Binder1111 saturday, march 29, 2014

Saturday Edition

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Saturday, MARCH 29, 2014 Vol. 1 No. 39

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Nigeria’s most authoritative newspaper in politics and business

S&P lowers Nigeria’s credit outlook to negative Ayodele Aminu

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enowned global rating agency, Standard & Poor’s has revised its outlook on Nigeria’s sovereign credit to negative from credit watch negative, citing continued infighting within

the ruling party (Peoples Democratic Party), which has heightened political and institutional risks.

It however, affirmed its ‘BB-’ long-term sovereign credit rating on Nigeria.

But reacting to this development, Managing Di-

rector, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, Mr. Bismarck Rewane, said the review was expected given the fact that Nigeria had been on the watch list.

“S&P are very thorough. If they had acceded to Nigeria’s plea, it sound as if they

have been compromised,” he said.

S&P had put Nigeria on a credit watch following its decision to review the country’s rating from “stable outlook”, citing lack of new information on the country, and the uncertain-

The North won’t boycott

ODION IRUOJE: AT HOME WITH THE KING OF BEATS }13 NEWS

ONE DAY AFTER COP KILLS 6 AND SELF, ANOTHER MAN IN OGUN BEHEADS EX-MAGISTRATE }10

—Amb Mamman N o northern delegate is contemplating a walkout or boycott of proceedings at the ongoing National Conference, the Northern Delegates Forum (NDF) gave assurances yesterday.

Spokesman of the NDF, Ambassador Yusuf Mamman, made the clarification in a telephone interview. Mamman’s statement came on the heels of the feisty comment

by Lamido Adamawa, Alhaji Mu-

NEWS

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Conference delegate Mamman Misau dies, buried p.2

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

C O N V E R S ATIO N

Conference Muhammad Ali, Kaduna

ty surrounding monetary policies after the suspension of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido, in February 2014.

The rating agency had made its intention to review Nigeria’s rating pen-

ultimate Friday, an action which the federal government had since appealed.

Coordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi OkonjoIweala, said the federal government had questioned the reasoning behind the review on the country’s stable out-

Tese Onokala: The Lawyer with the Tape

}18

Abia policemen abduct The Sun editor from Lagos HOME }9

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Content 29.03.14 CONVERSATION

INSTYLE

SHOWBIZ

THE ARTS

TRAVEL

At Home with a Veteran An evening with Odion Iruoje relives memories of the magic era that produced stars like Chris Okotie, Onyeka Onwenu and Ofege.

CO N TI N U ED F RO M PAGE 1

hammad Barkindo Mustapha, that northerners will walk out of the conference if “pushed to the } 13 wall” over mode of voting.

The issue of voting Flattering Jumpsuit procedure had polarised The versatility of the jumpsuit the conference along regional lines, with northmakes them an enduring ern delegates pushing item that hardly goes out of fashion. A few tips on how to for 75 percent majority flatter your figure with these. while southern delegates insisted that decisions } 16 should be arrived at by a A Double Act two-third majority.

Nigeria may have his heart, Mamman said membut singer Uche Agu “Double bers of the forum coDouble”, has his eyes set on chaired by Alhaji Ibrahim the US market.

Coomassie, former In} 35 spector General of Police and ex-information minister, Professor Jerry Gana, Fluid Narrative were among the group of An exhibition of works 50 delegates that broke the

by Olumide Oresegun in impasse on voting mode.

Lagos highlights a creative “The forum believes in engagement with simple a consensus drive agenda everyday scenes. and has in national inter} 23 est, shifted ground by accepting 70 percent instead Walk into the Past of 75 percent majority as A visit to Uturu Caves in Abia the mode of voting as earState reveals this long forgotten lier suggested,” he said. site could serve as a true tourist and cultural landscape with a little makeover.

} 38-39

SPORT

‘The North won’t boycott Conference’

Oozing Optimism Super Eagles striker Ahmed Musa is optimistic the national team would surpass Africa’s best performance at the World Cup in Brazil.

} 27

Mamman said that members of the forum believe in dialogue and will contribute in a robust and engaging debate in the interest of national harmony.

Lamido Adamawa’s reference to a possible walkout had irked some delegates and drawn condemnation from many Nigerians. He had said after tempers rose over voting pattern: “Listening to the debates and behaviour of some of the delegates here, it beats my imagination why a gathering of people like us will behave the way we are doing.

“The president delivered an address and laid down what we are supposed to discuss and what not to discuss. But many people here, some of them elder statesmen who claim to be strong loyalists of the president (the delegates increased their murmur) unfortunately, these people are in the forefront to contradict what the president

has said. In the long run, if we are not careful, this conference will flop. God forbid. If it flops, the effect will not be imaginable. If anything happens and the country disintegrates, God forbid, many of us who are shouting their heads off may not have anywhere to go. My people and the people of Adamawa have got somewhere to go. I am the Lamido of Adamawa and my kingdom extends to Cameroon. The larger part of my kingdom is in Cameroon. Part of that kingdom is today called Adamawa State in Cameroun. You see, if I run to that place, I will easily assimilate.

“I want to call on the chairman to please tread the path laid down by the President which includes the pattern of voting. If we are pushed to the wall, we will easily walkout of this conference. Jingoism is not the exclusive preserve of anyone. Everyone here is a potential jingoist.”

S&P lowers Nigeria’s credit outlook to negative CO N TI N U ED F RO M PAGE 1

look, stating that there had been positive macroeconomic developments since the release of the agency’s last rating on Nigeria.

She insisted that the move by the agency was un-

acceptable, especially on the issue of lack of information.

The minister said the agency should have upgraded their information on the country by reaching out to the relevant contacts and agencies it deals with

during the rating exercise.

She explained that S&P was under pressure penultimate week to file its ratings on sovereign countries and other obliCONTINUED ON PAGE 3

Conference delegate Mamman Misau dies, buried Louis ACHI and Onwuka NZESHI ABUJA

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allam Maman Misau, one of the 492 delegates to the ongoing national conference has been reported dead. Misau, a lawyer and retired Assistant Inspector General (AIG) of Police was said to have died of an undisclosed ailment at the National Hospital, Abuja.

He was aged 67. Misau came to limelight when a photograph of him sleeping at the national conference went viral on the internet and social media sites.

l Jonathan offers condolences

Until his demise on Thursday night, Misau was one of the six delegates representing the Association of Retired Police Officers of Nigeria(ARPON) at the conference.

An official of the conference who would not want his name in print confirmed the report but said that the secretariat of the national conference was making arrangements to contact the family of the deceased to facilitate his burial according to Islamic rights.

It is not clear if the deceased would be replaced by a

fresh delegate from ARPON as the National Conference Procedure Rules has not made provision for an eventuality such as death of a delegate.

Although delegates were yet to adopt the Rules of Procedure, there was a proposal for a clause providing that in the case of death of a principal officer, the President of Nigeria shall replace such an officer within forty eight hours to ensure the smooth and uninterrupted operation of the conference billed to last ninety days.

However, the Secretariat

of the Conference has made arrangements to take care of emergency medical cases for any delegate who falls sick during the sittings.

There is a sick bay at the National Judicial Institute (NJI) but delegates have also been instructed to submit the names and phone numbers of their doctors to the secretariat to ensure prompt response to emergencies.

There are several delegates who are in their seventies and they are attending the national conference as elder statesmen. In the last two

weeks many of these senior citizens have been moving around aided by their children or personal staff conversant with their physical and heath challenges.

President Goodluck Jonathan has meanwhile commiserated with the family of late Misau.

In a statement issued on Friday in Abuja by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr Reuben Abati, Jonathan also extended his condolences to the Bauchi State Government, and the chairman and delegates to the National Conference.

Abati said the President urged all delegates to

the conference to honour late Misau by rededicating themselves to work towards strengthening national unity, promote peace, security, political stability and faster development in the country.

He said that the President commiserated with members of the Association of Retired Police Officers on the passing away of Misau, who was one of their representatives at the conference.

“The President joins them in mourning Hamma Misau who patriotically served his nation, state and community throughout his 34 years of distinguished service in the Nigeria Police Force.”

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Oil theft: Two Britons arrested for offering bribe to soldier Ndubuisi Ugah with agency reports

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igeria yesterday said it has arrested two Britons and 10 of its own citizens on charges of trying to bribe a military officer to facilitate oil theft, according to Reuters.

Oil theft by armed gangs is rampant in Africa’s top crude pro ducing country, with estimates ranging from 100,000 barrels to

S&P lowers CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

gors owing to the change of regime imposed on rating agencies by the United Stated government, which requires them to submit reports twice a year.

“So when they called last week (penultimate week) saying they were changing their outlook for Nigeria from stable due to the unavailability of information and had a deadline to meet, we asked why.

“If they cannot send someone to come to the country for information, they should have at least called or reached the relevant contacts through their agents to get the relevant information needed for their assessment,” she said.

The minster added that the appeal was to give them room to upgrade their information before making public their rating report on Nigeria.

S&P had specifically given the suspension of Sanusi as reason for the impending change in the country’s outlook, stating that the suspension amounted to government interference with monetary policies. It therefore placed the country on a credit watch for a period of one week as a result of the appeal by the federal government.

However, Okonjo-Iweala specifically said the monetary policy regime was not a decision made by one man, noting that the decisions on monetary policies are made by a 12-man committee, which was recently appointed for another fouryear term.

“So I informed them about the newly appointed committee, which S&P claimed they were unaware of,” she said.

l Shell justifies use of trucks to transport crude from spill site in Bayelsa

250,000 barrels a day lost to so-called “bunkerers”.

The arrest came as Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) yesterday said its use of vacuum trucks to convey crude from oil fields in the Ikarama community of Bayelsa State was a measure to clean-up an earlier spill incident.

But Commander of the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) for the Niger Delta re-

gion, Major-General E.J. Atewe, said two of the bunkerers, both Nigerian, had gone to an officer to request clearance to move the crude oil.

“They had openly admitted their plan was to hack into a pipeline and connect a hose that would siphon crude out of it onto a waiting boat, and offered him $6,500 to provide a gunboat to protect them on the way out.

“The suspects were imme-

diately arrested for attempting to bribe the brigade commander for economic sabotage,” Atewe said in a statement.

“Stories of collusion with the security forces are common and the sheer scale of oil theft in Nigeria would not be possible without systematic collusion by various security agencies, security sources say.

“Loss of output from theft and outages caused by sabotaging pipelines has cost the treasury - which relies on oil for about 80 per cent of revenues - billions

of dollars. Critics, however, say theft is exaggerated to cover up embezzlement of oil revenues by officials in the state oil firm, a charge they deny,” he said.

Oil theft has contributed to the high likelihood Nigeria will lose its top African crude oil exporter spot in May, as exports could fall to their lowest since records began in 2009.

Production of the Forcados grade has been hit by underwater pipeline leakage, which Shell

blamed on oil theft, and which led the operator to declare force majeure on the grade this week.

Meanwhile, an SPDC Spokesman, Mr. Joseph Obari, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yenagoa, said the use of trucks to lift crude from Ikarama manifold was part of a clean-up process.

He described as untrue allegations by members of the community that the company had abandoned the use of its vandalised pipelines.

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NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

In the morning of Nigeria’s 2nd Century, with an eye on 2015, a year seen as a defining milestone for the country, New Telegraph brings an intense, informed focus on 500 politicians (men and women) that will determine the nation’s course.

In “2015: 500 Politicians To Watch,” New Telegraph, Nigeria’s most authoritative newspaper in politics and business X-rays and presents the well-known and dark horses in the political arena from across the country – contenders whose trajectories will shape the 2015 general elections.

“2015: 500 Politicians To Watch”

UNN posthumous award: APGA congratulates Bianca Ojukwu Temitope Ogunbanke

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he leadership and members of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), has congratulated the party’s National Leader, Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, on the occasion of posthumous award of honorary doctorate degree in Law being conferred on her late husband, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, as part of activities marking the 43rd convocation of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

APGA in a statement made available to New Telegraph yesterday by Victor Chigozie Eneh, Senior Media Assistant to APGA National Chairman, Chief Maxi Okwu, noted that: “The award which will be received by Ambassador Ojukwu, the living symbol of his legacy, is an eloquent testimony of his selfless service

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KADUNA

BADAGRY

NCC assures consumers

to humanity.

“We commend the authorities of the University of Nigeria Nsukka for acknowledging and recognising the achievements of Dim Ojukwu in our collective quest at building a strong, virile, prosperous and egalitarian society.

“The award will spur his family as exemplified by his wife Ambassador Bianca Ojukwu, our great party APGA he personified and his followers worldwide to work for a united, progressive and just nation where no citizen is oppressed or marginalised.”

While paying tribute to Ojukwu, APGA noted that: “Ojukwu was the champion of the masses who abhorred injustice, promoted education as an instrument of intellectual development and national emancipation. He was an embodiment of patriotism, nobility, integrity and humility.”

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The Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) has said that it will continue to put pressure on telecom operators in the country to provide optimal services to customers.

The Executive Vice-Chairman of the commission, Dr. Eugene Jumah, gave the assurance in a message to the 62nd edition of the NCC Consumer Outreach Programme, held at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State.

Represented by the Deputy Director, Consumer Affairs, Dr. Femi Atoyebi, Jumah said the commission would sanction any service provider.

N10.1bn

The total internally generated revenue of Akwa Ibom State in 2010.

(Source: National Bureau of Statistics)

DPP absolves Lagos cleric of murder

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) has absolved the founder of a church -- Perfect Christianity Mission, Pastor Sign Fireman, of complicity in the murder of a 12-year-old girl, one Ikechukwu Egbo in Badagry, Lagos State on December 31, 2013.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that this was contained in a legal advice by the DPP to the Deputy Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigations Department, M.A.K. Smith Street, Yaba.

8.78m

The total population of Melanesia region in 2010 (representing 0.13% of the world’s population).

(Source: Blatantworld.com)

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LAGOS

Adenuga receives award Chairman, Globacom Limited, Dr. Mike Adenuga, was on Thursday honoured with the Distinguished Old Students Award of his Alma Mater, Ibadan Grammar School.

As part of the Third Venerable Emmanuel Alayande Memorial lecture and awards of the school, which clocks 101 years next week. Other awardees included the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo; Professor Akin Mabogunje, Mr. Goodie Ibru, Senator Ken Nnamani, Justice Badejoko Olateju; Chief Judge of Oyo State and Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Ayotunde Adeyoola Phillips.

14.9

The total number of fixedtelephone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants in Asia Pacific region in 2009.

(Source:Itu.int)

Police arrest gunman at Fayemi’s rally Adesina Wahab Ado-Ekiti

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man, Famuyide Oluwafemi, 29, allegedly armed with a gun and one expended ammunition was on Thursday arrested at the venue of the mega rally organised by Ekiti State Governor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, for his re-election bid.

Disclosing this in AdoEkiti yesterday, the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Felix Uyanna, said the suspect was intercepted by policemen while going to the Kayode Oluyemi Stadium, Ado-Ekiti, the venue of the event.

Uyanna stated that Oluwafemi concealed the toy gun and other items in a bag.

The CP added that the suspect described himself as a student of Ekiti State University and a 300-level Mechanical Engineering student with matriculation number 10UST0882.

In a related development, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the command, Mr. Victor Babayemi, has given the assurance that police are up to the task of securing all venues to be used for rallies by political parties in the build up to the June 21 governorship election in the state.

Gaddafi’s son apologises, asks for forgiveness

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aadi Gaddafi, detained son of late Libyan dictator, Moammar Gaddafi, has apologised for what he called “my attempts to destabilise the country” and asked for forgiveness.

“I should have helped achieve renaissance in the country. I shouldn’t have carried out such deeds. I want Libya’s leaders, people, government and the Congress (parliament) to forgive me,” he said without elaborating in a video broadcast late on Thurs-

day on Libya’s state television according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Saadi, Gaddafi’s third son, was extradited earlier this month by Niger, where he sought refuge after armed uprising in 2011 against his father.

Saadi, 40, appeared in the footage in good health apparently to quash rumours that he had been tortured in prison.

Gaddafi, who ruled Libya for 42 years, was captured and killed in October 2011.

L-R: President Goodluck Jonathan; President Boni Yayi of Benin Republic and President Yayah Jammeh of Gambia, at the 44th Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS meeting in Yamoussoukro , Cote’d’Iviore …yesterday.

Court strikes out defecting PDP lawmakers’ suit Tunde Oyesina Abuja

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Federal High Court sitting in Abuja yesterday struck out the suit filed by 79 members of the National Assembly that defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC) seeking to stop the PDP and the Leadership of House from declaring their seats vacant.

Delivering judgement in the suit, the presiding judge, Justice A.R Mohammed, held that the PDP cannot give effect to its threat to declare their seats vacant.

The court however told the affected law makers not to entertain any fears about

the possibility of the party influencing the declaration of their seats vacant in view of the pendency of two cases it filed on the issue.

The court held that the PDP and its chairman, having filed two separate suits, seeking that the seats of the law makers be declared vacant, could no longer proceed with their threat to ensure that the legislators’ seats were declared vacant while the cases were still pending.

The judgement was sequel to the suit by the 79 legislators, who sued the PDP and leaders of the National Assembly over threat by the party to declare their seats vacant.

The lawmakers, included

22 Senators and 57 members House of Representatives.

Justice Mohammed held that since the kernel of the suit by the legislators was the threat by the PDP to declare their seats vacant, the threat no longer exist because the party and its chairman have realised they have no such powers and have submitted the issue before the court for determination.

The judge further held that since the issue of whether or not the seats of the defecting law makers could be declared vacant was yet to be resolved in the pending cases, the suit by the law makers was no longer necessary.

Justice Mohammed also held that the suit by the law makers was now without any life issue and had become an academic exercise since the threat that informed their filing the suit no longer exists with the pendency of the two suits by the PDP. He held that the law makers have the opportunity of arguing their position in the pending cases.

He consequently struck out the one by the law makers.

Earlier, the court had dismissed a motion by the law makers for an indefinite adjournment, in view of their pending application before the Court of Appeal, Abuja division.

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BAUCHI

LAGOS

Congress: APC harps on registered members

‘Teachers’ competency test will improve education’

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Bauchi State yesterday stated that only registered members of the party would be considered as delegates and contestants during its forthcoming congresses, scheduled for April.

The state Chairman of the party, Dr. Danjuma Dabo, told the to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi.

Dabo said membership registers in the wards, would be used to determine who would participate in the congress.

A former Vice-Chancellor, Covenant University, Ota in Ogun State, Prof. Aize Obayan, has said the competency tests recommended for teachers by some state governments was a step in the right direction.

Obayan, who made the remark in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos, reported that some states in the SouthWest had begun an assessment of teachers in public primary and secondary schools to ascertain their skills and competence.

FCT Maina tasks women delegates on gender issues Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, has advised women delegates at the ongoing national conference to work together to project gender mainstreaming in the country.

Maina, who made this call in an interactive meeting with female delegates and parliamentarians in Abuja yesterday, said there should be unity of purpose to align issues of women and girls into the development processes.

N.5bn

$1.2m

N451bn

The Agodi Gardens, which is currently under reconstruction by the Oyo State Government is to generate about N500 million annually.

General Electric (GE) has adopted a technical school for manpower training in Nigeria at $1.2 million (N200million).

The amount the Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan, signed into law for the 2014 fiscal year.

JAMB to conduct UTME in seven countries

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egistrar, Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof. Dibu Ojerinde, yesterday said the 2014 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) would also be conducted in seven countries.

Ojerinde, who stated this while fielding questions from journalists at the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), said the examination, scheduled for April, would also take place in Accra (Ghana), Johannesburg (South Africa), Cameroun, Jeddah (Saudi Arabia), Ivory Coast, London (UK) and Cotonou (Benin Republic).

He said JAMB was prepared to conduct a smooth and hitch-free examination in all accredited centres in the country.

The JAMB Registrar said about 160 examination cen-

tres were accredited to conduct the electronic-based examination, pointing out that the number of centres was increased this year.

“Last year, the board had only fifty-five centres,” he said.

The Registrar said about 300 examination centres applied, adding that only 160 were accredited because they met with the Board’s requirements.

He said the centres would have steady power supply with back-up facilities if there were power out-ages.

On the level of education in the country, Ojerinde said that polytechnics and colleges of education offered the best technical training in the country.

“The federal and state governments must revamp and reposition the institutions to meet the demands of the education sector,” he said.

Alison-Madueke: Group tasks N’Assembly on policies Jude Opara Abuja

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Vice-President, Namadi Sambo (right), exchanging pleasantries with the Chairman, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Ibrahim Dahiru Waziri, during a meeting on TCN at the Presidential Villa, in Abuja…yesterday

Imo Assembly sets up panel to probe Speaker FRAUD Imo Assembly sets up panel to investigate fraud allegation Steve Uzoechi Owerri

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fter three weeks of recess, the Imo State House of Assembly resumed yesterday with the setting up of a six-man panel to investigate allegations of corruption and fraud levelled against the Speaker of the assembly, Hon. Benjamin Uwajumogu, by his former Senior Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Samuelson Iwuoha.

Members of the panel

include Messrs Acho Ihim, Geoffrey Ekennia, Stan Dara, Celestine Ngobiwu, Mike Ndubuaku and Ikenna Emeh, who is the chairman of the panel.

The panel comes more than a month after Iwuoha took his petition against the speaker to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

Reacting to the inauguration of the probe panel to look into his allegations, Iwuoha dismissed the panel as a facesaving gimmick initiated by the speaker to salvage himself from a bad situation.

According to him, “It is an April Fool’s panel which is designed only to serve the interest of the Speaker.

With Ikenna Emeh, a well known confidant of the

Speaker, as the Chairman of the panel, he will execute a very good hatchet job and nearly everyone who has been around long enough, would be able to guess the outcome of an Emeh-led probe panel.”

He maintained that the case has gone beyond the assembly and beyond the state government and firmly in the hands of the EFCC. “Ironically, on the 7th of November, 2013, I officially informed the Speaker of the fraudulent activities going on in his office involving his Chief of Staff, Mr. Kaodichi Anamekwe, I requested him to set up a panel for me to appear and prove my allegations but instead of investigating my allegations, the speaker issued me a query demand-

ing why I should accuse his Chief of Staff of corruption and fraud.

“On the 20th of December, 2013, I also wrote to the governor notifying him and requesting a probe, my letter was not replied and now the EFCC has commenced investigations, they have conspired to set up a convenient kangaroo probe panel, more than four months after my plea for probe was turned down by this same parliament.”

With the consequent distrust and fear for his safety, after he blew the whistle on the alleged fraudulent activities in the Speaker’s office, Samuelson Iwuoha had resigned his appointment as an aide to the Speaker of the Imo state House of Assembly.

s the controversy over the alleged use of N10 billion to rent private aircraft by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, members of the House of Representatives have been urged to concentrate more on making laws for the country instead of engaging alleged witchhunting officials.

A group, Stand-Up Nigeria, while reacting to the decision of the lawmakers to probe the minister over the issue said it

will benefit the nation more if the lawmakers reduce their speed of investigating government officials by creating laws that will improve the country.

Addressing a press conference yesterday in Abuja, President of the group, Bonaventure Melah, said even as the acting Group General Manager of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, had explained that the minister never chartered any aircraft for her personal use, the House members are still interested in pulling her down.

NGO plans sensitisation on power transfer to youths group, “Grassroots Initia“We are pushed to orAOrientation” tive for Peace and Social ganise this sensitisation , yesterday said it because the youth of the would embark on a national campaign aimed at transferring power in Nigeria to youths.

Briefing journalists, after its national executive council meeting in Abuja, spokesman of the body, Mr. Murphy Adoga, said after due consideration, they came to the conclusion that the youth had become a political sales point with everyone.

He said: “They were planning well for the youth of the country but would not involve them in running the affairs.

country which forms majority of the population are being left out in the running of the affairs of the country.

“Can you imagine that the youth leader in one of the political parties in the country was 65 years whereas anyone above 40 years should no longer consider himself a youth. We want to launch a proactive action to reform the country as we have been groping too long in the dark under the leadership of the old generation”, he said.

Ekiti guber: I’ll dethrone Fayemi as gov - Fayose

YOLA CBN okays N886m loans for farmers in Adamawa

� Gov faults Bamidele’s claim Onyekachi Eze and Adesina Wahab The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the June 21 Ekiti State gubernatorial election, Mr. Ayodele Fayose, has boasted that he will defeat the incumbent, Governor Kayode Fayemi in the election.

Fayose, who was at the PDP national headquarters in Abuja, yesterday to receive his Certificate of Return, claimed that he made Fayemi governor and was ready to send him back where he brought him from.

“I brought Fayemi into office and I will take him to where he belongs to. Fayemi knows what my emergence means in the race and he has enough reasons to be afraid of me. I defeated a sitting governor who is now his (Fayemi’s) godfather. And if I

defeated the godfather how much more the godson, I will crush him.

He described Fayemi as an intelligent man, who knows a political lion when he sees one, noting: “I am a political lion; I live in jungle and his days in office are numbered. Some people said they will attack me but I dare them to do that. That cannot happen. They know I am a political lion and when the lion roars, you know what it means.”

Meanwhile, Fayemi has faulted the claim by the governorship candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr. Opeyemi Bamidele, that more than half of Fayemi’s cabinet are loyal to him (Bamidele).

Speaking yesterday through his Commissioner for Information, Mr. Tayo Ekundayo, the governor said Bamidele’s claim was preposterous.

Idachaba: Nomination process for National Merit Award compromised

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he Chairman of the new Governing Board of Nigerian National Merit Award (NNMA), Prof. Francis Idachaba, has raised alarm over the quality of the Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM), alleging that the assessment process for nominating award recipients of has been compromised.

Idachaba made this allegation yesterday in Abuja, during the inauguration of the new eight-man Governing Board of the NNMA by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator Anyim Pius Anyim.

Other members of the Board include Professors Laz Ekwueme, Andrew Nok, G.T Olutula, John Enaohwo, Garba Goje, Paul Onaji, and Mr. Abiodu Oyemade, who is representing Office of the SGF (OSGF).

Speaking further, the Board Chairman disclosed that there

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has been undue pressure on him to employ more personnel into the assessor team of the NNMA, some of whose discipline and integrity are questionable.

He said: “I have inherited a surprising,indeed bewildering,employment frenzy in the final days of the sixthNNMA board,an employment frenzy that has little or nothing to do with the mission and objectives of NNMA. “More worrying is the fact that the sixth NNMA board appears,unfortunately,to have been compromised in this employment frenzy. Equally worrying is the near certainty that the bloated personnel will compromise the cherished integrity of the NNMA assessment process,create serious problems of discipline and focus and erode public confidence in the integrity of the NNMA.

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has guaranteed more than N886 million worth of loans for farmers in Adamawa State.

An Assistant Director with the bank, Alhaji Abba Baba, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Yola, yesterday that 8,854 farmers had benefitted from the scheme, aimed at achieving national food security.

Baba said: “CBN has guaranteed a total of N886, 792,736 million for 8,854 farmers in Adamawa from 2012 to date.”

BAUCHI

7

CALABAR Tourism: PENGASSAN hails Cross River Govt

Cholera: Bauchi chlorinates 60,000 wells

The Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) has lauded the Cross River State Government for initiating a world-class conference facility which will serve as an iconic event place in the sub-Sahara Africa.

Speaking after a two-day conference in Calabar yesterday, Chairman of PENGASSAN, Chevron Nigeria Limited branch, Mr. Frank Esanubi, said: “The project is a novel idea and one project that I will advise government to ensure its completion before the expiration of this administration because it will add value to their tourism drive.”

Bauchi State Ministry of Health yesterday said it had treated about 60,000 wells across the state with chlorine as a proactive measure against the outbreak of cholera in the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Sani Malami, who disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi, said cholera was a dangerous disease that should not be treated with levity.

New Commander, NNS Jubilee, Ikot Abasi, Akwa Ibom State, Commodore JI Ogazi (left), and Governor Godswill Akpabio, during the commander’s courtesy visit to the governor in Government House, Uyo…yesterday

Rivers govt: NJC suspension of Agumagu unlawful Joe Ezuma Port Harcourt

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he Rivers State Government yesterday reacted to the suspension slammed on the state Chief Judge, Justice P.N.C. Agumagu, by the National Judicial Commission (NJC), stating that it was unconstitutional.

In a statement issued late Thursday by the state Commissioner for Information

8m The projected number of deaths of smokers in 2030 if current smoking patterns continue (Source: Globalissues.org)

and Communications, Ms. Ibim Semenitari, the government was dismayed at the NJC’s decision, which it described as “unprecedented,” “unlawful” and “against the clear provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and the established tenets of federalism.”

The statement reads “The attention of the Rivers State Government has been drawn to a statement by the spokesperson for

the National Judicial Council (NJC), Mr. Soji Oye, announcing the purported suspension of the recently appointed Agumagu by the NJC. “The state government also notes further, the unprecedented but unlawful threat by the NJC, to dismiss a sitting Chief Judge of a state as contained in the said statement – against the clear provisions of the Nigerian Constitution and

the established tenets of federalism.

“The Rivers State Government wishes to state its utter dismay at the position of the NJC especially as its immediate effects are to undermine the tenets and processes of justice delivery in Nigeria, the hard-earned reputation of a very fine judge, and the integrity of the Nigerian judiciary while eroding the Olympian stature of the NJC.

895m

140m

The number of active mobile-broadband subscriptions of Asia & Pacific in 2013.

The number of individuals using the internet in Africa in 2012.

(Source: Itu.int)

(Source: Itu.int)

I didn’t collect N25m for APC registration – Lawmaker Clement James Calabar

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he member representing Obubra 2 State Constituency and the only All Progressives Congress (APC) member in the

Cross River State House of Assembly, Mr. Alex Irek, has clarified that he only collected N12 million and not N25 million from a certain governor during the last APC registration exercise in the state.

Irek, who is the interim chairman of the party in the state, made the refutal in an exclusive interview with New Telegraph yesterday in Calabar.

It would be recalled that APC conducted registration

exercise for potential members last month which, in the state, was marred by allegation of corruption.

Irek however, accepted that he collected N12 million from the governor (name withheld).

“Yes, it is true that I collected N12 million and not N25 million as alleged.

Those who sent the text messages around are just envious. Everybody wants to be like Alex Irek because I defied the state government

by winning an election for APC,” the Minority Leader said.

He said he was not alone when the governor gave him the money and couldn’t have cornered the whopping amount of N12 million.

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IBADAN Olubadan to honour Mark, Soyinka, others

N EWS I N BRIEF

The Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Samuel Odulana, will confer honourary chieftaincy titles on three prominent Nigerians, Senate President David Mark, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and America-based Historian, Prof. Toyin Falola, to mark his 100th birthday clebration.

Chairman of the Publicity SubCommittee for the Olubadan Centenary Birthday, Chief Lekan Alabi, said this at a news conference in Ibadan.

TUNIS ‘APRM not dead’ Chief Executive Officer, NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency, Dr. Ibrahim Mayaki, has advised Africans to reject pessimistic tendencies as the continent is on course to shaping its regional integration.

Mayaki gave the advice yesterday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sideline of the ongoing 28th African Regional Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) in Tunis, Tunisia.

He attributed conflicts in some parts of the continent to artificial boundaries inherited from the colonial masters.

GOMBE PDP holds retreat for publicity secretaries in Yenagoa The leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday announced that it would hold a two-day special retreat for state and zonal publicity secretaries of the party, which has been scheduled to hold in Yenagoa, the Bayelsa State capital between April 2 and 4.

A statement by the National Publicity Secretary of the party, Mr. Olisa Metuh, said the event will hold at 9a.m. at the Ijaw House, along Sani Abacha expressway in the state capital.

Dangote joins race for Shell’s assets ACQUISITION Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote is moving to acquire Shell’s stake in the OML 18 gas field.

Adeola Yusuf

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he Dangote Group, owned by Africa’s richest man has joined the race for the assets, which shell put for sale in Nigeria.

Two local firms - Taleveras and Aiteo have also made the highest bid of $2.85 billion for the biggest of four Shell assets up for sale, but the oil major is holding out while it tries to persuade them to team up with Seplat, an existing operator.

The total assets, which include stakes in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 18 and the 18 kilometers Nembe

Creekline are estimated to worth $3 billion.

Dangote, it was gathered, has put in the highest bid for Shell’s stake on OML 18 in an auction the Anglo-Dutch giant organised last year in the Niger Delta.

On the field, which houses reserves of nearly 1.5 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BOE) of gas, Shell operates the Alakiri Creek plant which processes 80 MMpc/d of gas, a figure that will shortly rise to 120 mmsf/d.

The plant belongs to the Shell East Nigeria Gas Cluster that counts other processing plants on Okoloma, Obigbo and Imo River.

Like Sahara Energy, which has just acquired OML 24 from Shell, Dangote already tried to buy stakes from the major in 2010, putting in a bid for Shell’s 45 per cent holding on OML 30, to no avail.

Neither Dangote nor Sahara responded to requests for comment from Reuters.

Dangote, who owns two power plants and several cement factories, is more interested in the gas, two sources said. The blocks between them have more than 1.5 trillion standard cubic feet (scf ) of gas, they said Up until now, the Dangote Group of Companies, primarily active in cement, had held only minority stakes in the upstream, all of which it acquired during the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo, whom Dangote strongly supported.

Several oil industry sources told Reuters that, although there is little doubt the duo of Dangote and Sahara can raise cash for the block, Shell is concerned about the reputational risk of selling it to two exporters of crude and importers of gasoline that have no previous experience in running producing oil assets.

Shell is divesting its 30 per cent stake in four Nige-

rian oil blocks, with France’s Total and Italy’s Eni also set to profit from their 10 per cent and 5 per cent shares.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) owns the remaining 55 per cent.

Experts are however, concerned about the reputational risk of selling it to two exporters of crude and importers of gasoline that have no previous experience in running producing oil assets.

Meanwhile, the price of oil rose above $102 a barrel yesterday amid signs of stronger economic growth in the United States and possible disruptions to Nigerian crude exports.

By mid-afternoon in Europe, benchmark US crude for May delivery was up 84 cents to $102.12 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The Nymex contract gained $1.02 to $101.28 on Thursday.

Yuguda names new airport after Tafawa Balewa

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he new airport built by the Bauchi State Government, has been named after the first Prime Minister of Nigeria, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

Governor Isa Yuguda made this known yesterday to journalists, shortly after he arrived at the airport to assess preparations for its inauguration by President Goodluck Jonathan today.

He said the airport, located about 20 kilometres along Bauchi-Kano Road, is to be known as “Abubakar Tafawa Balewa International Airport.”

Yuguda said naming the airport after the late prime

minister was in recognition of his contribution to the development of the country.

“God has given the Bauchi people the opportunity to be part of Nigeria’s great history by producing the first Prime Minister in the country.

“As you are all aware, most international airports are named after prominent persons, especially past presidents.

“As far as Bauchi State is concerned, we owe him (Tafawa Balewa), for placing the state on the map of prominent states in the country; so it is an honour naming the airport after him,” he said.

NIS test: Prosecute Moro for manslaughter, says CACOL Temitope Ogunbanke group, Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders (CACOL), has called for the prosecution of the Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, over the circumstances that led to the death of 16 people during the March 15 ill-fated recruitment exercise into the Nigerian Immigration Service.

This came on the heels of the apology tendered by the minister to Nigerians while appearing before the Atiku Bagudu-led Senate Committee on Interior probing the fatal exercise.

Moro had accepted responsibility for the tragedy which he said could have been averted if the exercise had been attended by only those that registered online for it. Before he spoke, the Comptroller-General of the NIS, Mr. David Par-

A

radang and the Secretary of the Civil Defence, Fire, Immigration and Prisons Services Board, Mr. Sylvanus Tapgun, had told the committee that they were not properly carried along by the ministry in the planning of the exercise.

But CACOL in a statement by its Executive Chairman, Mr. Debo Adeniran, noted that the minister’s apology does not absolve him of culpability.

The statement reads in part: “It is a good thing that the minister accepted the fault for the ill-fated exercise.

It must however be noted that the apology does not absolve him of being culpable.”

He was employed, not to perpetrate failure, but to make things easier for the President who engaged his services.

National Conference: Banker tasks delegates on tax administration

A

Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State (with microphone) addressing members of the Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Operators and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACCOMORAN) in the state, who paid him a solidarity visit at the Governor’s Office, Ibadan…yesterday

PHOTO: OYO GOVERNMENT HOUSE

n appeal has gone to the delegates at the National Conference, holding in Abuja to address the issue of corporate taxation to reflect the principle of true federalism.

In a statement issued yesterday, by an investment banker, Mr. Nasir Gboyega Isiaka, while congratulating President Goodluck Jonathan for the convocation of the conferencedescribed it

as a welcome development.

He, however, urged the delegates to “take another look at our tax laws with a view to addressing the issue of corporate taxation vis-avis tax administration and collection.

“It is my opinion that each tax jurisdiction should be responsible for all taxes in its jurisdiction in accordance with the principle of true federalism.”

Mark: We must strengthen our democratic institutions Chukwu David Abuja

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resident of the Senate, Senator David Mark, has harped on the need for African nations to build and strengthen democratic institutions as a measure towards ensuring that civil rule is not bastardised or truncated.

Speaking when the Executive Secretary of Zimbabwe based African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) Professor Emmanuel Nnadozie, briefed him on the activities of the continental body in Abuja, Mark pointed that Nigerians have accepted democracy as the best form of government and a way of life.

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“In Nigeria, we have experimented uninterrupted democracy for 15 years. Nigerians believe and have truly accepted it as the best form of government and now our way of life. All we ask from international organisations such as yours is support in the arrears of capacity building and grants to help our democratic institutions grow,” he said.

Already, the ACBF has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), with Nigeria’s Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS) Abuja for manpower development.

Mark, who was highly delighted that democracy had taken firm root in Nigeria, expressed optimism that it would be sustained.

IKEJA LOKOJA ‘2,232 estate surveyors, Kogi assures residents on infrastructure provision valuers registered Kogi Deputy Governor, Mr. Yomi since 1975’ The Estate Surveyors and Valuers Awoniyi, has reiterated the commitment of the state government Registration Board of Nigeria to provide basic infrastructure to (ESVARBON) registered only 2,232 the people of Kabba-Bunu Local estate surveyors and valuers since Government Area. inception in 1975. The Registrar Awoniyi gave the assurance in Lokoja of ESVARBON, Mr. Thomas Audu, yesterday when he received in audigave the figure in an interview ence, the Kabba–Bunu Leadership with the News Agency of Nigeria Forum, led by Dr. Stephen Olurunfemi.

(NAN) in Lagos. He said 160 He said the ongoing upgrade of the surveyors would be inducted and structures and facilities at the St. registered by the board in April.

Augustine College, Kabba, and the Audu said that the board was rehabilitation of Kabba townworking with the Nigerian Institu- ship roads were demonstrations tion of Estate Surveyors and Valu- of government’s efforts in social development. ers on the registration process.

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BAUCHI Bauchi to establish technology incubation centre The Bauchi State Government yesterday said it had concluded plans to establish a Technology Incubation Centre that would train a minimum of 1,000 youths annually in various trades.

The state’s Commissioner for Science and Technology, Alhaji Bala Abdullahi, said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bauchi.

He said N24.19 million contract had already been awarded for the renovation and fencing of the temporary site, before making arrangement for a permanent site.

90.1%

N7.7bn

327.19m

The male percentage of internet users of Finland in 2012.

Source: Itu.int

The total internally generated revenue of Anambra State in 2010.

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

The total population of Eastern Africa region in 2010 (representing 4.74% of the world’s population).

Source: Blatantworld.com

Abia policemen abduct The Sun editor from Lagos

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L-R: Hon. Chi Onwuzor; a guest and Sokoto State Governor, Aliyu Wamakko, at the sixth British Parliament on the African Diaspora, held at the Parliament in Westminster, London…recently

Kukah blames northern elite for Boko Haram insurgency Uwakwe Abugu Awka

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he Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, yesterday accused the Northern elite of contributing to the emergence of the Bokom Haram insurgency by neglecting the ordinary people in their immediate environment for some years now.

He also warned the federal government against over dependence on the use of military force to tackle the insurgency, saying the strategy was capable of creating a hyper sense of importance in the military class, at the detri-

zz Warns FG against over dependence on military force ment of democratic leaders.

The cleric spoke at a lecture marking the 43rd convocation ceremony of the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka, where the former deputy senate president, Chief Ken Nnamani, was chairman of the occasion.

While stating that the Northern elite shared in the blame for the emergence of the sect, Kukah said the elite should take responsibility for the deplorable state of affairs, owing to their neglect of the common people, who voted them into power.

Speaking further, he said

the Northern elite abandoned the masses, which culminated in the emergence of the sect, adding that government’s attitude had not also helped matters.

According to him, terrorism starts with the recruitment of people, who are vulnerable and see no foreseeable end to their vulnerability in a society where the haves would not care about the plight of the have-not.

Kukah, who also picked holes in the ongoing National Conference, particularly in the timing of the conference, said bloodletting had con-

tinued to dominate national issues, without any corresponding solution in sight.

“If you go there, you find out that so far, everybody is talking about everyone else and none is talking about Nigeria. It is important for Nigerians to forgive one another to save the nation,” he said.

On the theme of the lecture, ‘After the Insurgency: Some Thoughts On National Cohesion’, Kukah said government at all the levels had not been vigilante enough on intelligence gathering, which was supposed to be the focal point in guarding the nation’s sovereign.

olicemen from the Abia State Command yesterday stormed the Surulere, Lagos, residence of Mr. Ebere Wabara, The Sun’s Associate Editor and Special Assistant on Media to Dr. Uzor Orji Kalu, and whisked him away.

A statement from Sun’s management said the incident happened between 6.30 and 7a.m in the presence of Wabara’s wife and underaged children. The statement adds that the policemen from the State CID, Umuahia, had identified themselves to Wabara, and told him that some unnamed person had written a petition against him in Abia State. He was, therefore, asked to follow them to the state, where he would be charged with sedition.

Wabara was said to have been taken initially to Sholoki Police Station in Aguda, Surulere, and later to Oyingbo police station, also in Lagos.

Speaking on how the abduction drama unfolded, Adanna Wabara, a mother of two kids aged eight and six years, respectively, said between 6.30a.m. and 7a.m., her husband had gone downstairs to take something from his car.

“Shortly after, I heard him shouting, and I ran downstairs. I saw between seven and eight men, who said they were policemen. They said he needed to follow them to Umuahia, that there was a petition against him for sedition.

“They took us back into

the house, one of them brought out an I.D Card, showing that he was a policeman. They requested to search our bedroom. They did, and collected my husband’s laptop and telephone.

“I followed as they took him to Sholoki Police Station, but later, I had to take the children to school. By the time I returned, they had moved him away. His phones could not be reached, and he had not eaten.

Now, we are deeply traumatized, the entire family.”

The statement signed by the company’s Managing Director and Editor in Chief, Mr. Femi Adesina, said: “The Sun Publishing Limited sees the abduction of Mr Wabara obviously on the orders of the Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr Adamu Ibrahim, and perhaps under the further instruction of the state governor, Chief T. A. Orji, as a throwback to the dark days of military dictatorship, when might was right, and the strong trampled on the weak.”

The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Frank Mba, was said to have made “quality efforts to resolve the matter” when contacted, and urged that Mr Wabara’s statement be taken in Lagos, and that he be given the opportunity to thereafter report in Umuahia.

“But apparently, the invaders from Abia had another design, obviously to keep him in detention over the weekend. It is simply despicable,” the statement noted.

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Police corporal forewarned ahead of killings - Residents

Guard beheads retired magistrate in Ogun Kunle Olayeni

Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

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he Ogun State Police Command yesterday said it had taken custody of the two children of a police corporal, Sunkanmi Ogunbiyi, who killed his wife and six others in Abeokuta.

This came as revelations emerged that the killer-cop had last week threatened to deal with some of the victims.

Ogunbiyi, who was reportedly attached to the Zone 2 Area Command, Oke-Ilewo, Abeokuta until the incident, on Thursday morning killed himself immediately after shooting his victims to death.

The killer cop had stormed a six-room apartment at No. 67, Ifelodun Street, Akingbala area of Obantoko, Abeokuta and opened fire on seven people.

The deceased included Corporal Oluwatosin Faremi (wife), a commercial motorcyclist identified as Kunle, a landlady, Iya Basira; the landlady’s daughter, Basira, her sons Taofeek and Sikiru as well as a two-year-old grandchild, Jesutofunmi.

Three other persons, who sustained gunshot injuries in the incident, were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre, IdiAba, Abeokuta for treatment.

The corporal was said to have spared his two

children who had dressed up in their school uniforms.

But speaking yesterday with New Telegraph yesterday, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Muyiwa Adejobi, said investigation was still ongoing into the incident.

Adejobi, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, disclosed that the command had already taken custody of the two children of the late police corporal.

“The two children are in safe hands. The command is intensifying efforts to unravel the circumstances surrounding the incident. Some relations of the victims have been coming to the command. We cannot say much now until the outcome of the forensic investigation into the matter,” he said.

Me a nwh i l e , s o m e residents of Akingbala Estate in Obantoko area where the killings took place yesterday claimed the killer-cop had indeed warned of dire consequences a week ago.

According to two residents of the area, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Ogunbiyi stormed the six-room apartment and warned the landlady to desist from harbouring his wife and children whenever crisis erupted between him and the wife.

Abeokuta

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arely 48 hours after a rampaging police corporal killed seven people and subsequently committed suicide in Abeokuta, tragedy again struck in the capital of Ogun State yesterday.

A guard, identified simply as David, threw the Laderin Estate, Abeokuta into mourning as he beheaded a 65-yearold retired magistrate, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Timeyin.

Eyewitnesses said the incident happened about 3:30 p.m. when the killer-guard gained entry into the deceased’s bungalow by scaling the fence.

The late Timeyin, who retired as a senior magistrate in the state judiciary, was said to have employed the killer-

guard about two months ago.

The New Telegraph on Saturday gathered that the guard, who hailed from Benue State, was later sacked after he allegedly stole the jewellery, mobile phones and electronics of his employer.

It was learnt that the guard came back to the house to demand some money from the late judge shortly after regaining freedom from police custody.

David was said to have promptly deactivated the security system in the house and lurked in one corner while the unsuspecting retired magistrate just came back from an outing.

Timeyin parked her blue Toyota Camry marked Lagos KJA 141 BU outside the house apparently planning to go out again.

Eyewitnesses further told New Telegraph that while the guard was macheting his victim, the son of the deceased, Olumide, was at the gate attempting to gain entry.

The alarm raised by Olumide that a thief was inside his mother’s house attracted the attention of neighbours and a vigilante member who was passing by.

Before help could come, the guard was said to have slaughtered the retired senior magistrate and fled into a nearby bush.

It, however, took the bravery of a vigilante member, Oluseye Fasina, who raced after the suspect and arrested him. The suspect was subsequently handed over to the police.

As at press time report, the state Chief Judge, Justice Olatokunbo Olopade, and

Crowd of sympathisers at the scene of the incident...yesterday

the Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Chief Muyiwa Oladipo, had visited the scene.

Various legal practitioners, sympathisers and residents continued to throng the magistrate residence yesterday.

Though the state Police Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi, could not be reached for comments, policemen from Kemta Division were at the scene to conduct investigation into the murder.

The Commander of Vigilante Service of Ogun State, Mukaila Ayelotan, confirmed the incident, saying the efforts of his men led to the arrest of the suspect.

Ayelotan said that the suspect used a ladder to scale the fence of Timeyin’s residence.

PHOTO: KUNLE OLAYENI

Forest of horror: 10 mad men in police custody Sola Adeyemo Ibadan

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ollowing the orgy of attacks on mad men after the forest of horror was discovered in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, the state Police Command yesterday said 10 mad men were already in its custody.

The move was to forestall jungle justice all in the name of venting anger as a result of the last Saturday’s horror find in the state capital. this is just as the police had on Thursday arraigned before a Chief Magistrate’s Court,

Ibadan, eight persons arrested in connection with the forest at Soka, Ibadan, where about 20 people were found dead.

They are Abduljeli Ayoade (28), Asaka Oluwatosin (19), Abeeb Afolabi (20), Shuaib Abdullamidi (25), Olagoke Afeez (21), Nuru Aliyu (20) Sodik Asimiyu (21) and Muktar Abdulganiyu.

According to the command’s Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Ilobanefor, (SP), such attacks however stopped, adding that calm had returned to the city.

She told New Telegraph yesterday that people handed

over some mad men suspected to have connection with the forest but feigning mental imbalance.

“The people of Ibadan have started cooperating with the police. They no longer attack mad people on the street. We have about 10 people with supposed mental illnesses brought to us by the people. We have appealed to them that if they have useful information, they should contact security agents instead of taking laws into their own hands. The police are happy for their response,” she added.

Meanwhile, scores of people

besieged the Adeoyo State Hospital yesterday where the eight victims rescued from the camp are receiving treatment to look for their missing relatives.

Some came with photographs of their missing persons but the hospital management insisted that the photographs would not be enough to proof identity.

A member of staff at the hospital, who preferred anonymity, told our correspondent that police report was vital document.

“People have been coming here with pictures but they need police report that reveals

that they actually lost relatives.

The report must date back to the time when they reported the case to the police,” the employee said.

On the determination of the state of health of the hospitalised victims, a nurse said, “We have noticed that apart from normal treatment, some of them have lost touch with their existence. They are responding to treatment but they don’t respond to gesture. They just sit there all day without uttering meaningful words.

“They need psychological assessment to determine their state of mind and men-

tal balance. It could be that having been in captivity and maltreated for a long time, they lost their senses. Such evaluation of their mental state will help police investigation because the victims’ statements are vital.”

In a related development, Mr. Biyi Odunlade, the Special Adviser to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of the State of Osun on Youth, Sports and Special Needs, has said Nigerians need to cultivate ethical orientation, while governments at all levels should reduce poverty rate to the barest minimum.

Should men be involved in chores at home? p.12

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Chidimma: The sickle cell girl who died saving other sicklers Having a sickle cell carrier as a child can be taxing. But having two of such children is enough to ruin a marriage. A couple shares their 20-year experience of how two of their children made hospitals their second home, CAMILLUS NNAJI writes.

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or over 20 years, life has become a heavy burden for the Ibekwes who have been going through the anguish of having children living with Sickle Cell Disorder.

Chidimma Ibekwe was the first daughter of Pastor Emmanuel Ibekwe and his wife, Angela Ibekwe. She was a student of Economics at the Bells University of Technology, Sango Ota, Ogun State.

Her brother, Daberechi, suffers a similar fate. Both siblings were regular faces at hospitals with its attendant financial implication on the parents. Life was tough, tense and tedious for the Ibekwes in their determination to keep their children alive. To ensure that Chidimma stayed alive, her parents ensured that she got her drug supply regularly.

While at the university, Chidimma had formed a club comprising students with similar health disorder. They came together, encouraged one another and shared their experiences. But beyond sharing their experiences, Chidimma also found wisdom in the axiom that ‘while in need and pain, one can always extent helping hands to others.’

As a way of extending helping hands to others, she shared her drugs with her friends in school without the knowledge of her parents.

Chidimma’s dad, Emmanuel, in an emotion laden voice relayed the story. “My daughter started having the trait as early as 11 months.

She began to have swollen feet, crying ceaselessly, we could not actually fathom out what the problem was because we gave her virtually all she needed.

“When we bought her routine daily drugs and send to her in school, little did we know that she had another group of sickle cell schoolmates she was sharing the drugs with. As a result of this, she easily fell into crisis, a situation that worsened her condition before her death.

Chidmma died of complications resulting from sickle cell disorder in August 2010.”

Her mother, Angela, while in tears related the family’s ordeal too. “It was never a palatable experience, my daughter had all the disheartening experiences of SCD, she had High Blood Pressure (HBP), ovarian cyst, degenerative bone crisis as well as retarded growth, while she finally developed stroke which killed her.

Students and members of the foundation during the walk in Lagos and below Chidimma

Because of sickle cell anemia, and my frequency at hospitals, I have become a doctor without medical certificates “The disorder have drained our pockets, we just worked for sickle cell anemia, nurse the sickness, live with the pains daily. It’s just like living with one who is afflicting you, yet you cannot run away.”

Sickle cell anemia is an inherited disorder that harbors anomaly cells in the hemoglobin, the oxygen carrying protein in the red blood cell. It is inherited from both parents and is usually caused by some abnormalities in a type of haemoglobin called haemoglobin-S. There is no known cure for sickle cell disease; but the main goal is to prevent further complications.

Angela recalled how she ran to pharmacies like a possessed person whenever her daughter was in crisis and whoever met her on the way avoided her like a plaque thinking she was insane.

On the night Chidimma died, Angela said she ran to her daughter’s hospital bedside, grabbed the oxygen machine, the mobiliser, took the Ventoline and opened it herself and administered it on her daughter.

Angela said, “Because of sickle cell anemia, and my frequency at hospitals, I have become a doctor without medical certificates.

“We spent nothing less than N4.5million on

feeding our sicklers, hospital medication and other things yearly. If it is money, you cannot buy SCD with money, if it is food you cannot buy it with food, when I go to the market to buy things, people ask me, madam do you run a restaurant? Because of the quantity of foodstuffs and vegetables I buy. We sold our trailers bought with millions of naira to take care of these children, yet we are looking for Chidimma today.

“It has really been rough in my family too, we have been able to remain in marriage because we are saved, my husband is a pastor and by the grace of God, I have been a supportive pillar to him. Nevertheless, my husband understands the pain we go through because we entered it together, without knowing it.

“Sometimes too, following the pressure of the sickness, I did throw Chidimma over the fence, because of security problems and delays in opening the gate of the hospital, I will

be shouting her card number from afar, ‘card number 247, 247 in order to avoid protocol in commencing the medication. This is what the disorder did to me.”

Before her death, Chidimma suggested that her father establish a sickle cell foundation. To keep her dreams alive, a foundation, DABMA, has been set up by Emmanuel to give support to carrier of the disease and create awareness about sickle cell.

Emmanuel said, “There are a lot of misconceptions floating around about SCD. Our job as families with practical experience is to let others know what its pain is really. We must show the picture. Those who are planning marriage should first of all run to the laboratories for genotype tests and not allow themselves blinded by the illusory reality of love.

“The truth is that millions of Nigerians do not know their genotype status before marriage, while others do not understand the difference between test for genotype and blood grouping.

Worst still, these categories of people are even found among the elite.”

He also related how he was propelled by Chidimma’s initiative of writing a book and setting up of the foundation, adding “there is no way we could capture the reality of this sickness without first of all hearing from those who have been through it and those ready to share their experiences. We must show concern for those going through the emotions of guilt, anxiety or shock, how to manage the trauma and assisting our loved ones who are passing through this experience.”

Since Chidimma’s death, the foundation has grown from strength to strength, bringing together over 1,000 sickle cell patients across Nigeria “I am ready to go any length to assist those suffering from the scourge and those ignorant of the disease, we have to educate them,” Angela said.

Joy Ojukwu, an undergraduate of the University of Lagos and a beneficiary of the foundation, expressed gratitude to the foundation, adding, it makes “us believe we can achieve our dreams through counseling, provision of drugs and sometimes give us financial help.”

Another beneficiary, who wished to be identified simply as Angela, said she was on the verge of committing suicide as a result of the problem when someone introduced her to the foundation.

She said, “Life was unbearable and the only thing uppermost in my mind was suicide. I had bone disease and was bed ridden for a long time.

I could not walk because I had problems with my hips. Having being to so many hospitals, carrying out tests, undergoing surgeries, I was tired of life and wanted to end it all.

Voices

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NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

Street Diary

Should men be involved in chores at home?

Women are partners, not slaves

Yes, of course

Of course, yes. The duties in the family are for both man and woman. The two should assist each other and not divide duties in the family when it comes to domestic matters.

Chinyere Uroko businesswoman

Chores should be shared so as not to overwork the women.

Women are our partners and not slaves. Have you ever studied the things women do?

They work also and we do not care to know the stress they face.

When they come back from work, they jump into the kitchen as soon as possible, serve the food and try to clean the house before preparing the children for bed. Also, we still expect them to wake up pretty early to cook and prepare the children for school.

BayoOginni-workswithcustomercarecentre

It’s for both women and men

The truth is that when each partner begins to select duties in the family, things may not work out well. The man must complement the woman and vice versa in domestic duties.

Helen Akpan -employee

Men should not

Men should not primarily be involved in domestic chores. In my opinion, that is the primary responsibility of women. But the man could assist the woman in instances where she needs help; instances such as when she comes late from work or in a state of pregnancy..

Tolu Oladipo - works with Ernst and Young Men should be involved

Yes, men should be involved in chores at home because it makes them to be able to do basic things around the house.

It gives them a sense of responsibility concerning the upkeep of their immediate environment.

This empowers and makes them independent at home regardless if there is a woman or not.

Wale Awonusi - works with a media firm

Chores should not be for the women alone

I do not think home chores should be restricted to any gender, as we have it in African society. For couples who are young in marriage, both parties should be involved as a sign of love. It would spice up their marriage life till their kids get to the stage that they too can help.

Michael Orji -student

Men should help out

It depends on the nature of the work

Yes, they should be involved but it depends on the work. It may be in the locking of the gate at night or in the morning and taking the children to school on his way to work. This is because he should be able to help his wife one way or the other. Men have to show responsibilities and should be able to help in domestic chores.

Ben Emeka Chidi – student

Men should assist

Funmilayo Salami - motivational speaker and writer

The fact is that the work is not meant for the woman alone, men should help and render assistance as it would make the work faster and easier for the woman.

Working together will keep them together; it will make the preparation faster. This will also bring about understanding in the family. The man should be involved in house chores this is because in case the woman is not around he will be able to handle things and know what to do. If the woman is also expecting a child the man should assist and also help in domestic chores.

There should be equal participation

It shows understanding, care

Men can be involved in domestic chores based on mutual understanding and respect for parties’ values.

They can indeed be tired but ladies still carry much workburden. Even Richard Templars acknowledged that fact in his book “Rules of Love.” Men only work on Monday to Friday but women while working at the office still consider the home. So during the weekends or when on leave, men can help ease the stress of their wives.

Yes, I am an advocate of equal participation in all that concern the building of a good African home. Because of the social and economic needs of the family, the man (as the head of the family in most cases), is involved in some other activities that minimise or reduce completely his involvement in domestic chores but that does not mean he shouldn’t when the circumstances are less demanding and give him extra time that can also be used to assist the family.

Akinola Saburi - Ex-president, students’ union

It enhances togetherness

love,

Men can involve in home chores so far there is genuine understanding between the man and his wife, after all, and they are helpmates. In addition, it is clearly stated in the holy books not to enslave wives. In a nutshell, it increases atmosphere of love, togetherness and happy home, which can help greatly in grooming the children.

Adebowale Rosemary – Secretary

Men should be involved in domestic chores because some women face stress at work during the day and might be very tired by the time they get home. There is nowhere that says women alone should be involved in house chores. The man helping out shows that he is very understanding and he cares for his family. To relieve stress on the women, the men should take part in domestic chores in the home.Sharon Titilope – teacher

Men should help

As a Muslim we must learn from our Prophet. It is narrated on the authority of Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) that he said: “I asked ‘Aa`ishah (prophet’s wife) what the Messenger of Allah used to do in the house. She said: “He used to help with the housework and when it was time to pray he would leave for the prayer.”

Mrs. Omotayo Azeez -public servant

Folashade Alabi - an entrepreneur

compiled by

Mojeed Alabi, Camilius Nnaji, Olushola Ricketts and Victoria Ewoh

Instyle Get flattered in a jumpsuit p.16

NTWEEKEND

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29 MARCH 2014

13

C o n v e r s at i o n

ODION IRUOJE: AT HOME WITH THE

KING OF BEATS Music historians often speak of the creative ferment that produced the likes of Chris Okotie, Onyeka Onwenu, Ofege and Felix Liberty with nostalgia. But few can capture that magical era like Odion Iruoje, who was then a producer with EMI. Iruoje may have become more or less evasive, but he is still very much around, paying a startling attention to the new music movement from the background. LANRE ODUKOYA writes EARLY TRANSITIONS

Things were done so differently in the country before I joined the scene in 1970. When I came on board, I met complete music companies, multinationals with various departments: the studio, artiste development unit, marketing and promotions and so on. That was an era when the companies were paying musicians as a band, not as solo artistes. The solo artiste movement was my brainchild and it opened the eyes of musicians to a new world of possibilities. With my introduction of Chris Okotie, Ofege and the rest and getting them a band each to work with, a solo artiste could then produce albums. It means that you could get the guitarist, back-up singers, drummers and so on and pay them off after a project. I entrenched these things when I returned from the UK. Things also started changing with the advent of computers. And then, computerized keyboards with human and instrument voices sampled, such that if you wanted to play guitar, drums, trumpets or any instrument, you could play them on the keyboard.

So, a man could be in front of a keyboard and play a 50-man band. That was the beginning of the disappearance of musicianship in Nigeria. No more live guitarists, or other live instrumentalists except for some chaps who came from the universities, majored in horns and then started playing highlife, afrobeat, and the likes. But we can’t really find them anymore.

They’re scarce because technology (the keyboard) has taken over. And I can tell you that African music is best played live. How do you want to use computer to play apala, highlife, sakara or even afrobeat? So, we need to have the live team to play, it’s warmer.

THE CHRIS OKOTIE STORY

I just told you that Chris Okotie came up with an important movement as a product of a university. He intellectualized the whole thing. And he it was that made the likes of Onyeka Onwenu join the industry as a master’s degree holder from the United States. Onyeka’s works were actually produced by Sunny Okosun who was one of those for whom I produced songs. When I discovered Chris Okotie and Felix Liberty, Michael Ebiotama was the one who went to look for them at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. I asked Ebiotama to give them tickets to bring them to Lagos for us to start Okotie’s rehearsals. We had to bring Liberty because he was to play a rhythm guitar in Okotie’s first album, I Need Someone. Liberty was to be a session man - a concept I started. He was great and we had Lemmy Jackson, in fact, all the three members of Globe, including Beckley Jones and Laolu Akins. Laolu Akins is now a professional producer just as Lemmy Jackson. When I joined the industry, I was the first professional music producer.

Disenchantment

The new galala rhythm was not in the pool at that time, when real singers like Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Victor Olaiya, Victor Uwaifo, King Sunny Ade were becoming old school to this generation. Everybody was just busy copying, rapping and mimicking western music and the radio and television stations were also busy dosing the youths with mainly stuffs like R&B and hip-hop. So, most of the youths began to think that unless they play R&B, rap or hip-hop, they were not fulfilled. Now, juju music is gradually going into extinction.

Highlife is gone, afrobeat, as popularized by Fela and produced by me is going. No more apala, no sakara, our young people were busy concentrating on reggae and the rest which are foreign idioms. Even in playing foreign idioms, they were not original. In playing foreign idioms, you must ensure there are elements in the song that are original. I’ve been more concerned in developing our idioms. There’s nothing wrong in playing foreign idioms, but we can use it to develop our CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

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NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

‘I’m not stuck on old school stuff; i C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 3

which is now happening. For the first time, the Nigerian artistes are getting the rhythms right. The rhythms now make people dance.

The galala movement was started by Daddy Showkey and then 9ice came to infuse fuji into it in such a beautiful way. And of course, P’Square developed that and came along with amazing choreography. The influence of Awilo which took a lot from soukus became the foundation for galala that is now ours. We now got the African rhythm right to dance to with Davido, D’banj and the rest of them. These are the reasons I’ve not been in the studio for a few years now, there were nothing original from us at a point, our guys were all playing mostly American songs.

But with the advent of some idioms introduced by our youths, there’s something in the offing for me to work with. And I can bring back the old glorious days of quality songs and lyrics. Interestingly so, there was an era when our people didn’t even know what part music producers play as there were a few producers then. They’re beginning to know more now with youths like Don Jazzy and so on. A producer’s job is like when you bring a raw shoe straight from the factory, you give it to him and he polishes it to sell. In other words, his role is to polish the artiste for a sell-out. He develops the

potential till it sells out.

CHALLENGES OF INNOVATING

Well, there were not too many difficulties because I enjoy every aspect of my job. Of course, there were a few strenuous times.

At times I was disappointed because a producer always has a dream of how he wants to make his project and if you’re not attaining that height, you’re not happy. You don’t also produce hit records all the time.

COMPETING WITH EXISTING MUSIC COMPANIES

Believe me, I didn’t compete with the music companies I met in the industry. I developed the status quo, I developed everything I met in the whole industry and all other companies followed whatever I was introducing.

When I introduced the first stereo, they all also got into it. When I began the first multitrack, everybody adopted it. We had Phillips, EMI, Decca West Africa, Sony and the rest of them, all multinationals. So, later on we had a few record labels and a few indigenous record companies. When I started the solo movement, everybody joined. When I came on board, artistes were not paid royalties.

Only two artistes knew their rights then, Victor Uwaifo and Zeal Onyia, they paid the rest off with what they called recording

fees whereas artistes were entitled to recording fees and royalties. So, when I came back from England, I had to introduce what I saw. The producer I worked with also drew up a scheme for producers to earn royalties.

And for artistes to earn royalty, the recording fee then was just a studio fee, royalties are different; they are got from unit sales of your records. Today, artistes don’t gain from unit sales anymore because it no longer exists.

With the advent of technology, these downloading to your phones, instead of buying you can just download it. And then piracy sets in. So artistes don’t gain from the unit sales anymore and that packed up all the companies because there’s nothing to gain from or sell anymore. Once you have money as an artiste now, you just go into the studio, you don’t need to have a record company for you to make a record and there are so much label operators today. That’s the problem we’re having now. But I want to bring back music companies to revamp the industry. As in the case of the Copyright Society of Nigeria (COSON) as led by Tony Okoroji collects copyright royalty and mechanical rights. Mechanical rights are from the songs played on hotel lobbies, aircrafts, hotel rooms, performing rights in situation where another artiste is performing someone else’s song. In Europe and America, you must pay

something - radio and television play, Juke boxes, clubs and so on. That’s what COSON is supposed to be collecting. Every radio station has a form the DJs fill to reflect how many time they played a song; it’s recorded, so they know how much to pay. They were doing it for foreign ones they play but I don’t know whatever has happened to it here.

BETWEEN THE OLD AND THE NEW

I know one and I’m proud to say that the bridge between the old and the young is Nelson Brown. He discovered and produced Daddy Showkey and Baba Fryo. He also produced the Plantashun Boiz where Tuface and the rest belonged. That was also the bridge between the old analogue system with live musicians and digital with no live musicians.

This inadvertently started giving more rooms to solo artistes. Now, you can walk into the studio, the keyboard is there, the engineer is there and you can come up with any album.

But then how live does it sound? It will be too mechanical. There’s no way you can program it that will sound live, it won’t be as warm as live. Live is real

“All of them live with the illusion that they must sound foreign to be recognized. It’s wrong because our cultural heritage is also dying gradually.”

CONVERSATION | WEEKEND

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15

i dance to the current BEAT’ talent in play. This takes us to the sad issue of disappearance of musicianship. And my summation is that the radio and television stations are the most culpable because they’re just dosing the youths with foreign idioms and all of them live with the illusion that they must sound foreign to be recognized. It’s wrong because our cultural heritage is also dying gradually. And because there’s no more unit sales of records, they’re only playing for endorsements now to be able to do concerts for multi-nationals like MTN, Nigerian Breweries, Guinness Nigeria Limited and so on. A BBC reporter who came to interview me was telling me that, on the internet, if you have a distributor who sells your records and gets 10 percent of what you’re supposed to earn, you’re very lucky. The remaining 90 percent is downloaded. And the joy and value is in the unit sales.

AWAY FROM MUSIC

I like to sit with friends, discuss issues, politics, have a good drink with my friends and I watch movies on African Magic mostly. What happened in music also happened in African movies. Those days they were showing us soap operas from abroad thereby neglecting ours, but the moment they introduced the African thing, everybody showed great interest in it including people from the West.

don’t have churches in their houses or in their state house, why should we be doing that here? Why should we send anybody on pilgrimage? And half of our problem is bringing religion into politics. The colonial masters left us with merits, there should be no rotational presidency between the North and the South. If and Igbo man continues to win the presidency for ten years, he merits it and people want him, that should be fine. If he’s an Hausa man or an Igbira man, as long as it’s on merit, let him rule. There’s too much money in politics and it breeds corruption and kills creative thinking.

COPING WITH A FLOCK OF WOMEN AS A CELEBRITY

My appearance is always determined by what the time says in fashion especially as inspired by the youths. I don’t believe in the old school stuffs, I will dance the current dance reigning today. So, as a celebrity, women would flock around me, not even merely coming around, they admired me and they were happy when they saw me. So, one must appear in outfits that keep them want-

“The government should hands off religious matters. Let them remove the mosque and the church from AsoRock.”

WHAT I WOULD NOW DO DIFFERENTLY

I think most of the time, I should be more original. I want to be more original. Whatever I did before, I want to be much more original.

Most of the things I did at that time were not entirely original, there were other external influences militating against me then. And I didn’t have the same force to counter it but I have now and nothing will take me out of originality. I’d be more aggressive.

LOVE FOR SPORTS

When I was younger, I was a very popular sprinter in my primary and my second-

REFLECTING ON THE COUNTRY’S POLITICS

Our current politics is hugely commercialized. Most of our politicians only think about their pockets, they’re not thinking about what they’re supposed to be doing for the people to keep Nigeria one.

There’s no more ideology in politics like it was with Obafemi Awolowo, Ahmadu Bello and Nnamdi Azikiwe. And there’s so much religious display in politics. The government should hands off religious matters. Let them remove the mosque and the church from Aso-Rock. Let them attend the same church with the common man which George Bush and other great leaders do and still do. They

how men started it. I don’t enjoy how men took over it.

MY KIND OF FOOD

For me, there’s nothing like native foods.

African foods are great and I love some Chinese foods too because they’re close to the African cuisines. We have so much in Nigeria and we just need to develop them like the Chinese did to theirs. They pay attention to their cultural heritage but we don’t. We have so much than the Chinese. I love pounded yam, not the poundo yam they now pack in bags. I’m talking about the one pounded with mortar and pestle. Then I love Ogbono prepared with Okra with smoked fish, bush meat and stockfish plus iru (locust bean).

MY CHILDREN AND PREFERENCES

Well, I didn’t study music; I did physics and electronics. I’m an acoustic engineer. Working with EMI was what brought me to music. I was employed in EMI as chief engineer to take care of the studio and the factory. But then, somebody discovered the talent in me.

He was the chairman for Asia and Africa and he sent me back to England for a crash programme to do E&R, studio management and production. And I came back to effect those changes I learnt abroad. All my children are artistes by nature, but they have different disciplines in the universities. I have a scientist child who had done zoology in America, he later did environmental and urban studies for his master’s degree. And he’s lecturing in a university in the US now. My first son is here in Nigeria, he’s an architect. He has a master’s degree in architecture. There is one in America who is a great painter.

While he was in the university, he was already selling his paintings. They love music and when I produce some rough works, I send it to them. I still have some works that I’m yet to finish.

If I send it to them and they’d listen to them and if you hear their comments, you will be thrilled. “Daddy, why did you sing like this or why did that drumming go in that direction? It should have gone this way, it would be much better.”

So, when I pick two versions and send to them, they’d choose the better one.

ODION: UPCLOSE VITAL STATISTICS Vocation: Retired as a music producer at EMI Education: Studied Physics and Electronics

ing more of you and that’s natural by the way. When you have the class, you have it.

They don’t buy class. I liked women who were very fashionable; I feel good and admire them when I see them. I love women with good African shape not necessarily fair or black complexion. Women like this hit me like a hit album hits music buffs.

Talent Nurtured: Chris Okotie, Onyeka

ary school, but at the tertiary level, I had no time for it. Like I have my stars in music and Nollywood, I also have some in footballers and athletics. I love cricket too and women’s netball, not basketball. I watch women’s netball and I followed it with keen interest. That was how basketball came about. I don’t know

Onwenu, Ofege, Felix Liberty, etc.

16

INSTYLE

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

Thrilled by the unpredictable

Ex-beauty queen and actress Mina Horsfall loves body-hugging outfits that flaunts her figure generously. She tells ANGELA DAVIES the reason behind the fascination

Define your style

My style is simple and classy.

What determines your style?

My mood determines my style. When I am in a sexy mood, then I dress provocatively. When I feel that I am in a play mood, then I dress in simple outfits like the jean, top and blazer. Then when I am in a really serious mood, I wear corporate outfits. Also, the event I am attending determines the kind of outfit I wear.

What kind of clothes make up a larger part of your wardrobe?

It is more of casual. They are very simple, but elegant outfits.

Your favourite piece of clothing

It used to be jeans, but now I see myself feeling more comfortable on Jergens, top and blazer.

What kind of cloth won’t you be caught wearing?

I am unpredictable, so I can’t actually say.

Fashion item you wouldn’t mind spending so much on?

That will be shoes because I love to flaunt my legs in them.

Most expensive fashion item you have ever bought?

Leslie Okoye

Uche Jombo-Rodriguez

Ezinne Akudo

It is a blue Salvatore Ferragamo bag.

Get f lattered in a Jumpsuit Angela Davies

J

umpsuits come and go out of style. However, they are trendy and sexy especially when they flatter your figure and equally accessorized appropriately.

Today, jumpsuits have become the favourites of some fashion aficionado’s because of their versatility. They could be dressed up or down depending on the occasion you want to wear it to.

Jumpsuit is an all-encompassing term for any garment that has an attached top and bottom. The top comes in an array of styles such as short-sleeve, long-sleeve, sleeveless, cropped, fitted, collared, halter and even buttoned. They also come in wide range of fabrics, cuts and brilliant colours as well.

You too can take the plunge into the jumpsuit trend, look stylish and make your own fashion statement in one that flatters your silhouette.

Are you a fashion freak?

Yes I am. Unfortunately, I can’t do without fashion and that is where I spend all my money.

Best designer

I love all the fashion accessories and clothing of Italian designer, Salvatore Ferragamo. I also like most of our Nigerian designers because they are creative.

But so far I patronize more of Rikaoto, a clothing line owned by former Miss Valentine, Mariam Elisha because of her originality and uniqueness.

Tips • If you want to flatter your figure in a jumpsuit, you should define the distinct sections of your body by cinching the waist either with a belt or wear one that has an elasticized or drawstring midsection.

• Then style and accessorize with trendy belts, sandals or high heel shoes, necklace, earrings, bracelets and cocktail ring to change the look of the entire outfit.

• To wear jumpsuit for a red carpet or evening event, elongate your legs with high heels, ensure your makeup is glamorous and then carry a chic clutch.

• Jumpsuit with plunging necklines will elongate the body, and adding a long strand necklace will accent the jumpsuit and complete the look. Note that necklaces, bracelets and dangly earrings can take a jumpsuit from casual to glam.

Signature perfume

Chanel Chance because the fragrance is amazing and then it last long.

Are you a shoe freak?

Yes, I am crazy about shoes. I wear high heels that are six inches and above. I can’t even walk on low heel or flats. I am more comfortable on high heels.

Best colour

Nude because it goes with everything.

How do you love your make-up?

I used to do heavy makeup but my makeup artiste advised that I looked better on mild makeup so I do more of mild now.

What is that fashion accessory you can hardly do without?

Sunshade is actually my number one fashion accessory so I cannot do without it. These days the sun is blazing hot and it helps protect my eyes.

Why do you love wearing body-hugging clothes?

It is to spell my figure.

Osas Ighodaro

What is that part of your body you won’t mind flaunting?

I will flaunt my legs all the time. They are sexy and everybody loves them. People are always looking at my legs and saying nice things.

How do you like your hair?

D’ltye

I like it when my curls are bouncing.

INSTYLE

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

17

Accessories to live for

Nude shoes

Facts

Nude shoes in different palettes and styles seem to be the new black for women. You too can add a pair or two to your wardrobe for that elegant look, writes ANGELA DAVIES.

Larry Ojomo of Mon Ami was the official designer for Silverbird’s Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant for three years between 1998 and 2000.

Y

ou will not be wrong to say that nude is the new black. It keeps your feet on the trend and there is no mistake with them. Nude is one colour you can wear on everything. Along with being very easy to match with other colours, they also create the look of longer legs, making them a good pick for women who want to flaunt a lengthy look.

You can wear nude shoes ranging from patent leather high heels to strappy sandals, peep toes, pointy toe and wedge to comfortable platform pumps.

To wear nude shoes, just ensure to match them with your skin tone as close as possible. They are available in a whole palette from off-white, pinkish to peach nude and lighter brown. Once you pair your nude shoes with your outfit, you are ready to impress at any occasion especially when it is peep toes or pumps.

No wonder many fashionistas are wearing varied palettes of nude with their regular outfits to red carpets events. However, for a red carpet event, add some panache to your look with nude pumps with blings.

WHO WORE IT BETTER?

Pearl costume jewelry became even more popular after former US First Lady, Barbara Bush wore a three strand faux pearl necklace to the inaugural ball of her husband, George Bush. The necklace was designed by Kenneth Jay Lane.

A person collecting Neckties is known as a Grabatologist.

Napoleon Bonaparte decreed that buttons should be attached to jacket sleeves to stop soldiers from wiping their runny noses on their jacket sleeves.

Front knot drape blue silk jumpsuit

T

he fashion showdown today is between a designer and her client and the outfit is the front knot drape blue silk jumpsuit.

On-air personality, Toke Makinwa-Ayida, wore this front knot drape blue silk jumpsuit to Dare Art-Alade’s Love Like A Movie 2 which held at the Eko Hotel and Suites Oceanview Grounds, Lagos last month.

The beautiful front knot drape jumpsuit which is designed by Ejiro Amos Tafiri featured black leather panels on the shoulders.

Toke harmonized her outfit with silver drop earrings, bracelet, flower-patterned cocktail ring and black back sling pumps. With her light makeup and well shaped brow, she let down her golden brown locks which added “oomph” to her look.

For Ejiro Amos Tafiri, the designer styled her outfit with blue stud earrings, black and gold box clutch, bangles, wristwatch and black pearl bracelet. She wore a pair of blue and black sandal, a simple make-up and let down her long braids to one side. She wore the outfit to an event late last year.

So who do you think rocked this front knot drape blue silk jumpsuit better? Ejiro Amos Tafiri the designer or Toke Makinwa-Ayida, the client?

Tafiri

Makinwa-Ayida

Cutting Edge

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NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

29 MARCH 2014

The lawyer with the tape

cessively busty for instance, you don’t have any reason to show it off to the entire world by wearing clothes that are deeply cut with deep neckline. You can play down on that part up and possibly work on other parts of your body. If you have a small waist for instance, you should wear clothes that will flatter your waistline properly. And if you have slim legs you should wear clothes that would cover them properly. For instance, you don’t need to wear mini outfits because everyone is wearing it. But you should wear it because you have good legs to flaunt. These are some of the little things you have to look at before dressing up as a woman.

Although Tese Onokala studied law, she would later abandon that for fashion design. Onokala, CEO of Needlekraft Group, speaks with ANGELA DAVIES on her fashion phobia and humanitarian works.

How would you describe Tese Onokala?

somewhere and somehow.

Tese is a simple woman who loves fashion. I read law at the Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, and I had to drop my wig and gown for tapes and scissors. I am the Group CEO of Needlekraft Group which comprises Needlecraft Couture, Fashion School and African Queen Beauty Emporium. I also have the Tese Onokala Foundation through which we help the less-privileged by giving them free training. We pick them up at random on a monthly basis, give them free training on fashion design and then at the end of their training, we hold a graduation ceremony where we empower them to start up on their own. This is something I have been doing for quite some time.

In addition, we also do free breast and cervical cancer screening for women amongst other things.

What inspires your designs?

You are so much into fashion but don’t you miss practicing law?

I am not missing it for one minute because I don’t think I was ever cut out to be a lawyer or go into litigation. Basically I enjoyed myself while in school as a law undergraduate. But apparently 80 per cent of my time was used on fashion and immediately I got out of the university, I grabbed fashion with both hands.

As an undergraduate, I designed my own outfits. Consequently, friends, fellow students and relations approached me to either design outfits for them or ask for advice on what kind of outfit they should wear to events.

How does it make you feel when you are described as a style icon?

That depends on how people rate you. They judge based on what they see. So it is left for you to look at who you are, what you perceive of yourself and then ask yourself if it tallies with what people say about you. For me, well outside being a fashion designer I think I have always loved fashion. Whether or not I have turned out to be a fashion designer, I still would have been a fashion icon

I am inspired by people, what I see, things that I read about and my environment. Sometimes I go into creative thinking. We were taught in the fashion academy that when you are going through creative thinking, you should close your eyes when you are ready to put your sketches together and then visualize. Whatever you visualize is what you put it into a sketch. When you are done, you put it down into a design and then do a photo shoot on it. If the photo shoot turns out fine, then it’s a collection.

Therefore will it be correct to say that fashion is all about covering your flaws?

Yes, fashion is covering your flaws. If you are short and you don’t like being short, you have to wear heels like all the time.

With that you are covering your flaws by wearing high heel shoes which makes you elegant and standout as well. You have to cover those flaws you don’t want people to see that is what fashion is all about.

How would you rate the Nigerian fashion industry?

So what is that flaw you don’t want people to see?

The fashion industry is on a daily basis amazing me. Designers are amazing me in their choice of designs, colours and finishing. They are working closely to the standard of the western world and I believe in a couple of years, you would not find anything that is not Nigerian in Nigeria. Check out what designers are doing with our African prints, it’s absolutely remarkable. The designs are creative and exquisite whether it’s a dress, jacket, skirt, pant or trouser suit, jumpsuit or even evening wears. Also, when they infuse the African print with whatever fabric they want to use, it makes it more unique and special. I would emphasize that designers are creative with the African prints.

You are a wife and mother of three; how have you been able to maintain your slim figure?

I am a fashion designer and I love fashion like crazy. The truth is that 80 per cent of women who are into fashion would want to look good. How do you look good? It is to keep your shape right. How do you keep it right?

It is to do your best. If you have to cut down on calories, work on a diet plan or have to exercise regularly do that and also everything it takes for you to maintain a particular shape or statistics that you want.

Generally I don’t like things that are extremely short. I would emphasize that I will never be caught wearing micro mini maybe because I am too scared that I am beginning to develop cellulites which I didn’t have before so I cover up completely. And I have a very slim waist so whenever I want to dress up; I have that at the back of my mind. My waistline is about the prettiest part of my body because it is about 15 inches smaller than my hips.

So whenever I dress up, I wear outfits that will accentuate my waistline because it’s very curvy.

How would you define your personal style?

Onokala

What makes you proud to be a woman?

I am not going to personalize it. The fact that a woman is curvy is a thing of pride. The fact that you wear your clothes and you have something to flaunt is a thing of pride. The fact that you have a womb, you are a destiny carrier you are not just living for you, you are living for other people. In fact you are not living

for yourself as a woman; you live for your children and the people around you so being a woman is a thing of pride.

As a fashion designer, what irritates you when it comes to women’s fashion?

As a fashion designer, I encourage and advise women to wear things that will accentuate their best features. If you are ex-

I’m simple, chic and flawless.

I don’t like to be found wanting so when I think of style, I think of simplicity, flawlessness and being likeable. You have to be likeable as a fashion icon which means people have to like your style. So for me, style is about comfort, simplicity, elegance and acceptance.

Do you have an obsession for shoes?

I can spend my entire fortune on shoes that are as much as seven inches high and I walk gracefully in them. I love shoes so much that I have them in different kinds, designs and colours.

Life Experience: ‘I left men for a woman even though I wasn’t a lesbian’ p.20 Love News Man with breasts finds bride after paying $8,000 p.20 NTWEEKEND ONLINE AT

www.newtelegraphonline.com/loveliving

L ve&Lv ng MICHAEL UCHEBUAKU

ireto007@yahoo.com 0813 116 1840

Love Confession

MODEL OF THE DAY

‘I can never have sex with my husband’

Name: Emmanuella Email: oresotomi@gmail.com

People usually take for granted the ability to have sex with their partners or consummate their marriages. However, for this writer, that ability simply does not exist.

I

met my husband on a Nigerian dating site on my 31st birthday. He was 52 years old and divorced. We didn’t seem to have much in common, and his photo showed an average looking and very nondescript guy. But, as it was my personal policy to give anybody who looks serious a chance, when he sent me an email I immediately wrote back.

We wrote each other online a few times a day for about a week, when he asked if I would like to visit him at his place in Lagos.

Despite his kind of boring profile, he was witty and charming in the emails, so I felt somewhat hopeful.

Our first date was the dictionary definition of “awkward.” We met at one Mr Biggs branch around Amuwo-Odofin.

Our second date wasn’t much better.

I’m not sure what made me keep talking to him. I think I was just intrigued. Or maybe it was because he showed up when he said he would, held doors for me to pass, and acted like he was a gentleman. The night before we went out for the third time I confessed via text that I was wondering what it would be like to kiss him. He replied, “Oh, yeah?”

We sat in his car in a car park for hours on the night of our third date, talking and drinking a bottle of wine he had brought.

Eventually the wine hit me and I had to pee really bad. I said we should probably head back and find a restroom. I stalled as long as I could stand it, hoping that he would see this was his chance to make a move. He didn’t. So I did.

I kissed him, and he kissed me back. It was like the movies. There were fireworks and angels singing, at least that’s how I remember it. We went back to his apartment later and spent the rest of the evening making out as if there was no tomorrow. I texted him on the way home and asked if he would like to go steady. He said yes. Smiley face.

In getting to know him better I found that we had very similar values. I liked his laid-back and positive attitude, his openmindedness, the kindness and respect he showed to others. I thought it was unbear-

ably cute the way the corner of his mouth would twitch when he was trying not to laugh at something I said.

The evening we had planned to spend the first night together, and presumably seal the deal, we started out as usual. Things quickly progressed into the bedroom, ripping clothes off in the dark. I started going down on him. I don’t know how long I tried.

But much to my confusion and frustration, nothing was happening.

At some point we gave up, kissed a little bit more, and then I told him I was sleepy and rolled over. He asked me if I was disappointed. I hesitated a little before saying “no”. He fell asleep right after that, but even though I was drowsy, I did not.

I wasn’t disappointed. I was devastated.

Sex had always been very important to me in a relationship. It was a big part of what had ended things in my past relationships.

So many questions raced through my mind.

Did he know and not tell me? Was he just not that attracted to me? Was this going to be a persistent problem?

I struggled for hours, laying next to his sleeping form in his bed, wondering if I should just save myself from further pain and end things now. But ultimately I couldn’t. I was already falling hard for him. I felt that as much as I may come to regret staying in this relationship, I would regret leaving even more.

The next morning we had a strained but gentle conversation. I asked him what happened. He said he didn’t know, that he thought it may have just been nerves. I asked if he’d ever had issues with it before. He said he had a few years ago, but it had gotten better, and had not happened recently. That answer satisfied me for that moment, and we enjoyed the rest of our day together.

It was a little while before we tried again.

He said he had spoken to his doctor about it and she suspected it was due to an antidepressant medication he was taking. She had prescribed him something that should help.

My initial concerns had all but subsided by this point. He was young, seemingly healthy, and I was confident we’d get this figured out. I heaved a sigh of relief over my initial reaction to emotions running high, and I felt happy and hopeful about the future.

The next time I stayed the night was Valentine’s Day. That night I somewhat drunkenly confessed that I loved him, and he said he loved me too. I was so over the moon that it didn’t even bother me when our second attempt at intercourse was unsuccessful. I was

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

29 MARCH 2014

19

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certain that things would get better in time.

Little by little, things he had said to me, and that I had noticed, began to add up. I remembered his poor eyesight and the blood sugar testing supplies and rows of prescription bottles in his medicine cabinet.

The time he told me about when a cut on his foot had become so infected that he had nearly needed an amputation. We’d been dating a few months at that point.

I asked him point blank one day if he was diabetic. He said he was. I asked him why he had never told me. He said he didn’t ever see the need to bring it up.

I soon discovered that the erectile dysfunction was due to complications from his diabetes.

Battling severe infections for months at a time was financially and physically draining for him. It slowly dawned on me just how sick he actually was.

He said he didn’t understand why I stayed with him. He said I deserved better. That he was broken. That he didn’t understand how I could possibly be happy. I realized that as difficult as this situation was for me, it was 10 times worse for him.

We made the choice to stop trying. I began to be able to just accept that this was my reality. That made things easier in some ways.

I still had to fight the feelings of resentment I had for every woman he had been with prior to me who had had a chance to experience something with him that I never would. Watching sex scenes in movies, read-

ing sex articles in women’s magazines, became too painful for me to bear.

The ability to have intercourse with my significant other was always something I had just taken for granted. Giving it up for good was a major adjustment for both of us. Sometimes I would have dreams where things just magically worked, and we were able to have sex. At first waking up to realize it hadn’t been real was intensely difficult. But after a while, I began to cherish these dreams.

That pain eventually faded as well. After mourning what couldn’t be, I could focus on enjoying what we had. When he asked me to marry him, I said yes. Without an ounce of hesitation. We got married in front of a small group of friends and family on a beautiful sunny day.

I wish I could say there was a happy ending. That everything has been a cake walk since. But his health continues to decline despite every effort to contain the diabetes.

Understandably, he still struggles with his mental health, requiring more and stronger counseling and antidepressants sometimes. The healthy sex drive he used to have is but a faint memory today. I am constantly evolving and reframing in my mind and heart what it means to be intimate, and what is required for me to feel loved and cared for by him.

I never considered leaving him because of the lack of sex. I made my choice years ago, the first night I laid next to him in bed. Despite the difficulties we have faced, and continue to face, I have never regretted making the choice I did.

He is exactly who I want to be with.

20 LOVE&LIVING

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

Love Songs

Love News

Can’t Help Falling In Love

Man with breasts finds bride after paying $8,000

S

he married a Singaporean man with breasts. And the Vietnamese bride did it willingly.

Madam Kim Ngan’s husband, Mr Kurt Tay, made the front page news sometime in May last year when he said he had C-cup breast implants not because he was transgender, but because he simply wanted them.

The 28-year-old security guard even said he wanted to return to Thailand to get a G-cup bust. Madam Kim, 27, declined to be interviewed, but Mr Tay spoke on her behalf.

She was willing to marry me despite my breasts, he said.

He paid $8,000 to a matchmaking agency in Peninsula Plaza to find him a wife.

His parents were upset with him

UB40

Wise men say, only fools rush in.

But I can’t help falling in love with you Shall I stay? Would it be a sin?

I can’t help falling in love with you As the river flows gently to the sea Darling so we go, some things were meant to be Take my hand take my whole heart too ‘Cause i can’t help falling in love with you As the river flows gently to the sea Darling so we go, some things were meant to be Take my hand take my whole heart too ‘Cause i can’t help falling in love with you

and he felt it was time to settle down.

He admitted that he initially wanted to hide the truth about his implants during the matchmaking process.

“The people from the matchmaking agency advised against it. They told me that it would be better to be honest so that problems would not crop up after the marriage,” Mr Tay said.

He described how he met Madam Ngan in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City in December.

She was among the 12 women shortlisted by the agency.

“Out of the 12, some minded my implants. For others, their parents minded. Only (my wife)… accepted

me for who I am and had her parents’ blessings,” he said.

Mr Tay added that Madam Ngan looked like she would be a good wife and mother, which drew him more to her.

In the same month, he threw a wedding reception in Vietnam – part of the $8,000 package – to celebrate their union.

Recounting the wedding reception with a smile, Mr Tay said: “We had more than 10 tables of guests celebrating with us. After the first round cleared, another group came and filled up the tables again.”

Source: The New Paper.

Love Poem

TIMOTHY AKINLEYE

Overwhelming Beauty Your beauty steps on my specs And ruins it beyond repair.

Your kiss nestles on my lips And scars my heart mischievously.

Your smile breezes into my world, And all my gold is gone!

I measured your height But my heart fell short

Romantic Jokes

I dreamt of your jocund company But, these curtained shards of sunlight say otherwise Your felt warmth is gone, And the cold returns Though your body to someone belongs Your delicate beauty forever will in my verses flow.

THE 45 DIFFERENCE

Q: What’s the difference between a girlfriend and a wife?

A: 45 lbs.

Q: What’s the difference between a boyfriend and a husband?

A: 45 minutes.

Words of Wisdom: Listen to your heart

‘I left men for a woman even though I wasn’t a lesbian’

“I

’m really attracted to you, you know?”

I sat in the middle of an Italian restaurant, frozen in disbelief at this audacious declaration. I sipped some wine and awkwardly laughed, my cheeks growing redder by the minute. Waiters and waitresses drifted past. I nibbled a tiramisu and drank another glass of rosé. But all I could think was, I’m really attracted to you, too.

On the surface, this sounds like a typical first date: a guy takes you out to dinner and says he finds you attractive; you flirt back and wonder if he’s going to kiss you goodnight; you’re nervous and jittery; you try to be funny while carefully maintaining that mysterious façade that originally peaked his interest.

Except that this wasn’t a typical date, at least for me.: I was actually out to dinner with a woman. And all I thought about the entire time was how badly I wanted to kiss her.

Admittedly, I’d had several crushes on women before then. I’d flip through magazines and feel attracted to the beautiful models in the fashion ads. Sometimes I’d catch myself checking out those stunning women who incite entire rooms of people to pause and ogle at their beauty. During a giggly conversation with girl friends, I’d once said that I’d only consider hooking up with a woman if she were blonde and curvaceous, like Lara Stone or Kate Upton. But up until that November night in 2011, I had identified as a straight woman.

I had flings, relationships, and heartbreak exclusively with men. Whenever I used to walk into a house party or a coffee shop, I’d scan to see if there were any attractive men around. I remember my heart skipping beats whenever a cute guy sat next to me on a plane. I’d fantasize about Ryan Gosling and Brad Pitt. In other words, I was your

Life Experience

average heterosexual 22-year-old.

A few months prior to my dinner date with Charlotte,* I noticed her at my thennew office. She was blonde and very curvaceous. I unabashedly admired her womanly hips, slightly soft belly, and generous chest.

I’d never seen a woman who owned her feminine forms as well as she did. She seemed so confident and had this incredible natural sexiness about her. It was exhilarating to go to work everyday, but also scary, because I found myself physically attracted to her.

Fast forward a few months later. She picked up the check at the Italian restaurant. We slowly strolled to the subway station, chatting, until I stopped dead in the middle of the sidewalk and asked, “Did you really mean it when you said you were attracted to me in there?” “Of course I did,” she replied. I said nothing and started walking again. We remained silent until we arrived in front of the subway station. Taxis whizzed past on the street and lights from illuminated storefront signs flashed in our eyes. I moved closer to Charlotte and gently placed my head on her shoulder. Our mouths found each other and we kissed.

We kissed for what seemed like hours.

Afterwards we smiled that kind of smile

In actuality, I knew nothing about lesbian culture, or I’d never had any lesbian friends before that can only happen during a moment like that. I call it “feeling smiley,” when your heart races and you’re so damn happy that you could shout it out to everyone. I thought about Charlotte during my long ride home, what it would be like to spend a night with her. It was terrifying and thrilling to consider.

Nearly three years have passed since that night. Today I’m married to Charlotte and couldn’t be happier. Yet it wasn’t easy being suddenly thrown into a world that I knew nothing about.

On the surface, it appeared to others that I was a lesbian. To all of those people in the street who saw us holding hands or kissing, we were gay. In actuality, I knew nothing about lesbian culture, or I’d never had any lesbian friends before.

Being gay was an identity that I was willing to bear, but the new label came with implications. For example, some people viewed my abrupt change in sexual orientation as a rebellious stage. Others assumed that I was just a raging lesbian who had been afraid to come out of the closet all those years. Still more believed I was looking to shock everyone by dating a woman.

But for me, I just simply fell in love with someone who happens to be a woman.

I quickly became exposed to how differently I would be treated now that I was perceived as gay: people stare at two women holding hands or kissing. Men say things like, “Can I join in tonight? How much?”

When people see my wedding ring, they

automatically ask me what my “husband” does, and I have to inform them that my wife is an art director/graphic designer. The “Ohhh, I’m so sorry! I shouldn’t have assumed!” line comes from pretty much everyone.

Sometimes I can feel them looking me over, wondering how a lesbian can be wearing a dress, heels, and makeup … how I can look so straight. There was one incident in the subway where a man became completely enraged over the fact that Charlotte and I were holding hands. Feeling his anger reaching the tipping point, I begged Charlotte to get out at the next stop and switch train cars. I was honestly afraid for our safety.

It’s a bit of a shock to the system to discover what it’s like to face the world as a woman who’s in love with a woman. I deal with the burden of homophobia and judgment and consternation when none of that existed in my life before. I know what it’s like to be fearful just because I happen to love a woman. I am proud of all of the other women who’ve publicly come out and shared their stories of leaving men for a woman, such as Cynthia Nixon, Jenna Lyons and Maria Bello, who recently came out in an eloquent essay published in The New York Times. I’m happy to know that there are others like me out there who are fighting the same battles and making the same discoveries.

Still despite these new hardships, I wouldn’t trade my present life in for anything. Every morning I wake up to the person I love, the person who I want to spend the rest of my life with. And I feel incredibly lucky because of it. I make coffee and gently kiss her as she stirs. She groggily opens her eyes and smiles. “I love you, baby” is usually the first she says. I can only hope that the rest of my days begin this way.

Courtesy: xojane.com

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

M

How do I tell him that I love him?

Dear Love Doctor,

From Success, BB PIN 274D5AD1.

Love Doctor’s Advice:

Dear Success, there is nothing wrong in you as a lady making the first move. Go about it in a mature way. Write him a letter or call him for a heart-to-heart talk and sincerely tell him the way you feel about him. Ask him to tell you the truth if he really feels the same way you do or if he just wants you to remain casual friends. Do not think he won’t appreciate you if you make the first move.

He might just have been scared of expressing his feelings for you, hence his reluctance to open up to you before now. There are several married couples

today who started dating and eventually got married because the female made the first move. It is not in all relationships or marriages that the man makes the first move. Besides, there is no law barring a woman from making the first move. Instead of dying of longing in silence, reach out to him. If your man is mature and feels the same way you do, your making the first move is sure to lead to better days ahead between both of you. However, if he tells you that he is in love with someone else, quietly let him go and keep searching until you find a man who will reciprocate your love. Remember that someone once said it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.

If you want daily love tips or advice, download The Color of Love Guide on your iPad and iPhone. Search for ‘Color of Love’ on your Apple App store now and download the App. *Send your comments/stories to Love Doctor. E-mail: ireto007@ yahoo.com If you’re in a crisis, call for help: 07031028714, 08131161840 or 08023700641. For free marriage/relationships counseling, call Love Doctor Mike 07031028714, 08023700641 or Chris 08023913619. Visit www.romancestory.org

Odd news

New moth control product works by making males impotent

A

new product designed to tackle moth infestations works by using pheromones to render the males impotent.

Pest control experts Rentokil have launched a Moth Disruption System to get rid of the bugs which infest household food supplies such as rice, flour and dried fruit.

The product works by interfering with the male moth’s sex impulse rendering them unwilling or unable to mate with females.

By replicating the pheromones given off by female moths to attract the males, the treatment overwhelms them with such high levels of the chemical they are left confused and unable to local real female mates.

Several dispensers of the pheromone are placed in the area affected by the moth infestation.

Some male moths immediately fly to the dispensers which renders them unattractive to female moths as they are left smelling of the pheromone.

With mating activity reduced or halted completely, moth populations quickly decline.

The manufacturers claim the Moth Disruption System is a natural and non-toxic solution which does not use any pesticides.

David Cross, head of technical training for Rentokil, said: “Most people associate moths with eating natural fibres and chewing holes in their cashmere and woollen clothing or nibbling on their carpets and curtains, but there are some species of moth that can cause even bigger problems when they infest food supplies such as rice, flour, dried fruits, nuts, chocolate and pulses.

“The Moth Disruption System provides a new tool in combating stored product moths, and does so in a manner which is natural, humane and non-toxic, so there is no risk of contamination to food products.”

The product is part of a wider trend in the pest control industry towards using natural methods and materials to stamp out infestations.

AviGo, a bird control product launched by Rentokil in 2012, uses natural chilli extract to keep pigeons and gulls away from treated areas, while the company has also been increasing its use of hawking for pest bird control.

21

Love Education What is

Relationships & Love Advice

My name is Success. I am 24 years old. I met someone and we are just casual friends. I have this feeling for him, but I don?t know how to go about it. I’ve waited for him to say something but he is not saying anything and I really love him. But my fear is how do I confront him, and is it proper as a lady to do that? And what is the implication in future?

LOVE&LIVING

enstrual cycle is the cycle of changes that occurs in the uterus and ovary for the purpose of sexual reproduction. It is essential for the production of eggs and for the preparation of the uterus for pregnancy. The menstrual cycle occurs only in fertile female humans and other female primates.

In humans, the length of a menstrual cycle varies greatly among women (ranging from 21 to 35 days), with 28 days designated as the average length. Each cycle can be divided into three phases based on events in the ovary (ovarian cycle) or in the uterus (uterine cycle). The ovarian cycle consists of the follicular phase, ovulation, and luteal phase whereas the uterine cycle is divided into menstruation, proliferative phase, and secretory phase. Both cycles are controlled by the endocrine system and the normal hormonal changes that occur can be interfered with using hormonal contraception to prevent reproduction.

By convention, menstrual cycles are counted from the first day of menstrual bleeding. Stimulated by gradually increasing amounts of estrogen in the follicular phase, discharges of blood (menses) slow then stop, and the lining of the uterus thickens. Follicles in the ovary begin developing under the influence of a complex interplay of hormones, and

Menstrual Cycle? after several days one or occasionally two become dominant (non-dominant follicles atrophy and die). Approximately mid-cycle, 24–36 hours after the Luteinizing Hormone (LH) surges, the dominant follicle releases an ovum, or egg, in an event called ovulation. After ovulation, the egg only lives for 24 hours or less without fertilization while the remains of the dominant follicle in the ovary become a corpus luteum; this body has a primary function of producing large amounts of progesterone.

Under the influence of progesterone, the endometrium (uterine lining) changes to prepare for potential implantation of an embryo to establish a pregnancy. If implantation does not occur within approximately two weeks, the corpus luteum will involute, causing sharp drops in levels of both progesterone and estrogen.

In the menstrual cycle, changes occur in the female reproductive system as well as other systems (which lead to breast tenderness or mood changes, for example). A woman’s first menstruation is termed menarche, and occurs typically around age 1213. The end of a woman’s reproductive phase is called the menopause, which commonly occurs somewhere between the ages of 45 and 55.

Source: www.my.clevelandclinic.org

H♥♥K UP...find your heart’s desire

Blackberry Connection

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A girl wants a cute guy for a relationship.

BB PIN: 750918FC.

♥ Lola, 28, fair, romantic, friendly, needs a man of 36-60 years for a serious relationship.

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Lovers’ Answers Game: The rule: Ask the opposite sex one question about love, and choose your lover from the top 3 answers.

A girl via 08187450076 is asking all men: “How would you know that the person you are relating with loves you?” *Call Mike: 07031028714 to send questions or issues.

• Connect with Mike on WhatsApp or BlackBerry Pin: 7ab29e22 or 21978F71 for details on how to send your BlackBerry or Smartphone Connect request.

• Call Mike on 07031028714, 08131161840 or 08023700641 to link up and for direct hookup.

22 LOVE&LIVING

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

True Confession from Overseas

SEXUAL COMMUNICATION

Pregnancy made me a shoplifter

N

o one knows my secret. Twice a week after dropping my four-year-old off at kindy, my baby daughter and I go straight to the mall. I’ll always dress up nicely in my most expensive gear, and head straight for the rich suburbs.

I mainly target expensive items such as the latest perfumes that are often on display and easily reached. I steal to re-sell to make a profit and also just things for the family and myself. I’ll take as much as possible and slip them on top of the pram and underneath, and fill up the green bags, carry on browsing and finally walk out.

It started from when I was pregnant with my son. My partner and I were living in a pub and we could never afford the latest gear. I would only take clothes and lingerie to begin with but then when our son was born I found using the pram was less conspicuous. I would take the most expensive sheets, pillows and goose down duvets along with clothes for us all. I would come home and be so overwhelmed at how much everything added up and would wonder why I never got caught.

When it came to buying groceries I would leave a box of nappies (sometimes two) along with bulk laundry power and bulk chlorine, go straight though the self serve checkout, scan one item and walk out with the rest. For all the items that had the security stickers on them I would just peel them off in the change rooms.

I carried around a pair of nail scissors to make the process easier and to cut through clothes that carried the security beeper tag that they remove when you make your purchase.

One time I even managed to walk out with

Love Crime

W

hen a woman killed her abusive husband out of self-defense, she found out that ‘he’ was actually a woman wearing a prosthetic penis.

Angelo Heddington and Elizabeth Rudavsky from Canada had a whirlwind romance, which was followed by a shotgun wedding after four months of dating, and then escalating domestic violence.

Sex Traditions

Suriname: Where women practice dry sex

D

ry sex is the sexual practice of having sexual intercourse with a woman without vaginal lubrication. Vaginal lubrication can be removed by using herbal aphro-

What would you like your woman to wear to bed?

My partner and I were living in a pub and we could never afford the latest gear. a top-of-the-range jogger pram. I would even return things I had not even bought to get an in-store credit.

When friends and family would visit they would always comment on our expensive things and were envious how I always managed to “steal” such a bargain. They would often ask to go out shopping with me to let them in on all these great sales that I knew about, but I would never let on about my secret.

I feel guilty to this day and have been pulled aside a few times for shoplifting but have only been banned from one shop and all the other times I would make up an excuse about how I forgot and would just go and pay for the item.

When we moved overseas I thought I’d be able to live the same lifestyle and never get caught. Well I was very wrong. The first time I got arrested was for stealing over $200 worth of goods and I was let off with no criminal record. The second time I was caught shoplifting the store contacted the police as I drove off.

They caught up with me, arrested me and I am due to appear in court next month.

W

If I could take it all back I would, and I’m happy to deal with my punishment whatever that will be.

These days I stay away from the mall altogether and only shop locally where people know me. I have to admit I am still often tempted to do it but I have a family to think of now and could never forgive myself if I ended up in jail.

Courtesy: ninemsn.com NB: Call Mike on +234-703 102 8714 if you have a story from abroad to share with us.

Wife kills abusive husband and discovers ‘he’ was actually a woman But when a battered 27-year-old Elizabeth stabbed Angelo, 30, after he attacked her in 2003, it was the paramedics who discovered a prosthetic penis under ‘his’ clothes on the way to the hospital.

Throughout their seven-month relationship, Angela had never been ‘bare’ in the light with Elizabeth, and always insisted on having sex in the dark, according to a police report.

Angelo, born Angela, actually told his wife that a previous girlfriend had gotten angry and burned his genitals.

‘I never passed judgment,’ Elizabeth said.

According to the book Cruel and Unusual Idiots: Chronicles of Meanness and Stupidity, a former girlfriend of Angela told a reporter: “Ang had soft hands, but she spit like a guy.

The whole time you were talking to her, she’d have her hands in her pockets, playing with

disiacs, household detergents, antiseptics, by wiping out the vagina, or by placing leaves in the vagina besides other methods. Dry sex is associated with increased health risks.

Removing or preventing vaginal lubrication through practices associated with dry sex increase friction during intercourse, which may be perceived as increased vaginal tightness, and enhanced sexual pleasure for the male partner. Some men who insist on dry sex regard “wet” women to be unchaste. Dry sex can be painful for men and women.

Dry sex is common in the Republic of Suriname among Afro-Surinamese women.

herself like she was a guy.”

The couple met while Angela was living at a Glencoe-area farm while recuperating from a back injury and Elizabeth was traveling to farms to sell dog tags.

It wasn’t long before Angela started beating Elizabeth, who said during the investigation that she genuinely loved her husband.

Over seven months, Angela continued to hit Elizabeth, threatening her with guns and violating her with a metal pipe.

In the early stages, at the couple’s wedding announcement, Elizabeth recalls: “I had to explain to everyone how I could be so happy, getting married, when I had a black eye.

Elizabeth’s lawyer, Fletcher Dawson, added: “It was as if she was a prisoner of war, and it was similar to the Stockholm syndrome.”

Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk

Women in Suriname perform ritualistic vaginal washes twice daily, using jungle plants they call wii. The washings are intended to simultaneously cleanse a woman, while later increasing the sexual satisfaction of her male sexual partner. Some types of wii are used because they smell nice, while others are specifically intended to dry a woman’s vagina.

As one Surinamese woman says: “It dries you up, and it’s for your man. Two times a day.

Every morning and every afternoon before you go to bed. Every woman.”

Courtesy: Wikipedia

hat does your wife wear to bed? Have you really thought about it and how it affects your libido and sex life together? The fact is that whatever your wife wears to bed has an impact on the rate at which you get turned on, and the frequency at which you have sex. This means that if what she wears to bed doesn’t attract or turn you on, you’ll be less likely to make love with her.

Recently, opinions were sampled on what men would like their wives to wear to bed. And these were some of the replies: “Just a wrapper” “Maybe a thin shirt or a button shirt for easy access... no panties” “I love it when women wear sexy thongs and G-strings and see through tops..mmm!”

“Only how she came into this world!”

“I like her to wear either black, or red, very lacy panties, they are my big turn on!! But then again that is entirely her choice!!”

The last reply shows that your wife’s choice is equally important in what she wears to bed. You need to carry her along and get her consent. So it wouldn’t be wise trying to force her to wear what she doesn’t want to wear to bed, just to make you happy.

Remember that sex starts from an intimacy and an emotional connection, regardless of what your woman wears. Sex is a thing of the mind. This means that forcing your wife to wear something she hates to bed just to please you might actually turn her off sexually and negatively affect your sex life instead of boosting it...

So even if she wears a G-String to bed just to make you happy, if she hates what she’s wearing, she might be turned off and no longer be interested in having sex with you, even while you might seem ready for action because her Gstring turns you on.

Sometimes it’s not about being obvious (naked). It’s about being creative, or capturing the imagination. And what better way to do that than if not just strip naked, but dress in a certain piece of lingerie or silk panties to help capture and create mood, and still you leave something to the imagination depending on what you wear, even though you know by the end of the night it shall be removed. In the end, what your woman wears to bed should be all about fun and excitement, and not about making anything difficult.

Best wishes in your sex life!

Documentary Screenings and Conversations at iREP Doc Fest 2014 p.24

THE ARTS ON SATURDAY NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

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A picturesque narrative of water G

gence on the Nigerian art scene is contributing to resetting the binoculars of artistic expression in Nigelistening, Olumide Oreseria. Without mincing words, what gun’s second solo exhibiOresegun stands for, which he has tion opened last Saturday at proven with the physical evidence Mydrim Gallery, in Ikoyi, Laof his numerous pieces is a positive gos, highlights his creative engagethrowback to the golden age of glory ment with simple everyday scenes. in and respect for art.

But beyond this, he has “perfected “It is from his depth of creative painting the imagery of water in a thoughts that Glistening the title of lifelike manner” - a style which he this second solo exhibition by Oreprefers to call “hyper-realism”. segun emanated. Oresegun has foAs he notes, “I am inspired by cused predominantly on the theme simple everyday scenes. I enjoy of water on bodies. He has perfected watching children at play, totally unpainting the imagery of water in a inhibited, converting all around them lifelike manner. In works like Lisinto toys and games. I am motivated tening and Thinking you almost feel to capture these scenes on canvas. the effect of bodies pressed against For this exhibition, I have focused on a sheet of glass preventing water two themes (children’s play scenes flowing through a part but the same and still life). I am particularly water navigating its way fascinated by the water through those areas scenes. The way water where lacuna exists glisters, flows, splashand occupying the es, bubbles and slides space between the off the human body glass and the skin. has inspired me to In Tension, Filtered capture the same effect and Play Time, the on canvas. I have been free flow of water and its Oresegun able to achieve this real life soaking effects are technically effect of water on canvas by paintcaptured.” ing in layers, the results of which I Continuing, Onifade stated: now present to you in this exhibition “There must be some kind of Glistening,” he said. philosophical orientation to these In works such as Imagination paintings. While one is compelled, Arena, Setting Up, Behind the Stage, by way available evidence, to upRich Harvest 1, Play Time, Lighten hold that the works belong in the Up, Tangerine 1, The Last Stanza, and realm of realism, Oresegun argues Dreams, Oresegun captures various and anchors his style on the prefix scenes giving them meaning that are of what he calls “hyper-realism”. as real as the images on canvas.

While hoping that time and tide Born in Lagos in 1981, Oresegun will afford him the privilege to studied art at Yaba College of Techprove himself, it becomes imperanology, graduating with a Higher National Diploma in painting in 2006.

Whilst at Yaba he was greatly influenced by his teachers such as Mr. Kolade Oshinowo, Mr. Anthony Ogunde, Mr. Peter Coker and Mr. Aderinsoye Aladegbogbe. His classmates nicknamed him “Olu Van Gogh” because of his painting skills. Since his graduation he has participated in numerous group exhibitions.

In the introduction on the exhibition’s catalogue, artist and proponent of araism, Mr. Mufu Onifade notes: “… Olumide Oresegun, a young, vibrant artist whose emer- Behind The Stage: Oil on Canvas Tony Okuyeme

Listening: Oil on Canvas

Imagination Arena: Oil on Canvas

Setting Up: Oil on Canvas

tive to take a peep into his mind.“ Simple, unassuming, Oresegun explains that to achieve the effect, he lays more emphasis on the subjects and details, with the use of subtle, pictorial elements to create an illusion of reality.

“Practicing the hyper-realist style, I lay more emphasis on the subjects and details, with the use of subtle, pictorial elements to create an illusion of reality, which does not exist most times. I employ certain materials to filter, such as glass windows to simultaneously create an abstract and real effect. In essence, it incorporates emotional, social, cultural and thematic elements as an extension of the painted

visual illusion – a distinct departure from the older and considerable more traditional school of photo-realism.”

Writing on the exhibition, Curator of Mydrim Gallery, Sinmidele Adesanya noted that Oresegun’s first solo show, Moment of Reason, was also held at Mydrim Gallery in July 2011, and since then hehas honed his skills.“In this exhibition he focuses on painting children playing in their natural environment and simple everyday scenes. His paintings of water scenes are so real you almost feel the water splashing on you from the canvas. The fruits in his works look real enough to pick and eat.”

Glistening will run till Friday April.

24 THE ARTS

REVIEW Didi Cheeka

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inema, the unseen voice in Eva Knopf´s Majub´s Reise (Majub´s Journey) narrates, is an art that strives to make stars shine. Extras, the voice continues, are the dark night-sky background. Majub´s journey sets for itself the task of lighting up the dark oft he nightsky, to make a star of a bit player.

This cinema essay tells the story of a Majub bin Adam Mohamed Hussein, aka Mohamed Husen, who lived and worked as an extra in the movie industry in Nazi Germany during the 1930s. Majub was born in Dar es Salaam, a former German colony. He became a soldier for the Germans during World War I – when he was only nine years old. Eva´s film – interweaving meticulously researched facts and inferential evidence, traces Majub´s footprints, from his childhood in the colony to his life and death in Nazi Germany. After Germany lost the war, they failed to pay Majub for his military service. A decade or so later, Majub decided to travel to Germany to personally collect his outstanding money. Majub became a popular extra and bit player in 1930s German cinema - whenever the films of the Nazi era called for a black character, it was usually Majub - where he was cast alongside the era´s stars like Hans Albers, Heinz Rühmann or Zarah Leander.

In this sense, this film seems an act of reburial. (That is to say, an act of proper burial.) Eva seems unconsciously to treat space as a film set, a film location.

There is this in Eva´s direction of Majub´s Reise (Majub´s Journey) – her graduation documentary: the (almost inborn) awareness, the naturalness and heightened sensitivity of the film director – a sureness that says, I belong in the space. There is also the courage to take on this difficult subject matter and treat it with a raw, questioning honesty. There is beauty in this film, tenderness and bitter poetry. The Q&A (really, it was a sort of debate) that followed the screening testify to this difficulty and bitter residue of colonial history, in this instance, the way alterity, the image of the Other is constructed. The way colonized peoples narrative is erased and subsumed within the narrative of the colonizer.

The event was the iREPRESENT international Documentary Film Festival themed “Rhythms of Identity.“ “Everything is about representation. Images are important, they are political; they form the rhythm of our identity and are present in all the elements that define who we are.“ Africans, the

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

Memory, history and identity

Screenings and Conversations at iREP Doc Fest 2014

A scene from Majub’s journey

festival brochure says, are always at a disadvantage in global definitions and is always defined by others, never by itself. “Who is telling the story of Africa and it´s realities and from what perspective?“ Antje Kruska´s film, Land in Sight follows the travails of the asylum seekers from Cameroun, Yemen and Iran.

Antje´s film (which she co-directed with Judith Keil, her constant collaborator) reflects how an artist can take the usual, the everyday and make o fit something really unique.

Beyond the poetry of this film, is the feeling you get of heightened fiction – not at all in the sense of docudrama, but in the sense of a reality at once tragic and comic the mind takes flight. There´s subtlety to the narrative, an unobtrusive quality to the filmmaking as subject and filmmakers seem to blend, to lose awareness of each other´s presence.

Against the backdrop of the festival´s theme, Eva and Antje are walking a tightrope and with the way altering. Otherness is staged and performed in mainstream media it is testament to the filmmakers´artistic integrity and honesty that the films keeps their balance. I don´t mean that the films are objective. No, objectivity, all too often masquerades as the pretended impartiality of an artist afraid to reveal herself.

What I mean is that the two films presents their narrative in ways that subverts the mainstream. Immigrants, in mainstream media, are usually framed in terms of riots and criminality. Antje´s film presents immigrants in ways that seem to encourage the challenge the traditional way immigrants are framed and categorized. The surprise is that Eva studied cultural anthropology and teaches visual and media anthropology. Antje, among other subjects,

This, of course, poses a challenge noticeable in films from Nigeria´s documentarymakers: an absence of knowledge on how to film a documentary; only from a sociological point of view, any one of its movie is as good as the other” studied sociology. Yet there is the absence of the sociological and anthropological approach usually evident in films dealing with African subjects.

There is a disturbing feel to Jide Akinleminu´s Portrait of A Lone Farmer. Perhaps the autobiography is what makes you think you´re watching someone perform surgery on himself, in public without anaesthesia. Afterwards, Jide mentioned a Yoruba proverb that says home is where you return to at the end of the farming day. And yet, you get the feeling as you watch this film that the filmmaker portraits home as lost, a place where we belong, where we were happy as children; a place where ourspiritual roots are but to which we can never return. It is this sense of loss, of longing, of a never-ending remembrance you feel in his film. There is an absence, an unbelonging heightened by the director´s voice – you hear the director, you feel him standing just beyond the edge of light, unable to locate himself, to place himself in his own story.

Unlike Jide, Ushi, the dairymaid at the heart of Matti Bauer´s Still is firmly situated in her story – in the sense of home is where you make it. Beautifully photographed in black and white, Bauer´s film – as Bauer himself says he intended – has a classical feel to it. I do think, however, that this effect derives not just from the non-use of colour.

But, one must understand that there is not an absence of colour in this film. The many gradation and hues imbues this film with a poetic tone. If at all there is melancholy to Still, it is not dark despair.

It is the bittersweet memory of a moment you always recall with a tinge of sadness and joy, the way you recall the time of exhilaration you left home when you were younger to pursue happiness and liberty. Filmed over a period of ten years, Still is the story of Ushi who leaves her parents´ farm to work as an Alpine dairy maid, and in one long summer she thinks she´s found it. It is like a forgotten memory you hold onto that is sometimes triggered by an old photograph or post-card. The many iconic shots seem to juxtapose humans against nature, evoking not just a sense of freedom, but also the struggle to tame nature, to make it serve human purposes, they evoke the wildness and untameable yearning for freedom in the human heart.

The four films were screened courtesy of two of iREPS partners: Goethe-Institut Lagos - the official German Cultural body, and AG DOK, guild of German documentary filmmakers. The screenings and conversations were finely-helmed by indefatigable Jahman Anikulapo, with support from Femi Odugbemi, Makin Soyinka, Theo Lawson and Toyin Fajj. What is evident, if not a gradual shifting away, is a broadening of horizon to include docu-

mentaries among Nigeria´s film audience. This, of course, poses a challenge noticeable in films from Nigeria´s documentary-makers: an absence of knowledge on how to film a documentary; an absence of the distinction between documentary as a film form, and reportage as a news form. Filmmaking, like film criticism is necessarily comparative. Too many filmmakers are unaware (sometimes it seems to me like disinterest) of what has been done in the medium. The discovery of, and fascination with film is – with inexperienced filmmakers – like the discovery of love.

Before you, no one had discovered the taste of love. The danger – especially with dilettantes – is the tendency discovery has to become narcissistic. How, for instance, do you make a documentary on sport and be ignorant, say, of Leni Riefenstahl´s iconic Olympia?

If the strength of Bauer´s Still is its iconic narrative, I think Jide´s Farmer is its inartistic, understated visceral feel. The effect of Antje and Eva´s films are so similar (and yet so subtly different.) There is a restrained despair in Antje´s film, a despair achieved by its equallyrestrained humour. Eva´s film confronts the challenge: how do you trace the journey of a traveller whose footprints has been erased?

It becomes almost a supernatural feat that the filmmaker manages to reveal something of this person personal narrative, a glimpse of a soul. In retracing Majub´s journey film becomes an act of resistance against official history´s erasure of certain narratives; film becomes an act of collective remembrance, an act of public witnessing and erection of monument.

Cheeka is a Marxist critic, writer and filmmaker.

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Chikatara: From kolanut seller to stardom

I Confederation Cup:

W’Wolves, Bayelsa face stern tests for playoff draw

Warri Wolves’ Efe Etebo tries to outwit an opponent in a league match recently

T

he African football governing body CAF says that pairing for the Confederation Cup will take place next month in Egypt But for Nigeria’s representatives, Warri Wolves and Bayelsa United, it would be a long weekend as they try to turn the table to their advantage to

be part of the draw.

Bayelsa United will hope to cancel out the 2-1 deficit they suffered in Zimbabawe last weekend as they host How mine of Harare in a must win match, while Warri Wolves will hope for the best as they face CA Bizertin in Tunisia.

Both teams played a barren draw at the Warri township stadium last Sunday.

The ceremony, billed to hold at its headquarters in Cairo, will see the eight teams eliminated from the CAF Champions League round of 16 pooled against eight teams that made it from the 1/8th round of the Confederation Cup. The first leg of the playoff has been scheduled for the weekend of 18-20

April 2014; and the second leg for 25-27 April 2014. The winners will progress to the group stage of the Orange CAF Confederation Cup. CAF also revealed that only officials from the federations or the Embassies in Egypt of the qualified teams that are expected to attend the ceremony.

n a little over a year ago, Chisom Chikatara was another lad helping his parents make ends meet by walking the streets of Umuahia, the Abia State capital with tray load of Kolanuts.

When sold out on a good market day, each of those tray loads of about 50 kolanuts (usually less) could fetch N1500 (about $10) which probably doesn’t happen. The name, Chisom literally translates to ‘God is by me’ or ‘God is following me’ and the lad seems to have lived up to his name, going by his fortune to have been picked by an academy coach at a ground where he elected to take a break from street hawking to join other lads play football.

With God’s benevolence Chisom also had the fortune of breaking into the first team of a Nigeria National League, Abia Warriors at first try and that God still stayed by him through his first season in professional football.

We’re in Port Harcourt to win, Crown GM warns Sharks

My court has jurisdiction over suit – Justice Ogala

rown of Ogbomosho’s general Manager Fatai Olayinka has said his side will not be in Port Harcourt to admire the Garden City, but to pick points as they confront Sharks in a week 4 fixture of the Nigeria Professional Football League, Fatai, who considers himself as an indigene of the Garden City, said though, he is not going into the match with supporters from Ogbomosho because of cash constraints, he is optimistic that the clout he built while in the state will pull support for his team.

“I lived and worked in Port Harcourt for about fourteen years in the service of Dolphins FC. By all standards, I am a Port Harcourt boy and going with Crown is home coming for me.

I love Dolphins and Dolphins fans love me. I know that they appreciate my long years of service to their club and I know they will always promote my interest.

As far as I am concerned, we cannot be bothered about Sharks fans because I have a good fan base in Port Harcourt to make my team comfortable. I have told my players and they are very confident. It is the game of football.

ustice Mrs Ogala of a Lagos High Court on Thursday ruled that her court has the jurisdiction to hear the suit on the Nigeria Premier League Broadcast Rights brought before it by Total Promotions.

Ogala dismissed an application by lawyers of the League Management Company, which had questioned the jurisdiction of the court the hear the matter.

The judge in interpreting the court rules, rejected LMC’s argument that the suit was deficient on the technical ground of jurisdiction. Citing various authorities, the judge ruled that Total Promotions adequately complied with the court process rules.

The Judge also heard TPL’s application for an interim injunction, given the unnecessary delay by LMC, after the substantive suit and interlocutory injunction application were served on them.

The judge reviewed the various authorities cited by both sides and reconfirmed the earlier court order that “Status quo” be maintained. She warned that any action in defiance of this order will be contemptuous and adjourned till April for further hearing

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What is important is for them to play good soccer and the Port Harcourt fans will be behind them,” he reportedly assured in Ibadan before his team departed Meanwhile Dolphins Football Club will start them home run of games in the Nigeria Professional Football League with a game against Sunshine Stars.

Media Officer of the club, China Acheru says this is as a result of a

double header weekend in Port Harcourt that has both clubs based in the city playing on the same day.

“As regards innovations of the League Management Company, LMC there will be specific double header weekends and this is one of such because we host Sunshine Stars while Sharks host Crown FC. “With both games getting live coverage on TV, they will be played in the same stadium and the ven-

Brothers at war in Aba

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here will be no love lost on Sunday at the Enyimba Stadium in when the two-time Africa Champions League winners, Enyimba international of Aba hosts their brothers from Umuahia, Abia Warriors.

There would be no dull moments as both teams file out to lay claim to football superiority in the state.

Enyimba will be wary of the Ladan Bosso sidfe because of recent results they had posted against them.

Only last season, Abia Warriors defeated Enyimba at the

Abia state FA Cup final but they (Enyimba) still went all the way to lift the national trophy in Lagos.

Enyimba’s talisman, Bashir

ue owned by Sharks was picked for this game,” Acheru said.

“We were at first disappointed in the fact that we have to play at the Sharks stadium but we have put that behind us now and are looking forward to the game.”

Sharks will host Crown at 2pm on Saturday while it will be the turn of Dolphins against Sunshine Stars at 4pm at the same stadium.

PREMIER LEAGUE WEEK 4 FIXTURES Giwa FC vs Rangers Pillars vs Warri Wolves(pp) Enyimba vs Abia Warriors Nembe City vs FC Taraba El-Kanemi vs Akwa Utd Nasarawa Utd vs Lobi Stars Gombe Utd vs Heartland Sharks vs Crown Dolphins vs Sunshine MATCH DAY 3 RESULTS Heartland FC 0-0 Sharks FC Rangers 2 - 1 Kano Pillars Taraba 1 - 0 El-Kanemi FC Lobi Stars 2 - 0 Gombe Utd Akwa FC 2 - 0 Kaduna Utd Crown 2 - 1 Dolphins FC Gombe United 0 - 0 Bayelsa

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Eagles must raise game in Brazil – Garba Lawal Vincent Eboigbe

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arba Lawal has urged the Super Eagles to raise their game at the forthcoming global soccer fiesta in Brazil.

The former international stressed that there was tendency for players to relax rather than work harder for results after making the final list to the World Cup. Lawal, being a workaholic midfielder during his playing days told our correspondent on the telephone that the World Cup was going to be tough and that only the very determined would make it to the latter stages.

“I have said it before everything depends on the players; their attitude, their commitment, what they want and if they believe in themselves,” Lawal said.

“Every player will answer their names on the field of play.

As individuals and as a team they will have to focus and fight for each other. Character and absolute concentration will be vital; this is the World Cup, the very top in football competitions, and so we need to be up to the task. We can’t fold our hands and say we’ll succeed.

The players will really have to roll up their sleeves and do the hard work.”

Although Bosnia and Iran, two of Nigeria’s group opponents in Brazil, have been labelled ‘soft’ Lawal refused to subscribe to this description,

insisting that all the teams must be taken seriously.

He argued that losing to Argentina, the other team in Nigeria’s group, will not be such a big deal given the pedigree of the two-time World Cup winners, but cautioned the Eagles to be wary of Bosnia and Iran.

“Everybody knows Argentina and how good their players are, so losing to such an opponent will not cause so much concern. But Bosnia and Iran will be tough; having qualified for the World Cup alone means they deserve respect. Those two are the ones we really need to be wary off,” Lawal admonished.

Lawal who is a member of Nigeria Football Federation Technical Committee was however, reluctant to comment on the on today off tomorrow relationship between the Eagles coach Stephen Keshi and NFF. Keshi only on Tuesday in Lagos said he would like to continue with his job if the conditions were right while alluding to the often difficult relationship with his employers.

Lawal said “When Keshi says he is not afraid of being sacked or that there are pressures especially with regard to including certain players in his squad, I really don’t know what he means.

Only he alone knows what he is talking about. But what I do know is that any way you look at it there is always pressure. If he succeeds as he has done before now the pressure will not be there. It is always about results.”

My players are hungry for success – Babangida Charles Ogundiya

T

he General Manager of FC Taraba, Tijani Babangida, has revealed to New Telegraph that players’ determination to succeed is the secret behind his club’s success in the Glo Premier League season.

The team gained promotion to the Glo Premier League at the end of last season and has enjoyed a good start to life in the elite division.

Babangida, who resumed as the general manager of the club three years ago, has overseen the club’s rise from the Nationwide League to the Premier League in just three seasons.

The team gained promotion to the Nigeria National League after a year in the Nationwide League and later gained promotion to the Premier League.

Speaking to New Telegraph, the former Ajax of Amsterdam winger attributed the success to hard work and commitment.

Babangida

“When you have players that are ready to play for you, dedicated young players, then the result will surely come. Most of the players are from the academy, but they are ready to make a name for themselves,” he said.

He added that they recruited more experienced players into the squad to complement the young team and he’s happy that the result has been impressive.

Ahmed Musa in action for Nigeria

Eagles can break Africa’s quarter finals jinx – Musa …tips CSKA Moscow for Russia League title

Charles Ogundiya

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SKA Moscow winger, Ahmed Musa, believes the Super Eagles have what it takes to finally break Africa’s quarter finals hoodoo at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Three African sides, Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010), have in the past made it to the quarterfinals only to lose out. Five teams from Africa, including Nigeria, will be aiming to go one round further in Brazil, and Musa, in an interview with New Telegraph from his base in Russia, feels the Super Eagles are capable of doing just that.

“I am looking forward to a good outing at the World Cup,

where I feel we have a better chance of getting to the semi-finals than any of the other teams from Africa,” said Musa, who was part of the Nigerian side to last year’s FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil, where the team failed to get beyond the group stage.

Regardless of Nigeria’s poor Confederations Cup showing, the former VVV-Venlo striker is positive that the experience garnered from last year’s tournament in Brazil will come in handy at the World Cup. “We are going as African champions and the Confederations Cup experience will put us in a good position to take on any opponent coming our way.

“Personally, I am fit and ready for the competition in Brazil, and

I can assure all that we are going to surprise the world,” he said.

Speaking about his club, Musa stated that his CSKA Moscow side is still in contention for the Russian Premier League title.

Musa, who scored his sixth league goal of the season in CSKA’s 3-0 demolition of Anzhi Makhachakala on Monday, said: “We are still one of the teams contending for the league title. It is going be tough, no doubt, but we are in for it. I will do my best to lift my team.”

The Ex-Kano Pillars player was on target with a left foot shot inside the box in the 76th minute to give his team a 3-0 lead, and push CSKA to 5th spot on the Russian Premier League table with 40 points from 22 games.

Sunshine Stars seek point at Dolphins Charles Ogundiya

A

fter grabbing a point away to reigning Premier League champions, Kano Pillars, Sunshine Stars have set their sights on grabbing at least another point on the road, this time against Dolphins in PortHarcourt.

Sounding confident, the coach of the Akure Gunners, Henry

Abiodun, said the point his team got away to Pillars in the last round of games has shown that his side are ready for glory.

“Against Kano Pillars, the team showed zeal and determination to come from a goal down and we were on the verge of winning the match before the last minute equalizer,” said Abiodun, recalling his side’s two-all draw in Kano.

“This weekend, we are going to

Port-Harcourt for at least a point against Dolphins. We are ready for the game and by God’s grace, we will come back with a result,” he said.

Sunshine Stars remain in search of their first win of the season, having played out a goalless draw at home to Enyimba in the opening game of the season before picking another point against Kano Pillars in their last game.

Joel Obi

O

egor Ogude will prove that his new-found form in Russia is no fluke when his club, Amker Perm, host Zenit Petersbrough today.

The player who moved from Valarenga of Norway has three goals under his belt already in just three games for the Russians and could make further statements if he continues that

F

Ogude fights Hulk in Russia

genyi Onazi and Joel Obi will share banters and pleasantries when Parma visit Lazio for a Serie A game but that will definitely be after they have both helped their teams to achieve result at the Stadio Olympico.

Lazio are at home and Ogenyi who has played 24 league matches for the Roman club is expected to also feature in this one and will also fancy his chance of scoring his first Serie A goal.

Obi is getting more appearances since overcoming nagging

Omeruo seeks

injuries and will also want to make his eighth game a memorable one.

It remains to be seen if Obinna Nsofor will get his first starting shirt when Chievo face Milan at the San Siro Stadium.

The Super Eagles striker has managed just three substitute appearances since returning to Chievo in January and will hope that he could be trusted for the big one against the Rossonneri.

M

anchester City will look to compound Arsene Wenger’s woes when they visit the Emirates stadium this weekend, knowing a win would take them closer to the Premier League title and inflict a potentially fatal blow to Arsenal’s chances.

Wenger’s side has capitulated in recent weeks and a win for Manuel Pellegrini’s team in London would almost certainly leave the battle for the Premier League crown as a three-way race between City, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Arsenal, humiliated 6-0 at leaders Chelsea and held to a 2-2 home draw by

hoped for an easier match to revive their ailing title bid.

City lie third with 66 points, three behind Chelsea but with two games in hand, and they will look to build on their impressive 3-0 win at bitter local rivals Manchester United on Tuesday.

Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea travel to struggling Crystal Palace and secondplaced Liverpool, only a point off the top on 68 points, host Tottenham Hotspur.

It is 10 years since Arsenal last won the league and they approach the match on Saturday looking not only to keep their slim title hopes alive but to cement a place in the top four and qualify for

down their neck, six points adrift of Wenger’s men but with a game in hand and a trip to bottom club Fulham on Sunday presents the chance to move a step closer to the top four.

Wenger endured a torrid time in his 1,000th match in charge of Arsenal at Stamford Bridge and anticipates another tough match against City.

“Manchester City had a good result tonight (against United), they look a bit unstoppable and are favourites because they still have two games in hand,” Wenger said after the Swansea draw.

“They and Chelsea are the favourites

• They’re unstoppable, Wenger admits

City set to compound Arsenal woes

HEAD-TO-HEAD Team Matches Win Draw Lose Arsenal 162 83 38 41 Man City 162 41 38 83

Global Football Special

Onazi, Joel Obi clash in Italy

Onazi

EAGLES FOCUS

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able-toppers Juventus will look to edge closer to their third successive title when they head over to the San Paolo to face third-placed Napoli on Sunday evening.

Antonio Conte’s charges recorded a resounding midweek victory on Wednesday evening when they edged out a ten-man Parma side 2-1 at the Juventus Stadium.

Surprisingly, the fixture saw two of the most evenly paired teams in the league line-up against each other in Turin, as Juventus were on a run of 14 consecutive home wins, while the Ducali hadn’t lost in 17 matches.

Having claimed their first victory in five matches on Wednesday evening, Milan will look to continue with their progress when they host Chievo at the San Siro The Rossoneri ended their winless run in the midweek when they stunned an in-form Fiorentina side 2-0 at the Artemio Franchi.

It was the first win in five matches across all competitions and it may be one which will extend Clarence Seedorf’s position as the club’s head coach.

T

Juve take on Napoli

Pts 77 52 51 47 44 42 41 39 36 35 32 29 29 26 26 24 24 21 PT 69 68 66 63 57 56 51 46 45 37 34 34 33 32 30 28 28 25 25 24 Pts 73 72 70 56 50 46 45 40 39 37 34 33 33 32 31 29 29 28 27 19 Pts 81 67 61 51 47 47 43 42 40 40 39 39 39 34 32 27 26

Bundesliga Table No Team P 1 Bayern 27 2 Dortmund 27 3 FC Schalke 27 4 Leverkusen 27 5 Wolfsburg 27 6 Mö’gladbach 27 7 Mainz 27 8 Augsburg 27 9 Hertha BSC 27 10 Hoffenheim 27 11 Frankfurt 27 12 Hannover 27 13 Bremen 27 14 Nürnberg 27 15 Freiburg 27 16 Hamburger 27 17 Stuttgart 27 18 Braunschweig 27 P 31 31 29 31 30 31 31 31 31 31 31 30 31 31 31 30 30 29 31 31 P 30 30 30 30 30 29 29 30 29 29 30 30 30 30 30 29 30 29 29 29

EPL No. Team 1 Chelsea 2 Liverpool 3 Man City 4 Arsenal 5 Everton 6 Tottenham 7 Man Utd 8 Newcastle 9 Southampton 10 Stoke 11 West Ham 12 Aston Villa 13 Hull 14 Norwich 15 Swansea 16 West Brom 17 Crystal Palace 18 Sunderland 19 Cardiff 20 Fulham La Liga No Team 1 Atlético 2 Barcelona 3 Real 4 Bilbao 5 Sevilla 6 Sociedad 7 Villarreal 8 Espanyol 9 Valencia 10 Levante 11 Granada 12 Vallecano 13 Celta Vigo 14 Málaga 15 Elche 16 Almería 17 Osasuna 18 Getafe 19 Valladolid 20 Real Betis

Serie A No Team P 1 Juventus 30 2 Roma 29 3 Napoli 30 4 Fiorentina 30 5 Internazionale 29 6 Parma 29 7 Atalanta 30 8 Lazio 30 9 Sampdoria 30 10 Verona 30 11 Torino 30 12 Milan 30 13 Genoa 30 14 Udinese 29 15 Cagliari 30 16 Chievo 30 17 Bologna 30

28 SPORT NEW TELEGRAP 29 MARC

Ogude

uper Eagles defender, Kenneth Omeruo, will attempt to atone for the mistake he made last weekend when his club, Middleborough, travel to Brighton for a Championship match today.

The Nigerian played an ignoble role in Boro’s 3-1 defeat at home to QPR last weekend when he attempted a back pass to his goalkeeper which was intercepted by QPR striker who wasted no time to score the visitors’ second goal.

Omeruo, who has enjoyed rave reviews since moving to the English lower division side last January, will be desperate to regain his good name when he plays his ninth game for Boro.

Osaze Odemwingie has been in imperious form for Stoke City and that is what another Nigerian, Sone Aluko, and his Hull City side will find out when they come to Britannia Stadium on Sunday.

Odemwingie has notched up four goals for the Potters, three of them in the last four games and together with his strike partner, Peter Crouch they will make life difficult for the Tigers.

Though Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi, said John Obi Mikel still retains his sharpness despite irregular appearances for Chelsea the 26-year-old will hope to reclaim his place in Blues line-up as quickly as possible, he will not mind if he starts against Crystal Palace this weekend.

Victor Moses is unlikely to add to 12 minutes of Premier League football he has played this month when Liverpool host Tottenham at the Anfield.

S

redemption

R

Unai E m e r y ’s side extended their winning run in the league to six matches when they came back from behind to beat Real Madrid 2-1 on Wednesday night with Carlos Bacca scoring a brace.

J ohan Cruyff believes Pep Guardiola was the perfect coach to take Bayern Munich to the next level following their treble-winning season last campaign.

Guardiola came into the club after Jupp Heynckes led the team in a historic season in which they won the Bundesliga, Champions League and DFB Pokal, while setting several new club records.

This term the Bavarians have already wrapped up the German league title with a record seven games remaining and are still in the hunt for the domestic cup and the European title.

“I know Pep very well and I know how intelligent he is. It was clear to me that he did not join this club with the intention of completely overhauling it,” Cruyff, who mentored Guardiola during their time together at the Camp Nou, told tz Munich.

B

Olivier Giroud’s future with Arsenal has been cast in doubt. The Daily Mail says when Giroud signed for Arsenal in June 2012, it was agreed that he would hold discussions with Wenger about his future at the end of this season. Discussions would have centred on the possibility of a new contract but allegations of an extra-marital affair have led the Frenchman to believe it could be in the best interests of his family to start afresh away from London.

Giroud

BRIEFLY

orussia Dortmund will be eager to keep hold of second spot when they travel South to the province of Baden Württemberg to clash with relegation-threatened VfB Suttgart at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in a German Bundesliga clash on Saturday afternoon.

Dortmund were held to a goalless draw by fierce rivals Schalke on Tuesday.

Jurgen Klopp’s men subsequently held on to second spot on the log, but the players were disappointed that they couldn’t cushion their advantage over the Royal Blues, who trail the Black and Yellows by a mere point.

Carlos Tevez

P

30 24 30 21 30 20

La Liga Saturday Real V Vallecano Espanyol V Barcelona Celta Vigo V Sevilla Bilbao V Atlético Sunday Valladolid V Almería Osasuna V Sociedad Villarreal V Elche Valencia V Getafe Bundesliga Saturday Mainz V Augsburg Leverkusen V Braunschweig Bayern V Hoffenheim Stuttgart V Dortmund Wolfsburg V Frankfurt Freiburg V 1. Nürnberg Sunday ‘Gladbach V Hamburger Hannover V Bremen

Serie A Saturday Bologna V Atalanta Milan V Chievo Sunday Sassuolo V Roma Lazio V Parma Sampdoria V Fiorentina Torino V Cagliari Verona V Genoa Napoli V Juventus

FIXTURES EPL Saturday Man Utd v Aston Villa C/Palace v Chelsea Soton v Newcastle Stoke v Hull Swansea v Norwich West Brom v Cardiff Arsenal v Man City Sunday Fulham v Everton Liverpool v Tottenham

Marcelo has apologised to Real Madrid fans after their defeat to Sevilla.

The result came on the back of Sunday’s El Clasico loss to Barcelona.

“We knew that at the end of the season it would be difficult. All matches are a final.We have to fight and keep fighting and apologize to the fans of Real Madrid.”

Marcelo

uventus star Arturo Vidal has again played down speculation linking him with a move away from the club, insisting he is happy in Turin.

Vidal’s future has been the subject of conjecture for some time with the likes of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Bayern Muncih all credited with an interest in his services.

J

Vidal plans Juve stay

SG duo Yohan Cabaye and Lucas Moura want Chelsea stars Eden Hazard and Oscar to trade Stamford Bridge for the Parc des Princes.

Hazard and Oscar have enjoyed superb campaigns for Chelsea, playing pivotal roles in the Blues’ Premier League title challenge having netted 17 and 14 goals, respectively.

Former Newcastle United star Cabaye, who made the move to the French giants in January, has suggested he would enjoy teaming up with

18 Livorno 19 Sassuolo 20 Catania

Hazard at PSG. “Hazard is ‘the’ player for Chelsea,” Cabaye said. “He’ll be a player to watch.

“Also, he’s a very good friend of mine. I would be very happy if he came to PSG, the club too” Lucas Moura said, “He can make the difference at any time, dangerous with each acceleration. But everyone knows that. He knows me, I know him. There will be a way of stopping him. We mustn’t focus only on him, but we have to be careful.

Get Hazard, Oscar, PSG duo begs club

Steven Nzonzi has cast doubt over his future at Stoke City.

“Everybody is talking about what will happen next season, but as a player you do not know.

You just focus on this season.”

Nzonzi

Stuttgart are embedded in the history of German football, but the fivetime Bundesliga champions, who won the league in 2007, are facing possible relegation.

The Reds have struggled with a threegame unbeaten run coming to an end at Nürnberg on Wednesday evening.

Dortmund aim to cement second spot

eal Madrid will be eager to bounce back from back-to-back La Liga defeats when they host neighbours Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabeu on Saturday.

The Whites’ title challenge was dealt a blow when they went down 4-3 to rivals Barcelona on Sunday before suffering a 2-1 defeat at the hands of Sevilla on Wednesday night.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side now dropped to third place on the table with 70 points, two points behind Barcelona and three less than current leaders Atletico Madrid.

Sevilla will aim to continue with their impressive winning run in La Liga when they visit Celta Vigo at the Balaidos Stadium on Saturday.

for the title. We don’t have too much room to come back into it.”

Cruyff: Pep perfect for Bayern

next season’s Champions League.

Fifth-placed Everton are breathing

Wounded Madrid target derby win

Swansea City after conceding a last-minute equaliser on Tuesday, would have

Barcelona have dropped out of the race for Dortmund’s Marco Reus. The Germany international is a target for Man Utd, Real Madrid and Arsenal, but Barca have pulled out of the battle.

El Mundo Deportivo says Barca scouts have delivered sports director Andoni Zubizarreta glowing reports on Reus this season. But Barca have concerns over his injury record and believe his fitness is not worth the gamble.

Reus

run when he faces big stars like Hulk and Andre Arshavin who are likely to feature for Zenit in this tie.

Another Eagles star, Ahmed Musa could add to his six league goals when CSKA Moscow confront Volga on Monday.

The Nigerian is CSKA’s second highest goal scorer. He’s managed six in 22 games but Ivorian Seydou Doumbia has 13 goals in 14 games for the league leaders.

In Turkey, Godfrey Oboabona is expected to play his 14th game for Rizespor when they travel to Belediyespor today.

After a poor start, Oboabona has settled down to life in Turkey. He’s now notching up games and he is likely to be called up for this tie once again.

PH ON SATURDAY CH 2014

SPORT

29

30 SPORT

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

Lifestyle

GOING FOR GOLD!

Bolt performs sexy dance in Trinidad and Tobago

FAMILY MATTERS

U

sain Bolt has caused embarrassment to Virgin Media after being caught performing crude dance moves at a pre-carnival party in Trinidad and Tobago.

The Olympic legend, who features in a number of Virgin adverts for broadband, was pictured in Momentum Nightclub ‘daggering’ with a participating female.

The controversial dance, which originated in Mr Bolt’s native Jamaica, is designed to imitate sexual intercourse.Often seen during carnivals, the dance is known for its sexually explicit style and is usually performed to dancehall music.

The Olympic record holder appeared happy to be photographed as he took part in the dance in front of fans.

At the height of six foot and five inches, the Jamaican sprinter towered over the unknown female as they danced together on stage.

Suarez relaxes with wife and children

G

us Poyet joked that he hoped Luis Suarez would be taken ill before Liverpool play Sunderland last Wednesday night - but his plea looks to have fallen on deaf ears.

The Uruguayan superstar posted a picture on Instagram of himself, his wife and two children relaxing in bed before the big game.

Suarez - the Premier League’s top scorer with 28 goals already this season - accompanied the picture with the words: ‘Good morning everyone!

What better than waking up with the most important people in my life... I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!’

Suarez and family

M

Sharapova’s boyfriend stops match to help ill ball girl in Miami

aria Sharapova’s boyfriend Grigor Dimitrov showed his softer side on Sunday when he stopped his Sony Open match to tend to a young ball girl who was struggling with the

90-degree heat in Miami.

Dimitrov was in a first set tiebreaker with Kei Nishikori when he walked towards the ball girls asking for a towel. ‘Towel, please - towel please,’ Dimitrov was

forced to repeat himself when the girl didn’t appear to spring into action and rush him a towel.

It was then that Dimitrov appeared to notice that the girl seemed ill. The 16th-ranked

Abraka, Zaria beckon as polo braces for bumper April

W

ith just weeks left in its well-deserved break, the prestigious Nigerian polo national tour can’t wait to hit the road for its second phase, with Abraka and Zaria lining up two events to gallop off the stage.

The first phase of the tour that took off on a blistering pace last August in the ancient kingdom of Katsina, was rounded off with fanfare earlier this month during the Lagos International Polo fiesta that saw Ironclad/ Fifth Chukkers out pacing a robust field to win the biggest crown.

The month long break that traditionally allows the battle weary players and the ponies time to rest, is usually a shopping period for the patrons who rejuvenate their various stables and double their horse power ahead of the next leg of the tour.

If the standing at the end of the first leg of the tour is anything to go by, then the teams to watch out for as the April resumption date beckons, are Kaduna, Katsina, Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt based teams.

Others are Kano Titans who are still the team to beat in the medium-goal polo, and Honourable Hadi Sirika’s Lagos Rubicon who ended the first phase on high after successfully defending

WITH

Chimaobi Uchendu

princehench@yahoo.com

08092747532

the General Hassan Cup in Port Harcourt last January.

One team that has demonstrated enough ambition of breaking into the big league is Honourable Aliyu Wadada and his Keffi Ponys. They may fly in this concluding phase of the season, if they prime their horsepower and keep their concentration.

The biggest polo prizes that would be at stake during this second phase include the Patrons Cup, Royal Signal Cup, IBB Cup, Emir of Kano Cup and two Governors Cups in Bauchi and Yola respectively, Babangida’s EL-Amin the proud custodian of the biggest titles, the Georgian and the IBB crowns.

While two big tournaments, Jos Annual Winter Tournament and Niger Delta Festival that traditionally make up the number of events lined up for the first phase, could not hold for obvious reasons, the first period did not fail to fly as Minna Polo Club created the biggest impact, participating in all the tournaments in that round.

Action at the last Lagos International Polo Tourney

tennis player in the world then took the girl’s hand and walked her over to a bench, where the medical staff could take a look at her - and it was all captured on film.

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

SPORT

31

B’ball needs sponsors, better facilities – Oyedeji Olumide Oyedeji has been synonymous with Nigerian basketball for close to two decades In this interview with New Telegraph’s IFEANYI IBEH, the former NBA player speaks on a whole range of issues. Excerpts: Some people think you are retired. Has Olumide Oyedeji retired from competitive basketball?

(Laughs) Not at all, my brother, I am still very much active. I am currently with Link Tochigi Brex of the Japanese Super League. I am only in the country on holidays and will be heading back soon.

What are your projections for Nigerian basketball this year?

I believe this year is going to be the year of a significant turnaround for Nigerian basketball. We have a Nations Cup qualifier that we have to scale through and qualify for the nations Cup. We have the Youth Games in China, as well as a number of continental club tournaments that our teams will be participating in. I believe it’s going to be a good year for Nigeria.

Don’t you think the failure of the men’s national team to qualify for this year’s World Cup would have a negative effect on the sport and your projections for the year?

I don’t think so. I mean the future of the sport in the country is really, really bright. I think we have a good chance to do something better. The future is really bright, and I am sure we are going to get there. And when we get there we have to keep pushing. So, we just have to stay focussed, get support from everybody, and everything will be well.

Critics feel the presence of indigenous coaches contributed to the country’s failure to qualify for the World Cup.

I don’t agree. I have always believed all our national teams should be coached

by Nigerians, and there is no coach in Nigeria better or more experienced than Coach Ayo Bakare. He was the first coach to take the men’s and women’s team to the World Championships and Olympics, he has coached the junior national team, and he has led Ebun Comets to numerous league titles.

But some feel he wasn’t the best qualified to lead the team following Ebun Comet’s poor outing in last season’s

First of all, for all those aspiring to be like me, I always tell them to not try to be like me but to be better than me.

championship.

That shouldn’t be an issue. That Coach Bakare didn’t have a good season doesn’t make him a bad coach. If he was a bad coach he wouldn’t have been named Technical Director by the NBBF and gained the recognition of FIBA Africa, who recently honoured him for all his contributions towards the advancement of basketball in Africa.

Even the Head Coach of the United States national team, Mike Krzyzewski, who is also the Head Coach of Duke University hasn’t won a national championship with Duke since 2010 but he is still the Head Coach of the US national team.

Even his assistant, Nate McMillan, who was my coach at the Seattle Supersonics, has never won a championship. It is good to win championships but sometimes the best coaches don’t win titles. I think Coach Bakare is still the best man to lead the national team.

What do you think can be done to improve the state of the Nigerian Premier League?

We need sponsors, facilities, equipment and money. These are the key factors, but we also have to upgrade our coaches as well as our knowledge of the game.

As someone who is in the NBBF, as a representative of the players, what efforts are being made to ensure all these things you mentioned come to pass?

We’re trying as much as we can to bring in more sponsors but it is not something the board can do on its own.

We have title sponsors for both the men and women leagues, but we still need other sponsors; sponsors who can come in and take the game to a whole new level.

So, what’s the latest regarding the Olumide Oyedeji Foundation?

Right now we have a lot of activities going on. We are probably going to have an inter-collegiate basketball championship and a bright future leadership programme tagged ‘Shoot a ball not a gun, pick a book not a knife’. I am trying to go beyond basketball. I am trying to come at a situation where everybody can have a fruitful life. You must have a life after basketball. If you don’t want to leave basketball, basketball is going to leave you someday. So, we have to create an opportunity for the younger ones to make something better for themselves; to make the future bright.

Oyedeji

So what advice do you have for anyone out there aspiring to be like you?

First of all, for all those aspiring to be like me, I always tell them to not try to be like me but to be better than me. If you try to be like me you’re limiting your ability.

The most important thing for anyone out there is to get a good education, then humility, desire and hunger. So you have to

put all these things together and pray for good luck for you to be at the right place at the right time. And remember that nothing good comes easy. Keep working hard and never let anybody outwork you. Try to be the best that you can be at any time and just keep trying. People believe the sky is the limit, but I believe the sky has no limit when you keep reaching.

32 SPORT

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

Countdown to Fifa World Cup HISTORY

Era of the superstars:

Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Kempes Vincent Eboigbe Pirlo

Joel Campbell

G

Suarez

Rooney

1950 de javu for England?

Ifeanyi Ibeh

T

he last time the FIFA World Cup took place in Brazil, in 1950, England were eliminated in the first round following an embarrassing loss to the United States, while Uruguay went on to win the tournament.

And there is a likelihood of history repeating itself all over again, especially for the English after they found themselves in a difficult Group D along with the Uruguayans, and the duo of Italy and Costa Rica.

Roy Hodgson’s men would have preferred an easy group but instead found themselves in one of the tournament’s toughest group with their first test coming against the Italians, the same side that ended England’s Euro 2012 hopes in the quarterfinals, and that hold a better head-to-head record in matches between both sides.

The English will thereafter take on Uruguay, complete with Luis Suarez, favourite for the English Premier League’s Player of the Year award, and PSG’s Edinson Cavani. Suarez and Cavani are two of the world’s top strikers and are expected to torment England’s weak backline in humid Brazil.

England’s final match will be against a Costa Rican side that has been on the rise with wins over the United States and Mexico in the World Cup qualifiers, but the game may mean little to the English, especially if they fail to secure positive results against the Italians and Uruguayans.

The Uruguayans have never lost against Costa Rica, their first game

opponents, and will want to start their quest for a third World Cup title with a comfortable win over the Central American nation before taking on England and, possibly, confirming their ticket to the knockout rounds.

They will then take on Italy in the hope of getting revenge for last year’s Confederations Cup loss. But Cesare Prandelli’s side will have other ideas as they set out to claim a fourth world title and become the first side from outside of South America to win the World Cup on South American soil.

But it will be recalled that the Italians faltered in an “easy” group four years ago in South Africa even though they have considerably improved since then. The 2006 winners have qualified for every World Cup since 1962, and came through the qualifiers undefeated, topping a group that contained Denmark and Czech Republic.

Figures like Gianluigi Buffon, Andrea Pirlo, Daniele De Rossi and Giorgio Chiellini still make up the core of the Italian team, but youngsters like Lorenzo Insigne, Stephan El Shaarawy and Mattia De Sciglio look set to play a key part in Brazil.

With the core of the Italian squad coming from Juventus and AC Milan, the players will have a cohesive understanding of how their team mates operate, and that familiarity will no doubt serve them well.

Costa Rica, meanwhile, will be hoping to cause a shock or two and re-enact their impressive showing at Italia ’90 where they made it to the Round of 16.

GROUP D FIXTURES

14 June 14 June 19 June 20 June 24 June 24 June

Uruguay vs Costa Rica England vs Italy Uruguay vs England Italy vs Costa Rica Italy vs Uruguay Costa Rica vs England

FACT BOX COSTA RICA FIFA ranking: 34 Appearances: 4 Best ever finish: Last 16 (1990) Key players: Bryan Ruiz and Joel Campbell Captain: Bryan Ruiz Manager: Jorge Luis Pinto ENGLAND FIFA ranking: 12 Appearances: 14 Best Finish: Winners (1966) Key players: Wayne Rooney and Steven Gerrard Captain: Steven Gerrard Manager: Roy Hodgson ITALY FIFA ranking: 8 Appearances: 18 Best Ever Finish: Winners (1934, 1938, 1982, 2006) Key players: Andrea Pirlo and Mario Balotelli Captain: Gianluigi Buffon Manager: Cesare Prandelli URUGUAY FIFA ranking: 6 Appearances: 12 Best Ever Finish: Winners (1930, 1950) Key players: Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani Captain: Diego Lugano Manager: Oscar Tabarez

VERDICT: Italy wins all three games while Uruguay manages two victories; England wins against Costa Rica and winds up finishing third.

ermany hosted the World Cup in 1974 and won, but more importantly that edition marked the emergence of global superstars of the modern game.

1974 saw the blossoming of the ‘director-general’, the brilliant continental sweeper and ultimate libero. The sight of Franz Beckenbauer striding gracefully out of the back four, unhurried like a man strolling down a German boulevard, finger pointed, directing affairs, is one of the most enduring spectacles in World Cup history. If there was one man who personified German football it was Der Kaizer.

The other world superstar in 1974 was the lithe and rapid Dutch master, Johan Cruyff. Holland at this time played the most fluid and fluent football which they christened “Total Football”.

Defending champions Brazil were not as strong as they were four years before. Pele had finally retired, Tostao was forced out due to injury; a couple of the other greats were also not in Germany.

Rivelino was still in the team, but he alone couldn’t carry the Selecao.

They lost to Holland in the semifinals.

It was almost inevitable that Holland and Germany would meet in the finals. Early in the match Holland had given a glimpse of what to expect when the incomparable Cruyff took the ball teasingly into the German area and was fouled for a penalty, which was tucked in by the talented Johan Neeskens.

Germany equalized some moments later also through a penalty, converted by the man who had a liking for the big afro hair style, Paul Breitner. Gerd Muller made it two afterwards, ensuring that Germany won at home. Muller, the pocket size battleship who debuted in 1970 would become the highest goal scorer for many years. His record of 14 goals in two championships was finally surpassed by Ronaldo at the 2002 World Cup. Four years later in Argentina, the Dutch masters returned, more determined to clinch the trophy.

However, this time they came without the original Dutch master Cruyff.

In spite of the setback of los-

ing 3-2 to a Scottish side, that featured greats like Joe Jordan, Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness and Archie Gemmill, who scored a brilliant individual goal which was later hailed as perhaps the best of the competition, Holland still advanced to the final stages as they did four years before.

Hosting for the first time Argentina was determined to keep the trophy in Buenos Aires. Luckily for the Argies they possessed the players to realize this dream.

Left footers come in different shapes and shades and the very talented ones can perform the seemingly impossible. When they assume that rather unorthodox stance, giving nothing away as the direction they were headed, almost nothing can help the defender.

Mario Kempes was one of the very best left footers ever. He had an almost lazy way of latching onto the ball before starting his dribbling runs. Interestingly one player to have surpassed him in this regard was also an Argentine, who Coach Cesar Menotti refused to include in his squad because he was too young. That young man Diego Maradona would explode on the world scene later.

The little commander Ossie Ardiles was in charge in midfield, assisted by Spurs team mate, Ricardo Villa. There were Daniel Passarella, Daniel Bertoni, Alberto Tarantini etc.

In a hard fought final Argentina triumphed 3 – 1, but only after been stretched to the limit by the Dutch masters. Rob Resenbrink, Ruud Krol, Ariel Haan, De Kerkhofs, Neesken from the class of ’74 would not go down without a fight.

Beckenbauer

SHOWBIZ

Moments at Paul Okoye’s superlative wedding p.34 Uche Agu A double act to follow p.35

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29 MARCH 2014

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Linda Adesuwa Osifo is an upand-coming actress. The Edo State-born beauty returned to the country to pursue her career in acting after over 15 years in Canada. She is a television host and has also participated in beauty pageants, but her strongest passion remains acting, she tells ANGELA DAVIES

ABOUT LINDA ADESUWA OSIFO

I am from Edo state, the first daughter but second child of three children. I am a television host and an actress. I am the television host of My Talk Show. I starred in a soap opera in New Jersey called Family Secrets directed by Mr Okechukwu Onyeka which is on Youtube.

I was nominated as best actress in the African Entertainment Awards in Canada.

GROWING UP

I am very proud that I was born here in Nigeria but I did grow up in Canada, Toronto where I spent over 15 years of my life. Well, leaving Nigeria at a very tender age of six I realized it was not a matter of choice but a matter of force. But as I have grown up, my parents have always been there to make sure we have everything we need and I am so motivated to have a better life than my mother had and to make sure that all those years which they have worked for has not been in vain. I returned to the country in September 2013 to fully pursue my career in acting.

EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND

I studied psychology as a major at the York University in Toronto, Canada, and arts as a minor.

ENTRANCE INTO NOLLYWOOD

Africa films or Africa Nollywood in the diaspora is quite different from Nollywood.

It is a process that you have to go through however since I have been in the country; I have been very opportuned to work with

33

Waiting for

Adesuwa

I will reject any role that will expose my body. I do not and have never dreamt of playing any sexual or nude roles no matter how much is involved talented producers like Emem Isong and Lancelot Imaseun. I have done a couple of films in Owerri and Asaba. There is another film coming up and I am looking forward to it. The movie is by Sam Gold production and the title is King Akubueze. Before the end of this year, you should be seeing my face in a lot of Nollywood movies.

MY TALK SHOW PROGRAMME

I am the television host of “My Talk Show” an Afropolitan entertainment talk show on TelAfric television and it has been going on for two years. We have hosted various artiste and entrepreneurs from different countries on the show. From Nigeria, we have had artiste like Flavour N’abania and Wizkid.

MOTIVATION INTO THE MAKE BELIEF WORLD

I have always had passion for acting since my elementary school days. In my church I would always host the drama group so I was known as the drama coordinator. I realized that I liked anything that has to do with entertainment as a whole. As I grew older, I took

part in beauty pageants. I was first runner-up Miss Nigeria Entertainment Canada, 2011 and 2nd runner up Miss Africanada pageant, 2011 where I represented Nigeria and I won Miss Entrepreneur. So I have always been into these things and I have realized that it’s something that is a gift and not just an interest. So when you know you have a gift, take it further and see where God takes you.

system, there is a lot of prostitution going on in the name of acting and a lot of molestation as well but I do not want to support such things.

I like Majid Michel but he has kissed too many actresses so I don’t want to be among those actresses he will kiss. But I will just love to be paired with a good actor who knows how to act and does it well in that artistic manner.

CRUSH ON ANY MAN

NOLLYWOOD STARS TO FEATURE WITH

Genevieve Nnaji, I have always watched her movies and she is talented. I really love Mercy Johnson a lot. She is very authentic and I can relate to someone like her. She is an embodiment of acting as she interprets any role given to her perfectly. Then when it comes to male actors, Majid Michel is the first. I have studied this man a lot and he is a true actor. When you look at the way he acts, he is good at what he does. So, I think Genevieve, Mercy and Majid are my top three for now.

PARENTS’ SUPPORT

Yes they do. In fact they support my acting career beyond what words can explain and I am very grateful for that.

What I can say is that I am attracted to a man who has integrity, power and great charisma outside and within the home.

MY STYLE

Well, I am a very classy lady. So I love to wear classy, modern yet simple and beautiful outfits.

ADVICE FOR ASPIRING ACTORS

If you know you are talented and have the passion for acting, you would never ever give your body or go below any of your needs to be anyone because at the right time, your breakthrough will come. When you are blessed at the right time, no man or woman can change it.

FIVE YEARS FROM NOW

REPULSIVE ROLES

I will reject any role that will expose my body. I do not and have never dreamt of playing any sexual or nude roles no matter how much is involved. If it was in America, they will take that as arts but in Nigeria it is different. I would love for the Nigerian females to be able to relate with me and not look down on me. With our

Five years from now, I see myself as being a very successful black young woman. I do want to be one of those women who people will say that is a successful Nigerian woman, in a broader view, that is successful African woman and in a much broader view that is a successful black young woman. I want to be successful more than I can ever imagine.

34 SHOWBIZ

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Moments at Paul Okoye’s star-studded wedding

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he marriage ceremony between Paul of P-Square music duo, his beautiful bride and baby mama, Anita Isama, held last Saturday, March 23 at the Aztech Arcum Event Centre in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. The colourful gig put to rest the rumour that Paul would be unable to stage a big wedding after allegedly putting a teen model in the UK in the family way.

The wedding fulfilled all the bride’s promises in an earlier interview, with huge cultural displays. Guests looked dapper in their traditional pink head wrap, red blouse and green wrapper.

It was equally seasoned by Traditional singers who ushered in the newest celebrity bride.

Resplendent in a white cap, white beads, grey blouse and red wrapper, Anita danced into the hall, even as she was made to search out her husband amongst the crowd.

“Don’t pick another woman’s husband o.

Don’t forget your husband is a twin o, and they look alike,” The compere, Julius Agwu, joked, as Anita waltzed round and pretended she could pick Paul’s elder brother, Jude.

Emotions were aroused and the air or romance swept through the venue as Paul serenaded his bride with one of the group’s hit songs, “Possibilities”, accompanied by Sharp Band. In quick succession, Limpopo master, Kcee took the microphone and serenaded guests with his flow. “Pull Over,” he crooned as the couple tried to outdo each other in the dancing spree. Ostensibly blown away by the way the couple was dancing, Fuji artiste, Pasuma with his walking stick, walked up to the couple and showered them with crisp Naira notes.

Other performers who stormed the talkof-the-town soiree include Solid Star and PSquare who performed a traditional Igbo tune to the immense delight of guests.

ROLL CALL

Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde; Funke Akindele; Kenny Ogungbe; D’banj; Ini Edo; Pasuma; Sound Sultan; Ikechukwu; DJ Jimmy Jatt; Phyno; Bez; Darey; Olisa Adibua; Mike Ezuruonye; GMD of Diamond Bank, Dr. Alex Otti; Lola Omotayo-Okoye; Susan Peters; Monalisa Chinda; 2shotz; Phyno, Ejike Asiegbu; Banky W; Naeto C; Uti Nwchukwu; AY; Majid Michel; Uche Jombo; Ebube Nwagbo; Kanayo

Paul Okoye and his bride

O. Kanayo (KOK); John Okafor; Minister of Culture, Edem Duke; Solid Star; MI. PETER OKOYE’S STARTLING CONFESSION

As opposed to what many had thought, the twin brother of the groom, Peter, gave guests a shocker by being virtually passive in the scheme of things while the wedding ceremony lasted.

When he was invited to the stage to make a few remarks about the couple, he finally revealed the reasons for his actions. His confession reads in part: “Like our song, Do Me, says, I’m only repaying Paul for what he did during my own wedding. He was very busy moving up and down, and that’s the same thing I’m doing; being busy.”

The star also disclosed another reason why he’s ‘mad’ at his brother. “I dey beef Paul o. I named my son, Nonso after him, but he didn’t give his son my native name,” he stated.

“So if you guys give birth to twins, make sure you name them Peter and Peter,” he concluded in a joke.

However, Peter later said that he has known the couple for 11 years. According to him, “I’ve known them for the past 11 years; they’ve been married since, they’re only just making it official.”

J. MARTINS MADE IT LATE

Martins Okey Justice aka J Martins and former P-Square’s music producer, made it to the wedding ceremony, but late. Regrettably, he dishonoured the uniform for the event and further flouted the rule of choice colour for event.

Looking off-colour in his blue attire, many tongues wagged as to why J Martins, a close pal of the Okoye family, did not put on the traditional attire which every other person clad.

However, immediately he arrived, he made his way straight to the stage where the new couple was seated, probably to apologise for his lateness and non-conformity with the dress code.

AVALANCHE OF CONJUGAL BLESSINGS

After the couple had ceremoniously did the cake cutting, the cake designer called on some important personalities like the Minister for Culture and Tourism, Obong Edem Duke, AY, Lola Omotayo-Okoye, GMD of Diamond Bank, Alex Otti, Majid Michel and AY, the comedian, to pray for the couple. In the words of the minister, “I foresee that Paul is not likely to joke with this wedding. Therefore, his career and that of his wife would experience rejuvenation, re- construction, re-orientation, -re-en-

gineering, and in the final analysis, I know that they would have a lovely and peaceful family.”

Next in line was Alex Otti, who said, “This is a difficult task for me to speak after the Hon. Minister. Anyway, I will say that I saw what the minister saw. I cannot speak all those mighty English but what I can see between the couple is an expression of love, and I believe that they would not allow the wedding to get in between their friendship.”

All the way from Ghana, Majid Michel also stepped up to share a few words. He said: “Well, what I’m seeing is straight from God’s eyes. I see a union that would last without any break. God would really bless you and take you through his incredible journey.”

AY, the rib-cracker also showed that he is indeed a protégé of Pastor Chris Okotie, as he went philosophical in his prayers for the couple.

In his words, “Who am I to speak after these important people have spoken? Anyway, I’m here to prophesy; can I go ahead?” to which the audience replied with a resounding ‘yes.’

He continued, “Admiration took your first illusion, and Anita became your portion when you made your decision, you were given an admission, and after your matriculation, there was an examination. Today, you’re being blessed with a graduation that is leading to your convocation.

Forget all actions coming through reaction giving you tension and temptation because you’re in progression to your promotion. Flee every evil communication and continue to be a minster in this ministration. With this collaboration, you get the distinction; not in subtraction, but in addition…”, he concluded.

FEELING GOV. AMAECHI’S ANGER

Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, stormed out of the traditional marriage ceremony of Paul Okoye barely 30 minutes after he arrived because the ceremony started rather late. The governor sauntered in at about 2pm, pre-informed by his aides as he alighted from his car, the governor was to wait for an indefinite time to witness the fairy tale wedding. After nearly an hour of waiting even when the hall was half full, the governor exited. But before he stormed out of the venue, he had posed for photos upon entry into the hall. The marriage ceremony, which was billed to start by 12pm, did not commence till about 2:45pm.

E-BRIEF

Tiwa Savage, Davido others out for look-alike meeting

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igerian youths are set for a weekend of fun as the novel initiative, ‘Celebdouble’, organised by MTN ambassadors, climaxes with a club invasion in Lagos, Benin and Enugu, on Friday, April 4. The ‘Celebdouble,’ which began a couple of weeks ago is a search for the telecommunications giant’s brand ambassadors and musical superstars lookalikes; and, interestingly, thousands of youth from different parts of the country have been sending their pictures in hope that they match their favourite artistes. The closest spitting images will however, be hosted and treated to a great night of fun and music with a rare

opportunity to parley with the artistes at the party. Besides that, a special VIP arrangement is in place for the two most striking look-alikes of each of the artistes. The artistes are Davido, Wizkid, Iyanya, Don Jazzy, Kcee, Harrysong, Tiwa Savage, iMike and Praiz. Meanwhile, these artistes have been talking about the initiative. In a recent interview, Praiz, the winner of Headies Best R & B artiste award for 2013, said “the idea behind ‘Celebdouble’ is to bring Nigerian music fans closer to their favourite artiste, parley and also share a rare moment of fame with the superstars”.

“It sure will be a good time for me and the

fans out there”, he enthused. Also, Kukere Master, Iyanya Mbuk, sounded excited at the prospect of meeting someone who most likely looks and probably behaves like him. He mentioned that he had been discussing this possibility with the other artistes and looked forward as well to completing a most memorable night of high level entertainment with his fans.

With the Nigerian music industry taking giant strides in registering its presence on the globe, indigenous artistes have been coming up with different initiatives part of which the ‘Celebdouble’ is, to ensure a stronger affinity between the industry and its fan-base.

Tiwa Savage

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

Nigeria may have his heart, but this artist has his eye on the U.S. market, writes MARSHALL COMINS, Washington, D.C. bureau chief

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n some parts of Africa, gospel singers record their albums in the morning and release them later that night. Due to poor regulations, financial constraints, and a lack of trained professionals, they are often hard-pressed to make ends meet and fail to reproduce that all-elusive international recording sound.

But that’s exactly what Uche Agu “Double Double” is planning to change.

After touring over 20 countries and striking a deal with a U.S. producer, the Nigerian musician plans to release an album later this year that he believes will revolutionize Africa’s gospel music industry and secure for him a coveted spot on the U.S. market.

SHOWBIZ

35

A double act to follow

Nigeria: Born and bred

Born in Onitsha in 1979 and raised in Owerri, Uche Agu was brought up by pastor parents who recognized their son’s gift for music when he was four. His mother, Love, had her own group, and whenever Uche heard them rehearsing, he would run over and listen. “I guess it was then that my interest in music started to sprout,” he told New Telegraph in an interview in Washington, D.C. during his tour of the United States. “But my musical efforts really kicked off years later in school.”

After enrolling in a seminary school in Owerri, Uche started his own gospel choir, Kingdom Kids, which toured Abia State and Nigeria and was featured on various radio and TV programs. “It was a very important moment in my life that stirred up my desire to have a musical career,” Uche said.

The choir brought together 32 gifted young singers. Uche was not only responsible for organizing their performances, but also trained the other members and taught them songs.

The group was a huge hit.

“When our seminary saw that we were starting to make waves,” he said, “they used us like an advert. We would take part in all sorts of different events and perform at churches.

The parents in the audience were so entertained and engaged, they later asked us if they could send their children to our school.”

South Africa: ‘My God is Good’

After graduating from secondary school, Uche planned to study law at the University of Port Harcourt, but music was never far from his mind. As he prepared for his studies, Uche decided to travel Africa as a missionary. While attending a bible school in South Africa, he finally opted to dedicate his life to building a career in music after witnessing first-hand the continent’s best-known music industry.

“I became exposed to music in a deeper way,” Uche said, “and met many people – singers and producers – who helped to shape who I am musically today.”

A “step apart” from wider Africa as far as technology and development are concerned, he said, South Africa helped the young singer understand how the Western world approaches recording music.

The experience not only rekindled his artistic ambitions, but shaped his quality standards.

“Due to a lack of exposure, many people just don’t ‘do music’ the way that it should be

Uche ‘Double Double’ performs during his concert at the Kololo Airstrip in Uganda on Dec. 31, last year

done in many parts of Africa,” he said. “South Africa took my understanding of production to a whole new level.”

Uche soon began touring churches around the country. Then one Sunday, in November 2008, he was approached by an audience member after performing the song, “My God Is Good.” The woman asked if she could introduce him to Lindelani Mkhize, the founder of Joyous Celebration. A popular South African platform for empowering musicians, Joyous Celebration launched in 1994 after the general elections to provide hope to a torn nation. It has since released numerous award-winning albums.

A hit heard around the world

After watching a video of Uche performing, Mkhize invited him to audition for Joyous Celebration. He was soon after named its first Nigerian member. “For me, it was a true blessing to be asked to join Joyous Celebration because the group mainly features South African musicians,” Uche said.

At a concert three months later, Uche was asked to sing, “My God Is Good,” at a concert in February 2009. His performance brought the crowd to their feet. Before he knew it, the song was a hit in Africa and beyond.

“It was first a hit in Nigeria and South Africa,” he said. “Then Ghana heard it. Zimbabwe heard it. Zambia and Kenya heard it. Lesotho.

All African countries. And, boom, it flipped to the Caribbean.”

Uche credits YouTube and good-old-fashioned African word-of-mouth with helping the song go viral.

“I watched the YouTube video go from 100,000 to 200,000, 300,000, 800,000, 1 million, 2 million,” Uche said. “For months I watched as the figure grew every single time I refreshed the page.”

He followed this success up with the release of his first solo album, “Double Double,” during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and several group album recordings as part of Joyous Celebration. In 2012, he performed his first live solo recording for his second album, “Uche Live at Lyric Theater.” The solo albums have sold well in Africa and given him a financial cushion to continue advancing his career.

...in Washington, D.C. during his U.S. tour

“South Africa is an exception on the continent,” he said. “The country has an effective royalty system in place and numerous online and offline platforms where musicians can market and sell their music.”

Breaking into the U.S. market

Although Nigeria will always have his heart, Uche sees himself as a global artist. He has performed all around the world – from the United States and Brazil to Togo and Seychelles. Today, he is represented by Michael Obodozie, the founder and president of the U.S. artist management agency, Truflow Media, who secured a production deal for the singer with Clay Bogan, a known name in U.S. Christian music.

Bogan is now producing Uche’s upcoming solo album, which will feature songs from his live recording concert in Houston, Texas in 2013.

The album is already a year in the making, and Obodozie is confident that the quality will be “a genuine wake-up call for African gospel music fans.”

“They’ll have an open-mouth reaction. I promise,” Uche said.

Now on his third tour to the United States, Uche has given performances in eight states, but he is still amazed at the diversity of his audi-

ences, which he attributes to his distinctive international sound.

“It is hard for me to frame it – to capture it in a single word – because I have had so many different musical influences, from places as distant as the United States and the Congo,” Uche said. “I think that it is the mixing of so many styles that brings out this sound – something African, yet contemporary.”

In concerts, Uche sings in languages ranging from his native English and Igbo to Yoruba and Lingala. He continues to make a concerted effort to ensure that his music is inclusive. Perhaps this is why he sees such a promising future for his career in the United States. “I would say that we have conquered the African market,” he said. “We are known everywhere. Now we have to take things to the next level. We see that America is waiting for a global sound. They’ll soon have it, and they’ll grab it and they’ll run.”

Obodozie is of a similar mind. He is preparing to sign an international marketing and distribution deal for Uche’s album and is confident that fans will find the music on the shelves of Walmart and BestBuy. As they wrap up their tour of the United States, the two men are preparing for their next stop: Trinidad.

It seems that this Nigerian gospel singer truly does have an international sound.

“Hey,” Obodozie said with a grin, “we have even received a call to perform from a Pakistani pastor in Lahore.”

Highlighted Quote:

Faith plays a tremendous role in my work. Music unites people. We have people from different tribes and nationalities at our concerts in Africa and all over the world. We try to ensure that our music and repertoire welcome everyone and make everyone feel at home. We don’t sing only in Igbo or Yoruba.

We want to ensure that our music is inclusive. It also aims to show Nigeria and West Africa in a positive light, as our countries are often depicted negatively by the press. We are kind, good people. We’re not perfect, but we’re getting there.

36 NTWEEKEND

CONFLUENCE

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

... a finger on the city’s pulse

LANRE ODUKOYA - 08059296445

No politics for Tunde Fowler...well, at least for now

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ne of the stories that made the rounds last week was that the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service boss, Tunde Fowler, has submitted his resignation letter to Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola. The resignation was said to take effect from June 1. It was also said that Mr. T. Jimoh, an assistant director would act on his behalf before a substantive new LIRS chairman is appointed. Part of the tale is that Fowler decided to quit after briefing the national leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, about his aspiration to contest the 2015 governorship race in the state. And he’s said to be acting the script of Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu who would like him to succeed the current governor. With the purported zoning of the Lagos governorship ticket to Lagos East Senatorial District, political pundits do not see Fowler standing a chance to clinch the governorship ticket on the platform of the APC. Fowler has been the brain behind the growing Internal Generating Revenue of Lagos state which now stands at N29 billion monthly. He was appointed the chairman of LIRS by Tinubu and has been pivotal in revenue generation for the state. But the office of the man about town had released statements to rest the nagging rumour. Fowler dispelled all plans to join poli-

Oh, Dear Dora

Abiodun Akinlade blows the bubble @47

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F

or three-time House of Representatives member representing Yewa South/Ipokia Federal Constitutency, Hon. Abiodun Akinlade, it was another attainment of milestone as he marked his 47th birthday amid pomp. Less than a week after being recognized with a lifetime award in capacity building by a news magazine, the amiable legislator decided to validate the award by holding a three-in-one programme which include commissioning of projects, empowerment for free ICT training graduates, and a charitable visit to motherless babies home and the federal prison at Ilaro, Ogun State two weeks ago.

Beyond the various donations, Akinlade, in the company of his pretty wife, Alhaja Olabisi, hosted friends, family and associates to a sumptuous, loaded reception at the border town of Idiroko.

The gathering, which once again affirmed the popularity of the House Committee chairman on science and technology among his people, was also not devoid of the presence of notable business gurus with Princess Toyin Kolade leading the pack to honour the legislator.

Akinlade

tics as he reiterates his commitment to serving in his designated position as the chief executive officer of the agency. In 2004, Fowler joined the Lagos State Government and was appointed the pioneer permanent secretary and executive chairman of the Lagos State Board of Internal Revenue on November 24, 2005, thereby upgrading the office of the executive chairman to the highest level in the civil service.

Akunyili...before

he announcement of Professor Dora Akunyili’s name as a delegate to the National Conference is one of the few that elicited some cheer. But the excitement generated by her nomination after such a long period away from public view has become an anti-climax given her ailing appearance that has made the once vivacious lady a shadow of herself. The ex-director general of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency and former Information Minister literally came, saw and conquered. She practically gave NAFDAC its lost bite and waged a fierce battle against fake drug barons. Indeed, the fear of Akunyili was the beginning of wisdom. But it seems her remarkable tenure for which she earned superlative plaudits has taken a toll on her health. Torn between the desire to help define a new path for the country and the exigency of attending to her health, the beloved Dora chose the former. However, there are some Nigerians who would rather she declined the offer.

Ayiri Emami goes under

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he rosy times might be bidding the famous Delta State big spender, Ayiri Emami, farewell. According to some insiders, the funds that used to rain in before in torrents might have become a drizzle now. Even eyebrows might have been raised over some of his recent unrest, to the extent that the powers that be are even said to be asking questions. Things have turned a bit awry, so much that how the Akulagba 1 who preferred to stay in Warri now finds abode in Lagos and Abuja. Emami, we learnt, before the last quarter of 2013 spent close to a million dollars on one of his main pastimes: buying exotic cars, many

of which already litters his very impressive garages (he owns two Rolls Royce Phantoms and various other super cars); he also owns a super yacht on which Tuface and Annie Idibia rode in Dubai last year. For a man who owns a tank farm (which some say is not working) and is supposedly allowed to lift crude, we find it hard to believe he might be going broke. Holder of self professed title of pride, The Akulagba 1 of Warri is now virtually a permanent fixture at his Lekki, Lagos, home. Those in the know claim that Ayiri’s problems stem from moves by others under his wings to assert their independence.

Emami

...Current look

Travel&Tourism ON SATURDAY NTWEEKEND ONLINE AT

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Destination Uturu caves: A long walk to the past p.38

Travel Personality Nigeria not yet a tourist destination despite potential p.41

ANDREW IRO OKUNGBOWA, EDITOR, TRAVEL AND TOURISM

andrew.okungbowa@newtelegraphonline.com

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

HOSPITALITY

29 MARCH 2014

37

TRAVEL BEATS Allure of the Seas makes a return to Europe for the Summer

One of the bedrooms

A view of the Prince of Anthony Hotel

One of the living rooms

A meeting room

Passage way to the rooms

An experience so princely Prince of Anthony Hotel, reports ANDREW IRO OKUNGBOWA, may just be living true to its name as a guest is guaranteed a princely treat

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HE Anthony Village, Lagos, located Prince of Anthony Hotel, a member of the Hotel 1960 brand, thrives on living out the true meaning of its name, which is offering guests a princely service and making them feel royal within its plush and homily ambience. ‘‘It is a boutique hotel,’’ declares the general manager of the hotel, Mrs. Gbemisola Sijuade, as she guides one through the facilities and services on offer. ‘‘... it is clearly built to offer comfort, luxury and ultimate customer’s satisfaction,’’ adds Mrs. Sijuade whose experience in the hospitality sector spans over two decades in different capacities and organisations.

Despite being located within a residential area that is fully built up, the hotel manages to present a serene cocoon. The moment one steps into the premises you feel entirely closeted in a world different from the seemingly noisy exterior that you drove through few minutes ago.

For Mrs. Sijuade, it is this calmness and quietude that attract many visitors to the hotel, as it is one of its unique selling points. Away from that, the 36 rooms display a certain level of aesthetics and attractions for many people as they each are tastefully furnished and fitted in the words of the general manager, ‘‘for the comfort of our customers’’.

This, according to her, is in line with its business philosophy of treating guests to princely and royal services. This is even aptly played out

in the names given to the different categories of the rooms such as Prince, Noble Queen and King as well as the Royal Suite.

The star buster here is the Royal Suite, which is furnished to the hilt and provided with a number of well–apportioned amenities such as jacuzzi bath, comfortable bedrooms (two), a spacious living room, flat screen satellite, wifi, working area and a mini–bar that is well-stocked.

Given its rich blend of princely treat, Mrs. Sijuade says the hotel has its sight on business, corporate clients and leisure seekers while conferences and events planners are not also left out of the triangle. The banquet hall, boardroom and lounge are primed with facilities to host all sorts of business conferences, retreats and social events.

Amongst its popular leisure packages is the Happy Hours event, which holds from Monday to Friday between the hours of 5pm and 9pm. A real rave of the moment it is for fun seekers with a breezy air and free rein given to musicals and drinks at heavily discounted rates. Fridays are dedicated to what she calls the Old Skool jams and Karaoke sections.

There is also a massage room for both the resident guests and walk – in–guests with a royalty programme for regular guests and users of the massage facility. For instance, a sixth visit to the massage room guarantees a free treatment. ‘‘We stop at nothing at creating conducive and comfortable atmosphere for our esteemed guests,’’ she says of the many gestures of the hotel.

Besides, she informs that massage is done for half of the price for guests between the hours of 5pm and 9pm, while at the Lounge 20 percent discount is offered for all the beer while 15 percent

is offered on wine, spirits and champagne. For birthday celebrants, the Lounge is offered gratis but food and drinks are paid for at a “friendly rate”.

Dining and wining is another special treat of the hotel with its well-laid out Prince Restaurant and bar offering some of the wildest and best selections. Ala carte or ala mini is what is served here and it takes about 20 minute to serve.

A guest also enjoys complimentary breakfast, which is a full set Africa or continental dish. The general manager says, it is because the hotel cares so much about the health of its guests that it does Ala Carte as it is fresh and homily. ‘‘Our food is homily, we do ala carte. We cook as if we are cooking for somebody at home, fresh food,’’ she says.

As to drive home the point that the hotel is the place to visit, she reels out some of the unique attractions of the hotel, which include ‘‘our standard, another is our location as we are centrally located in such a way that from the hotel you can access any part of Lagos and we also have so many in – lets and out –lets, our security is top rated and our staff courteousness and friendliness.’’

Furthermore, she reveals security and safety of guests as top notch just as she adds that ‘‘the quality of our furniture and the serenity here are also part of the uniqueness of the hotel because the moment you step into the hotel, you feel warm and welcomed, every room has it unique bundle of comfort, convenient and value.’’

Just as a wrap on the chat, she insists that ‘‘the moment a guest steps in here, he/she should expect a princely treatment, a majestic experience, as we would make he/her feel very comfortable and should expect a feel of home away from home.’’

THE Royal Caribbean International has concluded plan for its star and prized cruise ship, Allure of the Seas, which is the world’s largest and most creative cruise ship, to make a return for the first time to Europe in the summer of 2015. Also, expected to make the summer return is it sister ship, Oasis of the Seas alongside Rhapsody of the Seas and Splendour of the Seas.

The ship, which was delivered in Turku, Finland, in late 2010, will sail back to its own port in Barcelona, Spain from where it will take vacationers to new and fascinating Mediterranean destinations for the first on full Oasis-class Europe season.

Royal Caribbean’s Crown and Anchor Society loyalty programme members have the exclusive privilege to book Allure of the Seas’ Europe season one ahead of others.

Executive business tour to Malaysia Gren-Business Dimensions and Mcdyke Business Consultant, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, are putting together a week executive business package tour to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia billed for May 20 - May 28.

Located at the heart of a highly industrialized region, Malaysia economy is on a strong footing as it ranks as the 25th global competitive nation in the World. Malaysia’s main imports are optical and scientific equipment, iron and steel product, crude petroleum, transport equipment, manufactures of metal, machinery appliances and parts, chemicals and chemical products, electrical and electronic products, and refined petroleum products.

Therefore, Gren Business Dimensions is organizing this tour to expose the Nigerian investor to the existing opportunities in the country and create an enabling environment for them to interact, network and create the right synergy for mutually benefiting business deals.

The tour is opened to businesses hotel and tourism, import and export, shipping, transport and haulage equipment, banking and finance services, computer – software and hardware, electrical goods, ICT, petrochemicals, insurance services, machinery and equipments.

According to the principal consultant of Gren - Business Dimensions, Rosemary Akaette, the package fee is put at $3, 750 (is all inconclusive). Registration, she say is opened already and would close on April 25.

38 TRAVEL&TOURISM

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DESTINATION

Uturu Caves: A long walk to the past

F

RIDAY Nweke, 41, is the chief priest of Uturu Caves. Young with a disarming and friendly disposition, nothing about him this morning betrayed his exalted position among his people as he flows easily with the crowd. He was in fact engaged in electrical work on the day in company of one of his kindred when we called at his place.

But his rhythm for the day was altered the moment our guide, Damian Maduike pulled him aside for a private talk. Looking sober and without uttering a word to anyone, Nweke headed to his abode and Maduike beckoned us to follow on his heels.

At his living room the formal introduction is made by the guide and pleasantries exchanged as the chief priest busied himself gathering his items for the long journey.

Kola nuts and drink (Seaman Schnapps) suddenly appeared from nowhere while libation and prayers are conducted for a successful and fruitful adventure by the small group with Prof. Chukwu Ezi of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments, Macarthy Uzoma Godfrey, a film producer with Gregory University Ut-

Opening to one of the caves

ANDREW IRO OKUNGBOWA who recently visited this timeless, abandoned caves reputed to have been the ancestral home and fortress of the Igbo reports that it could serve as one of the cultural landscapes of Abia State and Nigeria with a little makeover. uru and this reporter completing the team.

From the chief priest’s village, Obioha Ngodo Uturu, we started the ride to the caves with Maduike on the wheels. There are different routes to the caves but familiar with these different paths, Damian who is also from this part decided on the shorter route, which at the end of the day turned out to be a wise decision.

The first time one visited Uturu in 2011 for the Igbo Uturu Cultural Carnival organised annually by Chief Greg Ibe, the chancellor of Gregory University Uturu (GUU) then the private university was just taking shape with the structures springing up, one’s interest was stimulated by the passionate manner Ibe, the man everyone refers to as “Double Chief” spoke about the caves.

From that point on the desire to visit the

caves, which is also known as the early man’s abode was born. When in December last year one found himself again in Uturu for the Igbo Uturu Cultural Carnival and the opportunity presented itself for a visit to the caves after observing the Sunday morning mass at the private chapel at Ibe’s residence, one jumped at it.

Over the years, Ibe has argued that Uturu is the ancestral home of the Igbos even though others hold contrary views.

He pointedly tells you that the early man’s abode (Uturu caves) is a pointer to this historical, sociological and anthropological assertions and insisting that evidence abide within the caves to show the presence of human activities till date.

His decision to create and fund the annual carnival, which is now taken over by

GUU, is partly borne out of this conviction.

For him, the carnival is not just an ephemeral spectacle but rather a platform to unite the Igbo race, draw their attention and that of the world to their ancestral home, Uturu.

Most importantly is his burning wish to draw everyone’s attention to the caves and he never ceases to do this as he talks glowingly about it during the carnival. ‘‘The cave is the rallying point and it is why we are calling everybody from southern Nigeria to come to Uturu where it is now confirmed to be the early man’s abode,’’ he informs his visitors.

He reveals that he has in the past mounted a vanguard and funded the move to open up the caves and bring it to the consciousness of the nation and to the world by sponsoring a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) exploratory trip to the caves.

To drive home his point as to the authenticity and veracity of his preachment, he refers you to the extensive academic researches on the history of Uturu and the existence of the early man’s abode by the likes of Prof. Catherine Acholonu, Lizzy Isichei and Prof. Afikpo.

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 march 2014

Traditional hut of Uturu

He tells you that his self-appointed journey to ‘‘unravel where everybody came from,’’ dates back to 2007 when he embarked on ‘‘extensive travels and interviews round the eastern states.’’

Although piqued by the fact that ‘‘nobody is doing anything about it,’’ he is not about to let off the steam, as he maintains that the salvation of the people lies not only in uncovering this truth but also in preserving it and passing it down to generations.

Part of this effort is opening the road leading to the cave. ‘‘We had earlier opened the road before by grading it and if more opportunities come we shall improve on it and make it a tourist site,’’ he says.

He laments the fact that neither the state nor federal government has shown any commitment towards improving the caves.

He has now turned his attention on private organisations, which he blames for not also doing something despite the several calls on them. ‘‘Corporate organisations are not ready to identify with anything; they only identify with money and are not ready to build institutions that can support their businesses.

He adds that ‘‘there is need for attitudinal change to encourage people to do something out of the ordinary; we call it out of the box.’’

He acknowledges the fact that though Nigeria presently attracts business travellers that there is the urgent need to begin to build and develop tourist attractions that would attract both business and leisure travellers to its shores. It is not all sad tales, as he expresses joy and happiness over the numbers of visitors that visit the caves. ‘‘We are happy that we are beginning to see few people come on visit to the caves.’’ All thanks perhaps to his unwavering and untiring effort at making this happen just as he did on this Sunday morning to facilitate our adventure to the caves.

Half way through the way, as we come across farmlands and burning bushes, we are confronted by an unpaved pathway,

TRAVEL&TOURISM

39

L-R: Chief priest, Friday Nweke, Prof. Chukwu Ezi, Damian Maduike and Uzoma Macarthy at Uturu forest

which meant we had to meander through the undulating path. It helped that our guide and driver, Damian knew the path like the back of his hands because he grew up in the community and the caves are part of his existence.

Discovering the correct entrance or pathway leading to the opening of the different caves was not an easy task, a most tricky one as we had to abandon the four wheel car at an intersection while Damian and the chief priest led the way up one of the caves. The forested and hilly nature of it makes it a bit hard but the motivation was the enthralling stories of the caves.

Nweke inherited the priesthood at 22 from his late father and since then has carried on with the job for which he says he is destined.

He reveals that he has over the years tried his hands on several things and even travelled out of the community at some point, and abandoned his calling and people to their fate. But he could not find the fulfilment and happiness he went in quest of until he returned to his traditional role as the chief priest of the caves, he claims.

Finally, we arrived at the entrance to one of the main caves.

Heaving a sigh of relief we made for the cave but were stopped on the track by Damian who again explains that the chief priest would have to carry out some rites before we could proceed.

A simple ritual it turns out to be with the chief priest standing at the mouth of the entrance directly under the water cascading from the roof. He offers some incantations and prayers before filling the small deep plate with water and passing it on to each of us to pray over and drink from.

The guide actually takes over the role of the priest’s spokesman as the priest is not the talking type, just too reticent. Most times he carried on without remembering that he has visitors with him who are not steeped in the ways of the caves.

However, Damian fills the gap

Chief Greg Ibe...a lone voice for Uturu caves

perfectly as he most often stops him on his track to explain every bit of what needed to be done.

One thing is obvious though - you could not posibly comprehend the cave, its aura and mysticism.

Etched on the wall of the cave is an awesome image that led itself to different interpretations. A heavy cloud descends on the surrounding as you are overwhelmed by an eerie feeling of sort.

The natives take it to be the presence of God and a perfect allusion to the spiritual and religious underpinning of the caves. And just at a corner is a mental cross, which the people say has been there for years and it is believed to have been planted there by one of the religious groups, which visit the caves.

These visits, they say is still common till date as different religious groups hold regular sessions here. You actually feel the place enlivened with the scent of fresh predators. The chief priest explains that their progenitors once lived here for many centuries.

The caves, he says, protected

them from the vagaries of nature and human activities and that it was not until recent years that the people where persuaded to abandon the caves and set up settlements at their present locations. The caves, he reveals is still revered and held in high esteem as they are imbued with certain spiritual powers hence many locals and religious groups visit the caves to offer prayers.

Even the water from the waterfall is also believed to have some curative and therapeutic powers, especially for barren women. Anyone with evil intention is said to be attacked and killed by dangerous animals if such ever attempts to enter the caves.

Finally, we did explore the main cave, big and spacious at certain point and your discovery is that there are many inlets and outlets within the cave leading to what the chief priest describes as the different sections of the caves.

One founds it refreshing and inspiring not only to explore this ancient caves but also to be regaled with the history, tradition

and culture behind it by Damian and Nweke with Ibe re-enforcing those thoughts and beliefs in a most evocative and profound manner.

Not until recently, the chief priest reveals that the people visit the caves for annual festival but sadly, he says this has been abandoned over the years by the people due to what he refers to as the people’s exposure to modern life, education and Christianity.

Done here, we started our descent downhill in search of the opening to the other section of the cave even though the chief priest informs that we could actually find our way from inside the cave to the other cave, as they are intrinsically linked but it was an adventure that we were not prepared for.

The trek down wasn’t any easier as the ascent was rigorous and energy sapping as we had to meander through the rocks, hills, thickset and burning bush. This reporter almost lost his eyeglasses in the process but thanks to the vigilance of Macarthy.

However, one lost his pair of shoes to the adventure as the soles gave up due to the ruggedness of the terrain. One had to complete the remaining distance on barefoot. It was a painful experience with blisters and wounds sustained. As a result one couldn’t go on the search of the second cave with the rest of the team.

The trip to the second cave was described in superlatives and in exciting tones with Prof Ezi equating the cave to a “conference centre”. In his words, the cave was quite spacious and airy and that it presented a picture of people seated around a large table and engrossed in animated discussion.

The cave’s neglect offers a glimpse of what the situation at other historical and cultural sites across the country would be like.

These include the Ogbunike Caves in Anambra State, Amancho Caves in Ebonyi State and even the pockets of caves at Aso Rock in Abuja.

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CHEF’S CORNER

PROFILE

For D Palms’ Sinha, knowing guests’ preferences is key

zz Born and bred in Badagry zz Introduced to bakery by a friend zz Started with Eddy King Burger in Mushin in 1999 Hotspot at Adeniran Ogunsanya and Albashir in Ikoyi zz Moved to Port Harcourt in 2004 zz Obtained a diploma in Hotel and Catering at DOF Catering Institute in Port Harcourt zz Worked with Novotel Hotel, Port Harcourt – 2006 -2009 zz Relocated to Lagos again in 2010 zz Worked with Planet One as sous chef – 2010 – 2012 zz Joined D Palms Airport Hotel as executive chef in January 2013

Executive chef of D Palms Airport Hotel, Gideon Taiwo Sinha, exudes a bonhomie that is just as exciting as the meals he create, writes ANDREW IRO OKUNGBOWA

T

HERE is no pretension about him, he tells it as it is. ‘‘My job is looking after the kitchen and the welfare of the guest,’’ says Gideon Taiwo Sinha. ‘‘You must make sure that the guest is happy and satisfied with your food, because if the guest does not have a good food he would not feel happy,’’ says the head chef of the Ajao Estate, Lagos, located D Palms Airport Hotel. ‘‘So, you must look for every possible way to make the guest happy,’’ he says, adding that ‘‘to be a chef is not an easy thing because you just have to satisfy your guest. That is what hospitality is all about.’’

Continuing, “the job is about hospitality and I like making people happy. I derive so much joy when people commend my effort,’’ adding that if a chef is not happy doing his job it shows because “he will end up making others sad with his food; so always, you must be happy even when faced with difficulties so as to make your guests happy and satisfied”.

Indeed like the “lord of the manor”, Sinha rules his kitchen with this philosophy as he ensures that every cook and waiter understands the deliverables. ‘‘You have to train the kitchen staff to the standard that you want them to be so as to give the correct service even in your absence,’’ he explains.

And as the lord here, he notes that it’s the duty of every chef to translate guests’ need into an enticing cuisine. The rule for him is that if his guest is happy with his food then he is happy; but if unhappy he would be unhappy.

A

S the global travel and tourism growth is targeted at 4.3 percent raising the prospect of growth across the destinations, Nigeria is not left out of the global calculation as the country is expected to witness a 1.9 percent growth in the industry this year, and this growth figure is expected to rise gradually in the next one decade.

Last year the contribution of the industry to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) was put at NGN1,559.5 billion (3.2 percent of GDP)

Therefore, he makes it a point of duty to get a feedback from each guest that visits and where a guest is not impressed, he says, he goes out of his way to compensate the guest by offering other alternative. The reason for this is very simple as he says that every satisfied and happy guest brings more 10 guests. You do the maths then you would understand why Sinha is very passionate about his work.

While the chat was on at the far corner of the restaurant, a female guest walks into the restaurant and engages one of the waiters. But Sinha could not help but interjects (“primps”, he barked) when it appears that his staff was not comprehending the order of the guest.

Turning his attention to the reporter, he noted that a good chef has to know all his guests - “particularly the regular ones and their preferences”. She is a vegetarian, meaning that care must be taken to cater for her. To drive home the point, the waiter brings the order to his boss because he is the only person on the insistence of the American guest who prepares her food.

And just so that you know; here is what her order contains: primps with onions, green pepper, spice, basmastic rice and fried plantain.

This order, says Sinha, does not exactly tell one anything. So how does he intends to handle it? It is a big challenge, he admits.

But because he understands the guest too well, he explains that to make her happy, he will grill the primps, surtar and serve it as a veg then garnish the palate with the plantain so as to make it enticing to her. This is one big

Sinha

aspect of his work that he takes seriously, as he insists that the manner of presentation of the food is very important as the colourful, attractive and enticing nature of the food is what does it for many guests while to do otherwise put off some guests who without even tasting the food would just pass it off.

Given what has just transpired with the American guest, Sinha reveals that the unique attraction of D Palms Airport Hotel is the fact that they cater to all sorts of demands, and this

makes the restaurant the best because, as he says, it is the ability of the kitchen to meet every gastronomic request of the guest that makes you the best in the profession and nothing else.

The offerings here are African and continental dishes, breakfast and dinner are buffet while lunch is ala carte. Sunday Brunch with over 20 selection of dishes, he says is a delight while The Club section on Friday night also offers special occasion for him to treat visitors to a number of African dishes that you would not find in a standard interna-

tional hotel as theirs.

Such dishes include the popular Isi ewu, nkwobi, peppered gizzard, pizza, shawarman and chicken. Shredded chicken done with special spices, but very simple, is a package to savour at the restaurant while he has also developed a special way of preparing the popular nsala soup. Instead of yam, he uses pounded yam flour which gives it a smooth taste.

Another is the ceasan salad which, he says, is a special treat with chicken added to it. He describes it as wonderful, adding that ‘‘I have developed a series of recipes here that no one who tastes them would ever complain about our food. Our food is perfect, the rooms are excellent and I urge the guest to give it a trial as a trial would convince you.’’

How fulfilled is he? ‘‘I feel satisfied and fulfilled,’’ he says of his close to two decades romance with the kitchen. ‘‘A chef ’s work is creativity.’’ It is the creative aspect of it that lured him into the profession. ‘‘I love creating things and that gives me the impetus to continue with the job.’’

If there is one thing that also gives him joy it is the fact that Nigerian cooks are now beginning to get recognition and treated with respect and honour just as the expatriate cooks. ‘‘The perception of cook is changing in Nigeria because of the international exposure. We were treated as second class and less-privileged citizens; but now we are treated with respect and even earn higher pay like most professionals.’’

TRAVEL BEAT

Nigeria’s travel and tourism to grow by 1. 9 percent this year while its contribution to employment, including direct jobs created was put at 1,836,800 jobs (2.8 percent of total employment) and investment generated at NGN264.2bn, or 4.8 percent of total investment. This is projected to rise by 1.0 percent this year.

At the global level, it total contribution last year was put at US$7 while contribution to employment, including jobs directly supported by it was

265,855,000 jobs (8.9% of total employment) - one in 11 of all jobs on the world. These figures as released by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), an arm of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO), are polled from over 184 countries.

According to the president and ceo of WTTC, David Scowsill, last year was a good year for the industry, as it continued with the growth rate that

has been witnessed consistently in the last four years. While sounding upbeat about this development, he however, caution governments to take appropriate actions to shore up the benefits of the industry as the next 10 years looking extremely good for travel and tourism with more than four percent growth yearly.

“The outlook for travel and tourism for the next ten years looks extremely

favourable, with growth forecast of more than 4 percent annually. This will require Governments to implement more open visa regimes and to adopt intelligent rather than punitive taxation policies. It is also critical that public and private partnerships ensure that long term infrastructure and human resource needs are planned responsibly and sustainably, to absorb the inevitable growth that we are forecasting.

If the right steps are taken, travel and tourism can be a true force for good.”

TRAVEL&TOURISM

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41

TRAVEL PERSONALITY

‘Nigeria not yet a tourist destination despite potential’

Alexander Gassauer is the general manager of Sheraton Lagos Hotel and Towers and the area manager for Starwood Nigeria. In a chat with ANDREW IRO OKUNGBOWA, he speaks on the challenges of running a hospitality outfit, developing a destination and his personal impressions of Nigeria

A

USTRIA-born Alexander Gassauer seats atop five Starwood properties in Nigeria as the area manager of the Nigeria operations of the international brand with direct supervision over the Sheraton Lagos Hotel as the general manager.

Born into a family of hoteliers with rich culture and history of achievements, Gassauer seemed made for the job. Stout and broad-shouldered, the Austrian hotelier is apparently having “ball” working in Nigeria though he shies away from admitting this.

But, at least, the modest records of his and the group over the last 10 years that he has directed the affairs of the global brand in Nigeria make this evident. The general manager pointed out that Sheraton Lagos is the leader in the hospitality business in Lagos, at least in the Ikeja area where it is based.

Secondly, he reveals thus: ‘‘We have five properties with three different brands. We started with two and now we have five and we have very interesting projects which are under construction or in the final stages of development. One is the Four Points in Benin City and Four Points in Ibadan and a luxury collection hotel in Ikoyi.’’

Not content with these landmarks, he gets on the overdrive as he noted that ‘‘we are trying to venture into also what you may call a secondary market, which is outside Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, into the capitals of other states, which are interesting. I have been to a lot of those states and capitals and I can tell you there is definitely the need for international branded hotels there and with the right partners at the right place we are ready to operate a Starwood hotel all over.’’

He sure deserves a resounding applaud for this ambitious move. Admittedly, getting this far must have come with its challenges. ‘‘The challenges I faced are not more or less than what I will face in other places,’’ he says. But pressed further, the almost reticent Gassauer adds, ‘‘you will always have certain challenges and in other places it is the same so there is nothing or reason why I should say this is Nigeria specific. I don’t see any major challenge.’’

While he admits that ‘‘Nigerians by nature are extremely hospitable, smiling and an open people, which are basic attitude for the hospitality sector,’’ he however, gets agitated over what he calls lack of basic skills. ‘‘But when it comes to skills there is definitely the need for some real quality education in all fields. This is non-existent here and this is one of the biggest challenges as you don’t have the people who have got the basic theoretical skills to translate them into practice.’’

He didn’t stop there as he explains further: ‘‘you don’t find a qualified plumber, you don’t find a qualified electrician, you don’t find a qualified carpenter, you find people

tion where I went had a potential, whether it is Yenagoa, if the transportation is eased, it can be a destination. Port Harcourt has infrastructure problem, it has no single decent road. Calabar is a beautiful city, when you look at the river, it is fantastic, the nature there is really, really beautiful, we were looking at the site at one stage. ‘‘Uyo has evolved tremendously over the last couple of years. The infrastructure of Uyo is what I have never seen in Nigeria. The last time that I rode from Port Harcourt to Uyo, the road system is amazing and this assures me that with the right interest and the right attitude it can be done. The other place is Ibadan, it is still evolving, it is still coming up strong, that is why we are putting up a hotel there.’’

Besides these attractions, he insists the country needs first to contend with the issue of getting it infrastructure right if it ever hopes to attract tourists. It is not what the government alone can undertake, he says, as he points out the need to develop tour packages and qualified tour guides, among others even as he affirms the presence of hotels, airlines and other transport infrastructure but they need to be put together, he counsels.

Lessons learnt

Gassaeur

who do plumbing jobs and carpentry jobs. ‘‘This is a mentality issue and it has to been addressed at one stage that getting proper education and proper skills are very important, as these are just jobs,’’ as he unveils the fact that the hotel has to go out of its way to create a system that helps develop its crop of associates (staff ) into true professionals.

The other challenge he feels strongly about in the hotel business here is the lack of standard and quality equipment when it comes to the technical side of the business. Other than this, the glow returns when it comes to talking of the prospect of the business.

Nigeria has a great prospect

‘‘Nigeria, if not the highest, has the strongest economy in Africa,’’ he says, adding that ‘‘obviously, there is a lot of business here, the economy is growing, the economy is booming because you are looking at a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of over seven percent, which is one of the highest in Africa.’’

He admits that Lagos is still a business destination and perhaps the strongest in Nigeria. ‘‘Lagos as a destination is a pure business destination, there is no leisure tourism into Lagos except for The Diaspora travel from abroad.’’

The first, he says, is that of the perception of Nigeria abroad, which he admits is very wrong, as he reveals that Nigerians are ‘‘lovely people and very honest people.’’ He confesses that in his entire career he has never worked in any hotel such as the Lagos Sheraton where there are little or near absence of threatening incidences. ‘‘I have a good time here and I have seen a lot,’’ he says even as he tells you that beWhat this means for the hospitality sec- sides his fascination with the land and its tor is more business growth as he explains people, he speaks of his romance with Afthat the demand for rooms in the city is rican music as he recalls the motivation bepresently higher than the supply despite the hind his introduction of the Wazobia night fact that new hotels have come on stream every Friday at the hotel and its instant success. in the last couple of years. ‘‘Well with the food I have my little prob... Not yet a leisure destination But despite the huge economic prospect lems, it is not that it is not tasty or I don’t and the seeming vast tourist attractions of like them, for example the fish soup or the the country that are mouthed daily, the ho- chicken soup is good,’’ he says of his extelier contents that Nigeria is not yet on the perimentation with Nigerian food, which global tourism map as a preferred destina- he finds rather chilli.

How does he unwind amid his tight tion for leisure except for business. ‘‘But leisure travel from abroad is none-existent schedule and the hospitality environment as Nigeria is not on top of the list of favour- he finds himself, you sought to know? ‘‘Well, I go home (Austria), I go skiing, I just came able leisure destinations from abroad...’’

Gassauer who has been around the back and I am a member of the Ikoyi Club. country for about 10 years asserts that ‘‘Ni- I have a good time there,’’ he says.

With regard to legacy, he says: ‘‘I think geria has got some great sites and places of interest,’’ displaying his knowledge of the it is too early to talk about legacy, I will talk country as he takes you on a picturesque about it when I am leaving and not now,’’ but journey of the land, its attractions and after some persistence and contemplation, constraints: ‘‘In each state, they have got he offers this: ‘‘But what we did here was very attractive sites but distance is an is- the development of the people. The decision sue. The whole northern part of Nigeria is to give the young people, well - educated fascinating; if you go to Katsina or Kaduna people from the various universities, to you would be amazed but how to get there, give them a chance in the industry. I had where to stay and how to get back, is not a programme to get them to schools as we started with various trainings, which have easy to and is still a problem.’’

Furthermore, he reveals that ‘‘every loca- become extremely successful.

My Weekend

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NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

29 MARCH 2014

‘I enjoy bond with family’ H aving attended universities of Nigeria, Ibadan and Lagos, seasoned banker and stockbroker, Mazi Unegbu, says he is proud to be in a vintage position to tell the complete story of Nigeria. The universities, he adds, afford him to have deep knowledge about Nigeria. ‘’I call them premier universities for the opportunities I had in attending them, which gives me the vintage position to tell the story of Nigeria,” he says.

He also prides himself as a member of the prestigious Ikoyi Club 1938, adding he joined the club to socialise. The 62-year-old managing director of Maxifunds Securities Limited says he has the leisure for tennis while he jogs for 30 minutes every morning as a way of keeping himself mentally alert and prepares himself ahead of the day’s job.

“I stay with my family at weekend if I don’t want to go out, and I don’t do my office work at home because if I do I will not have time for my family,” he says, adding, “I write a lot mostly in my professional areas, either in Law or Banking. I write all the time, that is what I do.”

Unegbu readily admits that he socialises sometimes on weekend, attending social functions with friends as a way of getting relief from the week’s stress.

“If my friend has a social function in Kano, you will see me there. If it is Ogbomosho, you will see me there, I like travelling around the country. It is a way of knowing one’s country, some of us like to travel to the U.S., but I like travelling round the country. That is not to say I don’t travel abroad.

“But more importantly, I like my weekends.

I want to stay at home with my family,” he explains.

Giving a detailed profile about his training, he says he started his primary education at St. Michael Catholic Primary School, Mushin, from where he proceeded to Mbise, Imo State for his secondary education, but the Nigerian civil disrupted his dreams of completing his education at the first attempt he enrolled. He however completed his secondary schools after the war, from where he gained admission into the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, for his first degree in Banking and Finance, which he followed up with a second degree in the same course at University of Ibadan.

They don’t care about small depositors’, they are looking for billions and trillions and anytime it is withdrawn from them , they start complaining, they need to go back to the basics and talk about banking service, talk about the development of the depositor

Unegbu

Mazi Okechukwu Unegbu, a former President of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), and ex-Managing Director of the defunct Citizens Bank, now Enterprise Bank is a lawyer and stockbroker. In this interview with SEGUN EDWARDS Unegbu says he cherishes family union as a way of winding down from his routine office job.

He bagged his second degree in Law at the University of Lagos, the escapades which he said afforded him the opportunity of making many friends everywhere he went seeking knowledge. His quest to continue to acquire knowledge he said also made him attended several certificate courses in the US and other places, which include local courses, which in one instance made him to attend a local course in the local environment of Ogbomosho, where he was taken through acquisition of knowledge about the local environment of Okuku in Osun State, ‘’i enjoyed it, in fact the Oba, who is educated was there, i enjoyed it all.’’

The 62 year old Maxi, which simply translates to Mr. says he shares the same birth date with General Ibrahim Babangida, Nigeria’s former military President.

The astute Banker while speaking on the present state of the banking industry, said the present banking atmosphere is lacking in principle of service, principle of conservatism, principle of integrity, principle of strong character, and the principle that stipulates that professionals know their client very well. ‘’Those principles are no longer existing. Things have been over taken by the drive to have more money in the kitty, money you get into the bank and push it to the CBN to pay for Treasury Bills transactions because you know where to put the money, you are not developing lending culture, that was why i was happy when the CBN increased the cash reserve requirement (CRR) to 25, even to 100 per cent, and that cash reserve requirement is for gov-

ernment deposit, the CBN was supposed to be banker to the government, but that role have been taken over by conventional bank sand that has made them lazy. So they don’t care about small depositors’, they are looking for billions and trillions and anytime it is withdrawn from them , they start complaining, they need to go back to the basics and talk about banking service, talk about the development of the depositor’’.

Recounting his experience as the MD of the defunct Citizens Bank, he revealed that he had the opportunity to serve in that capacity when called upon by the CBN to restructure the bank. According to him it was after going through the books of the bank that he and his team discovered that the bank was one of the banks that had the biggest deposit base in the country then. He also said the bank at the time was the first bank that began the real time online banking, but said somewhere along the line it derailed. ‘’We discovered all these and we brought the bank back from the brink, an effort that took us to the capital market to raise funds in 2005, we succeeded and then the issue banks consolidation came on we now changed to Spring bank, after the exit of my team and i left there was board room squabbles which really crumbled the bank, but the principle of the founding father is still there’’.

He painted a gloomy picture of the nation’s economy over the what he described as current realities not conforming with global international financial agencies positions saying: ‘’The economy of Nigeria is being prosecuted by those who do not understand the environment of Nigeria. First and foremost when people get to

office, number one thing they do is to get the approval of foreign financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to say this the best Nigeria has ever had, but it becomes obvious that what is said about the country is not right because even those people don’t understand Nigeria, not to talk of the people that have been appointed.’’

To him, most of the time foreign agencies assign favourable ratings to developing countries like Nigeria for what they want to get, stating: ‘’Capitalism does not give anything free, it is like the devil, devil gives a good gift and the next time he destroys the entire system if you accept the devil gift that is what has been happening to us.’’

He said most of the political appointees fail to be focused on where they are going, as he stated that they lack the vision to either take deep thoughts or ensure that they improves on whatever that is on ground, rather than commend what their predecessor’s tenure has done he said they demonised such predecessor, as they paint the person bad so that they look good, he however said ‘’but nobody is totally a devil and nobody is an angel there must some midway, somebody must have done something good, while discover what is done well and improve on them, it would have done something wrong discover them and rectify but it is never happening in our system, first of all demonise the person nobody talks about what good things you did except the bad ones that is a very big problem, i think the executive will need to pick good leader that would not destroy what others have done, so that we continue to waste resources.’’

He said he would advocate the scrapping of the IMF and the World Bank as far as their policies on Third World is concerned because according to him, the Third World economies were not there when they drew the rules as it were rules aimed at damaging the economies of western Europe during the second world war saying, ‘’if they want to be part of it, let us restructure the rules to now accommodate the third world. I keep saying let us not listen to these people, let us listen to our people, look at the environment we are working in, and see how we can help the environment grow.

Unegbu took a swipe at the authorities of the capital market, saying: ‘’Look at the capital market, it is sad that even the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC), the regulatory authority of the market that is supposed to ensure that the capital market runs smoothly is introducing policies that is affecting the market negatively. For instance, they were talking about raising the capital of stockbroking houses to N300 million, nothing is wrong with that but is the time of the introduction, the timing is wrong, they didn’t study the environment well. How can you do that, when we are just coming out of the 2008/2009 debacle and people are still just recovering, you brought that up, it shows that you are not sensitive to the environment.’’

StartUps

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29 MARCH 2014

In laundry business, trust is everything business with some customers who may not pay for service at the point they brought their cloths for cleaning. That may tie down funds for a start-up. These are some of the things that hinder the growth of the business and in such situation the issue of seeking more funds now sets in. All of these require skills on the part of the business owner to overcome such situation. So, a person not properly trained will have problem, as the issue of funding may become an albatross which may see such outfit go down.

Proprietor of Lagosbased Abundance Dry Cleaning Services, Morgan Nathaniel, 46, speaks with SEGUN EDWARDS on the challenges that confront start-ups in the sector How was it like starting the business?

I actually knew what I wanted to do from the outset. I was in school and at the same time, I was undergoing training at Ekinmogun Laundry and Dry Cleaning Services, at Sholoki Street, Aguda, in Lagos. After school, I was faced with the problem of finance, I had to join other dry cleaning outfits because I came face to face with the realities of life whether to travel out to seek greener pastures or do other things. But somehow, God came to my rescue through an elder brother of mine who paid a visit to me then. It was like a joke, as he asked what it takes to establish a dry-cleaning business and I replied that it might cost about N2.5 million or something reasonable in that region, adding that coupled with proper training, heaven would be your limits. We just said it casually and he went away. About six months later, he called and asked if I was ready to go into the business. I replied that with proper back-up, that something could be done. I was surprised when he called me into his office and gave me some money, I think about N750,000. It was not really what I wanted but I believed I could make something out of it. So, I went back to my boss, Olumide Yussuff, a Civil Engineer who demonstrated that i is not what you studied in school alone that holds the key to your breakthrough in life.

He taught me that proper with proper dedication and focus. you can make a head way in life, I keyed into this philosophy. Then came the issue of loyalty which is I why I handed over the money to him since he was already into fabrication of dry- cleaning and laundry equipment. And he said well, that he would see what he could do with the amount I gave to him. Then arose the issue of rent.

What are the equipment you are talking about?

Dry-cleaning and laundry equipment, because without them you cannot make anything good from the business. I needed a dry-cleaning machine and other tools which must be in place.

What were the challenges when you started?

We encountered many challenges before we even broke even. The confidence on the part of the public that you are able to handle their fabrics, using the right materials and in doing that, you apply the acceptable cleaning chemicals to handle their jobs. That is the first hurdle, confidence-building is very important in this business. If you are not able to establish that, to show that you could handle fabrics right, .

You stressed the importance of education; how equipped are you in that regard?

I am graduate in communication arts from the Calabar Polytechnic.

How do small scale outfits compete with the big ones which back their business with huge advertisements?

Nathaniel

In your view, how do start-ups survive in the business?

Finance is a major headache, as the business require a significant funding. The financial institution are not there for small businesses in most cases. Nobody would give loans easily to start-ups, and we all know the conditions usually attached to giving loans in our country. Even when you agree to give loans, the issue of collateral comes in. And if you are just starting a business, where will you get the collateral? All these things come into play, and it makes it very difficult for startups to survive in the business. A lot of them cut corners in order to make headway.

Cleaned...customer clothes ready for collection

and its typical turnover?

The turnover comes into play early in the business. If you are starting small you may not be able to attract the people that will make an impact on your returns. But if God helps you, you are able to start big and you are not grounded with the necessary trainings required, people will want to patronise you.

Usually, I encourage people to start from the grass, so that you can learn and grow as the business progresses.

What is the distinction between dry cleaning and laundry?

Yes, there is distinction between laundry and dry cleaning. Laundry is when you dip your cloth in water, you hand-wash and dry; but dry cleaning is the use of solvents in cleaning fabrics, these solvents does not have direct contact with the fabric, so they go a long way in preserving the life span of the garments. It does not make your cloths wear out on time and I will encourage the general public to try as much as possible to patronise qualified dry cleaning outfits. By doing so you go a long way in preserving the life span of your garments.

I have been in this for 18 years now.

What is competition like in the industry?

What is the cost of setting up this business

Serious people in the business will always find their target market with regard to what they want to achieve irrespective of their size.

Competition in the industry is very high due

Who are your clients?

to the general unemployment situation in the country. There are people who want to come into the business as a result of having issues with their employers, they want to become entrepreneurs and be on their own. With this scenario, the competition is becoming intense.

Some of these people have however had their fingers burnt in the process of settling for dry cleaning business, with huge funds from their former employment going down the drains. If you are not properly trained and you go into it you may get your fingers burnt.

We are into industrial cleaning too. We have a contract job with the Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), UACN, its subsidiary, UPDC. We work with Land Prop Concern, it is a property development company in Lagos. What we do is help them take care of their premises.

So what is the process of training?

How many proprietors in the business have passed through you?

The process of training is that you must understudy somebody else who has been in the business and knows about laundry and dry cleaning business. You must go through a thorough training process and make sure you learn the act very well.

What is your advice for start-ups?

The issue of funding is important. Also, training is very important, you must go through a proper training process.

So many people have passed through me. I think I have trained up to 60 people, but I cannot say they are my competitors in the business because I know very well that most of them are confronted with the issue finance.

What is the usual period of training?

Well, I would say education is the basic thing. You must have basic education that would ease understanding of the rudiment of the business and would reduce the length of training. You may be there for six months or at the most one year, but most importantly you ask questions because your boss won’t tell you everything. And of course, we have issues in the

Has it been easy accessing funds from the banks?

They are making things difficult. In a situation, where you want to grant me a loan of two million at 30 percent interest for a small or medium scale business or entrepreneur, how would such business survive? They are not helping at all.

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44

Maltina ‘hides’ under comedy Dele Alao

D

escribed as the country’s premium malt drink brand, Maltina, from the stable of Nigerian Breweries Plc, has decided to leverage on the growing popularity and acceptance of comedy among Nigerians to maintain its share of the market.

Three years ago, Maltina unveiled the “Share Happiness” campaign to its consumers. The new found love with comedy is tagged: Maltina Laugh.Out.Loud campaign.

Under the campaign, two comedy shows: AY Live! anchored by AY and Laffmattazz anchored by Gbenga Adeyinka will take place in some selected cities.

AY Live will take place first in Lagos on Easter Sunday and will be replicated in Port Harcourt on May 1 (May Day) and in Abuja on June 28 (Eid El Fitr). While Laffmataz, sponsored by Maltina is scheduled for three locations beginning with Ibadan on Easter Sunday.

On the new found love with comedy by Coca-Cola, the Corporate Affairs Adviser, NB Plc, Kufre Ekanem, said: “Maltina is broadening its ‘Share the Happiness’ message to a broader audience embracing comedy, a very relevant and widely accepted platform via a new campaign tagged ‘Maltina Laugh.Out.Loud’. We are pleased to announce that we are aligning two great comedy shows in happiness: AY Live! anchored by

AY and Laffmattazz anchored by Gbenga Adeyinka 1st.. I am sure you would agree with me that Maltina is partnering with two of Nigeria’s greatest comedians, AY and Gbenga Adeyinka.”

“To us “Happiness” is a choice and comedy is a great avenue for us to relax and build the internal oasis of fun. Laughter – as you will

all agree - is a positive infection, and helps to spread the happiness that we have within us,” he added.

On the choice of AY Live and Laffmatazz, Ekanem said: “AY Live! has been voted the comedy event of the year for the last three years, and has gained a large following on social media as those who are present and

those unable to make the show seek to share the comedic antics later on. On the other hand, Laffmatazz, the Gbenga Adeyinka & Friends Comedy and Music Concert is an experiential platform for the whole family which features notable Nigerian entertainers in its fourth edition, tagged ‘The Evolution.’”

CAP Plc adopts teal as 2014 Dulux Colour

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hemical and Allied Products (CAP), Plc, the producers of Dulux paint and a subsidiary of United Africa Company of Nigeria(UACN) Plc, has unveiled the 2014 dulux color of the year, at an event themed: “Unlocking potentials.”

In line with the Dulux global tradition, CAP Plc, the technological licensee of AkzoNobel – the world’s largest paints and Coatings Company, unveiled the 2014 Dulux Colour of the year named ‘TEAL’.

Teal, which is a deep bluegreen colour; a dark cyan colour, was declared as the 2014 Dulux colour of the year at an event witnessed by the company’s various stakeholders group including top echelon of the UACN group, trade partners, customers at the Golden Tulip Hotel, Festac Town, Lagos.

The company also used the occasion to introduce the new packaging design (New Livery) for Dulux premium brand of paint. The new attractive packaging design, is available for the different variants of Dulux paint; Gloss, Weathershield and Emulsion.

Speaking at the event, the Group Managing Director, UAC of Nigeria Plc, Mr. Larry Ettah, said the theme of the 2014 Dulux

Colour of the Year, “Unlocking Potential” is an interesting one that resonates with the times.

“We live in a time of great change. By taking a look at what we have, we can unlock the potentials that surround us and by so doing, our destinies.

These opportunities apply to businesses as well as individuals’’ he said.

Ettah noted that the 2014 Colour of the Year portrays the mood of unlocking the ideas, the dreams and the passion within us.

He declared that the colour was unanimously picked by colour experts as the social, economic and design pulse in 2014.

Also, the Managing Director, CAP Plc, Mrs. Omolara Elemide, described the 2014 Dulux Colour of the Year event as a unique one not only for its emotional appeal but also the unveiling of the new livery for the premium brand.

“The new livery (packaging design) for Dulux paints is a customer-friendly, appealing and attractive packaging that truly represents the elegance and class; this is a true reflection of the premium quality of Dulux paint and reinforces its leadership position in the category,’’ she said.

L-R: Senior Brand Manager, Maltina, Wole Adedeji; Chief Executive Officer, Corporate World Entertainment, Ayodeji Makun; Corporate Affairs Adviser Nigerian Breweries Plc, Kufre Ekanem, Chief Executive Officer Laughter Incorporated, Gbenga Adeyinka and the Marketing Manager, Non-Alcoholic Drinks, Sampson Oloche, at the Maltina Laugh Out Loud briefing in Lagos.

Airtel targets elite with new offer

B

uoyed by the need to gain a sizable share of the elite class, Airtel Nigeria, has launched the Airtel Premier Club, a special V-VIP programme.

It is specifically designed to offer exceptional and personalised services.

The high-profile launch, which took place recently, attracted several important dignitaries including the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Akinwunmi Adesina; Indian High Commissioner to Nigeria, His Excellency, Shri A. R. Ghanshyam; former Governor of Cross Rivers State, Donald Duke, Wife of Ogun State Governor, Funsho Amosun, foremost British Economist, Jim O’neill and Arsenal legend, Ray Parlour, among other notable guests.

Speaking during the occasion, the chief executive officer and managing director of Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, described the Airtel Premier Club as a platform specially created to offer ex-

ceptional and personalized service to High Networth Customers and distinguished personalities.

“The mandate which you have given us is very clear: To exceed your expectations. We will. Many will wonder why we have always won the award for operator with best customer service in all major telecoms awards in the country, since the inception of GSM. Today, we are committing to taking the art of customer service, service excellence and customer experience to a new height,” he said.

According to the CEO, customers who enrol on the Airtel Premier platform will enjoy several benefits including dedicated helpline, exclusive emails and website, dedicated relationship manager, enrolment into Airtel Rewards Programme, exclusive access to designated service points at Airtel showrooms and access to over 600 premium lounges across the world, among other benefits.

Ogunsanya also assured that

Airtel is committed to building a robust network for Nigerians to experience excellent Mobile Internet and voice service. “We are committed to investing in the largest market in Africa. We will continue to work with Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and other stakeholders to create an enabling environment for our customers to experience the results of our investment in capacity and coverage,” he said.

The event, however, hit a high point when the Airtel Premier logo was unveiled. With a well-coordinated pyrotechnics display, fireworks and special lighting effect, the Airtel Premier logo literally rose in a slow and stylish fashion from the depth of the hall to assume a most prominent position in front of the stage, amidst thunderous applause from an appreciative audience consisting mostly of corporate elites, government officials, accomplished entrepreneurs, society bigwigs and top entertainment personalities.

SEGUN EDWARDS olaedwards@yahoo.com 08111813095

Companies & Stock 29 MARCH 2014

e-Transact losing battle for N1.1tr mobile money market

W

ith an estimated N1.1 trillion and the huge potential of the mobile market, the sector is still struggling to have its potential fully harnessed by major players.

For instance, electronic service provider Etranzact International Plc, a major player in the mobile money market in Nigeria with a benefitting product like the “Pocket Moni” has thus far not exploited the e payment platform to its advantage in terms of earnings .

The company’s 2012 audited results showed revenues rise of 36 per cent year on year to N3 billion, while gross profit also rose during the year to N939 million from N756 million in 2011. It also posted a profit after tax of N128 million in the period, up from 57 per cent from the preceding year.

Similarly, its first quarter ended 31st March 2013, had revealed loss after tax of N31.66 million as against N12.17 million in 2011. Profit before in the period stood at N46.57 million over N17.97 million in 2011.

Cost of sales in the period rose N764.71 million over N498.48 million recorded in the corresponding period of 2012.

However, despite the over 100 million GSM subscribers’ base in Nigeria the company has so far failed to appropriate available opportunities to annex the market for its own

earnings. Analysts say its results can either be viewed as half empty or half full. The company’s results according to analysts in the period have showed relative lack of growth in its bottom line. This is despite the PAT 57 per cent growth to N128 billion in 2012.

In real terms, the company’s PAT has grown at a CAGR (compounding growth rate) of about 20 per cent in the last five years whilst revenue also grew on a CAGR of 38 per cent.

Instructively, the company’s impressive growth rate could be said to be flattery and meaningless if it doesn’t translate to value accretion.

Also, in real terms, the company in the last five years have posted profits and losses which if set off against each other will result in a net gain of only N18.7 million (without factoring in inflation) This to a discerning investor, is only N18.7 million to the company’s bottom line in the last five years despite posting revenues of about N7.7 billion.

The company’s achilles heel obviously lies in its inability to cut down operating expenses. Selling General and Admin Expenses (S,G&A) was a whopping 95 per cent of gross profit in 2012 and was 90 per cent the year before.

Its operating profit margin was just 1.5 per cent even lower than 3.6

CBN says cashless policy not to eliminate cash payment

A

e-Transact MD, Valentine Obi

per cent posted in 2011 meaning that the increase in PAT had little to do with its operational efficiency.

It basically made profitability in the period because of the N132 million in other income.

From its listed price of N4.80 on the NSE, the stock had declined to N3.47 in April 2013 representing over 22 per cent of its value in the

last one year. Its share price has remained flat in the last months with either an increase or decrease.

Currently, it trades at a high price to book value of 5.5x making the current share price unattractive. A stock with an earnings per share of 3kobo should be trading at 50kobo tops (which by the way is a priceearning ratio of 16.6X).

Tantalizers Score-Card: Loss making, loss glory

A

t its peak in 2008, Tantalizers was one of the foremost fast food companies in Nigeria known for rapid branch expansion across to major cities Nigeria, Lagos, Ibadan, and Port Harcourt.

They were a perfect competition for conglomerate subsidiary, Mr Biggs, who back then (and till now) had a larger share of the market.

Things were so good back then, Tantalizers launched an initial public offer (IPO) and went on to declare a profit after tax of about N305.4 million at the end of its financial year in 2008. What will ensue afterwards was a stock market crash that coincided with a drop in profits for the company from its peak in 2008.

The company’s 2012 audited account showed that revenue dropped slightly by 8.8 per cent to N4.19 billion. The drop in cost of sale was not able to provide improved efficiency as gross profit fell 11.5 per cent year

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on year to N1.9 billion. The company for the first time in its operation as a publicly quoted one will go on to post a loss after tax of N303million.

The fast food outfit’s financial outlook for the immediate past year also remained the negative zone, as shown in its half year ended 30th June results.

Its revenue in the period declined to N1.177 billion as against N2.172 billion in the same period of 2012, while cost of sales stood at N977.266 million lower than the N1.218 billion

recorded in the same period of 2012.

Gross profit in the period equally declined N793.98 million against N954.19 million in the same period of 2012, while loss after tax in the period rose to N279.55 million, over N129.72 million recorded in 2012.

The company ironically have consistently maintained a steady stream of revenue over the last five years averaging N4.7billion per year.

But as revenue has remained pretty much flat (at a CAGR of -2 per cent) earnings have gone south and net

assets have hit a bumpy ride.

In the last two years, Tantalizers spiraling cost has finally caught up with the revenues as expenditures was 12 per cent higher than gross profits and other income. So despite being able to post revenues in excess of N4billion, the 8 per cent drop in revenue this year to N4.19 billion was weak enough to throw the company into a loss.

By the way total cost and operational expenses was N4.5 billion in 2012 less than N4.6 billion in 2011.

The result is a loss in operational profit and by the time interest takes its share of cost a loss of N303million was posted.

Tantalizers had over 2300 staff on their payroll taking staff cost per head to about N282,000 per annum. Sure this has dropped from prior years (assuming the staff count is the same), these are still high expense numbers for a company this size.

cting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Dr Sarah Alade has risen in defence of the bank cashless policy as she said the initiative is not intended to eliminate the use of physical cash for payment in Nigeria but to reduce it.

Alade, who disclosed this through the bank’s Ilorin Branch Controller at the CBN’s cashless sensitisation summit in Ilorin, Kwara State said the apex bank had commenced the repositioning of the nation’s financial system so as to address current challenges and transform Nigeria into a world class economy.

She identified robberies and cash related crimes, kidnapping, election rigging, revenue leakages, inefficient treasure management and corruption as some of the challenges associated with cash economy.

Alade said the cashless regime would meet Federal Government’s Vision 2020 requirement; modernize Nigeria’s payment system and reduce the cost of credit banking services.

She also said that it would also drive financial inclusion, improve effectiveness of monetary policy, reduce high security and safety risk as well as reduce high subsidy.

UBA records impressive growth, posts 20.2% earning increase

M

ajor financial institution, United Bank for Africa Plc has announced impressive growth across key financial parameters, on the back of improved growth drive, sustained operational efficiency and enhanced productivity.

In the financial results for the 12 months ended December 31, 2013 submitted to the Nigerian Stock Exchange, UBA recorded a 20.2 per cent increase in gross earnings to N264.7 billion. This the bank said was largely driven by a growth of 40.4 per cent in loans and advances as well as a 25 per cent growth in the Bank’s total deposits.

Consequently, the bank’s loan-to-deposit ratio improved from 38.7 per cent to 44.3 per cent. The remarkable growth in loans and advances, especially in the last quarter of the year, puts the Bank in a vantage position for continued revenue growth in the coming years.

46 FeatureS

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

Forest of horror that throws Ibadan into confusion

After the discovery of the Ibadan evil forest, lunatics are now being targeted by the residents, SOLA ADEYEMO writes.

I

nitially when the news broke out last Saturday in Ibadan that a forest of death was uncovered at Soka area of Ibadan, off Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, many residents of the area and beyond said the forest was a den of kidnappers.

When New Telegraph visited the site on Sunday however, the security operatives controlling the crowd on the premises said that the site was not a den of kidnappers but a place where the destitute were being rehabilitated.

The bubble burst when some irate youths who believed three cyclists were abducted and taken to the forest, besieged the place to rescue them, but discovered that many ailing people were being camped there in a big warehouse constructed by some construction engineers handling the Ogunpa Channelisation many years ago.

To their consternation and bewilderment, apart from about eight ailing persons rescued from the building and a corpse recovered, close to 20 decomposing bodies were seen scattered in the forest behind the main warehouse. This spectacle sparked the youths’ anger against the security operatives and the government.

Whether it was ritual killing that had been going on there or rehabilities of the destitute, an unconfirmed report of a victim calling his relatives through a mobile line, claiming that he and eight other persons were in an underground dungeon at the forest, further drew a livid rage in the surging crowd that besieged the place on a daily basis.

SECURITY AGENTS, YOUTHS CLASH

Many of the people who besieged the scene were rounded up by the security men and were thoroughly beaten. A man called pastor, who had gone to the place, armed with a cutlass, in search of a neighbour named Dare, whom he said had called that he was captured and kept in the place, was beaten by the Operation Burst men and wounded on the left face with the butt of a gun.

To ascertain the veracity of the claim that some people were still being held underground, some youths, in defiance of the police order, dug different parts of the warehouse in search of the dungeon.

Police and soldiers of the Operation Burst, as well as SSS men who beat up many of the youth, alleged that they were vandalising property in the area, as well as the adjoining companies.

Intermittently, they were firing teargas cannisters at the crowd to disperse them. At a point, live bullets were fired at the crowd and in the process, a women was hit by a stray bullet.

She died later, it was reported.

About 10 cows belonging to Fulani herdsmen operating within the area were killed by the irate youths who believed that the herdsmen could not claim to be ignorant of the inhuman activities going on there. The youth were seen butchering and dismembering two of the cows when New Telegraph visited the site on Sunday.

The warehouse

GOVERNOR BLAMES RESIDENTS

Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Monday reacted to the development when he visited the site, ordering a revocation of the Certificate of Ownerships of the lands in the expansive area.

He said the whole place would be demolished and levelled to prevent further heinous operations.

The governor blamed residents of the area for not alerting the security agencies of the goings on in the forest till it blew out in such a magnitude.

RESIDENTS SEARCH FOR MISSING RELATIVES

Many people from Ibadan and even other states, trooped to the forest and Adeoyo Maternity Teaching Hospital, Yemetu, where the rescued ones were being treated, in the hope that their relations could be found.

One of them was a sobbing mother, who said her daughter, Nnenka Peters, had been missing since 1998.

“Her father died in 1997, leaving me to take care of the children. She was nine years when we did not see her again. She had gone out to fetch water opposite our house but she did not return. If I see my child, I will know her,” the mother said.

A man from Gbongan in Osun State, Kehinde Oguntade, was at the forest to search for his 95-year-old father, Pa Isaac Adeoye Oguntade, a retired teacher, who was last seen on December 31, 2013. He was directed to the hospital in case his father might be among the rescued ones. The search was however futile.

JUNGLE JUSTICE IN IBADAN

To vent their anger further at the development, some people who suspected a man that dressed like a lunatic but was making a call on a mobile phone, allegedly advising the receiver of the call not come to the area, was pounced on.

The man was beaten thoroughly and burnt to death beside the expressway. On Tuesday, a man found with three human tongues at Ring Road area was nearly lynched, but for the intervention of the police.

Around 3pm same day, a man and a woman, who had been staying close to the Muslim flyover on the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway, acting

Atoyebi

She had gone out to fetch water opposite our house but she did not return. If I see my child, I will know her. like lunatics, were searched by the people around the area and a blood-stained cutlass, a plain white cloth, among others items were allegedly found on them.

The people attempted to set them ablaze with tyres drenched in fuel, but according to an eyewitness, “because the two were muttering some incantations, the fire could not be ignited.”

Later, some policemen from Idi Aro station took the man and the woman away, while antiriot policemen in an Armoured Personnel Carrier arrived the scene at 3.50 pm and dispersed the surging crowd with tear-gas.

The orgy continued on a daily basis as some people also burnt to death a man who looked like a lunatic found sitting close to a bridge along Ring Road. It was alleged that the man had a gun, BlackBerry, three human tongues and about 400 posters of a political party aspirant with him.

Another ‘lunatic’ also suffered same fate on Wednesday at Ahmadiyya Crescent, Oke Ado area when people saw BlackBerry, substantial amount of foreign currencies, ATMs and some items on him. To avoid being lynched,

the suspect was said to have pleaded that he would give the mob N2m, an offer that infuriated them, thus making them to set him ablaze.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Ilobanafor (SP), had however cautioned people of the state, particularly, youths, to stop taking laws into their hands. To show the police’s disdain for such acts of lawlessness, six persons were arrested where a man was set ablaze at Oke Ado. ACCORD, APC TRADE BLAME

Though Ajimobi had blamed the residents of Soka for keeping silent at what was going on in the forest of horror until it blew out of proportion, wondering why they did not alert the security agents, the opposition Accord Party in the state had put a lie to the claim of innocence by the governor.

Speaking on behalf of the party, a former Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Ayodele Adigun, accused Ajimobi of deceit and hypocrisy, saying his going to the site and claim of innocence was a ruse.

To Adigun, the forest was a creation of Ajimobi’s administration, describing it as a failed, abandoned project, which people of unscrupulous character had capitalised on.

The party said Ajimobi should be held responsible for the death of both sane and insane persons, as well as subsequent deaths of some individuals at the Soka forest of horror.

The party reiterated that the forest was acquired in 2011 by the Ajimobi’s administra-

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

Clothes and other items of victims

47

A dungeon on the premises

Physically, they will be okay but we have to carry out various tests to know their mental state.

Human bones on the premises.

tion for rehabilitation of the destitute taken away from the streets “in its effort to beautify the environment, but the effort could not be sustained as no provision was made for their maintenance.”

Adigun said, “The premises in question until the time of unearthing the dastardly acts, have always been in custody of Oyo State Government. Between 2011 and 2013, it was gathered that the state government in its effort to beautify the environment set up a committee headed by Yomi Oke, a Special Adviser on Environment and Habitat, and started gathering lunatics and the destitute on the streets of Ibadan and depositing them on the premises. The efforts could however not be sustained as no provision was made for their maintenance.

“Revocation of the Certificate of Occupancies of the land was a mere ruse by Ajimobi because the place had since 1999 been in the custody of the state government until Ajimobi’s administration started making use of it when it came in for the care of the destitute and lunatics.

“After gathering these unfortunate people, the state government silently went to sleep and people of dubious character probably found a ready market to buy the ‘merchandise’ they wanted. In other words, the government provided the enabling environment to perpetrate these ignoble acts and it should accept responsibility for turning the state into an Auschwitz Camp to send people to their graves under the guise of environmental sanitation and beau-

FEATURES

PHOTOS: SOLA ADEYEMO

tification.”

In case the state government has any claim to the contrary, the Accord chieftain, who was accompanied by Niyi Adeyinka (vice chairman), Dr. Remi Ayodele, Prince Dotun Oyelade, Chief Wasiu Emiola, Chief Ogundiya Oguntoye, added, “we challenge them to take us to court and we are ready to substantiate our claim.”

Lending his voice to the allegation, Dr. Remi Adeniran, Publicity Secretary of the party, said, “The government of Ajimobi contracted the place out to one Mr. Gbadamosi at the cost of N45m for the destitute to be taken care of but the government only paid N5m. Owing to lack of food and medication for the victims, many of them died in the forest.”

Adeniran, a lawyer, therefore made a clarion call to the Human Rights Commission and civil societies in the country “to investigate this matter and get to the root of it, lest those who have died, including the woman killed by security men’s stray bullet when the governor visited the site, die in vain.”

Responding to the allegation however, the state government through the All Progressives Congress’ Publicity Secretary, Dauda Kolawole, accused Accord of deceit.

“The people of Oyo State are in a state of grief and shock at the horrendous discovery of ritual killers’ den in the state. The situation calls for a sober reflection from all and sundry.

To be confronted with this cheap politicking in the name of infantile accusation by the Accord Party is like opening the fresh wound of the

people of the state who are still mourning their dead and lamenting the ugly incident,” he said.

He reiterated that the testimonies of the kidnap victims showed that the den had been in existence for almost 10 years, a period that covered “the drab government of Senator Rashidi Ladoja” and his successor.

The APC therefore urged all men of goodwill “to stop the Accord Party in the state from capitalising on what it called the fresh blood of the dead people of the state to gain cheap political advantage.”

The majority of the people who visited the scene were of the opinion that neither the destitute nor lunatics could have owned clean assorted clothes, bags, shoes, booklets of receipts, ATM cards, recharge cards found in some metal containers found on the premises of the abandoned.

The items, according to some of them, suggested that some traders who had boarded buses or any other vehicles might have been diverted to the place and killed for ritual purpose.

DOCUMENTS, RECEIPTS FOUND ON PREMISES

A receipt booklet of Sobic and Company (Finance and Investment Consultant) of Suite 29, IN GOD WE TRUST PLAZA, Afro Bus Stop, Km 8, Old Ife Road, Sawmill, Ibadan with phone numbers 08056053361 and 07081611336 dated 19/1/12 received from Bayo Adediran was found in one of the containers in the forest.

A sheet in the booklet bore the following: “Twenty three thousand naira only being payment for sales proceeds (daily N10, 900, target N7, 200, loan N4, 900).

Another sheet which had N144, 000 naira as having been received from one Mrs. Adeola Adewale on 18/1/12 was payment from “head office.”

Some of the eyewitnesses said investigating the sources of those documents and receipts would help the security agents to unearth the brains behind the dastardly acts perpetrated in the forest.

FORENSIC EXPERTS TO VISIT SITE

Meanwhile, contrary to the order of Ajimobi on Monday that the forest of horror be cleared and the controversial warehouse where the victims were kept, demolished, another fiat was issued on Wednesday shortly after the bulldozer had commenced work, asking that the clearing be stopped.

It was reported that the order was from the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Mohammed Indabawa, that forensic experts would come from Abuja to work on the site before the demolition could continue.

The directive, to many people, however sounded misplaced when a crowd of people had visited the place on daily basis from Saturday that the news broke out, and the fact that the state environmental officers had on Tuesday fumigated the place and buried all the scattered bodies and human parts in a mass grave.

RESUED VICTIMS RESPONDING TO TREATMENT

The eight victims rescued from the forest and taken to the Adeoyo hospital have been responding to treatment, according to information gathered from nurses taking care of them.

Among the eight victims are Titi Adeniyi Dokpesi, Michael Ola, Nofiu Shittu, Wale Atoyebi.

Meanwhile, two relatives of Wale Atoyebi have identified him as their family member from Ada in Osun State.

It was learnt that he left home many years ago without any hint about his whereabouts.

“He was living with his paternal grandmother in Ada, Osun State but his father, who died eight years ago, lived in Ibadan. His mother was no longer with his father when he got missing. I also lived in Ibadan and sell planks at Abayomi, Exide area of Ibadan.

When I saw his name in the newspapers, I called Ada to know if he had come home but I got a negative response. That brought me to the hospital and immediately I saw him, I knew he is our son,” one of the relatives said.

The relatives, who craved anonymity, said that he was happy to see Wale, but expressed concern over health.

“He is not the Wale we knew. He was a boy when he left home full of life but we are sad that he cannot relate with us normally.

He is not responding to greetings and gestures. Wale is not mad; he was born normal with deformed fingers which I used to ascertain his identity,” he added.

Face Off Oshiomhole has ulterior motives - NUT Secretary p.50 Face Off We want to sanitize teaching - Commissioner p.51

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48

TONY ANICHEBE MEETS Sam Ewang (rtd)

Why I do not support Pres Jonathan – Ewang Group Captain Sam Ewang (rtd) was military administrator of Ogun and Rivers states in the military regime of Gen. Sani Abacha. After retirement, he joined politics and vied unsuccessfully for the governorship of Akwa Ibom State in 2007 and 2011 on the platform of the All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP), one of the parties that fused into the All Progressives Congress (APC). Ewang still dreams to govern Akwa Ibom told TONY ANICHEBE in Uyo about the crisis rocking the APC in that state, among other issues. Excerpts: There were reports of supremacy wrangle in the defunct All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) and how this imported crisis is weighing down the All Progressives Congress (APC) structure in Akwa Ibom State. Is this true?

First of all, there is no controversy between ACN and ANPP. I think there was a misunderstanding by some group of persons because they did not understand the new concept of the All Progressives Congress (APC); what APC stands for; what it intends to do and what it is doing. The misunderstanding or misconception arose from the fact that some of them belonged to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and when they came in during the last election, they struggled to implement the style and practice of PDP, thinking that it may give them an edge over others.

APC’s policy is different from PDP, where members are selected as delegates. There won’t be delegates in APC. Every member will vote. So that was the assumption of those who didn’t understand the actual content of APC constitution.

Is APC in Akwa Ibom intact ?

We are now working together; there is no division in APC in the state. What it requires in the situation is leadership. You see Nigeria needs leadership; Akwa Ibom needs leadership and, of course, behaviour makes a good leader. It is the pattern of behaviour shown in the behaviour of man that causes people to willingly want to follow him even to kill themselves for him and that is what has played out.

As a matter of fact, that part that used to think that they are too much has come to discover that it is not like that and it is not going to work. If you keep your ears to the ground, may be you heard some people say that there is nobody. In fact, they even went to the extent to call some of us ‘weightless’ and ‘light weights’ and that sort of thing. The issue is about leadership. And leadership has outplayed ignorance and misunderstanding and APC has eventually come together.

Should APC succeed in upstaging PDP in Akwa Ibom,

what would the party do differently from what Governor Godswill Akpabio has done in the last seven years?

In Akwa Ibom, we don’t have any economic infrastructure. Aside from that, nobody has done anything, substantially, about giving jobs to the youths. And there is a great deal of poverty in the state. There is no security even though you don’t get to hear cases of insecurity as it used to be but there is no real security. So, these four areas must be tackled by APC in this state. We are more social than the other side in our outlook and in terms of political concept. So, these are issues that must be addressed and the environment of Akwa Ibom must be overhauled.

It is sad that we don’t have any economic infrastructure, in spite of all the noise about uncommon transformation. In fact, in 20 years’ time, Nigeria would no longer have oil. And with all the money the Akpabio administration has collected in the past seven years, it has not touched the people positively, in spite of the fraud about uncommon transformation. If we had good and creative leadership, what we ought to have done is lay a solid economic infrastructure. By economic infrastructure, I mean something that would bring back funds into this state; not things that would take funds out as is the sad case now. Mention one thing that this administration has done in the past six years that is going to bring back funds to the state? Tell me one thing that is going to regenerate wealth in this state? Nothing!

One would go to Sokoto, one would go to Maiduguri.

We need rail lines in Akwa Ibom. I will give you an example, we need to tap the resources in our waters; the fish God has given us. No state in this country has the variety of fishes we have in Akwa Ibom waters. We have boundary with Rivers State but you will be surprised that Rivers State has no salt water fish. You will also be surprised that the prawns caught in our waters sell at very high prices all over the world but none of our persons is fishing there. We need to train people and employ them to explore that sector. Right now, you have Russians, Ghanaians, Indians, and Italians fishing in our waters and selling our fish and prawns in the interna-

tional market. We need to industrialise this state and give jobs to the youths. I am talking about a space of between three months and one year. We need to gainfully and transparently exploit our natural resources. For example, our oil here, nobody accounts for our oil resources and what accrues from it.

We have palm trees here. Nobody accounts for palm oil and kernel. But I can assure you that our palm oil and kernel can give us nothing less than 18 industries. Do we need that cinema house called Tropicana? At the onset of Tropicana, it was announced that over N40 billion was going to be used, my little child who studied Economics analysed that money and came out with a position that N40 billion, then, was going to give us 92 medium scale industries. If we have 92 industries, we won’t have enough people to work in them. And in Tropicana alone, we have squandered over N50 billion.

So what do you need? You need a leader that has knowledge, the exposure, the commitment and the willingness to serve; that has conscience, that fears God and thinks of our young people.

One of our former governors died here. He needed just N3 million to go for treatment and be healed. He was not given. The day he died, I was there. The government announced that it has spent N180 million to bury him and God sent down a rain that fell and nobody was able to move in that place and I walked away with tears in my

THE SATURDAY INTERVIEW

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY 29 MARCH 2014

eyes. The government could not raise N3 million to save the life of a former governor but it claimed it spent N180 million to bury him.

As a soldier, you governed two states but if you are elected governor today, would you be able to adjust to the democratic environment?

Well, I know that I was a military man and I also know that I am very much educated in the principles and practice of democracy. And the military administration was circumstantial and even then, if you take your mind back to how I administered Ogun and Rivers states, you might be able to understand some of us better. There is no straight-jacketed situation with a man who has been trained first in leadership, in democratic practises; not just in democratic practises but in politics of nations, in cultures of nations and how to manage people within those cultures and traditions.

The only thing that is permanent in life is change and you will understand that education is the best thing anybody can have. And I think I have obtained the best education to be able to change from one type of thing to other.

For example, let me tell you that the problem of Nigeria is leadership and the biggest problem of Akwa Ibom is leadership. By leadership, I mean leading the people of a nation and managing the economic structures of a nation for the good of the people. In the position of a governor or president, there are three things – you lead the people, you manage the people and you manage the resources. And I think I am very qualified to do these things under any atmosphere. I know you are talking about the democratic process, decision taking and all the parliamentary processes. What do you mean? It means that there must be checks and balances. That’s all you need. You need checks and balances in a government. Which government today has checks and balances?

Which government has checks and balances in Nigeria today? Do we have checks and balances in Akwa Ibom today?

But I know that even where I was, I can say a few things. I was in Ogun; I was in Rivers. Please go and find out. I did not take one mite from the purse of any local government area because not only was I managing the resources of those states, I was also managing the people and also leading them.

I was in Ogun, I met 45 moribund industries. I saw potential in the state. We hadn’t enough money but what I did was in spite of the nature of the people of Ogun State who are the hardest people to manage, I was able to lead them; to manage them as a people to prosperity. I revamped the 45 moribund industries and I got taxes from them. I prioritised the needs of the people, depending on the hardest need, from top to bottom. At that time, I needed to provide jobs but I had no money, so I had to revamp the industries and made sure jobs were given to people. I established six farm settlements which had been there but gone moribund. Those six farm settlements were established by Awolowo in 1954 but I brought them back to life in 1997. We rebuilt the estates; we recovered the land and when we discovered that cocoa was no longer viable, we employed the services of Israelis who came and discovered other crops. The biggest resource Ogun State has is land and I employed the land to enrich the people.

I keep telling people; it is not what you get from the Federal Government that grows your economy. We are all depending on allocation from the Federal Government. I left Ogun for Rivers and that was the trend. So, where is democracy?

There was no decision I took in government that never went through the processes of checks and balances, even as a military government. Luckily, my wife is not interested in material things. She manages whatever she was given and that is why when the time came, people were telling me this state would destroy you. And when it came to the time I was leaving, they did what they know best how but in spite of these intrigues, nobody found anything against me.

With this record, why have you failed, twice, to be

elected governor of Akwa Ibom State?

I don’t know. I don’t think the problem is the people. It is the nature of politicians we have. I am a very disciplined person and I have a very disciplined background. If I am going to war, it is a different thing. If Akwa Ibom people assign me to be a war commander for them, I will be a war commander for them. And even as a war commander I would follow rules because there are international rules which I know. So, I cannot force myself on the people. I would not also employ any means to impose myself .

I know countries in this world where they charge you taxes for the money you have taken out of your country. So, right from the day you put that money into your account in that country, it is no more your money. You begin to pay taxes. Ask anybody that has taken money out of this country, if any bank has given them up to five per cent or three per cent interest but you are paying up to 34 to 50 per cent tax. So, how can I have the conscience to take a kobo out of this country when I know that there are people who left university 25 years ago and they have not gotten jobs? I was promising our people here that three months after entering government, I am going to provide jobs; that I am going to establish economic infrastructure in this state and industrialise the place such that we would not have enough people to work in the industries. I didn’t deceive anybody. It is a fact of life.

Akwa Ibom is the smallest state in this country, apart from Lagos. The difference between Akwa Ibom and Lagos is that Akwa Ibom is on plain land; there is no water, no natural barriers. If Lagos is a one-city state, why can’t Akwa Ibom be a one-city state in three years? Right now, go out to the streets of Uyo, we have over 100 generators lighting street lights, whereas the Independent Power Plant that Victor Attah built is standing there. We have industries that went moribund several years ago that could be revamped in six months. Nothing has happened to any of them. We have the greatest number of economic potentials in this country. We have seven natural seaports but none has been established. And if we establish just one, Akwa Ibom is going to be exposed to the world.

When your wife was kidnapped, you paid millions of Naira as ransom to secure her freedom. With that experience, one would have thought you would bid politics farewell but you are still in it?

I know my detractors will be surprised; they want me out of politics but I will not quit politics because I think that’s the only way I can help my people and help Nigeria. People who know me also know what I stand for. For me, what the kidnappers and their master want is to stop me from politics and from helping Nigeria. As far as I am concerned, what they did has not deterred me and I will continue to do what God wants me to do. I know my detractors are surprised; they never wanted me in politics again.

So, there is a threat to your life presently.

Yes there is a serious threat to my life. They have been coming and they have been threatening me.

Major personalities in APC like Tinubu, Buhari, El-Rufai, and Atiku are Muslims. Does the Christian South regard APC as a Muslim party as alleged by PDP?

Well, I am a Southerner and I am from the SouthSouth and I want to tell you that I have been exposed in this country. I am a true Nigerian. I have worked with all manner of people and the best people I have ever worked with are Muslims. I would rather tell you (and this is with hindsight), that the people I had problems with while in government were not Muslims. They were Christians, some of them from the same place with me.

And I, therefore, stand to be corrected that nobody in Nigeria can take the country into any religious crisis. These people you are talking about are educated, exposed and

49

knowledgeable.

Do you support power shift to the North in 2015?

I support power shift to anywhere we have a good leader. Let me tell you, one of my lecturers in my basic leadership courses was Maitama Sule. He laid the foundation for basic leadership training in me and he gave me an example of who a good leader is. He said that a good leader is a replica of a Fulani herdsman. You know what a Fulani herdsman does. He sleeps with his cows; he plays with them; he eats what they eat and he is their best friend. And when you go to the Bible, the Bible calls leaders shepherds and Jesus Christ said, ‘I am a shepherd; my sheep know me and I know them’. And one of the fundamental management principles I learnt was that I must know the people I am leading. I was an officer in the military and I think I was one of the best-trained.

I have two professions in the service, one in leadership, apart from my formal education. I am formally educated.

What I am saying is that our people must stop destroying Nigeria. Let the best leader come out so that our children can have a future. Today, our children don’t have a future; whether from the Federal Government or from the state. That is the truth.

Do you support President Goodluck Jonathan for reelection in 2015 and why?

Why must I support him? For what?

Okay, the president is our brother; we supported him like we did last time but somebody should come and show me one thing he has done, not just for me but for Akwa Ibom State. We are not respected. Nobody knows anything about us. But would that have happened if the president was a northerner? This state was given to us by a northerner. So, who do you think is your friend? Is it the man that gave you this state or the man that has never done anything for you? Who is your brother? Like the Bible said: You fell on the roadside, a stranger sees you on the roadside; he picks you and cleans you and takes you to the hospital. And your brother sees you and passes by you and says, look at that one; between the two who is your brother?

But majority of South-South people clamour for Jonathan’s re-election in 2015?

I am not interested in this sentimentality; I am interested in Nigeria moving forward as a nation. I have said I am not supporting anybody because I have no opinion about anybody. What I have asked Nigerians is to look for and elect the best person for the job of leading this country, not minding where the person comes from, because of the future of our children and grandchildren. I want a competent and capable leader, no matter where he comes from.

What are the chances of APC in the 2015 general elections?

I believe that the manifesto of the APC is what Nigerians need to help the country. I believe the party will give Nigerians free hand to choose leaders of their choice at all levels. I believe that APC will take over Nigeria if they are ready to allow democracy to flow but if they fail, it will be the greatest disappointment in our history.

What is your take on the intrigues surrounding the EastWest road which was supposed to be a major project by the Federal Government in the South-South?

My impression is that Federal Government has not been able to do it and Federal Government did not want to do it.

What can you say about the on-going National Conference?

I am an honest Nigeria. While I will not like to say that the delegates are there on a jamboree but taking cognizance of the prevailing circumstance, I don’t expect any meaningful thing from the conference. It is an issue of diversion of attention from the real problems confronting Nigeria. We have fundamental problems in Nigeria problems about leadership.

Rather than confronting this problem, we are talking about zoning and other issues. We don’t have focused and creative leaders. I don’t believe in the national conference and I don’t see any meaningful outcome from that conference.

FaceOff NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

29 MARCH 2014

Why did teachers boycott the assessment test organised by the Edo State Government last week?

First, it is because we already know that the governor has ulterior motive towards that competency test. We held a town hall meeting sometime between September and October last year and from that meeting he said it very loud and clear that teachers are too many and that we have to reduce our number. He even asked us to do one screening where primary six certificates will be tendered. We did this. Prior to that time, we had a meeting with him and he promised us that whatever step his administration would take on the issue, the NUT would be carried along. But the governor reneged on his promise. After the screening, the appointment of about 926 teachers was terminated. Those who were affected were those who claimed they finished their primary school education at the age of nine or below. We begged the governor and told him that we can find a political solution to the issue because similar thing had happened in Oyo and Ondo states. Most of those sacked are in their 40s. They were employed about six or seven years ago. We appealed to the governor to let them go on a course to enable them to normalise their age. We said if there was anything they did not do right, they should be given the opportunity to do it instead of outright sack.

We were on that when he came up with this issue of competence test. We had about four or five series of meetings with him. We appealed to the governor that instead of this competence test, he should first organised a workshop for three or four days for the teachers. Thereafter, we can now talk about assessment. But the governor refused.

Since the governor insisted on carrying out the test, we now told him that our own body, the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria, TRCN, that regulate the conduct of teachers should be invited to be part of the exercise, again the governor turned down our request. All he wanted to do is just to conduct that test and reduce the number of teachers. We said we won’t be part of it and resorted to boycott the exercise. We later agreed that we should go to court and said whatever the court decides, we will abide by it. But to our surprise despite the fact that an injunction was given stopping the government from conducting the test, the governor still went ahead to conduct the test last Saturday. Since we are already in court, we told our people not to go and they obeyed our directive. So that was what happened.

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Oshiomhole has ulterior motive –NUT Secretary Last week Saturday, teachers in Edo State boycotted the state government’s test meant to assess their competence. In this interview with CAJETAN MMUTA the state Secretary of the Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT), Akin Ojo, said the test was contempt of court. some of the issues. At what point did the teachers opt out of this arrangement?

We did not opt out at any point. We were with them. They came here (NUT secretariat); not the civil society alone, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and some other groups were involved too. They came and we told them our own side. They listened to the government side. We reminded them that for years, we have been writing promotion exams and we have never had cause to complain. But we insisted that the governor has ulterior motive on this test. The motive is to downsize teachers. Since we know the intention that was why we said we would not participate and asked our teachers not to participate. We are not afraid of sitting for the test but we felt there was no need to participate in it since we already know government’s intention.

Stakeholders are worried about the atti-

tude of teachers that apart from refusing to sit for the test, they also boycotted a town hall meeting at Imaguero College, Benin, where issues affecting teachers and the education sector in the state were to be discussed. What is your take on this?

That was not the appropriate place to discuss teachers’ issues or matters affecting the sector. We suggested before then that let there be a kind of stakeholders’ meeting. When you are doing that kind of thing and you just invited market women who did not even know the reason for that meeting.

They also invited some traditional rulers and all what have you. But we said let only the critical stakeholders be invited to that kind of meeting. We said let us have a proper education summit and not just town hall meeting where every Tom, Dick and Harry will attend and say bla bla bla. We know that that kind of meeting would not bring

up any reasonable thing and that was why we didn’t go.

There was a time teachers in the state embarked on warming strike over the 17.5 per cent Teachers Special Allowance (TSA). After a meeting with the state government, it was agreed that teachers should neither be sacked nor retrenched but that government should be allowed to verify the teachers’ claim of qualifications. Is it true that it was one of the resolutions before calling off the strike?

He paid seven out of 17.5 and said the arrears of the remaining 10.5 per cent would be paid starting July but to our surprise he didn’t pay; he didn’t fulfil that promise. He only started payment with December salary but the arrears of those five months from July to November have not been paid up till now.

Now, let’s go back to the issue of 926 teachers verified by the ICT attached to the governor’s office. What was the procedure adopted? Were you people consulted?

No, that was what I said at the initial stage. He promised to call us but he did not.

He didn’t call us. We later realised that these people’s names had been deleted from the payroll and up till now they have not been reinstated.

But people are still worried that the issue of employer and employee controversy should not have arisen in the first place.

What is your own thinking?

That is the exact thing. We are not enjoying a cordial relationship with the state government at all and I just don’t know why. Teachers are jumping from one crisis to another. It started with Ovia North East teachers. There was a time teachers in Ovia North East were declared ghost workers.

Some teachers there are still at home as I speak with you now. So these are the problem we are facing.

Apart from going to court, have there been other areas of dispute resolutions you are exploiting to resolve the matter?

We have exhausted every avenue. The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has intervened, civil society organisations have intervened but he still insisted. We wrote to him, suggested ways he can go about it. We said these are the ways you can go about it; we told him that his test issue is not the best but all these proved abortive.

We understand there was a meeting between officials of the state government, the NUT leadership, Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), civil society organisations and representatives of the Nigeria Labour Congress to iron out

“We said let us have a proper education summit and not just town hall meeting where every Tom, Dick and Harry will attend”

And the state government is going on now with some advertorials in the media about recruitment of new teachers. What can you make out of it?

Well, let’s wait and see. We are in court already; so let’s wait and see.

Ojo

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We want to sanitise teaching –Commissioner Edo State Commissioner for Basic Education (Primary and Junior Secondary schools), Chief Patrick Agunede, told CAJETAN MMUTA that some teachers in the state are not competent to teach.

Why did the state government consider the assessment test for teachers so important in view of the controversies that have so far trailed it?

I want to put it right that there is no problem between teachers and the government.

As a responsible government, we promised to give Edo people quality education. And in strong pursuit of that, the government has resolved to update every area in the education sector; firstly, the buildings but education is not complete without the students. And you know that whatever you give to the student is what they take. We have decided that to ensure that every element in the education circle is up to date. Evaluation is part of education system. When you are teaching, you evaluate to know whether the pupils are following whatever you are teaching them. Of recent, we have discovered that within the teaching fold in Edo State, there are some teachers who ought not to be teachers but they are teaching. We have also discovered that some people are using their relations’ certificates to teach; we also discovered, again, that some people adjusted their ages and they got their certificates a year they were born or even before they were born. So with all these aggregate problems in the system, the government reasoned, in its wisdom, that the best thing to do is to sanitise the system. What do we do? You cannot tell everybody to go; therefore let us know who are the real teachers, who are the qualified teachers? We want to know their areas of deficiencies with the principal intent of giving them training. The objective is not to sack; the objective of the assessment is to review the very areas of weakness in the teachers with the intent of remedying those weaknesses by training.

So, we are surprised that some of them are taken aback, saying that they will not sit for the test. We know that there are political undertones but there is no responsible government that will sit back to say no. We can never progress in error. Everybody knows that there is an error in the teaching field where a teacher will regard ‘i’ as ‘one;’ ‘solemn’ as ‘Solomon’ and so many other issues like that. And these persons, some of them cannot write arithmetic or metal. Then, when they are writing, it you see it is slanting from the top down to the bottom and this is not an ideal situation and there is no government that will want that. Even in my office, when we were to pay teachers their seminar dues, we asked them to write their names and the schools they teach, what we saw was very funny. Some teachers cannot write the name of their schools.

Why did it take the state government so much time to embark on this exercise,

considering the fact that this administration had spent six years in office?

There is a parable in my place that if you have a child and you christened him ‘I didn’t realise on time,’ it means you don’t have the need to fail. There was a board in place that was saddled with the responsibility of employment and the government trusted the board. So, somewhere along the line, government discovered errors and some of the negative operations of the board. The first thing the government did was to sack the board and government progressed. Investigations revealed some of these things because these teachers got valid employment letters given to them by this board. The fundamental question is should the system continue like this? The answer is no. I was not the commissioner when these things were discovered. What we discovered when I became the commissioner were reported to the governor and the governor in his wisdom saw that the system was not smooth.

As a responsible government you must find out what is wrong. The analysis of this accumulated into what we are having right now.

I want to ask you; if you are a parent in the state, will you allow your child to be taught by that a teacher who does not know the difference between ‘i’ and ‘one,’ ‘Solomon’ and ‘solemn?’ These are the fundamental issues.

So a corrective check can only be changed when there is somebody in it.

The teachers complained that the appointments of 926 of their members were terminated by the governor through the Information and Communications Technology Department of the state government and claimed they were not carried along. What is the true situation?

In the first place, I want to completely disagree and let you know that the present leadership of the NUT is new in office. The former chairman, Mr. Pat Ikosonmi, was part of the system, was part of the committee. He was right there at the screening ground because NUT was part of the committee that did the screening and was represented by the former chairman. He was there and I can recall, very vividly, that his comment on that day was that teachers who could not differentiate between ‘i’ and ‘one’ are disgrace to the profession. So, they were part of the process. Another problem is that even when some teachers had died, some had resigned, some had absconded, and the monthly salaries of teachers did not reflect all these. Then the government started asking questions. To start with, we asked all the teachers to present their primary school certificates. That exercise revealed that there was adjustment of certificates where people added 10 years, five years and 15 years to their years of service and they were permanently there. Our

Agunede

If you assess your pupils, why are you now afraid to be assessed? government promised to give the people employment but this crooked behaviour on the part of the teachers by adjustment of their certificates robbed the government of that opportunity.

How often does the government organise training for teachers? Some of them felt this is what the government ought to do.

The government has organised trainings for them. Besides, the efforts of the government is being complemented by UNESCO, UNICEF and the Universal Basic Education (UBE), through provision of special funds.

As I speak with you now, employment session is going on. The Nigeria Teachers Council (NTC) said it was not surprised at the level of degeneration among teachers in Edo State. NTC organises training for teachers throughout the federation. The body has been training teachers in 35 states but its officials said teachers in Edo refused to subscribe and subject themselves to training. They said they were even surprised that our teachers could come to them when the problem started. Besides, our teachers are not paying union dues to the Teachers Registration Council and they don’t have the teachers’ identity cards.

If you get to other states, there are taskforce members and education monitoring units. What has been the situation in the state before now?

Well, we don’t have taskforce. What we

have is Chief Inspectors of Education at the senior and junior secondary levels. At the primary level we have education secretaries.

They are saddled with the responsibility of monitoring the education process and giving feedback to the director of schools and the director of schools in turn gives feedback to the commissioner for education and the commissioner in turn reports back to the governor. It is an aggregate of these reports that is leading to where we are. We observed that something was wrong and we communicated it to government and government began to find solution. This is the situation.

With the boycott of the test by the teachers, it seems government did not achieve its desired result. Is this true?

I disagree with you completely that the state did not achieve the desired result.

Let me put it straight to you that the governor was very definite that the teachers that were found guilty of adjusting their ages and certificates and were purportedly sacked should take part in the assessment. The implication of that is that if they were sacked, will the government asked them to take part in the exercise?

The government is irrevocable committed to the assessment test. Why? If you assess your pupils, why are you now afraid to be assessed? The assessment test has been done and as far as I am concerned. A committee was set up with the responsibility to handle the test and the committee is processing its information to government and as soon as information gets to government we will be able to know whether we are satisfied, we will be able to know the next step to take because for every action there must be a reaction.

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NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

29 MARCH 2014

Chimaroke: Ebeano’s Metamorphosis Cyprian Nwodo

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s political eclipses go, the one suffered

by Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, former governor of Enugu State in the aftermath of the 2007 general elections, bears little comparison. From the Olympian heights of a larger-than-life political career, Nnamani crashed to the labyrinths of anonymity typically reserved for expired political jobbers. Back in the day when Nnamani called the shots as a two-term governor, the full extent of his powers was at once unimaginable and unrestrained. He decreed his own political invincibility and prowled the political space. For eight years, his political opponents accepted their fate that they stood no chance against him. His preference at all material times in his dealings with his subjects were to be feared and dreaded, rather than earn either their love or respect.

As the quintessential strong man, he dominated the political space without remorse or restraint. Ever ready to confront the threat posed by an ant with a sledgehammer, he infamously plunged the state into a security hellhole with grave consequences. Elsewhere, he projected the image of an intellectual in politics; a man of praxis. Thus he embarked on a nation-wide lecture circuit through which he sought to position himself as the philosopher-king of the fourth republic. As his tenure wound to an end in 2007, it became obvious that this self-styled master political strategist had lost much of his touted reflexes and was barely groping at straw. This was the indirect consequence of years of playing indiscriminate hardball, not knowing when to be selective in matters of political squabbles and when to chart a retreat. The combined effect of hubris and self-inflicted amnesia left him fatally exposed such that by the time he exited the stage, he had literally become a political deadweight of sorts, with his legacy lying in utter ruins.

Although primed for the political wilderness at that critical juncture, but with the senate seat of the Enugu East senatorial zone neatly tucked inside his pocket, not a few onlookers would have given him an odd chance of staging a dramatic comeback. Instead, he sank deeper and deeper into the morass. As it turned out, his senatorial outing degenerated to a nightmare. From being the most travelled governor in the course of his lecture circuit, Chimaroke suddenly lost his voice on the floor of the senate, a platform many thought offered a chance to ventilate his thoughts on national issues.

Chimaroke’s stint in the Senate could be more appropriately described as four years of solitude, as he was for the entire period an anonymous benchwarmer who did not contribute a single contribution to legislative debate. Be that as it may, he did not fail to reenact his legacy of impunity which he has worn as a trademark since his days as governor, this time in the siting of constituency projects meant for the people of Enugu-East Senatorial zone made up of six local govern-

Nnamani XXXX

Chimaroke’s return therefore must be seen in the context of an acceptance to be the arrowhead of the Abuja group in the impending winner-takes-all against the man he handed over the reins of power ment areas. Out of the six motorized borehole projects executed in his name as constituency projects, he ensured that all of them were located in and around his Orjiagu Agbani country home, within an area of approximately one kilometer square radius .

This would have been a gruesome record, by any civic standard, but we are talking about a politician whose legacy is defined by impunity. It was to be his final act nonetheless as he subsequently bade farewell to the senate following a disastrous trouncing in the April 2011 general elections in the hands of a disgruntled political crony, who would later become his godfather’s nemesis. The circumstances and scale of his defeat in that fateful election left him in political coma ever since, as a result of which he stayed away completely from his palatial country home at Agbani from April 2011 till December 2013. His “ebeano” troops, looked on aghast, demoralized. From nowhere, the former governor surfaced in Agbani during the Christmas celebrations. It has to be said that his return was not without the drama and histrionics associated with the ebeano kingpin.

In a matter of days, the main purport of the

former governor’s homecoming became clear: the man had been recruited by the rump of the ebeano political family in the state, led by Abuja-based members of the National Assembly to champion a planned onslaught against Governor Chime and his home-based group of politicians come 2015. Sensing the odds stacked against them in the impending confrontation with Chime and also aware of the no-love-lost relationship between Chime and his predecessor since 2007, the Abuja group was not in doubt that Chimaroke fits the mould. But they needed to first propitiate a feisty and disgruntled political godfather whom they collectively deserted since 2007.

To propitiate such godhead would however require a lot. The Abuja group understood this much and did offer sacrifice, but only in notional terms which became the basis of a new covenant within the ebeano family to wrestle power from Chime in 2015, come-what-may!

Chimaroke’s return therefore must be seen in the context of an acceptance to be the arrowhead of the Abuja group in the impending winner-takes-all against the man he handed over the reins of power.

The quartet of Ekweremadu, Senator Nnaji, Representative Ofor Chukwuegbo and Peace Nnaji in particular appear to have been worked up unnecessarily since Governor Chime’s popular pronouncement that all members of the National Assembly from the state who have served up to two terms and above will be replaced by new faces come 2015. It is not surprising therefore that they are the ones in the vanguard of the plot to recruit Chimaroke as the Abuja group’s marquee signing towards the 2015 polls. It remains to be seen how a disgruntled political godfather can ultimately resolve legitimate fundamental differences with a bunch of

equally selfish and power hungry politicians.

By and large, the shifting alliance betrays political weakness on the part of the Abuja group, an admission that they are incapable of taking on Chime without assistance, as they have erroneously led their supporters to believe. While the actual political strength of the alliance can only be a matter of conjecture, the contradictions underlining its coming into existence will sooner provide the first crucial test. For it seems inconceivable that the godhead that requires blood for propitiation would suddenly settle for palm oil simply because it is red!

Chimaroke’s sin for which he is eternally reviled and held in contempt by the political elite of the state is that he stuck out his neck for elements of the ebeano regime that he championed, against better advice. Yet the leading lights of the Abuja clique did not hesitate to betray him even before push came to shove.

But today, here we are! An enfeebled Chimaroke, facing multiple EFCC prosecution is groping desperately to reinvent yesterday.

While he held court to receive his visitors during his stay, he had a one-liner for their multitude of complaints and frustrations under the present dispensation: “don’t worry; we shall soon take over again.” This no doubt sounded like cold comfort to the ears of some discerning individuals among them.

The contradictions of the dalliance are being magnified by the day. While Ekweremadu and co have been selling a dummy that the former governor returned at the behest of President Goodluck Jonathan and the first lady, the masquerade is not without his own game plan though. Apart from seeking to revive his own rag tag political platform on which he pursued the 2011 polls, he is also known to have been making overtures to the leadership of the All Progressive Congress (APC), in the South-East. There is also the not-so-simple matter of streamlining conflicting ambitions ahead of 2015. Chimaroke still covets the Enugu-East Senatorial seat currently occupied by a member of the Abuja quartet, Gilbert Nnaji, who has not hidden his desire to return to the senate.

Meanwhile, the senatorial bug has also caught Frank Nweke Jr, a soul mate of the quartet and a dyed-in-the-wool ebeano man.

On his part he had approached the former governor with his ambition way back September 2013. Of course, Chimaroke was not oblivious of the perfidy of the former minister who in 2007 very nearly hijacked Chimaroke’s Senate seat at the point of the inauguration of the National Assembly while Chimaroke was on the run from the EFCC. In the light of what is now playing out, Chimaroke’s hastily orchestrated return underlines the desperation of the quartet and the decimated ranks of the ebeano fugitive troops.

But what they probably did not reckon with is that their man remains an extremely divisive and polarizing figure who, can hardly serve as a rallying political point under the prevailing circumstances.

Dr. Nwodo teaches at Nsukka

TALKING POINT

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Time for renewal Alex Ogundadegbe

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t over 30,000 feet above sea level aboard an Ivory Coast bound Emirates flight, I watched a couple sitting directly in front of me talk. We were in an airbus, heading for Abidjan, from Accra.

The atmosphere in the plane was cozy, there were movies, music and magazines, but this couple seemed to be more interested in each other. My journalistic training coupled with an insatiable knack to study and relate with people around made me just watch and see what I could learn from this couple. They were middle aged, chatty and apparently excited about the Abidjan experience. The question that began to form in my head was at this age, what was responsible for the spark in their marriage? They spoke fluent French and it was quite hard for me to keep track with my school boy French. After watching them for over an hour I came to the conclusion that they must have found a way to consistently renew their relationship.

Businesses, international rela-

tions and even marriages have to find a way for renewal over certain periods of time. Clients and customers get bored, even countries get bored so do married people no matter how much they are in love. Surviving the onslaught of frustration that is sometimes meted out on us by the way our leaders run the country leaves us with a choice of controlling what we can and leaving the rest for the Almighty.

Human beings are creatures of habit. Mostly bad habits if you ask me. We have found a way to continually engage in extreme and uncertain behaviour that is detrimental to our well being. Businesses in Africa are endangered by many factors. Statistics that emerged from West Africa in the last five years reveal that in spite of growth in some countries like Nigeria, Rwanda, Ghana and Kenya. There is still abject poverty in these countries and the grave yard of entrepreneurship is littered with carcasses of businesses that did make it! There is a lot of talk about Small and Medium Scale Enterprise funds. The statistics are frightening. Only 3 out of every 10 businesses appear to survive the trying conditions of business in many of the countries.

The business environment is changing so rapidly that in a class in Strategic Planning

I had a participant ask me aggressively: “how can we plan at this scale with this unpredictable business environment?” recently, I had a participant ask me aggressively: “how can we plan at this scale with this unpredictable business environment?”

My answer was simple: make sure that your plan is not too rigid and have a plan B and C if possible so that if A does not work you can always revert. A young lady bought some buses to run a school bus system in Accra.

Her clients were mostly primary and nursery school children in about five schools whose parents were the busy middle class kind of people who could not have the time to drop their children off and pick them up at the end of the day. She brought her challenge to the class, almost heckling me with it: “I bought these buses and even though I made my projects and my plan seemed good, I could not break even for two terms because schools was out and my buses were inactive.” I had to intellectualize a tad to answer her question: “When you buy knew equipment, one of the things you have to do to make sure that you are in business consistently is to calculate and be aware of the period of wear and tear, often described as depreciation rates”. My summary was sharp and short. She should have found a way to put the buses to work while the children were on holidays. There is a time value of money, so even if she parked the buses and retained the value of the cars while the children were on holidays, she would still be losing money.

Adapting to a changing environment means

Boko Haram: Enough is enough I write this against my mum’s advise and also against all advise from those who love me. But a time comes when a man must stand up and fight for what he believes in. This Boko Haram thing has gone on for too long. Too many innocent lives have been lost and it has also set us back economically.

Initially, I looked at this matter from afar believing that this was really not my problem, that it was happening so far away from me, that I need not concern myself with it. But alas, I can no longer bear the daily news of killings and maiming to innocent people whose only offense is calling the theatre of war their homes. Little children and defenceless women slaughtered as if there is a competition between them to see who will kill the most. A war with no terms of engagement. A war that has continued almost unabated.

The other day, I read about the Chief of Air Staff personally flying one of the air raids. I was not impressed, because from my little knowledge of these kinds of conflicts, such tactics is usually symbolic. This war can

EDGAR’s WORLD JOSEPH EDGAR josephsamsponedgar@gmail.com

only be won through counter intelligence.

Infiltrating their ranks, destabilizing them, tinkering with their message and causing confusion amongst their ranks ideologically.

How do you give death to people who are looking for it. People who believe that death in the hands of the enemy, in this case Nigerian Army is a sure route to heaven. So the more you kill, the more martyrs you make and the more desperate the remaining would be to make the ranks of martyrdom.

The solution is ideological warfare. Let the authorities working very closely with

the intelligence community devolve very effective means of sending the true message of Islam through their ranks and file. This way the true essence of the religion would touch their hearts and thereby let them see the folly of their current actions.

The most difficult war to fight is the guerrilla war, because you do not see the enemy. The enemy mixes with the civilian population to cause havoc and disappear back into the civilian population. And when you now add the fact that civil liberties cannot be touched even in this context you be-

we have to be consistently on our toes in business. Watching the managers of our economies helps a lot. Often, their policies are so inconsistent and abrupt that strident measures have to be taken. Business people have done all manner of things to survive.

A change in fuel price for instance, keeps affecting the cost of tickets on international and domestic flights in this part of the world.

Renewing can be attempted in challenging environments. A friend of mine runs a cybercafé in Lagos, Nigeria. He has been able to survive attendant threats to his business: police invasion under the guise of arresting 419 cyber criminals, high cost of fuel and consistent breaks in the ISPs network. He has spent up to N1,500 a day on diesel for several months this year before he looked at the business closely and found a way of conserving power. The same facility in Dakar or Accra does not attract so many costs. Neither are there so many threats to the business. During my visits to these cities I try to do an analysis. In the mist of it all the man in Lagos has found a way to renew his business. He is redecorating the place, using machines that consume less power and is learning how to keep cost low while retaining the good service he provides.

Newness, as long as it does not occur to frequently, is a major attraction. It encourages loyalty among consumers and serves as a source of promotions that attracts more patronage. Most of the people I saw on board the flight from Accra to Abidjan appeared to enjoy the experience. I had enjoyed it too because apart from the on board entertainment which was a welcome distraction, the couple that sat in front of me had taught me a valuable lesson. Its important to state that on my return flight, the same couple were sitting right where they were before and their mood was still the same.

Ogundadegbe is a teacher, speaker, farmer and Journalist. He can be reached at alexogundadegbe@gmail.com

gin to see the herculean task the Army is facing. The U.S. Army in all its might have not been able to totally defeat the insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I propose a psychological warfare. Fly over their camps and throw down pamphlets of the correct teachings of the Holy Prophet, blast their camps with loud preaching of the true Islamic scholars, those already arrested debriefed and sent back into the camps, create a rival Boko Haram who would wrestle leadership from the present leadership and cause ideological divisions. If this tactic was effectively deployed with the Governors Forum, then same can be done here.

I write as one not looking for trouble. I don’t want trouble from either side, Boko Haram nor Government, I just want peace.

Stop killing our children and mothers, stop playing politics with this matter, there is too much blood flowing in the Land.

I pray for this country and I pray for those who have already lost their lives in this senseless carnage.

Faces

NEW TELEGRAPH ON SATURDAY

29 MARCH 2014

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The Global Excellence Award Nite held recently at Haven Event Centre, Ikeja, in Lagos, was a roll call of who’s who in showbiz and the media. Below are some of the guests at the event.

L-R: Steve Ayorinde, Samson Davies, Managing Director of New Telegraph, Bolaji Tunju, Dr. Yele Akinrolabu and Kunle Afolayan

Actor, Hafiz Ayetoro, and Muka Ray Ejiwunmi

Guv’nor of Niteshift Coliseum,Ken-Calebs Olumese, (left), presenting an award to Osun State Deputy Governor, Mrs. Grace Titi Laoye-Tomori, with them is Kayode Ajala

Dr. Yemisi Osanyintolu and Mrs. Quincy Olasumbo Ayodele

L-R: Biola Gold, Saheed Balogun, Otunba Sola Arabambi and Yeye Dammy Arabambi

L-R: Olugbesan Sekinat; Emmanuel Ebong; Folashade Adekunle, MD,PRRedline; Lekan Ishola Head Media Relations PRRedline, Eric Eghaghe Chairman Ifako LG, Toba Oke and Folake Daramola

Mr Igo Agama (right), recieving an award on behalf of Gov Rochas Okorocha from Ken-Calebs Olumese, between are Hon. Reginald Ukurlomo and Hon. Austin Ahiamadu

Sen. Gbenga Obadara, Abiodun Fari-Arole and Olumide Osonsina

SPORT EXTRA

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Flamingoes apologise to Nigerians Man United’s poor run ‘affect EPL brand’ …team arrives Saturday Charles Ogundiya

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fter failing to progress pass the quarterfinal stage of the FIFA World U-17 female World Cup in Costa Rica, Flamingoes players have tendered their apology to Nigerians. Their ouster marks the third consecutive time the team will crash out in the last eight stage.

A brace from Patri Guijarro and one from Nahikari Garcia were all Spain needed to end a seven-match unbeaten run of Nigeria in the tournament dating back to 2012, as the game

ended 3-0. Nigeria crashed out on penalties at the quarterfinal stage in the last two editions of the competition.

Speaking after the game in an emotion laden voice, Flamingoes captain, Chinwendu Ihezuo, appealed to Nigerian to forgive the team.

“I feel very bad about the outcome of the match. I don’t know what happened to us. I know Nigerians are very disappointed but we are just appealing for forgiveness,” the Pelican

Miami: Serena, Li clash in final

Stars forward said.

In the same vein, Flamingoes’ head coach, Bala Nikyu, said he was very disappointed in the outcome of the quarterfinal game against Spain, he however applauded the standard of the competition.

“Although we’re disappointed that our ouster came too early, we’ve really enjoyed taking part in this competition, the organisation is top class. I’m not happy with the way the match panned out or our performance, but there’s nothing we can do about it except to put it behind us,” he said.

... Nadal hits semis

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ix-time winner Serena Williams will face Li Na in the Sony Open final after the world’s top two female players won their last-four ties in Miami.

World number one Rafael Nadal also reached the Sony Open semifinals after recovering from a set down to beat 12th seed Milos Raonic.

Williams, 32, recorded her 15th straight win over Maria Sharapova to reach her ninth final.

The American won five games from 4-1 down to take the first set and pulled away from 3-3 to win 6-4 6-3.

China’s Li, 32, beat Dominika Cibulkova in a 7-5 2-6 6-3 victory as she aims for a maiden Miami title.

But the Australian Open winner has not beaten Williams in six years, having lost 10 of the 11 matches between the pair.

In the second set, Williams won 11 consecutive points, while Sharapova made three errors on the final three points.

“It wasn’t easy,” said Williams. “Maria’s done really well, I just decided I had to do a little better, stay focused and make more shots.”

However, Nadal, 27, needed two hours and 35 minutes to overcome the big-hitting Canadian in a 4-6 6-2 6-4 win in Miami.

The 13-time Grand Slam winner meets Tomas Berdych, who beat quarter-final opponent Alexandr Dolgopolov in

Wenger hits back at Scholes

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rsene Wenger has rejected claims by exManchester United midfielder Paul Scholes that his Arsenal side are a “million miles” from winning the title.

Fourth-placed Arsenal are six points behind Premier League leaders Chelsea.

“People who have managed zero games have opinions. We have to accept that,” said Wenger, whose side face thirdplaced Manchester City

on Saturday.

“If six points is a ‘million miles away’, I don’t know what the translation of a mile into a point is.”

In his role as a television pundit for Sky Sports, Scholes criticised Arsenal following their 2-2 home draw against Swansea City on Tuesday.

A late own goal from Mathieu Flamini saw the Gunners drop two vital points in their bid to win a first Premier League title since 2004.

third-round stage before being eliminated from the Capital One Cup in the semifinals.

They have reached the Champions League quarterfinals, where they will face defending champions Bayern Munich next month.

“There are lots of fans around the world who wish Manchester United were winning it again,” Scudamore told Bloomberg.

“But you have to balance that off against, generally, we’re in the business of putting on a competition and competition means people can compete.”

Overseas television deals will earn the Premier League more than £2bn between 2013 and 2016.

The Premier League sold its domestic broadcasting rights to Sky and BT in a record-breaking deal, worth around £3bn, last year.

straight sets, in the last four.

The world number seven, 28, overpowered his Ukrainian opponent 6-4 7-6 (7-3).

Nadal has won 62 singles titles in a glittering career, but is still looking for his maiden tournament victory in Miami.

Hiddink to replace van Gaal

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M

anchester United’s troubled defence of their Premier League title is harming the English top flight’s worldwide brand, says the competition’s chief executive Richard Scudamore.

Under new boss David Moyes, United are seventh in a disappointing campaign.

The 20-time champions are 18 points adrift of leaders Chelsea.

“It’s a double-edged sword,” said Scudamore.

“When your most popular club isn’t doing as well, that costs you interest and audience in some places.”

Former Everton manager Moyes has watched the Red Devils suffer 10 defeats in 31 league matches since he replaced Sir Alex Ferguson, who retired last summer after almost 27 years in charge.

His team were knocked out of the FA Cup at the

ormer Chelse a boss Guus Hiddink will replace Louis van Gaal as Netherlands head coach after the World Cup in Brazil this summer.

The 67-year-old will remain in charge until the end of Euro 2016 in France and then be replaced by current assistant coach

Danny Blind.

Blind, 52, and former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy, 37, will act as Hiddink’s assistants until then.

Van Gaal, 62, has been linked with a move to Tottenham next season.

The Dutchman, who has also had stints as manager at Ajax, Barcelona and Bayern Munich, took over as national coach for a second time in 2012 and his contract expires this summer.

Formula 1 to honour missing passengers

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ormula 1 will pay tribute to the passengers on missing flight MH370 at Sunday’s Malaysian Grand Prix.

The plane, travelling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, disappeared on March 8 and is thought to have crashed with the loss of all 239 people on board.

Drivers are expected to carry messages on cars and helmets and there will be a minute’s silence before the race.

“It’s devastating to hear about it,” said Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton. “All you can do is pray.”

Fellow Briton and McLaren driver Jenson Button added: “It’s good that the whole of the paddock are running tributes.

“It’s devastating. I really feel for all the families. We will do all we can.

It’ll be difficult this weekend for all the Malaysian people.”

HOSPITALITY

PRINCE OF ANTHONY HOTEL:

AN EXPERIENCE SO PRINCELY

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Sanctity of Truth w ww. n ew te l e g r ap h on l i n e . c om

Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon and the truth – Buddha

SATURDAY, MARCH 29, 2014

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eneral Ike Nwachukwu is Nigeria’s paradigm of the ideal citizen – a father from the East, a mother from the North, a wife from the West and a tongue fluent in the 3 major languages. He is a statesman and a Nigerian patriot. Among the great qualities that distinguish him, gentility, personal civilization and compassion are top, in my humble estimation.

I admire him for the above reasons. It is a matter of great personal pain, therefore, for me to do this piece. But it would be a matter of tragic myopia and supine loyalty to shut my eyes and close my mind to the extraordinary explosion of outrage amongst young people whose only guide is orally narrated or written history, as far as the subject under examination is concerned. Up with such moral injury I will not put.

On the subject of the Civil War and his alleged ignoble role in it, Gen. Nwachukwu has not told his own side of the story. He can no longer avoid the inevitable. This level of reputational destruction, not by one or two people, but by hundreds of thinking young men and women spread across the globe, is not something over which you shrug your shoulders and move on. It calls for open repudiation if considered to be fallacious; or for explanation if there are elements of truth, no matter how residual, attaching to the allegations. The verdict of history always depends on the strength of your advocacy.

On 19 March, 2014, the Vanguard published a brief news item which dealt with a press statement by a group that calls itself Ndigbo Unity Forum. The thrust of the publication is the group’s condemnation of Gen. Nwachukwu’s designation as the leader of the Igbo delegation to the National Conference.

By 12 noon, the online version of the publication had gained over 300 comments. If it could, the computer screen would turn crimson with the blood of Gen. Nwachukwu’s bleeding character – which was not only brutally assassinated but torn limb from limb, dissected and diced. In this explosion of outrage, I could find not a single comment that was posted in defence of the General or in any form approbative of his honour. If words were enough to disqualify a human being from enjoying the fundamental right to exist, the General was resoundingly disqualified.

Below is a random selection of the envenomed anger, hatred and bitterness that have assailed the General’s elevation to lead Ndigbo [http://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/03/confabgroup-faults-ike-nwachukwus-nominationlead-ndigbo]: “You’re right; Ike Nwachukwu is not qualified to lead the Igbos. The mere fact that he fought on the FG’s side during the civil war is enough to rule him out. Don’t forget that his mother hailed from Kaduna State- that explained why he was the first Igbo man to become a General after the civil war even while the likes of Ebitu Ukiwe were being denied reciprocal promotion. Ike Nwachukwu has never stood for Igbo cause even when he was the Adjutant General and Minister of External Affairs during Babangida regime, he maintained an aloofness that distanced him from the Igbos. He

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SPORT EAGLES CAN BREAK AFRICA’S JINX IN BRAZIL –AHMED MUSA P.27

Ike Nwachukwu and the moral burden of leading Ndigbo

BROADSIDE EMMANUEL ONWE agubata@aol.com

an extension of the centenary jamboree for the remnants of those who killed Nigeria, to finally have a lap dance on her grave.” – Kenuck, Vanguard, 19.3.14

Nwachukwu

usually told those who came close to him that his hands were tied. And you wonder who conspired to tie his hands. Or has his hands suddenly been untied to lead the Igbos? And I ask, by who? It’s hard to believe that a man who addressed traditional rulers and red-cap chiefs as “Gentlemen” while he was the governor of Imo State should be asked to lead the Igbos.” – The Masked One, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “Every Igboman knows Omar Sanda is not an Igboman. His record so far in Igboland from being a military governor to being a senator have been detrimental to Ndi-Igbo. Well, people who presented him will not be surprised to see him drinking brukutu with his boko haram brothers and dancing owambe with his sw friends, instead of articulating the IGBO position. But seriously speaking, one is only expected to articulate a position he is aware of and which he shares. Omar Sanda neither knows Igbo position, nor does he share it. Unfortunately, I see his nomination as a member of this congress and his subsequent appointment as the leader of the south east team as one of those concessions extracted from Igbo governors in order to convince some other parts of Nigeria that Igbos will not rock the boat at the conference. It’s just like some Yorubas were complaining about Akinjide a day ago. It clearly shows the direction this congress will head to. The real national congress may still be in the future tense. This might just be

“Man, you cracked me up so much.... You are right, this NC is a farce. Imagine Omar Sanda representing ndi Igbo after joining hands with the beast Murtala Muhammed to massacre young men in Asaba. He also destroyed all the good industries and developmental strides of old Imo state when he became the military governor. We know him.” – Emeka Omenaogu, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “Ike Nwachukwu representing the Igbos is like a horror movie muffling into reality. Governor Orji must drop him or risk torrents of backlash by Igbos in diaspora.” – Delta_Quagmire, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “General Ike Omar Nwachukwu’s past is here to haunt him. This is a man who fought and killed Ndigbo during the Biafran war, born by an Igbo father and Hausa Fulani mother. On retirement from the military he never identified or contributed to any Igbo progressive group, he is more an Hausa man as such a total misfit to lead Ndigbo in this confab. Governor T.A. Orji’s choice of Ike Nwachukwu as a delegate leader has shown his continuous bad leadership trait even in decision making.” – Richard, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “If you do not see anything wrong with a man who fought and killed Igbos on the Nigerian side, then you are not worth the name you answer.

The only reason Igbos condone SABOS was that they served under military regime; otherwise we know how to deal with people like Ukpabi Asika & Ike Saboteur Nwachukwu.” – Gwongworo, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu is a traitor to the entire Igbo nation. He had never done any good to the Igbo nation to warrant him leading the Igbo nation. This is minus one to the number of delegates representing the Igbo nation. He is

a back stabber and we did not have any trust in him. He is a bad omen to the Igbo nation in the important conference. He should be removed with immediate effect. Long live the Igbo nation.”

– Nedu08, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “Nwachukwu or whatever he calls himself is not worthy to lead Ndigbos. Let him tell us what good he had done to Ndigbo? That is why Nigeria is doomed, that is why we don’t have hope in Nigeria anymore. Is it possible for a known Nazi party member in his 40’s to represent Israel at UNITED NATIONS in 2014? The answer is NO. Nwachukwu is worse than a Nazi party member to our people. If all OUR PEOPLE were KILLED during the civil war as he wished, will he be representing Ndigbo at the conference? The answer is No. So Mr Man get out from that place now.” – Obimmadu, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “His names are Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu an Awusa man and born saboteur...once a saboteur is always a saboteur.” – NWA Africa, Vanguard, 19.3.14 “How is it possible that Ike Nwachukwu is representing Ndigbo? Who appointed him?

We might as well ask Adamu Ciroma to come and represent us. Where are all our Igbo representatives both home and abroad? Have they all gone mute? What is going on? Where the likes of Ezeife whom I believe are will truly represent Ndigbo? And where is our youth in that gathering? Who is representing my generation? It is all beginning to look like a bad joke....” – Adaigbokwenu, Vanguard, 19.3.14 The argument that the anonymity of the online platform offers cover for cowards, idle minds and craven characters to launch unwarranted attacks on otherwise innocent and upstanding men is duly acknowledged.

But that is a separate and ongoing debate.

Furthermore, the issue at stake has gained ventilation on multiple media platforms, print and electronic, for more than a generation.

Equally, the ethnic slurs hurled at the General are noted and must stand condemned without qualification. But if it is true that Gen. Ike Nwachukwu turned his gun on Igbo sons and daughters, thereby committing the worst form of abomination – fratricide – then the moral ground upon which his leadership of Igbo delegation to a conference where the enduring implications of that war are bound to take centre-stage is too shaky to withstand the people’s revulsion and sense of betrayal.

If you speak for a people who disavow your moral authority to speak for them, then there is a complete negation of the primary objective.

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