Monday, november 9, 2015 new by GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LIMITED

Nigeria closer to oil find in Chad Basin, says Kachikwu

THE

BUSINESS SECTION

CAN opposes ban on school prayers

…targets $20bn investments inflow into NNPC in 2016

roup Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has in-

Chidi Ugwu ABUJA

Kachikwu

Vol. 5 N0. 1239

dicated that the country may well be on the verge of a significant oil find in Lake Chad, based on analCONTINUED ON PAGE 2>>

P.5

Free inside

National Mirror Online @NationalMirror Monday, November 9, 2015

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Taraba: 12 die as APC, PDP supporters clash Gov Ishaku heads for Appeal Court

Ayo Esan, Justin Tyopuusu and Regina Otokpa

t least, 12 people were feared killed in Wukari, Taraba State, yesterday, following the ruling of the state's gubernatorial election petitions tribunal sitting in Abuja, which sacked Governor Darius Ishaku. The tribunal had on Saturday removed Ishaku as governor on grounds that he was not duly nomiCONTINUED ON PAGE 2>>

Buhari swears in INEC chair, commissioners today P.4

L-R: Miss Nigeria 2015 1st runner-up, Kehinde Itunu Adeyemi from Jigawa; winner, Pamela Peter-Vigboro Leesi, from Cross River and 2nd runner-up, Asiana Mary, from Oyo, during the contest in Lagos, yesterday.

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UPDATED 30/10/2015

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Monday, November 9, 2015

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Nigeria closer to oil find in Chad Basin, says Kachikwu CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

ysis of recent seismic 3D data generated from the Chad Basin. This was contained in a statement signed by the Corporation’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ohi Alegbe. According to the statement, in a presentation to Petroleum Club, Lagos, over the weekend, titled: “Ongoing Reforms in the Oil Industry: Impact of NNPC Reforms on the Nigerian Economy”, Kachikwu stated that the Corporation is injecting a lot of energy into the effort to ensure success in this regard. “There are signs from the latest 3D seismic studies that oil may well be very close to being found now in Lake Chad after very many years of trials. “I think that this is very key; it is key both for the geographical balancing of oil production and it is also very key for the purpose of refinery placement in the north in terms of access to crude. “I am optimistic that by the end of the year we should be able to announce something major on this,” the GMD said. Kachikwu noted that in driving and developing Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, certain key areas of urgent intervention have been identified, including running production acreages with

transparent and profitable partnerships to bridge capacity and funding gaps; encourage investment inflow into oil and gas industry. Others are engagement with local communities and driving regulation to develop the sector incomevia encouragement of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, to clarify direction and encourage long-term investment in the industry. Providing specifics on the intervention targets, Kachikwu stated that NNPC is projecting the in-

flow of $20bn in 2016 to enable the Corporation fund major projects and improve its bottom line going forward. He described 2016 as a crucial year for the Corporation as it is expected to transit from historic loss environment to profit making domain. In the area of engagement with host communities, Kachikwu stated that in the years ahead, NNPC as the senior partner in the various Joint Venture arrangements must take leadership in fostering a

healthy and symbiotic host community engagement outlook, which must focus on what the communities want. Commenting on PIB, the GMD noted that to achieve quick passage of the bill, it is crucial to isolate the fiscal regime from the current draft and move quickly to work on other pressing aspects of the proposed oil reform legislation. He re-iterated that the Corporation under his watch is rigorously executing “20 Fixes” project,

which identified 20 critical issues that need to be addressed in order to reposition the 37 years old corporation on the track of efficiency and profitability. The target include reduce and audit cost, restructuring of the corporate centre and staffing, renegotiate existing contracts, including PSCs, streamline subsidy management, boost pipeline security, enhance transparency and accountability, achieving zero tolerance for corruption, rebrand NNPP and unbundle

PPMC. Other initiatives include unbundling of the Nigerian Gas Company, reduce contracting cycle, restructure refineries, improve information technology to drive business, embed staff and business performance management, restructure JV funding and reduce cash call, improve retail profitability, deploy and attract focused investments, rekit NPDC, expand crude marketing and generate power profitability.

Former Vice President and chieftain of All Progressives Congress, APC, Atiku Abubakar (6th right), Adamawa State Governor Umar Bindow (5th right), Taraba State Governor-elect and minister-designate, Sen. A'isha Alhassan (8th right), with members of Taraba APC state executive, during a courtesy visit by the Governor-elect and party executive to Atiku’s residence, in Asokoro, Abuja, yesterday.

Taraba: 12 die as APC, PDP supporters clash CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

nated as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and declared Aisha Alhassan of the APC as winner of the April 11 guber election in the state. An eyewitness, Audu Joel told our correspondent on phone that he counted 12 dead bodies after the clash, saying the figure might be higher given the magnitude of the crisis which lasted for several hours. He said: “APC supporters who were celebrating the victory of their candidate at the tribunal in the town suddenly started shooting around 1:00am and the gunshots later escalated to other parts of the town. “The gunshots stop

around 4:00am and resumed around 7:00am, when many people were in churches for Sunday morning service. I counted twelve bodies in my area alone, but the casualties may be higher because security personnel restricted movement in the town and I couldn’t go to other areas.” A veteran journalist and media consultant, Mr. Danjuma Adamu told our correspondent on phone from Wukari that though he did not know what caused the crisis, he started hearing gunshots around 1:00am and it lasted till noon yesterday, when security men arrived the town. Danjuma, who could not comment on the casualty figures, said many were

injured and houses burnt in the incident, which he blamed on APC and PDP supporters. The state Police Command, confirmed that normalcy had returned to the town. Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, in the state, Mr. Joseph Kwaji, confirmed in Jalingo, the state capital that the crisis broke out in the early hours of Sunday. He said that though the police had not concluded their investigations, the crisis might not be unconnected with the ruling of the tribunal. “Yes there was crisis in Wukari, but it is under control now. Security men have been deployed to the area and normalcy has returned

to the town. “Investigation is ongoing but it is likely that the crisis is in connection with the verdict of the governorship election petition tribunal of Saturday,” he said. The command’s image maker, who said that figures of casualty had not been ascertained by the police, warned the people not to take the laws into their hands. He said the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Shaba Alkali had moved to the area to ensure that peace was restored. He warned that the command would come hard on any one bent on fomenting trouble in any part of the state over the verdict of the tribunal under any guise. Former Vice Chairman

of Wukari Local Government Council, Alhaji Tanimu Danlele, said at least eight people lost their lives and more than 30 others were injured in the crisis. He thanked security agents for ensuring quick return of normalcy to the area and urged them to be vigilant to forestall re-occurrence. Governor Ishaku, in his reaction called on the people of the state to remain calm and law abiding as he has already directed his lawyers to appeal the judgement. The governor, who spoke through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr. Slyvanus Giwa in Jalingo described the tribunal ruling as ridiculous,

unacceptable and murder of justice. He condemned the breach of peace in Wukari and said he had directed security chiefs in the state to restore peace in the town. In a related development, APC has described the tribunal judgement as the clearest indication yet that PDP has started harvesting what it sown in its years of impunity and recklessness, hence should blame itself for whatever tragedy has now befallen it. In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, APC said PDP has always been a party of anything goes, hence it is a matter CONTINUED ON PAGE 5>>

Franka Osakwe

hile it is true that problem with a woman’s fertility such as hormonal imbalance, cervical weakness, infections, difficulty in implantation, among other factors, could contribute to miscarriages, researchers of infertility have found through various studies that miscarriage can also be due to poor sperm quality. One of the studies, by The University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia, analyzed 23 couples, who have had a history of three or more miscarriages, and an additional 11 men who had recently become fathers, to act as the control. Semen samples were taken from all the men and checked for the following: Lipid peroxidation (an oxidation process, where free radicals ‘steal’ electrons from the lipids in cell membranes causing cell damage in the sperm), antioxidant capacity (this refers to how much antioxidant activity there is against free radicals), and Sperm fragmentation. The 11 men with a history of recent fertility had a higher percentage of sperm with good morphology (shape), motility (ability to swim), concentration (higher counts) and antioxident capacity than the 23 men whose partners had a history of recurrent miscarriage.They concluded that the male factor of miscarriage should be taken into consideration and that sperm quality, or lack of it, was associated with miscarriage. They concluded that the male factor of miscarriage should be taken into consideration and that sperm quality, or lack of it, was associated with miscarriage. An earlier study in India also found the same results. Researchers from the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare looked at the cases of 35 women who had had recurrent miscarriage but had also been found to be reproductively normal in fertility tests. After these women were found to have no identifiable infertility condition, they turned their attention to the husbands. Although the majority of the men had normal sperm counts and motile sperm, 80% of the samples contained structurally detectives sperm

... male factors now account for 30 per cent of fertility problems

which would make a genetically weak embryo. The revelation is startling and will help millions of women who are socially ridiculed. This study proves that men should not blame women alone for recurrent miscarriage. They are equally responsible”, Dr.

Soft drinks can cause heart failure

Good Health Infertility: Men’s sperm can cause miscarriages

DID YOU KNOW?

en who drink two or more glasses sweetened or soft drinks a day may have a greater risk of heart failure, a Swedish study suggests. Previous research has linked high consumption of sugary beverages with several risk factors for heart failure, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, weight gain, diabetes and obesity, said study leader Susanna Larsson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. To confirm the relationship between heart failure and sweetened beverages, Larsson and colleagues followed a group of about 42,000 men for an average of almost 12 years. To assess drinking habits, they asked the men how many soft drinks or

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

PAGE

Monday, November 9, 2015

sweetened juices they drank per day or per week. To confirm the relationship between heart failure and sweetened beverages, Larsson and colleagues followed a group of about 42,000 men for an average of almost 12 years. To assess drinking habits, they asked the men how many soft drinks or sweetened juices they drank per day or per week. Over the course of the study, there were about 3,600 new cases of heart failure.Men who had more than two sweetened drinks a day had a 23 percent greater risk of developing heart failure during the study than men who didn’t consume these drinks.Even though the study was done in men, women should also be wary of sugary drinks, Larsson added.

Misro, lead scientist at the Bio Medicine department of the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare, said. Here in Nigeria, many women have been known to suffer maltreatment from their inlaws or husbands due to miscarriages. Some are called witches accused of eating their children in the womb while others are accused of indulging in many abortions which has weakened their womb. A Consultant Gynaecologist with Nordica Fertility Clinic, Lagos, confirmed that miscarriages can also be traced to problem with sperm. According to him, from 45 years upward, the quality and count of a man’s sperm begin to reduce and he could start making

Eye drops now cure cataracts

cientists have developed a treatment for cataracts, which blight the lives of millions of pensioners. The miracle therapy uses a chemical to destroy clumps of protein that cloud vision.The experiment shows that the debilitating condition - which affects 2.5 million people aged 65 or older - is reversible without surgery. Eye expert professor Roy Quinlan, of Durham University, said: “The discovery that cataracts are reversible is quite remarkable and offers hope to millions of people across the world who have lost their sight due to this

sperm with damaged DNA. “Men with sperm of poor quality make weak embryos which can end up in miscarriage. Damaged DNA can cause a pregnancy to end in miscarriage. It can also cause genetic disabilities or birth defects in the baby”, he said. According to him, male as well as females are equally responsible for infertility issues. “Male factors now account for 30 per cent of fertility problems, the same as female factors. The remaining 30 per cent of cases is usually a combination of both male and female factors, while unidentified factor accounts for 10 per cent of cases”, he said. In recent times, sperm counts have fallen by almost half in the past 60 years according to studies. Many experts blame this fall on an increase in environmental chemicals which have weak oestrogen effects. Other things that can lead to low quality sperms, according to Dr. Ajayi, include environmental pollution, infections, trauma, alcohol, drug use, tight pants and steroid use. “Not only are overall counts going down, but many men are producing large numbers of abnormal sperm and if current trends continue, many more men will find they are infertile,” said Professor Niels Skakkebaek, a Danish scientist who specializes in male reproductive health, at the University of Copenhagen, describing the issue as important as global warming. According to researchers, as many as one in five healthy young men between the ages of 18 and 25 produce abnormal sperm counts and only 5 to 15 per cent of their sperm is good enough to be classed as normal under World Health Organization rules - proving that infertility is not just a female problem.

treatable disease. The current gold standard treatment for cataracts is surgery to remove the affected opaque lens and replace it with a plastic one, but 20 million people in the world are blind due to the lack of medical resources available to carry out this procedure. “The findings potentially open the door for the development of drugs that could improve the transparency of the lens, removing the need for surgery.” In experiments on human lens tissue and mice, researchers found the compound dissolved destructive rogue plaques, which proved the condition can be treated without surgery. The newly identified chemical is the first that is soluble enough to potentially form the basis of a practical eye drop for cataracts which, if left untreated, leads to blindness.

Photo News

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

L-R: Group Managing Director, ARCO Group Plc, Mr. Alfred Okoigun; Chairman, Chief Joseph Akpieyi and Executive Director, Finance, Mr. John Nejoh, during the launch of new company’s logo in Lagos, at the weekend. PHOTO: ADEMOLA AKINLABI L-R: Assistant CSR Manager, Airtel, Chioma Okolie; Regional Operations Director, Lagos Region, Oladokun Oye; member, Nigerian Dental Association (NDA), Abu Dorcas; Vice President, Licensing, Compliance and Carrier Relations, Airtel, Sola Adeyemi with a student of Oremeji Primary School II, demonstrating how to brush during the Airtel-Unilever Oral Health Hygiene programme, in Lagos, at the weekend.

L-R: Lola Okang, Captain George Kavourides, Miss Nneka Audu, Eji Semuri, Associate Vice President, Arik Air, Jide Alade and Elizabeth Ebute, during the presentation of an iPad Air to Miss Audu in the #ArikCares reward campaign, in Lagos, recently.

L-R: Team Lead, Clinical Services, The Bridge Clinic, Dr. Tayo Abiara; brand ambassador of the Association for the Prevention of Infertility and Promotion of Reproductive Health and Rights (ASPIRE), Mrs. Ifeoma Emekwue; Commercial Director, The Bridge Clinic, Dr. Dayo Omogbehin and ASPIRE PRO, Mrs. Lanre Kazeem-Abimbola, during the re-launch of the group in Lagos on Saturday.

National News Rotimi Fadeyi ABUJA

resident Muhammadu Buhari will officially preside over the swearing in of ministers- designate and inaugurate a new Federal Executive Council, FEC, on Wednesday. A statement issued yesterday by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the ministers would take their oaths of office in the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa before

Buhari swears in INEC chair, commissioners today commencement of the inaugural session of FEC. The swearing-in ceremony is scheduled to begin at 10am and the ministers-designate are expected to be seated in the Council Chambers by 9:30am. It is also expected that Buhari would announce

portfolios for the ministers-designate at the event. However, not all the 36 ministers-designate would get portfolios as the President had earlier said some of them may not be assigned portfolios. According to him, the

constitution only made it mandatory for him to appoint 36 ministers but never made it compulsory for him to have 36 ministries. The ministers-designate had last week attended a retreat organised by the Office of the Secretary to the Government

of the Federation, SGF, to prepare them for the challenges of governance and the expectations of the people. Meanwhile, Buhari will today preside over the swearing-in of Prof. Mahmood Yakubu as Chairman of Independent National Electoral

Commission, INEC, and five others as national commissioners. The five national commissioners are Mrs. Amina Zakari, Mr. Solomon Adedeji Soyebi, Prof. Antonia Taiye OkoosiSimbine, Dr. Muhammed Mustafa Lecky and Alhaji Baba Shettima Arfo.

tion. Ereke is an annual festival organised in Ikenne, as a platform for addressing the town’s developmental challenges. Osinbajo pointed out that the opportunity to address the nation’s numerous challenges and reposition the country for greatness is now. He said All Progressives Congress, APC, admin-

istration would keep its promises, saying “the President has no other business besides fixing the problems of the country.” He cited corruption and stealing as some of the reasons why things had gone wrong in the country, adding “but it is time now to fix all that have gone wrong.” He restated the commitment of the Federal Government to address the

challenges facing the country. He said: “We have to deal with unemployment of young people; we have to deal with infrastructure; we have to deal with bad roads; we have to restore power, the challenges are many. “But I want to assure you that every single day that President Buhari spends in Abuja; that I spend in

Abuja, we will work hard to achieve the promises we have made. “You can be sure of an honest and transparent government; you can be sure of hard work. “You can be sure that everything we promised, we will do.” Osinbajo, who also spoke to newsmen at the end of the event, said President Buhari was working daily

on how to solve Nigeria’s economic challenges. “The President you know has no other business; he is not doing anything else; this is his life commitment. “And he has said this is what he is going to commit his entire life to, to ensure that the economic problems are solved, employment opportunities are created,” he said.

President will fulfill campaign promises to Nigerians –Osinbajo

uhammadu Buhari’s administration will strive to deliver on its campaign promises to the people of Nigeria, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, SAN, has assured. Osinbajo gave the assurance at the weekend at Ikenne, Ogun State, his home town, where he was Special Guest of Honour at the 39th Ereke Day celebra-

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Monday, November 9, 2015

CAN opposes ban on school prayers Regina Otokpa ABUJA

hristian Association of Nigeria, CAN, has warned state governments and concerned authorities scheming to stop prayers and assembly devotion in primary and secondary schools across the country to have a rethink saying such thoughts were “evil and must not prevail.” The association however commended Cross River State Governor, Prof. Ben Ayade, for reversing what it described “a wrong directive of an ambitious permanent secretary on this matter” and advised other state governments to take a cue. CAN also kicked against implementing the suggestion for the establishment of grazing reserves for Fulani herdsmen in all parts of the country, saying move portends grave danger to national peace and security. The position of CAN was contained in a communiqué signed by its General Secretary, Rev. (Dr) Musa Asake, issued to journalists yesterday at the end of its National Executive Council, NEC, meeting held in Abuja. The communiqué reads: “CAN has received with great concern the news that some state authorities have either banned Assembly de-

tional security.” Meanwhile, InspectorGeneral of Police, IGP, Solomo Arase, yesterday denied that an order was issued banning Assembly devotion in primary and secondary schools anywhere in the country. The IGP, in a statement signed by acting Force Public Relations Officer, Force Headquarters, Olabisi Kolawole, said the police only issued advisory notice, which was directed at states with insurgency activities to apply caution in assembling pupils to avoid being targets for terrorists.

votion in our primary and secondary schools or are contemplating doing so. “This new trend is evil and must not prevail. While the society is working hard to inculcate good moral values in our children at this tender age through Assembly devotion in our schools so that they can grow up to be good citizens, government policies like this will certainly draw the society several years back in moral decadence. “The fear of bomb attack or any such danger being given by some state authorities as the reason(s) for school children not to gather in prayer and learning is grossly misplaced and untenable. “It is our candid opinion that government should provide adequate security where there are concerns of this nature. “We commend the Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade for reversing a wrong directive of an ambitious permanent secretary on this matter and advise other state authorities involved in this ungodly directive to take a cue. “CAN has observed with keen interest, the on-going national discussion over establishment of grazing reserves for Fulani herdsmen in all parts of the country.

Orchestra of the Deeper Life Bible Church performing at Suleja Liberation Crusade in Niger State, yesterday.

mate the opposition. But APC said: “President Muhammadu Buhari and his party, the APC, are strong believers in the rule of law, as against the rule of impunity, hence will never manipulate the judiciary for whatever reason. “The PDP is clearly aware of this, but has chosen to blame everyone but itself for the fate that has befallen it. PDP should have known that it will pay for its years of impunity and recklessness. For this party, the chicken has now come home to roost.” The statement said if PDP is not blaming the judiciary, its favourite whipping boy; it is blaming APC, the Presidency or even Nigerians for its plight, warning it to stop shifting responsibility. “PDP should leave the judiciary, the Presidency and the APC alone and ac-

cept responsibility for its actions. From the judgement of the Tribunal, it is clear that the impunity of the PDP cost it the election. “Not only did the party breach Section 78 (b) (1) (2) of the Electoral Act concerning the organisation of party primaries, it was not even deemed to have participated in the April 11, 2015 gubernatorial election in Taraba State in the eyes of the law. “Apart from not complying with the Electoral Act, the election of the PDP candidate, Mr. Darius Ishaku, in the purported primaries in Abuja was done after the stipulated time for party primaries had elapsed, according to the Tribunal. “It is thus clear that the election result in Taraba was not annulled for any other reason but the impunity and recklessness that permeated the life and

This proposal, if implemented portends very grave danger to our national peace and security. “It is common knowledge that the herdsmen, under the guise of cattle grazing have caused fatal incidents in many parts of Nigeria currently. “They have been associated with violent deaths, lethal injuries, kidnap cases, rape cases and destruction of properties, food crops, etc, in their host communities. “They have transformed from herdsmen to mercenaries and armed bandits. They have converted the

farmlands of their host communities into slaughter farms. This is unacceptable and should be a cause of great concern to the Federal Government and wellmeaning Nigerians. “As a way forward we suggest that the Federal Government should encourage the state governments where these herdsmen are predominant to establish modern ranches for them, rather than allowing them to cause problem in other parts of the country. “Establishing modern ranches for nomads is a worldwide standard best

practice and this will be of immense benefit to the herdsmen and their families. “The ranches will have schools, hospitals and other social amenities. The meat and other products from these ranches will be exported to other parts of the country, thus creating lucrative business and employment for the citizenry. “The idea of acquiring parcels of land in the 36 states of Nigeria and FCT for the sole purpose of providing grazing area for the nomads and their herds of cattle should be dropped in the overall interest of na-

PHOTO:NAN

Taraba: 12 die as APC, PDP supporters clash CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

of time for the party to come to grief, first by tumbling from the pinnacle of power and now by losing, incrementally, whatever remains of its crumbled empire. It said PDP was only trifling by attributing the judgement to a supposed manipulation from the Presidency. PDP national secretariat in its reaction to the judgement claimed that it was an evidence of executive interference in the judiciary. The party’s National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, had, in a statement said ruling by the Taraba gubernatorial tribunal again brings to the fore the organised plan by the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC Federal Government to deploy all unorthodox means to deci-

times of the cadaverous PDP. “It is noteworthy that this is not the first time the court is ruling against PDP's impunity of violating its own constitutional provisions and the Electoral Act with regards to ensuring internal democracy in the conduct of primary elections. “The first landmark judgment came from the Supreme Court when it ruled against PDP's impunity in 2007 and ordered that Rotimi Amaechi be installed as Governor of Rivers State, instead of Celestine Omehia who was illegally imposed. “Secondly, the Supreme Court had also ruled against PDP in the case of Ifeanyi Ararume when the party took his mandate as validly elected guber candidate and handed it over to another aspirant. “It is instructive to note

that these judgments took place while the PDP was in control of the Presidency. The opposition parties then never questioned the integrity of the judiciary by making wild and weighty allegations as the PDP is doing now,” it said. APC also said PDP should blame itself for its gross impunity with regards to the conduct of primary elections for Taraba State. Meanwhile, a coalition of women groups under the aegis of Women of Grace and Agape Sisters in collaboration with FCT Women Empowerment Initiative have hailed the ruling of Taraba Gubernatorial Election Petition Tribunal, which declared Senator Alhassan as winner of the April election. Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, spokesperson of the coalition, Mrs. Rachel Okpe

described the judgment as “democracy in progress”, even as she affirmed that Taraba would produce Nigeria’s first democratically elected female governor. She equally described PDP as a “divided kingdom” that cannot stand, noting that both the national and state branches of the party have been singing different songs on the tribunal judgment. Okpe called on the people to rally round Alahassan, even as she warned that flexing muscles as demonstrated by the PDP at the national level would not help the state. Contrary to the position of Governor Ishaku, the women expressed confidence that the judgment would stand at the appellate court based on the violation of the Electoral Act by PDP during its primaries.

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Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

NERC exempts CAPMI customers from estimated electricity bills ‘...if no meter after 60 days of payment’ CHIDI UGWU ABUJA

L-R: Country Lead and Senior Policy Advisor, IPAS, Mrs. Hauwa Shekarau; Consultant/Lecturer, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ibadan, Dr. Olutosin Awolude; Lecturer and Gynecologist, Dr. Odunayo Akinyemi and Director, International Research, Guttmacher Institute, New York, USA, Dr. Akinrinola Bankole, during the launch and presentation of findings of a study on incidence of abortion in Nigeria, in Abuja, at the weekend. PHOTO: ROTIMI OSASONA

Union cautions FG on railway privatisation OLUSEGUN KOIKI

ederal Government has been cautioned against taking hasty decision on the planned privatisation of the Nigerian Railway Corporation, NRC, which may further deplete the fortune of the organisation. Rather, the government was advised to formulate, for guided implementation, a long-term rail transport investment policy that would achieve for the nation integrated transport development, which ultimately would guarantee major future infrastructure renewals. The Nigerian Union of Railway workers, NUR, stated these in a letter signed by its G e n e r a l - S e c r e t a r y, Comrade Segun Esan to President Muhammadu Buhari, copied the Vice President Yemi Oshin-

bajo and made available to journalists in Lagos. The letter warned that the privatisation of the railway system by the government would only achieve increasing inequalities in the redistribution of wealth, which would deepen gap between the rich and poor. Esan insisted that privatisation of railway negates the great expectation of the citizenry and the “Change your great political party, All Progressives Congress, APC, promised Nigerians.” He explained that privatisation was consistent with standard economic analyses where new private owners raise productivity and reduce costs in response to harder budget constraints and stronger drive for optimum profit generation and relegate safety to the background. The letter further

informed the government that despite the global spread of the privatisation doctrine, some countries still run their railway system as public transport, citing New Zealand, Spain and United Kingdom. The letter added, “Your Excellency, we believe very strongly that privatisation of the railway industry will not achieve for the nation any meaningful result. Rather, we share in the conviction that alternative approach to repositioning the rail transport industry is through the renewed financial commitment and political will of the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to the emancipation of the sub-sector. “Your Excellency, in furtherance of the poise to reposition the corporation, we implore your government to formulate, for guided implementation, a long-term

rail transport investment policy that will achieve for the nation integrated transport development, which ultimately will guarantee major future infrastructure renewals/ track modernisation; procurement of more locomotives to strengthen the motive power base of the Nigerian Railway through partnership with locomotive-manufacturing countries like Brazil, US, United Kingdom; procurement of more wagons and coaching facilities so as to optimise the additive advantage of the trains.” Esan advised the government to establish a Federal Ministry of Railways saddled with a detailed scope of advisory and regulatory functions, maintaining that this would go significant mileage in achieving for the country an effectively and efficiently viable rail transport sub-sector.

Bishop blames youth unrest on political leaders’ insensitivity

atholic Bishop of Awka Diocese, Most Rev. Paulinus Ezeokafor, has attributed the spate of protests by youths and civil disobedience to insensitivity of political leaders to the plight of the people. Ezeokafor made the statement on Sunday during his pastoral visit to St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Awka. During the visit, the Bishop administered the Sacrament of Confirmation on 295 young Catho-

lics to symbolically receive the Holy Spirit as Christians. He appealed to political leaders in the country to create an enabling environment to generate employment in order to keep the youths from being idle, which often leads to frustration. Commenting on the protests by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, Ezeokafor said it was an indication of discontent of the teeming masses with

lack of equity in the land. He recalled that Nigeria had experienced such other agitations like the Odua People’s Congress, OPC, Niger Delta militancy, Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSSOP, Boko Haram and now IPOB. The cleric urged the Federal Government to utilise the abundant resources in the country to create employment for the people, adding that the use of force had never and could not be

the solution. Administrator of the Cathedral, Rev. Fr. Patrick Chukwuma, said youths remain the future of any society and must be catered for. He called on those who received confirmation to strive for godliness as they had been spirituality empowered to live a godly life of new innovation and strong character. He prayed for the `will of God’ to prevail in the lives of Nigerian youths and the country.

igerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has exempted electricity consumers who made payment for meters under the Cash Advance Payment for Metering Initiative, CAPMI, but were not metered two weeks in excess of the required 45 days from further payment of electricity bills. Head of Public Affairs, Dr. Usman Abba-Arabi, in a statement yesterday said this was the highlight of the last Regulatory Meeting of the commission where it frowned at the rising incidence of electricity distribution companies’ failure to abide by the guidelines for CAPMI scheme as many customers who subscribed to CAPMI scheme were not metered within 45 days. The CAPMI was initiated by the commission following complaints by most distribution companies over lack of funds to execute their metering plans. A study by the commission indicated about 50 per cent metering gap in the electricity market. Under the scheme, willing electricity customers are allowed to pay into a dedicated account opened by the electricity distribution companies for purchase and installation of meters 45 days after payment. Such customers

should be refunded their money with interest over a period of time by discounting the fixed charged element of his monthly bills. The NERC stated that there has been increasing number of complaints from electricity customers over failure of electricity distribution companies to install meters within the stipulated 45 days. According to the statement, in a resolution after the regulatory meeting the Commission said, “Customers who have subscribed to the CAPMI Scheme should be metered within 45 days. Therefore, there shall be no case of estimated billing for such customers from two weeks after the expiration of the 45-day time frame (60 days after receipt of payment for meter.” Present methodology for calculation of estimated billing, which relies on clustering of areas or neighbourhood with similar social economic status, was retained by the meeting while calling on electricity companies to suggest alternative methodologies for commission’s consideration as some of them have been caught violating the methodology. Abuja Electricity Distribution Company was recently sanctioned for such violation while others are awaiting outcome of investigations against them over similar misdemeanour.

Soldier kills bus driver in Rivers DENNIS NAKU

PORT HARCOURT

soldier yesterday reportedly shot dead a bus driver around Rumuokoro roundabout in ObioAkpor Local Government Area of Rivers State. Eyewitnesses said the bus driver was running against traffic towards the busy Rumuokoro roundabout and refused to yield when military officers at Bori Camp axis of Rumuokoro tried to stop him. The eyewitnesses also said the bus driver took ‘one way’ to beat traffic jam. But it was said that suspecting danger, the officer

opened fire on the driver and shot him dead. However, the incident led to violent protest within the scene of the incident, as drivers, bus conductors and sympathisers revolted. The driver, whose name was identified as Michael Nweye, was said to be in his early 20s. A family member, Chinedu Okedi, in his account of the incident said it was unfortunate, adding that the killer-soldier will not go unpunished. Okedi said, “He was taking one-way as usual, as they used to do in that Rumuokoro road. So, the soldier man chased him and blocked him.

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National News

Monday, November 9, 2015

Again, court restrains FRC from sanctioning KPMG, others Gbenga Ogunbufunmi

Pastors praying during Deeper Life Liberation Crusade in Suleja, Niger, at the weekend.

Robbers kill 2, steal 150 laptops in Ondo school Ojo Oyewamide, AKURE

rmed robbers yesterday invaded Olofin Grammar School, Idanre, in Idanre Local Government Area of Ondo State, killing two security guards attached to the school. The guards, who were killed at different spots in the school’s premises, were Akingbade Adewoleoye and Akinjemiyan Babayemi. The remains of the deceased said to be in their

fifties, have been deposited at the State Hospital, Idanre. The school’s principal, Adenuoye Fredrick Akin, said the hoodlums also carted away not less than 150 laptops in the robbery that occurred in the early hours of Sunday. According to him, the computers were newly purchased by the state government. Those who spoke with our correspondent lamented that despite the school being about 200 metres near a police station,

there was no presence of policemen throughout the robbery. Commissioner for Information, Kayode Akinmade, said the state executive council would meet today to discuss the incident. Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Femi Joseph, confirmed the robbery, saying the command had commenced investigations into the matter. He said: “Yes, we can confirm that there was a robbery incident in the school and we have start-

ed investigation. We will certainly arrest the hoodlums.” Commissioner for Education, Jide Adejuyigbe, described the incident as unfortunate, saying government would put security measures in place to secure schools in the state. “It is like armed robbers are laying siege on all our schools in Ondo State. This is a security challenge and we will definitely do something about it,” Adejuyigbe said.

Jigawa State, claimed that though he was not one of the robbers, he knew Edema as a member of the robbery syndicate operating in the area. “Gambo Yunusa and I are innocent. We only sell second-hand goods at Under-bridge before government sent us away from there. In the evening times, we do relax under a tree in the field,” he said. ‘‘But every evening, this boy (pointing to Edema) and his gang numbering about 15, usually converge here. Some of them will even come with travelling and school bags but I don’t know the content. We will just be looking at them from a distance.”

Yunusa said they were not among the notorious guys snatching handsets, bags and other valuables from motorists and passers-by in the area, adding that they were just victims of circumstance. According to RRS Commander, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), Olatunji Disu, “Following the complaints from members of the public of incessant in-traffic robbery attacks around the axis, our men laid ambush on them which led to the arrest of the suspect, while others managed to escape. When policemen combed the area, different weapons were recovered from

their hideouts.” The commander said the aggressive operations to bring crime rate in the state to zero level will continue to yield positive results. “Policemen are relaunching massive aggression on all criminal hideouts in the state. And these operations have since yielded positive results as many in-traffic robbers had been rounded up. We will continue this onslaught until we reach zero level of crime rate in the metropolis,” the Commander said. Some of the weapons recovered from them included four cutlasses, axes and iron rod.

RRS arrests 3 more traffic robbers

s part of efforts by the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) of Lagos State Police Command to reduce traffic robbery and crime in the state, the squad apprehended suspects alleged to be members of a robbery syndicate terrorising commuters and motorists around Bourdillon Street in Ikoyi, Lagos. The suspects, Joseph Edema, 24, Jamilu Musa, 29, and Gambo Yunusa, 30, were arrested on November 7, while perfecting plan for the day’s robbery operation. While allegedly confessing to the crime, Musa, who hails from

PHOTO: NAN

Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, presided over by Justice Ibrahim Buba, has restrained the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRC, and its Executive Secretary and Mr. Jim Osayande Obazee, from taking any action, sanction or measure against KPMG Professional Services and Mr. Ayodele Othihiwa, a partner in the firm, pending the hearing and determination of a suit filed by the applicants. The interim order of the court granted Friday was sequel to an application argued before the court by Mr Chuka Ikwuazo from the law firm of Aluko and Oyebode, urging the court to restrain the respondents from taking any action and also order an accelerated hearing of the suit, now fixed for November 12 when the respondents must have been served all the ‘originating processes’ in the matter. The interim order was the second granted by the court against the FRC within 48 hours. On November 4, Justice Buba also ordered FRC to maintain the status quo in a related case filed by Stanbic IBTC. The case is now pending before the court. KPMG and its partner had filed an application for the enforcement of their fundamental

rights following FRC’s letter of October 26, 2015, which it called a final notice and its ‘regulatory decision’ conveyed in another letter of October 30, on the financial statements of Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc for 2013 and 2014. The FRC in one of its regulatory decisions had suspended Othihiwa “until the investigation as to the extent of the negligence of KPMG Professional Services is ascertained.” Both KPMG and Othihiwa contend that the FRC decision was published and issued without informing or notifying them of the nature of the allegations made against them and inviting them to respond to the allegations. The FRC’s decision, KPMG and Othihiwa claimed, not only violated their constitutional right to fair hearing, but also Section 62(2) of the Financial Reporting Council Act, which spells out the procedure to be adopted by FRC in investigating a professional body for any ‘complaint or dishonest practice, negligence, professional misconduct or malpractice.’ The section states that FRC shall “notify the professional whose conduct, act or omission is under investigation of the nature of the complaint and it shall summon or hear the professional.”

Virgin Atlantic explains sack of Nigerian crew Olusegun Koiki

ne of the British airlines flying into Nigeria from London, Virgin Atlantic Airways, yesterday denied alleged plan to quit the Lagos-London route. Marketing and Communications Manager, Mrs. Kudirat Scott-Igbene, while confirming the sack of about 20 Nigeria-based crew of the airline, said the step was necessary in order to sustain its flight operations on the route. Scott-Igbene, in a terse email to our correspondent, however, assured that the airline was not planning to quit the route it commenced about 14 years ago. Sunday Mirror had yesterday reported that the giant British carrier was planning to stop flight operations following the sack of its Nigerian crew about three weeks ago without any severance package regardless of their length of

service with the airline. The airline had also in 2014 closed its Nigerian call centre and let go of all the Nigerian staff working in that department. The communications manager explained that the primary purpose of having locally-based cabin crew was to provide cultural expertise, but customer feedback had shown the practice was no longer a requirement on the Lagos route. She added, “The additional complexity required to operate an international crew base where there are no foreign language requirement means it was no longer sustainable going forward. “This announcement has no impact on our flying programme and we plan to continue flights between Lagos and London. After 14 years flying the route we remain committed to servicing the Nigerian people, whether be it for business, family or education.”

South West

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

FG may share ECA to states for capital projects …Ekiti eyes N10bn Abiodun Nejo Ado Ekiti

here are indications that the Federal Government may soon disburse the over $2bn remaining in Excess Crude Oil Account, ECA, to state governments for execution of capital projects. Ekiti State governor, who gave the hint at the weekend, said the move was necessary to enable state governments embark or complete some capital projects. The governor, who spoke during a statewide programme: “Meet Your Governor”, in Ado Ekiti, said Ekiti could get about N10bn from the fund. He lamented that money had not been going into the account for some time due to fall in the price of crude oil price. He said: “Nothing is going into the Excess Crude Oil Account again because oil is selling lower than the envisaged price in the international market. “That has badly affected all of us. The 2015 budget in Ekiti was predicated on oil selling at $65 a barrel, but it sells for over $40 now. That has left our

budget performing only in the area of recurrent expenditure. “Ekiti is expecting about N10 billion when the ECA fund is shared. When it comes, I will tell everybody. “The capital projects that we have embarked upon since we came on board are being executed because we are prudent, transparent and open, and also because we are leveraging on goodwill with corporate bodies.” The governor assured that the reconstruction of Erekesan Market in AdoEkiti would not deprive former shop owners as they would be given top priority in the allocation of the shops when the new market was built. He said: “We have done the accreditation of traders through the records with which we paid them compensation. So, there is no need to fear. We are going to build a five-star market with all the facilities expected in such a market. “We have paid compensation since June and we paid about N140m. I am assuring the people of the state that we won’t leave uncompleted projects behind.”

L-R: Members, Osun State House of Assembly, Hon. Kamil Oyedele; Waseeu Adebayo; Speaker, Hon. Najeem Salaami; President, Power House Evangelical Ministries (PHEM), Primates Ayobami Aofolajuwonlo; Majority Leader of the House, Hon. Timothy Owoeye; his wife, Bukunmi; members of the house, Tomilayo Aloba and Olatunbosun Oyintiloye, during Owoeye’s installation as Baba Ijo of PHEM in Ilesa, yesterday.

Court orders Odogwu to pay N26bn loan Wale Igbintade

Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered businessman, Chief Sunny Odogwu, and his two companies, Robert Dyson & Diet Limited and SIO Properties Limited to pay N26.2bn debt owed Diamond Bank Plc. The loan was said to have been obtained about eight years ago. In his ruling, Justice Saliu Saidu also granted leave to Diamond Bank to sell ‘Luxury Collection Hotels and Apartments (formerly Le Meridian

Grand Tower), located at 31-35, Ikoyi Crescent, Ikoyi, Lagos, belonging to Odogwu. Diamond Bank had in a suit filed by its lawyer, Oluwakemi Balogun, SAN, urged the court to compel Odogwu and his companies to pay N26,229,943,035.22, they obtained to construct the hotel in Lagos. Also joined as co-defendants are Corporate Affairs Commission, CAC, The Registrar of Title, Federal Land Registry and Leadway Trustees Limited, as fourth, fifth and sixth defendants, respectively.

The plaintiff, in an affidavit in support of the suit sworn to by Fanen Shambe, the bank’s Relationship Manager, averred that sometime in 2007, SIO Properties Limited, and Odogwu on behalf of Robert Dyson & Diket Limited, approached the bank for facility to construct the hotel. The deponent averred that Chief Odogwu convened through the SIO Properties Limited to execute third party legal mortgage in favour of Diamond Bank Plc, over the said property as security for the loan.

ditions of personnel of the agency. Also speaking, Commissioner for Transportation, Dr Dayo Mobereola, said government would ensure that transportation in general would be safe, reliable, accessible and comfortable for residents. “When you have reliable and efficient buses, you will find that people will prefer to use them rather than the yellow and black commercial vehicles, the danfos and molues,” he said, adding that the plan was not to make the commercial bus operators jobless, but to incorporate them into the system through good training and technical know-how. The commissioner said the government was ready to make Lagos an efficient city that was liveable with good mobility.

“That is our primary aim and to do this, we have to develop public transportation system very well. “We need to develop water transportation routes, mass transportation system with good buses and efficient rail system. “All of them complementing each other will make a liveable city. “So, it is all of these things that are going to change and we strongly believe we can get to that point,” Mobereola said. On activities of touts on roads across the state, Mobereola said government would come up with a mechanism to eradicate the growing menace. “The first thing we do not want is touts or union members collecting dues on the roads; it is a violation of the laws of the state,” he said.

PDP accuses Aregbesola of Lagos to recruit more LASTMA officials withholding bailout funds …We use it for payment of salaries –Govt

Boladale Bamigbola Osogbo

sun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, yesterday accused Governor Rauf Aregbesola of deliberately withholding bailout funds rather than using it to pay salaries. The party, in a statement issued by its spokesperson, Diran Odeyemi, in Osogbo, said the piecemeal mode adopted by the state government in paying salaries was a further confirmation that the money had been fixed. But reacting, consultant on information to the state government, Mr. Sunday Akere, debunked PDP claims. He said: “PDP wants to

use our reaction to gain relevance. I am sure they have a copy of the MoU the state government signed with the workers. “The bailout covered June and we have paid June salaries, we have paid July and August. We signed MoU with the workers and we have kept to the terms of the document religiously.” PDP, however, insisted that from its findings, workers in the state were last paid half of their July salaries, alleging that all allowances being hitherto enjoyed by civil servants had been removed It stressed that retirees were also being treated in similar manner, with many of them still being owed up to 6 months.

agos State government yesterday said it would soon recruit more men and women into the state’s Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, in a bid to improve traffic situation in Lagos. Special Adviser on Transportation, Mr. Olanrewaju Elegushi, announced this while speaking with newsmen in Lagos. According to him, LASTMA has 2,300 personnel, who are currently manning over 9,000 roads in the state. “We are working on that and very soon, we will boost the workforce and you will see more reliable LASTMA officials on our roads,” Elegushi said. The special adviser promised that the state government would also improve the working con-

Shambe averred further that it was upon a duly executed agreement that the bank granted Odogwu and the two companies the loan in form of bridge finance to the tune of N26.2bn. He said he believed the defendants are insolvent, otherwise bankrupt and unable to meet their financial obligation. Justice Seidu, who had earlier ordered 19 commercial banks in Nigeria not to allow Odogwu and his companies withdraw funds from their accounts, in his judgement held that the defendants admitted indebtedness and has not shown the court how the indebtedness was liquidated. The court, therefore perpetually restrained the third defendant from disposing, selling or alienating any of his personal assets, money, share, stock and other negotiable instrument until the judgment sum is fully liquidated. The judge also ordered Leadway Trustees Limited to surrender all the title documents in its custody in relation to the property and other documentation connected and or pertaining to the extant transaction of which the plaintiff is a beneficiary to the bank. The bank had in its originating summons urged court to enter judgment in the sum jointly or severely against the first to third defendants, being the outstanding sum as at September 30, 2014.

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South West 9

Monday, November 9, 2015

APC bemoans tax burden in Ondo Ojo Oyewamide Akure

hairman of All Progressives Congress, APC, in Ondo State, Isaac Kekemeke, has urged the state government to be sensitive to the economic hardship experienced by people of the state and reduce their tax burden. Kekemeke alleged that the state government had been exploiting the poor masses in the guise of taxes and indiscriminate charges. He noted that as a political party, APC believes that citizens have the civic duty to pay taxes and rates in demonstration of their citizenship and in assisting the government in the discharge of its functions and duties to the people. The chairman, however, said that for government to effectively collect taxes from the citizens, it must create wealth, provide employment and an enabling environment for industries and private initiatives to grow. Kekemeke in Akure yesterday said such action had not been creditably discharged in Ondo, adding that “what government does is tantamount to taxing poverty. “If the state government sees you doing something worthwhile that could lead to employment generation for others, they promptly kill such initiative with a barrage of questionable taxes and levies thereby misusing the legitimate role of tax in development. This is not the right way to generate revenue for the state.” Citing the newly introduced car emission charges, the chairman stated that there was no justification for such additional burden on the people. He said: “Dr. Mimiko knows as I do that the activities contributing most to pollution in Ondo State are more of a consequence of failed leadership than the emissions from cars. Today, nearly every business and most homes in the state rely on diesel-burning generators with their attendant health hazards. “If the state government has invested in independent power projects during the period Ondo State experienced massive financial boom under Dr. Mimiko, the story might be different today. So if any government is sincere about tackling emissions, the best way to start is

to lift the heavier logs first. “Yes, we agree there must be increase in internally generated revenue. Yes, we agree that Ondo State must look inward for enhanced revenue. But we must never resort into placing grueling yoke of heavy taxes on the masses as the only way to get this done. “This is not personal. Dr. Mimiko was part of us when we utilised information technology in Ondo State Executive Council of which I was a member, to increase revenue in this state without increasing rates payable by the people. Yes, our Council insisted that rates must not be increased. “Today, lawyers are battling the Chief Justice over outrageous fees. Several unions are fighting against the government. Civil servants have protested ‘heavy yoke of taxes’. Motorbike riders who criminally and willfully destroyed public properties sometimes ago blamed it on heavy charges attached to the registration scheme. These are unnecessary distractions. “Had the state government embarked on propeople strategies for raising revenue, this atmosphere of grief that pervades the state would not have existed. Responsible governance places a duty upon all of us to consider the people first.” Kekemeke called on the government to account for over one trillion naira claimed to have been collected in revenue from the federation account over the past six years as well as the N14.7 billion bailout fund given by the federal government to assist the state in paying workers’ salary arrears.

Chief Imam of Ibadanland, Sheikh Abdul-Ganiy Agbotomokekeere (left) presenting staff of office to the BabasaleMusulumi of Ibadanland, Alhaji Abdul-Lateef Oyelade, during the Turbaning, yesterday.

Aregbesola assures on projects completion Boladale Bamigbola Osogbo

sun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola, has assured that all ongoing projects, including mega schools, will be completed as scheduled. The governor also called for support from well-meaning and wealthy Nigerians to complement government’s efforts in all sectors. He made the call while commissioning the renovated Comprehensive Health Centre, Igbajo, in Boluwaduro Local Gov-

ernment Area of the state. The hospital, which was renovated and equipped by Mrs. Yetunde Oyewola in commemoration of her 80th birthday, was said to have been abandoned for years by successive governments in the state. Aregbesola, who gave the assurance on the ongoing projects after assessment tour at the weekend, in a statement by the Bureau of Communication and Strategy, signed by its Director, Semiu Okanlawon, copy of which was obtained by National Mirror, directed that all contractors of the ultra-mod-

ern schools in the state should accelerate work in their various sites. Speaking at the site of a mega school project in Ilesa, Aregbesola noted that it would be unfortunate and regrettable if the contractors handling school projects failed to complete and handover same to the state within the agreed period. Pointing out that schools under construction are financed with the Sukuk bond, the governor added that there is no excuse for the contractors not to accelerate pace of work.

Lagos APC slams critics of Ambode

hose taking the magnanimity of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos State for weakness are not only missing the point but mischievous, the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has said. The party alleged that some fifth columnists and agent provocateur have taken to the social media to smear the person of the governor, who they accused of being slow in dealing with the myriads of problems in the Centre of Excellence. In a statement at the weekend by its spokesman, Mr. Joe Igbokwe, APC said

the governor would rather think things through before acting and not the other way round as envisaged by the detractors, who he said have no honour to disclose their identities in their social media criticisms. Ambode, the party said, has not only been working to uphold the legacies bequeathed to him, but striving to add value in tandem with the progressives’ tradition in Nigeria’s economic hub in the past 16 years. It urged foresighted political leaders and wellmeaning individuals to join hands with the governor in his effort in making Lagos

livable and conducive for its teeming residents in terms of free traffic flow, environmental aesthetics and crime fighting. On the traffic situation, APC said the governor did no wrong by directing traffic wardens to give a human face to the enforcement of traffic rules and regulations in the state. It described as unfortunate that motorist took undue advantage of the magnanimity to flout traffic rules with impunity. According to APC, the law establishing Lagos State Traffic Management Authority, LASTMA, is to make enforcement correc-

tive and not punitive as advocated by the social media critics, and urged support for the governor. “Leaders hands are always heavy and Governor Ambode needs the support and encouragement of every Lagosian irrespective of tribe and ethno-cultural background to do his job. Lagos has carried the burden of bad and irresponsible leadership at the centre in the past 16 years and the huge human and vehicular traffic in Lagos today is part of the bigger responsibility and challenge to anybody privileged to be the governor of a state like Lagos,” it stated.

Earlier in the week, he also visited Community Elementary/Middle School, Dada Estate, Osogbo High School, Ataoja School of Science, Osogbo and New Model High school in Ede. He gave stern warnings to contractors against slowing work, noting that his government, despite the financial meltdown, was poised to fulfill its campaign promises. He pledged not to leave any stone unturned at ensuring that all the ongoing school projects were delivered in no distant time to enhance the reclassification exercise of the state government. He then charged the contractors to keep the contractual agreement with the state government by using the recommended materials for the school building project, noting that government would not shift ground on the set requirement for the projects. While chiding contractors for what he described as slow pace of work on site, Aregbesola promised to continually pay unscheduled visit to the sites to ensure proper monitoring of the projects. He also expressed displeasure at the handling of Osogbo and Ilesa High school projects.

South East

Monday, November 9, 2015

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Revamping infrastructure will douse Biafra struggle —APC Emmanuel Ezeh Enugu

outh-East Caucus of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has advocated more attention to the zone as a way of dousing the various agitations for the creation of Biafra. This is also as the party saluted wife of the President, Aisha Buhari, for flagging-off her free medical pet project, Health Screening Initiative, in Enugu State. Spokesman, South East, APC Leadership Caucus, Mr. Osita Okechukwu said: “Hajia Buhari's choice of Enugu State to flag-off her pet free medical project, in no uncertain terms demonstrates her pan-Nigerian outlook, political sagacity and uncommon patriotism.” Mr. Okechukwu, however, implored her to remind Mr.

President of the decayed and collapsed federal roads, the 2nd Niger Bridge, Enugu coal and other neglected federal projects in the region. “Revamping the SouthEast physical infrastructure will no doubt motivate Ndigbo to join President Buhari in constructing a progressive Nigeria, and dissuade and douse the pro-Biafra agitators,” he added. He also commended Mrs. Buhari’s visit to fiery Catholic Priest and founder of Catholic Adoration Ministry, Rev. Fr. Mbaka. Okechukwu said: “The South-East APC rates her thank you visit as a master stroke. Fr. Mbaka is a courageous clergy, who speaks truth to power. Recall that Fr. Mbaka watered the ground for President Muhammadu Buhari's victory, when he delivered the prophetic 2015 New Year’s eve message.”

FRSC Anambra Sector Commander, Mr. Sunday Ajayi (3rd right), leading other officers during a sensitisation campaign in Umunze, Anambra State, at the weekend.

MASSOB vows to disrupt socio-economic activities if…

Tension as Fulani herdsmen …activists defy police order, march round Enugu kill one in Enugu E E Emmanuel Ezeh Enugu

ear enveloped Egede community in Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State, following the alleged killing of an indigene by Fulani herdsmen. It was gathered that the 42-year-old Chinwuba Ekwueme, father of three and a member of the Egede Neighbourhood Watch was reportedly murdered by AK47 wielding Fulani herdsmen. The herdsmen were reportedly grazing their cattle in the community. The situation has heightened tension in the area as community leaders make efforts to forestall reprisal attacks. Chairman of Egede Neighbourhood Watch, Mr. Donatus Otie, who confirmed the killing, said the deceased was murdered by the herdsmen after other vigilante members took to their heels. According to him, the herdsmen came shooting at the community vigilante members. The deceased was not however lucky as he was surrounded by the cattle men that eventually gave him severe machete cuts that led to his death. Reacting, traditional

ruler of Egede, Igwe Polycarp Oyigbo, lamented the reoccurrence of nomads’ attack against his subjects and wondered why government had not been able to offer measures towards saving them from the strangers’ brutality. Igwe Oyigbo noted that the community leadership had been prevailing on youths to avoid reprisal attack, and expressed hope that the police would keep to their promise of bringing the culprits to book. He said: “I do not know whether it would have been better to allow them to take laws into their hands; so, government should take appropriate actions to end the menace.” President General of Egede Town Union, Ichie Clement Amuji, lamented the pain and sorrow the herdsmen had inflicted on his people. He said: “The attack has become a menace to our people. We have been complaining to the government; we have written several letters to Udi LGA, and the DPO 9th-Mile. “This has been happening; they have been destroying our crops, raping our women. They killed a young man from Umuanum about three years ago. It is very sad because it has repeated itself.”

mmanuel zeh and Chris Njoku

ovement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, has threatened to join forces with other militant groups to unleash violence that would worsen the already fragile security situation in the country, if the Director of Radio Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, is not released this week. Leader of the factional group, Uchenna Madu, in a statement in Owerri, Imo State capital, yesterday, warned the Federal Government to immediately release Kanu now or face “a severe action that will bring Nigeria to her knees.” He said the continued

detention of Kanu by Directorate of Security Services, DSS, would cause civil unrest that could worsen the security situation in the country. Comrade Madu admitted that members of his group have been taking part in protests so far in some parts of the South East, adding that they would continue with IPOB till their demand for Mazi Kanu’s release was achieved. “For the sake of Biafra, love for our fatherland and the spirit of brotherhood, MOSSOB shall continue to identify with genuine and selfless Biafra agitations as showed with Nnamdi Kanu. “Only some few disgruntled elements and Abuja errand boys from the Eastern region are always against Biafra. Ndigbo and South

South are wiser, united and hungry for Biafra now. “MASSOB shall hold Igbo governors, National Assembly members, traditional rulers and opinion leaders heavily responsible if Mazi Nnamdi Kanu is not released this week. “We and other genuine groups are now ready to unleash violence, which includes civil disobedience, civil unrest, non cooperation, civil/massive boycott as was done during the emancipation struggle of Gandhi of India and Martin Luther King Jnr.,” he said. Meanwhile, in defiance to police order, hundreds of pro-Biafra activists stormed the streets of Enugu State yesterday protesting the detention of Kanu. The protesters, made up of members of IPOB and

MASSOB, marched round major streets in Enugu metropolis. They moved from one location to another, from early morning till evening, chanting anti-government slogans and declaring their opposition to the incarceration of the IPOB leader, as well as demanding for a Sovereign State of Biafra. As at the time of filing this report, they were peaceful as motorists were allowed to ply without any confrontation. Some residents, who were going to different churches for Sunday worship, joined the protesters, holding their Bibles and chanting “Anyi amakwe” meaning “We will not agree.” It was gathered that the police in Enugu State had earlier issued an order banning such protest.

N5,000 stipend: SEPA threatens to sue Buhari, APC Chris Njoku Owerri

outh East Progressives Assembly, SEPA, yesterday in Owerri, Imo State capital, threatened court action against President Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, over the inability of the Federal Government to commence payment of the monthly

N5,000 to unemployed youths in the country. This was made known in a statement titled “Our intention to sue President Buhari and APC over nonpayment of N5,000 monthly stipend to Nigerian unemployed youths”, signed by its President, Ebere Uzoukwa. The group maintained that having successfully entered into a bond with Nigerians during their

campaign promises, President Buhari and APC owe the obligation to fulfill those promises, including the immediate payment of N5,000 monthly stipend to unemployed youths. The group noted that Nigerians, especially the teeming youths shunned the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and embraced President Buhari and APC, with high hope and expectation

for better life under his administration. Sadly, the group said the party has not been able to fulfill some of the campaign promises six months after their victory. “We are rather shocked and surprised that President Buhari and APC resorted to exhibiting certain actions that evidently smell deceit and incompetence in governance,” it noted.

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South South

Monday, November 9, 2015

VC aspirant sues UniUyo Oil theft: Navy hands over 6 Governing Council vessels, 15 suspects to NSCDC V

Dennis Naku

Port Harcourt

igerian Navy yesterday said it handed over six vessels and 15 suspected oil thieves to operatives of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC, for prosecution. Executive Officer of the Nigerian Navy Ship, NNS Pathfinder, Capt. Olusegun Soyemi, disclosed that the suspects were arrested over alleged involvement in illegal bunkering. Soyemi explained that one of the suspects (name withheld) was arrested while discreetly discharging about 108,000 litres of diesel from a large wooden boat into five vessels without licence. He said: “On October 20, we got intelligence report about an ongoing illegal

bunkering activity at a private jetty opposite the busy Slaughter market around Trans-Woji area in Port Harcourt. “Our troops on arrival at the jetty accosted five vessels and a large wooden boat loading products suspected to be stolen diesel. “The vessels, MV Denis, MV Faith, MV Lum VII, MV Eliora, and FP Comfort had no approval from naval headquarters for the transaction,” he said. Soyemi further explained that the prime suspect who doubled as a middleman for two companies fingered in the case had provided useful information during its preliminary investigations. He said owners of the vessels were subsequently invited for questioning and had tendered their statements, adding that the own-

ers would further be investigated by NSCDC. According to him, 20 suspects who were arrested at the jetty had been released due to their non-involvement in the case. Similarly, Soyemi also handed over a 3,000-metric tonne ship and its 14 crew members, which allegedly stood by to steal crude oil from a major pipeline in the state. “On October 2, troops of NNS Pathfinder impounded a 3,000-metric tonne ship, MT Everest, which anchored (few metres away from a pipeline) without any official reason to do so. “We discovered the vessel which had been in operation since 2007 had no certificate of registry and clearance from the Nigerian Ports Authority; and no single naval approval in all of its operations.

“While examining the vessel, we discovered that the cargo tanks had been emptied and cleaned with hoses connected to the cargo tanks indicating its readiness to load petroleum products,” he said. Soyemi explained that none of the crew members had any certificate and competency to justify them serving aboard the merchant tanker ship. While urging oil thieves to desist from sabotage of oil and gas installations, he assured Nigerians that the navy would not rest on its oars until illegal bunkering activities were stopped. Receiving the suspects and vessels, NSCDC Head of Anti-Vandal Unit, Rivers State command, Assistant-Commander Steven Morgan said thorough and forensic investigation would be carried out.

L-R: Chief Executive Officer, Cotosearch.com Ltd, Prof. Johnson Bade Falade; Secretary General, United Cities and Local Government of Africa, Mr. Jean–Pierre Elong–Mbassi and Ndutim Obong from Spaces for Change, during a press conference on Africities Summit slated for South Africa, in Lagos, at the weekend. PHOTO: ADEMOLA AKINLABI

ice Chancellorship aspirant in University of Uyo, Prof. Effiong Johnson, has challenged his disqualification by the Governing Council at the Federal High Court. Johnson, a former Dean of Students Affairs, said in Uyo on Sunday that he was surprised that only his name was omitted from those invited for final interview to the office of the vice chancellor. “As the university orator, I am not satisfied with the treatment meted on me by the governing council of which I have been a member for three terms. “The advert declaring vacant the position of the vice chancellor of the University of Uyo came out in the Punch newspaper of April 28, 2015 and criteria for the person of the vice chancellor were clearly stated. “This is my third term in the governing council; with that credential, I am not a novice, neither do I fall short of the requirements for the vice chancellorship position. “Item B which, among others, stated that the person of a vice chancellor, as advertised, should have had 20 years experience in the university setting, 10 of which must be as a professor. “I also heard rumour that the governing council may have had another interpretation to that particular criterion.

Udom

“I clocked 10 years as a professor on October 1, and the interview for that job was billed for October 15. “So, I had to institute a case challenging the process of my not being invited in the Federal High Court,’’ Johnson said. He said before the interview was conducted, the university was served with an injunction restraining the governing council from conducting the interview. He said despite the injunction, the university went ahead to conduct the interview without inviting him. Johnson said the fact that he was not invited for the interview was evidence that something was wrong which the court must unravel. It would be recalled that on October 19, the university Registrar/ Secretary to council, Mrs Edak Umondak, announced that the governing council had approved the appointment of Prof. Enefiok Essien, as the new vice chancellor for the institution.

House of Assembly aspirant shot dead in Delta V ice Chancellorship aspirant in University of Uyo, Prof. Effiong Johnson, has challenged his disqualification by the Governing Council at the Federal High Court. Johnson, a former Dean of Students Affairs, said in Uyo on Sunday that he was surprised that only his name was omitted from those invited for final interview to the office of the vice chancellor. “As the university ora-

tor, I am not satisfied with the treatment meted on me by the governing council of which I have been a member for three terms. “The advert declaring vacant the position of the vice chancellor of the University of Uyo came out in the Punch newspaper of April 28, 2015 and criteria for the person of the vice chancellor were clearly stated. “This is my third term in the governing council; with that credential, I

am not a novice, neither do I fall short of the requirements for the vice chancellorship position. “Item B which, among others, stated that the person of a vice chancellor, as advertised, should have had 20 years experience in the university setting, 10 of which must be as a professor. “I also heard rumour that the governing council may have had another interpretation to that particular criterion. “I clocked 10 years as

a professor on October 1, and the interview for that job was billed for October 15. “So, I had to institute a case challenging the process of my not being invited in the Federal High Court,’’ Johnson said. He said before the interview was conducted, the university was served with an injunction restraining the governing council from conducting the interview. He said despite the in-

junction, the university went ahead to conduct the interview without inviting him. Johnson said the fact that he was not invited for the interview was evidence that something was wrong which the court must unravel. It would be recalled that on October 19, the university Registrar/ Secretary to council, Mrs Edak Umondak, announced that the governing council had approved the appointment of Prof.

Enefiok Essien, as the new vice chancellor for the institution.

Arase

North

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Group wants CCT chairman sacked over alleged money laundering A

Clergy predicts better life for Nigerians by mid 2016

Doosuur Iwambe Abuja

group, Registered Trustees of Mission for Peace and Development Initiative, has urged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, to prosecute Chairman of Code of Conduct Tribunal, CCT, Mr. Danladi Umar, for allegedly receiving bribe from an accused. The group also asked a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, to sack Umar over alleged money laundering, bribery and other vices. The non-governmental organisation in an originating summons filed on its behalf by Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN, wants the court to order Justice Umar to hands off the trial of any Nigerian, having confessed to corruption and admitted meeting with an ac-

cused person standing trial before him in the absence of the prosecution and court officials. Joined as defendants in the suit filed on Friday are CCT, EFCC and Attorney General of the Federation, AGF. The plaintiff wants the court to order the tribunal to halt further sittings or proceedings against accused persons brought before it, or currently standing trial before it until it is reconstituted to exclude its present chairman. The organisation is also praying the court for an order directing EFCC to start prosecuting Justice Umar, having investigated and found him culpable of the offences of conspiracy, bribery, abuse of office and money laundering, which the commission had actually prepared a charge,

but failed and refused to file same till date for inexplicable reasons. The plaintiff also wants an order that the AGF should cease from further regarding or according recognition to Justice Umar as the rightful chairman of CCT. A nine-paragraph affidavit in support of the originating summons deposed to by one Ogah Columba, a human rights activist and anti-corruption campaigner, averred that in spite of the corruption cases hanging on the neck of Justice Umar, he could still sit, morally and legally to try any Nigerian citizen for any case of corruption, “That in consonance with the anti-corruption stance of the present government, we decided to dig into the ugly, murky cases of corruption against the 1st Respondent

(Justice Umar) and we are shocked at a grand cover up by powers-that-be who refused to prosecute him for receiving, N1.8mbribe out of N10m he demanded from an accused he was trying in his Tribunal, notwithstanding the clear instructions of the then AGF, Mohammed Bello Adoke, SAN, that he should be prosecuted,” the affidavit stated. It further averred that EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Lamorde, on June 24, 2014 wrote to the AGF, where he concluded that there was sufficient evidence, even if circumstantial, that Umar collected money from an accused person, Rasheed A. Taiwo through his persona assistant, Mr. Abdullahi, and that there was an attempt to cover up judicial corruption. A date is yet to be fixed for the hearing of the matter.

postle Daniel Aguocha of Mountain of Liberation and Miracle Ministries, Kaduna, yesterday predicted that Nigerians would reap positive results from President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration by mid 2016. Aguocha made the prediction while commenting on the current economic hardship being experienced in the country. He called for patience, assuring that very soon “Nigerians will be smiling again.” “Nigerians should be patient with the government of the day because good things are on the way and soon we will all have reason to rejoice. “Things are a bit rough now because President Buhari is working towards a better Nigeria. “He is working day and night to put in place necessary structures that will drive his administration’s change agenda for

the good of the country and its people,” he added. The clergy said all the forces working against the good intentions of President Buhari would soon fall along the way. Aguocha added that Nigeria was blessed with a good leader struggling to rid the country of all forms of corrupt practices “so that Nigeria will be great again.” He therefore, called on Nigerians to intensify prayers for the success of the current administration in turning things around for the good of the entire nation. Earlier in his message to the congregation during the day’s service, the clergy urged Christians to put God first in everything they do if they hope to receive more blessings from God. He urged Christians to always look unto God in times of need and difficulties instead of patronising shrines and associating with demons.

11 professors for Dutse Varsity VC’s job

L-R: Plateau State Governor Simon Lalong; his wife, Regina, and wife of Deputy Governor, Mrs. Abigail Tyoden, during the 2015 harvest and bazaar thanksgiving of St. Monica's Catholic Church, Jos, yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

Senator wants FG to equip nation’s airports

eputy Leader of the Senate, Ibn Na’Allah, has deplored the way Nigeria spends more on terminal buildings rather than procuring equipment to develop its airports. Na’Allah, who is also deputy chairman of the newly constituted Senate Committee on Aviation, said this when he spoke with newsmen in Abuja yesterday. The senator was reacting to the ranking of Port Harcourt Airport as the worst in the world. He said emphasis must be

placed on procuring equipment rather than remodeling terminal buildings. The senator said equipment were affordable and available such that Nigeria should stop spending too much money on over-priced terminal buildings. Na’Allah, an aviation expert and pilot, said the instruments for navigation and landing were even much more important than the terminal building. “A passenger needs to first and foremost arrive safely at his destination,

before he can begin to talk about going to any terminal building. “You see, we may argue about this matter here and there, but the most unfortunate thing is that we cannot delete what can be said to be the truth,” he said. Acording to him, the ranking of the Port-Harcourt airport was not something that could be wished away as other airports in Nigeria were also lacking in equipment. He recalled that a British Airways flight that arrived

Abuja last week at about 4:27 a.m. could not land until about 8 a.m. because of lack of necessary equipment. He said the only solution was for the nation’s airports to put in place the relevant equipment at a reasonable cost. Na’Allah recommended that the airports should procure equipments like ground radar with which an air traffic controller could taxi an aircraft to park even without physically seeing it.

hairman, Governing Council of the Federal University of Dutse, Jigawa State, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, said the council had shortlisted 11 professors out of the 24 that applied for the post of vice-chancellor of the institution. Adedoja disclosed this yesterday in Dutse, while speaking with newsmen after inspecting ongoing projects in the university. The tenure of incumbent Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Jibrila Amin, will end on February 16, 2016. Adedoja said the process for shortlisting the applicants was rigorous, adding that at the end of the exercise, the best candidate will emerge. He noted that the outgoing pioneer vicechancellor had laid a solid foundation, which the next person would build upon, pointing out that the council was particularly happy with the system and structures in the new university. The chairman said the out-going VC had within

a short time moved the university to the permanent site, graduated its first set and also established a Faculty of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences. It was leant that the applicants shortlisted include Prof. Abubakar Kundiri and Prof. Salisu Abdullahi from the institution, Prof. Muhammad Abubakar from Abubakar Tafawa Belewa University, Bauchi, and Prof. Haruna Birniwa of Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto. Others are Prof. Hadi Suberu of Federal University, Lokoja, Prof. Sherifdeen Tella of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Prof. Yusuf Alhassan of Bayero University, Kano and Prof. Taiwo Olusegun Omobuwajo also from Olabisi Onabanjo University. Prof. Okechukwu Ukaga of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Prof. Zakari Muhammad of Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and Prof. Zaccheaus Apata of the University of Ilorin also made the list.

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Politics

The coming of Buhari’s change agents has been speaking of the huge popular expectation of Nigerians who gave this mandate. They are waiting, impatient and agitated. The new ministers will do well to pay heed to the President’s call for prudence, austerity through the avoidance of the type of extravagance that had weighed down the finances of government in the past. Under the past administration, some ministers had as many as 15 special assistants and so many policemen in tow. Let the new ministers learn from the President who game a recent directive that he didn’t want have more than eight vehicles in his convoy. Nigerians should get set to see and experience more of the CHANGE for which they voted overwhelmingly for the Buhari administration if the cabinet avoids micromanaging specifics and kowtowing to God-father interests to join the President in putting policies in place to make the country a favored destination for investors both global and local. There is little doubt that there is light at the end of the tunnel although it will take much hard work to make it a new dawn.

Garba Shehu

efore a skyscraper rises out of the ground and becomes a towering edifice, the foundation must go deep into the ground, sometimes as low as 150ft. Month after month, the labourers continue to dig and build, their diligent work taking place completely out of sight. In the same period it takes to complete the foundation of a skyscraper, several duplexes may spring up nearby. Concerned onlookers may wonder about all the time invested in an unseen structure and ask, “But why can’t we see the building you say you are building?” During the past few months since he took on the mantle of CHANGE, President Muhammadu Buhari has been restructuring the foundations of the Nigerian government, which have disintegrated and putrefied over decades of mismanagement. He has been busy cleaning out debris and plugging loopholes, before laying new and fresh blocks. When he spoke to them at the three-day retreat welcoming them to the cabinet, the President told the new ministers that “ we have already taken deliberate measures to plug leakages of government revenue and resources.” The Treasury Single Account (TSA) is one example. Under this new system, all government revenue, income and payments are being handled via one single account which will be maintained by the Central Bank. This way, the government will have direct supervision of inflow and outflow. Cases such as that of Nigerian Maritime and Security Agency, NIMASA (currently under investigation by the EFFC) where billions of dollars were channelled for questionable purposes will be a thing of the past. Nigerians can expect more transparency and less misappropriation of funds by agencies of government. Government will begin to realise her revenue in full measure and agencies will be able to spend only within their budgets. Still on the issue of government revenue, the prospect of the Nigerian government generating more money through the Nigerian Customs Service is set to increase with the change of management that was effected recently by the Buhari administration. With accountability and integrity at the top, Nigerians can expect that revenue from that agency will double or triple. The Ministry of Finance just got the customs to repair broken down scanners at the ports to ensure maximum generation of revenue. Officers had left the scanners unrepaired, and in some known cases deliberately sabotaged them so that assessment is done manually to satisfy greed on their part. The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has also begun to implement a programme of increased awareness among Nigerians regarding the payment of taxes. This is being followed by a strict programme of persuasion and enforcement. Within a short while, the Nigerian government will begin to realise a marked increase in revenue from VAT. All these foundation blocks have been laid to ensure that the Nigerian government has enough revenue with which to make life better for every Nigerian, especially as the price of oil continues to look precarious. These measures, taken together represent a major push by the President to increase internally-generated revenue, reduce over-dependence on crude oil earnings in a way that will bring stability and predictability in the financing of government programs.

Buhari

The situation of the economy is not an ordinary one. It is a crisis, a crisis itself inherited by the Buhari administration, and one that cannot be ignored. Two weeks ago, the International Monetary Fund, IMF predicted that the GDP growth in sub-Saharan Africa would fall to 3.75 percent in 2015 which is the lowest in the last six years. Nigeria along with Angola, the leading oil economies on the continent have been hit hard by oil prices which have gone down by more than 50 percent in the last 12 months. It is on account of this that the President warned the new ministers of what to expect: “The work of restoration and renewal is urgent and immense. The expectations of Nigerians are high. Our determination to succeed and change the fortunes of our country must be equal to the challenge. “I have invited you to join me in this urgent mission for our country. I am convinced that in accepting this invitation you are also equally determined to take part in this patriotic undertaking. So finally, the underground work is coming to an end. With the inauguration of ministers taking place on Wednesday, it is now time for Nigerians to watch the edifice of CHANGE begin to rise out of a new and strong foundation. Our country’s season of austerity is coming to an end. Life will get better for every Nigerian, in every geopolitical zone of our country. As President Buhari said in the opening address during the retreat that took place last week, “You are coming on board the ship of governance at an interesting time. So much has been said about the state of our economy. It is expected that we make the running of Government at all levels as lean as possible, avoid waste and conserve resources. As ministers, you must be the vehicle that will administer the change.” President Buhari, who shrugged off “experts”and their “scientific” predictions to receive a historic mandate- the first time that an opposition candidate defeated an incumbent administration since independence

Ekiti APC to gov: Debt burden, cover-up for non-performance Abiodun Nejo ADO EKITI

he All Progressives Congress, APC has accused the state governor of harping on the state indebtedness as a cover-up for alleged nonperformance. APC State Publicity Secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, alleged that the exaggerated debt burden of the was a ploy by the governor to siphon state resources. Olatunbosun said in a statement in Ado Ekiti yesterday in reaction to the government’s posture on the state debt burden that “Ekiti people are not fooled by the recalcitrant posturing in government”, warning the governor to stop treating Ekiti people as children with scant capacity for reasoning. He said: “On assumption of office, Fayose told the world that former Governor Kayode Fayemi left N86 billion debt. Later, he sat up to reduce the debt to N56 billion and now, he has announced another figure of N252 billion that will be redeemed in 2036, all in an attempt to hide behind debt profile to deny people real development while liv-

ing in private comfort as planned”. Olatunbosun said the governor’s motive for his current lie was to deny the past political office holders payment of severance allowances even though payment of severance allowances were captured in the bailout cash so that he can help himself with the cash thinking the unsuspecting Ekiti people would not know. “We want to make it abundantly clear to Ekiti people that Fayemi left a debt of N18.5b as he explained to the whole world on the floor of the Nigeria Senate chambers during his ministerial screening session and this has not been controverted. “Fayemi met N30 billion debt on assumption of office in 2010, but he believed government is a continuum and that didn’t handicap him from fulfilling his campaign promises to the people. “It is gratifying that Fayemi did not borrow to pay salaries; he borrowed to implement development projects and the projects are there across the state for the people to see,” he said.

Politics

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Kogi APC rally: PDP lauds Buhari’s absence Wale Ibrahim LOKOJA

ogi State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP has commended the decision of President Muhammadu Buhari to keep distance from his party’s governorship candidate in the November 21, 2015

election in the state, Prince Abubakar Audu. The party in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Bode Ogunmola said the President has not allowed himself to be swayed by the political antics to support the aspiration of the All Progressive Congress, APC governorship candidate, Prince

Abubarka Audu. The statement described as wise and commendable the decision of President Buhari to run away from getting tainted by the corrupt tendencies of APC candidate. The party remarked that the body language of the president is quite obvious pointing out that a man like

President Buhari who is well known for his integrity, will not stake his name and integrity on a man standing trial for corruption. In a swift reaction, the Head of Abubakar Audu Media Directorate , Dr. Tom Ohikere said that the absence of President Mohammed Buhari and Vice President Yemi Osin-

bajo who didn’t attend the rally because they were attending to national issues should not be politicized. Ohikere who spoke with our correspondent on telephone maintained that the PDP’s view on the absence of the two elder statesmen was not correct and uncalled for , saying their absence was not because the APC candidate was He said with the former governor’s

antecedents it is clear that he is more sellable because he laid a good foundation for good people of the state between 1999 and 2003 in the state. He pointed out that the statement was a mere propaganda to distract the attention of electorate from the issues of maladministration and lack of infrastructural development in the state.

UCLGA holds 7th Africities summit Ayo Esan

L-R: Pastor Tokunbo Adesanya; Vice President Yemi Osibajo; children of late Mama HID Awolowo, Ambassador Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu and Rev. Tola Oyediran, during a condolence visit by the Vice President to the family, in Ikenne, on Saturday.

Aregbesola provides succour for victims of inferno Ayo Esan

overnment of Osun State has offered financial relief package of N31 million to the victims of a fire outbreak that engulfed Atakumosa Market, Ilesa. The market, which is the biggest in Ilesa town, was caught by fire on Sunday, August 9, 2015, leaving shops and goods worth mil-

lions of naira destroyed. Presenting cheques to some of the victims running to hundreds last Thursday, the Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola said the relieve package was aimed at cushioning the effect of the inferno on the victims and the economy. Represented by the Chairman, Ilesa West Local Government, Alhaji Azeez Adesiji, the governor said the market would be rebuilt to

meet international standard. According to him, the relieve package was offered to the victims due to the concern of his administration to the plight of the citizenry and in line with its commitment to see to the peoples’ welfare. He said: “In spite of the economic situation in Osun, we still consider it necessary to support the traders who were the victims of the inferno.

“This government will continue to do everything possible to make lives meaningful to the people, no matter the distraction”, he said. The Leader of the State House of Assembly, Honourable Timothy Owoeye who represents Ilesa East constituency commended the governor for showing concern to the welfare of the people in spite of the economic situation.

NAWOJ visits Lagos Assembly, protests rape, violence Robert Awokuse

agos State chapter of the National Association of Women Journalists, NAWOJ has protested against the incessant rape and violence recorded in the state in re-

cent time. The group which last week took its protest to the Lagos State House of Assembly complex lamented the despicable acts in different shades. Chairman of the group, Dupe Olaoye Oshinkolu said the protest became impera-

tive following the increasing cases of rape and other violence against women in the state which are fast becoming worrisome. “We came here to protest over incessant rape case and violence, because the rate at which rape is being committed in the state

is alarming to us in NAWOJ.” The group further sought the amendment of the “violence against persons act 2015” that seeks prohibition of all forms of violence against the people regardless of age, sex and religion.

nited Cities of Local Governments of Africa, UCLGA which is the representative head of local governments across the continent has said that the 7th edition of the Africities Summit will hold at the Sandton Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa from November 29 to December 3, 2015. The Africities Summit, highly regarded as UCLGA’s flagship event, is now a permanent feature on the political calendar for all local governments across Africa. Speaking at Africities Press Launch in Lagos Friday, UCLGA Secretary General , Jean-Pierre Elong-Mbassi said this year’s edition of the summit which is being held every three years will create a platform for tackling issues affecting urban and economic development across the continent with a sharp focus on collaborative partnerships, best practices, innovative and strategic thinking and solutions to the challenges of development and urbanisation. Elong-Mbassi said the summit will have in attendance more than 5,000 participants expected from across Africa and the globe, and over 25 open sessions for stakeholders

PDP Senator’s motion on stipends for unemployed Nigerians, a mischief –Buhari K emi Olaitan IBADAN

enator representing Oyo North in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, Fatai Buhari, has denied the claim by the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP that All Progressives Congress ,APC

Senators were against the implementation of the promised N5,000, for the unemployed in the country. Buhari who said this at the weekend while speaking with journalists at his Ogbomosho country home, stated that the PDP Senators knew that the money is not in the bud-

get, thus it is a mere mischief that the APC Senators killed the campaign promise of the party. He said, “I was in the chamber that day, I owned up and I am one of them. There is a problem or a mischief and a sensible senator will not stand aloof or akimbo when his or her party is being

discussed. It was Senator Philip Aduda who raised that beautiful motion on the issue of unemployed graduates in the country and the motion was given a thorough hearing by both Senators from PDP and APC with all the prayers of the sponsors duly approved, “Senator Aduda then

raised his hand to signify that he has another added prayer, when he brought the prayer, he said the Senate should urge the Federal Government to start paying the N5,000 the APC promised the unemployed Nigerians and immediately we noticed that the prayer was insincere.

ranging from the World Bank on one side, to slum dwellers on the other. He said the theme of this year’s summit is “Shaping the Future of Africa with the People: Africa’s Local Government Contribution to the Africa 2063 Vision.” He further said that the summit will be host to local and national government officials, heads of state, economists, city and financial planners and investors and stakeholders. According to ElongMbassi,the high on the agenda at the summit will be the accelerating pace of urbanisation and migration, the urbanisation of poverty, and the disproportionate level of poverty and under development in Africa. Other topics to be explored according to UCLGA Secretary General will include: public transport, urban agriculture, informal trading, neighbourhood development, green buildings, parks and open spaces, and public safety in urban settings. “Unless people are capacitated to own their own lives, to take part in the governance of their own lives, you cannot say that your country is liberated. This is why decentralisation and empowering local people is so critical. We thought it was good to celebrate the coming up of local authorities as the expression of the voice of the local people. We thought it was important to overcome the divide inherited by colonisation ... so we came together to say we are going to stop it; we are going to participate at the local level to unite this continent and we are going to work towards the empowerment of local people to take control of their lives... This is how Africities was born”, ElongMbassi explained.

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Still not yet uhuru for Cross River APC UTUM ETENG

or the crisis ridden Cross River State chapter of APC, the nomination of Pastor Usani Uguru Usani as a ministerial nominee by President Muhammadu Buhari, hopefully should soothing balm for the members frayed nerves. Central to the crisis is who becomes state chairman, a possible ladder to a minister in the Buhari’s cabinet. However, with Pastor Usani Usani elevation to the ministerial slot by God’s grace, the last must have been heard about this crisis. The national leadership of the APC should be encouraged to take prompt steps to reorganize the party in the state to give it the desired strength. The national leadership of the APC must give all the stakeholders in the state the opportunity to sort themselves out. In the circumstances, those parties that went to court against Pastor Uguru, the incumbent state chairman should be advised to discontinue their suit as the subject matter of the suit does no longer exist. All men and women of goodwill are, therefore, urged to congratulate and rally round Pastor Usani Usani to succeed as a Minister of Nigeria. The state’s local government election is by the corner, and the unity, seriousness and invariably the legacy of honesty in the minds of party members would be tested and measured in the number

of council chairmen and councilors the APC would harvest after the local government election. Suffice it to opine that over the years, the PDP had enjoyed the monopoly of infiltrating the ranks of opposition parties with a view to swallow them, like it did to the former All People’s Party (APP) when it had 12 members if the state House of Assembly to the latte’s 13. The crisis in the former vibrant Action Congress (AC) and later Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) was fueled by the PDP. The other style of the PDP is to sponsor possible party EXCO members and later spoil them with money to the point of being stooges or molds in the colour of the opposition shirt. It is common knowledge that Gov Ben Ayade in his usual boisterous and bombastic claims is openly creating the impression that he is fine and good. This to my mind is a well orchestrated ploy or strategy to weaken the state APC in order to gain an advantage for the PDP. It is still, however, not yet Uhuru for the APC in Cross River State in spite of the fact that the central government is APC controlled. The APC national leadership will have to do more by comprehensively following up claims that some big names in Cross River State political landscape are about to join the APC soon. It is expected that the APC leadership should be guided by the recent Supreme Court judgment that an elected public of-

THE SPECULATED ADVANCES BY AYADE TO JOIN THE APC WITH PDP MANDATE MUST BE TREATED WITH CAUTION ficer remain with the people’s mandate in the same party he was elected or forgo his mandate if he crosses over to another party. The APC cannot await the pleasure of Ayade speculated move to decamp to the APC before putting its house in order. The APC leadership should, through its Strategic and Intelligence Committee, find out why Ayade resumed with vigour PDP stakeholders meeting at the Government House to counter the possible defections of big names like ex-Gov Donald Duke, Clement Ebri, former Senate Leader Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN), immediate past commissioner in the NDDC, Hon Paul Ada, Ntufam Peter Oti, Special Adviser on Budget to Imoke and Chairman of CRS, IRS and a host of others. The national leadership of the APC should be aware that the PDP in Cross River is mocking Cross River chapter of APC with Ayade going above it reach APC national hierarchs to consummate the nomination of Pastor Usani Usani using Rotimi Amaechi. We see this as a decoy to further aggravate the bad blood

in the APC family. However, it is pertinent to remind the APC national hierarchs that Cross River State APC is anxious and determined to forge ahead and, therefore, needs to be encouraged to utilize the appointment of Pastor Usani Usani and subsequent ones to give the party a new face. The party is crying for a vibrant, experienced, moderate and independent person to lead the state chapter of the party. If as is posited that Ayade would soon join the APC, he should join an already stable and focused APC. The APC in Cross River State is not lacking in quality membership but only needs quality leadership to forge and avert the possible danger signals of extinction by the likelihood of the PDP using Ayade to undermine the party. The APC is desirous of a honest legacy for its future members. The speculated advances by Ayade to join the APC with PDP mandate must be treated with caution. Our elders say that a word is enough for the wise and that the wise-man hears and get wiser. Ayade is speculated to be warming up to join the APC; the same Ayade has a list of commissioner-nominees across the 18 local governments of the state without an APC member. I wish to repeat that the APC leadership should not fall prey to the antics of Ayade. This will portend danger to us, and I say boldly that at the fullness of time, Ayade will not key into APC vision. Chief Eteng is a chieftain of APC in Cross River

Prof Danbatta: The right peg in NCC’s hole KOFAR NASSARAWA

eedless stating that Nigeria has had a succession of eminently qualified technocrats to run the nation’s telecommunications sector since its liberalisation. Beginning from the pioneer executive Vice Chairmanship of Engr. Ernest Ndukwe in February 2000, who served for two terms of five years each to the immediate past tenure of Dr. Eugene, Juwah whose term began in 2010, and the incumbent, Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, who is just about settling down to a daunting task, these men have each paraded intimidating career profiles. Ndukwe had the hard task of laying a working foundation for private sector driven, public sector regulated telecoms sector, an operation which for the sheer scale and dynamics of the Nigerian economy, was no mean task. Juwah took on the responsibility of sustaining the gains and deepening the growth in the sector; and Prof. Danbatta is expected to prepare a blueprint that will aid the realisation of the broadband master-plan as well as straighten out many regulatory oversights that should deliver to Nigerians world class telecoms and ICT services. Called to duty on August 4, 2015, Prof. Danbatta is a thorough-bred academic, well-grounded in the lecture theatre as well as in university administration. For 28 years he worked as a lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Technology, Bayero University Kano,

PROF. DANBATTA IS EXPECTED TO PREPARE A BLUEPRINT THAT WILL AID THE REALISATION OF THE BROADBAND MASTER-PLAN

where he taught courses in telecommunications engineering and electronics. At different times, he held appointments as the Head of Department and Dean of the Faculty of Technology. He also served as the Deputy and Acting Dean of Students’ Affairs, Administrator of the Works and Estate Department and Director of the Centre for Information Technology (CIT), the university’s ICT hub. A hands-on administrator, he was at various times chairman or member of more than 60 university committees and task forces. Outside Bayero University, he served as chairman or member to over 20 committees, prominent among which was the chairmanship of the Implementation Committee of Kano State University of Science and Technology, Wudil, after which he was appointed as pioneer deputy and acting vice-chancellor when the university took off in 2001. It is from Science and Tech University he got “poached” for a bigger national assignment. Born in Danbatta Local Government Area of Kano State, Prof. Danbatta obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering, Master

of Science and doctorate degrees from the Technical University of Wroclaw in Poland and the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, United Kingdom, respectively. He has tutored more than 60 PhD, MEng and BEng projects in the diverse areas of telecommunications and has also served as external examiner to seven universities and polytechnics. He is an assessor, technical reviewer and editorial member to eight research journals. He is a recipient of 18 distinguished awards and certificates of honour. A COREN registered engineer and member of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Prof. Danbatta, served two terms of five years as a member of Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN). He has to his credit more than 50 articles in journals, conference proceedings and technical reports. He is also the author of a six-chapter, 167-page book titled Elements of Static Engineering Electromagnetics. He was the Vice President of the Digital Bridge Institute (DBI), International Centre for Advanced Communications Studies, which was established in 2004 by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) to build capacity for the Nigerian/African telecom industry in the diverse areas of information and communication technology (ICT). While at DBI Danbatta developed expertise in major areas of ICT implementation, policy and regulation including: Regulation of the Telecommunications Sector of the Nigerian Economy; Competition, Interconnection and Price Regulations in a

Developing Economy; Issues concerning Authorization of Telecommunications Services in a Developing Economy; Strategies for ensuring Universal Access and Service to Telecommunications Services; Strategies towards Effective Spectrum Management in a Developing Economy; Issues on Institutional and Legal Framework for Effective Regulation of Telecommunications Services; and New and Emerging Technologies and Impact on Regulation of the Telecommunications Sector of a Developing Economy. Like his two predecessors, Prof. Danbatta’s feet are primed for the shoes he now has to wear. To use a cliché, he is a square peg in a square hole. One’s optimism is also boosted by the fact that he has firsthand experience with the Digital Bridge Institute. This means that with the Nigerian Communications Commission under his charge, there are possibilities for the greater involvement of local inputs in the ICT sector. It is, therefore, in order to welcome Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta to his new assignment and wish him resounding success on the beat. Kofar-Nassarawa, a businessman, wrote from Kano.

Send your views by mail or sms to PMB 10001, Ikoyi, or our Email: mail@ nationalmirroronline.net mirrorlagos@ yahoo.com or 08164966858 (SMS only). The Editor reserves the right to edit and reject views or photographs. Pseudonyms may be used but must be clearly marked as such.

Editorial

Monday, November 9, 2015

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All the Facts, All the Sides A PUBLICATION OF GLOBAL MEDIA MIRROR LTD BARRISTER JIMOH IBRAHIM, CFR PUBLISHER

SUNDAY OLAJIDE MANAGING DIRECTOR/CEO BEN MEMULETIWON ACTING DAILY EDITOR GBEMI OLUJOBI SATURDAY EDITOR AYO OLESIN SUNDAY EDITOR DOZIE OKEBALAMA COORDINATOR, EDITORIAL BOARD CALLISTUS OKE EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR OBIORA IFOH ACTING ABUJA BUREAU CHIEF AUGUSTUS IMEKAN ACTING HEAD, GRAPHICS

On Enugu government’s Prado Jeeps’ bazaar

couple of days ago, organised labour in Enugu State cried blue murder to protest Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi’s Prado Jeeps’ bonanza for members of the state’s House of Assembly and other political appointees. The Joint Public Service Negotiating Council (JPSNC), Enugu State wing, comprising labour leaders drawn from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), in a letter they addressed to Governor Ugwuanyi, which they also leaked to the media, said it was unacceptable for the state administration to buy official vehicles of over N11 million each for the said officials, when its workers were not only receiving meagre salaries and allowances, but were being owed backlogs of gratuity and pension. The letter credited to the State Chairman and Secretary of the JPSNC, Comrades Igbokwe C. Igbokwe; and Theo Obasiana, respectively, condemned the gesture as ‘the harvest of Prado Jeeps’, whereas the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), officially approved N5.3 million as car loan for each state assembly member. “We also call on His Excellency to pay all outstanding workers demands, as what is sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander”, Igbokwe and Obasiana stated. But no sooner had organised

labour slammed the Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) bonanza than Enugu State information managers stormed the media to paper over the cracks. In one report in defence of the act, the SUV galore was dismissed as a calculated attempt by political foes to tar Governor Ugwuanyi’s image and incite the state’s workforce against his administration. In another breath, it was claimed, how despite the dwindling revenue profile of Enugu State, Ugwuanyi’s administration had ensured workers received their salaries on the 25th of every month. Nonetheless, the state is yet to settle an inherited debt of N32 billion in outstanding salaries for non-permanent staff, pension and pension arrears and subventions for parastatals, etc. But the governor was said to have not just made arrangements to access the N4.2 billion Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) bailout fund to offset the state’s liability to workers, but have personally invited and consulted organised labour on how the fund would be utilized, a development tagged as “a new beginning for Enugu State workers”, among other pro-Ugwuanyi arguments. In addition, were claims by the Enugu State Commissioner for Information, Dr. Godwin Udeuhele; and the House Leader, Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, that the Toyota Prado

BUT SHOULD THE GOVERNMENT SO

PREFER, IT SHOULD BE PREPARED TO GO THE WHOLE HOG TO RAISE SUFFICIENT REVENUE TO SUSTAIN THE EXTRAVAGANCE

SUVs were not procured for the legislators as personal property, but were assigned to them from government vehicle pool for their committees, on the condition that the vehicles would be returned to the pool at the end of their tenure. Indeed, the JPSNC was said to have withdrawn its hard-line position on the matter. Igbokwe, for instance, was quoted as saying on behalf of the workers: “We met with His Excellency, who gave us clarifications on the scheme of the project; and at the end of the day, we discussed and reconciled the issue. Let me commend His Excellency’s modus operandi because each time there are issues, he makes out time to bring people to make explanations. The governor discussed extensively with us and we are satisfied with his explanations”. There is no basis as yet to doubt the integrity of Igbokwe and his team, since they alone enjoyed the entire details of the explanations as

ON THIS DAY November 9, 2005 Suicide bombers attacked three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 60 people and injuring 115 others. The explosions at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson SAS Hotel, and the Days Inn started at about 20:50 local time (18:50 UTC) at the Grand Hyatt. The three hotels were often frequented by foreign diplomats. The bomb at the Radisson SAS exploded in the Philadelphia Ballroom during a wedding.

Letters tothe theEditor Editor Letters to

November 9, 2007 The German Bundestag passed the controversial data retention bill mandating the storage of citizens’ telecommunications traffic data for six months without probable cause. This implies the storage of call detail records (CDRs) of telephony and internet traffic and transaction data (IPDRs) by governments and commercial organizations. In the case of government data retention, the data stored is usually of telephone calls, etc.

a special privilege. But there could be no smouldering smoke without fire underneath. Ours seems a country where public office holders appear congenitally and unrepentantly married to frivolities and obscene profligacy at the expense of public coffers. It is not quite long that one of the oil-bearing states in the Niger Delta, said to be indebted to the tune of N500 billion, was accused of prodigally frittering away N3.7 billion to celebrate its 28 anniversary. Presently, most states are at their wits’ end struggling to stay afloat, as the country is dangerously dangling on the brink of economic recession. Some others are in dire financial straits that they cannot meet their salary obligations to their workers, even with the bailout funds the Federal Government has doled out to them. And Enugu State seems no exception, considering the N32 billion outstanding salaries’ yoke the Ugwuanyi government inherited. It will therefore be the height of tomfoolery for the Ugwuanyi administration to seek to rob Peter to pay Paul in the application of Enugu State resources. But should the government so prefer, it should be prepared to go the whole hog to raise sufficient revenue to sustain the extravagance. This seems the only panacea for industrial peace in the state in the long run.

x November 9, 2012 At least 27 people were killed and dozens others wounded in conflicts between inmates and guards at Welikada prison in Colombo, Sri Lanka. The riot broke out during a search for illegal arms. This prison riot was the worst in Sri Lanka’s history since the 1983 riot, also at Welikada Prison, which left 53 prisoners dead. Welikada Prison which houses around 4,000 prisoners has witnessed a number of violent riots in its history.

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Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

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Cover

Kari

okezie

Insurance Sector: Stakeholders advocate corporate governance, best practice for growth The increasing level of non compliance to regulations by insurance firms, lack of infrastructure, poor technological adoption among other challenges may continue to hinder the industry from optimal performance. Udo Onyeka reports

he revelation by National Insurance Commission, NAICOM, that few weeks to the end of 2015, many insurance companies even the big organisations such as AXA Mansard, Custodian And Allied Insurance; Leadway Insurance; Royal Exchange Insurance Company among others have not submitted its 2015 third quarterly, Q3, returns to the Commission, shows that the insurance sector to a large extent do not comply to regulatory provisions.

The commission which disclosed this in a notice posted on its official website said that between October 13 and 21, 2015, only eight Insurance firms submitted their 2015 Q3 returns. The companies listed on the website as having submitted 2015 Q3 returns are Cornerstone Insurance; ARM Insurance; FBN Life; Fin Insurance; KBL Insurance, Lasaco Assurance; Oasis Insurance and Wapic Insurance. Aside the firms that have complied; over 50 other insur-

ance firms are yet to submit their 2015 third quarter Annual Accounts and Returns to the commission. According to NAICOM there are even those who are yet to submit second quarter, Q2 financials. Some of the firms in this category include Alliance UDO ONYEKA, CO-ORDINATOR BUSINESS COURAGE udonyeka@gmail.com c

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& General Insurance, Goldlink Insurance; Spring Life Assurance Plc among others, adding that the three firms mentioned above and some others have also not submitted first quarter, Q1 returns. However it was gathered that failure by any of the firms to submit financial returns to the commission as at when due attracts a fine of N5,000 daily. Stakeholders especially shareholders have said that the level of contraventions by insurance firms show that many of them may be lacking good corporate governance. President Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, PSAN, Boniface Okezie told Business Courage that it would be difficult for the insurance companies to give out good dividends to their shareholders after paying so much to regulatory authorities for contraventions. “It is worrisome at the rate which insurance firms fail to comply with NAICOM’s deadline on submitting returns. This issue here is that these operators and managers of these defaulting companies at the end of the day deep their hands into the company’s fund to pay these fines which in most cases are avoidable”, he said. Okezie lamented the colossal waste to the companies and their shareholders as the fines run into millions of naira. Many watchers of the industry say the delay by insurance firms to submit returns to NAICOM has become a recurrent issue. For instance nine underwriting firms were unable to submit their 2014 accounts for approval, five months after the deadline given to them to do so. To this end, the affected underwriting firms are now paying monetary fines to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC and NAICOM, for their failure to meet their deadline given to them by these regulatory agencies. NAICOM had put its deadline for full year account submission to 30th of June, while NSE required listed underwriters to submit their accounts to it latest by 31st of March of which these firms were unable to comply with. Also as at July 30, 2014, the insurance regulator, had revealed that 40 insurance companies under its supervision were yet to secure approvals for their financial reports for the year ended December 31, 2013, six and half months into (2014), the current year. This was in breach of the June 30, 2014 deadline set for the submission and approval of financial reports for the preceding year.

Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

Daniel

Out of the 57 insurance and 2 reinsurance companies licensed by NAICOM, only 19 have had their 2013 financial reports approved by the commission as mandated by relevant insurance laws as at July 9, 2014. NAICOM had said 19 others were at various stages in the approval process, while 21 insurers were yet to make initial submission of their 2013 financials to the regulatory body as at July 7, 2014. Assistant Director, Corporate Communications at NAICOM, Mr. Salami Rasaaq, made this known recently in a statement titled, “Submission Status of 2013 Financial Statements of Insurance Companies as at July 9, 2014”. As at that date, only 19 insurers have had their 2013 financials approved by NAICOM including the life and general subsidiaries of Custodian and Allied Insurance, Wapic Insurance and Zenith Insurance respectively. Other insurers who have secured regulatory approvals for their 2013 financials were composite companies, Mansard Insurance, Leadway Assurance, AIICO Insurance, Niger Insurance and Continental Reinsurance Plc. Two life insurers, FBN Life Assurance and UBA Metropolitan Life Assurance have had their 2013 financial reports approved by the commission as well as general insurers, Sovereign Trust Insurance, Cornerstone Insurance, NSIA Insurance (formerly ADIC Insurance), Regency Alliance Insurance, Law Union & Rock Insurance and Oasis Insurance.

The 2013 financial reports of two companies, Royal Exchange General and Royal Prudential Life were being reviewed by the commission. The reports of five other insurers have been queried and their responses were yet to reach the commission as at that date. They are Lasaco Assurance, Lasaco Life Assurance, Linkage Assurance, Nem Insurance and Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation”, Rasaaq, had said. Also 2012 financial reports by insurance firms were also delayed. NAICOM had stated that with less than five days to June 30 submission deadline required for insurance companies to submit their 2012 financial statement, 41 companies are yet to comply. The insurance regulator had noted that only three companies, which include Mansard Insurance Plc, ADIC Insurance and Wapic Insurance Plc, have submitted and gotten approval on their 2012 financial statement. The commission reported that financial statements of companies such as FBN Life Assurance Ltd, AIICO Insurance Plc and Oasis Insurance Plc are presently been queried and are as such awaiting their responses. NAICOM has maintained strict reporting standard in the financials of insurance companies. Immediate past Commissioner for insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel had said the commission would never approve any account that fails to meet the required standard. Apart from the issue of good corporate governance which

many alleged are in short supply in the insurance industry, experts have said low adoption of modern technology and lack of adequate infrastructure are some major challenges of the sector. Commissioner for Insurance, NAICOM, Alhaji Mohammed Kari recently called on stakeholders and especially in insurance to invest in technology for economic growth, noting that such adoption will positively impact the operations of all sectors of the economy. Speaking at the maiden conference on Management, Technology and Development of the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, ATBU, in Bauchi, Kari said technology and its application was one of, if not the the main driver that can fast track any meaningful development. The NAICOM boss added that there is no denying that the changes in technology have affected most industries worldwide, adding that globalisation, which dominates the world today, was influenced mainly by information technology. According to him, Information technology, IT, has transformed the process of production, product design, raw materials sourcing, transport, manufacturing, health care, marketing, service delivery and even general management. He further said industrial competitiveness has enabled countries to increase their presence in international and domestic markets whilst developing industrial sectors and activities with higher value added and technological content. Stating that incentivising and facilitating businesses, particularly Small to Medium Enterprises, SMEs, to efficiently adopt new technologies can further lift innovation, productivity growth and competitiveness, he noted that improving collaboration in Nigeria, between businesses and publicly funded research institutions including the universities, would significantly enhance innovation. International collaboration, according to him, was also critically important, adding that domestic and international collaboration would improve the productivity and competitiveness of Nigerian technologybased firms. He noted that technological innovation is key to building industry competitiveness, through increasing productivity and reducing costs, realising commercial opportunities from research investment, and creating new areas of competitive advantage. He also called on the authorities of the university to reach out to insurance sector and ensure some relationship is developed.

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According to many stakeholders the partnership between NAICOM and the Nigerian Customs Service, NCS, would to tackle fake insurance certificates, enhance revenue generation and ensure a hitch free settlement of claims. The duo entered into the agreement when a delegation led by Commissioner for Insurance, NAICOM, Mr Mohammed Kari, visited the Comptroller General, NCS, retired Col. Hameed Ibrahim Ali in Abuja. Kari said the partnership would enable NAICOM to advise and guide customs properly so that the insurance industry could increase the services provided to importers and users of NCS services in Nigeria. The commissioner said NAICOM was mandated by law to provide advice to government and its agencies on matters of insurance. “Our role is to advise MDAs free of charge on the best way to package insurance, what to insure, how to price insurance and identify a very good intermediary to place businesses through, and ’’he said. Kari urged the customs to allow the commissions have access to its electronic portal to enable them identify and track down fake insurance certificates issued to importers. “There are a lot of fake certificates out there, and the certificates need to be confirmed as genuine. The custom service just arbitrarily charge 1.5 per cent of the imported goods for marine insurance for importation through the water ways and they charge 0.5 per cent for importation through the air ways,” he stated. Unfortunately, he said those premiums charged are not transferred further to the insurance industries, as they are kept in the customs services. Experts however have said that insurance sector globally is indeed going through difficult times. The experts, who spoke at an AM Best event in the UK capital, warned insurance buyers that service levels may fall as a result of recent market consolidation. Executive Deputy Chairman of XL Group, Mr Stephen Catlin, said that a number of factors are currently at play in UK that could result in the erosion of insurer capital. “In my view we are in a very unstable situation,” Mr Catlin told delegates at AM Best’s European Insurance Market Briefing. Yet we continue to kid ourselves of where we are at, he said. Catlin painted a picture of today’s competitive insurance market, noting that it faces the prospect of increased losses, lower reserve releases and continued low investment returns.BC

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Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

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News Intels, Orleans raise $6.7bn in revenue for FG

Eni confirms new gas discovery offshore Congo

ntegrated Logistics Services, Intels, Ltd., a major oil and gas cargo handling company and its holding company, Orleans Invest, has raised about $6.7bn or N1.31trn for federal government in 30 years. Mr Isidore Sambol,spokesperson of the company disclosed in Lagos that Intels and Orleans contributed immensely toward the economic growth of the nation. He said the revenue was generated through separate development activities of the companies at the Onne Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone in Rivers. Apart from revenue generation, Sambol said Intels and Orleans Invest had also attracted a 7 billion-dollar ,N1.37trn, worth of Foreign Direct Investments ,FDIs, into the country. He said Intels, which began operations 33 years ago in Nigeria had created about 8,000 direct employment and 15,000 indirect employment opportunities. Sambol said Intels had achieved substantial transfer of technology with strict adherence to the Nigerian content development policy. He said that not less than 170 other companies had been carrying out various kinds of businesses at the Onne Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone and supporting the upstream and downstream sectors of the country’s oil and gas sector. Sambol said the 170 companies had generated a total of 20,000 direct employment opportunities and 50,000 indirect job opportunities. He said the zone had contributed so much in the efforts to put the country in the oil and gas map of the world. According to Sambol, the zone has been adjudged as the single largest and fastest growing free trade zone dedicated to the oil and gas industry globally. The Intels spokesman said that part of the infrastructure development project was being carried out in the zone. Sambol said this would soon lead to the inauguration of Onne Port Multi-Centre of the Orlean Invest. According to him, this will comprise a 120-bed five star accommodation facilities; a 1,200 seating capacity international conference auditorium and 200-seater meeting rooms, a training academy and an exhibition hall. Sambol said the other infrastructure development projects in the zone include the standardisation and expansion of Phase 4B of the Onne Port Complex. He said these include: dredg-

L-R: Director of Customs Department of Trade, Customs and Free Movement, ECOWAS Commission, Mr, Salifou Tiemtore; Chief Client Engagement Officer, Ecobank Nigeria, Jolone Okorodudu; Acting Deputy Managing Director, Corporate Bank, Ecobank Nigeria, Ms Foluke Aboderin; Assistant Comptroller, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Anthony Ayalogu and Managing Director, Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS), Adebisi Shonubi at the Ecobank Corporate Bank Trade Forum in Lagos recently

ing and reclamation works for the construction of an additional jetty with 12 to 19 berths and a 12-metre draft at low water tide.

Union Bank unveils new banking solutions at Lagos fair

ollowing the recent unveiling of Union Bank’s new identity and in its bid to make banking simpler and smarter for customers and prospects, the Bank has announced that it is participating in the 2015 edition of the Lagos International Trade Fair to showcase its simpler and smarter banking solutions and also its rebranded service delivery. According to Union Bank Group Head, Retail Cluster, Lagos Island, Nwamaka Mike Nwoke the trade fair provides the bank the opportunity to demonstrate its simpler, smarter banking solutions to the general public. “The solutions range from instant account opening with immediate account number issuance, instant debit card issuance, robust e-banking solutions and quick and easy access to loans”, she said. Nwoke also said that a new product tagged UnionKorrect, is being offered at the Trade Fair. UnionKorrect is a savings product which is aimed at helping customers develop a savings culture. UnionKorrect allows customers to save towards a goal and gives them the opportunity to win extra cash of up to N1m in quarterly draws while they save. Also speaking on the Bank’s participation in the Trade Fair, the Head of Corporate Affairs & Communication at Union Bank, Ogochukwu Ekezie-

Ekaidem said “One of our critical focus areas as a Bank is to significantly improve our customer experience at all touch points.Our product and service offerings is one of the first phases of improvementand this has clearly yielded the desired results with high subscription recorded with the UnionKorrect product launched recently. The Union Bank mini branch at the fair will offer customers and prospects all the banking products and services available at the banking halls. Visitors to the Union Bank stand will enjoy high quality service and improved customer experience.” She said. Organised by the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Lagos International Trade Fair is the largest Trade Fair in the West African Subregion and attracts more than a hundred thousand business visitors over a ten day period. It offers a unique exposition for manufacturers, suppliers, buyers and users of a wide range of goods and services as well as opportunities for investment and trade promotion. This years’ edition has the theme “enhancing value addition in the non-oil economy”.

Systems. The statement from the company further explained that the campaign is designed to endear passengers to the airline and it will run from November 4, 2015 to January 30, 2016, adding that a lucky draw will be done using ticket numbers of passengers onboard every flight. The ticket number to be pulled out goes home with a gift handed out in mid-flight. Commenting on the initiative, Managing Director of Arik Air, Mr. Chris Ndulue said: “This year Arik Air turns nine. We have grown to be the largest airline in Nigeria and West Africa on the strength of the trust and loyalty of the millions of travelers who have chosen Arik Air as their preferred carrier. It is only fitting that we recognize such deep loyalty and reward it. That is the whole essence of the #ArikCares Give-Away.” Jide Alade, Associate Vice President – Marketing & Communications, added further: “Nothing you do for your customers can be too much. So, while giving out an iPhone 6S or a 3D TV mid-flight seems pretty cool, a smile of satisfaction on a passenger’s face is worth much more than a million 3D TVs to us. ”

Arik Air rewards passengers with gifts

rik Air, a leading carrier in West and Central Africa, is rewarding passengers with surprise gifts mid-flight in what the company calls the ArikCares Special Give-Away. The gifts to be given out according to the airline includes a number of iPad Air 2, iPhone 6S, Beat by Dre headphones, laptops, 20-megapixels/1080p cameras, 3D Smart TVs and 3D Blu-ray Home Cinema

Ndulue

il giant Eni has reportedly made a new discovery of gas and condensates offshore Congo, in the exploration prospect of Nkala Marine. The field is located in Marine XII block, about 20 kilometers from the coast and 3 kilometers from the Nene Marine field, already in production. The finding, realized through the Nkala Marine 1 well, is expected to have a potential of 250-350 million barrels of oil equivalent in place. During the production test, the well provided over 300,000 standard cubic meters per day (sm3d) of gas and associated condensates. The well, drilled in a water depth of 38 meters, encountered a major gas and condensates buildup in the pre-salt clastic geological sequence of lower Cretaceous age, crossing a hydrocarbon column of 240 meters. Eni will be starting the evaluation of Nkala Marine through new delineation wells. In the meantime, together with the joint venture partners, the company will start studies for its commercial development which is framed in a context of optimized exploitation of the oil and gas discoveries in the Marine XII permit. The exploration of the presalt sequences continues to deliver new discoveries all along the West Africa’s margin and confirms Eni’s exploration technologies effectiveness, given the technical complexity of these plays. Eni estimates the resources in place of oil and gas discoveries made in the pre-salt Marine XII block to be approximately 5.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent (bboe). The production of the block, begun last December, is increasing and it currently stands at around 15,000 boe per day. Eni, through its subsidiary Eni Congo, is the operator of Marine XII block with a 65 percent stake. The other partners are New Age, with 25 percent stake, and the Congolese state company Societé Nationale des Pétroles du Congo (SNPC), with 10 percent stake. Eni has been present in Congo since 1968 and its current production in the country is about 110,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. Eni has also been present in Sub Saharan Africa since the ’60s and has been operating in exploration and production projects in Angola, Congo, Ghana, Gabon, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Republic of Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Ivory Coast and South Africa.

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LCCI urges FG on diversification of economy

Customs to reopen Gamboru Ngala, Banki posts

he President, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, LCCI, Alhaji Remi Bello,has advised the Federal Government to explore the potential in non-oil sector to diversify the economy. He made the call at the opening ceremony of the 2015 Lagos International Trade Fair in Lagos on Friday. Bello said that the economic challenges in the country which arose from the dwindling prices of crude oil had made diversification of the economy very crucial now. He said that reports from the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, showed that the non-oil sector drove the growth of the economy with a contribution of 90.20 per cent to the GDP in the second quarter. The LCCI President said that with the theme of the fair: “Enhancing Value Addition in the Non-oil Economy”, attention would be drawn to development of non-oil exports as a way of improving the country’s earnings. He said that the fair would provide a platform for exposing the alternatives and their value addition to the growth of the economy. Bello urged the government to fix impediments to the growth of non-oil economic activities and also focus on opportunities in value addition business to boost growth. Mr Jani Ibrahim, the VicePresident of NACCIMA, urged the government to develop young entrepreneurs from the university so that that they could add value to the country’s economy.

‘RUFIN facilitates disbursement of N1bn to rural dwellers’

he Rural Finance Institution Building, RUFIN, programme has facilitated the disbursement of one billion naira to rural dwellers since the inception of the programme in 2011. The Deputy National Coordinator, Mrs Unekwu Ufaruna, disclosed this during a courtesy call on the Deputy Governor of Imo, Eze Madumere, in Owerri on Friday. She said the disbursement was facilitated through groups’ lending methodology, which extended credit facilities to these groups without collaterals. ”Since we started, about a billion naira has been extended to the rural poor; we have formed over 500 groups and 280 are women groups.

L-R: One Day Deputy Governor Abdullaidi Faaizi, One Day Governor Ifeoluwa Sonoiki, Public Relations & Events Manager, Dufil Prima Foods Plc, Mr. Tope Ashiwaju and Indomie Marketing Manager, Mrs. Zara Khan during visit of the One Day Governor to the corporate head office of Dufil Prima Foods in Surulere Lagos recently

``Some members of the group have access to loans for about 10 times without defaulting; they are expanding their businesses and employing more hands. ``In Imo, about 1,200 jobs had been created in the last two years. ``We also emphasise on saving culture among the groups and over N500, 000 internal servings had been mobilised, `` she said. Ufaruna explained that under RUFIN, there is a loan agreement programme between the Federal Government and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD. According to her, the objective is to build informal rural finance institution known as ‘esusu’ or Village Savings Groups and link them to formal Microfinance Institutions to access funds. She said this was targeted at establishing viable rural financial institutions in rural areas to boost agriculture and commercial undertakings in the rural communities. The deputy national coordinator blamed rural poverty situation on lack of access to credit facilities, and not due to poverty of ideas. Also speaking, the leader of the supervision mission, Mr Suandip Sahin, stated that the mission was to evaluate progress made over the years and recommend areas for improvement. He said evaluation of the project was crucial as it was standing at a vital position with one year and six months to the close of the first phase. Sahin noted that micro finance banks are viable tools to empower the rural people to realise their economic potential. The leader of the mission urged the state government to contribute the required

counterpart funds to enable the project achieve its aim of promoting financial inclusion in the state. Responding, the deputy governor appreciated RUFIN’s intervention, saying that many rural dwellers had benefited from several capacity building workshops organised by the programme. He said facilitating access to micro finance for rural dwellers was in line with the state government’s “factory factory factory, job job job” campaign promises of Gov. Rochas Okorocha. The deputy governor canvassed for the inclusion of Imo in the second Phase of RUFIN programme, saying that the present administration would be more focused in contributing its counterpart funds.

Lagos plans to manage agricultural wastes – Official

he Lagos State Government on Friday said that it was planning coordinated efforts to effectively manage agricultural wastes from its rural communities.

Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos State Governor

Special Adviser to the Governor on Community Development and Communications, Mr Kehinde Bamigbetan, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Lagos. Bamigbetan said that the existing waste disposing system in the rural areas was bad and pose health hazard to people in the communities. According to him, the state government, through the Ministry of Agriculture, would support community agriculture and help to coordinate the disposal of wastes generated from agricultural activities. ``Communities that are practicing home agriculture have been in existence for a long time. ``On a street you can have about ten people practicing fishing and poultry farming in a communal manner. ``Liquid and solid wastes are generated from such farms and are often released into the environment thereby making the community unhygienic. ``What that means is that such wastes can endanger the health of the rural dwellers,’’ Bamigbetan said. He also disclosed that many farmers in the state were being registered to be able to benefit from the government agricultural support programmes. According to him, the state Ministry of Agriculture will work closely with farmers, especially those in poultry section, to keep production figures with a view to tract productivity of the state agriculture sector. Bamigbetan noted that the state has invested a lot in the poultry section to be able to lead other states in production of eggs. He expressed the hope that the effort would stem the importation of eggs and other poultry products from neighbouring countries.

he Comptroller-General of Customs, retired Col. Hameed Ali, said the organisation would consider reopening the customs posts at Gamboru Ngala and Banki to fight arms influx and curtail insurgency. Ali said this at the sideline of his courtesy visit to defence formations, including the Defence Intelligence Agency ,DIA, Nigerian Air Force and Nigeria Police last week-end in Abuja. The comptroller-general said that for customs to achieve its target, it needed the support of the military, police and intelligent agencies. Ali said that smuggling of small arms and ammunition had to be prevented in view of the current insurgency in the country. He said that the essence of the visit was to further strengthen synergy between the police, intelligent agencies, service chiefs and customs, to have a safer country and a viable economy. Ali said that customs would consider reopening the border posts due to the request by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai. ``Why not, we will consider the post. We are here to know what their ,military, challenges are, what they want us to do as much as we want them to do certain things for us. ``If the post will provide the enabling environment for people to operate, we will consider that. ``Small arms importation or smuggling is endemic; it is a problem to all of us and the military. We are doing everything to make sure we stop this thing. ``Our biggest problem is insurgence and this thing has gone beyond small arms; now people import big arms, machine guns, rocket propel grenade launchers through the ports and water side. ``So we have responsibility to stop this people from coming in; if we can reduce the number of arms that gets into the country, we can assure Nigerians that there will be safety by the security,’’ Ali said. The customs boss called for the cooperation of the service chiefs to curb the influx of small fire arms and explosives across the over 4,000 kilometres borders in the country. Ali requested for training of customs officers on aircraft surveillance piloting, security intelligence, maritime logistics and army cooperation from the service. Buratai had requested for the reopening of the border posts at Gamboru Ngala and Banki to clear the activities of insurgence. BC

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Companies & Markets

Stanbic IBTC: FRC appeals court’s ruling

Stories by Udo Onyeka

he Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRC, has lodged an appeal, being dissatisfied with the orders of a Federal High Court restraining it from interfering in activities of the Stanbic IBTC Bank. In a notice of appeal the counsel to the FRC disagreed with the entire decision of the Federal High Court presided over by Justice Ibrahim Buba in suit no FHC/L/CS/1596/15. According to the FRC counsel, Idowu Sofola & Co, the honorable court erred in law by allowing the plaintiff to amend their Originating Summons in such a way that introduced new matters, thereby breathing life to a dead issue. The FRC also faulted the decision restraining the FRC from holding meeting with the Board of Directors of Stanbic IBTC, saying the decision purported to stop an action which time had already passed. According to a statement by FRC “The date of the ‘agreed’ meeting conveyed in the letter of invitation and which was sent to the First Respondent, FRC, for which they failed to attend had passed as at when the application for amendment was filed, which renders the matter to be no more than an academic

exercise”, the FRC held while declaring that it is trite law that court should not engage in academic exercise. “The FRC also based its appeal on the fact that the ”Court wrongly laid too much emphasis on the Central Bank of Nigeria letter dated 2nd November, 2015 which was irrelevant to the application before the

Court”. The FRC also faulted prayer C of the applicant which it describes as nebulous. It therefore prayed the Appellate Court to grant an Order setting aside the decision of the Federal High Court, Lagos Judicial Division contained in the Ruling of Honourable Justice Buba delivered on the Novem-

ber 4, 2015. The Federal High Court had granted the prayers of the plaintiff, STANBIC/IBTC, including an interlocutory injunction restraining FRC and its officers from “interfering with, or otherwise impeding, obstructing, molesting, harassing or hindering” the plaintiff’s operations.

Lamudi celebrates 2nd anniversary Leonard Okachie

L–R: Director, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Ms. Bennedikter Molokwu; , Executive Director, Business Development, The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Haruna Jalo-Waziri; , Ag. Group Managing Director, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Engr. Abdullahi Sule and Company Secretary/Legal Adviser, Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, Mrs. Chioma Madubuko, at Closing Gong Ceremony at the NSE

Keystone Bank empowers women entrepreneurs

s part of its continuous effort in supporting female entrepreneurs, Keystone Bank, through its Pink Network organised a training program aimed at growing the businesses of women entrepreneurs. The training, which held in Lagos, was termed PinkPreneur and it’s the first edition of sessions that would be held regularly. Various facilitators taught on efficiently using social media to promote businesses, business education and importance of creating a sustainable business structure as well educating the

participants on the benefits of the flagship Pink Account. One of the facilitators, the founder, Masterpiece Resource Development Centre, Mrs. Module Oyekunle spoke on discovering and developing their business and career ideas, gave participants business tips on properly setting up a business in Nigeria and the basic structures one must put in place to be able to succeed as well as using the Pink Marketplace to sell and expand their customer base. Speaking at the training, the Divisional Head, Product and

Marketing Support, Keystone Bank, Temitayo Olutoye said the bank is committed to supporting female entrepreneurs, which was the strategic reason for creating the Pink Network and the training sessions. On the benefits of the Pink Account, she said it is about financial inclusion and making it possible for women to express themselves. “It is also a simple account that speaks to the need of every woman. It is about speaking to the needs of women and bringing us together and letting us ex-

press ourselves, “she said. She also urged the participants to take advantage of its Ecommerce platform as well as the other benefits offered by this account to ease and encourage female entrepreneurs. “We also have mentors on the platform and those interested in shopping can go to the market place. Also, those interested in life materials can go to the resource centre. It is a unique platform and it is part of what the brand stands for. For us, it’s about passion, convenience and reliability”, Olutoye said. BC

We‘ll continue to support aviation sector – Medview

he Managing Director of Medview Airline, Alhaji Muneer Bankole has said the airline has made significant contribution to build capacity in the sector. Bankole who assessed his airlines input in stabilising the sector said it has extended so much in terms of capacity building in the aviation industry, stating that he is doing his utmost and would continue to train aircraft captains, first officers, engineers and other technical staff needed in the sector. He said he has lost many pilots to poaching noting however that

The court also ordered the FRC not to prevent the plaintiff or its subsidiaries “from carrying on with their lawful businesses.” The court further restrained the council from inviting the bank’s board of directors to any meeting in connection with the defendant’s statutory investigation of the plaintiff’s. BC

the sector is experiencing dearth of manpower and poaching. Bankole however observed that it is an industry where airlines feed each other while these pilots and engineers move on to greener pastures but stated that one sure way to counter loss of manpower is by continuous training. Nigeria started shorting out on qualified technical personnel after the liquidation of National carrier, Nigeria Airways. Many professionals, stakeholders are of the strong opinion that when the defunct carrier was still flying it accounted

for the training of almost of the technical staff that most airlines these days boast of and there is palpable fear that if this generation passes Nigeria will face a serious shortage in personnel. This according to experts implies that Nigeria would turn to expatriates that would cost the country a lot of capital flight adding to existing trend in aircraft and spare parts acquisition as well as maintenance of aircraft. Bankole, also a product of the defunct national carrier stated that he is not deterred as his airline is filling a void left open by the demise of the national carrier

and stated that Medview Airline will continue to train and retrain and churn out pilots and engineers. “We will continue to train, most of our pilots have been poached but that will not stop training. On airline already has eight (8) of my pilots, my captains and we will continue to train because that is the only way to sustain this industry.” Medview’s Director of Training Captain Ade Ayeni, who flew in the airline’s Boeing 767-300 stated that they keep training inhouse and improving the quality of services. BC

igeria’s leading real estate portal, Lamudi recently marked her second year of doing business both both globally and in Nigeria. The company, in a recent press briefing, discussed her exceptional growth in the Nigerian Real Estate Market as well as highlighted her focus for the coming year. Speaking on the theme, “Improving the quality of ours services”, the Managing Director of Lamudi Nigeria, Mr. Obi Ejimofo disclosed that the company recently carried out a survey which measured its user’s impressions of the quality of their website, mobile application and search features of the platform. According to him, over 90 per cent of users polled voted favourably for the design of the website, while more than 80 per cent of users surveyed indicated that they were pleased with the search and filter options of Lamudi’s online property platform Ejimofo noted that with innovative features such as Nigeria’s first toll-free property hotline, Dial4Home, and its recent online mortgage calculator, Lamudi has continually sought to make finding a dream home easier, quicker and more convenient for Nigerians. He, however, stated that for the company to maintain its position as Nigeria’s leading real estate portal, it must pay special emphasis on providing quality customer solutions at every touch point. “Steps taken so far to attain this goal include strengthening the quality of Lamudi agents. 15 per cent of our site users believe the response time from our agents is poor,”Ejimofo revealed, even as he stressed that the focus would set Lamudi apart from its competitors and solidify its market position by providing transparency and consistency to its users. BC

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Companies & Markets

More millionaires emerge in Sterling Bank’s promo Stories by Udo Onyeka

r. Abdullahi Haruna Babba from Kano and Mr. Umezinwa Philip Nonso from Lagos at the weekend respectively won N1 million each in the on-going New Sterling Plus Cash Reward Scheme. According to the Bank this brought to three the number of customers who have become millionaires through the Scheme. The Bank also said Mr. Ereku Luck Torise and Mr. Tarinabo Allagoa also won N500, 000 each at the draw attended by representatives from National Lottery Regulatory Commission, NLRC, Consumer Protection Council, CPC and the Lagos State Lotteries Board, LSLB. “The customers were selected via an electronic raffle draw held at the corporate head office of the Bank in Lagos. “The New Sterling Plus Cash Reward Scheme was introduced by Sterling Bank Plc in 2015 in fulfillment of the Bank’s promise to reward customer loyalty, encourage saving culture among Nigerians and promote financial inclusion”, A statement by bank said. In his response in Lagos, Mr. Umenzinwa Nonso commended the Bank for fulfilling its prom-

ise of rewarding customer loyalty adding that “this will remain memorable to me as long as l live as this will be a great support to my business”. “One can only imagine what is happening to me as this is a big surprise, in fact it can only be God. I found it very difficult to believe the news when l got a call from Sterling Bank that

l won a Million Naira. In fact, l couldn’t rejoice, I was just calm. I was still in doubt until this was reconfirmed to me when l got to my branch. All the same, l thank Sterling Bank for this gesture and assure that l will remain a good ambassador of the brand”, he said. To be part of the reward scheme, customers are required to maintain a minimum balance of N5,000 and to qualify for an electronic raffle ,e-raffle draw

ticket while every additional N5,000 deposit increases the number of e-raffle draw tickets. The Bank’s Group Head, Strategy & Communications, Mr. Shina Atilola explained that the New Sterling Plus is a hybrid offering with the promise of many goodies and freebies such as free Lenovo smartphones pre-loaded with cool financial and entertainment applications and cash rewards amongst others for individual customers. BC

L-R: Best Dressed Female, Miss Chidinma Odemina, wife of the Managing Director, Daroc Nigeria Limited, Mrs. Jumoke Hayat and the Best Dressed Male, Mr. Ikenna Nwachuckwu during the presentation of prize to the best dressed couple at the Denim Launch Party held recently in Lagos

Access Bank’s conference to support economic dev.

ccess Bank has said that its 2nd international leadership conference would provide an opportunity for young entreprenurs and youths to learn from international business leaders that have been billed for the event. Speaking to Journalist on Friday in Lagos, Executive Director Personal Banking Division, Access Bank, Victor Etuokwu who said that the first step to achieve great things is having an idea, noted that first as big player in the financial sector stands to gain if the country’s economy grows beyond the level it is now. “Access Bank is glad to play our role as important players in national affairs in terms of generation of ideas for the development of the country. “The conference we will gather expressional leaders in private and public sector. All around leadership as usual, we will gather the best around the world. This year’s theme is very timely not only for us as individuals but for our country”, Etuokwu said. He said life-changing innovation popping up in unexpected places around the globe with

breakthrough development in sectors such as nanotech, biotech, artifical intelligence, robotics and more, will affect every sector of the global economy in such a way that businesses will have nowhere to hide. The Executive Director said that the theme of this year’s conference is ‘Leading in a transformational world-the imperative of innovation’ and the inspirational leaders from the global private and public sectors will be discussing the major themes facing Africa, the world

economy and the social transformation created by changing technology. According to him, innovation means big change and even bigger opportunities for those who decide to be part of it. “As we are all experiencing it, innovation is moving at a speed that’s never been witnessed. With two billion internet users worldwide and 50 billion connected devices by 2020, innovative technology is definitely the defining trend for today’s business, he noted.

The bank said the conference which the second edition will hold December 10, 2015 in Lagos would feature representatives from around the world including Chris Hughes ,Facebook Co-founder, Steve Wozniak ,Apple Co- founder and Tony Fernades , founder and CEO of Air Asia . Key note speaker and Access Bank Chief Executive, Herbert Wigwe said he is delighted to welcome such a distinguished line-up of individauls to the Access Conference 2015. BC

Egbin Power station to establish industrial cluster

wners of Egbin power plant in Lagos are planning to build an industrial cluster that will guarantee stable power supply to industries. The hub will be provided with basic infrastructure to reduce overhead cost in the manufacturing chain. Kola Adesina, chairman of the company said in Lagos that the concept will take the shape of existing Export Processing Zones, EPZ, which

provides exporters and manufacturers the opportunity to conduct business in a seamless and cost efficient manner. “We intend to do this to support basically the Small and Medium Enterprises ,SME’s and this platform will guarantee steady supply of electricity which will certainly bring cost of production down significantly” he explained. Adesina also informed that the company is planning its training institute to reduce expenditure

in training personnel abroad. “We want to start rehabilitation of facilities in-country and boost local capacity by ensuring that all we need to bring in from outside and done locally” he said. He also said that apart from conventional power generation, the company is investing in renewable energy. “We want to run our housing estate with solar power to boost renewable energy in the country” he assured. BC

FirstBank restates commitment to entertainment, supports COSON

irst Bank of Nigeria Limited, through its First@ arts initiative has partnered the Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON, to hosting the on-going COSON Week 2015. According to by the Bank, partnership is in line with the Bank’s initiative to drive perception change, grow brand affinity among the youth and the upwardly mobile segment with great support for capacity building in the creative and performing arts industry. This year’s COSON Week which kicked off on Sunday, November 1, came to an end on Saturday, November 7, 2015. The statement also said the COSON Week 2015 attracted leaders and key players in the nation’s entertainment industry and raised-the-bar of entertainment in Nigeria. COSON Chairman, Chief Tony Okoroji said “COSON was established to put value to the intellectual property rights of Nigerian artistes and others who invest in the music industry. Lagos was lit up for seven days in a myriad of colours, and each of the seven back-to-back events will continue to be memorable in the minds of Nigerian entertainment lovers”. According to the Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, the partnership with COSON Week 2015 accentuates the Bank’s, and indeed, the FBNHoldings Group position to drive enterprise in the Nigerian economy and promote the development of creative and performing arts industry. “FirstBank is particularly interested in Arts and Culture and has established First@arts initiative as a platform dedicated to promoting arts and culture events”, she stated. BC

Ani-Mumuney

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Global News OER offsets $100m Afrexim loan facility

ando Energy Resources, OER, Inc with focus on oil and gas exploration and production in Nigeria has announced a $91m upsizing of its senior secured facility from $215m to $306m. The company also announced the repayment of its $100m African Export-Import Bank subordinated loan facilities, which were utilized in the financing of the $1.5bn acquisition of the ConocoPhillips Nigerian Oil and Gas Business in July, 2014. The $91m RBL Upsize was arranged by Standard Chartered Bank and African ExportImport Bank (“Afrexim”) as Mandated Lead Arrangers (“MLAs”) with participation from Standard Bank of South Africa Limited, Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and Natixis. The proceeds from the Upsize, along with cash on hand, were used to repay the $100 Million Afrexim Facility. Following the completion of these transactions, OER has total debt outstanding of $546m. The breakdown include, $306m outstanding under its RBL Facility, and $240 Million outstanding under its Corporate Facility. Combined with cash on hand, OER’s net debt position is $500m as of October 26, 2015, down 44 percent from $900m outstanding at the completion of the ConocoPhillips acquisition in July 2014. Commenting, CEO Oando Energy Resources, Pade Durotoye, said “The upsizing of the RBL loan is a true testament to the quality of the assets we acquired in July 2014. The cash flows from these assets have continued to pay down the Company’s post acquisition debt with the assistance of the value realized from the resetting of our hedge instruments, leaving a debt:equity ratio of 0.57 today, compared with 0.91 in July, 2014. OER remains focused on its financial and operational goals of strengthening its Balance Sheet and maintaining stable production levels through production optimization in these times of reduced oil prices and limited capital investment.”

Obama rejects Keystone XL pipeline in win for greens

.S. President Barack Obama on Friday rejected the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada in a victory for environmentalists who campaigned against the project

Obama

for more than seven years. “The pipeline would not make a meaningful long-term contribution to our economy,” Obama told a press conference. He said it would not reduce gasoline prices, and shipping “dirtier” crude from Canada would not increase U.S. energy security. The denial of TransCanada Corp’s more than 800,000 barrels per day project will make it more difficult for producers to develop the province of Alberta’s oil sands. It could also put the United States in a stronger position at global climate talks that start in Paris on Nov. 30 in which countries will aim to reach a deal to slow global warming. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, who determined the pipeline was not in the country’s interest before Obama’s final decision, said approving Keystone “would significantly undermine our ability to continue leading the world in combating climate change.” Keystone XL would have linked existing pipeline networks in Canada and the United States to bring crude from Alberta and North Dakota to refineries in Illinois and, eventually, the Gulf of Mexico coast. TransCanada first sought the required presidential permit for the cross-border section in 2008 but the proposal provoked a wave of environmental activism that turned Keystone XL into a rallying cry to fight climate change. Blocking Keystone became a litmus test of the green movement’s ability to hinder fossil fuel extraction in Canada’s oil sands.

Mauritius tourist arrivals rise to 10.4 pct in 10 months

he number of tourists visiting Mauritius rose to 10.4 per cent in October from the same period last year, with more arrivals from Asia, figures showed on Friday. Tourism is an important component of the economy and a key source of hard currency for the Indian Ocean island

state, best known for its luxury spas and beaches. Arrivals increased to 912,770 during the period, the ministry of Tourism said. Numbers from Asia rose 24.1 per cent to 166,487, with visitors from China up 42.4 per cent. “Barring any unexpected circumstances, we should attract an additional 100,000 tourists this year,” Xavier-Luc Duval, the minister of Tourism said in a statement. Last month Duval told media in an interview that a major focus was boosting numbers during the island’s winter season, by drawing more visitors from India, China, Africa and Russia. This period runs from June to September. The number of tourists visiting from Europe, which accounts for two-thirds, rose by 9.9 per cent to 487,487. Despite the rising numbers, central bank figures suggested tourist revenues in the first half had fallen by 3.5 per cent. The tourism minister said hotels had not seen a revenue fall and the central bank has said it is reviewing its figures.

Exclusive: Verizon weighing $10 billion sale of enterprise assets – Sources

erizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) is exploring a sale of its enterprise assets which could be worth as much as $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, as the largest U.S. wireless carrier seeks to focus on its core business. The sale would include the business formerly known as MCI, which provides landline and Internet services for large business customers, as well as Terremark, its data center unit, the people said this week. The businesses have struggled to keep up with advances in cloud computing, and faces fierce price competition from players such as Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O). Verizon’s enterprise assets might not be easy to separate and any potential buyer would likely have to sign commercial agreements with the company, some of the people said. Verizon is still considering how some of these asset sales could best be structured and no deal is imminent, the people added. Wireline provider CenturyLink Inc (CTL.N) was in talks with Verizon earlier this year to buy some of the assets but could not agree on terms, the people said. In a strategy shift, CenturyLink announced this week it would instead explore options for some of its data

centers, including possibly selling them. Citigroup Inc (C.N) has been advising Verizon on the possible sale of the assets, which have estimated annual earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of around $2 billion, the people added. The sources asked not to be identified because the matter is confidential. Verizon, CenturyLink and Citigroup declined to comment. The enterprise telecommunications industry has had to adapt in recent years to corporate customers seeking more sophisticated and cheaper offerings to manage their data. AT&T Inc (T.N) has been exploring a sale of its data center assets for some time, while Windstream Holdings Inc (WIN.O) sold its data center business for $575 million to TierPoint last month. Verizon Chief Financial Officer Fran Shammo said, during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Oct. 20, that it continues “to work through secular and economic challenges” with its global enterprise division, which posted a 4.9 percent decline in revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30. Verizon’s $8.4 billion acquisition of MCI was completed in 2006 following a fierce bidding war with Qwest Communications, which is now part of CenturyLink. It acquired Terremark Worldwide Inc in 2011 for $1.4 billion. Verizon has been looking to sell other non-core assets as well. In February, it announced the sale of residential landline assets to Frontier Communications (FTR.O) for $10.54 billion, and unloaded its tower portfolio for more than $5 billion.

VW to foot tax bill for carbon emissions blunder

he multi-billion-euro costs facing Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) rose on Friday when the German carmaker said it would foot the bill for extra taxes incurred by drivers because it understated the car-

Maria de Silva

bon dioxide emissions of about 800,000 cars in Europe. VW’s ability to push through its plans to make big spending cuts to pay for the emissions scandal was challenged by its works council, signaling an internal battle is looming at a company already assailed by regulators, investors and customers. The crisis, which erupted in September when Volkswagen admitted it had rigged U.S. tests for nitrogen oxide emissions, deepened this week when it said it had also understated the carbon dioxide emissions and fuel consumption of vehicles in Europe. In a letter to European Union finance ministers on Friday that was seen by Reuters, Chief Executive Matthias Mueller asked countries to charge VW rather than motorists for any extra taxes incurred in places where taxes were related to fuel usage or CO2 emissions. Some analysts have said that Volkswagen, Europe’s biggest carmaker, could face a bill as high as 35 billion euros ($38 billion) for fines, lawsuits and vehicle refits in the biggest business crisis in its 78-year history. To help meet some of those costs, VW has announced a 1billion-euro program of spending cuts. The head of its powerful works council said the announcement of the cuts had broken strict rules in Germany on consultation with workers, and demanded immediate talks with company bosses. “Management is announcing savings measures unilaterally and without any foundation,” works council chief Bernd Osterloh said in an emailed statement. VW also confirmed a third senior executive was leaving the company, following the departure of the former chief executive and the manager who had been designated to run VW’s North American business. Volkswagen said awardwinning design chief Walter Maria de Silva, responsible for the Golf G7 and Audi A5 among other models across the group, was retiring at the end of November. It did not name a successor. German business daily Handelsblatt, citing company sources, had earlier said the company planned to cut costs in de Silva’s department, which spends around 100 million euros a year. VW did not comment on the report. ‘HIGH PENALTIES’ Since the emissions scandal began, Volkswagen has been criticized by lawmakers, regulators, investors and customers frustrated at the time it is taking to get to the bottom of a crisis that has wiped almost a third off VW’s market value. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

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Brand Watch

Chi introduces handy packs for consumers David Audu

hi Limited makers of Chivita range of fruit juices has introduced a new Can Pack of the juice into the market. According to the Managing Director, Chi Limited, Deepanjan Roy, “the new and attractive 315ml can pack has a genuine consumer appeal and the feedback from the market has been fantastic. At the cost of N100, we are confident that the affordability, accessibility and convenience of this trendy, handy and On-the-Go Can packs would ensure that our consumers continue to get the same refreshing taste and nourishment”. According to Chi Limited, “the new Juice Can Pack which is

targeted at hip, trendy and Onthe-Go consumers is designed in a dynamic prismatic shape with an attractive cap that is well blended into the pack. Its handy size allows consumers to take it along with them wherever they go and fits into the lifestyle of young upwardly mobile consumers”. Explaining further, the motive for the introduction of the packs, Roy said, in “an ever dynamic market, innovation is crucial to differentiating a brand from the crowded pack. For a brand that has grown to become the market leader in Nigeria’s Juice and fruit drink market, it is imperative that innovative ideas drives the production, packaging and marketing of its products. CHI Limited recent introduction of

the “Can Pack” for their juice like Chivita 100%, Chivita Active and Chi Exotic is a reference point to how the brand has leveraged on consumer feedback to drive innovative and affordable packaging that suits their lifestyle”. He said consumers have extolled the Can Pack size for its elegance, convenience and shelf appeal. “They particularly appreciate its advantages over aluminum can packaging because it is easy to hold, pour from, and is far more environment friendly” Mr. Deepanjan stated With its range of high quality fruit juices like Chivita 100%, Chivita Active and Chi Exotic in the Can Pack, the story can only get more interesting for a brand that truly places premium on consumer needs and satisfaction

Roy

The 315ml Juice Can Packs are currently available in Chi Shoppe, departmental stores, Open Markets, Hotels and neighbourhood shops across Nigeria and retail at an affordable cost of N100. BC

Dangote at Lagos trade fair, showcases brands

s part of strategies to grow market share and expand customer reach, companies under the Dangote Group are storming the Lagos International Trade Fair which kicks off at the Tafawa Balewa Square, TBS, last week Friday and two other centers, all in Lagos. Companies from the Group that are exhibiting at the fair include Dangote Sugar Refinery, Dangote Agrosacks, NASCON Allied Industries Plc (Dangote Salt), Dangote Rice limited, Dangote Cement Plc, and Dansa Foods Limited among others. Some of the products displayed at the fair include Dangote sugar, Dangote salt, Danq (seasoning), tomato paste, various ranges of fruit juice products and bottled water from

Dansa Foods. Dangote Sugar will be offering customers different sizes of granulated sugar packs at the fair. A statement from corporate communications unit of Dangote Group, said the fair has become a veritable venue for introduction of new innovations to Dangote products and that visitors to the group pavilion at both fairs will have the opportunity of buying products of these companies at reduced prices. A unique offering from the Group in this year’s Lagos Trade Fair is the Dangote Combo pack. The pack contains products from the stable of different companies within the Group and is offered to participants at the fair at a reasonable discounted price. The statement indicated that,

Dangote

the economy pack which will contain household products like Dangote sugar packets, Salts, Dangote seasoning, Dansa Fruit juic products range would be combined in a pack at a giveaway price.

The combo pack, it stated further will offer participants at the fair an opportunity to purchase all consumable product range in Dangote Group in a single buy which demonstrates the company’s slogan of meeting peoples’ needs. Dangote Group is of the view that the trade fair is coming at an appropriate time which affords traders and dealers the opportunity to stock their shops for the fast approaching Christmas season while end consumers can also buy and stock for the season. Subsidiaries like Dansa Foods and NASCON will be hosting students on specific days. The student-visitors to the stand will get special gifts like pens, pencils, erasers and notebooks. BC

Legend Extra Stout empowers promo winner

ore winners emerge in the on-going Legend Extra Stout Taste and Tell campaign as Abdulrahman Shehu, a motorcycle operator became the latest winner of a generator. Speaking in Ilorin he said he will restart his barbing shop with his winning. Narrating his experience before winning the generator, Shehu said after his internship as a barber a couple of months back, there was no money to buy a generator to power his barbing shop. Hence, he veered into riding commercial motor bike, Okada, to raise money to buy one for his trade.. There were many winners but 26 year-old Shehu appeared to be the happiest because a

pressing need had been met. Speaking in an interview with journalists, he said he was deeply touched by the fortune that came his way. “I am very happy today because I have always wanted a generator for my barbing shop. Power is not constant and because of that, if you don’t have a generator, you can’t do the type of business I do. So I decided to lease and ride okada to raise money for the generator but today because of Legend I now have a generator for my business”, he enthused. He said he was excited to go back to his shop given the risks he had been exposed to while riding commercial motorcycle. Abdulrahman expressed appreciation to Legend Extra

Stout for empowering him via the Taste and Tell campaign. He said the unique consumer reward scheme has saved him from the hazards of okada business and pledged to continue patronizing the brand. Abdulrahman, alongside Ayo Samuel was able to taste and correctly identify Legend Extra Stout from three unmarked glasses containing three different stout brands in the Taste and Tell game. Ayo Samuel won a refrigerator for his effort. Similarly, other participants who correctly answered question relating to the brand in a question and answer session that night won prizes included LED television sets and other consolation prizes. The market activation offered

quality entertainment and relaxation for residents of Ilorin who trooped to Savannah hotel to witness the event. The Harmony Cultural Group displayed the rich cultural heritage of the Emirate with the Baalu dance. According to Music Director of the group, Dosu Babalola, the dance was specially performed to highlight and extol the qualities that make Legend Extra Stout Nigeria’s fastest selling stout brand. One of Nigeria’s finest music artists May D was on hand to thrill the crowd with a medley of his hit songs. The music act who was accorded a rousing welcome by the charged crowd kept them dancing and singing for a considerable period at the event. BC

Malta Guinness launches ‘You Vs ...’ campaign

alta Guinness has launched a new campaign tagged: ‘You vs...’to celebrate the everyday Nigerian who takes on typical everyday challenges with a smile and a spring in their feet. The campaign kicked off with commuters and several other road users woke up to find scores of BRT buses from Malta Guinness to help get them to their respective place of work for free. The fun didn’t stop there, as people on the buses were entertained by A-list comedians Elenu, Pencil and a host of others. In addition, the brand took the energy and excitement to the UBA Park at Apongbon market in Lagos to inspire people at market to take on their day and go about their activities with a can-do attitude. Performing at the event was Whayasay crooner Patoranking and Amin crooner Dammy Krane who gave the audience a lot of musical goodness. The Marketing Manager Malta & APNAD, Mr. Uche Onwudiwe, while explaining the significance of the campaign said the ‘You vs...’ campaign is Malta Guinness way of celebrating and inspiring Nigerians to keep up the can-do-spirit that enables them do more on a daily basis. We attempted to help relieve some of the challenges experienced in everyday life as was evidenced with the You vs. the Traffic earlier in the day; Traffic morning blues amongst other every day to day challenges. According to Onwudiwe, “Malta Guinness has been energising Nigerians for 25 years with natural goodness as they take on life’s everyday challenges. Whether it is traffic, the commute or the 8-5, whatever challenges life throws up, Malta Guinness is there to give you the energy and vitality to deal with it. Let’s Go Naija!” Currently broadcasting across Nigeria on national television, the new TV commercial: ‘You vs...’ which was launched alongside the campaign...’ features a modern day, Burna Boy version of the 80s classic hit, Pump Up The Jam, and it is purposely designed to excite Nigerians who take on every day with a smile as they tackle their everyday work life, inspiring everyone to take up the can-do spirit. The new television commercial will be accompanied by a new inspirational outdoor and radio as well as a number of on the ground activities to inspire people with that can do spirit, so Nigerians get ready!!! BC

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Business Courage

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, November 9, 2015

Energy Review

Stakeholders restate new refineries’ role in tackling products’ scarcity Despite the efforts of stakeholders, especially the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, some oil marketers still sell petrol at arbitrary prices. Udeme Akpan however reports that analysts believe that there is a growing need for new refineries in order to reduce abuses that have characterized the downstream sub-sector over the years.

Nigerian refinery

Obasi

sale of petroleum products at government regulated prices. This is in response to reported cases of panic buying in some Petrol Stations across the country. The DPR wishes to state that the current stock level of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) in depots nationwide is about 365million litres and we are also expecting over 800million seaborne litres to be discharged before the end of the week. This translates to a stock level for thirty (30) days’ supply.’’ “To further ensure the supply of products, DPR has fast tracked the grant of product import permits and vessel clearing process to aid rapid stock build up for importers. We hereby appeal to all Depots and Petroleum Product Retail Outlets nationwide to ensure that products are sold at government regulated price as the DPR will not hesitate to enforce necessary sanctions against any erring marketer. The General Public is hereby advised not to engage in panic buying as there is adequate supply of petroleum Products nationwide,’’ it added. Also, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC indicated that it has stepped up measures to eliminate fuel queues in some petrol stations across major

cities in the country with the injection of additional volumes of premium motor spirit, PMS to enrich product availability in the affected areas. The Corporation maintained that in line with its drive to ensure zero fuel queues ahead of the forthcoming yuletide and beyond, the Corporation is working assiduously with its downstream subsidiary company, the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, PPMC and other downstream players to consolidate the prevailing stability in the supply and distribution of fuel nationwide. However, many stakeholders have renewed their calls for the establishment of new refineries in the nation. One of them is the National President of the Oil and Gas Service Providers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Colman Obasi who traced the travails of the nation to its inability to meet domestic fuel needs. “Many previous administrations did not do much to construct new plants. The present government should give priority to building new refineries. This is the only way we can add value to our crude oil before it is exported to other nations. We cannot afford to export a bulk of our crude oil while importing refined products from other nations.” “If we continue to do so, we will be assisting to impoverish our people who pay high prices for the imported fuel. Moreover, we will be continuing to create many multiplier effects, especially employment, capacity building and adaptation of new technologies in other nations, “he added. The Chairman of International Energy Services Limited, Dr. Diran

‘

Fawibe, maintained that the nation’s environment has not been made attractive to investors as local and foreign investors can only invest in environments that can guarantee adequate returns on their investments. Fawibe indicated that investors would not invest in new refineries because the Federal Government still regulates the prices of many products, including petrol, a fiscal regime that is considered risky to long term investments in the sector. “The environment is heavily regulated. It is not like deregulation will solve all our problems, but it is very critical. The regulatory environment will stifle any investment and so I don’t see anybody investing to build refineries until we address those fundamental issues.” “We are making effort, but we have not provided the right environment yet. In terms of power, you know we are not getting power right. In terms of regulation, we are still grappling with the Petroleum Industry Bill. In terms of funding, most Nigerian banks do not like to invest in long term projects, “he added. More than that, a Port Harcourtbased energy analyst, Mr. Bala Zaka, stressed that a lot could be done to change the situation. The energy analyst maintains that the government can invest part of its huge funds currently used in paying fuel subsidy to establish new refineries in selected parts of the nation and later sell them to private investors. Zaka indicated that this strategy should be adopted because it is a very fast approach to ensuring that huge funds are staked in the sector for

We cannot afford to export a bulk of our crude oil while importing refined products from other nations. If we continue to do so, we will be assisting to impoverish our people who pay high prices for the imported fuel

‘

onsumers of petroleum products, particularly petrol, could not have anticipated any problems in fuel supplies and prices, barely less than two months to Christmas and New Year, both of which are usually characterised by high demand because of increased movement of persons and goods from one part of the nation to another for some reasons. First, the present administration had assured marketers that their N413 billion outstanding fuel subsidy claims would be paid. Second, the promise was expected to raise hope, thus leading to stability in fuel supply. Third, it was also expected to encourage operators with financial muscles to fund fuel importation or get loans to do so. But this may not to be the case after all even when the Federal Government made good its promise last Wednesday by paying the outstanding N413 billion to product importers. Investigations by National Mirror last week showed that the level of importation had dropped significantly, mainly because many marketers claimed that they lacked funds to import petrol anymore. Financial institutions, it was learnt have been reluctant in granting new loans because operators lack the capacity to pay back. Consequently, while those without commercial stocks have decided to close their retail outlets, others decided to sell in excess of N100 per liter instead of the Federal Government N87 per liter regulated price. Expectedly, the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR maintained that it was monitoring the operations on marketers in order to sanction culprits. “The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) wishes to inform the General Public that it has set up a 24 hours surveillance monitoring team of petrol stations nationwide to ensure unhindered

the overall benefit of the nation. He stressed that it would be better to sell such plants later as government officials have not yet demonstrated their competence to manage state assets, adding that the involvement of government officials should not be prolonged to prevent them from running down such investments. The energy analyst canvassed the need for government to deregulate the downstream sector so as to allow market forces to determine prices. “It is imperative that the government should deregulate the sector in order to attract local investors with adequate resources and technology to invest in Nigeria. We need to attract investors with deep pockets to stake huge funds in the sector through deregulation.” Zaka indicated that the deregulation becomes necessary in order to encourage investors, including the Dangote Group to invest in the sector. The group has started preliminary work on refinery construction with a projected $8billion to build 400,000 bpd plant by late 2016. The proposed oil refinery situated in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos is expected to be functional by the first half of 2018, with an estimated production template of about 500,000 barrels per day. Already, Honeywell technology is said to have been selected to run the largest refinery in Africa. Senior Vice-President and General Manager of UOP’s Process, Technology and Equipment business, Pete Piotrowski, maintained in a statement that: “UOP has been designing state-of-theart refineries and petrochemical plants for more than a century, so we are well-equipped to help Nigeria develop a massive new installation to meet its domestic needs. This project will enable Dangote to improve Nigeria’s oil refining capabilities, reduce the country’s dependence on imports, and work to revive and transform the Nigerian economy.” While some observers are elated about the pace of progress so far, others remained unmoved, probably because of their experiences. Investigations showed that previous efforts of other investors were not successful despite the granting of government licenses to them. For instance, in 2002, the government issued licenses to 18 investors to build new plants. These included Akwa Ibom Refinery and Petrochemicals, Tonwei Refinery, Badagry Petroleum Refinery, Clean Water Refinery, IIaje Refinery and Petrochemicals and Niger Delta Refinery and Petrochemicals. Others included, the NSP Refinery and Oil Services and Ode Ade Refinery, Orient Petroleum Resources Limited, Owena Oil and Gas, Rivgas Petroleum and Energy, Sapele Petroleum, Southland Associates, Southwest Refineries and Petrochemicals Company, Starex Petroleum Refinery Ltd, The Chasewood Consortium, Total Support Refineries and Union Atlantic Petroleum. Since then, not much has been done to change the situation. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

A11 27

Nigeria leads in Africa’s drive towards digital economy Isaiah Erhiawarien

Nmonwu

attracted investments worth US$200m over the past three years. “With more than 93 million Internet users in Nigeria alone (Nigerian Communications Commission statistics), the region’s people form a formidable digital marketplace. In Nigeria, Facebook has more than 15 million monthly active users,” said Nmonwu. “These Internet users want the speed, simplicity and convenience of buying goods and services right from their mobile phones. As employees, they want mobile and Web tools to help them do their jobs from anywhere at any time.” He added, “Businesses that don’t keep up with changing consumer and employee behaviour will lose ground to their competitors.” According to Nmonwu, companies that want to stay ahead of the trend towards online business need to put modern business solutions in place that are ready for the mobility, the Internet of Things, analytics, and other digital technologies that are transforming the business environment. He added that with the rapid growth of the mobile web, ecommerce and social media in West Africa, leading employers are thinking about how they can use technology to engage with their workforce. He said further that progressive enterprises are implementing employee self-service to

Folayan

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With more than 93 million Internet users in Nigeria alone (Nigerian Communications Commission statistics), the region’s people form a formidable digital marketplace. In Nigeria, Facebook has more than 15 million monthly active users

automate business processes while making life more convenient for employees. An HR package that includes employee self-service functionality enables employees to apply for leave, file business travel expenses, access payslips and update their personal information from their computers, smartphones or tablets. This saves employees, managers and the HR department a great deal of time and paperwork, while also integrating all these activities into the financial functions of the company, Nmonwu said. “With the move to an online world, businesses need to think about how they will adapt,” he added noting that “This means that they need to become more agile, access data for improved decision-making and interact with stakeholders in a more personalised manner. In addition to thinking about how they will prepare for mobile customers, West African organisations also need to be ready for digital employees. Those that do the necessary groundwork will be in a strong position to attract, retain, and develop the best talent.” He also gave examples of

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here is an upsurge of digital economy in Africa, and Nigeria is in control of that upsurge as more businesses are adhering to the clamour digitilse to monetise. According to Magnus Nmonwu, Regional Director for Sage West Africa companies in Nigeria and the rest of the region who do not embrace the digital world will be at a serious disadvantage to their competitors. The call of the enterprise software expert reflects a latest report by Ipsos, an IT research firm on behalf of PayPal, which revealed that 84 per cent of online shoppers in Nigeria already shop online from outside of the country or expect to start doing so in the future. The firm interviewed a representative quota sample of 500 adults (aged 18 - 55) in Nigeria who have used a PC, laptop, mobile or tablet to access the internet in the past six months and found that the number of online shoppers in the country is expected to skyrocket. Base on that study, PayPal and Nigerian ecommerce venture MallforAfrica (MFA) went into partnership to offer consumers the benefit of additional payment options. MFA, which has facilitated access by Africans to US and UK consumer retail sites for four years, said teaming up with PayPal will facilitate payments through the internet and on mobile and “improves the shopping experience” for African consumers. Chief Executive Officer and Founder of MallforAfrica, Chris Folayan, said “We are thrilled to collaborate with PayPal, one of the world’s most popular online payment solutions.” To further strengthen the current digital economy, Sage West Africa said that enterprises in the region that want to keep pace with a changing consumer, employee and business landscape need to invest in the right business management solutions that will enable them to digitise their business processes,. Nmonwu warned that companies in Nigeria and the rest of the region who do not embrace the digital world will be at a serious disadvantage to their competitors. His comments follow the recent Connect Commerce Conference where Netplus Advisory said that e-commerce and online businesses in Nigeria

continued interest in Nigeria’s ecommerce space, which include the unification of global payment platform PayPal and Nigerian ecommerce venture MallforAfrica (MFA) to offer consumers the benefit of additional payment options. Recently MTN announced the offer to subscribers of free access to select tech startups within the Africa Internet Group (AIG) network, including Jumia, online marketplace Kaymu and hotel booking platform Jovago. MTN subscribers who engage with these startups and utilise their app services can do so without being charged for data. Further fast-tracking the upsurge are statistics from the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) which revealed about 1.6 million new mobile internet subscribers in the month of March. According to the NCC, the number of mobile internet subscribers in Nigeria exceeded 87 million saying there were 87,055,484 mobile internet users at the end of April, up from 85,467,970 users in March. The statistics showed that there was an increase of 1,587,514 internet users dur-

ing the period for the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) networks. According to the NCC’s report Globacom had 19,690,526 subscribers surfing the net with its network in April, a significant rise from the 18,617,607 users in March, indicating that the network gained 1,072,919 additional internet users on its network during the period covered by the report. This increase translates to 67.58 per cent of the total number of new internet subscriber figure of 1,587,514 for the telecom networks for the month under review. Also Airtel Nigeria had 17.2 million internet users in April, as against 16,603,147 customers recorded in March. But MTN lost 384,487 internet subscribers in April, after it recorded 39,520,285 users, down from 39,904,772 in March 2015. According to MOBOfree, the trade in second hand goods rose from a 274 per cent yearly increase in the total value of goods on their platform in Nigeria. The current value of goods is $1.97 billion (N394 billion), up from $526million (N102.5 billion) last year. This impressive growth outperforms the forecasted figure for 2015 by 30 per cent. MOBOfree attributed this huge increase in the value of goods to the safety of the MOBOfree platform, to an increasing number of repeat customers and to a renewed focus on the automotive and real estate categories of classified advertisements. “Customers are going to the site because they are confident that buyers and sellers have been vetted. Once they experience the ease of use and added security, customers come back and use the site and are reassured on each occasion,” said MOBOfree CEO Cristobal Alonso. MOBOfree has invested heavily in safety and security with a recently launched ID verification programme in addition to a dedicated quality control team which manually reviews every single advert before launching it live. “This increase is indicative of a growing number of Nigerian consumers willing to buy, sell and swap stuff with people they can trust, MOBOfree makes this process easier and safer,” added Alonso. BC

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Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

Airtel bags ATCON Merit Award Stories by Isaiah Erhiawarien

elecommunications services provider, Airtel Nigeria, has been honoured with a Merit Award by the Association of Telecoms Companies of Nigeria (ATCON), as the body recently marked its 21st anniversary with a colourful event in Lagos. President of ATCON, Engr. Lanre Ajayi, noted that Airtel Nigeria deservedly earned the Merit Award because of its pioneering investment in the Nigeria’s mobile telecommunications industry. Sokoto State Governor and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal presented the award to the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Segun Ogunsanya who was represented by the company’s Director of Corporate Communications & CSR, Emeka Oparah. While speaking on the ATCON Merit Award, Ogunsanya dedicated the award to staff and customers of the company,

Ogunsanya

noting that it served as an impetus for Airtel to continuously contribute towards building a robust telecommunication industry in Nigeria with its array of innovative solutions. Ogunsanya and many other distinguished Nigerians who had served as Minister of Communications were also appointed by ATCON into the Telecoms Advisory Council. ATCON also used the occasion to unveil it code of ethics.

Blackberry tackles secure threat with new technology B

lackBerry will integrate Good’s software solutions and services with its own software suites to offer the industry’s most complete end-to-end solution that secures the entire mobile enterprise, across all platforms and applications while protecting personal privacy. With the acquisition of Good, BlackBerry has expanded its ability to offer a unified, secure mobility platform with applications and services for any mobile device on any operating system supported by security that has been certified by governments around the world embedded in every component of the mobility infrastructure. “The Good and BlackBerry solutions are very complementary. Combined, BlackBerry solves one of the biggest challenges for CIOs – to securely manage all types of deployment models for any device operating system platform, whether on-premise or in the cloud,” said John Chen, BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO. “We are creating a higher-value solution with the capability to extend across enterprise mobility management, collaboration and application enablement in order to provide customers with the best and most secure products, services and support to meet their enterprise mobility objectives.” “BlackBerry’s completion of the Good acquisition brings two leading companies in the

mobile security space together to offer a secure cross-platform EMM solution,” said Stacy Crook, research director, Enterprise Mobility at IDC. “Good brings additional value to the BlackBerry platform by offering strong application containerization on iOS and Android, and will provide solutions to containerize custom and third-party applications.” BlackBerry and Good have natural platform synergies that will be integrated, offering the best of containerization and enterprise mobility management (EMM), and will leverage BlackBerry’s global network infrastructure. Customers and partners can expect easily managed migration options and seamless, uninterrupted integration with the combined platform. Customers can look forward to: The broadest set of options

Chen

The Airtel team at the event led by Emeka Oparah comprised Director, Regulatory Affairs, Justin Damsa and Digital & Public Relations Manager, Erhumu Bayagbon. Other telecommunication firms, internet service providers and notable personalities such as ex-Nigerian President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; former Board Chairman, Airtel Nigeria, Oba Otudeko; ex-Executive Vice Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Dr. Earnest Ndukwe and other dignitaries were also bestowed with ATCON Merit Awards. Formally inaugurated on December 10, 1993 with the aim of bringing all companies in the telecoms industry and auxiliary services together for the purposes of sharing industry information, networking, associating and enhancing the relevance of the telecommunications industry, ATCON is a professional, non-profit, nonpolitical umbrella organisation of indigenous and multinational telecommunications companies operating in Nigeria. BC to meet the full cross-platform needs of an enterprise for EMM, including support for iOS, BlackBerry, Windows, and Android including Samsung KNOX™ Workspace and Android™ for Work. Support for varying deployment models such as bringyour-own-device (BYOD); corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE); corporate owned, business only (COBO); as well as environments with multiple user interfaces and operating systems. The most secure container solution in the market; used on millions of devices around the world to meet the highest security requirements,protecting data independent of device, app, user or location. The widest portfolio of secure enterprise productivity applications in the industry, including over 2,000 Independent Software Vendor (ISV) and custom applications with software development kit (SDK) support. Secure mobile applications such as WatchDox for secure sync and file share, AtHoc for crisis communication and BBM Protected for messaging. Secure mobile collaboration applications like Good Work, Good Access, and Good for Salesforce1 CRM. BlackBerry anticipates the acquisition to be accretive to earnings and cash flow within the first year after closing. BlackBerry also hopes to realise about $160 million in GAAP revenue from Good in the first year, including the impact of an expected write-down of certain deferred revenue of Good. BC

Technotalk

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with Esther Ozue (ozueesther@nationalmirroronline.net) 08059234648 (sms only)

Is your organisation exploring mobile Business Intelligence option?

he future of business intelligence is in mobile technologies. Business intelligence and mobile technologies are quickly becoming connected due to the advent of smart phones, mobile tablets, faster phone internet service, and great mobile applications. Business intelligence is the framework that enables organisations of all sizes to make faster, better-informed business decisions. Mobile business intelligence puts the emphasis on the application of mobile devices such as smart phones or tablet computers. Therefore, one can say that the fundamentals remain unchanged. Mobile BI is the enabler that, if designed, implemented, and executed effectively, can help organisations drive growth and profitability. The pace of mobile adoption across devices and applications is accelerating. More people own cell phones and mobility is no longer a nice-to-have option. Instead, it has become a must have for business leaders. With this paradigm shift comes the natural extension of business intelligence (BI) to mobile business intelligence (mobile BI). However, the way organisations go about realising the true value of mobile BI may depend on the state of their enterprise mobility (for example, whether or not a formal mobile enterprise strategy and a road map exist). Mobile BI is more prevalent and more relevant today because the gap between the experience of traditional BI content consumed on a desktop PC and that accessed on a mobile device is disappearing rapidly. We now talk about the gap between a smartphone and a tablet device. The tablet devices are getting smaller both in size and weight to compete with smart phones. Rapid growth in areas such as the cloud, in-memory technology, big data, and predictive analytics are fueling this innovation cycle. As a result, companies are looking for ways to harness the power of mobile BI through innovation. As businesses face more challenges and are compelled to deal with more complex business situations, they increasingly require greater mobile access to more processed data coming from both structured sources such as sales data, and unstructured sources like social media or email data that can’t be easily queried with traditional tools and technologies. Companies at the leading edge seek to gain the advantage to exploit mobile BI to support a workforce that is becoming more and more mobile. Benefits of mobile Business Intelligence Business models that rely on insight through outdated or limited capabilities can no longer compete in an ever-increasing global market, which simply dictates mobile execution. Organisations must deliver more for their customers and stakeholders. In this context, mobile BI can become a key differentiator in helping organisations cope with both the complexity and the real-time challenges they face with the execution of their strategy. Where mobile Business Intelligence can add value to your organisation Is there a CEO in the world who can say “We have access to all the data we need about our customers”? A 360 degree view of customers is something every company seems to be chasing. Though it might seem like an elusive goal, you can take the first steps by integrating data from your customer relationship management (CRM), accounting and customer support systems into your BI dashboards and reports to enable analysis of customer growth, profitability, and lifetime value which will help you identify opportunities to cross-sell, up-sell or simply target them more effectively. While BI has traditionally been used to look at historic data, more than ever it is incorporating predictive analytics. You can use past data to project future performance and make better decisions based on more accurate forecasts. In conclusion, as you establish your enterprise mobile strategy and goals, add more business intelligence to your overall mobile strategy because in today’s customer-centric world, customer interactions and personalisation are critical to busiBC BC BC ness success from all performance assessment parameters.

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Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

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Ausbeth Ajagu:

The multi-talented entrepreneur He does not belong to the league of well known industrialists, business moguls and billionaires, but he is richly endowed with some of the best principles of entrepreneurship. He has combined both scholarly and practical disposition to entrepreneurial development to attain a higher ranking in Nigeria’s industrial landscape. Dr. Ausbeth Nnamdi Ajagu, Chairman, Betcy Group of Companies is indeed, the master entrepreneur

n the Nigerian entrepreneurship terrain, especially in the billionaire club in which many of big and known entrepreneurs in the country belong, Dr. Ausbeth Nnamdi Ajagu’s name might not easily ring a bell. But to a large extent, this renowned political economist and industrialist’ credentials remain quite intimidating. Ajagu is an academic, business colossus and political economist, who has contributed immensely to advance the cause of economy in Nigeria. As a matter of fact, his humble background where discipline and moderation remain the watchword might have prompted his being described by his close associates as a ‘silent billionaire.’ “I‘m from a humble background, my parents never joked with discipline. I remember then in Secondary school, I disobeyed my senior and was flogged and given punishment of washing the toilet for two weeks; I ran home thinking my parents would support me, they pursued me back to school and at the end, I washed the toilet for three weeks instead of two.. That is why now I can wash toilets and do anything at home without looking back, as a matter of fact, I teach my house girls how to clean up and all that when they are newly employed, with my wife, I was also taught how to cook and do all the house chores.” Though a political economist and industrialist of great accomplishments, Dr. Ajagu is more reputed for his transformational leadership qualities in corporate governance in Nigeria. Like all patriotic Nigerians, his political sagacity is not defined by a Machiavellian approach to politics. Rather, it is the way and manner he touches lives that stands him out. His meteoric rise in his profession is, therefore, not a surprise, because according to him, “diligence comes with a divine promise that we will stand before kings.” In the private sector of the Nigerian economy, Ajagu led an intellectual revolution in entrepreneurship and has built a legacy in what has become a reference point in professionalism and political discourse. The last child in a family of eight, Ajagu was born on October 26, 1965 at Asaba, though he hails

from Nimo in Njikoka in Anambra State. He attended Oneh Primary School, Asaba, Delta State from 1971 to 1976 while he later attended Osadedenis High School from 1976 to 1981; Federal School of Arts and Science, Sokoto, 1981 to 1983. In pursuant of further education, the young Ajagu attended then Bendel State University (now Ambrose Ali University) Ekpoma, 1984 to 1987 and later the Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos from 1995 to 1996 and 1996 to 1997 where he obtained Masters Degree in Legal Studies, specialising in Administrative Law. He won the Overall Best Graduating student (Masters Degree) at the Lagos State University in 1997 and later proceeded for a Ph.D in Business Administration in Californian Coast University, United States. Trained in Political Science, Legal Studies and Business Administration, Ajagu started his working career with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) where he worked as an administration officer from 1988 to 1989. He also had a stint with Hiuna Nigeria Limited before becoming the business manager of Fafinc Nigeria Limited from 1991 to 1992. His journey into the entrepreneurship world began with the establishment of Betcy Group of Companies where he is the group executive chairman. Betcy Group of Companies has interest in oil and gas, construction, engineering, manufacturing (Assemblers of farm Power Tractors), properties, real estate and the hospitality industry. He owns the Oak Hotels, Lagos and Oxford Hotels, Abuja. He is equally the Executive Chairman, Oak Hotels, Lagos, Oxford Hotels, Abuja and Goldfish Insurance Brokers Limited. The Betcy group comprises Betcy Investment, Betcy Properties and Betcy Industries as well as Betcy Media. While Betcy Investment is an arm which deals in Civil / Structural, Electrical, Mechanical and Water Engineering Consortium; On & Off Shore Technical Services, its noted for

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Ajagu

its being a major engineering consortium that has successfully executed Civil/Structural, Electrical, Mechanical and Water Engineering Projects/Services as well as providing oil field equipment and spares to the Nigerian oil sector, public and private sectors. Betcy Industries Limited is well noted in the area of assembling and supply of mechanized farm-

Betcy range of tractors backed by the latest Asian technology was manufactured to ease the difficulties experienced by farmers in agricultural production as well as make room for massive production of agricultural produce at “a most efficient cost”

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By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

ing tractors. Betcy Industries Ltd has over the years been the choice of most farmers with its range of power farm tractors Betcy range of tractors backed by the latest Asian technology was manufactured to ease the difficulties experienced by farmers in agricultural production as well as make room for massive production of agricultural produce at “a most efficient cost”. Betcy range of Power Tractors as attested by most of its customers is rugged, durable and highly affordable. They can be tailored to meet various needs which include: Clearing /Crushing, Tilling /Ploughing, Cultivation, Harvesting, Bush clearing, Weeding, Irrigation and Electricity

generation. Betcy Power Tractors which have been certified by the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM) Ilorin as the most improved technology over all former power tractors ever imported into Nigeria is operator-driven. According to NCAM reports, “the break system is very efficient and the comfort of the operator is guaranteed.” The company also provides after sales services as the power tractors are backed with guarantee, full after sales service, and total technical support. For Ajagu, his Betcy Media is another arm which has remained one of the cash cows for the group. Betcy Media as a subsidiary company of Betcy Group of Companies engages in media related activities both print and electronic. Under its print media activities, Betcy Media engages in professional book publishing and undertakes editorial work on manuscripts. Producing books of diverse interests and subject matters, from conceptualization to writing, and production, its core interests in book publishing include, Children’s Books (Fiction, Reality, Spiritual, Education, etc.), Motivational Books (Self -help, Inspirational, Vocational), Biographies (Writing & Publishing), Biographies ( Writing, Publishing and Consulting), Novelettes, Plays, Playlets, Poetry & Prose, and so on. Other areas of its core competences include Public Speaking (Motivational talks, specialized papers’ presentation, women and youth based talks, professional speeches for groups - private and corporate) as well as organising and packaging seminars, corporate and private events. An industrialist, entrepreneur, author, public policy analyst, Ajagu is also a revered motivational/ conference speaker, who has to his credit over 300 published articles and library works which include the best-selling books titled “The Entrepreneur”, “Roadmap to True Greatness”, “Building A Virile Nation… The Private Sector Perspective” and “The Secrets of Winners”. As a prolific writer, his thoughts have covered all imaginable problems that any country in the process of building is likely to face. Given his wealth of experience, in one of his high-selling books, Building a Virile Nation: The Private Sector Perspective, he attempts a systematic approach to harnessing the resources of a nation and galvanizing such to propel the country to a respectable status among the comity of nations. The best-selling book charts a course for sustainable economic development of nations as well as for propelling individuals to success in any endeavour. This collection is a major guide for govContinued on pg A14

Business Courage

ernments and policy makers at all levels as well as budding and practicing business executives. It is expected that the readers shall be challenged, inspired, and empowered by some of the issues raised. Dr. Ajagu is a National Council Member and past alternate Chairman, SMI Committee of Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Chairman of Amuwo-Odofin Industrial Group as well as 2-Star Paul Harris Fellow of Rotary International. Between 2000-2002, he was the Chairman, Anambra State Oil Palm Development Agency Board; Member, Presidential Technical Committee on Road Maintenance (2002-2003) and was until recently, a board member of the Nigerian Shippers’ Council (NSC) and National Inland Waterways. He is also a Director Standard Alliance Capital Ltd. Dr. Ajagu, is also the Chairman, Board of Trustees of Youth & Gender Network, a renowned and famous NGO;s a member of the National Technical Working Groups of the Vision 20:2020, The Presidential Job Creation Committee, as well as a member of Nigerian Economic Summit Group. He is also a board member of the National Centre for Agricultural Mechanization (NCAM). A fellow of the Institute of Directors’ (IoD) Nigeria, Institute of Corporate Administration of Nigeria; Institute of Cost Management, Nigeria and the Chartered Institute of Finance Consultants he also served as Chairman of Institute of Directors Industry Committee (2003 – 2007); and fellow; Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria (AES). He was awarded the prestigious national honour of a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic (MFR) in December, 2007 by late President Umaru Musa Yar’dua. Ajagu belongs to the perfectionist school. His belief that things should be done in the right way has seen him not compromising mediocrity as he believes “if you plan well you save ninety percent of failure.” Though a trained lawyer, Ajagu never practiced as one. He however admitted his admiration for the legal profession. “I had always admired lawyers. Besides, there was the need for me to advance my knowledge. That was why I decided to study law. If I have my way, I would know everything in this world. But that is not possible. When you are knowledgeable in many areas, you talk authoritatively and give incisive analysis of whatever topic you want to discuss. “While political science broadened my knowledge of what goes on in government, how governments are formed, how they are run, the dynamics, power interplay, all the gimmicks and challenges, the politiking, electioneering, and all that; legal studies helped me a lot. Before I studied law, I was not able to do my legal agreements. There were some pronouncements that were alien to me. But with my knowledge of law, I have to read in between the lines when you bring any legal thing for me to sign and I will be able to defend myself logically. It added a lot to my impetus as a

man and as a business man,” he said. For Ajagu, there are two areas of Nigeria’s national life that seem to be his major concern. These are the state of manufacturing and educational sector. While he feels that the manufacturing sector is yet to take its pride of place as the engine of growth, the educational sector, he believes, has come to a stage whereby the Federal Government needs to declare a state of emergency in order to return it to the enviable height it once enjoyed in the past. “The manufacturing sector is supposed to be the engine of growth as it were than any other sector, especially in developed world, but in Nigeria, I don’t know if it is the right thing or so because with due respect to the economy and Nigerians, the economy has been largely made up of imported goods. “Short of saying that Nigeria is a dumping ground. For any country that desires growth, desires industrialisation and production in terms of reducing poverty, that country must take manufacturing seriously by promulgating laws that will encourage local manufacturing and also support the patronage of locally made products. Unfortunately in Nigeria that is not the case,” he lamented. On the educational sector, he observed that the level of education is on a downward trajectory, which is neither healthy for the country nor the manufacturing sector. “These days, you can hardly see a graduate who can write. In every ten graduates, only two can write. The graduates we are churning out now with due respect are not employable. We are not interested in paper qualification but what you have up there. “And to a large extent, you don’t even blame the students. A situation where somebody is supposed to graduate within four years but because of ASUU and trade union strike he graduates after seven years he has lost track. He has become disillusioned and discouraged so at that time, he is not thinking of how to benefit in terms of information given to him by the lecturer but how he was going to graduate and leave the school” As a multi-talented entrepreneur, his horizon appears limitless. For instance, he initiated the establishment of the Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies, Nigeria (AES), collaboration between the organised private sector and public sector in line with the government Public/Private Partnership initiative. AES is involved in leadership, entrepreneur studies and training. Principally, the inspiration for the academy, according to him, came as a result of the fact that entrepreneurship education in Nigeria was becoming too expensive for the ordinary man. Thus, it was

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Monday, November 9, 2015

Ajagu

founded to deliver quality business education at very affordable costs, given the present high costs in some business schools. According to Ajagu, the AES project was borne out of the conviction that quality business education is of an absolute necessity for any nation that deserves to expand its fortunes and be developed. “I saw the potential and invited others to join hands to make it a reality. AES is a means of adding value to God’s creation. It is a means to help put smiles on the faces of human beings. “We need to help reduce the unemployment rate in the country, because, being a manufacturer for over 10 years and being a strong member of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, I was also the Chairman of the Industry Committee of the Institute of Directors (IOD) of Nigeria, I know that there is a lacuna, a void that needs to be filled. People go into business without first studying the business and sooner or later they close shop and they become depressed. Some commit suicide, some resort to all kinds of obnoxious and criminal activities. But, if they can be schooled, then they will be better off in the enterprise,” he said. Ajagu’s belief is that though not everybody can or has the brain to go through the rudiments of a university or polytechnic education, he reasoned that “even those people who went through the four walls of a university or polytechnic do not necessarily have the prerequisite practical experience because, the skills one gathers in school is completely different from what obtains out there, “ “Most of the textbooks in entrepreneurship, before I came up with mine, were tailored on English or American societies and did not take cognisance of the

With the AES gaining more credibility and acceptance, the need to have more members in its fold prompted the establishment of AES Excellence Club principally to fast-track national growth as well as be a think tank for the Nigerian project

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peculiarities of the Nigerian situation. Coming from a background where things work, some of their postulations would not work in Nigeria. So when we study these principles and ideas, they do not work here. Thus, I felt there was need to localise the principles of leadership and entrepreneurship and that was what gave birth to the Academy for Entrepreneurial Studies. I went further to write a book, which, as we speak, is the only book on entrepreneurship endorsed and marketed in Nigeria by the IOD.” No doubt, the AES project has been a huge success. Since its coming, it has been able to deliver the same quality of education in leadership and entrepreneurship to the generality of Nigerians at very affordable rates. So far, AES has trained over 9,000 people from the private and public sectors. “Suffice it to say that it is one of the leading institutes for leadership and entrepreneurship training in Nigeria, under the initiative. We impact positively through quality training, mentorship, et cetera but more importantly, we make sure that we entrench the spirit of enterprise, excellence, hard work in them. We also ensure that best practices are adhered to, all targeted at positively changing their mindset. We believe so much in leadership by example, so we inculcate this, too, in them. Aside from that, we also use the institutional network to grow the right calibre of Nigerians we need for now and in the future,” he stressed. As at present, the AES has three categories of membership, namely Associateship, which is meant for non-graduates and undergraduates in universities and other tertiary institutions and people who have been into entrepreneurship, but without formal qualifications. The Full membership category is made up of graduates and people already practising entrepreneurship in Nigeria while the third category is the Fellowship Category, which is comprised of people who have distinguished themselves in their chosen professions. However, with the AES gaining more credibility and acceptance, the need to have more members in its fold prompted the establishment of AES Excellence Club principally to fast-track national growth as well as be a think tank for the Nigerian project. “We found out that, after a few years of our existence, there were people who felt, as it were, they are above these categories. These are the ministers, the governors, and chief executives of banks, insurance companies and the likes. So, we came up with an idea that since we are ready and able to still train these people at their level by inculcating the same best practices, there was a need to institute an intellectual club. That was how we gave birth to the AES Excellence Club, principally to fast-track national growth as well as be a think tank for the Nigerian project. “It is Nigeria’s intellectual club and it is not for all-comers. The entry criteria are stringent. Prospective members must have good and unquestionable character, they must be excelling in their chosen profession, and, above all, they must be patriotic and passionate

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about the Nigerian project,” he stressed. Indeed, Ajagu’s AES has been able to record tremendous progress. The likes of President and the Vice are members as well as are some state governors and ministers and chief executives of organisations, opinion leaders, vision shapers, et cetera are notable members. Goldfish Insurance Brokers Limited, one of Nigeria’s leading independent insurance brokers is another brainchild of Dr. Ausbeth Ajagu. Founded in 2002, Goldfish Insurance Brokers Limited has been rewriting the standards for service and quality in the complex risk management industry. Through the Ajagu’s uncommon way of doing things, Goldfish aspiresto be a client’s broker of choice by consistently exceeding expectations. “We are not just another insurance company. With years of experience in the business and an established client base throughout the country, we pride ourselves on our professional approach as well as our independence and are committed to remaining so.” As a leading insurance broker, it is noted for its being fast, flexible, open and responsive to all customers’ insurance needs. It uses all of its resources, people, experience, wit and courage to deliver outstanding results for all its clients, regardless of their size, their insurance requirements or location. Goldfish Insurance Brokers has been repackaged by some dynamic and successful Nigerians with the corporate objective of not only creating a standard service network but also restoring the confidence in the brokerage industry. Led by Ajagu, the board of directors is made up of highly reputable and dedicated entrepreneurs who have distinguished themselves in different fields of human endeavor. Ajagu has maintained that Nigerians should imbibe the culture of perseverance, courage, and respect for the dignity of men and women if we do not wish to confine ourselves to the level of mediocrity. Through scholarly work, newspaper articles, public lectures and other kinds of interventions, Ajagu has contributed regularly to the national policy dialogue in the finest tradition of the public intellectual, seeking not to appear clever for the moment, but to illuminate, advise, admonish and throw up alternatives. A man with progressive political conviction, he canvasses his views on policy, economy and democracy. He argues consistently that leadership at all levels should be fair, just and reasonable and not parochial and greedy. He maintains that leadership should be responsive to the yearnings and aspirations of the Nigerian masses and create the enabling business environment that will promote and sustain democracy. In one of his well-known interventions in academic discourse, titled: “Roadmap to True Greatness”, he argued that greatness and success come only by the observance of sacrosanct and timetested values and ideals that cannot be compromised. BC

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Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

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ThebuddingEntrepreneurs KLINIC

With Mamora Victor Mamora is a system thinker and advisor whose belief and activator leadership strengths are directed towards improving workers perspective for city and enterprise development.

e-mail: olusegunmamora@gmail.com

ften time I eat egusi soup prepared by people of Ijebu in south west of Nigeria, it makes an interesting lunch. No doubt, the soup is delicious, nutritious and indeed has a message for entrepreneur. The soup is prepared with a mix of blended seeds of melon, palm oil, pepper and spices in the immediate but tasteless until addition of salt at boiling point. In my thinking, these mixed ingredients do have right to “complain” that the soup is not delicious but the moment salt “complains” that the soup is not sweet, then hope is lost. Why the lost of hope? This is because the core responsibility of salt is to sweeten the delicacy. Dear friend, just as it is worrisome for salt to complain that soup is not sweet, so it is worrisome for an entrepreneur to complain that his community economy is poor. The poverty in the land is the opportunity for every entrepreneur. As an entrepreneur, you are the salt of your community. Live above fear, go and sweeten it. I think we should remind ourselves the implication of fear. Fear creates double problems. It prolongs problems confronting the society due to inaction and enhances negative emotion in the person. Fear delays progress for people and society. The opposite of fear is faith and it means executive courage in imperfect conditions. Taking action in hope of positive outcome is a critical factor for any budding entrepreneur who desires success. In the year 1999, the first company I worked with, as four months volunteer, prior to my university education had a managing director who was wishing for a contact to prospective client in the town of ijebu ode south west Nigeria. When I joined the work team and the managing director mentioned it, immediately I proposed we visit the client, a public figure. We summoned courage, although not on appointment, and we came out with a deal that compared to total annual turnover of the company previous year. In any enterprise, it is the executive power that counts and not the fear that paralyses. Plans and dreams of entrepreneur will remain just dreams

until action to make it a reality. An entrepreneur is an executive and not a mere dreamer. Although it is impossible to be an entrepreneur without a dream but action makes dream come true. The active stage is the execution stage where you release accessible values to the consumers, create wealth, and then known as chief executive officers. This means you are the chief among workers who are taking actions to solve problems, create values, and enjoy the reward of your actions. To succeed you must be an executive. An executive is not just a person with well-tailored suits seated on brown polished

In business, salt sense matters

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It is worrisome for an entrepreneur to complain that his community economy is poor. The poverty in the land is the opportunity for every entrepreneur

mahogany chair and table. An executive is someone with dreams for better society, who plans her services and products development, daily building relationship and communicating, and executes the plans along with her team. An effective executive gets the right thing done with fulfilling reward.

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BUSINESS

Dear budding entrepreneur, this is the best time to review and act on your business plan. Live above the fear and step out in courage. Step in and make our society sweet and interesting for all of us. Challenge your mind and exercise your potential. Your choice to start the business, in the first place, is a

Salt

Motivational Business Quotes

o waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully. – Tryon Edwards Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning. – Bill Gates Success is often achieved by those who don’t know that failure is inevitable. – Coco Chanel The competitor to be feared is one who never bothers about you at all, but goes on making his own business better all the time. – Henry Ford The good or ill of a man lies within his own will. – Epictetus

I have known not a few men who, after reaching the summits of business success, found themselves miserable on attaining retirement age. They were so exclusively engrossed in their day to day affairs that they had no time for friend making. – B.C. Forbes The cynic says, “One man can’t do anything”. I say, “Only one man can do anything.” - John W. Gardner I feel that luck is preparation meeting opportunity. – Oprah Winfrey If there is such a thing as good leadership, it is to give a good example. – Ingvar Kamprad BC

good mental model. Two mental models could keep a budding entrepreneur motivated as value creator for the general society. These are salt paradigm and light paradigm. 1. Salt paradigm: In our part of the world, Nigeria, we appreciate salt for its role as a flavouring agent and food preservative. Human has used salt to preserve food for many thousands of years, but salt also plays other roles in food we eat. Salt is an essential nutrients, it provide flavour, texture, and enhance food color. Likewise, as a budding entrepreneur your business is about preserving local economy. Your acts keep the economy from depression. An entrepreneur simply gives flavour to humanity. The same way that salt counter act bitterness, an entrepreneur counter act the bitterness of joblessness in our society. Be the salt of your community. 2. Light paradigm: One of the key attribute of light is that it enhances flow of activity. It is a source of energy for productivity. Light enhances orderliness and alertness. Along this thinking, an entrepreneur build business and it enhances flows of economic activity. That business becomes a source of energy for workers who have passion to contribute towards development of the society. The potential of an average worker for responsibility becomes empowered as they show up to work and have opportunity to serve. As an entrepreneur, when you employ you enhance orderliness within the society. You are a light of our business world. Please have this at the back of your mind and let it keep you in business. My encouragement is that you step out to act on the business plan and dream. There is more you contribute to our society every time you open the workshop, office and distribute the product than make money. Your action to grow the company, gives hope to prospective employees, keeps investors’ confidence high, attracts people to our economy, and putting smile on the faces of many families. Cheer up, you will achieve your dream. BC

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National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

ThebuddingEntrepreneurs

A change

agent

At 19, Chizoba Imoka founded the Unveiling Africa Foundation (UVA) in faraway Canada as an undergraduate student at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada. UVA, as she puts it, was designed to provide the platform to rally African in The Diaspora to be change agents. Now, seven years after, Chizoba, now 26, has brought the UVA dream to Nigeria, tutoring thousands of teenagers in entrepreneurship, leadership skills and mentoring them to become change agents By Adejuwon Osunnuyi

nlike many of her largely dependent peers, Chizoba Imoka, in her early years chose not to place her survival on the shoulder of anyone. Burdened with the desire to secure a better future and identity for herself and perhaps, several other teenage Nigerians deserving a functional country, Chizoba, while in her third year at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, founded the Unveiling Africa Foundation (UVA), a non-profit making organization. UVA, as she explained, is focused on providing a platform for African and global youths to learn and engage about global issues affecting Africa as well as build relationships needed to facilitate youths’ future role as major players in her nation’s development. Perhaps, what triggered the initiative really, was rude awakening about what it meant to be a Nigerian and an African while schooling in Canada. According to Chizoba, being associated with the Nigerian identity, especially while living outside the country wasn’t always a thing of pride for her. “I was disgusted about the fact that I learnt more about my Nigerian /African history when I moved to a foreign country. I did not understand how I did not realize or think Nigeria had such a big development problem when I was in the country. I found it insulting on behalf of Nigeria that all these realizations came when I moved out of the country. My Canadian friends and acquaintances just couldn’t understand how Nigeria had so many resources in human, financial and potential wise but had little to show for it. Everything we heard about Nigerians in the news then

were scams, violence or corruption related,” she said. Not enough, Chizoba lamented that when she gets to class too; it’s another African nightmarish conversation about how the West needs to come and help Africa. “You get to student union, you are bombarded with student groups trying to build villages and raising money for Africans. Whereas, when you get to Nigeria, you hear and see politicians raising billions in one night and spending N400 million to buy rice for a whole village just so that he/she can win electoral votes. I was sick and tired of the whole situation, it was very clear to me how things could turn around and I knew that being able to identify all these issues came with a burden to do something about them. Starting UVA was my platform to do something I strongly believed was obtainable and to create a movement of people willing to drive the society in a different direction.” She added. Shortly after she graduated with a BA in Economics in 2007, she started work as Research Intern at the Office of Traffic Safety at the Ministry of Transportation, Alberta Government. As an intern with the Office of Traffic Safety, Chi-Chi, as she is fondly known, analyzed vehicle, operator, and enforcement statistics to provide data to support and evaluate existing programmes created to facilitate the achievement of the Alberta Traffic Safety Plan targets. Chizoba also had the opportunity to lead or work as a team member on several complex policy projects such as the Distracted Driving Legislation Amendment Project (which recently became law), Alberta Community Mobilization Evalu-

Imoka

ation Project, Alberta Responsible Host Behavior Project, and the Alberta High Risk Driver Project amongst others. But after three successful years of organizing speaker series, debates, conferences, fundraisers, cultural shows and artistic showcases, she knew it was time to move back home to where the real issues existed and where her education, experience, and passion could be used to aid the development of her country. In August 2010, Chizoba returned to Nigeria to kick start her initiative and to launch the Nigerian Teenagers Nation Building Project, a project focused on educating and engaging Nigerian teenagers on their

roles in Nigeria’s development by exposing them to critical thinking, community activism and problem solving during their developmental years while encouraging patriotism and passion for Nigeria. To warm her way into the mind of the key elements of the Nigerian society which were the prime target of her project, Chizoba wrapped up two Lagos state-wide teenagers’ Essay contests on May 27, 2010. Shortly after this, Unveiling Africa Foundation rolled out the First Ever Teenagers Conference in Nigeria. That maiden conference attracted over 600 teenagers from 50 secondary schools across Lagos and Abuja.

Aside being the Chief Executive Officer of Unveiling Africa Foundation, Chizoba also runs a pharmaceutical company in Lagos where she is involved in the day-to-day management of the factory as well as assisting in business development, organizational and production planning, stock and risk management. She plans to move into sales and marketing to assist in refining the company’s sales and marketing plan. “My experience at the U of A and my Economics degree definitely gave me a solid platform to be able to merge my passion for development and the acquired skills from my economic degree,” she said. Indeed, Chizoba’s Unveiling Africa Foundation has intensified the crusade to turn the Nigerian teen into the model citizens. Within a short period, UAF has given away millions in educational scholarships, ran successful essay contests and have many of her mentees fully engaged in different trade. In recognition of her efforts, Chizoba was last year nominated for ‘The Future Award’ in the advocacy category. For Chizoba, the vision for UVA has been for it to become a powerhouse that produces and influences the calibre of Africans that the nation would be entrusting its future to and becoming employers of labour. “More importantly, beyond being ‘charitable’ as an organization, what we are really trying to do is to introduce an alternative model of development that is focused on treating the fundamental issue and not its manifesta-

Management Principles

The Commandments of Retail Sales

etailers must be on top of their game. They are all experiencing intense competition for the consumer and shrinking margins. Consumers will not tolerate sloppy sales approaches and a poor experience. If retailers want to be effective, they must vow to serve the customer with these 10 retail commandments. 1. Thou shalt not believe anyone is “just looking.” A customer can “just look” on their tablets, smartphones and home computer. Disregard this idea that any buyer is just looking and respond with: “90 percent of the people that come here start off by having a look. Why did you come today?” Show them specials, updates and other inventory choices that may not appear on your website. 2. Thou shalt never ignore the customer. They come to buy. Don’t make them hunt for a sales associate. It is better to pester a customer with offers of help than it is to ignore. Seems pretty basic, but how many times have you seen sales associates congregating at a register or zoned-out folding a pile of shirts? 3. Thou shalt aggressively sell. In highly competitive times, set higher sales targets. Selling beyond ordinary expected levels requires a commitment to aggressively selling to every customer and making the most of every opportunity. Begin with a team meeting that sets targets and objectives. Then provide the tools to accomplish them. 4. Thou shalt never let the customer wait. When customers wait they become agitated, restless and uncertain. No customer should have to wait for anything. If your payment system is not efficient, you put the entire sale at risk. Make sure your sales process is fast, friendly and easy to move through. Waiting for an open cash register should be a thing of the past with card readers and swipers. 5. Thou shalt treat every buyer like they came to spend money. Don’t qualify the customer’s ability to make a purchase. Treat anyone who enters your store as if they have money to spend regardless of what they say or how they act. 6. Thou shalt greet every customer at the front door. I once went to a major retailer and it took

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ThebuddingEntrepreneurs tion alone. So for example, in my opinion, Nigeria’s problem isn’t the fact that our roads are bad or basic needs are luxuries that even the rich cannot afford but that the society has produced people and values that perpetuate and reinforce a system where basic needs are not available, corruption are a way life and priorities and values are misplaced.” She believes that to sustainably solve Nigeria’s problems, the focus ought to be on changing the mindset and mentality of the people that drive and create the society. Though she admits that this alternative model is not an idea that is mainstream, convenient or easy to understand or do, she however said that the model remains an important vision of UVA “to lead a movement of purpose driven impactful people who subscribe to this model while understanding the power they have to create, influence and sustain progressive ideologies.” Choosing education as her main advocacy tool and teenagers as her target group, she said, has been deliberate. “Our logic is simple! If you go back to the basics; the question we all must begin to ask ourselves is what is it about our system and society that has produced the calibre of leaders that we all seem to complain about? What is it about our society that seems to produce leaders and followers that choose to compromise the future of the general good for a temporary gratification for a few people? Why is it that our government policy framework is not people centred? Why is human life not valued in the country? Why are the provisions of quality amenities which appear to be a common sense matter for the west-

erners not a common sense matter in Nigeria? If you attempt to think about these questions and possible solutions critically, the ideal solution for our problem has to be embedded in a process that produces the people of the society. To solve the problem, the process that seems to be producing people with the wrong attributes and skills as it relates to our country’s development must be reviewed and re-engineered to produce better citizens. This process, for us is Education. When we say Education, we mean the formal education, popular education and mentorship education. I am personally thrilled by the power of education especially formal education; through a simple change in national curriculum, you can change the future of the nation,” she explained. Running UVA in Nigeria, she admits, has been very challenging. “Big dreams, non-existent resources!, it has been vibrantly challenging. Nigeria is a real special place

over 17 minutes before being acknowledged. Appoint a greeter who makes the customers feel welcomed and directs them to the department they need. “Thanks for coming. What can I help you with or what department can I direct you to?” 7. Management shall engage with every customer. One way to increase both the customer experience and customer loyalty is to make sure management engages with every customer. This separates your business from the competition and increases value to the customer. 8. Thou shalt provide the best solution, not just the lowest price. People buy things to solve problems. Salespeople must ask the right questions, listen to the customer and know available inventory to provide the best solution. “Why did you come here today?” or “What are you looking for here that you didn’t find online?” should be asked of every customer. 9. Thou shalt attempt a second sale. Every product purchase creates an opportunity for another product sale. Wait until the first product is all but rung up and offer other products that would best support the first purchase. “We have great gloves to match that coat. Let me show you.” People are open to buying more to justify their first purchase. Product saturation not only increases profits, it ensures customer loyalty. 10. Thou shalt help customers extend beyond their budget. Never believe a customer when they say they can’t afford something. They can and will buy beyond their budget and do so every day. Almost every household including the government extends beyond their budget. Acknowledge the idea of a restricted budget and keep showing them your products, services and solutions that are more valuable than the budget that is restricting them. Great retailers must look for ways to go above and beyond for customers and provide an exceptional customer experience leading to loyalty and referrals. Retailers should treat every customer like a millionaire who is ready and able to buy today. Retailers who do this will see how easily they win over cynical customers and turn them into loyal, frequent shoppers. BC

to do anything in. With the incessant power challenges, high cost of low quality internet, small pool of qualified skilled workers, high cost of getting around, high cost of maintaining relationships with our stakeholders and the limited/ non-existent resources, it has really been very challenging. Many times, it feels like we are in a glass house that is in the middle of a playground where kids are playing with stones. We have learnt to operate with strategic caution while keeping our eyes focused on our mission and program intent,” she said. Despite the teething challenges, Chizoba says UAF has created an indelible mark in the development story of Nigeria and has impacted over 3000 lives and delivered its programmes to over 2000 teenagers. It has given out over N1.3 million in educational scholarships across Nigeria, raised over N1 million for several community initiatives, mentored/trained over 80 teenagers and produced teenagers who have become community change leaders and have successfully gained entry into world class teenage institutions such as African Leadership Academy and United World College. UAF has also successfully provided an exciting platform for teenagers to start acquiring fundamental skills such as problem solving skills, critical thinking and passion for social change through our Community Action Series Initiative. According Chizoba, under the initiative, students of Yaba College of Technology were able to raise over N100,000 by forfeiting their lunch for a week to buy food items for the members of the Lagos Cheshire Home Mushin, made effort to raise N1 million to buy a bus for the home. Besides, Corona Secondary School Students also championed the engagement and feeding of students in a poor school in Ogun State where they will work under the UAF School Club umbrella to fundraise for the school’s borehole and toilet, act as a peer pressure group and engage the students according to identified needs. Students of Redeemers Secondary School innovatively raised N200,000 to part-fund the UAF Community Soup Kitchen in Ajegunle and participated in the Bake For Change (BFC) Scholarship Drive, aimed at providing quality education to children at Oregun Remand Home. Chizoba is hoping that in the next five years, the foundation would be seen becoming a global brand for everything teenagers, innovation, and development. “Within the next five years, we hope to have provided a platform for our teens to earn a recognized identity in relation to their contribution to nation building. I also see UVA’s entire core programs becoming self sustaining, teen driven and delivered outside Nigeria. More importantly, I see UVA becoming a fully established social enterprise,” she said. BC

Personal Finance How to finance your dream business

hen it’s time to finance a business, there can be substantial work involved to facilitate this critical step. Every business situation is different, and businesses in different industries and sectors have different ways of going about getting credit, as well as different kinds of costs. But for the core process of securing the financial assistance that a business leader needs for a start up, some basic guidelines and principles will help create effective programs to finance a business. Steps 1. Assess credit. The person who is trying to start up the business will have to look at his own credit situation, as well as what he can get for a new business in terms of credit. Find out about credit scores and ratings. In many cases, the initial business loan will be based on the borrower’s own personal credit score. However, in some cases where a business is already operational, a business plan and other documents can provide for a different kind of credit specifically for the continued operations of that enterprise. 2. Shop around for different lenders. There are a variety of lenders who may or may not be willing to issue new business loans, and all of these potential lenders have their own terms and conditions. Talk to various lenders and ask them about what kinds of loans are available. Evaluate loans by timeline. Lenders will offer various short-term, long-term or revolving-credit loans to business owners. Look at which ones suit the needs of a startup the best. Look at secured and unsecured business loans. Secured loans actually use existing assets as collateral. For example, the person trying to start a business can use his or her home, or other property, as collateral and get lower interest rates for the loan. However, this leaves the assets vulnerable to seizure in cases of nonpayment. Unsecured loans rest solely on the borrower’s credit score. See which of these types of loans best matches desired risk. 3. Select the best deals. When the startup leader has gone to different lenders and has a variety of possible loan agreements at hand, he can select the ones with the lowest interest rates and most favorable terms for repayment. 4. Make payments through revenues. Be sure to make the correct periodic payments on finalized loan agreements, using the revenue from business operations to fund repayment of loans. Look into decreasing overhead as necessary. If the loan payments are not easy to make, the business startup leader will need to look at cutting costs. This complicated task often includes going through a business budget line by line in order to identify costs that can be cut without harming future profitability. Cuts may need to be done in order to meet the needs for loan repayment, which is most often the core requirement of continuing in a business and avoiding bankruptcy. BC

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Behind d Wheels This page is open to sponsorship

Adejuwon Osunnuyi

he 2015 Kia Sedona reemerged at the just concluded New York international auto show in a redesigned outfit that the makers must have chosen to make an impression on the sophisticated class of CUV lovers with the claim that It’s bold and sporty new look was meant for it to be seen. Needless to say the redesigned Sedona strives to hold its own in a vehicle segment that has been dominated by Toyota’s Sienna and Honda’s Odyssey with its all new swagger of sophistication and array of modern technology. As the final chapter in Kia’s design-led transformation story which began in 2009 and has seen a comprehensive makeover of Kia’s entire model line under the direction of chief design officer Peter Schreyer, the Sedona advances value to new levels of sophistication with a host of segment-leading new technology and upscale features, all of which will be offered in a new premium trim level SXL. The completely redesigned midsize multi-purpose vehicle raises the bar in the segment with innovative technology, available driving-aid technologies, style and added safety features. With its modern appearance and CUV-like cab-forward design, the all-new Sedona is

available in seven- and eightpassenger configurations. In addition to innovative European-inspired design, the 2015 Sedona also delivers the exceptional interior volume buyers expect in the segment with ample passenger and cargo room and a quiet and comfortable cabin. The car makers boasts that the Sedona also is the only vehicle in the segment outfitted with standard fabric technology to provide anti-microbial protection from spills, anti-static protection from irritating electrical shocks as well as stain-repelling and stain-releasing fabric characteristics appreciated by anyone who leads an active lifestyle. Bold Exterior Transcending mundane functionality, the Sedona’s wide stance exudes a modern, CUVlike exterior appearance highlighted by a front fascia and cab-forward design that project confidence and strength. The Sedona’s muscular face and clean, smooth look is highlighted by a fully integrated version of Kia’s signature grille and headlamps with LED positioning lights. The wheelbase is 1.6-inches longer than its predecessor, and the side profile, with its reduced front and rear overhangs, combines with the deeply swept windshield and available 19inch alloy wheels to create a

distinctive look. Meanwhile, the rear design layout, with LED taillights, integrated bumper guard and standard roof spoiler, gives it that broad and stable bearing. Roomy and configurable Interior the redesigned Sedona Despite its overall width and height remaining virtually unchanged, provides more front shoulder room, greater leg room in the front, second and third rows, as well as a slightly higher hippoint, improving outward visibility for the driver. The horizontal design cues across the instrument panel create a greater sense of width, and the generous use of softtouch materials adds to the allnew Sedona’s premium ambiance. The Sedona’s proportions provide flexible seating in both seven- and eight-passenger configurations and a multitude of storage options. The front centre console is unique to the segment and allows for generous and cleverly convenient storage space between the front seats. Second row Slide-n-Stow tracked seating slides and folds upright to allow for “on-the-go” cargo hauling while eliminating the hassle that comes with removing heavy and cumbersome middle seats. The all-new Sedona also offers the choice of second row “First Class” lounge

seating that can be positioned rearward for astonishing legroom and provides retractable lower leg rests. And while some configurations feature segment-unique second-row seat cushion heaters for added comfort, all 2015 Sedona models offer a third-row that provides the convenience of a split folding 60/40 in-floor retractable design. The Sedona’s sophisticated interior design theme is brought to life with a modern colour palette featuring solid or two-tone colour options in beige, gray and burgundy for a warm and inviting atmosphere. The top-line SXL trim features standard ultra-soft Nappa leather seating surfaces throughout the cabin, the same Chromium-free leather found in the K900 luxury sedan. Technology & Entertainment Building on the next-generation UVO Infotainment & Telematics system, the all-new Sedona will be the first Kia vehicle to offer four new eServices features: Geo-fencing, Speed Alert, Curfew Alert and Driving Score. Additionally, with the introduction of the Kia App store, select apps can be

downloaded for free from iTunes or Google Play. The Kia app connector is now available for partnership with the content community, including Pandora, iHeart Radio and Yelp. Many more new technologies for comfort and convenience are featured in the new UVO system, including Siri “Eyes Free6” and Local Search powered by Google for finding locations, addresses and points of interest. Sirius XM Travel Link7, offering access to traffic, weather, fuel prices, sports scores, stock information and movie times, makes the Sedona the perfect companion for those who live their lives on the road with family and friends. Driving Dynamics and Safety The 2015 Sedona is built on an all-new chassis with static

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Behind d Wheels This page is open to sponsorship

application of the newest highpower (2.1 AMP) USB charging port and a 115-volt AC outlet to charge small electronics as well as a dual glove box that offers a cooled lower storage area. For easier parking and vehicle maneuvering, the Surround View Monitor8 provides real-time images from cameras placed around the vehicle. Smart Welcome, automatically illuminates the door handles and unfolds the power retractable side mirrors when a vehicle key fob is detected. A hands-free “Smart Tailgate” opens the rear lift gate automatically when the key fob is sensed for three seconds, and its programmable function can be tailored to the user’s height preference.

torsional stiffness that is 36-per cent greater than its closest segment competitor. The body is 76 per cent ultra high strength steel (press hardened) or high strength steel, which provides exceptional rigidity, durability and collision protection in a lightweight design. For enhanced roof strength, the Sedona has been engineered with reinforced pillars that distribute impact loads with ultrahigh-strength steel tubes that run inside the A-pillars. Extensive use of adhesives and large diameter welds also add to Sedona’s overall structural integrity and strength. The 2015 Sedona makes use of Amplitude Selected Dampers ASD to strike an optimal balance of ride comfort and handling. The platform also has revised rear cross-member bushings, an isolated rear sub-frame with longer trailing arms and added rear strut reinforcement, all of which combine for improved dynamic ride characteristics. Additionally, thanks to wheelhouse padding, double seal sliding doors and an expanded use of sound-deadening foam in the engine compartment, reducing noise and perceived harshness over rough pavement the 2015 Sedona is expected to be among the quietest in the segment. Under the hood A new Lambda Gasoline Di-

rect Injection GDI 3.3-litre V6 engine replaces the 3.5-litre V6 found in the previous generation Sedona. The 3.3-litre engine, which is also found in the Sorento CUV and Cadenza premium sedan, delivers more power than its predecessor, boasting 276 horsepower at 6,000 rpm, and it has been tuned for enhanced mid-range torque, offering 248 lb.-ft. at 5,200 rpm. A three-step Variable Induction System VIS improves engine “breathing,” automatically adjusting the volume of the air pulled into the combustion chamber to create the optimal air-to-fuel mix under different engine load conditions. Dual Continuously Variable Valve Timing CVVT combines with a piston-cooling oil jet to improve engine cooling efficiency, while engine components, including piston rings, piston skirts, valve tappets, timing chain guide and valve springs are all of a low-friction design. Finally, the new 3.3-liter V6 engine is mated to a six-speed automatic transmission tuned for balanced control, power and efficiency. Smart & Convenience Features From front to back the Sedona offers numerous convenience features, including Kia’s first

Safety Features and Driver Technology All Sedona models come standard with active safety features such as Electronic Stability Control (ESC)8, Traction Control System TCS, Brake Assist System BAS, Hill-start Assist Control HAC, Electronic Brake Force Distribution EBD and Antilock Braking System ABS. Additional technologies such as Roll over Mitigation ROM and Cornering Brake Control CBC also were added as standard equipment for improved dynamic control and safety. New optional driver technology, including Vehicle Stability Management VSM; Forward Collision Warning System FCWS; Smart Cruise Control SCC; Blind Spot Detection BSD and Rear Cross Traffic Alert to help provide drivers with a more convenient and secure daily driving experience. According to Kia Motors’ vice president, product planning, Orth Hedrick, “Throughout the development process, our engineers in the U.S. and Korea focused on adding the element of desire to the all-new Sedona with improved driving dynamics and power and the incorporation of modern styling cues, premium materials and technology.” He believes that with the combined host of active and passive safety features and technology, the completely redesigned Sedona has successfully retained the functionality the nameplate has always been known for, while rising to meet the diverse needs and tastes of today’s consumers. Indeed the all-new Sedona’s CUV-like styling and proportions offer all of the functional convenience of the segment while defying its design limitations. Sales are scheduled to begin in the late third quarter or early fourth quarter of this year. BC

Autocare Car battery care tips

he most crucial component of a car, the battery, which gets it moving is often ignored or overlooked. This can prove to be costly and troublesome on the road. Do not take a car battery for granted The battery in a car cranks the engine when the key is turned in the ignition. So, no matter how well the car is maintained. If the battery is not treated correctly, the car will not get on the road. Taking care of the battery is simple, easy and inexpensive. Read the following tips to keep the battery in your car always ready to crank. * Turn off electric devices in the car. Take the key out of the ignition * Prior to handling your car batteries, remove all kinds of metal accessories from your body such as watches with metal straps, metal jewellery like bracelets, bangles, rings, etc. to prevent short-circuit if these items by chance touch the positive terminal of the battery. * Clean the top of the battery with solution of a cup of water and a tablespoon of baking soda. Use an old toothbrush to remove corrosion and build up from the battery posts and cables. * A battery meter can be used to test the voltage of the battery; if it reads 12.5 volts the battery is fine. If it’s lower the battery is undercharged and needs to be charged. * Remove the covers of the battery cells, and make sure that the wells are at least half full with electrolyte fluid. If the fluid is low, fill the wells up with distilled water. Let the distilled water mix with the electrolyte fluid for a while before starting the car. * Use only distilled water as tap water will eventually reduce the battery’s potential. * If the headlight beam turns yellowish, it’s time to charge the battery or have it replaced all together. * If the ignition takes a while to crank the car and the key has to be held in the start position for a bit before the engine starts, it’s time to get a new battery. The following steps will ensure long battery life * Do not leave the headlights on for a long time after the engine has been turned off. * Do not leave the key in the ignition of the car overnight as some electrical devise may remain on and can discharge the battery by the morning. * Never let rust remain on the battery terminals for too long. * Do not leave interior lights on overnight, make sure all lights have been turned off and any other electrical accessories have been turned off before locking the car. * Car batteries have a limited life span. Check the lifespan of your car battery and have it replaced before the lifespan comes to an end. * If the car is not going to be used for a long time. Disconnect the battery from the car, hand remove it from the car altogether. This ensures that the battery will not get discharged when the vehicle is not used. Maintaining a battery and monitoring the health of the battery will ensure that there will never come a situation when the car will not start at the traffic lights and cause you embarrassment. Or worse, get you stuck in the middle of nowhere and help is not at hand. Never ignore the importance of maintaining a car battery as it will cost more to buy a new battery rather than maintaining an old one. BC

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REGULATORS

NDIC advocates judicial process for financial system stability

he Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) has reiterated that the Nigerian Judiciary is a critical institution towards achieving the NDIC core mandate of depositor protection andits contribution to financial system stability. The Managing Director of the Corporation, Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, stated this at the opening ceremony of the Corporation’s 2015 Sensitization Seminar for Judges of States and Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Courts in Abuja. A statement by Head, Communication and Public Affiars Unit of the Corporation, Mallam Hadi Birchi, quoted the Managing Director as saying that no matter how robust the NDIC’s extant laws, the Corporation needed the legal support from the judiciary to achieve its mandate, adding that the Corporation would continue to seek the

cooperation and understanding of the judiciary, given that the Judiciary is constitutionally vested with the powers of interpretation of statutes and laws in the Federation. Represented by the Executive Director Operations, Prince Aghatise Erediauwa, at the seminar with the theme “Challenges to Deposit Insurance Law and Practice in Nigeria”, Ibrahim said that the forum was intended to address the challenges being faced by the Corporation in its bid to successfully discharge its mandate. The deposit insurance expert listed some of the major challenges to include, the menace of protracted and complex bank liquidation related litigations as well as their attendant consequences, the execution of court judgments against the assets of the Corporation as the liquidator of failed banks and lack

of proper understanding of its proper legal status on its role as a Deposit Insurer which is distinct from its status as a bank liquidator. He urged the participants to critically examine these challenges with a view to proffering a lasting solution in order to empower the Corporation to effectively discharge itsmandate. While declaring the seminar open, the Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chairman, Board of Governors of the National Judicial Institute, Hon. Justice Mahmud Mohammed, noted that some of the esoteric legal issues bordering on the established rights of creditors, shareholders and depositors of failed financial institutions were genuine matters before the courts. The CJN therefore called for a clear and proper understanding of the concept and operation of bridge banks as well as the ex-

NPA boss lauds LADOL on maritime sector

he Managing Director of Nigerian Ports Authority, Mallam Habib Abdullahi has commended the Management of Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base, LADOL, for its contributions to the development of Maritime Industry and the economy. Abdullahi who was speaking shortly after inspecting LADOL’s facilities along Badagry channel, Lagos harbours assured the company of the Authority’s support and collaboration in the areas of security, pilotage, and safe channels among others. The Managing Director noted that if there are other companies in Nigeria that have contributed immensely to the Nation’s economy like LADOL, Nigeria’s economy would have developed more than it has today. “I am very impressed and very proud as a Nigerian that a company owned by a Nigerian is doing well. As a landlord and technical regulator, NPA will

Abdullahi

continue to encourage all other companies in the maritime sector undertaking similar ventures,’’ he said. Earlier, the Managing Director of LADOL, Dr Amy Jadesimi told the Managing Director and his entourage that LADOL is Nigeria’s first and only wholly owned indigenous Nigerian Deep Offshore Logistic Base which provides world class solution in areas of deep off-shore support for maritime and gas projects, agriculture and fabrications. She added that the company has a vision of providing next growth opportunity that is aimed at changing the entire economic landscape of the country through the provision of

5,000direct jobs and 50,000 indirect jobs for Nigerians, thereby helping Nigeria to join the G20 group of nations. Dr Jadesimi expressed appreciation to the Management of NPA for its support and cooperation over the years, which she said has given LADOL the opportunity she enjoys presently. The Managing Director listed ongoing projects in LADOL to include a passenger Terminal with an emergency response facility with a capacity to accommodate 1000 passengers which is due to be completed in 2017 .She also mentioned an integrated Quay wall with a built design of13.5Metre draught and 500metre long due for completion in February 2016. BC

ecution of assets of failed bankswithin the context of deposit insurance system (DIS). According to him, this would facilitate better appreciation of the legal issues by the judiciary and eventually lead to more informed court judgments. He urged the participants to actively utilize the knowledge gained at the seminar in the course of their duties and also enjoined them to continue to uphold the highest standards of ethics and integrity. BC

MAN rejects NSC re-introduction of CTN

he Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has challenged the Nigerian Shippers’ Council plan to re-introduce the Cargo Tracking Note. The system has previously been jettisoned by the Federal Government on the request of the operators within the Nigerian manufacturing sector in 2013. MAN Director General, Remi Ogunmefun, said in a statement that the CTN, if reintroduced,

Ogunmefun

NSE worried over Oando’s late submission of results

he Nigerian Stock Exchange, NSE, has expressed deep concerns over Oando Plc’s late submission of its 2014 financial results. The NSE is therefore reviewing the situation and has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission, SEC on the matter. A statement by the Exchange noted, “The Exchange is reviewing the situation regarding the delayed filings of the Audited Financial Statements of Oando Plc for the year ended 31 December 2014 and its Q1 and H1 delayed filings. The Exchange is greatly concerned about the delayed filings and the significant losses

which were posted for the 2014 fiscal year and the first three quarters of 2015. The NSE said it was “greatly concerned” by Oando’s late release of its’ 2014 annual results and that it was reviewing the situation and notified the SEC. Companies listed on the bourse are meant to announce full-year numbers within 90 days of the period ending. Oando, the biggest indigenous oil and gas producer in Nigeria also listed on Johannesburg Stock Exchange ,JES, recently announced impairments of N185bn ($938m) for the financial year ended December 31, 2014 even as the value of its assets

Ibrahim

dropped amid plunging crude prices. The energy company announced the wrote down of N130bn in its exploration and production division and N36bn in its services arm because of a decline in the value of its oil rigs, Chief Executive Officer Wale Tinubu said in a letter dated Oct. 29, which was posted on the NSE’s website on Tuesday. Oando also took a N19bn hit for foreign exchange losses. “With global upstream players forced to record significant reductions in the fair value of their asset portfolios in the last 10 months, we are no exception,” Tinubu wrote in the letter. BC

will drive up the cost of cargo clearance at the nation’s ports and have a negative trickle-down effect on businesses. The statement said, “In the interest of the manufacturing sector and the Nigerian economy, the Nigerian Shippers Council and by extension the Federal Government should jettison the re-introduction of the CTN as currently crafted until the issue of where the cost burden of its implementation will rest.” According to him, despite weighty reservations expressed by manufacturers at different forum and at a special meeting with the management and Governing Board of NSC and a follow-up technical review session on August 11 and 20, 2015, respectively, NSC was bent on re-introducing the CTN. “This position was reached based on observed limitations, and other yet to be addressed observed lapses that motivated the call for its cancellation few years ago. The rationale for our dissatisfaction was expressed at the afore-mentioned meetings and formally communicated in writing to the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council on September 15, 2015.” Consequently, he said that manufacturers recommended that NSC should convene a broader stakeholders’ forum that will afford all operators on the maritime value chain, especially those that would carry the cost burden of CTN to technically x-ray its proposal to re-introduce CTN and agree on a mutually beneficial implementation guideline. He noted: “The NSC is yet to address the concerns of manufacturers or those raised by other stakeholders, amend observed lapses, provide alternative remedies or convene a maritime stakeholder’s forum but has resorted to the pages of the newspaper expressing the plans to go ahead with the reintroduction. BC

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Monday, November 9, 2015

A21 37

Stock market last week Equities turnover of 1.949 billion shares worth N17.336 billion in 15,762 deals were traded last week by investors on the floor of The Exchange in contrast to a total of 1.358 billion shares valued at N14.722 billion that exchanged hands last week in 14,772 deals. The Financial Services Industry (measured by volume) led the activity chart with 1.714 billion shares valued at N10.770 billion traded in 9,378 deals; thus contributing 87.93 per cent and 62.13 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively. The Conglomerates Industry followed with a turnover of 73.433 million shares worth N173.733 million in 908 deals. The third place was occupied by the Oil and Gas Industry with 62.711 million shares worth N2.702 billion in 1,688 deals. Trading in the Top Three Equities namely – Access Bank Plc, Zenith International Bank Plc and United Bank for Africa Plc.(measured by volume) accounted for 1.276 billion shares worth N8.340 billion in 2,782 deals, contributing 65.45 per cent and 48.11 per cent to the total equity turnover volume and value respectively.

NSE trading hall

ETPs: Also traded during the week were a total of 7,291 units of Exchange Traded Products (ETPs) valued at N437,490.20 executed in 35 deals compared with a total of 330,708 units valued at N1.616 million transacted the fortnight week in 53 deals. Bonds: There was no transaction recorded on bonds this week. However, a total of 400 units of Federal Government Bonds valued at N423,765.35 were transacted last week in one deal. Index Movement: The NSE All-Share Index depreciated 0.01 per cent while Market Capitalization appreciated 0.02 per cent to close the week at

29,175.35 and N10.029 trillion respectively. Similarly, all other Indices finished lower during the week with exception of NSE Premium, NSE 30, NSE Insurance, NSE Oil/Gas, and NSE Pension indices, while NSE ASeM Index closed flat. Summary Of Price Changes Twenty-four equities appreciated in price during the week, higher than 12 equities of the preceding week. Forty-three equities depreciated in price, lower than 51 equities of the preceding week, while 123 equities remained unchanged, lower than 127 equities recorded in the preceding week. BC

Market Indicators for Week Ended 06-11-15 All-Share Index 30,141.06 points Market Capitalization 9,988,292,838,512.17

NASD OTC REPORT 1 OUTSTANDING OFFERS AND BIDS ON NASD OTC Outstanding deals since August, 2015. Security SD ACORN PETROLEUM PLC SD ARM LIFE PLC SD ARM PROPERTIES PLC SD AFRILAND PROPERTIES PLC SD BGL PLC SD CAPPA AND D'ALBERTO PLC SD CENTRAL SECURITIES CLEARING SYSTEM PLC SD DUFIL PRIMA FOODS PLC SD FRIESLAND CAMPINA WAMCO NIGERIA PLC

Offers Nominal value (₦) 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 1.00 0.50 0.50

Bids

SD FOOD CONCEPTS PLC

Consumer Services

0.50

Last Offer Date 30-Oct-15 28-Oct-15 17-Aug-15 27-Oct-15 28-Oct-15 25-Jun-15

SD FREE RANGES FARM PLC

Consumer Goods

1.00

SD FUMMAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES PLC SD GEO-FLUIDS PLC SD GOLDEN CAPITAL PLC SD INDUSTRIAL & GENERAL INSURANCE PLC SD JAIZ INTERNATIONAL PLC SD NIGER DELTA EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION PLC

Consumer Goods Industrials Financials Financials Financials Oil & Gas

SD PARTNERSHIP INVESTMENT COMPANY PLC SD RESOURCERY PLC SD RIGGS VENTURES WEST AFRICA PLC SD SPRING MORTGAGE PLC SD SWAP TECHNOLOGIES AND TELECOMMS PLC

Financials Technology Industrials Financials Technology Financials

0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 1.00 10.00 0.50

20-Oct-15 16-Oct-15 8-Oct-15

0.47 166.17 0.79

1.42 -

0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 1.00

13-Oct-15 2-Aug-15

0.45 0.81

0.43 0.95 1.20 -

USTRUSTBOND MORTGAGE BANK PLC

Industry Oil & Gas Financials Financials Financials Financials Industrials Financials Consumer Goods Consumer Goods

Volume offered Last Offer Price Last Bid Price 290,000 0.39 0.50 90,000 2.49 68,700.00 69.99 55,000 5.70 5.11 3,779 220.00 1,900,000.00 0.78 0.67

1,053,333.00 48,200.00 3,235,900 950,000.00 3,000,000.00

2 DEMATERIALISATION AND CUMULATIVE TRADE IN OTC SECURITIES 30-Oct-15 Security SD ACORN PETROLEUM PLC SD ARM LIFE PLC SD ARM PROPERTIES PLC SD AFRILAND PROPERTIES PLC SD BGL PLC SD CAPPA AND D'ALBERTO PLC SD CENTRAL SECURITIES CLEARING SYSTEM PLC SD DUFIL PRIMA FOODS PLC SD FRIESLAND CAMPINA WAMCO NIGERIA PLC SD FOOD CONCEPTS PLC SD FREE RANGES FARM PLC SD FUMMAN AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS INDUSTRIES PLC SD GEO-FLUIDS PLC SD GOLDEN CAPITAL PLC SD INDUSTRIAL & GENERAL INSURANCE PLC SD JAIZ INTERNATIONAL PLC SD NIGER DELTA EXPLORATION & PRODUCTION PLC SD PARTNERSHIP INVESTMENT COMPANY PLC SD RESOURCERY PLC SD RIGGS VENTURES WEST AFRICA PLC SD SPRING MORTGAGE PLC SD SWAP TECHNOLOGIES AND TELECOMMS PLC

USTRUSTBOND MORTGAGE BANK PLC

Industry Oil and Gas Financials Financials Financials Financials Industrial Financials Consumer Goods Consumer Goods Consumer Services Consumer Goods Consumer Goods Industrial Financials Financials Financials Oil and Gas Financials Technology Industrial Financials Technology Financials

Introduced by Meristem Securities Limited APT Securities & Fund Limited Mega Equity Limited APT Securities & Fund Limited Nigerian Int. Securities Ltd UBA Stockbroking Firm Greenwich Securities Limited Anchoria Investment & Securities Limited Capital Bancorp Plc Stanbic IBTC stockbrokers limited CSL Stockbroking Limited Integrated Trust & Investment Limited Icon Stockbrokers Limited Sterling Capital Market Limited Greenwich Securities Limited APT Securities & Fund Limited FCSL Asset Management Co. Limited APT Securities & Fund Limited APT Securities & Fund Limited APT Securities & Fund Limited Primera Africa Securities Limited Signet Investment and Securities Limited Prominent Securities Limited

Company Registrars CardinalStone Registrars Limited African Prudential Registrars Plc African Prudential Registrars Plc African Prudential Registrars Plc Unity Registrars Limited African Prudential Registrars Plc African Prudential Registrars Plc Nnenna Ejekam Associates First Registrars Limited Meristem Registrars Limited Meristem Registrars Limited PAC Registrars Limited Meristem Registrars Limited African Prudential Registrars Plc GTL Registrars Limited African Prudential Registrars Plc United Securities Limited First Registrars Limited EDC Registrars Limited Mainstreet Bank Registrars Limited PAC Registrars Limited PAC Registrars Limited United Securities Limited

Year end 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Mar 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec 31/Dec

Volume Bidded Last Bid Date 300 28-Oct-15 285,000 14-Oct-15 50,000 500 500 1,000 700 -

28-Oct-15 9-Oct-15 9-Oct-15 9-Oct-15 9-Oct-15 -

TRADE INFORMATION (JAN 2015-TILL DATE) DEMATERIALISATION INFORMATION Total Share Capital Volume % '000 Dematerialised Dematerialised DEALS VOLUME VALUE (₦) 57,740,146 2,000,000,000 2.89% 97 5,161,956 2,034,190.02 606,000,000 5,785,673,000 10.47% 28,515,023 1,900,000,000 1.50% 35 91,330 253,976.80 60,924,957 1,249,000,000 4.88% 114 26,535,798 62,920,558.43 9,620,957,533 12,000,000,000 80.17% 5 6,300 18,900.00 2,624,671 196,875,000 1.33% 27 110,469 8,324,234.60 726,194,190 5,000,000,000 14.52% 334 526,678,019 2,884,589,925.65 6,753,333,334 0.00% 182,990,364 976,335,936 18.74% 649 139,446,695 43,672,686,924.13 100,148,195 5,650,000,000 1.77% 89 29,819,199 21,703,952.02 519,999,631 0.00% 69,369,303 3,600,000,000 1.93% 4 1,400 2,012.00 567,197,596 4,257,668,000 13.32% 41 11,125,571 16,283,733.95 252,255,056 1,170,324,536 21.55% 12 4,800 5,040.00 1,019,968,270 14,231,238,000 7.17% 77 144,193,775 114,397,006.00 302,072,809 11,829,700,000 2.55% 27 2,108,481 2,526,549.84 18,015,633 181,408,000 9.93% 172 13,375,720 2,855,039,842.56 197,337,494 2,875,595,000 6.86% 25 6,831,600 5,808,480.00 517,000,000 2,576,686,039 20.06% 43 448,254,880 224,180,686.40 880,394,000 0.00% 7,138,199,210 0.00% 1,355,788,000 2,705,378,000 50.11% 33 1,178,410 1,375,528.30 115,389,505 10,945,334,000 1.05% 21 14,760 12,845.70 104,423,141,686 15,800,488,745 15.13% 1,805 1,354,939,163 49,872,164,386.40

If you do not see your unquoted Plc on this list or for further enquirys consult your NASD OTC participating broker or visit our website at www.nasdng.com

A22 38

Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Guinness: Performance driven by new products, aggressive marketing

uinness Nigeria, a subsidiary of Diageo Plc first quarter of 2015 result recorded an astonishing growth of 47 per cent coupled with a 17 per cent increase on its net sales for the quarter in review. This growth has been attributed to the wide acceptance of the company’s new brand, Orijin, by consumers in the Nigerian market alongside adept adverts and wide market penetrations. Guinness Nigeria reported that the company had a “17 per cent increase in sales for the quarter, year on year and a 47 per cent growth in operating profit when compared to the same period last year.” According to former Managing Director, Guinness Nigeria, John O’Keeffe Guinness recorded a strong performance in the quarter driven by the continued success of Orijin and participation in the value segment of the market through Satzenbrau along with the improving performance of Guinness stout, adding that the company was reporting a double digit net sales growth in the period. A statement by the Company had disclosed that high finance costs in a high interest rate environment negatively impacted overall profitability of the brewer. “Despite the challenges highlighted, the company assured of continuous investment in all its brands in order to enhance their route to their customers”, it said. Also, Chairman, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Babatunde Savage, remarked: “We have had an encouraging year so far and we believe that we are in a position to finish the year well in spite of the challenges of the operating environment. 2014 half year result Guinness Nigeria recorded another poor financial performance for the half year ended December 31, 2014. The brewing company posted growth in top line but decline of 32 per cent in bot-

tom line, due to high operating expenses and financial charges. Specifically, the company recorded revenue of N55.3bn in 2014, up from N52.7bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2013. Its cost of sale rose from N27.5bn to N29.5bn, leading to a margin increase in gross profit which grew from N25.3bn to N25.8bn. Marketing and distribution expenses also grew from N12.5bn to N13.2bn, while administrative expenses similarly jumped from N4.9bn to N6bn. Operating profit fell 15 per cent, from N8.22bn to N6.97bn. However, finance charges increased 35 per cent to N2.71bn, from N1.95bn, which led to the company ending with a profit after tax of N3.39bn, compared to N4.99bn in 2013. Analysts at FBN Capital, said the second quarter profit after tax fell 41 per cent to N1.9bn. Although sales grew 13 per cent to N34.2bn, a combination of factors including a gross margin contraction of 442 basis points to 44.4 per cent, a 20 per cent rise in operating expenses and a 34 per cent growth in interest expense resulted in profit before tax declining by 41 per cent year-on-year to N2.7bn. “On a sequential basis, while sales increased by 63 per cent quarter-on-quarter, similar factors responsible for the year-on-year decline in earnings (mainly a

Peter Ndegwa, new Guinness boss

gross margin contraction of 567 basis points quarter by quarter, a 45 per cent quarter by quarter rise in operating expenses and a 28 per cent quarter by quarter rise in interest expense) resulted in profit before tax and profit after tax growing slower by 37 per cent q/q and 29 per cent q/q respectively. Compared with our estimates, sales beat by seven per cent,” they said. Business Strategy The company has been reaping the benefits of new products such as Origin Bitters and Origin Ready to Drink, introduced into the

market recently with the improvement in revenue. On a quarterly basis, the company’s revenue of N34.2bn in the second quarter to December 2014 is higher than N21.05bn and N30.35bn posted in the first quarter of the review period and second quarter of the previous year respectively by 62.6 per cent and 12.8 per cent. Similarly, the latest quarter’s revenue is higher than the eight quarter average of N28.3bn by 21.1 per cent. “It also exceeded our estimate of N32.1bn by 6.6 per cent. If the improvement in revenue can be replicated in the quarters ahead, there will be positive impact on the full year numbers,” analysts at DLM Securities, an investment firm, said. Operating expenses The company cost of sales increased despite decline in the prices of major inputs. For the review period, the company posted an increase of 7.4 per cent in cost of sales year-on-year to N29.5bn, compared to N27.5bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2013. The higher increase in cost of sales relative to revenue

led to an increase in cost of sale/ revenue ratio to 53 per cent relative to 52.1 per cent recorded the preceding year. Contrary to expectation, cost of sales was up in spite of decline in the prices of grains in the global commodity market which are major inputs in brewing both alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. For example, barley and corn traded at average prices of $127/ tonne and $174/tonne in the review period. Also, the average prices of wheat and sorghum declined 15 per cent yearon-year and nine per cent year-on-year respectively. Operating profit declined due to increase in running costs. For the review period, the company’s operating expenses of N19.2bn was up 9.8 per cent year-on-year, compared to N17.5bn recorded the preceding year. The higher increase in operating expenses relative to revenue led to a higher operating expenses/ revenue ratio of 34.7 per cent to 33.1 per cent recorded the preceding period. On the whole, total cost rose to N48.7bn, up 8.3 per cent from N44.9bn recorded in the corresponding period of 2013, while total cost/ revenue ratio stood at 88.1 per cent relative to 85.2 per cent in the half year of 2013. Therefore, operating profit was down 15.1 per cent to N6.98bn, compared to N8.22bn posted in the same period of 2013. The operating margin dipped to 12.6 per cent relative to 15.6 per cent recorded in the same period of 2013. Company background Guinness Nigeria was established in 1962 and was the first country to have a Guinness brewery built outside of the British Isles. Nigeria now represents the largest market for Guinness by Net Sales Value in the world. Products from the brewer’s stables include Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, Malta Guinness, Harp Lager beer, SNAPP, Orijin Bitters and ready-to-drink amongst others. BC

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

A23 39

STOCKWATCH Stock Exchange weekly equities summary as at Friday, Nov 06, 2015 SECURITY

PRICE (=N=)

AGRICULTURE/AGRO-ALLIED Crop Production FTN COCOA PROCESSORS PLC 0.50 OKOMU OIL PALM PLC. 28.82 PRESCO PLC 30.50 Fishing/Hunting/Trapping ELLAH LAKES PLC. 4.26 Livestock/Animal Specialties LIVESTOCK FEEDS PLC. 1.41 CONGLOMERATES Diversified Industries A.G. LEVENTIS NIGERIA PLC. 1.02 CHELLARAMS PLC. 3.76 JOHN HOLT PLC. 0.96 SCOA NIG PLC 4.16 TRANSNATIONAL CORP. OF NIG.PLC 1.94 U A C N PLC. 27.73 CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Building Construction ARBICO PLC. 5.04 CAPPA & D’ALBERTO PLC. NT Building Structure/Completion/Other COSTAIN (W A) PLC. 0.50 G CAPPA PLC 14.46 Non--Building/Heavy Construction JULIUS BERGER NIG. PLC. 39.50 ROADS NIG PLC. 6.60 Real Estate Development PINNACLE POINT GROUP PLC NT UACN PROPERTY DEV 6.61 Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) SKYE SHELTER FUND PLC 100.00 UNION HOMES REAL ESTATE INV 45.22 UPDC REAL ESTATE INVESTMENT TRUST 10.00 CONSUMER GOODS Automobiles/Auto Parts DN TYRE & RUBBER PLC 0.50 Beverages--Brewers/Distillers CHAMPION BREW. PLC. 4.17 GOLDEN GUINEA BREW. PLC. 0.97 GUINNESS NIG PLC 143.24 INTERNATIONAL BREWERIES PLC. 16.00 JOS INT. BREWERIES PLC. 1.51 NIGERIAN BREW. PLC. 136.02 PREMIER BREWERIES PLC 2.95 Beverages--Non-Alcoholic 7-UP BOTTLING COMP. PLC. 191.01 Food Products BIG TREAT PLC NT DANGOTE FLOUR MILLS PLC 2.31 DANGOTE SUGAR REFINERY PLC 6.50 FLOUR MILLS NIG. PLC. 21.80 HONEYWELL FLOUR MILL PLC 2.40 MULTI-TREX INTEGRATED FOODS PLC 0.50 N NIG. FLOUR MILLS PLC. 8.99 NATIONAL SALT CO. NIG. PLC 7.18 P S MANDRIDES & CO PLC. 5.35 U T C NIG. PLC. 0.50 UNION DICON SALT PLC. 11.84 Food Products--Diversified CADBURY NIGERIA PLC. 20.10 NESTLE NIGERIA PLC. 814.00 Household Durables BETA GLASS CO PLC. NT NIGERIAN ENAMELWARE PLC. 29.78 VITAFOAM NIG PLC. 5.39 VONO PRODUCTS PLC. 0.92 Personal/Household Products P Z CUSSONS NIGERIA PLC. 24.32 UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC. 31.43 Textiles/Apparel UNITED NIG. TEXTILES PLC. NT FINANCIAL SERVICES Banking ACCESS BANK PLC. 4.47 DIAMOND BANK PLC 2.62 ECOBANK TRANSNATIONAL INC. 18.50 FIDELITY BANK PLC 1.38 FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC. NT GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC. 23.20 INTERCONTINENTAL BANK 13.50 SKYE BANK PLC 1.94 STERLING BANK PLC. 2.00 U B A PLC 3.60 UNION BANK NIG.PLC. 5.60 UNITY BANK PLC 1.26 WEMA BANK PLC. 0.99 ZENITH BANK PLC 17.71 Insurance Carriers, Brokers & Services AFRICAN ALLIANCE INS. COY. PLC 0.50 AIICO INSURANCE PLC. 0.90 CONFIDENCE INSURANCE PLC NT CONSOLIDATED HALLMARK INS. PLC 0.50 CONTINENTAL REINSURANCE PLC 1.05 CORNERSTONE INS. COY. PLC. 0.50 CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC NT EQUITY ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 GOLDLINK INSURANCE PLC 0.53 GREAT NIGERIAN INSURANCE PLC 0.50 GUINEA INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 INTERCONTINENTAL WAPIC INS. PLC NT INTERNATIONAL ENERGY INS. PLC 0.50 INVESTMENT AND ALLIED ARN. 0.5 LASACO ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 LAW UNION AND ROCK INS. PLC. 0.52 LINKAGE ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 MANSARD INSURANCE PLC 2.60 MUTUAL BENEFITS ASSURANCE PLC. 0.50 N.E.M INSURANCE CO (NIG) PLC. 0.66 NIGER INSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 OASIS INSURANCE PLC NT PRESTIGE ASSURANCE CO. PLC. 0.50 REGENCY ALLIANCE INS. COY PLC 0.50 SOVEREIGN TRUST INSURANCE PLC 0.50 STANDARD TRUSTASSURANCE PLC 0.50 STANDARD ALLIANCE INS. PLC. 0.50 UNIC INSURANCE PLC. 0.50 UNITY KAPITAL ASSURANCE PLC 0.50 UNIVERSAL INS. COMPANY PLC 0.50 WAPIC INSURANCE PLC 0.50 Micro Finance Banks FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 5.42 NPF MICROFINANCE BANK PLC 0.98 Mortgage Carriers, Brokers &Services ABBEY MORTGAGE BANK PLC 1.25 ASO SAVINGS AND LOANS PLC 0.50 INFINITY TRUST MORTGAGE BANK PLC 1.42 RESORT SAVINGS & LOANS PLC 0.50 UNION HOMES SAVINGS&LOANS PLC 5.23 Other Financial Institutions AFRICA PRUDENTIAL REGISTRARS 2.57 CUSTODIAN AND ALLIED INS. PLC 4.10 CRUSADER ( NIG) PLC. NT DEAP CAPITAL MGT & TRUST PLC 0.58 FBN HOLDINGS PLC 5.10 FCMB GROUP PLC 2.01 ROYAL EXCHANGE PLC. 0.50 STANBIC IBTC HOLDINGS PLC 20.87 SIM CAPITAL ALLIANCE VALUE FUND 103.24 NIGERIA ENERGY SECTOR FUND 552.20 UBA CAPITAL PLC 1.30 HEALTHCARE Healthcare Providers EKOCORP PLC. 3.72 UNION DIAGNOSTIC &CLINICAL PLC 0.50 Medical Supplies MORISON INDUSTRIES PLC. 1.73 Pharmaceuticals

NOTE NT=Not Traded on 06-11-15

QUANTITY

9,140 261,540 107,996

52 WK HIGH

0.64 107.81 41.14

52 WK LOW

0.50 20.92 8.24

SHARES OUTSTANDING

EPS

2,200,000,000 476,955,000 1,000,000,000

0.10 2.29 7.55

MOV. (%)

N/A -0.69 0.00

0.50 29.02 30.50

4.26

60,000,000

0.00

N/A

4.26

1,249,104

7.18

0.68

1,199,549,736

0.07

-11.88

1.60

100,150 300 17,558 512 6,693,406 2,658,148

2.08 6.43 5.89

0.71 4.15 1.07

2,191,895,983 963,900,300 389,151,408

0.11 0.16 1.09

-0.97 N/A N/A

5.89 71.10

0.50 28.00

821,666,666 1,600,720,323

0.09 4.38

N/A N/A

1.03 3.95 0.96 4.16 1.81 26.48

375 3

26.00 95.49

5.05 95.49

148,500,000 196,876,000

0.33 4.50

N/A N/A

5.04 NT

807,550 217

2.66 14.46

0.72 14.46

920,573,765 125,000,000

0.00 0.00

N/A N/A

0.50 14.46

27,437 1,832

83.75 10.60

19.86 6.61

1,200,000,000 20,000,000

6.74 1.69

1.78 N/A

38.81 6.60

NT 324,368

7.28 20.90

7.28 8.82

1,375,000,000

0.00 2.20

N/A -5.97

NT 7.03

93 100 6,350

100.00 50.00 10.50

100.00 50.00 0.00

20,000,000 250,019,781

5.82 0.19

N/A N/A

100.00 45.22 10.00

5,016

0.50

4,772,528,415

0.00

N/A

0.50

54,992 8,132 28,374 172,515 50,000 1,808,302 513,550

19.48 0.68 297.41 30.00 9.09 179.40 0.97

3.13 0.68 209.10 5.34 0.81 91.10 0.93

900,000,000 272,160,000 1,474,925,519 2,112,914,681 562,000,000 7,562,562,340 126,000,000

0.00 0.00 8.66 0.63 0.00 5.03 0.00

N/A N/A 14.59 N/A N/A -0.61 N/A

4.35 0.97 125.00 16.00 1.51 136.85 2.95

24,150

75.90

38.12

640,590,362

4.46

N/A

196.00

NT 224,970 1,588,435 187,271 952,850 53,816 159,011 2,835,920 2.08 124,000 50 100

0.50 10.68 12.85 109.24 4.11 1.21 29.70 14.00 5.94 0.93 13.31

0.50 3.85 3.26 50.00 1.83 0.50 17.51 3.65 5.35 0.50 4.22

2,000,000,000 5,000,000,000 12,000,000,000 1,879,210,666 7,930,197,658 3,722,493,620 178,200,000 40,000,000 1,233,375,004 360,000,000

0.00 0.00 0.81 3.38 0.34 0.00 0.00 1.05 0.08 1.13 0.00

N/A -9.41 -6.07 3.02 -6.98 N/A N/A 2.57 N/A 0.00 N/A

NT 2.55 6.92 21.16 2.58 0.50 8.99 7.00 5.35 0.50 11.84

5,725 390,319

64.53 1250.00

8.33 400.00

3,129,188,160 792,656,250

1.57 28.34

-0.25 -1.33

20.15 825.01

25,333 100 187,845 15,000

15.58 36.19 5.54 2.88

10.03 32.27 2.91 0.57

63,360,000 819,000,000 300,000,001

3.90 13.92 0.71 0.00

N/A N/A 1.13 N/A

NT 29.78 5.33 0.93

156,973 119,119

56.00 76.00

21.02 27.60

3,176,381,636 3,783,296,250

1.34 1.42

1.33 -18.74

24.00 38.68

0.97

0.57

843,284,027

0.00

N/A

20,610,779 1,358,484 5,746,153 4,669,271 NT 11,491,149

12.39 7.85 17.51 3.47 8.30 29.99

4.70 1.92 9.90 1.13 3.04 13.02

17,888,251,479 14,475,243,105 9,873,614,567 28,974,797,023 16,271,192,202 29,146,482,209

1.61 1.71 3.67 0.68 0.60 3.08

-2.83 0.00 -0.54 -2.82 #VALUE! 0.48

5,074,965 2,601,379 11,173,106 1,469,943 359,359 1,128,531 9,778,427

7.05 3.05 9.60 15.30 1.16 1.88 27.40

2.65 0.80 1.64 2.34 0.50 0.50 11.96

13,219,334,676 12,563,091,545 32,334,693,693 13,509,726,273 33,675,576,085 12,821,249,880 31,396,493,790

0.97 0.63 1.70 0.44 0.18 0.00 3.30

-2.51 -2.44 2.86 -3.45 0.00 2.06 0.62

200 1,627,718 NT 9,140 1,882,960 62,000 9,054,578 4,754 NT 42,003 165,731 NT 698,304 NT 14,710 100 220 23,600 1,319,465 10,579,013 52,100 1,654,611 27,973 5,028 100 1,650 161,547,689 25,000 200 518,140 1,368,084

0.50 1.42 0.64 0.52 1.45 0.72 2.44 0.50 0.69 0.60 0.50 2.50 2.50 0.50 0.50 0.61 0.50 2.87 0.63 1.01 1.11 0.50 1.24 0.53 0.59

0.50 0.50 0.61 0.50 0.58 0.50 1.08 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 1.06 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50

20,585,000,000 7,809,391,256 211,626,000 6,000,000,000 10,372,624,157 8,820,010,363 5,100,846,808 8,847,298,420 4,549,947,000 3,827,485,380 720,000,000 5,061,804,000 6,420,427,449 28,000,000,000 7,323,313,227 3,437,330,500 4,083,713,569 10,000,000,000 7,998,705,336 5,332,830,881 5,649,693,923 5,003,506,791 2,508,315,436 6,668,750,000 5,203,757,266

0.00 0.19 0.00 0.05 0.15 0.02 0.24 0.01 0.00 0.03 0.01 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.25 0.00 0.37 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.04 0.09

N/A 0.00 N/A N/A 0.00 0.00 0.00 N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A 0.00 N/A N/A N/A 0.00 -1.89 N/A -5.71 N/A N/A 0.00 N/A 0.00

0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 1.55

0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50

8,493,173,450 2,581,733,505 13,000,000,000 16,000,000,000

0.00 0.00 0.02 0.00 0.07

N/A N/A N/A N/A

10,000,000 584,766

6.60 1.22

0.00 0.72

500 500 500 220,000 4,570

1.65 0.50

1.37 0.50

4,200,000,000 8,679,148,676

0.03 0.02

N/A N/A

0.50 0.99

0.50 0.50

13,175,732,404 7,812,500,000

0.30 0.00

N/A N/A

313,164 369,250 500 5,000 8,812,914 27045923 1,050,953 3,807,836 465 100 1,926,013

2.1

0.5

0.61 2.02 21.50 5.70 1.33 20.72 103.24

0.50 2.02 8.57 2.90 0.50 10.64 98.33

1.70

0.00

1.18 0.19

3,608,657,661 18,750,000,000

0.00 0.15 2.45 1.23 0.13 1.53

0.50 0.85 NT 0.50 1.00 0.50 NT 0.50 0.53 0.50 0.50 NT 0.50 0.5 0.50 0.50 0.50 2.65 0.50 0.70 0.50 NT 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 0.50 5.42 0.98

0.63 3,778,005,975 1,333,333,333 32,632,084,358

4.60 2.62 18.60 1.42 NT 23.09 13.50 1.99 2.05 3.50 5.80 1.36 0.97 17.60

N/A N/A -14.00 N/A -9.26

0.29

1.25 0.50 1.42 0.50 5.23 2.65 4.20 NT 0.58 5.93 2.19 0.50 23.00 103.24 552.20 1.37

170 40,000

5.05 0.50

4.32 0.50

498,600,908 3,553,138,528

0.13 0.00

N/A N/A

3.72 0.50

100

10.54

7.39

152,178,750

0.00

N/A

1.73

N/A=Not Avialable

SECURITY

PRICE (=N=)

EVANS MEDICAL PLC. 0.54 FIDSON HEALTHCARE PLC 2.81 GLAXO SMITHKLINE CONSUMER PLC 37.07 MAY & BAKER NIGERIA PLC. 1.20 NEIMETH INT PHARM PLC 1.03 NIGERIA-GERMAN CHEMICALS PLC. 4.91 PHARMA-DEKO PLC. 2.14 ICT Computer Based Systems COURTEVILLE BUSINESS SLN PLC 0.50 Computers and Peripherals OMATEK VENTURES PLC 0.50 Electronic Communications Services MTECH COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.91 IT Services COMPUTER WAREHOUSE GROUP PLC 2.67 NCR (NIGERIA) PLC. 11.02 TRIPPLE GEE AND COMPANY PLC. 1.69 Processing Systems CHAMS PLC 0.50 E-TRANZACT INTERNATIONAL PLC 2.70 Telecommunications Services IHS NT HIS NIGERIA PLC 2 NT HIS NIGERIA PLC 1 NT MTI PLC 0.5 INDUSTRIAL GOODS Building Materials AFRICAN PAINTS (NIGERIA) PLC. 2.59 ASHAKA CEM PLC 22.50 BERGER PAINTS PLC 9.60 CAP PLC 38.00 CEMENT CO. OF NORTH.NIG. PLC 7.93 DANGOTE CEMENT PLC 163.00 DN MEYER PLC. 0.70 FIRST ALUMINIUM NIGERIA PLC 0.50 IPWA PLC 0.50 PREMIER PAINTS 10.93 LAFARGE WAPCO PLC. 94.00 PAINTS & COATINGS MANFACT.PLC 1.14 PORTLAND PAINTS & PRDT NIG. PLC 3.53 Electronic and Electrical Products AUSTIN LAZ & COMPANY PLC 2.09 CUTIX PLC. 1.45 NIGERIAN WIRE AND CABLE PLC. NT Packaging/Containers ABPLAST PRODUCTS PLC. NT AVON CROWNCAPS & CONTAINERS 1.52 BETA GLASS CO PLC. 48.51 GREIF NIGERIA PLC 9.37 NIG. BAGS MANFACT. COY PLC NT POLY PRODUCTS (NIG) PLC. NT W A GLASS IND. PLC. 0.63 Tools and Machinery NIGERIAN ROPES PLC 7.46 NIG SEW MACH. MAN. CO PLC. NT STOKVIS NIG PLC. NT NATURAL RESOURCES Chemicals B.O.C. GASES PLC. 4.18 Metals ALUMACO PLC 7.75 ALUMINIUM EXTRUSION IND. PLC. 9.84 MINING SERVICES MULTIVERSE PLC 0.50 Paper/Forest Products HALLMARK PAPER PRODUCTS PLC. NT THOMAS WYATT NIG. PLC. 0.64 OIL AND GAS Energy Equipment and Services JAPAUL OIL & MARITIME SER. PLC 0.50 Integrated Oil and Gas Services OANDO PLC 7.72 Petroleum &Petroleum Products Distributors BECO PETROLEUM PRODUCT PLC 0.5 CONOIL PLC 27.41 ETERNA PLC. 1.61 FORTE OIL PLC. 290.00 MOBIL OIL NIG PLC. 138.99 MRS OIL NIGERIA PLC. 49.66 TOTAL NIGERIA PLC. 143.00 Exploration and Production SEPLAT PETROLEUM DEVT. CO, LTD. 230.04 SERVICES Advertising AFROMEDIA PLC 0.50 Apparel Retailers LENNARDS (NIG) PLC. 3.15 Automobile/Auto Part Retailers R T BRISCOE PLC. 0.51 Courier/Freight/Delivery RED STAR EXPRESS PLC 4.20 TRANS-NATIONWIDE EXPRESS PLC. 1.02 Employment Solutions C & I LEASING PLC. 0.50 Hospitality TANTALIZERS PLC 0.50 Hotels/Lodging CAPITAL HOTEL 4.07 IKEJA HOTEL PLC 3.20 TOURIST COY NIG PLC 3.51 TRANSCORP HOTELS PLC 6.42 Media/Entertainment DAAR COMMUNICATIONS PLC 0.50 Printing/Publishing ACADEMY PRESS 0.59 LEARN AFRICA PLC 0.68 STUDIO PRESS (NIG) PLC. 2.30 UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC. 5.73 Road Transportation ABC TRANSPORT PLCPLC 0.51 Specialty INTERLINKED TECHNOLOGIES PLC 4.21 SECURE ELECTRONIC TECH.PLC 0.5 Transport-Related Services AIRLINE SERVICES AND LOGISTICS PLC 1.91 NIG. AVIATION HANDLING COY PLC 4.37 SUPPORT AND LOGISTICS CAVERTON OFFSHORE GROUP PLC 2.76 ASeM CONSTRUCTION/REAL ESTATE Property Management SMART PRODUCTS NIGERIA PLC NT CONSUMER GOODS Food Products MCNICHOLS PLC NT OIL AND GAS CAPITAL OIL PLC NT NAVITUS ENERGY PLC NT Personal/Household Products ROKANA INDUSTRIES PLC. NT HEALTHCARE Pharmaceuticals AFRIK PHARMACEUTICALS PLC. NT INDUSTRIAL GOODS Electronic and Electrical Products NT ADSWITCH PLC. NT NATURAL RESOURCES Metals W.A. ALUM. PRODUCTS PLC. NT Food/Drug Retailers and Wholesalers NT JULI PLC. NT ETF’s Sector ETF LOTUS HALAL EQUITY ETF NT NEWGOLD EXCHANGE TRADED FUND NT VETIVA GRIFFIN 30 ETF NT

QUANTITY

52 WK HIGH

52 WK LOW

SHARES OUTSTANDING

EPS

MOV. (%)

74,488 1,444,640 66,411 163,454 251,300 100 572,185

4.80 2.50 69.00 3.38 1.76 8.59 3.50

0.50 0.61 18.97 1.23 0.58 7.36 1.83

486,473,856 1,500,000,000 956,701,192 980,000,000 1,925,717,268 153,786,012 100,000,000

0.58 0.24 3.07 0.09 0.00 0.00 0.00

-8.47 -6.33 -7.30 -1.64 0.00 N/A N/A

Previous 0.59 3.00 39.99 1.22 1.03 4.91 2.14

37,000

0.96

0.50

2,960,000,000

0.11

0.00

0.50

100

0.50

2,941,789,472

0.00

N/A

0.50

0.91

4,966,666,668

0.00

N/A

0.91

400 100 5,460

18.70 2.94

13.12 2.07

108,000,000 492,825,600

0.00 0.03

N/A N/A

2.67 11.02 1.69

27,420 1,080

0.50 4.97

0.50 3.13

4,620,600,000 4,200,000,000

0.04 0.04

N/A N/A

0.50 2.85 NT NT NT 0.5

100

0.50

4,893,594,400

0.00

N/A

2,000 1,557,197 40,673 20,474 1,514,719 1,167,463 40,890 600 6,000 60 109,667 50,000 72,650

2.86 29.98 12.20 67.50 12.99 210.01 3.54 0.75 1.34

2.86 8.01 6.82 13.78 4.00 102.00 0.50 0.50 0.50

260,000,000 2,239,453,125 217,367,585 560,000,000 1,241,548,285 15,494,019,668 242,908,200 2,109,928,275 513,696,000

0.07 0.80 0.91 1.66 1.12 5.77 0.06 0.00 0.00

N/A -2.17 -7.16 0.00 -0.38 -0.01 N/A N/A N/A

110.00 2.41 7.22

39.80 0.50 2.27

3,001,600,004 792,914,256 400,000,000

6.83 0.36 0.43

-3.59 N/A N/A

2.72 23.00 10.34 38.00 7.96 163.01 0.70 0.50 0.50 10.93 97.50 1.20 3.53

100 220,132 100

2.00 2.39 0.73

2.00 1.20 0.50

510,396,608 2,220,000,000

0.05 0.19 0.00

N/A -13.69 N/A

2.09 1.68 NT

NT 561 1,361 100 NT NT NT

3.98 5.94 13.18 13.28 3.60 1.86 0.63

3.98 1.71 9.04 12.68 1.60 1.05 0.63

N/A N/A

42,640,000 6,215,000,000 240,000,000 199,066,550

0.00 0.00 3.23 0.90 0.24 0.22 0.00

NT 1.52 45.15 9.37 NT NT 0.63

100 200 NT

8.69

8.26

265,409,280

0.00

N/A

0.14

2,918,000

0.00

N/A

25,000,000 683,974,528

N/A #VALUE! N/A N/A

7.46 NT NT

10,000

9.35

5.68

393,120,000

0.76

0.00

4.18

320 100

7.75 12.39

7.75 10.55

75,600,000 100,000,000

0.00 0.24

N/A N/A

7.75 9.84

100

0.50

4,058,989,226

0.01

N/A

0.50

NT 4,050

3.22 1.38

3.22 0.67

50,000,000 220,000,000

0.04 0.00

N/A N/A

NT 0.64

1,408,720

1.02

0.50

6,262,701,716

0.00

0.50

4,924,248

24.80

9.32

2,262,711,568

1.24

-22.49

9.96

10000 2,577,516 2,541,040 412,758 22,164 167,074 43,476

76.00 4.87 115.64 146.00 59.00 190.01

16.96 1.32 7.73 106.00 16.20 118.75

693,952,117 1,249,162,828 1,080,280,628 300,496,051 253,988,672 339,521,837

2.69 0.61 1.43 9.93 1.04 12.91

0.00 -5.85 0.00 -9.75 N/A -4.67

0.5 27.41 1.71 290.00 154.00 49.66 150.01

306,355

28,677,671

200

0.72

0.50

100

3.48

209,933

2.45

1.00

2,572,000 3,000

5.10 3.45

2.19 0.73

4,059,547

1.64

1,500

0.75

100 599,750 1,000 2,800

4,035,497,307

234.50

0.00

N/A

0.50 3.15

980,294,400

0.00

-3.77

0.53

589,496,310 198,819,763

0.52 0.00

-1.18 N/A

4.25 1.22

0.85

865,808,912

0.00

N/A

0.50

3,211,627,907

0.00

N/A

0.50

1.72 3.88 10.00

0.64 3.51 10.00

2,078,796,396

0.00

-6.98

4.07 3.44 3.51 6.42

1,000

0.51

0.50

8,000,000,000

0.43

N/A

0.50

16500 224,498 20 20,800

3.09 2.78 5.77

1.39 2.52 3.00

771,450,000 425,641,111

0.00 0.00 0.61

N/A N/A 0.00

0.59 0.81 2.30 5.73

955,140

1.29

0.50

1,507,000,000

0.21

N/A

0.51

6 40,000,700

5.15 1.88

4.90 0.80

236,699,511 5,631,539,736

0.00 0.00

N/A N/A

4.21 0.5

111,000 246,274

5.90 8.81

1.27 5.08

634,000,000 1,230,468,750

0.50 0.43

N/A -0.68

1.85 4.40

189044

3.05

1.43

1.04

45,000,000

0.12

N/A

100

2.26

1.02

201,885,335

0.00

N/A

100000 1000

NT NT

0.60

30,000,000

0.00

N/A

0.50

24,898,850

0.00

N/A

NT NT

1.88

1.63

125,005,250

0.00

N/A

NT NT

NT NT 1,000

0.50

6,650,000

0.00

N/A

3.05

2.76

194,700,000

0.00

N/A

2,706

2,003

41 10

#VALUE! 49467

NT NT NT

A24 40

Business Courage

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Law & Justice nationalmirrorlaw@yahoo.com

‘’A trial is not an investigation and investigation is not the function of the court’’

JUSTICE MODIBBO ALFA BELGORE, FORMER CHIEF JUSTICE OF NIGERIA xx

NUC, Council of Legal Education should close down wobbling law faculties —Osipitan 42

CJN, Justice Mahmud Mohammed

How Ejigbadero was convicted, hanged for murder 45

Electoral offenders should be tried, punished –Senior lawyers Within the last few weeks, not less than three governorship election results have been annulled by election tribunals as a result of electoral violence in the country. WALE IGBINTADE reports that lawyers were unanimous that electoral offenders should be prosecuted and those found culpable should be punished.

2011 oil spills: Chinese court orders US oil firm to pay $266,000 46

INEC boss, Professor Mahmood Yakubu

otwithstanding the provisions of the laws empowering the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the police and the Attorneys-General to prosecute electoral offenders, electoral violence still persists in the country unabated. It is on record that since the advent of democracy, successive elections in Nigeria, starting with the first republic, have been marred by stuffing and snatching of ballot boxes, violence and intimidation, yet those responsible for this terrible conducts and their godfathers are yet to be charged to court. Because the violence during elections still persists, the Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, Prof. Chidi

It would be unfair to allow people that have thwarted the will of electorates through rigging elections to walk away free Odinkalu, advocated that those responsible for electoral offences during the 2015 governorship election in Rivers State should be jailed. He noted that the Rivers State Election Petitions Tribunal upturned the victory of Nyesom Wike as Rivers State Governor and ordered a rerun within 90 days as a result violence in some parts of the state. According to Odinkalu , the tribunal’s ruling, that a fresh election be conducted, was not enough adding that those behind the violence at the polls should be

unmasked and prosecuted. According to him “In May 2015, the NHRC recommended 117 persons for prosecution over crimes of electoral impunity. In one week, Nigerian courts have nullified two governorship election results in Akwa Ibom and Rivers states. We must ensure that those responsible go to jail. Electoral fraud doesn’t just happen; people do it. Wherever elections are nullified by the courts, someone should be held accountable.” Consequently, the NHRC boss asked the Federal Government to ensure that those that engaged

in electoral offences at the governorship poll face the wrath of the law’’. It would be recalled that, the Ahmed Joda-led Transition Committee had also urged President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure those responsible for election fraud and violence during the 2015 polls are punished. The committee said such offenders should be swiftly sanctioned as part of immediate steps to reform Nigeria’s electoral process and that the last general elections in Nigeria showed the CONTINUED ON PAGE 44

Law & Justice

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

NUC, Council of Legal Education should close Prof.Taiwo Osipitan, a renowned scholar and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), is versed in Commercial and Public Law. In this interview with WALE IGBINTADE, he speaks on the proliferation of law faculties in the country’s universities and the public declaration of assets, among others. How will you react to the recent mass failure in the Nigerian Law School? It is becoming fashionable for every federal or state university and indeed private universities to want to have faculties of law. They see their universities as incomplete without faculties of law. But, what you have is that whereas there is clamour for establishment of faculties of law, majority of these faculties don’t have seasoned and experienced law lecturers. The rate at which you have faculties of law is not been matched by the rate at which you produce law lecturers. Many of the senior law lecturers have either died or retired. But, we have not been able to replace them in a way that we will have enough lecturers to go round. Consequently, you have some lecturers teaching in three or four universities at the same time. There are only 24 hours in a day, out of which you must rest. So, they are left with about 12 working hours. Sometimes, these lecturers have to travel far and near from one university to the other. By the time they get to their destination they are already spent. The next day they are rushing back to another university and they are tired. So, it is an issue of manpower, they do not have enough lecturers to drill and grill the students. So, what some universities do is to pass them out of the university and send them to the Law School. It is when they get to the Law School, where things are done properly that the effect of lack of proper foundation are felt. What is the solution? I will suggest that the Council of Legal Education and the NUC must be bold and courageous to close down as many law faculties as possible that don’t have sufficient manpower to cope with what they have. I think for now, they should also put on hold the establishment of law faculties in Nigerian universities. I believe we have had enough for now, pending the time things will improve, there is need to do some surgical operations in terms of closing down law faculties that are not viable and also put on hold approval for new faculties no matters who is involved. How do you see the clamour by some Nigerians demanding that public officials must make their assets publicly? I don’t think it is an offence for somebody to choose to become a public officer. It is not an offence to serve the nation whether at the federal level as a minister or as a commissioner at the state level. I believe public officers are accountable for the resources and property they have. Essentially, it is between them and the Code of Conduct Bureau. The Code of Conduct Bureau has been in existence for a long time and public officials from time to time, before they take oath of office always had to declare their assets.

Osipitan

Unless there is a report of corruption and evidence of corruption

CJN, he cannot embark on a house cleaning exercise.

before the

There is no provision in the Code of Conduct Bureau Act or the constitution that compels you as a public official to make public your assets after declaring them to the Code of Conduct Bureau. I think it is an invasion of peoples’ privacy. Mind you you’re not only to declare your assets you are to declare that of your spouse and your children who are above a particular age. I think it’s carrying the joke too far by insisting that those things must be made public. I think we should give ourselves breathing space and respect the privacy of public officers. The fact that the Head of State has chosen to declare publicly and also that the Vice- President has done the same thing is not a reason for any person who does not want to do it to be compelled to do it. There is no provision that makes it mandatory. Neither the President nor a governor can compel a public officer to declare his asset publicly. If we want that, then we

should amend the constitution and the Code of Conduct Act. Recently, the CJN challenged senior lawyers to come up with names of corrupt judges. How do you see this? It a good challenge, mind you, the CJN is not saying there is no corruption in the judiciary. He has not said so and he will never say so. We all know that there is corruption in the judiciary but what the CJN is doing is like a clarion call that ‘you guys help us to fish-out corrupt ones in the judiciary, so that we can deal with them decisively’. Unless there is a report of corruption and evidence of corruption before the CJN, he cannot embark on a house- cleaning exercise. So, I believe it is a challenge and a call to lawyers to be courageous. The CJN is saying, if you have cases of corrupt judges and you are sure of your facts, you need to come and make the allega-

tion and also substantiate the allegation. How will you react to the call by the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) that corrupt public officials should face capital punishment? Well, I believe it’s like killing a fly with a sledge hammer. That somebody is corrupt today, does not mean he or she cannot turn a new leave tomorrow. I have never believed in capital punishment, eye for an eye, or whatever. It depends on the school of thought which you belongs to. Even for more heinous crimes there are ways of doing it than embarking on capital punishment. Look at the issue of capital punishment; someone who knows that he would die, if he is proved to be corrupt. He has an option of not releasing the ill-gotten wealth. You kill him, but does that deterred other people from doing the same thing. I think what we should do is to strengthen the law enforcement agency to be able to detect corruption at the earliest opportunity and be able to trace the proceeds of corruption. Also, they should be able to embark on forfeiture of proceeds of corruption. If those things are forfeited and repatriated back home to Nigeria and brought back into the economy, it would be for the common good of all. But the moment you kill that per-

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Law & Justice

Monday, November 9, 2015

down wobbling law faculties —Osipitan son, the money he has taken out of the country stays there and for the benefit of foreign countries not for the benefit of Nigerians. We should make corruption unprofitable. Some have argued that senior lawyers often hinder the fight against corruption. Do you agree? I don’t really agree with you. In Nigeria, the prosecution fights its cases on the pages of the newspapers most of the time. In Nigeria today, I can tell you that there are only few seasoned prosecutors and I can count them on my finger tips. These are the few who know what to look for. Most of the cases prosecuted by EFCC and ICPC are lost because those who are prosecuting don’t even know what they are prosecuting. I have been involved in oil subsidy cases and defending them. I begin to show prosecutor that he doesn’t even know the dynamics of oil subsidy. The investigators don’t even know what material to look for. Where you have a prosecutor and you also have an investigator who does not know what to look for and you are matching him or her against a seasoned defense lawyer, the result is predictable. In foreign countries governments spend money in hiring the best people to prosecute. If I prosecute a case which I believe in, because I am also a defence lawyer, I know where the loophole is. I don’t even need forty or fifty count charges to convict. I need just two or three solid counts and stop wasting the time of the court. It is a matter of the people who are prosecuting and investigating, knowing the ingredients of the offences they are charging and knowing the relevant evidence to use. So, government must be prepared to spend money on assembling a crack-team of prosecutors. Preferably, people who have defended before and who know where the loophole is. If you employ them to join in the prosecution team, and they believe in the case, yours truly the tide will change. Most EFCC prosecutors are senior lawyers and the commission pays heavily to hire them. Why are they not getting desired results?

How forensic are they? I don’t want to be personal, except Rotimi Jacobs (SAN) who knows what he is doing; I am yet to see highly forensic and technical prosecutors in the country. It is very unfortunate that I am being personal but we must give it to him. He is a seasoned prosecutor, but he is overworked. That you are a senior lawyer does not mean you are an expert in criminal law and evidence. Because, Jacobs has done it over and over again, he knows what to look for unlike somebody who is doing some other cases. Maybe he is involved in chieftancy matters, and other cases, even if that individual is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria; it does not mean he is solid in investigation and analysis of cases and prosecuting cases. We all have our areas of strength and weakness. What is your take on the demand by lawmakers for the rank of SAN? Quite honestly, they must be jokers. Would that also qualify people who are in the assembly, who also make laws but are not lawyer for SAN? Because they also make laws but they are not lawyers. So, their argument is pedestrian, it would be that every member of the assembly, whether a lawyer or not is qualify to be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. If you give it to only lawyers, where you have a doctor as President of the Senate, are you not discriminating against him, because he also makes laws? Any lawyer who is serious about this business, whether he is in the assembly or not, should have done enough work in court or classroom to qualify him as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. It is not a chieftancy title, when they get it in the assembly, after leaving assembly what happens? It is a serious business and not for all comers. So, whoever desires to be a Senior Advocate of Nigeria should come out and practice? If he is not practicing, he should go to university and profess. He should write books that could be cited as authorities in courts. I have not seen it in England where lawmakers are given Queens Counsel merely because they make laws in the parliament. There is no jurisdiction where honour is conferred to you professionally because you’re playing the role of a lawmaker. They should just forget about it and face their business of

Osipitan

There is no provision in the Code of Conduct Bureau Act or the constitution that compels you, as a public official, to make public your assets after declaring them to the

Code of Conduct Bureau.

law making. Are you comfortable with the number of law lecturers that are conferred with the rank of SAN on yearly basis? How many in a year? Maybe two or three, I think we can do better in terms of the number. Mind you, I did not become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria through academic line. I was already a professor and I came in as a practitioner based on cases I did at the Supreme Court, at the Court of Appeal and at the High Court. That is the route I chose to follow but I believe that if you give 12 people Senior Advocate of Nigeria, if you give three or four slots to academicians is not too bad. At the year you decide to give 21, let have it about five or six as opposed to the constant two or three. So, as you are expanding the scope of people coming into the inner Bar, the slot you allocate to academicians should be increased. But as I said, my take on it is that advocacy means advocacy, if you really want to be an advocate, you should come out and argue your cases. Recently, Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN) mentioned you and others as having taught Dr. Muiz Banire (SAN) at one point or the other. How do you feel seeing your former student becoming a Senior Advocate of Nigeria? I feel excited, he is not the first and he will not be the last. I have some of them who became senior advocates even before me. In the last set of senior advocates, not less than

five or six of them passed through me. For example, Dr. Dapo Olanipekun was my student and I also mentored him before he became a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. We still have a cordial relationship till now. He along with about five of six others were my students at different times. I still hope by God’s grace to welcome many of them in years coming. It is my joy and pleasure to see many of them growing either as SANs or on the Bench. On the Bench, I have so many of them as judges in the high court of Lagos, Oyo state, Osun State and Ekiti state. Some of them are Chief Judges in their respective states. Some of them are also at the Court of Appeal and one of them by the grace of God is at the Supreme Court. I give God the glory. There are some lawyers who are eminently qualified for the rank of SAN but are left out. How do you see this? Well, the criteria for elevating people to the rank of SAN are being worked upon from time to time. Where we identify lapses, suggestions are made to the Privileges’ Committee and the CJN on how to address those lapses and these suggestions are being followed. I must tell you that it is the Almighty God that decides who to crown and when to crown. In other words, when he says it’s time for you to arise and shine nobody can stop it. So, my plea to such people is that they should not be discouraged, their time will surely come. They should keep faith in the profession and at the right time they will be singled out for elevation.

Law & Justice

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, November 9, 2015

‘Empower election petitions tribunal to try offenders’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 41

strength and weakness of the institutions, necessitating the need to reform. In its report, the committee recommended a six-item good governance initiative, to include Electoral reform, Public Service reform, Police Service reform, judicial reform, Military reform and Constitutional amendment. To dispense justice in cases of electoral offences, the Joda Committee recommended the immediate establishment of an Electoral Offences Tribunal. Speaking on the need for electoral offenders to face the wrath of the law, Lagos based lawyer, Mr. Seyi Sowemimo , SAN said that it would be unfair to allow people that have thwarted the will of electorates through rigging elections to walk away free. ‘’Where we find people who have done the wrong thing, who have intentionally gone to register more than once, or attempted to vote more than once, such ones should be charged to court.” According to him, ‘’there is need for Nigerians to acknowledge that there is more to the current approach to electoral victory, through violence and crimes, and that the consequences are far too overreaching than what seemingly appears. ‘’It is no longer good enough simply to show sympathy to victims of electoral violence; or to even brush aside other electoral malpractices and offenses committed during elections as if they were norms. There is need for those violators of the law to face the full wrath of the law’’. Commenting of the issue, Norrison Quakers, SAN said ‘’If there were violence, we must have police report on who are the culprits. There must an investigation and arrest must have been made. The people involved must have been put in detention’’. ‘’It is one thing to put before the election tribunal that the election was flawed with violence; it is a different thing to establish

Quakers

Sowemimo

Adegboruwa

There should be a Commission of Enquiry set up to monitor and document names and particulars of those involved in such violence for the purpose of prosecuting them.

those who are involved in the violent Act’’. According to him, electoral offenders ought to have been arrested before they are prosecuted. He said ‘’If you look at the Electoral Act, once the allegation of violence is established, the next step is for the police to commence prosecution of the offenders. The National Human Rights Commission can write to the Inspector General of Police for the prosecution of named persons in relation to the violence perpetrated in the election’’. He stated that where the Inspector General of Police refuses failed to respond to the demand of the Commission, an order of court can be obtained to mandate the police to perform their statutory duty. He added that the success of investiga-

tion and prosecution of electoral offenders is entirely up to the police. In his view, human rights lawyer, Mr.Ebun Adegboruwa said ‘’I generally believe that those who perpetrate electoral violence should be brought to book to serve as deterrent and to sanitise our electoral process. According to him, there should be a Commission of Enquiry set up to monitor and document names and particulars of those involved in such violence for the purpose of prosecuting them. He however said except the nation changes the current Electoral Act, it would be difficult to prosecute anybody in respect of violence. ‘’it is presently very difficult to prosecute anybody in respect of violence in re-

The New client A new client had just come in to see a famous lawyer. “Can you tell me how much you charge?”, said the client. “Of course”, the lawyer replied, “I charge $200 to answer three questions!” “Well that’s a bit steep, isn’t it?” How defendant’s limb was jailed “Yes it is”, said the lawyer, “And what’s your A lawyer defending a man accused of burglary third question?” tried this creative defense: “My client merely inYou’re late serted his arm into the window and removed a few The lawyer wandered home at 3 AM. His wife trifling articles. His arm is not himself, and I fail to became very upset, telling him, see how you can punish the whole individual for an The lawyer replied, “I’m right on time. I said I’d offence committed by his limb.” be home by a quarter of twelve.” “Well put,” the judge replied. “Using your logic, My honest opinion I sentence the defendant’s arm to one year’s imprisLawyer: “Let me give you my honest opinion.” onment. He can accompany it or not, as he chooses.” Client: “No, no. I’m paying for professional advice.” The defendant smiled. With his lawyer’s assistance The parked BMW he detached his artificial limb, laid it on the bench, A lawyer returns to his parked BMW to find and walked out. the headlights broken and considerable damage.

Bar

Jokes

Appeal Immediately

Many years ago, a junior partner in a firm was sent to a far-away state to represent a long-term client accused of robbery. After days of trial, the case was won, the client acquitted and released. Excited about his success, the attorney telegraphed the firm: “Justice prevailed.” The senior partner replied in haste: “Appeal immediately.”.

There’s no sign of the offending vehicle but he’s relieved to see that there’s a note stuck under the windshield wiper. “Sorry. I just backed into your Beemer. The witnesses who saw the accident are nodding and smiling at me because they think I’m leaving my name, address and other particulars. But I’m not.” Culled from Bar Jokes at BrainDen.com

zzzz

lation to election because as we see in the case of Rivers State Electoral Commission, the Court of Appeal has struck out the names and particulars of everything relating to violence in that case on the grounds that those who were alleged to be involved in the violence were not named as parties in the case. Once, that has happened, it has limited the powers of prosecution. So, the National Assembly should amend the Electoral Act, to be able to confer criminal jurisdiction upon the Election Petition Tribunal such that in the cause of hearing a petition, the tribunal can simultaneously handle the guilt or otherwise of persons alleged to have committed electoral violence. That is the only solution because as it is now, we have to separate the work of the tribunal from the work of the regular court empowered to handle criminal cases. In his view, a Lagos lawyer, Mr. Ike Uko said ‘’ It is proper that whoever commits a crime should be punished. However, I am also of the view that prevention is better. So, we should create an environment that will make it difficult for people to commit electoral crimes.

legal tips

Out-of-court settlement of cases

here is a strong tradition in the legal system that favours compromising –often called ‘’settling out of court’’. *Put the other way,’’ out-of-court settlement ‘’ is usually a claim between private parties, or claims between a party and or government, state or federal for the resolution of disputes. *This is done through one of the types of the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) called negotiation. *Negotiation is indeed the most commonly used method of settling disputes. It is a formal discussion or communication between two or more parties towards reaching an amicable settlement of their disputes. *Negotiators perform a valuable service to parties in dispute simply by keeping them out of court. *Trials take a long time to reach after a dispute arises, and are costly.

Bar

Negotiation as a type of ADR therefore ensures prompt resolution of disputes and speedy dispensation of justice. *Even if the dispute cannot be settled by compromise and a suit is filed, except in rare cases negotiation never ends. *It continues right up to and during the trial and through the process of apple, if there is one. *Although not all negotiators need be lawyers, all lawyers should be capable negotiators if their clients are to be well served. *When negotiation fails, the last option is the hearing of the suit on merit by the court. Written by Francis Famoroti, Head, Judiciary. We welcome feedback and reactions from readers via our e-mail: nationalmirrorlaw@ yahoo.com

Jokes

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Law & Justice

Monday, November 9, 2015

How Ejigbadero was convicted, hanged for murder FAMOUS CASES

imoh Ishola a.k.a Ejigbadero was a notorious land grabber in Mushin and Agege environs of Lagos State in the early 1970s. His fame rose considerably to the extent that he became one of the celebrated fans of a popular Juju musician and praise singer in the society. Indeed, the fear of Ejigbadero was the beginning of wisdom in Papa Ajao, Mushin, Agege and Alimosho areas of the state as he was known to have clashed with several villagers over land and violently dispossessed many of their property. He was Lord unto himself, had a strong link with the Police, and he commanded a retinue of thugs, which he often paraded as his works men. Anyone who resisted his moves had to pay the supreme price of death and hence this cruel fate befell Raji Oba at Alimosho village on August 22, 1975. Despite his low level of literacy, Ejigbadero hatched this plan on the day he had the naming ceremony of his infant child. While the child-naming party went on in his house, Ejigbadero arranged six of his thugs, who joined him in his Peugeot 504 station wagon and proceeded straight to Alimosho village. Their mission as decreed by their leaderwas to kill Raji Oba. As the Chief Executive of Jimsol Nigeria Limited, a company that specialised in nail manufacturing on Matori Road, Mushin, at the time, Ejigbadero also had strong link with land speculators in various parts of the state. While Raji Oba was relaxing outside his building, the killer-squad arrived Alimosho village about 8.00 pm on August 22, 1975. Ejigbadero, who led the team, wore a French Safari suit and tucked a gun in his pocket. Believing that nobody was lurking around, he quickly shot the man and fled the scene. As he fled, the deceased’s wife, Sabitu Raji Oba recognised him. The woman raised the alarm that Ejigbadero had killed her husband, thereby attracting neighbours in the village. The notorious suspect was arrested by the police and later brought to justice. Specifically, Ejigbadero was charged with a two-count information for the offences of conspiracy together with other persons unknown and for the murder of Raji Oba. No fewer than 24 prosecution witnesses testified against the land grabber. The deceased’s wife was the first prosecution witness (PW) and the court was highly impressed by her evidence and her consistency in recounting how her husband was killed. Among those who gave evidence was the second PW, one Nimota Kelani, who testified that after the deceased’s wife raised alarm, she also saw Ejigbadero running towards the bush with a gun.She said there was moonlight and was able to identify him even though she had only a ‘’fleeing glimpse ‘’ of

Forty years ago, Jimoh Ishola a.k.a. Ejigbadero was charged with the murder of Raji Oba in Alimosho area of Lagos State. He was subsequently tried, convicted and sentenced to death by hanging. After the pronouncement of a Lagos High Court, Ejigbadero, was widely reported to have asked ‘Emi ni won nwi naa? ’ meaning ‘what is the court’s verdict?’ FRANCIS FAMOROTI, Head, Judiciary writes.

Justice Idigbe

Justice Bello

While the child-naming party went on in his house, Ejigbadero arranged six of his thugs, who joined him in his Peugeot 504 station wagon and proceeded straight to Alimosho village. the convict from the back. Sumbo Kelani was the third PW, who equally testified that following the sound of a gun-shot in the village and Sabitu Raji Oba’s alarm, she came out and saw the deceased lying on the ground as he bled from his head. There was also the evidence of the fourth PW, Mann Elson Ofongo, who helped to convey the deceased to the hospital at about 8.30 pm. Unfortunately, Raji Oba died on the way to the hospital. The testimony of the 18th prosecution witness, Kehinde Yekini, a guard in the appellant’s factory, who said about three weeks after his employment, Ejigbadero, in company of four others had told him that he intended to kill Raji Oba. Yekini was to be part of the operation but he refused to follow his boss to carry out the satanic task. Ejigbadero used the naming ceremony party in his house ostensibly as a shield and he pleaded alibias a defencein the law court. He had claimed that he never left the party night for any place as the ceremony lasted from 6.30 pm till the early hours of the morning on August 23, 1975. He also called three persons in support of his defence of alibi. This defence however failed. Justice Ishola Oluwa before whom he was arraignedminced no words in concluding that ‘’there was no mistake by any of the witnesses as to the identity of the person they recognised, by the moonlight, holding a gun and running

towards a nearby bush.’’ Ejigbadero was therefore found guilty as charged for the offences of conspiracy and murder of Raji Oba. He was subsequentlyconvicted and sentenced to death. The judge was emphatic that he would be hanged as his punishment. He never really understood the import of this pronouncement and he had cause to ask his lawyers what the court verdict was. On appeal against the judgment of the high court, the Federal Court of Appeal comprising Justices Mamman Nasir, Adetunji Ogunkeye and Ijoma Aseme affirmed Ejigbadero’s conviction for murder and dismissed his appeal. The convict’s lead counsel, Chief Sobo Sowemimo lodged a further appeal to the Supreme Court. The then Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Mr. Samuel Ilori (later Justice) also led the team of state attorneys who argued against the appeal. The Supreme Court members that heard the appeal were, Justices Darnley Alexander, Atanda Fatayi-Williams, Ayo Irikefe, Mohammed Bello and Chukwunweike Idigbe. After a consideration of the appeal, the Supreme Court on September 22, 1978 dismissed Ejigbadero’s appeal. The apex court reserved the reasons for its judgment till October 22, 1978. Giving detailed reasons for judgment,

Ilori, then DPP Justice Idigbe in his lead pronouncement declared that the appeal lacked merit and he dismissed it. Part of the judgment reads, ‘’On the 22nd day of August, 1975, Sabitu Raji Oba, the wife of the deceased who testified as PW1 returned to the village in the night from the market. ‘’ She has just seen them on her way back to the house; it was a moonlit night. As she was giving the husband this warning there was an explosion from a gun. The deceased groaned and fell down from his chair he sat on; he had been fired at and he sustained injury in the region of the head from where blood was seen to ooze.’’ The Supreme Court said it was satisfied with the finding of the lower court that immediately the gun powder exploded and the thick smoke enveloped the scene, some prosecution witnesses sighted Ejigbadero and five others running away towards a nearby bush.

Law & Justice

Monday, November 9, 2015

Court suspends jail term of exotic AUSTRALIA fish smuggler

Singaporean man, who smuggled 176 endangered fish into Adelaide , Australia earlier this year, has avoided spending any more time behind bars. Kuok Weai Alex Chang, 45, pleaded guilty to importing a disease or pest for commercial advantage, and spent about 50 days in jail after his arrest before being released on bail. The District Court heard customs officers stopped Chang in February with 176 Arowana fish. The fish ranged from seven centimetres to 20 centimetres in size and were hidden in two bags. Inside the two bags were 41 plastic bags filled with water,

and some of the colourful fish from South-East Asia were dead. The fish had a market value of just over $235,000. The court was told Chang was supplying an aquarium shop owner, who is also facing charges. He met his co-accused at a training session for aquarium shop owners in Adelaide in August 2013 and the men became good friends. Chang had qualifications in aquaculture, worked for a fish farm and Judge Steven Millsteed said he was “aware of the risks associated with live importation”. He faced a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

2011 oil spills: Chinese court orders US oil firm to pay $266,000

BEIJING

Chinese court has ordered a United States oil firm, ConocoPhillips (COP.N) to pay compensation to nearly two dozen aquaculture farmers who livelihoods were hurt by oil spills off China’s northeastern coast in 2011. The U.S. oil company was told to pay 1.68 million yuan ($266,000) to the 21 farmers, who did not participate in a previous settlement reached in 2012 with ConocoPhillips and its partner, Chinese state-owned oil major China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), the Tianjin Maritime Court said in a statement on its website.

Chinese President Xi Jinping The farmers were seeking more than 141 million Yuan ($22 million) from the two oil companies over leaks that were first discovered in June 2011 at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield, a

joint exploration project by the two. The leaked oil spread across as much as 6,200 sq km of water in Bohai Bay, according to court documents. The spills were sealed in October 2011, and the field, with daily production of about 160,000 barrels, was restarted in February 2013. ConocoPhillips has a 49-percent stake in the field, which is 51-percent owned by CNOOC Ltd (0883.HK), the Hong Kong-listed flagship of CNOOC. The court laid responsibility for compensation solely with ConocoPhillips, the operator of the oilfield.

The two companies previously agreed to give one billion Yuan in compensation for losses in the fishing industry, and 1.68 billion Yuan for ecological damages in a settlement with Chinese authorities. Roughly 4,500 affected households signed onto the settlement, the court said. ConocoPhillips could not immediately be reached for comment. Another maritime court, in the coastal city of Qingdao, said in July that it would hear a landmark case brought by a nonprofit organisation against ConocoPhillips and CNOOC over the spills.

Redefining African democracy, response to multi-ethnic politics Francis Famoroti Head, Judiciary

minent Nigerians, including the cream of the legal profession and elder statesmen in the country converged in Lagos recently at this year’s Aelex Lecture series. Aelex, a leading law firm in the country has been in the vanguard of organising the annual lectures since the past 10 years. At this year’s annual lecture with the theme: ‘African Countries: Politics, Democracy and Ethnicity’ the Chairman of the occasion, Gen. Ike Nwachukwu (rtd) set the tone of the discussion succinctly when in his opening remarks, he asked among others , whether African values are compatible with Western democratic culture. He believed that ‘’ethnicity is behind the emergence of sit-tight syndrome in many African states’’ and observed that the Justice Idris Kutigi-led National Conference had provided solutions to most of the teeming problems on issues of democracy and ethnicity in the country. He therefore urged the Muhammadu Buhari-led government and the National Assembly to implement faithfully the 2014 National Conference report without delay. Former Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, who was the guest speaker at the occasion, in his 19-page paper, justified why a two-party system is the best option to put an end to ethnic politics in the country. He noted that the principle of rotational presidency between the North and South has crept into African politics adding that ‘’African states have in one form or another adopted these norms.’’ These, he said, included the power sharing in Tanzania from the Julius Nyerere era, Ali Mwinyi, to Benjamin Mkapa and in Kenya, from Jomo Kenyatta era, Arap Moi, Mwai Kibaki, and now Uhuru Kenyatta. Having traced the ethnic configuration

Mr. Soji Awogbade, Partner, AELEX in Europe, the diversity of ethnic-nationalities, the emergence of political parties in Africa and the African states’ response to multi-ethnic politics, the ex-Minister recalled that ‘’the First World War was triggered off by shots fired by a Serbian nationalist in Sarayero, shots which killed the Archduke Francis Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian Empire. ‘’ ‘’Even now, is has become an open debate how long the United Kingdom would remain united in the face of a resurgence of Welsh and Scottish nationalism. Of 73 Prime Ministers in the United Kingdom has had, England has produced 64, Scotland has produced 7 and Wales has produced one and Ireland one. ‘’ Pointing out that an going war in Ukraine has ethnic overtones, Akinyemi said the war started when the President of Ukraine who was from Western Ukraine was forced to abdicate and replaced by a new President from Eastern Ukraine. ‘’ The Ukrainians who are of ethnic Russian origin then declared independence.’’ he added. The ex-Minister observed that ‘’ the inter-relationship between African politics, democracy and ethnicity is a very complex one. ‘’

Mrs. Funke Adekoya (SAN) Partner, AELEX He said there was no evidence to suggest that African governments have not been sincere in addressing the issues, even in the face of clear evidence of the continuing crisis posed by the issues. According to him, ‘’A major factor affecting these issues is the presence of these issues internationally. Africa was lucky that in the 60s to the 70s, the United Nations and the world were hostile to fractionalization and to that extent subscribed to’’ the doctrine of uti posidetis’’. He explained that this attitude provided the breathing space for emerging African States to consolidate its independence and territorial integrity. The guest speaker said by the 1990s, the UN and the international community had become more flexible in its interpretation of the doctrine of self-determination, where the self is not restricted to the state but extended to ethnic nationalities. . He said ‘’ the most vivid examples of this new trend are a break-up of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. This new international attitude has presented Africa with new realities and challenges which have resulted in the break up of Sudan and Ethiopia.’’

In the end, Akinyemi maintained that ‘’I believe that a two-party system, whether imposed by the constitution or evolving naturally is the best antidote to the invidiousness of ethnic politics. It has been really difficult to gauge the level of attachment of people to ethnic politics as it appears that the political elite regard it as the equivalent of a water faucet to be turned on and off to satisfy the whims and caprices of the political elite. ‘’ Akinyemi’s lecture was punctuated by series of applause from the audience. However, the discussants, a Senior lecturer, Department of Political Science, Bayero University, Kano, Dr. Saidu Ahmad Dukawa and the Executive Director, Enough is Enough Nigeria, Ms. Yemi Adamolekun took their turns to x-ray the paper. They pointed the areas of their disagreement with Akinyemi’s postulation why the guest speaker himself later justified his position from academic point of view. Earlier, the Managing Partner of the law firm, Mr. Theo Emuwa, said the annual lecture was part of the firm’s contributions to corporate development and democratic governance in the country. In the past, Aelex, legal Practitioners and Arbitrators, had previously organised lectures that had attracted Prof. Don Wallace from the USA; Judge, French Supreme Court, Prof. Frederic Jenny; Judge Mervyn King from South Africa; former Finance Minister, Dr. Kalu Idika Kalu and Dr. Ali Mazrui among others as guest speakers. The Nigerian law firm is ranked among top in firms in Chambers Global 2014, the Legal 500 in 2015 and also listed as firm of the year 2015 in WWL Awards. Notable personalities at the lecture are; former Federal Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Femi Okunnu (SAN) ; Chief Opral Benson; and a number of senior advocates.

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Law & Justice

Monday, November 9, 2015

The limits of legislators’ powers in determining their emoluments CONTINUED FROM LAST WEEK

Bashir Ramoni Current emoluments of the National Assembly members By the Certain Political, Public and Judicial Office Holders Act, 2002 which was later amended in 2008, there are nineteen items that constitute the annual salaries, allowances and other benefits for public and political office holders. In fact, recently, it was published through http://community.vanguardngr.com/profiles/blogs/what-a-senator-earns-in figures attached to each of the nineteen items as follow:Annual Who has the power to determine the emoluments of

Items

Amount

Status

Annual Basic Salary (BS)– 2,484 245.50 Hardship Allowance (50% of B.S) – 1 242 122.70 Constituency Allowance (200% of B.S) – 4 968 509.00 Furniture Allowance (300% of B.S) – 7 452 736.50 Newspapers Allowance (50% of B.S) – 1 242 122.70 Wardrobe Allowance (25% of B.S) – 621 061.37 Recess Allowance (10% of B.S) – 248 424.55 Accommodation (200% of B.S) – 4 968 509.00 Utilities (30% of B.S) – 828 081.83 Domestic Staff (75% of B.S) – 1 863 184.12 Entertainment (30% of B.S) – 828 081.83 Personal Assistance (25% of B.S) – 621 061.37 Vehicle Maintenance Allowance (75% of B.S) – 1 863 184.12 Leave Allowance (10% of B.S) – 248 424.55 Severance gratuity (300% of B.S) – 7 452 736.50 Motor Vehicle Allowance (400% of B.S) – 9 936 982.00 In Four Years Senators’ salary per month – N 2, 456, 647.7 Total = N 29 479 749 * 109 Senators Grand Total = N 3 264 329 264.10

the national assembly members By virtue of Sections 70, 84(1), 111, and 124(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the emoluments of every political and public office holders shall be determined by the RMAFC. See the case of RMAFC v A.G. Federation & Others (2014) (LPELR - 24105) (CA). By Section 80(4),every money to be spent and/or allocated from the Consolidated Revenue Funds must be appropriated by an Act of the National Assembly. Note that the emoluments of the political, public and judicial office holders are charged to the Consolidated Revenue Funds. This presupposes that before any amount fixed as emoluments for the members of the Na-

tional Assembly to be paid to them, an Act of the National Assembly must have been passed to that effect. Fundamentally, Section 84(1) of the Constitution provides as follows: “There shall be paid to the holders of the offices mentioned in this section such remuneration, salaries and allowances as may be prescribed by the National Assembly, but not exceeding the amount as shall have been determined by the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission”. Section 70 categorically states that the power to determine the emoluments of the members of National Assembly. It provides: “A member of the Senate or of the House of the Representatives shall receive such salary and other allowances as the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission may determine” The use of “may” gives rmafc discretion in determining the Public & Political office holders’ remuneration In an enactment where the word “may” is used in terms of powers conferred on a person or a body, it suggests that the person or body so conferred with the power has discretion in exercising the power. The use of the word may in this Section 70 of the Constitution speak volume. In the case of Amasike v Registrar General, CAC (2010) 13 NWLR (Pt. 1211)337 at 399, the Supreme Court interpreting the word “may” in relation to the power of a statutory body had this to say: “…the word may when used in a statute may be interpreted as directory or permissive or may be interpreted as imperative depending on the context in which it is used. The context in which the word may appear in the statute must be looked into because it is the controlling factor whether the word is mandatory or directory. The community reading of Section 32(1) and 677(1) confirm the absolute discretion given to the Commission in the registration of proposed name” In reinforcing the powers of the RMAFC to determine the legislator’s emolument in the above provision, Item N Paragraph 32 of the Third Schedule, Part I of the 1999 Constitution unequivocally provides amongst others thus: “ The Commission shall have power to:determine the remuneration appropriate for political office holders, including the President, Vice President, Gover-

nors, Deputy Governors, Ministers, Commissioners, Special Advisers, Legislators and the holders of the offices mentioned in Section 84 and 124 of this Constitution” See the case of A.G. Rivers States v A.G. Akwa Ibom State (2011) 8 NWLR (Pt. 1248) 31 at 131. The items that constitute the emolument and the amounts attached to each of the items fall within the prerogative of the RMAFC. If the RMAFC determines that certain items shall not form part of the items listed above in the current emolument, so be it; the National Assembly has no power to include any such strange items under any guise. In A.G. Abia State v A.G. Fed (2002) 6 NWLR (Pt. 763) 265 at 487, the Supreme Court espoused the law on the interpretation of Constitutional power of the National Assembly per Kalgo JSC as follows: “Where the National Assembly has the power under the Constitution to legislate on a matter, it can only do so within the provisions and in full compliance with the provisions of the Constitution. Any legislation which is inconsistent with those provisions is null and void and inoperative. Section 1(3) of the Constitution” The Court went further to put a cap on the exercise of the legislative powers of the National Assembly especially when it was insinuated that legislators have inherent powers. The Court held on page 422 of the law report that: “The National Assembly does not have any inherent powers to make laws. It is a creation of the Constitution and it can only exercise such powers as conferred on it by the Constitution.” It suffices therefore to say that the Revenue Mobilization and Allocation Fiscal Commission is the only constitutional body that has discretion to deal with the items and amounts to be paid to political and public office holders including the members of the National Assembly. National Assembly’s legislative power does not extend to determination of its own emolument under the 1999 Constitution. Since the Constitution has already conferred the power on RMAFC, it cannot even be imagined and/or conceived that an aberration such as unilateral determination of their own remunerations can be part of the privileges of the Legislators. TO BE CONTINUED

EVENT

L-R: Representative of Chief Judge of Enugu State, Mrs. Chinyere Ani; Guest Speaker, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo(SAN) and Deputy Editor-in-Chief, Nigerian Weekly Law Reports, Mr. Ayo Olanrewaju

L-R: Justice Helen Ogunwumiju; Chief Richard Akinjide (SAN); Representative of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Bode Rhodes-Vivour; Deputy Editor- in- Chief, Nigerian Weekly Law Reports, Mr. Ayo Olanrewaju; Justice Amina Augie, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole, and other guests, during the 30th Anniversary of the NWLR in Lagos, recently. PHOTOS: SAMUEL ADETIMEHIN

L-R. A judge of Ogun State High Court, . Justice Abiodun Akinyemi; Mr. Dele Awokoya and Mr. Wemimo Ogunde (SAN)

L-R:Mr. Nnaemeka Amaechina; Assistant Director, Corporate Affairs Commission/ member Editorial Board, NWLR, Mr. Moses Adaguusu; General Manager Editorial, Mr. Agwu Okorafor and Managing Director, Nigeria Law Publication Limited (NLPL), Mr. Mojeed Ajao.

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Community Mirror In recognition of the need to create an enabling environment and enhance the ease of doing business in Lagos State, we have established the Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment (also called Lagos Global) directly under my office. –GOVERNOR OF LAGOS STATE, AKINWUNMI AMBODE

Yam sellers decry harassment by Ondo youths Ojo Oyewamide, AKURE

Disputed parcel of land at Abraham Akinola Estate, Onipetesi-Ikeja area of Lagos State.

Land tussle: Senator alleges police connivance with land grabber Dare Akogun

former senator from Osun West senatorial district in the 7th Senate, Senator Sunday Fajinmin, has alleged police complicity with a purported land grabber in Abraham Akinola Estate, Onipetesi, Ikeja area of Lagos State. In a petition to Lagos State Commissioner of Police, a copy of which was made available to Community Mirror, he alleged that one Rasheed Adetokunbo Yusuf has been threatening him with thugs and some mobile policemen over the land.

Senator Fajinmin noted that he bought the land in 1981 from Pa Abraham Akinola and has no issues with it until recently, when Tokunbo purportedly claimed that he inherited the land from his father. The letter reads in part, “I write to report that this same land grabber has gone to maliciously destroy my property yet and again, at my site despite being warned against such deeds. “You will recall that this case was first reported to the police post in our estate at Ajakaiye Street, and also at Shasha Police Station on Saturday, August 12, 2015, by my staff led by Abiola Fawole and

followed by a call from me. “Similarly, on Saturday, 19, September, 2015, he came with officers from Shasha Police Division led by ASP Timothy, to arrest me at 12 midnight without any incident reported at the station’s register, which the DPO confirmed when I put a call to him at the station,” he said. “I have provided overwhelming evidence under the Land Use Act, that the land belongs to me, whereas, he has not shown any genuine papers nor good survey papers to point to his ownership nor can he point to any other house owner in the estate that sold the land to him. “To convince the po-

lice further, I had told you that I have three (3) plots of land in the area with another one on the same street as the land he wanted to grab with the aid of the police. “I have all my land papers, including C of O as prescribed by the Land Use Act with me and originals of which has been tendered with my statement to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police. “I will therefore, appreciate it if this culprit is brought to book as soon as possible and this case referred to the X-Squad and the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Ikeja for prompt action,” he pleaded.

NURTW crisis: Oshodi chairman sues for peace

ollowing the botched election of Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, held last month, the state treasurer of the union and Oshodi branch chairman Alhaji Musiliu Akinsanya popularly known as MC Oluomo, has appealed to warring factions of the union to sheath their swords and allow peace to reign. The crisis came in the wake of an alleged manipulation of the election by the

former state chairman of the union, Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede, who was reported to have allegedly conducted the poll before the scheduled time to his advantage. Agbede’s tenure and other executives had ended the day before the fixed election. It was gathered that the said election was scheduled to hold at 10am on October 19 but was rescheduled to 6am by Agbede without the knowledge of other members. Speaking with journal-

ists, Akinsanya urged all members to maintain law and order by not fomenting trouble capable of disrupting the peace of the state. Akinsanya noted that Agbede despite efforts in checkmating his excesses continued to toe the path of lawlessness following his dissolution of the executive perceived not to be loyal to him in all the branches and imposing caretaker committees loyal to him. Akinsanya, however, assured that the situation was under control, adding

that a new election would be conducted and due process would be strictly followed. He further called on Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and other relevant authorities to as a matter of urgency call Agbede to order so that the state would not be plunged into chaos. The affected branches are Alimosho branch D, Ikeja branch D, Onigbongbo branch A and the Motorcycle Operators Association of Lagos State, MOALS.

am sellers in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State have called on Inspector General of Police, IGP, Solomon Arase, to save them from unwarranted harassments by some youths in Ondo town. They also urged Osemawe of Ondo, Oba Kiladejo Victor, to prevail on the youths to desist from the act. Chairman of Yam Sellers in Okitipupa area, Dare Ogunmolu, yesterday told journalists in Akure that their members were frequently harassed and molested by the youths whenever they were returning from business trips. Ogunmolu said the hoodlums often waylaid their vehicles at Ife-Ondo road and demanded outrageous ransom before they could be allowed to pass through the town. He said: “This has become a regular occurrence and source of concern to us. This incident happens around Ondo along IfeOndo road. The youths are

not members of NURTW in the area. They are hoodlums and touts. “They frequently take undue advantage of our members whenever they are returning from business trips. They extort money from us and dispossess us of our goods when we refuse to accede to their demands. This has happened on several occasions.” Ogunmolu warned that such an act could result in inter-communal clash and shatter the peace and unity among Ondo, Ikale and Ilaje people if the issue was not addressed urgently. But Liisa of Ondo kingdom, High Chief Simeon Oguntimehin, denied knowledge of the incident, explaining that nobody had come to report the matter to him or the Osemawe-in-Council. “I expect the traders to come and lodge complaint to us for immediate and appropriate action. If they had done that, the matter would have been resolved. It is our responsibility to maintain peace as traditional rulers.”

Ekiti approves N5m revolving loan for drivers’ spouses Abiodun Nejo, ADO EKITI

kiti State Government has approved a five million naira revolving loan for wives of drivers in the state. The approval followed the request by members of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) in the state to improve the quality of lives of their wives through boosting their economic activities. The governor during a meeting in Ado Ekiti with NURTW members promised a bus each for NURTW and the Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in the state if they marked a year free of violence. While cautioning the drivers that no one was above the law, the governor urged them to be law-

abiding to avoid having issues with law enforcement officers. He told the new NURTW leadership in the state that Nigeria would only progress if the leaders humbled themselves and came down to the level of the people they govern. He described driving as a noble profession, saying: “Driving is a noble profession, if you don’t need a driver, you can use your legs, if you don’t like drivers, you can climb on okada, I am not going to be that governor who is celebrated all over the world and not celebrated at home, I want to remain with you in and out of office.” NURTW state Chairman, Mr Clement Adekola assured the governor of the union’s cooperation and promised that his tenure would be violence free.

South West

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

FG may share ECA to states for capital projects …Ekiti eyes N10bn Abiodun Nejo Ado Ekiti

Court orders Odogwu to pay N26bn loan Wale Igbintade

PDP accuses Aregbesola of Lagos to recruit more LASTMA officials withholding bailout funds …We use it for payment of salaries –Govt

Boladale Bamigbola Osogbo

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, November 9, 2015

World News The problem with medical marijuana is there is a lot of anecdotal evidence about how well it works for certain conditions. –US DEMOCRATIC PARTY PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL, HILLARY CLINTON

Afolabi Gambari

WITH AGENCY REPORT

otes were being counted late yesterday in Myanmar’s first openly contested national election for 25 years. Turnout is thought to have been 80 per cent in the poll-seen as a further big step away from decades of military rule. Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) is expected to win the most parliamentary seats, although she is barred from the presidency. The military-backed Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP) has been in power since 2011. Voting was generally smooth, observers said, with some isolated irregularities. Crowds of excited supporters appeared outside NLD headquarters in Yangon as darkness fell, apparently expecting the hear results. Instead a party official read out a message urging them to calmly wait at home. The first official results are expected to be issued from 09:00 local time (15:30 GMT) today. As polls opened yesterday, long queues formed at some polling booths, with reports of people

Myanmar election: Vote counting starts after landmark poll

A Myanmar voter showing off her marked finger yesterday

waiting from before dawn. Smiling voters emerged after casting their ballots, some

displaying fingers stained with purple, the official sign that they had voted.

“When I cast my vote I was very excited and so worried that I might do something wrong that my hands were shaking,” Kay Khine Soe, in Suu Kyi’s Kawhmu constituency, said. About 30 million people were eligible to vote in the election in Myanmar, also known as Burma. More than 6, 000 candidates from over 90 parties vied to be elected to the 664-seat parliament in the first national elections since a nominally civilian government took power in 2011. However, 25 per cent of seats are reserved for unelected military representatives, who are expected to side with the USDP. Suu Kyi, a former Nobel Peace Prize laureate, is barred from the presidency as the constitution disqualifies anyone with foreign offspring-her children are British. The NLD must take 67 per cent of all contested seats in order to gain a majority.

Ebola: S/Leone gets WHO’s clean bill

ierra Leone has officially been declared free of Ebola by the World Health Organization (WHO). Thousands of people took to the streets of the capital, Freetown, at the stroke of midnight- marking 42 days without a single declared case of the disease. There were further cheers when the WHO local representative made the official announcement later early yesterday. The outbreak killed almost 4, 000 people in Sierra Leone over the past 18 months. Many gathered around a giant cotton tree in the centre of the city. Some lit candles in A country is considered free of human-to-human transmission once two 21-day incubation periods have passed since the last known case tested negative for a second time. Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma is due to address crowds in the city later. On Friday, he blamed the WHO for delaying Sierra Leone declaring a state of emergency and restricting movement

during the Ebola outbreak. He said his government did at the time what it could do and did not have the knowledge to fight the disease. Neighbouring Liberia was declared Ebola-free in September following 4, 800 deaths there. A handful of cases are still being reported in neighbouring Guinea. Sierra Leone has said it will take heightened security and health screening measures at their shared border.

Panic and speculation spread Saturday night when a bright white light shot through the night skies in Southern California. Residents posted a flurry of videos on social media, together with theories of aliens or meteors. Others made panicked calls to law enforcement officials. But U.S. military officials said it was a planned missile test. “The Navy Strategic Systems Programs held a scheduled missile test flight at sea from USS Kentucky, which is a ballistic missile submarine. The test was conducted off the coast of Southern California,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “Launches are conducted on a frequent, recurring basis to ensure the continued reliability of the system. Each test activity provides valuable information about our systems.”

Sinai crash: Russia flies tourists home Russia said yesterday that it has flown 11, 000 tourists home from Egypt in the past 24 hours, and more will return on Sunday. Moscow announced on Friday that it was suspending all flights to Egypt after a Russian plane crashed in Sinai-having initially dismissed suspicions that a bomb brought down the jet. Dozens of special flights were put on for tourists wanting to go home. A remembrance service was held in St Petersburg for the crash’s 224 victims, most of whom were Russian. The main bell of the northern city’s St Isaac’s Cathedral tolled 224 times-once for each of the victim.

Indian PM suffers election setback Jubilant Sierra Leoneans yesterday after the Ebola clean bill

Kagame condemns Burundi killings

Rwandan President Paul Kagame

WORLD BULLETIN Bright light scares Californian residents

wandan President, Paul Kagame, has condemned the upsurge in violence in neighbouring Burundi. “People are being killed every day, bodies are found on the streets. Leaders are spending time killing people,” Kagame, whose country shares border with Burundi in a statement broadcast in Kigali yesterday. On Saturday, nine people were shot dead in a bar in the capital Bujumbura as people began fleeing before a government deadline to hand in illegal firearms.

A cycle of violence began in April with protests against Mr Nkurunziza’s controversial decision to stand for a third term. He argued that his first term as president did not count towards the constitutional twoterm limit as he was chosen by lawmakers. “It is sad that the African continent has a disease, to an extent that I will be blamed for meddling in another country, that I should be diplomatic about it or I deal with it politically. But that can’t be, I am being frank and open,” Kagame added.

The Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has admitted defeat for his governing BJP in a key regional election in Bihar state. The BJP was running against an alliance of parties linked to main opposition Congress party in the state assembly. Modi won a convincing victory in last year’s national elections, but this poll was seen as a referendum on his economic programme. However, a spokesman for the Hindu-led nationalist party rejected suggestions the result for the state assembly was a personal blow for Modi, saying the BJP “managed a creditable performance”. The prime minister had been hoping a victory in Bihar would boost his party’s strength in India’s upper house of parliament, which made up of representatives of state legislatures and where he lacks a majority.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Monday, November 9, 2015

Yoruba movie star, Muyiwa Ademola, tackles FG on education

oruba movie star, Muyiwa Ademola, has admonished the Federal Government to provide necessary incentives and put in place mechanisms that will make Nigerian university graduates self reliance in future and compete favourably with their counterparts in the world. Muyiwa who made the assertion in Akure, the Ondo State capital, during the maiden edition of cool global interlinks scholarship award programme, advised Preseident Muhammadu Buhari to make education development the priority of his government. At the end of the programme, 17 year old Omotola Aiyegbusi from Ekiti State emerged the lucky winner. The movie star said many Nigerian students prefer to study abroad because most Nigerian universities do not have what it takes to make their products compete on the CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm that Okoronkwo Godwin, and Okoroukwu Godwin Iheanyi refer as one person now Okoroukwu Godwin Iheanyi. All former documents remain valid. general public take note. CONFIRMATION OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME

world stage Muyiwa said Nigeria as the giant of Africa should be at the forefront of educational development and be a good example to other nations of the continent. He lauded the management of Cool Global Interlinks for initiating such programmes which he said would afford many Nigerian students particularly the indigent ones the opportunity to study abroad and make their dreams come true. The movie star who said he abandoned education to take up acting as a career at the early stage of his life, however regretted that he did not have the opportunity then to further his education or study abroad because of the poor financial status of his parents. Muyiwa explained that he later went back to university for his degree programme when he discovered that the little education he had then could not sustain him or meet CONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm that Chinyere Gift Okorie and Chinyere Gift Chinedu refer as one now Chinyere Gift Chinedu. All former documents remain valid general public take note. CHANGE OF NAME I formerly known and addressed as Okafor Protus Ndubuisi now wish to be known and addressed as Egbunonu Protus Ndubuisi. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

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Paul Adekpe Ogbudu A. Is the one and same person as Paul Igiri and henceforth wish to be known and addressed as Paul Adekpe Ogbudu A. All former documents remain valid. First bank, Union bank and general public take note.

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up with the challenges of his life. “I graduated almost at a belated stage of my life. I couldn’t further my education when I left secondary school because my parents were not that rich. I later went back to university because of the importance of education. I discovered that the little education I had could not sustain me and meet up with the challenges of my life. Education is the key of life and the secret of

human success. For you to be somebody in life you must be educated. States and federal government should pay more attentions to education and ensure that educational institutions in Nigeria are well funded to make their products compete favourably on the world stage.” He advised. The movie star promised to feature the beneficiary of the award Mr. Aiyebusi Omotola in his next movie, part of which he

said would be shot in the United States of America, Ghana and Australia In his address at the occasion, the chairman of Cool Global Interlinks, Mr. Ismail Kolade Oba, disclosed that the agency had sponsored several Nigerian students to study in Cyprus in the last five years. Ismail said the programme was initiated to serve as a motivation and encouragement to Nigerian students wiling to

study abroad but whose parents could not afford the required expenses. Ismail advised Nigerian students studying abroad to be good ambassadors of their country and ensure that they return to Nigeria after their courses to contribute their quota to national development He said the winner of the programme, seventeen year old Master Aiyegbusi would be 100% sponsored by the agency to study in Cyprus

Buhari congratulates Nigeria’s world scrabble champion, Falconets

resident Muhammadu Buhari was on the phone early Sunday evening to Perth, Australia, felicitating with a Nigerian who has emerged World Scrabble Champion, the first ever from Africa. Wellington Jighere, 36, defeated Lewis Mackay of Cambridge, England, CHANGE OF NAME Formerly known and addressed as Miss Onwunma Gospel O. now wish to be known and addressed as Miss Onyema Gospel O. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

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by 448 points to 426 to win the championship which was competed for by 450 players from round the world. “I called to rejoice with you over your performance. You have done the country proud, and we are very happy. Please, pass my congratulations to other memCONFIRMATION OF NAME

This is to confirm that Mr Osaro Adodo is one and the same person as Mr Moses Ali. All former documents remain valid general public to take note. CHANGE OF NAME OKEKE: I, formerly known and addressed as MISS GERALDINE OKEKE now wish to be known, called and addressed as MRS. GERALDINE CHUKWUEMEKA. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

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bers of Team Nigeria,” President Buhari told Jighere. Jighere was delighted at the phone call from the President, and pledged to bring more glory to his fatherland. The five other Nigerian representatives finished in the top 50 scrabble players in the world CHANGE OF NAME NDUKAKU: I, formerly known and addressed as NDUKAKU OKIKE NJOKU now wish to be known, called and addressed as NDUKAKU SAINT NJOKU. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

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bracket. Shortly after President Buhari got off the phone, news got to him that the Under-20 female football team, the Falconets, have qualified for the Women’s World Cup Tournament after beating the Basetsana of South Africa by a lone goal in an away game. CHANGE OF NAME CHINWENDU: I, formerly known and addressed as CHINWENDU UKAPI now wish to be known, called and addressed as OKPORIE NNACHI UKAPI. All former documents remain valid. General public should please take note.

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North

Monday, November 9, 2015

Panel decries poverty rate in Katsina James Danjuma, KATSINA

L-R: Chief Justice of Nasarawa State, Justice Suleiman Dikko; Deputy Governor Silas Agara and representative of Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Suleiman Galadima, during the 21st edition of Chief Justice of Nigeria Sports Competition, in Lafia, on Saturday. PHOTO: NAN

Economy: Cleric demands clearer vision, loot recovery Ubong Ukpong, ABUJA

rstwhile Living Faith Church Bishop, and Founder of Good Tidings Bible Church, Dayo Olutayo, yesterday asked President Muhammadu Buhari to do everything lawful to recover all funds looted from the country’s treasury. Olutayo, while addressing journalists at his church’s headquarters in Abuja during its 11th anniversary, also asked the president to come up with a clearer economic plan to save Nigerians from the present state of abject pov-

erty and insecurity. Speaking after his sermon on Sunday, the cleric, who noted that the country was experiencing serious economic and security hard times, said there was hope, and that the nation would surely rise again in line with the vision of the founding fathers. Olutayo said Nigeria was not poor but suffering from activities of few heartless persons who diverted funds meant for programmes aimed at economic emancipation of the citizens. “Every country has its challenges, but what Nigeria needs is a national vision. Economies cannot

develop without a vision. The leader should tell us what his national vision is so that we know where we are going. “Nigeria is not poor. We are rich in people and resources. Wealth is not going round because of the distribution system. Only a few persons sit down and take away the wealth of others. That has to change,” the cleric warned. He expressed hope in the ongoing efforts of the president to tackle corruption, which he insisted was the cause of the high poverty level in the country. While asking for a na-

tional economic direction and good business environment, Olutayo urged that Nigerians embrace hard work and unite to ensure the much needed change in the country. “We need to go back to hard work. No country will build Nigeria for us, only Nigerians will build Nigeria. No nation can grow without unity. We need to be united. You are first of all a Nigerian before you are a Hausa or Yoruba man. You are first of all a Nigerian before you are a Christian. We must be patriotic and selfless in serving this country,” he appealed to the gathering.

NEMA donates to Benue flood victims Gloria Usman, ABUJA

ollowing the recent flood that devastated communities in nine local government areas of Benue State, the National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA, at the weekend delivered relief items to Governor Samuel Ortom for distribution to more than 32,000 persons affected by the flood. Presenting the relief items to Ortom in Makurdi, Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi, expressed satisfaction with the positive response of most state governments to the flood warning alerts issued by NIMET and NEMA, thereby averting more losses. He, however, urged the governors to sustain awareness on the risk of flood in communities living along

river plains as well as permanently relocating them to higher grounds. The director-general, who was represented by NEMA’s Director of Relief and Rehabilitation, Mr Eugene Udemezue Ezeh, said a joint assessment carried out by NEMA and Benue State Emergency Management Agency indicated that more than 32,000 persons were affected by the flood. He also said the relief items delivered were based on the identified needs of the affected persons and aimed at complementing support from the Benue government. Receiving the items, Governor Ortom appreciated NEMA for the prompt response in coming to aid of the flood victims. While assuring that the items would be distributed to the desired beneficiaries, he called on the Federal Government

to urgently address the frequent occurrences of flood along the River Benue by constructing a buffer dam to collect excess water from Lagdo Dam and fast-track the dredging of the river. The governor immediately handed over the items to the Executive Secretary of the State Emergency

Management Agency, Mr Boniface Otise, for distribution to the affected persons. Executive Secretary of Benue SEMA, Otise, confirmed the items received from NEMA as made up of large quantities of food and non-food items including bags of rice, maize, building materials and mattresses.

committee on economy and investment set up by Katsina State government has lamented high rate of poverty in the state. The committee, chaired by former deputy governor of the state, Tukur Jikamshi, lamented that about 82 per cent of the people were living under poverty line in the state. In 2005, the state’s estimated population was a little over 6.4 million people, which would translate to more than five million people living below poverty line.

Both National Bureau of Statistics, NBC, and World Bank had in past given near-similar figures, which indicated that poverty level was high in the state. The committee chairman said people of the state needed to be economically empowered to minimise poverty and make them self-reliant. He said the committee would work hard to attract investments to the state so as to generate more revenue for government. He, therefore, called on the elite, head of ministries and parastatals to assist the committee in discharging its responsibility.

Manufacturers renew call for oil subsidy removal James Abraham, JOS

anufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has renewed the call for the Federal Government to discontinue the policy of subsidy on petroleum products in the country. The fresh call was coming just as the Federal Government recently approved payment of N413bn subsidy claims to fuel importers in the country Vice President of MAN, North East zone, Mr Jonathan Onigbinde, hinged the fresh call for removal on the need to liberalise the sector and grow the economy. He also told National Mirror at the weekend in Jos that the continued retention of subsidy on petroleum products has subjected the sector to much underdevelopment and bred so much corruption

Kaduna wins UNAIDS health prize

in its administration over the years, hence the need for the present APC administration under President Muhammadu Buhari to end the policy in line with its change mantra. Onigbinde, who cited the recent experience of Nigeria with the communication sector added: “When we see the advantage of zero subsidy, nobody would want to go back to the days of subsidy. The refineries will definitely come on board and the nation will no longer depend on import to service the needs of the local people.” He noted that the manufacturing sector in Nigeria was faced with a lot of challenges including inadequate power supply and other infra structural deficits but added that with enabling environment and favourable government policies, the sector was capable of driving the economy.

…as MTN selects five hospitals for support A za Msue, KADUNA

aduna State has been selected as best performing state during the first phase of the 2015 Maternal, Newborn and Child Health Week, MNCH. A statement by Governor Nasir el-Rufai’s Special Assistant, Media and Publicity, Samuel Aruwan, said the prize was conveyed in

a letter signed by Dr. Bilali Camara, country director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, UNAIDS. According to him, the letter, which was addressed to the governor, said Kaduna State won the prize because during the MNCH week its hospitals counselled and tested 84,000 pregnant women for HIV, and referred everyone that

tested positive to a treatment facility. UNAIDS said the letter to the governor and the prize awarded “serve to witness this unparalleled nationwide MNCH Week’s success in Kaduna State.” It noted that the state advanced the objective to eliminate mother-to-child transmission of HIV. Aruwan said the state’s healthcare system also got

a boost as MTN Foundation selected five state hospitals to benefit from its maternity ward support project, MWSP. The beneficiary hospitals are Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital, Kaduna, General Hospital, Kafanchan, Jubrin Maigari Hospital, Birnin-Gwari, Hajiya Gambo Sawaba Hospital, Zaria and Dabo Lere Memorial Hospital, Saminaka.

Monday, November 9, 2015 CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME Formerly known as OGUNDARE SEYI EMMANUEL, now wish to be known as OLUWADARE OLUWASEYI EMMANUEL. All Former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

CHANGE OF NAME Formerly known as OASIS CORNELIUS SAINT, now to be known as MR. OGUNMILADE TEMIDAYO SUNDAY. All former documents remain valid. General public take note. CHANGE OF NAME

The general public is hereby informed that IZUNNA IWUJIORA HYGENUS and IZUCHUKWU IWUJIORA HYGENUS belong to one and the same person. All former documents bearing the names shall remain valid. General public take note.

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This is to inform the general public that I, Okoye James Tochukwu, is the same person as Mbonu, Okoye James Tochukwu as obtained in some documents bearing these names. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

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I formerly known and addressed as ADERINOLA AJIBOLA THOMAS now wish to be known and addressed as ADIKA OLALEKAN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

PUBLIC NOTICE IBEJU-LEKKI DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION

This is to inform the general public that the above named-named nongovernmental organization has applied for registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C”of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2014. Names of Trustees are as follows: 1. Dr. Ademuyiwa Oniwonlu 2. Mr. Akeem Isiaka 3. Mr. Oluniyi Afolabi 4. Mrs. Adegoke Oniwonlu 5. Mr. Adewale Adeleye

- - - - -

President Secretary Treasurer Welfare P. R..O

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly bear ADENIGBA FRANCIS MAYOWA and FRANCIS OJO MAYOWA, is the same and one person as FRANCIS OJO MAYOWA. That henceforth, now wants to be called and addressed as FRANCIS OJO MAYOWA. All former documents remain valid. All authority concerned and general public to take note.

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PUBLIC NOTICE RIVER OF LIFE APOSTOLIC REDEEMED CHURCH INT’L This is to inform the general public that the above named Church has applied for registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part “C”of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, 2014.

TRUSTEE 1. PASTOR MICHAEL AKINLOLU FOLUSO ADEJIMI…………

President/founder 2. PASTOR JOSEPH OLATUNJI OLUWATUYI 3. LADY EVANG. (MRS) CATHERINE OMOBOLA ADEJIMI

THE AIMS AND OBJECTIVES:

Aims and Objectives: 1. To foster peaceful co-existence of members, their welfare and development. 2. To pursue the physical and structural development and improvement of the community. Any objections to this registration should be forwarded to the RegistrarGeneral, Corporate Affairs Commission, Area II, Garki, Abuja, within 28days of the publication.

CHANGE OF NAME

NWEKE: I formerly known and addressed as MISS NWEKE ISIOMA JOY, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS CHUKWUKA ISIOMA JOY. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

Signed: Trustees

1.To preach and proclaim the Gospel of Christ 2. To preach salvation to all 3. To acquire and Hold properties for and on behalf of the church

Any objections to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affairs Commission, Area II, Garki, Abuja, within 28days of the publication.

SIGNED : PRESIDENT

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME

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Monday, November 9, 2015

I just want to attain 40 points and then see what happens afterwards

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Sport

Igbo’s dominance in Nigerian football

–LEICESTER MANAGER, CLAUDIO RANIERI

South Africa’s Thembi Kgatlana contests the ball with Falconets’ Oluwatosin during the second leg of FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup qualifying match played yesterday at the Makhulong Stadium, South Africa. Falconets won 0-1

N Falconets qualify for 2016 FIFA U-20 World Cup

igeria’s U-20 female team, the Falconets, earned a ticket to the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup on yesterday when they beat South Africa 1-0 in Johannesburg. The fixture was delicately poised after the Basetsana got a penalty in added time that they scored in the first leg in Nigeria, reducing the Falconets win to 2-1. However, Falconets Coach, Peter Dedevbo’s game plan worked as he sent out an attacking side at the Makhulong Stadium in Tembisa – venue of the Super Falcons’ triumph in the African Women Championship in 2004. Nigeria dominated the early ex-

changes and it was no surprise when striker Chinwendu Ihezuo (top scorer at the 2012 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Azerbaijan) scored from a pull –out by defender Mary Ologbosere in the 16th minute to increase the Falconets’ aggregate advantage. South Africa continued to fight but the Falconets held on till the end, and will be one of Africa’s two flag bearers at next year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in Papua New Guinea. “Our ability on the African continent has never been in doubt. We had a game plan and stuck to it till the end. “Our objective now should be to start preparing towards winning the World Cup next year, Dedevbo said”

Buhari congratulates Nigerian World Scrabble Champion, Falconets too

resident Muhammadu Buhari yesterday felicitated with a Nigerian, Wellington Jighere, who has emerged World Scrabble Champion, the first ever from Africa. A statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina said Buhari was on the phone early yesterday evening to Perth, Australia, venue of the event. The statement said Jighere, 36, defeated

Lewis Mackay of Cambridge, England, by 448 points to 426 to win the championship which was competed for by 450 players from round the world. “I called to rejoice with you over your performance. You have done the country proud, and we are very happy. Please, pass my congratulations to other members of Team Nigeria,” Buhari was quoted to have told Jighere on phone. The statement said Jighere was delighted at

the phone call from the President, and pledged to bring more glory to his fatherland. The five other Nigerian representatives finished in the top 50 scrabble players in the world bracket. The statement further said shortly after Buhari got off the phone, news got to him that the Under-20 female football team, the Falconets had qualified for the Women’s World Cup Tournament after beating the Basetsana of South Africa by a lone goal in

an away game. The Falconets had walked a tight rope after scraping just a 2-1 win over South Africa in Nigeria two weeks ago. With the away goal counting double rule, all that South Africa needed today was a single goal, but the Nigerian girls turned the table. “This is a clear case of the indomitable Nigerian spirit. Such will soon be evident in all aspects of our national life,” Buhari said.

Sports

Monday, November 9, 2015

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Enrique sees Ronaldinho traits in Neymar

arcelona coach Luis Enrique believes Neymar is following in the footsteps of fellow-Brazilian Ronaldinho after he sealed another two-goal display with a fabulous individual effort as Barca beat Villarreal 3-0 on Sunday. Neymar has now scored 11 times in just 10 La Liga appearances this season as he and Luis Suarez have dragged the European champions through a six-week spell without the injured Lionel Messi relatively unscathed. Ronaldinho won two league ti-

tles, a Champions League and the 2005 Ballon d’Or during his time in the Catalan capital. Enrique played with Ronaldinho towards the end of his Barca playing career, but, in contrast to his former teammate, was quick to laud Neymar’s work-rate as well as his brilliance near the opposition area. “I had the luck to play with Ronaldinho and I remember how we were struck before the games just watching him strike the ball. The same type of thing happens with Ney.

“We are talking about unique, special players and, I repeat, I can highlight his goals, his attacking play but also the running he does defensively and the solidarity he has with the rest of the team.” Neymar’s sensational form in 2015 is likely to see him named among the three finalists for the Ballon d’Or for the first time in December. But Enrique insisted his sights should be on more trophies after lifting the treble last season than beating Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo to individual awards.

Neymar

Mazembe win fifth CAF Champions League title T Debi

Ex-Olympian lives in bug-infested trailer, broke, unemployed

ormer Olympic figure skater and physician Debi Thomas was the first African-American athlete to win a medal at the Winter Games. Debi Thomas’ life isn’t what it used to be. The former Olympic figure skater and physician made history when she became the first AfricanAmerican athlete to win a Winter Games medal when she took home the bronze at the 1988 Olympics. She recently revealed she is now broke, unemployed and living in a bed bug-infested trailer. “(I feel) frustrated,” Thomas said in the emotional episode of “Iyanla: Fix My Life” that aired Saturday on the Oprah Winfrey Network. Thomas turned to life coach Iyanla Vanzant after “crippling life challenges” that stemmed from a

pair of divorces that financially drained her and forced her to close her medical practice in Virginia. The two-time U.S. national champion is now living in a mobile home in the Appalachian Mountains with her fiancé and his two children. She lost custody of her 13-year-old son. “Today I meet you in a trailer that’s overcrowded and infested with bed bugs,” Vanzant told Thomas in a preview clip. “Are you aware that your life has become unmanageable?” Thomas started a GoFundMe page in December 2014 with the hopes of raising $10,000, though she managed to collect only $3,763. She additionally laid out a number of prospective projects, one of which included starring in her own reality TV show, to help reach her donation goal.

P Mazembe claimed a fifth CAF Champions League title following a 2-0 win over USM Alger on Sunday afternoon as the Democratic Republic of Congo giants won 4-1 on aggregate over two legs. Mbwana Samatta and Roger Assalé found the back of the net for the hosts in Lubumbashi. The ‘Red and Black’ ended the game with 10-men with Zinedine Ferhat sent off seconds before the final whistle. With eight first teams regulars either injured or suspended, USMA boss Miloud Hamdi had the huge task of assembling a competitive team leading up to the game. Star goalkeeper Mohamed Zemmamouche was the most notable absentee with the club again having to do without top scorer Youcef Belaïli who has been handed a hefty ban after testing positive for a banned substance. Mazembe on the other hand were without the influ-

ential Rainford Kalaba with the Zambian midfielder seeing red in the first-leg. Following the

Rainford Kalaba

drama t h a t ensued in Algiers last week, the reverse fixture got off to a rather uneventful start with chances few and far between during the opening 45. Patrice Carteron introduced Daniel Adjei and Assalé after the break with the French born coach eager for his side to gain the ascendancy.

The game finally opened up after hour mark with Adama Traoré blazing his shot inches wide from the edge of the area. The ‘Ravens’ were unlucky not to open the scoring in the 69th minute with Boubacar Diarra seeing his volley attempt cleared off the line after Ismaïl Mansouri parried the initial clearance. At the other end of the park Brahim Boudebouda saw his header over the crossbar from close range. Mazembe were handed a golden opportunity to open the scoring on the day after Farouk Chafai was adjudged to have fouled Assalé inside the area. Samatta duly slotted the ball into the back of the net from 12 yards for his seventh goal of the tournament. Assalé wrapped things up in second-half stoppage time after Samatta broke free on goal. Mazembe will subsequently participate in the 2015 Fifa Club World Cup in Japan later this year.

Athletics doping: London 2012 medallists ‘suspected cheats’

ondon 2012 medallists are among suspected Russian drugs cheats who escaped bans when bribes were allegedly paid to the heads of world athletics. The Sunday Times claims it has obtained a list of eight athletes who officials recommended should be banned in 2011. But it is alleged Lamine Diack,

then head of athletics’ world governing body the IAAF, and Dr Gabriel Dolle, the ex-anti-doping chief, received payments. On Wednesday the pair were placed under investigation by French prosecutors. Diack, who was in charge of the International Association of Athletics Federations for 16 years until the

82-year-old stepped down in August, is alleged to have received one million euros in payments in 2011. An additional 200,000 euros was allegedly paid to Dolle, to cover up positive doping tests. Diack, Dolle and the former’s legal adviser, Habib Cisse, face preliminary charges of corruption by France’s financial prosecuting body.

Diack also faces charges of money laundering. New IAAF president Lord Coe, who has offered to co-operate with French police, gave his first response to the sport’s latest crisis on Saturday evening. He said: “That people in our sport have allegedly extorted money from athletes guilty of doping violations is abhorrent.”

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Sports

Monday, November 9, 2015

Igbo’s dominance in Nigerian football Aderonke Ogunleye-Bello

G Managing Director, FrieslandCampina WAMCO (FC WAMCO) Mr. Rahul Colaco and his wife, Sangeeta, with their sons Karan and Neil, flanked by ex-Super Eagles stars Henry Nwosu (left), Mike Onyemachara and Henry Amatokwu, celebrate with Team Peak SCM, winners of the 2015 FC WAMCO Cup held in Lagos.

NPFL: Enyimba seal record seventh title

nyimba won their seventh Nigerian league title yesterday after drawing 0-0 with Warri Wolves in a feisty contest decided in Aba. The People’s Elephant created the better of the opening exchanges but failed to put away any of the early chances at the Enyimba International Stadium. Both sides defended stoically when they had to as the muchhyped Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) contest ended 0-0. Daniel Etor was sent off for an off-the-ball foul on Gbolahan Salami in the second half but Enyimba failed to get fazed by the numerical disadvantage to claim the

point they needed to send their fans into delirium. Dolphins came from a goal down to beat Heartland 2-1 at the Port Harcourt Liberation Stadium. NPFL legend, Victor Ezeji gave the visitors the lead in the 15th minute but the Port Harcourt club roared back Christian Weli and Chinwendu Ali to claim maximum points. In another development, Sunshine Stars came from a goal down to beat relegated Bayelsa United 2-1 in Oghara with the Akure Gunners’ goals coming through Medrano Tamen and Luther Iyorhe and Jafar Buhari had

put the hosts in front. Charles Okoro scored the only goal of the game as Giwa FC tame Shooting Stars Sports Club 1-0 at the Rwang Pam Stadium, Jos. El-Kanemi Warriors beat Wikki Tourists 1-0 thanks to a Chinedu Ohanachom goal while Anthony Agbaji and Anthony Okpotu netted as Lobi Stars eased their relegation worries with a 2-0 win over Enugu Rangers in Makurdi. FC Taraba won a thrilling contest 2-1 against Abia Warriors while a Rabiu Ali penalty proved the difference between Kano Pillars and Akwa United as the dethroned champions won 1-0 at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano.

WAMCO tourney ends in Lagos Ifeanyi Eduzor

he annual Friesland Campina WAMCO Cup Final Season 10 ended Saturday, November 7 at the Agege Stadium, with Team Peak (Sweetened Condensed Milk) defeating Team Three Crown Powder by 1-0 to lift the giant trophy and gold medal donated by the company. The match which attracted a capacity crowd, including top management of the company saw both teams displaying some good football artistry to the delight of the fans. Following a goalless first half, Felix Odili scored the winning goal for Team Peak SCM (Sweeteened Condensed Milk) and all efforts by their opponents to cancel the goal proved abortive. Earlier in the day, Team Peak

Powder beat Team Peak Evap 3:1 to win the third place match. The third place match was swiftly followed by a novelty match , which pitched the Managing Director, Rahul Colaco, company directors, managers, drivers, office and factory workers against themselves. It was entertaining and was decided by penalty shoot-out in favour of Team Red Tony Udungu of Team Peak Powder scored the highest number goals of the tournament to emerge as the Most Valuable Player while Ani Gabriel of Team Peak SCM emerged Best Goalkeeper. The tournament kicked off September 19 and featured eight teams representing FrieslandCampina WAMCO’s key brands using the knock out format for the 2015 champions to emerge. According to the manag-

ing Director of the company, an active player himself, “The field of sports is a great place to display many values of FrieslandCampina WAMCO with the objective of winning together.

rowing up in a family with deep love for football has shown me a lot about the great footballers we have ever had in Nigeria. I recall the likes of Samuel Okwaraji, Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Christian Chukwu, Emeka Ezeugo, John Mikel Obi, Onyekachi Apam and Uche Okechukwu, among others. The above named footballers are Igbo, as most of the footballers of such caliber to have ever come out of Nigeria are from the tribe. When observing trending issues on the social media sometime last week, I was privy to discussions and arguments by some stakeholders and learned sport enthusiasts on how the Igbo dominate the national male and female teams. While some accused the team handlers of partiality in their squad selections, others posited that the players merited their invitation to the teams. Nigerians are interesting people on matters tribal. But truth be told, the Igbo dominated and are still dominating football in Nigeria and they deserve this acknowledgement. Nonetheless, as a proud Yoruba, most of my friends are Igbo. Therefore my choice of topic is in order. Who can forget Sunday Mba who scored the winning goal for Nigeria at the AFCON 2013 final where Mikel Obi and Kenneth Omeruo also combined with the now retired Emmanuel Emenike to give Eagles ultimately glory. Statistically, about 70 per cent national participation goes to the Igbo players while the remaining 30 per cent is shared among the other tribes. Critically, players from other tribes fade away so soon while the Igbo players stand the test of time with lengthy foot-

Ike Uche

ball careers. It is not unlikely that this longevity derives from the love of the Igbo for football as well as the encouragement they get earlier in their careers. Physical prowess also accounts for this advantage, as they are genetically sturdier than the other tribes. In addition, they are encouraged by successful Igbo players, just as their enterprising nature affords them the ability to foresee the riches that lie in wait for them in the future. Meanwhile, Hausa girl hardly engages in football while her Yoruba counterpart takes time to decide if football is worth pursuing as a career. This could be blamed on their leaning on religion and culture. The Igbo cannot be written off when it comes to their contribution to Nigerian football at the national and league. It is only a matter of time before they get their deserved recognition in full dose. Ndigbo Kwenu! Ogunleye-Bello is an Abujabased international awardwinning journalist, speaker, change agent, sports for development enthusiast, advocacy

Fortune Academy wins VCN U-15 tourney Ifeanyi Eduzor

ortune Academy of Oshodi has won the second edition of the annual VCN U-15 soccer challenge. In an entertaining finals decided yesterday at the Legacy Pitch of the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, the team defeated hard fighting Tao Academy of Igando/ Ikotun by 2-0 to win the giant trophy at stake and a cash prize of N200,000. The third place match saw Bora Fc recording a 3-1 pen-

alty victory over Smart Fc after their game ended 0-0 at regulation time.. Presenting the trophy to the winning team, sponsor of the tournament, Chief Victor Nwaribeaku commended participants for exhibiting spirit of sportsmanship throughout the duration of the championship just as he expressed hope that talented footballers discovered in the tournament would go on to represent the country at various levels as well as play for some of the best clubs both in Nigeria and abroad. According to him, his plans to

discover tomorrow’s stars today in the mold of Jay Jay Okocha, Kanu Nwankwo, Henry Nwosu , Tahudeen Disu, Etim Esin and Brenda Alada informed the decision of his sports kits marketing company to sponsor the grassroots football tournament , promising that next year’s edition will be more glamorous. Organizer of the competition , Prince Adewale Atiba of Atico Global Concept told Sunday Mirror that the championship has lived up to expectation as many talented players were discovered in the tournament.

WORLD RECORD

Most people to pass an egg Vol. 05 No. 1239 Monday, November 9, 2015

The most people to pass an egg is 259 and was achieved by °C-ute and their fans (all Japan) at Akasaka Blitz in Minato, Tokyo, Japan, on 22 August 2014.

N150

A senator’s Jonathanphobic campaigns

ast Tuesday morning when going through the papers, one news report in the front cover of this newspaper titled, ‘Former president behind new Biafra agitation – Shehu Sani (a rider to a main story), got me momentarily frozen. The thrust of the report is that Senator Shehu Sani fingered former President Goodluck Jonathan as the mastermind of the new pro Biafra agitation. The Kaduna State senator asserted that the agitators were only executing the ‘Plan B’ of pro Jonathan forces, adding that the plot was meant to destabilize the administration of Alhaji Muhammadu Buhari. Ordinarily, the development should have passed for a normal engagement by a concerned Nigerian, in the exercise of his constitutional right to freely express his opinion, on a very unsettling issue bordering on national security. But extending

HeartBeat Callistus Oke

Callistusoke@nationalmirroronline.net 08054103275 (SMS ONLY) anthonykila@mail.com such engagement to a troubling dimension that involved weighty allegation against a former president, especially when concrete evidence is not offered on his alleged culpability, is extending freedom of speech too far. I have always respected the profundity of Shehu’s analyses and his courage to take a position on any national issue from very altruistic and nationalistic motive, which explained why I had in the past reached out to him for interviews on national issues when I ran the Abuja office of this newspaper before it change ownership in 2008. I will regrettably say this time around the Sani that spoke on the pro Biafra agitation issue has disappointed exceedingly. He passes for a turn coat with a shrinking status from his past detribalized one. How could he have spoken so blandly on such a weighty issue with the forcefulness of a soothsayer, when in actual fact he was only involved in conjectural extrapolation? If indeed, Senator Sani has succumbed to the virus of ethnocentrism so soon after he had moved higher in the rung of the nation’s political ladder, I really fear for the prospect of Nigeria’s continuing togetherness. As it was in the past and even now, we as a people have been seduced by the vainglorious mantras of “unity in diversity” and “indivisibility and indissolubility” in reference to a warped reality that nothing can harm the cohesion and unity of Nigeria, meaning Nigeria’s perpetual unity has the signature of God. But on daily basis

GOOD LEADERS WORK VERY HARD TO FORGE NATIONAL UNITY,

THEY DO NOT WISH IT certain elements within the ruling elite embark on actions that undermine the very basis of that unity seemingly cherished by all. Jonathan as president manifested some mind boggling failings, which must be traced to his psychobiological composition. This explained his humanist disposition to matters of the exercise of political power, especially its use as a restraining force. However, what nobody can take away from him is the fact that he is a true patriot, one of the few in the nation’s political class. It is his love for the country that made him to concede defeat even before the full results of the last March 28 presidential election were released. That concession was one of the noblest acts in the annals of political Nigeria. By that very act Nigerians were spared the fulfillment of the prophecy of disintegration that hung menacingly in the horizon before the 2015 general elections. So, for Senator Sani to link the resurgence of pro Biafra agitation, an agitation that has been kept alive by the Movement for the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) for many years even before the birth of the Fourth Republic, to imaginary “pro Jonathan forces that lost the 2015 election”

is a big disservice to the former president. Unless the Kaduna-born senator has uncontroverted evidence of such dubious engagement by the former president or those directly linked with or manipulated by him, he should spare the nation such histrionics. In the nation’s political relations, only the privileged members of the power class preach the political gospel of the indivisibility and indissolubility of Nigeria. Such puerile assertion is the power elite’s own way of consolidating their own hold on state power. I do not want to believe that Senator Sani’s short spell as actor in the nation’s political loop has sedated him to a point of disconnection from our objective reality as a nation. Contemporary Nigerian political history has been defined more by contentious interrogation by the constituents of the federation of its lopsidedness. This explains the volatility of subsisting national conversations and the free use of words seeping with unfairness, unequal exchange and injustice. Let our distinguished senator tell us what has given vent to usages like “resource control”, “marginalization”; “fiscal federalism”, “discriminatory appointment, etc? What human history teaches us is that leaders that hold their nations together display uncommon sagacity and statecraft. Such good leaders work very hard to forge national unity, they do not wish it. The history of Nigeria has been one of geopolitical particularism and jingoism, prebendalism, and ascendancy of centrifugalism over centripetalism. Ours has been a situation of one Nigeria, many nationalities, where the “us versus them” syndrome holds sway in the socioeconomic and political relations among her constituent units. So, the raging pro Biafra agitation is one of the fruits of our political exclusionism. The northern power oligarchs (Senator Sani is one of the newest members) should know this. Jonathan has nothing to do with it.

Sport Extra

Athletics faces long road, says IAAF president

thletics faces a “long road to redemption” over allegations of bribery to cover up doping violations, says IAAF president Lord Coe. An independent commis-

sion set up by the World AntiDoping Agency will report its findings today. The report into claims of cover-ups and money-laundering will show “a different scale of corruption” even

compared to Fifa, says co-author Richard McLaren. “These are dark days for our sport,” Coe told BBC Radio 5 live’s Sportsweek. “The day after I got elected, I started a massive review. Un-

derstandably, in the light of the allegations that have been made, that review has been accelerated. “I’m more determined than ever to rebuild the trust in our sport. However, this is a

long road to redemption.” Lamine Diack, 82, the expresident of the International Association of Athletics Federations, is under investigation on suspicion of corruption and money laundering.

Lord Coe Emenike

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