54

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N October 16, 2014, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, a former Minister of Aviation and PDP chieftain, celebrated his 54th birthday, coincidentally, with the inauguration of the governor of Ekiti State, Chief Ayodele Peter Fayose. For the love a friend like Fani-Kayode has for Fayose, he preferred to be in Ado Ekiti to felicitate with the new governor and defied the usual merry making, thanksgiving and prayers with friends, political associates and family members at his Abuja residence.

Fani-Kayode, just like his late father is a quintessential, dogged, irrepressible and indefatigable individual who has distanced himself from the erroneous notion that Nigerian politicians cannot say the truth to the constituted authorities.

The story of Fani-Kayode is the story of courage and resilience.

His father, Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode (of blessed memory), hailed from a

•Fani-Kayode prominent and well educated Yoruba family who are of Ife stock from south-western Nigeria. In July 1958 he courageously and successfully moved the motion for Nigeria’s independence in the Federal House of Representatives.

He argued that independence should take place on 2 April 1960. Although in 1959 there was a further motion that was moved in the Nigerian Parliament asking for a slight amendment to the FaniKayode motion of July 1958.

This new motion, which was

Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to hit Nigerian market on October 24

law school in 1985; he worked in the law firm of Chief Rotimi Williams in Lagos after which he moved to his father’s law firm, “Fani- Kayode and Sowemimo”. There he worked under the direct tutelage of his father and his uncle, the late and highly respected Chief Sobo Sowemimo, S.A.N (whose older brother, the late Justice George Sodeinde Sowemimo, was the Chief Justice of Nigeria from 1983 to 1985). Other notable personalities trained in this great law firm include Chief Robert Clarke, S.A.N, Alhaji Femi Okunnu, S.A.N, Seyi Sowemimo, S.A.N, Justice Moni Fafiade, Justice Niyi Ademola, Chief Kunle AlexDuduyemi (the wealthy businessman from Ile-Ife, who Chief Remilekun Fani-Kayode mentored and trained), the Oxford-trained and brilliant Gbolahun Alastishe, the Cambridge-trained Abba Kyari (who later became the managing director of one of Nigeria’s largest banks), the Cambridge-trained Funke Aboyade, the Durham-trained Femi Lijadu and many other senior members of both the Nigerian Bar and bench. After

working there for three years Femi Fani-Kayode was promoted to the position of a senior partner in 1989.

He went into self-exile and pitched his tent with the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) Abroad, together with the likes of the Oxfordtrained lawyer, Chief Tunde Edu. Apart from these rare virtues, he still finds time to commune with God. He is an evangelical Christian, essayist and a poet. He was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 to June 2006. He was re-deployed and appointed as the Minister of Culture and Tourism of the Federal Republic of Nigeria from June to Nov 2006 and subsequently as Minister of Aviation from Nov 2006 to May 2007.

Looking back over the past 54 years, I am sure that you, your family and indeed your larger family of associates and admirers do have cause to be grateful to Almighty God for having granted you a life of great accomplishment and abiding fulfilment.

Congratulations to you sir at 54.

I wish you best of luck in political endeavours and may all your efforts work in your favour and that of your party.

SEPLAT PEARLs Quiz Winners get school bus, N.3m HE third edition of T the annualSEPLAT PEARLs Quiz competition ended with ex-

T

HE highly anticipated Samsung Galaxy Note 4 will officially go on sale in Nigeria on Friday October 24, 2014.

Samsung Electronics West Africa’s Director of Information Technology and Mobile, Mr. Emmanouil Revmatas, said that a formal launch of the new device in Nigeria will take place at Samsung’s Experience Store in Ikeja City Mall, Lagos same day, with lots of exciting gifts and Samsung accessories for consumers that purchase the device at the event.

The Galaxy Note 4 retains its predecessor, the Note 3’s whopping 5.7-inch screen, with substantial innovation and upgrade in design and performance. The screen now boasts a Quad High Definition Super AMOLED technology that stretches to 515 pixels per inch to allow users enjoy sharper images and brighter colours. Coupled with this is Samsung’s innovative adaptive display that optimizes screen view depending on available lighting conditions. A sleek metal trim and premium leather-feel back cover make the latest Note device a must-have.

Other highlights of the device include a powerful 3220mAh battery that goes from zero to 50% battery charge in just 30 minutes as well as an improved S Pen which now comes with two writing options, Calligraphy and Fountain and

moved by Sir Tafawa Balewa, asked that the 2 April 1960 date for independence which had already been accepted and approved by Parliament and which had been acquiesced to by the British colonial authorities, should be shifted from 2 April of the same year to 1st October, 1960 instead.

Extolling the virtues of a respected leader like this is simply worthwhile.

In Fani-Kayode’s view, seeing Nigeria move to greatness in all fronts is a responsibility that must be fulfilled by all, irrespective of political leanings. His highly publicized articles and essays on visionary leadership, social justice, and fight against administrative indiscretion, accountability, probity and war against human right abuses among others, cannot be lost to all true patriots in our country.

He had on many instances demonstrated his love for Nigeria above pecuniary interest and taught others to embrace same.

Impressively, Femi FaniKayode is a British trained lawyer, after the successful completion of his programme in

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the ability to edit images using the device’s Snap Note feature.

As a special promo, Samsung is offering one free accessory with every purchase of the Galaxy Note 4 on the first day of sales at all of its dealer stores nationwide. The device is available in four colours Frosted White, Charcoal Black, Bronze Gold and Blossom Pink.

citement and jubilation at the weekend in Okpe Hall, Sapele, Delta State.

After a keenly contested competition, students of Hebrew International Secondary School, Okpela emerged winners of a brand new school bus and N.3 million cash.

Speaking shortly after the grand finale and award of prizes, Dr. Chioma Nwachuku, GM, External Relations and Communications, who representedAustin Avuru, MD/CEO of SEPLAT Petroleum Development Company PLC, operators of the NPDC/SEPLAT JV assets, OML 4, 38 &41, congratulated the winning schools and runners up for their preparedness, doggedness and gamesmanship.

Tracing the history of the quiz competition from inception to date, Nwachuku said: ‘’Our company ’s commitment to intellectual capacity development

Hail the champions: (l-r) Dr. Chioma Nwachuku, General Manager External Relations & Communications of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Charles Ifediba of CSR Department Seplat, Mrs. Esther Icha, CSR Manager, Seplat and Rev. Mrs. M.I Oziegbe of the Edo State Ministry of Education after the presentation of a brand new bus to students of Hebrew International College, Okpela who won this year’s Seplat sponsored annual Pearls Quiz Competition on Friday in Sapele.

as well as the empowerment of members of our host communities through capacity building remains strong and unshakeable.

This is our third year of organiz-

Sir Emmanuel Fred Oghenekaro (KSC) is dead

T

HE Oghenekaro Family of Owhrode in Udu Local Government Area of Delta State, announces the sudden death of their brother, father, uncle, and grandfather, Sir Emmanuel Fred Ayorive Oghenekaro (KSC). He died in Lagos on August 7, 2014, after a brief illness. He was aged 68 years.

A statement for the family by Tejiri Oghenekaro, said the late Sir Fred, as he was popularly known, worked as a Cultural Officer in the Cultural Division of the Federal

Ministry of Information, before moving to African Petroleum Plc then known as British Petroleum.

He later became a senior manager before retiring into Our Saviour’s Anglican Church, TBS, Lagos. He was the People’s Warden of the Church at the time of his death.

Alongside his service to God, he also had a successful communication and media outfit.

Sir Fred Oghenekaro is survived by his wife, Dame Nancy Oghenekaro, children and grandchildren.

•Late Oghenekaro

ing the PEARLs quiz competition and we are constantly impressed by the performance of students especially the female students who are often disadvantaged on account of their gender. We are convinced that the future of these children is very bright indeed.”

Staff and students of the winning school thanked SEPLAT for the initiative flagged off three years ago as a means of promoting academic excellence, stimulating healthy competition, encouraging learning and rewarding outstanding academic performance among schools in Edo and Delta states in collaboration with the Ministries of Education in the respective states.

Last year’s competition was won by Staff Model College, Agbor.

PAGE 58—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

GRAND RALLY IN ABUJA

2015: Pressure mounts on Jonathan

DIASPORA

… As TAN rounds off rallies

W

How Uncle G Lost The Plot (1)

U

NCLE G is a very popular and well loved man, especially among Nigerians in the city of Dundee, United Kingdom. Charming, well spoken and well dressed, Uncle G is a man with sweet stories of his social days back in Nigeria.

A detribalised Nigerian, with fairly good knowledge of the major languages in the country, which makes it easy for him to interact with everybody, no matter what part of Nigeria you are from. He loves Nigeria. And according to him, he offers no apology for this.

Uncle G, in his mid fifties now, has an athletic build with no potbelly or bald head. A handsome man with a complementary Afro hair cut, Uncle G is always eager to say he is a relunctant settler in the UK (which he refers to as Mama Charly's country). He was doing okay playing local politics in Nigeria. His dream all along was to become a local government council chairman in the state of Osun.

However, fate played a

for her studies leaving Uncle G to mind the three children in Nigeria for a year. At the end of the wife's studies, she secured a Work Permit to work for the NHS. The decision to come to the UK or not was taken away from Uncle G. When the wife came back to Nigeria, it was to apply for dependant visas for the children and Uncle G. Uncle G came into the UK with mixed feelings.

He was not ready to work long hours. He joked with friends how he had people at his beck and call 24/7 in Nigeria. A 'prospective' local government council chairman. To many who knew Uncle G's story, this is where his confusion in the UK started.

He played the great socialite trying to bring Nigeria to Dundee.

Friendly with every Nigerian he met, and as his days in the UK were turning to weeks and months, he extended his generosity to every black person he meets. Before long, he was “uncle” to the whites too, especially the women. He was like a teenager who just

While Uncle G was enjoying himself on the town, stories were filtering in to his wife of his escapades. She was shattered but had a good idea of what she would do fast one on Uncle G at the turn of the millineum.

His wife, a qualified nurse was given a schorlarship to study in the UK. While the wife and children were happy about the opportunity to relocate, Uncle G was devastated. He could not bear the thought of abandoning his people and come to 'Mama Charly's country'. To him that means all the political goodwill he has built and also the opportunity to serve would go down the drain.

The wife came to the UK

found freedom outside the home.

It did not take long before he ran into trouble.

Uncle G “messed” with a white woman who reported him for sexual molestation. He was invited to the local police station for questioning.

He told the Police that he never knew that chatting with a woman in a swimming pool could be termed as sexual molestation. This charge was inputted in the computer against his name. And this was how Uncle G's travails started.

While Uncle G was the darling of everybody outside, he was a 'monster' to his family. He had no job and made no attempt to get one. He enjoyed hanging around the community library and the leisure centres all day.

The wife was left with the bills and before long she started to crumble emotionally. Uncle G could not see this. He was too engrossed in his own world outside the walls of his home. He was gallivanting about.

The wife was more of a programmed robot now.

All on her mind was how to work twelve hours, six over seven days in a week so as to pay the bills and put food on the table. She cared less of her look because there was no spare money to do this. But all, except Uncle G, could see she was gradually inching towards the breaking point. He was blind to his environment.

But all was to change soon. And the event that happened shocked Uncle G to his 'foundation'.

The aftermath took him so long to recover.

While Uncle G was enjoying himself on the town, stories were filtering in to his wife of his escapades. She was shattered but had a good idea of what she would do.

It was a Saturday morning, Uncle G was ironing his clothes when the wife confronted him about the stories she had heard. He denied. But 'made a mistake' to raise his voice. The children were witnesses to this.

The woman capitalised on this, moved closer to him and pulled his shirt, demanding an explanation. Uncle G raised the hot iron to “shoo” his wife away. But that was another mistake.

The wife released his shirt, rushed to pick the house phone and dialed 999 screaming down the phone that her husband had threatened her with a hot iron. Uncle G was shocked. He stood rooted to a spot. “Threatened?” “Me?” “Ah!” In a jiffy police patrol vehicles were all over the compound. A knock on the door; opened.

Two stern looking policemen were right at the door. Uncle G faced reality.

HEN the Transfor mation Ambassa dors of Nigeria (TAN) took over the air waves some months ago, the group was categorical in its vision and mission. Their steps, voice and body language were sure, definite and focused!

It has remained the only properly identifiable backer for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. Their opinion has remained that the numerous landmark achievements of Jonathan were under-reported, under-publicized and to a large extent swept under the carpet surreptitiously, albeit by those hired by same Jonathan to package his works and administration.

TAN, a vision conceived by Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, a contemporary Nigeria political gadfly, was bent on changing the usually rowdy and confused political atmosphere during elections.

The excellent strides of Jonathan need no bad name because TAN has now taken the message of his welfare package and achievements as they affect every village and hamlet to the door steps of all.

The group started with rallies across all the six geopolitical zones.

At the grand finale at the Eagle Square, Abuja, yesterday, the TAN’s Director of Operations, Benchuks Nwosu, expressed appreciation to Nigerians, especially supporters of Jonathan and the PDP for their prayers and standing by them in its sixleg nationwide rallies.

Going down memory lane, Nwosu noted that the rallies kicked –off in Awka, Anambra State on Aug 16(SouthEast), then Ibadan, Aug 23(South-West), Port Harcourt (South-South), Minna (North Central), Gombe (North East) and the tumultuous Kano rally (NorthWest)..At each of the stops, the TAN train brought with it heart-warming messages of Nigerians through the mouths of Ministers, national/state assembly lawmakers, ambassadors, business moguls, musical and Nollywood stars who honoured the group and Mr. President with their cherished physical presence.

They all sang, danced and made merry all the way.

Uniquely in addition to their business of the day at the Gombe and Kano rallies, the group donated large consignments of relief materials to victims of insurgency..

Ahead of the grand finale, yesterday, TAN mobilized nearly 15million lovers of peace and peaceful co-existence and supporters of Jonathan to appeal to him to accept to stand for re-election next year.

This, according to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Chief Anyim Pius, showed “the deep appreciation of people of the Nigeria from the various zones in the good work President Goodluck Jonathan is doing in the country, hence want him to continue.” The general perception and positive appeal, he noted, cut across age, gender and social class barriers. The Publicity Secretary of TAN, Enu-

A cross section of the crowd at the rally

The mammoth crowd caused grid lock in the city as groups tried to outplay one another in pleading with Jonathan so that he can consolidate on his landmark achievements gu State chapter, Mr Ugulu Ugulu,saw TAN as the flagship organisation in the campaign for the re-election of Jonathan.

Whereas the much expected declaration or at least acceptance to run for the 2015 presidential election by the President at the grand finale of the TAN rally ended on a very high note, it was without any word from Jonathan.

The President, who was visibly absent at the rally, had his Vice, Namadi Sambo, commending TAN for raising over 17 million signatures of potential voters through constructive engagement in his support.

This development, according to Sambo, was a manifestation of the President’s popularity. He, therefore, urged TAN not to close shop after the rallies grand finale, but to device a more comprehensive strategy to support Jonathan all through.

Abuja stood still for the grand finale. As early as 7am, delegates from all over the country started arriving to plead with the president to seek a renewal of his mandate. The mammoth crowd caused grid lock in the city as groups tried to outplay one another in pleading with Jonathan so that he can consolidate on his landmark achievements.

In his welcome address, TAN Director of Public Communications and Strategy, Dr Udenta Udenta, said the success story of the advocacy group has become a message from all Nigerians across every spectrum . He urged the President to answer the call of Nigerians to seek another four year tenure so that he can deepen and consolidate the good work he has accomplished in the first tenure. The Chairman of the People Living with Disability, Mallam Umar Tahir, from Nasarawa State, said that none of the predecessors of Jonathan identified with the disabled like the President.

He expressed the preparedness of the disabled to give a bloc vote Jonathan should he decide to answer the clarion call of Nigerians to run again for the presidency.

The National Coordinator of Women for Change and

Development Initiative, Dr Rabi Ibrahim, who spoke on behalf of women, said women all over the country, irrespective of political leanings, were around for the rally.

Ibrahim commended TAN for its unique efforts to galvanize the voices of all Nigerians into a very strong one. She pleaded with the President to answer the call of Nigerians yearning for more of him. Mr George Chukwu and Mr Chris Udechukwu, who spoke on behalf of Nigerians in diaspora, especially those living in Canada, UK, Ghana, South Africa, said they are excited about the laudable achievements of Jonathan in his first tenure. The duo pledged the support of Nigerians abroad to the second tenure of the President.

The Deputy Senate President, Rt Hon Ike Ekweremadu, who spoke on behalf of the members of the National Assembly who graced the occasion, said senators and members of the House of Representatives are solidly behind the President and urged him to answer the call of Nigerians to go again for the presidency come 2015.

Mrs Deziani Maduekwe, the Minister of Petroleum Resources and her agriculture counterpart, Dr Adesina Akinwumi, who spoke for the South-South and SouthWest respectively, extolled the virtues of Jonathan and the achievements recorded by the President’s transformation agenda. The duo joined their voices with those of all Nigerians to plead with the President to run again for the presidency in another mandate in the 2015 general elections. The PDP Governors Forum, led

by Akwa-Ibom State Governor Obong Godswill Akpabio, saluted the courage, candour and maturity with which the President has continued to display in the leadership of the nation, even in the face of daunting natural and man-made challenges. The Minister of FCT, Alh Bala Mohammed, thanked TAN as well as all well-meaning Nigerians for their love and support. He vouched implicit support of the FCT for Jonathan and his administration towards 2015.

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 59

Page 60 SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014,

Enyeama ‘shocked’ by timing of Keshi’s removal S

•Enyeama

Ebola: Greek club banish Sierra Leone player

G

REEK club PAS Lamia have asked Sierra Leone’s John Kamara not to train or play with the club for three weeks due to fears over the Ebola virus.

Kamara returned to Greece after playing for the Leone Stars in their Africa Cup of Nations ties in Cameroon.

OUR ERROR

A

T page 63 of Sunday Vanguard of September 28, 2014, in the story headlined, ‘Heartland GM, coach fight over technical matters’, we inadvertently quoted coach Emeteole as saying: “This is a man (referring to GM Christian Ibe) they repatriated from Holland and brought to Heartland to be rehabilitated. I don’t blame him. If he knew me well as a no – nonsense person, he would not have accepted the job in the first instance.” We have since found out that the coach was misrepresented.

We regret any inconvenience the story may have caused him and the Heartland GM.

Lamia told him the decision was on advice from the Greek health ministry.

Sierra Leone player banished over Ebola fears “[The club told me] I shouldn’t be with the team for 15 to 21 days as I went to Africa to play and because of the Ebola virus,” Kamara told BBC Sport.

“They made it clear I should stay indoors or I should travel abroad to see my family and not go to training.”

Sierra Leone had to host their tie against Cameroon in Yaounde because they are banned from playing at home by the Confederation of African Football due the outbreak of the Ebola virus in the country.

The move by second tier Lamia comes despite the fact there have been no reported cases of Ebola in Cameroon and Kamara has not been to Sierra Leone in more than a year.

“The last time I was in Sierra Leone was for the World Cup qualifiers against Tunisia and Cape Verde,” he added. “[While we were in Cameroon] they checked our temperatures every morning and every evening."

NFF

Continued from BP minister, Tammy Danango to fill the gap for the Nations Cup qualifiers, but that seem to have worked against the country as Keshi, despite the fact that team continued to struggle, left out some players who many Nigerian fans believed could have helped the team’s qualification campaign.

“Nigerians were clearly not happy with his decision to shut out some players. His excuses were untenable. But because we didn’t want to

interfere, we let him carry on and now we are back on a familiar trend of basing our possible qualification on permutations.”

He said a player like Kelechi Iheancho was too young to play for the Eagles.

When it was obvious the Eagles lacked a creative midfielder. But how old was Keshi when he was invited to the national team. These are some of the things we could not come to terms with,” said the NFF member.

UPER Eagles first choice keeper, Vincent Enyeama expressed his surprise that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) decided to replace coach Stephen Keshi barely a month before the side’s final two African Nations Cup qualifiers.

The decision to install Shaibu Amodu came only hours after Keshi led Nigeria to a 3-1 win against Sudan to revive their campaign to reach Morocco.

“It’s a big shock that things have taken this turn, particularly with two big games coming up next month,” Nigeria captain Enyeama said.

“But the authority [the NFF] who took this decision they know exactly what they are doing, they call the shots.

“As a manager you get hired and you get fired. We all saw it coming [with the results and reaction of the fans], but we are going to work with the new man in charge.

“It’s rather a pity. We just wish coach Keshi a very good life, success in his career and greatness in the future. “

Keshi, who was without a contract for the recent Cup of Nations qualifiers, had enjoyed past success with the team.

Amodu has been appointed caretaker manager following Keshi’s departure and Enyeama is sure that the 56year-old, who returns to the helm for a fifth time will give his all.

“I have worked with him before [between 2008 and 2010] and I’d like to wish him all the very best,” Enyeama added.

“I know him very well from

the last time. I know he shares the same passion and determination like the players to win our next two crucial matches.

“The players know what is expected of them to make it to Morocco because we have two cup finals against Congo and South Africa.”

Amodu, Salisu Yusuf, Gbenga Ogunbote and Aloysius Agu will be in charge for next month’s final two qualifiers — away at Congo and home to South Africa — but will then be replaced by an overseas coach, the NFF have confirmed.

Golf: Curtain falls on Benin Ladies Open T

HE 20th Benin Ladies Open Golf Championship which teed off Friday ends today at the prestigious Benin Club, Golf section.

About two hundred golfers both men and ladies from various golf clubs across the country participated in the tournament which was

organized by the club.

According to the Lady Captain of the Club, Barrister Gloria Ade-Akhani said the tournament has been successful so far.

Barr. Ade-Akhani noted “We received about 60 lady golfers from outside the state who are featuring alongside our own ladies. Also, close to seventy men from various golf clubs in the country are competing with our club men too.”

She said the kids were not left out. “We have realized that there is need to encourage the little children in the game as is being done in other clubs.

Children are under the ladies division,”

Hood to Hood’ Football tourney begins

T

Abia State Commissioner for Sports, Chief David Monday Chigbu, presenting the winner’s trophy to the team captain of Osisioma Canopy Pillars, champions of the MTN sponsored Aba Traders Cup 2014.

Continued from BP

AWC

the Algerians, who twice nearly caught Banyana Banyana with counter attacks, with one of the balls cleared off the goal-line by Nokou Matlou.

The deadlock was finally broken in the 37th minute as Amanda Dlamini’s powerful shot beat the Algerian goalkeeper for the opening goal of the match.

Banyana Banyana’s all time leading goal scorer, Portia Modise, made it 2-0 just before half time as South

Africa enjoyed a comfortable lead, and take her personal tally to 99 goals for her country.

However, it was the South Africans who scored again through Sana Molloa in the 69th minute.

“It is very regrettable we did not qualify for the next round.

We came here with the intention of winning a world cup ticket. But you will agree with me that the group was very tight,” said Ghana coach Yusuf Bisigi

HE season 2 of the GOtv Hood to Hood Football championship begins today at the Legacy/NIS pitch, National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

Speaking at the Press conference, the General Manager GOtv, Mrs Elizabeth Amkpa disclosed that the GOtv Hood to Hood football championship is an initiative aimed at contributing towards the development of football at the grassroots.

Amkpa assured that the season 2 of the competition promises to be more exciting with a larger crowd of spectators expected. “All the matches will be played at both the Legacy and NIS pitches of the National Stadium which will enable teeming football lovers to watch the matches live while adequate media coverage will be provided by Supersport”, she said

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014, PAGE 61

C M Y K

PAGE 62—SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 19, 2014

A SPECIAL PROJECTS UNIT PUBLICATION CELEBRATING STEVE OKORO-SOKOH @50 An astute businessman and servant of God by Grace

BY ADEBAYO DANIELS

T

he secret to strong leaders is that strong leaders are strong because they have been tempered by the negative. They have discovered the secret of combining the negative and the positive to produce their very own power plant!” This adage has to do with Pastor Steve Okoro-Sokoh, a businessman and entrepreneur.

The Chairman of Estymol Oil Service Limited, and Director of several companies speaking with Vanguard on his 50 th birthday, say it is time of reflection to thank God almighty as he passes his message to the nation and to the business world.

When recalling how his business started in Nigeria, he emphasized that it was not an easy journey stating that Nigeria’s case is peculiar with different challenges.

He had worked with companies in Food and Beverages Industry – Seven-Up Bottling Company, Nigerian Bottling Company, Danico foods, Cable and Wire industry and many others.

His wife Mrs. Maureen Okoro-Sokoh, actually pulled out first from Oando Plc to start the business and he joined her later on,

•Pastor Steve OkoroSokoh, Chairman, Estymol Groups to re-energize the business and thank God today, God has really been merciful and faithful.

When they started, he admitted that the initial challenges was that of getting clients for their business but God made a way for them by giving them a large number of staff on the first day of commencement of business in the Outsourcing business of the group. He ascribed it to a miracle. He believes that for him to sustain these businesses he has to carve a niche, “Excellence in service delivery became our watchword”. He resolved that to be outstanding in performance, “ we exceeded our clients expectations and timely in our operations”. In our

group, proactivity is a norm as we think ahead of our clients. These qualities stand us out in the various sectors where we play.

Steve Okoro-Sokoh business interest spreads across the Oil and Gas, Te l e c o m m u n i c a t i o n , Agriculture Sectors and Real Estate. He is also an associate pastor in Church of God Mission Int’l.

He further urge the business class to make Excellence and Integrity their watchword.

On the celebration of his 50th birthday, he says the celebration is in two folds.

First, to give God the giver and sustainer of life, worship in a worship service in Church and second, to dine and wine with family, friends and business associates. That we should join hands together to make sure that Nigeria becomes greater.

GREAT PEOPLE, GREAT NATION. I SIMPLY just LOVE MY COUNTRY and so proud of her.

He said, In spite of his busy schedule he still finds time to be with his family and spend his leisure time with them, study the word of God together and swim a lot because, that has been his hobby from childhood.

He is married to his beautiful wife Mrs. Maureen Okoro-Sokoh who is also The MD/CEO of Estymol Oil Services Ltd and they are blessed with Three Boys.

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014,

Rise and fall of Keshi •A welcome development — Lagos FA board member •He allowed success get the better of him — Esu

BY JACOB AJOM

T

HE engagement of Stephen Okechukwu Keshi as Super Eagles coach in 2011 offered Nigeria football new beginning. From the background of a failed bid to qualify for the 2012 Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon, Keshi’s era saw the country qualify for the tournament in South Africa and won it, for the first time in 19 years.

He wound back the glory days of Nigerian football and Nigerians were quick to compare the Keshi-tutored Super Eagles squad with the iconic class of 1994. In the height of the team’s fairy-tale ride at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations in South Africa, the debate was loud in both low and high places. But that has become a distant past.

In the euphoria of the Afcon glory, when accolades were still pouring in from all over the world for the historymaking Big Boss, as Keshi is fondly called, the former national team captain stunned Nigerians when, in a noholds-bar interview, he told a South African radio station that he had resigned as coach of the Eagles. He became the beautiful bride of Nigerian football, particuarly when he said a number of countries were in queue for his signature. The Senate President, David Mark, one of Keshi’s strong backers intervened and promised the Delta State born tactician that his complaints would be looked into. Keshi sheathed his sword and qualified the country for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

The team’s outing at the global showpiece left much to be desired. After a lethargic goaless draw with Iran, the Eagles struggled to an uninspiring 1-0 win over debutantes, Bosnia and Herzegovina and lost their best match 2-3 to a Messi inspired Argentina side. The team qualified for the second round.

To the team’s apologists, it was time to see Keshi create history with Nigeria in Brazil by being the first man to take the national team to the quarter finals of the World Cup. France was between Nigeria and this wish. When the time came, the Super Eagles level of commitment was questionable as their

IN A BLAZE OF GLORY: Coach Stephen Keshi is carried shoulder high after the Afcon 2013 victory in South Africa. resistance was feeble. The team fell 0-2 to France in a match many thought they were capable of winning.

But events before that match — like the players’ boycott from training and the all night meeting between officials of the NFF and the players did not show a team ready for such an important assignment.

More embarrassing was the team’s confrontation with the Senate President, David Mark in Brazil. It was a national embarrassment. All this may have taken its toll on the players, which was evident during play.

After their elimination from the World Cup, the Super Eagles have played four matches in the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. For the first time in decades, Nigeria lost a home game 2-3 to Congo, in Calabar, a gosless draw with South Africa. In the midst of these poor results, Keshi remained adamant in his choice of players he invited to the national team.

Experienced and free-scoring players like Obafemi Martins in the Major League Soccer, Ikechukwu Uche in the La Liga, Haruna Lukman, a good attacking midfielder, Victor Anichebe, Afcon 2013 hero, Sunday Mba among others were ignored by the Big Boss.Reasons he gave for not inviting them were either selfish or untenable, in most cases.

The next match against Sudan proved to be the biggest test case for Stephen Keshi as the Eagles lost 0-1 in Khartoum. However, the Eagles made amends in the return fixture by beating

Sudan 3-1 in Abuja. This was too little and too late to save the neck of Keshi who was angling for a fresh contract with the NFF. His disengagement was announced hours after the 3-1 win over Sudan.

A member of the Executive board of the Lagos State Football Association, Mojeed Adegbide said that the decision by the Nigeria Football Federation to relieve Coach Stephen Keshi of the Super Eagles job did not come as a surprise to him, after a series of poor results by the national team.

“We all saw it coming,” he started. “Given the way the Super Eagles played against Sudan, even as we ended up winning 3-1, we were not comfortable.

“We cannot take that kind of attitude to Congo and think we

•DOWN 'N' OUT: Keshi

can take anything from there.

A stitch in time saves nine,” Adegbide said.

The Lagos FA member refused to attribute Super Eagles Afcon 2013 success to Keshi’s technical savvy.

“A lot of people feel the feat performed by the team in South Africa was sheer luck.

And to a large extent, the team’s performances since then have given credence to those who hold that school of thought,” he said, adding, “it is funny to find this same team under the same technical crew that won the trophy in 2013, struggling in the 2015 qualifiers this way. Out of four matches they have only four points.” He said Keshi should go to those countries that he boasted wanted him. “Is it not embarrassing to see a World Cup coach, an Afcon champion working without a contract?.

Page 63

Let him go to those countries he has always said were waiting for him to say yes.”

Veteran Coach, Godfrey Esu said Keshi ‘dug his own grave’ with his style of management.

“He allowed his Afcon success get the better of him,” Esu said.

He accused Keshi of being selfish and said the disengaged Super Eagles caretaker coach was far behind the times in modern management. “In modern football, you don’t work alone.

At that national level you work with a team behind you...a team that will be advising you.

Some coaches work with very strong public relations people and aides who go about monitoring players all around the world for you. There is no way you do it alone. I think Keshi was selfish.”

Esu looked at the appointment of Amodu Shaibu on an interim basis and observed that “Amodu is not a new man. He has been active and knows the terrain. He has been following the national team and even went to Brazil with them.”

General Manager of Super Sport Felix Awogu would not shed a tear for Keshi but pointed out that the problem with Nigerian football would not end with Keshi’s sack.

“No, it is not about Keshi because there are a lot of deep rooted issues in the team.

“Siasia came in and ended up the same way, The same scenario, because we heard of some players that were preferred at the expense of others; the same thing we saw under Keshi. Until our coaches are held to defend their choice of players invited for team selection the problem will remain. Our coaches run a system of exclusion in the national team and it is not good for our football.”

He frowned at the choice of Coach Shaibu Amodu because according to him, the nationa deserves an apology from Amodu. “He should make a public apology over his avowed rejection of homebased players.

“As a stake holder in N i g e r i a n football, I am not comfortable with Amodu who openly said there were no good players in the Nigerian league.”

Awogu said Nigeria needs a coach with a big heart. A coach who would not allow himself to be tossed around. “We need the best coach, from anywhere, local or foreign, black or white.”

SUNDAY Vanguard, OCTOBER 19, 2014

EPL Results Man City 4 Tottenham Arsenal 2 Hull City Burnley 1 West Ham C/ Palace 1 Chelsea Everton 3 Aston Villa Southampton 8 Sunderland

Premier League Table (Top 5) 1 2 3 2 0 0

Team Chelsea Man City Southampton West Ham United Man U

Personal interest guided Keshi’s players’ selection — NFF STORIES BY BEN EFE, Windhoek

A

member of the Nigeria Football Federation disclosed more reasons why coach Stephen Keshi’s contract was not renewed by the federation.

The official who is part of Nigeria’s delegation to the ongoing African Women Championship in Namibia, alleged that some of the players Keshi invited to the national team, were those he had personal interest in.

“We found out that some of the players he invited were those under managers close to him.

“He was taking risk by not inviting players on merit. This was not very good for our football “He did not have the interest of the nation at heart. This is one of the reasons the NFF had no option than to let him go.” said the NFF member here in Windhoek.

Last Thursday the NFF decided against renewing Keshi’s contract, which expired after the World Cup. After he won the Nations Cup for Nigeria and took the country to a second round finish for the first time in 20 years, Keshi’s interest on the job seem to have waned, he was called upon by the Sports Continues on Page 60

UNSTOPPABLE: Aguero (r) scores his fourth goal in Man City’s 4-1 victory over Spurs at the Etihad Stadium yesterday. Aguero is now level with Diego Costa as the Premier League’s top scorer.

GD +15 +10 +14 +14 +3

P 22 17 16 13 11

Williams sisters: Russian fined for ‘brothers’ jibe RUSSIAN Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpischev has been fined $25,000 (£15,500) for referring to Serena and Venus Williams as “the Williams brothers” on a TV chat show.

Tarpischev also received a one-year ban from involvement in the women’s tour.

Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) chief executive Stacy Allaster said the comments were “insulting, demeaning and have absolutely no place in our sport”.

But Tarpischev claimed it was a “joke” with no “malicious intent”.

He added in a statement: “I didn’t want to offend any athlete with my words. I regret that this joke has garnered so much attention. I don’t think this incident deserves so much fuss.”

Tarpischev added the Williams sisters are “outstanding athletes” who “personify strength and perseverance”.

World number one Serena, 33, has won 18 Grand Slams, while 34-year-old Venus has won seven.

AWC: Bayana Bayana to face Falcons in Semi-final G ROUP B of the African Women Championship lived up to its billing as the ‘group of death’ as Ghana’s Black Queens ended Cameroon’s winning streak in the tournament with a 1-0 win at the Sam Nujoma Stadium Windhoek.

But the result fell short of expectations as South Africa

took all the spoils in the other game against Algeria at the Independence Stadium with a 5-1 drubbing. The South Africans will now play Nigeria in the semi-final, while Cote’d Ivoire will handle Cameroon.

Elizabeth Codjoe fired home the only goal of the match in the 7th minute of play in the second half after both sides

CROSS WORD PUZZLE ACROSS 1.Nobel-winning Archbishop (7-4) 5.Sailor (3) 7.Consumed (5) 8.Domesticates (5) 9.Ovum (3) 10.Electricity counting gadgets (6) 13.Highlander (4) 15.Poem (3) 17.One that contests (9) 20.Nigerian tribe (5) 22.Cereal (5) 24.Demoted (9) 27.Pig’s pen (3) 29.No one (4) 30.Sulks (6) 33.Away (3) 35.Presses (5) 36.Till (5) 37. Swine (3) 38. “The Man Who Saw Tomorrow” (11)

MP 8 8 8 8 7

DOWN 1.Sleeping vision (5) 2.Possessor (5) 3.Tax (4) 4.Depressing (9) 5.Argentinian dance (5) 6.Wash lightly (5) 11.Greek letter (3) 12.Distress call (1-1-1) 14.English boy’s name (5) 16.Obstacle (3) 17.Bovine animal (3) 18.Mindfulness (9) 19.Alarm (5) 21.Help (3) 23.Village house (3) 25.Gnome (3) 26.Vast age (3) 27.Condescend (5) 28.Youthful (5) 31.Circular (5) 32.Trades (5) 34.Old Russian King (4)

squandered a host of scoring chances in the first half.

The goal struck from inside the box after Codjoe latched on to a pass, spurred on the Ghanaian women. But they failed to put away scoring opportunities that came their way. Banyana Banyana booked a placed in the semifinals of the African Women Championship for the fifth consecutive time since 2006 with a 5-1 win over Algeria.

South Africa enjoyed more possession, but failed to break Continues on Page 60

•Oshoala

Greek club banish Sierra Leone player over Ebola — Pg.60 Today’s Matches QPR

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Liverpool

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Stoke City

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Monday 20/10/2014 See solution on page 5

West Brom

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Man Utd

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