Leadership news1

No. 451

N300

28.09.14

FOR GOD AND COUNTRY

nIgerIa'S MoSt InfLuentIaL newSPaPer

Leadership Newspapers

@leadershipNGA

Love Portion Saga: Son Impregnates Mother In Delta

More Soldiers to o face Court Martial Soon

untold Story of the Decaying 500-year-old Kano Dye Pits

News, PAGe 4

News, PAGe 6

Cover story, PAGe 13

Chibok Diary DAY 167

Security operatives Keep abandoned Chibok girl away from family > Page 2

PresiDeNtiAL CANDiDAte

APC In Serious Test Over Electoral College 5

Delegates may include 8,812 ward chairmen, 3 delegates per LG, others Procedure divides aspirants N’west tAN rALLy

Lamido, yero, Dakingari, shekarau Absent

By ABuBAkAR SAliHi, Kano, iSAiAH BENJAMiN, Kaduna AND yAHAyA SARki, Kebbi

The governors of Jigawa, Kebbi, and Kaduna states, Alhaji Sule Lamido, Sa’idu Dakingari and Ramalan Yero, education minister, Malam Ibrahim Shekarau and other chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were absent at the North West rally organised by Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, after he was turbaned Mutawallen Sokoto by the Sultan of Sokoto, Dr. Sa’ad Abubakar, in his palace, yesterday. photo by SpEAKER’S MEDIA oFFICE

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Sunday, September 28, 2014

chibok diary 167 DAY

ChibOK quOteS #BringBackOurGirls

@Sophy_E Day 165 #bringbackourgirls let's not forget to pray for our missing girls @RepWilson No matter how many days go by, we will not rest until our girls are home.

It's a humanitarian disaster if the world leaves these girls behind @sesugh_akume 125 days ago today, Nigeria's defence chief Air Marshal Alex Badeh said they know where the #ChibokGirls are. @eggheader Those who stood stoically in claims that NO GIRL was abducted are now the first to announce release of the girls! #BringBackOurGirls @MJPlitnick We've turned our backs. No oil there: Remember BringBackOurGirls?

This Is What Has Happened In the 5 Months Since @ibrahim099 Chibok Girls?

Missing! Air force plane? Missing!

Crude Oil? Missing! $20Billion? Missing!

Let's ensure that Aso Rock is not missing COMPILED BY MICHAEL OCHE

a bold banner with “reSCUe oUr ChiBok GirLS� during one of the village meetings at the Unity fountain, abuja, recently. photo by pAtRICK EbI AMANAMA

Security Operatives Keep Abandoned Chibok Girl Away From Family

BY Chika Mefor and ejike ejike, Abuja

The fate of the abandoned Chibok girl, Susan Ishaya, has remained unknown as Nigeria security operatives have taken over her upkeep and kept her from relating with her family members.

Speaking to LEADERSHIP Sunday on phone yesterday, a member of the Chibok community in Abuja, who pleaded anonymity, stated that, "Right now, we don't know what is happening to Susan. The girl is very ill, and should be given proper medical attention first before being used to gather information by the security operatives."

Also, the #BringBackOurGirls group raised alarm over the health of the girl, noting that there should be concerted efforts toward addressing Nigerians about the situation of things with the girl.

The group, however, noted that though getting information on the whereabouts of others are important, the security operatives, who have kept the abandoned girls secluded from her family members should also take good care of her health.

Susan Ishaya was found abandoned after an obvious issue of health, thereby forcing the Boko Haram sect to drop her off at Kalaha, a remote village in Borno State.

The girl, who was recently confirmed to be four months pregnant, was later discovered and identified by students in the village, where she had explained that she was driven in a golf car to that area and abandoned for two days.

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our stand Sunday, September 28, 2014

Still On The $9.3m Deal

S

ince the misadventure in South Africa, where a privately-owned aircraft from Nigeria with two Nigerians and an Israeli on board was intercepted as they tried to move into that country with $9.3million, purportedly for transactions relating to the purchase of arms, the federal government has been trying to explain its role in the matter. Initially, it claimed that the deal was an intelligence one, as part of efforts to resolve, once and for all, the insurgency imbroglio in the north-eastern part of the country.

Arms’ purchase, in certain circumstances, is deliberately made a covert operation. That is how weapons are made available to regimes and rebels who are supposedly under sanctions.

Those involved ensure they cannot be traced. But Nigeria is neither a rebel group nor under sanctions. There is the argument in some official quarters that efforts to procure arms from traditionally friendly countries like the United States were not quite successful. Therefotre, in a state of desperation, this covert operation that went wrong became inevitable.

We sympathise with the government in this regard, even as

we, however, insist that other channels were not explored before the South African option was chosen. The presidency claims that the authorities of South Africa were aware of the operation. Much as we feel for the government, with the security situation in the country and the anxiety it has generated, we argue that the South African deal could have been handled in a more expert manner.

It is pertinent to observe that since the whole saga broke open, the defence minister, General Aliyu Gusau (rtd), a supposed expert on security issues and who ought to have been at the fore of such a deal, has maintained a dignified silence. He

Ag. Editor Auwal Sa’id Mu’azu Deputy Editor Kazeem Akintunde Editorial Board Safiya M. Adamu, Chairman Christian Ochiama, Deputy Chairman Standards Aniebo Nwamu, Director ’Lara Olugbemi, Assistant Director

has not deemed it fit to even acknowledge the issue with a statement. For someone who would have been the recipient of the purchased goods, his silence can only be described as curious. His attitude so far has created room for political hirelings to further compound the embarrassing situation through unguarded comments that tend to politicise what is essentially a security matter. Typically, there are already allegations that some members of the House of Representatives received $50,000 each as bribe money, to quash a motion to debate the matter. As this confusing scenario played out, the United States government denied the allegation that it frustrated moves by the Nigerian government to purchase arms from it.

We hasten to point out that Nigeria is acknowledged worldwide as a regional power. If the country has genuine need to do arms deals, many countries would be only too eager to do business with it. There would not have been any need for this under the table deal that is threatening to rubbish the intentions for which the arms were ordered. We hope that this unfortunate mix-up will not affect adversely the campaign against the insurgents.

Founder Sam Nda-Isaiah Chairman Hajiya Ireti Kingibe Group Managing Director Azubuike Ishiekwene Group Executive Directors Michael Okpere Dr Kazeem Durodoye Divisional Directors Iyobosa Uwugiaren Ademola Oladosu Salisu Alhassan Bichi General Managers Aminu Abubakar Sule Abdulmumin Balogun Zipporah D. Tanko Joy Adekanye

Leadership Holdings

Managing Director Abraham Nda-Isaiah Executive Director Nnamdi Samuel New York Office Mohammed Bello Shehu London Office Dr Bello Salihu Johannesburg Office Abiodun Oguntuase

LEADERSHIP is a national paper symbolically embedded in the nation’s capital.

We shall stand up for good governance. We shall defend the interest of Nigerian people even against their rulers, and we shall raise our pen at all times in defence of what is right. These are the values by which we intend to be assessed.

We shall never, ever for any reason forget the noble reason of our coming into being: For God and country!

4 news across the states

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Why We adopted Jonathan As Consensus Candidate – Mohammed

by Michael Oche , Abuja

Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Integration Committee in North Central Zone and former minister of defence, Dr Bello Haliru Mohammed has attributed his motion at the recent National Executic Council, (NEC) meeting of the PDP to adopt President Goodluck Jonathan as president in 2015 to the record of achievements of his administration in the

past few years.

Mohammed, who spoke in Makurdi, the Benue State capital at the weekend at a meeting with PDP chieftains, said since the constitution provides for two terms, the president and his deputy, Arch Namadi Sambo “should be allowed to go for another term.

“You see, what we did at the national executive council is to say we have achieved a lot. The ticket which we presented has achieved.

So, how can we break a winning team? We have Goodluck Jonathan/Namadi ticket; they came and they are working. Nigerians are happy, PDP is happy. Why would we want to go to the path of primaries?

We said since the president has completed one term and the constitution provides two terms for him, we said it is better to adopt him and Sambo”, Mohammed said.

He lauded the speaker of Benue State House of Assembly, Barr Ter-

hile Ayua for moving another motion to adopt the president to continue in office in 2015. The motion was seconded by Hon Mike Iduma, a one” time PDP chairman in the state.

Mohammed who was an acting national chairman of PDP and presently a member of the party’s BOT hailed members of the party for the endorsement, saying it became imperative for the party to honour President Goodluck Jonathan.

L-R: Oba of Benin, Omo N’ Oba N’ Edo Uku Akpolokpolo; President Goodluck Jonathan; Vice President Namadi Sambo and Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole during the president’s visit to the Oba’s palace in Benin, Edo State, yesterday. PHOTO BY

Love Portion Saga: Son Impregnates Mother In Delta A 19-year-old Abel (surname withheld) recently promoted to SS 3 in one of the secondary schools in Asaba, Delta State has allegedly put his mother in the family way after he had a carnal knowledge with her few months ago.

Reports said that the boy, popularly called Ekenem, was said to have consulted a native doctor, who allegedly prepared a love charm for him to use on his mother and one of the matrons in the college where he is a boarding student.

Although sources said the act committed by the boy still remains

a misery to those in the know, but the father of the boy, a Port Harcourt based businessman was said to have reported the matter to the police.

DSP Celestina Kalu, police public relations officer in the state, who confirmed the report, disclosed that the boy has been arrested over threat to life and other related acts, adding that the police were still investigating the circumstances of the pregnancy.

As it were, it was reliably gathered that the husband of the woman has been away for some time outside his Port Harcourt operational base, saying that he was not in anyway re-

sponsible for the pregnancy upon interrogation.

But the victim, the suspect’s mother while speaking to journalists said, “I did not know how it all happened, but all I can say is that a young man who looked like my son suddenly found his way into my room at wee hours and I was speechless”, adding that the whole exercise had remained inexplicable.

Expectedly, when it was discovered that it was not the husband who was responsible for the pregnancy, the doctor who carried out the pregnancy test on her but did not want his name on the print said, “upon completion of the pregnan-

cy test, the suspect confided in him of the love charm that was used on the mother”.

Speaking at the police headquarters to journalists, the suspect said, “I am deeply sorry for all that has happened, I did not mean to do this. I saw myself falling in love with her after the love charm prepared for me. I have to confess because I know by so doing, God will touch her mind and I know she will forgive me. I suddenly found that I was making love to mum when I thought the charm will not work, and upon the revelation I threatened to kill her and the matter was reported to the police”, he said.

Rtean Lagos Council Protests Alleged Imposition Of Chairmanship Candidate

By Michael Oche, Abuja

The battle for who takes over as chairman of the Lagos State branch of Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) took a twist as over one hundred zonal chairmen, yesterday in Abuja, protested what they called an attempt to impose a candidate by the state government as their overall chairman.

The union leaders and their members, who besieged the national headquarters of the asso-

Normalcy is gradually returning to Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital following Friday’s violent protest that greeted the assasination of the former state chairman of National Union of Road Transport Workers, Mr Omolafe Aderiye.

Resident were seen going about their normal activities in parts of the city on Saturday after observing the first day of curfew imposed on the state by the government on Friday.

Though vehicular movement and commuters were still minimal around the Old Garage,Oja Oba, Fajuyi, Ajilosun, Dalimore, Ijigbo and Irona, people were still moving around with their hands raised up.

Market women were also seen displaying some of their wares around the market while shop owners waited at the entrance of their locked shops waiting for their customers.

Soldiers, conventional and anti-riot policemen were also seen moving around the town while some of them man strategic areas like Ijigbo roundabout, Old Garage and Okesa round about.

By Alo Abiola, Ado-Ekiti

REMI AKUNLEYAN.

By Kola Eke-Ogiugo, Asaba

Normalcy Returns To AdoEkiti After Friday Protest

ciation in Abuja with placards bearing different inscriptions, alleged that since their former chairman, Adefowoku Olorode, passed on about three months ago, there have been underground scheming by some agents of the state government within the union to install a candidate loyal to the government.

The prostesters carried inscriptions with write-up such as: “Surelere Zone supports Musa Muhammed”, “We Chairmen said Yoruba has done it, Del-

ta has done it, Igbo has done it, Now Hausa must do it”, “No Tribalism in RTEAN”, “We Chairmen are for Musa Muhammed”.

They argued that the current chairman of the union’s care taker committee, Muhammad Musa, who has piloted the affairs of the union since the demise of the late Olorode should be allowed to emerge as the chairman of Lagos State chapter of RTEAN. While passing a vote of confidence in the care-

taker committee chairman, one of the chairmen, who presented the union’s grievances before the national president of the union, Olalekan Amusan, said that, Musa had within three months brought stability to the association in the state.

He noted that out of many aspirants jostling for the position, the Kano-born transporter remains the only one capable of carrying everyone along and protect the interest of the association.

Nigeria Can Overcome Its Security Challenges – Polish Envoy The Ambassador of the Republic of Poland to Nigeria, Przemysław Niesiołowski, has said that despite the current security challenges in the north-east, Nigeria would emerge and overcome its crisis just like Poland.

The envoy said that the essence of exhibiting the photographs of Nigerian photographers and journalists sent on a trip to Poland and Germany in Abuja was to celebrate the excellent relations between Poland and Germany as well as pass a message across to Nigeria that despite their differences, they would always emerge victorious.

“This is a message we want to pass across to Nigeria, that no matter what is perceived right now as divisions between religious, ethnic groups, settlers and indigenes that make up Nigeria, it can be overcome because we lost between 6 to 8 million of our citizens during the Second World War, most of whom were victims of the invasions by Nazi-Germany.”

Niesiołowski explained that Poland overcame her challenges through consultations, dialogue, and exchange of people going to Germany and coming to Poland.

By Chika Okeke, Abuja

Sunday, September 28, 2014

APC In Serious Test LIVING TO BE 100 Over Electoral College One health tip daily

By Bayo Oladeji, Abuja

Don’t limit saturated fats and don’t ever opt for ‘Iowfat’ or hydrogenated foods The supposedly ‘good fats’- polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils (corn, soy, safflower and the like)-appear to predispose people to cancer, whereas animal fats may be protective, preventing heart disease, osteoporosis and even cancer. Two large studies show that regularly consuming more saturated fats leads to less disease progression than following a diet higher in polyunsaturated fats and carbs of But avoid transfats- produced by ‘hydrogenation; when hydrogen is added to liquid vegetable oil to make it solid at room temperature-as they’re linked to greater risks of heart disease and strokes’

Lamido, Yero, Dakingari, Shekarau Absent ➔ FROM COVER

the Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) in Kano State.

Even though most of them gave reasons for their inability to attend the rally yesterday, their absence took the shine off the highly-publicised event.

Only one governor was present - Governor Ibrahim Shema of Katsina State.

Governor Yero’s absence, according to his spokesperson, was because he had to travel to the United States of America (USA). He said, “The governor, before the date of the North West rally was fixed, had accepted to present a paper at the Nigeria Young Professional’s programme, which held today and could not disappoint them.”

Maiyaki said that the governor was, however, ably represented at the Kano rally by his deputy, Ambassador Nuhu Audu Bajoga, who led a highpowered delegation from the state.

In the case of Kebbi State, neither Governor Saidu Dakingari nor his deputy, Alh Ibrahim Aliyu were present. When contacted, the chief press secretary to the governor, Abubakar Muazu Dakingari explained that Dakingari was absent be-

Jonathan

Lamido

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As the build up to the 2015 general elections gathers momentum, the All Progressives Congress is faced with a major challenge on how to choose the party’s presidential flag bearer.

Last week, key organs of the party, which comprise the National Caucus and National Executive Committee NEC, rose from separate meetings without reaching an agreement.

However, a source at one of the meetings told LEADERSHIP Sunday that there were strong indications that the Electoral College or indirect option, could be presented to the National Working Committee’s next meeting.

The source explained that about 15,000 delegates would participate in this process.

The delegates comprise all the 8,812 Ward Chairmen of the party (minus members of the executive), the statutory delegates of the party, and 3 delegates each from the 774 local governments across the country totalling 2,322.

According to the source, the 3 delegates for each of the 774 local governments would emerge through a special congress to be organized by the party before the national convention.

The source, however, expressed worry that using an electoral college of 15,000 delegate to choose a presidential candidate in a party with 32 million registered members could create serious legitimacy issues.

The source said, “The first problem you are going to have is that the party’s constitution does not confer either the party chairman at the centre or his equivalent at the state, local government or ward levels with the role of being delegates at the party’s congress.

“Reading Sections 14 (1) of the party’s constitution and 15 (b) clearly shows that party chairmen are supposed to perform purely administrative roles. These provisions do not envisage that they would be delegates to the congress.”

The source further said that the situation is compounded by the fact that while only the ward chairmen will be eligible delegates for the presidential primaries, both they and their executives will be involved in all the other primaries.

“The inconsistency does not make sense and could expose the party to serious post-primary litigations,” the source added.

Aspirants differ on procedure

Presidential aspirants and chieftains of the party are divided over an acceptable method to be used in selecting the party’s presidential candidate for the next year’s election.

Checks by the LEADERSHIP Sunday revealed that while the likes of General Muhammadu Buhari and Mr Sam Nda-Isaiah are routing for direct primaries, former vice president Atiku Abubakar prefers modified direct primaries, while Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankaso of Kano State is indifferent to the debate.

Speaking through his political adviser, Yusuf Chiroma Kutama, Governor Kwankwaso last night said, “We are in support of whichever method the leadership of the party prefers. We are loyal to the party and either the Direct Primaries or the Modified Primaries are welcome.”

But speaking for the Founder of the LEADERSHIP Group, Mr Sam Nda-Isaiah, his spokesman, Hosea Kpuchi, said the campaign organisation of his principal wants direct primaries.

According to him, “Direct primaries would bring an outcome that is acceptable to every member of the party,” adding “it is more democratic”.

Kupchi said direct primaries would give a sense of belonging to all card-carrying members of the party, since they would all be involved in electing the presidential candidate and prevents a situation where “delegates would be bought by moneybags.”

However, those kicking against the method argued that indirect primaries would be cost-effective, and would prevent governors or chieftains of the party at the state level from hijacking the process.

Specifically, the Atiku Campaign Organisation is of the opinion that the party does not have what it takes to conduct direct primaries, tracing the call to “those who want to impose a certain candidate on the party.”

The Buhari Campaign Organisation also claimed the only reason why Atiku prefers indirect primaries was to enable him (Atiku) “have a smooth sail”.

Atiku, who spoke through his spokesman, Garba Shehu, said he was not scared of any method adopted, but is opposed to “any undemocratic process going by the name of consensus, imposition or anointment”.

“One thing I like you to get clear from the beginning is that we in the Atiku Campaign Organisation are not scared of primaries, in whichever form

NEWS 5

Oyegun

or way the party agrees to do it,” he said, adding that “Our candidate is a democrat. What he is opposed to is any undemocratic process going by the name of consensus, imposition or anointment. Back in the PDP, if you remember, he dragged the party to court and won on these issues with a resounding victory.

“The decision of our campaign to support the Modified Direct Primary is not because of anything but for its practical applicability. If you say you want direct primary, how can you get all registered APC voters to take part?

“That would mean you will be setting up a vote in every polling booth, doing the same thing as INEC is doing. It will be the same thing as a general election. Where do you have the resources, the manpower, the time and the security support for this?

“Secondly, don’t forget that the figure of the registered members is not a settled issue in many states. There are many places in which it is being disputed. Besides, it keeps changing every day. New members are coming in and some are also leaving us. How do you deal with this?”

Speaking further, he said, “Those who argued for direct primaries also need to factor in the fact that there is no way you take the process from the hands of governors if you allow it to take place in the states.

“The genuine fear on the part of some people is that in nearly each state, they may just end up writing the results or where this is not possible, breathe down on the necks of local officials to do as they wish.”

But in a swift reaction, a member of the National Working Committee of the party who is a political ally of Gener➔ CONTINUED ON PAGE 6

6 NEWS

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Lamido, Yero, Dakingari, Shekarau Absent ➔ FROM PAGE 5

cause he travelled, with his deputy, to Saudi Arabia for the holy pilgrimage, but sent the secretary to the state government to represent him.

Sule Yau, the media aide of former Kano State governor and minister of education Ibrahim Shekarau, said the minister could not make it to the rally because he was part of the delegation to this year’s United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The rally, which took place at the Kano Polo Ground off Independence Road, had a heavy security presence, as all the roads leading to the emir’s palace and Independence Road were barricaded.

Katsina State governor, Ibrahim Shehu Shema said

at the rally that his state has been a PDP state from 1999 and that he hoped it would remain with the PDP. He noted that the people of Katsina State have no country other than Nigeria and that together, they would work for the unity, oneness and progress of Nigeria.

Also, the minister of foreign affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali gave the assurance that PDP was a party for the majority of the good people of Kano, while former political adviser to President Jonathan on political affairs and PDP gubernatorial aspirant, Dr Akilu Sani Indabawa, and the secretary to the government of the federation, Anyim Pius Anyim, called on Nigerians to rally round president Goodluck Shekarau Jonathan.

yero

dakingari

delegate. But who can buy 32 million people? All we need to do is to decentralise, by having designation centres as polling units or wards, and it is open, unlike indirect primary that is too complex and very expensive to organise. If we follow it, the national convention of

the party would only meet to ratify the candidate,” he added.

All efforts to hear from the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, were unrewarded as he neither picked his phone nor responded to the question sent to him on the matter.

APC In Serious Test Over Electoral College ➔ FROM PAGE 5

al Buhari, argued that the only option that would be crisisfree and which would make the candidate acceptable to all and sundry is the direct primaries.

“Direct primary is better than the modified direct pri-

mary because it involves all the card-carrying members of the party. “Whoever emerges as the candidate would be acceptable to everyone who took part in the process. But asking 15,000 or more to decide the candidate for over 32 million APC members nationwide

would be undemocratic.

“We have used the direct primary in Adamawa bye-election governorship, the outcome was acceptable. If you say only 20,000 should decide for the party, some of the presidential aspirants are moneybags who can afford to give $1m to every

More Soldiers To Face Court Martial Soon by bayo oladeji, Abuja

As controversy continues to follow the death sentence passed on September 16 2014 by the General Court Martial on 12 soldiers, more soldiers are soon to be arraigned for similar charges, as the military authorities embark upon a process to sanitise the army.

LEADERSHIP SUNDAY recalls that the General Court Martial, under the leadership of Brigadier General CC Okonkwo, sentenced 12 soldiers to death by firing squad for attempting to kill the then commander, 7 Division of the army, General Ahmadu Mohammed, an offence that amounted to mutiny.

While the military authorities said the verdict was constitutional since their trial followed due process, as all the convicted and those discharged and acquitted were given a fair trial, a section of the human rights community has vowed not to allow their execution.

Despite the stiff opposition to the sentence, investigations show that some soldiers, who have been indicted by one panel or the other in some army formations, are about to be brought to Abuja to face similar charges.

“We have our laws that guide all our actions and any officer

who breaks any would face the consequences. Those who are trying to discredit the trial of those 12 that were convicted are not helping the military and the country. Discipline makes the military and without that, even the people are not safe,” a serving general at the Defence Headquarters said.

According to him, there were still other soldiers in different army formations that were yet to be brought for trial, saying that would be done as soon as practicable.

“There is a need for sanity in the military, especially in a time like this. Imagine a situation where soldiers were asked to go for an operation and some are disobeying orders. Some even dropped their arms during the operation and ran away. What kind of soldiers are they?

“Some would be saying they wanted to go and do UN peacekeeping operations, where they would be given hard currencies.

All these are not acceptable in the military. This cannot continue. In the military, officers literally think for the soldiers, but some people are using the media to preach the reversal of that order. This is absolutely impossible,” he said.

Although speculated that some of the suspects had been brought to Moghadisu Barracks, Abu-

ja, where those convicted were tried, the army authorities have debunked the claim.

“It is true some soldiers have committed one crime or the other, which was against the military laws in various formations nationwide, but none of them has been brought to Abuja for trial.

A new General Army Court Martial has not been inaugurated and once this is done, the media would be told,” the spokesman for the Army Headquarters Garrison, Col Aliyu Yusuf explained.

In a related development, investigation has shown that another problem confronting the ongoing counter-insurgency effort is the fact that the Boko Haram sect is using arms belonging to the troops to fight them, thanks to the activities of some unscrupulous saboteurs in the military.

A serving general, who made this disclosure explained that although the military had more than enough to contain the terrorists, some saboteurs within were helping those who want to balkanise the country to arm themselves at the expense of the military.

Criticism siuggesting that the Bko Haram terrorists were better armed than the military was faulted when the general presented pictures of impounded arms and ammunition recovered from

the sect yesterday.

Not a few of the political elite, including the governor of Borno State, Ibrahim Shettima, have accused the government of poor funding of the troops and recently, President Goodluck Jonathan was forced to ask the National Assembly to approve funds for him to purchase arms for the military.

But in an interaction with three generals during the week in Abuja, they explained in detail how military arms find their way into the hands of the Boko Haram terrorists, which they in turn use against the Nigerian troops.

According to them: • There are some saboteurs within the military who disclose to the terrorists where the arms are kept and they encourage them to burgle the stores and cart away them.

• Some of the soldiers, either consciously or unconsciously, get to the war front, become ‘vegetables’, abandone their arms.

The terrorists collect them and use them to fight the troops.

• Some saboteurs, for whatever reason, take some of the arms and exchange them for money with the insurgents.

badeh

•

Boko Haram insurgents get only a handful of their arms from their international colleagues like Al Qaeda.

Responding to why they had not made the information known to the public, one of the generals said, “It is a shame to be telling these kinds of stories to the public. This is why we stopped publishing the pictures of the arms recovered from the terrorists, because you would see the insignia of the Nigerian Army on them.”

news across the states 7

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Nigeria: US Deeply Concerned Over 2015 General Elections, Insecurity ABIODUN OLUWAROTIMi, New York

The United States government yesterday showed its concern over the uncertainties surrounding the conduct of the forthcoming 2015 general elections in Nigeria, warning that the government of Nigeria should be cautious so as to make it a bloodless exercise.

Speaking in Washington DC in his capacity as the deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, Mr David Gilmour, stated that the present terrorist activities in Nigeria pose lots of dangers to the conduct of the general elections which have already been

fixed for February, 2015.

Mr Gilmour pressed further that the American government certainly hoped for a robust and broad political discussion as well as free, fair, open and credible elections in Nigeria.

He added that the US government had ongoing programmes in support of Nigeria’s democratic institutions, stressing that the Obama-led administration was always ready to help in bringing American experts to advise on democratic processes and the rule of law.

“So this is an ongoing effort of ours that we’re always doing. And we can get you some more details

on what’s being done in particular in Nigeria. But yeah, certainly, it’s something that we’re interested in supporting”, he noted.

On insecurity, the US official explained that Boko Haram threatens not only the stability of Nigeria, but the entire African region, adding that long before the world’s attention was captured by the brutal kidnapping of hundreds of young women and girls in Chibok, the US had been working with Nigeria and its neighbors to address the growing threat from Boko Haram.

He said: “Sadly, the Chibok girls and women are not the only victims of Boko Haram’s brutality

and terrorism. More than 2,000 persons have been victimized by Boko Haram’s violence this year alone and recent events in Borno State and in Cameroon’s far north are evidence of this, and we’re deeply concerned about the security of Maiduguri in the near and in the long-term. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes, some into Cameroon, Chad, and Niger”, he said.

He, however, urged Nigeria and all the countries confronting terrorism to invoke a comprehensive approach that will bring both civilian and security tools to the fight adding that the US was committed to supporting Nigeria.

A gymnasts on a solo performance opposite the Yar’Adua centre, Abuja.

EBI AMANAMA

Police Recover N8.9m From Robbers In A/Ibom Police in Akwa Ibom says they have recovered the sum of N8.9 million from hoodlums who attacked and robbed the manager of a telecommunications company in Uyo. The new police commissioner in the state, Mr Gabriel Achong, who disclosed this yesterday in Uyo at a press briefing, said the

hoodlums armed with locally made pistols, robbed the manager of the company, who was on his way to a bank in Ikot Ekpene LGA to lodge the money, shot his driver on the leg during the operation and bolted with the cash.

He explained that the suspects, who used motorcycles for the operation, were chased by police detectives following a distressed call and succeeded in

causing the robbers to abandon their loot and escaped into the bush with one of them carrying gun shot.

Achong said that the command also arrested over 37 suspected criminals involved in various crimes across the state in the past two months.

The crime of the suspects, according to him included attempted infanticide, vandalization,

kidnappings, possession of fake currency and stolen vehicles.

He hinted that five children stolen from their parents were also rescued by the police and had been re-united with their parents.

The children stolen by gunmen and later rescued, the commissioner said, were between the age brackets of a day old and 13 years.

Insecurity: Kumuyi Advocates Fervent Prayers As Panacea For Terrorism

BY SOLOMON AYADO, Makurdi

The general overseer of the Deeper Life Christian Church, Bishop W.F Kumuyi has said that the dastardly activities of Boko Haram and general insecurity situation in the country can only be remedied by fervent prayers.

The clergy stated this during his spiritual visit to Makurdi, Benue state as part of his nationwide

Nigerian youths under the auspices of Youths Ask for Jonathan Again (YAGA) have called on Nigerians irrespective of their political and religious affiliation to support the Federal Government in the fight against insurgency in Nigeria, in order to restore peace and tranquillity back to the country.

Mr Abayomi Ogunnowo, director general of the youth body, who made this call on behalf of the youth in a press conference, commended the effort of the federal government led by President Goodluck Jonathan in taking the fight against the dreaded Boko Haram.

Ogunnowo said the commitment of President Jonathan in the fight against insurgency and also delivering of democracy dividends to Nigerians, is a clear indication that he deserves to run for a second term in office as President of Nigeria.

“We the youths believe that President Jonathan deserves a second term as President of Nigeria.

Before Goodluck Jonathan became President of Nigeria, the distribution of federal resources (appointments and projects) followed disturbing pattern of inequity and selective marginBy Igho Oyoyo, Abuja

Philanthropist Bags Peace Award

PHOTO BY PATRICK

By Bernard Tolani Dada, Uyo

Youths Urge Nigerians To Support FG Against Insurgency

tour to offer prayers on the lingering security challenges facing the country.

Kumuyi emphasized the need for the people to come together not minding religious differences. He noted that disharmony, insincerity and lack of tolerance is propelling insecurity, saying the people especially, politicians, should truthfully adhere to their respective callings to make the

nation better.

According to him, there is need for mitigation on how people should live in peace and that rapid development cannot thrive except unity, peaceful coexistence and love for one another is embraced by the people.

“There are a lot of security challenges everywhere in the country and that is why we need fervent prayers to tackle it. The

people must live together in peace and harmony to bring the desired development the nation needs.

“Fervent prayers are needed.

Christians and Muslims must come together to enhance peace. On politics, I think people should have respect for their callings and be more sincere to make the nation better,” Kumuyi stated.

A foremost philanthropist, Chief Chiedu Ezeudu has bagged the peace award as part of his contribution to the enforcement of peace in the society.

The conferment of the award, which took place recently, was bestowed on him by the Universal Peace Federation. The event coincided with the celebration of the international day of peace in Abuja.

At the ceremony, Chief Ezeudu, who could not hide his emotion, said the award was an encouragement for him to do more. According to him, there is a need for everyone to build tfhe culture of peace in the family, schools and the communities especially in these days of restiveness in the country.

Peace, he said, should be inculcated in the curriculum of education so that right from infancy, everyone will imbibe the culture and build a sane society devoid of violence.

In his contribution at the event, the president of Frank Woopel Incorporation, Chief Frank Okoye called on youths to embrace peace and shun violence. He commended Chief Ezeudu for his contribution towards building peace in the society.

By Blessing Ukemena, Abuja

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Sunday, September 28, 2014

news across the states 9

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Katsina First Lady Donates Cash To Disabled No fewer than two thousand disabled persons received essential commodities and cash donation of ten thousand naira each from Katsina State First Lady, Hajiya Fatima Shema.

The beneficiaries who suffer from different forms of deformities were selected from 34 council areas of the state. They recieved insecticide treated mosquitoe nets among others.

Launching the distribution in Ingawa Village, Mrs Shema said the gesture was informed by the need to give the disabled persons a new lease of life even as she urged them to use the cash donation to start a small scale business within their localities.

She assured that her NGO, Service To Humanity Foundation, would continue to render selfless service even after the expiration of the tenure of her husband.

In a speech, the chairman of Ingawa local government, Husseini Dambo, lauded the first lady for her support to the less privilleged and assured that the council area would consolidate on her initiatives.

“We are not in any way surprise because you are the Uwar Marayun Hausa, a title bestowed on you in recognition of your support to the less privilleged. We pray God to guide you as you continue with your selfless service.

By Muazu Elazeh, Katsina

Niger Govt completes bridge On River Kaduna Niger State government yesterday announced the completion of work on the N2.590 billion bridge across River Kaduna along Shiroro dam in the Shiroro local government area of the state.

The commissioner for Works and Infrastructural Development, Alhaji Mohammed Muazu Bawa said at a news conference yesterday in Minna that the bridge will soon be commissioned.

Bawa said the bridge constructed by a Chinese firm is 490meters long and the longest bridge to be constructed by the administration aimed at boosting social and economic activities of the area.

He said that contract for the project was re- awarded in September 2013 with a completion period of 14 months but the project was completed within 12 month an indication that the company delivered before the scheduled time.

Similarly he announced the completion of the Rijau-Dukku 48kilometer road project constructed with N6.2billion adding that both the Shiroro bridge and the Rijau- Dukku road projects were financed from the N9billion bond collected from the capital market by the administration.

By Abu Nmodu , Minna

A cross section of participant at the North West TAN rally in Kano.

PHOTO by JOSeph Ogoh.

NDE Boss Task Youths On self-Reliance

By Michael Oche, Abuja

The director general of the National Directorate of Employment (NDE), Abubakar Mohammed, has urged youths across the country to shun idleness and embrace various skills provided by the government so as to become self-reliant.

Speaking in Abuja during the official commissioning of the NDE model skills acquisition centre in Abuja, Mohammed said youths must seek

to be self-reliant He said, “To the youth in general, you do not have any reason to remain idle at home. Learn some vocational skills. It is a vehicle for you to reassert your own dignity, occupy a productive place and feel useful and contribute positively to the family, community and the nation at large.

It is better to have marketable vocational skills and never use them, than not to have them because one day, you will need them.

He therefore urged the youths within the FCT to take this wonderful opportunity at their door steps and make themselves useful to their family, community and the nation. the NDE has a responsibility to the youth, particularly the unemployed persons and other socially disadvantaged group. He called for proper maintenance of the facility, urging the staff “not to allow this centre to be occupied by rodents and reptiles” Speaking further NDE boss said

4 Injured In Akwa Ibom Poly Students’ Unrest

By Bernard Tolani Dada,Uyo

No fewer than four persons were injured yesterday following violent students protest that crippled administrative and academic activities at the Campus of the Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic at Ikot Osura.

Sources said that the students leaders under the aegis of the Joint Executive Council of Associations on Campus Association (JECAC), called out their members in protest over management’s refusal to allow students union government activities to thrive in the school.

Prior to yesterday’s protest, the students’ council had earlier met on September 9, 2014, to impress it on the school management led by Mr

Israel Affia to conduct the SUG elections in accordance with the constitution of the students’ body.

The communiqué signed by some 37 students leaders across all academic departments of the school, asked management to comply with the directive or risk students’ unrest in the institution.

The communique signed by comrade Akan Iidongest Eyo, chairman of the committee; the secretary, comrade Ibanga Micheal and 35 others reads: “It is the constitutional right of every Nigerian students to vote and be voted for as contained in the solidarity constitution of the SUG of Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic. The continuous denial of our right is capable of causing the eruption of major stu-

dents unrest”, it said.

Asking management to follow through this resolution before the end of this month, the aggrieved students, who recalled that the suspension of students’ union activities had been in force in the institution in the last 12 years, said they could no longer bottle up their anger over the infringement of their rights by management.

The union gathered that since the era of Mr Eddy Etim as the rector over 12 years ago, students have been paying their SUG dues, adding that management had always collected the dues and pay deaf ears to the genuine concerns of students of the institution.

Clergyman Urges Students To Shun Violence, Cultism

By Ejike Ejike,Abuja

A clergyman Pastor Lawrence Olasehinde has called on students to shun violence, drug abuse and cultism in order to become good citizens.

He stated this in a lecture he delivered during the 2014 Pastor Lawrence Olasehinde Youth Development Foundation (PLOYDEF) annual essay competition award held in Abuja.

According to him, the foundation was set up to help youths and teenagers to imbibe good Christian char-

acters and develop positive spiritual and intellectual capacities which will prepare them to become christians with exemplary lifestyles that will draw men to Jesus.

He said, “Drug addiction among youths and teenagers is silently creeping into families and destroying the potential of many promising children in our society. It is an issue that is of grave concern to the society as it’s consequences do not end only with the addicted children but its consequences affect our society now and in the future.

He called on parents to get educated on the issue to be able to detect when their children and wards display signs of drug as well as monitor the company their children keep.

This year’s edition was for junior and senior secondary school categories and the topic for the junior category was ‘How can Christian children and teenagers be good examples to their friends’ while that of the senior category was ‘The way out on the prevailing security situation in the country’.

there is no gain saying the fact that the issue of youth unemployment has been of grave concern to the government He said however that, “In recent times, the president has demonstrated, clearly too, his determination to empower youths through articulated programmes and sustained support to federal government agencies that have statutory responsibility of empowering youths and creating job opportunities.”

Philanthropist Sponsors Mass Wedding A Katsina born philanthropist, Abulllahi Umar-Tata, has sponsored the marriage of 600 couples from 11 local government areas of Katsina South Senatorial zone.

LEADERSHIP Sunday reports that 550 couples were Muslims while 50 were Christians all of who hail from the council areas of Malumfashi, Kafur, Danja, Bakori, Faskari, Sabuwa and Dandume.

Tata, who is keenly eyeing the Katsina State guber seat, served as the brides representative while each groom was represented by his parents at the mass wedding held along Zaria road Jumu’at mosque in Funtua .

Speaking shortly after the nuptial knots were tied; Tata said the gesture was aimed at cushioning the hardship faced by parents in marrying off their children as well as assist youths from the less privileged families who were in need of marriage partners.

He said the sum of N20, 000 was paid as dowries for each of the bride on behalf of the grooms as required by the Islamic law and Christian requirement adding that household materials including set of chairs, television sets, bed and mattresses, clothing and other items had been provided for the couples.

By Muazu Elazeh, Katsina

10 news across the states

Sunday, September 28, 2014

2015 Campaign: Avoid Politics Of Hatred, Sultan Advises Politicians

By ANKELI EMMANUEL, Sokoto

The Sultan of Sokoto and president general, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday, warned Nigerian politicians to dwell on politics of issues rather than hatred and insult as the 2015 electioneering campaign draws nearer.

Speaking at his palace yesterday when he turbaned the Speaker, House of Representatives, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, as Mutawallen Sokoto; speaker, Sokoto State House of Assembly, Mohammed Zayanna as District Head of Gwadabawa, and three others, the Sultan

said it’s a worthy venture to recognise people who have distinguished themselves in human endevours.

“The five of them that are being given traditional title today (yesterday) have not only shown respect to the people of Sokoto State but to the larger society and Nigeria. You have been in the limelight before, but today, the whole world has witnessed yet another greater responsibility bestowed on you.

“Occasions like this are very important in our cultural world. We must always recognise people who have distinguished themselves in their various fields of endeveo-

urs. Today, we have turbaned one of our own sons who have shown dedication, who has shown loyalty, who has shown commitment to the service of humanity, most especially in our diverse country.

“We are very proud of your contributions to humanity. Your loyalty to us is unquestionable. We believe you are 100 percent capable of discharging your responsibility in any areas you find yourself.

“Whatever you do, you have to remember that you are now a titleholder of the Sokoto caliphate.

Therefore, you must conduct your-

selves very well with dignity,” Sultan advised.

Continuing, the sultan admonished Nigerian politicians to truly owe their allegiance to the country because Nigeria, he said, is greater than anybody.

“I cannot end this short note without calling on all of you politicians to please close ranks and work for Nigeria. You are not there for yourself. Nigeria is much bigger than all of us. Therefore, politics of hatred, of personality should not be the case in 2015 campaign. We must play politics of respect for one another.”

Nigerian Troops Kill 40 Terrorists, Seize Weapons

BY Bayo Oladeji, Abuja

Some dare-devil terrorists continued to push against the military despite receiving heavy bashing in the last two weeks in North-eastern Nigeria. But in some clashes they had with the troops, not fewer than 40 of them and eight soldiers were killed.

During the period, many of their top commanders including the one

pretending to be Shekau were eliminated. Nonetheless, splinter cells continued to confront the military in fierce battle but Nigerian troops vanguished them although with casualties on both sides Checks conducted among top military sources revealed that despite the progress being made in efforts to decimate and contain insurgents, splinter cells among the terrorists group are still trying to carry out pockets of

attacks on some communities. They were, however ,effectively beaten back in communities such as Konduga, Beneshek and Damboa where they made a number of attempts on Thursday and Friday.

A multi barrel T55 tank, 9 rifles, two machine guns, two rocket propelled grenade tubes, five boxes of ammunition and other weapons were captured from them while over 40 of the terrorists died in the encounters

in the three locations.

Troops also conducted a raid on terrorists’ enclave at Shindig. In all the operations, a total of 11 soldiers died while 15 others are being treated for injuries sustained in the battles. Three are still missing.

Meanwhile, air and land operations are ongoing to clear the terrorists from other communities where their activities have become prevalent in those states.

Police Arrest 2 Fulani Herdsmen Over Attack On Benue Community The Benue State police command yesterday arrested two suspected Fulani herdsmen believed to have raped and killed the Tiv farmers during a heinous attack on a community in Benue State on Friday.

The suspected Fulani herdsmen had on Friday at about 3pm launched a renewed attack on Tse Shima, Mbatsoho community of Mballagh council ward in Makurdi LGA, raped and killed some persons in the process.

However, the police public relations officer, DSP Daniel Ezeala who disclosed this to newsmen said the arrested suspects are Saleh Audu and Umar Abubakar.

According to Ezeala, the suspected murderers were arrested in the attacked community by the police search party and that others had escaped into the bush.

He insisted that the case is a criminal conspiracy and culpable homicide, adding that that the culprits will soon be charged to court, even as investigation into the matter has commenced.

By Solomon Ayado, Makurdi

Desertification: Katsina Raises Five Million Seedlings Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi with the widows of the slain former chairman of NURTW, Omolafe Aderiye, Kehinde (left) and Funmilayo (right) and other family members when the governor paid a condolence visit to the residence of the late drivers’ union leader in Ado-Ekiti on Friday. PHOTO BY OGOH JOSEPH

2015: PDP Will Reclaim Edo – Jonathan

BY Patrick Ochoga, Benin City

President Goodluck Jonathan, at the weekend, renewed the war between him and the All Progressives Congress (APC) when he described the party as only existing in signboards just as he assured that the party would fall in Edo and Rivers states in the forthcoming 2015 and 2016 elections.

The President also expressed concern over what he described

as the persecution of PDP members especially in APC’s northern-controlled states and commended members for their commitment to the development of the party.

He spoke at a South-south rally in Benin City, the Edo State capital at the Dr Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium. He said the rally was to unite all members of the party ahead of the 2015 general elections and urged party faithfuls to shun every tendency that

would divide the party if the party must continue to record more victories.

Jonathan also paid a courtesy call on the Benin monarch, and earlier commissioned the Benin Ofosu segment of the Benin Ore/Shagamu dual carriage way.

The rally had in attendance national leaders of the party, included Vice President Namadi Sambo, Senate President David Mark, Chief Tony Anenih, Dr Adamu Muazu, among oth-

er notable party leaders across the country.

The Board of Trustee Chairman , of the party, Chief Anenih in his remark called on the north to reciprocate the support of the South south region by supporting the re-election bid of President Goodluck Jonathan, adding that the zone has paid the supreme sacrifice of not only keeping the country together but also contributed to its economic development.

As part of measures to combat desertification, Katsina State government has raised 5 million tree seedlings in 2014 for distribution to the people.

Governor Ibrahim Shema, who disclosed this yesterday in Mai’adua local government at the launch of the 2014 tree planting campaign, said the state was committed to combating the menace of desertification.

Speaking through his deputy, Alhaji Abdullahi Garba Faskari, Shema said the state’s Department of Forestry has already commenced distribution of the seedlings to various NGO’s, clubs, farmers, among others.

He said the state established 40 hectares of indigenous tree plantation, 300 hectares of industrial plantation and 140 hectares of woodlot plantations.

According to the governor, the state currently has 350 hectares of fuel wood plantation and 12 kilometers shelter belt even as it has remained committed to assisting in the establishment private woodlot plantations.

Shema expressed optimism that the seedlings raised and other measures put in place by the state government would assist in preventing desertification, restore the natural environmental, improve soil fertility and reduce the effects of climate change.

By Muazu Elazeh, Katsina

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Sunday, September 28, 2014

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LEADERSHIP CONFERENCES LIMITED (A SUBSIDIARY OF LEADERSHIP NEWSPAPERS GROUP)

2014 ANNUAL

CONFERENCE & AWARDS CEREMONY Chairman MR. SAM AMUKA Publisher, Vanguard Media Limited Keynote Speaker MR. BABATUNDE RAJI FASHOLA, SAN Executive Governor, Lagos State STAR AWARDS 2013

LEADERSHIP PERSON OF THE YEAR General Yakubu Gowon GCFR LEADERSHIP GOVERNOR OF THE YEAR Dr. Emmanuel Eweta Uduaghan

LEADERSHIP POLITICIANS OF THE YEAR The G-7 Governors Dr. Babangida Aliyu (Niger) Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) Alh. Sule Lamido (Jigawa) Alh. Aliyu Wamakko (Sokoto) Alh. Abdulfatah Ahmed (Kwara) Rt. Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Ameachi (Rivers) Alh. Murtala Nyako (Adamawa) LEADERSHIP BUSINESS PERSON OF THE YEAR Mr. Olatunde Ayeni

AWARDS FOR EXCELLENCE 2013 LEADERSHIP CEO OF THE YEAR Simdul Shagaya CEO, Konga.com LEADERSHIP COMPANY OF THE YEAR Chi Limited LEADERSHIP BANK OF THE YEAR Diamond Bank LEADERSHIP ICT COMPANY OF THE YEAR Jumia LEADERSHIP BANKER OF THE YEAR Mr. Philips Oduoza GMD, UBA LEADERSHIP GOVERNMENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) LEADERSHIP AUTHOR OF THE YEAR Malam Nasir Ahmed El-Rufai

LEADERSHIP PRODUCT OF THE YEAR Nagari Farm Yoghurt LEADERSHIP MICROFINANCE BANK OF THE YEAR LAPO Microfinance Bank Limited LEADERSHIP TELECOM COMPANY OF THE YEAR Swift Networks Limited LEADERSHIP PUBLIC OFFICER OF THE YEAR Dr. Akinwumi Adesina Minister of Agriculture & Rural Development LEADERSHIP BRAND OF THE YEAR SAMSUNG LEADERSHIP ARTISTE OF THE YEAR Ice Prince LEADERSHIP YOUNG PERSONS OF THE YEAR The Golden Eaglets LEADERSHIP SPORTS PERSON OF THE YEAR Stephen Okechukwu Keshi

Venue: ThisDay Dome, Abuja Time: 9:00am Date: October 14th, 2014

12 FOR THE RECORD

Sunday, September 28, 2014

We Shall Overcome (Part 1) by femi fani-kayode

If I were the President ...

I would go to the four corners of the earth and to the edges of hell itself to procure the very best arms that money can buy for our soldiers, so that they could protect our people and fight the relentless barbarians that torment, afflict and plague our land

Blessed be the name of the Most High God, the God whose I am and the God whom I serve. Blessed be His holy name forever.

I thank the presiding Bishop of this great Church for honouring me in this way and giving me the opportunity to share a few words with this massive congregation. I thank the Pastors and the Board of Trustees of the Church for inviting me.

I look at this massive gathering of believers and I am humbled. I am also a little intimidated. I regard it is an honour and a privilege for me to be here, speaking to you today from this holy pulpit, and in this hallowed hall and chamber.

Unlike most politicians, I shall endeavour to be very brief and not to keep you here any longer than necessary. Permit me to get to the point without much ado.

We are at war in this nation. That is obvious and self-evident. Yet, despite our circumstances, we must harbour no fears, because we are winning that war. I say this because my Bible tells me that darkness cannot overcome light, and that even though it may tarry, the vision of total victory is for an appointed time.

I have been told that some of you that are here today lost their loved ones who were soldiers that were gallantly fighting at the war front against the terrorists. I hear that some died in Bama, others in Konduga and some fell whilst defending Mubi.

I am touched to the marrow and my heart bleeds for the pain that you must be going through, having lost your loved ones in this way.

I want to assure you that the great sacrifice of these noble, courageous and gallant heroes shall not be in vain.

It is my sincere prayer that their souls rest in peace and that the cause for which they paid the supreme price is achieved. May God reward them and their loved ones for their service to our nation. No greater a gift can a man give than to lay down his life for his people and for his country. The veracity of this assertion can hardly be disputed.

And neither is there a more honorable or noble death than that of a soldier who falls at the war front whilst fighting for his nation. Your loved ones fought gallantly for Nigeria and gave their lives for the future and unity of their country. We shall never forget them.

More importantly, history and posterity shall be very kind to them and their names shall be listed amongst the greats who stood to defend our people and our cause when the days were dark and when the enemy knocked at our gates.

Again, I am told that there are others here today whose family members were innocent and defenceless civilians, but who were murdered in cold blood in the sanctity of their own homes by the butchers of Boko

Haram.

What a terrible tragedy this is.

It is a tragedy of monumental proportions and it has engulfed, not just the north-east, but our whole nation. It is a tragedy that touches, concerns and affects us all. Your loss is ours. We share your pains and we mourn with you.

I assure you that those that were killed in this cowardly, brutal and barbaric way will be avenged and those that killed them will face the judgement of God and the justice of men both in this world and in the world to come.

What dark times these are. Yet, despite the darkness of the night let us not forget that joy comes in the morning. As the Bible says, let us count our tribulations and suffering as nothing but joy, knowing that our Lord and Master has already paid the price for our salvation and deliverance by shedding His precious blood on the cross at Calvary.

Let us remember that in the end, we shall prevail and we shall overcome, because we serve a mighty God. Let us remember that evil can never overcome good and that the Church of Christ and our Christian faith itself was built on the blood of the martyrs and the persecution and suffering of the saints.

Let us hold onto God’s word. Let us be courageous. Let us exercise our faith and let us never forget that hope against all odds and strength, even in the face of the most trying times, are the hallmarks of a true believer. Let us remember that our God is irresistible and unbeatable and that in the end He makes all things beautiful.

Let us take heart and let us make no mistake about it: in the end, as surely as night follows day, we shall overcome. Let us remember that no matter what the media, the opposition, the Haramites and their secret friends in high places, the skeptics, the international community or anyone else tell us, our Armed Forces remain the best, the most fearless, the most courageous, the most disciplined, the most effective and the most ferocious warriors on the African continent, and we have every reason to be very proud of them.

If I were the President of this country, if I were compelled to do so by the circumstances, I would go to the four corners of the earth and to the edges of hell itself in order to procure the very best arms that money can buy for our soldiers so that they could protect our people and fight a good fight against the relentless barbarians that torment, afflict and plague our land.

If I had to I would violate every convention and norm in the land in order to bring the terrorists to justice and to degrade, kill, maim and destroy those who slaughter our people at will, who burn our homes, schools and churches, who violate and defile our women and who abduct and enslave our children.

People need to understand one

Fani-Kayode

thing: when fighting a war against an inhuman, barbaric and beastly enemy like Boko Haram in Nigeria or ISIS in Iraq, or Hamas in Gaza, or Al Shabab in Somalia, or Al Qaeda in Libya and Mali, or FIS in Algeria, or the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, or Daesh in Lebanon, or the Taliban in Pakistan and Afghanistan, or Al Nusra in Syria, or the Janjaweed in the Sudan, or the Chechnyan separatists in Russia, the gloves must come off.

History tells us that the policy of appeasement and the willful and naive display of weakness and procrastination before wicked and heartless men with reprobate minds can only lead to a further display of violence and aggression against the innocent. There must be no display of restraint or weakness exhibited to the enemy in this war and no quarter must be given to him. This is because we are fighting against an adversary that is beastly in all his ways and that does not consider himself as being bound by the laws of war or any known and internationally-accepted rules of engagement.

In such a war, all is fair and all is permissible, no matter how extreme and no matter how frightful and ruthless. No mercy must be exhibited. Absolutely anything goes and anything is allowed.

We must wipe them and all that is theirs out completely because they are the ultimate expression of evil.

We must wipe them off the face of the earth. We must crush and eliminate them totally and wipe out all trace and memory of them. This is our God-given duty. It is our divine obligation and we must not fail or shirk it.

We must win this war and there-

by stop the beasts from taking our land, enslaving our loved ones, beheading our children, raping our women, burying alive our men, burning down our churches, and wiping out our beautiful Christian faith.

As long as Jesus sits on the throne and as long as some of us remain alive, they shall not pass and neither will they succeed in their cruel venture, because, ultimately, we shall prevail. We will not, we must not, we shall not, and we cannot lose this war.

It is rather these shameless and conscienceless cowards, Huns, biblical Egyptians, Philistines and Amalekites: these enemies of God and those who secretly support and encourage them, that shall fail.

This I know, because the Bible says, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church”, and neither shall they prevail against the Lord’s counsel.

I say this with absolute and supreme confidence, because our God never fails. I say it because He is the Alpha and the Omega: the Man of War, the Ancient of Days, the Holy One of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and the Lord God of Hosts whom none can resist in battle.

I say it because He knows the end even before the beginning. I say it because He is high and lifted up and the earth is His footstool. I say it because our God is an awesome God, He reigns from heaven above, with wisdom, power and love: our God is an awesome God. (TO BE CONCLUDED) Chief Fani-Kayode’s speech at the Valley View Church on September 21, 2014.

cover story Sunday, September 28, 2014

13

Entrance of the Kofar Mata dye pits site. photos by Abubakar Salihi

Untold Story Of The Decaying 500-year-old Kano Dye Pits

It’s a business that the people of Kano have been practising for over five centuries, and is still seen as lucrative in the face of modern-day development processes; the dye business. But due to neglect, the dye pits in Kofar Mata can no longer satisfy the needs of the dye industry, while the site has become a tourism site. Abubakar Salihi, Kano writes

He gave an incident that happened about 30 years ago, when the Yoruba people came to him for Katsi and they told him that it was used for curing diseases, which he didn’t know much about

The Kofar Mata dye pits have been in existence in the heart of the ancient city of Kano for the past 500 years; that is to say, it was established in 1498. It has remained a tourists’ attraction site for students and researchers from across the world. Kofar Mata dye pits also played a significant role in the collective economy of the then everbusiness community of Kano. History also has it that the originators of Kofar Mata dye pits were the earliest wise business people who had cleverly set up the industry in a time when even the western world was yet to be industrialised.

Kofar Mata dye pits are located very close to the old Kofar Mata historical gate and walls, also known as Ganuwa. According to a school of thought, the dye pits existed long before the building of the Kofar Mata gate and walls. The Kofar

Mata dye pits are also located east of the Kano City central mosque.

The famous Kofar Mata dye pits have surpassed history as even the greatest of world leaders have confirmed knowledge of it in books of history and great museums across the globe.

However, it is now faced with time changing events and leadership. It was originally an open place with no fence or beautification, and nothing was being done to modernise it.

LEADERSHIP Sunday’s checks have revealed that the less-thantwo square kilometres field was well fenced, painted and all the dye pits were either rebuilt or reconstructed to meet modern demands.

At Kofar Mata dye pits, there are no fewer than a hundred dye pits grounds of about 12 pits below the ground with the distance of one or

two metres from each dye pit.

Malam Mamudu Abubakar is among the great grandchildren of the inventors of Kofar Mata dye pits, and he is 60-year-old, and has spent over 50 years in the business of dying. Abubakar was born in Kofar Mata quarters, so also his father and grandfather. He described the business of dying as quite lucrative in the heydays unlike now when modernisation has taken over almost everything, including the dying business.

He confirmed to LEADERSHIP Sunday that Kofar Mata dye pits remains a tourists attraction site and that students, researchers, tourists and journalists from across the world have been visiting the site throughout the year. Foreign tourists come to buy their materials there and learn how the dying is conducted in the old ways.

According to him, many of the visitors took a lot of pictures and movie shots of them and jot down some of their words.

Others who visit the dye pits are businessmen and women from Mali, Niger and Maiduguri in Nigeria, who brought their fabrics, such as Babbar Riga, Rawani for dying.

Abubakar explained that they don’t

just dye fabrics and keep them, but rather they make it for those in the business of selling traditional attires.

Malam Abubakar explained how they put in the efforts and materials into the dye pit and all other needed items for them to do the dying job.

He said they make sure that each pit contained between 2,000 to 2,500 litres of water and mixed with ashes made from firewood of about 50 kilogramme, followed by what they termed Baba (pieces of wood) which they normal sourced from villages, to produce the required deep blue colour.

Having this mixture for seven days, the next thing is to go back to what they termed as Katsi; that’s the excess of the previous mixture that was removed out of the particular dye pit and kept to dry. This excess Katsi will be made in blocks and put on fire made of huge pieces of firewood for about seven days before it burnt to ashes. This residue Katsi will then be mixed with the 2,000 litres of water, 50 kilogramme of firewood ashes and would continue to be diluted on daily basis for another two weeks.

According to him, each of the mixture has a specific function to

14 COVER STORY

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Untold Story Of The Decaying 500-year-old Kano Dye Pits ➔ FROM PAGE 13 give required colour or colour quality, and also, a well mixed dye pit can have a lifespan of a year before it lost its value.

It takes Malam Abubakar and his colleagues in the dying business three days of soaking fabrics in and out of the pits for three days before it finalised.

He also explained the health benefit of the concoction, saying a pregnant women can drink it for the cure of pile, among other ailments, while making the allegation that medical doctors have recommended the concoction for their pregnant patients. It also cures rashes, diarrhea, and starvation in children, he further claimed.

He gave an incident that happened about 30 years ago, when the Yoruba people came to him for Katsi and they told him that it was used for curing other diseases, which he didn’t know much about.

However, at the other end of the dye pits site, there were a number of people practicing what they called Bugu; that is hammering the dyed and dried fabrics with wood. According to a young Baballe, the practice of Bugu is as old as dying itself and always came second to dying. In fact, it was an old way of pressing clothes into shape, he added, while describing the business as lucrative, considering

Enquiries at the Kano State Tourism Board... revealed that insurgency, modern dying, and negligence on the part of government were the causes of the death of the trade

Dye pits of Kofar Mata

that it goes with modern time where people brought their clothes for bugu in the case of power outage.

It was observed with utmost dismay how the long-age dying industry became a shadow of itself, where out of the almost 100 dye pits only one has been functioning.

Enquiries at the Kano State Tourism Board to ascertain the mystery surrounding the total collapsed of the trade of traditional dying revealed that insurgency, modern dying and negligence on the part of government were the causes of the death of the trade.

In our encounter with one of the tourism board staff, he expressed concern that the board had not been doing enough to assist the business than doing all what it could to keep the place as the only tourists attraction site.

He also emphasised the significance of modern dying as all-encompassing and can dye various colours than traditional dying that produced only lagoon blue colour.

Kofar Mata dye pits site is now under the control and administration of the Kano State Tourism Board, and still exists and continues to receive tourists and business patrons, only marred by the insurgency in the country today.

Malam Mamudu Abubakar

cover story 2 Sunday, September 28, 2014

Alex Badeh

15

Shetima

Konduga: A Community Torn Between Fears And Uncertainty Konduga is an ancient town of respected Islamic clerics and spiritual clergies in Borno State, but has in the past one month become the hotbed of the ongoing Boko Haram sect’s insurgency, where the military is currently on a fierce battle with the terrorists to regain the town from the stronghold of the insurgents. Kareem Haruna, Maiduguri, writes

Within two weeks now, they have attacked Konduga for more than six times, and from what is going on, despite the fact that the soldiers are killing them, we understand from

For the first time since the Boko Haram insurgency took its deadly twist four years ago, the Nigerian military recorded their first major, and of course, succeeding victory over the insurgents, especially in the town of Konduga.

But the last two attacks on Konduga, which occurred on the night of Thursday and Friday morning, the military also suffered some degree of damage even though they were able to hold their grounds and repelled the insurgents.

Much unlike other communities under threat of the Boko Haram terrorists, Konduga had remained on its foot despite repeated attacks by the insurgents who are hellbent on capturing the agrarian community. So far, the military and officials of the Civilian-JTF have claimed that nearly 1,000 members of the terror group were killed in Konduga, and hundreds of others have on their own volition surrendered their weapons.

Albeit these uncommon feats of the military and the obvious mis-

sion of the unyielding insurgents, many members of the community still remained in their homes and hanging unto the assurances of the soldiers that “nothing will happen” to them.

This unusual tenacity with which the Boko Haram terrorists are deploying in their bid to capture the town, despite the colossal debacle and lost of their membership, had began to generate more fears in the minds of the already troubled residents of the town.

Ari Bukar, a trader in Konduga, fears that the insurgents might come with bigger attacks anytime soon. “We are no longer comfortable with the way the Boko Haram people kept insisting on attacking our town,” he said. “Within two weeks now, they have attacked Konduga for more than six times, and from what is going on, despite the fact that the soldiers are killing them, we understand from past experiences that they would still come back.”

Bukar said though over 500 sol-

diers were on guard in Konduga and preventing the terrorists from coming through Bama to the town, many of the residents have begun to move out of the town because of the information reaching them that the insurgents were regrouping to launch yet another attack.

“It is only wise for us to leave, because these terrorists are killing our people, especially those in smaller hamlets outside Konduga town. Yes, we heard that they are even forcefully taking young men into their vehicles and asking them to join them in the work of God or they would be killed, just like they were doing in Alagarno village near Kukawa local government area.”

LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that even though the soldiers are able to shield Konduga from being taken over by the insurgents, some of the residents still harbour the fear that all may not seem very well in the town.

When the state governor, Kashim Shettiam, made an unscheduled visit to Konduga on Tuesday, where he went to see things for himself and also met with the troops there, those who accompanied him said tension and fear characterised the miens of soldiers and civilian residents accordingly.

The governor who arrived Konduga accompanied by a light security guards, manned by his personal security details, was nearly prevented from getting into the al-

most deserted town by some heavily armed and alerted soldiers who suspected his convoy was an enemy’s before one of their commanders stood them down.

Though the purpose of the visit could not be ascertained, some of the journalists in the government house press crew who accompanied the governor and some other security operatives, were all asked to remain in their vehicles alongside other government officials, as the governor alone went into a closed door meeting with the commanders of the troop there.

Despite the huge presence of soldiers, there was obvious fear in the town. According to the accounts of the terrified visitors, the town was practically divided into two – the axis that leads to Bama was virtually deserted as soldiers asked the residents to move to the northern part of the town leading to Maiduguri. The Konduga market which used to be at central part of the town is now shifted to the northern flank of the town, where some of the courageous residents were seen still carrying out their normal business transactions.

The governor came out of the closed door meeting with the soldiers about 30 minutes later, left for Maiduguri without stopping to even speak with the residents, as the situation there did not permit him such luxury.

Journalists on the crew saw a

16 COVER STORY

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Konduga: A Community Torn Between Fears And Uncertainty ➔ FROM PAGE 15

The Thursday attack came barely 12 hours after the terrorists attacked Konduga and engaged our soldiers in another deadly battle. We lost some of our gallant soldiers even though they still effectively repelled them

Konduga town that is half deserted, even as some said the road leading to Bama was totally barricaded by soldiers who have manned several heavyduty war machines all over the town.

Though some of the villagers were still spotted leaving the town for Maiduguri, which is just 35km away, others who probably had nowhere to go were also seen trying to live their normal lives as they even moved the town’s market from its original position to the outskirts of Konduga along the road leading to the state capital.

Amina Bala, a 25 years old mother of three, said she trekked to Maiduguri together with her husband and children on Wednesday evenings. “We hardly sleep at night because of the fear of attacks by Boko Haram. Each time they come to attack our town, we hear several loud sounds of gunshots and then we hear the soldiers jubilating that they have killed many of them. But we are still afraid because these people (Boko Haram) are wicked and may one day come back again and even harm all of us. They have done so in several communities where soldiers had killed their members. I lost my brother in Damboa because the Boko Haram went back there to attack them after they had assisted the soldiers to fight the insurgents. We had no option than to trek all the way to Maiduguri,” she said.

Muhammed Dalorima, a petty trader, said he fears for the future of Konduga. “What happened to Bama, Gwoza and Damboa is really a bad omen for the people. That is why many of us are no longer comfortable with what is going on.

Each time we thought the military was done with the insurgents, whom they had killed in large numbers, more would come attacking. No one is comfortable with the ongoing situation, because if one day these people have their way, they would do worse things than what they did to Bama and Damboa or Gwoza, because it is in Konduga more of their members were killed than any other place.”

Dalorima added that most people in villages and hamlets under Konduga have long relocated to either Maiduguri, the township of Konduga which is the headquarters of Konduga local government, or the state capital, due to attacks by the insurgents. “The danger is that we are in a way left

in the centre of the terrorists, who have taken over and camping in most of the deserted villages outside the township of Konduga. Even if the soldiers are in control of Konduga, it is still very dangerous for us because they could still gather and launch another big attack like they did in Bama town. So, it is better for us to leave quietly before it is too late,” he said.

A top security operative who spoke to LEADERSHIP Sunday in Maiduguri on condition of anonymity, confirmed that many soldiers died on Thursday evening when the insurgents returned in their large numbers. “The Thursday attack came barely 12 hours after the terrorists attacked Konduga and engaged our soldiers in another deadly battle. We lost some of our gallant soldiers even though they still effectively repelled them. They had to come back on Friday morning for a repeat attack, but we were able to gun down many of them and recovered vehicles and one light armoured tank they had abandoned while fleeing,” said the security source.

The top officer advocated a change of strategy if Konduga must be saved and the winning spirit of the soldiers sustained.

“I think we have had enough of repelling engagements with the Boko Haram, but despite the successes we have achieved in waiting to ambush them, the strategy may soon be counterproductive, if we don’t begin to think about taking the battle to wherever the insurgents are regrouping and coming,” he advised.

The insistence of Boko Haram members to capture Konduga at all cost has begin to puzzle many residents of Borno and even those outside; as questions are being asked that “why is Konduga such a big deal for the insurgents?”

Konduga is an agrarian community and headquarters of Konduga local government area that consists of about 13,400 people. It came into prominence in the year 2000 when the former President Olusegun Obasanjo visited the local government and awarded it the best local government council in Nigeria in recognition of the achievements of the then council chairman, Kaka Mallam Yale, a former senator that represented Borno Central senatorial district between 2007 and 2011.

Though more than 60 per cent of the people of Konduga, according to the 2006 Nigeria population census records, are not literate by the western

Soldiers at the road block

Soldiers on patrol

standard, nearly 90 per cent of the people are lettered in terms of the Arabic and Quranic knowledge. Konduga is also respected as a centre of Islamic knowledge, because of the large number of prominent Islamic clerics, spiritual doctors and even marabouts.

“If Konduga is captured by the Boko Haram, they would celebrate it more than the conquest of Gwoza or Bama, and probably use it as the headquarters of the so-called New Islamic Caliphate,” said a top civil servant who is a native of Konduga.

“Even the Kanem Borno’s metaphoric lord of terror, Rabih Az-Zubair, during his rampaging conquest that only the Boko Haram insurgency of the present day could be likened, had recognised and respected the depth of Islamic scholarship and knowl-

edge that was in Konduga. So, if Konduga should fall to the Boko Haram – may God forbid – it would definitely be a big ‘victory’ for the Boko Haram terrorists. That may be one of the reasons they kept on dying in repeated attacks just to conquer it,” said the senior civil servant, who pleads anonymity.

As the persistent attacks on Konduga continue to deplete the courage of the residents who have been watching how soldiers have been battling to protect their historic town, many people have begun to flee into Maiduguri for refuge.

A visibly distraught old woman, Ya’zarami Goni, who was arriving Maiduguri from Konduga on Friday, with a tiny sack placed on her head, had no much to say about her fears as she simply muttered in tears that “may God safeguard our

17

sunday interview Sunday, September 28, 2014

APC Will Sweep 2015 Polls – Jibrin

Hon Abdulmumin Jibrin is a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and chairman, House Committee on Finance. In this interview with ADESUWA TSAN, he speaks on why Buhari should not contest in 2015 elections, fate of 37 lawmakers that defected to APC from PDP, and other topical issues Your seat in the House is still shaky because there is a pending case seeking to declare it vacant, are you not worried by that?

Of course, I know that nobody’s seat will be declared vacant. I know that the Speaker came under tremendous pressure from above to declare our seats vacant. Constitutionally, that cannot be. The law allows us to do what we did.

The PDP was divided, balkanised, there was a clear case of factions and that was why we left. There is a court judgement now from Kwara State which has set a precedent.

The judgement is enough to lay the matter to rest.

It is important to commend the Speaker for standing on the side of truth despite the pressure and pain he has gone through over this. In the last few year, he has remained firm in the protection of the integrity of the parliament and that of the people of Nigeria who voted us.

Is it not contradictory to say the APC members in the House are enjoying peace of mind when some of them are still defecting to PDP which labelled troubled ?

What I am saying is that for us who were formerly of the PDP, we have peace in APC. You were asking how I felt and I told you that I have peace of mind. I also know that a lot of my colleagues whom we joined the party together are enjoying peace of mind. For someone who left the party for PDP, I think you should go and ask him the reason for doing that. I am not sure he will tell you that he did that because he was not at peace with himself. I don’t want to be a judge for anyone, so it is better you ask such persons.

The move by Gen Mohammed Buhari to contest the presidential ticket of APC is eliciting divergent reactions from members, where do you stand?

Before I answer the question, I want to conclude on the previous question you asked. The issue of declaring our seat vacant, which you and I know is being instigated from some quarters, probably from above. We are fully prepared. We don’t have to bring out our joker,

but we have one. We are keeping our joker in our heart and we are waiting for anybody who decides to push things beyond the limit.

Back to the other issue, you are asking about the build-up to the APC presidential primaries. I believe we need to be honest with ourselves. That has perhaps been the challenge of this country over the years. We need to start telling ourselves the truth. As a young man, if I speak now, rather than some people listening to me objectively, they will say the young man is rude; that he shouldn’t have spoken that way. But I have an inner conviction in what I am saying and I believe that I am entitle to my opinion. As a citizen of this country, I should freely express my opinion .

I like General Buhari, I respect him so much. If you go to Kano today, you will see all my billboards and posters with Buhari’s picture.

I won my election without knowing Buhari. Now that I am putting his picture on my billboard, I am not doing so because I believe he will win my election. We grew up from primary to secondary school knowing that Buhari is akin to integrity. Everyone knows that Buhari has some kind of messiah image.

But the truth of the matter is that we want this integrity of Buhari to be protected. In 2011, Gen Muhammadu Buhari came out and announced to the country that he will not contest any future presidential election again. So, why is everybody keeping quiet? Nobody is raising this issue. It is shocking and disheartening for some of us who are still young. Some people are complaining behind the scene.

Everybody is worried, disturbed, because we wanted his image to be protected.

If he had said in 2011 that he is not going to contest in any future presidential election, the issue of supporters of Buhari trying to bring him back to participate in the primaries should not arise.

Otherwise, you cannot differentiate between Buhari and Jonathan, because when the five governors were leaving the PDP, one of their reasons was that Jonathan said he will not contest in 2015; but that he was changing from that now.

Jibrin

Buhari said in 2011 that he will not contest again, but now some groups and individuals are promoting his candidacy and are trying to get him to contest.

My message to our father, Gen Buhari, whom we all love, is that, everyday he wakes up in the morning, he should play that tape of 2011. Some of his supporters that have spoken with me said no, he is going to spend only four years and leave. I asked one of them, how do you expect Nigerians to trust him? If in 2011, he said he is not going to contest, and now in 2015, you bring him back to contest, how can I trust him that he will stick to his promise of spending only four years? It is not possible to trust him again. I think these are some if the critical issues that we need to look at.

To be honest, he has a lot of younger brothers that he can equally support. We have Sam Nda-Isaiah, Babatunde Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi, Adams Oshiomhole, Tambuwal, and of course, Kwankwaso, a potential candidate.

We have a lot of younger people he can support. They are competent Nigerians that can take up that responsibility.

I think what Buhari supporters should be doing now is to try to get him to support one of his younger brothers to contest. He has a lot of them across the country.

I believe that all the people asking Buhari to come out and contest in 2015 election are his biggest enemies and it is unfortunate.

Another issue that is very important is that, while I do not believe that good leadership is akin to age, but severally, it has been proven that age also matters in terms of leadership. A lot of us, young people, are also scared when we see certain things happening. It is not that we are over-ambitious to grab power, but the reality is that Gen Buhari is 73 years presently.

Let’s assume he becomes president in 2015, he will be 81 years by the time he finishes second term. Of course, he will not believe he will do only four years, because he had earlier said he will not contest and he came back to contest. Imagine how many generations of leaders that would have been wiped away if he stays in power till he is 81.

The generation of the Amaechis, Fasholas, Kwankwasos, Tambuwals, etc would have been wiped away. So, for how long are we going to continue this? That is why some of us had to come out and talk, so that we do not make a mistake and go ahead to lose the next election.

On the issue of the sacrifice Gen Buhari has made in raising the profile of the opposition; yes, we all acknowledge that he has made a lot of sacrifice. But let me also tell you that all of us have also made some

In 2011, Gen Muhammadu Buhari came out and announced to the country that he will not contest any future presidential election again. So, why is everybody keeping quiet?

Nobody is raising this issue

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18 interview

Sunday, September 28, 2014

APC Will Sweep 2015 Polls – Jibrin 17

PDP territories and take advantage of these crises. PDP is just deceiving itself, there is a huge, fundamental crisis in its fold. By the time the crises blow out, Nigerians will realise that PDP is a sinking ship and APC will emerge victorious.

sacrifices. We all do understand that he was part of the foundation of building opposition in Nigeria, but what we that truly love Buhari not those around him who are his real enemies trying to convince him to go against his promise of 2011, do not want is for Nigerians to start seeing him as somebody who made sacrifices and wants to be the utmost beneficiary of those sacrifices he made. So, anytime he comes to contest, if he is not the candidate, then nothing will move forward. This is a big opportunity for supporters of Buhari to bring that to his attention so that every Nigerian would be convinced that the sacrifice he has made is a selfless one.

What do you make of the deluge of predictions, that the presidential primaries may sink APC, going by the ripples that followed the party’s last convention?

It does appear that you are kicking against Buhari’s participation in the APC primaries because of your support for your governor, Kwankwaso, who also has his eyes on the ticket, why do you think people would not interpret your stand that way?

Everything I have said is not a campaign for my governor.

How do you compare Buhari, Kwankwaso and other people you listed as potential candidates in terms of leadership, efficiency and national acceptability?

All of them have political image that spreads across the country.

Are you saying Adams Oshiomhole does not have a national spread? How about Fashola, Rotimi Amaechi, Rochas Okorocha, Waziri Tambuwal and Kwankwaso?

the reality of the matter is that even though we keep encouraging APC to close ranks and resolve every crisis, there are more crises in PDP. For your information, the peace-like manner you are seeing in PDP is a graveyard peace

Look at their antecedents.

For instance, the Kano State governor was in the civil service for 17 years, he was a member of the House of Representatives. He served as a deputy speaker, minister and twice as governor. All of them have national image and spread.

They have national acceptability.

You kept mentioning Tambuwal even when he is known to be a PDP member and we are talking about the chances of APC, should that be taken that he is already an APC member?

It is a wish, it is my personal wish that he should come into APC. He is not a member of APC, but we have always wished that he joins us.

In my opening comment, I said the PDP is still going round trying to lure governors and House members that defected to APC. That is politics. APC should also learn from that and go after PDP members.

My inclusion of Tambuwal is

Jibrin

in good faith. I am trying to send a clear message that APC is interested in having him to come to its fold. If PDP wants to keep him, it should step up its game. But I can assure you that we will do all we can to take Tambuwal.

What do you make of Atiku’s declaration and the implication it will have for the APC primaries?

Atiku is a member of APC and it is his right to contest.

This will tell you that my concern is genuine; why didn’t I talk about Atiku contesting? Why did I focus on Buhari? I would not have raised an eyebrow on Gen. Muhammadu Buhari’s ambition, but for his promise in 2011. I am concerned about his image, his integrity. This issue is being discussed in many circles and in virtually every household across the country. Unfortunately, nobody has come out to say it in the public. Buhari’s name is synonymous to integrity. Right from primary school, we were thought that whenever Gen Buhari says, he does not go back on it. We were told that his yes is his yes and his no his no. But now, his supporters might come in response to this interview to give excuses on why he has to change. The implication is that you will continue to give excuses in the rest of your life if you abuse a trust, if you go back on you promises and pledges.

How do you see the chances of APC in 2015?

I think APC has huge chances. The party was initially weak, but when the five PDP governors and of course 37 House members moved to the party in one fell swoop, it made APC to go shoulder to shoulder with PDP. And historically, when an opposition and the ruling party go shoulder to shoulder, the opposition will clearly win any election before it. APC has more support base, youth and elders are with APC. Nigerians are not happy with the PDP, they want change, they don’t like PDP. What people keep saying is that few people have left the APC, but the reality of the matter is that even though we keep encouraging APC to close ranks and resolve every crisis, there are more crises in PDP. For your information, the peace-like manner you are seeing in PDP is a graveyard peace.

Yes, there might be consensus in their presidential candidate, even though many of us see it as a blunder since a man who didn’t say he wants to contest, you went ahead to say you have adopted him, there is bigger problem in PDP. The point I am making is that, at the level of states, all the state chapters of PDP are in crisis. There is serious internal wrangling in the state chapters of PDP. I can assure you that most of those crises cannot be resolved before the next election. So, we want APC to reposition itself and move into the

I don’t know why people keep repeating the fact that APC lost some individuals.

Of course, they were distinguished individuals in their own right, but the reality of the matter is that if we want to honestly look at the whole thing, their departure has not affected APC. Consider APC as a country fighting a war, and two, three, five of its soldiers were taken and shot but it captured five countries, will you say it is a lost battle? I don’t think anybody will say that.

APC captured Kano, Sokoto, Rivers, Kwara and Adamawa, even though there is a bit of crisis there now. These are states and not individuals. So, why are we investing so much energy talking about individuals that have left the party.

APC has not lost any ground.

Few members left, but the party won several grounds. People should be fair to us; the party has garnered more strength.

If it were Edo State that pulled out of APC, then we should be worried. If one person who is from Edo leaves the party, it should not be made to look like all the APC voting population in Edo has left. APC was not weakened because one person left. The party has gained more ground in Nigeria.

Why is APC complaining about PDP holding campaign rallies instead of staging its own rallies?

I don’t think we need to encourage illegality. What the APC always stand for is the rule of law, and the party is saying that we should play by the rules. I think PDP should listen to the call of wisdom and stop doing all sort of things that are illegal, things that violate the electoral law. All the places TAN held rallies, immediately the event was over, APC swept away the entire thing. APC is rooted in the grassroots. When few members were hired to go on television and so on, the APC was not bothered. We are also planning, we are doing our homework, and we are confident that we have majority of Nigerians on our side. We will play by the rules and laws of the land. By the time the campaign starts, you will see the fireworks of APC.

sunday politics

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Politics of Jonathan’s Sole Candidacy

19

The endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP’s) sole candidate for the 2015 presidential election has rattled the polity, including the opposition in no small way. STANLEY NKWOCHA writes.

Just about a year or two into his tenure after winning the 2011 general elections, tongues started wagging that the PDP was considering enlisting in its constitution, the ‘Right of First Refusal’ clause as regards the 2015 general elections for the president and governors under its fold.

The arguments and debates generated by the assumed proposal at the time threw up divisions within the party as there became those for and against the mooted idea. So divisive did the issue become that the PDP was forced to play down the idea and get on with it’s other businesses. It was shortly after this that Alhaji Bamanga Tukur got tossed out of his seat as the national chairman of the party.

Events have fast moved on in the PDP and just as the power play in the polity keeps intensifying ahead of 2015, the PDP has proved skeptics right, damning the odds and even though not using the Right of First Refusal, has sealed the fate of other aspirants under the party by automatically making President Jonathan the candidate to beat in 2015.

Setting the tone ahead of the party’s National Executive Council meeting which held last week, the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) last week Wednesday endorsed President Goodluck Jonathan as the sole presidential candidate of the party. The BoT’s endorsement came few hours after the PDP Governors Forum (PDPGF) led by Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State also endorsed the President as

Jonathan

Mu’azu

its sole candidate.

Prof Jerry Gana, a member of the BoT who engaged the press after the meeting, said the party organ was pleased with the way and manner Jonathan was steering the ship of the state. He revealed that towards the forthcoming convention of the party, the BoT would persuade members of the party to support Jonathan for the election.

Flanked on the right by the deputy senate president, Ike Ekweremadu and the BoT secretary, Walid Jubril, Gana stated that the BoT had approved

Mark

Events have fast moved on in the PDP and just as the power play in the polity keeps intensifying ahead of 2015

Rivers 2015 And The Rising Crisis Within Pdp > 21

the party’s timetable for its primaries and electoral guidelines as it relates to the party’s primaries.

On their part, the PDPGF led

by Gov Akpabio revealed that all the governors on the platform of the PDP endorsed the president’s candidature, stating that the decision was not challenged by any of them including Sule Lamido who was thought to be nursing same presidential ambition.

This seemed to set the stage for what transpired at the NEC meeting of the party which held at its national headquar➔ CONTINUED ON PAGE 19

20 politics

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Politics of Jonathan’s Sole Candidacy ➔ FROM PAGE 19

No sooner had the seeming rehearsed political script of the PDP played out that it generated ripples across the polity with some stakeholders taking a bash at the idea and resolution

ters the next day as the highest decision making organ of the party unanimously adopted the president as its sole candidate , a decision it said would be ratified at the party’s national convention billed for December 6.

Senate president, David Mark, who conveyed the endorsement of the National Assembly caucus of the party, said the legislature preached and believed in continuity.

Mark informed the gathering that the lawmakers had met and taken a decision on the matter days before, adding that, “It is a legacy we have decided to lay for the party. He is a sitting and performing president; we should allow him to go ahead. We unanimously adopted him as the sole presidential candidate for the 2015 election”.

No sooner had the seeming rehearsed political script of the PDP played out that it generated ripples across the polity with some stakeholders taking a bash at the idea and resolution.

The biggest surprise of the bashings came from the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) which strongly condemned the endorsement of President Jonathan as the sole candidate of the PDP for next year’s presidential election, to the exclusion of all other candidates, calling the endorsement nothing but a mockery of democracy.

APC’s National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, stated that the endorsement has come at a great price to Nigerians, considering the obvious deals that were struck to make President Jonathan the sole PDP candidate.

He bashed the PDP for being democratic hypocrites.

“Obviously, those fellows in the PDP have never heard of the saying that those who must come to equity must come with clean hands. PDP, where is your own internal democracy now that you have turned your party into a fiefdom controlled by one and only one person only? ‘’While endorsements are part and parcel of democracy, they are never done to the exclusion of other candidates. This is simply not democratic.

When then candidate, Barrack Obama was endorsed by his party’s bigwigs to contest the US presidency, the party never excluded Hillary Clinton from its primaries. That’s how it is done,’’ APC said.

The party said the price being paid for Jonathan’s endorsement by Nigeria is simply too heavy, considering that the PDP governors who spearheaded the endorsement have now secured perpetual immunity from prosecution by anti-graft bodies, including the EFCC and the ICPC; the automatic tickets for all first-term PDP governors, whether or not they have performed, the automatic tickets for all PDP governors running for the Senate, as well as the free ride back to the upper chamber for senate president, David Mark.

“It is now an open sesame for the PDP governors, who have known that the anti-corruption agencies are watching over their shoulders. They can now simply see the commonwealth as an exten-

Lai

sion of their deep pockets. The endorsement is also a vote of approval for the proceeds of corruption that have been powering the noisy and outrageous Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN)”, the APC spokesman said.

Adding to the criticism of the PDP’s decision, chieftains of the APC, former PDP members and now APC frontline presidential aspirants, Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State and former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, minced no words for their former party’s decision to endorse Jonathan. They described the decision as undemocratic.

Said Kwankwaso , “ Since the five governors decamped from the PDP to APC, I told Nigerians that PDP will become a weaker party whose democratic value will erode. Now, the stakeholders of the party have come out to say that they have chosen President Jonathan as their party’s sole candidate without Buhari going for primaries”.

Reacting to Kwankwaso’s criticism, however, Prof Jerry Gana expressed surprise at Kwankwaso’s remarks stating that the Kano State governor lacked the integrity to criticise the decisions of the party, just as national publicity secretary of the PDP, Chief Olisa Metuh has, at several times, described the APC as a drowning party that lacked any ideology to propel the nation forward but only quick to fuel sensationalism.

But some are quick to point at the continued silence of Gen Buhari on the matter, noting that while some may be disposed to consensus within the APC, the outbursts of both Atiku and Kwankwaso may be in the bid to register their objections to any such plans in the near future by the APC. The endorsement of the PDP, has however, thrown up pebbles in the polity- pebbles that will definitely go away when the parties get their candidates for the 2015 general elections later in the year. For now the stakes keep get- Atiku ting higher.

POLITICS feature 21

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Wike

Amaechi

Mu’azu

Rivers 2015 And The Rising Crisis Within Pdp It is an open secret that there is an on-going implosion within the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State which became the main opposition party in the state following the defection of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and majority of members of the state House of Assembly and National Assembly to the All Progressives Congress (APC). ANAYO ONUKWUGHA writes on the latest crisis in the state.

The crisis within the PDP is not unconnected with the belief of a lot of the party’s chieftains, especially those from the Ijaw-speaking communities in the state, that the Chief Felix Obuah-led state executive committee is bent on handing over the party’s ticket for the 2015 governorship election in the state to the minister of state for Education, Chief Ezebunwo Nyesom Wike.

The PDP chieftains believe that the recent decision of the Obuah-led executive committee not to use zoning arrangement in the nomination of the party’s gubernatorial candidate was meant to clear the way for Wike, who incidentally hails from the same Ikwerre ethnic nationality like Amaechi.

Also, the aggrieved party chieftains believe that the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), a political pressure group financed by the minister, and meant to be under the PDP, is wielding so much power and has even taken over the machinery of the party in the state.

Another indicator that all is not well with the PDP in the state is the fact that presently, there are no fewer than 24 petitions against the Obuah-led executive committee of the party before the newly-constituted Integration Committee of the party.

Few days ago, no fewer than nine supporters of the PDP were injured when youths, believed to be supporters of the party invaded a meeting of concerned stakeholders of the PDP, at Delta Hotels, in Old GRA, Port Harcourt.

Several chieftains of the party, including the former commissioner for Education, and coordinator of the Rivers Mainstream Coalition (RMC), a conglomerate of socio-political organizations rooting for President Goodluck Jonathan’s second term in office, Professor Israel Owate; former commissioner for Water Resources, Hon Lolo Ibieneye; former member of the state House of Assembly, Hon Elemchukwu Ogbowu, and governorship aspirant on the platform of the party, Hon Oseleye Ojuka, however, escaped unhurt, as the invading youths used chairs and tables to attack anyone on site.

The meeting, which was to discuss

the zoning arrangement of the PDP as it affects the governorship slot, reconvened later after the arrival of a detachment of policemen from the Old GRA Police station.

To Owate, the only way the party can match the ruling APC in the 2015 general election is for the national leadership of the party to dissolve the Obuah-led executive committee, which he described as a ‘docile two-man state working committee’, and the appointment of a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party for a while.

He said, “In the past two years, following the court judgement delivered on May 14 2013, which sacked Chief G.U Ake and Hon Adokiye Oruwari, as chairman and secretary of the state PDP, respectively, and replaced them with Brother Felix Obuah and Hon Walter Ibibia as chairman and secretary, respectively, the PDP in Rivers State has been docile and riddled with inactivity culminating in mass exodus of our members to the rival All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The Rivers State PDP had remained comatose despite another court judgement aimed at entrenching the Obuah/ Walter executive committees, including its contentious inauguration that has failed to gain recognition. The situation was brought about by the fact that the court judgement that brought Felix Obuah to office only produced two persons: Brother Felix Obuah (chairman) and Hon Ibibia Walter (secretary), who were the plaintiffs in the suit and did not sue in a representative capacity.

“We call on the national executive committee of our great party to implement the followings: Invoke its constitutional powers as provided in part VIII, Section 5, Sub-section 5(2) (e) of the PDP constitution (as amended) to dissolve the docile two-man Rivers State working committee and appoint a caretaker committee to run the party until another executive committee is elected.”

Alleging that presently, the party does not have a membership register occasioned by the defection of some officers of the party to the APC, who left with the party’s register, Owate accused

Obuah and Ibibia of deliberately collapsing the PDP structure in the state into GDI. The RMC coordinator said, “The Rivers State PDP has been run unconstitutionally by only a two-man executive, a situation which has made the party a limited liability company of those who claimed they incorporated it in the Abuja High Court.

“The running of Rivers State PDP by a two-man executive led by Obuah and Ibibia Walter has adversely affected and disrupted the functioning of Rivers State PDP at the ward, local government, senatorial districts, and state levels as the party does not have a proper membership register and does not have legitimate and properly constituted party officers at the various levels.

“This is because the PDP officers that defected with Governor Rotimi Amaechi took with them PDP membership registers and confiscated some party offices. Consequently, the Rivers State PDP cannot have properly constituted ward congresses, local government area caucuses, local government area congresses, senatorial district caucuses, state caucus, state executive committee, and state party congress.

“This situation is orchestrated by the two-man state working committee that has deliberately collapsed Rivers State PDP into the Grassroots Development Initiative (GDI), an organization led by a serving minister of state from Rivers State. The GDI now acts in place of PDP in Rivers State.”

Recently, a meeting of the PDP Integration Committee with aggrieved members of the party in the state and the other states in the South-South geopolitical zone, billed to hold at the party’s zonal office in Port Harcourt, was suddenly put off, and the same concerned PDP stakeholders pointed accusing fingers at the minister and the Obuah-led executive committee of the party.

Although, the administrative secretary of the zonal PDP, Mr Usen Edemekong, explained that the reason for the indefinite postponement of the meeting was due to the scheduled zonal rally

of the party, held last Saturday in Benin City, the Edo State capital. A governorship aspirant on the platform of the party, Engr Bekinbo Dagogo-Jack, and a chieftain of the party, Chief Anabs SaraIgbe, think otherwise.

To Dagogo-Jack, who is also chairman of the Presidential Taskforce on Power, he could not fathom out what prompted the sudden postponement of such an important meeting, saying, “I came for the reconciliation meeting but we were surprised to be told at the secretariat that the meeting was postponed. I think that it is important for us to meet and reconcile our aggrieved members.”

For Sara-Igbe, he was worried that such a crucial meeting which was meant to bring every member of the PDP back to fold could be cancelled even when it has been widely publicized in the media, insisting that the Obuah-led PDP has violated the provisions of the party by declaring that no political office would be zoned in the forth coming election.

He said, “Obuah led PDP has violated the rule of the party and we don’t want PDP to fail in the state in the 2015 election. Certain provisions of the party restrain the state EXCO from suspending or expelling certain officers of the party.

But Obua has expelled all commissioners in the state and the entire members of the House of Assembly.

“Nyesom Wike (minister of state for Education) has boasted that he was going to buy everybody that is necessary when the time comes. If this peace meeting does not hold, then I am afraid the PDP in Rivers State may be heading for the rocks. We want the state PDP to zone all the political offices because the party constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria make provisions for rotation of offices.”

While it is surprising that the leadership of PDP in the state has refused to react to the fracas that occurred at the concerned stakeholders meeting, as well as the postponement of the meeting of the party’s Integration Committee, the ruling APC, said it was saddened by the decision of members of the PDP to resort to member-to-member violence.

Few days ago, no fewer than nine supporters of the PDP were injured when youths, believed to be supporters of the party invaded a meeting of concerned stakeholders of the PDP

22 POLITICS

Sunday, September 28, 2014

2015: Kwara APC Holds The Ace The All Progressives Congress, APC in Kwara State is leaving no stone unturned in its drive towards the transformation of the state. This move is bringing the dividends if democracy closer to the people ABDULLAHI OLESIN writes.

The Saraki’s efforts towards making APC the darling party of the people of the state are being actively complemented by the governor of the state, Alh AbdulFatah Ahmed through the implementation of people- oriented programmes

Mindful of the implications of their defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the leadership of APC in Kwara state is leaving no stone unturned in its bid to deliver the state to the party during the 2015 general elections.

The development has made it imperative for the leader of APC in the state, Dr Bukola Saraki to embrace the principle of internal democracy. It also made it possible to party members to elect their representatives as well as present nominees for appointments, unlike the previous arrangement whereby only the leader decided who takes what.

This has given the party members in the state a sense of belonging and also explained why the implosion, earlier predicted in certain quarters to befall the party particularly after its ward, local government and state congresses, failed to occur.

Thus, arising from the party’s consensus arrangements, party executives, at all levels in the state, emerged without any bitterness, rancour and bickering unlike the opposition, PDP in the state, which still has litigations in court over who is the elected chairman of the party in Ilorin West local government area of the state.

It’s also pertinent to state here that all the mega parties that formed the APC in the state were adequately represented in the new executives put in place at the ward, local government and state levels.

And for the first time in the history of Saraki’s political dynasty, party members at various wards in the state were given the opportunity to nominate those recently appointed as senior assistants and senior special assistants to the governor. It’s on record that all the 193 wards in the state benefited from one appointment or another in the current dispensation.

Another factor that makes the APC the party to beat in the 2015 general election is the legendry philanthropism of the Saraki political dynasty. Just like his father, the late strongman of Kwara politics, the late Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki (Olooye) did during his life time, the heir to the throne, Dr Bukola Saraki, is consistently giving charity to the people before, during and after elections.

It is equally important to note that the various leaders of the party have also endeared themselves to the populace by al-

ways making themselves available whether there is election or not, thereby meeting the people’s material needs such as food items and clothing materials, among others.

Saraki has also been in the vanguard of sponsoring both Christians and Muslims in large numbers on pilgrimages to Israel and Mecca, aside empowering women with fridges, grinding machines, and cash, among others to enable them start small businesses. Of particular note was the recent commitment of the sum of N80 million by Saraki to provide Ramadan gifts to Muslims across the state irrespective of ethnic and political affiliation.

And it is not an exaggeration to say that anyone, indigene or non-indigene of the state, who is visiting the state for the first time in the last 11 years, will surely miss his way because of the monumental infrastructural projects executed by Saraki during his eight-year tenure as the governor of the state. The truth is that Saraki’s administration had turned Ilorin, the state capital, to a modern and commercial centre.

The Saraki’s efforts towards making APC the darling party of the people of the state are being actively complemented by the governor of the state, Alh AbdulFatah Ahmed through the implementation of people- oriented programmes and policies, empowering transporters, students, youths, artisans and farmers, among others while also creating employment opportunities to the unemployed.

The recent introduction of “Quickwin” programme, through which thousands of youths were engaged, is a pointer to this. Before the end of 2014, government plans to engage over 8,000 youths under this scheme which has been roundly applauded by the people. All these combine to make the party cohesive in the state.

Between 2011 and now, the administration of Governor Ahmed has engaged 10, 200 youths, empowered 41, 000 small business owners, provided 100 taxis to transporters, reduced fees at the state university, abolished tuition fees at senior secondary schools level, supplied free notebooks to senior secondary students, modernized five and equipped 13 general hospitals and 42 primary health centres, constructed and rehabilitated several hundred kilometers of urban and

Bukola rural roads.

The governor has also expanded water supply, created a new generation of commercial farmers, connect 400 communities to the national grid and extended a globally-applauded Community Health Insurance Scheme to cover about 80, 000 Kwarans.

Everyone recognizes Governor Ahmed as youth-friendly and focused. He started earning those credentials within weeks of taking office with the engagement of 2, 000 youths through Kwara Bridge Empowerment Scheme (KWABES).

Not only did the government engaged 5, 000 youths under the scheme in three years, 2, 000 of them now hold pensionable permanent employment in the state civil service. And it is on record that the state government has never defaulted in payment of KWABES beneficiaries since its inception.

Despite the shortfall in the federal allocation to the state, the government is still able to pay civil servants and pensioners their monthly salaries promptly on the 25th of every months.

The Ahmed administration has also established International Vocational Center in Ajase-Ipo, in the southern axis of the state to train youths on various vocational skill that could make them self-employed and employers of labour after the completion of their courses.

The Harmony Advanced Medical Diagnostic centre, the International Aviation College, both in Ilorin, the state capital and the New Nigerian Commercial Farming initiative in Shonga, Edu local government area of the state,

aside from improving the fortunes of the state and its people have also registered the state on the world map.

To cap it up, the governor recently announced plans to upgrade 59 traditional institutions in the state. He also said that plans were in the offing to create local government development councils areas out of the existing 16 local government areas of the state. If the governor makes good his promise on the upgrading of traditional stools and creation of more local government councils, that will give APC bloc votes from both Kwara South and Kwara Central Senatorial districts.

While grading of traditional rulers are of paramount importance to the people of Kwara South, the people of Kwara Central have long been yearning for the creation of additional councils out of the existing five councils in Ilorin Emirate.

Indeed, Governor Ahmed worked and is still working as if he will not have a second chance.

But for every hard work, there is a reward.

It’s therefore, not surprising that without prompting, various groups from the length and breadth of the state are on a daily basis urging the governor to seek a second term of office.

Various groups such as Kwara South Youth Consultative Forum (KSYCF), Council of Ex- Students Leaders of Nigeria, Kwara State chapter and Kwara North Youth Consultative Forum, (KNYCF) from Kwara South and North Senatorial districts are daily pressurizing Ahmed to contest the 2015 governorship elections in the state.

POLITICS 23

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Tambuwal: When Silence Is No Longer Golden Nigerians are anxiously waiting for the consultation the speaker, House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Tambuwal, is making on his next move over his political career amidst worries that his delay may cost him valuable space in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in which he is currently a member, or the All Progressives Congress, APC, which many believe he is planning to cross over to. EDEGBE ODEMWINGIE writes Despite the hub of activities around the presidency, with thousands of support groups holding meetings, shouting endorsements and holding rallies for President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election, many are looking at the speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to know what his course of action will be.

There is, no doubt, that the speaker has, in the last three years and counting, proved to Nigerians that he is a leader that can understand the yearnings of the average Nigerian and responds effectively. From the fuel subsidy probe to the activities of Boko Haram and to the open condemnation of perceived anti-peoples policies emanating from his own party, Tambuwal has been able to win support of many Nigerians on the streets.

However, the speaker only has four years to stay on that seat until he seeks another office to be able to continue his leadership to Nigerians and many who believe in him have expressed fears about the uncertainty about his political future.

To be or not to be?

That the speaker would defect to the APC or not is an issue that has been over-flogged but like the saying goes, there is no smoke without fire. It is apparent that Tambuwal is no longer comfortable in the arms of the PDP, or so it seems since he so happens to always be busy doing one thing or the other when the party is holding activities. Even during the recent endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan by the National Assembly PDP caucus, the speaker was notably absent, even as he had made it known on several occasions that he did not think the government of the day was doing a good job worthy of steering the ship of the nation.

He recently said while collecting his permanent voter’s

Tambuwal

card in his home town in Sokoto State that he thinks Nigeria deserves better leadership than what is on ground and, as such, they must work hard towards defending the nation’s democracy.

“Nigeria deserves better leadership and the nation’s leaders and as well as every other Nigerian must work to protect the hard-earned democracy in the country”, he stated.

The speaker had also, on one of the numerous occasions, criticised the government led by his party for supporting corruption.

“The president’s body language seems to be encouraging corrupt practices in the country”, he stated in December 2013 during an address on the role of the legislature in fighting corruption, which he presented during a roundtable conference organised by the Nigeria Bar Association to mark the international anticorruption day in Abuja.

“Take the subsidy probe, the pension, the SEC probe and recently, the bullet proof cars

cases. After the House of Representatives did a diligent job by probing and exposing these cases, you now see something else when it comes to prosecution.In some cases, you have the government setting up new committees to duplicate the job already done by the parliament. Take the bullet proof cars case, the NSA, with all the security challenges confronting the country, should not be burdened with a job that can best be handled by the anti-corruption agencies”, he stated, adding further that, “By the action of the president setting up different committees to straightforward cases, the president’s body language doesn’t tend to support the fight against corruption”.

So the big question is: Is the speaker willing to stay in the PDP and continue with his criticism of its leadership or will he move to another party where his views and beliefs will be same?

Why the speaker must decide now

Tambuwal can continue to sit on the fence, some political analysts have opined, but it will likely have an adverse effect on his immediate political future.

Charles Okeke, a political analyst, who spoke with LEADERSHIP Sunday on this issue, is of the opinion that the best time for the speaker to conclude his consultations and make a definite decision is now if he does not want to risk slipping into political oblivion.

Okeke explained that while he is consulting, other aspirants have started putting structures on ground and charting courses that will enable their followers know exactly how they would give support to their ambition. Furthermore, he argued that the political space is filling up by the day and as such, if he belongs to PDP, he should stay there and strategise his next move for governorship or presidency or move to the APC fast so that he will not be seen to be the last man that came in but wants the best seat.

“Time is of the essence. With the PDP already showing support for the president’s reelection unopposed and names of political heavy weights like Atiku Abubakar and Gen Muhammadu Buhari are being bandied in the APC, the best time to get the electorate to key into his plans and aspirations is now; not a minute more”, he stressed.

But the speaker has continued to assure his followers and supporters that at the right time, he will let out plans he has under his sleeves.

He said in Benin City, Edo State that, “When I went to collect my voters card, I said I was consulting and I am still consulting. Nigeria is not a small country; we have very, very senior leaders that one needs to meet with before taking such decisions. As I said, I am consulting and, at the appropriate time, I will come out to say what I will be doing in 2015,” he said.

It is widely known that the feeling the speaker has for the PDP is mutual but showing him the way out may not have the desired effect as he has a lot of supporters who may use the opportunity to move to another party.

It will be recalled that an earlier suspension of governor of Sokoto State, Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko and his Rivers State counterpart, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi, by the Bamanga Tukur administration for indiscipline was partly responsible for the crisis that almost tore the party apart.

Tambuwal can continue to sit on the fence, some political analysts have opined, but it will likely have an adverse effect on his immediate political future

24 interview

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Educational Institutions Need Strict Supervision – Wazirin Gwandu The Wazirin Gwandu, Alh Abdullahi Umar, is an advocate of quality education. In this interview with YAHYA SARKI, he bares his mind on the poor state of education in Kebbi State, in particular, and the northern parts of the country, in general.

As an advocate of quality education. What do you think are the major problems confronting education in the north and Kebbi State in particular?

I think having spent quite some time in the area of education, I can make some observations. I believe the biggest problem we have in Kebbi State and most parts of northern Nigeria is lack of community participation because education, like any other institution, is community based. Once the community accepts it and looks at it as its own, that institution will prosper and the community will handle it. For instance, in the institution of marriage in Kebbi State, people believe that when you marry, you have to spend so much money. Since the community believes in that, it’s a herculean task to stop them from doing that.There have been laws from the local government but still people do it. So, one of the major areas I want the government and everybody to address is to encourage the community. Let the community see the importance of education and once it carries it, I assure you, the sector would prosper.

Can you highlight more on the major problems bedevilling education sector?

Well, the earlier one I said is the top most but secondly, it has to do with supervion because in whatever thing you do and you don’t supervise it, only God knows what comes out of it. I remember as a commissioner of Education, I visited a school in Zuru Emirate precisely Makuku. The school was in shambles. In fact, I found one of the female teachers sleeping in the principal’s office. There was not a single student around. Most of the teachers were just sitting under the shade doing nothing. So, I was very hard on the principal, and when he saw how sad I felt, he said, “Excuse me sir, honestly, for the past five years, nobody has come to check me to see what I am doing or find out the problems of the school.You are the first person in five years to come and visit me”. So, I am aware that this administration has even given buses and allowances for supervisors in the ministry but honestly, still there is much to be desired in terms of supervision but once you don’t supervise, only God knows what will happen.

In what ways do you think the commuity can participate in promoting education?

I think the work has been made quite easy now, because government has to initiate this community participation. It has to go out of the way to see that it involves the community in the area of education. Why I tell you that the area has been simplified now is that the federal government has instructed all schools to have what is called community based management committees. Incidentally, I served as the school management chairman committee of our unity girls college here where the northern states send in their students. It’s our premier secondary school here in Kebbi State. I have been the chairman for five to six years. When they in-

vited me to be the chairman, I told them I was ready to do it since it was to assist education, but I told them that I dont have a daughter or son there which meant that all the children were our collective children. The first day, we went round with some of the parents. They shed tears because they saw the deplorable condition of the schools.There were human feaces all over the place; they have no toilets and there were more than three thousands in the school.That was the situation in which we find that school. As a community based committee, we went into action immediately and within five months, the schools became changed. We have toilets now, there are reactivated boreholes and good sanitation. In fact, the governor and his wife went to attend one of our functions and they contributed because it required money. We set the ball rolling in that school and I tell you, up till today, that school is one of the premier schools we have in this state. The school management Alh Abdullahi Umar committee is involed in virtually all aspects of life of that school through the money we schools, that’s where the problem collect. We assist teachers, labourers in paystarts. By the time the students ing their NEPA bills. There are quite a number graduate from primary school into of schools where the school managemet com- secondary schools, they know next mittees is very active. I remember in Bun- to nothing. And by the time they za, a wall of that school fell down and it was graduate from secondary school the community that put resources through into universities, the teachers there the management committee to built it back. will have to start teaching them Right now, we are forming a big committee what they should have learnt in comprising all the active chairmen of school secondary schools. So, by the time management committees to strenghten this they graduate, you don’t have testbody so that in no time, we will come up with ed and trusted graduates. Even rea lot of good things to salvage the sector in cently, we had a bunch of people, this state. We will work hand in hand with the who came for interview as teachMinistry of Education but I really want the ers, If you read the answers givgovernment to show more interest because en by these suposedly graduates, it will be a relief in so many ways. For exam- you will weep for this country or ple, if you give a contract to renovate a school for this state because you can nevor build a structure, I tell you, nobody can er believe that these are people who supervise it better than the school managehave graduated from higher instiment comittee on ground there. It can assure tutions. Some of them are incomthe government of good supervision . Even prehensible, you cannot even unnow, we have visited some schools and, the derstand what they were trying to way some of the structures are built is a very write in their answer sheets and sad story. So, I want to sieze this opportu- these are the same teachers that nity to advise government to bring in these are teaching our children. So, you school management committees because see, it’s a vicious cycle which has certainly, it will ensure proper management now completed because the same of schools. The communities should also re- people that had been produced in alise that the goverment has so many com- the system are now teachers, that mitments in its hands, therefore, it cannot is essentially where the problems do all the things for the people. Education is lies . You have to address the probjust one, but there are so many other things. lem from the root; that is from priTo me, education is the most important be- mary schools, we have to make our cause that’s where we train our young ones primary schools good enough for to become future leaders. I want the commu- secondary schoools, and by the nities to show more interest in the affairs of time they graduate from secondschools because that is the ultimate focus of ary schools, they will be ready for the school management committees. universities. I can assure you we are aware of what happened in NiRecently, you lamented the quality of ger, Bauchi and other states where teachers being produced by colleges of teachers in primary schools were education and other tertiary institutions given examination in what they do in the country. Where does the problem in primary schools; I mean comlies? mon entrance exams. They were Honestly, the problem has its genesis right tested and majority of them failed. from the roots. When you go to our primary So, a teacher who fails common en-

trance exam, for God’s sake, how do you expect him to teach your children? I am sorry to say that by the time you test teachers in our state, you will have the same story. In fact, in most states in the north, you will have the same story. So, you see we have a common problem; we have to sit and address the issues in a manner that will be beneficial to our state and country.

What is your view on the proliferation of private schools?

Well, like any other thing, it has its good side and bad side. Whatever you think you, do it right; it will serve the purpose and whatever you do wrong, certainly, it will not serve the purpose.The benefit I see derivable from private institutions in the state is the fact that there is a lot of awareness now. People want to use their money and educate their children. It is a very good thing because that is what is done all over the world like UK and America. It is only in countries like Kuwait or oil rich countries that are very few in number that have so much money but don’t know what to do with it. In these type of countries, you have three schools that you can go and attend, but all over the world, where you have good schools, they are private schools.

So, I think private schools have that ability to produce high quality students. Private institutions are very good development not only in Kebbi State but everywhere.The government should however be careful and watchful because of mushroom private ones.

ceoConfidential #131, September 28, 2014

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in brief ESSENTIALS

10 Questions for...

FOR ENTREPRENEURS

Alemoh Emmanuel CEO, Emasco Enterprises Nigeria Ltd

Become an expert “An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made, in a narrow field” Niels Bohr, 1885-1962 Danish physicist, first to apply quantum theory and awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1922.

Become an expert by writing impartial and informative articles on issues that affect your prospective customers in specific industry sectors. Offer these articles free of charge to newspapers and trade publications to ensure they have a good chance of making it into print.

By creating this kind of launch platform and reinforcing your credibility, you engage the hearts and minds of your stakeholders and create awareness of your in-depth knowledge of the critical subjects for your industry.

Be sure to follow the editorial guidelines of the publications you’re targeting and focus on providing helpful information instead of making a sales pitch.

Stay in control “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable” Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1890-1969 34th President of the United States and a five-star general, Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe in the Second World War. Keep control of your business focus by continually monitoring and reassessing your long-term plans.

Problems have a habit of snowballing.

If things start to get out of control, you lose business momentum and end up firefighting problems instead of providing solutions that help your business grow.

Not being in control quickly becomes time consuming and costly to future business success. So ensure you get back on track as rapidly as possible.

The more you do, the more there is to be done - so be clear about your objectives and growth strategies so that you retain your focus.

IF YOU’LL BE...

Jack Ma founder and chairman of Alibaba Seek motivation. Get inspired Anytime he gets frustrated, he watches a movie titled ‘Forest Bump’ which he watched times without number. From the movie featuring Tom Hanks, he learnt “that no matter whatever changed, you are you. As years rolled by, Ma became excited about the Internet during a visit to the United States in 1995 and wanted to find a way to bring the online world to China. In 1999, he convinced friends to give him $60,000 to start an e-commerce firm called Alibaba.

Seize opportunities Seizing an opportunity for small businesses to buy and sell their goods online, he started Alibaba, initially running the company out of his apartment in the eastern city of Hangzhou. He resigned from his teaching profession to start up his business which is China’s most popular online consumer marketplace with hundreds of millions of products and services listed.

– By Olujide Olusola

TIMELESS TRUTHS Design for profit “In the product-centric world of the past, profit was an outcome of strong market share.

Companies focused on one goal: Sell more to anyone willing to buy. Companies generated revenue on each unit sold. How the company benefitted from those sales was all but taken for granted. Today, product is not just generated by the products a company sells, and profit cannot be taken for granted today, product is an outcome of smart business design. In fact, the value recapture of business design – the ‘how do I get paid’ dimension – is one of the most critical components.”

Adrian Slywotzky, managing director, Mercer Management Consulting

7. What have you learnt about yourself as you serve in that organisation?

I have learnt that I’m very patient and thorough.

8. What have you sacrificed for success?

Pride, time and pleasure.

9. What do you consider your favourite achievement?

Being able to satisfy my clients and make them happy.

10. What is your motto?

I can do all things through God Interview by Timothy Opaluwa

group

ceoConfidential ASST. EDITOR Daniel Udechukwu CORRESPONDENT Salome Anyasodo REPORTER Olusola Olujide GRAPHICS Matthew Akhabue

1. What business do you not want to start but wish someone else would?

A company that manufactures and sells flying vehicles. This is because no company in the world has successfully started the sale of these vehicles in commercial quantities..

2. Which TV or movie character would you like to go into business with?

Genevieve Nnaji. She is very good at what she does.

3. If you were to start your own political party, what would be the platform?

The kind of political party that embraces people from all tribes and ideologies; a party that has the interest of the poor masses at heart.

4. Whom would you trade places with?

Former President of Ghana, Jerry Rawlins. I loved his radical move that brought about sanity and enormous economic changes to Ghana.

5.It’s 8 p.m. and you are travelling alone on business. What do you do all night?

I would go through the business the plan and equip myself for the task ahead.

6. If you could time-travel, where would you be.

I would be the ‘Dangote of Nigeria’ in the building sector.

ACTING EDITOR Auwal Sa'id Mu'azu

FOUNDER Sam Nda-Isaiah CHAIRMAN Hajiya Ireti Kingibe GRP MANAGING DIRECTOR Azubuike Ishiekwene GRP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS Michael Okpere, Dr. Kazeem Durodoye

A number of the articles here are sourced from diverse sources.

Feedback & enquiries ceoconfidential@leadership.ng

CEOConfidential

Sunday, September 28, 2014

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popular with CEOs Compiled by Salome Anyasodo

The Recommender What are the business quotes for this week that make sense or are just humourous?

A Brief Guide Don’t know what you want to see, hear, smell, taste and feel? Don’t worry we did it for you.

SEE The Maze Runner

Hands symbolically uplifting the globe

Youngsters as characters in a peace symbol

Ensuring global peace Last Sunday, September 21, 2014, Nigeria joined the rest of the world to celebrate the International Peace Day. The celebration started with a Peace Walk in various parts of the country, and Nigerians were urged to redouble their efforts in the struggle for peace.

Each year the International Day of Peace is observed around the world on 21 September. The General Assembly declared this as a day devoted to strengthening the ideals of peace, both within and among all nations and

Uduaghan

BIZ Lingo

Cadence

peoples.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the General Assembly Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace, the theme of this year’s International Day of Peace was the “Right of Peoples to Peace”.

This anniversary offered a unique opportunity to reaffirm the United Nations commitment to the purposes and principles upon which the Organisation was founded. The Declaration on the Right of Peoples to Peace recognises that the promotion of peace is vital

Emmanuel Uduaghan, Governor, Delta State, “There is no problem that cannot be settled peacefully, there is no fight that cannot be resolved amicably.”

Ki-Moon

Candidate for pretentious bizword of the moment is cadence, as in the inventory specialists’ “We have a release cadence of six weeks”, City financial dealers’. “Trainees will familiarise themselves with exchange-floor cadences.” Until very recently, a Brit hearing these might have been baffled. Repurposed in this way to mean something like ‘regularity’, ‘rhythm’ or ‘timeliness’, the word was in use among marketing and HR specialists in Australasia in 2011, having surfaced slightly

for the full enjoyment of all human rights.

Furthermore, affirming tolerance, recognition and acceptance of cultural, ethnic, religious and linguistic diversity, and dialogue among and within civilisations are essential for respect peaceful coexistence and cooperation among individuals and people in their diversity of belief, culture and language.

And that differences within and between societies should be neither feared nor repressed, but rather cherished as a precious asset of humanity.

Ban Ki-Moon, UN Secretary-General .

“Peace and security are essential for social progress and sustainable development. Peace is a long road that we must travel together.”

earlier in US corporate-speak. Now it seems to be trending in London, too. Cadence originally signified the dying tones in a sequence of music or spoken performance, while in the US military cadences are call-andresponse chants that help to establish marching rhythms. The same word is a technical term in fields as diverse as telephony and juggling, but business practitioners probably borrowed it from the jargon of sprint cycling, to convey the idea of a super-fit competitor’s performance pace.

Choose a job you love and you will never have to work a day in your life. confucius, Philosopher If you have lower than a 10% turnover, there is a problem. And if you have higher than, say 20%, there is a problem.

Willam mCGovern,

Writer

The 113 minute action/adventure film is about Thomas who wakes up trapped in a massive maze, with no memory of the outside world other than strange dreams about a mysterious organisation. Only by piecing together fragments of his past with clues he discovers in the maze.

Can Thomas hope to uncover his true purpose and a way to escape? Find out!

hear Dame Patience Faka Jonathan and other African First Ladies at Women and Girls Summit 2014 In bid to reinforcing the agenda for the girl-child education, the Office of the First Lady in collaboration with the National Centre for Women Development (NCWD) and Friends Africa organise Women and Girls Summit 2014. The two-day event is at the National Centre for Women Development, Abuja, on October 13 through 14, 2014.

taste Egg custard tart Commerce is a heaven, whose sun is trustworthiness and whose moon is truthfulness. buhaullah,

Prophet

None of my inventions came by accident. I see a worthwhile need to be met and I make trial after trial until it comes. What it boils down to is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. thomas edison,

Inventor

Hidden in the districts’ cobbled streets, rows of tiny tiled bakeries await, each serving up their own delicious array of pastéis de nata – Portugal’s famous egg custard tart, traditionally made with lard rather than butter or shortening.

FEEL Throne room dive tank

Jamaica proffers more than 100 dive sites. Negril’s is home to the highest concentration of sites including the famed Throne Room, a cave full of giant sponges and soft corals, and Deep Plane, the remains of a Cessna at 21metres deep.

SMELL Vetiver Essence Ferrari for men

The new edition from the Essence Collection by Ferrari is the warm woody - spicy scent called Vetiver Essence. This fragrance supposedly embodies the timeless masculine elegance.

The fragrance is available as 100 ml Eau de Parfum.

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CEOConfidential

Sunday, September 28, 2014

The ceoConfidential interview Kanu’s feats in the real estate industry The real estate expert reels about her breaking hedge in the competitive market, and commitment to success. inTerVieW BY saLoMe anYasodo

KANU IN SHORT Christiana Nwamaka Kanu is the managing director and chief executive officer of Relocation Managers Limited. Her sojourn to success started in 2005 when she served as the personal assistant to the MD and CEO of Woolwich Global Services. Before ascending her present position, she served as the general manager of Uriel Properties Limited from 2010 to 2011.

Kanu is a graduate of University of Lagos from where she bagged an MSc in Management. She had previously obtained a BSc and Diploma in Accounting from University of Benin and University of Abuja respectively.

Among the awards conferred on her are the Long Service Award and Meritorious Service Award by the Nigeria Conference of Christian Accounting Students in January 2007.

I see to the smooth running of the day’s activities…

My day starts early because it is important that I get through my schedules for the day.

Therefore, I resume work at the office by 7am latest. Due to the nature of my job as the chief executive officer, and the level of professionalism it demands, I’m handed a list of activities for the day by my PA whose efficiency I must comment.

Afterwards, I go through the list to ascertain which agenda takes top priority.

And from there attend to every agenda accordingly.

I see to the smooth running of the day’s activities to avoid any form of hiccups. A major part of my day’s schedule consists of meetings.

My family understands my commitment to success…

As a CEO, all you need is a good support system.

I’m fortunate to have been blessed with that.

My family understands my commitment to success, and in their understanding, I am motivated to never let them down. So we have a mutual understanding, but I do make out time to spend with them because family is very important to me.

As an individual, my belief is that for everything and anything that matters to you, create a space for it to inhabit.

In RML commitment is the driving factor…

For every staff member of Relocation Managers Limited (RML), commitment is the driving factor. Before a new employee is recruited, we must see a level of passion in him or her because every staff member RML renders a tremendous capacity for commitment that helps in the running of the company. They make sacrifices and are willing to go the extra mile.

As a company, we’ve

Sunday, September 28, 2014

CEOConfidential

45

Kanu on Leadership

You become a leader by creating more ideas and thinking smartly

made integrity our watch word. This I believe is the utmost character of an organisation. Relocation Managers has a level of goodwill that surpasses the ordinary. Our integrity has and will always speak for us, and distinguish us from the crowd. It’s a skin we have worn so tightly through the years.

We have a standard we operate on. We do not exist to be just a mere organisation out to make profit. No doubt, every organisation aims for good success and tangible success, but because we have created and maintained a name and certain level of integrity, we have to live up to it. We are passionate about what we do, how we do it, and to whom it’s been offered to. It is our utmost joy when customer satisfaction is at its climax.

My greatest motivation has to be my family…

My greatest motivation has to be my family. I have them looking up to me and this inspires the highest level of discipline in me. I am discipline to take decisions that they would be proud of. Secondly, I have an obligation as a female, and African to be the best I can be. Often times we attribute greatness to men, which the society never fails to applaud – because there is a certain privilege that maleness has that femaleness

doesn’t have – and I am here, out in the same hustle, occupying the same air as men, and saying, ‘look, I am a female and I have just as much right as you do, to succeed.’ So these are my driving tools. If I ever feel I should slow-pedal, I think about my family and the female race – my utmost obligations.

Hard work gets the job done…

Doing business – especially in such a competitive market as this – has taught me several things. One of it is the ability to think smart. Hard work is good. Hard work gets the job done. But thinking smart, thinking out of the box, thinking in several dimensions in the way things should be, has been my saving grace.

Be prepared to take more risk…

For every CEO, think smart. Think out of the box. If everyone is going through route A, create a route B and have them ‘tail’ you. You become a leader by creating more ideas and thinking smartly. Be brave. Give yourself permission to dive in. Not a finger, an arm. Be prepared to take more risk. And be matured to lose more.

Ultimately, be passionate about what you do because if all fails at the end, it is your passion that keeps you going.

Most of all, put God first in everything you do.

CEOConfidential

Sunday, September 28, 2014

initiatives

29

Lere Baale, lerebaale@gmail.com

Leadership Inspiration Series for Excellence (LIFE Series)

Leadership competency as the greatest driver of Africa’s development (II) Without confining Walter Rodney’s book or title of his book to the recess of history, rather in trying to juxtapose his work on the reality that has revealed itself over time we must seek to elucidate, “How Africans under develop Africa”. It is inundating and heart breaking to x-ray why Africa is underdeveloped and how African Leaders are still actively under developing Africa.

In pre-colonial Africa, it was Africans who raided villages and towns especially on the west coast, captured fellow Africans and sold them as slaves to the white slave drivers. African Kings and Emperors thrived on this and were very comfortable with slave trade in their domains. No sooner had Spain pulled out of Western Sahara in 1976 than Morocco invaded and annexed the territory. In spite of all the international outcry and pressure, atrocities are

HOW I DID IT Lessons from the front lines of business, from the pages of Havard Business Review

M

still committed against the people of Western Sahara.

The capitalists assisted Mobuto Sese Seko to kill Patrice Lumumba in Congo renamed Zaire and now DR Congo. His remains was burnt to ashes, put in a plane and scattered over the country to prevent even his ghost from resurrecting. Mobuto went on to become one of the worst despots of all times and was richer than his country until the rebel forces of Laurent Kabila pushed him out in May 1997. Today after nearly two decades of wars and conflicts, DR Congo is among the most dangerous countries in the word. Despites having the largest contingent of UN Peace keepers in the world; it has been dubbed the molest capital of the world because of the mass velocity of Molests especially in its eastern region by both government and rebel forces.

When Idi Amin Dada took over power in Uganda

‘It is inundating and heart-breaking to x-ray why Africa is underdeveloped and how African leaders are still actively under-developing Africa’ in 1971 he taught the world a hybrid of what illiteracy, cruelty and power drunkenness can do.

He did not spare anyone be it his wife, Central Bank Governor, Archbishop or judges. Before Tanzania forces ousted him in 1979 he had turned Uganda ’s currency into toilet money and littered the streets of Uganda with blood of 300,000 Ugandans and Asians. Yoweri Museveni came to office in 1986 as a soldier and shouted to the world that the problems of Africa were despotic leaders. He has won another presidential term to rule Uganda despite opposition’s claims of rigging the elections.

Joseph Koni’s the lord resistance Army rebel forces have been fighting a war in northern Uganda with atrocities like molest

and limb cutting spreading into South Sudan, Central African Republic .

Robert Gabriel Mugabe became the white man’s nemesis in the then Southern Rhodesia after he successfully fought both the British colonialists and Ian Smith who had declared unilateral independence from Britain. A charismatic leader took Zimbabwe to independence in 1980 and it became one of the best economies in Africa.

Mugabe is gunned for another term in 2012, and has helped the West to wreck Zimbabwe ’s economy with sanctions.

Zimbabwe had the sole privilege of achieving what was called “runaway inflation” hitting millions in per cent of inflation at the height of its economies and printing

single currency of billion Zimbabwean dollars. One third of Zimbabweans live in exile or are seeking economic/political asylum.

The United States and Apartheid South African backed rebel forces UNITA led by Jonas Savimbi fought one of the bitterest civil wars Africa had ever seen in Angola against the Marxist regime of Dos Santos. It took the killing of Savimbi in February 2002 for the war to end.

Today Angola is trying to rebuild but decades of war and Jose’ Eduardo Dos Santos 36 years in power have not improved the lot of average Angolans.

Master Sergeant Samuel Doe who shot himself into power in 1981 took Liberia to the brink until the civil war led by Charles Taylor broke out in 1989.

CONtiNues Next week

Gilt Groupe’s CEO on building a team of players When I think about starting a business, my view is that the idea itself is worth between zero and very little. Most companies already have competitors when they launch – and if they do not.

They soon will. (DoubleClick where I was CEO from 1996 to 2005, had dozens of competitors within a year of its founding).

Gilt Groupe was not the first flash sales company, and Google was not the first search engine to come along. Why have these businesses succeeded? It’s not the idea-it’s the people. Execution is what matters and execution relies on human talent. Every company thinks – it’s doing a good job of managing people. “They say people are our most important asset.”

But most companies do not really act that way.

Here’s a simple test; Ask the CEO if he or she spends more time on recruiting and managing people than on any other activity. For me, the answer has always been yes.

That’s a radical statement, so let me qualify it a bit. I do not think this test applies at a small company-say 20 people where the CEO may be doing a lot of sales or directly over-seeing operations. But at businesses that employ more than 50 people, the best use of a CEO’s time is to bring in unbelievable people, manage them well, and make sure the company builds and maintains an A-caliber team.

Here’s another test of a company’s devotion to its talent: Is your head of HR one of the most important people in the company? I spend as much time with our head of HR as I do with our chief financial

officer – and I’d never consider having the head of HR report to anybody but the CEO. That role is truly strategic, and the person in it needs a seat at the table.

It’s clear to the people who work with me that I’m thinking about our talent most of the time. When we sit down for the meetings, I frequently ask managers to review every one of their direct reports with me. I want continual updates. I also insist that as the CEO, I can talk with anyone in the company at any time.

Some managers prefer that executives check with them before talking with their people. That’s not going to happen here. I want to get to know employees better and to assess their talent and potential. Also, I want to know if they have difficulties with a manager. I am evaluating talent all the time.

30 CEOConfidential

Sunday, September 28, 2014

situation reports Compiled by Olujide Olusola

Brand Beginnings Hennes & Mauritz: From elegant to edgy

T

he H & M Hennes & Mauritz AB (H&M) is a Swedish multinational retail-clothing company, known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. H&M exists in 53 countries and as of 2013 employed around 116,000 people. The first store was opened on the high street of Västerås, Sweden in 1947. It had 2,325 stores at the end of 2011 and 2,629 stores at the end of August 2012.

It is ranked the second largest global clothing retailer, just behind Spain-based Inditex (parent company of ZARA), and leads over third largest global clothing retailer, United States based GAP Inc. Marketing In 2008, the company used the song “Hang On”

by British singer-songwriter Lettie as background music to its UK website. Their fashions have been featured in an interactive fashion art film

by Imagine Fashion called Decadent Control.

It premiered in March 2011 and stars Roberto Cavalli, Kirsty Hume, Eva Herzigová and Brad Kroenig.

Brand The branding consultancy Interbrand ranked the company as the twenty-first most-valuable global brand in 2009 and 2010, making it the highest-ranked retailer in the survey. Its worth is estimated at $12–16 billion. The full company name Hennes & Mauritz was rebranded to H&M to simplify worldwide perception of the brand. The company owns the two-letter domain hm.com.

The domain was registered in the early 1990s, but data on the first registration is lost. In 1998 Hennes & Mauritz was able to buy the domain hm.com from a company called A1 in a nonpublished domain transaction.

“Global Fashion” for the 1990s A new generation took the lead of H&M when Erling Persson turned over the company’s managing director position to his son Stefan Persson. Under the younger Persson, H&M continued its international expansion, while

retaining tight control of the H&M image. H&M continued to expand its presence in its existing markets throughout the 1980s, steadily opening new stores. By the 1990s, H&M would grow to become one of the largest retailers in Sweden and that country’s fifth largest company. In the late 1980s, H&M attempted to diversify its brand line by opening the Galne Gunnar (Crazy Gunnar) chain of cut-price stores. After expanding the chain to 18 stores in Sweden, the company decided to abandon the concept after ten years, redeveloping the existing Galne Gunnar stores as H&M stores. Sticking with the H&M name appeared to be the most profitable future for the company. Growth of the H&M chain, particularly in foreign expansion, stepped up dramatically in the 1990s.

The time was ripe for what Stefan Persson described as “global fashion.” Persson had been quick to recognise the emergence of fashions and trends--born of MTV, Hollywood, Madison Avenue advertising, and the Internet--that transcended national borders to become fads among youth and other age groups across the world. H&M, with its emphasis on uniformity among its stores, was well-positioned to appeal to this new generation of consumers. As a nod perhaps to the times, the company also created a new line of clothes, under the BiB (Big is Beautiful) brand name.

Controversies On 6 January 2010, it was reported that unsold clothing and other items in one New York City store are cut up before being discarded, presumably to prevent resale or use. On 24 January 2012, H&M was reported to have stolen an artist’s work, using it on multiple items without compensating the artist. In August, 2013, the Swedish fashion chain withdrew fauxleather headdresses from Canadian stores after consumers complained the items, part of the company’s summer music festival collection, were insulting to Canada’s First Nations aboriginal peoples.

Management IDEAS Experience curve The experience curve says that the more you do something, the less it cost to do it. And that has important implications if you have chosen to build your market share by having lower costs than your competitors – a cost advantage strategy.

Experience curve theory is not the same as economies of scale, though scale can contribute to it. As volumes build over time, workers become more confident and quick with

their hands. They spend less time scratching their heads or making errors, and they learn quicker ways of doing things. The same applies, in its own way, to their managers.

Labour costs money, so the learning curve reduces costs over time. The experience curve is based on the simple principle – it says that there is a relationship between experience and efficiency – but takes a broader view.

LEADERSHIP TRAITS

5 entrepreneurship lessons you can learn from military veterans There are some valuable lessons all business owners can learn from military veterans who have become entrepreneurs, according to veterans Mark Rockefeller, co-founder and CEO of veterans-focused social lending platform StreetShares, and Evan Hafer, co-founder and CEO of crowd funding platform TwistRate. Here are five of the biggest ones.

1. Leadership Veterans have the ability to lead and follow, take responsibility, and possess an attitude of being the first in and last out.

“In the military, you develop an attitude of truly putting others before yourself while simultaneously becoming flexible problem solvers out of necessity,” says Rockefeller. “You learn to quickly make the best decision you can with the given information available.”

Due to their work environments and experience, veterans are particularly adept at getting to the heart of an issue to resolve it quickly. “As the saying goes, we ‘improvise, overcome, and adapt.’ It’s the ability to do just that under pressure and in extreme situations that really sets vets apart as entrepreneurs,” Hafer says.

2. Making decisions with incomplete information In the same vein, veterans are familiar with a concept called the “fog of war,” in which one must make decisions with incomplete data, in an unknown environment, and sometimes even amidst confusion, according to Rockefeller. “One time, a convoy I was riding in came under attack in downtown Baghdad. As shots hit the Humvee, the driver had to quickly determine the best route out of the dangerous situation, without knowing whether greater risks lay ahead down his chosen path,” he recalls.

Such quick thinking and decisiveness is also required in business when facing a similar “fog of business,” in which the necessary data and metrics are unavailable to provide a complete view of a situation.

3. Team building When it comes to life-and-death situations, extraneous issues tend to fall by the wayside and bring people together to accomplish a particular goal.

Veterans have been through lifechanging experiences together, and out of necessity have had to learn to collaborate, appreciate

diversity, assemble a team from diverse individuals, and focus them on a common goal.

4. Knowing the terrain Veterans know that they need to understand the layout of the field of battle. They look for the key advantages and disadvantages to a certain position and understand who has the high ground and the most important strategic areas.

“In business, the concept of terrain has obvious implications for knowing the marketplace: What are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, or threats to a given business model? What are the substitute products and who are your competitors?” adds Rockefeller.

Having a strategic mindset on and off the battlefield helps veteran business-owners think one step ahead and have a contingency plan should something go awry. What is your contingency plan?

5. Efficiency and time management As in the private sector, members of the military also have to deal with office politics, bureaucracy, and inefficiency. Veterans can spot these things and work to avoid them, preferring instead to concentrate on the tasks required to meet specific objectives. For example, most veterans have had a “basic training” experience in which trainees are given more tasks to do than can be accomplished in the time allotted. “Learning how to quickly prioritize, focus, and tackle the most important tasks is a hallmark of military training,” explains Rockefeller.

In the business world, veteran business-owners apply the same skills. There are hundreds of things that require a business owner’s attention in a given day.

Prioritising those “critical path” items--those tasks that most directly bring the business closer to its ultimate goals--requires a focus akin to that honed in military training.

CEOConfidential

Sunday, September 28, 2014

getting ahead

31

Secrets They Won’t Teach You At Business School Richard Branson, one of world’s most-respected entrepreneurs

People power DiFFeRenTiATe oR Die

...the real engine of any business

Finding them, managing them, inspiring them and then holding on to them is one of the most important challenges a business leader faces, and your success or lack thereof plays a vital role in the long-term success and growth of your business.

What is a company but a collection of people? Take an airline - the aircraft it flies are pretty much the same as its rival’s. The interiors are usually much of a muchness and there is often only a slight difference in the entertainment and food.

What sets one airline apart from its peers is its people (aka cabin crew) and their attitude towards their passengers. Our Virgin airline crews are smiling, cheerful and pleased to help, which leaves our passengers wanting to fly with us again.

Business icons

It is no surprise that, like Virgin Atlantic before it Virgin America, which flies within the United States, constantly sweeps the travel awards for service and quality. Its planes are new, with great interiors and entertainment; but above all, the great service of its crews is what wins so many plaudits.

People are your key asset. On the front lines of business, they can make or break a company. As I constantly remind our managers and other budding entrepreneurs, a true sense of pride in the business makes all the difference.

Even the best people need great leadership. A good leader must know the team, its strengths and weaknesses; socialising and listening to the team face to face is key.

One of the most common reasons people leave a job is because they were not listened to. It’s rarely just about money, more often about frustration.

Like the proverbial bad apple, a bad leader can destroy a business very quickly. In small businesses this is easily apparent. On my island of Necker in the Caribbean, we once had a new general manager who tried to change the way things were done. Among other things he discouraged the staff from socialising over an occasional drink (or two!) with our guests, which rapidly soured the island’s historically collegial atmosphere. We had to step in to replace the manager and restore staff morale and the sense of management’s trust in them, which had been broken.

We also started some of our most successful businesses after pitches from our people. Virgin Blue, for instance, our Australian airline, (now known as Virgin Australia) was the brainchild of Brett Godfrey, an Aussie who had been working for Virgin in Brussels.

As only an Australian could, he came to me with his business plan written on a beer mat - outlining the startup of a low-cost domestic carrier in Australia to take on Qantas and Ansett.

In the intervening decade Brett has expanded Virgin Australia and its sister airlines to the United States, New Zealand, Thailand and Bali.

In other cases, we backed an outside team when we were sufficiently impressed by them to give them brand support and the space to go and build the new business themselves.

The specialist has weapons Since differentiation takes place in the mind, specialists have weapons they can use to pre-empt their specialty in the mind.

They can focus on one product, one benefit, and one message.

Such was the case in the battery business when Duracell focused on alkaline batteries only. Eveready, the genera list, had this type of battery in their line up but they didn’t specialise.

Duracell grabbed a brilliant name, pre-empted the “longlasting” attribute, and ran off with their business. Even Eveready’s Energizer bunny couldn’t slow down the specialist, who now is the leader with 45 per cent of the business.

(In the latest numbers, even third-place Ray-O-Vac is making gains on the bunny.)

continues next week

Leadership lessons continues From last week

Sam Walton Founder, Wal-Mart

I have gone through stores with him many times, thousands of times where the competitors’ stores ... would look really bad ... almost God awful. But he would never say that. He would always find some good idea in there, and everybody, of course, picked up on that” (Ortega 1998).

Walton would not only take competitors’ ideas, he would also take their people, as well. Walton said when discussing one of his first personnel acquisitions in

his memoir, Made in America, “I did something I would do for the rest of my run in the retail business without any shame or embarrassment whatsoever: nose around other people’s stores searching for good talent” (Walton 1997).

When Walton took an idea to implement in his stores, he also tried to make it better. He was interested in taking things beyond where they had been and liked to shake up the system.

Motivate Despite the recent attention paid by the media to Wal-Mart’s worker salaries and benefits, Wal-Mart has been the most successful retailer in motivating employees over the years. Many of the competitor discounters that were around when Wal-Mart was beginning went out of business eventually, even though they were better capitalised and larger. continues next week

32 CEOConfidential

housekeeping

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Compiled by Olujide Olusola

Most creative people in business

Adam Schokora, Jimi Zhang, Leon Yan, and Taylor Shen Neochaedge

For connecting Chinese artists to global brands The 1930s Shanghai town house is buzzing with activity: In the ground-level photo studio, stylists are tying a dozen orange helium balloons into a male model’s long black hair as part of a shoot for Red Bull energy drink. Up the staircase, which bursts with colourful Chinese graffiti art, video gurus are adding animation to some clips for Gap jeans and cutting together footage from a relaunch party for Adidas’s Stan Smith sneakers. In another office, a young woman in a stocking cap is scouring the Internet, scouting for Chinese street artists, musicians, photographers, and sculptors to feature in a bilingual web magazine she updates daily with new discoveries. The door to her shared work space bears an Andy Warhol quote: “Being good in business is the most fascinating kind of art. Making money is art and working is art and good ­business is the best art.”

Welcome to Neocha­Edge, a hub of Chinese creativity and commerce that’s got global brands banging at the door. The company’s nimble group of two dozen whiz kids is sussing out some of the freshest young Chinese artists, marketing their talents, and generating content for multinational companies including Volvo, eBay, Esprit, Nike, and Vans. Along the way, they’re taking a sledgehammer to the notion that China can only copy--not create and innovate.

“The goal is to be the first internationally ­recognized Chinese ­creative agency, because there just isn’t one yet,” says Neocha­Edge and driving force Adam Schokora, 33, a Detroit native and ­fluent Mandarin speaker who’s been living in China for more than a decade. “As late as 2006–07, the creative industry in China was still hit or miss. But there’s been a huge jump in the last couple of years. It’s tremendous, the number of great ­artists, designers, and creative thinkers coming out of here.”

Schokora first visited China as a teen; post-­college, he landed at global PR firm Edelman in Beijing, where he began consuming Chinese pop culture and learning his way around the developing

Chinese Internet. He struck out on his own about seven years ago, teaming with friends to build a social media site--along the lines of MySpace-for Chinese artists. They dubbed it Neocha (cha means “tea” in Mandarin). Despite attracting about 100,000 active users, they struggled to generate sufficient ad revenue.

Then, inspiration struck: Instead of trying to peddle companies and products to China’s artistic community, why not sell Chinese artists to corporations eager to attract the mainland’s young masses? Neocha began matching artists in its network to corporate clients with myriad needs--graphic designs for T-shirts, illustrations for books, music for film scores. Eventually, Neocha opened its own agency, Neocha­Edge, staffing it with multi­hyphenates such as Jimi Zhang (account ­director–stylist-producer), Leon Yan (filmmaker photographer), and Taylor Shen (curator-editor).

The Neocha social media site became a curated platform, and the top artists were highlighted in a polished web magazine edited by Shen.

The best of the best, fewer than 200 artists so far, have been invited into a community called Edge Creative ­Collective. Neocha­Edge draws on this group to supercharge its clients’ ­projects.

An e-store sells prints, toys, and books made by ­members.

International brands are eager to affiliate themselves with local artists and influencers-from rural handicrafters to indie bands and urban graphic designers--to communicate to consumers that they’re part of the contemporary cultural fabric.

“Neocha­Edge has managed to create an amazing network of ­artists,” says Pratik Thakar, Coca-Cola’s vice president for creative and ­content excellence, Asia Pacific. “They have influence and access, because they are continuously scouting and advocating with ­artist communities... Large ad agencies, multinational agencies, they don’t have this kind of reach or influence.” NeochaEdge helped Coca-Cola understand music trends in the region’s smaller cities to shape a marketing ­campaign.

Grace Wong, Shanghai-based vice president of marketing for Gap Inc., has enlisted Neocha­ Edge on numerous projects; Schokora and Zhang recently put together a campaign in which 10 artists--five from China and five from the U.S.--will reimagine the clothier’s logo for a new “Remix” collection of T-shirts hitting Chinese stores in May. “Adam has really tapped into the Chinese psyche, and specifically that younger person between 20 and 30,” says Wong. “To have such an understanding of that market is pretty cool.”

Adidas recently had the company execute a guerrilla-style street-art project in Beijing and Shanghai--which briefly landed two Neocha­Edge employees in police custody. (“The cops took them in, and we sort of had to bail them out, whatever,” says Schokora. “It was a lot of fun.”)

Whatever Neocha­Edge does, there’s one point it doesn’t budge on: The artists always get paid. “It is something I believe in strongly,” says Schokora.

“One of the best things we can do is create consistent, paying opportunities for the most talented folks we see.”

Jennifer Lee Co-director, Frozen

For breaking barriers with her billion-dollar second career With Frozen, Jennifer Lee cracked two glass ceilings at once: She became the first woman to direct a Disney animated feature and the first writer to ascend to the director’s chair on one of the company’s animated films (she cowrote Wreck-It Ralph). And she did it with a risky project. “It was a big musical with two female leads,” says Lee, who quit her job as a graphic designer in book publishing to enroll in film school at age 30. “So it was a let’s-try-to-be-fearlessand-see-what-happens kind of thing.” What happened was, the fairy tale of two sisters, released last Thanksgiving, earned $1 billion and became the highestgrossing animated movie of all time, not to mention a multiple Oscar winner and merchandising juggernaut--thanks in large part to Lee’s collaborative style (songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez helped pen the script).

Tween girls can’t seem to let it go and are throwing Frozen-themed parties. For dessert? Ice-cream cake.

Gorden Wagener

Head of Design, Mercedes-Benz

For giving luxury a new look With the 2015 Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Gorden Wagener faced a challenge most car designers would love to have: make a best-selling car sell even better.

Here’s how he messed with success.

Scale up and slim down The 2015 model is longer and wider, but weighs 200 pounds less due to a partly aluminum body, which also offered more freedom when it came to curves and detailing. “It’s about the materials you don’t see, but you feel and hear through different senses--that’s how we design,” he says.

Focus on the details To give the C-Class a self-assured look, Wagener patterned the headlights after a human eye, with the circular torch as the eyeball and a row of LEDs above as an eyebrow (and turn signal).

Make it perform Wagener pushed the cabin back, lengthening the hood and shifting the focus of the car to the rear. He also tapered the cabin and raised the back for a classic “dropping line” stance. “We took inspiration from 1930s streamlined design,” he says. As a result, the C-Class is unusually aerodynamic.

Wish List, P34

The Twitterati, P39

et cetera Utomi talks tough on corruption

Zainab Aliyu loves iPhone 6s

...AND OTHER THINGS September 28, 2014

GOOD OLD PARENTAL DISCIPLINE GOING EXTINCT A Girl’s Guide

HOw TO PACk THE ESSENTIALS

Jameel Wubni

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et cetera

How I feel about... beIng a fasHIon desIgner

Faith Duruaku My name is Faith Duruaku, (FD Fashion) and I am from the eastern part of Nigeria. I am a young entrepreneur; I am also a fashion designer.

I will start by saying I love fashion and everything that revolves around the world of fashion. Fashion to me is ever changing, its trends and the different seasons we have in life also works with fashion.

Personally, I am aspiring to be a great fashion designer in the nearest future, own my own label, produce and be involved in the fashion business fully.

At the moment I sketch and design, I have my portfolio of some inspirations that has been put into paper, some I have designed and made for myself and some few clients.

I often sketch and designs on paper then give to my stylist to make them available for me.

Another new trend I love now is the fabulous chiffon and ankara design, I came across a few dresses in Oxford Street during my last visit to Accra Ghana, I got interested in this trend, the fact that African fabric is now mixed with d English material is a leverage for us. I intend bringing out great designs soon with the chiffon and African prints, this is cool for me because I am forever Africa.

I love what I do and am willing to get more skills from fashion design schools within and outside the country; this will help me stay in line with latest happenings around the world of fashion.

Fashion for me is beautiful, being able to put down my ideas, imaginations on paper and at the end producing an amazing and comfortable outfit blows my mind. It makes me happy to know that I”m gifted and also love my gift.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

ZaInaB Umar alIyU U

WIsH H LIsT

The Educationist reveals some of her wishes to Zanswat Bowsan

Tiffany earrings.

Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.

Own a 2014 mercedes car

Own an iPhone 6s. I have a thing for apple. a diamond encrusted michael Kors Watch

2014 nine West shoes.

They are to die for.

Own a marc Jacobs bag. love the designs

DILEMMA

MY MaN WON’t GEt OVEr MY PaSt

In a light-hearted weekly column, we take a wry look at the problems of modern life

a point to try and nullify it, but he is still severely affected by what happened and to be honest, after a few months, I am wondering when he will come around. I I have been in a relationship with my have made a point to boost his ego. Tell boyfriend for almost a year now. We have him he is the best, he is very attractive, known each another for three years. In the etc. He still finds himself in whirlwinds of beginning of our friendship, I treated him depression and he thinks back on that like a best friend, and told him quite a bit time period of when he was in the friend about my sexual past with ex-boyfriends. It zone. What can I do to pull him out… or severely affected him and bruised his ego. can I at all?

I never had a clue that I hurt him so badly Hadiza from Kogi until he told me his feelings.

We have since started to (try) and repair Dear Hadiza the damage that I did and I have made it I really doubt you can help the situation.

et cetera group

You were honest with him but just too much. Don’t you know that there are some secrets that are meant to stay secrets?

Well the damage is done now and since your efforts are not working, you have two option: either you be patient and allow him to come of this on his own or you just find the next move on with your life, I mean how long will you keep waiting?

Think about it. you have a dilemma that you want help with? Write to blessing. ukemena@leadership.ng

CONTENT Zanswat Bowsan, Blessing Ukemena, Chalya Dul DESIGN Matthew Akhabue ACTING EDITOR Auwal Sa'id Mu'azu FOUNDER Sam Nda-Isaiah CHAIRMAN Hajiya Ireti kingibe GROUP MANAGING DIRECTOR Azubuike Ishiekwene GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS Michael Okpere, Dr kazeem Durodoye FEEDBACk AND MAIlS Etcetera is published as an insert in LEADERSHIP Sunday.

Please do send your pictures, stories, mails and enquiries to osezua.gloria@leadership.ng

et cetera

Sunday, September 28, 2014

PEOPLE TRACKER

BOSS LADY Damilola Olowe steps out in all pink

You can send your pictures to xanbowsan@yahoo.com

RADIANT Bose Hussein is as bright as her outfit

LE CHIC Aisha Ahmed rocks this maxi dress very well

APT Mima David is smart and ready to go

EDGY Manna Vonkyem looks trendy with her hat

PRETTY Aderonke Farounbi looks prim and proper in her lovely dress

COLOUR BLOCKING Agatha Imobio just knows what suits her

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