Banks jittery over low cash inflow

...towards a better life for the people VOL. 25: NO. 62475

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ONLINE | www.vanguardngr.com

N150

THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Ambode revokes Falomo Shopping Centre contract

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Banks jittery over low cash inflow •Banks' treasurers, LCCI worry over Treasury Single Account •Cash inflow shrinks from N613bn in July to N440bn in August

By Emeka Anaeto, Economy Editor

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AGOS—THERE were indications that public sector funds component of banks’ deposit base may have started to shrink, raising fears that it will affect the nation's economy. This is as the overall cash inflow from the system in the month of August, so far, is about N440 billion compared to about N613 billion in the corresponding period of last month.

Though some bank treasurers are worried over the implementation of the Treasury Single Account (TSA) which will remove public sector

Continues on Page 5

Nigeria earns N2.5trn from oil in 3 months 9

Mr & Mrs VISIT—From left: Vice-President, Alumni Association of the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (AANI), Dr Garba Tetangi; a member of the association, Alhaji Ismaila Isa Funtua; President of AANI, Maj.-Gen. Lawrence Onoja (Ret), and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, during a courtesy call on Osinbajo at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: NAN.

COLUMNISTS: Alhaji Zannah Examinations and Umar Mustapha, Junaidu, the •P.19 WAEC's misplaced 1966-2015•P.17 'hate' evangelist aggression •P.19

OONI:

Succession tussle toughens11

2 — VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 — 3

4 — VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 — 5

POCKET CARTOON

VISIT—Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (standing 4th-L); President, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Najeem Yasin (3rd-L); Deputy President, Chief Elijah Uwumokpo (2nd-L); General Secretary, Mr Clement Wetkur (L) and some members, during a courtesy call by officials of the union to the Vice President at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: NAN.

Banks jittery over low cash inflow Continues from Page 1 funds from the banking system, they are still expecting inflow from Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) at least from the states and some federal establishments this month.

According to the bank treasurers, though the funds are not coming in as in previous months, about N232 billion is being expected before end of next week.

Analysing the market situation, a source at FSDH Merchant Bank said: "We expect that a total inflow of about N775.28bn will hit the money market from the various government maturing securities and Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) in the month of August 2015”. According to the analysis, about N232 will be coming from

FAAC inflows.

Banks' treasurers, LCCI worry over Treasury Single Account Expressing concern over the implementation of the TSA by the Federal Government, Mr. Wale Abe, Executive Secretary of Financial Markets Dealers Association (FMDA), the umbrella body of banks’ treasurers, said the policy would take a chunk of funds from banks, resulting in tighter liquidity and loss of float to banks.

He also indicated that there will be adjustments to banks’ pricing of their instruments which will ultimately affect lending.

But he also hopes there will be other policy measures to address any adverse effect of the full implementation of the TSA policy, adding that it will be difficult to

IT'S UP TO YOU

BY AYO ADIO

W

E lose a lot of life battle not because we are weak but because we perceive ourselves as weak. How you see yourself and what you think about yourself, will determine how you respond to the issues of life. It’s up to you.

TAKE HEART

BY ELLA RANDLE

Be yourself- not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be —Henry David Thoreau

A

LABEL good or bad only defines an aspect of you. Defining yourself with labels is a universal human behaviour because of something called the social self. On the other hand, your essential self, the set of qualities at your core, doesn’t define itself with labels at all, or bend or shift depending on whom it encounters. Respect others but never invalidate yourself.

appraise the full impact of the policy especially in a situation where the overall fiscal and economic policies of the government is yet to be articulated.

Director-General of Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Mr Muda Yusuf, also expressed worries that the TSA would hamper the capacity of banks to give loans while spurring increase in interest rates.

He advised that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) should reduce its Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) to compensate for the adverse effect of TSA on the credit market.

With the directives by the Federal Government that all its ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) should move their accounts to CBN’s TSA account, last weekend, Afrinvest Group, a Lagos-based financial investment house, said: “Whilst the directive issued came as the first official statement by the Presidency on the TSA, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had earlier begun withdrawing its funds from banks for retirement into CBN. This had an impact on liquidity level in the banking system, resulting in a surge in money market rates during the period as banks scrambled for funds to cover their liquidity positions”.

The statement added: “With the TSA implementation now extended to all federal MDAs, the Nigerian

banking industry, on an aggregate basis, would be affected in terms of deposits and funding cost structure”.

Data from the CBN as at end of June 2015 put total

deposits (demand, time and savings) in the financial system at N13.5 trillion. Analysis of this shows that the private sector accounts for 90.7 per cent (N12.2trillion) of total deposits, while public sector funds accounts for 9.3 per cent (N1.3trillion) which will be lost to TSA. But, though President Buhari’s directive would affect only Federal Government MDAs, states are also keying into the scheme with Kaduna and Lagos leading in the implementation deadline set for September 01, 2015. This would increase the total volume of funds

outflow as a result of TSA implementation.

In relation to this, FBN Capital, an investment arm of First Bank of Nigeria Plc, stated in its money market reports last weekend that the NNPC withdrew about N400 billion from the banks last month, pushing Open Buy Back (OBB) and overnight interest rates to a record high of 50 per cent. It, however, stated that this pressure was corrected when FAAC inflow came to the banks within the same period.

In the implementation of the TSA, there will be no FAAC inflow to correct or compensate for the outflows.

Adesina to Oshiomhole: You goofed on Jonathan’s agric transformation

By Soni Daniel, Regional Editor, North

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BUJA — IMMEDIATE past Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has slammed Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, for describing the Agricultural Programme of former president Goodluck Jonathan as a scam.

Adesina, who is warming up to assume office as President of the African Development Bank, AfDB, next month, said it was unbecoming of Oshiomhole to tag Jonathan’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda, ATA, as a dismal failure.

In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, the former minister said it was most uncharitable for the governor, who was in a better position to know the success of the ATA, to attempt to discredit it for reasons best known to him.

Disagreeing with Oshiomhole, Adesina insisted that the ATA was a real success story and not a sham as claimed by the governor.

The statement read in part: “Foremost, it is a bad public relations stunt, not expected from the governor. Secondly, his comments detract from the ATA – a reform that was vigorously pursued and implemented by Dr Akin Adesina, now presidentelect of African Development Bank.

“For reasons of safeguarding the economy and strengthening the confidence of the international community in Nigeria, genuine efforts towards ensuring food security and diversifying the economy away from oil should not be subjected to cheap politics as the negative impact that follows such public comments could be to the nation’s detriment.

“Governor Oshiomole ought to know better that, under ATA, efficient distribution of subsidised farm inputs – also known as the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS), reached 14.3million farmers with 1.3million MT of fertiliser, 102,703 metric tons of improved rice seeds, 67,991 metric tons of improved maize

seeds, 6,171 metric tons of improved cotton seeds, 130 million stems of cassava, 45.5million seedlings of cocoa, nine million seedlings of oil palm amongst many other crops between 2012 and 2014.

“Those inputs helped produce an additional 21million MT of food that has acted as a buffer against inflation with the devaluation of the Naira."

“At a time that the nation desperately needs to build upon the achievements of the immediate past minister of agriculture, Governor Oshiomole can only do the Edo people some good by recognising the fact that lending by commercial banks to agriculture increased from 0.07 per cent in 2011 to five per cent in 2014 while banks lent a total of N27.5 billion to fertiliser and seed companies.

“As the chief executive of a state so blessed with natural resources so highly favourable to productive agriculture, Governor Oshiomhole ought to think rather on how to make Edo more enterprising. In doing so, an area he is expected to be more interested in, should be agriculture.

6—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Police probe SARS' N500,000 bribe allegation in Delta

Eyo masqurades from Lagos performing at the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTWs 8th quadrennial national delegates conference in Abuja, Tuesday. NAN PHOTO.

By Perez Brisibe

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GHELLI— DELTA State Police Command has set up a team to probe allegations by a family that some officers of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, Asaba, demanded N500,000 as mobilisation fee to investigate the killing of their son, Mr. Bestman Tobore.

The Tobore family had alleged that officers of the command attached to SARS had asked to be given N500,000 to enable them mobilise their team and resources from Asaba to Ovwian in Udu Local Government Area of the state, where the killing occurred, to aid investigation and facilitate the arrest of culprits identified as the masterminders of the crime.

Bestman Tobore, popularly known as Agbari, died on Friday, May 8, from stabs and head injuries he sustained, following alleged attack by a robbery suspect (names withheld).

31-yr-old man arrested for breaking bank lockers

By Esther Onyegbula

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AGOS State Police Festac Division has arrested one member of a gang specialised in damaging padlocks and breaking into bank lockers, where customers keep their valuables while carrying out transactions.

The 31-year-old suspect (names withheld) met his waterloo while attempting to use a master key to open lockers in an old generation bank located at Apple Junction, Festac, Lagos State.

Vanguard learned that security operatives at the bank caught the suspect in the act and alerted policemen, who arrested the suspect.

The suspect said he started breaking into bank lockers this year and that his friends also do same, adding “ nobody introduced me into it.”

Many dead, injured as 2 commercial buses collide along Okene-Kabba Road

By Fanwo Kingsley

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ANY people are feared dead, while 15 sustained serious injuries as two multi-purpose vehicles, MPV, collided along OkeneKabba Road, yesterday.

Vanguard gathered that the driver of one of the vehicles, marked Lagos EPE 05 XP, on his way from Okene, lost control while trying to avoid a pothole

and rammed into the other one with number plates Ekiti ADK 602 XB, coming from Kabba at exactly 11a.m.

It was learned that policemen and men of the Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, were on hand to rescue the injured victims.

A source told Vanguard that while the injured were taken to Kabba Specialist Hospital for treatment, the dead were

evacuated to the morgue.

When Vanguard visited the hospital, many of the victims were seen receiving intensive medical attention.

A middle-aged woman (names withheld) was said to have suffered multiple fractures on her right leg, while many others sustained head injuries.

FRSC officials appealed to road users to be careful.

I didn’t know selling petrol from vandalised pipeline’s criminal—SUSPECT ‘It brought more money than my building material biz’

By Ifeanyi Okolie

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AGOS—A suspected member of a syndicate vandalising pipelines of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Jamiu Ajani, said yesterday he did not know selling petrol obtained from the act amounted to crime.

Ajani was arrested alongside his accomplices, Demola Lawrence and Raymond, by operatives of the Inspector General of Police Special Task Force on Pipeline Vandalism, which recovered 300 units of 50litre jerry cans loaded with premium motor spirit, PMS, from them.

The 30-year-old told Vanguard: “I used to sell building materials at Ketu before venturing into this business. It was some of my customers from Ikorodu that got me into the business.

“I discovered that they were making more money than I. So I begged them to show me the way. They said I could not go into the creeks because I do not know how to swim, but I could

always buy and sell the products to people who need it.

Making money

“I was introduced to some buyers at Ijora and some other parts of Lagos State. I buy a 50litre jerry can for N2,000 and I sell it for N4,000.

“On my first job one month ago, I bought 250 50-litre jerry cans for N500,000 from an Ijaw woman, known as Mama Bose, and I sold them for N1,000,000.

“The second job was just last week and I bought 150 jerry cans of 50 litres for N300,000.

My biggest job was the one that led to my arrest. I bought 300 jerry cans from Mama Bose for N600,000 and I was hoping to make a profit of over N600,000.

“My boy, Damilola, the driver of the truck we were using and I were intercepted by police on our way to supply the products to a buyer. I did not know selling petrol from vandalised pipelines was a crime.”

The syndicate was intercepted by the task force at Owode area

of Ikorodu in a Chevrolet truck, while transporting the stolen products to buyers in various parts of Lagos State.

How we got them—POLICE

Commander of the task force, Olumese Valentine, disclosed during a chat with Vanguard that, members of the syndicate operate within Ikorodu area of the state.

He said: “This syndicate is the main reason vandals are still operating at Arepo. They are the ones receiving the products from the vandals and then sell to those who would sell to end users.

“It is a large syndicate with lots of people involved. I received a tip-off and directed the Lagos Sector Commander of the task force, ASP Akelere Adetayo, to track them down.

If we do not clamp down on this syndicate, the vandals will always remain in businesses.”

The task force commander said the suspects would be charged to court at the completion of investigation.

NUJ Chairman's family escapes death in gas explosion

By Perez Brisibe

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GHELLI—THE family of Chairman, Ughelli Correspondent Chapel, Nigerian Union of Journalist, NUJ, Polycarp Orosevwotu, Tuesday evening, escaped being roasted to death by fire from a gas explosion in their kitchen.

Recounting the circumstances that led to the explosion, Polycarp, who is also Ughelli correspondent of The Nation newspaper, said the explosion occurred when his sister in-law tried igniting the stove of a cooking gas, unaware that the kitchen was already saturated with gas leaking from the cylinder.

He said six of his family members, including his son and two years old daughter, were in the living room when his sister in-law went to the kitchen to prepare lunch.

He said: “Immediately she struck the matches, the gas cylinder exploded with a loud bang that shook the entire building and engulfed my apartment and other surrounding flats in flames.”

Though no life was lost in the incident, his children and relatives that were in the apartment at the time of the incident, sustained various degrees of burns and are currently receiving medical attention at a private clinic in Ughelli.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—7

Albino Foundation demands explanation of member's death in Festac

By Abdul-Lateef Ligali

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HE Festac, Lagos, abode of 23-year-old albino, Ugochukwu Ugogbua, who committed suicide last Sunday, was yesterday besieged by members of the Albino Foundation, who demanded to know the exact cause of the suicide act.

This is just as fresh facts have emerged that the deceased, popularly called Ugo, took his life over pressures from his family members to join Jehovah’s Witnesses religious group.

However, in a swift reaction, the bereaved family described the report as false, stating rather that powers beyond Ugo forced him to take his life.

When Vanguard visited the bereaved family’s home at 311 Road, ‘B’ Close, Festac yesterday, members of Albino Foundation were seen leaving for Festac Police Division.

Vanguard was informed that they came to commiserate with the bereaved family and proceeded to the police station to enquire about the outcome of their investigation into the incident.

Foundation’s demand

At Festac Police Division, Lagos State Coordinator of Albino Foundation, Mrs. Omolala Joseph, said: “We are here on behalf of the national headquarters of Albino Foundation in Abuja to find out what exactly led to the death of our colleague.

“Though he was not a registered member of the Foundation, he was an albino like us, therefore, we have a duty to pay a condolence visit to the family, counsel them and orientate them.

“Things like this cannot just happen. We need to know the exact cause so as to help reorientate others.”

Family’s denials

Meanwhile, the bereaved family has described reports that Ugochukwu committed suicide because he was forced into Jehovah’s Witnesses religious group as false.

The family also said reports that the deceased could have committed suicide because of his albino status was untrue.

A member of the family, who simply gave her name as Oluchi, said: “We have read a lot of reports on my brother’s death. I want to categorically state that he did not kill himself because he was forced to become a Jehovah’s Witnesses member.

“It was not also because he was stigmatised as an albino.

The truth is that what led him into the act were powers beyond

He was pressured to join Jehovah's Witnesses—SOURCE Powers beyond him pushed him to suicide—FAMILY

Medical doctor charged with N259,000 fraud

By Onozure Dania

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Members of Albino Foundation at the Festac home of late Ugo, yesterday. him and he never left any note for us concerning his death.”

Strange behaviour

Vanguard gathered that late Ugochukwu started behaving strangely a few months before he took his life.

Corroborating the claim, Oluchi said: “We discovered a month before his death that he started moving with some boys

in the area. Later, he became reserved and then resigned from his job as a dry cleaning attendant.

“We started counselling him, unknown to us that he was planning to take his life. We prevented his first attempt when he mixed cement and water and was on the verge of drinking it when he was stopped.”

It was also gathered that late Ugo’s mother left him and his sister in the care of his aunt in Festac several years ago after the demise of his father.

His aunt, who is yet to come to terms with his death, refused to speak with Vanguard at the police station.

Police sources said investigation into the incident was still ongoing.

Man, 22, jailed 8 years for raping 12-yr-old girl

By Ugochukwu Alaribe

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BA—AN Abia State Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting at Obingwa Local Government Area has sentenced one Chukwukaodinaka Ireuno to eight years imprisonment with hard labour for sexually assaulting a 12-year-old girl in a bush.

Ireuno, 22, a native of Ndiogbuonyema, Arondizogu, Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State, was declared wanted for sexually assaulting the victim in the bush at Ahiaba, where she went to fetch firewood in company of her brother.

Police sources told Vanguard that the accused absconded after the act, but was later arrested, following a manhunt by the police, members of the community and its traditional ruler, Eze S. I. Akataobi of Ahiaba autonomous community.

When he was arraigned in court, the accused pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to eight years imprisonment with hard labour,

while the victim, who was said to have been infected with a sexually-transmitted disease during the act, is still undergoing treatment.

AGOS—A 37-year-old man, Mohammed Sani, who claimed to be a medical doctor, was yesterday arraigned before an Igbosere Magistrate's Court for allegedly duping two ladies of N259,000.

The defendant, who resides at Abule-Egba area of Lagos, is facing a fivecount charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence and stealing preferred against him by the police.

The prosecutor, Sergeant Nicholas Akpene, told the court that the defendant allegedly committed the offences between May 9 and June 11, 2013, at about 2p.m.

He said the incident took place at Obalende area of Lagos State.

Akpene said the defendant obtained N150,000 from one Monica Augustine with a promise to secure a self-contained room for her; and obtained N109,000 from one Belinda Nganwuchu, an applicant, who was looking for a job, with the pretence to get her a job.

However, the defendant, who claimed to be a medical doctor at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, pleaded not guilty to the charges against him.

Magistrate Salama Matepo granted the defendant N100,000 bail, with two responsible sureties in like sum, and adjourned the matter till September 16 for mention.

...as Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo advocates stiffer penalties for rapists

By Elizabeth Uwandu

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AGOS—PROFESSOR Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, foremost activist and feminist, whose writings on gender have cut across borders, has voiced her displeasure over the incessant rape of people, especially minors and females.

She called on relevant authorities to take a critical look at the menace and also see ways to bring the culprits to book. She made this known during Association of Nigerian

Authors, ANA, August reading held at the Creative Arts Department in the University of Lagos, UNILAG. She said: “Every time I open pages of newspapers and see stories of rape, my anger rises.

Until stiff penalties are carried out, the culprits will continue to go Scot free.

“My advice is that parents, especially mothers, should teach their sons to learn to love their sisters, appreciate and value their mothers.

“If the male children grow with love for the female

children, the tendency to perpetrate evil on them will be minimal.”

She opined that government should make the penalty for culprits of rape victims stiffer and see that justice was meted out on whosoever raped anyone— whether a minor or not.

Some of her works include Gender Issues in Nigeria—A Feminine Perspective, Last of the Strong Ones, House of Symbols, Trafficked, Roses and Bullets and Rhythm of Life among others.

8—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Why projects fail in Nigeria —UNIDO

By Favour Nnabugwu

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ADUNA — THE United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, has said that a number of projects failed in Nigeria because of lack of communication among project managers, the programme managers and people who designed the projects.

UNIDO’s Programme Trainer, Mr Mithat Kulur, who disclosed this at a three-day workshop in Kaduna by UNIDO in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, FMITI, noted that the country’s project managers and other stakeholders in the Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan, NIRP, must have a wide range of understanding of project management so as to achieve significant success.

He said: “One of the things we try to establish in the workshop is team building among the different institutions that are involved in the NIRP and to get people to have a realistic understanding of what is involved in managing projects.

“We expect that the participants from the various agencies will go back to their different institutions and check some rudimentary understanding of the difficulties involved because the approach to project management is far above assumption.

“I think NIRP is essential in Nigeria because without industries Nigeria cannot reach international level because there will not be sufficient employment, there will not be enough labour, productivity and products produced in Nigeria cannot be sold to the world.”

On his part, Senior Consultant and Trainer of UNIDO, Mr Mark Egelhardt noted that project management all over the world has a uniform Standard Operating Procedure, SOP, such as how to initiate and plan a project in order to ensure that a country ’s chances of success are substantially higher.

How more than 150 drowned in river —Yobe residents As death toll rises to 160 Boko Haram didn't kill 150 in Yobe —DHQ

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AMATURU — THE number of residents of a community in Yobe State, who were massacred by insurgents, rose to 160, yesterday, according to members of the community even as the Defence Headquarters denied the attack.

Residents of Kukuwa-Gari in Yobe State described how more than 150 of their relatives and neighbours drowned in a river while fleeing militants who opened fire on the village on last Thursday, while another eight were shot dead.

Some of the villagers who fled to nearby settlements said those who returned had buried 160 bodies, while many feared going back.

Alhaji Kankana Sarkin-Baka, leader of a local group of hunters co-opted to fight the insurgency alongside vigilante groups, said 17 fighters had come on motorcycles, including a local Boko Haram emir or commander.

“They had superior firepower because they were using modern guns while we were using hunting guns. We were outpowered but they were outnumbered,” he told AFP. He said six of the fighters positioned themselves by the river, blocking the only escape route, and opened fire on fleeing residents, forcing them to jump into the water.

“This led to the huge death toll we recorded. So far we have buried 160 people. And out of this number only eight bodies had gunshot wounds, which means all the others drowned,” he told AFP. Sarkin-Baka said the hunters killed 14 of the attackers, including the amir and his deputy, while three escaped with gunshot wounds.

The villagers, who have secured reinforcements of 100 hunters from the state capital Damaturu, said the gunmen were “born and bred” in the area and joined Boko Haram several years ago.

“Up to this moment no troops have deployed. Our major operational challenge is good weapons to effectively counter any possible further attack by Boko Haram. All we have are hunting guns,” Sarkin-Baka told AFP. Kukuwa-Gari resident Modu Balumi, who had fled to neighbouring Gombe State, told AFP his sister-in-law and two of her children were among several villagers still missing.

“Honestly, I am not happy with the way the military tried to deny that our village was attacked. Many of us who are yet to return have changed our

minds about going back by this stance of the military,” he said

Boko Haram didn't kill 150

Meanwhile, reacting to the attack, the Acting Director Defence Information, Colonel Rabe Abubakar said “the claim

that over 150 people from Kukuwa-Gari village were shot dead by Boko Haram gunmen in Yobe State while many others fleeing from the gunmen drowned in Yobe River in the mid-afternoon, yesterday is not true, utterly scurrilous and very misleading.

“However, the truth of the

matter is the military got an intelligence report concerning a planned attack by Boko Haram on Kukuwa-Gari village in Yobe State.

Following the tip-off, troops and civilian JTF laid ambush between Kukuwatashi and Kukuwa-Gari villages. The insurgents ran into them and a gun-battle ensued in which four Boko Haram members and one civilian JTF lost their lives.

At the end of the encounter, two AK47 rifles and two motorcycles used by the Boko Haram terrorists were recovered from them.”

VISIT: From left, Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Lasun Yusuf; Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara and Chairman, Association of Stock Brokering Houses of Nigeria, SBHN, Mr. Madubueke Emeka during a courtesy visit to the Speaker at the National Assembly, Abuja, yesterday. Photo: Gbemiga Olamikan.

Lamorde seeks special courts to try corrupt persons

By Soni Daniel

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BUJA—The Chairman, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, has made a case for the establishment of special courts to prosecute corrupt persons in Nigeria as a way of facilitating the anti-corruption war.

Lamorde maintained that all the anti-corruption agencies in Nigeria were being bugged down by the slow process in the regular courts.

To get that done, he suggested the amendment of the Nigerian Constitution to make provisions for special courts to handle corruptionrelated cases and bring the culprits to book.

The chairman made his advocacy at a one-day meeting of heads of antigraft agencies on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Review, Recommendations and the Draft National AntiCorruption Strategy, in Abuja.

He stated that some relevant laws in the Nigerian

Constitution needed to be amended before the adoption of an action plan towards the fight against corruption.

Lamorde said: "The challenge my colleagues and I are facing, especially in the EFCC and ICPC, is the issue of prosecution of corruption and economic and financial crime cases in regular courts.”

Lamorde lauds EU, UNODC, others

Lamorde, who commended the efforts of the European Union, EU, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, and other agencies, added that the effectiveness of any antigraft activity could only be judged by the number of convictions recorded.

In his remark, a former Secretary to the EFCC, Emmanuel Akomaye, who spoke on the outcome of the country ‘s Review Report and Follow-up Actions by National Partners, advocated better interagency coordination,

building institutional capacity and legal reform.

"All these include making new laws, amending existing ones and improving on the efficiency of adjudication and sanctioning," he said.

But, the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, Mr. Ekpo Nta, advocated better funding for anti-graft agencies.

The Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms, Dr. Joe Abah, said the Code of Conduct Bureau, CCB, and the Code of Conduct Tribunal needed to be strengthened in order to be more effective in the fight against corruption.

However, Lilian Ekeanyanwu, representing the Technical Unit on Governance and AntiCorruption Reforms, TUGAR, stated that the implementation of the strategy document would be the responsibility of the Presidency.

Other participants at the meeting included the Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, Bureau of Public Procurement, BPP, National Planning Commission, NPC, and Public Complaints Commission.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—9

Nigeria earns N2.5trn from petroleum products sale in 3 months Records N4.3trn total trade, N1.49trn surplus

By Michael Eboh

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BUJA — NIGERIA earned N2.512 trillion from the export of petroleum products in three months, between April and June 2015, according to data released, yesterday, by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS. The NBS, in its Foreign Trade Statistics for the second quarter of 2015, also stated that Nigeria recorded total merchandise trade of N4.372 trillion and a trade surplus of N1.4 trillion in the months under review.

It is instructive to note that the amount the country earned from petroleum products sale in the second quarter of 2015 was 56.8 per cent of the country’s N4.49 trillion 2015 budget.

Also the amount earned from the export of petroleum products accounted for 57.5 per cent of Nigeria’s total merchandise trade and 87.3 per cent of total export.

In its classification of petroleum products export in the period under review, the NBS data revealed that the country exported petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals and crude oil valued at N2.121 trillion; liquefied natural gas valued at N260.7 billion, while liquefied petroleum gas and other gaseous hydrocarbons valued at N66.41 billion was also exported.

Others are: liquefied propane, N43.88 billion; partially refined oil including crude oil having gone primary refinement, N13.577 billion and liquefied butanes,N6.15 billion.

Merchandise trade

Specifically, giving a breakdown of Nigeria’s merchandise trade, the NBS stated that Nigeria’s total export stood at N2.879 trillion, while total import stood at N1.49 trillion, thereby, leading to a trade surplus of N1.39 trillion.

The value of total merchandise trade, according to the NBS, was 0.5 per cent less than the total of N4.393 trillion recorded in the first quarter of 2014 and 34.3 per cent or N2.287 trillion less than the amount recorded in the second quarter of 2014.

In addition, the report stated that at N2.879 trillion, Nigeria’s total export appreciated by 8.0 per cent or N214.1 billion when compared to the value of exports in the first quarter of 2015, while it represented a decline of N1.8 trillion or 38.5 per cent when compared with total exports of N4.682 trillion recorded in the second quarter of 2014.

The report stated: “Other products exported by Nigeria include vehicles, aircraft and

parts thereof; vessels among others at N250.6 billion or 8.7 per cent; Vegetable Products at N36.7 billion or 1.3 per cent, and prepared foodstuff; beverages, spirits and vinegar; tobacco at N24.6 billion or 0.9 per cent of the totals respectively.”

Export destinations

Furthermore, the report stated that Nigeria’s major export destination was India, with export trade of N406.1 billion or

14.1 per cent of total export.

Other top export destinations in the period under review were: Spain, Netherlands, South Africa and Brazil with N297.4 billion or 10.3 per cent, N296.3 billion or 10.3 per cent, N240.9 billion or 8.4 per cent and N147.8 billion or 5.1 per cent of the total exports respectively.

In the area of imports, the report said, “The value of Nigeria’s imports stood at N1.493 trillion during second quarter 2015, a decrease of 13.6 per cent from the

value of N1.728 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter.

“Year-on-year, analysis showed that import trade was lower by N484.0 billion or 24.5 per cent.

“Nigeria imported goods mostly from China, United States, India, Belgium and Netherlands, which respectively accounted for N336.5 billion or 22.5 per cent, N143.6 billion or 9.6 per cent, N115.4billion or 7.7 per cent, N83.4 billion or 5.6 per cent and N80.9 billion or 5.4 per cent of the total value of goods imported during the quarter.”

VISIT: Mr Babs Omotowa, MD, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Company, NLNG (left) presenting a copy of Facts and Figures on NLNG 2015 publication to the Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase during a visit to the IG, in Abuja.

Buhari directs NNPC to work with indigenous oil producers to boost sector Independent producers to increase production to 1.2m bpd

By Levinus Nwabughiogu

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BUJA— President Muhammadu Buhari, yesterday, in Abuja directed the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to work more closely with the indigenous oil producers to boost domestic refining capacities.

The president gave the directive while meeting with members of the Independent Petroleum Producers Association, IPPA, at the Presidential Villa.

Led by its spokesperson and Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Oil, Mr. Austin Avuru, the association, which represents about 20 Nigerian companies operating mainly on onshore fields, intimated President Buhari of its resolve to build private refineries and increase local production to 1.2 million barrels per day by year 2020.

While commending the determination of the group to

increase the participation of Nigerians in the country’s oil industry, the president pledged his administration’s support and assistance to the project.

“We have the manpower for a more effective participation in our oil industry. We will give you all possible encouragement. You certainly won’t be ignored under my leadership,” he said.

Buhari assures on security

The president also assured the oil producers that the present administration will take appropriate actions to maintain and enhance security in their areas of operation, noting that better security will help to lower production costs, which, he said, had become unnecessarily high in the country.

Speaking with State House correspondents after their meeting with President Buhari, Mr Avuru stated that the group is currently responsible for over 200,000 barrels of oil production

and over 900 million cubic meters of gas production per day.

He said: “It was one of the points we raised with the president. We think that by 2020 domestic refining capacity should not be less than one million barrels of oil per day in domestic refining. We actually put 1.2 million barrels domestic refining capacity per day and that falls on our doorstep as indigenous operators.

“It would be achieved. Some constructions are already ongoing by indigenous companies and between some others who are coming in with smaller sized refineries and in partnership with NNPC. We are confident that by 2020 we will deliver 1.2 million domestic refining capacity.

“That is 10 per cent today. Just in the past five years, up from near zero, and we anticipate that in the next five years by 2020 we will account for 30 per cent production of about three million barrels per day."

Fear in Immigration Service over visa to ISIS chief

By Jude Opara

A

BUJA — There was palpable fear among the staff and management of the Nigerian Immigration Service, NIS, yesterday over how the ISIS chief, Ahmed Al Assir, got entry visa in Lebanon to visit Nigeria.

Already, reports have revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered a full scale investigation into the circumstances surrounding the granting of visa to the terrorist,who has been declared wanted by several governments around the world.

Al Assir was said to have been arrested at Lebanon airport on his way to Nigeria through Egypt.

The Lebanese judiciary has accused him of involvement in the death of no fewer than 17 Lebanese solders and sentenced him to death.

A reliable source in the State House, who preferred anonymity, told Vanguard that the President was very worried about the development, adding that the Buhari government will not continue to watch while a para-military agency in charge of visa frustrates government’s efforts to stamp out terrorism from the country.

Relevant government agencies are said to have been directed to explain how the wanted terrorist managed to be issued with a valid Nigerian visa.

“The reported arrest of the wanted terrorist is a huge embarrassment to Nigeria and the President has directed that the matter should be investigated. The embassy in Lebanon has been directed to furnish the ministry with details of how the man got the visa. The National Intelligence Agency Officer has been directed to provide details of what happened,” the officer said.

Yesterday, officials of the NIS were seen in several meetings ostensibly to deliberate on the development which sources say is capable of resulting to a lot of “reactions.”

A staff of the service at the NIS headquarters, yesterday, also confided in some journalists that the management was toying with the idea of a major shake up especially at the visa department to prevent a recurrence.

10 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

How FG can tackle humanitarian crises — GANI ADAMS

By Dapo Akinrefon

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AGOS—AS Nigeria joined the global community to commemorate this year ’s United Nations World Humanitarian Day, Leader of the Oodua Peoples Congress, OPC, Otunba Gani Adams has advised the Federal government to urgently introduce measures to improve quality of life of citizens.

Speaking yesterday, in Lagos, at the Nigerian Humanitarian Summit, entitled: “Improving Living Condition of the Poor, Less-Privileged and Physically Challenged During Crises in Nigeria,” organised by the Gani Adams Foundation, the OPC leader said the call became imperative owing to the increasing economic pressures, violent confrontations caused by poverty, natural disasters and rising number of people displaced by the Boko Haram insurgents.

He said: “According to the 2011 estimates from the World Bank, extreme poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa has risen by over 47 percent. The continent is caught in the poverty trap, with more than half of the population living below the poverty line and on less than $1 per day. Poverty is so severe in Africa that 22 out of the 25poorest countries in the World are from Africa.''

Ambode revokes Falomo Shopping Centre contract Gives contractor 3 months to deliver Ipaja-Ayobo road

By Olasunkanmi Akoni & Monsuru Olowoopejo

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AGOS—GOVERNOR Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State, yesterday, revoked the concession granted by the Lagos State Development and Property Corporation, LSDPC, to Afriland Properties for the redevelopment of the Falomo Shopping Centre, Ikoyi.

He also issued stern warning to contractors handling various road projects in the state against shoddy jobs, saying the state would not accept any act that will cause untold hardship for the residents.

The revocation order was contained in a statement by Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr. Habib Aruna, saying the decision was taken based on a recent discovery that the concession was grossly detrimental to the interests of the people of the state.

According to him, only N50million was paid by the concessionaire, Afriland Properties, for a 50-year lease of the property belonging to the government.

He said the state government as custodian of the interests of Lagosians is committed to the restructuring of the LSDPC to ensure it begins to provide positive capital returns for the ultimate benefit of the people.

AVING recognized the leadership position of Lubcon, quality of its world class products, coupled with the economic value she is creating in the Nigerian market, the National Productivity Centre, an organ of the Federal Ministry of Labour, has decided to confer its highest productivity award on Lubcon Limited, an indigenous lubricant company..

In a nomination letter signed by the Secretary of the 2015 National Productivity Order of Merit Award Committee, Mrs J.

Meantime, the governor also yesterday, pledged to complete the seven-kilometre Ipaja-Ayobo Road in Alimosho Local Government Area of the state within the next three months.

Ambode made the disclosure during an inspection of some road construction projects in the state.

The administration of former Governor Babatunde Fashola awarded contract for the reconstruction of the dual-carriage

road in May 2011, initially billed to last for 18 months.

Ambode said he decided to inspect the project to quickly propel the contractor to expedite action so that the project could be completed on time.

According to him, the completion is key to unlocking socio-economic opportunities in the area. ‘’Alimosho deserves more than this road because you are the greater part of the state. We will work toward providing a fire station and water works in Alimosho, ‘’he said.

Ambode also visited Shomolu Local Government Area to inspect the Igi-Olugbin, Okupe and DejiAladejobi Road construction around Ladilak, Bariga, where he expressed displeasure over the slow pace of work.

Ambode appealed to Shomolu residents to be patient and urged the contractor to ensure speedy work to alleviate the sufferings of residents.

The governor also visited the Oshodi market where he urged market men and women to be law abiding by refraining from selling on the road.

INSPECTION: Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State (middle) with the Secretary to the State Government, Mr Tunji Bello (2nd right) and member, Lagos State House of Assembly, Hon. Bisi Yusuf (left) during the governor’s inspection of Ayetoro road, Ipaja-Ayobo, yesterday.

Bode George blasts Fashola over alleged website scam

By Dapo Akinrefon

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AGOS—FORMER Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Demcoratic Party, PDP, Chief Olabode George, yesterday, berated former governor of Lagos State, Mr Babatunde Fashola for allegedly spending N78 million to build a website, describing the move as a “ reckless

Lubcon gets Merit Award

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...Threatens contractors over road projects

Adebimpe, the award will be presented to Lubcon Limited by President Muhammadu Buhari, Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, on Thursday August 20, 2015 at the Nicon Luxury Hotel, Abuja. The award presentation ceremony is to commemorate this year ’s edition of the National Productivity Day. The objective of the award is to establish and institutionalize a culture of productive work ethics. The Award, 15th in the series, is also intended to provoke a more positive attitude to work among Nigerians and to serve as a spice to higher productivity.

misappropriation.”

George, who called on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate the alleged misappropriation, said Fashola's defence is unjustifiable.

In a statement entitled: Neither Fashola nor Tinubu, the PDP chieftain urged the president to probe the administration of Fashola and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in his fight against corruption.

George said: “We are living in a very interesting time. There is an air of repugnancy everywhere.

Most specifically in my state where the immoral stench and the dark odium of Mr Babatunde Fashola’s regime is daily being unearthed.

The so called poster boy of yesterday is now being revealed in pure pollutant largeness, reeking of sharp practices and financial untidiness.”

In addition, he said “What is most disgusting and annoying in all these is the arrogant and the befuddled attempt of Mr Fashola to justify the apparent reckless misappropriation of Lagos State tax payers money to set up a personal web site. Fashola shows no remorse, no semblance of regret, no guilty nudging of conscience.

Instead, he still attempts to ride a high horse, puffing and stomping in feigned seraphic innocence. We are not fooled.”

The statement reads in part: “We knew all along that the emperor had no clothes. Using N78 million tax payers money to build a web site is reckless misappropriation. The phony

over N25 billion used to build a mere kilometer long link bridge is outrageous venality. The spurious N1.5 billion allegedly spent on phantom pedestrian bridges is another con game.''

Youths demand removal of monarch, chiefs

By Daud Olatunji

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BEOKUTA—SCORES of youths from Osiele Community in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, yesterday, demanded the removal of their traditional ruler, Oba Williams Olowooyo and three of his chiefs over alleged non-challance towards the welfare of his subjects.

The protesters, who stormed the palace of the Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo urged the monarch to dethrone the community head and the three chiefs.

The protesters, who were armed with placards with inscriptions such as; ’We don’t want the king on the throne’,’No development in Osiele for five years’,’Most of the Chiefs have

been expelled’,and ‘No more Oluwo,Lisa, Asoju-Oba for peace to reign’ among others, claimed that the villagehead and his chiefs were not bothered about the developmental growth of the community.

The protesters, who brought a petition to Alake palace were received by the monarch’s palace chief, Kehinde Sofenwa and two other high chiefs with assurance that, the Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, would look into their petition on arrival from overseas trip.

The aggreived youths, led by Adisa Olawale accused the embattled Oba of not leaving with his subjects in his domain since he became the villagehead over five years ago.

He alleged that the monarch connived with his chiefs to sell most of the lands in the community.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 — 11

Ondo govt, Army refute reported Boko Haram members' arrest

Don’t disconnect from people, Fayose tells leaders

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DO EKITI— GOVERNOR Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State, has counselled Nigerian leaders against disconnecting from the people after getting into positions of authority.

According to the governor, apart from being privileged to be in leadership positions among millions of people, leaders must also know that the positions they occupy must not create a wedge between them and the led.

The Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Idowu Adelusi, in AdoEkiti yesterday, quoted the governor as saying the main reason for being a leader was to impact people’s lives positively.

The governor, who went to Ayetoro-Ekiti for a private event, stopped at many spots along the way to interact with the people.

He stopped in Iworoko, Ifaki, Aaye, Ido and Usi among others.

“Apart from being able to gauge the mood of the people and get feedback from them concerning government policies, it is also an avenue to educate them on steps being taken by the government.

Ogun NLC seeks Assembly’s help over workers deductions

By Daud Olatunji

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B E O K U TA — T H E Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in Ogun State has pleaded for the intervention of the state House of assembly on the need by the state government to clear the outstanding workers’ cooperative deductions and other allowances of over eight months .

The State Chairman of the NLC, Akeem Ambali also sought for a critical look into casualization of workers and wrong termination of employment going on in some companies in the state.

Ambali stated this yesterday, while speaking during a courtesy visit to the Speaker, Hon. Suraju Adekunbi and members of the Assembly in Abeokuta.

He called for strict compliance with local content policy by the companies.

In his remarks, the Speaker reiterated the administration’s commitment towards promoting workers' welfare and fulfilment of electoral promises to the people despite dwindling resources from the federation account.

Adekunbi pleaded with them to be patient with the government on the fulfilment of its obligation to the people, explaining that late payment of workers’ cooperative deductions and other allowances was not peculiar to Ogun State alone but a national challenge.

By Dayo Johnson

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SUMMIT: From left; Prof Alfred Aggrey-Fynn, North American University, Republic of Benin/ Guest Lecturer; Otunba Gani Adams, Founder and Chief Host, Gani Adams Foundation; Prof Charles Ade Alade, Former H.O.D Dept of History and International Studies, Lagos State University, and Oba Babatunde Ogunronbi, Oba of Shasha Kingdom, during 2015 United Nations World Humanitarian Day, Nigeria Humanitarian Summit, organised by Gani Adams Foundation, at Airport Hotel, Ikeja, Lagos. Photo by Kehinde Gbadamosi.

OONI: Succession tussle toughens

By Ola Ajayi

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BADAN—AS the process of choosing a new Ooni of Ife gains momentum, Prince Adeyemi Adeoye Aderibigbe Ologbenla who is from one of the ruling houses in Ile-Ife, has advised all stakeholders in the selection process of a new monarch to be wary of those jostling for the title, noting that most of them are not from any of the lineages that produce kings in the town.

This came just as he dismissed the claim of one Prince Ramon Adegoke Adedoyin who said the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade

Sijuwade had anointed him as his successor, adding that no king since inception of the ancient town, had ever chosen a successor.

The retired Professor of Economics from Obafemi Awolowo University said the claim of the prince was a complete falsehood, adding that he was not recognized as a member of any of the ruling houses from Ife. He said this yesterday in Ibadan in an exclusive interview with Vanguard.

According to him, the claim of the man was alien to the history of Ife and were not in tandem with the laid down rules and regulations guiding the

Baba Sala on hospital bed, says: ‘Give me pounded yam’

By Ola Ajayi

“

THE first thing my father did after he was resuscitated was to ask for pounded yam”, That’s according to one of the sons of ace comedian, Emmanuel Moses Olaiya.

According to him, his father, was rushed to the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo state from Ilesa, Osun State on Monday night.

Meantime, the Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Mr. Deji Bobade, told Vanguard yesterday that the comedian is alive and he is responding to treatment.

His son, Emmanuel, had on Tuesday told newsmen that his father was taken to the teaching hospital after being transferred from Ilesa Hospital.

He said, “Baba Sala is getting better in UCH. He even demanded to be served pounded yam yesterday afternoon. He is speaking normally and responding to treatment. He felt uncomfortable on Saturday and he was taken to Adewale Hospital in Ilesa and he was better. On

Sunday, he felt sick again and returned to the hospital. The doctor said he would need oxygen to treat him properly.

“After talking to our sister, who is a matron in UCH, it was decided that we should bring him to Ibadan since the doctors’ strike had ended. There is no serious cause of his discomfort but I think its old age. The symptom is common in old people,” he added.

Emmanuel, who’s stage name is Boi Sala, told Vanguard that he had received calls from many people who wanted to know if his father was still alive.

“People called me to know if Baba Sala had died.

I have told them that my father is alive and okay.”

Baba Sala is regarded as the father of modern Nigerian comedy.

ascendancy to the throne of Ooni.

Late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade passed on penultimate week in a London Hospital.

He said, “Since it is Ifa oracle that selects who becomes the new monarch according to popular belief, there is no way the late Ooni could have anointed any man. Sijuwade could not have presented or anointed him. Another thing is that Ifa oracle will certainly choose a candidate from the ruling house whose turn it is to present the king. Ifa will never choose a candidate from outside the next ruling house.”

The prince advised the local and state governments to stick to the earlier declaration made on the selection of a new king to “avoid problem from our ruling house. I have also heard of a number of people who have been parading themselves or making claims that they want to be Ooni.”

“I am in a position to know who the true Giesi children are and we are willing and ready to present candidate or candidates whenever we are told to do so by the kingmakers, local and state governments. All those who are parading themselves have no claims to the throne.''

KURE—ONDO State government yesterday denied the reported arrest of suspected Boko Haram members in the state.

Also, the 32 Army Artillery Brigade located in the state has equally described the arrest of suspected Boko Haram in the state as “outright falsehood.”

The Assistant Director of Army Pubic Relations, Captain Ojo Adelegan told newsmen that the publication was an unfortunate fabrication.

The state government in a statement issued in Akure by the Information Commissioner, Kayode Akinmade, said it was a ruse and meant to create tension and fear in the state.

“The threat of Boko Haram insurgents in the state as reported by a national newspaper (not Vanguard) is a ploy by unscrupulous elements to create tension and atmosphere of fear among the people.

Akinmade insisted that the state remains the safest and most peaceful in the country. ‘’There is no record of any of such arrest as reported with the police and the military,’’ he said.

According to him; “The security meeting which the report was hinged on was a routine monthly security meeting, which the governor had since ordered must hold between the chairmen of local councils and heads of security agencies in their locality.’’

12—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

RIVERS POLL: Tribunal declines request

to relocate election materials to Abuja

By Ikechukwu Nnochiri

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BUJA—THE Rivers State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal sitting in Abuja, yesterday, dismissed an application by the All Progressives Congress, APC, and its governorship candidate in the state, Dr. Dakuku Peterside seeking to compel the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to transfer all the materials used for the April 11 governorship election in Rivers State, to Abuja for inspection.

The Justice Muazu Pindiga-led tribunal dismissed the application.

APC and Peterside at the hearing of the petition they filed against the election of Governor Nyesom Wike of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, prayed the tribunal to direct INEC to relocate all the polling materials to Abuja for inspection by its legal team and forensic experts.

The materials include all ballot papers, the voters’ register that was used for the election, as well as the biometric data as captured by the Card Reader Machines that were deployed to Rivers State

by INEC for the purpose of the

disputed governorship poll.

In another development, the Akwa Ibom State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal also sitting in Abuja has adjourned to decide whether or not to dismiss the petition seeking to nullify the guber election that took place in

the state on April 11.

Governor Emmanuel Udom and his party, PDP, are praying the Justice Sadiq Umar-led tribunal to dismiss the petition on the group that APC did not field a valid candidate for the election.

Udom argued that the APC candidate, Mr Umana Umana, was not qualified to contest the election considering that the primaries that produced him was not conducted in line with provisions of the Electoral Act.

AGM/CONFERENCE: Rivers State Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, represented by his Deputy, Dr. Ipalibo Harry Banigo (left) and Chairman, Nigerian Medical Association, Rivers State branch, Dr. Furo Green, during the 2015 Annual General Meeting/Scientific Conference of the NMA, in Port Harcourt.

FLOOD ALERT: Fears in Bayelsa riverine communities

over rising water level Y

By Samuel Oyadongha

ENAGOA—THE rise in water level is now causing fear in communities along the bank of the rivers in Bayelsa State.

The Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency, had listed Bayelsa as one of the 12 states that might experience high flood this year.

Though the State Emergency Management Agency, SEMA, said it had set up Internal Displaced Person, IDP, camp in the state in the wake of the flood alert in the country, indigenes of communities especially those along the bank of the River Forcados and River Nun are troubled by the rising water level.

Bayelsa is predominantly riverine with most of its communities lying along the rivers and creeks, making them vulnerable to flooding and landslide.

Some Bayelsans who spoke to Vanguard, said though the water had been stagnant in the last two days, they however, expressed fear that it might surge especially with the heavy downpour being experienced in the state and the reported release of excess water from Lagdo Dam by the Cameroonian authorities.

“The rate at which the water is rising is giving us cause for concern due to our low shoreline

and vulnerability to flooding. We are more disturbed by the reported release of excess water from the

TRIBUNAL:

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Lagdo Dam in Cameroon,” said Preye, a resident of Sagbama.

Already, the State Emergency Management Agency, had

purchased relief worth millions of naira in anticipation of possible flood, according to its head of administration, Torukuru Adakien.

Okowa's fresh motions stalls hearing

By Festus Ahon

SABA—PROCEEDINGS at the Delta State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, has been stalled following three fresh applications by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, seeking details of Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC officials being summoned by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State in the April 11 election,

Olorogun O’tega Emerhor to testify at the tribunal.

Meanwhile, the tribunal has adjourned till today to hear the fresh applications by counsel to Governor Okowa and the PDP, challenging the summoning of some INEC staff by the APC governorship candidate to testify at the tribunal.

The APC governorship candidate, had through his counsel, Chief Thomson Okpokor, SAN, in readiness to call in his

witnesses, had on August 7, after the pre-trial, filed a motion seeking the tribunal to summon some INEC officials to testify as witnesses before the tribunal.

Opposing the fresh motion brought by Okowa through his lead counsel, Dr. Alex Iziyon, SAN and the PDP’s counsel, A .T Kehinde, SAN, APC counsel, Okpokor asked the tribunal for time to enable him respond to the fresh motions brought by the respondents.

Lawyer, siblings docked over alleged theft of documents

B

By Gabriel Enogholase

ENIN—A legal practitioner, Bola Amaye and two of his siblings, Fome Amaye and Shola Amaye, have been arraigned before an Oredo Chief Magistrate Court sitting in Benin, Edo State over alleged stealing of documents of property belonging to late Engineer Samuel Amaye.

The alleged offence is punishable under Section 516 of the Criminal Code Cap 48, Vol

11 Laws of the Defunct Bendel State of Nigerian 1976 as applicable in Edo State.

In a three count charge preferred against the siblings, they were alleged to conspired among themselves to steal the documents and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 390 (9) of the criminal code Cap 48 Vol.11 Laws of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria as applicable to Edo state.

According to Count 3 of the

charge, they were alleged with intent to defraud, concealed the documents which is an evidence of the title to the estate in land of late Engr. Amaye and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 393 of the criminal code Cap 48 Vol.11 of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria 1976 as applicable in Edo state.

When the charge was read to them, they pleaded not guilty.

BONGA OIL SPILL:

Communities threaten SNEPCO over compensation

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By Akpokona Omafuaire

ARRI—OVER 350 communities, which are victims of the Bonga oil spill in Bayelsa State and negatively impacted have given Shell Nigeria Exploration Company, SNEPCO, a 14-day ultimatum to compensate them for their operations in the Niger Delta region or will be shut down.

The ultimatum was contained in a letter addressed to the Managing Director of SNEPCO by the Executive Director of Oil Spill Victims Vanguard, OSPIVV, a non g o v e r n m e n t a l organisation led by Mr. Harrison Jalla.

He stated that over 40,000 barrels of crude was discharged into the Atlantic Ocean as a result of equipment failure at SNEPCO’s Bonga oil field.

It will be recalled that the major spill which occurred along the Atlantic coastline in Delta and Bayelsa states on December 20, 2011, polluted a distance of 185 kilometers along the coasts of Ekeremor, Southern Ijaw and Brass Local Government Areas of Bayelsa State as well as Warri South-west, Warri North and Burutu Local Government Areas of Delta State.

He said that in the wake of the spill, aquatic lives in the areas were destroyed as fishermen were compelled to desert the sea, with farm lands, vegetation and the environment contaminated.

Jalla noted that after due process, the House of Representatives and the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA, levied SNEPCO the sum of $3,600,191,296 to be paid to the affected shoreline communities and the Federal Government within 14 days in a letter dated December 19, 2014.

He added that since then SNEPCO on their part have failed to obey the above order and in the light of the above, OSPIVV was giving SNEPCO 14 days from the receipt of its letter to pay all victims of the Bonga oil spill incident of December 20, 2011.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—13

Rita Lori-Ogbebor gives Delta govt 7 days to repeal DESOPADEC law Says law ‘is obnoxious, unconstitutional'

By Egufe Yafugborhi

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ARRI—NIGER Delta activist, Chief Rita LoriOgbebor has given the Delta State Government one week to repeal the new Delta State Oil Producing Areas Development Commission, DESOPADEC law signed by the state governor this week or face court action.

Briefing stakeholders in Warri, yesterday, Chief Lori-Ogbebor, said the law as it were is unconstitutional, as the struggle was no longer about amendment of the law.

She said: “No law supersedes the laws of the constitution of Nigeria. The law which guarantees 13 percent derivation made it clear that the 13 percent is strictly for the development of oil producing communities. There is no ambiguity to it.

“When the law came into force, affected state governments were not putting the money in the oil communities. We fought them to comply and they brought oil commissions which allocated 50 percent of the 13 percent to the communities. I strongly believe that DESOPADEC since

inception has never even received 50 per cent but if they did, the politicians have been stealing the money.

“DESOPADEC law is obnoxious. I reject it because the law where they give you and you don’t give it out properly as the law provides is unacceptable. The

constitution stipulates the whole 13 per cent be devoted to caring for oil communities and their degraded environment.

“So, from today, we demand the Delta State Government to repeal this obnoxious DESOPADEC law.

If they fail to listen to the voice of the people, we will take them to

court to ensure that the right thing was done,” she added.

Present at the briefing were the National chairman, Host Communities of Nigeria, HOSTCOM, Bishop Mike Emu, Delta chapter chairman, Benjamin Iwetan, former Delta Sport Commissioner, Newuwumi Omolubi, Iteskiri National Youth Council president, Esimaje Awani among others.

BRIEFING: From left: Chief Harrison Abuge, HOSTCOM Chairman, Urhobo Ethnic Nationality, President, Itsekiri National Youth Council, INYC, Mr. Esimaje Awani, Mr. Omolubi Newuwumi, former Delta State Commissioner for Youth and Sports and President of Iwere Development Association,IDA, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, Igba of Warri Kingdom, Mr. Benjamin Iwetan,HOSTCOM Chairman, Delta State, Bishop Mike Emu, HOSTCOM National Chairman and, Mrs. Grace Oghenekevwe, HOSTCOM Woman Leader, Delta State, during the briefing by host communities of Nigeria Producing (Oil and Gas) in Warri, Delta State, yesterday. Photo: Akpokona Omafuaire.

Be patient with Okowa, Deputy Speaker charges youths

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SABA—DEPUTY Speaker, Delta State House of Assembly, Mr Friday Osanebi, has charged Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, youth leaders from Delta North to be patient with Governor Ifeanyi Okowa with their requests, desires and expectations.

Osanebi who stated this when the youth leaders from Delta North senatorial district visited him in Asaba, admonished them to always apply wisdom in carrying out their operations, saying that the governor was always ready to listen to them and attend to their needs, but they have to be patient.

He said: “I want to thank you and also congratulate you all, because as a youth, my victory is your victory. Moreso, we have to be patient with the governor. We must understand that expectationsarehigh,thatiswhy we have to pray for him always."

14—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

NIPOST boss bows out

By Emmanuel Elebeke

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HE POSTMASTER General of the Nigerian Postal Services, Ibrahim Mori Baba has bowed out of service after nine years in the saddle.

At a valedictory session at the Nipost Headquarters Abuja, yesterday, he said the agency seized goods worth N125.243 billion in nine years of his leadership.

According to him, the items were interceptions of scam (419) letters and financial instruments peaking at 258,207 seized within the period.

He said the feat was made possible through a collaborative effort of the Nigerian Police, Economic and Financial Crime Commission, Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Department of State Service and the Nigerian Customs Service as well as the National Crime Agency of the United Kingdom.

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Uniport disowns lawmaker ...says he did not graduate from there

By Anayo Okoli

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MUAHIA—NATIONAL and State Assembly Election Tribunal sitting in Umuahia, has been told that Mr. Emeka Nnamani, representing Aba North State constituency allegedly forged University of Port Harcourt certificate with which he filled his INEC forms for the April 2015 elections.

Nnamani was also alleged to still be a member of the PDP in his home state, Enugu while he contested the election on the platform of APGA in Abia State where he resides.

These were the submissions of Dr. Blessing Nwagba of the PDP, who is challenging the election of Emeka Nnamani at the tribunal.

Meanwhile, the tribunal headed by Justice S. Yahuzu has admitted in evidence, a letter from the Registrar of the University of Port Harcourt disowning Nnamani as a graduate of the university.

The tribunal also admitted in evidence, a certified true copy of an expression of interest form filled by Nnamani who contested the PDP primaries in Enugu State for the House of Assembly, which the petitioner said was evidence

that he was not qualified to contest in Abia State on the platform of APGA. The petitioner alleged that by this act, Nnamani was a member of two parties during the elections.

According to Chief K. C. Nwufo, SAN, lawyer to the petitioner, by allegedly being a member of two parties, Nnamani allegedly

contravened the Electoral Act, arguing, therefore, that his election would not stand.

Nwufo also told the tribunal that the respondent told lies with regard to his educational qualification, alleging that he never graduated from the University of Port Harcourt as claimed. The petitioner had closed her case.

In his submission, Chigozie Ogunji, counsel to Nnamani said that the respondent was ready to enter his defence and hinted that they had no less than 10 witnesses to give evidence.

The Tribunal chairman adjourned the matter to August 24 and 27 for the respondent to begin his defence.

Make Onitsha River Port final destination for cargoes —Shippers

By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

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NEWI—THE Anambra State Shippers Association has called on the President Muhammadu Buhariled Federal Government to make Onitsha River Port, the final destination for container goods coming into the country, just as it had done to Warri Sea Port.

The president of the association, Mr. Emma Akpaka made the appeal while commending the Federal Government for making Warri Sea-Port a functional and final destination for cargoes.

The association expressed hope that what happened to shippers at Calabar, Port Harcourt and Warri before they came back to life again after many years of being cut off from cargo transportation will not happen again.

“For about ten years, Warri Port was cut off from cargo transportation on flimsy excuses as if deposits of many natural resources in Nigeria were a divine mistake.

“When the news filtered in that it has opened for business, shippers doubted it until Julius Berger Services Nig. Ltd assembled importers/ exporters on August 5, in

Onitsha and on August 6 in Nnewi, respectively to confirm the good news.”

He added that “another spice to the business in Warri wharf is that Julius Berger Services Nig. Ltd had floated vessels that carry containers from any location in the world to Warri Port at cheaper rates.

“Anambra shippers received this information with sceptism until Mr. Thilo Ackermann, GM of the company, took enough time to convince shippers that the company ventured into shipping after considering the reputation of the mother company,” he said.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—15

16—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

APGA women kick off campaign for Obiano's 2nd term

By Enyim Enyim

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NITSHA—ALL Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, women wing has started intensive mobilization of women for the second tenure of the Anambra State governor, Chief Willie Obiano.

National women leader of the party, Ezinne Agbiogwu stated this while addressing reporters in Awka on the activities of the women wing of the party.

Agbiogwu said they had to embark on the project because of the democracy dividends the governor has been giving the people of the state since assuming office.

2015 POLLS: Ad hoc staff lock INEC

office over unpaid stipends •Police use tear gas to disperse protesters

By Vincent Ujumadu

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WKA—ABOUT 150 ad-hoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, during the 2015 general

elections in Anambra State, yesterday, besieged the Commission’s secretariat in Awka, demanding their unpaid allowances.

Some of the staff complained that

while some of them received the first tranche, others had not received anything since the March 28 and April 11, 2015 elections.

After several visits to the Commission during which they were either asked to compile their names or bring their bank statements for verification and yet nothing happened, they stormed the state INEC headquarters in Awka and barricaded the gate, demanding their money.

Some of them alleged that while ad hoc staff of other states had received their money, INEC workers in Anambra State had refused to pay.

There and then, they contributed money to buy

Police in Onitsha change anti-crime tactics

Lawyer wants Buhari to overhaul EFCC

By Ugochukwu Alaribe

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BA—AN Aba-based legal practitioner, Chief Ekele Nwahonmuo has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to overhaul the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and appoint a new management team for the anti-graft agency.

In a chat with Vanguard in Aba, the legal practitioner accused the EFCC of grandstanding in order to retain their positions, and charged President Buhari not to be deceived by what he described as window dressing efforts by the agency in order to win the war against corruption.

“The EFCC appears to have woken up from slumber, but they are only grandstanding. Nobody should be deceived by the current arrests of suspects made by the agency; it is all motion without movement," he said.

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padlock and chain and locked the gate, with the INEC Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Mr. Edwin Nwatarali and his staff inside their offices.

Despite appeals by security operatives for them to vacate the Commission’s gate, they stood their ground, chanting war songs and using unprintable description against the Commission, which made the security operatives to release teargas canisters to disperse them.

The REC could not react when he was called on phone as he said he does not speak with reporters on telephone.

By Chimaobi Nwaiwu

PRESENTATION: Former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi (left), and Dr. Christopher Kolade, at the 65th birthday of Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, whose two books were presented to the public, at Sheba Event Centre, Ikeja, Lagos, Monday.

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N E W I — DETERMINED to ensure a continued crime free environment and in preparation to reduce the crime rate in Onitsha at

DE-ACTIVATION OF SIMS: NCC blocks 10.7m

lines in 2 weeks

By Emeka Aginam

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OLLOWING THE ongoing de-activation of preregistered Subscribers Identification Modules (SIM) cards on the network of mobile network operators in Nigeria, the Nigerian telecommunications regulatory authority, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, yesterday in

Lagos disclosed that it has blocked about 10.7 million lines in the last two weeks.

From the about 38.78 million SIM cards found to be defective regarding improper registration details including poor finger prints, absence of facial information and other biometric issue,according to NCC, the operators, after strict monitoring by the commission have bared about 10.7 million SIMs.

Lolo Enwere for burial Saturday

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INAL BURIAL rites for late Lolo Theresa Enwere holds Saturday, August 22, 2015, at her country home in Umuakam Eziala, Okaiuga Nkwoegwu, Umuahia North Local Government Area, Abia State, according to a family statement.

Christain wake is tomorrow.

She was a devout Christian and will be remembered most for her illustrious and selfless service to Okaiuga community during her life time.

She is survived by children, grand children, an only sister and other relatives.

The Head of the Compliance and Monitoring Unit of the Commission, Efosa Idehen, who spoke to Technology Journalists in Lagos said the commission has since the expiration of the ultimatum given to operators on August 11, this financial year visited the operators to ensure compliance.

He said that the directive given to the operators was that they should bar any line found to have incomplete registration and later urged the affected subscribers to come and complete their registration.

He told technology journalists that the commission, after due consultation with the National Security Adviser, NSA, and other stakeholders in the industry agreed that pre-registered SIMs and others found to be defective should be deactivated.

the ember months, the Police in Fegge, Onitsha South Local Government Area, have designed an operational order to check criminal activities.

This was disclosed by the Divisional Police Officer, DPO in charge of Fegge Division of the Nigerian Police, Mr. Rabiu Garba, in a chat with newsmen on the preparedness of the police in Fegge to counter the activities of criminal elements, who capitalize on the high business activities in ember months to rob and unleash terror on innocent victims.

According to Mr. Garba, “the operational order involves regular township and high way patrol, regular raiding of criminal hide-outs, enforcement of the order restricting/ banning of private and commercial motorcycles on the high ways and some roads in Onitsha, especially within Fegge Division."

Mr. Garba also disclosed that he had collapsed all the vigilante detention centres in Fegge Division, "because vigilante operatives do not have the rights to detain, as their rights stop at arresting criminals, hoodlums and suspects and handing them over to the police.

“Other activities in the operational order are: executing searches on suspected persons and buildings, arresting of touts," among others, he said.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 — 17

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ALAM Ahmed is one of the drivers in the Government House pool in Maiduguri. Whenever I visit the Borno state capital, he was almost always the driver that carried me around. Last Saturday afternoon, just after noon, Ahmed called from Maiduguri to inform me that the Borno state Deputy Governor, Alhaji Zannah Umar Mustapha, had died in Yola, Adamawa state. I was stunned and immediately placed a call to Kashim Shettima, the Borno state governor.

None of his telephone lines was available; so I called the Commissioner for Local Government, who was with the governor; he confirmed the Deputy Governor’s death, then handed over the phone to a most distressed governor, so I could express condolences.

From the tone of his voice and the much that I knew about the evolution of their relationship, governor and deputy, I sensed that Kashim Shettima was a very, very sad man that afternoon!

His Deputy had become a genuine confidant for a governor whose human qualities made him very trusting, able to give and earn trust in equal measure. And in the late Zannah Umar Mustapha, Kashim Shettima found a genuine loyalty and sincere devotion, at one of the most difficult moments in the long history of Borno. For someone like me, who became very close to the Borno leadership in these difficult years of the Boko Haram insurgency, I can attest to the fact that Kashim Shettima found in his late deputy such a pillar of

Alhaji Zannah Umar Mustapha, 1966-2015 support that it became easier to face the challenges they confronted: the insurgency; a hostile federal government of President Goodluck Jonathan in

Borno politics has always seen often, strange construction and dissolution of alliances, and it is the real hotbed of cloak and dagger politics, at its most vicious

Abuja and the often vicious cut and thrust of Borno politics!

Last year, I visited Maiduguri at a time of serious problems associated with the killing of Alhaji Idris Timta, the Emir of Gwoza. I had the privilege of sitting through a very somber meeting at the Government House, where the governor told his colleagues that he would visit Gwoza to commiserate with the people.

It was a most dangerous decision to take and other members of the Borno state administration present that afternoon, led by the Deputy Governor, did everything to convince the governor not to make the trip. The late Zannah Umar Mustapha told the governor that he was willing to go through the danger of the trip, instead of having his governor ’s life endangered!

In the end, the governor stuck to his gun and the following day, they all made the trip and returned safely. But it said a lot about the character of the late

deputy governor that he was willing to face danger on his governor’s behalf. I knew exactly how the meeting evolved and I could report that it was not any form of “eye service”, but a sincere commitment to his governor and the leadership that they were providing together for Borno state in a most difficult and very tragic period.

Tragic period It was also indicative of the evolution of their relationship that Governor Kashim Shettima always trusted his deputy with very sensitive assignments, and from all that I knew and saw at very close quarter, he often delivered in an honest and outstanding manner.

Between the two, there wasn’t the usual suspicion that had often dogged the relationship between Governor and Deputy, and which seemed to be central to the politics of Nigeria since the 1999 return

Nigeria's 8th NASS: Controversy, insignificant work, huge emoluments

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HE 8th National Assembly came to life in controversy. A stealthy move that resembled a coup d’etat, ushered in the Upper house, the Senate.

That “Original Sin” has continued to dog senate till today. The House of Representatives had its own share of problems, but resolution was found to keep a lid on controversy, at least for now. The senate, like a punch-

drunk boxer, has continued to literally sleep walk as different sides to its self-inflicted problems entrench themselves in their conflicting positions. But our dear legislators have a point that unites them, and that is their determination to continue to earn humungous sums of money, without sensitivity to the state of the nation’s economy. When they met in camera last week, they were

Isiaka Abdulrazaq: National recognition, community spirit

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HEN the new Group Managing Director (GMD) of the NNPC, Emmanuel Kachikwu began the immediate restructuring of the behemoth, one of the new Executive Directors appointed to help push the commercialisation of the NNPC was Isiaka AbdulRazaq, put in charge of Finance.

For all those who know Isiaka, we were not in doubt that it was a well-deserved appointment.

Isiaka is a scion of the family of Alhaji AGF AbdulRazaq, the First lawyer from Northern Nigeria.

But Isiaka has built an outstanding career track record over the years, spanning acknowledged experiences at the NNDC in Kaduna, NEPA and finally at the NNPC. A selfeffacing and very modest individual, Isiaka AbdulRazaq has tremendous sense of community C M Y K

and therefore enjoys so much goodwill in the Ilorin community where he comes from, because of his generous spirit and the willingness to assist people from all walks of life.

A man of my generation, there was hardly a piece I have written about our early years and the Ilorin we grew up in, that he had not called me to make a comment and also lament at the way the old values that impacted upon our upbringing have gradually eroded over the decades.

I have no doubts in my mind that Isiaka AbdulRazaq will give his all to the new assignment he has been given, in the effort to reform and reposition the NNPC. The new appointment acknowledges Isiaka’s ability and commitment to our country.

Congratulations Isiaka AbdulRazaq!

unable to agree about cutting down the huge sums they take from Nigeria. The people’s representatives will not reduce their creature comfort. They will not give any ground in the demand to make sacrifice for the country. Our legislators must continue to get their over-sized cut of the Nigerian cake, even when Nigeria is in crisis.

The amazing thing about this is that the party of “CHANGE”, the APC carries the same DNA of greed as its opposite, the PDP, in the quest to take as much as possible from Nigeria.

Party supremacy In the collective parliamentary resolve to fleece Nigeria, there are no appeals to “party supremacy”. Here all legislators have become “Like Minds”!

There is no Chinese Wall dividing Bukola Saraki from Ahmed Lawan; Yakubu Dogara has no problem with Femi Gbajabiamila.

They stand united in defence of their deep pockets and are collectively determined to take as much as possible from Nigeria.

The slogan of CHANGE, cannot find traction with 360 representatives and 109 senators.

And since they resumed on that controversial note on June 9th, according to @BudglTng, they only sat for a grand total of

15days! They have taken 12 weeks of recess; the 109 senators have collected N36. 4million each while the 360 representatives creamed off N25million each, amounting to N13billion. The principal officers collect more than their colleagues, meaning that Nigeria would have expended more than N13billlion on 469 legislators. In that period, they did NOT pass a single Bill!

The developments of the past 16 years have made it clear that the remuneration process amongst the nation’s political elite is clearly not sustainable.

Nigeria is in the midst of a serious economic crisis but our so-called representatives are still determined to corner obscene cuts of the nation’s cake! There are poignant questions to ask about the legislature that sat for only fifteen days since June 9th, but enjoys a twelve-week recess while pocketing over N13billion.

Should we not have a part time legislature as some have argued?

Or do we just pay them per sitting? And what is the relevance of a two tier National Assembly in a period of dwindling financial resources and the frankly wasteful nature of our parliament? More than at any point in Nigeria’s recent history, these questions have become very important and they need to be taken very seriously.

to civil rule. Kashim Shettima was always at ease and confident that he was leaving the administration of Borno state in very good hands, every time that he was obliged to travel out of Borno state.

That the two men were able to cross the hurdles of suspicion in their relationship spoke volumes about their individual human qualities. And honestly, it didn’t look like such a trust and brotherly spirit could have developed between them, given how they came to be candidate and running mate in 2011.

The late Zannah Umar Mustapha had resigned from the Nigerian Navy in 1993 to enter private business and when politics returned in 1999, he contested to become chairman of Biu Local Government on the platform of the PDP, but lost.

He remained in the PDP and was running mate to Kashim Imam in the 2007 elections, which they also lost. He was then made Chairman of the National Library Board, soon after the elections.

Borno politics has always seen often, strange construction and dissolution of alliances, and it is the real hotbed of cloak and dagger politics, at its most vicious.

When Kashim Imam lost the hotly contested nomination as PDP candidate in 2011, to former Governor, Alhaji Mohammed Goni, he went into an alliance with the ANPP and Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. The outcome of that alliance was the nomination of Alhaji Zannah Umar Mustapha as running mate to Governor Kashim Shettima.

Humane direction The fact that they were able to build and consolidate their relationship has largely been responsible for the way things have evolved in Borno politics, especially with the 2015 elections and the victory of the APC, making Kashim Shettima and his Deputy, to become without doubt, the leading individuals in contemporary Borno politics.

Together with their associates, they demystified the politics of ‘godfatherism’ and took Borno politics in a more humane direction than what used to reign.

Alhaji Zannah Umar Mustapha’s death last weekend is a major loss for Borno and Nigeria. He died at the relatively young age of 49 years.

He seemed to have made enough mark on his state in the past few years, to be assured of a bright future in the politics of Borno and Nigeria. He was an example of genuine enthusiasm, loyalty and committed service to his community, state and our country.

He was in fact on an official assignment, to represent the Borno state government at a university convocation ceremony, when he suffered a heart failure which claimed his life. I know that these are very difficult moments for Alhaji Zannah Umar’s family; Kashim Shettima, the Borno state governor and all his associates and friends as well as the people of Borno. Allah ya jikan Zannah Umar Mustapha. Amin.

18 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 THE lingering decline in crude oil prices, which has greatly affected Nigeria’s revenue from crude oil exports, has taken another dimension in recent months. About 35 million barrels of the country’s crude oil remained unsold at the international market as at December 2014.

Sales have been low this year as the fortunes of August and September deliveries remain uncertain, even as oil prices continue to hover on the lower band of $50 a barrel. As it stands, the nation is on a financial cliff and can fall off except a miracle happens.

The one commodity that provides life support for the economy has not only seen its price at the international market fall to as low as $48 per barrel, the volume sold is shrinking as well. There is no sign that things will get better soon. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has even predicted that crude oil prices may fall to as low as $20 per

Surviving the crude oil crunch barrel.

As a result of the above oil market scenario, the federal government will have a herculean task running the country effectively.

The country is financially vulnerable and the government may have to resort to heavy borrowing to meet its daily obligations.

This certainly will not be in the best interest of the nation. We note with concern that already many states are not able to pay their bills. Same goes for some federal

agencies. To avert the financial disaster that falling oil price portends for the nation, the Federal Government should consider offering longer days credit facilities of up to 90 days to oil consumer countries, as a way of helping Nigeria to wriggle out of the current falling oil price debacle. Furthermore, Government, through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) should refrain from selling its crude in the spot market and negotiate for longer term con-

OPINION The show of disdain and discrimination was that in the so-called straw poll for Saraki and Dogara: Not guilty as charged sothebarefaced Speakership, Dogara’s supporters were

By Suleiman Ibrahim

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HERE have been consistent efforts by reactionary forces within the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, to portray Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as disobedient and treacherous party men since June 9, 2015 when the election of presiding officers of the National Assembly. But nothing can be farther from the truth.

While, I disagree with those who want us to believe that the party has no say in who becomes what at the National Assembly, I prefer the term “party influence” to “party supremacy”. Only the Constitution is supreme in a democracy. APC’s dictates cannot be superior to Section 50 of the Nigerian Constitution, which upholds the rights of even non-APC federal lawmakers to aspire to any presiding office of their choice.

Besides, ascribing supremacy to the party, especially when it is in pursuit of the personal interests of a few, sounds haughty, arrogant, and tyrannical. But, party influence means that you are able to rally your party men and women to tow party direction without necessarily feeling compelled, subjugated, and cheated. Rather they obey the party because the party’s motives and modus oparandi radiate internal democracy, equity, and justice.

If the truth most be told, the APC leadership and elders actually lost their moral authority to influence their federal lawmakers towards a desired result when they prevaricated on zoning and also failed to ensure that equity

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prevailed in allocation of substantive offices at the federal level among the various families (defunct political parties and splinter of parties) that make up the APC larger family. Some party leaders succeeded in goading the APC into clear preferential treatments for some contenders for the presiding officers positions of the National Assembly; and the party did it in such a way that left the New Peoples Democratic Party (nPDP) family of the APC with absolutely nothing, hence used and dumped.

After the controversial straw polls, substantive offices in the Federal Government,

by APC’s proposal, were as follows: President Mohammadu Buhari (defunct CPC), Vice President Yemi Osibanjo (defunct ACN), Senate President Ahmed Lawn (defunct ANPP), Deputy Senate President George Akume (defunct ACN), Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila (defunct ACN), Deputy Speaker (defunct ANPP). It did not matter to the APC hierarchy that the nPDP brought five incumbent governors in addition to a good number of federal lawmakers and therefore contributed in no small measure to the party’s victory at the general elections.

Such treatment must have left people like Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu Dogara feeling like half casts of the APC family.

Only the Constitution is supreme in a democracy

taken unawares, while Gbajabiamila and his supporters came well mobilised and prepared because they were obviously tipped off. House Members-elect were also made to write their names and the name of their preferred candidate. It was lie voting at gunpoint, against your conscience. Little wonder Dogara’s group walked out, while Senator Saraki and his supporters boycotted the straw poll for the Senate Presidency entirely.

If the party was ever supreme, it vaporised once vaulting personal ambitions and interests of a few powerful party leaders took preeminence over the 1999 Constitution, parliamentary convention, internal democracy, justice, and equity. So, what the APC propagandists dubbed the ‘Saraki-Dogara rebellion’ is actually ‘APC injustice against Saraki and Dogara’.

It could be also be recalled that when Hon. Dogara accepted to cede the position of the Majority Leader to the “Loyalists”, with a proviso that it would not go to the South West and by implication, Hon. Gbajabiamila, since the zone already had the Deputy Speakership, the supremacists and their godfathers emotionally blackmailed President Muhammadu Buhari into eventually breaking his principle of non interference. Compelled, Dogara conceded the position to Gbajabiamila to massage Bola Tinubu’s battered ego. So, the party would have lost its ‘supremacy’ had another “Loyalist” like Hon. Ado Dogowa become the Majority Leader or the ‘Loyalists’ from the South East got the Deputy Majority Whip in line with federal character.

tracts to boost its revenue drive. We believe that this is the right time for Nigeria to look inward more and begin to refine its crude instead of depending on exports alone. We should aim to start exporting refined products. To achieve this government should encourage more private sector participation in refining by creating a level playing field for both government and private refinery outfits. This will include repositioning the NNPC to make it either a regulator or an oil marketing company. It can no longer operate under its current, discredited model of doing business. Furthermore, the oil sector should be deregulated and the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) passed into law to change the oil industry holistically. It is time to take radical actions in the oil sector and protect the economy from its frequent downsides such as the one we are going through after a 16-year boom.

For Saraki, who would not succumb to such tyranny against subsisting parliamentary convention, his wife suddenly became a guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC overnight. But Mrs. Saraki had no immunity even as governor’s wife and also left office over five years ago. The Buhari we know would never go after Mrs. Saraki to get back at her husband, but I would be under the heavy influence of rum to vouch the same way for the many tin gods in the APC known to induce and manipulate state institutions to achieve selfish ends.

Pray, how on earth do you convince the world in this circumstance that Mrs. Saraki’s cross has nothing to do with her husband’s refusal to bow to ‘party supremacy’? If a witch cries at night and the child is pronounced dead in the morning, where would fingers naturally point?

It looks every inch the case of Oba Ovonranwen Nogbaisi who says that when you cannot lynch the master, you go after his favourite goat. I think it is up to Mr. President as the father of the APC to utilise the opportunity of this National Assembly recess to ensure that the APC regains its peace, groove, and focus.Those singing the betrayal song to divide him and National Assembly or its leadership are just selfish. political actors who want to run a ring around him.

Likewise, the police meddling in the internal affairs of the Senate over trumped-up allegation of forgery of the Senate standing Rules 2015 bear all the imprimaturs of the tin gods of the APC. Pray, what have the police got to do with the Senate Rules for crying out loud. *Mr.Ibrahim, a political analyst, wrote from Keffi, Nassarawa State.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 20,, 2015— 19 Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com

Junaidu, the ‘hate’ evangelist

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HEN was the last time you read or heard Dr. Junaidu Mohammed making constructive points in the media? He calls himself the “convener” of the Coalition of Northern Politicians, Academics, Professionals and Businessmen (CNPAPB). When was the last time you heard him addressing Northern politicians on the need to be peaceful, democratic and people-oriented, always putting the interest of the nation above selfish pursuits?

When was the last time he gathered young Arewa professionals, proffered antidotes to the continued rating of the North as the most educationally backward section of Nigeria, or gave tips on how they can be more competitive among their peers?

For that matter, when was the last time Dr. Junaidu Mohammed was a member or chieftain of a political party, working assiduously to bring about good governance in the North and Nigeria? The last time I saw him playing some positive role in our politics was about 35 years ago, when I was still in secondary school. He was then in his middle thirties; articulate and always

sharply attired. He seemed to have a bright future as a leader in Mallam Aminu Kano’s political stable which fought for the downtrodden.

He was one of those vibrant young “radicals” of the Kano axis, which included Alhaji Abubakar Rimi and Alhaji Sule Lamido. They paid for their “radicalism” with frequent brushes with state security agencies.

Rimi was given the longest jail sentence by Major General Muhammadu Buhari’s Gestapo regime (300 years), while Lamido was detained along with Rimi by General Sani Abacha for refusing to endorse his self-succession agenda in 1998. Rimi continued his struggle to become president of Nigeria till he died after a robbery attack on April 4th 2010.

Sule Lamido went on to become Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister under President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government in 1999; a post he held for six years. Later, he became the Governor of Jigawa State. In that position Lamido laboured to reunite the Aminu Kano political family. He even built monuments in the Aminu Kano Triangle in Dutse in honour of the founders of that movement and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

But what became of the third man among the trio, Junaidu Mohammed? To return to the limelight after years of silence, he became a hate evangelist. He is a noisy member of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF) and “convener” of CNPAPB. He, like Professor Ango Abdullahi, a former university vice chancellor, purports to fight for Northern “interests”. When you listen to the things that these gentlemen say for public consumption, you will realise that education does not necessarily, automatically civilise everyone. Many people pass through the “four walls” of a university without the “four walls” passing through them.

Mind you, Junaidu Mohammed is a Soviet-trained medical doctor!

His recent outing in a national daily where he made a really saddening reaction to Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife’s complaint over President Muhammadu Buhari’s exclusion of the South East

It was not Hausa/Fulani Arewa that stopped Biafra’s secession. It was the entire country aided by our former colonial master, Britain and other superpowers that did

Examinations and WAEC's misplaced aggression

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N whichever direction we look, we see the Nigerian student short-changed. He is thoroughly repressed and at times, he becomes an endangered species. He can only cry out at a cost that is too high to pay – the moment he is labelled outright recalcitrant, he is doomed or he could flunk all the courses of those he raises his voice against. By the time he has 10 carry-overs, he is clearly at the verge of withdrawal.

The school system is such that on those rare occasions when the teachers are not on strike, the students' results are being withheld. Meanwhile, the student is silently compelled to pay all the fees that are considered illegal in the outside world.

In essence, the Nigerian student soon finds that he must work twice as hard to be half as good as his contemporaries elsewhere.

The student in the public school system knows when he is matriculating but he can never tell when he will graduate, no thanks to the incessant strike obtainable in the system. It is not unusual for a good student who goes into the University for a four-year Course to limp out after more than seven years.

At the least prompting, the academic and non-academic staff members take turns in strikes that could last some three months on either side.

Lately, some concerned Nigerians thought they were helping our students when they cried out against the prohibitive cost of procuring hand-outs from lecturers. Ostensibly, the hand-out system was abolished. The lecturers needed just enough time to re-strategize and come out with something different.

Overnight, printers went to work and compiled the hand-outs into pamphlets (oops, textbooks), which every student passing through the lecturer’s course must C M Y K

buy. Even those who re-sit the paper must buy a second copy of the book. The books cannot be obtained in any bookshop. The lecturer’s secretary meticulously compiles the names of all those who have bought the book. In the marking of the exam script, the lecturer places the list alongside the scripts and the fact of your buying the book earns you 10 marks automatically. Those pamphlets/ textbooks go for between N700-1000. It is simply the examiner’s market!

As if this is not enough, other external forces must bring their heavy weight to bear on the student. Right now, a big battle is raging between the West African Examinations Council, WAEC, and some State Governments, where WAEC has deliberately withheld the results of the candidates from the States whose governments had enrolled them on credit for the last May/June examinations.

Apparently, during the electioneering campaigns, politicians promised heaven and earth, including the payment of examination fees for their students.

WAEC went ahead and enrolled the students. The politicians were applauded.

But since then, many State Governments have been on respiration, gasping for breath, even unknown to them if they are still alive. The other day, they got a little life-line to be able to pay some arrears of long outstanding salaries to their workers.

The wide fluctuations between failure rates indicate that our examination system is simply a random process of selection

in appointments so far made, has become typical of Junaidu Mohammed. Rather than address the issues raised by Ezeife, Junaidu chose to sabre-rattle. He selfservingly editorialised on issues that led to the civil war. He said Buhari owes the Igbo people “nothing” and that: “if the Igbos don’t like it they can attempt secession again. If they do, they must be prepared to live with the consequences”.

That is Junaidu Mohammed’s irresponsible retort to a legitimate claim by a section of the country of their constitutional right to be included in the governance of their country.

How does that offend the “Northern interest” to warrant Junaidu Mohammed’s latest acts of buccal terror?

The truth of our history is that Igbos once wanted to secede from a country in which they felt unsafe due to the pogroms in the North after the first coup of 1966. It was not Hausa/Fulani Arewa that stopped Biafra’s secession. It was the entire country aided by our former colonial master, Britain and other superpowers that did. Junaidu should stop his empty boasts of North’s Igbo conquest because it has never happened. The rampant acts of cowardice and killings of nonindigenes in Arewa North (with Igbos often targeted because they are not Muslims) are nothing to boast of. It does not happen in any other part of Nigeria or even Muslim West Africa. It is a demonstration of shameful barbarism, not bravery. Killing of defenceless non-indigenes is a principal reason the North is backward and unstable.

Nigeria stopped Biafra. Nigeria was stopping Boko Haram under

In such a situation, who would be talking of f a r a w a y WAEC? WAEC knew, or it ought reasonably to have known, that it was taking a risk when it decided to enroll those students on credit. It could have insisted on payment up-front from the affected States. WAEC has no moral or legal justification to turn round and visit the delinquency of those States on the innocent students. Why must the sins of the father be visited on the son?

Anyone who is waylaid should be the best judge of how to get home. WAEC has a range of option on how to get its money.

They could go to court to seek an order to enforce payment or, as a last resort, let them seal up the Government Houses of the affected States. But by all means, let the students’ results be released pronto!

Enough of this misplacement of aggression! The time to get the results is now! Those who passed need the results to process the ongoing admissions into higher institutions; and those who failed should immediately begin to prepare for the next one.

Before now, we deluded ourselves into thinking that we had arrived at the stage where we could approach our educational system through the civilized continuous assessment but because of the inherent tardiness in the system, we are faced once more with the process of galloping through the system by single end-of-session examinations. Each time teachers return from their long strike, they announce to the students that examinations start the following week.

As the final hour approaches, crammers cram with the aim of pouring everything down for the lecturer. What happens is

President Jonathan with General Azubuike Ihejirika as Army Chief but people like Junaidu Mohammed started wailing about “depopulation of the North” by the Nigerian Army. Even when an Igbo becomes the president of Nigeria, he will lead our troops against any second secession attempt by Biafran activists.

This is the logic propelling President Buhari to end Boko Haram in record time. It is a constitutional duty of a Nigerian president. “To keep Nigeria one is a task that must done” is our national mantra, not that of Junaidu Mohammed’s Arewa.

Don’t get it twisted!

It is a shame and pity that Junaidu Mohammed, as a young man, held great promises but has chosen to age disgracefully. His mission appears aimed at transferring the enmity of 45 years ago to innocent Igbo and Arewa youth of today, so that they can continue to fight and kill one another long after Junaidu and his cohorts had expired from this mortal plane.

But we are consoled by the fact that for every Ango Abdullahi, there are a dozen Shehu Shagaris, Ibrahim Babangidas, Abdulsalami Abubakars, Umaru Yar’ Aduas, Tanko Yakassais, Sule Lamidos: all of them Northern Muslims and Fulanis whose exemplary nationalism and patriotism helps to re-healed the old wounds that the Junaidus, Angos and other Arewa prebendarians frequently scrape open in their misguided pursuit of “Northern interests”.

No matter what Buhari does, or whom he chooses to listen to, Igbo people will be fine. They always are.

that breakdowns occur, sometimes followed by insomnia, and in extreme cases, suicide. Who cares?

Now, the examination is taken and the student’s academic trial is over.

Prosecution, defence and judgment are all now left in the hands of the examiner.

Essentially, examinations are the control centres for the manipulation of the lives of students.

Our examinations can be attacked from two vantage points – reliability and relevance. When some universities have 30 percent failure rates and others 3 percent rates, the failure in one university could easily have been a huge success in another. The wide fluctuations between failure rates indicate that our examination system is simply a random process of selection.

But the Nigerian student must be liberated! There must be a rational system of assessment, ranging from term papers to regular quizzes on subjects already taught so that final examinations could only operate as minimum incentives to construct tunnels of knowledge leading to intrinsic interest in education and one’s work.

Our system is one of “All Chiefs, no Indians” where we have a multiplicity of full-time professors, a bulk of whom may be paid to be idle. A more efficient and cost-effective system would be predominated by adjunct lecturers who must constantly strive to sustain their relevance. Such would fear strikes like plague. This we recommend!

20 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

By Godfrey Bivbere

MEETING:

T

HE International Freight Forwarders Association, IFFA, has called on the Federal Government to reassess the port concession exercise to check capital flight and improve port efficiency for maximum economic benefit for the country.

IFFA position was made known in Lagos by its President, Sam C. Onyemelukwe, at its quarterly press conference to address issues affecting the maritime industry.

Onyemelukwe explained that the scheme has not met the desired targets as the concessionaires allow delays and congestion at the terminals.

According to him, “To reduce capital flight, improve efficiency and ensure that maritime and shipping contributes maximally to national economy, the Federal Government should reassess the port concession regime, as the scheme has not met the desired targets.

“The concessionaires allow delays and congestion in the terminals even as many dry docks, bonded terminal, are empty. These bottlenecks in the system appear to be deliberate, aimed at making cargoes attract huge rent charges.

“This development has increased rather than reduce cargo dwell time, hence leading to higher clearing costs for goods from Nigeria’s ports.”

Similarly, IFFA accused shipping companies of encouragement of human contacts to compound the problems of the industry, as this causes avoidable delays and encourages corruption.

The Association charged shipping companies and the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, to make ship manifest available

From left, Madeleine Tanoe Partner PwC Cote D’Ivoire; Douty Fadiga Partner PwC Cameroon; Nada ElSayed Partner PwC Lebanon; Darrell Mcgraw Partner PwC Nigeria; Wadi AbouNasr Partner PwC Lebanon; Peierre Edde Development Direct South Energyx Nigeria & Andrei Ugarov Partner PwC Nigeria at the Breakfast meeting hosted by PwC for Lebanese business leaders in Beirut.

Review concession agreements to check capital flight —Freight Forwarders in advance electronically so that consignees can generate documentation for cargo examination before ship arrival date.

In his words, “The continued encouragement of human

contacts by shipping companies have compounded the problems of the industry, as this causes avoidable delays and encourages corruption.

“Firstly, shipping companies in conjunction with the Nigeria

Customs Service, NCS, should make ship manifest available in advance electronically so that consignees can generate documentation for cargo examination before ship arrival date.

“Also, shipping companies should interface with freight forwarders in such a manner that their debit and release notes will be accessible online for freight forwarders to process these independently”.

AUC seeks cooperation among standard organisations in Africa

By Jimoh Babatunde

T

HE Head, Trade Division of the African Union Commission, AUC, Mr. Nadir Merah, has disclosed that cooperation among standard organisations in Africa can boost sustainable agriculture and food security in the continent.

Mr. Merah, who represented the $3,080.00 84.00 Chairperson of the Commission, Dr. $10.62 Nkosazana Zuma , at 0.01 the just concluded 52nd African Organisation $48.62 -0.12 for Standardisation’s, ARSO’s meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 42.06 0.19 said Africa was close to CURRENCY BUYING CENTRAL realising the lofty dream given the rate of DOLLAR 196 196.5 197 POUNDS 306.3088 307.0902 307.8716 collaboration and EURO 215.404 215.9535 216.503 cooperation among the FRANC 200.45 200.9613 201.4727 ARSO members.

YEN 1.5738 1.5778 1.5818 “We see a clear role CFA 0.3146 0.3246 0.3346 that standards can play WAUA 275.4151 275.1152 275.8152 RENMINBI 30.6447 30.7233 30.8019 in boosting intraRIYAL 52.2388 52.3721 52.5053 African trade, SDR 275.1056 275.8074 276.5092 promoting sustainable KRONA 29.1406 29.215 29.2893 agriculture and food security in Africa. By CBN Exchange Rate as at 18/ 08 /15 working together on

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— 21

standards, we will promote continental trade integration and facilitate access to African markets.

“I would like to recall the historic 2012 Summit Decision on Boosting Intra African Trade.

Our leaders, determined to trade Africa out of poverty and to chart a new forward for our future, adopted an Action Plan on Areas that must be addressed

The predicament of the region over the years has been the export of raw materials and poor quality food products which have indeed made Africa lie prostrate in international trade

if Africa is to trade more with itself. The Summit also agreed to establish a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) by an indicative date of 2017,” Mr. Merah said.

He decried that Intra-African trade currently at about five per cent drains the continent’s little external reserves to compound the poverty and dependence levels. With the AU Ministerial policy, however, intra-African trade will hit 10 per cent by 2017 and reach 20 per cent by 2020.

In particular, Africa is targeting her abundant foods and ensures that the continent feeds itself which has been difficult simply on account of ensuring quality standards.

Dr. Joseph Odumodu, President of the African Organisation for Standardisation (ARSO) and also the Director General, standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) said that the organization would ensure that there are value addition to most of the commodities the continent trade on.

According to him, the predicament of the region over the years has been the export

of raw materials and poor quality food products which have indeed made Africa lieing prostrate in international trade.

Odumodu emphasized that the AU Ministerial Council, declaration of 2017 as Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) as a programme was feasible.

He explained that ARSO was working round the clock to ensure that standards plays a role in bring the programme to reality.

Odumodu, the Chief of the umbrella body of African countries standards bodies, ARSO has declared that for the continent to meet the ever rising demand for food products, it must pay serious and urgent attention to adopting the effective use of standards to improve its agricultural sector.

“We see a clear role that standards can play in boosting intra-African trade, promoting sustainable agriculture and food security in Africa. By working together on standards, we will promote continental trade integration and facilitate access to African markets, she said.

22—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

,

Entrepreneurs are encouraged to set aside at least two or three full days for active customer solicitation

,

Start-up success tips for entrepreneurs E

ntrepreneurship, in any type of business endeavour, must start with the recognition that success comes to managers who leverage all resources around them extremely well. It is about manoeuvering something small into something greater.

And it’s about efficiency.

Practically speaking, your time should focus on activities that produce the greatest payoff in terms of new customers, revenues, and profitability.

While this is possible, it requires discipline and making the right connections.

So how should solo entrepreneurs make better, time-saving choices? Going out on your own should never

Founding entrepreneurs have to spend most of their time looking for customers mean going it alone. This is perhaps the most valuable advice that can be given to start-up entrepreneurs.

Microsoft Corporation lists four strategies to help solo entrepreneurs get the most out of each business-building day.

Networking It’s not uncommon for startup entrepreneurs, especially home-based entrepreneurs, to work reclusively in front of their computers. While comfortable, it’s not effective.

Solo entrepreneurs who create prosperous businesses understand that while they won’t have the best answer to every question, someone in their network of colleagues, former managers and mentors, contractors, friends and family will. This is how you can create a virtual (and non-paid) “staff ” of sales, strategic planning, marketing, and IT experts. Ask more experienced people: “What is the fastest, cheapest route from A to B?” If you want to cultivate a wider network, make a list of the areas of expertise that can best complement your business development initiatives. The next step is to call a friendly colleague or two for referrals.

It’s that simple. Of course, consider how you can return

the favour to people who offer their free assistance. Is there a contact or service that you can offer to help them?

Prioritise revenue generation Founding entrepreneurs have to spend most of their time looking for customers.

This doesn’t mean creating brochures and newsletters; it means getting on the phone and pursuing referrals.

When a young company is found in jeopardy, it is often found that the entrepreneur was working long hours.

To bring discipline to a work week, entrepreneurs are encouraged to set aside at least two or three full days (ideally, the same days each week) for active customer solicitation. Nothing else is more important. Opening mail, editing Web site copy, and all other administrative and marketing chores should take up no more than one business day ’s time.

Entrepreneurs should try to track the number of weekly customer solicitations they make. These entrepreneurs invariably find that increased weekly solicitation activity leads to increased new customer activity. Try it-it’s fun, and it works!

Manage overload wisely Once your operating priorities favour customer solicitation and revenue generation, there will be times when you will simply have too much work. This problem leads entrepreneurs to sometimes overreact and hire costly staff for customer service work, rather than outsource lower-paid administrative tasks. Even if the entrepreneur “doesn’t mind doing” invoicing, bill paying, market research, and so on, the business will benefit more when the founder is freed up to do activities focusing on customers and cash flow.

Find a motivating coach It’s true that many entrepreneurs start their businesses out of a desire to be their own boss. Yet it has been found to be worthwhile for solo entrepreneurs to identify someone to serve as a coach. Entrepreneurs should consider meeting with a coach - who could be a friend, respected business colleague or retired business executive - at least once a quarter.

BUSINESS NAIRA EXCHANGE RATES (19/08/15) Currency DOLLAR STERLING EURO FRANC YEN CFA WAUA RENMINBI RIYAL KRONA SDR

Buying(N)

Central(N)

Selling(N)

196

196.5

197

307.0732 216.4232 201.2114 1.5761 0.3113 273.6312 30.6433 52.2402 28.9902 274.0472

307.8566 216.9753 201.7247 1.5801 0.3213 274.3293 30.7219 52.3735 29.0642 274.7463

308.6399 217.5274 202.238 1.5841 0.3313 275.0273 30.8005 52.5067 29.1381 275.4454

Commod Light Crud

Natural G Sugar Coffee Cocoa

Why people in business fail financially

By Yinka Kolawole, with agency report

W

hy do people in business fail financially? Why do some people achieve financial independence and others don’t? What does it take to succeed financially?

These questions are what I hope to help you answer in this article. Financial success is not the exclusive right of some, but a dream achievable by all.

Tito Philips Jnr., entrepreneur and founder of DifferentiateOnline, identifies the following as some of the factors responsible for the financial failure of people.

Incorrect beliefs about money The first place wealth is created is in your mind.

Money is first created in your mind. There are basically

two beliefs about money positive and negative. Your belief about money is positive when you have an abundance mentality, that is, believing that there is enough prosperity for everyone on earth. You are not poor because there isn’t enough prosperity or wealth for everyone, but because you limit yourself mentally. Your belief about money is negative when you have a scarcity mentality, that is, when you believe there is not enough wealth for everyone. It is when you are always thinking of how you can’t afford something rather than focusing on how to get it.

Procrastination Money will not come to you on a platter of gold. You have to cultivate the discipline of execution. This is the ability to get stuffs done when they should be done. It is the ability to take action to make your financial goals a reality. Many people fail financially because of their poor work habits.

Procrastination is the habit of pushing important work forward with the mind of getting it done tomorrow.

What you must remember is this; today was tomorrow yesterday and tomorrow will soon be another today. What does this tell you? All you’ve got is now, not tomorrow, so your job is to make the most of it.

Failure to establish financial goals Not having financial goals is one of the factors keeping many poor. How can you expect to grow your income if you don’t have a precise figure in mind? Just confessing that you need more money is not enough, you must be as specific as possible with a particular figure or amount in mind.

Why is this so? The human mind only works with what it has been fed. The more specific the data you feed it through your thoughts and

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 — 23

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& YOU

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Gas

Change ($) -0.37

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words, the more focused it becomes. The less specific the data you feed it, the more confused it becomes. Goals are how you help your mind to become laser focused. It is how you gain clarity which is a necessary requirement for action.

Those who set financial goals with clear deadlines and clear figures often end up having their goals achieved. If you don’t know where you are going, how do you get there?

Financial goals give your financial life a direction.

Failure to develop savings habit All that you earn is not meant for consumption. The classic book by George S. Clason, The richest man in Babylon, puts it this way: pay yourself first. A lean purse will attract no coin (money), but a fat purse will attract more coins (money). Money saved is seed you plant in order to reap more in the future.

Without cultivating a consistent saving habit, you will not have excess money to invest (plant) and when you don’t sow, how then do you reap?

Financial illiteracy/ ignorance Lack of money is caused by poor understanding of money.

Making money is a skill and just like every other skill, it can be learned. Learning how to make money is the essence

You are not poor because there isn't enough wealth for everyone

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Status quo: An organisation's worst internal enemy

COMMODITIES (19/08/15) Last 42.25

No organisation can afford to continue doing things in the old way...unless they are ready to go out of business

of financial intelligence. It is the conscious effort to develop your understanding of how money comes and how money is retained.

The less you know about money, the less of it you stand to make. The rich make it a priority to master money skills such as financial goal setting, budgetting, saving, investing, leverage and giving. They keep on sharpening these skills of making, managing and multiplying money.

So the big question for you is this; how much do you know about money? The more you know, the more you improve your odds of financial success.

Fear and emotional ties with money The subject of money is a very emotional one. Very few people are comfortable talking about money. Many would rather go about their lives without having to confront the issue of money.

If you feel this way about money, it is normal. The fear associated with money is a valid one. Your brain is simply informing you about the dangers associated with lack of money.

What is not normal however, is failure to heed this warning signal. The fear and emotional ties with money is not to be dreaded, it is to be refocused into a positive emotion that will inspire you to take necessary actions.

The fear of money is not meant to paralyse you, but to inspire you. Let the fear push you forward to eliminate the fear through financial independence. Financial freedom is how you put an end to the fear and emotional ties you have with money.

When you don’t have to worry about money because you generate enough to meet your living expenses, the fear of money is dead.

By ‘Uju Onwuzulike “Any business today that embraces the status quo as an operating principle is going to be on a death march”…Howard Schultz

I

t took me a very long time to get some young students to accept that their worst enemies in life are themselves. Instructively, I said to them, ten years from today, those that will succeed will be those that have first and foremost conquered themselves (their highest enemy), and will not abandon their future successes to fate.

In today’s world, it is not only young students (who perhaps do not understand fully what life is all about) that should be exposed to knowing who their worst enemies are; organisations too, should also be guided to know their worst enemies – especially from within.

What do you think robs organisations the most from delivering their desired results? As a leader or manager reading this insight, kindly ask the people in your organisation this question.

When you do, things like: competitors, unfavourable government policies, economic hardship, unconducive business environment and a whole bunch of reasons will surface.

Over the years, I have heard countless of reasons as answers to the above question.

To the consternation of people I have met professionally, I have made them to know that the reasons given above are common to every organisation in the world and therefore could not be the major enemy within – that robs them of their growth.

One overlooked enemy robbing organisations of its successes, initiatives and growth comes from within, and that is the “Status Quo”.

This Status quo mentality is manifested on daily basis by organisations and that is why you hear them saying things like: this is the way we have always done it, this is the way our former CEO or manager usually does it, this is the way

BY ‘UJU ONWUZULIKE

Status quo mentality is manifested on daily basis by organisations

we have always reviewed our strategy, this is the way we have always attended to the customers, this is what we have done in the last ten years etc. Would you believe that a company lost a major share of business because an inexperienced new hire’s suggestion was rebuffed with “what do you think you know?” answer. Off course the new hire answered with “I am sorry Sir” out of fear.

When regulatory bodies come up with new policies, definitely, it is going to affect all the players in that industry.

The compensating factor is that no one in that industry will be singled out, so no preferential treatment. But the real challenge does not come from let say an unfavourable regulatory or government policy; it comes from when organisations are still stuck with the status quo regardless of the imminent change or danger knocking at the door.

The best of strategies, change and re-engineering efforts can be reduced to a mere “more of the same” if the drivers of the change are stuck with the status quo.

We are often quick to say that, insanity is when one is doing the same thing the same way for years and expects a different result.

Unfortunately, and how sad it

is for people to see new ways of doing things (suggested by others) to mean challenging their authority, experience and personality. As a consultant, I am quick to tell such people that, they are not competing against themselves internally but rather they are competing with the outside players in their given industry. Whether we like it or not, no organisation can afford to continue doing things in the old way in order to preserve one’s ego, personality or authority unless they are ready to go out of business.

I have been asked severally when facilitating strategic thinking retreats, why “status quo” should be tagged as the problem in an organisation when the actual problem is “low customer patronage”. I would provide the answer now even for those that have not asked. You will agree with me that sometimes ago, your customer growth strategy or marketing strategy has worked in the time past, and probably delivered the numbers to you. Today, a lot of things have changed, a lot of disruptions, a lot innovations, and uncertainties, but still nothing has happened or changed in the strategy documents that have worked in the time past.

Your organisation is still stuck with the status quo, and miraculously believing that the customer numbers will grow over night. So the simple solution should be to change (the status quo) that has not worked today, and develop new ways of winning and keeping them – because others too are doing same.

Final note: Having being involved in various leading change programs for institutions, I have realised that some organisations do not know the root causes of what have been pulling them back from achieving their goals. They focus more on symptoms or signs and then proffer solutions that will not be holistic in addressing the hidden causes of the problems. Then the problems continue or become worst.

Great institutions and organisations use a different approach. They try to understand the root causes of issues before proffering solutions.

C M Y K

24 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Sterling Bank launches MSME Academy

By Jonah Nwokpoku

S

INTERACTIVE: From left, Chief Executive Officer, Sofunix Investment and Communications, Mr. Sola Oni; Chief Executive Officer, Anabel Group, Dr. Nicholas Okoye; and Communications and Public Relations Manager, Anabel Group, Mrs. Chika Nnodu, during Anabel’s interactive press session, in Lagos.

New payment technology’ll shape Africa’s financial future — Rahavendra

By Richard Udofia

V

ICE President, Sales, DHL Express, Sub Saharan Africa, Mr. Sumesh Rahavendra has said that innovations in electronic payment technology will shape Africa’s financial future especially as most financial services providers move from the traditional ‘swipe card’ form of retail banking to chip and pin.

Rahavendra stated this recently at the unveiling of the company’s new chip and pin device in Cape Town, South Africa.

Rahavendra said that in addition to mobile money solutions, most African countries have made concerted effort to improve their transactional security by moving from the traditional ‘swipe card’ form of retail banking to chip and pin.

He claimed that the financial industry is rapidly evolving as a result of advancement in technology fueling innovation and growth in the sector.

The elms man claimed that while develop countries can boast of maturity in the financial sector, it is less saturated in Africa, thereby offering many opportunities for new market entrants to challenge the status

While most international banks are moving towards ecommerce, a number of local banks still share information and conduct business with hard copy documentation

quo of how businesses can traditionally be conducted.

The burgeoning middle class and abundance of SMEs in Africa present great opportunities for financial service companies to provide retail banking services to individuals, as well as trade finances to SMEs, Rahavendra noted.

The vice president claimed that SMEs remain the engine for growth in Africa and lack of access to finance often hinder their development. With one of the

fastest growing middle classes in the world, there is a wave of consumerism for all types of goods and services such as FMCG, electronics and pharmaceuticals.

“While most international banks are moving towards e-commerce, a number of local banks still share information and conduct business with hard copy documentation. The local retail banking sector is increasingly making use of new technology such as ‘Mobile Money’ platforms. Consumers have started to move away from physical cards, instead relying on their mobile phones to conduct day-to-day banking transactions” he added.

Entrepreneurs lack bankable project skills – Anabel boss

By Peter Egwuatu

A

nabel Group’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Nicholas Okoye has lamented that many entrepreneurs in Nigeria lack bankable projects, skills and proper orientation to attract banks to finance their businesses.

He stated that financing is not the major obstacle to entrepreneurs, stressing that knowledge and passion for the job are necessary as banks are ready to finance any bankable project that are profitable.

According to him “We have partnered with Diamond Bank Plc to train people on skill acquisition and we can assist entrepreneurs to get finance from banks by educating them on how to package their projects.”

He stated that millions of companies had collapsed due to the owner ’s lack of entrepreneurial skill saying government at all tiers should review the status of Ministry of Labour and create Ministry of Employment and Entrepreneurship in order to

address the issues of skills, exposure, sources of finance etc. for our entrepreneurs.

According to him “This will bring the challenges and way forward for our entrepreneurs.

He, therefore, advocated investment in people as against over emphasis on infrastructural development. Besides, Okoye has advised the corporate Chief Executives to place premium on entrepreneurship development of their staff in order to equip them with the right skill for enhanced productivity.

Speaking at press interactive session , Okoye lamented the quantum leap in the youth unemployment and the extent to which many Nigerians depend entirely on the government to provide everything. But, Okoye who spoke extensively on the strategy for entrepreneurship development explained that there should be a deliberate and consistent policy to expose our youths to entrepreneurial training while the older people should be equally trained and supported. “Our National Development Strategy Services should be people-oriented. It is good to invest in infrastructural development but it is better to invest in the people who will drive the infrastructure. There is no country that has made progress without development of its people. Our youths have formed an army of unemployed.

terling Bank Plc has introduced the Sterling MSME (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise) Academy as part of its value-added offering for its SUPA Business Account holders.

The academy which will commence with a pilot session in Lagos is a result of the Bank’s partnership with BusinessDay. This is in furtherance of the Bank’s commitment to enriching lives by focusing on the unique needs of its entrepreneurial customers; and giving teeth to private sector involvement in the development of small businesses and the Nigerian economy at large.

According to the Bank’s Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Shina Atilola, “The Sterling MSME Academy is aimed at capacity building for existing and emerging micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to enable them build viable businesses and position them to access funds for expansion. MSMEs would also enjoy access to relevant and reliable business intelligence and information that would help them to navigate the challenging operating environment.”

The Academy is to be facilitated by IFC/EDC (International Finance Corporation and Enterprise Development Centre) certified and seasoned MSME trainers and will run from September 23rd to October 14th. Registration however commences on Monday, August 17th, 2015 and is to last for 3 weeks.

Heritage Bank bags ISO certification

By Princewill Ekwujuru

H

eritage Bank has achieved an ISO/INEC 27001:2013 certification in recognition of its commitment to effective and secured financial system.

With this, the bank has also set a record as the only bank in Nigeria to get certification in less than three years of operation.

It has, by this certification, joined the league of other players in the industry, including the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN which are ISO/ INEC 27001 compliant.

The award was presented on behalf of the British government, to the bank in Lagos by the Deputy High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr. Ray Kyles.

Kyles commended the bank for setting high standard in the financial industry and pledged the continued support of the British government for Nigeria’s financial institutions. “It is not an easy task. This award remains a cornerstone of your reputation,” he said.

While receiving the award, the Managing Director of the bank, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, noted that banking is a business of risks management, from assets to data, adding that it is fundamental that whatever a customer keeps in a bank is in safe custody. “This is a day to beat our chest. Heritage Bank is an idea, not a bank. We are a service company providing banking service; and we are the best in the class of security of our information systems. It means funds kept with us are safe. This award is a validation of our mission to promote high ethical standards, integrity, and good business practices,” he said.

Sekibo stated that innovation is inevitable for the banking industry. This, he said, is due to changing dynamics across the globe which has penetrated banking. He therefore, reiterated the commitment of his bank to introducing more innovative banking products and services to meet the needs of its customers.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 —25

By Dayo Adesulu

T

HE Unveiling Africa in partnership with The Education Partnership Centre (TEP Centre) has called on the Federal Ministry of Education to include indigenous knowledge/ history of Nigeria in the curriculum.

This was as it also urged the government to seek for equitable engagement and inclusion of marginalised members of society into the school system.

Speaking at a summit titled: Advocacy for Inclusive Education Summit held at Oxbridge Tutorial College, Ikeja, Lagos, the Founder/Executive Director, Unveiling Africa, Dr. Chizoba Imoka said: “History of the Nigerian society must be restored to Nigerian education curriculum.”

Imoka who lamented the removal of history from the curriculum, noted that exclusion of history from curriculum will wipe out the knowledge of Nigerian history from the younger generation.

National curriculum ADIES is an organization of committed people who are interested in making the Nigerian education system more inclusive.

In response to the removal of History from the national curriculum and the absence of indigenous cultures and languages in the schooling experiences of young Nigerians, Unveiling Africa (UVA) in partnership with The Education Partnership Centre convened a cross section of education stakeholders ranging from policy makers, parents, teachers, civil society members, media and students on August 15, 2015 at the Inclusive Education Summit.

Featured panellists include Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo,

SUMMIT: From left, Representative of Lagos State Ministry of Education, Dr. Olufunke Oyetola of Curriculum Development Services; Executive Director, Sickle Cell Advocacy and Management Initiative, Ms Toyin Adesola; Director, Redmedia Africa, Mr. Debola Williams; Founder/CEO, Unveiling Africa, Ms. Chizoba Imoka; legal practitioner, Falana & Falana Chambers, Omolara Oriye and CEO, Leading Learning Ltd, Mrs. Folasade Adefisayo, during the maiden edition of Culture and History Advocacy for Inclusive Education Summit (AIES) 2015 by UVA/TEP Centre, in Lagos.

ADIES calls for restoration of History to curriculum Leading Learning Ltd; Dr. Oyetola, Lagos State Ministry of Education; Mr. Adebola Williams, Red Media Africa; Mr. Okechukwu Ofili; Ms. Lara Oriye, Falana & Falana Chambers, Mrs. Iyabo Awokoya, Sage Consults; Ms Amanda Kirby Okoye, Joliba amongst other.

The summit was centred on schooling and learning experiences of young Nigerians who had participated in the recently completed UVA’s 2015 Days of Change Leadership Program. Although most of the students in attendance were from private and federal schools, students discussed how they were not taught in school or socialized at home to understand and uphold the value of their culture and history. The few

JAMB in a jam PG. 27 PUBLIC LECTURE:

Derby berates elite for Africa's bastardized identity PG. 28 C M Y K

Youths also have a role to play in ensuring they know their history

students who were knowledgeable about their culture attributed that to their parents at home.

Mrs. Adefisayo, a featured panellist as well as audience member re-affirmed the concerns of students and stressed the need for parents to play an active role

in immersing their children in their culture by speaking to them in their indigenous languages at home.

Youths also have a role to play in ensuring they know their history, says Mr. Adebola Williams. He encouraged students to be intellectually

curious about their surrounding, origin and raise questions, as well as read by themselves.

Policy makers on the other hand can contribute to this cause by making history compulsory for every student and ensuring that

Continues on Page 26

Educationist advocates practical Geology training in varsities

T

By Dayo Adesulu

HE Managing Director and CEO of Ehimade Nigeria Ltd, Dr. LambertAikhionbare has stressed the importance of practical training in the field of geology in Nigerian universities.

Ehimade is an organisation established for the purpose of training and retraining lecturers and students of geosciences in Nigerian universities.

The company which started its training programme in 2007 is sponsored by Esso Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (EEPNL), an affiliate of ExxonMobil. EEPNL has so far spent about N2 billion on the University Partnering Programme (UPP) while about 14 universities have so far benefited from the programme.

UPP was initiated to help the ailing educational system; specifically to provide a boost to Geosciences education in Nigeria. It is aimed at funding geological field programmes in selected Nigerian universities as a means of enhancing the quality of locally-trained geosciences graduates. In addition, it seeks to improve the skills of those making and

interpreting maps and also contribute to the production of high quality geological maps in the country.

In a meeting with Heads of Geology Departments of some select universities in Benin, Dr Lambert-Aikhionbare said while donating microscopes and Sieve Shakers/Sieves to some beneficiary universities on behalf of EEPNL, urged them to make sure they put the equipment into good use.

He expressed gratitude to EEPNL for their unwavering support of the UPP programme so far but lamented the quality of Geology graduates and lecturers in Nigerian universities, stating that in the past, Geology graduates were only trained for about 6-9 months to become independent contributors but now, it takes about 36 to 46 months for graduates to get on their feet in Geology.

“The reason Esso agreed to sponsor the UPP programme is that they know that like other multinationals, they are the end users of the products, so Esso wants to reduce the number of months needed to train graduates so that we can have the quality students we used to have in the past.” Dr.Lambert-Aikhionbare stated further that Continues on Page 26

26— Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Educationist advocates practical Geology training in varsities

DONATION: From left: Dr Lambert-Aikhionbare, MD/CEO, Ehimade Nigeria Ltd; Prof. Cornelius Nwajide, Consulting Geologist, Geoscan Technical Services Limited, Prof. Edafetano Ashano, HoD, Department of Geology, University of Jos and Titilope Alimi, Operations Manager, Ehimade Nigeria Ltd, during the University Partnership Programme(UPP) meeting with HoDs of universities and donation of Geology equipment, in Benin City, Edo State.

ADIES calls for restoration of History to curriculum Continues from page 25 it is taught in a practical way.

Dr. Oyetola from the Lagos State Ministry of Education passionately spoke about the effort Lagos State has made to make history compulsory for all students in Lagos.

How History is taught and who becomes the author of the historical content are important considerations that Ms. Amada Okolie and Mrs. Iyabo Awokoya spoke eloquently about. Mrs Awokoya pointed out that popular Nigerian history books are authored by non Nigerians thus skewing the story for the purpose of the author.

Consequently, Nigerian children end up internalizing that they have no history and were “discovered” by the Europeans.

Worse still, children are estranged from their culture because they have been exposed to only the bad side of their culture via Nigerian movies as well as societal and parent stories about witchcraft. Parents refusing to take their children to the village or talking down on their ancestors, family members and indigenous religions doesn’t help matters. Ms. Okolie argued that youths and adults must learn to respect and honour their heritage.

challenges.

However, to stem the downward trend, the summit has recommended that the Ministry of Education to make History compulsory for every secondary school student regardless of his or her area of specialization; Arts, Science, Commercial or Technical stream. The Summit urged that History should be taught from the primary school level and sustained for every student through out his or her secondary school years. It explained that History should be taught in a relatable, practical and personal way.

For example, the first day of Days of Change 2015 required its participants to learn about their pre-colonial history by creating their family tree from three generations. This involved youth talking to their parents about their experiences growing up and the kind of life their great grand parents lived. On the second day, students learnt about Nigerian politicians involved in the independence movement by creating a time line of two of their favourite politicians. This approach to teaching history is

Culture and history Beyond culture and history, Mr. Okechukwu Ofili argued for the need to make the education system more student-centered, focused on learning than passing exams. For a start, the number of exams students must write before gaining admission needs to be reduced.

Meanwhile, Ms. Toyin Adesola, an advocate for Nigerians Living with Disability talked about the inaccessibility of schools for students living with disability and lack of capacity amongst teachers to support students living with these

In bringing history back into the school system the summit stressed that schools system's focus should be on assessing learning as opposed to passing examinations

in contrast to the popular rote method of teaching.

In bringing history back into the schooling system, the summit stressed that the focus should be on assessing learning as opposed to passing examinations, stressing that aptitude in history should not be graded for a score.

“Student welfare and wellbeing should be upheldexperience; female students complained about being pressurized by male professors to sleep with them in exchange for good grades. At exam centres, youth are also pressured to pay examiners a fee to ensure they “pass.”

Independent organisations Youths need an independent organization where they can route these complaints to without fear of reprimand. ‘’Everyone at the summit agreed that the issues in the education system are a mere reflection of the challenges facing the society at large.

For example, as a nation we have systematically shied away from discussing the Biafran war amongst many other important historical events. Even though there are 250 ethnic groups, only three are foregrounded nationally and in schools. As a result, students from the nonWazobia groups feel excluded in schools (especially in Lagos).

Students in states like Anambra are taught in English even during their primary school years. To prevent the death of our languages, a language policy in education is required. The organizers of the summit are committed to taking action in at least two ways. Firstly, engaging policy makers and curriculum developers at the National Education Research Council.

Secondly, synthesizing lessons learnt from Days of Change as it relates to immersing students in their history and organizing teacher training.’’

Continues from Page 25 for an individual to do well in the field of geology, one must be passionate and selfless and must not focus on the reward but rather, on the impact and general contribution to the growth of geology and quality of graduates of the profession.

In his goodwill message, Prof.

Cornelius Nwajide, Consulting Geologist and CEO of Geoscan Technical Services Ltd said the best geologist is known during practicals and the more practicals he embarks on, the better he becomes. “Field work teaches you even as a teacher and your responsibility is to mentor other lecturers as a participant of the train-the-trainer, produce quality maps, quality students as a payback to Esso and Dr Lambert-Aikhionbare who have done a lot in terms of training and mentorship in the field of geology in Nigeria.”

Prof. Edafetano Ashano, Head of Department of Geology, University of Jos stated on behalf of the beneficiary universities that the donations will be put into

good use and promised that Esso and Ehimade Nigeria Ltd will not be disappointed. He thanked the organisation for its constant contribution to the field of geology in Nigeria. Ashano also urged other people in the field to pass the knowledge they have to others and provide platform for mentorship so that individuals do not die with the knowledge they have acquired.

Representative of Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun and the Head of Earth Science Department, Dr Omoh Omo-Irabor said the donation has further lifted the practical ability of the institution and promised that the equipment will be put into good use.

The beneficiary universities are University of Ilorin, University of Jos, Federal University of Technology, Akure, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effrun and Akwa Ibom State University. Fifty-four Petrographic microscopes and 6 sieve shakers/sieves valued at N35 million were donated during the ceremony.

MCIU announces 2015 Scholarship scheme for undergraduates

BY GLORY EKWENUYA

T

HE Delta State-based Michael and Cecilia Ibru University (MCIU) has announced a scholarship scheme for aspiring students wishing to obtain undergraduate qualifications in its Faculty of Management and Social Sciences and that of Faculty of Natural and Applied Sciences in the 2015 /2016 academic year.

A statement by the Registrar of the university, Andrew Johnson Okwudei said: “There are a total of 150 scholarships and bursaries available and every successful applicant can

receive up to N1 million towards his or her tuition fees at MCIU for the duration of the recipient’s undergraduate study.”

The MCIU scholarships are part of the new MCIU Scholars Scholarship programmes that will directly benefit students entering undergraduate programmes in 2015/2016.

They are made up of a series of opportunities such as part tuition fees, bursaries, merit scholarship and sponsorships by individuals and corporate entities.

Interested candidates are advised to visit their website www.mciu.edu.ng for details.

Group set to empower young women

By Amaka Abayomi

I

N its quest to support and reposition young women for growth,theWomenEmpowerment and Enlightenment Campaign, WEEC, is organising a creative essaycompetitionaimedatbridging theinequalitygapbetweenmenand women.

Tittled ‘How Can Men Contribute To Women’s Development In Our Society’, the online essay competition is open to young women between 18 to 25 years who are to submit their entries between August 10th to 31st.

Speaking to journalists on the essence of the competition, the Head Coordinator, WEEC, Mr. KayoseOdukoya,said,itisWEEC’s littlewayofcontributingtoeducating young women that would take over from the older generation.

He said: “This competition is a platform created to help develop growing ladies with the aim of catching them young. This is very important because our society is a male-dominated one but if the men take time to help mentor women, it would go a long way in reducing poverty.

“With this competition, we intend to communicate relevant patterns of maltreatment of women and the need to put an end to them, and to change the perception of women empowerment from a predominantly feminist movement to a necessary part of societal development that involves men.

“The essay, which should not be more than 500 words, would be judged on creativity, style of writing and winners would be awarded scholarships and start-off capitals for graduates and undergraduates respectively.

C M Y K

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 —27

JAMB in a jam "If you work with glue, sooner or later you are bound to get stuck.”

Leo Tolstoy, 1828-1910.

(VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS).

“Just scrap JAMB”, PUNCH editorial, August 5, 2015.

institutions – not just universities.

Unitary Schools were once centres of excellence in secondary school education.

Pupils from those secondary schools, who were mostly admitted on merit, scored 270 or more in the JAMB examinations in the 1970s to 1980s. Any FTER almost six years of candidate scoring under 200 in operating the Structural JAMB from those schools was Adjustment Programme, SAP, considered unfit for university without achieving the success education. The decline in the promised at the start, President quality of education in general, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, and the Unity Schools in asked in exasperation. “Why is it that particular, has resulted in a economic principles and situation in which Unity Schools programmes which work elsewhere pupils are among those seeking don’t work in Nigeria?” Writing at admission to universities after the time on Mondays, the MARKET scoring 180. The current FACT series, I replied IBB that controversy over whether “neither economic principles and applicants who scored 180 are programmes nor any others will admissible is nothing more than work in Nigeria as long as we have a dispute over whether dullards the NIGERIAN FACTOR to contend are fit for enrollment in with. At the time the Nigerian factor universities. was defined as adopting successful Unfortunately, the inexorable programmes from other nations and decline in university education deliberately bastardizing them in in Nigeria started years ago.

Nigeria for political, ethnic, religious From the US we borrowed a and personal largely merit-based reasons. JAMB, system. Bringing it to The current whose framework Nigeria, we was borrowed from controversy over bastardized it by the United States’ whether applicants imposing on the Scholastic Aptitude admission process Test, SAT, managed who scored 180 issues such as ethnicity by an outfit in New are admissible is (Federal Character), Jersey, USA, for the nothing more than states (contiguous admission of states), catchments’ a dispute over i n t e n d i n g areas, educationally university/college whether dullards disadvantaged states, students into are fit for State House List, A m e r i c a n enrolment in NASS List, faculty List universities, is a etc. In short we clear example of universities introduced all sorts of how the NIGERIAN criteria for admission which FACTOR can ruin a programme defeated the goal of excellence in which had been successful university education. Today, elsewhere in the world. From 1978 virtually everybody talks about till now, we had been playing with “half-baked” or “unemployable” glue. Now we are stuck. graduates. It has never occurred However, while Nigeria’s Joint to us to conduct a study.

Admissions and Matriculation That study is crucial at this point Board, JAMB, which was in our history. Before proceeding established in 1978, under the further with the controversy about regime of Obasanjo, has at last whether the dullards who scored demonstrated all the weaknesses less than 200 are admissible, we involved in getting governments should find out the percentage of involved in matters, which those dullards turned out to be elsewhere, are largely settled by the university material. Given those I private sector. came across, they were often the same people who could not Nigerian present five credits, including factor English and Maths, at one examination. Most need two It has become a victim of the exams to fulfill the five credit NIGERIAN FACTOR since its requirement; and some up to creation in 1978. Instead of three exams. Dullards!! promoting excellence in university Thousands are admitted while education, JAMB had increasingly awaiting results which are seldom fostered mediocrity. Along the way, favourable. Dullards!!! Yet, the Federal Governments which absolute know-nothings about imposed JAMB on the nation forgot university expect Nigerian a lesson which computer education universities to admit these people taught the universe at its inception with little prospect of finishing – Garbage In Garbage Out, GIGO. their education. It will be Today, JAMB had become a system interesting if UNILAG and other for processing mediocrity for universities in Nigeria will publish admission into Nigerian the number of students they universities. admitted with less than 200 Kindly permit me to make a JAMB score who completed their digression to illustrate how GIGO programme or ended Second had permeated all of our tertiary Class Lower or higher.

A

LECTURE: From left; Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Ota, Ogun State, Prof. Charles Ayo; Professor Nana Fynnba Derby and representative of the Mandate Secretary, Living Faith Church Worldwide, Pastor Yemi Nathaniel who represented the Chancellor, Dr. David Oyedepo during the 42nd public lecture of the school.

UBEC lauds Lafarge Africa on literacy contest

By Dayo Adesulu

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HE Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC) has commended the partnership of Lafarge Africa and Ovie Brume Foundation in revamping the education sector through organising healthy competitions among students.

Thus, the State Universal Basic Education Boards (SUBEB) in all the states and regions have provided technical and advisory support for the organisation of the competition.

Speaking at the event, Mrs. Bolanle Ishola, Chief Academic Planning Officer, representing the Executive Secretary, UBEC, commended Lafarge Africa and Ovie Brume Foundation saying UBEC is pleased to identify with Lafarge Africa Plc on the programme.

According to her; “This literacy competition will energize and motivate the students, as well as help in the development of their intellectual and academic

pursuit. Based on this, the society will be better enhanced.

I implore other companies to emulate Lafarge Africa in their corporate social responsibility commitments.”

At the just-concluded North Central zone leg, the Kogi State team, HarunaAbudlraheem and Justina Daniel, emerged victorious for the grand finale with Kwara and Plateau states taking the second and third positions respectively.Enugu emerged the proud winner of the South-East regional leg which held last week. The winners were Stephen Ngwu and Chinyere Aguocha.

The 2015 edition of the literacy competition kicked off with the first regional phase in Port Harcourt (South-South) on the 29th of July with the host state’s team of Prince Mfon and Elizabeth Dibiah of State School II Alesa, Eleme emerging winners.

The regional competitions for the North-West (holding in Kano), North-East (Gombe) and South-West (Abeokuta, Ogun State) are to follow suit

before the grand finale in Lagos.

The competition is organised yearly to promote literacy skills in primary school pupils in the country and engage them in activities that will deepen their ability to read, write and spell correctly.

Speaking on the Literacy Education initiative, Group MD/CEO, Lafarge Africa, Peter Hoddinott said the company remains committed to promoting academic excellence among pupils in primary schools across the country and creating opportunities for them to sharpen their literacy skills and build their selfconfidence in line with its Corporate Social Responsibility.

The Lafarge literary competition, in partnership with Ovie Brume Literacy features Literacy tests to ascertain the reading and writing levels of all participating schools and Essay/Summary writing and

2 emerge national female mathematicians

By Tare Youdeowei

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HE National M a t h e m a t i c s Competition centre (NMC) successfully organised a first of its kind event, a day of 2000 medals which took place at the prestigious International Conference Centre Abuja recently. The activities for the day were the 2015 National Rubik’s Cube Championship Competition, the First National Olympiads Award for Secondary Schools and the Investiture of First Distinguished Fellow of NMC. The competition which aims to, among other things, encourage female students to study mathematics via solving the brain tasking Ruby Cube in 30 seconds was stiffly C M Y K

competed among the students who are best in their schools across the nation. Despite the stiff competition the duo of Goodness Udotong and Oluwafunmilayo Eluyera of krisbethel College emerged victorious against all odds.

They share their success story with Vanguard Learning on the th 12 Valedictory Service and Prize Giving Day of their school where Goodness graduated as the best graduating student and Funmi assumed the position of the school head girl.

Preparation: Udotong spoke of reading four hours a day; “preparing for the competition was stressful. I was done with WAEC so I had to shuffle between school and home. We were given a special book designated for the competition

from the maths centre to use to prepare. I spent four hours a day reading and sometimes I taught other students with me in the competition.” While Eluyera says doing the right thing at the right time is the way to go. “My time is segmented for chores, relaxing and reading. I always do the right thing at the right time, so it was easy for me to cope with preparing for the competition and my regular studies.”

Challenge: Goodness didn’t let peer pressure or being seen as a book worm get to her, she waded through it thus; “My parents were strict they supervised and still keep supervising me well. I barely entertained visitors to avoid distractions."

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 —28

SUCCESS RECIPE WITH

UDEME ARCHIBONG successrecipe2009@gmail.com www.worldlightbearersint.com 0803-509-5243

Understanding your greatest asset - Your mind (3)

T GRADUATION: From left; Mrs Nwankwo Ikweuto, Chairperson P.T.A; Eniola Adigun, Special Guest and Mr John Ojiakor, Proprietor, at the 2015 graduation ceremony of Pupils Heights School, Yakoyo-Ojodu, Ogun State.

Blame elite for Africa's bastardized identity — DON

By Dayo Adesulu

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PROFESSOR of Sociology and Criminal Justice, Virginia State University in the US, Nana Fynnba Derby, PhD, has blamed the elite for Africa's denigrated image portrayed abroad.

Derby who delivered a lecture on, A De-constructionist Alternative in a PostDevelopment Africa at Covenant University's 42nd public lecture in Ota, Ogun State, slammed authors, the media and politicians for the continent's present bastardized identity in the world.

She said before the Americans and Europeans started addressing Africa as dark continent characterized by primeval irrationality, tribal anarchy, civil war, political instability, flagrant corruption, incompetent leadership and managerial ineptitude, African elite portrayed it to them in writing, words or behaviour.

According to her, when writers published their books, they give a picture of hungry, sick and diseased African people that are helpless.

Africa's image The Ghanaian professor who lamented that the academics that are supposed to correct the wrong perceptions about Africa, have also been influential in the perpetuation of negativities about Africa. According to her: “Titles of books aimed at enhancing their marketability are one way that authors influence Africa’s image. For the same reason, they may present arguments as well as overgeneralization that may not project any positive traits of the many cultures on this continent.

“Conscious efforts are made by authors to create and market an image of Africa that may be appealing to the West but not a true reflection of the African peoples. In a highly publicized text on how to write about Africa, Wainaina (1992) discouraged writers from making 'references to African writers or intellectuals, mention of school-going children

who are not suffering from yaws or Ebola fever or female genital mutilation or have a picture of a well-adjusted African as the book cover' or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize.”

In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country .... Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed. ... Among your characters, you must always include The Starving African, who wanders the refugee camp nearly naked, and waits for the benevolence of the West. Her children have flies on their eyelids and pot bellies, and her breasts are flat and empty. She must look utterly helpless. She can have no past, no history; such diversions ruin the dramatic moment. ... Also be sure to include a warm and motherly woman who has a rolling laugh and who is concerned for your well-being .... The biggest taboo in writing about Africa is to describe or show dead or suffering white people. . ..

Always end your book with Nelson Mandela saying something about rainbows or renaissances .... Because you

Conscious efforts are made by authors to create and market an image of Africa that may be appealing to the West but not a true reflection of the African peoples

care."

On the negative role of the media, Derby said: “The media in this context includes both electronic and print, and comprises radio, television, newspapers and magazines, and Internet- based news reports. I also classify movies, both African and non-African, under this section.

“For decades, the news coverage on Africa has been without depth but replete with images symbolizing the whole continent in terms of poverty, famine, wars and violence, laziness and diseases. We are the continent that, in the eyes of non- Africans, epitomizes primitivism, the AIDS epidemic and other deadly infectious diseases, greed, selfishness, poverty and corruption.

Poverty and corruption “If disasters occur, their reports create long- standing concepts about Africa.

Diseases and epidemics have remained a major part of our images. In the early 1980s, Ethiopia suffered famine, and charity organisations, particularly Live Aid, captured images of emaciated children with which they campaigned for support.

International nongovernmental organisations, an important player in the saviour movement, campaign and solicit funding in support of Africans.

Their advertisements, print and electronic, must be convincing enough to win the sympathy and compassion of potential donors. International NGOs claim, among others, that poverty affects all African children, and without their donations, such children go without food, health, education and clothing. Although probably well intentioned, their activities latently construct Africa as poor and helpless through images that are solid, harmful and lasting, at least in the minds of non-Africans.

vulnerable; we did not know how HE right use of the mind is to reject those negative the prelude to the right use suggestions and these were of life. Many people live surface impressed on our subconscious lives; they live from their mind forming our self concept conscious mind which is and beliefs through life. Write governed by the five physical down the suggestions that were senses, that is the sole reason made about your abilities and the failure domain of life is you; write down the verbal overcrowded. utterances you heard about Few people live deeper inner money; relationship with people; lives; they live from their marriage; work; and life itself. subconscious mind which Are they positive suggestions? Or perceives life by intuition and are they negative suggestions? instinct far beyond the If it is full with negativity then comprehension of the five you must get to unlearn, learn physical senses or the conscious and relearn by reconditioning mind that is the sole reason they your subconscious mind to work live higher quality lives and for you producing successful accomplish higher levels of results in your life if not the past success. conditioning can cause self To change the external sabotage leading you to the condition of your life you must failure domain of life. change the internal condition of The powerful tool of modeling your mind. However, what can be used for good or for ill. If created the internal condition of our parents or whoever raised us your mind? Why do you think the in our growing way you do? Why years had positive do you respond Whatever attitude habits; were great to different situation in you saw in your examples to us, certain ways? parents as regards then we grow into What has marriage, parenting, adulthood with a balanced and produced the finances, work, p o s i t i v e results you have experienced in habits, relationship p e r s o n a l i t y with people, has leading to great your life?

The theory of been impressed on outcome in our destinies. We tend the tabula rasa or your subconscious to take up the blank slate says that each person mind, unless you attitude of our or comes into the have deliberately parents world with no changed the pattern whoever raised us. That is the thoughts or ideas by reconditioning reason more often at all, and than not a child your mind to live everything a raised in an person thinks and better abusive or feels is learned from infancy dysfunctional home grows to onward. This presupposes that also have a dysfunctional home at birth your mind was a or goes into one abusive complete blank void of any relationship to another. High self thought, belief, idea, opinion and esteem parents tend to raise high attitude but as the days and years self esteem children. Whatever go by in the process of growth attitude you saw in your parents what you heard, saw and as regards marriage, parenting, experienced left an impression finances, work, habits, on the slate of your relationship with people has been subconscious mind producing impressed on your subconscious your beliefs, opinions, ideas, mind unless you have attitude and ultimately the deliberately changed the pattern results in every aspect of your by reconditioning your mind to life. Therefore, your early live better, this impression will be conditioning shaped the manifested in your life. condition of your life.

The experiences you had while From childhood whatever you growing up had been impressed heard spoken by those around on your subconscious mind. If you had been impressed in your you had experienced subconscious mind. Most of these unconditional love while growing suggestions or words were filled up then you will grow up with a with negativity. The majority of positive self esteem producing the people have been given positive results in life. However, negative suggestions such as: if you experienced conditional “You can’t”; you can’t trust a love, hatred, abuse, rejection, soul”; “You will not amount to intimidation etc you grow into anything”, It’s not what you know adulthood with low self esteem but who you know”; “You never and with personality dysfunction. do anything right”; “You are too This of course can be changed by slow”; “You are stupid”; “You will re-programming your mindfail” the list can be endless. training your mind to work for During childhood we were you.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—29

Research & Devt

By Ebele Orakpo

P

rofessor Danladi Slim Matawal is the Director-General/Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian Building and Road Research Institute (NBRRI) of the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology.

NBRRI is charged with improving the quality of life of Nigerians in the area of affordable housing and increased economic empowerment through integrated research and development, capacitybuilding and robust extension services. In this chat with Vanguard Learning in Abuja recently, the professor of Civil Engineering spoke on the strides made by the institute. Excerpts: Innovations: "We have innovations in buildings and roads as well as technology application projects where the applications of these innovations are demonstrated.

Water bitumen spraying machine: This is primarily designed for feeder roads and rural roads where you don’t need very heavy machinery.

Roller compactor: It is also an innovation of the NBRRI. It is an engineering vehicle used to compact soil, gravel, concrete, or asphalt in road construction and foundations.

NBRRI Pozzolana pilot project: Pozzolana is partial replacement of cement for affordable concrete production including affordable housing

We have made all our research findings available to industry – Matawal and we have successfully installed a pilot plant in Ota, Ogun State, which has already produced pozzolana.

We used clay which we passed through a processing line, including incineration, crushing, nodulisation, energy impactment as well as ballmilling and a bagging process.

What we have successfully done is to install a process that people can look up to for commercial application and we are in the process of applying some of the products in order to set up national specifications.

National specifications There are also the interlocking brick-making machines. We demonstrate our products in skills acquisition centres across Nigeria.

We have a laboratory that tests every material on soils, aggregates for construction, cement, bitumen and asphalt; any kind of test you want so the debate on cement will be a thing of the past. We are also into building of case studies for the benefit of Nigeria.

Building collapse: We have literally eliminated cases of building collapse in Nigeria except for few scattered cases which still occur but nowhere near the scale that was happening in the

•Double mould interlockingblockm a k i n g machine

•Water, bitumen-spraying machine

past.

Digitized soils map: Basically, we have been developing soils map by states and ultimately, we will combine them to provide soils atlas for Nigeria. The essence is to provide a guide for investors, planners, government, designers and construction companies so that they can have a prior knowledge of the geophysical conditions of any terrain they are going into. It does not replace the need for detailed investigation but you need to have an idea of the environment you are going into. We also have lots of publications. We deal in road safety, basically from the research viewpoint and we look at reasons why our roads collapse, we investigate roads and give technical reports and

What we have successfully done is to install a process that people can look up to for commercial application and we are in the process of applying some of the products in order to set up national specifications

•Prof. Danladi Matawal... we are encouraging industries to look at our innovations and commercialise them we have annual conference with international participation.

Working with industry: First of all, I want to say that we have made all our research findings available to industry and we are encouraging industries to come and look at our innovations and commercialise them, particularly in the build environment. We have worked with the Council for Regulation of Engineering. We are developing a concrete mix design manual for the country to end the controversy on cement. The tests for the development of the manual are being done in NBRRI and the University of Uyo.

Professional practice The two laboratories are used to support professional practice in the country.

Through our yearly international conference, we make available to industry our innovations and we also invite alternative opinions and come out with a consensus as to how to forge ahead in any area of need.

So like our pozzalana plant, our machines are all available for commercialisation in order to create jobs, industrialise, generate wealth and conserve foreign exchange.

Road and bridge collapse: Our bridges are designed for very high capacity but the problem is that the amount of load on our roads is higher than was designed. Our roads are designed for a maximum of 30 tons and vehicles as heavy as 20 tons ply them.

The issue of tankers parking on the roads and bridges is a regulatory thing, the Police, Road Safety etc., are supposed to organise proper parking of tankers and utilisation of our facilities.

Other innovations are: LowCost ceiling boards using molasses; design and construction of palm kernel shell grinding machine; design and fabrication of gear box for use for roller compactor production; fabrication of interlocking block-making machine with grooved moulds for conduit wiring (9" & 6"); design and fabrication of interlocking paving stones vibrating table using plastic moulds and more.

All these innovations are for commercialisation," he said.

30—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

As Buhari plans his cabinet (3) This is the concluding part of this article. The second part was published in the penultimate Wednesday’s edition of Vanguard Amaechi is perhaps the most intriguing character in our recent political history. From his highly competitive emergence as the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, his landmark victory at the Supreme Court, and subsequent eight years reign as one Ex Gov Amaechi and Gov Wike of Rivers State of the strongest governors in Nigeria, to his two terms victorious survival as the Chairman of Nigeria Governors

By Solomon Okocha Forum during the ‘16 is greater than 19' HE term Judas can be found in many saga, Amaechi is nothing short of a languages as a synonym for colossus. betrayer, and Judas has become the classic During his years as governor of Rivers exemplar of the back-stabber, in art and State, Amaechi became almost restless literature. about the condition of the masses. He The character ‘Judas’ plays a critical role embarked on numerous people oriented in virtually every work of fiction and and capital intensive projects, many of appears in most modern movies and which he completed before his exit from books. In order to fully comprehend how office. He also championed the course of the mind of Judas works, this writer takes Education, the UNEP Report, Treasury a brief slide in an amateur attempt at Single Account (TSA), Subsidy Probe, and drawing a correlation between former he ferociously fought against the ceding President Goodluck Jonathan, former of Rivers State Oil Wells to other States by Governor Rotimi Amaechi, and Governor Jonathan.

Nyesom Wike, and their impact in the The man Nyesom Wike represents Niger Delta Region, and Nigeria at large. different things to different sets of people Enter Jonathan: This former President in Nigeria. The more enlightened people is perhaps the luckiest politician in the see him as the Minister of Education who history of Nigeria. From his incidental presided over the ministry during a period emergence as the Governor of Bayelsa when students and lecturers roamed our State, to his ascension as Vice President, streets like touts for almost a year, simply and President of Nigeria, Goodluck Ebele because of his refusal to keep to Jonathan is an epitome of unmerited government’s agreement with lecturers. favour, and his story is best told in a movie or best seller. But the irony of it all is that Governorship like the colloquial ‘money miss road’ ambition cliché, Jonathan will score the The politically exposed see him as a man highest mark as whose governorship ambition cost him the that President who friendship of his political master and did little or nothing brother - Amaechi, and according to some for his motherland of his Rivers supporters, he is ‘the high - Bayelsa/Niger tension, meaning that he has the ability to Delta, all through ruthlessly clinch unto any political interest, his six years in the not minding the outcome. saddle of power.

Throughout his stay as Minister of From zero Education, Wike was of little or no Federal Projects advantage to the Niger Delta Region, allocation to Rivers rather his main focus was in the State, his refusal to entrenchment of a volatile group of young implement the people in the political system of Rivers UNEP Report, State, for the sole purpose of achieving non-completion of his unpopular Governorship ambition. The the second Niger only time that Wike mentioned the UNEP Bridge, to the Report was when he visited Ogoni land substandard during his campaign tour, sadly but , he Federal University made a mockery of the report when he of Otuoke, During his lied that it would be implemented in two amongst many weeks. You know the rest of the story. years as others. The only I have taken my time to highlight the difficulty I have in governor of advent and political growth, public view, expressly tagging and overall impact in Niger Delta and Rivers State, this one a Judas, Nigeria at large, of the above mentioned is my limited Amaechi characters in order to ascertain whose knowledge as to became participation in the politics of our country whether or not his has brought good tidings to us or not, and w a n t o n almost who sold us out because of politics. negligence of his restless Judas Iscariot’s betrayal of Jesus is a people was in subject of many shades, and it is impossible about the exchange for to explore all its angle in this simple silver or gold. condition of cogitation, but the point is this: there is Meet Amaechi: always a conspicuous Judas in every story. the masses Chibuike Rotimi •Okocha writes from Abuja, Nigeria.

Demystifying Judas: a hard look at Jonathan, Amaechi and Wike

By Obi Nwakanma

T

HERE is Dr. Alvan Azinna Ikoku III, who studied Medicine, and is an MD from the Harvard Medical School and also has a Ph.D in Comparative Literature from Columbia.

He is currently Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Stanford; Chinedu Echeruo, after Kings College, Lagos, studied Finance and Accounting at Syracuse, where his father, the famous scholar and poet, Professor MJC Echeruo had been a Professor.

He later earned the MBA from Harvard. Chinedu is a young entrepreneur whose Apps was reportedly bought for $1 billion dollars

by Apple. These are the future of Nigeria. There are such young men and women from across Nigeria and the Nigerian diaspora. President Buhari has

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President Muhammadu Buhari an abundance of such young and driven men and women – who would bring a new spirit; a new face of innovation to public service. The president’s search committee must get creative.

But it is also possible to appoint the right men and women, and still deliver duds at the end of his administration on account of a decayed and corrupt civil service. Corruption of the civil service is the fundamental cause of the massive corruption in the land, because without the collusion of the civil bureaucracy, there would not be massive looting of the resources of the nation.

The systems of control that disciplined punished and rewarded civil servants was strategically dismantled under the military administrations.

The accounting and classification systems that provided the internal regulatory The capacity of the service was president’s fundamentally most weakened. The internal reviews important capacity of the task must service did not develop.

The be to system of reorganize competitive remuneration and and rebonding that orient the made it possible for the old service Nigerian to recruit the best Civil candidates service coming out of our

school systems was destroyed.

Indeed, the problem of the civil service is quite simply linked to problems: first, the quota system that destroyed merit and seniority, and the experiments, starting from the middle of the 1980s, with Nigeria’s sudden emphasis on the private sector and the strategic diminution of the public sector.

With the decline in public sector growth, came the decline of public systems administration.

The private sector recruited the best and left the dregs for the public system, which for a time also made such recruitments not based on the highest standards following what used to be the Civil Service Examinations.

Effectively from 1984/85 employment into the public service was embargoed, and any recruitment that took place was by a system of nepotism.

For Nigeria to survive and thrive it must have a highly nationalist, properly oriented, merit-based civil service.

There are two institutions which nations, even the most insane protect even in their madness, and do not ever degrade: the civil service, and the universities. In Nigeria we did.

The current service is a great national disgrace. It is badly trained; it is badly equipped; and it is poorly oriented. Its intellectual base is weak. Recruitment to the service over the last three decades opened the service to the lowest ethical standards of all time, from the junior service to the administrative cadres.

The president’s most important task must be to reorganize and reorient the Nigerian Civil service.

He must clear the deck; reconstitute the Federal Civil Service Commission with only six commissioners, and restore the place of the Ministry of Labour & Establishment in the Cabinet.

Ministerial positions I have argued that Nigeria must cut down the number of Ministries, and from all indications, the president agrees on this need: I propose the following Ministerial positions: Education (to include culture, youth, and sports); the Attorney-General & Justice, Defence, Foreign Affairs, Health & Human Services, Trade & Industry (to include Technology); Labour & Establishment; Energy & Petroleum; Finance & The Treasury; Information & Research; Agriculture & Natural Resources (to include the Environment and Water Resources); Home Affairs, and Aviation & Space Development (to include Communications).

Because we have Permanent secretaries, there should be no ministers of state – it is a needless duplication of function. These are redundant positions in the presidential system of government. Rather, the President must create a presidential advisorate, in the place of junior ministerial positions, in the office of the president.

What the president needs is a tight, effective team, and therefore, he must have a highly capable Directing and Advisory staff in the Office of the President under a very effective Cabinet Secretary and Chief of Staff, preferably a highly experienced civil servant from the pool of his Permanent Under Secretaries.

The president must avoid duplication of functions and offices, which often leads to duplicity.

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—31

By Innocent Anaba

T

HE issue of extra judicial executions by the Nigerian police has, for quite some time, been on the front burner of national discourse and despite denials by the Police High Command the ugly trend has continued unabated with many public health institutions raising alarm over alleged harassment, intimidation, and highhandedness of police officers in their bid to off load the victims of their mass executions.

The Nigeria Police Force has a history of extrajudicial killing, which is a sort of leftover from the military era in the country.

In 2008, Amnesty International released a report titled, “Nigeria Police kill at will” which documented cases of torture and shooting of suspects in custody.

The organisation said the Nigeria Police is responsible for hundreds of unlawful killings every year, stressing that the Police do not only kill people by shooting them but torture them to death, often while they are in detention.

“The majority of the cases go uninvestigated and the police officers responsible go unpunished. The families of the victims usually get no justice or redress. Most never even found out what happened to their loved ones,” the report stated.

Extrajudicial killings “Extrajudicial killing in the police remains a shocking common occurrence,” Human Rights Watch researcher for Nigeria, Eric Guttschuss, was quoted in a BBC report in May 2009.

This assessment came four years after the June 7 and 8, 2005 cold-blooded murder of five male traders and a female student (Apo six) by the police in Abuja.

Prime suspect in the Apo six murder, Ibrahim Danjuma DCP, who was angered by the effrontery of Augusta Arebu (the female in Apo six) in refusing his love advances, waylaid the six at a police checkpoint on their way back from a night party and tagged them armed robbers, ordering policemen at the check point to shoot them. This happened shortly before arrival of the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions in Nigeria.

Eight years after this most infamous case of extrajudicial

Rights Commission probes dumping of corpses in hospitals by Police killing in Nigeria’s history, the criminal trial of the identified killer-police officers has gone nowhere. Families of the victims appear to have given up hope for justice, especially after the prime suspect was granted bail in 2006 by the trial judge, Justice Isyaku Bello on dubious health grounds.

Mr. Othman Abdulsalam, the then DPO of Garki police station, where they were killed, also escaped from police custody and has remained at large till date.

The report of the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial executions said: “If the Apo 6 were an isolated incident, it would be a tragedy and a case of a few bad apples within the police force.

Unfortunately, many of the ingredients, the false labelling of people as armed robbers, the shooting, the fraudulent placement of weapons, the attempted extortion of the victims’ families, the contempt for post mortem procedures, the falsified death certificates, and the flight of an accused senior police officer, are all too familiar occurrences.”

In February 2013, Network on Police Reform in Nigeria,

Can civil servants expose corruption without fearing persecution?

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Pg 33

NOPRIN expressed serious concern over the never-ending incidents of extrajudicial killings by law enforcement and security agents in Nigeria. NOPRIN condemned, in particular, the February 25, 2013 gruesome murder of two students and grievous injury on four students of Nassarawa State University allegedly by Nigerian soldiers and police. Owing to the buck passing between the police and the soldiers over who carried out the killing, NOPRIN called for a Judicial Panel of Inquiry to unravel those responsible so that they could be brought to account and the families of the victims adequately compensated.

bullets which tore his heart before exiting through the upper part of his chest.

Ideally, the DPO and other suspected accomplices should be subjected to orderly room trial, dismissed and arraigned in court for murder. Meanwhile, the Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr. Folunsho Adebanjo, is reported to have redeployed the DPO and her orderly, according to him, ‘to have a smooth investigation’.

Family members of the victim are suspicious of the motive of the police and are insisting, through their lawyers, that “the proper

The Edo killing On May 27, 2013 the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of Ogida Police Station in Edo State, Mrs. Carol Afegbai, and members of her patrol team allegedly shot a final year student of the University of Benin, Ibrahim Momodu.

Although the police in Edo command claim that late Momodu was killed while attempting to fire at them. However, a preliminary report from the pathologists who examined the remains of the deceased showed that he was shot from the back with three

Extrajudicial killing in the police remains a shocking common occurrence

procedure for murder case is for the police after investigation to charge the suspects to court and thereafter, the court would order the duplication of the file to be sent to the office of DPP and not the other way round.”

NHRC raises alarm over unclaimed corpses

This development has drawn the ire of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) which has raised alarm over the increasing cases of unclaimed corpses in the nation’s hospitals, noting that these corpses are victims of police extra judicial killings.

In a petition to NHRC, the Principal Medical Officer in Charge of the General Hospital Gboko, Benue Yio Josephine, accused the police of dumping victims of its judicial executions at the hospital’s morgue.

According to the petition dated June 1, 2015 Josephine alleged that, “following the recent killings in Benue State and in Gboko Local Government Area, police officers from zone A Division came and dumped 17 identified corpses in the hospital. They also threatened the medical officer on duty.

“The Hospital management told them (Police) that the hospital

Continues on page 32

32—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Rights Commission probes dumping of corpses in hospitals by Police Continues from page 31 only work with identified corpses and refused to receive the said corpses but they dumped them in front of the mortuary block and left. We wish to state that the hospital is not a cementary neither has it taken up the place of the social welfare department of the local government, the police should imbibe the due process in carrying out their duties,” Josephine said.

Another petition was also lodged at the Commission by the Civil Liberties Organization (CLO) in Enugu State which galvanized the Executive Secretary of NHRC, Prof. Bem Angwe, into action as he led a high powered delegation made up of Directors in the Commission to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital UNTH, Ituku Ozala, in the state, to see things for himself.

Angwe pointed out that the Commission has been receiving numerous petitions from hospitals across the country on the indiscriminate dumping of corpses by the police, in various hospital morgues.

Hospital morgues He said: “There are some Nigerians who have died and have remained unclaimed and are still in hospital morgues , so we are here to unravel the circumstances of their deaths and why they have remained unclaimed in hospital morgues.

We hope to recommend that government plays some roles in the disposal of these bodies.

Government must begin to respond to the challenges being faced by the citizens either by not being able to pay for the hospital bills and being abandoned to die, and when dead, are still left in the morgues.

Need for compulsory health insurance scheme: He noted that there is urgent need for a compulsory health insurance scheme in order to provide succour for Nigerians who cannot afford medical expenses.

“Even if these are armed robbers, there must be an inquest to show why such persons must

EDITORIAL TEAM Innocent Anaba ( Head) Wahab Abdulah Ikechukwu Nnochiri Dayo Benson (Supervising Editor) 08056180119

dayobenson@yahoo.com

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Prof Angwe being taken round the UNTH Morgue by Prof. Nzegwu be killed, as they are presumed innocent until convicted by a competent court. We had complaints that the police just come to hospitals, harass the staff and dump the bodies.

The Chief Medical Director of UNTH, Dr. Christopher Amah, while receiving the delegation, said “it is gratifying to note that the issue has drawn the attention of the Commission, the era where people are just killed indiscriminatingly is over.”

A Professor of Morbid Anatomy who is in charge of the hospital’s morgue, Prof. Martins Nzegwu, stated that the hospital had in its morgue a total of 97 shot robbers who were brought to the hospital, by the police, over a period of two years.

“We have no fifty bodies from the police, we are over congested.

Before we do the mass burial, the SSS comes to supervise. The bodies we have in our morgue are not less than two years old.

There is the need for the police to keep proper record of the persons shot by the police because, at times, they shoot innocent people and tag them as armed robbers. There is the need to have checks and balances in the police, Commission and hospitals.

97 corpses for mass: “At times, we have had to go to court to get injunctions from courts to give them decent burials. We have 97 corpses which we have slated for mass burial as we have to decongest. We have had to embalm the bodies with the hospital bearing the cost of N25,000 per body.

“We also have about 90 babies

who were abandoned by their parents because there is a practice of not taking dead bodies home. For those bodies to be identified, there is the need to do DNA typing which costs an average of $2,5000, so this has brought to the fore the need for an accurate data base in this country . There should be a central data system where the forensics of every Nigerian is stored,” Nzegwu added.

Speaking when he visited the State’s Commissioner of Police, Mohammed Adamu, in his office, Angwe stated that “we are over on an inquiry. The principal aim is to unravel the facts behind the alleged dumping of corpses at the UNTH Enugu to enable government put in policies that would stem the tide. The

There is urgent need for a compulsory health insurance scheme in order to provide succour for Nigerians who cannot afford medical expenses

Commission has received reports of the indiscriminate dumping of corpses of person who have had interaction with the police, people who were either extra-judicially executed.

Indiscriminate dumping of corpses in hospitals: “We have also received reports from hospital management boards across the country of harassment by the police and indiscriminate dumping of corpses in hospitals, some of these happenings the police high command may not be aware.

Hospital register We received the report from a group of lawyers on the dumping of over 50 bodies at the UNTH and I led an investigative team which showed that there are over 97 bodies have been deposited there over time, arising from encounters with the police, sometimes with armed robbers and kidnappers.

There are also over 70 bodies of babies who have been abandoned by their parents as the parents refused to take them home and give them decent burials. It is an issue that the Commission is taking seriously and would sensitize Nigerians.

Some of the bodies, according to the hospital register, are not properly identified by the police.

He further noted that, “We are not saying that these people may not be armed robbers but it is necessary to know if the police keep an appropriate record of the people and even that of police

officers who die in the course of duty. There is also the need to make it mandatory for these issues to be recorded to prevent the rampant cases of impunity and extra judicial killings as a result of some police officers not applying good judgment and have recklessly carried out killing of innocent citizens because where you have a proper data, you can easily go to the data and trace the persons.

The finger prints would also make it possible for identifying such persons who are killed and abandoned. I know that the police does not have a deliberate policy of extra judicial killings, so the inquiry will also help the police in keeping tabs on the activities of its officers.

Mass burial We would be requesting that the office here furnish us with a list of the bodies dumped and the officers who dumped these corpses for the police to investigate the incidents. It’s so bad that the UNTH had to go to court to get an order to conduct a mass burial and even went on to advertise the mass burial for the bodies.”

The Commissioner of Police Enugu State, Mohammed Adamu, while responding, said “We appreciate your visit which has shown us that you want to be fair. You are all aware of the roles of the police to protect lives and property and every police man is committed to that and no right thinking police man can go about committing crimes.

Like I tell my officers, if you protect a life you are doing the work of God. Under my watch, I would never support anybody to take the laws into his hands. Any case of human rights abuses that comes to my attention is investigated.

We saw in the newspapers the issue that you raised, the matter was investigated by the state CID and was also investigated by Abuja, concerning procedure in the police. Whenever there is an issue of dead bodies, the first people that are called is the Continues on page 33

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—33

NIALS enhances NDLEA lawyers prosecution, advocacy skills

By Dayo Benson

I

n a bid to win the battle against drug trafficking and related offences in the country, Nigerian Institute of Advanced Legal Studies NIALS, has organised a four- day training programme for 40 prosecutors of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA to enhance their prosecutorial and advocacy skills.

The training programme which began on Monday and ended today was a collaboration between the NIALS and the United Nations Office on Drugs and crime UNODC to fight illicit drug production, trafficking and use and in curbing related organised crime including counterfeit narcotics and psychotropic substances.

Speaking at the opening ceremony which took place at the University of Lagos campus of NIALS, the institute Director General Professor Adedeji Adekunle, noted that “a successful prosecutor is not measured by his high conviction rate, but rather by how he furthers the cause of justice.”

He added that “the skills of a prosecutor include apt balancing when it comes to the

use of prosecutorial discretion.

Prosecutors thus must be sensitive to the needs of the community they represent and consider independently the facts of each situation before deciding to pursue a case at all.

Prosecutors also have to be conversant with procedural rules and master the skills of written and oral advocacy. ” He stated that “the course organisers and sponsor identified that proper prosecution of drug related offences ensures that the rule of law is upheld, that justice is served and that individuals and communities are protected

If one drug baron is arrested, all the couriers are cut off but if you arrest one courier, there are still nine others working for the same baron

against the harmful consequences of drug trafficking.” He said.

In his keynote address, Mr Kelly Cavanaugh of the US state department of Justice stated that “there is a need for synergy between an investigator and a prosecutor in order to successfully prosecute drug offences cases.”

According to him “one of the best ways to deal with drug baron is to go after their assets and such assets must be linked with the illicit business, then you go after the big fish (barons) and their collaborators.”

“If one drug baron is arrested, all the couriers are cut off but if you arrest one courier, there are still nine others working for the same baron” he said.

Speaking on the nature of evidence required to secure prosecution of drug offenders, he explained that the prosecutor must convince the judge on the connection between circumstantial evidence such as frequency of phone calls to a particular person and the offence committed.

Cavanaugh who is also a prosecutor stated further that “surveillance of target is also important in investigation and the prosecutor needs to be aware of this. E.g a house and the number of people that visits and bank accounts of suspects etc.”

He urged participants at the training not to be discouraged by corruption within the system in their efforts to prosecute drug offenders saying that “corruption is an issue that has to be dealt with” adding that operatives should not allow that to deter them.

Rights Commission probes dumping of corpses Continues from page 32 police. When you get to a mortuary, there are records and procedures; all these deaths are incidented, so as you are going you will be able to go with records- officers go but records remain.

“This command, under my watch, will give you all the necessary support. We even investigate accidental deaths. We should use a criminal data base at the national level to keep track of criminals, I hope the Nigerian Police will get to that stage and every leadership of the police is conscious of that. We will avail you of our team and be rest assured that we will not cover anything, even if some of the officers have left on transfer, we would invite them.

In Benue State, Angwe and his team met with the Governor, Samuel Ortom and the Chief Judge of the state, Justice Iorhemen Hwande.

Governor Ortom pledged to work with the Commission to ensure that the rule of law is followed by security agencies and to end extra judicial executions by the police.

His words: “We will not tolerate extra judicial killings by the police or any other security agency as we are in democracy and every accused person must be taken to court for trial. I

commend the National Human Rights Commission for the wonderful work it has been doing. We will not encourage extra judicial execution under any guise and we are willing to work with the Commission to see that the rights of citizens are protected.

Justice Hwande, while receiving the delegation, acceded to the request of the Commission for the setting up of a coroner’s inquest into the cause of death of the identified corpses allegedly dumped by the police at the Gboko General Hospital over time.

Coroner's inquest It would be recalled that the Commission had requested the Chief Judge of Enugu State to convene a coroner’s inquest into the cause of death of one Chukwuma Ihezie who was allegedly extra-judicially killed by personnel of the state’s Special Anti-robbery Squad and 50 other corpses allegedly deposited by the police at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital (UNTH) Enugu.

The Commission had in 2014 received a complaint from the Enugu office of CLO alleging that the late Iheizie, a 30 year old male, was extra-judicially killed by one Mr. Bolu of the

Special Anti-robbery Squad of Enugu State Police Command.

In line with the Commission’s Standing Order and Rules of Procedure, the Commission undertook a preliminary investigation into the complaint and discovered additional human remains of about fifty men, with red marker on them, at the same mortuary where Ihezie’s body was deposited.

According to a statement by the Chief Press Officer in the Commission, Fatimah Agwai Mohammed, in the exercise of its statutory mandate, Prof.

Angwe has requested for the coroner ’s inquest into the alleged killings to enable the Commission determine whether or not a systemic case of extra-judicial execution has occurred in the circumstance.

Prof Angwe stated that extrajudicial execution is a violation of right to life contrary to Section 33 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, (as amended); Article 4, of the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights (ACHPR) and Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).

He further assured members of the public that the Commission will remain focused in its fight against impunity and will ensure that law enforcement agencies adhere to principle of accountability and best practices in the discharge of their duties.

Can civil servants expose corruption without fearing persecution?

By Femi Aborisade Continues from last week The Court then declared that: “… by virtue of the provisions of section 15(5) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), section 38(2)(b) of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004 and section 27(2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2011, it is contrary to public policy for the defendant or any of its agents to punish the claimant by way of suspension from duty or otherwise subject him to any disciplinary measure for making known to third parties information about corrupt practices and mismanagement of the funds of the Federal Polytechnic, Yaba otherwise known as Yaba College of technology.”

The suspension of Ibirogba from the office of Bursar was thus declared unlawful, null and void. The Court reinstated Ibirogba and declared that he is “entitled to return to his work as if he was never suspended with his right to salary, allowances and perquisites of office intact”. The College was subsequently ordered to pay, within 30 days of the Judgment, backlog of the full salary and allowances of Ibirogba from October 2013, the cost of the action estimated at N50,000 (fifty thousand Naira) as well as N250,000 (two hundred and fifty thousand Naira) general damages - for unfair labour practice, suspension being mala fide, vindictive, a clear case of victimization and unlawful.

In the expected fight against corruption, which perhaps was the principal reason for the overwhelming electoral victory of President Muhammadu Buhari, the NIC, by the Hon. Justice Kanyip’s Judgment in Ibirogba v. Yaba College of Technology, has declared it would be a reliable ally, at least from the point of view of encouraging and protecting the rights of whistle blowers.

Whistle blowers However, there is a need for legislative reform such that, among other things, the damages which a public institution has to pay to whistle blowers like Ibirogba should be borne personally, collectively and/or individually, by those who constitute the Management and/or Governing Council and who knowingly participated, aided, condoned or allowed the looting, dissipation, mismanagement and/or waste of public funds, rather than the monetary penalties being taken from public treasury.

The burning question is: would the ‘change’ governments of the APC under the leadership of the anti-corruption President Buhari (at the Federal Government level) establish the necessary conditions, including initiating required legislative reforms to partner with the courts, particularly the NIC, in the fight against corruption in public office?

Femi Aborisade.

Attorney-at-Law & Industrial Relations Consultant.

•Femi Aborisade

34—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Expert links kidney diseases to untreated infections, others

By Chioma Obinna

A

S incidences of kidney related diseases continued to rise in the country, an expert has linked the formation of the disease to untreated infectious, diabetes and hypertension, adding that early diagnosis and proper treatments of such conditions would prevent the disorder.

The expert further explained that drinking three or more litres of water every day will help prevent kidney stone.

The expert who spoke in Abuja during a five –day Boot camp organised

by Apollo Hospitals, India in collaboration with the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, maintained that to prevent kidney failure, there is a need for individuals to check the use of pain killers in an unregulated fashion.

In his lecture titled; “Current Practices in Prostate Diseases”, a Consultant Urologist, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, New Delhi, India, Dr. Narasimhan Subramanian, who described Urology as the branch of medicine which primarily deals with all urine, kidney and reproductive organs-related problems said there is need for early diagnosis and recognition of infections in the kidney as well as hypertension, diabetes and their associated conditions. “When you address all these, you will certainly

KIDNEYS: Water is one of the best free natural medicines that you can give your body. reduce the incidences of kidney related medical problems”.

“In the case of kidney diseases, you are talking about four common conditions; kidney stones, infections in the kidneys, kidney failures and cancers of the kidneys.”

He explained that to reduce chances of stone formation, individuals need to drink a lot of water, at least, three or more litres of water every day.

“Similarly, once you have formed the

stone, there are different types of stones which may require different dietary restrictions and some of them

Drinking three or more litres of water every day will help prevent kidney stone

may even require certain medications to reduce the formation of stones.

“The basic mechanisms by which stones are formed, there are salts that are present in the body and when the concentration of the salts becomes more in the kidney that is when stones are formed. So if you dilute these by forming more urine it gets washed off the system and reducing this stone formation,” he added.

On infections in the kidney, Subramanian said many of the urine infections do not necessarily affect the kidneys but if these infections are untreated or are associated with medical conditions which are not recognised, then they can affect the kidney. “Coming to the issue of kidney failure, what you would need is early diagnosis and recognition of infections in the kidney.”

Subramanian further explained that the boot camp which attracts Continuous Medical Education, CME, marks was to highlight segments of development in urology which would make patient care easier either in terms of diagnosing the condition early or introducing treatments which are less invasive with a view to reducing the pain and the duration of hospitalisation among others.

He stated that the new advances in terms of the blood tests and scans in the treatment of the condition have made diagnosis easier to understand and treat.

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H

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Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—35

Apply federal character in restructuring of NNPC, IYC tells FG

By Samuel Oyadongha

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ENAGOA—THE Ijaw Youth Council, IYC, worldwide has urged the Federal Government and the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, to apply the principle of federal character in downsizing and restructuring of the corporation.

It also faulted the December terminal date for the amnesty programme for Niger Delta exmilitants, describing the time line as not feasible, due to series of issues that had not been addressed.

President of IYC, Udengs Eradiri, at an interactive session with newsmen in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, said though the NNPC needed restructuring, the sacking of its senior staff from the Niger Delta without genuine reasons was unacceptable to the people of the region.

He said: “We are all aware that the sector needs to be restructured. The IYC supports fully the restructuring of the oil and gas sector particularly the NNPC in order for it to be more effective and create the necessary funds that will drive development in Nigeria.

“However, the recent downsizing is one that we have critically looked at and for us, we feel that with the downsizing, there is one thing that is paramount in Nigeria. Any time appointments are done, there is what we call federal character which ensures that every state is equally carried along in terms of appointment and in terms of

allocation of offices.

“But in the recent downsizing that took place, a lot of our people, especially from the Niger Delta region core oil producing states of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, have been sacked. In fact, most of them still have up to two years to retire and they have not been found wanting in any way, yet they were sacked without any

reason.

“Having looked at it, we feel we should draw the attention of the Federal Government to this and probably it was an oversight. We want the new Group Managing Director of the NNPC, being a good player in the sector, to look critically into the issues we have raised."

DECORATION: Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State (left), state Commissioner of Police, Mr. John Okafor (right), decorating the Principal Security Officer, PSO, to the Governor, Mr. Ebipamowei Okoyen, with his new rank of Chief Superintendent of Police, at Government House, Yenagoa.

OIL SPILLS: Bayelsa moves to enforce compliance

with cleanup standards

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By Emem Idio

ENAGOA—FOLLOWING the rampant oil spills recorded in the state, the Bayelsa State Government has restated its resolve to compel multinational oil companies operating in the state to adhere strictly to regulations guiding oil spill response, cleanup and management.

State Commissioner for Environment Mr. Iniruo Wills, who stated this in Yenagoa, said that the state government as the custodian and trustee of the people will not hesitate to take legal action against environmental violators, and expressed the state government's dissatisfaction with the level of compliance by the multinationals, lamenting that there has been a, “settled culture of corporate impunity in the state over the decades of oil explorations.”

Wills who was flanked by the Director and Deputy Director of Petroleum and Pollution Department of the Ministry, Engr Japheth Bank and A. Adire said, “In the light of the grave threats that daily oil pollution poses to the meaningful existence of our communities, the state government will explore the law within its widest ambit to enforce compliance with statutory standards.

“The promise we are making is that there must be a change, it

may take time but the process must start in a viable way. One option we are certainly going to explore is the corporate manslaughter, if a multinational conducts its operations in a recklessly negligent manner that it foreseeably leads to the death

of someone. This is an option under the law that has not been explore before now.

“In the light of the grave threats that daily oil pollution poses to the continued meaningful existence of communities in Bayelsa State, the state

government has issued procedures explicit in various environmental laws, standards and regulations governing the oil and gas industry in Nigeria, as one of immediate response to the heightening environmental disasters in the state,” he said.

Delta community threatens Chevron over implementation of electricity agreement

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ARRI—THE people of Kokodiagbene community, Warri South West Local Government Area, Delta State, have issued a two-week ultimatum to Chevron Nigeria Limited, to implement the agreements entered into with the community to provide it with electricity, otherwise the firm’s production will be disrupted.

Representatives of the youths, Mr. Opuama Akemebotu in a statement,

yesterday, said Kokodiagbene community was host to Chevron’s Otunana Flow Station which produces over 10,000 barrels of crude oil per day, adding that the community signed a pact with Chevron in 1998 to supply electricity to the community but till date, Chevron only gave them a generating plant 10 years after as a stop gap measure with promise to upgrade its gas facility at Otunana Flow Station to

accommodate the community as it did for communities hosting its Abiteye facility.

Akemebotu said: “As it is now, Chevron is yet to implement the 1998 MoU,” stressing that the community has been in total blackout as the generating plant has since packed up, while Chevron facility which is about two kilometers from the community is well taken care of with electricity."

Gov Emmanuel reiterates commitment administration. which he observed, has helped to youths devt hisThe governor at Government in maintaining educational

U

By Tom Moses

YO—GOVERNOR Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, has reiterated his commitment to the educational development of the youths so as to produce the required manpower to boost the industrialization programme of

House, Uyo, during a courtesy call on him by the management of the University of Uyo, led by its Vice-Chancellor, Professor Comfort Ekpo, acknowledged the contributions of the institution to the state’s development, including its superintending role in other educational institutions

standards.

He commended the institution for maintaining a sound academic record with its array of academia in various fields of training and called on the management to expedite action towards the development of the permanent site of the university.

TB Joshua donates N10m to IDPs in Abuja camp

A

By Festus Ahon

BUJA—PROPHET TB Joshua of the Synagogue Church of All Nations, has donated N10 million to Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, in Kuchingoro Camp, Abuja.

Joshua, who lamented the condition, in which Nigerians displaced by the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East region were living, called for more support to improve conditions in the camps.

Represented by Olorogun Talib Tebite, Joshua also promised the IDPs that the church will also provide a medical ambulance as well as other medications to boost health care delivery in the camp.

The prophet, who enjoined Nigerians to come to the aid of the displaced persons, noted that “As creations of God, we must learn to love our neighbours as ourselves by being our brothers keepers especially those in need. One way we must express our love for others is in giving.”

Youth leader backs Buhari on probe of past govts

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By Gabriel Enogholase

ENIN—NATIONAL youth leader of a social-political organisation, Riverine Peace Initiative, RPI, Toluwa Mulade has thrown his weight behind the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to probe the activities of past administrations in the country.

He also commended the setting up of the Prof. Itse Sagay, SAN, Committee on Corruption even as he condemned the ways and manner the treasury of the nation was looted by past governments.

He condemned the looting of the nation’s treasury by previous governments, who left nothing for the execution of projects that would have benefited the poor despite the abundant resources available in the country.

36—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Tribunal rejects Otti’s documents

Why Buhari should consider Jonathan’s confab reports —Prof Anya

By Anayo Okoli

...says corruption is a systemic challenge

U

MUAHIA—THE Abia State Governorship Election Petition tribunal sitting in Umuahia has rejected Form EC8A series for Ward Unit 001 tendered in respect of the governorship election in Isialangwa North Local Government Area, saying they were not duly certified.

The tribunal said that for documents to be admitted as evidence, they should be certified in compliance with Supreme Court prescription.

On the strength of this, Otti’s lawyer, Prof. Awa Kalu, SAN, made an application to the tribunal, praying it to order the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, lawyer in Abia State to come to the tribunal to recertify the documents.

The documents were said to be certified by the INEC lawyer without putting down his name.

Awa lamented that it took his client several efforts to obtain certified true copies, CTC, of election documents from the commission.

He said that it took the intervention of INEC’s lead counsel, Chief Solomon Awomolo, before some of the CTC were issued.

Ruling on the application, the tribunal chairman, Justice Usman Bwala ordered INEC in Umuahia to comply with the Supreme Court’s prescription on certification of election documents.

By Ikenna Asomba

P

RO-CHANCELLOR AND Chairman of Council, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Professor Anya O. Anya, has advised President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently consider the implementation of the report of the 2014 National Conference, which was convened by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Professor Anya made this appeal at the 2nd Memorial Lecture of the first Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, Akoka, Prof. Eni Njoku, organised by Ndigbo Lagos in collaboration with the Igbo Students Union, ISU, UNILAG chapter, at the Main

Auditorium of the university on Tuesday.

Delivering the lecture entitled, 'Nigeria and the Future: The Challenge of National Development and National Integration in the Age of Change Political Dynamics, Democratic Pluralism and Change in the Age of Transition,' Anya said the call became necessary as the outcome of the confab is a national agenda of fundamental importance to Nigeria’s future.

Anya, who chronicled the social, economic, cultural and political history of Nigeria, however, lamented that corruption, which is the major focus of the Buhari administration, is a systemic problem, noting that the Nigerian system induces corruption and

cannot be checked without restructuring.

Also pointing that Nigeria’s major challenges are national development and national integration, the President of Ndigbo Lagos, however, lamented that the nation currently lacks a pan-Nigerian leadership elite with a common vision, shared values and a generally accepted national agenda.

He said: “A broad-based leadership elite will include political leaders, thought leaders, intellectual leaders, business leaders, leaders in arts, journalism and traditional leaders. Such a leadership elite must have codified and accepted rules of conduct as well as engagement and agreed processes for recruitment into the

Labour threatens Energy Commission over alleged unfair practices

By Victor AhiumaYoung

A

SSOCIATION OF Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, has threatened to clamp down on the offices of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, ECN, across the country over alleged unfair labour practices and gross insensitivity to workers’ welfare.

In a statement issued in Lagos, ASCSN Secretary-General, Alade Bashir Lawal, claimed the antilabour disposition of the management of the ECN had reached a ridiculous level where the head of the agency now trampled on the rights of workers with impunity and dared them to do their worst.

The union expressed disdain that the management of the

Commission was now playing hide and seek on serious labour issues that if not urgently nipped in the bud could snowball into a serious industrial crisis.

According to the statement: “The scenario on ground now is that the Director-General of the Commission, Prof. Eli Bala, believes he is too big to hold meetings with the workers' representatives to discuss welfare issues affecting members.

"The general public will be amazed to know that the Energy Commission of Nigeria is now a theatre for all sorts of anti-labour practices. There are cases of directors in the Commission, who have been functioning in acting capacity for seven years without confirmation.

"Instead of confirming the appointments of these qualified

personnel, the management preferred to frustrate them out of service through intimidation and harassment. Union officials are not spared of the rod as they are posted out of the headquarters on flimsy excuses contrary to the provisions of International Labour Organisation, ILO, Conventions 87 and 98 on the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining.”

ASCSN alleged that the Commission had become notorious for blatant breach of procurement rules and procedures in all its business transactions and that would explain why it was failing woefully in discharging its primary and core responsibility of strategic planning and coordination of national policies in the energy sector.

leadership and conditions for exit.

“There is no serious nation that does not have such a leadership elite.

"Nigeria has paid a high price for the lack of such selfless and self-perpetuating leadership devoid of personal, sectional and sectarian considerations. It is such an elite that can always return us to the essence and being of the putative nation,” he said.

Anya, who said Jonathan’s confab was a near equivalent of the aborted Vision 2010 of former Head of State, Late Gen. Sani Abacha, affirmed that Nigerians are awaiting what President Buhari will do with the report.

Present at the occasion were former military governor of Imo and Lagos states, Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (retd); Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State, the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and Research), University of Lagos, Prof. Babajide Alo, who represented the Vice Chancellor, University of Lagos, Prof. Rahamon Bello; former UNILAG Vice Chancellor, Prof.

Ibidapo Obe, who represented former Interim President, Chief Ernest Shonekan; Prof. Eni Njoku (Jnr); former Minister of Finance, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu; President, Igbo Students Union, ISU, UNILAG, Okwudiri Ikwunemere, among others.

Earlier, in his opening remarks, Prof. Bello, who was represented

by Prof. Alo, commended the university’s Igbo Students Union, ISU, for honouring UNILAG’s first Vice Chancellor, Prof. Eni Njoku with the annual lecture series.

“Being our first Vice Chancellor, with all the impacts he made on the university and its immediate community, the management of UNILAG will do everything humanly possible to continue to honour him,” Prof. Bello said.

By Bartholomew Madukwe (08102479985) nwamad@yahoo.com

PEOPLE SPEAK

Should Buhari pr obe GEJ administration or no t? probe not?

I

personally believe that Buhari should investigate all the past administrations starting from 1999, for the betterment of all Nigerians. If he feels that he cannot investigate them, he should focus on making his government corrupt free. -Mr. Okoye Dominic, Self employed C M Y K

B

uhari has to put his administration in order.

If things are not right, the position of the electorate is to put things right so that we do not return to the dark past. Lost revenues should be recovered and utilized for rapid development. -Mr. Jones Abbey, Administrator

I

f Jonathan is corrupt, he should be probed and preceding governments before him also probed because they contributed immensely to our present problem. To limit it to Jonathan is to pretend that preceding governments to his were clean. -Miss Princess Eucharia, Artist

T

o admit that those preceding governments were not necessarily clean, but left unprobed is to send a signal of partiality to the populace; confirming the Ijaw group stance that Buhari is not fighting corruption, but political opponents. -Mr. Ismail Aremu, Worker

L

et us get the point clear: We want corrupt persons - PDP or APC, friend or foe, high or low probed, and our stolen monies recovered shoud be used for the growth of our economy. There should be no favouritism. -Mrs. Mgbemena Nnenna, Businesswoman

Y

es, but please it should not be Jonathan alone, but past governors and presidents. If he is looking for second term, he must recover our moneyanyhow, anytime and anywhere. -Miss Fortune Ajie, Model

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 — 37

Al-Makura won Nasarawa gov poll — PDP

FG plans 60,000 houses nationwide for Police

SCRIBE

By Aliyu Dangida

By Gbenga Oke

D

A

chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Nasarawa State, Alhaji Sidi Ndaji, yesterday stated that Governor Tanko Al-Makura won the April 11, 2015, elections overwhelmingly.

He also said challenging Al-Makura’s election at the tribunal would amount to waste of time and resources as it was clear that the All Progressives Congress, APC, won clearly in majority of the local government areas.

Speaking with journalists, Ndaji, who was Zonal Coordinating Secretary of the PDP in Southern senatorial district of the state during the last elections, said Al-Makura won his election free and fair.

He said: “We are baffled that the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, and its gubernatorial candidate, Mr. Labaran Maku, have gone to court to challenge the victory of the governor when it was obvious to observers and all citizens of the state that Governor Almakura won his election overwhelmingly.

“The PDP decided to respect the wishes and choice of the people because doing otherwise would amount to questioning the collective resolve of the people which is not only disrespectful but inimical to the growth of democracy in the state and Nigeria.”

PARLEY: President Muhammadu Buhari (middle) flanked to the left by the Perm Sec, Min of Communications Tech, Dr. Tunji Olaopa and Mrs. Nima Salman Manni, Director Policy Research and Statistics, and to the right by Prof. Umaru Dambatta, Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and Mr. Peter Jack, Director-General, National Information Technology Devt Agency (NITDA) when Buhari met with officials of the Ministry.

Wada declares for 2nd term Says I'm more experienced now

By Boluwaji Obahopo

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OKOJA—GOVERNOR Idris Wada of Kogi State has finally agreed and declared his ambition to contest for second term after several months of speculation and persuasion by party members.

Governor Wada, who gave the hint yesterday in his acceptance speech to the party stakeholders and Elders Advisory Council endorsement, said he had garnered enough experience to tackle the problem of the state and promised to consolidate on his first term achievement if elected.

He said: “The words of our elders are words of wisdom, but I have come to appreciate in the last few weeks that before elders speak, they must have employed experience, patience, candour and courage. ‘’This latest gesture from our

Flour Mills restructures, merges subsidiaries streamline operations, reduce

By Dave Osho

F

LOUR Mills of Nigeria Plc, has announced plans to conduct a restructuring by merging five of its subsidiaries with its holding company under a Scheme of External Restructuring.

Announcing the plan in Lagos, the Group Managing Director, Mr. Paul Miyonmide Gbededo, said the company had obtained the approval in-principle of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to merge five of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, Golden Noodles Nigeria Limited, Golden Transport Company Limited, FMN Cement Industries (Nigeria) Limited, New Horizon Flour Mills Limited and Qulivest Properties Limited with Flour Mills of Nigeria Plc. According to Mr. Gbededo, the principal reason for the restructuring is the need to C M Y K

administrative costs, improve operating efficiency and derive full benefits of synergy in line with the company’s long term strategic thrust.

“The enlarged FMN, upon completion of the restructuring would be able to eliminate transfer costs of materials and operate at a higher level of efficiency which will drive down costs, make product pricing more competitive, improve profitability and enhance the bottom line for the benefit of all stakeholders,” Gbededo said.

Also commenting on the project, the Company Secretary, Alhaji Olalekan Saliu, stated that the management of the various companies had jointly obtained an Order of the Federal High Court directing that court-ordered meetings of their respective shareholders be held on Wednesday, September 9, 2015 for the purpose of approving the restructuring.

leaders has added to the weight of responsibility that I shoulder.

My pledge and response is to surpass your expectations, God helping me.

“It is indeed gratifying that our noble party men, women and youths have provided me a good opportunity to run again, so that we can finish the race that we all started. ‘’The advantage in the philosophy of continuity is that

all these impactful projects highlighted above can add value to the lives of the people of our dear State if they are taken to a logical conclusion by our administration.

The benefit is for everyone irrespective of the political affiliation of any indigene of the state.

“Conversely, there is a great risk of losing invaluable investment of these projects if other people that are not part of the vision inherit them. No vision can be driven better than the visioner.”

UTSE—THE federal government will soon embark on construction of 60,000 houses for its junior cadre officers across the six geo political zones of the federation on owner occupier basis, Deputy Inspector General of Police, Mamman Tsafe, has said.

Tsafe, who stated this when he visited Jigawa State police command in Dutse, said the force headquarters under the present regime of its IGP, Solomon Arase, was committed to providing affordable accommodations to its junior cadre officers, saying the idea would enhance their livehood, especially after retirement.

“It is sad to hear and see a policeman after retirement still live in a rented houses,’’ he said.

DIG Tsafe stated that the police authority would use its mortgage and deploy the services of its technical experts to undertake the projects across the six geo political zones, adding that, apart from the proposed massive housing scheme, the force headquarters had equally intended to rehabilitate all the police barracks in dilapidated condition aimed to improve the shelter condition for officers.

ELECTION PETITIONS: Moro, Tsav warn Buhari against interference

By Peter Duru

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AKURDI—THE immediate past Minister of Interior, Abba Moro and former Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, have urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to interferie in the ongoing litigations in courts and tribunals across the country arising from the last general elections.

The duo, who spoke separately in Makurdi yesterday were reacting to recent reports that the President had set up a 10-man committee, headed by himself, to help salvage the electoral fortunes of the All Progressives Congress, APC, members, where their elections were threatened in the courts or the tribunals.

They both cautioned that any attempt by the APC to influence proceedings at the tribunals would, apart from heating up the polity, ridicule the country before the international community and also cast questions on the integrity of the anti- corruption stance of the President.

Moro said: “There is this fear really that Mr. President was likely going to use his position and good office to persuade the Tribunal to give judgement in favour of Governor Samuel Ortom in Benue State and in other parts of the country.

“That will be very very

unfortunate for obvious reasons; the President has come out very openly to say that he is going to be the President of all Nigerians and that he would fight corruption headlong, and all of us believe in him because of his antecedents.''

On his part, Tsav said: “If the

President wants to maintain his hard-earned reputation and high integrity, he should not interfere in what is happening at the Benue and other tribunals but rather allow justice take its course in the interest of our growing democracy.''

Benue inaugurates probe panels

By Innocent Anaba

G

OVERNOR Samuel Ortom of Benue State has inaugurated two commissions of inquiry into the receipt and utilization of funds by the immediate past administration as well as sale and lease of government assets.

Ortom, in a statement by his Special Assistant Media and ICT, Mr. Tahav Agerzua, said: “The commissions are not to witch-hunt anyone, rather to set the records straight.

“The commissions were necessitated by the desire of the

electorate to know why the state had come to its present situation.

We hold this mandate in trust for the people who desire to know what transpired before we came into office and why the state has been brought to the brink.

“We have already pledged to ensure compliance with the rule of law and due process in the conduct of government business and this will also apply to the work of the commissions. The governor, who stated that members of the committee were carefully selected based on merit, enjoined them to discharge their duties creditably with the fear of God.

FG names Alaafin Unimaid's Chancellor

By Ndahi Marama

M

AIDUGURI—VICEChancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Prof.

Ibrahim Njodi, has presented to Oba Lamidi Olayiwola

Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo, his appointment letter as the chancellor of the university.

He made the presentation to the Oba at the Oba’s palace when he paid him a courtesy call in Oyo State yesterday.

38—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

SEMINAR: From left—Dr AbdulHakeem Abdullateef, Lagos State Hamirl-Hajj; Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State; Dr. Yaqub Bashorun, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture; Mrs Ebunola Oladimeji, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs; Alhaji Bashir Braimah, Director, Home Affairs, and Alhaji Muneer Bankole, Managing Director, Medview Airline, during a one-day seminar for intending Hajj pilgrims in Lagos.

From left— Mr. Omatsola Barrow, Sales and Distribution Executive; Mr. Michael Ikpoki, Chief Executive Officer; Ms. Ugonwa Nwoye, Customer Relations Executive, and Mr. Richard Iweanoge, General Manager, Consumer Marketing, all of MTN, at the launch of androidone in partnership with Google, Tuesday. PHOTO: Kehinde Gbadamosi.

FUTA'S LECTURE: From left— Dr. Kolapo Olusola, Deputy Governor of Ekiti State; Professor Deji Ogunsemi and Professor Adebiyi Daramola, Vice Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, shortly after Ogunsemi, a professor of Quantity Survey, delivered FUTA's 71st inaugural lecture on Value for Money in Construction Projects: The Quantity Surveyor’s Quest, Tuesday.

ECOBANK DRAWS: From left— Funso Oyelohunnu, Head, Acquiring Cards and e-Banking Department, Ecobank Nigeria; Richard Bamgbose, first runner-up (Ecobank customer); Bode Oyegoke-Akande, Head, Card Business, Ecobank Nigeria; and Tunde Kuponiyi, Chairman, Committee of e-Banking Industry, during the presentation of cash reward to winners of the CBN E-Payment Incentive Scheme draws in Lagos.

DIAMOND BANK'S AWARD: From left— Alhaji Remi Bello, President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI; Professor Pat Utomi, special guest; Aishah Ahmad, Head, Retail Banking; Jude Anele, Regional Manager, Ikeja, Regional Businesses; and Chioma Ogwo, MSME Assets Manager, Direct Banking, all of Diamond Bank Plc, at the chamber's awards ceremony where Diamond Bank emerged Largest Lender to Small Businesses.

MTN/GOOGLE:

NBC MEETS PRESS:

From left— Mr. Akomen Omijeh, Communications Manager; Mr. Uzo Odenigbo, Head, Public Affairs and Communications, and Mr. Ekuma Eze, Public Affairs Manager, East/Central, all of Nigerian Bottling Company, NBC, Limited, during an interactive session with newsmen in Owerri, Imo State.

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EXCURSION: Mr. Leke Adeseri, South-West Editor (right); Mr. Charles Gerrard of Corporate Affairs (behind), both of Vanguard Newspapers, with the children of Chapel of His Presence, Ajao Estate, Lagos, and their leaders during an excursion to Vanguard in Lagos. PHOTO: Akeem Salau.

BAPTIST CONFERENCE: From left— Bishop Dr. Peter Olonade; Archbishop Professor Magnus Atilade, Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, South-West, and National President, Gospel Baptist Conference, Nigeria and Overseas; and Archbishop Ayo Ladigbolu, Archbishop Emeritus, Methodist Church Nigeria, at the 43rd annual session of Gospel Baptist Conference on Higher Ground, at Awe, Oyo State.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20 20,, 2015— 39

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40—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

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Arinze's Root of Change explores man's reactionary impact to life I

By Chris Onuoha

N what seems a chronicling of the subtleties and notions of change akin to man, an ongoing exhibition of drawings titled, “Root of Change” featuring 27 works by Ato Arinze was unveiled last week at the French Cultural Centre, on Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba.

The official opening of the exhibition, held at the Complex hall, Alliance Francaise was done in an unusual ‘walk in and get mesmerized’ format which entertained an awed and curious art lovers who could not conceal their fascinations at works on display.

On hand to informally declare the event open was the French Cultural Centre’s Director, Ibrahim Tchere and the Director, Alliance Française Christine Deuve and prominent guests on attendance are renowned artist, scholar Kolade Oshinowo, Dr. Peju Layiwola, Olu Ajayi, Duke Asidere, Segun Adejumo. Others include Oliver Enwonwu - President, Society of Nigerian Artist, Bisi Sylva, Jean Borgatti, Tobenna Okwuosa, George Edozien and many others.

Human interaction However, noticing that human’s quest for change has negotiated different paths, and that socially, human interaction and psychological reactions to social happenings effects upon daily lives, the sculptor, ceramist, Ato Arinze who’s quest to enlighten by distant observation of how people react to change posits in his drawings the consciousness and understanding of life and its dualities. With the constancy of change as truism, ‘Root of Change’ tends to underscore the spirituality and readiness to embrace the responsibilities and consequences of changehence, the conscious awareness of our identities and innate understanding of the primal goal in facing the revolutionary wind of change.

The surrealistic drawings done in pencil, charcoal on paper is Ato Arinze’s way of seeking the deepest impulse of man’s heart and mind to guide him to the life’s ever unfolding myriads of petals and thorns.

Some of the works on display are “The soul of 9ja Politics, Crucifixion before the alter of the inverted triangle, Power of desire, Portrait of the world, The rumoured death of a dictator, Return of the saints, Enjoyers,

Lesson of patience among others.

The monochrome depicts a powerful reflection of black as an agent of the spirit. According to the artist, “Truth is best represented in black and white”. With symbolisms and intense messages aimed at sparking and taunting the sub-consciousness mind, this collection of early and recent drawings of spiritual and mystified intone, veers from direct political, social and religious inclinations, but with symbolic droplets to challenge man’s knowledge of himself. And these includes the passages between life and death, lot of battles and victory tendered passions and unattended

With the constancy of change as truism, 'Root of Change' tends to underscore the spirituality and readiness to embrace the responsibilities and consequences of change

• One of the works by Ato Arinze erotic or perverse minded emotions, denials and direction. I use those mystic acceptances, with imageries like objects to represent an idea. snake, ladder, cross, snails and Some image represents death flowing rivers. like the vulture, ladder for Perhaps, the more intriguing is spiritual growth, serpent for ups the immense employ of explicit and downs of life while the imagery in all the works such as shadow represents the burden of the phallic, yoni, triangles and life. For the genitals and lactating other mystic icons that somewhat woman breast, they depict depicts the strength of the strength and procreation. In the message. The artist, who thinks work, I’m more concern about beyond ordinary, has this to say, how we misuse our sexual “I was not even thinking in any

energy. I guess that’s what inspires the phallic objects in my work. In art, you are supposed to look at the work of art and interact with the work. Let it speak and communicate to you.

What you get from it depends on the level of your perception of life.

But the overall intent is to awake the subconscious mind.”

NCAC@ 40 focuses on economic diversification—Dayo Keshi

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By Prisca Sam-Duru

T is our firm belief that the cultural sector which embodies both the cultural and creative industries has the potential not only to enhance Nigeria’s non-oil sector earnings but most importantly, ultimatey become a substitute for the oil sector as the nation’s top earner.”, This was the submission of Mrs Dayo Keshi, the Director General, National Council For Arts and Culture, during an interactive session with the media, last week.

Mrs Keshi, who is the first ever female Director General of National Council For Arts and Culture, NCAC, one of the oldest

cultural organs in Nigeria, is definitely to use her long time experience garnered for over 32 years in the culture ministry to remodel the Council into an economically viable body.

As the agency clocks 40, the organisation is rolling out drums to celebrate 40 years of its existence.. The anniversary celebration which takes the form of a cultural fiesta, for the DG, provides the council the opportunity to showcase to the continent as well as across the globe, its laudable achievements since inception.

It is also for her, a period to evaluate NCAC’s present

operations and opening new vistas of cultural development with the view to laying concrete foundations that will project the nation’s cultural industries and heritages as economic goldmine waiting to be explored.

Themed, ‘Showcasing the Inevitable Role of Culture in National Development and Economic Diversification’, the celebration is designed to showcase the economic value of the country’s cultural industries, redirect public and private investors’ attention to the vast economic opportunities in the sector, so as to serve as alternative revenue generation for the country due to dwindling oil price and also, bring Nigerians closer to their cultural essence.

Cultural essence

CBAAC DG, Ferdinand Anikwe, NCAC DG, Mrs Dayo Keshi at a recent meeting in Abuja

The diverse activities billed to take place from the 20th August 2015, include; Unveiling of the NCAC logo, AFAC Expo, Opening Ceremony (1st September, 2015), Schools Syllabus Production which will see student, work on The Trials Of Brother Jero By Professor Wole Soyinka; Round Table Forum, Children Cultural Fiesta,

International Cultural Variety Nite during which attendees at the festival will be treated to cuisine, poetry, drama, fashion parade, art and crafts exhibition etc. Considering the rich array of commemorative events that celebrate the best of culture, designed to re-lunch the Council to national consciousness and also, draw attention to the primacy deserved in the nation’s quest for economic diversification and social harmony as well as national unity and cohesion, one can comfortably say that the anniversary marks a turning point for the Council.

“I consider the platform of NCAC at 40 to mainstream my vision of raising the bar in the promotion of our cultural heritage.” the cultural industry is potentially poised to create the next economic boom since the discovery of oil and contribute very significantly to national income generation.”

To achieve the set goals, the DG called on Nigerians especially the investing public to join in celebrating NCAC’s four decades of cultural excellence, by identifying areas of economic interests within the council’s sphere of operations.

42—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

GE takes health, education project slums

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ORE than 500 children in Makoko community has received vaccination for typhoid fever, malaria test and treatment where needed as part of CSR initiative by General Electric’s Early Career Development Programme, ECDP, leaders.

The health and education project was carried out in partnership with Slum2School, a volunteer-driven organisation, which provides education and psycho-social support for disadvantaged children in slums and remote communities.

Sandra Nelson, a participant said: “We got in contact with Slum2School to see a way we can partner to reach the less-privileged.”

Nigeria spends N231bn importing petrol, rice, stockfish, palm oil in 3 months

By Omoh Gabriel, Business Editor

N

IGERIA spent N231.493 billion on importation of petrol, rice, wheat, stock fish, crude palm oil and frozen fish between April and June.

A report released yesterday by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that N140.52 billion was spent on the importation of petrol, while N25.37 billion was spent on importation of rice.

According to the statistics, wheat importation gulped N19.336 billion, while frozen cod or stock fish took N13.134 billion in the second quarter.

Nigeria, according to the report, spent N11.04 billion in the importation of palm oil.

Frozen Mackerel or fish cost the nation about N10.864 billion to import between April and June 2015.

It will be recalled that the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, banned some of these items from accessing foreign exchange from the Nigerian foreign exchange market.

The apex bank had said its

decision to bar 41 products from having access to the forex window was aimed at encouraging local production of products, where the country has comparative

advantage.

The bureau’s report also revealed that “the value of Nigeria’s imports stood at N1.4932 trillion during second quarter of the year,

a decrease of 13.6 percent from N1.7277 trillion recorded in the preceding quarter.

“Year-on-year analysis showed that import trade was lower by N484.0 billion or 24.5 percent.”

Freight forwarders urge FG to probe Customs, SON

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OME freight forwarders have urged President Muhammadu Buhari to spread his dragnet of anticorruption war to Nigeria Customs Service and Standard Organisation of Nigeria, SON, if he must cleanse the nation’s maritime sector.

The licensed customs agents alleged that the two government agencies were acting beyond their jurisdictions in the discharge of their defined duties.

According to the Managing Director of Zetus and Associates, Emmanuel Ezetu, customs officials are allegedly frustrating them from conducting their clearing and forwarding businesses without parting with financial

gratification, outside stipulated fees mandated by Federal Government.

Ezetu alleged that customs officials had made it near impossible for them to comply with government’s directives of 48 hours

clearing of goods at the ports, thus compounding traffic gridlock around the ports.

He said: “The traffic nightmare that Lagosians experience on Apara-Mile 2 Road is a direct offshoot of what Customs officials are causing.”

Church holds ordination service

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HE Holy Ghost Era Mission Inc. has announced preparedness of the Church to ordain over 30 priests and other categories of ministers to meet the Episcopal and spiritual needs of the church next Saturday.

Addressing newsmen at the Church headquarters at Enerhen, near Warri, Delta

State, Revd Peter Onovwede, General Overseer and Presiding Bishop of the Mission, disclosed that apart from the priests, others would be ordained deacons and deaconess, while some others would be commissioned as elders and evangelists to help meet the spiritual needs of members and for more aggressive evangelical missions.

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44 —Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Rep raises alarm over looming epidemic in FESTAC

By Emman Ovuakporie & Johnbosco Agbakwuru

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CONDOLENCE VISIT: Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State (right) and Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, shortly after Oshiomhole paid him a condolence visit at Government House Maidugiri over the death of the Deputy Governor of Borno State, Alhaji Zannah Umar Mustapha, yesterday.

BUJA—A member of the House of Representatives, Hon. Oghene Egoh has raised the alarm over the looming epidemic in FESTAC town in Lagos State due to deplorable condition and a near absence of critical infrastructure in the area.

Hon. Egoh who represents Amuwo Odofin Federal Constituency of Lagos called on the Federal Government to take

immediate action to arrest the situation in FESTAC town and Satellite towns to save the people from the impending epidemic.

It will be recalled that the House of Representatives had on Wednesday last week, passed a resolution for government to take immediate action following a motion moved by Hon. Egor to the effect that things in FESTAC town and its surrounding satellite towns had gone from bad to worse.

The House in the resolution called on the Federal Government to

direct the Federal Housing Authority, FHA, to as a matter of urgency commence immediate rehabilitation of FESTAC and satellite towns; also mandated the Committee on Housing and Habitat (when constituted) to liaise with the FHA to ensure compliance and report back to it.

Speaking in an interview with newsmen on the infrastructural motion which passed without debates based on the dictates of Order 8 Rule 51 (5) of the House standing rules, Egoh expressed the urgency of the situation faced by residents of FESTAC and its environs.

Abia devt not negotiable —ONYECHERE

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MUAHIA—A Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain and former special assistant to Dr. Alex Ekwueme has said that the reconstructive initiatives of Abia state Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu can neither be politicized nor dissuaded by politicians who are masquerading as opposition in Abia.

According to him, the unfolding developmental road map of the governor which is programmed fundamentally to uplift the living standards of the people as well as upgrading of social amenities are demonstrative of the governor ’s avowed proclamation of a people oriented policy thrust.

He said: “The determination by this administration to build on existing foundations is principally intended to fast forward the pace of development and therefore, can neither be sabotaged nor thwarted.

"It is for these reasons and more that the state was ignited with accolades and support for the governor when he recently reawarded the contract for the reconstruction of the thirty five kilometre-long UzuAbam-Arochuchukwu road which criss crosses Ndiochi and the Ndiokereke up to Arochukwu. The rebuilding of this road is of utmost importance because of its economic significance to the state."

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—45

How politicians destroyed refineries, by Ogbeifun, ex-PENGASSAN president •Wants TAM contract awards probed The four refineries in Nigeria have become an embarrassment and a shame to the nation especially since the advent of civil rule in 1999 as the country continues to import 100 percent of fuel consumption until few days despite being a leading oil producing country in the world.

By Victor Ahiuma-Young

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HILE Turn Around Main tenance, TAM, contracts were awarded and full money paid, the contracts were never executed.

A former President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, who was also a First Deputy President-General of Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and immediate past Employee Relations Manager of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Louis Brown Ogbeifun, has called for a probe into the award of TAM contracts from 1999 till date, saying Nigerians deserve to know the beneficiaries of TAM contracts.

Ogbeifun, who is incumbent President of the Institute of Mediators and Conciliators of Nigeria, IMCN, spoke at a farewell visit to Lagos National Secretariat of PENGASSAN, ahead of retirement from service.

Retirement from service Providing insight into why the refineries have been in coma, Dr. Ogbeifun explained that "refineries all over the world do not run on water. They run on crude, which has become a scarce commodity by virtue of the harsh operating environment in Nigeria.

The oil and gas policy somersaults by the Federal Government itself is a major hindrance to achieving optimal capacity utilization of the refineries.

"For most part of two years now, the Federal Government directed that crude should not be supplied to the refineries because of the hemorrhaging taking place due to massive pipeline vandalism and crude theft. These challenges should be properly addressed along whatever reforms we contemplate if local refining capacity must be restored.

"I make bold to say that for the first time in several decades, NNPC staff were allowed to be the ones to directly lead the TAM

Ex-President, PENGASSAN, Brown Ogbeifun (left, and President, PENGASSAN, Francis Johnson, during a farewell visit by Ogbeifun to PENGASSAN Secretariat in Lagos. projects and the PHRC and WRPC experience is amazingly rewarding. This is the way TAM was done when the refineries were working."

Countries that run own refineries: The labour leader noted that every oil dependent nation had a national oil company and Nigeria could not be an exception if it wanted to harness and optimize the benefits of an oil and gas nation.

He said "some would want Nigerians to believe that nations do not run oil and gas companies, several countries wholly own their oil and gas companies. Such companies wholly owned by their respective governments include the Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), a Malaysian oil and gas company. Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Aramco), which has its headquarters in Dhahran in Saudi Arabia and is also wholly owned by the Saudi government.

NOCs. Whereas, governments in all the wholly-owned companies in other climes allow the companies to run without interference by collecting taxes, royalties etc., successive governments in Nigeria determine otherwise. In the leading NOCs, the leadership structure outlives many a political leadership.

But what is the NNPC story?

Under President Jonathan alone, NNPC had five Group Managing Directors, GMDs, in less than five years. It also by extension had about ten GMDs in about a decade. One of the GMDs even spent about four days in office.

Even a primary school management cannot have such a high turnover nor do I know of any oil

Recruitment process

Oil and gas industry The Korea National Oil Corporation (KNOC) is another government-owned corporation. These entities have operations in all the value chain of the oil and gas industry around the globe. In Africa, Libya, Kenya and several others have functional national oil and gas companies or corporations and all are doing well. The question is why is the case of Nigeria different?

"The legal basis for the creation of NNPC from inception is at variance with any world class commercial orientation paradigm as in the case of the aforementioned

and gas company in the world with such unpalatable turnover and still working.

"Sadly, not many people know that some oil and gas projects of the NNPC got stuck for two years waiting for approval at the level of the Federal Executive Council. By the time the approval was given, some of those concepts would have been overtaken by technology, inflation would have led to cost variants and would need re-presentation and gradually fades off.

In addition, whereas many oil corporations can fire and hire the next day according to the needs and exigencies of operations, time was in NNPC when the government embargoed its recruitment process for almost a decade.

Under President Jonathan alone, NNPC had five Group Managing Directors, GMDs, in less than five years.

It also by extension had about ten GMDs in a decade

Recently, the organization has been battling government’s bureaucracies to replenish its identified skill gaps since 2012 to no avail. Which country runs its oil industry or its \national oil corporation like that?"

Labour not averse to privatisation: Ogbeifun said he was not "aware that oil and gas unions are averse to the privatization of refineries.

What they perpetually quarreled with is transferring government monopoly to a private monopoly of one or two persons. The fear of the unions against private monopolies is beginning to stare us in the face.

When marketers were not paid their subsidy claims by government, they, as employers also went on strike. Funny as it

looked, they did. They held the entire country hostage because of challenges with their banks, mounting interests, high importation costs, lack of trust in the outgoing government and possibly fear of the unknown in the new democratic dispensation. One could only imagine, what could possibly happen if they were also the owners of the refineries, pipelines and the NNPC mega stations.

"The stakeholders in 2004 agreed that there was the need to change the structure of the NNPC for effective governance.

In achieving this, they canvassed for the privatization of the refineries using the NLNG model.

Government at that time agreed to the proposal.

The question is, why did government renege on the agreement it reached with stakeholders on the privatization of the refineries using the NLNG model?

Unions preferred that model because despite the equity stake of Nigeria in the NLNG, the MD of NLNG cannot be removed by Mr. President of the Federal Republic. Mr. President cannot use his powers to force out any employee on NLNG management. The MD does not owe his allegiance to the President but to the stakeholders and therefore is able to plan and implement NLNG projects without hindrance.

Party patronage " When, after many years of delays, government decided to release funds to carry out the TAM, it determined the contractor that is often times based on party patronage, and government comes back to complain of sinking in so much money into TAM without results. Nigerians deserve to know who were the beneficiaries of TAM contracts from 1999 till date. Why has government not probed the TAM contracts awarded as canvassed by the national executive councils of PENGASSAN and NUPENG in 2004? Why did the National Assembly at that time also not conclude the probe of the TAM projects that they started?

"The TAM projects in PHRC and WRPC are succeeding because staff were involved in the TAM process. This is a sharp departure from the political TAM from 1999. This must be sustained while unions must play a frontal role in the issue of a genuine transformation in the life of our nation’s oil and gas industry, which is long overdue.

If the unions do not work early enough with the 8th Assembly to begin the process of the emplacement of laws that can protect oil and gas investments, the unions shall wake up one day only to find out that government would have totally destroyed the nation’s hydrocarbon sector the way it did to the rolling mills."

46 —Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

By Victor Ahiuma-Young & Henry Umoru

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BUJA—THE protracted crisis rocking the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, might have been resolved yesterday as a seven-man committee headed by the pioneer President of Congress, Comrade Hassan Sumonu, with the factions providing three members each, was set up to run an all inclusive administration.

Time to time meeting

To ensure total reconciliation, it was also agreed at the reconciliation meeting that the committee would meet from time to time to address issues raised by the two feuding factions.

Vanguard had exclusively reported yesterday about the renewed efforts by Governor Adams Oshiomhole, and other veterans labour leaders led by pioneer President of Congress, Alhaji Hassan Sumonu, to resolve the crisis.

Until yesterday’s meeting, Ayuba Wabba was leading a faction of NLC while Joe Ajaero was leading the other faction following disputed outcome of the March 12 conference.

Those who attended yesterday's reconciliation

SEMINAR: From left: Marketing Director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO Nigeria, Mr. Gupta Tarang, President, Nutrition Association of Nigeria, Prof. Ngozi Nnam, Senior Scientist, Global Nutrition Development, FrieslandCampina Innovation Centre, Dr. Anne Schaafsma, and Marketing Manager, IFT, FrieslandCampina WAMCO, Mrs. Zatur Hassim, at the 10th Nutrition Seminar of FrieslandCampina in Abuja, yesterday.

NLC ends crisis, gets 7-man c'ttee to run Congress We are one family —Oshiomhole meeting included nine from Ajaero group among whom were Ajaero and the faction’s two Deputy Presidents, Igwe Achese (President of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers,

NUPENG, and Issa Aremu (General Secretary of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria).

Wabba group had about seven including Wabba, Prince P e t e r s Adeyemi (General Secretary of N o n Academic Staff Union of Educational and Related Institutions, NASU, who is also a Deputy President ) and Lateef Oyelekan, President of the National Union of Food, Beverage and To b a c c o Employees, also a Vice President of the group).

Among the veterans at the meeting included Sumonu, Ali Ciroma, another former President of NLC, Sylvester Ejiofor, Ero Philip, and Steve Oshidipe (all former leaders of NLC).

Falana

Also in attendance were Mr. Femi Falana, SAN and Kayode Komolafe, who came to give solidarity.

Vanguard gathered that to ensure that the resolution reached trickles down to the states, a joint Central Working Committee, CWC, meeting is being planned by the group.

Oshiomhole speaks

Briefing on the outcome of the reconciliation meeting, Governor Adams Oshiohmole of Edo State who said the committee would look at all issues raised by both parties in the crisis, noted that the crisis had been resolved and all had agreed to work together because labour remained one family.

Flanked at the briefing by Comrade Wabba and Comrade Ajaero, Comrade Oshiomhole explained that the meeting had also directed that the matter before the National industrial Court, NIC, be withdrawn unconditionally because the Congress had the internal mechanisms to resolve its own crisis.

He said the groups had all resolved to work together and build peace within the labour movement as well as in the state councils of the congress, contending that those thinking that the NLC would break up had been disappointed by the outcome of the reconciliation.

According to Oshiomhole, each of the two factions would be represented by three persons including the NLC President who was elected at the Match Delegates conference in Abuja, Comrade Ayuba Wabba and Comrade Joseph Ajaero, who was elected by a faction of the Congress in Lagos.

Sumonu's committee

He said Comrade Sumonu’s Committee had the mandate of meeting regularly to iron out the issues in contention until they were fully resolved, to ensure that the NLC returned to its old self with unity and oneness restored.

The Edo State Governor noted that the major issues were not about positions since the two factions recognized the fact at a given period and time, only one person could be President of the congress.

Speaking further, Oshiomhole who explained that the reconciliation meeting looked at issues that came up and concluded that these were all family issues and in every family, it was not unusual to have some disagreement, said: “We all deeply regret all that has happened that led to the discordant voices that people were beginning to hear from among the leadership of the NLC. Having listened to all the parties, we all agreed that there is only one NLC and at any given time, only one person can lead and other will follow. But leadership and followers is not a relationship between a tenant and owner. Everybody is a member of the movement."

Labour leader, 10 others bag national productivity award

By Victor AhiumaYoung

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B U J A — PRESIDENT of the National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees, NUFBTE, Lateef Oyelekan, is among 11 individuals and two organizations to be conferred with the National Productivity Order of Merit, NPOM, award today in Abuja, by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Oyelekan will be receiving the award alongside Mrs. Uwemedimo Edet

Asomugha, Saleh Dunoma, Mr. Ajibola Olasehinde, Marcus Danladi, Mr. Ijomah Azubuike, Mr. Danladi Yahaya Isah, Comrade Lateef Idowu Oyelekan, Boboye Olayemi Oyeyemi, Mr. Anthony Chinwuba Ani, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, Dr. John Alfa, Lubcon Limited and Artee Group respectively.

Speaking ahead of the 15th edition of the ceremony organised by the Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Permanent

Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Clement Illoh said no nation could be self-reliant and competitive in the international market without productivity improvement in all sectors of the economy.

A statement by Samuel Olowookere, Deputy Director (Press) in the ministry, quoted Dr Illoh as saying “this government’s commitment to change cannot be over emphasized as it will improve the standard of living of Nigerians."

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 — 47

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48—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Can APC rule Imo for 24 years?

GOVERNOR Okorocha’s assertion that his party would rule his state for another 24 years draws commendation and criticism from across the divide. Is it a matter of hubris, horror or hope?

governance has been a subject of vague public interpretations.

In marshalling this argument, it was posited that the expression is capable of giving the APC a false sense of security and as well result in taking the electorate for granted.

However, the Publicity Secretary of the APC in Lagos State, Mr. Joe Igbokwe in a chat with Vanguard, downplayed whatever irritation Okorocha’s prediction may have caused.

According to him, the expression should not be seen in the light of the PDP scenario, adding that the party hinged its prognosis on performance.

"The message did not sound boastful. He said so with conviction that the party is going to achieve that with performance. It is not the way the PDP said it was going to rule for 60 years with nothing on ground to achieve that.

The PDP boasted that it was going to rule without taking responsibility of leadership.

The PDP’s statement was actually empty and signified nothing because they had no framework for leadership,” Igbokwe stated.

Further clarifying the significance of the phrase, he said: ‘’We are going to achieve ours with performance that will be matched with brutal efficiency.

Dividends of democracy

•Gov Okorocha: Says APC will rule Imo for 24 years

By Charles Kumolu

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HE declaration by Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State that his party, the All Progressives Party, APC, would have an unbroken 24-year reign in his state may sound hysteric, but it offers another window for some level of introspection in the polity.

Famed for making sensational political pronouncements, Okorocha had while hosting party chieftains in Owerri about a fortnight ago, boasted that APC would not only remain strong in the state but would be in power in the state for the next 24 years.

His assertion was a reminder

to the 2008 predicition of the erstwhile national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Chief Vincent Ogbulafor that his party would have a 60 year grip on the Federal Government.

“We assure you we will do our best, and like I always say, the challenge is ours, the time is now and the place is here.

PDP will rule Nigeria, whether they like it or not, for not less than 60 years,” Ogbulafor had said.

Expectedly, the comment immediately attracted criticisms especially from the opposition parties of that era.

Not deterred by that, the phrase later became a maxim for party members even in the last presidential election

campaign.

It is believed that the 60year prediction which the

Hinging his assertion on the notion that the longevity of any party, will only be determined by how well it can make real it’s electoral promises, Eke noted that Okorocha should not be taken serious

party had seen as a possible feat was one of the illusions that further increased the hubris that eventually led to the fall of the PDP in its 16th year of power at the federal level.

Divergent feelings Now that the expression has found its way back to the polity, there are divergent feelings over what it holds, considering the distraction a similar assertion had created in the past.

Apart from APC supporters, analysts think the affirmation is coming rather too early from a governor, whose party ’s direction of

Delivering the dividends of democracy will be our ultimate guide towards achieving that. That statement may have been made as a way of encouraging himself to perform and also assuring the people that with performance the APC will be in charge for a long time.”

Nonetheless, he expressed confidence that the prediction may come to pass if matched with performance. ‘’When APC says such a thing, it does not imply that the party is interested in perpetuating itself in power; however, the party wants the county to know that it is concerned about service delivery. We are not like PDP that boasted and did nothing.

It is certain that being in the saddle will easily be achievable through service delivery in accordance with the manifesto of our great part.

So, the statement is tied to performance,” Igbokwe added.

Continues on page 49

VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—49

Why APC can't be ashamed of Aregbesola — LAI MOHAMMED AGAINST the background of the stretching arrears of salaries owed public workers in Osun State, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the spokesman of the All Progressives Congress, APC , during an interactive session with the Editorial Board of Vanguard gave reasons why the state has found itself in dire straits asserting that the party cannot in any way be ashamed of the governor , Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, or his record of performance. Excerpts:

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

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SUN State is probably the most cosmopolitan state in the whole of Nigeria.

We are very proud of our governor, Rauf Aregbesola and we stand by him because he is one of the most proactive governors, he is one governor that has taken the reason for governance very seriously.

What happened in Osun

State is as follows: Up to 2013 December, the average that was distributed between the three tiers of the federation was about N800 billion a month but as of May last year, N338 billion was what was distributed, so what you have is that most states have suffered more than 50 per cent decline in revenue accruing to them from the federation account.

•Mohammed: Aregbesola embarked on a lot of pro people programmes Osun State is not just the most cosmopolitan, it has the highest number of cities in the whole of country, Ilesha, Oshogbo, Ikirun, Ife and many more. So, by the time this decline came, Aregbesola had embarked on a lot of pro people programmes that had to be sustained and maintained such as the one meal a day programme for school children, the O-YES programme that employed so many people and kept crime at the lowest level in the whole of the country.

He had embarked on social welfare for the very elderly, school expansion and because of the introduction of the one meal a day programme, school enrolment had exploded.

So, the fact that a state cannot pay salaries does not mean the governor has been guilty of embelzement or

So far, nobody has come out to accuse Aregbesola of misappropriation of funds or if even being insensitive to the plight of the people

•Aregbesola: Osun State governor

IMO: Crossfire over Okorocha’s 24-year APC hegemony Continues from page 48 On his part, the National Secretary of Inter-Party Advisory Council, IPAC, Dr. Sam Eke noted that the APC has nothing on ground to have warranted such prediction.

Hinging his assertion on the notion that the longevity of any party, will only be determined by how well it can make real it’s electoral promises, Eke noted that Okorocha should not be taken serious.

Eke, who was the presidential candidate of

Citizens Popular Party, CPP, in the last presidential poll, observed that rather than making such unrealistic assertions, APC leaders should be disturbed by the fact that Nigerians are yet to experience the promised wind of change. ‘’Okorocha should not be taken serious. Ogbulafor said so and the PDP failed.

However, the statement buttress the fact the APC was only united in sending the PDP out of power,’’ he said.

Accordingly, Eke added thus: ‘’Providing the dividends of democracy don’t

matter to them as is being seen in their inability to set the pace for the change they promised. Awolowo once said that once the political marriage between the North and West becomes solidified, such marriages will enjoy longevity.

Boastful statement That, we are yet to see, so why boasting that the party will rule for long.

"I find such boastful statement laughable because the APC has shown from what

is happening in the National Assembly that it lacks the fundamental cohesive attributes of a political party.

In Imo Okorocha does not even have influence over the state’s caucus to the NASS, so how did he come about such boastful prediction."

He however sounded cautious to the effect that: "The party should forget about empty prediction and concentrate on providing the functions of government, because such predictions are not often made in the interest of the common man."

misappropriation of funds, after all, there are some states that take derivation from oil that are still owing.

I will be ashamed of the governor if for instance I know for a fact that he took the money belonging to the state, misappropriated it or spent it unwisely or embezzeled. So far, nobody has come out to accuse Aregbesola of misappropriation of funds or if even being insensitive to the plight of the people.

But if a man was taking about N3.6 billion a month but the last time he took I think he got about N400 million.

Abandoning of projects When he came in, he also inherited a lot of debts for which banks were also deducting, so, there is no way that we in APC can be ashamed of him because we know what is happening.

What of Oyo State?

It is what is happening in Osun State that is happening in Oyo State also. It is either you say I am going to retrench and send people packing or I am going to abandon my projects.

If you had like Oyo been taking more than N4.2 billion and now they are taking less than N2 billion, how are you going to make up for the shortfall and these are states where internally generated revenue are almost non existence.

Well, I am happy that the Federal Government has come out now with a bailout package for all the states.

50 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

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VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—51

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52—VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

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VANGUARD, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015—53

54—Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Enyimba topple Sunshine

Oliseh stuns fans by ignoring Ighalo

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IX-TIME champions Enyimba are back on top of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) after a 1-0 win over champions Kano Pillars in a Week 24 game yesterday.

Enyimba now set the pace on the league table with 45 points from 24 games, displacing Sunshine who failed to win at Dolphins.

It was coach Mohammed Babaganaru’s first loss since he took over Pillars in the second round of the championship.

Ifeanyi George was the match winner as he converted a spot kick in the 28th minute after a Pillars player handled the ball inside 18-yard box.

Pillars have the first chance at goal through Bala Mohammed, who shot wide from the edge of the box in the fifth minute.

In the 19th minute, goalkeeper Theophilus Afelokhai had to run out of his area to clear a dangerous ball before Peter Onyekachi could pounce on it.

Five minutes later, Kingsley Sokari’s effort was deflected for corner

by Emmanuel Olowo.

In the 33rd minute, Solari tested Afelokhai with a free kick.

Flying Eagles defender Zarahadeen Bello debuted for Pillars as he was stoppage time substitute for Eneji Otekpa.

Continues from BP a Matchday 2 clash in Group I of the Africa Cup of Nations qualification series, will hold at either the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos or the Adokiye Amiesimaka Stadium, Port Harcourt on Sunday, September 6.

Sierra Leone are banned from hosting international matches due to the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus. A ban on domestic football in that country was lifted earlier this month.

NFF President Amaju Pinnick said yesterday that on receiving the request from the Sierra Leone Football Association, which is the host association for the match, the NFF approached the Federal Ministry of Health for a goahead.

“We are delighted to announce that we have received the go-ahead from the Federal Ministry of Health to host the C M Y K

I

•Emmanuel Anyanwu, Enyimba defender.

Obiazor, Ogbonnaya out of Tanzania tie

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EARTLAND FC duo, David Obiazor and Nelson Ogbonnaya will not be selected in the final 23- man squad for an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Tanzania, the NFF has confirmed through its official website.

Super Eagles manager

Sunday Oliseh excused both from camp after they succumbed to injuries, and he may be forced to replace them with fresh call-ups.

“The players are nursing injuries and after thorough examination by the Super Eagles medics, it was

Ebola

match. The Sierra Leoneans will come with a delegation of 32, made up of mostly overseas –based professionals, technical crew and officials of the SLFA, to be led by its president, Isha Johansen.

“We are happy about the go-ahead because, once more, our country has an opportunity to underscore its leadership role on the African continent, nay global sphere. The NFF has initiated discussions with the Lagos State Government and Rivers State Government on preventive measures, such as keeping Sierra Leone’s small delegation in a special hotel where they can be monitored at all times.”

Stressing that the hosting of the match is without any financial commitment to Nigeria, Pinnick stated that Nigeria has everything to gain and nothing to lose by hosting the match, recalling that recently, the

U-20 Women National Team played a 2016 World Cup qualifier in Liberia and the Liberian team also came to Nigeria for the return leg, without any health issues.

It will be recalled that since the Ebola virus pandemic that ravaged some West African countries last year, the Confederation of African Football had compelled Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone to find alternative venues for home matches.

These countries have played their ‘home’ matches in countries like Ghana, Morocco, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali without any health issues.

“We are talking of hosting the African champion team, with the likes of African Player of the Year, Yaya Toure and others, and this will certainly earn us commendation from CAF and FIFA.

agreed that it is best to allow them some time to rest and return to their clubs,” a team official disclosed.

“Coach Oliseh will call up replacements for the duo very soon.”

N a sign of changing for tunes for Nigerian players, readers of Goal have declared the exclusion of Odion Ighalo as the most surprising among all major names left out by coach Sunday Oliseh.

The Watford striker was voted far ahead of the Chelsea duo of John Obi Mikel and Victor Moses as well as Manchester City youngster Kelechi Iheanacho.

A massive 52.1 per cent of the website’s readers named Ighalo as their most surprising exclusion from Oliseh’s 18-man list of Europe-based players, which included recalls for strikers Emmanuel Emenike and Anthony Ujah.

The voting stats show just how much Ighalo’s stock has risen since he scored his first goal for the Super Eagles against Chad in June, as well as his blistering start to the English Premier League season where he has scored once after two matches.

Coach Oliseh has explained the decision not to invite the forward.

“Well, Odion Ighalo is in our plans but for this first game against Tanzania, we are only inviting two players for each position,” Oliseh told media on Tuesday.

“We are trying to get competition into positions.

It is useless bringing in three professional players

Federation Cup Continues from BP first time in the club’s history.

David Ukeme of Akwa United was sent off in the game, but all the same they were deserved winners of this tie.

In the second semifinal, Lobi Stars defeated nineman Rangers 1-0 in Katsina.

The goal was scored by Eche Idakwo

Rangers stars Razak Adegbite and Christian Madu were sent off during the encounter.

Lobi Stars won the Federation Cup in 2003, when they beat Sharks 20.

They also reached the cup final in 2005 and 2012, when they lost 6-5 to Enyimba after the game ended 1-1 and Heartland 2-1, respectively.

Continues from BP

organisation’s 103-year history.

“I think for most of us in this room, we would conclude that the birth of our children are big moments in our lives, probably the biggest. But I have to say that being given the opportunity to work with all of you, to shape our sport, is probably the second-biggest momentous occasion in my life,” Coe told the assembled members of the IAAF immediately after his victory.

Ukrainian former polevaulter Bubka was elected as vice-president following

Coe

International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).

Lord Coe defeated the only other candidate, Sergey Bubka, by 115 votes to 92 at the IAAF’s congress in Beijing.

The 58-year-old will succeed Lamine Diack at the head of athletics’ global governing body, and will serve an initial four-year term. A former Olympic 1500m champion, he has served as an IAAF vicepresident since 2007 and becomes the sixth president in the

for the same position, paying their flight tickets and everything, bringing strikers and not being able to use one or two of them.”

Meanwhile, confidence in midfielder Mikel’s abilities has continued to dip as he has failed to start a game with the Blues this season, and it was responsible for him coming second with 17.3 per cent of votes in the Goal poll.

His team mate Victor Moses also polled 14.3 per cent while youngster Iheanacho finished surprisingly fourth with 12.5 per cent as many await his first call up to the Super Eagles.

•Ighalo

Eagles Continues from BP the game, officials have disclosed.

The 2017 AFCON qualifier has been fixed for Saturday, September 5.

The Super Eagles will thus fly out on Friday, September 4, and head to Port Harcourt after the match on Saturday.

The team are scheduled to take on next-door neigbours Niger in Port Harcourt in a friendly on September 8.

Nigeria are drawn in the same qualifying group with Egypt and Chad.

Coe’s victory, alongside Dahlan Al Hamad of Qatar, Hamad Kalkaba of Cameroon, and Alberto Juanorena of Cuba.

Athletics Federation of Nigeria, president Solomon Ogba was not successful in his bid to become council member.

Former African sprint champion, Frankie Fredericks took the spot.

Techinical director Omatseye Nesiama also did not make it to the technical committee.

However, former AFN secretary-general Maria Wophil was elected into the women committee.

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015 —55

Chelsea outbid Man U to land £21m Pedro C

HELSEA have completed the shock £21.1million signing of Pedro after outbidding Manchester United - following a dramatic turnaround in the last 24 hours.

The Barcelona star is believed to already be in London and the transfer should be completed so he can make his debut at West Brom on Sunday. Chelsea only opened talks with Barcelona yesterday but have incredibly beaten United to the winger in a move similar to when they pipped Tottenham to the £30m deal for Willian in 2013. And Jose Mourinho has played a key role, contacting Pedro and convincing him to move to Stamford Bridge.

United have been the favourites to buy the 28year-old all summer and executive vice-chair-

Spurs line up £22m Berahino bid

man Ed Woodward flew out to Spain on Monday to conclude negotiations. But the club refused to meet Barcelona’s demands on the size of the initial payment and Chelsea have capitalised.

Both teams agreed to meet Pedro’s €30m (£21.1m) buy-out clause but sources in Spain claim Chelsea are paying £19.7m up front, with another £1.4m in add-ons while United were only willing to pay £17.6m initially.

The turn of events will be a huge embarrassment for Woodward and United, who were convinced they would get their man and are now trying to save face by claiming they withdrew their interest anyway.

But they have paid a heavy price for haggling over the terms of the deal for several weeks.

•Pedro

•Berahino TOTTENHAM plan to return to West Brom with a second bid worth £22 million for Saido Berahino and are confident they will sign the striker before the window closes.

It was revealed last month that the England Under-21 international was top of Spurs’ wishlist and they made an opening bid of £18m yesterday.

West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace has claimed the 22-year-old is not for sale, but that has not put off his counterpart Daniel Levy.

Arsenal agree £48m Benzema deal

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Newcastle sign Thauvin

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EWCASTLE have confirmed they have signed Florian Thauvin from Marseille on a five-year deal.

“I am delighted to be a Newcastle United player,” Thauvin told the club’s official website. “I have come from France to a really big club and am very happy to be here.

“It is a big honour to know that Newcastle have been after me for such a long time and that they wanted me that much. They have put their trust in me and I am looking forward to playing for the team.”

West Ham reach Song agreement

A

RSENAL have agreed a deal to sign Real Madrid hitman Karim Benzema.

That’s according to former Manchester City ace Rodney Marsh, who claims the Gunners have had a £48m bid for the 27year-old accepted by Los Blancos.

“I had a phone call from

a mate of mine, and he’s been right on many things, and he said that he believes Real Madrid have accepted a bid somewhere in the region of £48million for Benzema from Arsenal,” Marsh told talkSPORT. “In the past this guy has always been right, he’s never been wrong yet, so we’ll have to wait and see.”

ESTHAM have reached an agreement with Barcelona for the permanent signature of Alex Song, co-owner David Sullivan has confirmed.

Speaking to the KUMB podcast the club chairman confirmed that the 27-yearold would return to West Ham if he successfully completes a medical.

Song will sign a threeyear deal if he can prove his fitness.

“We have a deal in place with Alex Song subject to a medical,” confirmed Sullivan. “If the medical is ok, we’ll take him.

“He’s injured at the moment, which is something you’ve got to weight up. But we’ve got until September 1st

Stones to cost Chelsea £40m C

•Stones

HELSEA fear they will have to pay a staggering £40m to land England defender John Stones Everton have already turned down their latest £30m bid for the centre half and maintain publicly that he is not for sale at any price.

But they also know the champions are desperate for defensive reinforcements af ter a shocking start to the

season.

Starsport revealed yesterday that Jose Mourinho is ready to pay up to £35m for Stones, a British record fee for a defender.

Yesterday it emerged the Goodison outfit will hold out for what one source close to the deal called “silly money”.

Stones is understood to be keen to make the switch to Stamford

•Song

Vanguard, THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2015

Coe is new IAAF president …Ogba, Nesiama lose out,Wophil wins

S

EBASTIAN Coe has been elected as the new president of the Continues on Page 54

Ebola: Nigeria to host CIV, S/Leone Afcon clash F

OLLOWING the ban on Sierra Leone from hosting international football matches, Nigeria will host the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match between the reigning African champions, Cote d’Ivoire and the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone.

The NFF announced yesterday that the game, Continues on Page 54

TUSSLE: Ivory Coast captain Yaya Toure in contest for the ball with a Sierra Leonean opponent in a previous encounter.

Eagles fly out September 4 N IGERIA plan to charter a plane for next month’s AFCON

qualifier in Tanzania and will fly out to Dar es Salaam from Abuja on

the eve of match day and depart immediately after Continues on Page 54

Coe: New IAAF President

Federation Cup: Akwa Utd, Lobi for final A KWA United will face Lobi Stars in their first-ever Federation Cup final

Enyimba topple Sunshine — Page 54

after they stopped Nasarawa United 1-0 yesterday in Abeokuta.

Aniekpeno Udoh scored the only goal of

the game in the 28th minute to book a place in the final of the Federation Cup for the Continues on Page 54

Results El Kanemi Dolphins Enyimba Heartland Taraba Wikki

0 1 1 1 0 0

Warru Sunshine Kano Kwara Bayelsa Ab/Warriors

0 0 0 0 0 0

QUICK CROSSWORD

TODAY'S

PUZZLE

YESTER DAY'S ANSWERS YESTERDAY'S

ACROSS 1 Shriek (6) 5 Debase (6) 8 Scare (8) 9 Ooze (4) 10 Toupee (3) 12 Managed (5) 15 Total (3) 17 Meadow (3) 18 Tear (3) 19 Spring (3) 20 Rascal (5) 21 Sort (3) 22 Cur (3) 23 Skill (3) 24 Watch (3) 26 Had (5) 29 Stray (3) 33 Secure (4) 34 Story-teller (8) 35 Combined (6) 36 Pact (6)

DOWN 2 Dog (5) 3 Border (4) 4 Saying (5) 5 Thick (5) 6 Method (4) 7 Farewell (5) 10 Squander (5) 11 Clearing (5) 12 Freight (5) 13 Heathen (5) 14 Fear (5) 15 Malice (5) 16 Manufacturer (5) 25 Long (5) 27 Declined (5) 28 Heron (5) 30 Perch (5) 31 Adroit (4) 32 Paddle (4)

YESTERDAY'S SOLUTIONS ACROSS: 1, Urge 4, Wit 6, Taut 8, Advent 9, Nobody 10, Had 12, Vogue 14, Learn 15, Tried 18, Appeal 20, Unison 24, Laden 26, Enrol 28, Wider 30, Ply 32, Bigger 33, Animal 34, Mean 35, Din 36, Lees.

DOWN: 2, Radio 3, Execute 4, With 5, Tend 6, Table 7, Undergo 11, Ace 12, Via 13, Era 16, Ill 17, Dud 19, Pensive 21, New 22, Initial 23, Nor 25, Awl 27, Organ 29, Evade 30, Prod 31, Yarn.

How to Play Sudoku

P

lace a number (1-9) in each blank cell. (No line can have two of the same number).

Each row (nine lines from left to right), column, (also nine lines from top to bottom) and 3 X 3 block within a bold block (nine blocks) contains number from 1 through 9. This means that no number can appear twice in any block, column or row.

No mathematics is involved – no adding, subtraction, division or multiplication, just plain logic and your imagination.

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