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Federal government has congratulated gallant troops of the Nigerian military for finally

Continued on page 12

MOSOP seeks capable replacement for Environment Minister

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2016 VOL. 2. NO. 264

NSE QUICK BITE 14.92

seizing the Sambisa forest from the Boko Haram terrorists and securing the North-east, thus paving for the re-opening of two strategic roads in Borno State.

Abuja

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GAINERS AS AT December 23, 2016 FO

Tom Okpe

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Sambisa: FG rallies support for victorious troops

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Enough of hunger, hardship, Fayose tells FG Sodeinde, Ï 2016 Christmas worst ever in Nigeria Ï Flays CBN for cash scarcity at Yuletide Gbenga Ado Ekiti Ï Says stories on Boko Haram defeat, Chibok girls, others, diversionary ÏÏÏ Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayo Fayose, has said Ï Asks Buhari to change from military dictator to civilian president what Nigerians are now desirous of hearing from the Ï Laments rising unemployment instead of 3 million jobs promised All Progressives Congress

Coal deposits in commercial quantity discovered in Sokoto

7

(APC)-led federal government is the defeat of hunger and untold hardship rav-

aging the country, and not recycled stories of defeat of Boko Haram insurgents, which as usual, is aimed at diverting the attention of Nigerians from the fact that there is ravaging hunger at this time of the year.

The governor said it has become predictable that Continued on page 6

200 children infected with TB in Jigawa 6 Expect more reforms in public service next year –BPSR 12 Boxing Day: Fun 6 seekers throng parks, beaches in Lagos 6

Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima (middle); Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai (4th left) and other military Officers during the reopening of Maiduguri-Monguno-Baga Road and Maiduguri-Gubio-Damasak Road in Maiduguri, Borno State… on Sunday.

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Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Page Three

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Editorial CBN and combating terrorism financing

R

ecently, the Nigeria Central Bank (CBN) Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, called on banking institutions, security agencies and other relevant stakeholders in the financial system to redouble efforts at combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (ML/TF). Emefiele who spoke in Abuja at a regional workshop, noted that money laundering and terrorist financing are twin evils, which all agencies should continuously focus on in order to avert their deleterious effects on the economy.

Without doubt, we support the admonition of the CBN boss to those in charge of financial transactions in the country to be pro-active in the discharge of their duties to quickly detect and track down those channeling illegal funds to terrorist groups. We all know that terrorist financing has become a source of worry to many countries in the world, especially those at the receiving end of international terrorism. Incidentally, Nigeria is one of the countries that have been facing terrorist activities by Boko Haram militants in the past five years with no signs of abating.

Unfortunately, the insurgency has not only claimed thousands of lives in the north east of the country, the jihadist group has also destroyed properties worth millions of naira.

Over the years, many have wondered where the Boko Haram is getting its funding to mount such large-scale assault on the Nigerian military and other government institutions. There is no denying the fact that Boko Haram begun as a small innocuous religious group that did not attract attention of the authorities, until it grew into a dreadful monster that is now destroying everything in its path.

As Mr. Emefiele observed: “A docile environment invariably disposes its

financial system to money laundering/financing of terrorism activities, even as products and services offered by financial institutions provide a veritable avenue for criminals to launder funds and terrorist financiers to move funds across various jurisdictions.”

We cannot but agree with this postulation.

The fact remains that money laundering and terrorism financing remain little understood concepts in Nigeria, as they are complex and complicated affairs whose complexity is exacerbated by an interconnected and globalised world.

Contrary to the popular notion of barbarians stuck in the past, terrorists are very modern savages who have shown to be very adept at utilising the communication technology revolution and the esoteric global finance market to their advantage. In an age where money flies across the world in an instant and where the tracks of such transactions are covered up very well by skilled accountants, exposing and arresting financiers of terrorism is a tall order.

Of course, terrorist organisations rely on numerous sources of income and they use a range of methods to move funds. They, also, raise funds through inherently criminal means such as drug trafficking and legitimate activities as donations.

We are, therefore, calling for greater cooperation between financial institutions, governments as well as other stakeholders in order to combat the menace of financing of terrorist organisations and their money laundering channels. Moreover, financial institutions should prevent terrorist organisations from accessing their services; even as they are expected to assist in detecting suspected terrorist financing and promptly responds to law enforcement enquiries.

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Representative of the wife of the President, Mrs. Toyin Saraki (right), presenting a gift to a patient, Mrs. Blessing Omejeh (left), at the Mercy Street Children Hospital, Lagos, during the Christmas welfare visit to the hospital in Lagos…. on Monday.

Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji (left) receiving a gift of Bilingual Qur’an from Emeritus Prelate of Methodist Church, Nigeria, Bishop Ola Makinde and presiding Bishop of Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Ibadan, Bishop Francis Wale-Oke, during a courtesy visit on Adetunji in Ibadan, Oyo State… on Monday.

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Any priest who preaches resurrection of Jesus Christ without seeing the resurrection of the economy - is wasting his time

Ibrahim Babangida

Wole Soyinka

“The work of Nigeria is not complete for as long as there is any one Nigerian who goes to bed on empty stomach.”

“The greatest threat to freedom is the absence of criticism.”

4

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

5

News 6

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Enough of hunger, hardship, Fayose tells FG Continued from page 1 whenever Nigerians cry of the pains and sufferings they are going through, the federal government will come with stories like; “20 Chibok girls found,” “$1 billion found in Mr. A, B or C bedroom,” “Boko Haram technically defeated,” “We have captured Sambisa forest,” etc.. just to divert attention.

In a release issued in Ado Ekiti on Monday and signed by his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Mr. Lere Olayinka, Governor Fayose said; “It is painful that Nigeria under President Mohammadu Buhari has become directionless, either due to the cluelessness of the president, or his old age that has foisted a purposeless leadership on the country.

He said; “This year’s Christmas is the worse in the history of Nigeria. People cannot afford to celebrate and enjoy themselves due to the hardship caused by the APC government. To make matters worse, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) also created artificial scarcity of cash, such that people could not access their hard earned money in the banks as most banks in the country do not have cash to pay their customers.”

“Like I have maintained, the main issue confronting Nigerians now is hunger and hunger does not speak the language of political propaganda that is being used

by the APC-led federal government. It is therefore, no longer about diversionary news, it is about preventing Nigerians from dying of hunger,” he said.

The governor said “the only solution to the myriad of problems facing the country is for those holding power in Abuja to face the sad reality that it was the hard stance of the president, his statements against Nigeria and its people both at home and abroad, coupled with his demonstration of hatred against some sections of the country and desperation to crush his perceived

enemies that led us to where we are today.

“It was the president that went to foreign countries to de-market Nigeria by calling all Nigerians thieves and dishonest people. He was the one who created atmosphere of economic and political instability in the country by his acts of nepotism and vindictiveness.

“Therefore, for the country to move forward, the president must change his attitude from a vindictive military dictator to a civilian president of all Nigerians.”

He lamented that those cabal in the presidency have hijacked the president and his government, running the country aground, saying; “Things were never like this at any time in the history of Nigeria, apart from 1984.”

He said; “They are not running the economy of Nigeria by the open participation of Nigerians but by some cabal, who see themselves as superior to others. By their failure to involve those, who know more than them, they have succeeded in creating unemployment instead of three million jobs that they promised Nigeri-

ans per year. They have taken Nigeria back to the ‘Stone Age’ and it will take several years for the country to recover, if it will ever recover.”

Governor Fayose, who appealed to Nigerians not to keep silent in 2017, said; “With every means of livelihood of the common people taken away from them, free, fair and credible elections becoming a mirage, Nigerians must begin to speak out now before the country is completely destroyed by this directionless federal government,” he concluded

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Boxing Day: Fun seekers throng parks, beaches in Lagos ÏÏÏ

Some tourist parks and beaches in Lagos on Monday recorded a large turnout of fun seekers who came out to have fun on the Boxing Day celebration.

NAN reports that the Federal Government had declared December 26 and 27 public holidays.

Some of the fun seekers who spoke in separate interviews in Lagos, said they had always looked forward to public holidays like this for them to catch fun.

Agency correspondents who visited some parks and beaches around the city, observed that they were filled with fun seekers.

A fun seeker, Miss Tolefe Okonji, said she took advantage of the holiday to catch fun at the Freedom Park due to her busy schedule.

“Freedom park is an environment I have been looking forward to visit and I am happy

that I finally made it to the place due to the public holiday.

“I rarely have time to have fun due to the nature of my job, so I use holidays like this to relax and catch fun,’’ she said.

Okonji expressed satisfaction with this year’s long holiday, adding that it gave her the opportunity to hang out with friends and family.

A banker, Miss Jenifer Nwosu, said that due to her work, she always took advantage of the day to have fun.

“Due to the nature of my job, I always use public holidays to come to places I have not been to. So, coming down to Amusement Park is more of an adventure to me.

“I am having fun here and I am very impressed with what I am seeing,” Nwosu said.

A soft drink seller in Oshodi Heritage Park, Mrs. Tinuade Adepegba, expressed optimism that the business would be profitable this time.

“So far, I have not sold much but am very sure that I will still make money because fun seekers are still coming and I am going to be here all the day, “Adepegba said.

She said that she made reasonable profit on Christmas Day celebration, adding that she was hopeful she would make the same today.

Mr. Lanre Aladesanmi, who came to Elegushi Beach with his wife, said he always looked forward to public holidays in order to visit beaches to catch some fun.

“I always look forward to days like this because I use it to have a memorable outing with my loved ones.

“I love to visit beaches, most especially Elegushi beach, because of the serene environment.

“It is a well organised beach with lovely facilities and fun activities surrounding it, “Aladesanmi said.

A seller of roasted meat (suya) at Arhakab Beach, Malam Ibrahim Danyaro, said he had made up to N15,000 and still expecting to make more sales before the close of the day.

“With a large turnout of people here, I still expect to make more sales because there is still time.

“The influx of people here today is good for my business,” Danyaro said.

200 children infected with TB in Jigawa –Official ÏÏÏ No fewer than 200 children

have been confirmed to have tuberculosis disease in Sara town, Gwaram Local Government Area of Jigawa.

The Head of Department (HOD) of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) in the state, Alhaji Muhammad Maisamari, confirmed this on Monday through the Information Officer of the affected local government council, Malam Nasiru Yusif.

Maisamari said that the council had already quarantined the

affected children.

He also said that the council had provided drugs and other logistics for the treatment of victims.

The HOD stated that the department was able to bring the situation under control and was taking necessary measures to avoid spread of the disease to other communities.

Maisamari also appealed to residents of the council to report the outbreak of any disease to the appropriate authorities for quick response.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

7 News

Coal deposits in commercial quantity discovered in Sokoto

ÏÏÏ The

efforts of the federal government to diversify Nigeria’s economy has received a major boost with the discovery of coal deposits in commercial quantity Sokoto state.

This discovery boosts Sokoto’s share of solid minerals awaiting exploration by the authorities.

Others earlier discovered

include phosphate for making fertilizer, gold, limestone, gypsum, iron ore, copper, columbite, tantalite, zinc, kaolin among others.

Speaking during a capacity building workshop on Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) for beneficial participation of state governments in mining, jointly organised by the

Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and the Sokoto Ministry of Solid Minerals and Natural Resources Development, the state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, said the state government has already engaged a Chinese company to make research on the available mineral resources, determine their locations and

their commercial viability.

He said the company has presented the first phase of its findings and identified 20 varieties of solid minerals.

On coal, the government said the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria (CCNN), otherwise known as Sokoto Cement and owned by the BUA Group, has started using the sub-

stance as a source of energy in operating its plant.

“BUA will use coal sourced from Sokoto to fuel the 40MW power plant being constructed at the factory. The new cement plant can use both coal and LPFO (Low Pour Fuel Oil), and will source its power needs from the power plant, with the excess generated power moved to the

national grid,” BUA Founder, Abdussamad Rabiu, told reporters during a recent tour of the factory.

He added that BUA’s $300 million investment in the new cement plant is the single largest private sector-led investment in Nigeria’s North West and has the capacity of producing 1.5million metric tonnes of cement per annum.

‘Ikwerre leaders must work with other ethnic groups’ —Wike Amaka Agbu Port Harcourt

ÏÏÏ

The Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural Organisation, worldwide has been advised to work with other ethnic groups in Rivers State to ensure social and economic harmony and thus quicken the pace of development.

Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, one of the leading lights of the group, gave the advice in a keynote address during the 211th Convention of Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural Organisation, at Rumuche in Emohua Local Government Area on Sunday. He stressed the importance of interethnic cooperation in driving the development process.

The governor assured that his administration would ensure that all local government areas in the state benefited from development projects. He said that the road projects pledged for the four Ikwerre speaking Local Government Areas would be completed in one year.

He said further: “Let us work together to develop Rivers State. Working together with other ethnic groups, we will move the state forward.

“As leaders of the Ikwerre nationality, we must contribute meaningfully to the development of our communities by enhancing peace and unity.”

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni (4th right); and others during the official launch of the ‘Change begins with you’ campaign at the Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos… on Monday.

Fayose okays payment of severance package to dead, living office holders ÏÏÏEkiti

state government on Monday announced the approval for payment N140m severance package due to former dead and living elected-publicoffice holders at the local government level.

This is contained in a statement released to journalists by the Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Mr. Idowu Adelusi, in Ado Ekiti.

According to the state-

ment, the beneficiaries of the severance include those elected into office in 1999, 2006 and 2008.

They included: former chairmen of local governments, council secretaries, councilors as well council advisers.

He said the state governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, gave the order for the immediate payment of the severance package to the affected officers during a

meeting he held with them on Monday.

Adelusi quoted the governor as directing that families of those already dead must also be paid the entitlements of their deceased ones.

He also warned local government officials who would affect the payment not to play politics with the exercise, saying anyone caught would face the consequences.

Tony Nwakaegho

OLF is an initiative introduced last year by the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode to replace the Lagos Countdown.

It’s a vivacious celebration of the end of the year and colourful transition into the New Year.

Lagos State has promised to make this edition bigger and bolder, with dozens of

A-list music artistes penned down to thrill fun seekers at 40 concerts in five centres across the state.

Nigeria’s frontline telecommunications company, Globacom, which is a major sponsor of the initiative for the second consecutive year, has already created special fun spots for Lagos residents at all the five OLF centres in

“The governor felt that despite the economic challenges we are facing as a state, we feel it is our duty to honour those who had served our state in the past.

“They had contributed their own quota to the development of our state; therefore, families of those that are already dead should be paid too.

“The exercise has nothing to do with politics and must be fairly shared.

“We already made some payments some months ago and we are again doing this now.

“If this had been done in the past, the backlog would not have been a burden on us now, if not for the financial challenges we are facing, we would have paid everything at a goal,” he said.

The governor admonished leaders of the state to let their actions be in the best interest of the state.

Glo-sponsored One Lagos fiesta begins with fun ÏÏÏ The end of year festivi-

ties have entered a high gear for over 20 million Lagos residents as the much anticipated One Lagos Fiesta (OLF) kicked off with funs, with data grandmasters, Globacom as a prime sponsor and exclusive telecoms partner.

Ikeja, Ikorodu, Epe, Badagry and Lagos Island. Among the activities lined up by Globacom to spice this year’s shows are comedy nights, celebrity visits and games.

Globacom in a statement made available to Daily Times assures Lagos residents of first-class entertainment for all categories of revellers visiting its

stands this year. Facilities for games and other types of entertainment have already been arranged by the company for the 8-day event.

One Lagos Fiesta runs daily from 12 midday to 12 midnight from December 24th to January 1st, with the first six hours of each day dedicated to entertainment for children and the young at heart.

News 8

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Lagos to audit utility infrastructure in Jan. 2017 Benjamin Omoike

ÏÏÏThe Lagos state Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA) has said that it would commence audit of underground and over the ground utility infrastructures within the geographical boundaries of the State in January 2017, to ascertain the quality and quantum of the infrastructures and guide in proper regulation and planning.

Chief Executive Officer of LASIMRA, Mr. Babajide Odekunle, who disclosed this at a Stakeholders’ Forum with telecommunication service providers and others, said the audit became imperative owing to the urgent need to determine the actual telecommunication and water cables as well

as gas and water pipelines under the ground and on the ground for effective planning especially with regards to development and redevelopment of the city.

Odekunle said the State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode has already given approval and necessary support for commencement of the audit, while other agencies of government which will be involved in the management of effect of the exercise have been adequately sensitized on their roles.

He said the agency was very much determined to sanitize the process of erecting infrastructures within the boundaries of the State, as such would go a long way in ensuring sanity and address issues associated with noncompliance with global best practices.

He said: “It is about time we have a database of all utility infrastructures within the geographical boundaries of Lagos State. LASIMRA was set up in 2004 to monitor, manage and control utility infrastructure within the geographical boundaries of Lagos State in the critical sectoral areas of telecommunication, power, gas and water.

“As at today, there is no record of all these things and se we need to carry out an inventory. Some of the cables and pipelines underground are going to ten years or more. We have just been lucky so far, but the State needs to do this. If anybody should ask, how many roof towers do we have in Lagos State, nobody can say; how many towers do we have in the Greenfield, nobody can say; what is the distance or length of

the fibres under the ground, nobody can say.

“So, we need to know what is where.

Under the ground in this state we have gas pipes, electricity cables, water pipes, telecommunication cables and yet we cannot say on Isaac John for instance, this is what we have under the ground and so we just need to do this audit and the time is now.

“At the end of the exercise, an as built database will become a most sought after information system that will become a guide to the future of our State,” Odekunle said.

While urging the stakeholders to cooperate with government in its bid to sanitize the sector, Odekunle said in as much as government has made adequate preparation for a hitch-free

exercise, nonetheless members of the public should also cooperate with government in that regard.

In his technical presentation at the forum, Managing Director of Critical Infrastructure Services Limited, Mr. C.O Obike said telecommunication remained very strategic to the economy and national security, and as such, all stakeholders must play by the rules.

He condemned the practice whereby telecom operators construct beyond the approved kilometers for the purpose of erecting cables underground, and the laying of cables inside drainages, saying such often times, resulted in the blockage of the drainage channels which eventually leads to flooding.

Gov. Bindow celebrates Christmas with less privileged Tom Garba, Yola

ÏÏÏThe

Adamawa state governor, Senator Muhammed Umaru Jibrilla Bindow, celebrated the 2016 Christmas with the less privilege persons at the Government House, Yola, where he treated them to lunch.

The event was attended by many less privilege persons from different associations the in the state.

The governor’s guests included crippled, blind, deaf and others that are physically challenged in many different ways. Also in attendance is the Muslim council in the state and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), labour unions and the union of transport workers. The representatives of the Ndigbo in Adamawa state and the Yoruba were also represented.

Governor Bindow reiterated the essence of Christmas which he said is anchored on love, and called for all the people of the state to always forgive one another as no one is without sin.

Earlier in his welcome address the Chief of Staff Government House, Abdulrahman Abba Jimeta, said Christmas is a celebration that involves both religions as the Muslims also believe in Jesus as a prophet. The governor called on both religions to unite and never allow anyone to cause division amongst them.

Abba Jimeta congratulated the physically challenged in the state for a bill in the house of assembly seeking to take care of their welfare and ease their challenges.

The chairman of the state chapter of the CAN, Bishop Mike Moses, underscored the essence of Christmas and thanked Governor Bindow for showing love and concern to the less privilege at this time.

A solidarity goodwill message was also delivered by the chairman of the Muslim council of Nigeria in the state.

In his vote of thanks the chairman of the joint association of physically challenged persons in the state, Abubakar Sebore, thanked the Governor for associating with the less privilege and expressing this magnitude of love to them, he also thanked the state house of assembly for the bill that will see the less privilege been taken care of in the state.

Bindow

Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni (4th right); and others during the official launch of the ‘Change begins with you’ campaign at the Police Command headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos… on Monday.

Widows commend Al-Mustapha for vehicle donation …As they protest against husbands’ killing Tony Nwakaegho

ÏÏÏ

The Virtuous Widows Association, a socio-political pressure group and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), was full of praise for the former Chief Security Officer (CSO) to General Sani Abacha, the late Head of State, Major Hamza Al-Mustapha, for the donation of a brand-new Toyota bus to the association in Abuja to ease their activities.

The association, under the leadership of its Mrs. Ifeyinwa Benice Egbosiuba, expressed profound gratitude to the former CSO at a peaceful protest rally held simultaneously in Lagos and Maiduguri, Borno state capital recently.

The protest rally, according to Egbosiuba was to express their sad-

ness over the continuous killings of Nigerian soldiers by the Boko Haram insurgents and thereby rendering thousands of women as widows and children as orphans.

The association at the Lagos rally, which took off from Ajah and spread to other parts of the state, expressed support for President Muhammadu Buhari on the fight against insurgency in the Northeast and other parts of the country.

The Association President, Mrs. Ifeyinwa Benice Egbosiuba said, “members of the Virtuous Widows Association are not happy with the present situation in the country where our husbands are being slaughtered like rams by the heartless insurgents,” adding that the number of widows in the country is increasing daily, as a result of the

killings by the Boko Haram rogues.

The group according to her, was founded in 2014, mainly to fight the cause of widows across the country adding also that the Virtuous Widows has branches in 16 states across the nation with members across the local governments in those states.

“We are appealing to President Buhari to help us out. We support his fight against terrorism and we seek peace in the North-east and that is why we are holding this rally. Many of our members from the North-east, particularly, in Maiduguri, lost their bread winners to the gruesome attacks by the Boko Haram. And there is nobody to fend for them. The children are fatherless. And there is nobody to cater for their need,” she said.

Egbosiuba also lamented that the sad experiences of the widows

at the Internally Displaced Persons Camp (IDPs) could best be imagined, noting that those experiences were nothing to write home about.

“There were cases of assault and rape in the camp and this is very sad, disheartening and pathetic,” She complained.

Secretary of the group, Mrs. Agerigo, lamented that gallant Nigerian soldiers like Lieutenant Colonel Mohammed Abu-Ali and several others have lost their lives in the war against Boko Haram insurgents, urging that their deaths should not be in vain.

“As widows, we know what it takes to lose a breadwinner in the family and that is why we are appealing to the Federal government to make sure there is peace in the country, particularly in Maiduguri and some parts of the North-east.”

She said.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Politics

IGP

9

s

Wike

Ameachi

Aftermath of Rivers rerun polls: Who comes to equity?

Amaka Agbu, Port Harcourt A popular legal maxim tells us that ‘he who comes to equity must come with clean hands.’

This maxim does not favour giving relief to anyone that is guilty of improper conduct in any issue at stake. It ensures that those with “unclean hands,” were denied support no matter how unfairly their adversaries may have treated them.

As the lawyers will tell you, equity will always decline relief in cases in which both parties have schemed to circumvent the law.

Against this background, it is difficult to understand what is acceptable in the Rivers State situation where two clearly interested parties have set up panels to investigate the circumstances surrounding the killings that took place during and after the December re-run elections in the state.

As far as the Rivers State governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, is concerned, the police cannot absolve itself from blame in the violence that attended the elections in the state. The security agencies on the other hand blame the governor for inciting his supporters to take the laws into their own hands.

It is, therefore, curious that even with these claims and counter claims, both the police and the governor have gone ahead to set up panels to look into the matter. The police took the lead in what many analysts see as trying to be a judge in their own case.

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, appointed Deputy Commissioner of Police, Damien Okoro to head a 15-man panel, tasked with the responsibility of investigating the alleged phone recordings of Governor Nyesome Wike and the violence recorded during the December 10, 2016 election in Rivers State.

Other members of the panel include intelligence, investigative and forensic experts from the police and the Department of State Services.

The IGP tasked the members to consult all relevant stakeholders, including the Rivers State government, citizens, the Civil Society Organizations and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), in carrying out its duties.

He said: “The panel members are to among others, conduct a thorough investigation into the role of security agents before, during and after the election; examine the role of any police officer or security agents whose actions or activities individually or collectively affected the conduct of the election.”

Other terms of reference of the panel include, conducting a forensic analysis on the audio report by Sahara Reporters against Wike as it concerns the election; examine any other matter that is relevant to the conduct of the elections and make recommendations and implementation strategies to guide future elections.

The Rivers State governor followed up immediately by also setting up a Judicial Commission of Inquiry to investigate the killings and other vio-

lent acts that occurred during the rerun elections in the state.

Wike charged the commission to, among other responsibilities, investigate the immediate and remote causes of violence during the rerun polls in the state.

The Judicial Commission of Inquiry had Justice Chinwendu Nwogu as chairman while its members are Mrs. Grace Akpughunum-Okwulehie, Prof. O.V.C. Okene and Sir Anthony Ozurumba. Others are Rev. Canon Hossanna Nnaewi, Alphonso Sibi and C. B. Ekeh.

The governor justified his action by stating that he was exercising the powers conferred on him by Section 2 (1) of the Commissions of Inquiry Law of Rivers State (CAP 30) of Rivers State of Nigeria 1999 and all other powers enabling him in that behalf.

“The Judicial Commission of Inquiry has the following terms of reference; investigate the remote and immediate causes of the violence during the December 10, 2016 rerun/supplementary elections in Rivers State.

“Identify the perpetrators of the various acts of violence and killings in the aforesaid elections;

First and foremost, the police high command ordered and did withdraw all orderlies attached to all politicians, only to turn back to attach all the orderlies withdrawn from the PDP politicians to those of the APC. There was no APC candidate or chieftain on that day of election that did not have up to 50 policemen attached to them while those of the PDP were left to their own fate

identify the victims of the violence, including those killed, identify if property were damaged and the value of such property.

“Determine if the violence was localised to specific areas within the state or was statewide.

Make appropriate recommendations concerning their findings or any other recommendations as the commission may consider appropriate in the circumstance and submit its report to the governor of Rivers State within one (1) month from the date of its sitting.”

The governor stated that it was not within the purview of the Commission to investigate how the elections were conducted, stating: “This Judicial Commission of Inquiry is not to investigate how they conducted their elections. You are to investigate the murders that attended the elections.

“Those involved in the killings will face the full weight of the law. This government has the capacity to follow through.”

He called on members of the commission to stand by the truth and be courageous in the discharge of their assignment.

Responding, Chairman of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry, Justice Chinwendu Nwogu said that the commission would discharge its assignment within the confines of the law.

The constitution of the commission came one week after the Police Headquarters in Abuja set up its own panel which Wike vowed not to recognise. He told everyone who cared to listen, that Rivers State would not respond to the probe panel instituted by the Inspector-General of Police to investigate the audio tape allegedly indicting him of threat to lives of electoral officers and electoral malpractice.

He argued that the probe on the rerun elections by the police has a predetermined goal aimed at CONTINUED ON PAGE 10

Politics 10

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Aftermath of Rivers rerun polls: Who comes to equity?

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9

indicting PDP members in order to commence “their politically motivated prosecution.”

Governor Wike also rejected the police probe because, according to him, it ran against the law of natural justice for the police to investigate a matter in which the Rivers State government has accused them of perpetrating acts of murder and injustice on Rivers people.

Apparently surprised by the action of the Rivers State government, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 2015 general election, Dr Dakuku Peterside, dismissed the constitution of a Judicial Commission of Inquiry by the governor.

He described the action of the governor as hypocritical and likened it to the story of the proverbial witch that cried at night, while the child died the following morning.

Accusing Wike of ridiculing the office of the governor, Peterside said the action of the governor was laughable.

He said, “Are there no people telling the governor the truth? Here is a governor who told Rivers people not to attend an investigative panel set up by the police to probe the issues surrounding the elections and an audio tape that went viral where the governor threatened INEC officials with death.

“Is it not laughable that the same governor has now set up a judicial commission of inquiry to probe the issues surrounding the elections and he expects Rivers people to obey him? What manner of a governor is Nyesom Wike?

“How can a responsible governor be urging Rivers people to be lawless, how can such a governor call Rivers people not to obey police investigation and yet expect the same people to obey his own kangaroo judicial commission?

“The same Wike accused the police of seeking to achieve a predetermined goal in their investigation to nail PDP members and I ask, what goal

Dakuku

Obuah

is the governor seeking to achieve with his own panel of inquiry, to exonerate PDP members and pronounce APC members guilty?”

Peterside, who is also the Director General of Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), said Wike remained an accused in the matter and could, therefore, not set up an investigative panel. He said the panel set up by the governor ‘is dead on arrival’.

The APC chieftains found nothing wrong with the police investigation despite being accused of being neck-deep into the mess.

Sensing that there were feeble opposition to its actions, the police went ahead to invite some foreign specialists to assist with the forensic analysis of the leaked audio of Governor Wike’s

alleged phone calls during the legislative rerun election in Rivers State.

The experts were invited by the police as part of investigation into the alleged rigging of the election and the alleged threat to the lives of some electoral officers during the poll.

The Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, explained that the foreign analysts would assist with the on-going investigation into the violence that rocked the poll during which two police officers, DSP Mohammed Alkali and his driver, Sgt. Peter Uchi, were beheaded and their heads thrown into a river.

He noted that the two police officers were killed because they answered the call of duty and vowed that the police force would leave no stone

unturned to ensure that those indicted for the murder were punished.

The IG affirmed that the election violence in Rivers State would be the last that would be witnessed in the country.

Obviously rankled by the actions of the police, the Rivers State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) dismissed the panel set up by the Inspector-General of Police as a sham.

The party described the exercise as a mere make-believe, adding that the inconsistencies, double standard and bias of the police during the rerun election made it difficult for any seriousminded person or group to take the panel set up by the police seriously.

The state PDP chairman, Chief Felix Obuah, said that the police must prove to the people of the state that they (police) were not sympathetic to the All Progressives Congress.

According to him, “for such panel to make sense to the Rivers people, the police high command especially the Inspector-General of Police should first do the needful.

“The police high command should do so by proving to the Rivers people and indeed, all Nigerians that he is not a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), or at best, sympathetic to APC’s cause.

“First and foremost, the police high command ordered and did withdraw all orderlies attached to all politicians, only to turn back to attach all the orderlies withdrawn from the PDP politicians to those of the APC. “There was no APC candidate or chieftain on that day of election that did not have up to 50 policemen attached to them while those of the PDP were left to their own fate.”

He likened the police investigation panel by the IGP to a judge presiding over his own case, maintaining that the outcome of such panel can easily be predicted.

Ultimately, the two different panels have question marks. But the bigger question is do they have what it takes to approach equity?

Infrastructural development critical to cushioning economic recession, says Okowa.

Nosa Akenzua, Asaba Delta State governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa has disclosed that his overarching vision for the state is to bridge critical infrastructure and create a conducive environment that encourages investments and the meaningful engagement of Deltans, especially the youth upon who the future lies.

Okowa explained that such lofty vision which is lucidly encapsulated in the SMART Agenda is being vigorously pursued by his administration which, he said, has initiated an economic development approach aimed at integrating the entire land mass of the state through good network of roads that link communities and cities across the three senatorial districts of the state.

The governor stated this at the weekend during the fourth biennial public lecture of the Enuani Democratic League (EDL) held at Ejeme-Aniogor in Aniocha South Local Government Area of the state.

Represented by the state Commissioner for Information, Mr. Patrick Ukah, Okowa said his administration is conscious of the challenges facing Nigeria, of which the state is not an exception, noting that his government is working assiduously to tackle the difficulties and deliver prosperity to all citizens.

His words: “Our vision is to achieve sustainable development by building necessary infrastructure and creating the conducive atmosphere that would encourage investments and the meaningful engagement of our people, especially the youths to whom the future really belongs.

“Our economic development approach aims at integrating the state through good network of roads that link communities and cities across the state. This will also include the building of a befitting state capital. It is our goal to see that the completion of on-going projects across the length and breadth of the state is to give nerve and impetus to commerce.”

He called on all Deltans to encourage

investors and also contribute their quota in the task of developing the state, assuring that the state government will continue to encourage and assist genuine investors who are out to serve as agents of positive social and economic change in all communities of the state.

On the yuletide, Okowa called on Deltans to imbibe the spirit of good neighbourlines, love, understanding

Okowa

and peaceful coexistence, noting that there is no gain in violent exchanges.

The governor also commended the EDL for holding tenaciously to the spirit and mission of the group which is geared towards deepening the root of democracy in the Anioma clime. In his welcome address, the President/ Founder of the EDL, Hon. Collins Iwebunor observed that the festering woes of Nigeria is consequent upon a geometric growth in the number of graduates without a commensurate increase in the number of thinkers and a surge in the number of politicians without a similar increase in numeric strength of actual leaders.

Iwebunor said “when the harvest was plenty, the labourers were few” adding that at present, “the wealth gave way to poverty and penury, debt and slavery”. He said the sterling qualities of Okowa as typified in his commitment to leaving indelible marks in the annals of the state justify the biennial event which was held in his honour.

In a lecture entitled “The Anioma

Nation and Democratic Consolidation in Delta State”, a professor of History and Strategic Studies at the University of Lagos, Nkem Onyekpe urged political leaders to rise above the obnoxious divide and rule system of governance, noting that the principles of egalitarianism must be adhered to in the distribution of resources and democratic dividends.

Onyekpe who admitted that the Anioma had overcome the shackles of perceived marginalisation with the emergence of Okowa, advised the governor’s kinsmen not to expect the concentration of the state’s resources in their domain alone, noting that the pan-Deltan initiatives of the governor must be sustained at all times and in all circumstances.

In a chat with newsmen, the lawmaker representing Aniocha South constituency in the State House of Assembly, Hon. Angela Nwaka urged Deltans to continuously support the current administration which, according to her, has achieved much despite palpable economic constraints.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

11 Politics

IBB, Bello commend Buhari on recapture of Sambisa forest Former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (Rtd.), has said that he was highly delighted on the news of the successful operations of the military personnel in Sambisa Forest.

A statement by the Media Office of the former Head State on Monday said “it is a sign of relief, that the Military has finally smocked out Boko Haram terrorists from their notorious enclave of Sambisa Forest.”

General Babangida saluted the courage and determination of President Muhammadu Buhari, Army chiefs as well as armed men and women and other security personnel for their sacrifice for the liberation “May I rejoice with the government and Nigerians on the successful dislodging of Boko Haram from their base in Sambisa.

“With the successful takeover of the Sambisa forest, General Babangida hoped that very soon

the remaining Chibok girls will be located and reunite with their families,” he said.

He further paid tributes to all fallen heroes for paying the supreme sacrifice in their efforts of keeping the nation from aggression.

Babangida however urged the military to unveil a new strategy of further defeating pockets of insurgents/terrorists, armed bandits and cattle rustlers all over the country.

Similarly, the Niger State governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani Bello has described the capture of CAMP ZERO, Sambisa Forest which was the last stronghold of Boko Haram, as a global achievement made possible by the political will of President Muhammadu Buhari and the commitment of the Armed Forces and other security agencies.

Bello said the destruction of Sambisa Forest is a clear and strong message to all criminal el-

ements in the country of the capacity, willingness of the Armed Forces and other security agencies as well as the political will of the President in securing every inch of Nigeria.

In a congratulatory message signed by his Chief Press Secretary, Malam Jibrin Baba Ndace, Governor Bello commended the Armed Forces, particularly the Nigerian Army and the Nigerian Airforce for their determination, commitment and bravery.

Political appointees bemoan exclusion in distribution of Christmas largesse Edem Edem, Calabar

Second Vice President of Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural Organisation, Worldwide, Dr Hillary Wordu, First Vice President, Chief L.A. Amadi , Rivers State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, outgoing President General, Prof. Augustine W. Onyeozu and Ochi Oha, G.A.O Omodu at the 211th Convention of Ogbakor Ikwerre Cultural Organisation, Worldwide in Rumuche on Christmas Day

Senator Wakili faults Bauchi gov over stance on reconciliation The member representing Bauchi South in the upper chambers of the National Assembly, Senator Ali Wakili has said that actions and utterances of of the state governor, Muhammad Abubakar has shown that he is not ready for reconciliation with prominent citizens of the state.

Wakili told newsmen that the Bauchi helmsman has continued to whip up sentiment against his perceived political opponents.

He accused Abubakar of sending three prominent Emirs from the state to wade into the disagreement and ensure that all the differences were mended.

“The following day he gathered people from Bogoro, Dass and Tafawa federal constituency, our main base and denounced Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara, Senator

Wakili, Honorable Aminu Tukur and Honorable Maryam Bagel members of the Bauchi State House of Assembly. You don’t do reconciliation like that,” he stated.

Senator Wakili also accused the governor of allowing his aides to use provocative words against them.

“One of them spoke about the farm belonging to one of us in Nasarawa State while addressing me as an excorrupt Custom officer. He incited the people at mararaba against Honorable Maryam Bagel, that if she passes this way would they allow her to go free.

“If you have chosen to send some people to us for reconciliation then you should restraint your utterances,” he added.

Wakili faulted the governor’s stance that he is ready to reconcile with them only on condition that they should ac-

cept that he is their leader in the state.

“I think he is talking from an inferiority complex. No one among us doubted him as the governor. No one has said that he is not the governor, but what we are saying we have difference in the position of our people which is quite different from personality.

“Personality would come and go, but the office remains and sometimes personality determine the office. By the time you carry the office with decorum everybody is going to respect you, but when you think that I have to say so and so it means you have a complex that you yourself think you are not fit to be there,” he added.

Governor Abubakar has been at loggerheads with some lawmakers from Bauchi State including the Speaker, House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara over some issues.

Political appointees in Cross River State who could not find their names on the list of persons to be given Christmas gifts of rice and cash, complained bitterly on why their names were omitted. In a chat with our correspondent in Calabar, some of the politicians, elected and appointed, expressed dissatisfaction by the attitude of their colleagues who compiled the list.

“I see no reason why my name should not be in the lists. My position in this government should not be underrated and under mind. I personally know what I have done to bring this government to the level it is today and as such anybody that compiled that lists should have understood that fact, my names shouldn’t have been omitted by any means” aggrieved politician said.

Though, the politicians pleaded for anonymity, but they said that even the number of political appointees are over a thousand and that the office of the secretary to government supposed to have been abreast of the names and number and threatened that if such action occurs again, they will not fail to report to the governor.

Investigations conducted by our correspondent revealed that some of the political appointees were given two 10kg bags of ‘La Africa’ branded rice and N10, 000 each while the deputy governor, Professor Ivara Esu was said to have received 100 bags of rice.

Each of the La Africa contained four 10kg bags, but the distribution decreases as more political appointees including Commissioners, Special Advisers and Heads of Parastatals and Personal Assistants and staff of the office surfaced.

It was however observed that five truck loads of rice were parked outside the governor’s office with over 500 bags each and were being offloaded manually. As the distribution was going on another two arrived, but a government source hinted that about 10 trucks were ordered.

However, one group that did not benefit from the rice distribution was Journalists.

News 12

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Sambisa: FG rallies support for victorious troops

Continued from page 1 In a statement issued in Lagos on Monday and signed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed appealed to Nigerians to continue to support the troops as they clear the remnants of the terrorists, who are now on the run.

He called for increased vigilance among Nigerians as Boko Haram escapees seek to integrate themselves into communities far and near, saying eternal vigilance is the price of freedom.

“We urge Nigerians to keep our gallant and victorious troops in their prayers and to also imbibe the mantra of “if you see something, say something” as a way of ensuring that no escaped terrorist is able to wreak havoc in their communities. It is also important to know that now that they have been dispossessed of their fortress, the Boko Haram escapees will intensify their cowardly attacks on vulnerable targets, if only to maintain an illusion of terror. But there should be no panic because the worst is over,” he said.

While commending the military for the re-opening of the Maiduguri-Gubio-Damasak, and the Maiduguri-Mungono-Baga roads, which link Nigeria with neighboring countries, he commended Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima, for his unwavering support for the military

and his administration’s determination to quickly restore normalcy across the state.

The Minister said it was in recognition and celebration of the great feat performed by the military that he decided to lead over 30 Nigerian and international journalists to join the Hon. Minister of Defence, retired Brig.-Gen. Mansur Dan Ali, the Service Chiefs and the Governor of Borno State, at the opening of the two strategic

roads in Borno on Sunday.

“Unfortunately, due to bad weather, our flight to Maiduguri from Abuja was cancelled after several hours of waiting at the airport. However, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, accompanied by the top brass of the military, re-opened the two arterial roads. This is very significant because the two major roads, which were closed due to activities of the terrorists in the area, are of strategic

importance to the economy of the Lake Chad Region,” Alhaji Mohammed said.

He said the leadership provided

by President Muhammadu Buhari provided the much needed impetus for the military’s victory in the North-east, and urged Nigerians to continue to give their unalloyed support to the president in his untiring efforts to restore peace and security across the country and also revamp the economy.

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MOSOP seeks capable replacement for Environment Minister

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ÏÏÏ The Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People, MOSOP, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that only a tested and capable person will be appointed to replace the Minister of Environment, Amina Mohammed.

President of the foremost Ogoni group, Mr. Legborsi Pyagbara, who spoke in an interview with Rhythm 93.7 FM station on Monday in Port Harcourt, showered praises on the out-going minister, who was recently appointed deputy secretary-general of the United Nations.

Mr. Pyagbara noted that announcement that the incoming United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has appointed Mohammed to work at the world body, was bound to have implications for implementation of the Ogoni environment cleanup programme.

He lauded the firm commitment of the out-going minister to the implementation of the United Nations Environment Programme Report on Ogoniland, adding that her background as a former staff of the UN was an invaluable asset, which the Ogonis would miss sorely.

The MOSOP president urged President Buhari to replace her only with a minister that possesses her qualities, especially her passion for the clean-up of the Niger Delta environment.

Expect more reforms in public service next year –BPSR ÏÏÏ

Director-General, Bureau of Public Service Reforms (BPSR), Dr. Joe Abah, says there will be new reforms in public service in 2017 that will adequately foster the country’s growth.

Abah disclosed this in Abuja on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He said the recent announcement by the National Economic Council, chaired by Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, showed that the government was now willing to address some of the issues.

According to him, government is now willing to look seriously at the issue of rationalisation of agencies and parastatals, as we will finally have a go ahead with the work that we have designed.

“We have a 10-year plan for reforms we’ve been following, however, as with every plan,

the sequence and prioritisation ranges with government emphasis.

“And so for 2017, we will be focusing very heavily on making it easier to do business in Nigeria.

“And that is why the bureau has commissioned a number of studies to look at the bottlenecks to service delivery and we are looking at those things that affect the ordinary Nigerian directly.

“For instance, the processes for getting a passport, the processes for getting a driver’s licence, the process for getting a tax clearance and the process for seeing a doctor in a government hospital.

“And the gap between when you retire and when you actually start to get your pension.

We have instances where people have retired and for one year they haven’t got any pension.

“So, these are some of the topical issues we will be looking at

to see where the bottlenecks are and what we can do to ease the process.

“We are also optimistic that our report on restructuring of the merged ministry will go to council very early in the new year, with a recommendation that we do the same for all the other ministries,’’ the directorgeneral said.

Abah also emphasised the need to break the communication gap between the government and the citizenry as it relates to how government works.

He, however, said that the bureau would in January 2017, commission a policy paper, essentially to address the gaps.

“We are also concerned that the communication function of government doesn’t work as well as it should and this is not unique to this administration.

“It’s been an ongoing problem for a very long time where government is simply not getting the message along to the citi-

zens and citizens are not engaging with the government.

“So we will be commissioning a policy paper in January, essentially showing how the disconnection in communication is actually hurting the government.

“And the need for a coordinated message that citizens can engage with and the opportunity for citizens to be put through the way that government works.

“We’ve already spoken with the Ministry of Information about it and also spoken with one of the Special Assistants to the President on new media on how we can work together to address these issues,’’ he said.

The director-general also noted that the rate of unemployment in the country was worrisome, adding that the bureau will be engaging with the youth ministry and stakeholders in line with this.

Besides, he said that the bureau was working towards en-

suring that there was coordinated approach to dealing with the problems of unemployment in Nigeria rather than what it used to be.

“We will be doing a study in March on youth unemployment because again, there is a problem with coordination.

“We have the Ministry of Youths and Sports doing something on youth unemployment, we have the Ministry of Women Affairs doing its own; we have the Ministry of Labour and Employment doing its own.

“We also have the National Directorate of Employment, we have various people doing various things but there is no coordination.

“So that is one thing we also want to look at. Because the issue of youth unemployment is something that is at the very fore front of our consciousness and something we are really concerned about,’’ said Abah.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

13

14 Opinion

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Sectionalism as threat to national security

N

Majeed Dahiru

epotism, tribalism, regionalism, cronyism and religious bigotry – collectively known as sectionalism – are at the roots of corruption. Sectionalism rewards mediocrity and relegates competent expertise because the yardstick is who knows you and not what you know. Sectionalism rewards complacency but punishes hard work because the index is where you are coming from, not being the first to arrive. Sectionalism has been the fundamental cause of Nigeria’s underdevelopment and inability to evolve into an egalitarian and prosperous modern nation.

If corruption has national security implications then Buhari’s sectionalism is a threat to national security.

The Muhammadu Buhari administration has elevated sectionalism at the highest level of government to the highest it has ever been, perhaps since the General Sani Abacha military junta; a government in which president Buhari was a prominent part of. The entire kitchen cabinet of the president, the most powerful lever of government, where programmes and policies are incubated and hatched, is staffed and dominated

by Nigerians of northern origin.

These include his chief of staff, the secretary to the government of the federation, national security adviser, chief security officer, chief of protocol, and for the first time since 1999, the president’s aide de camp comes from his North West region.

The few offices in the presidency that were given to Southerners are equally shared with northern counterparts. For example, Femi Adesina, a firm supporter of the president throughout his wandering years in the electioneering wilderness, was rewarded with the position of special adviser on media and publicity, yet he still has a very powerful if not dominant partner in Garba Shehu, a Northerner, who the president appointed as senior special assistant on media and publicity. The office of presidential liaison officer to the National Assembly was also split into two between Senator Ita Enang, a Southerner and Hon. Samaila Kawu, a Northerner. The president and his handlers have defended this manner of appointments on the fact that it is based on loyalty and trust; a position that is severally re-echoed by his devoted supporters. In trying hard to always rationalise the president’s every action, the hailing hailers this time have unknowingly, by putting up these excuses for his extreme sectionalism, indicted the president and called to question his nationalist credential, which is a vital requirement for the occupant of the highest office in the land.

The numerous negative side effects of Buhari’s sectionalism are being felt across board. From a largely incompetent Federal Executive Council, to the absence of

an economic management team, thereby leaving the nation’s economy in a limbo and drifting into recession with the heavy consequence of mass poverty among a large section of citizens. Institutions of state have been deployed to serve sectional but not national interests. The broad consequences arising from the impunity and gross abuse of powers and privileges of “loyal and trusted” appointees, are the escalation of corrupt practices, leading to economic and financial crimes in high places.

The Fulani often justifies their violent attacks as a reprisal on farming communities for earlier attacks on them and their cattle. Little wonder Nigeria’s Fulani dominated internal security apparatus, headed by a Fulani commander-inchief, appears to have approached the problem of killer Fulani herdsmen from a sectional prism rather than a national broad view, thereby making the crisis intractable.

Nowhere are the negative consequences of Buhari’s sectionalism felt more than in the conduct of the exercise of internal security.

The entire internal security apparatchik is headed and dominated by northern Muslims, including a significant section of the defence services (the army and air force).

It appears that the internal security architecture of the Muhammadu Buhari administration is designed to ensure sectional security rather than national security.

For example, the fight against the terror group, Boko Haram, whose insurgent activities are adversely affecting the people and land of the Muslim North-East, is being tackled with renewed vigour. The president also personally went to Zamfara State to launch a military operation against cattle rustlers; a problem that affects his own Fulani ethnic group negatively.

Similarly the governors of the North-West, with cooperation from security agencies, coordinated a military operation which flushed out bandits and cattle rustlers from the forests of Birnin Gwari, bring-

ing respite to Fulani cattle breeders in the area. By contrast, other sections of the country have not had it this good. The case of Bridget Agbahime is classic. As a Christian of southern origin, residing in the northern city of Kano, in life she was not protected by security agencies from a blood thirsty irate mob of northern Muslim youth who killed her, and in death she gets no justice because the Fulani Muslim government of Kano State has declared her killers as having no case to answer. How about Eunice Elisha, the Kubwa preacher who was hacked to death a few miles from the presidential villa? A case forgotten and her family left alone to mourn in pain but silence.

The president and commander in chief has shown more concern for the lives of cattle, than human lives, in Agatu, Enugu, Anambra etc. Buhari’s disposition to the scourge of marauding killer Fulani herdsmen, who like parasitic locusts forcefully descending from the highlands of Futa Djallon on the Senegal River and swooping across Nigeria’s green belt of the guinea savannah through the forest to the wetlands of the mangrove swamps of central and southern Nigeria, leaving destruction of cultivated lands, tears and blood thereafter, has been unfortunately very complacent. Not even a strong word of condemnation or a physical visit to affected communities has been considered by the president. The most his government has done in this case is to appeal to both host farming communities and cattle breeders to cohabit peacefully. The president, like the typical Fulani cattle breeder that he is, would rather claim to be the victim than the aggressor. The Fulani often justifies their violent attacks as a reprisal on farming communities for earlier attacks on them and their cattle. Little wonder Nigeria’s Fulani dominated internal security apparatus, headed by a Fulani commander-in-chief, appears to have approached the problem of killer Fulani herdsmen from a sectional prism rather than a na-

tional broad view, thereby making the crisis intractable.

It is sad that the evil of reprisal attacks have assumed a virtues garb. Aggressions against the Fulani during the post-election violence were wrong and its occurrence was as a result of the failure of the government of that day to maintain law and order by protecting the lives of all citizens.

This position is further strengthened by the approach of Nasir ElRufai to the recent massive attacks by the Fulani killer herdsmen on farming communities of southern parts of Kaduna State. The governor is widely reported to have appealed to the ethnic sentiments of the killers that as one of their own, they should give him a chance to financially atone for the violence they suffered in the hands of the people of southern Kaduna in the wake of the 2011 post-election violence and pull the brakes on their recurring reprisal attacks. This is sectionalism taken too far. Nasir ElRufai should realise that the day he became governor of Kaduna State, he ceased to be a Fulani man but a Kaduna man. His duty is to protect every Kaduna man and woman against external aggression from any quarter, including members of his ethnic Fulani group. It is sad that the evil of reprisal attacks have assumed a virtues garb. Aggressions against the Fulani during the post-election violence were wrong and its occurrence was as a result of the failure of the government of that day to maintain law and order by protecting the lives of all citizens.

Reprisal attacks arising from the foregoing is equally wrong and also a failure of the present government to maintain law and order. Nobody should be allowed to take laws into their hands. Governor El-Rufai should mobilise all resources to protect the people of southern Kaduna against killer Fulani herdsmen. He should exhaust all avenues, including diplomatic channels, to pressure the host countries of killer herdsmen to bring the bandits to justice. In 1914, George V, King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, did not react to German aggression on vital colonial interests of the British Empire during the First World War by using his Germanic ancestry to appeal to the Germans “as one of their own” to desist, while promising to pay reparations for their military expenses during the Franco-Prussian war of the preceding century.

King George V did not only declare war on Germany but also dropped his original dynastic Germanic sobriquet, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and adopted the English House of Windsor as a demonstration of strong English nationalism. His Majesty stood up to the Germans as a true British patriot and statesman, working in concert with other allied powers and defeated the German led axis powers by 1918.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

15 Opinion

Algeria: Mecca of African liberation

D Owei Lakemfa

r.

Nkosazana Clarice Dlamini Zuma, 67, is the Chairperson of the African Union Commission and a leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC). She was Minister of Health under President Nelson Mandela, and then Minister of Home Affairs. She married incumbent South African President Jacob Zuma. She is one of the best known South Africans, and many speculate she wants to take a shot at the country’s presidency. Yet she carries, with pride, an Algerian passport!

For African liberation fighters like Zuma, it is an honour to carry an Algerian passport. That country, from its independence on July 5, 1962, opened its borders to all liberation fighters in Africa, giving them international security cover, military training, arms, funds and passports.

From Nelson Mandela, Agostinho Neto of Angola, Mozambique’s Samora Machel, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe to Amilcar Cabral of Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, all major liberation fighters flocked to Algeria. Preceding them was Franz Fanon, the medical doctor from Martinique in the Caribbean who authored famous liberation books like The Wretched of the Earth, Black Skin, White Masks, A Dying Colonialism and Towards the African Revolution. Fanon died an Algerian.

Amilcar Cabral, the Prophet of African liberation in 1969, said

at The First Pan-African Festival held in Algiers: “Pick a pen and take note: the Muslims make the pilgrimage to Mecca, the Christians to the Vatican and the national liberation movements to Algiers!” With that, Algeria became known and generally accepted as the Mecca of African Liberation struggles.

As I write, no other country has done more for the on-going liberation of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) from Moroccan occupation, than Algeria. The latter took the unprecedented step, forty years ago, of giving a large portion of its 159,000 square kilometre Tindouf Province to Saharawi refugees. Tindouf, with some 60,0000 Saharawi refugees, also hosts that country’s exiled Government.

When the Algerians, three weeks ago, held an international symposium on “Algeria’s contribution to the decolonisation of Africa”, I felt honoured to have been invited. It was my fifth visit to the country and I looked forward to meeting people who sacrificed for the liberation of the continent, and was not disappointed. We flowed from all parts of the continent, including Congo Democratic Republic, Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Cape Verde and Botswana. Participants included Theo-Ben Gurirab, ex-Namibian Prime Minister and former President of the United Nations General Assembly; Amara Essy, ex-Cote d’Voire Foreign Minister and former Secretary General of the African Union; Abdelhakim Gamal Abdelnasser, son of legendary revolutionary, Abdel Nasser of

Egypt; Mrs. Maria Eugenia Neto, widow of President Agostinho Neto of Angola. There were daughters of African liberation including Irene Alexandra da Silva Neto, daughter of Neto; Boshigo Ntsi Rosinah Matlou, daughter of Jonas Matlou, ANC leader who opened missions in various countries and Dr. Sibusiso Mkwananzi, grand daughter of South African journalist-turned guerrilla fighter, Robert Resha.

There were also several fighters trained in Algeria, and people inspired by the November 1, 1954 to March 18, 1962 Algerian Revolution, in which 500,000 French troops could not stop the revolution to topple 130 years of French rule. The French had declared Algeria part of France and had, in desperation, drowned the country in rivers of blood, killing some 1.5 million Algerians.

We were three from Nigeria: Senator Shehu Sani, retired Ambassador Browson Dede and I. Dede, 77, who had joined the Nigeria Foreign Service in 1964 and spent thirteen years at the AU, told the conference: “We must build the African economy; we must integrate. I don’t know anywhere in the world where you produce goods and you cannot say how much you will sell it.” He recalled being part of the delegation that visited former President Julius Nyerere to wind up the AU African Liberation Committee. The sage had told them that it was better to replace it with an AU Economic Liberation Committee. Nyerere, he said was right as Africa is in dire need of economic liberation.

Algerian Minister of State, Foreign Affairs and International Co-

operation, Ramtane Lamamra, who opened the conference, said Algeria remains true to its principles of freedom for all peoples, which was why it sheltered the Portuguese rebels who eventually overthrew dictatorship in their country in 1974. These principles, he said, also explain Algeria’s solid support for Palestinian and Saharawi independence.

Mrs. Neto relieved the Angolan war of independence: “Angola will never forget the help Algeria rendered us in fighting the Apartheid and Mobutu armies and mercenaries who tried to take the capital, Luanda. We cannot forget Fidel Castro who helped us secure our independence… We were about declaring independence when those forces advanced on Luanda. But we were able to hold out with weapons sent us by Algeria and the help of Cuba.”

Mr. Abdelnasser said: “The Algerian Revolution was a good lesson to Egypt; it was based on the same principle as ours. Egypt will not forget France invading us; they wanted to stop the Egyptian revolution. We will not forget the role Algeria played after the 1967 war when our aircrafts were destroyed. I hope that Egypt will return to those days (The Nasser period). Egypt is an African country; the Nile comes from Africa; our lives are tied to Africa.”

He advocated for an Africa based on social justice and that serves the people and guarantee them a better future. “We should not give room for our enemies to divide Africa. They used to send armies to occupy our continent, now they don’t need any armies because they can use our people. We need to unite.”

The world is moving on

I Tope Fasua

nitially I was angry at how things got so bad in Nigeria that many foreign airlines simply stopped coming.

A foreboding feeling of claustrophobia took over, as if Nigerians were being left alone by the entire world to stew in their own broth. What could have happened? The government was quick to remind us that the entire world is in recession. Is this true? Is the world coming to an end? Or is it just a Nigerian thing?

In the first place, no one has been able to explain to us what has been going on with airfares in Nigeria.

Many airlines are quoting prices from Nigeria that are a multiple of what they take elsewhere and we seem all helpless to do something about it. The government wards off any complaint by painting the picture that it’s only corrupt elites that travel abroad, while they also ferry top government officials abroad to expensive hospitals at the slightest chance of ailment, on the people’s dime. It just cannot be right that Nigerians are asked by foreign airlines to pay upwards of $3,000 for econ-

omy class tickets for the distances where they charge citizens of other countries a tenth of that. A friend in Dubai recently obtained an Emirates flight ticket for 1,800 Dirhams or $450, but the same airline, which now flies to Lagos twice a week, having canceled its entire Abuja schedule, quotes as much as a million naira ($3,000 at the official exchange rates) for the same economy ticket. Is anyone going to bail Nigerians out of this lockdown, or have we accepted that, at least for now, we are doomed to penury?

Some people have tried to explain this anomaly by saying that the airlines struck deals with some local officials to add a premium and that in spite of all what is going on, these guys are still recouping their ‘investments’. They claim that the huge and inexplicable premium on Nigerianoriginated flight tickets goes into the pockets of government officials who facilitated one thing or the other for these airlines. Yet, by every global standard, Nigerians are being ripped-off, and the financial lifeblood of our people is being sucked dry from every angle. Such an egregious

thing will not fly anywhere else but in this country.

The responses of ‘smart’ people have been to fly one-way out of Nigeria and then book their itineraries from abroad; anywhere will do. Even Ghanaians and Togolese, or Nigeriens, are not so treated. Sometimes, it almost looks like a curse to be a Nigerian. The other day, I discovered that we have been grouped alongside other ‘terrorist’ countries like Iran, Syria, and so on, for financial transactions in most financial markets across the world. The barrage is unbearable. What did we ever do to deserve such ill-treatment from everyone in the world, including our own government? Since it only makes sense to book flight tickets from anywhere but Nigeria, our local travel agencies can as well fold up and die, but we are not solving the problem. Like everything else, the typical Nigerian selfishness kicks in; everybody tries to sort themselves out while the generality can as well go to hell and back.

But that is not the subject for today’s writeup.

I want to thank the ongoing

economic recession and whoever brought it about for allowing me fly Ethiopian Airlines again, and to be able to tell this African story.

When Emirates Airlines berthed in Abuja, the ease, speed and functionality with which one could connect every other country in the world tended to spoil some of us. I swore off Ethiopian, and was even downgraded back to a Blue member, even though I had hit Gold at some point. I also had a nasty experience traveling through the Bole Airport sometime in 2015 (a story for another day). The Bole Airport is okay, but perhaps because of the sheer crowd that passes through it, its bathrooms have become a nightmare. I had written the airport management about this once, and though my letter was replied all the way to me in Nigeria, little changed on ground. So I dreaded flying Ethiopian, if there was Emirates.

My recent experience was a pleasant delight though, and even though I don’t intend to advertise for that airline, or that country, it will be a sin if one refuses to share the lessons of their transformation.

16

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Ighalo W vows to end goals drought

atford striker Odion Ighalo has maintained he will soon be firing goals again in the Premier League after a far more prolific last season.

Last season, the Nigeria striker netted 15 goals in the English top league, but he has only managed a goal in 14 appearances this term.

“I will keep working hard

and I believe I will soon hit the ground running again,” said the 27-year-old striker, who turned down a chance to cash in his goals of the past season big time with a lucrative move to China.

“We have only played half of the season and I believe the goals will soon start coming again.

“It’s not some excuse but I have had some personal problems this season and

Page 17

hopefully all that is now behind me.”

Ighalo’s personal problems will include the passing if his father after illness.

He has also been affected by a new formation by new manager Walter Mazzarri that allows for only a striker upfront unlike the 4-4-2 formation which paired him with Watford skipper Troy Deeney.

Ighalo

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

New coach inspires Sokari K

ingsley Sokari scored his second goal in his last three games on Friday and immediately confirmed that the recent arrival of Nestor Clausen as coach at CS Sfaxien of Tunisia has pushed him to hit greater heights this season.

The former U20 and U23 Nigeria international is enjoying his best spell at Sfaxien, who ended the first half of the 2016/2017 campaign top of Group A of the regular season ahead of the country’s champions Etoile du Sahel .

And he put it all down to Clausen, the Argentine who took over the reins at the club in late November.

“I would say I’m enjoying a new lease of life,” said the 21-year-old Sokari, who was one of Nigeria’s star performers at the FIFA U20 World Cup last year.

“This is not saying I was not giving my best before the new coach took over.

But I can say I’m performing better now because I’ve been given a free role in midfield. I have been given the opportunity

to express myself.

“The former coaches employed different tactics and there were times I was put on the wings. I never complained because I had played there under coach Kadiri Ikhana at Enyimba.

“But I think this coach saw the best of my qualities right from the first day he took training and gave me the role of the play maker in midfield, which is my original role from when I started my career in Nigeria.”

Sokari

Mikel,Iniesta are my favourites - Agbo Onazi provides roads,

W

atford-bound midfielder Uche Agbo has revealed that Chelsea star Mikel Obi and Andres Iniesta of Barcelona are his favourite players.

“Iniesta is a thinking player, who is a step ahead always. I also admire Mikel and Prince Boateng, who always wants to win,” revealed the 20-year-old Granada CF midfielder.

His La Liga club are struggling this season for survival and he said he is delighted he has reverted to his “real” position as a defensive midfielder after he was first played in central defence earlier this season.

“My real position is midfield and I am back there because that is where the new coach wants me to be,” said Uche Agbo, who moved to Spain three seasons ago.

He will also back Lucas Alcaraz to get Granada out of trouble soon.

“He relates very well with the players and insist on hard work in training,” he remarked.

“There have been some major changes at the club recently, results will take time to come through, but I am confident we will get there soon.”

Granada are second from bottom of La Liga table with nine points from 16 matches.

borehole as birthday gift T

Mikel

Iniesta

rabzonspor midfielder Ogenyi Onazi is not just celebrating his 24th birthday on Christmas day but also enhancing the standard of people living in Jos, Plateau State by constructing roads and providing boreholes.

Onazi who joined Turkish side from Lazio in July expressed his desire in making life better for his people as he takes up construction of dilapidated roads and the menace of inaccessible water as his birthday present.

“In and out of season, putting smiles on the faces of people has been my desire, watching their faces beam with smiles warms my heart beyond what words

could explain,” Onazi wrote on Instagram.

“The relief it gives them gives me joy. And here’s something I’ve discovered, it is more rewarding to give than to receive. Your quality time, your smile, your money, your help are all things you have been blessed with so you can help others.

“It is in this spirit of giving that I have deemed it proper to enhance the standard of living of people in my community by providing water and good roads. It is an honour to be able to help people in need, a privilege every one should aim for. That is my birthday gift for my people in Jos plateau.’

18

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

EXTRATIME

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE… ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE… ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE

Barca eyeing

Coutinho - Ronaldinho B

Coutinho

arcelona great Ronaldinho said the LaLiga champions have a lot of admiration for Philippe Coutinho as they eye a move for the Liverpool attacker.

Coutinho has been linked with Barca following his exploits for Liverpool after moving to the Premier League from Italian outfit Inter in 2013.

The 24-year-old sidelined with an ankle injury since November - is under contract until 2020 but two-time World Player of the Year Ronaldinho claims Barca are monitoring the Brazil international.

“I hope when he [Coutinho] returns from injury that he will continue the form he has been

showing all season with Liverpool,” Ronaldinho said.

“He has been one of the stand out players in Europe this season – and I know there is a lot of admiration of him at Barcelona.

“Liverpool will want to keep him, they have built the team

around him.

“But when you play at that level then there is always interest.”

Coutinho has scored five Premier League goals as Liverpool sit second in the standings heading into Tuesday’s visit of Stoke City.

Firmino charged with drink driving

Allardyce targeting

Sunderland striker Defoe

Crystal Palace boss Sam Allardyce is targeting Sunderland striker Jermain Defoe.

Sources say Allardyce wants to sign Defoe to fire Crystal Palace to Premier League safety.

However, Palace’s new boss faces a battle to sign the former England man with David Moyes desperate to keep hold of the 34-year-old.

Moyes said: “I don’t think there’s any transfer fee because we know that Jermain’s goals are so priceless to us. I wouldn’t even think about where we’d be without him. His stats for 2016 show he’s been brilliant.

“I’m not saying we’re getting the best out of him because he’s had a great career and he’s scored a lot of goals, but nobody can turn around and say they can see a demise in him.

You can only see someone who will keep going.”

James to stay at Madrid

in January – Agent

James

A January move is not on the cards for Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez, according to the player’s agent Jorge Mendes.

James has struggled for first-team opportunities with Madrid this season, starting only four top-flight matches for the LaLiga leaders.

Speaking after his side’s Club World Cup triumph this month, James refused to commit his immediate future to the club, but Mendes insists he will stay at the Santiago Bernabeu to try and press his case with coach Zinedine Zidane.

“James will not leave in January,” Mendes toldthe media.

James joined Real Madrid after starring at the 2014 World Cup for Colombia and is under contract at Madrid until 2020.

Firmino

L

iverpool and Brazil forward Roberto Firmino has been charged with drink driving.

Firmino was pulled over by police in Liverpool city centre in the early hours of Christmas Eve. The 25-year-old is set to appear in court on January 31.

A spokesperson for Merseyside Police told reporters: “Merseyside Police has charged a 25-yearold man with drink driving after his car was stopped in Liverpool city centre in

Allardyce

the early hours of Saturday, December 24 2016.

“Roberto Firmino, from Liverpool, will appear at Liverpool City Magistrates Court on January 31.”

Liverpool play Chelsea in a potentially pivotal Premier League clash on the same day as Firmino’s scheduled hearing.

The former Hoffenheim star has established himself as a key figure under Jurgen Klopp at Anfield, scoring six times in 18 appearances across all competitions this season.

Hazard inspires Blues to recordbreaking 12th straight league win C

helsea won their 12th Premier League game in a row for the first time in their history as they downed Bournemouth 3-0 on Boxing Day to move nine points clear at the top of the table.

The Blues were without suspended star duo N’Golo Kante and Diego Costa but they still managed to secure a recordbreaking victory at Stamford

Bridge.

Pedro opened the scoring for Chelsea after 24 minutes, though he will miss his side’s next clash against Stoke City after picking up a booking.

Eden Hazard converted his 50th Premier League goal for the club from the penalty spot after being fouled by Simon Francis in the second half, before Pedro added a third late on.

Giroud give

Arsenal perfect Xmas present There was an apathetic atmosphere inside Emirates Stadium as Arsenal took to the pitch against West Brom on Boxing Day, just a week after two consecutive defeats to Everton and Manchester City.

The plethora of empty seats were most likely down to the fact that no trains were running on a public holiday but you could have been mistaken for thinking the first 45 minutes were part of a protest over the Gunners’ recent form.

It would indeed be an exaggeration to define Arsenal’s previous few weeks as a crisis but the match against a typically well-drilled Tony Pulis side certainly wouldn’t have been Arsene Wenger’s most ideal opponent at such a crucial point in the season - and it almost ended in a drab stalemate.

Kieran Gibbs was handed a start at left-back ahead of the inconsistent Nacho Monreal and did enough to show why he is more than capable of forging a regular spot in the Arsenal defence. The Englishman created three chances in the 70 minutes he was on the pitch before being replaced by the Spaniard due to sustaining a muscular injury in the second half.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

EXTRATIME

19

SPECIAL FEATURE

2016 Africa’s Best XI Abroad

As we approach the end of 2017, so many African players abroad made a tremendous impact in their various clubs and countries. Below is a list of top African stars who made headlines with their skills in the outgoing 2016/17 soccer season.

Andre Onana: The Cameroun starlet only made his Eredivisie debut for Ajax at the beginning of the season, but is already well on his way to establishing himself as the Dutch giants’ number one and the long-term successor to Jasper Cillessen. He has helped Peter Bosz’s side to the third best defensive record in the division so far, and his decision to snub a Nations Cup call-up (Fabrice Ondoa remains the Indomitable Lions’ first-choice keeper) comes as a major boost for Ajax.

Eric Bailly: While injuries have disrupted Bailly’s progress in recent weeks and months, he still deserves a spot in our dream team after a magnificent early start to life at Manchester United. While many defenders—and other players for that matter—require an adaption time when they arrive in the Premiership, Bailly’s pace, power and mature reading of the game ensured that he made an easy transition to England. He could be a rock for United for years to come Kalidou Koulibaly: After a mooted move to Chelsea in the summer never materialised, Koulibaly has set about demonstrating why he remains one of Africa’s finest centrebacks. At 25, he offers an immense physical presence and a fine defensive intelligence, while the rougher edges of his game are steadily being refined by Maurizio Sarri.

Don’t be surprised to see the Premier League’s biggest sides circling again before too long.

Joel Matip: Matip has already demonstrated how he has the qualities to boost Liverpool’s defensive situation after joining the Reds from Schalke earlier this year. While Jurgen Klopp’s problems at the back haven’t been completely ironed out, Matip has adapted well to life in England and if he can continue in a recent vein—and stay fit— the Merseysiders could be in the title hunt till the season’s end. His decision to reject a Nations Cup call up to stay at Anfield could prove decisive when the tale of the 2016-17 campaign is told.

Victor Moses: This summer, Moses appeared destined for the exit door at Chelsea after returning to the club from yet another indifferent loan spell. However, the Nigeria international has emerged as the key beneficiary of Antonio Conte’s arrival at Stamford Bridge, with the manager’s 3-4-3 set-up and redeployment of Moses as a right wing-back helping the wideman rediscover his best form. A recent winner against Tottenham Hotspur is testament to

Jean Seri: Seri continues to be the lynchpin behind OGC Nice’s unlikely title challenge, and in an era where creative central African midfielders are seemingly rare, the Ivorian stands out among his peers. His deeplying prompting from deep has helped the likes of Mario Balotelli and Alassane Plea flourish, and with eight decisive passes in 16 league outings so far, he sits atop Ligue 1’s assist charts.

Franck Kessie: Kessie was one of the major success

stories across Europe during the first few months of the season, prompting transfer rumours that he was destined for one of the world’s major clubs. He still may move in the near future, after demonstrating his quality with Atalanta. He began the campaign with four goals in three games—not a bad introduction to Serie A!—and also grabbed the winner against AS Roma in late November. He’s just 20, but considering his power and dynamism already, it’s frightening to imagine just what he could become.

Ryad Boudebouz: During Montpellier’s early-

season struggles, the one thing seemingly keeping them afloat was Boudebouz, who has, at times, appeared to be on a one-man mission to keep MHSC afloat. He currently has seven goals in 16 outings which, considering his best-ever Ligue 1 campaign came when he netted eight in 38 with Sochaux six years ago, demonstrates just how his magnificent his form has been. A knee injury appears to have ruled him out of the Nations Cup, but that aside, 2016 has been a superb return to form for the Algerian

Sadio Mane: He has taken to life at a higher level with ease since Liverpool signed him from Southampton for £34 million. Unlike Adam Lallana and Dejan Lovren, both of whom struggled to adapt to life at Anfield since leaving Saints, the Senegal forward has shone, and will head into Christmas with eight goals in 16 EPL outings. The 24-year-old has been a key catalyst in the Reds’ ongoing title challenge, but he will be missed during the Nations Cup. Pierre-Emerick

Aubameyang: The reigning

African Footballer of the Year has begun this season exactly as he ended the last, with goals aplenty. In fact, while Auba ended last term with an impressive 25 goals in 31 Bundesliga matches, he’s actually significantly improved his ratios since the start of 2016-17 and currently has 16 goals in 15 showings this season. It’s little wonder that Real Madrid continue to be linked with the hitman, who scored four goals during Borussia Dortmund’s recordbreaking Champions League group stage haul of 21.

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Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

21

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Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Operation Harmony to restore lasting peace in southern Kaduna –Police ÏÏÏ The

Nigeria Police Force on Monday said the special security outfit tagged ‘Operation Harmony’ would launched to restore lasting peace in Southern Kaduna State.

The Deputy Inspector General of Police (Operation) DIG Habila Joshak, said this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna.

Joshak said the police was constrained to react to publications by some print media regarding killings in Southern Kaduna in which purported number of persons were

said to have been killed.

He said: “In as much as the Force acknowledged the fact that there were few isolated cases of attacks recently in some settlements, “however, the figures reflected in the publications do not represent the facts on ground and therefore enjoin the print media to always verify their information in order to avoid decimation of information that are not accurate and likely to mislead members of the public.

“The Force therefore wishes to reassure mem-

BA BITRUS DALU FOUNDATION

bers of the public especially people of Southern Kaduna that the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim K. Idris in his resolve to restore peace in all parts of the country and particularly southern Kaduna which has witnessed crisis in recent times.’’

He explained the newly deployed special task force comprised officers and men of proven integrity that were trained to respond decisively to any situation likely to threaten peaceful coexistence of the citizens.

“In view of the impor-

tance attached to this operation, the leadership of the Police Mobile Force has been relocated to Kafanchan to oversee the operations whose personnel were largely drawn from the Police Mobile Force.

“The Deputy Inspector General of Police, Operations is directly coordinating this assignment in Kafanchan.’’

The Force therefore wishes to reassure members of the public that adequate security measures have been emplaced to respond at short notice of any attempt by misguided elements or trou-

FOUNDATION FOR ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT ADVOCACY

ble makers to disrupt the peace of the area.

In the same vein, the Force also advised citizens to remain law abiding and go about their lawful businesses as their safety was guaranteed.

However, he warned that the force would not fold its arms and watch any person or group of persons undermine the law of the land and would therefore deal decisively with any such groups in accordance with the law.

He further urged members of the public to therefore report any suspicious movements or ac-

tivities that are likely to temper with the peaceful atmosphere to the police and other security agencies.

IGP Idris

MUSTARD SEED GOSPEL CHURCH

The general public is hereby notified that the above named has applied to Corporate Affairs Commission for registration under Part ‘C’ of the Companies and Allied Matters Act, of 1990.

THE GENERAL PUBLIC IS HEREBY NOTIFIED THAT THE ABOVE NAMED HAS APPLIED TO CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION FOR REGISTRATION UNDER PART ‘C’ OF THE COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACT, OF 1990.

The general public is hereby notified that the above named has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Change of Trustees under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

Trustees 1. AWA NKWAMBULA MATASHI 2. JOY ZEHNOM MATASHI 3. KARDA YUSUF BITRUS

TRUSTEES 1. AKAKABOTA MUDIAGA 2. OCHUKO GERMAN - AIYUDU

THE OLD TRUSTEES ARE: 1. REV. BRIDGET MELEKWE - RETAINED 2. MR. ORLAND AKINS - RETAINED 3. PASTOR. LUKE AMIMELE -REMOVED 4. MADAM. EUNICE EHIOBU -REMOVED NEWLY ELECTED TRUSTEE ARE: 1. PASTOR. IFEANYI JOSEPH 2. MRS. UMEH AMAKA THE AIM AND OBJECTIVES REMAIN THE SAME Any objection to this registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission Maitama Abuja within 28 days of this publication

Aim and obj 1. For the advancement of educational pursuit of youths and the less privileged

AIM AND OBJECTIVE 1. TO DEVELOPS POVERTY REDUCTION PROGRAMS TO IMPROVE QUALITY OF LIVING IN A SUSTAINABLE MANNER 2. TO EMPOWER YOUTHS TO MAKE A POSITIVE CHANGE IN THE SOCIETY.

Any objection to the registration should be forwarded to the Registrar-General, Corporate Affair Commission, Plot 420 Tigris Crescent, Off Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, Abuja within 28 days of this Publication.

ANY OBJECTION TO THE REGISTRATION SHOULD BE FORWARDED TO THE REGISTRAR-GENERAL, CORPORATE AFFAIR COMMISSION, PLOT 420 TIGRIS CRESCENT, OFF AGUIYI IRONSI STREET, MAITAMA, ABUJA WITHIN 28 DAYS OF THIS PUBLICATION.

Signed AMINATU IBE. ESQ

SIGNED BARR. ANYANELE DARLINGTON

THE INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF ETHNIC UNITY

The general public is hereby notified that the above named has applied to the Corporate Affairs Commission for Registration under part “C” of the Companies and Allied Matters Act 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. Dr.(Barr) Theophilus Ogune 2. Engr.Alex Okeke 3. Prince Gladstone Ademiluyi

SIGNED: REV. BRIDGET MELEKWE

CONVENANT CHARITY ORGANIZATION THIS IS TO INFORM THE GENERAL PUBLIC THAT THE ABOVE NAMED “ASSOCIATION” HAS APPLIED TO THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS COMMISSION, ABUJA FOR REGISTRATION UNDER THE PART C OF COMPANIES AND ALLIED MATTERS ACTS, NO. 1990.

THE TRUSTEES ARE: 1. MR FALOLA OLASUNKANMI 2. MRS IFEOMA OCHIAGHA 3. MR OLUSOLA AKINFADERIN 4. MR. DAVID IKE AIMS AND OBJECTIVE

BAMEKE OLUWATOYIN DEBORAH.

BAMEKE: I, formerly known as LATEEF OLUWATOYIN DEBORAH, now wish to be known and addressed as BAMEKE OLUWATOYIN DEBORAH. All former documents remain valid.

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BANJOKO SOLOMON OLUWAFEMI

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ONU PATRICIA AIROMAGWA

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FOR SALE

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Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Ambode charges youths on hard work Benjamin Omoike

ÏÏÏLagos state governor, Mr.

Akinwunmi Ambode, on Sunday counseled the youths in the state on the need to embrace hard work, saying that such was important to be successful in life.

Governor Ambode, who spoke in Epe during the ongoing One Lagos Fiesta, an annual end-ofthe-year revue put together by the State Government, said it was important for the young ones to cultivate the habit of working hard, as such would go a long way in making them achieve their dreams.

While recalling his days growing up in Epe, the Governor said he became the Chief Executive Officer of Lagos State through the grace of God and hard work, assuring that as a government, his administration would continue to create the enabling environment for the youths in the State.

He said: “What I want to tell all of you is that we believe so much in all of you. We know that you are our future; I also started from here and today by the grace of God, I happen to be your Governor and so there will be many more Governors from this crowd.

“But if you want to be a president, if you want to be a governor, if you want to be a doctor or you want to be a lawyer and so on, you must now work hard. So, even when you work hard, our duty as government is to provide the enabling environment for all of you and so we are going to create more jobs for our youths and also we will create more facilities so that you can crave on your talents to become more creative.”

Governor Ambode said as a means of helping the youths to achieve their dreams, the State Government had already created the Employment Trust Fund (ETF), and urged them to take advantage of the Fund.

He added: “Those of you who are out of school or are graduates now and you don’t have jobs, the ETF is available for all of you.

Between now and November next year, we are providing an Arts Theatre in Epe. It is going to be a 500-seater Theatre and we will also have a modern cinema here in Epe. “We are bringing a shopping mall to Epe also. We will create more jobs but I want you to be the best. I will support you and I pray that all the things that I have gained from here, you will gain better ones than me.”

Speaking on the Fiesta, the Governor expressed excitement at the large turnout at the event, but urged the youths to continue to embrace peace and shun violence

Atiku congratulates Dogara at 49, praises Speaker’s leadership acumen Tom Okpe

ÏÏÏ

Former Vice President and chieftain of All Progressives Congress, Atiku Abubakar, says House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara deserves to be celebrated for what he calls “his superb and remarkable leadership qualities and democratic passion.”

The former vice president, in a statement to mark Dogara’s 49th birthday anniversary, says he has watched the Speaker’s leadership style with keen interest and discovered that he is one of Nigeria’s most skilful politicians, who has demon-

strated amazing leadership qualities at such vibrant young age.

Atiku recalls that Dogara impressed him greatly by the way he handled the leadership crisis in the House when it was inaugurated by dousing tension and restoring sanity.

The Turakin Adamawa also notes that the Speaker demonstrated what he called “maturity, calmness, patience and finesse” to rebuild confidence and sustain unity in the House.

According to Atiku, Speaker Dogara “has proved his weight in gold and wowed even the most stubborn

sceptics about his capability for the exalted responsibility.”

“I am proud of what you have achieved so far in terms of sustaining unity and harmony in the House. Your performance is impressive and I would always support you in the endeavour to achieve unity not only in the House, but also in our Party, the APC. You have given me hope that, if given a chance, our youth can perform wonders. As your savour the joy of this happy occasion, I wish you more good health, greater fulfilments and long life in the service of Nigeria and Nigerians,” Atiku said.

Fun seekers during the Christmas holiday in Abuja… on Monday

Leave Warri now, police warn criminals Isaac Olamikan, Warri

ÏÏÏ

The Area Commander of the Nigeria Police Force, Warri, Muhammadu Shaba, has warned criminally minded individuals operating within his area of jurisdiction to change gear or relocate because he will not tolerate any such act.

He gave the warning in a media chat over the weekend in Warri.

The Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) recalled that on his assumption of office a few weeks ago, he was confronted with the issue of the communal brawl between Aladjah and Ogbe-Ijoh.

“To the glory of God I was able to broker peace between the two warring communities.

“Peaceful coexistence is what the police desire and it is what we are working on in all communities,” he stated.

He also recalled that the crime rate in Warri used to be astronomical but with his approach it has been scaled down considerably. He warned criminals to relocate from the area as he has a zero tolerance for crimes and criminality.

“We will, in line with the operational code of the Nigerian Police Force, deal decisively with all those who engage in crimes.

“There would be no room for criminals here. They should either relocate or mend their ways,” he warned.

He assured residents of the area of a hitch free yuletide season as his

men would be posted to strategic locations around the area to give maximum security to the people and their properties.

Idris

23 News Co-operate with Buhari to overcome recession –Nyame tells Nigerians Okerafor Athanatius, Jalingo

ÏÏÏ

Former governor of Taraba state, Rev. Jolly Nyame, has called on Nigerians to cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari administration, to enable them come out of the present downturn biting harder on the economy of the Nation.

Nyame, who dropped this hint on Christmas day on Sunday while answering questions from newsmen shortly after marking his 61st birthday at Zing, headquarters of Zing local government area of the state, adding that recession is a global issue.

“When you talk about recession, it is a global thing.

America has been in recession, other big countries in the world have been in recession and now that Nigeria is in recession, it should not be taken as something very peculiar” “Nigerians should come together and see how best they can cooperate with President Muhammadu Buhari to get out of the recession”, he said.

He however, admitted that the economic slump affected his 2016 birthday celebration compared with that of last year, pointing out that the class of people he expected to be in attendance were not present at the occasion.

On 2019 general election, Rev Nyame confessed that he is not contesting for any position but said that the people of the state are always prepared to go for candidates of their choice, people that will bring democracy dividends to their doorsteps.

While talking on his birthday that concurred with Christmas, Jolly Nyame said, people that were born on the same day with Christ are people of proven integrity. He asked the people of the state to emulate Christ who preached peace and love to mankind.

Jolly Nyame who condemned the recent killings in Dan Anacha town of Gassol local government area of the state, describing it as madness. “People should desist from carrying arms against one another, Tarabans are one,” he said.

News 24 Traders laud Ugwuanyi for payment of December salaries ÏÏÏSome traders in Enu-

gu on Monday commended Gov. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi for paying the December salaries of workers before Christmas, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.

Both council and state government employees started receiving their December salaries from December 19, in order to have money to shop for Christmas and New Year festivities.

Speaking with NAN, the Leader of Ogbete Main Market, Chief Temple Udeh, lauded Gov. Ugwuanyi for his concern for the well-being of workers, their families and the traders they patronised.

Udeh said that for the past one week, as the salaries were paid, there had been an increase in commercial activities at the Ogbete Market, Enugu.

“Before the beginning of last week, traders in the market were sleeping and barely made sales to cover their daily transport and feeding stipends.

“For about six days now, there have been influx of buyers. Even some customers we have not seen for more than six months came to the market to pick items.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Tambuwal urges Nigerians to consolidate unity ÏÏÏSokoto

Governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, has urged Nigerians to double efforts at bridging gaps in the country, saying what unites the people is more important than things that divide them.

Speaking in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State when he joined two other Muslim northern governors to take part in festivities to commemorate this year’s Christmas, Tambuwal said

Minna

ÏÏÏSenator

David Umoru, representing Niger East Senatorial District in the upper chamber of the national assembly, has lamented the continued attack on some communities in the state by armed men suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

He cautioned that the situation must be urgently addressed by all tiers of government before it gets out of hand.

Senator Umoru’s reaction followed the Christmas eve attack on some communities in his senatorial district, including his ward, where three people were allegedly killed in the early morning invasion and several others critically injured.

The communities are Kaure, Ajatan and Kwaki, all in Shiroro local government area of the state.

claimed scores of lives after a church building collapsed in Uyo early this month.

Speaking when he met with Gov Emmanuel, Yari, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), described the tragedy as unfortunate.

He said the decision to set up an investigative panel to unravel the causes of the collapse is a right move in the right

direction.

“Your Excellency’s miraculous escape from death in the sad incident, is surely one of the God’s wonders.

“We at the Governors Forum received with shock, the sad news of the church’s collapse and we want to send message of solidarity to the people and government of Akwa Ibom over this unfortunate incidence.

Our prayers are with those who lost loved ones, and

those who sustained injuries,” Yari added.

Responding, Gov Emmanuel thanked the visiting Governors especially for choosing a holy day like the Christmas day to visit Akwa Ibom.

He described Nigerian Governors as a big and important family, saying the unity exhibited by the visit will further cement the cordial relationship between the peoples of Nigeria.

Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi (4th right); Deputy Governor, Kelechi Igwe (3rd right); Speaker of the State House of Assembly, Francis Nwifuru (3rd left); Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Sam Okoronkwo; Deputy Speaker, Odefa Obasi Odefa; Finance Commissioner, Dennis Ekumankama and Attorney General, Augustine Nwakwaegu, during the presentation of Prado Jeeps to monarchs in the State… recently.

Senator laments herdsmen’s attack on Niger communities Saka Bolaji

Nigeria’s diversity is a source of strength which should be cherished and nurtured for the benefit of the people.

The other governors in the entourage were Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara and Abubakar Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi.

The three joined Governor Udom Emmanuel to felicitate with him over the birth of Christ and as well commiserate with him over the recent tragedy which

This latest attack is coming barely two weeks after some communities within the area, namely Baga, Alawa, TungaSakai, Laye and Dnakau came under heavy attack from about 50 armed bandits suspected to be Fulani herdsmen.

No fewer than four people were killed in the attack and with about 1,000 cattle and a number of sheep rustled away after holding the communities hostage for several hours.

But Senator Umoru, while addressing newsmen in Minna on Monday on the incessant attacks by the herdsmen on these communities which has claimed many lives and rendered many people homeless, warned that the government must act fast before the entire communities are wipe out.

“The government, especially at the state level must wake up because the security of the lives of the people is it exclusive responsibility.

Obasanjo to Ebonyi: Introduce annual national yam exhibition ÏÏÏFormer

President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised the Ebonyi state government to introduce an annual national yam exhibition as a means of encouraging farmers to put in more effort in agriculture.

Obasanjo, who noted that Ebonyi was one of the four pilot states selected for the implementation of Sustainable Development Goal number two, an international zero hunger project, suggested that the best yam farmer should be given accolades as means of motivating others.

He spoke during a one-day South-East Economic and Security Summit in Enugu where Governor David Umahi of Ebonyi state advocated the resolution of boundary disputes to foster peace and development in the SouthEast geo-political zone.

Obasanjo, in a statement on Sunday by Umahi’s Chief Press Secretary, Emma Anya, said, “last year, leaders met in New York, United States, at the end of millennium development goal. They came with sustainable development goal and had 17 goals.

Item No. 2 is zero hunger by the year 2030.

“So, they approached me and said yes, zero hunger but we want you to lead the zerohunger review in Nigeria we took four states and said will focus on the four states as pilot states.

“I want to (talk about) Ebonyi, which is one of the four pilot states in the federation. Why can’t Ebonyi, as a yam producing state, have an annual yam exhibition where you will have judges that will determine who is the best yam farmer of the

year, not in Ebonyi state but in Nigeria. But Ebonyi state will be the state hosting the annual yam exhibition. That way you bring new interest to yam production. You will start glamorizing farmers and farming.”

At the event, which was hosted by the Enugu state governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and attended by the deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, Abia state governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, Anambra state deputy governor, Nkem Okeke, and retired military chiefs, Umahi said that an end to boundary disputes in the South-East was needed for peace and development to take place in the zone.

Said Umahi: “Let me say that one of the key areas the promoters and organisers of this very important programme must help us as

governors to look into is the boundary problems amongst us.

“There are many developments that should have taken place in those locations we have issues with our ourselves and I think there is the need to resolve them.”

The governor, who noted that the challenges facing the region were beyond economic and security issues, urged the leaders of the zone to unite and ensure peaceful coexistence among the states.

Obasanjo

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Chukwuemeke Iwelunmo

ÏÏÏThe

Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Col. Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (rtd), has highlighted the dangers of drug abuse during holiday season calling on members of the public to celebrate safely.

Abdallah gave the advice as commanders of the agency conclude a summit in Jos, Plateau State with the theme; Change Begins with Me: Repositioning NDLEA for Effective and Efficient Performance Towards A Drug-Free Nigeria.

People who use drugs put themselves and others at risk usually through drug

25 News

Yuletide: NDLEA boss warns against drug abuse induced road accidents, unprotected sex, increase in criminality and violence, loss of family members and other environmental impact.

“Availability of free drinks may also influence more people to indulge in a binge. Drug use can degenerate from mild to severe impairment and life threatening condition. There is also the problem of people recovering from drug use relapsing during the festive season. It is important

therefore to celebrate safely without drugs this season”, the NDLEA boss stated.

According to him, more people are likely to drink beyond their limits or try other drugs in search of intoxication than other times of the year.

“People who have problem with drug use must not be discriminated against.

They are like other patients suffering from ailments like headache, fever, back pain to mention a few. The Agency promised quality and afford-

able counselling and rehabilitation services.”

He however called on family members to show love and care to affected loved ones with drug abuse problem.

Apart from illegal drugs like cocaine, heroin and cannabis, the abuse of legally acceptable drugs like alcohol, cigarettes, cough syrup with codeine, fuel and inhalants also received priority attention at the summit.

“Abuse of unconventional substances has been widely

reported especially in the northern parts of the country. Although the chemical substances found in inhalants may produce various pharmacological effects, most inhalants produce a rapid high that resembles alcohol intoxication, with initial excitement followed by drowsiness, dis-inhibition, light-headedness, and agitation. If sufficient amounts are inhaled, most solvents and gases produce anesthesia and can lead to unconsciousness” Abdallah stated.

Fun seekers at Agodi Gardens in Ibadan, Oyo State, during the Christmas holiday … on Monday.

Ministry already implementing ICT road map 2016, says Shittu ÏÏÏ The Ministry of

Communications ICT Road Map 2016 is already being implemented, Minister of Communications, Mr. Adebayo Shittu, has said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the four-year road map from 2016 to 2020 is to fast track development in the Nigeria’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector.

Shittu disclosed this when he featured at the NAN Forum in Abuja.

He said that the road map ought to have been launched four months ago, but there were some delays.

“I don’t have to wait for the actual go ahead. It ought to have been launched about four

months ago.

“The operators have all made inputs into the formulation of the road map, but I want to assure you that we are already implementing the road map.

“Publicising it and getting the Federal Executive Council’s nod will be a formality because there is no alternative to what we have done,’’ he said.

NAN reports that the new road map involves five steps toward making Nigeria a smart and digital oriented country and it aims to create a pathway to national security and wealth creation for every Nigerian.

The five steps in the roadmap are – Building on ICT Sector Growth; SMART Government to Deliver ICT and

Broadband Penetration.

Others are Growing Revenue, Reducing Waste: Policy as Innovative continuity for Private Sector led continuous innovation and migration to a digitally savvy Nigeria through capacity building, job and wealth creation.

On cybercrime, Shittu said that cyber criminality was a worldwide phenomenon and the country needed more investments to tackle it.

“All over the world, for somebody to steal your money, he does not have to come to Nigeria; he could stay in the U.S. and steal from your account in Nigeria.

“Is not about Nigeria, what Nigeria should be doing is to try and build walls to protect

our cyber space.

“I want to believe that the office of the National Security Adviser, who is saddled with the responsibility of implementing the cyber security act, is in the best position to do so and of course he will need encouragement and cooperation of all Nigerians,’’ he said.

(NAN)

Shittu

Leaders need to be responsive to masses need -cleric Abiodun Taiwo Abeokuta

ÏÏÏ

The Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Abeokuta, Ogun state, Most Rev. Dr. Peter Kayode Odetoyinbo, has called on government to find a lasting solution to the crisis bedeviling the country.

Bishop Odetoyinbo in his 2016 Christmas message to Nigerians also called on Nigerians to rededicate their lives to God as He is the only one that can give hope to the people.

The Bishop opined in his message that the celebration of Christmas this year is one like never before because of its uniqueness.

His words: “For the first time in a long while, Nigerians are excessively apprehensive about what tide this Christmas season will bring to them. There is hunger in the land; there is anger in the land; there is frustration in the land; there is anxiety, there is fear in the land; more so, there is scarcity of resources in the land.

“Nigerians await an urgent and pragmatic relief from these undeserved and severe conditions of life. The leadership of the country needs to be more alive to the yearnings and sufferings of the people through sincere commitment to fighting corruption, strengthening of our institutions, palliative economic policies as well as medium and long term economic policies, provision of jobs, removal of multiple taxations and provision of social infrastructure.”

Bishop secures release of 6 inmates in Jalingo

ÏÏÏ The

Catholic Bishop of Jalingo Diocese, Most Rev. Charles Hamawa, on Monday secured the release of six inmates at the Jalingo Main Prison.

Hamawa received the freed inmates as part of activities of the diocese to mark the 2016 Christmas and the end of the Year of Mercy in Jalingo.

He advised the freed inmates to take their freedom seriously by turning a new leaf and living a rewarding life for the good of society.

Hamawa appealed to judges to save the system by dismissing cases without substantial

evidence, rather than crowding the prison with persons not convicted.

The clergy man said it was shocking to note that 85 per cent of the inmates at the Jalingo prison were either awaiting trial or had been on trial for more than 10 years.

The bishop, who described the situation as pathetic, called on the government to reposition the prisons by making them reformative centres.

Hamawa stated that the diocese will take temporary custody of the six inmates and rehabilitate them before they are sent to their families.

26

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 26, 2016

Times Law

s

QUOTE OF THE WEEK

It is not the business of learned counsel to resort to motions aimed principally at delaying or even scuttling the process of determining whether or not there is substance in the charges as laid. In my view, this motion is a disservice to the criminal process and a contemptuous lip service to the fight against corruption. The tactics employed here is only one of the means by which the rich and powerful cripple the criminal process.

-- Ngwuta JSC. in Dariye v. FRN & 2 ors (2015) 2 S.C. (Pt.1) 120

EDITOR: Ibe Uwaleke, 08033151041, ibeuwaleke 2012@yahoo.com

Oath taking bedrock to administration of justice -Oshilaja INTERVIEW Mr. Babatunde Oshilaja read law at the University of Ife now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State and was called to the Nigerian Bar 38 years ago. In this interview with PETER FOWOYO, Oshilaja, a classmate of Justice Sylvester Ngwuta JSC, and Justice Idris Evuti at the University of Ife and the Law School, Lagos. Both jurists were alleged to have lied under oath but, he concluded that prosecuting Justice Ngwuta without Judge Evuti amounts to double standard.

Besides, he speaks on the invasion of judges’ homes and the administration of justice system among sundry issues.

Can we still refer to the judiciary as the last hope of the common man going by recent happenings in the third arm of government The judiciary is still the last hope of the common man because government is divided into three arms. The legislative arm enacts the law, the executive executes. But in the execution of the law, there is overwhelming evidence that government officers particularly the security arm of the executive government being overzealous in the way they carried out their duties. That is why the court is open in furtherance of section 66 (a) and (b) of the 1999 constitution. That is why the judicial powers of the court involve civil rights and interest of the citizen. So, it is only the judiciary they can go to and no where else.

Before we came to constitutional government, it was the royal prerogative of England that you don’t sue the Queen of England in her own court. But, French and American constitutional history has liberated human beings by introducing written constitutional government and there is a provision of fundamental human rights. And that is why you can even sue the King or the Queen and in our case the government in their own courts.

The court is open perpetually to listen to everybody that approached the seat of justice.

But, even from the time I joined the Bar in 1978 till now I have the experience that there are instances of judicial officers who are not fit to be on that seat.

There are isolated individuals, but, they are not in the majority.

If you have read the book written by Justice Kayode Eso on Fundamental Human Rights and Education, you will see efforts made by the judiciary itself. You may also read the book written by Dr. Akinola Aguda on the Judiciary in Nigeria-Democratic Government. You need to

Oshilaja

“So, when I saw the charge against Ngwuta that he falsified his age declaration, I laughed at NJC and I am still laughing at them, because NJC should have called the police against the Niger state judge. I am using the opportunity of this interview to call on the Attorney General of the Federation Malami SAN to either prosecute Justice Idris Evuti (rtd) Judge of High Court of Niger State for swearing to false Declaration of Age as found by National Judicial Council or drop the charge for similar offence against Hon Justice Sylvester Ngwuta JSC otherwise it will amount to double standard.” consult all those books because they are insiders of the judiciary who themselves have the temerity, the audacity to put the mirror there and put the judiciary in front of the mirror and reflect the dirty areas. So, to that extent, the judiciary itself does not condone this indiscretion that we are seeing now. That has become so nauseating and if you are not strong enough, it can empty your stomach through your mouth for the avalanche of allegations against judicial officers.

How do you see the invasion of some judges’ homes by the Department of State Services (DSS) I don’t subscribe to those who are clamouring that judges’ homes were invaded. To the extent that you don’t close a police station, to the extent that Police’s work is a 24-hour work, they can apprehend any criminal on mere suspicion.

Under the constitution, only four people are immune, the President, his vice, the governor and his deputy. Those are the

only people that could not be arrested under our constitution. All the others including you and I can be visited at any time by the police. So, the security arm of government does not close their eyes 247.

They can work at any time. Therefore, I don’t belong to the school that says DSS invaded the houses of those judges. Go and read Section 35(1c) of the Constitution, it says your liberty can be taken on suspicion of crime either to prosecute you or prevent you from committing the

crime. So, I don’t subscribe to those criticizing the security agents visiting the house of judge at anytime of the day.

Many people have observed that while petty thieves are summarily jailed, high profile cases linger in court for several years. What is your take on this?

You are correct to the extent that all those ones happened before President Buhari was elected. After Buhari’s election that music has changed. So, there is

Legal JOKE GUESS WHO A guy walked into a post office one day to see a middle-aged, balding man standing at the counter methodically placing “Love” stamps on bright pink envelopes with hearts all over them. He then took out a perfume bottle and started spraying scent all over them.

His curiosity getting the better of him, he went up to the balding man and asked him what he was doing. The man said “I’m sending out 1,000 Valentine cards signed, ‘Guess who?’”

“But why?” asked the man.

“I’m a divorce lawyer,” the man replied.

no difference between stealing and corruption now. And there is no immunity for a governor that has left office. Also, there is no time limit against criminal prosecution. So, cases that were sleeping before Buhari came have been revived and are pending in different courts. Prosecution has more energy now than ever before in the history of this country.

Some have argued that the approach of this administration in fighting corruption is draconian and a reminder of 1984 military era. Do you agree We cannot all sleep and keep our heads in the same direction. This country is made up of millions of people, and our sympathies are diverse and most of our sympathies are coloured with political leanings, tribal leanings, religious leanings and economic interests. So, we don’t always speak honestly about issues.

But, some of your colleagues have argued that only NJC has disciplinary powers over judges. Do you agree with this?

You see one curious thing about the NJC that you have just mentioned. Honourable Justice Sylvester Ngwuta was my classmate at the University of Ife between 1974 and 1977 and we were called to the Bar in July 1978. There is also a high court judge in Niger state that committed the same offence, which is forgery of age declaration. NJC recommended that he should be retired by the governor but did not recommend the police to arrest and charge him to court. Meanwhile, oath taking is the bedrock of administration of justice. When a high court judge falsifies an oath and you don’t punish him, it brings the whole edifice of the judiciary crumbling down.

So, when I saw the charge against Ngwuta that he falsified his age declaration, I laughed at NJC and I am still laughing at them, because NJC should have called the police against the Niger state judge.

I am using the opportunity of this interview to call on the Attorney General of the Federation Malami SAN to either prosecute Justice Idris Evuti (rtd) Judge of High Court of Niger State for swearing to false Declaration of Age as found

by National Judicial Council or drop the charge for similar offence against Hon Justice Sylvester Ngwuta JSC otherwise it will amount to double standard. Both of them are my classmates at the University of Ife and Nigerian Law School Lagos.

The reason being that we cannot do anything in court without swearing on oath, so if the court does not believe or have confidence in the oath that we take, where is the business of administration of justice? Why is one being prosecuted CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Couples marriage hits the rock over infidelity, threat to life An Agege Customary court in Lagos, has granted the prayers of a 50-year-old businessman, Kingsley Onyenobi for the dissolution of his marriage, due to infidelity, threat to life amongst other things.

The President of the court, Mr Phillip Williams dissolved the marriage, saying that he was convinced that the couple could no longer live together. He also ruled that both parties go their separate ways.

The petitioner had filed a petition against his wife Chioma, on Feb. 11, citing lack of care, no more love and her troublesome ways as parts of reasons for the dissolution.

However, the mother of two who is also into business had lived with her husband for 18 years before she was dragged to court on account of all the irreconcilable differences they have been having.

She denied allegations layed against her and pleaded with the court not to dissolve the marriage, claiming that she was still in love with her husband.

“Please help me to beg him, I am not ready to divorce my husband because I still love him,” she pleaded.

The President of the court however dissolved the union; saying that he was convinced that the couple could no longer live together.

According to him, the husband insisted on divorce after several interventions.

“The court has no choice than to dissolve the union in spite of the fact that the wife still claims she loves her husband.

“The court pronounced the marriage between Kingsley and Chioma dissolved, both parties henceforth ceased to be husband and wife.

“They are free to go their separate ways without any harassment or molestation,” Williams ruled.

Kingsley, had sought dissolution of his 18-year marriage, alleging threat to his life.

The petitioner told the court that the respondent gave him no rest and when the wife’s father was contacted, he threatened to deal with him instead.

He also alleged that the respondent was careless which led to the death of their set of twins.

He further alleged that he bought a brand new car for the respondent which he later realised she gave out to her church pastor on the pretext of seed sowing.

“I injected millions of naira into her business which she couldn’t give proper account of. ‘My wife is wasteful’,” he said Kingsley told the court that his wife regularly abandoned him and the children at home without knowledge of her where about.

27 Law

How Swiss drug almost killed my daughter at NYSC camp -Victim’s mother Titilope Joseph

A pharmaceutical company known as Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited, the manufacturers and distributors of the anti-malaria drug known as Swidar has been accused of distributing an a dangerous drug that caused serious illness known as Stevens Johnson, (SJS) to a member of National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Miss Morenike Olorunda when she used the drug for malaria prevention while in orientation camp in 2014 during her call for national service.

The victim’s mother Mrs. Olamide Olorunda, disclosed this, while giving her evidence in respect of the case before a Lagos State High court in Ikeja.

Giving evidence before Justice OkeLawal, the victim’s mother told the judge that the drug given to her daughter during her youth service year was dangerous for human health and that is the reason she is calling for a stop on further manufacturing, selling and distribution of the anti-malaria drug.

According to the claimant, she said a few days after her daughter took one doze of anti-malaria drug manufactured by Swidar with No. L 213 074 in

Young Lawyers’ Forum,YLF of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA Ikeja Branch has decried the incessant assaults on young lawyers in recent times.

The lawyers frowned at the trend of assaults from their senior colleagues, citing as an example the assault on the incumbent Assistant Secretary of the NBA Ikeja and immediate past chairman of YLF, Mr. Issa Adedokun by a senior colleague, Mr. Bartholomew Aguegbodo, who was a former chairmanship candidate NBA, Ikeja branch following a minor argument.

October 2013 and supposed to expire in October 2018, blisters and rashes began appearing on her lips and on her body respectively.

She also said her 26-year-old daughter on 25th of March, 2014 was exempted from the NYSC Clinic as a result of her illness, so that she could get

specialist treatment for what was later discovered to be a reaction from taking Swidar.

The disgruntled mother further warned that the public must be careful of such drug because of her personal experience with the effect of SJS on her daughter.

left: Secretary to Plateau Government, Mr Rufus Bature; representative of the State Governor, Prof. Soni Tyoden; and Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Sen. Aisha Alhassan, during the Minister’s advocacy and sensitization visit to Jos... recently.

The claimant, further described how her daughter’s condition got worsened, as blisters, mucus membranes from her mouth, nose, eyes, genitals, hyper-salivating and many other discomforts caused her sleepless night and loss of appetite that she and her medical-doctor husband and a doctor, Dr. Awosika knew that it was not chicken pox that had infected her.

Olorunda said that it was out of concern for the lives of many Nigerians and the negligence posture of the drug manufacturer as well as the damages the drug caused her daughter that made her to approach the law court.

In a statement of claim made by the claimants through one Adebayo Akinlade, Esq of the Law firm of Bayo Akinlade and Company revealed that all efforts to meet with the defendant, Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited to avoid litigation when letters were written on 21st July, 2015 proved fruitless.

Under cross -examination, counsel to Swiss Pharma Nigeria Limited, Mr. Charles opined that the evidence Olorunda gave in court could only be regarded as what Olamide told her mother she experienced and she was not to be taken as a reliable witness.

Young Lawyers Forum decries assault on members

Baring their minds in a communique, the legal practitioners through Charles Ajiboye,t Esq. YLF-NBA Ikeja, demanded that Mr. Aguegbodo tender an unresolved apology to Mr. Adedokun within 30 days or face a complete black listing from the forum.

YLF also stated that it will no longer tolerate the assault of its members, hence the association urged senior lawyers in some law

firms treating their lawyers as slaves to desist from constantly abusing them verbally and physically , male and female lawyers inclusive saying that ‘injury to one is injury to all’.

The forum used the opportunity to call on the President of the NBA, Mr. Abubakar Mahmoud, SAN to urgently wade into the leadership crisis of the NBA , Ikeja.

The forum also said that the cri-

sis should be given the needed attention as Ikeja branch is not only one of the largest branches of the NBA, adding that it will not be a good experience that the strength of the branch is used by it against itself because if the silence or delay continues, the President will have by omission, heaped up a coal of complicated fire that it may be unable to resolve easily thereafter.

‘Oath taking bedrock to administration of justice’ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 26

and the other left to go scot-free?

Are you saying NJC has failed in its responsibility NJC is not a judicial organ, it an executive organ. They are not established as a court and we don’t file papers in their court. It is part of the inadequacies of the 1999 constitution. We have seen now that we have to go back to the drawing board and butcher the constitution. There are so many false in it that should not have been there in the first place. But because it was a military government that put it on our necks by decree, do we have any choice? It was not everything that was discussed at the constituent assembly or whatever assembly that came out, the military through the back door smuggled their own into it.

Are you saying the defect in the constitution is responsible for some of the problem we are facing as a country

Yes, the invisible hands of the military are the dominant influence in our affairs in this country. And the civilians who put themselves forward are only there for the money.

What is your assessment of our criminal justice system It is a function of the administration of justice, and government is divided into three arms. The legislative arm, the executive arm and the judiciary arm. When you focus your mind on the criminal justice system, all the three arms are involved. It is the legislature that will make the Criminal Law, it is the court that will interpret and it is the executive that will enforce. But, what does that Constitution say about what is involved, I want to invite your attention to Section 17 (2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution that we practice. It says ‘the sanctity of the human person shall be recognised, human dignity shall be maintained and enhanced’. If you

translate that into our police cells and the prisons around the country you will find a situation where a police cell with in an average police station in Lagos that is to take about five has a crowd of over twenty people. There is no ventilation, there is no toilet, and it is bare floor. In fact most Nigerians that have found themselves in police cell come out with dematriological problems- skin problems. They are psychologically disorientated, it is another school on its own, where an innocent first offender graduates and comes out as a criminal than when he went in.

Where is the executive power in charge of these things? It is really criminal when you look at the other side of the coin that we have so much money and do not have any investment in this area and yet we have a Constitution that says you must recognise my humanity and accord dignity to it. That is at the police station level, go to the prisons. I

went to see a client that was detained in prison custody and I was horrified to see that even the walls of that prison were built before I was born and I am over 60 now. So, you can imagine how many governments have come and gone and there are no new investments in those areas. Go to the prosecuting agency you will see that the whole thing is muddled up.

I have been in court where prosecuting officers came to court to make excuses and the judge was alarmed and said ‘are you a human being, you don’t have a complainant in this case and yet you thought there is a case to prosecute’.

People go to complain against their enemies and because of the culture of bribery and corruption the man takes bribe detain the suspect and charge him to court. Nobody knew where he is gone, they cannot take him on bail, and he is there in prison custody awaiting trial.

28

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Tech Times

Nigeria can meet 30% broadband target by 2018 -NCC

NOTAP saves Nigeria N192 billion -DG

s

Stories by Tony Nwakaegho Nigeria ranked 137th out of 175 members in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Development Index 2016, with Korea Republic leading.

This is coming as Nigeria’s economic value within the ICT for Development Index was 2.72, whereas it was 2.48 in 2015. The ranking remains the same from 2015 when Nigeria was also 137th in the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)-organized indexing.

The ICT Development Index (IDI) is the official instrument by measuring globally the level of development of the ICT sector. This index uses 11 indicators, including the number of mobile phone subscriptions, the number of households with a computer, the number of Internet users, the number of subscriptions to fixed broadband internet and mobile broadband, and the literacy rate.

The index was unveiled at 14th Global Symposium on ICT indicators held in Gaborone, Botswana, between November 21 and 23, 2016.

ITU Secretary-General, Houlin Zhao, said that the Measuring the Information Society Report is widely recognized as the repository of the world’s most reliable and impartial global data and analysis on the state of global ICT development and is extensively relied upon by governments, international organizations, development banks, and private sector analysts and investors worldwide.

“To bring more people online, it is important to focus on reducing overall socio-economic inequalities. Education and income levels are strong determinants of whether or not people use the Internet.

ICT will be essential in meeting each and every one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and this report plays an important role in the SDG process.

Without measurement and reporting, we cannot track the progress being made and

Data centre rack server market to reach $90.56bn by 2021 The data centre rack server market is expected to grow from $36.47 billion in 2016 to $90.56 billion by 2021, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.95 percent.

The major forces driving the data center rack server market are increasing need for higher density servers, reduced capital and operational expenditure, growing need for scalable data centers, and easy migration from traditional technologies.

The data center rack server market is growing rapidly owing to the increasing number of users opting for low cost and scalable data center solutions.

Some of the prominent key players in the Data Prep Market are: HPE, Oracle Corporation, Lenovo Group, Dell, Cisco Systems, Fujitsu, Huawei Technologies, NEC Corporation, Quanta Computer, and Iron Systems.

The report also encompasses different strategies, such as mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and collaborations, and product developments, adopted by major players to increase their share in the market.

data rack center

ICT 2016 development index ranks Nigeria 137th

identify areas that require action, and this is why ITU gathers data and publishes this important report every year,” Zhao said.

The Republic of Korea, he said, topped the IDI rankings in 2016 for the second consecutive year. The top 10 countries of the IDI 2016 also include two other economies in the Asia-Pacific region, and seven European countries. Three island countries in the Caribbean – St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, and Grenada – featured among the most dynamic countries with strong improvements in their IDI value and rank.

According to Brahima Sanou, Director of ITU’s Telecommunication Development

Bureau, this year’s results showed that nearly all of the 175 countries covered by the index improved their IDI values between 2015 and 2016, which produces the report each year.

“During the same period, stronger improvements have been made on ICT use than access, mainly as a result of strong growth in mobile-broadband uptake globally. This has allowed an increasing number of people, in particular from the developing world, to join the information society and benefit from the many services and applications provided through the Internet,” he added.

NEC to replace cards with facial technology Despite the processes put in place through swipe-to-pay debit cards and digital wallets like Apple Pay, Japanese IT giant NEC has revealed that the future of cashless pay may not be in your phone, but in your face.

NEC is therefore testing a biometric system that uses facial recognition technology, rather than a PIN, as payment verification.

The company also disclosed that you could soon be buying groceries with your face.

Around 1,400 employees from two different Japanese finance companies are taking part in the trial, which began earlier this month and lasts until January 30.

It may sound futuristic, but you’ve

probably encountered biometric verification already.

Apple p o p u l a r i z e d fingerprint scanners in phones with the iPhone 5S in 2013. This year, the ill-fated Samsung Galaxy Note 7 came with retina scanning.

NEC isn’t the only one looking to change the way we pay for things though. Earlier this year, Visa showed off a connected car that pays for you by communicating with chips in parking meters and gas pumps.

The company claims its NeoFace identification system is “the world’s fastest and most accurate facial matching product.”

And since all of the facial data is stored as numerical information only, it added that there’ll be no way for a third party to identify a user’s face.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

29

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

30 Tech Times

Nigeria can meet 30% broadband target by 2018 -NCC The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) has assured that with the actions it has been taken and available evidence of activities in the industry, it is safe to say that Nigeria can meet the 30 percent Broadband penetration target by 2018.

NCC Executive Vice Chairman, Prof.

Umar Garba Danbatta, dropped the hint recently in Lagos.

Danbatta said his assurance is corroborated by the latest report of the ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, which credits Nigeria with 20.95 percent broadband penetration in August, 2016.

“We are almost at the 30 percent broadband target set by the Nigerian National Broadband Plan 2013-2018, but we will strive to do more and surpass the target,” he declared.

He explained that the commission is being propelled by the fact that the world is in the next phase of the telecommunications revolution driven by Broadband access provisioning.

He reiterated that NCC will continue to embark on a focused drive towards achieving broadband penetration in line with the National Broadband Policy of

the Federal Government, through an accelerated broadband infrastructure programme that will culminate in the adoption of the Open Access Model.

The adoption of the Open Access Model, he affirmed, will lead to the actualization of rapid broadband deployment that will facilitate the attainment of that pervasive access to ultimately drive the knowledge economy.

Danbatta stated further that Nigeria currently has 153 million lines with a tele-density of over 109 percent, adding that connected data service subscribers, including mobile internet, stand at 93,591,174 as at August this year.

“We have a mandate to facilitate ubiquitous and pervasive telecommunications services access to Nigerians and to ensure that access is consciously availed to un-served and undeserved areas of our Country. That mandate, we have kept faith with and has by so doing retained our rating as the fastest growing telecommunication market in Africa and amongst the fastest growing in the World bringing to the economy over $68B investment in local and FDI in the past 15 years,” he pointed out.

Smile lures customers with free 200 minutes

Efeurhobo

By Tony Nwakaegho Smile Communications has declared the commencement of ‘SuperTalk’ promo, which offers customers on its network up to 200 minutes

free calls to all networks in Nigeria.

The pioneer 4G LTE telecommunications service provider in West Africa said it is providing the service as part of its year-end bonanza, stressing that customer on the network will recharge and enjoy incremental voice minutes based on their preferred data plan.

With the ‘SuperTalk’ promo, a customer who purchases a 1GB data plan will get 10 minutes free calls with a validity period of 15 days. The purchase of 2GB data plan offers 20 minutes free calls also with 15 days validity period.

Purchase of 3GB data plan offers 30 minutes free calls with 30days validity period.

The 5GB and 7GB data plans offers 60 minutes free calls with 30 days validity period, while the UnlimitedLite, 10GB, 15GB and 20GB offers the customer 120 minutes free calls and 30 days validity period.

The UnlimitedPremium, 50GB, 100GB and 200GB offers an unprecedented 200 minutes free calls time with 30 days validity period.

DANBATTA

Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC)

Content delivery network nears $23.22Bn

By Tony Nwakaegho Latest report published by MarketsandMarkets shows the global Content Delivery Network (CDN) market will grow from $6.05 Billion in 2016 to $23.22 Billion by 2021, at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 30.9 percent.

The CDN market is growing rapidly owing to the increasing volume of data consumption over the internet and the proliferation of video and rich media content over social sites.

Major vendors that offer CDN solutions are: Akamai Technologies, Inc. (Cambridge, U.S.), Google, Inc. (California, U.S.), Level 3 Communications (Colorado, U.S.), Limelight Networks, Inc. (Arizona, U.S.), Amazon Web Services, Inc. (Washington, U.S.), Internap Corporation (Georgia, U.S.), Verizon Communications, Inc. (New York, U.S.), CDNetworks (Seoul, Korea), Tata Communications (Mumbai and Singapore), and Highwinds (Florida, U.S.).

The key innovators identified are Cedexis (U.S.), Incapsula, Inc. (California, U.S.), Fastly, Inc. (U.S.),

CacheFly (Chicago, U.S.), MaxCDN (U.S.), and CloudFlare, Inc. (U.S.).

These vendors have adopted different types of organic and inorganic growth strategies such as new product launches, partnerships & collaborations, and mergers & acquisitions to expand their offerings in the CDN market.

“Media delivery core solution is expected have the highest market share,” the report said.

The report segments the global CDN market into web performance optimization, media delivery, and cloud security core solutions. The media delivery solution is growing majorly due to the need for managed and unmanaged content delivery in a reliable way.

“Video CDN is expected to hold the largest market share in 2016,”it added.

The report segments the global market by type into standard/non-video and video CDN. Among these, the video CDN segment is expected to dominate the market in terms of market share and is estimated to grow considerably during the forecast period due to the high demand for effective video content delivery.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

31 Tech Times

NOTAP saves Nigeria N192 billion -DG Stories by Tony Nwakaegho The National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) saved the country N192 billion through technology transfer agreements between 2010 and 2016.

The Director General of the agency, Dr. Danazumi Ibrahim, who disclosed this while speaking on NOTAP’s scorecard in Abuja added that the money would have gone out of Nigeria in capital flight but for the agency’s efforts.

He said N188.2 billion was saved between 2010 and 2014, while about N4 billion was saved between 2015 and this year. “Between 2010 and 2014, we have saved this nation N188.2 billion that would have gone out of this country as capital flight. “How do we save this money? When an agreement comes to us, we look at the content and if we see anywhere we think Nigerians can handle we insist Nigerians should handle that.

“Sometimes we take preregistration visit to the companies and we tell you most times these companies don’t exist. That could be a source of capital flight,” he stressed.

The NOTAP DG decried the situation whereby more than 90 percent of Nigerian economy is run by foreign technologies, with Nigeria losing much money annually through this.

IBRAHIM

ISPs reduce data tariff as telcos clamour for hike Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have started reducing tariff for their offerings while telcos are still clamouring for hikes.

Typical data plan for small businesses which was formerly offered at N35,000 by traditional ISPs, findings show, has now been reduced to N20,000, in spite of growing challenges of business environment in the country. However, the price reduction is not applicable to 4G LTE service providers.

But telecommunications operators at the public hearing by Senate Committee on Communications supported a hike in data service as earlier proposed by the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

Satis Kumar, chief operating officer, Direct On Data, while commenting on the reduction by ISPs, said that the reduction in internet cost by traditional ISPs is due to competition in the industry as well as reduction in the cost of bandwidth which has dropped to as low as N10,000 per Megabits Per Second (Mbps).

“There are a lot of small ISPs in the country looking for customers and they think the best way to get customers is by offering cheaper price, this has force us to

reduce instead of losing such customers.

This is not good for the industry as ISPs are saddled with harsh business condition, which include high base station rental and inefficiency of tower management that have forced us into deploying batteries at our base stations to ensure improved service quality, among others challenges,” he explained.

On his part, Engr. Sunday Folayan, president, Internet Service Providers of Nigeria (ISPAN), stated that even though there is reduction in the price charged

by ISPs, the telcos data price is cheaper because they offer a combination of services, which include, internet, SMS and voice from one platform while ISPs offer only internet.

“I don’t believe in fixing data price.

What I believe in is ensuring that service quality is improved. If quality of service is improved, prices will be taken care of,” Folayan added.

He explained that the situation could be compared with transportation system where some companies offer passengers cheap fare without comfort in the bus and another offers higher fare with comfort in

the bus.

“It is left for the passenger to make his choice. Offering good quality service with better price is better than offering ridiculous service with ridiculous price,” he stressed.

He therefore urged NCC not to fix prices for data but to ensure that quality of service is improved.

Folayan

ICT wearables record steady growth in Q3 2016 – IDC Wearables devices market continued to see steady growth in Q3 2016, as the Middle East and Africa (MEA) wearables market grew 38.3 percent year on year in Q3 2016 to approximately 487,000 units, according to the latest insights from International Data Corporation (IDC).

The global ICT research and consulting services firm said that the growth is being driven by low-cost basic wearables (devices that do not support third-party applications), which grew 55.9 percent year on year, while shipments of smart wearables (devices that do support thirdparty applications) increased 4.1 percent over the same period.

“Buyers for smart wearables are limited as the main application for these devices is fitness, which is an area that basic wearables also cater for at a much lower cost.

“Basic wearables continue to experience higher uptake as their already-low prices are declining further still in a bid to drive differentiation, since there is little to separate the offerings in terms of functionality,” said Nakul Dogra, a senior research analyst for personal computing, systems, and infrastructure solutions at IDC MEA. IDC expects the MEA wearables market to total 1.96 million units for 2016 as a whole, which represents an increase of 38.4 percent on 2015. Looking ahead, the market is tipped to grow a further 22.6 percent in 2017 to reach 2.4 million units for the year.

The uptake of wearables has been relatively slow in MEA when compared to other regions, so there is still plenty of room for adoption and continued steady growth over the coming years. New product launches in the earwear and clothing categories will also fuel further growth.

“Value-seeking buyers need to trigger the next wave of growth for wearables, and vendors need to come up with innovative products and applications in order to spur purchases of these gadgets.

“The focus of vendors should be on developing new applications and finding new ways to make use of the existing data captured by wearables so as to enable dayto-day tasks to be performed much easier.

There should also be efforts to create an ecosystem of gadgets so that these devices can interact with each other and freely exchange information,” Dogra added.

There are already signs of some consolidation taking place in the industry, both in terms of vendors and operating systems. With Fitbit’s buyout of Pebble representing a clear step in this direction.

Indeed, these are exciting times for the wearables market, with niche and massmarket introductions set to change the way we interact with technology in our day-to-day lives. To keep pace with the changes taking place in this fast-moving market, IDC has launched its Worldwide Quarterly Wearable Device Tracker, which assists vendors that are looking to enter this market, promote new product developments, or accelerate the growth of their wearables divisions.

Published by FOLIO COMMUNICATIONS LTD,

email: info@dailytimes.ng Tel: 08051000448.

Editor Daily: ROSE MOSES

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2016

VOL. 2. NO.263

Ighalo vows to end goals drought P 17

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Price: N150

Agent

threatens to drag Ifeanyi

Uba coach to FIFA T

Dobrev

James Audu

targets goals for Latvian club F ormer Akwa United striker James Audu has said he hopes to paint Latvia with goals after he was granted a residence permit.

James Audu, who the 2015 NPFL Super 4 with Akwa United, has signed for Latvian club Riga FC. “I thank God that I can now play for Riga FC when the season commences in March.

“They are a decent team who narrowly lost out on a chance to play the Europa League after they finished fifth on the table.

“The weather is too cold in Latvia, but I am coping as a professional footballer.

“I played in the Israeli league with Hapoel Afula before I returned to Nigeria after my contract elapsed and I was about starting the new

season With Akwa United before Riga FC came calling.

“I have a target to score many goals because I like scoring goals.

My records with my previous clubs have proved that and I also hope to announce myself in the league in Latvia come next year.”

Audu

he agent of FC Ifeanyi Ubah coach Mitko Dobrev has threatened to drag the Bulgarian coach to FIFA for sidelining him on his return to Nigeria even though he still has a contract with him till 2019.

Geoffrey Aghogi said Dobrev, who he first brought to Nigeria in 2007 and then to Ifeanyi Ubah in 2015, has so far refused to pay him agreed commissions after he returned to work with Ifeanyi Ubah this year.

The agent alleged that Dobrev has now hired his personal driver as his agent even though he has a contract with him.

“I have a contract with coach Mitko Dobrev, which was signed by both parties, and runs till 2019.

“If he fails to honour this contract I will take the matter to FIFA.” “Dobrev has now engaged the

services of his driver as his agent, secretary and adviser,” he further claimed.

“When I called him recently, he told me he will discuss our issue with his secretary, before he will pay me.

When he called me, he gave his driver the phone to talk to me.

“The driver introduced himself as Victor, secretary to coach Dobrev, but during our conversation I noticed from his voice that it is Papa, his driver, who was talking with me.

He later affirmed that he was the one talking, that he’s in charge of anything concerning Dobrev now.”

Aghogi further alleged that Ifeanyi Ubah set him up against his client after he lodged a petition to the League Management Company (LMC) over the severance package for Dobrev after his first spell at the Nnewi club.

“In October last year, my client called me from Bulgaria to inform me that the chairman of FC Ifeanyi Ubah Chukwuma Ubah called him and appealed to him to come back to the team by the next season,” he recalled.

“Dobrev told the chairman to get in touch with his Nigerian agent (Geoffrey Aghogi), but the chairman told him he doesn’t want to deal with his agent, that the Bulgarian should get someone else to represent him, instead of his agent.

“The management of this club has been angry with me because, I wrote a petition to the L.MC asking for the full entitlements of my client who was sacked last year.

“The coach later told me that it was the owner/president of the FC Ifeanyi Ubah who called him and pleaded with him to come back to the team.

The Abia Times

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Don’t forget Jesus’ teaching of love, prayer, Ikpeazu tells Christians AT 3

We should find a way to check corruption without suffocating AT 4 ourselves -Eze Ekueku

Gov. Ikpeazu confirms receipt of N10.6b Paris Club refund

..Assures usage of 50% for salaries, pensions

ÏÏÏ Abia State Governor, Dr.

L-R: Chairman, Nigerian Legion Abia State chapter, Col. Sam Aboaja (rtd); Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu; his deputy, Sir Udeh OkoChukwu and Speaker, Abia State House of Assembly, Hon. Martins Azubuike, during the 2016 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Emblem Appeal Launch in Umuahia... recently

ABSG inaugurates PPP, Investment Promotion council

Stories by Sunday Nwakanma Umuahia

ÏÏÏ

The Abia

T E A M

Abia State Government has inaugurated its Public Private Partnership and Investment Promotion Governing Council to drive home the five pillars of development of the present administration.

Inaugurating the council, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu named an Abia economic expert, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, as its chairman, highlighting the prominent agenda of the council to include promotion of trade and commerce, small and medium scale enterprises, agriculture as well as creating other investment ways of modernizing agricultural production.

Ikpeazu explained that his administration has set up infrastructure in Abia State and

emphasised the need for Abians in Diaspora to think home, noting that the 70 percent of people from Anambra State contribute to the economic growth of Anambra State.

Ikpeazu noted that the aim of inaugurating the council is to draw the attention of Abians on made-in-Abia products, adding that he wants to leverage on the PPP and Investment promotion Governing Council to promote investment in the state.

He re-affirmed the confidence of his administration on the council in making the state the investment destination of Nigeria, describing the Governing Council as men of proven integrity.

Responding, chairman of the PPP and IPGC, Mazi Sam Ohuabunwa, said they are proud that the State Govern-

Special Project Editor Sam Nzeh

Correspondent Sunday Nwakanma

ment found them worthy of the responsibility of creating an enabling environment for

business to thrive in the state, assuring that they will deliver on the target.

Sustain pace of devt, South Africa-based group urges Ikpeazu

ÏÏÏ

Indigenes of Abia in South Africa on Friday urged Governor Okezie Ikpeazu to sustain the ongoing pace of infrastructural development in the state in 2017.

National Secretary-General of Abia State Union in South Africa, Mr. Emmanuel Onwuemenyi, the made the call in a Christmas message to the government and people of the state.

The message was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State capital.

He said the National Executive Committee of the union was felicitating with Ikpeazu against background of the festive season and the 25th anniversary of the state.

“We are happy and grateful to God Almighty for blessing us with the gift of life which gave us the enablement to weather all socio-economic and political storms that have threatened the existence of Abia State,” he said.

Onwuemenyi commended Ikpeazu for his administration’s efforts to build roads, generate power and boost the education sector.

“The National Executive Committee and all the union members are proud to be associated with your dreams and aspiration for the people of Abia State in the areas of youth empowerment, education at all levels as well as infrastructural development.

“We believe your mission is to ensure meaningful impact on the down trodden in the society, give hope to the hopeless and vision for the visionless in order to realise Abia State’s dreams and aspirations ,” he said.

The Secretary said the group`s President, Chima Umealo, had worked hard to host the inaugural edition of Abia Food Festival in South Africa.

He stated that the event created awareness about different Nigerian food among South Africans.

Okezie Ikpeazu, has assured people of the state that the N10.6 billion Paris Clubs’ inflow funds given to the state will be judiciously utilised for the payment of arrears of salaries and the development of the state just like the last Federal Government bailout fund.

The Governor, who made the promise during a meeting he held with the organised labour in the state at Government House, Umuahia, called on them to help him fish out ghost workers in the state.

He urged the organised labour to ensure the service is returned to its former glorious status, while commending the leadership of the labour for their continuous support and co-operation which made the state to be singled out and commended by the ICPC over the disbursement of the last bailout funds.

He also commended the leadership of labour for their keen interest in what is happening in Abia State, assuring that under his watch, the welfare of Abia State civil servants will be well-taken care of and vowed to run an open government and emphasised the need for discipline among the Abia workforce.

Briefing the press after the meeting, the State Commissioner for Finance, Mr. Obinna Oriaku, said a lean committee will be set up and within three days, it will come up with the rationale of the payment of salary arrears as well as get the fund appropriated by the State House of Assembly.

He disclosed that in line with the Federal Government’s directives, 50 percent of the money will be used to pay salary arrears and the other 50 percent for projects.

The Commissioner maintained that the payment will focus on the pensioners, who he described as most vulneraCONTINUED ON PAGE AT 2

The Abia Times 2

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Stakeholders hail council elections, hope for better development

Umuahia/Ikot Ekpene road: Orji expresses happiness over FG’s directive to FERMA

ÏÏÏ Political stakeholders in

Stories by Sunday Nwakanma

Abia State on Friday said the council polls that produced elected local government leaders would provide a platform for even development.

A former Deputy Governor of the state, Chief Acho Nwakanma, said that he was impressed that “the people of Abia have seen the need for democratically-elected council chairmen”.

Nwakanma said that the election would make the local governments to owe allegiance to the electorate as well as fulfill their expectations.

He said that the people ought to be given the opportunity to select those who would represent them because the autonomy of the local government was necessary for a strong

democracy.

A PDP stalwart, Chief Godwin Nnah, said that the elections were violence-free, saying that he was also with the process.

Nnah said that the role of the local government in the state government’s decision making process had become strengthened.

A member of the state assembly, Mrs. Blessing Nwagba (PDP-Aba North), said that she was in support of local government autonomy because it would encourage socio-economic growth at the grassroots level.

Nwagba urged all the successful candidates and those that lost to work together to advance the cause of the present administration in Abia.

Youths urged to embrace hard work as means of achieving success

Sunday Nwakanma Umuahia

ÏÏÏ The

wife of the Provost of Abia State College of Education (ASCETA) Arochukwu, Mrs. Chioma Nto, has urged Nigerian youths to embrace hard work as a means of achieving success and greatness in life.

Mrs. Nto, who gave the advice during a Christmas party she organised for the pupils and students of ASCETA Demonstration primary and Secondary schools, explained that she organised the party to put smiles on the faces of the students to support what the wife of the state Governor, Mrs. Nkechi Ikpeazu, is doing across the state.

She urged the youths to dream big and work hard to attain their goals as there was no short cut to success.

She disclosed that she was determined to assist her husband, Dr. Philip Nto, to ensure that ASCETA produces worthy graduates who will fly the banner of the state across the globe.

She maintained that with the rebranding of ASCETA and the liberalisation of its admission policies, the school was set to be the best institution in the South East zone.

She encouraged the students to be obedient to their parents and teachers so as to attract the blessings of God.

Ikpeazu confirms receipt of N10.6b Paris Club refund

CONTINUED FROM AT 1

ble set, as they have the list of monthly take home pension.

Also speaking, the State Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Uchenna Obigwe, expressed joy at the outcome of the meeting, saying the organised labour was comfortable with the outcome of the meeting and thanked the Governor for carrying the Labour along.

He assured that NLC in the

state will continue to support him, even in fishing out ghostworkers.

Comrade Obigwe called on the state government to look inward in making Abia workers comfortable as labour stands for the welfare of the workers, urging the state government to consider the most vulnerable pensioners in the payment of arrears of pensions.

Umuahia

ÏÏÏ The Senator representing Abia

Central in the Senate, Chief Theodore Orji, has expressed happiness that the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has given the nod for immediate commencement of palliative work on the Umuahia - Ikot Ekpene road while total reconstruction would start early next year.

The palliative work on the road was flagged off at the weekend by the senator representing Abia Central Senator, Chief Theodore Orji, and the representative of Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives, Hon Sam Onuigbo.

Speaking at the flagging off ceremony held at Okwe Ukwu community in Ikwuano Local Government Area, Senator Orji commended the Federal Government for realising the importance of this particular road to the economy of not only the states it serves but also the national economy.

Sen. Orji, who said that the road has always been in very bad shape due to the heavy vehicles that ply on it on daily basis, urged the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and the contractor it engaged for the palliative work “to do a very good job” as any shoddy job on the road would not

go down well with the people who have been enduring so much pains and loss of man hours just to travel from Abia State to Akwa Ibom State through this route.

The Abia Central senator added that he joined forces with the representative of Ikwuano/Umuahia Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives, Hon. Sam Onuigbo, to draw the attention of the Federal Government to the sufferings of road users that travel on the road.

Speaking on the occasion, Hon. Onuigbo assured that the palliative work was just the beginning of the journey to fixing the road permanently, adding “despite the dire economic situation in the country, which has stalled the execution of capital projects, “we have been determined that our people deserve some respite.

“We are not done yet. The road serves as an important channel through which petroleum products, cement and other key economic materials are moved from Akwa Ibom, Cross River through Umuahia to Aba, Port Harcourt and other parts of the country,” he added.

He called on the Minister of Works to keep his promise of reconstruction of the road in 2017 so that “our pains, our sufferings, and our anguish on this road will be a thing of the past”.

Earlier in his remarks, the state director of FRMA, Engineer Abraham Akange, disclosed that the problem of Umuahia – Ikot Ekpene federal road

was that it was not built to carry heavy traffic hence the road could no longer cope with the weight of heavy duty vehicles plying on it.

He lamented that haulage transportation has put much stress on the country’s road network and urged the Federal Government to lay more emphasis on rail transport in order to ease the stress on the roads and make them last longer.

Akange assured that FERMA would not allow shoddy job to be done by the contractor as the agency would ensure that quality materials were used, adding that all the materials meant for the road would be subjected to analysis to checkmate constant failure of roads.

The traditional ruler of Ajatanigu, who spoke on behalf of other royal fathers at the ceremony, bluntly told FERMA that the people would no longer tolerate shoddy job by the agency was the case in the several occasions FERMA did palliative works on the road.

He said that all the needed assistance and cooperation would be given to FERMA and the contractor handling the job provided they were prepared “to give us quality job”.

It would be recalled that in his directive to the Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA), Fashola stated that the agency “should commence repair of the road within the available budgetary provision in the agency’s 2016 budget while preparation would be towards total reconstruction in 2017”.

Abia State Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu (left) congratulating his deputy, Sir Ude Okochukwu, after his chieftaincy installation as ‘‘Ikeoha Ohafia’’ by the Ohafia Local Government council of traditional rulers at the council headquarters...recently

ABHA passes N16.482 Supplementary Bill, Joint Salary Fund bill, LG law amendment ÏÏÏ

The Abia State House of Assembly has passed into law the 2016 Supplementary Appropriation Bill of N16, 482, 299, 100 for the services of the government of the state, ending 31st December, 2016.

Proclaiming the passage during the House plenary, the Speaker, Rt. Hon. Martins Azubuike, said the law may be cited as the Abia State of Nigeria Supplementary Appropriation Law of 2016, stating that it

comes into effect on 1st September, 2016.

The Assembly also passed into law a bill to establish a joint salary fund for the payment of salaries of local government employees, primary school teachers and pensioners.

Hon. Azubuike, who announced this at the floor of the House after the 3rd reading of the bill, said it may be cited as the Abia State Local Government Employees and Pri-

mary School Teachers Joint Salary Fund Law, 2016 and that it comes into effect on the 19th of December, 2016.

He similarly announced the passage into law a bill that seeks to amend the Abia State Local Government Law No. 2nof 2006, stating that it may be cited as the Abia State Local Government Law Amendment No. 5, Law of 2016, while it also comes into force on 19th December, 2016.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

3 The Abia Times

EU Parliament demands release of Kanu, others ÏÏÏEuropean

Parliamentarians have called for the intervention of the European Union (EU) for the release of the detained leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and his co-detainees, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi.

In its letter dated December 19, 2016 and addressed to the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Ms Federica Mogherini, the parliament described the ordeal of Kanu and others as a gross human rights abuses going on in Nigeria.

Citing the killings of protesting Biafran activists by security agencies, the European lawmakers also complained bitterly about “the continued violence towards IPOB supporters as perpetrated by the Nigerian Government”, noting “since 14th October 2015, Kanu has been illegally imprisoned by the Federal Republic of Nigeria, despite being acquitted of all charges brought against him”, adding that in spite of acquittal by the competent courts of Nigeria, the Federal Government has continued to detain the IPOB leader and his colleagues.

“It is clear that the fundamental human rights of Kanu, Madubugwu and Nwawuisi are being grossly violated.

Human Rights Watch has reported of the violation of the defendants’ rights, including their right to a fair trial,” the MEPs said.

The MEPs who want the HR to act on behalf of the EU and leverage on the relationship between the EU and Nigeria to compel the Nigerian government to release Kanu, Madubugwu and Nwawuisi without further delay, said: “On behalf of the European Union, especially in respect to the EU-Nigeria partnership, the Nigeria EU Joint Way Forward, the developments of the 6th Nigeria-EU ministerial dialogue and the fact that Nigeria is a recipient of EU aid, we call upon you to advocate for the immediate and safe release of Nnamdi Kanu and co-defendants Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi”.

They demanded that the EU should “challenge the actions of the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari, and

the Nigerian Department of State Services in regards to the detention of Kanu, Madubugwu and Nwawuisi”, as well as “Call for an impartial investigation into the arrest, enforced disappearance, torture and killing of supporters and members of various proBiafran groups. Denounce the unacceptable violence against Biafran supporters by Nigerian security forces.

“Do more to push the Nigerian government to safeguard human rights in Nigeria by calling for guarantees on the freedom of expression of all Nigerian citizens, including their right to protest without harm, and the termination of violence towards Biafrans”.

Lamenting that “scores of Biafrans are in detention for attempting to hold or participate in peaceful assemblies”, the parliament urged the EU to take action against Nigerian government, adding “on several occasions, security forces have used excessive force against pro-Biafran activists who have planned or attended peaceful protest marches”.

While lamenting “since August 2015, an estimate of at least 150 Biafrans have been killed by Nigerian security forces”, they said as no official investigations have been carried out, and that this figure is believed to be much higher, citing the recent report of the Amnesty International on the killings of IPOB members.

According to them, the violence against the Biafra restoration groups has been documented, including cases of arrest, enforced disappearance, and torture and often killing of supporters and members of various pro-Biafran groups in the (South East) region”.

“The right to peaceful assembly and association, as well as the right of freedom of expression, is protected by the Nigerian constitution. International human rights standards also require that law enforcement officials must, as far as possible, apply nonviolent means.

“It is clear that the Nigerian authorities are not operating with respect to the Nigerian constitution or the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights,”the EU parliamentarians added.

Barr. Okey Igwe, Executive Chairman elect, Umunneochi LGA of Abia State received a Certificate Of Return from Justice I. A. Akomas Rtd., the Chairman, Abia State Independent Electoral Commission (ABSIEC)

Don’t forget Jesus’ teaching of love, prayer, Ikpeazu tells Christians

Ï#ƄƋê 1 Ɛêè dƋƄ ƈƄƍ ƅƄƉƆƃƆƎ ƎƄ ƑƆƎ ƍƆ ƎƆ Ǝ ƍƆ ƎƊ Stories by Sunday Nwakanma nƊƏ Ɔ

ÏÏÏAbia State Governor, Dr. Okezie

Ikpeazu, has called on Abians and Christians to remember the teachings of Christ which command Christians to love one another.

The state Deputy Governor, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu and the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martins Azubuike also urged Abians to show love this Christmas season.

The Governor in his Christmas message to Abians, called on Chris-

tians to pray for peace in Abia and Nigeria as the world celebrates the birth of Christ, who is the Savior of mankind.

“As Christians, we must remember the teachings of Jesus Christ which calls us to love one another and also to pray for our leaders.

“It is important we see this season as an opportunity to reach out to the less privileged, the needy and also to offer help to the helpless.

“As Abians and Nigerians, we need love to strengthen our relationship with one another. This is the greatest commandment of our Lord Jesus

Christ.”

In his message, the state Deputy Governor, Sir Ude Oko Chukwu, urged the people to extend their celebration to the indigent in and around them so as to curry the favour of God, stating that such acts will attract the blessings of God. Also talking to Abians through his Christmas message, the Speaker of Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martins Azubuike, congratulated Abians on the successful celebration, urging them to do so peacefully with love and affinity.

Ngwa people remain indivisible no matter what circumstances – Onyendilefu ÏÏÏ Ngwa Bu Otu Youth Associa-

tion of Nigeria (NBOYAN) was recently reminded that Ngwa people remain indivisible no matter what circumstances.

The President General of the body and Accountant General of Abia State, Sir Gabriel Chinenye Onyendilefu, stated this while addressing the body during their 2016 national conference/convention, charging members to always have it at the back of their minds that Ngwa people remain indivisible no matter what circumstances and called on members to eschew disintegration and embrace the spirit of oneness and unity of purpose existing amongst them.

His words: “We preach and practice love, peace and tolerance; these are virtues for which the average Ngwa man is known for. The association has within its limited resources helped members and non-members who are in need. It has been our annual rituals to visit less privileged homes.

“We must remind ourselves that Ngwa people are known for their natural hospitality and

good neighbourliness. We must continue to remember that ‘Ndi Ngwa Mbu Otu’, are leaves of same branch. We should strive to see that this oneness will continue to yield fruits in practical terms in the spirit and letters of that philosophy”.

Also speaking at the event, the Chairman, Sub Committee on Publicity/Contact and Mobilisation, Comrade Chinkwe Ikenyi, commended the vision, unity of purpose, courage and sacrifices of the association and its leaders, stating that since the existence of NBOYAN, it has stood the test of time in the annals of Ngwaland.

In his speech earlier, the Speaker, Abia State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Martins Azubuike, described NBOYAN as a family of so many people united by one common purpose, stating, “NBOYA is one of the associations the Ngwas are proud of given to their antecedents. I must commend you for maintaining the aims and objectives of this association and to remind you that if we are united, we will achieve a lot”.

He charged members to contin-

ue to support the government of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu by being good citizens of the state and praying for the success of his administration.

The Abia speaker, who was represented during the annual get-together of Umuahia branch chapter of Ngwa Progressive Association by the former NUJ President zone C, Comrade Ambrose Nwachukwu, commended the association for the positive roles they played during the election which saw the governor emerged as the first governor of Ngwa extraction of the state.

The NBOYA event featured award presentation to Gov. Ikpeazu; visit to charity homes; lectures and thanksgiving service at United Evangelical Church (UEC), Ogbor Hill, Aba. Dignitaries that graced the occasion include the Chairman, Isiala Ngwa South Council of Traditional Rulers, HRM Eze Paul Okpanku; CEO Rowmay Hotels, Chief Obinna Njoku; HRM Eze Prof. Boniface Dike; President NBOYA Imo State chapter, Hon. Emma Nwanganga among others.

The Abia Times 4

Interview

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

We should find a way to check corruption without suffocating ourselves -Eze Ekueku His Royal Highness, Eze Wisdom Ndubueze Ekueku, is the traditional ruler of Dim Na Opara Kingdom in Umuahia South LGA of Abia State.

An engineer by profession and the MD/CEO of a property company, WISS Properties Ltd and WISS Engineering Ltd among others, the royal father in this interview with SUNDAY NWAKANMA spoke on some state and nationals issues, calling upon the Federal Government to encourage those who are found to have embezzled public funds to invest it locally to create jobs for Nigerians among others. Excerpts: How is business like in your companies?

Business is low not only in my companies, but globally.

In your own opinion, why do you think it is so?

Just like life, it goes up and comes down. This is the down period in the economy of our country and a recession period, so all businesses are affected.

Is it true that you built and commissioned an exclusive class hotel in Umuahia?

I built a small hotel for my people and I do not know if it is an exclusive class.

Why build such an exotic hotel in Nigeria, particularly in Umuahia of Abia State?

There is a clarion call by my governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, for all Abia State indigenes to come home and develop their state. I have to answer that clarion call to come and make a little contribution. I am still going to make more.

But you had a choice of build the hotel elsewhere. Why did you choose Umuahia?

I am a traditional ruler from Umuahia and as you know, charity begins at home.

Do you think the present condition of Nigeria’s economy will allow hospitality businesses to go on?

Am new in the business, but so far, it is not really bad. Tourism is still underdeveloped in Abia State.

We still need more hotels and we still need more entertainment centres. So it (tourism) is still a virgin area in the state. So far, the business is not bad.

How can Federal Government come in to assist hospitality business at such a time like this?

One of the important way is by making sure there is regular power supply. Operators of the power industry have to be made to sit up.

They are not doing well. The power supply is erratic. We also need to have good roads and clean water.

The new industries need waivers so that they will be able to survive.

They need loans and if the Federal Government pays attention to some of these things, I think it will be a jolly good ride for Nigerians.

In Abia, how do you think the state government can boost tourism through hospitality businesses?

In Abia State today, I know that there are companies that have come in to set up assembly plants for cars and I have met with some of them.

These companies, in the past, when they come into the state, they went to lodge in Owerri, while some will go to Enugu. But today, they move into WISS Castle hotel quietly and they were happy. They said at least, there is a place for us to stay and take off. So, if the state government can encourage investors, local and foreign to invest in this industry in Abia State, it will encourage other investors, construction companies, manufacturing companies to be able to have a footing from where they can take off.

In what ways do you think the state government can start the encouragement?

They can make lands available for them. They can, without compromising quality, minimize requirement, make it less stringent so that the investors would be encouraged and wooed into the state to come to invest. Take a look at Owerri, they are all over the whole place. It is a function of the government policy to provide security, good roads, and light. All these things encourage development of the industry in our neigbhouring states. The governor of Abia State is not doing badly in this area. He is doing his best, and we should remember that the Abia is not as old as Imo State, neither are we as old as Enugu State. So for our own age, we are not doing badly.

The current economic recession in the country is biting harder.

What will be your advice to the Federal Government as a panacea to getting Nigerians out of it?

The economic hardship is not a surprise. It did not come suddenly.

Nigerians saw it coming and prepared the ground for it to hatch and the thing settled down with us. The way we saw it come, we can also chase it away. How do we do that? Engage more Nigerians in working than receiving free money.

Improve war against indiscipline, war against corruption. Let people have minimum access to our fund through corrupt means, and find a way to encourage the people who have stolen already to bring out the money they have stolen to invest and for them to stop hiding it.

Eze Ekueku The war against corruption has to look at, critically, to find out a way it does not encourage people to hide the money they have stolen, but to encourage them to bring out some amount to invest in the country to alleviate the suffering of the people.

Nigerians are aware that some suspects on corruption are still walking the streets freely. Nigerians are also aware that some people we saw that are good crooks, because of their affiliation to parties, nobody is trying or talking to them; it has to be an unbiased axe. The government should not bother who it falls upon. It should be aimed at everybody, no matter their political loyalty. So be it and it will yield some fruits and we will be able to recover some of these funds. I think that one of the ways the Federal Government can also do this is this: you have embezzled our funds to the tune of N10, if you can invest N8 local in our economy, we will write off your debt and grant you amnesty. The government has to start thinking and our intelligent men have to go back to the drawing board. Nigeria has to do smart things and get smarter so that we can survive. We saw the economic hardship walk in. The way we saw it walk in, we should also find a way to walk it out.

That is to say you are in support of President Buhari anticorruption stand?

Of course, nobody wants that around him. Corruption is an evil, but because of the length of time it has survived in Nigeria. We should find a way to eliminate it without suffocating ourselves.

Are you also in support Buhari’s anti-corruption crusade in the judiciary?

If it is done without bias, it is good. But if it is with bias, it is wrong and will not yield any fruit.

If it is done because you want to victimize a given group of people, a

The economic hardship is not a surprise. It did not come suddenly.

Nigerians saw it coming and prepared the ground for it to hatch and the thing settled down with us. The way we saw it come, we can also chase it away. How do we do that? Engage more Nigerians in working than receiving free money. Improve war against indiscipline, war against corruption given ethnic group, a given political class or a given interest, it is not going to work. But if it is a globalized activity, I think it is nice move.

The Federal Government and states are calling on citizens in diaspora to come home and invest. Don’t you think that the level of corruption in the country is discouraging them from coming home to invest? And your advice?

Our children in Diaspora should come home and invest and many of them are already coming home to invest. I do not think that why they are not coming is the level of corruption in the country. Sometimes it is due to government policies.

How can you set up an industry where there is no light, no road, and no water? How can you set up an industry where the education and the educated are half-baked, where tribalism rules the day? It is difficult. A lot of efforts and emphasis have to be put on unifying Nigerians, making them believe they are Nigerians,

and making them to understand that they are Nigerians. When these things are done, a whole lot of things will flow. Take for instance, when the president come from one section of the country, other areas suffer. This is not good and has to be decentralized and discouraged to enable the government function better to the benefit of her citizens.

How do you think Nigeria and the states can make tourism to yield the much desired foreign earnings?

Tourism everywhere in the world is a strong avenue for making foreign exchange. But there is a minimal investment in tourism and minimum patronage for one obvious reason: security – of lives and property and ideas. The country is not secure. In other civilized worlds like America, if you want to move from Dallas to Huston, the best time to move is from twelve O’clock midnight or may be 2 am and by 6 am, you are in Huston.

Here, nobody disturbs you on the road, or talks about armed robbery or any crimes on these highways.

The highways are good and secure.

People live in houses overseas without burglary proofs in their houses.

Burglary proof is only popular in this country because the country is not secure enough. They (foreign countries) have small thieves who are not strong criminals, but they control the system and their society. So the federal and state governments should endeavour to improve on the security of their states and the nation at large. When this is improved upon, every other thing will flourish.

How is your hotel different from others in Umuahia and in the state?

This is because we select our guests. We do not accept every guest, but only responsible ones. When we have the guests, we compile their lists and send to the government and the Department of State Security because of its proximity to areas of interest. It is different in that instance.

What is your word to Abians about WISS Castle hotel?

For Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin, the man who first stepped on the moon, it is a one man step. But for my people of Abia State, it should be a giant step. We should start scrutinizing who comes to our hotel to ensure that criminals do not come there or those who want to fight the government come to stay there. Something needs to be done to discourage people who are antigovernment. We should not allow that to happen. We only need people who will proffer ideas on how to improve Abia State in other to provide jobs and food.

Business Times Daily Times Nigeria

Coal in commercial quantity discovered in Sokoto – Tambuwal

MPR climbs to 14%, Naira hits 490/$1

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Tuesday, December 27, 2016

NUPENG seeks inclusion in revival of refineries

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CBN, Heritage Bank boost aquaculture projects with N2b facility Heritage Bank in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), has provided N2 billion long-term facility under the Commercial Agriculture Credit Scheme (CACS) to Triton Aqua Africa Ltd (TAAL).

TAAL, known as Triton Farm,

accessed the CACS through Heritage Bank to set up aquaculture businesses; nursery/hatchery for the production of fingerlings and brood stock in Ikeja and earthen ponds for catfish and tilapia in Asejire, Iwo and Gambari towns in Oyo State.

The Minister of State for Agriculture, Senator, Heineken Lokpobiri, during a tour of Triton Farms, stated that the CBN and Heritage Bank’s financial support to the company was fundamental since investment in food

security is probably the most profitable venture anyone could think of.

He added that Nigeria has a deficit of over 2 million metric tonnes of poultry produce, and over three million metric tonnes deficit in fish farming products,

Corporate governance code in line with FRC Act - Obazee

Motolani Oseni

-Contrary to insinuations from some quarters that the recently released National Code of Corporate Governance (NCCG) was in conflict with the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria, FRC Act, the Council has said the issuance of the code was in line with its statutory mandate.

Speaking at the FRC’s 13th Annual Financial Summit and Dinner held in Lagos, the Chief Executive Officer of the Council, Mr. Jim Obazee, said the development and issuance of Corporate Governance Code for business operations in the country was not in conflict with but in accordance with the statutory mandate given to the Council by the act of parliament establishing it.

Obazee said the misconception surrounding the whole thing was largely due to the wordings

of section 77 of the Act which defined “public interest entities” for the purposes of the application of the Act”.

He noted that the same section also defined “entity” to mean any person or body of persons, whether incorporated or unincorporated.

He added that the latter definition was necessary to protect the sanctity of several sections of the Act. As against claims from some quarters that the NCCG was the cause of the current economic recession in the country, Obazee said the code has the capacity to build confidence that can assist the nation’s economy recuperative mechanism.

“The FRC’s job in this period is to ensure that we are able to promote confidence, to promote assurance, create an enabling environment whereby recuperative mechanism will begin to en-

Obazee

gage.”

According to him, the theme of this year’s summit, “National

Code of Corporate Governance and new Audit Report: A paradigm Shift” cannot be more apt, especially at a time when some unspoken questions are yearning for answers.

He cleared the air on the belief that the NCCG was capable of impeding ease of doing business country stressing that corporate governance is a means whereby society can ensure that businesses are well governed, not only managed, to which investors and lenders , both domestic and foreign can safely and confidently commit their funds.

Highlighting the benefits of the code, Obazee said the NCCG would enhance foreign Direct investment (FDI) into the country, noting that investors are more likely to invest in any jurisdiction they know that they will be entitled to keep the reward thereafter.

CONTINUED ON PAGE B2

Stanbic IBTC launches integrated financial services mobile app Stanbic IBTC has launched a new mobile app as part of its financial service offering and to boost customer service delivery and user experience.

The app, is available for download on the Android Play Store and Apple App Store.

BUSINESS TIMES Editor Andrew Odioko Head Business Azubike Nnadozie Capital Market Editor Bonny Amadi

With emphasis on seamless user experience, aesthetics, and convenience , the new Stanbic IBTC Mobile App promises to be ‘best-in-class’ in mobile financial service delivery .

Chief Executive, Stanbic IBTC Holdings PLC, Mrs. Sola DavidBorha, said that the launch of the app is in line with Stanbic IBTC’s value proposition to provide endto-end financial services and solutions to its customers.

She added that the launch of the mobile application is based on “our innovative customer centric focus,” noting that the “app was co-created with our customers.”

“We are continuously looking

David-Borha, MD/CEO, Stanbic IBTC Holdings

for ways to bring new and innovative products and services to our customers. The need to have access to financial services, when and where our customers want it cannot be overemphasized. So we have now given them a new service that meets that demand.

Our services will continue to evolve to anticipate their changing needs,” she stated.

The Stanbic IBTC Mobile App offers banking, asset management, pension and mobile money services right from your mobile device. “Our customers can see their bank accounts, mobile wallet, pension and mutual fund investments in one place, CONTINUED ON PAGE B2

stressing that the agro-production deficits show huge investment potential in the sector.

The Group Head, Agric Finance of Heritage Bank, Olugbenga Awe, stated that the partnership between the bank and CONTINUED ON PAGE B2

Agency advocates free tariff on imported renewable energy equipment Power for All, an international agency canvassing for access to electricity in Nigeria, has advocated the removal of payment of tariff on assured renewable energy technologies’ equipment imported into the country.

The Campaign Director of the agency in Nigeria, Ify Malo, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Monday.

Malo said that free tariff on the renewable equipment imported would facilitate the process of accelerating electricity access in the country via renewable energy.

She said the need to advocate for no tariff on renewable technologies imported was based on the reality that modern renewable energy technologies like “Solar PVs“ were expensive in the renewable market.

She said nonpayment of tariff on the equipment would ultimately help to reduce the cost of the products on purchase by investors, developers and consumers.

She said that replacing all of the kerosene, candles and batteries currently used for offgrid lighting in Nigeria with modern off-grid solar solutions would save over 1.4 billion dollars annually for Nigeria.

Malo said that reductions of prices in the cost of decentralized renewable technologies and appliances such as DC televisions, super-efficient fridges and farm machinery was being done already in East Africa and India.

Business News B2

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

POS terminals rescue cashless Yenagoa residents Following cash rationing by commercial banks, shoppers have thronged merchants with Point of Sale (POS) terminals in Yenagoa to collect cash at discounted rates.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the shops dispensing cash were thronged by desperate residents who had kept vigil at Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) locations to no avail.

Investigation revealed that most ATMs in Yenagoa ran out of cash since Friday, leaving many families celebrating Christmas without money.

One of the customers told NAN that she learnt some shops were charging the bank accounts of shoppers’ debit cards, using the POS for purchases made and giving out cash to same customers after deducting from their accounts.

“My husband has kept vigil at ATM locations to withdraw some money for three days and he leaves the house as early as 5 a.m. without success, but I was told that stores having POS terminals can help out with cash.

“I came and it was a relief, after paying for my groceries they

gave me extra cash that I can use for other things pending when the situation improves or after the holiday period.

“What they did was to charge N10,000 on my debit card and give me N9,500 cash that is a commission of N500 on N10,000 although it is high but I have no choice. I hear some places charge higher.

“We have been facing difficulties with banks not having money to meet demands of customers. Civil servants who were paid their salaries were unable to make withdrawals as

the banks said they were short of cash.

“Some of them restricted the maximum withdrawal per customer to N5,000 and the crowd runs into several hundred so I have to manage this arrangement,” Mr Ebiere said.

One of the operators of the POS terminal, who pleaded anonymity, told NAN that the situation was a ‘child of necessity’.

“It’s a solution that favours both parties and it is for our customers who cannot withdraw from the banks, on our part we cannot make deposits

Corporate governance code in line with FRC act - Obazee

for the cash we realised from sales during the holidays.

“So, giving out the cash and crediting our account from customers’ debit card is a win-win situation for both parties,” he said.

A cashier at one of the Pharmaceutical stores, Miss Ebiowei Samuel, said that the extra charges were to pass the bank charges from the banks that issued the POS terminals.

“We are not doing it to make money, the extra we ask for is to cover the bank charges because the banks charge our own ac-

Stanbic IBTC launches integrated financial services mobile app

CONTINUED FROM PAGE B1

CONTINUED FROM PAGE B1

He added that the nation’s economy would benefit extensively from the NCCG through its demand for enhanced transparency and accountability in financial reporting and mandatory codes.

He added the NCCG is set out to address three main issues of ownership concentration, corporate board concentration and audit market concentration, especially the interest of the minority shareholders.

The FRC boss maintained that the code of corporate governance for private sector was mandatory and that of the NotFor-Profit sector code is operated on “Comply or Justify non-compliance basis, while that of the public sector is yet to come into operation.

rendered in a beautifully-crafted visual design that gives them total control of their money and investments,” David-Borha said.

Apart from being fast and dependable, the new app is featurerich, with capacity to conduct funds transfer, bills payment, airtime purchase, cheque services, mobile money and lifestyle services.

L-R: Minister of State for Agriculture, Heineken Lokpobiri; Divisional Head, Project and Development Finance of Heritage Bank Plc, Dele Faseemo and the Chairman, Triton Group, Ashin Samtani, during a tour at Triton Aqua Africa farm sites at Gambari Town in Oyo State… on Friday.

CBN, Heritage Bank boost aquaculture projects with N2b

Coal in commercial quantity discovered in Sokoto – Tambuwal

CONTINUED FROM PAGE B1

Gov. Aminu tambuwal of Sokoto State has said that coal in commercial deposits had been discovered in the state.

Tambuwal disclosed this in a statement issued by his spokesman, Malam Imam Imam, on Monday in Sokoto.

The governor described the discovery as a major boost to Federal Government efforts at diversifying the country’s economy.

“This discovery boosts Sokoto’s share of solid minerals awaiting exploration by the authorities,’’ he said.

Other solid minerals earlier discovered included phosphate for making fertiliser, gold, limestone, gypsum, iron ore, copper, columbite, tantalite, zinc and kaolin, among others.

Tambuwal made the revelations during a capacity building workshop on Special Purpose Ve-

Triton Farm will conserve scarce foreign exchange and enhance food security.

“Nigeria’s current demand capacity for fish is estimated at 2.7million metric tons and the country currently produces 800,000 metric tons. Triton is now producing 25,000 metric tons and with them on board, about 25,000 metric tons capacity will be added to our current production, the company’s projection is to reach 100,000 metric tons in 5years,” he said.

According to him, the bank sees agriculture as one of its heritage that can empower individuals and communities in terms of creating wealth from the soil and through the entire value –chain using value addition and industrialization.

Red Star Express appoints ex-CEO into board

hicles for beneficial participation of state governments in mining.

The workshop was jointly organised by the Federal Ministry of Mines and Steel Development and the state Ministry of Solid Minerals and Natural Resources Development.

“The state government has already engaged a Chinese company to make research on the available mineral resources, determine their locations and their commercial viability. The company has presented the first phase of its findings and identified 20 varieties of solid minerals,” Tambuwal said.

On coal, the governor said that the Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, otherwise known as Sokoto Cement and owned by the BUA Group, has started using the mineral as a source of energy in operating its plant.

“BUA will use coal sourced from Sokoto to fuel the 40MW power plant being constructed at the factory. The new cement plant can use both coal and LPFO (Low Pour Fuel Oil), and will source its power needs from the power plant. The excess generated power will be moved to the national grid,” said the governor.

Tambuwal

Red Star Express has appointed Mr. Sule Umar Bichi as Non-executive Director effective October 27th 2016.

Mr. Bichi, currently Managing Director of Madinka Ventures Ltd, and Chairman of the Audit Committee of the Institute of Directors, was formerly the Managing Director/CEO of Red Star Express Plc for nine years.

Bichi is a graduate of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and Institute of Directors. He also holds a Master’s in Economics from the Lagos State University and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School.

...Law Union and Rock too Law Union and Rock Insurance has also appointed Mrs. Onome Joy Adewuyi as NonExecutive Director.

The company’s statement signed by Stan Chikwendu, Company Secretary and head of Legal, said the appointment is however subject to requisite regulatory approvals and ratifications by the shareholders at its next annual general meeting.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

B3 Money Market

Money Market in 2016

MPR climbs to 14%, Naira hits 490/$1

By Motolani Oseni In couple of days from now 2016 will finally winds down, but not without its ups and down most importantly effects of the fiscal and the monetary policies in money market sector. Here are some highlights of what happened in the outgoing year.

MPR The year 2016 opened with the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) at 11 percent, with the first Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting held in January retaining the benchmark interest rate at11 percent, Cash Reserve Requirement (CRR) at 20 percent, and Liquidity Ratio (LR) at 30 percent.

But in March, when the committee met for the second time, it decided on 100 basis points increase in MPR from 11.0 percent to 12.0 percent; and 672.250 basis points increase in CRR from 20.0 percent to 22.5 percent. This was retained in May but jerked up the benchmark interest rate by 200 basis points to 14.0 percent; retained the CRR at 22.5 percent; the asymmetric corridor at +200/–500 basis points; and the Liquidity Ratio at 30 percent at committee July meeting.

Foreign Exchange The year began with the official exchange rate at N197 to the dollar. But this was sold with 147.1 percent

premium at the parallel market at N289.79 per dollar. The official rate continued till June 20 when the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) discontinued with the pegging and allowed market forces to determine the rate rate.

The apex bank called the new practice flexible exchange rate. However, at the Bureax de Change (BDC), the Naira still remained unstable. For instance, it rose from 167.43 per cent in February, selling at N329.83 per dollar, over the official rate, to 177.02 percent in May at N336.93 to the Dollar. In between, it was N320.93 and N320.71 per dollar in March and April respectively.

However, during the June launch of the new forex policy, the local currency took a plunge and went down as low as N231.76 per dollar at the official rate and N351.82 at the parallel market Flexible exchange rate unveiled CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, finally unveiled the flexible exchange rate policy on June 20. This came barely two weeks after he announced at the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting that he was going to allow the Naira float freely at the interbank market. Here is what the CBN governor said during the announcement: “CBN will launch a foreign exchange interbank trading window to boost the supply of hard cur-

rency in Nigeria. The new window will have eight to 10 primary traders handling minimum volumes of $10million.The new system will help with economic growth and restore investor confidence.”

According to Emefiele, the window’s exchange rate will be purely marketdriven.

“Nigeria will introduce fx primary dealers to operate with others in the interbank market. Under the new structure, the 41 items previously banned from getting access to forex in Nigeria will remain unchanged. Nigeria’s Forex Reserves is robust and can cover five months of im-

port,” said Emefiele.

“The time is right to reintroduce a flexible interbank forex market. Forex market will operate as a single market structure.”

CBN is shutting the window for buying dollars at the official rate Analysts have called this a ‘semifloat’ since the Central Bank still plans on holding on to the official exchange rate of N199 per US dollar for funding “critical transactions.”

This is just as the local currency, Naira has continued to depreciate and currently exchange between 490 to 492 at the parallel market as many fear it may hit 500 to the US dollar at

Emefiele said the apex bank had appointed a new board and management for the bank following the resignation of the Chairman, Chief Tunde Ayeni, and Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Timothy Oguntayo.

He said the bank’s outgoing board and management had consistently failed to turn the fortunes

CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele

of the bank around despite consistent warnings from the CBN. In place of the outgoing board and management, the CBN had appointed Alhaji MK Ahmad as the new chairman, with Mr. Tokunbo Abiru as the new MD/CEO. The governor also said the CBN had removed and replaced all the non-executive directors and two

longest-serving directors of Skye Bank.

The CBN boss urged shareholders and customers of the bank to remain calm, stressing that the bank was not in distress.

“I maintain that Skye Bank is not in distress.

We have only taken this unavoidable decision to ensure that depositors’ funds are not eroded,” he said.

CBN bans all banks, except FirstBank, from selling forex to BDC’s The CBN banned all commercial banks except First Bank from the role of selling foreign remittances directly to license Bureau De Change in the country. The develop-

ment is not unconnected with the complaints of BDC operators to the apex bank about the refusal of some banks to sell forex emanating from forex remittances to them leading

Inflation rate Inflation rate began the year at 9.6 percent, and as at October, it stood at 18.3 percent.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics ( NBS), the consumer prices increased by 18.3 percent year-on-year in October 2016, following a 17.9 percent growth in the previous month and above market expectations of 18.2 percent. It was the highest inflation rate since October 2005, as prices for food continued to rise.

Stamp duty In line with the Federal Government’s drive to shore up non-oil revenue, the CBN on January 19, 2016, directed commercial banks as well as other financial institutions under its regulation to immediately commence charging N50 per eligible transaction in accordance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act and the Federal Government Financial Regulations 2009. The fee is charged on all receipts given by any bank or other

financial institutions in acknowledgement of services rendered in respect of electronic transfer and other teller deposits from N1,000 and above.

The apex bank stated this in a circular titled: “Collection and Remittance of Statutory Charges on Receipt to Nigeria Postal Service (NIPOST) Under the Stamp Duties Act.” The CBN stated, “As part of efforts to boost its revenue base, the federal government of Nigeria is exploring revenue opportunities in the non-oil sectors especially taxes and rates.

It is in recognition of this fact that banks and other financial institutions are enjoined to support government’s revenue drive through compliance with the provisions of the Stamp Duties Act, LFN 2004 as reinforced by the court judgment in Suit No FHC/L/ CS/1710/2013.

In this regard, the CBN pursuant to the provisions of its enabling laws, hereby issues this circular to all DMBs other financial institutions: “With immediate effect, all DMBs and other financial institu-

Nine banks barred from Forex market for none return of $2.334b NNPC funds

CBN takes over Skye Bank On July 4, the Central Bank of Nigeria took over the board and management of Skye Bank Plc after the lender failed to meet the regulator’s minimum key liquidity and capital adequacy ratios.

The Central Bank Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, disclosed this at a news conference, which was held at the CBN’s head office in Lagos.

end of the year.

to the significant depreciation of the naira in the past weeks.

With this new development, commercial banks except First bank can only now sell their forex

remittances to Travelex, who will then sell to the BDC’s, meaning that FirstBank and Travelex are now the dealers to buy from if you need forex for PTA or BTA.

Determined not to tolerate any further breach of extant financial regulations, the CBN barred nine banks from all foreign exchange transactions on August 23, 2016 The banks were barred for failing to remit the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) dollar funds to the Federal Government’s Treasury Single Account (TSA) do-

miciled in the CBN as directed by the presidency last year.

The banks were United Bank for Africa (UBA) $530million; First Bank $469million; Diamond Bank ($287m); Sterling Bank ($269m); Skye Bank ($221m); Fidelity Bank ($209m); Keystone Bank ($139m); First City Monument Bank $125m; and Heritage Bank ($85m).

Crackdown on parallel market operators Officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) on November 10 raided the offices of some bureaux de change (BDC) in Lagos, and arrested operators selling above the stipulated exchange rate of N385 per dollar.

Defending the raid, the CBN Governor, Emefiele, said: “First, the foreign exchange regulation in Nigeria today forbids trafficking in currency – we

should just underscore that point. You cannot stand on the street and traffic in currency. So we know that the security agencies have a right to enforce the laws. And as long as the law says you cannot traffic currency on the streets, you are supposed to be in your office conducting your business, then you will have to adhere to that.”

B4

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Capital Market

B5

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

NSE fines 21 firms N52.8m over defaults Stories by Afolabi Adesola The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) has imposed a fine of N52.8 million on 21 listed companies as sanctions for default filings of financial statements.

The NSE said it applied sactions in accordance with the provisions of Section 14 of Appendix iii of the listing rules on listed companies that filed their audited and interim financial statements after the regulatory due date.

The companies who were unable to meet the

regulatory requirements ranging between full year ended December 31, 2014 and first quarter ended March 31, 2016 include African Alliance Insurance, ASL, Conoil, Cornerstone Insurance, Daar Communication, DN Meyers, DN Tyre & Rubber, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), Equity Assurance, FBN Holdings, Flour Mills, Fortis Microfinance Bank, Great Nigeria Insurance, Japaul Oil Maritime Services, and Presco.

Smart Products, Sovereign trust Assurance Plc, Staco, Standard Alliance

Insurance, Tripple Gee and May and Baker Plc completed the list of defaulters.

A breakdown of the penalties imposed on each company revealed that Great Nigeria Insurance, Daar Communication, DN Tyre & Rubber and African Alliance Insurance Plc got N43.6 million of the fines, which accounted for 83.04 percent of the total amount.

Conoil was fined N2.3 million for defaulting in its full year audited 2015 results, while other companies had fines ranging between N700,000 to

N100,000.

The NSE’s report released on a weekly basis, explained that every listed company is required to provide The Exchange with timely information to enable it efficiently perform its function of maintaining an orderly market. It further stated that the initiative was designed to maintain market integrity and protect the investors by providing compliance-related information on all listed companies.

According to the report, “Companies that are listed on the Exchange are

required to adhere to high disclosure standards, which are prescribed in Appendix 111 of the Listing Rules.

“Financial information, which is periodic disclosure and on-going material events disclosure, should be released to the Exchange in a timely manner to enable it efficiently perform its function of maintaining an orderly market.”

The NSE, in an effort to achieve a world class capital market, has reiterated its commitment to maintain zero tolerance posture on dealing member firms and quoted compa-

nies on violations of rules and regulations.

This is on the back of the Exchange’s determination to shift gears to drive innovations centered on increasing global visibility for the Nigerian capital market in the current year.

The chief executive officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Mr. Oscar Onyema, said recently that the local bourse will sustain a zero-tolerance stance on dealing member firms and listed companies’ violations to help boost the confidence in the market.

Stockbrokers said this

Summary of trading activities on NSE ASI 26,486.02 DEALS 1,703.00 VOLUME

139,097,525.00

VALUE CAP

1,432,886,956.87 9,113,213,334,212.58

SEC suspends Heritage Capital Markets indefinitely Gwarzo

Onyema

NSE reports decline in transaction activities The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) reports a decline in the institutional and domestic composition of transactions on the Exchange between January and October 2016.

The report which reviewed transactions at the local bourse noted that the institutional composition of the domestic market decreased by 37.09 percent from N30.95 billion in September to N19.47 billion in October.

Retail composition decreased by 34.16 percent from N20.23 in September to N13.32 in October, indicating that institutional investors outperformed their retail counterparts in the period under review.

The exchange further revealed that domestic & foreign Portfolio participation in the equities market dropped by 32.44 percent to N64.03 billion in October, noting that N94.77 billion was traded in the equities market in September.

The report explained that total transactions from January to October 2016 decreased significantly by 40.55 percent from N1,667 billion

recorded within the same period in 2015 to N991.11 billion in 2016.

According to the report, “total transactions at the nation’s bourse decreased significantly by 32.44 percent from N94.77 billion recorded in September 2016 to N64.03 billion (about $0.21 billion) in October 2016.

“Also, total transactions from January to October 2016 decreased significantly by 40.55 per cent from N1,667.27 billion recorded within the same period in 2015 to N991.11 billion in 2016.”

The NSE said, “We observed that both foreign and domestic activities are decreasing, however the domestic activity is decreasing faster.

In October 2016, domestic investors outperformed their foreign counterparts by about 2.42 percent.

“Domestic transactions decreased by 35.93per cent from N51.18 billion in September 2016 to N32.79 billion in October 2016.

“Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) transactions decreased by 28.33percent from N43.59 billion in September 2016 to N31.24 billion in

October 2016.

“Monthly foreign inflows outpaced outflows as foreign inflows decreased by 23.51per cent from N24.41 billion in September to N18.67 billion in October 2016. Foreign outflows also decreased by 34.46percent from N19.18 billion to N12.57 billion within the same period.

The NSE had earlier attributed the market’s downturn to sustained depreciation of the Naira due to FX scarcity. It said the FX scarcity coupled with challenges in the power sector fueled bearish market sentiments in Q3 2016.

“The average daily volume traded across all products in Q3 2016 was 303.48 million units, representing a 20.81 percent decline from 383.22 million units in Q3 2015. The average daily value traded at N2.48 billion ($8.14 million), fell 31.04 percent from N3.60 billion in the same period in 2015. The equity turnover velocity in Q3 2016 was 6.21 percent, down 1.43 percentage points from 7.65 percent in the previous year.

Nigeria’s apex capital market regulator the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has suspended Heritage Capital Markets Ltd, - a capital market operator, over unauthorized sale of shares.

The SEC in a notice on its official website said it suspended Heritage Capital Markets together with its Directors and Sponsored Individuals in connection with the unauthorized sale of shares belonging to an investor and its refusal to comply with the Commission’s directives in that regard.

“In view of the above, the general public is hereby informed that the suspension is indefinite and shall remain in force pending the resolution of the matter against the Operator.” The notice read The suspension which is in a bid to protect investors from fraudulent activities and encourage the return of investors’ confidence aligns with the commissions policies for market recovery.

Director General (DG)

of the Commission, Mr. Mounir Gwarzo, had earlier outlined policy alternatives for economic recovery, placing national investor protection as a key policy.

According to him, the national investor protection policy is one of the series of efforts by the SEC to achieve long term development objectives of the capital market.

It would be recalled that SEC had banned and blacklisted Taofik Lawal and Mrs. Iyabode Lawal, directors of WT Securities Limited, from operating in the Nigerian Capital market for life, following investigations of complaints against WT Securities Ltd., while the said directors were found culpable of mismanaging the stocks of Mrs. Opral Mason Benson, and the unauthorized sale of the Nigerian Breweries Plc. shares belonging to Ngozi Onyekwere Nwachukwu.

The SEC thus advised the investing public to desist from engaging dealings in any capital market related capacity.

Labour B6

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

NUPENG seeks inclusion in revival of refineries

Stories by Joy Ekeke

The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has appealed to the Federal Government to include labour unions in its plans to engage private investors in the management of the country’s refineries.

Alhaji Tokunbo Korodo, the South-West Chairman of the union, made the appeal in Lagos, saying it will boost production capacity.

“The government is thinking of bringing investors to take over the operation of the refineries; nobody is opposing this.

“But the government should not rule out the labour aspect of its operation.

“Unions need to be engaged; they need to have a discussion with investors.

“This will make them know how we operate here so that their coming will not affect the workers and where it affects them, they will look for the solution.

“We should not be put in the darkness, because if we are asked to go at the end of the day we will resist it,” he said.

The chairman said things had

not been rosy for stakeholders in the oil and gas sector in the outgoing year.

“The agitation of the militants in the Niger Delta had crippled a lot of activities in the sector.

“Our crude oil production has dropped drastically; even the refineries are not working optimally because there is no way they can push

crude oil to the refineries.

“Government is finding ways to engage the militants; my prayer is that this engagement should be a fruitful one so that the crisis will end and the production would come down to normalcy.

“This will further help the country to come out of the economy recession we find ourselves,” he said.

As Nigerians await the enactment and immediate implementation of the 2017 budget, the executives of the National Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE) are optimistic President Muhammadu Buhari will ensure full local government autonomy and end the era of joint allocation accounts with state governments.

Speaking at the end of year celebration of retired local government employees, the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of NULGE, Ajose Semako, the president’s pronouncement is enough direction towards implementation.

The promise made by president Muhammadu Buhari during a visit of local government unions in September 2016 engendered much optimism over local government autonomy and constitutional amendment will free the local governments from the control of state governoSemako said President Muhammadu Buhari will keep to his words regarding the demands made by local government unions.

Semako, however, said most local government unions across the country have pledged their support towards achieving full autonomy.

RTEAN warns commuters against non-vetted commercial rides Korodo

Ngige charges parastatals to deliver on mandates Sen. Chris Ngige, the Minister of Labour and Employment, has charged parastatals under his ministry to fulfill the mandate given to them by the Federal Government.

Ngige said this on a familiarization visit to the National Productivity Centre (NPC), the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), and the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF).

At the NDE, Ngige said that the parastatal was special due to the its mandate to create jobs for unemployed youths in the country.

“You have a special mandate to create employment and, in so doing, you are permitted to design programmes that will assist you to do that so that many Nigerians will have employment.

“When you design, you must implement and by so doing combat mass unem-

Local govt autonomy: NULGE upbeat on implementation

ployment.

“You know what our unemployment figure shows as it is very high today.

“This has been worsened by the fact that our country has gone into economic recession and this recession this time around is profound, ‘’ he said.

He said that there were lots of youths who were roaming the streets, and had become easy prey to be recruited for insurgency and destruction of oil pipelines in the country.

Ngige said that NDE must design programmes that would address mass unemployment with a collective action.

“You are supposed to synchronize all your programmes to go into agriculture and mining majorly which are the dynamics of the economic presently.

“What programmes have you designed to get in miners and make them realize that government can assist

Ngige them? You must design programmes and go to them.

“Have you established a presence at all the agriculture centres, especially rice production zones, so that Nigeria will stop the importation of rice, palm oil,

among others?

“We must tackle the areas where we can produce food and create jobs because food is very important and so is job creation, so you must think out-ofthe-box to meet your man-

The Lagos State branch of the Road Transport Employee Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) has warned commuters against taking rides from the roadsides instead of approved motor parks before, during and after the Christmas and New Year celebrations.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos, the chairman of RTEAN, Lagos State branch, Musa Mohammed, attributed the plague of ‘one chance’ motorists in Lagos and environs to the shortage of motor parks in the state and undue intimidation from military men who turned themselves drivers overnight without

caring about whose horse is gored.

He believed that there can be a lasting solution to the trend if government at various levels joined transport unions to combat it.

Mohammed expressed displeasure over the attitude of commuters who catch seemingly cheap rides by the roadside only to blame transport union bodies for the consequence.

“You know what is right but refuse to do it and follow the wrong thing, and you end up blaming transport union bodies or govsonal mistakes,” he said.

date, ‘’he said.

The minister, who also visited the NSITF headquarters, charged the agency to meet its expectations.

He said that the organization must ensure it had the complete database of all employers and employees under its scheme.

“The fund must be open its net to catch both workers in the public and private sectors of the economy.

“Because the more people you capture, the better for the growth of the fund.

“You must also ensure

that defaulting employers are made to pay workers compensation and entitlements,‘’ he said.

Ngige, at the NPC, called steadfastness in service delivery.

Speaking, Dr. Kashim Akor, NPC’s Director-General, decried low funding from the budgetary allocation to the agency.

Akor said that due to lack of funding, the agency had been unable to sensitize the citizenry on the need for productivity mindset and culture.

Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday,December 27, 2016

B7 Business Feature

2016: Year of negative returns on investment Bonny Amadi

As the 2016 financial year rolls out in the next few days, business organisations and institutions have continued to count their gains and losses.

The majorly abysmal performances were predicated on Nigeria declining economic indices for the four quarters of the year which rubbed off negatively on human development index (HDI).

Also major forecasts have notified that results for 2016 fiscal year ended December 31, would reflect depressed earnings, depressed returns on investments, mounting provisioning and higher operating expenses in the accounts of many companies, and that only few are expected to report mild impact of a challenging environment.

However, the prevailing economic trend currently propelled by rising inflation and recession remain catalysts to depressive results which characterized already released 2016 results and unaudited Q1, Q2 and Q3 results released so far.

A peep into transaction volume, value and sate of the Nigerian capital market for year on year showed that negatives returns characterized all sectors of the market.

As at the close of trading on Friday December 16th 2016, the NSE All Share index closed -6.76 per cent returns year on year, the NSE main board index closed -9.76 per cent while NSE 30 Index closed -7.41 per cent.

NSE 30 Index returned -7.41 year to date, NSE Insurance Index returned -13.41 per cent year to date while the NSE consumer goods index closed the year negative with -6.09 per cent y/y returns.

Investors in the Oil/Gas sector which houses the sector’s measuring index slashed -6.65 per cent of investors’ from investors funds y/y, NSE Lotus II index dropped y/y by-8.00 per cent, NSE Industrial Goods Index declined by -28.56 per cent y/y while the NSE Pension Index as at December 16th lost -0.39 per cent y/y.

The best performer for the last one year, the NSE

Premium Index rewarded investors with 4.75 per cent for a 12 months investment period (y/y), followed by the NSE Banking Index with 3.33 per cent, while NSE ASeM Index remained at 0.81per cent.

The Q1, Q2 and Q3 results of listed companies on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) reflected the same trend as equity prices of companies are now trading below their real values, providing opportunities for buoyant investors, but paucity of funds has sustained the depressed state of the market.

In the United Nations Development Programme, (UNDP) report in August.

Nigeria ranks 152nd in the 2016 report of the African Human Development Index, HDI, released by the institution.

Consequently, the country retained its 2014 status as there was no forward or backward shift from the computation.

Nigeria’s HDI value for 2014, according to UNDP’s 2015 report, was 0.514 which put the country in the low human development category, positioning it at 152 of 188 countries.

Nigeria is positioned on Low Human Development, LHD category outside High Human Development, HHD, Medium Human Development, and MHD, which featured 53 countries in Africa.

The National Bureau of Statistics quarterly report on Nigerian Gross Domestic Product Report, expenditure and Income approach Q1, Q2 2016 report in real terms revealed that market price GDP declined year on year by 0.42 per cent, and 2.22 per cent in the first and second quarters of 2016, the first two negative growth rates in the rebased period 2010 onwards.

The decline signaled Nigeria’s entry into recession which further weakened the economy and declined production in Q3 and the concluding Q4.

According to the NBS report, “In the first quarter, all components recorded a year on year fall other than NPISH and Net exports. In the second, a large fall in household consumption was the main driver of the

Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun

Abe

decline in GDP. National Disposable Income recorded stronger growth than GDP in the first half of 2016, both in real and nominal terms. In real terms, it was largely as a result of an increase in “other net transfers from the rest of the world”.

The report indicates that year on year growth in domestic Compensation of Employees declined significantly in both real and nominal terms. Operating surplus growth remained positive, but lower than in recent years.

In Q3 2016, the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) contracted by -2.24 per cent over the last year (y/y) in real terms. This was lower by 0.18 points from growth recorded in the preceding quarter and also lower by 5.08 per cent points from growth recorded in the corresponding quarter of 2015.

Consumer Price Index (CPI) November 2016 increased by 18.48 percent (year-on-year) in November 2016, 0.15 percentage points higher than the rate recorded in October (18.33 percent). Increases were recorded in all COICOP divisions that yield the Headline Index. Communication and Insurance recorded the slowest pace of growth in November, growing at 5.61 percent and 6.76 percent year-on-year respectively.

The CPI measures inflation rate.

Rising price of dollar currently as at December 21ST 2016 sold for N399 per dollar at CBN rate and N492 in the parallel market, continues to weaken operations of surviving companies, as banks scarce liquidity caused by Treasury single account (TSA) frustrates growth strategies.

Mr. Lambert Imafidon Adonri, a senior stockbroker with the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) told Daily Times Nigeria in an interview that the economy moved into recession in 2015 and it further degenerated into stagflation.

Stagflation, a portmanteau of stagnation and inflation, is a situation in which the inflation rate is high, the economic growth rate slows, and unemployment remains steadily high.

He said that the stagflation which is reflects a general slowdown in economic activities affected every sector of the economy. “My own area, the capital market has been worst hit because when you have stagflation, investors try to hold back on investment.”

Adonri said that during the year, domestic investors have thinned, while foreign investors are not also taking advantage of the opportunities in the market.

“So we have a capital market that have slowed down considerably.” He said that the secondary market has been down by about 10 per cent, while the primary

market has been without activity over the years.

Generally for the capital market, it has long been set on a declining mode, and you know that the market is a reflection of the state of economy.

President, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr. Oluwaseyi Abe said in Lagos at the institute’s function, that it was because the country’s economy needed a double digit growth that prompted the theme of its recent annual conference, “Building New Pillars, Creating New Values for Sustainable Development” Abe said that new pillars and values to drive the nation’s economy could only be hinged on entrepreneurial ingenuity to be driven

by Small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs).

However he emphasised that the new target growth expected to drive the economy in the coming year should be hinged on progressive economic policies which would ensure business survival and growth “It is now clear than ever that sound fiscal and monetary policy, innovation and development of all value chains are necessary to revamp the Nigeria’s economy from its current recessionary status” Dr. Nike Akande, President Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) revealed during a conference that prevailing

issues that are weakening efforts at boosting production or business activities, had compounded the problems of the real sector because the widening gap between the official and parallel market foreign exchange rate , lack of liquidity in the foreign exchange market resulting in acute scarcity and mounting trade debts had resulted into increasing factory closure as many manufacturers were not able to access foreign exchange for raw materials.

They also include, many investors or manufacturers not being able to meet offshore obligations, mounting inflationary pressures and sharp drop in capital inflows.

Early this quarter, the LCCI in its elixir to take Nigeria out of recession, themed “steering the Nigerian economy out of recession” advocated for privatization of national assets, boosting forex supply through FDIs and lowering lending rate.

Other measures include, more coherent message from government on their plans and actions, and enactment of economic stabilization bill by the national assembly, According to the LCCI, the expected growth or gain recorded in the Q4 2016 would be a major driver for the expected growth in GDP as projected by key rating agencies.

Energy

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Daily Times Nigeria Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Inform buyers of production cut, UAE tells OPEC Opeoluwani Akintayo

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has urged the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) to inform its buyers about production cut figures by member-countries.

In November, OPEC agreed to cut production by 1.2 million barrels per day in order to increase oil prices.

“As you saw, the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] companies announced to the consumers that they are about to reduce (production) and we call on all OPEC members that committed to the cuts to take the same steps and inform markets and buyers about the reduction,” UAE energy minister, Suhail Al Mazroui told reporters in Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of a Ministry of Energy event recently.

Asked whether the UAE will

Sanusi Barkindo

OPEC Secretary General

further cut production to support oil prices after Saudi Arabia signalled that it is ready to cut production more than expected, Mazrouei said it’s “too early to speak” about taking additional steps.

“We took a decision already and we are committed to that decision. We don’t want to jump ahead by talking about additional steps (cuts),” he said.

On the impact of the OPEC decision on oil markets, the Minister said the decision will be positive in creating correction in the markets.

“When the market sees that the deal is in effect and they see the impact it has on reducing the oil surplus, we expect this to be positive in creating correction in the market.”

Last week, following OPEC’s cut agreement, oil companies from the Gulf said that they

IEA raises renewable growth forecast The International Energy Agency (IEA) has significantly increased its five-year growth forecast for renewables.

According to the agency, the increase was due to strong policy support in key countries and sharp cost reductions.

Renewables surpassed coal last year to become the largest source of installed power capacity in the world.

The latest edition of the IEA Medium-Term Renewable Market Report now sees renewables growing 13% more between 2015 and 2021 than it did in last year’s forecast, due mostly to stronger policy backing in the United States, China, India, and Mexico.

Over the forecast period, costs are expected to drop by a quarter in solar photovoltaic (PV) and 15 percent for onshore wind.

Last year marked a turning point for renewables. Led by wind and solar, renewables represented more than half the new power capacity around the world, reaching a record 153 gigawatt (GW), 15% more than the previous year. Most of these gains were driven by record-level wind additions of 66 GW and solar PV additions of 49 GW. About half a million solar panels were installed every day around the world last year. In China, which accounted for about half the wind additions and 40% of all renewable capacity increases, two wind turbines were installed every hour in 2015.

“We are witnessing a transformation of global power markets led by renewables and, as is the case with other fields, the center of gravity for renewable growth is moving to emerging

markets,” said Dr. Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director.

There are many factors behind this remarkable achievement: more competition, enhanced policy support in key markets, and technology improvements.

While climate change mitigation is a powerful driver for renewables, it is not the only one.

In many countries, cutting deadly air pollution and diversifying energy supplies to improve energy security play an equally strong role in growing low-carbon energy sources, especially in emerging Asia.

Over the next five years, renewables will remain the fastest-growing source of electricity generation, with their share growing to 28% in 2021 from 23% in 2015.

Renewables are expected to cover more than 60% of the

increase in world electricity generation over the medium term, rapidly closing the gap with coal. Generation from renewables is expected to exceed 7600 TWh by 2021 -- equivalent to the total electricity generation of the United States and the European Union put together today.

But while 2015 was an exceptional year, there are still grounds for caution. Policy uncertainty persists in too many countries, slowing down the pace of investments. Rapid progress in variable renewables such as wind and solar PV is also exacerbating system integration issues in a number of markets. The cost of financing remains a barrier in many developing countries.

Also, progress in renewable growth in the heat and transport sectors remains slow and needs significantly stronger policy

were slashing supplies.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) announced a cut of 3 to 5 percent from January, according to Reuters.

Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Kuwait also announced cuts and plan to inform customers about their decision.

Other members who are part of the deal are yet to make such announcements.

Non-OPEC producers, including Russia and Kazakhstan, also said they would reduce output by a total of 558,000 barrels per day.

Oil prices have surged to their highest level since mid2015 to trade above $57 per barrel.

Oil prices may rise even more once investors see that OPEC and other major producers are fulfilling an agreement to cut production to curb the global glut, Al Mazroui said.

efforts.

The IEA also sees a two-speed world for renewable electricity over the next five years. While Asia takes the lead in renewable growth, this only covers a portion of the region’s fast-paced rise in electricity demand. China alone is responsible for 40% of global renewable power growth, but that represents only half of the country’s electricity demand increase.

This is in sharp contrast with the European Union, Japan and the United States where additional renewable generation will outpace electricity demand growth between 2015 and 2021.

The IEA report identifies a number of policy and market frameworks that would boost renewable capacity growth by almost 30% in the next five years, leading to an annual market of around 200 GW by 2020. This accelerated growth would put the world on a firmer path to meeting long-term climate goals.

BP acquires major stake in Ghana, Senegal BP has signed agreements with Kosmos Energy. to acquire a 62 percent working interest, including operatorship, of Kosmos’ exploration blocks in Mauritania and a 32.49 percent effective working interest in Kosmos’ Senegal exploration blocks.

The acreage includes the Tortue field, estimated by Kosmos to contain more than 15 trillion cubic feet of discovered gas

resources. The total acreage, by Kosmos’ estimates, could contain roughly 50 Tcf of gas resource potential and in excess of 1 billion barrels of liquids resource potential.

BP will invest nearly $1 billion ($916 million), mostly in the form of a multi-year exploration and development carry, to acquire its stake in offshore Blocks C-6, C-8, C-12 and C-13 in Mauritania and interest in the Saint-Louis

Profond and Cayar Profond blocks in Senegal.

“BP’s entry into Mauritania and Senegal represents an exciting strategic opportunity to work with Kosmos Energy in an emerging world-class hydrocarbon basin,” BP CEO Bob Dudley said.

“We believe our expertise in integrating the gas value chain, together with a talented exploration partner in Kosmos,

along with the support of the Mauritanian and Senegalese governments brings together all the elements needed to create a new LNG hub in Africa,” he added.

Under the terms of the agreements, BP and Kosmos have agreed that Kosmos will remain the technical operator for the exploration phase of the project and drill three new exploration wells beginning in 2017.

In addition to the existing blocks, the companies have agreed to cooperate in areas of mutual interest in offshore Mauritania, Senegal and The Gambia with Kosmos acting as the exploration operator and BP as the development operator.

Subject to government approvals, the agreements are expected to close by the first quarter of 2017.

Can artistes survive without record label?

E-opinion:

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

TIMES

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Daily Times Nigeria

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Mutiat Alli

Healthy living in focus as Di’ja features in Glosponsored sitcom appearance on Globacom-sponsored TV drama series, Professor Johnbull, as the sitcom treats another topical issue today.

The data grandmasters said in a statement that healthy living through exercise as the second season enters Episode 9.

E-opinion: Can artistes survive without record label? gains.

Nigerian artistes, to a large extent, have done well for themselves. Even though they lack a proper structure, musicians in this clime, have endured and recorded songs under harsh operating conditions and a system that makes them do everything to mix out hits songs and market them.

The entertainment industry has lost many record labels, and availability of thousands of artistes-local, state and with the advent of hip hop music in Nigeria, and the success thereof, more opportunities have been opened up for singers and would-be singers. the artiste, working with producers, paying for and arranging studio time, mixing, mastering, graphics, packaging, distributing and marketing. The most important and expensive of these services, is marketing. Getting the word out to the masses is paramount to a successful album. Because of this, an artist will fare better with a record label performing these tasks for him/her.

The contract between the artist and record label usually stipulates that the artist is paid a percentage of net sales from all sources. Due to the underdevelopment of the entertainment business, a lot of things have been neglected.

In fact, Nigerian artistes do not honour contracts; and the

Life&

T E A M

for lack of major record labels in the country, do some things for themselves and bear much cost ultimately creating their own music company fashioned to cater for them alone. Some artistes, who create theirs sign in other artistes and because the label is fashioned to cater for them alone, ultimately make

Entertainment Correspondent Mutiat Alli

the artistes suffer.

It behooves on the government to create a more conducive environment to enable international labels to invest in the music industry. Many major record labels left the country when the environment was not conducive again for their survival, especially as, that the issue of piracy has not been tackled for long and this has hindered the distribution of musical labels.

In Nigeria, we have the major record and the independent labels, but it can be said that the independent labels are more in number. We sometimes argued whether an artiste can survive without a record label. In the Nigerian context, I can say YES, but in the long run, one can say NO. A lot of hip hop artistes have risen to fame without a record label; and later, they formed theirs.

Artistes like, Olamide, Patoranking and others, are examples of such artistes. Olamide was able to make a success in him because of the way he learnt the ropes; more so as, he leveraged on the experience of those who managed him.

According to Olamide, he practically slept for years learning a lot in the studio of ID Cabasa, owner of CODED Tunes, at Bariga; and the producer of Gongo Aso, by 9ice. Also, Tuface Music and Empire Mates Entertainment (EME) respectively, could not have assumed this success within a year, if they were on their own. Being a team and sound management will always excel more than the effort of one individual. Even a popular adage says, “Two good heads are better than one.”

Well, all I can say is that if our government can help attract investors into the music and entertainment industry, revive our economy; and as, well ensure security of lives and properties, things will be in a better shape; and artistes that create their own record labels will knock off and allow major record labels to manage their works and creativity. That, for me, is the future of record labels in Nigeria.

Society Correspondent Abimbola Obatayo

air at 8.30 p.m. on Tuesday on NTA Network, NTA International on DSTV Channel 251 and NTA on StarTimes, Globacom stated. There will also be a repeat broadcast on the same stations at 8.30 p.m. on Friday.

“The episode 9, Season 2 of Professor Johnbull promises the numerous fans of the sitcom a good what one needs to do to remain healthy and live well ful. It is an episode consciously produced to address the concern of many about their weights and body sizes and more importantly, it will help in educating viewers on the right way to go about watching their weigh without hazards to their health”, the company added. award-winning singer and Globacom brand ambasness Instructor in the episode.

Martins Nebo, Mercy Johnson Okojie, Funky Mallam, Ime Bishop, Stephen Odimgbe and Ogus Baba. best way to healthy living. They will also be treated to other posers as to why many people, especially young girls, go for jogging? Is there any correlation between losing weight and gluttony? Does sliming tea actually make people to slim down? What is the boundary between dieting and starvation?

Daily Times Nigeria

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

Teen World L3

Mutiat Alli

Ten problems teenagers face We live in a very competitive world today. We have so many challenges to face. This piece will help you to understand the lives and the concerns of the teenagers.

This will also give you a chance to understand your -

deal with it. As a parent, it may share a very friendly relationship with the child. Some teenagers, get really depressed and even try to commit suicide. These cases

Most of the parents of the teenage children will tell

very careful to deal with a situation like this. iv.

Constant need to look good: Many teenagers to-

children are facing.

ers can look gorgeous; as a result, the others who do

Here are some of the top 10 problems teenagers face to stay at home, as they are too fat and not attractive

catch him or her taking drugs. Give them the help and the support they need. It is also equally important that you explain to them the evil effect of drugs, and must

their dark skin or for not taking care of their diet as a child. You may feel really upset to see this form of your child and also feel very dejected. However, you must understand that the child is frustrated and needs your help.

If the child is very upset never leave them alone. Just listen to all that they have to say till they calm down. Leavv.

ii.

Study pressure: Teenagers today are under a

to enter good colleges. You must talk to the child and under pressure tend to cheat and if caught they have

t o perform. iii.

Pressure in a relationship: Many teenagers today are in relationships. This may also include physical involvement with a person. When teenagers are involved in unsafe sex, it can lead to pregnancy and also other sexually transmitvery strong as a parent when you need to deal with a situation like this. You must hit him or her. You must explain to them the pros and cons of a relationship and how they must

Constant pressure to excel in all aspects of life:

activities, so that the other kids in school admire them dren stress themselves much more than they can or they should. They spend hours studying or working too hard.

The parents must take good care of the child and see what exactly the child is doing. The parents must tell the kids to relax along with all the hard work that they are putting in. This is one reason many students get stress attacks, and also may suffer from high pressure at times. lenges in the teenagers. The parents are also equally undue pressure on the children to perform, which is not good for them. ers are not sure as to what life holds for them. Which a result, the students often feel depressed and are found lost or day dreaming. Some of them are very confused on what they should do and what career they should make. As a parent and teacher, you must give advice to the students and show them the way. If the child needs career counseling, then, you must provide that. One more reason teenagers get stressed is that they want to

vii.

Drinking and smoking: A common concern that all teenagers face, is drinking alcohol and smoking. If the teenagers are found drinking and smoking

as this is normal. However, if they are into too much of these, then, you must take action and deal with the centre. The teenagers may feel the need to smoke and drink due to the pressure that they are in from their friends and peers. viii. Depression: All the points that we have men-

teenagers is not a good sign, as it can ruin the future if the teenagers. The worst part is that the teenager may not know how exactly he or she is going to deal with the depression. This only increases the magni-

mood swings are common and natural. However, if the gerous and painful for the child, as well as, for the parteenagers trying to commit suicide are very common across the world. ix.

Addiction to the social network: Social netteenagers. If you check the Internet, you will see how teenagers are addicted to the net. They also invite

against the teenagers. They are so addicted at times that they spend a whole night updating their details on the sites. They do not sleep well and cannot even concentrate on their studies; as a result, they suffer a the most common challenges that the teenagers face today and cannot even get rid of. more common with the teenage girls. They fear that Due to this, they suffer from anaemia and anorexia. develop a lot of health-related complexities. This is

pline; and either they skip a meal or overeat at times.

may have a different dreams for them. also make the life of the students dif-

things that are healthy for them; hence, they suffer seriously.

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Daily Times Nigeria

Tuesday, December 27, 2016