Today's e paper jan 6 2016

Southern Kaduna: President orders Police foil bank strong action to deal with violence robbery in •Condoles victims’ families Rivers, arrest suspects Rotimi Fadeyi

ABUJA

Buhari

Vol. 6 N0. 1495

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resident Muhammadu Buhari has given instructions for decisive measures

aimed at bringing an end to the recurring violence and destruction in the Southern part of Kaduna State.

A statement issued by

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said Buhari CONTINUED ON PAGE 2>>

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National Mirror Online @NationalMirror Friday, January 6, 2017

Troops rescue one more Chibok schoolgirl

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...With 6 months old baby •Buhari hails military Ubong Ukpong, Rotimi Fadeyi, Abuja

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roops of the Operation LAFIYA DOLE currently combing and arresting Boko Haram terrorists in their hideouts in the North East have rescued one more schoolgirl, Rakiya Abubakar, abducted from Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State.

And in a swift response, President Muhammadu Buhari, in a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, welcomed the recovery of Rakiya Abubakar, who is said to be from Alagarno area of Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.

Indeed, an operational update released, yesterday, by the Nigerian Army said the girl was rescued with Rakiya Abubakar and her baby after their rescue near Sambisa Forest by troops of the 27 Brigade around Alagarno area near Ajigin in Damboa Local Government area, Borno state, yesterday.

her six months old baby.

Director of Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen Sani Usman, said the girl and her baby were discovered during an investigation of arrested suspected Boko Haram terrorists.

Usman confirmed that the rescued girl is “Rakiya Abubakar, with her six months old baby.”

He said, according to preliminary investigation, the rescued schoolgirl was discovered to be the daughter of Abubakar Gali Mulima and Habiba Abubakar of Chibok.

On interrogation, sman said, “She further stated that she was a student of Senior Secondary School Class 3B (SS 3B), before her abduction along with her colleagues on 14th April 2014 by the Boko Haram terrorists.

“Rakiya Abubakar is presently undergoing further medical investigation and would soon be released to the Borno State Government.”

Earlier, on October 13, 2016, a batch CONTINUED ON PAGE 2>>

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Friday, January 6, 2017

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Troops rescue one more Chibok schoolgirl CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

of 21 of the girls was released by Boko Haram after intense negotiation with the Federal Government, which was facilitated by the Red Cross and the Swiss Government.

Previously, on May 19, 2016, one of the girls, Amina Ali, had been freed by troops of the Nigerian military.

More than 200 of the schoolgirls were abducted by the Boko Haram on April 14, 2014, within the school compound as the girls were said to be preparing for their examinations.

Fifty of the girls managed to escape and about

218 remained in captivity before their subsequent rescue.

An elated President Buhari has welcomed the recovery of another Chibok schoolgirl, Rakiya Abubakar, in the Alagarno area of Damboa Local Government Area of Borno State.

A statement issued yesterday by Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina said the President noted that the recovery raised renewed hope that the other captured girls would one day be reunited with their families, friends and community.

Buhari also commended the military for the diligent investigation

Southern Kaduna: Buhari orders strong action to deal with violence CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

has since directed the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to assess the situation first hand last Saturday and Sunday.

The statement stated that consequent on this and in addition to the conventional policemen deployed in the area, a squadron of mobile policemen has now been stationed there.

The Presidency explained that the Nigerian Army was also in the process of setting up two battalions in Southern Kaduna, while the military continues to carry out air surveillance across flash points in the area.

The statement also said Buhari has equally directed the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) to carry

out a joint assessment of the situation with the sister agency in Kaduna, SEMA, to determine the level of response required for urgent aid to the victims of the violence.

“These measures should soon ensure the return of normalcy to the region, while the Kaduna State government continues its peace building efforts.

“The President commended efforts of the state government and the security agencies in the steps taken so far to curtail the violence.

“President Buhari has, once again, sent condolences to the people of Southern Kaduna, who have lost loved ones in the recent violence”, the statement added.

which led to the recovery of Rakiya and urged them to continue in the spirit with which they cleared

the Sambisa forest off terrorists.

The President assured that the government

MAIDGURI

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he Theatre Commander of Operation Lafiya Dole, Maj-Gen. Lucky Irabor, has said to win peace after Boko Haram war in the North-East, a multisectoral engagement in “intelligence and re-constructionsprojects” be em-

bedded to ensure and sustain peace in the nation.

Irabor spoke on Wednesday in Maiduguri, while parading 10 Boko Haram commanders and members who surrendered before journalists at the Maimalari Cantonment in Maiduguri, the state capital.

“We need to build on the successes of military op-

the rest of the girls and eradicating the menace of terrorism in the country.

L-R: Minister of State for Power, Works and Housing, Alhaji Mustapha Baba-Shehuri; Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly Matters, Sen. Ita Enang; Minister of State for Aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika, and Chairman, Security and Intelligence Committee of the Senate, Senator Shaba Lafiaji, at the Special Stakeholders’ meeting on the temporary closure of Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, for repairs of the runway yesterday in Abuja. PHOTO: ERNEST OKORIE/BJO/NAN

10,700 get Buhari’s N5,000 monthly –Kwara Govt Wole Adedeji ILORIN

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wara State Government, on Thursday, in Ilorin, said 10,700 households are benefitting from the first phase of the Federal Government’s National Cash Transfer Programme in the state.

Senior Special Assistant to Governor on Media and Communication (SSA), Dr. Muyideen Akorede, who stated this in a signed statement, quoted the Head of the Programme Unit, Conditional Cash Transfer, Kwara State Ministry of Women Affairs and Social

Development, Hajia Aminah Yahaya-Bagudu, as saying so “while speaking with newsmen.”

Akorede said Bagudu disclosed that “under the scheme, twelve local government areas are participating in the first phase, while the remaining four local government areas are being considered to benefit in the second phase.”

Hajia Yahaya-Bagudu, he said, maintained that the programme was part of the components designed by the Federal Government to tackle poverty in the country.

“Beneficiaries had started receiving the pay-

How to win peace after Boko Haram war, by Irabor, war commander Inusa Ndahi

would continue to do all within its powers to assist the military in locating

erations so that the multisectoral engagements can take off in intelligence gathering and sharing; and the immediate reconstructions of Boko Haram destroyed houses and public buildings, including infrastructural facilities,” said Irabor.

He said to achieve and sustain peace in the country, the people should be

sensitized, as winning peace in any nation requires a holistic approach to sustain it.

He said the issues and challenges the nation face must be conceptualized, while institutions, including the military and other security agencies, should be entrusted to win peace after the army has won the war.

ment of five thousand naira monthly from the Federal Government,” the SSA added.

He also said “the selection process was based on the data collected for the World Bank-supported Youth Employment and Social Support Operation (YESSO), where each community identified those considered as poor.”

The process was said to be transparent and devoid of any influence and the CHANGE OF NAME

OJO: Formerly known and addressed as OJO AYOBAMI OLUWADAMILOLA, now wish to be known and addressed as ADEBAYO AYOBAMI OLUWADAMILOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly known and addressed as MISS BOLANLE JULIANA OMISADE, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS BOLANLE JULIANA ATIROKO. All former documents remain valid. General public please take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

second phase of the programme is billed to commence as soon the social register is shared with the unit for the payment of the five thousand naira monthly.

It was, however, admitted that there were hitches in the programme, with Hajia Aminah-Yahya promising that the selected bank had engaged the services of a consulting firm.

CHANGE OF NAME

SARO: Formerly known and addressed as SARO WALE AHMED, now wish to be known and addressed as SARO AYINLA AHMED. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

Formerly Known and called as YAMU JONATHAN SILAS, now wish to be known and called as JOTHAN SILAS. Every other documents remain valid.

General public take note please.

CHANGE OF NAME

RAPHAEL: Formerly known and addressed as RAPHAEL HELEN IYANMANU, now wish to be known and addressed as CHRISTOPHER HELEN IYANMANU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

FATIMAH: Formerly known and addressed as FATIMAH LANIHUN, now wish to be known and addressed as ABOLORE ADEDOLAPO LANIHUN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note

CORRECTION OF NAME This is to inform the general public that my name was was once spelt, written and stated as MUHAMMED MUSILIU OLATUNDE OBAONIKORO/ONIKORO instead of MUHAMMED MUSILIU OLATUNDE OBANIKORO . Henceforth I wish to be known and addressed as MUHAMMED MUSILIU OLATUNDE OBANIKORO . All former documents remain valid. Banks and the general public take note.

AWOPETU: Formerly known and addressed as MISS IBUKUN EUNICE AWOPETU, now wish to be known and addressed as MRS IBUKUN EUNICE EKELE. Former documents remain valid. Public note

CHANGE OF NAME

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Friday, January 6, 2017

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Friday, January 6, 2017

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FG okays arms for Aviation security personnel Rotimi Fadeyi

ABUJA

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he Federal Government has endorsed the bearing of arms by Aviation security personnel in a bid to ensure security at airports across the country.

•Approves N1.1b for completion of Kaduna Airport terminal building Minister of State for Aviation, Hadi Sirika, disclosed this while briefing State House correspondents after the meeting of the Federal Executive Council.

The minister explained that his ministry

and the Interior Ministry as well as other stakeholders would collaborate in the training of personnel that would be authorized to carry arms at the airports.

“We are very serious

about aviation security; just last week, the President approved that aviation security should bear arms. So, we are trying to make them take the form and shape of TSA of the US, with K-9 dogs, handcuffs, guards, batons and

L- R: Director, Investment Banking, Chapel Hill Advisory Partner Limited, Ayo Fasina; Group Managing Director, Access Bank Plc, Herbert Wigwe; Managing Director, FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange, Bola Onadele Koko, and Managing Director, Coronation Merchant Bank Limited, Abubakar Jimoh, at a signing ceremony commemorating the quotation of Access Bank Plc’s N35bn Commercial Paper on the FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange yesterday.

light weapons,” he said.

Sirika also disclosed that the council approved N1.1 billion for the completion of Kaduna Airport terminal building According to the minister, the cost of the project was reviewed from over N500 million to over N1.1 billion after the contractor noticed some structural damages to the terminal building and increased the scope of work.

He disclosed that work on the terminal building would be completed in six months.

The minister said, “FEC has approved the completion of Kaduna terminal building. It was awarded in 2011 and commenced in 2012.

“During the rehabilitation of the terminal building, a contractor noticed some structural damages to the building itself and then increased the scope of what would be done to put it to use and that ne-

cessitated the variation of contract sum.

“The cost of variation is in excess of 15 percent; it had to go to the then President Goodluck Jonathan for approval, that was approved and they went to BPP. So, we brought it to council today to ratify and, of course, take into cognizance the exchange rate and inflation that has increased the cost of completion of the terminal building.

“Council has approved the completion of that terminal building and it will be completed in six months.”

He noted that the entire structure of the runway has totally collapsed, stressing that it was designed for 20 years to cater for not more than 100,000 people per annum, but it has been there for 34 years and doing over five million persons per annum.

Sirika said the government was working on improving navigational and landing aids at the airports.

Police foil bank robbery in Rivers, arrest suspects

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he police have foiled a bank robbery in Port-Harcourt, Rivers State, involving a senior staff and security of the bank.

A release by DCP Don Awunah, Force Public Relations Officer, said the suspects arrested were: Samuel Ndudiri, a principal suspect and the master mind of the foiled armed robbery attack; ex SGT Promise Ukwuoma, a dismissed policeman; Samuel Nwala, Lucky Ukwuoma and Kaale Taagabah.

According to the police, among exhibits recovered from the suspects were: two (2) AK 47 rifles and magazines fully loaded with ammunition, a welding machine, two (2) gas cylinders and iron cutters, a big chisel, cutting saw, hammer and acetylene gas power, which were allegedly used for the foiled operation.

The statement said, “On the 22nd December, 2016, the five (5) suspects mentioned above and other still at large stormed a

Branch of Access Bank PLC in Port Harcourt, relying on information and active involvement of one of the staff of the Bank, the armed robbers successfully broke down the well fortified security doors and barriers and took over the banking hall.

“They were almost pulling down the vault of the Bank and other strong rooms in the bank with use of gas cylinder welding machine and iron cutters before the joint Police Teams of IGP’S Intelligence Response Team and Policemen from Rivers State Police Command swiftly moved in and dislodged them, thereby foiling the armed robbery attack on the Bank and made a prompt arrest of three (3) of the suspects at the scene; namely: Samuel Nwala ‘M’ 28 years, Lucky Ukwuoma ‘M’ 26 years, Kaale Taagabah ‘M’ 27 years.

“In the course of thorough investigation into the foiled armed robbery attack on the Bank, the

Deputy Managing Director, FirstBank, Gbenga Shobo (Middle); Executive Chairman and CEO of EbonyLife TV, Mo Abudu (third left); Group Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Folake Ani-Mumuney (second right) presenting the star prize to the winners of the FirstBank FirstStars Reality TV show (Team Sisterly). principal suspect who is a staff of the Bank and the mastermind of the armed robber attack was subsequently arrested based on the confessional statements volunteered by the last three suspects arrest-

ed at the scene. “The arrest of the principal suspect led to the arrest of ex SGT Promise Ukwuoma, who participated actively in the armed robbery attack on the Bank, the two (2) AK 47 riffles and the

ammunition were recovered from him.

“All the suspects have volunteered confessional and useful statements to the police about the various criminal roles they played in the commission of the crime.”

The police said concerted efforts were being intensified to arrest the other suspects still at large and bring them to justice.

The case will be charged to court on completion of investigation.

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Friday, January 6, 2017

BAYELSA STATE BOARD OF INTERNAL REVENUE YENAGOA, BAYELSA STATE

6th January 2017 than 31st March 2017.

To all Employers of Labour & Self Employed Persons Resident in or Carrying out Work Activities In Bayelsa State

2) Self Employed: - Are to (a) Obtain Form A from the Assessment Department, fill and return it to the Board. (b) Pay assessments raised and obtain Form H2 or Tax Clearance Certificate as applicable.

CALL FOR RETURNS Pursuant to the powers conferred on it by Sections 41, 44, 46 and 47 of the Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2011, the Bayelsa State Board of Internal Revenue calls for returns by all taxable persons either resident or carrying out work activities in Bayelsa State as follows: 1) Employers (Public & Private):- Are to (a) Apply for and obtain Form A for all persons in their employment (permanent, contract or casual personnel) (b) Ensure the filling of the forms, and their return to the Assessment Department of the Board. (c)

Obtain Tax Deduction Cards

(a) File a copy of their salary schedule showing the salaries earned and, due deductions made monthly (inclusive of payment receipts, TIN numbers for each personnel, and soft copies of the said returns) for the preceding year (2016), not later than 31st January 2017. (b) Ensure a filing of Statement of Claims in line with Sections 34, 35 & 41(3) of the Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2011, for the current year not later

By this notice all affected persons are expected to comply with this call or face the appropriate sanctions as follows (1) (2)

N500,000 for corporate organizations N50,000 for individuals

3)

Expatriate Staff

1.

Expatriate Staff resident in or, carrying out work activities in the State, or those offshore who by their work location have Bayelsa State as the closest Tax Authority in line with the First Schedule, Section 1(b) of the Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2011, are by this notice enjoined to declare their income in the prescribed form. The Board will be constrained to adopt a Deemed Income for the year 2010-2016 outstanding tax audits and this will be strictly adhered to according to the provisions of Section 54 (2b) of the Personal Income Tax (Amendment)Act 2011.

2.

Where organizations or individuals decide to use the actual income of their expatriates, the rates being proposed will only be acceptable on the provision of the following documents: i.

Letter of employment from home office of the foreign organization endorsed by the Nigerian Embassy in the home Country. ii.

Submission of Local and Foreign pay slip of the individual expatriates 3.

The Deemed Income applicable for expatriate employees in the various industries for the year 2017, will also be used for the purpose of the 2010-2016 statutory tax Audit on employers of labour and they are as follows:

Note that any false information or failure to file returns shall attract the appropriate sanctions as provided for in Sections 47 and 95 of the Personal Income Tax (Amendment) Act 2011.

Thank you.

Dr. Nimibofa Ayawei Executive Chairman

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Education Today

Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Enugu gov assures commitment to quality education

N26.4m monthly salary shortfall hits FUT Minna

Saidat Alausa

Regina Otokpa

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overnor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has assured the people of the state that his administration would continue to improve the standard of education in the state.

He also promised to continue to develop and implement policies that are designed to revitalize educational institutions at all levels in the state.

These he said would include provision of critical infrastructure, renovation of existing facilities and provision of right equipment in schools to enable them to compete favourably with others according to emerging economic realities The governor stated this at the 17th convocation ceremony of Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT), held at Agbani campus of the university recently.

The visitor, who is also an alumnus having obtained two master’s degrees from the university noted that the dwindling revenue and other economic issues are prevailing situations that obviously call for concerted and committed efforts by the public and private sectors as well as institutions of learning, to reverse or bring under control the issues hindering education and economic development.

“I am actually convinced that tertiary institutions in the country have a critical role to play in taking Nigeria out of the woods,” he stressed.

On the challenges facing the university as highlighted by the institution’s vice-chancellor, Prof. Luke Anike, the governor assured that apart from other interventions the government had made and are still making in the school, “we will continue to work in concert with relevant ministries and agencies of government to as far as available funds can permit, address these challenges adequately and satisfactorily.

The university vice-chancellor, Prof. Luke Anike in his address, revealed that aside from giving honours to the deserving 12,714 graduating students from nine faculties spread across graduands from 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 academic sessions, the management of the university had taken some bold steps to ensure global visibility and excellent academic rating of ESUT. He explained that this was done through commitment to research, teaching and various approaches to staff development and that the university staffs have been encouraged through their sponsorship to national and international conferences, workshops and seminars adding that the development had significantly increased the level of ICT competency and productivity amongst staff and even students.

Promasidor wins NIPR’s Education’ Award

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he efforts of Promasidor Nigeria Limited in boosting education through its annual Cowbellpedia Mathematics TV Quiz Show initiative has earned the company the Best 2016 Education awarD from the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Lagos State chapter.

Speaking at the award ceremony in Lagos, the Chairman of Lagos NIPR, Mr. Olusegun McMedal, said the consistency of Promasidor’s Cowbellpedia Mathematics Quiz initiative had greatly motivated many students to love and have interest in the subject which he said was vital to all professions.

He observed that the maths competition among the secondary school students nationwide had made the subject becoming one of favourites for students in the country, urging the company to keep up the good work. Receiving the award, the Assistant Brand Manager, Promasidor, Miss. Oluwatooni Odewole, said the award was deserving as it shows the company‘s strong commitment in improving the standard of education and encouraging them to erase the notion that Mathematics is a difficult subject that should be neglected. ‘ He explained that the competition was part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of the company.

Abuja

he Federal University of Technology, Minna, has raised the alarm over the monthly shortfall in staff salaries amounting to about N26.4 million.

The branch chairman of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Dr, Ndamisa Attahiru, speaking exclusively to National Mirror, lamented that this had been the trend for the past 11 months.

He said: “All universities in Nigeria are being short changed in terms of salary. Salaries are paid in fraction.

Specifically in FUT Minna today, we have shortfall of salaries every month by 26.4 million. This started since December 2015.

“Many universities in Nigeria including University of Abuja pay their workers in fraction today. Is that a not a shame. Sometimes, the managements will rake here and there to just to augment what they have in order to pay salaries. This practice is always at the expense of research and other activities that can lead to the progress of schools,” he added.

Attahiru also disclosed that since

Exam malpractice allegation:

Blind candidates demand apology from WAEC Williams Attah Gombe

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he National President of the Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB), Adamu Ishiyaku Gombe has dismissed allegation by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) that blind persons use to collude to cheat during the council’s WASSC examinations.

He said the allegation was baseless and unacceptable, arguing that why would WAEC have to label every blind candidate in its exams as cheat just because a blind couple was found cheating.

Speaking with journalists in Gombe, NAB boss said “Nigeria cannot make progress until our citizens embrace honesty, integrity and hard work as a basic principle of daily life and therefore demanded from WAEC an open apology to the association.

He however said the association at all times was against malpractice in any exam by its members and therefore one visually impaired indulging in the practice should not be tantamount to all blind persons.

the Federal Government stopped funding the university staff schools in 2015, most of the universities had been forced to lay off their staffers because they had to find another means to pay salaries.

In FUT Minna for example, he pointed out, somebody who is earning about N250, 000 officially will eventually be paid N70, 000 just for the university to keep them in service.

“It is that bad,” he lamented.

L-R: Corporate Affairs Adviser, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Mr. Kufre Ekanem; President of Rotary Club of Lagos, Mrs Modupe Sasore; Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Board, Lagos State, Mrs Adelaja Sopehin; Sole Administrator, Surulere Local Government, Mr. Sheriff Balogun and the immediate past President of Rotary Club of Lagos, Mr. Larry Agose inspecting the library donated by Nigerian Breweries to Randle Avenue Primary School, Surulere before inauguration, recently.

LAUTECH closure: Students CAC missions partners BOI to go on mass protest on youth empowerment Tunbosun Ogundare

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xcept drastic steps are taken fast by the authorities concerned, the students under the umbrella of Alliance of Nigerian Students against Neo-Liberal Attacks (ANSA) may stage what they call ‘mother of all protests’ against the governments of both Oyo and Osun States over the matter next Monday.

The Acting Secretary General of the group, Juwon Sanyaolu in a statement said the protests which was scheduled to hold simultaneously in both state capitals of Ibadan and Osogbo, is also to warn the governments of both states against increasing fees in the school or any other institution owned by them.

According to him, indications have emerged that part of the resolutions being considered to end the prolonged workers’ strike at the institution is to increase fees payable by the students, saying fees increase would never solve such problems. He noted that the group which demanded immediate reopening of the school, which has been shut for seven months and reinstating of students’ unionism in the campus took the decision to protest as a product of the congress of LAUTECH students.

Cross section of Old Students of Anwar-Ul Islam College Agege (1991/92 Set) during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Set held at the School in Agege, Lagos State last Saturday

Saidat Alausa

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ver 100 youths from the country’s six geo-political zones are currently undergoing entrepreneurial skills acquisition programme at Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji- Arakeji, Osun State.

The missions’ department of the Christ Apostolic Church (Worldwide), in collaboration with the Bank of Industry, is set to empower those who excel after the programme, with start-up packages worth millions of naira.

The scores of young minds were selected after going through thorough spiritual and capability screening exercise.

According to the CAC Director of missions, Pastor Caxton Fasuyi, the empowerment programme which is expected to be in batches will no doubt help eradicate poverty in the church.

Fasuyi announced that CAC missions have spent over N10 million on putting the training in place and more money will be spent as every aspect of the training is free of charge for participants including feeding and monthly stipends throughout the duration of the programme.

Pastor Fasuyi appreciated the management of C.A.C and the authorities of JABU for their cooperation in making the exercise a reality.

He also congratulated the participants who scaled through the rigorous screening exercise to be among the first batch of the project.

He however warned them to adhere strictly to the rules and regulations of the university as JABU is known for zero tolerance to indiscipline.

The Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Sola Fajana urged participants to take their training seriously as they would evidently become products of JABU; a university that is known for excellence in moral standard and academic excellence.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Friday, January 6, 2017

Education Today

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My aim is to make ESUT globally visible —VC

Prof. Luke Okechukwu Anike is a Professor of Geology, and an accomplished researcher, academician and administrator. He is the Vice-Chancellor, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT). In this interview with SAIDAT ALAUSA, he speaks on the road map towards the university attaining a global visibility, ESUT rating as the number one state university, issue on IGR and others. Excerpts:

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SUT is rated as the number one state university in the country and the number 17 in the country, in the recent webo-metric survey rating of universities, how do you feel about this?

Well, we are happy as a university for such rating. It is good to stay at the top. What we are trying to do is to maintain the feat for such recognition.

In view of the above, what is your roadmap towards ensuring that the momentum is sustained?

From on-set I have promised that our university will take bold steps to ensure global visibility and excellent academic rating. We have also tried to build best practices and skills so that they will be strengthened and be more confident to carry out whatever functions that come their way. We have tried to build linkages and connections with Institutions around the world and we will continue to maintain such linkages.

In fact I will be signing an MOU with Anglo Ruskin University in the United Kingdom for staff and students exchange programmes and for collaboration and research which is one of our principal actions.

In addition to the collaboration and linkages with other universities and agencies, and as a way of enriching and enlarging its coast in terms of academic content capacity building and internalization, the university has successfully signed MoU with a number of foreign universities in areas of staff and student exchange, curriculum development and other areas of mutual benefit. Some of the institution includes Dolphin University Ireland, which was attracted by our dear governor, Right Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi when he visited UK, and many others.

We believe that any university that focuses on this will be able to meet the goals and aspirations.

In your convocation address, you listed some challenges, what steps are being taken to find solutions to them?

We as a university, we cannot say we have everything that we need to achieve the goals we have set for ourselves, especially with regards to funds and materials, for instance, laboratory materials and other important features and structures that the university requires. However, in terms of funding, it is pertinent to mention that the government of Enugu State has shown deep interest in allowing the university to function by providing subventions to the universities regularly.

So we get regular subventions from govern-

ment and we are very happy with our governor who believes in education and achieving excellence and he has maintained that by showing great interest and releasing funds to us as at when due.

We are also grateful to the 17 local governments in the state under the umbrella of ALGON. Local governments in the local Enugu state are also helping in funding the university and they regularly send subventions to the university. Even though, like Oliver Twist, we will want some more in order to carry out other activities. We now devised means of reaching out to our alumni as to well-meaning individuals and philanthropist in Nigeria and elsewhere.

We also look for funds through international organizations like UNESCO. We make proposals and sometimes we are lucky we get approvals. All these are sources in which we get our funds.

As I mentioned particularly, one of our recent doctoral degree awardees, Prince Arthur Eze has voluntarily agreed to invest the sum of N100 million every year for five years with an additional N50 million for street lighting of the university. I think that this will motivate other philanthropist and other well-meaning persons to invest on education because the gains of such investments to the community and the nation are unquantifiable. I should also state at this point that the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, TETFund has assisted greatly in providing infrastructure within the university. In fact, some of the structures built by TETfund include lecture hall, laboratories and auditorium. We are very grateful to TETfund and the Federal Ministry of Education through the NEEDS assessment implementation committee. We are also grateful to the Central Bank of Nigeria for providing us with a central laboratory that is currently under construction.

We also have the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) which has provided an ICT laboratory for the university and it has been completed and put to use.

We are also grateful to our chancellor, Wakili Adamawa who has also mobilized his friends in the support of the university projects. It is important to note that where we are is the permanent site of the university and requires development. We look forward to other persons and corporate organizations, especially in the areas of housing so that we can accommodate our staff within the campus to boost mentoring and enhance their effectiveness towards the development of the

Anike students.

What is your take on the issue of university system and Nigeria socio-economic development?

The relationship is very close and important to ensure that there is a seamless relationship in this regard. The essence of the university is to proffer solutions to the societal issues. That is why the cardinal objectives of the university are community service. When problems arise, the universities take them up as challenges and look at all the options using knowledge and skills to find solutions. So you cannot separate the university system from the society. They must work together. So we want the government to challenge the universities by giving them more specific tasks towards finding solutions to particular problems in the country both socially and economically. With the right funding and motivation, we will be able to provide sustainable solutions to some of our contemporary problems in the country.

What is your take on universities picking cut off marks?

I believe that it is important that there is a statutory cut off mark so that every university will be operating at the same level.

If you begin to establish different standards, then there will be a problem of acceptability in future. University will begin to discriminate against the students.

Considering the prevailing economic recession in the country, what are your plans for IGR to keep the institution afloat?

IGR is always there even though universities are not commercial ventures to earn some money from their activities in order to support themselves. Even federal universities charge fees. Recession has a very critical impact on the universities because the universities are expensive to run and in a cash strapped economy, it becomes more difficult to be able to get the proper and quality materials we require to carry out the critical functions and to maintain the standards with other universities. That is why I said that government should challenge the universities more by asking them to carry out specific tasks geared towards solving particular problem.

What is the relationship between management and staff of the university?

The university management cherishes its teachers and programmes. It is very critical to us. We have been able to do this by presenting every information to the unions and other interested member of the university often. When you tell them the truth, everybody becomes aware of the situation on

ground in the university. There is nothing to hide. We maintain seamless information flow between management and staff and we call meetings often.

How have you been able to handle issues of regular payment of salary?

This administration believes in the humane person. We believe that the staff should get what is due to him or her. As a result, we put prize target to providing their emolument. When we pay them, we can then ask them to do their work. If you do not pay them, you do not expect them to do their work. We make every effort that is legitimate to ensure that they are paid. As long as we have the resources to do that, we pay them and ensure that they re-dedicate themselves each month in carrying out their functions.

What will you describe as your roadmaps towards positioning ESUT to what you want it to be?

We want ESUT to be globally competitive.

We want ESUT to be a university that people seek to come in and graduate from. In that line, we are ready and committed to hire the best staff and leadership, timely intervention for any crises, for information that will be valuable for staff and students. We emphasise research, we believe in that because it was established for the purpose of providing research. We should be able to carry out such mandate by emphasizing collaboration and linkages to solve contemporary problems. The university has a congenial relationship with its immediate community.

If any problem arises, we meet their leadership and explain to them. As a university, we cannot throw our borders open. We need to know who is in and out of the university. It is not a way to discriminate the university but a way of improving our security. We will be interested and happy if someone can help us to put a fence around the university so that the intrusion of any person around the university should not be a source of strife between the university and the community.

In the next four years, how do you want to see ESUT? I would like to see ESUT as having moved forward from what the situation is to another, where a large number of our staff and students are quartered within the university so that 24 hours every day, we will have communal activities within the university. I want to see ESUT to be a full community of its own. A large proportion of our staff leave the campus after work and in a university, there is no after work. This is the kind of global picture we want to have of ESUT.

Editorial

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Friday, January 6, 2017

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Onaiyekan on persisting leadership insensitivity

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he slow response of the Nigerian state to critical national issues can be quite distressing, indeed, exasperating to many. It is, therefore, not surprising that Roman Catholic Cardinal and the Archbishop of Abuja Archdiocese, John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan, at a public function lately in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, drew public attention to the recklessness and revelling going on in government circles even when the country is grinding in economic recession and hardship.

Onaiyekan said it was quite disturbing that most of the present senators who were once governors in their respective states still drew pensions as ex-governors and yet collect millions of naira as lawmakers, while a large percentage of Nigerians died daily because of abject poverty.

National Assembly members, he said, “make laws appropriating huge allowances for themselves along with vehicles whose costs are in millions of naira and openly display insensitivity to the suffering of the people who voted them into office”.

The President, governors and National Assembly members should be sensitive to the current economic recession by cutting down on ostentatious living, Onaiyekan insisted. He was no less peeved at the subsisting

high cost of running government at both federal and state levels at a time when living for the common man had dropped to zero. The Cardinal canvassed a cut in the allowances and salaries of national and state lawmakers; as well as in the earnings of their counterparts in the executive arm of every tier of government.

In the news since April this year were reports that about 21 governors and deputy governors currently serving as senators or ministers and receiving pay in their capacity as lawmakers were still drawing billions of naira in pension payments and salaries from their states, even when millions of civil servants in their home states grapple with hunger and destitution without salaries for months unend. They, without conscience, draw the huge pensions, salaries and allowances regularly, whether or not their states had enough funds to service the gluttony; and without minding the grinding financial plight of their states and the widespread poverty ravaging the nation.

According to the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the affected governors, while holding office, arm-twisted or bribed their various Houses of Assembly into approving for them bogus and illegitimate pay packages

The best of leaders worldwide cultivate good followership by walking their talk and living by example and property, like posh vehicles and houses in contravention of extant laws and regulations by the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), the body constitutionally vested with the power to fix the salaries and allowances of public office holders.

As if that was not enough, most of such leaders were accused of carting away government property or auctioning same to themselves and their cronies at ridiculous prices, especially when leaving office. On the eve of the departure of many governments in the country, state or federal, public funds and property are looted with impunity. Treasuries are emptied in a matter of days if not hours; and newly appointed government functionaries are left without anything of substance to inherit. One report said “government furniture, including kitchen utensils and mattresses”, are parked away. The new people in government would then apply for virtually everything they needed to work with - vehicles, furniture, et cetera - afresh, which they

ON THIS DAY January 6, 1989 Communist President of Romania, Nicolae Ceausescu, was overthrown by Ion Iliescu after days of bloody confrontations. The deposed dictator and his wife fled Bucharest with a helicopter as protesters erupted in cheers.

Ceauescu (January 26, 1918 – December 25, 1989) was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and the country’s second and last Communist leader.

Letters tothe theEditor Editor Letters to

too would later re-loot at the end of their tenure; and the vicious cycle continues. It is shocking that the relevant agencies that ought to wade in and crosscheck the allegations against the double earnings of former senators and ministers now in government have remained docile since the matter came to the public domain, despite the fact that the Code of Conduct for public officers frowns at such rip-off. Not amusing, too, is the fact that the economic recession ravaging the land does not reflect in government houses in Abuja and the states, from what the Cardinal has observed.

Yet the best of leaders worldwide cultivate good followership by walking their talk and living by example. For the umpteenth time, we remind the incumbent government that no nation can survive the nature of barefaced leadership recklessness, lip service to slashing the cost of governance, profligacy and, perhaps, quiet looting, even under the strict regime of President Muhammadu Buhari, for too long without bearing the harsh consequences, part of which would include prolonged economic suffocation, backwardness, embarrassing living standards, widespread unemployment and crime, as well as the continued erosion of morals, among others.

x

January 6, 2001

January 6, 2010

Richard Reid attempted to destroy a passenger airliner by igniting explosives hidden in his shoes aboard American Airlines Flight 63. Richard Colvin Reid (born August 12, 1973), also known as the Shoe Bomber, is an Englishman who attempted to detonate explosives packed into the shoes he was wearing, while on American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami. He was born to a father who was a career criminal.

The repeal of the ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell policy’, the 17-year-old policy aimed at homosexuals serving openly in the United States military, was signed to law by President Barack Obama. ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’ (DADT) was the official US policy on service by gays and lesbians in the military instituted by the ex-Bill Clinton administration on February 28, 1994. It took effect on December 21, 1993 following a Department of Defense Directive.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Friday, January 6, 2017

FG denies fresh polio case in Cross River Marcus Fatunmole ABUJA

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ederal Government, Thursday, debunked reports on suspected case of poliomyelitis, otherwise known as polio in Cross River State.

Acting Executive Director National Primary Health Care Development Agency, NPHCDA, Dr Emmanuel Odu, said while briefing journalists in Abuja that the features found on child suspected to have been affected by the disease were not consistent with those of polio.

Had the reports been true, Nigeria would have had five polio cases in less than six months, after two years of waiting for poliofree certification by the World Health Organiza-

tion WHO. The reported case would have been the first polio case in southern part of the country in many years.

Four polio cases had been reported in securitycompromised part of Borno State in the last quarter of 2016, dashing the hope of the nation being certified free of the scourge.

The cases took the country back into polio-endemic nations, and meant billions of dollars would be desperately needed for augmenting vaccination of children across the country.

Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria are now three remaining nations where polio still exists, worldwide.

Odu said in his briefing yesterday: “The twoyear-old male child had

a history of deformity, a twisted right foot, which was observed at birth for which he was attended by a local bone setter at the age of three weeks.

“The boy also had taken at least six doses of polio vaccine since birth and had no recent fevers.

Assessors found the boy had a clubfoot in his right leg, a condition in which one or both feet are twisted into an abnormal position, usually at birth.

“By contrast, a leg paralysed by polio is flaccid—loose, weak, flabby and soft. There is no case of polio paralysis in Cross River and across the country, except for those we encountered in August... We will continue to search the nooks and crannies of the country for new cases.”

Osun magistrates threaten strike over death threat on officer Boladale Bamigbola OSOGBO

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ollowing a death threat against Magistrate Olusola Aluko, the magistrate handling the case involving Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Addulrasheed Akanbi, Magistrates’s Association of Nigeria, Osun State branch, yesterday threatened to embark on industrial action.

This was just as the Chief Registrar of Osun State High Court, Mr Lawrence O. Arojo, petitioned the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fimihan Adeoye, demanding investigation and arrest of people that distributed at the premises of the High Court, Osogbo, threatening the life of Magistrate Olusola Aluko.

It would be recalled that Oba Akanbi had been dragged before a Magistrate Court by Oluwo of Iwo Oke, Oba Kadiri Adeoye for allegedly being an ex-convict.

During the last sitting on the matter, Magistrate Olusola Aluko, who is presiding over the matter had issued bench warrant on Oba Akanbi, ordering the police boss to arrest and bring the monarch before the court.

The State’s branch of Magistrates’ Association of Nigeria, in a letter directed to Osun State Chief Judge, Justice Adepele Ojo and the Chief Registrar, Mr Lawrence O. Arojo, said “we wish

to humbly draw your Lordship’s attention to the series of events that have been evolving recently in relation to our career and safety of our lives.”

The body, in its letter, signed by its chairman, Chief Magistrate F.A Sodamade and secretary, Magistrate F.I Omisade, explained that while the case was before a court in Iwo, the presiding magistrate was almost attacked by miscreants before she was rescued and accompanied her to Ogbaagba by the Police and Prison officers.

The letter read: “at Chief Magistrate’s Court 2, Osogbo, the 1st Respondent, Oluwo of Iwo refused to appear before court on four consecutive occasions despite an order of the court for him to appear. A bench warrant was therefore issued against him the fourth time the matter was heard.

“Instead of the Oluwo of Iwo appearing in court or the police effecting his arrest, the Oluwo of Iwo using various media, proceeded to cast aspersions on the character and integrity of the Magistrate and the judiciary at large. He specifically mentioned on social media and pages of newspapers that the Magistrate is retarded, unfit to be on the bench and disgrace to the judiciary; that he would issue a traditional warrant of arrest against the Magistrate and would never appear before

his court”.

“We humbly state that with prevalent threat to the security of Magistrates as exemplified in the events of Iwo and Osogbo, we consider our lives unsafe and may be unable to continue sitting in our various stations, which may affect us entertaining any new charge from the office of the Commissioner of Police until the Commissioner of Police has complied with your Lordship’s directives”.

In another petition by the Chief Registrar of the High Court, Mr Arojo, called for the investigation and arrest of those that threatened to deal with Magistrate Aluko.

The petition reads: “in the early morning of Wednesday, 4th day of January, 2017, some leaflets/flyers numbering about twenty were brought to our attention by one the security officers, serving at the State High Court Complex.

“The leaflets contained statements to the effect that a sitting Magistrate of the Osogbo Magistrate District, Mr E. O. Aluko should distance himself from performing his duties as it relates to the hearing and determination of a contempt proceeding preferred against a particular ruler now pending in His worship’s court. The maker of the said document, having warned the Magistrate went further to say that “The guy is too young to die”.

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Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

4 arraigned in court for child trafficking in Borno Inusa Ndahi MAIDUGURI

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Pensioners protesting against alleged decision of Imo Government to pay only 40 per cent of the accumulated Pension Arrears owed to them, at the roundabout leading to Government House in Owerri yesterday.

PHOTO: FRANCIS ONYEUKWU/OTU/BJO/NAN

Pensioners protest in Imo Chris Njoku OWERRI

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igeria Union of Pensioners (NUP) Imo State chapter yesterday called on Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha to restore normalcy in pension administration in the state while protesting government decision to pay 40 per cent of their pension arrears.

Chairman of Imo NUP, Chief Gideon Ezeji said while addressing protesting pensioners at Wethdral Road Roundabout, in front of Government House Owerri, yesterday that retirees could not coerced into accepting 40 per cent of their accumulated pension arrears.

The angry pensioners carrying placards with inscriptions: ``Corrupt man cannot fight corruption, Okorocha pay us our 100% arrears of pension, Imo pensioners cannot be forced to accept 40% of their accumulated pension arrears among others.

Ezeji said a lot of problems now plague pension affairs in Imo because the Okorocha-led government used political appointees to handle pension administration. ``The office of Accountant-General of the state should be used in the payment of civil pensioners, while the office of the chairman, local government pension board should oversee the pay-

…tells Okorocha to restore normalcy in pension administration ment of local government pensioners and retired school teachers,” he advised.

He noted that once this measure is adopted, series of confusion which has now resulted in government manipulating with figures of amounts and number of pensioners in its records would be solved.

Ezeji equally admonished the governor to jettison his planned review and fixing of new pension rates for pensioners in Imo state, saying, ``pension matters are done by the Federal Government, doing otherwise will amount to misappropriate of federal powers.’’

The state NUP chairman expressed concerned that in spite demonstration of pensioners in

June and December 2016 as well as January 2017, nothing has changed in terms of treatment to Imo retirees.

Also speaking, the secretary of retired permanent secretaries, Imo State, Chief Fabian Agba, called on President Mohammadu Buhari to intervene in the problem of Imo pensioners. ``Imo State is integral part of Nigeria and the way Okorocha is carrying on especially rough-handling of pensioners and pension affairs which is in the exclusive list of our constitution shows the governor no longer has respect for the constitution of the land’’, he said.

Also, the chairman of IBC FM Owerri retirees, Chidi Madu, regretted that pensioners of IBC

were owed 44 months, and yet the state radio station is used to propagate falsehood to the state citizenry. ``It is painful that IBC is still telling the masses that Imo pensioners have been paid when we in IBC are owed 44 months arrears as at December 2016’’, he said.

In the same vein, the chairman of retired Alvan Ikoku College of Education Owerri workers, Alex Ukaegbu, disclosed the state owed them 77 months pension arrears.

It was learnt that the angry pensioners blocked the four arms of the Wethdral Road Roundabout linking Okigwe road, Bank road, Government House/Police headquarters and Wethdral road thereby causing hours of gridlock in Owerri.

our suspects have been arraigned at a Maiduguri High Court for alleged sales of children and child trafficking.

The suspects who were arrested in Maiduguri metropolis between January and August 2016, were brought before the Maiduguri High Court 13 yesterday for allegedly selling children at N100, 000.

“The main suspect, Nwokocha and three female suspects committed an immoral offense before Justice Fadawu Umaru in this court by exchanging newly born babies at the price of N100, 000 each in

on various dates in Maiduguri,” the court said.

The offense is contrary to 1994 Borno State Law of section 278 and 279 and punishable under the penal code, the court said.

The suspects pleaded not guilty of the offence.

Prosecuting counsel who is also the Borno State Attorney General, Kaka Shehu Lawan said “considering the gravity of the alleged committed offenses, he asked for the adjourning of case to present nine witnesses before the court.”

Justice Umaru granted the request to Lawan and adjourned the case to next week Monday, January 9, 2013 for further hearings.

4 arraigned in court for child trafficking in Borno Inusa Ndahi MAIDUGURI

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our suspects have been arraigned at a Maiduguri High Court for alleged sales of children and child trafficking.

The suspects who were arrested in Maiduguri metropolis between January and August 2016, were brought before the Maiduguri High Court 13 yesterday for allegedly selling children at N100, 000.

“The main suspect, Nwokocha and three female suspects committed an immoral offense before Justice Fadawu Umaru in this court by exchanging newly born babies at the price of N100, 000 each in

on various dates in Maiduguri,” the court said.

The offense is contrary to 1994 Borno State Law of section 278 and 279 and punishable under the penal code, the court said.

The suspects pleaded not guilty of the offence.

Prosecuting counsel who is also the Borno State Attorney General, Kaka Shehu Lawan said “considering the gravity of the alleged committed offenses, he asked for the adjourning of case to present nine witnesses before the court.”

Justice Umaru granted the request to Lawan and adjourned the case to next week Monday, January 9, 2013 for further hearings.

Dankwambo uplifts 2,105 less privileged with palliatives Williams Attah GOMBE

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ombe State Government has provided 2,105 less privileged persons and some cooperative societies with palliative materials to boost their businesses and livelihood.

The State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, who was

represented at the presentation ceremony by the Chief of Staff in the Government House, Alhaji Ahmed Yayari, said the State Government got involved in the project to encourage empowerment of its people.

He cautioned beneficiaries against selling off the materials distributed to them while calling on them to corporate with the Min-

istry of Cooperatives for their betterment in future.

Speaking earlier, the State Commissioner for Cooperatives, Honourable Yusuf Manu Swa said the materials to be distributed include, 115 sewing machines, 50 grinding machines, 20 water pumps, 120 clippers, and N10,000 palliatives each to 1,800 women.

He noted that most cooperative societies in the State

are business oriented, as such, the intervention of the State Government will assist them to continue to be dependent, reliable and sustainable thus, improving the economic activities in the State and sustaining viability of the cooperative societies.

He said, the distribution, which is a continuous one and free, considered mainly primary coopera-

tive societies so that by 2019, all primary cooperative societies in the State would have benefited.

He warned however that, “the ministry has designed a method of supervising the utilization of the items and that the State Government through the ministry will not allow cooperative societies to misuse the advantage given to them.

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Friday, January, 6, 2017

Ex-minister accuses Imo CP of aiding Okorocha to violate court order Chris Njoku OWERRI

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x Minister of Interior Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho has berated the Commissioner of police, Imo State command, Taiwo Lakanu for allegedly detailing officers and men under his command in violating valid court order against government officials.

The accusation came in heel of alleged continuous invasion and demolition of the property belonging to Capt. Iheanacho by agents of the state government despite court order and warrant of arrest on some government officials by Owerri Federal High Court.

In a petition by Iheanacho through his lawyers, Amadi-Obi & Co, dated January 4, 2017, entitled “Re: Police Disregard For A Valid Court Order In The Matter Of Capt. Emmanuel Iheanacho” and addressed to the commissioner of police, Imo state command, the shipping and oil magnet advised the police chief to carry out his duty diligently as the commissioner of police and also as a lawyer called to the Nigerian bar.

The former minister emphatically said “stop detailing officers under your command to aid the governor of Imo state in his violation of a valid court order; arrest all those, without discrimination as to position or station in the society, who are helping the governor of Imo State in violating the order of court; intervene to help restore order, sanity and respect for the integrity of our courts”.

Lamenting over the inability of the commissioner of police to act according to law towards protecting his property located

at No.6 Orlu road in Owerri capital city which has been serially demolished by agents of the state government, Capt. Iheanacho narrated how the police bullied, manhandled and detained his relatives when they summoned courage to show the governor a copy of the court order he was violating.

“That you did not stop at aiding the governor in violating the express order of a court of competent jurisdiction, but also lent support when two (2) of our client’s relations who were present at the site at the time were beaten up by your officers. These innocent young men were beaten up, arrested and detained by your men when they respectfully and courageously showed the governor a copy of the court order which he was violating.

“That these relations of our client were detained by you and your men for a period of four (4) days before they were released without any charge whatsoever following our letter to you dated 7/7/16.

He added that since then, the police boss “has continually and continuously detailed officers under your command to help the governor of Imo State and his agents to keep on demolishing our client’s house appurtenant structures each time our client tries to repair the damage to his house even where there was and still is a subsisting court order restraining the government”, Capt. Iheanacho lamented.

Capt. Iheanacho, who contested the governorship with Governor Okorocha in 2015, further reminded CP Lakanu the implications as well as the looming consequences of aiding disobedience to court orders.

He said: “Bear in mind, sir, that if we help the flagrant disobedience of valid court orders,

we are sowing the seed of anarchy for ourselves and our children. Nobody will be spared the consequences of these actions.

The people in power today may be enjoying immunity and may be breaking the law at will, but tomorrow, another group of

people will come and you would have set a precedence that will destroy everybody, including you and all of us”.

L-R: Executive Director, National Primary Health Care Development Agency, Dr Emmanuel Odu; Director, Logistics and Health Commodities, Dr Mustapha Muhammed; and Director, Advocacy and Communications, Dr Adamu Nuhu, during a news conference in Abuja on the suspected Polio case in Udupani Local Government Area of Cross River, yesterday. PHOTO: Johnson Udeani/BJO/NAN

L-R: Ogun State Deputy Governor, Chief (Mrs.) Yetunde Onanuga; Governor Ibikunle Amosun and outgoing Head of Service, Elder Olusola Adeyemi during a special reception in honour of Adeyemi in Abeokuta on Wednesday.

Tawun leadership crisis: Army officer threatens to sue newspaper over publication Boladale Bamigbola OSOGBO

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nonprofit organisation, Fact Finders Initiative, FFI, yesterday dismissed allegations that a military officer, Muritala Ibrahim attacked one Imam Muritalah Akanbi Tadese during a meeting to resolve leadership crisis ravaging Tawun Islamic Movement held in Iwo recently as reported in a national daily.

The group added it has consulted it lawyers to take appropriate legal action on the publication which it said was capable of derailing the fledging career of the army officer.

It would be recalled that a peace meeting held in Iwo to re-

solve the leadership crisis rocking the group had ended abruptly following alleged attack on one of the parties in the matter.

But addressing newsmen in Osogbo, Director General of FFI, Barrister Abdulsalam Abdulfatah Liberty, explained that the group had conducted independent investigations into the allegations reported in a national daily (not National Mirror) that the said officer attacked Tadese during the meeting and discovered such to be “unfounded and malicious”.

Speaking further, Barrister Abdulsalam said: “we were contacted by Muritala Ibrahim a serving officer of Nigerian Army who informed us that he is presently a victim of heinous

defamation from some disgruntle elements who conspired with a newspaper and television correspondents.

“In order to secure the career of Muritala as an officer of Nigeria Army and also to come back to the society to affirm or deny the story, we thus conduct our deep investigation in to the matter.

“Our sincere and comprehensive exploration revealed that the news which was published by a national daily titled “Soldier Assault Prison Imam in Osun as Sect Crisis Gets Messier” was unfortunately propaganda and a deliberate and organized plot to destroy the career of Muritalah Ibrahim.

“It is therefore our respon-

sibility as fact finders to represent the story to the public and particularly to the Authority of Nigerian Army, a representation that is verifiable by any organization.

The group said though Muritala was at the meeting when the misunderstanding broke out, he neither attacked nor even participated in the melee, adding that the army officer was at the meeting to link up with one of his spiritual leaders who was also attending the meeting.

Abdulsalam added that: “Prior to the scene, the said Muritalah Akanbi Tadese was known for posting provoking propaganda against the leadership of the Islamic Movement on Face Book, during the reconciliatory

meeting, he was covering the meeting with his phone contrary to the terms of the meeting held on the 1st of January, 2017 when some participants warned him to stop such act which he continued and ignored those who warned him to stop.

“One of the participants approached him and collected his phone. Muritalah Akanbi Tadese being a person suspected to be suffering from Epistaxis disease “Amurun” began to bleed from nose and that was explore by the rebel group who are always hunting for opportunity to destroy the image of the movement. This fact is verifiable through the Divisional Police Station of Iwo who investigated the case”.

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Crime Watch

Police arrest cultist for attacking trader with cutlass Stories by Patience Ogbo

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olicemen attached to the X Squad Unit, Zone 2 Police command, Onikan, Lagos have arrested one Uche Maduche, 23, over allegations of cultism and grievous assault .

The suspect who claims to be a trader at the Ladipo spare market

in Lagos State was arrested after he allegedly inflicted injuries on a fellow trader.

Narrating how he joined the cult gang, Maduche said: “I am a member of Viking cult. One of my friends called Emeka introduced me to the Vikings. He said I will not lack anything if I join them. I joined them last year. Emeka was involved in a road accident last

year and he died . I was arrested during a fight. A trader machete one of our cult members and I went to retaliate but the police appeared and arrested me.

The police said they recovered thirteen phones , two cutlasses, one darger, two knives, assorted charms, expended bullets , hard drugs and razler from the suspect’ s hideout.

Uche

Sacked driver uses toy gun to kidnap boss

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Fatai Owoseni, Lagos CP

olicemen attached to the Lagos State police command have arrested one Kelvin Ogia for allegedly kidnapping his former boss.

Lagos State Commissioner of police, Mr. Fatia Owoseni while parading the suspect at the state command stated that, the suspect made away with a Toyota Camry car belonging to the victim after they kidnapped him and forced him to withdraw one million naira from his bank account.

Kelvin stated that he used a toy gun to kidnap his ex-boss adding that he was deceived by his friend to commit the crime.

He said: “I can say that it is greed that made me to do this.

I was sacked by my ex-boss, one Mr. Asemo Adeola. He is a caterer. He sacked me after I beat up a colleague. I was jobless and decided to attend gym. I was in the gym when one man called Andrew Warri came to me that he wants to be my friend. We started talking and I told him

Mrs Udoh also denied allegation she operates a baby factory.

She said: “ I am a nurse and the pastor of Divine Deliverance Church . I don’t know anything about baby factory. I help people give birth and pray for them. I am shocked over this allegation’”

Mrs Ajala the midwife also denied the allegation.

She said “ I only assisted the pastor to deliver the babies. We don’t sell babies. I have been a midwife for twelve years. The name of my hospital is called El -Shadia at Sango’”

I don’t know who impregnated me, says 17 years old lady arrested for “selling” baby

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female pastor one Mrs Peace Udoh is telling policemen in Lagos how she allegedly attempted to sell a one month old baby girl.

According to the police, Mrs Udoh uses her church as a cover to run a baby factory.

The police stated that they raided Mrs Udoh’s church at the Sango area and arrested her, a midwife identified as Mrs. Ajala Bukola and the mother of the baby girl identified as Goodnews Akpan 17.

The police also arrested Akpan’s elder sister identified as Angelina Akpan .

Narrating how she gave birth to the baby, Akpan said: “I was living with my parents in Akwa Ibom State when I got pregnant. I don’t know who got me pregnant.

I left my village to stay with my sister in Lagos when I was four

months pregnant. My sister took me to Mrs Udoh’s church to give birth to the baby. She paid N17,000 for the delivery of the baby. However after one month, we were at home when the police came and arrested us . I don’t have any plans to sell my baby. ‘”

how I was sacked. He advised me to kidnap my ex-boss as a revenge. I initially declined but he deceived me that nothing bad will happen to me. I decided to go along with his plans and gave him my ex-boss number. We lured him to Unilag that we had a catering job for him. When he showed up about 4am, we showed him a toy gun. I bought that gun at Ikotun for N400. We took him to my house and beat him up. Andrew followed him to Zenith bank and forced him to withdraw N1million. We released him but made away with his Toyota Camry car”.

Kelvin added that he took the car to Edo State and registered the car with a new number . “ The car’s registration number is MUS - 663EG but we took it to Edo and registered it with a new number GUE- 271LV . I will say it is greed that made me to do this”.

Andrew is said to be on the run.

Policemen get Human Rights training

H

uman rights education and awareness have recieved a boost in the country following the training of policemen attached to the Zone 2 police command Onikan Lagos on Human Rights.

Assistant Inspector General of police in charge of the Zone 2 police command , Mr Kayode Aderanti while presenting certificates to the graduands urged

them to uphold the rights of members of the public and to attend to cases professionally.

Mr. Gloria Ebuji, the Executive Director of Crime Victims Foundation CRIVIFON while urging the police to practice what they have learn also used the event to condemned the killing of policemen during the Rivers State By -election.

Bar. Ene Unobe, the Programme Officer of CRIVIFON

stated that the graduands are members of Course 6 police human rights training for officers and men.

She said, “the graduands are members of Course 6 and they were trained on Chapter 4 of the 1999 constitution and the International human rights instruments. These also include the Universal declaration on human rights, African charter on people and human rights ,

international convention on civil and political rights, the convention on the rights of the child. The tenancy law , child rights act and child right law of Lagos state in addition to the domestic violence law of Lagos state .

The training is aimed at reducing conflicts in our society as knowledge of human rights will go a long way in checking violence and abuse of rights”

Do you have a story for us? Contact 08062202130 or crimewatchmirror@yahoo.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Reps and its many troubles in 2016 14

Ooni rallies support for Aregbesola’s developmental efforts Boladale Bamigbola OSOGBO

O

oni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has called on the people of Osun state regardless of their political affiliation to support programmes and policies of Governor Rauf Aregbesola designed to develop the state.

The traditional ruler disclosed this at his palace in Ile-Ife, when the campaign team of Osun Internal Revenue Services, OIRS, paid him a visit as part of sensitisation efforts on the new

economic development levy being introduced by the government.

Oba ogunwusi disclosed that survival of the state is directly dependent on payment of taxes and levies by the people, urging them to imbibe the culture of tax payment.

Explaining the new levy to the people of Ile - Ife , the Chairman, Osun Internal Revenue Services, Mr. Dayo Oyebanji, said the levy remained the only viable option to fast track infrastructural and economic development of the

state.

He said the levy became necessary due to the dwindling allocation from the federal government as occasioned by the downfall in the price of crude oil.

According to Oyebanji, whatever generated in each

town would be recorded and the money would be used to develop the town.

He said motorcyclists, tricyclists and commercial mini buses owners would be paying N50 daily, while tipper, trailer, other heavy duty trucks would pay

N200 daily.

Oyebanji further explained that traders would pay N50 on market day and artisans would be paying N100 weekly.

He then urged the monarch and the people of IleIfe to cooperate with gov-

ernment in order to take the state to the top level.

Speaking, the consultant on Economic Development, Mr. Solanke Hamzat, noted that the levy should not be muddled up with Local Government levy on market days.

Gbenga Daniel, a quintessential personality —Balogun

T

he founder of First City Monument Bank, FCMB, Otunba Michael Olasubomi Balogun who is also the Olori Omooba and Asiwaju Onigbagbo of Ijebuland has described former governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel as a quintessential personality, his beloved ‘son’ and an integral part of the Balogun family.

Otunba Balogun stated this at the Annual Visitation Thanksgiving Service organised by Christians Association of Nigeria (CAN), Ijebu Area held at the Otunba Tunwase Court Tuesday.

Speaking glowingly of Daniel as a good-nature personality, Otunba Balogun said the relationship between him and Daniel was like that of ‘father and son’.

“He is such a quintessential personality who I have known ever before he became the governor and the relationship is still waxing stronger till date.

He is my beloved ‘son’. I am always happy seeing him by my side at any occasion and I pray that God will continue to be with him in all his ways”.

Otunba Balogun, who glorified Almighty God for His mercies and abundant grace over the years prayed for a quick end to the current economic situation in the country as he urged the people to move closer to God expressing optimism that the nation will get over the recession period soonest.

Also speaking at the occasion, Otunba Gbenga Daniel noted that Otunba Subomi Balogun is a great mentor and father-figure who inspired many with his selflessness, humility,

simplicity and sincerity.

“We shall continue to thank God for his life and all the good things God has used him to do for the community and the country in general. We wish him more grace, good health and continued divine protection”.

From left; Former Governor of Ogun State, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, founder of First City Monument Bank, FCMB, Otunba Michael Subomi Balogun and his wife, Abimbola during the Annual Visitation Thanksgiving Service organised by CAN Ijebu Area held at Otunba Tunwase Court , Ijebu-Ode , Ogun State on Tuesday .

Ekiti needs reengineering to stem hunger, lull —Guber aspirant abiodun nejo ADO EKITI

A

ll Progressives Congress, APC governorship aspirant in Ekiti State, Mr. Kola Alabi, has lamented the degree of hunger in the state, saying it will take strong will to eliminate it.

Alabi said the state was in dire need of reengineering to address the hunger, lull and other inadequacies facing the state.

The governorship hopeful, who spoke at his Ikere Ekiti home during a social event that he organised for APC council and ward leaders in Ikere Ekiti Local Government area, said he would later this month officially declare his intention to contest in the 2018 governorship election after he might have concluded his consultations with party leaders and members throughout the state.

At the event where the party leaders were given gift items, Alabi said: “This is part of my yearly celebration and appreciation of my people for being there and holding the party for us. It is just purely partying with my people.

Let them feel some relief.

Let them take something back home. Let them know thata the party still cares about them even when we

are not in government in the state.

Although he promised to unveil his development and change agenda and as well his strategy for achievement of his goals and vision for the state

soon, Alabi lamented the pervasive hunger in the state and the need for concerted effort to tame it.

While reflecting on the state of the state and feedback from his empowerment gesture, he said:

“There is hunger and a lot of hungry people out there.

In any little way that I can do to relieve my people, I will do it. This is not my first time.

“I shall unveil what I’m bringing to the state when

I start my campaigns. I am running for the position of governorship in 2018 under APC. I will officially declare later this month and that is when the issues of why and how will be addressed” .

Maharaji flays NASS over plan to amend CCB Act Kemi Olaitan

IBADAN

F

ounder of the One Love Family sect, Satguru Maharaji ji, has called on the Senate to put a stop to its plan to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) act so as to protect the name of the upper chamber of the National Assembly.

He made the call while speaking with journalists in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

He said for the red chamber to tamper with the CCB act when one of its members is facing trial under the law will be nothing but an attempt to see members as above the law, stating that this will send a wrong signal about the nation’s sincerity in waging war against corruption.

Maharaji ji warned that should the Senate failed to obey the voice of reason, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) must as a necessity embark on a tour of the

country to stop the amendments in all the Houses of Assemblies, insisting that now is the time to show that things have changed in the country.

He said, “If they the NASS dares to amend same without due respect to the integrity of those fingered, the NLC should start nationwide tour to block the proposed amendments at the 36 State Assemblies, in

order to prove to the world that Nigeria is not a pariah state and now free from tribal, religious and ethnic bigotries which hitherto has been the vehicle for corrupt practices.”

On the constituency allowances given to National Assembly members, he called on President Muhammadu Buhari to empower the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission ,

EFCC to probe the constituency projects executed by the NASS members since 2007.

According to him, with each members of the National Assembly allegedly given N500million as constituency allowance, it is important for Nigerians to know how the money was spent in terms of the projects executed and when completed.

Senator seeks divine intervention in choice of leaders Abiodun Nejo ADO EKITI

C

hairman, Senate Committee on Air Force, Senator Duro Faseyi, has said the bitter lesson of the outgone year, in which the country entered into recession, is the need for Nigerians to always pray before making decisions including the choice of leadership.

Faseyi said that 2016 remained a very challenging and demanding year in view of the hardship imposed on the citizenry by the recession and other harsh policies of the All Progressives Congress, APC - led Federal Government.

The PDP Senator representing Ekiti North Senatorial District, who spoke in a New Year Message to his constituents, Ekiti

State people and Nigerians, charged Nigerians on the need to always pray for their leaders and make peace and unity their watchwords at all times.

Faseyi stated in the message made available to journalists in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital that: ”Peace and unity of purpose remain veritable tools in our national life to develop and grow, especially in the new year.

14

Politics

Reps and its many troubles in 2016

THE HOUSE OF REPS with

Ubong UKPONG

F

or the House of Representatives, it is obvious that the year 2016 will remain a memorable one following the many storms that it had to weather to have a peaceful recess and successfully crossed over to 2017.

Although the House was bedevilled with troubles since its inception in June 2015, by the time it marked one year in June 2016, it was a bit stabilised, until the crises of budget frauds alleged by erstwhile Appropriation Committee Chairman, Abdulmumin Jibrin, who is currently serving his suspension term, attempted to pull down the House.

Following the signing into law of the 2016 appropriation bill by President Muhammadu Buhari in May, the bubbles that surrounded the entire exercise was burst by Jibrin in July.

Jubrin felt cheated and insulted out of office by Speaker Yakubu Dogara and his “cabal” and therefore resolved not to keep quiet and let go unnoticed, so he started releasing his bombshells on budget padding and corrupt activities in the Green Chamber.

The suspended legislator accused the Speaker and others of corruption, financial impropriety and sundry sins, demanding their removal from office.

Barely 24 hours after his sack, Jibrin dusted confidential records, went public with what he had hitherto treated as official secrets, all with the mind of avenging his sack.

According to him in one of his releases titled : “Summary of the allegations”, he made serious and sensitive allegations that, “Speaker Dogara, Hon. Yusuff Lasun, Doguwa and Leo Ogor stole and distributed to themselves and few others N40 billion out of the N100billion allocated to the entire House.

“Speaker Dogara and the 3 others inserted about 20 billion naira of wasteful projects in the budget like the fraudulent 9 roads sandwiched into 4.

“Speaker Dogara tried to force me to admit over 30 billion naira of wasteful projects into the budget which I rejected and that caused serious crisis.

“Speaker Dogara tried to force me to use the name of NASS and insert another N20 billion worth of projects under the service wide votes which I rejected.

“Speaker Dogara and about 10 committee Chairs despite my protest inserted about 2000 projects worth 284 billion naira in the budget.

“Speaker Dogara diverted water project in the 2016 budget to his farm and PHCN reticulation free of charge.

“Speaker Dogara and the 3 others diverted to themselves the entire 20% inputs reserved for the entire House after the harmonization”, Jibrin had alleged.

Jibrin exposed corrupt activities in the House where he said “Speaker Dogara has not distributed the internal budget of the House to any member. “ He operates the budget in secrecy and no member has a copy”, he said.

He further said that , “Speaker Dogara has supervised the mismanagement of finances of the House through wasteful award of contracts on items already in members offices.

“Speaker Dogara introduced to members a fraudulent mortgage system in the House and proposed illegal deduction from members running costs.

“Speaker Dogara supervised the scandalous car purchase contract in the 7th Assembly where huge sums of money in bribe was alleged.

“Speaker Dogara was involved as Chairman House services in all cases of money laundering associated with the House since 2007.”

He accused other members including Herman Hembe who he said lived above his means and massive movement of billions of Naira in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT budget.

Umar Mohammed Bago was also accused of fraudulent activities and questionable source of funding in investigative hearing of NIMASA, where about 1000 companies were invited.

Mohammed Zakari, Chike Okafor, Dan Asuquo, Jagaba Adams and Haliru Jika,were all accused of movement of billions of Naira in 2016 budget.

Jibrin said Baballe Ila supervised with Speaker Dogara wasteful award of contracts and was the main actor

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Friday, January 6, 2017

Gbajabiamila in allegations of kick-backs, while Nkem Abonta embezzled, misused and misappropriated running cost.

He also went ahead to disclose the controversial allowances of lawmakers where he listed Principal officers of the House and the amounts they enjoyed since their coming to the House of Representatives, indicating that Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila collected N1.2billion since his inception in the House in 2003, while himself collected N650million since 2011.

The rundown of the list by Jibrin showed, “Speaker Yakubu Dogara has been in the House 2007-date 1.5 billion naira, Deputy Speaker, Yusuf Sulaiman Lasun has been in the House 2011-date ,800 million.

“House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila has been in the House 2003-date, 1.2 billion naira, Deputy Leader, Umar Buba Jibril has been in the House 2003-date, 1.2 billion naira .

“Whip, Alhassan Ado Doguwa has been in the House 2007-date, 1.2 billion naira, Deputy Whip Pally Iriase has been in the House 2011-date, 700 million naira.

“Minority Leader, Leo Ogor has been in the House 2003-date 1.2billion naira, Deputy minority Leader, Chukwuka Onyema 2007-11 and 2015-date, 800million naira.

“Minority Whip, Yakubu Umar Barde has been in the House 2003-date, 1.2 billion naira (700 million was an error), Deputy Minority Whip, Binta Bello has been in the House 2011-date, 700 million naira.

“Abdulmumin Jibrin has been in the House 2011-date, 650 million naira”, he stated.

Jibrin, who started speaking on the controversial allowance, had disclosed that there were systems in place for the money to be retired but they were never retired.

Having enjoyed the funds which he said was product of fraudulent system, Jibrin is now claiming that, “I have never been comfortable with the money!”, and that he can account for how he spent it.

He has challenged that, “If any Principal Officer disputes my figure, he or she should not make a drama out of it but just simply tell the country how much he or she has collected, period!”, but rather than prove themselves on this matter, the leadership did everything possible to weather the storm and remain comfortably on their seats.

These allegations, even though were swept under the carpet, they delved a serious blow on the reputation of the lower chamber and its members and leadership, who are still living with the guilt and pains.

It is now believed that there is serious corruption going on in the House of Representatives, which even the lawmakers themselves know and are worried about ,with President Buhari also making moves to punish corruption in that arm.

One of the President’s strategies was starving the National Assembly of funds due to the alleged massive corruption complaints and also refusing to release funds for their constituencies projects, where the alleged financial frauds were embeded.

Jubrin

Lasun This was noticed sharply as most lawmakers were practically broke and were dodging visitors in their offices whom they felt would request financial help from them.

Most of them were obviously disenchanted in 2016 and were not attending plenaries or committee sittings, which were ran in epileptic manners, but were mostly interested in going on oversights.

The President’s actions also received a reprisal attack from the lawmakers, who worked in concert to frustrate his administration and ignoring him to run the country alone, if he could.

It was so that bills and reports were not considered, the President’s requests, like that of requests for foreign loan were frustrated and this rift was greatly responsible for the country’s massive economic recession, as never ever experienced before.

Of course, the President ran back to them seeking to work together and accepting to release a huge percentage of funds for their constituencies’ projects, which yielded some positive results in their relationship.

This action saw the lower House suspending their planned recess for one week to receive the President’s 2017 budget and staying very late in the chamber to consider vital reports and bills before taking the recess for the Christmas and new year season. The House is scheduled to resume next week.

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Friday, January 6, 2017

15

Now, the revolution Nigerians have been waiting for Sunny Igboanugo

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ne of the abiding arguments why people believe that politics and public service in Nigeria have failed is that many politicians and those in public office are not professionals. Even those with thriving businesses and professions, abandon them, on getting to high political offices.

It is for this reason that they do everything in their powers to remain in office.

For the professional politicians, they commit the most heinous crimes even to the extent of killing people, apart from the normal bribery, electoral heists and general corruption of the system to win the next elections.

In fact, the country is replete with those who have been in power or its corridors for as long as anyone could remember still clutching their files searching to secure either political offices or board appointments even with all the evidence of age-induced infirmities written all over them. There are examples of those who actually went to the extent of selling valuable properties to raise money to induce and outright bribe those they believe could get them appointments.

Why? In Nigeria, people equate public office with arrival. It is never, to them, an opportunity to serve, but one that grants instant and boundless opportunities either to have full access to public coffers

or position of influence towards getting in the dinner table to share the public cake without limits.

That is the reason for the sadness, bitterness and general sense of loss for them and those around them out of office, as opposed to the merrymaking and stupendous joy at the point of appointment. It is against this backdrop that the recent undertaking of Prof. Chinedu Nebo, must inspire and speak to a different paradigm, one that encourages life after public office. Nebo, was at the office of the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr. Ogbonnaya Onu, recently.

The former Minister of Power, was there to present, what could be the solution Nigerians have been waiting for to be liberated from decades of living in darkness figuratively and literally, due to lack of, or at best, epileptic power supply situation.

Some fundamentals instantly come to the fore here. First, having been a university teacher and two-time Vice Chancellor of two federal universities, before becoming Minister, he could be said to possess the credentials to look for the next job.

At least, there are many in the corridors of power today who would likely listen to him, study those credentials and make his case at the highest echelon of power.

Indeed, being part of the last government, which lost power, he ought also to have been equipped with the right sentiment – the bitterness of losing power to become a virulent clog in the wheel of

Most importantly she is an intellectually

resourceful care-giver progress, were he the ordinary Nigerian.

But not Nebo. He did neither. Nor did he take the numerous international jobs waiting for him for the picking, as he peers would have done. Instead, he retired to the quietude of his original enclave – the research room, to apply his knowledge, which he had gathered and horned over the years in the classroom as scholar, teacher and high office holder.

The result is that today, Nigerian may soon shout Eureka! For that singular disposition, a regime of 24-hour uninterrupted supply is beckoning.

The result, according to him, is the Power Seed Web(PSW) system, a system he described as not only science and technology at its best, but one that is 15 to 20 years ahead of the world.

How it works: The PSW in a layman’s perspective, according to Nebe, is designed to use the same quantity of fuel, needed to generate a small capacity generator to generate 10 times or more what ordinarily was possible. For instance, using less than the amount of fuel needed to produce a 25kilowatts to generate 250kilowatts of power and with the possibility and potential of producing 1megawatts.

He added: “The implications are mind-

boggling. Number one, homes, businesses, industries, villages, agricultural clusters, manufacturing clusters, industrial clusters, schools, hospitals, campuses, you name it, can now get electricity at much less expenses.

Then, gone would be stories of bursting and vandalising of gas pipelines that feed electricity turbines, vandalising transmission lines and stealing cables or vandalising transformers as have been the lot of the old system.

Besides, by the time the target consumers are cut off from the national grid, more power would be freed and the surplus used to service consumers still connected to the system.

The result – Nigerians will simply return to work. With that comes smoking chimneys resulting from rolling machines in the factories, restive youths off the streets, creative minds revving up, a thriving economy and ultimately, waking the Nigerian giant. How else is public service defined?

Onu described it as a futuristic vision, the type that turned Japan into an industrial giant, when they went for the option of developing smaller cars that consumed less fuel as opposed to the American cars known for huge consumption of gasoline.

Whatever comes from Nebo’s efforts, remains to be seen. But what is evident so far, is that public office is not the only way to contribute to public service or public good. That’s the message.

Igboanugo, a journalist, lives in Abuja

Dcp Lizzie Ogugua Ekpendu: An excemplary care-giver adds another Year

Tai Olusoccer

I

n a brand new year, a virtuous woman and exemplary mother add another year on the amphitheater of life. Writing a tribute on her would naturally present some difficulty for the writer, just like the difficulty encountered by the six blind men of Hindustan, trying to describe an elephant. Each bling man, according to the famous fable, was asked to determine what an elephant looked like by feeling different parts of the giant animal.

According to a version of the story: the blind man who feels the leg says the elephant is like a pillar; the one who feels the tail says the elephant is like a rope; the one who feels the trunk says the elephant is like a tree branch; the one who feels the ear says the elephant is like a hand fan; the one who feels the belly says the elephant is like a wall; and the one who feels the tusk says the elephant is like a solid pipe.

And the King explains to them “All of you are right. The reason everyone of you is telling it differently is because each of you touched different parts of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all the features you mentioned”.

Arguably, DCP Lizzie Ogugua Ekpendu has grown to be an elephant typecasting her jointly with the passion and care she radiates in her chosen profession; a prison officer with human face. Many walk the paths of life merely as spectators. Their walk is often tentative, dragging on meaninglessly. But few take those ordinary steps and turn the scale of things in the existential psycho-drama for the common good. DCP Ekpendu Lizzie; the officer-incharge of Lagos female Kirikiri prison chose quite early in life to be an active care-giver instead of being a docile observer of the swift currents of life.

The type that turned Japan into an industrial giant Imagine the streak of light from a heart that shines forth and banishes darkness in an inmates’ consciousness behind steel bars. Imagine light so rare and brilliant remaining ever potent in the hearts of recipients even for those on death-row. Imagine a woman that is gloriously humane, diligent and good-natured, with the touch of a virtuoso, who turns the gale of tears of inmates and widows into springs of joy and hope for better dawns.

DCP Lizzie Ekpendu’s story is the stuff only heard of in movie scripts. Talk about enduring imageries of an analytical mind that sees the problems of Prison inmates and widows and strives to solve them at all cost. Talk about bowels of compassion for the downtrodden. Talk about a humanitarian with a difference, whose painstaking and prayerful stead is simply to put smiles on the faces of the less-privileged through a creative spirit that is boundless, selfless and restless.

These are the glimpses that curry the mythical significance of Deputy Controller of Prison, Ekpendu Ogugua Lizzie, one of Nigeria’s finest humanitarians and high-profile consciences of our time.

These are the reasons the scripts of her purpose-driven life are as fresh as morning dew. Same reason the memories of her many humanitarian gestures will always enliven human hearts with their meaning as worthy of emulation. And because I am privileged as a witness of her brilliant career, family values and principled life, I cannot help but beam my searchlight on her peculiar persona and the underpinning philosophy that makes her such a rare breed.

DCP Ekpendu Lizzie’s prime motivation

that translates to a winning streak as a firebrand humanitarian and as a leader in her own patch of the earth, specifically in the Prisons spheres, is impelled by the thread that kneads our common humanity as children of the Most High God, by whose standards and dictates we are indivisible, and by whose grace and love we live.

This mindset borne of a sterner Christian orientation where love pervades without boundaries on daily basis, served to focus her energies in learning and mastering the art of care-giving which is synonymous with the exemplary life of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior.

The refining furnace through which her emergent personality was modeled was indeed the ‘Jesus lifestyle’, the whole practice of being like Jesus in all things; So Ekpendu’s ability to continually extend love to others comes seeded in a holistic package, which is a reflection of the qualities of God as the giver of divine love.

Her selfless instincts and outcomes are natural consequences of this reality since God is the source of her inspiration.

Proclaiming God’s immanent love to humanity wherever practicable, answering the ‘divine call’ in the Prisons Service through humanitarian gestures and steering the reins of her great dream - which is to see the day the Prison will become ‘a home to the misguided’ are the cornerstones of DCP Ekpendu Lizzie’s manifest destiny.

“It is better to light a candle than curse the darkness” is a worn-out cliche, but one befitting of DCP Ekpendu’s reformist tendencies in the Prisons Service.

She is exemplarily selfless, has great family values with strong support from her husband and parents. Loved by her prison residents and highly respected by the low and mighty in Nigeria, Ekpendu Lizzie cares for over 400 widows in Benue State and beyond. A workaholic extraordinaire, a practical Christian who

has received several awards and recommendations for her philanthropy and still counting with the latest being an induction as a certificate of membership as Fellow of the Nigeria Institute of Corporate Administrators, Fellow of the Institute of Criminal Justice and Criminology Administration and a special meritorious award to her with Fellowship of the Institute of Professional Managers and Administrators. Not ended, the National Association of Polytechnic Students (NAPS) also awarded her outstanding leadership award whilst the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) All Africa Students Union (AASU) warms up for yet another landmark honour for her. The torrent is incredible!

She is a mother of three great boys but who works on time as a good planner and considers people first before herself. A trait that has endeared her to many is that she dines with Prison inmates to show love, and even celebrates their birthdays with lavish cakes bought with her money.

Most importantly, she is an intellectually resourceful care-giver with several university degrees in her kitty, tagged rightly by Kakaaki Magazine as the “Amazon of the Year 2016”.

(An all-important edition of the magazine devoted to her is underway.) This is to wish her more glorious years of happiness in good health and more touching strides in the service of God for the benefit of humanity. Happy birthday.

Chief Tai Olusoccer is the Publisher of Kakaaki Magazine and writes from Abuja.

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.

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Politics

Friday, January 6, 2017 Friday, January 17, 2014

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Politicians’ our greatest challenge —INEC Anti-corruptionconduct, war shouldn’t beCommunity discriminatory —Sanyaolu Mirror

Rev. Adesina Sanyaolu is the Senior Pastor of Chapel of Holiness Evangelical International Aboru, Lagos. In this interview with journalists shortly after a marathon 72 hours prayers, he urged President Muhammadu Buhari to take urgent steps to ameliorate the sufferings and pains Nigerians are currently experiencing.

He also warned that the present economic situation in the country is capable of triggering a social revolution among other issues of national importance. Excerpts;

W

hat is your assessment of the present situation in the country, will you say that government has delivered on its electoral promises?

For me nothing has changed. You would recall that before this present APC-led federal government came on board, there were lots of expectations from Nigerians. During the campaign, President Muhammadu Buhari, the then APC candidate was regarded as a hero by many people.

Some Nigerians believe that as soon as Buhari assumed office the various socio-economic problems confronting Nigerians would come to an end.But today, what story do Nigerians have to tell?

What we have today are tales of disappointment: Buhari has not lived up to expectations.

Today many Nigerians are wallowing in hunger and poverty. Many have become disillusioned, losing hope and have become despondent.

I’m not a politician, but a man of God, so I’m talking reality; I’m talking with a liberal mind like those Biblical prophets in the olden times who always spoke out against bad leadership. I’m talking of great men of God like Prophets Elijah, Jeremiah, Isaiah and Jonah. These great men of God never kept quiet – they spoke out against bad leadership during their time and they were defenders of the people. I draw my inspiration from them, and for that reason, whenever the need arise to talk about government and governance, I will not hesitate to do so.

But what some Nigerians are saying is that Buhari inherited the present socio-economic crisis from the previous administration, and that we should give him time to put everything back in order.

That’s a lame excuse. What did Buhari’s party promised Nigerians, ‘change’, and the impression APC gave the entire nation was that it has the magic wand to fix those social ills. So why the excuses upon excuses being given by APC almost on a daily basis. Nigerians voted for APC to deliver dividends of de-

Rev. Chris Okotie, speaking on the state of the nation

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Any, come hope for Nigerians in 2017?

When the come to come God revealed to me that in spite of everybody will sit up inefforts this Ministry. several that will be made by the

federal government, economic recession

will not go. It will continue in the new HON MINISTER FOR PETROLEUM RESOURCES,ALIISON MADUEKE

year, and naira will continue to depreciate against dollar.

The situation will be critical to the extent that some Nigerians will openly called for the sack or removal of the CBN Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele. CBN governor should be prayerful, otherwise he will be removed from office this year.

However, Nigerians should not panic, food will be in abundance in the new year and the prices will be cheaper. Federal government should take precautionary measures because flood will ravage some areas and in the process wash away some farmlands which may lead to food scarcity in certain areas.

Sanyaolu mocracy and not to be giving excuses.

What will be your advice to President Buhari now?

I believe that where there is a will, there will always be a way. The reality of the situation on the ground in Nigeria today is that people are hungry, Nigerians are getting more impoverished, President Buhari should not let some selfish advisers deceived him that all is well.

If those people that can give Buhari support to turn things around for the better are not in APC, the President as an elder-statesman should reach out to other Nigerians that can work with him to get positive results. Everything should not be about party affairs only, national interests should be considered as paramount first.

Nigerians are peace loving, and their needs are not beyond what government can provide. What Nigerians want is good governance that will ensure that there are abundant employment opportunities, abundant food, functioning infrastructural facilities.

But today everything is in a state of decay. Many are out of jobs as a result of epileptic power supply. We don’t have drugs in our hospitals, and the state of roads are nothing to write home about.

Desperate and frustrated Nigerians have now resorted to self-help to survive, and this is why you have an upsurge in crime. This is why you have kidnappers and armed robbers all over the place unleashing violence on hapless Nigerians.

Buhari should do the needful now, otherwise we are sitting on keg of gunpowder which can explode any time.

But some people are saying that kudos should be given to Buhari’s administration, especially on the war against corruption and insecurity, especially on Boko Haram What is so special about that? I have not seen anything spectacular that Buhari has done. Do you know that some

I see the APC disintegrating.

Some governors and other bigwigs elected on the party’s platform will exit the party and team up with others to form a new party. people have also observed that the war against corruption under Buhari is selective, or what do you say about a situation whereby it is mostly members of a particular political party that are being arraigned and charged to court. Are they telling us that APC members are saints?

The war against corruption should go round. It should not be selective and discriminatory.

On the issue of security especially the crushing of Boko Haram that is now being touted as one of the achievements of Buhari’s administration, Nigerians should not rejoice yet, while observing a 72 hours marathon prayers on the prayer mountain, God revealed to me that Boko Haram is not yet dead. It was divinely revealed to me that Boko Haram will take another deadly pattern which will lead to increase bloodshed and loss of lives especially in the first quarter of 2017.

There are reports of some people and interest groups coming together to form another mega party to challenge APC, what is your reaction to that?

Formation or emergence of another political association is inevitable. I see the APC disintegrating. Some governors and other bigwigs elected on the party’s platform will exit the party and team up with others to form a new party.

Federal government will not take kindly to it, and attempts will be made to arrest some people and frame them up on charges bordering on treason, but this will backfire. Government should be careful. It should be tolerant of opposing views. We are in a democracy, it should not be tempted to take some actions which will look anti-democratic.

What is your advice to members of the Nigerian political class?

My advice is very simple, they should remember that whatever position they are holding, they should not forget the electorate. They should remember that without the electorate, they can’t be where they are. They should always consider national interests first. They should not forget to deliver on their electoral promises. It is very unfortunate that it is in this clime that people see political office as an avenue to loot and not to serve.

It is a big shame that while an elected public office holder in Nigeria continue to live in opulence, people that elects him into office continue to wallow in abject poverty.

Some people have suggested that all elected public office holders should volunteer a cut in their salaries and allowances as a form of sacrifice in this period of economic recession when many workers are being owed salaries, what’s your view on that?

If our elected leaders are real and genuine patriots, do they need anybody to advise them to do such before they on their own should volunteer to do so.

Today how many Nigerians can afford three square meals a day, but yet our elected lawmakers and other public office holders are collecting jumbo pay.

Tell me, whose interests are these people serving, electorates’ interests or their own interests? Obviously they are serving their own personal interests and this is unpatriotic.

I believe we should even reduce salaries and allowances of public office holders. Taking this step will enable us to know those who truly want to serve the people.

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Mail Mirror

Friday, January 6, 2017

A future without oil I On the new JAMB Registrar

am so happy that we have started looking at ways through which we can diversify our economy from an oil-dependent one to other economic areas. For several decades, the United States depended on oil from some

gulf states and Nigeria for its economic survival, and in some instances, this was used as political weapon against it.

Not satisfied with this, scientists began working on how to get oil from shale

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rock fragments. The success of this project actually brought about a reduction in America’s thirst for foreign oil. It also brought about the fall in price of the global crude oil. The Americans, who realised that they could

W

ith about nine years as head of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, Prof. Dibu Ojerinde has done exceptionally well. The transformation which he took the Board through is huge. He modernised the operations of the Board at such a dizzying pace that I used to fondly call him the “magician” in JAMB. I note that he worked with exceptional directors and I should single out Dr. Yusuf Lawal, who oversees Test Administration.

With the appointment of Prof.

Is-haq Oloyede as the new Registrar, JAMB is in for a revolutionary time in terms of delivering more effectively on its mandate. Oloyede parades excellent credentials to lead a whole sector like education in Nigeria hence asking him to head a parastatal in education is like asking a 5-star, battle-tested general to quell a fight between two “area boys” in Ajegunle! Oloyede ran University of Ilorin as a model for the Nigerian university system and served dutifully as Chairman of the Association of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities and at the continental level, as President of the Association of African Universities. He is a no-nonsense, clear-headed scholar who is globally consulted on higher education matters including issues dealing with admitting quality students which fit in with the JAMB mandate. I am convinced that he will smoothen the rough edges of the unfortunate furore around the 2016 admission process.

On the matter of the relevance of JAMB, I am unshaken in my belief that at this time in the nation’s higher education development, the body is still a relevant player.

The important thing is for JAMB not to overstep its bounds by infringing on those areas where the universities should exercise their autonomy. Post-UTME test, as originally conceived in 2004, not in its present adulterated form, is still a must if we are to get better quality students for our higher education system. Rather than shut the door on Post-UTME test, we should scape off whatever the universities are not doing right and not throw the baby out with the bath water.

Prof Peter A. Okebukola, Abuja

Letters to the Editor

FREEBIES: School children jostling for seat in a free bus provided by politician at the close of the school at Station, Iju –Ishaga, Lagos.

PHOTO{ADEMOLA AKINLABI

Ogun free health access card

I

t looked like the ATM card at a distance. I drew closer to some of the pregnant women and officials of the Ogun State Ministry of Health in order to assess it. Indeed, it was like the ATM or National Identity Card. The biometrics of the beneficiaries were captured in the cards. The poor pregnant women at the event caressed them and offered gratitude to the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, for a new lease of life.

From Monday, July, 11, 2016, when the Araya Scale-up (Community Based Health Insurance Scheme) was launched at the June 12 Cultural Centre, Abeokuta, the card qualifies them to visit any of the designated health care providers in their respective local government areas and access free health care without paying a dime. The free health treatment covers all manner of local endemic diseases that contend with the health of pregnant women, mothers and their children. Ante natal and post natal services are assured. They will equally not have to worry about payment for diagnostic tests as this is also covered by the scheme.

This is the first of such scheme in the history of Ogun

State. With the Ogun Araya Access Card, according to the Commissioner for Health, Dr Tunde Ipaye, the pregnant women who belong to the lower 25 percent of the population, living on less than two dollars a day, and their children under the age of five, have access to free health services without any form of payment.

This is not a scheme in the pipeline. Many pregnant women in Abeokuta North and Abeokuta South Local Government Areas are already enjoying the free health facilities, including free drugs.

This social insurance scheme, once again, highlights the welfarist policy of the Ibikunle Amosun administration in Ogun State. As the governor often says, we are here because of these people. From July till the end of the year 2016, over 20, 000 pregnant women and their under-5 children will go to any four designated health care providers (private and public) in their respective LGAs with their Araya Access Cards and get free health services anytime, any day, 24/7! And to underscore his commitment to the free health scheme, the governor has already released in advance funds for to cover it till the end of 2016.

The leadership of the National Health Insurance Scheme and Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, were so impressed by this innovation and practical commitment demonstrated by the Ogun State government that they pledged to collaborate with the current administration.

And if they make good their promise, as we expect them to do, the 20,000 number should double by the end of 2016.

It should be mentioned that this community-based Health Insurance Scheme (for pregnant women and under-5 children) is a subset of the Ogun State Health Insurance Scheme, which will be for the entire residents of the state.

Ordinarily, in any insurance scheme, participants ought to pay a premium. But for the peasant pregnant women and their U-5 children, the Amosun administration has offset the premium. Once the Ogun State Health Insurance Scheme operates full steam, the entire vulnerable community in the state is guaranteed of free health care services.

This is another feather to the cap of Governor Amosun. As it is said, a healthy nation is a wealthy nation.

Soyombo Opeyemi, Abeokuta

no longer continue to depend on foreign oil, had to look for an alternative. In Nigeria, we have also realised that we need to reduce our dependence on oil in order to secure our economic future.

The socio-economic turbulence that we experienced when oil crashed to as low as $28 per barrel, should serve as a lesson to us. It is a good thing that President Muhammadu Buhari has highlighted the path to follow. This government is focusing on agriculture and extractive sectors, but do we have the political will to achieve this?

One of the easiest ways through which the Federal Government can accomplish this is to mandate state governments to either have state farms, or state extractive firms. This should be done in such a way that while these firms belong to the state, professionals will be in charge of its running. A good example is the Oodua Group in the South West. This firm, owned by the six South West states, is a model for other regions and states. With this, we can have successful governmentbacked, but publicly-owned firms.

There is also the need to support small businesses in these two sectors, and particularly the agricultural sector.

As an agricultural expert, I know that we can match whatever we are generating from oil through agriculture.

Today, our population is said to be 180 million people, and we spend billions of dollars in food imports annually. We can imagine how much an integrated farming enterprise will make from producing food for the people.

The truth is that oil is not sustainable; the Americans and Canadians have discovered shale oil, while many countries are also discovering the resource. Before now, it was only Algeria, Nigeria and Angola that were oilproducing nations in Africa, but today, Ghana, Ugandan, Gabon, among many others, have also discovered oil.

President Buhari should, therefore, ensure that his economic vision for the country materialises before the end of his tenure, so that oil can only be bringing a tiny percentage of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Dr Femi Odurinde, Ipaja, Lagos.

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Friday, January 6, 2017

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Your

FRIDAY

Flavour

Friday , January 6, 2017

Chinedu Ikedieze

Olu Jacobs

RMD it comes to bargains for movie projects. He is also strict about his terms of payment. For the fact that his films usually attract huge sales, Nkem fondly called Osuofia goes between N1.5m to N2m depending on the project. He is reputed to have earned as much as N10m in some projects. He would also demand all his fees upfront, but in some special cases he could get 75% upfront payment if it is a producer he has worked with before.

One of the producers mentioned how Nkem Owoh bargains. “To get him, you pay into his account and arrange to meet him with the bank teller and the movie script. The fact that he often does his dialogue has helped him to bargain. He only gets a situation in the movie scripts and offers his dialogues”.

On account of his demand, he once got 37 scripts in 3 months, and one of the producers described it as ‘his most stressful moment in the industry’.

One would be wondering what Ghanaians have to do with Nollywood, but Majid Michel and Van Vicker are no pushovers.

The reason is simple: “Ghanaian market contributes so much to the sales of Nigerian home videos, owing to their stable electricity supply. Nigerian producers often target their market, which is enhanced by featuring any of the popular stars”.

These two actors, go for between N800,000 and N1m and are often paid in US dollars.

John Okafor fondly called Mr. Ibu has also found a lot of favour amongst produc-

An actor like Olu Jacob is also in high demand for his friendly working relationship. According to the producers, he has no airs and makes movie production seem easy because of his high sense of discipline

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Arty News

Nkem Owoh

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ithout doubt, everyone is curious to know who earns the most in Nigeria’s motion picture industry.

It is a question that is as old as the industry.

But who else would know better than the producers who sign contracts with them? While recognising that divulging such information violates professional ethics, they made very startling revelations including the fact that fees are subject to the actors’ bargaining power and of course, his desirability in the particular film project.

The names which came up for this analysis are those of Desmond Elliot, Saidi Balogun, Nkem Owoh, Olu Jacobs, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Charles Inokie, John Okafor, Francis Odega, Ramsey Nouah, Majid Michel, Van Vicker, Jim Iyke, Kenneth Okonkwo, Chinedu Ikedieze, Osita Iheme, Chidi Mokeme, and Emeka Ike, who in actual sense of the word bestride the industry.

The interesting revelation is that all these actors command at least N700,000 for a film project that would be completed in less than two weeks, but some stand taller than others and demand extra pecks in order to give their best to a film project.

Richard MofeDamijo, a former commissioner in Delta State according to the producers command fees in excess of N1million, although ‘he hardly worked during his days as a commissioner, but he is gradually coming back now’. Unarguably one of the most-respected actors in the industry, RMD is also one of the actors that demand extra care from movie producers. “If he is on your set, the money you will pay as his fees will not be the only expense you should expect.

You have to keep him in a very good hotel and also make arrangements for a special car that would take him to the location”, one of the producers averred.

Comedian NkemOwoh, according to the producers, has a very formal approach when

ers albeit movie fans, especially in Southern and Eastern African countries, a factor that has made him an item for producers targeting those markets. Getting him, according to the producers depend on the geographical location of the film project. For movies shot in Lagos, Okafor, who started out as a production manager (before being discovered as an actor) could settle for over N1million.

But since his bitter experience in the hands of kidnappers in the south east, he agrees to work in the southeast with extra fees and police protection all borne by the producer.

An actor like Olu Jacob is also in high demand for his friendly working relationship. According to the producers, he has no airs and makes movie production seem easy because of his high sense of discipline. “On many occasions he contributes his ideas to the projects and strives to make every project a success for the producers. That is why he is an actor of choice”.

Stars like Chidi Mokeme, Alli Nuhu, Jim Iyke, Emeka Ike and Desmond Elliot also have a place of pride, but Desmond Elliot is gradually dropping the toga of acting for directing. In this assessment, the duo of Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme are the ones whose fees are in opposite direction with their sizes. “Theirs is a classic example of size being inversely proportional to fees.

Getting them on your set or show takes millions and they are always getting such roles. They are very recognisable and loved all over the world”.

Inside FCT

Who earns what in Nollywood

P. 23

Friday Flavour, took the names of star actors to 5 movie producers for a frank but anonymous assessment of what actors earn in Nollywood.

16 PAGES OF ARTS, REVIEWS, LIFESTYLE AND BUZZ TO START YOUR WEEKEND

Critics

VOL. 4 No. 827

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WEEKEND STARTERS

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alented music act and Kings Music’s signee, Cruz has finally released the much anticipated single, Pray For Me. Unveiling the single after his South African tour with popular gospel singer, Chinyere Udoma, the musician, Cruz expressed his satisfaction with the quality and creativity applied during production by his producer.

The single, Pray For Me which sounds too gospel in pronunciation fails not to accommodate all genres, as it could be rated as being a soft hustler’s Pray For Me Cover anthem.

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agos, Nigeria’s entertainment capital, is up for another ecstatic season’s celebration as iOpenEye Limited, producers of ‘Hearword’ in partnership with, Etisalat Nigeria, has concluded plans to present another block-buster stage play entitled ‘Love & Recession’. The play, Love & Recession, set to hit the stage on a four-day tour starting from December 29, 2016 through to January 1, 2017, is a hilarious comedy with intriguing themes. It highlights the current harsh economic realities and depicts how many are managing to pull through the challenging times, being resourceful in their own way. Love & Recession also plays up the need to celebrate the Nigerian heritage vis-à-vis the Nigerian traditional culture and language, the appreciation of which can be harnessed to promote the unity, togetherness, collaboration and partnership needed to build a better Nigeria. Speaking on the new drama series, renowned Producer and Director, Ifeoma Fafunwa, said ‘Love & Recession’ is a celebration of the creativity and ingenuity of the Nigerian in addressing challenges without the involvement of external help. Commenting on the involvement of Etisalat Nigeria in the project, Head, Events and Sponsorship, Modupe Thani, said it is in keeping with the company’s commitment to celebrating creativity as well as supporting platforms that enable people express themselves.

A scene in the stage play

Cruz and ‘Pray For Me’

Art Man

‘Love & Recession’ stage play holds in Lagos

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Art Man

Friday, January 6, 2017

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Nollywood, constantly evolving —Chike Bryan The story of Nollywood cannot be written without the scriptwriters who produce the basics of most films, and that is where Chyke Bryan comes in. He shares his experiences in this interview with TOSIN ADAMS. Excerpts:

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ake me through your career so far?

My parents are from Enugu State, and I grew up in Enugu. My primary and secondary school were in Enugu.

I studied Theatre Arts between 1988 and 1992 at University of Calaber were I graduated with 2nd class. Studying theatre arts I would say is my first initiation into arts.

What has mostly defined your life?

I have been married for over 16 years.

I believe that the Almighty has a wife for everyman; my wife is indeed a wife. It is very important that every man marries his own wife. When you marry your own wife, your adult life will be easier and comfortable. The Bible preaches that “whosoever finds a wife obtains favour from God”. This favour is mainly for people who find the right wife. I am actually married to the most wonderful and most beautiful woman on earth. You have to meet my wife to begin to appreciate what I just said and God has been gracious enough to bless us with the most adorableand wonderful children any couple prays for.

You are sounding very spiritual?

Yeah, I find a lot of relaxation with and in God. As I study and meditate on His word, I discovered that my frayed nerves are usually calmed. And then something else happens; inspiration comes. Inspiration for story ideas, businesses ideas, and inspiration for everything come at such times. It’s so wonderful how these things happen. But I have to discover that the creative ideas I have are generated in His presence or when I am in His presence. Sometimes it even comes while I am in church service. I also get great story ideas by listening to people’s discussions and stories. They may not know that I am eavesdropping but I always take the best good and best of their conversations. I

Bryan and wife

have gotten great film stories through such ways; I get ideas from their story and put it into my work. Travelling to various villages is also a source of inspiration for me; I like to do this when I need epic stories or village stories. As I walk around the serene environment, look at d rustic environment, listen to the village folks, go about their daily chores, I am inspired to get story ideas and good story characters.

It is also an avenue for me to get good Mozart music/good jazz music. Whenever I need to juggle my brain I look for a quiet place, secluded place where I can listen to ideas.

How were you able to manage controversies surrounding your health?

My being alive today is a miracle. Without warning around August 2013, I fell ill.

Upon examination in the hospital I was diagnosed with kidney failure. My kidneys were said to be functioning at 5%, it was more like a hopeless situation. First my family stepped in, my immediate constituency in the film industry stepped in, and the responses from my colleagues were overwhelming. Their show of concern was so touching, my Guild members and the entire Guild heads, reacted promptly and several of them visited me in the hospital. I was so touched and I never knew that I have up to that number that loved me.

I was surprised to see those people who really want me alive. The show of care from the entire Nollywood was unprecedented.

They came physically; donate money and finally Ibinabo Fibresima, reached out to the former President, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. He was magnanimous enough and he stepped into the matter and finally God stepped in.

Generally what are the challenges you face as a script writer in Nigeria?

The challenges I faced at the start of this profession is the same challenges most new or upcoming writers face generally. Back in 1995 when I joined Nollywood, the industry was just fledging. So breaking in was a huge problem. How do I convince people that I can write? How do you earn their confidence? What I did was to start writing on my own, create my own stories and write them and start marketing them by hawking them around. But it was quite a difficult track to follow.

I was somehow fortunate in having a fellow university classmate, Adim Williams who is also trying to gain a foothold in the industry. So we shared ideas on ‘ how to break in’. Finally we co-wrote a script “Closed Chapter” and tried to produce it. Eventually that paid off in 1996.

‘Closed Chapter’ is your first script?

That was my first script written in 1996.

Bryan I co-wrote the script with Adim Williams.

And both of us equally produced the film together that same 1996.

As a script writer, what messages do your scripts convey?

It is not really about me, as a writer. I convey the message of the story I am telling in the best possible way. Talking about conveying the message, I would say it is really a tool, a tool that must be available to be used for the story. Now the exposure of the talent flair in harnessing the resources at his disposal determines how the story comes out or turns out. Other factors also affect its outcome. I mean the outcome of the story. In essence, the story being told determines the message that will be conveyed.

How can you compare Nigerian script writers with their counterparts abroad?

The Nigerian script writers are not well respected; I say this with all sense of responsibility. The practitioners do not give the writer his or her due respect. And I think it arises from the average Nigerian’s disdain for everything “intellectual”.

I once heard from a producer in his bid to pay me peanuts that the only thing a script is costing me to produce is ‘ten naira biro and 50 naira exercise book’…. such an outrageous thinking. One of the reasons why you cannot find my name on today’s movies is “very funny fee”. When you tell them how much you want to collect, they

But I have to discover that the creative

ideas I have are

generated in His

presence or when I am in His presence

will go and call their unemployed cousin who just left the University and ask him, “who can write?”. It’s a very rowdy environment not helped by lack of organised and systemised practice.

What is your impression of the industry today?

For me, the film industry is ever evolving. It is still burgeoning. A whole lot seem to have taken place, but the truth of d matter is that a whole lot more is yet to take place. There is so much ignorance around; a whole lot of practitioners are uninformed about certain basic requirements. They have to understand their roles in the society as moral gate keepers and entertainment precursors. A lot still view it with only a mercantile mind and approach, the pecuniary aspect is their first and primary drive and this is quite unfortunate because of the role of movies in the society. Films ought to shape ideas and shape the society, It ought to drive a society towards a particular direction, But in a situation where a greater percentage of those on the driving seats are uninformed or misinformed about their expected roles, what do you get? The vehicle keeps wobbling and groping until a suitably qualified driver comes on board.

What is your advice to aspiring writers?

Work on being and not on having; they should concentrate on being the best in the field and not on earning the most. Initial efforts and energy should be concentrated on acquiring the necessary tools to produce sound scripts. Good education, good command of English, excellent communication skills, highly-developed imaginative ability to concentrate and focus mentally, excellent relationship with the Almighty God, some little level of business sense, mingling and networking at tight places and above all, become a member of the Screen Writers Guild of Nigeria ( S.W.G.N) .

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Arty News

Friday, January 6, 2017

Carnival Calabar: Why Nigerian Navy withdrew OBAJI AKPET

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he Nigerian Navy are currently at loggerhead with the Carnival Calabar and have withdrawn their participation from the annual street party citing security as the reason for their withdrawal, our reporter has learnt from impeccable sources in the commission.

But Navy’s reasons for withdrawal from this year’s carnival may have far more other undertones kept from public eyes.

In addition to their withdrawal, it was gathered that the Nigerian Navy dispatched some of its men and abducted Mr. Francis Ekpo, the spokesman for Carnival Commission, who was said to be kept under detention for a day before the commission ran around to settle for his release. It was a mean situation, our medium learnt.

1st carnival calabar Our reporter gathered further that the reason the Carnival Commission’s spokesman was detained was in a bid for the Navy to recover back the funds they expended on the carnival, but our reporter could not, as at press time ascertain the exact sum.

But Ekpo is said to since have been released the minute cash spent on the car-

nival by the Nigerian Navy was refunded. The force were thorough in their demand, as not, even a coin was left back.

All efforts to reach the Commander Ayi, Public Relations Officer of Cross River Command to get his take proved abortive as his phone line was switched off.

On his part, the Special Assistant to Cross River Governor on State Events and Online Media, Mr. Mathias Amgbah, who appeared not to be privy to the incident, wondered why the Nigerian Navy that is supposed to be in charge of security will withdraw from the carnival citing security as a reason.

‘StarTimes is promoting cultural integration’ OLUWASANMI FEMI

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ith about 2000 Nigerians gainfully employed in an initiative to dub some foreign productions into some of Nigeria’s indigenous languages, the management of pay TV provider, StarTimes, has allayed the fears of Nigerian producers that it may erode the nation’s cultural heritage, pointing out that it would rather foster cultural integration.

Some indigenous film-makers, see the plan to dub Chinese films and air it in the country as a threat to the indigenous arm of the Nigerian film industry, its culture and economy in general.

A statement signed by the company’s Head, Public Relations, Isreal Bolaji, explained it thus: “The world has become a

global village tion a few, which are which contindubbed in English ues to shrink and other popular exponentially languages of the due to sustained world. Cultural inteadvancement in gration is a continutechnology. The ous phenomenon implication of that dates back to this is that culwhen man was first tural communicreated. Bollywood At StarTimes event cations too have movies and some to align with the Chinese contents are current trend. In reality, cultural intermin- subtitled. But some of the fans of these congling is even growing faster than the rate of tents who are however slow readers rightly global integration. feel short-changed. Hence the urgent need to “This is clearly evident in Yoruba movies dub voices in their preferred language. This being subtitled in English, Indian movies has no intention to suppress any culture with English, French, Arabic or Swahili sub- here. titles, Mexican, Philippines,’ Koreans, Chi“In fact, rather than cultural erosion, nese, Japanese, Indian series, just to men- what we have is an harmonious cultural

At Miss Umu Anioma pageant ISIGUZO DESTINY

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ormer Miss Oshimili North, Miss Sandra Nkemakonam Obi has been crowned as 2016 Miss Umu Anioma Beauty Queen after a keen contest with other nine contestants at Orchids Hotels in Asaba, Delta State.

Miss Obi emerged top after all the contestants were drilled during the Miss Umu Anioma Beauty Pageant which is a part of the events of the 2016 Umu Anioma World Convention.

The first runner up was Miss Ndokwa West, Dumebi Vanessa Ufeli while second runner up was Miss Ndoni, Joyce Ifeanyi Iweka.

The ten young queens were drilled in four major areas in order to be selected as the Beauty Pageant Winner, including:

At Miss Anioma pageant

traditional outfit, platform competition (catwalk), photogenic, evening gown and interview session.

Speaking shortly after the contest, convener of the Umu Anioma Beauty Pageant, Prince Emmanuel Ohai said that first prize winner attracts N100, 000: 00; second prize, N50, 000:00 and third prize, N25, 000:00.

integration and better entertainment for viewers. Just why anybody or culture will raise dust or feel threatened beats us as the proposed plans to air foreign films in indigenous languages is definitely creating more jobs for many Nigerian translators and voice over artistes, extending audience reach and appeal, enriching entertainment variety for viewers and translating to higher revenues for Nigeria. To be more specific, the project currently has over 2000 Nigerians gainfully employed and working in over 10 studios, with all productions done right here in Nigeria and by Nigerians.”

The Future Awards Africa 2016

ident- elect of The Republic of Ghana, Dr. Nana Akufo-Addo.

The biggest prize ensational singer Yemi of the night went to Alade, Adenrele SonarNigeria’s youngest iwo and 19 others who Somkele Iyamah Idhalama, Future Awards Winner commissioner, Mark have distinguished themselves Okoye, who heads the in their various fields have been honEconomic Planning and Budget Developoured by Africa’s most prestigious youth ment Team in Anambra State. awards, The Future Awards Africa 2016 .

Okoye brings tenure as a senior member The Future Awards Africa in its 11th had of the investment banking division at Afrthe key players shaping the future in the 105 invest (West Africa) Limited where he was nominees identified across 21 categories. instrumental in executing numerous capital The event which held at the Federal Palraising and financial advisory transactions ace Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, was attended by Nigeria’s political, cultural, media to his new position, leaving an illustrious investment banking career, to join the Anamand entertainment elite.

The keynote speech was given by the Pres- bra State Economic Think-Tank.

LEONARD OKACHIE

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29 21

Meet Sheviytane of Dats Music IFECHI OKOH

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radually, his romance with music has finallybecome a reality for talented Shehu Yakubu massively addressed as Sheviytane, de rap moral.

It all started in 2006 when he lost his father and had to relocate to Lagos.

Here according to him, “the musician in me began to show gradually in a funny manner. It does mostly when sweeping, washing my uncle’s car or doing something else.”

As an intelligent young man, he started to document some of his compositions at a point in time, to ensure that he didn’t forget the lyrics.

For years, the lyrics fermented well.

So, it was easy for Sheviytane to touch them up for acceptability.

Interestingly, the right time came when the MD/C.E.O of ‘Dats Music’, Gibson Darry watched his performance and was satisfied with his brand of music, rendition and performance which lead to signing him on last weekend in a short, but titillating ceremony.

The highly elated veteran broadcaster turned businessman, Darry maintained during the occasion that the arrival of this young man on the beats scene, is bound to change the game.

Yakubu

MMEE signs five acts Oseyiza Oogbodo

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usic Made Easy Empire has signed on five new acts, Edefe Louis, a.k.a El Kaline, an R&B and reggae dancehall artiste who hails from Delta State; Michael Gowon, a.k.a.

Kaywiz, also a reggae act from same state; Terrific, an Afropop act who hails from Ogun State; Raymond Frances Alfred, a.k.a Rayplus, an hiphop artist from Ghana; and Sugar Bee. The new acts have released an MMEE All Star EP album that features various other artistes.

Founder of the label, Agbashomore Victor Ovie, a real estate investor and transporter, declared that his passion for music informed his decision to invest in a record label, hoping that with time, his acts would have been groomed into versatile and prolific artistes.

MMEE acts with their boss

22

Arty News

Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Gospel musicians, not after money –Glory Kings Glory Kings is the latest gospel artist who is set to take over the gospel music sector with her debut single, Power In The Name Of JESUS. OSEYIZA OOGBODO spoke with her and she disclosed her plans and what music means to her.

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ould you describe yourself?

My name is Glory Kings (Glory Oturu). I’m a UK-based Nigerian gospel artist, songwriter, ardent worshipper and I love the Lord. I was born in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria. I am married with a son.

Why are you into music and not some other profession?

I am actually a professional nurse and work for the NHS in the UK. I had a calling from God to do music but I’ve been running away from doing it until God started to deal with me about it to the extent I had so many encounters in my dreams. I also had lots of men and women of God confirming the call of God upon my life. I love music but never really thought I would end up being a gospel artist until I had a special encounter with God. This led me into coming out to sing to the glory of His name.

What do you want to achieve in music?

I want God to use my music to touch, affect and transform lives across the globe, and to inspire and facilitate an

atmosphere of worship, healing, deliverance and salvation through my music.

Above all, my desire is for the name of JESUS to be lifted, magnified and glorified through worship and praise.

How did music begin for you?

I started singing from a very young age in the Northern part of Nigeria with Celebration Chapel Church choir. I’ve been a member of various choirs, served as a music director and was part of a gospel band that organised and ministered at major concerts.

Is doing music easy or difficult for you?

Well, I find music very easy as it’s part of my life and what I enjoy doing. I don’t find it difficult at all.

Some say gospel musicians are all about making money over winning souls. Do you agree?

I don’t think so and don’t agree with that saying as there are many gospel artists out there who are genuinely using their gifts/talents to reach out and inspire many across the globe. God has used their music to heal, encourage and

Kings

Kings

God called me to do this and I know the

impact will be felt sooner across the globe.

I have God’s backing and He will take me even greater so long as I remain in His will and purpose and follow His leading and guidance. I am only a vehicle and JESUS is the engine driving and moving the vehicle

around.

I believe very strongly in my spirit

that the sky is just the beginning for me and my ministry bring deliverance to many.

Do you have a role model?

Yes. One of my role models is actually Sinach. I’ve been inspired by her music, humility, love and dedication in serving the Lord via her music. Before I finally made up my mind to come out as a gospel artist, I had a dream where she held my two hands and prayed fervently for me. I have also been inspired by Mary Mary. As a young Christian, I was listening to their music and that of Fred Hammond. Songs by the aforementioned artists influenced, encouraged and inspired me a lot in my Christian faith.

What’s the high point of your music career so far?

It’s basically the release of my debut single, Power In The Name Of JESUS. It’s an anointed song and people have come to connect with the song. I have received amazing feedbacks and testimonies since its release on Friday the 18th of November 2016.

And the low point?

The low point was getting started musically. I didn’t know what to do and at the same time I had fear of the unknown. But

God has helped me to conquer all.

Do you really think you have what it takes to be as great and successful as the big names out there?

Absolutely! As I said earlier, I didn’t plan this, it’s all orchestrated by God Almighty Himself. God called me to do this and I know the impact will be felt sooner across the globe. I have God’s backing and He will take me even greater so long as I remain in His will and purpose and follow His leading and guidance. I am only a vehicle and JESUS is the engine driving and moving the vehicle around.

I believe very strongly in my spirit that the sky is just the beginning for me and my ministry.

What’s the sacrifice you are making to be a gospel artist?

I do a lot of praying, fasting and studying the word of God. I also try to always improve myself and my vocals. I spend hours in the studio to bring out the best that I can with the help of God. What are your plans?

My plans are to make more anointed music, organise music concerts and eventually go on tour in the future.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Critics

Friday, January 6, 2017

23

Tackling Nigeria’s online piracy in 2017 New media platforms offer greater advantages for the creative industry; but there are challenges for content creators. What is the way forward this new year?

NGOZI EMEDOLIBE

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rojections say world Internet users may have exceeded two billion, going by a recent survey made available by a leading Internet data bank,www.internetworldstat.com. This is expected to engender a digital revolution the world may not have witnessed nor anticipated. While the technology companies are getting set for this eventuality with gizmos that avail data in real time and on the move, it becomes pertinent that the real owners of the data evolve ways of protecting the works they have put on the Internet. Bulk of these content providers, who range from book authors, to musicians to film producers, visual artists and photographers, according to stakeholders will face a very stiff challenge in this regards, as the new frontier begins this exponential outburst.

A book publisher, Ben Osagie, of Heritage Books toldArts Lounge that the new dawn will offer a lot of advantages for book authors and publishers, because the platform for distribution would have limitless borders, but that the industry should also brace up for intellectual rights violations that would come with it.

“While the platform for distribution will be limitless the new challenge would definitely be how to protect the rights of the content owners. I foresee e-books leaving this paper format behind and assuming the digital format, which would be downloaded as e-books or emagazines. Perhaps as we move on, the platform for collection of royalties due to the author would improve, but what would happen in the event that someone pays to download the material and uses it for things other than what the materials were initially authorized for?”

The music industry is not left alone in this impending fear. As CDs are fast giving way to downloadable music, the industry would also be confronted with the challenge of fashioning a

Cybercafe fool-proof way of protecting their works in the face of this emerging music market driven by the Internet. This concern has left stakeholders in the music industry with no option but to fashion ways of staying afloat as this new storm begins.

Obviously, Nigerian artistes need Intellectual Property experts now more than before.

According an Intellectual Property lawyer, Edwin Umeajah, every artiste who wants to go into any dealings should first consult intellectual property lawyers who would explain the limits of his rights within the framework of the agreement he is entering into with any portal. This is necessary, considering the loose nature of the internet.

“It is neither here nor there for now. Enabling laws to enforce that are yet to be firmly rooted in the country, owing to some issues. When it takes a trans-continental posture, it becomes more difficult to enforce even. In Nigeria, the case between Ayo Bankole a musician and the Ecobank is one of the most popular in this regard.

The musician’s composition was used for the phone answering service of the bank, and he threatened to go to court, making the bank to go into agreement with him on the limits of their usage about his works. Every artiste in this age needs to cultivate the culture of getting lawyers to draft their agreement when they want to enter into any dealings. For book authors, the same thing applies, because the digital age makes their works more accessible to readers many readers in farflung vicinities”.

But the various collecting societies, still advise content owners in the digital age that the

best option is to enlist with a collecting society, which would do all negotiations on their behalf.

In Nigeria, the Copyright Society of Nigeria, COSON, which has been championing the cause of the rights of most musical artistries told Arts Lounge that while the issue of copyrights infringement cannot be completely eliminated, artistes or content providers can do themselves a lot more good by finding a way of enlisting with only the authorised collecting society existing in the country.

“Yes, it is true that we are living in a world that is becoming borderless, as a result of technology, which leaves so much burden in the area of protecting one’s rights, I have to note here that achieving a fool-proof way of protecting the rights of artiste is not absolute, but the artiste can do himself so much good by registering with a collecting society. Once the authorized society has the man-

date of the artiste, bulk of the violations would be minimized especially at the corporate or commercial levels”, says Tony Okoroji, the chief executive officer of COSON. The African Regional Intellectual Property Organisation, ARIPO, working to protect the rights of African artistes also believes that enlistment in copyright protection society remains a veritable tool in the quest to protect one’s rights now.

While it has been established that it may be difficult erasing infringements on rights in the digital age, what options are there left for artistes whose contents have been violated?

Mike Umeajah, Intellectual Property lawyer says the best option remain seeking redress in court. “Like I said before when it is established, the artiste should seek redress in court, because it is only a court of law that has the power to enforce it. Copyright infringement

Achieving a fool-proof way of protecting the rights of artiste is

not absolute, but the artiste can do himself so much good by registering with a collecting society

cases in Nigeria usually do not go beyond the appeal court, which goes to show the kind of seriousness they attach to it.

Once it is decided at that level, the victim gets full compensation”.

However, Jochen Schaefer, a German lawyer of the World Federation of the Sporting Goods and Industry, WFSGI, offers a new vista in the latest edition of the World Intellectual Property Organization WIPO, bulletin.

According to him, ‘Trademark law, like other areas of intellectual property (IP) law, is governed by principles of territoriality. In the online environment, however, where it is relatively easy to maintain an anonymous identity, using “offshore” Internet service providers (ISPs) or servers, for example, infringers can dodge legal action initiated by courts or administrative bodies in the countries in which they have a virtual presence and in which they generate profits. The difficulties associated with successfully pursuing online IP infringers using a conventional legal approach are further compounded by a lack of uniformity in the legal landscape. While there is a degree of harmonisation of the laws and regulations governing IP rights and their enforcement, these are not unified. Varying laws and practices in different jurisdictions make it difficult to navigate the legal landscape, fuelling legal uncertainty about outcomes. Against this backdrop, some commentators have cast the law as a lame duck limping behind dynamic new commercial and technological developments in the real world. Claiming damages from infringers in the borderless digital environment can prove extremely difficult.

While the courts and competent administrative authorities play a key role in stopping illegal use of brands online, the importance for right holders to secure the underlying facts and accompanying evidence cannot be overstated. If a company is to win its day in court, it is critical that emphasis be placed on gathering this information prior to and during litigation and particularly for interim relief proceedings.”

With enabling laws in this regard may be lacking in Nigeria, this ought to constitute a new focal point for stakeholders in the art industry, if the ‘art must pay’.

24

Inside FCT

Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Abuja residents and ‘Bend-down-boutique’ syndrome Here, one can afford to

CHIDI UGWU

buy as many because the

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few years ago, second-hand clothings were often associated with the extremely poor. Nowadays, however, it’s a different story as these types of clothing are greatly patronised by both the rich and the poor alike. Inside FCT visited the popular Nyanya market, notorious for the abundance of second-hand clothing and reports that many poor and working-class residents of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) buy clothes from street vendors whose stock consists largely of used garments imported in bulk from the US and other developed countries.

While some analysts say it comes from the UK, from where many non-governmental organisations operate, spending more than £60bn a year on new clothes after which much of what is discarded ends up in high street charity shops, others argue the clothes were once worn by dead people.

However, in Nigeria, these secondhand clothes which have popular names such as ‘Okrika’ ‘OK’, ‘Bend-Down Select’ or ‘Aso Gbanjo’ depending on which part of the country one is coming from, is becoming a fast moving business with which many have fended for their families.

Recently, Inside FCT monitored the activities along the Nyanya-Keffi highway near the high-density suburb of Mararaba, where sheds containing second-hand clothes were seen lined up on makeshift giant umbrella sheds. Other venders

price is affordable

Second hand clothes on display

simply dump their goods on the ground, intermittently jangling oversized bell to announce their presence as customers unceremoniously squat to rummage through the clothes.

A dealer, Mrs. Lucia Oloche told Inside FCT that she makes “as much as N50, 000 on a good market day if the rain does not spoil market for you and if you have first grade okrika”. Those who deal in huge volumes of bales make huge profits, depending on the clothes in vogue, the season, and their clientele.

According to Oloche, sometimes, she needs to employ young girls for the day to help her coordinate sales. “At the end of the day, I have to pay them. Today is Wednesday, but tomorrow and Friday, we need to be at other markets in the city to continue, because we have lots of good sweaters and they must finish before the rains go away,” she said, picking up some

of the clothes.

Some of the women, who came with their kids, were seen pricing clothes and shoes for their wards. Mrs. Shumaya Mohammed said the prices of new clothes have become so high that her entire household now rely on secondhand clothes. ‘The little money my husband could afford to give me to purchase clothes for our four children and myself would not be enough to buy new clothes.

Here, one can afford to buy as many because the price is affordable” she said.

A young man looking for his size of shoes in one of the sheds, who simply gave his name as Hassan said all his English wears were second-hand and his favourite shoes were canvass. “I walk faster and bounce freely when I step into canvass shoes,” Hassan said.

Mr. Festus Enechukwu who was busy buying fairly-used belts at the weekend

market said he preferred them to new ones because they are of higher quality; more reliable and last longer and the best you can see in the market.

He said, “The new ones are flashy but sub-standard. A fairly-used belt can serve me for the next five years. The last one I bought served me for five years and I have come for another. The new ones are not reliable. They can drop from your waist in the public.”

Festus said he started buying such items when he came into the FCT and he discovered they are more durable than the Chinese products sold at exorbitant prices at FCT plazas. “A belt in such plazas can cost N5, 000. The same amount can fetch me five fairly-used belts that I can use comfortably for the next 25 years,” said Festus.

Inside FCT findings however revealed that wearing second hand clothes can expose people to health hazards.

“Such clothes can be infested with mites and lice, and can contain some kind of chemical and even bacteria” says a medical Doctor, Nathan Ezenwa.

It is best to avoid buying second hand clothes, said Rose Onochie, a dermatologist.

For those who do buy used garments, she advised washing them thoroughly and said shoes should be left out in the sun for several days before wearing.

Face of Hope brings relief to orphans REGINA OTOKPA

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t was an emotional scene over the weekend when little King and Queen of Face of Hope Foundation (FHF), alongside the management in conjunction with other supporters, visited the Cross Mission Home International located at Dei Dei, a suburb in the FCT. The innocent looking boys and girls of the home filled with excitement, had joyfully rendered texts from the scriptures which talks about hope, faith and charity.

Miss Grace Ojo, who doubles as the Coordinator and President of the Foundation, said the reason for the visitation was to share the love of God to the less privilege, according to the passion and tenets that have been driving the foundation.

“We are here to show our love and support for the children. The essence of our coming with the little King and Queen of the foundation is to let them understand the plight of other children who are less privileged.

“Our aim is to inculcate the spirit of giving in them as they continue to grow.

We are here to show love; we might not

have come with the biggest of gifts, but our coming alone shows that we love you.

We are here to also give you hope that no matter what your situation is today, there is greater hope for tomorrow and God will surely not leave you as orphans” Ojo said.

The King and Queen of the foundation, Master Damian Aleburu and Miss Kofoworola Lawal, both prayed for the children of the home, that they grow up to become great citizens of Nigeria and the world.

“We want you to read hard so that you can obtain knowledge. Whatever you want to be in the future shall surely come to pass. All we have to say is that you all grow up successfully; you shall not die, and you will grow in wisdom and knowledge they prayed.

Responding to the gesture, Pastor Christopher Akhuemonkhan, who is the Coordinator of the home, thanked the

We also call on government to emulate people like you to support the great work we are doing here

At the orphanage

foundation for putting smiles on the faces of the children.

“I’m so elated. The coming of the Face of Hope King and Queen into my domain to bless our kids is so great. What you have brought for us today, we will not consume it alone as we would pass it on to other needy children.

“God has sent us out to reach out to orphans and with support from foundations like yours, we shall be able to fulfill

our mandate. We really appreciate the Face of Hope Foundation.

“We also call on government to emulate people like you to support the great work we are doing here in taking care of the less privileged because being in government is not about sitting in offices but reaching out to the poor and needy, just like your foundation is doing. I pray God to bless you all for taking out time to see us today” Akhuemonkhan said.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Friday3, , January 6, 2017 8th Rabi-ul Thani 1438AH Friday, January 17, 2014 Thursday, October 2013

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

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Community Mirror 33 25 Worship CALL TO

THE PLATFORM with

On the authority of Anas bin Malik, the servant On of the Messenger of of Anas bin Malik, the servant of the Messenger of the authority Allah, the prophet said: Allah, the prophet said: ‘None of you [truly] believes until he “None ofwhat youhe[truly] wishes for his brother wishesbelieves until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.” for himself.”

PAGE

Sekinah LAWAL

RELATED BY BUKHARI AND MUSLIM

08055102994, sekinah207@yahoo.com

RELATED BY BUKHARI AND MUSLIM

When the come , come to come everybody will sit up in this Ministry.

Listen to your child’s complaints -Al-Mu’minaat to parents Rev. Chris Okotie, speaking on the state of the nation

49

HON MINISTER FOR PETROLEUM RESOURCES,ALIISON MADUEKE

... Urges Muslims to follow Islamic injunctions

Sekinah L awal

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arents have been urged to pay due attention to their children’s complaints and not ask them to shut up without hearing them out.

This advice was given at the just-concluded 22nd national training forum of AlMu’minaat themed “Global Connectivity: The Role of Women” held Vanguards Academy, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State recently.

In her lecture, Hajia Bushrah Ali called on parents especially mothers not to overlook any strange sign as well as to be wary of those they live their children with in order to protect them from those in the habit of abusing children sexually.

Speaking on some oppressive and restrictive practices against women, the National Amirah of Al-Mu’minaat Organisation, Hajia Nimatullah AbdulLateef reiterated the fact that contrary to many people’s belief, Islam actually elevates women, dignifies and honours her more than any other known religion, adding that Muslim women enjoyed a number of rights that were not hitherto enjoyed by Western women.

She explained that the oppressive practices were not from Islam but part of local customs and traditions of various societies.

“In the world today, western ideology has made people erroneously believe that Muslim women are being oppressed by their religion, forced to cover themselves completely, denied education and other basic rights.

“The truth is that Islam has come to elevate the position of women to that of dignity and nobility. Women were seen as objects of fun, pleasure and amusement during the jahiliyyah period, but when Islam came, it liberated the women.

“Islam gives women a number of rights, some of which

Not yet the change we clamour for

26

L--R: Alhaji Wale Sonaike; Alhaji AbdusSalam Tunde Abbas; National Amir of The Companion, Alhaji Musibau Oyefeso; Imam Abdullahi Shuaib and other dignitaries at the formal opening ceremony of the 2016 Dawn Holiday Camping program held recently at Federal College of Education, Osiele-Abeokuta, Ogun State.

L-L-R: Hajia Bushrah Ali; National Amirah of Al-Mu’minaat, Hajia Nimatullah AbdulLateef; former Lagos Amirah, Hajia Jumah-Olagunju; Hajia Bashirah Rabiu of Vanguards Academy and other dignitaries at the 22nd national Al-Mu’minaat Training Forum held in Vanguards Academy, Ogun State recently. were not even enjoyed by Western women until the 19th century. For example, until 1882, the property of women in England was given to their husbands when they marry, but Muslim women always retained their own assets. Muslim women

could specify conditions in their marriage contracts, such as the right to divorce.

“Also, Muslim women are allowed in Islam to keep their fathers’ name after marriage.

Furthermore, Quran forbids female infanticide; instructs

Lagos MMPN tasks undergraduates on media jobs 27

Muslims to educate daughters as well as sons; insists that women have the right to refuse a prospective husband; gives women rights if they are divorced by their husband; gives women the right to inherit property. In fact, the Quran ex-

Some signs of End-time

plicitly states that as regards worshiping Allah, the believing men and the the believing women are equal in the eyes of God. “And these show the high level of dignity, respect and honor Islam accords a Muslim woman as against false claims of the West. At infant, if she is well brought up, a Muslim woman could be the reason her parents would be admitted into paradise. At her youthful age, she completes half the religion of her husband when he marries her; and at her old age, she could also be the reason her children are admitted into paradise.

Also delivering a lecture at the event, the Vice Principal, Hostel, Vanguard Academy, Hajia Bashirah Rabiu urged Muslims not to follow the dictates of the world regarding role reversal but allow Islam and the fear of Allah to rule their lives.

She lamented that the social, political and economic lives of people have been destroyed, adding that family values are been destroyed through the internet, social media, including obscenity and corrupt television programmes.

She stated that since the society is being destroyed; leaders corrupted and ‘Riba’ dominated the economy; Muslim parents should do more in their natural role of giving guidance to their children for positive development.

“Unfortunately, the society has turned upside down that those who rule the world today prefer to have two leaders at home, (husband and wife). As a result, Muslim women have abandoned their duties and responsibilities. Allah and His Prophet have given the guidelines through the Quran and Hadiths and that is the only sure path to follow.”

She identified fear of God, supplication to God and good training as well as good monitoring of the psychological and physical development of children as important roles of mothers.

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24 26

Arts Call toLounge Worship

December 2010 Friday, January 6, 2017 Friday, 8th Rabi-ul Thani17, 1438AH

NationalMirror Mirror National www.nationalmirroronline.net www.nationalmirroronline.net

Not yet the change we clamour for

A

t the first reunion lecture of my alma mater holding today, I Iooked at the theme of the reunion which is; “Ensuring Effective Educational System: A Task for All”.

Yes, achieving this is indeed a task for all. Unfortunately, many of us have not been playing our role while many others have not been fully empowered to discharge our responsibilities as many would have loved to. Example of such is the project we intend doing for our alma mater.

Though we might not need to bother ourselves if we have had real good governance in the last three decades or thereabout.

I am saying this because we have so many systemic, attitudinal and structural defects militating against our being able to achieve this laudable goal. But despite all these challenges, we can still achieve a great deal with the needed determination and commitment.

There have been many instances when have had opportunities of engaging some of our young graduates and am always taken aback at their orientation and mindset despite their “education”.

One of such encounters happened during the last general elections when I discovered that many of our youths have apathy towards the whole electoral process starting from registering to get voter’s card to the voting proper.

And I was like, if you are not interested in getting your voters’ cards and thus cannot vote, what excuse will you have if you have the wrong people in position of power?

Just like I pointed out earlier, we have attitudinal, systemic and structural defects, which require holistic treatment, but we have a role to play in our own little way to make a meaningful impact.

For the best in all facets of life; health, judiciary, including educational sector, good leadership as well as informed followership,

is very key.

It is good leadership that will set the ball rolling while an informed followership will keep leaders on their toes. But how do we get the best of leaders if we do not take the processes that produce leaders seriously?

As followers, we really have to be informed and demand for accountability from our leaders always.

Let us resolve henceforth that we will be very much interested in who represents us at various levels of governance starting from wards to local government, state assembly, federal house of representative, Senate, governorship, to presidency and other appointments.

Fine, some will say it is a party affairs, then, you must be ready to be part of them too.

If we’ve been having the best of leadership in the past, our healthcare, educational system and other infrastructure wouldn’t have been in bad shape.

And the decay is not only in the educational system buy also in health and all other sectors.

With the opportunity of oil boom we had in the past, we have no reason not to have the best of roads, healthcare facilities and educational institutions in this country.

But I feel we are too lethargic as citizens. We tolerate a lot of nonsense. And our politicians perpetrate a lot of evils because we haven’t been alive to our rights and responsibilities.

Am yet to see any of our constituency either local, state or federal level, using their power of recall to truly recall any erring or non-performing Councillor, House of Assembly/House of Representative members or Senator. Ask them to work on particular bills that will be of benefit to the generality of populace among others. Except for many Nigerians to be demanding for frivolous things. But for us to have effective educational sector, health and other dividends of democracy,

Use your presence on social media positively —The Companion

... Calls on govt to checkmate increase in prices of goods Sekinah L awal

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igerian Muslims most especially the youth have been urged to use their presence on the social media positively while government at all levels should put all needed measures in place to checkmate astronomical increase in prices of goods.

Making the appeal at the formal opening ceremony of the Dawn Holiday Programme, DHP, held at the Federal College of Education, Abeokuta, Ogun State, the national Amir of The Companion, Alhaji Musibau Oyefeso also called on children to be considerate in their demands due to recession.

The guest lecturer, Imam Abdullahi Shuaib advised parents to be on same page with their children technologically while calling on all Islamic organisations to be united because lack of unity will only bring fitnah.

The national Amirah of The Criterion, Hajia Saadat AbdulBaki advised youths to make best use of their presence on social media.

In his goodwill message, Alhaji Ali Oluwafuyi enjoined participants to make regular Solat a priority, take care of their character, hobbies, dressing and people they associate with.

Prof. Sunday Omilabu and other guests commended The Companion for engaging the youth gainfully.

this lackadaisical attitude must change.

Whether in the primary, secondary schools and tertiary institutions, the school authorities should be more concerned about what the students’ needs are at their developmental stages and instructional levels. Unfortunately, there is no political will and backing for these in most of our public schools.

The students should be properly accommodated in their various classrooms and adequate facilities and equipment provided for their effective learning. Facilities and Equipment should be for both indoor and outdoor learning so as to cater for overall development of the learner.

All hands must be on deck to ensure that the physical needs are met through provision of safe structure, adequate sanitary facilities, a conducive environment to achieve learners’ needs.

Do we have any of our representatives checking all these facilities to ensure things are in order or are we as citizens tasking them on these issues?

These are what we should be doing and not going to collect rice, chicken, demanding for money for burial, naming and commending them for doing nothing.

Recession notwithstanding, the gross misappropriation of public funds and misplaced priorities in our budget is not acceptable and should be rejected totally.

Back to the school system, principals should not rest on

t: 08055102994 e: sakinah207@yahoo.com their oars simply because they have delegated duties to staff; they should go the extra mile to look at what have been done. This type of supervision will make staff to be diligent in whatever task they are given, enhance teaching, improve the competence of teachers and make learning experiences more meaningful for children.

There should be effective use of innovative materials in schools. One would accept that the achievement of these goals rests on collective efforts. The national policy on education is great but like everything in our country, implementation is always the problem.

Based on UNICEF’s recommendation, the required percentage of annual budget for health and education is yet to be adhered to. Federal and state governments should set aside a predetermined percentage of their budgets to support health and educational research, development and innovation.

These and many other issues should be taken seriously for the Nigerian child to measure up creditably in the comity of nations.

Part of the changes we are looking forward to seeing in this administration both at local, states and federal level is in what

we budget for. I could remember pointing out in one of my columns some years back that what is the need for outrageous amount in millions for things like cutlery on a yearly basis?

There are so many frivolous spendings that we really need to do away with in local, state and federal budgets like cutlery, typewriters etc if we are indeed serious about fighting corruption.

We cannot be renovating a government house that was renovated with millions of naira some months back for another millions of naira this year. Many of these needless spendings still find their way into our budgets even with “change” and “recession”.

Unless we take our destiny into our own hands, the status quo of corruption and underdevelopment will remain. We must demand for the right things.

These reports must not end on the pages of newspapers, radio or television. Nigerians need to wake up. It is our duty as citizens to keep engaging our representatives on the need to do the needful and depart from past misdeeds.

We must do serious engagement to achieve a nation where things work.

From left: Retired Civil Servant, Alhaja Rukayat Mulkat; Alhaja Mariam Saka; Asst. Director of Education, Education District II, Hajia Bushrah Ali, National Amirah, Al-Muminaat Organisation, Hajia Nimat Abdul-Lateef, V.P. Hostel, Vanguards Academy, Alhaja Bashirah Rabiu; Principal, Ijebu-Ode Muslim College, Ijebu-Ode (Senior School); Alhaja Musinat Kareem; Alhaja Qudrat Akindele at tha ATF.

METHOSA first reunion lecture holds today

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t is about giving back to their alma mater as members of Methodist High School, Ogbe, Abeokuta, Old Students’ Association, METHOSA, holds her maiden reunion lecture today, 6th of January, 2017 at Dapo Sokunbi Memorial Hall, Methodist Cathedral, Ogbe-Abeokuta, Ogun State.

The event which is scheduled to start 9:00am under the distinguished chairmanship of the Executive Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, is the first of its kind in the institution.

According to METHOSA’s Chairman, Mr. Remi

Adelani, the association is poised to contribute positively to the development of their Alma Mater in particular and Ogun State in general through various projects, trainings, financial support and to enhance networking and career development among the old students as well as foster unity, understanding and friendship irrespective of age, sex, colour, religion or ethnicity.

“The Reunion Lecture gives us the opportunity of also unveiling and raising fund for some of the projects we set out to do for the school.”

The Reunion Lecture will be delivered by the Chairperson, Nigerian Association of Women Journalists, Lagos State Chapter, Hajia Sekinah Temitope Lawal.

Other dignitaries expected at the event include Hon. Samuel Olusegun Williams, Hon. Olowofuja, Hon. Oludotun Fasanya, Chief Sanyaolu, Hon. Moshood Okanlawon, Hon. Afuape Afolabi, Chief Matthew Adesanya, Hon. Bayo Jimoh, Chief Afeez Sopeyin, Hon. Allen Taylor, Hon. Olabode Lukmon, Chief Akeem Lasaki, Alhaji Lateef Rabiu, Chief Dapo Sobulo among others.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Friday, January 6, 2017 8th Rabi-ul Thani 1438AH

Friday, January 17, 2014

Call to Worship

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Community Mirror

Some signs of End-time (2)

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Every Friday with with

Khalifatul Ahmadiyya

egarding one of theWhen greatest the come , come to come signs that is evident every day, Rev. Chris Okotie, speaking Promised Messiaheverybody (Peace be will on sit up in this Ministry.

Him) says that in the book ‘Braheenon the state of the nation e-Ahmadiyya’ has revealed thisRESOURCES,ALIISON through martyrdom.

This means that we HON Allah MINISTER FOR PETROLEUM MADUEKE dua upon me that says ‘Do not leave me will sacrifice our lives but do not give up alone and form a community. The next our beliefs. We will have to tread on the revelation entails that Allah will fulfill middle path. One success will be through all of your requirements and people peace and other will be through martyrwill come to you from distant tracks dom. After this the Jama’at will enter and paths. This was revealed and men- the house of ‘Nizaam-ud-din’ and will Former President Olusegun Obasanjo addressing Alhaji Alli Sokoto-led members tioned 26 years ago and is being ful- achieve success. Both of these situations of Vigilante Group of Nigeria, VGN, on security issues during a courtesy visit to him filled till today with immense majesty. are evident by the Jama’at. Love, peace recently.

This is the sign of Jama’ats develop- and harmony is the message we spread ment which is still being achieved. and likewise the Jama’at at the same time Your Jama’ats every day development is making sacrifices. and advancement in financial sacrifice Hazrat Musleh Maud (May Allah be is one of the best embodiment of Prom- pleased with him) says that I myself ised Messiahs (Peace be on Him) truthi- asked the Promised Messiah (Peace be ness. But this can only be seen by the on Him) about the meaning of the aforepeople who have their eyes open and mentioned dream but he said that I do not not by the blind. know as of now but the meanings reveal Hazrat Musleh Maud (May Allah be through time. The Promised Messiah pleased with him) says that Promised (Peace be on Him) at that time when not Messiah (Peace be on Him) was told many even a single person believed in him was a times by Allah that his Jama’at will also told by Allah that his Jama’at will achieve have to give sacrifices in the same man- so much success that other nations of the ner as of the previous followers of the world will be left as the nomadic nations prophets. Thus once you (Peace be on in this era. We are the ones who witness Him) saw in a dream that he was enter- the signs and blessings from Allah every ing in the house of ‘Nizaam-ud-din’. The day and In shaa Allah a day will come meaning of ‘Nizaam-ud-din’ is the ‘way when we will progress to such a degree of religion’. This dream means that Ah- that other communities will appear small madiyya Jama’at will one day become the but in order to do so we need to instill the way of religion and will canopy and in- spirit of reformation and religion in ourvade over all other systems of the world. selves and in our generations. Since ever, At the MSSN IVC in Noforija-Epe recently In shaa Allah. But how will this invasion the Jama’ats of the prophets have been take place? Regarding this in the dream facing these oppositions. But these oppoit is foretold that some of us will enter sitions do not make us fearful but instead according to the ‘Hassani’ way and some make us stronger in our faiths. will enter according to the ‘Hussani’ way.

A few days ago, the Tehreek-e-Jadeed Everybody knows that the success Hazrat offices and the Ziaul Islam press was Years of Ahmadiyya in Nigeria; Islamic Hassan (May Allah be pleased with him) raided by the counter terrorist squad of Vision of Global Peace: Lessons from the Sekinah L awal achieved was through reconciliation and the police department in Rabwah. Two life of Holy Prophet Muhammad; Martyrs understanding and Hazrat Hussain (May missionaries and a few other officials of Ahmadiyya; Retaining and Retraining Allah be pleased with him) achieved it were arrested. Upon this a few people he Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat New Converts; Evolving New Tabligh Stratthrough martyrdom. Thus Promised from Rabwah that includes women wrote Nigeria, AMJN, recently advised egies; and Lessons from Field Experiences Messiah was told that Jama’at will reach to me that we are not afraid of these acpolitical leaders in Nigeria to be of Muallimeen. the level of ‘Nizaam-ud-din’ but some tivities but instead we are very strong in sincere in promises made to masses and Other Activities at the Jalsa Salana inthrough reconciliation, compromise and our faiths and our beliefs increase many better their lots, rather than exploiting cluded giving of Academic Merit Awards love and some through sacrifices and folds after such events and that we are people’s religious, ethnic and other pri- to outstanding students in various fields martyrdoms. If any of us thinks that this ready to face any difficulty and pay any community will develop merely through sacrifice. This is the spirit that should be mordial sentiments for their selfish inter- of study, from PhD Level to WAEC. Also, compromise, love and understanding present in our Jama’at members. These ests. there were solemnization of Nikkah for 50 than he is not correct. And if someone are the things that have been foretold This was contained in a communiqué is- couples, Tabligh/Tarbiyyah seminar and thinks that the Jama’at will develop with- by the Promised Messiah (Peace be on sued at the end of the 100 years celebration special supplications for Nigeria. out martyrdoms and sacrifices than he is Him). Indeed the last victory will be of of the Islamic organisation/annual conferIt was observed that religion has been also incorrect. Our progress is destined ence held in Ilaro Ogun state, Southwest corrupted and is regarded as one which with peace, love and on the other hand To be continued Nigeria . supports aggression and violence owing “Religion should be separated from poli- to negative conducts of the followers; that tics for former’s teachings to remain sacro- Muslims nowadays give more attention to sanct. Muslims should give precedence to worldly pursuits at the expense of moral faith over all worldly considerations as vio- and spiritual development; that it is baselence, aggression and persecution against less to quarrel over religious differences people under the guise of striving in the as the Creator is not interested in the sect cause of Allah has no place in Islam.” one belongs, rather one’s duties to God and The conference declared open by the man; Amir, Dr. Mashhud Adenrele Fashola and “Love of materialism among political he Muslim Media Practitioners of been created to tarnish the image of Isattended by the former Nigerian President leaders is creating tales of woes in Nigeria’s Nigeria (MMPN), Lagos Chapter, lam and Muslims.

Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Governor of democratic system which is affecting the recently advised Muslims under“This shows you as a group that is State of Osun, Rauf Aregbesola, represen- growth and development of the country. Ah- graduates to ensure they excel in their determined to reach the sky. Communitatives of Ogun and Niger State Governors, madiyya has been contributing immensely academics and make adequate prepara- cation is very key because it give to the prominent traditional rulers within and to national development through champi- tions to take up media jobs after graduat- people the idea of who you are and what outside Nigeria, aimed at enabling every oning the cause of education, health, mis- ing from school in a bid to enhance fair you are doing,” he said. sincere individual to personally experience sionary and community efforts using the reportage of Islam.

In her goodwill message, Hajia Lawal religious benefits; enhance their knowl- platform of Islam; and Ahmadiyya is beThis advice was given when a delega- charged the youth to harness their inteledge, promote love among all brothers and ing marginalized, discriminated against tion of the body paid a courtesy visit on lectual resources and take full potentials sisters as well as strengthen the fraternal in various ways, and sometimes violently delegates and officials at the 102nd Islamof the online media. ties within this community. oppressed, particularly in Pakistan, where ic Vacation Course (IVC) organised by Advising the females, she urged them The Conference was attended by a total they were categorized as a non-Muslim the Muslim Students Society of Nigerian to put in their best at work and stick to of sixty-one thousand, two hundred and minority in national law owing to self-cen- (MSSN), at Human Capital Development Islamic etiquette at all times while also twenty-one (61, 221) participants from dif- teredness of religious leaders.”

Center (HCDC), Noforija, Epe, Lagos. spending quality time with their spouse ferent parts of the country.

The group urged Nigerians to internalThe delegation include Alhaji Haroon and children.

The theme of the Conference is “Redefin- ize the motto of Ahmadiyya “Love for All, Balogun, Vanguard, Alhaja Sekinah LawAlso speaking, Adebanjo tasked the ofing Moral Revolution for Sustainable Peace Hatred for None” and apply it in their daily al, National Mirror and Alhaji Tajudeen ficials to explore all avenues at acquiring and Development: Post-Hundred Years of activities and interactions, they would be Adebanjo of The Nation. the required skills that will distinguish Ahmadiyya in Nigeria” had six papers living a more abundant and rewarding life, Addressing them, Balogun noted that them as qualified and exemplary Musdelivered by erudite Islamic scholars; Re- devoid of the strife and tension currently there is the need for qualified and conlims professionals among their counterdefining Moral Revolution for Sustainable affecting the society. scious Muslims to populate the media in parts.

Peace and Development: Post-Hundred order to correct misconceptions that have

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AMJN harps on leaders’ sincerity

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Lagos MMPN tasks undergraduates on media jobs

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Friday, January 6, 2017

Entertainment

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Patronizing Nigerian arts industry can help economy out of recession —Ajamufua A

fine artiste and dancer, Funmilayo Emily Ajamufua has stated that arts and crafts sector of the Nigerian economy have the capacity to rescue the country from the current recession.

The artist however recommends bead fashion in particular for Nigerian fashion enthusiasts in place of now expensive gold and silverware during the yuletide and beyond.

Funmilayo, a graduate of the theatre arts, Lagos State University (LASU) until recently was on the staff of the Lagos State Council for Arts and Culture (LSCAC) where she worked for 13 years promoting arts and crafts.

While the economic recession continues in the Nigerian economy, Ajamufua enjoins fashion enthusiasts to look inwards and patronize made in Nigeria fashion accessories including beads and wire wares.

“I make beads for religious, royal and festive purposes. So through this festive period it is the best period and a great opportunity to make a statement with adorning my bead works as they are unique and creative. Nigerians are creative and should be en-

couraged by patronizing them.”

Ajamufua who also studied Dramatic Arts and Music(Dip) at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), had represented LSCAC and Nigeria at various cultural exchange programs and events in Venezuela, India, Cuba, Ghana, Tunisia among other nations, added that despite the recession, fashion enthusiasts can still make a statement despite the hard times.

“You can still make a statement in this time of recession, that for sure there is an expansion in you.

It is uniquely creative and very affordable. They last longer. Beads have been in existence for long and can never go out of fashion,” she assures.

An arts and crafts instructor, Ajamufua sure has arts running in her veins which perhaps was taken from her mother. She however encouraged young Nigerians interested in arts to give time to training and practicalise such trainings. “I must have taken the craft thing from my mother who was a member of the Leventis Stores Dance group back then.

She used to knit too and I think I took most of my talents from her,” she said.

Stating further on her arts ca-

Ajamufua instructing children on bead making reer she said, “I am vast in beading, head gear skills(gele wiwe), facial treatment, manicure and pedicure, hair braiding and dancing which I started way back in 1989.” “I was actually in a dance group led by Sola Sobowale alias Toyin Tomato called ‘Grace Root’.

I was auditioned and picked as one of the dancers to take part in dance drama commissioned by the Federal Government to Mr. Gbanga Sonuga called ‘Salt’ to commemorate the world decade in 1990.”

Meanwhile, Funmilayo encourages parents of children showing interest in arts and crafts to support such young ones who are potential stars. Stating further on her career in the world of arts, Funmilayo said she had featured in the Death and the King’s Horseman in February 1990 directed by Bayo Oduneye and a play sponsored by the then NIB bank staged at the National Theatre which also featured Mrs. Taiwo Ajai Lycett, Dede Mabiaku and others.

“I was also a member of the

Kola Ogunkoya Afro Gbedu band and was a dancer at his performance at the Benson and Hedges Golden Tones in 1996,” she explained.

The dancer however enjoins fashion enthusiasts to patronize made in Nigeria arts and crafts works which is capable of earning the nation the much desired foreign exchange and also capable of lifting the nation’s economy at a time the Federal Government is considering diversifying the economy from oil and gas.

turns comedian at MasterKraft, Sess, Rotimi Keys, Olaitan RMD Alibaba’s January 1st Concert: Dada win big at the Beatz Awards Undresses live

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t was a night of honors, fun and glamour as promised by the organizers of The Beatz Awards held recently, at the Shell Hall, Muson Center, Onikan, Lagos. The highly successful event was graced by industry top personalities such as Mofe Duncan, Helen Paul, Bryan Okwara, Paul Adams, Felix Duke, Sam Uche Ayanmele, Yomi Casual, Harry Songs and a host of others.

The event started out with a hot bang from Instagram sensation Woli Arole and the hosts for the Night Seyi Law and Angel Ufuoma took the atmosphere to another level.

Bagging the most awards for the night is super producer MasterKraft, Sess The Problem Kid and Rotimi Keys. Other winners of the night include: UBA Pacific Music for Best Record Company (Marketer), Star Boy Entertainment for Best Record Label, Sunday Are for Best Artist Manager, STV for best Television Station, The Beat Fm for Best Radio Station, Shuga Band for Best Live-Band, Kiss Daniel for Best Song Writer, etc.

A special Recognition Award was given to MTN Nigeria for its outstanding contributions to the Nigerian entertainment industry. Top entertainment brass, Obi Asika was also honored with the Industry Professional of the Year award.

on stage

N DJ CUPPY The Beatz Awards celebrate creative professionals behind music productions and business.

ollywood idol Richard MofeDamijo took on a new facet to his career as one effortlessly hilarious comedian at Alibaba’s ‘January 1st Concert’ which held on the 1st of January, 2017 at EKO Hotel Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

The actor who has been a long-time friend of the veteran comedian Alibaba, took center stage as he cracked series of jokes; sending the mammoth audience into gales of unending laughter.

RMD as he is otherwise called quipped

RMD about an array topics, including being forced to don a black tuxedo and bow tie by Alibaba; causing him to undress in front of an enthralled audience while he lamented; “Who suit help?”.

Left in a black tee and pants, the veteran actor ordered to be brought a waistcoat as he continued to crack his jokes; further causing the audience to bellow and cheer merrily.

Alibaba gifts fast-rising comedian brand new car at January 1st Concert

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omedy pioneer Alibaba gifted a car to one of the fast-rising comedians who contested at his recently concluded concert; ‘January 1st Concert’ which held on the 1st of January, 2017 at EKO Hotel Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Titled ‘Alibaba’s Spontaneity’; the contest had about 10 fast-rising comedians show off their talent and freestyle prowess live on stage by quipping with random

topics provided by the audience.

After a few rounds, three comedians made it to the final stage and the audience were left to decide who the winner is by making some noise after each comedian stepped forward.

One of the last comedians who quickly became a fan favourite that night; Laff Doctor emerged the winner.

Presented by Alibaba’s wife; Mary Akpobome, Laff Doctor went home with a

brand new car and some words of encouragement. It was also revealed the comedian will get a monthly salary payment for the whole year and an opportunity to work closely with Alibaba.

The first runner up however, got a totally different package – Mary Akpobome announced she and her husband would sponsor his education through university under the boy’s wish. Several other talented comedians like AY, Bash,

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Business News

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Friday, January 6, 2016

Regulation, forex, interest rates hurdles hamper base oil importation Udeme Akpan

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onflict over regulation, inadequate foreign exchange, high interest rates and fluctuating exchange rates have scuttled the importation of adequate base oil into the nation.

The base oil is required for the manufacturing of lubricants which motorists, manufacturers and others require for daily operations.

Consequently, the Lubricant Producers Association of Nigeria, LUPAN has petitioned the Federal Government over these and other issues.

The Executive Secretary of the association, Mr. Emeka Obidike disclosed in a statement that the nation’s Petroleum Act, has already identified the Department of Petroleum Resources as the regulator of activities in the sector.

Obidike noted that LUPAN members who were duly licensed by the Department of Petroleum Resources to import, store and blend base oil in Nigeria, for their blending requirements have complained about the involvement of the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC. He argued that, the base oil

so imported is a mineral based, crude oil derivative and is classified as petroleum oil and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, in the National List of the ECOWAS Common External Tariff and Fiscal Policy Measures for 2015, and is not obtained from chemical synthesis.

He stated: “Operators in the lubricant sector are already beleaguered by a myriad of stifling levies and duties from other government agencies such as the Standards Organization of Nigeria, the Nigeria Navy, NIMASA, Nigeria Customs Services, as well as other oppressive and debilitating factors, to wit, inaccessibility of Forex for the purchase of base oil and additives, both being 100 per cent dependent on importation; exploitative and fluctuating exchange rates and oppressive bank interest rates on loans- as operators have had to personally source funds for their business through banks.

“The lubricant sector has been lamentably bereft of intervention funds and schemes to alleviate the financial burden of operators; high tariff on additives and crippling policies for the sector, to mention but a few, the cost of which when incorporated in to the price of finished products make

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Social Support; and publisher of AgeMates Magazine is proud to call you its own in a competitive viral - media world.

“Once again, accept our Warmest Congratulations and Happy New Year while we look forward to working with your outfit, majorly in the areas of advocacy, sensitization and humanity”, he added.

Receiving the award, the Executive Director of CISLAC (CISLAC), Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani) expressed the organisation’s gratitude to HOPe Africa, USA, for its “tireless effort in promoting and advancing the interest of Africa and Nigeria through sustained positive interventions and contributions”, adding that CISLAC would not relent in its pursue of transparency, accountability and good governance at all levels.

HOPe Africa is a NGO registered in Nigeria since 2003 with Headquarters in United States of America and a branch United Kingdom. Also, registered with international organizations, including, the United Nations.

HOPe Africa is very involved in various accelerated community and integrated works with its network of partners in meeting clients’ desirable needs.

pally loyal and committed to every programme and policy of the government, more particularly such as would strengthen and revitalize

its economy, by channeling and coordinate its every action, time and resources towards the realization of same”, Obidike added.

L-R: Head, Consumer Protection Council, Lagos Zone, Joshua Ngada; N1million Naira cash prize winners, Olawunmi Olaosebikan; Chinwe Okpanumee and Regional Operations Director, Lagos Region, Airtel Nigeria, Oladokun Oye at the Airtel Red Hot promo prize presentation that held in Lagos recently,

New pricing policy underway for Nigeria’s e-payment system Niyi Jacobs

CISLAC wins 2016 ‘Traceability Advocacy & Legislative Services’ award he HOPe Africa Secretariat in Kansas City, Missouri, USA, has bestowed on Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), 2016 award of “Traceability Advocacy & Legislative Services”.

The Executive Director of HOPe Africa, USA, Francis John, disclosed this in a congratulatory message to CISLAC. Speaking on the development, John said the award was necessitated by “cumulative exemplary lead and displaying measurable empathy of CISLAC in discharging on-time humanitarian services at all levels of Nigerian communities”.

He said: “Please accept this award in recognition and appreciation for your immersed contributions to Nigerian legislative advancement. Your accomplishment is respected worldwide, most especially in the advent of HOPe Africa, creating friendly societies for all ages regardless of disabilities while pioneering human development (reengineering immigrants), promoting Veterans Exchange Program (ReStrengthening Esprit De Corps among Military and Paramilitary), Researching & Training of Selected Organizations working in the North Eastern Nigeria on Trauma and Psycho

them more costly and consequently less attractive to consumers.

“It is expected of every agency of the government to be princi-

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here are indications that the Nigerian electronic payment system in the next few months may witness a new pricing policy, as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has deregulated the Merchant Service Charge (MSC) and will be implementing a new pricing regime on electronic transactions by the second quarter (Q2) of 2017.

MSC is a fee paid by merchants for e-transactions done through Point of Sales (PoS) terminals.

CBN Director, Banking and Payment System Department (BPSD), ‘Dipo Fatokun announced that from May 1, the apex bank would no longer regulate the MSC, adding that it would

be replaced with Interchange Fee regime.

He said that as a result of the limitations of the MSC regime and in tandem with the objectives of the Payments System Vision 2020, the CBN, in consultation with stakeholders decided to migrate the payment card to a superior pricing mechanism.

Fatokun stated the new pricing regime would boost payment card issuance, investment in loyalty programmes and the expansion of acquirer network infrastructure across the country.

In a document titled ‘Circular on the Implementation of the Interchange Fee’, Fatokun stated: “With the introduction of the Cash-Less Nigeria Project and the release of the Guidelines on

PoS Card Acceptance Services, the CBN outlined the MSC and the modalities for the payments system.

“This had enhanced the issuance and utilisation of cards transaction in the country and brought structure to the compensatory mechanism for parties involved in the transaction.

“With effect from May 1, 2017, the CBN will no longer regulate Merchant Service Charge (MSC).

The interchange fee regime will replace the MSC. Merchants and Acquirers will henceforth negotiate the MSC, while the CBN will control the interchange fees paid by the Acquirers to the Card Issuer and other regulated service providers, as defined by the CBN”, Fatokun added.

TUC commends Nigerians on self sustenance amid hardship Fidelis Ugbomeh

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he Trade Union Congress has saluted the bravery, resilience and loyalty of Nigerians to the country, despite all odds.

A statement signed jointly by President of the Union, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama, and Secretary General, Comrade Musa Lawal, noted that the nation’s economic and infrastructural challenges were so serious that they required every concentration to handle by the governments.

This is even as the Congress noted that in the health and education sector, government failed to honour agreements it voluntarily

entered into with the unions even as public servants are still being owed because some State Governors diverted fund disbursed by the Federal Government from pay salaries.

The Congress also pointed out that there was unprecedented termination of appointment of workers without engaging the unions just as anti-labour practices were the order of the day yet, we did not draw out our sword because we do not want to be seen as enemies of the new government.

While condemning the killings in Southern Kaduna recently the Congress supports recall of lawmakers by their constituencies.

“The billions of naira so far spent

to purchase arms and ammunition can transform this country. Those who fan embers of discord and killings in Kaduna, Maiduguri, Rivers, Abuja, etc. must stop. We commend the Government for the effort so far made at curbing these crises but it needs to do more by way of job creation and infrastructural development. It pays to avoid crisis than to try to subdue it,” the Congress declared On diversification of the economy, the Congress lamented that successive governments had paid lips service to alternative sources of revenue to the country, adding that no nation can survive on the vagaries of a mono-cultural economy.

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Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

FG issues Deep Seaport operational licence to Badagry Free Zone Francis Ezem

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arely four months after the Federal Executive Council, FEC, gave approval for the issuance of operational licence for the Mega Deep Seaport to Badagry Free Zone, the Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority, NEPZA, has complied with the directive.

The FEC had on August 3, 2016 granted its approved for the pro-

posed Mega Port and Free Zone project also called the Maritime Africa Economic City.

The project is being developed by a consortium of top local and international companies and promises to be Nigeria’s largest and most ambitious Free Trade Zone.

Sequel to FEC’s approval, Managing Director of NEPZA, Mr. Gbenga Kuye, last week in Abuja, officially handed the op-

eration licence to the Project Director of the Zone, Mr. Patrick Bird.

The Project Director said that the event marked a major milestone in the development of the Badagry Deep Seaport project.

He explained: “With NEPZA, we intend to develop Maritime Africa Economic City into one of the most successful special economic zones in all of Af-

rica” “The benefits of having this approval are enormous for our clients and despite the current downturn in the economy, we are still fielding a lot of interests from domestic and foreign companies wanting to set up in Badagry”, Bird added The mega seaport and Free Zone would be developed on 1,100 hectares of land with over six kilometres of quay wall, including a container terminal, Roll-On-Roll-Off RORO, terminal, general cargo terminals, oil service centre and refined products import terminals.

It will also include a power plant, oil refinery, industrial park, warehousing and inland container depot functions as

well.

It was gathered that a rail line will also be developed in the future to connect the new Free Trade Zone for even more seamless transit of goods.

The Zone is connected to Lagos by the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, which is currently being upgraded and expanded by the Lagos State Government as well as the Porto Novo Creek, allowing for the barging of cargo between the existing port system of Lagos and the new facility.

While expressing appreciation to the authority for its continued support, the project director said that the project is going to be a great partnership that would benefit the Nigerian nation as a whole.

Online job applications decline 548,366 in 12 months –NBS Ben Umuteme Abuja

T L-R: Managing Director, Nigerite Limited, Mr. Frank Le Bris; Mr. Emmanuel Olushola Egbedi, Long Service Award recipient, displaying his Award; and Chief Financial Officer, Nigerite Limited, Mr. Tijani Tajudeen Adio, during the end of the year party and long service award of Nigerite Limited in Lagos.

‘Sterling Bank committed over N500m to sustain environment’ Udo Onyeka

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terling Bank Plc has committed over N500 million to various activities under its Sterling Environmental MakeOver, STEM, social responsibility initiative in the last five years.

Giving this hint in Lagos at the weekend, the bank’s Managing Director, Mr. Yemi Adeola, listed the activities to which the fund had been committed to include, partnership with agencies responsible for waste management in 14 states of the country, tree planting and the national cleaning exercise.

The Sterling Bank boss also explained that the Bank decided to collaborate with celebrities to connect with their audiences.

‘Many of them have become inspirational figures to a lot of people’, the Bank boss said.

He noted that the partnership with Funke Akindele-Bello at the Oyingbo cleaning exercise was informed by her character and passion for promoting cleanliness and a sustainable environment as she has impacted several lives.

Adeola clarified: “Getting her on board was very apt because she believes strongly in what we are doing, and what we stand for”.

“STEM is an initiative which

started 8 years ago, and essentially covers all the programmes which Sterling Bank runs geared towards caring for our environment. So far, about half a billion naira has been invested in this initiative. When STEM started, the primary focus was the kitting of highway managers and sweepers in the employment of the Lagos State Waste Management Agency(LAWMA). Asides Lagos, we have extended this partnership to 14 other states in the country.

“We give 25,000 units of the uniforms to LAWMA on a yearly

basis. This has been beneficial to sweepers, as the reflective uniforms are seen from a distance by motorists and gives a sense of identity to the sweepers and highway managers.

“Beyond provision of uniforms, staff of the bank, as part of our employee volunteer programme, regularly participate in nationwide street cleaning efforts. Also, Sterling Bank has invested in tree planting to address the challenge of desertification in the country. We started our tree planting efforts in 2016 with Bauchi, Gombe and Plateau States.

he National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, has reported a sharp decline in the number of online job applications in the country year-on-year by 548,366.

The Online Recruitment 2016 Q3 report by the statistics bureau noted that the online application fell to 266,797 in the third quarter of 2016 from 815,163, recorded in quarter three of 2015, This represents a 67.3 per cent drop in the number of applications.

Nigeria’s economy started experiencing difficulty in the third quarter of 2015, occasioned by the sharp drop in the price of crude oil from a high of $114 per barrel to as low as less than $40. This led to a serious shortfall in revenue leading the economy to contract and invariably job loss as many business concerns could not cope with the harsh operating business environment.

By contrast, the number of vacancies increased slightly relative to the previous period; in the third quarter of 2016 there were 14,112

Nigeria’s envoy lauds ABUCCIMA, El-Salem at London Road show event

T

he Nigerian High Commissioner to the UK, Mr. Adam Ogah, has commended El-Salem Homes International and the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their outstanding outing in London during the just concluded event tagged ‘Abuja Housing & Investment Road Show UK’.

The event, which was coordinated by housing NGO, Shelter Rights Awareness Initiative, was designed to enable Diaspora Nigerians in the UK to see investment opportunities in Abuja and to own a home back home in Abuja or in any part of the

country even while still residing in the UK. Ogah, described the event as a worthy initiative, adding that the issue of housing development is critical to Nigeria’s national development.

The elated Envoy harped on the imperative for professionals in the housing sector to maintain standards and put in place an efficient management to ensure quality housing for all in the country.

The High Commissioner also called on property developers to emulate the El-Salem Group in delivering high quality and af-

fordable housing for Nigerians.

In his address, Chairman, El-Salem Group, Mr. Ben Gbade Ojo, highlighted the strategic importance of Abuja to Nigeria and Africa and said it was to ensure that Diaspora Nigerians are not left behind in the ongoing rush to buy homes in Abuja and also to ensure that they buy on favourable terms that the event was organized.

“Diaspora Nigerians must begin to plan ahead for their return to the motherland to contribute to the development of Nigeria.

For, as it is usually said, “East or West, Home is the Best”.

vacancies, compared to 14,005 in the third quarter of 2015.

A breakdown showed that the Trade/Services remained the sector to attract the most applications with 40.7 per cent, even as it had the most advertisement for the most vacancies with 73.2 per cent.

On the other hand, Oil & Gas/ Mining and Engineering were the two sectors to attract the highest amount of applications per vacancy, although at 80 and 68 respectively, the numbers are low relative to the previous quarter.

“In this industry, there were 3,155 vacancies in July, representing 73.4% of the total, 3,632 vacancies in August (representing 72.6%) and 3,542 in September (representing 73.6%). In each month, Trade/Services accounted for a higher percentage of vacancies than in the corresponding month of 2015; in July, August and September 2015 the proportion of vacancies accounted for by this industry were 68.33%, 63.54% and 69.54% respectively. As well as being higher, the proportions in 2016 were more consistent, only varying within one percentage point.

In July and August, the industry to account for the second largest number of vacancies was Consulting. In July, there were 292 Consulting vacancies advertised, or 6.8% of the total.

This rose to 295 in August; this was a smaller than average increase between these periods indicating a smaller proportion of the total of 5.9%. However, in September, whereas the overall number of vacancies fell on the month by 3.8%, the number of Consulting vacancies fell from 295 to 164, a drop of 44.4%. Thus, the proportion of the total accounted for by Consulting fell to 3.4%, and ICT/ Telecommunications became the second largest industry in terms of vacancies, with 202, or 4.2% of the total,” the report noted.

10

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Business Features & Finance

Friday, January 6, 2017

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Giving succour through Remi Babalola Red Cross Hospital

Kemi Olaitan

W

hile it is not in doubt that Nigeria as a country has enormous potentials in terms of human resources and other spheres to take the lead if not in the whole world but at least in Africa, its health indicators do not rank among the best. Indeed, skilled medical workers who ought to help salvage the situation have been brain-drained to countries on whose priorities the health of their citizens come first.

Various statistics by different agencies within and outside the country have painted gloomy outlook concerning the country’s health sector.

For instance, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its 2015 report on the country put life expectancy at 53 years for male and 56 years for female. Also, 357 male citizens and 325 females out of every 1, 000 Nigerians have a very high probability of dying between ages 15 and 60.

Similarly, the total government expenditure on health per capital is put at $217 (N70, 525 at N325 exchange rate of naira to a USD). While the WHO stipulates 1:600 as the standard doctorcitizens ratio, Nigeria boasts only of 35, 000 doctors who are working in the country, a figure that shows that a doctor services approximately 5, 143 Nigerians.

The danger from the above is that the provision of healthcare services has become a major challenge in the country, while the citizens, particularly the poor, continue to sing songs of lamentation. But the question that readily comes to mind is: Should the lamentation endure while the unsavoury situation continues to take its toll on the health of the citizens?.

However, Dr. Remi Babalola, who was Minister of State for Finance between July 2007 and August 2010, believes rather than lamenting, public-spirited Nigerians ought to come on board to provide meaningful interventions in the area of healthcare services to complement what government is doing in the health sector. It was this disposition that informed the birth of a well-equipped private medical facility named, Remi Babalola Red Cross Medical Centre located in Gbagi area of Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Babalola, as a member of then Federal Executive Council, was appointed a volunteer of the Nigerian Red Cross Society (NRCS) in 2008 by a delegation of the society led by its former president and present governor of Imo State, Owelle Rochas Okorocha. The purpose of the appointment was for him to deploy his social influence to mobilise support for the establishment of a first-class medical facility devoted to providing for the healthcare needs of less-endowed Nigerians.

Before his ministerial appointment and engagement by the Red Cross, Babalola had been reaching out to the needy through his non-governmental organisation named, Remi Babalola Initiative (RBI) in the areas of education, health and poverty reduction. And moved by the need to save lives, the former minister, in 2009, swiftly used the RBI platform to mobilise funds for the establishment of the medical facility in partnership with the Red Cross and other well-meaning Nigerians. Thus, on November 17, 2012, the facility was inaugurated by a former Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu.

The construction of the hospital was done solely by First Bank of Nigeria as a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through the influence of Babalola, who served as an Executive Director of the bank before his ministerial appointment. The hospital sits on a relatively expansive land provided by the Oyo State government during the immediate past administration

Dr Babalola and boasts of a modern theatre ward, medical laboratory and multiple patient wards. The centre was purposely sited along Ibadan-Ife Highway and a few metres to the well-known Gbagi market as well as the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) motor park. The choice of the location is in tandem with the initial conception that the facility would serve as a clinic where accident causalities can get first aid medical intervention and also give low-income earners access quality medicare.

A visit to the four year-old facility has helped to reveal what has kept it going. An orthopedic surgeon from the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, Dr. Abraham Anejukwo, who is the consultant in charge of the centre, while speaking disclosed how it has been since clinical activities began in the hospital in December 2012.

He said, “At the commencement of activities, it was discovered that beside road accident, there were some clinical conditions that need to be cared for among the people living in the community where the facility is located. So, it was decided that the scope of clinical services be expanded. Initially, we started with general patient/trauma care, but immunisation facility, physiotherapy and dental services have since been added and of course there is a laboratory and a pharmacy in the centre.

“The patient turn out is tremendous. At a point, the UCH medical personnel manning the centre were complaining because the load they get is more than what they get in a clinic of that size in UCH. Now that things have stabilised, we get at least 80 new patients every day and there was a time it went up to about 120. In four years, over 20,000 people have received quality and subsidised medicare at the centre on a not-for-profit basis. The centre provides quality and affordable healthcare services to the people. Patients that don’t want to go to UCH go to Remi Babalola Medical Centre because they get the standard of UCH at the centre and without the bureaucracy and the delays [in government hospitals]. The patients don’t pay for their case notes, registration or consultation, which is a lot of relief for the people in the community when you consider their status as artisans with very low income.

The drugs at the centre are sold at cheaper prices than market prices and for laboratory services, it is half the price at the centre.

“When we started, we thought we would only cater for low income people. But we get to see patients from all social classes, upper and middle class people, of course predominantly more of people from low income group from Adegbayi, Gbagi, Egbeda, Old Ife Road and many more. The

funny thing is that apart from these areas which are close to the centre, we have patients coming from as far as Apata and Bodija. I asked them how they knew about the centre and they said people mentioned it to them and they were told it is UCH standard and that everything is done fast.

We see bankers and others coming too”.

Anejukwo, who advocated the replication of such intervention not only across the state but all over the country, said tertiary health institutions were being burdened with medical conditions that ordinarily should be handled by primary and secondary health institutions rather than complicated health conditions for which they were set up. He then traced this to a dysfunction of the primary healthcare system in the country.

“Simple medical conditions should be managed at centres like the one set up by Dr. Babalola which is a little bit above primary healthcare facility because there are specialists from UCH who run the place and the facilities there are more than what you get in a typical primary healthcare centre. I have told Dr. Babalola personally that he should not give up, even if this partnership with the Red Cross is challenged. A lot of people have benefitted tremendously from the initiative. Even if public-spirited Nigerians don’t want to set up centres like he did, they can adopt those already in existence and work to make them functional and accessible to the masses”, he said. The initiator of the centre, Dr. Babalola, while speaking on how the four-year journey has been, said, “It has been a very good journey. It made me realise that the best and the most beautiful things in the world are things that touch the heart. When we started it, we were not sure how much impact it was going to have. If you go to UCH website today, you will see that it is only PPP they have on their website and it has been described by the UCH as a landmark in terms of partnership.”

“So, I am very impressed about the role the centre has played in reducing the dilapidation in healthcare provision, especially in that area of Ibadan. The interesting thing is not just the number of patients it has attended to but the way that it has been expanded in terms of medical facilities far beyond a clinic for emergency intervention, but which later went beyond that. Initially we thought the Red Cross Society was going to be able to anchor it, but we discovered that they didn’t have any structure in place and that was why I had to appeal to the UCH to support us.

UCH has been so wonderful and extremely supportive. I was in Ibadan one day and the market women swarmed around me praying for us.

They told us all the ailments that they used to think came as a result of spiritual attack from

colleagues got treated at the centre. They didn’t know the diseases were curable. Money can’t buy this. So, it has been really very rewarding in terms of humanitarian service”, he added.

Speaking on the role of the Red Cross in the tripartite partnership, the former minister said, “to be honest with you, that is the reason why we are going to hand over to Red Cross by the end of the year. When I got involved, I raised the money and I thought Red Cross had the platform and the structure to handle it. But after I had raised the money, I realised that Red Cross didn’t have structure to handle it. They said they were going to look for volunteer doctors and personnel to do it. But we realised that was not going to work.

So, instead of allowing it to fail, we changed the modality and made it a tripartite arrangement by involving the UCH. Now that we have operated it for four years successfully and Red Cross has seen how it is run, we are going to hand over to them to take over from where we stopped. I have even suggested that they should remove my name from the hospital. Periodically, we gave account to people who supported us highlighting inflows, outflows and patients attended to. The tripartite agreement is going to be extinguished and I am not sure the UCH will be involved. It is now left for the Red Cross to see whether they will sign a new agreement with the UCH or not”.

On whether it was the economic recession that informed the handing over to the Red Cross, Babalola said, “certainly NOT”. According to him, the centre had been self-financing from commencement as the funds raised were placed with banks like endowments and it is only the accrued interest that was used to fund the centre.

He gave the assurance that it would continue in perpetuity.

A nursing mother who patronises the hospital, Mrs. Funmi Alebiosu, said the initiative was the best thing that had happened in the community in the last four years, stating that many people could have died from avoidable deaths under the blade of quacks that had flooded the heath sector because of the acute shortage of skilled personnel.

“There is the case of a woman who had suffered misdiagnosis at the hands of a local doctor.

It was when the woman was brought to Remi Babalola Hospital that it was revealed that she would have died if her relatives had not brought her to the hospital. We are grateful to Dr. Babalola for this lofty initiative and urge other rich Nigerians to emulate his example,” she said.

An official of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, NURTW, Abuja Unit, Gbagi, Alhaji Wasiu Shittu, on his part, spoke about how beneficial the hospital has been to members of the union and the public at large. He said: “A lot of people in the community have benefitted tremendously from the hospital. People from Gbagi, Alakia, Adegbayi, and Isebo come to the hospital. I have their card which I got free of charge and I know many of our members who also have the cards. We receive treatment from the hospital every month for free. To see the doctor is free, no consultation fee is charged. The only thing we pay for is drugs and we get them for half the price. If the ailment is malaria, we get free malaria drugs at no cost. And the speed with which the personnel attend to patients is very commendable. What Remi Babalola has done for the community is unquantifiable. May Allah continue to bless him.

“There are many government primary healthcare centres around, but what distinguishes the hospital from others and what makes it the choice of many is that it is at the same level with the UCH in terms of quality healthcare.”

33

Agri Business

Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Experts chart ways for farm products standardisation Abolaji Adebayo

A

gricultural experts have linked rejection of Nigerian agricultural products at international market as well as food insufficient and insecurity to non-compliance to both international and local standards.

They said the most of the agricultural products in Nigeria lacked international accepted quality standards.

Speaking at the Agricultural End-ofthe-Year Forum organised by Nigeria Association of Agric Journalists, NAAJ, the Group General Manager of natnudO Foods, who doubles as the President of Poultry Association of Nigeria, PAN, Dr. Ayoola Oduntan, said there were many factors affecting the standards of many Nigerian farm products.

Oduntan, who was represented by

the Group Head, Policy and Strategy, natnudO Foods, Mr. Toromade Francis, categorised the factors into both micro, which could be controlled by the producers and macro factors, which could only be controlled by the government.

He mentioned government’s policies, infrastructure, illegal importation, high cost of input materials and others as some of the macro factors that could only be controlled by the government.

Citing poultry products for example, Oduntan said the prices of maize and soya beans have more than doubled in the last one year.

Meanwhile, he said for Nigerian produced eggs for instance to be accepted at the international market, every egg to be exported nust be Grade ‘A’ as the international standards requirement.

He added that the eggs must be satified

Agric Ministry cautions public on CAPFIS Programme Tola Akinmutimi

T

he Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, FMARD, has cautioned the public against patronising the promoters of a certain programme named CAPFIS, saying it has nothing to do with the programme.

A statement issued by the ministry’s Director (Information), Mr Tony Ohaeri, indicated that FMARD observed that certain individual/individuals had placed an advertisement in the internet

inviting people to register in for the programme.

He stated that the advertisement promised that participants in the programme will get two weeks intensive training on mechanized cassava cultivation; allotment of cassava and five hectares to cultivate cassava to each participant; and a three- day bonus training on heliciculture (snail farming) and aquaculture (cat fish farming) as benefits.

Other benefits promised by the promoters of the programme are, provision of accommodation; payment ofN20,000 monthly allowances; 25 per cent of accrued profit on inter cropping opportunity; andN1,000,000 after 8-9 months.

Ohaeri noted further that the advertisement also stated that the programme was supported by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

He warned: “The Ministry wishes to inform the general public that it does not know the promoters of the advertisement (Programme) and has not given or expressed support in any form to the said programme.

“The public is therefore advised to cross check the authenticity of such advertised programmes with the Ministry before getting involved”, Ohaeri added.

Minister of Agric, Audu Ogbeh

by the Poultry Association of Nigeria , PAN, with all production information.

Also speaking on the role of logistics in the growth of agriculture sector, the Divisional Managing Director, Red Star Logistics, a subsidiary of Red Star Express Plc., Mr. Ocholi Etu, said if there is proper logistics, the rate at which farm

Firm opens 160-hectare shrimp farm in Lagos Saidat Alausa

A

tlantic Shrimpers Limited (ASL), recently commissioned its shrimp farm in Iworo-Ajido, a rural community in Badagry, Lagos.

The shrimp farm, which is expected to boost Nigeria’s production capacity in the seafood market, will hatch, nurture and process shrimps on the farm that will serve both Nigeria and the export market.

Commissioning the farm, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, noted that the government’s call for investments in the agriculture sector.

The Governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Mr. Oluwatoyin Suarau, commended the company for locating the facility in Lagos and also for taking the investment to Badagry as the initiative will help in boosting the economic activities of the local community.

He said: “The Nigerian Government is keen to support local investments in agriculture. We must start looking inward and encourage development in areas where Nigeria has a competitive advantage. ASL has led the way by building this impressive facility. This farm will employ many Nigerians and will help the Nigerian economy generate foreign exchange when the products are exported. It will also go a long way to address food security in Nigeria.”

The Commissioner noted further that the company had been active in shrimp

R

epresentatives of the West Africa Agricultural Productivity Programme, WAAPP, a World Bank assisted Programme, have declared that farmers do not need massive capital to be successful in agriculture.

Professor Victoria Ayuba, who led the delegation on a World Bank Mission Support visit to the Federal College of Agriculture, Akure adopted communi-

ties and schools made this statement while addressing the students and community members.

“Many people often complain that finance is the major constraint against their involvement in the scheme, but I can tell you emphatically, that is not true. With very little money, they can start something very big in agriculture,” she said.

Ayuba noted that the visit was to assess the impact of the World Bank as-

Ambode

trawling since the 1990s when they commenced with just 15 trawlers. Since then they have continuously invested in the Nigerian economy, growing the fleet to over 70 trawlers and investing in their own Dry Dock to facilitate in-house maintenance of the fleet. ASL also developed a value added processing factory, in-house lab, workshops and modern cold storage facilities.

The company’s Managing Director, Kamlesh Kabra said: “This new Shrimp farm is proof of the company’s continued dedication to investing in Nigeria. We are proud of the fact we are developing products in which Nigeria has a competitive advantage, all of which are locally sourced and where Nigerians do the value addition in Nigeria”.

Chinese farmers bolster bird flu defenses as Asia outbreaks spread

C

hinese chickens are being fed more vitamins and vaccines as jittery farmers ramp up hen-house sterilization in a bid to protect flocks against a virulent strain of airborne bird flu that has led to re-

‘Farmers don’t require huge capital to succeed in agriculture’ Abolaji Adebayo

produce got wasted would be drastically reduced to zero level.

“Before we get our agriculture right, we have to get our logistics right first,” he said, adding that his company, having diversified into agriculture, was building a national wide logistics capacity to cater for farm produce in all states.

sisted programme -with member-countries of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, to make agriculture more sustainable and productive.

Lauding various projects executed

by WAAPP-FECA, Ayuba, who is also the current Dean, College of Forestry and Fishery, University of Agriculture, Makurdi avowed that the farmers were maximizing the training WAAPP had given them.

cord culling in nearby South Korea.

While Seoul has ordered the gassing of 20 million birds since the first case of the H5N6 virus was reported on Nov. 18, outbreaks in Japan and three confirmed cases in mainland China in the last two months have stoked fears of regional spread. Hong Kong on Tuesday confirmed its first human bird flu infection of the season.

Fears of the virus’ spread have spooked farmers preparing for the year’s peak meat demand during Lunar New Year celebrations. The last major outbreak in 2013 killed 36 people and caused some $6.5 billion in losses to the agriculture sector.

“We are worried,” said the manager of a state-owned 100,000 bird farm in Shandong province who gave his surname as Tan. “We are stepping up our existing anti-epidemic measures.” (Source – srnnews.com)

34

Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Business Maritime

We allow midstream discharge due to low drafts – NPA Stories: Francis Ezem

T

he Nigerian Ports Authority NPA, has given reasons why it permits midstream discharge of mother tankers vessels for now in some of the nation’s seaports, part of which is basically due to the very large size of the vessels as well as the strength of the quay walls, especially in the Lagos Pilotage District of the nation’s seaports.

Midstream discharge, which is a legitimate and accepted shipping practice, arises when a very large vessel probably because of reason of the depth of the port channels or size of the vessels discharges their contents before they get to a port harbour into smaller vessels that can navigate safely through the shallow channel without the risk of running aground.

Many indigenous shipping companies, especially members of the Nigerian Shipowners Association NISA, have over the years lamented the practice of midstream discharge, especially in the Lagos area, where the mother ship berths at the Lome Port in Togo and discharge into smaller vessels, which in turn transmit the liquid bulk cargo to the various facilities in Lagos, which they argued keeps their vessels idle.

But the Executive Director of the NPA in charge of Marine and Operations, Dr. Sekonte Davies, who fielded questions from select newsmen during a recent interactive session in Lagos, admitted that midstream discharge was not the best for the Nigerian nation, but that the authority permits it due to the very large nature of the mother tanker vessels.

According to him, coupled with the large size of the vessels is the fact that the nation’s port channels, the deepest of which is 13.5 meters are too shallow for the vessels even as the quay walls can also not accommodate the vessels.

“Essentially, midstream discharge is really not the best for the country, but those large vessels cannot go beyond where they are for now because of their size, which cannot go through our low draft channels and our quay walls can-

not support them to berth at our ports.

But we have to allow that for now so that the cargoes carried by those vessels are discharged”.

“But the executive management is doing everything within its powers to ensure that the dredging of the channels is done as at when due”, the Executive Director said.

Investigations however show that at the depth of 13.5, meters, the water channels have reached their maximum and cannot take any further capital dredging while the berth areas, which have piles of petroleum and gas pipes cannot also not

be dredged any further as that may make the quay walls to cave in, an indication that the midstream discharge would continue.

The direct implications of this practice is massive loss of revenue to the Nigerian government as the mother vessels pay fees and charges that run into the hundreds of millions of dollars to the Togolese Government though the products end in Nigeria as well as the fact that the shipping lines which own the mother vessels prefer their own smaller vessels for the transfers to the detriment of the indigenous shipping companies.

On the maintenance of the nation’s water channels, the ED said that NPA has three Joint Venture Companies for the Lagos, Bonny and Calabar channels, which carry out quarterly surveys that produce accurate data for capital or maintenance dredging of the channels as the need may arise.

He assured that the current management would continue to ensure that the channels are regularly maintained with the cooperation of the authority’s JV companies to ensure safe navigation in addition to meeting all its obligations under the port reform agreement

2017: NIMASA restates commitment to core functions for efficiency

T

he Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency NIMASA, has said it will focus serious attention in its core functions and responsibility to the stakeholders and its customers with a view to enhancing efficient service delivery.

The agency is currently working on a medium term growth plan for the maritime industry anchored on the delivery of quality and services to the industry based on its core functions and mandate.

Part of this is its renewed commitment to fully implement it’s five pillar programme of maritime safety, security, search and rescue transformation; marine environment preservation; digital transformation initiative; capacity building initiatives; and cultural and attitudinal transformation.

Director General of the agency, Dr. Dakuku Peterside, who gave a New Year message, noted that the NIMASA will more than ever before re-dedicate itself to the execution of its core functions in the year 2017 with a view to promoting growth and development through efficient service delivery.

In what appeared a review of activities of last year, he admitted that 2016 was particularly very challenging but assured that the current year would be better.

The DG said: “While 2016 was a challenging year as a result of the economic re-

cession, the year 2017 promises to be a year of economic recovery not just for the maritime sector but the nation at large. This is because the Federal Government is equally committed to re-flating the economy in order to engender an early recovery from the current recession” According to him, the new year will signify a turning point in the fortunes of operators in the nation’s maritime industry.

Peterside, who decried the harsh operating environment in Nigeria’s maritime industry, he assured of the agency’s commitment to full enforcement of its mandate, which will have far-reaching effects on the industry.

“We are focused on the full implementation of our mandate in the new year.

We have concluded the restructuring, repositioning and reformation of NIMASA

which would take effect in the first quarter of 2017 with the aim of making Nigeria a hub of maritime activities in West and Central Africa. Our commitment is to make sure that indigenous operators maximise their potentials in our maritime industry whilst creating wealth and job opportunities for our teeming youths”, the NIMASA-boss said emphatically.

According to the DG, the agency is poised to activate all these initiatives with a view to harnessing the vast opportunities inherent in the sector and generating revenue for the government for developmental programmes.

NIMASA had last week reopened three jetties and port facilities shut over their failure to comply with the requirements of the International Ships and Port Facility Security ISPS Code.

NPA MD, Hadiza Usman

NIMASA DG Peterside

Ship recycling markets end 2016 on stable note

T

he international ship recycling markets have witnessed another roller coaster week and year, however, the industry concluded 2016 on an overall stable to positive note, according to a report from GMS, a cash buyer of ships for recycling.

During the first quarter of 2016 the prices slid down from their mid-2014 peak above USD 500/LT LDT, down to the very low USD 200s/LDT, representing a drop of over 50% in asset values.

Just declines into the USD 100s/LDT were feared, the markets made a recovery to storm almost USD 100/LDT higher and rise above USD 300/LDT levels again.

The next three quarters saw varying degrees of ups and downs, according to GMS, “but the year ends on a comparatively positive note as steel prices have

overall rebounded across the globe and currencies have stabilized after a tumultuous 2016.”

Following a number of price corrections since 2014, many yards suffered foreclosures and bankruptcies, however, this year has finally seen plots get back on their feet.

“It will therefore be interesting to see just how 2017 begins, but it does seem like the worst is over as the industry wraps up 2016 on an overall stable to positive note, with scope for further optimism and improved performance in the year ahead,” GMS said.

The cash buyer added that, over the last couple of weeks, the markets remained relatively quiet and no market sales were noted in most major recycling destinations in the final week of December 2016.

MSI: Container shipping industry sailing on turbulent waters

T

he latest phase of mass consolidation continues to see the container shipping industry sailing in uncharted waters and has emphasized the extent to which liner companies are having to restructure their business models in order to survive, according to Maritime Strategies International (MSI).

MSI said that the actions taken by liner companies, both in terms of consolidating service provision and also redelivering chartered tonnage, mean that the worst of the downturn is over for the globally competitive operators.

However, much of the self-help being

undertaken by the liner industry is piling pressure onto the already beleaguered charter owners. The recovery in freight rates has been in part a result of the redelivery and subsequent idling of vessels under charter owner control, whilst the consolidation of liner capacity implies the potential for greater operating efficiency and a concomitant reduction in demand for vessels.

“Overlaid on this negative backdrop is, in our view at least, a greater commitment to action with banks increasingly prepared to take haircuts to get values to reasonable levels,” James Frew, MSI Senior Analyst, said.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Capital Market

Friday, January 6, 2017

35

Equities cap shed N98bn on sell offs in NAHCO, Guinness, others Johnson Okanlawon

T

rading in equities continued on a negative note on the Nigerian Stock Exchange yesterday, as more investors sold their holdings.

Specifically, the All Share Index depreciated 1.07 per cent to close at 26,212.09 points, compared to the decline of 0.45 per cent recorded the preceding day to close at 26,495.04 points.

Market capitalization lost N98billion to close at N9.018trillion, compared to the loss of N42billion recorded the preceding day to close at N9.116trillion.

Stock analysts noted that

the trading was below-average trade volume as offer position outweighed bid position.

“Overall, the day’s activity was highlighted by the 1.81 point decline in industrial goods sector.

While there are no incentives for investors to take on new risks, going forward, we are of the view that the market will continue to see more of speculative trading,” the analysts at DLM Securities said.

“The weakness on the day was particularly driven by NAHCO Plc with 30 kobo or 9.49 per cent to close at N2.86 per

share, followed by Guinness Plc with N.15 or five per cent to close at N78.90 per share.

Dangote Flour Mills Plc lost 21 kobo or 4.94 per cent to close at N4.04 per share, while Custodian Insurance Plc dropped 19 kobo or 4.88 per cent to close at N3.70 per share.

Caverton Plc depreciated four kobo or 4.44 per cent to close at 86 kobo per share.

However, UAC-Properties Plc led the gainers’ table with 21 kobo or 7.29 per cent to close at N3.09 per share, followed by Oando Plc with 24 kobo or 5.58 per cent to close at N4.54

per share.

Access Bank Plc was up 29 kobo or 4.96 per cent to close at N6.14 per share, while Diamond Bank Plc rose four kobo or 4.65 per cent to close at 90 kobo per share.

Eterna Oil Plc gained 14 kobo or 4.58 per cent to close at N3.20 per share.

Source: NSE The total value of stocks traded was N898.71million, Exchange Rate up by 2.88 per cent from Naira US Dollar Gainers N873.57million recorded on and Losers $1 304.75 Start Date 04/01/2017 through End Date 05/01/2017 Wednesday.

Print Date 05/01/2017 The total volume of stocks Market indicators Gainers and Losers Start traded was 137.69million inDate 04/01/2017 through End Date 05/01/2017 All-Share Index 25,739.18 points Print Date 05/01/2017 2,488 deals, while the three Gainers for Equities Market capitalisation 8.86trn most actively traded stocks 2017-01-04 2017-01-05 Symbol Closing Price(N) Closing Price(N) Gain(N) % Change were Fidelity Bank, Dia- S/N 1 UAC-PROP 2.88 0.21 7.29 Gainers for Equities3.09 mond Bank and United Capi- 2 OANDO 4.30 4.54 0.24 5.58 2017-01-04 2017-01-05 tal.

Gain(N) Closing Price(N) 3 S/NACCESSSymbol 5.85 Closing Price(N) 6.14 0.29 % Change 4.96

Vitafoam’s boss explains new focus, 2016 dividend payment Tola Akinmutimi

D

espite the tough operating environment characterized by high cost of production and low purchasing power of consumers, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc’s management has unfolded new strategic focus for optimum operations of the company under recession and assured the shareholders of payment of dividend for the 2016 financial year.

Besides, the mattresses and a range of home comfort materials manufacturing company has pledged

to sustain its corporate culture of innovative products at competitive prices for enhanced shareholder value.

In his preliminary review of the last year’s operations of the manufacturing sector in Nigeria, Vitafoam’s Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Taiwo Adeniyi, explained that it was a very tough period as the most difficult problem was how to make realistic business decision in the face of continuous uncertainty in view of insecurity, exchange rate, inter-

est rate, devaluation of the Naira and insecurity of lives and property.

Adeniyi, who noted that the company’s board and management had learnt how to operate profitably under recession, assured the shareholders of dividend after the company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) early this year.

He commended the shareholders for their support and understanding in the year under review.

“Our shareholders are our pride. We have an obligation to work very hard to ensure that they are re-

warded. We have consistently paid dividend. We shall pay dividend for 2016 despite the recession.

“We have always sustained our culture of shareholder value and we shall continue to appreciate our shareholders’ advice on how to move the company forward. It has been difficult to plan under recession.

But we have mastered the terrain. We can now do better planning. Our strategic focus is now to plan by the day. We plan as they come.

At least we can now forecast some variables. This is helping us,” Adeniyi added.

Bank stocks bring down S&P, Dow; techs prop up Nasdaq

A

rise in technology stocks helped the Nasdaq eke out small gains yesterday but was not enough to pull the S&P 500 and the Dow into the black as banks stocks weighed.

The ADP payrolls report, which sets a precedent to the jobs data, showed 153,000 people were hired in the private sector in December compared with economists’ expectation of 170,000.

US stocks rallied for nearly two months since Donald Trump’s victory in the presidential election in November, taking the Dow tantalizingly close to the historic 20,000 mark.

However, some analysts warned the market was poised for a correction.

“We are at the top of the range from the perspective of the Dow and the S&P, so that means we have a little bit of downside room to move, but frankly I think it will be fairly minimal,” said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab & Company.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 54.81 points, or 0.27 percent, at 19,887.35, the S&P 500 was down 4.75 points, or 0.21 percent, at 2,266 and the Nasdaq Composite index was up 3.62 points, or 0.07 percent, at 5,480.63.

Seven of the 11 major S&P 500 sectors were lower, with financials .SPSY and consumer discretionary .SPLRCD weighing the most on the broader index.

Wells Fargo , Bank of America and JPMorgan, part of the financial group that has gained the most in the post-election rally, were the biggest drags on the S&P. Goldman Sachs (GS.N) had a similar influence on the Dow. “I suspect financials are just starting to catch up to the fact that rates have topped out in the nearterm,” Frederick said.

Department stores Macy’s dropped 14 percent and Kohl’s nearly 18 percent after the companies cut their profit forecasts. Nordstrom and J.C. Penney lost 10 percent and 6 percent, respectively.

Online retailer Amazon. com, which has been eating into the sales of brick-

UAC-PROP 4 1 DIAMONDBNK OANDO 5 2 ETERNA ACCESS 6 3 CONTINSURE DIAMONDBNK 7 4 WAPIC ETERNA 8 5 BETAGLAS 6 CONTINSURE 9 FBNH 7 WAPIC 10 CAP 8 BETAGLAS 11 GUARANTY 9 FBNH 12 CADBURY 10 CAP 13 UBA 11 GUARANTY 14 ETI 12 CADBURY 15 13 AIICO UBA 16 14 TRANSCORP ETI 17 15 FCMB AIICO 16 TRANSCORP 17 FCMB

16.46

MPR

14

Crude oil price

$53.72

0.21 0.04 0.24 0.14 0.29 0.04 0.04 0.02 0.14 1.00 0.04 0.11 0.02 1.00 1.00 0.57 0.11 0.22 1.00 0.10 0.57 0.19 0.22 0.01 0.10 0.01 0.19 0.01 0.01 0.01 0.01

Losers for Equities

7.29 4.65 5.58 4.58 4.96 4.17 4.65 3.92

4.58 3.45 4.17 3.30 3.92 3.13 3.45 2.49 3.30 2.25 3.13 2.22 2.49 1.99 2.25 1.64 2.22

1.15 1.99 0.90 1.64 1.15 0.90

Symbol

and-mortar retailers, was up 2.3 percent at $774.50.

The stock gave the biggest boost to the S&P and the Nasdaq.

Inflation

3.09 0.90 4.54 3.20 6.14 1.00 0.90 0.53 3.20 30.00 1.00 3.44 0.53 33.00 30.00 23.47 3.44 10.00 33.00 4.61 23.47 9.73 10.00 0.62 4.61 0.88 9.73 1.12 0.62 0.88 1.12

2017-01-04 2017-01-05 Loss(N) % Change Closing Price(N) Closing Price(N) Losers for Equities 1 NAHCO 3.16 2.86 -0.30 -9.49 2017-01-04 2017-01-05 Symbol Closing Price(N) Loss(N) 2 S/NGUINNESS 83.05 Closing Price(N) 78.90 -4.15 % Change -5.00 NAHCO 3.16 2.86 -0.30 -9.49 3 1 DANGFLOUR 4.25 4.04 -0.21 -4.94 GUINNESS 83.05 78.90 -4.15 -5.00 4 2 CUSTODYINS 3.89 3.70 -0.19 -4.88 DANGFLOUR 4.25 4.04 -0.21 -4.94 5 3 CAVERTON 0.90 0.86 -0.04 -4.44 CUSTODYINS 3.89 3.70 -0.19 -4.88 6 4 STANBIC 15.63 15.00 -0.63 -4.03 5 CAVERTON 0.90 0.86 -0.04 -4.44 7 DANGCEM 173.99 167.02 -6.97 -4.01 6 STANBIC 15.63 15.00 -0.63 -4.03 8 FO 83.60 80.75 -2.85 -3.41 7 DANGCEM 173.99 167.02 -6.97 -4.01 9 VITAFOAM 2.54 2.47 -0.07 -2.76 8 FO 83.60 80.75 -2.85 -3.41 10 FIDELITYBK 0.85 0.83 -0.02 -2.35 9 VITAFOAM 2.54 2.47 -0.07 -2.76 11 NEM 1.02 1.00 -0.02 -1.96 10 FIDELITYBK 0.85 0.83 -0.02 -2.35 12 WEMABANK 0.54 0.53 -0.01 -1.85 11 NEM 1.02 1.00 -0.02 -1.96 13 STERLNBANK 0.71 0.70 -0.01 -1.41 12 WEMABANK 0.54 0.53 -0.01 -1.85 14 13 UCAP 2.89 2.88 -0.01 -0.35 STERLNBANK 0.71 0.70 -0.01 -1.41 15 14 ZENITHBANK 14.55 14.50 -0.05 -0.34 UCAP 2.89 2.88 -0.01 -0.35 16 15 FLOURMILL 18.49 18.48 -0.01 -0.05 ZENITHBANK 14.55 14.50 -0.05 -0.34 FLOURMILLOPEN CONTRACTS 18.49 18.485, 2017 (4:30PM) -0.01 -0.05 OTC16FX FUTURES AS AT JANUARY

S/N

Contract Tenor Contract (Month) 1 Stock Exchange NGUS JAN Published by The Nigerian © 25 2017 2 NGUS FEB 22 2017 Published by The Nigerian Stock Exchange © 3 NGUS MAR 22 2017 4 NGUS APR 26 2017 5 NGUS MAY 24 2017 6 NGUS JUN 21 2017 7 NGUS JUL 19 2017 8 NGUS AUG 16 2017 9 NGUS SEP 20 2017 10 NGUS OCT 25 2017

Rate (%)

2.88 0.86 4.30 3.06 5.85 0.96 0.86 0.51 3.06 29.00 0.96 3.33 0.51 32.00 29.00 22.90 3.33 9.78 32.00 4.51 22.90 9.54 9.78 0.61 4.51 0.87 9.54 1.11 0.61 0.87 1.11

Settlement Date 25-Jan-2017 22-Feb-2017 22-Mar-2017 26-Apr-2017 24-May-2017 21-Jun-2017 19-Jul-2017 16-Aug-2017 20-Sep-2017 25-Oct-2017

11

NGUS NOV 29 2017

29-Nov-2017

12

NGUS DEC 27 2017

27-Dec-2017

Value of Open Current Rate Contracts ($’mm) ($/₦) 188.80 Page303.00 1 of 195.58 Page 300.00 1 of 280.32 297.00 812.56 294.00 170.80 291.00 554.40 288.00 485.31 285.00 277.81 282.00 302.22 279.00 163.17 276.00 147.12 272.00 132.60

3710.69

Total

274.00

Termination of Trading Trading shall cease at 2:00PM eight (8) calendar days before the expiry date of each respective Contract. i.e. the Tuesday preceding the week the contract expires.

NITTY Tenor

Rate (%)

Change (%)

1M

14.4217

-1.02

3M

14.2079

-0.13

6M

19.3436

-0.29

Exchange

Rates (N)

WAUA

408.6774

USD

304.5

EURO

317.7458

CFA

0.4793

YEN

2.591

Tenor

Rate (%)

SWISS FRANC

296.668

O/N

8.2917

POUNDS STERLING

374.1696

1M

15.9925

3M

17.5164

SDR

406.9947

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WorldNews

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Wednesday, January 6, 2017 -

Page 36

Car bomb, gun assault claim 4 in Turkey

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wo attackers, a policeman and a court worker were killed yesterday in a car bomb and gun assault on a courthouse in the Turkish city of Izmir, state media say.

Reports said a number of people were wounded in the explosion, some critically.

Images showed two cars ablaze and the body of one man carrying a weapon, even as reports said a third attacker was being sought.

It was not clear at press time who is responsible but Turkish officials said initial findings pointed to Kurdish rebels.

Some of Turkey’s big cities have been targeted recently both

by ISIS and Kurdish militants.

Turkey launched a military operation in Syria in August to push back IS and Kurdish forces from the Turkish border.

ISIS had said it was behind last weekend’s Istanbul nightclub attack that left 39 people dead.

Izmir’s Governor Erol Ayyildiz said a car had stopped in front of the Izmir courthouse, sparking an exchange with police, after which the car bomb detonated.

The attackers were armed with

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Pro-Jammeh: Gen. Ousman Badjie

–Outgoing US President, Barack Obama

WORLD BULLETIN Russian hacking alarming –McCain Chairman of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator John McCain, has said every American should be alarmed by Russian interference in the US election.

“This committee has met for the first time in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy,” McCain said yesterday.

Intelligence agencies say the Kremlin ordered the hack of Democratic emails.

But Russia has denied involvement but the US has announced sanctions against Russian officials.

Top US intelligence officials are giving testimony to the Senate committee investigating the alleged interference.

President-elect Donald Trump will be briefed on the report today and an unclassified version will be made public next week.

Police and medics at the scene of the blast in Izmir, Turkey yesterday

Kalashnikov rifles and grenades.

Reports of the number of people injured in the explosion however ranged from five to 10.

“A second car was destroyed in a controlled explosion,” the governor said.

Deputy Prime Minister Veysi

Kaynak said that, judging by the weapons found following the raid, a much larger attack was being planned.

No-one has yet said they carried out the attack but the governor said initial findings pointed to the involvement of Kurdish

fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The PKK is fighting for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey.

It has carried out many attacks on Turkish security forces, particularly in the south-east.

Tension as Army head makes Jammeh allegiance ambia’s Head of Army, General Ousman Badjie, has given his full backing to the country’s beleaguered President, Yahya Jammeh, amid a deepening political crisis.

Jammeh suffered a surprise electoral defeat last month to Adama Barrow.

He initially accepted the result but changed his mind days later, citing electoral “abnormalities”.

In a letter to the pro-government newspaper, Badjie pledged the unflinching loyalty and support of the Gambia Armed Forces to Jammeh.

Badjie’s intervention follows the threat of military action by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) if Jammeh refuses to leave office on January 19.

Jammeh has said any such intervention would constitute an act

“We tried our utmost to give the world a new vista wherever we can do our best. We are pleased with our efforts”–

of war.

Barrow’s team had previously claimed the support of Badjie, seen as critical in building a transition after Jammeh’s 22 years in power.

The tiny West African state has not had a smooth transfer of power since independence from Britain in 1965.

The dispute over the election results has raised tensions in the region, with both neighbouring countries and international powers urging Jammeh to step down.

Barrow won 43.3 per cent of the vote on December 1, beating Jammeh’s 39.6 per cent. A third-party candidate, Mama Kandeh, won 17.1 per cent.

Those figures were revised from earlier totals, after the electoral commission discovered a tallying error affecting all candidates. The revised results did not alter the outcome of the election.

However, Jammeh declared that he would no longer respect the re-

sult and has launched a court action to annul the result.

His security forces have seized control of the commission’s headquarters in the capital, Banjul, and the head of the election commission has fled the country over fears for his security.

Meanwhile, Barrow said he would not prosecute the former president after a transition, but focus instead on reconciling the country’s opposing forces.

New UN Chief faces South Sudan ‘headache’

O

ne of the key issues facing the UN’s newly installed Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, will be to address critical failures in African peacekeeping operations.

With this is mind, he will be asking himself whether the vast organisation he is now leading needs to chart a different course.

The UN spends close to $8bn (£6.5bn) every year on peacekeeping around the world, with the bulk going to missions in Africa.

A new report by the Genevabased research group Small Arms Survey has accused the UN’s Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) of lacking neutrality

by giving arms to rebels in the town of Bentiu in 2013.

It blames UNMISS for underreporting arms confiscated from fleeing soldiers and handing over the weapons to soldiers of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO) on more than one occasion.

The report also claims that shortly after this transfer of arms, the rebels went on to carry out a massacre of civilians.

The operations of the UN’s mission in South Sudan came into sharp focus after embarrassing revelations that its troops failed to protect civilians following clashes between government forces and former reb-

els in July 2016.

A damning internal investigation found that its peacekeeping mission in the capital, Juba had failed to achieve one of its core mandates, namely “to protect civilians under threat of physical violence with specific protection for women and children”.

UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres

Incitement sparks Israeli arrests Police in Israel have arrested two people accused of inciting violence against judges who convicted a young soldier of manslaughter for shooting dead a wounded Palestinian attacker.

The military court’s decision to convict Sgt Elor Azaria on Wednesday has sharply divided opinion, with some threatening the judges online.

The three judges who ruled on the case have been given a security detail.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has backed calls for a pardon for Azaria.

“Police arrested a man in Jerusalem and a woman in the southern town of Kiryat Gat whose social media posts amounted to incitement to violence against the judges,” reports quoted police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld as saying.

French soldiers off sex abuse hook Six French soldiers accused of sexually abusing children in the Central African Republic (CAR) have not been charged following a criminal inquiry.

Investigating judges found no evidence to warrant further investigation, according to the prosecutor’s office in Paris.

The assaults allegedly took place at a camp for displaced people near the airport in the capital Bangui.

French soldiers were sent to CAR after the outbreak of the civil war in 2013.

The assaults allegedly took place between December 2013 and June 2014.

The prosecutor’s office makes the final decision over the charges, but its decision is expected to reflect the finding of the judges, There is however a three-month window for interested parties to demand fresh investigations.

Friday, January 6, 2017

Lookman seals ‘dream move’ to Everton

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

37

Sport

FIFA has no reason to suspect there has been misuse of funds that FIFA has provided to the Sierra Leone Football Association – FIFA

38

Super Eagles’ stars missing in 2016 Africa X1

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Iwobi battles Mane, Yaya for Premier League award N

igeria youngster Alex Iwobi of Arsenal will fight it out with Yaya Toure of Manchester City and Liverpool’s Sadio Mane for the December 2016 African Player of the month in the Premier League.

The New African Soccer Awards have shortlisted Manchester City’s Yaya Toure, Liverpool Senegalese forward Said Mane and Alex Iwobi of Arsenal for the December 2016 African Player of the Month in the English Premier League.

In a brief release, the New Af-

rican Soccer Awards called on journalists and its teeming followers to vote on their choice of the Award winner and continue to support the initiative.

Yaya Toure last won the Award in December 2015 and has endured a torrid start to the current season before a recall that cemented his place in the first team and has performed well recently.

Sadio Mane has been very active and prominent in Liverpool’s title pursuit and will be sorely missed by the Anfield team when he jets out to the Africa Cup of Na-

tions. His contribution to the team lying in second place has been phenomenal so far.

The young Alex Iwobi, who burst on to the scene in Arsenal towards the end of last season has continued to impress, and has even added a couple of goals to the mix.

Iwobi joined Arsenal while still at primary school and was first involved in a first-team match as an unused substitute in a League Cup match against West Bromwich Albion on 25 September 2013. He signed a new long-term contract

But that has not stopped the Ukrainian Blue faithful to capture his emotions, praises and best moments of the Olympic Bronze medallist, remarkably, attributing him as ‘one of the biggest symbols of Nigeria and one of the greatest players of Chelsea.’

The 29-year-old, who is set to join Chinese Super League side Tianjin TEDA went a step further by tweet-

ing the letter appreciate the Ukrainian’s gesture saying: “Thanks for the love @CFCLive_vk #BlueIsTheColour.

The former Lyn Oslo player has won two English Premier League, the FA Cup four times and a Uefa Champions League trophy amongst other in a trophy-laden career at the London club.

with Arsenal in October 2015.

After playing youth football for England,[ Iwobi decided to play for Nigeria and made his senior debut on 8 October 2015, replacing Ahmed Musa in the 57th minute of a 2–0 friendly defeat to DR Congo in Visé, Belgium.

He was selected by Nigeria for their 35-man provisional squad for the 2016 Summer Olympics.

The 20-year old is a favourite in the club and has earned his place on the shortlist despite a very busy schedule in December.

Mikel receives emotional farewell message

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azar, a Chelsea fan from Ukraine has sent an emotional farewell message to John Obi Mikel who looks set to leave the Stamford Bridge outfit in the current transfer window.

The Nigeria skipper, in his 11th year with the Roman Army, has been on the fringes of Antonio Conte’s squad. And he is set to be a free agent at the end of the season.

Mikel

igeria Super Eagles stars have failed to make the Africa XI for 2016 named by the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Arsenal youngster Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho from Manchester City could only be named on the substitutes’ bench.

The top three nominees for the prestigious CAF African Footballer of the Year for 2016; Riyad Mahrez, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Sadio Mane are on the starting line-up.

CAF recognized Mamelodi Sundowns top stars Denis Onyango, Khama Billiat and Keegan Dolly as they won an historic CAF Champions League last year to be included on this Dream Team.

The list includes goalkeeper, Denis Onyango (Uganda and Mamelodi Sundowns) while the defenders are Serge Aurier (Cote d’Ivoire and PSG), Aymen Abdenour (Tunisia and Valencia), Eric Bailly (Cote d’Ivoire and Manchester United), and Joyce Lomalisa (DRC and AS Vita) Midfielders include.

Khama Billiat (Zimbabwe and Mamelodi Sundowns), Rainford Kalaba (Zambia and TP Mazembe) and Keegan Dolly (South Africa and Mamelodi Sundowns) while the forwards include Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon and Borussia Dortmund), Sadio Mane (Senegal and Liverpool), Riyad Mahrez (Algeria and Leicester City) Substitutes are Aymen Mathlouthi (Tunisia and Etoile du Sahel), Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal and Napoli), Salif Coulibaly (Mali and TP Mazembe), Islam Slimani (Algeria and Leicester City), Mohamed Salah (Egypt and Roma), Kelechi Iheanacho (Nigeria and Manchester City) and Alex Iwobi (Nigeria and Arsenal)

Sports

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Friday, January 6, 2017

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Kompany nearing first-team return

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anchester City captain Vincent Kompany has returned to first-team training for the first time since he suffered a knee injury in November but today’s third-round FA Cup clash at West Ham United comes too soon for the defender.

The 30-year-old Kompany has started only two Premier League matches this season and has been plagued by calf, groin and thigh injuries this year. British media reported that he has had 35 separate injury problems since joining City from German club Hamburg in 2008.

“He has started training now but he’s not ready to play tomorrow,” manager Pep Guardiola told reporters yesterday.

Guardiola said he would not be making changes to his starting line-up for today’s game at West Ham. “West Ham is a Premier League team. We are away, it’s tough. I want to continue in the competition,” he said.

Lookman seals ‘dream move’ to Everton

H

ighly-rated teenager Ademola Lookman achieved his ‘dream move’ yesterday signing for Premier League Everton from third tier Charlton Athletic for a fee reported to be £11 million.

The 19-year-old forward who broke into the Charlton first team midway through last season scoring five goals when they were in the Championship before being rel-

egated signed a four-and-a-half year contract.

The England U-20 international, who has scored seven times for League One Charlton this season, said one of the main reasons for signing for Everton was their Dutch manager Ronald Koeman.

“As soon as I heard about Everton’s interest I knew this would be the right place for me,” Lookman

Silva appointed Hull City Manager

F

ormer Olympiakos manager Marco Silva has been confirmed as Hull City’s new

boss.

The 39-year-old Portuguese has signed until the end of the season at the KCOM Stadium.

He replaces Mike Phelan who was sacked on Tuesday with the Tigers bottom of the Premier League.

Silva left the Greek side in the summer and had previously been linked with managerial vacancies at Championship sides Wolves and Nottingham Forest.

He will take charge of Hull’s next game against fellow Premier League strugglers Swansea in the FA Cup third round at home on Saturday.

A full-back with only two topflight appearances in Portugal, Silva started his coaching career in the summer of 2011 with second-tier side Estoril, with whom he had spent most of his playing career.

He guided them to promotion to the top flight and a place in the Europa League before moving to Sporting Lisbon in 2014.

H

ednesford Town youngster Cohen Bramall is to make the move from non-league to Premier League, by signing for Arsenal.

The 20-year-old left-back will leave the Staffordshire-based Northern Premier League side for north London in a deal worth £40,000.

He follows the road taken by Everton and Wales defender Ashley Williams, who started his career at Hednesford.

Crystal Palace and Sheffield Wednesday had both reportedly watched Bramall, but only Arsenal agreed terms.

He travelled to Arsenal’s Lon-

Guardiola

Ifeanyi Eduzor

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Guardiola denies retirement rumours

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anchester City manager Pep Guardiola yesterday denied that he was already planning his retirement at age 45, after saying that he was “arriving at the end” of his career.

The Spaniard sparked feverish speculation about his future after saying in an interview with American television station NBC that he could not see himself still being in management when he reaches his sixties.

During the interview Guardiola said: “I feel the process of my goodbye has already started. I am arriving at the end of my coaching career, of this

ing them, that was a big attraction.

“It was great playing in The Championship last season and for the last six months in League One but I feel like I’m ready to make the step up to the Premier League,” added Lookman, who prefers to be

BOT ratifies supporters’ club election

oard of Trustees of Nigeria Football Supporters Club has ratified the December 10, 2016 election which produced Rev. Samuel Ikpea as the new national chairman of the club.

The BOT stated that it took the don Colney training ground yesdecision in fulfillment of the conterday with his agent Dan Chapstitution of the club as well as to man, following an initial period give the necessary mandate and on trial. legal backing to the new executive to enable them start work immediately even as it declared the purported parallel election held by the erstwhile acting national chairman of the club Vincent Okumagba in Abuja as not only illegal but misplaced.

Chairman of the BOT and President General of the Club, Dr. Rafiu Ladipo while charging the newly elected executives to carry out their duties diligently, noted that the election was delayed because Bramall of the reconciliation committee set up by the NFF which in its re-

Arsenal to sign non-league player, Bramall

Silva

told the club website.”Everton has a big history and I was also attracted by the manager.

“When you look at what he did at Southampton, and what he does with young players in terms of develop-

I am sure.”

He now admits it was “inappropriate” to talk about life after football and insists he remains committed to City, where he has a contract until 2019, having only joined the club in July.

“I said in the interview that I won’t be a trainer when I’m 60. But I’m 45.

I’m not going to retire in two or three years,” he said.

“I love my job and I’m in the perfect place to do my job, especially here in England. I’m not going to train at 60 because I want to do something else in my life”, he stressed.

ports appealed to the club to lift the expulsion placed on the erstwhile acting national chairman for anti-party activities which the club accepted but was surprised that the same football house under the leadership of Amaju Pinnick encouraged Okumagba to organise an illegal election in Abuja .

“We want Nigerians to note that it is Amaju Pinnick that is causing our problem by encouraging some dissidents led by Okumagba to organise an illegal election in Abuja even when he was aware that we organised our election in Lagos which was monitored by eminent Nigerians.

“If Pinnick does not want to support the club like previous NFF Presidents, he should steer clear of the club and not involve in clandestine activities to destroy what we have laboured over the years to build”, he stated.

He advised Pinnick who was described the election of factional President of NFF, Chris Giwa as illegal to stop supporting illegality.

President of the Elders Forum, Elder, Isaac Ukpebor, noted that Okumagba has never been the national chairman of the club and will never be because of his antecedents, stressing that he cannot be trusted.

National Chairman of the club Rev. Samuel Ikpea explained that Okumagba stopped being acting chairman immediately his executive was dissolved and an electoral committee inaugurated noting that he never collected form to contest election and wondered who voted for him in the Abuja kangaroo election.

National Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net

Sports

Friday, January 6, 2017

Female All Stars tourney takes center stage in Lagos

British investors set to re-position Nigerian League Ifeanyi Eduzor

A

United Kingdom based Sports Entertainment company, Aurola Limited in collaboration with its Nigerian partners, Arabella 21st Century Limited have concluded arrangement to invest about 1.5 billion dollars in the next 20 years in Nigerian football aimed at revolutionizing the country’s league.

Disclosing this to the media, Chief Executive Officer of Arabella, Otumba Femi Carena stated that the plan when implemented will see premier league clubs in the country run professionally with little or no government funding as is the case in Europe.

According to him, the investors had already received guarantees from the Federal Government through the Minister of Youth and Sports and MoU signed as part of the initial arrangement.

He explained that the whole idea was to discourage government from putting money in football and make Nigerian football move forward even as he assured that both the NFF and LMC will benefit immensely from the deal.

Carena,announced that as part of preparations for the take off the scheme, an international Football conference will be held in the country from 8-9March,2017 to be addressed by officials of English Premier League ,NBA and Nigerian Stock Exchange’; saying that World football legend, Pele has accepted to attend the seminar.

Representatives of the investors, Babatunde Aina noted that they are not coming to change the league but to make it move forward positing that they became interested in investing in the country because Arabella developed a methodology which they believe can work.

Director of the company who also doubles as President General of Nigeria Football Supporters Club, Dr.Rafiu Ladipo advised Nigerians to appreciate the investors as well as explore the opportunity for the development of the country’s football.

... as Kramer drums support for championship

IFEANYI EDUZOR

A Quadri partners Assar in ‘ITTF World Tour’ doubles Aruna Quadri in action in a recent championship

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or this year’s ITTF World Tour, Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri has decided to partner his continental rival; Egypt’s Omar Assar in the men’s doubles event in their bid to make it to the World Tour grand finals later in the year.

The Africa’s best two players to begin their quest by joining might in the men’s doubles event of the first ITTF World Tour tagged Hungarian Open in Budapest.

Having started their partnership in the event in 2015 and 2016 when they made it to the quarter-final of 2015 Polish Open and main draw of 2016 Austria

Open with their biggest win being against the duo of Portugal’s Marcos Freitas and Croatia’s Andre Gacina at the 2015 Polish Open.

For Quadri, the decision to join forces with Omar Assar was smooth having played together in previous tournament. “It was an easy decision for me to decide to partner Omar Assar because we seem to understand ourselves when we play together. We played very well at the Polish Open and Austria Open and we have made up our mind to play together in all ITTF World Tours this year with the aim of having Africa’s presence at the World Tour grand

finals later in the year. We intend to play doubles together in all the World Tour we will be taking part in this year and I am hopeful that we can achieve our aim.”

Explaining the rationale over their decision to concretize their doubles partner in 2017, Assar said: “Quadri is a very good player in singles and doubles and I think our relationship has been closer lately so we share more ideas off the table too. The first time we played together was at the 2015 Polish Open when we got to quarterfinal with our big win over Freitas and Gacina. Our target is to make it to the grand finals of 2017.”

AJC Tennis Qualifiers: Oyinlowo, Dariwaye seal places in Team Nigeria

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fter three days of training, Oyinlomo Quadri and three others have earned their places in the ‘Team Nigeria; contingent that will be battling for honours at the forthcoming ITF/CAT Africa

NFSC wants Pinnick to steer clear of club

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39

igeria Football Supporters trol of NFF, “he stated.

Club has made a clarion call The statement appealed to the to the Federal government to Federal Government, the Sports warn the President of Nigeria Foot- Ministry and members of the NFF ball Federation, Amaju Pinnick, to to call Pinnick to order, adding that steer clear of its internal affairs. he should concentrate on how to In a press release signed by the move Nigerian football forward.

Public Relations Officer of the club, “Let’s Pinnick face the issues Afeez Balogun, he accused Pinnick concerning Nigerian football. We of interfering with the affairs of the recall the unfortunate case between club. him and Chris Giwa, which bothers “We have observed that for some on the issue of legality. I want to adtime now, Amaju Pinnick, has been vise him to stop speaking from both encouraging the expelled former sides of the mouth and not give creacting national chairman of the dence to the illegal actions of club, Vincent Okumagba, to Okumagba, “he noted. destabilize the club, “BaBalogun expressed logun said. the commitment “I want to inform of the club to the Amaju Pinnick and development of his co-travelers Nigerian football that this club is as it continue to well over 61 years work in tandem old and it is also with the NFF, a duly registered in view of its reand globally recognowned position nized non-governas the 12th player mental organization. of the national We are independent teams.

Balogun and not under the con-

Junior Championship West and Central Africa Qualifiers billed for Lome, Togo from January 10th-21st.

Quadri, the best Nigerian player in junior tennis in 2016, is joined by the trio of Michael Osewa, Marylove Edward and David Dariwaye of the Port Harcourt-based Kodian Academy.

Nigeria’s junior tennis coach Mohammed Ubale said the four players listed have distinguished themselves so far at the week-long camping. The selection of the quartet at the camping being funded by NTF 1st vicepresident Yemi Owoseni will now see 20 others will vie for the remaining nine slots.

He said, “We have had two training sessions for the third straight

day and, so far, the performances of Oyinlomo Quadri, David Dariwaye, Marylove Edward and Michael Osewa have earned them their places in the team which means the other 20 players are battling for nine remaining slots.”

Ubale, who is being assisted by Abel Ubiebi of Aces Tennis, stated that training has been smooth and the players are in high spirit and are already looking forward to the championship.

He pointed that Nigeria’s enviable record in the tournament in recent years have made it the team to beat at the 15-nation tournament due to the country’s enviable record in the 15-nation tournament in recent years.

Rising tennis star, Oyinlowo Quadri in action for Team Nigeria

Swiss national, who doubles as acting president of Amalgamation of Nigerian Women Football Club Coaches (ANWCC), Hans Kramer has appealed to other expatriates in the country to motivate Nigeria women footballers through being involved in the 21st All Stars Football Carnival in Lagos.

The gangling Kramer, who had played a key role in the annual Amalgamation of Nigerian Women Football Club Coaches’ All Star Tourney, said such support would guarantee the discovery of young and talented footballers that would put Nigeria at the zenith of global football besides the girls being responsible bread winners in their various homes.

With women footballers from different parts of the country already training at the practice pitch of the National Stadium, Lagos, Kramer, who is also the chairman of the Local Organising Committee of the championship, said they are encouraged by the fact that the likes of Liebherr Nigeria, PW Nigeria Limited, China Embassy, F.B and ME CAHT have agreed to be major sponsors, as the All Stars carnival hold between January 9 and 21, 2017 at the National Stadium, Lagos.

While hoping that the Nigeria Football Federation and club officials would storm the venue for quality young women footballers, Kramer expressed gratitude to GTESC Nigeria, Dovar Hotel Lagos, M.P Construction and Mr. H. Stork for providing jerseys for players of Teams Switzerland, Nigeria, Italy and Austria.

“We greatly appreciate all those helping us to promote women football in Nigeria just as we call for more from others. After the trainings, players will be drawn into 16 to 18 teams for the tourney that starts Monday January 9, 2017. Quarter finals games will be played at the Legacy Pitch, National Stadium, Lagos,” concluded Hans.

WORLD RECORD

Largest Peruvian folk Vol. 06

No. 1495

N150

Friday, January 6, 2017

The largest Peruvian folk dance consisted of 1, 247 couples and was achieved by the Municipality of Arequipa (Peru) in celebration of the city’s 474th anniversary on August 24 2014.

Economic recession, depression and euphoria of New Year T he year 2016 will go down in history as one of the most difficult years for Nigerians. It was a year when the nation’s economy passed through severe turbulent waters that nearly sink the whole nation. in 2016, inflation rate shrank at 17.1%, the GDP contracted by 2.06% and the economy by 0.36%. Oil price crashed to less than $50 per barrel while production output tumbled over 400,000 barrels due to militancy activities in Niger Delta region.

Oil production plummeted to 1.69 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2016, down from 2.11 million barrel per day in the first quarter, with oil – based GDP contracting by 17.5% in quarter two compared to 1.9% in the first quarter. Naira was at a record low of #480 per dollar in the black market, as dollar exchanged for 365.25 in the interbank market.

The nation’s groaning unemployment situation also grew worse. Unofficial data puts the unemployment figure at about 20% (about 30million), but this number

T

iger Woods’ first event of 2017 will be the PGA Tour’s Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines in San Diego, which starts on 26 January.

The 14-time major winner last played at the Farmers in 2015, but withdrew

Guest Columnist

still did not include about 40million other Nigerian youths captured in a recent World Bank statistics. By implication, it means that if Nigeria’s population is 140 million, then 50% of Nigerians are unemployed, or worse still, at least 71% of Nigerian youths are unemployed. This is particularly disturbing and counterproductive because at least 70% of the population of this country is youth. According to reports, in 2016, the unemployed in the labour force increased by 1,158,700 persons, resulting in an increase in the national unemployment rate to 13.3% in Q2 2016 from 12.1 in 2016, 10.4% in 2015 from 9.9% in Q3 2015 and from 8.2% in Q2 2015.

Workers in both the public and private sectors were worst hit by the troubling economic situation. In order to make ends meet, some firms opted to downsize, thus complicating the already bad unemployment situation. For those who work in the public sector, the situation is a bit different. Though, they have the sheer luxury of keeping their jobs, it is only a few of them that can boast of receiving their wages as at when due. Except for Lagos State and a few others, most States in the country owe their workers outstanding salaries that run into months. The whole distressing episode is reinforced by the counsel of a particular State Governor in the South Eastern region of the country that public workers in his State could actually skip work twice or thrice a week to embrace subsistence farming in order to escape the excruciating claws of hunger. One obvious consequence of the ranging economic recession in the country is depression.

Medically, depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness

Tayo

Ogunbiyi It is only when we collectively embrace sacrificial change that we could boldly hope that the

New

Year would usher in our desired change and loss of interest in things that the victim is ordinarily usually passionate about.

It is also called major depressive disorder or clinical depression and it affects how the victim feels, thinks and behaves. It can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problems which include finding it difficult to embark on daily activities. It can also lead to marital troubles as depression victims find it very hard adjusting to family values and ethics. Indeed, coping with the stress of family life cause more difficulties to victims of depression who often want to be left alone. Perhaps, the worst of it all fallouts of depression is the feeling that life isn’t worth living which eventually makes depression victim contemplates suicide.

From all indications, the nation’s tough economic situation has increased the number of citizens who run the risk of experiencing the agonizing incident of clinical depression. According to reports, the rate of marital break ups has increased while matrimonial violence occasioned by economic woes has equally multiplied significantly. Indeed, there has been incidence of husband killing wife and vice versa. There have been reports of men absconding from home for weeks in order to

escape growing economic responsibilities at home. Therefore, we now have more women who are over burdened with excruciating domestic pressures. Cases of pronounced mental health condition have also unsurprisingly increased. Along major cities in the country, you are likely to come across clean and beautifully dressed compatriots who talk and walk alone, actually without any destination in mind.

This, to medical workers is a vital sign of depression induced insanity, which if not quickly attended to could lead to serious psychiatric condition.

Ironically, in the midst of all these uncertainties and stress comes the exciting hope of a better New Year. Not that there is any concrete rationale for the euphoria about the New Year. It is a natural feeling that does not need to be subjected to any empirical analysis. Here, the belief is that New Year would naturally bring with it good tidings. That is the nature of hope.

Hope is hope. No more, no less.

However, one is of the view that for hope not to be mere hallucination, it must be anchored on more solid platforms. For instance, it is generally believed that the world is subjected to the authority of the Almighty God whom many anchor their hope, faith and trust in. This is good enough, especially if the one anchoring his hope on the Almighty has sufficient capacity to understand the nature and ways of God. Nevertheless, as good as placing one’s hope in God is, for hope to transcend the stage of expectation and move into the realm of reality, necessity places it on man to play key roles in speeding up the process of divine intervention.

The truth is that we would continue to live in the realm of delusion until we make bold to collectively change our ways as a people. For our hope not to be dashed this New Year, we need to embrace new ways of doing things. We need to stop cutting corners. We need to stop living in lies, deception and hypocrisy. It is only when we collectively embrace sacrificial change that we could boldly hope that the New Year would usher in our desired change.

Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja.

Sport Extra Woods to open 2017 season at Farmers Insurance Open injured during the first round.

Woods, 40, will then compete in the European Tour’s Dubai Desert Classic, which begins on 2 February.

He will also play the

PGA Tour’s Genesis Open, starting on 16 February, followed by the Honda Classic.

Woods finished 15th at the Hero World Challenge in December after 15 months out through injury.

“I’ve always enjoyed playing in Dubai and it’s fantastic to see how the city has grown from when I first started playing there,” said Woods, who won the event in 2006 and 2008.

“When you win in Dubai, you know you’ve beaten an outstanding field,” he added.

On competing at the Genesis Open, Woods said: “I’m very excited to come back to Riviera.

Tiger Woods

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