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Monday, December 29, 2014

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Vol. 1 No. 313

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N150

INEC, Mint bicker over ballot paper contract }6

16 oil blocks to lose licences

lMarginal field operators in race to avert DPR's axe

NEW TELEG

RAPH MOND AY, DECEM

Money Line

ixteen out of the 28 oil blocks whose licences

were issued through the 2003 marginal bid round programme are at the risk of being revoked for

remaining unproductive since then. It was learnt that already, the Department

of Petroleum Resources (DPR) had given a March 2015 deadline to all unproCONTINUED ON PAGE 6

Stock Wat ch

Wapic Insur ance: New spur inves tors’ intere ratings st

Insurance

Building collapse: Lagos insurance papers from govt demands contractor s

Business What's neW s

Why Nige growth is rian airlines’ experts stunted, by Stakeholde weekend, rs in aviation, at the the secto took a holistic view r Nigerian and concluded thatof airlines would to wallow contin in difficu urgent steps lty unles ue s are taken them out of the wood to get s.

Interview

Oriflame is on entreprene mission to help urs succe ed –Hanna

Boko Hara oil target m: FG misses 2014 in Chad b asin Geologi sts circum vent pos

STAGNAN T Governme nt mulls expansion of insecurity budget as stagnates exploratio n activities

Nigeria fails spectrum in InfraCos auctions, licensing Nigerian gover

42-43

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p.22

Adeola Yusuf

BER 29, 2014

Empowerm ent: occupy mana ‘More women gement posit now ions’

ting, second ment to site

Adeola Yusu f

Page 21

12 pages of incisive Business

Cash crunch hits Buhari's campaign T

Developin g owe $5.5tr countries n as at 2013

}5 lAPC governors reduce financial support lWe depend on people's donations, says organisation Quick Read

Editorial

What Yuletide holds for IDPs }19

FG mulls border closure for 2015 polls }8 Fayose: I’ve no personal score to settle with Obasanjo }5

Travel Advisory Your guide to local and international flights 4

Children at the Ikeja Recreational Centre, Lagos…yesterday.

PHOTO: GODWIN IREKHE

I'll perform better if re-elected, says Jonathan lBuhari pledges to cater for the poor, fight corruption }7

News

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Travel Advisory

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

International Flight Schedule

Local FLIGHT SCHEDULE FIRST NATION AIRWAYS LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 06.50; 09:30; 11:45; 16:00 (SAT) 06:50; 11:45 (SUN) 11:45; 16:00 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 09:00; 11:30; 13:40;18:30 (SAT) 09:00; 13:40 (SUN) 13:40; 18:30 LAGOS-PORT-HARCOURT (MON-FRI) 14:45 (SAT) 16:15 (SUN) 14:45 PORT-HARCOURT-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 16:50 (SAT) 18:20 (SUN) 16:50 AEROCONTRACTORS LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 06:50; 13:30; 16:30; 19:45 (SAT/SUN) 12:30; 16:45 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 07:30; 13:00; 19:00 (SAT) 12:30 (SUN) 15:30 MEDVIEW AIRLINES LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 07:00; 08:50; 12:00; 15:30 (SAT) 10:00; 15:00 (SUN) 17:30; 18:30 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 09:00; 14:00, 15:00; 18:30 OVERLAND AIRWAYS LAGOS-ILORIN (MON-FRI) 07:15 LAGOS-IBADAN (MON-FRI) 7:00 IBADAN-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 08:00 IBADAN-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 16:30 ILORIN –ABUJA (MON-FRI) 08:30 ILORIN –LAGOS (MON-FRI) 17:00 ABUJA-ASABA (MON-FRI) 10:00 ASABA-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 14:15 ASABA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 11:30 LAGOS-ASABA (MON-FRI) 13:00 ABUJA-ILORIN 16:00 ABUJA-IBADAN 15:00 ARIK AIR LAGOS-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 07:00; 08:00; 09:00; 11:00 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 (SAT) 07:00; 09:00; 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 (SUN) 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 ABUJA-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 07:00; 09:00; 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00; 20:00 (SAT) 07:00; 09:00; 11:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 (SUN) 09:00; 13:00; 15:00; 17:00; 19:00 LAGOS-PORT-HARCOURT (MON-FRI)07:00; 09:30; 11:00; 13:30; 15:00; 17:30 (SAT) 07:00; 11:00; 15:00 (SUN) 09:30; 11:00; 13:30; 15:00; 17:30 PORT-HARCOURT-LAGOS (MON-FRI) 07:30; 09:00; 11:30; 13:00; 15:30; 17:00 (SAT) 07:30; 11:30; 09:00; 13:00; 17:00 (SUN) 11:30; 13:00; 15:30; 17:00 ABUJA-PORT-HARCOURT (MON-FRI) 06:45; 10:10; 13:30; 16:50 (SAT/SUN) 06:45; 10:10; 13:30 PORT-HARCOURT-ABUJA (MON-FRI) 08:30; 11:50; 15:10; 18:30 (SAT/SUN) 08:30; 11:50; 15:10 AZMAN FLIGHT SCHEDULE WEEKLY SCHEDULE Kano-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Abuja 10:30am Abuja-Lagos 12:40pm Lagos-Abuja/Kano 4:00pm Abuja-Kano 5:45pm Kaduna-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Kan 10:10am Kano-Abuja/Lagos 12:40pm Abuja-Lagos 1:00pm Abuja-Lagos 2:40pm Lagos-Kaduna 5:00pm WEEKEND SCHEDULE SATURDAY Kano-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Abuja 10:30am Abuja-Lagos 1:00pm Lagos-Kano 4:00pm Kaduna-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Kano 4:00pm Sunday Kano-Lagos 8:00am Lagos-Kano 10:30am Kano-Abuja/Lagos 1:20pm Abuja-Lagos 2:40pm Lagos-Kaduna 5:00pm

Air France

Destination Abuja- Paris Paris-Lagos Paris-PHC PHC-Paris Paris –Abuja Lagos –Paris

Flight No. AF 513 AF 3822 AF514 AF513 AF514 AF3849

Departure 23.55hrs 10.55hrs 11:00hrs 21:20hrs 11:00hrs 23:55hrs

Arrival 6:05hrs 17:15hrs 19:15hrs 6:05hrs 17:00hrs 6:20hrs

Amsterdam-Lagos Lagos-Amsterdam

KL587 KL588

13:15hrs 23:05hrs

20:00hrs 05:50hrs

Lagos-London London-Lagos Lagos-New York

W3 101 W3 102 W3 107 (Mon, Wed & Fri) W3 108 (Tues,Thurs & Fri) W3 103 W3 104 - (Tues, Wed &Thur) - (Tues, Wed &Thur) -

12:00hrs 21:30hrs 23:50hrs

18:30hrs 05:15hrs 05:30hrs

12:30hrs

16:00hrs

KLM

ARIK AIRLINES

New York-Lagos Lagos-Johannesburg Johannesburg-Lagos Lagos-Douala Douala-Lagos Lagos-Accra Accra-Lagos Abuja-Accra Accra-Abuja Lagos-Freetown Freetown-Lagos Lagos-Banjul Banjul-Lagos Lagos-Dakar Dakar-Lagos

10:45hrs 09:35hrs 11:10hrs 13:25hrs 07:20hrs 17:00hrs -(Tue,Thur,Sat,Sun) 08:05hrs -(Mon,Wed,Fri) 13:35hrs 18:00hrs -(Daily) 17:00hrs 06:00hrs - (Wed,Fri,Sun) 08:00hrs 17:00hrs -(Wed,Fri,Sun) 08:00hrs -(Wed,Fri,Sun) 15:20hrs -(Wed,Fri,Sun) 21:00hrs -(Mon,Tue,Thur, Fri,Sat) -(Tue,Wed, 01:00hrs Fri,Sat,Sun)

BRITISH AIRWAYS

hrs 14:44hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs hrs

London-Lagos Lagos-London Abuja-London Abuja-London

BA075 BA074 BA 082 BA 083

17:55hrs 00:00hrs 09:00hrs 22:40hrs

11:55hrs 5:50hrs 14:35hrs 06:00hrs

Lebanon-Lagos Lagos-Lebanon

MEA 571 MEA 572

3:00hrs 14:00hrs

8:00hrs 19:00hrs

Middle East Airlines (Two flights weekly (Tues & Friday) to Lagos) EMIRATES AIRLINES

Lagos-Dubai Lagos-Dubai Dubai-Lagos Dubai-Lagos Abuja-Dubai

EK 7821 (Sun-Sat) EK 7822 EK 7831 EK 7811 EK 761

21:30hrs 14:40hrs 07:35hrs 14:20hrs 23:55hrs

07:40hrs 01:05hrs 12:50hrs 19:45hrs 10:30hrs

Lagos-Doha Flight Doha-Lagos Flight

QR 1414 (daily) QR 1415

14:55hrs 07:20hrs

23:45hrs 13:35hrs

Lagos-Atlanta Atlanta-Lagos

DL053 DL 054

22:15hrs 5:15hrs

05:32hrs 16:15hrs

Lagos-Houston Houston-Lagos

UA 143 UA 142

10:10hrs 19:10hrs

6:05hrs 15.15hrs

QATAR AIRWAYS DELTA AIRLINES

UNITED AIRLINES

ASKY AIRLINES

Destination Lome to Abuja Abuja-Lome- Kinshasa Kinshasa-Abuja Abuja-Lome Lome-Lagos Lagos-Libreville Libreville-Kinshasa Kinshasa-Libreville Libreville-Lagos Lagos-Lome Lome-Lagos Lagos-Libreville Libreville-Brazaville Brazaville-Libreville Brazzaville-Lagos Lagos-Lome

Flight No. KP 032 (Tue-Fri) KP 032 ( Tue-Fri) KP 033 (Wed-Sat) KP O33 (Wed-Sat) KP O40 (Sun-Sat) KP 040 (Sun-Sat) KP 040 (Sun-Sat) KP041 (Tue-Sat) KP 041 (Tue-Sat) KP 041 (Tue-Sat) KP O44 (Tue-Fri) KP 044 (Tue-Fri) KP 044 (Tue-Fri) KP O45 (Wed-Sat) KP 045 (Wed-Sat) KP 045 (Wed-Sat)

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES

Departure 14:00hrs 16:30hrs 8:20hrs 10:35hrs 13:00hr 14:40hrs 17:00hrs 7:15hrs 9:35hrs 11:55hrs 13:10hrs 14:50hrs 17:10hrs 07:00hrs 09:20hrs 11:40hrs

Arrival 15:55hrs 18:15hrs 10:00hrs 12:20hrs 14:00hrs 16:30hrs 18:45hrs 08:55hrs 11:25hrs 12:45hrs 14:10hrs 16:40hrs 18:50hrs 08:40hrs 11:10hrs 12:30hrs

Lagos to Addis Ababa Addis Ababa to Lagos Abuja to Addis Ababa Addis Ababa to Abuja Enugu to Addis Ababa Addis Ababa to Enugu Kano to Addis Ababa Addis Ababa to Kano

ET900 ET901 ET910 ET911 ET930 ET931 ET930 ET931

13:15hrs 09:00hrs 13:40hrs 09:40hrs 12:00hrs 09:20hrs 14:05hrs 09:20hrs

20:25hrs 12:15hr 20:10hrs 12:20hrs 20:50hrs 11:15hrs 20:50hrs 13:20hrs

Lagos-Madrid Madrid-Lagos

IB 3337 IB 3336

22:55hrs 16:00hrs

05:25+1hrs 20:20hrs

Lagos-Casablanca Casablanca-Lagos

AT738 AT 737

06:25hrs 02:15hrs

09:55hrs 6:00hrs

Lagos-London London-Lagos

VS 652 VS 651

11:00hrs 22:40hrs

17:00hrs 4:40hrs

Lagos- Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi-Lagos

EY 0672 (Sunday) (Monday) (Saturday) EY 955

20.45hrs 09:50hrs 09.20 hrs 06:30hrs

07:00hrs 20:05hrs 20:10hrs 11:45hrs

Lagos-Cairo Cairo-Lagos

MS 876 MS 875

14:25hrs 08:30hrs

22:20hrs 13:30hrs

Lagos-Nairobi Nairobi-Lagos

KQ 533 KQ 534

12:30hrs 18:00hrs

19:35hrs 23:45hrs

Lagos-Kigali

AWB 201 11:15hrs (Mon, Wed, Fri, Sun) AWB 202 14:00hrs (Tue, Thur, Sat, Sun)

16:45hrs

332 333

06:00hrs 21:20hrs

IBERIA

air maroc

VIRGIN ATLANTIC ETIHAD AIRWAYS

EGYPT AIR

KENYA AIRWAYS RwandAir

Kigali-Lagos

Turkish Airlines

Lagos-Istanbul Nairobi-Lagos

22:35hrs 15:10hrs

17:30hrs

ASKY Airlines international travel tips Earning Miles on ASKY Airlines ASKY is a Lome -Togo based airline that provides an extensive route network within West Africa. The airline provides excellent connections with Ethiopian Airlines flights serving cities in West Africa. Ethiopian Airlines and ASKY provide an end-to-end service for frequent flyers enrolled in ShebaMiles. The airlines jointly provide full coverage of Africa providing full mile earning opportunity for a frequent flyer.

News

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Cash crunch hits Buhari's campaign Donald Ojogo Abuja

he campaign organisation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Major General Muhammadu Buhari, has been hit by a cash crisis following the dwindling fortunes of states under the party's control. It was learnt at the weekend that the APC states, like other states of the federation, are badly affected by the volatility in the global oil market that has reduced the distributable funds from the Federation Account among the three tiers of government.

This, one of the party's governors confided in New Telegraph, has made them to reorder their priorities. According to the governor, he and his colleagues have been forced to cut down on their financial support to Buhari because besides their contractual obligations to civil servants and funding of capital projects going on in their respective states, some of them are battling re-election while others have funding of the campaigns of their anointed successors to contend with. Unlike Buhari who as at last week has garnered N54 million in donations from a cross-section of Nigerians, his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)

counterpart, President Goodluck Jonathan, has a heavy war chest. Jonathan at a fund raiser last weekend, had grossed over N21 billion for his re-election bid with the donors including 21 PDP governors who donated N50 million each to the president's campaign fund. The source, however, added that given the challenges before them, the APC governors have chosen to focus on their respective states rather than Buhari’s presidential campaign. He said: "The current revenue fortunes of the states call for cautious spending on the part of any governor. Gone are the days when it was easy for

any governor to commit himself to several other things; but when you look at what is on ground, especially when several states could not even pay salaries, how do you expect such states to think about funding a presidential campaign? “It is absolutely impossible because each of us is either focusing on reelection, or in the case of those leaving, the issue of funding the would-be successor is very important too; so which one do you pick?" However, the Buhari Campaign Organisation, has dismissed fears that the precarious financial state of the party's governors will hurt the candi-

Producer, Airtel Touching Lives Programme, Patricious Spero (left) and Managing Director, Airtel Nigeria, Segun Ogunsanya, at the premiere of Touching Lives TV series in Lagos…recently.

Fayose: I’ve no personal score to settle with Obasanjo Adesina Wahab Ado-Ekiti

overnor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State has said he has no personal scores to settle with former President Olusegun Obasanjo, saying his recent condemnation of the former president's actions were meant to save the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Fayose, who spoke at the weekend in Ado-Ekiti during an interview programme, said as a committed member of the PDP, he would not sit and watch people denigrate the party and the exalted office of the president.

According to the governor, Nigerians as well as members of the PDP must view the sustained attacks by Obasanjo against President Goodluck Jonathan and the party as something that must be condemned. His words: "This is not a question of whether somebody is elderly or young, the PDP is the vehicle conveying us all as members of the party and when you see somebody continuously attacking the vehicle, shooting at it, then that person must be checked or else the vehicle may somersault and we will all be in trouble. “The PDP is like a moving vehicle and when you see somebody shooting

sporadically at it, those inside must talk or raise the alarm if they must survive the onslaught." The governor opined that Obasanjo was more at home with the opposition, most especially, the All Progressives Congress (APC), stressing that this informed the strange romance between them. He urged members of the PDP to rise and defend the party from both the enemies within and outside it. On the 2015 general election, Fayose said the tide still favoured the return of President Jonathan to power. He added that Nigerians would not make the mistake of voting APC

into power at the centre, positing that the APC had bad records in the states it had governed in recent past. He, therefore, urged Nigerians to keep faith with the PDP, describing it as the best option for the nation. It would be recalled that Obasanjo recently attacked Jonathan and the PDP, leading to some PDP state governors visiting him in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, with the hope of brokering peace. However, Fayose issued a statement condemning the governors' visit, saying there was no way anybody could placate the former president.

date's vote-seeking, adding that it is in a bid to avoid such a scenario that made Buhari right from the outset to solicit donations from ordinary Nigerians. The Director of Publicity, APC Presidential Campaign, Mr. Dele Alake, said the call for public funding of the party’s presidential campaign was to ensure that Nigerians owned the incoming government even before it is elected. “I think the Nigerian media needs to put more perspective and perhaps, try as much as possible to be analytical in this regard. Let us take the United States for example; did the Democrats or the Democratic governors have any issue about funding before the current president, Barack Obama, resorted to the idea of public donors to fund his campaign? No! “The idea is to engender more public and mass participation in government and governance even before the man is elected so that they can be part of it when it finally berths; this without doubt, is the best way to enshrine an all-inclusive government that will work for the common good of the people rather than for the good of a select few who sit in the comfort of their chosen points to manipulate the nation to the disadvantage of the common man. “I urge you to ignore such suggestions because such are sheer evidence of negativism aimed at discouraging the ordinary Nigerian whose one naira is a tool for change in Nigeria,” Alake added. However, it was learnt that while money might not be Jonathan's headache, his campaign is facing a threat due to the emergence of new battleground states. A source in the president's campaign organisation expressed worry that even though the incumbent would win the 2015 election, "there are likely to be lost grounds arising from the emergence of new battleground states." He listed the battleground states as Kebbi, Kaduna and Zamfara (NorthWest); Benue, Kwara and Plateau (North-Central) as well as Lagos and Ogun in the South-West. But he cited Zamfara as the ‘safest state’ in the North-West where Jonathan’s posters and presidential campaign materials are "freely distributed without any fear." “Truly, to say that there is no problem is to ignore the reality on ground. If you want my objective assessment of the situation as it now stands, I can say that although we stand

a good chance to win the presidential election in 2015, there are indeed some states that we have lost due to internal wrangling and disputes across the nation. “And taking you through a zone-by-zone analysis as being studied by campaign strategists, I can say that in the NorthWest, PDP has a 30-70 ratio to the advantage of the APC; 50-50 in Zamfara, 5050 in Kebbi, 40-60 in Kano, 50-50 in Kaduna, 60-40 in Jigawa and 30-70 in Katsina. “In the North-Central, we can confidently place it at 60-40 in Kogi, 50-50 in Kwara, 50-50 in Niger, 6040 in Nasarawa, 50-50 in Benue and 70-30 in Plateau. “For the North-East, we place it at 30 for PDP and 70 for APC, same for Gombe, 40-60 in Borno and Yobe, 6040 in Adamawa and 70-30 in Taraba. “In the South-West, while Lagos and Ogun are 50-50; Ondo, Ekiti and Oyo are for PDP; but Osun is APC. But the situation is better in the South-East and South-South where the PDP will hold sway," he added. He explained that in Rivers State, for instance, there are indications that while most people are in support of Governor Chibuike Amaechi for the governorship election, a many of them are most likely to vote for Jonathan. The source attributed the emergence of swing states to the festering leadership crisis in the PDP in most states of the federation. According to him, the PDP may lose about three million votes due to internal wrangling in its fold; and this means that Jonathan will garner a minimum of 17 million votes as against the 21 million and 22 million votes recorded by the PDP in the 2007 and 2011 presidential elections respectively. The reduction in expected votes notwithstanding, the source was optimistic that the president would score at least 25 per cent of total votes cast in a minimum of 26 states of the federation while Buhari will garner same feat in about 24 states. He said with such a scenario, Jonathan was expected to win with a lean margin on the basis of ‘majority of total votes cast’. Speaking on the president's electoral chances in 2015, his Senior Special Assistant on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe, told New Telegraph on the telephone that Jonathan would repeat his 2011 victory over Buhari.

News

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

MINT raises fears over ballot papers Anule Emmanuel Abuja

he Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Plc (NSPM) has raised the alarm that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will throw the country into a mess as it prepares to print sensitive electoral materials for the conduct of the 2015 general election. MINT, Nigeria's banknote printer and mint, says that what will be eventually printed as ballot papers by INEC for the conduct of the polls will come without security features if the electoral umpire does not move quickly to correct the mistake it has made in the award of contract for the production of the documents. Special Adviser to the Central Bank of Nigeria Governor on Mint and former General Manager in the Mint, Prof. Thomas Odoji, in an interview with New Telegraph insisted that the decision by INEC to award the contract for the printing of the ballot papers for the 2015 elec-

TODAY’S WEATHER FORECAST LAGOS

34oC

25oC

Mostly Sunny

ABUJA

37oC

22oC

Sunny

PORT HARCOURT

29oC

18oC

Partially Cloudy

KANO

30oC

12oC

Sunny

ENUGU

37oC

22oC

Partially Cloudy

IBADAN

24oC

22oC

Sunny

CALABAR

33oC

24oC

Partially Cloudy

MAIDUGURI

ONITSHA

32oC 14oC Sunny

37oC

23oC

Partially Cloudy

tions to a foreign company was wrong and would likely generate crisis. According to him, INEC presently as it is, has failed to properly take care of the issue of securing features and will end up having documents that are not full proof, making the job of counterfeiters easy. "There is nothing in the paper because it is a commercial paper which everybody can buy off the shelf, so anybody can buy it and reproduce," he said. He added that: "There is no feature which INEC can read and say this is our ballot paper. So, there is nothing from the issuing authority that look, this is our document. In case you have to go to court, they will not be able to defend it. So, the whole thing is that there is problem in it. It is a total mess that they are trying to put together as a ballot paper." Our correspondent gathered that under the plan for the printing of the ballots by the commission, materials for the presidential and governorship election slated for February next year would strictly be handled by a United Kingdom based minting firm. About N6 billion is said to have been budgeted for this segment of the contract. Investigation also revealed that the commission has set aside the sum of N3 billion to be paid to local printers including the MINT to produce the ballot papers that will be used for the National Assembly and House of Assembly elections next year. On the whole, INEC is expected to spend N9 billion for the printing of ballot papers for the five set of elections, which the electoral body has decided to stagger because of its claim that it does not have adequate logistics to run it simultaneously. While querying the rationale behind the award of a large chunk of the ballot printing contract to

a foreign firm, Odoji confirmed that INEC did not even follow due process in awarding the contract. "It is faulty. They did not allow us to quote, they gave it out at a parity, the same price with every other person. At the end of the day, they gave us lower. When they were doing request for quotation, we were not even invited. But they gave the job because Nigerians were shouting that you can't take all the jobs abroad, foreign exchange is not there, yet they are taking millions of dollars abroad just to print paper and there is no added value to that ballot paper. They are taking jobs to foreigners not Nigerians," he stressed. Odoji also said that he could not understand why INEC had to award the contract to a foreign company in the first place through a third party arrangement. "You have to tell INEC to say why they did that. One can say without enough evidence that it all leads around kickbacks but I

have no evidence to say that," he said. He expressed fears that the timing for the award of the contract itself was also wrong considering the short period between now and when the elections will take place. "When did they give them the contract? Have they paid any money for them to commit themselves in procuring the materials? My fear is that the election issue with the ballot papers may be aborted because without you paying down a reasonable amount of money, the foreigners will never go to the print. "What about the timing? Look at the election, it is 14th, look at the holidays. Many of them will resume between 12th and 14th of January. It is going to be a nightmare for them. I won't advise the management of the NSPM to appeal against the award, they have done it in their wisdom, but what we believe is that the contract is wrong," Udoji noted.

New Telegraph gathered that foreign security printing companies who have over 200 years in printing ballot papers would require not less than three months to print complex ballot papers for the kind of elections that Nigeria prepares to hold next year. The papers for instance would be very diverse, as special ballot papers, duly numbered and would be needed for each of the senatorial, House of Representatives, Houses of Assembly, governorship and presidential elections all over the country. President Goodluck Jonathan in August this year had directed that “we cannot give approval for any printing whether passport or anything except the Mint say they cannot produce that. As far as Mint can produce it, we must produce everything in this country.” The president while making case for the MINT in handling the printing of electoral materials for INEC in future elec-

tions said: “In fact when I appointed the new CBN governor, I told him that the Nigerian Security and Minting Company must be reformed. The board must look into management and get choice global players who are into this business and partner with them.” President Jonathan had noted that those who would use these services must have their credibility to protect, saying “that means Mint must be in a position to tell INEC Chairman that whatever I give you, the security devices are okay and you will get the result you want.” Chief Press Secretary to INEC chairman, Mr. Kayode idowu, told New Telegraph that the electoral body followed due process in the award of the contract. Idowu said: “As for due process, contracts of this nature are never awarded at INEC's sole instance. They are taken through the full complement of statutory due process procedures in government.”

President Goodluck Jonathan (right), receiving sword from the Chairman, Christ Apostolic Church, Federal Capital City, District Cocoordinating Council, Pastor Michael Olatunde, at a church service in Abuja…yesterday. PHOTO: TIMOTHY IKUOMENISAN

Marginal field operators in race to avert DPR's axe CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

ductive marginal oil blocks owners to develop them or they would lose their licences. Three months to the expiration of the deadline, some of the owners, sources said at the weekend, had intensified efforts to escape the hammer. A source at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, however, said the owners of the marginal fields, “some of who are politicians and those close to government,” have begun

scheming to avert the DPR axe. “It is normal for them (marginal oil blocks owners) to lobby government to avert the revocation of their licences. Don’t forget that they made a lot of investments in these blocks, but the bottom line is that things have to be done and have to be done right. “They have been given a 10-year deadline to make these oil blocks productive. This 10-year window was also extended when they could not meet up. It is this

new extension that will expire by March 2015, which is barely three months away. “The question of whether the DPR will be able to go ahead with its threat or not would be addressed soon but what I can confirm to you is that there is a serious scheming going on now to stop the DPR by getting another extension of deadline,” he said. Director of DPR, Mr. George Osahon, told New Telegraph that the government understood challeng-

es of funding and technology facing marginal field operators, but there was no going back on the March 2015 deadline “Non-producing marginal fields would be withdrawn from the operators in March 2015, unless reasonable commitment is ascertained by the government,” he said on the sideline of a conference in Lagos. Acknowledging that the government was aware of the challenges facing the operators in the areas of

funding and technology, Osahon added that the government was also concerned about the inability of the operators to meet government’s objectives of bringing the fields to production. He urged the operators to form cluster groups, where possible, for the development of the assets. According to him, a total of 28 marginal fields were awarded to indigenous companies in Nigeria. CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

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NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

I'll perform better if re-elected, says Jonathan Anule Emmanuel and Muritala Ayinla

resident Goodluck Jonathan yesterday promised a better Nigeria under his watch, if he is re-elected. He told the congregation at the Christ Apostolic Church, Abuja where he had gone to worship that his administration would build on the legacy of his first term to offer Nigerians a better living standard from next year. The president made the promise of a better Nigeria during his second term just as his main challenger in the February 14, 2015 presidential election, Major General Muhammadu

Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC), assured Nigerians that his administration, if elected, will cater for the poor and tackle graft. He said although the result of the good policies he was effecting in the system would not be felt immediately, progress was being made. "As a nation, we have not reached where we want to go, definitely not. But we are coming up with a number of policies. Those who are taking pain to look at what we are doing will agree with us that if we progress as a nation steadily in this manner, in the next four or five years, this country will be a better place," he added.

He urged Nigerians to continue to support his administration in prayers, adding: “For me and members of my team, in spite of the challenges, we will continue to do our best. “As a nation, we have not reached where we want to be, definitely not. But we are coming up with a number of policies." The president explained that one of the reasons he goes around churches in Abuja is to seize the opportunity to thank the people for their prayers for the country, the government and for him. "We are facing a lot of challenges now as a nation. The pastor has said it all. The challenges did not start today but somehow,

instead of abating, the problems started increasing for one reason or the other. "But I am convinced that it would have been worse than this but for your prayers. With the prayers you continue to offer to God, God will see us through. "I always say that whenever I read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, particularly the journey of the Israelites from Egypt to the Promised Land, the kind of challenges they faced; the confrontation, the wars up to the days of King David. People were always fighting and you will ask why children of God will continue to be fighting. "I believe what is even

happening to us is not even as serious as sometimes the passages we read in the Bible and God was able to see them through. The God we believe will see us through. What I will request from you is to continue to pray for us. “For me and members of my team, in spite of the challenges, we will continue to do our best. "Only a few days back, the vice-president was in Port Harcourt to launch the eastern railway. The western one moving from Lagos to Kano has been running. We will start using the modern one from Kaduna to Abuja by the first quarter of next year and the one from Port Harcourt.

All Progressives Congress (APC)'s Vice-Presidential candidate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (middle), during his One-on-One and Street-to-Street Campaign, with a plantain seller in Lagos…at the weekend. PHOTO: Suleiman Husaini

Reps: Paucity of fund hinders live broadcast of investigative hearings Philip Nyam Abuja

he House of Representatives has explained that paucity of funds has been responsible for the inability of its committees to engage in live broadcast of its investigative hearings as has been the practice. The Federal Government has proposed N150 billion budget for the National Assembly in the 2015 fiscal year. Since 1999, the National Assembly has consistently been allocated N150 billion each year. The N150 billion is for both the National Assembly bureaucracy and the legislature. The failure of the House to beam live its investigative hearings like it did in the probe of petroleum subsidy regime, has raised some questions in the public. The House’s explana-

tion is contained in the midterm report on the Legislative Agenda of the 7th House of Representatives prepared by the Ad hoc Committee on the Legislative Agenda of the House and published by the Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre with support from the British Department for International Development (DFID). The report exclusively obtained by New Telegraph stated that “the robust oversight and investigative hearings conducted by the House has taken a toll on the finances of the House. “Indeed, the House is currently unable to broadcast most of its sittings and investigative hearings live due to paucity of funds.” It explained that in line with the Legislative Agenda, the House has reviewed legislative branch budget to achieve the re-

quirements of openness, effectiveness and accountability and to achieving fiscal conservatism and prudence in the management of funds. According to the report, “The House has exercised fiscal discipline and prudence in the management of its funds in spite of its increased activities. “These increased activities and additional expenditure items are evidenced in the recent establishment of the National Institute for Legislative Studies (NILS), a major capacity development agency of the National Assembly and increased activities of the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO), as well as increased training programmes for members and staff of the National Assembly.” The Midterm Report followed several weeks of meetings, discussions

and review of the performance of the 7th Legislative Agenda carried out by the Ad hoc Committee chaired by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha. The report was laid before the House and accepted as a true and proper mid –term review of the Agenda. In its Legislative Agenda, the 7th House of Representatives undertook to overhaul its legislative processes and improve its systems, in order to achieve quicker passage of bills and ensure strict compliance with timeframes. Since the adoption of the Legislative Agenda, the House has amended its Standing Orders to fast track the process of the passage of Bills and Resolutions. For instance, Order 12, Rule 94 was introduced to fast track the process of passage of bills

passed in the previous Assembly which either failed to achieve concurrence in the Senate or Presidential Assent. Such bills had been required to start de novo. Instead, they are now committed to the Committee of the whole House, upon publication and resolution of the House for consideration. The House further introduced Order 8, Rule 51 (5) requiring motions relating to infrastructure, utilities, natural disasters and related subjects to be referred to the relevant standing committees without debate. The House also set time limits for committees to consider bills referred to it and report back. The Legislative Agenda had outlined efficiency, transparency and accountability to guide the operations and activities of the Committees of the House.

"When we were small, there were railways. But I believe most of our children of about 30 years only see railway in cartoons on the television but now, they are seeing it. "We relied on agriculture before the oil boom or doom and all that died. We are reviving it and the whole world has appreciated that we are moving forward in agriculture. "When they start something, people do not see the benefits immediately. We know that as a nation, we have a lot of challenges in terms of getting jobs for our young graduates and we have set up a lot of programmes that can bring job opportunities for our young men. "The result may not be obvious immediately but God willing, job opportunities will continue to increase and many more young people will be engaged," the president added. Shortly after the church service, Jonathan left Abuja for the United Kingdom for what the presidency described as “a brief private visit.” A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the president was accompanied on the trip by some of his principal staff and personal aides. The president is expected back in the country today. Also at the weekend, Buhari gave more insight into the programme of his administration, if elected. Buhari, in a statement by Buhari Campaign Organisation and made available to New Telegraph, said he would, together with his running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that it is possible to live above the greed that dominates the system. According to him, their vision is a new Nigeria in which corruption and abuse of office shall be sanctioned according to existing laws while the institutions of state will be strengthened to fight graft. He said:" It is indeed true that, by sheer force of personal examples, I and my running mate, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, have demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt that it is possible to live above the greed that dominates the system. "I believe our spiritual anchors as men who fear the Almighty and are resolved to live our lives according to His admonitions have played very critical roles in developing our capacity to lead. As Christians go and return from churches, as Muslims and men of other faith observe CONTINUED ON PAGE 8

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

2015: APC promises violence-free elections Johnchuks Onuanyim Abuja

he All Progressives Congress (APC) has promised Nigerians and the international community that it will ensure that the general election is violence-free. The party, in statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in Lagos yesterday, stated that the rising apprehension about the polls among the populace is inimical to the conduct of a successful election. The party said its efforts to ensure a violencefree polls should be complemented by the Peoples Democratic Party-led Federal Government, which it alleges has a propensity for using the security agencies to harass and intimidate the opposition and ordinary citizens. It also urged the Federal Government to take necessary measures to ensure that the elections are free, fair and credible, since rigging and other acts of electoral malfeasance constitute the immediate trigger for anger and violence during and after elections. Mohammed said: "We have heard from Nigerians who are so afraid

about possible violence during the forthcoming election that they are even willing to relocate to other countries until after the elections. But, as the biggest opposition party in Nigeria and a major stakeholder in our nation's democracy, we are assuring, on our part, that there will be no violence. “Though our party has no history of violence, we have commenced a nationwide effort to sensitise our members and supporters to the need to eschew rancour and embrace nonviolent methods, even in the face of the kind of provocations to which we were subjected during the Ekiti and Osun governorship elections, when our members were needlessly harassed, arrested and detained by partisan security agencies acting under orders from the FG. “If the federal government allows a level playing field for all contestants, if the security agencies stop acting as the armed wing of the ruling PDP, if the electoral umpire will carry out its duties without fear, favour or bias and if citizens are allowed to exercise their franchise unmolested, the stage will be set for a non-violent, free, fair and credible polls. In other words, the govern-

FG mulls border closure for 2015 polls Johnchuks Onuanyim Abuja

o ensure proper security and credible elections next year, The Federal Government is contemplating the closure of its borders to ensure hitch-free elections in 2015. The Minister of Interior, Mr. Abba Moro, told reporters in Abuja at the weekend that government was planning to do on a large scale the idea, which was first tested in Katsina State. He added that when such an approach was applied in an election in the state, the conduct of the election was peaceful and the result credible. According to him, if the atmosphere before the day of the elections suggest the need for the borders to be closed, it will be done. Moro's hint came against the backdrop of calls by a cross-section of Nigerians for the closure of the country's borders because of insecurity as a result of the activities of Boko Haram.

On how the Nigerian Immigration Service could help in the conduct of the next year's elections, the minister said: "The Nigerian Immigration Service has demonstrated capacity to contribute to peace and security, especially on election days by ensuring that all roads in and out of Nigeria are closed within the periods of elections. "These have been done time without numbers and it proved productive in the recent local government elections in Katsina State for instance. Approval was granted for Nigerian borders with Niger Republic to be closed and the conclusions that we had from those elections were peaceful and stable elections within the period. "So, I think that we, on our part, can adequately protect the borders to contribute our quota towards ensuring peace towards the 2015 elections and if all parties conduct themselves properly and discharge their responsibilities, the 2015 elections will come as peacefully as it has ever been in Nigeria," he added.

ment has a major role to play in making the forthcoming polls peaceful. “On our part, in addition to other efforts aimed at ensuring a peaceful election, we pledge to accept the result of an election that is not only free, fair, credible and transparent, but one that is also seen to be so. We hope other parties will make a similar pledge." The party said it demonstrated, during its recent rancour-free and fes-

tive national convention in Lagos, that elections should be a celebration of democracy, rather than a moment of fear, violence and threat to lives. It said far from mere rhetoric, it had taken practical steps, as far back as May 2014, to work with the PDP to ensure violencefree polls in 2015. “Following up on a meeting of representatives of both parties in Washington, DC, US, April 7-8 2014 under the auspices

of the CSIS Nigeria Election Forum, at which it was agreed that a joint meeting of both parties be convened to discuss and agree on the crucial issue of a Code of Conduct for the campaigns and the elections, we wrote a letter to the PDP suggesting a bipartisan meeting to address the issue. “The PDP agreed to the proposal and suggested that it should be expanded to include the leadership of other political parties

in the country. However, problem with logistics meant that the meeting did not hold. “Even with the little time left for the election to hold, we strongly believe that a meeting of the leadership of the two political parties, the APC and the PDP, will send a powerful message to our compatriots and indeed the international community and douse the tension that is building up ahead of the election,'' APC said.

Picnickers at the Agodi Resort Gardens during the Christmas festivities in Ibadan...at the weekend.

Buhari pledges to cater for the poor, fight corruption CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

their spiritual obligations, we believe our individual commitments to serve our creator will inspire us to shun corruption. "We say this fully conscious of the need to strengthen these spiritual values by creating a system that cares for the poor and the downtrodden; a system that gives jobs to the unemployed; provides electricity so that the artisans and the middle class can be productive and expands infrastructures to enable the corporate sector reduce cost of operations."

He added that there is a linkage between the billions of naira lost to corruption and the poor living conditions of Nigerians. "It is the resources meant for the development of our people that are diverted to service the greed of a few. It is the fear of the unknown in a country where both family and government social welfare have collapsed that fuels the avarice of those in offices to steal for generations unborn," he stated. Buhari explained that details of the roadmap to prosperity have been ar-

ticulated in the manifesto of the APC. "We have signed this manifesto to commit ourselves to faithfully execute it as our contract with the people of Nigeria. Let us reiterate that we have already declared war against corruption, resolved to achieve food security, provide accelerated power supply, integrate the country's transport network, promote free education and provide affordable health care service. What we bring to the table is not just these ideas. "What we offer Nige-

rians is that we shall, day and night, 24 hours per day, seven days a week, stake our integrity as men of discipline and transparency to make life better for the average Nigerian by executing these policies in the shortest possible time. What we bring to the table is an unblemished record of patriotism to our country and an enviable standard of hard work and fulfilment of pledges that we have not seen in the handling of our national affairs in the last few years," Buhari said in the statement signed by Mr. Dele Alake.

Marginal field operators in race to avert DPR's axe CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

“We have a deadline of March 2015 for those that have held marginal fields since 2003. The 10 years given to them have elapsed. The fields will not be allowed to remain like that forever. It is not to punish them,” he said. However, the sixteen unproductive marginal fields have suffered further abandonment as the oil price

rout rocking the global crude market hit harder on the marginal fields’ production and assets. Global exploration projects worth more than $150 billion are also likely to be put on hold next year as plunging oil prices render them uneconomic. The marginal field programme is an offshoot of the Federal Government’s policy to promote indig-

enous participation in the upstream sector of the petroleum industry but checks by New Telegraph showed that the ongoing crude price fall has made further investments in them to be unattractive. "Just eight of the 28 fields awarded in 2003 are currently producing, with over 40 new wells drilled by the awardees, representing a four-fold increase.

But the bad news is that the price fall has made investments in the eight fields unattractive and works on the remaining 16 unproductive fields to be non-lucrative," an industry source said. It was also gathered that the ongoing price fall has also become a setback to the 2013 new marginal field bid round, which has been unofficially delayed.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

IMPEACHMENT Senator Ita Enang denies any plan to impeach Jonathan Goodluck, saying 'it was only a rumour.'

Tony Anichebe UYO

he Senator representing Uyo Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Ita Enang says there was never a time the senate planned to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan as widely rumoured recently. Enang, who stated this during media interaction in Uyo yesterday, maintained that Jonathan has not committed any impeachable offence for senators to contemplate

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Senate never contemplated impeaching Jonathan — Ita Enang sacking him from exalted seat. “It was all rumours to distract the President. Such a thing was never discussed or contemplated at any time by senators” In the same vein, Enang said the Senate never planned to remove David Mark as its President, since he is doing extremely well in his position. “The senators are satisfied and happy with the way and manner he has

piloted the affairs of the senate and he has our full support. There was never a plan to remove him” Assessing Jonathan’s chance in 2015 presidential poll, Enang said the President has done a lot of reconciliation in the PDP; enough to guarantee his re-election in 2015. “In Kano and Sokoto states, Jonathan has compensated the people with two Minsters to make up for the governors that defected to other parties.

In other states he has carried out enough life touching projects to win the heart and support of the electorates” “In Lagos, Jonathan has large followers among the Yoruba and he will win in the other states of the region while Southeast and South South regions naturally will vote him” he said. Enang, who is still nursing his wounds after losing his party’s ticket to stand election for the sen-

ate, said notwithstanding the internal crisis rocking Akwa Ibom PDP over the outcome of the primaries, the state will still vote massively for Jonathan. Enang, who rated the last PDP primaries in Akwa Ibom State as a fraud, noted that Akwa Ibom people will jettison party affiliation, zoning and Senatorial district and vote for candidates they want since the last PDP primaries in the state were flawed.

NASME calls for establishment of MSME Bank Amadi Nnamdi ABUJA

he Nigerian Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME) has reiterated its call for the establishment of a Micro Small Medium Enterprises bank. The National President of the Association, Ibrahim Garba Gusau made this call yesterday in an exclusive interview with New Telegraph. Gusau, while urging the Federal government to set up the bank, said: "We need to create a bank that will speak the language of MSME. "All the programs they have, most times, they speak outside the understanding of MSMEs. It is only a matter of policy. We have been talking about it for long. So, I think it is high time the government did something about it." While recounting the achievements of the Association in the year 2014, Garba hinted that NASME was nominated into the National Council on SMEs where it is expected to make enormous contributions to development of MSME sector. "Also, we are part of the FG's National Enterprise Development Programme (NEDEP), which is a special program geared towards job and wealth creation. NEDEP involves three arms namely: Industrial Training Fund for the Training aspect, Bank of Industry to provide Finance and of course SMEDAN to provide the entrepreneur development."

L–R: Minister of State for Finance, Amb. Bashir Yuguda; Minister of Defence, Gen. Aliyu Muhammad Gusau (rtd.) and Vice-President Namadi Sambo, during an official visit to Zamfara State…at the weekend

Osinbajo begins house-to-house, street campaign Temitope Ogunbanke

rof. Yemi Osinbajo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) running mate to Major General Mohammadu Buhari (rtd) has charged Nigerians to vote for change in 2015 by sacking the ruling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). According to him, the party has inflicted Nigerians with hardship and pains in the last 15 years. Speaking on Saturday evening during his houseto-house and streets campaign in some parts of Lagos State, Osinbajo, who personally shared APC fliers to many people, said Nigerians have suffered enough under the PDP-led administration and therefore, charged them to vote for APC in February 2015 elections. “February 2015 is our chance and we must not miss the opportunity. Nigerians have suffered a lot under the PDP in the last 16 years. Therefore, it is time

for change. Change for provision of job opportunities, good medical care, and qualitative education. Come February 14, 2015, there would be a change if you vote for APC. There would be change if you vote for Buhari and Osinbajo,” he said. The APC vice presidential candidate drove in convoy with many APC members and supporters from Buhari/Osinbajo campaign office in Idowu Martins, Victoria Island to Obalende and Campus Square in Lagos Island, stopping at different places to engage in one-on-one interaction with the people. Osinbajo, dressed in branded Buhari/Osinbajo T-Shirt and black trouser during his house-to-house and street campaign, also took many people by surprise by riding in a motorcycle along Obalende. He also took pictures with some people, especially traders along the road, appealing to the electorates to vote for Buhari in 2015.

2015: Sambo cautions politicians against dirty politics Idris Salisu GUSAU

ice President Namadi Sambo has cautioned politicians to be cautious against engagement in dirty politics that would cause violence in order to achieve their political ends. The Vice President gave the warning at the weekend in Kaura Namoda town of Zamfara State during the presentation of take-off materials to the graduands of Senator Sahabi Ya'u Kaura 'Youth Vocational Skills acquisition initiative'. Sambo alleged that some politicians were taking advantage of the current insurgency to fuel more crises along religious, ethnic and regional divides, which he noted, “was very dangerous for the corporate survival of this country". He said the PDP administration under President Goodluck Jonathan reflects an ideal democracy in which every interest was represented, particularly the North. He observed that the Muslim North has occupied a fair share of the nation's ministerial positions, particularly of the principal organs like Defence, Police, Finance, Foreign Affairs and many others.

Fear looms over PDP chances in Middle Belt Buhari Bello JOS

olitical leaders and clerics from the Middle belt geopolitical zone have expressed concerns that President Goodluck Jonathan could suffer defeat in the 2015 presidential election due to the seemingly intractable crises that have rocked the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the zone. They are afraid that if the current situation in the states does not change, the presidential election will be won by General Muhammadu Buhari (rtd) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) because of apparent failure of PDP regime in managing the crises. Pastor Samuel Umaru Poul and Campaign Director General of Jonathan in 2011, Fidelis Tapgun all expressed doubt over the faith of the party in 2015. According to them, all is not well with the PDP as a result of unfulfilled promises to Nigerians since the return of democracy. According to them,

some of the PDP governors in the zone“ do not also restrain themselves from wanton abuse of political processes and imposition of candidates.” In a statement made available to New Telegraph yesterday in Jos, they pointed out their grievances that Jonathan refused to step into the complaints filed to the PDP national secretariat over the imposition of Sen. GNS Pwajok as the gubernatorial candidate in Plateau State. The statement revealed that the aggrieved party loyalists prayed for “President Jonathan to push hard for the zoning arrangement but it failed on deaf ears.” The group earlier called on indigenes of the state to troop out and collect their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs) ahead of the 2015 general elections so as to vote. “We warn President over our intention to decamp to the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC),if our plight remain neglected at the federal level. What we are saying now is that the

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will be buried in 2015 general elections.” They fear that the internal crisis and the dust raised as a result of controversial primary elections in all the states are capable of affecting its chances at the polls. Besides, the Chieftains alleged that a powerful group within the ruling party was working to destroy the party, due some alleged blunders committed by some Middle belt governors to perfect the plan, “hence the desperate effort by them to spoil the president’s chances systematically ahead of 2015. They contended that the current crisis bedevilling the PDP in the Plateau, Taraba and Benue states against the backdrop of impositions of candidates by the governors was detrimental to the party. “The presidency should be weary of the crisis in middle belt zone, coupled with the deepening crisis in all the states whereas other states in the country are in dire need of change."

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Metro Taiwo Jimoh

wo factions of thugs, who had been fighting since last week over money given to them by a Fuji musician, continued their fight on Saturday. The thugs killed two teenagers who were sleeping in their rooms at the Ijoria Badia, Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area of Lagos State. The victims, identified as Taye and Wasiu, said to be between 15 and 17 years, were murdered at different locations within the community. Three others, Shina Sherif, Rofia Muruf and Mustapha Akanbi, were injured. The residents said the fight between the factions started last weekend, but continued on Saturday, leading to the murder of the teenagers who were sleeping in their homes. In last weekend’s attack, nobody was killed, but many were injured and shops looted. In the latest attack, the rampaging youngsters who unleashed terror on the area, invaded homes and stabbed people at random. A witness said that the hoodlums attended a stage performance of the Fuji musician, identified as Remi Aluko, at Bobland Hotel, Ijora but soon engaged in a free for all

Thugs kill teenagers in their sleep when one faction, after collecting money from the musician, refused to share. The witness said: “On Saturday, about 2am, I was inside my house when I heard some residents calling for help. When we rushed out, we saw that the two young boys had been stabbed to death inside their houses while they were sleeping. They were stabbed by some of the hoodlums from Obanle and Okorede streets. Since the first incident, we have not had peace in our community. The boys had been fighting almost on a daily basis. “When we got to the scene of the incident, we rushed those who sustained injuries to a private hospital in the community. The bodies of the victims were taken to a military hospital’s mortuary.” Akanbi, 17, one of the survivors, who spoke on his hospital bed, said: “My and I friends were inside our room, sleeping when the hoodlums came to attack us. They wounded four of us. “They came straight to our apartment and broke down our door. They started stabbing everybody in the room. I could not escape their assault.

Akanbi on his hospital bed

I was given cuts on my head and arm. “I did not know when I was rushed to the hospital. We are tired of this madness and the senseless killings by these men. We urge the Lagos State Govern-

INSET: One of the damage vichles

ment and the Commissioner of Police, Mr Kayode Aderanti, to intervene in these clashes.” Another resident said: “This is festive period. We did not celebrate the Christmas in peace as everyone was

Police arrest nine, recover arms in Ogun Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

olice said yesterday they had arrested nine suspects and recovered arms and ammunition in connection with the violence that rocked Ijoko town in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State. The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Muyiwa Adejobi, disclosed this in a statement made available to journalists in Abeokuta. Crisis had erupted in Ijoko town last week following renewed chieftaincy tussle between the Onijoko of Ijoko Egbaland, Oba Lasisi Ogunseye, and Onijoko of Ijoko, Oba Abdulfatai Matanmi. The crisis led to the burning of Ogunseye’s palace and six

ABIODUN BELLO FEATURES Editor

abiodun. bello@newtelegraphonline.com

vehicles by suspected thugs as well as vandalism of two houses belonging to traditional heads (Baales) in the area. Adejobi, however, said the suspects would soon be charged to court. He added that 12 locally-made single barrelled guns, two pump action guns, 191 cartridges, two cutlasses, one axe, charms and masquerade’s regalia were recovered from the palace of Oba Matanmi while one butt of a single barrelled gun was recovered from Oba Ogunseye’s palace. The PPRO added that the two monarchs had been invited by the police for interrogation. He said: “Following the recent crises that rocked Ijoko-Ota town in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, the Ogun State Police Command has embarked on proper investigation by pouncing on the perpetrators of the crises that lasted for days and arrested nine suspects with arms and ammunition. “It would be recalled that some suspected hoodlums had been on the rampage in Ijoko-Ota area of Ogun State in connection with the lingering Onijoko obaship crises and set ablaze some houses while several people were injured. “The crises were brought under control with the efforts of the Area Commander in charge

gripped by fear, thinking that the youngsters may come to attack us at night.” Some of the residents said they were always at the receiving end whenever the youngsters chose to fight.

Gunmen kill 10 in Kaduna village Ibraheem Musa Kaduna

Ogun CP, Ikemefuna Okoye

of Ota Area Command, ACP Titilayo Kayode and the Divisional Police Officer, Ota, CSP Gabreal Idibe, before the matter was eventually transferred to the Department of Criminal Investigation (CID) on the directive of the Deputy Commissioner of Police in Department of Finance and Administration and Second in Command, DCP Haliru Gwandu, for thorough investigation. “This investigation prompted the police teams from the Department of Criminal Investigation, Police Mobile Force, coordinated by the Deputy Commissioner of police in charge of Department of Operations, Ogun State Command, DCP Egberebi Egbuson, to conduct search and raids on

the palaces and premises of the two disputing rulers, Oba Montanmi and Oba Ogunseye, on 27th December at night time. “Nine suspects were arrested and 12 locally-made single barrelled guns, two pump action guns, 191 cartridges, two cutlasses, one axe, charms and masquerade’s clothing were recovered in the palace of Oba Montanmi and one butt of a locally-made single barrelled gun was recovered in the palace of Oba Ogunseye who has also been indicted by some suspects arrested in a case of shooting and wounding that occurred at a filing station in Agbado area of Ogun State on 26th December 2014.”

unmen have killed 10 people at Tattaura village in Sanga Local Government Area of Kaduna State. A witness, Pastor Mike Maikarfi, said the gunmen carried out the attack in a guerrilla style around 10pm on Saturday and escaped into the woods. A security source said that security personnel were still combing the forest in order to fish out the attackers as at press time yesterday. Maikarfi said that the attackers also injured four persons, adding that the wounded were rushed to an undisclosed hospital located in Akwanga, Nasarawa State. He said: “The attack took place in a shop where some men were relaxing. Tattaura community celebrated Christmas yesterday night (Saturday) with dances by youths, children and adults.” At press time, arrangements to hold a mass burial for the victims were on, while sympathisers and relations were still trooping to the village over the attack. Kaduna State Government was yet to react to the attack at press time.

Metro 11

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

248 escape death in Lagos fire incidents Muritala Ayinla

Juliana Francis

t least 248 people escaped death in 1,499 fire incidents recorded in Lagos State from January to November. According to the monthly activities report of the Lagos State Fire Service, N89.94 billion worth of property were saved. Also, property estimated at N14.99 billion were destroyed in the fire incidents. In the period under review, the agency responded to 108 emergency calls ranging from rescue of victims who got drowned in the well or swimming pool and those trapped in the nine collapsed buildings recorded in the past 11 months. However, about 150 lives were lost in disaster situations, including that of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (SCOAN), which occurred on September 12. In March alone, the fire service responded to 131 fire calls, eight rescue calls and 33 false calls which totalled 172 calls. The report showed that the Lagos residents are still fond of making false calls despite government’s warning on such act as 276 false calls were made dur-

Fire engines purchased by Lagos State Government

ing the period. The value of properties saved in March alone is put at N10.32 billion. But April, N9.78 billion was saved from 163 fire incidents. Meanwhile, the state Director of Fire Service, Mr Rasak Fadipe, has appealed to the Lagos residents to stop harassing fire service personnel and trained emergency responders during emergencies. Fadipe urged the people to always assist the responders to get access to the scene

of incidents. The director, who also urged the residents to be safety conscious, said more fire incidents might be recorded in this season. He, however, said fire incidents were avoidable if the residents paid special attention to inflammable items in their houses and offices, and took necessary precaution. While handing over $16 million fire fighting equipment and trucks to the Lagos State Fire Service recently at its headquarters in Alausa, Ikeja,

Governor Babatunde Fashola urged the residents to be safety conscious, especially during this season. According to him, there are about 570 trained emergency first responders spread across all the local government areas across the state. Thegovernorsaidtheyshould be allowed to take charge of any emergency situation. He said: “As we move into the dry season, the risk of fire incident is higher and I want to advise everyone, if you have not taken a fire

Footballer, others fingered in 70 phones’ theft Shola Adefuwa

footballer, identified as Onyenge Osanie, has been arrested along with three others for robbing shops at the Alaba International Market, Lagos State. The police said the gang broke into the shops and stole 70 smart phones, including ipads valued at over N1.5 million. But the suspects insisted that it was only 10 phones they stole. Osanie, 35, Azuka Eboh (27), Ezelonwu Arinze Michael (22) and Afolabi Shakiru (21) were arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, Lagos, led by a Superintendent of Police (SP), Mr Abba Kyari. A police source said 10 suspects participated in the robbery but two were arrested during the operation, while two others were arrested in the course of the investigation. At the moment, the police are hunting for six fleeing suspects. Among the fleeing suspects, is one Friday, alleged to be the leader of the gang. Osanie, a footballer with Young Striker Football Club, said: “I was among the guys that looted a phone dealer’s shop at the Alaba International Market. “Usually we go to phone dealers who specialise in selling stolen phones to settle us. We attacked the phone dealers’ when they refused to settle us. But we only took

Female DSP, 24 others held

10 phones. “While we were still carrying out the operation, we saw SARS men. I escaped with the other seven men. The police, however, succeeded in apprehending two among us. I was traced and arrested through the two that were nabbed.” Osanie, a father of three, asked for clemency, saying: “I regretted participating in that operation.” Corroborating Osanie’s statement, Eboh said they attacked the shops because the dealers who used to settle them failed. The gang was also disappointed that the chairman of the Alaba International Market, who used to give them money sometimes, failed to show up. Eboh, unemployed, said:

The suspects

“We went to see the chairman of the Alaba International Market at Ojo. We heard he was coming to the market. We decided to pay him a courtesy visit because each time he comes around; he would give us money, which we would share among ourselves. “The chairman did not show up. Friday, our leader, decided that we should burgle shops and loot their wares. All we did was threatened the traders, so that we could loot their shops. We were not armed. Everything was the idea of our leader, Friday. He is a very popular person in the area. When we got there, we broke the show-glasses. While the operation was still on, two of our members we caught.” Michael, who used to ply Okokomaiko routes with

truck drivers, said: “I went with the group because I heard that the chairman of Alaba International Market would be coming to the market. If only I knew that I would end up here, I would not have gone with them. We took advantage of the commotion in the market to rob.” Shakiru, a bricklayer, said he was at home on the fateful day when his friend, Eboh, came to call him. He said: “Eboh said I should come to Alaba International Market. He told me that the chairman usually shares money for touts in the market. I went there to meet him. Some of us attacked the traders as if they owed us money, while others used the opportunity to loot shops. We stole only 10 phones.”

female deputy superintendent of police (DSP), attached to one of the divisions in Lagos State has been arrested for extortion. The woman, name yet not known, was said to be in the habit of extorting money from commercial bus drivers. There are speculations that someone wrote a petition to the Commissioner of Police, Mr Kayode Aderanti, over the DSP’s conduct. It was gathered that a team of policemen from the newly created CP Crack Squad, carried out surveillance for days and caught the DSP extorting money from the drivers. The DSP is, however, not the only one in police detention. Also undergoing interrogation are two kidnappers, political thugs, among others. A police source said that 25 people had been arrested in the last two weeks for corruption, kidnapping and thuggery. The suspects were nabbed in different areas of the state. Another police source said that the arrested kidnappers abducted a woman identified as Mrs Bashorun at Ajah. A team of investigators, led by Mr Igbinanazaka Ugowe, trailed the kidnappers to their hide out and rescued the woman. It was learnt that on sighting the police vehicle, the kidnappers fled into a nearby bush on the Lagos-Epe Expressway. But policemen went after them and apprehended the two men. Similarly, two Bureau De-Change robbers and eight suspected thugs were arrested at Alagbado and Isokoko/Agege areas. It was gathered that Aderanti gave the CP Crack Squad an order to flush out undesirable elements in the state. Last week, the Port Authority Police (PAP) in Apapa arrested five vandals. The policemen led by the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Bashir Abdulahi, swooped on the suspects.

Pastor, wife held as teenagers drown Adeolu Adeyemo Osogbo

pastor of a Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) in Ile Ife, Osun State and his wife are now being interrogated by the police in connection with the drowning of two members of their church in a swimming pool at a recreational centre in Osogbo. The victims, identified as Ayomide Fagbola and one Ifeoluwa, were said to have attended the church programme organised for youths on December 23 by the leadership of the church. It was learnt that the teenagers, aged between 15 and 17 years, died before the people around got to know of the incident. Sources said that Ifeoluwa was the first to get drowned when he fell inside the pool while Ayomide also lost his life trying to rescue his friend. A police source told journalists in Osogbo that the pastor and his wife were now being quizzed by the police. However, it was gathered that parents of the deceased did not believe the victims as a deep cut was reportedly found in the neck of one of them. The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Mrs Folasade Odoro, could not be reached on her mobile phones for comment. But a top police officer, who preferred anonymity, confirmed the report.

News

NATION'S CAPITAL

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Jonathan to unveil 10 Abuja land swap districts Yekeen Nurudeen ABUJA

s part of efforts to engender even development in the Federal Capital Territory, arrangements are being made by the FCT admin-

istration to perform the ground breaking ceremony of the Abuja Land Swap Initiative. According to the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, President Goodluck Jonathan would perform the ground breaking ceremony of 10 land swap

districts on January 8, 2015. Mohammed, who disclosed this when he received members of the FCTA Press Corps who paid him Christmas homage, said the ceremony would jump start development in those areas to bid farewell to land

speculation, freezing and racketeering in the nation's capital. He said it would also reduce drastically, housing deficit in the territory in tune with the Transformation Agenda of the Federal Government. The Minister further announced that the FCT

Administration has concluded arrangements for the President to also officially flag-off the multi billion naira Jabi Lake Resort, which is being executed under the Public-Private-Partnership (PPP). While commending President Jonathan for

97%

The percentage of onchorocerciasis (a parasitic infection) accounted by Africa of the world’s burden. Source: Unesco.org

N8.44m

The total capital importation value of the Consultancy sector in 2009. Source: National Bureau of Statistics

4,800

The number of adults and children estimated to be living with HIV in Denmark in 2008. Source: Blatantworld.com

18,600

The number of facilities providing antiretroviral therapy in low-and middle-income countries in 2009. Source: Who.int

Picnickers at Wonderland Amusement Park in Abuja …at the weekend

FCT Minister donates N20m to Bauchi bomb blast victims INSURGENCY Minister debunks claims that FG fuels Boko Haram

Mohammed Kawu BAUCHI

he Federal Government has debunked the insinuations by some Nigerians that it has hands in Boko Haram insurgency in parts of the North and Northeast geo-political zone in particular. Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, who dispelled the insinuations, said it was inappropriate for those Nigerians to apportion blame of Boko Haram on the FG simply to satisfy their political machinations. “I also want to seize this opportunity to dissuade some insinuations and lies that are being

said that the Federal Government has hands in some of these bombings,” the Minister said. Mohammed, who was in Bauchi yesterday to sympathize with victims of last Monday’s bomb blast at the Bauchi Central market, explained that it was unfair for anybody to blame the FG on Boko Haram insurgency. “I’m here with Director-General of NEMA on the instruction of President Goodluck Jonathan to commiserate with you over the colossal loss of lives and properties that happened here; that he shares your grief and he is with you”, the Minister stated. “It is unfair for anybody to use blood of people to play politics, cheap popularity that can be achieved using mischief and treachery is not good but certainly, we are not going to join issues with anybody. The Federal Government is the beneficiary of the people because you have voted for us and you will continue to vote for us”.

The FCT Minister, who on behalf of himself, friends and associates, donated the sum of N20 million in aid of victims of the Bauchi bomb blast, appealed to the people against peddling bad information which tends to negate development, growth and prosperity. Mohammed explained that the initial donation was to provide succour and solace to those, who are terribly in need and those being taken care of whereas NEMA on behalf of the Federal Government will provide building materials for the destroyed market structures for complete rebuilding. “We are also ready when the Government of Bauchi State establishes institutional framework for us to come and contribute because we know so many people in Abuja and in Nigeria. We are willing to contribute to the mediation of this very important market, which is the centre point of our commercial activities in Bauchi”.

HURIWA wants stiff legal action against rapists, corruption Kenneth Tyohemba

uman Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has raised alarm over the incessant cases of rape and corruption in the country, and has vowed to do anything within the confinement of the law to bring perpetrators book. National Coordinator of HURIWA, Mr. Emmanuel Onwubiko, stated this during the public presentation of his book titled "Who Cares about Human Rights". The 1025 page book,

which is the highlight of human rights challenges confronting Nigerians, also sought constructive and legal modalities for redressing such crimes, and protecting human rights. Prominent issues raised by the author centred on rape, subsidy withdrawal, and corruption among others. Onwubiko decried the prevalence of rape cases and sexual violations in the country, which according to him, has overtaken India, a country notorious for rape cases.

Police arrest two kidnappers at Madalla Yusuf Shuaib ABUJA

he Nigeria Police command has arrested two suspected kidnappers for kidnapping one Henry Christian at gun point at Madalla, a border town between Abuja and Niger State.

The kidnappers had demanded a ransom of N30 million on their victim from his family. The two suspects are Austin Arikpo, 25 years old from Cross Rivers State based in Ogun State and Abdulraman Adamu, 22 years old, a vigilante member based in Madalla.

recognising journalists by giving them portfolio in his cabinet, Mohammed said the President has done creditably well for the members of the Fourth Estate of the Realm by giving them unimaginable positions of responsibilities in the country since he took over the mantle of country’s leadership. He said that the President has brought journalists into various aspects of responsibilities instead of the traditional positions of managers, Public Relations Officers or in the areas of Corporate Affairs. Mohammed thus, promised that as a journalist, he would do everything possible not to bring shame to the journalism profession because he is one of the major beneficiaries of the profession. He recalled with nostalgia the role Jonathan’s administration has played in making the national headquarters of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to comfortably settle down in its permanent site in Mabushi District of the Federal Capital City as well as the on-going overhaul of the FCT Council of the Union, in Utako District of Abuja.

Publisher urges Christians to reflect at Christmas Yusuf Shuaib ABUJA

ublisher of Don and Diva magazine, Lady Queen Ikwuazom, has called on all Christians in the country and especially those in the Diaspora to use the Christmas season celebration to seek God’s intervention for a way out of the nation’s socio-economic challenges. Ikwuazom made the call at a Christmas carol celebration she organized for Don and Diva staff in Abuja. The Christmas Carol is a yearly celebration organized for her staff to show appreciation for a job well done and to usher them into a prosperous new year, she said. While she appealed to Christians to use the Christmas celebration to reflect on God’s perfect gift to mankind, she urged all her staff to do their job with the fear of God in discharging their duty to her and especially to all mankind, if they intend to receive God’s blessing.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

2014 review

Interview

Election

14, 15

Defection, probes, emergency rule, budget top Senate session

Two-party system good for Nigeria, says Dauda

Jonathan, Buhari and 2015 presidency

Politics Torn apart by politics The relationship between some individuals in Ondo State has become strained over the sharing of elective positions between former members of the Labour Party (LP) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Prominent among the relationship turned sour was the one between Governor Olusegun Mimiko and former Minister of Power and Steel, Dr. Olu Agunloye. BABATOPE OKEOWO reports

L-R: Agunloye, Remi Okunrinboye and Mimiko... when the going was good.

he tussle over the sharing of elective positions between old and new members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ondo State has healed some old wounds and inflicted fresh ones on others as the control of the party structures has turned many erstwhile friends to enemies and erstwhile foes to friends. When Governor Olusegun Mimiko dumped PDP in 2006 to seek political fortune in Labour Party (LP), some of his friends in the PDP joined him to help realise his ambition while some of them became his political enemies. Prominent among those who joined him in the LP’s train were Alhaji Ali Olanusi and Boluwaji Kunlere, the chairman and secretary of the state chapter of PDP respectively. While Olanusi became

AYODELE OJO

DEPUTY Editor, POLITICS ayodele.ojo@newtelegraphonline.com

Mimiko’s running mate, Kunlere got the senatorial ticket for Ondo South senatorial district. Also were Dr. Olu Agunloye, a former Minister of Power and Col. Roland Omowa (rtd), former ADC to Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo when he was Military Head of State. But some people instantly became Mimiko’s archenemies as the battle for the political soul of the state between late Dr. Olusegun Agagu and Mimiko lingered. Among them was the then Commissioner for Information, Dr. Eddy Olafeso; deputy governor, Otunba Omolade Oluwateru; Prof. Olu Agbi, the chairman of Agagu Campaign Organisation; Dr. Bode Olajumoke, a member of Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP; Chief Segun Adegoke and Chief Olusola Oke, who are prominent members of the ruling PDP. But the recent move of Mimiko from LP to PDP has made many of these political figures to change camps and affiliations. Although some of them including Olajumoke, Agbi and Adegoke have joined Mimiko’s team even though they remained in the PDP; those who had always remained on the fence in any political dispute have now made their stance known in

Agunloye was practically living in Government House as he was given a chalet at the presidential wing of the lodge to stay each time he was in Akure for any assignment

the recent debacle. Prominent in this group is billionaire businessman, Jimoh Ibrahim. However, one name that has always come up in political discussion in the state is that of Agunloye, who in one breath is Mimiko’s friend and in another, his enemy; the development that made many political observers in the state to wonder whether the former Corp Marshal of Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and minister is a friend of Mimiko or his foe. Although the relationship between Agunloye and Mimiko predated this political dispensation as they were members of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) in Second Republic and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Third Republic, the relationship became more cordial when the Alliance for Democracy (AD) was formed. Both of them were parts of the founding members of the party. While Mimiko was made the Commissioner for Health, Agunloye moved to the national scene as Special Assistant to former Minister of Justice, late Chief Bola Ige. Even as a governor of the state, Mimiko would refer to Agunloye as Bros Olu while he (Agunloye) would refer to Mimiko Mr. Governor in public and Rahman in private. The relationship between

them was both official and private. In 2003, when Mimiko wanted to contest for the governorship ticket of the AD, he had Agunloye and some young bloc within the party supporting him. However, the zoning arrangement in the party ruled him out. The leadership of the party zoned the position to Ondo North senatorial district while Mimiko is from Ondo Central senatorial district. The zoning which was announced on the day of the governorship primaries left all the aspirants except the incumbent, Chief Adebayo Adefarati disillusioned. Although some of the aspirants remained in the party in order to sabotage the system, Mimiko decided to leave the party for the rival PDP. Although Agunloye was officially a member of AD, he facilitated Mimiko’s defection to the PDP. Agunloye who was a minister spearheaded the negotiation between Mimiko and the PDP’s candidate, Agagu. It was that negotiation that ceded the position of Secretary to the State Government (SSG) to Mimiko and that Agagu would only run for one term in office. During the negotiation, Agunloye was the only trusted ally of Mimiko as he never trusted Agagu to honour his words. A source, CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

Politics

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

2014 in review

Defection, probes, emergency rule, budget top Senate session CHUKWU DAVID chronicles the various major events, including legislative activities, undertaken by the Senate in 2014

Season of defection Towards the end of 2013, a gale of defection erupted in the Senate. The development threatened to disrupt the peace that the Upper Chamber had been known for in the past seven years. Eleven Senators had written to the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, indicating their intention to dump the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) . The senators were Bukola Saraki, Abdulahi Adamu, Shaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;aba Lafiaji, Ibrahim Gobir, Aisha AlHassan, Magnus Abe, Wilson Ake, Mohammed Jibrilla, Danjuma Goje, Ali Ndume and Umar Dahiru. They, however, met a brick wall as Mark restrained them. He warned of the grave consequences of their action. He anchored his position on the fact that the defecting lawmakers had already gone to court on the issue. Mark and his Deputy, Ike Ekweremadu had on different occasions refused to read the letter of the senators. The second leg of the drama manifested when the Senate, while trying to avoid washing its dirty linen in public, through closeddoor sessions tried to persuade the aggrieved senators to withdraw their letter but without success. Senate spokesman, Enyinnaya Abaribe, earlier told journalists that the senators could not defect jointly as they were all elected independently. Senator Saraki led the others on the floor to raise points of order citing Section 15 of the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended), from where they lamented that their privileges as senators were being breached. Despite their protests and attempts to disrupt Senate proceedings, Mark, who was adamant to read their letter on the floor of the Senate, argued that he was legally constrained from making reference to the matter since it was pending in court for adjudication. Mark insisted that the Senate must not subvert its rules of not discussing any matter that will be sub-juridical to a matter in court. Although the Senate stopped mentioning the matter on the floor, some of the senators ignored the position of the Senate and went ahead to join the APC. The matter is still in court.

Minister of Interior, Abba Moro (second right) and others at the Senate public hearing on the Nigerian Immigration Service recruitment.

Bills As at the close of legislative business in plenary on June 5, 2014, marking one legislative year from June 6, 2013, a total of 187 Bills were introduced to the Senate. These Bills included those passed, withdrawn, read a second time, committed to either standing committees or committee of the whole, consolidated or published but yet to be read. Of the 187 Bills, nine were executive bills while the remaining 178 were private-member Bills. Private-member Bills are those that are sponsored by members of the Senate while executive Bills are sponsored by either the president, his cabinet members or other individuals and agencies under the Executive arm of government. The nine Executive Bills included the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Centre Bill 2014 (SB. 344); Cyber Crime Bill 2014 (SB. 38), Nigerian Metallurgical Industry Bill 2014 (SB. 461), National Fertilizer Bill 2014 (SB. 462); Proceeds of Crimes Bill 2014 (SB. 471), and National Tobacco Control Bill 2014 (SB. 477). Others are: Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Bill 2014 (SB. 470); 2013 Appropriation (Amendment) Bill (SB. 344) and 2014 Appropriation Bill (SB. 437). Again, of the number of Bills pending with the session, 14 were read a second time and referred to the relevant committees for further legislative action. Moreover, 13 out of the 187 Bills were passed to the final stage by the Senate, pending presidential assent. Those in this group were: Federal Capital Territory College of Education (Establishment) Bill 2013 (HB. 40); Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities (Prohibi-

The situation provoked speculations that the Senate might not consider the report because of the strong connections of some of the major actors in the recruitment exercise

tion) Bill 2012 (SB. 102); Companies and Allied Matters Act CAP C20 LFN 2004 (Amendment) Bill 2014 (SB. 185); National Assembly Service Commission Act Cap. N7 2004 (Repeal and Re-enactment) 2014 (SB. 245); 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Further Alteration) Bill 2013 (SB. 261). Others are Pension Reform Act Cap P4. LFN 2011 (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill 2014 (SB. 288); Motor Vehicle (Prohibition of Tinted Glass) Act Cap M21 LFN 2011 (Amendment) Bill 2013 (SB. 289); 2013 Appropriation Act (Amendment) Bill NO. 2 (SB. 344); 2014 Appropriation Bill (SB. 437); HIV and AIDS Anti-Discrimination Bill 2014 (SB. 258); Trafficking in Persons (Prohibition) Act 2003 (Amendment) Bill 2014 (SB. 264); FCT Internal Revenue Board Bill 2014 (SB. 203); Constitution (Alteration) Bill 2014 (SB. 77). In an effort to make corporate bodies and agencies liable for their acts of negligence, dereliction of duty or gross incompetence which results in a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death, the Senate on September 23, considered clause by clause and passed the Corporate Manslaughter Bill. Emergency rule Another achievement of the Senate in 2014 was the approval of the extension of the state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states in accordance with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution. This was done to enable the Federal Government sustain military action in tackling the menace of Boko Haram insurgency in the North East. However, getting this approval for the second extension of the emergency rule was not an easy task because representatives of the three affected states in the

Senate and some other northern senators resisted the request of President Goodluck Jonathan on the argument that the emergency rule had not provided the expected quick end to the problem. It took a lot of horse trading and intense political bargaining to get the senators from the North-East and the North-West geopolitical zones to yield to this national demand. After days of politicking, lobbying and negotiations, the senators who opposed the extension relapsed their position and supported the project. Meanwhile, before lending their support to the proposal, the northern lawmakers had to place a caveat as condition for supporting the extension. According to the proponents of such campaign, the conditions would facilitate effective combat of the insurgency as well as cushion the effects of the devastating activities of the terrorists in the affected zone. One of the conditions stipulated in the approved document by the Senate was that, there should be special recruitment into the Armed Forces of screened and vetted youths, particularly those in the civilian JTF, who would receive emergency training and deployed to the troubled zone in order to crush the Boko Haram sect within the shortest possible time. Another condition used to bargain for the approval of the presidential request by the opposing senators were: That the Federal Government in conjunction with state governments should come with an Economic Marshal Plan to revive the status of the economically and educationally backward parts of the country. They also implored the Federal Government to seek and secure multi-lateral sup-

Politics

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

2014 in review

Okonjo-Iweala presenting the 2015 budget to the Senate.

Senate in session.

$49.8 billion was arrived at by the CBN governor for instance. The CBN governor at the first hearing had put forward the figure of $12 billion as monies to be reconciled and changed his position to $20 billion at subsequent hearing. At the conclusion of his written submission, he posited that it could be $20 billion, $10.8 billion or anything in-between.” The committee also criticised the Federal Ministry of Finance, CBN and the NNPC over what it perceived as lack of co-ordination in record keeping in respect of crude oil proceeds remittances. The committee, therefore, recommended that inter-agencies reconciliation meetings between sensitive economic institutions such as Ministry of Finance, NNPC, CBN and Federal Inland Revenue Service should be held on regular basis in order to ensure that all revenues are properly and legally accounted for. Mark presiding over a session.

port for the Marshal plan. The senators also stipulated that President Jonathan should prepare and submit to the National Assembly, supplementary budget to meet any established financial requirements needed to combat the insurgency. Moreover, the Upper Chamber impressed on Mr. President to immediately approve intervention funds to the affected states for development, so as to cushion the devastating effects of the war against terrorism and insurgency in the North-East. In addition to these conditions, the Senate resolved that the Federal Government should expand the military cooperation and collaboration with the international community on the rescue of Chibok girls, to the overall arrest of the ugly incidence of terrorism in Nigeria. It also implored the Federal Government to properly equip the Armed forces. Unfortunately, from the time of the last extension to date, there have been series of developments in the three states under emergency rule, suggesting that the insurgency was not abating. Therefore, when President Jonathan sent another letter in November to the National Assembly, requesting the two Chambers to grant him another approval for the extension of the emergency rule, the Senators from the North-East and North-West rose against it and the request was not approved until the period of the emergency expired. This means that, if emergency rule has to continue in the area, the president has to proclaim it afresh and then bring it to the National Assembly for ratification. $49.8bn alleged NNPC missing fund The first probe concluded by the Senate within the period under review was

the $49.8 billion alleged missing fund in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). The investigation actually started in December 2013. The probe dragged for a long time because it was highly contentious, following the controversies surrounding it in the first instance. Former governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi had in September 2013, alleged that the NNPC was owing the national treasury the sum of $49.8 billion unremitted oil revenue from the various transactions it carried out from January 2012 to July 2013. Worried by the weighty nature of the allegation, the Senate mandated its Committee on Finance in December 2013, to investigate the matter in order to ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of Sanusi’s claims. At the end of the investigation, the Senate on July 10 adopted the report of the Committee, which was headed by the former governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, who is also the chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance. While considering the 73-page report, the lawmakers rejected the committee’s recommendation, which called on the Federal Government to remove the subsidy on petroleum products because of the alleged misapplication of billions of dollars being voted annually for the scheme. Amongst other issues, the report said that the claim of the then CBN boss was not totally true. It also accused him of making hasty conclusions and generating false allegations against the nation’s oil corporation which unnecessarily overheated the polity. Part of the report said: “The committee could not see how the figure of

Immigration recruitment The Senate instituted this probe to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the March 15, 2014 tragedy, during which some Nigerians who went for the Nigerian immigration Service (NIS) recruitment aptitude test at some centres across the country lost their lives while many sustained different degrees of injuries in various stampedes that erupted at the centres. The report of the investigation was laid on the floor of the Senate by the chairman of the Probe Panel, Senator Atiku Bagudu on May 28, 2014 but it has not been considered by the Red Chamber till date. Expectedly, the situation provoked speculations that the Senate might not consider the report because of the strong connections of some of the major actors in the recruitment exercise with some powerful persons in government particularly within the Senate leadership. Invasion of National Assembly On November 26, 2014, the Senate set up a seven-man ad hoc committee to investigate the invasion of the National Assembly on November 20, 2014 by the Nigeria Police Force and the Directorate of the State Security (DSS). The members of the ad hoc committee are: Senators Ahmad Makarfi (chairman), Atiku Bagudu, Victor Lar, Gbenga Kaka, Paulinus Nwagu, Jubrillila Bindo and Ehigie Uzamere. The invasion resulted from the alleged attempt by the security men to stop the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal, and other members of the lower chamber from entering the National Assembly complex on that day; an action that provoked rage and commotion within the premises of the parliament, as canisters of tear gas were detonated by the Police to scare the

lawmakers. Before setting up the probe panel, the Senate had already condemned terms what it described as unconstitutional action and breach of the privileges of the members of the National Assembly by the security operatives, who claimed that they barricaded the area based on the security report that hoodlums plotted to invade the parliament that fateful day. As the probe is ongoing, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) attached to the National Assembly, Mr. James Idachaba, has entangled himself in the matter as he alleged that one of the security agents in the office of the President of the Senate, Senator David Mark, was responsible for the tear-gassed attack on Tambuwal. Idachaba, while testifying before the probe panel, told the committee that the police officers from the FCT Command were not responsible for throwing tear gas that affected Tambuwal. However, Senator Mark has denied the allegation that security men from his office carried out the condemnable act, describing it as false, mischievous and wicked, pointing out that the allegation coming from the DPO, who spoke based on hearsay, as he was not present at the scene of the event was baseless. Confirmation of presidential nominations On January 30, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Kenneth Minimah, Chief of Air Staff and Chief of Naval Staff. On February 18, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Gen. Aliyu Gusau, Musiliu Obanikoro and nine others as ministers. On March 26, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Godwin Emefiele as the CBN governor and Justice Zainab Bulkachuwa as the President of the Court of Appeal. On May 27, the Senate approved the appointment of Prof. Jumai Audi as a commissioner in the Nigerian Law Reform Commission. On July 2nd, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Malam Ibrahim Shekarau, Adedayo Adeyeye and three others as ministers. On July 16, the Senate confirmed appointments of Osita Chidoka and Sulaiman Abubakar as new ministers. Similarly, on November 12, the Senate approved the appointment of Dr. John Madugu as the representative of Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau states in the Federal Civil Service Commission. Also, on November 18, the Senate confirmed the appointment of Mr. Mahmud Mohammed as the new Chief Justice of CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

16 Politics

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Again, Mimiko, Agunloye part ways C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 3

who was privy to the negotiation, said Mimiko would not attend any meeting that Agunloye would not be present. Eventually, Mimiko dumped AD for PDP, but the relationship between Agunloye and his fellow Akoko kinsman, late Adefarati was destroyed. Several adverts were placed in the newspapers by the state government to berate Agunloye. That did not deter him as he officially joined PDP and worked for the success of his party. Agunloye who was privy to the one-term pact between Agagu and Mimiko decided to team up with Mimiko in 2006 to form Labour Party (LP) when it was obvious he could not contest the PDP’s primaries with the incumbent governor. While Agunloye was in support of Mimiko to wrest power from Agagu, he was also destroying the relationship with Agagu who was his friends since their university days. Both Agagu and Agunloye were in University of Ibadan as lecturers and they had personal and business relationships. The understanding between the duo in 2009 when Mimiko became the governor courtesy of the Court of Appeal Court sitting in Benin, Edo State that nullified the electoral victory of Agagu was that Agunloye would be the senatorial candidate of LP for Ondo North senatorial seat in the 2011 general election. However, a relatively new political figure, Prof. Robert Ajayi Boroffice surfaced and clinched the ticket. Boroffice as Director General of National Space Research and Development Agency (NASRDA) also supported Mimiko in his quest to becoming the governor. When he wanted to compose the state executive council, Mimiko reportedly offered to

Mimiko

Agunloye

give a commissioner slot to Boroffice’s wife. He rejected the offer saying his support for Mimiko was without condition. But the condition surfaced in 2011 when he demanded the senatorial position for Ondo North of LP from the governor. As the leader (Asiwaju) of Akoko, Boroffice came to the governor with all the monarchs in the area to say he was their candidate for the election. The governor was now caught between his promise to Agunloye and the demand of the monarchs from four local governments out of six that made up the senatorial district. The governor had no choice than to sacrifice Agunloye for Borroffice. However, Mimiko did not leave Agunloye entirely in the lurch but offered to compen-

The governor did not have a choice than to concede to Olajumoke who all members of the party in the zone see as a leader

sate him with House of Representative seat for Akoko North-East/ North-East federal constituency. Agunloye did not only reject the offer, he defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to realise the ambition. Backed by the power of incumbency, Boroffice defeated Agunloye and Dr. Bode Olajumoke to clinch the senatorial seat. Barely six months in the Senate, Boroffice left LP and moved to ACN to contest the governorship ticket of the party. Boroffice and Agunloye eventually became members of the same party fighting for the same ticket for the second time within a year. But this time, both of them lost the ticket as the leadership of the party settled for Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as the flag

bearer of the party. Again Mimiko had to approach Agunloye and asked him to dump ACN. He reportedly vowed that he would be the LP’s senatorial candidate in the event that the recall process of Boroffice did not see the light of the day. Having rejoined LP, Agunloye was practically living in Government House as he was given a chalet at the presidential wing of the lodge to stay each time he was in Akure for any assignment. When Mimiko rejoined the PDP which he left in 2006 to realise his governorship ambition, Agunloye also joined with him with the hope that he would be the candidate of the party for the election. But the former minister has again been schemed out as the senatorial slot has been given to Olajumoke who is a member of the old PDP. Giving an insight on how Agunloye lost out, a source said in the build up to the merger between old LP and old PDP in the state, it was clear that the BoT of the PDP was interested in Olajumoke who is one of them and a former senator. The governor did not have a choice than to concede to Olajumoke who all members of the party in the zone see as a leader. Aggrieved that Mimiko could not stand for him, Agunloye joined the Jimoh Ibrahim-led faction of the party and became its senatorial candidate. The relationship between Agunloye and Mimiko has again become strained as the duo are no longer on the same political page. Whether or not they would mend fences and work together is yet to be seen as the two of them are trying to outsmart each other in the battle for the control of the soul of PDP in the state.

Defection, probes, emergency rule, budget top Senate session Constitution review The Senate on October 21 approved the report of the Conference Committee on the Fourth Alteration of the 1999 Constitution Amendment Bill, 2014, as amended. Also in keeping with its determination to facilitate expeditious passage of the report to bring the amendments into effect as quickly as possible, the Upper Chamber also, on October 28, transmitted the report to the Conference of Speakers of the 36 states of the Federation for their immediate ratification too. Similarly, on December 19, the state assemblies returned the document to the Senate after voting on the various items passed by the National Assembly. Although the state lawmakers disappointed Nigerians by killing the proposal by the federal parliament to grant autonomy to the local governments, it is evident that the National Assembly hastened the constitution amendment process at least in the last edition.

passed the 2014 budget totalling N4.695 trillion, an amount which is N52.2 billion higher than the N4.642 trillion which was submitted by President Jonathan to the National Assembly on December 19, 2013, through the Co-ordinating Minister for the Economy and Minister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Okonjo-Iweala on December 17, presented the 2015 budget estimates of N4.4 trillion to the Senate. A breakdown of the figure shows that government proposed N627 billion for capital expenditure and N2.622 trillion for recurrent expenditure. That was the same day the Senate adjourned plenary for Christmas holiday and also to participate in the various political activities that have been going on in the political parties preparatory to the 2015 general election. In his brief statement after the Minister laid the budget proposals, Mark said that the Upper Chamber would commence consideration of the document in January. With more fall in the crude oil prices in the international market, the government has reduced the benchmark to $65 per barrel, with exchange rate of N165 to a dollar for 2015 fiscal year. As the Senate resumes plenary on January 13, 2014, the legislators will begin to tinker with the budget estimates.

2014 and 2015 budgets The Senate on Wednesday April 9,

Senate summons military top brass The Senate on September 18 sum-

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 6

Nigeria (CJN) to replace Justice Aloma Mukhtar whose tenure expired recently, following the attainment of mandatory retirement age of 70 years.

moned the National Security Adviser (NSA) Colonel Sambo Dasuki (rtd), Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshall Alex Badeh and Chief of Army Staff, Kenneth Minimah over the alleged smuggled $9.3 million dollars seized by South African authorities. The summon was issued by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence and Army, Senator George Sekibo. The invitation was as a result of media reports that South African police caught two Nigerians and an Israeli with $9.3 million cash, which they allegedly wanted to use for arms importation for the Federal Government of Nigeria. On September 23, Badeh and Minimah met with committee at a closeddoor session that lasted for many hours. Furore over return ticket On November 4, indications emerged that the PDP senators who lost return tickets at the party’s ward congresses planned to tackle President Jonathan for allegedly delivering the party structures to the state governors. Consequently, the Senate abridged its plenary session that day to enable the PDP Senate Caucus meet and fashion out means of surviving the imminent political tsunami. The development made the senators to start lobbying for automatic

return ticket, after being rendered helpless by the outcome of the congresses, where majority of them failed poorly. When this appeared to have failed, the Senate decided to shut down the Chamber until their demands were met. Consequently, Mark led the aggrieved PDP Senators to a meeting with President Jonathan and the leadership of the party to discuss the crisis and perhaps proffer solution to the problem. Unfortunately, the meeting, though seemed to have yielded fruitful result as the party leadership and Jonathan allegedly promised to give automatic tickets to at least two senators from each state, the lawmakers were eventually disappointed as most of them lost out at the primary elections. This later led to speculations in the media that some senators were plotting to impeach President Jonathan. However, Senator Abdulkadir Jajere from Yobe State later came out openly to claim that the touted impeachment plot was real and assured that they would execute their plot after the last resumption. Ironically, no mention was made of the matter until the Senate went on Christmas and New Year recess last week. It is possible that they might resume the game plan against Mr. President on resumption in January 2015.

Politics 17

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Prof. Saleh Dauda is of the Political Science Department of the University of Abuja and delegate to the 2014 National Conference. In this interview with ONYEKACHI EZE, he speaks on some of the recommendations of the conference and other national issues. Excerpts:

You were a member of the National Conference that ended some months ago. In your calculation, do you think the recommendations of the conference can solve Nigeria’s problems? The recommendations of the 2014 National Conference were very far-reaching and if the government can implement them it could go a long way in redressing some of the structural imbalances that the military created in this country. There were so many recommendations in terms of the structure of the federation, economy, foreign policy, creation of states and local government areas. These were far-reaching. Let me give you an example. The conference recommended that creation of local governments should be a state matter, not necessarily a Federal Government matter because they discovered that the military favoured certain parts of this country with the creation of more local governments in their zones to the exclusion of others. So, the conference said it should be a state matter. If any state wants to create 100 local government areas, that should be its responsibility. Another recommendation was the creation of additional state for the South East. In terms of the electoral process, the conference recommended that the State Independent Electoral Commissions (SIECs) should be strengthened, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should be strengthened and the impartiality of INEC should be guaranteed. And in terms of foreign policy, there were so many recommendations that if implemented the Nigerian state will play a dominant role in the international arena. So, the report of the National Conference, if implemented by the government, will go a long way in creating a new Nigeria of our dream where there will be no domination of man by man neither will there be exploitation by man. It will create an egalitarian society based on rule of law, justice, fairness and equity. Few months after the report has been submitted are you not worried that nothing has been done about it? Well, the president has constituted an implementation committee, and definitely, they are working towards its implementation. And the recent statement by the president when he went for Yor-

Two-party system good for Nigeria, says Dauda So, the only solution is not how to implement the law but how to educate the Nigerian voters that the person that comes to you with money to buy your vote is not a good candidate, because once he gets to power he will recoup what he has spent. So, the best solution is for the electorate to vote according to their conscience and not the money they receive from politicians.

Dauda

uba Elders’ Consultative meeting shows clearly that the report will be implemented. So, government is really working towards implementing these decisions. But you should also bear in mind that these decisions never went down well with some geopolitical zones and they will do everything within their reach to ensure that some of these recommendations are not implemented.

cations to contest elections. We argued that somebody aspiring to be the president of this country should have the intellectual capacity to understand the complexity of governance to be able to govern well. And in that light, we recommended a minimum qualification (Diploma) a candidate must have before he or she will contest for the presidency of this country.

You were a member of the Committee on Political Parties and Electoral Matters, how can you assess the nation’s political system? Just like the Supreme Court decision, we decided that registration of political parties should be liberalised, that INEC should be strengthened and that political parties that emerged, just like in other developed countries where you find political parties emerging just to contest maybe local government and state elections and they remain at that level; they don’t want to go further. You can cite example of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). APGA as a political party has been contesting local government and state elections. They have not been fielding candidate for the presidency. So, we agreed that political parties should be allowed to exist at whatever levels. We also looked critically at the role of state electoral commissions and we came to the conclusion that the SIECs, are really threats to democracy because more often than not you discover that the party in power (in the state) will sweep all the polls. So, we decided that chief executives should not be directly responsible for nominating members of SIECs and that these bodies should be strengthened to guarantee free and fair elections. We also looked at the qualifi-

What do you make of our type of cash-and-carry campaign where there seems to be no limit on the amount of money a candidate could spend during electioneering? We talked about this extensively but one of the problems we envisaged was what machinery should be put in place to monitor spending during elections. In fact, it is there in the Electoral Act that a candidate should not spend more than certain amount of money. But implementing it in Nigeria is a herculean task because politicians have a way of circumventing the law; they have a way of spending money that cannot be accounted for. Even though we appreciated the fact that money should play a role in politics, we looked at it critically and we came to the conclusion that one of our problems has been problem of implementing the laws and not formulation.

Once you have twoparty system, it provides forum for melting pot of diverse Nigerian groups to come up with acceptable ideology

What do you think should be the most effective machinery to check influence of money in politics? The only machinery is for the electorate to vote according to their conscience. It is not something you can eradicate overnight. For example, if a politician suddenly discovers that no matter the amount of money he spends in buying the electorate it is not working, he will think twice.

What is your impression on INEC’s preparations for the 2015 elections? INEC is doing well even though there were complaints here and there in the distribution of Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs). The only thing they need to do is to ensure that every Nigerian has access to his or her PVC. That is what they should do to ensure free and fair elections. And judging by what has happened so far, it is very clear that INEC is not being manipulated by the Federal Government. INEC is an independent body. Some of the elections conducted so far, the opposition parties have won. The opposition won in Edo, Ondo, Anambra, and Osun. The only state where PDP won was in Ekiti. So by and large, INEC has maintained its neutrality as unbiased umpire in the electoral process in this country. Few days ago, INEC complained about funding. What is your take on this? I believe if there is problem of funding I don’t think it is peculiar to INEC, it is peculiar to all the government agencies and I don’t think the presidency wants to starve INEC of fund so that the body will be subservient to it. It is a problem of every organisation of the Federal Government and I believe money will be released to INEC to conduct the elections. Nigeria is moving towards a twoparty system with the emergence of two dominant political parties. What does this portend for the nation? To me, I like the country to move to two-party system because that will eliminate regionalism, ethnicity, and other primordial sentiments that hinder national development. Once you have two-party system, it provides a melting pot of diverse Nigerian groups to come up with acceptable ideology. This will go a long way in strengthening our democracy; national integration; national unity and cohesion in this country. Honestly, I like two-party system. The two-party system we had – the National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) was very good. The only problem then was that these two parties were decreed by the military. But the voting patterns cut across cultures, it cut across religious divides.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Opinion When lepers seek for throne Emmanuel Nicholas

hey are like lepers bundled in a colony of the reproach, kept away from the noble men. Though they struggle to be heard, their voices are too faint that no credible mind could hear nor understand their cruel homily. Often they are weeping but pretend to be talking. Unconscious of the reality, they decorously boast of their intellectuality and acceptability . They are in the mould of an adulterous wife who sees no truth in the ills of infidelity as indulges in the trade without any sign of repentance; making the unfortunate husband an object of ridicule before his peers. They know the right but excavate a bottomless grave and bury lies. But negative force can never overcome the positive vibration. This is why the right will never be diminished for the wrong to be enthroned. Welcome them with golden gloves, but when they leave their lips will hunt you with blasphemy, telling the world that you are a lizard without vertebrate and a sheep with a lion’s teeth. Avoid them if you can, because they are not even among the necessary evils of life. Everyday they fabricate rumours with heavy coloration of evil, targeting at people they presume to stand a chance against their advantage. Little did I know that when my grandmother said, when you help your wife to clean her anus, one day she will ask you to leak it or she will not allow you to consult her womanhood. The price of being a priest is too high, for he must be a man of one wife and one word , Prophet T B Joshua once ,re-titled a fellow priest in his arena of liberty, when it was discovered that the man had six children from six women, and all the mothers and the children present at the record time. So when the man wanted to testify of God’s deliverance in his life, and said, my name is Pastor Alaba, the humble man of God took over the microphone and asked him to address himself as Mister and not a Pastor, for his deeds do not merit that honourable and respectable title in every sense of it. Most people who parade themselves as hilltop mansion seekers do not merit that throne, not because they don’t have the

political will or educational qualification, some are even too experienced in governance but what Akwa Ibom State need now is beyond all these The State needs a leader who has vision and can accomplish it, a man who can set up the geography of his mission and actualize it; a leader with an assignment, that can be achieved The State at this season does not need a story teller, or a leader who will come to victimize his enemies nor a man who is a racist and sees no good in other race. Less I forget that sharing an umbrella with an old woman can culture you to walk same like her, so sharing tobacco with an old man can make your groan with his to be indifferent . The sick tandem believes they could achieve success through obsession in blackmail. This is why they pursue it with all their bank accounts releasing funds to their jobbers both at home and Diaspora. Most Diasporas who have been jobless have now found their ailing class mates, who now electronically send them some funds and turn them to witchcraft secretaries. Though some of the articles they post are not originated or written by these men, who were ravaged with hunger, starvation and got succour in becoming dead preachers and blackmailers. Some of them are pant and dross cleaners to their wives who labour to feed them in their redundancies, even when they are bullies and known retarded facilities. Because of scarcity of husband the wives willingly make themselves slaves to this sick generation of their parents. Back home, the sick tandem see every others as threat and become flippant with their lips and biro, heaping lies on the Saints they are supposed to honour with trembling, but act otherwise because of the naira and kobo they receive from their political connivers To and from, their foot go across the city as ill-locomotive train , which will neither reach its destination nor stop on the way, but continues night and day without actualizing its mission, but leaving commuters stranded in every journey. Wrongly, Chief Dr Godswill Akpabio CON has become their threshing floor, where they don’t close their eyes before they choose a tag to give him. What name have they not called him, a thief, murderer, kidnapper, wife snatcher, bastard and you can add others as I could not remember all. Yet this is the man who has

recreated the history of their land. Some of them who are abroad may not even navigate the route to their father’s houses not even their villages, for Governor Akpabio has confused them with development. Men who rush to marry a widow are fools, for they do not know, if what killed their husband is buried in the blood stream of the widow, but what is rumbling between their legs is sending a signal of sweetness while the unknown bitterness awaits their date. I cannot bother my mind in a bid to educating this sick republic that their journey to hilltop mansion could be like the tripe OF Missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. It crashes and neither man nor scientific apparatus could locate the wreckages. So the aspiration of those who wish to lead Akwa Ibom State with lies and blackmail will end and they will also be like the man who rushed to marry a ‘dead-alive’ widow whose loins send men to early graves. Their visions seem so authentic to them, unknown to them that it is a hallucination caused by the madness emanating from looted funds. The stolen money vibrates their brain to receive negative signals alone, for pictures are only imaginary while photographs are the reality. A man who is use to stealing does not see any evil in his deeds but a man who is honest sees it as a great ovum that can destroy his existence and posterity. The workers of this iniquity are lollygaggers, who make their casket without a carpenter but biros, for the magnitude of their malignancies against the righteous are grave and forbidden. Do they think promotion is achieved with mischief? No, not all, though ‘’a can can can, can do, what a can can can do’’, but to every a ‘’can do’’ there is a destiny to how much and how far he or she can do. Akwa Ibom State is honoured with a great son with a great destiny whose record of strides has the capacity which will fulfil the visualised economic change of the State. And that man is Deacon Udom Emmanuel. Whatever they wish, let them do, for it has been written, it will surely come to manifestation. No wonder Ukad Enang Nicholas Okokon said don’t run from any mortals who want to kill your vision, though they fight your vision, they can never destroy it, for every vision is a spirit, and spirits are indestructible. • Nicholas (whitebombom@yahoo.com)

Dankwambostill moving on as hero A Rejoinder:

Junaidu Usman Abubakar,

ften taken for granted for his infighting and political violence, a stance for which he gained notoriety in the state during his eight years rule between 2003 and 2011, the peace and serenityfor which the small town of Kashere in Akko Local Government Area is noted for was smashed into pieces last week Thursday by the APC induced crisis in the state, which their spokesman, Alhaji Lai Mohammed translated to the intolerance of Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo Talban Gombe whose political philosophy of inclusiveness; his open grassroot mobilisation advocacy in his short but glorious 4-year reign in the state has created an atmosphere that allows total freedom of expression, dissent and the greatest level of inclusive political participation, an ambience of democratic freedom that has encouraged even the most combative opposition. The attack on Governor Dankwambo’s office and personality is the hallmark of a politician’s desperation for power and an unwillingness to follow due process {the universal adult suffrage}which should not be allowed to bring Gombe to ground zero. It is the climax of an ongoing struggle for the

political soul of Gombe by political extremists to reclaim power against the will of the majority of Gombawas who now know who their true leader is. In his bid for re-election as the state chief executive,Governor Dankwambo has continued to wax stronger, powered by a peerless pedigree of outstanding antecedents and impeecable credentials of performance not only as a politician but a performer of high repute which he had earlier displayed as the Accountant General of the Federation, AGF, required for the accelerated progress and development of the state. In argumentative terms, the potency and effect of Dankwambo’s dazzling performance has put the APC opposition in the state on the defensive in the contest for leadership capacity to win over the hearts and minds of the electorate who have another opportunity to open a new chapter of progressive change and refocussed development. Bereft of a genuine political constituency after his unholy marriage with opposition APC and his frustration at the unassailable achievements of the Dankwambo-led administration, reminiscent of a 21st Century Statescraft which even his critiques have been forced to appreciate, Lai Mohammed, the notorious spokesman of the APC opposition’s striking failure to appreciate the brutal attack on Governor Dankwambo for what it is rather than engage in empty

verbiage; a coordinated attack to eliminate the amiable governor to pave way for their political protégé at the 2015 polls only smacks of of the poor coordination that have undrmined the structure the APC ostensibly seek to empower n the state; they deserve sympathy for their hollow thinking and retrogressive aopproach to political manouvering. For the records, Governor Dankwambo was in Kashere on invitation by the vice chancellor to visit the University, not relocation of the University, after which he was invited to commission some projects in the area; marking the point at which the Governor’s entourage was attacked by some hoodlums which represented the reincarnation of the banned Kalare activities in the area. As a tradition,the governor decided to pay homage to the district head as a result thugs blocked the road to the emirs palace and started firing and throwing stones by attacking directly the governors car. A political contest in Gombe between Governor Dankwambo and Goje’s cronies is reminiscent of a battle between darkness and light; between peace and war; between serenity and confusion; development compared to underdevelopment; progress and backwardness; education and illiteracy as corroborated by the near revolutionary governance that dotted Gombe state political landscape within the last four

years in the state.. A journey into Danjuma Goje’s political past in Gombe may suffice to reawake Lai Mohammed’s sub-conscious mind that Governor Dankwambo’s tenure in Government House, Gombe is about all that is best in governance; it is about humanity, protecting people, providing economic opportunities, education and healthcare to its citizens and would not be deterred by any abstract thinking. With the advent of the Dankwamboled administration in Gombe state, the perception of social thought has shifted and hopes will be acceptable to all along with the privileges it maintains. It is a new social order struggling grimly to be born and calls for cooperation by all progreessive citizens, devoid of the myopic self aggrandisement and primordial interest. Further delving into the past, it was that blocked the campaign train of General Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to Gombe state at the peak of the 2011 election for fear of insecurity by these political leaders. It is also of note to state that the Kalare activities in Gombe started as a militant youth wing of Goje’s political machinery to coerce members of the opposition to his whims and caprices wherein some among such opposition members were lucky to escape from his claws. • Abubakar, Specal Assistant, Press to Governor Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

EDITORIAL

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What Yuletide holds for IDPs

he Yuletide is here. This is the Christmas season; a period that speaks to the human spirit for adherents of the Christian faith and pitches for renewal of humanity at large. While the fanfare and festivities unfold, perhaps not many Nigerians address their minds to the fate of Internally Displaced Persons or IDPs. According to the United Nations Convention, an internally displaced person or refugee is “a person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; and is unable or unwilling to avail himself/herself of the protection of that country, or to return there, for fear of persecution.” The UN established the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in 1950 to handle refugee matters worldwide. The bloody Boko Haram insurgency, antiinsurgency response by government, communal conflicts in the North-Central zone, flooding, drought remain the key triggers for this forced displacement of Nigerians. Recently, according to UN-

HCR Representative in Nigeria, Angele Dikongue-Atangana, there are currently about 650,000 internally displaced persons in the country’s North East. The UNHCR chief revealed that the international community and the UN systems in Nigeria were working jointly in providing protection and care for the affected persons. The representative also disclosed plans by UNHCR to ensure efficient coordination and management of camps for those affected. UNHCR’s position was corroborated by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) which said that Adamawa, Borno and Yola have witnessed the registration of about 700,000 IDPs, from January to date. The agency, in its current update on IDPs by its NorthEast zonaloffice in Maiduguri gave the number of registered people internally displaced by insurgency in the state as 678, 773. NEMA revealed this number of people were assisted with both food and non-food items to alleviate the effect of the crisis on them. The Director-General of NEMA, Muhammad Sani Sidi said in a recent presentation on the protection challenges facing displaced persons at the 6th Dialogue of the United

Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Geneva, Switzerland that the displacement in the country was rather volatile and explained that at the peak of the 2012 flood disaster, as high as 2.3 million persons were displaced and took refuge in camps spread across several states of the country. At press time, thesefigures will certainly be much more because the insurgents are widening their depredations beyond the North-East theatre. Sidi correctly attributed the causes of the displacement to both natural and humaninduced factors, noting that ‘recurring floods and drought are the major natural hazards. Inexorably, he drew attention to land use conflicts between pastoralists and sedentary farmers as well as ethnoreligious crises and emerging terrorism as constituting the main sources of human-induced displacement. It is our position that beyond data gathering on IDPs which is useful for related interventions this still remains fundamentally impersonal exercises. The human suffering which affects children and women in unique ways during and after displacement is a factor that ought to fast-track vastly more focused interven

tion. During this yuletide what is in stock for the IDPs? Extrapolating from the current intervention scenario it can be surmised that the season holds zero comfort for these internal refugees. But beyond the government, individual Nigerians can reach out in different ways to touch the lives of IDPs. Sharing in their travails by provision of basic necessities will help and provide hope because these are Nigerians with their own dreams just like every other folk. Visits and simple provision of listening ears will help psychologically. Taking in the big picture, the central and state governments must go beyond impressive rhetoric and initiate specific programmes for better registration and profiling, strengthening institutional capacity for IDP management, establishment of elaborate legal frameworks and entrenchment of durable solutions. This scenario will leverage mechanisms, systems and procedures for administering the needs of IDPs before, during and after displacement. This, of course, may not be achieved during this yuletide but will indicate seriousness at the level of policy formulation and implementation thereafter.

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Politics

Abba Adakole

uckily for the Ijaw man who had no shoes but managed by a combination of hard work, a studious mind, the cunningness of a boa constrictor - many thanks to his adept study of zoology - and of course, a large dose of divine intervention which many ignorantly like to pass off as good luck, he is today, arguably, the most powerful man in the black world. No doubt, he has his negatives; but then, who does not have, especially in the murky world of politics where men will

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Jonathan, Buhari and 2015 presidency sell anybody or anything to taste the crazy aphrodisiac-power. However, over the years, he has managed to keep Nigeria together in spite of the hydra-headed monster, dubbed Boko Haram, which continues to ravage most of the NorthEast and is inching to the North-West. It appears the creators of the monster, or those who fertilized its growth, can no longer dismount the monster, and have found a ready fall guy in the Federal Government. In ferocious anger, the monster

appears to be turning on some of its own, even as it continues to bring old Kanem Bornu empire to its knees. The evil that men planted in human blood and needless sacrifices is now on a backfire with its litany of uncovered, and at other times, careless collateral damages. In this knotty situation enters General Muhammadu Buhari, himself a target of the daring monster from the North-East. It does not matter that the General has the KanemBornu blood flowing in his veins, just as he has

the Ba Haushe (Hausa) blood, and the pre-dominant Fulani blood, according to him. In Boko Haram’s medievalist-idiotic war, apologies to Governor Kashim Shettima, anyone who breathes a word or threat against it, even if he is an emir in far-away Kano, must be dealt with. It does not matter to the “mad men” from the east if anyone was previously a sympathiser; once he spoke against them, he must be mowed down. Buhari has been a target; Emir Sanusi

Lamido Sanusi has been one, yet some warped and wicked thinkers still do not see the wisdom in keeping President Jonathan away from Borno State. With these mad men who could turn on anyone, bomb anyone, even former friends, kidnap women and children, and have no respect for even their own respected and venerated persons and institutions; some still think the president should travel that way. Well, as commander-inchief, he is free to do so as long as his Defence

Minister and service chiefs as well as head of the Jamatul Nasril Islam (JNI) agree to be on the same flight and convoy with him. The handlers of Buhari don’t seem to find anything wrong in altering his identity by dressing him up in Niger Delta attire since the man desperately wants to be in Aso Rock Villa. He looked comical in the delta attire, though in suit he looked a little better, even though unfamiliar. In the 11 years he has been seeking the highest political office, this writer cannot remember seeing Buhari in anything other than his Babanriga, but the handlers of Buhari, including that one who used to think the man was unelectable, but now needs him to begin his journey back to Abuja through Kaduna, have to be more ingenious to sell him to his fellow countrymen. They must also come up with an ingenious way of distancing Buhari from his new “Oga at the top” in Lagos, because anytime they are seen side by side, it looks like a ravenous wolf and hawkish lamb are having a tango. For a man like Buhari to be seen as the puppet of the Lagos chief is nothing but an unmitigated political disaster. Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was right when he suggested that it amounted to an insult to think the General was his lackey, but he did not help matters when he let it be leaked that he was interested in being number two to Buhari. That singular act showed Nigerians for seven days that the Katsina-born patron of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) couldn’t make up his mind on a simple matter of who his number two man should be. Many suddenly began to remember that the General had never been a man of his own. They recalled that in the heady days of his administration three decades ago, he could do nothing without Tunde Idiagbon; and when Idiagbon travelled out of the country, he lost power to his ambitious subordinates. Also, many began to recall that all the mess that was spattered on him after his days at the Petroleum Task Force (PTF) was simply because he could not rein in his boys who fed fat on him. Such a man, without a mind of his own, can surely not be today’s alternative to Jonathan. •Adakole sent this piece from Abuja

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

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Business What's news

Why Nigerian airlines’ growth is stunted, by experts Stakeholders in aviation, at the weekend, took a holistic view of the sector and concluded that Nigerian airlines would continue to wallow in difficulty unless urgent steps are taken to get them out of the woods.

p.22

Nigeria fails in spectrum auctions, InfraCos licensing Nigerian government has failed in its attempt to auction two special spectrum bands that would have added the needed fillip to the growth of the nation’s telecoms sector, especially in the area of broadband delivery, New Telegraph has gathered.

p.36

The Business Desk Ayodele Aminu

Deputy Editor (Business)

Bayo Akomolafe

Asst. Editor (Maritime)

Sunday Ojeme

Asst. Editor (Insurance)

Godson Ikoro

Asst. Editor (Money Market)

Dele Alao

Industry & Agric Editor

Dayo Ayeyemi Property Editor

Adeola Yusuf Energy Editor

Wole Shadare Aviation Editor

Chris Ugwu

Capital Market Editor

Boko Haram: FG misses 2014 oil target in Chad basin STAGNANT Government mulls expansion of budget as insecurity stagnates exploration activities

Geologists circumvent posting, secondment to site

The front liner in the Chad basin exploration, the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), which had earlier declared that activities at

the basin were retrogressing, is yet to announce pick-up of activities. This insecurity scare, further checks showed, was fu-

elled by the unclear nature of state of emergency in the state. The House of RepresentaCONTINUED ON PAGE 22

Adeola Yusuf

he Federal Government has missed the 2014 commercial oil exploration/discovery target on the N2.7 billion Chad basin exploration, New Telegraph has gathered. Government, which estimated an expenditure of about $18 million on exploration at the basin, had said that it expected commercial discovery of oil and gas at the basin by 2014. Vice President, Namadi Sambo, who said this, maintained that oil prospecting at the Chad Basin, near Borno State, was yielding promising results. Two days before the end of the year, the exploration at the basin has been stagnant due to the raging Boko Haram insurgency in the North East. Lake Chad, site of the exploration, has been one of the battle grounds between the Joint Task Force and the Boko Haram insurgents. This, finding by New Telegraph revealed, has led many geologists and support staff from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to circumvent posting and secondment to the site for fear of being killed by the insurgents. Further checks showed that investors who usually provide support services for exploration activities have also shunned the region.

L-R: Communications Manager, Coca-Cola, Samuel Umukoro, Coordinator, Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Haminat Adigun; Immediate past Coordinator Network of People Living With HIV/AIDS in Nigeria, Ibrahim Umoru and Director, Public Affairs and Communications, Coca-Cola Nigeria, Clement Ugorji, at the 2014 World AIDS Day Community Health Outreach in Lagos.

Godson Ikoro

he combined stock of developing countries’ external debt was $5.5 trillion at end of 2013, the World Bank Group has reported. The World Bank Group stated this in the 2015 edition of International Debt Statistics (IDS) which draw from comprehensive databases of debt statistics collected from

Developing countries owe $5.5trn as at 2013 124 low and middle-income countries, as well as quarterly external and public sector debt from high-income countries. According to the report released last week, the total debt stock of emerging markets was

$5.5 trillion, but it remained moderate in relation to Gross National Income (GNI), an average of 23 per cent and to exports, an average of 79 per CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

Abdulwahab Isa Finance Editor

Kunle Azeez

Senior Correspondent

Chuks Onuanyin Energy

Nnamdi Amadi Reporter

Johnson Adebayo

Asst Production Editor

Rates Dashboard INFLATION RATE November 2014........................7.9% October 2014............................8.1% September 2014.....................8.3%

LENDING RATE InterBank Rate....................12.57% Prime Lending Rate...........17.93% Maximum Lending Rate...26.83%

EXCHANGE RATE

(Parallel As at Dec. 19)

USD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N193 Pounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N295 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N23 4

l Foreign Reserves – $35.19bn as at 18/12/2014

Source: CBN

EXCHANGE RATE (Official As at Dec. 19)

USD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N169 Pounds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N263.78 Euro . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . N207.20

Business | News

BURDEN The sector is grossly underperforming with an indebtedness of about N195 billion Wole Shadare

takeholders in aviation, at the weekend, took a holistic view of the sector and concluded that Nigerian airlines would continue to wallow in difficulty unless urgent steps are taken to get them out of the woods. The stakeholders who are airline chiefs and top managers of aviation parastatals, highlighted the travails of Nigeria airlines and noted that the lifespan of airlines and those that are yet to be formed would continue to be less than 10 years. This becomes in-

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Why Nigerian airlines’ growth is stunted, by experts Seek flag carrier airlines to reciprocate BASA evitable if the operators continue to apply the wrong business model, high taxes, double taxation, high airport charges, high cost of aviation fuel, otherwise known as JET A1 and the tough operating environment. Meanwhile, Aviation Minister, Osita Chidoka, had set up a committee to look at the challenges faced by the operators with a view to reducing high cost of JET A1 and other charges considered to be astronomical. The committee had since submitted its report penultimate week and there is the hope of reduction in charges.

President, Sabre, West Africa, a global distribution network, Gabriel Olowo, described the sector as “grossly underperforming,” with a whooping N195 billion indebtedness. He stated that the multiple entries of foreign airlines to many airports of Nigeria had done incalculable damage to the fortune of the country’s airlines, adding that the former were supposed to be allowed into one entry point in Nigeria with Nigerian carriers doing the

distribution. According to him, the principal motive of Bilateral Air Services Agreement (BASA) is reciprocity and economic balance of trade as a strong factor in national income. He said, “Nigeria has not been able to reciprocate traffic rights to most of the partnering countries, resulting in huge negative balance of trade against Nigeria. This has led to enormous capital flight eroding the nation’s wealth, put

strong pressure on the naira and weakens its exchange, aids unemployment as Nigerian airlines’ growth are stunted. “Should foreign airlines strictly operate frequencies as stipulated on the BASA? The answer is negative because even then, Nigerian airlines have no capacity to reciprocate. By capacity, it means -schedule integrity, good safety records and poor level of technology. Should the extra frequencies be removed

through seasonal schedule changes? The answer is negative due to demands and political factors. Should government continue to earn the socalled royalties on BASA? The answer is negative. One might be tempted, looking at some previous earnings, which I would like to describe as pot of porridge in exchange for the birth right.” He, however, called for the immediate establishment of at least three scheduled flag carriers with capacity to reciprocate all BASA routes, stressing that the three “must be given national carrier status,” participate in BASA negotiations and commercial agreements. This, he said, would give birth to quality service delivery and healthy collaboration and competition.

FG misses 2014 oil target in Chad basin CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

tives had, on November 20, rejected further extension of emergency rule in Borno and two other troubled states of Yobe and Adamawa. Chairman of the House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Mohammed Zakari, said that the lawmakers rejected President Goodluck Jonathan’s request for extension of state of emergency in the three North-East states worst hit by a bloody insurgency by the extremist Boko Haram sect because the House resolved that the Federal Government should rely on the provisions of the constitution to deploy military personnel to further combat insurgency in the affected region. A geologist who craved anonymity told New Telegraph: “The Joint Task Force (JTF) is having a clamp down on the Boko Haram guys, while those terrorists too have retreated to launch guerrilla warfare on the military. In all these, do you think as a geologist one will be able to think straight?” “Even those on site are not finding it funny. It is true that some of us do not want to be anywhere near that place. Do not forget that we lost three of our staff to the insurgency in 2012.” The Federal Government had, in a bid to douse the insurgency, deployed soldiers on the site, while a state of emergency had since been declared in Borno State, but this measure,

according to some of the staff, has not guaranteed security of lives and property. Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs of the NNPC, Ohi Alegbe, could not be reached on phone for comment, but a management staff of the corporation, who is not authorised to speak, told New Telegraph on condition of anonymity that the corporation had remobilised workers for exploration activities after the Boko Haram threats. Optimistic on oil finds in the basin, he said: “We demobilised our staff earlier, but now we are working under a strict supervision of the JTF. We have acquired data and now we are at a stage where these 3D Seismic data are being processed. “We are forging ahead and we are optimistic on these serious works going on at the basin.” A breakdown of the expenditure shows that the project gulped $75 million (about N11.9 billion) in 2012, while another $100 million (or N15.8 billion) is earmarked for it in 2013, Vice President Sambo said during a visit to the state. The oil plans will be part of the drive. “I want to inform you that government is committed to the oil and gas search in the Lake Chad basin,” the vice president said at the palace of the Shehu of Borno, Aubakar Ibn Garbai. Sambo further said that three blocs have been identified in the area after series of research. CONTINUED ON PAGE 36

L-R: Brand Manager, Power Oil, Disha Agarwal; Winner, Adebisi Afusat; another winner, Modinat Moses and Supervisor, Power Oil, Ogbuagu Chikodiri, at the Power Oil Pay for Calories campaign in Lagos

Developing countries owe $5.5trn CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

cent. The World Bank group believes that these databases continue to be a vital input for debt managers and researchers around the world, working to improve the management of global capital flows. It said that making these resources available to everyone was an important element of the World Bank Group’s commitment to open data, saying that users can easily navigate these online resources to view, graph, and download the debt statistics of countries worldwide. Other highlights of the publication include an extended analysis of key trends and developments. It noted that net external debt flows to developing countries rose 28 per cent in 2013, driven by a 50 per cent increase

in short term debt inflows; foreign direct investment proved to be resilient, bringing net capital flows (debt and equity) to $1.2 trillion. Short-term debt constituted 28 per cent of debt stock, but risks were mitigated by international reserves, equivalent to 111 per cent of external debt stock at the end of 2013, just as private creditors accounted for 95 per cent of net long-term external debt flows in 2013; $336 billion, divided almost equally between bonds and banks. Furthermore, nearly two thirds of net long-term external debt flows went to private sector borrowers in developing countries (up from one half in 2012) while net debt flows to China surged to $139 billion, quadrupling their 2012 level and dominated the global trend. However, excluding China,

net external debt flows to developing countries was $403 billion, an increase of only three per cent from the 2012 level, but aggregate net capital flows (debt and equity) totalled $1.2 trillion in 2013, up 11 per cent from 2012 on account of the surge in net debt flows and resilient foreign direct investment. Also, inflows of FDI rose six per cent to $ 574 billion, and more than offset the 29 per cent fall in portfolio equity flows. Measured relative to developing country gross national income (GNI), aggregate net capital flows were stable at five per cent. The data reported to the public sector database indicate government debt levels in high-income countries continued on an upward trajectory in 2013, despite programmes of fiscal austerity and the pact on fiscal discipline.

INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

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Sanctity of Truth

At Grand Canyon, A Conflict Of Visions By ADAM NAGOURNEY

EAST RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON, Arizona — Renae Yellowhorse stood at the edge of the Grand Canyon, 42 bumpy kilometers across the Painted Desert from the nearest paved road, not a glint of civilization in sight. Ms. Yellowhorse, 52, who has lived her whole life on this Navajo land, pointed to where the Colorado River and the Little Colorado meet in a dazzling burst of deep blue 900 meters below. “This is where the tram would go,” she said. “This is the heart of our Mother Earth. This is a sacred area. It is going to be true destruction.” Ms. Yellowhorse was referring to the proposed $1 billion Grand Canyon Escalade development, a complex of restaurants, boutique hotels, stores and a trailer park clustered around a gondola that would whisk visitors down to a restaurant, an American Indian cultural center and an elevated river walk on a part of the canyon floor that is Navajo land, just outside the Grand Canyon National Park boundary. The proposed development, on 160 hectares of rabbitbrush and grass with stunning views of the canyon, is the latest in a long history of attempts by developers to build near a national landmark that draws 4.5 million people a year. But the Escalade is hardly the only challenge facing Grand Canyon National Park these days.

Continued on Page 26

MONICA ALMEIDA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

A plan to build a complex on a Navajo part of the Grand Canyon has pit developers against conservationists.

TOMAS MUNITA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

What Now for Cuba? A Thaw With the United States Creates Excitement and Uncertainty Cuba abounds with antiAmerican propaganda. Effigies of former American presidents under a sign that says ‘‘gallery of cretins,’’ at a museum in Havana. Top, an Americanthemed outfit on a street.

By DAMIEN CAVE and VICTORIA BURNETT

HAVANA — John F. Kennedy, who introduced economic sanctions against Cuba in 1961, has a whole room devoted to his sins. But the final exhibit, at the Italianate palace that houses the Museum of the Revolution on the edge of Old Havana, is “a gallery of cretins” — cartoon-style wooden cutouts of recent American presidents who are thanked for “helping us strengthen the Revolution.” The line of rogues ends with George W. Bush, raising the question: What about President Obama? Will he eventually join the gallery, or has the island’s parade of the hated finally ended? As Cubans absorb the news that the United States will begin normalizing relations with their government after more than five decades of hostility, they are contending with a rush of excitement and uncertainty. The country’s leaders, after decades of battling and blaming the United States and Cuban exiles, now find themselves without the usual excuse for Cuba’s economic failures and human rights restrictions. Managing the opening up of Cuba will force the government to grapple with its own faults and with the possibility of becoming just another Caribbean island rather than an often-admired communist holdout against the power of the United States. “We’ve had 50 years of exchanging in-

MERIDITH KOHUT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

sults,” Leonardo Padura, Cuba’s best-known novelist, said at his home in a suburb of Havana. “Now we have to rebuild the bridges and try to overcome the years of hatred. “It’s like waking from an unending nightmare,” he said. “There were times when I thought I would die before this day came.” The announcement of normalizing relations was publicly welcomed by many Cubans. But the island has long seen itself as exceptional, a defiant rebel under political and economic attack. Improved relations with the United States may bring some immediate economic relief, but also

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Viewing Ebola up close, with regrets. PAGE 24

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Solar trade war benefits Malaysia. PAGE 30

longer-term concerns about identity. Since the early 1960s, Cuba’s sense of self has been tied to socialism and playing David to the Goliath of the north. Now, Cubans are dealing with the new realities spawned by changes aimed at introducing a dose of market capitalism into a system where the state has provided everything from subsidized sugar to free health care to cars for favored workers. The people are now being told Cuba can no longer blame its old enemy for all of its

Continued on Page 26

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Sanctity of Truth

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

O P I N I O N & C O M M E N TA RY The global battle against malaria, a mosquito-borne infectious disease, continues to yield impressive gains, but it is encountering new obstacles. It is imperative that funding from all sources be doubled to solidify the achievements and move toward the elimination of malaria from as many countries as possible. Worldwide, the mortality rate from malaria fell by 47 percent between 2000 and 2013, and by 54 percent in Africa, where about 90 percent of malaria deaths occur, according to the World Malaria Report 2014, issued by the World Health Organization on December 9. The gains were attributed primarily to more widespread

ED I T O R I A L S O F T H E T I M ES

Fragile Gains Against Malaria use of insecticide-treated bed nets, accurate diagnostic tests and effective drug therapies. The progress in protecting children in Africa was especially encouraging. There was an almost 60 percent decline in malaria deaths in children under age 5 between 2000 and the end of 2013, with most of that improvement occurring since 2007. More bed nets have been produced this

year, enough to protect more than 385 million people. Even so, there were an estimated 198 million cases of malaria around the world last year, and some 584,000 people died of the disease, most of them children below the age of 5. Because millions of people in malarial areas still lack bed nets or access to diagnostic tests and treatments, and because resistance to insec-

ticides and drug treatments has been spreading, the W.H.O. considers the gains “fragile.” Progress on malaria is threatened in West Africa by the Ebola epidemic, which shows what happens when weak public health systems are overwhelmed with a new threat. In the three countries hardest hit by Ebola — Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone — public health facilities have focused

on Ebola. Access to malaria treatment has fallen sharply in the three countries. The W.H.O. has recommended that in areas heavily affected by Ebola anti-malaria drugs be given to all patients with a fever without waiting for a diagnostic test. Although funding from international donors and governments in affected countries has tripled since 2005, to about $2.6 billion in 2013, it is still only half of the $5.1 billion required to meet global targets for malaria control and elimination. Clearly, more is needed to buttress the health care systems in countries too poor to do it on their own.

PAUL KRUGMAN

INTELLIGENCE/JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

Putin’s Bubble Bursts

Ebola Should Be Easy to Treat

If you’re the type who finds macho posturing impressive, Vladimir Putin is your kind of guy. But Mr. Putin never had the resources to back his swagger. Russia is highly vulnerable to financial crisis — a vulnerability that has a lot to do with Mr. Putin. The ruble has been sliding gradually since August, when Mr. Putin openly committed Russian troops to the conflict in Ukraine. A few weeks ago, however, the slide turned into a plunge. Extreme measures, including a huge rise in interest rates and pressure on private companies to stop holding dollars, have done no more than stabilize the ruble far below its previous level. The proximate cause of Russia’s difficulties is, of course, the global plunge in oil prices, which, in turn, reflects factors — growing production from shale, weakening demand from China and other economies — that have nothing to do with Mr. Putin. And this was bound to inflict serious damage on an economy that, as I said, doesn’t have much besides oil that the rest of the world wants; the sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict have added to the damage. The kind of crisis Russia now faces is what you get when bad things happen to an economy made vulnerable by large-scale borrowing from abroad — specifically, large-scale borrowing by the private sector. An adverse shock like a fall in exports can start a vicious downward spiral. When the nation’s currency falls, the balance sheets of local businesses — which have assets in rubles but debts in dollars or euros — implode. This, in

turn, inflicts severe damage on the domestic economy, undermining confidence and depressing the currency even more. And Russia fits the standard playbook. Except for one thing. Usually, the way a country ends up with a lot of foreign debt is by running trade deficits, using borrowed funds to pay for imports. But Russia hasn’t run trade deficits. On the contrary, it has consistently run large trade surpluses, thanks to high oil prices. So why did it borrow so much money, and where did the money go? Well, you can answer the second question by walking around Mayfair in London, or (to a lesser extent) Manhattan’s Upper East Side, residences owned, as the line goes, by Chinese princelings, Middle Eastern sheikhs and Russian oligarchs. Putin’s Russia is an extreme version of crony capitalism, a kleptocracy in which loyalists get to skim off vast sums for their personal use. But now the bubble has burst, and the very corruption that sustained the Putin regime has left Russia in dire straits. How does it end? The standard response of a country in Russia’s situation is an International Monetary Fund program that includes emergency loans and forbearance from creditors in return for reform. Russia will try to muddle through on its own. It’s quite a comedown for Mr. Putin. A more open, accountable regime would have been less corrupt, would probably have run up less debt, and would have been better placed to ride out falling oil prices. Macho posturing, it turns out, makes for bad economies.

INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY NANCY LEE Executive editor TOM BRADY Editor ALAN MATTINGLY Managing editor The New York Times International Weekly 620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018

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Freetown, Sierra Leone Not even 30 minutes away from the little house where I watched a girl die from Ebola sat the clinic she had been so desperate to reach. It looked more like a high school nurse’s office than an I.C.U. In one room, nurses were quietly putting pills on little squares of paper. “What are those?” I asked. “That’s medicine for Ebola patients,” explained a Sierra Leonean doctor. I checked the boxes: acetaminophen, ciprof loxacin, some oral rehydration salts — all available at the smallest pharmacies, even here. I was stunned. “That’s it?” I asked. “Yeah,” the doctor said. “That’s it. Maybe an IV for the really bad cases.” I’ve covered a lot of disasters in Africa. We’re used to seeing shots of Africans dead on a red dirt road with a white United Nations helicopter chugging above. Maybe Ebola looks like that from a distance. But up close it’s different. What I learned reporting in Sierra Leone is that this is one crisis that should be relatively easy to solve. Ebola, however much some of its symptoms conjure up a horror film, is usually shockingly simple to treat. The virus is swift and ruthless, hideous and creepy. Ebola is one of the handful of viruses than can trigger a hemorrhagic fever, with internal bleeding, but in most cases the biggest threat is dehydration, which can be addressed by clean water and basic drugs. As Daniel Bausch, an infectious disease doctor at Tulane University in New Orleans, has said, “It’s not rocket science” — Ebola is as much about logistics as medicine. The key to defeating it is enough ambulances, enough hospital beds and a competent way to identify sick people, get them into care quickJeffrey Gettleman is the East Africa bureau chief for The New York Times. He is currently writing a memoir. Send comments to intelligence@ nytimes.com.

ly before they infect others and then replenish the fluids they lose because of the virus. The fact that Ebola can be battled back so easily is what makes it so depressing — and even at times maddening. I learned that my first day. I was driving through a village, looking for Ebola victims to profile, when some volunteers waved me over to a small house with a rusted roof. A family was assembled on the porch, and Isatu Sesay, a 16-year-old girl in a V-neck sweater, was sitting in a chair, looking woozy. “She’s been vomiting all day,” her mother said. “She has diarrhea. She has fever. We keep waiting for an ambulance, but the ambulance don’t come.” I glanced at my colleagues. “What about giving her a ride?” I asked. “No way,” they answered. It would be extremely dangerous; she was clearly infectious and we might easily contract the disease. Jaime, the translator, pulled me aside. “Don’t get too emotional,” he warned. “The slightest mistake you do could be the biggest mistake you’ll ever make.” Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone, with 18,000 cases among them, are among the world’s least developed nations, definitely a factor in this Ebola crisis, though I am suspicious of making it too big of one. Other West African countries, like Mali, also very poor, and Nigeria, now being called “Africa’s Afghanistan” because of the intensity of its Islamist insurgency, wrapped up their Ebola outbreaks in a matter of weeks, with few deaths, showing it can be done. The next day, when I drove back to the village, Isatu had descended to a different state. She was flat on her back, delirious, stains of dried black vomit on her jeans. The virus was gnawing through her. Her eyes were bolted open. Neighbors kept calling the Ebola hotline. No response. I called myself. “Good morning, Ebola re-

sponse center,” said a cheery voice. I provided Isatu’s name, address, age and symptoms. “This is very urgent,” I added. “O.K., sir, O.K.,” the operator replied. Click. Isatu was dead by sundown. She was buried in a plastic sack in a shallow grave in a crowded graveyard. As I watched, my guilt nauseated me. It wasn’t simply that I hadn’t given her a ride. Had I been thinking straight, I could have at least run out to a drugstore and bought some medicine to boost her survival chances until an ambulance arrived. It would have been so easy. In so many stories I’ve covered about people in need, I struggle with when to step back, when to help out, how to be a socalled impartial observer, as I’m paid to be, but at the same time remain a decent human being. Here I failed. The ambulance never came, I later found out, because some health workers went on strike that week for lack of pay. But even that didn’t make sense. The United States and other countries have injected hundreds of millions of dollars into the Ebola fight; every day, it seemed, another planeload of international experts arrived — Chinese epidemiologists, Cuban nurses, American microbiologists, British engineers. I kept hearing from aid workers that maybe this was the problem: Sierra Leone now had too many experts, too many sources of differing advice. More than 6,000 people have died, but Isatu was the one I won’t be able to forget. I unloaded my guilt on an editor in New York who suggested I buy a bag of medicine and keep it in the car, just in case. But we never found another Isatu. We found very sick people and people who had been successfully treated but no one in that feverish limbo Isatu had been in. The night I left, I grabbed my suitcase out of the back of our car. The bag of medicine was still there, untouched.

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MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

WORLD TRENDS

A Palestinian Refuge for 60 Years, Taking In Syrians By ANNE BARNARD

SHATILA CAMP, Lebanon — An enormous iron key hangs on a water tower above a crossroads in the Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila, just south of downtown Beirut. The sculpture alludes to the rusting keys that many families here treasure, from houses lost when they fled what became Israel in 1948. Now, a new wave of refugees, this time from Syria, has roughly doubled the population of Shatila and the neighboring camp, Sabra, to 40,000, aid workers say. The newcomers are among more than a million people who have streamed from Syria into Lebanon — a country of four million when the war started — and are radically reshaping neighborhoods like these. In Shatila, people are adding new floors to their houses, hoping to rent them at soaring rates. New businesses are opening, run by Syrians or catering to them. Strained water and sewage systems are buckling. And as the Syrian civil war rages on, and

the newcomers begin to doubt they will ever return home, the changes are taking on the feel of permanence. That process is unfolding across Lebanon and other countries bordering Syria, in yet another way the Middle East is being reordered. But in Sabra and Shatila, change is freighted with extra layers of historical memory and hardship. The words Sabra and Shatila resonate as a symbol of the vulnerability of refugees. They are not just the names of the camps, but shorthand for the notorious massacre there in 1982, when Lebanese Christian militants killed Palestinian civilians as Israeli troops encircling the area stood by. They also stand for grinding poverty. “Camps” is a misnomer for settlements that decades ago grew into unplanned but densely built urban slums. Yusef al-Masri, 46, a Palestinian born and raised in Shatila, said his grandmother had often recounted what her family

planned 66 years ago when they left their town in the Galilee — Safad, now called Tzfat or Safed in Israel — during the war over Israel’s founding. “They said, ‘We will leave everything and come back in three days,’ ” he recalled. “We didn’t.” He predicted a similar fate for

Shatila and Sabra endure another tragic chapter. the Syrians. The streets of the camp, mostly too narrow for cars, bustle with delivery carts and darting children. Poor Lebanese and migrant workers live here among Palestinians, who are kept in poverty by restrictive Lebanese laws that exclude them from many professions. Even so, Sabra and Shatila

fy with the displaced Syrians, who, like the Palestinians before them, face growing hostility as they are increasingly perceived as a threat to Lebanon. Others see the Syrians as an economic threat. “They took all the jobs,” Mr. Masri said. Yet, new refugees also bring benefits, spending their modest cash in the camp. On Sabra’s market street, trays of baklava filled Huzaifa Deek’s sweet shop with the smell of pistachios and sweet syrup. Mr. Deek, 36, a Syrian, once had half a dozen shops around Damascus, in places that now read like a list of battlefields: Douma, Daraya, Jobar. “They are all safe with Bashar,” he said, in a sarcastic reference to President Bashar al-Assad. He followed his customers to Sabra and opened a shop there. But he encountered resistance. “They accuse us of stealing their customers because we are cheaper and tastier,” he said. “But it is God who gives us this grace.”

Counting Afghans? It Will Take Awhile

In Turkey, Promoting Religious Schools

By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN

By CEYLAN YEGINSU

ISTANBUL — When Semra dropped off her 13-year-old daughter for the first day of high school, she had to fight back tears. Semra had spent years working overtime at her cleaning job, saving enough to pay for extra courses that she hoped would secure a place for her daughter at an academically rigorous secular school. But after taking the admissions test under Turkey’s system for allocating slots in public schools, her daughter was one of nearly 40,000 students automatically assigned to the state-run religious schools. “It felt like someone had tossed a bucket of boiling water over my head,” Semra said. Education has become the latest front in Turkey’s cultural wars, pitting the country’s tradition of secularism against the religious mores of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Islamist allies. The tensions underscore the way Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party has gradually injected religion into public life over the past 12 years in an effort to reshape Turkish society. Critics and many secular-minded parents say the government has rigged the system by limiting the number of secular schools and building more religious institutions. It is part of an effort, they say, to realize what Mr. Erdogan articulated two years ago as the goal of raising “a pious generation.” The religious schools — called imam hatip, meaning

have given the new refugees a warmer welcome than many wealthier districts. Syrians move freely, even at night, when many Lebanese towns impose curfews. Those who fear the Lebanese authorities, because they lack legal residency or are wanted in Syria for opposing the government, say they feel safer here, where Palestinian militias hold sway and security forces rarely come. Palestinians here founded an organization, Basma wa Zaytouna, to aid refugees from Syria as well as residents. It has grown, building several floors to house programs like an informal school and a needlepoint workshop. The arrivals include about 5,000 Palestinians who lived as refugees in Syria, and now are living through what some call a second Nakba, or catastrophe, the Palestinians’ term for the 1948 displacement. Lebanon has not set up any formal camps for refugees from Syria. Instead, refugees find their own haphazard housing. Some Palestinians identi-

UMIT BEKTAS/REUTERS

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is moving Turkey away from secularism, is a graduate of an Islamic school. the one who delivers the Friday sermon — were established in 1923 to train imams. That was after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, abolished madrasas as part of a revolutionary plan to transform Turkey into a secular nation-state — and to secure government control over religion. Today, the schools offer modern academic classes, Arabic studies and religious teachings. Turkey has seen a sharp rise in these schools under the leadership of Mr. Erdogan, himself an imam hatip graduate. At a recent school inauguration, he celebrated the fact that enrollment in the schools had jumped to almost a million from just 63,000 during his 12 years in power. “These schools were unfairly branded as enemies of the state,” Mr. Erdogan said, referring to a 1997 law that closed all imam hatip middle schools and made it hard for graduates to enroll in higher education. “We proved how unfair this treatment was, and now one of them is the president of this country,” he added. Some critics say that by favoring religious schools, the government is giving them a greater say in education policy. “The imam hatip school community is given more space to

contribute to education policy dialogue,” said Batuhan Aydagul of the Education Reform Initiative, a think tank based in Istanbul. “Their observations, experiences and insights overshadow the needs of the general education system.” Mr. Aydagul said that by increasing the number of imam hatip schools, and limiting seats in other schools, the government had left few alternatives. But Fatih Demirel of the Imam Hatip Alumni Association said demand for slots in the religious schools was rising. “Parents want their children to be raised in safe environments away from drugs, where they can learn good morals,” he said. Islamists are making inroads in secular schools as well. In September, the government began allowing girls as young as 10 to wear head scarves. Recently, Mr. Erdogan endorsed a call by the National Education Council for mandatory Turkish Ottoman language classes — an older form of the national language, written in a type of Arabic script — and classes in “religious values” to be taught to children as young as 6. “Whether they like it or not, the Ottoman language will be learned and taught in this country,” he said.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Khaliddudin, who like many Afghans goes by a single name, has already picked out a second name to go alongside the first. He has decided on “Mayroj,” which, he proudly explained, means the “highest.” But as a census worker for the Afghan government, Khaliddudin has more than just his own name to consider. He is at the vanguard of the government’s effort to encourage everyone to adopt a surname. This is an ambitious effort, one that seeks to change Afghan naming conventions, which are so flexible that the new president recently issued a directive clarifying the name he plans to use. As a candidate he was Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai. As president, he is simply Ashraf Ghani. Each day, Khaliddudin, who thinks he is 28 (Afghans are also being encouraged to pick a birthday), and his team go door to door trying to persuade households to fill out census forms. Conducting a census can be daunting, even in developed countries, but in Afghanistan, there are unique challenges like avoiding the Taliban and navigating the Pamir and Hindu Kush Mountains, in whose remote valleys innumerable Afghans live. After long delays, false starts and squandered millions in foreign aid, the great Afghan census is finally underway. The process is more than an exercise in counting bodies but one that, officials hope, will head off the kind of voter fraud that plagued the presidential election this past year. The census teams generally include a man and a woman who often spend considerable time waiting in front of doors that never open, often because of pur-

dah, the custom of sequestering women indoors away from men who are not their husbands or relatives. On a recent morning, stirring inside was heard as the team knocked on a door in the Mikrorayon complexes, the Soviet-built apartments that are home to many middle-class Kabulis. “The father of this apartment is not home — so they cannot fill it out,” said Masoud Rahmani, a supervisor with the census. “This is a problem we are often facing.” Since census workers began knocking on doors in Kabul this year, they have registered 70,000 people — just 2 percent of the city. “We believe we will reach 70 percent of the population in five years,” said Homayoun Mohtaat, the project’s director. The last census, in 1979, found some 14.6 million people. Afghanistan’s Population Registration Department currently has records for about 17 million Afghan citizens, according to officials. Mr. Mohtaat guesses the census will yield a count of 35 million to 40 million Afghans. Each Afghan counted will also receive a new identification card with a chip containing biometric data, such as iris scans and fingerprints. Many worry that the cards may upset the country’s ethnic balance of Pashtuns, Tajik, Hazaras, ethnic Uzbeks and others. For many Afghans, though, the trickiest question to answer is probably their name. For his part, Khaliddudin said he would use a shortened version of his father’s name, Mayrojuddin, for his surname. “I told my father that I would select his name as my surname,” he said, “and while he didn’t say anything, I know he’s happy about this.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

WORLD TRENDS

NEVADA

NAVAJO RESERVATION GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK

Las Vegas

Grand Canyon Escalade site

Lake Mead

Grand Canyon Village

Grand Canyon Skywalk

Little Colorado River

Tusayan HUALAPAI RESERVATION

Continued from Page 23 180

Colorado River 40

CALIFORNIA

Flagstaff

ARIZONA

40 KILOMETERS

Verde River THE NEW YORK TIMES

A string of developments has been planned around Grand Canyon National Park.

A Clash of Grand Canyon Plans Continued from Page 23 Indeed, this symbol of the American national park system seems almost under siege. A group of Italian developers is planning 279,000 square meters of retail construction, plus 2,200 homes, in Tusayan, a newly incorporated village with a population of just 587 at the entrance to the park, posing what park officials describe as a major threat to the water supply for the Colorado River. And a skywalk finished in 2007 over the western rim of the Grand Canyon, on land owned by the Hualapai tribe, has become an overwhelming success, drawing thousands of visitors a year. Some then take a helicopter to the bottom of the canyon, to the distress of conservationists. “The Grand Canyon is the most protected land in the world,” said David Uberuaga, the park superintendent. “It’s a World Heritage Site. We have the protections of the National Park Service Act, the act that created the Grand Canyon, the Clean Water Act.” “All that body of law, and I still

At a park, some see opportunities while others see threats. spend most of my time protecting the place, day in and day out,” he said. “Everybody wants to make a buck off the canyon.” Some of the same developers who worked on the skywalk are now working on the Escalade. “This is the ongoing desire by various investors to make money off the Grand Canyon or to make money off the resources that are tribally controlled,” said Roger Clark, the program director for the Grand Canyon Trust, an organization that pushes to protect the canyon. R. Lamar Whitmer, a developer who is behind the Escalade, said it would be a boon both for the Indian population and for tourists who might otherwise never get to enjoy the tranquil isolation at the bottom of the canyon. “It’s crazy to say that a tram and a 1,100-foot walkway is going to scar the Grand Canyon in any way,” Mr. Whitmer said. “If anything,” he said, “it will allow people to experience the

Cuba’s Deal With U.S. Brings Joy and Doubt

MONICA ALMEIDA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Some Navajo consider the confluence of the Colorado and the Little Colorado Rivers to be sacred. A nearby souvenir stand. canyon in a sensitive, respectful way.” He added, “This project is so important to the Navajo people in terms of not only producing good-paying jobs, but also giving them an opportunity to showcase the culture to the world.” The Escalade and the Tusayan projects illustrate the complicated and often opposing forces buffeting the Grand Canyon: tribe against tribe, park administrators against well-financed developers, and conservationists against forces looking to open up hard-to-get-to places to a wider public. In Tusayan, the City Council, which was elected in large part with support from the developers, has approved a plan to build housing, hotels and retail around the small village. The next step is winning approval from the United States Forest Service to build roads through protected land. Greg Bryan, the mayor of Tusayan and manager of a Best Western hotel there, said that development was needed to accommodate park workers as well as people who might want to live near this national park. He said, “It’s awfully nice that the environmental community that lives in Chicago or Boston or Los Angeles — who live in their nice homes and who can go down to the corner grocery store and get whatever — can complain about what’s taking place here, without realizing that the people who live here need to have some quality of life as well.” Mr. Uberuaga said the plan raised a series of concerns: “Night sky, noise, crowding, more jets coming into the airport.” But the biggest concern is whether developers, thirsty for water, would tap aquifers that supply the Colorado River.

ONLINE: CHANGING LANDSCAPE

Photographs from around the Grand Canyon: nytimes.com Search Yellowhorse

“Building this suburban development there would have an impact on the lifeblood of the national park,” said Bob Irvin, the president of American Rivers, a nonprofit organization. “It’s a threat to the groundwater supply of the Colorado River. We named it as the most endangered river in the nation two years ago.” Of the recent challenges, the biggest threat is the Escalade, park officials said. The complex as planned would be visible from South Rim observation points where visitors gather in the evenings to watch the hypnotic display of shifting hues as the sun sets across the layers of rock. It would cost $1 billion, Mr. Whitmer said; his firm would put in $150 million for the gondola and development at the bottom, and the Navajo would be responsible for $65 million to build roads and power and water lines. The rest, he said, would come from developers of two boutique hotels and other proposed buildings. It must be approved by the Navajo Nation Council. Ben Shelly, the departing president of the Navajo Nation, is one of the project’s biggest champions, arguing that it would bring jobs and revenue to the tribe. But Ms. Yellowhorse, a leader of the Save the Confluence coalition, said she was intent on protecting land where Indians go to pray and honor their past — particularly the place where the two rivers meet. “We don’t want to see the site desecrated,” she said. “We don’t want the tram out there. We don’t want people out here.”

problems. Many Cubans say they had known this for years. “We’re always told that everything bad is because of ‘the United States,’ ” said Chuchi Garrido, using air quotes to emphasize the absurdity of the idea while he sold black-market cellphones by a government store in Havana. “It hasn’t been true for years. The government is just admitting it.” Regina Coyula, a blogger who spent nearly two decades working for state security, said that Cubans should be glad to leave the era of exceptionalism behind. “It’s high time for us to be normal, to be just another island. We live in a kind of bubble,” she said. “We want to be part of the global community.” Yet the tensions and resistance are apparent. “Every country has the inalienable right to choose its own political systems,” Raúl Castro said in a speech to the legislature recently that emphasized Cuba’s long history of resistance to imperial meddling. “No one can claim that improving relations with the United States means Cuba renouncing its ideas.” An injection of capitalism, American culture and more inequity among social classes seemed to be of less concern in conversations in Matanzas Province and Havana than protecting the pillars of the socialized state: free health care and a strong public education system. Cubans have a surplus of anti-American propaganda. Along with the billboards that denounce the American embargo as “the worst genocide in human history,” there are the portraits of the Cuban Five — a spy ring that included the three spies released by the United States — on the walls of nearly every government building. School textbooks continue to portray the United States in villainous terms. The official “welcome Americans” message laid out after decades of limited access Randal C. Archibold contributed reporting from Mexico City.

means the roads of Havana will be more clogged with traffic, the demand for real estate will become more severe, and the seas surrounding the island, now largely empty, could soon be filled with 12-meter yachts from Florida. More important for Cubans is the question of what will happen to the restrictions on civil rights. The demand for cellphones and the Internet is intense. On any given day, the line outside stores selling cellphones in Havana could be 100 people deep. “They see all these new ways to communicate, and they want to be a part of it,” said Mr. Garrido, the cellphone salesman. Cuban opposition figures seem divided on the likely impact. Leaders of the more hard-line dissident groups were distraught. While some Cubans rejoiced at the idea of the United States no longer being the enemy, some veteran

A concern about protecting health care and schools. dissidents lamented the loss of a loyal friend. “Obama made a grave error,” said Ángel Moya, a political activist who was freed from prison in 2012 after eight years. “He betrayed those of us who are struggling against the Cuban government.” Elizabeth Newhouse, director of the Cuba project at the Center for International Policy, which has advocated easing the embargo, said that Cuba and the United States would have to find a new way to relate to each other. “Raúl has been diluting the U.S. as enemy for quite some time, no longer blaming all ills on the embargo,” Ms. Newhouse said. “But the embargo and its effects are very much present in billboards, and since it’s not going to be lifted anytime soon, I doubt that will change. Will we be frenemies?”

MERIDITH KOHUT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Augustín Dìaz Meneses, 53, a self-declared ‘‘Obama fanatic,’’ wearing a Barack Obama T-shirt in Havana.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

WORLD TRENDS

Francis Gives a Push to the Vatican’s Diplomacy By JIM YARDLEY

ROME — A day after he was credited with helping to broker the historic diplomatic breakthrough between Cuba and the United States, Pope Francis began his morning by greeting a new crop of envoys to the Vatican, and offering some advice. “The work of an ambassador lies in small steps, small things, but they always end up making peace, bringing closer the hearts of people, sowing brotherhood among people,” he said. “This is your job, but with little things, tiny things.” Yet if the Vatican has long practiced a methodical, discreet brand of diplomacy, what has changed under Francis is a vision of diplomatic boldness, a willingness to insert the Vatican into diplomatic disputes. Francis, after writing secret letters to President Obama and President Raúl Castro of Cuba, offered the Vatican for a secret and critical meeting between both sides in October. The comparison now cited by many analysts is with Pope John Paul II. If the two popes are not always simpatico on ideology, both men have understood how to use the papacy in a global media age and use the power of personal biography to help position the Vatican as a neutral broker. Just as John Paul, the first Polish pope, had a unique credibility as a voice against Communism in Eastern Europe, so, too, does Francis — the first Latin American pope — now benefit from a unique credibility in the developing world. “There are elements to Francis that are John Paul-esque,” said Francis Campbell, a former British ambassador to the Holy See. “The papacy is one of the world’s Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting.

delicate Vatican negotiations with Vietnam and served as apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, in Venezuela. Unlike during the Benedict era, Francis and Cardinal Parolin are seen as working in tandem — the charismatic pope and the methodical diplomat. “This pope governs together with the secretary of state — he doesn’t let him act separately and independently like before,” said Paolo Rodari, a Vatican expert at La Repubblica, an Italian newspaper. He added that Francis had quickly built a rapport with world leaders. “He establishes relationships very easily,” he said. In the past, the Vatican was often regarded by the non-Western OSSERVATORE ROMANO world as aligned with Pope Francis, who helped broker the United States-Cuba agreement, receiving new ambassadors. Europe or the United States. An Argentine, Francis has regularly sought to place himself in a more diplomatic broker. But, in less great opinion formers.” neutral position. He has critithan two years as pope, he has It is far too soon to know how already traveled to the Middle much Francis can influence othcized the persecution of ChrisEast, Turkey, South Korea, Braer contentious global issues. He tians in the Middle East, yet also hosted a June “prayer summit” spoken empathetically about the zil, Albania, France and the Italwith the Israeli and Palestinian negative perceptions often enian island of Lampedusa, where presidents that provided a phohe called attention to the plight dured by Muslims. of migrants. Next month, he Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the to-op but seemingly brought few will travel to Sri Lanka and the archbishop of Havana, is credited concrete results. Soon after, Isna’s state-sanctioned Catholic Philippines, and next fall he will with navigating the difficult role churches. rael ordered an assault in Gaza make his first visit to the United of defending the church against The delicacy of the China isagainst Hamas, the Palestinian States. government persecution, even as militant group. sue was evident when Francis Francis has revamped the he kept in contact with the Cuban Francis has inherited longrefused to meet the Dalai Lama Vatican bureaucracy, delegating authorities. recently, apparently to avoid ofstanding Vatican standoffs, infinancial tasks to a new economy But it was Francis who helped cluding with Saudi Arabia, and fending the Chinese, who regard ministry while appointing diploengineer the final breakthrough. especially China, where the Holy the Tibetan spiritual leader as an Marco Politi, a Vatican analyst, See and the Chinese government enemy. mats to key posts, most notably said,“Francis has brought back are engaged in a decades-old Yet, judging from his itinerhis second-in-command, Secthe Holy See on the international diplomatic impasse over which ary, Francis is pushing to esretary of State Pietro Parolin, stage.” side will control bishops in Chian Italian cardinal who has led tablish the Vatican as a trusted

Knowing how to use the papacy in a global media age.

Warm-Up Across the Water In the first episode of the American television drama “The West Wing,” the president’s idealistic underlings track a flotilla of Cubans trying to reach FlorLENS ida by raft. One staff member, Josh Lyman, grows frustrated with the diplomatic thorns that prevent a rescue. “If one of these guys could throw a split-fingered fastball,” he says, “we’d send in the U.S.S. Eisenhower.” Thus has been the love triangle involving Cuba, the United States and baseball for decades. Now that Washington and Havana are restoring diplomatic relations, baseball fans are wondering how soon the American teams will be able to sign players For comments, write to nytweekly@nytimes.com.

Big-league dreams that don’t involve traveling in a raft. from the island freely. As The Times’s Michael S. Schmidt wrote, Cuba’s pool of baseball talent is one of the richest outside the United States, though it has been cut off from the major leagues since 1959 except for players who defected, often by boat in the middle of the night. (Last season, there were 19 Cuban-born players.) People have awaited a friendlier day. Mr. Schmidt recounted a 1999 dinner in Havana involving several baseball executives, including the commissioner, Bud Selig, and Fidel Castro. “Castro regaled Selig with tales of Cuban baseball and fantasized about what would happen if the United States and Cuba normalized” ties, he wrote.

Those fantasies are spreading, and league officials had to send a reminder that it remains illegal for teams to scout in Cuba. But journalists are free to look, and Michael Powell of The Times visited a sports complex called Ciudad Deportiva for a firsthand view of what he called “glorious obsession in full flower.” “One dusty baseball diamond stretches after another after another,” he wrote. “To the limits of the eyes, all anyone is doing — child, parent and grandparent — is tossing, swinging at or catching a baseball.” This enthusiasm does not require top equipment. Mr. Powell described a game that frequently reflects Cuba’s economic want, with ragged fields, balls held together with duct tape, and worse. “So scarce are bats and gloves that the coaches gather them up at the end of each game,” he wrote. “So amid lines of laundry on Avenue 49, in the shade of co-

Cuba is not the only Caribbean nation that produces outstanding baseball players. A training camp in Curaçao.

MELISSA LYTTLE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

conut trees, they played baseball with a sturdy wood stick and a white plastic bottle cap.” Perhaps dreaming of some future day in a major league uniform. But they should know this: When scouts head south, there are plenty of other islands in the sea. And one of them is Curaçao. Unlike Cuba, which had players in the major leagues in the early 1900s, Curaçao had none until 1989. But last season it had seven — phenomenal for a country of only 150,000 residents. One player, Didi Gregorius, is expected to replace Derek Jeter, the

retired star shortstop of the New York Yankees. David Waldstein of The Times traveled to Curaçao and reported on one prevailing theory about the local talent. It’s a theory that Cubans who swing at bottle caps would appreciate: The kids play on dirt that’s full of rocks. They are used to bad bounces. “Have you seen the fields?” asked Fermin Coronel, an organizer of the Dutch Caribbean Baseball Academy. “You develop great reflexes when you play on this stuff every day.” ALAN MATTINGLY

Sanctity of Truth

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

WORLD TRENDS

Cocaine Traffic Transforms an Amazon Outpost By SIMON ROMERO

MANAUS, Brazil — With their hands and feet bound, the two dead men recently found by police officers in a car trunk seemed at first like many other victims in Manaus, the Amazon’s largest city. But as if signing their work, the executioners carved three letters into the torsos: FDN, the initials of Familia do Norte, a drug gang battling for supremacy over the cocaine trade in the Brazilian Amazon. With Brazil emerging as the world’s second-largest consumer of cocaine after the United States, the Amazon is gaining importance as a smuggling domain. Traffickers ferry the drug across porous borders with Peru, Colombia and Bolivia, before moving the cocaine by riverboat to the Atlantic for shipment to Europe. Adding to the mix, the torrid growth of Brazil’s rain forest cities sustains the country’s own booming market for cocaine and substances like oxy — a cheap blend of cocaine paste, gasoline and kerosene — fueling a surge in drug violence as the Brazilian Amazon’s population approaches 25 million. Manaus, the Amazon’s premier transportation hub and the largest metropolitan area, with a population of two million, is reeling from the expansion of the cocaine trade, enduring turf wars, targeted killings of police officers and grisly murders. T he met a mor phosis of Manaus from a sleepy river outpost known for its tropical Belle Époque architecture into a center of the Amazon’s cocaine trade reflects broader shifts in the city over decades. To some residents, it has grown almost unrecognizable since the industrial expansion here in the 1970s

MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Police, hiding their faces behind balaclavas for their safety, raiding a slum of Manaus. during Brazil’s military dictatorship, when many of the city’s older buildings were razed and migrants flocked here in search of factory jobs. “Manaus was an idyllic place in my youth, a city where we would swim in creeks and see the Amazon’s wildlife up close in the trees of the plazas,” said Milton Hatoum, 62, a writer who grew up here and now lives in São Paulo. “That Manaus was systemically destroyed, replaced with a city with slums so deadly that I fear to even set foot in them,” he said. A striking feature of the drug trade in Manaus and other cities in Amazonas, the giant Brazilian state, involves the spread-

ONLINE: COCAINE CROSSROADS

Caught between the drug lords and the police: nytimes.com Search Manaus Romero

ing reach of gangs. They often control cocaine trafficking from within prisons, replicating a sophisticated organized crime structure with roots in larger cities like São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. On the street level, dealers vie for control of bocas de fumo, or points of sale where drug deals are carried out, sometimes ending in execution-style killings. The authorities also grapple with murders that settle scores

Diesel Ban in Paris Called Elitist By DAN BILEFSKY

PARIS — When the mayor here detailed plans to ban diesel and other vehicles from the center of Paris by 2020, she framed the measures as a public health imperative in a country that has grown increasingly worried about the quality of its air. But if passed by the City Council after debate in February, the proposals could also bring about what few other big cities have been able to accomplish: keeping a large portion of vehicles out of parts of the city center. The measures would be among the most far-reaching in Europe for reeling in the harmful particulates from diesel fuel and high-emission vehicles that burden its cities — and would go far toward curtailing the use of cars in Paris’s glittering center, where heavy traffic is often the price paid to view the elegant Palais Garnier opera house, cruise the Champs-Élysées or merely get to work. Yet even as the proposals were praised by public health Aurelien Breeden contributed reporting.

Where pollution is thick, a fight over cars in the city. officials, they raised questions about whether the Socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, is catering to the interests of elite city dwellers who dislike traffic over the needs of lower-income Parisians — people who live on the edges of the city and whose cars probably would not pass stricter environmental controls. “The language chosen by the mayor of Paris to talk about her antipollution plans has the air of being more of a war against automobile owners rather than an ecological battle for the capital,” wrote Le Figaro, a right-leaning newspaper. Daniel Quéro, president of 40 millions d’automobilistes, a group representing car owners that claims more than 320,000 members throughout France, questioned Ms. Hidalgo’s socialist credentials.

“What is the barman who lives on the far outskirts of Paris supposed to do when he needs to get to his work late at night?” he asked. “Ms. Hidalgo’s proposal is that of a Champagne socialist who is far removed from concerns of everyday people.” Though Paris, famed for its beauty, may seem quite different from pollution-choked Mumbai or Beijing, it shares their concerns about the health risks posed by particles released by burning diesel fuel. The city has already had its share of alarming pollution peaks. Last March pollution was so severe that the city offered free rides on subways and buses for three days to help clear the air. The World Health Organization has said that diesel exhaust causes lung cancer, and some experts say it is more carcinogenic than secondhand smoke. A 2005 European Commission study cited by City Hall said an estimated 40,000 people in France die prematurely from fine particle air pollution each year. France has one of the highest concentrations of diesel cars in Europe, where they have been

between street dealers and cocaine users over drug-related debts, with Amazonas registering a homicide rate of 50.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012, up 157 percent since the start of the century and almost twice Brazil’s national rate. The fraying security adds to a dystopian feel in some areas, with luxurious new residential towers and a futuristic World Cup soccer stadium standing near canals reeking of sewage. In many corners of Manaus, users can buy oxy or crack for as little as $2 a rock, and some consume their purchases openly, smoking the drugs in pipes made from aluminum cans.

“Getting drugs in Manaus is easy,” said Francisco Edinaldo da Silva Pereira, 34, an unemployed taxi driver and recovering addict. “These days you go into a bar, start drinking and when you least expect it you find someone in that bar who sells,” he explained. “It’s like that in every neighborhood.” While drug violence afflicts Manaus and other cities, Brazil has opted to avoid large intervention strategies like the ones the United States has pursued in neighboring countries. Still, the Federal Police, Brazil’s lead agency for fighting drug trafficking, recently added at least 19 border installations to bolster antidrug operations. Brazilian agents have seized tons of cocaine and arrested major figures in the Amazon drug trade like Jair Ardela Michue, a Peruvian kingpin who assembled a sprawling operation for smuggling cocaine into Manaus. Security officials here insist they are making strides. In a show of force one morning in November, more than a dozen police officers from Fera, a special operations squad in Manaus, embarked on a sweep of Beco Cruzeiro do Sul, a slum where cocaine dealers are thought to operate. Wielding assault rifles and hiding their faces behind balaclavas out of fear of retribution from drug gangs, the officers stormed into hovels. Amid the squalor of one home reeking of feces, the officers questioned residents about the whereabouts of a suspected dealer. He was gone. “This isn’t surprising since the dealers have informers everywhere,” said one officer. “Look at this place,” he said. “This isn’t our territory, but theirs.”

Paris may become out of bounds for highemission vehicles. 12.50 pounds a day. However, environmental campaigners have been pressing for an outright ban on diesel cars, and they say Paris could provide a spur. According to a poll this month, 54 percent of residents in the greater Paris area support banning diesel cars in the capital. Opponents of the ban say it smacks of hypocrisy given that, until recently, policy makers in France and across Europe were extolling diesel cars as cleaner and more fuel efficient. In France, diesel fuel is less expensive than IAN LANGSDON/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY unleaded gas. popular because of their high fuel Stephen Joseph, of the Camefficiency. paign for Better Transport in In London, which has congesLondon, an environmental group, said Europe’s governtion charges aimed at reducing traffic in the city center, the office ments had helped create a generof Mayor Boris Johnson said it ation of hazardous cars and now planned to introduce a low emishad to make an about-face. “The science on the effects of sion zone in the center, to take efair pollution on health, and in fect in 2020, where high-polluting particular the hazards posed by diesel vehicles — and other envidiesel cars, is hardening up,” he ronmentally unfriendly vans and said. motorbikes — would be charged

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Sanctity of Truth

MONEY & BUSINESS

Start-Ups in Sweden In Need of Housing By MARK SCOTT

STOCKHOLM — This city has emerged in recent years as one of Europe’s most attractive tech centers, luring thousands of workers and developers to companies like Spotify, the popular music-streaming service that was started here. But the Swedish capital also has become a cautionary tale about the troubles that arise when a booming tech sector runs head-on into city planning rules that have not changed for decades. Swedish rent controls and other housing restrictions in place since the 1960s make it almost impossible for people to lease out apartments to foreign tech workers. And a backlog of new construction means that only 10,000 new homes are expected to be built annually over the next 15 years. In contrast, roughly 40,000 people — both from inside Sweden and outside the coun-

Stockholm tries to accommodate its tech sector boom. try — are now moving to the city to work for tech companies, financial firms and other Swedish businesses each year, according to Stockholm’s city government. “Renting something is almost impossible,” said Fritjof Andersson, 33, who started his first tech company more than a decade ago, but now cannot afford to bring in international developers to expand his small team. Many people in Stockholm welcome the new workers. But critics say the newly arrived, who often have salaries much higher than local residents’, should not be given priority over people who have lived in neighborhoods for decades. “Rents going up will only force people to move out of their homes,” said Marie Linder, chairwoman of the Swedish Union of Tenants, which represents the rights of existing renters, many of whom live in

low-cost government housing. “People will have to leave their apartments, but where will they go?” The complaints are echoed in other cities with a heavy concentration of tech companies. San Francisco residents have complained that 20-something engineers and developers have pushed up real estate prices and transformed modest neighborhoods with upmarket wine bars and expensive yoga studios. In London, one of Europe’s largest technology centers, local tech companies are expected to create almost 50,000 jobs and add $19 billion to the local economy over the next decade, according to Oxford Economics, which provides economic forecasting. Some of that money, though, is returned to the tech industry in the form of tax breaks for people starting businesses and government grants for local start-ups. That has led some urban policy researchers to argue that a level of inequality is inevitable if policy makers focus their attention on attracting people from a single industry over other priorities. The tension between the so-called global technorati and cities’ residents is a relatively new phenomenon. In recent years, a new generation of start-ups, like Twitter and King Digital Entertainment, the Anglo-Swedish game company behind the Candy Crush franchise, have elected to set up shop in the heart of a metropolis, catering to workers who crave easy access to a city’s fashionable bars, public transportation and quirky apartments. A recent arrival, Tyler Faux, 24, learned that finding an apartment in Stockholm, no matter what he was willing to pay, was much harder than in his native New York. He eventually got a one-bedroom for $1,700 a month. Lovisa Nilsson traveled from Uppsala, an hour north of Stockholm, for more than a year before finally securing a short-term contract for a small apartment here. “I wanted to move a lot earlier, but had almost given up,” she said.

MARTIN EDSTRÖM FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Entrepreneurs like Fritjof Andersson find it hard to bring engineers to Stockholm because of the limited housing.

LALO DE ALMEIDA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

In a slowdown, Brazil wants to exploit its resources. An illegal clearing of rain forest. NEWS ANALYSIS

Choosing Growth Over Climate By EDUARDO PORTER

SANTIAGO, Chile — It can be tempting to understand the recent greenhouse gas negotiations in Lima, Peru, as a clash between developing countries fighting to preserve their vulnerable environments and the rich representatives of multinational capitalism who want to exploit them. Yet environmental advocates and allied policy makers seem to be losing sight of developing countries’ nonnegotiable constraint: They will not agree to grow less. Brazil, for one, doesn’t want its environment protected from development. Stunned by an abrupt slowdown in economic growth over the last three years, it urgently wants its environment exploited, whether this means offering cheaper gas to encourage driving or investing trillions in developing its oil reserves. “There is a strategic vision in Brazil that it must close the gap that still separates it from rich, developed countries,” said Sérgio Leitão of Greenpeace in São Paulo. “To do that it must burn its natural capital, which is what Americans and Europeans did.” This attitude has prevailed for decades. In 1972, when the United Nations organized its first environmental summit meeting in Sweden, Brazil was in the midst of an “economic miracle.” It was opening the Trans-Amazonian highway and building a nuclear power plant at Angra dos Reis. Brazil not only saw no purpose in protecting its indigenous forests — it even offered tax incentives to replace them with lucrative Caribbean pine and eucalyptus. Pollution meant progress. Brazil wouldn’t be hoodwinked by conservation proposals that just aimed to keep it in poverty. Grudgingly, perhaps, rich countries have accepted the notion that poorer countries that emit much less carbon dioxide should be given a break to cut emissions more slowly and should be provided with cash and technology to help them limit their carbon footprint. The tension between climate and development crops up all

Battling Climate Change Greenhouse gas emissions from Brazil, the fourth-largest contributor in the world, have fallen sharply over the last decade. But progress has stalled, as slow economic growth has changed Brazil’s priorities. Brazilian carbon dioxide emissions

3.0 billion tons of CO2 equivalent 2.5 2.0 1.5 1.0

All other

0.5

Energy Deforestation

0 ’90

’95

United States

’00

’05

’10

’13

Top 10 contributors to global temperature change

0.151 0 C

The temperature increase that each country is responsible for, measured in fractions of a Celsius degree

China 0.063

Russia 0.059

Brazil

India

0.049

0.047

Germany Britain 0.033

0.032

France Indonesia Canada 0.016

0.015

0.013

Sources: Brazilian Climate Observatory (Observatorio do Clima); H. Damon Matthews et. al. “National contributions to observed global warming,” Environmental Research Letters THE NEW YORK TIMES

over Latin America. Chile, poor in fossil fuels and rich in wind and sun, might seem like a natural base for a low-carbon economy. Yet Aldo Cerda of the country’s climate exchange says the intensity of Chile’s carbon use is set to grow significantly over the next 15 years. The tension is also evident in Peru, where the government watered down environmental regulations over the summer to try to pump up flagging growth. Resolving this tension is proving difficult. Take the report issued this year by the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network. It worked on the assumption that every country would cut annual carbon emissions from energy to only 1.6 tons per person by 2050. But Brazil, where emissions from energy rose to almost 2.4 tons per person last year, is unlikely to agree to that anytime soon. At the Copenhagen climate summit meeting in 2009, Brazil promised deep cuts to carbon

dioxide. Even as mineral and agricultural exports powered an economic boom that brought almost 25 million Brazilians out of poverty, greenhouse gas emissions fell by almost half from 2004 to 2012. When Brazil’s fast-paced economy got stuck last year, concerns about the environment dropped down the priority list. A tax on gasoline was slashed in hopes of priming the economic pump, a decision that removed ethanol’s competitive advantage. A slump in hydroelectric power generation caused by a persistent drought was met by a sustained investment in gas and coal. And greenhouse gas emissions rose by nearly 8 percent in 2013 compared to the year before. “Until 2010 we had both high growth and falling emissions,” noted Tasso Azevedo, one of the lead designers of Brazil’s plan to combat deforestation. “Today Brazil is in the worst of worlds, emitting more and generating less growth.”

Sanctity of Truth

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

MONEY & BUSINESS

Malaysia Benefits From Shifts in the Global Solar Trade By KEITH BRADSHER

KULIM, Malaysia — Tucked away in this former tin-mining town, past the small farms of banana trees and oil palms, is one of the solar industry’s best-kept secrets. The six factories here with cavernous rooms constitute the production backbone of First Solar. Working alongside minivan-size robots adapted from car assembly plants and other industries, 3,700 employees produce five-sixths of the American company’s solar panels. Workers in Ohio make the rest. The list of manufacturers is long. Panasonic of Japan has a solar panel factory down the road. SunEdison makes wafers 100 kilometers away in Chemor. Hanwha Q Cells and SunPower have giant factories even farther south, while Solexel, a Silicon Valley start-up, is preparing to build an $810 million solar panel factory. Malaysia, a Southeast Asian nation with just 30 million people, is the biggest winner in the trade wars that have embroiled the solar sector. As Chinese companies have been hit with American tariffs and European quotas, Malaysia has increasingly attracted multinationals with its relatively low labor costs, lucrative tax breaks, warm relations with the West and an abundance of English-speaking engineers. Malaysia is now the world’s third-largest producer of solar equipment, trailing China by a wide margin but catching up rapidly with the European Union. And Malaysia’s role in the global solar trade is likely to increase since the American government, as expected on December 16, broadened steep tariffs on panels made in China. Pending litigation would impose duties on panels made partly in China and partly Diane Cardwell contributed reporting from New York.

Power From the Sun As the United States and the European Union have restricted imports of solar panels from China — the world’s dominant producer — Malaysia has emerged as a large rival.

KEITH BRADSHER/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Malaysia’s tax breaks make it a leader in the solar industry. First Solar’s plant in Kulim.

Solar module production

U.S. imports of solar panels

Estimated 2014 production, in gigawatts

2014, through September

China

33.8

Europe

4.2

Malaysia

3.3

Japan

2.8

S. Korea

1.8

Taiwan

1.6

Rest of Asia

1.2

United States

1.1

Malaysia $687 million

China $1.34 billion

TOTAL $3.26 BILLION

other $186 million S. Korea $64 million

By ROBERT FRANK

Mexico $349 million

Sources: GTM Research; United States Department of Commerce, via Global Trade Information Services

in Taiwan, closing a loophole that allowed some Chinese companies to bypass the original duties. “We liked Malaysia because it was a cross between just a straight low-cost play and a high-engineering play — it was sort of in the middle, where it was lower-cost but good engineering,” said Tom Werner, the chief executive of the California-based SunPower, which manufactures half its solar panels in Malacca, Malaysia. The factories here are mostly owned by American, European, South Korean and Japanese companies that prefer to talk about operations back home. Hanwha Q Cells, for example, produces 1,100 megawatts a year worth of panels in Malaysia and just 200 megawatts in its home market in Germany. But the company highlights that the engineering work is done in Thalheim, Germany. Production in Malaysia “gives us the flexibility to reliably address very different and dynamic international market needs with high-quality products ‘Engineered in Germany,’ ” said Jochen Endle, a company spokesman. It is a common theme. The

technology comes from overseas, but the employees and most of the materials are Malaysian. Except for two expatriates in the finance department, all of First Solar’s 3,700 employees on three shifts are local hires. Most materials are bought from Malaysian suppliers. “Localization of materials is part of our strategy of contin-

English-speaking engineers lure solar panel makers. uous cost reduction,” said AR. Jeyaganesh, First Solar’s plant manager, walking across an immaculate floor at one of the 24 production lines here, each an exact replica of the company’s four lines in Perrysburg, Ohio. Multinationals are also hustling to introduce their latest inventions just as quickly here as in their home markets, to maintain standardized production techniques and quality.

“When the decision is made” to add more robots or make other production changes,” Mr. Jeyaganesh said, “it happens almost simultaneously in Perrysburg and here.” Malaysia is a beneficiary of the interaction of global trade rules, economic competitiveness and environmental policies in the solar industry. Tariffs have had the most immediate effect. Solar prices started plummeting during the global financial crisis in 2009, as Chinese factories began selling them for less than it cost to make and ship them. A flood of cheap Chinese exports caused two dozen solar manufacturers in the United States and Europe to go bankrupt or close factories. The United States responded in 2012 by imposing stiff anti-subsidy and anti-dumping duties totaling about 30 percent on panels from China. The plunge in prices through 2013 put a heavy emphasis on cost competitiveness. As wages rose in China, multinationals began to look elsewhere as well. That gave an edge to Malaysia, with its fairly low pay for skilled

Instead of Art, Investing in Passports Along with stock and real estate portfolios, the global rich are now buying a new form of economic security: passport portfolios. Wealthy investors from around the world are increasingly shopping for visas or citizenship in other countries, hoping to protect against volatile governments or economies. A majority are new millionaires and billionaires from emerging-market countries, especially China, Russia and nations in the Middle East. Often, they’re shopping for passports or entree into Europe, the United States, Canada and Australia. Experts estimate that these “economic citizens” are spending $2 billion a year on second or third passports and visas. Demand is so strong that governments around the world have started an arms race of sorts for V.I.P. visas, offering ever-faster residencies and passports for ever-higher prices. Over the past

Taiwan $635 million

year, Australia, Canada, Britain and several other European countries have raised the prices or investment requirements of their so-called golden visas and created a new fast lane for citizenship. Opponents, however, say the programs have the potential to offer safe harbor to people who made their fortune through corruption or illegal activities. Others say that at a time when immigration and inequality are heated political topics, V.I.P. visas they amount to selling citizenship to the rich. “These programs bring huge benefits to the Russian oligarchs or the various Chinese wanting to benefit from the rule of law, good educations and robust capital markets,” said David Metcalf, chairman of the British government’s Migration Advisory Committee. “But the fundamental question is, What does everyone else get out of it?” Even as criticism mounts, governments are cashing in. In January, Malta, a nation of

425,000 people, started selling citizenship for a fee of 650,000 euros (more than $800,000) with no residency requirements. Because Malta is a European Union member, citizenship gives holders the ability to settle within the Union’s 28 countries. After the plan drew protests, the government added requirements, including a demand that applicants spend at least 350,000 euros on real estate and 150,000 euros on government bonds. In the first six months, more than 200 investors signed up, earning the government $200 million. Elsewhere, Australia recently announced plans for a Premium Investor visa, nicknamed the platinum visa. That nation already has a golden visa, called the Significant Investor visa, which offers permanent residency after four years in exchange for an investment of 5 million Australian dollars ($4.15 million). More than 436 visas have been granted under the program, bringing in more than

THE NEW YORK TIMES

engineers and machinery operators. Malaysian wages were much higher than those in China for years, but the disparity has now disappeared or even reversed. According to Malaysian government statistics, median nationwide monthly pay last year was $765 for factory technicians and $400 for machinery operators and assembly-line workers. That is similar to or lower than pay scales these days in coastal provinces of China with large export industries. Malaysia also has some of Asia’s lowest costs for electricity, partly because the country is a large producer of natural gas. One of Malaysia’s biggest attractions is the 10-year exemption from corporate taxes for large domestic and foreign investors. The tax break cinched the deal for First Solar to set up most of its production here, said Maja Wessels, an executive at the company. “That’s easy, the 10-year tax holiday,” she said. “When you look at solar manufacturing, and our manufacturing in particular, low labor costs contribute, but those taxes are critical.”

Countries compete as the rich shop for visas or citizenship.

JOHN SPOSATO

2 billion Australian dollars in investments. The new program will give residency in 12 months in return for 15 million Australian dollars in investments. Consultants, lawyers and advisers to the wealthy say golden visas bring many benefits to host countries, like skills and investment. But critics like Mr. Metcalf argue that the benefits are often offset by the overseas rich bidding up prices for real estate and services. And, he contends, because most of the investments go

into government bonds that pay interest, “we are essentially paying oligarchs to come to the U.K.” In Britain, an investor visa program gives residency for 2 million pounds ($3.14 million); applicants are eligible for “indefinite leave to remain” after five years. But the government recently added fast-track programs for people who invest 5 million pounds (requiring a wait of three years) and 10 million pounds (a wait of two years). Mr. Metcalf argues that visas, if sold at all, should be offered through a formal auction, with proceeds going to a national education program. “Let’s find out what the optimal price really is,” he said. “People say, ‘Well, you’re selling citizenship.’ We’re not selling citizenship; we’re selling settlement. And right now, we’re practically giving it away.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Sanctity of Truth

ONLINE

Game On Against Hacking

DAVID GOLDMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Feeling that Facebook was too intrusive in his life, Dan Grippi helped create an alternative social network called Diaspora. NEWS ANALYSIS

The Big Bang Of Social Networking By JIM DWYER

In 2010, after five years on Facebook, Dan Grippi had had enough. Mr. Grippi, then a senior at New York University, was irritated by Facebook’s relentlessly tailing him as he visited other websites. He hunted down the “delete account” button and clicked. O.K. then. The account would not actually be deleted for two more weeks. Any activity during that time would be interpreted as a sign that he had changed his mind. Pictures of those closest to him began to appear on-screen. “Your friends are going to miss you,” Facebook said. Knowing who and what Dan Grippi wanted in his life was Facebook’s business. It sold that knowledge. Daniel, Facebook pleaded, wouldn’t you want to stay in touch with these people? Again he clicked delete. A day later, he walked into the computer club at school and told three

Activists in the digital revolution are still busy. friends — Max Salzberg, Ilya Zhitomirskiy and Raphael Sofaer — that he would help them build something better than Facebook. The notion was only slightly crazy. The four young men would soon learn how sharp the public appetite was for sovereignty over what we shared online. The four students planned to hack together software for a new kind of social network that they called Diaspora. It would not concentrate the users’ data in the hands of a big business but would enable individuals or small groups to set up their own nodes. These, in turn, could connect with other branches of Diaspora. It mirrored the original design of the Internet, a network of networks. They would give the code away free and invite other hackers to make it better. They listed Diaspora on Kickstarter and set a goal of $10,000.

More than 6,000 people from 18 countries pitched in $200,642. A half-million others joined a waiting list for invitations. Four guys hanging around a little room suddenly found themselves handed a global commission to rebottle the genie of personal privacy. They were the faces of a revolution against the settled digital order. Their job was to demonetize the soul. Mission improbable, certainly, and many recalling the original excitement might see it today as a predictable failure. Diaspora has not penetrated popular culture or become a staple of global commerce. It is not both verb and noun, understood across the globe, like Facebook. The four founders are three; Mr. Zhitomirskiy, a charismatic math prodigy, took his life in November 2011. The others have moved on to other work. Yet to declare Diaspora a failure badly misreads the nature of transformation: We are still in the Big Bang moments of the digital age, so charged with energy that its guiding forces cannot be simply tracked. GNU Linux, the operating system that is the digital genome for billions of phones, printers, cameras and televisions, is free software. Netscape, swimming in cash after going public, was crushed by Microsoft. But a pocket of volunteers emerged, years later, with the revolutionary Firefox browser, built by people around the world. The near-penniless descendant of Netscape, Firefox had managed to do what its wealthy-beyondwords ancestor failed to accomplish: change how we browse the web. It has been four years since Diaspora was started; it now resides within the Free Software Support Network. It is certain that dozens of pods around the world host a few hundred thousand Diaspora users. The public work space for the project shows over 50,000 lines of code. It remains one of the most actively developed open source projects in the world. No one can predict if Diaspora, or something like it, will catch on. But we know for sure that these are days when the improbable can become the inevitable.

By NICOLE PERLROTH they have been hacked. czar at the White House. “It’s And this year, American comalmost impossible to think of SAN FRANCISCO — Paul a company that hasn’t been Kocher, one of the country’s panies learned it was not just hacked — the Pentagon’s secret leading cryptographers, says Beijing they were up against. network, the White House, JPthe world’s dismal state of digThanks to revelations by the former intelligence agency ital security — with more than Morgan — it is pretty obvious contractor Edward J. Snowden, a 10,000-fold increase in the that prevention and detection companies worry about protectnumber of new digital threats technologies are broken.” over the last 12 years — may be “People are still dealing with ing their networks from their explained by two factors: a lack this problem in a technical way, own government. of liability and urgency. not a strategic way,” said Scott “People are finally realizing For example, if a stunning Borg, the head of the United that we have a problem that number of airplanes in the UnitStates Cyber Consequences most had not thought about beUnit, a nonprofit organization, ed States crashed tomorrow, fore,” said Peter G. Neumann, who urged new strategies. there would be investigations, a computer security pioneer at “People are not thinking about lawsuits and a cutback in air SRI International, the Silicon who would attack us, what their travel, and the airlines’ stock Valley engineering research motives would be, what they prices would most likely plumlaboratory. “We may have finalwould try to do. The focus on the met. That has not been true for ly reached a crossroads.” technology is allowing hacking attacks, which these people to be blindsurged 62 percent last year, according to the sesided. “They are looking obcurity company Symantec. As for long-term consessively at new penesequences, Home Depot, trations,” Mr. Borg said. which suffered the worst “But once someone is insecurity breach of any reside, they can carry on for months unnoticed.” tailer in history this year, The companies most has seen its stock float to prepared for online ata high point. In a speech two years tacks, Mr. Borg and othago, Leon E. Panetta, the ers say, are those that former defense secrehave identified their most valuable assets, like a tary, predicted it would university’s groundtake a “cyber-Pearl Harbor” — a crippling attack breaking research, and that would cause physical then taken steps to isolate destruction and loss of and encrypt it. JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES life — to wake up the naThe most prominent examples are Google, Yation to the vulnerabilities “People are finally realizing in its computer systems. hoo, Microsoft and FaceNo such attack has book, which responded that we have a problem.” occurred. Nonetheless, to Mr. Snowden’s asserat every level, there has tions by encrypting inforPETER G. NEUMANN been an awakening that mation that flows interthe threats are real and nally between their own computer security pioneerat SRI International growing worse, and that data centers. the prevailing “patch and Though intelligence pray” approach to comanalysts may disagree, security experts say puter security simply will all of this is a step in the not do. right direction. But seIn the last two years in America, breaches have curity experts acknowlhit the White House, the edge that even the most State Department, the advanced security detop federal intelligence fenses can break down, agency, the la rgest or deliver so many alerts American bank, the top that companies miss real hospital operator, enerthreats. “We don’t need ‘big dagy companies, retailers and the Postal Service. In ta.’ We need big informanearly every case, by the tion,” said Igor Baikalov, time the victims noticed chief scientist at Securothat hackers were inside nix, a company that sells their systems, their most threat intelligence to sensitive government businesses. MARKUS SCHREIBER/ASSOCIATED PRESS secrets, trade secrets Securonix and several and customer data had other companies use the “It’s almost impossible to think of a already leaked. deluge of data from emcompany that hasn’t been hacked.” The impact has been ployee computers and vast. Last year, more personal devices to give than 552 million people security officers intelRICHARD A. CLARKE had their identities stoligence they can act on. first cybersecurity czarat the White House For example, the technollen, according to Symantec. Over half of Ameriogies would increase the urgency of an alert if an cans, including President employee suddenly downloaded Obama, had to have their credit Customers are demanding large amounts of data from a dacards replaced because of a greater privacy protections breach, according to the Ponand corporations are elevating tabase not regularly used, while security experts to senior roles simultaneously communicating emon Group, a research orgaand increasing their budgets. with a computer in China. nization. Major retailers have pledged Still, experts say there is little But the value of those stolen to adopt more secure payment to prevent hackers from breakcredit cards, which trade freely schemes by the end of next year. in underground criminal maring in in the first place. Banks are making it easier for “If you look at an attacker’s kets, is eclipsed by the value of customers to monitor their expected benefit and expected the intellectual property that monthly statements for idenrisk, the equation is pretty good has been siphoned out of Unitfor them,” said Howard Shrobe, ed States corporations, univertity theft. Suddenly, ideas that who is a computer scientist at languished in research labs for sities and research groups by the Massachusetts Institute of years are being evaluated by hackers in China — so much so Technology. “Nothing is going American hardware makers. that security experts now say to change until we can get their “People are recognizing there are only two types of comexpected net gain close to zero that existing technologies arpanies left in the United States: or — God willing — in the negthose that have been hacked en’t working,” said Richard A. and those that do not yet know Clarke, the first cybersecurity ative.”

Sanctity of Truth

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Two Degrees of Uncertainty in Plans for a Warmer World By JUSTIN GILLIS

After two weeks of grinding meetings in Lima, Peru, the world’s climate negotiators emerged recently with a deal. They settled on preliminary language, to be finalized a year later in Paris, meant to help keep the long-term warming of the planet below two degrees Celsius. That upper boundary was first settled on four years ago at another round of talks in Cancun, Mexico. It equals two degrees above the global average temperature at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution — the “2C target.” The target first surfaced in the 1970s when William D. Nordhaus, an economist at Yale University, pointed out that the damage to society really started to intensify at that level of warming. The nations of the world agreed in 1992 to try to head off the worst damage, in an ambitious but vague treaty that called for action to prevent dangerous interference with the climate. That raised the question of how much warming would be dangerous. In the mid-1990s, the German government picked up on the 2C finding as a way to breathe life into the treaty. A decade of research added scientific support to the notion that 2C was a dangerous threshold. Experts realized, for example, that at some increase in global temperature, the immense Greenland ice sheet would begin an unstoppable melt, raising the sea by as much as seven meters over an unknown period. Their early calculations suggested that calamity would be unlikely as long as global warming did not exceed about 1.9 degrees Celsius. “Risking a loss of the whole

Greenland’s glaciers are launching icebergs into the sea at an accelerated pace. A researcher at the Sermilik fjord.

TONY CENICOLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES

The limit agreed on for global warming may be too high. Greenland ice sheet was considered a no-go area,” said Stefan Rahmstorf, head of earth system analysis at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “We are talking about really sinking a lot of coastal cities.” The Germans managed to persuade other countries to adopt the 2C target, turning it into official European policy. The proposal was always controversial, with African countries and island states, in particular, arguing that it was too much warming and would condemn them to ruin. The

island states cited the potential for a large rise of the sea, and African countries feared severe effects on food production, among other problems. But as a practical matter, the 2C target seemed the most ambitious possible, since it would require virtually ending fossil fuel emissions within 30 years to 40 years. The talks culminating in Paris next year are seen as perhaps the best chance ever to turn that pledge into meaningful emissions limits, in part because President Obama has gone far beyond his predecessors in committing the United States, the largest historical producer of greenhouse gases, to action. That, in turn, has lured China, the largest current producer, into making its first serious commitments. Yet scientific theory and real-world observations have be-

gun to raise serious questions about whether the target is stringent enough. For starters, the world has already warmed by almost one degree Celsius since the Industrial Revolution. That may sound modest, but as a global average, it is actually substantial. For any amount of global warming, the ocean, which covers 70 percent of the earth’s surface and absorbs considerable heat, will pull down the average. But the warming over land tends to be much greater, and the warming in some polar regions greater still. The warming that has already occurred is causing enormous damage all over the planet, from dying forests to collapsing sea ice to savage heat waves to torrential rains. And scientists realize they may have underestimated the vulnerability of the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica.

Those ice sheets now appear to be in the early stages of breaking up. For instance, Greenland’s glaciers have lately been spitting icebergs into the sea at an accelerated pace, and scientific papers published this year warned that the melting in parts of Antarctica may already be unstoppable. “The climate is now out of equilibrium with the ice sheets,” said Andrea Dutton, a geochemist at the University of Florida who studies global sea levels. “They are going to melt.” That could ultimately mean 10 meters or more of sea level rise, though scientists have no clear idea of how fast that could happen. They hope it would take thousands of years, but cannot rule out a faster rise that might overwhelm the ability of human society to adapt. Frightened by what they are seeing, some countries have been asking whether the target is safe. They have enlisted scientists in a major review of whether, the 2C goal is strict enough. Results are due next summer. Barring a technological miracle, or a mobilization of society on a scale unprecedented in peacetime, it is not at all clear how a lower target could be met. Some experts think it could even backfire. If 2C already seems hard to achieve, with the world on track for levels of warming far beyond that, setting a tighter limit might prompt political leaders to throw up their hands in frustration. In practice, moreover, a tighter temperature limit would not alter the advice that scientists have been giving to politicians for decades about cutting emissions. Their recommendation is simple and blunt: Get going now.

Digital Echoes Created of Long-Silent Heartbeats By RON COWEN of how 19th-century physicians recorded the pulse and heartbeat Efforts to record the pattern of of patients and sounded out the human heartbeats — the wavy information. lines so familiar on hospital mon“We’re really in a certain sense itors — go back at least to 1854, bringing these physiological when a German scientist pressed processes back to life,” said Dr. a weighted plate against an arFeaster, 43. “There tery, connected it is a certain sense to a stylus made of access to the of a strand of hair, pulse from hearing and traced the pulit that I don’t think sations on a movanybody would get ing strip of paper from just looking blackened by soot. at a wavy line on a Now, using digpiece of paper.” ita l processing Until the mid-19th techniques to turn century, charting a pictures of repeatpulse required the ing waveforms doctor to cut into into sounds, an an artery and place artist and a sound a metal device or a historian have conglass tube inside. verted that pattern There were no huof lines into the rhythmic beats of man volunteers, a heart. They have and studies were resur rected i n limited to animals. DRUYAN-SAGAN ASSOCIATES INC. sound the pulse of Karl von Vierordt, a 100-year-old Frenchman whose a German physiologist, invented heart started beating in 1769. The a device that charted human artist, Dario Robleto, was doing pulses noninvasively. He called research recently on artificial it the sphygmograph, or “pulse hearts for an art installation in writer,” and in 1854 he used it to Houston, Texas, when he met the trace 45 feeble pulses of a 71-yearhistorian, Patrick Feaster. old patient. The two delved into the history To give voice to the tracings,

The pulse heard of a man who was born in 1769. COURTESY PATRICK FEASTER AND DARIO ROBLETO

Dr. Feaster digitized von Vierordt’s wavy line inscriptions. He then created audio files, using software for movie soundtracks, of cardiac tracings compiled by Étienne-Jules Marey, a 19th-century physiologist. In 1865, Marey used a new type of stethoscope in which two membranes filled with water were pressed against a patient’s chest; instead of attaching them to rubber listening tubes he connected the membranes to a recording device. The wavy lines were the earliest recorded sounds of a beating heart. After digitizing Marey’s recording, Dr. Feaster edited the image into a form that the soundtrack software could convert into a waveform audio file. This fall, Dr. Feaster and Mr. Robleto discovered a photographic chart created in 1869 by a French physician, Charles Ozanam, depicting the pulse of the Frenchman, Monsieur Léger, a

Étienne-Jules Marey’s device. Left, the recorded heartbeat of Ann Druyan, here with Carl Sagan, was sent into space. few months before his death. Dr. Feaster converted the tracings into sound. Mr. Robleto, 42, attributes his fascination with the heartbeat to a recording he heard when he was 6 or 7 that was supposed to be the sounds of space; it sounded like static. Years later he learned the noise that had haunted him was electrical recordings of the heart and brain waves of a young writer, Ann Druyan. In the late 1970s, Ms. Druyan had worked with the astronomer Carl Sagan to assemble twin time capsules — identical gold-plated copper records, etched with the images and sounds of Earth, that were sent into space on the Voyager 1 and 2 missions in 1977. The Golden Record, as it is now called, includes the sounds

of thunder, birds, whales — and the EEGs and EKGs of Ms. Druyan, then 27, recorded in a room at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan just days after she realized she had fallen in love with Sagan. The two later married, a union that ended with his death in 1996. Last year, Voyager 1 became the first human-made craft to exit the heliosphere, the magnetic bubble that shields the solar system from cosmic radiation, and enter interstellar space. “No single story, artist or creative act has lingered with me more than Ann Druyan and the Golden Record,” Mr. Robleto said. In September, the two met. “I can’t believe I was listening to your heart when I was a little boy,” he told her.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Art of Not Trying Takes Much Practice By JOHN TIERNEY

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KAYANA SZYMCZAK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Surge of Cold-Stunned Turtles By JAMES GORMAN

WELLFLEET, Massachusetts — For as long as anyone knows, young sea turtles have ventured up the East Coast, leaving warm seas to feed on crabs and other prey. And some of them have lingered too long in northern waters and been stunned when the season turns cold. Around this time of year, volunteers regularly patrol the beaches of Cape Cod Bay to rescue turtles that wash up at high tide — six of seven species of sea turtles are endangered — so they can be rehabilitated and relocated. But this year the usual trickle of stranded turtles has turned into a flood, and nobody seems to know why. Since mid-November, volunteers on turtle patrol have found about 1,200, almost all young Kemp’s ridley turtles, the most endangered species. That is almost three times as many as in the previous record year, and many more times the number in an average year. Most of them have survived, but hundreds have not. The stranded turtles, typically 2 to 3 years old and each between the size of a dinner plate and a serving platter, have stretched the abilities of veterinarians, volunteers and aquariums as far away as Texas. Bob Prescott, the director of the Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, who has been saving turtles for 32 years, said that when he started walking the beaches, he would find one or two turtles a season, warm them up and drive them to the Boston airport. A pilot would keep the turtle in the cockpit and hand it off to a turtle expert in Florida. Not this year. “One day, 157 came in,” he said. About 150 volunteers worked to get the turtles to the New England Aquarium hospital in Quincy. By mid-December, Mr. Prescott said, the water temperature had dropped further and only one or two turtles were found each day. Most of them were dead.

Rescued turtles have been sent to aquariums. Top, Nina Coleman, a beach manager, with a turtle.

At-risk species, too far north at the wrong time. The Coast Guard flew 193 turtles to Florida in November. Private planes have carried others. “We’ve called in all the favors we can,” Dr. Charles J. Innis, director of animal health for the New England Aquarium, said recently. At the time, there were about 200 turtles in various stages of recovery at the animal hospital the aquarium built and staffed. The number of turtles stranded on Cape Cod Bay beaches has been increasing for decades, perhaps because conservation efforts have been successful, or perhaps because the ocean has warmed. But nothing suggested that a year like this would happen. Previous record years were 1989, with about 100 stranded turtles; 1999, when 163 were found; and 2012, with 413. Over the years, Mr. Prescott said, as the number of turtles rescued on the Cape increased, those found on the north shore of Long Island decreased. This year, only 23 had been found in

New York by early December. It is tempting to speculate that a warming ocean may have something to do with the change, Mr. Prescott said, but there is no proof of that. “Cold-stunning events are really hard things to explain,” said Selina Heppell, an Oregon State University biologist who has been studying the Kemp’s ridley for 20 years. “They are caused by local conditions, such as sharp changes in temperature, but the role of currents and turtle behavior and condition prior to the events are not well understood.” She added: “The long-term effects of large events like this one are hard to predict because we don’t know how many turtles actually died but were not seen.” The number of nests reached a low of 702 in 1985, down from 40,000 or more in the late 1940s, but it had been rising for years, Dr. Heppell said, because of efforts to conserve nesting areas in Mexico and Texas. Nesting fell off in 2010, after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. It rebounded, then fell again in 2013 and 2014. About 11,500 nests were counted this year, compared with 20,000 in 2011.

Just be yourself. The advice is the default prescription for any tense situation: a first date, a speech, a job interview. Relax. Act natural. Just be yourself. But when you’re nervous, how can you be yourself? How you can force yourself to relax? It makes no sense, but the paradox is essential to civilization, according to Edward Slingerland. He has developed a theory of spontaneity based on millenniums of Asian philosophy and decades of research by psychologists and neuroscientists. He calls it the paradox of wu wei, the Chinese term for “effortless action.” It has similarities to the concept of flow, that state of effortless performance sought by athletes, but it applies to more than sports. Wu wei is integral to romance, religion, politics and commerce.Dr. Slingerland, a professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia, argues that the quest for wu wei has been going on ever since humans began living in groups larger than hunter-gathering clans. Unable to rely on the bonds of kinship, the first urban settlements survived by developing shared values that enabled people to trust one another’s virtue and to cooperate for the common good. But there was always the danger that someone would put his own interest first. To be trusted, it wasn’t enough just to be a sensible, law-abiding citizen, and it wasn’t even enough to strive to be virtuous. You had to demonstrate that your virtue was so intrinsic that it came to you effortlessly. Hence the preoccupation with wu wei, whose ancient significance has become clearer to scholars since the discovery in 1993 of bamboo strips in Guodian, China. The texts on the bamboo, composed more than three centuries before Christ, emphasize that following rules and fulfilling obligations is not enough to maintain social order: “If you try to be filial, this not true filiality; if you try to be obedient, this is not true obedience. You cannot try, but you also cannot not try.” That paradox has kept philosophers and theologians busy ever since, as Dr. Slingerland deftly explains in his new book, “Trying Not to Try: The Art and Science of Spontaneity.” One school has favored the Confucian approach to effortless

grace, which actually requires a great deal of initial effort. Through willpower and the rigorous adherence to rules, a “gentleman” was supposed to learn proper behavior so thoroughly that it would eventually become second nature to him. But is that authentic wu wei? Not according to the rival school of Taoists that arose around the same time, in the fifth century B.C. Instead of following rigid training, they sought to liberate the natural virtue within. They went with the flow. They emphasized personal meditation instead of formal scholarship. Variations of this debate continue today among psychologists and neuroscientists arguing how much of behavior is guided by rational choices or by unconscious feelings. “Psychological science suggests that the ancient Chinese philosophers were genuinely on to something,” said Jonathan Schooler, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Particularly when one

Solving a paradox may be essential to civilization. has developed proficiency in an area, it is often better to simply go with the flow. Paralysis through analysis and overthinking are very real pitfalls.” However wu wei is attained, there’s no debate about its charismatic effect. It conveys an authenticity that makes you attractive, whether you’re addressing a crowd or talking to one person. So what’s the best strategy for wu wei — trying or not trying? Dr. Slingerland recommends a combination. Conscious effort is necessary to learn a skill. But trying can become counterproductive, as psychologists have demonstrated: The effort someone was making to keep a pendulum from moving caused it to move even more. “Our culture is very good at pushing people to work hard or acquire particular technical skills,” Dr. Slingerland said. “But in many domains actual success requires the ability to transcend our training and relax completely into what we are doing, or simply forget ourselves as agents.”

VIKTOR KOEN

THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL WEEKLY

Sanctity of Truth

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

ARTS & DESIGN

In France, a Reckoning With an Inglorious Past By MAÏA de la BAUME

PARIS — The 1942 telegram signed by one of the highest officials of the collaborationist Vichy regime urged local prefects in unoccupied France “personally” to supervise the transfer of thousands of Jews to deportation camps. “The head of state wants you to take personal control of the measures taken with regard to the foreign Jews,” wrote René Bousquet, who was Vichy’s chief of police at the time. “You should not hesitate to destroy any resistance you may encounter among these populations.” The telegram was part of Bousquet’s legal file after he was formally accused in 1989 of crimes against humanity for orchestrating the roundup of Jews and for ordering the deportation of Jewish children. (He had largely escaped punishment for his collaboration just after the war, but was murdered in 1993 while the charges were being investigated.) The typewritten telegram, whose paper has turned yellow with age, is one of 300 documents, including letters, photos, personal items, posters, police files and books, that are on display at a new exhibition at the National Archives museum here. The exhibition, called “Collaboration 1940-1945” and on view through March 2, is one of the first devoted to its subject. It is part of a flurry of commemorations on the 70th anniversary of France’s liberation

MARLENE AWAAD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

A Paris exhibit is a part of an acknowledgment by France of how it behaved in World War II. from Nazi rule. The subject of collaboration has recently been explored in books, movies, documentaries and even television series, like “Un Village Français,” which started in 2009. It is part of a broader reckoning by France of its inglorious past. The French perception of how the country behaved during the occupation has changed. France was initially portrayed as a nation of resisters, but by the 1990s,

President Jacques Chirac was citing the nation’s “collective wrongdoing.” Today, historians define France’s collaboration as a political, administrative, economic, military, ideological and cultural alliance with the Nazis. But “behaviors differed” among individuals, said Denis Peschanski, one of the curators. Mr. Peschanski said the exhibition distinguishes between collaborationists and collabora-

tors — “between those who were entirely allied with the occupier and those who accommodated to the circumstances.” The collaborationists did not merely assist the Germans by following orders from Vichy or by seeking personal profit, but rather sought to achieve France’s resurgence through Nazi rule, he said. Despite its provocative focus, the show has drawn a muted but largely positive response in France.

Not From America, Man Would Be King

David Oyelowo, an actor classically trained in England, toured the American South for his role as Martin Luther King Jr.

By FELICIA R. LEE

He gained 13 kilograms, shaved back his hairline and traveled to corners of the American South with the darkest history. But the unexpected preparation that helped David Oyelowo play the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the film “Selma,” which opens in wide release next month, was spending his youth in Nigeria and Britain, far from the country that gave birth to the 1960s uprisings against the routine oppression of African-Americans. “I hadn’t grown up with what I find a lot of black Americans have, which is: ‘My uncle marched with him, my grandfather knew him, my grandmother had the photograph of J.F.K., Jesus and King,’ ” Mr. Oyelowo, 38, said. “I never came with the weight of that.” He continued: “It enabled me to approach King very quickly as a man and never to overgun the gas when it came to his more grand moments. I was always trying to underplay those, because my entry point to him was as a man of faith, a husband, a father.” Directed by Ava DuVernay, “Selma” focuses on the period in 1965 when Dr. King went toe

Called to portray a towering figure of the 20th century. to toe with President Lyndon B. Johnson over the disenfranchisement of blacks and the need for a voting rights act. Critics are praising Mr. Oyelowo and the film, with a Golden Globe nomination this month fueling talk of an Oscar nod for him. In October, audiences saw Mr. Oyelowo as an astronaut in Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar,” and he will show up as a morally ambiguous prosecutor in J. C. Chandor’s drama of 1980s New York, “A Most Violent Year.” “If you come here to the land of ‘can do’ and haven’t been subjected in the same way that traditionally African-Americans have been subjected” to the same messages: “ ‘You cannot, you will not, you do not’ — then that is a pretty potent mix when, as a black person, you don’t carry that,” Mr. Oyelowo said. “You see it in Poitier, you see it in Steve McQueen. I know I have inherited that.” In the film, Dr. King leads a

The show traces the chronology of collaboration, from the armistice signed with Germany in 1940 to the treason trial of Marshal Philippe Pétain, head of the Vichy regime, in 1945.Visitors walk through corridors to the sounds of wartime songs and speeches by Pétain and Pierre Laval, Vichy’s chief minister. Some documents are being displayed for the first time. These include a letter from the novelist Louis-Ferdinand Céline congratulating Lucien Rebatet, a collaborationist writer, for his pamphlet “Les Décombres,” or “The Ruins,” which called for murdering Jews. The historian Tal Bruttmann said the exhibition shows the importance of ideology in collaboration. “In France, we have long thought that collaboration wasn’t an ideological commitment — we believed that collaborators were crooks,” Mr. Bruttmann said. “But there were also French Nazis.” Among the rare images is a photo of Hitler’s ambassador to Vichy, Otto Abetz, with Pétain and Laval. The photo was taken only hours before Pétain shook Hitler’s hand. In another photo, taken on July 3, 1942, Pétain, Laval and Bousquet, the police chief, are seen walking out of the minister’s council in Paris just after Laval announced the mass arrest of Jews known as the Vel d’Hiv roundup. Within days, more than 13,000 people were seized for deportation to death camps.

ALLYN BAUM/THE NEW YORK TIMES; RIGHT, ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA/PARAMOUNT PICTURES

sometimes bloody march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, to highlight the struggle for black voting rights in the South. The cast includes Tom Wilkinson as Johnson; Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King; Tim Roth as the Alabama governor, George Wallace; and Oprah Winfrey as a protester. “It’s the most challenging role I’ve ever played,” Mr. Oyelowo said in his British accent. He said he was convinced that God had called him to play the civil rights leader, who was shot dead in 1968 at 39. “I couldn’t have pursued this in the way I did unless I felt a calling,” Mr. Oyelowo said. “And here we are at a time when a film like ‘Selma’ couldn’t be more relevant,” he said, speaking a few days after the decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the white

police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in Ferguson, Missouri. Citing the protest marches against police brutality and racial inequality sweeping the United States, he said, “Ava was literally in editing ‘Selma,’ texting me saying: ‘Are you seeing what’s going on on the TV right now? Didn’t we just shoot this just a month ago?’” Mr. Oyelowo, who graduated from the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, moved to Los Angeles with his wife and two children in 2007. He had roles in “Lincoln” and “The Help.” For “Selma,” he sought out a deeper understanding of the African-American experience that created Dr. King and his willingness to lay down his life to change a dehumanizing racial caste sys-

tem. “The richest tools I gained were from Andrew Young,” he said. Mr. Young, who marched with Dr. King and went on to a career as a congressman, United Nations ambassador and mayor of Atlanta, also directed him to film footage of Dr. King, some of it never released, in which he found a Dr. King decidedly looser than the button-down young preacher. “His cadence is different,” Mr. Oyelowo said. “His enunciation is different. His use of big words is different. He felt a need to display the dignified, intellectually astute black man,” because that was not the image America wanted to embrace. “And it’s still not that.” “I think there has been an inherent fear of powerful black characters in the driving seat of their own destiny,” he said. “It’s a subconscious fear. And by fear I mean there is something self-fulfilling by way of prophecy when we’re playing maids, slaves, beaten down, brow-beaten. “That’s understandable, that’s undeniable, that’s part of the black story in America. What is less embraced, less evident, less self-fulfilling is when we have powerfully changed the trajectory of our own destiny.”

Business | Money Line

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Empowerment: ‘More women now occupy management positions’

INCLUSION Women will drive the achievement of milliennium development goals

Godson Ikoro

s the agenda for women empowerment and financial inclusion persists worldwide, there is an increasing trend in the number of females entering professional occupation such

as banking and other high paying management positions, Ms Benedictha Molowu, Former Director, Institute of Directors of Nigeria, has said. Speaking on women empowerment at a forum, Molokwu who was represented by Dr. (Mazi) Ndubuisi Okoro, of Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation, argued that

more Nigerian women who constituted 50 per cent of the Nigerian population according to 1991 census figures, were increasingly seeking employment in the labour market, particularly in banking and financial services industry. According to her, gender empowerment has gone global. She cited a United States Depart-

ment of Labour, Bureau of Labour Statistics to buttress the point that female accounted for 50.8 per cent of all workers in high paying management, professional and related management positions. Going by the forecast outcomes of Bureau of labour statistics, 46.5 of the estimated 164.2 million labour forces in 2016

Dickson commends Sterling Bank’s expansion policy

ayelsa State Governor, Hon. Seriake Dickson, at the weekend commended Sterling Bank Plc for its strategic branch expansion policy aimed at taking its quality products and services closer to its customers. The governor, who stated this at the launching of new branch in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, also challenged financial institutions operating in the state to make their services more liberal for the people of the state to benefit. The opening of the branch brings the total number of the bank’s

branch to 175, complemented by 585 ATM points and about 1000 POS.‎ Governor Dickson decried a situation where some banks only showed interest in the collection of deposits from their customers without doing anything to better their financial standing. Describing Bayelsa as Nigeria’s best kept secret, the governor reiterated his administration’s determination to provide an enabling environment for businesses to thrive in the state. While thanking the management of Sterling Bank for heeding to his

earlier call, he urged other financial and private institutions to emulate the bank in building befitting corporate offices to enhance the development of the state. Expressing confidence in the partnership existing between the state government and the bank, he asked the bank to work out modalities that would create wealth and employment opportunities for Bayesians. He said, “I am confident that by opening this branch, more of our people will have access to the opportunities and services that your bank

provides. “I am keenly monitoring and will like to have a report in no distant time that business people in this state and those involved in the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) will continue to benefit from your facilities. “And I dare say I challenge you to prove in no distant time that you are not like other banks that come to Bayelsa only to collect deposits. I want to see that you are also in the business of giving facilities (loans) and encouraging the development of indigenous businesses in Bayelsa State.

Economic Indicators As at M2* CPS* INF IBR MPR 91-day NTB DPR PLR Bonny Light Ext Res**

N14,737,618.7m N16,509,472.5m 8 0.0000 12 10.899 7.96 17.01 US$109.9 US$42,604,781,796.6

Description

TTM

4.00% 23-Apr-2015 13.05% 16-Aug-2016 15.10% 27-Apr-2017 16.00% 29-Jun-2019 16.39% 27-Jan-2022 10.00% 23-Jul-2030

1.21 2.53 3.22 5.39 7.98 16.47

Tenor (Days) Call 7 30 60 90 180 365

Rate (%) 11.9167 12.3333 12.6667 12.9167 13.2167 13.5000 13.7500

NIBOR

Dec, 2013 Dec, 2013 Dec, 2013 2/5/2014 1/20/2014 11/6/2013 Dec, 2013 Dec, 2013 1/20/2014 2/5/2014 Source:CBN

FGN Bonds Bid Price 90.20 99.25 104.10 109.35 114.15 76.60

Offer Yield 13.01 13.40 13.47 13.49 13.44 13.59

Price 90.35 99.40 104.40 109.65 114.45 76.90

Tenor (Months) 1 2 3 6 9 12

Rate (%) 12.1827 12.2737 12.3744 12.8521 12.8535 13.8443

Treasury Bills Maturity Date 08-May-14 07-Aug-14 22-Jan-15

Bid 12.10 12.10 12.05

Bid Spot ($/N) 163.28 THE FIXINGS –NIBOR,NITTY and NIFEX of February 6,2014

NITTY

Yield 12.86 13.33 13.35 13.42 13.38 13.53

Money Market Offer 11.85 11.85 11.80 Offer 163.38

Open-Buy-Back (OBB) Overnight (O/N)

Rate (%) 11.33 11.63

NIFEX Spot ($/N)

Bid 163.4000

Offer 163.5000 Source: FMDQ

will be women. While noting that as much as 92.8 per cent of the variance in the job performance of bank workers is attributed to factors of age, gender emotional labour, job satisfaction and commitment, she emphasised the upward trend in the financial services industry. She also noted that the position of deputy governors of states seems to have been reserved for female candidates, even as women ascend the high echelon of the judiciary citing the positive disposition of President Goodluck Jonathan to women empowerment. According to her, empowerment includes actively thwarting attempts to deny women opportunities, encouraging and developing the skills for self-sufficiency, with a

focus on eliminating the future need for charity or welfare in the individual or the group. She acknowledged that the essence of women empowerment stemmed from governments’ recognition that women inclusion drives development, adding that achieving the millennium development goals and national economic development plans required rapidly moving towards gender equality. She pointed out that in an increasingly globalised and interconnected world, utilising all social and economic assets was crucial for success. She listed five major barriers excluding women as poor income, physical access, lack of financial literacy, affordability of financial services and eligibility among others.

Heritage, Enterprise to transform into bigger bank in 2015 Godson Ikoro

he ongoing business collaboration between Heritage and Enterprise banks has been planned in such a way that the two entities will become a bigger and better bank from 2015 that all stakeholders would be proud of, Mr. Ifie Sekibo, Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (MD/CEO) of Heritage Banking Company Limited, has said. He stated this at Enterprise Bank’s Annual Thanksgiving and Christmas Carol night held at the corporate Head Office of the bank in Victoria Island, Lagos. Addressing the large gathering made up of staff, friends, invited guests and other stakeholders at the event, he said there was “every reason to thank the Almighty God for preserving our lives and making the coming together of Heritage Banking Company Limited and Enterprise Bank Limited a reality.” Noting that nothing good comes easy in life, he told the gathering that the process of combining the businesses of the two financial institutions successfully remained a challenge, which all members of the entities must overcome as a team through tenacious dedication to duty. His words, “Heritage Bank did not set out to acquire Enterprise Bank

believing that it was going to be easy, but we set out knowing that it is possible through the help of the Almighty God. Therefore, our collective priority right now is to create a culture of service excellence in the bank in line with our commitment to delivering distinctive financial services, building on our legacy of innovation and partnership to create, preserve and transfer wealth across generations.” The event was also attended by Mrs. Mary Akpobome, Acting Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Bank Limited. Organised by members of staff of the bank, the theme for this year’s edition, which also featured Pastor (Mrs.) Olufunke Adeboye, a Professor in the Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos (UNILAG), as guest speaker, was ‘Time to Give Thanks.’ It was indeed time to give thanks as staff and management, including Mr. Niyi Adeseun, the Executive Director, Manila Banking of Heritage Banking Company Limited, joyfully sang praises, danced and worshipped God. In her remarks, Akpobome called on all staff to work towards a successful business combination, which at the end of the day would be the best bank in the country.

Business | News

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Nigeria fails in spectrum auctions, InfraCos licensing DEFERRED The telecoms regulator has postponed the 2.6 gigahertz spectrum auction indefinitely Kunle Azeez

igerian government has failed in its attempt to auction two special spectrum bands

that would have added the needed fillip to the growth of the nation’s telecoms sector, especially in the area of broadband delivery, New Telegraph has gathered. In addition to the failure to auction the 2.6 gigahertz and 5.4 gigahertz frequency bands this year, government is also unable to deliver the infrastructure companies (InfraCos)’s licences. The auctioning of the spectrum bands and the

issuing of the InfraCos licences have the potential to contribute to the country’s plan to achieve a 30 per cent broadband penetration target by 2018. Broadband penetration currently stands at about six per cent, but growing this to about 30 per cent presents huge economic potential for the country. Telecoms industry, as a whole, currently contributes about nine per cent to Nigeria’s GDP,

according to the Minister of Communications Technology, Mrs Omobola Johnson. Availability of more spectrum bands to the players in the industry has the ability to increase the telecoms contribution to GDP to over 15 per cent in the coming years. According to findings, the telecoms regulator, the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), had initially planned to auction the

2.6 gigahertz spectrum this month before the Commission postponed the auction indefinitely. In an earlier timetable contained in the Information Memorandum (IM) on the auctioning of 2.6 gigahertz spectrum by NCC, the Commission had slated December 2 - 5, 2014, as the actual auction date, while the publication of final result of the auction winner was slated for January 8, 2015. However, while indus-

try waited patiently for the auction, the Commission suddenly postponed it indefinitely, citing “administrative constraints” as reason for its action. “The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria, regrets to inform parties interested in participating in the auction of frequency spectrum licences in the 2.6 GHz band that it has decided to postpone the process of the Auction,” said Executive Vice Chairman of NCC, Dr. Eugene Juwah, in a statement announcing the postponement in November. Juwah said, “this postponement is to enable the conclusion of all administrative requirements aimed at ensuring that the frequency licences are delivered to winners and be effective immediately on conclusion of the auction. “By this announcement, the current timetable is suspended. A new programme, including timetable, will be published in due course.”

FG misses 2014 oil target CONTINUED FROM PAGE 22

“These blocks have great potentials for oil and gas exploration. Our plan is that by the fourth quarter of 2013, or first quarter of 2014, commercial oil and gas exploration will commence in the basin,” he said. Zakari had said on the House rejection of extension of emergency rule in Borno State: “We have not extended the emergency rule; rather we have asked the president to rely on Section 8 of the Armed Forces Act which empowers him to deploy the military to troubled spots of the country. “If we had approved this today, it would have been the fourth on the series. You remember the request for emergency rule started in May 2013 and, therefore, we had done three extensions. In anything you are doing, you should be able to take stock; you will be able to see whether or not that action you are taking is yielding results.” “We will be doing more good if Mr President relies on that more. Because if we are adopting a particular style and it is not giving us the desired result, we should be able to change it.

Business | Stock Watch

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

PROSPECTS Transformation opening a new phase in the history of Nigeria’s oldest insurance company

Wapic Insurance: New ratings spur investors’ interest

Chris Ugwu

Share price movement of Wapic Insurance Plc

resently, shares of insurance companies admitted on the official list of the Nigeria Stock Exchange, unlike other sub-sectors of the economy, rather than appreciating in value, have remained relatively stagnant even as a larger percentage of the companies have remained at the nominal prices of 50 kobo at which they were quoted in the market. When companies approach the equities market for listing of their shares, the nominal value quoted is usually 50 kobo as against the actual price they are being sold to the investing public. Very few of these stocks have marginally risen above nominal value at close of business on Friday. Since the crash of the nation’s capital market in 2008, negative perception has trailed the subsector which was compounded by the inability of about 85 per cent of the companies in the industry to pay dividend to shareholders for many years. However, one insurance company that has weathered the storm and remained the toast of investors is Wapic Insurance Plc. After over half a century of operation, recent strategic institutional actions are beginning to open a new phase in the history of Nigeria’s oldest insurance company, Wapic Insurance. The firm, which is arguably sub-Saharan Africa’s strongest insurance franchise, had operated at sub-optimal level for decades and offered stakeholders lesser than they deserved as a result of unfair valuation of its stocks, but this trend has been reversed by the ingenuity and vision of its new management team. Analysts had attributed the dreary performance of the institution to some reasons which include weak brand image, unexciting offerings and quality of management. However, these issues were not considered seriously because of the limited level of competition amongst operators in the sector unlike its first cousin, banking. But insurance analysts are resolute in their views that the sector holds higher potential than the banking sector and could contribute more to the economy, if properly driven and managed. Even, a particular school of thought believes that insurance companies may soon own banks, just the way it is in developed economies across the globe, but anchored the possibility of this development on increased level of competition amongst operators, innovative offerings, visionary leadership and experienced board. For analysts, the transformation of Wapic Insurance as a result of its coming under a new management implied a renaissance of the Nigerian insurance industry. This view is also validated by stakeholders’ expecta-

2014

Chairman, Wapic Insurance Plc, Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede

tion from the new management under the watch of Aigboje AigImoukhuede who chairs its board – which is to break away from the history of underperformance that previously characterised the organisation. Though the movement of share price remains relatively stable, Wapic Insurance Plc, one of Nigeria’s oldest and most capitalised insurance companies in Nigeria got its fair share from the dwindling fortune of the sub-sector and the current depletion of equities occasioned by the buildup to 2015 elections and drop in oil price. However, market sentiment for the company has remained relatively stable as volume in the insurance sub-sector has been largely driven by the activity in the shares of the company. The share price which closed at 99 kobo per share in January 31, 2013, has maintained as number four in the sub-sector. When the closing bell rang on Wednesday, the company’s share price stood at 63 kobo, a decline of 36 kobo or 57.14 per cent year to date. Financials In full year 2013, Wapic Insurance had reported a N208 million loss in profit after tax during the financial year ended 2013. This was contained in the company’s fourth quarter 2013 financial statement submitted to the Nigerian Stock Exchange. The company recorded a loss in profit after tax of N208 million in 2013 as against a profit of N383 million in the comparable period of 2012. Wapic equally posted 213.9 per cent loss in profit before tax, from a gain of N552.3 million in 2012 to a loss of N629.1 million during the year under review.

We have also moved forward to make Wapic an industry leader in compliance, corporate governance and human capital with one of the most robust balance sheets in the Nigerian insurance sector

Jan 31

99k

Feb 28

95k

Mar 31

77k

Apr 30

72k

May 31

79k

Jun 30

80k

Jul 31

87k

Aug 31

75k

Sept 30

74k

Oct 31

69k

Nov 30

66k

Dec 24

63k

The results also indicate a 10 per cent drop in Wapic’s gross written premium (revenue) from N4.17 billion in 2012, to N3.76 billion in 2013. However, the tide of profit line has changed as its half year results for the period ended June 30, 2014, was on a positive note. The company’s gross premium written for the second quarter appreciated by 29.3 per cent to N3.704 billion from N2.866 billion recorded in same quarter of 2013, while profit after taxation also appreciated from N174.8 million in second quarter of 2013 to N216.19 million in same quarter of 2014, accounting for an increase of 26.3 per cent. Ratings The innovation the sector has witnessed since the transformation of Wapic Insurance has positively impacted the perception of insurance services in the West African sub-region and created a sense of pride for insurance professionals who now have a better appreciation of their roles and contribution to the development of the Nigerian economy. Perhaps, this development might suggest that insurance operations, like in other parts of the world, is gradually occupying its rightful place in the Nigerian financial services sector, but a more probable evidence is the recent rating of Wapic Insurance, after more than 50 years of operations, by AM Best, the global full-service credit rating agency dedicated to servicing the insurance company. While this rating affirmed Wapic Insurance’s financial strength and importance to the insurance industry in the West African sub-region, the rating could be noted as one of the immediate impacts of the company’s transformation as a result of its acquisition by Access Bank Plc and eventual repositioning for optimal performance under the watchful eyes of Aigboje AigImoukhuede, a business leader reputed for his uncommon management acumen and an accom-

plished turnaround manager. The rating agency, which commenced operations in 1906, noted that “the financial strength rating (FSR) of B- and the issuer credit rating of “bb-” were assigned to Wapic Insurance Plc. The ratings were assigned a stable outlook.” By this, Wapic Insurance becomes one of the only three insurance companies rated in Nigeria. Interestingly, AM Best’s independent opinion regarding the credit worthiness of Wapic Insurance and its debt obligation acknowledged the level of experience of its management and board of directors within the banking sector and insurance industry as a contributory factor to its positive rating. According to the report, “the committee was comforted by the level of experience and felt that this added weight to the company’s ability to meet the forecasted business strategy and premium growth.” Outlook Managing Director of the company Mr Ashish Desai, said: “The past year has been a transformative one for Wapic and we are proud of the determination with which we have fundamentally restructured the business. Wapic is now more than ever positioned to deliver on all fronts. To achieve this, we have cleared out all legacy accounting issues, incurred necessary one-off costs and significantly increased our investment in our capital (both human and financial), governance and branding. We are confident that these will begin to reflect positively on our operating performance as from 2014.” The MD further said: “We have re-calibrated our operating model and have articulated unique value propositions targeted at growing relationships across all segments of the economy. We acquired requisite IT capabilities to enhance operational efficiency and support our multichannel strategy; and also remodelled our sales force. “Our customers remain at the heart of our business and we will continue to adapt to changing market trends to meet their evolving needs. In this regard, we are redefining our products, services and systems and have introduced effective controls and outstanding people. “We have also moved forward to make Wapic an industry leader in compliance, corporate governance and human capital with one of the most robust balance sheets in the Nigerian insurance sector. These achievements lay the foundation for our turnaround and most importantly to a dynamic and sustainable growth trajectory that is founded on the highest ethical and operational standards. All these will ensure that we deliver value to all stakeholders as we commence a new phase in our company’s history,” Desai said.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

SAHAM Finance entres Nigeria through Unitrust p.39

Insurance

Group urges enforcement of occupancy liability insurance p.39

Fashola

Commissioner for Insurance, Mr Fola Daniel

Collapsed building

Building collapse: Lagos govt demands insurance papers from contractors COMPENSATION Victims of poorly erected structures should be entitled to compensation

Sunday Ojeme

he rate of neglect extended to victims of building collapse in Lagos State may soon be a thing of the past as the state government intensifies efforts to ensure that building contractors are mandated to carry out the necessary insurance documentation before embarking on any project. The General Manager, Lagos State Building Control Agency (LASBCA), Abimbola Animashaun, said contractors would henceforth present insurance papers before commencing construction works. Apart from the fact that the nation’s Insurance Act already had this as a rule as part of Compulsory Insurance, Section 48, subsections 1 to 3 of the Urban and Regional Planning Development Law, also stipulates that insurance must be in place before any construction is started. According to the LASBCA boss, not only would construction not start without insurance papers, there also has to be an approval of same by a relevant authority. The contractors also have to be scrutinised to determine their capability. According to the Compulsory Insurance guidelines, buildings above two storeys and those under construction are supposed to be insured to cover the occupants and the workers respectively. Under the Act, all owners or

contractors of buildings under construction (more than two floors), must purchase insurance to provide compensation in event of bodily injury, death and property damage to workers at construction sites and affected members of the public following collapse of the building and other construction risks. The penalty for non-compliance is N250, 000 plus three years imprisonment, Record of conviction, sealing-off and demolition of the building are the penalties provided under the Federal and Lagos State laws. Casualties from collapsed buildings under construction in Nigeria keep rising by the day and nothing is ever done to compensate the families of the unfortunate victims, not because there is no law to that effect but because of Federal Government’s inability to strengthen the enforcement mechanism. Despite the availability of the law, most Nigerians have failed to take advantage of it even in the face of incessant building collapse leading to deaths and disabilities. The Commissioner for Insurance, Mr. Fola Daniel, had proclaimed that the Synagogue Church of All Nations guest house collapse that killed over 100 worshippers reaffirmed calls by the National Insurance Commission for owners of public buildings and buildings under construction to purchase insurance cover for such structures. He lamented the failure of a good number of Nigerians to embrace the benefits embedded in the Compulsory Insurance Act, which makes it mandatory for such property to be covered and victims of incidents adequately compensated. He further used the unfortu-

Despite the availability of the law, most Nigerians have failed to take advantage of it even in the face of incessant building collapse leading to deaths and disabilities

nate incidents to remind Nigerians of the need to insure their risks against unforeseen disasters as this. He said, “Insurance of public buildings is compulsory in Nigeria as defined in Section 65 of the Insurance Act 2003 except places of worship. However, mosque and church leaders should consider insurance of their buildings to mitigate risks in the interest of innocent third parties.” Available record indicates that as far back as 2006, collapse of public buildings and buildings under construction had been a major problem in the country especially in Lagos State where most of the construction engineers deploy substandard materials in the construction of such property. As far back as March 2006, a 21-storey Nigerian Industrial Development Bank building collapsed leading to the death of one person and 24 injured. In July of the same year, a four-storey block of flats collapsed in Lagos leading to the death of 25 people were killed. Government officials promptly promised that those responsible for the building’s collapse would be prosecuted. But nothing was heard again after that beyond the pronouncement. Again in November, an unfinished three-storey building still under construction collapsed. Two construction workers were killed. In 2012, a shopping mall under construction in Abuja also caved in leading to the death of at least five construction workers. In 2013, a five-storey shopping complex under construction at Muri Okunola street collapsed and killed three persons and

injuring 15 others. New Telegraph recalls that as a build up support for the successful implementation of the Nigeria Insurance Market Development and Restructuring Initiatives (MDRI), NAICOM had vowed to enforce Compulsory Insurance in the country. The Commissioner said that the MDRI project was the brainchild of the commission and one of the major components of Compulsory Insurance in Nigeria is insurance of public buildings. He cited examples of several collapsed buildings in the country, leaving scores of people injured or dead without any compensation because they were not covered by an insurance policy, adding that such a situation underscored the need for strict enforcement and compliance with all the insurance made compulsory by law. According to him, “it is a national shame to see people being brought out dead from collapsed buildings. All these buildings are supposed to be insured for security and I do recognise that no matter how much you pay to compensate victims, it does not compensate for life lost.” “But, I strongly believe that one of the essence of compulsory insurance is to instill responsibility into all stakeholders that are connected with putting up public buildings including the town planning authorities, the architects, the surveyors and the landlords.” He said that Compulsory Insurance was very important in the case of public buildings, as it would help to curtail the damaging and painful effect of several house collapse recorded in the country.

Business | Insurance

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

SAHAM Finance entres Nigeria through Unitrust INVESTMENT More insurers take interest in Nigeria’s underwriting market Sunday Ojeme

AHAM Finances S. A, the insurance arm of the SAHAM group, has made its entrance into the Nigerian insur-

ance industry. The entry into Nigeria was made possible through its Mauritian operating company, Colina Holdings Limited, which bought 40 per cent equity stake at Unitrust Insurance Company Limited. As Part of the group’s continued expansion plan, SAHAM said the investment would allow it to consolidate its West African development in the continent’s biggest

ObamaCare: Struggling health insurer taken over by state

taxpayer-backed Iowa health insurer created under ObamaCare has been taken over by the state amid deep financial problems, sending policyholders in the Midwest scrambling for new coverage and raising questions about the status of similar outfits across the country. The Iowa Insurance Division announced Wednesday that Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart was taking over CoOpportunity Health, a struggling cooperative that sprouted out of the Affordable Care Act. A local court had granted Gerhart’s request to be appointed as “rehabilitator” of the nonprofit, after the state warned of its “hazardous financial condition.” Gerhart now has the authority to manage the company -- and either restructure it or have its assets liquidated. Gerhart told customers that those who enrolled before Dec. 15 and make their premium payments can keep their insurance. But anyone who signed up December 16 or later will not have coverage and now must enroll in other plans to stay insured. Further, if CoOpportunity Health goes under, a government safety net could protect those left holding their policies. However, the coverage “may be limited,” the state warned. And Gerhart is advising that most of the 120,000 CoOpportunity Health policyholders in Iowa and Nebraska “may find it in their best interests” to find new carriers by Feb. 15 -- the deadline for open enrollment for 2015 coverage. CoOpportunity Health will no longer offer its policies through Iowa’s online market-

place, either. For critics of the law, Wednesday’s announcement was more evidence of the ACA’s problems. “Here in Iowa, we were promised more [choices] and lower premiums, yet now we learn that one of two [companies] responsible for providing affordable insurance can’t provide what the law promises,” Drew Klein, director of the Iowa chapter of the conservative Americans for Prosperity, said. With CoOpportunity Health off the exchanges, it leaves plans offered by Coventry Healthcare as the only option for Iowans who qualify for the federal subsidies under the law. Coventry’s parent company, Aetna, said it would work with state and federal regulators “to do all we can to aid in a solution.” “That solution must be in the best interests of the people in both states and incorporate adequate pricing to ensure sustainability of coverage,” Aetna said in a statement. Employers that have a CoOpportunity Health group insurance plan also have been told to work with brokers to find new coverage. Whether the confusion in Iowa portends problems elsewhere is unclear. CoOpportunity Health was one of roughly two-dozen customer-owned cooperatives approved by the federal government under the health law to offer competitive plans in the individual and small-group markets. “We do not believe that any other co-ops are facing immediate solvency problems,” Aaron Albright, a spokesman for the federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, told The Des Moines Register.

economy. “The long-term shareholders of Unitrust Insurance Company Limited want the company to benefit from the pan-African expertise of SAHAM Finances, to become a reference point in the Nigerian insurance market by 2019. With this acquisition, SAHAM Finances is happy to have found a worthy and well established local partner whose business is driven by high ethical standards and professionalism, the Managing Director, SAHAM Finances, Mr Raymond Farhat, said. “Nigeria is a very big potential market. It represents an important

stage in our regional expansion strategy. Our desire is to combine the expertise of SAHAM Finances and those of our local partners to become a major stakeholder and bring the services offered up to international standards,” he added. He disclosed that SAHAM Finances recorded a turnover of more than $1 billion in 2013. “As the insurance arm of the SAHAM Group, SAHAM Finances is actively following its growth strategy in Africa and the Middle East. It is present in 22 countries through 49 subsidiaries, including 28 insurance and reinsurance companies through

650 branches throughout Africa and has a team of 2100 collaborators,” he said. On the other hand, with total written premiums of N3.3 billion in 2013, Unitrust Insurance is one of the major players in the Nigerian non-life insurance. The Nigerian market is characterised by the fragmentation of insurance services. There are 32 non-life insurance companies, 17 life-insurance companies and 10 composite insurance companies. However, thanks to the reforms undertaken by the Nigerian insurance regulatory body, National Insurance Commission

(NAICOM), the market is expected to triple by 2017 and be worth more than $6 billion. The insurance sector in Nigeria would then be worth three per cent of GDP in comparison to the current one per cent. Incorporated in 1981 but commenced insurance business in 1986 after obtaining a general insurance licence from NAICOM, Unitrust Insurance provides a range of products over in all areas of non-life insurance. With an issued share capital of N3.3 billion and shareholders’ funds in excess of N6.831 billion in 2013, the company is present throughout the country.

L-R: Former President, Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria (CIIN), Sir Ogala Osoka; President, Bola Temowo; Chairman, Board of Fellows R .A. Williams; and Adeyemo Adejumo at graduation ceremony organised by CIIN in Lagos.

Group urges enforcement of occupancy liability insurance

he Insurance Consumers Association of Nigeria (ISCAN) on Thursday appealed to the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) to enforce Occupancy Liability Insurance (OLI). OLI is one of the six insurance products made compulsory by the Insurance Act, 2014. ISCAN National Technical Adviser, Mr Yemi Soladoye, made this appeal in Lagos, saying enforcing the OLI will ensure that 0.25 per cent of insurance premium is deducted and made available to the fire services as fire grant. “Session 65 (4) of Insurance Act 2014 stipulates that each insurance company that sells Occupancy Liability In-

surance product must deduct 0.25 per cent and remit it to NAICOM. “NAICOM is to manage the fund as grant or to buy equipment for firefighting agencies in each state. “This aspect of the compulsory insurance has not been enforced although insurance companies are selling the products. “Enforcement is necessary to boost premium from where insurance companies will deduct the 0.25 per cent as grant for the fire fighting agencies,’’ he said. Soladoye said that the Lagos State Government had helped insurance consumers by supporting the fire service with 34 trucks and fire fight-

ing regalia. He said that the fire service offices would be more equipped with the 0.25 per cent fire grant. According to him, to ensure this, the association is collaborating with the Lagos State Government and the state fire service. Soladoye said that the state government had set up a committee to ensure that victims of fire incidents, flooding and building collapse got compensation as provided by the law. He said that under the Insurance Act 2014, when an insurance company perpetually failed to remit the grant, it could be a ground for NAICOM to revoke its operating licence.

Business | Financial Market News

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

FMDQ Daily Quotations List

24-Dec-14

The DQL contains data relating to, amongst other things, market and model prices, rates of foreign exchange products, fixed income securities and instruments in the financial market (the “Information”). The Information does not constitute professional, financial or investment advice. We attempt to ensure the Information is accurate; however, the Information is provided “AS IS” and on an “AS AVAILABLE” basis and may not be accurate or up to date. We do not guarantee the accuracy, timeliness, completeness, performance or fitness for a particular purpose of any of the Information, neither do we accept liability for the results of any action taken on the basis of the Information.

Bonds FGN Bonds

Price

Rating/Agency

Issuer

Description 4.00 23-APR-2015 13.05 16-AUG-2016 15.10 27-APR-2017 9.85 27-JUL-2017 9.35 31-AUG-2017 10.70 30-MAY-2018 16.00 29-JUN-2019 7.00 23-OCT-2019 16.39 27-JAN-2022 14.20 14-MAR-2024 15.00 28-NOV-2028 12.49 22-MAY-2029 8.50 20-NOV-2029 10.00 23-JUL-2030 12.1493 18-JUL-2034

Issue Date

Coupon (%)

Outstanding Value (N'bn)

23-Apr-10 16-Aug-13 27-Apr-12 27-Jul-07 31-Aug-07 30-May-08 29-Jun-12 23-Oct-09 27-Jan-12 14-Mar-14 28-Nov-08 22-May-09 20-Nov-09 23-Jul-10 18-Jul-14

4.00 13.05 15.10 9.85 9.35 10.70 16.00 7.00 16.39 14.20 15.00 12.49 8.50 10.00 12.1493

535.00 581.39 452.80 20.00 100.00 300.00 351.30 233.90 600.00 414.68 75.00 150.00 200.00 591.57 178.00

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

4,783.63

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

4,364.36

Rating/Agency

Issuer

Description

Maturity Date

TTM (Yrs)

23-Apr-15 16-Aug-16 27-Apr-17 27-Jul-17 31-Aug-17 30-May-18 29-Jun-19 23-Oct-19 27-Jan-22 14-Mar-24 28-Nov-28 22-May-29 20-Nov-29 23-Jul-30 18-Jul-34

0.33 1.65 2.34 2.59 2.69 3.43 4.51 4.83 7.09 9.22 13.93 14.41 14.91 15.58 19.57

Bid Yield (%)

Offer Yield (%)

Bid Price

Offer Price

13.48 15.50 15.23 15.20 15.21 15.32 15.46 15.46 15.36 15.11 14.46 14.40 14.35 14.81 15.02

13.00 15.39 15.15 15.12 15.14 15.20 15.37 15.35 15.29 15.04 14.41 14.35 14.28 14.75 14.96

96.98 96.50 99.70 88.85 87.43 87.98 101.70 71.90 104.30 95.50 103.19 88.47 64.39 71.00 82.00

97.13 96.65 99.85 89.00 87.58 88.28 102.00 72.20 104.60 95.80 103.49 88.77 64.69 71.30 82.30

Issue Date

Coupon (%)

Outstanding Value (N'bn)

Maturity Date

Avg. Life/TTM (Yrs)

# Risk Premium (%)

Valuation Yield (%)

Indicative Price

24-May-12 03-Apr-12 09-Dec-11 20-Apr-12 06-Jul-12

0.00 17.25 0.00/16.00 0.00/16.50 0.00/16.50

24.56 3.00 112.22 116.70 66.49

24-May-15 03-Apr-17 09-Dec-16 20-Apr-17 06-Jul-17

0.41 1.15 1.96 2.32 2.53

2.63 2.27 2.00 1.00 1.00

16.13 18.81 17.36 16.23 16.19

93.70 98.38 97.85 95.53 92.47

Agency Bonds FMBN ***LCRM

0.00 FMB 24-MAY-2015 17.25 FMB II 03-APR-2017 0.00/16.00 LCRM 09-DEC-2016 0.00/16.50 LCRM II 20-APR-2017 0.00/16.50 LCRM III 06-JUL-2017

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

322.97

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

308.73

Sub-National Bonds A+/Agusto

KADUNA

12.50 KADUNA 31-AUG-2015

31-Aug-10

12.50

8.50

31-Aug-15

0.68

4.44

19.20

95.83

A/Agusto

*EBONYI

13.00 EBONYI 30-SEP-2015

30-Sep-10

13.00

4.18

30-Sep-15

0.52

3.23

16.91

98.90

A-/Agusto

*BENUE

14.00 BENUE 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-11

14.00

6.27

30-Jun-16

0.81

4.46

20.06

94.76

A+/Agusto

*IMO

15.50 IMO 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-09

15.50

7.37

30-Jun-16

0.82

3.48

19.11

96.89

A+/Agusto; A+/GCR‡

LAGOS

10.00 LAGOS 19-APR-2017

19-Apr-10

10.00

57.00

19-Apr-17

2.32

5.59

20.82

80.80

A-/Agusto

*BAYELSA

13.75 BAYELSA 30-JUN-2017

30-Jun-10

13.75

29.92

30-Jun-17

1.37

1.00

17.10

95.69

A/Agusto

EDO

14.00 EDO 31-DEC-2017

30-Dec-10

14.00

25.00

31-Dec-17

3.02

1.79

17.05

93.01

A+/Agusto; A+/GCR

*DELTA

14.00 DELTA 30-SEP-2018

30-Sep-11

14.00

34.14

30-Sep-18

2.19

1.80

17.07

94.83

A-/Agusto; A-/GCR

NIGER

14.00 NIGER II 4-OCT-2018

04-Oct-11

14.00

9.00

04-Oct-18

3.78

1.00

16.37

93.43

A/Agusto; A-/GCR†

*EKITI

14.50 EKITI 09-DEC-2018

09-Dec-11

14.50

13.73

09-Dec-18

2.39

1.00

16.21

96.88

A-/Agusto

*NIGER

14.00 NIGER III 12-DEC-2018

12-Dec-13

14.00

10.20

12-Dec-18

2.39

4.78

19.99

89.48

A/Agusto; A-/GCR

*ONDO

15.50 ONDO 14-FEB-2019

14-Feb-12

15.50

27.00

14-Feb-19

2.57

1.00

16.20

96.71

A/Agusto; A-/GCR Aa-/Agusto; AA-/GCR‡

*GOMBE LAGOS

15.50 GOMBE 02-OCT-2019 14.50 LAGOS 22-NOV-2019

02-Oct-12 22-Nov-12 12-Dec-12

15.50 14.50 14.75

16.23 80.00 26.62

02-Oct-19 22-Nov-19 12-Dec-19

2.83 4.91 2.89

1.00 1.00 2.74

16.24 16.46 17.98

98.62 93.53 93.18

*OSUN

14.75 OSUN 12-DEC-2019

A/Agusto

*OSUN

14.75 OSUN II 10-OCT-2020

10-Oct-13

14.75

11.40

10-Oct-20

3.35

1.00

16.31

96.19

Aa-/Agusto; AA-/GCR‡

A/Agusto; A-/GCR

LAGOS

13.50 LAGOS IV 27-NOV-2020

27-Nov-13

13.50

87.50

27-Nov-20

5.93

1.00

16.40

89.23

A-/Agusto; BBB+/DataPro

KOGI

15.00 KOGI 31-DEC-2020

31-Dec-13

15.00

5.00

31-Dec-20

6.02

1.94

17.33

91.47

A/Agusto A-/GCR

*EKITI *NASARAWA

14.50 EKITI II 31-DEC-2020 15.00 NASARAWA 06-JAN-2021

31-Dec-13

14.50

4.78

31-Dec-20

3.50

1.44

16.77

94.26

06-Jan-14

15.00

4.79

06-Jan-21

3.53

1.95

17.29

94.27

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION Corporate Bonds

468.62 430.88

Nil

17.00 NGC 31-DEC-2014

01-Apr-10

17.00

2.00

31-Dec-14

0.02

8.71

22.97

99.85

Bbb-/Agusto A-/Agusto

*UPDC

10.00 UPDC 17-AUG-2015

17-Aug-10

10.00

3.61

17-Aug-15

0.41

4.88

18.38

96.71

*FLOURMILLS

12.00 FLOURMILLS 9-DEC-2015

09-Dec-10

12.00

9.34

09-Dec-15

0.72

1.00

15.96

97.62

BB/GCR

*CHELLARAMS

14.00 CHELLARAMS 06-JAN-2016

06-Jan-11

14.00

0.60

06-Jan-16

0.56

2.63

16.54

98.46

A+/Agusto; A-/GCR

NAHCO

13.00 NAHCO 29-SEP-2016

29-Sep-11

13.00

15.00

29-Sep-16

1.77

1.00

16.55

94.69

A-/Agusto

FSDH

14.25 FSDH 25-OCT-2016

25-Oct-13

14.25

5.53

25-Oct-16

1.84

1.34

16.82

96.02

A/GCR

UBA

13.00 UBA 30-SEP-2017

30-Sep-10

13.00

20.00

30-Sep-17

2.77

1.00

16.23

92.97

BBB-/GCR

18.00 C&I LEASING 30-NOV-2017

30-Nov-12

18.00

0.64

30-Nov-17

1.79

1.88

17.41

101.80

Nil

*C & I LEASING *DANA#{r}

MPR+7.00 DANA 9-APR-2018

09-Apr-11

16.00

6.30

09-Apr-18

1.79

3.48

19.01

95.95

A-/DataPro†; B+/GCR

*TOWER#

MPR+7.00 TOWER 9-SEP-2018

09-Sep-11

18.00

2.90

09-Sep-18

1.96

5.20

20.56

96.38

AAA/DataPro†; A/GCR

*TOWER#

MPR+5.25 TOWER 9-SEP-2018

09-Sep-11

16.00

0.80

09-Sep-18

1.96

5.06

20.42

101.84

A/Agusto; A/GCR

UBA

14.00 UBA II 22-SEP-2018

22-Sep-11

14.00

35.00

22-Sep-18

3.75

1.35

16.72

92.58

Bbb+/Agusto; BBB+/GCR

15.75 LA CASERA 18-OCT-2018

18-Oct-13

15.75

2.40

18-Oct-18

2.07

2.29

17.59

97.25

BBB-/DataPro†; BB/GCR

*LA CASERA *CHELLARAMS#

MPR+5.00 CHELLARAMS II 17-FEB-2019

17-Feb-12

17.00

0.41

17-Feb-19

2.15

6.11

21.39

92.97

Nil

*DANA#{r}

16.00 DANA II 1-APR-2019

01-Apr-14

16.00

4.50

01-Apr-19

3.02

2.16

17.42

96.89

A+/Agusto; A-/GCR

NAHCO

15.25 NAHCO II 14-NOV-2020

14-Nov-13

15.25

2.05

14-Nov-20

5.89

2.76

18.16

89.67

A/GCR

STANBIC IBTC

182D T.bills+1.20 STANBIC IA 30-SEP-2024

30-Sep-14

11.93

0.10

30-Sep-24

9.77

1.00

15.84

80.83

A/GCR

STANBIC IBTC

13.25 STANBIC IB 30-SEP-2024

30-Sep-14

13.25

15.44

30-Sep-24

9.77

1.00

15.84

87.29

NGC

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

126.63

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

118.50

Supranational Bond AAA/S&P

IFC

10.20 IFC 11-FEB-2018

11-Feb-13

10.20

12.00

11-Feb-18

3.14

1.00

16.28

85.48

Aaa/Moody's; AAA/S&P

AfDB

11.25 AFDB 1-FEB-2021

10-Jul-14

11.25

12.95

01-Feb-21

4.36

1.00

16.46

84.66

Bid Price

Offer Price

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

24.95 21.22

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION Rating/Agency

Issuer

Description

Issue Date

Coupon (%)

Outstanding Value ($mm)

Maturity Date

Bid Yield (%)

Offer Yield (%)

6.75 JAN 28, 2021

07-Oct-11

6.75

500.00

28-Jan-21

6.33

6.08

102.08

103.35

5.13 JUL 12, 2018

12-Jul-13

5.13

500.00

12-Jul-18

5.43

4.87

99.04

100.82

6.38 JUL 12, 2023

12-Jul-13

6.38

500.00

12-Jul-23

6.62

6.40

98.40

99.86

FGN Eurobonds

Prices & Yields

BB-/Fitch; B+/S&P BB-/Fitch; BB-/S&P

FGN

BB-/Fitch; BB-/S&P

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

1,500.00

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

1,497.57

Corporate Eurobonds B/Fitch; B-/S&P

AFREN PLC I

11.50 FEB 01, 2016

01-Feb-11

11.50

450.00

01-Feb-16

8.25

103.30

B+/Fitch; B+/S&P

GTBANK PLC I

7.50 MAY 19, 2016

19-May-11

7.50

500.00

19-May-16

7.01

100.63

B+/S&P

ACCESS BANK PLC

7.25 JUL 25, 2017

25-Jul-12

7.25

350.00

25-Jul-17

7.47

99.48

B/Fitch; B/S&P

FIDELITY BANK PLC

6.88 MAY 09, 2018

09-May-13

6.88

300.00

02-May-18

11.02

10.52

88.60

89.89

B+/Fitch; B+/S&P

GTBANK PLC

6.00 NOV 08, 2018

08-Nov-13

6.00

400.00

08-Nov-18

8.26

7.43

92.65

95.28

B/Fitch

AFREN PLC II

10.25 APR 08, 2019

08-Apr-12

10.25

300.00

08-Apr-19

9.66

102.00

B+/Fitch; BB-/S&P

ZENITH BANK PLC

6.25 APR 22, 2019

22-Apr-14

6.25

500.00

22-Apr-19

7.49

95.50

B/Fitch; B/S&P

DIAMOND BANK PLC

8.75 May 21, 2019

21-May-14

8.75

200.00

21-May-19

13.31

12.36

85.15

88.01

B-/Fitch; B/S&P

FIRST BANK PLC

8.25 AUG 07, 2020

07-Aug-13

8.25

300.00

07-Aug-20

8.57

98.00

B-/Fitch; B/S&P B-/Fitch; B/S&P B-/Fitch; B/S&P

AFREN PLC III ACCESS BANK PLC II FIRST BANK LTD

6.63 DEC 09, 2020 9.25/6M USD LIBOR+7.677 JUN 24, 2021 8.00/2Y USD SWAP+6.488 JUL 23 2021

09-Dec-13 24-Jun-14 23-Jul-14

6.63 9.25 8.00

360.00 400.00 450.00

09-Dec-20 24-Jun-21 23-Jul-21

19.11 10.97 10.66

19.11 10.60 10.66

56.75 92.50 87.00

56.75 94.13 87.00

B-/S&P

ECOBANK NIG. LTD

8.75 AUG 14, 2021

14-Aug-14

8.75

250.00

14-Aug-21

10.06

9.04

93.05

97.85

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

4,760.00

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

4,398.78

**Treasury Bills DTM 8 15 22 29 36 43 50 57

FIXINGS Maturity 1-Jan-15 8-Jan-15 15-Jan-15 22-Jan-15 29-Jan-15 5-Feb-15 12-Feb-15 19-Feb-15

Bid Discount (%) 16.39 13.00 14.21 13.51 13.55 12.00 13.68 13.97

Offer Discount (%) 16.14 12.75 13.96 13.26 13.30 11.75 13.43 13.72

Bid Yield (%) 16.45 13.07 14.33 13.66 13.73 12.17 13.94 14.28

Money Market

NIBOR Tenor O/N 1M 3M 6M

Rate (%) 11.8500 14.6816 15.4567 16.0749

Tenor

Rate (%)

OBB

11.42

O/N Tenor Call 1M

11.75

REPO

Rate (%) 11.58 15.12

Foreign Exchange (Spot & Forwards) Tenor

Bid ($/N)

Offer ($/N)

Spot 7D 14D 1M 2M 3M

180.00 183.28 183.57 184.24 185.49 186.73

180.10 183.39 183.71 184.69 186.46 188.19

A+/Agusto

KADUNA

12.50 KADUNA 31-AUG-2015

31-Aug-10

12.50

8.50

31-Aug-15

0.68

4.44

19.20

95.83

A/Agusto

*EBONYI

13.00 EBONYI 30-SEP-2015

30-Sep-10

13.00

4.18

30-Sep-15

0.52

3.23

16.91

98.90

A-/Agusto

*BENUE

14.00 BENUE 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-11

14.00

6.27

30-Jun-16

0.81

4.46

20.06

94.76

A+/Agusto

*IMO

15.50 IMO 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-09

15.50

7.37

30-Jun-16

0.82

3.48

19.11

96.89

A+/Agusto; A+/GCR‡

LAGOS

10.00 LAGOS 19-APR-2017

19-Apr-10

10.00

57.00

19-Apr-17

2.32

5.59

20.82

80.80

A-/Agusto

*BAYELSA

13.75 BAYELSA 30-JUN-2017

30-Jun-10

13.75

29.92

30-Jun-17

1.37

1.00

17.10

95.69

A/Agusto

EDO

14.00 EDO 31-DEC-2017

30-Dec-10

14.00

25.00

31-Dec-17

3.02

1.79

17.05

93.01

A+/Agusto; A+/GCR

*DELTA

14.00 DELTA 30-SEP-2018

30-Sep-11

14.00

34.14

30-Sep-18

2.19

1.80

17.07

94.83

A-/Agusto; A-/GCR

NIGER

14.00 NIGER II 4-OCT-2018

04-Oct-11

14.00

9.00

04-Oct-18

3.78

1.00

16.37

93.43

09-Dec-11

14.50

13.73

09-Dec-18

2.39

1.00

16.21

96.88

A-/Agusto

*NIGER

14.00 NIGER III 12-DEC-2018

12-Dec-13

14.00

10.20

12-Dec-18

2.39

4.78

19.99

89.48

A/Agusto; A-/GCR

*ONDO

15.50 ONDO 14-FEB-2019

14-Feb-12

15.50

27.00

14-Feb-19

2.57

1.00

16.20

96.71

A/Agusto; A-/GCR Aa-/Agusto; AA-/GCR‡

*GOMBE LAGOS

15.50 GOMBE 02-OCT-2019 14.50 LAGOS 22-NOV-2019

A/Agusto; A-/GCR

*OSUN

02-Oct-12 22-Nov-12 12-Dec-12

15.50 14.50 14.75

16.23 80.00 26.62

02-Oct-19 22-Nov-19 12-Dec-19

2.83 4.91 2.89

1.00 1.00 2.74

16.24 16.46 17.98

98.62 93.53 93.18

A/Agusto

*OSUN

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 14.50 EKITI 09-DEC-2018 A/Agusto; A-/GCR† *EKITI

POSITIVE

LAGOS Nigerian stocks advance A-/Agusto; BBB+/DataPro KOGI on confidence level A/Agusto *EKITI *NASARAWA

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

Stories by Chris Ugwu Corporate Bonds

NGC nvestors in Nigerian eq*UPDC uity market got respite *FLOURMILLS last week as the jinx of BB/GCR *CHELLARAMS market A+/Agusto; A-/GCR depression NAHCO that had persisted for weeks was A-/Agusto FSDH A/GCR UBA broken following resurgence BBB-/GCR *C & I LEASING of the bulls. #{r} Nil Low sentiments *DANA had perA-/DataPro†; B+/GCR *TOWER# vaded the market given the AAA/DataPro†; A/GCR *TOWER# current upset in the financial A/Agusto; A/GCR UBA market Bbb+/Agusto;arising BBB+/GCR from *LAdrop CASERA in Nil

Bbb-/Agusto A-/Agusto

BBB-/DataPro†; BB/GCR

*CHELLARAMS#

Nil

*DANA#{r}

14.75 OSUN II 10-OCT-2020

10-Oct-13

14.75

11.40

10-Oct-20

3.35

1.00

16.31

96.19

13.50 LAGOS IV 27-NOV-2020

27-Nov-13

13.50

87.50

27-Nov-20

5.93

1.00

16.40

89.23

15.00 KOGI 31-DEC-2020

31-Dec-13

15.00

5.00

31-Dec-20

6.02

1.94

17.33

91.47

14.50 EKITI II 31-DEC-2020 15.00 NASARAWA 06-JAN-2021

31-Dec-13

14.50

4.78

31-Dec-20

3.50

1.44

16.77

94.26

17-Feb-19

2.15

6.11

21.39

92.97

oil price, insecurity, build up to 2015 elections, recapitalisation fever, among others which have kept bargain hunters at bay. NGC 31-DEC-2014 The17.00 gauge that measures 10.00 UPDC 17-AUG-2015 market performances had 12.00 FLOURMILLS 9-DEC-2015 dropped more than 28 per 14.00 CHELLARAMS 06-JAN-2016 cent this quarter, the worst 13.00 NAHCO 29-SEP-2016 performance in Africa. 14.25 FSDH 25-OCT-2016 13.00 UBA 30-SEP-2017 Analysts said the resur18.00the C&I LEASING gent of bulls30-NOV-2017 to sustain MPR+7.00 DANA 9-APR-2018 market rally after long streak MPR+7.00 TOWER 9-SEP-2018 of loss was an indication MPR+5.25 TOWER 9-SEP-2018 that confidence was return14.00 UBA II 22-SEP-2018 ing to15.75 market in18-OCT-2018 spite of seLA CASERA

curity 06-Jan-14 challenges that 15.00 has posed threat to investment in the country. It was a brief trading week, the stock market opened for 01-Apr-10 17.00 three days as Thursday and 17-Aug-10 10.00 Friday 09-Dec-10 were declared pub12.00 lic holidays 06-Jan-11to celebrate 14.00 the Christmas and Boxing 29-Sep-11 13.00 Day holidays. 25-Oct-13 14.25 30-Sep-10All-Share 13.00 The NSE Index 30-Nov-12 18.00 apand market capitalisation 09-Apr-11 preciated by 13.60 per16.00 cent to 09-Sep-11 18.00 close the week on Wednesday 09-Sep-11 16.00 at 34,428.82 and N11.402 22-Sep-11 14.00 trillion respectively. 18-Oct-13 15.75

Similarly, 06-Jan-21 all the indices 3.53 progressed higher during 468.62 the week with the exception 430.88 of the NSE ASeM Index that remained flat. 2.00 0.02 A turnover31-Dec-14 of 1.860 billion 3.61 17-Aug-15 0.41 shares worth N12.760 billion 9.34 09-Dec-15 0.72 in 0.60 13,469 deals were traded 06-Jan-16 0.56 last week by investors on 1.77 the 15.00 29-Sep-16 floor in con5.53 of the Exchange 25-Oct-16 1.84 20.00 to a total 30-Sep-17 2.77 trast of 5.409 billion 0.64 1.79 shares valued30-Nov-17 at N46.470 bil6.30 09-Apr-18 lion that exchanged hands 1.79 the 2.90 09-Sep-18 1.96 previous week in 22,986 deals. 0.80 09-Sep-18 1.96 The Financial Services3.75 in35.00 22-Sep-18 dustry (measured 2.40 18-Oct-18by volume) 2.07 4.79

led 1.95 the activity with 17.29 chart94.27 1.110 billion shares valued at N6.369 billion traded in 7,532 deals; thus contributing 59.67 per cent and 49.91 per cent to 22.97 99.85 the 8.71 total equity turnover vol4.88 18.38 96.71 ume and value respectively. 1.00 15.96 97.62 The Indus2.63 Conglomerates 16.54 98.46 try 1.00 followed 16.55 with a turnover 94.69 of 1.34 467.595 million shares 16.82 96.02 1.00 N1.664 16.23 worth billion 92.97 in 830 1.88 The third 17.41 101.80 deals. place was 3.48 95.95 occupied by19.01 the Consumer 5.20 20.56 96.38 Goods Industry with 101.84 85.970 5.06 20.42 million shares worth N2.392 1.35 16.72 92.58 billion deals. 97.25 2.29 in 2,469 17.59

MPR+5.00 CHELLARAMS II 17-FEB-2019

17-Feb-12

17.00

0.41

16.00 DANA II 1-APR-2019

01-Apr-14

16.00

4.50

01-Apr-19

3.02

2.16

17.42

96.89

2.05

14-Nov-20

5.89

2.76

18.16

89.67

0.10

30-Sep-24

9.77

1.00

15.84

80.83

15.44

30-Sep-24

9.77

1.00

15.84

87.29

Operators seek acceleration of demutualisation process

Emerging stocks advance as ruble trims weekly rally

15.25 NAHCO II 14-NOV-2020 14-Nov-13 15.25 NAHCO s the financial year 182D T.bills+1.20 STANBIC IA 30-SEP-2024 A/GCR 30-Sep-14 11.93 2014 comes STANBIC to anIBTC 13.25 STANBIC IB 30-SEP-2024 A/GCR 30-Sep-14 13.25 STANBIC IBTC end, some operaTOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE tors in the Nigerian capiTOTAL MARKEThave CAPITALISATION tal market renewed rights and receive shares in Eze added that the Nigetheir calls on regulators to the company in return, which rian stock market was worst Supranational Bond immediately fast-track the (now 10.20 former) members hit by the global11-Feb-13 financial cri- 10.20 IFC 11-FEB-2018 AAA/S&P IFC demutualisation may then11.25 sell.AFDB Demutualisases due to over10-Jul-14 dependence 11.25 1-FEB-2021 Aaa/Moody's; AAA/S&P process AfDB to quicken the full VALUE recovery tion happens most often when on foreign investors as they TOTAL OUTSTANDING of the MARKET nation’s capital mar- a stock exchange owned by its dumped their shares during TOTAL CAPITALISATION ket and help increase the members goes public. the crises and moved their inpresence of local investors. Issuer According to them, Description when vestment outside the country.Coupon (%) Rating/Agency Issue Date The operators, who spoke to membership of the NSE is He noted that demutualiFGN Eurobonds New Telegraph exclusively, de- opened to majority of Nigeri- sation would go a long way upon to reduce overdependence cried overdependence of for- ans and they are called on 6.75 6.75 JAN 28, 2021 BB-/Fitch; B+/S&P 07-Oct-11 eign investors that presently to own shares in the stock foreign investors and attract BB-/Fitch; JUL 12, 2018local ones into the 12-Jul-13 5.13 market. control over 85 per cent in the FGNmarket, it would help5.13create BB-/S&P activities of the local bourse. awareness of activities in He explained that when BB-/Fitch; 6.38 JUL 12, 2023 12-Jul-13 6.38 BB-/S&P They identified demutuali- the market, give investors the NSE is fully demutualised a ‘sense of belonging’ and sation of the Nigerian Stock and the ownership structure TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE Exchange (NSE) as a major more local investors would clearly spelt out, the generalTOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION factor that would help reduce participate. ity of the populace would Corporate Eurobonds to the barest minimum, over The Managing Director, come to the knowledge that 11.50 FEB 01, 2016the Exchange is B/Fitch; B-/S&P AFRENinPLC I Crane Securities Limited, 01-Feb-11 dependence on foreign Mr not govern- 11.50 7.50 MAY 19, 2016ment enterprise. B+/Fitch; B+/S&P PLC I Mike Eze, pointed out 19-May-11 7.50 vestors and woo moreGTBANK local/ that 7.25 JUL 25, 2017 B+/S&P investors into the ACCESS BANK PLC 25-Jul-12 Officer 7.25 with demutualisation, the retail stock Chief Executive 09, 2018of Lambeth Trust B/Fitch; B/S&P FIDELITY BANK ownership PLC 09-May-13 market. structure6.88ofMAY the & Invest- 6.88 6.00put NOV in 08, 2018ment Company08-Nov-13 B+/Fitch; B+/S&P GTBANK PLC NSE would be properly Demutualisation is the proLimited, Mr 6.00 10.25 APR 08, 2019 B/Fitch AFREN PLC II 08-Apr-12 cess of converting exchanges place, noting that when this is Imafidon Adonri, speaking 10.25 6.25 APR 22, 2019 B+/Fitch; BB-/S&P ZENITH BANK PLC 22-Apr-14 from non-profit, memberdone, corporate governance in the same vein, said demu- 6.25 8.75 May 21, 2019 B/Fitch; B/S&P DIAMOND BANK PLC 21-May-14 8.75 owned organisationsFIRSTforwould be well structured and tualisation would enable the 8.25 8.25 AUG 07, 2020 B-/Fitch; B/S&P BANK PLC 07-Aug-13 profit, investor-owned corpoinvestors would boost invesStock Exchange operate ef6.63 DEC 09, 2020 B-/Fitch; B/S&P AFREN PLC III 09-Dec-13 6.63 rations. In demutualisation, tors to stake their JUN ficiently like a24-Jun-14 commercial 9.25 9.25/6M USD LIBOR+7.677 24, 2021 B-/Fitch; B/S&P ACCESS BANK PLC II confidence the members give upFIRST their business. 8.00/2Y USD SWAP+6.488 JUL 23 2021 B-/Fitch; B/S&P BANK LTDfund in the market. 23-Jul-14 8.00 A+/Agusto; A-/GCR

B-/S&P

NSE All Share Index rises by 13.60% 14.75 OSUN 12-DEC-2019

Aa-/Agusto; AA-/GCR‡

A-/GCR

Business | Financial Market News

8.75 AUG 14, 2021

ECOBANK NIG. LTD

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

14-Aug-14

126.63 118.50

merging-market stocks last week headed for 11-Feb-18 3.14 a second weekly advance 12.95 01-Feb-21 4.36 as there was speculation that 24.95 China would adopt measures 21.22 to bolster the economy supOutstanding Value by the nation’s equiported Maturity Date Bid Yield (%) ($mm) ties. The ruble slid, trimming its biggest weekly appreciation in 16 years.6.33 500.00 28-Jan-21 China Life Insurance 500.00 12-Jul-18 5.43 Company and Haitong Securities Company climbed 10 500.00 12-Jul-23 6.62 per cent in Shanghai, where the benchmark index posted 1,500.00 its biggest two-day gain in 1,497.57 five years. Russia’s Micex Index rose for a third day 450.00 8.25 led by OAO01-Feb-16 Lukoil as Brent 500.00 19-May-16 while7.01 crude increased, Ka350.00 25-Jul-17 zakh shares extended 7.47 the 300.00 02-May-18 11.02 largest weekly advance since 400.00 08-Nov-18 8.26 2008. 300.00 08-Apr-19 9.66 According to Bloomberg 500.00 22-Apr-19 News, the ruble fell 3.37.49 per 200.00 21-May-19 13.31 cent against the dollar, par300.00 07-Aug-20 8.57 ing the five-day rally driven 360.00 09-Dec-20 19.11 by a Russian directive10.97 for 400.00 24-Jun-21 exporters to reduce their 450.00 23-Jul-21 10.66 12.00

8.75

250.00

10.06

9.04

4,760.00

FMDQ Daily Quotations List

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

14-Aug-21

foreign-currency holdings to 1.00 shore up confidence. 16.28 85.48 The MSCI16.46 Emerging Mar1.00 84.66 kets Index added 0.3 per cent in London, taking the fiveday gain to one per cent. The People’s of China will Offer Yield (%) Bank Bid Price Offer Price temporarily waive a requirePrices Yields ment for&lenders to set aside reserves for some deposits, 6.08 102.08 103.35 people with knowledge of 99.04 highlighting 100.82 the4.87 matter said, efforts to boost lending amid 6.40 98.40 99.86 a slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy. Advances in emerging markets are “based mainly on perceptions of more 8.25 103.30 stimulative policies 103.30 out of 7.01 100.63 100.63the China,” Nicholas Spiro, 7.47 99.48 managing director of 99.48 Spiro 10.52 88.60 89.89 Sovereign Strategy in Lon7.43 said. “Trading 92.65 95.28 don, is thin 9.66 102.00 102.00 and one shouldn’t read too 7.49 95.50 95.50 much into this rally, not least 12.36 85.15 88.01 given the risk of a further 8.57 98.00 98.00 slide in oil prices and the 19.11 56.75 56.75 plethora of risks in EMs, 10.60 92.50 94.13 in particular Russia.” 10.66 87.00 87.00 93.05

97.85

24-Dec-14

4,398.78

The DQL contains and instruments in the financial market (the “Information”). The Information does not constitute **Treasury Bills data relating to, amongst other things, market and model prices, rates of foreign exchange products, fixed income securities FIXINGS Money Market & Forwards) professional, financial or investment advice. We attempt to ensure the Information Offer is accurate; however, theBidInformation is provided “AS IS” and on an “AS AVAILABLE”Tenor basis and may Rate not be accurateForeign or up toExchange date. We(Spot do not guarantee DTM Maturity Bid Discount (%) Discount (%) Yield (%) (%) NIBOR the accuracy,8 timeliness, completeness, performance or fitness for a particular purpose of any of the Information, neither do we accept liability for the results of any action taken on the basis of the Information. 1-Jan-15 16.39 16.14 16.45 FGN

15 22 Bonds29 36 43 Rating/Agency 50 57 64 71 78 85 92 99 106 113 NA 120 127 134 141 225 253 344 358

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

8-Jan-15 15-Jan-15 22-Jan-15 29-Jan-15 5-Feb-15 Issuer 12-Feb-15 19-Feb-15 26-Feb-15 5-Mar-15 12-Mar-15 19-Mar-15 26-Mar-15 2-Apr-15 9-Apr-15 16-Apr-15 NA 23-Apr-15 30-Apr-15 7-May-15 14-May-15 6-Aug-15 3-Sep-15 3-Dec-15 17-Dec-15

13.00 14.21 13.51 13.55 12.00 Description 13.68 13.97 4.00 23-APR-2015 12.74 13.05 16-AUG-2016 17.55 15.10 27-APR-2017 11.22 9.85 27-JUL-2017 12.61 9.35 31-AUG-2017 12.80 10.70 30-MAY-2018 13.06 12.77 16.00 29-JUN-2019 13.21 7.00 23-OCT-2019 13.79 16.39 27-JAN-2022 12.43 14.20 14-MAR-2024 11.63 15.00 28-NOV-2028 12.06 12.49 22-MAY-2029 11.53 8.50 20-NOV-2029 11.84 10.00 23-JUL-2030 14.70 12.1493 18-JUL-2034 15.00

12.75 13.96 13.26 13.30 11.75 Issue 13.43Date 13.72 23-Apr-10 12.49 16-Aug-13 17.30 27-Apr-12 10.97 27-Jul-07 12.36 31-Aug-07 12.55 30-May-08 12.81 12.52 29-Jun-12 12.96 23-Oct-09 13.54 27-Jan-12 12.18 14-Mar-14 11.38 28-Nov-08 11.81 22-May-09 11.28 20-Nov-09 11.59 23-Jul-10 14.45 18-Jul-14 14.75

13.07 14.33 13.66 13.73 12.17 Coupon 13.94 (%) 14.28 4.00 13.03 13.05 18.17 15.10 11.50 9.85 12.99 9.35 13.23 10.70 13.54 13.26 16.00 13.77 7.00 14.44 16.39 12.99 14.20 12.15 15.00 12.65 12.49 12.41 8.50 12.90 10.00 17.06 12.1493 17.59

Tenor O/N 1M 3M 6M Outstanding Value

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION

NITTY

11.42

23-Apr-15 16-Aug-16 27-Apr-17 Rate (%) 27-Jul-17 13.9413 31-Aug-17 14.1706 30-May-18 14.3985 14.4618 29-Jun-19 14.5418 23-Oct-19 15.5307 27-Jan-22

414.68 14-Mar-24 75.00 28-Nov-28 150.00 22-May-29 NIFEX 200.00 20-Nov-29 Current Price ($/N) 591.57 23-Jul-30 BID($/N) 181.0750 178.00 18-Jul-34 OFFER ($/N) 181.1750

4,783.63

11.75

Rating/Agency

Issuer

Bid ($/N)

Offer ($/N)

180.00 180.10 183.28 Price 183.39 183.57 183.71 184.24 184.69 Bid Price Offer Price 185.49 186.46 186.73 188.19 96.98 97.13 190.98 193.88 96.50 96.65 200.06 205.50 99.70 99.85 88.85 89.00 87.43 87.58 88.28 NA :Not87.98 Applicable # :Floating 101.70Rate Bond 102.00 ***: Deferred 71.90 coupon bonds 72.20 104.30 104.60 ‡ : Bond rating under review 95.50 95.80 †: Bond rating expired 103.49 103.19 N/A :Not Available 88.47 88.77 {r} :Issuer in receivership64.69 64.39 71.00 71.30 NGC: Nigeria-German Company 82.00 82.30 UBA: United Bank for Africa

4,364.36

*for the Amortising bonds, the average life is calculated and not the duration #

Risk Premium is a combination of credit risk and liquidity risk premiums **Exclusive of non-trading t.bills

Tenor

Spot 7D 14D REPO Tenor Rate (%) 1MYield Offer TTM Bid11.58 Yield (%) Call(Yrs) 2M (%) 1M 15.12 3M 0.33 13.48 13.00 3M 15.33 6M 1.65 15.50 15.39 6M 16.30 1Y 2.34 15.23 15.15 2.59 15.20 15.12 NOTE: 2.69 15.21 15.14 :Benchmarks 3.43 15.32 15.20 * :Amortising 4.51 Bond 15.46 15.37 µ :Convertible 4.83 Bond 15.46 15.35 AMCON: Asset of Nigeria 7.09 Management Corporation 15.36 15.29 FGN: Federal Government of Nigeria 9.22 15.11 15.04 FMBN: Federal of Nigeria 13.93 Mortgage Bank 14.46 14.41 IFC: International Finance Corporation 14.41 14.40 14.35 LCRM: Local Contractors Receivables Management 14.91 14.35 14.28 NAHCO: Nigerian Aviation Handling Company 15.58 14.81 14.75 O/N: Overnight 19.57 15.02 14.96 UPDC: UAC Property Development Company WAPCO:West Africa Portland Cement Company O/N

Maturity Date

(N'bn)

535.00 581.39 452.80 Tenor 20.00 1M 100.00 2M 300.00 3M 6M 351.30 9M 233.90 12M 600.00

OBB

Rate (%) 11.8500 14.6816 15.4567 16.0749

Bonds

Description

Issue Date

Coupon (%)

Outstanding Value (N'bn)

Maturity Date

Avg. Life/TTM (Yrs)

24-May-15 03-Apr-17 09-Dec-16 20-Apr-17 % Exposure_ 06-Jul-17 Mod_Duration

0.41 1.15 1.96 2.32 Implied Yield 2.53

# Risk Premium (%)

Valuation Yield (%)

Indicative Price

16.13 18.81 17.36 16.23 INDEX 16.19

93.70 98.38 97.85 YTD95.53 Return 92.47 (%)

Agency Bonds FMBN ***LCRM Modified Duration Buckets

TOTAL OUTSTANDING VALUE

TOTAL MARKET CAPITALISATION 3<5 >5

Sub-National Bonds

Market

0.00 FMB 24-MAY-2015 17.25 FMB II 03-APR-2017 0.00/16.00 LCRM 09-DEC-2016 0.00/16.50 LCRM II 20-APR-2017 Total Outstanding Porfolio Market Value(Bn) 0.00/16.50 LCRM III 06-JUL-2017 Volume(Bn)

24-May-12 0.00 BOND 03-Apr-12FMDQ FGN 17.25 09-Dec-11 0.00/16.00 20-Apr-12 0.00/16.50 Weighting by Weighting by Mkt 06-Jul-12Vol 0.00/16.50 Outstanding Value

24.56

INDEX 3.00

112.22 116.70 Bucket 66.49 Weighting

322.97

1,369.75

1,385.48

43.71

46.31

1,021.82

1,014.68

32.01

34.55

308.730.32

565.97

769.57

24.28

19.14

0.24

2,957.54

3,169.73

100.00

0.44

31-Aug-10

12.50

8.50

13.00 EBONYI 30-SEP-2015

30-Sep-10

13.00

14.00 BENUE 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-11

14.00

*IMO

15.50 IMO 30-JUN-2016

30-Jun-09

A+/Agusto; A+/GCR‡

LAGOS

10.00 LAGOS 19-APR-2017

A-/Agusto

*BAYELSA

A/Agusto

EDO

A+/Agusto; A+/GCR

1.00

22.98

15.40

116.6291

1,107.74

10.7739

36.96

15.25

119.5711

1,012.48

1.2483

40.06

14.86

86.1541

1,007.29

15.13

110.1720

100.00

31-Aug-15

0.68

4.18

30-Sep-15

6.27

30-Jun-16

15.50

7.37

19-Apr-10

10.00

57.00

13.75 BAYELSA 30-JUN-2017

30-Jun-10

13.75

14.00 EDO 31-DEC-2017

30-Dec-10

14.00

*DELTA

14.00 DELTA 30-SEP-2018

30-Sep-11

A-/Agusto; A-/GCR

NIGER

14.00 NIGER II 4-OCT-2018

A/Agusto; A-/GCR†

*EKITI

14.50 EKITI 09-DEC-2018

A+/Agusto

KADUNA

A/Agusto

*EBONYI

A-/Agusto

*BENUE

A+/Agusto

12.50 KADUNA 31-AUG-2015

2.63 2.27 2.00 1.00 Implied 1.00Price Portfolio

1,052.05

0.7293 5.2046

4.44

19.20

95.83

0.52

3.23

16.91

98.90

0.81

4.46

20.06

94.76

30-Jun-16

0.82

3.48

19.11

96.89

19-Apr-17

2.32

5.59

20.82

80.80

29.92

30-Jun-17

1.37

1.00

17.10

95.69

25.00

31-Dec-17

3.02

1.79

17.05

93.01

14.00

34.14

30-Sep-18

2.19

1.80

17.07

94.83

04-Oct-11

14.00

9.00

04-Oct-18

3.78

1.00

16.37

93.43

09-Dec-11

14.50

13.73

09-Dec-18

2.39

1.00

16.21

96.88

12-Dec-13

14.00

10.20

12-Dec-18

2.39

4.78

19.99

89.48

Business | Interview

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Oriflame is on mission to help entrepreneurs succeed –Hanna Hanna Einarsson is the Country Manager, Oriflame Nigeria, a beauty product company fast spreading across the world through multi-level marketing. Not new to the Nigerian business environment, Hanna, in this interview with Sunday Ojeme, speaks about the zeal of Nigerians to succeed as entrepreneurs and Oriflame’s mission to help fulfil the dream. What is the mission of Oriflame in Nigeria? Oriflame Cosmetics Nigeria is a beauty company, a direct sales company. We are originally Swedish and have been around for almost 50 years. In Nigeria we are quite new. We have been looking at Nigeria for some time. Later we found it necessary to set up operation here. We realise that Nigeria is an amazing market and there is need for good quality beauty products and also a way of making money. So the direct s a l e family is part of Oriflame. W e are into multi-level m a rke t i n g , selling products with the help of catalogue released every quarter, adapted to the local market. We have 150 million catalogues printed in 40 languages. The company was founded in 1967 by the two brothers and it is Europe’s largest cosmetics manufacturing company. Oriflame currently has five factories in Poland, India, Sweden, China and Russia. A new factory is under construction in Moscow and it is expected to be ready in 2015. It has been listed on the stock exchange since 2004. Oriflame is also a co-

Oriflame

founder of World Childhood foundation and other charity organisations. Precisely, how long have you been in Nigeria? We have been in operation here for less than three months. We started in October and a lot of people who started with us have grown tremendously within this short period and we have had recognition for them. They are already climbing our success ladder.

Nigeria is an amazing market considering the huge population of over 160 million people. I have been in Lagos now for five years and I have never seen such people who are so serious and business minded

If you believe Nigeria is an amazing market why did it take such a long time to set up operation here after almost 50 years? We started in Sweden. Sweden is such a small country up north, so the way the companies expand is that they first move to markets that are closer to them. Our main market is Russia. In Russia we have over one million consultants making a living selling Oriflame products. We are very busy in Europe. We expanded into Asia before we started looking into Africa. I agree, we should have been here a long time now. At what point did you enter Africa? In Africa, the first places were Morocco and Egypt. That was in 1997. After that, we set up operation in Tunisia and Algeria in 2009. That was the same year we entered China. Three years later, in 2012, we entered Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and now in 2014 we are in Nigeria. Now we are in over 50 countries spread across the world. Are the products you supply to these countries different or just a mix of the same materials? No. We have over 1,500 products in our portfolio. We have different products for different countries because of the difference in weather. Some products that work for people in some countries don’t work in others. How do you see the Nigerian market as regards breaking through with your products considering the fact that many beauty products are already available in the market? Nigeria is an amazing market considering the huge population of over 160 million people. I have been in Lagos now for five years and I have never seen such people who are so serious and business minded. In Nigeria, everyone is a born entrepreneur searching for opportunities. If I compare here with my country, I would say we are not as businesshungry as Nigerians. We are a little bit shy, but here you have a drive and opportunities. So, at Oriflame, our dream as a company is to help people fulfil their dreams. That is our motto. Ours is to sit you down, ask you what your dreams are and help you to fulfil them. While doing this, you look good, have fun and make money. These three statements fit perfectly with Nigerians. Then, talking of breaking even with so many beauty products in the market, I believe that the quality of Oriflame products will determine that.

Business | Interview

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

BIODATA Born: September 13 Country of Origin Sweden Work Experience South Africa - 2007 - 2009 Arrived Lagos 2009 Swedish Embassy, Lagos 2009-2011 Oriflame 2012-till date

and make new friends at the same time. You can earn the chance to travel internationally, participate in high profile events and be recognised and awarded for your results and achievements. You will also have the opportunity for personal and professional growth through trainings and events – most of which are completely free. You will continuously learn about beauty and fashion trends and there is no financial risk. As a new consultant, you will have a more experienced consultant as your coach, guiding and assisting you. Your coach will introduce you to Oriflame and help you understand all the necessary information you will need in the beginning. Whether you want to save money on your own and your families’ purchases, earn extra income or build a career and business of your own, you should join Oriflame. You decide how far you want to go, we are here to support you every step of the way. Do potential consultants just walk into your office, get the kits and start off without training or what form does it take? We train our consultants. We teach them what to do to enable them climb the success ladder easily and faster too. Oriflame prides itself on offering an extensive training programme on both business and beauty that is essentially free of charge to its consultants and leaders. It covers all the training that a consultant needs from day one to be able to excel each step of the way. We have trainings twice everyday here in our office. As soon as you finish your registration, you move to the classroom where you will be trained on what to do and how to move. It is not difficult, so everybody fits in.

Oriflame

A survey result that appeared in The Economic Times (Brand Equity) recently showcased Oriflame in the list of top 10 brands in the ‘Best beauty brand’ category. The consumers were asked to rate their favourite brand across product categories such as soaps, beauty products for skin and face, hair oil, shampoos and conditioners, perfumes, deodorants and talcum powders. The survey report was done by BAV (Brand Asset Valuator), a 15-year-old research-based toolkit, present in 50 countries. BAV examines how a brand is perceived by consumers across different attributes. The BAV winner’s list 2013 has been based on the survey conducted from 10,000 respondents in 16 cities of India across 100+ categories. This recognition can be attributed to the wholesome mix of effective marketing, advertising and public relations strategies adopted by the brand in the recent years. Oriflame innovative campaigns both online and offline have captured the consumer mindspace. We constantly improve our products through state-of-the-art research and development team functions in Dublin and Stockholm and we employ over a 100 dedicated, experienced scientists and technical experts. This year alone, Oriflame is developing and releasing over 800 new products. One of our latest discoveries is Ecollagen, anti-wrinkle cream. From a discovery of a new active ingredient it takes approximately five years before it reaches the market. What were the challenges your company encoun-

We constantly improve our products through state-ofthe-art research and development team functions in Dublin and Stockholm and we employ over a 100 dedicated, experienced scientists and technical experts

tered while trying to start your operations in Nigeria? Are they different from the other countries you are currently operating? I am not from here, so there is always some of these cultural differences and other challenges you face while trying to start a business. It is not peculiar to Nigeria, but all the same it has not been a bad experience. Everyone we have been in contact with in the ministries and other places has been very helpful. You know a lot of people have negative impression about Nigeria, so they are so scared. In our own case, I think it has been so good. The expectations are actually different from the realities on ground. There are always challenges in every country we are starting operation for the first time. That of Nigeria is not different. What qualifies one to be an Oriflame consultant? Anyone can become an Oriflame consultant – The Oriflame opportunity is unique. Because of the exceptional flexibility of being a consultant, Oriflame fits into any life style. Regardless of whether you are looking to make some extra money, turn it into a full time career or enjoy financial independence, Oriflame is suitable for you. Whether you are a fulltime or part time employee, selfemployed, working from home, a student, retired or parents at home with your children. You can set your own hours and you are your own boss. You control the amount of your pay check each month – it’s your choice how much you earn. It all depends on how much effort you put into it. While you enjoy our exclusive cosmetic products, you will meet new people

Apart from making your consultants millionaires while selling your products, does Oriflame also consider any form of CSR to assist the community where it operates? Oriflame has a programme to develop the girl-child because it is generally believed that any investments made in the education of a girl translates directly and quickly into better health care, poverty reduction and better overall economic performance of the family. Girl Child education has a wide-ranging impact on many aspects of human survival and development. Thus, Oriflame Girl Child project is an endeavour to spread the message that a community’s development is incomplete without the education of girls. Under this project Oriflame has sponsored education of 1,000 girls from Deepalaya, the largest operational NGO in Delhi. The contribution has facilitated education of selected girls in the age bracket of four to 17 years. Through this project Oriflame aims to lead these girls towards the path of education and bring out their latent talents. Where do you see Oriflame in Nigeria in a few years? Now we are starting with Lagos and we believe with time the products will be all over Nigeria because you can order online and get the products sent across to you. We will watch the market for some time then we know where to set up the next office. For now, we are doing great with the Lagos office. So who is Hanna? Hanna is a hardworking Swedish lady, married to an African from Democratic Republic of Congo. But he is an ‘Oyinbo’ like me. I am not new in Nigeria. I worked with the Swedish Embassy here in Nigeria for three years.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Leisure Arcade NUTS

By Kaycee

MAMA LASISI

By Aliu Eroje

MOYIN & FRIENDS

NTPuzzle

By Ayo Oyerinde

NTJokes AKPOS AND HIS TWO DRUNKEN FRIENDS SUDOKU - Answer to No 22

SUDOKU - No 23

— Naija joke

Akpos and his two friends attended a party and got themselfs drunk......On there way home they chatted a cab(taxi).When they entered, they told the driver there destination.. The driver noticing that they were drunk started his car and turned it off..He turned and told them that have arrieved at their destination......they paid the taxi driver his money,, and he was happy that his plan worked... to his grtest suprise while AKPOS was coming down he gave him a sound slap....the driver thought that Akpos knew what he did but decided to ask Akpos why the slap and Akpos answerd ``YOU ALMOST KILLED US````

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

How to play ALIU EROJE

CHIEF CARTOONIST aliu.eroje@newtelegraphonline.com

SUDOKU

The objective is to fill a 9x9 grid so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 3x3 boxes (also called blocks or regions) contains the digits from 1 to 9. A cell is the smallest block in the game. A row , column and region consists of 9 cells and the whole game consists of 81 cells. A region has thicker lines surrounding it. This simply makes it easier to play the game.

— (OMODAN A PASTOR) My beloved brothers and Sisters in d Lord we are in year 2013, So I want each One of u to tell me Ur new year Resolution (Sabisabi Raise up his hand) ok Sabisabi tell us SABISABI: Pastor my new resolution na I have no Shoes OMODAN: Y SABISABI: So dat I go fit become president of Naija How was our day OMODAN:

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

L-R: Fiona Anucha of Mabatpro Experiential Agency; Miss Chidinma Igbo; Chief Executive Officer, Emerald Nigeria Limited, Mrs Bolanle Subair and Brand Manager, Canoe, Miss Gloria Jacobs, during colour activation campaign by PZ Cussons in Lagos.

L-R: Assistant Comptroller of Prisons, Mr. Edwin Akabueze; wife of the Chairman, Awka North L.G.A, Princes Ngozi Ilo and wife of Anambra State Governor, Mrs. Ebelechukwu Obiano, during Ebelechukwu’s visit to the Amawbia Prisons.

Director-General, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Mohammed Sidi (left), and FCT Minister, Sen. Bala Mohammed, during a visit to the victims of last week’s bomb blast, at Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University Teaching Hospital in Bauchi. PHOTO: NAN

Participants at the Kaltungo cultural festival, in Kaltungo, Gombe State.

Photo | News

L-R: Chairman, Lagos Boxing Hall of Fame, Mr. Wale Edun; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola; winner of the Governor’s Belt for 2014 who fought in the 49kg Boxing Category, Mr. Dauda Azeez and Lagos State All Progressives Congress Governorship candidate, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, during the 6th Annual Governor’s Belt Edition/59th Monthly Boxing Show in Lagos.

L-R: Prof. Kolawole Raheem; President, Oasis Women Organization, Mrs. Mojisola Adams; former Head of Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos, Prof. Sophie Oluwole, beneficiary, Mrs. Rachael Abas, and Chief Promoter, Olokun Festival Foundation, Chief Gani Adams, during the 7th annual empowerment luncheon of Oasis in Lagos. PHOTO: SULEIMAN HUSAINI

Executive Director, Marketing, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Otunba Jide Adebayo (right), receiving a meritorious Community Service award from Mrs. Silifat Oyinloye, at a forum organised by the Omu-Aran Youth in Kwara State. PHOTO: NAN

L-R: Chairman, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Osun Chapter, Comrade Saka Adesiyan; Head of Service, Elder Olayinka Owoeye; Deputy Governor, Mrs Titi Laoye-Tomori; Governor Rauf Aregbesola; Chairman, Joint Negotiating Council (JNC) Osun Chapter, Comrade Bayo Adejumo; Chairman, Labour Committee on Internal Generated Revenue (IGR), Comrade Francis Adetunji and others, during the official presentation of the report compiled by Labour on ways to improve the State’s IGR in Osogbo.

News

SOUTH - WEST

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Groups vow to continue eligibility suits against Fayose Adesina Wahab ADO-EKITI

he last may not have been heard about the eligibility of the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fasoye, to contest the June 22 election. Some groups challenging his eligibility to contest the poll are still going ahead with their suit. And despite the recent judgment of the election petition tribunal in the state, which threw out the case filed by the All Progressives Congress (PDP) challenging the electoral victory of the governor, our correspondent in Ado-Ekiti, reports that the matter have been transferred from Justice Segun Ogunyemi, to Justice Cornelius Akintayo. Hearing in the cases are billed to commence from on January 13, 2015. The cases, similar in nature, were filed by a group, the E-11 and the Citizens Popular Party. The main issues raised in the suits are whether Fayose, who contested on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), could contest the election based on his removal from office in October 2006. They are also challenging the authenticity of his Higher National Diploma (HND), certificate, he

claimed to have obtained from The Polytechnic, Ibadan, Oyo State, while also accusing him of perjury. But, PDP leaders are quick to accuse the groups and party of working for the APC. The Justice Mohammed Shirajo-led election panel, which concluded its sittings in Abuja, having relocated due to the crisis the hearing of the eligibility suits created, threw out the issues which were also raised by the APC in its petition.

IBANDAN

he governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Oyo State, Senator Teslim Folarin, has urged members of the opposition parties to play issue-based politics and desist from engaging in politics of sentiment and bitterness. While speaking with journalists in Ibadan at the weekend, the former Senate Leader, who called for prayers for the peaceful, free and fair

ROAD BLOCK INEC shuts the gate against Jimoh Ibrahim's PDP faction Babatope Okeowo AKURE

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction in

the judiciary appears not ready to tackle the flagrant abuse of the courts by desperate politicians. An allegation of perjury was raised against Fayose before the election. On the day a judgment was expected on the matter, hoodlums stormed the court to beat the judge, lawyers and other court officials. That forced indefinite suspension of the case and so the case could not be determined before the election. "The only competent

court that can adjudicate on the matter after this sad episode in Nigeria's judicial system is the election tribunal, but now the tribunal is saying that Fayose should have been stopped from contesting the election." The question is, who would have stopped Fayose?" In his view, the Ekiti State Commissioner for Justice, Mr Owoseni Ajayi, said the opposition was just being difficult needlessly. "Their own style of opposition is out of this

world. They are needlessly difficult. All the issues they are talking about were exhaustively treated by the tribunal. They will surely fail. Can you imagine an opposition seeking an injunction to stop the inauguration of a state governor? "They were looking for injunction from one court to the other before Governor Fayose was sworn in. They turned judicial issues to items they can purchase in the market place. Anyway, that is their stock in trade."

Council chairmen rally support for Ajimobi Adeolu Adeyemo OSOGBO

Lagos State governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Jimi Agbaje (right) and his running mate, Alhaja Safuratu Abdulkareem, during her unveiling as a running mate in Lagos…at the weekend

2015: Folarin tasks politicians on politics of bitterness Sola Adeyemo

However, the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Taiwo Olatubosun, said the tribunal did not say that the issues raised were not true, but that it said they ought to have been settled before the election took place. He said:"Even though the tribunal did not say that all the issues raised against Fayose were not true, dismissing the entire case on the basis of pre-election matter tag will be challenged at the Appeal Court. "It is worrisome that

conduct of the 2015 elections, said that the present day Nigeria could not afford politics of bitterness in whatever guise. “As politicians who mean well for the people, this is the time when we should all tell our people what we have in stock for them, and not a time for attacks on personalities or political parties. At this time when many Nigerians are still battling to break the yoke of poverty, we need a focused and determined government that can wipe out poverty across the land.

Agbaje unveils Abdulkarim as deputy Etaghene Edirin

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), governorship candidate in Lagos State Mr. Jimi Agbaje, has unveiled Alhaja Safurat Olayinka Abdulkarim, a teacher and accountant as his running mate for the 2015 election. The emergence of Safurat Abdulkarim, a staunch Moslem, is the second in her political career, as she was running mate to the late Engr. Funso Williams, PDP’s governorship candidate for Lagos in 2003, who was assassinated in 2006. She is the wife of a retired Air Force officer

and holds an MBA. In a statement yesterday by Agbaje’s Media Director, Felix Oboagwina, Abdulkarim, said she would complement her principal political focus, and assist in ushering into Lagos a refreshing atmosphere, devoid of statebrewed intimidation and human rights abuses. “I feel humbled for being chosen for this noble responsibility,” she said of her pairing for the PDP governorship race in the state. “Mr. Jimi Agbaje is an amiable personality. He is a complete gentleman. I hope I can really, really complement him and as-

sist him in winning the 2015 election because Lagosians strongly desire a change in government.” Describing PDP’s chances in the governorship polls as very bright, the deputy governorship candidate said she and Agbaje, were entering the race at a time when Lagosians wanted a break from the shackles of subjugation that they have been held for 16 years. “Our chances are very bright. Everybody is tired of the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC), which has demonstrated much impunity."

he re-election bid of Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State received a boost at the weekend, as two council chairmen in the state, Mr. Mathew Fasola and Temilola Segun Adibi of Ogbomoso South and North respectively said the governor deserved re-election because his administration in the state is people oriented. The duo, who made the plea while speaking with newsmen separately in Osogbo, also commended him for all his laudable and people oriented programmes, which they described as transforming the state from its former shamble state, since his inception in office three and half years ago. They also urged the electorate to ensure the success of all other All Progressives Congress candidates in the coming elections including party’s presidential flag bearer Alhaji Mohammadu Buhari. According to them, "Governor Ajimobi has done marvelously well in the following areas: Asphaltic tarring/ dualization of roads in all the nooks and crannies of the state, chanellization of drainages towards the prevention of erosion, Provision of good drinkable water and stable electricity supply for the people in the state".

PDP faction decries INEC acceptance of Mimiko's list Ondo State, has decried what it claimed the Impartiality by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the commission yesterday pasted the list of the PDP candidates of a rival faction, believed to be the incumbent Governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko, thereby shutting out the Jimoh

Ibrahim-led faction of the party, for next year’s election. The list on the board of the electoral commission included the candidates, who emerged from the primaries conducted by the Mimiko-led faction of the party. The candidates that scaled the INEC's hurdle

include Dr. Bode Olajumoke, senatorial candidate from the North, Dr. Ayo Akinyelure, Central district and Mr Yele Omogunwa, of the Southern senatorial district. The House of Representatives candidates include Dare Aliu, Akure South and North, Prince Mike Omogbehin, Okitipupa/

Irele, Hon Victor Kolade Akinjo, Ilaje/Eseodo, Hon Joseph Akinlaja, Ondo East and West and Mayowa Akinfolarin, Odigbo/ Ileoluji/Okeigbo. Others included Debo Ologunagba, Akoko Southeast/Southwest, Dele Oshakuade, Ifedore/Idanre, Munirat Folasade Tinubu, Owo/Ose and Hon. Mi-

chael Adenigba Akerele Akoko North West/North east federal constituencies. The release of the list by INEC effectively shuts out Ibrahim-led faction of the party that has been parading court injunction that restricted Clement Faboyede and his members of his executive from functioning in that capacity.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

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SOUTH-EAST

Abia professionals flay Ikpeazu’s candidacy Onyekachi Eze ABUJA

group, under the aegis, the Abia Professionals Forum (APF), has raised the alarm that unless the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at national and state levels reconcile aggrieved aspirants who lost in the December 8 governorship primaries in Abia State, the party may likely lose the state to the opposition in the

$30.5m

2015 election. The group, in a statement by its President ,Sam Onukwe, yesterday described the choice of Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu, as the PDP governorship candidate for Abia State as a bad decision given the candidate’s unpopularity. “We particularly note the situation in Abia State where there seem to be total loss of confidence in the leadership of the ruling party and particularly, Dr. Okezie

Ikpeazu, the controversial gubernatorial candidate of PDP who was reportedly stoned at Aba Township Stadium and had to be quickly smuggled out of the sports facility to avert the danger to his life by the police. “We wonder how a candidate who is so unpopular will go round the state to canvass for votes. It is our fear that unless urgent action is taken by the leadership of PDP at the state and national level the electorate may

29.8%

be forced to speak with their voters’ card during the election, a situation which may turn out to be very unpalatable for the PDP,” the group said. Ikpeazu’s candidature has come under heavy criticisms in recent time. One of the aspirants, S.N. Nwaosu, has instituted a case against him at a Federal High Court in Abuja over irregularities in the party’s candidate’s tax records. A tax consultant, who pleaded for anonymity

24%

The total amount of salary/winnings of The percentage of the urban population of The projected percentage increase of Kobe Bryant (Basketball) for 2014. Antigua & Barbuda in 2012. Americans above 65 years with Alzheimer’s Source: Forbes.com Source: Forbes.com in Kansas State in 2014-2025. Source: Alz.org

equally raised concerns over the candidate’s inaccurate tax records, saying Ikpeazu has not paid his tax as when due . APF, however, identified Dr. Uche Ogah, President, Masters Energy, who came second in the PDP’s gubernatorial primaries as one of such aspirants that the party faithful believed can add value to PDP ticket if the party leadership accords him the opportunity. “It is our belief that the general goodwill

The number of soccer deals that cleared the €100m mark in terms of total committed outlay in 2014. Source: Goal.com

L-R: Wife of the Deputy Speaker, House of Representatives, Lady Ebere Ihedioha; First Lady, Patience Jonathan and Deputy Speaker, House of Reps/Imo State PDP governorship candidate, Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, during a reception in honour of the First Lady in Owerri…at the weekend

Umeh vows to stop PDP’s multi-candidacy ‘fraud’ Tony Okafor Awka

he national chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the party’s Senatorial Candidate for Anambra Central district, Chief Victor Umeh, yesterday said he would ensure that the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) does not field multiple candidates in the 2015 general election . Umeh, who spoke at Aguluizigbo, on his conferrment with the chieftaincy title of Ikemba, said he would use every available means within the ambit of the law to ensure that the PDP would not benefit in what he called electoral fraud this time around. The New Telegraph learnt that since 2007 the PDP in Anambra State has been fielding double candidates in various elections due to the crisis rocking the party in reaching consensus. But Umeh in a chat with journalists after his conferment said now that he would be actively and personally contesting the election that no one would try such practice again. He said he had written the chairman of Independent National Electoral commission, Prof Attahiru Jega in that respect, adding that his lawyers had been also instructed to be at alert should such circumstance arise.

Ihedioha’s wife: Hold me responsible if my husband fails Anyim to Abians: I will husband fails to deliver it would be in the best in- the decay in all sectors of clear PDP’s mess Steve Uzoechi on the people’s mandate terest of our people to sup- the state, noting that the OWERRI

ife of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, and the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP ) governorship candidate for the 2015 governorship election in Imo State, Emeka Ihedioha, Mrs. Ebere Ihedioha, has told Imo people to hold her accountable if her

if voted as governor of Imo State in 2015. The Speaker’s spouse expressed the position during an interaction with newsmen yesterday at Mbutu, in Aboh Mbaise local government area of Imo State. She said, “I can assure you that at the core of his person, is a deep-seated love for Imo State and its people. I sincerely believe

port my husband. I do not know a better way to say it but he has a very good heart, large enough to accommodate anybody and everybody. And of course, I’m in the best position to say this because I have lived with him for over 20 years. I urge you to give him your support in the task of salvaging our state.” Also speaking at the forum, Ihedioha, lamented

enormity of the damage already inflicted to critical areas of the state was worrisome and called for urgent intervention, which he said the government under him would offer. He regretted that the actions and policy thrust of the present administration was largely driven by lack of knowledge about what the people desired from government.

Abians tired of Orji’s administration, says Udensi

he gover norship candidate of the Progressive Peoples Alliance (PPA) in Abia State, Chief Chikwe Udensi, has reassured Abians of his desire to ensure the welfare of the people is given priority in the policy trust of his administration. He made the remarks last weekend at the Igbotonma festival held at Ig-

bere Secondary School, Bende Local Government Area of Abia State. Udensi, who acknowledged the benefits of the age long event to communities and societal well being, said: “ I am here today to celebrate with our mothers and fathers, who have attained the age of traditional retirement from active service. This

epoch event, which is held every three years is symbolic as it affords indigenes of the community the opportunity to execute landmark projects in commemoration of their retirement”. According to the aspirant, the government of Governor Theodore Orji had committed a crime, having held the state to ransom in the past seven

years. “He runs the state as a private family business, setting the state backwards among others. Bad roads, heaps of refuse, unpaid workers salaries, embargo on recruitment, misappropriation of funds and political intimidation are the celebrated legacy achievements of the present administration.

Igbeaku Orji UMUAHIA

he All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Abia State, Chief Nyerere Anyim, has promised to return the state to its lost glory, as the hub south-east economy of the country. He said the state was ruined by the Peoples Democratic Party. Anyim, said he would achieve his objective, by bringing sanity back to all sectors of the state, saying that special attention would be paid to education, which he said urgently requires intervention, and would be made free at all levels. “Education is so vital to the realization of my blue print for Abia State,” he said. He added that a new education curriculum would

be designed to meet the need of every child from the first six years in primary school to the next six years in the secondary school so that every child would be encouraged to obtain formal education free unlike what obtained presently where children of school age roam the streets or hawk wares because parents cannot afford to send them to school. Explaining his resolve in Aba at a forum for governorship candidates organized by The Abia Awakening (TAA) in collaboration with Abia Citizens Initiative for Effective Development (ACIFED), Anyim noted that Abia State, has enough resources to be well developed, without depending on monthly allocation from Abuja.

News

SOUTH - SOUTH

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Odili: I regret supporting Amaechi’s ambition in 2007 Emmanuel Masha PORT HARCOURT

ormer governor of Rivers State, Peter Odili, has expressed regret for supporting the

Wale Elegbede

he Executive Secretary of the United Niger Delta Energy Security Strategy (UNDEDSS), Mr. Tony Uranta, yesterday warned Pastor Chris Okotie of the Household of God Church against utterances that can incite against national peace, describing his actions as anti-Christ. Uranta, a member of the defunct Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue, said Okotie’s constant unsubstantiated false utterances against Nigeria’s leadership was unbecoming of a man who claimed to be a “Man of God.” Okotie, the founder and presiding pastor of Household of God Church International Ministries, at the weekend said President Goodluck Jonathan’s declaration for the 2015 presidential election on November 11, 2014 has occultic significance. Okotie, who wrote on his Facebook page on Friday, said the exact date the President made his declaration had a ritualistic undertone. He said: “The implication of Dr. Jonathan’s declaration on that day

governorship ambition of Governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi in 2007. Odili, who spoke in Andoni Local Government during the campaign rally organized for Nyesom Wike, the governorship candidate of the Peoples

Democratic Party (PDP) accused Amaechi of dismantling the structure of the PDP even though they were built with vision and in the interest of people of the state. Odili also said that he left behind a united states,

BENIN

or the Ukponayusi family in Benin, the Edo State capital, Christmas was a traumatic one as police detained their son, 15-year-old Esosa Ukponayusi and his friend since five days ago at the Ugbowo Police Station on the order of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH). Esosa Ukponayusi and his friend spent the Yelutide behind bars despite pleas by family members and friends for their release. The two were detained since December 24 for what UBTH and police authorities tag as ‘unruly behaviour’ for daring to fight security personnel and medical staff attached to the hospital. New Telegraph gath-

party, the PDP was one... There was no other party in the state other than the PDP. “As you know, until a man has power and money, you don’t really know him. One thing is clear, we have accepted our mistake

Group warns Okotie against unguarded utterances (11-11-2014) has occultic significance. When the number is repeated, it takes a greater ritualistic intensity. It should be recalled that Okotie, a 2011 presidential candidate of the de-registered Fresh Dem-

ocratic Party, had also in 2007, claimed that he was called by God to rule Nigeria, but blamed the leadership of the country for his failure. In a statement issued to newsmen in Lagos, Uranta urged those close

to Okotie to advise him to stop uttering nonsensical partisan politics gibberish and toe the true line of a pastor for the sake of his followers. “It is a shame that one who claims to serve God should make such an ut-

terance based on his personal but diabolical belief in numbers, which in itself is anti-Christianity. “The practice of Christianity is neither superstitious nor does it give meanings to mere dates."

Participants at the Carnival Calabar 2014 Grand Finale…at the weekend

UBTH punishes doctors, nurses over negligence Cajetan Mmuta

whose people were solidly behind the PDP, noting that there was no other party except the PDP. Odili said: “We thought we did the right thing by supporting Amaechi to become governor of the state. We also left a united

ered that Ukponayusi’s mother had been on admission at the female ward of the hospital, where she was diagnosed of breast cancer. Consequently, she had a surgical operation which led to complete cut off of one of her breasts. The woman, Mrs. Enoyin Ukponayusi, a widow who sustains her two children and family with petty a business later escaped from the hospital ward after she was allegedly detained for eight weeks by the hospital authority, following her inability to pay the medical bill. But dramatically, her son, Esosa and his friend, whose name could not be readily ascertained as at the time of filing this report, were said to have stormed the hospital ward where the woman was admitted, only to be confronted by nurses with the

shocking report that his mother was being looked for after she escaped from the hospital. Irked by the development, Esosa and his friend confronted the nurses and doctors on duty as well as some management staff of the hospital, including security men at the gate and in the process, demanded for the patient, an action that led to their sudden arrest for alleged assault. A source close to the hospital, who pleaded not to be named, disclosed yesterday that doctors and nurses supervising the cancer patient’s treatment are presently in trouble for allegedly allowing her to escape from the hospital and that the management of the institution has vowed to deduct the balance of the widow’s bill from their monthly salaries, running into several thousands of naira.

Jonathan urged to industrialise Nigeria

ADVICE

Turn to agric to salvage Nigeria, celric tells govt Joe Obende WARRI

resident Goodluck Jonathan has been asked to industrialise the country by venturing into massive agriculture to salvage the nation. The call came yesterday given the high level of poverty in the country, particularly among the rural populace. The General Overseer of God’s Ministry International Incorporated, Evangelist Samson Mamamu, made the call yesterday in his Christmas/New Year message to round off the church's eight-day annual Christian feast in New Ogbe-

Ijoh, Warri South-West Local Government area of Delta State. Mamamu said since the nation was endowed with ‘fresh and salt waters, different types of agriculturally favourable soil and an ample reserve of oil, the federal, state and local governments should industrialise, go into agriculture, to minimise the suffering of the commoners.’ Governments’ high wage bill to people doing nothing to deserve what they earn should stop, he said government should channel its energy towards the establishment of productive concerns in each senatorial district of the nation as that ‘will be the saving grace for the nation.’ For now, he said the “three arms of government are paying too many people, both real and ghosts” and called for self-reliance on the part of the people.

and we are determined to correct it,” said. The former governor said Wike would emerge as the next governor of the state even as he commended him for saving the PDP from total collapse in the state.

Umana picks Ukpong as running mate Tony Anichebe UYO

he APC governorship candidate in Akwa Ibom State, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, has presented Ben Ukpong as his running mate for the 2015 governorship election in the state. In a meeting with the party’s State Working Committee (SWC), Umana said the party settled for Ukpong as a response to the yearning of the people for a sense of belonging. He said the choice of Ukpong came after very wide consultations with the party’s hierarchy, opinion leaders and stakeholders in the Akwa Ibom project. He described Ukpong as a tested professional, a man with immense experience, a community leader and an Akwa Ibom patriot. The SWC, chaired by the Akwa Ibom State APC chairman, Dr. Ahmadu Atta, congratulated Umana for emerging victorious at the APC party, thanking the party’s national headquarters for affirming the democratic decision of the party members. He further praised the NWC for eventually submitting the name of Umana Okon Umana to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the party’s flag bearer in Akwa Ibom State. In accepting the nomination of Ukpong as the party’s governorship running mate for the 2015 election, the SWC described the choice of Ukpong as a masterstroke in its determination to bring change to the the state, who have been shortchanged in governance in the last seven and half years. The party promised to continue to spread appointments and positions to reflect the diverse segments of the state and ensure that never again would the people be subjected to the type of lopsidedness experienced in the state under the PDP government.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

2015 POLLS

Jigawa governor stresses need for peaceful transition Dahiru Suleiman DUTSE

igawa State governor, Sule Lamido, has called on the presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari, to caution their supporters to guide against untoward utterances so that they don’t plunge the country into crisis. “As our leaders, both personalities should be guided against making provocative comments in the course of their presidential campaigns; such will not augur well for the country’s political stability, nor its development,” he said. Speaking during PDP’s grand rally for the presentation of flags to successful candidates vying for elective positions in Dutse, Lamido lamented the inciting statements credited to followers of both PDP and APC presidential candidates that if any of their principals fails to emerge winner, there will be turmoil, bloodshed or a parallel government. “Honestly it is disheartening for any responsible citizen to allow such unscrupulous statements; it ought to be con-

News 49

NORTH

Lamido to presidential candidates: Don’t plunge Nigeria into crisis demned by all and sundry for the sake of peace and the unity of the country.” According to Governor Lamido, Nigeria is above anyone’s personal interests, he added; “We won’t succumb to either sectional nor religious politics or bigotry of any ill feeling or personal

agenda, aimed at destabilising the corporate existence of our country. Further more, the governor urged the attention of both leaders vying for the number one seat in the country to remember the 2011 post-election violence, which culminated into

The life expectancy of women in Anguilla at birth in 2000-2002. Source: Un.org

massive destruction of lives and property especially through provocative statements and the actions of mischievous politicians, warning again that; “We must strive hard not to allow the recurrence of such. On PDP candidates aspiring for different elec-

The life expectancy of men in Channel Islands at age 60 years in 2006. Source: Un.org

tive positions, he warned them not to base their ambition on the accumulation of ill-gotten wealth, but rather to be prepared to serve. “I urged you not to base your aspiration on personal interests, rather on service to humanity, stressing that the PDP

£3.2m

The monthly salary of Lionel Messi of FC Barcelona. Source: Paywizard.co.uk

he Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Senator Bala Mohammed, has urged those affected by the bomb blast that occurred in Bauchi on December 22 to consider their loss as an act of God. The minister, who was in Bauchi to commiserate with the victims of

Cheke Emmanuel

L-R: Gombe State Governor, Ibrahim Dankwambo; Mai of Kaltungo, Alhaji Sale Mohammed and Emir of Gombe, Alhaji Abubakar Shehu-Abubakar, at the 2014 Kaltungo cultural festival at Kaltungo in Gombe …at the weekend

picked the party’s governorship ticket at a process in Abuja personally supervised by President Goodluck Jonathan following his intervention to resolve the lingering disagreement over the governorship ticket in the state. The former GDM chairman and founding leader of PDP in the state, was affirmed by the party’s delegates and a Certificate of Return issued to him after the election.

In attendance during the primary election were Vice-President Namadi Sambo, Senate President, David Mark, PDP National Chairman, Adamu Mu’azu, Chairman, PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), Chief Tony Anenih, Borno State PDP Chairman, Minister of State for Power, Muhammed Wakil and BoT members and other stakeholders from the state. But on the eve of the

submission of parties’ governorship flag bearers to the Independent National Electoral Commission, Lawan’s name was substituted by the PDP national chairman with that of Mohammed Imam, a nominee of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff. In an open letter to President Jonathan dated December 26, 2014, the PDP stakeholders called for a reversal of the wrongful substitution in

Minister commiserates with blast victims Ex-chairman seeks FG’s intervention the blast yesterday, stated Sani Muh'd Sani in PTDA crisis this at the Bauchi Central BAUCHI

Maku defects to APGA LAFIA

PDP stakeholders kick against substitution of Lawan’s name oncerned elders and stakeholders in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Borno State have kicked against the wrongful substitution of Alhaji Gambo Lawan as the party’s governorship candidate in the 2015 elections. Lawan, who is the former Chairman of the Grassroots Democratic Movement (GDM) and exChairman of Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, had

as a party is ever ready to give you maximum support in your endeavours.” Speaking on behalf of other candidates, Aminu Ringim, the Jigawa State gubernatorial candidate of the PDP, assured the governor that if given the mandate, he would retain the legacies of his predecessors.

Market, the scene of the incident. Mohammed, who donated N20 million to the victims on behalf of himself and his associates, said President Goodluck Jonathan asked him to extend the president’s condolences to the families of those who lost their lives and property in the blast.

Ibraheem Musa KADUNA

he Federal Government has been asked to intervene in the leadership crisis that is rocking the Kaduna State chapter of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers' Association (PTDA) for close to a year now, before it escalates

into a major crisis in the country. The former state Chairman of the association, Comrade Nuhu Mohammed, who made the call at a press briefing, said the Federal Government’s intervention becomes necessary because efforts to resolve the crisis by Governor Muktar Ramalan Yero, has failed.

the interest of justice and fair play. The petition was signed by Aminu Yakudima, Ibrahim Abatcha and Salisu Aliyu. Speaking about the process that produced Lawan, they said: “The process and composition of the people present is first of its kind in the history of our great party, which you described as the Supreme Court of the party, whose decision is final.

ormer Minister of Information, Labaran Maku, who lost out in the governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has finally dumped the party for the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Maku had faulted the conduct of the just concluded governorship primaries of the PDP, alleging foul play and a manipulation of the delegates during the exercise. The minister, who unveiled his political agenda when he hosted various youth groups at his country home, Wakama area of Ankwaga Local Government, complained against the leadership of the PDP, accusing the party of using its machinery to truncate the emergence of good leaders in the state. Maku told the crowd that he would keep the machinery of the PDP to produce result-oriented leadership that would bring the desired change, peace and tranquility in the state. He said if the party would not correct the abnormalities of the just concluded governorship primaries and reverse the imposition of leaders who have questionable characters within one week, he would be left with no option than to defect to another party to pursue his aspiration.

Ishaku vows to boost Taraba economy

he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Taraba State and exMinister of State for Niger Delta Affairs, Mr. Darius Ishaku, has pledged to boost the state’s economy if elected in 2015. Ishaku made the pledge at a press conference at the weekend in Takum, shortly after a

reception in his honour by supporters and party faithful in the state. “Taraba is the most resourceful state in Nigeria due to its huge agricultural and mineral resources. “I want to assure you that coffee production alone can sustain the state’s economy, let alone the entire tea production potential.

News

WORLD | News

2015: INEC accepts Isiaka as Bankole kicks Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

he controversy surrounding the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State has been laid to rest following the recognition of Prince Gboyega Isiaka as the party’s flag bearer for the 2015 election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The state PDP chairman, Chief Adebayo Dayo, confirmed this at the weekend, saying the party’s national secretariat had already submitted Isiaka’s name to INEC.

Isiaka had emerged during the December 8 gubernatorial primaries, which was boycotted by nine governorship aspirants, including former House of Representatives Speaker, Dimeji Bankole. The gubernatorial primary election was held in defiance to the directive of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), which declared that a new date for the exercise would be announced. But Isiaka, who contested and lost the 2011 governorship on the platform of Peoples Party of Nigeria (PPN), polled 705 votes to emerge the PDP standard bearer at the gubernatorial pri-

maries held at the state secretariat of the party in Abeokuta. Speaking with New Telegraph yesterday, one of Isiaka’s media aides, Wale Junaid, said his principal’s candidature had been confirmed at INEC. Junaid added that the electoral body had already issued the necessary forms to Isiaka in line with the guidelines for the 2015 poll. Meanwhile, there are indications yesterday that loyalists of former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole, may pull out of the PDP following the submission of Isiaka’s name to INEC by the party’s national leadership.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Plane with 162 on board declared missing

n astonishingly tragic year for air travel in Southeast Asia turned worse yesterday when an AirAsia plane carrying 162 people disappeared over stormy Indonesian waters, with no word on its fate despite several hours of searching by air and sea. AirAsia Flight 8501 vanished in airspace possibly thick with dense storm clouds, strong winds and lightning on its way from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore. Searchers had to fight against heavy rain. The Malaysia-based carrier’s loss comes on top of the

still-unexplained disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine. At the Surabaya airport, shocked family members pored over the plane’s manifest, crying and embracing when they learned the news. Nias Adityas, a housewife from Surabaya, was overcome with grief when she found the name of her husband, Nanang Priowidodo, on the list. The 43-year-old tour agent had been taking a family of four on a trip to Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia’s Lom-

bok Island, and had been happy to get the work. “He just told me, ‘Praise God, this new year brings a lot of good fortune,’” Adityas recalled, holding her grandson tight while weeping uncontrollably. “He apologized because he could not join us for the New Year celebration.” Nearly all the passengers and crew are Indonesians, who are frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays. The Airbus A320 took off yesterday morning from Surabaya, Indonesia’s second-largest city, and was about halfway to Singapore when it vanished from radar.

Senate ticket: I won’t withdraw for Daniel, says Kashamu Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

he chairman, Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in South West, Prince Buruji Kashamu, yesterday vowed not to step down for former Governor Gbenga Daniel in the senatorial race for Ogun East zone in 2015. He spoke in Ijebu-Igbo following his endorsement by hundreds of delegates across the nine local government areas that constitute Ogun East Senatorial District. There had been speculations that the

PDP national leadership was making moves to replace the candidature of Kashamu after the controversy that trailed the party’s primaries in the state. Apart from Kashamu, wife of foremost Ijaw leader, Dr Bisola SodipoClark and former Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon. Waliu Taiwo, emerged the senatorial candidates for Ogun Central and Ogun West zones respectively. But addressing the senatorial delegates, Kashamu confirmed that there had been intense pressure on him to withdraw from the senatorial race.

The party chieftain disclosed that he had been attending series of meetings in Abuja to resolve certain contentious issues in the party. He added that some forces within the PDP were advocating “unity list” that would include aspirants that failed to participate in the party primaries. Kashamu, however, maintained that his emergence at the senatorial primaries held on December 7 followed due process and was in accordance with the guidelines by the party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

NUJ calls for free, fair election Muhammad Kabir Kano

he National President of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, (NUJ) Mallam Muhammad Garba, has war ned that reckless remarks by politicians and failure of INEC to conduct free and fair elections in 2015, might truncate the nation’s democracy.

He said hate speeches, attacks on personality rather than talking on issues and indeed the outcomes of the just concluded Primary elections across party platforms, which resulted to over 70 per cents of states today been in dispute, rejecting results are all indications that the democracy is really sick and something urgently need to be done.

Garba, told Journalists in Kano, that he has embarked on cautioning politicians to check their utterances against each other in the name of campaigning. He said 0often times, their arguments drift away from issues and resulted in overheating the polity. That, he said is gradually threatening the very foundation of the whole process.

Ibrahim said at the weekend that he was not at the said meeting and was wrong for anybody to have associated him with such adding that at the time of the meeting he was in Abuja and was not at any time part of such meeting. He said, “My attention has been drawn to the

meeting held by Mimiko with South West PDP where it was alleged that I attended the meeting. I want to make it clear that I was not at that meeting and it is wrong to use my name as one of the attendees. As at the time the purported meeting was held, I was in Abuja.”

AirAsia Airbus A320-200 passenger jets parked on the tarmac at low cost terminal KLIA2 in Sepang, Malaysia.

Egypt reduces sentences for 23 activists

n Egyptian appeals court reduced the jail terms yesterday for 23 young activists convicted of violating a law banning protests without a permit, judicial sources said. The arrest of the activists in June while they demonstrated against the law which tightly restricts protests was condemned by rights groups as a reflection of an increasingly repressive political climate in Egypt. Mass protests led

to the ousting of autocrat Hosni Mubarak in 2011 and were used to express discontent with Islamist President Mohamed Mursi, who was toppled by the army last year. Human rights groups have called the charges against the activists baseless and decried the case as an example of “showtrials” based on scant evidence and intended to warn citizens against defying government policies. “Though expected in the light of harsh and un-

fair sentences in similar cases, we are shocked and dismayed at how political and human rights activists are being punished in Egypt for peacefully expressing their views,” said Khaled Mansour, executive director of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights where one of the defendants, Yara Sallam, worked. Sallam, a 28-year-old lawyer, was not participating in the demonstration according to eyewitnesses, but was rounded up nearby and put on trial.

Airlift begins for passengers on burning Italian ferry Jimoh Ibrahim disowns Mimiko’s South West PDP ir crews began ing passengers off the was carrying almost 500

chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim, has dissociated himself from the meeting of the South West PDP which held in Akure Ondo State under the leadership of Governor Olusegun Mimiko of Ondo State.

lifting passengers off a burning ferry adrift in the Adriatic Sea yesterday, racing to rescue as many of the hundreds trapped on board as possible before nightfall as storms hampered seaborne operations. Helicopters were tak-

Italian-flagged Norman Atlantic in pairs and transferring them to a nearby vessel, officials said. There were no confirmed reports of casualties and differing accounts of how many people had been rescued from the ferry, which

passengers and crew when it sent a distress signal early yesterday after fire broke out on its lower deck. Greek authorities said 131 people were clear of the danger zone while an official said 150 had managed to get off the ship aboard a rescue boat.

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Sports News

Amokachi insists on Dec 30 for Eagles’ arrival

Chelsea, Man City held as Arsenal beat West Ham

Sport

International Sport

Did you know? That Blackburn leads the red card charts with an amazing 75 red cards

Ahmedu wants trust fund for ex-athletes Ifeanyi Ibeh

Oboabona

Oboabona yet to recover from AFCON miss

The Sport Team Adekunle Salami Deputy Editor, Sports

Emmanuel Tobi Assistant Editor, Sports

Ifeanyi Ibeh Sports Correspondent

Ajibade Olusesan Sports Correspondent

Charles Ogundiya Sports Correspondent

resident of FIBA Africa Zone-3, Colonel Samuel Ahmedu (rtd), has called on the various national sports federations in Nigeria to establish trust funds as a way of ensuring the wellbeing of some of their athletes long after their active days. A number of former Nigerian athletes have, in recent years, died from neglect or are currently living in penury, while some are afflicted with various illnesses. It has become commonplace to see some of these former star athletes begging for some form of aid on television screens or in newspapers. And it is such scenes that have led Ahmedu, also a former athlete, to call on sports federations in the country to establish a fund that would alleviate the sufferings of these sporting heroes. “We have lots of veterans that are roaming the streets and with no source of livelihood. We are not saying that we are going to totally take care of them, but if one of them is sick and needs an operation to stay alive, the fund

Ahmedu

should be able to take care of that,” said Ahmedu, in an interview with New Telegraph. “We are tired of hearing cases of former sportsmen and women dying every day. It is so sad that so many of them have died in recent times due to preventable ailments. “And these are people who have given so much to this country.” A lot of the more prominent former athletes who have died in recent times are mostly former footballers. “The NFF and all national sports federations should have trust funds,” he continued, before adding: “And it would be wonderful if the NFF can lead the way because they are the most visible of all the federations in the country,” he added.

Oboabona (right)

Emmanuel Tobi

uper Eagles and Rizespor of Turkey defender, Godfrey Oboabona, has revealed that he is yet to recover from the shock of Nigeria’s non qualification for the 2015 African Nations Cup in Equatorial Guinea. Speaking with New Telegraph on Tuesday, Oboabona who underwent a successful knee surgery in Turkey at the weekend, urged all stakeholders to help in the revival of Nigerian football. “It’s still like a dream that we will not be defending our trophy at the Nations Cup,

but it’s a great lesson to all of us. Sometimes things don’t just go the way you plan and that is not to say you didn’t put in much effort,” added the 24-year-old defender who scored three goals in 19 games last season. Coach Stephen Keshi and his wards finished in a disappointing third place in the Group A of the 2015 AFCON qualifiers after recording a 2-2 home draw against South Africa in their last match in Uyo. South Africa topped the group on 12 points while Congo Brazzaville

snatched the second ticket on 10 points following their 1-0 victory over Sudan in the last tie. Oboabona added: “In football, anything can happen. You might be up today, the next day you might find yourself at the bottom. After winning the 2013 AFCON, we were heroes who were celebrated everywhere. We got everything, but all that changed immediately we failed to qualify for the 2015 AFCON. That is life, but Nigerians should expect a brighter future starting from 2015.” The former Sunshine

Stars skipper who had a right knee meniscus tear and cartilage injury has however, vowed to bounce back stronger. “I’m grateful for all the love I received from my club officials, teammates and Nigerians for their concern about my injury, but I want to assure them I will be back soon, better and stronger,” he said. The versatile defender who has played eight games with a goal this season for Rizespor, is expected to be back in training at the end of January 2015.

SPORT

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

Second league goal thrills Ogu Ifeanyi Ibeh

rable day for the Nigeria international. Earlier on Saturday night, Ogu took to Twitter and posted: “Happy to have scored and also getting the three points but gutted to have been sent off and will miss the game against MTV.” And he told New Telegraph, on Sunday, that he is now focused on working hard to continue in his rich vein of form when he returns to action after serving his suspension. “I have been looking to

apoel Beersheba midfielder, John Ogu, is happy to have scored his second goal for his Israeli club in Saturday’s 2-1 win over Hapoel Petah Tikva, although he was to later receive his first red card since moving to Israel. Ogu, who joined the team at the start of the season from Portuguese first division outfit, Academica de Coimbra, opened scoring for Beersheba in the 16th minute, powering home a header from a corner kick, much to the delight of the home fans at the Vasermil Stadium. Siraj Nasser made it 2-0 for Beersheba 11 minutes later before the visitors pulled a goal back in the 32nd minute. That was how the scoreline remained to the very end with the win pushing Beersheba up to second spot on the log standings after 15 rounds of matches. But with only seconds to the end of the game, Ogu was sent off for a second bookable offence to mark a truly memo- Ogu

score for some time now but the goalkeepers, and sometimes the post, have prevented me from doing that. So I was very happy to have finally scored my second goal last Saturday. “I am only sad that I got sent off and will not get to play against Maccabi but I will continue to work hard to make sure I get to score more goals and hopefully, get the attention of the national team selectors,” added Ogu, who has not featured for the Super Eagles in close to a year.

Ajibade Olusesan

frica Table Tennis Federation President, Khaled El-Salhy, believes competition will be stern between Nigeria and Egypt when the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) Africa Senior Championships serves off in Cairo next year January. Nigeria and Egypt have always dominated the competition. In 1985 in Alexandria and three years later in Lagos, Nigeria completed a clean sweep of titles; in 2004 in Mauritius, Egypt did exactly the same. But the ATTF boss said that it would be difficult for any country to enjoy such dominance at the tournament scheduled to hold between January 23 and 29. “I believe it will be diffi-

uper Eagles assistant coach, Daniel Amokachi, has warned that all invited home based stars for the friendlies against Cote D’Ivoire and Sudan must report to their Bolton White Apartment, Abuja camp on, December 30, 2014. Team Administrator, Dayo Enebi said, “We have done a press release from the NFF to that effect but we must again re-emphasise that the team will come together

cult for any country in Africa to dominate the tournament this year, owing to the high level of competition and close standard between the trio of Nigeria, Congo Brazzaville and Egypt”, said El-Salhy. He however tipped Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri to be the star of the tournament saying the confidence level of the world’s number 31 could reach skyhigh if he is eventually voted the World Player of the Year at the ITTF Star Award event in Dubai, UAE on January 7. “For sure, Quadri’s presence in Egypt will raise the level of competition in all the events. I am sure Quadri is planning to improve his standard and ranking in the New Year, just like all other competitors from Egypt and Congo Brazzaville,” he said.

Esele targets more glory in Vietnam

Amokachi insists on Dec 30 for Eagles’ arrival ceremony in the Enugu State lAs Uzoenyi quits bachelorhood sive capital. Charles Ogundiya

Africa Table Tennis: ATTF boss tips Nigeria, Egypt

by January 30th and all players and officials must take note.” Meanwhile, it was another memorable time for the national team at the weekend, as former Rangers International of Enugu winger and the MVP of the last CHAN tourney in South Africa, Ejike Uzoenyi, who now plays for a South African top side Memolodi Sundowns walked down the aisle in Enugu. He took his wife, Chioma Loveth Uzoenyi to the alter at an impres-

The NFF was well represented with Chidi Nwantu, Dayo Enebi, Barr Okey Obi and national team coordinator, Emmanuel Atta, in attendance. “It was an impressive ceremony and the NFF will continue to support its players who want to move to the next level as this is the second wedding within a week and we are happy that our players are taking the responsibility route”, Enebi quoted the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick as saying.

ours after helping Becamex Binh Duong to a Vietnam Super Cup title, Nigerian born goalkeeper Theophilus Esele says he is hungry for more at the ambitious team. The 30-year-old goal minder kept a clean sheet as the V-League defending champions secured 1-0 win against Hai Phong at the Go Dau Stadium. He told SL10.ng that winning is a part of him. “I am a winner. Everywhere I go, I try to win something and this victory feels really good. I give all the glory to

God, my team mates, my family and the club fans.” The title is Esele’s second in the Asian country and he has now set his sights on the league which is scheduled to get underway by January 4, 2015. In the first round of matches, the defending champions will face Dong Thap. “We have to take each game as it comes, but we are not going into the new season to make up the numbers. Our target is to retain the league trophy and by the grace of God, we will,” said the goal minder.

Esele

countdown to 2015 AFCON

Tunisia coach invites Mohsni

Furman doubtful for Zambia clash

afana Bafana captain Dean Furman could miss the friendly against Zambia on January 4 due to his club commitments with English side Doncaster Rovers. Bafana will play the Copper Bullets as part of their preparations for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, taking place in Equatorial Guinea from January 17 to February 8. However, Furman will only be arriving in South Africa on the day of the match as Doncaster are in action over the festive period. Bafana started a mini training camp on Friday, with 27 players of the 34-man squad reporting for national team duty in Johannesburg. All the overseas-based players are yet to arrive as they still have matches for their respective clubs.

unisia coach Georges Leekens has named Glasgow Rangers defender Bilel Mohsni in his 26man provisional squad for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea. France-born Mohsni, 27, who made his international debut for Tunisia in a friendly against South Korea in June, is now in line for a Na-

tions Cup debut. The 2004 African champions are in Group B with Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Cape Verde for the finals. Uncapped Lens striker Yohan Tozghar has also been included, while former Germany youth international Anis Ben Hatira has been handed a recall to the Carthage Eagles squad announced on Saturday.

Injury boost for Ghana

Furman

efender John Boye returned to first team action in Kayseri Erciyesspor’s 3-1 defeat at Istanbul Basaksehir to give Ghana a boost ahead of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. The 27-year-old has been out for almost two weeks with a muscle problem. Boye’s latest injury

setback threatened to rob him off a place in Ghana’s final squad for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations to be staged in Equatorial Guinea. But the former Rennes man returned to action for his club in the Turkish top flight game played on Saturday.

Boye came on as a 78th minute substitute but was unable to help his team avoid defeat. His return to action is a major boost to Ghana as it shows he has fully recovered from the injury he picked up a couple of weeks ago. Boye will join up with the Black Stars team when they arrive in Spain for their pre-Nations Cup camp.

International Sport 53

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Chelsea, Man City held as Arsenal beat West Ham

helsea were held to a 1-1 draw at Southampton as their three-match winning run came to an end.

Southampton took the lead on 17 minutes when Sadio Mane lifted the ball over Thibaut Courtois, but the Blues hit back through Eden Hazard

Transfer News

Juventus close to Shaqiri deal

uventusareclosetosigningXherdanShaqiri JGermany. fromBayernMunichaccordingtoSkySport

The Swiss international has struggled for playing time at the German champions and is said to be pushing for a move away in January. Sky Sport Germany reported that Juventus are close to completing a deal for the 23-year old playmaker. An initial move would see the Bianconeri take the player on loan for 6 months with an option to buy outright in the summer for a figure believed to be close to €20m.

Man Utd to swap Chicharito for Rami

anchester United are set to sacM rifice striker Javier Chicharito in shock swap deal for AC Milan defender,

Adil Rami. The Mexican striker is expected to return to Old Trafford at the end of his season-long loan spell at Real Madrid after failing to earn a regular spot in Carlo Ancelotti’s first team. However, Hernandez is likely to be sold by United boss Louis van Gaal in the summer with AC Milan reportedly monitoring his uncertain situation. The Italian giants are scouring the market for new strikers in a bid to restore the club to their former glory. Milan could act on their interest in Hernandez but are likely to face a dilemma with United weighing up a move for Rami.

Liverpool offer Borini for Onazi

rendan Rodgers has moved swiftly to B bolster his struggling squad after offering Italian flop Fabio Borini as part of a

deal to sign Lazio midfielder Ogenyi Onazi. The reds are currently struggling to replicate the impressive form that guided them to a second-place finish last season despite a summer spending spree of over £100m. The club’s hierarchy are once again willing to hand Rodgers cash to save their season, and Onazi is said to be one of the Northern Irishman’s top transfer targets.

goal in first-half stoppage time. The Blues pressed for a winner and Saints lost Morgan Schneiderlin to a second yellow card in the final minutes, but they held firm to frustrate Jose Mourinho’s men. That result would have allowed Manchester City to close within a point of the Blues at the top of the table, but they threw away a two-goal lead in a 2-2 draw with Burnley at the Etihad Stadium. David Silva opened the scoring as he swiv-

elled in the box before slotting home, and Fernandinho doubled their advantage with a stunning strike from the edge of the area. However, Burnley hit back through George Boyd shortly after the start of the second half, and Ashley Barnes fired them level on 81 minutes as City’s run of nine successive wins in all competitions came to a shock end. Arsenal held on for a 2-1 win over West Ham United that took them level on points with fourthplaced Southampton.

I would Mourinho angry at penalty ‘scandal’ Federer: have quit tennis

helsea manager Jose Mourinho said the decision not to award his side a penalty during their 1-1 draw with Southampton was a “scandal”. Cesc Fabregas went down in the area under Matt Targett’s challenge and was booked for diving on 55 minutes. In an angry post-match interview, Mourinho told BBC Sport: “In other countries this is front-page news because it’s an absolute scandal.” He also felt there was a campaign of putting pressure on referees. “The media, the commentators, the other managers, they are all doing it,” he added. Referee Anthony Taylor deemed Chelsea midfielder Fabregas to have taken a dive under pressure from Targett, but there appeared to be contact from the 19-year-old full-back.

n-loan Roma defender Mapou YangaMbiwa is close to sealing a permanent O switch to the club from Newcastle.

Lila confirms Parma transfer

lbania international Andi Lila has confirmedhisimminentmovetoParmafrom Greek club PAS Giannina. “I want every time the PAS fans think of Andi Lila for it to be a pleasant memory,” he told Gazzetta.gr. “This is the perfect ending to my story here in Greece. Now this is anewadventure.I’llhaveathreeandahalfyearcontractwithParma and I’m very happy. “PASGianninahadproblemswithunpaidwagesandthetransfer to Parma resolves those issues. I can also help the club in future, seeing as they’ll get 25 per cent of any future sale.”

Mourinho

Fabregas, who protested against the decision not to award him a penalty following the challenge said: “There was definitely a contact, the referee didn’t have the best game of his life and I don’t think he will sleep that well tonight, he had an awful game.”

Van Gaal blasts wasteful Man Utd

Yanga-Mbiwa close to permanent Roma switch

The 25-year-old French international has convinced the club with his performances when stepping in this season, and is close to activating a clause that will see him call Roma his permanent home. Sky Sport Italia report that Yanga-Mbiwa has a clause in his contract whereby when he makes 20 appearances for the club, they have an obligation to purchase him for €7 million. Yanga-Mbiwa currently has 16 appearances in all competitions for the Giallorossi this season, and should rack up the requisite amount by the end of next month.

Hazard (left)

van Gaal

ouis van Gaal rued poor finishing from Manchester United that ensured they had to settle for a goalless draw at Tottenham on Sunday. United dominated the first half at White Hart Lane, but a combination of a lack of composure in front of goal and fine saves from Hugo Lloris

ensured they were unable to find the net. He said: “You need a little fortune, because Tottenham could also score in the second half. “When you play against a top-six club at White Hart Lane and you create six to eight chances, and open chances, then you have to finish that. But you don’t reward yourself, then normally the opponent win. “You could see in the second half it was not football anymore, it was a struggle for life. Tottenham won the second balls and that’s why they were more dominating than Manchester in the second half.”

Roma,Sampdoria chase unknown Nigerian midfielder Charles Ogundiya

atest reports emanating from Italy reveal that Serie A clubs Roma and Sampdoria are chasing young Nigerian midfielder, Chika Ezeh. The 23-year-old plays in the Swedish third division and only started his professional career in 2012, but his performances for Skelleftea and previously Valsta Syrianska have alerted not only the Giallorossi, but also Lazio,

Sampdoria and Sporting Lisbon. “Yes, I’d like [to come to Italy], I love Italy,” the youngster told Sky Sport Italia. “My absolute role model is Fernando Torres, he is my idol and I will never forget his goal against Liverpool. “I also like [Nwankwo] Kanu and [Stephan] El Shaarawy.” Ezeh has made a total of 49 appearances in his professional career and has nine goals to his name, seven of which have come this calendar year.

oger Federer has said that he might have quit playing tennis if he was playing his matches on smaller courts. In an interview with BBC’s Today show hosted by John Bercow, who is also the Speaker of House of Commons in Britain, Federer stated that it would have been quite difficult for him to play on smaller courts with small crowd after playing on all the best tennis courts and in front of huge crowds around the world. The world number two said, “I definitely am fortunate to always be playing on Centre Court and very often prime time. I must say—and this is honest—I don’t know if I would still be playing if they would put me on Court 4 every day.”

RESULTS English Premier League Tottenham 0 – 0 Man Utd Southampton 1 – 1 Chelsea Aston Villa 0 – 0 Sunderland Hull City 0 – 1 Leicester Man City 2 – 2 Burnley QPR 0 – 0 Crystal Palace Stoke City 2 – 0 West Brom West Ham 1 – 2 Arsenal Newcastle 3 – 2 Everton

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE Team P GD 1 Chelsea 19 27 2 Man City 19 24 3 Man Utd 19 14 4 S’ampton 19 17 5 Arsenal 19 11 6 West Ham 19 7

Pts 46 43 36 33 33 31

7 Tottenham 8 Swansea 9 Newcastle 10 Liverpool 11 Stoke 12 Everton 13 Aston Villa 14 Sunderland 15 QPR 16 West Brom 17 Hull 18 C/Palace 19 Burnley 20 Leicester

31 28 26 25 25 21 21 20 18 17 16 16 16 13

19 18 19 18 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19 19

0 4 -6 -2 -2 -2 -11 -11 -13 -10 -8

-10 -15 -14

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014 NEW TELEGRAPH

NEW TELEGRAPH MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

Sanctity of Truth

On Marble

World Record

One of the keys to happiness is a bad memory.

– Rita Mae Brown

NIGERIA’S MOST AUTHORITATIVE NEWSPAPER IN POLITICS AND BUSINESS

Leisure & Puzzle }44

MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2014

N150

Nigeria: A total solar eclipse occurred on May 20, 1947. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby totally or partly obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth.

The believer’s creed

ring light where there is darkness, joy where there is pain, hope where there is despair and respite where there is suffering. Fear not the mighty, be strong and confident in all circumstances, uphold the truth and defend the weak. Fight the power, bow to no man, stand firm on your convictions and resist the evil. Watch and pray, have faith in God, hold your head up high and fight the good fight. This is the creed of the believer: the obligation and calling of the Sons and Daughters of Zion. Yet, we still have so much to learn. Consider the following. We live in an interesting world with interesting people. We only have one life so we must live it to the fullest. Trust and love God, hold on to your dreams, be faithful to your convictions and do as much good as you possibly can to all those around you. Do not be arrogant or forceful, but at the same time bow to no man and let none intimidate you. Know who you are and where you are in the scheme of things: you are a child of the Living God, dedicated and covenanted to Him alone even before you left your mother’s womb. He is your God and your strength, He is awesome in battle and true to His word and He will not allow you to fail, to fall or to be ashamed. He has a mission and a purpose for you in this difficult, lonely and oftentimes cruel world. The challenge is to identify that purpose and to fulfill it in a glorious way. Yet, despite the ugly storms of life, let your resolve be strong: to live for God and to be a blessing to all those around you. And if nothing else, remember this: that He loves you, that you are very special to Him and that you are destined to succeed. So take hold of your beautiful destiny and espouse it’s great promise to the fullest. Let it be for you as it was written in the Holy Books before the oracles of time. Let courage, truth and honor be your armor. Let praise, love, faith and compassion be your banner. Let the earth, the wind, the water, the fire and all the elemental forces of the cosmos confirm your greatness and protect your precious soul. Let the Lion of the Tribe of Judah watch over you. Let the Seven-fold Spirit of the Most High God defend you. Let the Holy Angels that guard the seven seas and the four corners of the earth fight for you. Let all of creation bow before you and let He that is more than able, He that sits above the circles of the earth, He that is known as Yeshua, the Son of the Living God be with you all the days of your life. And who is this infallible God whose name we consistently invoke? Who is this mighty Lord in whom we believe and whom we exalt and worship morning, night and day? Who is this all-powerful deity that is our strength, on whose name we stand and in whom we make our boast? He is the God of the Holy Bible: the giver of life. He is the Holy One of Israel whose coming was prophesied for thousands of years by the Prophets before it came to pass. He is He that humbled Himself and shed His divinity: who came down as God incarnate in the flesh.

Crossfire FEMI FANI-KAYODE ffk2011@aol.com

Okogie

Adeboye

Who suffered on the cross under Pontius Pilot, who shed His blood, who gave up His life as a living sacrifice for our sins, who went down into hell and overcame satan and the principalities and powers, who rose again, who ascended into Heaven and who sits at the right hand of God the Father. He is He whose Holy Spirit guides, leads, protects and fights for us on earth today. He is He who holds the universe together by the power of His word. He is He that is high and lifted up, whose train fills the Temple and whose love has no end. He is He that is more than able and whose Kingdom shall reign forever. He is He that makes all things beautiful in His own way and in His own time. He is the Spoiler of our adversaries, our Advocate, our Defender and our Judge. He is the Man of War, the Avenger of our Blood, The Ancient of Days, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Lord of Hosts, the Comforter, the Consuming Fire, the

Alpha and the Omega, the Creator of all that is, the Prince of Peace, the Lily of the Valley, the Rose of Sharon, the Balm of Gilead, the Blood of the Sprinkling, the Rejected Stone that became the Cornerstone, the Nazarene, the Conqueror of Satan and the Great Provider. He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith, the Lifter of our Heads, our Shield and our Glory. He is our Father who is filled with love, who guards us jealously and who never fails. He is the Lord of the Universe, the Lord of the 24 Elders that sit before Him in His heavenly throne room. He is the Lord of the Angels and the Archangels, the Lord of the Cherubim and the Seraphim and He is the King of Glory. Who is this King of Glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle, He is the King of Glory. His name is Jehova Sabaoth, Jehova Rapha, Yahweh God and the I Am That I Am. He is irresistable and unfathomable. He is the God of the Armies of Israel and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the All-Seeing and the AllKnowing. He is the Compassionate and the Merciful: the Adonai, the Elohim. He is the Lamb of God, the Risen King, the one and only Messiah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He is Yeshua: Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Son of the Living God. We are created for His pleasure, He delights for us to prosper, He displays His splendor, glory and majesty in our lives and besides Him there is no God. To those that know and trust Him and that believe in Him I have this to say: He will guide you and protect you through this year and beyond. He will make his face to shine upon you. Your feet shall not slip and neither shall you suffer want. You shall live long and prosper and

Let the Lion of the Tribe of Judah watch over you. Let the Seven-fold Spirit of the Most High God defend you

your joy shall be full. You shall not be cut short because long life is your portion. The Lord shall give you the fat of the land and a place of honor in the land. You shall increase. The Lord shall enlarge your coast and he shall exalt your horn. The seductions and evil of this world will not overwhelm you and neither will they consume you. The Lord shall guide you in all your ways and deliver you from the hands of the wicked one and his agents. You shall rise up to greater heights than you can possibly imagine and neither shall you ever suffer want, shame or defeat. Before your very eyes you shall see the recompense of the wicked and those that seek your hurt and wish you to go astray. You will excel in your work and studies and the Lord will grant you joy everlasting. Because you have honored Him in all your ways your days will be long and His blessing shall never depart from you. The love of God and his grace and mercy shall walk with you all the days of your life and his angels shall guard you jealously both night and day. May God bless and keep you now and always and may this year and beyond be great in your life and in your family. You are simply wonderful; a great blessing from a great God. You will never be ashamed but rather like a well-watered garden, you will be fruitful and productive. You will flourish forever and neither shall your leaves ever wither. Your pockets shall never run dry for the Lord will grant you plenty and he will cause rivers to flow through your desert places. His precious anointing and Holy Spirit shall never depart from you and his peace and favor shall cover you all the days of your life. I soak your body, spirit and soul in the precious blood of the sprinkling; the blood of the Holy one of Israel, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ of Nazareth, son of the Living God. I commit you into the hands and power of the God of Heaven and into the presence and power of he who came down as God incarnate in the flesh. May the deep mysteries of his precious blood speak for you at the gates and fight for you in every circumstance touching and concerning your life. Go forth into the world and the new year boldly with your head held up high knowing who you are and knowing that you serve a mighty God. Because of him you are safe and sound and you cannot be defeated. Because of him everything that you set your hands to do that is in accordance with his will , shall meet with good success. Give him the praise and glory in all things and remember always that He loves you more than life itself. God bless and keep you and all that is yours now and always. We serve a mighty God so go forth into the world in his strength and in his power. Take dominion and conquer, be courageous and be strong and most important of all be thankful and be happy: for in the end he makes all things beautiful. Faithful, mighty and true, that is his name. Have a great year and may God be with you and yours now and always.

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