BusinessDay 21 Jun 2020

For Adams Oshiomhole, is it ‘Tekel’?

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240 days of rainfall: How prepared is Lagos to cage nature in 15 its fury?

We have begun aggressive drive to attract more investments to Ogun - Longe

FG must create profit bandwidth in downstream sector after price de-capping – Bobmanuel

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Vol 1, No. 317

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Hope still alive for Nigeria But there must be attitudinal change - Baba Gana, others We must play with our first eleven – Experts Leaders must be in control – Nasidi We must reinvent, reorient people’s minds - Entrepreneur Our leadership selection must change – Obi

Asset stripping: Even donkeys are not spared …FG raids illegal donkey business outfits …Police arrest Chinese operators

Experts tackle military’s acclaimed successes as citizens live at mercy of insurgents, bandits Godsgift Onyedinefu, Abuja

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Hard times hit roadside corn, yam, plantain roasters

Idahosa Ikponmwosa, chairman, Ward 3, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Oredo Local Government Area (LGA), (right), presenting the party’s membership card to Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki (left), at the PDP State Secretariat in Benin City, Friday, June 19, 2020.

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Why Chika OkekeAgulu is making case for stolen Nigerian artifacts

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See page 2

Anthony Aziegbemi, chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Edo State Chapter, (right), presenting the PDP constitution to Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki (left), at the PDP State Secretariat in Benin City, Friday, June 19, 2020.

xperts on security matters have knocked the Nigerian military over its recent acclaimed successes against banditry and terrorism as violence and bloodletting take a worrisome toll, particularly in Nigeria’s Northern states.

Describing those acclaimed successes as mere propaganda stunt to still appear relevant, experts said the military should rather look inwards and tackle the real challenges that are clogging its fight against terror which has lasted over a decade, as well as other forms of criminality, which continue to claim thousands of innocent lives.

The Nigeria military recently claimed that over 1,400 Boko Haram fighters have been killed since the relocation of the

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Sunday 21 June 2020

Cover

Hope still alive for Nigeria ZEBULON AGOMUO AND CHUKA UROKO

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hat Nigeria, the world’s most populous black nation, is blessed with both human and material resources is not in doubt. By its alluring vegetation and climatic condition, the country is enjoying nature’s blessing and favour.

What is, however, disgusting about the country is its loathsome leadership which, like virus, has unfortunately infected the followership. Though the country subscribes to democratic government, it has a warped electoral system that is bankrupt of all forms of democratic norms and tenets. The system produces mediocres and charlatans best suited for medieval times.

Whereas leadership is visionless, rudderless, parasitic and self-serving, the followership is docile, spineless, patronising, and pathologically driven by ethnic and religious sentiments, thus creating a country where the interplay of personal and parochial interests make a huge joke of its common patrimony and shared prosperity.

For these reasons and more, the country, rightly described as the giant of Africa, has become a shadow of its true self, walking with legs of clay and always qualified in demeaning soubriquets. Today, the country carries a badge that advertises it as the world headquarters of poverty.

But, like the baby-monkey which, in spite of its ugliness, the mother still loves it, Nigerians and their friends globally, especially the experts among them, still see great potential in this otherwise great African country which prides itself as the continent’s largest economy.

These experts who watch the country closely believe that the negative fortunes of the country can be reversed with conscious efforts on the part of the ruling class, and indeed all citizens.

While some of them spoke at a 2-day national discourse organised

Buhari

by BusinessDay Media Limited last week, some also spoke at exclusive interview with our reporters.

Although looking at the sad story of the country since independence in 1960, it is tempting to conclude that the touted giant of Africa had gone beyond redemption; the participants converged on the belief that with attitudinal change, Nigeria could still be brought back from the brink.

The optimism expressed at the national discourse tagged, ‘A National Conversation: Mapping Nigeria’s Response to Covid-19’, was made after a careful x-ray of the country’s economic and leadership challenges worsened by the coronavirus pandemic.

Lamenting that Nigeria has remained a country, but not a nation, Baba Gana, pioneer deputy managing director of Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLG), said: “We have a country, but we do not have a nation.”

On the way forward, Gana said: “Nigerians have got this tendency of looting based on ethnicity and religion. We must be purged of this. We must be committed to our country.”

Speaking from his experience in public and private sectors, he said that one of the factors that had drawn the country back was the penchant to believe that anything foreign is better than indigenous.

He condemned the attitude of some local companies that insist on employing foreigners even when there are many Nigerians that are more competent for such jobs than those being employed from outside.

“You don’t remove a Nigerian and bring in a foreigner,” he said.

According to him, “Nigeria should stop making appointments based on sentiments. Many projects fail in Nigeria because appointments are made based on sentiment and not capacity to deliver on the projects.”

Some other participants, who blamed poor selection, lack of accountability and inability to take responsibility as the bane of leadership in the country, noted that these ills, among others, have been reflected in the difficulty in containing the Covid-19 pandemic.

They spoke in tandem that for Nigeria to make the needed progress, there must be a total overhaul of the system and conscious efforts to do things differently.

Of particular reference was the observation by Peter Obi, a former governor of Anambra State, that no matter the kind of plans one puts or has in Nigeria, with the kind of leaders the country has, nothing good would come out of it.

He insisted that there must be a leadership overhaul from the federal to states and down to the local government. “Our leadership selection must change,” Obi said emphatically.

On the governance structure in Nigeria, the former vice presidential candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 general election said the country needed to look out for a new political arrangement that will decentralise the power of the Federal Government.

On the role of leadership in making things work in a country, Abdulsalam Nasidi, a professor, provost of Health Services, University of Africa, Bayelsa, who was also the pioneer director-general, Nigerian Centre for Diseases Control, said: “The leader must be seen to be in control to make things work.”

To replicate the success stories recorded by some indigenous companies, Ernest Ndukwe, a former Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), said: “We must play our matches with our first eleven.”

It was also pointed out that assignments and appointments to positions of responsibility must no longer be “job for the boys”.

Government was also urged to incentivise all investors- foreign and

local- to attract more investments.

Speaking with BDSUNDAY in an interview in this vein, Linus Okorie, founder and president of GOTNI, a human capital development consultant, said that what leaders do in times of crisis is to look beyond the crisis and begin to quickly study and research the situation in order to find solutions.

“Constant decision making process should be the order of the day. In Nigeria, right now, one of the things I believe leaders can take very seriously is to start reinventing and reorienting the minds of the people and giving them hope.

Remove fear from their mindset because when the population is afraid of the future, you will have a sick population – a population that is depressed, a population that will get into the mood of uncertainty and suicide,” Okorie said.

According to him, “Leaders should give the people proper information necessary to guide them on what they must do that can help them in their businesses and individual lives.

At the end of the day, they will create policies that will add value to the people in the present as well as preparing them for the economy that is being opened.

“This means that just like what the CBN is doing right now, that should be intensified. Government can deliberately waive certain taxes. Government should provide specific kinds of support systems.”

It is his belief that at this time, Nigeria should be working towards becoming a production-based economy rather than a consumption-driven one.

“Right now, there should be huge investment into areas that can create jobs, especially agriculture and agricultural value chain. The government can invest in SMEs and offer them support systems that can generate sustainable growth.

“I want to see massive investments in these areas. That’s the only way we can position for the new normal and open up the economy for prosperity,” he said.

Covid-19: Osinbajo, Okonjo-Iweala, Kaberuka outline measures to revive economy, boost SMEs Iniobong Iwok

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e m i Os i n b a j o, v i c e president of Nigeria, has said the Muhammadu Buhari administration would formulate policies to aid local production of goods, while also creating the requisite environment to aid local industries.

Osinbajo said the administration plans to invest in the housing sector by building 30 million homes for Nigerians in five years, while the labour and raw material would be sourced locally to create jobs and boost local industries.

He stated this on Friday while featuring in a Covid-19 webinar interactive with the theme: ‘Economy sustainability beyond

covid-19’.

The interaction was organised bytheEmmanuelChapelMethodist Church.

The interaction also featured Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala former finance minister in Nigeria and current chair-Gavi, the Global Vaccine Alliance, and Donald Kaberuka, former president of the African Development Bank (ADB).

Osinbajo further said that the Federal Government was planning to boost the power sector by investing more in renewable energy, liberalising the sector to encourage private investment in whose tariff would be service driven.

Speaking further, Osinbajo added that the liberalism of the power sector had reduced the subsidy regime and saved a huge

significant amount of money for the federal government.

According to him, “If we have a cost effective value chain it would make the GenCos and DisCos to have their value chain. The critical thing is to make the market based system work.

“NEC has proposed a system where the GenCos can go and negotiate the price with their customer on service. Through this we can reduce the subsidy regime which has consumed money in the country. “ We i n t e n d t o b u i l d 3 0 million homes in five years it is an opportunity to grow the local industry and develop the housing programme; We thought we can generate jobs, because we intend using local materials, the engineers, architecture would all be source

locally and we can give them 20 or 10 houses to build in some states.

Also speaking Donald Kaberuka advised African leaders that providing a relief package for the citizenry to cushion the effect of the covid-19 was crucial than projecting economic growth.

Kaberuka identified policy inconsistency as the reason for retarded growth witnessed in several African countries over the years, while urging Africans to take extra precautionary measures toward safe-guarding the economy and empowering their citizens because the Covid-19 may stay for long.

“This is a crisis like no other, the government has reduced lockdown because people have to survive; what is happening to families matters, providing support

for households is more important than saying my country is growing at 7%,” Kaberuka said.

Also speaking , Iweala outlined the achievements of the African Union (AU) in mitigating the virus in the continent, stressing that AU was putting measures in place that make newly discovered vaccines accessible and affordable to every class of persons in the society.

“The lockdown was necessary because of the increasing number of the virus across countries in the continent and it was to tell the people the severity of the infection.

“We don’t want a situation where the vaccine, if it is discovered, is bought off by the rich countries, that is why we are taking measures so that the poor countries can see it,” Iweala said.

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BDSUNDAY 3

News Taraba crisis: Catholic priests flay Ishaku …Accuse governor of complacency; knocks CAN ...Government reacts Nathaniel Gbaoron, Jalingo

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ollowing the escalation of communal clashes in parts of Taraba State which have claimed hundreds of lives and caused destruction to property worth billions of naira , the National Catholic Diocesan Priests Association (NCDPA) in Taraba has indicted the Taraba State government, accusing it of complacency and lack of the will power to end the crisis and address the plight of the people.

The state Chairman of NCDPA, Rev Fr. Ephraim Sani, who addressed journalists at the Pastoral centre in Jalingo, said that the priests were saddened by the continued crisis in the state that has caused the death of thousands of

Ishaku

people including Priests and the wanton destruction of property.

Sani said that it was important for the state Governor Darius Ishaku with support from the Federal

Government to invest more time and resources in the security of the state and to personally visit the affected areas in a show of solidarity with the people and to emphasise government’s

dislike for the crisis.

He regretted that the crisis has not only affected the social and religious life of the people but has also put a halt to the farming activity in the state which is the main stay of the people.

“It is sad to say that the negative effects of these crises on our people are better imagined than confessed. Human life has become so cheap that it takes no second thought to be wasted. Even the rules of engagement in wars are no longer observed.

Innocent children and defenceless women have become primary targets of murderous acts. “ We c a l l o n t h e government under Darius Ishaku, with support from the Federal Government to invest more time and resources in the security of the state. We appeal to his good conscience as the

chief security officer of the state and to his paternal responsibility to visit and ensure adequate security is deployed to the affected areas. In truth, we believe that not much has been done and there is a feeling of abandonment of common people by government,” he said.

According to the cleric, “ Ba n d i t s , m i l i t i a s a r e never beyond the military prowess of our security apparatus to contain the situation. Leaders should be nonpartisan, bearing in mind that they are elected to serve the good of all.

Security personnel should demonstrate a genuine sincerity of heart and purpose, accompanied by a patriotic spirit of commitment which upholds the common good of everyone above sectional or vested interests.

“We call on the leadership

of the state CAN to play a more proactive role in bringing to fruition the prayer of its members that they may be one. CAN must not only be seen to be active during elections. Let us hear and see more from CAN leadership in the state”.

Sani called on the warring factions to sheath their swords and for all to embrace peace and to show respect for the sanctity of human lives as crisis only help to promote retrogression and unnecessary anxiety that ultimately works against the good of all the people.

Reacting, the special Ad v i s e r t o G o v e r n o r Darius Ishaku on Media and Publicity, Bala Dan Abu while appreciating the priests for their show of concern, said government was proactive in making sure that peace was restored in southern Taraba and other parts of the state.

cold blood since January 2020, according to figures released by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a US-based think-tank under the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST) programme.

Mike Ejiofor, a former commissioner of police, said the military may be reeling out high casualty numbers to give citizens psychological uplift and reassurance. He said though the military has tried in all its effort, the recent escalation of violence is a pointer for the military to change its strategy and rejig the entire security architecture.

“I am at loss over the claims by the military, what number constitutes Boko Haram? If you put together their claims it could be up to 20,000 terrorists, yet there is heavy casualty on civilians.

You cannot be doing the same thing and expect a different result,” Ejiofor said.

“Service chiefs should be changed; they have tried; we need new ideas,” he added.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday told his service chiefs, who many say are already weak, lack any more ideas and should be replaced, that they had failed in curbing worsening insecurity in the nation.

In an unprecedented display of his disapproval of the rising security

challenges in the country, Buhari reportedly told the top military officers that “their best was not good enough.”

Ben Okezie, a security analyst, knocked the president, heaps the blame on the President, who according to him is not stable. “He is almost confused,” Okezie told BDSUNDAY. “He has said over and over again that he will tackle this problem.

What is saving us is that we have a dedicated army chief, else they would have overtaken the federal capital territory,” he said.

Okezie however, said the military is overwhelmed with inadequate manpower as it tackles external aggression and internal security such as banditry, which ought to be the primary duty of the police.

He said the military should be relived of internal security duty, to enable it focus on the war against insurgents.

Lawrence Alobi, a former police commissioner, FCT, said the military needed to step up intelligence gathering from civilians so as to be ahead of the criminals. He noted that this will require the military to be more sincere in all their actions to win the trust of citizens.

He urged civilians to

corporate, noting that they bear the brunt the most in this war against insurgency.

Alobi also observed that the military currently lacked the equipment needed to tackle the security challenges in the country.

N i g e r i a ’s D e f e n c e Minister, Bashir Magashi had admitted that the military is understaffed and underfunded to tackle the various security challenges facing the country.

Major-General, John Enenche, coordinator, Defence Media Operations, Defence Headquarters (DHQ) however, said the military is neither weak not lacks the capacity to address insecurity. The Coordinator rather claimed the reason banditry has not been tackled is because the military is avoiding collateral damage, which he described as a major constraint.

En e n c h e e x p l a i n e d that bandits leverage on the armed conflict and international humanitarian laws, one of which stipulates that the military cannot fire on them when they mingle with the civilian populace.

He said they hence use civilians as human shields when wreaking havoc.

Enenche said another major constraint is getting information from the civilians.

Experts tackle military’s ...

Continued from page 1 Army Chief, Tukur Buratai to the Northeast in April, repeatedly assuring that insurgency has seen its last days.

“You cannot be reporting that you killed thousands of these criminals and yet they are massacring more innocent Nigerians.

Propaganda cannot take the place of strategic planning and implementation, it cannot save the military.

They are not doing what they are supposed to do”,

said Eze Onyekwere, Lead Director of Centre for Social Justice.

As insecurity escalates, the military continues to reel out figures of the scores of bandits killed in the NorthWest, North-central and terrorists in the Northeast including their commanders and arms suppliers with “about 1000 earlier killed between April 1-9 by Chadian soldiers led by its President Idris Derby.

Despite this feat, these criminals have remained ruthless in their attacks -

from Katsina to Niger and Zamfara, where the bandits wreak havoc on helpless citizens. Several adults and children have been raped and killed, and many have had their properties and means of livelihood destroyed. Citizens are now more at mercy of insurgents.

These attacks and killings have gone unabated, in the face of government struggles to contain further spread of ravaging Covid-19 pandemic.

At least 2,771 Nigerians have been murdered in

L-R: Obafemi Hamzat, Lagos State deputy Governor; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, with wife of the deceased, Alhaja Mariam Oshinowo and daughter, Dr. Kehinde Oshinowo-Adebisi during a condolence visit to late Senator Bayo Oshinowo’s family, on Friday, June 19, 2020.

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Sunday 21 June 2020

News

African Voices parades female APC guber aspirant pledges financial autonomy for LGAs in Ondo comedian, fashionista

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James Kwen, Abuja

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nAllProgressives Congress(APC) governorship aspirant in Ondo State, Olayide Adelami has promised to grant financial autonomy for local government areas (LGAs) if elected.

Adelami, who disclosed in Abuja shortly after some concerned Ondo State indigenes under the aegis of Ondo Rescue Group picked the expression of interest and nomination forms for him, said he was on a rescue mission to salvage the state.

Addressing journalists afterreceivingtheformsfrom the group, Adelami noted that “Ondo State is endowed with a lot of resources after Lagos; I cannot think of any other state with resources like Ondo State but what has happened over the years?

These resources have been under-tapped”.

The former Deputy Clerk of the National Assembly who commended past leaders in the state, including the incumbent Governor, Oluwarotimi Akeredolu however, promised to take the state to the higher level of development.

“Other leaders that have come on board at one time or the other have tried their best, even including the governor that is there. He has tried his best but what I’m saying is that his best is not enough. I want to improve on that best. I want to take Ondo State to a higher level.

“I am prepared for this job. Over the years, I have

Olayide Adelami

been a technocrat in the National Assembly and usually I referred to myself as techno-politician. In National Assembly I have received a lot of training; I have been on the sidelines watching the political space.

“Looking at Ondo State over the years, I know what and what we need to do.

If Ondo people give me their mandate, I am going to launch out immediately; I am not going to wait for weeks or months before I begin to execute my manifesto,” he said.

On the local government autonomy, the aspirant said: “It is burning issue in all the states of the federation and first item on my manifesto, I am going to grant financial autonomy to local government because I believe that the third tier of government is the government of the grassroots.”

“The statutory allocation of the local government if that money is spent in local government then the economic tempo of local government will increase.

The pervasive poverty we are witnessing in Ondo State today will be a thing of the past”, he added.

Speaking on the mode of election for the July 20 Ondo State governorship primary, Adelami who endorsed direct primary said: “I believe in transparency and fairness and I believe this can be guaranteed when we have direct primary. It gives all members opportunity to have a say on who leads them”.

Presenting the forms to Adelami, the leader of the Ondo Rescue Group, AdewaleOgendegbesaidthe antecedents of the aspirant informed their decision to raise fund to purchase his nomination forms.

PSN opposes appointment of new chairman for Pharmacists Council of Nigeria …Urges govt to appoint another Ngozi Okpalakunne

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he Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) has opposed the appointment of Ahmed Tijjani Mora as the chairman for the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN).

This was contained in an open letter by PSN addressed to President Muhammadu Buhari.

In the letter which was signed by the incumbent President, Sam Ohuabunwa and other past heads of the body, PCN claimed that Mora has fallen short of the ethical requirements of the profession and therefore, not fit for the position.

Mora was also said to have altered portions of the PCN Act in PÇN’s compilation of

pharmacy, drugs and related laws and rules in Nigeria in 2009.

It was also alleged in the letter that Mora changed the names of PSN’s statutory nominations to the PCN council in 2009.

The letter reads: “We have protested and produced evidence-based documents to show that Pharm. A. T. Mora manipulated by substituting the PSN list of its representatives on PCN Council with a list of his cronies at the office of the SGF in 2009. The PSN is by Law required to submit its list of eight representatives to the PCN, but A.T Mora single handedly replaced the list with his own personally drawn up list, thereby thwarting the authority of

the Pharmaceutical Society to present its nominees as required by law. In effect he subverted the power and authority of the Society.

“This matter generated a lot of trouble and confusion in 2009 leading to the National Council of PSN stripping Pharm. A. T. Mora of the Fellowship Award of the PSN as well as placing him on the PSN Roll of Dishonour. These decisions of the National Council of the PSN were subsequently ratified by the AGM of the PSN in November, 2009.

“The resolution of the AGM stands till date, despite Pharm. A. T. Mora’s futile attempts to reverse the statusquo through litigations which he instituted against the Society and later tried to withdraw in 2015.

f r i c a n Vo i c e s Changemakers, the CNN magazine programme sponsored by national telecommunication company, Globacom, will this week parade two African women who are making waves in their profession.

The programme comes up on DSTV on Friday at 9.30 a.m. and on Saturday at 12.30 p.m., 5.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m.

Other repeat broadcasts come up on Sunday at 5.00 a.m., 9.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m., with more repeats on Monday and Tuesday at 5.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. respectively.

The guests include Nigerian-American actress Yvonne Anuli Orji, who is widely known for her role in the Home Box Office series Insecure, where she acted as Molly and creator of fashion label, Hanifa, Congo-born Anifa Mvuemba.

A graduate of George

Washington University, United States of America, Orji relocated with her family to Maryland when she was six years old in 1989. Her interest in comedy was aroused as a graduate student when she performed stand-up in the talent portion of a beauty pageant. It was after this event that she decided to pursue a career in comedy.

Apart from first degree, Orji also obtained a Masters in Public Health and her career blossomed afterwards.

Since then, Orji has appeared on several talk shows including TEDx Wilmington Salon in 2017 where she talked about “The wait is sexy” and dwelled one her reasons for abstaining from sex before marriage.

Some of her other works include Love that Girl, 2011 Sex (Therapy) With the Jones (2013), Jane the Virgin, 2017 and Insecure (2016).

The second guest, 29 years old, Mvuemba also relocated with her family from Congo to America at a tender age. She is the creator of popular fashion label, Hanifa.

Her fashion career was boosted this year when she held a virtual fashion show on the Instagram. She endured the challenge of Covid-19 by live streaming her show in with each garment appeared in 3D against a black backdrop, appearing as if they were worn by invisible models, cat walking on the podium.

It was the time such show will be live streamed on the Instragram and this was watched by over 250,000 followers of Hanifa who also shared the video thus generating massive publicity.

Mvuemba’s current fashion line is dubbed Pink Label Congo, an inspiration by her homeland.

L-R: Dotun Adako, group head, Human Resources, BUA Group, book reviewer; Oladapo Akinloye, chief operating officer, Emerald Zone, Nigeria, lead author; Gbemiga Owolabi, O&HR director, Lafarge Africa Plc, co-author, and Kazeem Odeyeyiwa, managing director/CEO, Repton Group Limited, book presenter at the presentation of ‘Winning with People’, in Lagos.

Why employers should adopt strategic spectrum of talents management post-Covid-19 Kelechi Ewuzie

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etermined to foster 21st-century talents management strategies that will effectively link employers with their bottomline using the right set of employees post-covid-19, Oladapo Akinloye and Gbemiga Owolabi, two human resources professionals, have launched a book, ‘Winning with People’, in Lagos.

Akinloye and Owolabi, authors of the book, opine that it is people that make an organisation to be profitable, not the process only, adding that employers need to understand that if the talents aspect of the equation is handled right, every other element in the organisation will fall in place.

According to them, “When employees are

trained for higher performance to fit into an organisation’s value, culture and goals, such talents even after leaving the organisation, remain proud ambassadors of such companies”.

Akinloye, chief operating officer, Emerald Zone, Nigeria while speaking to newsmen at the official launch of the book in Lagos, observed that employers, businesses be it profit or non-profit-oriented aspire to win, noting that the formula to achieve winning is what the book addressed.

Akinloye, who is also the lead author, said that the book encompasses over forty years experiences of managing businesses, adding that knowledge from the book can help a profit or nonprofit organisation succeed.

“You will agree with me that the combined practical knowledge of these human resources gurus in authoring this new book ‘Winning with

People’ will undoubtedly give a complete spectrum for employers, employees and entrepreneurs,” he said.

Gbemiga Owolabi, coauthor of the book observed that the best approach to achieve status of a high performing organisation is through the quality of employees not just the machines.

Owolabi, a Human Resources expert with over 25 years experience, working with companies like Airtel Nigeria Limited, Lafarge PLC, said that the book deals with how to make personnel in an organisation become high performing employees.

He disclosed that the book handles aspects of talent-sourcing, training, mentoring among other aspects of motivation to help such talents attain higher-level performance and make them do what they do not want to do ordinarily.

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5 Inside Lagos

What to expect as Lekki regional road is delivered in 2 years time JOSHUA BASSEY

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side from improved traffic flow and reduction in travel time, more communities in Eti-Osa area of Lagos State are in for enhanced socio-economic activities as the Lekki regional road gets underway.

The Lagos State government says it will deliver the road two years from now. And, to ensure that the targeted delivery period is achieved, the government has urged owners of property along the road alignment to cooperate with the contractors, Hi-Tech Construction Company Limited, and officials, who are being deployed to assist households in data collation as it relates to their property.

The government has also hinted of possible compensation for property within the redesigned alignment of the road, while those who encroached on the original alignment may have to forfeit their property.

The 9km regional road conceived in the Lagos Metropolitan Master Plan (1980-2000) and identified in the 1991 Layout Approval issued by the state government is designed to engender the socio- economic development of Lekki corridor.

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (3rd l) during the recent inspection of the alignment of the Lekki regional road.

It is also coming as a precursor to the equally long proposed Fourth Mainland Bridge, for which the state government in April in this year, short-listed 10 companies bidding for its construction. The Lekki regional road will link Lekki-Epe Expressway at Victoria Garden City (VGC) junction to the Freedom Way in Eti Osa. At a stakeholders’ forum organised to facilitate the speedy execution of the project, Idris Salako, the state commissioner for physical planning and urban development, said that

the road would be a strategic link to circumvent the transportation gridlock from Mainland Lagos to Island Lagos.

He expressed displeasure that the objective for which the road was conceived was being threatened and negated by a series of encroachments, as some estates and other structures have encroached on its right of way.

“This has made the state governor to approve a reduction in the width of the right of way in the bid to reduce as much as possible,

the level of actual encroachments,” said Salako.

On the benefits of the road which runs parrallell to the Lekki-Epe Expessway, the commissioner stated that the proposed road was expected to ease the perennial traffic gridlock along the Lekki corridor.

“In view of the importance of the proposed road project to the socio-economic development of the state, we are determined more than ever to bring everyone on board and ensure seamless execution of the project.

“This we believe will enable us to fulfill our promise of democratic dividends through the THEMES Agenda of Lagos State” he said.

He added that the government, recognising the link between infrastructure development and socioeconomic growth, was passionate about developing infrastructure across the state. He said that it would not augur well for sustainable physical development of the State when people engage in indiscriminate and unapproved developments, adding that such illegal actions would only compel the inevitable decision to pave way for proper development of the state in line with her operative development plans.

“It is our fervent belief that people in this area are willing to embrace the implementation of the project for the benefit of the generality of Lagosians. This is because it would make life easier and more meaningful for the teeming population of Lagosians through effective inter connectivity within our state” he added.

Special adviser to the governor on works and infrastructure, Aramide Adeyoye said that the essence of the stakeholders’ meeting was to aggregate views and secure the necessary buy-in for the speedy completion

of the project.

She urged residents of the area to embrace the project and support government in the bid to make life easier for the people.

She emphasised that the road being a flagship project of the Administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu would be completed swiftly in record.

The special adviser to the governor on urban development, Ganiyu Adele Ayuba, appealed to stakeholders to assume ownership of the project, cooperate for its execution and ensure the protection of the road infrastructure upon completion.

Commissioner for home affairs, Anofiu Elegushi, who is an indigene of Eti-Osa, where the road will pass through, urged the residents of the area to embrace the project which is expected to enhance the value for property on that corridor.

Sanni Adewale, a native of the area, who spoke on behalf other stakeholders, said they excited that the state government was finally building the long proposed road.

He, however, warned against continued erection of tollgates in the Eti-Osa community, and urged the government to ensure that there was toll on the new road to avoid a clash with the indigenes.

COVID-19: Lagos unveils strategies to revive Lagos records 6 months of zero boat mishaps Lagos roads. positive results. tourism, entertainment industry in 2 weeks JOSHUA BASSEY In a statement, the LASHe added that the governJOSHUA BASSEY

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he Lagos State government says it will make public the report of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state’s tourism and entertainment industry, in two weeks’ time.

The state government had in May this year constituted a six-man committee headed by a veteran actress, Joke Silva to come up with recommendations on how to reposition the creative and tourism industry in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Receiving the report on Thursday, the state commissioner for tourism, arts and culture, Uzamat Akinbile-Yusuf, said due diligence would be done on the report of the committee before unveiling the recommendations to the public within the next two weeks.

“I want to appreciate the committee members for their commitment in putting

the report forward. I like to assure that this report won’t be kept under the table because the state governor is interested in reviving the sector, so be rest assured that your good works will bring forth good fruits. ‘’We will ensure that in the next one or two weeks, the recommendations will be made public and we hope that you will continue to collaborate with us as we move the Lagos tourism, creative, entertainment and hospitality sector forward,’’ said Akinbile-Yusuf.

The commissioner reiterated the commitment of the government to work with all stakeholders in the sector, assuring that the government would work to ensure that their businesses thrive in order to boost employment and generate revenue for the state.

Special adviser to the governor on arts and culture, Solomon Bonu, said that the ministry would review the report and advise the gov-

ernor on how to assist the sector rebound.

He thanked the committee members for bringing their professionalism and expertise to bear in compiling the report.

Chairman of the committee, Joke Silva thanked the government for the opportunity to come up with recommendations to reposition the creative and tourism industry.

She said that the recommendations were gathered from various sub-committees in the sector on ways forward post Covid-19. Joke Silva thanked her colleagues for their dedication and cooperation throughout the deliberation period on the report.

The committee was inaugurated in May, 2020 with a mandate to draw out suggestions and recommendations on how to re-activate the Lagos creative industry, which has remained dormant as a result of the coronavirus pandemic currently ravaging the world.

I

mproved safety measures on the Lagos waterways have ensured zero boat mishap in the last six months as against previous years.

Confirming the record, the general manager of the Lagos State Inland Waterways Authority (LASWA), Damilola Emmanuel, explained that the feat was a direct result of concerted efforts and measures put in place by the government to ensure safety of citizens on waterways.

Emmanuel added that it was a testament to the government’s commitment towards ensuring safe waterway transportation as a viable mode of transportation in easing gridlocks on

WA boss maintained that the administration of Babajide Sanwo-Olu had embarked on a continuous review and improvement on safety guidelines, regulations, and enforcement for the smooth operations of water transportation in the state to ensure the safety of the passengers.

According to him, the results of the government’s efforts resulted in a drastic reduction in waterways incidences to the extent that no single mishap was recorded on the Lagos waterways in the last 6 months.

The general manager said it was an indication of improvement in water transport safety and was in line with the THEMES agenda of the Sanwo-Olu administration’s which had been yielding

ment’s sustainable investment in Inland Waterways sector which was being pursued aggressively by SanwoOlu’s administration was to prevents accident and increases public confidence in the sector.

“Asides from the continuous routine check-up and regular inspection of ferries plying the waterways, as well as the removal of water hyacinth causing obstruction to smooth navigation, LASWA has also donated thousands of life jackets to commercial boat Operators and pupils in the riverine communities of Lagos to promote the use of life jackets and the safety awareness programme.

“The LASWA patrol team composed of Water-Guards and officers of the CounterTerrorist Unit of the Nigerian Police in collaboration with the Marine Police are always on standby day and night monitoring all activities on the waterways while ensuring safety and security of both lives and infrastructures,” the statement read.

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Sunday 21 June 2020

News Feature

How Royal Electronics is deepening advocacy for continuous use of facemasks IFEOMA OKEKE

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fter the ease of lockdown clamped on many states to contain the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the number has continued to be rise in Nigeria, especially Lagos. It has been identified that part of the reasons for this spike in cases is lack of adherence to guidelines laid down by the government in helping to curb the spread of the virus.

One of such guidelines being neglected is the use of facemasks in public places in Lagos State despite the protocol by the Federal Government and the World Health Organisation (WHO) that people must wear their facemasks to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus.

It is for this reason that Royal Electronics Group introduced the Royal Mask-Up Lagos, a corporate social responsibility programme developed to advocate for the continued wearing of facemasks in public spaces as the fight against COVID-19 continues.

Speaking during the kick-off of the Royal Mask-Up Lagos, Fab Uzor, executive director, Corporate Services – SIMS Nigeria Limited, acknowledged that there is a spike of new cases of coronavirus and deaths recorded in Nigeria, adding that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 is already complaining that they are running out of bed spaces because guidelines are not being adhered to.

Uzor further explained that simple research by the organisation shows that some people are not wearing facemasks because they cannot afford it. So Royal Electronics as a brand that cares for the community and society where it operates decided to offer support to the Presidential Task Force, the government, the Fed-

…Distributes facemasks to Lagosians

L-R: Shaheen Pervez, national sales director, Trade, SIMS Nigeria; Anirban Bose, head of sales, Small Domestic Appliances, SIMS Nigeria; Mercy Eke, Royal Electronics & Home Appliances Brand Ambassador; Raja Rajesh, head sales operations, SIMS Nigeria and Fab Uzor, executive director, Corporate Services, SIMS Nigeria, at the Royal Mask-Up Lagos CSR initiative.

eral Ministry of Health and the WHO to curb the spread of this pandemic and one of the ways it is doing this is to provide face masks to some of the citizens that are not able to afford it.

He said: “This is part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). This is going to be a continuous programme. In the past, we had also supported some orphanages, we have reached out to the less-privileged in the communities. We do this every quarter and having figured that this is what is strategic for the community at this time, we want to play our part. This is why we are trying to see how we can also support the government in reaching out to people and curbing the menace of COVID-19.

“If you go to most of the markets around the Island, you will see that 50percent of people do not wear masks. In my house for instance, my security guards wear their masks. One Sunday, I was driving in and I saw some

other security guards who watch over the neighbourhood with them talking and they didn’t have their facemasks on. So, I asked them why they didn’t have their facemasks and they said they didn’t have money to buy. So, I had to give them money to buy because I know the implication.

If my security guard contracts it, I’m in danger.

“Most times, when you confront these people that don’t wear facemasks, they will tell you they don’t have N200 to buy and not that they won’t want to put it on and save themselves and their family members.”

Uzor assured that Royal Electronics would reach out to people in every community where it has physical presence and the company will replicate what it does in one community in other communities as well.

Also speaking at the event, Rajesh Raja – Head of Sales Operations - SIMS Nigeria Limited said he was worried that after the

lockdown eased, Lagosians began to gather together again and the crowd was getting really much and people were no longer wearing the facemask.

Raja said it was with this knowledge that Royal Electronics decided to take this up as a CSR project to distribute the facemasks, adding that with the distribution of masks, people will understand the importance for their safety and the safety of their families and the community as a whole.

He stressed that the positive impact of this campaign is to make people aware.

Kshitis Kumar, national sales manager (Retail) - SIMS Nigeria Limited, said with this CSR project, Royal Electronics is not focused on any particular community but on making people aware of the importance of putting on their facemasks in various communities.

“We make sure that everyone is aware. In all our digital centres, the moment customers come in, we

take great precautions. Customers need products but need to buy such products in a very conducive and safe atmosphere.

“In spite of all the challenges, we make sure people are safe. In our digital centres, we make sure you have the same atmosphere you have at home. Most people are depressed now, so we are telling them that we are fighting this together. We are spreading awareness,” Kumar assured.

Mercy Eke, the Brand Ambassador, Royal Electronics, commended the company for making this awareness a reality, urging people to always put on their facemasks.

Eke stressed that the responsibility lies with everyone. “If I get the virus, my gate keeper can get it, my housekeeper can get it.

If we adhere to the guidelines of wearing our face masks and washing our hands regularly, we can come out of this menace together.

So,that is why we are here to help people who can’t afford the face mask to get it.

“Royal Electronics Group is taking the bold step already. The change starts with us. So, I urge other organisations to partake in this kind of gesture and I commend Royal Electronics for this,” she said.

Eke, who joined Royal Electronics Group last year as their brand ambassador, disclosed that her six months experience with the company has shown her how generous the company is.

“Royal Electronics help the needy. They have helped me a lot and I know they have helped other people. I have been to some of their offices where they give home appliances to pe0ple that they don’t even know. I have learnt a lot from Royal Electronics Group and this has also helped me reach out to people in my own little way,” she said.

COVID-19: Ogun records 85% case increase to suspend re-opening of worship centres RAZAQ AYINLA, Abeokuta

F

ollowing an increase of over 85% cases of coronavirus pandemic in the last 14 days in the state, Ogun State government has suspended further re-opening of lockdown proposed for opening all worship centres, mainly mosques and churches, across the state.

Governor Dapo Abiodun, who addressed a press conference on the update of COVID-19 control in the state on Friday evening in Abeokuta, frowned at the flagrant disregard and flouting of restrictions and transport commuting orders which are increasing community transmission

of the deadly virus, saying that there would be stricter enforcement of such orders.

“Let me start with the update on the current COVID-19 situation in our State as reflected in the medical statistics. As at Monday, 15th June, 2020, we have recorded a total of 586 positive cases as against a total number of 316 on the 4th of June, an increase of 270 or over 85% in just 14 days.

“Put more succinctly, the number of cases recorded from first index case on 27th Feb to 4th June – a period of 98 days – has almost doubled in just 14 days. On the positive side, a cumulative total of 315 patients have been successfully treated and discharged,

representing 54% of the total positive cases.

“This number stood at 168 in my last update on Friday, 5th June, indicating a discharge of 147 in the last 14 days. Within this period, we have painfully recorded an additional 6 more deaths, bringing the total to 15, an increase of over 66% compared to 9 as at the last update. We beseech God Almighty to repose the souls of the departed and grant their families the fortitude to bear the painful loss,” he said.

According to him, “The above speaks for itself – community transmission is on the increase. And regrettably, in spite of the spirited efforts of the government to create

awareness about the deadly nature of the pandemic and the guidelines in place to flatten the curve of the spread, the compliance level of our people is still very much below expectation.

“Many are yet to appreciate that there is a new normal that demands a new way of life that is not optional and is also an individual responsibility in the final analysis. I wish to emphasise that the figures of the dead from COVID-19 related complications or the sick may appear to many as just mere statistics, but to those who are directly impacted, these are not just numbers, but caring spouses, loving fathers or mothers, sisters, brothers and

cherished relatives.

“The intention here is not to scare us, but to drive home the point that COVID-19 is real, and we have a collective and individual responsibility to work together to tame it – through compliance with the guidelines.”

The governor recalled: “In my last briefing, we were considering a tentative date of Friday, 19th June, 2020 to further ease the restrictions and allow gradual opening of places of worship on Fridays and Sundays. Towards this end, we have had robust engagements with the religious leaders – Christian Association of Nigeria and the League of Imams and Alfas.

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News Feature

Asset stripping: Even donkeys are not spared …FG raids illegal donkey business outfits …Police arrest Chinese operators

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INNOCENT ODOH, Abuja sset stripping has been a serious challenge to Nigeria’s quest for industrialisation. Every now and then authorities sell government-owned companies to individuals, mainly foreigners for turnaround purposes.

It has been a recurring decimal that those expected to inject new blood into such companies end up engaging in asset-stripping, living only the carcass of such firms.

The Federal Government on Friday, June 5,2020 embarked on a nationwide raid on business outfits allegedly doing illegal slaughtering, trading and exporting donkeys and their products especially donkey skin against the government’s initiative to regulate the business and to preserve the donkey species from going into extinction.

Part of the raid was carried out by the task force of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Service (NAQS), which enlisted a detachment of men of the Nigerian Army and police officers to swoop on a facility in Ameke community in Ohaukwu Local Government of Ebonyi State, where some Chinese nationals were caught for alleged illegal processing of donkey skin and

LifeGuide with Emem Nwogwugwu

P

08033455364

roject management as a profession is still in its adolescence because said it is still adolescent is because it is not as popular as other professions in Nigerian universities and most universities do not offer it as a major course but in today’s world and business, project management roles have come to stay and now the best term is to see it as product management as agile methodology prefers to use terms like products management. Because in reality the purpose for projects is to create products that can change the business positively in a valuable way.

Until recently, project management was housed inside of functional teams and departments. One trend is that many mid-market companies are starting to create project management offices (PMOs)

packaging them for export without the requisite permission.

Anthony Achuzie, team leader of the task force, said the raid had become necessary to stop the Chinese from engaging in illegal slaughtering of donkeys and packaging the skin to their country.

“We have instructions from the headquarters to protect our donkey species because the Chinese are slaughtering donkeys and repatriating the skin to their country. We have warned them to stop this business to no avail.

So, this time, we intend to arrest everybody involved in the illegal business and we will seize every product and their property. This action is nationwide,” he said.

The operation, which lasted for about 2 hours led to the arrest of three Chinese namely; Lucky Chen, Lill Xam Hut and Xi Emem Nwogwugwu is an entrepreneur, author, life coach and certified project manager.

For over a decade she has been working to motivate people to live their best lives.

like the Fortune 500 corporations have before them.

We are seeing a trend which validates the notion that the project management office deserves to be its own organization instead of being lumped inside of individual functional departments.

When it comes to project management, the tools you use can determine the quality of the results.

Time has always been a valuable thing. For that reason, project managers need to have the right tools to accomplish projects fast and without stretching the budget allocated. That’s why project management mobile apps are a necessity for every project manager.

Given that project managers are always on the go, having a tool to work on your project anywhere at any time is convenient.

Zia, together with the Nigerian wife of Lucky, Joy Chen. The task force also seized and carted away all their consignment estimated to worth N30million. The three Chinese men were later taken to the Area Police Command at Ohaukwu, for documentation and subsequent prosecution. The Chinese were also said not have

valid documents required for the business.

It is estimated that Nigeria is losing over $2 billion every year due to the illegal smuggling of donkey products and the action is threatening the species of donkeys because the Chinese operators appear not to have any plans to breed donkeys in Nigeria.

The Chinese are reportedly using the illegality to procure cheap labour and disrupt the regular value chain that would have created more jobs for people in the sub-sector, because they allegedly pay less and use less number of workers.

Experts have warned that if such is allowed to continue, then the expected foreign exchange accruing from derivatives of donkeys in line with the diversification agenda of the Federal Government in the agriculture sector, will suffer.

Leader of the Chinese, Lucky Chen while speaking to BDSUNDAY claimed that the Chinese are not the ones killing the animals, stressing that they are only going to the market to buy the skin just like everybody is doing freely.

“We are only buying from the local market. We have been doing this for three years. We sell to Chinese people in Enugu, even in

this village, Abia and Imo states,” he said. The Chinese are however, being accused, by sources within the local community, of sponsoring the local people in the country for the indiscriminate slaughtering of donkeys.

National Vice Chairman of Donkey Skin Processors, Marketers and Exporters Association of Nigeria, Ifeanyi Dike said the government acted swiftly to curb the excesses and impunity of the Chinese, who have repeatedly violated laid down rules. He tasked the government to intensify their efforts, adding that there is no hiding place for any person or group that fails to play by the rules.

“The Chinese cannot be allowed to come to Nigeria to do illegal business. They are depriving the government and the people of Nigeria the much needed foreign exchange,” he said.

An indigene of the community, who gave his name as Peter Obodo, said: “We have an association that regulates this business and we have given these Chinese notice for many years to understand that this thing they are trading in is illegal business and they should key in with the organisation.

Along the line, many of them felt that the organisation is not serious. As an African man, you cannot trade just like that in China, so we had to make the government know about this illegal business going on.”

“It is more than three years the Chinese have been doing this business, prior to this time they have been in Lagos. Last week, they loaded a container for export from here and they have the impression that the government will not take action on that. Now they know that the government is serious with this business,” he said.

Importance of using Apps for project management in organisation Project management doesn’t need to be a complicated thing, not if you have apps that make things a whole lot easier. When you have project management apps, you can take care of your teams task and deadlines, without even being in the office. You don’t even have to spend a lot of money to get most of the apps. The great thing about project management and apps is that it increases productivity.

Project managers’ impressive capabilities can be significantly bolstered with topnotch project management tools. Within today’s realm of project management responsibilities and demands, the importance of these apps is no longer a “nice-to-have” option — it is a necessity. Project Management apps have become indispensable for users who need to organise their

daily assignments on their workday or their own routine.

These kinds of apps provide the right tools for people who have the idea to optimise their time, order activities and take control of what they are doing, by their own or with other partners. The good thing is that most project management apps like Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Casual etc. are available on android, iOS, and web-based •Project management apps are useful for assigning and scheduling resources.

•The apps help managers to keep track of the progress of projects at any time.

•They are useful for the execution of project plans.

There are companies that offer training and services that can help understand these apps and how we can boost productivity in an organisation mostly as businesses have

moved to a new normal way of operating. LAPAX Life projects is a 360 human development company that coaches, trains and builds capacity, we also handle life coaching services, tailored training, project management and consulting services. We offer these services, we train, one on one consultations, organisational courses and lots more on how best to utilise these apps. You can reach us on ememnice@ gmail.comor call the number at the top of the article.

We will continue next time, next week and talk more about issues and topics that connects us as humans in our daily lives and business. Do let me know what you think, what apps you use in managing your personal life and organisational projects and how you have found them. Make sure you stay safe and Have a productive week.

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Now that the rains are here

Publisher/Editor-in-chief

Frank Aigbogun

editor Zebulon Agomuo DEPUTY EDITOR John Osadolor, Abuja MANAGING DIRECTOR Dr. Ogho Okiti EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Fabian Akagha EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, STRATEGY, INNOVATION & PARTNERSHIPS Oghenevwoke Ighure ADVERT MANAGER Ijeoma Ude FINANCE MANAGER Emeka Ifeanyi MANAGER, CONFERENCES & EVENTS Obiora Onyeaso BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER (South East, South South) Patrick Ijegbai COPY SALES MANAGER Florence Kadiri DIGITAL SALES MANAGER Linda Ochugbua GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (North)

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GM, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (South) Ignatius Chukwu HEAD, HUMAN RESOURCES Adeola Obisesan

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Sunday 21 June 2020

@Businessdayng

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

I

f the volume of rainfall being experienced in Lagos lately is anything to go by, residents must brace up for more such rainy moments in the coming days. According to experts, the intensity of the rains this year will be more than what had ever been experienced in the past.

Now that the rains are fully here in Lagos, it is vital to put certain things into proper perspective to enhance our understanding of related issues and most importantly intimate us with helpful safety tips.

A critical feature of Lagos topography is that it is essentially made up of low lying terrain up to 0.4 percent below the sea level. Naturally, this constitutes a huge drainage challenge for the state. If this is added to the volume of rain being experienced in the state lately, it might be really difficult to rule out flash flooding, especially in some areas.

Logically, when flash flooding occurs, one of the negative effects is that it washes away the surface of the roads, thereby making them almost impassable. This often results into avoidable gridlocks that

make motoring a dreadful experience. Flash flooding; which is mostly a consequence of Lagos’ peculiar topography is, therefore, one of the factors responsible for frequent damages of Lagos roads. This explains why the Lagos State government regularly does palliative works on roads across the State.

To avoid flooding, the State government has continued the expansion of existing drainage channels in order to contain more storm water. This is addition to lining of many earth channels, strengthening of Resident Engineers/Drainage Maintenance Officers to oversee drainage matters in all our Local Governments/LCDAs. Other activities geared towards de-flooding are improved waste water disposal as well as dredging and maintenance of primary and secondary channels across the state.

Improved waste management and collection system, annual tree planting programmes, sustained sanitation and advocacy programmes and strengthening of school advocacy programme are parts of holistic efforts of the government to protect the environment and avert flooding.

As ever, the State government is committed to a cleaner environment and quality public health through the implementation of community based solid waste management, flood control, vegetal control and high standard of home and personal hygiene, sanitation, control of environment pollution (air, water and noise), beautification and advertisement control.

Consequently, its approach to

tackling the issue of flooding in the state is multi-faceted and multidimensional. It includes dredging, massive construction and expansion of drainage channels, desilting and excavation of silts to dumpsites, regular repair, clearing and cleaning of drainages, canals and collector drains across the state.

The residents, however, need to totally avoid harmful practices that could promote flooding. For instance indiscriminate dump of refuse in canals and large drainage channels often results in blockage of free flow of waste water. This is often rampant in markets and other commercial centers as well densely populated areas of the State.

Often, the effects of such poor sanitary habit on affected residents are unquantifiable and devastating.

Some have been rendered homeless and miserable, no thanks to human induced environmental hazards.

Also, whenever it is observed that the intensity of the rains is much, it is advisable that people vacate flood prone areas. Similarly, it is also important for the citizenry, especially children to stay indoors in order to reduce movement to the barest minimum.

In fact, if it could be avoided, it is better not to drive while it is raining heavily. Similarly, we residents must maintain strict personal and environmental hygiene at all times to avoid being victims of water borne diseases.

Also, to mitigate the effects of cold, residents must ensure that children and the elderly are properly clothed with warm clothing

during the rains. It is only when this is done that we will be able to curb the spread of rain induced health hazard such as cough, cold and other related ones.

Since we now live in a hi-tech information age, it is important listen to news reports and information on weather situation from various available credible mediums. This will really aid in planning movements and avoiding flood prone locations.

Also, in view of likely destructive thunder strikes that usually accompany windy rainfall, Lagos residents are strongly advised to always disconnect all electrical appliances whenever they want to sleep or go out. This will go a long way in checkmating rain induced electrical debacles. Similarly, children should be discouraged from touching electrical equipment when wet.

In as much as it is beyond human powers to stop rains, being a natural phenomenon, we should, at least, do things that are in our powers to lessen the negative consequences of rains. This includes regular clearing of gutters and drainages in our areas, making use of suitable services to dispose waste, reporting anyone dumping refuse in drains, gutters and canals to appropriate authorities, moving immediately to higher ground when flooding is imminent wherever we are, staying away from submerged electricity cables, cleaning and disinfecting everything that gets wet, staying away from canals and drainages evacuating or leaving danger zones immediately, calling 767 in case of emergency among others.

Imo Itsueli Mohammed Hayatudeen Afolabi Oladele Vincent Maduka Opeyemi Agbaje Amina Oyagbola Bolanle Onagoruwa Fola Laoye Chuka Mordi Mezuo Nwuneli Charles Anudu Tunji Adegbesan Eyo Ekpo Wiebe Boer Paul Arinze Boye Olusanya Ayo Gbeleyi Haruna Jalo-Waziri Clement Isong

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Politics June 12, ‘93: I’m still in pain 27 years after – Rights activist Although, the event of June 12, 1993 has come and gone, its agony still remains fresh in the memories of those who were directly on the fire line of the security agents.One of the lucky survivors of the horrific events of the era, Funso Mojuba recounted his experience during the ‘war,’ lamenting that 27 years after the struggle to actualise the June 12, 1993 annulled presidential election, he is still in pain. Mojuba spoke with INIOBONG IWOK at a press conference organised by the June 12 Vanguard recently. Excerpts: As an activist, who took part in the struggle to actualise the annulled June 12, 1993 presidential election, what was the experience like? he experience is better imagined. It was terrible and horrible.

Can you believe that 27 good years after, I am still in pain? The experience is still bitter even in nearly three decades after the criminal annulment of that popularly won election.

We have just lost a Comrade, BabalolaMedayedupin this month. He was under 20 years in 1993 when M.K.OAbiola, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), presidential flag bearer launched his ‘HOPE and Bye -Bye to poverty’ campaign slogan.

We have lost many like Medayedupin who did not and will never witness a truly Democratic Nigeria they fought for because they are already gone. I am still in pain now about the unpatriotic annulment of that historic election because so many of Nigerians’ lives were and are still being sacrificed to sustain the evil interests of the reactionary southern elite and the ruinous conservative northern oligarchy.

The casualties are so many: apart from those who have lost their lives during and after the military regimes, there are those who lost their limbs, sights, careers and livelihoods to the annulment till today. Pity!

consideration for you. You are a ‘thing’!

And so shall you be treated- a parasite endangering government. Thus, from the moment and manners of arrest we were treated like dangerous species that must be summarily destroyed.

T

But how come you are still in pain after all those years?

I have not fully recovered from the damage done to my sight, career and some dangerous health issues like high blood pressure and memory loss induced by the brutal incarceration I was put through during the June 12 de-annulment struggle.

And that’s the story of many of our comrades and people who ventured to participate in the patriotic struggle to promote participatory democracy in Nigeria.

Did you just say brutal incarceration?

Yes. The State Security Service (SSS) operatives finally caught up with me and two of

Funso Mojuba

my comrades, Akin Abosanyin and Tunde Solomon Ayegboka on the 28th of January 1998, after a five-year manoeuvrings in a sort of cat and mouse game.

Obviously, someone close to us gave out nearly precise information about us to the authorities. The person who betrayed us must have for a while distanced himself from us because from the side comments of the operatives, they nearly missed our house. They thanked God for that because they would have embarrassed another person in the neighbourhood.

This was the first weakness I noticed about the Nigerian state apparatus; that, they most often don’t exercise enough patience to conduct diligent investigations before swooping on their targets. They use conjectures (which they call theory) and torture to extract information. The SSS call everybody they arrest ‘subject’ which make you less than human in their

How was your arrest effected?

They charged at us at 2:00am when the night was darkest at our apartment in Ilorin, like a commando force detailed to burst a band of coup plotters ready to strike in minutes.

They operated till 6:20am before we were herded into a waiting Peugeot saloon car. They came in two vehicles. All of the eight operatives were specially armed.

After finding their way in, they shouted and announced to us that, ‘We are Special Presidential Task Force- (SPTF) with licence to kill.’ And they truly attempted to kill us to prove that their intelligence work was properly done and that we actually resisted arrest.

This much we later realised before we were thrown into the underground cell when a man we later knew to be their Director of Operations asked with a ‘clenched teeth’, ‘how did it went?’ The answer the team leader of the arrest gave him using body and sign language confirmed the murderous intention they planned against us.

During the arrest, Comrade Akin Abosanyin was the most brutalised. His tough appearance made him their number one subject to deal with. They at first underrated me but later they discovered that we were intact like a piece of fabric. One of them, name withheld, wanted to shoot me on the left knee. He accused me of psyche-influencing Comrade Akin. That he suspected I was using cult signals to communicate.

As things are now in the country, are you hopeful that democracy you fought for would germinate and grow to be fruitful?

Yes, I am hopeful going by the activities

of Lagos State Governor, BabajideOlusolaSanwo-Olu in office within just a year. His performance has shown that our struggle for June 12 would not be in vain. Sanwo-Olu, just like Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN) convinced us that the dividends of democracy are obtainable for the people.

I believe with time, things would get better as democracy’s tap root sinks deeper and deeper in our soil.

And with this development, I pray we never sink into the valley of dictatorship in the country. In fact, our experience 27years ago cannot be described even with all the superlative adjectives in the dictionary. Never again must we allow our country to slip back into a situation that dragged the country into such an agonising period 27 years ago.

And by your own estimation, are you saying Sanwo-Olu is a beacon of democratic…?

(Cuts in)Yes, of course. He has been following the footsteps of Tinubu and Fashola in sustaining the June 12 memory and its ideals by making the dividends of democracy available to the people. His first year performance is a testimony to that.

Governor Sanwo-Olu has vindicated the good people of Lagos that they did not make a mistake by voting for him to be their governor.He stole the hearts of the people with his commitment to pay N35, 000 as minimum wage, commitment to a secured state and administration of justice and empowerment schemes.

He thereafter, capped his first year in office with a superlative performance in the way he handled the matter of COVID-19 that brought out the best out of him.

Against this background, I will advise the governor to improve on his first year performance just as I will enjoin the people to double their support for the governor so he can be encouraged to do more and take the state to the next level of economic Eldorado.

Orji Uzor Kalu-TA Orji meetings: Do Abia lives matter?

Continued from back page

leader means a lot. You are leading us. Forget about political platform”.

Chinedu was right about the Orjis being family with Kalu. His father was Chief of Staff to Kalu for eight years. Kalu’s younger brother Mascot was Chief of Staff to Chinedu’s dad. Mascot was at the meeting.

If Chinedu said these publicly what was said privately?

Kalu was in his elements. The leader said, “I want to thank you for this uncommon visit. We are in a new era. I have forgiven everybody that offended me.

I am not saying some people, I am saying everybody. I have said this to Mr. President; I have said this to our National

Working Committee; I have said this to the Chairman of the party of APC; I have said this to the Senate President and I have said this to fellow Senators.

I have forgiven everybody because my going into incarceration was a lesson for me and it was the will of God. I hold no grudges, even about the judge, Justice Idris. His father was a very close friend to this house, Justice Kutigi, may his soul rest in peace. He was coming to this house until his death. So, I bear no grudges against anybody. But I give glory to God that I was able to go there. If I did not go there, I could have died.”

Has it ever crossed Kalu’s mind that he should be asking for the forgiveness of the people of Abia? Have they forgiven him? Will they forgive him?

Abia State lies near comatose in the midst of the Coronavirus. Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has been hospitalised with the virus. The state’s health facilities are stretched with rising figures as the pandemic sets off news waves of panic. The state does not have a test laboratory. Samples are taken to Abakaliki, 112 kilometres away, on journeys that take more than three hours because of bad roads.

Did these worries feature in their current conversations which centred on their future, not the future of Abia State?

Have they not heard of how important people like them, elsewhere, are leveraging their relationships to mitigate the impact of the pandemic in their state? It is all about the Orjis with Kalu resuming

leadership. He has humbly accepted.

Chinedu spoke with unmasked authority while handing over leadership of the state to Kalu. He bowed so profoundly that you would think he was before a god. Obviously, he warehoused the leadership. What else counts?

Covid-19: Abia Lives Matter was the title of a speech by Professor Gregory Ibe, Founder/Chancellor of Gregory University, Uturu, in an interaction via Skype with journalists on Monday 15 June 2020.

It bore his concerns about the ricocheting Covid-19 figures from the state.

There is no better reminder to Kalu and the Orjis – who relish the future without the past and present - that power should be about the people. Do they care? Would they care?

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Sunday 21 June 2020

Politics APC working hard to repeat the Zamfara, Rivers episodes in Edo …As factions set to conduct different guber primaries …Obaseki officially joins PDP, confident of victory in September poll

F

Iniobong Iwok

or some time now, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has been embroiled in crisis, but just when members were coming to terms with the disqualification of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki from taking part in the party’s gubernatorial primary by the APC Edo State governorship election screening panel and Obaseki’s subsequent defection to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) another power tussle broke and has degenerated in the last few days leading to the emergence of two national chairmen, fragmenting the party into two camps.

Trouble started last week when an Abuja division of the Court of Appeal, affirmed the suspension of the party’s national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole by his Ward.

In a unanimous judgment, a three-man panel of justices of the appellate Court had held that the appeal the Oshiomhole lodged to challenge his suspension lacked merit.

Justice Mohammed Lamido who delivered the lead verdict dismissed the appeal and affirmed the decision of an Abuja High Court that earlier validated Oshiomhole’s suspension by his ward in Edo State.

Recall that the Abuja High Court at Jabi had on March 4, suspended Oshiomhole from performing the duties of the national chairman of the APC. Subsequently, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party went ahead to appoint ailing former Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi to act as the national chairman.

However, this decision was met with opposition, with subsequent declaration by the deputy national secretary of the party, Victor Giadom that he was the legally recognised national chairman of the APC. He swiftly annulled the screening process that disqualified the embattled Obaseki, as he ordered for a fresh process.

Giadom said he had the backing of the members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) on the decision.

Lawyer to Giadom, wole Afolabi had issued a statement to counter the announcement of Ajimobi as the acting national chairman.

Afolabi maintained that the judgment that was upheld which led to the suspension of Oshiomhole directed that his client should act as the National Chairman of the party.

The order according to Afolabi was issued by the FCT High Court on 16th But his claim was disputed by leaders of the party disowning Giadom, and insisting that Giadom’s membership of the NWC ceased when he resigned to contest the Deputy Governorship position in Rivers State.

However, on Thursday an Abuja High Court granted Giadom the right to act as the National Chairman APC for two

Muhammadu Buhari

Adams Oshiomhole

Hilliard Eta

Victor Giadom

weeks.

In an ex-parte application, Giadom had sought the leave of the court to take-over the running of the secretariat of the party in acting capacity and chair meetings of the NWC until the determination of the motion on notice.

In granting the ex-parte application, Justice S. U Bature empowered Mustapha Salihu, the APC national vice chairman (North East) to act as the national secretary.

Giadom through his counsel, Afolabi had said he was the authentic acting National chairman of the APC, because he was the highest ranking official following the ruling of the Court of Appeal on which upheld Oshiomhole’s suspension and declared all his actions since his suspension, null and void.

According to him, “The order was given the same day that the Court of Appeal earlier gave Oshiomhole a temporary respite by staying the execution of the said order suspending Oshiomhole.

“Now that the Court of Appeal has affirmed the order of suspension, it is only

proper that the Order recognising Chief Victor Giadom is implemented.

“Consequently, we have written to all law-enforcement agencies,” Afolabi had said.

Meanwhile, some NWC members of the party had met earlier and chose the party’s national vice-chairman (SouthSouth), Hilliard Eta, to act as national chairman of the APC in the absence of Ajimobi.

Etta had on Thursday gone ahead to inaugurate a seven-man committee to conduct the party’s governorship primary in Edo State, and another five-member appeal committee.

The election committee is headed by the Governor of Imo State, Hope Uzodinma, while a senator, Ajibola Bashiru, will act as the secretary.

Other members include Abdullahi Abass, Ibrahim Sabo, Ocho Obioma, Amina Muhammed, and Gbenga Elegbeleye.

The five-member appeal committee includes Mustapha Bello (Chairman), Kayode Ajulo (Secretary), Umar Ahmed, Nasiru Junju and Rasaq Bamu.

However, aside the national leadership

crisis, presently, the APC is also in disarray in Edo State, the well-documented supremacy battle between Governor Obaseki and his presumed political godfather, Oshiomhole has torn the party apart in the state, with each of the camps loyal to Oshiomhole and Obaseki.

Observers believe that Oshiomhole influenced Obaseki’s disqualification by the party’s governorship primary screening panel.

Oshiomhole is believed to be backing Ize-Iyamu for the APC gubernatorial ticket.

Ize-Iyamu had contested against Obaseki on the platform of the PDP in 2016 but lost.

However, with the defection of Obaseki to the PDP with his teaming supporters, the APC is running out of time to salvage the situation in Edo if it does not put its house in order. Pundits say that the party risks losing the state just like the episode in Zamfara and Rivers States in 2019 when the party allowed internal wrangling to scuttle its chances.

Presently, it appears that similar situation may happen with moves by the Giadom-led national leadership to annul the governorship primary screening done by the panel set up by Oshiomhole and his NWC after the court ruled that he was the party chairman for two weeks.

“Normally, during election period this kind of infighting often occurs in parties, but the crisis between the Edo Governor and Oshiomhole was allowed to drag too far; I thought it should have been settled by leaders of the party but they did not do that and it degenerated. You have disqualified Obaseki, but he would normally have his sympathies,” political analyst, Idowu Omolegan said.

Omolegan further urged President Muhammadu Buhari to step in and resolve the crisis in the APC, stressing that the party risked losing the state to the opposition in the September 12 gubernatorial election and could disintegrate further before 2023.

“PDP or any other serious party may win Edo if the election is allowed to go on free and fair; the APC have to act fast and salvage the state, if they think they are in control of Edo State they are joking; remember they lost the state during the presidential election.

“I think Buhari should have stepped in, but he does not care because he has served his two terms in office and seems not to be bothered about what is happening there.

The PDP had their issues sometimes ago too, but this may be taken too far, it may consume the APC, even ahead 2023,” he said.

But Yomi Farounbi, a lawyer, said the court’s decision to make Giadom the national chairman was binding on the party and should be obeyed, stressing that recent moves by the leaders to act contrary to the Court order does not show that they want peace and could affect the party’s chances in the Edo gubernatorial election.

“It is not a crisis of an unorganised group, they have structure; if care is not taken it

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11

Politics A peep into Benue Assembly Majority Leader’s scorecard

I

BENJAMIN AGESAN, Makurdi

t’s already one year into the second tenure of Damian Cheme, the Benue State House of Assembly member representing Gwer West State Constituency. It’s also his fifth year in his eight years of representation. He was elected on March 9, 2019 for a second term.

One thing has emboldened Cheme’s commitment to the service of his people. It is his electoral victories in 2015 and 2019.

His constituents resolved to stand by him for not being intimidated at critical times.

That’s why his election was tested at tribunals and his mandate was validated.

In spite of the daunting challenges, Cheme has made significant and appreciable impact in various council wards and communities of his local government. It’s on record that his biggest challenge has been the threat to security caused by the invasion of, and killing of his people by armed herdsmen. From January 2018 till date, the armed herdsmen have killed more than 200 people in Gwer west and sacked several communities. Right now, many of his constituents are among the more than 250,000 Internally Displaced Persons located in different places.

Cheme, a lover of his people, took the bull by the horns by hugely contributing to the passage of the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law 2017” to curb the persistent farmers/ herders crisis in Benue State specifically his Constituency.

Aside that, he sponsored so many bills (both executive and non-executive) and several motions of immense importance to his constituents and the state at large as a principal officer of the assembly.

The lawmaker sponsored many annual soccer competitions to enhance grassroots sports development; he completely renovated Naka Motor Park located at the headquarters of his constituency among many others.

He has equally purchased over 20 motorcycles and cars to aid mobility.

Since he came on board, Cheme has

Damian Cheme

influenced more than ten (10) capital projects in his Constituency, he has also constructed two (2) primary health care centers at Agbo Gyaluwa and Tse Akumen Gyaluwa, annual provision of agro chemicals and fertilizer to farmers for enhanced agricultural performance and productivity in line with the diversification policy of the Federal Government for agricultural revolution.

The state lawmaker has also constructed an earth Dam at Tse-kperyisa to help alleviate the perennial water shortage in the area. He has equally constructed a bridge at River chu along Naka on Mba Avaa-Bonaka road.

Presently, more than fifty (50) students in tertiary institutions are benefiting from his assistance in areas of school fees and other allowances, provision of learning materials for primary schools in his Constituency.

As a Philanthropist, Cheme has given assistance to more than one hundred (100) members of his Constituency for hospital bills, empowerment of the physically challenged in the provision of mobility and household materials to the incapacitated.

The Gwer west legislator also facilitated the employment of his constituents into the state civil service and reinstatement of some constituents back to work. He also

gives annually, Christmas and festival gifts to the members of his Constituency and celebrates or mourns with constituents in such occasions.

As member of the 9th Assembly which came into being in June 3rd, 2019, Cheme and his counterparts have passed so many resolutions including appropriation bill of 2019 which has taken effect in 2020. This achievement he said is the first of its kind since the history of Benue Assembly The early and timely passage of the budget according to the state legislator was intended to enable the Executive carry out its projects without hindrance and that accounted for why in a recent interview with BusinessDay, he debunked the allegations that the legislature was coerced into hastily passing the budget last year without scrutiny.

He said the Executive did not rush them.

“The truth is that, before you can pass any budget, it has to go in line with the Executive and the Legislature to harmonise their concept in any decision that they want to take. That’s why if a budget is passed, sometimes, it comes back and goes again because of some mistakes. Budget has a process and once that process is followed, there is no problem. It is not about how long it takes. We acted fast in the interest

of Benue people,” he said.

Hon. Cheme also cleared air on the rumour that the 9th Benue Assembly was nothing but a rubber stamp and is absolutely controlled by the Executive.

He explained that the present Assembly has multiple party affiliations: the PDP, APC and other parties but PDP is the majority and as governor, that fact cannot be ignored. “It is only when opposition has many members that people think it is vibrant. But the party that puts us there has ideology and we are following it, we are working for the government and for the party. If things are working fine, why should opposition make noise again?” he asked rhetorically.

In terms of constituency briefing which is the statutory duty of any lawmaker to his or her constituents, Cheme has not left his people in doubt. He told BDSUNDAY that he is already heading towards constituency briefing which he intends to be doing at the end of every Legislative year.

This, after all, he said the calendar which takes place three times in a session stipulates that members can brief their constituents within three to four months depending on how it is arranged in a session as recess takes place three times in a year.

Cheme said he believes he has so far done well as can be seen in his constant touch with Gwer West people as expected of every good representative. Through this, he revealed that he has identified their problems as that of insecurity and has been able to broker peace as well as provide security in Naka and its environs.

He has also proposed many bills both executive and for his constituent which are yet to be passed but have crossed second reading and he is part of its sponsorship.

It is said that health is wealth and in corroborating this saying, Cheme has given his people adequate orientation about the outbreak of the dreaded coronavirus pandemic so that they will not contract it.

The majority leader of the Benue State House of Assembly is leaving no stone unturned in his determination to unite Gwer West political elite across party lines.

APC working hard to repeat the Zamfara, ... may consume them, the party may fall; they have a constitution; are they following it? Are they making moves to resolve the crisis at hand?

“They are just playing games if they don’t come together they may end up destroying themselves and lose the state. Did the committee do a transparent screening for Obaseki?

“We all know what is happening, they should have gone back to Court and challenged the decision of the Court to make Giadom chairman rather than resorting to what they are doing now; go to the Court and tell them this is against your party’s constitution and since they have not done that, the Court’s decision stands,” Farounbi said.

Obaseki officially joins PDP, confident of victory in September poll While the bickering continues in the APC, Obaseki last Friday, officially joined the

PDP in furtherance of his ambition to seek re-election for a second term in the September 2020 gubernatorial poll in the state.

The governor, who had kept a lid on his next move since leaving the APC, quietly drove out of the Government House, Benin City, on Friday, at 2:25pm, headed for the Secretariat of the PDP in the state.

His motorcade drove through major roads leading to the PDP secretariat on First East Circular Road, Benin City, to cheers from both sides of the road.

Speaking to a gathering of party members and supporters, Governor Obaseki, said: “I am here to inform you that upon my resignation from the APC, having consulted widely from within the state and across the country, I have decided to become a member of the PDP. “As has been demonstrated, this is a party that is rooted in democratic practices; it believes in justice and fairness

and respects its members. Today is not the day I will make a speech. You will hear from me soon.

“I am here to go through the formalities of registering as a member of this great party. I know that upon taking membership of this party, I automatically become the leader of the party; that is the constitution. I read it thoroughly last night.”

He continued: “I want to assure all of you that I am prepared to provide leadership that will lead the party to victory.

I will provide a leadership that will not only put PDP ahead in Edo State but, as a ruling party in Edo State, we will make sure that the level of progress, growth and participation in the political system by our people is unrivaled in this country.

“I am very happy to be here. The reception I have received has been ecstatic.

The energy I see here is the kind of energy I require to take Edo to the next level.”

Noting that he was committed to changing the narrative of the party in the state, Obaseki said, “If you think we have done a lot in the last four years, you haven’t seen anything yet. With the quality of people I have seen here, the quality of people running the party, and the energy of youth I see, by the grace of God who made this day possible, I am committing to you that I will not only lead this party to victory in Edo State, but we will make sure that this party sets an example of how states should be run in Africa. Today, it is with great pleasure, Mr. Chairman, that I have come to formally take on my membership of this great party.

The governor was received by the National Vice Chairman, South-south of the PDP, Chief Emmanuel Ogidi, in the company of the PDP State Chairman, Mr. Anthony Aziegbemi and other party executives, including the governor’s ward chairman.

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Person In The News

For Adams Oshiomhole, is it ‘Tekel’?

ZEBULON AGOMUO

W

hen the word ‘tekel’ appeared a m o n g three other words on the wall in the old Babylonian Empire, written by a hand, the owner of which was not visible, the knees of a sitting king, Belshazzar, knocked together for fear.

The story goes that King Belshazzar holds a great feast and drinks from the vessels that had been looted in the destruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem. He had blasphemed God and so, God sent the hand to write. The four words that summarised Belshazzar’s activities and judgment were, ‘Mene, Mene, Tekel, Urphasin’.

Whereas ‘Mene’ was interpreted to mean, “God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end”, ‘Tekel’ meant, “You have been weighed …and found wanting”, and ‘Peres’, “Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

That very night, something happened to Belshazzar, and Darius the Mede received the Kingdom. It is all about politics and the use of power!

La s t Mo n d a y, Ju n e 1 5 , 2020, was a unique day in the life of Adams Oshiomhole. He had received the report of the screening committee that disqualified the governor of his home state, Godwin Obaseki from taking part in the gubernatorial primary election ahead of the election proper slated for September 16.

Oshiomhole was basking in the euphoria of a job well done, and toasting to the removal of a stumbling block, as it were. He had set the ball rolling on how he would personally supervise the all-important primary election and, wham, a hand began to write.

The next morning, there was the word ‘Peres’ boldly written on the wall of his office at the national headquarters of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)- an Appeal Court spoke, upholding his suspension!

Those who have watched Oshiomhole critically since he assumed the chairmanship position of the ruling party, say that the same set of “sins” that were found in King Belshazzar, were the undoing of the suspended party chairman.

Like Belshazzar, Oshiomhole has been serially accused of

Ibrahim Gambari

pride and arrogance. Moreover, Belshazzar’s disregard for or failure to honour God was legendary.

Unlike his father, Nebuchadnezzar, who repented and humbled himself before God and was restored to his kingdom, Belshazzar lost his glory for his obstinacy. These were the iniquities that were neither found in the lives of two former chairmen of the party, Bisi Akande and John Oyegun-Odigie.

Oshiomhole came to limelight in Nigeria riding on the vehicle of labour activism/unionism. He became the national president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), a platform that exposed him to wealth and fame. He climbed on the back of hapless workers to become wealthy and a power broker.

He was said to be a former local tailor before his stint with labour movement. Those who have followed his trajectory in life accuse him of pomposity and inability to remember his yesterday. He courts controversy and regales in it. He talks and grandstands as though the whole world were under his feet. In his elements, he is uncouth and boasts of many things. The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) will not forget in a hurry some of the adjectives he has employed to describe the umbrella association.

Oshiomhole’s true colour was seen during the last general election. His boastful words and arrogant prancing on the soap box during the election-

eering campaign across the country rankled many. Every opportunity he got was used to verbally insult and denigrate opponents of his party.

The initial loss of Imo State to PDP at the election was attributed to his lack of tact. His lack of finesse was also said to have cost the party Zamfara State. He was also partly blamed for the APC’s ordeals in Rivers and Bayelsa states.

Those who hold these against him say, instead of him sitting down to get his acts together

concerning the legal issues in those states, he chose the part of filibustering and braggadocio while the opponents were more calculating.

One of those that will not forget Oshiomhole in a hurry or forgive him so soon is Aisha Al-Hassan, popularly known as Mama Taraba, a former minister of Women Affairs, who was literally forced out of the party by denying her the gubernatorial ticket.

Rochas Okorocha, a former governor of Imo State, would have seen Oshiomhole as a perpetual enemy were it not that after the acrimonious gubernatorial and senatorial elections in Imo, he (Okorocha) managed to get to the Senate. For the Owelle, the joy of being in the Senate overrides Oshiomhole’s antagonism.

Oshiomhole’s current travails seem to indicate that those that have an axe to grind with him are more than his friends, even in a party he claims to be a tin-god.

In a video that is making the rounds on social media, the former Edo governor was seen campaigning vigorously for Obaseki and dressing him in flowery apparel. He swore on camera that anything about Obaseki was beautiful. Today, the same man is swearing to an oath that what he said nearly four years ago, were all false. And many people are wondering where he dropped his cloak of integrity. Making a 360 degrees’ volte-face on an

issue questions his integrity.

In a space of two years in the saddle, Oshiomhole has arrogated to himself more power than his party’s constitution allocated to him. He has become more powerful than any known party chairman in Nigeria since 1999. On several occasions, he had bragged that the APC would rule Nigeria for as long as it wished. He neither cared to seek the views of the Nigerian voting masses nor crosschecked with Vincent Ogbulafor, a former PDP chairman, who once boasted that the umbrella party was going to hold the mantle of leadership beyond 60 years.

It is telling that when Oshiomhole thought he had got the APC under his feet, he was shoved aside, temporarily.

His return may be predicated upon the decision of the court.

And contrary to his desire to supervise the gubernatorial primary elections in Ondo and Edo states, and to personally enthrone those he wanted to fly the party’ flag, and also oversee the complete humiliation of his perceived enemies, he would now be watching the game from the sidelines. Like the barber’s chair, the game of politics is never stationary.

The question on the lips of those who have followed the leadership style of Oshiomhole is, will he learn any lesson from what is happening to him and the Babel that APC seems to have become today? Time will tell.

On the marble: Oshiomhle’s flowery words about Obaseki in 2016 • God knows that Godwin comes from a large family in Benin Kingdom, he went to school, he finished his secondary school, he went to University of Ibadan, he finished, there were no issues, he finished in flying colours.

• He went to the U.S., he did his Masters, he came back home, started helping people to set up businesses, he helped to manage businesses, he helped to set up many banks including several second-generation banks.

• I don’t care if Obaseki betrays me at the end of the day, Obaseki’s allegiance should be to the people and not me.

• The oath of office he is going to subscribe to says that he will defend the constitution of Nigeria; he will do everything to uplift the quality of life of Edo people. Nothing in his oath of of-

fice will include ‘I shall not betray my predecessor’ because I have no interest to be betrayed.

• Obaseki had been part of the tradition, he knows the vision, he knows the mission, he knows the target, he knows where we are, he knows the challenges, and he knows how to overcome them.

• He sits in the office of the economic team which he built using his network of friends inside the heart of government house without demanding one naira.

• I know my limit. He knows his limit. Godwin Obaseki has worked for seven and half years for the people of Edo State, using his brain, creativity, quietly, not making noise.

• A man like Obaseki, who will not ask me to give him contracts, but will promise me, comrade, you just do the thinking; we will create the means to actualise

your thoughts.

• And to his credit today, check the books of Edo State, we did not build new structures in government house with government money. That economic team office was built through Godwin’s network. Today, it remains a permanent asset of the state government.

• I want us to be calling that building Godwin Obaseki building. I don’t see your opponent Ize-Iyamu being able to say that.

• In 2007, check the records, Ize-Iyamu was hiding from EFCC. He did not vote. How can somebody who didn’t vote claim that he made me.

• If you have to look at Godwin and his credentials and you look at a man (Ize-Iyamu) whose only work, by his CV, was a student and rusticated for two years, he read law but he is not a barrister.

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Bliss with Nonye Ben-Nwankwo

BDSUNDAY 13

Email: chiwuagwu@yahoo.com Phone number (SMS only) 08057511893

Covid 19 is real, I’m a witness – Azadus

V

eteran musician, Azadus, is the latest COVID 19 survivor who is all thankful that he survived this pandemic currently ravaging the entire globe.

On his social media handle recently, the You is The One crooner was all grateful to God and to the Lagos State government for his recovery from the dreaded scourge.

In a series of post on his instagram page, the crooner advised people who still feel the Corona Virus is a fluke that he is a living witness to the fact that Corona is real since he just recovered from it.

He wrote, “If you must go out today, my advice is that you anyone and everyone as COVID 19.

If you still don’t believe that it exists, kindly ask me questions so I can share the horrible experience God graciously got me out of with you. COVID19b is

so real. Good morning to you, thanks for your love and care, may God bless and Protect us all, Amen. @lagosstategovt under the her ever caring Governor @jidesanwoolu is really trying. God is my Witness. Don’t forget to say a word of prayer for

him please.”

In another post, Azadus reiterated the existence of the virus while still encouraging people to stay at home and follow other precautionary measures to beat the virus.

He wrote, “Glory be to God, I just got discharged

of Covid-19. Half bread is better than puff-puff.

That garri in your house is better than the good meals you won’t be able to eat at the hospital.

My Advice: If you must go out, see everyone as that COVID-19 itself and wash your hands for 40 seconds at the least.

Meanwhile, if you insist that Covid-19 is not real, Covid-19 is not in Nigeria or Africa, well, don’t be shy to ask me questions.

A fool is always in doubt and quick to disregard what comes from others. A wise man identifies the wise and foolish, gets close and learn. Don’t be a fool. Learn to add to your arsenal.”

Born Olalekan Fadeyi, Azadus was one of the popular musicians on the entertainment scene. Signed under Kennis Music back then, Azadus recorded some hit tracks that also made him to be the toast of the moment back then.

‘Why we included ‘Living in Bondage’ on our Airtel TV Platform’

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irtel Nigeria, in partnership with Trace Content Distribution, a new division within the Trace TV Group, has announced the availability of the classic drama thriller, Living in Bondage – Breaking Free on the Airtel TV platform.

Commenting on the inclusion of the movie on Airtel TV, Dinesh Balsingh, Chief Commercial Officer, Airtel Nigeria, said Airtel will always go the extra-mile to deliver topnotch and quality content for telecommunications consumers on the Airtel

TV platform.

“Airtel is revolutionizing the television viewing experience for all its customers. With Airtel TV, we bring the best shows, best movies and the best of Live TV to our customers, engaging them with premium content as well as bringing joy, happiness and laughter to everyone regardless of location, entry fee and income level,” Balsingh said.

Directed by veteran actor, Ramsey Nouah, the drama thriller is a sequel to the 1990’s blockbuster ‘Living in Bondage’ with

a riveting plot and an ensemble cast, including Kanayo O. Kanayo, Kenneth Okonkwo and Enyinna Nwigwe, among others.

Produced by Charles Okpaleke, ‘Living in Bondage: Breaking Free’ has received critical acclaim taking home 11 awards (a landslide) at the 2020 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) and numerous positive reviews from critics, reviewers and movie lovers, with many praising the cinematography, setting and performances from the cast, especially

Ramsey Nouah, Muna and Kanayo.

Managing Director, Trace, Sam Onyemelukwe, commented: “Airtel TV represents a revolution for movies and series in Nigeria and beyond, Trace Content Distribution (TCD, a new division within Trace) saw Airtel TV as a massive opportunity for the industry, so as a key aggregator for Airtel TV, we are excited to bring Living in Bondage onto the platform and look forward to continuing the trend with other blockbuster Nollywood movies”

Burna Boy, Rema bag BET nominations

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erial award winner, Burna Boy, is really on top of his game at the moment as he keeps being recognisedforhistalentinthe music industry.

Now, BET has announced the nominees for the BET Awards 2020 and Nigeria’s Burna Boy bags a nomination in the Best International Act category.

Canadian rapper, Drake, leads the pack with six nominations. This year’s nominees reflect an abundance of creative expression and black excellence across music,television,film,sports,and philanthropy.

Also representing Nigeria on the nominees list this year is Rema who was nominated for Viewers’ Choice Best New International Act. Other African nominees includeSouthAfricansuperstar Sho Madjozi and Congolese singer-songwriterInnoss’Bin the “Best International Act” category, and Zimbabwean songstress Sha Sha who is nominated in the Viewers Choice Best New International Act category.

MondeTwala,SeniorVice President and General Manager of ViacomCBS Networks Africa commented, “We are excited to celebrate 20 years of black excellence at the BET Awards during these unprecedented times.

The International Act categories over the years have honoured some of the most talented musicians in Africa.

This continues at this year’s

awards with multiple artists nominated from across the continent which is a testament to our commitment to shine a light on our own.

We wish all our international nominees the best in this recognition on a global stage.”

Drake returns to the top spotsecuringsixnods,including‘BestMaleHipHopArtist,’ ‘Video of the Year,’ and two nods for both ‘Best Collaboration’ and ‘Viewer’s Choice’ for his features alongside Chris Brown ( No Guidance) and Future (Life Is Good).

NewcomersMeganThee Stallion and Roddy Ricch garnered the second most nods with five nominations each. Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, Lizzo, and DaBaby are third place with four nominations each.

In its twentieth year, the “BET AWARDS” continues its reign as the ultimate platform to showcase the best and most beautiful aspects of the Black experience – celebrating Black music’s present and future, and elevating the culture and being a driving force for social change.

BET recognizes artists, entertainers, and athletes across 21 categories with The “BET Awards” 2020 nominations.

The nominations are selected

by BET’s Voting Academy, whichiscomposedoffansand an esteemed group of entertainment professionals in the fields of television, film, music, socialmedia,digitalmarketing, sports journalism, public relations, and creative arts.

DStv, others make list of Most Admired Brands in Africa

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Stv has emerged as one of the most admired brands in Africa. The MultiChoiceowned video entertainment platform joins a number of other globally revered brands on the Brand Africa’s list of top 100 most admired brands in Africa. This was revealed in a virtual event hosted by Open Squares represented by its founder and managing partner, Feyi Olubodun and MultiChoice Nigeria represented by its Chief Customer Officer, Martin Mabutho on Thursday, June 18, 2020.

The list which has a 13

percent representation of indigenous African brands has DStv as one of its top five African brands; the others being MTN, Dangote,

Anbessa and Glo. DStv moves up nine places from its #45 ranking last year to #36 on this year’s top 100 list and 1 place from #4 to

#3 on the most Admired African brands list.

In a survey to establish the most admired African brands in Nigeria, Dangote came tops followed by DStv at #2 and Telco giant MTN at #3, with fellow Nigerian brands Glo and Innoson Motors rounding off the Top 5.

DStv, Africa’s leading Pay TV platform, also tops the list of most admired African media brands in Nigeria. A listing that doesn’t come as a surprise considering that a few months ago, it had also emerged as the preferred Pay TV option for Nigerians following a festive season

survey by Netng.

Speaking at the virtual event, Martin Mabutho, the Chief Customer Officer at MultiChoice Nigeria said, “It is our honour to be associated with Africa’s Best Brands and delighted to co-host this session in conjunction with Brand Africa and Open Squares. I believe that as Africans, we have what it takes to launch our brands to the next level and even compete favourably with global brands. It is what drives us at MultiChoice Nigeria to continuously create and enhance our platforms to showcase these excellent

African brands. Congratulations to all winners. ” Established 10 years ago, Brand Africa’s top 100 most admired brands in Africa list is a consumer-led survey which seeks to establish brand preferences across Africa. According to the publication, “the survey is conducted among a representative sample of respondents 18 years and older, in 27 countries which collectively represent 50% of the continent, covering all economic regions and accounting for an estimated 80% of the population and the GDP of Africa.”

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Sunday 21 June 2020

Health&Science Nordica launches new products to solve infertility challenge

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One abnormal result doesn’t mean male infertility CONTRIBUTOR

ANTHONIA OBOKOH ith the high rate of infertility seen in Nigeria , Nordica, a fertility specialist center, has developed two products that would help in solving the infertility challenges suffered by millions of families.

The new products know as Nordica Flex Plan and Nordica Xclusive, are innovations developed by the firm amidst the coronavirus pandemic, which the lockdowns have affected local and international travel, hospitality industry, entertainment industry, but most importantly, it has put a huge strain on the healthcare sector.

Around the world, treatment of fertility is a high cost ticket item. In the USA, the average cost of an IVF cycle has been put between $10,000 to $15,000, for the basic treatment without any add-on treatments and drugs.

In the UK, the average cost for basic IVF with own eggs can cost as much as £9000.

While when using donor eggs it can range between £9000 - £12000.

“To change this narrative and help many more people access fertility treatment in

ABAYOMI AJAYI

R the country, we have developed the flex pay plan, an installment payment plan that allows couples to save towards having babies of their own,” said Abayomi Ajayi, the managing director, Nordica Fertility Centre.

According to him, while the world is focused on COVID-19, we need to keep our eyes on couples who are fertility challenged. With the easy payment options, couples who qualify for the plan and stay focused on achieving their goal of childbirth.

“The Flex Pay Plan will allow couples to set a target for themselves. While they are on the plan, they will have access to some of our premium services leading up to the final treatment required. We implore couples to take advantage of the plan to complete their families,” he said.

While the Flex play plan

was built to provide families who might not have the financial power to foot the bill of fertility treatment at once, the Nordica Xclusive was developed by the firm to cater for its extremely confidentiality focused clients who may have opted for their treatment abroad.

Abayomi also noted that in the face of travel restrictions and the hazards of COVID-19, seeing a premium local alternative that offers flexible appointment-only services with the aim of giving them extremely personalized service was only but necessary.

“Couples who desire this level of world-class service can latch onto Nordica Xclusive.”

“We want to assure Nigerians that we will constantly resolve to innovate and bring world class fertility management services to Nigerians,” he added.

4 in 5 employees in Nigeria at high risk of mental health issues- New study ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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our in five (79%) of employees in Nigeria are at increased risk of developing mental health issues, a new study has shown.

According to the study, negative working environment may lead to physical and mental health problems, harmful use of substances or alcohol, absenteeism and lost productivity, but workplaces that promote mental health and support people with mental disorders are more likely to reduce absenteeism,

increase productivity and benefit from associated economic gains.

The study found that 8 percent of Nigerian employees had an increased risk for developing depression, which is double the actual incidence rate currently recorded and making Nigeria the country with the highest caseload of depression in Africa, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Nigeria is currently the seventh-largest country in the world, and is home to Africa’s highest caseload of depression, ranking 15th in

the world in the frequency of suicide, according to WHO. The study which was published by WellNewMe, a health technology company, also revealed that a third of all the employees are at an increased risk to workplace stress.

Studies have shown that at least one in four persons will suffer from mental health issues in their lifetime. A recent WHOled study estimates that depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy US$ 1 trillion each year in lost productivity.

United Way Greater Nigeria distributes Covid-19 palliatives in Lagos communities ANTHONIA OBOKOH

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nited Way Greater Nigeria (UWGN) provides COVID-19 palliatives containing staple food and hygiene items for vulnerable communities in Lagos State.

In response to the COVID-19 crisis and rising levels of hunger in communities across Nigeria, United Way Greater Nigeria is expanding its reach to more vulnerable communities in the rural areas of Lagos State. Its “Food For All” program is focused on distributing staple food and hygiene items to the

most vulnerable; Low and Lower-Middle Income earning populations.

United Way Greater Nigeria is a registered nonprofit organization that focuses on Health, Education and Financial Stability of individuals on Nigerian communities.

Si n c e l a u n c h i n g t h e UWGN COVID-19 Re sponse Initiative in April, United Way Greater Nigeria in partnership with individuals, corporate organizations and non-profit organizations have already distributed more than 2,000 packs of food and hygiene items to

people in need. UWGN COVID-19 Response Initiative will help mitigate the economic impact of the virus on these vulnerable individuals.

The philanthropic and in-kind contributions from Cymatics, Unilever Nigeria, Nigerian-American Chamber of Commerce and RedStar Logistics, has enabled the distribution of about 700 packs of staple food and hygiene items and is paving the way for more distributions in more communities.

United Way Greater Nigeria calls for more organizations to partner and support our efforts.

eceiving a diagnosis of male infertility can be emotionally distressing, but there are tests and treatments you can explore. If you are concerned about your sperm health the best thing to do is to go for tests and even if the result is not favorable, the most important thing to know is that one poor result doesn’t necessarily mean you’re infertile for life.

Your semen analysis can be affected by recent illness, anxiety over the examination, and other various factors. Not abstaining from ejaculation for the three to four days before your test can also alter the results. Therefore, an abnormal test result can actually still turn out to be normal because sperm parameters fluctuate. A semen analysis needs to test abnormal twice to truly be abnormal.

Your doctor is likely to order one or two followup tests few weeks afterwards to see if the abnormal results repeat. It’s also important to remember that all the semen analysis results need to be considered together. If the only abnormal finding is a high white blood cell count, but other semen parameters are normal, and there are no other signs of infection, then your results may, in fact, be considered normal.

But if a second followup test returns poor results, you should see a reproductive urologist and reproductive endocrinologist. If you have very poor semen quality, you are at an increased risk for testicular disease as well. In most cases, there is more emphasis on treating the sperm than treating the man, so it’s important to look at the whole picture.

Before you experienced infertility, you may have only been familiar with sperm count. You are likely to know that having a low sperm count is a problem.

You may not have been aware of the many other ways sperm or semen can be abnormal.

Azoospermia is when there is zero sperm in the ejaculate. It is also referred to as having “no sperm count” and is a severe form of male infertility. The semen may appear completely normal otherwise, so the condition can only be diagnosed through semen analysis. Common causes include congenital anomalies of the male reproductive tract and genetic disorders. If you have untreated sexually trans-

mitted infections, they can cause obstructions that lead to azoospermia. It can also result as a complication of hernia repair by a unskilled surgeon.

When the sperm count is lower than normal, it is known as oligospermia, further characterized as being mild, moderate and severe. Frequently, when the sperm count is low, other issues related to sperm health are also present, such as problems with sperm movement and sperm shape.

Environmental conditions, work-related exposure, and lifestyle choices can cause low sperm count. For example, overheating the testicles, toxic chemical exposure at work, smoking, obesity, or recreational drug and alcohol use can reduce sperm counts. In some cases, lifestyle changes may improve sperm count enough to improve fertility. Oligozoospermia is the most common reason for subfertility in men. Men with mild or moderate oligozoospermia might still be able to father a child naturally. However, the lower the sperm count, the less likely it is that the couple will have pregnancy success without the help of fertility treatments. It can also take longer to conceive.

Ev e n t h o u g h t h e World Health Organization (WHO) defines poor sperm motility by the percentage of properly moving sperm, research has found that the total number of motile sperm is a better measure of fertility. For example, less than five million motile sperm would be considered to severe male infertility, 5 to 10 million would be moderately infertile, and over 15 million motile sperm would be considered normal.

Sperm morphology or the shape of the sperm is also significant. Normal sperm have an oval head with a long tail. Abnormal sperm may have an oddly shaped head, more than one head, or more than one tail. Sperm shape is essential to the ability of the sperm to move or swim.

Therefore, it’s not uncommon for poor sperm morphology to go along with poor sperm movement.

If the sperm are not of normal shape and cannot move well, they might not be able to fertilize an egg.

Poor sperm morphology can have a variety of genetic causes. In rare cases, some specific genetic causes lead to all the sperm being the same abnormal shape. Many causes of poor sperm shape can also lead to poor sperm motility or low sperm count.

The normal and abnormal ranges for semen analysis are based on the percentage of men who had a particular result and

went on to father a child within a year. Your semen health might be subpar, but you may still be able to conceive. Likewise, normal results on a basic semen analysis do not necessarily guarantee fertility.

Semen analysis is not a test of fertility rather it’s a tool to investigate the possible causes of infertility.

For example, a low sperm count is not a diagnosis itself, but a symptom that can be only discovered through semen analysis.

There are a variety of causes for low sperm count. Sometimes, a cause is never found. If your semen analysis shows that you have a low sperm count, your doctor’s goal will be to find out the cause and determine what can be done to help you and your partner have a baby.

Beyond basic semen analysis, your doctor might also want to perform other tests depending on your results.

If poor results persist after additional testing is performed, lifestyle changes, medications, or surgery might help. Your best fertility treatment is IVF. Treatment for male infertility is not always straightforward or quick.

Your doctor may recommend one treatment and, if it fails to work, may recommend that you try another.

Your partner’s fertility will also be taken into account when devising a treatment plan.

Sperm regenerates every three months., so the value of waiting for the sperm to improve versus doing fertility treatments is often dependent on the woman’s testing and age Before making any treatment decisions, it is important to evaluate the fertility potential of both you and your spouse through testing. Infertility testing and treatment is a team sport.

If you’ll be trying out medication, lifestyle changes, or surgery, it’s important to know that your semen health will take time to improve. While sperm might seem to be produced at the moment of ejaculation, it actually takes weeks for sperm to develop within the male reproductive system.

Therefore, your doctor may want you to have a follow-up semen analysis three to four months after a treatment plan is put in place.

The reversible changes to semen quality can be effected over two to three months by quitting smoking, reducing alcohol intake, cutting out high fat/ high-calorie foods. Stopping any use of steroids or testosterone will also make an improvement.

Abayomi Ajayi, MD/CEO Nordica Fertility Centre info@abayomiajayi.com.ng,

Sunday 21 June 2020

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Focus 240 days of rainfall: How prepared is Lagos to cage nature in its fury?

CHUKA UROKO

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agos State government has always been proactive, or so it seems, in handling most of the natural and man-made challenges it faces by reason of its peculiar circumstances or accident of its location as a coastal city.

When early this year the Nigerian Meteorological Agency (NiMET), in its 2020 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP), revealed that Lagos was going to experience 240-270 days of rainfall with a maximum annual rainfall estimated at 1,750mm, the state was quick to respond to that scary prediction.

“Lagos is ready, no cause for alarm,” Tunji Bello, the state commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, assured at a press conference he addressed along with Joe Igbokwe, Special Adviser to the Governor on Drainage Services and Water Resources, as well as Lekan Shodehinde, Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Service.

The commissioner urged Lagos residents not to panic at the prediction, saying, “I want to assure you that our state will continue to reap the gains of planning, as our flood control measures are being stepped up to contain any unforeseen weather condition.”

On his part, Igbokwe also assured of measures being put in place to contain the expected flooding that will accompany the prolonged rainfall. “The forecast is 240 days of rainfall for Lagos; we are aware of it and we are working very hard on that.

“As the Special Adviser to the Governor on Drainage and Water Resource, I can assure you that we have been dealing with the canals. As I speak to you now, we have been dealing with the tertiary drains, primary drains and secondary drains,” Igbokwe said.

Igbokwe, who was a guest speaker at a Webinar on the impact of the predicted 240-270 days of rainfall on real estate hosted by Nigerian Institution of Estate Sur-

veyors and Valuers (NIESV), Lagos Branch, admitted that it was the duty of government to take water away from the environment.

The special adviser revealed that they were working on 38 primary channels that are the biggest channels in Lagos, noting that they had completed 12, remaining 24 which are the big channels that will be channeled into the lagoon.

“For the secondary channels, we are working on 222; we have completed 146; 76 is ongoing so this is what we are doing right now,” he said, recalling that the state had had a couple of flooding issues in the past, because nothing was done to these channels.

Without a doubt, judging from the submissions and assurances of these principal officers in the state’s ministry of the environment, the state is preparing itself for the predicted unusual seasonal rains.

But the early morning heavy downpour of Thursday, June 18 (last week), punctured these inflated balloons; the down-pour put a spanner in the works the state and its officials say they are doing to ensure that the state, which prides itself as a mega-city with an aspiration to become a 21st Century Economy,

is insulated from the yearly ritual.

The incidents and experiences coupled with many unreported ones say it all that the state government and its officials have a lot more to do if the 240 days of rainfall prediction is anything to go by. The impact of the only two days of rainfall means that their best so far is not good or strong enough to tame nature when it bares its fangs and fury even for 7days.

The flood water also swept some debris in its path, causing some drains and drainage channels to become blocked. Residents of Ijesha in Surulere were seen dealing with this even as the flood continued to frustrate their efforts on the street connecting the area to Cele Bridge on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway.

This means that the Office of Drainage Service has its work cut out for it. What the special adviser to the governor says they are doing or have done is just a scratch of the surface. They have to do more. It is not enough to ask the residents living on flood-prone areas to relocate.

Shodeinde explained at the Webinar that Lagos has flooding challenge because the city has experienced developments that

precede governance—a situation where so many developers do their development prior to government approval.

For that reason, he said, developers that do not have building approval are more than those that actually have approval from the government before development.

“It is like we are pretty catching up with development; areas that are low land would have been fully built up without any infrastructure built up for drainage or for you to advance any mitigations or measures to put in place for people to follow through to have a good life,” he noted.

This means that an inter-ministerial collaboration is needed and urgently too. The Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development should lead a discussion with the ministries of Housing, Environment, and Office of Drainage Service on how to save the environment and the residents from flood.

Thursday June 18 experience is not good to have a second time. It was a day Nature in its fury emptied its bowel in what was clearly a torrential down-pour that caused massive flooding in many parts of the sprawling city, throwing the entire city into confusion and panic. It was a day when flood was king on many roads and in many homes.

The early morning rain that continued till late afternoon, left homes and roads flooded, making movement difficult and impossible in some locations. The rain which started from the previous day, Wednesday, brought untold hardship to the residents.

Like most flooding incidents in Lagos, the flood that came with the Thursday torrential downpour did not only end at submerging roads, homes and communities. It also claimed life, injured many and destroyed properties. A four-yearold girl identified as Azeezat was reportedly swept off by the flood.

Azeezat was said to have been swept away at No 38 Fashola Street, off Olabode Street, Papa Asafa, in Orile-Agege area of the state. The incident, according to

eyewitnesses, happened around 10am when the rain was still pounding hard.

Also, a pregnant woman and others narrowly escaped death, as they were rescued at No 26 Railway Line, Ashade Quarters, behind Guinness when four buildings collapsed in the area as a result of the rainfall and the attendant flood.

At No. 3 Sadiku Street, Alagba, Iyana Ipaja, a storey building suddenly collapsed during the downpour. The building which collapsed partially on Thursday consisted of 8 rooms, 23 shops and 1store.

Though both the mainland and island neighbourhoods in the state were affected, the island was worse off. In Lekki, for instance, almost the entire length of Admiralty Way was heavily flooded, causing a slow vehicular movement. It was the same story in other streets. VGC was also flooded.

In Ikoyi, there was very slow movement of vehicles along Osborne Road which was heavily flooded. It was the same story on Kingsway Road up to Falomo Bridge. Awolowo Road was also flooded, causing slow movement.

A similar scenario was noticed at Mile 2 Oke on Apapa-Oshodi Expressway, as well as on Mile 2, inward Suru-Alaba on Lagos-Badagry Expressway.

Also not spared were parts of Ikeja, the state capital, including Awolowo Way, Oba Akran and Ikeja-Along on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway.

In Alimosho, the largest local government area in the state, areas like Iyana Ejigbo, Idimu and Egbeda, driving inward Akowonjo, were submerged. Here, residents were seen bailing waters from their homes and calling on the government to intervene by desilting the gutters and opening up blocked drainages.

One of the residents in Egbeda area, who identified himself as Tunde Samson, said it has become an annual ‘ritual’ to be bailing waters from their homes every rainy season, blaming the situation on a collapsed drainage system around Vulcanizer Bus Stop on Akonwonjo Road.

According to Samson, efforts by the local government have yielded little or no result, adding that the state government’s intervention was urgently needed to address the situation.

At Mile 2 inward Suru-Alaba, several vehicles were seen wading through the heavy flooding on the reconstructed Lagos-Badagry Expressway. The situation was further compounded by the horde of articulated trucks and tankers competing for space on the expressway.

Motorists at the scene blamed the situation on what they described as poor construction by the contractor.

“This is a road that had just been reconstructed a few years ago yet we can’t drive through any time it rains. It shows there was something fundamentally wrong with construction work undertaken by the contractor,” a motorist at Mile 2.

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Focus

Hard times hit roadside corn, yam, plantain roasters AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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efore the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, many Nigerians were used to enjoying roasted corn, yam, and plantain popularly known as ‘boli’, which served as both food and snacks for many Nigerians that want to abstain from eating junk foods.

This was such that some rich people and middle-class Nigerians living in the city of Lagos used to personally drive to some popular spots especially areas like Murtala Mohammed International Airport Road in Lagos, where fresh corns and sweet pear combo are sold in their numbers, to buy.

Not only that the snacks provided some form of satisfaction to many city dwellers, they also provided a source of livelihood for women that choose the business line. But with the outbreak of coronavirus, many people have since bid good bye to eating such snacks.

This has since impacted negatively on the revenue of the roasters and by implication affected the living standard in their homes.

In Lagos State, for instance, a lot of women operating in the informal sector are their families’ breadwinners. Not only that they provide food for their families, they also take care of house rent, school fees and hospital bills.

Today, many of them are no longer in business while those who have braced the odds lament the hopelessness of the situation especially in the highbrow areas of Apapa, Victoria Island, Lekki and Ajah where the rich and mighty dwell.

Some of them say that despite the difficulty in getting the items- corn, yam and plantain, the saddest of it all is the low patronage from the public.

“We have managed to remain in business because there is no alternative. When you look at your family, especially for some

…As Covid-19 scares away patrons

of us our husbands are not working or those whose husbands have died, we have no choice.

It pains so much when you see some customers who used to buy one thing or the other from you every evening when they are coming back from work, now passing without looking at your side,” a woman who sells roasted corn told BDSUNDAY. According to the woman, who does not want her name in the print, “Sometimes, when you call

them they look at you as if to say, ‘abi this person doesn’t know what is in town?’ They believe as we are touching the corn, yam or plantain while roasting them that we are spreading coronavirus on them.”

Another roadside seller of roasted yam and plantain in Apapa area of Lagos State, who gave her name as Mama Ejima, told BDSUNDAY that business has been slow since the outbreak of COVID-19.

“First, it was the lockdown that kept everybody at home without business, now that lockdown is over, customers rarely patronise us such that I find it difficult to earn N2,000 in a day from my daily sales,” Mama Ejima said.

According to her, when business was good, she used to go home with about N7,000 or N8,000 a day and when there is no good business, she could go home with N5,000 per day.

“It was through this same business of roasting plantain and yam that I was able to see my first three children through school after my husband passed away. Though, the business may look small but it has been sustaining my children and me for over 10 years now. Apart from paying their school fees, I also pay house rent in the one room apartment where we stay in Ajegunle area of Olodi-Apapa,” she said.

While expressing hope that business will pick up in no distance time, she said that it would be very difficult for her to even pay school fees of her two children that are still in secondary school, if school reopens and things remain the same.

“I have left the business of corn roasting to selling fruits now. I was among those who started roasting corn this season but I realised that market was not moving at all such that, I that used to sell two bags of roasted and boiled corn everyday barely finished one bag in one day,” said a woman who used to roast corn in Surulere area of Lagos, who gave her name as Iyah Yusuf.

Iyah Yusuf, stated that after losing her capital in the corn business, she was forced to change into selling other seasonal fruits like garden eggs and others, “I really don’t know what happened to the business that I used

to enjoy doing because it used to be very lucrative at least, it used to put food on our table and cater for the needs of my family since my husband has been out of serious job in the last three years,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ejike Amadi, a banker told our correspondent that he and his family have kissed roasted corn and ‘boli’ good bye till Nigeria is declared Covid19-free.

“I personally don’t like roadside foods like roasted plantain and corn due to the infections that can be transmitted to someone through eating such food especially those roasted in dirty environment and on top of drainages. Before the outbreak of COVID-19, I pay serious attention to where I buy such things but now I have even told my wife that nobody should bring roasted corn or plantain into my house again till further notice,” Amadi said.

Amadi, who stated that he will not use his money to buy coronavirus, said that if he wants to eat corn, he can go to the market, buy and come home to cook it himself in order for him to be sure of what he is eating.

“My concern about such things is that buyers usually go to the sellers and continue to touch several of them before they could make their pick, with such touching, the virus and other infections must have transmitted into the food even before one eats them. I pity those women that are into such business but there is nothing one can do until Nigeria is declared COVID-19 free, I will not patronise roadside food sellers,” Amadi said.

Contrarily, another roadside corn roaster, who gave her name as Blessing said that her business has been going on normally without any issue since the season of corn roasting started.

According to her, customers still come to her shop to buy from her since the season of corn and pear came out.

“For me nothing has changed.

In a day, I buy and sell a big of corn as well as a basket of pear. Some people prefer boiled corn, so what I do is to cook some and roast others. In this part of Nigeria, people don’t believe that COVID-19 is real. They believe that it is big men sickness,” Blessing, who sells her roasted corn and pear in IyanaIpaja area of Lagos, stated.

Nigerians still at risk of wild polio virus, NPHCDA Boss warns GODSGIFT ONYEDINEFU, Abuja

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s Nigeria awaits to be formally certified polio free in August, the Executive Secretary of the National Primary Health Care Development Agency (NPHCDA), warns that the country is still at risk of another epidemic, but assured that all actions particularly vaccination will be intensified to avert a resurgence.

The African Regional Commission for Certification of Polio Eradication (ARCC), an organ of the World Health Or-

ganization (WHO) on Thursday accepted Nigeria’s Wild Polio Virus Free Documentation after 30 years.

Shuaib speaking during a zoom meeting to celebrate the new status with some donor partners and stakeholders in Abuja on Friday said though the certification means that there is no wild polio free virus anywhere in Nigeria, it doesn’t mean that the work is over and the virus can be imported from other endemic countries.

“As a matter of fact, even the harder work starts because we have to maintain this status,

that means we have to continue to give our kids the vaccination that they need against the virus and all the other vaccine preventable diseases, not forgetting that we still have Afghanistan and Pakistan that are endemic for wild polio viruses, that means there is still a potential that this viruses may be imported into Nigeria, “We live in a global village, you can see how covid-19 spreads so fast from China, by the same token, we could have wild polio virus spread from these two endemic countries,”, he said.

The Executive Secretary said

though donor partners will withdraw finding, Nigeria has enough to sustain ongoing vaccination across the country including hard to reach communities. He said government is gradually taking responsibility for health.

“The country will continue to make sure that we put in place all of the strategies, we will continue to look everywhere to make sure that there is no child anywhere in Nigeria that Abuja being paralysed form the wild polio virus”, Shuaib said.

Th e Ex e c u t i v e Se c r e t a r y added that the National Assembly have committed enough

resources to make sure that the agency have enough stock of all the vaccine needed and the operations needed to convey the vaccines to remote areas.

He also said the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) have also been signed into law and will be released in a few weeks for funding to be partitioned for vaccines.

“It’s an amazing opportunity that we have to make sure that we do not see a resurgence of the wild polio virus, an opportunity to make sure we protect all our kids from vaccine preventable diseases.

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Issue Isabella Davanzo CEO and founder of SIZA Creative Consulting LTD. A digital advertising agency with global operations based in Lagos, Nigeria.

W

e pride ourselves on having a positive mindset, I for one, always believe there’s something to be learned from every situation, especially unfavorable ones.

After all, those are the ones that compel us to find creative solutions.

Although we have a very traditional approach to business in Nigeria, this disruption to normal operations is an opportunity for us to evolve our business practices and increase productivity all together.

It’s times like these that make or break us. The way we choose to view situations shapes our reality.

We challenge everyone to view this change as an opportunity for improvement and motivation.

Anyone who has worked in our dear country would have come across the countless jokes about our ‘Meeting Cul-

I

think that if the Nigerian youth were to write a Letter of Intentto lead the country, the appropriate sign-off line would be “Yours Cavalierly”.

To be cavalier is to behave in a careless, dismissive or non-chalant manner about an issue. To put it more crudely and to better depict the local context of how the vast majority of Nigerians typically behave, it’s the ‘Anyhowness’ of Nigerians (educated and uneducated) which sadly has come to the fore strongly during this pandemic and I still made reference to in one of my articles This attitude is so pervasive that it’s been dubbed the “Nigerian Way” – boasting of a flawed sense of smartness or unfounded and illogical sense of confidence when in

ture’ which leaves many of us thinking, “This meeting could have been a phone call” or “I just survived another meeting that could have been an e-mail.”

Jokes aside, I have come to realise that to a large degree, closing a deal successfully here requires a sometimes extended ‘courting process.’

Having almost become accustomed to the rush from our office to clients’ offices, navigating our way through traffic to try and make all the meetings we have set out for that day. We initially met the situation with surprise, the ease at which we were able to transition to working collaboratively on Google docs, having digital meetings through Skype, Zoom and more.

These tools have always been readily available to us.

Yet, although we as a company had initially attempted to adopt them as part of our fact it’s a stark reflection of the breakdown in our valuesystemovertime. The same attitude underscores a lot of the ills our society is inundated with and also makes one question the readiness of the youth as better leaders in the future.

My friend Uti, during the pandemic attempted to hire a replacement child minder and proceeded to conduct the preliminary tests including C-19 and below is a screenshot of the message she received from the young lady that tested positive to the virus.

Clearly the young lady perhaps has gone through just primary level of education, or at best, secondary level – however, you will be shocked to know how many well-educated individuals share similar if not exact views with the young lady. If you ask me, it stems

Covid-19: Business lessons learnt from lockdown regular business dealings, we found that less than 20percent of the enterprises we dealt with were comfortable with these practices. Till date, traditionalists will say it is still considered only appropriate for younger companies to operate these digital solutions.

Nevertheless, after our initial disbelief we then questioned our own understanding of our business culture.

After all, let’s face it; if history has taught us anything, it’s that Nigerians are resilient! The entrepreneurs here are some of the most enterprising people we have ever met, adapting to all kinds of challenging situations. Therefore, this truly seamless transition should not come as a complete shock.

Upon consulting with some of our associates, we met with great joy the news that most of them are planning on adopting these modern procedures moving forward.

That’s when we had our epiphany.

This is it!

This is the remedy that this situation has provided us with the ‘panadol’ to one of our largest headaches.

Clearly, what significantly causes doing business in Lagos to be so stressful.

The Lagos Traffic!

This is the reason our meetings barely ever start on time... it adds to the constant stress we live under in our attempts to micro manage employees, suppliers, third party contractors etc.

On a larger scale, it can be considered as a sub branch of the infamous phenomenon known to us as ‘African Time’.

This reminded us of an interesting article we read by Business Day in 2018 which estimated that: “Lagos commuters lose 75percent of weekly working hours to traffic!”

Furthermore CNN covered the subject again in 2019 in an article which cited: “Lagosians spend an average of 30 hours in traffic each week -- or 1,560 annually -- while drivers in Los Angeles and Moscow traffic spent only 128 and 210 hours respectively in the whole of 2018.”

And went on to mention a tweet by a disgruntled commuter Yinka Ogunnubi: “Left my house by 5:30 a.m., got to work at 9:10 a.m. This is no longer work, it is suffer-head.

Dear Boss, Can I work from home?”

That question has been ringing in our ears ever since.

Why can’t employees just work from home?

Time management is a crucial skill in operating a business successfully and living an overall productive life.

As mentioned in a 2011 study by global journals: By reducing worker productivity, traffic hits both people and firms.

This way, it also reduces overall economic output. Understanding this, the Lagos State Governor suggests that traffic jams cost the city ₦42 billion each year (in 2016) and this figure continues to grow till date.

If companies are able to integrate these digital methods of doing business into their operations, it will help them manage their time more efficiently, increase their productivity, reduce waste and lower their running costs.

We at Siza have vowed to be part of the solution. We are excited to be able to offer companies of all sizes the support they need to shift to the digital management of their business operations.

The success of any organisation is based on their ability to adapt and evolve to changing times. This is the future of all businesses and Siza is ready help to guide companies to the next level in a new economic environment.

The leaders of the future: ‘I am Nigerian, Yours Cavalierly’ from our anyhowness culture which we sometimes shroud with religious affirmations like – “God won’t let it happen to me” while acting carelessly.

It is this attitude of Nigerians that led me to ask Dr. Sam Adeyemi while interviewing him a few weeks ago on the TV Show -WAYS (What are You Saying), discussing Leadership in Africa - (See interview on YouTube @plustvafrica). I asked if he still believed in the statement below which he made in a 2017 World Economic Forum article about leadership issues

in Africa: “Africa’s large youth population presents a great opportunity to influence the emergence of a new generation of leaders.”

While I want to share Dr. Sam Adeyemi’s positive view of the African Youth, more specifically the Nigerian Youth, I’m conflicted in my mind to do so. The combination of their senseentitlement and anyhowness just don’t ring to me as the trappings of transformative leaders. That said, I share Dr. Adeyemi’s views that they

do possess great potential if harnessed and channeled positively through a major mind re-orientation.

Afterall, if character is oneof the the hallmarks of successful and great leaders, then ‘Anyhowness’ is a deep character flaw that needs to be extirpated for the Nigerian youth to emerge as a generation of new and transformative leaders.

I look forward to a time when a hypothetical letter of intent to lead is written and the appropriate sign-off line will not be “Yours Cavalierly”.

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Sunday 21 June 2020

Feature FG must create profit bandwidth in downstream sector after price de-capping – Bobmanuel IGNATIUS CHUKWU

T

he Federal Government through the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has done well to remove fuel subsidy and to remove price capping but it must now woo investors with what investors call profit bandwidth. This is understood to be a form of regulation of size of profit an investor can make in the petroleum sector either by importing fuel or refining locally.

This seems to now agitate the minds of investors especially in the Niger Delta zone who are said to be angling to take a bite in the deregulated petroleum market.

Making the appeal in an exclusive interview in Port Harcourt, the president of the Rivers Entrepreneurs and Investors Forum (REIF), Ibifiri Bobmanuel said the price-decapping is a commendable scheme but that it must be followed by with creating a range of profit with which investors would roam for the interest of the nation.

Good to de-cap but activate price regulatory body We are pleased that the FG has heeded to our calls for them to deregulate the downstream petroleum sector. They have made it clear they are no longer interested in going about making bulk purchase of petroleum products and giving subsidy. But, from all indications, in applying the declaration, they way they go about implementing the policies shows a lacuna along the line. They need to go back to the proposals we sent to them.

What we proposed is a wholesome deregulation which means deregulate, take off your hands.

Now, they have allowed the marketers to set the prices, which is good. What they should do now is to activate the price regulatory body to curb the excesses possible in the market. You do this by putting a bandwidth within the profit they are able to make. For instance, if the product is sold for N50, you should expectthemtomakenotmorethan N10. That should be the bandwidth.

So, the importers that have huge capital and put in huge resources into it would make profit.

Every businessman is in it for profit. That is a basic rule. But they should not make this profit to the detriment of the economy. The Petroleum Products Regulatory Agency (PPRA) is a subsidiary of the NNPC with mandate to regulate the pricing regime. They would be there to protect the interest of the citizenry. So, give the range of profit even as you no longer fix price. This will give room for profit (for businesses) and protect the citizens from exploitation.

On the other hand, the bandwidth should not be too stringent.

Give them leverage but there must be a cap. If a tanker load lands Nigeria at N20 per litre, you can give them a bandwidth of N22. So, with-

in that the ones than can import at less than N20 would increase profit.

The more prudent an investor is, the more profit. A good bandwidth will serve as additional incentive to attract investors. Importation implies breaking even per batch but service related business, you do not break even immediately but after some months or years. Every buy-andsell business expects instant break even, but profit is usually slim while service profit is often higher but takes longer time. So, turnover is the key for buy-and-sell business.

All this policy can amount to nothing even there is no enough bandwidth for profit. First incentive has been done; deregulation. Next incentive is not to gag the investors with very slim range of profit because it requires billions of Dollars.

Huge investments coming This new opening will account for next phase of investments that will accrue to the Nigerian economy. Because it will attract huge interest, let the FG quickly give the latitude to lure them into the space being created now. The investors are going to develop infrastructure such as landing base, waterfronts with lots of facilities there. The vessels are going to be coming there.

The local players would now have to invest in the area and existing players already have these. They would have advantages.

The truth is that the local players are not big enough. The sector has a lot of space for more players. It will attract foreign direct investors especially in refining and distribution of petroleum products. The current investor space is to take crude out of the country and bring back refined products, but with this policy, you see more investors trying to cut that gap between export of crude and import of finished products.

“

Many may talk about Niger Delta militancy as a cost factor, if you check cost of exporting same product abroad and bring it back, pay the taxes, etc, it will surely be cheaper to refine in-country

Ibifiri Bobmanuel

Targeting Africa market Why sale of new oil fields will look different That brings to mind why the interest is more in the current bid round in the marginal fields in the oil and gas space. This is because most of the investors interested in the marginal fields would be looking beyond exporting the crude but at refining the product in-country.

That would create more headroom for job creation.

It’s a gamut of opportunities that is opening up. The FG has taken the first step, the second is for them to look at the concessioning of the marginal fields and translate this to other products. I keep telling people that most of our petroleum products end up in the Middle East and European countries and so on, but the potential market for our product is actually in Africa. It is only in Africa that we have this huge population that end up still consuming much refined petroleum product in the world the way we do. No other continent is still so heavily dependent on petroleum products. Even most of the petroleum products that go to China and India end up back in Africa as processed products as lubricants, PMS, etc. With this policy, it gives the Nigerian government the opportunity to go to the next

phase of the il industry.

The oil industry does not have much room for growth again. The major room was in export of crude, to export our raw material and cash in on the financial windfall that comes with it. But, under this circumstance, globally advanced countries are now looking away from fossil fuel. You have countries that have timelines; by so date, we do not want cars that that use fossil fuel.

Asia market not our future In China, if you want to buy an electric car, you get a subsidy which is given to the manufacturer on your behalf. They pay a lot of interest on pollution. They have reached their limits on pollution bandwidth and so they use money to induce products that would go away from fossil fuel.

So, the consumption of petroleum fuel is beginning to unwind. The only continent that still has that appetite for refined products is Africa. Nigeria being the leader in that space must aggressively push for that market.

This forms about 90 per cent of our revenue. We keep telling ourselves that the Nigerian economy is diversified, but in reality, it is not so. If you check our sources of revenue, over 90 per cent of our major sources is around the oil sector.

Go and check the contributions of other sectors to the national revenue and GDP. Agriculture helps to feed the nation and employ some persons employed, but it does not contribute significant revenue to the Federation Account. Also, we do not process the products just as in oil and gas. We produce and export and we are happy to earn peanuts. We spend three times of the income to import processed product of same produce we exported.

With this policy of processing oil and gas for the African market is a paradigm shift as we would process for Africa. Even the Nigerian market is huge. This is a big opportunity for investors by deregulating totally and creating incentives.

The big gain is that the big elephant in the house is the subsidy we spend on petroleum products (PMS and kero). In one sweep, we have taken away the elephant in the house and we have big space.

It is now for investors to follow the opportunity. We do not just expect investors to come into Nigeria to set up refineries but also to import and distribute. Investors are wired to seek out profit. That is the first rule of business.

Fuel can sell at N50 per litre In a subsidised economy, you pay for inefficiencies but if subsidy is removed, PMS could sell for N50 per litre but we still sell at over N120.

If subsidy had kicked in long ago, the price regulators would have been able to ensure that the private sector crashes the prices and we would buy by at N50 in that moment of low crude oil price, going by the proportionate decree as against the pump price.

This policy is a win-win for the FG and we commend them for that, but they need to follow the process due.

If you stop a process half way, you end up not getting to the point of benefit of that same policy. The next is to sell out marginal fields because the operators would refine and not export. The cost of refining would be cheaper than cost of exporting.

Many may talk about Niger Delta militancy as a cost factor, if you check cost of exporting same product abroad and bring it back, pay the taxes, etc, it will surely be cheaper to refine in-country. So, more refineries will come in Nigeria.

After this level, the FG should begintoprivatisingtheNNPCbecause it is high time. I do not know why we keep holding on to this behemoth or junk asset. I must doff my hat to the present crop running the NNPC because they seem to understand what they are doing. Let’s give them the benefit of the doubt, but they should follow the deregulation they have set in motion in a serious manner.

They should create buy-in of the private sector and it is in this buy-in that is the success of the policy. They must follow through as a channel.

Continues on page 7

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Feature Covid-19; How prepared is Lagos for the increasing infections?

W MICHAEL ANI

hat could have been prevented by restricting international movement into the county at the early stage is costing the Nigeria economy a lot more.

Africa’s largest economy has the record of being the second country in the continent behind South Africa, with the highest number of confirmed cases of the coronavirus pandemic, with over 18,400 of its populace so far infected with the virus as of 19th June 2020, according to World Health Organisation (WHO) data.

That’s an increase of over 199 percent from the 6175 cases seen a month earlier, showing how the virus is fast spreading in the West African state. As of today, 36 states of the federation including the Federal Capital Territory have reported at least one case of the virus, and Lagos state, the country’s biggest commercial city, being the epitome of the virus having recorded over 7896 cases.

Wrong timing and lack of preparedness The outbreak of the novel coronavirus was first discovered around December 2019, in Wuhan, central province of China, and

on January 30th 2020 the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international Concern.

As was the case with many others, Nigeria claimed it was ready for the coronavirus in terms of detection and response in case of its importation, even though it’s glaring that the Western African nation was not.

It was clear that like many other countries, Africa’s most populous nation undermine the extent of the virus by not swinging into action that would help in averting the importation of the virus First, at the time, there were several public outcries over the non-screening of chartered flight passengers coming into the country from high risk countries where the virus had spread to.

It was not until March 23rd that the Federal Government restricted international flight to and from the country.

Sadly, the index case of the virus had already been reported in late February by an Italian Man who flew into the country through Ethiopian airlines.

If the approach of closing the borders or following guidelines by quarantining international visitors for a minimum of 14

days were adhered, impending dangers from the virus probably would have been averted.

Analysts have tasked the government to always be proactive in handling issues that calls for public concern coronavirus leaves Nigeria with no alternative to critical Infrastructure Spending.

With the new world order that has largely exposed the depth of infrastructural deficit, our seemingly lack of means to cushion effect of economics paralysis in case of exigencies such as this and an obvious display of unpreparedness of a pandemic of this magnitude; it is very begin to put in place a tactical team that can begin to proffer crisis management solutions for a state like Lagos which is not just the epic centre of the novel coronavirus but also the commercial capital of the country.

As we have rightly seen that a total lockdown of the state economy won’t be a sustainable solution due to its multiplier effect on the economy of the Lagos residents due to the fact that 75 percent of the 26million inhabitants of Lagos survive on daily income keeping them indoors when the government can’t provide for them what to survive on would be counterproductive.

Rather now is the time that government at all levels should

ensure that they increase the tempo of enlightenment campaign about the reality of time that has come to steer us in the face we all have to learn to be responsible in living with this virus. Also it is not only enough to enlighten the populace but it is very important to enforce guidelines and approved protocols in the prevention of further spread of the virus while simultaneously seeking solutions via research and clinical trials.

The biting effect of this pandemic cannot be over-emphasized because as of today there is no set date for schools to resume; though some are having online classes but in all sincerity the number of children whose parents can afford the online learning is less than 25 percent of the total number of school children. Hence the educational sector which was hitherto on the downslide before now will further be at a disadvantage position due to this pandemic.

As the earlier normal, the health sector and education sectors, two critical factors necessary for human capital development, have suffered years of infrastructural neglect and low budgetary spends that has placed both sectors with some of the worst statistics in the world.

That has been the case for years since the country’s political and

elite class could conveniently seek medical treatment abroad leaving the masses and the most vulnerable to grapple with the country’s failing health system.

The situation could have been much precarious for the country but for the private sector that came in to support the fight by building isolation centres, donating of test kits as well as other Personal Preventive Equipment (PPE).

The government of the city now says it would adopt a strategy of home care treatment for mild cases, a move that has triggered criticism across fronts from experts who are warning that it could be dangerous.

It is believed in very many quarters, that Lagos State having being selected by the Rockefeller Foundation as one of 100 Resilient Cities in the world should have immediately adopted some of the recommendations as laid out in the “Lagos Resilience Strategy” which was comprehensively put together by the state government in collaboration with the office of the vice chancellor, Lagos State University, the centre for Housing and Sustainable Development, University of Lagos and 100RC. It is also believed that the state should have been better prepared.

It is however, not too late to put these strategy in use for a better state. No one had foreseen the coming of Covid-19.

Lagos State presently leads the pack in the record of the confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus.

The call for the government to focus on critical infrastructure investment in state with 26 million people isn’t new.

FG must create profit bandwidth in downstream sector ...

Continued from page 6

The first point is deregulation. Second is put the cap with reasonable profit range to attract the private sector. Along the line, they can as well tighten that phase.

Many may say capping means another form of regulation in a deregulated market, but you must regulate your market. The telecom is deregulated but the NCC still caps profit but loosely for competition to operate within the bandwidth.

Competition has driven prices to zero cost for lines whereas some people bought it with phone at N145,000. That is what bandwidth does in a deregulated market.

You must use good bandwidth to lure investors into the downstream sector of the oil and gas sector. You should also cap the profit range.

Incentive is like a bait for them to jump into the space. As they make profits, they will end up setting up infrastructure in form of permanent assets such as refineries, filling stations, etc. They would begin to produce different grades of PMS so buyers would have choice for his car. There is a whole lot of investments that will go into this sector.

The mere fact that the FG is taking off their hand is a good thing, then creating bandwidth is next.

Despite Dangote, there is still space for others Some say Dangote Refinery has

Ibifiri Bobmanuel

taken up the whole refining space but I say the space is big enough for many more people. If you have a nose for investment, you can forecast easily the direction of every sector. From the day the Dangote Group decided to invest as high as $22Bn in those three projects especially the refinery, it should be clear that at date will come for the government to deregulate. If the Govt did not deregulate, the project would comatose. The Jonathan administration gave such hints then.

For Dangote to invest that amount,

it means he had such amount of faith in the government.

Today, the FG cannot invest as much as $22Bn to $30bn in that sector. Government is overwhelmed with other pressing issues. Now, even state governments can achieve the goals by creating enabling environment to attract private funding into their spaces for new refineries and fuel centres. FG should create the enabling environment to attract big investments into the downstream sector. They will spend little or no money of their own to drive growth in their places.

The beauty of it is that when the private sector invests in a particular sector, what the governments (Federal, state) benefit from is taxes. It’s a win-win situation.

Over the years, we have found that Govt does not have the ability to manage a business.

How Niger Delta states may position for new oil market Some ask if governments of the Niger Delta can do anything to attract refineries and if some of us have sent in proposals to them.

The basic thing that the states in the oil region can do is to focus on infrastructure and improve this. In the end it will boost ease of doing business. If I come into your space and I see that you have good infrastructure, it is seamless for me to move about securely, obviously, I want to come and do business

there. It cuts down on cost of doing business. Many businesses spend very much on security and this is a big consideration.

Most investments are attached to loans with many forms of calculation of cost of funds. This cost is relative to time of breaking event. So, if security cost is very high, your area becomes not investment friendly.

Now, the chicken has come home to roost. All of the states in the oil region need to now sit down and begin to look at they could key into this whole policy break and the opportunity that comes with it.

Competition is within My friend, the EU ambassador, says in Nigeria most states keep thinking they are in contest with an external competitor such as Togo, Benin Republic or Ghana. No, they are in contest with themselves. If a governor does not understand that security is pivotal to attracting investors, then Lagos will continue to run away with the amount of IGR and Rivers State would continue to run away with the amount they reap from IGR. If Rivers State was not investment-friendly, they would not be generating about N12bn per month. So, if you want to get more, simply improve on your indices. This is not rocket science. It is in those small things you ignore. What is your narrative? What do people hear about your state? If an investor picks up a newspaper and wants to

invest $1bn in Nigeria, he would ask, where is the investment going to be safe?

He presses a bottom on his computer and asks of best place to invest. Now, the computer does the feasibility study. Things have changed. You do not need to call anybody to do it. Just a bottom and it tells you cost of doing business in each location to the last kobo.

So, you pick and choose. If you want to know further to know why it is so, you now begin to look at cost of security, land, transportation, labour, etc. It will tell you that you can’t drive from Abuja to Kaduna because they will kidnap you. If you go to Lagos, they will still kidnap you but you are a CEO,youwillnotjumpthebuswhere 10 out of 20 times at a certain time, you would be mugged or robbed. In Port Harcourt, if you confine yourself within Port Harcourt metropolis, but outside that, you need to carry security men to run around. This is what the computer will tell you because it is what has been fed into it through different writers.

What is your state telling the world?

So, that brings us to the issue of what your state’s narrative is. So, as governor, you have to create the narrative for your state and understand the language of business so you know what to do. When you understand these things, you are set for a prosperous period.

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Sunday 21 June 2020

Sunday Interview

Nigeria must invest in the leadership capital of citizens to overcome her challenges - GOTNI president Linus Okorie, founder and president of GOTNI, is a renowned leadership development coach and human capital development consultant.

For over 20 years, Okorie has been known as a relentless icon in the quest for good leadership in public and corporate governance in Nigeria. In this Interview with MODESTUS ANAESORONYE, he discusses contemporary demands of leadership, Nigeria’s leadership challenges, Covid-19 pandemic and the role of leadership, among other issues.Excerpts:

Y

ou are known as a leadership icon. How did you get here- tell us about your journey?

Twenty-five years ago at the age of nineteen, the vision of grooming leaders for the African continent hit me and I began the process of setting up the Guardians of the Nation International (GOTNI) which I later took with me to the University. Since then, it’s been a lot of work, passion and commitment. Over these 25 years, that small vision has become a global organisation that has impacted over three hundred thousand young people directly and millions through Radio and Television.

With a rich profile as yours, one would be wondering what else there is to know about leadership.

The study of leadership is a lifelong exercise because leadership is simply about developing your capacity to influence and impact.

It’s about creating value. What this means is that we will never be hundred percent in terms of leadership perfection until the end of the world. The way to go is continue developing our leadership capital and values over time. For instance, somebody can be 30percent over 100 in passion because passion is an essential element in leadership. But 30percent passion cannot be a pass mark.

So, the individual would as a matter of priority develop his or her leadership skills over a long period of time. So, you have to be consistent in that process because the more the individual deepens, and learns from others, that individual stretches his mind and begins to change. Leadership development is a lifelong learning.

What is the role of leadership in achieving a balanced and focused society where things work?

Everything rises and falls on leadership according to John Maxwell. The power of leadership helps in the advancement of societies. In fact, the deficit of leadership capital in today’s society is evident both at the private and public level. It has cost us so much shame and pain. However, when we begin to prioritise the power of individual leadership, personal leadership, mind leadership, leading others and leading businesses, we begin to place priority on how to be best at becoming this type of leaders that I’ve mentioned so far, then we will strengthen individuals and when we strengthen individuals, the institutions they represent will be strengthened.

that is being opened. This means that just like what the CBN is doing right now, that should be intensified. Government can deliberately waive certain taxes. Government should provide specific kinds of support systems. At this time, we should be working towards becoming a production based economy rather than a consumption driven one. Right now, there should be huge investment into areas that can create jobs, especially agriculture and agricultural value chain. The government can invest in SMEs and offer them support systems that can generate sustainable growth. I want to see massive investments in these areas. That’s the only way we can position for the new normal and open up the economy for prosperity.

Linus Okorie

The families they represent will be strengthened, the companies they work for will be strengthened, the government agencies they work for will be strengthened because leadership actually flows to the one who knows.

When people prioritise leadership, they are able to learn, develop and have leadership capital skills. What this means is that waste of resources and poor decisions in governance will no longer be a common feature in our society. The misappropriation of funds and all the types of leadership deficiencies that we see, including people’s inability to work within teams is an obstruction to progress and development of institutions. That is why it is very important that every organisationbegins to invest heavily to strengthen the leadership capital of their staff.

At a time like this when the global economy, business and households are challenged by COVID-19, what can leadership do to salvage the situation?

The question I often ask in my classes is this: ‘When the leader is paranoid, who takes the lead?’What the COVID-19 expo-

sure we are having right now has done to the psychology of leaders around the world really is to generate so much fear, panic and anxiety within the minds of leaders. So, many of them have gone into reaction mode where they are no longer taking critical decision.

So, what leaders do in times of crisis is to look beyond the crisis and begin to quickly study and research the situation in order to find solutions. Constant decision making process should be the order of the day. InNigeria, right now, one of the things I believe leaders can take very seriously is to start reinventing and reorienting the minds of the people and give them hope. Remove fear from their mindset because when the population is afraid of the future, you will have a sick population – a population that is depressed, a population that will get into the mood of uncertainty and suicide.

Leaders should give the people proper information necessary to guide them on what they must do that can help them in their businesses and individual lives. At the end of the day, they will create policies that will add value to the people in the present as well as preparing them for the economy

What has Nigeria as country missed in her leadership style that has not allowed the country to be in its rightful position in the comity of nations?

We have greatly as a country missed to provide leadership by example. A lot of people who get into leadership positions in this country, most of the time think about self. As a result of that, they cannot deliver quality leadership being blurred by self. Leadership is about sacrifice, commitment and passion for the common good.

Rather, most people who occupy positions in organisations do not have a mindset ofsacrifice.

From the day one, their values are compromised already. When you go to countries where leaders put priority in the pursuit of common good, they rise faster. The other element is lack of visionary leadership. Vision drives nations. Just imagine Lew Kuan Yew in 1965 when Singapore left Malaysia, they had nothing. But this man called Lew Kuan Yew invested in the leadership capital of his people bymaximising the human capital since they didn’t have natural resources. He began to invest in the human capital.Today, Singapore has been positioned as a global technological and industrial hub because one man decided to lead by example and to invest in the human capital development.

Nigeria’s development story will be different when we have leaders who understand the art and practice of leadership. So, until we begin to think big and selfless for the common good, we would not attain the development agenda we set for ourselves.

As Founder and President of Guardians of the Nation International (GOTNI), a leadership development Institute, how has

your organisation helped to shape leaders in coping with the challenges of the future?

As the president of Guardians of the Nation International (GOTNI) and also the CEO of the GOTNI Leadership Centre, what we have been able to do over the years is to invest in the leadership capital of the Nigerian people and leaders around the world and the impact has been quite amazing.

More than 300,000 thousand have been directly impacted and millions indirectly through our Radio and Television programmers. Over the years, we have been teaching leadership in such a way that everyone can understand and apply. Some of them have grown their leadership capital as a result of the investment we have created in their minds over time. But currently, in times like this, our message has been consistent; that the people must stay strong because leaders are dealers in hope.

What should business leaders be doing at this time?

The priority of business leaders at this point should beto have very strong priority which is to reengineer the mindset of those who work for the business.So, every business leader must retool the mindset of the people who work for them. That should be the first priority. Because of the challenges of this pandemic, there is rise in fear and anxiety and leaders must position the mindset of those who work for them to face these challenges. First thing is to reinvent a positive and can-do Spirit among their staff.

This is also time to reinvent the business in terms of the structure and policies. For instance, if you have an Elephant kind of structure before, now is the time to break it down and put them in such a way that the new structure helps in quick decision making processes.

This is the time forthe total reevaluation of the organisation.

What is your advice to every leader and aspiring leader on navigating these current challenging times?

My advice to every leader is not to be caught up with the noise.

They should capture the essence of the moment. Great leaders who have made great progress have been people who developed great visions in times of crises. This is the time for personal evaluation and rethinking. It is time for leaders to start investing in their own people in order to build their systems and prepare them for the post-COVID experience.

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SundayBusiness Diet against erectile dysfunction Food & Beverages With Ayo Oyoze Baje

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ruth be told, many of us refuse to accept, or even discuss the issue of impotence among adult Nigerian men, out of fear of stigma or on religious ground. But the rise in the incident is alarming, no thanks to the so-called modern lifestyle. According to Dr. Sam Asomugha, a medical expert, weak erection is also related to common complaints such as lack of the desire for sex, inability to achieve and sustain erection as well as early ejaculation.

Causes These include stress disorders, heart disease, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), excess alcohol and cigarette smoking. Others are diabetes mellitus, high blood pressure, cancer and damaged peripheral (surface) blood vessels, especially those that feed the penis.

Apart from age, frequent use of

drugs recommended for HBP; to relieve depression, catarrh, cancer, to induce sleep, to treat stomach/ duodenal ulcers, steroids and the chemical contents of tobacco could prove disastrous.

What Is Erectile Dysfunction?

According to Heidi Godman, as reported in Medically Reviewed on March 14, 2014 by George Krucik, an erection involves the brain, nerves, hormones, muscles, and circulatory system. These systems work together to fill the erectile tissue in the penis with blood. A man with erectile dysfunction (ED) has trouble getting or maintaining an erection for sexual intercourse.

Some men with ED are completely unable to get an erection, while others have trouble maintaining an erection for more than a short time.

Prevalence of ED While ED is more prevalent among older men, it affects younger men in large numbers too. The University of Wisconsin reports a correlation between the percentage of men affected

by ED and their decade in life. For example, approximately 40 percent of men in their 40s have ED and approximately 50 percent of men in their 50s.

While ED may be embarrassing to discuss, a conversation with a doctor can lead to a proper diagnosis and treatment for young men.

A study in the July 2013 Journal of Sexual Medicine suggests that ED is more common among younger men than previously thought.

Researchers found that ED affected 26 percent of adult men under 40.

Almost half of these men suffered

NAGIS generates N16.7bn in 8 years Solomon Attah, Lafia

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asarawa Geographic Information Service (NAGIS) says it has generated N16.7 billion in last eight years but collected only 4.2 billion naira out of the amount generated.

Director-General of the NAGIS, Sonny Agassi gave the figure when members of the State Assembly Committee on Lands paid an oversight visit to ascertain 2020 budget performance of the Agency in Karu, the headquarters of Karu Local Government Area.

He said, being a revenue generated agency of government, they

have already mapped out strategy to collect the remaining amount generated for the development of the state.

Agassi added that the agency was going to engage the consultant responsible to collect the money and would establish revenue court among other strategies to ensure the remaining amount is return to government coffer The NAGIS DG informed the committee that the Agency has generated over 2 billion naira but collected 255.6 million naira in the last five months due to coronavirus pandemic.

He however, commended the assembly for ensuring speedy amendment of the law establishing the NAGIS to carry out its duty effectively.

Responding, chairman house committee on lands and members representing Karu-Gotta, David Maiyaki applauded NAGIS, the DG, and his management for living up to their responsibility and called on them to put more effort in revenue collection.

Other members of the committee who spoke during the visit showered encomium on the agency and called for concerted effort to improve on revenue collection of the state.

from severe ED. That rate is similar to what is experienced by older men.

Researchers also noted that younger ED patients were more likely than older men with ED to smoke or use drugs.

Physical and Psychological Causes of ED Manyphysicalandpsychological conditions can lead to ED. ED can be an early sign of a serious health condition, but not always.

Physical causes include diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Psychological causes include stress and depression.

Treating the cause of ED may help resolve the problem. For some men, lifestyle changes make a positive difference. Others benefit from medications, counseling, or other treatments. Ignoring ED isn’t wise, particularly because it can be a sign of other health problems Cardiovascular Causes Getting and keeping an erection requires healthy circulation.

Clogged arteries, also known as atherosclerosis, can cause ED. High blood pressure can also lead to ED. ED can be a sign of diabetes.

This is because high levels of blood glucose can damage blood vessels, including those responsible for supplying blood to the penis during an erection.

Obesity is a risk factor for diabetes and hypertension, so overweight young men should take steps to reduce it.

Psychological causes Feelings of sexual excitement that lead to an erection start in the brain. But conditions such as depressionandanxietycaninterfere

with that process. In fact, a major sign of depression is withdrawal from things that once brought pleasure.

Stress about jobs, money and other concerns contribute to ED. Alcohol and drug abuse are both common causes of ED among young men. Additionally, relationship problems and poor communication with a partner can cause sexual dysfunction in both men and women.

Treatment Change of lifestyle Most of the causes of weak erection can be corrected by minimising stress, shelving alcohol and smoking and avoiding the misuse of drugs.

Besides quitting bad habits and starting good ones, there are several ways to treat erectile dysfunction.

The most common treatment is oral medication. Three common brands are Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra (NKUDIC, 2010). However, if you’re taking other medications or have other health concerns, those may not be right for you. Other treatments include: • Self-injection of medication, suppositories, testosterone therapy, penile pumps, implants, or surgery Getting Started on a Solution The first—and biggest— hurdle to correcting your erectile dysfunction is getting the courage to talk about it, either with your partner or your doctor. The quicker you do that, the sooner you’ll get to finding the possible cause of impotence and finding the right treatment for impotence.

Supplementsrecommendation These include lignan-rich flax oil, also called barrage oil. Others are L-arginine and dimethylglycine (DMA) all of which could be obtained as recommended by reputable doctors and pharmacists.

Stay away from sugary drinks: These weaken the penis.

Foods to the rescue Garlic stimulates the production of the enzyme nitric oxide synthase that gives an erection.

Guava leaves: Liquid extract from the leaves is effective against weak erection.

Take onion, bitter cola, pure honey, roasted hard maize and roasted plantain (boli).

Regular use of some vitamins could prove helpful. For instance, Vitamins A and B-complexes aid the body’s metabolism. Vitamin C is an anti-oxidant and increases blood supply to the relevant organs. Chocolates contain moodenhancing dopamine to increase sex-drive. Ten per cent cocoa lifts the libido.

Sources of Vitamin A (cod liver oil, fish, milk, carrots, red palm oil, sweet potato, green peppers).

Avoid fried, fatty foods. Take Vitamin B-Complex (yeast, liver, milk). Pumpkin seed, contains useful EFAs, to improve blood flow, keeps skin and vagina moist.

Baje is Nigerian first Food Technologist in the media ayobaje@yahoo.co.uk; 07068638066

DStv emerges most admired brand in ‘Brand Africa’ awards SEYI JOHN SALAU

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Stv; the pay-TV entertainmentcompany has emerged the most admired Media Brand in Africa and the most admired African Brand in Nigeria in the recent Africa Best Brands, Nigeria Awards.

In the most admired Media Brand in Africa category, DStv, Channels Television and Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) took the lead respectively while Dangote, MTN and DStv took the lead respectively in the most Admired African Brands in Nigeria brand category.

Thebe Ikalafeng, the founder and chairman of Brand Africa said a brand survey was conducted through Short Message Service (SMS) via mobile phones, where over 15,000 brand mentions were highlighted in 27 countries.

Ikalafeng stated this at the 2020 virtual presentation of the awards, stating that, “We have over 747million people making use of mobile phones in Africa and it is believed that it’s the best way to reach people across the continent,” he said.

Ac c o r d i n g t o Ik a l a f e n g , for African brands to compete favourably in the global market, there is the need to invest in research and development. He urged brands to pay more attention to the promotion of intellectual property on the continent.

Martin Mabutho, the chief customer officer of MultiChoice Nigeria said the pay TV company has used the DStv platform to promote Africa storytelling culture with collaboration and innovation. According to Mabutho, MultiChoice will continue to remain the number one digital broadcast brand in Africa.

Mabutho opined that the entertainment company believes

in investing to impact its host community to enrich lives, hence MultiChoice is not all about storytelling. “In this Covid-19 crisis, we have embarked on media education across the continent on what the coronavirus is all about and we have partnered with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in the distribution of PPE,” he said.

It would be recalled that earlier this year, MultiChoice Nigeria announced a commitment of N1.2 billion to support Nigeria in fighting the deadly coronavirus and went a step further to open its Free-to-Air stations so that subscribers can watch even when their subscription ends.

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SundayBusiness NSIA to invest N114bn in raw materials, logistics, others Hope Moses-Ashike

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he Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) plans to invest an estimated N114 billion on items that cover raw materials, logistics, contract blending costs by third party blenders, among others.

Financial statements on the NSIA website indicate that since the inception of the scheme in 2017 up to 2019, N107 billion has been invested in Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI).

The prudent management of the PFI has transformed the agriculture sector in obvious ways. For instance, NPK fertilizers which was sold at between N11,000 to N13,000 per 50kg bag in some places now sells for N5,000, making it possible for farmers to access more of the product to improve yields.

In the past only farmers that were lucky get up to two bags of subsidised fertilizer.

But farmers could today buy as many bags of fertilizer as they want at an affordable price.

PFI took off in 2017 after the visit of the King of Morocco to Nigeria in December 2016 and the subsequentsigningofathreeyear bilateral agreement with Morocco for the supply of Di-ammonium Phosphate

(DAP), a key ingredient for fertilizer production.

The mandate of PFI was to make high quality fertilizer available to Nigerian farmers at the right time and at an affordable price, and to revive the ailing fertilizer blending industry so that Nigeria could achieve food security.

Th e P F I ’s b u s i n e s s model, according to insiders, involves sourcing for and procurement of four constituent raw materials required for production of NPK 20:10:10 fertilizer. Of the raw materials sourced, 37percent of the input are imported, consisting of DAP from Morocco and Muriate of Potash (MoP) from Russia while the remaining 63% of the raw materials, mostly Urea and limestone granules, are sourced locally. The raw materials are blended locally at accredited blending plants nationwide to produce the fertilizer for delivery at a target price of N5,500 per 50kg bag (now N5,000 per bag from April 2020).

Th e i n i t i a t i v e h a s created more jobs for

Nigerians. According to FEPSAN estimates, over 100,000 new jobs have been created outside farming jobs. It has created jobs in other sectors of the economy such as logistics, haulage/transportation, ports management, bag manufacturing, industrial warehousing, and microeconomic activities in and around the blending plants.

Apart from boosting economic activities in the country, Fertilizer Producers & Suppliers Association of Nigeria (FEPSAN) estimates that the PFI has saved Nigeria hundreds of millions in foreign exchange to date and billions of Naira in budgetary subsidy which no longer had to be paid.

Ac c o r d i n g t o t h e statement the involvement of the Nigerian Sovereign I n v e s t m e n t Au t h o r i t y (NSIA) as managers of the initiative seemed to have changed the dynamics for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration which hoped to diversify the economy away from oil into agriculture.

The unconventional way to achieving a happy life

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hat is happin e s s ? Th i s question seems odd, right? This isn’t a question we often think about, but we know it when we feel it.

Happiness can be used to describe positive emotions that range from contentment to intense joy.

I was fascinated by the book ‘The Chiology Way of Happiness’, where the author describes how to achieve happiness through your chi. Years ago, the Igbos believed they were guided by their chi. Each individual had a chi and their chi determined their destiny. All matter on the earth consists of atoms and molecules which are in constant motion, vibrating or spinning,

manifested in everything within the universe. This means that every living thing is radiating energy and vibration. Therefore, the chi in this sense doesn’t refer to the Chi Ukwu (Almighty God) or Chi Okike (The Creator) but Soul, Energy and Vibrations. Chiology is the study of the Chi. The goal is to be one with your chi (Munachimso).

Whilst reading, I outlined some Chiology ways to happiness and my understanding of what these terms mean to me.

Chibuzo: My soul is first or my energy comes first.

Happiness is a state, meaning that it isn’t long-lasting.

In other to remain in this state, one has to understand his or her energy

(Chi), put their chi first, protect and be very intentional about the energy he/ she exudes and, engage in activities that raise these vibrations/energy activities like yoga, meditation, dancing, physical exercises etc. These activities release Dopamine which is also called the feel-good hormone and brain waves which helps to boost mood, motivation, and attention and helps regulate movement, learning, and emotional responses.

Chinedu: The chi is my guide. Every individual is expected to be in touch with their vibrating energy. Have you ever noticed how you meet a person or go into a place and feel off? Recognising the energy around you

NPA commissions two new tugboats to enhance operational efficiency at ports AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE

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etermined to enhance the operational efficiency at the nation’s seaports, the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) has commissioned two newly acquired tugboats namely, MT Musawa and MT Ikoro-Ekiti.

Speaking in Lagos on Friday at the commissioning ceremony, Rotimi Amaechi, Minister of Transportation, said the purchase of the boats signposts the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s seriousness in positioning the maritime sector to add greater value to the national economy.

He said the tugboats, which are Damen’s 2810 model, further accentuated the determination of the federal government and the NPA to increase operational efficiency.

“If anyone was in doubt as to the importance of the maritime sector to Nigerian and global economy, the event of the past three months where ports across the world have remained open in spite of the comprehensive lockdown of virtually other sectors, should instruct on why priority attention has to be given to the sector,” the minister said.

Stating that the present government has identified the pivotal role that the maritime sector plays in the actualisation of the fundamental objectives of the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP),

Amaechi said that not less than 85 percent of the nation’s external trade passes through the seaports.

“The much talked about transition from a monoproduct into a diversified economy is heavily dependent on how robust we can make our maritime space and we are committed to achieving this. Work is ongoing on President’s directive that all seaport locations must be linked up to the standard gauge rail line even as we are determined to link up the 36 state capitals with the Federal Capital, Abuja with standard gauge rail services,” he assured.

He applauded the NPA for delivering on this project nine month ahead of schedule, which according to him, is the kind of efficiency that the administration wants to entrench in the polity.

Hadiza Bala-Usman, managingdirectoroftheNPA, described the achievement as another testament of this administration’s resolve to prepare the Nigerian Ports Authority for the exigencies of the increasingly competitive global maritime space.

She said that the landlord model of port ownership allows NPA to maintain some statutory functions, which include the administration of land and water within the port limits; planning and development of port operational infrastructure; easing and concession of por t infr a str uc tur e and setting benchmark for tariff structure and maintaining nautical/

harbour operations as well as hydrographic survey among others. “ Fo r t h e e f f e c t i v e execution of these functions, the Authority is committed to the continuous upgrade of facilities and equipment that will enhance service delivery.

This commitment is to ensure that all the six functioning seaports are prepared for optimal performance at all times. This determination accounts for the purchase of these tugboats, MT Musawa & MT Ikoro-Ekiti joining our other fleet of four namely: MT Daura, MT Ubima, MT Uromi and MT Majiya, which werecommissionedin2017,” she said.

According to her, the new tugboats would enhance the maneuvering of large capacity vessels calling at Nigerian ports to berth and unberth, which would ultimately affect the turnaround time of vessels positively.

She however assured that vessel owners, concessionaires and other stakeholders will experience better service delivery from the NPA. Akin Ricketts, chairman Board of Directors of the authority said the commissioning of the tug boats marked another landmark in government quest to provide world class services at the nation’s seaports.

“Towage service has been an integral part of the determinants of the efficiency of any port as it ensures expeditious passage of vessels in channels and safety in berthing them.

MindBody & Soul

with Chioma Nwosu and acknowledging these emotions, without allowing it to subdue you and letting your soul be your guide is extremely important.

Mmaduabuchi: Another man isn’t your Chi. Every man has a destined purpose.

When this purpose is being fulfilled man reaches a state of happiness. Understanding that one’s purpose is entirely different from the next persons, removes the need for competition, greed and jealousy which reduces your vibration. Always follow your chi, don’t force other people’s chi.

Ume: Breathe. Breathing as we know is an act that comes naturally to us, it’s the first thing we do when we come into this world and the last thing we do when

we leave it. Breathing properly can provide a greater sense of mental clarity, better sleep, improves your body’s immune response and reduce stress level. It helps to calm and relax and can also reduce tension and anxiety and improves concentration and memory.

Practising breathing exercises and mindfulness meditations can help with effective breathing.

Chebechi: Protecting your Chi. It is essential to protect your space and your energy. This means avoiding abusive or toxic people and stressful environments.

Protecting your Chi, means you have to be intentional about what you expose your energy to.

This book may seem

quite unconventional but I enjoyed being able to understand happiness from a new perspective.

Source: The Chiology Way To Happiness by Dr. Uzoma Nwosu (Purchase on Amazon.com)

Chioma Nwosu is a mental health/positive psychology advocate, speaker and founder of Olamma Cares Foundation an NGO focused on encouraging the social acceptance of developmental disabilities and mental disorders, finding and implementing long term solutions of these conditions through training, capacity building, advocacy and intervention.

Email: cnwosu@olammacares.com Instagram: _olamma_

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SundayBusiness Reasons insurance is needed for mortgage business risks

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ortgage business, like other enterprises that involve transactions, goes with risks, making insurance not only necessary, but also needful. Insuring the risks associated with transactions is as important as the business itself.

Nigeria, like most African countries, is a very volatile business environment where job security is never sure, making loan repayment default as indeterminate as it is predictable and certain.

In an environment where the mortgage industry is functional and effective, insurance is a must because it is the oil that lubricates the engine of growth. This is why mortgage and insurance must go together because while mortgage is risk-prone, insurance is a hedge against risk.

Mortgage insurance is one policy that protects a mortgage lender or title holder in the event that the borrower defaults on payments, dies, or is otherwise unable to meet the contractual obligations of the mortgage.

Investopedia identifies three aspects of mortgage insurance, including private mortgage insurance (PMI), mortgage life insurance, and mortgage title insurance.

What these have in common is an obligation to make the lender or property holder whole in the event of specific cases of loss. Private

mortgage insurance may be called ‘lender’s mortgage insurance’ (LMI) if the premium on a PMI policy is paid by the lender and not the borrower.

For these reasons and more, an active insurance industry is needed for the growth and development of a functional mortgage industry.

The mortgage industry in Nigeria is still a fledgling and fingers are frequently pointed to an insurance industry that is not an active participant as it should be.

For some reasons, in this country too, in spite of everything the people have learnt, policy is still shaping the industry whereas, in advanced economies, it is the other way round—industry shapes policy because people in the industry are the ones implementing the policy every day.

The mortgage industry in United States, for instance, has been robust for decades and it is with continued activity. One is not, however, saying Nigeria should replicate what happens in the US here, because Nigeria has its own unique characteristics which must be recognized and respected.

What the mortgage players in Nigeria should do, however, is to make the US system a base-line because this system represents the global standard. Adenike FasanyaOsilaja, a mortgage and finance consultant advises that “we have to start learning that system and adapt it to meet our own unique

cultural system and needs.”

Nigeria needs to lay a very good foundation for mortgage industry growth to ensure that what happened in America in 2006 with sub-prime mortgage crisis does not repeat itself here. The Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) is a big possibility that can change and shape the mortgage system in this country and could also be an umbrella for the industry.

One of the high points of NMRC, as a secondary mortgage institution, is its long term, low rate global funds and, because the mortgage industry here is not yet buoyant, NMRC, whether it is succeeding now or not, can be a significant tool in achieving these attributes of a working mortgage industry.

Fasanya-Osilaja believes that the mortgage industry should be shaping NMRC and not NMRC shaping the industry, advising that the Central Bank of Nigeria( CBN), through the NMRC, should be listening to the voice of the industry.

“Experience has proved to me that the CBN is quite ready to listen and learn. The problem here, however, is that the industry has been rather passive”, she noted.

The advisor who is also a Housing/Mortgage Finance Consultant on Nigeria Housing Finance Programme (NHFP) noted that NHFP is creating the enabling environment for strengthening the Nigerian housing sector by

Talking Mortgage with CHUKA UROKO (08037156969, chukuroko@yahoo.com) setting up sustainable framework for mortgage originators, which include financial institutions that provide housing finance, to access long-term refinancing. She added that the framework is setting up mortgage guarantee/insurance as well as a housing microfinance scheme for strengthening Nigeria’s housing microfinance sector.

She revealed that the NHFP intervention included a mass literacy campaign on consumer education, protection and responsibility with regards to housing finance in Nigeria. “The campaign is aimed at educating every Nigerian on the right to own a home, the cost implications, advantages of taking loans to finance a home and to ultimately serve as a catalytic programme to jumpstart the housing market in Nigeria”, she said.

But the mortgage industry has to be standardized so that global players, from global perspectives, could view the local industry from the perspective of NMRC and mortgage banking association of Nigeria (MBAN) and see something to hold on to in their investment decisions. Despite the current challenges, the Nigerian

economy could conveniently support the growth of the mortgage industry as the country is one of the fastest growing economies in the world where talent resource is amazing.

The mortgage consultant advised that Nigeria should understand that there is time for competition and also time for association and each is as critical as the other.

“The only thing that will stop this industry from growing is overregulation by people who are not in the industry and therefore, will not understand the effect of their policy on the actual market”, she said, emphasizing the urgency of an active insurance industry to drive the needed growth in the mortgage industry.

As a step forward, mortgage insurance could come with a typical ‘pay-as-you-go’ premium payment, or may be capitalised into a lump sum payment at the time the mortgage is originated. For homeowners who are required to have PMI because of the 80 percent loan-to-value ratio rule, they can request that the insurance policy be canceled once 20 percent of the principal balance has been paid off.

SAPIENCE: Rethink How to turbo-charge your business with through turbulent times (Part 9)

Toluwanimi Osinowo

info@cantab-associates.com Obinnae-mail: Emelike Lesson 3: Redimension your competitive advantage (contd.) edefining our business and reordering our priorities leads to a radical alternative view of competition. For most businesses, they compete with other businesses for the resources of their customers. Competing with other businesses for the pool of profit held by a group of potential buyers. Our aim is to get something the customer has and we want to get it all for ourselves or at least get more of it than our competitor. This concept of competition is self-centered and self-referential and is inevitable when you have a profit-centered business model.

If you truly have the customer’s best interests at heart and there is another business that is providing greater benefit to the customer than you in an overlapping area, what should your

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reaction be? Any reaction other than joy would suggest that your customer’s best interest is not your core motivation. Yes, you might be disappointed that your business was not the one to provide the better product or service, but you should be happy for the customer. In this case, the other business is not your competition. Since you are in business to benefit and serve another person and they are doing this better than you, it would only be sensible to seek to learn from them – this should be the first impulse. Not learning how to beat them, but understanding how the thinking and behavior of that business led to such results. Whatever you do next, these lessons will pay off greatly.

There is then a wide range of things you can do based on this unique approach and the lessons learned. You could decide to cooperate with them - for example,

if they have a much better product than yours and the cost of reengineering your processes is too high then you can decide to work with them in some way. Another option is to improve on what they are offering based on what you learned from them. This improvement is not out of spite but using the lessons to better serve the customer. You could even take the principles (or even the same product concept) learned from them and apply it to another area or to another set of customers.

On the other hand, when you encounter another business that is serving your target poorly or doing them a disservice - maybe depriving them of something you consider essential or being deliberately deceptive in their communications - then you have a basis for real competition. Remember your rationale – you are not fighting because you want more of the pie for yourself, you are fighting because you want what is best for your target regardless of who is involved in achieving this. The way you go about it will be driven by your underlying reasoning.

Sometimes, the issue is honest

communication with and education of the target – when the target is not aware that they are being under-served or harmed in some way. The growing complexity of the modern world has meant that reliable information is scarcer than it should be.

Imagine the scenario where there are two other businesses – business A which your competitor (who is under-serving the target) and business B who is doing a terrific job (better than you).

Suddenly your response options expand. The details of every possible scenario and all the potential responses and maneuvers are beyond the scope of this article but you can already see that the list of possibilities is endless.

What you formerly saw as black and white competition has now become this multi-coloured set of interactions that advances your agenda of bringing true delight to the customer.

Questions · How are you currently viewing your competition? · How should it change? · What creative options can

you now see by re-dimensioning your competition ___________________________ No part of this article may be reproduced, copied or used in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the author. e-mail: info@cantab-associates.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/ in/toluwanimi-osinowo

Dr. Osinowo is a thinker and teacher: coaching high-potential leaders, advising organizations and originating breakthrough ideas. He is the founder of CANTAB Associates and the pioneer of SAPIENCE which is both a philosophy and methodology of thinking. He previously worked in the London office of the leading global strategy consulting firm Bain & Company. He studied Medicine at the University of Cambridge where he was a Cambridge Commonwealth Scholar. He can be reached for your questions and comments. e-mail: info@cantab-associates.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/toluwanimiosinowo

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BrandsOnSunday SPOTLIGHTING BRAND VALUE

Financial Inclusion is the bedrock of Fintech in Nigeria - Usoro Usoro

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n order to meet the 95% target for financial inclusion by 2024 set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the country needs to accelerate the current growth rate in the industry, said the General Manager, Mobile Financial Services, MTN Nigeria, Usoro Usoro.

Usoro said this during an interactive virtual session by The Economist Intelligence Unit based on a report titled “State of Play: Fintech in Nigeria” sponsored by MTN Nigeria and Mastercard. A statement said.

Addressing participants at the session, Usoro Usoro remarked, “Fintech and financial inclusion is an important area for MTN Nigeria. We always see ourselves as a company that drives economic growth and development everywhere we operate. Working with The Economist team and similar stakeholders to produce reports

such as this stimulate debate and conversation around the challenges in the sector and how we can work together as an industry to drive our desired objectives”.

He further explained that “The CBN’s National Financial Inclusion Strategy which was revised in 2019 has set a financial inclusion target to 95% by

2024. It is barely five years from now and we need a collaborative approach by stakeholders in the industry to ensure that all players can leverage their various assets to meet that target. “ Relatively, Nigeria has more sophisticated products than many other countries on the continent.

The challenge is in accessibility and how these products will not only improve convenience for the already banked but further drive inclusion while addressing how we can bring this last batch of 40 million customers that are traditionally excluded into the fold. Overall, I think we are in the right direction, and studies such as this serve the purpose of stimulating conversation that will provide solutions to the challenges we face as an industry”.

Plans to launch the report to a wide selection of stakeholders in the Nigerian Fintech industry

were underway but had to be postponed due to the restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Economist Intelligence Unit confirmed that details of the physical event will be shared at a later date.

The webinar hosted by Camelia Oros, Managing Director, CT Productions featured presentations by Irene Mia, Global Editorial Director, Thought Leadership and Melanie Noronha, Senior Editor, Thought Leadership, EMEA both of The Economist Intelligence Unit. The webinar also featured presentations by Usoro Usoro, General Manager, Mobile Financial Services, MTN Nigeria and Ebehijie Momoh, Senior Vice President, General Manager, West Africa, Mastercard. The session reviewed topics tackled in the Nigerian Fintech report while assessing both industry drivers and impediments to further growth.

Coming out of lockdown: What does your brand equity look like?

NALENE DE KLERK

F

or many companies, the Covid-19 crisis has escalated into a fight for survival. Those who make it through will emerge into a new world completely changed by the crisis. It is a time to rethink strategy and operations.

In terms of brand and reputation, it may almost feel as if someone hit the ‘Reset button’.

Because of the massive impact of Covid-19 on society’s psyche, people may have less recollection of your brand before the pandemic hit, while the memory of how the company acted and treated them during the pandemic will be much stronger. This is an opportunity to rebuild your organisation’s brand to emphasise what it truly stands for. For those looking at where to start, here’s a revision of the basic elements of brand equity.

Brand equity consists of the value of your customers’ perceptions of your organisation. It differs from ‘reputation’ in that brand equity mainly focuses on your customers and your product or service offering; reputation is built in the minds of all your stakeholders (internal and external) and covers much more than just your value offering.

As we await the further opening of the South African economy under lockdown, Kantar’s wave three barometer on consumer

attitudes and behaviour as well as AI-powered chatbot insights make it clear that agencies, brands and publishers need to work together as we ride the corona-coaster towards recovery...

We also find that it is often confused with ‘brand valuation’, which is when the brand is converted into a monetary value. The calculations used to calculate brand value are diverse, with no single standard for how it is calculated. However, the elements of brand equity are generally more subjective: you are painting a picture of your brand in the mind of the consumer.

When building your organisation’s brand equity, especially in this time of renewal, there are six elements to consider.

1. Brand visual identity Most people who think of the term ‘brand’ usually think of a powerful logo and slogan, like Nike or Coca-Cola. This relates to the visual identity. The brand visual identity encompasses anything by which people identify the organisation or its products. The main focus is usually on the visual aspects such as the logo, slogan, typography or colour scheme. However, a brand can be recognised by any of the senses, including auditory (as with a jingle or sonic) and olfactory (like perfume).

However, you cannot just dream up a logo that people might like and think your brand is in place. It is important that the brand’s visual identity aligns with

the type of company or product that it conveys, as well as the values of the brand.

2. Brand personality One of the key characteristics of a strong brand is its ability to connect emotionally with its target audience. The brand’s unique voice allows it to do this by aligning to the personality of the types of people that it wants to attract. For example, Nando’s has a very unique personality, which makes them memorable and recognisable.

3. Brand positioning/promise What makes this company different from its competitors? Why does it exist, and what is its unique selling proposition? In many ways, this element is the foundation of all the others. In today’s noisy market, and especially in industries where there are several competitors, your organisation must know what sets it apart and what types of customers it is trying to attract.

That will then flow into the brand personality and communication.

4. Brand communication A brand needs communication to become powerful: the communication is the glue that binds the other elements together. The key here is to communicate the brand effectively. Before a brand can become familiar in the mind of the target audience and start garnering customer loyalty, it needs to be visible. Consistency is also critical: a brand is built over time.

ity

5. Brand awareness/familiar-

Different types of brands require different levels of awareness and familiarity from the public. Consumer brands, for example, require as wide a public presence as possible in order to survive, whilst business-to-business brands tend to focus more on the awareness of the brand within the business community. Either way, if you are painting a picture in the mind of your consumer, brand awareness speaks to the clarity of that picture.

6. Brand experience You can put your brand out there, explain it, reinforce it, but what happens when the customer uses your product or services?

The customer experience forms part of the picture you are painting. If they have a great experience, you have a higher brand equity and you are a step closer towards having a loyal customer, even an advocate for your business. If that experience is bad, however, all your branding efforts will be tainted by it and your logo might serve more as a warning sign than an attractive beacon.

Whether you are just starting out, whether Covid-19 reset your entire strategy, or whether your brand equity was high enough to carry you through the crisis without a hitch, take hold of the opportunity to build your brand afresh. Culled from Bizcommunity

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Arts Why Chika Okeke-Agulu is making case for stolen Nigerian artifacts OBINNA EMELIKE

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n June 29, 2020, Ch r i s t i e ’s , a British auction house, will be organising African Art Sale at its Paris salesroom. As expected, many artifacts representing African heritage and history would be on showcase for the auction.

Sadly, aside the legitimately acquired works, some stolen African artifacts are also going to be offered at the auction sales.

One of the stolen works expected at the auction is Alusi, or “sacred sculptures, a pair of Igbo objects, which were removed from Nigeria during the civil war by Jacques Kerchache, a French collector of African art objects who died in 2001.

But some concerned Africans are pressurizing Christie’s not to sell the stolen works at the June 29th auction sales. The two works are being sold together as one lot and they carry an estimate of €250,000–€350,000 ($283,000–$396,000), and are set to hit the block as part of the “Art d’Afrique, d’Océanie et d’Amérique du Nord” auction on June 29th.

Foremost among those calling out the British auction house to stop the public sales

A pair of Igbo sculptures, attributed to Awka Master and from the Nri-Awka area of Nigeria, are part of a forthcoming auction of African art at Christie’s Paris.

of the stolen objects is Chika Okeke-Agulu, a professor of indigenous, modern, and contemporary African and African

Diaspora art history and theory at Princeton University in the United States of America.

Offering reasons the sales

Nollywood in Focus, a documentary by Iké Udé, premieres at San Francisco Black Film Festival OBINNA EMELIKE

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ollywood in Focus, an exciting documentary film offering a rare glimpse into the burgeoning Nigerian film industry, premiered at the 22nd San Francisco Black Film Festival on June 19, 2020.

Directed by Iké Udé, critically acclaimed artist and photographer, the documentary features 40 Nigerian film industry personalities, highlighting the challenges and opportunities of Nollywood, the second largest movie

Iké Udé

industry in the world.

“You don’t know the film industry if you don’t know Nollywood,” said Kali O’Ray, director of the San Francisco Black Film Festival. “Nollywood in Focus is a promising short documentary where renowned artist and photographer, IkéUdé masterfully paints a portrait of the Nigerian film industry in the voices of its icons.We are incredibly pleased to be screening Nollywood in Focus this year.”

Starting in the early 1990s, Nollywood has quickly gained worldwide recognition as the world’s second

most prolific film industry (over 1,000 titles released each year) ahead of Hollywood and behind Bollywood, generating over $600 million for the Nigerian economy annually. It is characterized by independent, low-budget, quick filmmaking and meeting the growing demands of a continent for authentic stories that reflect the reality on the ground.

Nollywood in Focus features an impressive cross section of the industry from veteran actors and producers to a new generation of rising stars. The documentary film is part of a multiplatform franchise which also includes an international touring exhibition at renowned museums and galleries and a beautiful, oversized coffee table book.

The San Francisco Black Film Festival, which has screened over 10,000 in its twenty-two years, aims to celebrate African American cinema and the African cultural Diaspora and to showcase a diverse collection of films – from emerging and established filmmakers.

The 22nd edition of the San Francisco Black Film Festival began virtually from June 18, 2020.

should stop, Okeke-Agulu said while the removal and transport of the sculptures

by Kerchache would be con-

sidered illegal now, it occurred before the 1970 UNESCO Convention, which formally prohibited the acquisition and transfer of cultural property.

Again, he decried Christie’s description of the provenance of the works as having been “acquired in situ” between 1968–69. Clearing the air on the acquisition, Okeke-Agulu explained that the works were looted from the region of NriAwka in Nigeria, an area that is only 30 minutes away from where he grew up, during the civil war between Nigeria’s government and the Republic of Biafra, which seceded from Nigeria as part of an independence movement by primarily Igbo people, and the conflict lasted from 1967 to 1970.

The art historian, who survived the Nigerian-Biafran War as a baby, disclosed that the sales issue is something that is so close to his heart because the works were looted during a situation he described as the most devastating war in post-colonial Africa at the time where a lot of his mates died because of the starvation used by the Nigerian government to bring the runaway republic to its knees.

“Dear Christie’s, let’s be clear about the provenance of these sculptures you want to sell,” said the art historian in an Instagram caption. “While between 500,000 and three

million civilians, including babies like me, were dying of kwashiorkor and starvation inside Biafra; and while young French doctors were in the war zone establishing what we now know as Doctors Without Borders, their compatriot, Mr. Kerchache, went there to buy up my people’s cultural heritage, including the two sculptures you are now offering for sale”.

For him, the works should not go on sale because they are stained with the innocent blood of Biafran children who died during the war.

“I write this so no one, including Christie’s and any potential buyer of these loots from Biafra can claim ignorance of their true provenance. These artworks are stained with the blood of Biafra’s children”, he said on his Instagram post.

Other African looted artifacts expected at the auction sales include Benin Bronze plaques. However, OkekeAgulu is insisting that Christie’s should not sell the objects now because they are blood art. “There are blood diamonds, and this is what I would call blood art”, he concluded.

But despite Okeke-Agulu’s calls and other oppositions to the proposed auction sales, Christie’s seems to be firm on selling them on June 29th.

Hembadoon; the new kid on the block, debuts with Lady OBINNA EMELIKE

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o doubt, the Nigerian music industry has continued to grow with the introduction of new artistes and different sounds. One of the new artistes ready to excite music lovers and impact the industry now is Hembadoon.

The artiste, whose real name is Morenike PeterThomas, stages as Hembadoon, and is truly the new kid on the block.

She is a seasoned singer and songwriter with a wealth of experience in musical art and performances, as well as, public relations and advertising. New on the scene, Hembadoon is debuting in the music industry in unique style. She introducing herself to would-be fans and industry stakeholders with a new single she calls ‘Lady’. The single features few lines almost as though a subtle response to Afrobeat Legend Fela’s song with the same title.

However, she says it is not a rebellion but an embrace of the new culture, the one that exalts women – especially the Nigerian woman for her strength and ability to hold her own, while multitasking as a caregiver, entrepreneur and/ or business executive in her chosen field of expertise.

Explaining further, she says

Hembadoon

Lady is a song of empowerment, of self-realization and self-assertion. “It speaks to the strength the modern-day woman possesses, an innate existence that makes her the well-rounded complete being with the potential to be any and everything she wants to be. ‘Lady’ is the song for everyone who believes in the woman, respects the woman, loves the woman and wants to see the woman win”, she says.

Hembadoon is of the opinion that women have always changed the world, and women will continue to change the world. “Once upon a time, being such a woman earned you derogatory names, but ‘Lady’ is about the new breed of women who are not stifled, and they are unashamedly proud of their strong personalities and continue to embrace it for what it is”, she explains.

The artiste, who has been

a behind-the-scene player on the Nigerian entertainment scene, working as an Abuja radio host earlier in her career and as a PR executive for some corporate record labels and public figures for about half a decade, says she identifies as such a woman.

She calls her song a potential anthem for women all over the world. She says Lady is so timely as it complements the voices in Nigeria calling against those trying to take power from women through rape and domestic violence, as well as, the Nollywood #MeToo movement, aimed at exposing #SexforRoles in the Nigerian movie industry.

For would-be fans, Hembadoon offers reasons her music is a must-listen and exciting.

Her music is detailed, with carefully crafted text and vocal dexterity. She has a unique sound and delivery, combined with excellent songwriting skills that carries the listener on a journey into her world of musical experiences. The creative use of language also tells a musical tale, and Hembadoon explores different Nigerian languages to create the melody on her music projects, aimed at captivating any audience and lover of good music.

However, she hopes to introduce more unique sounds for lovers of good music everywhere.

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Sunday 21 June 2020

Travel Delta Airlines welcomes travellers back with layers of protection for safe travel Stories by IFEOMA OKEKE

D

uring Delta’s annual shareholders meeting Thursday, CEO Ed Bastian shared details about the Delta CareStandard – the global airline’s commitment to a superior level of cleanliness, more space and safer service designed to ensure customers can travel with confidence.

As a result of the airline’s comprehensive approach to health safety for customers and employees, the rate of positive COVID-19 cases among Delta’s global employees is nearly five times lower than the U.S. national average in May and during the first half of June 2020.

Customers can count on the following layers of protection across the Delta experience indefinitely: Aircraft interiors sanitized before 100 percent of flights: Every flight. Every day. Everywhere. That’s Delta’s commitment to sanitizing aircraft interiors because customers tell us cleanliness, above all, is the most important factor they consider whether to return to travel.

We use two proven disinfecting methods: Using a high-grade electrostatic spray that seeks out and clings to surfaces, instantly killing viruses on contact. The spraying method allows the disinfectant to reach even the smallest nooks and crannies of an interior like the corners of overhead bins. Electrostatic spray sanitization continues to be expanded to employee areas, gates, baggage claim, jet bridges and other common areas.

Wiping down surfaces customers care about most including tray tables, seat-back entertainment screens, seat belts, arm rests and more.

Cleaner air on board: Air on-

board is recirculated every two to six minutes with fresh, outside air or through HEPA filters that extract more than 99.99 percent of particles, including viruses. These filters function similarly to filters used in hospital operating rooms, and Delta is committed to changing them out twice as often as recommended by the manufacturer.

Making it easy to keep your hands clean: One of the first things customers notice when entering any Delta airport space is that they’re never more than a few steps away from a hand sanitizing station. Delta is also providing each customer with sanitizing wipes or gel packs upon boarding and as part of snack bag service on board.

Cues for safe distance: From check-in lobby bag-drop lines to gate areas and jet bridges, Delta is providing spacing markers to make it easy to determine a safe distance from others in the area.

We are also boarding customers 10 at a time starting at the back of the plane to reduce the instances of people passing one another in the aisle. Additionally, customers will notice acrylic shields on all Delta counters to protect both customers and employees during ongoing interactions.

Additional layers of protection include those Delta will have in place for the foreseeable future, including:

Face masks are required for everyone: Delta has had a maskwearing requirement in place since May for customers and employees because medical experts say that wearing a mask is one of the most important ways customers and employees can help prevent the spread of the virus while flying. It also provides a consistent layer of protection across all travel touchpoints.

We take our mask requirement just as seriously as the non-negotiable requirements for customers to remain seated when taxiing or wearing a seat belt during takeoff. That’s why those who don’t comply with crewmember or ambassador instruction to wear a face covering or follow other safety requirements risk future flight privileges with Delta.

Creating more space by limiting people on board: Delta has capped the number of people we’ll allow to book seats on our flights at 60percent in the main cabin and 50percent in First Class, while blocking the ability to select middle seats. We’re committed to this through Sept. 30, at which point we’ll re-evaluate. We’re doing all of this because medical experts recommend having space between each other in conjunction with wearing a mask as an important step in preventing the spread of COVID-19. Similarly, customers

are telling us that having more space between travelers is one of the most important factors they consider when deciding to fly.

Care Kits provide customers travel safety essentials: Customers arriving at a Delta check-in area without a face mask will receive a complimentary care kit to comply with our mask requirement and individual hand sanitizer gel pouches.

The kit also includes an information card that outlines the Delta CareStandard layers of protection. Bill Lentsch, Chief Customer Experience Officer said of the Care Kits: “Our survey data showed a clear desire for these kits and we have a bias toward action when we see new trends emerge.”

Testing employees before they go to work: In addition to temperature checks for all employees when they arrive at work, Delta has launched a program to test employees for COVID-19 – both the active virus and antibodies. We view this as a critical step in protecting employees, families, coworkers and customers that can help identify ill employees even if they are not exhibiting symptoms.

Never letting up The Delta CareStandard is the foundation of cleanliness and care upon which the future Delta travel experience – one that brings joy back to travel – is being built. That’s why Delta launched the Global

Cleanliness organization. This unique organization led by our VP of Global Cleanliness will continue innovating and elevating cleanliness so that Delta’s transformed standards remain just as high, if not higher, as more customers return to travel.

Keeping customers informed with cues to cleanliness Delta is working to build customer confidence by making sure travelers are aware of what they can do to help reduce the spread of virus when traveling and confirming the layers of protection Delta has in place as they make their way across their journey with us.

Pre-flight emails: Customers receive an email in the days leading up to their flight with tips for travel including reminders about our face mask requirement and links to information about our Delta CareStandard so they can know what to expect before ever setting foot in the airport.

Fly Delta app reminder: With more than 60 percent of customers using the Fly Delta app to check in, we’ve introduced a notification upon check in with links to our sanitization process, travel requirements and even TSA guidelines in case customers have questions on the go.

Aircraft sanitization notifications: Customers are notified through a push notification in the Fly Delta app and gate information displays when their aircraft has been sanitized and passed inspection by our teams.

Care Kit information cards Gate and onboard announcements: Gate agents, pilots and flight attendants work together to announce milestones in the departure process like when the aircraft has been sanitized, and to encourage spacing between customers during the boarding and deplaning processes.

Aviation stakeholders brainstorm on survival strategies for post COVID-19

A

viation stakeholders on Thursday brainstormed on how to survive during post Covid-19 era at a Webinar session tagged, ‘Nigeria’s Aviation Industry: Changing Times, Changing Strategies’, organized by the League of Airports and Aviation Correspondents (LAAC) The experts say collaboration, new strategies, new technologies and automation are the key to surmounting the challenges that have been posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Allen Onyema, Chairman of Air Peace, stressed the need to

continue to create awareness to the public that it is safe to fly.

He said the campaign that middle seats be removed from aircraft is not supported by his airline, adding that Nigerians will not be able to bear the cost if airlines should transfer the cost to them.

He also disclosed that airlines are disinfecting their aircraft and putting in place different measures for the safety of passengers.

On palliative for the sector, Onyema stressed that what the airlines need is money to pay staff salaries since the livelihood of many workers in the sector are threatened by sack.

Gabriel Olowo, the President of Aviation Round Table Safety Initiative (ARTSI), all airlines should by now have infrastructure that will allow its passengers to check in online and avoid crowds and queues at the airport.

He said self-service check in has been activated at most airports globally, Nigeria cannot be left out.

Also speaking, Harold Demuren, former director general of the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), said there is a need to change the challenges to opportunities adding, ‘technology and automation are the way for-

ward, we cannot run away from it.

“There is a need for airlines to codeshare and do local Billing Settlement Plan, there should be single digit interest rate and availability of FOREX, the Agencies like FAAN needs money to put in place new infrastructure”, he said.

Akin Olateru, Commissioner, Accident Investigation Bureau (AIB), expressed hope that the sector will rebound, but noted that only those who can think out of the box will survive the challenges.

Also speaking during the conference, Hamisu Yadudu, managing director of FAAN, noted that

this is the only period aviation is grounded globally in this COVID-19 era but the responses and guidelines of Agencies to rebound and reposition the sector can only work when there is cooperation among all.

According to him, ‘we all need the cooperation of each other, the success of our responses is not the responsibility of only one agency, it will be good for all stakeholders to cooperate, if we fail to cooperate, the essence of the responses and guidelines will be jeopardized.

Our protocols are out and our doors are open to suggestions”, he said.

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Travel Why recovery of tourism industry may linger Obinna Emelike

I

t is exciting that the lockdown and travel restrictions enforced by governments across the world to curtail the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19) are being eased gradually now.

As a result, global economies are beginning to restart after months of inactivity amid huge revenue losses and death toll.

Currently, many airlines are making plans to get their airplanes back in the skies, hotels are reviewing safety protocols to ensure safety of guests when they eventually open, destinations are reengaging visitors, and the empty beaches will soon be receiving fun seekers, especially as summer draws near.

But the pandemic is not over yet. The world is still fighting to further flatten the curve of the virus, which implies that some restrictions will still exist, especially in places where the pandemic is still ravaging with increasing number of infected people.

While the world is opening up, countries with increasing number of infected people will rather be conscious of public safety than opening the country and endangering lives and businesses, which may not survive a second wave of lockdown.

Sadly, Nigeria falls into this category with the increasing number of people who test positive to the virus daily.

The tourism sector, which depends on free and mass movement, peaceful environment and safety has been hugely impacted by the lockdown, and the increasing cases of the virus now is bad news for the sector recovery.

Going by the situation on ground, the recovery of the tourism industry, according to many tourism experts, may linger beyond the year if the pandemic is not curtailed fast.

They noted that as the world is opening up, economies recovering and travels begin once again, people would be

skeptic about traveling and if they must, it has to be to destinations and countries where health and safety is guaranteed.

Bearing this in mind and also looking at the huge revenue they make from tourism every summer, most European countries are the ones easing lockdown and lifting travel bans so that their countries will open and prepare to receive visitors again, especially this summer.

“Spain, France and Portugal are fighting had to curtail the pandemic because they want to attract visitors this summer and also try to use the summer business window to boost their economy. Nobody will visit a country that is still battling to curtail coronavirus when others are getting out of it”, Asabe Imotemi, a destination manager, said.

In line with Imotemi, Jerry Oluka, a hotelier, noted that countries that are serious with tourism and not crude oil, are the ones leading in lifting travel bans and opening the world again because tourism is a huge foreign exchange earner for their economies.

“Some countries are already marketing their destinations by showing feats recorded in the fight against coronavirus and safety protocols they put in place to ensure safety of visitors. Rwanda is now calling on corporate organisations to bring back their meetings to its venues”, Oluka said.

Considering the situation in Nigeria, tourism and travel experts are suggesting that the country should focus on the domestic front for the recovery of the tourism industry as the country still battles the virus.

“Flights are not coming in yet with visitors, hotels are still shutdown and the ones that are open are empty as guests are taking safety precautions, government and corporate organisations, which are the biggest clients of hotels are not hosting events and meetings again because of social distancing and other safety measures. So, recovery is far in

...domestic front not option

sight”, Olakunle Jimoh, a tour operator, said.

Most of the experts think that government should also aid the recovery with palliatives, which tourism stakeholders have been crying for since the lockdown.

“Hotels are better not closed because to reopen a hotel costs huge sum. But hotels have been out of business for long with huge losses. Their reopening will aid the recovery, but government has to help out with palliatives, tax incentives

among others”, Oluka noted.

But beyond the palliatives, James Amamah, an amusement park operator, said that if government could put in all it takes to curtail the virus, normalcy would return, customers would come and business would boom instead of waiting for free money that would never come.

“Yes, we are counting losses, but what we need now is more efforts by everybody to curtail the virus so that normalcy will return and we run our show

without government’s incentives as usual”, Amamah said.

While looking inwards to domestic tourism seems the answer, the experts said that lack of tourism infrastructure, insecurity, efficient means of transportation and fear of double standard in adherence to safety protocols by tourism outfits would constrain the boom of domestic tourism in the country.

“Interstate travel is still restricted, domestic airlines are yet to restart, destinations are scared of receiving visitors because of community transmission of the virus, which is high now. So, domestic tourism will only thrive when the virus is curtailed”, Jimoh noted.

Looking at the precarious situation, Amamah said that while parents who can afford it, cannot take their children to Disney World abroad for now, they equally cannot bring their children to amusement parks in the country because of social distancing rules and other safety measures.

The development, according to him, leaves amusement park to rot until normalcy returns.

“But when will normalcy return with the increasing cases of the virus”? He asked.

Amamah noted that Nigerians love outbound destinations, which made domestic tourism to struggle when things were normal. “If people did not see reasons to patronize domestic tourism during and after the 2016 economic recession, they will see many reasons not to visit local attractions now, especial fear of contracting coronavirus”, he said.

Going by the reality of our time, the experts are of the opinion that domestic tourism is not an option now because the battle to curtail the virus is still fierce and would require some restrictions even at the local level.

Meanwhile, many are set to jet out of the country the moment international flights resume, leaving domestic attractions and destinations to rot for lack of patronage.

Habits of international travelers: Which are you guilty of ?

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use the pool or ocean to relieve themselves.

hen you are a tourist, yo u m a y a ls o have habits you prefer to keep classified. From peeing in the pool, taking hotel toiletries, cheating on partners, among others, these habits are dirty little secrets of travelers across the world.

As summer draws near and some people are preparing to go on vacation despite the threat of coronavirus pandemic, it is timely to reveal some of these habits.

Taking hotel toiletries: Grabbing extra hotel toiletries ranks as the most common travel secret for many travelers. Many who form the habit cannot really say why they snag the mini bottles of shampoo, conditioner and lotion, which

Cheating on partner: While many travelers snag the hotel goodies or skip the restroom, the majority of jetsetters remain faithful to their partners while vacationing. A few have a vacation fling.

Sneaking goods through customs Aside snagging hotel goodies, some travelers sneak goods through customs and hardly declare all merchandise at customs. The irony is that customs knows when travelers are lying, but often let go. are often low quality products.

Tinkling in the pool or ocean: Almost two-thirds of tour-

ists globally tinkle in the hotel pool or ocean. Despite the convenience of their rooms and within the hotel, many guests

Playing hooky to extend vacation: Aside doing vacation re-

search and secretly booking vacations during work hours, some travelers, especially corporate staff play hooky to extend their holiday. They often calling in sick to work to extend their vacation.

Skipping on a bill: When it comes to paying the bill, most travelers settle it fair and square. But a few skip out, leave a bar or restaurant without paying.When caught, it is a criminal offense and usually an embarrassing situation.

Reserving a lounge chair with towel: While not a terrible habit, it is frowned upon to reserve a lounge chair with your towel when you are not at the beach or pool.

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Interview We have begun aggressive drive to attract more investments to Ogun - Longe

Kikelomo Longe, Ogun State commissioner for Industry, Trade and Investment, in this interview with RAZAQ AYINLA, Southwest Bureau Chief, spoke about several steps taken so far to ensure business-enabling environment for both existing and prospective investors as well as entrepreneurs in the state. Excerpts:

I

t is exactly one year of Dapo Abiodun’s administration in Ogun State and before, his government, Commerce and Industry was a major channel where revenue and foreign direct investments came from, one may want to know what you have done in the last one year?

Let us look at fundamentals that drive economic growth in a State like Ogun. I will like to speak first on entrepreneurship in conjunction with MSME in which I define as business that employs less than 200 people which makes up of 90% of businesses in the country.

His Excellency, the Governor of the State has always indicated the importance of this segment of businesses for our State.

Very early in his administration, there were quite a number of initiatives that took a number of policies that he set the direction to that set up this MSMEs to a good start in our State, so much so that the Association of Small Business Owners gave him a national award as the most SMEs supportive Governor for 2019 and closely link to the that is that my ministry, the Ministry of Industry and investment in the State was given a National award of the most supportive State Ministry across the country and that is a testament of the importance we hold this particular sector given that we go extra mile to ensure they succeed.

For policy perspective, we have also established an agency described as the Enterprise Development Agency and this agency’s role is largely how to provide business advisory services to this category of businesses to help them grow their network, to mentor them, to help them build capacity and also support them in the area of policy advocacy and ensure that the environment in which they operate be more friendly for them to thrive. These are some programmes we run during the course of the year that really evidences the passion of his Excellency for helping MSMEs succeed, we had a number of capacity building programmes and this capacity building programmes is aimed to train the entrepreneurs for various things, from the very basic things like writing business plans, how to access loan, how to improve the access to market and how to generally scale up their businesses for better success.

Examples of this programmes are the MSMEs business clinic with over 5000 attendees across all three Senatorial Districts in which we brought them together with various the stakeholders, this include some of the regulatory bodies that they interact with, in the course of their business, like the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) and other regulatory agencies they we come in contact with, when doing their businesses quite frequently. We also invited business member organisations such as the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Chambers of Commerce, Mines and Agriculture and it was a nice avenue for these entrepreneurs to come in contact with various stakeholders that they come across in the course of their businesses.

We also did have some partner banks who have supported the programme in which at the end of the programme we were able to register

over 550 new businesses, some of these entrepreneurs who have been carrying on as sole proprietors and saw the benefit of becoming formal and then went ahead to register the businesses at the Corporate Affairs Commission Desk at the location.

We also were able to get some of the businesses to open bank accounts at the financial institutions present and so over 2000 new business accounts were opened with these banks that came.

The business member organisations also registered quite a number of assistants, over 4,300 members and the advantages of these business member organisations include just being able to speak with one voice, so you have homogeneous groups coming together and being able to present their concerns, their suggestions, their issues to member bodies and to the power of numbers, they are able to come together to solve issues, enhance their strengths just by coming together and this has proven quite effective and it is not just in Nigeria that you have these business member organisations, we have them all over the world.

In September just a few months into this administration we had a training programme for entrepreneurs and about 159 entrepreneurs were trained and like the other one, it was a capacity building programme and it was in partnership with (SMEDAN) Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria and on completion of that programme we issued certificates of completion to the various participants.

In the area of Gender Empowerment, we have had a lot of programmes focused on women, in February the Office of the First Lady in Collaboration with the First City Monument Bank in which we trained a 150 women entrepreneurs in the State, the icing of the cake was that the women were able to access loan from First City Monument Bank in which 40 of them got loans and we about carrying out another programmes for 200 entrepreneurs in the private sector before the Covid-19 lock down and when the coast is clear we would run that programme and we would be working in partnership with one of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) approved the Enterprise Development Institution where we would train business owners on various aspects of improving their businesses, including writing business plan and setting strategic direction for their respective businesses. In the area of women activities, the Office of the Deputy Governor working in collaboration with my Ministry had a programme that empowered 500 women in the rural areas across the State to support their retail businesses.

What we did was to bring these women together in contact with some leading Industries who require distribution outlets for their products. Historically some of these women might have been retailers, i.e main distributors, subdistributors, retailers and sub-retailers so that by the time it gets to them the margins are narrow. But this kind of programme, bringing the women in front of the manufacturers, was able to reduce the number of middlemen and improve the margins of the women and you can imagine what it will do to the psychics of these women, how motivated they will

indeed, the OSTECH project that I mentioned earlier has three components to it, we have the improving the business enabling environment component, upgrading skills that has to do with education and helping in skills development, it has also improving agricultural value chains.

The farmers’ business will do better if whatever he/she grows he/she is able to sell at a good a price and it is somewhat predictable, and you know about the CBN’s Anchor Borrowers Programme and that just helps to strengthen the relationship between the various value chains, the farmer that is growing, knows who he is going to sell to, what price he is going to sell, and the appropriate time he is going to sell and so it is predictable. Just yesterday we had a session of all initiatives that we are planning post Covid-19 to help the teaming youths in State and it is still evolving, however a key component of it is agro processing, a lot of this produce from the farm. How can they be processed or semi-processed for the next users? Who will then add his own value and pass it on to the next users? We are excited about it, it is a game changer, it will create a lot of jobs, it will engage a lot people and we are quite happy to be in the middle of delivering this in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture but more details will be revealed and we are quite excited about that as we believe agro processing is one and we believe we can add value to this products, add value to the lives of the farmers, create jobs for our people and have produce for people to have access to.

Kikelomo Longe

be that they are getting to meet some of these brands who then give them hints and tips on how to display their products, how to sell better and so on.

It is observed that the manufacturers in main industrial hubs in the state are being faced with three pronged problems which are decaying infrastructure, multiple taxation and indiscriminate closure of firms for alleged breaking of environmental rules and guidelines, what are you doing in that regards?

Going back to your question in which you mentioned the challenges of industries in the State as decaying infrastructure, multiple taxations in which I have spoken about already and use of environment. Let me start with the last one on environmental challenges. The Ministry of Environment when they did their preliminary audits, realised that a lot of companies have been rather non-compliant with the standards that are expected of them. Sometime in February, a team went out led by the Commissioner of Environment himself to begin to check for their compliance and some companies were sealed off and that is just the beginning as we are going to be firmer now because it is right in the interest of the environment, the interest of the neighborhood and in the interest of the companies themselves and the employees of that company to ensure that you meet all the environmental protection guidelines and that is going

to change, we have issued warnings to companies, we will be very stricter now with monitoring that, I will say that the members of the public should just give us some time and this will be addressed.

What about decaying infrastructure in places like Agbara, Igbesa, Sagamu, Ogijo and others?

In the area of infrastructure around industrial parks, that is also a key concern for us as companies ought to have access to their businesses, you have to be able to take your raw materials in and take your finished goods out to the market. There are a number of initiatives ongoing to address this, I mentioned earlier the PPP sector, this infrastructure the State cannot handle it alone and we will go into different arrangements that will find for the improvement of this infrastructure.

Infrastructure requires a lot of money which the State cannot just drum up and so we are looking for creative ways to address the issue.

The state sovernment is taking steps to ensure that the farmers and agriculturists are able to supply produce for industries with an aid from government in form of arrangement which allows linkage between the farms and processing and manufacturing firms; are you still on this programme?

I am very happy that you raised that point because it is very fundamental

Ogun State definitely has incubation centres and parks where young people can learn and acquire vocational skills needed to be independent, what are you doing in the area of skills acquisition?

We know we have a number of technology experts that are coming up with products and services, there one or two breakthroughs that you will get to hear about in the coming weeks, we trying to make sure that the cost make sense, once we find out and find it comfortable with the economics, those are things we can engage, quite a number of people and we are quite excited about them as the centre for technology incubation is doing quite a lot for us. It is an incubation centre and people come with a lot of ideas, they play around with it and out of the so many, you get a number of hit, breakthroughs, discoveries that can lead on to other things.

You will get to hear more of this especially we are seeing more opportunities as China is not much of a favourite as it’s used to be giving all the favourite, because of some issues and so a lot economies are looking elsewhere, where can they get stuffs from and we think that we stand a good chance in this part of the world, once we can make them comfortable that we are reliable, trustworthy and the quality of what they need we can get, I think there is hope and apart from that the local market is so big anyway, there is a lot on ground, it is just to make sure that it is affordable, the prices make sense and you can get value from them.

Sunday 21 June 2020

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BDSUNDAY 29

TheWorshipper

COVID-19: Clerics call for prayer as Lagos insists on lockdown SEYI JOHN SALAU

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he Christian community in Lagos has again called for prayers in solidarity with the Lagos State government, following the recent directive by the government that all places of worship in the state should remain closed to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the state, rescinding on its earlier directives that churches should open on Sunday, 21 June.

The Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu had on Wednesday, June 3 issued guidelines for the reopening of worship centres in Lagos. The guidelines restricted worship centres to a maximum of 500 people while exempting people that are older than 65 and young people below the age of 15.

Ho w e v e r, f o l l o w i n g t h e increasing rate of confirmed cases that have been attributed to community spread of the virus, the state government rescinded on its earlier position to reopen worship centres and has directed that religious gathering in the state remains restricted till further notice.

Joseph Ojo, the Archbishop of Calvary Kingdom Church (CKC), Lagos, disclosed to BDSUNDAY that there seems to be nothing else to do in the present circumstance than to ask for forgiveness for the government and leaders of Nigeria, especially in Lagos State.

According to him, the Church that is supposed to be a partner in prayers with the government in bringing this pandemic under control has become the target.

“How can one explain that they prefer Barabbas to Jesus?” asked Ojo.

Joseph Ojo

Ojo in showing solidarity with the government calls for prayers to unable government stay on top of the situation. “We must not fail to pray and be praying for this government. It seems they are bereft of the knowledge and wisdom of how to handle the situation. “ Le t u s p r a y f o r t h e i r forgiveness and for them to realise that they are making regrettable mistake,” Ojo said.

Furthermore, Ojo opined that the present situation calls for collaboration between the church and the state to better manage the pandemic, especially the flow of information in regards to COVID-19 in Lagos. “We must do for them what our master did for those who crucified him. Pray

to God for their forgiveness. They don’t know what they are doing.

“Pray that God will grant them the grace to see reason and know who they can partner with to bring this under control. If they had known they would not have crucified the lord of glory,” Ojo concludes.

Apostle Alexander Bamgbola, chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lagos Chapter, on his part said the decision by the Lagos State government to keep worship centres closed was taken in the overall best interest of Lagosians.

Ac c o r d i n g t o h i m , t h e leadership of CAN in the state has been having series of dialogue with the Lagos State government since COVID-19 started. The

virtual meetings according to him were also attended by several prominent Church leaders from the five blocs of CAN. “In all situations, as people of God, we must rest in the grace of God’s Word in Romans 8:28. All things work together for the good of those who love God and those who are called by his name,” said Bamgbola.

On the government decision to have worship centres closed, the Lagos CAN chairman said the decision was based on the facts available to Sanwo-Olu as the governor of the state. According to him, the decision was taken in the interest of life and security of Lagosians.

“He stated his reason clearly, that based on the available data and trend of the unfortunate manifestation of this pandemic as at today, it is not safe to open the Churches and Mosques for regular fellowships. Hence, the postponement of the opening that was originally approved for June 19 for mosques and June 21 for Churches,” Bamgbola said.

Bamgbola appealed to religious leaders in the state for necessary understanding, calmness and peace in this season, as he urged them to intensify their prayers much more now, so that the Lord will hasten to perform His word, in taking this coronavirus pestilence away from our land. “We need to be wise. Some funny people can take advantage of the church opening to cause havoc and bring disrepute to the name of God,” he said.

According to the clergyman, the present situation calls for caution especially as leaders so they do not play to the hands of evil people, hence the need to obey government directives and take advantage of the lockdown to turn individual homes to churches.

“It is where two or three are

gathered that God is in their midst.

The early church started as a home church. So, we should use this period to pray while also trusting God that all will be well.

“That we are abiding by government regulation does not make us foolish. We need to obey the government of the land. More so they are not saying we can’t pray or serve our God. Some of us may have faith but we should not endanger the lives of people that are babies who do not have faith in healing,” Bamgbola said, urging that believers should not expose themselves unduly, which is the point for the continued closure of worship centres.

Reverend Femi Popoola of Divine Mercy Baptist Church, Ikosi, Lagos on his part said since the continued lockdown involves public health issues; the government has to put measures in place to protect lives. “I don’t have much problem with that,” he said.

Speaking further on actions taken towards the earlier June 21 date, Popoola said: “We met last week Sunday to discuss the modalities of arrangement and everything, and by Thursday we should have finalised arrangements, but when we got the information on Wednesday; we had to put everything on hold,” he stated.

Ac c o r d i n g t o h i m , o l d e r members of the church must continue to adjust and show more understanding with government directives barring physical meeting for worship in Lagos State. “...the older generations are not used to it; but since they are still alive at least to some extent, in order to be part of what is going on they have to align themselves to keep the spirit going,” Popoola stated.

Rape: CAN calls for collaborative effort to curb gender-based violence SEYI JOHN SALAU

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oshua Akinyemiju, chairman, CAN, Oyo State has called for more collaborative effort to curb the increasing genderbased violence in the country. He advised parents to stay together as much as possible while monitoring the movements of their children.

Akinyemiju equally urged law enforcement agents to be more proactive and review the laws concerning rape with a view to making it more stringent.

The CAN chair called on religious leaders to step up preaching against the menace among their congregation while churches and mosques should begin to arrange security awareness lectures for their congregation.

“Victims should no longer be shy or afraid to report such incidents; the dangerous effect now is that victims are outright after the act, no longer alive to report the incident.

“This is why all the stakeholders should handle the issue with more seriousness, even more than

COVID-19,” said Akinyemiju.

Oluronke Esan, the pastor of Deliverance Service Solution Centre, Samonda, Ibadan, said the increased incidences of rape were very sad development and direct fallout of the general decadence in the society’s moral and standard of living.

According to Esan, cases of rape could be a fallout of childhood abuse or neglect in one form or the other, emotional instability/insecurity, selfishness, lack of home training, bad association, greed, and possibly carnal mindedness of the rapist.

She said that the effects of rape

on victims could be life-altering, if she was not understood, believed or able to share the experience with anyone.

“If there is no strong, constant emotional support, the victim suffers untold pains and anguish, they sometimes end up with broken marriages or dysfunctional lifestyles as a result of the trauma,” Esan said.

Esan equally called on Christian parents and guardians to train their children in God’s way so that when they are old they would not depart from the godly way as the Bible says.

“A life without Jesus might seem ‘cool’, the ‘in’ thing but it leads to

ultimate destruction; for victims, their caregivers; Jesus said come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest,” Esan said.

She however, urged the youth and children to make the bible their code of conduct, obey, trust in the Lord, and lean not on their own understanding.

“Remember that you are fearfully and wonderfully made in God’s image, no matter what e x p e r i e n c e yo u h a v e g o n e through, know that God’s word for your life will come true, only believe,” she said.

30 BDSUNDAY

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Sunday 21 June 2020

TheWorshipper Inspiration With Rev. Yomi Kasali

info@yomikasali.com

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ong before the advent of technology, television, late night movies, Netflix, telephones, WiFi etc.

Story telling was an integral part of African culture several years ago. Our parents taught us morals through story telling. They used our beautiful traditions to instruct us aright and brought out the best in us through these ancient cultures.

I recall the lines very well, ‘Once Upon A Time...in a far

Once upon a time... away village of Otutukpo... there lived a great warrior...’, our ears would be stretched out, total attention paid to the story telling elder, and in turn, the children would learn some morals about hardwork, honesty, integrity, respect etc. The Bible supports this culture when the wisest man that ever lived on earth admonished us to leave the ancient landmarks untouched. “Remove NOT the ancient landmarks which your fathers have set” (Prov 22 v 28).

Many people today would immediately sneer at the above scriptures and call those who hold it dearly OLD SCHOOL, they use the aforementioned phrase to denigrate those who hold certain traditions as archaic and out of touch with modern day reality which is absolute rubbish. Such people do not understand the difference between Technology and Traditions, Civilization and Westernization, Ancient and Archaic rather they push their ideas of modernization through erosion of our culture and heritage.

Let me Inspire you today with some things that used to define us Once Upon A

NEWS Atiku welcomes Obaseki into PDP Innocent Odoh, Abuja

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ormer Vice President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2019 elections, Atiku Abubakar has congratulated Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State for joining the PDP. Atiku in a press statement by his media office on Friday, made available to BusinessDay by his Media Adviser Paul Ibe, welcomed Governor Obaseki to the PDP, which has said is a truly people’s party.

The Edo state Governor formally joined the main opposition part on Friday after he dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), following a protracted squabble with the national chairman Adams Oshiomhole.

Atiku expressed confidence that the people of Edo State will be the better for choice made by Obaseki.

The Wazirin Adamawa noted that Governor Obaseki was joining the

PDP when the party is poised to deliver good governance to the people of Nigeria.

“I am happy that you have finally exited the oppressive ruling party and joined the truly democratic party in Nigeria. I have no doubt that your coming into the PDP would further strengthen our party to mobilize the people behind the common cause of deepening democratic ethos in our country and restoring prosperity to our people.

“The PDP that you have come to join today is a reformed and repositioned party - one that lives by its name of being a truly democratic party.

“I have an unflinching conviction that your joining the party would be an asset to the PDP. Together, we can work to extinct every form of undemocratic tendencies in our body politic and realign the good people of Edo State to the moving train of democracy and restoration of good governance to the country”, Atiku said.

their pastors over social media, shout at their parents in public, talk down at elders, and we call that ‘civilization’ ignorantly, but it is ‘westernization’.

Five (5) values we treasured once upon a time

us money for votes and our society hated stealing. Unlike today, the lines are blurred and social media celebrities are THIEVES wearing designer clothes and our youths are all involved in internet scamming popularly known as yahoo yahoo, our politicians steal for a living without shame while our Clergymen are SILENT.

Stealing was bad: Once upon a time, our parents taught us that stealing was bad, our pastors pounded the pulpits on the same message, our teachers in school drummed it into our ears with cane to drive home the lessons; our politicians were too ashamed to give

Respect for elders was good: Once upon a time, we were taught how to greet elders at home, we respected older people and elders on the streets. We didn’t look our parents eye to eye when we were rebuked. Our Pastors were ‘revered’ but today people verbally abuse

Time… these things have always been, and no technology should change them. The use of the latest technology, newest designer clothing and living in modern houses should not in any way touch certain things that defines our character and values.

Hard work was good and encouraged: Once upon a time, our politicians taught us to work hard and build the nation, our parents pushed us out to work the fields, our kings encouraged hard work over partying, but today, we have ‘entitlement culture’ permeate our society with young people lazing around on social media, doing nothing and complaining about work, yet they ask for money daily from those who work... what an irony!

Cash was good but not king: This was the most important lesson we learnt Once upon a time. We were toldandtaughtthroughthose stories that cash (money) was good but NOT KING. There were many stories that encouraged poor people to live right and celebrated in the society against the rich who were oppressors.

Today seems to be different because of the ‘Get Rich or Die Trying’ syndrome.

Dressed to impress not be naked: Once upon a time, our ladies and gentlemen dressed to impress people and not to be naked. Our parents were very beautiful when they dressed up, take a look at the pictures of your mothers and grandmothers and admire the beauty queens in those days, but the west has taught us that ‘naked is beauty’ which is against our culture. …hey don’t tear me apart because I’m sharing my views.

Let me stop here and ask you to help me add two or three more points on what used to happen Once Upon A Time in our society and culture. Please reply my email today and Inspire me as well.

Drop me a note of acknowledgment and encouragement and also follow me on my Social media handles below: Instagram: @yomi_kasali Twitter: @yomi_kasali Facebook: www.facebook. com/revyomikasali Youtube: www.youtube.com/ revyomikasali Rev Yomi Kasali is Senior Pastor, Foundation of Truth Assembly (FOTA), Surulere, Lagos.

New corporate office to help NDDC deliver on core mandate ANIEFIOK UDONQUAK, Uyo

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he Acting Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Kemebradikumo Po n d e i , s a y s t h a t t h e relocation of the Interim Management Committee, IMC, from the 167 Aba Road office to the new permanent headquarters on the Eastern Bypass, Port Harcourt, will place the Commission on a better pedestal to deliver on its core mandate.

Pondei, who spoke after resuming work at the new headquarters along with the Executive Director, Projects, Dr. Cairo Ojougboh, said that

the movement would ensure improvement in the services rendered by NDDC, as they would be more automated, digitalised and professional.

The NDDC Chief Executive Officer assured that the 13-floor permanent headquarters would be completed and commissioned by President Muhammadu Buhari in the very near future.

“It is a privilege to be here with the IMC. It would not have been possible without the effort of President Buhari and the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio.

Within the first year of his resumption of office as the NDA Minister, Akpabio took

seriously the completion of this edifice. I also remember our brother, Late Ibanga Bassey Itang, who would come for inspections of this project even on weekends.”

Pondei said that the relocation to the new headquarters would ensure that the finishing touches were properly done, noting: “Project move faster when there are activities on a continuous basis. As we have moved to this place, before you know it, one or two other floors would be completed. The movement will be in phases and our presence here means that the commissioning would not be long in coming.”

He regretted that the

COVID-19 pandemic added to the delay in installing some facilities that should have been put in place long before now but were held back due to the closure of border.

The NDDC boss noted that the new headquarters would accommodate all the directoratesanddepartments of the Commission, stating: “It is a one-stop-shop. A place everyone would be happy about. The ancillary building will accommodate facilities such as a medical centre, restaurant, and bank, among others. All the service equipment for the main building, including electrical equipment such as lifts and escalators have been installed.”

Edo APC rejects Uzodinma-led primary election c’ttee IDRIS UMAR MOMOH & CHURCHILL OKORO, BENIN

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he Edo State Ch a p t e r o f t h e All Progressives Congress (APC) has rejected the Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinmaled Edo State Primary Election Committee, ahead

of the shadow primary election scheduled to hold on Monday, June 22, 2020.

In a statement, Edo State Chairman of the APC, Anselm U. Ojezua Esq., said: “Our attention has been drawn to reports that a Primary Election Committee has been inaugurated by the Hilliard Eta-led faction of the National Working Committee of our Party to conduct Party Primaries in

Edo State.”

He said the purported inauguration of the committee is reported to have been done while a controversy is raging as to the proper officer to take over from the suspended National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, noting, “We have it on good authority that Hon. Victor Giadom, the acting National Secretary has been empowered by the

FCT High Court in Abuja to act in that capacity.”

Ojezua said the Edo State Chapter of the APC has reservations with the entire process because the NWC has not first obtained the approval of the National Executive Committee as required by the Constitution of the party, adding, “In the light of the above, we have no option but to reject the Hope Uzodinma-led Committee.”

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BDSUNDAY 31

Sports

LaLiga’s restart sees an international audience rise by 48% ... Africa is the highest

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Stories by ANTHONY NLEBEM

aLiga Santander increased its international viewing figures by more than 48% on the first matchday (Matchday 28) following the restart of the league on June 11 compared to the average for the first 27 matchdays prior to the forced suspension of the Spanish league due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to international consultants Nielsen Sports, and based on the preliminary official viewing figures and estimates by the firm, international audiences during live games on Matchday 28 registered exponential growth.

In some regions of the world, extremely sharp increases in the viewing figures were achieved on the first day following the restart. For example, in Africa there was a rise of over 73%, and in countries such as South Africa the increase amounted to more than 210%. These figures demonstrates that Africa’s love for the Spanish league has seen an upward trajectory, with one of the reasons being the high number of African stars – 48 in total currently plying their trade in the both LaLiga Santander and LaLiga SmartBank, together with LaLiga’s ever growingpresenceonAfrica’s soil.

Marcos Pelegrin, LaLiga Managing Director in South Africa cited one of the increase in Africa and South Africa to the LaLiga’s broadcaster SuperSport being available to Africans in every corner of the continent. “We are exceptionally

pleased with the increase in viewers in Africa as this was one of the objectives we set out when we opened local offices in 2015 as well as brought back the football action to SuperSport a few season ago.”

While LaLiga was off the screens LaLiga South Africa also ran a number of initiatives to create hype around the return of the league in addition to keeping the football action top of mind for all fans. “During the hold on football action, as LaLiga Africa we created campaigns like the #LaLigaBouncesBack challenge with PUMA that featured local players and the FIFA20 competition with Real Sociedad and Orlando Pirates which opened up local fans to teams outside of the top three and ultimately gained us more fans and viewers”, added Pelegrin.

In Asian countries such

as India, where LaLiga is broadcast on Facebook, an increase of over 72% was detected. In Europe, the uptick was over 56%, with countries such as Belgium (an increase of over 130%) and Denmark (an increase of over 46%) of particular note.

“At Liga we feel privileged to be able to take to the field again, and we’re very happy to have the opportunity to offer live sports entertainment at a time when there are few events like this around the world. We hope that other competitions in other regions will also start soon, because it’s important for the fans and the industry,” said LaLiga president Javier Tebas. “We’re grateful to all of the fans who’ve followed LaLiga now at the restart, because we’ve all worked hard to offer them entertainment again.”

Oscar Mayo, LaLiga’s director of business, mar-

keting, and international development,added:“We’re very pleased with the exponential growth in the figures for LaLiga’s international audience. We knew that fans around the world were keen to enjoy the excitement and entertainment we offer. Achieving a rise of almost 50% in our international audience reflects the hard work put in by our international broadcasters, the clubs and the competition itself over these last few months.”

Growth in Spain In addition to the exponential growth in LaLiga’s international audiences, LaLiga also experienced an increase in viewing figures in its home country, Spain.

The official figures show an increase in Spanish viewers of over 12% during the first matchdaybackcomparedto those before the league was suspended.

Awoniyi eyes Super Eagles call

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iverpool striker Taiwo Awoniyi admits he dreams of playing for Nigeria’s Super Eagles.

The 22-year-old has yet to make a first-team appearance for Liverpool due to work-permit issues.

Awoniyi has been ineligible to qualify for a permit having not played for his country or gained experience in any of the top five European leagues.

After a number of spells in Belgium, Awoniyi attempted to gain that experience by joining German club Mainz last summer.

Things started out poorly

for Awoniyi in the Bundesliga, but the coronavirus pandemic break played in his favour, having featured in every match since the competition restarted in

May. And Awoniyi hopes his performances in Germany can lead to an appearance for Nigeria, helping solve the other part of his workpermit conundrum.

“I think it is every player’s dream to play for his national team,” he told Tribalfootball. “But still you can’t control it and Nigeria is blessed with abundance of football talents everywhere.

“You just have to keep your hope alive, keep working hard and believe that with God all things are possible.”

Asked if he’d had contact

with Super Eagles boss Gernot Rohr, Awoniyi added: “No. I have never spoken with Gernot Rohr.”

The future might be unclear for Awoniyi - who has represented Nigeria at various youth levels - but he remains focused on making next year’s African Cup of Nations in Cameroon.

He continued: “That’s why I’m a football player and have represented my country in all age grades national teams from the U17 to U23 teams.

“It is good for me to be working hard towards meeting that target.”

Klopp feared Liverpool would be denied chance to win Premier League title

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iverpool manager Jurgen Klopp admits there wasamomentwhenhe feared the club would be denied the chance to win their first league title in 30 years because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The Reds hold a 22-point lead over Manchester City and need just two more wins to guarantee a long-awaited maiden Premier League triumph and a first championship since 1990.

But soon after the season was suspended in March, Klopp began to worry it would never happen.

“I didn’t think when we went to lockdown ‘Oh my god, that is our season, we are so close’, because it was not important in that moment,” he said.

“I became worried in the moment when people started talking about ‘null and void’ this season because I was like ‘Wow’. I really felt it physically. That would have been really, really hard.

“We don’t expect to get it as a present so we didn’t want to have a points-pergame basis so we were really happy when it was decided we could play again.

“There were moments when some people brought it up from time to time for different reasons but when

it was off the table I felt quite relieved.

“If they had done points per game and we couldn’t have played then we would have been champions but now we aren’t and we have to play for it and that is great, that is how it should be in sports. And now we go for it.”

Liverpool will be aiming to get three of the six points they need in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park on Sunday.

“It will be tough in the next few weeks. I hope I can enjoy it. We need to make sure we play again the best football we can play,” said Klopp.

Sane heading for Man City exit

L

eroy Sane appears to be on his way out of Manchester City after rejecting a new deal, manager Pep Guardiola said on Friday.

The Germany international has 12 months left on his deal and has been heavily linked with Bayern Munich, with the City boss saying he would be able to leave if the club could find a buyer.

“Leroy has rejected to extend his contract,” Guardiola told reporters on Friday.

“Everyone knows. If at

the end of the season two clubs agree, he can leave. If not, he will leave at the end of his contract.

“The club offered two or three times and he rejected it.”

Winger Sane, 24, has won the Premier League title twice at City since joining from Schalke in 2016.

However, he has not played for the first team since suffering a torn knee ligament in the Community Shield match against Liverpool in August.

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SUNDAY 21 JUNE 2020

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Edo crisis and the devil’s alternative

W

hichever way the political pendulum finally swings during the September 2020 governorship election in Edo State, the wishes of the good and peace-loving people of the “Heartbeat of the Nation” will be compromised. Even months before then, the heartbeats of the political gladiators and their rabble-rousing supporters have jumped up notches in beats per minute (bpm).

One is not a prophet of doom. No! But the unfortunate, yet preventable, powerpoaching squabble between embattled, incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki and his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole lends credence to one’s assertion. The latter was until recently the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). But the Court of Appeal has upheld his suspension and so it would be, at least for now.

The pain in all the war of attrition between the two is not because it has much to do with delivering the dividends of democracy to the long-suffering citizenry.

Rather, it is predicated on what one has severally warned against- which is the undue personalisation of political power in Nigeria, against the ethos and dictates of democracy. Evidently, Oshiomhole has been unable to exorcise himself of the belligerent, brow-beating and muscle-flexing posture of his hey days in radical unionism.

In the words of Adedayo Moses, Oshiomhole sees himself as the National Working Committee (NWC) of the political party. “The words, advice, suggestions and comments of the other 25 members do not matter. He is the lord of the manor.

The ‘Putin’ of this era.” Sharing similar sentiments is Mallam Shehu Ismail, a party chieftain in Kaduna State. Said he: ‘’With a friend like Oshiomhole be assured that you are in the lion’s den ready for consumption.

He is a crafty politician who can stoop to get what he wants but once he gets it, he consumes you either for breakfast, lunch or dinner.” Talk about the slippery, crafty characteristics of the jungle fox, all on the basic instincts of survival of the fittest (sorry, smartest), thanks to Charles

‘’When you turn an election into a three-ring circus, there is always a chance that the dancing bear will win.’’

-Nancy Isenberg Darwin.

Accused of allegedly turning his back on the party stalwarts in the likes of Yari, Okorocha, Amosun and Amaechi with whose support he rode to the post of the APC Chairmanship, he certainly had bitten more than he could chew! But not done yet, he went beyond the boundary of political decency, according to Moses, to have stepped on the revered toes of the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, by working against her interests in her home stateAdamawa! Too bad!

Not unexpectedly therefore, within two years of his chairmanship, the APC has lost not a few states, with others loading. He was expected to keep to the tenets of the gentleman agreements reached with the powers that be. That was after running from pillar-to-post before his suspension was lifted, but he broke the rules again! He refused to recall the Deputy National Chairman, North, Senator Lawan Shuaibu and the National Vice-Chairman (North-East).

In addition, he was expected to give both Obaseki and Rotimi Akeredolu right of first refusal to recontest the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo and Ondo states, respectively. But he betrayed that solemn pledge. Again? You might ask.

Yes, again!

What manner of man is this, one is bound to ask? Was it not this same Oshiomhole, who after breaking the godfatherism jinx in Edo State by dusting the Tony Aninis, vowed never again to interfere in the affairs of the state? Is it true, as being alleged that Oshiomhole was hell-bent on producing the Speaker, Deputy Speaker and Majority Leader for the House, without the input of a sitting

governor? Is there any iota of truth in the allegation that it was not ‘Obasek’, (sorry Obaseki) as many had questioned who deliberately stalled the inauguration of the 12 members of the state House of Assembly? And to crown it all, did Adam eat the forbidden apple in the Garden of APC by lambasting members of the Committee of the APC-Governors who had cautioned him against denying Obaseki the Second Term ticket?

Now, the chickens have come home to roost. And the APC, the ruling party which had promised Nigerians to ‘Change’ the narrative from the old norms of lack of internal party democracy, massive corruption in places high and low, frontally battle insecurity and drive the engine of integrity is currently enmeshed in sundry political malfeasances. If not, how do we explain that as at Wednesday, June 17, 2020 the party had three members, all claiming right to the Acting Chairmanship of the party?

The three Acting Chairmen include ex-governor of Oyo state, Abiola Ajimobi (Deputy National Ch a i r m a n , So u t h) , V i c t o r Gi a dom (Deputy National Secretary) and Ntufam Hilliad Eta (National V i c e Ch a i r m a n , So u t h - So u t h) .

W h i l e Se c t i o n 1 4 ( 2 ) i i i o f t h e APC constitution, 2014 was relied upon to bolster Ajimobi’s choice, Giadom had barely an hour after that appointment proclaimed himself as the rightful Chairman of the party. He premised his action on the judgment by the Court of Appeal (Justice S.U. Bature, Suit No FCT/ HC/M/6447/2020 ) for the suspension of Oshiomhole. And he went further to speedily declare as invalid all the processes that led to the disqualification of Governor Obaseki from contesting the APC primaries for the governorship of Edo State.

On his part, Eta was announced the Acting Chairman with the tacit support of 16 out of the 21 members of the NWC. He is to act on behalf of

AYO OYOZE BAJE Baje is Nigerian first food technologist in the media and author of ‘Drumbeats of Democracy’

Ajimobi who, as at that time, was reportedly ill. As expected, Giadom has been declared persona non grata in the NWC. All these unfolding political melodrama portends grave dangers for the APC, not just for the forthcoming elections in Edo and Ondo states but for the country as a whole. If only, Oshiomhole had sacrificed his whims and caprices for the good of Edo State.

The high-octane drama clearly shows that the APC is currently a house divided against itself and cannot stand. That is, unless some negotiations are made and Mister President uses his immense influence to wade in quickly. Even then, it will be an Herculean task to mend fences and bring aggrieved members under the same roof, as it had in 2014.

Back then, the primary objective was to get the PDP government, led by then President Goodluck Jonathan out of the seat of power. But now, with 2023 inching closer by the day and vaulting ambitions of presidential hopefuls such as Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Nasir el-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi and Kayode Fayemi at play, the APC house is caught in the eye of the storm.

Will it survive it? That is the million-naira question.

As it was with the PDP, so it may be for the APC since it has refused to learn from history. But the pain, for one, is that our politicians’ brutal quest for power using the Machiavellian tactics will crumble our fragile democracy, sooner than later.

Orji Uzor Kalu-TA Orji meetings: Do Abia lives matter?

IKEDDY ISIGUZO .Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor national issues

G

ive some Nigerians in high places high marks for celebrating the elevation of shame to fame. They expect all of us to join. They call it political sagacity. Their followers applaud.

One had thought that Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu would have been changed by his sixmonth imprisonment. But a correctional facility was not for him, as the courts have decided he was not guilty. He has returned more emboldened by the streams of visitors who find themselves praising his leadership. They missed him. They are glad to have him back to continue from wherever he stopped.

Trust Kalu to lap up the moments. He speaks magisterially about forgiving everyone, including the judge. We apparently offended him. Were we the court that found him guilty of theft, money laundering to the tune of N7.56 billion? Was he not released on a “technical point”?

Our Senate called off a day to visit Kalu in his Abuja residence. One could wave that aside. Senate President Ahmed Lawan was Kalu’s roommate in their days at the University of Maiduguri. Kalu has been a mentor of sorts to him. They have remained family friends.

Lawan led principal officers of the Senate to Kalu’s home on the night of Thursday 4 June 2020, a day after his release from Kuje. They were celebrating his return from prison. People were falling over themselves to identify with the former resident of Kuje.

The laughter should have belonged to a reception for an illustrious individual, an accomplished one who was marking the execution of another feat, not an illustrated one whose examples fit into the complications of Nigeria.

Praises are being heaped on Kalu for understanding Nigeria, its peoples, its politics. Are they also applauding his ruination of Abia State and the despoliation of its resources?

Some people are even jealous of Kalu’s achievements. They would not give him the distance our traditions accord one who has returned from such journey.

He is a hero, the perfect amalgam of the putrescence Nigerian politics.

He is the poster boy of the Senate resplendent in his white, stainless attires.

He bears no stains and we must note that.

The strains remain in the dissonance the receptions create.

Kalu has no sobriety over his actions that erected the foundations on which Abia State has stood still for 21 years. It would take dramatic decisions to change the status of Abia State on the next 21 years.

He is a Senator, a distinguished one at that being the Senate’s Chief Whip.

Why would they not celebrate as one of their own has proven that the law is applicable to those who do not understand the workings of Nigeria? There are enough talks of him being the best presidential candidate for 2023 While angry Nigerians were processing the Senate’s waste of public time on Kalu, his predecessor and former sworn foe, Dr. Theodore Ahamefula Orji visited. They had not been chummy for more than 13 years. Their seemingly irreparable relationship was public.

Details of the visit, apart from the pictures, were not public. The public joke was that with the allegations against Orji at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he could have gone to Kalu to learn how to deal with those matters.

Kalu on Tuesday 16 June 2020 tried shading Justice Mohammed Idris who had put him away for 12 years. According to Kalu, Idris’ dad, Idris Legbo Kutigi, a former Chief Justice of Nigeria, who died in October 2018, at 79,

was a regular visitor to the same Abuja residence, where Kalu regaled his guests with his importance.

Chinedu Orji, Speaker of the Abia State House of Assembly, son of immediate past governor, Theodore Orji, was visiting.

A well-known character for his garrulity, Kalu did not spare a thought for the dead Kutigi who was no longer in a position to define his relationship with the former governor of Abia State. His remarkable performances have shifted to higher gears since Kuje.

Chinedu arrived with his two uncles, elderly people - Chief Charles Ogbonnaya, a former Deputy Chief of Staff, Abia State, and Chief Godfrey Onyemobi, Abia State Chairman, Elders Council, All Progressives Congress (APC). They were witnesses when he handed Abia State back to Kalu with these words, “Whatever I am today, it is because of you; whatever my father is today, it is because of you. These are two elderly men from my community to show you that I came here to pay you allegiance as our leader”. He was more elaborate, anybody who had become anything in Abia State since 1999 was courtesy of Kalu.

The Abia Speaker continued, “Now is the time for the family to stay together.

We are not in competition with you for leadership. You are the leader. In the heat of everything, you are the leader. That

Continues on page 9

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