Aaaa sunday, june 28, 2015 vol 2 no 494 binder1 by Newtelegraphonline

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SUNDAY Sunday, JUNE 28, 2015 Vol. 2 No. 494

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DAVIDO

in ndlea trouble

We’re investigating }49 pop star, says agency

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CRISIS

Alex Okoroji

I’m still in love with my ex, Kalu Ikeagwu }17

NNPC board

Jonathan’s aides tackle Buhari over dissolution }5

BOKO HARAM

apc bows to saraki ...Lobbies Dogara

lDavid Mark, PDP senators, Reps may get juicy committees lHow I }4 escaped abduction - Saraki Iyobosa Uwugiaren and Donald Ojogo

he leadership of the All Progressive Congress may have capitulated to Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, over the leadership crisis in the Senate.

Saraki had defied the party by naming a set of principal officers different from those nominated by the party. This was the second time Saraki would defy his party. APC senators loyal to Saraki had on Thursday nominated Ali Ndume as the Majority Leader of the Senate, in dis-

obedience to the party’s directive that Ahmad Lawan be selected. Lawan lost the Senate presidency to Saraki, in spite of being the party’s official candidate. Also, the party had named Femi Gbajabiamila as its official candidate for position of Speaker, House of Repre-

sentatives but Yakubu Dogara emerged. Dogara’s attempt to name principal officers failed on Thursday as a fracas ensued between lawmakers loyal to him and those against his emergence. CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Protests ground Anambra over alleged Ogun crash: Distraught relatives of seven plan to transfer prisoners OOU students, others beseige mortuaries }5

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Contents | 28.06.15 BODY & SOUL

Lifestyle choices Studying/working hard every week day and Sunday, while playing even harder on Saturdays got Dr. Olu Agunloye a PhD at 25. Perhaps this lifestyle will win him his dream job as governor of Ondo state

}18

POLITICS

Buhari’s waiting game Thirty days after his inauguration, Nigerians have yet to understand the direction of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration

}31

BUSINESS

Unpaid wages Respite, on Tuesday, came the way of the 18 states owing their workers months of salary arrears

}23

FAITH

Don’t be afraid Step on toes if you have to, Oloruntimilehin tells President Buhari

}54

SPORT

Between Eagles and Three Lions Yeovil FC of England defender, Kolawole Sowunmi, is torn between playing for the Super Eagles of Nigeria and the English national team, the Three Lions

LIFE

}60

Homicide Chatham County Coroner rules that two ex-Geogia deputies were involved in the death of a Nigerian student in USA

}42

SUNDAY

Editorial

UNIOSUN and the storm within

t is not surprising that the spate, at which governors wield the big sticks on Vice-Chancellors and other principal officers of state universities in the country, will continue to raise concern among key players in the system.

No doubt, the rate at which vice-chancellors are being sacked and replaced at will, by the governors (their so-called employers and proprietors of the institutions) has definitely stunted the growth and development of the universities, as well as generating disaffection within the system. Despite the numerous daunting challenges occasioned by gross inadequate funding and infrastructure facing the university system, the hallmark of intellectualism and purveyor of knowledge, it is however assumed that there is the need for stability in the Ivory Towers, most essentially as it borders on administrative process, which is the core element in the efficient running of the system. We all should begin to worry about this new trend where principal officers of higher I nstitutions are removed and replaced at the whims and caprices of the governors, most often without recourse to established norms. If the system is to fulfill its vision and have any meaningful impact on the society, this is a wrong turn in the road. Anyway, whatever would guarantee the integrity of the system, and internalize the universality of the university, for it to perform optimally should be pivotal in the consciousness of the proprietors of the institutions, rather than resorting to sacking of the officers based on mundane things. In fact, the sack of four principal officers of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN), including the Vice-Chancellor, Deputy ViceChancellor, Registrar and the Bursar, at a sweep two weeks ago, by the Osun State Government, to settle certain political score is an indication that the nation’s universities still lack the much orchestrated autonomy, freedom and proprietorship non-interference required to grow the system. One thing should remain glaring in this crisis; and that is, ever before the final onslaught against the officers, the university had since been embroiled in a deep crisis following suspension of the vice-chancellor and sack of the registrar and bursar by the Governing Council. Although, it may suffice to argue that the governor might have followed the recommendations of the Visitation Panel raised to look into the remote and immediate causes of the crisis, his action, to key stakeholders in the university education, was rather too harsh and inimical to the collective progress and development of the budding university.

Now, apart from the fact that the rancour generated among the rank and file of the workers will take some time to heal, it is no gain saying that academic and administrative activities in the past few months have greatly been slowed down in the university, while the monumental attendant effects will continue to taunt the institution for a long time. Tracing the genesis of the crisis, the vice-chancellor was said to have been suspended by the Chairman of the governing council over alleged professional cum administrative misconduct, staggering loyalty to the council, defrauding the university, nepotism, neglect of university infrastructure, hastiness in starting distance learning programme, misuse of official car and incitement of ASUU In every intent and purpose, it will be subjective to totally remove a case of misgiving and selective persecution in the matter. If not, and going by the allegations, why did the council not, as a matter of standard practice query the Vice-chancellor before the suspension order? In the White Paper on the Report of the Visitation Panel into the Crisis released on Wednesday June 10, the government said that among other recommendations of the panel, it accepted the recommendation for the termination of the Prof. Adekunle Bashir Okesina-led management team and the dissolution of the governing council of the university led by Prof. Gabriel Adesiyan Olawoyin (SAN), as well as the sack of the deputy vice-chancellor, registrar and bursar. But, before the council wound up its business, the government mandated it ,despite the dissolution to commence the processes of appointing a new substantive vice-chancellor for the institution within the next six months. The white paper further said that due to the intractable crisis in the university, the Governor, who is also the Visitor to the university, Mr. Rauf Aregbesola, had set up the Visitation Panel to probe the crisis and come up with recommendations. However, the panel stated in its report that, “it strongly believes, based on its findings and evidence, that the relationship between the governing council, and management has broken down almost irretrievably.” Indeed, the panel recommended that it would amount to a waste of efforts trying to reconcile the two parties as it is obvious that they both cannot continue to work together harmoniously for the progress of the university.

DAILY TELEGRAPH PUBLISHING COMPANY LIMITED Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief

Funke Egbemode

Editor n Yemi Ajayi

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Editor, Saturday n Laurence Ani

Editor, Sunday n Emeka Madunagu

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Sunday Telegraph,, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Newsfeature

Ebonyi/Cross River border dispute: Communities seek peace Uchenna Inya

ABAKALIKI

he people of Ochienyim Ndiagu Amagu community in Ikwo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State and their neighbouring Adadama counterparts in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State are like cat and dog. They have remained enemies for ages over boundary matters and have continued to break the covenant reached by their ancestors for peaceful co-existence. On June 3 this year, the two neighbouring communities continued their border dispute when they took up arms, unleashing all forms of violence against themselves. This resulted in the deaths of over 10 persons while no fewer than 1,000 others were displaced and properties worth millions of naira destroyed. This forced the governments of both states to go into several meetings to find a lasting solution to the protracted crisis. It was tales of woe when Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Dr. Kelechi Igwe, and his team visited the internally Displaced Persons of Amagu Ikwo over the crisis. The community’s traditional ruler, Igwe Domini Aloh, while addressing the team accused the people of Adadama of breaking the covenant reached by their ancestors and invading the disputed land. He said their estranged neighbours destroyed their farmlands, killed their people and raped their women in addition to kidnapping some Amagu people. He said, “It is a long standing dispute and it has taken years. These years were even before my own grandfather and a covenant was reached here between Amagu and Adadama people. Since that time, we have been respecting that covenant until the people of Adadama invaded the place some years ago. They came in and settled there; but surprisingly, all those that settled there died and they were not buried there but were taken to their original area. That shows that the covenant was very strong. “Most of our children and adults have gone missing for many years over this protracted crisis and we never saw them till today. The situation is getting out of hand; some of our women are abducted on daily basis and raped, some to death. Those who are alive have no shelter, no food and their children have been dropped out of schools,” he lamented. The Ochienyim Ndiagu Amagu Community leader, Peter Azuegu Ekelechi Igwe, accused the people of Adadama of secretly killing the Amagu people through ambush. He alleged that indigenes of the area such as Sunday Ujebe, Nte Anyigor Omar and Christopher Ogodo were shot dead and their corpses stolen when the community

“Most of our children and adults have gone missing for many years over this protracted crisis and we never saw them till today. The situation is getting out of hand; some of our women are abducted on daily basis and raped, some to death

was invaded on June 4. Azuegu added that scores injured as a result of the attack are currently receiving treatment in various hospitals. He lamented that their economic trees and other valuable properties of the people have been destroyed as a result of the protracted crisis with school children forced out of schools in the area as a result of insecurity and lack of funds to cater for them. Addressing the Internally Displaced Persons in the camps, Igwe called on the National Emergency Management Agency to come to their aid.

Some displaced victims

Ayade

He commended them for being calm and urged them remain so as the governments of the two states are doing everything possible to bring lasting peace to the disputed area. He called on the Senate President, Bukola Saraki; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Yakubu Dogara; and National Boundary Commission to intervene in the lingering crisis. Already, Igwe and his Cross River State counterpart, Prof. Ivara Esu, have met in Calabar where they resolved to put an end to the age long boundary crisis between the two communities. Welcoming Igwe, Esu said the meeting was called for them to be properly briefed on the seemingly unending crisis between the two states in order to find a lasting solution. He explained that there cannot be peace in an environment devoid of peace and pledged the administration’s commitment to do everything possible to engender harmony for the overall development of the states. Esu assured that the Cross River State Government was poised to fight poverty and the difficulties faced by the rural populace; hence the need to ensure that the people live in peace and harmony at all times. Meanwhile, a joint committee has been constituted to ensure lasting peace between

Umahi

the people of both communities. This was the outcome of the joint meeting of officials from both states at Government House, Calabar. In a four-point communiqué signed by the Permanent Secretary, Office of Ebonyi State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Joyce BarryOko, and jointly signed by the two deputy governors, the committee will among other things determine the factors responsible for the failure of previous peace initiatives in four flash points of Yala/Izzi, Obubara/ Abakaliki, Obubara/Ikwo and Abi/Ikwo. Earlier while briefing newsmen in his office at Government House, Abakaliki on the outcome of his meeting with his Cross River State counterpart, Igwe called on the two warring communities to sheath their swords and embrace peace. He regretted that the two communities which had been living in peace suddenly turned into enemies. Former governors of both states - Martin Elechi and Liyel Imoke - had brokered peace during their tenure. They got leaders of thought of both states to sign a peace pact at Government House, Abakaliki. With that, everyone thought that normalcy had returned to the two communities; only for the pact to be shattered in June this year following fresh hostilities in the disputed area.

SUNDAY 28 JUNE, 2015 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

News

David Mark, PDP senators, Reps may get juicy committees CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The party has continued to insist that its favourite candidates who failed to be elected president and speaker for the Senate and House of Representatives respectively, be elected Majority Leaders in both chambers. But, the Senate on Thursday officially nominated Ali Ndume, from Borno State, as Majority Leader and Bala Ibn Na’allah as his deputy while Senator Francis Alimikhena, from Edo State, was named as Deputy Chief Whip. Consequently, the leadership of the ruling party had threatened to sanction Saraki and others for disregarding its position. A senior member of the APC National Working Committee told Sunday Telegraph in Abuja yesterday that even though Saraki and his group “went too far” in their non-compliance of the party’s directive, there is little or nothing the leadership of APC could do now to sanction the lawmakers. The source, who pleaded anonymity, said, “I personally believe Bukola Saraki and his group went too far in disobeying our party’s position on the election of the National Assembly leadership and the selection of the principal officers. They have closed the door for further discussion on the matter, as they nominated and accepted their principal officers on Tuesday. “To face the reality on ground, there is nothing we can do now to sanction them. We have to find ways to work with the new leadership in the Senate. But, I do hope they will not work into the trap set for them by the party.” As for the House of Repre-

Chukwu David Abuja

resident of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, yesterday alleged that there was a plot by unnamed persons to abduct him from the premises of the National Assembly on June 9. Saraki, who opened up for the first time since his election, explained the intrigues and horse trading that characterised his election. In an interaction with journalists in Abuja, Saraki claimed that there were plans to abduct him in order to make him unavailable to stand for the election on inauguration day. He insisted that he never got any message to go to the International Conference Centre for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari as claimed by sena-

sentatives, the APC chieftain said there is still room for negotiation and resolution of the vexed issue. “In the House of Representatives, there is still room for discussion. They have not shut the door against us like the Senate did. We are talking to them and we hope to resolve all the issues before they resume on July 21,” the source stated. He added, “What is currently at play is 2019; different forces within the party are already positioning themselves for the 2019 elections. For now, it is very convenient for some forces to come together to cut down the influence of others. They want to prove who is more influential in the party. And that is the crisis we currently trying to tackle.” The NWC member said the current plot to remove the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, may be real as diverse forces within the party think “whoever controls the chairman controls the party.” Meanwhile, Saraki and Dogara have embarked on steps aimed at sustaining their hold on power. Sunday Telegraph gathered exclusively that certain committees considered juicy in both chambers have been reserved for some loyal members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party for their role in the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly on June 9. This development is coming on the heels of reports that some APC National Assembly members who had pushed for the actualisation of the party’s position are already in disarray. “We are already frustrated by these guys,” one of them

said. A senator who was deeply involved in the race for the Senate presidency prior to the emergence of Saraki told Sunday Telegraph that both Saraki and Dogara are likely to constitute the National Assembly committees before the end of July. Both chambers are expected to resume on July 21. “We are already messed up by these people who out of their selfish motives have sold the APC to the PDP just because they wanted power and positions at all cost. As it is now, only God can save the party from total disunity for the next four years. “Honestly, a very bad precedence has been set by Saraki. This means that all through the first four years of this government, APC has to lean towards the PDP. In that case, we have to explain to Nigerians the difference between our party which traded on change to power

and the PDP that has inflicted hardship on the nation for the last 16 years. “When we formed this party, our idea was to instill party supremacy and discipline which would have been a new mantra in Nigerian politics. But what are seeing today? As I am talking to you now, we have reliable information that both the Senate president and the Speaker have conceded certain strategic and juicy positions to the opposition PDP as part of their deal prior to June 29. “We know as of matter of fact that the former Senate President, David Mark, has been pencilled down as chairman of either the Committee on Defence or National Security. Another one from the South-South is likely to head the finance committee. This is nonsensical. “In the House, a similar situation is brewing where some unusual concessions

are being given to the PDP. These guys have messed us up as a party; and right now rather than calling the shots, some of us have resorted to lobbying for positions because we are already disorganised and cannot forge ahead as united as before especially with what Saraki did on Thursday,” he said. When contacted, Saraki’s media adviser, Yusuph Olaniyonu, said his boss had not conceded juicy committees to the PDP. “That is untrue. It is a mere speculation that should not be given a serious attention in whatever form. It is a blatant lie and misinformation please. You should know that committees have not been constituted at all. It cannot therefore be true that the Senate president has made concessions to some persons. “For the avoidance of doubt, only two ad hoc committees have been put in place. Even in the compo-

sition of those committees, all interests were taken care of fairly and justly,” Olaniyonu said. APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said he was not aware that Saraki and Dogara were planning to concede juicy slots to PDP. In a terse reply to our correspondent’s enquiry on the telephone, he said, “I’m not aware. The party is not aware.” In a separate development, it has emerged that Mark’’s reluctance to give a shot at the Senate presidency bungled a plot by the PDP to undo the APC in the June 9 election. According to a source privy to the plot, the PDP had actually desired to exploit the intra-party crisis within the APC by throwing up Mark for the Senate presidency as it became apparent that neither Saraki nor Lawan was ready to step down.

Shehu of Bama, Alhaji Kyari Ibn Ibrahim Elkanemi (left); Borno State Governor, Kashim Shettima and other government officials, breaking fast with displaced persons at an Internally Displaced Persons Camp at Yerwa Girls College in Maiduguri …on Friday night.

Saraki: How I escaped abduction tors from the Unity Forum. “First of all, as regards the meeting (at ICC), on the morning of the inauguration, I didn’t finish meeting until 4a.m of that day. I had got information that efforts would likely be made to make sure that I didn’t get access into the chambers. “So, as early as between 4a.m and 5a.m, I had made contingency plans that I must get into the National Assembly because the plan before was that senatorselect should go to the Transcorp Hilton Hotel around 8a.m and 9a.m and from there proceed to the National Assembly. “But I was advised that it would not be safe or secure for me to do that because some people would make

sure that I didn’t get into the chambers. It wouldn’t have been possible for me to be nominated, for the nomination to be seconded and for me to accept the nomination. “I can tell you today that I was in the National Assembly Complex as early as 6a.m and I stayed in a car in the parking lot, from 6a.m till quarter to 10a.m. This is the truth. I stayed there and I was there with no communication whatsoever. “So, nobody told me to go to the ICC. It was not true because I didn’t even know what was going on. All I was monitoring was how people were arriving at the complex. It was at quarter to 10a.m I got information that the Clerk to the National Assembly

had entered the chamber. So, I got out of the small car I was inside, stretched myself and put on my Babanriga because I didn’t have it on before then. “ walked from the car park into the chambers... That was why some of you would have seen that I looked very tired that morning. Even when I was in the chambers, I didn’t know what had transpired earlier on. The only thing I observed was that it appeared that some of our senators were not in the chamber but the fact that my colleagues arrived in batches, I had the opinion that they were on the way and by 10a.m, the programme started. “Before I knew it, my election had come and

gone. Even my people were worried, it was only when I got into the chambers that they were relieved.” The Senate president also dismissed insinuations that for him to win, he had to enter into a pact with the Peoples Democratic Party, pointing out that it was the absence of APC senators in the chamber that ensured the emergence of Senator Ike Ekweremadu as his deputy. “Never in our wildest imagination did we envisage that some senators would not be present on the day of the inauguration. “In my own view, and in the view of some of those who worked closely with me, I worked hard for my

election, I had direct contact with every single senator, one on one; weeks leading to the election I did not rely on anybody. I worked hard; both in our party, the APC and out of it. “I approached every senator. I talked to them ... we built confidence, not only in the APC, but also in the PDP. I talked to them. That is why I laugh when people say I had a deal with Ekweremadu or I had a hand in the emergence of Ekweremadu. “I didn’t need any deal to win. There was no deal; I didn’t need any deal in the first place. I had worked hard such that everybody who was a senator, I campaigned hard and canvassed for their votes and won their confidence,” he said.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY 28 JUNE, 2015

News

Ogun crash: Relatives of seven Boko Haram: Protests cripple OOU students besiege mortuaries Anambra Kunle Olayeni

Pamela Eboh Awka

nambra State was in the early hours of yesterday on edge as traders took to major roads of Awka, Nkpor, Onitsha, Nnewi and Ekwulobia to protest the alleged transfer of Boko Haram prisoners from the North to the state. Business activities were paralysed in different parts of the state as traders took to the streets carrying placards and chanting Biafran solidarity songs. At the popular Tarzan junction in Onitsha, a large crowd of traders took over the expressway, displaying placards with different inscriptions. In the process, they caused a gridlock, keeping cars and lorries at a standstill. The inscription on the placards read ‘Boko Haram prisoners are not allowed here;’ ‘Is this the wharf in Onitsha;’ ‘Chief Obiano, save our soil from Boko Haram;’ ‘We say No to Buhari, we say No to intimidation;’ ‘Prisoners say no to your prisoners;’ ‘South East traders say no to Boko Haram detainees in South East.’ At Onitsha, the hustle and bustle associated with activities in the commercial nerve-centre was replaced by demonstrators threatening fire and brimstone should the Federal Government fail to drop the plan. However, the protest at some point snowballed into heightened tension as the police tried to stop the crowd from going violent by using tear gas to disperse them. Addressing the traders,

the President-General of AMATAAS, Chief Okwudili Ezenwankwo, urged the traders to remain calm as there was no cause for alarm yet. At Ekwulobia Prison, which was allegedly named as the likely penitentiary to which the prisoners would be transferred, the situation was calm. Similarly at Awka, the protesters blocked the major roads of the state capital echoing the same words of the protesters at Onitsha, Ekwulobia and Nnewi. Reacting to the protest, spokesman for the state p;olice command, Mr. Uche Eze, said the situation was being taken care of. Governor Willie Obiano was not readily available to react to comment on the matter. However, spokesman for the Nigerian Prisons Service, Mr. Francis Nobore, told Sunday Telegraph on the telephone that there was no truth in the allegation. He said it was not possible for the service to transfer Awaiting Trial inmates from the areas where they were being tried to other places. “Well, I can assert that there is no truty in the rumour. Most of the suspects have ongoing cases and none of them is in Anambra. I wouldn’t know where they got the rumour from,” he said. Nobore stated that the service usually took the reformation, training and rehabilitation of prisoners seriously and does not engage in transferring them without due consideration for the environment.

O Abeokuta

gun State Police Command yesterday said it had intensified a manhunt for the runaway driver of the DAF truck which killed eight students of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye, their driver and three others on Friday on Sagamu-Benin Expressway. This came as distraught families, relatives and friends of the deceased students besieged the stateowned teaching hospital in Sagamu in search of the remains of their loved ones. Twelve people reportedly died on Friday when the truck collided with a Mazda commercial bus, leaving only one person critically injured in the accident. The vehicles involved included a DAF trailer marked Lagos BDG 779 XE and a Mazda bus with registration number Lagos XV 311 MUS. The driver of the truck, who allegedly drove against traffic and rammed into the Lagos-bound bus, was said to have escaped immediately after the incident. But the state Police Public

Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, assured members of the public yesterday that the fleeing driver would soon be arrested. Adejobi said the police command was still investigating the matter, adding that no stone would be left unturned in apprehending the truck driver. He also listed the victims of the accident to include eight OOU students, three post-UTME students and the commercial bus driver. According to the PPRO, the lone survivor is a student of the Chemistry Department at the OOU. “Investigation is still ongoing and we want to assure you that we will get the driver of the truck. The police have the capacity to do that,” Adejobi told Sunday Telegraph in a telephone interview. Our correspondent learnt that some of the relatives of the victims yesterday stormed the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital (OOUTH), Sagamu in a desperate search for the bodies of the students. A senior staff of the hospital, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told our correspondent that the remains of the victims were not deposited at the hospital morgue.

He said the OOUTH authorities directed the grieving relatives to comb private morgues within the town. He noted that information at his disposal indicated that some bodies of the accident victims were deposited at Fakoya Hospital mortuary. It was learnt that the Head of Students Affairs of OOU, Professor Lekan Arikewuyo, and the university’s Chief Security Officer, Mr. Rasheed Adekunle, also led a team to search private morgues in the area for the bodies. Meanwhile, eminent businessman and former governor of Abia State, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, has sympathised with the management, staff and students of the university over the tragic loss of the students. According to the former governor, the accident could have been prevented if the truck driver had obeyed traffic rules. In a condolence message signed by his Special Adviser, Kunle Oyewumi, and made available to the media yesterday, Kalu said, “I was shocked and devastated when I heard the news of the demise of students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, AgoIwoye who were involved in a ghastly motor accident

along Sagamu-Benin expressway. “It is disheartening to lose the leaders of tomorrow in such a circumstance. It is sad that the students died in their prime at a time the country needs the younger generation to contribute their knowledge towards the growth of the society. “In this period of grief, our thoughts and prayers are with those that lost their loved ones in the unfortunate accident.” The business mogul used the opportunity to caution motorists on reckless driving, advising that strict compliance to traffic laws will minimise road accidents. He, however, urged the Federal Road Safety Commission and other stakeholders to sensitise the general public on traffic rules, adding that motorists flouting road traffic regulations with impunity should not go unpunished. Kalu while commiserating with families of the departed souls, government of Ogun State and students of the institution prayed God to grant them the fortitude to bear the irreparable losses. He also prayed to God to grant the deceased persons eternal rest.

The immediate past Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (left), being welcomed by the Chairman of the Lagos NBA Branch 2015 Law Week Dinner, Mr. Ebun Sofunde SAN (right), and Mr. Wole Olanipekun SAN (middle), during a Dinner, organized by the NBA Lagos Branch in Fashola’s honour in Lagos, on Thursday.

Jonathan’s aides tackle Buhari over NNPC board 5 die in Maiduguri blasts T

wo of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s aides yesterday said the Board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation was dissolved immediately erstwhile Minister of Petroleum, Diezani AlisonMadueke, vacated office on May 29. They were reacting to reports that President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday ordered the dissolution of the board. The unnamed ex-aides, who spoke to Sahara Reporters, said Buhari was out of order by dissolving the board

because, according to the Petroleum Act, it stood dissolved the moment AlisonMadueke left office. “That act (President Buhari’s dissolution of the NNPC board) is null since there was no board in place after the former Petroleum Minister, Diezani AlisonMadueke, left office,” said one of the sources. The second source, who served on the disbanded board, claimed that Jonathan’s administration left $5 billion in the treasury for Buhari’s government. He said the funds were yielded by dividends from Nigeria’s

sale of liquefied natural gas. Last weekend, Babs Omotowa, the chief executive of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Company (NLNG), claimed that the company paid $1.6 billion in dividends to the Buhari government. However, one of the two sources who spoke to us claimed that said the amount was $5 billion. He added that President Buhari was either hiding the correct amount paid to his government in order to justify his claim of inheriting “an empty treasury” or that the NLNG was playing a game on Nigerians.

Ahmed Mari Maiduguri

ive people including two female suicide bombers died yesterday in an blast at the Molai General Hospital on the outskirts of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital An eyewitness, Alhaji Idris Bukar, said the IEDs exploded around 5:30p.m when the two female suicide bombers were trying to enter Molai General Hospital. The bombers swiftly detonated the IEDs, killing the two se-

Buhari

curity men, and one other person and injuring several others. Confirming the incident, a civilian vigilante from Molai checkpoint, Yama Audu, told our correspondent on the telephone that five people were killed. He said

the injured were taken to State Specialist Hospital for treatment. In a related development, another suicide bomber was said to killed himself in Jakana village of Konduga Local Government Area of Borno State while waiting for a vehicle to convey her to Maiduguri. A taxi driver, Mallam Findi Mohammed, said they were coming to Maiduguri around 5:15pm when military operatives blocked Maiduguri-Damaturu Road in Jakana.

SUNDAY

The Sunday Magazine SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Okorocha

Okorocha’s bulldozers of terror Owerri’s oldest library, houses, schools destroyed in massive cleanup It’s meant to sanitise the state capital – Govt.

Steve Uzoechi & Chijioke Iremeka esidents of Owerri, the Imo State capital are in a state of shock following the demolition of a number of structures in the city on the orders of Governor Rochas Okorocha. Structures which have been destroyed by the bulldozers of terror include the oldest library in Imo State known as Mbari; schools; churches; businesses and residential properties. Okorocha, whose bulldozers have demolished over 20 houses, shops and filling stations in Owerri, has vowed to stop at nothing to restore the beauty of the city by implementing the Owerri Master Plan. In compliance with this, Okorocha says that his second term will be different in many ways, since he is prepared to take some tough decisions that might not go down well with the citizenry. Okorocha said he was faced with some hard choices, which include the restoration of Owerri Master Plan, noting that it will entail the demolition of more structures violating the master plan and extant laws. Barely three weeks after his inauguration, several shanties, houses, churches and business premises have tumbled down as Okorocha’s bulldozers rolled through Owerri. Okorocha has continued with the programme to transform the state through a programme christened “Imo

My Pride.’ In particular, the state government has embarked on the reconstruction of Owerri city roads. The governor, while touring the city recently, said this would go a long way to making the state capital the cleanest city in the country. He directed all artisans in the state capital to move to their permanent site in Avu in Owerri West Local Government Area. He lamented that the rate at which mechanics and other artisans had been littering the city had become unacceptable. Already affected are buildings and churches on New Road, Orji, Amakohia, Wetheral Road and a number of filling stations. “I want Imo to wear a new look that will be envy of other states,” Okorocha’s Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, quoted him as saying. Okorocha has also warned truck drivers to desist from plying the state capital during the day, and made them to understand that the state government had concluded arrangements to set up a taskforce/mobile court to apprehend and prosecute offenders. He frowned on the rate at which bus drivers and commuters abandon the various parks provided by the state government, and prefer to block the roads. He also said the state government has banned street trading. Okorocha cautioned those erecting church buildings in different parts of

Sunday Telegraph, SUNDAY JUNE 28 2015

The Sunday Magazine

We went to the State House of Assembly and protested that the clause is evil and the House removed it and pruned it down to 1.5 metres. So, it’s illegal and criminal to demolish people’s property on the strength of that clause. In any case, even the 1.5 metres can only be implemented on prospective buildings not on already existing structures

Bulldozar working at the demolition site

the state capital to seek government approval to avoid losing their structures. He also regretted the way erosion has ravaged the state capital as a result of wrong location of structures. He vowed that his administration would demolish illegal structures that obstruct drainages. At Orji mechanic village, Okorocha said the area is supposed to be a green belt area. He decried the the indiscriminate construction of shops, noting that the state government has started demolishing shanties to make way for more befitting structures that will enhance the beauty of the city. He advised those constructing gates and caskets along Amakohia Road to move to government designated areas. However, the ‘Imo My Pride’ taskforce inaugurated recently by the governor for this purpose has warned that it would not spare any illegal structure built on open spaces, water ways, utility lines and green verges in the city of Owerri. Hence, the demolition exercise which, contrary claims in some quarters, the state government said is being done for the benefit of the state and not for the governor or his family members and allies. The taskforce chairman, Hon. Iyke Okeigbonanwa, who said that their mandate is tagged ‘Operation No Mercy,’ added that they would not leave any stone unturned until they have restore the Owerri Master Plan. Okeigbonanwa said, “We have since commenced full operations in Egbeada Housing Estate,

Amakohia, Egbu and other areas, demolishing illegal buildings wrongly situated. It is unfortunate that a two-storey building constituted an obstacle in one of these areas, even a church building, but the right thing must be done. So we have to clear all structures that have gone beyond utility lines and breached the law. There should be sanity. London was built by men, not angels.” On the payment of compensation, Okeigboananwa said, “If you built illegally without approval or allocation paper, government will demolish your structures without compensation and you will have to pay a fine to the state government for giving it the heavy task of pulling down your illegal structure. Government can only pay compensation based on its magnanimity. Compensation is not a right but a privilege.” He revealed that the new taskforce is a combination of personnel from Environmental Transformation Commission and Owerri Capital Development Authority. The recently inaugurated Imo State House of Assembly seems to have also endorsed the demolition through a resolution urging OCDA and ENTRACO to ensure the restoration of the Owerri Master Plan. Rights activists and indigenes of the state have maintained that the approach is insensitive and that the assembly should have subjected the action to a public hearing before endorsing it. Victims, activists protest A business owner along the New Road, Zeb Mbiokwu, lamented that his shop

was destroyed with several other buildings. He complained that they were not given adequate time to remove their wares before the demolition of their structures. An indigene of Owerri and Chairman of Global Prolife Alliance, Dr. Philip Njemanze, is of the view that the state government is perpetrating acts of lawlessness and impunity with the implementation of the master plan. Speaking to Sunday Telegraph, he said, “The Owerri Master Plan is not just a document but a law. In the master plan, all major roads in the city centre are not dualised. It was stated there that all these roads are spacious enough and not to be dualised in the city centre. What is happening now is a distortion of the master plan by some people to demolish people’s property and perhaps go back through fronts to buy them. There is no legal basis for these demolitions and government must be held accountable for it.” He noted that the government hinged its authority to demolish most buildings on the clause stipulating they must be located seven metres away from the road. He said this was inserted into the Imo ENTRACO Law No.3. His words: “We went to the state house of assembly and protested that clause is evil and the House removed it and pruned it down to 1.5 metres. So it is illegal and criminal to demolish people’s property on the strength of that clause. In any case, even the 1.5 metres can only be implemented on prospective buildings not on already existing structures. You cannot

enforce a law retroactively in Nigeria.” He described the recent demolition as an impeachable offence which grossly violates the constitution and fundamental human rights of residents of the state capital. “State governments everywhere particularly Imo State must realise that there are international treaties that obligate the government to respect the rights of indigenes. “You do not demolish people’s legitimate habitation and property without an acceptable alternative. Even Lagos State’s demolition of Maroko became an issue in the United Nations. The Imo State governor should take cognisance of this reality or face charges for humanitarian crimes of international proportion. “The governor is simply wielding his power on us and abusing the office that should protect ordinary people. They just came here last Saturday and gave us three days’ notice to evacuate by Tuesday or face the bulldozer. How much can you do so in three days and where do you take your things to? The worst of it all is that there is no compensation for this wicked act. We have families, we have dependants, the roads are spacious enough and we are not blocking anybody,” Njemanze said. On the demolition of ‘Mbari,’ he said: “The very first library after the Nigerian Civil War has been destroyed. It was not just a library; it was basically a historical monument of Igbo resilience in education. The first place he wiped out was the historical essence of the whole state. For instance, the house where people like Odumegwu Ojukwu used to reside and where most meetings concerning the reconstruction state and Igboland were held has been destroyed. So, you wiped out the entire history of the people? “How can we recover the history when it is gone forever? What we have is a total destruction of the history of Imo people. There is nothing to write home about in the acclaimed development of the state. It’s only those who are not abreast with a sense of history and development that would pay attention to such rubbish. “When you wipe out the history, it doesn’t come back. If you pull down a historical building and rebuild it, it has lost the value and there is no history in it anymore. What he should have done was to renovate the whole place and still maintain its foundation.” According to him, other states still preserve several monuments related to the Igbo people. “If you go to Abia State, Ojukwu’s bunker at Umuahia is still there. If you go to Enugu, all the historical places are still there but all the ones in Imo State have been wiped out within four years. There won’t be traces of anything historical in Imo State before he leaves office. That is why the intellectual ones are alarmed. The destruction is not only of the recent history but ancient history. You don’t just come here and destroy the whole historical significance of Owerri,” he said. On the allegation of hijack of properties and call to investigate and prosecute the governor, Sam Onwuemeodo, said that government is aware of Njemanze’s claims and assumptions but have deliberately ignored him. Onwuemeodo maintained that Okorocha cannot take any body’s land and has not taken any body’s land. He recalled the incident when the state government wanted to build a developmental project at the Area K land belonging to a village in Owerri Municipal, the village protested. According to him, they did not understand and could not come to terms with government development plan for the area. The governor still left the land for them. Government is committed to reclaiming Owerri from filth, disorder and indiscriminate erection of structures in violation of stipulated guidelines. However, we will address Njemanze’s issues after the court ruling.”

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

News

Danjuma donates foodstuffs, drugs to Taraba IDPs Sabiu Mustapha JALINGO

he TY Danjuma Foundation through Chagro Care Trust, a non-governmental organisation yesterday provided medical items and foodstuff at internally displaced persons camps in Taraba State. Besides meeting their medical needs, assorted food items like 70 bags of rice, 15 bags of maize, 13 bags of beans, 300 pieces of sanitary pads were also distributed to them at the occasion. Mr. Emmanuel Ishaku, the Programme Assistant of the foundation noted at the occasion in Jalingo that the foundation had done a base line research and discovered that the immediate needs of the IDPs were medical care and food. Ishaku said the foundation

had gone into partnership with many credible NGOs with skilled personnel to handle various health challenges facing the IDPs in the state. Mr. Danjuma Adda, the Executive Director of Chagro Care Trust said the organisation was moved by the plight of IDPs and decided to approach TY Danjuma for sponsorship of the programme. “Our areas of intervention include HIV/AIDs free testing, malaria testing and distribution and administration of drugs to all the IDPs. We also donated condoms,” he said. Mr. Peter Hurza, the spokesman of the IDPs thanked the Chagro Care Trust and TY Danjuma Foundation for responding to their needs.

‘Change will elude Nigeria, if…’

Muritala Ayinla

iqued by the crisis rocking the National Assembly over distribution of leadership positions, clerics and other eminent Nigerians yesterday said that Nigeria might not experience any positive change unless both the leaders and the led change their orientation towards good governance. They said it was not enough to rejoice that Nigerians have voted out a non-performing government, but there was need for the citizens to examine their mindset and change their perception for good governance. They spoke in Lagos at a Ramadan Lecture organised by Anwar-

Ul-Islam College Old School Association, noting that beyond change in leadership, Nigerians also need to change their ways of thinking in order to achieve all the nation’s dreams. Speaking on the theme: “Change in a Nation: Islamic Perspective,” Sheikh AbdulSemiu Olojeola, said it was unfortunate that Nigerian lawmakers embarked on physical combat all in the name of making laws for the country. He added that the current happenings at the National Assembly were clear indications that the lawmakers are out for an agenda which are at variance with the positive change that Nigerians desire. Also speaking, the former Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ibrahim

Olorunnimbe said that if the crisis in the National Assembly continued, the future of Nigeria is bleak. Olorunnimbe said: “I was shocked that the honorable lawmakers were fighting in the National Assembly. Is that the change we were asking for? Then, the people themselves must be prepared to change from their old habit to the new ones. They must be amenable to discipline. They must observe rule of law. They must behave decently inside and outside the National Assembly. “The way out is to put the interests of the people who they represent above their interests. They should put the service of the nation foremost. But can we see these qualities in the current lawmakers?

When people who regarded themselves as honourables are fighting publicly, what future do we have as a nation?” On his part, the SolicitorGeneral of Lagos State, Mr. Lawal Pedro, who is also the President General of ACAOSA, said that God has endowed Nigeria with everything to succeed as a nation, saying only what is required was attitudinal change by the people who make up the country. He attributed the crisis in the National Assembly to the conflict of interest of different factions of political gladiators, saying there was need for people to sacrifice their personal interest in order to have the Nigeria of our dream as some people sacrifice their interest for the present leadership to emerge.

Body seeks support for IDPs in Edo Cajetan Mmuta BENIN

embers of the Medical and Health Workers Union of Nigeria have called for maximum support from international donors, individuals and government agencies to adequately cater to the needs of victims of Boko Haram in the country. The National President of MHWUN, Mr. Josiah Biolemoye made the appeal yesterday when he led other members of his executives to donate cash and food items worth about a million naira to the IDP camp in Benin, Edo State capital. Biolemoye, who lamented the plight of the over 900 inmates of the camp stated that

government alone cannot bring the much needed succour to the victims. More than 950 IDPs in the camp in addition to over five hundred orphans are being catered for by managers of the camp. He described as tragic the pathetic stories of some of the Boko Haram victims, adding irrespective of tribe, religion or state, the citizens belong to one and the same country and therefore urged Nigerians to show love and be their brothers keeps by coming to the aid of the people. The union also lauded government’s effort and determination towards putting an end to the activities of insurgents and urged all to join hands with security agencies and government to bring the scourge to a logical end.

Shettima assures IDPs of presidency’s support

overnor Kashim Shettima of Borno State has said that internally displaced persons in Maiduguri have begun to feel the impacts of the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration The governor spoke when he organised an ‘iftar’ (breaking of Ramadan fast) at an IDP camp located at Yerwa Girls College in Maiduguri last Friday night. The event was attended by the Emir of Bama, Alhaji Kyari Ibn Ibrahim Elkanemi who has been displaced following the destruction of his palace and occupation of Bama by Boko Haram insurgents in 2014. Shettima arrived one of the 20 camps housing some of the people of

Bama who have the largest number of displaced persons at about 6:15pm, performed ‘magrib’ prayers at Sunset in congregation of the IDPs before setting down to enjoy the breaking of fast with about 2,000 displaced persons. A combined team of security men and youths volunteers made sure the exercise, which was first of its kind, went hitch free for nearly two hours. Explaining further, Shettima said “early this week, Governors met with Mr. President on the State of the Nation and one of the President’s renewed assurances is the fight against the insurgents and a firm pledge to offer special support to Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states.”

Speaker, House Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, with the Canadian High Commissioner, Mr. Perry John Calderwood, during his visit to Dogara in Abuja…on Friday. PHOTO: ELIJAH OLALUYI

El-Rufai to provide jobs for 12,750 youths Ibraheem Musa Kaduna

aduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, yesterday promised to provide jobs for 12,750 youths across the state over the next four years. El-Rufai, who made this known during his first Town Hall Meeting with some stakeholders at Government House, Kaduna, said 50 youths from each of the 255 wards in the state. He said he had chosen former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Mrs. Ifueko Omogui-Okauru, to chair a committee that will reviewthe Internally Generated Revenue of the state. He also said the committee would look at the systems and laws of tax collection in Kaduna State. According to him, the

committee will also recommend ways in which the state will improve its revenue generation and reduce its dependence on federal allocation. El-Rufai also said he is fulfilling his campaign promise to always engage and interact with the public in order to update the people on what the state government is doing and get feedback from them. The governor further revealed that Kaduna State has signed up to Open Budget, a tool that enables citizens to track what the administration is doing with public funds. According to him, the state government has also initiated a new scheme to revive taxi services in the urban centres. “The scheme is starting with 200 vehicles in Kaduna and it is being implemented

in collaboration with Peugeot. “The aim is to create jobs for owner-drivers who will help improve the commuting experience with their comfortable cars and excellent customer service,” elRufai pointed out. The governor also said that “our drive to attract new investors to the state has attracted positive response from Indorama, a leading player in petrochemicals.” He said the company would build warehouses, a fertiliser blending plant and training centre in Kaduna because it has chosen the town as its regional distribution centre. The governor also said that government “will undertake the direct recruitment of qualified doctors, nurses and teachers to urgently raise the quality of service in our hospitals and

schools.” In addition, government “shall also employ at least 50 youths per ward over the next four years, in our initial efforts for traffic control and environmental enforcement. “But try as it might, government can only employ a minority of youths who need jobs. Thus, we remain focused on creating a favourable climate for the private sector to create jobs,” el-Rufai added. According to him, Kaduna State has President Muhammadu Buhari’s support to work on policies and schemes that will revive textile industries as viable and sustainable employer of labour. “We are cooperating with current and potential textile investors on a package that stimulates the value-chain from cotton farming to garmenting,” he added

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

News

Ortom vows to end Tiv/Fulani clashes in Benue Cephas Iorhemen

Makurdi

enue State Governor, Dr. Samuel Ortom, has pledged to intensify dialogue in order to resolve reccurrent clashes between Benue farmers and Fulani herdsmen. He made the disclosure during a courtesy call on him by the leadership of Miyyetti Allah Cattle

Rearers Association of Nigeria at the Banquet Hall of Benue Peoples House, in Makurdi. Governor Ortom said although he was personally affected by the clashes, he would not procure and supply arms to Benue people to retaliate the loss suffered by the farmers in the crises, rather, seek lasting solution by promoting dialogue between the parties. According to the gover-

nor, ranches remained the best way to permanently tackle the challenge, but noted that they were in a long term measure. He said farmers and herders must acknowledge and respect the rights of each other and promote peaceful coexistence, while seeking redress for wrongs through legal means. The governor stated that he had identified

criminals within the two groups as promoters of the conflict and had met with the Inspector General of Police for assistance to fish them out. He said after separate meetings with the Tiv and Idoma Traditional councils, he would convene a meeting with cattle breeders to further deliberate on the matter. Governor Ortom said he had set in motion ma-

chinery to dialogue with those, who possess illegal arms in the state and given them three months to surrender their weapon or face the wrath of the law enforcement agencies. According to him, the Tiv and Fulani, who he described as sincere people have been friends, who had coexisted with each other, pointing out that any time a Fulani man headed the nation, Tiv people benefitted tremendously as reflected in the administrations of

Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar’ Adua. Earlier, the representative of Miyyetti Allah, Alhaji Bala Usman called on the governor to reconstitute a powerful committee to fashion out innovations and strategies to curb the menace, which has been compounded by activities of criminals. Alhaji Usman pledged the support of the Fulanis to the state government to arrive at an amicable solution to the conflict.

Why I signed for Glo - Wizkid

igeria’s music superstar (Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun) popularly called Wizkid, has shed light on the circumstances surrounding his new endorsement deal with Nigeria’s telecommunications giant, Globacom. In a statement released in Lagos by his Manager, Mr. Sunday Are, Wizkid said Globacom is a brand he had admired for a very long time considering its strong persona and its very massive impact and image in the entertainment industry in Nigeria. “Globacom is huge in my industry and I see the

A bulldozer demolishing the Sure-P building at old toll-gate on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway…yesterday.

PHOTO: SULEIMAN HUSAINI

Lagos demolishes SURE-P taskforce headquarters Muritala Ayinla

agos State Government yesterday demolished the headquarters of the Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme, SURE-P taskforce at the old toll gate axis, along LagosIbadan Expressway. Sunday Telegraph gathered that the demolition of the office was part of the efforts to expand the road and address the traffic gridlock on the axis and create a multilayer car for motorists, who would board the Bus Rapid Transit. It was also gathered that the state governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode had ordered the office of the Lagos State Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit to demolish the structures last Monday but due to some exigencies, the demolition exercise sterday. The creation of the SUREP task force to monitor traffic on federal roads in the state had generated serious concern amongst Lagos motorists, especially the state government, which expressed dissatisfaction over their presence on the major roads, describing their activities as illegal and unconstitutional.

Hence, the former governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola wrote the immediate past President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, over the presence of the officials, who claimed to be established by the office of the Presidency, to state publicly their functions. According to the SURE-P taskforce was expected to commence enforcement in December 2014 but the outcome of the 2015 presidential elections, affected the existence of the agency established by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP ledcentral government. Meanwhile, when Sunday Telegraph visited the scene, it was observed that scores of persons suspected to be miscreants, who have converted the place for other activities, were displaced by the demolition of the structures, which used to serve as the headquarters of the agency that recruited over 5000 youths, were already been pulled down by the taskforce officials. Speaking on the demolition, the Chairman of Lagos State Taskforce, Hakeem Adedeji, a Superintendent of Police said, “The reason for the demolition of this place is to the best knowledge of the governor

because he directed that the buildings should be pulled down for the interest of the public.” Meanwhile, worried by the deplorable state of police barracks in state, the state government, yesterday, raised the alarm over imminent outbreak of epidemic. The state government lamented the high level of pollution in the police barracks scattered across the state, saying it may result in epidemic outbreak if the barracks are not urgently sanitised. Speaking after monitoring the June edition of the monthly environmental sanitation exercise at Iru Victoria Local Council Development Area, the Deputy Governor of the state, Dr. Idiat Adebule who disclosed this, appealed to the Federal Government to intervene in the deplorable condition of the police barracks. “I must say that the state of the Victoria Island Police Barrack is very deplorable and something must be done to prevent epidemic. The should pay utmost attention to the barracks which infrastructures have been dilapidating over the years. We are not comfort-

able with this. “We believe that government at the centre should also assist the state government to attain a cleaner environment. It should adopt any strategy that could help improve the state of the infrastructures in the police barracks within Lagos,” she said. According to her, the thrust of the sanitation inspection was to sensitise the public on the need to cultivate the culture of cleanliness in the state, urging the residents to shun cart pushers and embrace the proper and certified waste disposal.

evidence of the company’s commitment to improving the industry and the lives of its practitioners everywhere I turn. To be honest, it’s been a dream to have a working relationship with the Glo brand. An opportunity to turn this dream to reality came, and I took it.” “It’s an incredible blessing to be sought after by arguably Nigeria’s two most powerful brands at the same time. My decision to go with Globacom this time is not an act of spite against MTN. I simply seized an opportunity to move from Yellow land to greener pastures. God bless.”

120 docked in Ebonyi Uchenna Inya ABAKALIKI

bout 120 persons were yesterday, arraigned before Ebonyi State Environmental Sanitation Court sitting in the state high court for loitering and refusal to participate in this month’s sanitation exercise. The defaulters, who include travelers and passers-by were arrested by security agents and task force set up by the state government for violators of sanitation curfew. They were later sentenced to two months imprisonment with option of fines ranging from N5, 000 to N10, 000,

while those who could not afford the fine were taken to the federal prison, Abakaliki to serve the jail term. Addressing journalists shortly after the sanitation exercise, which lasted for three hours, a director in the state Ministry of Environment, Chief Omabe Chikere advised residents of the state to shun loitering and participate in cleaning their environment during the monthly sanitation exercise. He explained that the state government has declared emergency in the environmental sector and called for collaboration with the government to keep the state clean.

Ikpeazu to pay LG workers’ salary arrears Igbeaku Orji UMUAHIA

resident of the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees in Abia State, Comrade Ijioma Onyenaucheya, has allayed the fears of local government employees in the state over rumours that the salary arrears owed by the previous administration would not be paid, saying that Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has assured the union that he would clear the arrears alongside the current salary. Speaking at the secretariat

of the union in Umuahia, the NULGE chief said the clarification became necessary to reassure council staff and urge them to disregard the rumour that the three months salary arrears are gone with the previous administration. According to him, the governor assured the NULGE leadership in a meeting on June 2, 2015, shortly after his inauguration, that he would not only clear the arrears but also ensure that salary arrears did not accumulate again. He said that the

governor gave his word, saying that it was against his faith to owe workers, who have earned their wages legitimately. Onyenaucheya, who applauded the governor for appointing Vivien Uma as Head of Service said from governor ’s body language, workers are encouraged that they would no longer be owed, saying that the governor has identified with the workers by slashing his salary and travelling allowance by 50 per cent until the arrears of every worker was cleared.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

OPINION

Another season of fancy headlines TS on Sunday tunsul2@gmail.com 08050498544 (sms only)

une to the news, either on radio or television; in the traditional newspapers or the more modern social media, one is almost, continually, bombarded with catchy headlines, all alluding to one major theme – corruption! Our eyes and ears are, on a daily basis, constantly glued to the fact that either one local government chairman has ‘stolen’ all the council’s money; or one newly-elected governor castigating his predecessor for leaving him an empty treasury and huge bills to settle. A few examples of some of these catchy headlines for you to savour: ‘Wike inaugurates panel to probe Amaechi’s administration;’ ‘Umahi: I inherited N10.5bn unpaid contract certificates;’ ‘El-Rufai inherits N8.6bn as Lamido leaves N105.4bn liabilities;’ ‘Yuguda denies leaving N125bn debt in Bauchi;’ and ‘Ortom puts Benue’s debt at N90bn.’ The attacks are even worse where new administrations are in place, with the new helmsmen not wasting any time to slam the ‘profligacy’ and wasteful spending of their predecessors. Even President Muhammadu Buhari appears to have been ‘infected’ with the same ‘hang-them-high’ bug. ‘I met an empty treasury’, ‘Jonathan worse than

Shagari’ and ‘I’ll recover stolen funds’ have been some of the headlines attributed to the former military head of state. But wait a minute: Were these not the same headlines that inundated us some 30 odd years ago when, incidentally, Buhari overthrew the Second Republic administration of Alhaji Shehu Shagari? Back in early 1985 (Shagari’s government was overthrown the previous month, December 31 to be precise); the headlines were virtually the same with only the names different! Then a trip to the newsstands saw headlines detailing the many ‘crimes’ of the late Adisa Meredith Akinloye, the national chairman of the National Party of Nigeria, the biggest political party in the country then, who had ordered ‘customised” champagne with which he planned to make merry on his birthday before the coup torpedoed this. What of former Transport Minister, the late Umaru Dikko, who was alleged to have made billions of naira as head of the presidential task force on rice? Virtually all the governors, then, were accused of one form of corruption or fraud. The screaming headlines were endless. Almost the entire political hierarchy then was thrown into jail. Now three decades later, we are faced with virtually the same scenario of claims of massive looting of the nation’s commonwealth by the people who, while canvassing for votes, promised heaven and earth, but once they got into power, conveniently forgot ‘their people’ and only remembered themselves and their cronies.

But the bitter truth is that despite what happened to many of the politicians three decades ago, the political class has not only failed to learn lessons but have clearly become more brazen in their crave to become wealthy. I still remember how Dikko was singled out – not because he was the only ‘culprit’ – but because he was the first person to be accused of stealing more than a billion in any currency (if the news paper reports were to be believed he reportedly stole $2 billion, an unfathomable amount back in the day!). This huge amount was enough to guarantee him massive airtime on radio and television and, of course, enormous eyecatching headlines and lots of columns in newspapers and magazines. But what he reportedly stole then is child’s play today, judging from what is happening in the country. Dikko was allegedly able to steal that much because he worked in government, but what is happening now is not just limited to government officials. Private sector officials (especially bankers) are also involved in huge multi-billion naira fraud. But while bank frauds are still damaging to the country, the major damage is done by those who’re voted into power but ended up feathering their nests, to the detriment of the majority of people. Ironically, even when many Nigerians were groaning under the ‘almighty’ NPN, things were much better. Despite claims that Dikko skimmed off millions of dollars from rice importation, a bag of rice was sold for less than N2000, while a brand

new Peugeot 505SR car did not cost N12, 000! So how come that in spite of the best efforts of the government that replaced Shagari to instil a sense of decency, discipline and prudent management of the nation’s resources; things have just got worse? Is it that we have amnesia of what happened over 30 years ago, or that as a people we do not have any regard for history or lessons to be learnt from it? It might be argued that the country began to derail from the path to possible greatness when Buhari’s government was itself overthrown for ‘being too strict’! The government that took over was more ‘people friendly’ and consequently did away with such programmes like the War Against Indiscipline (WAI), which if had been allowed to stay would have meant that a generation of Nigerians would have grown up to be disciplined citizens and perhaps some of the vices that we see now would have been avoided. Unfortunately, we cannot turn the hands of the clock back and jump back to rectify issues, but we can ensure that the system that brought forth the fresh catchy headlines is not allowed to fester again. But sadly what history has shown is that unless something drastic happens, we may once again be witnesses to another round of catchy mindboggling headlines in four years’ time, with the new leaders exposing the ills of the just replaced government. Only time will tell!

Presidential Spokespersons: Between publicity and communication Yushau A. Shuaib

efore the eventual announcement of Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu as spokespersons to the newly elected President Muhammadu Buhari, there had been wide speculations that either of the two would emerge. Their deserving appointments came with confusion and challenges. The two share the same portfolio but with different designations. Femi Adesina was named as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity while Garba Shehu emerged as Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity. This writer will deliberately avoid dabbling into the politics of the appointments and who is more senior by age, profession, qualification or on the current position. They have each been role models to aspiring journalists and writers. When I started writing as an undergraduate in Mass Communications Department of Bayero University Kano back in the late 1980 and early 1990s, there was no internet, email or any form of social media to share my opinions. Mallam Garba Shehu as Editor of the then popular Kano state-owned Triumph newspaper encouraged and published my articles. The channels available to deliver our write-ups then were either directly or through the post office. I delivered mostly directly and on such occasions, Garba Shehu made sure to provide me some token to defray transportation expenses. As he moved on to become General Manager of ALSCON and later Spokesperson to the

former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, he had always provided moral and kind support to my aspirations, especially on special media projects. He knows how to attract the best team for every campaign. For Adesina, apart from being addicted to his weekly column in the Sun, I had been inspired by his style of writing in the Weekend Concord in the 90s. He is a brilliant writer who tackles sensitive and critical issues with fun and jokes, yet hitting the nail on the head in eloquent prose. As President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) and Chief Executive of a leading newspaper, he has intervened in saving difficult situations towards protecting the national pride and integrity. Most current Editors, especially of the traditional media, can attest to those unwritten codes for stability in the polity. Being a PR person, I cannot begin to count the numerous special favours we derived from those great editors who put national interests ahead of the need to publish and be damned at a most tempestuous period in our nation’s history. The two gentlemen are not only highly qualified and well-experienced professionals, they have served as Managing

The President should redefine their portfolio by ascribing relevant nomenclatures to their beats

Directors of leading newspapers and at different periods were elected Presidents of NGE. While commending President Buhari for identifying great talents and professionalism in these two great Nigerians, he should nonetheless have assigned them different portfolios to avoid unnecessary tension and confusion by distinctively defining their roles for information management for the administration. While one may not envisage infighting between the two mature and responsible spokespersons, conflict may arise through the antics of so-called friends, tribesmen, professional colleagues and other interests. Clashes do occur even among Siamese twins not to talk of professionals from different background in term of education, region and political leaning, among others. The President should redefine their portfolio by ascribing relevant nomenclatures to their beats. Apart from media and publicity, there are also portfolios worthy of consideration such as Public Affairs, Press Affairs, and Strategic Communication among others. Nevertheless, the officers may on their own decide on who among them should be responsible for Media and Publicity and Strategic Communication. The common role of a spokesperson is to serve as publicist, by providing publicity in timely and professional manners. A Publicity officer must be close to the principal; waking up before the boss and taking leave after the boss. A Publicity officer merely acts as megaphone by issuing

statements on actions and utterances of the principal. In fact his roles are the typical of media reporter who reports what he sees, feels or told. On the other side, an officer in-charge of Strategic Communication does not require physical presence with the principal. From afar, a communicator is responsible for tracking and monitoring unfolding issues and provides professional advices in handling the communication process. Like media consultants, communication strategist is hardly seen or heard but facilitate the information flows. Whenever he speaks or issues statement, the message carries weight more than that of the regular releases from publicists. The clear demarcation between a publicity specialist and a communication strategist is like media reporter and media consultant. In ensuring harmonious relationship, the hidden persuader must operate behind the scene while public talker should be visible on the scene. It may be difficult and embarrassing if in current situation, either of the two spokespersons desires to combine the dual roles. Meanwhile, with the appointment of a seasoned journalist, Laolu Akande, as the spokesperson to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, Garba Shehu or Femi Adesina may take the responsibility of managing the Presidential Publicity rather than Spokesperson to President Muhammadu Buhari. Yushau A. Shuaib www.yashuaib.com yashuaib@yahoo.com Abuja

Sunday Mail JUNE 28, 2015

You have a right to be heard! Send your letters and photographs to sundayletters@newtelegraphonline.com. Letters should not be more than 150 words and must have the name and address of the sender. Conspiracy against ogogoro will fail Dear Editor, The current campaign against Ogogoro will fail. Demonising our local gin Ogogoro, distilled from time immemorial by my Calabar brother Ete Kamba from palm wine (tombo liquor) in rare ingenuous and indigenous processes. It is a tasty drink which added colour to our traditional marriages, burials and enriched our cultures. Coming in various genres in Africa with traditional prayers, it is a healer when various roots are soaked therein, becoming like what Chaka Chaka called Umqombothi, it enjoys continental acceptability as a local thriving industry. In a bid to destroy it they introduced chemical substances to replace palm wine and discredit the drink to expand market for Schnapps and Johnny Walker and Vodka. It will not work, this move is dead on arrival. Editor, I urge every Nigerian to join the battle-promote original Ogogoro. Drink responsibly though. Temitope Joseph Bayelsa

Deriding Tinubu

Dear Editor, Still on the matter of the legislative arm, the Senate President, Sen Bukola Saraki, visiting former president Olusegun Obasanjo to reconcile him with President Muhammadu Buhari according to reports is another dimension to the escalating problem brewing in the APC. Why would Saraki go to Obasanjo to act as mediator when the party can do that? Since Saraki is working with former VP, Atiku Abubakar, it all points at an attempt to further deride the APC national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I am just trying to understand this game. Editor, can you please give us a clearer picture of what is happening? Kanu Joseph Enugu

Together we can make it Dear Editor, As far as we politicise every government policy no matter how good it is, just because we are in opposition we will continue having this kind of insults. Buhari just made a statement which some of us have made before and it went viral just like when Ebele Jonathan said we should not glorify stealing by calling it misappropriation, corruption instead we should call it ole, barawo, onyoshi which is more shameful and it was virally quoted out of context. Until we analyse issues with proper perspectives irrespective of our ideological leanings we will continue in this circle of insults, blame and counter blame. Yesterday it was Jonathan, today it is Buhari. That is life, we all need to change our ideology and support our leaders. Aduku Abu Lagos

Osun workers Dear Editor, As part of the empty people who pry into Osun’s matters, let me make a suggestion to the government. The governor, all elected and appointed members of Osun State government should donate their salaries and entitlements for the next seven months to paying the workers. The security vote of the past six months and seven months in advance should be channeled into payment of salaries. The proposed cargo airport should be put on hold. Osun should take up cultivation of cash crops and strive to be the best producers of the crops. The All Progressives Congress APC in Osun state has appealed to the people of the state to exercise maximum restraint, perseverance and understanding in the face of the financial adversity, which is leading the state into the holy month of Ramadan. What is the appeal for when the so called people that are at the head of the state affairs are getting fatter on the resources of the masses? What an antidote. Biola John, Osun

Nightmare on Agege Motor Road, Mushin, Lagos.

Ben Bruce and Rauf Aregbesola in the spirit of Ramadan Dear Editor, Please tell Ogbeni to cool down. That is what he deserves for being incompetent and acknowledging it. Report has it that the Osun State Government has berated the Senator representing Bayelsa Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Ben Murray-Bruce, for offering to donate his wardrobe allowance to Osun state workers, who are owed 7 months salaries. Report has it that the Senator had in a series of tweets, pledged to donate half of his controversial wardrobe allowance for federal lawmakers, to civil servants in Osun State. But in a response to the comment, the Osun State governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, accused the Senator of mocking Nigerian workers. Senator Ben Murray Bruce, has said that in the spirit of the month of Ramadan observed by Muslim faithfuls, he will not respond to critics over his decision to donate half of his wardrobe allowance to the unpaid workers in Osun state.“I’ll take whatever attacks come my way but nothing & nobody can dissuade me from doing what my conscience directs in helping my fellow man. The month of Ramadan is here. Many unpaid workers will fast. With what will they break their fast? I thought of that and it moved me to act. I may not be a Muslim, but I respect Islam and I believe that it is wrong for me to respond to any attack during the Holy month of Ramadan” Please editor, we are all Nigerians irrespective of our religious affiliation. I therefore urge everyone to pray for God’s intervention in Nigeria so that peace may return. Tarere Babeiteido Delta

PHOTO: GODWIN IREKHE

Still on youth unemployment

Dear Editor, With a heavy heart, I write to remind you of the rate the problem of unemployed youths is eating deep into this country. How terrible I feel when I remember the days that one naira is equal to one dollar, government sponsors you to go to school and even pay a certain allowance to parents whose wards are schooling. Those days that government appreciates and celebrates graduates with a brand new car and so many job offers for you to make a choice. How saddening the situation is now, graduates flooding the streets of cities begging for what is better referred to as slavery all in the name of looking for job, not to even talk about millions of them who enslaved themselves all in the bid to make ends need. This is really affecting our youths negatively, their moral standard is depreciated, they feel inferior to their counterparts in other countries and they are less responsible. So many of them are indecisive at the age of 30. Is this the Nigeria our heroes laboured for? If this is what they fought for, then I think its a little worse than colonialism. This problem of unemployment has raised its ugly head so high that those who are still in school lack concentration for fear of what tomorrow holds. Frustrated job seekers resort to stealing and prostitution is at its peak as that appears to be the only option left for them. Its never too late, the problem of youth unemployment can still be remedied and it has to be now. Omojo Glory, Lagos

On the need to diversify sources of income Dear Editor, From the revenue profile of state governments, they cannot finance on their own the overhead cost of running their states. This means that lack of performance of most state governors is caused by their over dependence on the Federal Government which also depends solely on revenue from oil. The pitiable condition of states in the country is attributable to the fact that they have not explored other avenues of generating revenue. States in a bid to meet their statutory obligations go into borrowing. This is because they have mortgaged their federation account allocations to contractors by sign-

ing irrevocable payment orders with various banks. As a result, payment to contractors and other debt instruments are deducted at source and have become first line charge on their lean resources. Editor, it is high time this is looked into. States should diversify their source of income, it is happening in other countries so, why don’t we try something like that? The poor internally generated revenue performance of states started with the discovery of oil in commercial quantites in the country. Please let’s look out for other discoveries. Makoji Stephen Odu Okpakili

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Moments

L-R: Former Nigerian Ambassador to United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade; Vice President Prof. Yemi Osinbajo; Executive Director, The Convention Business Integrity, Mr. Soji Apampa and Chief Executive, Centre for Public Policy Alternatives, Dr. Folarin Gbadebo, at the 3rd Christopher Kolade’s Annual Lecture in Lagos…on Thursday. PHOTO-NAN

L-R: Branch Manager, Keffi, Nasarawa State, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Samuel Oleka; Chinyere Obialor and the Regional Head, DSA Channel, Abuja & North, Chukwuemeka Nwakile, at a public health and fitness walk in Abuja

L-R: Radio Personality, Dan Foster; pupil of Pacelli School for the Blind Surulere, Light Onodu; Country Manager, OLX, Lola Masha; another pupil Jacob; Rev. Sister Agnes Onwudiwe and radio personality; Mr. Olisa Adibua, during the presentation of a cheque to the school in Lagos

Members of the Book Readers Club of Dominican Group of Schools,Mafoluku, Lagos during their week on Tuesday...Photo: Dominican Schools

L-R: Principal, Olashore International School, Mr. Derek Smith; Guest of Honour, Mr. Chidi Okoro and Chairman, Board of Governors of the School, Mr. Abimbola Olashore, during the 17th Valedictory ceremony of the School in Osun State…recently

Vicar, Archbishop Abiodun Adetiloye Memorial Anglican Church, Ajao Estate, The Venerable Adelowo Adesina(Right): Curate, The Revd N.P. Nwosu, and men above 60 years cutting the Father’s Day cake... on Sunday. PHOTO: Juliet Bumah

A cross-section of pupils of Enlight Academy, during their visit to Coca Cola Bottling Company Depot, at Agidingbi, Ikeja, in Lagos…recently. PHOTO: TONY EGUAYE

Students of University of Calabar gazing at the Etisalat Easycliq Drone recently

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Interview

I won’t cut Benue workers’ pay – Ortom Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, clears the air on the crisis over unpaid salaries in the state. CEPHAS IORHEMEN reports

Ortom

What was the outcome of your meeting with the Academic Staff Union of Universities, Benue State chapter on their prolonged strike? Thank you very much. We met and I appealed to them to suspend their strike in the interest of the students and parents who are also worried about the prolonged stay of their children at home. I have already directed the Ministry of Finance to release funds for the payment of the May and June salaries across the board, to alleviate the sufferings of the workers. And I know workers in the state have been owed salaries for many months but I want

to start this way and gradually we will clear the backlog. But we have to carry some staff auditing to ascertain the actual staff strength in the state on the payroll of government. We are working in collaboration with with the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari who is also passionate about the payment of workers at that level of government. He has in his wisdom agreed to bail out state governors to clear the arrears of salaries and pensioners and gratuity. On that basis, I want to implore the people of Benue state to continue to pray for me, the state as well as President Muhammadu Buhari so that we will find a way out of the economic mess that we have found ourselves. Like you earlier said, is there any assurance that Benue State University will reopen at least this month or early July? Yes, I am very confident and I have appealed to them to call off the strike. Thanks what they also told me that at least I should pay something and I have offered to pay. I believe that as soon as they are paid, they will resume. Are you going to pay based on the old rate or the new one?

...(cuts in). We are going to pay the normal salary that everybody is entitled to. We are not paying half salary or quarter salary (as was the case in the twilight of former Governor Gabriel Suswam’s administration). Whatever is your entitlement, is what you are going to get. What about pensioners? Of course, pensioners will not be left out of the list. At least they will receive one month’s salary, and subsequently as soon as the economic situation improves we will pay them. A worker deserves his wages, that is what the Bible says. Those who are working must be paid. We must look for a way of doing it and that was why I saw no rationale in recruiting additional people you cannot even pay their entitlements. That was why I cancelled the new recruitments done by the immediate past administration, because i felt that first of all, let’s handle the challenge we have by paying the old staff. People are working and there is a need to pay them. I know that there is a problem of unemployment in the state and that is why we are bringing in investors who will take care of unemployment in a private sector

driven economy, and not just packing people together and not paying them and creating more problems for the state. While you were away, crisis rocked the state house of assembly as the lawmakers fought over the selection of principal officers. Is the executive arm of government going to step in to end the trouble? No, the executive cannot step into the crisis. That is a different arm of government, they have their leadership but I advise that whatever it is, they should respect the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We have a constitution, and I believe in the rule of law and due process. I can only advise them, but cannot intervene. Whatever I say about them would be by way of advice. They are a different arm of government and I am in the executive and as governor of Benue State, I would advise them to join hands with me so that we can get out of this mess. I need all of them, whether PDP or APC, and we should please for God’s sake, put partisanship aside and look forward to working together so that team work will produce good results that will help us develop the state.

How Buhari can defeat Boko Haram – Ex-members

ome former Boko Haram members have advised President Muhammadu Buhari to use the security agencies to infiltrate the group and rally a rebellion against its leader, Abubakar Shekau. Speaking in separate interviews with the Financial Times, at a secret location in Borno State, the ex-members said they were misled by the preaching of the group. They gave FT an insight into their activities in the dusty prison compound fringed by mango trees. Speaking in some of their first press interviews, members of the terrorist organisation, which gained global notoriety last year with the abduction of more than 200 teenage schoolgirls from Government Girls’ Secondary School, Chibok, Borno State last year, say they were drawn to the group by a thirst for “Islamic knowledge.” Some of the prisoners have concluded that it was a lack of such knowledge — together with the maniacal character of Abubakar Shekau, the group’s frontman for the past six years — that turned Boko Haram into such a nihilistic force, spreading terror across vast swaths of Nigeria’s remote northeast and beyond. Human rights abuses by security forces also played a role. Sitting on a classroom porch inside the prison compound, a burly former miller from a remote town in northeastern Borno State, immaculately turned out in a white tunic and smelling strongly of cologne, tells how he joined Boko Haram, saying he was searching for a jihad from a young age to satisfy his desire to “die and go to paradise.” “I tried to join many groups. But none of them spoke to my objective,” the 34-year old remembers. Then he encountered Nigeria’s Taliban, a now defunct group whose surviving members were incorporated into Boko Haram after a shortlived insurrection was crushed. “They were a group of like-minded people who were looking for paradise,” he says. The former miller is among a group of pris-

oners, all held at a secret location. He is taking part in the first stages of a de-radicalisation programme intended eventually to reach thousands of captured combatants. Designed by Fatima Akilu, a forensic psychologist working in the national security adviser’s office, the programme provides religious counselling, vocational training and teaching tailored to the widely divergent levels of education among members. It is the soft side of a counter-terrorism strategy, which on the military front has seen the Nigerian army — with help from South African mercenaries and troops from neighbouring countries — drive Boko Haram from much of the territory it claimed as a caliphate last year. Now in jail on 13 counts — including bank robbery and attacking police stations — the white-clad miller describes how he was arrested in 2011 at a military roadblock when crossing northern Nigeria to visit his family. Boko Haram members had been scattered by the security forces at the time and he had taken cover in the ancient city of Kano. Like other prisoners — some of whom were

swept up in mass arrests and deny membership of Boko Haram — the miller says 2009 was a tipping point. The refusal of members to abide by a police directive that year to wear motorcycle helmets triggered a bloody confrontation between the group and the security forces. In the ensuing crackdown, Boko Haram’s founder, Mohamed Yusuf — a peripatetic preacher who had criss-crossed Nigeria’s north for years to gather a following — was killed in police custody. Hundreds of Yusuf’s followers, known as Yusufiyas, were killed that year in Maiduguri, the group’s original base. The miller says Yusuf was a man who railed against injustice but who had steered the group away from armed insurrection. “He had an eloquence and charisma that once he preached you were in.” Yusuf’s death delivered the leadership of Boko Haram to Abubakar Shekau, a man who the prisoner says “bore grudges” and is “mentally ill.” For the miller, personal attention given to him by the prison authorities drew him into

the rehabilitation programme, where he has had an opportunity to debate aspects of the Koran, and further his education. “It has changed the way I think,” he says. “Sometimes when a blind man is walking around there is a hole in front of him. It takes a person with eyesight to stop him from falling in that hole.” Another prisoner, the most senior member of the group, said the Boko Haram leader recruits from disenfranchised, often illiterate, young men desperate to escape the tedium of rural poverty. In some cases, these men are persuaded that the best way out, to paradise, can only be attained through jihad. “He comes with what they see as superior knowledge. For some of them it is a means to do something. They have nothing else in their life,” says the man, who cannot be named for security reasons. He adds that after weeks of debate with learned imams brought into the prison as counsellors “we now understand he has very little knowledge.” Some imprisoned members had until recently remained in contact with the Boko Haram leadership using smuggled phones, helping them sustain their belief in the group’s ideology. It also gave them advanced knowledge of last year’s plan to abduct the Chibok schoolgirls. They were told the girls would be used as a bargaining chip in negotiations for the release of captured commanders. Many of the prison inmates, whose arrests predate the worst of recent carnage, were repulsed by the abduction and rape of girls and slaughter of innocent civilians, the most senior Boko Haram member says. Opposition to such tactics and other disagreements within the group could ultimately help end the conflict. “It will take time. But one of the ways to end it is to use people within the group to sabotage it from inside. The way to do that is to challenge the leadership of Shekau,” he says. “A lot of the group are forced to be there and among them many are not happy.”

SUNDAY

Fashion

Ditch boring work clothes 22&43

Bed, Work & Life

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll abort this! 20

Body Soul SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

I bagged a PhD at 25 -Olu Agunloye

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Body&Soul

eart h y m m o fr Straight

relationship. losure’ of the lth is not easy, espe‘c e th at e h rtac ea , of the hea a broken heart to good h es, has built, furnished e a heart and g m av ti in h t rs o u os d I N m s au only o h ye let me say, cause a guy e woman w d with her be efore you ask, but I won’t take my life be for me, jilts cially for th into her castle in the san ay. A broken-hearted ed his love wash it aw and moved yes, I do love... h, who profess’ deliberately here. We for an innocuous wave tonselling. it w ve lo in lly thing ss I’m love and cou ted you is a si ered to find e word ‘profe me. I used th e talk love. Have we both so means to needs muchyour life because a lover jilI quarrel with people ! fess’ al when w But taking tu al ly be It is heartless mostly use it ings of the word? Well, ‘proe profess love and you ask me. yi n g fo r lo ve ’. It sh ou ld ac if o, d w n d to ea an m ... e ‘d ely’ out th es cr ib e it as but often fals ey picked soul w h o d for lack of love’. g ‘claim openlybank! n vi li y for a ‘love’ thiends that er g n ev g yi g n d in yi e el of ‘d th fe k to a in e It’s , th and fr take it eople th tiful feeling. hom you love How could p ar, leaving parents, siblings Love is a beaunce. When you behold w ld do silly things. ye g? lt on u al l ad u al es e ie should exper ugary woozy’ that you coes s, co m m on se n se up inloved and propped them tu rn -s el f h at e’ st or ie s th erp ‘s en e ad zi h feeling is so th e m id st of th e w oo ea r su ch ‘l ov friends of th W h en ev er I hthe immediate family and d to come to terms g n u yo H ow ev er, in a place. a r ar at h fo ed s, I feel ’ll be so a story th should have gry when I chanced upon left her for another day that committed suicide. It ild/sibling/friend spurn ch n cé n an so I an ow fi as r y. er w gr you rh So, the fact that , I was very an d suicide afte g it r another. lady committe he married in Lagos? Yes ta ke s h is / h er li fe withr love and chose to die fo that I can’t recall readin h er k u er om v h se in yo u lo w th , ca A to ean ie s! Shak wom ...and ic id e be ri n g su ch st or t for William It’s so, so sad a w om an co m m it te d su We ke ep h ea nues for the living...excep at th e er h . As yw and life conti eo and Juliet. aduate of anusband left her, vice versa.but it isn’t always the casee imgr a y d la id l om h ar our lives speare’s R lar story has it that the sa in - had introduced is beautifu Requited love, we should remember thatos e th at lo ve u s – This particu ics from University of Ben cé , to h er p aren ts th ve lo fi an people in will bring rs el ve s, bu t to Econom th e gu y, h er o. n ot ju st to oumerous other people God t, n ta or p ag s e ar u . T h re and n three ye ’s re al ly sa d mily, friends on; it negates O f co u rs e it g a pipe dream! That fa r way. never an opti you can take is d in an ou rs e’ u at n ad h he le e. If s ‘self years of Suicide mean give what you don’t hav elf and therefore, ss. How could rs ’t guy is heartle r so long? It’s possible u n ca yo d ou ve Y ve. er lo eans you nev the lady on fod out with good inten- lo your life, it m ybody! te ar is st d He continh e at h th at th realised so loves us an d allow Him loved an e er h od G ev en n r h Fo w . t u an ed fo r t end ory an tions. B te d y ea rn in g June is almos Him all the gl h ea rt h ad st arld h av e fo u n d a w ay ues to keep us. Let’s give ot h er, h e sh out the lady know that his to lead us! to gradually leas actually ‘professed’. love for her wuld reduce the intensity Juliet Such action co

Contents 28.06.2015 COVER I was a fairly lucky child because I went to school before the expected age

} 18-19

BEAUTY When next you get that dream hair extension, you may need to wear a very versatile style

FASHION Whether your office is supercasual or all business, there are a wide variety of styles to choose from so you can dress to impress

GLAM DUDES Moisturisers can make a world of difference in the appearance of a man’s skin

Juliet Bumah (Editor) Wole Adepoju (Snr. Correspondent) Vanessa Okwara (Correspondent)

} 22&43

Biwom Iklaki (Correspondent) Abiola Alaba Peters

MY PASSION Some ‘so called’ fans even go as far as sending me weird images of their genitals.

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T h e Te a m

Ugochukwu Nnakwe (Graphics) Edwin Usoboh (Graphics) +234 (0) 811 675 9770, +234 (0) 701 110 1014 julietbumah@gmail.com chibumah@yahoo.com

Associates

BED, WORK & LIFE “Mama, is there any problem? I can’t seem to understand you anymore,” he said. “There is no problem Sammy. But there will be a big one if you fail to convince your wife that I love her,” mama said without looking up

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Helen Paul

Eyitayo Aloh

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Body&Soul

I’m still in love with Kalu Ikeagwu -Alex Okoroji

Your biggest celebrity crush in the Nigeria entertainment industry. Hmmm...let me see...Oh mehn! No one readily comes to mind. Geez, have I finished crushing over the men? Hahahaha. Okay, I’ll say Banky W for his art. I think he’s constantly seeking to grow. I like that... and my female crush (strangely) is Omotola Jalade Ekeinde. She’s been very consistent with her brand.

Alex Okoroji, a Nigerian actress, writer and television host is passionate about the Nigerian creative industry like her ex-musician father and COSON boss, Tony Okoroji. Her professional acting career started at the maiden edition of the popular reality TV show, Amstel Malta Box Office(AMBO), in 2005. Since then, Alex has proved to all and sundry that she can hold her own in the entertainment industry. The controversial Nollywood actress, in an interview with ABIOLA ALABA PETERS reveals her past, disappointments and more

Can you act or pose naked in a movie? Honestly, I don’t know. Why do I say so? I believe in expression. I believe every actor should be professional and committed to their art. If a good quality script demands an actor to perform a nude scene that adds value to the content or to the overall structure of its art, I don’t see what’s wrong with that. It’s all make-believe. Art is universal.... and we shouldn’t let culture cheapen it. What I won’t do is strip my clothes for the sake of doing so. Just because a mischievous director requests that. A few years back, I played a sub-lead character in a movie, where I had to take off my top in a scene. It was nicely and tastefully done. No spill out. They were meant to use the silhouette shots. I think eventually the producer was worried about censors’ board and using the original cut.

characters in soap operas and TV series like Spider, US, Rush, Tinsel, Tales of Eve, GRA Women, Wives & Concubines, Heaven’s Gate and many more. I pretty much consider myself more of a television actor, but I now want to focus on doing more movies though I can’t deny my love for TV.

For the benefit of those reading about you for the first time, who’s Alex Okoroji? Alex Okoroji is an expressionist. As an actress, writer, podcaster, TV personality, Voice-Over Artiste, Host of the Internet Radio show, The Naked Talk, blog author @ Alexander n Her NaKed Thoughts, self-help mentor and social activist. I use the Creative Arts as a medium of expression to empower minds. How did acting really begin for you and how many movies have you featured in? I began professional acting after I took part in the maiden edition of AMBO (Amstel Malta Box Office) reality show in 2005. I started my career on TV. My first movie was Calabar girl (sponsored by the producers of NEXT MOVIE STAR). I think it was the same for Annie Macaulay at the time. I have played lead or sub lead in about 10 movies or so, but really I cut my teeth in television. Television takes time and requires more commitment over the years. I have played some of the best

Being the daughter of a veteran musician and ex-president of PMAN, Chief Tony Okoroji, what impact has it made on your career? I cannot deny that being the daughter of an artiste has somewhat influenced my decision to live and earn in the arts. Creativity runs in my veins. I inherited the gifts from my father. Still I have tried to separate myself from him. I haven’t used him to directly influence my ambition. I have worked hard to earn it. That being said, I am probably feeding off indirectly from his goodwill. A lot of people respect him. So in turn, they transfer that respect to me because of my antecedents. What’s your take on pre-marital sex? In all honesty, I think sex has a way of complicating relationships and confusing people into thinking they are in love. My thoughts against it are more tuned towards the emotional/psychological effect of pre-marital sex and not the religious sentiments. People have used religion to confuse us and divide us as a people. It seems easy to say to someone for them to wait till they are married because the Bible says so. But how many people truly did so in the Bible or do so now? Everyone wants to see/taste what they are buying. Would you buy a Ferrari without test driving it first? Would you buy a phone or a television without seeing what you are getting or even the fruits? I guess we are all living by grace. The honest truth is that it is not my place to judge anyone. The choice to either stay celibate until marriage or not, is solely

the decision of that person. Are you in a relationship or married? I’ve been separated for years. And no, I’m not in any relationship for now. Have you ever been harassed or abused sexually by the opposite sex? Harassed? Yes...not physically. I get all those silly online emails and messages on Facebook. Hahahaha. Some ‘so called’ fans even go as far as sending me weird images of their genitals. That’s sexual harassment, my brother. I’ve also had an episode where I had to struggle with a friend. Let’s just say, it didn’t go as he planned. Ever been heartbroken? Ha!!! Many times. I have a degree in breaking my own heart. For example, I want a big bowl of ice cream, I can afford to, but I know it’s not healthy for me. I stop myself, tell myself no, whine and nag about it for the rest of the day. Hehehe. Okay, seriously now, yes I have experienced heart break a few times. When people I trust disappoint me, it breaks my heart. What’s the most scandalous news the media ever wrote about you? Scandalous? I don’t even know anymore. Many sensational headlines that cheapen a stimulating interview. They have claimed I suffered depression or that I dated people I didn’t even know one on one. Honestly, I don’t keep records anymore. I’m sure there’s more. If you are to turn back the hands of time, would you want to date Kalu, your ex again? Yes! The right way this time, with all the other complicating factors out of the picture. He’ll probably be younger, I’ll probably be wiser. It will be a different time and place and our goals will be in

sync. I loved him...still do in my own little way. What are the qualities of your dream man? A confident man who is not intimidated by a strong woman. An attentive hard worker who is understanding, patient, secure, open minded and will support my growth. You seem to have a passion for politics. Are you into politics or even planning to go into it? I get that question a lot. I think we are all political animals just by the way we negotiate and manage our day to day lives. But no, I am not a politician. I do not even have a political ambition. I’m an artiste and I think artistes have a certain social responsibility to the people and their communities. It is our responsibility to influence leadership as well as good citizenry, which is why I joined the social pressure group #4NL For New Nigeria. We started with our immediate community, pushing our vision with #4NL for Lagos and we have so much more to do in the area of social awareness, community service and empowerment. You have been romantically linked with music stars - Obiwon, Ruggedman and Olu Maintain. I don’t even know where those rumours emanated from. Completely baseless. Can you marry a man who possesses all the qualities in your father? I mean, a man like your father. Yes! In fact, I want a man like my father, maybe a little varied. But definitely someone who has values like him and is not afraid to stand for what he believes in. Someone who appreciates and understands the arts and what I do because sharing common interest is also important in a relationship /marriage.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Body&Soul

I bagged a PhD at 25 Dr. Olu Agunloye made the list of prominent indigenes of Ondo State when he was saddled with a national assignment as a minister and head of the Federal Road Safety Commission at different times. His pedigree as a scholar has also played a great role in standing him out. The lecturer-turn-politician in this interview with WOLE ADEPOJU, shares his school days experience, his political career and aspirations Can you recollect what childhood was like for you? As a child, it was work, work and work. I never knew I could become a minister. I was a fairly lucky child because I went to school before the expected age, being what they called ‘Omoteacher’ at that time paid off for me. At any time in school, I did not have a classmate that was younger than me. You may be my age but you won’t be younger. As a child, I started from class one to primary one or standard one at that time. I finished from one class to the other, from my primary to secondary, to university, to post graduate and my first appointment as a lecturer in University of Ibadan. So, you can say from age 10 or 11, I went through all of that until I got my PhD at 25. And of course for money, I went through school with scholarship and those scholarships are not there now. So, how we can return the system to that time is part of the thing that is driving me. The system gave me the best that you could get and I am actually looking for how to give that back. What was it like bagging PHD at that relatively young age? Nothing. To me, if there was another class to go, I would have gone. It’s common too if you are not interrupted. I was not interrupted; I was going from one class to the other until ‘I finished reading all the books’. And the University of Ibadan appointed me even before I defended my thesis. To me, it did not mean anything till later when I found out I had become a teacher to those who were older than I was. But people must have been looking at you as the rave of the moment back then? I don’t know if they did (General laughter). But that is the painful part. Really, you don’t know the best of your time is when you are between 21 and 35 years old. You could come from Ibadan to dance Fela in Lagos and return without sleeping. I remember we would still be drinking on top of the bookshop in the morning of an exam and we would rush from there to the hall. You have everything going well. If that portion of your life was disrupted, you may never recover from it. So, how were you able to manage social life and still stand out in academics? Well, I behaved like the pastor. You know the pastor rests for six days and works solely on the seventh day. For me, I had classroom all through and Saturday was a free day. You are allowed to do anything. On my Saturdays, I don’t have programs but Sunday, after service, I go back to work. I remember too as a young person, I used to attend 7am communion service and by 9.30am, I am at my desk. You seem to still be engrossed with things of God? I am an older person. When you get older, you get closer to God. As a younger person, I studied hard only on Sundays. I worked very hard on Sundays like the pastors. You can’t get me to loaf around on Sundays. Sundays after breakfast, I

would be in the library, Room B11 in Physics department or Room C5 or one other place studying. I would do that, come to eat lunch, go back, and come to eat dinner, go back. I used to study close to 18 hours on Sundays but on Saturday, I am a free man. (Laughs). Has any of your children taken the academics part of you? It’s difficult to say. I have a PhD, my wife had a PhD, but none of my children has a PHD. They all have first degrees. I reckon that they have looked at their father and mother that they didn’t get anything out of the PhDs, so, there was no motivation for them I guess. But my children without exception are more hardworking than I had been. What attracted you to your wife when you wanted to marry? It’s the wife that showed me more attention. (General Laughter) Some are of the opinion that PDP can’t live up to expectation as opposition. What is your view? Well, time will tell. PDP as a party has never been in opposition at the federal level. But they have been in opposition in Lagos and Ondo states for some time. They have been in power also and in various states, they have been in mixture, sometimes in opposition, sometimes, not. I have no doubt that PDP will provide very good opposition. I can’t say that all of the members will do that because some of the members are not used to being in opposition, they will actually find their way back to the mainstream but PDP is set to give every opposition to APC. Your calculation did not work out to vie for the last governorship election in Ondo state. Are you interested in giving it another shot next year? Truly, four years ago, I did all that I could to try to get the mandate to contest and become governor of Ondo State. This time, my feeling, my action on it is in three-fold. One, the reasons that compel me to want to be governor, they are still there. We wanted sustainable progress and development for Ondo State; we want to build on what previous administration has done to cause very large improvement for very large proportion of the people of Ondo State. The second part is that the only capital I have to run elections is goodwill. So, if that goodwill will add together to encourage me to run again, yes, I will run. The people have asked me if I will run again and I said yes, I will run if you support me. Going by your own plans, how would you rate Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s administration? I have no business rating Mimiko because the terms of my ambition are centered on something else. My ambition is centered on looking at Ondo State from at least Adebayo Adefarati’s time. Adefarati certainly had done quite some work for the development of the state but we will agree that was not enough. Olusegun Agagu came and developed further than Adefarati but we will agree

that is not enough. Then Mimiko came and shifted the standard and tried to develop more than Agagu did but the truth of the matter is that it’s still not enough so, if you add all of them together, Ondo people will tell you we have indeed seen improvement in the last 16 years. But that is not where we want to be. Where we want to be is still higher than where all these other governors have taken us. So, my own idea is to get there, get higher and get closer to that point where in Ondo State, we would have sustainable development for majority of the people. The events of the governorship elections in Ondo State made you leave then ACN to Labour Party and PDP now. Do you regret leaving APC because it is now at the federal level? Frankly speaking, regret is not in my dictionary. I remember an interview some years ago, they said ‘Can you tell us some of the good moments in your life?’ I could list a lot of them and then what about regrets and I struggled to find that. Absolutely, no regrets, I did not storm out of ACN. I took six weeks of trying to find a footing after the leaders of the party decided that the ticket would go to Rotimi Akeredolu and I had to come to Lagos to about five meetings, one on one with Bola Tinubu. I made about four trips to hold similar one on one meeting with Governor Rauf Aregbesola and I made five trips to Ila and to Ibadan to try to locate and pin down Chief Akande. I made serious effort to see him but I was not able to pin him down. I sent text messages to him as well as his police orderly at that time. I also made two trips to Ado Ekiti to discuss with Fayemi and Akeredolu himself in Akure. I held a meeting with Tayo Alasoadura, who is a chieftain in the party. So, I did not storm out. Even if I was going to be worried and upset that I left, the kind of attack that was unleashed on me after I left by the hierarchy of the party would not even allow me to do that because the party used very strong words to demonise, attack and say false and very fraudulent things about me, so that can’t make me feel any form of regret. So, if today ACN as it is now known to be part of the APC becomes in charge of the presidency, it’s good for them and to me it can’t lead to any source of regret. Since interest rules politics, do you see yourself returning to APC? I won’t even talk about that now because that is like talk of the moment. Everybody wants to go to APC because they are afraid to be in opposition and everybody wants to go to APC because they believe that is where the national cake is. They have forgotten that APC must stop the looting of the national cake if it must succeed in

its business; otherwise the entire country is going to collapse on their head. It’s not time to talk about that. What I can say categorically is that my main interest remains with Ondo State. I will also say to you at this point that we will not repeat what happened the last time. Last time, we had a platform of supporters opened offices in 52 places with 18 local governments and 203 wards. We had 53 physical offices, we had one and fifty seven thousand registered membership of that platform, we were everywhere. We were doing that to impress ACN proprietors to get the followership of 150,000 to help me win a ticket which is inside somebody’s drawer in his bedroom. It is believed that defecting to Labour Party at that time was a plus for Mimiko’s ambition but his decision was not favorable to you when you needed him to help you with the senatorial ticket under PDP. Where has that left your relationship with Mimiko? Mimiko did what he felt was best and I have told my supporters they should stop worrying about it or blaming him. Mimiko saw choices and options and as a matured person and as a governor of a state, he took the best that suited him and people do that on a daily basis. Some of those choices lead you to get Nobel prize and some of those choices lead you to EFFC. So, we are not going to worry ourselves about the choice o f Mimiko, instead, we will focus on what is on ground which is governorship of Ondo S t a t e 2016/ 2017.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Body&Soul

-Olu Agunloye You are in the same group with Barrister Jimoh Ibrahim, who equally has governorship ambition. Don’t you see this affecting your ambition? No. At the moment, there is so called Mimiko-led session which is known as Gbasibe, then there is Jimoh Ibrahim rescued session which is roughly known as Konigba group. I am in the Jimoh Ibrahim session and in that session, Jimoh is strong about his views to be governor and he’s not the only one there. There are about two or three people who also want to be governor in the camp. So, that I also want to be governor does not mean it will cause any confusion or conflicts. We hope my group provides the governor and for me, it’s not a do or die issue and I have heard Jimoh said severally that it’s not a do or die issue. One thing that is common between me and Jimoh is the drive to want to improve on governance in Ondo State. But Jimoh himself said something which is very important. He said there are at least two strategies that are required in election. One is strategy to win election and strategy to run government. Unfortunately for the two of us, the two strategies are not the same.

I went through school with scholarship and those scholarships are not there now. So, how we can return the system to that time is part of the thing that is driving me

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Body&Soul

with

Juliet Bumah +234 81 1 675 9770

ama and Sam stare at each other. For the first time in his life, Sam looks and holds his mother ’s gaze. He is a man and should be able to say what he wants and he wants Kim! “Samson,” mama called, not removing her eyes from his face. “Mama,” he replied, shifting uncomfortably. “Samson.” This time, it’s almost a whisper. “Ma,” he said, wearily. He is tired. He had thought that after the long drive in the inclement weather, he would be welcomed with a delicious, hot meal and a warm bed. Well, he got the meal, as delicious and hot as it could be. But though a warm bed is waiting for him, mama is making his head throb. The stress is just too much. He yawns. “Mama, I drove all the way from Lagos in very bad weather. It rained more than half of the journey. I thought I’d rest once I got to the village. As it is now, I’m very tired and would like to go to bed and sleep,” he said with a yawn. “Oh my son. Sorry my son. You should be sleeping now. But wait, did you say that that girl is pregnant? For who? Does she have a womb? I know you’re wise enough to remember that it’s a taboo in our land for a woman to be pregnant out of wedlock. It’s a big shame on the family of the girl,” mama said, shaking her head. “It’s no shame on anybody. Kim is not from this town...” Sam said wearily. “Yes, she’s not from here. She couldn’t have been. She should be from a shameless town where their women go about naked. I will have none of such nonsense. My well brought up child will not mingle with irresponsible women,” mama said angrily. “Your well brought up son has mingled with this irresponsible woman and right now, my child is growing in her womb. Mama, I love Kim. She’s a good girl. She accepted me when other girls took my money and went away because they felt I was less of a man. Kim stood by me! Mama, how else does a woman prove her love? She accepted me, warts and all, mama...” Sam said. Mama cut in, “She accepted you. So I should rub white powder on my face and dance to the market because that girl accepted you?” “Mama, I love Kim and she loves me. I will marry her,” he said, stubbornly. He is grown now and his mother will not flog him. He is ready to stand up to his mother for once. On this issue of marrying Kim, he will have his way, even if it means earning his mother’s wrath. He’s not ready to go through the pains of denial from girls who clearly love him but are put off by the size of his manhood. He is therefore ready to tell his mother his mind. He’s so engrossed in his thoughts that he doesn’t see the transformation of his mother’s face. Mama feels as if cold water has been thrown on her face. Wait! What have I been saying? What is wrong with me? My son brought a ‘problem solved’ to me and I’m kicking up dust? Haaaaaaaa! Who did this to me? I would have been battling with my blood pressure if I had to get a wife for another inadequately endowed

julietbumah@gmail.com

I’ll abort this!

son. He brings a girl, who not only is ready to settle down with him, but is already pregnant for him, and I’m talking customs and tradition? Martha! After what I went through with Ojie’s wife? Haaaaaaaaaa! I must accept this young woman who accepted my son. I must woo her. Her face creases into a smile. “Samson...Samson,” she called him. “Mama,” he responded. “Now listen to me carefully. You must marry that girl. Em...em...what do you call her name again...you must marry her,” she said. The wind leaves Sam. The storm had been building in him, he was choosing the words to say to his mother in order to convince her that Kim is a good girl! “Mama, is there any problem? I can’t seem to understand you anymore,” he said. “There is no problem Sammy. But there will be a big one if you fail to convince your wife that I love her,” mama said without looking up. Hmmmmmmmm! Sam stares at his mother for a long time. He remembers that he read somewhere that when people get old, their mind and brain sometimes turn to that of babies. Could that be what is happening to his mother now? But she’s not so old and has been talking with presence of mind till a few moments ago! Fear clutches at his heart. Is this how people age within a twinkle of an eye? “Mama, I don’t seem to understand you anymore. What is happening? Is there any problem?” He asked. “No my son. There’s no problem. What an old man sees sitting down, a young man will not see it even if he climbs the highest tree. Go in to

your wife. Let her know that she’s my daughter. We will talk about your marriage in the morning. I will talk to your uncles tomorrow,” mama said endearingly. **** Kim has packed her bag. She lies on the bed seething with anger. If this is what marriage is all about, she’ll rather remain single. How can a woman who knows her not from Eve hate her on sight? Is that the reason her mother never talked about the man who impregnated her -her father? Is that the reason she never married her father? She turns on the bed. Is she going to end up like her mother and have a child of no known father? No! It won’t happen to her. She’s not going to let it turn into a generational curse. She’ll abort the pregnancy and wait for her own husband. She has no mother that will take care of a fatherless baby and even if she has, she rejects single motherhood. She’ll leave first thing in the morning and try sort herself out. Enough of this rubbish. As she tries to close her eyes, the door creaks and she turns to see Sam coming into the room. He looks so tired! “Baby, are you still awake? I thought you’d be sleeping by now,” he said, sliding on the bed beside her. “How could I be asleep after the bile your saintly mother vomited? What did I do to her to earn such hatred from her? Did I run after you? Was it not you that came after me? Anyway, it’s going to end tomorrow. I’m leaving in the morning. I’m going back to the city. Let your mother get you the well brought up girl that befits you. As for this pregnancy, it will be in

past tense after tomorrow,” she said angrily, turning on her side of the bed. Sam freezes! How is he going to handle this fire of a woman? “Baby, you ain’t leaving. You ain’t aborting that pregnancy. We are getting married,” he said. “Getting married? Who are the ‘we’ here? Definite not you and I. In fact, I’m getting rid of this baby immediately I get into the city tomorrow. Let your mother get you a secondary virgin for all I care!” she threw the words at him. Sam sits up immediately. Abortion? Oh no! “Baby please, mama doesn’t mean anything she said. Please baby. Mama actually loves you. She’s talking to my uncles about our marriage tomorrow. Baby, please talk to me,” Sam said. His heart is breaking. How’s he going to talk Kim out of this abortion? She can be extremely difficult. “Baby, please talk to me,” he said, shaking her shoulder gently. “Sam, I want to sleep. Maybe, we will talk about this in the morning,” she said. “”Promise?” Sam asked. “Yes,” Kim replied. Sam is not convinced. Once Kim is like this, you expect trouble. He tries not to sleep till morning. He actually kept awake till around 4am. By the time he wakes around 6.30am, Kim has disappeared. Her bag too. ******* Oh My Gosh! What’s happening here? Where has Kim disappeared to? Did she make good her threat of aborting the pregnancy? Let’s find out on Sunday. •Send your observations to: julietbumah@gmail.com

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Body&Soul

Wow with vixen sew-in

Biwom Iklaki

hen next you get that dream hair extension that probably cost a pretty pile of thousands, you may need to wear a very versatile style -a style that wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t limit you and hurt the wefts of your extensions. The answer is very simple actually; get your hairstylist to hook you up with the vixen sew-in. This sew-in style involved partitioning the hair into two or four sections. Four sections give you

more styling options. Cut a slim section around the four sections and set apart. Weave the inner sections around and sew into those inner sections till you achieve the desired fullness. Loosen the sections around the four sewn in sections and style to taste. This method allows you to do a middle part, off-side part, ponytail, double ponytail (Binta), two high buns and flowing back, four buns, etc. it is quite beautiful how much freedom it gives you to express yourself.

super-casual or all business, there are a wide variety of styles to choose from so you can dress to impress. Building a great professional wardrobe is a labour of love, particularly if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re new in an office or other professional settings. Above all, it takes a bit of time

The Edgy Edgy looks are not for the faint-hearted, nor for all work domains, although one can add a slight edge to any look and get away with it. This style is more appropriate for those who work creative jobs and have less of strict office attire. So they can add a bit of their own thing into it: boots, leather, Tshirts, darker lips, nail-art, and shredded denim and tennis shoes. The tip is to remember youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re still going to work. So, mix and match statement and be simple.

ondering what to wear to your next business meeting? The question of what to wear to work is pertinent from Monday to Friday. Whether your office is

Vanessa Okwara

to get comfortable in our professional skin, so to speak, and to transit from a predominantly casual to professional wardrobe. Why not take a deep breath and put your creative fashion mind to work as you go through these fabulous dress styles. Sexy and glamorous A glamorous look in the office is for sexy women who rule the world with bright lips, sky high heels and outfits that can go from 9am to late dinner cocktails. The tip is always in the posh fabulous heels. An expensive perfume, rich fabric, pencil skirts and silky blouses, long trousers, statement golden necklaces, brand watches, sunglasses and massive bags or clutches all help to achieve the wow effect. Fashionable professional ladies are not afraid to flaunt it all.

Ditch boring work clothes

Body&Soul

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

22, 43

SundayBusiness SUNDAY

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

News

Custom brokers gloomy as CET takes off

p.24

Brands

Airtel: Insight loses out to Centrespread, Noah’s Ark p.28

Interview

No Nigerian was affected in S’Africa’s xenophobic attacks –High commissioner p.25

Market&Mall

‘American retail as we know it is dying’ p.30

Paul Ogbuokiri Head, Business paulogbuokiri@newtelegraph online.com

CBN building

Unpaid salaries: Rescue options for debtor states C

Paul Ogbuokiri learly, the daunting challenge that confronted many governors shortly after their inauguration was how to pay arrears of salaries owed workers in their respective states. Many affected governors said they met an empty treasury and staggering wage bill arrears. Seven of the governors had at the end of their meeting on June 16 in Abuja, called on the Federal Government to bail out the debtor states A number of reasons have been adduced for the inability of states to pay workers’ salaries: dwindling allocations from the Federation Account as crude oil prices tumble in the international market; oil theft; lack of creativity on the part of governors to develop new ways of generating funds internally, outside of the monthly handouts from the Federation Account; high cost of governance coupled with the huge debts incurred by the past administration. By March 2014, states like Osun, Benue, Edo, Cross River and others had been having problems paying salaries. The chairman of state commissioners of finance, who doubled as the Ebonyi Finance Commissioner, Timothy Odaah, told reporters after the March 2014 FAAC meeting in Abuja that state governments were advocating the removal of fuel subsidy so that states and other federating units can receive more money from the Federation Account. At the last count, no fewer than 18 states are already in the quagmire, owing months of salary arrears. Leading the pack is Zamfara State, which owes one year’s salary arrears to its workers and is said to be in need of about N13.2 billion to clear the backlog. Coming second in that

order is Osun, which owes seven months and needs about N25.2 billion to settle that wage bill. Plataea State which is the third highest debtor state, owes its workers six months salary arrears and needs N14.192 billion to settle the arrears. Benue State owes five months and requires N4.69 billion; Abia and Oyo owe four months; while Bauchi and Kano owe three months salary arrears. Imo, Jigawa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Ekiti states owe their workers two months salaries. The least debtors are Katsina, Kogi, Ogun and Ondo states, which owe just one month salary arrears. Worried by the situation of things, the President of a faction of Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero, alleged that the salary crisis was a backlash of the huge resources the politicians pumped into their election and reelection campaigns in the recently concluded elections. He said in an email to Sunday Telegraph that the repeated alert to the nation on the danger of the continued unbridled corruption and the burgeoning cost of governance was left unheeded by the governors. According to him, the spectre of unpaid salaries was one of the immediate consequences of the mindless looting of the treasury by the politicians and other various public office-holders. “Making workers their first victims becomes a justification of our earlier outcry and warnings. This is unacceptable! It is pitiable to hear some governors trying to shift the blame, purporting that it was the heavy looting at the centre that is culpable for the backlog of salaries. Congress agrees on the score of the heavy looting at the centre but we know that the same went on in the states. We are however not amused by such

proclamations but are only interested in ensuring that Nigerian workers get paid their salaries,” Ajaero said. He advised that state governments should re-double their efforts at increasing their Internally Generated Revenue to augment their allocations. Ajaero also demanded that all state governments and MDAs owing workers’ salaries should immediately put in motion machinery for payment and that all arrears of salaries should be cleared within this month. He also urged all state councils of the Congress in the culpable States to immediately enter into negotiations with the state governments, with a view to resolving this issue and clearing the backlog. He noted that the union would be forced to take necessary action very soon in solidarity with all workers in the public sector to ensure that the arrears are paid immediately. President General, Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, Comrade Bala Kaigama, said that some states begging the Federal Government for bailout have no justification to do so. He stated that if the call had been heeded, it would have discouraged prudence and responsible leadership. He also said; “Not once since 1960 had the Federal Government been asked to bail out each of the federating units. And, there is no provision in the constitution for such a bailout. Obviously, this strange request, if granted at all, would establish a precedent which might be applied again in the future – if states recklessly misapply their funds. The question is: is this what we want; especially, when the governors are not also prepared to open their states for probe to determine if funds which could have CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Business/ News

Custom brokers gloomy as CET takes off

Paul Ogbuokiri ne year after the Economic Community of West African States’ Heads of State met on an economic integration project, the ECOWAS Common External Tariff has come into effect in Nigeria. Comptroller-General of Customs, Dikko Inde Abdullahi, officially launched the Implementation of CET in Lagos on Tuesday, for a transition period of 2015 to 2019. This is coming together with its Supplementary Protection Measures (SPM) and 2015 Fiscal Policy Measures. Speaking at the launch, the ComptrollerGeneral, represented by Victor Gbemudu, an Assistant comptroller-general of Customs said that he had directed the immediate enforcement of the tariff provisions by all customs area commands. He urged all stakeholders to ensure compliance with the new ECOWAS tariff regime. According to him, the approved Supplementary Protection Measures and Fiscal Policy Measures comprise of an Import Adjustment Tax (IAT) list which involves additional taxes on 177 tariff lines of the ECOWAS CET. Dikko also said that the scheme includes a national list which consists of items whose import duty rates have been reviewed to encourage more development in strategic sectors of the economy. “With the IAT, since we are in a transition period between now and 2019, importers will pay levies in the country they are importing from and the ones they export to pending when the CET will finally begun in 2020. “It is also designed to help countries that have to adjust to a lower tariff structure to undergo a smooth transition to the ECOWAS CET when it is ready,’’ he said. Felix Kwakye, a representative from ECOWAS Commission, in his presentation noted that the CET consists of five tariff categories, 0 per cent, 5 per cent, 10 per cent, 20 per cent and 35 per cent, and that the attribution of number of product groups into the different tariff categories is the same for every ECOWAS country. He noted that “all customs valuation is applicable in all member states. The importance of CET is for consolidation of regional market; stimulation of regional production capacity and investment and deepening of economic integration. He further said that no West Africa nation is expected to suffer as a result of CET, adding that the scheme will not open up the region for foreign products. “It is to harmonise tariffs for imports from third countries. The CET will raise average import tariff of ECOWAS countries in general by 0.308 per cent from 11.737 per cent to 12.04 per cent according to the simple weighted average rate,” he said. However, port industry stakeholders have tasked government on implementation of the scheme, saying the rush to implement the scheme without safeguarding the country against dumping and re-exportation of imported goods by other West African country will hurt the Nigerian economy destroy the nascent domestic industry and take away jobs from Nigerians. President of National Association of Nigerian Licensed Customs agents, Prince Olayiwola Shittu urged the Federal Government to ensure that the ECOWAS CET is not abused by those that are going to implement the scheme. “This is because in our country, the problem is not in the policy, but in its implementation. The scheme should be subjected to test and retest analyses to ensure that it is practicable. And I urge my members to go to the NCS website and download and study it very well so that we will be able to engage Customs on it because we are the people who will imple-

ment it,” he said. Shittu, noted that Nigeria being the backbone of the economies of West African states, its role in the sub-region cannot be equated with that of any other member country. He further urged the government to make concerted efforts that would ensure that the scheme is not abused by importers, Customs and other stakeholders. Muda Yusuf, the Director-General, Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, urged the service to publish a comprehensive soft copy of the tariff on the agency’s Website for stakeholders to access. Yusuf also urged the government to put efforts together to fight dumping and faking of goods, which he said, was killing the Nigerian industries. Dr. Eugene Nweke, the President, Nigerian Association of Government-Approved Freight Forwarders urged stakeholders to

invest in training programmes to meet up with the demands of full implementation of the CET. The Financial Secretary, Association of Nigerian Licensed Custom Agents, Evangelist Francis Abiodun Akadiri accused the agency of being selfish and carrying on with the scheme not minding whether it will benefit the country and operators or not, but it is only interested in what the they stand to gain from the scheme. “How are we sure that Nigeria will not be turned into a dumping ground. Are we sure that we are not going to lose our jobs to other countries,” he queried. President of the National Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, questioned Nigeria’s ability to adopt the CET successfully. He said that there was nothing on the

part of the NCS to show that it was ready to become a regional body as most customs officials were not aware of CET and its implications. He also called on the Federal Government to ensure that basic social infrastructure such as electricity was in place if Nigeria must compete favourably with other countries in the sub region. CET was established in 2013 to foster a common market and remove trade obstacles to free movement of persons and goods within the West African countries. Its Implementation is supported by SEDIN, a technical cooperation programme implemented by GIZ (Gesellschaft for Internationale Zusanmenarboit) on behalf of the German Ministry yof Economic Cooperation and development, also known as the pro-poor growth and promotion of employment in Nigeria.

L-R: Executive Secretary, Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Iyke Ejimofor; Consul General, South African High Commission, Ambassador Mokgethi Monaisa; Counsellor-Political, South African High Commission, Ms. Thandi Mgxwati; Head, Corporate Communications, Stanbic IBTC, Mr. Anton Marais; General Manager-Policy, Government and Public Affairs, Chevron Nigeria, Mr. Deji Haastrup; General Manager-Nigerian Content, Chevron Nigeria, Mr. Raymond Wilcox and Manager, HR Administration, Chevron Nigeria, Mr. Babs Ajayi, at the Nigeria-South Africa Chamber of Commerce Breakfast Meeting in Lagos recently

Unpaid salaries: Rescue options for debtor states CO N T I N U E D F R O M PAG E 2 3

been used to pay workers have not been misappropriated.” However, the governors shortly after their meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday cleared the air on their mission at State House. Chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum and Zamfara State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari, categorically that the state governments were not asking for a financial bailout from the Federal Government, but for a refund of monies they spent on federal projects. He spoke while briefing State House correspondents on the outcome of the meeting between the governors and Buhari. He said that the states were only calling for strict adherence to constitutional provisions in relation to financial dealings to enable them to address economic challenges, including unpaid salaries of workers. “At least, we need to work faster and rescue (the economy) and I want you to note that the economic crisis is not limited to the states. “The states are not as bad as that. We made this very clear to the President that the total debts of the states, including the Federal Capital Territory, is N658 billion when put together. “But the domestic debt of the Federal Government is N5.5 trillion. Therefore, we appreciate that all of us are in a problem,” he said. On an immediate lifeline for states that

owe salaries running into many months, President Buhari said a committee headed by the Vice President Yemi Osinbajo will look at the Excess Crude Account and see what can be shared immediately He assured the governors that the monies spent on federal projects by state governments, will be refunded by the Federal Government, but insisted that due process must be followed. He assured state governors that the days of impunity, lack of accountability, and fiscal recklessness in the management of national resources are over in Nigeria. Meanwhile, the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) on Tuesday came to the rescue of the debtor state, by realeasing to them their May statutory allocation. The sum of N409.354 billion was share among the three tiers of government being allocation for the month of May 2015. This allocation indicates an increase in the revenue distributed more than what was shared in April 2015. According to the committee chaired by the permanent secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mrs. Anastasia Daniel Nwaobia, the gross revenue of N324.061 billion received for the month was higher than the N282.062 billion received in the previous month by N41.999 billion. The federal government got N151.805 billion representing 52.68 per cent, states received N76.998 billion which represented 26.72 per cent and the local govern-

ment councils received N59.362 billion which amounted to 20.60 per cent of the total allocation. Other revenues distributed include Value Added Tax (VAT) of N56.821 billion. Out of this amount, the federal government got N8.182 billion which represented 15 per cent, states received N27.274 billion representing 50 per cent while the local government councils received N19.092 billion representing 35 per cent. She noted that delays in issuance of third quarter 2015 Export Permit led to a drop of about N160,000 barrels per day in April 2015, adding that shut down and shut-in of trunks and pipe lines at terminals also continue to impact negatively on crude oil revenue. The permanent secretary disclosed that an increase in the average price of crude oil from $56.04 million in March 2015 to $59.88 million in April, brought about a $19.70 million gain in revenue. Non-oil revenues, according to her, are expected to perform better in the later part of 2015 due to some mechanisms put in place by the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). “The distributable statutory revenue for the month is N324.061 billion. The sum of N6.330 billion was refunded by the NNPC to the federal government,” she stated. Also, there was exchange rate gain of N31.240 billion which is proposed for distribution, making the total distributable revenue for last month, including VAT, N409.354 billion.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Business/ Interview

No Nigerian was affected in S’Africa’s xenophobic attacks –High commissioner Ambassador Mokgeth Sam Monaisa is the Consul-General of South African High Commission in Nigeria. in this interview with PAUL OGBUOKIRI AND STANLEY IHEDIGBO, he speaks on the balance of trade between Nigeria and South Africa, the recent xenophobic attacks in his home country and other issues What is the volume of bilateral trade between Nigeria and South Africa? The trade volume between South Africa and Nigeria as at 2014 was R45 billion while the trade balance is in favour of Nigeria because South Africa buys a lot of crude oil. Then South Africa exports to Nigeria basic commodities, consumer products and refined petroleum products. Many South African firms have investments in Nigeria but they are mostly into consumer products. We also have major Nigerian companies like Dangote Group and others in South Africa. The bilateral economic relationship between both countries is robust. What is your assessment on Nigeria’s economy being the largest in Africa? For us it is good to know that there are other brother African countries’ economies that are growing .We must remember that our leaders on the continent talk about the creation of NAPEP and its message was that Africa must trade among itself. Africa must harness its products and be able to refine its products and export its finished products to the international market. We Africans must reduce our dependence on western countries, and beyond our shores. So, the growth of the Nigerian economy means a lot to us in South Africa because now our country’s market is saturated. We will take the growing opportunity in Nigeria to invest in the country’s economy. As Nigeria is a big market and still growing, that makes the country a good destination for investment by South Africa businessmen. What is your take on the growing Chinese economic influence in Africa? We must not forget that we are part of the global village and we need to be as aggressive as the Chinese. We need to accept that the Chinese are very aggressive and they are going into the world not only Africa aggressively. We need to march them dollar for dollar or pounds for pounds or we can wake up one morning and realise that we no longer have control over our continent. We have all the raw materials and we have the capacity also to generate more business within ourselves and not need to rely on what comes from outside. When you look at Nigeria, there are a lot of skills, textiles work and the rest of West Africa. Therefore, we just have to say instead of pushing the Chinese away from our continent, we will benefit from trade with China. We will benefit a lot because they came with experience and the products we need and they need our products also. We have to vigorously stand up and tell them that we as Africans have these and we are selling these to them. The price of crude oil fell last year from around $120 to about $50, reducing by half Nigeria’s oil revenue. As a result of this, the nation is now in an economic crisis. What do you think is the way out?

Well, we have to admit that we cannot control the price of oil in the international market. But the advice one can give to our African brothers who are producing oil is that they must take the issue of diversifying their economies very seriously. We should not rely on oil alone as the mainstay of the economy because one day there won’t be oil. Then, we will have something we can fall back on if we diversify. For instance in Nigeria, there are a lot of mineral resources apart from oil, so, they need to diversify. We need to look at agriculture, build the agro-economy in African countries. We should be able to tear and plough our land and then produce food for ourselves and not rely on imported food. Basic things like food, we must produce, and that is the first point of diversification. We must continue to explore our mineral resources so that we can go into other industries. Like Nigeria which imports cars from South Africa, the iron ore deposit should be explored for the use in the oil and steel industry for further use by industries. Nigeria with a big population can also manufacture its own cars with vast raw materials that are available in the country. So, we need to look at diversification not only for Nigeria but the entire continent of Africa instead of depending on a single product as a source of foreign exchange. What is your assessment of your home country’s engagement with the new administration in Nigeria? South Africa is always there for Nigeria as a brother. We acknowledge the assistance Nigeria gave to us during the apartheid days in South Africa. We will always be there for you and we will accompany this new government hand in hand and do things together. We will advise each other as we go on to strengthen the ties of friendship between the two countries by omission or commission. We are looking forward to strengthening the relationship between South Africa and Nigeria. The recent xenophobic attacks by your countrymen on Nigerians and other Africans living in your country destroyed the sources of livelihood of the affected immigrants. Is there anything the authorities in your country are doing to forestall a future occurrence? I don’t think there was any Nigerian that left South Africa as result of the xenophobic attack, mainly because no Nigerian was affected by the incident. That is the truth. So, I know there was a lot of noise on the issue but it was unfounded. What happened in South Africa, even the causality was very minimal. We had three South Africans who died and one foreigner who died too. Other three deaths were unrelated to the incident. They happened before that time. One thing Nigerians should know is that, Nigerians in South Africa don’t live in the townships. They live in the city centres

Monaisa

and these things happened in the townships. Again, if we can listen to Nigerians who are in South Africa and not listen to Nigerians who have never been to South Africa, maybe we will understand that no Nigerian was affected in the incident. The deaths of many South Africans in the tragic building collapse at the Synagogue Church of All Nations seems not to discouraging South Africans from trooping to the church in their numbers every Sunday to worship. Are you not worried by this development? Unfortunately, I don’t attend Synagogue church and I am not aware of any increased number of our nationals worshipping there. I don’t know how many South Africans worship in the church because it is private to them. Definitely, there are so many people who died in the church. Even then, I was shocked to know that there were so many South Africans in that church at that particular time. Some of them were there for just one occasion and some were there because they were members of the church. Bbut that is why I will not be able to tell you about the strength of the church , how many South Africans worship there and whether there are more of them coming or not. Whether that will stop them from going to that place, I don’t envisage that because it will amount to impinging on people’s privacy. But the government will continue to live to its responsibility of ensuring the protection of lives and property of its citizens living at home or abroad. Your country just hosted the African Union summit. Do you see any relevance of the union to the economic wellbeing of Africa? The Africa Union is at the forefront of preaching development in Africa, and is more concerned about the wealth of Africa that is flying out of the continent. Africa

has gotten expertise in mineral resources, therefore all these have to be harnessed and redeployed in the African continent. They were just continuing with that and looking for how far we as Africans can progress in achieving our economic objectives. So, everyone knows that the African Union or its forbearer, the Organisation of African Unity, was built on extracting Africa from the colonial past and realising that Africa can do things by itself. Unfortunately, Africa is bedevilled by a lot of crises and that also preoccupies our leaders when they meet in any summit to address problems like those political problems on the continent. And they are working very hard to restore the dignity of African so that it will not be seen as a dark continent but that we should be proud of what we have and who we are. Are you worried that many illegal African immigrants drown daily in the Mediterranean Sea, most of them mainly because Europeans try to prevent them from arriving on their continent? I am happy that you are saying that even European countries don’t want the number of Africans that are going to their continent because it seem that xenophobia is not synonymous with South Africa alone.. So we can say we are acknowledging the fact that xenophobia is all over the place but indeed it is sad that our people have to run away from our continent to go abroad for greener pastures. And what I can say is that African leaders must really drive the economies of their countries hard, so that their people must not leave their countries. A lot of Africans are running way from poverty and some of them are skilled and educated. These are skills for our continent’s development and we really need to work hard to develop our economies and make life much more CONTINUED ON PAGE 27

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Market continues downslid

ollowing previous weeks’ losses, the equities market staged a momentary comeback on Monday, as the All Share Index (NSEASI) gained 0.38% on the first trading day of the week. The positive mood was however short-lived as the bears fought back, dragging the index down by 1.22% week on week (WoW) to settle year-to-date (YtD) return at -5.20%. Volume of transactions in the week increased by 13.84%, while value traded declined by 15.63% from the previous week. Market breadth for the week pegged at 0.39x, representing 56 losers against 22 gainers. Top gainers for the week were NEIMETH, MOBIL, AIICO, ASHAKACEM and SEPLAT, with respective gains of 11.25%, 6.61%, 5.43%, 5.12% and 4.89%. On the converse, VONO topped the underperformers’ chart with a 21.38% loss in value. Other top losers for the week were EVANSMED, CHAMPION, CCNN and OKOMUOIL, which recorded losses of 16.98%, 10.43%, 10.10% and 9.16% accordingly. While we acknowledge that most stocks in the equities basket are fairly valued at current market prices, we do not expect the persistent bearish trend in the market so far in 2015, to wane in the near term. We opine that the fragile state of the economy, evident in unfavourable key indicators such as rising rate of inflation, weakening currency, dwindling reserves, rising public debt and relatively slow momentum of economic growth, will continue to impact negatively on investors’ sentiments. In this report, we review events in the economy, laying emphasis on performance of different segments of the financial market, while presenting our expectations for the week ahead. Government continues to struggle under dwindling Oil revenues The inability of some state governments to pay workers’ salaries for as long as 11 months in some cases remained a major focal point during the week, as the governors met with the president of Nigeria to chart a way forward. The meeting ended with the president leaning in the direction of sharing the excess crude account between federal and state governments. This, we believe will facilitate the payment of salaries, but will gradually erode the nation’s savings. We consider consequences of the latter dire, given the currently low global oil pricing and our expectation of a continuance of same. The Central bank of Nigeria, during the week, appeared to have reacted to the nation’s fast depleting external reserve and the growing constraints concerning its continued support of the Naira at the interbank market. The apex bank, which had hitherto introduced the two-way order quote system, announced the exclusion of import of certain goods and services from the Nigerian foreign exchange interbank market. We believe that this action will aid the optimization of the nation’s external balance as well as provide protection for local manufacturing firms which hitherto had to compete with foreign brands. We however note that this policy may further pressure inflation upwards, as excluded importers may transfer increased exchange rate costs to customers, thus resulting in higher prices. We opine that the current state of the economy remains fragile, and believe that the introduction of sound policies by the government may help to strengthen the economy. In the interim, we believe that the posture of the government towards corruption and cost of governance will help to attract foreign governments and institutions to Nigeria. Fixed Income: Activities tempered as investors expect devaluation The naira, during the week of CBN’s announcement, depreciated marginally during the week, falling by 0.15% against the greenback to peg at NGN197.66/USD. The naira should strengthen at the interbank in the short-term, given the quantum of demand that will be shifted from the market. However, we expect the spread between the interbank and parallel market to widen further, as most of the demand excluded from the interbank will shift to parallel market. Yields on treasury bills declined by an average of 0.15% WtD, to peg the average yield at 13.09%. Yields on all instruments declined, save for the 1M and 3M instruments which advanced by 0.34% and 0.19% respectively. There was a Primary Market Auction (PMA) held on the 24th of June for T-bills worth NGN120.53bn, issued

…as 56 stocks end the week negative

in 91-day, 182-day, and 364-day instruments for respective amounts of NGN31.19bn, NGN39.33bn and NGN50.00bn. Activities in the bond market remained tempered during the week, as average yield advanced by 0.30% to peg at 14.86%. This, we opine will remain the direction of activities as foreign investors’ participation persistently wanes in expectation of a probable and marked depreciation of the naira. Agric sector: Bearish mood persists. The MERIAGR index declined by 1.96% WoW to further drag the YtD return to -24.93%. Sector breadth (0.50x) tilted in favour of decliners, as a sole stock advanced at the close of the week against two decliners. PRESCO emerged the sole gainer with a 4.69% share price appreciation to close at NGN33.50. On the other hand, OKOMUOIL led the laggards with a 9.16% decline while LIVESTOCK followed suit, trimming by 4.87% and ELLAHLAKES and FTNCOCOA traded flat. We attribute the bearish mood in the sector to the general sentiment in the equities market, as the lack of policy direction by the present government continues to deter investment. However, we advise investors to take position in fundamentally justified stocks ahead of resurgence in the market. Banking Sector: Market mood dampens performance Activities in the sector were tempered during the week, as only 1 stock advanced, while 13 declined, and 1 traded flat. The gainers’ list was populated by GUARANTY (0.15%), while the losers’ list included ACCESS (-5.41%), FBNH (-5.35%), and UBA (-5.01%). The Central Bank penalised four (4) banks for the misclassification of some public sector funds, fining these banks a total of NGN576mn. The banks sanctioned were Skye Bank, Access Bank, Sterling Bank and Zenith Bank, which were fined NGN323mn, NGN174mn, NGN50mn and NGN32mn respectively. The market has sustained its depressed state, while some foreign investors await the relaxation of FX trading rules which would result in a marked depreciation of the Naira, and would be in effect a devaluation. We anticipate that this might be in the offing in the short-term, and will be partnered by investors returning to the equities market. That being said, we believe that there is still some room for prices to bottom out before

taking position, and advise investors to time their entry properly to boost returns. Consumer Goods: NESTLE returns 4.88% WoW The sector outperformed the market in the week with a WoW return of 0.10%, while YtD return settled at -6.42%. Sector breadth of 0.67x however tilted in favour of decliners, as six stocks advanced as against nine stocks that recorded price depreciation, while other counters traded flat. VONO recorded the highest loss of 31.74% in the week, joined on the decliners’ chart by CHAMPION, HONYFLOUR, NASCON, GUINESS, CADBURY, BETAGLAS, FLOURMILLS, DANGSUGAR with respective WoW returns of -10.43%, -8.95%, -7.06%, -6.97%, -6.44%, -4.98%, -2.02% and -0.86% . VITAFOAM, NESTLE, INTERBREW, UNILEVER, PZ, and 7UP were the only gainers for the week, recording WoW gains of 5.63%, 4.88%, 2.65%, 1.11%, 0.72% and 0.56% in that order. The positive return in the week was triggered by a 4.88% WoW gain by NESTLE, which we do not expect to be sustained in the coming week, as the somber mood in the market persists. However, we expect long term investors to take position in fundamentally justified stocks as the current market mood suggests cautious trading. Healthcare Sector: NEIMETH returns 11.72% WoW The sector closed down for the second consecutive week, as the MERI-HLTH index pared by -0.04% WoW to settle the YtD return at 9.62%. Sector breadth pegged at 0.25x in favour of decliners, as only one stock appreciated in price, as against four stocks that shed points, while other counters traded flat. NEIMETH emerged as the only price gainer for the week to consolidate on the previous week’s performance, advancing by 11.72% WoW to settle price at NGN1.43. On the flip side, EVANSMED topped the losers’ chart, consolidating on the prior week’s loss, and paring by 16.98% to settle price at NGN1.32. Also on the list were, FIDSON, MAYBAKER and PHARMADEKO with respective losses of 6.47%, 5.33%, and 1.32% to peg prices at NGN3.18, NGN1.42 and NGN2.20 in that order. We credit the drab mood in the sector to general sentiments in the equities market, as investors continue to trade cautiously due to the state of the economy. We, however, advise investors

to take advantage of stocks trading below their fundamentally justified prices ahead of market comeback. Insurance Sector: Gainers trump losers; breadth at 0.67x Sector breadth for the week settled at 0.67x, as two stocks recorded price gains while three recorded losses. The gainers for the week were AIICO and CUSTODYINS with gains of 5.43% and 1.25% in that order. Losers for the week, on the other hand, were NEM, CONTINSURE and MANSARD, with losses of 6.47%, 3.00% and 1.00%. In sum, the sector, as measured by the MERI-INS index recorded a 0.26% loss. AIICO Insurance Plc, during the week, announced the election of Mr. Tunde Fajemirokun onto the Board of the company, and the resignation of Dr. (Mrs.) Adenike F. Koumpatis from the board. STI released both 2014FY and Q1:2015 financial results during the week. Gross Premium Income in both periods grew by 2.94% and -14.58% YoY in that order. Profit after Tax in 2014FY declined by 68.28% YoY, while Q1:2015 Profit after Tax grew by 27.89% over the previous year. We expect the sector to trade in line with the market, as investors anticipate Q2:2015 results. Overall, we expect the insurance companies to release positive results, similar to Q1:2015 results, given the relatively low bases of comparison for most companies. Industrial goods: Loss momentum moderates The industrial goods sector closed the week negative, with the Meri-industrial index depreciating by 2.40%. Three stocks apiece posted WoW gains and losses. ASHAKACEM emerged as the highest gainer for the week, with an 11.72% growth in share price to NGN22.60. PORTPAINT and WAPCO were the other sector overperformers for the week, having appreciated by 4.71% and 1.01% respectively. CCNN, CUTIX, and DANGCEM, on the other hand, shed 10.10%, 4.62% and 2.86% correspondingly. Although the sector remains in the negative zone, we note the moderation in the quantum of losses in recent times. We believe investors with long term horizons have begun to take advantage of the low pricing of key stocks in the building materials basket. Oil & Gas Sector: Iran nuclear talks to shape BRENT price The sector remained in the negative zone this week, as the sector index declined marginally by 0.04% WoW. Prices of three stocks pared, while four stocks recorded gains, and other stocks traded flat. MOBIL outperformed peers, gaining 6.61% in the week to settle at NGN158.85. SEPLAT, TOTAL, and FO traded in the same direction, advancing by 4.89%, 3.71% and 1.12% in that order. Conversely, prices of ETERNA, OANDO and CONOIL all declined by 7.31%, 3.40% and 2.74% respectively. Other counters traded flat. BRENT closed at USD62.87pb for the week, representing a 0.24% decline from its closing price of USD 63.02pb last week. We believe that the outcome of the June 30th deadline on the Iran nuclear deal will be a major determining factor for price trend in the remaining half of 2015. We expect reduced level of activity in the coming week as investors continue to trade cautiously on sector stocks. Services Sector: LEARNAFRICA outperforms with a 4.13% lead The lacklustre performance in the equities market also permeated the services sector, as sector breadth (0.29x) skewed in favour of underperformers for the week, as two (2) stocks gained against seven (6) stocks that declined. LEARNAFRICA continued its good showing from last week, as it led the outperformers with a 4.13% increase to close at NGN1.26. TRANSEXPR followed suit with a 4.10% gain. On the flip side, RTBRISCOE led the laggards with an 8.33% decline. The ticker was trailed by UPL, ABCTRANS, NAHCO, CAVERTON and REDSTRAREX with a respective decline of 7.27%, 5.66%, 5.17%, 5.00% and 4.00% while others traded flat. The bearish momentum in the services sector is not unconnected to the morose mood in the equities market and the prolonged dearth of specific market news. We expect the bleak mood to continue next week until the beginning of H2:2015 when companies begin to release H1 results.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Ten points to greatness (10) Success Nuggets

helps us, in our success journey. All the points we have considered so far are very essential to greatness. However, greatness ultimately comes from God. Before you ask why I said so, let me tell you that the most intelVictor Okwudiri ligent or most privileged people are 08037674300 (SMS only) not necessarily the most successful in life. Even motivatinal speakers are So far, we have considered the fol- not necessarily the most successful in life. There are successful people who lowing nine points: • You are not too small to make an have never read any motivational book, and there are motivational impact; speakers who are nothing to write • You are not too old to make an home about. Little wonder, Solomon, impact; who was the wisest (and, arguably, • The future is now; the richest) man of his time, said: •Stardom does not make stars; “I returned, and saw under the sun, STARS make it to stardom; that the race is not to the swift, nor • Great things often start small; the battle to the strong, neither yet •Your self-worth is more imporbread to the wise, nor yet riches to tant than your networth. men of understanding, nor yet favour • Your background is no excuse to men of skill; but time and chance for your back to be on the happeneth to them all.” ground; Am I negating the points dicussed • It is better to prepare for an opso far in this series? No! I am saying portunity you will never have than to have one you were never that there is something called ‘The God factor’. prepared for; Have you noticed that America, •Make your life count for humanwhich is arguably the most successful ity. nation in the world, has as its motto, Now, the tenth point. “In God we trust”? I do not think it • Make your life count for God. Notwithstanding the fact that this is a coincidence. As a matter of fact, it was Abraham Lincoln, a former platform is not one for discussing religion, certain basic truths cannot President of America, who made the following comment, which has bebe avoided, irrespective of one’s come the world’s standard definition religious inclinations. In fact, I of democracy: believe that the very word ‘ATHE“... that this nation under GOD shall ISM’ is suggestive of the fact that there is GOD. The only thing is that experience a new birth of freedom, and the government of the people, by the atheist does not believe in the the people, for the people, shall not said GOD. cease.” (Emphasis mine). I must confess that the dynamics Friend, you cannot go full length of the universe gives me the convicin the journey of greatness all alone. tion that there is a superior being (God), who can help us, and, indeed You need God, and you need to live

by his standards. There is a void in man, which only God can fill, and, until you give God that place in your life, you may never feel the fulfilment that comes with greatness. This is because, greatness, in the first place, is more about how God sees you than how society sees you. Little wonder Dr. Oby Ezekwesili (@obyezeks) tweeted the other day, “I have sat @ dinner in the homes of some of the richest people in the world & felt the void they carry within despite “overflowing wealth”.” (15th April, 2015, 08:56am). Freind, there is more to life than possessions and physical achievements. There is more to life than present ‘physical realities’. I commited the grammatical blunder called ‘tautology’ by saying ‘physical realities’, but I did that on purpose - to make a point that spiritual things are also ‘real’. Someone said, “I am an arrow shot by God from eternity into time and I will return safely to the other side of eternity.” (Not quoted verbatim). Little wonder when someone dies, often, what is seen written on the ‘obituary’ poster is ‘transition’. That suggests that life is a journey; a pilgrimage of sorts. As such, the best we can do is to make the most of our lives to please our creator (God). It does not all end here; there is a life after. So, I ask you, after your pilgrimage on earth, will God say to you “WELL DONE” or “well, are you done?” You will succeed. Reference: Ecclesiastes 9:11 (The Holy Bible - King James Version) Please follow me on Twitter @ VictorOkwudiri

The true rules of power The Big Picture Julian Atufunwa 08032810713 (SMS only)

arlier in this column when we discussed leadership, we touched a little on the law of power. This law is not just meant for those in positions of authority but for everyone to leverage on. I would like to take a broader view on this law because I feel it will be helpful and will also serve as a manual or tool for daily living. LAWS OF POWER 1. Never put too much trust in friends - It has always been said: “You have more to fear from friends than your enemies.” This law stresses the need to hire an enemy over a friend sometimes. This is because an enemy may be shocked that you hired him and therefore will work very hard to prove himself whilst hiring a friend may just be a liability. Your friend may become complacent, expecting more preferential treatment than is necessary. Your friend may end up oppressing or overthrowing you. There is also the tendency to be disappointed, betrayed and envied when the going gets rosy for you. So, to build power, make no permanent enemy. Do not put too much trust in friends. If you ask me I will say, put no trust in man. 2. Hide your intentions—Someone

said: “Win the victory before you declare the war.” There is no need showing all your strategies. It is wise to conceal your purpose and progress until you are done. Let everyone see what you are up to when it is impossible to hide your success anymore. People tend to fear and respect people they cannot predict. Never reveal the purpose behind your actions and you will build power for yourself. This law stresses the need to shift peoples’ attention from your real goals to some minor goals, while you work underground on your main goals. 3. Do not outshine your master—We discussed this in the leadership series. This laws says you should Never let your superiors feel insecure being above you. You may be more talented or skilled, but then, make them feel comfortably your superior or you may never attain power. Sincerely build your superiors’ reputation. Complement and flatter them. Do not appear too wise before your master. Know your limit, do all you can not to cross the line. If your master already respects you, stay humble and never take him/ her for granted. Just allow the natural process of succeeding him or her. Never want to do it yourself. Let your master be the centre of attention and attraction. Lower your charisma; suppress your intelligence discreetly and deliberately let your master have the upper hand. 4. Always say less — Most times , when we try to impress people or win an argument by smooth speech, we unknowingly relinquish power and appear very foolish. When you know you

have exhausted your points, back off. The more you speak, the more common you will appear. To build power the law says spare your words and release wisdom while speaking. Let people leave you pondering again and again on what you said. Choose your words intelligently. “It is said that even a foolish person is considered wise when he is quiet.” However, there are times when keeping quiet will not be appropriate. An example is when someone is accused of stealing. Keeping quiet may mean you admit guilt. Wisdom is profitable to direct. 5. Get others to work for you – The greatest asset any powerful man or woman can have is people –To build power you must surround yourself with people. Employ them to help you achieve success more quickly. The influence of a person grows when he has people working for him. It is vital to train people because i. It will increase your success level just as we said earlier; ii. It will increase growth and potential; iii. It will increase your influence beyond now and obvious borders. The number of people you impact will make a lasting impression; iv. It will provide successors.; v. Help you concentrate on key areas. It will save you time and energy. At the end of the day, you take credit for the work others did. You must understand that there are skills you do not possess. Therefore, there is need for delegation. Recruiting people to do your work will make you gain massive wealth as great wealth commands power.

SundayBusiness

‘No Nigerian was affected in S’Africa’s xenophobic attacks’ CONTINUED F R OM PAGE 27

attractive for our own people that they will not go elsewhere for greener pastures. That is the challenge; we have to take a resolute decision that we are going to fight to keep our people in our countries in Africa. The people should stay to build their countries’ economies and be part of the effort to build Africa. No South African has been recorded to have been involved in the attempt cross into Europe illegally through the Mediterranean Sea. South Africans love their country and they don’t just easily leave their country. Even those that left the country in the early 80s and 90s when political organisations were barred, and apartheid was crumbing, are all back today to South Africa. They love their country and would rather stay in their country and fight for better conditions than run away from the country’s challenges. A court in South Africa issued an arrest warrant on the President of Sudan, while he was attending the Africa Union summit. But his arrest was incidentally not carried out by your government so that he could answer the charges against him on genocide at the ICC. Africa Union can meet anywhere on the continent, while we know that the capital of the union is in Addis Abba. The summit for heads of state can rotate and therefore wherever the summit is held, that place becomes the African Union arena. Therefore, the heads of states attending the meeting have immunity and they enjoy immunity while in office as heads of states. They go with that immunity and therefore, you cannot suddenly because they are not in country X, you will say that the head of state has left his country, so he will be arrested. The Sudanese president was not the guest of South Africa; rather he was the guest of the African Union. Likewise in New York, USA where the headquarters of the United Nations is, every head of state of a member of the UN has the right to attend the meeting there. America cannot arrest any of them even if they are on their soil. The same applies to us in Africa; nobody can arrest any head of state that attends the summit in any country that hosts the meeting. So, it is wrong for anybody to think that they can now compel the government of South Africa to arrest the Sudanese president while he is attending the AU summit in South Africa. We cannot go contrary to AU rules and laws. It is unfortunate that this has happened. My country’s responsibility was to provide security to any visiting head of state in the country and because of that responsibility to secure and safeguard the lives of the visiting heads of state. We could not have allow anything to happen to any of them.

DR Congo partners IITA to develop agriculture Stanley Ihedigbo

emocratic Republic of Congo has announced its willingness to partner with Nigeria’s International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in agriculture development. According to the Senior Advisors in the office of the Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dr. John Ulimwengu, who are in Nigeria to explored areas of partnership with IITA. They said that the move was part of DR Congo’s efforts to transform its agricultural potential, create wealth, and jobs for the rapidly growing youth population. Speaking during a seminar presentation in IITA office, Ibadan, Ulimwengu said that his country needs to create jobs for the increasing youth population and agriculture can create those jobs. “Our estimate is that DR Congo needs 1000 jobs annually to solve the growing unemployment,” he added. He noted that his country is located in Central Africa, which has vast arable land and a potential to feed the most of Africa. He said that about 90 percent of the country’s population in the rural areas is engaged in agriculture “Yet the country depends on food imports, and this is not good for the country,” he said. “We hope that collaborating with IITA will help us advance and bring benefits of agricultural research to our country,” he added.

SUNDAY

BRANDS SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

XLR8 picks Guinness Nigeria’s corporate PR business

LR8 has been appointed by Guinness Nigeria to manage its corporate brand. The appointment, it was learnt, followed an extensive selection process that included an open pitch for credentials presentation as well as panel discussions. This is coming as a huge relief for the agency, which recently lost its hold on the MTN public relations business, having served as one of the telco’s rooster PR agencies for about eight years. Speaking on the development, the Corporate Relations Director, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Mr. Sesan Sobowale, said: “Throughout the selection process, we were impressed by XLR8’s industry and market knowledge and we feel confident that the organisation possesses the wherewithal to add value and provide support as we partner to achieve our business objectives.” On his part, the Chief Executive Officer of XLR8, Calixthus Okoruwa, said that XLR8 was both delighted and honoured to have Guinness Nigeria join its impressive roster of blue-chip brands.

Airtel: Insight loses out to Centrespread, Noah’s Ark S

Dele Alao peculations over which Nigerian advertising agencies has been picked to handle Airtel Nigeria’s advertising business pitch have finally been laid to rest. The much-awaited result has been released after an energy sapping and apprehensive financial stage, coupled with an equally demanding content presentation by selected agencies.

From the list of five agencies invited for the main pitch after a broader display of credentials, Insight Communications, Centrespread Advertising and Noah’s Ark Advertising were selected winners ahead of the pack of agencies contesting for the juicy job. Prior to the selection, the prospective handlers submitted and defended their financial requirements, with a view to availing the client the opportunity to align demands with its re-

alistic budget and financial projection. To this end, Centrespread, under the leadership of a new Chief Operating Officer, Mr. Wale Akintunde, and Noah’s Ark, led by creative guru, Lanre Adisa, are now the handlers of Airtel’s advertising business. Findings revealed that the deal worth N15 million would be shared between the two agencies while the business relationship is expected to last at least two years.

Efforts to speak with the executives of both agencies were fruitless as at press-time as they did not respond to text messages sent to them. As it were, the new business is cheery news for both agencies. For instance, although Noah’s Ark has proved its mettle as a creative icon in the industry, it has not won any business with such high value as the Airtel deal. For Centrepread, which has since commenced a

reorganisation and repositioning exercise aimed at creating a youthful brand out of the over three-decade old agency, winning the Airtel business was to announce his leading position in the industry. The agency will no doubt use the business to improve its rating and pedigree in the industry especially after a lull occasioned by the loss of some senior hands. Centrespread has worked on Vmobile and lately Etisalat, which the frontline agency resigned from.

PZ Cussons Foundation boosts CSR profile

s part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme, PZ Cussons Foundation has renovated and handed over fully furnished block of four classrooms and a library to Okuta Dudu High School at Odo Ere in Yagba West Local Government Area of Kogi State In his address at the handing over ceremony, the Executive Governor, Kogi State, Capt. Idris Wada, represented by the Honourable Commissioner of Culture and Tourism, Barrister David Olowomoran, expressed great appreciation for the gesture. He thanked the Foundation for taking interest in the educational development of the state and called on other corporate organisations to emulate the gesture. In his speech, Chairman, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc and former Minister of Industry, Chief (Dr.) Kola Jomodu, CFR, extoled the contributions of the company to the Nigerian economy.

L-R: Chairman, Emeritus International Chambers of Commerce Nigeria (ICCN), Chief Olusegun Oshunkeye; Chairman, Mr. Babatunde Savage and Secretary General, Mrs. Olubunmi Oshuntuyi, at the Chamber’s 16th Annual General Meeting in Lagos PHOTO: GODWIN IREKHE

SAP pilots Africa Code Week in Nigeria

AP Africa will begin a software coding pilot project as part of the run-up to Africa Code Week (ACW) in October 2015. No fewer than 100 children aged between eight and 11 will be taught software coding skills in a fun-filled, hands-on workshop facilitated by SAP, at Ojodu Grammar School, Lagos. Tailored to youth skills development in 11 African countries, the ACW programme will target an estimated 20, 000 children (ranging in age from eight to 24 years) participating in software coding workshops in

South Africa, Angola, Cameroon, Egypt, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and Tunisia. Africa Code Week is being driven by SAP along with partners Simplon from France, the Galway Education Centre from Ireland and the Cape Town Science Centre. Its purpose is to empower youth, teachers and parents with the language of software programming using a freely available scratch system. President, Europe, Middle East & Africa, SAP, Franck Cohen, said: “SAP is committed to helping African

youth become fluent in software coding, the language of the digital age. With the Africa Code Week initiative, we hope to enable Africa’s youth to further contribute to the continent’s success in this digital age. “SAP is proud to be part of the Africa Code Week programme which aims to provide African youth with the critical skills required for today’s challenging job market. This exciting programme aligns perfectly with the SAP Africa’s Skills for Africa initiative which promotes both skills development and job creation

across the continent. It will also contribute to Africa becoming a future net exporter of technology skills to the rest of the world. Preparing the ground for Africa Code Week is critical and these software pilot projects are giving us a clear picture of best-practices to adopt across other African countries as the project gains momentum.” A new Harbor Research study has found that while 65 per cent of today’s technology applications generate revenue, the number will rise to 80 per cent by 2018. Although smart homes,

wearables and sports markets currently lead in application development today, future growth will come from the healthcare and automotive sectors, as well as smart cities. Software coding is everywhere and the youth of today have to be empowered with coding skills. Software coding is growing in popularity and computer literacy is becoming a significant driver in establishing future generations in the workplace. However, less than one per cent of African children leave school with basic coding skills.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

SundayBusiness/Brands

Archos ignites competition among OEMs in Nigeria

Kunle Azeez

French mobile devices manufacturer operating in Nigeria, Archos, is set to further ignite increased competition among smartphones Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) in the market, as it unveils its latest devices in the country. The latest of the products is the Archos PC Stick, which has been described as computer-on-the-go as well as a new line of 4G smartphones to be available in the market starting from July this year. Entry of the new devices into the Nigerian highlycompetitive market would spark further competition between Archos and other existing OEMs such as Nokia, Samsung, Tecno, Wiko, among others in the country. The new Aarchos PC Stick packs the power of a personal computer in a compact HDMI-connected drive. Chief Executive Officer of Aarchos, Mr. Loic Poirier, said: “The world is always competing to build the

smallest computer, and ARCHOS now offers one small enough to fit in a pocket.” By plugging in the Aarchos PC Stick to any screen with HDMI-in, such as a television, users will have a full computer at their fingertips in a split second. Also, keyboards, mouses and other accessories are also connectable to the PC Stick directly via Bluetooth or USB port in order to interact with the content of the device. Poirier stated that Android or iOS smartphones and tablets are also connectable, transforming any smartphone or tablet into a keyboard compatible with the ARCHOS PC Stick. He said the Archos PC Stick accounts for the full range of possible computer uses and provides a foundation for them within the size of a matchbox. The device runs Windows 10, the latest Windows technology, right out of the box with Microsoft Office applications already pre-installed on the Archos PC Stick, including Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint. “Users will also enjoy

Valmont enters Nigerian market Deborah Olayode

oised to make a positive statement in the Nigerian market, a Lagos based state of the art beverage outfit, Giant Beverages Limited, has unveiled Valmont, a super-premium water brand, unique in both content and packaging. The introduction of the product is coming on the heels of the company’s resolve to ensure that Nigerian brands join the league of internationally renowned brands. According to its General Manager, Mr. Ayo Afolabi, the company is travelling this route because of its firm belief that a brand is a mark of quality which is one of the company’s key characteristics. To this end, the new product, Valmont, is produced to attain a superpremium brand status in taste, look and feel. “Our water is produced to the best of international standards. It goes through our ultra-purification processes without being exposed to air until it enters our unique bottles, thus preserving its freshness and purity. It is called ‘Valmont’ for its strong, rich, luxurious and sophisticated background,” Afolabi said. He added that Valmont was natural and produced to accompany fine food and luxurious life-

style. Its transparent and minimalistic labelling further give it an extra touch of class which is expected to appeal to discerning consumers who will stop at nothing to enjoy the best that life offers. Throwing more light on the brand, Marketing Manager of the company, Mrs. Bose Ogunyemi, said that one of its collections comes with an innovation that would be the first in the industry. On why the Abuja situated rock formation was chosen as its brand icon, Ogunyemi said: “The intrigue of the rock is that it bears a ‘human face’ on its surface, and this for every Nigerian is an ultimate symbol of purity of nature. The freshness and natural purity of this cultural landmark is relatable to our Valmont. This is because our water is fresh and pure from start to finish. More importantly, it signifies that Valmont is a proud Nigerian brand.” “With the tagline, “Live Pure,” the brand, which is bottled to the highest standards, provides the refreshing essence that matches discerning consumers’ lifestyle wherever they are found. Whether at a luxury or quick service restaurant, home, work or on the go, Valmont delivers rejuvenation in the most convenient form,” she added.

Cortana, the Windows personal assistant, as well as the full Windows 10 Store for access to applications that can customise and enhance the device. For the first time in Windows history, multiple desktops are also supported,” Poirier said. He explained that the device also features an Intel Quad-Core processor and Intel HD Graphics, 2GB of RAM, 32 GB of storage, and a micro- SD card slot for additional storage if needed. On the smartphones, Ar-

chos has also announced that the 50 Helium Plus and 55 Helium Plus models offer high-definition (HD) screens, IPS image quality, and 4G Dual SIM connectivity. “The Archos 50 Helium Plus and the Archos 55 Helium Plus reflect Archos’s mission to democratise 4G technology and to offer its clients better performance at affordable prices,” Poirier said. Archos, he said, has refreshed the style of its Helium line through new,

sleeker designs and “Glass Effect” finishing. Available in either Jet Black or White Frost exteriors, these Helium Plus models are distinguished by the quality and brightness of their screens. The ARCHOS 55 Helium offers a large 5.5 inch screen for maximum reading comfort, and the ARCHOS 50 Helium Plus is equipped with an equally luminous 5 inch screen in a more compact style. The HD resolution of both models, combined with IPS screen technology,

results in brilliant colors and wide viewing angles. According to Poirier, “From launch, the ARCHOS 50 Helium Plus and the ARCHOS 55 Helium Plus will boast Android’s latest operating system, Lollipop 5.1. Lollipop 5.1 offers an even smoother and more ergonomic user interface, advanced battery life management, and support for two SIM cards at once. Users will also benefit from the latest technologies in speed and performance with a 64 bit processor.”

L-R: Privatization Adviser, Nigeria Infrastructure Advisory Facility, Mr. Bill Slegg; Chairman, North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), Dr. Sam Amadi and Deputy General Manager, Engineering Division, Mr. Abdullahi Mohammed, during a workshop for Nerc appointed inspectors in Abuja

Teachers besiege Maltina Teacher of the Year website

s entries for the newly launched Maltina Teacher of the Year award draw to a close, organisers said they have recorded a deluge of entries as teachers rush to meet the deadline. Reports from collation centres indicate that scores of secondary school teachers are enthusiastically submitting entries for the award. This is coming even as the Corporate Affairs Adviser of Nigerian Breweries Plc, Kufre Ekanem, hinted that collection and submission of application forms/entries may be extended to give opportunity to every qualified teacher to compete for the prize. He stated that interested candidates could obtain hard copies of entry forms from designated collection

and submission points scattered all over the country as contained in flyers, posters and other Belowthe-Line (BTL) advertising materials being circulated across the country. According to Ekanem, entries for the competition will be subjected to an intensive selection and judging process by an external independent panel of judges which has been constituted to ensure transparency, credibility and objectivity of the exercise. “We hope that through this initiative, we can inspire this nation to accord our teachers their deserved credit and bring back respect to the teaching profession in Nigeria,” Ekanem said. Maltina Teacher of the Year is designed to reward

outstanding teachers who have distinguished themselves in the teaching profession in Nigeria. The Award will reward outstanding Nigerian teachers who have developed innovative strategies and teaching techniques as well as contributed to the advancement of education in Nigeria. The CSR/Sustainability Manager, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Emete Tonukari, said: “It is exciting to see these large number of teachers in public secondary schools across Nigeria availing themselves of the opportunity to emerge Nigeria’s teacher of the year.” The Maltina Teacher of the Year and other national finalists of the competition will be unveiled and celebrated at a grand ceremony on Monday October 5,

2015, a day set aside by the United Nations to mark the World Teachers’ Day. The maiden award is open to teachers working in public secondary schools across the 36 states of Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory. The initiative is the brainchild of Nigerian Breweries-Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund, which is sponsoring it on the platform of NB Plc.’s premium malt drink brand, Maltina. Established as non-forprofit organisation in 1994, the Nigerian BreweriesFelix Ohiwerei Education Trust Fund has continued to drive some of the company’s corporate social responsibility projects, especially in its continued support for development of the educational sector in Nigeria.

FCMB promotes wellbeing of physically challenged F irst City Monument Bank (FCMB) has continued to demonstrate its passion and commitment to the welfare of the physically challenged as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Sustainability within its fold and the society at large. FCMB recently demonstrated this passion by sponsoring Mr. Folawiyo

Adisa, a para-badminton player, to participate at the 1st International ParaBadminton Championship organised by Houston Badminton Centre in the United States, between May 19 and 27, 2015. This marked the eighth consecutive year the bank has been supporting the multiple Africa and world gold medallist in the sport.

At this year’s competition in the United States, Adisa added a silver medal to his horde of laurels, including the gold medal he won at the 2013 Spanish International Para-badminton tournament. FCMB’s Group Head, Corporate Communications & CSR, Mrs. Uchenna Mojekwu, said that the bank’s support for Adisa stemmed

from its belief that in every disability, there is ability. “We acknowledge his exploits in the game of parabadminton over the years. As a bank driven by the culture of excellence, we will continue to encourage him. and other physically challenged individuals to realise their dreams and bring more laurels to the country,” Mojekwu said.

SUNDAY

Markets&Mall SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

American retail shops dying B ig apparel brands are grappling with shoppers who increasingly want deeply discounted clothes over classic logos and status. Gap is closing one-quarter of its stores and laying off hundreds of workers after disappointing sales. J. Crew just fired 10 per cent of the workers at its corporate headquarters as sales and profits continue to plunge. The teen-apparel market is also struggling as a whole, with bigname players like Abercrombie & Fitch and Aeropostale closing stores. Sears, Macy’s, and JCPenney have also shuttered hundreds of stores in recent years. More than two dozen malls have shut down in the last four years and another 60 malls are on the brink of death, The New

York Times reported, citing Green Street Advisors, a real estate and real-estate investments trust analytics firm. Despite the changes, certain businesses are benefiting from mall-closure trends. “At a time when some big department stores are struggling and Internet shopping is on the rise, the mall industry is doing surprisingly well,” writes Robbie Whelan at The Wall Street Journal. Mall sales have steadily risen every year since the recession as other industries have filled the void in the malls that haven’t shut their doors. Here are the industries taking over the remaining malls. •High-Tech stores Technology-focused tenants like Tesla, Microsoft, and Apple are majorly driving sales, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Ladipo auto market elects unit leaders

he Odo-Aladura unit of Ladipo Spare Parts Traders’ Union on Thursday elected new officials for the union. At the end of the election which was supervised by the Central Executive Committee of the Ladipo Market, Chukuwma Iroko was elected chairman of the unit. Speaking after the election, Iroko said that he would make effort to ensure that traders in his unit keep the market clean always to avoid future closure of the market by the government. He also said that he and his team would ensure that every trader in the market obeys the rules and regulations of the Lagos State Market Board. He further said that his new executive would organise training for traders in the market so that

they will be able to do their businesses in line with international best practice. According to him, his victory is not a winner take all style of leadership but would extend hands of friendship to other contestants for effective leadership in the market. In his remarks, the outgoing chairman, Mr. Jude Nwankwo, who expressed his happiness at the result of the election, said Iroko had assisted him over the years in the leadership of the market. He regretted that during his reign, he was not able to build a befitting toilet for the unit. He said the landlords of the shops to date have not been able to provide a good toilet for traders and their customers.

As technology is more expensive than clothing, it’s easier for these stores to turn a profit. Consumers are also increasingly spending on this category instead of traditional goods like home decor or clothing. Technology stores also require fewer staff and smaller spaces than department stores, resulting in fewer overhead expenses. • Medical Clinics Urgent care clinics like City Practice Group of New York and Concentra are growing at a rate of about 20 per cent a year, reports Doni Bloomfield at Bloomberg

Business. Many are taking over spacious, empty leases in malls to satisfy growing demand from consumers, according to Bloomberg. Malls benefit from the arrangement too. “Clinics often pay higher rents (about $25 per square foot), have better credit, and tend to sign longer-term leases,” Bloomfield writes. •Gyms Equinox and other gym brands are quickly taking over malls, Emily Thompson writes on the retail blog The Robin Report.

“Today, some real estate developers are embracing non-retail properties — like fitness centres — as a new kind of anchor store,” Thompson writes. Gyms are desirable for malls because their customers often visit once or twice a week. Once people are at the mall, they might decide to go shopping or visit the food court for dinner. And more Americans are getting active — meaning that demand for gyms is soaring. •Source: htt//uk.businessinsider.com

Traders laud MFBs over loans Stanley Ihedigbo

raders in some markets in Lagos say access to micro loans from microfinance institutions is enhancing their businesses, even though their interest rates are high. Mr. Hyginus Eze, a shoe trader at Ikotun market in Lagos, told Sunday Telegraph that access to finance has been made easy for them by the MFBs. That, according to him, was not the case before when they depended on only commercial banks for credit. He said that as a customer of one of the leading microfinance banks in the country, he collects loans to support his business without collateral and he pays as at and when due. “The banks’ products are so many in the sense that any trade or business person will be able to benefit from their services. Before now if you collect money from a commercial bank, a customer would find it difficult to pay back the money because of several obstacles they place on your way.

“Since, I started dealing with the microfinance banks; I have been able to pay my loans without stress. Business has not really picked up since after the elections, I can say that the economy has been dull for some time now,” he said. Mr. Bessey Okon, who sells clothing materials in Balogun market on Lagos Island, said the MFBs have helped traders to grow their business. He said that a situation where a collateral is not is an obstacle to accessing a loan makes things easy for them. According to him, microfinance banks are far better for them than commercial banks. Okon said that he was able to organise his colleagues in the same line of business and it was easy for them to access the loan as a group without any collateral. According to a marketing official of Mutual Microfinance Bank, Ikotun Branch, Lagos, Ms. Parcer Ezeala, the banks have a lot of products for traders in the markets nationwide. She added that they are in the market to al-

leviate poverty and to assist the low income earners to have access to funds. She said Mutual does not start business for people but supports its customer to grow their businesses. Ezeala said that when they are able to grow the traders’ businesses, it will create more job opportunities for the unemployed youths in the country. She further said that the MFB has products for even pure water sellers and others in the markets called ‘Easy Life’ and ‘Earning Money for Day.’ Therefore, they give loans ranging from N5000 to N30,000 to their customers without collateral. She stressed that their target is to assist any hard working trader to build his or her business. She added that the pure water seller given a loan of N5000 will be expected to repay N300 every day. She lamented, however, that the level of default is very high, saying that is the challenge confronting the scheme.

SUNDAY

Politics SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

The Sunday Interview

Nobody can predict President Buhari’s moves - Bolaji Abdullahi p.32, 33, 39

Interview

N’Assembly has reduced its budget to N120bn, says Rep p.35 Aliyu: PDP is trying to destroy APC p.36 Igbos miscalculated in 2015 elections, says Obiakor p.37 BRF at 52: Revisiting the momentous years p.38

Buhari

Buhari and the waiting game

Four weeks after his inauguration, Nigerians are still waiting for President Muhammadu Buhari to define the direction of his government, writes ONYEKACHI EZE

“I Biyi Adegoroye Assistant Editor biyi.fire@yahoo.com © Daily Telegraph Publishing Company Limited

Oyegun

belong to everybody, and I belong to nobody!” This statement from President Muhammadu Buhari at his inauguration raised the hope of Nigerians that he would be in firm control of his government. They also thought that the President was going to hit the ground running immediately and bring about the much needed ‘Change’ he promised during the electioneering campaign. But some 30 days after, the people are yet to understand the direction Buhari’s administration is headed. But for the dissolution of the board of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation over the weekend, he has been said to be anything but very active. So far, three personal aides have been appointed - three media aides (two for the President and one for the Vice-President) and state chief

of protocol, since May 29. Though the Seventh Senate had approved 15 aides for the President, only three have been named. Only last Thursday, the President announced the appointment of Alhaji Ahmed Idris as Accountant General of the Federation. The delay in appointing some key officials of government is reportedly slowing down activities. It is said to be affecting various sectors of the economy. Some even wonder, right or wrong, whether the President and the APC were actually prepared for governance, any less as the then President Goodluck Jonathan was not sure he would lose the last election. The absence of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation and members of the Executive Council means that government would remain at a standstill as those, who are supposed to drive the administration are not yet there. The preparation of the Medium Term Expenditure Framework, a critical responsibility of the Ministry of Finance, which is a prelude to the budget, is expected to have been concluded and ready for presentation to the Executive Council before the end of June. But as at today, the process has not started. The implication is that a foundation has been laid for the lateness of the 2016 federal budget with its attendant consequences. A cross section of lawyers, academia and leaders of civil society organisations said it is an unhealthy development and not a good start for a government that rode to power on the strength

of its promise to fast track the country’s economic development. A political economist and management expert, Prof. Pat Utomi said the delay was breeding fear among investors, who have been waiting to see the calibre of persons that would be in Buhari’s cabinet as a way of reading the likely direction of the new regime. Utomi, a former presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress, was not certain about the reasons for the delay. He, however, said it might be a deliberate attempt by new government to ensure that it made the right choices. “Well, I don’t know if there is an anxiety or fear, I don’t know. They might be, and they may not be. In everything there, has always two sides. I don’t know those, who are making the decisions on what they are doing but may be they are considering all kinds of things to make sure there is optimal choice,” he said. Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Mr. Eze Onyekpere expressed disappointment at the pace of the Buhari’s administration in the last four months. Onyekpere argued that given the number of years Buhari had spent struggling to become the President of Nigeria, he ought to have been better prepared to face the task of governance and not to keep the citizens waiting for three weeks without a clear sense of direction. “The trajectory of President Buhari’s path to the presidency indicates that he has been waiting to CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

The Sunday

Nobody can predict President Buhari’s moves - Bolaji Abdullahi Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, former Minister of Sports and Deputy Director of Policy and Strategy of the Buhari Campaign, is a man of many parts – scholar, journalist, politician, shadow boxer and now a farmer. But he also said he is a comedian when BIODUN OYELEYE met him for an exploration of issues around the Nigerian social and political system. He did not disappoint as he gave in-depth analysis of key sectors of the Nigerian economy and what the Muhammadu Buhari government should do to meet the yearnings of Nigerians. But he dismissed anyone with claims to knowing what is on the President’s mind for, according to him, for now, ‘only President Buhari knows what President Buhari is thinking.’ And there is a reason for that. Ikedife Abdullahi

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Interview What have you been doing since you left office? Well I have been busy trying to build my businesses here and there. I am a farmer so I need to build my farm and when the political process started I got active in the process; I was Deputy Director of Policy and Strategy of the Buhari Campaign, working with Dr, Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State. That has kept me busy. Generally, it’s been over two years now that I left office, but I thank God. Why is farming a major attraction to public office-holders in Nigeria, particularly after leaving office? I think the reason is that when you are a public officer, you are not supposed to run a business at the same time except if it is farming. So those of us who even had some businesses before we went into public office, those businesses suffer because we can no longer run them. But the one you are allowed even by law to do as a public office is farming. So it is easy even from that point of view. But personally for me I believe it is the future of the Nigerian economy. The profile of farming is increasing everyday. I see young people who introduce themselves to me as farmers so that gives a lot of hope. I have a daughter here who wants to study agriculture and sometimes I wonder why; but I am encouraging her. I think it is the future of the Nigerian economy. I have always loved to do it; I am the child of a farmer so maybe it has always been in my DNA. What do you see as major challenges for farmers in Nigeria? I think it depends on the kind of farming you are doing. The challenges of animal farming are different from those of crop farming. I’ve done fish farming before. I have made money from it and lost a lot of money to it. The challenges related to fish farming are peculiar and different from other kinds of animal farming. The fist challenge is the market. You could see that over the years even at government level the focus has been to help farmers increase production, giving high yield seed and fertiliser support to farmers and in some cases irrigation support etc. That helps a lot but the challenge for most farmers is after increased production, then what happens? So whenever there is a glut in the market, either for crop or animal products, then you realise you don’t get value for the effort. So, the number one challenge for anyone going into farming is to ask that question and get it clearly: Where is my market? If you are able to sign a purchase agreement before hand that is the best; otherwise you must keep your eye on where to sell. When you produce and you

are happy but can’t sell that is a problem. The second one is funding. There is so much noise about banks giving credits to farmers at special rates and all that but you can’t get the money. If you try to get it they tell you to go and bring your grandmother’s front tooth and all that; its difficult so most people would rather use their savings to do farming and that is a high risk. But by and by so many people are making different things in agriculture and they are making money. I believe there is still so much money in the sector if we can provide the right kind of support. That is why we should all be happy that President Buhari is saying that one of the approaches to tacking the big issue of youth unemployment is by exploring opportunities in the agriculture and mining sectors. But many young people still see agric as unattractive. I think if the immediate past Minister of Agriculture didn’t achieve anything at all, he was able to enhance the profile of farming with the concept of value addition and agribusiness. And I’m telling you so many young people are going into farming. I met a young guy recently, who has a huge farm in Nasarawa, and there is another lady, Mosunmola who has almost become iconic; she has a huge farm in Ogun state. I think the redefinition of the practice as agribusiness has also helped. Many people are leaving banks now to start business in agriculture. And it is not all about farming; you can produce, be involved in processing, marketing, transportation etc which are all part of the entire value chain of the business. So many people are investing in it but there are a lot of policy issues that need to be in place before it can really be entrenched and taken seriously as a business. What are the specific policy issues you believe should be tackled in the sector? The issues are very clear and so much has been said on what to do to turn around the agric sector. I think the most important thing is for government to provide real access to credit. If government is able to provide the framework, the Agric Development Bank needs to be rejuvenated. The Bank of Industry (BoI) has done quite well over the last couple of years but the BoI is not an agriculture bank. We need to rebuild the agric bank and create platforms for specific portfolio of loans to farmers. They exist theoretically but we need to make it really available so that small farm holders can have access to micro credit and do their farming. And people who want to process can have loans to do it etc. An integrated package of loans to support the sector will show that government really wants to create an industry with farming. There is no way we can rebuild the North-East after the damage of Boko Haram if we don’t do serious rethinking on our agricultural support system because it is only through agriculture that we can rebuild the North-East. The second policy area is in infrastructure, especially for those who do crops. There is no reason why Nigerians cannot farm all year round. Small scale irrigation systems have to be built. Other countries have shown that even in the desert you can set up irrigation system for farming. I think it is one area that should be considered. But the most important is how do we build the agricultural market? There are issues about the old marketing boards and people have said we don’t need to go back down that road again; that it was a corrupt system. It was not a corrupt system, rather it was the system that got corrupted. So I am a believer in the need for us to look at it again; and see how we can make it more efficient and find ways to remove the corruption elements we might see around it. I think unless we are able to create guaranteed markets which some countries are doing now, for instance if you buy pineapple off the shelf in any supermarket in the UK, chances are that it comes from Ghana be-

cause of the large support the government there has given farmers. They have large cooperatives, standard grading systems, inspection, customs and excise - all integrated into one place so that farmers can benefit. Some people are asking for guaranteed purchase from government but with the kind of fiscal crises we are facing I don’t know ho feasible that is. But whatever we do in the sector for now must focus on creating the market. We are lucky we are a big country so we can consume our own produce. But even at that the kind of market that exists in the African sub-region alone is massive. So I think those are the key factors to look into. Between paying subsidy on fuel marketers and farmers which would you say it the right way for Nigeria? I’m sure you know the answer. The subsidy itself is not a bad thing because countries use it to support social redistribution of wealth. But what has happened in the subsidy regime in Nigeria is that it has become a massive arena for corruption so much that whatever benefit meant for the people has been overwhelmed by the corruption around. Everybody who knows anything about the sector would tell you that it is a massive racket. If you go across the River Niger here even in the best of seasons people buy fuel not from the pump and not at control price. So you wonder what has been subsidised. So my personal opinion is that this is the best moment for government to do something about that, especially given the resource crises that we are facing at the moment. If we can liberalise the market to make it competitive and with government regulation I think Nigerians will be fine with it. This is because there is no point saying you are putting a tight lead on the market and people cannot get the commodity. There are long queues everywhere. You paralyse the economy for days, put government under intense pressure and having to bring out money and throw it at marketers and everybody will be doing abracadabra. Few people will be making money and queues will just disappear to start another time. Removing subsidy is politically contentious I must admit but this government has a great opportunity to do it. So if government is able to do that whatever savings we can make from that can go to not only agriculture but also education, health etc. These are the real areas we ought to subsidise. If you want to subsidise people then subsidise education, health, agriculture. Nigerians are wondering whether those in the think tank of the APC didn’t consider the current scenario playing out in the party all through the stages of your campaign and election preparations to have provided possible solutions. When people say crisis I wonder what they mean. You see, democracy is by definition organised chaos; it is about contestation of ideas and interests. Whenever you have interests colliding, you will have this kind of situation; but it is not a crisis. Like I said during the campaign that PDP needed to lose the last election to rediscover itself. At that point PDP had become constipated on power and every other thing and doctors will tell you that is a danger to the body. The first thing they will tell you is to stay away from eating. So PDP needed to lose that election to rediscover itself and I think even the most loyal PDP member will agree with that; that they needed to rebuild, to recalibrate after 16 years in power. Maybe they will be able to recalibrate, I don’t know. For APC, it is an agglomeration of parties united by the desire to bring change to Nigeria; what people would like to call strange bedfellows. But what you find is that APC needed the attraction for power to evolve into a proper political party and luckily that is what we are now. So what you are seeing is a process of becoming; it is not a crisis. When a child is growing up, learning to crawl, such a child will crumble trying to get up from its seat. That is not a crisis but part of the process of growing up. When a child tries to get up and falls the parents won’t scream and say we are in trouble, this child is going to die, because they know it is normal. Yes, the child may fall and sometimes hit his head on the ground and there will be bleeding but he will

pick himself up again and walk eventually. So that is what we are experiencing at the moment. But you will see that the party will find a way around it and it would evolve. PDP had been in power for 16 years, they had all these teething problems as well so APC will not by pass this stage of growing; it will go through this teething problem as well but come out of it stronger. But some people are saying you are inadvertently giving the opportunity for the PDP to rediscover itself by allowing a PDP man to become the Deputy Senate President? I don’t think like that. If PDP thinks that all it has to do to start rediscovering itself is for a member to become the Deputy Senate President then good luck to them. All I know is that getting out of power gives the PDP an opportunity to rebuild. If they think that becoming DSP is the kind of rebuilding they need to do, good luck to them but I don’t think it translates into anything because the SP and DSP and others are just principal officers of the National Assembly elected among their peers. It doesn’t have any implication for the larger political system. It is just National Assembly people electing officers for themselves. But we have attached so much drama to it that it appears that the whole country now depends on what happens in the National Assembly contest. Maybe because people think that it may affect considerations for bills, appointments and other power dynamics here and there. I know one thing, at least I had been a minister and so I have gone through screening at the Senate. I know that those things don’t have implications for ministerial appointments. The President nominates his ministers and sends the list to the National Assembly. Usually, it is the President’s Special Adviser on National Assembly Matters that takes the list to the Senate President. The President of the Senate is a member of the APC and the President of the country is a member of the APC. So how would that affect anything? Or are you now telling me that because the DSP is a member of the PDP he can stop a bill in a Senate presided over by an APC Senate President and where APC is still in the majority? I think people are just exaggerating a passing situation. Sometimes in politics you hear people saying things like because this thing has happened it will permanently affect a situation or things will never remain the same again. No, history doesn’t function that way. I can’t remember who said that even the most cataclysmic event doesn’t really change the course of history not to talk of minor events of people appointing their principal officers changing the course of history in Nigeria. If you want to be mischievous, yes you can begin to focus on those negative things instead of the positive sides of it I think it is a great opportunity for APC to be in power at this time and I think President Buhari, given time, is capable of turning things around for Nigeria. I think that Dr. Saraki as Senate President would be a great asset to President Buhari in the course of rebuilding the country. You have worked with the two of them though at different levels. What are the things you see that can make them work together? Saraki is someone who understands only results; he drives himself selflessly. He has a tunnel vision and a singular commitment to getting results; so that helps. From what I have heard people say about President Buhari and on the few occasions I have the opportunity to sit in the same room and observe him either talk to people or grant an interview, it was clear to me that he is a very perceptive leader; he is highly experienced. You will be amazed at how much he knows about Nigeria and what is happening now even though he has been out of power for over 30 years. I have heard him discuss the oil industry before and seriously I have heard so many people discuss the industry before but only very few people can claim to know that sector more than the President. I am not surprised he was a petroleum minister; that is not enough, you can see that it is a sector that he has engaged in. He can always focus on real issues. CONTINUED ON PAGE 39

Politics C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 3 1

be president since 2003 and this makes it a 12year wait. Also, he had two months after the election in March 2015 to prepare to take over the presidency. This creates a presumption that he must have articulated his world view on what he wants to do with the presidency in the last 12 years and should have been ready to hit the ground running. “The delay is, therefore, bad for the economy because there is a prevalence of policy uncertainty, which leads to economic uncertainty. Investors cannot take decisions in a void; they will like to know the direction of government policy. In terms of the day-to-day administration, the country looks rudderless because the key personnel, being the Ministers are not in place, so, Permanent Secretaries and other accounting officers can only keep the ship of state afloat pending the time ministers take over, initiate and drive government policy,” he said. According to Onyekpere, critical responsibilities of government, such as the processes leading to the preparation of the 2016/2018 Medium Term Expenditure Framework, and the 2016 budget would be delayed as a result of the delay in constituting the new administration. “There are two ways to look at it. The first approach, which is very charitable to the President, is that he wants to take his time and be thorough so as not to make mistakes. But this is not the style of governance needed at this time of grave national crisis. Nigerians need a meticulous, fast thinking and active President to respond to the myriad of national challenges. Undue delays and delayed action is not in consonance with the resolution of our pressing challenges. “At least, key officials like the SGF, and Minister of Finance among others should have been appointed by now. It is imperative to recall that while some key personnel need legislative approval, others do not and even those positions that do not require legislative approval have not been filled. All these question the preparedness of the President for the huge task of governance,” Onyekpere said. Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council, Dr. Yunusa Tanko told this medium in an earlier interview few days after Buhari’s inauguration, that the appointment of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation would have assisted in resolving some of the challenges facing the government. “We thought by now that the SGF would have been appointed to meet with IPMAN Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria so as to end the fuel scarcity in the country and the problem of electricity supply. The more it drags the more it creates anxiety,” he said. An online news medium, PREMIUM TIMES, seems also dissatisfied with the president’s style of governance. It said its investigations last week revealed that the dayto-day operations of the different ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have been weakened, while coordination of important government policies and programmes has become a mess. Quoting an un-named federal permanent secretary, the medium said, “The country can ill-afford further delay by the President to make these vital appointments. From the presidency to the ministries, departments and agencies, everything has come to virtual standstill.” Compared with other administrations before him, President Buhari’s slow pace of governance is unbearable. Even his party is expressing the same worry. The defence of the Chairman of Buhari’s Transition Committee, Alhaji Ahmed Joda that “this is not an ordinary transfer of government from one President to the other as has never witnessed in the country before,” is wake as there are precedence. President Olusegun Obasanjo, who took over power from the military government of General Abdulsalami Abubakar, appointed Chief Ufot Ekaete as the SGF, Major General Abdullahi Muhammed, (retd) as Chief of Staff and Dr. Doyin Okupe as Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), on the very day

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Buhari and the waiting game

Tinubu

of his inauguration. The service chiefs were also appointed within the first two days of the Obasanjo administration. So, also were his National Security Adviser and the Director General of the Department of State Services (DSS). Obasanjo’s successor, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, following his inauguration on May 29, 2007, also made key appointments, including the Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, SGF and the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory Authority within 24 hours of his inauguration. Yar’Adua also announced that he would retain Maj-Gen Abdullahi Mohammed (retd) as Chief of Staff and Maj-Gen Sarki Muktar (retd) as National Security Adviser. Both men were carryovers from the preceding Obasanjo’s administration. Even Jonathan, who spent five weeks before constituting his cabinet, appointed Senator Anyim Pius Anyim as SGF a day after his swearing in. Buhari is in his fifth week as president, and he is yet to make key appointments. In the absence of ministers, permanent secretaries are acting heads of ministries. There are, however, limitations to their capacities to approve policy issues, particularly, those bordering on the demands of the security agencies to prosecute military assignments. This is because they are not supposed to receive direct order from the president on policy matters. It is believed that the crisis in the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, where two persons are battling on the authentic director general of the National Productivity Centre, Abuja would have been resolved if there is Minister or SGF. The delay in laying the structure of his government goes to show that Buhari may not be in charge of his administration. Before his swearing in, the President was reported to have told governors-elect on the platform of his party that they cannot choose ministers for him. He said in an interview that he has been around for long in the country to know, who is capable and qualified to serve in his cabinet. But the delay in naming his SGF is believed to be due to the interests some governors and leaders of his party have in his administration. Instead of confronting the challenge of leadership headlong, Buhari is busy offering excuses. He blamed the delay in sending his ministerial nominees to the National Assembly on the Joda committee, which had not yet submitted its report. The report has been submitted about two weeks ago yet the list is still in the president’s shelf. The President started showing sign of weakness before he took oath of office, when he declared that ruling Nigeria would not be

Joda

seen as easy as some people think. He told Nigerians that he is not a miracle worker and therefore, they should not expect the change he promised before four years. According to the report, he even said four years would not be enough to fix Nigeria’s problem. ”For five, six years, the Nigerian law enforcement agencies, including the military, couldn’t secure 14 Local Governments. How can I promise miracles, when I come? But with the cooperation of our neighbours, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and the international community, as well as the commitment we will get from the military, I think it will take us a much shorter time to deal with it,” he stated. This was against his campaign promise that he would end insurgency within two months if elected. In far away South Africa, Buhari, who said he is fit and fiddle to rule Nigeria during the campaign, bemoaned his age. He now realised that at 72, there were limits to how far he could go in tackling the nation’s many problems. ”How I wish I became Head of State, when I was a governor or just a few years after, then as a young man, now at 72, there is a limit to what I can do alone,” he reportedly told Nigerians resident in South Africa. Interestingly, that attracted a lot of criticism, but presidential aides have since modified the message, stating that like old wine, Buhari gets better with age, being able to bring to fore, his wealth of experience in the running of state affairs. Now, his recent regret was what he called the “virtual empty treasury” he inherited from the predecessor, although he could not tell Nigerians how much he inherited. Unfortunately, some Nigerians believe that the President is about squandering the goodwill of Nigerians to his presidency. His failure to declare his assets publicly as he promised during the electioneering campaign is seen as a renege on his campaign promises. Chief Willy Ezeugwu, General Secretary of Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) said there should be no hidden agenda in whatever the President is doing. According to him, Buhari ceases to become a private person immediately he was sworn into office. Said Chief Ezeugwu: “So, Buhari should be transparent in his activities. He should not toe the line of (Olusegun) Obasanjo and (Goodluck) Jonathan, who refused to make their assets public. Yar’Adua is a hero today because he publicly declared his assets.” The opposition Peoples Democratic Party, on its part, noted that the President and his party, the APC have continued to expose their lack of commitment towards their campaign promises. PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa

Metuh in a statement, recalled that the APC denied that the President ever promised Nigerians that they will end insurgency two months after inauguration. “Indeed, we empathise with the President, knowing that the confusion and clear lack of direction in his party have not helped matters, but we urge him to rise up to the challenge, take urgent steps and disentangle himself from the selfish and unpatriotic tendencies of APC leaders, especially given the fact that Nigerians gave him a mandate for which they will continue to hold him accountable,” Metuh further added. Indeed, APC’s near lack of direction is manifested in the current imbroglio in the National Assembly, where the party controls the majority in the two chambers. The crisis rocking the legislature may not only delay the submission of ministerial list, it might also derail the President. Since the Assembly was inaugurated on June 9, the lawmakers are yet to receive official communication from Mr. President. For three weeks running, the National Assembly has been embroiled in a fierce battle, first over the election of principal officers of both legislative chambers. The latest is the composition of the party-based leadership positions. The crisis rocking the House of Representatives over the distribution of some of the positions degenerated to low ebb last week as members engaged in free-for-all. For over one hour, proceedings at the plenary were disrupted as members opposed to the House Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara, made spirited attempts to seize the mace, the symbol of authority, to prevent him from dissolving into a closed-door meeting and evade announcing principal officers nominated by the ruling APC. Also, at the Senate, the party lost its bid to make its nominees, Senators Ahmed Lawan, Senate George Akume, Deputy Senate Leader and Abu Ibrahim, Deputy Chief Whip. Rather, based on elections held by the zonal caucuses of the party, Senate President Bukola Saraki announced the choice of Senators Ali Ndume (Borno South) as Senate Leader, Bala Ibn Na Allah (Kebbi South) Deputy Leader and Senator Francis Alimikhena, a first timer in the Senate, as the Deputy Chief Whip. With the current confusion and consequent adjournment of both chambers till July 21, it stands to reason that not only would Buhari run the affairs of the country without ministers for over two months, it probably confirms that the party really was not prepared to lead the nation. How that ’Change’ Nigerians voted for would be realised from this quagmire remains to be seen.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

Politics

N’Assembly has reduced its budget to N120bn, says Rep Like President Muhammadu Buhari, Hon Afe Olowookere had contested three times for Akure South/North federal constituency seat before he won in the last election. In this interview with BABATOPE OKEOWO the former Majority Leader in the Ondo State House of Assembly bares his mind on the salaries and allowances of federal legislators, corruption, report of the 2014 National Conference and other topical issues Lawmakers at the National Assembly are receiving jumbo salaries and emoluments at the period when the nation is in financial crisis. What is your take on this? What you people call jumbo pay is not really a jumbo pay. The problem is that the legislators have not taken pains to it explain to Nigerians. Only the activities of the National Assembly are done in the open. I don’t have problem with that because I think that is what democracy entails. The press and the public know everything about the legislature which is not the same in respect of the executive. I want to tell you that what a minister earns as salary is more than what a senator earns. The allowances accruing to a minister are more than what accrues to a senator. Can you see the area of unfairness? For you to become a senator or a House of Representatives member, you have to spend money and go out to campaign. Somebody who has not spent a kobo for our party during the electioneering may be appointed a minister. What he earns, the number of aides he will have in his ministry will be more than that of a senator. How many people know how much these ministers collect as salary? But they know that of the legislators simply because it is these legislators they saw during the campaigns. The minister may not even be called or approached to come and fix their roads, transformers and the rest. I think those managing the image of the National Assembly are not doing enough. That is why senators and Rep members are exposed to this ridicule. Activities of the legislators do not end at the chambers. Nigerians must appreciate this fact. You said that the National Assembly budget is not big, but your annual budget is N150 billion? What we have heard is that National Assembly is reducing its budget from N150 billion to N120 billion. But the budget is not meant for only the 109 senators and 360 House of Representative members only. The National Assembly budget is what caters for four different institutions; the National Institute of Legislative Studies, the National Assembly Commission which has its own staff and structures, the National

Assembly itself headed by the Clerk of the Assembly and the legislators. Do not forget that each of the senators and House of Representative members are entitled to five legislative aides. The erroneous impression is that the budget is meant for National Assembly members alone. But the truth of the matter is that like in every budget, contains both capital and recurrent expenditures. Considering his age, do you think President Muhammadu Buhari still has the capacity to perform and fight corruption the way he did when he was a military Head of State? Age is not a barrier to performance or service delivery. We can learn from the experience of Nelson Mandela in South Africa. I think he took over the presidency of that country at the age of 74. He laid a good foundation for the country, after the end of apartheid regime, on which those that came after him are still building. The integrity of Buhari is already creating fear in the minds of a lot of people. I can tell you that the civil servants are already adjusting because they believe that this man may not allow business to continue as usual. I don’t think age will prevent him from doing the best for the people of this country. It is just a matter of leadership by example. If he does what Nigerians want and members of the National Assembly want to create any problem for him, the opinion of Nigerians will be against them. There are certain things Nigerians expect from him. If he decides to go that direction, whoever wants to obstruct him will not enjoy the support of Nigerians. I do not see his age as a problem. To me, the older you become, the more conservative you are. How do you think Buhari can effectively tackle the monster of corruption, given the fact that he is no more a military leader? He must establish a good relationship with the legislative arm. He is no more a military Head of State. To really fight corruption this time around, he must get the support of the National Assembly. He cannot fight it alone. The legislature will assist him in bringing about laws or reactivating some of our existing laws

Olowookere

that address the issue of corruption and corrupt practices. For example, there is this Public Procurement Act which tries to deal with the issue of corruption. But there are still some aspects of this Act that need to be addressed in order to really tackle the scourge. Also, President Buhari must lead by example. He has done that in the past. Although I have not confirmed it officially, but I heard that only Buhari quarried and rejected the amount of money being paid former presidents of the country as retirement benefits. I know that if he brings that to governance, that will tell the people that this man really means business. He has to block all the areas of waste and leakages. There are institutions that were put in place to fight corruption. Previous administrations only used them to fight perceived political enemies or opponents. These institutions like EFCC, ICPC were not allowed to be independent in their operations. They only investigated persons that the President wanted them to investigate. It was only those the President wanted them to prosecute that were really prosecuted. If Buhari will still retain these institutions, he must allow them to perform their functions independent of his government. He should make people of impeccable character the heads of these institutions. Our court system must also be overhauled and allowed to operate without interference from any quarter. Once the government can live up to the level of being impartial, not telling court that we have interest in this case or that case, to fight corruption will be very easy for President Buhari. Some APC leaders have been saying the party took over power at the time the country’s economy has been crippled. Does it mean that your party is not well-prepared for governance? There is no doubt that the country’s economy is in shambles. As we can see n o w,

nothing seems to be working. The party took over when everything is at the lowest ebb, a situation that was not anticipated. But that is not to say that the party did not prepare for governance. Already, the government knows that the megawatts of electricity we are generating are not enough and it has a plan to improve on this. It knows that the high rate of the youth unemployment in the country must be addressed urgently. Various programmes of the APC address some of these issues, meaning that the party is well-prepared for governance. But what has gotten us nervous a little bit is the debt profile that the PDP government left behind. It will slow down the speed with which we would have moved to bring that change we promised Nigerians. The new government will have to find ways of reducing the effect of the debt profile and fulfill certain obligations to Nigerians. How many people will want to understand and accept that we inherited a huge debt burden? There are so many high expectations. So, if anybody says we took over at the wrong time, that does not mean APC is not well-prepared for governance. Rather, he is trying to reconcile the high expectations with available resources. If the government was in shambles when Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was leaving, how will you describe the $29billion left in foreign reserves, the $2billion in federation account and $1billion in Sovereign Wealth Fund? When the present government said that the economy is in shambles, that was an understatement. Everything is in shamble. Federal, state and local governments cannot pay salaries not to talk about pensions. What was the Foreign Reserves when Dr Jonathan came in as President? I was watching the television yesterday and I saw the 36 state governors visited President Muhammadu Buhari and begged for financial rescue. The claim that economy is in shamble is very correct. In the National Assembly, there is no money to run the place. We have no accommodation because everything has been monetised, but we are yet to get anything. Nothing has been paid to us since we resumed. This country has been crippled. Do we have to spend all our reserves? The reserve inherited by the last administration has been recklessly spent. Were you surprised by the outcome of the last general election where an incumbent lost for the first time in Nigeria? I was not surprised. Months before the election, one could feel that palpable air of change throughout the country. People were completely disappointed and disenchanted with the PDP-led administration. That government had completely lost focus and direction, and was no longer adding value to people’s lives. Rather, it was causing intolerable hardship for Nigerians. The PDP had become exploiters and unfortunately they were doing all of this with impunity. They had become so arrogant that people were completely tired and frustrated. People were looking for not just an alternative but a good one. They saw a far better alternative in Buhari and APC. What only surprised me in the outcome of the election was the difference in the figure.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Politics

Aliyu: PDP is trying to destroy APC You are one of the key supporters of Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, what is your reaction to the emergence of Hon. Yakubu Dogara as Speaker instead of your candidate? I am a Muslim and I believe that leadership comes from God. So, I believe God in his infinite mercy gave the leadership to Dogara. So he will be supported by all of us to succeed. The party has selected four principal officers for the House, but they are incidentally being rejected by Dogara and the Consolidation Group. What do you make of this? I think the speaker is being misguided and not properly advised on the way and manner he should go and I would like to use this medium to call on him to be magnanimous in victory and to respect the party. The Nigerian Constitution recognises only candidates sponsored by political parties to stand for elections. So, without APC, there wouldn’t have been a Dogara, Gbajabiamila or Magaji and you cannot run a democratic government without a political party. So if the party is not respected, we are not practising democracy. Let me ask; supposing the party decides to offer every member automatic ticket for 2019 elections, would any one of us reject it? So, I

would advise the speaker to be a good party man and accept the lawmakers chosen by the party as principal officers. Nigerians are getting worried that in spite of the APC’s change mantra, it is now acting like the Peoples Democratic Party, which was voted out to usher in change. Do you think the All Progressives Congress will ever get it right? Nigerians have the right to be agitated because a typical Nigerian wants quick results but this is change and change does not come on a platter of gold. Some people get change through war but here we got it without shedding blood; we got it because of the godly people we have in this country- pastors, reverend fathers, Imams prayed fervently for this country and that is why this change even came in a peaceful manner. I am very optimistic that the change Nigerians are yearning for will be provided by the APC-led government. Even if you go to war, you come back to a round table and settle issues. I am very sure President Muhammadu Buhari will be very concerned now about what is happening; I am sure Dogara is concerned and everybody is concerned now. So, this will make us to sit

together and do the right thing. Lawmakers loyal to Dogara are arguing that the choice of leaders by the party does not reflect federal character principle, because the Deputy Speaker is from the South-West yet it has chosen Gbajabiamila from the same zone as leader whereas the North-Central and South-East are not represented on the leadership? This is not the first time we will be having this kind of arrangement. In the Seventh Assembly, there were three principal officers from the North-West and nobody complained. Is it because it was PDP? So, I support what the party did and we will continue to tow the party line and the Speaker has to do what the party wants. In the event that the Speaker stands his grounds and calls the bluff of the party, what happens? It means the Speaker is inviting chaos. I am sure he will not want chaos. If the Speaker refuses to do what the party wants, even on July 21 when we come back from recess (and that is my birthday), this kind of scenario is likely to continue. But I wouldn’t want the

Aliyu

Speaker to go that far. He should avoid the greed of the winner takes all. At the plenary where there was commotion, PDP members were the ones providing cover for the speaker and shouting ‘”Dogara, Dogara.” What do you think this portends for the APC? I think this kind of thing should bother Dogara because when people come from outside to protect you in your house, it means you have a problem within the house. Any reasonable person who perceives that there is a problem rightly or wrongly would sit down with his people and solve the problem. I would advise the Speaker to reach out. We are not saying we don’t like him; we are saying let the party be respected. We all rode on the back of the party and President Muhammdau Buhari to be elected to this parliament. So, we should at least listen to them. I have a lot of confidence that with the embarrassment last week, the Speaker would sit down and sort this issue out once and for all. Let me give you a scenario. There are 252 members of APC in the House of Representatives out of 360, one member died and one has not turned up for inauguration. So we have 258 and half of this number, 173 are with the party. So it is not a matter between Gbajabiamila and Dogara but it is between the party and its loyal members and those who are disloyal to the party. Dogara and Gbajabiamila are no longer in the equation. Dogara is the Speaker of the House and so is the speaker for all. But when we go to our party caucus, what the party wants will prevail. But our rules did not say we should elect principal officers; the rule says we should only nominate. But people read the rules upside down to suit their selfish intentions. By and large, I was prepared that day to make contributions to the legislative agenda. My heart bleeds that I could not make my contributions but I believe that time will heal all wounds. Don’t you think the party is responsible for the confusion in the parliament today? Because initially the party said there was no zoning but now it has decided to zone positions. What is your take on this? I don’t think there is any confusion; the party says it is not going to do zoning. I think they said it with hindsight. You see like what happened today, the lawmakers that were shielding Dogara are 100 per cent PDP. So the party realised that if it does not get hold of its members there will be problem; there would be seed of discord. But I can take this line of argument too that the party made a fundamental mistake by refusing to announce zoning at inception and this is a political blunder. But we all have to go back to the party - our leader President Buhari will have to sit down with us to see how this problem is solved. It is actually not a big problem; people have to be punished for being disloyal to the party. People who are loyal should be encouraged.

Obaze

There is a contention that what is going on in the House is an extension of the fight between Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and the NewPDP faction of APC led by Senator Bukola Saraki. I don’t think so. For example, I do not know Tinubu one on one. He has never spoken to me. But I can say it is the PDP that wants to destroy our party because how many governors are in the APC? But I feel time will tell.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

Politics

Igbos miscalculated in 2015 elections, says Obiakor Chibuzor Obiakor is an All Progressives Congress chieftain in Anambra State who contested for Federal House of Representatives at the Idemili North and South Federal Constituency in the recent election. He speaks to CHIJIOKE IREMEKA on the reasons behind APC’s failure to win National Assembly elections in Anamabra Central Senatorial District and Idemili Federal Constituency The elections have come and gone with your party losing at Idemili North and South Federal Constituency, and Anambra Central Senatorial District. What is next for you and your party? Well, this is when politics starts. People make the mistake that politics is about the election. It’s after the election that the politics starts. By definition, people see politics as the process of getting what you want (power); sharing resources – determining who gets what resource and in what order and quantity do they get the resources. You don’t do these during campaign. It’s after election that you now appoint someone, who will be the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Minister of Works, Special Assistants, Health and Information ministers among others. Now, we are in the period of politics and how the politics is played out depends on how we handle it. Personally, I don’t have control over these for not winning election and secondly, our people didn’t support our party that much. But we perform marginally well as APC did better than ACN in the area in the previous years. We worked hard that the PDP did not bamboozle us like they did in 2011. We contributed to the victory of APC at the centre. But for us, we have to wait and see what happens in the actual politicking. What would you say were the reasons for the APC failure in the region? I think it’s simply the issue of perception. Former Governor of Anambra State, Mr. Peter Obi did a good job in branding ACN at that time, and APC as a Yoruba party, which did not take care of Ndigbo. Our people, out of ulterior psychology of the civil war, bought into it. But it’s unfortunate because Chris Ngige won election to Senate on the platform of ACN and every project he did, he did in Anambra State. I’m bold enough to say that he did more than any other Senator in the state. There were boreholes, medical centres, computer centres, street lights, and transformers among others. He awarded over 3, 000 scholarship from secondary school to tertiary institutions. The thought that APC is not an Igbo party and therefore shouldn’t be voted for is wrong. The right thing should have been who is this person? Will he be able to do this work? A week to the election and till now, I believe I’m the best candidate for the Idemili North and South Federal Constituency. If I’m the best candidate, then our people should be talking about my capability, compared to other competitors. It doesn’t matter the party I belong to. That was where the miscalculated. At the end of the day, we shot ourselves in the foot because that so-called Hausa/Yoruba party controls power at the centre and shares the resources to other sectors. It’s a mistake that we made, which I believe we have learnt from. It was argued that APC’s arrowhead in the state, Ngige didn’t market the fact that Anambra would produce the next Senate President if they returned him to power. Don’t you think that would have had a huge difference? We are not even among the fifth or even the ninth citizens of the country. Yes, we made that case among our people. I know I made it to Idemili North and the South. And these areas are enough to return Ngige and put me in the House. I made that case not once, not twice at different fora. In fact, the people who do not like Ngige will admit that

to protect their businesses in the state. They go to PDP for oil Wells so that they can deliver the state for them during elections. They collect contracts and make tens of millions and when election comes, they spend small portion of the money and bought the people. But I made that case. I told them that if Ngige wins and I win, I will become a member representing the Senate President’s community. At that time, I was the Chief of Staff to Ngige. So, I’m a member of the kitchen cabinet. If I bring a bill he will approve it and we will get what we want. It’s unfortunate that my people were presented with a N1.6 billion road construction and they sold their birth right. We would have had more if they have given us their votes. How do you see the Millennium Development Goals’ projects and possible jobs it would have created for Nigerians, if it was managed properly? The PDP did not manage MDGs projects well. Such project has the capacity of sparking off development in the country and job creation. Again, there is another project in such capacity, coming from American known as ‘Sustainable Development Goal.’ This would help the government to increase our human capital development, improve jobs creation. It has been done in US. We have done something in that area in America and it’s coming into the country now to do the work MDGs project could not do.

Obiakor

he did a good job as a 33-month governor in the state. So, the point remains that if he was able to do that as a governor, he would be able to do greater things if he becomes the Senate President. When you understand that the Senate Presidency of Nigeria is more than 36 governors in Nigeria put together, then you see the need to support APC. Definitely, Anambra State, especially the Idemili people would benefit. We made the case but they didn’t understand it to join forces with us. You don’t need to think of what is written on a vehicle before you enter. You just have to enter the vehicle and it takes you to your destination. There are some vehicles that have a write up on it, “I Shall Return,” but when they run into pothole, they are not returning anywhere. Political parties are nothing but vehicles. The constitution said you must contest on the platform of a political party. We do not have independent candidacy. If we had, maybe we will consider that. So, we must contest on the platform of a political party. Since PDP was and is, a no-go area for us, we looked for the party that has national outlook to achieve our great vision. Ngige left PDP because he was expelled and I left PDP because of what happened in 2011 when I contested for the same position on

that platform. The crisis in Anambra State PDP continued till today. They don’t know, who is their candidate, when some of them have been sworn it. The candidates are all in court trying to decide, who the candidate is. That is complete madness, such that I don’t want to be part of. Again, All Progressives Grand Alliance is a one-state party and remains a one-state party. The only reason we still talk about APGA is because Willie Obiano is the governor under that platform. If not, where will the party be today? So, if we have a vision of something greater tomorrow, we will not be talking about a one-state party? We need to look at the party that has national outlook. That is part of the reasons we moved to APC. Our people miscalculated and unfortunately, the church was part of the miscalculations because Obi poisoned the minds of the people, saying that APC is a Boko Haram party and will islamise the nation, if elected. President Muhammdu Buhari has been the President for weeks now, has he started islamising anybody? Has anybody seen him in a mosque? That was an unnecessary fear that was instilled in the people. The main problem here is that we have some few businessmen in the state who try

Ngige is romoured to be among people being considered for SGF, what appointment would you consider most appropriate for you and others who fought for APC in Anambra State? Well, it’s not for me to say what appointment will be most appropriate for me. It’s for the party or other organisations to decide. What I know is that I have high level of training and good education, including good work experience in America, managing a company with over 35 branches and over 600 people spread across seven states. I attended one of the top three MBA schools in the world with good managerial skills and temperament to mange men and materials. Politically, I have a good understanding of what APC manifesto is and ‘Change’ we want to bring to the governance. The question is who is the hero of the election in the state? In 2011, the PDP generated about 1.4 million votes only to find out that the number was greater than the registered voters. So, they went back and generated about 1.2 million votes. This time around, in Anambra State, they were only able to get about 660, 000 votes, which is about half of what they had before. This means something happened because they had the entire instrument to pick the ballot papers, result sheets and access to other manipulations but they couldn’t because of the pressure we gave them, the way we were chasing them around and challenging them So, if you look at the heroes of the election, you have to look at us. Yes, I don’t have a certificate of return that says I won election, but I contributed immensely to election in other way. That is most important. If they are considering appointments, I think some of us have the skills and the experience to work in certain areas. Buhari pooled 2.5million votes in the recent election while PDP gap in 2011 was 1.1million votes. If we had allowed them to do what they did in 2011, the 2.5 million votes that Buhari secured to win would have been wiped off. For instance, the result of Idemili Federal Constituency was announced in Dunukofia LGA instead of Idemili. We defied gun shots and chased them. I know what the then Minister of Aviation and his security did to me at Obosi town hall. I will tell you that we worked for the party’s success in the South -East. It’s said that a penny saved is a penny earned. If we prevented them from having those votes, the votes counted for us.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Politics

Hakeem Bello wo days ago, Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, turned 52. It was his first birthday outside office as the Governor of Lagos State. Having really never been a loud person when it comes to celebrations, a thanksgiving prayer and his sustained private engagement with the less privileged would predictably be all to expect. Being fresh out of office, the occasion offers an opportunity to conduct a rapid overview of the momentous Fashola years in the service of the good people of Lagos. Receiving the endorsement and backing of the symbol of the struggle to sustain the ethos of true federalism and then out going Governor of Lagos, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, whom he had served loyally as Chief of Staff, Fashola ran a most stimulating campaign. He was an underdog as an Action Congress governorship candidate in Lagos State in 2007, but Fashola started proving skeptics wrong almost as soon as he was sworn in on May 29, 2007 as he started building on the foundation laid by Tinubu. His inaugural speech that day laid out his areas of priority as the governor of the most populous state in Nigeria. He emphasised development of the human capital, free public education up to secondary school level and the refurbishing of the schools where the education was being provided, creation of jobs for the teeming mass of unemployed people, development of critical infrastructure such as road, rail and water transportation systems, the waging of a relentless war against crime, the deepening of the project of environmental rehabilitation, and commitment to the cause of justice and the rule of law, among others. Of all the programmes he enumerated then, Fashola stressed his determination to change the attitude and orientation of the people of the state towards rules and regulations and the enforcement of law and order. Fashola made it clear in his inauguration speech that for him to record any achievement during his tenure of office, it would

Fashola

BRF at 52: Revisiting the momentous years be necessary to establish an administration that would be unmistakably committed to law and order. The areas in which Lagosians need re-orientation as he laid it down then would include sanitation habit, driving, property development, attitude to tax payment, and also to trading. He also made it clear that it would be impossible to realise a commitment to law and order without an effective agency for law enforcement and a highly motivated system of justice delivery. In the absence of state police, Fashola knew that he would have to continue to work with the federal government-controlled police command. He, therefore, rallied the private sector and other critical stakeholders through the Lagos State Security Trust Fund to galvanise much needed resources that facilitated the re-invigoration of the Rapid Response Squad with sorely needed modern equipment for crime fighting from guns and ammunition to Armoured Personnel Carrier, patrol vehicles, boats and even helicopters. The Emergency Toll Free lines 767 and 112 as well as the command and control centre were also established. He also caused the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency to recruit and train additional staff, procured more equipment for them and went ahead to facilitate the establishment of the Lagos State Special Traffic Mayors through which he consciously encouraged a policy of community involvement in traffic control and management. As I have earlier stated, Fashola was aware as well of the importance of a transparent system of justice dispensation. To ensure that the process of disposing cases brought before it is fast and fair, the administration approved a new welfare package for the judicial personnel, built and commissioned new court rooms and equipped them with modern facilities, and put in place a panel to review the procedural rules. Now, it’s important not to create the impression that all that Fashola and his team did in his determination to alter Lagosians’ attitude toward law and order as well as rules and regulations was to put in place an elaborate system of deterrence. An effective system of deterrence is important, to be sure, as the governor himself would state again and again. However, and in his thinking, it was more important to work on people’s minds and get them to accept on their own the importance of playing by the rules and obeying laid down regulations. In this regard, Fashola did a lot in different sectors and, I dare say, his achievements were monumental. One major factor responsible for the high level of success was the power of the former governor’s personal example. Fashola repeatedly stressed it to all his officials, commissioners and aides that he

During his tenure as governor, Fashola recorded legions of achievements in several areas including provision of affordable housing for the people through the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme who makes the law ought not to be seen breaking. Fashola was the first governor of Lagos State to reject the use of siren. As he argued, only ambulances, Fire Brigade vehicles and men and women of the Police Force who were on emergency mission need them. He also often insisted that at no time should any of the drivers in his convoy conduct himself in any way that could engender panic or fright in other road users. Fashola made punctuality at State Executive Council meetings mandatory for himself and other members. He wanted the people of Lagos State to imbibe the habit of voluntary compliance with the law and he made himself the epitome of what he preached. Almost from his very first day in office, Fashola working with his team strove to change people’s attitude towards the payment of tax. In a speech delivered at a stakeholders’ forum on taxation in December 2007, he made clear his belief that the purpose of any government, “indeed its most legitimate reason for being there, is to secure the greatest good for the greatest number,” and he noted the readiness of his administration to take on the challenge and indeed “make a difference.” Having admitted this however, Fashola was quick to add that an administration could only fulfill this obligation if it has the means. Public goods and services, as he went on to say, can only be procured with money or such other valuable means. Because such means are often scarce, governments all over the ages have always relied on money generated through tax to fund its activities and also carry out its duties towards the citizens. “Were it not for taxes,” Governor Fashola says, “there would be no governments, no law and order, no security and no public facilities.” He quoted Franklin D. Roosevelt, the former President of America who once contended that “taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organised society.” While regarding tax evasion as a crime, Fashola’s oft underscored position was that it should be possible to make people and corporate organisations take tax payment as an obligation and a duty; and in such a way that they will voluntarily comply with the regulations governing taxation. To this end, he regularly hosted what was termed the Stakeholders’ Forum on Taxation. In his addresses at these annual meetings, Fashola always travelled back to elaborate on the history of taxation, and also often gives examples of what obtains in other parts of the world. Additionally, through Quarterly Budget report meetings, Town Hall meetings on Security , Stakeholder consultations and every 100 Days through an account of stewardship rendering event which at different times targeted public servants, artisans , diplomats , the business community, political leaders and the general public among others he would lay bare before them the situation with their own government . Indeed, certain that the citizens would play their role in the social contract, the administration was able to conceive and initiate major infrastructural projects making use of long

term facilities which the flow of taxes would not have made possible. Fashola was also concerned about the reality of incessant flooding in the state. While conceding that this reality has to do largely with the fact that Lagos naturally is a low land, the former governor would be quick to add that the situation has been “compounded by widespread acts of citizens’ non- compliance, including dumping of refuse in canals or construction of illegal structures across drainage channels.” As usual, Fashola’s initial reaction was practical. He approved along with his team that drainage channels be constructed in areas of the state that are prone to incessant flooding. Old ones were also to be dredged and cleared regularly. While his government remained dedicated to the job of constructing and clearing drainages as a measure of checking flooding, Babatunde Fashola was still of the conviction that influencing the minds of the people remains equally important. Because of this, sustained campaign against dumping of refuse. Again, as Fashola declared in his second inaugural speech, Lagosians must, “in the same manner that Europeans prepare for winter by heating and changing to warm clothing, (we need to) begin to deliberately and methodically prepare for the rainy season. We must utilise the dry season, when there is no flooding, to launch a massive campaign for active community involvement across the state in the clearance of all water flow channels so that the onset of rains no longer takes us by surprise.” During his tenure, several relaxation/recreational parks were constructed, trees and flowers planted and open spaces, verges and medians beautified. Governor Fashola was very vocal in articulating the objectives of the programme, not least of which being the way it improves the aesthetic appeal of the environment and helps mitigate the effect of green gas emission. Babatunde Fashola also listed as part of the benefits of the project the fact that it stimulates the market for seedlings, fertilizers, as well as simple agricultural tools and implements. During his tenure as governor, Fashola recorded legions of achievements in several areas including provision of affordable housing for the people through the Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme, construction of roads, the daring commencement of the Lagos Light Rail Project, development of public transportation system and the waterways, the waging of war against crime, etc. In concluding this piece, I need to make it clear that my intention is not to suggest that Fashola’s government has been perfect. Actually, the administration had its fair share of challenges either due to a misunderstanding or outright misrepresentation of some of its policies and programmes but it never ceased communicating with the people whose confidence the administration earned and never took for granted. It also earned its fair share of accolades both locally and internationally on several fronts as a model from Waste Management to Taxation , Security , Transportation , Public Health (remember Ebola) and general good governance. Has the administration solved all the problem ? No, it’s not possible as no government can solve the entire problem. This, in my view is normal, and Fashola himself realises that he is not infallible and he would be the first to acknowledge that having to take decisions for 18 hours daily for eight years was not a tea party. At this point, I think what is left for me is to congratulate my boss, Babatunde Fashola on his birthday. Many happy returns of the day. •Bello is Special Adviser on Media to the former governor

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

Politics

‘Buhari and Saraki will work together’ C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 3 3

Some people are against the provision of financial bailout for states going though fiscal crisis now because they believe governors have mismanaged their resources. What is your position? Reading through the papers the domestic debts of the states run into billions of naira while that of the Federal Government is into trillions. So would you say that the Federal Government owes that much because it has mismanaged resources? No doubt that one or to states have mismanaged their resources but I think it will be unfair to say that all states have mismanaged their resources and that is why they are in this dire situation. At least I know for my state, Kwara. I’ve told whoever cares to listen that I doubt if you can find many governors or people who know how to manage public sector finance better than Governor AbdulFatah Ahmed. Right from the time he was commissioner for finance I’ve always known that. So if Kwara is finding itself in a financial situation like this then it is definitely not because of financial mismanagement; I can tell you that for sure because I know the person in charge understands financial management better than many people. I think we have found ourselves in a situation and I don’t think we should be looking for whom to blame. And the governors, from what I read, are not asking for bailout per se. One of the things they are asking for is that let all remittances be made into the Federation Account as required by the constitution. That is not too much to ask for. They are saying let the Federal Government pay all the outstanding as a result of federal projects that were executed by the various states. That too is not too much to ask fort and if you look at the response of the President they are saying the same thing. It is too simplistic to just blame the governors. We should look at the source when things like this happen. We have walked through this before. In 1983 when Buhari came on board, unfortunately it was the same scenario that Nigeria was. It is his destiny again to come some 33 years later and find the same situation or even worse. Do you see a Greece scenario coming up in Nigeria? No. Nigeria will never get to that level. You see the Nigerian economy is so robust and it lies on not only because we are an oil producing country. The private sector in Nigeria is very strong; the financial sector is still very strong. Last year when the Federal Government did the rebasing of the GDP, that positioned us as still the number one economy on the African continent. That counts for so much. I think what happened was that we didn’t do some things right. When the oil prices were going up, we ought to have prepared for the volatility. But lack of preparedness exposed us to the shock when the prices climbed down. And that is the major reason that has caused this situation. But we had a finance minister who is supposed to be one of the best in the world? Well, I don’t want to be judgmental. I know Dr. Okonjo Iwealla. I worked with her in the federal cabinet and I think she is very good at what she does. I am not a financial expert so I cannot explain what happened but I know that Okonjo-Iweala is very good at what she does; but she didn’’t take the political decisions. She is a technical person. She would not be the reason that the excess crude account would go down by almost 70 per cent overnight. She couldn’t take such decisions. I think like President Buhari said, the things that happened would need to be investigated and in the next couple of months Nigerians will know what really happened. Have you spoken with former President Goodluck Jonathan since you were sacked as Minister of Sports? No, I have not. And that is because I don’t

pics, Nigeria will win medals and that was what we were working towards. It is a long term thing. It is like educating a child. If we want to revamp the education sector it will take us, given the situation we have found ourselves where we have students who have completed their secondary school but who cannot read. It will take us 10 years minimum of consistent, uninterrupted reform activities to get it back on track.

Abdullahi

think we need to discuss. And now I don’t think we need to raise the issue again. It is over and in the past. Please let’s move on. People speak of cabals around Presidents. What is your understanding of this? I don’t know if there are cabals as people call it but I know that it is human nature that wherever there is power, people will gravitate towards that. When they do, they are not doing that most of the times for altruistic reasons. They are doing so for personal benefits or the ability to be the source of authority or to be at the epicentre of authority. So people tend to run a ring around the ultimate source of authority in any system, hoping that they would be able to exercise power in the process by surrogacy. So I think it is natural and I don’t know if that is what you call cabalism but I don’t think President Buhari is that kind of person that can be… I think he is too selfassured and too clear-headed about what he wants to do with Nigeria. And that is why; forget about all the noise going around, if anyone tells you today that he knows exactly what President Buhari is thinking about, that person is lying to you. It’s only President Buhari that knows what President Buhari wants to do and that is so for a reason. He knows that ultimately he has to take responsibility for his actions and so he can only trust himself for now. When he sets up a government properly he will then begin to delegate some of the authority that Nigerians have given him to some individuals. Even then he is responsible for them because he knows that it was him Nigerians gave their mandate. So I don’t think for a president who has run to be president four times and was able to get it at the fourth attempt I think more than any other person he is aware of the enormity of the historical burden upon him. I don’t think he would just mortgage that to a coupe of people who have other agenda regardless of what you call them. What is your picture of the Nigerian sports sector and the way out? It is an important sector for Nigeria especially since you have a huge population. Sports provide great opportunities for engaging young people. The challenge that we have in the sector is fundamental in the sense that as a country we have not been able to define the parameters for success within the sector. What do we really expect? I said a couple of weeks ago that Nigerians are too fixated on medals for the country. Countries that have developed sports did not get to the level they have achieved just because they want to win

trophies. What they have done is to build the system that allows young people to participate in sports. The more young people you have playing sports, the higher the chances you have for discovering real talents. Then because you are not under pressure to win trophies overnight, you are able to build a system that nurtures those athletes over the years. It doesn’t happen overnight. If you enrol an eight year old child in a sport it will probably take you 10 years to get him to participate at the elite level. But here we are; we don’t even have the basic structure for developing athletes. We just gather athletes that we think can win, then miracles happen like that of Chioma Ajunwa in 1996 and then we say we have arrived. No we haven’t. When we won the AFCON in 2013 in South Africa and everybody was celebrating that we had arrived, even though I was very proud of that achievement but I knew that was not the destination. It took us about 19 years to win the AFCON after 1994 and I said then that God forbid that it takes another 19 years again before we win it. And I wasn’t being prophetic when I said that but look at it that we didn’t even qualify for the next edition after that win. I knew what we did; we gave everything the country needed to win that but I knew that despite our victory we had to go back to work. We have to build the entire system, if we are to win consistently. And we started along that line before I left office and everything went back to zero. I think we are even now in a more complicated situation than even before I got there. Now a lot of things have been dismantled but I think it is not impossible to fix. Whoever has the responsibility now I think there are still people in that National Sports Commission that know what to be done. It is one sector you cannot come to command and control. But we need a serious reorientation. When we came back from London Olympics I knew we had a lot to do. We are facing Brazil in 2016 and I will be surprised if we win anything in Brazil 2016. I don’t think we have done any work. Because the work we needed to do was very clear and I set it out before the Federal Executive Council when we came back from London that this is what other countries that are winning medals are doing and unless we do the same thing we will continue to have this sorry situation. How much of those things we need to do have we done? Even if we did all those things, they still do not guarantee that Brazil 2016 will return medals. But one thing I was absolutely sure of is that if we did those things if we don’t win medals in Brazil, then I can guarantee that 2020 Olym-

Imagine you have the privilege to pick between Ministry of Sports and Education to lead as minister, which would be your choice now? That is hypothetical because President doesn’t call people to choose. I think in the context of where we have found ourselves today both sectors are very important. The sports sector is very important in the sense that apart from the public relations benefits that it has for Nigeria, it is a huge market; only that we have not able to build it and encourage funding to come into the system. When the sports sector is fully developed, the Federal Government’s financial involvement will actually be very minimal. The private sector will be able to undertake the funding because they also have values coming to them from the sector through their brands. But because of the way we have managed the sector the appetite for involvement by the private sector is very low. I don’t blame them because they are in business to make profit. If you give them value, they will buy it. I have also practised in the education sector in Kwara and my experience shows that if Nigeria has one big problem today apart from Boko Haram, the problem is in the education sector. I think it will not be an exaggeration to say that the sector is in a mess. Nigeria is one of the few countries in the world today where parents got better education than their children. It is not natural. So you find out that those who are getting educated today are children of the elites; I am not talking of those who are attending schools because we have more people attending schools today than at any point in our history. In fact we are spending money on education more than we have done at any point in our history. But the question is what are we spending that money on, what are kind of result are we expecting? Are we getting those results? As long as we have 10-year old in our primary schools who are not able to read, then we are not meeting our primary objectives. The implication for society is very huge and so o think the challenge before President Buhari in that sector is massive and it requires a lot of all creative thinking, hands on solutions. You cannot have quality secondary education if you don’t have quality primary education. That is why it is a long term endeavour. And you cannot have quality primary education unless you have quality teaching. It is not about classrooms and furniture though they are important. The big issue is the quality of teaching and the quality of teachers. If you are not able to improve on the two you cannot have quality primary education. And unfortunately this is the area we have problems in this country. How do we turn people who are currently in the teaching service into effective teachers? How do we attract good, competent people to take on teaching as a profession? What implications does it have for the colleges of education where we produce our teachers? What is that thing Nigerians don’t know about you? What I think people will be surprised to know about me is that I like to tell jokes a lot. I like to play a lot; I like to laugh a lot. I think if I take a job in the stand-up comedy business, of course I will need some years of training under Ali Baba, but I will do well. That is what people don’t know. Most of the time people see this stern looking, serious man; yes I am all those but when I am not working the place I want to be is with my family and they will tell you that I am the comedian of the house.

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Politics

Buhari’s 45 minutes banter with correspondents Villa Notes emmyanule@yahoo.com

Anule Emmanuel

resident Muhammadu Buhari last Monday finally resumed official duties at the Oval Office at the presidential villa alongside Vice-President Professor Yemi Osinbajo. The duo had earlier operated from the Defence House for about three weeks to allow for a comprehensive renovation of their offices and residential apartments. Interestingly, on resumption of duty at the Oval Office, one of the first assignments which President Buhari performed inside the presidential villa was the hosting of State House Correspondents, a very unusual thing at the seat of power. Day-to-day interactions between correspondents and the President here had in the last several years been almost nonexistent. However, like in other democracies especially the United States, unofficial interactions between the President and reporters in the presidency at least once a year have become a tradition which provides a rare opportunity for memorable interface. Because of the crucial role the media play in bringing the President to the public, one of the most important relationships a President has is with media practitioners and organisations. In fact, US President Barrack Obama once noted at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner which for many years has become an annual ritual that “de-

spite our differences, we count on the press to shed light on the most important issues of the day.” Only a few chief executives, however, understand this. Considering his antecedent as someone who had a sour relationship with the press as a military dictator, no member of the press corps expected a quick meet with the President Buhari. Maybe, as a democratically elected leader, he is now a changed person, ready to make new friends in the media. One could see his friendly countenance as he arrived at the briefing room in company of a few aides to meet press corps members. Every member of the corps had on the previous day been hinted about the meeting. We came waiting but like ‘Thomases’, not sure the event would hold. “This is the result you get when a principal engages the services of a thorough-bred professional as a media aide,” some members of the press conversed as the President walked

When it was my turn for the handshake with him, I introduced myself as New Telegraph’s correspondent. The President replied: ‘Ok, Orji Kalu, you guys are quite new, but you are doing great’

into the room. As easy as it appeared, getting the President to have one-on-one with journalists in the villa, some media aides could not do it. We could understand the busy schedule of his office. Mr. President was brief, having just resumed with so many things on his table to handle. As he spoke, it became clear too that he was at home with his media aides, Mr. Femi Adesina and Mallam Garba Shehu, a reason they could get him within a short time to interact with reporters in the presidency. Indeed, his first point of call. “It is not by accident that I appointed Mr. Adesina, a former President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors as my Special Adviser on Media and Publicity. I got one of the best of you to be the Special Adviser, one of the 15 aides I had to get clearance for from the Senate,” the President said while he tried to explain the rationale for his early meeting. “He is one of the best Presidents of the guild that I can have as special adviser. I brought one of the best of you so that he can consistently defend me against you. Whether my job is a difficult one or easy is up to him, but I’m here to thank you in advance for what good and ill you are going to do to me.” In what seemed to be a subtle warning to the correspondents, however, President Buhari said he wished the frosty relationship between the press corps and the immediate past government towards the end of President Goodluck Jonathan’s tenure never repeated itself during his time. Jonathan’s security details at some point sent one of the correspondents out of the villa for asking a visiting President a question that was perceived too sensitive by government.

When it was time for presidential handshake, President BuharI threw jokes with every correspondent stirring up an extended hilarious scene without the usual tension that exists among decision makers and those who hold them accountable (the media). It also appeared that the President has some fair grip of the media world at least in the country. Hear him out while he chats with some of us. “My name is George Agba, a reporter with Leadership Newspaper, replies the President- “Oh, I have told your publisher that he should tell his cartoonist, each time he makes a cartoon of me, my neck is usually too long,” (there is loud laughter). When it was my turn, I also introduced myself as New Telegraph correspondent. He replied: “Ok, Orji Kalu, you guys are quite new, but you are doing great.” To the Guardian reporter, he simply said “Great Guardian” while to the Tribune newspaper correspondent, President Buhari said “You people have been very consistent.” To BusinessDay, one of the few financial newspapers in the country, the President asked Elizabeth “you people do a lot of marketing? The interaction with others as well: My name is Kabiru Yusuf with Radio France, “I have met you before,” the President replied in Hausa and to the Vanguard correspondent, he noted, “Oh, Uncle Sam, how is he?” During the 45 minutes he shared with correspondents, President Buhari was not only humourous, but also displayed awesome understanding of media ownership and principles. In the weeks and months ahead, such close interactions are expected between him, his media aides and correspondents in the discharge of our duties.

When Saraki slashed N’Assembly budget From the

Red Chamber chukwudavid68@yahoo.com

Chukwu David

he Senate on Wednesday June 25, 2015, adjourned plenary to July 21, commencing approximately a one-month recess. However, before the adjournment, some critical and far reaching decisions and actions were taken by the Upper Chamber. One of such actions was the formal announcement by the President of the Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, of three out of the four principal officers as nominated by the zonal caucuses of the All Progressives Congress in the Senate. Senator Saraki announced Senators Ali Ndume (Borno South) and Bala Ibn Na’Allah (Kebbi South) as the Leader and the Deputy Leader of the Senate respectively. He also announced the Senator representing Edo North, Francis Alimikhena, as the Deputy Chief Whip of the Senate. This was in spite of the fact that Senator Alimikhena was elected to the Upper Chamber for the first time. His case actually violated the ranking rule in the Senate but it was the wish of the South-South APC Senate Caucus. Apart from being the wish of the zone where he comes from, it is the opinion of the majority that it is in tandem with the wind of change, which is still blowing within the nation’s political environment. The argument is that, if the change which Nigerians clamoured and voted for must go beyond the theoretical frame and come to the realm of empirical reality, everybody in the system should be willing and ready to jettison the old, rigid ways of doing things. Therefore, the idea of one man or group of individuals dictating against the will of the people should be thrown into the trash can of the prevailing change in the country. Nigerians are worried that some politicians are still not

Saraki

ready to embrace the change that swept across the nation’s political landscape recently. Such people with this old mentality want to dictate the pace in the political affairs of the nation. They want to remain as political godfathers. This is in fact, one of the things that would not allow the current National Assembly to progress at the anticipated speed since its inauguration. The emergence of the principal officers in the Senate, for instance, was supposed to have immediately followed the election of the presiding officers--the President and the Deputy President of the Senate - on June 9, 2015 but the disagreement between the leadership of the party and some members of the party, particularly those in the Saraki and Senator Ahmad Lawan camps, delayed the exercise for two weeks. The tussle for the Senate Presidency between the two parallel camps was fierce and irreconcilable. While the Lawan’s group operating

under the auspices of the Senate Unity Forum, was backed by the leadership of the APC, the Saraki group, working in the name “the Like Minds Senators,” were at loggerheads with the party but enjoyed the sympathy and support of the ordinary Nigerians, who felt that the party was moving contrary to the change mantra, which brought about the defeat of the Peoples Democratic Party and enthronement of the APC in the 2015 general elections. In addition to announcing the principal officers, the Senate also constituted two ad hoc committees namely: Finance Committee and Committee on Legislative Agenda. The President of the Senate earlier announced the members of the two committees. The one month break of the Senate was, however, meant to give the committees time to conclude their assignment and submit their reports before resumption. The two committees were given one-week each to submit their reports to the Senate.

The recess notwithstanding, the Senate assured that it would reconvene at any time before the adjourned date to consider any matter of urgent national importance or to attend to any national assignment requiring its attention. It is on record that this was the first time the Upper Chamber was setting up an Ad hoc Committee on Finance to review its own salaries, allowances, and the overhead cost of running the Senate with a view to realigning them to reflect the present economic realities in the country. The National Assembly had earlier slashed its 2015 budget to N120billion from N150billion as a result of dwindling Federal Government’s revenue. The cut was part of the National Assembly’s belt-tightening measures in view of the current downward economic trend in the country. The subject of reduction in cost of governance has been in the front burner of national discourse for a long time because of its extremely sensitive nature. Most Nigerians believe that those who manage the resources of the country are wasteful, and there is need to put the situation under serious check. The President of the Senate, while inaugurating the Committee on Finance on Thursday, gave an indication that the current Senate under his administration, would do everything within its powers to work towards actualising the yearnings, wishes and aspirations of the people of the country by engineering good governance in the polity. He said, “the Eighth Senate under our watch recognises the concerns raised by Nigerians about the cost of running office most especially with the economic challenges facing our nation. The Senate will be more transparent regarding all public funds spent for the purpose of paying salaries and allowances of legislators and ensure that distinction is sufficiently made between what a legislator actually earns and what is spent to run and implement legislative business and committee activities. The watchword in our financial issues will be “fiscal conservatism”.

Life SUNDAY

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Grounded by mad cow, victim seeks help

Daniel

Yekeen Nurudeen

L Abuja

ike every other boy of his age, Daniel Imo Emori was full of ambition after his final examination at the Senior Secondary School level. Even, when financial difficulty posed a stumbling block to his dream of furthering his education, he took his destiny in his own hands. At 21, he was employed as a machine operator in a plastic company in Onitsha, Anambra State but his quest for greener pastures prompted him to quit the job. He sponsored himself to a driving school and graduated. Luck smiled on him when almost immediately after completing his driving school training, he secured a job as a delivery van driver with a pharmaceutical company. Alas! His dreams were cut short and shattered when in the line of duty he was knocked down by a mad cow and suffered what was later discovered to be cervical injury. Welcome to the pathetic world of Daniel, a 33 year old man from Adadama Community in Abi Local Government Area of Cross River State who has been bedridden for 11 years. If he remains that way by October 10 this year, it will be 12 years since his life story changed for the worse.

A f te r the medical examination, they now requested for N1.2 million for surgery. The pastor paid it and the operation was carried out. After I was discharged the doctor recommended a followup. He also said I would be going for physiotherapy and other treatments. It was then the pastor said he didn’t have such money A conversation on telephone would not suggest that Daniel who now hopes in God to use his limbs again is bedridden. A meeting in his one-room apartment with his assistant, Nicholas at Dusten Makaranta, a suburb of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja was quite revealing and emotional. Daniel, who is the fifth in the family of eight, was lying face up and unable to turn either

way when Sunday Telegraph paid him a visit in his small room. Though he managed a smile, our correspondent could see that he was really in need of ugrnet help. It was actually Nicholas who was waiting by the road side to usher in this correspondent into the apartment rented by a good Samaritan, Rev. Charles Nonso Asiedu. The Good Samaritan is a senior pastor at Lifelink World Outreach Ministry International in Lagos. Asiedu, who came across Daniel’s story on Facebook through the efforts of another journalist, had moved him to Abuja for proper medical treatment last year. Taking up the narration, Daniel said: “It was after my SSCE in 2000 that I travelled to Onitsha in search of greener pastures. I was employed in a plastic company as a machine operator. But after two years the company’s work was not that conducive so I saved some money and went to a driving school. It was after the training that I was employed by one pharmaceutical company, Rico by name. “On October 10, 2003 as I was going about my official duty as a delivery van driver. I was supplying our products to various customers. I parked my vehicle in front of the customer’s shop to offload the goods. I was alighting from the vehicle without knowing that a stray cow was running at full speed

in my direction. It hit me with its horns and left me in this condition. “At that moment I was first rushed to a nearby clinic and the following day I was taken to the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital, Enugu. After some medical examinations, they found that I had an internal injury in my neck and spinal cord. The medical report also mentioned cervical injury. They requested the payment of an emergency fee of N75,000 before treatment. So it was when we could not afford the emergency fee after four months that I was discharged. Since then, I have been at home. “In 2013, I was chatting on Facebook I got in touch with a journalist and as we were chatting I told him my condition and situation. I asked him to publish my story. He started sharing it on his Facebook page and in the process one pastor from Delta State saw the post. “They interacted and the pastor was convinced that what he posted on Facebook was true. He came to Calabar and located my village in January 2014. In February last year the pastor brought me to Abuja and I was taken to one Indian hospital at Karu, Primus Hospital. On arrival at the hospital, they requested for a deposit of N450,000. After that, they requested for N200,000 for a medical examination and he paid it. “After the medical examination, they now requested for N1.2 million for surgery. The pastor paid it and the operation was carried out. After I was discharged the doctor recommended a followup. He also said I would be going for physiotherapy and other treatments. It was then the pastor said he didn’t have such money.” Daniel said he was then referred me to a physiotherapy clinic in Wuse, Abuja known as Optimal Centre. It was in the process of their own examination that they discovered that both my limbs were stiff due to the prolonged time he had been bedridden. “They said the total solution would be limbs replacement. They then consulted an Indian hospital which gave them a bill of about $4,350. This is approximately N9 million and the pastor said he doesn’t have such money. I’m appealing to Nigerians for help. As you can see, my two legs are stiff, I can’t move them,” he stated. What about the pharmaceutical company? He said that at that time there was no means of communication. He said he was with his mother in the hospital and after about two three months, nothing was done. His elder brother visited the company at Onitsha and the director brought out a list of the money they had sent through one of the managers, which didn’t reach him in the hospital. “Currently, I’m 33 years old. I was 21 when I had the accident. My mother is alive but she is ageing. My father died June 12, 2009. The pastor paid for my accommodation and also pays this young man monthly to take care of me. It is only my head that is not 100 per cent affected but from my neck down is paralysed. I can’t fold my hands. I can’t sit down and I cannot turn,” he added. He has been refereed to a specialist hospital in India, Saket City Hospital, to undergo five different levels of treatment. Specifically, Daniel who is full of hope that he will walk with his legs again, needs general body examination and evaluation, infection control for the urethra and pressure sores, plastic surgery, complete knee replacement and osteoporosis management. He looks up to well meaning Nigerians to help him to raise the fund so that he can fulfill his dream in life. His account details are Daniel Imo Emori Fidelity Bank 6160829205 or First Bank 3045515111. While he can be reached on 08098929156 and 08086387108.

Sunday Telegraph,, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Life

Two ex-Georgia deputies indicted in jail death of Nigerian student

Ajibade

wo former Chatham County, Georgia, deputies and one other person have been indicted in the death of Matthew Ajibade, a 21-year-old Nigerian student who died in an isolation jail cell in Savannah on New Year’s Day.

Ajibade’s death was ruled a homicide by Chatham County Coroner William Wessinger, who stressed that homicide means only that another person is involved. The Cable Network News (CNN) quoted Wessinger as saying: “It is not tantamount to murder, though it includes murder.” Two of the nine, Maxine Evans and Jason Kenny, were charged with involuntary manslaughter. Kenny was also charged with aggravated assault and cruelty to an inmate. Evans faces an additional charge of public records fraud. She’s accused of falsifying a restraint chair log, a document that logs the times a restrained inmate is monitored. Gregory Brown, who was a contract health care worker, is facing involuntary manslaughter and public record fraud as well. The jury did not find evidence to indict the three on murder charges. According to the autopsy report, Ajibade died from “blunt force trauma ... a combination of abrasions, lacerations, skin injuries about the head and some other areas of the body.” Ajibade “became combative” dur-

Family members have questioned the allegations, claiming Ajibade was a much-loved “geeky kid” who traveled to Savannah to study computer science. The 21-year-old was diagnosed with bipolar disorder three years ago and was having a medical emergency at the time of his arrest and confinement, according to the family’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, who is also a CNN legal analyst

ing the booking process, according to the Sheriff’s Office booking report. Authorities alleged three deputies were injured by Ajibade during a jail altercation, including a woman sergeant who suffered a concussion and a broken nose. Family members have questioned the allegations, claiming Ajibade was a much-loved “geeky kid” who traveled to Savannah to study computer science. The 21-year-old was diagnosed with bipolar disorder three years ago and was having a medical emergency at the time of his arrest and confinement, according to the family’s attorney, Mark O’Mara, who is also a CNN legal analyst. Ajibade was arrested on January 1 after Savannah police received a domestic disturbance call.

Ajibade was holding a woman under a blanket when police arrived, according to an incident report. Once uncovered, the woman’s face was found to be bruised and her nose bleeding, the report says. Ajibade refused to release the woman when ordered to do so by police. When police tried to arrest him, the report says he resisted in a “ violent manner.” He was accused of domestic violence, battery and obstruction of an officer. A woman whom he identified as his girlfriend tried to inform police of his mental health issues, O’Mara said. “She also gave police a bottle of his medication,” the attorney said. Officials said Ajibade had to be restrained once he was taken to the jail. It was during that time, they say, he

injured the three officers. He was then moved to an isolation cell because of his “dangerous behavior,” a police news release said. Deputies said they conducted welfare checks on Ajibade and on their second check, he was found nonresponsive, police said. He was given first aid by the jail’s medical unit staff. Ajibade could not be revived despite CPR and attempts to restart his heart with a defibrillator, according to the news release. There’s no indication of how much of the event, if any, was captured on the jail’s surveillance system or whether officers conducted a mental health evaluation before Ajibade’s death. The Sheriff’s Office requested that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation conduct an independent investigation. The Chatham County District Attorney’s office opened a criminal investigation into the case, which resulted in Wednesday’s indictments.

A woman whom he identified as his girlfriend tried to inform police of his mental health issues, O’Mara said. “She also gave police a bottle of his medication,” the attorney said

Simple & feminine This is the look for the girl who loves flirty dresses, tiny jewelry and looking casual smart all the time. If you think chiffon and flirty is not for office, think again. It’s all about the hem. Wear knee-length or overthe-knee dresses or skirts in any colour or print, cinged at the waist with a belt, paired with smart blazers. Shoes wise, heels look better but you can also don ballet flats.

Sophisticated This office wear is easy to assemble but it needs creativity. So experiment and have fun with clothes. Always wear at least one statement piece -use a classy look for a start base and then add items to suit your personality, job and the office environment. Men inspired looks with super sexy heels, classy pencil skirts, prints, leather –it’s about styling and making them work.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Body&Soul

Healthy, handsome skin Vanessa Okwara

f you are the type that gets up in the morning, wash your face with bar soap and water and run out the door, then it’s time to step up your skincare game. The daily shaving ritual that men undergo aggravates the skin, creating razor bumps which increase dryness and reduce the skin’s natural protection. Also, men especially outdoor men - tend to expose their skin to a damaging conditions including sun, wind, water, salt, chemicals, cuts, scratches, and grazes. A man’s skin says a lot about

him. As it turns out, men need skincare just as much as women. One of the best things a man can do to maintain a youthful appearance is to take good care of his skin from a young age. A man’s skin needs a natural men’s skincare range -a range which reduces dryness and irritation, replenishes natural defenses, enhances skin rejuvenation, and makes his skin all the more touchable. So start your day with good skin care routine for that flawless skin that will get the ladies to notice your good looks. It’s a fuss free way towards healthy, handsome skin. Do lather up As for everyone else, daily skin care for men involves cleansing and moisturising. Harsh soaps and frequent use of hot water for long baths and showers can remove too much oil from your skin. A splash of cold water does more than wake you up. Use a good soap with glycolic acid, both in the morning and before bed. For a deeper clean that also stimulates the growth of new skin cells, wash with an exfoliating scrub once or twice a week. A good cleanse helps slough away dead skin cells that stick together and make your face look dull.

Don’t skip the moisturiser This is where a lot of men make the mistake in taking care of their skin. They think using a cream for their skin is more of a woman’s thing. Moisturisers can make a world of difference in the appearance of a man’s skin. Moisturising daily will get you soft, kissable skin. Choose a moisturiser that contains SPF to help protect you from ordinary exposure to the sun’s damaging rays.

Make after-shave your new best friend After-shave hydrates and soothes the skin; it also seals in the skin after a nice shave. Your after-shave should be alcohol-free because alcohol dries your skin.

Stop buying cheap razors

Do load up on fruits, veggies and exercise regularly Eat a balanced diet and stay active. Up your intake of fruits and vegetables and avoid greasy fried foods. Exercising clears your pores and increases your metabolism and sweating cleanses your inner body. Stay hydrated Drink plenty of water daily to keep your skin hydrated. If you consume liqueur, beverages or soft drinks, increase your water intake to keep yourself from being dehydrated.

A quality razor can be a lifetime item, so choose your weapon wisely. Choose a razor that suits your skin sensitivity and beard coarseness and your face will thank you. A moisturising shaving gel is important to provide a barrier of protection while shaving, so slather that on. Shave in the shower or immediately afterwards, as the facial hairs are much softer from the warm water and steam.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Body&Soul

Assumptions are toxic to relationships

elly has been nursing this feeling that something was not just right in her relationship with Kenny for a while now. In fact, the thought came to her again this weekend when she was at his house. He seemed so distracted and she hates not being the centre of his attention. Since she didn’t want them to quarrel, she let it slide and assumed his attitude to be one of those mood swings that will go away with time, but yet it persisted. A week later, she visited him again at home and the door was opened by a pretty lady in bum shorts. Untold jealousy riled up in her so much that she couldn’t control her fierce outburst. She demanded on top of her voice from the bewildered lady what she was doing at her boyfriend’s house. Kenny must have heard the commotion in his sitting room. He rushed out from the bathroom clad only in towel and soapy water from his body dripped all over his beautiful Persian rug. “What is the matter, Nelly, and why are you screaming on top of your voice?” Nelly quickly pounced on him with anger. “Who is this lady and what is she doing in your house? Is she the reason you have been giving me cold shoulders for some time now? “ Kenny couldn’t believe what he was hearing from his girlfriend. “What nonsense are you talking about? This is my sister I told you lived in London. She just came back to the country yesterday and she would be staying with me for a while until she finds a place of her own. I’ve been distracted lately with all the arrangements for her return and ensuring her luggage arrive

CONNECT NG vanessaonsunday@yahoo.com safely. I’m really surprised you could accuse me of bringing another woman into my home while still dating you. It shows you don’t trust me at all!” He said with a sad look on his face. Nelly felt so embarrassed and wished the ground would open and swallow her up right at that moment. She started apologising to both Kenny and his sister but unfortunately the damage had already been done. They accepted her apology but she knew within her that this would definitely affect the wonderful relationship she had with Kenneth. How could she make this kind of blunder by assuming things that were not

Rather than misinterpret, perceive, or guess what your partner is up to, simply share your inner experience and ask questions. Don’t jump to conclusions or suspect without attendant proofs

there especially as he had never given her any reason to doubt him before? Would she be able to mend this relationship and bring back the love and trust that existed previously between them? Basically, an assumption is something you believe in of which you don’t have proof. The problem with making assumptions is that we almost always assume the negative. Too often, we jump to a conclusion that is not only wrong, but also often hurtful. When you begin to assume that your partner should know exactly what you are thinking or how you feel about a particular situation, you have started building an impossible bridge for him/her to cross. This is because the mind is like a personal sling bag; everyone is saddled with theirs all though life. You will need to be a soothsayer (or a witch) to discern exactly what your partner is thinking about at this very moment unless they let you into their thoughts. Making assumptions in relationship lead to lots of fights, difficulties and misunderstandings that could’ve been avoided if only you made an effort to get to the root of the matter before blowing your lid. What leads to toxicity is when people take these assump-

tions and run with them. They’d rather believe the hearsay or rather believe their own thoughts than the realities on ground. Assumptions feed on your insecurities about your partner and this will invariably have a negative effect on the relationship. Rather than misinterpret, perceive, or guess what your partner is up to, simply share your inner experience and ask questions. Don’t jump to conclusions or suspect without attendant proofs. No one likes that and it’s simply an unfair judgment, especially if you are completely wrong about the case. It’s best to listen attentively, and do not speak until you’ve heard the whole story. Being impatient and frustrated surely does not help matters. When it comes to the behaviours of others, remember that you truly do NOT know what’s going on in their head, even when you are “sure” you do. If you’re assuming something about someone in your life, at least give him or her courtesy of checking out your assumptions. Instead of assuming, check your assumptions out by asking the person directly what they meant or why they did what they did. This move could save you a lot of hurt. The worst that can happen is that they tell you you’re right—in which case it’s no longer an assumption, but a fact. Next time those assumptions enter your mind, rather than running off with them like a roller coaster and coming to all manner of conclusion-both imaginative and tactless-make room for a different story and check it out with the other person. You may just be pleasantly surprised. •Send your views to the email above!

America through eyes of Ebute Metta boy

s a lover of reading, one of the best news you can have is that of the release of a good book. Now, that news gets better if you know that somehow, you witnessed elements of the contents unfold. That is how best to describe my feeling last week when a childhood friend and one of Ohio’s leading attorney, Emmanuel Olawale, informed me of the release of his book, ‘Flavor of Favor: Quest for the American Dream’. The book is a memoir of his sojourn from the dusty streets of Ebute Metta, through the rough and tumble of our time at Jibril Martins Memorial Grammar School, to finally landing the dream in America. In all, this is a book about the hard road to success and the rewards of endurance and perseverance. I have read excerpts, and through lucid and lyrical prose, Bolaji (as we his classmates refer to him), has provided details of how sometimes, the dream that people see is most times preceded by some unpleasant experiences. I recommend this book to anyone thinking the roads of America, and indeed any western country is paved with gold; guess again. Gold you can find, but after you pass through the grit of hard work. One of the excerpts I have read actually described a crazy day in his life. He lost three jobs in one day while struggling to pay his way through school. His description of that experience reminds me of the Yoruba proverb, ‘Isale Oro o l’egbin (the root of all genuine wealth is filled with unpleasantness). To be able to achieve the wealth, you just must be

willing to weather the storm, with your eyes focused on the prize, the dream that is driving you;. For some reason, I am experiencing a vicarious pride in the release of this book. I am having the same feeling I had in 2002 with the release of my books. Like I said, it is his memoir and so I played a small role in the book. I also feel a sense of justification in the choice of my friends back in the day. Perhaps, a personal anecdote will be appropriate here. In our final year at school, a group of us in Press Club were simply a thorn in the flesh of the administrators. We were not just trouble makers, we stood on the side of truth at all times and with the pen, we had the strongest weapon. Emmanuel Bolaji Olawale wrote an article ‘Library Turning Into Supermarket,’ an exposé on the gross misconduct being perpetuated by the librarian who engaged in selling goodies to student rather than helping them with books needed for their educational advancement. All hell was let loose on the school and we knew we were on borrowed time. Soon after, I wrote another article and that was

the death knell for the club. We all stayed together though and suffered together. I am happy that today, with the release of Bolaji’s book, we can look back and say ‘we have been vindicated.’ However, this still remains Bolaji’s story and I do not want to take it away from him. As a friends, I also know he has been supportive to a

I am staking my reputation on this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it to all those thinking of risking everything for life in the Diaspora. All that glitters is not gold

core of those from our era and he enjoys his current job as an attorney so much that all you need do is visit his Facebook profile to know the sense of pride that he has in his calling. Yes, those rabble rousing hoodlums of JMMGS, the kids from Ebute Metta, a rundown part of Lagos that hardly gets the attention of those in power are making waves on a global scale and I am letting the world know that with hard work, the sky is the limit for anyone. No dream is too big and no dreamer too small. I am staking my reputation on this book and I wholeheartedly recommend it to all those thinking of risking everything for life in the Diaspora. All that glitters is not gold. With the incessant number of migrants perishing at sea on the coast of Italy and in the Mediterranean, a book of this nature may just open their eyes to the reality of life in the Diaspora. Academics, especially those in Development Studies, may also find the book to be an invaluable tool in the assessment of educational and social development in a developing and developed world. Finally, I think this is a book for everyone if only to show the power of human spirit and the ability to rise above challenges. I have ordered a copy and I hope the book, Flavor of Favor: Quest For the American Dream. A memoir, is circulated in Nigeria at some point to help showcase the individuals acting as worthy ambassadors of the Nigeria brand. To Emmanuel Bolaji Olawale, the boy from Ebute Metta and proud alumna of JMMGS, I say well done.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

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Between Gbemi Saraki and Dimeji Bankole G

Governor Mimiko honoured

bemi, daughter of late Turakin of Ilorin, Dr. Olusola Saraki, and former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, sure have a couple of things in common. Aside being silver spoon children, they both at the same time were in the National Assembly, although in different chambers. They have nurtured governorship ambitions at different times. But of course, there is disparity in their ages. While the former senator, Gbem, is 50 years old, Dimeji is in his early forties. While they were both at the National Assembly, they were alleged to be having an affair which neither of them ever denied nor confirmed. Time has gone by with Dimeji who was at that time a bachelor, quitting the singles’ club to marry Olaitan. Those who should be in the know called our attention to the fact that the two are still very much into each other as good allies, and that they ultimately still have each other ’s listening ear. The influence they have on each other is still as potent as ever.

edical doctor-turned-politician and Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, is in the class of politicians who are tactically sound and know their onions. It will be recalled how the governor defied the powers that be in his party years back to contest the governorship election. Emerging as the chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Governors’ Forum recently may have thrown him into the ring of battle as some of the governors elected on the plarty’s platform have kicked against it. However, the governor, who is popularly known as Iroko, has not allowed his political battle steal his joy even as he was, days ago, decorated in Akure. Mimiko was recently was named the grand patron of the most prominent club in Akure, Elan Club. The ceremony was held at Alagbaka area of the Ondo State capital, Akure, with many dignitaries in attendance. The Chief Jide Owolabi-led Elan Club also bestowed an award of recognition on another industrious son of Ondo State, Chief Michael Adeojo of Elizade Motors fame.

Yemisi Sonoiki passes on

section of the business community in Lagos metropolis has been thrown into mourning as one of the major players among highbrow and upscale dealers in women’s apparels, Yemisi Sonoiki of Dress Sense, was recently snatched by death. Yemisi Sonoki as well as her business outfit, Dress Sense, may not ring a bell across the society but certainly not in the fashion world, especially among those who deal in female wears. On the heels of the fact that she knows her onions, Yemisi of Dress Sense became the clear leader with her impressive list of clientele that included top society ladies, wives of big pastors, senior government functionaries as well as top ladies in the corporate world. She started Dress Sense years back and the business had grown gradually to become a place to be at the popular Alade Market in Ikeja before spreading her tentacles by opening a few more branches also in Lagos. One thing that endeared the light skinned lady to many was her extreme humility despite her success. Yemisi, whose last child is just two years old, with her banker husband, had recently moved out of Omole Estate to their newly acquired eye popping home in Lekki. Also, major renovations were done in her outlets to make a new dawn, then she fell ill. She was said to have recuperated and gone ahead to celebrate her 40thbirthday before she was diagnosed with cancer. She swung into action to bring things under control and things were happening the way she wanted and she returned to work. Her health took a turn for the worse and she withdrew into her shell while her younger sister oversaw her business until the unfortunate incident happened. She gave up the ghost in faraway United States where she had gone to seek medical treatment.

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Recognition for Quincy Ayodele buries Kingsley Kuku father in style or Ondo State-born dude, Kingsley

eautiful and amiable lady behind the popular herbal product, Quincy Herbal, Quincy Olasunmbo Ayodele, is considered a Quincy leader as far as the beauty industry is concerned. This she did not achieve by magic but by dint of hard work, steadfastness and consistency. She has been able to raise the bar, thereby courting the high and mighty in the society who are proud to identify with her success story. This role model in her own right was able to bring her influence in high society to the fore recently when she buried her late father in a grand ceremony. On that day, all roads led to Abeokuta, Ogun State, venue of the event. A great number of those to be reckoned with in the society took out time to celebrate the passing away of Quincy’s father. Among respected fellows who graced the occasion were Olori Ladun, the wife of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade, and wife of former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, Bolanle, to mention a few. The deceased, a senior to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo at Baptist Boys High School, Abeokuta, Pa Amos Oluwole Sodimu, died earlier this year.

Kuku, his days in the trenches as a politician have witnessed both low and high moments which he has continually taken in his stride. But his perseverance eventually paid off when luck smiled on him and he was considered for a post many would have loved to have. Kuku may have vacated office but his appointment as the Special Adviser to former President Goodluck Jonathan on Niger Delta Affairs and coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme has given him some leverage. It has thrown him into national consciousness which he’s earnestly building on. His recently vacated office is also seen as a factor which is making him one of the strong contenders seeking to succeed Ondo State Governor, Olusegun Mimiko, when the time comes. Meanwhile, Kuku’s image and profile has not stopped rising even after leaving office, especially as honour at international level has successively trailed him in recent days. Some days back, the 45-year old Kuku was given an honorary citizenship of the United States. While still basking in the euphoria of the good tiding, inspiring news knocked on his door as he has just been inducted a member of Harvard University distinguished Kuku International Economic Alli-

ance, IEA. The induction which took place at Massachusetts, USA had Kuku given the privilege to make a presentation on Global Peace Initiative.

Aisha Wali smiles again

hose who are conversant with happenings on the social scene would recollect what it was like some Aisha Wali years back when Mohammed, the son of former military head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, got married to Aisha, the daughter of an equally prominent and rich Northerner, Senator Aminu Wali, in a classy event. What was expected of the union never came as it neither produced a child nor lasted a lifetime. It’s also not fresh that Aisha and polo loving Mohammed went separate ways when the centre could no longer hold. But if information filtering to Celeb Lounge is anything to by, then there may have been a fresh reason for Aisha to be happy again since she appeared to be the one that lost out in the botched marriage. Although, it cannot be confirmed at the moment but those who should be in the know are saying that Aisha may have found solace in another guy in whom she appears to be pleased.

Unveiling ‘Amuludun of Canada’, Yinka Farinde

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Body&Soul

Thinking

or people who are conversant with the entertainment industry in Canada, especially entertainment rooted in African culture, when the name, Omoniyi Adeyinka Farinde is mentioned, what comes to mind instantly is all-round entertainment. Chief Yinka Farinde as he’s fondly called is a strong force to reckon with in the music industry and the Nigerian community generally in Canada. Born in Osogbo, Osun State, Farinde started his music career at the tender age of 10 as a member of the choir of Okanla Baptist Church in Osogbo. In 1989, Yinka Farinde migrated to Canada where he formed New Horizon Band in 1994, which was subsequently changed to Yinka & the Juju Beats. For over two decades, this man who can be referred to as a multi-talented and all-round entertainer has been promoting multiculturalism in Canada. For his contribution, he was honoured with the chieftaincy title, Amuludun of Canada. He is currently being referred to as the ‘King of Farinde Entertainment in the Country.’ He was the first to start sewing and embroidering African clothes in Canada. He is also the first Nigerian music and video promoter in Canada. Farinde has found great success in Nigeria, Europe and America. Alongside the talking drums and other traditional percussion instruments, he has incorporated western instruments such as guitar, keyboard and the likes into his distinct sound. Farinde expresses his music mostly in Yoruba language with some pidgin English flavour. Beautifully harmonised, the selections include Nigerian folk songs, praise tunes and anecdotal numbers, recounting the day to day activities in Yoruba society. He and his band have performed in many concerts, including the Afro Fest Canada 1999, where Yinka’s first album, IKA KO PE (evil never pays), was nominated for album of the year. In 2007, he released the album ‘Life’ (AIYETOTO) and ‘Appreciation’ in the year 2010.

Niran Odulana’s growing influence

or the benefit of those who may be having difficulty placing his name, Niran Odulana is the first son of Lagos politician, Hon. Bayo Odulana, popularly known as Niganga. After his tenure in the Lagos State House of Assembly, the former cartoonist moved up to the House of Representatives where he represented Ifako/ Ijaiye Federal Constituency. Niganga could not retain his seat based on his feud with APC chieftain, Cardinal James Odumbaku, thereby paving way for Hon. James Faleke. Dark skinned and intelligent Niran, years back, decided to set up a fun spot and that gave birth to his Yaba-based outlet, Roadrunner Lounge. Odulana Though there may

not be so much noise about the lounge, what is certain is that the multimillion naira outfit ranks among the best around. Also, its proprietor has been laughing to the bank because of high patronage. Niran may have chosen a low profile lifestyle but findings revealed he’s a young man who is doing very well and wielding influence on a steady note. His influence, it was learnt, played a factor in his being one of few club owners that went on a foreign tour, courtesy of Jack Daniel recently. The thirty-something-year old, in terms of acquisition, does not lag behind as he rides a brand new Range Rover Sport and lives in a duplex in Oregun which he built not too long ago.

Obaro Ibru regains groove

ith so much money at his disposal, coupled with his good looks, Obaro, one of the sons of billionaire Obaro Ibru businessman, Olorogun Michael Ibru and former boss of defunct Oceanic Bank, Cecilia Ibru, has for many years made a statement on the social scene. Due to his mother’s ordeal in respect of the bank, it was only expected of Obaro to excuse himself from the social radar. This he did; though because of his knack for living life to the fullest, he used to sneak into town to catch fun once in a while. However, with what has been noticed of him in recent times, the fun loving dude may have found his way back to the mainstream of social life as the burden on his mother has been sorted out to a large extent. The light skinned St. Moritz style award winner has been sighted at different places in recent times.

Obasa turns beautiful bride

uccess, they say, has many relatives and friends while failure is an orphan. This saying aptly describes the current situation of member of Lagos State House of Assembly representing Agege Constituency 1, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, who recently emerged as the speaker of the House. The Itori, Ogun State-born fourth time lawmaker, who is believed to be one of the ardent loyalists of All Progressives Congress National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, at the inception of the contest for the exalted seat was not very vocal with his aspiration to lead the hallowed chamber. But those who knew had speculated the pendulum was going to swing in his favour which it did eventually, to the admiration of majority of the house members. Meanwhile, the legal practitioner has since his inauguration as the speaker become the toast of many as well as a man to celebrate and reckon with. Apart from being on top of the list of invitees to social events, he was recently hosted to a gig by his friends to celebrate his new status. The event was held at R & A Hotel on Allen Avenue, Ikeja. Also, Obasa has not ceased to receive notable guests who have been coming to pay homage. Among them is the paramount ruler of his hometown, Itori, the Olu of Itori land, Oba Fatai Akamo. The monarch, who is a former clearing and forwarding agent, was sighted at the office of the speaker some days ago.

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When ‘bushmeat’ catches the hunter (Part 2)

e are in this part of State warned traffic officials to dethe world where those sist from unnecessary arrest and working with govern- detention of vehicles. He advised ment agencies assume them to imbibe more corrective that they are ‘lords’ over fellow measures instead. That was a good citizens. Impunity is the order of step in the right direction. But I the day. For instance, a traffic agent hope the erring officials would lisor policeman is expected to ensure ten, or better still, the order would free flow of traffic, and of course, be enforced. guide motorists, particularly those But come to think of it, some of who are not familiar with a partic- these government officials have ular road, or maybe they are about really not had it easy on their supposed victims at times. Some have to miss their way. The primary assignment of the been pummelled while trying to artraffic warden is to guide such rest stubborn motorists, and some people, but the reverse is the case have even been mistreated. in Nigeria. Maybe this is more ramA few weeks ago, a lady was on pant in Lagos. A LASTMA official her way to work, and two road in Lagos, rather than correct a mo- safety marshals stopped her. They torist who is about requested for her to make a traffic driver ’s licence, Seeing impounded blunder, would which she gave rather hide someto them. After invehicles rust in where, wait for the specting the card, road user to comthe officials said it the premises of mit the error so was fake and that these government that he or she can the lady’s vehicle make an arrest. would be taken agencies is very Corrective meato their office and sures are no lonimpounded. True sad, having it in ger in place. It is to their words, rather a situation the two officials mind that some where the hunter hopped into the car. is hiding, huntof those vehicles ing unsuspecting But the lady was in question were bushmeats. smarter because It is sad that many after pressing the the sole source of motorists have fall security code of victims of this obthe car, she told income to their noxious prank of the officials that these government engine won’t defenceless owners the agents. Many instart again until nocent citizens they alight and have been embarjam the doors rassed and extorted unjustly in first. Stupidly, they did, and the this manner. Some have even been lady quickly started her engine asked to pay heavy fines before and sped off! their vehicles could be released That aside, we have seen policeafter being impounded for days, men exposed several times while weeks and at times, months. extorting motorists. Some have Seeing impounded vehicles rust even been dismissed as a result. in the premises of these govern- Social media has also been helpful ment agencies is very sad, having it in this regard, and honestly, doom in mind that some of those vehicles awaits erring law enforcement in question were the sole source of agents because Nigerians are wiser income to their defenceless own- now. At least, it is easier for people ers. Later, such vehicles would be to express their views without necdisposed as scrap. essarily going through the stress The truth is that it is not as if those of approaching radio/TV stations vehicles disposed as scrap are no or newspaper/magazine outfits. longer needed by their owners, but Things are evolving. Hopefully, some of them are abandoned due to the officials will become agents of the unrealistic fines they are billed change as well. to pay. Besides, it should be of note When dog bites man, it is no news, that such fees increase every day. but when man bites dog, then it is It is based on daily billings. Some great news. You can keep harassof these overzealous officials have ing and extorting innocent citizens also chased motorists to death on for your selfish reasons, but be rest several occasions, or caused mul- assured that every day is for the tiple accidents, after which they thief, and one day is for the owner. flee the scene of the incident. Nemesis will soon catch up with I was relieved some days ago you if you refuse to change. when the new governor of Lagos

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Wine & Dine

Body&Soul

Preserve the freshness Ibukunoluwa Kayode

eed the best ways to preserve the last few glasses of your favourite wine and keep its freshness? You really don’t have to work yourself up. Here are ways to retain the freshness of your wine after opening the bottle. Re-cork it right The first rule of preserving your wine is to replace the cork correctly. While the ‘clean’ side may seem easier to fit in the bottle, resist. The stained side has already been exposed to the wine, and it tasted fine. That ‘clean’ side may not be so clean, and it

can taint what you’re planning to drink in a day or two. Use half bottles Air flattens your wine, lessening flavours and aromas. To minimize air exposure, use a funnel to pour the remaining wine into a screw-cap half bottle. Even if there’s a little air at the top, it’s far less than in a regular bottle. Refrigerate it It’s amazing how often people will keep leftover wine after they’ve recorked it. You wouldn’t do that with food, so don’t with wine. The cool temperature can’t stop exposed wine from breaking down, but it can slow the process significantly. Don’t ‘open’ it

It may be time for a Coravin. This device, which looks much like a Rabbit opener, pierces the cork with a needle and tops the bottle with argon gas. Pour what you want, remove the needle and the cork will seal naturally. Many restaurants use it to sell top-shelf wines by the glass. Finish it There are roughly five glasses of wine in a regular 750ml bottle. If you and yours have two glasses each and split that last glass all while eating a decentsized dinner, it’s not bad. In fact, according to recent studies, 1–3 glasses a day may improve your heart health.

Prawns, avocado and mango salad Biwom Iklaki

rawns are some of my favourite seafood, right after calamari (which is the best choice for most of my salads). If prepared well, you can get the moist crunch and flavourful burst of textures and tastes from the medley of ingredients in this salad. Prawns however, have their distinct

crunch and slightly salty flavour with a hint of the taste of the sea. Prawns, avocado and mango salad is packed with flavour and the tangy taste from mango. It is filling with a nod to the healthy protein, antioxidants and nutrients from the fruit and vegetables. The meal is a delight for dieters and health conscious foodies. Portion control is very important in dishing this delicious meal as the

cholesterol is on the high side in both the prawns and the avocado. Ingredients 4 handfuls mixed lettuce leaves 2 mangoes cut into cubes 1/2 red onion, thinly sliced 20 cooked prawns, peeled and deveined 2 avocados cut into cubes

1 handful coriander leaves, chopped 1 long red chilli, chopped ½ tsp black pepper flecks

Dressing: 2 lemon juice 6 Tbsp olive oil 1 Tbsp honey 1/2 Tbsp wholegrain mustard

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Body&Soul

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Five Nigerian entertainers Davido in NDLEA trouble from royal families M • We are investigating him, says agency

Stories by: Abiola Alaba Peters

Several Nigerian entertainers are from average homes and have made something of themselves with their talent and hard work. They started with nothing and today, they are rich and famous. However, some are from wealthy homes but felt the need to make something of themselves. ABIOLA ALABA PETERS brings you five Nigerian celebrities with the royal blood Rita Dominic Rita Dominic is a member of the Royal Waturuocha family of Aboh Mbaise Local Government Area of Imo State. This beautiful lightskinned screen goddess is the youngest of four siblings. Her late parents were medical practitioners - her father was a medical doctor and her mother a nursing officer. Rita Dominic attended Federal Government College, Ikot Ekpene, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, before heading to the University of Port Harcourt, where she graduated with a BA (Honours) Degree in Theatre Arts in 1999. Having starred in her first movie titled ‘A Time To Kill’ in 1998, she has featured in several Nollywood movies and won numerous awards locally and internationally. Tillaman Prince Adetona Adeyemi, popularly known as Tillaman, crowns himself the real Omo Oba in his songs. He also describes any other prince in the industry as fake. Only a few people know that Tillaman is a first-class prince, being the son of His Royal Highness, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo. Tillaman has done video and also releases singles in which he lyrically informs all that he is a real prince. He has shot a number of his videos in his father’s palace. Tillaman is currently in London for a surprise project for his fans. He has done songs with superstars like Ice Prince, Iyanya, Trigga, Phyno and Burna Boy, etc. Sandra Okagbue Flavour ’s baby mama and former Delta Soap model, Princess Sandra Okagbue, is from the royal Ofala Okagbue family in Onitsha, Anambra State. The winner of the 2010 edition of Miss Delta beauty pageant, Sandra reigned in 2010 as the Face of Delta Soap after she won the pageant in 2009. She

ultiple award winner and international act, Davido, is in trouble with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency over his new song/video titled ‘Fans mi.’ NDLEA is currently investigating Davido (real name David Adeleke) for showcasing hard

was at a time rumoured to be engaged to Super Eagles midfielder, Mikel Obi, who denied being involved or engaged to the super model. Jide Kosoko Multi-award winning ace Nollywood actor, Prince Jide Kosoko, was born on January 12, 1954 in Lagos to the Kosoko royal family of Lagos Island. He studied Business Administration at Yaba College of Technology, Lagos. He began his acting career as a child actor in 1964 in a television production, Makanjuola. He has featured in hundreds of Nollywood movies, of both English and Yoruba genres. Toolz Tolu Oniru aka Toolz is a Nigerian award-winning OnAir Personality, reality and talk show host. She is best known for hosting The Midday Show on one of Nigeria’s top urban radio stations – The Beat 99.9 FM. Toolz was born on July 6 in Lagos, Nigeria. Her parents are part of the famous Oniru Royal family of Lagos State. She had her primary and secondary education in Nigeria before relocating to study at City of Westminster College. Toolz graduated from London Metropolitan University with a degree in Business and Mass Communication. Before she moved to Lagos in mid-2008, she worked with MTV Europe and Walt Disney Pictures in the United Kingdom. In 2009, she auditioned to be a radio presenter at The Beat 99.9FM after a friend mentioned the new radio station to her before she moved to Lagos.

drugs in the video featuring Maybach Group artist, Meek Mill. In the video, which has gone viral since it was released earlier this month, Davido is seen discussing with an unidentified man as they haggle over a briefcase of dollars and a bag full of parcels of hard drugs. There are also lewd scenes in the video. The song is supposed to promote the Omo Baba Olowo crooner’s gratitude and appreciation to his fans for their love and support towards his career over the years. However, the singer was busy singing about his enemies and money, showcasing hard drugs, nudity and guns in the video. Some fans have expressed dissatisfaction over the song/video, claiming the talented singer should have done better by showing pictures of his fans, his past shows and encounters with fans, rather than the display of hard drugs, nudity and guns.

In an emailed comment to Sunday Telegraph, NDLEA’s Head of Public Affairs, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, said, “The agency considers the musical video ‘Fans Mi’ inappropriate and indecent. It has the tendency to negatively influence and induce drug use and trafficking. Besides, it is counter-productive on the campaign against drug production, trafficking and abuse. The agency is investigating the matter and will take necessary action.” Also speaking, popular music video critics, Mrs. Nuella O’Peters, said, “It’s really outrageous seeing a brand ambassador and a mentor to millions of African youths indulging in such acts. He even went as far as using the substance for cooking in the video. Can you imagine! It’s uncalled for. I do hope the Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation will do something about the video.” Davido is a song writer, performer and a recording artiste from Nigeria. He recently postponed the release of his highly anticipated album on his birthday.

Why I don’t celebrate Father’s Day -Maheeda

unday June 21 was Fathers’ Day all over the world and quite a lot of celebrities took to their various social media platforms to celebrate their fathers. However, Maheeda,

known for posting photos of herself unclad, announced that the celebration wasn’t for her as there was nothing so special about the day for her. She claimed that her father left her when she was

still an infant and the step father that was supposed to play a role in nurturing her to adulthood molested her a number of times. She took to Instagram to reveal that she wouldn’t be celebrating Fathers’ Day.

Ola Sarumi spends birthday with orphans I n recent times, celebrities use the opportunity of their birthdays to reach out to the less privileged in

orphanages, prisons, hospitals, etc. Movie producer and New York Film Academy graduate, Olaribigbe Sarumi, was not left out of the trend as he added a year earlier in the month. To make the day a memorable one, the producer of awarding winning Yoruba movie ‘OKE’, which starred several top Nollywood stars, went with families and friends to an orphanage to celebrate with the kids.

“I believe in the need to love and care for the less privileged so they can be happy and feel honoured. More so, when you bless the needy you receive more from God,” he said. He donated lots of gifts and food items to the orphanage and interacted with the children. Ola’s latest flick ‘Adalute’ has Mercy Aigbe, Funsho Adeolu, Jaye Kuti,Yinka Quadri, Laide Bakare and many more on the cast.

Banky W to quit music, announces last album wish

lubankole Wellington popularly aka Banky W has subtly confirmed that he may be calling it quits with music soon. Banky W has enjoyed a dignified music career on the Nigerian music scene, having lived up to the hype as one of the major players for a long time. The musician and co-owner of

the EME record label seemed to be subtly drawing the curtains on his music career via Twitter last week, after a series of seemingly ordinary tweets at Mavins boss, Don Jazzy. In one of his tweets, Banky W asked Don Jazzy to help produce what might ‘possibly’ be his last album.

He also revealed that his new album, which will drop soon, will feature tracks produced by Cobhams Asuquo and MasterKraft. Expect this album to be a smashing hit and dominate airwaves as it looks set to include works of great music producers Nigeria can boast of.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Body&Soul

Respect your teachers Valeria Sofia Carrero Vargas

nce upon a time, there was a child who really loved studying, but one day, his teacher scolded him because he had been late to school. The next day, Charlie was late again, and the teacher advised him that could not happen again, and that she was going to talk with his parents. Charlie stayed quiet. The next morning, the kid arrived on time to school, but the teacher told him that

his homework was bad, that he had to pay attention in class when she was explaining and encouraged him to ask her any questions. Charlie had no patience, did not like what the teacher was saying to him, so he stood up from his chair, took all his stuff, and left the class complaining to the teacher. When he arrived home and told his parents everything, they talked to Charlie kindly. They explained that the teacher only wanted him to be good. That she was very kind and wanted him to get

Celebrations!!!

good grades to be useful in the future. The boy felt sorry for what he had done, and asked forgiveness of the teacher the next day. He promised not to be rude again, because he had shown bad behavior. The misunderstanding was forgotten; Charlie went off and was very happy at school. He lived happily ever after being kind and doing good deeds. Moral: Respect your teachers, because they are adults and deserve respect.

Hurry! Peace Iheukwumere Aloaye Abu is 4

She is vivacious and fun loving, she also takes care of her younger brother. Iheuks recently turned 4. Mum and Daddy wish her a fabulous birthday!

Gags What never asks questions but receives a lot of answers? Ans: The Telephone. How do you make an Octopus laugh? Ans: With ten-tickles

Crossword puzzle

Why can’t your nose be 12 inches long? Ans: Because then it would be a foot! What did the blanket say to the bed? Ans: Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered!

Why should you take a pencil to bed? Ans: To draw the curtains! Did you hear they’re changing the flooring in daycare centres? Ans: They’re calling it infant-tile! What kind of button won’t unbutton? Ans: A bellybutton! What did the triangle say to the circle? Ans: You’re pointless!

MOYIN & FRIENDS

LITTLE LINDER

By Ayo Oyerinde

08034407393

By eei

SUNDAY

Faith 51

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Sermon Born a hero, ushered into bondage p.55

Sermon Why I groan in prayer p.58

News ‘We’ve salvation message’ p.54 L-R: Bishop Ayo Maria of Ilorin, Most Rev. Martins and Cardinal Onaiyekan

Nigerian Catholics deserve broadcast licence –Onaiyekan A

Flora Onwudiwe

Tai Anyanwu Head, religous Desk titus.anyanwu@newtelegraph online.com

rchbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Abuja, His Eminence John Cardinal Onaiyekan, has called on the Federal Government to grant the Catholic Church’s call for a broadcast licence in Nigeria. He said the church’s application for a licence was rejected on the grounds that the relevant laws forbade religious broadcast licences. Onaiyekan said the proposed radio and TV stations were for evangelism, noting that Jesus Christ “said we should preach in season and out of season with permission or without permission.” Speaking in Lagos at the thanksgiving mass commemorating the first anniversary of the pioneer Catholic TV network in Africa, Lumen Christi Network Television, on June 5, Onaiyekan said, “I am happy that at this chapel masses will be broadcast to millions of people for those who do not go to church.” With the expansion of new media, he said that, “the Pentecostal group has taken over the media where they broadcast their products.” When the government refused the approval, he said the proprietor of DAAR Communications, Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, gave the church

two hours on Sundays to air its services. “there are many Catholics who have radio and television stations. The owner of AIT Dopkesi is a Catholic. Every Sunday he gives us two hours to air our mass. “The two hours for him cost a lot of money and our competitors, the Pentecostals, spend millions of naira to be on air, People like Dokpesi and Senator Chris Anyanwu through her radio station are always offering space for church.” Stressing the need for the Catholic Church in Nigeria to set up its own TV station, he said, “it is a good investment, it is an investment that does not only yield dividends here on earth but it yields eternal life. The contents, messages of this Lumen Television are projecting Catholic doctrines and must have the right people to supervise it.” The Catholic Bishop of Ilorin, Most Rev. (Dr.) Ayo Maria Atoyebi, said Lumen Christi Television “is an organ of evangelisation, a very useful organ for the church. It came at a time when electronic media is ruling the whole world.” Quoting from the book of Ezra, he said, “We were told that he stood up on a high place in order to read the word of God. He stood so that people could hear him. We see the same

way with other communication media. It is in the same platform of standing high to proclaim so many things - ideologies, philosophies that are contrary to the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. “Since we have the same instrument to proclaim the good news of Jesus, the news from our own mouths will be the light in lighting up the whole nation.” The Catholic Archbishop of Lagos Diocese, Most Rev. Alfred Adewale Martins, commended the management of Lumen Christi Television Network, Lekki, Lagos for building a chapel to broadcast the gospel. Martins blessed and dedicated the network and also presided over Mass at the Lumen Christi Chapel. The event also witnessed the dedication of three other newly built facilities, such as Our Lady of Fatimah Grotto, Sister’s Convent and the Lumen Christi Event hall on the premises. Martins later commissioned the other structures. The Episcopal Vicar/Dean, Lekki Catholic Region, Msgr. Francis Ogunmodede, prayed for growth of the TV station. The archbishop praised the founder, Prince Soji Olagunju, whose vision for projecting the Catholic faith led to the building of the chapel one year after the station’s inauguration.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Voxpop

Two AS carriers seeking to get married?

•Ade Olorunishola he issue of genotype is a very serious thing we need to look at critically. My advice to those with the same genotype AS and who are preparing to get married is that it is dangerous. My take on this is for both parties to have a rethink before they are joined together because there is a probability for them to have SS among their offspring. But if they believe they can bear the consequences, they can move on with their marriage. Some people might say in the olden days, our fathers and mothers did not know anything about genotype but mind you they had their own way of making consultations before getting married. My candid advice for them is to stop the marriage and look for an alternative.

•MARTINS ALOYCIOUS t all depends on human belief. For me, I don’t pray to pass through such an issue. But if I find myself in such a situation, I will let God decide for me. At the same time, it is advisable for one not to be so careless about such an important information before going into a relationship. This has seriously affected a lot of people and has cost the lives of so many people.

•Gabriel Ebhodaghe f they know they don’t have strong faith in the LORD, they should not try it at all.

•Evelyn Imhienitie t’s better for both of them to separate and suffer it at the moment than to bring their kids to life and see them passing through trauma before death. Which one is more preferable?

•ROSEMARY EMMANUEL

t is not advisable for one to go into a relationship, most especially a serious one without knowing your medical status. My advice to those who are preparing to get married and are of the same genotype AS is that they should try as much that they can to separate from each other. It is not an easy decision to make but for happiness to dwell in their homes

I •Tijani Rabiu Mosnunmade mmm! They should not waste their time before quitting. This is because it will not produce good fruit.

• Abimbola Akosile he advice is simple... they can marry and live with each other while praying and looking unto God for favour concerning their own healing and the blood group of their children. Nothing is impossible with God. They can give birth to perfectly normal children, who will not be either AS or SS. All they need is to love each other and have faith in God to help them. That is all.

• Kelvin Dion f you’re prepared for the risk of having a child with SS genotype among your child

•IWU CHIOMA rom my own point of view I would advise them to forget about the relationship because when they give birth definitely they will surely have an SS as a child. That will cost them a whole lot of funds or expenses. It will make the home unhappy and will not give room for them to enjoy their marriage.

•Onome Thompson idn’t they say love is blind? The simple maths is AS plus AS equals SS in one of the kids who will eventually drain their pockets before death. Solution: Please opt out as quickly as possible before the going gets tough.

•ZEB MAXIMON believe with God all things are possible. They can get married and believe God. Marriage is not just for bearing children alone and for mutual benefit. Take a look at this: there are some couples that have AA genotype, still they don’t have a child they can call theirs. I have seen a case where by an SS got married and God performed a great miracle in their lives. I believe with God all things are possible.

•Mubo Akosile y advice to them is to please don’t consider getting married at all. If their love is the blind type, they shouldn’t have children, because I don’t see any reason why they would want to suffer innocent children by bringing them to the world to come and live in pain and agony.

•Eromosele Divine y advice to them is not to go ahead and marry. This is because it will leads to a sickler, that is SS.

•Bisi hink twice, as you may have a child with sickle cell and it will be painful to lose that child after he or she has grown up. Seeing that child growing up in pain is tormenting.

•Ijeoma Monday y own advice is that they should separate immediately for the sake of the love and bond between them. If I find myself in this circumstance, I will walk out of the relationship. It is not easy after dating for years. Instead of having kids who will start dying before your own very eyes who will you blame them, God? Nature? A broken relationship they say is better than a broken marriage

Compiled by Josephine Damisa and Nzerem Amaka

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Faith

SCENES AT THE OPENING OF VOICE OF GOD RECORDING OFFICE AT GRACE AND TRUTH TABERNACLE, BETHLEHEM CAMPGROUND, LAGOS-IBADAN EXPRESSWAY, OGUN STATE…YESTERDAY. PHOTOS: TONY EGUAYE

L-R: Elder Emma Egwunye, Bro. Isaac Okoro; Sister Grace Nyamadi and Pastor of Grace and Truth Tabernacle, John Nyamadi, at the opening of the Voice of God Recording Office at Bethlehem Campground, Km 14, Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, Ogun State

L-R: Choristers rendering a song

A cross-section of guests

L-R: Sunday Elimimian; Pastor Dedeigbo Elijah Olu and Mrs. Dedeigbo

L-R: Pastor of Word Bride Tabernacle, Eluama Isuikwuato, Abia State, Ngozi Anyanwu; Minister in charge of The Elect Bride Fellowship Tabernacle, Umuchie Ezeagbogu Ezinihitte, Mbaise, Imo State, Pastor Sampson Njoku and Pastor of Christian Assembly, Benin, Sam Ukpe

L-R: Country Manager, Voice of God Recording, Andrew Alasa; Chairman of the committee, Ben Oguh; Member, Bro. Wole Faluyi and Secretary, Agbetuji Ayoade Felix

Guests during a praise and worship session

L-R: Bro. Collins Otudoh; Overseer of End-time Christ Ministries, Obogwe, Ohaji, Imo State, Pastor Leo Ugwunali and Minister in charge of Word Bride Tabernacle, Eluama Isuikwuato, Pastor Ngozi Anyanwu at the occasion.

ON PAG E 5 6

Sunday Telegraph,, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Chijioke Iremeka

oday, Christians and non-Christians around Alagutan, IyanaIpaja, Lagos, will experience supernatural upliftment and liberation from spiritual darkness as the Restoration Outreach Mission in conjunction with the Soughtout Emeka Matthew Ministry brings God’s message of salvation to the region to return men to their place of destiny. Titled, ‘The Day of Salvation’ with the theme: ‘There Shall Be An End,’ the founder and President of the Ministry, Emeka Matthew, said the programme has come to shed more light on the scripture that

‘We’ve salvation message’ says, “Light shines in the midst of darkness but the darkness comprehended it not.” He noted that the Word of God is the Light while the absence of the Word is total darkness. “Many people have been in total darkness for not having Christ in their lives. Believers are the light of the nation, which shines for everybody to see. Living in sin is living in total darkness but living in Christ is living in light. The Light of God illuminates the whole world,” he said. Speaking on the theme of the programme, ‘There shall

‘Nigerian system produces lazy governors’ Steve Uzoechi OWERRI

he Senior Pastor of Rock Family Church, Owerri, Pastor Uzor Peters ll, has described the recent cash crunch and clamour for bailout by state governors as the result of laziness. According to the cleric, government in Nigeria is structured to produce lazy governors. The cleric made the observation during the church’s ‘Champion Edge Service’ in the Imo State capital. He said, “The Nigerian system does not encourage or

challenge governors to think and be resourceful and creative. What actually do we expect from them when they are certain that whether they bring any value to governance or bring pain, they will receive allocations running into billions of Naira from the Federal Government? Creativity and productivity become too much to ask for when all our governors do is sit down and expend the allocation for one month. They know fully well that another allocation will follow the next month whether or not the previous one was judiciously spent.

Support Buhari, others - Otubu

he General Evangelist of Motailatu Church Cherubim & Seraphim Worldwide (MCCSW), Elder (Prof.) Joseph Otubu, has appealed to Nigerians to pray and support the good policies of the new administration. He said this will make President Muhammadu Buhari and other elected officials succeed in their efforts to change the nation. Otubu, who spoke with newsmen in Lagos, said no government can succeed with the full cooperation and prayers of the people. “We have to realise that they are there for us. We elected them into offices. So, it behoves us to continue supporting them with prayers. “We have to lift them up daily so that forces working against the nation will not succeed in manipulating them. We should pray that they do not receive and implement bad advice,” he said. But beyond prayers, Otubu, a renowned gyn-

aecologist, said Nigerians must believe in the new helmsmen by supporting their policies. “We should comply with their instructions and be ready to follow them in the path of righteousness. “As citizens, we can destroy any government through civil disobedience. We should follow them as long as they are working for our interest,” he added. Oubu also challenged the new government officials to reward the confidence reposed in them with dedicated service that will touch the needs of the masses. “They just have to deliver good governance and democratic dividends. The people have invested a lot in them and they dare not fail us. “We need innovative, creative leadership that will take us out of the woods and usher the nation into a new dawn of progress. We can count on them and hope our trust is not misplaced,” Otubu stressed.

be an end,’ he said, “The vision of the programme is to reach the ends of the earth with the message of salvation and bring men back to God, to their proper place of destiny and take them away from darkness into light. This is because when men are in sin, they are living in darkness. “They represent children of darkness because God is light and the Bible says ‘in Him there no darkness at all.’ We bring liberty to those who are in diverse captivities, whether spiritual, mental or otherwise. Captivity has tentacles. We bring love and hope to the forgotten, which we achieve

through an initiative called ‘Project Hope.” According to him, ‘Project Hope’ centres on rebuilding the hurting, the abandoned, and those, who have been stripped of all kinds of love and care with love of Christ to lay hold on the life they have and work for an enviable future in order to end suffering in their lives. “Like today’s programme, it centres on reaching people. We achieve this by partnering with Restoration Outreach Mission. ‘Day of Salvation’ is a day that God plans to bring the hopeless to Himself because man in the state

of sin cannot help himself. Also, a man in distress cannot save himself except God says otherwise,” he said. Using himself as an example, he said, “Years ago, I made a resolution before I came to know Christ. And a couple of days later, I still return to that old life, but in the depth of my heart, I wanted change. I was unable to change because the habit I formed was stronger than me. I couldn’t break that habit and so, I needed an external force to step into my life to help me. And when I embraced Christ, those habits were broken in my life. “So an occasion like this

Faith

ensures salvation. Our crusades and other outreaches are orchestrated to reach out to the lost souls in the environment. With the word of God which we bring to their hearts, they will be saved. The Word of God is a lamp and light unto those that believe. When the Word comes, it illuminates the mind and darkness is dispelled.” He noted that the choosing of a hotel environment is strategic because such a place is where most lost souls are found. It also serves as an attraction. He added that the programme would bring back souls to God.

Zonal Commander of Federal Road Safety Corps, (Lagos and Ogun states) Mr. Charles Akpabio (centre) cutting the tape to declare a vehicle donated by the Deeper Life Bible Church to the commission ready for use after receiving it at the Mowe office in Ogun State last week.

Cleric urges Buhari to fight graft Tai Anyanwu

resident Muhammadu Buhari has been advised to focus strictly on the need to effect necessary changes. Founder of the Omnipotence Mission of God, Pastor Olunruntimilehin Daramola, gave the counsel in Lagos recently while conveying the divine revelation he received concerning the new dispensation in Nigeria. “The President should not look back before he does all the work he wants to do. He will offend people and step on toes, including those who assisted him in winning the election. “But he should offend them for God to forgive him and support his government, rather than to stay aloof and watch evil people derail his noble cause. This is the work Buhari was called to do as President,” the cleric explained. Oloruntimilehin recalled that the President promised

the people of this country that he would tackle the issue of corruption. He added: “Because Buhari has vowed to deal with corruption so God has respected and authorised it. The Lord said if he can do it, he will be allowed and supported but if he fails to deliver then he will face the repercussion before the end of his tenure. “The President should stand firm in carrying out and executing his promises, particularly anti-corruption crusade.” The cleric also said that the President would come under pressure and threat from people who want to see him deviate from dealing with corruption. He further urged Buhari to focus on delivering his promises to the nation; and take his anti-corruption crusade. Oloruntimilehin, however, urged the President not to show any religious bias but to continue to worship and serve the God which he had always served.

BSN to honour Dr. Christopher Kolade, others

ormer Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Dr. Christopher Kolade, will on July 2, receive the Prestigious Bible Award of the Bible Society of Nigeria, in recognition of his commitment to the service of God and humanity. Others who will be similarly honoured along with him include the General Overseer of Four Square Gospel Church, Rev. Felix Meduoye; and the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Great Nigerian Insurance, Mrs. Cecilia Osipitan. “The award, which holds at the Shell Hall, Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos, is part of events marking the 11thAnnual Luncheon of Spe-

cial Members Forum of The Bible Society of Nigeria,” BSN spokesman, Benjamin Mordi explained. “The occasion is to brief the public on how far Bible work has progressed in Nigeria, raise funds to support same and as well honour those who have been supporting the Bible cause,” he added. BSN is a not-forprofit-making interdenominational Christian organization that translates the Bible into local languages, publishes, distributes and raises funds for the Bible work. “So far we have complete Bible in 24 Nigerian languages, the New Testament in 60 local languages and one book or another in 98 languages,” Mordi explained.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, Sunday Telegraph,

Faith

Laudato Si and Cosmic transformation Firm Faith:

Right Reason Most Rev.

Emmanuel A. Badejo fradebadejo@yahoo.

0803 949 4219 (SMS only)

The papal act Every Pope in Christendom has his own peculiar point of endearment among peoples all over the world. Saint John Paul II deeply touched our generation with great pastoral solicitude, travelling the world to bring the gospel to the nooks and crannies of the universe. No less did he impress with his large corpus of thoughts and teaching covering a wide spectrum of issues through encyclicals, letters and apostolic exhortations. Enthralled by the magnitude of his achievement, many doubted if the Church would see another great Pope within the century. Then came Benedict XVI with his immense, academic and intellectual capacity, taking on the scientific and relativist West with predictable but dazzling cerebral and spiritual profundity. The icing on the cake came when he opted to resign from the papacy, many centuries after any pope had dared to do so. That action temporarily stunned even top Church prelates and precipitating predictions about the implications of his action for the future of the Church. Some fortune tellers pronounced the beginning of the end of the Church which would have to cope with “two Popes” So far however, the sea is calm on that front

and pope Benedict seems to have been proven right. The Francis effect Pope Francis came in a rather different mould. The Holy Father’s capacity to touch relevant chords even among skeptics of religion is unprecedented around the world. Some media organizations named him “Man of the Year” within the very first year of his papacy. The Pew Research center recently reported that Pope Francis enjoys 84 per cent approval rating in Europe. Popes, of course, do not pander to opinion polls nor do they work by popularity votes. Yet, Pope Francis consistently takes up issues that interest millions, controversial as they might be as his papacy unfolds. His choice of themes and pastoral style, while drawing criticisms, challenge the faithful and faithless alike. His projects, the Year of Consecrated Life, the Synod on the Family and the Year of Mercy, deep down all hint at a desire to transform the world through the Church he inherited. Now on Thursday June 18th Pope Francis released his encyclical on the ecology entitled “Laudato Si”, (Praised be to you), which in his own words is “on care for our common home”, the earth. Fr Joseph Fessio, a Jesuit priest and editor at the Ignatius Press, an early commentator on the encyclical, had this to say: “Don’t be fooled by the headlines. This encyclical is not about climate change—though the Holy Father accepts the currently dominant opinion on it. It’s about heart change, an ‘integral ecology’ that recognizes that ‘We are not God’ and proposes ‘redefining our notion of progress’ and adopting a ‘responsible simplicity of life,

in grateful contemplation of God’s world, and in concern for the needs of the poor and the protection of the environment’.” The earth and its fullness Laudato Si has long been expected. Many people have praised this initiative while others condemn it as “mere Church interference in scientific matters”. Many other individuals, groups and organizations have earlier spoken up on the ecology and the environment. Many policies and decisions have been taken to reverse what has been termed a looming ecological disaster hanging on the entire world and humanity. Pope Francis however emphasizes that much of such decisions and actions have often been half-hearted, partial and at best aimed at self interest. He therefore decided to take on the theme which his predecessors had also in some measure addressed before him. Pope Francis then describes the earth today as a gift from God which human beings have continued to abuse and violate by policies and actions, driven by greed and negligence manifested in pollution, waste and a “throwaway culture”. He called for a moral transformation which recognizes the patronage of God in the gift of the earth’s resources and a response from man which establishes justice, concern for the poor and a respectful relationship with other people and with the earth itself. Borrowing from St. Francis of Assisi, he called the earth “our sister”, one which “now cries out to us because of the harm we have inflicted on her by our irresponsible use and abuse of the goods with which God has endowed her”. He declared, “the earth, our home,

is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth”. The entire encyclical pushed for a general moral transformation in relationships attitudes and action Speaking for the defenseless Pope Francis in reality seeks nothing but justice for the defenseless of both humanity and nature. According to him, human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together. We cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: “Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest”. He addressed the injustice inherent in the effort to turn the world around too. “Instead of resolving the problems of the poor and thinking of how the world can be different, some can only propose a reduction in the birth rate. At times, developing countries face forms of international pressure which make economic assistance contingent on certain policies of “reproductive health”. In summaryLaudato Si covers a wide spectrum of ecological challenges in abundant detail. It is a formidable challenge to modern capitalism of crass profit the Pope’s demand for moral responsibility and transformation in the relationship between man and man and man and nature. It is a clarion call that the time to rescue our world and save its fullness is now, before things get out of hand.

Born a hero, ushered into bondage Insight Rev.

Femi Akinola

www.thehebrewsng.com

01-790 3163; 0808 584 5864

here is an endless catalogue of men who are born with greatness but entrapped by the wicked and today they are scavenging for survival from the dustbin of life. The pathetic story of Samson paints a perfect picture of this phenomenon. He was mandated by God to do valiantly great on earth but his unguided appetite conscripted him into untimely bondage which terminated his earthly assignment. Thus, so many believers are born heroes but what obtains thereafter is a far cry from this. “You prepare a feast for me in the presence of my enemies. You honor me by anointing my head with oil. My cup overflows with blessings.” Ps 23:5 (NLT) When you were born, there is a table prepared for you and you are duty-bound to locate this table as it is a representation of your greatness. However, many are yet to understand the importance of destiny talk less of locating it but as for you, you will locate yours in Jesus name. The head is always the target in a man’s life. If God wants to bless you; He anoints your head, conversely, when a man is to be conferred

with a chieftaincy title or taken through a coronation, the head is actively involved. So the question now is, “why the head?” Why is it that when a man of God wants to pray for you, he targets your head? When a man approaches the altar of darkness or when instructed to bear satanic sacrifice, he does that with his head. All of these show that the head is a symbol of one’s destiny. “…You anoint my head with oil; my cup runs over.” Ps 23:5b (NKJV) The depth on the subject of anointing transcends the understanding of man because it is God’s standard for empowerment and enthronement; when a man contacts this, ease of accomplishment becomes his emblem. I have seen people without hands or even legs, yet they not only survived but made impact but I am yet to see a man without a head. “If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.” Deut 28:13(NLT) Many have been enlisted into the enemy’s school of wickedness through attack on their head, this has left many as destitute without hope for the future. A young man came into my house and the first thing the Lord said was ‘go back to your mother, the hand of your mother is upon your head’ but he never believed, today he has become a wanderer begging for livelihood. Satan’s Subtle Devices of Bondage The devil is a serious-minded ‘businessman’. He takes every of

The habitation of wickedness is increasing geometrically and their prime target is the glory of men his dealings seriously and the only sure antidote to this wicked move is a sound understanding to resist his machinations. I have come to reckon with the assertion that ‘a prayerful Christian is a powerful Christian’. The more you are able to engage and wield the weapon of prayers, the better your chances of overcoming the adversary. I heard this story of a brother who was given a knock in the dream by an invisible hand, a few weeks later, his health began to fail which eventually resulted to his death. A sister also saw that her hair was shaven in the dream and woke the next morning to discover that her husband was dead. Your dream life is a great revelation to which you must pay attention. Here are some of the countless schemes the devil uses to conscript heroes into bondage; • If you are always carrying load in the dream “As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.” Gen 28:12 (NLT) By simple arithmetic, if you sleep for 8 hours in a day (of 24 hours), the implication of this is that you

have spent a third of your life in dreamland. This is why whatever happens to you in the dreamland must not be taken lightly. Have you ever been summoned to carry load or a strange object is being placed on your head in the dream? This isn’t just a dream; it is one of such avenues of satan to rob you of your greatness. • When you discover you are losing your hair in the dream Naturally, you are not bald but you begin to notice you are losing hair, you should know this is an unusual hand of the evil one. You must react violently against this strange hand. I once told a particular politician what God revealed to me concerning him losing his hair, this he disregarded and failed to lay it to heart. Unfortunately for him as we speak, he is hardly able to make ends meet. • Satanic Salon I strongly advocate that you scrutinize who and where you either have a haircut or make your hair. The habitation of wickedness is increasing geometrically and their prime target is the glory of men. Every salon you walk into must be spiritually scrutinized because we have agents of darkness as salonists who are in the business of trading destinies of men. Any altar of darkness harboring your hair, the fire of the Living God will consume such in Jesus name. I know you have been blessed. Write and share your testimonies, comments,with me through; info@ thehebrewsng.com. Hotlines – 08085845864, 08092377861.

CO NTINUED O

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Faith

Get the virtue that brings God your way Taming your Emotions Bishop

Lawrence Osagie 0806 325 0667 www.powerlineministriesinc.org mail:powerlineministries@mail.com

hey were all under the same cloud, under the same fire, they all ate the same spiritual food, they drank the same spiritual water, yet they died, they never stepped into the promise of God. Do you know you can be in a church where the spirit is moving, the glory of God abounds and you can be there for years when others are progressing and you are still on the spot? Your own is to just tell the story of what happened 10 years ago and five years ago, yet you cannot find your own testimony of faith. You need to check yourself; it is not enough to tell people you have been in this church for 20 years. Many of them that came 10 years ago; they have built houses, they have started businesses, they are flourishing, they are married and all you do in this church is to sit on a chaira, watch out for the lady that came in newly and then tell her you are looking for a future partner. How can you make progress when you are your own worst enemy? Hebrews 3:L17-19 says: “But with whom was he grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose

carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear him that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? See we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” We are talking about the Mosaic generation that has to walk in the wilderness without having the taste of the promise of God. Grace does not work for everybody because they are in church. You have to position yourself. And that was why Apostle Paul writing to the Roman church said: “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God – Rm. 12:1-2. You are not a gambler in the presence of God but a vessel meant for the Master’s use. Therefore present your bodies as a living sacrifice; holy, acceptable unto God for this is your reasonable service. Only this virtue brings the glory of God you way. 1Corinthians 6:10 says: “These things were written as our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.” Number one: Lusting after evil things. What is lust? To lust is for your heart to leave the primary thing and go after something else that will not benefit you. It is to be seduced. Lust is something that sweeps your heart from the original love of God. It is not just that thing that lures you into fornication and adultery

Beloved child of God no idol worshipper will inherit anything from God. If Dagon is your God he will have to sustain you, he will have to keep you. When the test comes, Dagon will have to be your source but anything that shifts your attention from the love of God. It could be the influence of your new wife. You so much love her that you no longer want to be in Bible study or prayer meeting. It could be one TV programme, for instance football that on the day a match is being played, nothing comes till you are through with watching the tournament. Something has swept your heart away from God. Number two verse 7, “Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, they people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. What is idolatry? Anything you honour or place side by side God is an idol. Directly or indirectly, a lot of us worship idols. For example if you ask some people why they are not in church right now, you will be shocked at the reason they will give you. That is one idol somewhere. Even a TV programme: Chelsea is

playing Barca. Even if the wife says it is time for our family devotion, he would say, can’t you see Chelsea and Arsenal are on? So God must wait until Chelsea and Arsenal finish? Idol worshipper. Money can be your idol, your husband can be your idol. Some people would have been faithful, but for their wives, some wives would have been but their husbands are always threatening them. An ordinary idea can become your idol when such an idea takes you away from the presence of God continually. You no longer have time because you are working on a new project and proposal. Your position can become something you worship. Beloved child of God no idol worshipper will inherit anything from God. If Dagon is your God he will have to sustain you, he will have to keep you. When the test comes, Dagon will have to be your source. Idol worshippers! That was one of the things that stopped them over there. They rose, they danced, they ate, they drank and they went ahead to play. God gave them silver and gold, they made an idol out of it. They carved a golden image and began to worship it. The money that God gave to you was not meant to enter your head. Give it to the work of God and let us save souls. Let us go to nations, let us be a blessing to people for that is part of your reasonable sacrifice as Apostle Paul told us. If this message has blessed you, you can get more at the Powerline Bible Church. We invite you; worship with us Powerline Bible Church Glass House, Odolowu Bus Stop, Ijeshatedo, along Mile 2- Oshodi Expressway, Lagos.

Unlocking the supernatural through favour (2) The Voice of Dominion by

Bishop David Oyedepo

7747546-8 (SMS only)

ast week, we began this teaching series by showing us how to access God’s favour and the benefits inherent in same. This week, I will conclude that teaching by unveiling more benefits and what it takes to bask in God’s turnaround favour. What is in favour? • Favour is the cure for man’s struggles: Joseph didn’t struggle; favour positioned him from one level to another (Psalms 105:17-22). •Supernatural enlargement: No one can be greater than the grace of God at work in his life and grace simply means divine favour. Apostle Paul said: But by the grace of God I am what I am... (1 Corinthians 15:10; see also 1 Samuel 2:9; Ecclesiastes 9:11; Romans 9:16).It simply means that without grace, we are grounded. However, by the release of divine favour, greatness surges and enlargement is stirred up (Isaiah 60:122). However,it is important to understand that God’s favour is real, but it is not free. This is because, even the favour of salvation still demands that we repent and be baptized, so we can be saved and then receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. That means there is what we must do to trigger favour.

Thus, encounters with turnaround favour demand the following, among others: • Be Born Again: New birth is the first covenant step into a world of favour. Thereafter, we are listed among God’s beloved after the order of Joseph (Psalms 5:12). • Commit to the Love of God and His Kingdom: Our love for God entitles us to the flow of divine favour. For instance, Solomon loved the Lord and he reared an altar of sacrifice to God which granted him access to His favour (1 Kings 3:3-13; 1 Samuel 13:14, 16:21-22; Romans 8:28; Genesis 39; Psalms 105:17-22). However, we must understand that God’s love is not theoretical, it is practical. This is why the Bible says: For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous (1 John 5:3). We cannot claim to love God when we do not walk in obedience to His commandments. Thus, the love of God demands that we: • Love His Word(Psalms 119:97; Proverbs 13:15; 2 Peter 1:2). • Love His house:If we love God, going to church and fellowshipping with the brethren will be our delight and lifestyle (Psalms 122:1). • Love His Kingdom(Psalms102:13-15; Matthew 6:33; Luke 7:1-5). • Love His People (Matthew 25:31-40; Galatians 6:10; 1 John 3:16-18).

• Love Humanity (Matthew 22:36-40; Luke 10:29-37). • Engage in prayer & supplication: Just like Jabez did, we can break the siege of misfortune over our lives as we engage the prayer altar (1 Chronicles 4:9-10; Psalms 106:4; Hebrews 4:16). • Seek revelation of the truth: It is written: Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard (Proverbs 13:15). The more revelation we have, the more favour flows in our direction (Daniel 1:9, 9:2). • Seek fresh anointing: The fresher the anointing on our lives, the fresher the flow of favour. Jesus never lacked favour because He had access to fresh oil. However, we must recognize that the altar of prayer is the altar of empowerment and revelation, which triggers the release of fresh oil for fresh favour (Psalms 45:7-8, 12). It is important to understand that favour is not a religious theory; it is a virtue with proofs. Therefore, we must expect the manifestation of supernatural favour in the following areas among others: • Marital breakthrough: Marriage is a manifestation of divine favour. The Bible says: Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the Lord (Proverbs 18:22; See also Genesis 24:1-27; Psalms 68:6). • Exploits after the order of Daniel(Daniel 1:9, 2:46). • Supernatural visitation after the order of Sarah (Genesis 21:1-6). • Supernatural turnaround in the order

of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 2:5-8). • Business Breakthrough after the order of Job (Job 1:1-3, 9). The greatest event of anyone’s life in the Kingdom is a product of favour and its ultimate is to establish our dominion on the earth. Therefore, I see the favour of God rewriting your story in Jesus’ name! Friend, I want you to know that new birth is our covenant access into a world of favour.New birth means to a born again Christian by accepting Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord. If you are notyet born again, please say this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You Jesus for saving me! Now I know I am born again!” For further reading, please get my books: Walking In The Miraculous, Operation In The Supernatural, Releasing The Supernatural, Commanding The Supernatural and All You Need To Have All Your Needs Met. I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have four services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:50 a.m., 9:40 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. respectively. I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaan Land, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 77475468; or E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Faith

Obedience is better than sacrifice Mystery ofAnxiety Bishop

John Ogbansiegbe

0803 341 6327

hen Paul was on his way to Damascus to persecute the followers of our Lord, he heard a voice and saw the divine glory. Though he saw no one, he knew infinitively that both the light and the voice were of God and that his blind mission of persecuting God’s saint was ended. From thence forward, his whole life was absolutely changed as he yielded in obedience to Christ. He later confirmed that he was not disobedient unto the heavenly visit. Most times, you may not fully understand the reason behind a divine instruction. All you need to obey and fellow God’s direction. As a child of God and pilgrim here on earth, you have no alternative but to fellow God’s divine instruction in absolute obedience. He knows you very well and knows the purpose of your life. He has the plan as well as the geographical direction of your destiny and destination in the pilgrimage of life.

In the book of Jonah, the Bible recorded the terrible experiences Jonah had because of his disobedience to God, God instructed Jonah to go and preach repentance to the people of Nineveh. Jonah refused on selfish grounds that they were so abominable, and that it was not convenient for him. He rather ran away and fled to Tashish. He paid dearly for his disobedience. God sent a big fish to swallow him. He suffered for three days in the belly of the fish. He described the belly of the fish as the belly of hell. He repented there and asked God for forgiveness. God forgave him, and the fish now vomited him in the place of his assignment. Don’t allow God to force you to obey Him or replace you with a stone or with another person. God is God; there are many things God can do. He knows what to do at any given time and in any given situation. God’s supremacy lies in His ability to execute His will any time and anywhere in the world. When you refuse to obey Him and fail to do what He wants you to do, that thing will still be done because God is God but you will then lose the blessing there therefore. When God tells you to do anything or serve Him in any capacity, judicially and judiciously. If not, God can replace you with another person of lesser quality. As far God is concerned, obedience is even better than sacrifice. “Therefore said l, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and l have not made supplication unto

It is however important to note that when he was confronted by Samuel, and questioned for his foolish act, he rather justified himself and gave no sign of repentance

the Lord; l forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering” l Samuel 13;12. The above scripture reveals how Saul, the king of lsrael, was driven by fear to offer sacrifice unto the Lord. This was an act of disobedience as the office of the sacrifice then, is the exclusive preserve of priests. Besides, he defied and disobeyed the divine instruction given to him by Samuel and went ahead to offer a sacrifice to the Lord after claiming to have waited for so long. It is however important to note that when he was confronted by Samuel, and questioned for his foolish act, he rather justified himself and gave no sign of repentance. The Lord delights more in obedience and faithfulness than make up sacrifices void of positive spiritual consequences. This is the unfortunate position of many Christian believers in the world today. They hypocritically lay emphasis on outward performances and disobey God’s directions in their lives. As a

result of their disobedience, they end up in failure and mediocrity. Let us learn from the example of our. Master Jesus Christ. Though it was not comfortable and convenient for Him, He left heaven in obedience to His father. On early, He suffered in obedience, carried out His mission in obedience, carried the cross in obedience, yielded to crucifixion in obedience and died in obedience. Consequently, because of His obedience, He was crowned , glorified , and excused. He was also empowered, ironfied overloaded and was given the name above all name. He Hence, the word of God thus said: Let this mind be in you; which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to been equal with God ; but made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto date, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of everything in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth ; And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father” - Philip 2;5-11. Go ahead and obey God. Do what He told you to do, and as you do so, you shall be lifted to the next level in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Giving as an ordinance of God the of

Oracles God

Frank Oboden Olomukoro frankolomukoro@yahoo.com

0703 362 1866

he issuance of an ordinance as a rule or an order by God runs through the entire Bible. God’s authoritative way of communication is by ‘commandments;’ by virtue of His position as an authority with all power. There are various forms of giving practised in the scripture that were commanded by God as integral part of worship and fellowship. All forms of giving done with the right attitude cheerfully, obediently and generously create open doors for the inflow of the promised blessings of God under the law of return. Some of the giving comes in the mode of an obligation. Others are at the discretion of the faithful; that is, as free will or voluntarily. Tithing was practised by our Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) under grace then. It was an unwritten order operated by revelation. The Patriarchs were not instructed anytime by God to give to Him a tenth of their possessions. It was voluntarily as they were inspired, both as a means of showing their gratitude for what He had done and a way of committing God to their adventures in life. But, under the law, tithing became mandatory and specified so that the priestly

tribe of Levi could conduct the services in the temple. The tithe offering was a special contribution of everything the Israelites had (Numbers 18:21-24). Other modes of giving besides the mandatory ones include alms giving, vows, freewill offerings. They also attract God’s corresponding reward when done under the right attitude. These offerings provides the giver the opportunity to give without any limit unlike the tithe of a tenth. ALMSGIVING: It mainly involves giving to men (not God) as an act of virtue, either materially or in the sense of providing capabilities such as money, clothes, food and other things to the poor or needy as charity. (Luke 11:41) “But rather give alms of such things as ye have: and, behold, all things are clean unto you.” Alms is a word derived from the Greek (merciful), used to denote the offering of charity to the needy, from a feeling of both compassion and righteousness. The scriptures have identified the poor, the needy and strangers as recipients of this gift of kindness. Though labour enables the poor to win their daily bread, accidents, illness, old age, labour difficulties, plagues, war, etc. frequently interrupt their labours and impoverish them.The responsibility of succoring arises in God commanding “give and you shall be given…” (Luke 6:38) If giving of alms is done out of pity and without regard to the permanent relief of the recipient, then the giving has lost its godly purpose and is devoid of attracting any reward from God (Matt. 6:1). Alms are not restricted to just the material. There are many that are

There we read “for as many as were possessors of lands or houses, sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles’ feet

spiritually poor, needy and strangers to the commonwealth of God. They are in dire need of the Word of eternal life to bring about salvation to their lost souls. The poor shall never cease out of the land (physical or spiritual), says the law giver and commands: “Thou shall open thine hand wide, unto thy brother, to the poor and to the needy in the land” (Deut. 15:11). The practice of alms giving in the new Testament was managed in a larger scale, a practice that was integral in the fellowship of the saints in the early church age. The common denominator was to ensure the needs of the saints were met, not to promote the apostles to a state of stupendous material wealth, leaving the laity in abject want and poverty reminiscent in today’s Christendom. Children of God have a desire to express their gratitude to the Lord in very practical way by the voluntary provision for the less privileged. Whoever reads in particular chapters 2:43-47 in the Book of Acts gains a deep insight into the devotion of the believers in the early church. They were of one heart and one soul; no one considered the things he possessed to be his exclusive property. There we read “for as many as were possessors of lands or

houses, sold them and brought the prices of the things that were sold and laid them down at the apostles’ feet.” It was clear to the saints of the early church that one needs only one house to live in, not several houses. So they sold all the things that were not needed for their personal use. It has to be emphasised that the apostles did not force or cause anyone to do so. Incidentally, the expectation of the promised return of Jesus Christ was so great and alive, that the earthly realm was not their main focus, instead they were freeing themselves from it. Alms giving or freewill offering as a form of giving is not mandatory as practised in the new Testament. Therefore no law should be imposed commanding the people what they should give. Paul wrote in his epistle to the Philippians 4:10-20, about giving and receiving: “Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving but ye only.” In 2 Corinthians 9:7 he stated, every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” A special offering is something different. In that regard, the instruction was as follows “upon the first day of the week let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come.” (I cor. 16:2) Giving to God or man as commanded by God is a huge blessing in human relationships.

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Faith

Why I groan in prayer Word of Life

Bishop

Moses Kattey

moseskattey@yahoo.co.uk

0808 770 7486

roaning is prayer that cannot be uttered in words. When you kneel down and are saying something deeper than your consciousness knows, the Holy Spirit takes over and presents it in a better and acceptable way to God. It is always an effective prayer. Groaning in prayer bypasses our infir-

mities and limitations as human beings. Everybody has problems in our praying, which the scripture calls” our infirmities” (Romans 8:26). It may be weakness, ignorance, limitations, sins or mistakes, misunderstanding, etc. Groaning serves as the solution to all these infirmities in prayer, and the Holy Spirit takes over the groaning and presents it in an acceptable way to God. I believe that when I groan in prayers my prayers are answered. I have no doubt about that. Secondly, I believe that when I groan in prayers the Lord remembers all His promises to me, including covenants with me. These promises and covenants may or may not be known to me; they may be His words in the scriptures. It is the Holy

Spirit that does the reminding. He knows how to present my case to God in an acceptable way. THE SIMPLEST TYPE OF PRAYERS Groaning is the simplest type of prayer. It is not praying in tongues that one can say that he/she has not been filled or baptised with the Holy Spirit and so can’t speak in unknown tongues. It is not praying with knowledge that you can say that you do not know what to say or how to say it. Everybody can groan and groans. 22. “For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 23. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within

ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body (Romans 8:22, 23) You do not learn to groan before you do so very well. It is innate – part of our nature and in born. 4. PARTNERSHIP WITH THE HOLU SPIRIT You must believe that there is a partnership or agreement you have with the Holy Spirit. When you groan or pray in unknown tongues, the Holy Spirit starts to intercede for you, explaining and presenting your needs to God in the acceptable way. You groan while He intercedes and interprets your needs. The longer you kneel and groan the greater the peace and victory you experience. JOB UNABLE TO ANSWER GOD Job and his friends spoke from Job chapter 3 to chapter 37. Each of them presented his own case in the best possible way. Job claimed righteousness, while his friends blamed him for his calamity. They spoke much and the scriptures summarised all they said this way: Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge? The Lord asked Job over 80 questions. Only the Holy Spirit can do so in a way that will satisfy God. This is one reason I allow the Holy Spirit to present my matter to God while I pray groaning on my knees. We can now understand the reason Job sought for a daysman. 32. For He is not a man, as I am, that I should answer Him, and we should come together in judgement. 33. Neither is there any daysman between us, that might lay his hand upon us both. 34. Let Him take His rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me (Job 9:33, 34). Living Bible renders it thus: And I cannot defend myself, for you are no mere man as I am. If you were, then we could discuss it fairly, but there is no umpire between us, no middle man, no mediator to bring us together (Job 9:32, 34). In some cases in court, the Government assigns a lawyer to the accused, who becomes his advocate, middle man or mediator between the accused and the court. Let it be understood today that he is an Advocate, Daysman, middleman or intercessor. Groaning Equivalent To Accident Case Do you feel oppressed? Try groaning prayers. It works and indeed it always works. The Lord is always moved with pity whenever He hears groaning.

SUNDAY

Sport 59

SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

Flying Eagles

Ugbade: Foreignbased stars disrupted our plans p.62

Keshi, Enyeama not problems of Nigerian football, says Okpodu

Dapo Sotuminu

Boxing

Boxing: Ogogo returns from 12-month injury p.62

Football

Sowunmi: Torn between Eagles and Three Lions p.60

Golf

Korblah tops Nigerian Order of Merit p.61

ormer Super Falcons chief coach, Sam Okpodu, has declared that contrary to the recent actions of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, who are dissipating all energies on the slip of the Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi and the national team goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama as if they are the key elements to the below par performances of the federation, the problems of the NFF far surpass the two national team icons. Okpodu told Sunday Telegraph from his base in the United States that, the football federation should not handle the issues concerning Keshi and Enyeama as if they are the problems militating against the progress of the country’s football fortunes. “The current problems of Nigerian football are bigger than the pardonable offences allegedly committed by both the national team chief coach and the country’s number one goalkeeper. “I strong-

ly believe that, the NFF has more weighty issues on their hands than waste valuable time wanting to punish Keshi and Enyeama. Two of the country’s national teams disappointed so badly at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in Canada and the Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand purely on technical ground. This is very worrisome, so the NFF should be bothered about preventing a future occurrence and also make frantic efforts to guard against a repeat of such lapses at the Under-17 World Cup and the Under-20 Women’s World Cup.” The former Super Eagles striker noted that, what Keshi and Enyeama did, weren’t as bad as the football federation has painted it. “According to reports, it was Keshi’s agent that applied on behalf of his client for the Ivory Coast job and the truth is that, this is not out of place. It is the job of agents to do that. It wasn’t Keshi that applied directly. And again, Keshi is under contract with the NFF and not on full-

time employment as a civil servant, so he has the right to look for greener pastures as a professional. “The action of the agent would not in any way affect Keshi’s job in the national team, neither would it slow down the progress of the Super Eagles. The good thing is that, the Eagles won their first Nations Cup qualifiers game against Chad convincingly. The NFF should be bothered about the possibility of the Eagles qualifying for the next edition of the Nations Cup and not causing unnecessary distractions. It would have been understandable if these distractions are coming from outside the NFF. This is most unfortunate.” Okpodu noted that, in the case of the Super Eagles goalkeeper, the football federation should accept the fact that, as the team captain of the national

team, Enyeama has the right to speak on behalf of the team on their well-being and safety. “The Eagles keeper who is a first class professional player is coming from the European society where freedom of expression is uppermost in all spheres of the society. But really, I don’t see anything wrong with Enyeama’s statement on the safety of the team. It is a known fact that, in the northern part of the country, Kaduna inclusive, there is the need for extra security to ensure safety and Enyeama as the captain of the team pointed this out. Even on the field of play, the captain has the official duty to complain and protest against controversial decisions of the referees.” The former Bendel Insurance FC of Benin winger advised the NFF not to aggravate the comment made by the Eagles’ captain. More so when told the world that he had apologised. “The NFF should also be mindful of the fact that Enyeama is the only world class goalkeeper the country can boast of at the moment and they should please not drive him away.”

Deputy Sports Editor Dapo Sotuminu daposotu@yahoo.com

Stephen Keshi

Vincent Enyeama

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Sport

Sowunmi: Torn between Eagles and Three Lions N

Dapo Sotuminu

ewly signed-on Yeovil FC of England defender, Omar Kolawole Sowunmi, for sometimes now has been torn between playing for the Nigerian national soccer team, the Super Eagles and the English national team, the Three Lions. The player, whose huge height has been a very valuable asset, said in England last week that, in as much as he would not reject full international invitation from Nigeria, his heart remains in England. The former England Under-15 and Under-17 star, noted that he would eventually pitch his tent with the country that shows serious commitment to have him in the national team, between Nigeria and England, while he insisted that, this would be only at the full international level. Sowunmi, born in Colchester 19 years ago to a Nigerian dad and a British mom, disclosed that he is free at the moment as he has not been capped by any of the countries. He said: “My mother is English and my father is Nigerian. I haven’t pledged my future to any countries yet. Obviously I would love to play for England as it is where I have been brought up all my life, but if the opportunity came for both I am not sure who I would pursue an international career to. “If the Super Eagles chief coach gives me the honour of an invitation to the Nigerian team today, I would accept such invitation. But a closer look shows that the

standard of the English national team is higher than that of Nigeria, I will rather be comfortable to be among the best and strive to be the best in the world.” Sowunmi, who said he models his playing style after legendary players like Pepe, Puyol, and John Terry, as a defender puts his body on the line and he is good on the ball and have good feet. He is tall, very strong and quick. He is a very athletic player. Before joining Yeovil last week, Sowunmi earlier in the 2011-2012 seasons signed for Ipswich Town as a first-year scholar back season after a successful trial. Before then, the teenager was playing for his local team Stanway Villa until he was scouted by The Tractor Boys. He was a youth player at Ipswich but never managed to make a senior appearance for the Tractor Boys and to date the youngster has managed just four professional matches in his short career, which came during a loan spell at Braintree Town last season. Sowunmi was a youth-team player at Ipswich, but never managed to make a senior appearance for the Suffolk club. He made four appearances for Braintree Town while on loan to the Conference Premier club last season, and finished the campaign on loan to Conference North outfit Lowestoft Town. He attracted the attention of Exeter City earlier this year, according to reports in East Anglia. Normally a centre-back, the teenager can also play in the centre of midfield. Sowunmi is the seventh new addition to Yeovil manager Sturrock’s squad, joining Matt Dolan, Jack Compton, Marc Laird, Ben Tozer, Jordan Gibbons and Shaun Jeffers at Town.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015

Golf Weekly

Sport

Korblah tops Nigerian Order of Merit W ith half the year gone in the current season, Ghanaian golfer, Emos Korblah, is on top of the Nigeria Professional Golfers Association Order of Merit. Korblah, who has finished as the Order of Merit winner in the past two years, has accumulated an impressive N2,662,000 from five Nigerian Tour events this season. His nearest rival, Sunday Olapade, is not too far away from the veteran Ghanaian having garnered N2,190,000 from six tour events. In third place is Oche Odoh, whose recent victory at the Dr Ojerinde Memorial took his total prize money so far this year to N2,165,000. But unlike the top-two players on the tour, Odoh has only taken part in three tournaments, winning the Pa Mark Memorial and finishing second at the Gabriel Suswam Open.

In fourth place is Michael Ubi (N1,120,262); fifth is Martin Odoh (N1,044,025); sixth is Elisha Markus (N970,200); and in seventh place is Charles Okoro (N924,675). It will be recalled that Korblah garnered over six million naira on his way to retaining the Order of Merit title last year. He won five tournaments last season, most notably at the Memorial Championship and the Gabriel Suswan Open, which are two of the few tournaments on the tour commanding star prizes of over a million naira, and which both took place on his home course, the Otukpo Golf and Country Club. He finished ahead of Oche Odoh, who emerged victorious at the Annol Ventures, Britannia, and Olu of Warri Opens. Olapade finished last season in fourth place, ahead of Gift Willy, who has not been too active on the tour following foreign commitments.

‘Red-hot’ Spieth backed for more glory

enrik Stenson has described Jordan Spieth as “the hottest player on the planet” and backed him to do golf’s Grand Slam this year. World number seven Stenson has seen 21-year-old Spieth up close of late as he followed up April’s Masters success in Augusta by making it two successive majors wins when claiming the US Open at Chambers Bay last weekend. It has moved Spieth to number two in the world behind Rory McIlroy and Stenson, who did lead the US Open after the first day but ended up tied for 27th

on Sunday, feels he can now go on and win the Open Championship and US PGA Championship. He said: “There’s definitely a chance, he’s won the first two and you would say he’s the hottest player on the planet this season. He’s definitely got the chance to do it; it’s going to be extremely tough. “Winning one is tough, winning two in a row is a great achievement. He’s got a very mature head on young shoulders, he’s got a game that hasn’t got many weaknesses. He’s definitely a player we are going to hear and see about in the future.”

British Open champ to scoop record prize money T he winner of the 2015 British Open will receive a record £1.15m in prize funds, the event’s organisers have confirmed. This year ’s purse is £175,000 higher than the amount that Rory McIlroy earned for finishing first in 2014.

The overall prize fund totals £6.3m, £900,000 higher than last year, with the runner-up taking home £653,000, and the third-placed golfer pocketing £420,000. This year’s British Open takes place at St Andrews in Scotland between July 16 and 19.

Golf key terms explained

Angle of attack: The relative angle at which the clubhead approaches the ball at impact which, in turn, helps determine the distance and trajectory the ball travels. Arcing: The player will tend to rotate the putter head open (as in the full swing), and then return it to square at impact. After impact, it will move back

to the inside and then begin to close. Axis: Refers to a straight line (the spine) that the upper body rotates around in the course of the golf swing. Bladed shot: Also known as a “skull”, it occurs when the top half of the ball is struck with the bottom portion of an iron, resulting in a low-running shot. (Culled from Golfmagic.com)

SUNDAY JUNE 28, 2015, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Sport / News

Ugbade: Foreign-based stars disrupted our plans

lying Eagles assistant coach, Nduka Ugbade, has revealed that the team’s original plans for the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand were disrupted by the sudden inclusion of foreignbased stars in the team. The former Golden Eaglets captain said this was the particular reason the team failed to achieve set goals at the junior World Cup. “We didn’t have enough time to prepare and blend the foreignbased that came from different

clubs in Europe where they play different roles and patterns, together with the home-based stars who we spent majority of the preparation period with. What we got in New Zealand wasn’t what we expected considering what the team achieved all through the year, but at this point, it was very difficult to analyse what the situation was.” Ugbade, who won silver at the Under-20 World Cup in 1989 confessed that: “The error we made was bringing the foreignbased stars into the team and

not having enough time to work with them. It really affected the team’s psychology and it became very difficult to come out of it until we crashed out of the competition against Germany.” He added: “For almost one year and a half, we had not worked together. The fitness level and tactical approach in U-20 were totally different from what was

obtainable at U-17. At the U-17 level, it was training to compete while at the U-20 level it was high performance. This affected our psyche. In our first game against Brazil, we were supposed to win because we created a lot of chances,” he continued. “In terms of playing, there was limited technical ability on

the part of individual players when compared with the South Americans, this really affected the team. “Psychology comes into a game such as that coming from the belief that they scored a lot of goals in the group stage. The weather was too cold in Christchurch as well as the one in Plymouth and it affected us a lot,” Ugbade said.

Maradona mourns father’s death D iego Maradona saluted his father “Don Diego” who passed away at the age of 87, saying he was at peace and with the “love of us all.” Maradona senior died on Thursday at a Buenos Aires private clinic after failing to recover from long-standing coronary and respiratory illnesses. Argentina World Cup winner Diego Maradona had been at his father ’s bedside since flying in from his Dubai home on June 2. “He is at peace now with all the love of all of us,” said an emotional Maradona as he visited a city centre funeral home. “Don Diego,” a popular figure throughout Argentina, had been admitted to hospital for the third time in the last

year. Maradona’s mother “Tota” passed away in 2011. The football legend said it was heartbreaking that his father ’s life had ended so painfully. “But now is his time to join my mother,” said the tearful Maradona who was comforted by the likes of footballing compatriot Martin Palermo and tennis star Juan Martin Del Potro. Maradona, 54, accompanied by his daughters Dalma and Gianinna, also thanked fans and doctors. “I am calm because I got to see him, kiss his feet, his hands, his head,” added Maradona, the fifth of eight children fathered by “Don Diego”

Tottenham considers Moses deal E

Dolphins, Sharks commend Wike for paying salary arrears

nglish Premier League side, Tottenham Hotspur, are considering a bid for Chelsea winger Victor Moses. Moses spent last season on loan at Stoke City and the manager Mark Hughes has shown interest in having the Nigeria international back to the Britannia Stadium. A swap deal that will involve goalkeeper Asmir Begovic going in the opposite direction to Chelsea has even been suggested. However, Spurs have turned their attention to the AFCON 2013 winner after failing to land Jay Rodriguez or Anthony Martial, while Sevilla’s Carlos Bacca is thought to prefer a move to Liverpool. The Super Eagles striker joined Chelsea from Wigan in 2012 and has played the last two seasons on loan at Liverpool and Stoke City.

he Managements of Dolphins FC and Sharks FC on Saturday commended Rivers state Governor Nyesom Wike, for paying the eight months’ salary arrears owed the clubs. Mr Daboere Dokubo, the Interim Head of Sharks FC management team, disclosed in Port Harcourt that the governor had kept to his promise by paying the backlogs of salary. Dokubo, who spoke through the clubs Media Officer, Mr. Peter Abaje, said they were optimistic to win the June 28 match against Heartland FC of Owerri. “The reason is, during the week, the players and officials smiled to the bank as the governor of the state paid eight months backlogs of salaries owed the team. So much has been given to the players by the governor and we commend

Boxing: Ogogo returns from 12-month injury

nbeaten Nigerian-born English middleweight boxer, Anthony Ogogo, will fight for the first time in a year after recovering from injury. The 26-year-old, who won bronze at London 2012, has had two operations to fix an Achilles problem. He will return to the ring on July 18 in Berlin against an unnamed opponent. “I now feel fitter than I’ve ever felt

and ready to send a wake-up call to the middleweight division,” said Ogogo, who has won all of his professional bouts.” Ogogo, a former junior world champion, has also announced he will be joint-promoted by Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions and German organisation Team Sauerland. “I am incredibly excited by this new partnership and cannot wait to get back in the ring.

Iheanacho

him for fulfilling his electioneering campaign promise to take sports to the next level,” he said. Dokubo said the club was contented to win their match because there were no more excuses to give. “Players used to say they had not been paid salaries, we are hungry and cannot think well in the field of play, but that is all over now,” he said. Dolphin’s manager, Mr. Stan-

ley Eguma, confirmed that his club had also been paid and the players are optimistic to defeat Kano Pillars in the June 28 fixture. Eguma thanked the governor for matching his words with action by clearing all salaries owed the officials and players. “We are optimistic as we are going to play in Kano, it is a big game but we will do our best to come out with a favourable result. There are

issues that have affected us, some of our players are absent without leave and others are affected by injuries in our match against Ifeanyi Uba FC,” he said. Eguma said most of the affected players were midfielders, adding that, it was a big blow to the team. He said with the players high spirit going to Kano, the team would not come home empty handed but would snatch some points.

Golden League: Imhoaperamhe, Ezealah win 100m Charles Ogundiya Abuja

icholas Imhoaperamhe on Saturday at the Abuja National Stadium won the 2nd Athletic Federation of Nigeria Golden League ahead of former Junior champion Divine Oduduru and Sule David who finished second and third respectively Imhoaperamhe, who also won the 1st leg in Anambra few weeks ago, however finished in a disappointing time of 10.36secs.He finished in 10.23secs at the Rojenny event. In the women’s category, Nkem Ezealah put the disappointment of the 1st leg where she finished second behind her, as she finished the race in 11.61secs ahead of 1st leg winner, Isoken Wisdom, who finished second in 11.70secs. Sule

Jutsina finished third in 11.71secs. Meanwhile, Euphemia Edem stole the show in the women’s long jump event as she beat her more illustrious colleague, Chinazom Amadi, to win with a leap of 6.48m. Amadi finished second with 6.38m while Hope Idhe finished third with a leap of 6.05m In other events, Orukpe Erayokan, ran a Personal Best of 46.13secs to win the 400m men

ahead of Nathaniel Oghenewegba and Noah Akwu who finished with the time of 46.49secs and 46.74secs respectively. Speaking to Sunday Telegraph, Erayokan said people should watch out for him as his best was yet to come. Adeloye Oluwatosin won the 400m women with a time of 52.48secs. Ossai Rita finished second in 53.40 secs and Olotu Folashade finished third in 53.90secs.

Blatter: Decision to leave FIFA ‘liberating’

epp Blatter says his decision to leave FIFA was “liberating” and he expects the election to replace him will be in early 2016. In an interview published Saturday, Blatter explained why on June 2 he announced his planned FIFA

exit amid American and Swiss investigations of corruption in world soccer. “It was the only way to take away the pressure from FIFA and my employees, including (pressure) from the sponsors. To remove FIFA and me personally from the line of fire,” Blatter said.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 2015

SPORT Keshi, Enyeama not the problem, says Okpodu

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Nigerian Catholics deserve }51 broadcast licence, says Onaiyekan

The political rumble in the legislative jungle of the 8th National Assembly (1)

W PREAMBLE

e will again take a break this week from our analytical discourse on politicians’ decampments to look at the crisis currently bedeviling the National Assembly. It is such that if care is not taken, our hard warn democracy may be imperiled and endangered. This is why it is apposite to xray the recondite issues arising therefrom. The title of this piece is very apt. It is a nostalgic recall of the historic boxing tournament of October 30, 1974, in Kinshasa, Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), where at the 20th May Stadium, Champion Mohammed Ali (formerly Casius Clay), knocked out George Foreman (challenger), in the 8th round. This fight organized by then rookie, Don King, has been dubbed, arguably, the greatest sporting event of the 20th century, with a record attendance of 60, 000.They were not fighting the Vietnam War of 40 years earlier. It was about their pocket, the big purse. It was not in defence of the American flag. There had been spontaneous hunger and thirst to see Mohammed Ali fight again after he reclaimed his boxing licence which had been seized from him in 1967, when he rejected fighting in the Vietnam War. Would he reclaim his belt? Could he make it? Although Joe Frazier had beaten Ali in 1971, but Ali’s later 13 wins over others, including a rematch with Frazier, did not throw up the needed talisman to ignite world interest in this handsome “Louisville lip”. Boxing is passion. It is money. It is life. It is an afrodisia, an intoxicating liquor. At 32, Ali was not in his prime, Ali so book makers placed the now flat footed, more sluggish, but still loquacious and dancing Ali, at 40 = 1 odds. The fight, staged in Kinshasa, to burnish and bolster the diminishing image of Mobutu SeseSeko Kuku NgbenduWaZaBanga (the name is a sentence!), did much to whitewash the despotic and tyrannical terror. After using the “rope-a-dope” style to suck up Foreman’s best punches, Ali, as he had done to Liston in their 1965 rematch, bounced out of the ropes, like a meteore, to deliver the lethal right blow that floored Foreman and made him see zillions of twinkling stars. Ali had rewritten boxing history. He was once more the idol of the World, a global citizen. Our write up today is not about Ali, Frazier, boxing, Liston, Mobutu, or the “rumble in the jungle” in Kinshasa. It is not about money or fame. It is about our bi-cameral National Assembly (Senate and House of Representatives), where there has been a re-enactment of this epochal rumble in the jungle of Nigeria’s hallowed legislative Chambers. Tuesday, June 9, 2015, witnessed an earth shaking rumble in the parliamen-

The

Nigerian Project

MIKE OZEKHOME san, ofr mike.ozekhome@yahoo.com 08094777755 (sms only)

“Tuesday, June 9, 2015, witnessed an earth shaking rumble in the parliamentary jungle of Nigeria’s 8th National Assembly”

Saraki

Yakubu Dogara

Gbajabiamila

tary jungle of Nigeria’s 8th National Assembly. Nigeria was kept in a state of suspended animation. There was tension, palpable tension. The rippling effects were later to snowball into fisticuffs and pugilism, the type that certainly made Ali and Foreman’s “rumble in the jungle” pale to near historical insignificance. What went wrong? How did Nigeria find herself in this wanton exhibition of legislative rascality, adult delinquency and ominous signs of democratic hara-kiri? The June 9 event in the National Assembly promptly instigated party realignment, demystified some towering APC tin gods, oxygenated an otherwise gasping and prostrate PDP, that was already hemorrhaging within

from self inflicted wounds. The events altered the delicate political equation of the PDP and APC; and sent the right seering signals of the real “change” Nigerians expect from President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB)’s nascent Government. This incident and subsequent developments constitute an acid test of the delicate tussle between party supremacy and legislative independence. Baba Sala and his famous Alawadakerikeri troupe would have been green with envy at the classical display of histrionics and melodramatics in the events that played out. The Kings danced naked in the village square. The “egugun” masquerades were publicly and uncreremoniouslyderobed,while

the so called doctrine of party supremacy which ought to really work better in a Parliamentary system, and not in a presidential system), was shredded in to tatters and smithereens, and shown for the myth which it really is. THE TRAJECTORY OF THESE EVENTS The APC god fathers hadshowed preference for the leadership tickets of Lawan/Akume (Senate) and Femi Gbajabiamila/Munguno (House of Representatives). But they had a problem here. A gargantuan one. Majority of the Senators and members, House of Representatives, preferred Senator Bukola Saraki (Senate …….)

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By Aliu Eroje

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