BusinessDay 10 Feb 2019

L-R: Kennedy Uzoka, group managing director, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc; Victor Osadolor, deputy managing director, UBA Plc; His Excellency, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, president, Republic of Mali; Alhassane Sissoko, MD, UBA Mali; Tony O. Elumelu, chairman, UBA Plc; Boubou Cissé, minister of Finance, Mali, and Soumeilou Boubeye Maiga, the Prime Minister, Republic of Mali, at the official launch and ribbon-cutting of UBA Mali at the UBA Mali Head Office in Bamako.

L- R: Jalal Arabi, permanent secretary, State House, Abuja, receiving the BusinessDay 2018 Excellence in Public Service Awards’ plaque from John Osadolor, director, Northern Operations, BusinessDay at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, weekend.

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Why 2019 election will defy expectations Buhari, Atiku walk tight rope

BY Our Reporters

W

hile the political parties fielding candidatesforthe2019 general election are rounding off their campaigns this week, the general view across many quarters is that the presidential election is not going to be an easy win for any party.

Political analysts and public opinion are insinuating that the result will also dislodge some permutations on how the election would be won and lost.

Although the epic battle seems to be between the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC)andthemainoppositionPeople’sDemocraticParty(PDP) that is seeking to retake power, which it lost to APC in the 2015 elections, the ruling party is hopeful of landslide victory based on some permutations that it was massive votes from northern and western states that gave victory to Muhammadu Buhari, the APC presidential candidate in the

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votes to defeat Goodluck Jonathan, the then incumbent president and

T

0.02 14.99%

Gold

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candidate of the PDP, who got

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inside

Why we adopted Moghalu – Soyinka p.45

L-R: Lagos State Governor, Akinwunmi Ambode; National Chairman, All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole; Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo; President Muhammadu Buhari; Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola; Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chris Ngige; former interim National Chairman of APC, Bisi Akande and others during the APC Presidential Campaign at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Surulere, Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Pius Okeosisi

as road decay worsens

he worsening state of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway, which has increasingly cut lives short, crippled business activities and shot up vehicle maintenance

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Residents, businesses on Lagos-Badagry Expressway in panic mode ahead the rains Temitayo Ayetoto

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Cocoa

As analysts speak on candidates’ strongholds

2015 election.

Buhari polled a total of 15,416,221

Vol 1, No. 251 N300

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cost, has pushed residents and business owners around the axis into severe panicking ahead of the rainy season.

With early arrival of heavy rains this year, road users are already perplexed, gloomy and stricken with the fear of a looming havoc that will accompany

The die is cast: Buhari, Atiku in supremacy battle p. 17

the regular rainy season.

On the surface, the road stretch appears good beginning from Mile 2 but in no time presents a terrifying experience as soon as the journey moves close to Alakija bus-stop, Abule-Oshun/Under-Bridge, Ojo Barracks, Iyana-Iba and up to Badagry.

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theatre in the world

Most residents of Abule-Oshun can no longer drive out of their homes as heavy trucks, commercial buses and motorcycles that should ordinarily ply the expressway now take the Abule-Oshun/Old Ojo Road

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LIFE&LIVING

Between Father Mbaka and Pastor Eric: No kobo accepted from politicians at rural poor church where victory was predicted for PDP’s Emeka Ihedioha

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Stocks gain N37bn as investors position ahead of earnings season

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News Why 2019 election will defy ...

Continued from page 1 12,853,162 votes.

For getting more than one quarter of the votes in 27 states, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) said Buhari met the constitutional requirement and declared him presidentelect.

But analysts are saying that Saturday’s election may not go in tandem with the victory permutations as President Buhari is likely not going to get the usual bloc votes from the north again.

Speaking exclusively to BDSUNDAYonthepossibility of the APC and President Buhari re-enacting the victories in the states and geo-political zones as in 2015, Tomiwa Erinosho, a political strategist and co-founder of Town Talk, said a lot has changed since the last election that may likely alter the equation.

“The INEC says that the total registration is now about 84,2million;ifthelevelofvoter apathy witnessed in 2015 is repeated, we may be looking at somewhere between 28 and 33 million voters this time around. If that is the case, it may be safe to say that Buhari may be able to poll between 12 and 15 million going by his performance last time. It means he has a clear package,” Erinosho said.

“Historically, he has always polled around 12 million, which means that, if there are 30 million voters, he still has a clear advantage, if the experience of 2015 is anything to go by,” he further said.

Voter turnout will determine the race Analysing the behaviour of voters across the states and geo-political zones, the engineer and researcher said that the victory or otherwise of candidates this time around wouldbedeterminedtoalarge extent by voter turnout.

“If you now break it down to different regions by votes, then it becomes more interesting- The northwest has the highest number of voters, but they have the lowest in the continuous voter registration (CVR) across board; the Southwest has the second highest voters but has one of the lowest the CVR; it also has one of the highest cases of voterapathy;theNorthcentral is number three but a small region, but has a significant number of newly registered voters and they are known to beveryactivewhenitcomesto castingvotes;South-Southand South East are small regions in general but very active. For instance, Bayelsa has 55 percent increase in newly registered voters. Voter turnout in these regions is always high. The North East used to have a huge voter turnout before now, but nobody knows what the behaviour is going to be like, with thesecuritysituationthere,”he explained.

According to him, “Now if you look at the economic situation in the South West for instance, the level of poverty, high rate of unemployment, particularly among the youthspeoplearedisgruntled.So,they mayprobablycomeouttosupport someone who has promised to support their struggle in terms of job creation. Fighting corrupt may not be a priority to many of them even though that is very important. So, that tells me one thing; that even if the APC wins in South West, the margin may not be as wide as it was in 2015. I may not give you the numbers now.”

“North West, we know is the President’s domain, it is not a matter of whether he will win there, the question is what margin. But again, things have changed in that zone. For instance, you can see what is happening in Zamfara. Some people may decide for protest votes over the killings. Kano,

Sokoto, Jigawa delivered bloc votes to APC in 2015, but today, PDP has many supporters in those places.

“In North Central, remember that states like Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Plateau voted for Buhari in 2015. It is going to be different now, but we do not know how they will behave this time around. The North Centralwillbeabattleground,” he said.

According to Erinosho, “In the North East, in 2015, it was purely for Buhari. It will be different today because the presidential candidate of the PDP is a son-of-the soil. It will be naivety for anybody to say that Adamawa will go to the APC with the same margin it won the PDP in 2015. Taraba State is a PDP state and it is yet to be determined what the behaviour would look like, but it is not likely that it will go to the APC. “South East and SouthSouth are traditionally PDP and despite the push by the APC to make a clear in-road in those zones, it does not appear the voting pattern will change much.”

Special states to watch The APC is facing a tough battle in Rivers, Imo, Zamfara and Ogun State.

He noted that “The party is going into an election as a house divided against itself. In some states, its house is not in order. We have a situation where two governors of the party are contesting senatorial election on the APC platform, but backing governorship candidatesoftwodifferentparties, a situation that has created confusion in the party.”

Ademola Oni, a lawyer, noted that the north is divided unlike in 2015 when it was one strong and big north.

“The election is between two northern heavyweights; if Buhari wins or loses or Atiku wins or loses, it is still the north in power. So, you don’t expect

the bloc vote for Buhari in this election,” Oni said.

The lawyer further noted that with the likes of Aminu Tambuwal, Rabiu Kwankwaso, Bukola Saraki, Yakubu Dogara, among others, whose votesandthoseoftheirfollowers went in favour of Buhari, this time around, such votes may go elsewhere.

Toeing same line with Oni, Okechi Okwandu, a political

analyst, said the constitution stipulates that a presidential candidate needs more than one quarter of the votes in 27 states to be declared winner in an election and that such is not going to happen this time because of the intrigues of the 2019 election.

“For the first time, two Fulanis who have huge followership are contesting for the highest office in the land, it is

not going to be easy because votes must be shared,” he said.

The situation, according to him, would have been to the advantage of a third force, but other candidates are rather withdrawing and supporting the two giants.

Looking at the 2015 election figures, Magnus Ajere, a banker, noted that Buhari won

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Will the voting pattern in 2019 reflect this 2015 table?

State Buhari Jonathan Ayeni Galadima Eke Abia 13,394 368,303 2,766 2,194 1,046 Adamawa 374,701 251,664 1,549 1,166 819 Akwa Ibom 58,411 953,304 384 443 412 Anambra 17,926 660,762 2,303 1,259 1,279 Bauchi 931,598 86,085 964 232 391 Bayelsa 5,194 361,209 70 38 44 Benue 373,961 303,737 945 1,464 567 Borno 473,543 25,640 878 243 310 Cross River 28,368 414,863 532 514 381 Delta 48,910 1,211,405 478 916 813 Ebonyi 19,518 323,653 2,452 1,214 2,345 Edo 208,469 286,869 709 1,284 325 120,331 176,466 482 538 330 Ekiti Enugu 14,157 553,003 715 479 237 Gombe 361,245 96,873 773 192 407 ??

Imo 133,253 559,185 2,236 956 733 Jigawa 885,988 142,904 2,527 540 1,553 Kaduna 1,127,760 484,085 1,611 424 824 Kano 1,903,999 215,779 2,770 778 1,552 Katsina 1,345,441 98,937 1,671 402 976 Kebbi 567,883 100,972 2,685 361 1,794 Kogi 264,851 149,987 1,001 1,089 967 Kwara 302,146 132,602 1,165 817 910 Lagos 792,460 632,327 2,177 3,038 1,125 Nassarawa 236,838 273,460 310 95 131 Niger 657,678 149,222 2,006 441 1,264 Ogun 308,290 207,950 1,930 3,072 978 Ondo 299,889 251,368 1,139 2,406 1,012 Osun 383,603 249,929 1,306 1,731 1,029 Oyo 528,620 303,376 4,468 8,979 6,674 Plateau 429,140 549,615 618 391 237 Rivers 69,238 1,487,075 513 525 577 Sokoto 671,926 152,199 3,482 535 1,894 Taraba 261,326 310,800 1,306 811 1,033 Yobe 446,265 25,526 632 164 329 Zamfara 612,202 144,833 1,310 238 655 FCT 146,399 157,195 674 342 347 Total 15,424,921 12,853,162 53,537 40,311 36,300

Salau 448 595 474 475 173 69 254 392 709 735 1,133 450 854 269 169 757 587 273 708 283 450 427 520 4,453 74 403 1,927 1,237 1,667 6,282 279 1,104 714 586 213 290 240 30,673

Ahmad 569 1,012 608 534 189 116 539 201 749 888 2,704 512 424 478 247 1,617 375 546 657 498 472 761 438 2,072 105 614 1,364 1,227 937 5,000 406 1,031 762 320 112 294 288 29,666

Chinedu Onovo 424 745 1,163 1,212 327 381 537 887 128 207 62 95 439 683 143 107 864 930 393 670 1,168 1,890 729 516 388 377 407 761 157 227 414 784 853 548 549 754 485 697 254 330 547 519 476 399 325 394 1,041 1,430 164 222 449 550 4,339 815 734 846 599 767 2,842 1,895 554 693 492 565 605 686 680 876 101 120 374 404 269 473 24,475 24,455

Kelani 315 495 1,600 547 131 45 315 145 279 1,473 426 159 94 441 104 533 394 218 426 183 214 700 248 1,795 40 307 584 386 377 6,331 178 1,066 249 962 101 125 139 22,125

Okorie 330 334 144 1,121 37 35 74 41 1,487 261 4,859 72 145 290 37 1,917 197 78 156 72 238 156 102 244 33 118 597 221 159 3,665 29 156 180 439 32 68 96 18,220

Sonaiya 173 752 160 311 128 52 105 158 312 311 913 175 108 203 97 158 423 176 288 215 448 190 214 1,000 48 305 432 223 255 1,312 138 2,274 475 153 104 122 165 13,076

Okoye Owuru 213 125 289 267 224 192 286 357 29 46 20 18 66 115 31 88 289 237 354 166 624 989 160 22 60 94 1,623 110 25 46 264 157 338 337 79 105 234 292 117 47 207 213 180 144 81 118 269 255 23 4 116 198 562 332 184 184 124 132 1,069 839 54 56 303 542 269 283 224 161 30 67 93 14 95 83 9,208 7,435

Source: INEC

Residents, businesses on Lagos-Badagry Expressway ...

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route owing to the failure of the expressway, piling needless pressure on the inner roads.

Between Iyana-Iba and Barracks alone, two container trucks, a tanker and a lorry, were lying on the roads from accidents and breakdown caused by the poor state of the roads.

“It’s terrible. If I don’t take one-way, then I would be locked down by traffic. The most problematic area on this way is barracks and Abule-Oshun, towards Trade-Fair. We have to follow the one-way when returning from Barracks and soldiers collect N100 from us,” Lukmon Olajina, a frustrated commercial bus driver who operates between Mile-2 and Badagry, told BDSUNDAY during an

on-the-spot visit.

Rather than running about four or five trips daily, Olajina said these days he can only make two trips and is forced to transfer the cost of the trauma on commuters.

“I charge N300 from Mile-2 to Badagry normally but as it is, it could be N400 and even more. And because of the impact of the road on this vehicle, the stirring parts and tyres are the mostly affected. Tyres that should serve for about two years get condemned in only 2 months,” he said.

Emmanuel Ezeife, CEO, Much More Nigeria Limited, a company which deals in the supply of electrical accessories, is even more frustrated about the contraction of operations and the rate at which transportation bill has been increasing.

The company located on Abule-Oshun Road, Oriade Local Council Development Area, has in the last two years halted delivery to customers due to the extension of decay into inner road networks by both heavy- and light-laden vehicles that try to avert traumatic sections of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

For him, dark clouds only heighten his frustration as he is forced to drop his reputation as CEO and use the service of commercial buses and motorcyclists to get to work.

“Once there is rain here, it will be impossible to pass by. I will stop coming with my car and trek because of this road,” explained Ezeife.

“The situation is terrible for us. The road is half-done

and it is like they destroyed the road even more. Sometimes containers will fall and moreover, many of these containerised trucks have converted the roads to parking lot,” he added.

A commuter who simply identified himself as Tony also parked his car at home when he was visiting a business colleague last Wednesday. The puzzle he wants the government to help him solve is why the contract for the road was awarded but the road was not done.

“Where is that money?

The main thing is that this road has been mapped out for years and it has been paid for. It is really a nightmare. How can a road be free only around 1am to 3am? Last week, I paid Okada N700 from Alakija to LASU Gate, and it is not

even easy riding motorcycle,” lamented Tony.

Construction work on the Lot 2 of the Lagos-Badagry Expressway has been handled by Chinese Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC) but appears to have suffered a setback since the internal discord between Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and the leadership of his All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state began.

The government had last year promised the expansion project on the road would be completed before 2019, pledging a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) would be signed with a consortium of investors to fix the SemeBadagry Expressway when it opened to the public sections of Eric Moore to Oko-

komaiko.

But the abandonment of the road without construction activities going on has been initiating doubt over the completion. The fear has increasingly worsened in the wake of an accident that claimed two lives and destroyed property worth millions of naira. The tanker, which caused the accident, fell in a bid to manoeuvre a large ditch at Barracks bus-stop.

The road is an important stretch that has links with many residential communities such as Festac Town, Alakija, Abule-Osun, Iba, Ojo and so on. It is also the link to four major markets, including Alaba International Market, and educational institutions like Lagos State University (LASU) and a medical college.

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Buhari in Lagos, promises to sustain anti-graft war, revive economy …As Tinubu allays fears of rigging presidential poll INIOBONG IWOK

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resident Muhammadu Buhari, has urged Nigerians to elect him for a second term in office promising to sustain the current anti-graft war and revive the ailing economy in his second term.

Buhari, who is the candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in next Saturday’s presidential election, assumed office on May 29, 2015 after defeating then incumbent Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

The President was speaking Saturday, during his campaign in Lagos State, urging residents of the state to ignore the opposition and vote for all candidates of the APC in the state.

He said his administra-

tion has strived to fulfil promises made in 2015 and seeks the support of residents of the state for him to continue in office beyond 2019.

According to him, “I assure you that the promises we made in 2015, we have made progress in them. The Minister of Power, Works and Housing has enumerated our achievements so far.

“I promise that we will focus on corruption and the economy; I seek your support for our victory.

Vote for all candidates of the APC in Lagos State from top to bottom. Vote for our governorship candidate,” he said.

Earlier, Adams Oshiomohole, national chairman of the APC, urged residents of the state to vote for President Buhari so that the administration could sustain the current transformation across all sectors in

the country, stressing that the President has integrity which is globally acknowledged.

Oshiomohole said that Buhari was the only Nigerian leader who will fight corruption and give the country a purposeful leadership, urging Nigerians to reject the PDP and its presidential candidate, because the party was “responsible for the current state of the country”.

According to him, “When you look at Lagos State and it success story, you realised that there is nothing wrong in Nigeria, it is about the character of the driver of the country. I am proud that I am the chairman of the party that brought Buhari as its presidential candidate, he is the only man that can fight corruption.”

Bola Ahmed Tinubu, national leader of the party, said unlike the previous PDP administration, the

Buhari administration has tackled corruption and checked avenues of leakages of the resources of the country, while the resources of Nigeria was now used for the benefit of the citizenry.

“When Buhari was voted in, he started TSA and today Nigeria’s money is being used to pay salaries, it goes to account,” Tinubu said.

Tinubu further allayed fears of plans to rig the presidential election by the ruling party, but warned that international community could not interfere in internal affairs of the country, urging international observers to observe the election and write their report.

“Observers are welcome; write what you need to write and go; this is our democracy, even in America they have their issues, Trump and Russia and China”.

APC’s ‘world largest broom’ statue in Abuja provokes debate OWEDE AGBAJILEKE Abuja

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igerians have expressed divergent opinions over the erection of broom statues at two strategic locations in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

This comes as the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has disclosed that it would dismantle the statues if it wins the coming presidential election and assumes office on May 29, 2019.

While one of the brooms was erected directly in front of the City Gate, the other is located at Unity Park near Transcorps Hilton, MaitamaAbuja.

Tagged ‘World Largest Broom’, and made of iron rods, BDSUNDAY learnt that the huge brooms, about eight-feet tall - were erected by some volunteers of the All Progressives Congress(APC).

Reports on the social media indicated that the statues were erected at the cost of over N200 million. However, BDSUNDAYisyettoconfirm the actual amount.

Coming on the eve of the general elections, Nigerians have expressed outrage at the structures.

Nigerians will go to the polls to elect national and state leaders on February 16 and March 2 respectively.

They wondered why broom, which represents the logo of the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) would be erected in the nation’s capital.

In an exclusive interview with BDSUNDAY, constitutional lawyer, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) said this would not change the outcome of the forthcoming election.

According to him, the last three-and-a-half years of the APC-led administration has beencharacterisedbyuntold hardships on Nigerians.

He said: “It does not change anything, does it?

The hood does not make the monk. Will the largest broom in the world shenanigan suddenlywipeoutthethree-andhalf years of sorrow, tears, pains, pangs and blood? No. Does it suddenly create nonexistentcapabilityandcapacity on the part of Buhari? No. Has changed the narrative of the cluelessness, corruption, perilous times, heightened insecurity, poverty, hopelessness, despondency of Nigerians? No. Has it brought about good governance, respect for rule of law, obedience to court orders, protection of human rights? No. A mere broom, even if erected to the sky like the tower of Babylon or in modern times, as high as the Burj Khlifa 165 storey building in Dubai, does not change anything at all. It is like a tale told by an idiot, full of

sound, signifying nothing as put in William Shakespeare”.

Former Aviation Minister, FemiFani-Kayodelikenedthe erection of the statue in front oftheCityGatetowitchcraft.

Commenting on his Facebook page, he said: “They have erected a giant broom atUnityParknearTranscorps Hilton in the centre of Abuja and another one directly in front of the city gate. The broom is the symbol of the ruling APC and a symbol of witchcraft. They are invoking dark forces to stay in power but they will fail”.

But in a swift reaction, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Kayode Ajulo, said no law has been violated by erecting the broom.

Ajulo, who is also the National Secretary of Forward withBuhari,saidthedevelopment is part of strategies for winning the election, wondering what stopped PDP from erecting its umbrella statue in its 16 years in office.

Hethereforecalledforthe proscription of PDP for not even completing a structure like its national secretariat throughout its reign as ruling party.

In a telephone interview with our correspondent on Saturday, he said: “This is the season for politicking in Nigeria. On the issue of erecting broom statues, I want a situation that Nigeria needs to interrogate who

erected them? Are we using public funds to erect the statues? Are they temporary just for the election or they will be there forever? To me, I don’t think Nigerians need to raise any issue about it.

The question we should ask is this: why didn’t PDP build its own statue in its 16 years in office? In fact, it shows the inefficiency and underperformance of PDP. They had 16 years but didn’t think of erecting their symbol anywhere. It shows that they lack foresight, thoughtfulness and ideas on how to run government. That is why you can see that their campaigns are so disorganised that they don’t even know what they are doing.

“Every political party has been erecting banners and billboards everywhere. So, if anybody accuses APC of erecting broom statue, the same way we should accuse PDP of erecting billboards everywhere because all are symbols for campaigns.

“Broom is the symbol of APC, so if they chose to erect it for the purpose of that election,nolawhasbeenviolated.

And one needs to question PDP that for 16 years, they can’t even erect their (umbrella) statue anywhere.

They can’t even complete their national secretariat, which billions of naira was donated for. I think the party needs to be proscribed”.

Buhari commissions LUTH’s Cancer Centre, independent power Plant ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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resident Muhammadu Buhari has commissioned the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority-Lagos University Teaching Hospital (NSIA-LUTH) Cancer treatment centre and 5MW LUTH independent power plant in LUTH, Idi-Araba, Lagos.

The project worldclass Cancer Treatment Centre is a Public Private Partnership is a means of bridging the Infrastructural Gap in public institutions with the aim of providing Nigerians an affordable healthcare to tackle one of the most deadly diseases in the whole world.

On Monday, 4th February 2019, Cancer Day was marked globally.

In 20I6, NSIA entered into a partnership arrangement with the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) to co-sponsor the development of a world class Cancer treatment Centre, serving as the principal financial investor while LUTH contributed its real estate.

Chris Bode, chief medical director, LUTH, said the bold steps of the President led to the commissioning of the treatment centre.

“Under the stewardship of the President, we have also established, through PPP, the first Independent Power Plant with over 5MW capacity in LUTH, the first of its kind in any Federal Tertiary Hospital nationwide. Our Blood Bank is now one of the best in Nigeria, thanks again to the Public Private Partnership. The President’s vision and vibrant leadership have been beneficial to this Institution.

“We have with us today the very first Cancer Specialist in West Africa.

Prof J. Koffi Duncan, 88.

He established the first Radiotherapy Department in West Africa here in LUTH in 1954 and most radio-oncologists in West Africa passed through him or his trainees,” Bode said.

On the features of the centre, Prof. Bode said: “The centre being commissioned today (yesterday) has three Linear Accelerators, a Brach therapy Machine, a Treatment Planning System and a Chemotherapy Suite.

It is also manned by

highly qualified Nigerian oncologists and their competent team. The Centre is world-class and no Nigerian cancer patient needs travel abroad again to receive treatment easily obtainable at this Centre.

“The Centre will also have a training school tor Oncologists and allied specialties in the Cancer Management Team, so other institutions may benefit. Then is a 10-year service/maintenance contract in place for each equipment to give at least 95percent uptime for the lifespan of ten years.

“We want to assure the President and the public that we shall give whatever it takes to run this Centre as a pride to all Nigerians. NSlA’s investment is not only safe but will yield ample dividend to encourage other deep-pocket investors to open up the health sector as a viable investors’ haven.”

On staff training, he said, “We are already training our staff to effectively man the Centre which should be running fully as soon as all necessary mandatory operational certifications are obtained in the next six weeks. Once fully operational, the center will be able to treat over 3000 patients per year, treating a wide range of cancer types.

NSIA has invested $11 million to directly alleviate the burden caused by cancer.

Speaking on the power plant, Head Business Development, CET Power Project Ltd, Tade Adeyeye, said the first independent power plant is with over 5MW capacity and is the first of its kind in any federal tertiary hospital nation-wide.

According to him, “Since we provide power supply, we are giving encouragement to the NSIA, Federal Government to embark on this huge project.

“This will give them more confident in running the treatment centre. CET Power is open to doing more of this; it is a service we are rendering and it’s not free.”

“I want to appeal to the Federal Government if they can allow other teaching hospitals to benefit from gas power planting, it will help the cost of electricity very friendly in Nigeria,” he said.

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News Alex Otti campaign office condemns burning down of INEC office in Abia …Urges security agents to fish out culprits UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia

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h e Al e x O t t i Cam paig n Or ganisation has condemned the recent burning of INEC office in Umuikaa, Isialangwa Local Government Area of AbiaState, describing such the act as a big threat to the 2019 election.

A statement issued and signed by the Max Nduaguibe, director-general of Alex Otti Campaign Organisation, alleged that the incident has the usual signature of agents of government of AbiaState and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

“It is beyond coincidence that the willful destruction of INEC office happened barely two days after the massive turnout of supporters at IsialaNgwa North and South campaign rallies addressed

by Otti and other candidates from the area.

“We view the razing of the new INEC office as a continuation of the Theodore Ahamefule Orji’s regime

Alex Otti

of brigandage, intimidation and impunity; unfortunately, the incumbent Governor, OkezieIkpeazu has continued in this despicable tradition,” the statement read in part.

It recalled that in 2015, the same INEC office, which was then located within the premises of the IsialaNgwa South Local government, Umuoba was burnt down during the Governorship and State House of Assembly elections, when the APGA

House of Assembly candidate, Levi Atulegwu was leading his opponents, including the PDP candidate by wide vote margin.

“The same ugly incident was repeated in Obingwa, during the governorship tribunal instituted by our Principal, Dr. Alex Otti. Thugs, obviously acting on the instructions of the government, burnt down the Obingwa INEC office, less than 24 hours after the tribunal gave order for INEC to tender

materials used in the Local Government Area before the tribunal for forensic examination,” it further said.

It also stated that on January, 9th this year, the Alex Otti Campaign Organisation had cause to issue a statement, drawing the attention of Nigerians and Abia citizens, in particular to an allegedclandestine and fraudulent plot by the state government and PDP to collect details of people’s PVCs and in some cases purchasing them fromunsuspecting members of the public.

The Campaign Organisation urged INEC to collaborate with relevant security agencies to fish out the arsonists who have continued to burn down INEC facilities with impunity and deal with them accordingly.

Don Ubani, publicity secretary of Abia PDP, however, denied the allegation that the party was involved in the perpetration of the dastardly act.

He wondered how the party could do such a thing in area where it had overwhelming support.

‘Artificial Intelligence adopted as catalyst for sustainable development’ SEYI JOHN SALAU

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he adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) by organisations that leverages technology in the 21st century drive for sustainability and growth, seeking to improve market share and grow its bottom-line is seen as a way of optimising the advantages of AI for greater outcomes especially to boost bottomline and grow businesses, and achieve sustainable development.

“All said and done, there is a whole lot that we can use AI to help us with – reducing poverty, matching jobs with people, matching people looking for homes with homes that are available, and on the other hand we are going to create some serious unemployment especially with driverless cars; but we are also going to create jobs with more knowledge,” said Austin Okere, the founder and entrepreneur-in-residence Ausso Leadership Academy.

Okere was the guest speaker at the Institute of Directors’ (IoD) Nigeria February 2019 Members’ Evening, themed ‘Artificial

Intelligence – Why it Matters’ held at the institute’s secretariat in Lagos.

According to Okere, it is no longer an issue if AI matters or not, as it has come to stay even though it has its negative and positive sides.

According to him, AI has been adopted to improve agriculture, medicine, while is some cases it can also be deploy as an autonomous weaponry where a system is programmed to cause havoc.

“It has happen in Yemen where a drone was used to attack the person that was speaking. You also find that there is not any road to progress that is not risky – so, there are risks, but we have to manage the risk,” Okere stated.

Okere said the Nigerian financial sector can take advantage of the positive sides to AI. “When the rate of change in your environment is higher than the rate of change in the internal, then the end is insight. So, we have to make ourselves ready and embrace AI for the good part that we can benefit from it,” said Okere stating that the financial sector can deploy AI to predict hedge funds that makes better returns.

9mobile shines as ‘Telecom Company of the Year 2018’ award

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igeria’s innovative telecommunication company, 9mobile, has again added to its long list of honours and recognitions with the latest being ‘Telecom Company of the Year 2018’ award.

The newest honour conferred by Leadership Group Limited, publishers of Leadership Newspaper, is in recognition of the telco’s resilience and stability in the face of challenges which the company pulled through over the past two years.

While presenting the award to 9mobile during an awards ceremony, which took place on Thursday, February 7, 2019 at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, Abdul Gombe, group managing director of Leadership Group Limited, said the decision to honour 9mobile as the Telecom Company of the Year was a unanimous decision reached by an enlarged Board of Editors at a recent meeting.

He commended 9mobile for emerging stronger from its many tests including the challenging operating environment, tough regulatory requirements, threat of takeover by a banking consortium and post-acquisition realities.

Gombe said, “In the face of all these, 9mobile has maintained its relevance and its 9ja brand heritage within the Nigerian telecommunication space. For your resilience, the selection board found you most suitable for this prestigious award.”

Receiving the award, Stephane Beuvelet, acting managing director, 9mobile, commended the Leadership Group Limited for finding the telco worthy of the honour, stating that it would serve as further motivation to the new board and management to continue building a worldclass telecommunications company.

“On behalf of my other board members, we’d like to say thank you to Leadership Group Limited, for this award. Indeed 2018 was a defining year for 9mobile, but we saw it as an opportunity to show our mettle and spirit of resilience. Our appreciation also goes to all our stakeholders – our regulators who worked assiduously to ensure that the transition process was seamless; investors and financial partners that sustained the flow of critical lifeblood that we needed to stay afloat, and our customers who demonstrated

loyalty and confidence in the brand” he added.

Beuvelet, who received the award alongside Phillips Oki, the telco’s chief financial officer; Ore Olajide, company secretary, and Abdulrahman Ado, executive director, Regulatory and Corporate Affairs, pledged 9mobile’s commitment to transacting business with integrity, putting value for customer spend at the core of its propositions, and disrupting the market with innovative products and services.

Over the past decade, 9mobile (formerly Etisalat Nigeria) has won several significant awards across its operations including the NCC’s Excellent Service and Effective Collaboration with the Consumer Affairs Bureau to Ensure Access to Customer Care Helpline, Nigerian Telecoms Awards’ Best Brand Campaign and Youth Empowerment Telecom Operator of the Year, the ISO 14001:2004 EMS international standards certification by Bureau Veritas and Most Outstanding Company in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)-Online Category by Sustainability, Enterprise & Responsibility Awards (SERAs) among others.

L-R: Sanjeev Jain, acting deputy managing director, Grand Cereals LTD; David Wuyep, chairman Victims Support Commitee and Commissioner for Works Plateau State, Pam Botmang during the official presentation of food items to the internally displace persons (IDPs) by Grand cereals Limited in Jos

Kogi FRSC gets new sector commander Victoria Nnakaike, Lokoja

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new Sector Commander of the Fe d e r a l R o a d Safety Corps (FRSC) has been posted to Kogi State.

Emmanuel Omotosho Abe is a graduate of Mathematics from the University of Ilorin in 1988 and he also bagged his Master’s degree

in Business Administration from same university.

Abe got enlisted into the Corps in 1996 and has served in various capacities, ranging from Head of Administration and Finance, Head of Training and Man Power Development, sectional Head of Motor Vehicle Administration and many others.

Ac c o r d i n g t o p r e s s statement signed by the

Chief Route Commander, Public Enlightenment Officer, Aloysius Adejo, Corps Commander Emmanuel Abe has equally served as sector commander in different states of the federation which include Osun, Ebonyi, Gombe, Plateau and Niger states where he was transferred to head Federal Road Safety Corps Print Farm National Headquarters, Abuja.

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News Akinlade pledges to stimulate economy through construction of Agbara-Igbesa roads RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

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oing by the economic importance of Agbara-Igbesa roads to the development of Ogun state and Nigeria, governorship candidate of Allied People’s Movement (APM) in Ogun state, Adekunle Akinlade has pledged to prioritise roads that link one of largest industrial hubs in Nigeria to other West African markets.

Agbara-Igbesa roads were designed as major international routes by Nigeria’s government in late 70s to connect the biggest Sea ports in Apapa, Lagos state runs through Badagry to Seme borders which connect the nation to other West African countries as well as running through Abeokuta to Oyo and Kwara up to Sokoto state.

Sadly the roads have bern abandoned by successive governments, despite the socio-economic importance to both the investors and Nigeria’s government at vari-

Akinlade

ous levels, especially Ogun, Lagos, Oyo, Kwara and Sokoto states in addition to the federal government that collects larger percentage of revenue from there in form of company tax, excise duty, VAT, among others.

Speaking on Thursday at Salvation Army School II in Agbara during ward-to-ward campaign tour of Ado Odo Ota local government area

of the state, Akinlade, who was accompanied by his running mate, Adepeju Adebajo, noted that he had resolved to prioritise construction of the roads for economic stimulation and sustainability in the state.

He called on the people of Agbara ward to try as much as possible to vote for the Allied People’s Movement (APM) in all the elec-

tions, saying failure for them to elect him particularly as state governor from YewaAwori extraction of Ogun West where he belongs, will amount to a delay of 24 years before the tribe could have governor from its folds.

He said, “If you fail to vote for APM, it simply means that the repair of Agbara/Igbesa road would be delayed for another 24 years because that is probably the time governorship seat will return to Ogun West.

“So I urge you to vote massively in the February 16, National Assembly election.

Once that is done, it will be difficult for the opposition to manipulate the March 2nd, governorship election.”

Responding on behalf of the people, the Chief Imam, Agbara Community, Lukman Amusa, who was among the dignitaries that welcomed Akinlade, promised that the people of Agbara-Igbesa would bote for Akinlade in order for them to have real dividends of democracy through the roads construction and reconstruction.

Nigeria, India have a lot to benefit from each other – Udoma Seyi John Salau

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igeria and India have a lot to benefit from each other through development cooperation, the Budget and National Planning Minister,SenatorUdoma Udo Udoma, told the Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, AbhayThakur, who visited him in Abuja on Thursday.

The Minister said that there are lots of potentials in Nigeria that India could tap while Nigeria has a lot to learn from India’s successes in the areas of technology, particularly rail and power, as well as human capital development.

He explained that the Buhari Administration is focused on bridging the infrastructure gap in the country, particularly transportation and power infrastructure; and is very desirous of creating avenues to lift majority of Nigerians out of poverty through agriculture and other empowerment programmes.

President Buhari, he said, has a vision and dream of connecting every city and town in Nigeria with standard gauge rail lines; and Nigeria would

stand to benefit from India’s experience as well as assistance in achieving the goal in the rail sector. “This is an area we will like to collaborate with you to see how we can tap from India’s experience,” he said.

Like India, Nigeria has been working hard to bring down its poverty levels, which is why government is putting a lot of resources in the area of empowering poor and vulnerable persons and lifting them out of poverty. N500

billion is annually provided for in the national budget for social intervention programmes which are targeted at empowering the people so that they can be useful to themselves and the society.

He emphasised that under the Social Intervention Programme (SIP), “we are not just giving the people fish, we are also teaching people how to fish.|” Senator Udoma said although India is one of Nigeria’s largest trading partners,

especially in crude oil, he would want the Asian country to buy more of Nigeria’s oil and also develop interest in the country’s gas sector.

He assured the High Commissioner that the tempo of economic activities in the country will not slow down due to the forthcoming general elections as “the President is not looking at the next election, but looking at the next generation with the purpose of taking Nigeria to the next level”.

L-R: Indian nationals Sanjeev Bajaj, Devi Prasad, Srinivas Pilla, Nari Gowlani, Subbu Ramesh, Sanjeev Tandon, Pradeep Deshpande, Prashant Bhanawat and Sadanand Melanta at the 2019 Annual Pravasi Bharitya Divas Indian celebrations at the Indian High Commission premises on Victoria Island, Lagos.

ABSU to establish cashew nut processing plat UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia

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biaState University, Uturu, in Isuikwuato Local Government Area of the state has concluded arrangements to establish cashew nut processing equipment soon.

UcheIkonne, a professor and vice chancellor of the University, disclosed this in his office in Uturu, saying that the Director-General of Raw Materials Research Development Council, Abuja, represented by S.I.Wali, deputy director, made this known recently when he led a delegation to the University.

He congratulated the Vice Chancellor for attracting the project and commended him for providing enabling

environment and ensuring uninterrupted academic activities in the University.

The Vice Chancellor, in his response, commended the management of RMRDC for the choice of ABSU for the project.

Ikonne described the project as monumental, which according to him would enhance the activities of the Centre for Entrepreneurial Studies.

He assured the Council that the University has the required skilled manpower to manage the successful implementation of the project.

The VC enumerated the benefits of the project to includescientific processingof cashew nuts, enhancement in research, economic development and entrepreneurial training.

Akwa Ibom to demand representation on NDDC board ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

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here are strong indications that Akwa Ibom State would demand that it should be fully represented on the board of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) when the tenure of the interim management committee expires, being the highest producer of crude oil in the country.

The former Managing Director of the commission, NsimaEkere who hails from Akwa Ibom State resigned his position to pursue his political ambition as the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the March 16 election.

Speaking at his country home, Ita Enang, senior special assistant to the president on National Assembly matters (Senate), said though Akwa Ibom State would no longer be in contention for the post of managing director, having completed its tenure when Bassey Dan Abia and NsimaEkere held sway, Akwa Ibom would demand for other executive positions.

“Where we are now is to draw attention of the Federal Government to the fact that Akwa Ibom State cannot be left out. It is an interim thing though, we are going to take our position. We are not going to have the post of managing director again.

We are not going to have chairman again; chairmanship had moved from us to BayelsaState and from Bayelsa to Cross River, because the chairmanship position rotates on alphabetical order.

It has moved to Cross River State. It is now going to perhaps Delta State or so. Delta cannot have a chairman and

have the managing director.

We are going to demand for executive director finance.

So, we will be contending for the post of executive director, finance and administration or executive director projects,’’ he said.

Enang, who spoke when APC stakeholders declared to support BasseyEtim, candidate of the party for Uyo senatorial district, said the people only reaffirmed their faith in an existing agreement in the area which seeks to ensure that no federal constituency in the senatorial district should serve more than two terms in the senate.

“The declaration is saying that Uyo senatorial district had taken a decision that no federal constituency should go to the Senate more than two terms. Etinan federal constituency through Senator Effiong Bob did two terms. Itu federal constituency has done two terms.

I did one term and Senator Bassey Albert Akpan is doing the second term; he is completing the term I had started.

The Senate seat moves to Uyo federal constituency to keep the agreement and the accord,’’ he said.

The presidential aide, who disclosed that if he had wanted the Senate ticket, he would have gone for it, said he had to honour the existing agreement in the senatorial district.

According to him, he had also thought that it would be unwise to leave the job at the presidency at this time if he had decided to return to the Senate.

“I would have taken the senate ticket because it was in my hands. But I had to keep the agreement that everybody agreed to.

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News

WANEP calls for peaceful elections

NUC accredits 5 courses for RHEMA Varsity in Abia

…holds peaceful rally

UDOKA AGWU, UMUAHIA

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Ngozi Okpalakunne

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n order to amplify the voices of women in their call for peace during the forthcoming general election, the West Africa Network for Peacebuilding (WANEP) Nigeria in collaboration with the Women’s Situation Room Nigeria (WSRN) held a peace rally recently in Lagos.

The rally, which had in attendance young women and men from across communities in Lagos State, commenced with a short awareness walk from the premises of Lagos State Television (LTV8) and terminated at JJT Park, opposite the Lagos State House of Assembly.

The participants were seen holding up boards with peace messages as they walked along the street.

Some of the messages read, ‘Anything violence can do, peace can do better’; ‘For a better long haul, let there be peace for all’; ‘Give peace a chance’; ‘Hear the call for peace for all’; ‘North, South, East and West, let peace be our quest’; ‘Peace is a weapon through which we can

change the whole world’; ‘Violence breeds violence, lets breed peace’.

At the Lagos State House of Assembly, some women rights activists from WANEP Nigeria addressed the participants, enumerating the role stakeholders are expected to play in building collaborative peace before, during and after the 2019 elections.

The activists also called on the youths not to be easy

preys to politicians for use to instigate violence during the elections. It was also emphasised that our votes are not for sale as this connotes selling the conscience of Nigerians.

The participants were also encouraged to speak to their friends, wards, family members and neighbours to get their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) to enable them vote during the elec-

Imo will establish state economic development and rehabilitation council, says Uzodinma SABY ELEMBA, Owerri

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he plan to establish State Economic Development and Rehabilitation Council (SEDARC) for the bartered Imo State economy will soon materialise if Senator Hope Uzodinma, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) wins the gubernatorial election which comes in a few weeks from now.

This Council will as a sort of remedial framework and templates redress the chronic fiscal and infrastructural deficits working against the economic growth of Imo State, Senator Hope Uzodinma said in Owerri and that the establishment of such a Council is a priority of his government.

SEDARC will properly address all the known key economic challenges facing the state owned and abandoned projects, road projects in Owerri, Orlu and Okigwe metropolis in the state as well as the abandoned Otamiri

Water Scheme in Owerri, the State capital.

This Council will in addition recover all the missing public assets, illegally acquired private lands, estates and ensure they are giving back to the rightful owners.

Uzodinma , who also spoke to journalists on the illegal and multiple taxation faced by manufacturing firms in the state said: “Illegal taxes, illegal levies and fees imposed on firms and the people in Imo State would stop as the State Board of Internal Revenue would liaise with the SEDARC to develop a new Imo internal revenue menu that would maximise the internally generated rev-

Uzodinma

enue (IGR) per capita to the contribution to the State Gross Domestic Products (GDP).

And in order to improve the economic status of the state, if Uzodinma wins the coming governorship election, the government would go into the recovery of damaged economic structures, reconstruction of core infrastructures and the rehabilitation of micro economic institutions- the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) through the private partnership participation (PPP).

To put economy in its proper footing, it required fundamental reforms and would need a new beginning, he said.

Meanwhile, Senator Uzodinma has accused the current administration in the State of incurring a huge debt of over N312 billion and about 180 Garnishes from different companies in both home and abroad, this the government of Governor Rocha’s Okorocha has already denied, saying, such allegations were false.

tions.

The participants were however, received at the Lagos State House of Assembly by the Political Officer, Office of Civic Engagement, Ode Kolawole and the representative of the Special Adviser to the Governor on Civic Engagement.

The officers commended the organisers of the event, saying that the peace rally was timely in the state.

gbonnaya Onwudike, a professor and vice chancellor of Rhema University of Nigeria, Aba, AbiaState, has expressed his delight for the successful accreditation of the five (5) courses run by the University by the National Universities Commission (NUC).

Onwudike, who made this known to journalists in his office at Aba, recalled that in October/November 2018, the Rhema University, Nigeria presented five of its programmes for accreditation and all of them got full accreditation from the accreditation body.

The VC disclosed that courses which scaled through accreditation hurdles are Mass Communication 93.7percent,Accounta ncy,90percent, Biochemistry, 84.3 percent,Chemistr y81.4percent,Banking and Finance 83.9percent.

He maintained that it was a combination of calibre of lecturers and facilities put in place by the university that made the accreditation possible, adding that the institution would not

rest on its oars to ensure that it continues to maintain high academic standard in line with its mission statement which is equipping humanity for excellence.

UwaomaUche, head o f t h e De p a r t m e n t o f Mass Communication, in his c ontr ibution on the successful accreditation of the university’ s courses,expressed his delight for the feat which the university has recorded, noting that the implication is that students will graduate on record time with sound training and be easily mobilised for NYSC programmes.

He added that Rhema is a very serious centre for academic excellence, while calling on students seeking admission to feel free in doing so.

He explained that other courses run in the University include Bachelor of Nursing Science,Bachelors of Anatomy,BSc Physiology,BSc. Medical Laboratory Sci ence, Applied Biology, Ch e m i s t r y / I n d u s t r i a l Chemistry,Microbiology, Computer Science, Economics,Political Science and Public Administration and Marketing.

Ogoni Clean-up: Group unleashes 100 environment monitors, says FG is deceiving the people Ignatius Chukwu & Gladys Nweke

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nvironmental Right Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/ FoEN) says the pronouncement by the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) that it has commenced the clean-up of the Ogoni land contaminated areas is false.

HYPREP in January, 2019 claimed that it has allocated some contaminated sites to about 16 contractors, thereby, flagging off officially the clean-up exercise of Ogoniland.

However, ERA/FoEN’s Executive Director, Uyi Ojo, said the independent inspection by ERA on the sites in Ogale, Ueken, Korokoro and Bodo among others, showed there was no sign the job had begun in any of the sites.

Oyo spoke at a news briefing to update stakeholders and reporters on the clean-up in Ogoni, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital. At the event, 100 Community Independent Monitors (CIM), trained and equipped by the

ERA, were unveiled, to provide qualitative and scientific progress reports on the clean-up process.

Describing the discovery as unfortunate, ERA/FoEN deplored the Federal Government and HYPREP for playing with the emotions of the Ogoni people.

He appealed to the Federal Government and HYPREP to stop the deceit and implement the emergency measures, including the provision of potable water, building of livelihood measures, construction of the centre of excellence, and the Integrated Contaminated Soil Management Centre (ICSMC), before the cleanup, as recommended by the UNEP report.

He said, “As we are gathered here, the verdict on Ogoni land by the UNEP environmental assessment has not changed. Recent visits to the communities indicate that Ogoniland remains a wrecked environment and environmental disaster zone; in spite of efforts made towards the clean-up. Till date, contrary

to popular belief, not a drop of oil has been cleaned.

“The multiple claims that contractors have mobilised to site and that cleanup has commenced is false and there is no visible sign of contractors on site going by reports from our independent field monitors who are closely monitoring the process and were there this week,” he said.

Speaking on activities of HYPREP, he said, the report finds monumental deviation that has eroded public confidence and will likely compromise the quality of the clean-up process. For this reason, we request HYPREP to stick to the concrete recommendations relating to the clean-up process as this report is of interest to critical stakeholder in the Ogoni clean-up.

Providing useful tips on the way forward, the activist said, “The Federal Government should comply with UNEP recommendation on emergency measures to provide the Ogoni communities water for drinking and other uses.

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Brexit will translate to massive foreign direct investments to Nigeria - Bankole

Abia police command ready to combat electoral

...pledges to facilitate more FDIs, jobs for Ogun

owards preventing violence and other social ills that are associated with elections, Chris Ezike, the Commissioner of Police,AbiaState Command, has said that the command has fully prepared for the forth coming general election.

Ezike made this known at the Police Officers’ Mess Umuahia during a workshop for senior officers across all parts of the command on how to go about handling the

RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

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imeji Bankole, former Speake r, Fe d e r a l House of Representatives has declared that Nigeria, especially Ogun state which has largest presence of manufacturing firms in the country, will benefit greatly from Brexit - the impending withdrawal of United Kingdom (UK) from European Union (EU) in terms of Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).

He said that the existing and prospective firms owned and controlled by investors that are natives of European Union and other countries of the World who are out of with the United Kingdom (UK) moving out of European economic bloc, would prefer to move their businesses to Ogun state and Nigeria after 29th March, 2019 Brexit deadline as proposed by Theresa May, UK Prime Minister.

Speaking during flag off of his campaign held in Abeokuta on Friday Dimeji Bankole, who is governor-

Bankole

ship candidate of Action Democratic Party (ADP) in the state, expressed desire to start working in order to attract more of foreign direct investments which the United Kingdom is about to lose to Africa due to Brexit, saying efforts are ongoing to ensure that Ogun state has the largest number of such investments.

Bankole, the Honorary Vice President of Africa House and the Africa for Growth Initiative, an African Economic Group in UK, said, “As United Kingdom is moving towards Brexit, we must

be getting ready for fallout of industries from UK. I was appointed on the Board of Africans in UK and when Brexit happens, we will benefit greatly from there, Ogun state and Nigeria.”

While speaking on the main focus of his administration when elected as governor of Ogun state, the former Speaker said he would focus more on employment generation, autonomous local council system, youth development, human capital development, among others.

He said, “Revival of comatose local government system, building vibrant state economy, delivery of efficient healthcare, provision of qualitative education, sports and youth development, human capital development, women empowerment among others, will be given adequate attention by ADP government under my watch.

“Our party is focused on one point agenda ‘Mass Employment’ which we believe it encapsulates all human endeavours. As a matter of fact we have large numbers of young people in Nigeria.

‘Erratic power supply dealing deadly blow on businesses, hindering development in Nigeria’ Ngozi Okpalakunne

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resident, Blue Diamond Logistics, Festus Mbisiogu has decried the erratic electricity supply across the country, describing it as a major challenge hindering the country’s development.

Speaking at a press briefing held recently in Lagos, Mbisiogu, who is also the founder of Good Governance Initiative (GGI), a nongovernmental organisation, regretted that after 50 years of the country’s independence, Nigeria is still struggling for constant sustainable electricity.

According to him, of all the countries that are endowed with the human, material and financial resources, Nigeria is the only country that is yet to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as regarding electricity and energy.”

Quting recent statistics, he said: “Many Nigerian small businesses spend average of N60,000 per month on fuel and maintenance of generating sets, yet government insists it cannot pay more than N30,000 per month as salary, even as over ten thousand Nigerian youths

and families have lost their lives to incessant cases of generating fumes.’’

According to him, the country’s current electricity needs stand at 180,000 megawatts if Nigeria must have adequate and stable power supply.

He said: “With a potential to generate 12,522 megawatts (MW) of electric power from existing plants, we are only able to generate around 4,000 MW, which is grossly insufficient.

“It was this that led to the privatisation of the generation and distribution companies some years back. But the question we ask ourselves is: has this solved our electric-

Festus Mbisiogu

ity problems? The answer, of course, is No. “On the actual privatisation process, loss reduction and investments were the major parameters for assessing and selecting prospective bidders.”

He argued that the objectives of letting the Generating Companies (GenCos) and the Distribution Companies (DisCos) to fully take charge of the power sector in Nigeria has not achieved the desired results, adding that it has so far characterised by series of unaccomplished objectives and ineffective strategies.

Mbisiogu maintained that the overriding objectives to improve efficiency and service delivery down the electricity value chain have not yielded the desired results, particularly, the expansion of the transmission and distribution system capacity to meet growing consumer demands.

He regretted that the regulatory frameworks that government put in place such as tariff order, power purchase agreements, bulk electricity trading to attract and ensure sustainability were not robust and effective to address the objectives.

UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia

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forthcoming election.

He disclosed that in terms ofcommunity policing, Arochukwu Local Government Area is ahead of 16 other LGAs in the state.

“You are expected to be in the field to ensure free, fair and credible election.

People will be watching you while in the field to see how you comport yourselves,” he advised them.

The CP reminded the officers that their job this time around would be enormous since the number of registered voters in thestate has increased from 1.4million to 1.93million.

Ezike said all the 17 local government areas in the state have become flash points due to violence and cult activities.

“We can only have a credible election that is free from intimidation, harassment and violence,” Ezikesaid.

NkemkaJombo-Ofo, the guest lecturer and Commissioner representing the South-East zone and Organised Private Sector in the Police Service Commission (PSC) in his lecture, reminded the officers of the state command that the 2019 is important to not only Nigeria but the International Community.

Ogoni group begs Buhari to reinstate their son as NDDC’s finance boss, but adds subtle electoral threats Ignatius Chukwu & Gladys Nweke

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he battle of supremacy raging in Rivers All Progressives Congress (APC) has led to the removal of the Executive Director, Finance and Administration (EDFA) from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), Derek Mene, said to be loyal to Magnus Abe, senator representing Rivers East senatorial constituency.

The change of guard was announced alongside those of Managing Director and Executive Director, Projects, a move that seemingly restored control of the Commission to Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation and top pillar of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Abe was a long associate of Amaechi, former twotime speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, two-term governor of the state and now Minister of Transportation, who made Abe a Peter Odili follower from the then All Peoples

Party (APP) in 1999. The struggles in the Rivers APC between Amaechi and his former subordinate, Abe, tore the party’s strengths and fortunes into two, with the NDDC power tilting to Abe, until the sweep.

Now, a group in Ogoni believed to be loyal to Abe has reacted to the removal of their major financial supporter from the post of EDFA. They have dangled appeals laced in subtle threats too. Some of the carrots subtly dangled include return of oil exploration in Ogoni, ease of clean up exercise, and votes on February 16, 2019 to Buhari.

Their language however showed lines of threats of the opposite.

President Muhammadu Buhari

As the contention over mining of oil in the Ogoni region rages on, and with the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) officially resuming the clean-up of the Ogoni Environment, Ogoni people have agreed to dialogue with the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) for the resumption of oil exploration.

They have however also asked President Buhari to reinstate Mene as EDFA of the NDDC, stressing that anything to the contrary would affect the electoral fortunes of the APC in the forthcoming elections in Ogoniland.

They said, “We are not happy that our son, Mene Derek, was removed as the EDFA of Niger Delta Development Commission by the presidency. His removal showed how Ogoni people are hated, not minding our contribution to the economy of this country.

Our position is that we want our son to be reinstated. We are calling on President Muhammadu Buhari to rescind the decision.”

Charter of Equity breeds mediocrity - Uba UDOKA AGWU, Umuahia

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chiaghaMacDonldUba, a Federal House of Representatives’ candidate of the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) for Ikwuano/Umuahia federal constituency, has said that the current agitation for charter of equity in AbiaState political clime offers the electorate nothing but rather promotes incompetence and mediocrity.

Uba made the observation while interacting with newsmen at Umuoriehi, Umuahia North L.G.A, of Abia State. He urged the electorate to ignore the crusade on equity, insisting that it was not contained in any book in Abia or the constitution of the

Federal Government, rather a mere PDP arrangement to promote mediocrity in the system and deny the people of effective representation.

Uba noted that majority of Abia people have rejected the PDP because of its twenty years of misrule in the state, adding that his victory come 16th February, 2019 National Assembly election would rewrite the wrong in the history of Ikwuano/Umuahia federal constituency. He disclosed that from 1999 to 2015, all the clans that made up the Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal constituency have had their turns at the National Assembly except Ubakala, that had not been represented.

Uba further noted that politics was all about interest and contest, arguing there-

fore, that it was the turn of Ubakala to take the seat in order to ensure the development of the people from the area, than play second fiddle in the affairs of Ikwuano/ Umuahia politics.

“I want to urge the Ikwuano/Umuahia electorate not to allow themselves to be deceived by the PDP and their antics but should be steadfast and resolute, taking a look at the twenty years of the PDP misrule in Abia State. No regular payment of salaries to civil servants and pension to the pensioners, no employment, no security, no infrastructure but only moribund industries and heaps of refuse scattered all over the state capital, portrayingUmuahia as a mere glorified local government,” he said.

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BDSUNDAY 11

Consumer Watch

‘Some brands of bread hawked in traffic, streets are substandard’ NGOZI OKPALAKUNNE

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he influx of different brands of bread in the open markets, super markets and bus stops is quiet alarming, particularly in the cities.

A visit to Lekki axis, down to Ajah in Lagos Island in the evening, one will be amazed by the maze of bread business going on there tagged, “hot bread”.

The bread comes in different names such as, Mel bread, Cherry, Delight, Metro, Sardine, Multi-colour bread and a host of others. No thanks to the incessant slow traffic on that corridor that gives young boys and girls unbridled hawking opportunity.

Also, a walk through some streets of Lagos mainland, one will see young women and girls hawking the popular “Agege bread”.

The fact is that consumers are buying, but how well prepared are those brands of bread?

Speaking on the issue, a baker who wants to remain anonymous for security reasons, affirmed that many of the bread brands produced and hawked in traffic are substandard.

“If I decide to put up an advert that may read, ‘beware of what you eat in the name of bread’, I am sure bakers of bread on that axis will accuse me of spoiling their business.

“But, the fact is that if awareness is not created, consumers will not know that the bread they eat is detrimental to their health.

“It is worrisome to discover that in some of the bakeries, due to lack of industrial flour mixer, bakers instruct their workers

to use their legs to mix flour by stepping on it. When caught they bribe their way out and continue with an excuse that they need to make ends meet. What an unhygienic way to produce an essential product like bread.

“A chance trip to any bakery where the popular ‘Agege bread’ is produced, you will discover the most unhygienic way that brand of bread is being produced. In fact, after visiting there, one may vow not to eat bread any more.

“Amazingly, the danger of eating unhealthy bread is that it could result to cancer, a most dangerous and dreaded sickness in the world can be contracted from it due to an ingredient that is widely used by many bakers in Nigeria called bromate. It is technically called, ‘ECG or bread improver’ by bakers and merchants of baking ingredients,’’ he said.

The baker further explained that bromate has a way of growing cancerous cells in the body, adding that it had the tendency of coming in trickles into one’s system and grows over the years and damage the cells.

“It is called ‘improver’ because when a little portion is added to flour, it increases the dough thereby reducing the cost of baking at the detriment of the consumer’s health. “’It is sad to note that in spite of the late Director General of National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dora Akunyili’s fight against the use of bromate in baking bread, some bakers still use the product . The agitating question is, what is the present administration of NAFDAC do-

ing that this display of impunity and endangering of people’s lives is being so widespread?

“Back in the days when the late Akunyili was at the helm of NAFDAC, the agency was vibrant and fearsome. It was believed then that the fear of NAFDAC was the beginning of doing things right in the food and drug industry.

“She fought gallantly to safeguard consumers and the nation was better because credibility and a level of confidence was restored to the drugs and food consumed by Nigerians,’’ he added.

Another baker, Gabriel Ehime argued that it is not possible for a good quality bread to be sold below N250 no matter the indices.

“The truth is that most bakers, in order to maximise profit, cut corners by producing substandard and hazardous bread’’, Ehime said. He regretted that most Nigerians do not know what good quality bread is made of or tastes like, adding that many eat different things in the name of bread.

However, he stressed the need for NAFDAC and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) to ensure bakers produce good quality bread for the populace.

On the other hand, he advised that consumers should be careful of what they eat as bread, adding that bakers should endeavour to produce good quality bread that will not endanger the

health of the consumers.

Another foremost baker, who preferred to be addressed as Odiagbe, said she often educates her customers on good quality bread.

“Take for instance, when they come requesting for white bread.

I discourage them from buying such and advise that they should go for brown colour bread as white breads are not well baked,” he said. Odiagbe revealed that many are into bread making because they can afford to make or mix anything and offer consumers to buy without being interrogated.

“No authority queries them.

Some people add a chemical called saccharine which adds sweetness to bread and because it is cheaper, instead of bakers adding five cups of sugar for instance, they add two cups and make it up with saccharine which is dangerous to health.

“The inference so far is that ways of bakers cutting corners are many and because the agencies responsible for ensuring that consumers eat safe foods are not doing much to sanitise the industry, some bakers capitalised on that and bake whatever they like in the name of bread,’’ Odiagbe affirmed.

On the other hand, she recognised that there were bakers whose bread meets the appropriate standard quality. “Undeniably, there are bakers that produce good quality bread.

Nigerians love to eat bread and this is why it is necessary for the authorities to launch a renewed campaign and sanitise the industry for the sake of the masses,’’ Odiagbe said.

Dufil launches Indomie Relish in Port Harcourt

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ufil Prima Foods, makers of Indomie Instant noodles, recently introduced its new line extension, Indomie Relish, into the Port Harcourt market.

The city went agog as excited consumers trooped to Port Harcourt Mall on Azikiwe road in the city to have a taste of the chicken and seafood flavours of packaged Indomie Relish.

Ginny Tewatia, product manager, Indomie Relish, who spoke during the launch affirmed that since the introduction of the product, Dufil Prima Foods has left no stone unturned in making the product available to its teeming consumers across the country, hence, the launch of the brand in Port Harcourt, after its earlier launches in Lagos and Abuja.

Tewatia further explained that the new product offers a complete meal experience with real chicken and sausage chunks in the chicken flavour packs and added that it provides all ingredients that make a meal complete like tomato and onion sauce, dried pepper, seasoning

powder and oil.

He also revealed that no chemical was added to preserve the real chicken, fish and hot dog chunks contained in the two flavours of Indomie Relish.

Tewatia said: “Indomie

stands for providing products with highest quality and Indomie Relish has stood firm on this guiding principle. Real meat used in Indomie Relish lasts longer because of technology called ‘Freeze Drying’ and not

by adding preservatives and chemicals.

“It’s a process by which moisture is reduced by freezing the meat at extremely low temperature and removing the frozen moisture from the meat.

L-R: Multipro Port Harcourt Marketer, Chijoke Obiako; Brand Manager, Indomie Relish, Ginny Tewatia; University of Port Harcourt Student, Sherry Momoh and Branch Manager, Multipro Port Harcourt Gaurav Srivastava at the launch of Indomie Relish at the Port Harcourt Mall, recently.

Low temperature freezing reduces the bacteria and moisture thereby increasing the shelf life.

When the water is added to the meat, it regains original texture and taste because there are no additional artificial additives added to it. We did this to give consumers the fresh taste of chicken and hotdog or seafood, depending on their preferences.”

High points of the launch were the dry and wet samplings of the brand. At the wet sampling stand, consumers received two plates of cooked Indomie Relish, consisting of chicken flavour and the sea food flavour.

Other participants, however, received uncooked Indomie Relish packs at the dry sampling stand, where the consumers completed some very entertaining tasks, which qualified them to win “Indomie Relish: The Complete One” and various prizes.

Many of the consumers who spoke during the product launch commended the manufacturers of the new product describing it as a good one.

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PhotoSplash

L-R: Sola Fijabi, director, PACE Sports and Entertainment Marketing; Charity Ilevbare-Adeniji, group brand development and activation manager (personal care), PZ Cussons; Stephen Hamafyelto, president, Nigerian University Games Association, and Olamide Adeyemo, chief strategy officer, PACE Sports and Entertainment Marketing, at the International Press Conference to announce the commencement of the 2019 Higher Institutions Football League (HiFL) in Lagos.

L-R: Solomon Dalong, minister of youth and sport development; Adebayo Shittu, minister of communication; and Dotun Adebayo, operational manager, National Grown School Feeding Programme, during the N-power volunteers rally in support President Buhari›s second term in Abuja.

NAN

L-R: Iboro Ekanem, member, house of representatives Ad-Hoc Committee to Investigate the Activities and Violation of PENCOM; Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma chairman of the Committee, and Benjamin Wayo, member, NAN during the committee›s public hearing at the National Assembly in Abuja.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu (2nd r), all progressives congress gubernatorial candidate in Lagos State, and Obafemi Hamzat (2nd l), his running mate, flanked by Abisoye Akinfolarin (left), founder/CEO, Girls Coding School, and Desmond Kajetan (r), onsultant, Girls Coding School, during a visit of Sanwo-Olu and his running mate, to the learning class students of the school, in Alagomeji yaba, Lagos..

L-R: James Wuye, organizer, Interfaith Mediation Centre (IMC); Simon Lalong governor, Plateau State, and Ustas Muhammad Asafa, another organizer of IMC, and others during the inauguration of the garden of peace and forgiveness, in Jos.

L-R: Abdul-Rasak Adebiyi, deputy director of highways, South-West, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing; Adedamola Kuti, federal controller of works in Lagos; Funsho Adebiyi, director of south-west, Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, and Julius Balzvweit, regional manager, Julius Berger, during the inauguration of re-construction Leventis Bridge at Apapa, Lagos.

L-R: Uti Nwachukwu, actor and tv host; Nonso Bassey, actor and singer; Oreka Godis, media personality; Kolawole Akintimehin, brand manager, Gulder NB Plc., and Toheeb Azeez, media manager NB Plc., after the “Own Your Journey To Success” session by gulder at Social Media Week Lagos.

Pic by Pius Okeosisi

L-R: Aderemi Adio-Moses; Seni Adio, and Theophilus Ogunlesi during the St Paul’s Day Award Ceremony where a posthumous award given to Pa Josiah Soyemi Ogunlesi and Tanimowo Ogunlesi for a Lifetime of Service and Dedication in Shagamu.

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Two-day temporary relief in Apapa as Buhari visits Lagos Stories by JOSHUA BASSEY

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here was a temporary respite from traumatic traffic experience for the residents and businesses around the Apapa precincts on Friday and Saturday.

The relief was occasioned by the visit of President Muhammadu Buahri and candidate of the All Progressives Party (APC), to Lagos to campaign and solicits votes ahead of the February 16, 2019 presidential election.

Although Buhari and members of his campaign team were nowhere near Apapa, the roads and bridges connecting the ports city were, however, unusually free, as motorists could drive in and out without the usual impediments and blockades by the ubiquitous tankers and container-bearing trucks.

Hygenius Omeje, Lagos sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) had on Wednesday, at a joint news conference with officials of Lagos State government, including Ladi Lawanson, the state commissioner for transportation, and Demola Seriki, chairman, transportation sub-committee of Buhari/Osinbajo Campaign Organisation for the Lagos rally, announced a ban on the movement of petroleum

L-R: Babajide Sanwo-Olu, All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Lagos State; Babatunde Raji Fashola, minister of works, power and housing; Abdulfatai Adisa, Onilase of Ilase Town, in Lagos; Usman Gur Mohammed, managing director/CEO, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN); Obafemi Hamzat, deputy governorship candidate in Lagos State, and Tunji Bello, secretary to the Lagos State Government, during the official commissioning of TCN Sub-Stations, at Ilase Town, in Lagos

tankers and container-carrying trucks from other states into Lagos for two days because of the planned visit by Buhari.

Following the ban, the petroleum tankers and trucks that usually parked the entire stretch of Western Avenue (Funsho William Avenue) to the Costain Roundabout and Eko Bridge, as well as others along the Orile-

Badagry: Residents defy rainfall, besiege INEC office for PVCs

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any registered voters in Badagry on Friday defied the early morning rain to besiege the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) office in Ibereko, to beat the February 8 deadline for collection of their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs).

Registered voters were seen on queues defying the downpour in the bid to collection their PVCs on deadline.

The queues were according to the 11 wards that made up the Badagry Local Government area and the two Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in the town.

John Ajoseh, one of the registered voters, said that the time to collect the card eluded him all the while.

“But I received a message from INEC telling me that the collections will end today (Friday).

“I have to tell my boss that I will not be in office early so that I can collect it. I have to participate in the coming general election,’’ he said.

Bolanle Sewedo, a fish seller at Agbalata Market in Badagry, said that she was at the INEC office on Thursday but could not collect the PVC and had to revisit on Friday.

Oluwasegun Olagunju, an of-

ficial of INEC in Badagry, said that it was unfortunate that the registered voters were not coming around to collect their cards.

He said the commission had to resort to sending appeal text messages to voters in the area to come and collect their cards over two months ago.

“We have used all means of communication, even going to public places to address them to come and collect their cards but they did not come until this deadline.

“When we sent messages to them through their phones that today (Friday) is the deadline, see how they have now besieged our office,’’ he said.

Olagunju said that the uncollected PVCs in Badagry were about 35,000 as at Wednesday, adding that with the turnout of voters on Thursday and Friday, it had reduced considerably. According to him, over 5,000 registered voters collected their PVCs on Thursday.

“We are still expecting more today, as we have divided them into wards to enhance their distribution,’’ he said.

INEC explained last weekend that all uncollected PVCs nationwide would be warehoused at the Central Bank of Nigeria until the conclusion of the general elections.

Iganmu axis, stretching to Iganmu Bridge overlooking the National Arts Theatre inwards Ijora, had all disappeared by Friday morning.

Omeje and Seriki had warned that the stay-off road order would be strictly enforced, and advised the tanker drivers to fully comply by taking advantage of available spaces at Ogere, Ogun State and along the Lagos-Ibadan Express-

way to park their trucks, in order to allow Mr President unhindered movement Teslim Balogun Stadium venue of the political rally on Saturday.

Apapa, Nigeria’s premier ports city is notorious for ‘deadly’ gridlocks that sometimes forced motorists and commuters to spend between four and five hours on the roads. Nigeria, rated seventh

oil producing nation in the world, and a member of Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), depends almost 90% on imported refined petroleum products to power its economy, as its four refineries are in a state of comatose.

The imported products are discharged in Apapa and piped into tank farms to where oil tankers travel long distances from other states of the federation to lift for distribution.

The traffic situation in Apapa had been worsened over time by poor facilities within the ports and the fact that the two ports- Tincan and Apapa ports, being the most utilised in the country, account for over 70% of imported goods into the country. Daily, thousands of trucks are seen lying on the roads and bridges enroute Apapa to either lift out imported goods or return empty containers to the shipping companies operating within the ports.

The gridlock around Apapa has defied every proposed and implemented measure, even as repeated visits to the area and promises to find a lasting solution by officials, including Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, have resulted in nothing, as the trucks are expected back on the road by tomorrow (Monday).

FG to dislodge illegal squatters from underbridges in Lagos

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he Federal Government is to begin the enforcement of laws that allow it to evict illegal occupants under Lagos bridges and protect them from further damage.

Federal Controller of Works in Lagos, Adedamola Kuti, said this in Lagos against the background of the recent reopening of the Apapa/Leventis Bridge to traffic. The bridge was shut for repairs in June 2018 and reopened on Wednesday, February 6, 2019.

Kuti said efforts were on to protect the newly reopened bridge as well as other bridges in Lagos. He said the ministry of power, works and housing was

working out modalities in conjunction with the Lagos State government and the relevant law enforcement agencies on the enforcement.

According to him, eviction notices had been served on illegal occupants on the bridges since 2018.

He added the Apapa/Leventis Bridge like most bridges in Lagos, was damaged by fire due to activities of miscreants.

“We are working with the law enforcement agencies to get the modalities for eviction of illegal occupants.

“We will liaise with Lagos State government; we will get over to them not only on the Apapa/ Leventis Bridge but also on all the

bridges in Lagos. This is to ensure that we dislodge these miscreants and other illegal occupants under Lagos bridges,’’ he said.

The minister of power, works and housing, Babatunde Fashola , first ordered the closure of the bridge for emergency repairs in August 2016 after a portion of the bridge damaged by fire caved in. It was reopened to light traffic after the emergency repairs and was later briefly closed for investigative tests in 2017.

However, the bridge was shut again in June 2018 after Julius Berger; the contractor handling the project imported some materials to aid its permanent repairs.

Monarch excited at test-run of Lagos-Ibadan rail line

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lake of Egbaland, Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo is hopeful that the n e w La g o s - Ib a d a n standard gauge rail line would improve the economy of Egbaland.

The monarch said this during the official test run of the standard gauge from Iju Lagos to Abeokuta on Friday.

He, however, described the event as an act of history repeat-

ing itself. He said: “Today, history is repeating itself.

“In Egbaland in 1906, similar event happened when the narrow gauge passed through Abeokuta and it helped to boost economy of the people.

“This development will improve the economic standard of the people, in terms of prompt movement of goods and services within the towns and the

state.”

The monarch said that the fact that train remained the cheapest means of transporting goods and people made the occasion more remarkable.

The royal father expressed optimism that the new rail line would also reduce the cost of maintaining the roads, thus making it last longer “when goods and services are moved by rail.”

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Perspective February 16, Atiku and the restructuring bait Emmanuel Umohinyang

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ne of the greatest pains of patriots who truly love the African continent is that it continues to lag behind despite her enormous potentials.

Curiously, Africa’s bane has largely been due to Africans who continue to show contempt towards a continent so blessed in human and natural resources, though some still refer to her colonisation by foreign powers as a major drawback.

Nigeria which was truly the giant of Africa is a typical case of the unfortunate scenario after showing some glimpses of greatness at infancy.

Many still recall the Malaysia story where that country came to Nigeria many years ago to explore how she could tap the potentials of oil palm and is today a major foreign exchange earner from that produces, years after; while Nigeria continued it’s over reliance on oil until recently.

Similar stories are legion, but the sad story was that Nigeria was almost left to bleed to death administration after administration, largely due to corruption, even as the civilian administrations did not fare better.

Compared with other African countries, which have done better, the difference no doubt has been the issues of leadership and followership, which are very critical in any nation state.

Though Nigeria like most other African countries has good people at various rungs of the ladder, what separates us from other nations is attitude.

For instance, have you bothered to ask yourself why Nigerians es-

Atiku pecially the elite suddenly become mute when they see issues that are injurious to the health of the nation?

Why do they look the other way when somebody tells us to our face, that he will do the impossible when he becomes the President, when we know he lacks the antecedents?

Why don’t they as opinion leaders shape the reasoning of the illiterates and vulnerable positively on issues of national importance as the coming election?

These questions are germane when one considers the restructuring bait former Vice – President, Atiku Abubar has been dangling before Nigerians in the last few months.

Suddenly, the Waziri Adamawa has become an advocate of restructuring after becoming the Presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

Worse still, he says he would restructure Nigeria to correct imbalance in the system to ensure a level playing ground among all segments of the country within six months!

Beautiful as his proposition ap-

pears, it still beats one hollow when one takes a critical look at both the message and the messenger.

First, it appears that former governor of Lagos state, Senator Bola Tinubu was right after all when he queried Atiku’s democratic credentials.

This is because questions about the former Vice President’s sudden romance with restructuring needed to be asked.

Having been on the political turf and rising to the level of the nation’s number two, when and how did he join the restructuring train?

Meanwhile, he also needs to be asked how he will achieve restructuring within six months in office, if he becomes President.

This is in view of the fact that we are knowledgeable enough to know that restructuring cannot be achieved by executive fiat. Such a proposition therefore needs to go before the National Assembly, where the two arms would subject the issue to serious debate before it can be actualised.

Even foreigners have an idea about Nigerian’s complexity and

what that therefore means is that some spade work would have to be done among critical stakeholders, even before such a bill is presented at all.

This would no doubt require some time, even as government would also be busy with other germane issues of state, which means the six months proposed by Atiku is nothing but a fraud meant to hoodwink the electorate into voting for him as President.

This reminds one of the emergencies U-turn made by former President Goodluck Jonathan, who had all along rejected the idea of a national conference by Nigerians. His stand before the sudden change was that holding the conference may lead to end of the Nigerian nation and that he would not be party to such.

However, Nigerians were shocked to see the same Jonathan telling them that he had suddenly had a change of mind due to superior argument.

But those who saw through the script knew that the former President only shifted ground to fulfill the agenda of certain interests whom he relied on for votes.

The outcome today is public knowledge.

Though Jonathan wasted a substantial part of our commonwealth on that conference for personal gains, he was roundly defeated by President Muhammadu Buhari, who is widely respected for his integrity at the polls.

Today, a similar scenario is playing out with former President Olusegun Obasanjo drumming support for Atiku to become the next President.

Both Obasanjo and Atiku led this country for eight years and they never touched restructuring with a long pole while their administra-

tion lasted.

Atiku in particular is being clever by half in pushing his agenda during his political campaigns.

Has anyone heard him pushing the restructuring agenda anywhere around the North? Never!

However, the PDP candidate knows that restructuring is sweet music to the ears of those in the South and never forgets to drum it hard whenever he campaigns in the zone. This reminds one of the late political leader in a state in the North central and father of a leading Senator, who employed the strategy many years ago. Each time he took his presidential aspiration to the North, he was known and addressed with an Islamic name, a strategy devised to sway votes from the North, which is dominated

by Muslims.

In the South, he was simply addressed in his Yoruba name, to show his affinity with the South, especially the Yoruba – speaking areas. His posters were designed in like manner but his dream eventually hit the rocks for obvious reasons.

As February 16 fast approaches, the time to put on our thinking caps is now, especially as we need to take a major decision about our future and our children’s future.

This is in view of the fact that February 16 offers us a moment to decide whether to continue with a government that though not perfect, has shown prospects of a better future or one with an outlook of an uncertain future.

That somebody who wants to become our President would declare equivocally that he would sell the NNPC to his friends as they also deserve to become rich raises fundamental questions even as the same fellow continues to contradict himself now and then on how he would tackle corruption.

with yet another bizarre endorsement of former Vice president Atiku Abubakar of the PDP. Few days ago, some factions of Afenifere, NEF, PANDEF, Ohaneze Ndibgo and MBF gathered in Abuja to endorse Atiku for President in the coming poll.

Looking at those who were at the event, one cannot but remember that these were the same elements who endorsed Johnathan in 2015.

The good thing however is that many of those who belong to these groups have been crying foul over the act as they were not contacted before the endorsement.

Even the Ohaneze Ndigbo is under fire from its Secretary – General and Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra state over Atiku’s endorsement.

Even when these groups were not in tatters and not as presently constituted, they got serious whipping from Buhari, who is undoubtedly the most accepted politician in our recent history.

The icing on the cake today is that the President has even become more popular among Nigerians with his myriad of achievements in critical sectors, including economy, security, fighting corruption and infrastructure.

Everywhere he goes, he never fails to flaunt his achievements in

railways, upgrading of airports, agriculture, and empowerment of the poorest of the poor through Trader moni, market moni, N-Power etc.

For his opponents, their agenda, according to them is to sell our national assets, including the NNPC to their friends and grant amnesty to looters of our national treasury.

As the coming polls gradually approach, the choice of where Nigerians are headed is surely clear, as we cannot afford to go back to Egypt.

This is because Buhari has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he has the credibility and political will to take Nigerians to where we deserve to be in the comity of nations.

Therefore a million endorsements by some traders masquerading as opinion leaders cannot overshadow the Nigerian spirit which is globally acclaimed as a major positive attribute which brings out the best in Nigerians, even in very critical moments would definitely be at play on February 16, 2019, when we all go out to elect our president.

Even without endorsements, President Buhari is surely on his way to another land slide victory, as our recent experience has shown that endorsements don’t win elections. If it does, Former president Jonathan would have won in 2015.

Afenifere, Ohanaeze, PANDEF and an imminent waterloo

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hat men irrespective of background and status have short memories is a statement of fact, generation after generation.

That is why, time and time again, we are daily inundated with tales of people who refuse to learn from history, most times for pecuniary benefits.

Curiously, some of these elements have more than enough resources to take care of their ostentatious lifestyle and that of their unborn generation.

In the case of Nigeria, the giant of Africa, the elite in particular take advantage of their status in the society to hoodwink the people, most of whom are illiterates and poor.

These elites most times use ethnic and religious baits to fool the people under the guise of fighting for the rights of such people, while some of them have turned themselves into professional agitators, administration after administration.

Though they most often operate under the umbrella of ethnic and religious organisations and pretend to be apolitical, the truth is that they are captains of politics of the stomach!

Whether under the Military or Civilian regime, their target is one and the same - to get those in authority to dispense patronage to them and their cronies, not minding the source.

That was why it was not surprising that retired Colonel Hamza Al-Mustapha, former chief security officer (CSO) to former head of state; Gen. Sani Abacha accused some elites of receiving patronage from the Abacha regime in the name of June 12.

He specifically accused Afenifere leaders of benefiting from that regime, while pretending to be negotiating the release of the winner of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election Basorun Mikio Abiola.

So strong was Afenifere during that era that the group was revered beyond the shores of the country, while its members were the leading lights of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), which played a prominent role during the period.

It was this larger – than – life image of Afenifere/NADECO that made former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar who succeeded Abacha to reach out to the group as part of measures to move the country forward. That was then.

Years after, it is rather sad that some elements within the socio cultural organisation in league with similar elements have abandoned the noble cause they once fought for, when one looks back today.

That is why one cannot dismiss the allegations leveled against these leaders, by the retired Army Colonel.

Even in 2015, Afenifere, PANDEF,

Middle Belt forum and Northern Elders Forum were in the lead when Former President Goodluck Jonathan was desperately seeking re – election.

The plank of the endorsement was that they were out to support Jonathan because of his hurriedly – put – together national conference, which gulped a colossal part of our resources, at a t time the economy was almost grinding to a halt.

But Nigerians saw through the script because they knew that idea was not Jonathan’s as he had pointedly told the world that holding the conference may lead to the balkanisation of Nigeria.

It was during the same period that the media was awash with tales of how million of Dollars meant for arms procurement was been used to buy endorsements across the country by the former President.

This was at a time even Jonathan could barely attend public functions as Boko Haram had virtually taken over Abuja, where it brought down the United Nations (UN) building and bombed the heart of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

It was therefore unsurprising that in unison, Nigerians voted out former President Jonathan, paving way for President Muhammadu Buhari’s emergence.

Four years down the line, a repeat of part of what we saw in 2015 is playing out before our very eyes,

Umohinyang, a social commentator wrote in from Lagos

Sunday 10 February 2019

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Lagos, 2019 budget and sustainable development

Frank Aigbogun editor Zebulon Agomuo DEPUTY EDITOR John Osadolor, Abuja

Tayo Ogunbiyi Ogunbiyi is of the Lagos State Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja

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n Lagos State, especially in the past three years, prioritization of developmental needs and earmarking resources commensurate with the importance of each sector has been the compelling factors in budgetary estimates in Lagos State. Following this tradition, Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, recently presented the 2019 Appropriation Bill of N852.317 billion to the State House of Assembly. The budget was N193.683 billion less than the 2018 budget of N1.04 Trillion. The budget includes a deficit financing of N77.086bn which is expected to be sourced from internal loans and other sources.

The proposed budget has Recurrent Expenditure at N389.560 billion while the Capital Expenditure was N462.757 billion, with Capital expenditure representing 54 per cent and recurrent at 46 per cent. The concentration of the budget on capital project was targeted at completion of major infrastructure projects and smooth transition to the next administration. The 2019 Budget is,

thus, projected to strengthen on the economic gains made so far by capitalizing on realistic, budget friendly programmes and projects. The projected total revenue for Year 2019 is N775.231billion, of which N606.291billion is expected to be generated internally, N168.940billion is expected from Federal Transfers, while a total of N77.086 billion will be sourced through deficit financing within medium term expenditure framework.

As in previous years, the 2019 Budget, Economic Affairs dominates the sectoral allocation of the proposed budget. This is due to our continued focus on the completion of major on-going projects such as: Oshodi-Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road; Agege Pen Cinema Flyover; Phase II of AradagunIworo -Epeme Road, Oshodi Interchange Terminal; completion of JK Randle Complex, Onikan Stadium; Imota Rice Mill; Renovation/Furnishing of Lagos Revenue House, amongst others in order to meet their specified deliverable outcomes without any bias or prejudice to others.

It is being projected that the revenues of the state will improve this year by consolidating on the already established public financial management and technology-driven revenue reforms; through data integration and use of multi-payment channels.

In 2018, the overall budget performance as at Nov. 2018 stood at 60 per cent or N574.206 billion with actual cumulative total revenue of N530.192bn at 64 per cent. From all indica-

tions, with the availability of the required financial resources, the state government would accomplish its objective of taking Lagos to the next level. Over the years, the state government has demonstrated enough capacity to implement projects. Ironically, however, the successes of the state have created economic problems for her as reflected in the number of people coming into the state to benefit from what it has to offer. It is quite similar to the case of Nigerians travelling abroad in quest for the proverbial greener pasture.

In the last three years, the Lagos State Government has, no doubt, changed the paradigm not only in budgeting but in its implementation in the country.

It has been the policy of the state government to embark on budget review. Repeated monitoring, critical examination and diligent application of the process have impacted positively on budget performance in the state. The idea of budget assessment speaks volume of the pro-activeness of the state government as it affords it a scientific basis of measuring its performance in a consistent manner while putting pressure on government departments and agencies to meet budgetary targets.

In order to ensure total success of subsequent budgets in the state, the people need to be fully involved in its implementation. For instance, they need to speak up whenever they notice any anomaly in the implementation of projects in their localities.

The projects in their localities are

theirs and are principally meant for them so they should monitor them to ensure that money being spent is well spent.

Similarly, government needs to ensure that existing structures for programme monitoring are supported with proper evaluation systems especially where existing ones are weak. It is important, equally, that evaluation provides evidence- based information that is credible, reliable and useful, enabling the timely incorporation of findings, recommendation and lessons learnt into decision making. Perhaps, more significantly, all MDAs in the state need to be more creative in their revenue generation drive by focusing on untapped areas of revenue.

It is, however, important to stress that Lagosians have a role to play in the implementation of budgets in the state. The human challenges that confronted the full implementation of budget are both behavioral and attitudinal as people still refuse to comply with laws of the state. The effect of this is increase in the cost of running government in many ways because compulsory compliance which the people will not accede to, leaves government spending more money on law enforcement than it probably would have. So, as the state government embarks on the implementation of 2019 Budget, there is a need for Lagos residents to embrace attitudinal change that would enhance accelerated growth and development in the state.

Ogunbiyi is of the Ministry of Information and Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja

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VOX POP

Who will you vote for on February 16, 2019? change would be channeled towards the positive angle not knowing that the reverse would be the case. Inflation has been the order of the day in Nigeria. Presently, I believe majority of Nigerians want him out because his first tenure seems a waste of time.

I want Atiku to focus on the agricultural sector. Over the years, our agricultural sector has been neglected because we think that crude oil is the only way forward.

He should give adequate attention to farming. This will reduce hunger in Nigeria.

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JONATHAN ADEROJU heIndependentNational Electoral Commission (INEC) says a total number of 73 candidates will be contesting for the presidential election slated for Saturday, 16th of February, 2019.

It therefore, means that the 84 million Nigerian registered voters have 73 choices to make about who they would want to pilot the affairs of the country in the next four years, beginning from May 29, 2019.

Our reporter went out to the street to sample a few opinions on the choices of some possible voters.

Below are their responses. Their pictures are however, deliberately dropped for security purposes.

Gloria Achums Business owner Honestly, I would give my vote to Atiku, a known businessman who started transportation business in 1971 and he’s still in business adding his quota to Nigeria GDP. Peter Obi is an economist who schooled in London and I believe he understands how to manage our economy from recession. And I noticed something about the two of them; their main focus is usually on the youth. If they win I would want them to focus on Agriculture and Entrepreneurship.

Benny Oghale Student Well, l will go for Atiku, because I am tired of the current administration’s unfulfilled promises; l think voting for Atiku, he might turn out to be a good choice for the country.

Emmanuel Pius Entrepreneur I will vote for Fela Durotoye because he is a man with creditable reputations which of course has been defined in his various presentations. He is highly intellectual and seemingly fit to coordinate the affairs of a nation. So far, on his own, he

Promise Okeoma, Entrepreneur To be sincere, I would rather vote for an unknown party than the popular APC or PDP. Let’s try something new. Seriously. Mr. Donald Duke – Social Democratic Party (SDP) or Prof. Kingsley Moghalu – Young Progressive Party, (YPP) are good to go. I am still contemplating on the one out of these two. ‘We don chop okra and ogbono too much. Make we try egusi and vegetable soup na.’ has made a mark in business consultancy and has displayed expertise in leadership as a leadership expert.

It is a known fact that he is a motivational speaker and that to a very great extent has been exercised to impact people in different ways.

His smartest and most liberal move was to paddle the boat with a female vice president in the person of Khadijat Abdullahi. She is well learned and equally understands dealings that put diplomacy on an excellent scale. He shares the same vision with his co-anchor and has built a trusted and dependable representational attitude over the years. For every developing nation to progress, there must be constant power supply, good and up-to-date health care system running and worldstandardeducationalsystem; good road networks, assured employment opportunities, transparent policies that cover- these are

my expectations from my preferred candidate.

Ayobami Oluboka Entrepreneur I will vote for Sowore because I feel he is brilliant and we need a new party to make things work in this country, and he should focus on education, civil service, health and employment and youth empowerment.

Charles Nwachukwu, Student Come February 16, I’m casting my vote for Atiku, the presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), because our present government has failed us in all its ramifications. We all voted for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 general election because he came out with a promise “change”. We all thought that the

David Udemma, Cinematographer I would vote for Fela Durotoye.

This is because, if not for anything. I want a new and young face. Not the regular old face; the routine.

Omoronke Sunday, Entrepreneur For this upcoming election, I wouldn’t be voting anyone reason is that I don’t have permanent voters card and the temporary one I have I can’t make use of it. I couldn’t even get my PVC; the venue I was supposed to get it they were just telling stories, but if I had the opportunity of voting; I would have voted for a younger candidate. But regardless whoever wins, I will advise the person to look into the power sector. Because when there is power, it will attract more investors into the country thereby elevating our economy from the state it is right now.

Christian Eiguedo, Human rights activist Well, I will be voting for Sowore, because for now I think we need to change the table. Since the history of this country we have been recycling same old brigade; so far the old leaders have not been able to deliver well to the masses who give them the mandate. So, I feel for now let us try a younger person and see how he will be able to deliver.

If Sowore wins, I think he should focus on the education, health and housing sectors.

Chris Okojie, Entrepreneur I will vote for Sowore. If you look at the political environment today we have been running around in circles. One test of foolishness is an act of repeating a principle over and over again.

Looking at Sowore, he is a fresh wine; if we want to try a different approach to our problems its better we try a fresh hand. If he wins I expect him to look into the education sector and also make sure he tackles unemployment in the country.

Prince Enwerem, Student My preferred candidate for the number one job in Nigeria is President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and he is the candidate I will vote for in the forthcoming election.

Buhari, since 2015 when he was elected, has exposed the reality that governance is not all about looting and self-enrichment. He came into power with the mindset to fight corruption and insecurity and I must say that largely to an extent he has achieved all these.

President Buhari has effected change almost in all the sectors but I still want him to focus on our economy with special bias to the Agricultural sector.

Facilities in newly built Stephen Keshi Stadium collapse twice in six months MERCY ENOCH, Asaba

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wo times in six months, facilities in the newly completed and inaugurated Stephen Keshi Stadium Complex, Asaba, have collapsed, causing critics of the incumbent administration in the state led by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, to question the quality of job done by the contractor of the project.

The first was the collapse of a big overhead water tank near the swimming pool of the stadium, which ended up destroying vehicles that were under the tank. The second and the most recent is the collapse of the score board in the stadium complex. The good news, however, is that God averted tragedies

as none of the incidents led to loss of life.

Construction work had begun in the stadium years ago but was abandoned by the previous administration until incumbent Gov Okowa, committed huge sum of money and completed the construction of the stadium mid last year, enabling the state to host the 21st edition of the African Senior Atheletics Championship last August.

The stadium after the championship has continued to host other sporting events and other festivities just as stadium was inaugurated by former President Olusegun Obasanjo on Monday, November 19, 2018.

The sporting events which steadily hold at the stadium showcased Governor Okowa

as a sports loving governor and to this end, he also received award from sports authorities and organisations for his commitment to the development of sports.

However, the collapse of structures at the stadium, tend to be painting the governor’s administration in a bad light as his efforts seem to be rubbished.

Many have attributed the collapse of the score board to poor quality job done by the contractor that handled the construction of the state.

BDSUNDAY also learnt that the score board collapsed at about 7pm during a heavy wind and light showers on Monday, January 4, but that there were no casualty recorded during the incident.

One of the sources who witnessed the incident claimed: “I was just at the opposite side of the stadium when I suddenly heard a sound. I thought It was the building from the top of the stadium and I discovered that it was the score board that fell during that heavy wind.

But we thank God that nobody was injured”.

Some participants at the championship hosted in August last year, had complained of the quality of some of the facilities at the stadium.

The big overhead water tank at the stadium collapsed during the 2018 African Senior Athletics Championships hosted by the state with the state government promising that investigation would be carried

out to unravel the cause of the collapse.

Shortly after the state’s executive (exco) meeting held on Tuesday, the state commissioner for information, Patrick Ukah, told newsmen in Asaba, that the heavy wind predicted across the country by the NiMeT caused the collapse of the score board at the stadium.

He said the score board destroyed part of the stadium but gave thanks to God that no life was lost.

While saying that the situation was receiving attention, Ukah explained that damaged part of the complex would be fixed by the contractor as the project have not been handed over to the state government.

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Politics The die is cast: Buhari, Atiku in supremacy battle Iniobong Iwok

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n few days from now, Nigerians would go to the poll to elect their president.

The 2019 presidential election has been eagerly anticipated, perhaps could be one of the most keenly contested presidential elections in the Nigeria’s history.

Incumbent President, Muhammadu Buhari, who won a historic general election in 2015, after defeating Goodluck Jonathan of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is seeking re-election. However, unlike 2015, Buhari’s popularity has waned considerably; he faces a huge task to regain the confidence of Nigerians and win re-election.

It is generally believed among Nigerians that Buhari has performed below expectation.

According to the final names of candidates released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), about 72 presidential candidates and 72 vice presidential candidates are in the race for the nation’s top job.

With the youngest candidate, being 30 years-old- Johnson Omede, who is the vicepresidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).

Some of the major presidential candidates include incumbent Buhari of the APC, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, Fela Durotoye of the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN), Kingsley Moghalu of the Young Progressive Party (YPP), Omoyele Sowore, African Action Congress (ACC), Sina Fagbenro Byron of the Kowa party and Obadia Mailafia of the Africa Democratic Congress (ADC. Recently, the candidate of the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and former Minister of Education and Solid Minerals, Obiageli Ezekwesili, pulled out of the race and promised to form coalition among the new crop of politicians to defeat the APC and PDP. The battle for the presidential position is however, between the candidates of the nation’s two biggest political parties, Atiku Abubakar of the PDP, who was a former vice president of the country under the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and incumbent Buhari of the APC. Buhari, while launching his re-election bid last December, stated in his manifesto, that he had laid the foundation work to take the country to the ‘next level’, promising to focus on five key areas - job creation, infrastructure, business entrepreneurship development, human capital enhance-

Buhari

ment service and political inclusion.

He hoped to engage one million graduates, while two million jobs are to be created through agriculture, including having the Anchor Borrowers Programme to create 1. 5 million jobs.

The president promised to complete the second Niger-Bridge, revitalisation of the nation’s rail network, which will connect major cities across regions in the country.

He promised that 35 percent of appointments in his cabinet would go to females, among others.

However, this is contrary to the programmes of Atiku Abubakar, who have promised to partner the private sector to fix the ailing infrastructure and public institutions for optimal delivery.

Atiku would invest in education, restructure the country, diversify the economy and create jobs by creating enabling environment and giving soft loans for Small Scale Enterprises (SME) to grow across the country.

Atiku also hoped to improve power generation by ensuring full participation of the private sector, give licence to investors in the sector to enable them invest in minigrid to serve local communities.

In the last two months, the two candidates have been campaigning across the country, selling their programmes to Nigerians, seeking the support of groups, individuals and ethnic nationalities ahead of the election.

However, it appears there is sharp division among some Nigerians and groups on

Atiku

who among the two leading candidates they should support.

For instance, in the Southwestern Nigeria, a faction of Afenifere, pan-Yoruba’s cultural group, has given its support to Buhari, while another faction is backing the candidacy of PDP. This division however, cut across large country.

But President Buhari, may have weakened his chances in the election over his poor performance in an interview broadcast in the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), ‘Meet The Candidates’ Buhari was criticised by Nigerians over his inability to articulate his opinion and ideas about his administration programme and policies.

However, Olurunleke Michael, a pundit, who is a research fellow at the University of Lagos (UNILAG), predicted that the election may be close, but added that President Buhari may eventually lose largely due his poor mental and physical condition.

Olurunleke said that President Buhari’s re-election bid had further been dented by his poor performance in recent media chat in the run off to the election.

According to him, “Whatever you say; he is the incumbent and has his stronghold, it would be a close presidential election; Buhari has large support in some parts of northern Nigeria. But Nigerians should brace up for a shock of their lives, it would happen, what happened to Goodluck Jonathan may happen again.

“Buhari may lose, but I think it may be

largely due to his mental and physical incompetence to the office, his weaknesses have also been exposed in the recent media chat. It is obvious that Buhari cannot continue in such office; electing him for second term would mean sharing power with some people which is illegal.

“And it is sad those pushing him are only concerned about their interest; they are not concerned about Nigeria. In terms of mental and physical competence, Atiku is better than him; you can see his acceptance across the country, I see him winning the election.”

Also a political Economist, Emmanuel Adebisi, from the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), noted that indices available to him indicate that the country has not fared better under the APC government, stressing that he expects a tight presidential election, but equally predicted that Atiku would eventually win because Nigerians want a change.

According to him, “If you look at all indices in the country, I think the country has not made much progress under this APC government; look at the naira, doing business, power, Nigerians should get something better than this.

For the election, Buhari has his stronghold and they have incumbency power, but you see, he is not the one in charge of this government, even his wife said it. Atiku is better and from my findings so far, he has a clear understanding of the economy and related issues, I see him winning the election”.

as thousands of the Arewa Support Group comprising Arewa Council Chiefs, Arewa Community Leaders and Arewa Market Leaders and their followers came in large numbers with buses to attend the event.

Chairman of the Arewa Community, Lagos State, Dandanma Muhammadu, said that the group believes in the APC, hence, the reason they came en-masse to support and endorse the APC Gubernatorial candidate.

Chairman, Mile 12 Market Association, Shehu Usnan Haruna Muhammadu, who

was represented by Shehu Usnan, stated that the Arewa group would deliver three million votes to the Lagos APC gubernatorial candidate.

According to him, “The Arewa Support Group made up of the Arewa Community has enjoyed a cordial relationship with Lagos State government. We campaigned for Fashola in 2011, we mobilized and campaigned for Governor Ambode and now we are here to render our support and endorse you as the next Governor of Lagos State.”

Group holds rally for APC candidates

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group, Sanwo Eko Movement (SEM) in conjunction with Arewa community in Lagos State, has held a rally to drum support for the gubernatorial candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Babajide Olushola Sanwoolu and his deputy, Obáfémi Hamzat Kadir.

The rally, which held at the National Stadium, Lagos, was attended by Arewa Community leaders and their members across the state.

Speaking at the occasion, the National

Coordinator of SEM, Funsho Elulade, enjoined Lagosians to come out en masse and vote for the APC, stressing that the party will transform the state and fight poverty.

Speaking further, he said his group, Sanwo Eko Movement, had been at the fore-front of mobilising grassroots support for the APC governorship candidate in his bid to win the election.

He expressed his profound appreciation to all members of SEM who took their time to attend the rally.

The endorsement was done with fanfare

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Politics INEC will not transmit results of 2019 election electronically – Okoye Festus Okoye, national commissioner and chairman, information and voter education, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), at an interactive session with senior journalists in Lagos, spoke on the readiness of the Commission to conduct credible general election. He also addressed some concerns ahead of the polls, including vote buying, security, method of result transmission, and INEC’s impartiality. ZEBULON AGOMUO, Editor, was there. Excerpts:

The rate at which political parties spring up in Nigeria has become very alarming and worrisome. People have continued to wonder what the attractions are. Does INEC still give grants to political parties? e no longer give grants to political parties. We have been very, very meticulous in applying the rules of the registration of political parties.

The challenge is that if you look at the constitution, the only thing that is tough in terms of registering a political party is that the political party must have an office in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.

It does not matter whether the office is in Maitama; it does not matter whether it is in Kuje, Nyanya; whether it is a storey building or a room and parlour.

What is important is that a political party must have an office in the Federal Capital Territory. Every other thing is paper work, just paper work. So, it is possible for anybody to just put together a political party and if you deny the polity registration today, the party can re-apply the next day. So, it’s a very, very huge challenge.

Those who designed the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made the registration of political parties very liberal.

So, if we are not comfortable with the number of political parties we have and we want to do something about them, we have to approach the National Assembly. You are aware that there’s a fourth amendment to the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that gives the INEC the power and authority to deregister some political parties that did not meet a certain threshold after the general election.

So, with that there’s a possibility that, that may act as a check on the number of political parties we have, but the designers of the constitution believes that Nigeria should be a multi-party democracy and they designed the constitution as such.

and guidelines for the conduct of these elections, and those regulations and guidelines contain where the journalists can go to and what the journalists can do on Election Day. And we have pleaded with them to be very, very professional and accord due respect to the media personnel that will be covering the elections. So, we are taking all these things on board. But you know on the Election Day, there’s a sense of nervousness and sometimes you give guidelines and those guidelines are not followed. But we are making sure that these guidelines will be followed and that no journalist will be molested on Election Day.

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How is INEC going to pick the collation officers and how is the Commission going to ensure that they are not compromised?

We have 8,809 registration areas; in each registration area we have a collation officer and from what I have just said, the INEC has said that for us to speed up collation, we are going to have two collation officers per registration area. So, if you multiply 8,809 by 2 (two) you will get the total number of collation officers that we are going to have in the various wards. We are also going to have collation officers at the local government level and we have 774 local government areas throughout the federation.

We are also going to have collation officers at the state level and these are going to be drawn from vice chancellors of various institutions of higher learning. The INEC decided to centralise the recruitment of collation officers because we want a situation where we will know who our collation officer is. The various universities are sending the names of some of their lecturers – professors and other academic staff- to

Festus Okoye

the INEC under very strict cover. When we get the names of these people from various universities, we will also subject those names to some security checks, and none of them will know where he or she is going to be a collation officer. So, if you are from, say, the University of Jos, we will train you as a collation officer but you will never know where you are going to serve as a collation officer until a day to the election. That is when we are going to release the list and the collation officer will know the local governments they are posted to.

So, we want to centralise this. We don’t want a situation where some people will be making approaches to the collation officers, just because they were recruited locally. That is why we are centralising it.

So, it is only the chairman of the INEC and his personal staff that know who the collation officers are because the list of the collation officers that will be generated by the various Vice Chancellors will go to the chairman directly and not even to the national commissioners.

Is election going to hold in the trouble states in the North East, particularly Borno? What special arrangements do you have in that regard?

Now in the relations to the North East, we decided to set up a committee to look at the issue of IDPs’ voting in various parts of Nigeria. Places like North East are very serious challenge. We also have some other places like Benue and others. We have mapped out where these IDPs are; and we captured them doing the continuous voters’ registration (CVR) exercise, but you see, the nature of the IDPs’ challenge in Nigeria is very, very fluid. Some of the IDPs we captured before, peace returned to their communities, they went back.

Some of them after going back, there was another problem, then they returned to the IDPs’ camp. So, that has posed a challenge. But the various Resident Electoral Commissioners are mapping out some of these IDPs’ camps, wherever it is possible to conduct elections in Nigeria, the INEC will conduct elections. Where the security challenge is such that it is impossible to conduct election, we will make sure that the residents of those areas that have moved to IDPs’ camps or other safe places, will have an opportunity of voting, in which case, the Smart Card Readers will be configured to capture their registration areas; and then they will be given an opportunity of voting.

How is INEC going to ensure that every journalist who wishes to cover the 2019 elections is accredited and given the reflective jacket, unlike what happened in 2015?

In terms of reflective jackets, this time around, we are going to provide right quantity of reflective jackets to all media organisations that go through our accreditation process. Some of this accreditation process will take place at the state level for organisations that are state-based; while major organisations that have a national spread, their accreditation will take place at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. We are going to provide the requisite number of reflective jackets for all the journalists that are accredited.

What is the plan of the Commission concerning the security of journalists and other observers?

Presently, the security agencies that will be involved in the election are being trained and we have given them the regulations

There seems to be confusion over issue of transmission of results. A REC said it would be done electronically and we also hear it would not be so. What is the true position?

Are we going to transmit results electronically? The answer is No. The commission will not transmit the result of 2019 election electronically. The law as at today mandates the commission to fill forms for the purposes of transmitting election results.

So, the result of the elections will be at the polling unit level; it will be entered into Form EC8A and transmitted to the collation centres and at the collation centres, the result will be collated manually. So, my answer is that the INEC will not transmit the results of the 2019 elections electronically; it will be transmitted manually.

One governor said recently that INEC and FG planned to shut down the Internet.

Can you comment on this?

I want to state that INEC has not discussed with anybody or any organisation in relations to shutting down Internet services on Election Day. All the Smart Card Readers that INEC uses or will use in the conduct of the 2019 election are propelled through the Internet. The three service providers (Glo, Airtel and MTN) that assist the INEC in configuring the SIMs that will be used for this election, if the Internet is shut down, there won’t be any elections, because the Smart Card Readers cannot function without the Internet. If the Net is shut down, there is no way presiding officers would communicate with the supervisory presiding officers and electoral officers if there is any problem in relations to a polling unit.

For each registration area, we have what we call RATECH– Registration Areas Technical assistants. These are the people who can intervene speedily if there is a problem with a smart card reader. And a presiding officer can only communicate with them if there is a challenge, using the telephone. So, if we shut down the Internet or if we conspire in shutting down the Internet, how are we going to carry out all these processes? The INEC is setting up a Situation Room and we also have a central operations centre. We also have a call centre people can call in and make one complaint or the other. If we shut down

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Politics the Internet, these things cannot happen.

So, there’s no way the INEC will conspire with anybody to shut down the Net. If we do that conspiracy, the implication is that there won’t be any election in Nigeria.

But the ballot boxes are already at the local governments. The ballot papers are with the Central Bank. All the Smart Card Readers that will be used in the conduct of this election are in all the states of the federation. So, it is not true that INEC is involved in terms of trying to shut down the Internet services. I have read a statement issued from the Office of the National Security Adviser, the Internet is part of Nigeria’s national security infrastructure and Nigerians are too sophisticated in relations to some of these things. These elections will be very, very transparent and INEC will be open to Nigerians in terms of everything we are doing.

We have not entered into any communication; we have not entered any agreement with anybody and we have no intentions whatsoever in harming some of the processes and procedures we are going to use for the conduct of the 2019 election.

INEC is being accused by the two major parties – APC and PDP- of pandering to the whims of the other. PDP says that INEC is working for APC and vice versa.

How innocent is INEC in all of this?

The INEC is a creation of the constitution.

Our power and mandates are clearly set out both in the constitution and in the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended). We remain committed to the provision of the constitution and the law.

Whatever the law requires us to do; we will do. Whatever the constitution requires us to do, we will do. If there is a court order relating to any particular matter, we will obey that order; whether we like the court order or we don’t like it. In terms of organising elections; we will organise the elections to the best of our ability and that’s what the law requires us to do. Allegations will continue to fly up and down. A few days ago the APC issues a statement insisting that we are pandering towards the PDP, and that, that was why we excluded their candidates in Zamfara and Rivers. When we take any action that the PDP finds negative, they will say we are pandering to the APC. We are not pandering to anybody; we are doing our work to the best of our knowledge and in the interest of our people and our country, Nigeria. The only thing we are interested in doing is to conduct free, fair and transparent elections. But we will insist that political parties that are registered in Nigeria must obey the constitution and also the law. If you fall outside the radar, we will apply the law the way we understand it. Section 83 of the Electoral Act says that before a political party will submit a list of candidates, it must conduct party primary election and if it does not conduct party primary election we will apply the law. So, we are not pandering to anybody, we will do our work the way we understand it, and at the end of the day, the judgment will be reserved for the Nigerian people on how well we have performed and history will be there to judge us.

INEC is being accused of listing an APC chieftain in Ebonyi State under a wrong party – PDM- for senatorial position, and they are threatening to sue the Commission. Why the mistake?

On the issue of somebody’s name not listed properly; I have been in Anambra, Enugu and Lagos, when I return to Abuja tomorrow (at the time this interview was conducted) I will crosscheck that particular information. If we have made a mistake, we will rectify it and apologise.

because the processes of the Commission keep on improving and that is why the vote buyers are bringing their money to the polling units. There are willing buyers and willing sellers, and we must name and shame these people. But on our own part, we have insisted that no voter will be allowed to go into the polling compartment with his or her phone. We are also training the presiding officers and the other ad-hoc staff on how to position the voting cubicle to guarantee some level of secrecy for the voters. And we are also discussing with various security agencies so that we can have some plain-cloth security officers around the polling units to make sure that vote buyers will not come near and vote sellers will not have the opportunity of selling.

You must also know that we removed the names of some candidates who were engaged in some multiple nomination.

This is because the law says that if you intentionally engage in multiple nomination, that your candidature is void.

Every election day we hear that the Nigeria Police have deployed so and so number of personnel to this and that state. But when you go out on the road, you hardly see these policemen. Is there anyway INEC can crosscheck the authenticity of this number being claimed?

We have what we call the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security; and this committee has been meeting at all levels– federal, state and local government.

The number of police personnel that will be deployed for this election has been handed over to the chairman of the Independent National Election Commission. The police do not have the requisite number to deploy; so, the police which is the lead agency for election security will be complemented by officers from the Customs; from Immigration, from Civil Defence; from Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other security agencies. So, you will see a rainbow coalition of security officers on the election day; but we are going to make sure that any police officer that is at a polling station, that the INEC has the name and telephone number of that officer; so that if anything is going on in a particular polling unit; we will be in a position to put a face and name to that particular police officer and domicile the phone number of that particular police officer. So, we are working towards making sure that we have all our processes in place; but we also need your cooperation in sensitising our people and making them to understand that what the Commission has engaged in is a huge logistical operation and not targeted at any individual.

For many years, foreign election monitors and observers have come to Nigeria for that purpose. They would write their reports and condemn electoral frauds observed and nothing happens thereafter. This has continued to happen. Is their presence at every election in Nigeria just a fulfillment of righteousness and not intended to benefit us by insisting that the widespread electoral fraud they usually notice and condemn is permanently stamped out or reduced?

I have observed elections in Cameroun and I have also observed elections under the platform of other international election observers in other countries; I want to assure you that, one, the presence of domestic and international observers at

polling units deters election riggers; two, the reports that are written by domestic and international observers help in the reform of the electoral process and also assist the Commission to know where we need to retouch in terms of our logistics; in terms of the law, etc. For instance, this whole controversy over simultaneous accreditation of voters; after the 2015 election; almost all the International observers were unanimous in saying that separate accreditation and voting was not good for our democracy; and that it does not conform to the international best practice, and that based on our own forensic audit, after 2015 election; we found that over two million Nigerians carried out accreditation process but did not vote.

We have also carried out some level of survey why that should be the case; and we found out that, one, some people found the two procedures too cumbersome and decided to go away. Some people who had disability could not withstand the rigour of those processes.

Pregnant women simply walked away.

Farmers said we were wasting their time; that they thought they could just come and vote and go to their farms and that the separate accreditation and voting procedure was not in their own interest.

And some people who love football on Saturdays felt that they should complete the process of voting by 3pm; so, that they could go and watch their favourite matches or go and play. So, they too left.

So, based on their reports and based on the insistence of political parties, we now decided that we are not going to use separate accreditation and voting; that we are going to do both accreditation and voting at the same time. Once you are accredited, you go ahead and vote immediately. Since 2016, from the Bayelsa State election, the INEC has conducted 195 off-season elections using simultaneous accreditation and voting. So, political parties and international observers said we should abolish, we abolished and the Nigerian people are happy that we abolished it. We have gone round, had meetings with traditional rulers, religious leaders, civil society people and organisations and also interacted with a cross section of voters and they said they are happy with this particular process and we are going to remain with it.

The issue of vote buying has become a serious one with major parties hurling allegations at one another. What is INEC saying and doing about this?

In relation to this issue of vote buying, I believe that it is the responsibility of the media to name and shame both the sellers and the buyers. The INEC does not buy and does not sell votes. I believe that it is

What are some of the challenges you envisage in reporting the election, and how can they be tackled?

There is the challenge of reporting elections. As editors, you are going to be receiving field reports relating to the elections.

And it is also very important for some of your reporters and correspondents to have, at least, some elementary knowledge of constitutional issues with a bearing on elections, and also some knowledge on issues in the Electoral Act, and also some knowledge on the regulations and guidelines guiding this particular election. Without that knowledge, some of them may not know the extent to which they can go and where to draw the line in terms of reporting issues around the election. The media will not be restricted in any way by the INEC in terms of doing their work. But the Commission insists that the editors who want to deploy correspondents and reporters to go and cover this election must get accreditation for them to prevent a situation where they will be molested on the road or where they will be prevented from doing their work. We have also made it clear to some of the presiding officers that we are presently training that the media will be entitled to certain information relating to the election; information around the number of persons on the voter register; number of political parties on the ballot and other information that will be relevant for them to report and report accurately.

But I also want to use this opportunity to appeal that we have73 parties contesting the presidential election, and that it will also be very difficult for presiding officers to answer all the questions which the media will ask on that particular day. This is because the media will be there asking questions; domestic observers will be there asking questions; international observers will be there asking questions and sometimes the voters may get agitated if they are not being attended to. Our resolve is to make sure that we announce the result of the presidential election as speedily as possible so that the Nigerian people will not be kept in suspense and that is the reason why we have decided that we are going to have two collation officers at the registration areas, to speed up the collation of the presidential election result and other strands of elections. I want to assure you that the INEC is committed to this election.

I also want to assure you that the members of the Commission have the courage and the presence of mind to do what is right.

Our commitment is to conduct an election that the Nigerian people will be proud of. I believe that with the support of the media, and with the support and collaboration of the security agencies and the Nigerian people, we can achieve this particular feat.

The election is already here; the time for grammar is over. This is the time for action, and we are already doing that action.

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Sunday 10 February 2019

Politics My fears for Lagos guber election - Jimi Agbaje Jimi Agbaje is the gubernatorial candidate of the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State in the March 2nd governorship election. He recently interacted with selected journalists on a wide range of issues about his candidacy, INIOBONG IWOK was there. Excerpts: Your campaign office has consistently complained of harassment from officials of Lagos State government and alleged destruction of your posters. How true are these allegations? his is not the first time that we are running campaigns in Lagos State and there is law for a waiver for posters for political campaigns.

The ruling party in Lagos has had a field day with their posters even before we started our campaign and no one harassed them. But when we put ours on the Third Mainland Bridge, it was vandalised the next day; for us, it was a sign of intolerance.

The first reaction from the ruling party was that they denied having anything to do with the incident. But four days after, LASRAA came out to accept responsibility. But I believe that if it was LASRAA that did it, they would not have thrown it on the bridge, they would have marked it instead. But because of the outrage, LASRAA tried to use legality to the illegality that happened. It took them over four days to come up with that.

We went back and put back the boards but after that, we still found people coming to take it away in the night, and we caught them and handed them to the police. It was after that, we got a very unprofessional and uncouth letter from a government agency but I would reserve my comments on that.

After that incident, we now got another letter from an advert agency claiming that they are the ones that have the rights to the Third Mainland Bridge and that the rights were given to them by the Federal Government because it is a federal highway.

My campaign now came to the conclusion that LASRAA was working outside its jurisdiction. They didn’t even have any rights to the Third Mainland Bridge; if the agency is to be believed. In a proper civilised country, we are supposed to sue LASRAA.

tions where there was high incidence of vote-buying. Are you apprehensive that such a scenario will play out in Lagos?

My fears are not so much about vote buying because Lagos has a very large population, so anyone who wants to buy votes in Lagos would have to empty the treasury in terms of the numbers because it would be very expensive.

Yes, we do have our fears; fears of intimidation like it happened in Osun. We fear that the environment would be made unconducive for people to come out and vote on the election day. One way to reduce vote buying is to give privacy near the ballot. What you find is that there is a deliberate act to cloud the area where people vote so that you do not know which party is being voted for.

It is not all about money, it is also about intimidation. Do not forget that most people at the grassroots are private people but rely a lot on the government. The vulcaniser knows that if it is discovered that he did not vote for the ruling party, he may lose his position where he does his business, such individual may decide to vote out of fear.

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Apart from Third Mainland Bridge, do you seek approval before putting up posters in other places?

Like I said, during election, there is usually a waiver given to campaigns. I do not know any campaign organisation that takes permission from LASRAA before putting up posters. It is only my posters and boards that are being vandalised and like I said, that is the height of intolerance.

One of the issues affecting Lagos State is traffic congestion; how are you going to tackle it if elected governor?

The first problem why we have this problem is because those who have been in leadership in the state for the past 20 years cannot say that they had any plans for the future. We always refer to the Jakande era where he had the foresight to build the Lekki Epe expressway.

If he had not built it, I am not sure that there would have been a road there.

In the last 20 years, the leadership in Lagos State did not achieve much. The other issue is the lack of urban planning. You find out that when children are on holiday, there is less traffic because; people move about less.

We have children who live in Ikorodu who school in Yaba, and they are adding to the traffic, whereas, if they had good schools around their vicinity, there would not be the need to go far. With urban planning, you are develop-

Jimi Agbaje

ing self-contained areas such that by the time you have shopping complexes and offices in Ikorodu, there would not be need to go far.

We should have a situation where 80 percent of those who live in Ikorodu should be able to find work within their vicinity. It is all part of long term visionary planning.

We should also have the culture of maintaining our infrastructure like filling up pot holes; these are short term measures that we can always carry out. Most often, you discover that potholes are the major cause of traffic jam.

Unfortunately, the governor has become a lame duck governor; because he does not have the drive or the incentive to govern, that is why no one is doing much anymore.

We have to go back to the local government; which has been missing for the last 20 years, because they are responsible for the pot holes. It is their job to repair such and not the state government.

In terms of technology, we have the radar which sees where the traffic is headed and where there is heavy traffic, it would change the fixed time of the traffic lights from say 90 seconds to two minutes. Where there is no traffic, it would reduce it from 90 to 30 seconds. These are some of the things we are talking about.

How do you plan on handle waste crisis currently in the state?

Lagos has lost out in terms of transformational leadership in 20 years. What we have had is incremental development and that is why we say that we are re-anchoring Lagos on the performance of the Jakande administration.

What you find is that not much is happening.

Lagos generates 12 to 14 metric tonnes of

waste, which is equivalent to 400 trailer loads every day. How do we dispose of it? We take it to the landfill. In developed countries, waste is seen as a resource rather than a problem.

Advanced countries recycle and reuse waste.

What they aim for is to have zero waste, so that they do not even need landfill. But for us today, we are relying on 90-something percent of landfill. The real way forward is to recycle and reuse so that we do not need landfill.

Because our residences are not accessible to vehicular traffic due to bad roads, it is not where you line up heavy duty trucks. That is why you also need the Private Service Providers (PSP) to collect waste from the home and bring out to where the trucks can take them to the transfer loading station.

Another problem with our present arrangement is that the PSPs do not operate in a transparent manner.

Waste collection is not something in which you can measure performance. So, if for instance, the government says that it has 100,000 sweepers or collectors, you cannot say if it’s true or not. We need to be transparent in the number of people that we are paying and those that are actually doing the work.

We cannot ascertain if the number of workers in the books are as many as those that are actually doing the work. In the case of Visionscape, I cannot say if they bite more than they could chew. I feel that maybe the government could have brought in two or three waste companies, instead of one which looks like they cannot handle the job given to them.

In the recent elections; we have had elec-

Have you been able to truly reconcile with your party leaders in the state?

We were at a party leaders meeting recently and all the leaders were present. In politics, after primaries or convention, you come together to face the common enemy. The ruling party is also trying to fuel the issue and to give the impression that the PDP is not coordinated enough to win the governorship election in Lagos State.

Leading up to the general election, there has been so much campaign of calumny instead of campaigning on issues. What does it portend for our democracy?

In my campaigns, I usually ask Lagosians to look back and ask themselves what the state has achieved within 20 years and compare it to other mega cities around the world. I try to put things in perspective. Jakande was governor for less than five years and his legacy is still evident. But 37 years after, what can we say about those who have been in power for over 20 years?

Can we truthfully say that they have been able to achieve in 20 years what Jakande achieved in less than five years? Is our education better? Is our healthcare system better?

Are our roads better? Is the economy better?

It means that those who have been in position in Lagos for the past 20 years were more interested in their personal interests than offering selfless service. It is not about abuse; it is about the reality that we want voters to see. We are pointing out to Lagosians that the wealth of the state is in the hands of a few vested interests who are more concerned about themselves than about offering selfless service.

Lagos is the worst state in Nigeria to get approval for building. We have an Economist Intelligence Unit report that puts Lagos at 138 out of 140 for the worst cities in the world.

Our job is to open the eyes of our people to know that we are not doing well as a state.

Our health system is not doing well; our education system is not going on well. Let’s ask ourselves; what exactly is better now in Lagos than it was 20 years ago?

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BDSUNDAY 21

La Perle by Dragone Unlike any other

theatre in the world

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Arts La Perle by Dragone

Unlike any other theatre in the world

A

OBINNA EMELIKE s the entrance door opens and I join other guests to the hall, I struggle to comprehend where I am. I am booked for an evening theatrical performance, but the huge edifice and its intimidating space make me think I am in one of those stylishly built stadia for a sold-out football derby match.

Graciously, the timely announcement by the organisers brings me back to reality. “Gentlemen and ladies, make sure you are well-seated and phones switched off, the show is starting in five minutes. Please do enjoy the best and first ever water theatre show in Dubai and the Gulf region,” the announcer says.

Within the five minutes, I keep looking around and beholding the theatre in awe. It is a magnificent auditorium that hosts La Perle by Dragone, Dubai’s #1 show. It features 1,300 premium seats, a stateof-the-art lighting and sound system and an innovative 860sqm stage.

The 1,300-seat theatre only contains 14 rows, which offers an intimate experience and gets the audience face-to-face with the action.

While still being captivated by the humongous theatre facility located in the heart of Dubai at Al Habtoor City, a guest on my row offers more reasons to watch the live show. “If this is your first time, you will be thrilled because Franco Dragone, the legendary artistic director and creator of the show, is famed for his work including Le Rêve in Las Vegas and The House of Dancing Water in Macau. He will replicate the excitement this evening”, the guest says.

Moments later, the floodlights beam, big bang opens a huge gate and the massive theatre beams with life. A group of heavily costumed performers start the show with a teaser. They climb unimaginable platforms, creating awe-inspiring stunts, while still maintain balance.

There were exclamations from the audience that thinks the act is extreme, but enjoys it as it progresses.

While they disappear as the flood lights go off, the stage takes

another shape when the lights beam again. This time, waterfall from the walls of the theatre, and other high platforms surprise the audience. “Is this real”, someone asks. Of course, it is. While the water falls, about 15 gymnasts emerge from nowhere and cascade down alongside the water. But when they are about to touch the theatre ground, an invisible lift take them to another height for repeat action. It is like an eagle flying alongside an aircraft or wild shark in a chase for a prey. But despite the swiftness, the precision is commendable.

Yet, the audience witnesses the stage flood with water; it is water everywhere and overflowing the stage as the artists perform mindblowing aqua and aerial feats. It is wonderful to behold, and the creative ingenuity, the strength and passion to entertain by the artists are all commendable. But the intrigue is that the water, which floods the stage a moment ago, drains in a matter of seconds.

As exciting as the show is, some

members of the audience keep screaming all through because of the sustained action and how daring the artists are. There is one moment everybody in the theatre screams: when the gymnasts are taking turns to dive from 25 metres high platform inside a water pool at the base of the theatre.

Most people fear that someone may fall mistakenly and that might mean death. But such never happened as the artists are professionals with many years of training, rehearsals and fitness checks.

If the action of the performers who dive into the pool on stage and those flying through the theatre at spectacular heights did not thrill you, there is one that is a bang.

When big round balls were emerging from the air, the audience never thought of any uncommon thing beyond jumping and flying around them. But they were speech-

less when some courageous fellows defy gravity by riding motorbikes inside the suspended balls.

The special effects truly leave many speechless while a few were cheering and praying for safe ride because of the fast-paced action of four bikes inside one big ball, riding and had no crash. Like a stopwatch, they stop same second and get off the ball and still perform some stunts on the theatre floor.

“Thank God they are now safe on the floor,” someone says in relief, going by the adrenalin rush courtesy of the fast-paced ride by the skilful motorbike riders.

The show later stages a kind of drama where funny characters spice and balance the fast-paced and adrenalin pumping actions with a stage play with its theme around love, care and protection that keep the audience laughing.

But in all these, the audience

feel embedded with the artists and the various performances as the 270-degree seating provides a different perspective of the action unfolding in the tailor-made aqua theatre.

Yet the theatre is one of a kind venue as the audience is immersed as every surface becomes a screen, with 3D projections on the walls, floors and giant cyclorama. The captivating sounds surround the stage by high definition speakers, which are embedded in the walls behind every seat and in the centre of the auditorium are amazing.

At the end of the over two hours La Perle by Dragone live theatre show, the audience unanimously agree that it is Dubai’s #1 show.

Many say it is “one of a kind theatrical experience,” others think it is “immersive experience”, but unarguably, La Perle by Dragone is unlike any other theatre in the world.

While outside the theatre, an official says La Perle by Dragone is the first of its kind aqua theatre in Dubai, which holds 2.7 million litres of water, and magically transforms from dry to wet stage in an instant.

However, credit goes to Al Habtoor Group, which brought the show to Dubai and made Al Habtoor City the permanent location for the show. Al Habtoor City, which sits alongside the newly launched Dubai Water Canal, is a multi-use development incorporating three five-star hotels (Habtoor Palace, LXR Hotels & Resorts, V Hotel, Curio Collection

by Hilton and Hilton Dubai Al Habtoor City), alongside three luxury residential towers.

So, Al Habtoor City is a new offering in Dubai, while its La Perle

by Dragone is a must-watch show anytime you visit Dubai.

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Arts Bode Adetoyi reviews life at 50, publishes memoirs

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Obinna Emelike hile many celebrate m i l e stones in their life history with elaborate ceremonies, a few prefer to leave behind some legacies.

But one difficult legacy to leave behind is a book that captures one’s life stages and experiences including low and high points. It is even more difficult when you choose to write the book yourself rather than contracting acclaimed biographers.

This is the difficult path Bode Adetoyi decided to toe in his autobiography, considering the fact that he runs chains of businesses and has several engagements that hardly give him time.

Titled ‘The Entrepreneur’, the book was the highlight of his 50 birthday anniversary celebration on Saturday, February 2, 2019 in Lagos.

Published by Safari Books Limited ‘The Entrepreneur’ amplifies the unique quality that saw Bode Adetoyi from growing up as a young student from Otun-Ekiti to the entrepreneurial world where he nurtured Hi Nutrients International Limited from infancy in a small flat at Ogba, Lagos to a global brand.

The book mirrors the life of tenacity, focus, and firm belief that, where there is life, there is also hope. It proves that success is possible without breaking laws, cutting corners, having friends in government or inheriting a

Bode Adetoyi and Bukola, his wife, with the book during the launch

fortune from rich parents.

The book also captures the essence of employee/employer relationship, navigating through office politics and some of the things that could go wrong. It declares that, like leaders, entrepreneurs are made and not born.

A careful reading of the book can train any person to become a wise and purposeful entrepreneur.

It also sheds light on the dynamics of starting a business in Nigeria, navigating through the unfriendly business environment, and running it profitably to the point of attracting local and international investors. It is a good template for the youth and must read for any entrepreneur.

However, the 50th birthday anniversary ceremony, which started with a church service at The Redeemed

Christian Church of God Grace Land Parish, Ojodu, Lagos culminated with the book launch held at Civic Center, Victoria Island, Lagos same day.

The event at the Civic Centre attracted creme de la creme in the society including family members, friends and business associates.

Speaking at the ceremony, Bode, who is full of life and enthusiasm, was thankful to God who made it possible for him to actualise his dreams.

He had dreamt of rewriting the story of his family background. He did beyond changing the narrative to adding value to other people.

Today, he celebrates success and dream accomplishment as a great entrepreneur. He is the chief executive officer, Hi-Nutrient International Limited, producers of animal feeds and other

farming needs.

While being fulfilled as an entrepreneur at 50 years, the book launch has also fulfilled his dream of becoming an author someday.

“I had this mentality from childhood that I want to rewrite the story of my family, and also to put Ekiti, my state, in the global map through hard work”, Bode narrated his life experience.

“Let’s not forget that I am from a poor background.

But having no money didn’t mean I should have done 419 or Yahoo to make it in life. It was really tough from onset but I was equally equipped with the knowledge that it is not money one needs to start a business but viable and positive ideas”.

“When ideas, mission, vision and business plan set on roll, there is no way you can’t succeed. Secondly, all these

Art & Craft Village under renovation, not for sale-Runsewe

T

hough rumuors about the sale of the Art & Abuja Village in Abuja were making the rounds in recent time, Olusegun Runsewe, director general of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) has refuted them and cleared the air on the issue.

The director general explained that the Art & Craft Village, which is the permanent site of the Council located at Wuse Zone 4 in Abuja, is undergoing a massive renovation, hence under lock and key.

While on a facility tour to assess the level of progress on the ongoing renovation work at the craft village recently, Runsewe assured that upon completion, the cultural market would be ready for good business and

open to Nigerians to take full advantage.

Rolling out some of the innovations and ideas to reposition the place, Runsewe said there would now be a functional information centre at the entrance of the market, a reputable bank with three

ATM machines, a pharmacy, mini-children’s park, restaurants, amphitheater, a skill acquisition centre, among other facilities.

As well, shops will be allocated to eligible Nigerians after profiling to ensure credibility and fairness. He

Runsewe and his entouarge inspecting work at the Craft Village

reiterated that the present management has planned to make the market a fully cultural market, which would be anchored on handicrafts and culture-related items.

Runsewe further explained that the market would comprise several sections; a car park area, investment forum section and the main cultural market section, which will boast no less than 165 shops that will provide jobs for at least a thousand Nigerians.

The director gneral also hinted that there would be provision for night market, which will be done every last Friday of the month maintaining that the general idea is to retain the cultural aesthetics of the market while fully exploring the economic potentials to empower Nigerians.

might not come into fruition without integrity. Integrity was the only cheque I have to cash money in the bank of people’s mind that I know, I mean confidence and when they see my business plans, they see something unique about it”, he continued.

On his days of little beginning, Bode said, “I started with an animal farm nutrient producing firm where I garnered experience in poultry farming at Oshogbo and other places. These equipped me to face the future as I promised myself that I want to be an employer of labour. So, I started from the scratch”.

There is also a hand of providence. “With my Christian life experience as a pastor in RCCG, God told me through revelations of what will become of me in the quest to develop and expand my scope in the agro feed industry. This was in 2003.

Through divine understanding, God said that you are already popular where you are, but I want to lift you up, I want to give you Hi Nutrient International Limited and that is how the Hi-Nutrient company name came about – meaning that where you are working, you will make nutrients, but a higher quality nutrient . To the glory of God, I own 70 percent share in the company as of today”.

“The company keep expanding and partnering with some international firms.

We are now partnering with Neovia of France. Neovia initiated the stock exchange listing, which facilitated our merger that has enhanced the operation of the com-

pany to global standard”, he said further.

However, Bode narrated that it couldn’t have been easy without some challenges, “The challenges are enormous, just like I said I was from a poor background. I hawked vegetable to sustain life before I go to school”.

“Part of my challenge was that I can’t go to the best school including my siblings.

And when God blessed me, in 2014, I launched BAM scholarship foundation. I have given over 400 youths scholarship and some of them have become doctors and lawyers, I conduct mentorship programmes and also a member of Tony Elumelu mentorship foundation. Youth must be trained and reoriented and that’s what I crave for in this society”.

There are emotional moments as well. “At Harvard Business School in the US, I was very emotional. Remembering what I passed through and how I had wished to be here which turned out a reality. To me, there’s nothing more fulfilling than that. I have achieved a lot. To mention but one, I am going to build a N20 million factory at Sagamu to add to what we have on ground”.

He appreciates the likes of Christopher Kolade, Abiodun Toki, Dr, Acholonu, Senator Ladoja, a great farmer, Dr. Femi Faniyiu, among others for influencing his life.

One thing Bode is happy to say is that, “At the age of 50, I have succeeded in purchasing a silver spoon for myself”.

Iretiola Doyle, Sola Sobowale, Sam Dede star in 1929 ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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929, the collaborative effort of Viensa Nigeria Productions and Filmone Distribution is set for release in cinemas on April 19, 2019 Directed by Moses Eskor, the movie features Nollywood veterans; Sola Sobowale, Ireti Doyle and Sam Dede. It also stars Becky Odungide - Asindi, Kediana Abasi Kam, Emma Etukudo, Lois Ikpaha, Emmanuel Owuala and many others.

1929, a true life story, is set on the Ikot Abasi women, Opobo Division unrest of 1929 that claimed the lives of many women protesters across the eastern part of Nigeria.

“1929 film was done in order to let the world know

the part the Ibibio and Annang women played to stop women’s taxation by the colonial masters, particularly the women from Ikot Abasi, Opobo division.

The general impression people have is that the 1929 women’s riot took place only at Aba; no, women from different provinces in the then eastern region of Nigeria played a major part to stop the imposition of tax on women. The film will serve as a point of reference for research especially for young people. On a lighter note, the film is spiced up with a love story to delight the viewers, it is historical film that will make you think, feel, laugh and learn and I will be happy to see people come out to watch history being made” says Ndy Akan, the producer.

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Sunday 10 February 2019

Entertainment

Rebirth of cultural values through Face of Okija pageant Josephine Okojie

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or long, beauty pageants have been held to promote different causes through the exploitation of physical beauty in passing the message of the organizers. Some of them have received either flakes or praise from the society depending on their approach with nothing that the society can benefit from such pageants in the long run.

Also the quest by many Nigerian youths to seek greener pasture abroad through the dangerous Sahara desert because of the pull effects of foreign societies whose cultures have been amplified as the best over others and their way of life adopted through promotion of their practices – beauty pageants – which have made African cultural values to be abhorred by the youths is one that must be tackled by any society desirous of having a future.

This was why the Obijackson Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the Obijackson Group, resorted to organising Face of Okija Pageant where intellect, character, language and cultural affinity through knowledge of the African, Igbo culture will make you the winner of N1 million, an official car, and an automatic employment as brand ambassadors for the foundation with a regular monthly salary for the duration of the reign.

Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, founder Obijackson Foundation, on why it has institutionalized the cultural festival said the strength of a tree and its ability to withstand the vagaries of the natural elements largely depends on the depth of its roots like a tree firmly rooted in the soil is more likely to withstand flood, wind and other hostile weather conditions than others that may have shallow roots.

Obiejesi said they are concerned that Igbo culture with its very rich values appears to mean

very little to a lot of youth today and like the proverbial tree with shallow roots, they can be blown off in any direction by a strong wind. Here are times that youths resort to social media as their moral compass and the inability to speak local dialect is no longer shameful but indeed a positive status symbol; a world where the narrative about African culture is being determined by foreign media and the internet.

“For us, we could not allow this sorry state of affairs to fester. We felt a sense of duty to contribute our quota to a cultural renaissance of some sort that will ultimately inspire our youths to become worthy ambassadors and raving fans of the Igbo culture. This is the vision behind Obijackson Foundation’s Face of Okija Cultural Festival – an annual engagement to engineer social change and cultural reawakening in our youth”, he asserted.

The Face of Okija pageant was designed as a platform to redefine the concept of beauty and pageantry in a way that’s completely different from the conventional definition where beauty is largely defined by vain physical appearance and cosmetic enhancements and was not only the answer to youth apathy to the Igbo language and culture, but was the natural response to an obsession for cosmetic physical beauty while true inner

beauty based on virtue is largely overlooked.

Only indigenes of Okija were eligible to contest at the maiden edition of the competition with the idea being to identify and crown an Okija lady who would serve as a cultural ambassador for the entire Igbo land – promoting the Igbo values, language, fashion and dance while engaging in charitable works for public good, and after four editions, with the male segment included in 2016, the 2018 edition was opened to all indigenes of Anambra state so that the message of inclusiveness will be rapt.

The 2018 theme ‘Reengineering Our Moral Standard’ focused on the spate of illegal migration of the youths to Europe and the Middle East at great risks to their lives and how the belief that abroad is paved with gold is a ruse hence the need for all to work hard and believe in their country to develop in all ramifications.

To promote the message of cultural rebirth, the foundation brought in from Kenya, Patrick Lumumba, renowned pan-Africanist, activist, social crusader and a former anti-corruption czar to engage the youth on how to make the country lead the African race into development and sufficiency, and also Chimamanda Adichie, award-winning writer of international acclaim to mentor the youths.

Ambode, Dbanj lift an aspiring music talent with N2.5m, scholarship, record deal

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Jonathan Aderoju

uring the just concluded Lagos City Marathon, the life of one street kid changed forever when Dbanj, Nigerian pop legend, randomly gave a fan an opportunity to sing with him on stage.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, 26 years old Joseph David dazzled and impressed the crowd so much that Akinwunmi Ambode, Lagos State Governor, came on stage and promised to take him off the street starting with a promise of cash reward of 2.5million, which has been

redeemed.

Days after the marathon, the young man was invited to the state house, Alausa-Ikeja where Governor Ambode and his wife presented him with a one year free education scholarship while Dbanj, alongside Damian Ifeanyi Okoroafor, CEO of DKM Media, offered him a deal with CREAM Platform to nurture his talent in music.

It would be recalled that in May 2018, Dbanj, Nigerian heavyweight pop singer, also rewarded four lucky subscribers of CREAM, his music streaming platform, with an all-expense

paid trip to the One Africa Music Festival in Dubai.

According to the superstar “I have been impressed with the massive number of creative talents that flooded the platform and we really hope and wish we can meet all their creative needs and aspiration that is why we decided that, as an added incentive to the usual monthly draws and selections of winners, we are rewarding four subscribers with this all-expense paid trip that will see two acts selected by merit and two lucky subscribers randomly selected via a live draw”.

‘Levi’, a good movie that failed

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kechukwu Oku’s ‘Levi’ is a good film particularly in performance, and maybe in other things. But generally, it fell short of a good movie because of its lack of a credible story/ script. To be fair to the movie makers, I was already saying to myself here is another good one from Nollywood until all of a sudden; ‘Levi’ lost its way when it was almost home.

The story’s angle is original and was about Levi (a character named after the film) a successful engineer who rose from grass to grace. Levi fell in love as a teenager with a girl when he was in high school, the girl Somi was his junior. He kept his distance from Somi when they were adults working hard to make sure that when he eventually marries her, she will not lack like he did while growing up. But fate played a trick when he became sick which propelled him to approach this childhood love but discovered a shattering twist.

I was listening to a radio program on movies and one of the OAPs asked his colleagues what they think is the most integral aspect of movie making between performance and good story? I tried calling when they opened their lines for comments but didn’t succeed so I will give my thoughts here. A good movie is like soup making. You must have the right ingredients at a perfect proportion; timing is important in making a good soup, the method too. However, for me, having the right ingredient drives the whole process. You can’t intend to make egusi with okra. So is the story in film making. You can’t win in film making with a bad story no matter the sterling performance of your crew from cast to production.

Check out the performances of the cast, Ramsey Nouah’s apt translation of his Levi role into a plausible existence, the good interpretation of Nancy Isime’s roles as a good wife and sales woman. Can you beat Deyemi Okanlawon’s convincing display of emotions and frustration or the annoying single-lady-boss performance of Lydia Forson who had the most outstanding performance in the movie?

Bolaji Ogunmola did exhibit ingenuity in her performance.

The crying babies also brought in fictive identification with the reality of being a parent. But all these good acts were wasted on a story that struggled in its denouement.

Even the creative costume and successful special effects failed to help propel the film into a total success, neither the memorable, sense-making, and lyrical lines nor dialogues.

Ramsey Noah’s glasses and smart casuals connected with what we know about successful engineers, even Nancy Isime’s clothes at work suited that of a sales girl. The clear sound and picture quality were good. The coughing out of blood, the em-

phasis on the line ‘I always get what I want’ and the dialogue between Ramsey Noah and his secretary: ‘are you dying’ she asks Ramsey Noah while he screams back ‘does it look like I’m dying?’ Not all the conversations however struck a chord for me, for instance, Ramsey Noah sounded too boorish after the first time he laid the journalist (Bolaji Ogunmola), and he also sounded too motivational like Fela Durotoye when Nancy Isime (Somi) came to his office to collect the money he promised her. The director did a good job in harnessing these aspects of the film but however didn’t sustain it to the end of the story.

Back to the script, there’s something that doesn’t add up in the logic of the story. The conviction Levi (Ramsey Nouah) had that Somi will be single for him whenever he is ready to marry her (in this case after almost for two decades) is a very shaky foundation upon which the story was built on. Also, the motif on which the conflict and resolution/denouement were built on is unconvincing: that having discovered that Somi his childhood love was already married when he came to propose to her, he decided to punish and break her family, and later repented from this resolve after having

an accident is just too weak. The fact we did not chronologically get to the resolution but had to rely on flashback to understand how major issues in the movie all came to be is a failed rude shock.

The fact Ramsey Nouah got the details of Somi’s husband, his business, partners, deals, and contacts of his partners from Somi’s toy-like laptop is implausible. Somi’s husband had issues already with his expected ‘container’ of goods before Ramsey Nouah appeared and was introduced into the conflict; bringing Ramsey Nouah as part of an already existing conflcit brought about a negative complication to the story. What could have been a good story lost its vibe because the film makers didn’t handle the conflict and the resolution of the story perfectly.

‘Levi’ in all is worth your time, money and popcorn.

Destiny Isiguzo Follow on instagram @destinyisiguzo and on twitter @isiguzocid

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Life&Living Perks of shopping online

products from different sellers, and compare prices all in one place! You can even read up the product reviews from those who have used the product firsthand. This helps your choices. Most times, the local shops do not have this at your disposal.

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Jumoke Akiyode-Lawanson

nline shopping is no longer a stranger in Nigeria. Nigerians are now used to buying and even selling online. Despite this, some Nigerians still question if online shopping has truly made life easier. Here are the real perks of shopping online; You can find low prices/discounts The online platform provides cheaper deals and better prices than the physical stores do most times. Many online shops offer discounted coupons and really low prices for their goods and this is super sweet. Who doesn’t want to save money? Many people do agree to get cheaper deals online than they would in the physical local stores and this is beneficial to our finances.

It is convenient This is the most beneficial factor for me. You don’t have to go looking

It limits impulse buying Assuming you want to buy curtains for your room, you only need to look up the ‘interiors’ category and select from the varieties made available for you and then check out. For the local stores, it is sometimes different.

You originally go to buy a bag, the shop assistants skillfully offer you a matching shoe. And all of a sudden, you’re sighting a beautiful dress to go with it.

in different shops to meet your demands nor wait in any queue or for some shop assistants. You can also do your shopping 24/7 right in the com-

fort of your home or office and have them delivered at your doorstep.

You have more varieties to choose

from Online shops provide amazing varieties. You can get different sizes, shapes and colours, different

Avoiding crowd There is nothing like a crowd when you shop on an online shopping platform. You can shop at your own convenience in the comfort of your home, office or even on the go, without anyone disturbing you.

How clean is your washing?

IFEOMA OKEKE

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ave you ever wondered why the just-washed freshness of some garments fades so soon after you put them on? Or why certain well-worn pieces become pongy so quickly after laundering?

If this sounds familiar, it could be down to a build-up of stains and soils that you can’t see. It turns out that 70percent of the soils on our clothes are ‘invisible’, according to scientists at Procter & Gamble. We’re talking about dead skin cells, skin oils and sweat here.

‘When these invisible soils aren’t being removed by some laundry detergents, it may explain why clothing that appears and smells fresh out of the wash seems to pick up odours just from sitting in a drawer or shortly after putting on the garments,’ Kelly Van Haren, a fabric care scientist at P&G explained.

To ensure you’re getting rid of the stains you can’t see when you put a wash on, follow these simple DOs and DON’Ts. Use a biological detergent Biological laundry detergents are tough on stains as they contain enzymes to help break down fat, oil and protein. Don’t use them on fabrics made from protein-based fibres such as wool or silk, though.

Don’t splurge on branded detergent Anyone who’s ever visited the household cleaning products aisle of their local supermarket will have noticed that the cost of laundry detergent varies wildly. Don’t be

fooled, however, into thinking that pricier products will clean clothes better. When bio laundry liquids in the GHI lab were recently tested, it was Lidl’s Formil Biological Gel (£1.99, available in-store only) that emerged as the leader of the pack.

It clocked up an impressive overall

score of 90/100 and, at just 8p per wash, it costs less than a quarter of the price of some of the other detergents that were tested.

Pre-treat garments before washing Sweat stains are notoriously hard to shift and tend to build up under

the armpits of regularly worn shirts and T-shirts. To keep them at bay, the experts at the GHI recommend dabbing the affected areas of your clothing with white vinegar before each wash or rinsing them thoroughly in cold water. It’s also best to wash clothes as soon after they’ve

been worn as possible.

Don’t give in to sweat stains Sweat stains might be stubborn, but that’s no reason to let them have their unsightly way. Don’t bid your favourite garments goodbye before you’ve tried these tricks: Soak cotton clothing in a solution of biological stain-remover such as Bio Tex Stain Removing Powder and scrub the tell-tale yellow stains with a nailbrush. Follow up by machine washing with an in-wash stain remover.

Rub sweat stains with a solution of equal parts glycerine and warm water. Leave for an hour before machine washing, as before.

Make up a paste using four tablespoons of bicarbonate of soda to three tablespoons of water then rub this into the sweat stain using a nailbrush. Machine wash after two hours.

Change and wash pyjamas frequently Your pyjamas come into direct contact with your skin and areas of your body that are usually (ahem) covered by underwear. This means there’s plenty of opportunity for body fluids and bacteria to build up in the fabric. Aim to change and wash them once every three days.

Use an in-wash anti-bacterial treatment If clothing – and sportswear, in particular is pungent even when it’s just been washed, use an anti-bacterial in-wash product to help freshen it.

Try Halo Proactive Sports Wash on sportswear or a product such as Dettol Antibacterial Laundry Cleanser (£7 for 2.5l) or Napisan (£3.75 for 800g) on other garments.

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Being gospel artiste won’t stop me from looking glamorous- Ehiliz

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lizabeth Ehigiamusoe, popularly known as Ehiliz, has said being a gospel artiste would not in any way; affect her sense of style and glamour.

According to her, her own Christianity doesn’t require her to cover up from head to toe in order to show she is born again.

She said, “Being flamboyant doesn’t make you not to be a child of God. It depends on how you want to serve your God. So if I feel that to look good is okay for me, then I have to always look good as long as I am not nude. If I add colours to my dressing, it is to the glory of God who gave us seven colours. He gave everybody wisdom to use the colours since He knows that colours can make things beautiful. I know my face when I paint and I also know how it is when I don’t. I think I feel when I apply make-up, I look better. If you want to judge me because I applied powder, then that is your cup of tea. It is God who judges and He knows us. If you like rub charcoal on your body, God knows you.”

As much as she has spent over two decades in the music industry, the artiste is not as popular as her contemporaries.

Explaining the reason, she said, “I think it is because I am also doing other things. I didn’t face music completely as my full career. I am the managing director of about four subsidiaries. It takes my time from concentrating fully in my music career. But about three years ago, my husband called and said it was high time I promoted my music.”

However, the artiste said she regretted not giving her music career a push back then.

“God is supposed to be the number one. I would have wished that I gave my music a push. If I had my way, I would have wished that. But I had to support my husband while he was building his business.”

With her TV programme, Vivid Views with Ehiliz, the artiste said God directed her to set up the programme in order to put smiles on the faces of some youths.

“This is the fifth year running and it has affected the lives of many youths. God is using us to see what we can do to put smiles on the faces of as many Nigerian youths

as we can. For the fact that the country is hard at the moment is not enough reason for anybody to get into crime. I also brought in Ehiliz Support Initiative. We cannot be asking the youth to change their ways and not have anything to support them. I would call ESI as a branch of Vivid View.”

Talking about how she has been able to manage all that she does including being a wife and mother, Ehiliz said, “It is just God. But I also have that philosophy of planning your work and working your plan. I always arrange my things before time. My children have also grown now. I try to take care of my body by exercising. I am also mindful of what I eat.

These are the things that keep me ‘kinky’.”

The music artiste said she intends to register her own record label soon.

“I want to register my record label. I want to have my own television house, Vivid TV. It is a plan I have started. I also have Gospel Life with Ehilis. My latest music, Onye Ije, is also in the pipeline and by February, it would be all over the air.”

But for my parents, I may have become a soldier – Bimbo Manuel

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eteran actor, Bimbo Manuel, has said he would have joined the Nigerian Army if not that his parents stopped him from doing so along the way.

In a recent interview, the actor said his parents stopped him when he was supposed to report at the military school in Zaria.

“In retrospect now, I do not think there was any chance in me trying to join the army because I come from a very conservative family that preferred you to have a chosen profession and career, and then chase it to its peak. Also, you have to get married and have children then retire and live in peace. That was the kind of family that I was raised. So being a soldier would have been an aberration in the entire set up so my parents locked the door on me when I was meant to report at the military school in Zaria. The rumour at the time that they were drafting young men into the military school in Zaria as a ploy to get more young men into the army, give them the basic training and send them to the war front. That rumour was really pervasive at the time and not many people wanted to join the army at the time. Sadly, joining the military at that time was seen as something for dropouts mostly because it succeeded in mopping a few people off the streets.

Talking about how he felt when his parents stopped him from going to the military school, the actor said, “I did not do any training at the point but we did exercises, wrote tests and did practical. I was extremely disappointed when my parents locked me in the house preventing me from going to the military school. I just wanted to move ahead in life. However, thinking about it now with the benefit of hindsight, I really was not serving myself any purpose if I had joined the military.

I probably would have been one of those extremely rebellious guys in the army and I could have been shot.”

And since he didn’t eventually join the Nigerian Army, Manuel gained admission to study Theatre Arts at the University of Port Harcourt.

Explaining what influenced his choice of course, the actor said, “I wanted to go to school; I already loved what I was doing which was on radio and television; I wanted to get more formal education than I had time so theatre arts was the nearest course to what I was doing and what I wanted for my life so I applied for it.

I was naïve at the time because I did not read up enough on what theatre arts involved in the regards that it was different from audio-visual arts. I was hopeful that whatever I got from that school would be beneficial to television which was where I wanted to go ultimately. I was extremely disappointed when I did not see anything that resembled television, in fact, there was no television and that was what I was expecting to see. It was a let-down at first but I adjusted when I understood what the difference was in the way they practised, the technicalities, medium and presentation.”

And having been in the movie industry for over three decades, Manuel is one actor who has yet to have any scandal linked to him.

Reacting to that he said, “No one is a saint. For instance, I take alcohol but I do not drink alcohol to drown myself in it. I enjoy my one or two bottles of beers when I feel like it. In some people’s books, I do not qualify as a saint doing that. We all do things that qualify us as a sinner also; I have not lived my life looking over my shoulder in case anyone caught me doing something I ought not to do. There is nothing that I do that I would be embarrassed to talk about if I need to.”

Give me N100bn to stop dressing like a woman – Bobrisky

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elf acclaimed Nigeria’s male Barbie and cross dresser, Bobrisky, has said he would only stop dressing like a woman if he is given N100bn.

In a recent post on his instagram account, Bobrisky, who went on a ranting spree, said he was ready for haters who said police should arrest him.

In the post, Bobrisky said, “(In) 2019, if you don’t mind your business I’m ready to tear you apart. I might be nice and cool, trust me, I don’t take nonsense from any idiot. And for some of you saying police should come and arrest me that am gay, I’m waiting patiently.

Have worked so hard and also make so much money that nothing scares me no more. If you wanna make trouble with me, I will prove to you that connection gets level. I am just trying to be humble about it. Have never offended anyone, you all know I mind my business a lot and I hustle hard just to

put food on my table. None of you is paying my bills, why not allow me choose my hustle in peace? If you want to me to stop dressing like woman, ‘biko’ just give me N100billion and I promise to stop.”

Another feather for Stephanie Okereke-Linus

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retty actress, Stephanie Okereke Linus has not only proved she is a great actress but also, she knows her onions when it comes to producing movies.

‘Dry’, the film which was written, produced and directed by the actress few years ago, is still making great impact around the world. The movie has been selected to screen for the second time at the highly coveted Pan African Film & Arts Festival (PAFF) in Los Angeles, USA this February, and as a prelude to the festival, Mrs. Linus was recognised at the first ever Blacks In Cinema presentation. The event took place at the Los Angeles City Council Chambers a couple of days ago.

Los Angeles City Council President Herb J. Wesson kicked off the Black History Month by honoring the actors and filmmakers who paved the way for people all walks of life to be represented in film. With the help of some legendary African-American actors and filmmakers, the day was officially proclaimed #BlacksInCinema in Los Angeles.

In 2016, Dry won Best Narrative Feature at the PAFF. It screens again on Feb 9th,

Feb 13th and Feb 18 with an interactive session after the opening night. The movie has made immense positive impact across the world in changing the narrative concerning child marriage and other forms of social injustice.

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Travel What kind of traveller are you?

A bore who’s done everything first, or a truly great and eccentric explorer - which of these 10 types of traveler best describes you in 2019? ventures in (I do not know) parts of China where there are cities that you and I have never heard of with populations of four or five or six million people. I am afraid, I am automatically suspicious of business travellers, a reaction probably born of a combination of ignorance and the jealous assumption that they are likely to become insanely rich through their nefarious trade-related missions. I try to remind myself that Marco Polo was basically a business traveller, as well as a true Pioneer and a stand-up guy.

The Collector

A

sophisticated hunter-gatherer, a hoarder of the exceptional and exotic. Not, however, of endangered species or looted antiquities. He or she travels with a purely metaphorical blunderbuss or bullwhip - or, rather, butterfly net, swishing it this way and that in order to gather up uncommon experiences in out-of-the-way places. Once caught, these are meticulously pinned in memory and proudly displayed in conversation. Like an actual scientist, The Collector delights in the poetry and precision of proper names.

•The Conformist A dreary universal type.

The Conformist travels not for personal satisfaction but for social acceptance - perhaps even finds personal satisfaction in social acceptance. Destinations are chosen from a limited, unimaginative, class-determined table d’hôte menu. This is by no means a toffs-only snob thing. It applies across the social spectrum. The Conformist can be spotted from Magaluf to Megève. The point is not where you have been but what your peers think about where you have been.

•The Thrill-Seeker Not so much of the adventure-sports variety, though of course there is no shortage of nincompoops willing to tie their ankles to a rubber band and leap off a bridge or whatever. As with The Conformist,

•The Occasional There for a reason - an event, a honeymoon, a do, a football match. Half-sibling to…

safari

The Thrill-Seeker exists along a continuum - one that runs from the ticket-purchasing slum-tourist or frequenter of dodgy-looking dive bars to the professional war correspondent. The Thrill-Seeker is not altogether unlike…

•The Escapist Fugitive from the familiar.

An intriguing type, labouring under that most delightful of delusions, namely, that anything at all - boredom, worry, heartbreak, guilt, fear, failure, conflict, one’s own reflection in the mirror - can be lost with distance. Alas, it cannot. Yet it always seems worth a try.

•The Self-Improver Admirable if a little dull.

Up early, out late, cheerfully making the most of everything a new place has to offer.

Tremendous stamina, sensible shoes, and likely to do a lot of research beforehand, to pack a lot of books and to return with even more. A second cousin of…

•The Pilgrim Follower of trails, visitor of shrines - religious and otherwise. The most devoted Pilgrims I have ever seen were not at Lourdes or on the banks of the Ganges but at Beatrix Potter’s old house, Hill Top, in Cumbria. But that was ages ago. These days certain shopping streets and malls seem to exert a similar fascination. I recently played a round of golf in Norway and afterwards bought my three companions beer and waffles at the clubhouse. The teenage girl tending the bar clearly knew her way around

a waffle iron but seemed to me far too young to be serving alcohol. I asked her how she planned to spend the money she was earning. ‘In London,’ she said, beaming.

‘At Westfield.’ Which of the two Westfields? ‘The Stratford one. It is bigger.’

•The Pioneer Almost extinct in the wild.

Like most endangered species, The Pioneer is running out of habitat, since so much of the world has been pioneered already. In a lounge at Changi Airport the other day I had occasion to wonder whether The Pioneers of today are not great, fearless, eccentric explorers of the Vasco da Gama or Wilfred Thesiger variety but greyfaced men in suits opening up obscure business

•The Oblivious The saddest type of traveller. The one not paying attention, not remotely interested in where he or she is. I was shocked, many years ago, to hear someone ask Ruth Prawer Jhabvala about her fabulously glamorous life as a celebrated novelist and screenwriter responsible for several wildly successful Merchant-Ivory movies. ‘Most of the time I do not even bother to look up and see where I am,’ she drawled from behind a pair of enormous sunglasses, or words to that effect. I was floored. ‘Room with a View’ indeed.

•The Genuinely Curious Eyes, ears, mind all wide open. Rare and precious and beautiful.

South Africa Tourism reschedules Travel Indaba

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ollowing the State of the Nation address

by Cyril Rampahosa, president of South Africa, who confirmed May 08, 2019 as date for the national elections, organisers of Travel Indaba, South Africa’s mostattended travel show, announced that the show would hold in a later date.

Indaba was scheduled to take place from May 6-9, 2019 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban.

The ICC also serves as the nerve centre for elections in the KwaZulu Natal province and takes priority over all

other events.

“We are currently exploring all viable alternative options in light of the announcement of the election date,” said Sisa Ntshona, CEO, South African Tourism.

“We also need to consult with our various partners and stakeholders and appreciate the understanding of our buyers, exhibitors and delegates who will now await a new date to attend Indaba.”

“We know the importance of Indaba to the travel industry and want to ensure that we are still are able to provide a world class show despite having to change the date,”

added Ntshona.

The Tourism Business

Council of South Africa (TBCSA) also added their voice.

“With dates confirmed upfront, buyers and exhibitors would’ve planned around the original date. There are also other global shows during this period, but we would like to re-assure the industry that despite the new date, Indaba will still be a fantastic show to attend and would like to encourage you to attend once the new date is confirmed,” explained Tshifhiwa Tshivhengwa, TBCSA CEO. Indaba is Africa’s biggest travel and trade show with over 7,000 delegates from 80 countries attending last year’s event.

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Travel

How traffic are controlled on the air Stories by IFEOMA OKEKE

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hile we all relax on the aircraft and the plane takes off, all we can think of is that the pilot is that we have a pilot onboard who controls everything that happens onboard and on the airspace.

Sadly, this is not the case as the pilot doesn’t work alone but must at all times keep instructions from the air traffic controllers that work in the country of departure, in the country where the aircraft passes through and the country of arrival. Without these air traffic controllers all being active and in communication with the pilots, crashes will be unnumbered.

Air traffic control aims to move aircraft safely and efficiently through the airspace system. Controllers keep aircraft set distances apart while moving them from airport to airport using set routes.

When you think about air traffic control, the image of men and women in the tower of an airport probably comes to mind. However, the air traffic control system is much

more complex than that.

Before take off Airlines will file a flight plan with air traffic control so every controller who deals with the flight on its journey is aware of its details and route.

When an aircraft is at an airport, the pilots on board will be in contact with controllers in the airports control tower. Air traffic controllers will look after the aircraft while it is on the ground and

give it permission to take off.

In the air Once airborne the pilot will then normally talk to another controller using a radar screen to track the aircraft’s progress through the airways system (equivalent to motorways in the sky).

Each controller is responsible for aircraft in a set piece of airspace. When an aircraft is nearing the edge of their sector they will coordinate its

handover to the next controller. This will continue through the aircraft’s journey until it is handed over to the controller at the destination airport.

Most airliners are monitored by controllers using radar in airways and routes known as ‘controlled airspace’. The majority of airspace that is left is known as ‘uncontrolled’ and this is used by the military and recreational pilots. In this

airspace some air traffic control services are provided, especially near airfields, but in much of the airspace it is the pilots’ responsibility to see and avoid each other.

How air traffic control works Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC) oversees all air traffic control. It also manages air traffic control within centers where there are problems (bad weather, traffic overloads, inoperative runways).

Air route traffic control centers (ARTCC) - There is one ARTCC for each center.

Each ARTCC manages traffic within all sectors of its center except for TRACON airspace and local-airport airspace.

Terminal radar approach control - TRACON handles departing and approaching aircraft within its space.

Air traffic control tower (ATCT) - An ATCT is located at every airport that has regularly scheduled flights. Towers handle all takeoff, landing, and ground traffic.

Flight service station (FSS) - The FSS provides information (weather, route, terrain, flight plan) for private pilots flying into and out of small airports and rural areas.

It assists pilots in emergencies and coordinates searchand-rescue operations for missing or overdue aircraft.

The movement of aircraft through the various airspace divisions is much like players moving through a “zone” defense that a basketball or football team might use. As an aircraft travels through a given airspace division, it is monitored by the one or more air traffic controllers responsible for that division.

The controllers monitor this plane and give instructions to the pilot. As the plane leaves that airspace division and enters another, the air traffic controller passes it off to the controllers responsible for the new airspace division.

Some pilots of small aircraft fly by vision only (visual flight rules, or VFR). These pilots are not required by to file flight plans and, except for FSS and local towers, are not serviced by the mainstream air traffic control system.

Pilots of large commercial flights use instruments to fly (instrument flight rules, or IFR), so they can fly in all sorts of weather. They must file flight plans and are serviced by the mainstream air traffic control system.

Delta CEO features as one of 25 Airbus adds new service Verde to leading American business innovators its precision farming portfolio

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longside household names and innovative thought leaders including Tory Burch and Pharrell Williams, Ed Bastian, Delta CEO is featured in the February print edition of Fast Company as one of 25 leading American business innovators.

The feature re-counts common main stage themes from the 2018 Fast Company Innovation Festival around “the importance of taking a stand, embracing creativity and inclusivity and finding trusted collaborators” that speakers, including Bastian, weaved throughout their appearances.

Bastian’s stance on ending a group airfare discount for the National Rifle Association, and the “heat” Delta took for it by way of Georgia lawmakers voting to eliminate a jet-fuel tax break are cited as examples of leadership in the piece, along with his view about why he chooses to fly in main cabin: “I want to be in the middle of what’s going

on. That’s why I fly coach, because I want to hear from customers.”

Delta was named a 2018 Fast Company Most Innovative Company for its industry-leading work to bring RFID bag tracking to every customer in real time through the Fly Delta app.

Over the past several years, Delta has led the airline industry on a number of innovative customer solutions like launching the first biometric terminal in the U.S., automatic check-in via the Fly Delta mobile app, an alliance that will empower

Tory Burch and Pharrell Williams

customers with seamless in-cabin connectivity experience, and a groundbreaking app that helps Delta pilots avoid turbulence for a more comfortable flight.

Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is the U.S. global airline leader in products, services, innovation, reliability and customer experience.

Powered by its 80,000 people around the world, Delta continues to invest billions in its people, improving the air travel experience and generating industry-leading shareholder returns.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta offers more than 5,000 daily departures and as many as 15,000 affiliated departures including the premier SkyTeam alliance, of which Delta is a founding member. The airline serves nearly 200 million people every year, taking customers to more than 300 destinations in over 50 countries. Delta operates significant hubs and key markets at airports in the United States and worldwide in conjunction with its alliance partners.

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irbus has launched an innovative service c a l l e d Ve r d e that delivers detailed crop analytics from satellite imagery, perfectly clipped to the field and accurately de-clouded.

Served as plug and play API to any precision agriculture portal, Verde provides reliable and quantified measures of the vegetation, consistent over time and space, whatever the satellite used.

The new service primarily addresses in-season monitoring, to help anomalies detection, optimise field scouting, irrigation, seeding, fertilization, and crop protection.

It is also of interest for off-season analysis, thanks to multi-year series of analytics, in order to review the farming strategy, define management zones based on persistent growth patterns and improve practices over the long run.

Verde targets the entire chain of precision farming consulting providers, from the smallest start-ups to the largest machinists, seeds and fertilizers companies.

“With Verde, we underline our ambition to become the reference layer for precision agriculture portals. Both leveraging our wide imagery harvesting and our unrivalled crop analysis capacities, we are offering a totally different way to derive agronomic information from satellite imagery,” François Lombard, head of Intelligence Business at Airbus Defence and Space said.

Verde has already been adopted by DataFarming, an Australian agtech company based in the regional city of Toowoomba, Queensland, delivering precision agriculture solutions for farmers and agronomists around the world.

“We are looking at expanding our product offer-

ing to our 7,500 farm user base who want more detail about the crop, beyond just NDVI. Having higher resolution on some of the data is also a key value proposition.

This is where VERDE f i t s q u i t e n i c e l y. We have already processed 4,000,000 hectares of NDVI to date, and want to leverage our user base to offer this value added service. Crops such as cotton, rice, and sugarcane will certainly benefit” says Tim Neale, Managing Director of DataFarming.

Verde is a solution powered by OneAtlas, the digital platform of Airbus Defence and Space Intelligence.

OneAtlas is an industry-leading collaborative environment, designed with and for users to access premium imagery, perform large-scale image processing, extract industry-specific insights and develop the smartest geospatial solutions.

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Politics 2019: When peace accord breeds discord in Akwa Ibom ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

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t was meant to be a moment of sober reflection for political parties and their candidates participating in the forthcoming elections and how the signing of a peace deal would promote violent-free, peaceful and credible elections.

In fact, the ceremony would not have lasted more than a few hours and the participants and key actors would have exchanged pleasantries, shook hands and went home smiling.

But surprisingly, the bickering that has attended the exercise which took place at Ibom hall on Wednesday has continued unabated ever since. It has degenerated into a war of words between the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the extent that whether there is any likelihood that the spirit of the accord would be respected.

This is not entirely strange in the sense that as the general election is drawing closer, politicians are wont to make mountains of mole hills in a bid to curry favour from the electorate and would be engaging themselves in shadow chasing.

This explains why a simple ceremony which ought to have been applauded by all has now become an issue of disagreement between the key political parties.

Political parties and their candidates taking part in the coming elections had responded to an invitation by the Independent National Electoral commission (INEC) for the peace accord as part of efforts to bring about a peaceful election. Though Ibom hall, venue of the exercise, was partly filled, it was clear that the atmosphere would be charged as party loyalists would be singing and chanting the names of their candidates.

And that was what exactly happened. Some of the candidates wore T-shirts bearing the insignia of their parties and some of the relatively unknown parties used the opportunity to announce their presence and participation in the election.

After the remarks by stakeholders, including representatives of the traditional institutions, the Resident Electoral Commissioner, Mike Igini and former governor Victor Attah, it was the moment that everybody who was inside the hall had been waiting for.

First to be invited to sign the peace accord in the presence of other political parties and stakeholders was Udom Emmanuel, the

Udom Emmanuel

Nsima Ekere

Mike Igini

Akwa Ibom State governor who mounted the elevated stage and acknowledged cheers from his supporters.

The candidate of the APC, Nsima Ekere was nowhere to be found to sign the accord but soon after the event was over, APC fired the first shot blaming PDP for the inability of its candidate to take part in the ceremony.

While the APC claimed that its candidate was barred from signing the accord, PDP said it was a way of avoiding committing to the peace accord when Ekere failed to show up during the peace signing ceremony.

According to IniEmeobong, publicity secretary of PDP, long before NsimaEkere’s arrival, IniOkopido, the chairman of APC was asked by the resident electoral commissioner about the whereabouts of his candidate and he responded that “he was coming” and that he had other engagements.

“Today, at the signing of the peace accord organised by INEC, the candidate of the APC exhibited his consistent, habitual and unrepentant show of rascality by coming hours after the event had started and sought to stroll across the main aisle of the venue.

“He was advised to enter from the front door and to use the middle aisle to his seat which was at the end of the hall.

“He resisted and insisted on swaggering pass the front. Protocol officers of INEC offered to take him to his seat but he left, boasting that Igini must be removed.

“All responsible Akwa Ibom stakeholders, including Obong Victor Attah attended the event in good time and participated effectively, but APC and their candidate NsimaEkere never

conformed to normal etiquette.

“We demand that INEC directs NsimaEkere to immediately append his signature and subscribe to the peace accord,’’ Ememobong said.

But reacting to PDP’s statement, the chairman of APC, IniOkopido in a statement made available to the media, described the development as unfortunate, saying that governorship candidate of the party was stopped from entering the hall.

According to him, Ekere’s entreaties to be let in to participate in the ceremony including explanation that he first had to attend a previously scheduled prayer summit for peaceful elections at the Methodist Church, ItiamEto, Uyo were turned down.

“Our candidate had to turn back,” he said.

“The incident is most unfortunate and demonstrates once again our position that INEC in Akwa Ibom should show impartiality to all candidates and maintain neutrality in its conduct.

“APC will continue to reject, oppose and resist every attempt to mortgage the INEC’s independence and impartiality such as was put on display today,’’ Okopido stated.

Speaking earlier, Victor Attah, a former governor of Akwa Ibom State, said there had never been any doubt that free and fair elections form the bedrock of democracy.

Attah, who lauded INEC’s initiative over the peace accord,expressed the optimism that the exercise would introduce sanity into the country’s electoral system, adding that INEC has done the country a world of favourof which Nigerians should be grateful to them.

“And so, as we sign this accord today, let us

be sincere about it and I want to say to INEC, the stakeholders are coming out to sign the accord, that is their covenant with the people and the electoral processes; please also be ready to confirm your covenant with Nigerians that you are in the position to conduct free, fair and credible election,’’ he said.

Udom, who entered into the peace accord, is seeking to be re-elected for a second term on the platform of PDP. He expressed his commitment to the peace accord, thanking the INEC and other stakeholders for the exercise.

He added that for the fact that there is a commitment in writing, it was a guarantee that the elections would be peaceful.

“For the fact that there is a commitment in writing that will ensure peace, anybody who goes against this I think, he will be on his own.

Election is part of democratic process which leads to free, peaceful and credible elections,’’ he said.

In his remarks at the event, Igini said there are over 2 million registered voters in the state, adding that over 1.6 million have received their Permanent Voters’ Cards for the election.

The REC, who reiterated that there would be no use of Incident Forms during the election, said that the collation process would be transparent for all to see. He explained that the era of thugs at polling stations was gone.

“Under my leadership here in this state, nobody born of a human in this hall, anywhere in Nigeria can tell me to do anything that can undermine the process. I am not going to come between any of you and this election is about the people of Akwa Ibom State and their votes must count,’’ Igini said.

2019: No alternative to Buhari, says Ita Enang

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ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

here is no alternative to voting President Muhammadu Buhari back to office in the forthcoming general election based on his wide acceptability across all regions of the country, Ita Solomon Enang, presidential aide on National Assembly, has said.

Enang, a former member of the National Assembly, in an interview with journalists at his country home in Ididep, Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State said there was no doubt whatsoever that Buhuri would garner enough votes to win the election, adding that there was no alternative to President Buhari.

“I have seen and weighed all the candidates, particularly the two presidential candidates; I have also looked at the pedigree of each of them including the

manifesto of each of them, the record of each of them, and their antecedents and I have come to agree that there is no alternative to President Buhari,’’ he said.

According to the former lawmaker, who served both in the House of Representatives and the Senate, voting for Buhari would enable him to continue with his credible programmes, adding that on completion of his tenure, power would return to the southern part of the country.

“And if we elect him, he will do only one term and power will return to the south, to go to either the south west or the south east,” he said.

He pointed out that if the former Vice President, AtikuAbubakar were to be elected, it would be difficult to get him committed to a single term, adding that he has refused to be committal on whether he would do one term or not.

On the health issue of the president, he said Buhari has become younger and healthier than when he was first sworn into office in 2015, adding that his health has been renewed by the providence of God. “I am sure you are aware that the health of the president is no more an issue. By God’s grace, He is renewing his health like an eagle. He gets younger as he ages, gets stronger as he ages. I am sure you know that Buhari looks younger now than when he was first sworn in,’’ he said.

On the reports in some quarters that the former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commissin (NDDC), NsimaEkere was sacked by the presidency, he described it as false and unfounded, maintaining that Ekere had completed his tenure by the time he resigned.

Ekere, who is the candidate of the APC

in the Akwa Ibom State governorship election, took over from another indigene of the state, Bassey Dan Abia but had to resign his position to contest the forthcoming election.

According to the presidential aide, nothing could be farther from the truth to think that Ekere was sacked, explaining that since Ekere had put in his resignation, the president noted that the tenure of the board had expired and had to announce the dissolution of the board.

“By his resignation, it was thought that the tenure of the board had expired but while not waiting for the board to be dissolved, he had to put in resignation, the president agreed that the tenure of the board had already expired and he formally pronounced the formal dissolution of the board and constituted an interim management board,’’ he said.

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Sunday 10 February 2019

Politics My strategies will rescue Nigeria from deep crises - Okhai Presidential candidate of the Providence People’s Congress (PPC), Victor Okhai, is upbeat that ahead of the 2019 election, his strategies for various sectors of Nigeria’s economy will guarantee the best that will resolve the myriad of crises ravaging the country. In this interview with INNOCENT ODOH, the veteran journalist and film maker also criticises the suspension of Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, stressing that it is unconstitutional, even as he chides the fight against corruption as being selective and full of victimisation and persecution. Excerpts: Barely two weeks to the presidential election, how prepared are you?

Well, I am going to say that no preparation is ever really enough. Preparation is ongoing and at every point in time there are new challenges that come up especially for a new party. Obviously with the INEC window for campaigns and the limited resources, you cannot really say that you have enough time to cover the entire country at the presidential level but we have done what we can. We have candidates spread across the country. They are our foot soldiers because they have been campaigning for themselves, for the party and by implication for the president as well. So, wherever the elections meet us we are ready.

The campaigns appear to be dominated by the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). You and your party appear not visible in the campaigns. Why? I can tell you for free that what you see at the rally of the major parties are hired crowds. The same people you see at the rally of one of the major parties are also hired for another major party. There are professionals who hire people for this. Of course, this has an impact because what you see is a situation where people are looking for where the crowd is but it does not necessarily translate into vote.

So, what we are doing is just reaching out to people where they are. If we hold a rally and we see a thousand people genuinely, these are people who are with us.

We do not pretend to have the structures and resources of any of the two big parties that will be deceiving ourselves. But we do know one thing, we have a message and we are pushing that message and it is resonating wherever we go to and the important thing is to remain in the race and to remain sincerely, not those who are in the race but they are backing other candidates.

In the race, a winner will emerge from those names on the ballot not those outside of it and because we are in the ballot anything can happen to throw us up. Anything can happen to bring them down but we are ready to take advantage whenever a window of opportunity opens up to throw us to the Nigerian people.

You are aware of the unimpressive figures and data on the performance of the economy especially under this administration. 20.9 million people are out of jobs; inflation at 11.28percent,

is that they collapse many of these banks.

They owe bank A and when the bank A begins to give them trouble they go to bank B. Or they borrow money from bank B to pay up part of the bank A’s loans and the cycle continues and it becomes a cycle of poverty. That is an anomaly. We need to reverse the trend. I don’t care about having the richest man in the Africa. I care more about lifting people out of poverty because our policy is targeted at the poor.

Victor Okhai

and GDP growth rate at 1.5percent.

What strategies do you have to reverse this threatening situation if you become president?

I want to tell you that a situation where you have the richest man in Africa coming from Nigeria and at the same time, Nigeria is considered the poverty capital of the world is an anomaly, it is a terrible situation. I think our banking systems and policies are largely responsible for the way the economy is run. I was listening to one of the presidential candidates who said in a debate that he has provided 45, 000 jobs in his state.

But I would rather empower 1 million people to provide five jobs each that will translate into five million jobs than to empower one individual at the expense of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which will provide even 500,000 thousands of jobs. This is the problem that we have in this country. The poor people put the money in the bank and few individuals take the money of the poor people as loan to set up new businesses and then employ very few people and keep many people unemployed.

We have unemployment figures of over 20 million. We have seen companies that come from abroad and get licenses and they take loans from Nigerian banks, using money of the poor to grow their businesses as the expense of SMEs. You know what happens at the end of the day, these people have the best lawyers so when the default you cannot even touch them. What happens at the end of the day

You can do the right thing the wrong way and once you do the right thing the wrong way you corrupt the system

How do you address the anomaly in the banking system as you said, especially the question of high interest rate and its impact on SMEs? You see, the problem with the poor is not the high interest rate, the problem is access to credit. Certainly, the poor are more faithful in paying back loans than your so-called big men who will put up lawyers when it is time to pay their loan.

It is not so much of the high interest rate but even then that can be redressed. The People’s Bank under Maria Sokenu was targeted at the poor; the poor had access to credit. So, there must be a deliberate plan to reach out to the poor but there are things we need to do. We need to revisit our land use act in such a way that we remove obstacles to the issue of ownership to land and perfecting titles to land.

There are many poor people that have land whether family land or community land but the process of getting title that will give them access to credit is tedious.

So, I will initiate polices that will take away obstacles to securing titles. We will bring back something like the people bank once again. We are not talking about loans of 20 million, 30 million or 50 million, I am talking about N50,000, N100,000 to poor and in six months you watch them pay back. We also need to go back to the cooperative system and train people in cooperative management, so that the cooperative can take the loans because they are more faithful.

Again, one of the things we intend to do is to create industrial hubs around the country. Around Benue state for instance, you see people begging you to buy a bag of orange for less thanN300; they just want to sell because it will spoil because of the lack of storage. If you go to China, there are small machines you can use for juicing and packaging for 500 dollars. So we can give the loans within the cooperative system, get those machines from China, give to the orange farmers as loan and process it. One of the policies we will initiate is that we will ban the importation of raw materials let begin to manufacture. Let us

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Politics start in a crude form and learn from there.

This will create jobs in logistics, packaging, manufacturing, distribution, retails just like the GSM revolution with it attendant value chain of millions of jobs.

We give lower exchange rate for people who are going on pilgrimage but not for people who are into production how does that benefit us? America subsidises its farmers to the anger and chagrin of the rest if the world but America has no apologies for that. They subsidies their farmers; they buy excess products from the farmers and store them. So instead of subsidising the rich men who import petrol into Nigeria why don’t we subsidise agriculture, bringing in this machinery and subsidising them and grow the agriculture sector and you have more things to export. Our policies are upside down we have subsidies in the wrong place; we are subsidising the rich at the expense of the poor. That is the problem we have in this country.

The Boko Haram crisis has been compounded by the herdsmen crisis in North Central and the banditry and North West. What will you do differently if you become president?

Sometimes in business they say think local but act global. It cannot be different with security. The problem with security is that people stay in remote locations and assume that they know the problems in the localities. In every locality, people know where their problems are coming from and to show respect if you involve them, and you work with them, this issue can be dealt with. The people in Zamfara know those that are attacking them. But people sit down in Abuja and send people there who don’t know what the real issues are. That is where the problem starts from.

Remove the issue of tribe if it means working with the local vigilante who understand we should empower them not necessarily put arms in their hands although it helps if you can train them and make them part of the work force under supervision to boost their local intelligence. You can get them to infiltrate Boko Haram. So, we also need local policing and Intelligence is very important for policing. There are however, those who do not want this problem to end because they are getting money from it ranging from supply of arms, logistics and food to IDP camps. Above all, for Boko Haram we need dialogue; it is very important.

Dialogue with Boko Haram?

Let me tell you why dialogue is very important. It is an instrument of war while you are fighting, Yar’ Adua did it with the Niger Delta militants and it ended the militancy.

The current government insists it is fighting corruption but complains that corruption is fighting back. First of all, how will you define corruption in the Nigerian context and how will you fight it?

I define corruption in the global contest.

When you define corruption only in the Nigerian contest then that is when we begin to have problem. When you corrupt something it means to take it away from its original form, if you corrupt rice it is no longer rice but a different thing.

Nepotism for instance is corruption because it an anomaly. When you ignore the federal character principle, which is

constitutional and tell us you know those who you can work with and you trust them that is corruption.

For me, we need to begin to respect the rule of law. When people steal we give it a nice name we don’t call it what it is. These people are usually shielded either because they belong to the ruling party or because they are friends and cronies of the ruling party and so they are shielded and protected, that is corrupting the process.

We need a leadership that will recognise that corruption is a cankerworm that destroys the fabric and system of any nation. You undermine yourself when you protect thieves; you undermine yourself when you allow corruption. But most importantly prevention is better than cure. We need to deploy everything at our disposal to stem corruption or stealing and financial crimes from the source and technology makes this easy for us.

Technology makes forensic investigation for financial crimes very easy. If you want to move money and if you deploy technology, and it is done through digital means you can trail the money. If a contractor is to be paid and you pay him directly into his account, you remove those who will necessarily want to take kick back. Only technology can help us do that. The preventive measure is better because it is far more expensive to bring people to book because they have a lot of money to hire the best lawyers.

What is your take on the arraignment of the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Walter Onnoghen and his eventual suspension by President Buhari?

When the foundation of anything is faulty, you cannot build anything on it. If you look at the motive, it is corrupted right from the start. You can do the right thing the wrong way and once you do the right thing the wrong way you corrupt the system. Then whatever you do cannot stand. If the Chief Justice committed an infraction, he cannot be excused and should not be excused.

But in a situation where there is selective victimisation, I use the word victimisation deliberately, because until a man is proven guilty he is innocent.

But when you select those you choose to fight and exclude some other people and everybody is watching and is common knowledge that some people have allegations hanging on their heads, then it becomes victimisation because it is selective persecution, selective prosecution and selective victimisation. Secondly, there is a process for removal of the Chief Justice. If you choose to pervert the system and begin to impose your will on another arm of government unconstitutionally, then it is going to be a state of anomie or confusion, which is what we are seeing now.

If you do the right with executive recklessness and rascality then you create tension in the system and this can upturn our democracy. In my administration the rule of law will be respected and must be respected. No one arm of government must arm twist the other.

So you are saying that President Buhari was wrong in suspending the CJN? The process was unconstitutional and was a perversion of the rule of law. They did the wrong thing and started finding their way to do the right thing. Why were they in a hurry, why don’t they go through the normal process? There was a motive; they could have gone through the normal process. But they did not do that. They perverted the process and started trying to do the right thing. That was executive recklessness on the part of President Buhari.

Education, agriculture and the health sectors have suffered neglect in the past.

How will you budget for these three sectors?

Thank you for this. Education and human capital development for me is very critical and education for me is not about learning to read and write. Education is the total liberation of man’s mind and when you liberate a man’s mind, the man is capable of doing anything. Singapore, Japan and other leading economies I know today don’t have mineral resources.

The State of California for instance is the fifth largest economy in the world

after US, China, Japan and Germany. The state of California is ahead of the UK. Now when you look at it, you have in California Silicon Valley, which is about technology and innovation. It is about the new ABC in coding I am talking about Information technology powered by education. The state of California has produced the richest men in the world because technology is the product of education.

For me we have to revamp our education, the new ABC is going to be coding.

Whether we like it or not education is the future and we better embrace technology and innovation at its infantile stage. Young children catch up very fast, so we need to introduce coding in school so that the young children learn computer skills and by the time they are eleven they will start writing apps, by the time they are 14, 15 some of them will start making money.

So we need to build our people and build our economy. We must also prioritise vocational education.

For me there will be no approval from banks for education abroad. If you want to send your son to school in America, good luck to you but you will not get a dime from the bank. You can source your money from somewhere else. So, we cannot use money meant for agriculture and manufacturing to train children abroad who will likely remain there and not come back to Nigeria. There will not be approval for foreign exchange for education same with health. There will be compulsory education till the age of eighteen, above 18 your parents will be responsible. There will be free and compulsory adult education till the age of 65.

Subsidies used for petrol we will be diverted them to education, health and agriculture. These are far more important to us than to subsidise a few rich people.

We will offer tax holiday not less than five years to those who want to invest in education. We will encourage school from abroad to come and invest in Nigeria and we will increase the budget for education.

A lot of money will be voted for research and there will be a marriage between research institution and manufacturing sector in the country. We will encourage research in our universities and restore a pride of place in our public services.

We have enhanced pay package for FIRS, for NNPC and other federal intuitions but we do not have enhanced package for our teachers, that is an anomaly and we will change that. We will have an enhanced package for teachers.

No officer in my government and no government appointee and any government official from level 12 and above will be allowed to train their child outside the shores of this country. If a child is above 21 he is an adult we don’t have a problem with that. If you are a civil servant under my government, and it is discovered that your child is schooling abroad you are in trouble.

On the health sector, the reason there is decay in our health sector today is that our big men can travel abroad. There will be no health estacode in my administration. Let the Indian hospitals come and set up in Nigeria because we will not approve money for treatment abroad. Why people go abroad is that diagnostic equipment are not available and when they are available they are expensive. So, we shall subsidise the equipment.

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Sunday 10 February 2019

Politics ‘Why Cross River APC governorship ticket is still in contention’

Ekpeyong Cobham is the director-general of Usani Campaign Organisation. In this interview with MIKE ABANG, Cobham expressed disappointment over what he termed breach of protocol by the National Vice Chairman of South-South of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and John Ochala during President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Cross River State last week Wednesday in which the duo refused to recognise the Minister of Niger Delta in the presence of the President. Excerpts:

What is your impression on the President’s visit to Cross River State last week? he visit of the President was a welcome development considering the fact that we have a President coming to showcase the achievements of his administration and also let us know what he has in stock for the people of the state, considering the fact that he hardly enjoys meaningful support from the people of the state despite his magnanimity to the people in terms of political appointments in his government. He has done so much for us; his visit availed him the opportunity of meeting the people one on one. And to also know there is a paradigm shift against his candidature in terms of the general apathy against him before now, Cross River people have come to terms now that he is a better person and friend of the state than the former President who comes from the zone.

their action on the directive from the party national chairman is to put the man above the law and this contradicts the age- long principle of the rule of law that everybody is equal before the law.

I am not a lawyer, but it does not require rocket science legalism to know that once a court gives a judgment and the judgment beneficiary obtains an enrolled order, the system must effect the dictates of the judgment pending a possible upturning by an appellate court. As we speak now, the only legal pronouncement standing on four legs is that Etim John’s primary list is the one INEC should accept to all exclusions.

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On the noticeable breach of protocol by the organisers of the rally, especially the National Vice Chairman South-South, Hilliard Eta by not recognising the Honourable Minister of the Niger Delta on the protocol list in the presence of Mr. President? What do you have to say on this?

I have absolute reservation on the organisation of the rally in which a few misguided persons decided to embarrass the President and the person of the Minister of Niger Delta by not recognising his presence at the rally organised by his own party in the presence of Mr. President. They decided to exhibit the highest level of ignorance; you behave and carry yourself believing that you are undermining him, but rather you are portraying yourself as untrained person, not deserving the position you are occupying, you deliberately refused to recognise him because you are the National Vice Chairman South-South of the party.

How do you view the action of Hilliard Eta and John Ochala during the President’s visit to the state?

The action of John Ochala and Hilliard Eta was only a manifestation of a crafty council constituted by certain person to rubbish the person of the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs. They didn’t take cognisance of the fact that this personality they are trying to run down, has worked closely with the President; the President did not come to Cross River State to gather an impression about the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs. For al-

Ekpeyong Cobham

most 4 years, he has been working with him and all the functionality of the Minister he has had the privilege to draw conclusion as to his character, capacity, and his unblemished credentials; so coming to hear something completely divergent to his existing perception of his personality completely shows that these people are uncivilised and unreceptive to people of good manners.

How are you doing as DG of the minister’s campaign organisation?

Very great. Indeed, it’s very challenging but exciting, especially considering the unique circumstances, we have to operate in. But I can assure you that my principal, Pastor Usani, his teeming followers, fans, believers and admirers are very upbeat about the ‘Divine Project’ driven by the illumination team which I am privileged to head.

Recently, the INEC published a list of the candidates for Presidency and National Assembly; can you tell us the temper in your organisation before and after the publication?

Many thanks for this question. Let me start by saying that Pastor Usani is a very peaceful, law-abiding, sharp, witty and highly optimistic person. This is why at all times and in all moments, he remains unruffled, focused and

extremely committed to the project.

To your question now; yes, before the INEC publication, we believed that the Etim John primary list is the legitimate and official list that INEC would publish. Our belief was founded on the court’s verdict, a judgment, not just an order. So yes, so when INEC did otherwise, we were concerned because we believe that democracy flourishes on the capacity of the relevant institutions to do the right thing.

What is the reality now as we speak?

Well, we are justifiably affirmative that INEC will reverse itself. Predicating

But as it stands now you are right to allude that the position is still contentious. But I can assure you that the matter will be resolved in favour of Pastor Usani and others on the Etim John’s list

So, is it safe to say for now that the APC Cross River State governorship candidacy is still in contention, and if so, what is the prospect of your principal, Pastor Usani having it at the end?

Yes, ordinarily you would not say there is contention, if INEC had done the needful. But as it stands now you are right to allude that the position is still contentious. But I can assure you that the matter will be resolved in favour of Pastor Usani and others on the Etim John’s list. You know there is no time bar in a matter like this. Whenever INEC decides to behave lawfully and legitimately, the substitution will be effected, no matter how long it takes.

Remember the classic case of Rotimi Amaechi Vs PDP and others. But for my principal, there is another specific window which is 31st January 2019, when the names of the governorship candidates will be published. INEC can explore that window and do the right thing. Where they still renege, then thank God, the matter is pre-electoral and we shall pursue it to its finest legal and moral logic.

Don’t you consider that the impasse may affect the fortunes of the party in your state?

No, I don’t think so. Remember, it’s the party logo that is inscribed on the ballot paper. Already, President Buhari’s nextlevel kite is flying high and Cross Riverians are prepared to show him great love in return for the plenty big portfolio appointments, Ogoja-Calabar Road, Calabar-Akpabuyo Road, Calabar – the road and many other projects. For other positions including the governorship, the party is working hard at all flanks.

Indeed, it’s a double portion campaign delivery for us because contention or not, all party faithful and leaders are in agreement in taking the party to the next level of victory with CRS in APC’s kitty.

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Why Nigeria should adopt the 1963 Constitution, by Chukwunaru Charles Obinnaya Chukwunaru, a political scientist, is the candidate of the Young Progressives Party for Bende Federal Constituency, Abia State in the forthcoming general election.

In this interview with UDOKA AGWU in Umuahia, he spoke on several national issues, including how he would give his constituents quality representation, the defects in the NigerianConstitution and why Nigeria should return to the 1963 Constitution. Excerpts:

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hat should Be n d e e l e c torate know about Charles ObinnaChuk-

wunaru?

I am Charles Chukwunaru, a lecturer at Nelson Mandela University, Department of Political and Governmental Studies; I worked with the late Senator UcheChukwumerije as his Technical Assistant/Political Adviser. I am the YPP candidate for Bende Federal House of Representative in the 2019 general election. I am a young man that can be trusted to effectively represent Bende Federal Constituency, considering my rich academic background, honesty, integrity and God-fearing disposition to life issues; as well as my vast legislative experience in the National Assembly, having worked with the late Senator Uche Chukwumerije as his technical assistant/political adviser.I am a man on a mission to fulfill the very wish of the people of Bende LGA and the quest to win the Federal House of Representative seat by me is a done deal.

What will be your major priority at the Green Chamber, if elected?

The constitution is one of the very key areas. I am going to vigorously cavass for the return of the Nigerian constitution, because the one we are using now is a product of 1979, 1989, and 1999 constitution. The 1979 constitution was Obasanjo’s administration that got their friends to come and write it from all over Nigeria. It was not subjected to any referendum and yet they say we the people of Nigeria. That is a fraud, if any constitution is going to be written, it has to be agreed on by all the ethnic nationalities in Nigeria and it has to be subjected to referendum and if it is passed by the majority, it becomes a constitution. It was not done in 1979. In 1989, IBB tried it, got 1989 constitution. Abacha came, suspended it. He tried his own, he died in the process. Abdulsalami completed it, elections were held without the politicians knowing the constitution they were going to operate with. In fact the constitution was handed over to Obasanjo to go and work with. I think he saw that constitution the time he was sworn in and they say, it is our constitution. These are all these military working documents, what we called the 1999 constitution, is not the constitution, it is Nigeria federal working document, that is the name because it is not a constitution by we the people of Nigeria; because there was no referendum to either accept or reject it. Now, this federal working document has so bastardised

Charles Obinnaya Chukwunaru

Nigeria federalism, there is no state police, there is no resource control, there is only 13 percent resource control, the states don’t even know what they give them, it should be the other way round. The state will collect their resources and give to the centre and not the centre collecting the state resources and giving to the people that have it; that is fraud. It never happens in anywhere in the world. God has endowed a lot of people with their resources, wherever you live, God knows your topography, your terrain, your geographical challenges, environmental challenges and he compensates you with resources and I tell you if we go back to our constitution, the Northern region will even be the richest because the oil everybody is clamouring for is a declining commodity, a very volatile asset that is exposed to the vagaries of international forces of demand and supply.

The price can crash to ten dollars tomorrow and we won’t be able to pay the police and if it comes to a situation where soldiers and the police are not paid, that is the end of the country. The richest state in America is not Texas that produces about 11.9 million barrels of crude oil in a day. The richest state I guess is California. California has no drop of crude oil but it is agriculture, entertainment and

technology. They have Nollywood, the technology and then farming.

They produce a lot of wheat. The Northern Nigeria can produce food that will feed the whole West Africa, especially their grains. There is no country in West Africa that can match the Northern Nigeria in the production of grains. You find out that this present constitution has not favoured the North. The North was doing better before. Let me tell you under the present constitution, the North has not fared better.

The North fared better under the 1963 constitution, because they were producing. Now, the North is the poorest region in Nigeria. This constitution has not favoured anybody. This constitution has made sure that all the states depend on crude oil, how can we depend on crude oil, how much is on it? The money we made from crude oil in a year is not up to the profit, goggle makes in a year.

What are the major problems of Nigeria presently?

The problem of Nigeria is fundamental defect, because we don’t have a constitution. Our constitution is still under technical suspension and that is why you can have rogues aspire and get to power because of the rogue constitution we have. This rogue constitution produces rogue politicians because the constitution is not for the peo-

ple, so the people cannot identify with the constitution, so they are political, they are apolitical. They don’t care. The Constitution that centralises the police in a federal system, have you ever seen it before? How can somebody in Abuja send somebody from Sokoto State to come and police Bende, he does not even understand their language and culture, he does not even understand the terrain, there should be a very strong affinity with their language. Now tell me, how can you secure the people that you don’t even understand their language? So, it is a rogue constitution that produces rogue politicians who were elected by the rogue electoral system to achieve a rogue government at the local government, the state and the Federal.

We have rogue local government system, rogue state government and rogue federal government, all produced by a rogue constitution, because our real constitution is on technical suspension.

The people of Abia State cannot extract anything that is beneath the land which their God has given to them and has been passed down to them by their ancestors. It belongs to the Federal Government, what is the meaning of that? That is an affront to natural justice. They say they will pay you compensation and give you whatever they like and then they can take trillions of dollars and pollute your environment and when you talk, they will kill you.

So, somebody like me will vigorously campaign for the return of the Nigerian constitution, which has been on technical suspension by the late Major General J.T.U Aguiyi Ironsi from 1960 till date. They should bring it back. If we want to change it, let us all agree on how to amend it. This present constitution was crafted and adopted by the federal military government and that is why I call it a Federal working document.

What are the peculiarities of 1963 Constitution?

Under the 1963 Constitution, all the regions had their own constitution, had their own foreign representatives, had their own police, they did their own thing their own way. I recall that my daddy resigned from his federal appointment to take up a regional appointment because they had more money. The regions were paying more money, but now, the state governments cannot pay salaries. It is only the Federal Government that is paying salaries as and when due with the exception of Lagos, Rivers, Bayelsa and probably Enugu State.

You can imagine where an engineer that was employed by Post and Telecommunications left his job

to work for a regional government.

Can it happen now? Then, it was the people’s constitution. So, I will vigorously fight for the restoration of the Nigerian constitution which has been on technical suspension by the military. What they are giving us now is nothing and that is why nothing is working, that is why the people are hungry in the midst of plenty. People are dying of hunger. You know why people are dying? When they are hungry, they cannot eat, the immune system will be poor. They get sick and there is no hospital The hospitals that exist, there are no drugs, even in the Aso Rock clinic as recently raised by the wife of Mr. President, there were no syringes even common paracetamol, not to talk of the one in Bende or Umuahia. Even when they access the hospital and they were asked to buy drugs, how can somebody who is hungry buy drugs? If somebody buys the drugs for him, he has to eat before taking the drugs. If somebody gives him money to buy drugs, he has to buy something to eat first before buying the drugs.

So, people are dying from hunger-related diseases. When I look around the community, I see poverty, I see hunger, I see diseases, I see death and there is no way it is going to change with the present status quo. That is why I have to work vigorously with like-minded people to make sure that we eliminate the existing and established status quo which is very hostile to the people What is your take in relation to government policies, welfare of the people and purposeful leadership?

Government money belongs to the people, government should use it for the welfare of the people. Any decision you take as a government that does not favour or benefit majority of the people is not a public policy, it is a private policy.

You see, we have people who do not understand the basic principles of public policy analysis in government. We have people who are economic illiterate, otherwise they would have known that no developed country sells its crude oil unless for diplomatic or bilateral reasons like Russia does with its own. Apart from Russia that is using it for politics, no developed country sells its oil. All the oil exporting countries are all developing countries.

There are about 109 products that you can get from crude oil but our own, we export it and bring in like four products. What happened to the other 105? Do you know the kind of jobs they get? Do you know the kind of income they make? Do you know how many petrochemical industries that are scattered over countries that don’t have crude oil and they are creating employments, increasing purchasing power, bringing revenue to their people; and those petrochemical industries are nowhere to be found in the countries that produced these raw materials.

Are these people sick? These are economic illiterates. Check all the oil exporting countries, they are all in crisis. I told you that one state in America, California produces about 11.9 million barrels of crude oil in a day, yet America imports oil, Nigeria is struggling to produce two million litres per day.

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Sunday 10 February 2019

Feature

Is democracy making life better in Africa?

Ask Gowon, Kukah, Utomi, and George Weah

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ZEBULON AGOMUO t was a gathering of the elite group last Wednesday, inside the Shell Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos. It was the 16th edition of annual lecture and international leadership symposium put together by Pat Utomi’s Centre for Values in Leadership (CVL).

Th e o r g a n i s e r s a c t u a l l y meant to climb the shoulders of the enlightened speakers at the event to see clearly the extent to which democracy has contributed in making life worth living, or otherwise, not just in Nigeria, but also on the continent of Africa.

The speakers were drawn from within and outside the country and from various sectors of the nation’s economy.

General Yakubu Gowon was the chairman of the day. Bishop of Sokoto Diocese of the Catholic Church, Matthew Hassan Kukah and Liberian President, George Weah were speakers, while Professor Pat Utomi, founder of the CVL, moderated the discussion session.

Those who spoke as panelists were Muiz Banire (SAN), pr inci pal & foun din g part ner, M.A. Banire & Associate; Emeka Izeze, a former chairman/editor-in-chief, Guardian Newspapers; Prof. Ibidapo Obe, former vice chancellor, University of Lagos; Toyosi Akerele-Ogunsiji, CEO, Arise Network; Prof Ebere Onwudiwe, chairman, O-Analytics and Femi Falana, (SAN) a human rights activist.

They all spoke in tandem on the urgent need to deepen democracy in Nigeria and on the African continent.

How I b ecame h ead of state by accident - Gowon Go w o n , f o r m e r m i l i t a r y head of state and chairman of the occasion, told the story of his journey into the military and how he became an “accidental” head of state.

He said he had joined forces to abort the first military coup in Nigeria, and thereafter became military head of state by accident.

According to him, “In 10 days, Nigerians will go to the polls to exercise their franchise to elect a new president to lead the nation for the next four years. This will make the fifth successive cycle in 20 years that citizens of our nation would have unfettered say in deciding who leads them. This has not always been so in the history of our soon to be 59 years old nation,

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In 10 days, Nigerians will go to the polls to exercise their franchise to elect a new president to lead the nation for the next four years General Yakubu Gowon

given our record of military interregnum since independence in October 1960. But it is commendable measure of the depth of our growth and development as a nation. Indeed, it is a graphic illustration of my personal answer of ‘yes’ to the question of the day: Is Democracy Making Life Better in Africa? ”My answer to this question is a distinct and resounding yes. I look around and see that a good number of participants at this symposium have lived the history of Nigeria either on account of age or by learning and might be tempted to conclude that my answer is a contradiction in terms. Why? Because I was a General in the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, which had a record of interventions in governance.

Because I accidentally became head of state by virtue of the power considered to issue

Matthew Hassan Kukah

forth from the barrel of a gun, which is very undemocratic.

And because no general elections held during my nine-year, two terms plus one year grace of tenure as military head of state for overstaying my term, not because I did not want but because as the press put it that I reneged on my promise to do so.

“To take this position is to miss the important point that governance by the military is not necessarily anti-democracy. While I was on board a ship MV Aureol headed for Nigeria from Liverpool in December 1965 during which about three coups d’état took place successively within two weeks in West Africa, my copassengers asked if I thought another coup was possible in Nigeria. I initially discountenanced the idea before I philosophically admitted the possibility but insisted that the few

patriotic ones amongst my colleagues in the army would do our best to ensure the return of democracy. This is the mindset of a democrat even in uniform. Soldiers by training, serve as protectors of democracy, which by its basic definition remains government of the people by the people and for the people. By the time we arrived Nigeria, within some hours, the January 13 coup took place, I joined forces with other patriotic officers to ensure that the coup did not succeed in Lagos and in most parts of the country. So what went wrong and why did I ‘renege on my promise to return to civil rule? Answers to that question are outside the immediate scope of today’s event but suffice to say that in 20 years, Nigerians- military and civilians alike- have continued to act in ways that make military incursions into

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politics both unnecessary and unattractive regardless of the challenges of our democracy.

By extension, it can safely be said that by our collective resolve to continue to vote and ensure that our votes count, we all are agreed that there are inherent benefits in entrenching democracy.

The Nigerian example, again, by extension, has continued to spread across Africa, thus solidifying the tenets of democracy.

“One sure thing , though, is that democracy cannot be strengthened in the absence of enduring structures like the Judiciary, the legislature, the public service among others but the strongest I consider being the public service.

I speak from experience. Back in the 60s and 70s, my government benefited immensely from the experience of the rich pool of our civil servants, who were very well-trained by the colonial administration and the government of the First Republic. A good civil service is one that is totally committed to the government of the day regardless of the political party in power. In this regard, the military also falls within the ambit of ‘good’ public service.

Civil servants, by simple definition are custodians of policies and repository of institutional memory. The civil service that I knew and worked with embodied these ideals.”

Gowon also recalled that “Public service in Nigeria sig-

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Feature nificantly lost the pride of place with the mass and premature retirement of dedicated officers, particularly by my immediate successors in office. Many died virtually penniless, having lived lives of contentment and luxury that their salaries could support. Many of their successors learnt not to take what could then be considered as ‘oath of poverty’ and consequently replaced national interest with personal interest. This, n a t u r a l l y, c a u s e d m a n y t o begin to owe allegiance to power or ethnic or religious blocs that tend to promote their self-serving interests.

In turn, this promoted the growth of cronyism and deep rooted corruption. Whilst the political restructuring of any nation is all well and good, it equally must be emphasised that without true reform of the public service, such restructuring efforts will almost come to naught. In a restructured entity, leaders will tend to work with and respect the civil service as an institution; else they should forget about spreading the proverbial ‘dividends of democracy.”

Need for free press, independent judiciary, legislature – Weah President George Weah, represented by the Liberian Minister of Information, Cult u r e a n d To u r i s m , Eu g e n e Nagbe, spoke on the ‘Imperatives for Making democracy Work for the People – The Liberian Experience,’ said: “Democracy can only work for the people if we create and strengthen institutions of the state apparatus to ensure good governance” and take care of young people because “the message inadvertently communicated most times to most young people by the society around them is that they are not needed. We dole

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Democracy can only work for the people if we create and strengthen institutions of the state apparatus to ensure good governance

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Pat Utomi

out negligible portion of state resources to institutions and programs that should cater to their welfare. This usually results into disillusionment with the system, a situation that can be tapped into or exploited by unsavory politicians. Corruption, inequality and other social vices make people across the world to give up on institutions and governments that are supposedly democratic. In fact, rising inequality has become the trend across Africa and the world today. This has left the least educated and the weakest of society, the youth, very, very vulnerable and distrustful of the system.”

Making a case for free press, he said: ”Like one writer said, ‘journalism and democracy are names of the same thing’.

In fact, a free and unfettered press is an indispensable requirement for democracy. This is why the Press itself must not become instruments for the furtherance of selfish and parochial political interest at the expense of the greater good of the society as a whole.”

Noting that with all its imperfections, democracy works

President George Weah

for the people if the imperatives of good governance are inculcated into the national fabric, Weah urged the creation of democratic institutions that allow the practice of fundamental rights under the law, and also an economic environment which caters to the basic needs of everyone.

Policies that aid poverty reduction must be engendered, as extreme poverty is a threat to democracy anywhere.

All hope not lost - Utomi In his remarks, Pat Utomi, the convener and moderator for the day, captured the essence of the lecture with his ‘Harvest of Paradoxes’.

He said: “In a few days from now, Nigeria is scheduled to have general elections. The uncertainty accompanying it long caused many investors to hold back. And the misery in the land is palpable. Not long before, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) had the first truly contested, even if disputed elections, since Patrice Lumumba was killed nearly 55 years ago.”

Utomi added: “…It is logical to expect that government of the people for the people,

by the people will produce policies and implement them with such passion that the best outcomes for the people will show. Yet, the result from Africa’s turning to democratic ways has not been flattering.

Why is democracy not enabling the ‘Great Escape’ from misery and the inequality that defines life in a country with a fast-growing Private Jet market, but which has overtaken India as the biggest domicile for poor people on earth, Nigeria just having overtaken India on that unpleasant statistics frame, as the Brooking Institution announced in 2018.”

Utomi noted that “a scan of the political environment throws up a glaring absence of the usual excitement that accompanies electioneering in our polity. The fanfare and usual razzmatazz missing this time around raises the question as to whether the electorate have probably lost interest and by extension disillusioned that politics can truly midwife the most needed growth and development aspirations of Nigerians.

“The story is similar across the continent because of failed promises from politi-

cal leaders who are unable to change the foggy future of their people.”

Professor Utomi, who has tasted the bitter pill of the ruthlessness of “mean” politicians, who think public office is their patrimony, strongly believes that there is the need to deepen democracy and its ideals in Nigeria and on the continent at large. “ If Af r i c a i s t o e m b r a c e development, it must enjoy a lengthy period of political stability that is garnished with integration into global economy. This opportunity can come if the continent subscribed to liberal democracy in all its ramifications,” he said.

Democracy is not about provision of road infrastructure – Kukah Matthew Hassan Kukah, Catholic bishop, Sokoto Diocese, was his cerebral self at the event. He did not disappoint. While his lecture lasted, he threw the audience into sessions of hilarious moments with his verbal jibes. He did not even spare General Yakubu Gowon, who was chairman of the event. He poked jokes at him.

Kukah stressed the need to entrench democracy, lamenting that dictators are now parading themselves as democrats.

Differing from the view canvassed by a former president of the United States of America, Barack Obama that Africa needs strong institutions and not strong men, Kukah said that such thinking may no longer be in vogue nowadays.

According to him, “Things have changed. Strong institutions are very important, but what matters most nowadays is the proper use of the brain; the power of the brain. The world is changing. Some people are parading themselves as president of 200 million people, but a small boy, Mike Zu c k e r b e r g i s s h a k i n g t h e whole world and controlling 2 billion people.”

Kukah pooh-poohed the e q u a t i on of d e mocra cy t o mere provision of physical infrastructure such as highways, beautiful buildings, etc, saying “infrastructure of the brain is the most important infrastructure. Democracy opens the frontiers of information, we can dream and the beauty of democracy is the possibilities that lie ahead.”

The cleric however, noted that strong men in US and some other parts of the world had helped to enthrone strong institutions and wondered what Nigerian strongmen did with their strength. He said democracy remains the best form of government because it reduces everyone, irrespective of status and class to one vote per person and offers opportunity for the poor to get to the top.

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Sunday 27 January 2019

Feature

General Overseer Eric Onunji

Father Ejike Mbaka

Between Father Mbaka and Pastor Eric:

No kobo accepted from politicians at rural poor church where victory was predicted for PDP’s Emeka Ihedioha

T

IGNATIUS CHUKWU & SABI ELEMBA

wo names stand out in Igboland in ministry work. One is the catholic reverend father of repute, Ejike Mbaka, the priest of Adoration Ministry now in Emene, Enugu, who has been in the news for decades. The other is a reverend known more as a pastor, the General Overseer of a small church, Eric Onunji of True Believers Assembly, Nnorie, in Ngor Okpala, Imo State.

Father Mbaka is known for catering for little ones and the poor as well as signs and wonders that follow his worship.

He is famous for surviving many assassination attempts during one of the regimes in Enugu State. The story of how bullets fired at him at the former Adoration Ground during a church programme all went into his Bible has remained famous.

Father Mbaka touched controversy in 2015 when he predicted that Muhammadu Buhari, then candidate of the All Pr og r e s s i v es C on g r es s (APC), would win. It came to pass. The prediction may perhaps be the only link between father Mbaka and Pastor Eric.

Mbaka’s prediction was widely reported but Pastor Eric’s revelation that Buhari would

win was never heard beyond his small church premises in a remote village near a forest in Eke-Ukwu Nnorie.

Pastor Eric (as he is popularly called in the rural areas of Imo State) where he helps the sick, the afflicted and the poor, has a pedigree in seeing the mind of God. He is known to have not only predicted the victory of Buhari, a prediction that brought him much condemnation that time, he came into political prediction limelight with the prediction of victory for Independence Ogunewe (Ahiazu/Ezinihitte Federal Constituency) who is now late, and twice for Mike Iheanetu (Aboh Mbaise State Constituency). He made it clear in 2015 that Ihedioha and Goodluck Jonathan would not win, though many did not like him for that.

In the days of IBB, when Pastor Eric was younger but full of fury, he was asked to go to Aso Rock to tell IBB to step down or face death. He dodged a while but was forced to go, like Jonah. IBB obeyed and lives to this day. According to him, IBB made overtures to him to stay in Abuja but he refused, and turned down even transport support to return.

He had told IBB, ‘In my pocket is transport money contributed by my poor village members. That is all I was allowed

to take by God”.

When it was Abacha’s turn, he was sent again but he was delayed much at the gate and when they eventually met, Abacha turned it down. Abacha did not leave Aso Rock alive. These are unreported incidents.

Mbaka and crisis

When Emeka gets there, all we ask for is a Bible on his desk as sign of covenant with this Ministry that he will govern with the fear of God and to wipe away the tears of God’s people

The poor who pray here for you need support Father Mbaka remained highly respected for decades but his recent mention of money and gifts has tended to attract opprobrium and sanctions from the Church. Video recordings have emerged showing where he tried to justify demand for cash after praying for victory for politicians.

When he predicted Buhari’s victory, he won hearts and respect when he turned down huge cash offer (offering) from the then first lady. But now, his outburst at Peter Obi and even Buhari over money seems to dent much of his reputation. He has however tried to explain. Now, he is tracked by friends and foes alike and the latest is that he paid a visit to Buhari of late and that gifts were given and accepted. No confirmation has been made.

Ihedioha’s turn We do not want your money, just a Bible on his desk in Govt House – says General Overseer Now, on January 8, 2019, the first Tuesday of the year, the yearly First Tuesday Crusade of the True Believers Assembly was held. Pastor Eric invited Ihedioha through Kisito Onuoha who is a church member as well as close friend to Ihedioha. The message was

to bring Ihedioha for prayers to win the election as revealed by the Holy Spirit. On that day, the church was filled to the brim with outflow to the outside under the palm trees.

Pastor Eric took over the microphone and admonished thus: “Bring out your PVCs so we can pray and send it on errand to go put Emeka Ihedioha in office as next governor. The children of God and this alter have right to pray anybody of good standing into office. May God put the right governor that will govern Imo State and remember Ngor Okpala and Mbaise and repair this part of Imo State. Ngor Okpala must be remembered, Mbaise must be remembered, and Imo State must be rebuilt beginning this year 2019.”

Speaking in Igbo, he went on: “A prophet of God has the right to make demands of God through prayers for the good of the people. That is why we are not allowing you to drop any money, not even a kobo here today.

That is not why you were invited. You are here to receive prayers inspired by the Holy Spirit, not for any form of launching. We do not want you r mon e y. Wh e n Eme ka gets there, all we ask for is a Bible on his desk as sign of covenant with this Ministry that he will govern with the fear of God and to wipe away the tears of God’s people.”

The team led by a lawyer, Kingsley Nzemechi and Kizito Onuoha expressed delight at the man of God and said of a truth, this is a living church.

He explained Peter Obi’s presence in Imo State that forced Ihedioha to send representatives, and assured that the message would be sent to him, raw.

Offering time When the visitors left, the GO encouraged his poor followers to bring their little offerings, saying, this is the type we collect to run this church.

We will not collect from our visitors because they would think the prophecy was for sale. It is not so here. When God sends us, we do it without money. That is the pillar of this Ministry. The members, poor traders, women, widows, and all, put hands into their shallow pockets and dropped their usual ten, ten and twenty, twenty naira notes.

Conclusion: The following Sunday, all the contestants and campaign m e m b e r s o f Ih e d i o h a c a m came to worship there, but, again, the GO ordered them not to make donations or gifts. Everyone was marveled because True Believers Assembly has many needs and a retreat coming up in February where funds are seriously n e e d e d . Th e c h u r c h t a k e s support but the GO means that if you are sent to deliver a message, do not touch money, when going or coming.

Sunday 10 February 2019

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BDSUNDAY 37

Feature Dangers of 2019:

Female accountants in Port Harcourt take their safety, breakthroughs to God When God is in charge of your affairs, no matter who is the president of Nigeria, your own economy will continue to prosper, says man of God.

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IGNATIUS CHUKWU

s insecurity rises in Rivers State ahead of the general election with threats and tension from different political camps, most wives and mothers have become apprehensive over the safety of their husbands and children as well as their jobs.

Now, female accountants seem to worry even more over their safety and their jobs which require probing into figures and office duties that may lead to investigations and probes, attracting harm and targeting. Last Sunday, the Society of Women Accountants of Nigeria (SWAN), Port Harcourt district, made up of chartered accountants, took their worries to the altar.

At the Eleutheria Ministries in Rumukwurushie (believed to be a place where Grace and Mercy are multiplied), the female accountants stormed the Altar of God with thanksgiving, worship and requests, chief among them, safety or life.

After a heavy of dose of praise/ worship in gospel music supported with perhaps Niger Delta’s best drumming, the female chartered accountants danced to the altar in their full regalia.

Their leader, Chinedu Nwachukwu, a fellow, said SWAN has been enjoying God’s favour over the years and so they came to thank the Lord for those favours, which included safe deliveries, good marriages, and their jobs. “We have come here in numbers because there is fire at the altar and we are sure our prayers will be answered.”

Making direct submission, the chairperson asked for good health in 2019, unity in SAWN as a Society, one purpose and focus; and above all, divine assistance to achieve their 2019 targeted projects especially in their passion and profession.

Female chartered accountants with Pastor of the Church, Kindsley Nwachukwu

“Oh God, give us the resources to achieve these objectives. Give jobs to our members without jobs so far and to those who run their offices,

give them more projects to handle.

Give us 2019, oh Lord. Give support to the Port Harcourt District, the main body which is also led by a

L-R: Chinedu Nwachukwu (chairperson) and Ngozi Dorcas Umelo (assistant chairperson) after the church service

woman. Let her tenure go well and be remarkable.”

The Chief Worker and head of Eleutheris Ministries, Kingsley Nwachukwu, admonished the female accountants and all those who wish to make it in careers not to advertise their weaknesses, but to rather announce their strengths.

He particularly advised women professionals to behave well in their offices and place of duty to attract God’s favour. This he said, is because, until you please God, He will not announce you.

The Chief Worker went on: “So, always ask yourself, is God pleased with me, my office, myhouse, my community, my marriage? When men pity you, they put you in a pit, they put you down; but when God pities you, He lifts you up, out of the valley, out of the pit.”

Turning to the guest worshippers, he asked; “Women accountants, I hope in your homes, your husbands are still the heads? Give God a chance in your profession, your home, and your entire life.

Ask God to come in and take over.

Let God lead and rule in your job,

at SWAN, and everywhere. When God is in charge of your affairs, no matter whoever is president of Nigeria, your economy will continue to go well.”

The man of God prayed fervently for the female accountants and asked them to mark the day they knelt before God at the Altar of Eleutheria Ministries (Eleutheria is Latin and Greek meaning liberation and freedom, he explained).

In an interview after the thanksgiving,SWANchairperson,Chinedu Nwachukwu, described the outing as a very fulfilling one. “Today, we are really excited because we have been in the presence of God Almighty for what He has been doing for us over the years. As we have thanked our God, we are optimistic of success and victories in 2019” On what is uppermost in their minds for 2019, she said: “Life is the hottest request in our hearts because without life you can’t go far.

Only the living can achieve success.

If baby comes but mother dies, it’s of no use.

There are some of our women that are not yet married, or without children, we are taking it as a task to pray for them this year. There are those working very hard but getting little rewards. This year, God will turn it around. Some do not even have jobs. Until God connects you, you are suffering for nothing. We do not want big work with little pay. It is God (not just big certificates) that will do it’.

Supporting, the vice chairperson, Ngozi Dorcas Umelo, also a fellow, explained that SWAN was formed toaddvaluetothesocietybysingling out the girl-child and promoting everythingconcerning her. “Women are marginalised all over the world but if you train a woman, you train a nation. We are here to thank God which we do yearly. Success is not by might but by God’s grace. We are proud that our chairperson is the wife of the General Overseer of this church, Eleutheria Ministries. It is right to be here.”

Mass kidnapping: Rivers police say 8 abduction camps shattered; declare State of Emergency on East-West Road

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he Rivers state police command says eight abduction camps in the forests have been shattered in their renewed war against mass abductions. The command also said it has declared a state on the emergency on the Emohua axis of the EastWest Road where travellers are always abducted en mass and herded to nearby forests.

The Police specifically identified the Ndele, Rumuji and Rumuekpe section for the declaration over the continuous high-jacking of commercial

buses and killing by hoodlums along the area.

Nnamdi Omoni, the Rivers Police Spokesman, said in a statement that; “We have made massive deployment of policemen, uniform and plain cloth to that axis. We have also sent men to creeks, bushes and villages to tap on intelligence gathering.

“We are doing everything humanly possible to forestall incessant and wanton killings of commuters and security personnel in that axis.”

About a week before the

declaration, a commercial bus belonging to Agofure Motors was attacked. The driver was shot dead while the passengers were whisked into the bush until the police intervened and rescued most of the passengers while the kidnappers escaped with two others.

Also, on Thursday, the leader of Ahoada West legislative assembly, EFCC Chiko, was shot dead at the Rumuji axis of the road.

Concerned Nigerians had posted on social media warning people off some routes in Rivers State. “Please for

your safety and safety of your loved ones avoid Omagwa to Ubima and Owerri or Isiokpo to Ubima. Anything that will make you enter through Ubima going to Owerri especially from 6 pm in the evening should be avoided.

“From Elele to Umudioga, Egbeda, Ubima, and Omuku Road are no-go areas in the evenings due to high rate of kidnappings.

From Bayelsa to Port Harcourt divert to Elele Alimini to Elele Isiokpo and proceed to Port Harcourt. Avoid Elele-Ndele Rumuji-Emuoha-Choba-Port

Harcourt.

“Please stay safe. Kidnappers are on the rampage. On daily a basis, they practically blocked the East-West Road from Elele to Emuoha axis. Stay safe.”

On insinuations that policemen connive with kidnappers in some areas, the PPRO said the command was inestiating it. “We are also investigating our men who have been on that axis. We have gone back to the drawing board to critically examine our mode of operations and come up with acceptable lasting solutions.”

38 BDSUNDAY

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Sunday 10 February 2019

Interview

‘Modelling, fashion and beauty are great businesses to tap into’ Suzzie Odeniyi is a Nigerian, born in Ibadan but moved to Dublin, Ireland at the age of five with her mother.She is a leading entrepreneur in the media and fashion modelling industry in Europe and is responsible for the several successful pageaInline image Inline imagentries and competitions worldwide. In this interview with IFEOMA OKEKE, she hares some of her experiences in business and her plans to empower girls through her upcoming ‘Luxury Model Search, Nigeria.’

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s a fashion entrepreneur, what businesses do you currently manage?

My background is in fashion, beauty and industry. I have been managing models and international beauty queens for about eight years now. I started in Ireland where I grew up. I was born here in Ibadan, Nigeria, but I moved to Dublin, Ireland, when I was five years old. I have been there all my life. My model Agency is Suzzie D Model Management.

I am the owner of Most Beautiful Girl in Ireland Beauty Pageant Competition and Most Beautiful Girl in the World Beauty Competition. Every year, we take international winners from all around the world. I came to Nigeria because my mum lives here and she kept on telling me I must come home and do something for my people. If you said to me last year that I will be in Nigeria this year doing this, I would not have believed because I am always in Europe and Ireland.

However, I had to come to Nigeria to give girls the opportunity because I want to teach them that they can make it here in Nigeria and it is not only about travelling out of the country. If you have a specific plan and the strategy behind it, with the help of God, it can be possible. One of the strategies for this competition, which is Luxury Model Search, Nigeria, is to find female entrepreneurs.

This is to give the girls a platform to advance themselves.

We are not specifically saying to you that you must become a model. Although modelling is part of it but after a year of doing modelling, you can decide to go into anything you have passion for and our job will be to lead you into that; to help you, support you, push you and give you the guidance you require.

So, it is open to a lot of people.

The reason I am doing this is to really create opportunities for girls and open doors for them.

How long have you stayed in Ireland?

I have been in Ireland for 19years now. I actually came home sometime around July 2018 and stayed till September 2018. I came back in November and since then, we have been planning this. It is important to let people know who I am and what I do because a lot of people want to know about Suzzie D, what I do and what I want to achieve through this

Suzzie Odeniyi

project.

How does the Luxury Model Search, Nigeria work?

We are not just looking for beautiful girls. We are looking for someone who we can go into business because at the end of the day, modelling , fashion and beauty is a business, apart from the glamour that comes with it. If I speak to a potential model, in one minute, I can easily know if the person will be successful or not. I always can tell by the way they speak and what is going on in their heads.

If I ask a model, where do you see yourself in two years’time?

If she says she does not know, I know that she actually does not know. But if I ask another model the same question and she outlines what she wants to achieve and how she will go about it, I certainly know that she has entrepreneurship mindset. So, I am more drawn to this than just beauty.

What will the winners of the competition get?

The winner will get to sign an international modelling contact

with me and winner also gets one million naira cash prize.

There will be PR engagements to do all the adverts and branding amongst others. The first runner up gets N500,000 and get signed to an international modelling contract, while the second runner up gets N250,000 and get signed to modelling contract as well. The competition is on the 4th of August, 2019 at the Landmark Event Centre.

What makes the Luxury Model Search, Nigeria different from other beauty pageant shows?

A beauty pageant only concentrates on beauty and modelling. There might be other things like supports here and there but what differentiates us is that we are saying to you that you don’t actually have to become a model. We are saying to you that you can use this platform to build or pursue whatever you want to become.

Do you want to become a women right advocate, you want to open up your own organisation or you want to do something

that is modelling related, we are here to support you. This gives people a platform, it is unique. It is not something you see every day because not everyone is blessed with an entrepreneurial mind-set. It is something that is given to you by God and that is why it is different. The age bracket of the models will be between 18 years and 25 years.

Why your interest in entrepreneurship, modelling and fashion?

My mum and my dad were business owners. So, I grew up in a household where both of my parents are into business. My mum had a fashion line. She sold cloths, gold, bags and shoes and my dad has an oil company. These two businesses are different but it still came down to business. They always asked: What is your profit and break-even, what is your overhead, what are you spending on? I always listened to them while I was growing and these rubbed-off on me. I always knew that I will go into a business but I knew I was interested in fashion but I did not really know the business to go into. So, one day, I decided to start this and see how it goes and here I am today.

Were there times you competed in any beauty competition?

I competed in the Miss Nigeria, Ireland where I came out as top five, and also competed in Elite Model Look, Ireland of which I was a semi-finalist.

I always feel that if you are entering into a competition, it is not about being the winner that is most important but the confidence this gives to me, which has been very useful till now. For me, it is especially about the confidence you build in yourself.

Tell us a bit about your educational background and growing up?

I moved out of Nigeria when I was five years old. My mum is into politics at the moment. She went from Business to politics.

My dad has retired now but he still manages his own oil company for so many years.

My mum’s name is Aderonke Hassan. The most I learnt was from my mum because my dad was always in and out of Ireland but I still learnt a bit of business skills from my dad. I went to primary school, secondary school and college in Ireland. I started studying fashion and business. I am always travelling, managing girls. I am a Nigerian by root,

even though I have lived in Ireland for 19years. I am Irish but I am more of a Nigerian than Irish. Nigeria is my root and it is always important not to forget about your home and always give back.

How are you able to manage the numerous portfolios you currently manage?

When we get jobs, we get them booked in advance and I have people who work for me there. I always monitor what is going on. To manage all these things, you don’t have to be specifically in one place. I can be in Canada and still be running my business here in Nigeria. We have the internet. So, for me it’s not hard. If I need to be in a meeting I can’t attend physically, my representative will go there and give me feedback. We also skype, this way they can see me and we can talk. I can only be in one place at one particular time but it doesn’t really affect my work. If a client wants to meet a girl, I can email her and tell her where she has to be at a particular time and the job is done. So, the power of the internet is very important in the field.

How long have you been in the industry and what is your assessment of the industry?

I have been in the industry for about nine years now. In Ireland, it is tough, especially being a black woman in business.

Most businesses are whitedominated;so when you see a black woman enter the market, it is a threat to them. They will rather give a job to one of their own. Even though I am Irish, they will rather give a job to one of their own than give me because they feel more connected to the other person because of the skin colour. So racism still exits and it is part of life. However, I do like challenge and I pray to God to make a way for me where there seems to be no way. I do not give up easily as I just really push myself. My mum was saying to me that if I started a modelling industry here in Nigeria, it will have been well advanced than it is now. I did not let the politics over there stop me and here I am today.

What is your assessment of the industry in Nigeria?

In Ireland, only a small percentage of people are open to change but here in Nigeria, they want change. Nigerians are tired of doing the same old things. It is more refreshing to be around your own people and doing what you love.

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BDSUNDAY 39

TheWorshippers For Nigeria to progress, we must recognise women as stabilizers - Odukoya The Fountain of Life Church, Lagos held its first rally for 2019 ‘Discovery for Women’, themed ‘New Possibilities’. Pastor Taiwo Odukoya had an interactive session with the press on the Church’s focus on women empowerment and their role in nation building; SEYI JOHN SALAU was there. Excerpts: This is the first 2019 rally of ‘Discovery for Women’; can you tell us what it is all about? asically what we do in discovery for women is that we discuss women; to encourage women, reminding them of the reason for their creation. You know God said let us make man in our image after our likeness and let him have dominion: then when He got to the turn of the women he said, I will make for you, talking to the man: a help meet needed, that is the one that will aid you in the task of your life, and so God made a man.

So, what I ask myself usually is that why didn’t He tell the dog to become the help, why didn’t He tell the goat, why did He go back to make a help meet for the man.

So, the woman must be prepared adequately to build a support that the man needs to have dominion here on earth. So, we discover that even the United Nations today realises that we are not giving attention to women - if you want to change the society; you want to stabilise the nation, educate the woman because they will in turn educate the children. They will

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be the one to stand and nurture the children. And, so that is why we are giving much attention to the women, so the best we can do is to help them be the best they can be, supporting humanity and make humanity do what God has ordained it to be on earth.

If I may ask, what is the focus of this year’s ‘discovery for women’?

For this particular rally it is new possibilities. And why we called it so is that life is about alms and flows, and usually when you get to the alms there are tendencies to get stuck, you don’t have to get stuck. You can have a flow, a continuous flow in Jesus name. So we want to encourage people facing setbacks; things not measuring up as planned usually truncate a lot of peoples’ dreams and thrive for the future. We don’t want that to happen to our women, so we can suffer some setbacks to enable them to go, to encourage them, and equip them adequately about all they need to know.

What outcomes are you expecting at the end of this programme?

We are expecting to see women that will be able to rise up

L-R: Yewande Zaccheaus, MD of Eventful; pastor Tosin Sowemimo; pastor Taiwo Odukoya, senior pastor, Fountain of Life Church, Lagos/President, Discovery for Women and Pastor Nomthi Odukoya, Associate senior pastor, The Fountain of Life Church, Lagos, during the 2019 first rally of Discovery for Women, themed, “New Possibilities, held in Lagos.

Pastor Yomi Omiyale Resident pastor, Lighthouse International Christian Centre (LICC), Lagos Teacher of the Word and a Tax Accountant omiyaleyomi2013@gmail.com 08077587734

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salm 102:13 “Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.” The ancient Greeks had two words for time (Kairos and Chronos) and it is important that we understand what they are.

Chronos refers to chronological or sequential time. It simply means the passage of time or a

Taiwo Odukoya

above the challenges of the moment; women, not just rising above the challenges but carrying the children along, carrying the community along. I give an example, Rwanda , you know after the genocide: isn’t it amazing that it is the women that rally round to say now we are going to take our country back. For the first time we had an assembly, a national assembly that is dominated by women and today talk of development; talk of progress in Africa, you would want to talk about Rwanda. That’s not to say they are better than men but that is what they are created for; fill in where there are gaps, help the man to realise his stand again to go ahead. So, the man goes fighting, the woman stays stabilising.

So the woman is needed: I don’t know if you heard an interview, somebody was interviewing someone on channels recently; he said what Nigeria has to do; we have to go back and educate our people and in the North particularly, the women. Otherwise, the problem that is prevailing in the North will persist. So we have a problem of education, but what about our women, they need to be

educated too. For example, look at the places where Boko Haram has been attacking, the men go to fight, they are dead and gone; the woman will be left with the children, they are the ones that stay with them in the camps. So you want to preserve posterity; you want to project to the future; you want to develop an advanced mind - I believe that every woman should be educated, every woman should be empowered. Every woman should be able to stand by herself, for herself before even getting married. So, when she comes in, she comes in submitting to her husband; the two are one but they will have a formidable force, and so you can imaging the future of their product and their children; unlike now that in most parts of Nigeria, the women are just silent, that is bad. And so you just park them like sardine and make children like baby factories.

So, when you tell the woman to go and give birth to twelve children, she has her life, she has her future.

These are the kind of things we teach them; take hold of your life.

From the Bible point of view and I have examples I can tell you from the Bible, Deborah. When the nation had loss direction completely, Deborah stood up and provided that leadership. So, you begin to understand why God will say that man needs a helper, a man really needs a helper. A man needs a woman.

In that regard, what plan do you have for the men in the church?

Oh yes, we have this equally for men; I think our first rally is in March; so we run the two, side by side. We have been running this for over twenty years, March 17th this year we have the one for men (Discovery for men). So, I like your question because we are talking to the women, and you are saying who is talking to the men.

We talk to the men as well: as a matter of fact, we are taking the

discovery for men into chapters, so we have two rallies in church, then we take it into communities as it were to encourage our men who are beginning to rise up, nurturing other men because men need to be encouraged because men are easily discouraged even much more than the women.

Basically, what should be the role of women in nation building?

Particularly like I have mentioned earlier, in nation building; one, when your homes are stable, your nation will be stable. When your homes are not stable then you are looking for trouble; God forbid that we raise children who are vagabonds, and then there is no future because our children are our future. So the woman must be equipped. Yes I am interested in my children, I stay with them, and I oversee what they do, but much more my wife. I remember when my children were growing up – some were trained here, while some were trained abroad; I will call them once a week but my wife will call them every day, so the things am yet to know, she knew. So, we must educate and empower the women; the woman who is not educated can only take a child as far as she can.

Away from the church, what is your take on politics in Nigeria?

Politics today is fine – fine in the sense that we are more peopleinterested; we are getting the youth more interested and more women are getting interested.

They may not make the desired impact now, but interest is building up; so I believe we are on a positive direction by God’s grace, and another thing is that we need to pray for our politicians and pray that there will be unity in Nigeria; and pray that no matter who gets there the fear of God, number one; the love of the brethren: if we don’t see these two qualities in a man or woman, then they are not qualified to rule us - party is irrelevant.

Understanding ‘set time’ from the believers’ perspective space of time. Kairos on the other hand means a right or opportune moment. It is a moment in time in which something happens.

For every Kairos there must be a Chronos. A pregnant woman carries the foetus or baby in her womb for 9 months. That is Chronos; that is the passage of time. On a certain date which could be on, before or after her expected due date (EDD), she puts to bed. That is Kairos. That is the moment in time that an event occurs.

So many people are waiting for Kairos without doing anything in their Chronos. I strongly believe that we have been excessive in the teaching of appointed time

that the resultant effect is that so many believers think that something good will happen to them at a particular time irrespective of their present actions, that is the greatest fallacy of the millennium.

Appointed time is for appointed people with appointed actions.

It is what you and I do in our Chronos that will determine whether we will have a Kairos or not.

Assuming that the distance between Lagos and Ibadan is 120 Kilometres. If my car speed is 60 km/ hr, then I should reach Ibadan in 2 hours time all things being equal. However, If I sit down comfortably in my car and don’t make a move then even after 200

hours I will still be in Lagos.

Appointed time is for people who are taking appointed actions; I think you and I need to do a reality check today. We need to ask ourselves the following questions: What do I want to become in the next 5, 10 and 20 years?

What actions am I taking today in order to achieve the dreams in my heart for the next 5, 10 and 20 years? What do I need to stop doing in order to achieve my desired objective? What do I need to start doing in order to turn my dream to reality? And, what did people who have achieved what I want to achieve do?

Recently in church, I told mem-

bers of the church to abandon and bury all forms of small thinking. I implored them to make up their mind to be the best in Lagos in their field. No one must be better than them in whatever they set their hands to do. To achieve this however will require great actions on their part.

Life is not a mystery; hence Chronos is the key to Kairos. I leave you with a question today?

What are you doing today to secure the future that you desire?

Appointed time is for people with appointed actions. As you go out today, the Almighty God shall order your steps: it shall be with you in the name of Jesus.

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Sunday 10 February 2019

SundayBusiness The flip side of mortgage industry under-development

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nlike the experience in developed economies of the world where mortgage if fully developed and citizens reap the benefits, the mortgage industry in Nigeria remains in perpetual growth process and, therefore, underdeveloped. Apparently, this is a huge challenge, especially for young Nigerians who want to own their own homes, but do not have enough capital to go the housing market.

But, beyond this challenge, there are opportunities in the industry for investors and developers who understand the Nigerian market.

Most times, when experts, analysts and home seekers gather to discuss the mortgage industry, the focus is generally on reasons for the slow growth of the industry and also poor access to housing loans which they blame on high cost of funds, high interest rate, and demand for equity contribution by lenders.

Though this thinking cannot be faulted, there is always a way around these limitations. Many estate developers offer flexible payment plans, and longer payment periods, which is an attraction for potential investors, especially when that offer is tied to their cash-flow. Indeed many projects in Nigeria have routinely been sold through creatively structured payment plans.

For buyers, even though these real estate investments may be capital intensive at first, there is the potential to save more than the

total repayment sum of the mortgages which include the principal amount plus the interest, especially in a high-interest rate environment.

Investors also have the opportunity to avoid the fees associated with mortgages by buying directly with developers’ flexible financing.

It is not, however, easy or possible to wish away or overlook the current weaknesses that surround the mortgage infrastructure because high-interest rates have their downsides, especially the overall increased cost it influences. Despite these challenges, it is interesting to note that there are banks that have become creative about Diaspora credit which could be leveraged by Nigerians overseas to buy property back home.

It should be pointed out, however, that there are some other limitations in this system created by the action or inaction of mortgage operators. These are also contributors to the slow growth among which are the stress which these operators pile on borrowers and the empty partnerships which some of them deceive home seekers into believing that they have with estate developers, giving false hope to them that they are just a few steps away from home ownership.

Part of the statutory functions of primary mortgage banks (PMBs) and mortgage institutions generally, is to provide housing finance or loan to those who need same to build, buy or renovate existing houses.

But, in more cases than one, those who apply for loans from these

Procurement and Supply Chain

with Gob-Agundu Uche Branch chair (CIPS), Nigeria

Harold Nwariaku M.Sc, FCIPS … Continued from last week

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Separation of duties: good procurement policy should contain clear guidelines for Separation (Segregation) of duties.

A simple way to do this will be to have a matrix that describes the steps in the Procurement process, and the responsible authority for that process. For example, the authority or person who makes the requisition should not be the same person who approves the order. In case the reason for this is lost on you, please note that if the same person can raise a request, and approve the purchase, it exposes the company to significant risk. This means that certain purchases can be initiated and executed within one role! There are exceptions to this of course, but my message is clear. Any auditor worth his salt

will flag such a process as a grave risk, and will insist that you develop a compensating control to protect the organization. An example of such could be the requirement that another senior member of the organization signs off on that transaction before an award is done, or before payment is made.

The separation of duties element is easily missed by most organizations because of limitations in staffing, or because the CEO always signs off on significant purchases. This is an accident waiting to happen however, and must be considered to protect the company from a major fraud. If your organization is a small one and you feel ‘safe’ because your boss always signs off on everything, by reading this article, you have become enlightened and you should go back with this knowledge, and propose changes. Your organization will reward you for it.

Conflict of interest The conflict of interest principle is fairly well understood in the private and public sectors because

lenders hardly get them and where they do, they are often subjected to harrowing experiences through near-impossible requirements that leave the borrowers stressed out and almost frustrated.

Many have been cajoled into subscribing to buying houses through mortgage only to get in and find that the invitation is a mere facade shielding the stress and pain in accessing loans for their dream houses. “My experience with one of these lenders is better imagined than expressed”, says Israel Okafor, a staff of an oil company who applied for mortgage loan from one of the PMBs. Okafor explained that he was “deceived” by the PMB into believing that it was in partnership with a developer who was building over 500 housing units of various housetypes at relatively low prices for mid-low income earners.

“The PMB told me that it was also financing and marketing the estate and, at the same time, providing mortgage for prospective buyers. My attraction was not as much in the financing and marketing aspect as it was in the comparatively low interest rate of 17 percent and 10-year loan repayment period which the bank dangled to me”, he said.

According to him, the bank demanded just 20 percent equity contribution from him for any of the housing units that he wanted to buy from the estate selling for between N5million and N8 million per unit, adding that as a demonstration of

Talking Mortgage with CHUKA UROKO (08037156969, chukuroko@yahoo.com)

his readiness to take up the mortgage and buy the house, he made an equity contribution in excess of 30 percent of the cost of the house.

“Over six months down the line, the developer, the mortgage bank and I have been on a Round Robbin, occasionally stopping at the middle of nowhere only to discover that, in all of this, it has been motion without movement. It has been one story after another,” he fumed.

Ayodeji Adediji, is an ex-banker who worked with one of the big names in the industry, but resigned because “I want to do my own thing and see what impact I can make on the economy from this point”.

He also has a similar experience, differing only in the approach adopted by his own lender who, he said, has kept his N5 million which he paid as equity for the house he wants to buy from a developer who is also in another empty partnership with the mortgage bank.

“As I speak to you, my money has

been with the mortgage bank since the past eight months; I am told it is in escrow account in which case it is not yielding any interest for me; the developer is very slippery and insincere with delivery date for the estate. Every day, like a fraudulent referee, he shifts the goal post. By the last count, he has shifted the delivery time three times and still counting”, he lamented.

An ex-banker, who does not like his name mentioned also shared his experience, saying he came close to losing his money to developers over unrealistic delivery dates, lamenting that on each occasion, his money was given back to him after he had nurtured and came close to realising a home ownership dream.

People with these experiences will hardly ever seek mortgage facility, nor will they encourage any of their relations or friends to have same experience and this is a major factor that can slow the growth of the mortgage industry.

Procurement department without policy=Car without steering (2) it applies in many other areas of work outside procurement. It is in essence the existence of any factor or factors that can influence the process under consideration. A conflict of interest declaration with appropriate approvals MUST be signed off by parties involved in any aspect of the procurement process – from requisition to approval, goods receipt, and vendor payment.

Any of these roles can be conflicted in the process, and make decisions that benefit individuals instead of the company. While it is true that the HR department usually requests an annual sign off of a company-wide conflict of interest declaration, the procurement organization should follow up with a transactionbased declaration. This declaration will cover for individuals within the process who have ‘conflicts’ and wish to announce them upfront so that critical parts of the procurement process will not be assigned to them.

Examples of conflicts of interests in the procurement process: A ‘Requisitioner’ may indicate preference for a single source transaction because of close ties to that vendor. A buyer may own shares in specific companies that constantly bid for business.

A purchase order approver may

accelerate certain POs because of promises of settlement. A goods receiver at the warehouse may overlook defects and shortages in deliveries if he is assured of some kind of ‘reward’. An accounts payable staff may provide justification for expedited payment to a vendor with whom he/she is related.

The transaction-based Conflict of Interest Declaration may not avert these fraudulent activities out rightly, but it gives the organization some cover when such activities are reported and exposed. Now someone will ask me what the purpose of this document is, when some individuals with conflicts sign them and sometimes get away with it. Well, when such conflicts are detected and reported, such documents serve as evidence.

Secondly, what if conflicts develop in the course of the transaction, or what if you do not know that a relationship is a conflict of interest? Declare it when you know it, and when you’re unsure, ask questions. It’s better to avoid the consequences of not doing so.

Hold yourself to a higher standard It has been my experience that working for well established multinationals exposes you to the best practices and ways of

working, mainly because they have access to up to date knowledge and resources. Smaller organizations struggle with setting up best in class structures in this area because they are under a different kind of pressure (growth and survival), and may not have to defend their numbers to the stock exchange or shareholders. The tendency is for procurement people in such organizations to relax and leave issues of policy to others. If you expect to grow in your career however, you must understand the basics of policy application, and procurement procedure. You must take the initiative to set one up, where there is none, and to update the existing ones in line with best practice.

These sections of a procurement policy provide an excellent foundation for the rest of the content, and will be a solid addition to your procedures, if you don’t already have them. In subsequent articles, I will discuss details of the procurement process, and Key Performance Indicators for the procurement organization.

Harold Nwariaku, is a fellow of the prestigious Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply, CIPS. He is the Principal Consultant at Harold &Co, a Procurement/Supply Chain Consulting firm.

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SundayBusiness Lessons from Grand Cereals’ exemplary CRS Food & Beverages With Ayo Oyoze Baje

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he compelling interplay between governments at the state/federal levels and the corporate world in assisting to raise the stake in the Human Development Index (HDI) of the citizenry cannot be underestimated.

While it is the statutory duty of the former to provide both the operative regulations, as well as the enabling environment via stable infrastructure, for the latter to thrive, it becomes a symbiotic relationship if each plays its part effectively. And the people, including the consumers of their sundry products stand to benefit.

This has become imperative, considering the prevailing economic hardship that has seen Nigeria overtaking India as the global capital of extreme poverty, according to the World Poverty Clock Report in 2018. That this social injustice affects 86.9 million hapless people, nearly half the population, means that no effort should be spared in reaching out

Spiritonomics

Debo Atiba

www.spiritonomics.org

A

s the New Year begins to gain momentum there are things we must have in place that would enable us maximize the opportunities that are inherent in it. Despite the fact that scripture says that God daily loads us with benefits which is true and must be appropriated, a lot of people still wonder whether God is true to His word. This is because in their lives, the goodness of God is far from them. There is no benefit of any kind associated with their life as a result of God’s blessing.

to the needy members of the society.

Th a t i s p r e c i s e l y w h a t the Jos-based Grand Cereals Limited(GCL), an arm of UAC Plc, has been doing for years and reinforced in recent weeks, that has positioned it as an exemplary corporate brand for others to glean from. As a Nigerian integrated foods company, that is engaged in the production and marketing of consumer food products, it has the virile Vision: “To be the leading Animal Feed and Vegetable Oil Company in West Africa” and a Mission Statement: “To promote wellness by offering brands of excellent value to consumers.”

Truth be told, GCL has taken giant steps towards fulfilling that mandate, so far. These, it has been achieving by employing the best technology and processes in the conversion of locally-sourced raw materials into acclaimed brands of superior value.

Besides, its production activities, its humanitarian side has been made more manifest by its recent Corporate Social Responsibility Programmes (CRS). So, what exactly has it done and what lessons should we learn from the patriotic efforts?

Theanswersarenotfarfetched.

The first piece of good news is that it has built a 1,000-capacity town hall worth N85 million, for Zawan, its host community in Jos. The second, with a profound impact is that has increased its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activation to cater for the needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and other groups in the society.

For the first, according to Mrs. Omolara Elemide, Acting Group

Be bold

We need to talk about this mindset so that we do not lose out of the BEST that God has for us this year. In my own opinion there are 3 things I consider as being most important for success in our lives, after the place of God. They are Opportunity, Preparation and Boldness. This equation sums it up succinctly; Opportunity+preparation+bo ldness=Success Some may wonder what boldness has got to do in this equation. It is not enough alone for you to be prepared for your opportunity, the place of boldness must be paramount in seizing opportunity. Joshua was prepared and armed to the teeth to take advantage of the opportunity that God gave to the children of Israel. He needed a lot of encouragement, promptings of courage and boldness from God to take advantage of it. Truly, if the opportunity you are expecting is from God, it requires boldness for you to take advantage of it. It would not be according to

Managing Director (GMD), UAC Nigeria, represented by Mr. Joseph Dada, a former Managing Director of GCL who inaugurated the building the project, it was aimed at improving relations with the host communities as well as the welfare of its operating environment.

Reaffirming the company’s commitment to executing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), programmes Elemide’s message was that: “Grand Cereals, like its parent company, the UACN, constantly seeks to improve the socio-economic well beingofitsoperatingenvironment.

We have always contributed positively to community projects and initiatives with lasting and meaningful impact.

It is a corporate policy we shall continue to sustain because we are passionate about touching lives with our products and services.”

It should be noted that the board of directors of the company approved the project in 2016, after focusing on education, nourishment and cultural sectors over the years. In fact, the company’s earlier CSR activities included interventions in secondary and tertiary institutions where it provided services and equipment to advance learning.

Furthermore, the company built and equipped a technical workshop in Zawan and donated computers to the University of Jos. In his words: “We organised weekend trainings on attitudinal change for Zawan youths and also introduced technical skills where local university graduates were engaged and trained.

Those trained were given direct experience for a period of one

year, with some of them employed by the company. We also donated basic products to orphanages, schools and widows foundations on a monthly basis.”

Gov. Simon Lalong of Plateau, who was represented by Mr. Richard Tokma, Secretary to the State Government, in his remarks, appreciated Grand Cereals for being one of the highest private employers of labour in the state.

The firm, he noted was crucial to Plateau’s internally generated revenue, and commended the company for remaining in the state despite the crises that bedeviled it in the past.

He promised to collaborate with security agencies to ensure that the company’s products were well protected.

As expected,ChiefChristopher Mancha , Dagwom Rwei of Zawan, expressed immense gratitude to Grand Cereals for its interventions in the community. It is worthy of note that the hall was named after late Layi Oyatoki, a former managing director of the company, who initiated the project.

While donating assorted relief materials, mainly products of the company to IDPs in Plateau, Mr. Sanjev Jain, the company’s Acting Deputy Managing Director stated that the company would continue to share in the plight of the less privileged Nigerian especially IDPs. Said he: “In understanding the plight of the persons in the various camps, the board of Grand Cereals, a subsidiary of UAC Nigeria PLC increased its corporate social responsibility activation. It is in a bid to continue to build on the rich legacies and achievements of the company and the UAC. One of the cardinals of

your size, it would be according to God’s size. This truth is unclear to so many people and it makes God look like a liar. What they are looking for is what their eyes can see, what is common and regular, what is not spectacular, what the money in their bank account can accommodate.

However, what God is saying is that what He has in store for every of His children is what their eyes have never seen, what their ears have never heard or what they never thought could be possible.

When God in His love makes what He has in store available to us, we remove ourselves from the equation because it is scary. It does not fit our definition of opportunity or success.

We are programmed to expect the blessing of God according to our size or that of our neighbor. It takes boldness for us to recognize the enormity of the blessing as being ours, and then take advantage of it. The bible says that the only set of people

that ‘signs and wonders’ follow, are the people that with boldness harness the opportunity that God is going to throw at them and run with it. They are not giving to fear, they are not myopic neither can they be easily intimidated.

Many opportunities are going to be presented to us this year that makes for success, we dare not lose them. They will come big, awesome and intimidating.

They may not even meet money in our pockets or in our accounts.

It does not imply that they are not meant for us. You cannot take on giants without reverting back to the author of the wisdom that makes for giant-killing. As you seek His face in prayer and receive encouragement from His word, the Spirit of Boldness takes you over, you come to term with the ability of God that is in you. With boldness you look the circumstance or situation in the face and say, “I will see you through to the end; I will not allow you to intimidate me in the

the company’s CSR programme is nutrition and nourishment and that the major mission of the company is to touch lives daily”.

He added that: “We have been providing food nourishment for children in orphanages, people in IDPs, prisons and other places and will continue to do that.

Mr. David Wuyep, who doubles as the Chairman, Plateau Relief Committee and Commissioner for Water Resources and Energy appreciated Grand Cereals for the gesture, affirming that state government was committed to alleviating the sufferings of the IDPs. The lessons from these laudable initiatives are profound.

It is patently obvious that the governments cannot be the sole contributors to poverty alleviation. The private sector has its role to play. While Section 14, Sub Section 2(b) of the 1999 constitution, as amended places the responsibilities of security and welfare on its shoulders, it should ensure that good governance and best practices are instituted to assist companies to grow.

Emphasis should not be only on the collection of taxes from firms but taking interest in what goes on in such companies, not by undue interference but seeking for areas of pragmatic partnerships.

Both are creators of jobs and by extension the people’s wealth.

So far, Grand Cereals Ltd has done a beautiful job with its CRS programmes and others should drink from its milk of human kindness.

Baje is Nigerian first Food Technologist in the media ayobaje@yahoo.co.uk; 08057971776

least” in Jesus name. You will be surprised where all the ideas and strategies that are needed to succeed would begin to come from.

All that is required of you is not to give up in your mind by reason of what you do not have, but to be BOLD to lay hold of it. People do not die for daring to try, rather they die and loose out of life for fearing to try.

As your opportunities come this year however big and daunting they may look, smile and embrace them with BOLDNESS for it is your opportunity. As you walk with God this year and fellowship with Him, Strength, BOLDNESS and confidence becomes the order of the day in your life in Jesus name. Scripture says it is not by power, nor by might, but by my Spirit says the LORD. The Spirit of God infuses divine strength and energy in you to take advantage of all that is yours.

Remain blessed as you remain BOLD. @spiritonomics

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Sunday 10 February 2019

SundayBusiness We are turning Glo into a brand new network – Group Technical Director

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lobacom says it is determined to innovate and redefine its network for wider reach, optimum quality of service, greater data speed and larger capacity in 2019.

Going by the current level of new investments in network infrastructure, a new technical roadmap from the company has revealed that it is set to take a greater share of the voice and data market in 2019. According to the company, in the last ten months, about 26 cargo aircraft from around the world brought over 2,600 tons of network equipment into the country for the telecoms giant.

“As a result, activation is looking up, traffic into the network is going up and consumption is up,” Sanjib Roy, group chief technical officer of Globacom, told journalists on Friday in Lagos.

Giving details of the upgrade, Roy revealed, among other things, that new eband radio technology has been deployed, resulting in

increase in bandwidth from 400mb to 1.5 - 2gb for the Lagos, Oyo, Ogun and Rivers areas. Also supplied and deployed are 1000 microwaves ordered to modernise the transmission network to IP. He said the upgrade in other parts of the country is ongoing.

The Glo 1 submarine cable capacity has been upgraded to 300G all the way From Lagos to UK, giving huge bandwidth for mobile and Enterprise business.

In order to further firm up network uptime and provide seamless connection at all times, the company had

further deployed more than 2000 new generators and 6000 new batteries while site distribution of fuelling contractors has been streamlined, thereby removing all obstacles to BTS site operations. This has led to better availability of the network.

Meanwhile work is on-going on more than 1000km of fibre route where road construction had affected the fibre cabling.

To further deepen data network quality for subscribers, deployment of high wattage Radio Remote Units (RRU) for 3G services and multi-sector antenna has been concluded for better 3G indoor coverage, high speed data download, signal quality and network coverage.

For improved backhaul, Globacom is further upgrading the capacity of existing microwave links, converting TDM links to IP for 2G and 3G, and is deploying high capacity microwave back up links to increase data back haul capacity and protect traffic against fibre cut.

First Bank partners Azuri to benefit customers with Life-changing technology

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irst Bank of Nigeria Limited has promised to take its consumers with products that will benefit their lives.

With the recent partnership agreement with Azuri Technologies, a leader in payas-you-go solar technology, First Bank and Azuri Technologies bring a life-changing technology to its millions of customers across the nation.

The bank just announced this unique partnership which will help deepen financial inclusion in Nigeria and bring affordable, reliable and clean power to millions of Nigerians. With this partnership, the bank pay-as-you-go customers will be able to pay for their solar via FirstBank’s Firstmonie agent network and mobile payment solution.

Firstmonie agents are positioned within rural and semi-urban locations across the country and provide

basic financial services such as account opening, cash deposit, cash withdrawals and bill payments.

Speaking on the partnership, Group Executive, Retail Banking Group of First Bank of Nig. Limited, Tunde Owolabi, who represented Deputy Managing Director, Gbenga Shobo, stated that the “partnership is aimed at proffering solution to one of the major challenges in the country today, and deliver power to millions of Nigerians, while at the same time enabling ourselves to financial services in the rural and low-income areas.”

According to Owolabi, “Our customers will be able to access a wide range of services that address the rural problem, such as access to power. Agency banking is our solution to financial inclusion and we started it last year; from the statistics we have seen it is something

we are very excited about, and we believe as we grow that partnership network this partnership will also touch a lot of lives.

“Partnership with Azuri technology is one out of the several of our partnerships.

We have a track record of partnering with individuals and institutions to help meet the needs of our customers.

They cut across the society; children, women, youths, small businesses and promote sustainable development in our host communities.”

“We are still very relevant because of the kind of product and services we are offering. We claim to be in the forefront of providing financial service to our people, we are very excited about the FirstBank and Azuri partnership and the positive boost it aims to bring to the economy through the inclusive services,” he further said.

Hollandia Evap Milk excites consumers with new ‘Pere’ pack

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ollandia Evap Milk is now available in a 120g pack for only N100, lovingly referred to as “Pere”. The term “Pere”, which translates as “no more, no less”, is intended to symbolize the product’s high quality, satisfactory quantity and affordability, thereby resonating with consumers across the country.

With offer of the same

premium quality, which is tasty, creamy and nourishing, and at an affordable price, the new Hollandia Evap Milk 120g pack comes in a convenient portion size and a brand new pack format in the evaporated milk category that will make it irresistible to consumers.

Value adding and rich in vitamins and minerals, Hollandia Evap Milk can be consumed with or with-

out complements, offers convenient packaging ideal for individual consumption and is a great addition to a breakfast cup of tea, coffee or a bowl of cereal, pap or custard.

The new Hollandia Evap Milk 120g pack is a statement of industry leading packaging innovation, product quality, quantity, convenience, affordability and satisfaction.

Going Digital With

Wison Moore

Do you know that remote work benefits employers as well as employees? he reason for that question is that when many people think of remote work they readily think about how this kind of work arrangement benefits the worker and not the employer of the services.

However, for businesses, organisations and even solo entrepreneurs, there are much not well-highlighted but still amazing benefits of having a remote work arrangement as part of your employment landscape.

Also, if you are a decision maker in the human resources department (HR), this article will acquaint you on ridiculously simple and yet creative ways you can package your job offerings to your employees and employers.

Who is a remote worker?

A remote worker is also called a Telecommuter or teleworker.

A person who works remotely or telecommutes is called a telecommuter, teleworker ‘home-sourced’, ‘virtual worker’ or ‘work-athome-employee.’

How remote workers benefit employers The benefits of remote employment for employers start with basic cost savings from the commute, less office space and utilities since the worker pays for them.

Additionally, depending on your corporate culture and employment policy, you can also save money on items such as health insurance, paid time off, and tech, thanks to bring your own device (BYOD).

Taking advantage of a flexible and scalable solution, you can add remote workers as needed by hiring them on a contract, per project, or permanent basis.

Moreover, the benefits of remote employment also include less quantifiable benefits such as recruiting and retention — and, yes, productivity.

Remote work saves employers money Companies and organizations that implement a productive telecommuting or remote workforce are achieving remarkable sav-

T

How remote work benefits employers and employees Do you know that remote work benefits employers as well as employees? ings in cost.

The average real estate savings with full-time teleworkers is $10,000 per employee per year. Savings come in the form of reduced super expensive office space costs, office supplies, and office equipment.

Get access to the best global talent Remote work makes it possible for you to hire the best of the best while not limiting yourself by geographical restrictions.

That means that you can expand your talent pool to literally anywhere in the world.

That alone can lead to an increase in productivity since younowhavepeopleworking in different time zones and can cover more hours in a day.

Add in the fact that more people want to work this way, and you have a powerful recruiting tool.

Remote work increases global talent retention The two most common challenges that most companies and organisations face are talent acquisition and retention.

This is becoming increasingly crucial especially as Baby Boomers retire. Last

year, Millennials surpassed Boomers as the largest generation in the US labor force and this trend is playing out in most countries.

This shift presents an opportunity for employers to use remote work policy to make their firms appealing to these young professionals.

Millennials can be attracted, retained, and groomed into leaders like any other generation.

But they do have distinct values and interests that remote work flexibility provides.

Telecommuting increase worker-productivity Surprisingly, one of the main misconceptions about being a remote worker is that once employees are out of sight, they will slack off—big time. Nothing could be further from the truth, though.

Remote work skyrockets productivity for home-based businesses and workers.

How remote work benefits employees One of the most appreciated benefits of remote work for employees is that the flexibility allows the workers take a vacation when they need it and work when

and where they are most productive.

It provides employees with the ultimate balance between their personal and professional lives that traditional office work does not.

Remote workers are more productive It should not surprise you that not everybody is most productive between the hours of 9 to 5.

There are some people who are more productive at night than they are during the daytime hours.

Some of your team members will be night owls, who produce their best work while the rest of the world is asleep.

Other employees may be morning larks, whose productivity comes before the sun rises.

Therefore, the success to remote work employment is the ability to hire the right people.

Health benefits Remote workers can stay away from junk food easier than the traditional employees who would readily grab anything that is available to stop the hunger pains.

Since a telecommuter is at home, it is much easier to eat healthy while striking a manageable work-life balance.

It should be noted that when a person eats healthier and spends more quality time to spend with their family it can help to releases stress, which will make for a happier more productive workday.

Where to find remote workers or where to look for remote work Are you interested in finding remote workers or are you looking for a job as a telecommuter? You already know that just as there are job sites for specific industries, there are also job sites for people who specialize in working remotely.

You can also post jobs and projects directly to your target audience. A few of the job search sites for remote work that we recommend are: • Remote.Co • FlexJobs • We Work Remotely • Remotive • Working Nomads • Skip the Drive • Remote Ok • Jobspresso

Moore is Director of Marketing Anaconda Marketing Ltd, a Lagos-based Digital Marketing Agency +234 080 579 37786 wilson.moore@anacondamarketing.com.ng http://anacondamarketing. com.ng

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BrandsOnSunday SPOTLIGHTING BRAND VALUE

Sade Morgan: From soft drinks to dynamic world of alcohol marketing Marketing has its basic fundamentals but the strategies and approach change according to the environment and products. The new corporate affairs director of Nigerian Breweries, Sade Morgan who has for the last four years been involved in soft drink marketing is therefore expected to adopt new strategies, rebuild herself and embrace some old ones in her new journey to alcohol promotion. DANIEL OBI writes

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arketing has its basic fundamentals but the strategies and approaches change according to the environment and products.

This is the reality facing the new corporate affairs director of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Sade Morgan. She has walked into a new world, where dynamism is the hallmark of the game. In her new role, she is expected to adopt new strategies, rebuild herself and embrace some old ones in her new journey to alcohol promotion.

She has for the last four years been involved in soft drink marketing. But last week, Nigerian Breweries (NB) Plc announced Sade as its corporate affairs director and member of the brewer’s Executive Committee. In her new role, Morgan, according to the company, will strengthen the company’s non-crisis stakeholder relations and drive a strategy-led relationship with government, regulatory agencies, host communities, the media and nongovernmental organisations to reinforce the company’s philosophy of ‘Winning with Nigeria.’

Shade is coming from selling Coca-Cola drinks in the country. This is a brand that is heavy on TVC, but less on press and activations to marketing NB’s high-flying products that rely more on market activations and similar programmes in pushing the brands. Therefore, Sade only therefore needs to follow the new trend and design more ways.

Over the years, NB has enjoyed its deep connection with consumers through various communication channels and this it intends to continue, especially in the competitive environment and the present consumer changing habits. Sade is expected to deepen this communication in order to win with consumers and Nigeria.

With her pedigree, analysts expect that Sade will perfectly fit into the new job as her predecessor; Kufre Ekanem did who joined NB from Cadbury where he was selling Bournvita and Tom Tom. In addition to bonding well with media practitioners and felicitating with them at various points, Kufre introduced unique programmes such as Masters Beer Academy and Beer Symposium. These programmes were designed to highlight and share contemporary knowledge about beer as alcoholic but no added sugar product against beliefs.

For the last three years, NB has not held the symposium. In

Sade Morgan

one of the symposia, experts underscored health benefits of beer consumption. This attracted the wrath of Consumer Protection Council, CPC, to commence investigation into the veracity of the claims, and warned that the claims were capable of luring unsuspecting consumers into unwholesome consumption of

The prolific lady with quiet mien is also joining NBL at the time Nigerian beer market is in intense competition, beer war.

The entry of International Breweries, the local subsidiary of AB Inbev created dynamism in the beer market

the product.

Although the experts spoke on both the negative and positive sides of drinking beer but their summation was moderate drinking instead of overindulgence. It is not clear whether the non-hosting of this symposium is over the issue between CPC and Nigerian Breweries.

Another innovative approach to marketing introduced by Kufre was the engagement of forward thinking agencies that assisted to deepen NB’s relationship with stakeholders including the media and further the brands among consumers.

Sade may also try to understand whether similar social programmes such as Star Trek, Ultimate Gulder Search, Star Quest and Star Mega Jam were stopped due to funding or insecurity in the land. Star which production began in 1949 is noted for major music shows in Nigeria.

It is clear that at NBSade has an enormous communication job at hand. But she is not new on such a turf, and her academic and professional trainings and experience garnered over the years uniquely qualify her for the job.

She is a graduate of the Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, a Prince II certified project manager with a certificate in executive management from the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a member of the Institute of Directors, the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations and chairman of the Food and Beverage Recycling

Alliance Prior to joining NBC, She was Eastern Europe, Middle East & Africa (EEMEA) Regulatory and Marketing Counsel for British American Tobacco, based in the UK and responsible for regulatory and marketing issues across the group’s 86 country markets.

She has managed development and implementation of regulatory strategies in conjunction with corporate and regulatory affairs and marketing functions aimed at delivering workable and successful codes of practices with stakeholders.

She moved in 2014 to the Nigerian Bottling Company, a member of the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company group, where she held the position of public affairs and communications director and successfully drove a broad stakeholder management, business sustainability and CSR agenda.

She joined NBC with over 20 years of experience in legal practice and professional corporate experience across international markets covering various roles, including several years of executive team experience.

Her trajectory appears to be trending towards more of open brands. From a conservative, non-advertising BAT to a bit open Coca-Cola but lacks activations compared to NB which is heavy in all communication fronts.

Commenting on Sade’s transition from soft-drink to alcohol marketing, the CEO of Integrated Indigo Limited, a PR agency based in Lagos, Bolaji Abimbola, said life is dynamic on its own. “If you look at her antecedents, she has worked with BAT. I am sure as a lawyer and somebody who has been in communication, I believe she will be able to adapt to the new environment.”

Abimbola said there is not much difference between selling non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverage. I think it is just adapting to the new environment. “I see her as somebody who is thoroughbred professional, understands the expectations of the new employer.”

“Seeing her on the soft drink side where things are a little bit conservative does not define her person. Give her up to three months and see Sade who will fit into the new system. When she came to NBC, it did not take her up to two months before the public started seeing the magic,” Abimbola said. He also rejected an “obnoxious” belief that alcoholic brand is more associated with men, insisting that Sade will do a

good job in that category “as beer has nothing to do with gender. The marketing is more about a person than gender.”

Abimbola further noted that some organisations are making efforts to infuse females into their corporate director level to strike a balance between the genders.

This is aimed at producing a gender-representative board that can ensure a dynamic management accommodate various perspectives on issues.

A source told BusinessDay on condition of anonymity that the NBL management is not losing sight of any possible gaps as Sade was undergoing an orientation to adapt to the company’s strategies and codes.

The prolific lady with a quiet mien is also joining NB at the time the Nigerian beer market is in intense competition or beer war. The entry of International Breweries, the local subsidiary of AB Inbev, created dynamism in the beer market.

In its financial report for ninemonth period ended September 2018, the company reported an 11 percent fall in sales. Sade is expected to ensure growth of her company’s bottomline through effective communication and brand activation innovations.

Sade may likely take a look at Gulder brand and its communication strategy over the years to really it position well. Gulder has the disposition as a brand designed for men. But it has struggled to really integrate itself in the minds of men for whom it was meant.

The management needs to study whether this is a communication or strategy challenge.

Recently managers of Gulder announced a new brand positioning for the brand going into 2019.

Revered for being the Ultimate beer, and known for its sleek golden brown bottle with the iconic helmet, Gulder will now be extending its market penetration by redefining the brand to Nigerians, urging them to own their journey.

The “Own Your Journey” phrase has just been introduced as the beer brand’s tagline, as Gulder seeks to alter its messaging to reflect its current brand position and craft a better narrative that can connect with its target audience. What new brand positioning means is that Gulder appears to be diluting its position from being ultimate to inviting people to that club of ultimate.

The Industry is really watching to see how Sade re-positions NBL brands.

44

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Sunday 10 February 2019

EquityMarket Stocks gain N37bn as investors position ahead of earnings season dex in performance.

Analysts hold divergent views as to whether the nation’s capital market is total out of the woods.

This is because with most of the listed stocks having their yearend by December, stakeholders at the are expectant that few weeks from now, notable companies will begging to announce their audited results, and taking a position while valuation is cheap is the most appropriate action.

“We are not exactly out of the woods. It is more reflective of investors taking advantage of cheap valuations ahead of expected rally after the general elections”, Kemi Akinde, senior analyst with Meristem Securities said.

Ten banking stocks made it on the year to date’s gainers’ table year to date. Sterling Bank which closed at 31.6 percent year to date, led the pack ad is closely followed by Fidelity Bank, 20.7 percent; FCMB, 16.9 percent; Wema Bank, 12.7 percent; GTB, 12.2 percent; Union Bank, 11.6 percent; Diamond Bank, 7.8 percent; Jaiz Bank, 6 percent; Zenith Bank, 5.9 percent and First Bank Holding, 0.6 percent.

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Stories by TELIAT SULE or the first time in 2019, the Nigerian equity market closed in the positive territory year to date, following bargain hunting in some stocks particularly banking stocks ahead of the post election rally and earnings season. The All Share Index(ASI) ended the week at 31,529.92 points as against 31,430.50 points on the last trading day of 2018, translating to a gain of 0.32 percent.

Similarly, the market capitalisation of listed stocks closed at N11.76 trillion last Friday in contrast to N11.72 trillion on 31 December 2018. This implies that equities listed on the NSE gained N37.3 billion.

Banking stocks are mostly responsible for the positive sentiment on the Nigerian bourse, as the NSE Banking Index appreciated by 7.46 percent year to date , emerging as the most improved sectoral index. The NSE Industrial Index and NSE Main Board Index closed year to date at 1.95 percent and 1.79 percent, trailing the banking in-

Greif Nigeria halts operations over tough business environment, competition

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reif Nigeria Plc has suspended its operations in Nigeria, following its inability to operate profitably in the country. The company announced this in the course of the week when it released the third quarter full year audited results for the period ended October 31, 2018 to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE).

“The trends that have started mid 2018 still continue in the first (fiscal) quarter of 2019. As a result of increased competition and a stagnant market for steel drums, we do not see an improvement happening in the near future. Greif Nigeria has been operating well below operating costs, even below direct material costs, and sees no signs of improved market conditions. Therefore, we have decided to stop operations with immediate effect. The coming months we will investigate on if and/or how we can continue with Greif Nigeria”, the firm stated.

Revenue for the year fell by 62 percent to N653.6 million down from N1.41 billion in corresponding period in 2017. Cost of sales declined by 43 percent to N649.3 million as against N1.15 billion same period last year. But the reduction in the cost of sales is of little significance when other metrics

are compared with it. Particularly when compared with the revenue, in an attempt to know how much it cost the firm to generate a unit revenue, the ratio shows that operations were more profitable in 2017 compared with 2018. In 2017, Greif Nigeria expended N82 to generate N100 revenue, as the cost o sales to revenue in 2017 stood at 82 percent whereas in 2018, for the firm to generate a unit revenue , it had to borrow extra N21. This was because the cost of sales to revenue was 121 percent.

Loss after taxation was N245.2 million compared with N77.6 million. Loss after tax was N262.6 million compared with profit after tax of N49.4 million in the previous year.

“Specifically for the companies in the steel drum business, the second half of 2018 witnessed a worldwide global steel demand surge in the market place caused by supply shortages as a result of scarcity of coking coal and China’s improved economy.

“This has led to shortage in steel availability in the international market place and increasing overall world prices of our basic raw material. Coupled with the challenges in the domestic economy already highlighted above, 2018 was a very difficult year to navigate”, Greif Nigeria said.

Others hinged their optimistic views of the market on the likely implementation of the minimum wage which will have a trickle down effects on consumer goods and hence the capital market.

“Heading into 2019, amid the recovery in the broader economy, we opine that the possibility of minimum wage implementation could have a pass-through effect on consumer spending on staple foods. Furthermore, the relative availability of FX will continue to bode well for input costs while aggressive spending on marketing and selling costs could drive sales volume amid improving product mix”, United Capital analysts said in a note to clients.

In the week that just ended, investors traded 1.89 billion shares worth N26.88 billion in 19,213 deals as against 1.452 billion shares worth N19.72 billion in 12, 581 deals traded in the previous week. The financial services industry accounted for 79 percent of the market volume and 73 percent of the market value. The consumer goods and conglomerates were second and third when measured by the level of patronage.

Guinness, Prestige, Sunu effect changes in boards

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reweries giant, Guinness Nigeria Plc, has announced the resignation of Paul Gallagher from its board with effect from 29 January 2019, a statement signed Rotimi Odusola, company secretary and legal adviser stated.

“This is to notify The Nigerian Stock Exchange and general public that the Board of Directors of Guinness Nigeria Plc at its meeting held on Tuesday, 29 January 2019 accepted the resignation of Paul Gallagher as a Non-Executive Director of Guinness Nigeria Plc with effect from 29 January 2019.

Gallagher will be leaving Diageo Plc after 25 years of meritorious service, as such tendered his resignation from the Board of Guinness Nigeria Plc”, the notice to the Exchange stated.

On the other hand, Prestige Assurance Plc has appointed Adedoyin Razaq Salami and Funmi Oyetunji as non-executive directors in the company. Their appointments have been approved by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM).

According to the release, Adedoyin Rasaq Salami is a renowned economist, lecturer and consultant. He has handled consulting activities and assignments with international organ-

isations such as the Department for International Development (DFID), World Bank, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC).

A doctorate degree holder from the prestigious Queen Mary College, the University of London, Salami is a co-founder of Kainos Edge Consulting, a faculty at the Lagos Business School (LBS), Pan-Atlantic University and a global figure in macroeconomic modelling.

One her part, Funmi Oyetunji brings on board many years of experience across different sectors of the Nigerian economy. A fellow of the Chartered Institute

of Accountants England (FCCA) and the Chartered Institute of Accountants of Nigeria (FCA), she started he working career with Z.O Ososanyan & Co at Ibadan and later joined KPMG Marwick Mclintock, London Office. She is currently the CEO of Regent Advisory Financial Services & Abitos Financial Services Limited. In addition, she serves on the board of Ecobank Plc, a pan African bank.

Meanwhile, Sunu Assurance Plc has appointed the duo of Samuel Oghenebrume Ogbodu as the managing director and chief executive officer and Adeleke Emmanuel Hassan as an executive director , technical and operations, a statement released by John Akujieze , company secretary indicated. Ogbodu is a chartered insurer of the Society of Fellows of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria.

Hassan joined Equity Assurance, now Sunu Assurance in 2003 and has risen through the ranks to become the general manager, marketing and business development. He started his career a Ark Insurance Brokers Limited before he joined Hogg Robinson Nigeria Limited, from where he moved on to join Equity Assurance Plc which was later acquired by the Sunu Group.

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NewsXtra Why we adopted Moghalu – Soyinka

BDSUNDAY 45

…YPP presidential candidate says endorsement ‘humbling’ OBINNA EMELIKE & INIOBONG IWOK

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h i l e some c o n cerned Ni g e r i ans were worried over a seeming apathy of Wole Soyinka, an erudite professor and Nobel Laureate, on the 2019 election, the Abeokuta-born social activist has finally responded on the direction he thinks votes should go in Saturday’s Presidential election.

Riding on the credibility of Citizens Forum, his activism platform that was last heard of during the Sani Abacha military regime, Soyinka and his team arrived at peer consensus for the 2019 election.

Tired of the recycled old politicians, the Professor of Literature has declared his support for young and vibrant political class, which Kingsley Moghalu, according to him, represents and the most qualified of all the youthful candidates.

“The forum rejected retrograde propositions of a political merry-go-round, which urge the electorate to choose this or that candidate in order to ensure ‘our turn’ at the next

Soyinka

power incumbency”, he said in a statement on Friday.

Declaring his position in the statement, Soyinka said that Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria and presidential candidate of the Young Progressives Party (YPP), is a potential of high quality amid the over-abundant leadership materials for the 2019 election.

“Let me reiterate, there is over-abundant, but stifled leadership mate-

rial, and there can be no excuse, now that that potential of high quality is being manifested, for constricting the political space in a population that is nudging two hundred million”, Soyinka said.

“Such potential compelled us to exercise utmost rigour in what proved to be a most daunting exercise. The final determination however is – the flag-bearer of the Young Progressive Party– Kingsley Mogh-

alu.”

Speaking on how the forum arrived at the choice of Moghalu, Soyinka in the statement said: “Over the past few months, we studied the careers, experiences and track records of most of the presidential aspirants, and most intensely those actually shortlisted by the opposition parties themselves.

Li k e m i l l i o n s o f Ni g e rians, we watched the debates. I physically interacted with some of the acknowledged top contenders, in some cases several times.”

“Overall, the exercise was exacting but also – therapeutic. It proved yet again that there is over-abundant leadership quality locked up in the nation, and that it is a collective shortcoming that the political space has not been sufficiently opened up to let soar such potential”.

Th e p r o f e s s o r, w h o concluded his statement with a Chinese proverb that says, “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”, said voting Moghalu would be the first step in dislodging recycled old politicians and ushering in vibrant democracy and accountability in

CRC named credit bureau of the year

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RC Credit Bureau Limited (CRC), a credit agency, has emerged the Credit Bureau Provider of the Year.

The company was named the winner of the coveted award at the fourth Nigeria Finance Innovation Awards 2018. Now in its fifth year, the Nigeria Finance Innovation recognises the accomplishments of financial executives and organisations for their financial leadership and contributions to their companies’ growth.

CRC has provided consistent superior performance and leadership in the industry via technology driven platform that allows lenders and credit granters, automate their credit processes and access over 15 products and services. The launch of the CRC USSD code *565*8#, the first of its kind in Nigeria, allows individuals access their credit report on the go using their mobile phones.

The annual awards also rewards success, growth and

Uche Njoku (CRC), Seun Omotosho ( CRC), Peggy Chukwuma-Nwosu, head, Business Development CRC Credit Bureau Ltd; Akin Napthal, CEO Instinct Wave Group Africa, and Innocent Itobore (CRC) during the award presentation in Lagos... recently. innovations of finance executives and their teams’ efforts towards its organisations sustainability, while showcasing excellent work that has been rendered by firms that provided them with the services, support and technology which enabled their success.

The awards categories included Credit Bureau Provider of the Year; Financial Technology Solutions Provider of the Year; Investment Bank of the Year, Mortgage and Home Loans Company of the Year; Leasing and Financing Company of the Year; Credit

Bureau CEO of the Year etc.

Finalists were selected by a diverse group of experienced judges and, from that group of finalists; one winner from each category was awarded. CRC creditably won in the two categories it was nominated.

Besides, the Managing Di-

governance.

However, the endorsement, which is coming barely a week to the election, is well-received by Moghalu and YPP. In a statement on Saturday, the YPP flag bearer described the endorsement of his candidature

by Nobel Laureate as “humbling.”

He noted that the endorsement was important because of Soyinka’s reputation and the “elaborate process” his Citizen Forum went through before reaching their decision.

“Our party, the Young Progressives Party and I salute the courage and the good judgment of the Nobel Laureate and icon of democratic struggle in Nigeria,” Moghalu said in the statement.

“As Soyinka and the Citizen Forum have ended their search for a consensus candidate to lead the country in a new direction, I appeal to other Nigerians desirous of a new dawn, ushered by a competent and visionary leadership to also consider ending theirs with my candidacy” he said, while urging the electorates to approach the ballot next Saturday with a single purpose of defeating the recycled old politicians.”

rector/CEO, Tunde Popoola also won the Credit Bureau CEO of the Year 2018 for his numerous contributions in the growth of the Nigerian economy through innovative products and services that enhance access to credit for strategic development.

Earlier in the year, CRC Credit Bureau engaged stakeholders on the need to open the space for consumer lending as a means for stimulating the growth of the economy. Some of these fora included the ‘Growth & Innovation in Retail Banking: Building Sustainable Business Models’: which held on August 2, 2018 that provided the platform for introducing the most widely used global Credit Score powered by Fair Isaac Corporation, FICO; and the “Quarterly RIMAN Roundtable” on March 28, 2018 which CRC hosted with over 100 risk managers and institutions in attendance.

The two platforms attracted attendance from all sectors of the Nigerian economy with over 400 participants.

Campaign: FCT minister convoy attacked as APC, PDP clash in Abuja JAMES KWEN, Abuja

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he convoy of the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Mohammed Bello was Saturday attacked in a violent clash between supporters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the popular Dei Dei market in Abuja.

Though no casualty was recorded, vehicles in the convoy of FCT Minister were badly damaged by alleged supporters of the opposition party and it took the timely intervention of security agents to disperse the angry supporters.

Trouble started when the convoy of the Minister leading campaign train in Abuja Municipal Area Council, AMAC ran into a PDP campaign event at Dei Dei market on the way to the Palace of Sarkin Jiwa in Jiwa District.

Supporters of the PDP were chanting Atiku/Obi and displaying the posters of Atiku/Obi and other candidates of the party making supporters of APC angry and insisting that the PDP supporters must pave way for the convoy of the minister to pass.

In a split of seconds violent clash erupted as vehicles of both parties and other passersby were damaged before the intervention of the police who shoot sporadically to disperse the crowd.

A resident of the Jiwa who pleaded anonymity told BDSUNDAY that the clash cannot be unconnected with the fact that the area has been PDP stronghold until one Alhaji Musa, a PDP chieftain recently defected to APC and is trying to foist the party on the people.

The FCT Minister represented by his Chief of Staff, Bashir Mai-Borno had taken the campaign train to Karshi and Kalu Districts and was from Jiwa moved to Bwari Area Council.

46 BDSUNDAY

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Sunday 10 February 2019

Health&Science African e-health startups to apply for Sanofi Challenge ISRAEL ODUBOLA

S L-R: Yetunde Oyeneyin of Novastis, Limited; Tunji Akintade, chairman, AGPMPN Lagos chapter; Olapeju Adenusi, general manager, Lagos State Health Management Agency, and Jide Idris, commissioner for health, Lagos State, at the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry stakerholder’s engagement on Lagos State Health Insurance Scheme in Lagos, yesterday.

Pic by Olawale Amoo.

LASG’s health insurance scheme needs PPP to succeed - Commissioner ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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he Lagos State government has launched its health insurance scheme but Jide Idris, the state’s commissioner of health has said the most appropriate model that will guarantee sustainability of this scheme is public private partnership.

The scheme targets to cover 10 percent of the state’s population in enrolment. “It means collaboration with one another, committing to strategies that will increase visibility and deepen financing of health penetration” Idris said at a stakeholders meeting to discuss the less than two months old scheme.

The platform was organised by the Medical, Pharmaceutical and Allied Services Group, an active and vibrant

organ of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Thursday 7, January in Lagos.

According to Idris, about 40 percent of the primary healthcare facilities have not been functional, noting that a lot of things are unutilised because of maintenance culture, “We have to break out of these barriers and restructure the healthcare system.”

The health insurance scheme aimed at improving healthcare delivery for Lagosians especially the poor was launched on December 18 2018. However, the role of stakeholders is to understand the scheme fully, register families, ensure regular payments of premium and support continuous education and enlightenment of colleagues and Lagosians at large.

“The issue of quality services cannot be missed out in this scheme. We need quality

service to build the enrolees trust. I believe there is still more need for advocacy to create awareness about the scheme,” said Tunji Akintade, chairman, Association of General and Private Medical Practitioners of Nigeria (AGPMPN), Lagos State Chapter.

According to the panellists, the issues of quality services, premiums, capitations and funding could be the biggest challenges the scheme might be faced with.

However, Peju Adenusi, the General Manager, Lagos State Health Management Agency, LASHMA, said “Lagos health scheme is the scheme that has been designed to provide quality health care services, equity of health care services, which means that, regardless of who you are, your social status or educational status, you

have access to quality healthcare”.

Lagos State’s commissioner of help explained that the scheme is complex and will need a dedicated fund set up to drive it. People and right infrastructure are critical to make it happen, “if we can get the demand sorted the supply will be easy” Idris said.

To ensure the scheme succeeds, Lagos state is taking it slowly, taming undue ambition and educating potential enrolees.

“People’s confidence needs to be gained; the fear of quality is beyond,” Akintade added.

The Scheme is a tool to achieve Universal Health Coverage in which every stakeholder has a role to play “everyone is an enrolee, because it is a mandatory health scheme. As long as you reside in Lagos state” Adenusi said.

How does smoking marijuana affect sperm?

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ith the increased legalization of cannabis, especially medical marijuana, researchers are interested in finding out more about its effects on health. One area that is currently under exploration is that of marijuana’s effect on fertility.

As recent research shows, men in Western countries are facing a fertility crisis. Sperm count in males of reproductive age more than halved between 1973 and 2011.

According to the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, approximately 9 percent of men in the United States have faced infertility.

For this reason, researchers have been looking at how different modifiable factors, such as lifestyle choices, might affect male fertility.

In a new study, a team of investigators from the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, MA, has focused on

the effects that smoking marijuana has on markers of male fertility.

The researchers’ findings, which they report in a study paper that features in the journal Human Reproduction, ran counter to the hypothesis that they established at the beginning of the study. “[The] unexpected findings highlight how little we know about the reproductive health effects of marijuana and, in fact, of the health effects of marijuana in general,” notes study author Jorge Chavarro.

“Our results need to be interpreted with caution, and they highlight the need to further study the health effects of marijuana use,” he emphasizes.

Higher sperm concentration among users To begin with, the research team speculated that men who either smoked or had smoked marijuana would have poor sperm quality. However, that

is not the conclusion that this study reached.

In their research, the investigators recruited 662 men who attended the Fertility Clinic at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston between 2000 and 2017. The average participant was 36 years old, white, and had a college degree.

To assess sperm quality, the researchers collected and analyzed 1,143 semen samples from the study participants.

They also took blood samples from 317 of the men. The team used the blood samples to test for reproductive hormones.

Additionally, the researchers asked the men to fill in questionnaires asking them about their use of marijuana, including whether they had ever smoked more than two joints and whether they still used marijuana.

The team found that 365 (or 55 percent) of the participants had smoked marijuana at some point in their lives. Of these

people, 44 percent no longer used this substance, while 11 percent self-identified as current smokers.

In looking at the semen samples, the researchers noticed that men who had used marijuana had higher average sperm concentrations than nonsmokers.

More specifically, marijuana users had an average sperm concentration of 62.7 million sperm per milliliter of ejaculate, whereas their peers who had never smoked marijuana had 45.4 million sperm per milliliter of ejaculate.

The investigators also observed that among marijuana smokers, only 5 percent had sperm concentrations below 15 million sperm per milliliter of ejaculate — the threshold for “normal” sperm concentration levels — while 12 percent of never-smokers had sperm concentrations below this level.

Culled from Medical NewsToday

anofi, a global leader in health care, through its Afric@ TechInnovation Lab, is inviting e-health startups in Africa to submit solutions for this year’s edition of VivaTech, an international innovation eventthatgathersstartupsinthe healthsectorallovertheworld.

Sanofi launched the VivaTech challenge last year with the motive of identifying and rewardingstartupsrevolutionising health practices in health sector, with the maiden edition won by South African mobile diagnostics startup Vula mobile.

For this year’s challenge, the global health leader is looking for solutions to three challenges namely enhancing awareness, diagnosis and disease management of patients suffering from Diabetes; improving access to medicines in remote areas and supporting decision-makers to take advantage of available health data.

Applicants will be assessed on five criteria including con-

creteevidenceofpositiveresults in at least one African country, relevance of the solution and market potentials & business models among others.

Application closes on February 15, 2019. A jury of professionals will select qualifying startups in February.

Successful applicants will have the opportunity to present their solutions at the Viva Tech EventinParisthatwouldholdbetween May 16 -19, 2019, before Sanofi delegates and industry professionals.

The event is expected to converge 10, 000 startups with highbrow investors, tech-driven enterprises and global techleaders in attendance.

This is actually an opportunity which African e-health startups can leverage on to developrelevantsolutionsthatcan address health challenges in the continent.

Sanofi S.A engages in the research and development, manufacturing and marketing of pharmaceutical drugs with prominence in the prescription market.

Polaris bank commemorates World Cancer Day, preaches adherence to healthy lifestyle

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n commemoration of the 2019 World Cancer Day and demonstration of its unwavering commitment to the fight against breast cancer in Nigeria, Polaris Bank has encouraged Nigerians to adhere to quality eating habit and healthy lifestyle to avoid contracting cancer.

According to Cancer Research UK, “Eating a healthy, balanced diet can help you keep a healthy body weight.

Keeping a healthy weight is important, because obesity is the second biggest preventable cause of cancer after smoking.

“Diet can also directly affect cancer risk. Some foods, such as processed and red meat and salt-preserved foods, can increase the risk of developing cancer. While others, such as fruits, vegetables and foods high in fibre can reduce the risk of cancer.”

The World Cancer Day is marked internationally every February 4 to raise awareness of cancer and to encourage its prevention, detection and treatment.

The theme for this year’s event is, ‘I Am and I Will.’

A statement from the bank quoted Tokunbo Abiru, managing director/chief executive officer of Polaris Bank, as saying that the bank’s commitment to continuously support initiatives that will increase aware-

ness and access of people to treatment and prevention of cancer, thereby reducing the current prevalence rate.

He said, “The fight against cancer and breast cancer is one that we will continue to support. We have a record of positive intervention in this, and I assure you that we won’t relent in ensuring that there’s a significant reduction in illness and death caused by cancer.

Polaris Bank’s contribution in the fight against cancer is well documented. The lender has collaborated with C.O.PE on many cancer initiatives; these include support for treatment of over 30 indigent cancer patients, provision of free screening for over 15,000 women within and outside Lagos, and donation of state-ofthe-art cancer screening machines – LogiQ C2 and Mind Ray Ultra-Sound System – to enhance quality diagnosis and clinical practices at the C.O.PE Centre.

The bank also supported the establishment of a Breast Cancer Information Service Centre to serve as a databank where relevant and up-to-date information on breast cancer is made available. It has further supported Seek-A-Care project, a long-term home-care delivery service offered to breast cancer patients.

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BDSUNDAY 47

Sports Liverpool rake in £125m record profit as spending hits £190m UEFA boss slams FIFA’s Club World Cup proposals

Stories By Anthony Nlebem

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nglish Premier League side Liverpool FC made a world-record net profit of £125 million in 2018 financial year, with investment in squad over the same period totalling £190 million.

The financial statement shows that £137 million came into the club from player transfers, including the departures of Philippe C o u t i n h o, Ma m a d o u Sakho, Lucas Leiva and Kevin Stewart.

All of that money, plus additional funds, were reinvested back into reinforcing the team.

In their 2018 financial results, the Reds made an annual pre-tax profit of £125m - up from £40m - as turnover increased in the 12 months to May 2018 by £90m to £455m, also a record.

Liverpool were boosted financially by a run to the Champions League final last season, which earned an estimated £72m.

They were also helped by midfielder Philippe Coutinho’s £142m transfer to Barcelona in January 2018.

Leicester City had held the record for net (posttax) profit of £80m in 2016-17 (£92m pre-tax) after reaching the quarter-finals of the Champi-

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ons League in 2017.

Ha v i n g t o p p e d t h e Premier League table for much of the season, Liverpool are vying with defending champions Manchester City for a first English top-flight title for 29 years, and that success has been mirrored off the pitch too.

Me d i a r e v e n u e i n creased by £66m to £220m, commercial revenue by £17m to £154m and match revenue by £7m to £81m.

In revenue terms, Liverpool will leapfrog Arsenal into third place in the Premier League, behind Manchester United and Manchester City.

In total, £137m came

into the club from player transfers. Liverpool say all of that has been reinvested back into the squad, taking outgoings on new players to more than £190m.

Andy Hughes, the club’s chief operating officer, said: “What we have seen is a stable and sustained improvement in the club’s financial position over recent years.

“This growth and increase in revenue has enabled us to significantly reinvest both in the playing squad and the football operational infrastructure.

“Financial results do fluctuate depending on player trading costs and

timing of payments, but what’s clear in these latest results is the further strengthening of our underlying financial footing and profits being reinvested in the squad and infrastructure.”

The club also say their social media platforms had a 14% growth rate, taking the total to over 60 million followers across digital channels, and that in May 2018 they had the highest viewing figures ever for a Premier League club, and third of any sports club globally.

In January, Liverpool climbed two places to seventh in the latest edition of the Deloitte Football Money League.

he row over FIFA’s controversial plans for a new Club World Cup and global Nations League has intensified, after UEFA president, Aleksander Ceferin, condemned the proposals in front of his counterpart.

FIFA want to introduce more European clubs to a revamped Club World Cup and expand UEFA’s Nations League worldwide.

However, the controversial plans have met with strong opposition in Europe.

At UEFA’s Congress in Rome, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino, Aleksander Ceferin took aim as the biggest issue in global football rumbled on.

In a subtle yet damning speech, the Slovenian called out ‘yes men’ who he claimed ‘lure leaders to their demise’ and suggested that by opposing the plans, UEFA was saving FIFA from itself.

“It is often those who disagree in a measured, reasonable and constructive way, even if they sometimes do so in a direct, uncompromising fashion, who do them the greatest service, help them move forward and prevent them from making mistakes,” Ceferin said, before suggesting that the future of the game was at stake and calling for FIFA to respect the European body.

“By telling FIFA that we disagree with their current proposals on the Global

Nations League and the Club World Cup, we show them respect and we show respect to football, the game we love and the game we must protect,” he added.

“We sincerely hope that FIFA will also show us respect by listening to our views... UEFA and European football deserve to be respected.”

A FIFA task force is currently exploring the feasibility of the two new competitions.

The group, which comprises members of the six confederations (AFC, CAF, CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, OFC and UEFA) and FIFA, are to draw up proposals for the competitions’ formats. They will report to FIFA’s next council meeting in Miami on March 15.

Previous ideas for the Club World Cup, which is currently played every December featuring six teams, include expanding to a 24team tournament played every four years.

Concerns have been raised over funding for the Club World Cup. Infantino has previously said that investors were prepared to pay $25billion for four of the tournaments, but failed to identify the backers, citing a confidentiality agreement, backed plans.

Following reports of Saudi Arabian involvement, FIFA denied any state funds are involved.

FIFA says over $7billion spent on transfers in 2018 NY Knicks valuation soar to $4billion amid struggles

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he global FIFA transfer market has set new benchmarks in 2018. The Global Transfer Market Report has revealed that the clubs across the world have spent over $7.03 billion in 2018. This is a 10.3% raise over the total transfer spent in 2017.

The FIFA Global Transfer Market report, which provides detailed data on global international transfer activity at professional football clubs around the world, for the first time has been released in two separate versions for men’s and women’s football.

The men’s global FIFA transfer market, in addition to the highest spent ever, has also created a record for 16,533 international transfers. This is 5.6% more than the previous year. The UEFA clubs have accounted for over two-third of the total $7.03 spent.

The key highlights from the men’s transfer market in 2018 include:

Jonathan Aderoju

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- Spending reached a new high of $7.03 billion, 10.3% more than in 2017 - A new record was set with 16,533 international transfers, 5.6% more than in 2017 - The total transfers involved 14,186 players from 175 different nationalities - Only 31 clubs spent more than $50 million each, but together they accounted for more than half of the $7.03 billion spent globally - 78.2% of the entire spending worldwide occurred between clubs in

the UEFA region - France had the largest positive net balance with $467.2 million. England had the largest negative net balance with $-1.05 billion - Saudi Arabia climbed to 7th place in the ranking of the world’s biggest spenders, with its clubs spending $173.9 million in 2018 The year 2018 also market transfers of professional female players shows that $0.6 million was exchanged in transfer of 614 players.

hings have not been going well for fans of the New York Knicks recently to say the least.

Already locked into their sixth straight losing season, their 16th in the last 18 campaigns, the Knicks also traded away their first home-grown superstar in decades with the hope of solving their issues through free agency.

But things are doing very well for Knicks owner James Dolan, his franchise remain the most highly-valued in the NBA league, according to Forbes, and is the first in the NBA to cross the $4 billion mark.

With a valuation that equals the New York Yankees, the Knicks now only trail the Dallas Cowboys ($5 billion) as the most valuable American sports franchise.

The product on the court may not be great (yet), but Dolan’s billion-dollar renovation to Madison Square Garden is paying off, and the league’s second-biggest local cable deal helps the Knicks continue to print money.

Forbes released its annual valuation of the league’s 30 franchises with each team reaching at least $1 billion for just the second time. The average team is worth $1.9 billion, which is up 13 percent from last year and up 200 percent from five years ago. Every team improved from last season with the exception of the Cleveland Cavaliers, which of course, lost LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers.

The league exploding revenues have largely been goosed by large TV deals. TNT and ESPN’s $24 billion TV deal is split evenly between the teams, and Forbes reports that teams received more than $110 million last season from

various shared revenues such as sponsorships, licensing and national media.

There are several reasons for why teams improve in value so much. For starters, the less a team is valued, the easier it is for it to rise in value as a percentage, which is why seven of the 10 most improved teams are currently among the 12 lowest in value.

However, those key television deals are also major drivers of revenue. The Trail Blazers and Hornets both started new television deals last season that more than doubled in size, while the Bucks began a new TV deal and opened a new arena at the start of this season.

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We will deliver Lagos to Buhari - Ambode ...as President meets OPS, says economy on positive trajectory

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agos State governor, Akinwunmi Am b o d e s a i d o n Saturday that the state would play a major role in ensuring victory for President Muhammadu Buhari in the February 16 Pr es idential/Nati o nal Assembly elections.

Buhari is the presidential candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He faces a major opposition in the person of Atiku Abubakar, former vice president and presidential can’t of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Ambode, who spoke at the APC presidential rally, held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, said Buhari in the last three and half years had supported infrastructure development in Lagos and would do more if given another mandate of four years.

Ac c o r d i n g t o h i m , t h e February 16 election was not about tribe or religion, but strictly about job creation, infrastructure development and economic growth, saying that president has shown commitment to making life comfortable for residents.

“In and outside of the stadium, you can see the crowd

that has turned out here and we are very grateful that Lagos has been signed, sealed and delivered to APC already. The message is very clear.

“We appreciate the president for his support to our state in the last three and h a l f y e a r s . Th e a c h i e v e ments that we have recorded in Lagos were possible because of his support. This election is not about tribe o r r e l i g i o n , i t ’s a b o u t i n frastructure, jobs and the economy and the right path to go is to go to the APC. “If you see what we are doing in Lagos already, you will see that the airport road is not for the Yorubas or the Igbos or the Hausas, it’s about making life comfortable for Nigerians and that i s w hy the president has continually supported all our projects by even refunding some of the funds we used for capital projects so that we can complete more projects,” Ambode said.

He said it was important f o r Ni g e r i a n s t o e n t r u s t President Buhari with another four years in office to continue in the trajectory of growth, warning that the return of the opposition party would do nothing but alter the progress made by the

Federal Government so far. “ If y o u r e m e m b e r, t h e first two years of this administration we were in recession caused by the PDP, but in the last two years, we have stabilized, we have created the groundwork for growth and that is where APC is different from the PDP. They will tell you that they want to make Nigeria work again, but ask them who destroyed Nigeria in the first place?

“Therefore, this election is about moving the economy forward and for this to be possible, we need to continue on the foundation that we have already made in the last four years. APC remains one party, we remain one nation and one family,” the governor said.

Speaking earlier at a session with members of the Organised Private Sector held at Lagos House, Marina , President Buhari said it was gratifying to note that the economic policies of his administration were already making the desired impact as evidenced by steady growth in the economy in the last three years.

He said the APC government had kept the prom ise to boost the economy through blocking leakages

in government finances, increasing capital expenditure and inflows, and implementing the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), among others.

“I firmly believe that our economic policies are beginning to make the desired impact. Economic growth has resumed and is continuing to improve. Growth was higher in 2017 than in 2016, data even from external sources shows that it was also higher in 2018 than in 2017. I am confident that as we stay the course, it will be better still at the end of 2019.

“Inflation is coming down steadily, there is stability in the exchange rate and foreign exchange is readily available for genuine business. Foreign reserves are adequate and growing; capital inflows have increased and the trade balance is positive.

“We are paying off debts that were not even publicly acknowledged before now, including those owed to states, the electricity sector, oil marketers, exporters, backlog of salaries of workers and pensioners, amongst others,’’ he said.

Among the organisations which made presentations to the president at the ses-

Why 2019 election will defy expectations in 21 states, of which 14 were northern, three middle belt and five western states.

“While the permutation is that the president is going to win in all western states and some south-south and southeast states this time, the president has also lost some states like Kwara, Benue, Sokoto, Kano with the Kwankwaso factor, Plateau due to the killings and of course, Adamawa and Bauchi because of Atiku and Yakubu Dogara”, he said.

“Taraba will naturally not vote for APC because of the killings as well, while the like of Rivers State is sure of 100 percent vote for PDP,” he further said, adding that the crisis in the ruling party, arising from acrimonious primaries could also work against the ruling party. “Already, Imo people are bent on removing the Okorocha factor, while in Ogun, the incumbent governor is supporting candidate from another party.

Governor, Lagos State

sion were Manufacturers Association of Nigeria ( M A N ) , La g o s Ch a m b e r of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), and Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME).

As i d e V i c e Pr e s i d e n t , Yemi Osinbajo, Governors of Oyo (Abiola Ajimobi), Kebbi (Atiku Bagudu), Kano (Abdullahi Ganduje), Osun (Gboyega Oyetola), Ekiti (Kayode Fayemi) and Ministers, the session was also attended by many captains of industry including Aliko Da n g o t e , Fe m i O t e d o l a , Ob a O t u d e k o, Ji m Ov i a , Bi s m a r c k Re w a n e , N i k e Akande, among others.

Th e r a l l y w a s w e l l a t tended by the who’s who in the APC including the governors of Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Ondo, Edo, Kano, Kebbi, national leader of the APC, Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Babatunde Fashola , other serving and past ministers, party chieftains, among many others.

Joshua Bassey

Quick Takes

COVER

Continued from page 2

AKINWUNMI AMBODE

“If the Supreme Court ruling Friday is anything to go by, the APC is not going to field any candidate in all the elections except that of the presidency. This may affect the electoral fortune of the party in the state. Zamfara also is having a similar situation with Rivers. Although the party is already campaigning but the party’s name is not on the ballot. When you put all these together you can begin to have idea of what the country will be expecting to see in the next few days from now.

However, the ruling party is not sleeping; it is making efforts at winning over new voters and states. But majority of public comments suggest that voters are not listening to campaign promises again because they are never fulfilled, but would rather vote according to their conscience.

An analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that he was certain that the APC would not win Benue State.

“How can Buhari win in Benue except if the people have lost their memory. The

party abandoned the people when it mattered most. Don’t forget that it was the behaviour of the Federal Government towards the killings in Benue that resulted in the exit of Governor Samuel Ortom from the APC. Kwara State was totally for APC in 2015 because of Bukola Saraki factor; today, things have changed. The table has turned. If you have followed the politics in Kwara State, you will agree with me that for the APC to win would be like a Carmel passing through the needle’s eyepiece,” the analyst said.

All eyes on INEC The major fear being nursed by many is that despite the assurances by INEC that their votes will count, they think the electoral body may have been compromised, while parties will take vote buying, which they experimented at the Ekiti and Osun off-season elections, to a dangerous level.

10,000

This is the number of women that Nigeria is said to lose yearly to unsafe abortion, according to a non-governmental organisation.

From the horse’s mouth “I am not a politician and I do not believe in politicians because when you see those who are canvassing for votes today, many of them who had served in different positions should be stoned but they are the people asking us to vote for them today…If I were God, I would send thunder and fire on all politicians in Nigeria.”

-Robert Clarke (SAN), who has practised law for 50 years.

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