Sunday, september 11, 2016

Amnesty: We’re Aware Ex-militants reject Nigeria is in agric training trouble -CBN lIt’s crazy to say Jonathan sponsors Avengers -IJC }4,26&31

lEconomy’ll take time to

improve, Atiku says

SUNDAY Sunday, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 Vol. 3 No. 935

}6&13

Sanctity of Truth

/newtelegraph

@newtelegraph1 www.newtelegraphonline.com

N150

DAME PATIENCE TO COURT

N13.31 BILLION in efcc’s frozen accounts is mine }4

Funny, Successful & still single }41

NEWS

I’ve never had sexual urge }34 -Pastor Chris Onitsha Massacre: Posterity’ll judge Obiano, IPOB says }5

8,000 MERCENARIES: Oshiomhole, a pathological lair - PDP ...I stand by my allegation, Edo gov lNigeria lost N3 billion to the poll shift }3 lLoss unquantifiable –INEC lElectoral umpire to reprint sensitive materials lPolitical parties return to drawing board }31

2

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Contents | 11.09.16 BODY & SOUL

Noble cause The CEO of Rubies Ink Initiative for Women and Children, Esther Ijewere Kalejaiye, who won the 2016 Young Person of the Year Award, uses her platform to speak out against rape and injustice against women

}17

POLITICS

Ondo APC: A divided house Allegations of fraud, bribery and hard feelings have continued to trail the primary of the All Progressives Congress in Ondo State one week after. What really went wrong?

}21

BUSINESS

Sallah spending Management of Nigeria Maritime Academy, Oron, are on a war path over a ministerial embargo on spending of N3 billion recently released to the institution by NIMASA

}43

FAITH

SPORT

Adeboye

You may not ever know that Daddy GO, as the General Overseer of the Redeem Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, is fondly called, was once a photographer.

The occasion of his wedding anniversary offers an opportunity to reveal some facts about the man of God

}32

'I can’t dump Watford now' Super Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo, says he cannot dump his English Premier League club, Watford FC, as it was the club that gave him the opportunity to rise to the top in world soccer

}29

Magazine

Underarm practices Motorists accuse LASTMA officials of illegally collecting 'caution fees' from traffic offenders - a claim vehemently denied by the Authority

}8&9

SUNDAY

Editorial

A

Let justice prevail

ttorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, was quoted in several media reports on Wednesday as having directed certain agencies of government to transfer their litigations to what he termed as a National Prosecution Coordination Committee (NPCC) to handle.

These agencies include the Nigeria Police Force, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Department of State Security and Federal Inland Revenue Service.

The minister's order indicated that the NPCC would henceforth handle such 'high-profile' cases with what looks like an overriding mandate. Thus, according to the reports, these agencies would have to hands off these cases.

The AGF had reportedly given the order of transfer during a meeting with the various agencies in his office with a view to briefing them on the exigency and existence of the committee and to fashion out a working synergy between the committee and the agencies.

A statement issued in Abuja by the committee’s Head of Communication and Public Affairs, Salihu Othman Isah, had explained that a high profile case must have overriding public interest elements.

There is an interesting catch: It is the AGF who will determine what case is tagged 'high-profile.'

The statement quoted Malami as saying that sometimes, the quantum of value of a case and its sensitivity also influence whether a case is a high profile matter or not. According to him, members of the committee are mainly his aides as well as eight external members selected on the basis of experience and expertise, stressing that, heads of agencies are not part of the NPCC due to their busy schedules.

The minister also hinted that the intention is not to distract the heads of these agencies, but rather to engender smooth synergy between the committee and the agencies.

Special Assistant to the President on Coordination and International Affairs under the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Pius Oteh, disclosed that beyond the synergy and partnership between all concerned, a robust interface between the agencies was necessary, pointing out that the agencies should take their mandate seriously for a more vigorous and efficient prosecution.

He also opined that when it comes to delay in the justice system, every stakeholder has a responsibility, stressing that,

it was a cost cutting issue in which all key players share responsibilities vis-a-vis the judiciary, prosecutors, investigators and even defence counsels, assuring that, when everyone does their bit, a more efficient and humane criminal justice system will be attained.

Therefore, cases at the federal, state and local government levels will now be determined by the AGF, a coterie of aides and handpicked nominees who will clearly do his bidding.

This is clearly an affront on the rule of law and statutes establishing these agencies. It also seems to make the AGF more powerful than the 1999 Constitution (as amended). Although the AGF is the chief law officer of the federation, he is in clear breach of his mandate. Each state has an Attorney-General and a Commissioner for Justice and as such, Malami cannot take over their powers. There are cases being handled by the Nigerian Police Force, for instance, that fall under the purview of the states. Would Malami therefore take over these cases under the cover of this committee?

How would this committee handle cases where the Federal Government is an interested party? There is the case of alleged forgery of Senate rules preferred against the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki; his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu; former Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa; and sitting Clerk of the Senate, Benedict Efeturi. This is a case upon which the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Lawal Babachir, made remarks that were clearly subjudice. His remarks in a press statement and in a briefing with reporters in Yola, Adamawa State betrayed the likelihood of a special interest in the case by unknown forces in the Presidency.

Another angle to this strange development is the interest of the SGF in these 'high-profile' cases. We dare to ask when it became standard practice for government officials to segregate cases. It is also an insult to Nigerians who elected this government, for it to now adopt a narrow view of prosecuting cases. It is trite law that all men (and women) are equal before the law. Therefore, to tag certain cases as 'high-profile' raises suspicion about the real intent behind the action. It is interesting to note that among the cases being referred to this aberration called NPCC are those involving Nigerians whose matters are before competent courts. Some of them have, for instance, sought judicial remedy to the government's refusal to obey orders of different courts granting them bail.

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

Funke Egbemode

Managing Editor, Business & Strategy n Yemi Ajayi

Managing Editor, Publication & Operations n Emeka Obasi

Managing Editor, South n Emeka Madunagu Managing Editor, North & Abuja n Laurence Ani (Leave of Absence)

Editor n Ayodele Ojo Editor, Sunday n Juliet Bumah Editor, Saturday n Waheed Bakare Deputy Editor n Tunde Sulaiman

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3

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Oshiomhole’s a pathological liar - PDP he Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Delta State Government have come down hard on Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, describing his allegation of planned rigging of the suspended governorship election in the state with 8,000 militants as “fit only for kindergarten’s tales by moonlight.”

Oshiomhole had, while playing host to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris at Government House Benin City on Friday, accused South-South governors of plotting to rig the election with the aid of 8, 000 militants.

He said: “Our opponents, unable to find local thugs to help them perpetrate violence which they have done between 1999 and 2007 when I took over, resorted to liaising with my brothers in the sub-region, Delta and Rivers, in particular, to export criminals and militants into Edo State in order to make peaceful election impossible.”

But the PDP National Secretariat described him as a “pathological liar” who should not be taken seriously, while Delta State Government in its response said it “is consistent with Onwuka Nzeshi and Onyekachi Eze ABUJA

Edo Poll: Nigeria loses N3 billion to postponement

T

O

ver N3 billion may have gone down the drain, following the postponement of the governorship election earlier scheduled to take place yesterday. The massive financial loss, which came amidst the economic recession in the country, represents the costs the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) may have incurred in the course of preparing for the poll. It also encompasses the losses the various political parties would have incurred in the course of their electioneering campaigns.

The governorship election, which saw the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) heading for an epic battle’ was postponed at the last minute following security reports alleging that there were serious threats to peace in Edo State. The Police and the Department of State Services (DSS) had, last Wednesday, advised INEC to postpone the election owing to security concerns. The two security organisations said their advice was predicated on available intelligence indicating that there were some

mation, Mr. Patrick Ukah, said the allegation was baseless, unfounded, spurious and tendentious, adding: “We vehemently reject this accusation as alarmist in conception, reckless in delivery, puerile in content and false in facts and, so, fit only for kindergarten’s tales by moonlight. Governor Okowa is a peace loving Nigerian who has never and will not engage in any activity inimical to law and order.”

PDP Edo State chapter also did not spare Oshiom-

hole either, as its chairman, Chief Dan Osi Orbih said the governor has “penchant for making unsubstantiated allegations.”

Orbih noted that such allegation smacked of serious indictment on the nation’s security agencies for such number of illegal group to walk into Edo State undetected.

“I find it disgusting that the governor could indict security agencies in the manner he has just done.

I mean it is serious indictment on the security agen-

his (Oshiomhole’s) favourite pastime of heating up the polity with unguarded utterances and wild allegations.”

Prince Dayo Adeyeye, PDP National Publicity Secretary said in an interview on Saturday that Oshiomhole was doing everything to prevent his humiliation in the election.

“It is a lie. How do you register militants? Everybody in Edo knows that it is a lie. He is a man that cannot be taken seriously.

You remember that it is the same Oshiomhole that said he heard in America that one minister alone has $6 billion in his account. The American Embassy had to refute it.

“If a governor is lying like that it belittles the office, it is a shame. It is a big shame to him and his party. He should not be taken seriously. He is a pathological liar; he is just doing everything to prevent his humiliation in the election,” he said.

Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communication, Austin Tim-George, also described as untrue and fallacious, allegations that Governor Nyesom Wike donated the sum of N2billion to the Edo PDP, saying that it was a figment of their imaginations.

Also the Delta State Government in a statement by the Commissioner for Infor-

Onyekachi Eze, Gabriel Efeduku and Cajetan Mmuta

nobody can carry in a briefcase.

“The only way to do that is through electronic transfer. As far as I know, our accounts are there for everyone to see. We have not received any contribution of even N2 million from any governor.

“I challenge him to show evidence of his claims because each time I accuse him of fraud, I always come out with government vouchers signed by him to substantiate whatever I said.”

A cross-section of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) at Dalori IDPs Camp during the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Aisha Alhassan’s visit to the United Nation Population Fund’s ‘Save Space For Women And Girls’ Centre in the IDPs Camp in Maduguri, Bornu State…yesterday. PHOTO:NAN

•Loss is unquantifiable - INEC plans by some extremist groups to attack vulnerable communities and cause mayhem during the Muslim festival of Eid- el Kabir.

Sunday Telegraph gathered that the postponement would certainly have some serious financial implications for INEC as the electoral umpire would have to return to the drawing board in terms of re-producing both sensitive and non- sensitive materials needed for the election, espcially those that had specific dates on them.

INEC is also considering the re- configuration of the smart card readers which were initially programmed to accredit voters on Saturday, September 10, 2016.

A source conversant with the conduct of elections at the state level disclosed that at every election, billions of naira are expended by INEC on sundry items and when such an election fails, it was usually a colossal loss.

The source told one of our correspondents that while INEC might not want to go public with its budget, the failed Edo governorship poll must have gulped an es-

cies to say that 8000 militants could quietly walk into Edo from Port Harcourt and Delta State without being detected.

“I see this allegation as a pointer to the fact that the governor is an incurable liar. He has gone further to accuse governors of Rivers and Delta states of providing a N2 billion donation.

He is talking as if he is talking to a gathering of illiterates,” he wondered.

Chief Orbih noted that “N2 billion is not N2 million nor N20, 000,” which

timated N3 billion given all the logistics the electoral umpire had executed before the security alert was released.

He also confided in Sunday Telegraph that what happened in Edo State in respect of the postponement may not be unconnected with the desperation by the ruling party to win the election and retain the state at all costs.

“Nigerian politics is politics of power accumulation and not politics for the development of the people and society. It (postponement) is an old strategy that ruling power uses to wear out the opposition. In Nigeria, election costs money and it is assumed that the party in power would have a larger war chest and would want to outspend the opposition.

They have simply allowed the opposition to throw in all they have into the battle and just as they were about to reap from the momentum already created, they called off the race.

“During every election in a state, the highest decision making body is the Inter Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security

(ICCES) which is co- chaired by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) and the Commissioner of Police (CP) of the state. The body is made up of representatives of the Nigeria Police, Department of State Services (DSS), Nigeria Army, Nigeria Navy and Nigeria Airforce. Others include tbe National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA ), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps ( NSCDC), Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Nigeria Immigration Service as well as the Nigeria Customs Service.

“When it is one month to an election, this body is supposed to meet at least twice every week to review the level of preparedness of INEC as well as the readiness of security agencies for the election. Does it mean they have not been holding meetings? Why did they wait till the last minute before issuing the security advice? Your guess is as good as mine,” he said.

However, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has described the losses it incurred owing

to the postponement of the governorship election in Edo State as unquantifiable.

The election was put forward by two weeks at the last minutes based on security advice by the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Nigeria Police (NPF) on suspected terrorists’ attack on some states in the country including Edo. INEC had declared it would to go ahead with the election, claiming that it had already attained about 97 per cent preparation. The commission later succumbed to pressure on Thursday, less than 30 hours to the election day.

Deputy Director, Voter Education and Publicity (VEP), Mr. Nick Dazang, told Sunday Telegraph that the commission has not been able to compute what it has lost by the sudden postponement.

“You cannot put an exact figure to the cost because we have paid allowances to our staff. That means you have to pay these allowances for the election (again). And then we even have to do a fresher (course) for the ad hoc staff.

“Then, of course, you know some of the election materials bear the date of the last date we had resched-

uled. So we have to print another materials to agree with the new date. These are the areas. In terms of naira and kobo, I cannot give the exact figure now. That is on the part of INEC. “On the part of observers, you know they were already on the ground, they have to go back again. Journalists that came in outside Edo, they will now come in again.

Not to talk of political parties because they need to sustain their campaigns,” he stated.

On how the commission intend to recoup the cost and plan again, Dazang explained that the commission normally make contingencies for such incidents, adding that whenever such happens, INEC would go to the National Assembly for supplementary budget.

He, however, said the loss won’t be up to N1billion but wouldn’t want to speculate.

On how much it cost INEC to conduct previous state election, Dazang said, “Budget is drawn and approvals are made for different expenses. I’m not in the office, I would have looked at previous approvals to have an idea. And I don’t want us to speculate on the figures,” he stated.

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SUNDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

NEWS

Amnesty: Ex-militants reject agric training •Say oil production has destroyed farmlands

E

Paul Ogbuokiri x-militant leaders in the Niger-Delta region have described the pur-

ported plan by the Federal Government to train no fewer than 500 ex-militants in agriculture and aquaculture, as a Greek gift. They said the Niger-Delta region

has lost its farmland to pollution caused by years of oil production in the region.

They wondered where the Federal Government wants the trained farmers to get

land to practice farming when they complete their training.

They further said that the plan will not do the ex-militants any good and would

L-R: Chairman Festival Advisory Committee, High Chief Adekola Adeyeye; HRH, Oba Idowu Adediwura Babatunde; representative of Osun State Governor, Dr. Charles Akinola and the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, during the Olojo Festival Logo Unveiling by the Ooni at the Oonirisa’s Palace, Ile-Ife, Osun State…at the weekend

Dame Patience lays claim to frozen N13.31bn

F

ormer First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, is claiming ownership of the $31.4 million involved in an alleged fraud case before a Federal High Court in Lagos.

The naira value of the money at the inter-bank rate of N310/dollar on Saturday was put at N9.73 billion and N13.31 billion at the parallel market rate of N424/dollar.

Counsel to the first defendant in charge, with case number FHC/337C/16, Mr. Gboyega Oduwole, informed the court that Mrs. Jonathan filed a funda-

mental application against the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), claiming ownership of the money.

The EFCC had taken former presidential aide, Amajuoyi Azubike Briggs; former Skye Bank official, Damola Bolodeoku; Pluto Property and Investment Company Limited and Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited to court in an alleged $31.4 million fraud involving the companies without addresses.

Others also charged include Seagate Property De-

velopment and Investment Company Limited; Trans Ocean Property and Investment Company Limited, Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited and Globus Integrated Services Limited.

According to an application filed on September 6, 2016 with file number FHC/L/C5/1233/16, Mrs. Jonathan is asking the court to make an order for the enforcement of her fundamental rights, in terms of reliefs she sought, and naming as defendants, the EFCC and Skye Bank Plc.

The former first lady asked the court to make a declaration that the fund standing to the credit of four of the companies and an account in her own name in Skye Bank belonged to her.

She also asked the court to declare that the action of the respondents in placing a No Debit/Freezing Order on the said accounts without any order of a competent court of law or prior notice to her, to be in breach of her fundamental rights as contained in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

amount to a distortion of the amnesty programme, which set out to train the youths in any vocation of their choice in the country or abroad.

An ex-militant leader, from the Urhobo nation, General Emma Shobor, who disclosed this at the weekend through his Publicity Secretary, Okiemute Kasiaka, said most of his former boys who have remained peaceful and have ensured that the Urhoboland is not dragged into the ongoing resurgence of militancy in the region, are not happy with the reported plan by the Amnesty Office to compel all of them to train in farming, not minding what is their area of interest.

According to him, the boys want to be trained in aircraft engineering, marine and nautical engineering among others, just as their counterparts from the Ijaw nation.

In the same vein, the spokesperson to the Niger Delta Liberation Force (NDLF), Capt Mark Anthony, also said his group will reject any attempt to train all the ex-militants on agriculture as it will not bring any form of fulfillment to the cry of the Niger Delta ex agitators.

Also speaking, the National Secretary of Niger Delta Initiative for Actualization of Peace and Development (NDIAPD), Evang.

M.O. Sekegor, said the peace and development of the people in the Niger Delta will be jeopardize if the will of the ex agitators is not considered in the planned training programme “because when we fail to arrest and address the root cause of any problem no matter how much windowdressing we do, someday

somehow, the problem will resurface and more dangerously than it was initially.”

He appealed to the Coordinator, Amnesty Office and Special Adviser to the President on Niger-Delta, Brig-Gen Paul Boro (Rtd), to listen to what the ex militants are asking for, for the sake of peace and safety in the region.

It will be recalled that Brig-Gen Boro (Rtd), recently disclosed that the Federal Government will soon commence training of 500 ex-militants in agriculture and aquaculture under its amnesty programme.

Boro disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) shortly after his visit to Bio-resources Development Centre (BIODEC), Odi in Bayelsa .

He said some of the exmilitants would be sent to Songhai Farms in Delta State, while others would be deployed to the various agriculture programme departments at the Delta State University, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State University of Science and Technology, and the Peremabiri Rice Farms in the state.

He also said that the would-be trainees were selected from Akwa-Ibom, Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, Ondo and Rivers states.

The special adviser said the training would create jobs and wealth for the youths, especially now that the country intends to diversify the economy.

According to him, 18 other ex-militants had acquired skills in aquaculture under the programme.

He promised that loans would be made available to the beneficiaries to enable them to establish businesses after the training.

Recession: Venezuelan Ambassador warns against profligacy Philip Nyam Abuja

T

he head of mission of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela in Nigeria, Mr. MiguelAngel Della Vecchia, has advised Nigerians to change their spending lifestyle to reflect the current economic realities in order to survive the recession period.

Vecchia, who gave the advice in an exclusive interview with Sunday Telegraph in Abuja also disclosed that black market is killing the Venezuelan economy.

He said what is happening to Nigeria is common with countries whose economy is dependent on oil adding that it is a global occurrence.

“One thing we must all understand that if the oil price in the international market is coming down we must adjust our spending”, he advised.

Speaking further on the unreliable nature of oil, the ambassador said, “And when it goes up again, we must save to reflect reality.

That is the problem everywhere. It is not only in Nigeria but all over the world where we have crude oil”.

He explained that both Nigeria and Venezuala share a lot of things in common and were collaborating in a number of sectors for the benefit of each other. “I want to say to the people of Nigeria that we are one and brothers. If you are black and I am white there is no difference. It is the same

blood in our system. Blood is neither black nor white.

The solidarity between Nigeria and Venezuela is not too much for the government and the people.

“Anytime something happens to Nigeria, we send our support to Nigeria. We both are more than friendly countries, we are big brothers. Nigeria was one of our first embassies in Africa. We opened it in 1965. We will continue to support Nigeria’ Speaking on the Venezuelan economy, where the government also had cause to increase the pump price of fuel, Vecchia agreed that “It is affecting our politics because we are making socialist policies. We spread our budget to the people and social programmes around Venezuela. When

the late Hugo Chavez was in power, the oil price was around $120; we opened a lot of areas for the people, free education to everybody, and free houses for the less privileged, free health care, food and human rights to everybody. This happened because we spread our budget coming from the oil and gas sector.

“Now, with the fluctuating price of oil in the international market, we need to reduce all of these, but not to reduce the number of projects that are ongoing, maybe to reduce the time to give the people the benefits because we will continue with the projects”.

He lamented that “Our schools are down, we need to stabilize our petroleum, our price; our budget is not

the same today, it is different. We need to do some things like Nigeria. In Venezuela we have the cheapest gasoline around the world.

We just increased it two months ago. Even at that, you can fill your tank with just $1.20 cents. So it is still the cheapest gasoline in the world.

“We increased the gasoline price to support the crisis in the economy. Now with Nigeria, Algeria, all the OPEC countries will continue to try and stabilize the crude price in their country to reflect reality”, he stated.

The ambassador alleged that black marketers were killing his countrys economy querying why people obtain foreign exchange at official price but decide to sell at cut throat prices.

“They sabotage the Government by taking the money from official rate or sources and selling it at the black market back in the same country.

“Yes there is no country without a problem, but why should people get something at government rates and go back to round tripping and make people to suffer. Some big sales companies get supply of food at government foreign exchange rates and close their shops only to open it from the back door to sell to people.

“That is why you are seeing the queues all over the country. They don’t want to sell at the rates which they got it from the government, thereby causing people to suffer”, he explained.

5

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, 11 SEPTEMBER, 2016

NEWS

Ortom: Only God can see me through in 2019 Cephas Iorhemen MAKURDI

B

enue State Governor, Samuel Ortom has said that the Almighty God remains his only saving grace if his dreams to stage a comeback in the 2019 governorship elections are to be realised.

He said he was elected governor in the last general election through divine intervention considering the circumstances that surrounded the process and stressed that: “if God says I should be governor nobody can stop it”.

The governor bared his mind while receiving the people of Utyondo Development Association (UDA) at the new banquet hall of the Government House in Makurdi, yesterday.

Utyondo is one of the communities that was ravaged by Fulani insurgents during which a number of people were murdered with houses and other economic trees destroyed.

Ortom, who solicited the support of the people of the state in the midst of the prevailing economic recession, stated that he was finding it tough to pay workers’ salaries due to the drastic fall in the federal allocation

to the state coupled with a corresponding drop in the state’s Internally Generated Revenue from N500 million to N200 million.

He disclosed that at the moment, civil servants are being owed up to four months while local government workers including primary school teachers are owed five months.

Leader of the delegation, Mr. Teryima Apuur in his remarks earlier, commended the governor for peacefully containing the activities of Fulani insurgents in the area which saw the return of relative peace today.

Apuur, who implored the governor to utilise the available natural resources including large deposit of salt at the Kaseyo communities to further beef up the economy of the state, reiterated their support for the Ortom administration to succeed.

The member representing Makurdi/Guma Constituency in the House of Representatives, Mr. Dickson Tarkighir and former Chief Judge of the state, Justice Augustine Utsaha both hailed the governor’s giant strides in less than two years on the saddle and promised sustained support come 2019.

Boy, 18, kills, rapes 27-year-old woman Dominic Adewole ASABA

A

n 18 year old boy, one Chukwudi Ijeoma, has killed one Blessing Ogamma, a 27-year-old woman, in Aboh, Ndokwa East Local Government Area of Delta State.

The suspect did not stop at that, he went ahead to rape his dead victim.

The victim was previously reported missing by her husband, Felix Ogamma of Akala Street, Utagba Uno Road, in Kwale, Ndokwa West Council Area.

The victim was said to have gone to Aboh town to sell plantain before her corpse was subsequently discovered in the bush end of Ogbeogonogo Street in the locality.

Parading the suspect, including 41 suspected kidnapers, armed robbers and child traffickers, the state Commissioner of Police, Zanna M. Ibrahim, flanked by his Public Relations Officer, SP Celestina Kalu, at the Command Headquarters in Asaba yesterday said the crime was satanic.

He said detectives smoked out Chukwudi in his Johnny’s Compound in Aboh.

“Sequel to the development, detectives com-

menced discreet investigation and on September 6, arrested the suspect, an 18-year-old boy, residing in Johnny’s Compound, Ogbeogonogo Street, Aboh in connection with the heinous crime,” the CP said.

He said the suspect has since confessed to the crime and attributed the killing and rape to some spiritual influence.

Paul Ogbuokiri

A

Chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Chyna Iwuanyanwu has decried the ongoing demolition of buildings and alleged destruction of public utilities in the Owerri Municipality by the administration of Governor Rochas Okorocha, saying the amount of damage the reported road expansion project of the state government has done on infrastructure far outweighs the benefits that the state could ever get from whatever is the reason for the demolitions.

Chief Iwuanyanwu, who spoke to Sunday Telegraph at the weekend, lamented that the demolitions have destroyed Owerri’s public water pipelines.

Ogun State Governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun (3rd right), former Kano State Governor, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso (3rd left), couple, Mr. and Mrs. Kayode Quadri (middle) with parents of the bride and groom after the Wolimot Nikkah of the Quadris’ in Abeokuta..yesterday

Massacre of 120 Igbos: Posterity will judge Obiano, says IPOB Steve Uzoechi OWERRI

T

he Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), has described Governor Willy Obiano of Anambra State as an insensitive governor with little regard for human life especially the lives of Ndigbo who have been serially murdered by the Nigerian military under his watch in the state.

According to Emma Powerful, the IPOB spokesman, Governor Willy Obiano has shown no commitment to the lives and interests of Ndigbo in Anambra State despite being the Chief Security Officer of the state.

He said: “On more than four occasions – August 30 and May 29, 2016 and December 2 and December 17, 2015 members of IPOB

without any provocation whatsoever were slaughtered by the military right under the nose of Willy Obiano. The Governor, who is the chief security officer of the state, did not and has not raised any objection with the extra-judicial killing of Ndigbo in his state.”

Continuing he said: “Obiano’s eyes are only set on his re-election bid and it seems more convenient for him to be silent in the face of the brutal killing of his kinsmen.

Obiano once claimed that those killed by the soldiers were hoodlums, but as the truth of the matter emptied the lies, he offered to pay hospital bills for our members which of course, we rejected.

“Whatever be the case, posterity shall adjudge him as the governor who looked the other way

while his brothers were butchered unjustly. Posterity will demand an account from him for the lives of about 120 Igbo sons whose only offence was their demand for self-determination under a cruel government,” Powerful said.

The IPOB spokesman clarified further that on August 30, seven persons were killed by the Nigerian Army while about 30 sustained bullet wounds.

On December 2, 2015, no fewer than five IPOB members were shot dead at the Bridge Head, Onitsha with 12 others sustaining bullet wounds. At the December 17, 2015 jubilation at the Bridge Head, Onitsha over the court’s ruling to release Nnamdi Kanu, the military moved in and opened fire on a non-violent crowd killing five persons on the

spot with seven others sustaining injuries.

According to Powerful: “On May 29, 2016, while more than1500 members of IPOB slept at a church at Nkpor, the military attacked the location killing eight persons and by the next day at Uga Junction, Headbridge, Onitsha, more than 87 persons were shot dead. This does not include scores of our members that are still missing, whom their whereabouts IPOB cannot state till date.”

As at the time of going to press on Saturday evening, the Special Adviser to Governor Obiano on Media and Public Communication, James Eze had not reacted to the allegations as requested by the Sunday Telegraph via Airtel’s Short Messaging Service (SMS) sent to him.

Owerri demolitions: Damage to infrastructure outweighs benefits - Iwuanyanwu He said: “That water project which cost Sam Mbakwe, of the blessed memory over $34 million to achieve in the 80s, that is now being destroyed, will cost over $1billion to achieve today, where is such money? That is part of the recklessness and lack of plans we worry about. There is no reason for the kind of destruction that has affected pipe borne water, electric transformers and other public assets. The amount of damage incurred in infrastructure far outweighs the benefits you can get from these roads. This is a stupid thing to do.”

He further said that rather than demolishing ancient

structures in the state capital that need to be preserved in the old capital, the governor should have moved to the new capital where there will be no houses to demolish and no economic activities to be hampered. “Every city in the world has their old cities to preserve,” he said.

Chief Iwuanayanwu alleged that the reported road expansion projects which the state government said it is doing in Owerri were not budgeted for, “they are in no way captured in the state budget; no tender, no due process and contracts are being awarded.”

A Political Activist in the state, Nze Ebubeagu Ekenu-

lo, wondered why the government could contemplate destroying people’s homes during the rainy season without any plan of providing them with alternative arrangement.

According to him, most of the roads being demolished by the government’s bulldozers do not need any further expansion, as most of them are wide enough.

“For example, Okigwe Road does not need such expansion, it’s a dual lane and wide as well. The solid gutters that were built by Sam Mbakwe have been destroyed and inferior ones are being built. Telecommunication cables, water pipe-

lines and other public utilities are being destroyed,” he alleged.

The Coordinator of a Prodemocracy watchdog in the state, Imo Bilie Initiative (IBIN), Comrade Aku Obidinma, expressed worry over the said demolitions in the state, stated that the state presently is being run like in banana republic.

“The state is like a conquered state at the moment.

There is confusion in the land. If there is real need for these projects, they ought to be done in phases considering the economic realities on ground as they make us understand, unless they are deceiving us.”

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

SALLAH news

Atiku: Economy will take time to improve Johnchuks Onuanyim

F Abuja.

ormer Vice President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has stated that the present economic hardship would take time to be overcome.

The former Vice President stated this yesterday in a message for the Muslim Eid el-Kabir celebration.

In a statement from his Media Office in Abuja, the former Vice President, however, expressed the view that considering how

challenging basic survival has become, this is the time for all Nigerians without exception, to invoke the spirit of brotherhood and communal fraternity to beat the reality of the hard times. He notes that with mutual help, everyone will come out stronger to see better days”.

Asking Nigerians to put the economic hardship behind them at this time, he said: “Nigerians should go and celebrate like other people in the world in spite of the economic situation that

has hit the country hard.”

He added that rather than despair, the occasion calls for sober reflection, prayers, cooperation and the display of solidarity among Nigerians so that no one feels left out.

“Nigerians should continue to work hard, persevere and pray for the success of the policies and measures being put in place by the APC government of President Muhammadu Buhari to restore the nation’s economy to good health and improve the lives of the

people.” Speaking further he said that the situation of things will take some time to improve because a lot was left undone for too long by previous leaders of the country assuring, however, that there is always a silver lining at the end of a dark cloud.

He wished the Muslim faithful and all Nigerians a joyous celebration, urging them to use the opportunity to reflect on the situation in the country and lend one another a shoulder of support.

L-R: First Female Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Chief (Mrs.) Folake Solanke; former Governor of the Old Western Region, Gen. Oluwole Rotimi; former Chief of Army Staff, Retired Gen. Alani Akinrinade and Chairman of Development Policy Centre (DPC), Prof. Bimpe Aboyade, at the 2016 Founder’s Day of the centre, in Ibadan…at the weekend.

PHOTO: NAN

Adebule urges Muslims to show love for neighbours, the poor Muritala Ayinla

A

s Muslims all over the world prepare to celebrate the Eid-el-Kabir festival, Lagos State Deputy Governor, Dr. Idiat Oluranti Adebule has called on Nigerians to uphold the virtues and teachings of the festive season by showing love to neighbours and less privileged.

The deputy governor, who gave the advice in her Sallah message to Muslim faithful, urged Nigerians to celebrate the Sallah peacefully by obeying the law and consider others, especially Ibraheem Musa Kaduna

L

eader of the Supreme Council of Islamic Affairs’ delegation for 2016 Hajj, Etsu Nupe Yahaya Abubakar, has called on Nigerian officials to give pilgrims premium treatment in order to ensure a hitch-free pilgrimage in the Holy Land.

The leader of delegation

the less privileged around them.

The Deputy Governor urged Muslims to show care to those of unsound health, the homeless and people undergoing one difficulty or the other, who might not join in the celebration.

She reminded them of preaching of the Prophet that no one is a muslim until what he wants for himself, is what he wants for his brother.

Noting that intelligence gathering and information sharing is crucial to the 21st century crime control, she

advised people to be security conscious at all times, while urging them to report any strange movement in their neighbourhood to the security operatives.

Adebule called on youths in the country to join hands with government in rebuilding a new nation by engaging themselves in productive activities that can help to fast track the process, while urging them to shun clandestine activities such as violence, kidnapping, pipeline vandalisation, bombing and other vices capable of undermining the ongoing reform agenda of the Fed-

eral Government.

While advising Lagosians to celebrate the Sallah in the most peaceful way, the deputy governor explained that the all inclusive governance embarked upon by Governor Akinwunmi Ambodeled administration is aimed at involving all stakeholders in relevant decision making that bothers on the future of the state.

She urged Lagosians to continue to support and pray for the state government as it strives on daily basis to bring dividends of democracy to their door steps.

Etsu Nupe counsels officials on Hajj spoke yesterday, as pilgrims observe today, as Arafat day and the peak of the Hajj exercise, where about 76,000 Nigerian pilgrims join fellow Muslims to offer prayers.

He said: “I’m appealing with all officials, local government, state and national to have the fear of

Allah. The pilgrims, most of them, have not left their domains to far places like this. They are strangers here and so please take care of them and ensure they perform their pilgrimage in order.”

“We must obey and abide by the rules. Our duties are not complete until we come

to an end of the exercise and return to Nigeria.”

Earlier, the Chairman of National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Barrister Abdullahi Muhammad Mukhtar, had called on the officials to monitor the hajj exercise instead of performing the pilgrimage themselves.

Sokoto buys N11m cows for orphans

S

okoto State Government has disbursed N11 million for the purchase of cows for the provision of meat to 4,205 orphans on the Eid El-Kabir Day. The Chairman of the State Zakkat and Endowment Committee, Alhaji Lawal Maidoki, on Saturday, said, N130,000 was given to each of the 85 districts in the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

“Each of the districts will buy a cow, slaughter it and distribute it to 50 orphans each. The gesture is aimed at

providing a sense of belonging to the orphans during the sallah festivities.”

The Chairman averred that the committee has taken measures to ensure the judicious utilisation of the funds.

Maidoki further promised that the committee will monitor the distribution of the meat to ensure that all the targeted children were adequately covered.

He also appealed to the District Heads to ensure the equitable distribution of the meat from their end.

Lagos tasks drivers on safety Muritala Ayinla

A

s volume of vehicles travelling in and out of Lagos State rises as a result of Eid-el-Kabir celebrations, the state government has called on those involved in public transportation, drivers, unions and private individuals to pay attention to safety in order to avert road crashes.

The Lagos State Commissioner for Transportation, Dr. Dayo Mobereola, who disclosed this, also appealed the motorists to observe safety tips.

He said:”Do not drink and drive or drive and drink.

Do not over speed. Observe speed limit and do not over load your vehicles.”

While urging the drivers to ensure their vehicles are properly maintained, Mobereola advised the drivers

to limit their per day trips to very reasonable levels; keep within human limits, while acknowledging the rights of other road users.

He, however, advised passengers not to hassle the driver into going faster.

Mobereola said: “While the Lagos State Government continues its campaign to ensure safer road, it is imperative to state that it is the observance of the laws, regulations and rules of traffic that will ensure safety. It is the decision of one driver to drive carefully that will prove safety on the roads.

“Thus at the season of Eid el Kabir with its emphasis on obedience, we wish to urge Nigerians not to be the ‘rains’ of ember “months” but to live to build a future that their family and loved ones look forward to.”

Jegede felicitates with Muslim faithful

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overnorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the November governorship election in Ondo State, Eyitayo Jegede (SAN) has felicitated Muslim faithful on another occasion of the Eid el-Kabir festival.

Jegede, in a statement, he personally signed in Akure, appreciated Allah for allowing Muslims to again commemorate Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his young first-born and only son in obedience to a command from God.

He emphasised that lessons of sacrifice and understanding for the PDP-led government in Ondo State is needful at this time of national economic downturn.

He said with their prayers and support, the PDP led government will succeed itself in the state after the November governorship election.

Jegede also advised residents and people of Ondo State to pray for a successful upcoming November governorship election, devoid of violence and rancour.

Niger releases N1.4bn to augment LG’s salaries Dan Atori MINNA

T

he Niger State Government has released the sum of N1.4 billion as a bailout to augment local government councils’ payment of July and August salaries.

Commissioner of Information, Culture and Tourism, Mr. Jonathan Vatsa disclosed this yesterday in Minna, that Governor Abubakar Sani

Bello, has given the directive for the release of the fund to the affected local government councils, whose allocations could not cater for their staff salary.

“Immediately after the directive on Monday, all relevant ministries released the money to the councils for the payment of July and August salary in order for their staff to celebrate Sallah (Eid-el Kabir) conveniently,” Vatsa declared.

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

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News

Aregbesola blames recession on past govts Kunle Olayeni Abeokuta

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sun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, has blamed the current economic woes in the country on previous governments which, he argued, did not invest adequately in agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Aregbesola, who accused the past administrations of allegedly squandering the nation’s oil money, absolved the President Muhammadu Buhari-led government of any fault.

He spoke at the inaugural lecture of Uhuru Times titled “Unemployment as a Security challenge in a young Democracy” held in IjebuIfe, Ogun State.

The lecture, which was delivered by a former member of the National Assembly, Senator Olorunnibe Mamora, was held in honour of Superintendent of Police Muyiwa

Adejobi, the Public Relations Officer, Zone II Command of the Nigeria Police.

Aregbesola said Nigeria must drastically reduce dependence on importation to reflate its dwindling economy and tackle increasing unemployment rate. According to him, unemployment has become a major security challenge in the country and stakeholders must look inwards to address the problem.

The governor stated that Nigerians had lived a prodigal life in the past, adding that the citizens must realise that the era of free money was gone for good in the country. He, however, noted that God wanted Nigerians to learn some lessons as the country’s economy slid into recession.

He said, “We have all lived a prodigal life as a nation. We depend absolutely on a commodity that most of us don’t even know where it comes from.”

Wike moves to improve Kalabari economy, roads

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he Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike, has declared that the Abonnema Ring Road Phase Two will improve the economy of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area and also empower the people.

Governor Wike also stated that the Nyemoni Grammar School, Abonnema being reconstructed by the state government will create access to quality secondary education for the people of Kalabari Kingdom.

Speaking on Saturday after inspecting key projects of the Rivers State Government in Akuku-Toru Local Government Area, Wike as-

sured Kalabari people that his administration will ensure the successful completion of the land reclamation programme in the area.

He said the Abonnema Ring Road Phase Two will provide an alternative route out of the headquarters of Akuku-Toru Local Government Area .

Governor Wike said: “This road is critical to the growth of the economy of this local government. That is why we have intensified work.

“The Abonnema Ring Road Phase Two will also lead to most of the lands being reclaimed by the State Government, so that struc-

tural development activities can commence in the new communities “.

Commenting on the reconstruction of Nyemoni Grammar School , Abonnema, Governor Wike said that the rehabilitation is part of the phased revival of schools in the three Senatorial Districts of the state for the re-introduction of boarding education .

He expressed satisfaction with the quality of work at the hostels, laboratories and classrooms of the school.

Wike also addressed Market Women in Abonnema.

He thanked them for their support for the contractor, assuring them that the proj-

ects in the area would be driven to logical conclusion.

He was accompanied on the inspection by the Former Minister of Sports, Dr Tammy Danagogo, Rivers State Works Commissioner, Architect Harrison Iheanyichukwu , Commissioner for Education, Prof Kaniye Ebeku, Chairman of the Rivers State Senior Secondary School Board, Mr David Briggs and Member of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Major Jack.

Thousands of the residents of Abonnema and the Oceania communities cheered the governor all through the visit.

Military demotes General for training foreign students

A

Special Army Court Martial has demoted a senior officer, Patrick Falola, from the rank of Major General to Brigadier-General, for admitting students for clinical training without permission from higher authorities.

Falola, Director, 68 Military Reference Hospital, Yaba, Lagos State, was arraigned on a two-count charge before a court martial presided over

by James Gbum, an Air Vice Marshal.

Falola admitted international students from Espan Formation University, Cotonou, in Benin Republic, between July and September, 2016.

Gbum, the president of the court martial, said Falola’s conduct amounted to fraudulent use of the armed forces’ property.

He acquitted Falola on the charge of conduct prejudice the service, but convicted him on fraudulent misapplication of the hospital’s property.

“This court is compelled to award a higher punishment under sections 103 and 66 of the Armed Forces Act Cap A 20 laws of the Federation 2004.

“The court has taken into consideration the service record of the convicted senior officer, the touching plea in mitigation by the defence council as well as the demeanour of the convicted officer.

“But we have also taken into consideration the senior officer’s seniority, rank, experience and the regimental tradition of the armed forces.”

Navy arrests 6 oil thieves in Delta Ola James Warri

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he Nigerian Navy weekend arrested six illegal bunkers at Escravos, in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.

Sunday Telegraph gathered that the suspects were arrested mid sea while perpetrating illegal activities.

Although details of the arrest on Saturday were sketchy but the Naval team led by the Commander, Nigerian Navy Escravos, Navy Captain A. Uko were said the operation was carried out swiftly.

“The Navy team caught the oil thieves red-handed when they were siphoning large

quantity of crude oil from an underground pipeline”, said a dependable source who confided with Sunday Telegraph.

Investigation, however, revealed that the arrested oil thieves have been handed over to the NNS Delta, Warri, Naval Base for further investigation.

Meanwhile the Navy has stepped up effort of patrolling the creeks and waterways as well as communities which are notorious for illegal bunkering activities.

Consequently, most of the areas prone to be illegal oil dump and refineries have been dislodged by the Navy intensive patrol of the creeks.

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike inspecting the Abonnema Ring Road Phase Two under construction on Saturday.

Chukwu David Abuja

Muhammad Bashir Lokoja

T

he recent arrest of a son of former Kogi State governor, Mohammed Audu, and 14 other siblings and consequent arraignment of the former for armed robbery have been condemned by prominent members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, who described the allegation as politically motivated and ridiculous.

The police last week arraigned Audu at the Lokoja, Chief Magistrate Court for robbery and other criminal offences, but the APC, through its state treasurer, Comrade Ismail Adesayo, condemned the allegation against the eldest son of late Prince Abubakar Audu, saying the allegations are unacceptable.

“We, as a party, appreciate that the case is currently receiving the attention of a court of competent jurisdiction, but we are still baffled on how a son of our late

Clampdown on Audu’s family is abuse of office –Kogi elders leader and former governor, will be dragged to such an untold scandals.”

“Mohammed has been a successful business man and a self made personality who is endowed with wealth. It is laughable for such a man to be accused of armed robbery. We must be careful on the way we go about politicking in this state,” he added.

Also, the Audu Oyidi Royal Family of Ogbonicha in Ofu Local Government of Kogi State described the whole episode as political persecution of the highest order.

In a statement signed on behalf of the family by the Oregoh Attah of Igalaland, the paramount ruler of Ogbonicha, the family lamented the media frenzy that attended the arrest and arraignment of their son on trumped up charges that are politically motivated and affirmed their implicit confi-

dence in his unimpeachable integrity.

“We were surprised by the news of the arrest and arraignment of the son of our late patriarch, Mohammed on trumped up charges of armed robbery, conspiracy and attempted culpable homicide. We believe that Mohammed is a responsible man from a respectable background who would do no such thing as to bring disrepute to the name of our family. The story by his uncle, Yahaya that he was attacked and beaten up and that the attack was masterminded by Mohammed is purely a family matter that should not have been politicised to this extent. Since the matter is already before a law court, we shall refrain from further comments for now but suffice to express our utter condemnation of the apparently coordinated media frenzy that attended the arrest and arraignment

“, the family stated.

Meanwhile, a sociocultural group from Kogi State, UjaAche-Igala, has condemned the arrest of Mohammed and 14 of his siblings by Kogi State Special Anti-robbery squad, describing the development as an attempt by Governor Yahaya Bello to intimidate the family into abandoning their political struggle.

In a statement signed yesterday in Abuja by the group’s head of Media and Publicity, Atek’ojo Samson Usman, the Group noted that the arrest of Mohammed was politically motivated.

The statement said that there was no further proof for the public to know that Governor Bello was on political vendetta, occasioned by his rejection of the posthumous award which the Governor gave his father during the 25 year anniversary of the state last week.

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The Sunday Magazine

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

LASTMA, Police are fleecing •No officer has the right to collect cash from offenders, says LASTMA When the Lagos State Government established the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) in 2000, it was aimed at the transformation of the state’s transport system to ensure free flow of traffic and also reduce road accidents.

But over the years, LASTMA’s activities in the state have become counter-productive as officers of the agency flagrantly have taken laws into their hands and often times physically attack motorists and wrestle with perceived offenders to seize their car keys. Deaths of some innocent citizens have been recorded as a result of offenders been chased by LASTMA officials, backed up by armed police officers attached to them.

CHIJIOKE IREMEKA report

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he Lagos State Governor, Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode, in a swift reaction to the negative activities of the agency following tons of complaints by Lagosians, had told the officers in his first official statement to LASTMA: “Don’t victimise Lagosians, there are more civil ways to control and arrest offenders.

From now on, no harassment; you are enforcement officers and not harassment officers, arrest people in civil manner.”

The state government also warned that the full force of the law would be brought to bear on all erring members of the public who attempt any illegality in terms of obstructing operatives of LASTMA from carrying out their legitimate and lawful duties.

Officials of the LASTMA only recently pledged their dedication to duty and determination to maintain law and order, restore sanity and ensure the free flow of traffic on Lagos roads at all times. The exercise, which was performed by representatives of all the 40 zonal offices of the agency, was to re-awaken the officials to their primary responsibility of controlling and managing traffic on Lagos roads.

Despite the negative impacts inflicted on Lagosians, the agency in the last 16 years has recorded some measures of successes in the management of traffic in the state. But, while doing these, they have also inflicted pains on the people.

A major incident involving LASTMA officials and motorists in Lagos reared its ugly head for the second time in months at the Lagos-Badagry Expressway axis. The first confrontation was late last year when motorists, reacting to the misconceived orders given by the state government that LASTMA officials should not arrest motorists again, brutally assaulted some officers of the agency who arrested offenders. The

LASTMA park at Mazamaza

state government had to make clarifications that, the assaulted officers did their legitimate duties arresting motorists, but what the governor directed was that why making arrests, the officers should be civil and not harass offending motorists.

This time around, motorists are bitter about the underarm activities of LASTMA and the police attached to them at a road diversion at Alakija bus-stop caused by the construction site of the China Civil Engineering Construction Company (CCECC).

The motorists are crying blue murder over the unending extortion of money by the officers on the excuse that the diversion is a one-way traffic for vehicles diverting to Festac from Old Ojo Road.

The motorists are not happy that LASTMA officials illegally arrest motorists ply-

ing the route in the early hours of the day, impound their vehicles and make the drivers pay caution fees of between N15, 000 to N25, 000 as the case may be.

The diversion, the motorists argued, is open to all traffic and it is high time the state government put a stop to the illegalities of extortion being carried out there by LASTMA and the police.

The affected motorists told Sunday Telegraph that the officers lie in wait as early as 5am everyday with shuttle buses which they use to cross the road, blocking vehicles that take the diversions from Festac Town side of the road and those linking the Old Ojo Road from Mile 2, arrest and force them to pay illegal ‘caution fee’ without issuing receipts.

One of the motorists, who prefers to re-

main anonymous, noted that “what each victim pays depends on his ability to bargain. Some pay as high as N25, 000. The officers do this in the early hours of the day and disperse afterwards. If a diversion is illegal, it should be for the whole day and not just in the early hours of the day.”

Sunday Telegraph’s reporter saw the official, unpounding four vehicles when he visited the spot in early hours of the day, around 5am recently. Another visit by our reporter at about 9:37am saw vehicles taking the same route freely without being arrested, with a LASTMA official present at the same spot.

Another motorist, whose Honda Accord car was impounded at 5.46am, Mr. Philip Williams, a businessman, said he wasn’t aware of any restriction at the diversion as

9

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Sunday Magazine

us - Motorists he plies the route on a regular basis.

He noted that the road has been in use for motorists coming from Mile 2 and those from Old Ojo Road. He wondered at the sudden change.

“I can’t say for sure when this diversion had become one-way traffic. I reside in Festac Town and this is the route I ply every day. If I had taken Alakija axis of the road, it would have been different but I took the pain of going through the Festac Town Second Gate (Agboju) so as not to flout the traffic laws,” the victim said.

Philip was forced to pay N15, 000 for the release of his vehicle. He was bitter that the team of LASTMA officers and police on obtain money from their victims without issuing receipts, yet the fee was tagged ‘Caution fee.’

In another development, Mr. Nelson Obidinma, whose car was impounded at the same spot and taken to LASTMA office at Mazamaza area of Lagos last weekend, disclosed that he paid N15, 200 to the LASTMA officials and an additional N500 to a vulcanizer in the agency’s office to inflate his car’s deflated tyres.

Nelson played into the hands of the officers at about 5:30am while rushing to Ikeja for an early morning engagement. He eventually secured his freedom at about 7am. “Because I was rushing to catch my appointment, I paid N15, 200 with ‘abeg’, yet I wasn’t given a receipt. You can go there and see for yourself,” he said.

He added that, after his arrest at the diversion, the police officer attached to the LASTMA officials used his 2005 model Nissan Pathfinder SUV to block other vehicles coming in the same direction to prevent them from escaping arrest.

“At this point, I had to speak out before my car is damaged. This got me angry.

Why should these people use my car for that nonsense? If my car was damaged what would they tell me?” He charged.

While the motorists insist that the diversion is meant for all traffic, LASTMA officials insisted it has been exclusively oneway for the past one year, which is stated on the signpost at the diversion.

But Benjamin Olawale, another motorist, said one-way instruction has been on the signpost since commencement of the road construction, which has not changed.

This, according to him, makes it difficult for drivers to know whether the road is one-way or not.

“I used this road two weeks ago and I wasn’t disturbed by anybody. Sometimes, law enforcement agents want to take un-

LASTMA officials taking away an impounded bus

due advantage of ignorance of some innocent Nigerians. I was coming from Mile 2 end of the road to access Old Ojo Road and I diverted as usual, but a mini-bus which had LASTMA officials and a policeman blocked my way. They jumped out of their vehicle and before I could say a word, they opened my door, seized my car keys,” said Benjamin Olawale.

Sunday Telegraph gathered that the diversion was open to all traffic until recently when it was cancelled, but there was no sign to inform the motorists that the status of the diversion has changed. Though LASTMA officials argued that it was on the signpost yet the inscription on the signpost didn’t change when the one-way status was cancelled.

However, when our reporter visited the controversial spot, the signpost mounted at the junction, reads: “Construction Vehicles crossing 50m ahead. No Turn Left Here, U-Turn 250m ahead.”

According to the leader of the LASTMA team, Mr. Okodua, the caution fee charged by the agency is to bypass the process of offenders having to go through brain test and other rigorous processes in accordance with the law of the state.

Okodua told one of the motorists whose car was impounded in the presence of our reporter, “I’m in charge today, I might not be tomorrow, and it’s not compulsory for you to pay. These are people’s vehicles. The law has it that when there is a contravention, especially on one-way, the vehicle has to be impounded and offenders will go for psychiatric tests before he regains his freedom. But the fee is to caution you.”

When Sunday Telegraph visited the agency’s office at Mazamaza, along Mile 2 – Badagry Expressway, adjacent Festac Maternal and Child Hospital, for a second time, a number of activities, were observed.

It was like a market place, as motorists openly bargained with LASTMA officials and police officers.

While a young man, not a uniformed LASTMA officer, was busy recording the plate numbers of impounded vehicles, few other policemen and non-uniformed officers negotiate with motorists on release of their vehicles before the arrival of top LASTMA officers.

Inside the LASTMA office complex, there is a vulcanizer whose job is to deflate tyres of impounded vehicles once they are brought into the complex. To inflate the tyres, motorists pay a mandatory N500 per vehicle as soon as the car owners are freed.

According to one of the security men there,

Diversion at Alakija

the vulcanizer is an employee of the Lagos State Ministry of Transport.

On release of impounded vehicles, motorists also pay a gate fee of N1, 200 before they are allowed to drive out of the complex.

However, when contacted to speak on these allegations, the LASTMA, through its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Mamud Hassan, said the traffic contracts of the agency are professional, adding that, to play safe, LASTMA’s verdict of a road status should be taken rather than that of the motorists.

He noted: “Our officers have been trained as professional traffic managers to manage traffic on Lagos roads. If a particular road is opened at specific periods, there is a reason for doing that and this should be respected.

The traffic situations of an area, informs our actions and decisions.

“Sometimes, they do what is called ‘counter flows,’ which allows the traffic to move the other way round. So, when you see them do that, it’s in an effort to

solve the gridlock and that is what they have applied there.

“I can only implore the motorists to comply with them so that they can allow traffic to flow around that Alakija Road and its environs for stress-free driving. If LASTMA says you have to move to certain direction of the road, you must respect that because there is reason for it.

“We resume work as early as 5:30a.m until 10p.m everyday all in the efforts to make the road free. Motorists should cooperate with our officers. Those, who fail to co-operate would be arrested for contravention.”

On the allegation that LASTMA officials collect ‘caution fee’ from offenders, he stated: “No, I disagree with that. Our officers are not trained or instructed to collect money from offenders. I don’t think they collect money from anybody. If you violate any traffic law, you will be issued a ticket.

“It’s that ticket that offenders would take to the bank to make payments. We don’t encourage any member of the public to give them money. So, these allegations are not true. If anybody has evidence that they paid money to any LASTMA official, such person should come to our office to make complaints and we will do our investigations. Any officer found culpable will be dealt with according to the extant law.”

Again, on the allegation that one police officer with name tag, 'Samuel' attached to the agency used one of the offenders’ vehicles for operation, Mamud said: “No LASTMA official will do that. We have sufficient operational vehicles for such purposes, including machines to do their work. We don’t use offender’s vehicles to carry out our operations no matter the distance or hour.

“We have enough to assist our officers to do their job. May be the person didn’t get it right. Such can’t happen. We don’t use offenders’ vehicles to carry out our operations.

We take impounded vehicles to our yard and keep it safe. When all formalities are completed, offenders take their vehicles and are free to go. We don’t engage in such act.

“When we issue tickets to offenders and they are unable to make payment with the ticket and claim their vehicles, we keep the vehicles safe until they are able to meet up with our requirements.”

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SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

News

Royal father sues for peace in Enugu community Kenneth Ofoma

T ENUGU

he newly elected traditional ruler of Obe-Agbo community in Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, HRH Igwe Stephen Ossy Nweke has appealed to those challenging the Town Union executives and the Electoral College that produced the new monarch to sheath their swords for peace and progress of the community.

The royal father stated that many other positions abound in the community, including elective positions, which other sons and daughters of the community could aspire for and be supported to attain, instead of dragging the community to court and petitioning the State Governor, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi.

It will be recalled that a factional group in the community led by the Onowu (Traditional Prime Minister) under the immediate pasttraditional ruler, late Igwe Paul.

C. N. Egbogu, Chief Patty Agu and a village head, one

of the villages that make up the community, Umungwutowo, Chief Sunday Owo had gone to court to challenge both the Constitution of ObeAgbo Town Union executive and that of the Electoral College that conducted the election of Igwe Nweke.

More so, there is looming crisis in the community should the petitioners succeed in proving that the executive and the selection committee (Electoral College), two bodies whom the constitution of the community vested with the powers to midwife the selection or election of new Igwe, were not properly constituted, it would then mean that the position of the new Igwe would be threatened.

But addressing journalists over the weekend alongside some cabinet members and prominent sons of the community, Igwe Nweke, who had earlier been presented with his certificate of recognition by the state government, called on the dissident group to retrace their steps and stop dragging the image of the

community in the mud.

“We have other things. In Obe-Agbo, one person must be Igwe, some other person can be senator, you can be in the state House of Assembly, you can be this or that. So, I have set up peace committee that will call them to order because Obe-Agbo is for all of us. We have no other place to go. They should come back so that we keep Obe moving,” he said.

Other prominent cabinet members including the new Onowu, Chief Ibe Nnamani; former cabinet secretary, Chief John Ugo Ngwu; Chief Emeka Nwigwe; and Chief Amechi Nwonu; all insisted that due process as well as the constitution of the community were followed in the election of the new Igwe.

The community leaders warned Chief Party Agu to stop parading himself as Onowu and Regent of ObeAgbo, saying that in line with the community’s constitution, his position as Onowu (though under contention then), ceased to exist at the demise of the former Igwe,

who appointed him, just as he cannot claim to be regent, which does not exist in the constitution, more so, when a new Igwe has been elected and presented with certificate of recognition.

They disclosed that those writing petitions to the governor, were already known mischief-makers in the community, and cautioned them to repent.

The leaders presented Sunday Telegraph with a copy of the ‘Certificate of Return’ issued by the State Ministry of Rural Development to Chief Sunday Nwobodo as President General, and his 12-man executive committee, when they were elected in 13th April 2014 as new executive of Obe-Agbo Development Union.

According to them, the constitution of the community states that the President General of Obe-Agbo Development Union (OADU) shall summon a general meeting for purpose of selecting the Electoral College, saying that no mention was made about village heads being involved.

Umahi appoints AIG, 190 other aides, says no vacancy in 2019 Uchenna Inya ABAKALIKI

E

bonyi State Governor, Chief Dave Umahi, yesterday, inaugurated 191 new sets of Special Assistants, tagged, ‘Technical Assistants’ by his administration.

Among those appointed is Assistant InspectorGeneral of Police and a People Democratic Congress (PDC) governorship candidate in 2011, Chief Kevin Opoke, who has retired from service.

The appointment is dominated by chieftains of the Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Congress (APC), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and the ruling Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) in the state.

Speaking at the International Conference Centre, Abakaliki, where newly appointed Caretaker Committee Chairmen of

Flood submerges 30 buildings in Owerri

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Muslim faithful haggling over rams at Agege Ram Market in preparation for Eid el-kabir celebration in Lagos…at the weekend PHOTO:GODWIN IREKHE

Ondo AP raises the alarm over hijack

N EWS I N BRIEF

The Accord Party (AP) in Ondo State has raised the alarm over an attempt by some members of the opposition parties to hijack AP ahead of the November, 26 governorship election in the state.

The party, through its spokesperson, Mr. Samuel Adeniyi, fingered those who lost out in the governorship primaries of All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as those behind the hijack attempt.

Already, Mr. Ola Amuda has emerged as the candidate of the party and has obtained the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) nomination form.

But Adeniyi in his statement said it is an undeniable fact that Accord Party has, before now, been enjoying steady growth in structures and membership, saying that the growth of the party cannot in good conscience be divorced from the financial and material support rendered to it by Mr. Ola Amuda.

Brazil, four African countries show interest in FESTAC @ 40

So far, five countries have indicated interest to participate in next year’s planned 40th anniversary of Second African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) to be hosted in Lagos, Nigeria. The countries are Brazil, Guinea, Cameroon, Ghana and Liberia.

Director General, Centre for Black and African Arts & Civilization (CBAAC), organisers of the event, Dr. Ferdinand Anikwe who disclosed this at the first meeting with the participating countries in Abuja on Friday, however, assured that more countries will take part in the fiesta.

“We are reaching out to the 59 countries that participated, and even more. We are expecting over 60 countries. Five appeared today, obviously some of them have not gotten the letter.

In our subsequent meetings more countries will participate, some of them are already reaching us,” Dr. Anikwe disclosed.

FESTAC, which was held in Nigeria in 1977 was attended by 59 countries and six communities, and lasted for one months.

Dr. Anikwe however, disclosed that participating countries have agreed that the 40th anniversary of the festival would last for one week, which is slated for Lagos in February next year.

Kwara approves fresh N36m for COED salaries

Following the release of N86, 996, 422.00 as the last quarterly subvention to the State-owned Tertiary Institutions for 2016, the Kwara State Governor, Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed on Friday approved a special release of another N36 million to the College of Education, Oro. The State Commissioner for Finance, Alhaji Demola Banu, who disclosed this, noted the money is to assist the school to pay its workers’ salaries.

Alhaji Banu said that the State government is working with the College management to find a permanent solution to the salary crisis facing the institution.

He said Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed is optimistic that the Visitation Panel to the College will come up with relevant recommendations that will assist the government in making the school financially independent.

The State government had recently set up a Visitation Panel to among other functions assess the operational practices of the College; examine the management of its finances as well as assess the relevance of courses offered.

the 13 local government areas in the state, their vice, secretaries and the technical assistants to the governor, were inaugurated, Umahi noted that the appointment is part of the stomach infrastructure of his administration. ‘’This is what we called government of inclusiveness and government of state unity. Let me declare today for all our detractors right from the National Assembly to the liaison officers that there is no vacancy in Ebonyi state,’’ he said.

He said his administration will be spending N35million already approved by the state House of Assembly in the payment of salaries for the newly appointed aides, saying that the appointees numbering about 200 with expectant salaries of N40million is part of empowerment scheme to reduce crime in the area.

o fewer than 30 buildings located in the densely populated Works Layout in Amakohia area, Owerri, were submerged by flood following a downpour on Friday evening.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the rain, which started at about 6 p.m. and lasted till about 8.30 p.m. on Friday, caused flooding that affected property worth millions of naira in some parts of the town.

Cloths, cooking pots, plates, bags, books, and tricycles were seen floating on the flood.

Although no building collapsed, the flooding collapsed the fence of some buildings leading to water flowing into houses.

The news agency also reports that the areas badly affected within the Works Layout area are Mgbea-

huru Street, Road C, and Road B in Amakohia Housing Estate Owerri where almost all the upstairs buildings had the ground floors covered with water.

Kelechi Uzohu, a resident of the area, blamed the flooding on poor road construction by contractors engaged to rehabilitate the road from the Standard Shoe Industry Amakohia to Imo State University Junction.

“The gutter constructed by the construction workers now is narrow and can no longer contain large water as the former one built by past government and because of this, we record serious flooding here,” he said. Another resident, Emma Ugochukwu, said but for the prompt intervention of his neighbours, his two children and sister in-law would have drowned in the flood.

Kebbi loses two pilgrims in Mecca Abubakar Abdul Birnin Kebbi

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he two Kebbi State Pilgrims, yesterday, were confirmed dead at Mecca in the Holy land of Saudi Arabia.

Confirming the news, the Public Publicity Secretary of 2016 Hajji Exercise in the state, Alhaji Aliyu Jajarima Kenya said the duo died after brief illnesses. He explained further that the deceased were from Maiyama and Augie Local Government Area, saying that they have been buried according to the Islamic rites. He stated

that the wife of the Governor, Hajiya Zainab Shenkafi Bagudu, who was in Mecca, condoled the families of the deceased, as well as the people of Kebbi State over the death of the two pilgrims.

She described their death in Mecca as a favour and happiness to their families, praying that Alhah forgive them of their sins.

She then commended the Kebbi State pilgrims for conducting themselves orderly and urged them to pray for the current administration in putting the country’s economy in proper shape.

OPINION 11

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Courage in leadership: The Shettima example Ismail Omipidan

I

t was in September, 2014. Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State had embarked on a planned assessment meetings with school authorities in Sudan and the United Kingdom, where 70 Students on the state’s sponsorship were undergoing undergraduate studies in medicine and geosciences. He had hardly arrived his first destination, when Boko Haram insurgents took over Bama Town, one of the most populated towns in the state, just about 70kilometres from Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.

Palpable tension was in the air, as news went round that Maiduguri, the seat of power too, was about to be overran by the sect. Shettima immediately cut short his trip, took the next available flight, and by September 4, 2014, he arrived Abuja, where he held strategic meetings on the Bama takeover, including constituting a committee to oversee the distribution of relief materials to the victims of the Bama attack.

Done with the meeting, he announced his intention to return to Maiduguri, the next day, an intention almost everyone around him, including this writer kicked against. As one who had known him right from his days at the Zenith Bank, in Maiduguri, I sought an audience with him, where I tried unsuccessfully to persuade him from returning to Maiduguri, the next day. I had advised, he should instead

stay for a few more days to return.

But the arguments he advanced, shocked me. Interestingly, he revealed some of those things in his public speeches and interactions with journalists, sometimes last year. He had told me among other things: “Mallam Samaila (that’s how he calls me), it is better for me to be killed, serving my people, than for Maiduguri, with several internally displaced persons to fall to Boko Haram, while I am away. That will amount to cowardice.”

Seeing his courage and determination to return, I prayed with him, and wished him well. By the next day, Friday September 5, a day after he returned to Maiduguri, he addressed the citizens of the State, through a state-wide broadcast, and thereafter, moved round the city, the same way, our security operatives carry out show of force, just to keep the spirit of the citizens alive, and to let them know he was not a runaway governor.

Coincidentally, exactly two years after that traumatic and emotional day, family, friends and well wishers, numbering about 200, gathered in Maiduguri, to attend a reception in his honour, to mark his Golden Age. Ironically, the event was initially slated for Friday, September 2, 2016, the same day and date he was born 50 years ago, but a presidential appointment for the same date, forced organisers of the event, to shift it to Monday, September 5, 2016, thus, compelling me also to recall the events of September 5, 2014.

It will interest Nigerians and other readers to know that the reception was not the typical Owanbe kind of celebration, befitting of the status of a typical Nigerian state governor, who attained the age of 50. There were no assorted drinks; we had water, soft drinks and your regular kinds of fruits- apple and pear.

Not a dime was taken from the coffers of the state government, to put the event, which lasted for just two hours, together. The list of donors and amount donated, were read out to the hearing of all of us seated in the hall.

The donors, 30 of them, were coordinated by his Spokesman, Isa Umar Gusau.

And from the funds raised, 50 children, orphaned by Boko Haram, were given a life line, with their school fees paid upfront for the next nine years. And just before we left the hall, Zenith Bank, his former employers, also keyed into the educational empowerment of the children orphaned by Boko Haram, by offering to support an additional 50 children, thus, bringing the number of beneficiaries to 100. Immediate past Governor of Kano State, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, chaired the event. Shettima’s lovely and ever supportive wife, Hajia Nana, was also on hand to lend her motherly support.

After the presentation of the awards and cutting of the cake, which was also donated, Governor Kashim Shettima, whom I know reluctantly accepted to be treated to the reception, thanked all those who attended, in-

cluding those who stood by him, especially the kid brothers of his estranged political leader, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, during his (Shettima) political trials.

He also told the audience what those of us very close to him, had always known about his relationship with Sheriff. Hear him: “During our travails with our political leader, some of our politicians elected to stand on the side of truth and justice. I never fought Ali (Modu) Sheriff. Ali Sheriff fought me. He made himself a tin god, until God demystified him and put him where he rightly belongs.”

Fifty years is indeed regarded as a Golden Age. But as late Coco Chanel, an Influential French Fashion Designer puts it: ‘Nature,’ gives one the face one deserves at 20, but it is up to one to merit ‘the face’ one has at 50 and even beyond.”

With what I know about Kashim Shettima, right from his days at the Zenith Bank, and for the mere fact that since becoming Governor in 2011, he has never for once, gathered people to say he was marking his birthday, and for reluctantly accepting to be treated to a reception last Monday, I think he undoubtedly, merits “the face” he has, at 50. He has shown courage and leadership, in the last five years as Borno Governor. I pray he ends well. Happy Birthday to you sir!

Omipidan, is the immediate past Kaduna NUJ, acting Chairman.

The youth many of us did become and will not become Odimegwu Onwumere

I

started thinking again recently of my youthful days after reading Forbes edition of July 20, 2016 in which a 28-year-old John Crestani was said to have read the bible and the Bhagavad Gita (Hindu scripture) for years to make money, but his turning-point came after reading a business book and today he makes thousands of dollars a day. In short, Forbes has it that as a result of Crestani’s never-give up spirit, he built an associate marketing network that at the moment brings $250,000 to $500,000 per month to his pocket and he travels the world.

While I was mesmerizing on the fortunes of Crestani, there were and are going to be more than 4.7 million middle and high school students using a tobacco product or alcohol.

The researchers from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had in 2011 heralded this rather ugly situation that has been befalling the youths. From east, west, north and south, many youths were not and some are becoming terrorists. But that was not at 21 when Crestani’s fortune came in 2009, when he fled Thailand after not being successful at college due to economic situation.

Regrettably, many of us at that age hadn’t any other direction than to go to college or join trade or learn a skill or the other. We didn’t know and are not going to know that people were and are making millions of money on online businesses. In short, many of us had and have confusing direction of not knowing where to start from.

Crestani’s success at that age when most of us were and are still feeding from our parents, pots of soup has made me to think of the youth I never was and many will not be.

It is not that I was a loafer as a youngster, but imagine that many of us are not married at

35, even at 40, due to economic challenges.

Because of this, some persons have called the present youths a lost generation. But I beg to disagree on this, because Crestani and others from Nigeria never disappointed the 20th and 21st centuries. But before we go to Nigeria, we have Mark Elliot Zuckerberg, an American programmer, Internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist, born May 14, 1984, who together with his college roommates and fellow Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes launched Facebook from Harvard’s dormitory rooms and today, he is chairman, chief executive officer, and co-founder of Facebook with his net worth estimated to be US$51.2 billion, as of June 2016, ranking him as the sixth richest person in the world.

In Nigeria we have Orji Uzor Kalu – billionaire founder of Slok Group now 56 who was a millionaire at 19; there is Cosmos Maduka who was a street “akra” seller but now – founder of Coscharis Group (sole distributor of BMW vehicles in West Africa); we have Michael Collins Ifeanyi Enebeli Ajereh (aka Don Jazzy) – famous music producer and co-founder of defunct Mo’Hits Records, now CEO of Marvin Records, and many others. These persons made fortunes in their youthful days and many of us will not be the youths they were and are.

The wealth many of us did not make yesterday is a great problem to us today and it is going to be a greater problem to youths of tomorrow who fail to make wealth today.

Many a youth would hinge their failures on the two recessions hitting the world known as “the Great Recession and the Greater Recession”. But for ages, recession has not been aloof, yet many poor persons sent poverty on errand. We will continue to have such things as reduction in all goods and services, yet, many youths will spring up to be renown and

many will not be. Many of us had thought and still think that youngsters with low education will not be successful in the attainment of incomes. However, just on September 23, 2011 there was the “Forbes 400: The Self-Made Billionaire Entrepreneurs Who Said No To College”. The number must have increased by now in the part of clime where the survey was conducted and around the world where survey is yet to be conducted on such.

Many of us as youngster were and never and (are) going to be indoctrinated into joining radical groups and movements. We know the story behind the Hitler Youth, especially in Rhineland city of Bruehl, where in 1939, membership in Nazi youth groups was made mandatory “for all boys and girls between the ages of ten and eighteen.” According to a statement credited to Adolf Hitler in 1938, “These boys and girls enter our organizations at ten years of age, and often for the first time get a little fresh air; after four years of the Young Folk they go on to the Hitler Youth, where we have them for another four years . . . And even if they are still not complete National Socialists, they go to Labor Service and are smoothed out there for another six, seven months . . . And whatever class consciousness or social status might still be left . . . the Wehrmacht (German armed forces) will take care of that.”

Many of us didn’t grow, have grown and are going to grow obesity.

There were, are, never many anxious, depressed, anti-social youths. Many had, have never and are going to have these traits. On Monday September 13, 2004, I read an article by a Madeleine Bunting in the Guardian, saying, “Three-generation survey reveals sharp decline in teenage mental health.” We were meant to understand that “The mental health of teenagers has sharply declined in the last 25 years and the chances that 15-yearolds will have behavioural problems such as

lying, stealing and being disobedient, have more than doubled.” These are some of the traits some of us had, never had and are going to have. The paper went forward, “The rate of emotional problems such as anxiety and depression has increased by 70% among adolescents, according to the biggest time trend study conducted in Britain.”

In my time as a youngster, behavioural problems were not common, but today, the source said that between 1974, 1986 and 1999, behavioural problems have increased above the roof. “The deterioration of adolescents’ mental health in Britain is in contrast to the findings of research in the US which showed that a comparable decline tailed off in the 90s, while in Holland, there was no decline at all,” said the study. From Harriet Sergeant of Daily Mail, September 219, 009, showed how “a generation of violent, illiterate young men are living outside the boundaries of civilised society…

Thousands of teenage boys are failing to make the successful transition to manhood.”

I was meant to understand that many millions of youths had left, never left, are leaving and are going to leave school without gaining the basic qualifications of five good GCSEs. When the society cannot provide for these youths who have had no prerequisite qualifications to fend for themselves, they turn to crime. We are today seeing the uncountable number of crimes ongoing among the youths across the world. Governments, groups and individuals can only be putting up initiatives for early interventions in the lives of youths, but certainly, there will continue to be a John Crestani that many youths did become, are to become and will not become.

Odimegwu Onwumere is a Rivers StateNigeria based poet, writer and consultant.

Email: odimegwu@journalist.com

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

news

Sept 11: Families of 1,113 yet to receive death confirmations Chijioke Iremeka

T

With agency reports

he September 11, 2001, terrorists’ attacks on twin towers of New York City’s World Trade Centre complex, United States of America, may have come and gone but its effects remain evergreen in the minds of the survivors 15 years after, even as biological examiners are yet to issue death confirmation to 1,113 deaths.

According to New York’s Office of the Chief Medical

Examiner, staff at the medical examiner’s office still work to identify remains that turned up as recently as 2013, saying that families of 1,113 of the 2,753, who died still have no biological confirmation of deaths.

A 71-year-old, Arnold Korotkin, Sociologist and creator of a massive 9/11 listserv, said: “Forty to 50 per cent of the families didn’t have any body parts returned to them. Only a small percentage had an entire body returned to them.

Sometimes, it was just a

wedding ring with a finger, or a jawbone with teeth.”

“This isn’t over,” Korotkin adds. “The wound heals and every Sept. 11 the scab gets taken off for a moment.”

Meanwhile, many ongoing issues still swirl around survivors and families.

Among them include what role Saudi Arabia may have played in the terror attacks and 28 classified pages of a federal document that some lawmakers say includes a smoking gun; the inclusion of more cancers in insurance coverage for first respond-

ers; and the treatment of remains?

However, while survivors struggle with broken lives and jobs lost due to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), others are trying to let go off anger of their loved ones that ended up in a tumble of broken wreckage in a landfill on Staten Island.

Today, the remains of their loved ones lie in a museum, in a private area open only to victims’ family members, not far from where curious tourists buy trinkets at a souvenir shop.

“I was paranoid,” retired police Sgt. Dennis Frederick said of the years immediately following 9/11 and his ongoing battle with PTSD. “I thought people were trying to injure me, trying to hurt me. I’d have rage attacks.

“I was like a loaded gun when I was walking around in public. It was a shame. I was a danger to others. I was close to being hospitalised because I was such a danger to myself and others.”

On this fateful day, 19 men hijacked four fuel-laden U.S. commercial airplanes

and crashed them into each tower of New York City’s World Trade Centre complex, the Pentagon building in Washington and a field in Shanksville, Pa., killing over 2,996 people, making it the deadliest foreign attack ever on U.S. soil.

The terrorist group, AlQaeda, coordinated and took credit for the attacks.

An earlier declaration of holy war against the United States by Al-Qaeda’s leader, Osama bin Laden, was seen as the main motivator for the hijackers.

Customs generated over N95.7bn in August – spokesman

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he Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) on Saturday in Abuja said it generated over N95.7 billion in August.

The NCS Public Relations Officer, Mr Wale Adeniyi, said in an interview that the revenue had been remitted to the Federal Government’s coffers.

Adeniyi expressed satisfaction that the NCS generated the amount in spite of the current foreign exchange challenge and low imports.

“Last month, August, 2016, the service recorded the highest revenue in 10 years despite the forex difficulty, low imports and general economic downturn.

“This points to the efficacy of the ComptrollerGeneral’s policy thrust.

“The strong stance of the Comptroller-General on issues of discipline, integ-

rity and strict adherence to customs codes and clearance procedures is yielding positive results,’’ he said.

He said that the Comptroller-General, Col. Hammed Ali (rtd), who assumed office in August, 2015, brought a three-point presidential mandate – reform, restructure and revenue rise.

Adeniyi said that the Comptroller-General based the policy thrust on honesty, integrity and transparency for actualization.

He noted that increased revenue generation required cooperation of all stakeholders and customs formations across the country.

He said that the service had embarked on stakeholders’ visit to urge them to comply with the new ways of doing business with the service.

Pilgrim excretes final pellets of cocaine after NDLEA arrest

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he drug trafficker, who was arrested last week by officials of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), trying to board an Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai, has excreted the final wraps of cocaine ingested this weekend, according to officials.

The final tally of wrapped packages excreted was 82 pellets, the NDLEA said.

Mrs Binuyo Basari Iyabo, 55, was on her way to Medina for the 2016 annual hajj exercise in Saudi Arabia, when she was apprehended

by NDLEA operatives.

The spokesman of NDLEA, Mitchell Ofoyeju, confirmed that Mrs. Iyabo excreted the last wraps of the substance over the weekend while in their custody.

According to Ofoyeju, the

total weight of drugs excreted by the suspect was 931 grams.

According to the spokesman, Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah, the antinarcotics boss, described the action of the suspect as shameful and stated that the drug trafficker would be sanctioned in line with anti-narcotics laws.

He said: “It is a shameful and discreditable act for a 55 years old mother who is going on a holy pilgrimage to ingest narcotics. This is very shocking and a clear indication of her inability to effectively discharge parental responsibilities.

“The agency shall invoke the powers of the law against her and others caught indulging in production or trafficking of drugs.”

L-R: Supervisor, Abia State Environmental Protection Agency (ASEPA), Chief Otah Odim Ukariwo; Governor Dr. Okezie Ikpoeazu and Chief Erondu Erondu, during governor’s monitoring of the evacuation of dumps at Isi-gate, in Umuanhia…at the weeknd

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wo young writers, Akin Fadeyi and Omo Bazuaye have accused the Minister of Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed of plagiarism and outright theft of their work in the recently launched: Change Begins with Me concept.

According to them, the concept was submitted to the federal government through the minister who allegedly changed its name and proceeded to launch the programme without recourse to them. The programme was launched at an elaborate ceremony last week by President Muhammadu Buhari Fadeyi and Bazuaye said they received with utter shock and disbelief attempt by the federal government

‘Minister didn’t plagiarise Change Begins with Me’ through its Ministry of Information and National Orientation to clone and plagiarise their work, “Not in My Country”, in what it now calls “Change Begins with Me”.

They said the idea they dropped in the office of the Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation, Lai Mohammed; but “what seems a perfect replica of it was being launched by the minister without the consent of the real originators.”

But a marketing communication company yesterday,

said the idea of the ‘Change Begins with Me’ projects was entirely that of the minister.

In a statement, the company said it read with “utter shock and disbelief the reported claim by some people that the Minister of Information and National Orientation stole the concept of ‘Change Begins with Me’, which was launched by the President on Thursday, Sept 8. 2016, but that this is nothing but sheer lies and blackmail.”

The Head of the Marketing Communication Company, Brian e Ebden said that it along with the advertising

agency Centerspread, were contacted a week after Alhaji Lai Mohammed was nominated as Minister by the President to attend a brainstorming workshop on Thursday 8th October 2015 at the White House Hotel in Ikeja.

“At this briefing, Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s first statement was that once he has taken office, he wished to launch a change campaign entitled, ‘Change Begins with Me.’ It was Centerspread and my task to develop the communications campaign and strategy, following an in-depth

Demand for ‘equity, justice’ not terrorism, Ijaws tell FG Emmanuel Masha Port Harcourt

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he Ijaw have faulted the federal government’s stance on the crisis in the Niger Delta, noting that, the ongoing deployment of troops and heavy military equipment to the region was unnecessary, because the issue

at hand demands dialogue rather than the use of force.

They also kicked against the categorisation of the militant groups in the area as “terrorists” and deserve to be treated like the Boko Haram insurgents spreading death and violence in the NorthEast, despite the fact they (militants) are agitating for

“equity, fairness and justice” in the country.

Factional president of the Ijaw National Congress, (INC), Boma Obuoforibo, who spoke on behalf of the Ijaws at a briefing in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, noted that, the comparison was misguided and capable of “aggravating the

crisis in the region.”

He said the time was right for the country to be restructured so that the federating units have greater control of the happenings within them.

According to him, such move would guarantee growth and progress to take place among the federating units or states.

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news

Police sergeant dies in Gov Abubakar’s convoy Abubakar Abdul Birnin Kebbi

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he convoy of Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu Abubakar was yesterday involved in a road fatal accident which claimed the life of one of his security aides, Sergeant Abdullahi Ardo, while a driver and three other personal staff of the governor sustained various degrees of injuries.

Governor Abubakar, however, was not in the convey as he flew back to Birnin Kebbi from Abuja by air.

The incident, according to witnesses, occurred as a result of over-speeding, while the governor was travelling along Dakingari Road heading towards Bunza Local Government Area.

Confirming the incident to newsmen yesterday in Birnin Kebbi shortly after paying a condolence visit to the deceased family, the Police Public Relation Officer (PPRO) ASP Nafiu Abubakar, said the incident, which occurred in the morning along Dakingari

to Bunza road was as a result of over speeding by the driver.

During the visit the State Commissioner of Police, who was represented by the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of Operational Department, Musa Yusuf Garba, described the late sergeant as a hardworking and intelligent officer.

“We missed Ardo, we pray May Allah forgive him of his sins known and unknown, open and secret and big and small,” he said.

Commenting an eye witness, Alhassan Bunza said that Governor Abubakar was not inside the convoy that crashed while they were returning from Abuja.

“The driver lost control, the accident occur around 6am, they were coming from Abuja, the driver and three other sustained injuries,” he added.

The late officer has been buried according to Muslim rites while the injured victims are receiving treatment at Sahyyah Hospital.

We’re aware Nigeria is in trouble, says CBN Kenneth Ofoma

T ENUGU

he nation’s apex bank, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday announced that it was aware of the troubling economic outlay in country.

It declared that as part of palliative measures, it has established special funds under its various schemes to help provide easy access to investment funds by Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises (MSME).

To this end, the apex bank asked Nigerians to take advantage of the numerous policies, initiatives and programmes packaged by the bank to cushion the effects of the biting economic recession in the country.

It noted for instance that

its N220 billion fund made available for MSME can be easily accessed.

Speaking at the bank’s fair organised for small and medium scale enterprises, artisan, farmers, banks, hairdressers, barbers, shoemakers and other business groups in Enugu at the weekend, the Acting Director, Corporate Communications of CBN, Isaac Okoroafor assured that the prevailing economic situation would not last long.

“Though we are in trouble, it is just for a while. As fast as we can, let us re-adjust ourselves so we can get out of the present situation.

“First of all, what is recession? Recession simply put is a period of dwindling economic realities. Incomes are falling and government’s revenue is dwindling. Un-

employment is increasing because businesses are not the way they should be.

They sack workers because income is shrinking.

“People are not spending especially in our case because oil prices have collapsed and foreign exchange receipts have dried up; falling from N3.2billion to less than N500 million a month.

With this kind of situation, Nigerians should try to adjust themselves. This is the real change. We need to change our ways to the realisation of a new troubling situation which is that it is no longer business as usual.

Nigerians should learn how to save the little they have so they can use it over time.

“Nigerians should begin to eat what we produce and not to look for expensive dollars to import food. We should

go back to corn, yam and made in Nigeria rice. Let us produce toothpicks and not import them from China.

“We should not import 20 million eggs from South Africa. We should stop importing chickens when we have them here. Nigeria should brace up. This is not a 100 metre marathon. Let us brace up and change our ways. The most hit now are people who have refused to realise that we ought to eat what we produce,” he said.

On the policies packaged by the bank hoping to cushion the effects of the economic challenge, Okoroafor said 60% of MSME development fund was meant for women and women owned enterprises noting that some states have already accessed the funds to the tune of N2 billion.”

Fani-Kayode frowns at maltreatment of northern minorities Chijioke Iremeka

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ormer Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode has frowned at the marginalisation of the northern minorities by Fulanis as well as killing of the Christians in the north, and called for peaceful co-existence among Nigerians.

The ex-Minister, who made this appeal in a speech delivered to the Christian Information Network Forum in Jos, Plateau State capital, preached tolerance between Fulanis and northern minorities.

Speaking against maltreatment of the northern minorities as well as Christians in the North, he said: “I can boldly say that I consider it a solemn duty to point out the consistent excesses of the Fulani in Nige-

ria and particularly their illtreatment of the northern minority groups over the years.

“As a matter of fact, I regard myself as being as much of a northern Christian as anyone else in this forum and when one of our own is killed by the Islamists and terrorists in our country, it hurts and pains me to the marrow. These are my people that are being slaughtered as much as they are yours. So, we must stop the killings.

“If Nigeria were ever to break up, we will ensure that the northern minorities and the Middle Belt come with the South. We will never leave you in the hands of our collective enemies and we will never abandon you.

Police rescue Deputy Controller, children from kidnappers

T

he Rivers State Police Command has rescued 17 passengers of a commuter bus seized by suspected kidnappers on September 5 along the Ndele Elele axis of the East West Road.

Among those rescued were a Deputy Controller of Prisons, Michael Okorie, and his two children.

The Command’s Public Relations Officer, Omoni Nnamdi, said 13 of those rescued were passengers in the commuter bus.

The Police spokesman disclosed that the suspects engaged the police in a gun duel during the rescue operation, adding that efforts were ongoing to arrest them.

Meanwhile, Police in Ogun State rescued two Chinese nationals who were kidnapped there this month, a police official said.

Abimbola Oyeyemi, spokesman for the Ogun police, said the two were working for a quarry company in the state, which is just north of the commercial capital of Lagos, when they were taken by unidentified gunman on September 1, reports Reuters.

“None of them was hurt and no ransom was paid,” Oyeyemi said of the recovery operation. The kidnappers had not been captured but police were on their trail, he said.

L-R: All Progressives Congress (APC); National Deputy Women Leader, Mrs. Tina Adike; Wife of Speaker, Imo State House of Assembly, Mrs. Olaedo Ihim; Wife of Lagos State Governor, Mrs. Bolanle Ambode; Wife of Imo State Governor, Mrs. Nkechi Okorocha; Imo State Commissioner for Education, Mrs. Gertrude Oduka and Ambassador Uju Onwudiwe during the Imo State Towns Development Association/ Lagos, Women’s Wing Empowerment Programme with the theme, Utilising our Gender for Social Economic Development, at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos…yesterday

Anambra Central: Politicians flay denial of representation Pamela Eboh Awka

T

he people of Anambra Central senatorial zone have described as unfair the continued delay in conducting the rerun election for the zone, arguing that they were being denied right of representation in the country’s upper legislative chambers.

This came as the candidate of African Democratic Congress,(ADC), in the election, Comrade Anayo Nweke, wrote the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), urging him not to succumb to the pressure of fixing a date for the election until all the cases pending in the courts were disposed of.

Some politicians who spoke with Sunday Telegraph in Awka and other

parts of the zone regretted that while other zones in the country were pushing for social amenities through their senators in the Senate, Anambra Central had nobody to speak for them.

Chief Clifford Nwagbo, a politician said he always felt bad whenever he watched senators from other zones speaking on the floor of the senate, knowing that his zone did not have any representative there.

While calling on politicians and other stakeholders from the area to bury their differences and withdraw the cases in court to enable INEC conduct the exercise, he reminded those who went to court over the matter that they were only punishing the entire people of Anambra Central by not having a representative in the senate.

Also speaking, Mr. Amechi Nwune from Njikoka Local Government Area wondered why the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP), should hold the people of the zone to ransom by deliberately frustrating efforts to have a senator for Anambra Central.

He said: “All the senators have ensured that their areas were captured in this year’s budget in terms of provision of dividends of democracy, but there was

nobody to press for the inclusion of our needs. This is unfair and it can best be described as self marginalization brought about by some politicians in our zone.”

However, in a letter addressed to the INEC chairman, the ADC senatorial candidate for Anambra Central, Comrade Nweke urged INEC to disregard calls for the fixing of a date for the election while cases were still pending in courts.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

AKO-AGUGUA I formerly known and addressed as Edna Nneka Offia, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Edna Ako-Agugua.

All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

AFOLABI I formerly known and addressed as Adedokun Hannah, now wish to be known and addressed as Mrs. Afolabi Ana Bose. All former documents remain valid. Banks and general public take note.

14

Science

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY September 11, 2016

08035624538

IUO champions course in Medicine for private universities in Africa – Vice Chancellor

On Monday, May 10, 1999, Certificate No 001, was issued to Chief Gabriel Igbinedion by the Federal Government for the establishment of the Igbinedion University, thereby making it the first ever private university licensed and operating in Nigeria.

Years later, the ‘mustard seed’ planted in his native town, Okada in Edo State, continues to maintain the distinction of being the first ever private university in Africa, South of the Sahara, to produce medical doctors, pharmacists and engineers, Science Writer, STANLEY CHIBUIHEM AMALAHA, in an interview with Rev. Prof. Eghose Emmanuel Osaghae, Vice Chancellor of the university reports.

S

ir Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion, Founder, Igbinedion University Okada (IUO), Edo State, Nigeria, may not be the richest man in Nigeria, but he has made spectacular investments in novel areas before other Nigerian rich men and women could think of them. For example, he was the first Nigerian to set up an airline. The Okada Air, named after his native town Okada in Edo State, where he also built the first ever privately owned university in the country - Igbinedion University.

Since Friday, October 15, 1999, when the foundation Students (111 in number), arrived Okada, the university without interruption upheld its resolve to return tertiary education to the internationally accepted calendar of September to June.

In an interview with Prof. Emmanuel E. Osaghae, Vice Chancellor of the university, on why Igbinedion University was established when there was no other private university in Nigeria, he said: “Sir Gabriel Igbinedion, Chancellor and founder of this great university had a desire, an excellent dream to improve the university system in Nigeria. That was his prime motivation for establishing Igbinedion University Okada (IUO)”.

The Reverend Professor of the Anglican Communion further stated that: “It took Chief Igbinedion nine years to process the license of this university, from 1990 to 1999 before it was eventually granted. So you can see the long period he waited. If the Federal Government had given him the license earlier, the university would have been established before 1999.

“Secondly, you are aware that many Ivy-league universities in the world such as Harvard, Yale etc are privately owned. Chief Igbinedion’s philosophy was to give back to the society and establish a world-class university with global competitiveness.”

On why the university has written Nigeria’s No 1 at the entrance of its main campus, the erudite scholar with over 30 honours, distinctions and fellowships, namely: the Emeka Ayaoku Chair of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and others honours said: “Of course, we are number one in many areas. For example, Chief Igbinedion is a man ahead of his time. He was the first to put in an application for the establishment of a private university in Nigeria before anybody in this nation whether individual or faith-based. That is why Certificate No 001, was issued to him in 1999 by the Federal Government of Nigeria. “Secondly, ever since then, we have grown steadily and have the university has maintained the distinction of being the first ever private university this time, not in Nigeria only, but in Africa, South of the Sahara, to produce medical doctors, pharmacists, and engineers.

Our first set of doctors were produced in 2007.”

On other achievements of IUO, the Vice Chancellor, who is a political scientist and a Visiting Senior Fellow to many universities in America, Europe and Asia namely: North Western University, Evanston, Illinois, USA, and others, commented: “We have championed courses

Sir Gabriel Igbinedion, founder

in different areas of medicine for other universities to follow. For example, when Igbinedion Teaching Hospital, Okada, was established in 1993 before the university, it was the most modern teaching hospital in Africa with state-of–the-art medical facilities comparable with what you can get from any teaching hospital of his kind in the world. This made the Federal Government to require all public servants travelling abroad for medical check-up, to get certification from Igbinedion Teaching Hospital before they could travel out. The hospital performed the first successful kidney stone surgery in Nigeria. As a reputable Centre for Research and Excellence, it has many areas it has pioneered in medicine. When the university was established, it became Igbinedion University Teaching Hospital where the first medical doctors were produced South of Saharan Africa by any private university”.

Speaking about tuition, the Vice Chancellor said: “Chief Igbinedion has been subsidizing the university tuition fees,

Prof Osaghae, Vice Chancellor

as it remains a not-for-profit institution and to give back to the society as his founding philosophy”. We thank God that today (September 11, 2016) marks the birthday of Chief Igbinedion.

The Vice Chancellor, with over 150 research, and publications, further highlighted on other achievements of the university. “It is on record that in 2006, a student of the young Igbinedion University, Mr Sunday Damilola Olawuyi, obtained a First Class Honours degree in the highly competitive Nigerian Bar examinations in the Nigerian Law School

The university has maintained the distinction of being the first ever private university in Africa, South of the Sahara, to produce medical doctors, pharmacists, and engineers

Lagos, thereby standing out as the only

private university in Nigeria to have achieved that feat. Similarly, 60 percent of our students are studying science and technology related courses. IUO adopted this mechanism from the beginning to improve science and technology in Nigeria regardless they are the most capital intensive programmes in the country.

Our Medical School for instance, has the highest number of professors in the university. We produced the first set of engineers in 2007. Today, we have Six departments in engineering namely: Computer, Electronics, Chemical, Civil, Petroleum, and Mechanical.

In 2009, our first sets of Pharmacists were produced. In Pharmacy, we have invested extensively where the country needs manpower.”

Quite early in life, and in line with its vision of being an internationally competitive university, IUO identified eternal linkages and networking with (older and mentoring-capable) universities and development patterns as strategic to the realisation of its goals.”he added.

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

SUNDAY

Body Soul S U N D AY, S E P T E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 1 6

I’m going hubby-shopping (5) 22 Cold shoulder vibes 18,39 Comedy pays me well –Senator, a comedian 42

I’m passionate about grassroot women –Ijewere-Kalejaiye

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Body&Soul

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Here Beyond

StyleSta ker

Funke Akindele Chic and bold

Ultimate drape-off Biwom Iklaki

T

he ultimate fabulous drape-off of the stars in our societies is also the ultimate sexy –off. A woman looks absolutely stunning and sensual in any clothing that drapes and accentuates her figure. Some designers have perfected the art of draping the woman’s frame and drawing emphasis to the most beautiful parts of her. This doesn’t take away from the tight fitted clothes of course but it goes a long way to affirm that sexy is not in how much your clothes hug your figure, but in how you wear it. The draped outfits are reminiscent of Grecian goddesses as captured in many ancient statues around the world. Who wouldn’t want to be as beautifully clad as a goddess? Well, celebrities around the world have proved that they can and even out-do their inspiration both on and off the red carpets, here and beyond our shores.

Judith Onyebuchi

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his week, we are stalking the style of none other than the amazingly talented, hilarious, beautiful, and crazy Funke Akindele AKA Jenifa.

Akindele Olufunke Ayotunde is a Nigerian actress, and producer. She obtained a degree in Law from the University of Lagos.

Funke came to limelight after featuring in popular United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) sponsored sitcom; ‘I need to know’.

Funke Akindele’s big break came in 2009 from the movie titled ‘Jenifa’ and has over a 100 movies to her credit as actress, writer and producer.

She won the African Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in Leading Role for her role as ‘Jenifa’.

Funke Akindele is that celeb whose fashion styles are

unpredictable. She dresses in such a fun and attractive way; one day she’s in jeans and another day she is in a dress that is super stylish and elegant.

She knows how to make heads turn and steal shows wherever she goes. The comic actress once made a stylish striking fashion statement in a floral print dress for an occasion.

At the AMVCA 2016 held earlier in the year, the comic actress who bagged one award for herself was dressed in a ‘cream and green fish-cut armless flowing gown.’ Aside her dress being embellished with ‘glittering-gold stones’, her makeup was also on point.

She has got a remarkable fashion flair especially in Asoebi styles and they seem to fit her perfectly. She is truly an epitome of beauty. On and off the screen, Funke is always killing the game!

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Body&Soul

I’m passionate about grassroot women –Ijewere-Kalejaiye

Esther Ijewere-Kalejaiye is a writer and human rights activist. She is the CEO of Rubies Ink Initiative for Women and Children, an initiative addressing domestic violence against women and children in the society. Her Walk Against Rape project became a platform celebrities including Kate Henshaw used to speak out against rape. The Edo State born recently won the 2016 Young Person of the Year Award. A graduate of the prestigious Onabisi Onabanjo University, Esther in this interview with ABIOLA ALABA PETERS, shares the many challenges she faces in her struggle to be a voice for the voiceless

How was growing up for you?

Growing up was fantastic, I grew up with my mum who is a single mother of three; an elder brother and a younger sister.

From my early age, I was trained to understand the power of independence and to know what it feels like to appreciate people. Seeing my mum struggle and going all out for her children, helped shape me into who I am today and that is why when people approach me for support, I can’t say no because my mum is almost like the biggest giver I know. So growing up for me was really good.

While growing up, did you ever imagine yourself coming this far?

Yes I did! I said yes because I learnt the power of affirmation at a very young age. I will stand in front of the mirror and say to myself, ‘I am great, I’m a champion’. Sometimes, I will even scream and say, ‘one day, you all will remember my name!’

This was way back, when I was still in secondary school. As much as I believed in myself then, I n e v er knew it

was going to turn out like this. My passion came out first then realise the power of celebrities, she encouraged me and ever I added my talent; because for me, it is not about money. Being since, God has been faithful. I have working with some of here today, it’s all about the grace of the lord; God has pushed these celebrities for the campaign regularly. me and He keeps pushing me.

How do you reach out to them and also get their support?

What is the idea Walk Against Rape Initiative borne out of; pasI just reach out to them, either via email or call them up sion, experience or sympathy? directly or their management. Some respond and some may I have said this countless times, I was never raped. This strug- not, the good thing is at the very beginning, most of them gle was borne out of passion and not experience as many are did not respond well, but when they see the struggle and the insinuating. I know few people who experienced rape while I positive impact it’s making, they begin to support. was growing up. I just kept telling myself that I will do something about it. As at the time I started campaigning for it, there As an author, kindly share with us some of your books? was a vacuum and that was because of shame; people were I have just one book, and the second one is my tell-it-all not bold enough to speak out, to say, ‘I was raped’. So for me, it book. My first book is titled ‘Break the Silence’. It is a book on was borne out of passion; I wanted these people to have their rape, an informational book. It was endorsed by the Federal voice. I told them, ‘come let’s do something, let us speak up so Ministry of Women Affairs and the Lagos State Ministry of people can start to support’ and before I knew it, it became a Women Affairs. It’s a book that talks about health centres and full campaign, people started to take me seriously, I registered the need for people to speak out. We donated over 30,000 for an NGO, then the advocacy struggle continues. copies to secondary schools across the country. My second book which is the tell-it-all is going to come out before the What is the major challenge you faced in this struggle? end of the year. I want to use the book to tell my own story Funding! No brand is ready to identify with rape. Fight against in my own way, address the controversies here and there, so rape is one of the many things I do. But it was the main project it’s a book to watch out for. that brought me out, so a lot of people don’t know that I have You recently won the Young Person of the Year Award. How other projects. does that make you feel, tell us about it?

Yes! To the glory of God, I won the award for the Young Kindly highlight some of the other projects you have?

I’m the Chief Executive Officer of Rubies Ink Initiative for Person of the Year 2016, I never saw it coming. I was really Women and Children. Women of Rubies, is a platform for wom- surprised when the organisers said they were going to recogen. I write for Guardian Newspapers to celebrate exceptional nise me. That was on July 9th 2016, when a new Miss Tourism women, I’m passionate about grassroot women, the average Nigeria was crowned. But then, according to them, and what woman who sells and does some menial jobs to survive like they told me the award stands for, it is designed to celebrate the woman frying akara, the bread woman, that woman that and recognise young individuals who have consistently supsells pepper or corn and fish by the roadside. For me, these ported a cause. By the special grace of God, I have been able women are not in front, they are forgotten and neglected. Some to achieve that feat and I have been consistent with what I do. of them don’t have access to information. So for me Esther Ijewere-Kalejaiye, I am passionate about these women. And then Highlight the difference between Walk Against Rape and Colthere is Project Capable, which is endorsed by the Ministry lege Acquaintance Rape Education?

College Acquaintance Rape Education, C.A.R.E is a follow of Education, we hold it annually with over 2000 secondary school students in Lagos. A lot of people don’t know because up for the Walk Against Rape campaign. So I sat down with the anti-rape movement has not only taken so much but has my team and told them the need to look for the most affected gained much popularity. people when it comes to rape and domestic violence. We then realised that young people, precisely secondary school Have you ever been involved with a rape case, whereby, you students are the most affected; they are scared and don’t want are 60 percent to 70 percent gone with the legal proceedto speak up. So we partnered with the Lagos State Ministry ings, only for the victim to back out of the case? of Justice to organise a workshop. Throughout last year, we Sure, in fact, 80 percent of them usually back out. They were busy going from one school to another trying to encourbreak the silence first, they tell you they want the age, sensitize and inform the students on the need to speak case in court and you carry their case on your head out. C.A.R.E is a follow up on the Walk Against Rape. but the moment they face the reality of court and justice, sometimes, it could be the mother who would How best would you describe yourself? pull out first, claiming her husband would go to jail For me, I would best describe myself as a goal-getter, a hapfor raping their daughter. A lot of these women get py woman, wife and mother, I don’t know what else to say, scared and before you know it, they bail out. Now you it’s endless. I know I’m a good person, people say, you don’t can imagine how frustrating it can be, after investing have to praise yourself, but the truth is I know I am a good your time, money and other resources, but then, it is person; my instincts, talents and creativity are gifts from God. not enough reason to give up on the fight against rape.

With your busy schedule, how much time do you have for Really, despite the discouragement on the part of the yourself and your family? victims, you don’t think it is enough reasons to give up?

That is what I am doing right now, I just have to take a break Not at all, if you consider giving up because of those and make out the best of time for my children, because this is backing out, what about the others? There are too many the longest break. When I am off break, it is either I’m writing rape victims out there who are scared to break the si- or chasing one proposal or the other, so most of the time, I lence so giving up is not an option. relax with my family.

You seem to be connected to top Nigerian celebrities, are you also an entertainer?

I am not an entertainer; the thing is I just know how to adopt some of these celebrities as agents of change.

I see them as people beyond the screen, be it comedy, movies or music and the need to utilise them positively. I see them as ambassadors of good deeds.

This is a movement that has been running for more than seven years and one person that opened that channel for me was Kate Henshaw; she made me

In all of these struggles, what has life taught you?

I have been through a lot in life; thank God I was able to come out of them all. Life has taught me to be good to people, even when your good doesn’t seem to be appreciated, you just have to continue to be good.

So how far do you intend to go in this struggle and in life?

I want to go as far as not just contributing my part in the advocacy and civil society sector, I also want to be part of decision making nationally, when it comes to issues affecting us.

Body&Soul

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

18

Cold shoulder vibes Vanessa Okwara

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he shoulder is a beautiful part of the body to show off.

Cold shoulders look extremely attractive, as bare shoulders give that subtle and fragile feminine look that is always endearing. The cold-shoulder trend is incredibly flattering for all women because everyone’s shoulders look great. Cut-out shoulder or cold shoulders is a trend for all ages as ladies in their late forties and even fifties can rock this trend.

Cold shoulder style comes in tops, shirts or dresses which have the shoulder part cut off, leaving your shoulder bare and exposed. This gives the reason for the name ‘Coldshoulder.’ Cold Shoulder tops or dresses have a cut out right around the shoulders and hence the shoulders are bare and because they are exposed, it is easier for you to give someone the literal cold shoulder! Now you know why they are called ‘cold shoulders’ right?

Cold-shoulder trend or the cut out shoulder look is a spin-off from the off-shoulder fashion style. It’s slightly different from off the shoulder trend that bares virtually the whole shoulders. Cold shoulders bare only the cutout section of the shoulders to the upper arms.

Not only is it a great way to keep cool, show off your shoulders and keep the rest of your arms covered (if you’re not ready to flaunt it all), but also, it offers a peek-a-boo cutouts; revealing just enough to keep people guessing.

If you are wearing basic items like denim and sneakers, cold shoulder tops or dress will give them instant fresh spring look.

When it comes to flaunting your shoulders, there’s one thing that’s always at the top of your mind: what bra to wear. Luckily, this cut out shoulder-showing trend lends itself well to classic everyday bra styles; unlike the completely off the shoulder trend.

Give your jeans cool casual twists by adding a gorgeous cold-shoulder top to the mix. Go for a patterned pick or keep it simple with bold block colours. It’s all about the shoulder with this look. So whether you’re opting for a dress or a top, you want to make sure the bottom is simple and streamlined so that the focus falls mainly on the shoulders.

So don’t give this style the cold shoulders; join the train of ladies rocking this trend just right; whether it’s for work or play.

Editor’s current obsession

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Wine & Dine

Enjoy tasty Rioja Ibukunoluwa Kayode

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rom the Rioja region of Spain, made entirely with white grapes is White Rioja Blanco. A light to full-bodied wine treasured for its ability to age for 10 or more years. Rioja Blanco wines are exceptionally rare, making up only about 10% of the region’s production.

There are two primary tasting note styles of White Rioja wines based on difference in aging. Most white Rioja wines are released a year after vintage in a “fresh” style leaving just a few designed to age at least 7–15 years where they develop nutty, oxidative flavours. They leave bold aroma, heady with notes of roasted pineapple, caramel-

ized honey, preserved lime, candied tarragon, hazelnut, whisky and horehound candies.

On the palate, Rioja wines are dry and subtly revealing layers of lemon curd, creamed pine nuts, praline, tarragon and lemonade with a long finish of oily minerals, saline and mouth-watering acidity.

The freshness are lean and citrusy with notes of lime peel, lemon verbana, honeydew melon, fresh tarragon, marjoram and a chalky mineral note. On the palate, this wine is dry and burst with ample acidity and sweeter fruit flavours of honeydew melon, lemon curd, and honeycomb with a long finish of minerals, saline, and tingly acidity.

Cake in toaster Biwom Iklaki

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ost homes have toasters or sandwich makers at their disposal. While they are often mainly used to toast bread, there are other uses to the sandwich maker.

Did you know you could also make your tasty cake in a toaster? It sounds deliciously shocking doesn’t it? I would bet it would save you a few minutes of gas time in this harsh economy of increasing prices of gas. Well, enough said, let’s get on with it shall we?

Ingredients 1 cup Plain flour (128 grams) 1/2 cup softened butter /margarine/oil (113 grams) 1 tbsp. baking powder 1/2 cup sugar (8tbs or 100grams) 1-2 eggs 30 ml milk or water 1 tsp. vanilla/banana extract

Preparation In a bowl, whisk your butter/oil and sugar until smooth.

Add your eggs and extracts and whisk some more. Combine the milk/water and slowly add the baking powder and flour in batches. Mix thoroughly until smooth and without lumps.

Brush the inside of the toaster with some oil or butter. Turn it on for at least three minutes then pour the batter into the spaces, do not let it overflow. Cover and let it cook until it turns brown or a toothpick goes through and comes out clean.

Serve in a dish and sprinkle with some confectioners’ sugar, fruit and a cup of tea/coffee.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

with

Juliet Bumah +234 81 1 675 9770

julietbumah@gmail.com

I’m going hubby-shopping (5) Juliet Bumah

L

ove has a way of finding the way. Dave finds himself at her estate’s gate.

The men at the security post admire his car. He rolls down the window and they recognise him. His morning tip sure is working in his favour.

“Aaaaaah Oga. You dey go Number 8,” one of the men says.

Dave nods. He hopes they’re right because he doesn’t know Kathryn’s house number. Anyway, it guarantees him access. Once inside, he can locate her house.

They write down his car details and the gate swings open. He drives through, after tipping them.

The gate to Kathryn’s house is locked from within. They are right, it’s House No. 8. He honks his car horn. A man peeks from the peep hole and breaks into a smile. Dave is sure the security man doesn’t know him. It’s the little car that elicits that smile. He is yet to see a person that does not admire the toy-like car. He smiles back at the man.

The gateman comes out through the small, side gate. Dave winds down the window.

“Good afternoon. I want to see Kathryn,” he tells the man.

“You want to see Aunty madam,” the gateman says, his eyes roving around the car.

“Yes,” Dave replies patiently.

“Make I call her,” he says as recognition dawns on him.

“Oga, na you come this morning! Sorry sir, I didn’t know it is you. You don change car. Make I call Aunty madam,” he says, walking briskly in.

He runs out almost immediately and says, “Abeg Oga, na wetin be your name? I bin forget.”

“Dave. Tell her her husband is here,” Dave says, surprised at himself.

The man’s eyes pops as he races back in. ******* “Please marry me,” the man begs, kneeling.

“I promise to make you happy. I promise to love only you till the end of time,” he pleads.

As Kathryn looks at the kneeling man, her heart melts. She wants to be with him. He’s everything she desires in a man, but something is holding her back.

“I can’t. She’s there,” she tells him, pointing behind him.

“Who? Where? There’s no other person here,” he says, looking behind him. He stands up.

He’s right. She’s no longer there. But she was there a moment ago.

She holds out her hands, he grasps them and pulls her to his chest.

Hmmmmmm...he’s warm and smells rich and sexy. She makes a mental note to find out the name of his fragrance. It is so familiar.

As their mouths meet in a kiss, she appears again. This time, a whip in her right hand. She swings the whip and it slides towards Kathryn’s left ear. It makes a shrilling sound as it pierces through the air.

Kathryn screams and wakes up.

Gawd! It was a dream! So scary. Who was that man in her dream?

The shrilly noise is from the intercom. It stops ringing before she reaches for it.

She checks the bedside clock and jumps out of the bed.

She barely has enough time to get dressed and get to her rendezvous with Dave. Dave!

The cleaner must have let herself out.

As she makes for her bathroom, the intercom shrills again. She picks it and listens.

“Hello Aunty madam. Good afternoon ma. One man say him wan see you,” John, the gateman says.

“What’s his name?” Kathryn asks.

John hesitates for some seconds.

“He say him be your husband,” he replies, uncertainty in his voice.

“My husband?” Kathryn asks.

“Aunty madam, na the man wey comot this morning,” he explains.

Kathryn’s heart flutters. Dave!

“Is he supposed to come here? Thought we were to meet...”

“Hello,” the gateman says.

“Yes, send him in,” Kathryn responds and ends the call.

“Is he supposed to come here?” Kathryn is confused.

Nevertheless, she runs into the bathroom to freshen up.

Kathryn could hardly contain her feelings.

She’s barely through brushing her teeth when she hears the chimes.

She runs out of her room to the outer door, throw it open and rushes into his warm embrace.

“You are not supposed to be here,” she says as his mouth seeks hers.

“Yeah, I changed my mind. Came to pick you myself. Missing you so much” he replies,

covering her mouth with his, his arms tightly around her.

Kathryn’s heart flutters.

“Go get ready my love. I’ll be your chauffeur,” he whispers into her ears.

She nods and makes to go. She feels so light... as if she’s walking on air. She misses her step and Dave catches her.

He carries her.

“Show me the way to your bedroom,” he says into her ear, smelling her sweet fragrance and she points out her room to him. No need for words. He carries her into her room and lowers her on her bed.

She jumps up, giggling.

“Hmmmmmmm, nice room you’ve got here.

Get ready and let’s go,” he says, not adding that he’s finding it very difficult to keep a tight rein on his passion. He strolls to the dressing table and perches on the stool.

“Okay dear. You wanna watch me dress up,” she asks, slipping her T-shirt over her head and revealing her large boobs held in place by a barely there brassiere.

Dave swallows hard.

She pulls off her shorts.

He watches her ample derrière roll wickedly

as she sashays into the bathroom.

“This is temptation,” he mutters, rubbing his palms on his head while the snake rose between his legs.

She’s out in minutes, a very short towel wrapped loosely round her waist. Her boobs bounce freely as she moves to the dressing table, towards him.

She sits on the other stool opposite him, smiles at him as she creams her body.

She wonders at the resolve of the man. Is he okay at all? Such temptation and he sits there as if nothing is happening.

She holds on to herself, wondering how long it will be before she throws herself into his arms.

Done with creaming her upper region, she throws open her towel and proceeds to cream her legs, one after the other, from her thigh to her foot.

When she’s done, she stands up in her birthday suit and moves to the wardrobe.

This is too much for Dave to bear. She is a temptress. What!

Before he knows it, his legs have moved him behind her and he grabs her from behind and turns her towards him.

Her nude flesh feels velvety. He runs his hands all over her body. Then kisses her all over.

Kathryn moans softly, holding him tightly.

“I love you, Kathy. I do,” he says huskily as they gravitate towards the bed.

“Hmmmmmm,” Kathryn murmurs.

“Of what use is this love? He is married. I need a husband. Why did I fall for this stranger?”

As they get to the edge of the bed, he pulls back.

Kathryn turns and stares at him. Now, she’s convinced that something is wrong with this stranger.

Her heart beating wildly, she stutters, “Wha... what is the problem? Have I done what I shouldn’t do?”

Dave takes a few steps back. He looks from the very tantalizing woman in front of him to the very inviting bed. His blood vessels throb and pulsate. The man encased in his groin seeks a way out.

“No, Kathy darling. You’ve done nothing wrong,” he says huskily and clears his throat.

“Get dressed and let’s go out. I want you, but I want us to be sure we really want each other.

Be assured that I love you,” he says shakily, head pounding.

Kathryn masks her disappointment.

“Oh sure. We need to be sure of what we want, you’re right,” she says, cursing under her breath.

She’s darn sure this guy wants her. She just can’t understand why he’s holding back. Maybe he doesn’t want to cheat on his wife. The bulge between his thighs is a sure sign that he’s normal down there.

Men have always come for her like starved bulls. But not this man!

She turns, looks at him and smiles.

In her heart, she says, “No man who has been in this close proximity with me has remained the same.”

She resolves to break his resolve, just for the fun of it...

“I must conquer you before you go back to your wife,” she says to herself. ******* Did Kathryn conquer Dave? Join me here next Sunday for more exciting installment of this pulsating series.

•Send your observations to: julietbumah@gmail.com

21

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Edo poll shift and security alert

Why Buhari should rejig his cabinet, by Onayekan

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The Sunday Interview

Harry: It’s ridiculous to say Jonathanis NDA’s sponsor p26&31

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Politics Members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State are waiting for the decision of the Appeal Committee on whether or not the governorship primary that produced Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) will be sustained.

BABATOPE OKEOWO reports the schemings that characterised the conduct of the election

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

Ondo APC primaries - The untold story

A

week after the governorship primaries that produced Mr. Oluwarotimi Akeredolu (SAN) as the flagbearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the November 26 governorship election in Ondo State, dissenting voices of the aspirants who lost the ticket and frayed nerves of leaders of the party are yet to calm down.

After the result of the governorship primaries, the party has not put its house in order, let alone talking of the next step towards occupying Alagbaka Government House after the expiration of the tenure of the incumbent, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko on February 24 next year.

Since last Sunday when the result was announced, three of the strong contenders for the sole ticket of the party had asked for the outright cancellation of the primary and the conduct of fresh one. Also some leaders of the party described the governorship primary as a sham and travesty of justice, the attribute the party is known for. Aside the resignation of the Chairman of the party in Ondo Central Senatorial district, Mr. Gboyega Adedipe, there were protests by the people of Ikare-Akoko in Akoko North-East over the primaries that denied their some of the ticket.

Another interesting development last week was the confession of two people; Oluwatimileyin Olusola Bamidele and Adebiyi Adeyemi who claimed they were bribed before they voted and that they should not have voted because they were not delegates in the election. They also confessed to the offence of impersonation. The video of the duo had gone viral discrediting the conduct and outcome of the election. Besides, aspirants were said to have received between N150, 000 and N200, 000 as bribes to vote for aspirants.

Hence, a lot of party members want the result cancelled over the various malpractices they claimed took place during the election. But for some people who have called for retrains, majority of party members want the result of the election upturned. In fact, some people who were allies before the primary election have become foes as a result of the outcome of the election.

Before the primary election, some aspirants including Prof Robert Ajayi Boroffice, Chief Olusola Oke and Akeredolu and others were united against Dr. Segun

Akeredolu

Abraham who many believed was the endorsed candidate of the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

However, after the result of the election was announced in the early hours of last Sunday, the erstwhile friends had become enemies and were now united against Akeredolu, the winner of the election. Majority of the aspirants are now asking the Appeal Committee of the party to order for a fresh election.

From Abraham who came second to Boroffice who came fourth, the sing song was the cancellation of the primary and the conduct of the fresh election to choose candidate for the party.

Abraham The aspirant allegedly endorsed by Tinubu polled 635 votes to finish second.

He too has appealed against the outcome.

In his statement titled “That our Democracy may Endure", signed on his behalf by Director-General of his campaign, Prince Olu Adegboro, Abraham stated that the outcome of the election is "unacceptable", considering the plethora of staggering facts of anomalies that have since emerged to the demerit of the exercise.

His words: "It is no longer news that as a true democrat, imbued with the best spirit of sportsmanship, I congratulated Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, who purportedly emerged as the candidate of the All Pro-

Abraham

gressives Congress in the September 3 gubernatorial primary election in Ondo State in the face of palpable disbelief and surprise on the outcome by my numerous supporters.

“The news, however, is that, sordid and staggering facts have since emerged on how the process leading to the primary election was manipulated and compromised. It is now beyond doubt that the delegate list used on the day of the primary election was doctored and strangely injected with a mind blowing number of delegates who are neither executive members of our party nor statutory delegates.

“To say the least, the manipulation of the delegate list, highly skewed accreditation process and the entire processes leading to the conduct of the primary election has cast the darkest stain on the result of the primary election held on the 3rd September, 2016.

“Against this background, coupled with the change and integrity that our party preaches and practices, and having widely consulted with my numerous supporters, I have reached the hour of decision to fall back on the internal mechanism of our great party to seek redress so that the end of justice will be served and more importantly, our democracy may endure. To this end, the outcome of the September 3rd APC Governorship primaries in Ondo State is unacceptable and I hereby appeal

against same."

Olusola Oke Oke, who placed third in the poll, said that the postponement of the election twice "as we later learnt from the process of the primary was to allow time to perfect the rigging strategy of the primaries to return a pre-agreed aspirant.

"The illicit substitution of the delegates list officially given to the aspirants from Abuja less than 12 hours to the primary was meant to allow and indeed allow persons who were never members of the executive of the party to participate as voters in the primaries.”

Speaking through the Director General of his campaign Organisation, Bola Fisayo, Oke declared that the people of the state and in particular members of the APC in the state should not be deceived.

“What they saw on television as a process was a voodoo. The primary election was everything but credible primary.”

He alleged that the introduction of manifest was used to import the "illegally enlisted delegates into the polling centres, while delegate's tags were released to unauthorised persons to use them to vote Oke alleged that: "Over 400 delegates who never emerged from any congress of the party as required by the party constiCONTINUED ON PAGE 31

22

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

politics

Ondo APC primaries - The untold story political analysts predicted that once the APC primary was conducted, the party would be on fire. Should we allow this prediction to come to pass? No one else will gain from this predicted conflagration in the APC other than Governor Segun Mimiko."

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21

tution and guidelines voted,” adding that the public should "not be deceived that the election was credible. No election can be more incredible than the one of September 3, 2016.”

Ajayi Boroffice The senator representing Ondo North Senatorial district called for the cancellation of the governorship primaries. Boroffice, who came fourth, scored 471 votes in the election, said he was informed that those who were not delegates voted in the party's primary election.

He said if the committee finds out the allegation was true, he is expecting a total cancellation of the exercise. His words: “Before the conclusion of the election, I kept hearing the rumor that the delegate list has been infiltrated. That there are even some people who are not accredited, who are not even delegates but were given tags and induced to come and vote. And that has been substantiated now and it's unfortunate. I am in support of total cancellation of the election; we must do it again " He said he will not contest under another party if the primary election result is not cancelled. His words: “I am a loyal party man, I had the opportunity to leave the party in 2012 but I didn't. I was one of the three people that remained then, among the aspirants I am not in this party to be a governor. I am in this progressive party to help build Nigeria and if don't become governor, another person will be a governor, as long as the process is free, fair and credible" Akoko elders The Akoko elders whose two prominent sons lost in the primaries kicked against the outcome of the election. The leaders from the four local governments in the zone said the gubernatorial primary election of the state APC that produced Akeredolu as winner, remains embroiled in controversies.

The statement signed by Chief Felix Aiyegbusi and Alhaji S.A Idris read in part," We have also learnt that there was a great deal of impersonation of delegates in favour of Mr. Akeredolu. Indeed, there is in circulation a viral video clip of confessional statements by some of the impersonators. This is simply incredible, criminal, and we ask that Mr. Akeredolu be disqualified from the contest if found complicit after a thorough investigation.

"According to what has now become public knowledge, two different sets of Delegates' List were released one after the other for the election. We have learnt that while the first one released about two weeks to the primaries was the authentic list, the other released less than 48 hours to the election was padded with strange names."

Despite the outcry, some aspirants including Prince Ademola Adegoroye, Mr. Tunji Light Ariyomo and Dr. Tunji Abayomi, expressed divergence opinions to others saying in as much as a winner has emerged, there should be unity in the party This development came as the candidate called for the investigation of the crimes alleged during the primary.

Ariyomo In his statement titled “In Every Contest, there will be a winner and a loser or losers.

It is the law of life.” Ariyomo, who scored five votes said: “Every politician rigs in our brand of democracy. Perhaps we need to understand the meaning of the word 'rig'. Each politician that camped delegates away from other aspirants during the last primary election rigged the process. Each politician that spent money to induce delegates rigged the system. This is because

Boroffice

Oke

Abayomi

Adegoroye

rigging is not limited to vote rigging. It includes process rigging because the aims are the same - to bend outcomes. So in Nigeria, political contenders often look for ways to outsmart one another. At the end of the day, a winner would emerge.

“In the case under discussion in APC, a clear winner has emerged. Before we entered this contest, we (all aspirants) knew we were entering into an imperfect arena.

It is on this basis that I want to appeal to party supporters and aspirants to watch their language, sheath their swords and temper their anger with caution in the larger interest of the party. If we continue to discredit our just concluded primary election because of certain imperfections, somebody will gain from such an atmosphere of discord. Who is that person?

Who will benefit from our infighting?"

Abayomi alleged error on the delegates' list used for the penultimate Saturday's primary had nothing to do with the vic-

tory of the winner of the election. He insisted that the primary was free, fair and transparent, adding that Akeredolu deserved the victory.

The APC chieftain argued that if there was a problem with the delegates' list, it must have been caused by the party at the state level. His words: “If there is a problem with the delegates' list, it has absolutely nothing to do with the victory of Akeredolu. It is possible that there was a problem with the list but that problem was unintended. It was not caused by Akeredolu.

Adegoroye, who was the candidate of Action Congress (AC) in 2007 governorship election said there, can never be a level playing ground in political contests just as there can never be a fool proof election.

However, he said the party must put the issues surrounding the primary behind them if they must succeed at the polls.

His words: “We must not forget that

Akeredolu fires back Despite the dissenting voices over the outcome of the election, Akeredolu rose in defence of his integrity and asked the State Police Command to investigate the allegations of delegate swapping, impersonation and bribery that allegedly characterized the governorship primary of the party held last Saturday.

Akeredolu in a letter to the Commissioner of Police said the allegations against the conduct of the primary are aimed at tarnishing the credibility of the election that produced him as the flag bearer of the APC. Through his counsel, Mr. Charles Titiloye, Akeredolu said the outcry over the credibility of the governorship primary needed to be investigated in order to know whether or not the election was credible and to bring those responsible to book He said he believed the primary election was credible as it was done in the full glare of the public, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), security agencies and other observers. Particular of interest to the flagbearer was the video where two delegates alleged that they were bribed to vote and that some people who were not members of the APC were given tags and allowed to vote in the election.

The letter titled: “Request to Investigate a Case of Impersonation and Conduct Likely to Cause Breach of Peace” and signed by Titiloye alleged that a television station wanted to blackmail Akeredolu and discredit the entire primary election of the APC. It said “on a careful look at the two persons in the video clip who identified themselves as Adebiyi Adeyemi and Oluwatimileyin Olusola Bamidele, we discovered that Adebiyi Adeyemi’s real name is Adenodi Mafimisebi .”

The legal practitioner added that the intention of Mafimisebi who alleged that a woman police was involved in criminal act was capable of causing breach of peace and discredits the primary election. ` Despite his defence and rapprochement of Akeredolu with other aspirants, the Appeal Committee of the party has begun sitting and its decision would either assuage or aggravate the ill feelings in the party.

For now, the party is on the edge as any decision taken by the Appeal Committee would go a long way in determining its fate in November 26 governorship election in the Sunshine State.

from the Northern Senatorial zone. That was why throughout the process, I did not go on to meet party leaders to even inform them of my ambition, I did not go on a tour to meet party chieftains, executive members and or delegates in the various local governments. The rest as they say, is now history.

The way forward for APC Again, I thank God I participated symbolically at least. My brothers, Niyi Adegbonmire (SAN) and Wale Akingbade were shocked and laughed almost uncontrollably when I told them just before the election, that I had no penny to give to a single delegate! Wale Akingbade was with me for breakfast last Sunday and he told me categorically that now he sees and now understands what I had been going

through all these years in politics. I'm glad we are all better enlightened now. When it was obvious to me I could not fly, I told the few delegates who my preference was amongst the aspirants who could "afford" it. When some of the aspirants noticed I wasn't working, I was approached by a few of them for us to work together. I saw sincerity and zeal to work for Ondo State in one of them, despite being advanced in age. I told a few of the delegates who are very close to me to try work with him without condition or pay.

Chief Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN) was not my choice. In any case, he did not speak with me. But he has won eventually. We always knew only one person would emerge. I also know from political experience that there can never be a level playing

...guber primaries and the

O

nce again, I came into the race in the All Progressives Congress with a sincere objective and unbending commitment not only to emerge as the party candidate, but also to go on and win in the November governorship elections, give Ondo State my best and do that which I have always done when entrusted with responsibility, giving my state a humane, practical, purposeful, honest leadership, especially having at the back of my mind that greed, dishonesty, deception and parochialism have been the major reasons why Ondo State is where it is today...

Shortly after that, however, when the news of the alleged endorsement of Dr. Segun Abraham broke, it became obvious that the caucus I spoke about had changed their mind in preference for a candidate

23

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

politics

Why Buhari should rejig his cabinet, by Onayekan Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onayekan was among members of the Caritas Africa group hosted to a dinner by former governor of Abia State, Chief Orji Uzo Kalu in Abuja at the end of an international conference. He spoke to journalists on the state of the economy and steps being taken by the clergy to tackle human trafficking in Nigeria. ANULE EMMANUEL captured the report Why are the Archbishops in Abuja?

First of all, we thank his Excellency Orji Kalu for providing this forum for us to relax after the Caritas meeting. The meeting is the Caritas International

with headquarters in Rome and the Pontifical Council on Migrants and general purposes. That is like a ministry in the Vatican.

They are jointly hosting this with Caritas Africa and Caritas Nigeria.

The focus is on Africa; we are looking at human trafficking in Africa and trafficking outside Africa. We must distinguish between trafficking and migration. People move for different reasons. The history of the world has shown a lot of mass movement of people.

But human trafficking is a situation where people are making money, profit out of the problems that people have- buying and selling of human beings,- that is the major concern, whether for cheap labour in foreign lands or in the case of women for sexual exploitation and even children for domestic work. We are hearing now that people are being transported for harvest of organs. There is no limit to how horrible and wicked human beings can be to follow human beings.

What is the importance of the meeting to Nigeria?

This meeting holding in Nigeria is very important. Anytime we go abroad and they are talking about human trafficking, our country is always in the picture. It is not enough for us say that since we are the biggest country in Africa, therefore, we must have the biggest number of prostitutes on the streets abroad. That is not good enough. We can be the greatest country in the continent and should be able to be a country that can deal with these issues. If Nigerians have to go out at all, they should go with dignity and live like hundreds of thousands of other Nigerians are living.

I want to add that while we are talking about a few who are stranded in America, we cannot forget the far numerous Nigerians who are doing wonderfully well, who are settled where they are, and are contributing to development of both the countries where they are and sending money home.

But is poverty responsible for this?

Poverty is not the only cause, because there are many people who are poor but are not going to be trafficked. In fact, sometimes people pay a lot of money to be trafficked.

Many of them sale even their farm lands and undergo these journeys with agents so they become traffickers. So, it is not only poverty, there is a lot to do with mind set, what you consider important in life.

Are they ready to endure?

Those are the important things, not actually money. The girls on the streets of these countries have no reason to be there. There are other girls who are at home struggling, selling 'akara' and making little money.

They are not selling their bodies to Europeans at all. So, we must not trace everything to poverty. If there is any poverty at all, it is spiritual and mental poverty.

Nigeria is in recession. Do you think the government is taking the right steps?

The advice I have is this, whoever is in charge of Nigeria today, even if it were Goodluck Jonathan of the PDP, they would have to still face this problem that we are now facing- problem of significantly reduced income. It is a question of arithmetic and not politics anymore.

So, what should be done?

Giving the situation we are in, almost an emergency situation, I will hope government will try and broaden its mind to try and bring in good minds as we can, irrespective of where they come from, what political party they belong to and whatever religion they belong to. Let them make it a major concern to bring the best brains we can get in Nigeria to tackle this problem and put politics aside and all kinds of sectional feelings because you cannot solve Nigeria's problem by any sectional way.

I don't know whether Mr. President is doing that but if he is not, he should do much more of it. Because, there are many brilliant Nigerians, some are solving other people's problems out there. You are not calling them, we need them all home; we are in recession, in an emergency

way forward, by Adegoroye ground in political contests. So, despite the wonderful arrangements of Alhaji Badaru Abubakar, Governor of Jigawa State-led Primary Election Committee, I knew there could never have been a fool proof election. It is true the list was changed from the one we were initially given at the National Secretariat on Monday August 29. That list was not used by the Committee. In the circumstances, what do we do? We must not forget that political analysts predicted that once the APC primary was conducted, the party would be on fire. Should we allow this prediction to come to pass? No one else will gain from this predicted conflagration in the APC other than Governor Segun Mimiko.

I have left my party in the past due to issues like this but my experience in that

regard was not very pleasant. No doubt, a lot of people may not be comfortable with the victory of Chief Rotimi Akeredolu but what can we do about it if he has emerged from a process put in place by the party and which the whole world watched on cable TV? I see no reason as at this morning why we should not support him. I urge all APC aspirants to go on and support him as well. A lot of our people have suffered in this state since Baba Adefarati left in 2003 and they have not had a government which they can call their own since then. Let's all come together and do our best for Aketi (Akeredolu),and our party. I have no doubt that even though Chief Akeredolu may not be the typical populist Nigerian politician, I have no doubt that he would try to do well and make a difference in the state.

Again, a critical analysis of the primary election results shows that out of the over 2,700 delegates that participated, only less than 700 wanted Aketi. That to my mind means that the learned SAN has a lot of work to do to ensure the unity and cohesion of our party if we must win on Saturday, November 26. There is a lot to gain from being a good party man. Dr. Abraham has congratulated him. I hear Prof Ajayi Borrofice has done so too. I saw pictures where Hon Bode Ayorinde, my ebullient and pleasant leader, Alhaji Jamiu Ekungba and my dearest Aunt, Jumoke Anifowoshe joined Aketi to the palace of the Olowo of Owo last Sunday. That to me is beautiful.

I join them in congratulating him and I have sent him a text message in that re-

gard. I restate my confidence in the Jagaban Borgu and Asiwaju of Lagos,Senator Bola Tinubu, our indisputable leader. I have not seen a politician like him, till today. He fights for whatever he believes in and puts his resources and life on the line to achieve it. We must never deride him, no matter what, particularly on the pages of newspapers or in the social media. He must not fall. He remains the hope of Yoruba land as at today! After all, who stands to gain more in the eventual victory of our party in Ondo State? Ondo APC must do all we can to get his blessings, support and cooperation. He has always been there for us and we still need him. Nigeria will be great again; Ondo will be back to the progressives. •Being extract from Adegoroye reaction

24

SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

politics The Commissioner for Information Culture and Strategy in Abia State, Mr. Bonnie Iwuoha, in this interview with BIYI ADEGOROYE, speaks about the recent victory of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu at the Federal Court of Appeal and the challenges the state is facing even as it marked its golden jubilee recently

Abia State is one of the states that marked 25th anniversary recently. How has the journey been?

The creation of Abia State in 1991 by General Ibrahim Babangida's Administration, brought a good opportunity for the hardworking people of Abia State to develop their communities, promote commerce, industry and showcase the ingenuity which majority of the people are identified with.

So much of understanding and collective agreements among the founding fathers, political and religious leaders, as well as traditional rulers, top businessmen and women; the youths etc, have moved the State to a great height in the comity of states. Quite a lot of sound developmental strides have been recorded in the State. 25 years after, Abia has justified the expectations of the people who laboured for its creation.

The state has been blessed with leaders who placed premium on the well being of the people. The emergence of the current Governor, Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu from Abia South Senatorial Zone, and in particular from the Ukwa/Ngwa section of the state, is a perfect fulfillment of the spirit and letters of the Abia Charter of Equity, which was created by the founding fathers and majority of the leaders in the state with the sole aim of catering for the political interests of every part of the state.

Abia State has been enmeshed in a political battle until a Court of Appeal rebuked Justice Okon Abang and reversed his verdict. How did your governor receive the first and second verdicts?

Dr. Ikpeazu, Governor of Abia State, is a very mature person who believes firmly in the efficiency of the Nigerian judiciary.

He does not accept that the error or mistake of one judicial officer could amount to the failure of the entire judiciary. He believes that judiciary in Nigeria is made up of very responsible and mature judges and justices whose credibility cannot be faulted. He knew that an erroneous judgement against his election could be reversed and corrected by other eminent justices in the superior courts. So, he took the court rulings, especially the wrong ones in his strides. He addressed the people and advised them to remain calm, not to panic or cause trouble in any manner. He assured Abians that he believed that more mature justices at the superior courts would reverse the wrong judgement.

Again, the governor is a very strong believer in the supremacy of the sovereign powers of the Most High God. Both he and the entire people of Abia State prayed and called on God for His intervention.

We are all happy that the Court of Appeal defended the Nigerian judiciary and promoted democracy in the country by giving judgements that received accolades from Nigerians and the world at large. Responses from the international community on the Court of Appeal Judgements against Justice Okon Abang's rulings on the Abia governorship cases, showed the level of attention the world paid on that matter and its consequences on Nigerian Democracy.

Aba ‘ll soon become Japan of Africa, says Iwuoha achieved this?

The administration is anchored on five pillars and four enablers, principally aimed to boost trade, commerce, industry, manufacturing and make the State selfsustaining. The pillars are manufacturing, trade and commerce, industry, agriculture, infrastructure, oil and gas, as well as Education. Even education is tailored towards youth empowerment and entrepreneurship. That is why we have E4E, Education for Empowerment. Genuine youth empowerment programmes are on-going to ensure effective upbringing of future leaders who will be experts in their chosen fields of study. The Governor is empowering export of made in Abia products to elevate the quality of locally made goods, through this means promote local entrepreneurship.

In Agriculture, farmers are receiving assistance that encourage the growth and production of palm produce, cassava, cocoa, poultry products etc.

Industries that were abandoned for over 40 years are being revived. soon, the Golden Guinea Breweries will commence operation. The Aba Glass Industry has already commenced production while work on the long forgotten Enyimba Hotels has been flagged off. A good number of the abandoned industries will become active soon, thus creating jobs for the numerous number of unemployed youths.

Iwuoha

Governor Ikpeazu's next focus is to continue with various development projects he has embarked on, as well as encourage the conduct of local government elections in the state within the shortest possible time What has the reaction been in the entire state since the reversal of the court verdict and what is the next focus of the state?

It has been celebration upon celebration.

Various groups have held several thanksgiving services and dance parties. The level of celebration people have embarked on, leaves one wondering what could have become of Abia State had Justice Okon Abang sustained his wrong judgement on the Abia governorship election? Even, on August 27, 2016, all the 732 traditional rulers in the State, including the traditional ruler of Uche Ogah's native community collectively gathered in Umuahia and affirmed implicit confidence in the Administration of Governor Okezie Ikpeazu. The traditional rulers declared unequivocally that they are fed up with litigations over the governorship of Abia State since the last general elections in 2015. They questioned why has Abia been the only State in Nigeria still burdened with court cases over governorship seat when the rest of the country is busy carrying out development programmes?

Governor Ikpeazu's next focus is to continue with various development projects he

has embarked on, as well as encourage the conduct of local government elections in the State within the shortest possible time.

How well have you been doing with execution of the state's N101.4bn 2016 Budget of Restoration, giving the current recession and shortfall in revenue?

Governor Okezie Ikpeazu is highly disciplined and very conscious of provisions of the laws. His high level of prudence makes it impossible for anyone in this government to engage in illegalities. Genuine efforts are on to improve the Internally Generated Revenue, (IGR), of the state.

Could you be more specific on your IGR? I may not be able to give you the details now, but as far as IGR is concerned, the state government, under the leadership of our indefatigable governor is doing all it can to ensure all revenues due to the state are collected for overall development.

Even as it is, before the end of the year, the state government is working to ensure it meets its revenue projections as contained in the budget.

The fact is that based on information from my counterpart in the Ministry of Finance, Mr. Obinna Oriaku, our IGR has increased considerably from what it used to be, although we have not been able to reach our revenue target. Our IGR Committee under the leadership of the Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Udeh Okochukwu, is following the Lagos model where a enumeration of all possible sources of revenue is done. You also want to remember that the current economic situation is a national issue, but the governor is working round the clock to put smiles on our people’s faces.

What is the policy trust of this administration and to what extent has the state

Aba the commercial capital is said to be suffering from infrastructural deficit, how are you taking this and what level of support does the state government have for it?

Most of the abandoned industries being revived are in Aba, as well as private businesses that are being encouraged to produce leather and other products that today meet international standards are all Aba based. It is expected that Aba will be restored to its original position as Nigeria's major trade centre and the "Japan" of Africa with complete return of those industries and business magnets.

How has the state government been handling the issues of roads, education and accumulated salaries?

On assumption of office, Dr. Ikpeazu embarked on massive construction and repair of roads with cement technology to ensure long duration of the roads. So far, 65 roads have received adequate attention with 33 roads fully completed. Aba has 27 of such, while work is on-going on 11 roads within the city. In spite of the pronounced recession in the country, the Abia State governor is determined to elevate the corporate image of the state far above expectations of the masses. Education sector is receiving adequate attention with encouragement given to the youths to ensure brighter future for them.

The sum of N10,000 has been reduced from school fees payable by students of the Abia State University, Uturu, who are indigenes of the state. On accumulated salaries, the Government has continued to meet its obligations according to availability of funds. Everyone knows that the economy of Nigeria is down, the Federal Government has been singing the song. We all know that most states in the country are affected by the recession, but Governor Ikpeazu is determined to improve the welfare of the workers. But the poor financial condition of the country is affecting every good plan. However, whatever the situation, the governor will ensure that Abia emerges the dream state of the people of God's own State.

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

politics

Ize-Iyamu

Yakubu

Obaseki

Edo poll shift and security alert

C

Onyekachi Eze onfusion is the right word to describe it. Earlier in the day, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had said despite security report calling for the postponement of the election, the September 10 governorship election in Edo State would hold as scheduled.

Prince Solomon Soyebi, INEC National Commission in charge of Voter Education and Publicity, told newsmen in Benin City, Edo State capital that the commission had "weighed all the consequences of a postponement in the election and have resolved to go ahead with the conduct of the election on Saturday as scheduled."

According to Soyebi, INEC as the body statutorily set up to conduct elections in the country, would not take orders from any institution with regard to the performance of its constitutional duties.

But less than five hours after the bold statement, the commission bowed to pressure., an indication that the commission may have been blackmailed to reverse its earlier decision.

Before the commission formally announced the postponement by two weeks, the police authorities were said to have pulled out their personnel and have stopped providing security for movement of INEC materials.

The NYSC on its part, has refused to deploy corps members for the conduct of the election. Under such circumstance, INEC found it difficult to deploy staff and materials for the election.

An un-named source was quoted to have said:"There is no security to escort them (ad hoc staff and election materials), simply because they are unavailable. The security agencies are going to formally communicate their security advice to us....

At the moment, it is no longer feasible to deploy and conduct the election.

"NYSC has advised us that many parents have called to withdraw their children from the election duty. Since they form the bulk of the election duty personnel, their withdrawal is a major challenge."

Soyebi, however, said the decision to shift the poll was based on official communication from security agencies.

Nick Dazang, Deputy Director VEP and Rotimi Oyekanmia, had lastWednesday, said the commission had not been officially communicated about the call for postponement by security agencies.

"As a matter of fact, we got the informa-

tion from the media... We've just finished stakeholders' meeting there, chairman and other National Commissioners are meeting there, may be subsequently, we will have an idea. In fact, we will have to confirm the veracity of that statement," Dazang declared.

Oyekanmia on his part said: "But as regards the position of the police and State Security Agencies, we like to say that we were not informed and therefore, not part of that decision in Abuja.

"Nobody told us, the INEC Chairman is here (Benin City) along with all the National Commissioners and we were not informed about it. We just heard the news like every other person else."

Soyebi accepted that the decision to shift the poll was a last minute reminder of terror alert by the Department of State Services DSS and the police.

"At about 6 p.m. today (Thursday), the commission received official communication from the police and the DSS drawing its attention to the need to postpone the Edo governorship election," the National Commissioner explained.

"Such a postponement, the communication indicates, is necessary in view of the threats of terrorists' activities in Edo and other states of the federation during the election over the Sallah period.

"The deployment of security personnel countrywide to secure lives and property would overstretch their capacity to, at the same time, provide adequate security for the elections.

"Consequently, the commission notes the request of the security agencies and, considering the security implications of proceeding with the election, the safety of eligible voters, electoral officials, including ad hoc staff, and other stakeholders, has decided to reschedule the Edo governorship election to Wednesday, 28 September 2016."

This is the second time INEC is postponement election based on security reason.

The 2015 general elections were postponed by six weeks because the military said it would embark on military campaign in the North East to dislodge the outlawed Boko Haram insurgency from occupied territories.

This time, only the DSS and the police said they have covered a plot by the insurgents to attack target areas in the country, including Edo State, during this Sallah.

In a joint statement signed by Don Awunah for the police and Garba Abdullahi for the DSS, the two security agencies alleged

of "credible intelligence" available to them, which indicated of plans by the insurgents "to attack vulnerable communities and soft targets with high population during the forthcoming Sallah celebrations between 12th and 13th September, 2016.

"Edo State is amongst the states being earmarked for these planned attacks by the extremist elements.

"The public would recall that similar threats were issued during the May Day and Democracy Day Celebrations as well as the Eid-el-Fitr holidays in July 2016.

However, the security agencies were able to decisively disrupt and thwart the insurgents' plan.

"In the same vein, while election is important. The security agencies cannot allow the peace of the county to be disrupted and we will continue to remain vigilant and ensure consolidation of the successes gained in the current counter-insurgency fight.

"It is in regard of these that we are appealing to INEC, which has the legal duty to regulate election in the country, to consider the need fot possible postponement of the date of the election in Edo State in order to enable security agencies deal decisively with the envisaged terrorist threats."

The postponement has got the tongue wagging. Expectedly, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) described it as a coup against the people of Edo State, and a threat to Nigeria's democracy.

Prince Dayo Adeyeye, PDP National Publicity Secretary, had on Wednesday, cautioned security agencies not to do anything that will jeopardise the governorship election.

"It is on record that INEC recently conducted a 'hitch free' senatorial by-election in Borno State which is a high-point of insurgency in the country but the security agencies saw no reason to call-off the election.

"It is, therefore, lamentable to hear from these same security agencies that the election cannot be held in a state where in less than 24 hours, the President and all the APC leaders and members had an uninterrupted rally," PDP said in the statement.

It, however, expressed the hope that "this advice from the security agencies are not in concert with the APC of having seen the indices of losing the Edo State gubernatorial election to the PDP." PDP again said the decision of INEC to reverse its earlier position to hold the election was shameful and a major constitutional breach for the security agencies to

act in concert with the APC to truncate an election that had been planned for months.

"Nigerians were not deceived by the obvious concoctions of the security agencies whose performances during elections have been less than average since the advent of the Buhari administration.

"Indeed they have become instruments in the hands of the ruling party to harass, intimidate and punish opponents," PDP alleged.

The party wondered how the 2019 general elections would be handled with the way INEC is performing its activities. "Our democracy is under a serious threat from the APC and its gestapo security agencies,� the party said.

Some Nigerians faulted the security report advanced by the DSS and police for the postponement of the Edo governorship election.

Unlike the 2015 security advice, only two security agencies offered this advice.

Though it can be explained that they were concerned with homeland or internal security, one thought that the National Security Adviser (NSA) ought to have been informed and should be the one to offer such advice.

Beside this, the military, which has been issuing such terror alert since the Boko Haram insurgency, was not even in the picture.

Also, it sounds very ridiculous that the nation's security apparati could not provide security for an election to hold in only one state!

Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose wondered the type of security threat that could "overcome over 50,000 security personnel in an election holding in just one out of the 36 States in Nigeria.

"If election must be postponed in just one state because of security threat, what will then happen in 2019 when elections will be conducted in the entire country?

Another question is; were they unaware of the security challenge when President Mohammadu Buhari went to Edo State to campaign for the APC the other day?

Governor Adams Oshiomhole accused governors in the South-South of perfecting plans to rig the governorship election and that about 8,000 militants from those states are now registered in Edo for the September 28 governorship election. “But these criminals who are determined to perpetrate violence and deny us the beauty of a peaceful election, unable CONTINUED ON PAGE 29

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SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Sunday Interview

Harry: It’s ridiculous to say Jonathan The President of the Ijaw National Congress, (INC), Alatubo Charles Harry, used to lead the Ijaw Republican Assembly, (IRA), which he used in advancing Ijaw cause. Now, as the president of INC, the umbrella body of the Ijaw nation, Harry wants a peaceful resolution of the current crisis in the Niger Delta. In this interview with EMMANUEL MASHA, the INC boss speaks on troop’s deployment in the Niger Delta and other sundry issues As the new President of the Ijaw National Congress, what is your view about the consistent alarm raised by the former President of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan that some group of persons were bent on bringing him down?

It is a misnomer for anybody to think about threat to the life of former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. It is unthinkable especially when the threat is said to be coming from the Ijaw nation itself.

That is unpardonable, a sin that cannot be condoned. First and foremost, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, our son, our father, our leader is a great Nigerian. I believe in the comity of the former Presidents of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan has made a name for himself more than any other President in the last 30 years. Goodluck Jonathan is a man we all have so much respect for. I believe that what we are seeing is a case of fifth columnist seeing themselves as Ijaw to foment trouble, to denigrate his personality. No true Ijaw son will ever denigrate not to talk of threatening the life of the former President. He is a beacon of life, a beacon of hope and a man we have explicit confidence, trust and for whom I can tell you today without any iota of doubt, Nigeria will still come to applaud.

It was also widely reported that Jonathan and his wife, Patience were under probe by the President Muhammadu Buhari government and that the former President was the sponsor of the dreaded Niger Delta Avengers. What is your take on all of these?

First and foremost, let me start with the probe issue. It is within the purview and the right of the present government to probe the tenure of its predecessor if it so thinks it necessary. I personally think that is in bad taste. But I also believe that the probe should go ahead. Jonathan had said that he would wait for the outcome and then he would speak. I, as President of the Ijaw National Congress, will also speak at the appropriate time. Probe Dr. Jonathan, if you choose to; but in the process of probing him, don’t denigrate his personality. Don’t demean his name and don’t use him as a bastion for achieving other political aims.

We have great respect for Jonathan in the Niger Delta and we believe that Nigeria as a whole should not look at him as an ethnic jingoist because even in his presidency, he did not act as a Niger Delta President. He acted as a fullfledged Nigerian President. Even here in the Niger Delta, he did not do so much for his people. It was because he was a pan-Nigerian patriot. He felt that, oh, let me first do for others. He did so many things for other tribes. The Niger Delta is suffering today because our President was not parochial. He was not an ethnic jingoist neither was he nepotistic. He was a man of the people. He was a panNigerian leader.

On the other issue of sponsorship of the NDA, that is ridiculous. It is incredible, in fact something that should not even be countenanced by any well thinking person. In the innuendo that is being put forward, I believe that and like Jonathan rightly said, it is the work of detractors... It is the work of political jobbers who want to

seek for pecuniary gains to denigrate a great man, a great mind, a great soul and a great patriot of this great country. Jonathan did his best for Nigeria. He came at a time that was expeditious. He is the first person with the kind of his qualification to have run for the office after he went through Vice Presidency, Acting President and ran for that position and was voted as the President by Nigerians.

He was the first Ph. D holder to run as President of this country and he gave us democracy in its true form; a kind of democracy where we had freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of association, freedom of the courts to have their way. He applauded opponents when they won. Jonathan is a special being. The time that he ruled demanded him as a man we should applaud.

Jonathan cannot be said to be a sponsor of anything that will denigrate or take anything away from the Federal Republic of Nigeria or something that will impugn on the economy of this country. Jonathan is a great leader and he is a great man.

We must learn now and in the future that no matter their errors, we must applaud our leaders for those things that they did right because they are all humans.

What is your feeling about the ceaseless bombing of oil installations by the NDA thereby causing so much economic hardship to Nigeria?

Let me say this very clearly that the degradation and dehumanisation of the Niger Delta over the years is highly regrettable. This did not start just now. We had these problems even before independence. We had the Willinks Commission that said a lot of things about the Niger Delta.

Our hopes and aspirations have been bridged, I cannot and I will not fault the ideology of the

NDA. The ideology is right. The people who have been pushed to the wall will react. I fault the methodology. As President of the INC, I want to appeal to my peop l e

that you do not fight fire with fire when there is abundance of water. What the problems of the Niger Delta are, are quite salient; they are well known. They will be internationalised, intellectualised and we will bring it to the forefront of the burner for the agitation of the Niger Delta based on equity, truth and justice.

The Niger Delta is suffering, the Niger Deltans are dehumanised.

But I don’t say that bombing of oil pipelines are the methodologies of choice.

If astute reasons and common sense are put into place, we will come up with the possible way of achieving the same goal without further degrading our ecosystem.

They said it will take 30 years to clean up the mess in

27

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

SUNDAY

Potpourri Weight watchers community

Tips for sexy abs

​Trend du jour

E

veryone knows that where general health and fitness is concerned, your core muscles have a great part to play. The stronger your core muscles, the healthier the body is. So, it behoves it on everyone who has a care for their overall health, wellness and fitness to take steps to secure a fabulous abs…of course there is that little matter of looking better in clothes and especially so, naked. But I digress. Insulin makes you store fat around your middle so you want to maintain a balanced blood sugar level. Eating every three to four hours will keep your blood sugar even, but many people tend to go five or six hours between lunch and dinner without eating. Here are a few tips that work wonders when followed religiously, to get you those sexy abs you always oogle at on your screen.

1.

Prepare your meals. I cannot emphasise this enough. This way, you are in control of exactly what goes into your meals. Also keep your carbohydrates and sugars as low as possible.

2.

Have a structured workout routine that has room to switch up the types of workout so as to avoid a plateau. Spend 20 minutes a day three to five times weekly doing cardio. This is a magic fat burner and you will definitely see changes soon enough. Spend 15 minutes a day three times a week strength training. And then spend 5 minutes a day three times a week doing abs exercises. Notice you need more minutes doing your cardio, followed by strength training and then abs exercises.

3. Ignore salt and salty foods. This is recipe for instant bloat. Even your soy sauce is packed with sodium.

Beware!

4.

Drink water before and after every meal. You will consume less.

5.

Smart fashion choices.

Now this part is pretty easy.

Play up your other assets.

Wear shorter skirts if you have great gams, an off shoulder top or sweat heart neckline to show your cleavage to draw attention from your tummy.

Money talks

Money decisions in your 30s (Part 1)

T

here are a couple of money decisions that you have taken and put in place in your 20s. Now that you are in your 30s, your need to make some decisions or if you already had set up some things in your 20s, it is time to revisit those choices. Here are some things to do about your money in your 30s that would help you be financially stable in the future. Be-

ing smart about your money is a lifelong commitment.

Re-evaluate your retirement savings Right now, this very minute if you do not have a retirement account set up, go and do so right now! If you did that already, your retirement savings needs to be checked again and reassessed. Remem-

ber the amount you were setting aside in your 20s was all good and fine. In your 30s however, you are that much closer to actual retirement. You need to be sure that the amount you are putting aside right now will get you where you want to be at retirement.

Up your emergency fund Remember that amount you were setting aside in your 20s that would cover your living expenses for at least six months in case of an emergency like a sack, illness or just for the rainy day, it is time to up it.

Let’s face it, you probably lived simpler in your 20s and the amount could cover your expenses back then. Now, you probably live in a lovelier house, have a family to support, etc.

Record your spending Choose a month and from the start to the end, take note of all your expenditure. You may think you do not spend a whole lot on meals or shopping. But with this little task, you will see that you buy a pair of shoes every month or buy this special jollof rice dish every day from an expensive restaurant. When you are able to do this chore diligently, you will see where you need to cut back on or rethink how you spend.

Stories by: Biwom Iklaki

The Omotola wig U nderestimating the value of celebrities in the fashion industry would be shabby mistake. Many celebrities control the sway of the fashion industry, giving rise to phenomena such as celebrity endorsements and brand ambassadors.

These celebrities use their clout to sell and advertise these products and services, bringing the brand popularity among their fans and sympathisers. One of such positions is that of our very own Omotola Ekehinde aka ‘Omosexy’. Although this may just be by mere coincidence, a recent hairstyle by the screen goddess has the ladies on fire, wearing hair in wigs or extensions with tight wavy curls that form a fringe in the face and a sort of bushy bob on the side. Several ladies and even her fellow celebrities like Mercy Aigbe-gentry have favoured this hairdo and i t has taken the Niger ia n hair scene by wild fire. Have you spotted any around you?

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Sportxtr

We shall do everything legally at Russia 2018 –Says NFF Sc

The Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation, Dr. Muhammed Sanusi, expressed the federation’s unalloyed apology for the failures of the nati He told DAPO SOTUMINU in this interview that NFF will do everything legally possible for the Super Eagles to qualify for the Russia 2018 World Cup What is your impression about the state of Nigerian football considering the fact that the Super Eagles failed consecutively for the second time to qualify for the African Nations Cup, the Flying Eagles failed to pick a ticket to play in the next edition of the Afcon Under-20 Championship, as well as the Golden Eaglets failing to defend the U-17 World Cup title?

At the Nigeria Football Federation, we are not happy about not having our key national teams qualify for top international tournaments. We are really sorry for this, we tried our best to make sure the teams qualified for these tournaments but things didn’t happen the way we planned.

We sincerely apologise for this. We know that Nigerians are not happy that these teams didn’t make it to the highest point of competition. We are also not comfortable and have been working very hard to make sure give some soothing balm to the Nigerians football lovers by ensuring that the Super Eagles qualify for the 2018 FIFA World Cup finals which qualification tournament will flag off in October against Zambia, Algeria and Cameroon.

It was so painful that the Flying Eagles didn’t qualify despite the wonderful build- up of the team from the Under-17 category after winning the last edition of the FIFA World Cup. The team has fantastic players and a good coach.

They were simply unlucky after training so hard to prepare for the qualifiers.

The team’s coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, felt so bad about his team’s failure to qualify. He had a dream to continue his good run as a national team coach but this ended abruptly. It is also painful that we are not going to see the graduates of the victorious Under-17 World Cup team play in a higher category. The expectation of everybody was to see the likes of Kelechi Nwakali and Victor Osimhen among other talented Golden Eaglets players from the 2015 squad, to gradually move into the senior class towards a journey to stardom. But things did not happen that way, we in the NFF are not happy about that. It is very sad that the two Nigerian players who emerged the Most Valuable Player and the Highest Goal Scorer at the 2015 Under-17 World Cup will not be seen at the Under-20 World Cup preceding the Chile event.

As for the Golden Eaglets under Coach Manu Garba, it was also a very unfortunate situation that prevented the team from picking a ticket to the Afcon tournament which serves as the qualifiers for the Under-17 World Cup India 2017. After the MRI incident that saw a number of the players being disqualified, the team still had quality players who were focused on continuing where Nigeria stopped at Chile 2015, but this dream ended when the Eaglets were treated shabbily by the Niger Republic Football Federation during the return leg of the final qualifying match.

The hostilities against the Nigerian team started at the border post of Niger Republic where the Eaglets were delayed for three hours after the NFF had sent letters to the country’s FA on the arrival of the team. The hostilities continued at the match venue as the players, coaches and Nigerian officials were frustrated before, during and after the match.

“I was also present in Niger for that match. The officiating was very bad as the referee made some questionable calls that helped the home team to win the match. Nigerian players were roughly handled even while on the pitch.

Efforts to record all these on a video recorder were thwarted by the Nigerien FA. Some of the officials went physical. One of them hit me violently on my head midway into the match.

“We have written officially to CAF and FIFA complaining about the terrible treatment in Niger Republic and we are hoping that a decision will be taken soon that may favour us. A little hindrance is that we were unable to get the ill- treatments on tape which would have been enough evidence to nail the Nigerien team. Even after the match, one of the FA board members came to the hotel the Eaglets stayed to make trouble with us. We had to call in the Nigerian embassy staff for help. The troublemaker only left our hotel after the police were invited to checkmate him, so it was that bad.

As for the Super Eagles, what a lot of people should accept is that results recorded by a country’s national senior team are determined by the atmosphere in the country’s national football association. When the atmosphere is conducive, things will fall into place and while it is the opposite, things will not fall into place. And that was what affected the Super Eagles. I really don’t want to talk about the issue concerning the leadership tussle in the NFF, but this really affected the fortunes of the Super Eagles. I am sure that with the new feelings in the Eagles, the team will surely pick a ticket to play at the Russia 2018 World Cup finals.

While all the three men’s national teams failed to qualify for tournaments, their female counterparts qualified to top international competitions. The Falcons will be in Cameroon for the AWC, the U-20 will be in Papua New Guinea and U-17 in Jordan for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. What is the NFF doing to make sure these teams put smiles on the faces of Nigerians?

We are trying our best in the NFF to make sure the three teams come out good in the three tournaments in Cameroon, Papua New Guinea and Jordan.

Super Eagles with the technical crew... INSET: Sanusi

We have scheduled top grade international friendly matches to prepare them for the big challenges, good enough the teams are responding positively. They are in top form and are ready to conquer. As for the Super Falcons coached by ex-international Florence Omagbemi, the team is in a familiar terrain and we don’t any doubt that they will once again put smiles on the faces of Nigerians.

They have been working very hard in training and are ready to dominate the rest of Africa as usual in the African Women’s Championship, of course the players and the coaches know this won’t come easy.

For the two junior teams that would be at the Women’s World Cup finals, they have tested coaches who have assured us that, the teams will battle for the titles. The Under-17 team, the Flamingoes will leave Nigeria for Jordan towards the end of this month for their competition, while the Under-20, the Super Falconets will play their own competition in November. The good thing is that the coaches and players know what is at stake; they are ready to do us proud.

Don’t also forget that the Super Eagles will start the campaign to qualify for the Russia 2018 World Cup in early October, the federation is ready to do everything legally possible to make sure Nigeria qualify despite the tough draw that has top African football playing countries like Cameroon, Zambia and Algeria. It’s a tough draw, but I believe strongly that Nigeria has the players to get the job done. The Eagles’ players all want to play in the 2018 World Cup; they know what this would do to their various careers, while the NFF also knows what it means for Nigeria to play in the next edition of the FIFA World Cup. The World Cup ticket will cover up for the failure to play in two straight Nations Cup tournaments. The body language of the Super Eagles players at the last match against Tanzania in Uyo will tell you more about the renewed vigour in the national team. We are also happy about the employment of the

foreign technical adviser, Gernot Rohr, who is national soccer teams in Africa; we have confide 2018 World Cup ticket to Nigeria.

Some of the Super Eagles players weren’t happy t match allowance against Tanzania in local curren properly briefed on the new development to avoid a time we need the players to be in their best.

Officially, none of the players complained ab briefed them before now that henceforth hom paid in local currency in line with the policy o The players understood the reasons the NFF did this would cause any resentment in the team. W Uyo after the match, they all went back to their v was no problem at all that I know off. Even the okay with this policy just like all the other playe report emanated from.

There is a renewed peace and dedication in the are thinking of nothing but to book a ticket to p Russia. They all know that the match bonus in the tary and a way of saying thank you for represen

When the new Super Eagles Technical Adviser res team, he came with two foreign assistant coache cause a friction in the team considering the fact t sistant coaches who are Nigerians?

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

ravaganza

y possible to be cribe, Sanusi

The unseen defects of ‘Nest of Champions’

ional men’s soccer teams to book tickets to play in international championships.

vastly experienced handling ence that he would deliver the

that they were paid their ncy. I hope they have been d any acrimony in the team at

bout this, as we had properly me matches in Nigeria will be of the present administration. id that fully and I am not sure When the players were paid in various clubs peacefully. There team captain, Mikel Obi, was ers, so I don’t know where the

e Eagles much that the players play in the 2018 World Cup in e national team is complimennting the country.

sumed duties in national es. Don’t you think this will that there are three other as-

Dapo Sotuminu

T

No, I don’t think there will be any problem. The German coach told us during the negotiation to employ him that he would come with some of his assistants, whatever he has done so far is within the agreement he had with the NFF. He is in order. The Nigerian assistants also knew the German coach would come with some assistants. Those who think there would be conflicts are those outside the Eagles’ coaching crew. All the coaches in the Eagles are working harmoniously for a common goal. There was also a report that the German coach had an altercation with one of the Nigerian assistants, Imama Akpakabo, as far as I am concerned nothing of such has been reported officially and to douse any unwanted rumour in the team technical crew, German Rohr went out of his way to tell the media in press parley that, he would work with his Nigerian assistants and he does not have any problem with coach Imama as was widely speculated in the media. The German coach is a true professional; he didn’t allow such damaging rumour to get to the NFF management before he nipped it in the bud. This shows the level of his experience in coaching in the African continent. He just simply demonstrated that he understands the psychology of Africans in matters of this nature.

For some time now, the NFF owed salaries of some coaches who worked with the association in the past, those who are still working are also owed, what measures are you taking to pay these coaches who are obviously not happy with the football federation?

It’s not hidden that the Nigeria Football Federation is broke at the moment, we are not happy owing these coaches who served and are still serving us meritoriously. As soon as we have money, paying the owed coaches will be priority. The coaches themselves know that we don’t have money.

he Akwa Ibom Stadium, Uyo rechristened Godswill Akpabio International Stadium popularly called the ‘Nest of Champions’ was built with over $96 million during the ‘uncommon transformation’ agenda of former governor, Godswill Akpabio.

The stadium built in 2014, is no doubt one of the best sports edifices in the African continent. The magnificence of the stadium dwarfs the Abuja National Stadium which was commissioned in 2003 for the All Africa Games.

It was reported that the ceremony that came with the commissioning of the stadium gulped N1billion from the coffers of the state treasury.

The stadium though of international standard does not have a swimming pool, Indoor sporting hall, lawn tennis court and even practice courts as stadiums built with such amount of money spent have.

As magnificent as the ‘Nest of Champions’, there are some obvious defects which should not have been associated with such first class project.

Some of the defects noticed at the ‘Nest of Champions’ include; narrow entry and exit access, no media gallery, misplaced location of press stand, substandard public address system, lack of direction signs, uneven playing pitch and poorly evacuation system.

The narrow entry and exit access to the stadium is just a one-lane road not wide enough to accommodate two vehicles freely, such that, there were near stampedes in all the previous matches played at the stadium. At the inauguration ceremony of the stadium in 2014 which was commemorated with the Nigeria versus Ghana international friendly, there was a stampede after the match, where some spectators were feared dead, but the report was later denied. Just last weekend, there was a near stampede at the stadium when the Super Eagles played against the Taifa Stars of Tanzania before kick-off. The medical personnel saved the situation.

The issue of stampede and near stampedes will continue to happen at the

‘Nest of Champions’ mostly after the games, as the clustering of soccer fans after matches squeezing through the 400 metres narrow path continues unabated.

Shockingly, one would wonder how a stadium complex as big as the ‘Nest of Champions’ does not have a standard media gallery that could accommodate 300 sports journalists. The media gallery presently at the stadium is only good for 10 journalists. This is very disappointing as journalists are always forced to sit with regular spectators.

The misplaced location of the press stand is also appalling. It is located at the upper terrace of the stadium above the VIP stand. This makes it impossible for journalists’ free movement to do their job.

The substandard public address system in the stadium calls for urgent attention. It is sad that such an edifice could be erected with a very poor public address system. For most of the major events, world class PBS are brought in at very high cost.

Another noticeable defect at the ‘Nest of Champions’ is the lack of direction signs at vital areas of the stadium.

While inside the stadium, locating the various sections of the stadium like the Media Zone, VIP, rest rooms are near impossible.

The uneven playing field worsens the matter at the ultra-modern Akwa Ibom Stadium. Former Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi, once complained about the bumpy playing field.

The new coach of the Eagles, German Gernot Rohr, has warned the NFF Technical Committee not to take any of the team’s matches to Uyo again because of the bumpy pitch.

The evacuation system at the ‘Nest of Champions’ is nothing but dangerous and capable of sparking tragic stampede and avoidable accidents at the stadium. Immediately the match between the Super Eagles and Tanzania ended by 8pm, the stadium management switched off the stadium floodlight and other security lights leaving spectators in darkness while trying to find their way out even from their seats.

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Luxury

Homes

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

The powder room T

his edition is aptly named the powder room because this was the term used to refer to the guest toilet/bathroom. You see, in most homes, this room is the least utilised until you have a guest over or throw a party. Due to this, many are paid little or no attention at all where cleaning is concerned. This could also ring true for the décor. It is either overdone or tastelessly done.

The truth is your kitchen and bathrooms tell a lot about your hygiene. You should make well and sure that it is not only tastefully decorated, it should also be kept clean and stench-free. This can be achieved using either contemporary or traditional item. A log décor gives a nod to a holiday resort or cabin in the mountains.

If your interests run that way, be my guest. Or, lots of chrome, mirrors, steel and glass would show how much you love contemporary décor.

Keep a scented candle in the loo to be lit when business is taking place in there. It rids the place of odours at least a little. You could also keep fresh flowers in a lovely vase in the bathroom, as long as the space allows it.

Blowjob urinal?

Weird

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Roach with 9 lives

ake what you will of this story, but I consider it so weird that it makes one of our weird fun fact stories of the week. As man progresses and evolves, he becomes even lazier than before, devising so many robots, computers, etc to help them with their daily life activities. Robots can cook for us, drive us around, school us, and if we become lazy in the area of forming relationships, last week, we learnt we can now have robot sex with a personal robot that we can relate with. How surprised would you be then if I told you that there is now a urinal that will help you wash and dry your penis after you urinate? Boom, I said it! Well, not really, @DailyMirror twitted it on 6th September​, so it must be true, I did not make it up.”A hi-tech urinal which can wash and dry the penis after it’s been used is being developed by an invention team.

The bathroom gadget ‘Urinary 2.0’ uses programmed sensors which will activate its cleaning mechanism when the user has finished urinating - and gets straight to work making them clean and dry before they fasten up.

Soapy water is administered for three seconds to clean the penis of the user - set to be cooler in summer and warmer in winter, say the manufacturers. Also, the system adapts to any user, regardless of the size of his member “for anyone in the world may not be discriminated against”.

Then another sensor activates the climate-controlled drying and, like a bathroom hand drier, it blows the area dry in three seconds”. Anyway, what I wonder about this is, could it be abused? We all know how naughty men can be. Would he not be likely to errm, I don’t know, ‘use’ this for something other than what it was designed for? Just throwing this thought out there. Think about it.

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any people cringe at the thought of a cockroach, most would scream and chase one around for hours, but it is prevalent in the average Nigerian home. Besides rodents, they are one of the worst house pests that could invade your home. Not only are they destructive, the scary thing is that cockroaches can carry some serious diseases like Salmonella Typhi, which causes Typhoid, Poliomyelitis, which causes Polio, Dysentery, a disease that causes severe diarrhea that may include bleeding among others.

Many of you have wondered how you crushed a roach at night and the next morn-

ing, you find only the head on the floor and the rest of it is gone. You may have thought or imagined that a greater predator, much higher on the food chain may have had at it. You were wrong. The cockroach can actually survive for weeks without its head.

The only thing that may kill this insect, if not as a result of infection or being preyed upon, it actually dies from thirst or starvation. Cockroaches do not need to feed as regularly as humans and so the less time that has elapsed between eating a substantial meal and decapitation, the longer the little critters can survive. Scratch the cat with nine lives; I think the roach takes the cake, literally!

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Sunday Interview

is NDA’s sponsor Ogoniland. You also know that in Ogoniland no oil has been produced in the past 10 to 15 years.

In other words, we are talking about oil that has been spilled over 15 years ago.

If you continue to spill oil and gas in the Niger Delta today, that means our people are going to suffer a serious degradation over the years. I also want to point out clearly that my presidency in INC is completely against any further loss of lives.

I don’t want to see any life of any Ijaw or Niger Delta person lost again in this war of attrition.

Therefore, I plead with the Federal Government to grant a 30-day moratorium in the Niger Delta and the INC will go into the creeks, our native land to find a solution to discuss with our brothers and people so that this bombing will come to an end. At this time negotiation can start. You cannot talk of negotiation without putting an armistice in place. That will amount to putting the cart before the horse. Give the INC 30 days and we will bring the bombing to an end if the Federal Government is sincere and gives us the necessary tools to mediate. First of all, there must be internal mediation in the Niger Delta by ourselves. INC is not saying they must be the negotiators but the purveyors of this peace.

We have seen neglect, poverty and unfortunate situation due to lack of development in the Niger Delta, one year after Buhari’s administration, like the East West Road, nothing seems to be happening there, does this worry INC? I will start from the rear and come to the fore. Jonathan was the President of circumstance. He had to court the nation to believe that he was a President for the nation and not a President for the Ijaw people or the South-South. May be that was his Achilles heels or albatross. Having said that, President Muhammadu Buhari also is a President of circumstance in his own way.

He is a President whom I believe did not completely prepare for the multifarious

things that came to this multi-dimensional country.

Now, he is doing catch-up. I am a full supporter of his government in the sense that if he fails, Nigeria fails. I will not support any move for Nigeria to fail. If there is need to correct, we will do that by engaging the government and not by denigrating the government as a person.

I believe that will be the position of INC. when you talk about the east west road, they said there is paucity of funds even though I believe that with better economic gerrymandering, we can deal with the situation much better. Let us give the government of the day the benefit of the doubt.

Is there any plan between the INC and the Niger Delta governors to bring peace to the region in the nearest future?

I must tell you that the Ijaw nation is in six states of the region. We have six governors we can interact with. The Ijaw nation is the fourth largest nation in this country. It is the largest ethnic nation in the Niger Delta. Everything I say will also mirror the problems of our brothers in other tribes. We will synergize our actions with the political leadership, we are not partisan. We don’t belong to any political party. We will meet them at a point and corporate with every government regardless of any political party.

We will help them to achieve their aims for the betterment of our people. We will criticise constructively. But we will not do that on the pages of newspapers. In my presidency, no governor will have me as his opposition. Regardless of their party, I will work with them. I hope they will extend their hands of goodwill to us also for mutual cooperation.

Avengers have vowed to declare a Niger Delta republic on October 1…

I will cut you short there. If the Federal Government issues us a 30-day moratorium in military action, we will do something. I want to assure the Federal Government that there will be no such thing; But the Federal Government must listen to the call for the restructuring of this country. It is long overdue. Nigeria is a product of British contraption. First, we were coerced as a nation in 1914 by British colonialists. Through military fiat, we were divided into 12 states, from there to 19, 21 until we got to 36 states.

The Tiv people are balkanised into six states. They are homogenous. They are contiguous.

Why can’t they be a federating unit? Yorubas are, Igbos are and the rest are. Why can’t the Tiv? There must be a spelt out population to become a federating unit. If they are not up to that population, they can now choose another contiguous ethnic group to join which should be based on negotiation.

A good example is that of Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

Today we have Tanzania which is the amalgamation of those two states. Unless and until the ethnic nationalities of Nigeria come together without any condition to discuss and negotiate a basis of union, there will be no peace in Nigeria.

Let us in peace not through war realign, negotiate and rebuild our country on mutual respect, trust and accommodation. We must rebuild our nation not by force of arms.

Ugwuanyi’s reforms in ENSUBEB

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ittle may have been known that the Enugu State Governor, Rt. Hon. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi is carrying out unprecedented and far-reaching reforms in the state’s Universal Basic Education Board (ENSUBEB) aimed at improving the standard of education in the primary school system.

It is a worthwhile experience to note that while most states are unable to pay salaries of their workers, not to talk of embarking on capital projects, Gov. Ugwuanyi apart from regular payment of workers' salaries and execution of capital projects, recently embarked on the process of recruiting 2000 primary school teachers in the state.

The recruitment exercise which is presently being conducted by the Enugu State Universal Basic Education Board, according to its Executive Chairman, Chief Ikeje Asogwa would be based on merit. He added that the governor was committed to "the core values of discipline, merit, transparency and accountability" in the ongoing exercise and is poised to train the teachers after the recruitment for quality output.

The board chairman equally noted that Governor Ugwuanyi had sacrified a lot to initiate and implement the reforms in the primary schools, having discovered a lot of decay in the system, which include lack of

qualified teachers and infrastructure.

"Right now, construction works are ongoing in three hundred and forty-five primary schools in the seventeen local government areas of the state. The achievements of ENSUBEB under Ugwuanyi’s administration are unprecedented and we want to assure the people that before the end of the year, there would be tremendous changes in our schools", Chief Asogwa said.

NGO clothes 500 students Judith Onyebuchi and Eunice Stephen

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o commemorate the International Literacy Day set aside by the UNESCO and celebrated every 8th of September, the JAKIN NGO held her 2016 annual Dress a Child for School Project with the theme 'Education for the 21st Century'.

The organisation celebrated the 7th edition last Thursday in a grand style at the Panda Events Complex Sabo, Yaba, Lagos, where 500 children were clothed for the 2016/2017 academic session. The 500 beneficiaries include 235 boys and 265 girls out of which 262 are in primary school while 238 are in secondary school. The children cut across 104 public schools across 11 local governments in Lagos State.

According to the CEO of JAKIN, Mrs. Adebiyi Olubukola, just like the UNESCO, JAKIN believes that education is a human right for all throughout life and that access must be matched with quality. The Dress a Child for School Programme aims at enlightening vulnerable and orphaned children on the essence of education and their impact on the future of the nation. It is also designed to empower them with basic school items to aid their studies and help them function effectively in the new academic session.

The CEO of Business Unusual Ltd, Mr..

Jinmi Oluanuiga- Sonuga, speaking on the education for the 21st century, advised the children to know who they are, where they fit in the world and work towards it without wasting time. They should also be innovative and mind the kind of friends they keep.

JAKIN’s Dress a Child for School Project which was established in 2010, is supported by Accion Microfinance Bank, FBN Insurance, Spaghetti Records and Falcon. Personalities like the Attorney General of Lagos State and representatives of Accion Microfinance Bank and FBN Insurance.

Highlights of the event was the presentation of news in Yoruba, English and Pidgin, drama, reading on educational problems and solutions, fashion parade by the JCC members (JAKINS Children Club). Side attractions like Baba Tunmise and the Cymbals dance group were present to entertain the children.

The event was climaxed by the presentation of school bags by Mrs. Olubukola to the 500 beneficiaries. The school bag contained two uniforms, one pair of sandals, two pairs of socks, a dozen of exercise books, a Math set and a branded pencil case containing necessary stationeries.

Edo poll shift and the alarm CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27

to find local participants have chosen to import these militants with the support of two or so of my brothers. When I say brothers, I mean brother governors. It doesn’t matter if I disagree with them, they are my brothers,” he said.

Beside the perceived security threat, INEC failed to take cognisance of the General Certificate Examination (GCE) holding in the country and across countries in West Africa. One of the compulsory subjects, Mathematics was fixed on the day of the election, and about 17, 000 candidates have registered for the examination in Edo State.

These candidates have been protesting against the decision, not only by INEC to deny them the opportunity to write the

exam but also to disenfranchise them during the election. The exam held between 9 a.m to 3 p.m, while the governorship election was scheduled between 8 a.m to 4 p.m. The candidates had rejected the plan to transfer them to the neighbouring state to write the exam. It therefore, goes to say that the September 10 date earlier fixed for the Edo governorship election was doomed to fail, a reflection of INEC’s poor judgement- having failed to put the nation’s education timetable into account.

Besides, in the past few weeks, APC in the state had made wild allegations that PDP was planning to foment trouble and cause violence. Observers, therefore, opined that the security advice by the DSS and police only served as an excuse for the postponement.

SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

News ISIS parades youngsters ready to be ‘Martyrs’ for Islam p.35

Interview I’ve never had sexual urge –Chris p.34

FAITH

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sermon

Understanding the healing power in the Holy Communion (2) p.36 Tai Anyanwu Head, religous Desk titus.anyanwu@newtelegraph © Daily Telegraph Publishing

Pastor Adeboye: Some things many people don’t know about him N

‘Righteousness: Solution to Nigeria’s problems’

Tai Anyanwu igerians have been called upon to embrace a life of righteousness by reading and obeying the word of God daily as that is the only way the nation can come out of its numerous problems.

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id you ever know of the sweet, loving and romantic side of the General of Overseer, of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye? Back in his university days, he was not only a brilliant student, he was also a good photographer.

He used to derive lots of fun taking photographs of fellow students, then, as a means of making extra income to support himself. But a sweeter permanent relationship developed after he met the love of his life, Mummy GO, Mrs Folu Adeboye while carrying out his part time job: Incidentally, close associates have said that the love story of Daddy GO and his darling wife, Pastor Mrs. Folu Adeboye, is one of the most romantic love stories ever. Accordingly, the Man of God has not only proved that besides having God at the centre of his life, he is a living proof that real men still exist.

However, the facts about Baba Adeboye may remain a mirage to many except now that Sunday Telegraph has decided to let you on it.

Hence, as Daddy and Mummy GO celebrate the faithfulness of God on their 49th wedding anniversary this year, your favourite Sunday Telegraph thought wise to reveal to our dear readers 20 things you would never believed Pastor Enoch Adeboye ever did or still does.

Now lets start with this one: Pastor Adeboye married twice. Surprised?

Oh not what you’re thinking. He Mr and Mrs Adeboye had a traditional marriage at first; and then a white wedding in church followed about two years after. advice about food seasoning.

Secret number two: Daddy GO He couldn’t afford a ring then; but S e c r e t used to derive he promised his wife that she number 10, will never lack anything and Adeboye lots of fun taking he has ever since kept this leaves his photographs of fellow w h o l e promise. family The third secret will shock students, then, as a for about you. When Adeboye could means of making five days, finally afford a ring, he reno phone fused to buy or wear one. He extra income also mandated his last son, Leke calls, no disAdeboye, to do same. tractions, even How about this for size? Adeboye his wife is not alwouldn’t eat food or drink any- lowed around him, thrice every where his wife doesn’t approve first. year. One can guess whose face he He prefers his meals freshly cooked goes to seek, when he turns his back daily. Adeboye also expects his wife on all including his loving wife. to fast with him when he is fasting.

Come to think about it, did you Someone can swear that this is not ever know that Daddy GO used to intended to save on food expenses. be very fat; his weight was so disHe has a habit of eating dinner turbing that his wife begged him between 4-5pm and that’s it for the to do something about it. Conseday. Adeboye sometimes goes into quently, he made efforts to reduce the kitchen to give moral support his body mass. In the process, he and taste the food. He also gives saw a need to avoid fizzy drinks.

Now, he drinks only water, fresh fruit juice and teas.

The love bug would never leave Nigeria without his better half and is never more than a two-hour drive or flight away from Mummy GO, in the month of her birthday. This is one of the promises he made to her when they got married.

The Executive Secretary of the Bible Society of Nigeria (BSN), Dare Ajiboye, made the call while declaring this year’s Marathon Bible Reading open in Lagos recently.

“We encourage people to develop the habit of reading the Bible daily.

It is by reading it that we know the mind of God and are able to live in accordance with His expectations and demands from us.

“Imagine what will happen if Nigerians read their Bibles daily, inculcate Biblical virtues and live according to the will of God. No doubt, God will be pleased with the country because, ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.’ I therefore want to use this medium to call on Nigerians to return back to God by reading and obeying His Word.

“I believe this is the solution to the multi-faced challenges facing our country today. We cannot succeed either as a nation or as individuals without God,” he said.

This year’s edition took was held simultaneously in 50 different centres in Lagos State, from September 5 to 9.

Those who participated in the marathon Bible reading cut across denominations, professions, ages, or sex.

Ajiboye added: “We decided to flag off this year’s edition with a press conference so as to encourage Nigerians to read their Bibles. We also encourage our 38 area offices across the country to adopt the programme so as to give it a national outlook.”

At the Shepherd Flock International Church where the event took place, participants had free-fold joy reading the Bible in their own languages.

Ajiboye explained that over the years, BSN had recorded miracles and healings during Marathon Bible Reading programmes adding: “Also the entire Bible has been read over and over again within five days in the course of the programme in some of the reading centres. The programme has also continued to attract nonChristians according to our monitoring personnel and reports after each edition.”

According to the Executive Secretary the Marathon Bible Reading is one of the ways to achieve this mandate in the Book of Joshua 1:8;“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.”

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SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

faith

A jobless man has no business seeking for a wife –Adeboye

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Tai Anyanwu

he General Overseer of The Redeemed Christian Church (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has reiterated his earlier counsel to unemployed bachelors to ask God for jobs first rather than get into matrimony.

The cleric gave the advice while at the special prayers held for fathers, intending fathers and their families, at RCCG National Headquarters, Throne of Grace, Ebute Metta.

The General Overseer also challenged eligible bachelors to create jobs for themselves instead of waiting endless for white collar jobs.

He gave an example of a graduate who started the business of making bean cake (akara) and is now a

proud owner of multiple businesses. He also urged spinsters not marry jobless men whom he described as ‘drain pipes’; adding that it is shameful for a wife to take up the responsibility of feeding the husband instead of the other way round.

Adeboye, however, noted that it does not matter whether a wife earns more than her husband but what matters is for the husband to be employed.

For the newly wedded couples, the GO cautioned against intentional delay in procreation in the name of enjoying themselves for the time being.

According to him, those who fornicate and commit adultery are unknowingly playing with their lives for wasting their seeds of reproduction.

Martins tasks Muslims on religious harmony Tai Anyanwu

T

he Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, His Grace Alfred Adewale Martins, has enjoined Muslims throughout the country to use this period of Eid-El-Kabir celebration to reflect more on the sanctity of human life and work with people of other faiths in promoting religious harmony in the country.

While congratulating Muslim brothers in his Sallah goodwill message, Archbishop Martins equally urged them to embrace the exemplary life style of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham) as captured in his willingness to sacrifice his only son, Isaac in obedience to the will of God. Archbishop Martins stated that like Prophet Ibrahim, Muslim faithful must always be ready and willing to make personal sacrifices in their journey through life in order to gain divine favour.

Commenting on persecution of Christians in some parts of the country, Archbishop Martins said he wants to believe that those allegedly behind the das-

tardly were religious fundamentalists whose teachings and beliefs do not reflect the true position of Islam as a religion of peace.

He therefore called for religious tolerance amongst the various religions in the country, but stressed the need for all Islamic scholars, Imams and Alfas to use this Sallah period to condemn all forms of religious attacks and teach their follows to embrace peace rather than take the law into their own hands.

“Judging from the incessant attacks on Christians by some Muslim zealots in the North, it is obvious that they are being misguided by false teachings. This is why there is need for all Islamic scholars to teach their followers that Islam is truly a religion of peace and not of violence,” he said.

Archbishop Martins also used the opportunity to call on all Nigerians, especially the leadership to intensify effort in ensuring that the country gets out of the current state of recession it finds itself in the soonest possible time.

Additionally, he warned against same–sex marriage, upholding that people who do such negates God’s original plan of procreation. His words: “The role of the man is so crucial in the divine plan because it is the man who will keep on bringing more children. That is why

T

ria’s Economic Realities: Secrets to Thriving in Business and Career”, the fellowship charged youths to identify opportunities to fill them.

Delivering a lecture titled “Insights for Managing Your Finances in a Challenging Economy”, the Chief Executive Offuicer, The West Atlantic Resources and Equity House, Mr Adegboyega Adebajo, emphasized the need to

is the agent of reproduction and that is why it is completely against the plan of God for a man to marry a man, or for a woman to marry a woman. If you are living a life contrarily to the plan of God, you are in danger.” Highlighting qualities of a godly father, he ad-

vised fathers and intending fathers to be responsible in leading their families in devotion, interceding for their families, living up to responsibilities as well as giving listening ears to their wives though it is in their (husbands) place to make the final decisions.

Caption for photo: L-R: Resident Pastor of Shepherd’s Flock International Church, Ajah branch, Pastor Oluwatoyin Adebowale; Assistant General Secretary, Publishing, Bible Society of Nigeria, Pastor Victor Oluwadamilare and the Senior Pastor Shepherd’s Flock International Church, Reverend Tony Akinyemi during a Press Conference to declare open the 2016 Marathon Bible Reading organized by Bible Society of Nigeria at the Shepherd’s Flock International church

There is more to Christianity than Sunday service – Bishop Eze

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he Presiding Pastor of Zion Heritage and Miracle Ministries International based in Abuja, Bishop Okwudili Eze, has said that beyond the ritual of going to church every Sunday, every Christian must ensure he gets a new birth from God. Speaking recently when he marked his birthday, Eze, who described his calling as highly supernaturally and divine, said his encounter with Jesus Christ has changed his life for good, since it came with a mandate for him to win souls for Christ.

His words: “I studied Marketing in Imo State University (IMSU). In my final year, a friend took me to a church and after listening to the preaching of the man of

Fellowship tasks youths on job creation he Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship International (FGBMFI) has urged youths to take advantage of huge investment opportunities in the nation to create jobs and tackle unemployment.The fellowship made the call in Lagos at it’s 2016 joint business seminar organized by the South West Districts 4 and 7, Lagos.

At the event tagged “Nige-

children are named after their fathers all over the world except in some very strange cases.

“When a woman marries she changes her name and takes up the name of her husband and her husband does not take up her name.

Why? Because the husband

imbibe the culture of deliberate consistent savings.

Adebajo, said that having savings, no matter how little could create opportunities for investments. He, however, lamented that youths were not latching on to business opportunities and those in paid employment were not transiting to becoming entrepreneurs because of certain lifestyles to impress.

God, something within me told me to go and surrender my life to Christ.

“The pastor preached the message ‘Kindle the Fire, It is Cold.’I was born into a religious family but I was not born again. Most people you see today are religious; they do not have any personal encounter with God. “Unfortunately, people believe that by going to church every Sunday, they are born again. That is a pure delusion because if you die in that your religious state, your place is in hell.

“Two days after I surren-

dered my life to Christ, Jesus Christ came to me with his angels in an open vision.

I don’t mean in the dream Jesus Christ appeared to me physically just the way you and I are talking now. When he came I was wearing a filthy garment and Jesus Christ ordered his angels to take off the filthy garment that I was wearing. He said the Bible qualifies sin as a filthy garment.

“That was why Jesus Christ asked his angels to take away the filthy things I had. He touched my mouth with his hands and I started vomiting. I vom-

ited for close to 15 minutes after which Jesus asked me to stretch my hands. He put balls of fire on my two hands and then gave me a flaming sword and told me: ‘Go and raise me men of knowledge in word and power through the preaching of word of faith and salvation.”

Pastor Eze called on Christians to make regular Bible study and meditation part of their daily life in order to increase in the knowledge of God and display godly conduct to their neighbours and in the end earn eternal life

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SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Interview

faith

I’ve never had sexual urge –Chris Rev. Christian Chris, who is the Senior Pastor of Locust Army International Church, is an unusual man. Though he is not a Catholic Priest, he lives a celibate life; and claims that he has never had sexual feelings in this interview with EDWIN USOBOH. Most clergy talk about their call, how did you receive the calling of God? Calling is part of the blessings of God. It is God’s prophetic agenda for individuals; He calls us the way we are. There’s a difference between when He calls us and when we know we are called, like in Jeremiah 1:5. God brought me into ministry through practical signs, deliverance with practical anointing then before He use it first to get my attention so I can seek Him. Twenty years after, how has the ministry been?

It has been full of experience, good experiences and encounters. It has not been straight, sometimes we make mistakes, falling and rising is part of the work. I didn’t go to Bible school, so everything I know I learnt them on my own, through reading books, making contacts because I have a practical calling.

Can you share your pains?

I’m from Igbo extraction; to lead Igbos is not easy from all our experiences. They don’t believe in leadership, that’s part of my pain, very painful. When you’re trying to lead someone who’s not ready to follow, sometimes it hurts me, yet you can’t leave the job because God is saying stay. So, trying to lead people, to gather them is very difficult. It is like when someone is trying to do the work of a shepherding goat, I am a shepherd, the Igbo don’t behave like sheep; they behave like goats.

This church is open; it is not restricted to the Igbo. The Igbo is already who he is, he has his nature which causes me pain because they make things that are supposed to be easy difficult.

The Igbos believe they are sidelined in the scheme of things in Nigeria today; do you share this same view?

They should realise where the problem with them really lies. They should tell themselves the truth. Just like any other Africa man, they need to progress, admit that the foundation where they stand is problematic.

Not having or accepting a leader is a crime in God’s sight. It is a sin if a people do not recognize or accept leadership - it is a sin before God. What is your take on the call for the creation for the State of Biafra?

The call is not God’s will, it comes from a selfish platform and it will never happen.

There’s no Igbo man in the real sense that wants this country to divide because there’s no need. The problem they clamour about is the problem they create, I look at it from the spiritual side and God does want Nigeria to divide.

Why did you choose to live a celibate life?

I have an oath not to get married and have a family.

I was born that way; the oath has much to do with where I come from. So, the oath is standing on my assignment and the assignment is standing on my oath. The work I was born to do can only succeed on the platform of the oath and then my person. If I violate the oath, my person will disappear and the assignment will not succeed. Just like the oath of poverty, I was not born to have anything.

Have you ever been tempted to break that oath?

Is not the temptation that matters, it is the

oath, a man has only one life to live, so I don’t think about it.

Don’t you sometime feel the urge to have sex?

I am no longer a young man; I am now an advance man. I’m 51 years now. Celibacy is deeper than what you can think of. That feeling you are talking about is taken care of in the oath. You see a celibate life is beyond physical, there’s eternal wiring of a man that makes it possible. I am not normal; I am not like any other human being with the way I am wired. Because I didn’t choose to be so, I was born this way.

How has this affected your ministry?

I have written over 100 bestselling books.

If I am not this way, I am sure I couldn’t have written all those very deep mysterious books. And concentration that helped me write those books could only have been possible without material union. There are some books I write and I keep for consideration for over two months. It is just about wiring books but it is all about the quality and the depth. Sometime I will not step out of the church for three months so I don’t get distracted. I can stay inside my room for 10 hours uninterrupted, to get those thoughts. Sometimes loneliness is very painful, but is something I have to accept.

What inspired you to write those books and how have the books affected your ministry?

When I look at the level of ignorance in the society, I feel pain in my heart. I then thought of how could I enlighten the people in the society, I look at what the society is going through and I try to help, contribute and elevate the pain of the people. The books also help me in the ministry because I don’t want to start preaching. I have a lot of pastors under me and some who have establish their ministries with their own name. So, the books help them shape their ministry. It is not just about preaching, but it is important that people make themselves available.

Most people find it difficult to maintain a ministry, what are those things to help sustain a ministry?

The call of God is very crucial, that’s the assurance, the vision of God presence, foresight base on what is inside. Like the vision of this ministry to make it the giant of Africa, the vision is the sustenance. It has the immortality of my life. And you also need courage and the determination to go on.

Frankly, is not easy to start a ministry and continue, but when you look at vision, you get courage from focus, is wonderful to be called by God. I get so much excited in my heart when I know God cares about me; it gives me the courage to continue.

Can you mention some of the titles of some of your books?

The first book I wrote is ‘Prophetic warfare and deliverance’. Basically, I write from my mandate. I write books that represent

Chris

our vision; one book deals with leadership, on self-discovery. Writing is part of my assignment, it constitutes a major part of my assignment and I also preach from what I write. There’s something I hate and that is being ignorant when I am supposed to be enlightened. I know the danger of darkness, the other day I was here and light went off, before the generator came on it was like 30min, so I know the power of darkness.

What advice do you have for Africa?

My only advice is that they should take care of themselves, they should take care of the African society, they should stop running up and down, and they should also stop expecting help from outside. Whatever God will use to bless them should be produce by them. If Africa needs light, then they should provide light for Africa. If you look at the Bible, anytime they people want redemption, they should provide tools for

I am not normal; I am not like any other human being with the way I am wired.

Because I didn’t choose to be so, I was born this way

redemption ‘when the Israelites were crying in the land of Egypt, they wanted to come out from the land of bondage, they provided Moses. The Jochebed family gave birth to Moses and God gave them Moses. Africa should provide what God will use to bless them.

They should look inside and see what they have to move Africa forward. If you look at Hebrew 5vs 1-3 which reads: ‘Every high priest is selected from among the people and is appointed to represent the people in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins.”

He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness. This is why he has to offer sacrifices for his own sins, as well as for the sins of the people. We need serous deliverance. We still depend on Europe, and it is wrong; we must find solutions within.

There are too many religious in Africa, African are very religious; that is why we are not moving forward. We commit our lives to God, but He doesn’t want us to commit our live to Him, He wants us to use what He has already giving to us to develop ourselves and move forward. Instead, Africans want to depend on God to do for them what they are supposed to do for themselves, God can’t do that.

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faith

Christians imprisoned for proclaiming Jesus power on Facebook

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sick Algerian Christian, Slimani Bouhafs, was sentenced to three years in prison and slapped with a hefty fine after proclaiming Jesus’ power over lies of Islam in a series of Facebook posts.

Slimani Bouhafs, 49, who converted to Christianity in 1997, was arrested in July and charged with blasphemy after taking to Facebook to post a message about the light of Jesus overcoming the “lie” of Islam and its prophet. He also published photos showing the execution of a civilian by an Islamist terrorist, according to World Watch Monitor.

In the conservative Muslim country, the penal code for “blasphemy” provides for a penalty of three to five years in prison, along with a heavy fine against anyone convicted of insulting Islam and Muhammad. Bouhafs was given the maximum sentence.

On Tuesday, Bouhafs was officially sentenced to three years in prison by an appeals court in the Muslim majority country, The court’s judgment said Bouhafs had “shared four distorted Koranic verses and photos offensive to the Prophet, as well as articles denigrating the Islamic religion,” and that his conviction was on the basis of a series of online posts between May and June 2016.

These included “a caricature representing the Prophet Mohammed as a terrorist” and other posts “slandering Islam as a religion of intolerance and hatred.”

Human rights campaigners have slammed the ruling and called for Bouhafs’ release: “Algerian courts

have no business judging people’s religious beliefs and opinions,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

“Algeria should urgently revise its penal code to stop criminalizing peaceful free expression, including views that may insult Islam and the prophet,” she said.

The Algerian League for the Defence of Human Rights has also condemned Bouhafs’ verdict.

The Christian man’s family has expressed deep concern over his imprisonment, believing his health may deteriorate as he goes to prison. According to his daughter, he suffers from inflammatory rheumatism, a disease that worsens under stress. “He needs to follow a special diet,” she said.

Algeria is number 37 on Open Door USA’s World Watch List of countries where Christians face the most persecution, as the law prohibits public assembly for purposes of practicing a faith other than Islam.

“Although he is facing some injustice right now, James 1:2-4 says ‘Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing,’” Open Doors said of Bouhafs.

“We know and believe this time will only deepen and strengthen Slimani’s faith in Jesus. The Protestant church of Algeria and a human rights organization in Algeria are working hard to see this wrong made right.”

Pope Francis praises Mother Teresa’s defence of the unborn

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ope Francis has praised Mother Teresa’s defence of human life.

The Catholic pontiff showered accolades on the missionary in his homily delivered at Mother Teresa’s Mass of Canonization on Sunday.

His words: “Mother Teresa, in all aspects of her life, was a generous dispenser of divine mercy, making herself available for everyone through her welcome and defence of human life, those unborn and those abandoned and discarded,” Pope Francis said. “She was committed to defending life, ceaselessly proclaiming that ‘the unborn are the weakest, the smallest, the most vulnerable.’”

Mother Teresa was a pro-

life warrior who spoke truth to power about the injustice of abortion and used her global influence to spread the pro-life message.In one of her most famous speeches, she told a room containing then-President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton that “the greatest destroyer of peace is abortion.”

The pontiff also said the new saint “made her voice heard before the powers of this world, so that they might recognize their guilt for the crime – the crimes!

– of poverty they created.”

“For Mother Teresa, mercy was the ‘salt’ which gave flavour to her work, it was the ‘light’ which shone in the darkness of the many who no longer had tears to shed for their poverty and suffering,” he continued.

Did you think U.S. churches were dying? Think again!

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ecent findings show that “Seismic” trends in U.S. Church growth: 1.6 million people now attend 100 of American’s largest churches each week - and that’s not the half of it reports Breaking Christian News.

Africa already has more than 15 churches reporting more than 20,000 attendance. What many American church leaders think of as unique recent American creativity and innovation has been known in other global mega-churches as simply old school survival strategies for several decades.

Small churches out number U.S. mega-churches nine to one. Each has their own unique local and global

tasks. When John Vaughan, founder of Church Growth Today (1980), wrote the book, The World’s 20 Largest Churches (1985), there were only 27 known non-Catholic churches in the world with 6,000 plus weekend attendance. Eleven were in the United States.

Today, more than 200 in the U.S. are that large.

By the year 2000 the Springfield, Missouri, researcher reported the 100 largest churches grew to 4,000 attendance. They then doubled in size and the smallest of the 100 largest by 2010 increased to 8,000-weekend attendance.

Today, Vaughan reports, the 100 largest of the 1,742 nonCatholic mega-churches (Hartford has 1,467) begin at 9,000 attendance and the

200 largest begin at 6,000 attendance.

Houston’s Lakewood Church, led by Joel Osteen, is the nation’s largest single-site church with 52,000 in weekend attendance.

That’s a five-year gain of 7,200 since 2010 and five times the size of the church led by his father and founding pastor John Osteen who died in 1999.

These are seismic trends when you realize that in 2015 just the 10 largest churches had a weekend attendance of 359,250 and the 100 had 1,626,707 people. That is huge! That is almost 100,000 more than reported by Hartford Institute in May, 2016, and 551,126 more than reported by Outreach magazine in 2015 who used 5,269 at-

tendance as the baseline attendance for their top 100.

Church Growth Today reports 27 new megachurches since 2010 and 39 that dropped below 2,000 attendance. Vaughan established 2,000 attendance as the baseline attendance for mega-churches in 1985.

Few others had used the term mega-church and none had established a specific standard numerical benchmark. 2,000 is now the metric adopted by most researchers and major global news media.

This newest research indicates that among the 100 largest churches 60 percent are growing, 20 percent have plateaued, and only 11 percent have decreased in attendance during the past five years.

ISIS parades youngsters ready to be ‘Martyrs’ for Islam

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‘Cubs of the calipiate’ as revealed in the ISIS video

SIS has released a horrific new propaganda video showing dozens of young fighters, dubbed “Cubs of the Caliphate,” declaring their ambition to become “martyrs” for Islam and participating in violent training exercises.

Christian Herald reported that the 13-minute video was released late Tuesday by ISIS’ Deir e-Zour province in Syria and has since circulated hundreds of times on ISIS social media channels.

In the video, the children all under the age of 16 - are shown studying in an ISIS-approved religious institute. One young boy tells the camera he wants to “become a martyr to terrorize the enemies and kill them,” and to follow in the path of his brother who was also killed fighting for ISIS. Children are also seen volunteering for the notorious religious police known as Hisbah, and shown correcting other children who aren’t properly following IS’ stringent rules. One child is shown

chiding other boys, telling them to put their clothes on before going swimming, and in another scene, a young boy orders an elderly man to grow his beard.

At the ends of the video, the youngsters are shown learning how to use automatic rifles, fighting in battles, and standing beside dead bodies.

“They will be the generation to conquer Damascus, Baghdad, Jerusalem, Mecca, Medina, Dabiq, Rome and Andalusia,” the narrator says at the end.

The propaganda film also decries Middle Eastern countries where children “dream about becoming a minister, a member of parliament, a judge or a pilot” and criticizes parents who play a role in corrupting their children” by sending them to international schools or encouraging them to take part in reality talents show.

ISIS has a well-documented history of recruiting children into its ranks and enlisting them in brutal acts, and has long made clear its intent to

raise the next generation of jihadists, calling them the “cubs of the caliphate,” CNN notes. In a recent publication of their English language magazine Dabiq, it encourages mothers to sacrifice their sons for the self-proclaimed Islamic state.

“As for you, O mother of lion cubs. ... And what will make you know what the mother of lion cubs is? She is the teacher of generations and the producer of men,” the article reads.

In February, a study published in the CTC Sentinel found that SIS is increasingly employing children to carry out acts of terrorism, as there are currently 1,500 male children serving ISIS in Iraq and Syria.

The cases of 89 children eulogized by ISIS in the past 13 months were documented in the study, which found that most of them died in violent ways: 39% died detonating a vehicle born IED device and 33% were killed as foot soldiers. Some 4% killed themselves while committing

mass casualty attacks against civilians, and 6% died as propagandists embedded with brigades.

The study also found that child soldiers are seemingly treated no differently than adult soldiers by the terrorist group.

In August, John Horrigan, co-author of a forthcoming book “Small Arms: Children & Terrorism,” told NPR that children who refuse to participate in jihadist activity are often executed by the terrorist group.

He said: “There are numerous accounts of children who failed at training or who miss their parents too much and decided that, you know, this really wasn’t for them. In some cases, in many cases in fact, those children were severely beaten and, in some cases, even executed.

This is really all about providing points of no return.

The children at a point here really don’t have a choice.

And it is fundamentally this entire activity is based on coercion.”

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SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

faith

Insight

Rev. Femi Akinola www.thehebrewsng.com

01-790 3163; 0808 584 5864

The mystery of the hand

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ystery is something not understood but the existence of which cannot be denied. Mysteries are searched out by people who are deep.

The hair of a person signifies his glory, the head symbolises destiny while the eyes represent one’s vision. The chest signifies the soul, the belly button is the connection to a person’s inheritance while the legs are the symbol of dominion and possession and the hand represents a person’s labour or service.

Facts about the Hand 1. Your hands connect you to God because He has inscribed Himself on the palm of your hands (Isaiah 25:11; 49:16;Ezekiel 7:27).

2. The hand can be troubled (Micah 2:1) 3. There is power in the hand (Psalms 144:1).

Both in the scriptures and in the encyclopaedia of life, the hand is one of the strongest forces to reckon with. Whenever there is laying on of hands, note that it is a powerful transaction, this is why it is wise not to allow just anyone lay their hands on your head.

Many have great challenges today because of the person who laid hands on them. It is with the hands that we do virtually everything, ranging from caring for ourselves, to counting money and making important transactions. It is with the hands we develop and acquire new skills and use them to profit in life. When a child is born and begins to become self-aware, he begins to learn to use the hands. The impartation of knowledge is in a way the training of the hands.

There are five fingers on every hand; five symbolises grace without which a person’s life can be grounded. The ten fingers on both hands signify law and order, any life without this will lack harmony and progress. On every hand, there are fifteen joints; fifteen represents covering.

Any life without divine covering is vulnerable to danger.

On every person’s hand God has inscribed his destiny and how it will be fulfilled (Job 37:7). In every hand is a unique stamp and marking. God has put His seal on each person’s hand that makes him different from the other person. The map of your destiny is in your hands.

I decree now that every

wicked eye monitoring your hands shall go blind in Jesus name.

What is the hand used for?

1. For transfer or exchange of blessings (Genesis 48:18) Jacob swapped the blessing of Ephraim with Manasseh by the hand? This is a mystery. There are transactions that only deep spiritual people understand and most of them are wicked people. May God restore every wicked transaction that has tampered with your head.

2. It can be used as instrument of prevailing prayers (Exodus 17).

When the hand of Moses was lifted the children of Israel were winning.

When you have a genuine prophet over your life and you help in lifting his hands, you win your life’s battles easily.

3. …transfer sin (Leviticus 16); be mindful of the kind of people you shake hands with.

4. …impart wisdom (Deuteronomy 34) 5. …used for worship (Psalms 141) 6. …bless children (Matthew 19:13) 7. …impart spiritual authority.

8. …for healing (Matthew 16:18) 9. for ordination (Acts 6:6) 10. send out missionaries (Acts 13) 11. …for baptism of the Holy Ghost (Acts 18:19) 12.…perform miracles (Acts 14) 13. …welcome people into fellowship (Galatians 2:9) 14. …impart spiritual gifts (1 Timothy 4:14) 15. …stir up spiritual gifts (II Timothy 1:6; I Timothy 5:2) Because of what the hand represents to man, the enemy has devised several means to victimise a person through the hand.

Things that can happen to the hand of man; –The hand can be wounded.

- Can have holes as such unable to gather.

- It can be disfigured.

- It can have evil rings.

- Can be spiritually handcuffed.

- Can be chained.

- Can be stained with blood.

- Can be gloved; such hands are never blessed.

- The hands can be tied with rope thereby become unprofitably engaged.

- Can be manipulated.

- Can be paralysed.

- Hand can become rotten spiritually.

Understanding the healing power in the Holy Communion (2)

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ast week, we began this teaching with the understanding that Jesus is the Great Physician and one of His great prescriptions is the Holy Communion, which is the flesh and the blood of Jesus Christ. This week, we shall be examining the content of the flesh and the Blood of Jesus Christ that guarantees our healing.

What is in the flesh?

The flesh is the New Testament manna, which is superior to the one the Israelites fed on in the wilderness: Concerning the Israelites, the Bible records that they fed only on manna for forty years and their health was supernaturally sustained (Exodus 16:35; Deuteronomy 8:4; Psalms 105:37).

Yet, Jesus speaking about the New Testament manna, which is the Communion, said that it is far more superior to the one the Israelites ate. As it is written, ‘I am that bread of life. Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world’ (John 6:48-51).

If the Israelites had a testimony of total health by partaking of manna for forty years, how much more shall we have when we partake of the flesh of Christ, which is much more superior in value?

The flesh is the miracle meal that neutralises every poison in our bodies: The Bible records: And one went out into the field to gather herbs, and found a wild vine, and gathered thereof wild gourds his lap full, and came and shred them into the pot of pottage: for they knew them not.

So they poured out for the men to eat. And it came to pass, as they

were eating of the pottage, that they cried out, and said, O thou man of God, there is death in the pot. And they could not eat thereof. But he said, then bring meal. And he cast it into the pot; and he said, Pour out for the people, that they may eat.

And there was no harm in the pot (2 Kings 4:3941; see also John 6:57-58).

‘Pot’ and ‘meal’ in the above scripture connote stomach/body and the flesh of the Communion, respectively. That means, the flesh is an anti-death medication that has the capacity to terminate every deadly sickness and disease in our bodies.

The flesh is the rod of power that swallows up the rod of the oppressor in our bodies: Remember that Moses’ rod swallowed up the rod of the magicians in Egypt. Jesus is that rod in a figure because we understand from scriptures that He is the Rod that came forth out of the stem of Jesse.

Therefore, as we partake of the Communion flesh, we swallow the Rod of power, whose mission is to swallow up every rod of the magician, in form of sicknesses, diseases and oppressions of the devil, tormenting our lives (Exodus 7:8-12; Isaiah 11:1). · The flesh conveys the revelation-boosting power of God: And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight (Luke 24:30-31).

The Communion flesh is a booster of revelation which in turn refreshes and rejuvenates, thus renewing our health. We must understand that revelation is our ransom from the threat of death because the dominion of light over darkness is instant and unquestionable. The Communion flesh is one of the mysteries that open our spiritual understanding to next levels and grant us access to deeper mysteries that guarantee us total health forever (Job 33:21-25).

The Voice of Dominion by

Bishop David Oyedepo E-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

7747546-8 (SMS only) · The flesh is the miracle rod for signs and wonders: God said to Moses: And thou shalt take this rod in thine hand, wherewith thou shalt do signs (Exodus 4:17).

Remember that with the rod in Moses’ hand, while in Egypt, he was in command of signs and wonders, and Jesus is that rod in a figure.

Therefore, partaking of the Communion flesh puts us in command of signs and wonders, thus dominating life’s situations and circumstances at will (Isaiah 11:1; John 1:1-5, 14). · It is a mystery of flesh transplant: Through the Communion flesh, our natural flesh is exchanged with Jesus’ divine flesh and this guarantees our immunity (John 6:57-58).

What is in the Blood? § The blood content of the Holy Communion is a spiritual blood transfusion: Medically, every disease is traceable to the blood. When we partake of the blood content of the Communion, there is a mystery of blood transfusion as we exchange our human blood for Jesus’ divine Blood. That means our new blood group is now that of Christ (Leviticus 17:11; John 6:53-56).

In conclusion, it is important to understand that the Communion is not just to be taken once in a while or during Communion services but as often as possible. Jesus said, “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup…” (1 Corinthians 11:26). When I encountered this mystery for the first time in 1977 from the works and life of Smith Wigglesworth, I placed myself on this medication daily because I wanted all of God’s nature in my life. I have

been on that nature till date and it works like fire!

I have often said, “It’s foolishness to be shameful of what is gainful.”

The Great Physician’s prescriptions may not make sense but when we subscribe to them, we take delivery of our desires as a dream of the night (John 9:1-8).

Henceforth, as we subscribe to the prescription of the Holy Communion, we will begin to experience total health in our spirit, soul and body, in Jesus’ name! Remain ever blessed.

Are you born again?

Have you accepted Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord? If you haven’t, you can do so as you say this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today.

I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You Jesus for saving me! Now I know I am born again!”

For further reading, please get my books: For further reading, please get my books: Keys to Divine Health, The Miracle Meal, Fulfilling Your Days and The Healing Balm.

I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Ota, the covenant home of Winners.

We have five services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:35 a.m., 9:10 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. respectively.

I know this teaching has blessed you. Write and share your testimony with me through: Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Ota, P.M.B. 21688, Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria; or call 01-4548070, 01-4548280; or E-mail: feedback@ lfcww.org

Obiano, wife bags Ambassador of peace honours The Universal Peace Federation (UPF), a faith based NGO, has decorated the Executive Governor of Anambra State, Governor Willie Obiano and his wife with the honour of Ambassadors of Peace.

The honour was done to the first family of Anambra

State recently at the inauguration of the South Eastern Zonal Chapter of the NGO and Induction of new Ambassadors for Peace, in the state.

While conferring the honour, the Secretary General of UPF Nigeria, Dr. Raphael Ogar said that the NGO de-

cided to hold the event in recognition of the strategic position of their zone and the peaceful disposition of their people as well as the focused leadership of their Government.

He said: “Everyone needs peace because we live in communities filled with

conflict and violent and without peace there would be no development.

“The UPF is formally inaugurating the south – east chapter by bringing Men and Women of like minds who will carry this Crusade of Peace to our communities.”

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Body&Soul

with

Wole Adepoju 07037763410

woleadepoju@yahoo.com

Applause for Bishop Oyedepo A

lthough Bishop David Olaniyi Oyedepo was born to a Muslim father and a Christian mother, fate, it would appear, played a role in his life. He was raised by his maternal grandmother in Osogbo. While attending morning devotion with his grandmother, little Olaniyi got exposed to the Christian faith and grew in that path. Having lived his life in the way of God in which he was raised, it was not a surprise to many when he officially declared to live according to the principles of the Bible, which he abided by throughout his school days.

Upon graduation as an architect, he was employed by the Federal Ministry of Housing in Ilorin, but his penchant for the things of God would not let another thing jostle for his attention, hence, he resigned to concentrate on the gospel before he eventually got a call to establish a worship centre. Of course, it was not an easy decision for him to make as he was discouraged and castigated for his actions, but his conviction and vision would not allow him to be distracted as he steadily journeyed through and weathered the storm.

David Olaniyi Oyedepo, the Omu Aran, Kwara State born man of God, who is the founder and presiding Bish-

Excitement trails Anslem Madubuko, wife

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Omorede Osifo off the radar D

ark skinned and beautiful Lady, Omorede Osifo, might not be a factor in the political setting of Edo State where she hails from, but one that cannot be denied of her is that she indeed has a place among her people as well as in the midst of power brokers for her charisma.

Stylish Omorede, during the reign of Lucky Igbinedion as governor, was visible in the scheme of things and her relevance equally brought her to the fore in the course of the outgoing administration of Adams Oshiomole where she was made a commissioner, though she left unceremoniously. Omorede returned to running her private business after she was shown the door from office, but while she lost out in that area, she made gain in other areas of her life as she found love after series of heartbreak. What has, however, been noticed about her is that she has completely gone off the radar to focus her attention on her man, Ken Marshal, and probably to ensure her marriage does not break up.

ity man of God, who is the founder of Revival Assembly Church in Lagos, Reverend Anslem Madubuko, recorded what could be the darkest moment of his life about four years ago, when he lost his compatible companion in the person of his wife, Connie, to the cold hands of death and he was left lonely. About one year later, he picked frontline Kenyan gospel singer, Emmy, to be his companion and his beloved wife.

About two years later, the unexpected happened when unsavoury stories went round about t’s been almost one year now that Oba Enitan Adeyeye Ogunwusi, the the elderly man of God. Many Ooni of Ile Ife, ascended the throne of his fathers. Many will readily athad expected the issue was going to rock the boat of his newly test to it that the handsome and revered monarch has been living up to consummated union, but like a expectations and his promises which include uniting and bringing every marriage made in heaven, the son of Oduduwa under one umbrella, irrespective of whatever may have marriage scaled through the pe- hindered it in the first place.

It’s crystal clear how much success the monarch has recorded in that riod unconsumed. This issue and perhaps some unsung factors regard, just as he’s fast setting fresh pace in terms of seeking development were what Anslem and Emmy and empowering the youth. Meanwhile, it has been a growing concern thought about that they were re- among well-meaning Yoruba people that two of their illustrious sons in the ally excited their union had run persons of political heavy weight, who is unarguably one of the most influinto its third year without prob- ential Nigerians, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, and Arigidi Akoko born freedom lems. The Kenyan wife, Emmy, fighter, national coordinator of Yoruba group, OPC, Otunba Gani Adams, had taken to her social media who hitherto shared a cordial relationship, have for some time not been in page some days back to bless good terms. However, information reaching Celeb Lounge from impeccable the day she said ‘I do’ to her man, sources reveal that the Ooni of Ife is not comfortable with the situation and Anslem, as they celebrate their has reached out to Gani to take a leap of reconciliation with the former Lagos third year marriage anniversary. State governor since Otunba Adams is younger than Tinubu.

Oba Adeyeye set to reconcile Tinubu and Adams I

op of Living Faith Church Worldwide, popularly known as Winners Chapel, has long made a break as a man of God of note. It has no doubt made him an institution and success that everyone wants to identify with. He has also consolidated on setting the pace in several aspects of his life. As a pastor, Oyedepo has not only impacted many through his teachings, he also broke world record with his 50,000-seat church auditorium. His vision has also made him a tremendous successful entrepreneur with his finger in a number of pies which has placed him as the richest man of God in Nigeria and a prominent one around the world. With an impressive career at the pulpit and impactful life as an entrepreneur, it was nothing short of world class celebration when this enigma turned 60 some two years back. Many eminent Nigerians, political leaders and others celebrated him since it was a milestone. As a man who is not given to frivolities, the joy of adding another year might seem to be all for him but as an achiever and father of multitude, he cannot but be celebrated on his special day such as his 62nd birthday that is coming up on the 27th of this month. As such, all hands are on deck to see the icon celebrated.

Bolanle Ambode, counterparts jostle for NIA award

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moba Damilare Oloyede’s brainchild, Nigeria Impact Award, NIA, kicked off some years ago in a very modest form but through the years has grown in leaps. Even its organisers have decided to consolidate on its standards by introducing voting pattern to decide winners in certain categories. On this note, wives of governor of Lagos, Bolanle Ambode and her counterparts in Ogun and Sokoto states respectively, Olunfunsho Amosun and Hajia Maryam Tambuwal, are jostling for the award of the Most Supportive Wife of Governor as part of the categories in the 5th edition of NIA that is billed to hold at Sheraton Hotel in a couple of weeks’ time.

The three women have shown great support, courage and unrelenting tenacity in their support for their husbands’ stewardship. While Bolanle has created awareness for feminism in governance and love for children through sustenance of ‘A day as governor’ project, Mrs. Amosun has, through her Uplift Program, consolidated the works of her husband in getting dividends of democracy to the youth and women while Hajia Tambuwal boosted her image through her care for prison inmates among the people of Sokoto State.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Body&Soul

Beware of online gold diggers T CONNECT NG hey’re everywhere now; but more especially on social media. I’m talking about the sweet-talking gigolo who sits comfortably in front of his laptop and with shifty fingers, rip-off ladies who make the grave mistake of believing in their crafty love tales. They’ll use fake ID’s and pictures and stealthy lay in wait at different social media chat rooms for their would-be prey.

Unfortunately, it all starts with an innocent friendship request mainly on Facebook, BBM or any of the other chat rooms where you get to exchange pictures and voice messages. This romance scam is more rampant on Facebook though. Lately, what these guys do is to steal pictures of men who look rich, create another Facebook profile with these pictures, using a different name and proceed to feed the Bio with fake details.

They call this process Cloning and it has become rampant on social media.

A friend of mine, let’s call her Julia for the purpose of protecting her identity narrated a situation she almost fell into. She got a friendship request from a guy and she quickly went through his bio to check him out. She liked the pictures of the handsome guy she saw in a white navy uniform siting inside a big ship overlooking the ocean.

The guy’s bio read he’s a Nigerian living in the United Kingdom, a graduate of Oxford University and works as a marine engineer with Shell Petroleum. She liked what she saw and accepted the request. Soon, she and the guy started chatting. He sounded really intelligent and she enjoyed his chats for a while. As they proceeded to get to know more about each other, the guy suddenly said he really likes her and would like them to start a serious relationship when he comes

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vanessaonsunday@yahoo.com back to the country on long vacation in two weeks’ time. He told her that he was going to the shopping mall to buy things he was sending down to his parents the next day as gifts before returning to Nigeria and would like to send her gifts as well. She readily accepted and as Nigerians will say, ’who no like ‘Awufu’?’ He told her he was going to send her nice things through a courier service that will arrive in Nigeria the next day. He asked for her phone number, saying the courier company will contact her once the goods arrive so she could pick it up. She readily gave him her number and waited with bathed breath the next day when the gifts will arrive. As early as 7am, it was a text from the courier company that woke her up. When she opened it, she was flabbergasted to see the long list of items this lover boy sent to a girl he hardly knew. It read something like this, ‘your package has just arrived Nigeria and the contents include: a mini laptop, one Rolex wristwatch, three ladies designer handbags, three different colours of Brazilian hair, both long and short and two designer perfumes. Please call the following numbers of our Abuja office to pick your package’.

She excitedly called the number and told the person on the other end of the phone

that she lives in Lagos so they should forward it to their Lagos office. That was when she was told that they don’t have a Lagos office. She has to pay N20, 000 into an account so they could use another courier service to forward those items to her.

She almost fell into the trap because the lover boy kept calling, asking her to go and pick those items immediately before it gets stolen. But on second thoughts, she called a friend and narrated the whole thing to her.

It was her friend that opened her eyes to the scam she was about falling into. When they called her again to ask why she hasn’t sent in the money, she now asked lover boy to send money to her through Western Union so she could clear the goods since he had so much money to send expensive gifts to a lady he hardly knew. Of course the guy cut off the phone, but not before raining profanities on her.

Such a funny story isn’t it? But that is the kind of scam that goes on social media these days. The 419 guys have abandoned the white ladies who were their victims previously and now prey on fellow Nigerians all in the bid to make fast money.

These scammers make victims of their prey by becoming the knight in shining armour the woman always dreamed of. Before

you know it, the lady is head over heels in love with this online lover and is ready to go to any length to be with her new found love; even if it means rushing into her own handmade coffin!

Ladies, it’s all an illusion! You are just acting your own home video! Cyber space and the World Wide Web (WWW) create makebelieves in your imagination and before you know it, you begin to accept the romantic tales happening to you online as real.

Sorry to bust your bubble, but you are just in love with the idea of being in love. It is an idealised romantic illusion created to lure you into your worst nightmare where you can become a victim of heartbreak, rape, fraud or even death.

So, please be very careful when adding people on your friends’ list on any of the social media sites. It is important to be cautious about the kind of personal information you give out to total strangers online in the name of chatting. Be wary when someone you hardly know meets you online and begin to shower you with love words almost immediately.

Please, don’t swallow all the romantic gibberish thrown at you either through chats, e-mails or even phone calls from a person you’ve never met before. Put them to test yourself to ascertain their sincerity.

By so doing, you are safe guarding yourself from scam or, worse, becoming another casualty social media fans will ogle and share among their friends as another victim of online romance scam. To be forewarned is to be forearmed. It is only fools that rush in where angels fear to tread!

Have you been scammed romantically online before? Write in and tell us about it.

Recession is a word and it hurts so bad

hen the President took almost half a year to appoint ministers, there was a general consensus that the best minds were being sought to fill the ministerial positions.

The appointment of Mrs. Kami Adeosun as Finance Minister raised no eyebrows.

Her CV shows her as qualified but it seems there is a difference between what is on the CV and the ability to translate it to action. There was a supposed tweet from the minister’s account stating that “recession is just a word”. I acknowledge at this point that the Minister has come out to vehemently deny the statement but other sources and unverified materials seem to confirm that she pronounced the statement.

I am also going to approach this from the point of view that the minister has never denied anything coming out of that handle for months until now. She may not own it but she gave her tacit approval to it, so she is responsible by association.

It is another sad evidence of how detached the people saddled with governance have become with the issues concerning the people they govern. Yes, when taken in full, the tweet is supposed to encourage Nigerians to be patient as time heals all wounds, but to end with a dismissal of the one thing causing millions pain, is just a demonstration of the insensitivity of our leaders.

Perhaps it will be good to go down memory lane here before addressing other issues; every activity of the present government has been predicated on a word or slogan. The ‘change’ mantra was sold as the new slogan for Nigeria and it propelled the party to power. Everyone

facing the country may be beyond the reach of any man to resolve and I appreciate that the minister may be experimenting with the Goldilocks approach (Experimenting with everything until you find the ‘right’ one), but there is also a need to be empathetic to the plight of the common man in any approach to governance. Recession may be a word, but it is a word hurting millions.

liked the sound of it and bought into it.

‘Corruption’ has been branded as the demon troubling Nigeria. Corruption must be fought and then change can come.

The administration also borrowed ‘fantastically’ from the former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, who told the queen Nigeria is ‘Fantastically corrupt.’ So we ‘fantastically demanded’ a return of our assets from our colonial masters. So, for a minister who is serving an administration anchored on words to dismiss another word is just not the change we expected.

Boasting the largest number of accredited universities in Africa, I doubt if there is a Nigerian who does not know that recession is a word. Their education guarantees that knowledge. What on the other hand they want to know is the word that will provide the solution.

The ‘Policy’ word that outlines the approach of the minister in tackling the word causing so much pain. I also do realise that as a minister, she probably does not feel the effect of the recession word as much as the man on the street, but then it is her duty to provide the solutions to the problem instead of telling people what they already know.

Sadly, what the minister has succeeded in doing is provide a distraction for herself that will now take away from the precious and valuable time required to look for the solution to Nigeria’s mounting problems.

I guess that then minister and her aids will now be perusing the dictionary or its online equivalent for a word to defend the indefensible.

However, I want to close with just this thought; I do know that the problems

The ‘change’ mantra was sold as the new slogan for Nigeria and it propelled the party to power. Everyone liked the sound of it and bought into it. ‘Corruption’ has been branded as the demon troubling Nigeria. Corruption must be fought and then change can come.

Re: Kerry, Zuckerberg and issues of visiting Nigeria When writers of your own fashion (sic), after being grounded with potential knowledge about this country will simply pop up with some kind of parochial argument that by all intent and purpose is backing or siding some bunch in this nation is so heart wrenching. What do you mean by “What if Kerry met only northern governors and elders? Let the southern governors and elders invite him or better still, invite themselves to his office in Washington”? Was his visit meant for Nigeria or Arewa? If as you defended yourself was mainly a security meeting, is it only the north that is boiling? Or worst still was (sic) if it was to be a northern affair why not include Christians of northern extraction or have they not been affected by the mayhem. I am simply disappointed on (sic) narrow minded writers like you, whom at best are jostling for recognition or favour.

Nigeria is Nigeria and not Nortgeria…

David Agabi via e mail My note: Another example of how ethnicity and politics cloud every discourse coming out of Nigeria despite my attempt to address this in the piece. I will respond at a future date.

1, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

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Weather-proof makeup Biwom Iklaki

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othing makes a rainy day worse than having your mascara streaming down your face after you had spent so many precious morning minutes getting it on. If only your mascara streaked, perhaps one would not be quite as mad as when you have been in the rain for a few minutes and your eye liner, brow pencil, foundation, etc. becomes a messy blob on your face and clothes.

We know the economy may not be good, but we a l s o know that

looking good is good business.

So, do not scrimp on your waterproof makeup. Invest in the best waterproof makeup that will see you through any sweaty day or a few minutes caught in the rain. The most important ones to purchase in waterproof are; mascara (obviously), primer, eye shadow and foundation. Even your lipstick and eye liner could do with a waterproof boost.

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Body&Soul

Stylish ethnic touch

Vanessa Okwara

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he brief holiday for the Eid-el-Kabir is already on and this is the best time to rummage through your wardrobe and start rocking those traditional attires you made but were unable to wear because of the nature of your job.

Holiday season is the best time to rock your modern Ankara styles, Guinea brocades, laces and even the Agbada and dashikis.

The festive season gives the perfect excuse to dress down and what better way to do so than to wear African traditional attire.

If you are attending special events like as traditional wedding, coronation, visiting friends and relations or an event this holiday that demands an ethnic touch, then you would not go wrong with traditional attire. Just make sure it’s stylishly sown and fits your body frame perfectly. There is nothing worse than poorly sown traditional clothing. If it’s not tailor made for your frame, you will end up looking terribly dressed and out of place.

To stand out from the rest at that special occasion, make

sure you wear traditional clothing that is well designed with artistic embroidery and sown perfectly to give it a distinct creative appeal that will ensure you look flamboyant and glam.

Sean Tizzle Stylishly charming Judith Onyebuchi

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orihanfen Oluwaseun oluwabamidele popularly known as Sean Tizzle is a Nigerian singer and songwriter. He holds a degree in Theatre Arts from the University of Ibadan. Sean started his music career with a group called the ‘3-way band’ and was formally signed to Sound Sultan’s record label ‘Naija Ninijas’. He marked his arrival in the music scene with the track titled ‘Boogie down’ and his hit track ‘Sho Lee’ in February 2013. He cur-

rently has a record deal with Difference Entertainment.

Sean Tizzle has been killing it in the fashion scene with his cool style.

The muscular singer is a cool dresser who understands his body enough to look good in anything he wears. It’s really hard not to love his charming personality in his blazers because he always slays.

He often turns up in a mix of street wear with bold, bright neck chains and wristwatch. He creates a style charm that is magnificently full of swag.

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

RazzleDazzle

Body&Soul Abiola Alaba Peters

with

08062622328 abiolaalabapeters@rockmail.com

Meet successful Nigerian comedians who are still single The Nigerian comedy industry has grown to be a full-fledged money spinning enterprise. It is becoming more interesting and worthwhile by the day. A few of the comedians have settled down with their spouses; enjoying their status as celebrity couples. Some are still single with no news of settling down soon, while some got divorced and not thinking of remarrying. ABIOLA ALABA PETERS Reports

MC Shakara Lepacious Bose

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epacious Bose, whose real name is Bose Ogunboye, warmed her way into our hearts with her quick wit and sharp tongue. Her name was an irony of her big size. The comedienne, whose widely celebrated weight loss is still spreading like wildfire is yet to tie the knot.

The witty lady is also an actress. Although it has been rumoured she’s married, Bose is yet to officially deny or confirm the claim.

She graduated from University of Ibadan with a degree in Theatre Arts. She started her career while in the university when she joined Afromedia Organisation.

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PRINCESS

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e is the CEO of Purple Roof Entertainment and brain behind one of Nigeria’s most attended event, ‘Comedy Goes 2 Church’. MC Acapella is one of Nigeria’s top comedians. Benneth Chinedu Daniel registered his name in the industry after winning the third edition of AY’s Open Mic Challenge. Since then, he has been able to carve a niche for himself with his style of comedy devoid of vulgarity. The Imo State born comedy merchant has always declined questions regarding his love life and marriage plans even till this very moment. Acapella, also an On Air Personality with a popular radio station in Lagos and an actor has over the years won the hearts of so many entertainment lovers within and outside the shores of the country with his well-crafted jokes drawn from religious ministries. Pella as some choose to call him is one man every lady would love to have as her own. The dark and chubby rib cracker was recently unveiled as the brand ambassador of Cedar Homes and has successfully stayed out of controversy in almost a decade in the funnyword circle. Many only wish he breaks the news of his marital status to the public as he is considered one of the most successful bachelors in the funny- world circle.

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Mandy

Acapella

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Chigul

The list cannot be complete if comedian, Kenneth Agberia, better known as Mc Shakara is not listed among the comedians who are yet to tie the knot. It is believed that he is called ‘Shakara’ because of his looks. The talented, tall and handsome comedy star drives one of the most expensive cars in town and is no doubt one of the big names in the comedy industry. He is one person the public will wish to hear the news of his marriage anytime soon. Who knows, maybe with the recent engagement fever amongst entertainers, he might pop the big question to his lover who is not yet known.

igerian comedienne, Damilola Adekoya, popularly known as Princess, is another comedienne who holds her own on the stage. Her jokes are funny, fresh and she obviously has no qualms in making the audience laugh at her own expense.

Princess, and her movie producer cum director husband, Adeshola Jeremiah, tied the knot on Wednesday 8th, May 2013. It was indeed a happy day for ‘Madam’ Princess who had almost lost hope at finding a husband then. “I got married to somebody who I was in love with. At that time, he also said he loved me. Unfortunately, the marriage ended too soon. It was due to irreconcilable differences”, Princess once stated in an interview. Less than a month after their wedding, Princess and her ex-husband fell out of marriage and that was it! Since then, nothing whatsoever was heard from the chubby star regarding her love life as she still remains unmarried till date.

op Nigerian female comedienne, Mandy Uzonicha, aka Mandy, once said starting out was difficult. According to her, “nobody wanted to give a female comedian the chance to prove what she is worth.

No one took her seriously”. Her first real chance came when she appeared on Charly Boy’s show in 1992. After that, she started appearing in more shows. Though she may not be as active as she used to be, Mandy continues to be one of the women who began the process of breaking the glass ceiling in Nigeria’s comedy industry, especially for women. “I am a divorcee. I have come to realise that abroad, people don’t even get married any longer; they live together.

From my own survey, I’ve found out that it is only in Nigeria, especially in Lagos that you have more than 100 weddings taking place every week. Let me tell you, being married is getting out of fashion. But in Nigeria, when you get married, you find out that it does not last”, Mandy said in an interview.

hioma Omeruah, popularly called Chigul, has fast risen to become a household name when it comes to comedy business in Nigeria. She is a versatile comedienne who can mimic any accent; leaving you rolling in laughter. Chigul left everyone in stitches when she released her cover for Adele’s hit song ‘Hello’. She is also an actress and featured in the award winning movie, ‘Road to Yesterday’ produced by Genevieve Nnaji. Beyond anchoring events, she also appears in videos and commercials. In an Interview she granted recently, Chioma Omeruah said she didn’t choose comedy, instead comedy chose her. She revealed so much, including what led to her broken marriage. The strong and independent lady has been able to still hold her own and put smiles on the faces of her fans.

MTN Project Fame: Yusuph, Oluchi in emotional goodbye

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ast weekend exit of Steve and Gabriel brought MTN Project Fame West Africa Season 9 contestants down to 10 in number. The fifth edition of the Elimination Show bid two contestants goodbye as the competition got stiffer.

Although the contestants’ beautiful group performance momentarily eased the tension and suspense that is characteristic of Elimination Shows, the reality of the dire situation settled on everyone when the moment of truth came for the contestants on probation: Pere, Yusuph, Oluchi, Winner, Dapo, and Mirabel.

Pere was revealed to have had the highest viewers’ votes hence he was not required to perform again. The rest: Yusuph, Winner, Oluchi, Dapo and Mirabel had to fight for a lifeline back into the competition with their performances.

Winner got her lifeline from the Judges; Dapo was saved by the Faculty, while Mirabel was voted back into the competition by the contestants who were not on probation.

Sadly, Yusuph and Oluchi had to say goodbye. Yusuph bowed out of the competition singing the late Nomoreloss’ hit track ‘Iyawo Asiko’ while Oluchi paid tribute to the late ‘Branama’ crooner Keffee, as she performed ‘Kokoroko’.

Meanwhile, the sixth Nomination Night was a beautiful one, which saw the contestants paying tribute to music legends who left indelible marks in the sands of time before their death.

Academy Music Director, Ben Ogbeiwi, popularly known as Uncle Ben, paid tribute to the late Fela Anikulapo Kuti by performing the Afro legend’s song titled ‘Water no get enemy’ and this opened the series of tribute performances. His magnificent performance was indeed a delightful surprise to the audience who didn’t see it coming!

The remaining eight contestants delivered mind blowing performances that probably got the late original song owners smiling down from heaven.

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Let’s get to meet you?

My name is Bethel Njokwu, I’m popularly known as Senator of the Federal Republic, in fact, as I speak, I’m the most distinguished. I’m a theatre graduate from the University of Jos; a total theatre man and an entertainment practitioner. I am from Imo state, Mbaise precisely. I’m a proud Imo man and if I have my way, I will reincarnate as an Imo man. I’m also a business man, a father, husband and friend.

So, aside comedy, what else do you do?

Like I said earlier, I’m a theatre practitioner. I’m into content, management and production, I produce content for companies, create ideas and stuffs like that. I’m also an actor. Funny enough, I started as an actor before coming into comedy. So, when I have opportunity to do business, I also do business.

Which do you find most convenient?

Well, for me, entertainment is convenient, it’s my comfort zone. Be it acting, choreography or stand-up comedy. I started off with acting back in school, a two to three times award winning actor back then in school. I graduated as the best scriptwriter in the University of Jos. That was actually my first love before stand-up comedy, I don’t have any favourites. I do both of them well.

Which pays you well?

It’s obviously comedy. The thing is, for movies, the budget is spread around so many things and after that, you discover that there won’t really be much left, but as a stand-up comedian, it’s just you and your microphone and you are facing your audience, so whatever budget, it’s for you alone. On a serious note, comedy pays much more than movies for me, but acting is fun because it takes you to the grassroots and so many people will get to see that movie, but as a comedian, it’s just you and the particular client that invited you. Acting exposes you to a large number of people, so, it’s fun being an actor and a stand-up comedian as well.

How long have you been married and how has it been?

Close to five years now, and it’s been a wonderful experience. Like I always tell people, marriage cannot be all that rosy but then again, there are some spoken words that God has instituted into marriage.

Marriage has its own benefits and when it comes, you don’t have a choice than to enjoy it. Marriage is a beautiful thing, you have your family always around you even when things seem funny, although it has its own challenges but it is a beautiful experience.

You rarely attend functions with your wife, why is that?

Yes, there a reason for it, my wife is not the type that really likes the spotlight; she’s not into showbiz. My wife is a French and Portuguese graduate. She’s not the type that wants attention on her; she’s actually from Plateau State. She doesn’t really like all the paparazzi and red carpet thing and as such she chooses the kind of event she attends. Sometimes I have to pull her out; it is not often since she has chosen that way. It is even better for me because that will take the media off her. I know a lot of colleagues that have put their families outside and at the end it has turned to be social media gist. Not like I tell her to sit back at home, it is what she wants. She’s not really like a housewife person, she’s into business too.

Do you think marriages should be showcased on social media?

Well, the thing is that, there are certain aspects of marriage that one has to put out on social media. If for instance, my wife is celebrating her birthday, of course I will celebrate her or my son. Okey Bakasi one time mentioned that, if you and your wife went to the pool and she is wearing

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Comedy pays me well –Senator, a comedian

Bethal Njokwu, popularly known as Senator the Comedian, has been in the comic industry for years and not showing signs of slowing down. The Imo State born father and husband thrilled audience with great performance in his just concluded star-studded annual event, ‘Senator: Most Distinguished.’ In this chat with ABIOLA ALABA PETERS, he talks about his family and his career as a comedian and actor a swimming suit and you decide to share it on social media, when they start calling her out, saying she has stretch marks or fat arms and all, I put it to you that you asked for it. So you have to be sensitive about what you put out there. In as much as you are trying to celebrate your wife, you should know that there are intricacies of what you are about to do. But then, one needs to be careful what you put out on social media.

How do you manage your female fans?

I won’t say I have this grace, but I will say I have this receptive character in me; it is something I learnt from Ali Baba. He thought me how to make everybody have a sense of belonging. You see, people put up pictures of their events and you will see him liking the picture. I’m sure that when he sees you, he won’t know it’s you, that’s Ali Baba for you. He tries to make everybody have a sense of belonging and that’s what I do. Some will say, ‘oh I watched your skit, you are very hilarious, I’d just smile and say thanks.’ Sometimes, you just don’t let it be same all the time; you try to appreciate the person, so I try as much as I can to create boundaries so that we don’t end up hurting each other.

What do you consider as your biggest challenge as a comedian?

The bad economy is the biggest challenge I must say. Like I always say, you can’t take away an artiste from his environment. For some months now, the country has been experiencing a down turn, the entertainers would have benefited more if we had royalty. There’s no royalty, there’s no checkmating of certain things. In recent times, you hear things like, this comedian stole the other comedian’s joke and all, that’s what gives birth to it. A society that is not structured is not mechanised towards building the progress of the citizens. The government doesn’t see entertainment as money-making venture; they see it as one of those things.

The only time they remember is when they have a birthday or the President is returni n g .

Thank G o d the oil h a s crashed, so, now let them look elsewhere.

How do you feel when somebody steals your joke 10 minutes

to when you are about to be called on stage?

What you just asked has happened to me. One happened to me at Acappella’s show some years back. I was to be called, but this person who I don’t want to mention his name just went to them and said he was in a hurry to catch up with something and he will like to go up stage. So he went on stage and before you know it, began to tell one of my jokes that he knows I use well and it works for me. He started telling it like it was his and you needed to see the audience laughing seriously. I felt so bad and immediately our eyes jammed, he had to cut the joke short.

I felt very bad but what can I do, so that’s it, it happens but we have to continue.

Words for your fans?

Well, I just want to appreciate them for their love and support, and they should always put God first in all they do.

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

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Interbank rate falls as Lagos plans N60bn bond Tobiloba Adenekan

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L-R: President, Lagos Chambers of Commerce & Industry (LCCI), Dr. Nike Akande; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Dr Mahmoud Isa-Dutse; President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN), Prof. Segun Ajibola and Gombe State Deputy Governor, Mr Tha’anda Jason Rubainu, at the 10th Annual Banking and Finance Conference in Abuja…yesterday

N3bn NIMASA fund tears maritime academy apart

•Registrar, Bursar on war path over Sallah spending

Dakuku

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Paul Ogbuokiri

ension is rising at Nigeria’s premier maritime training institution, Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron over alleged disagreement among the management of the Academy on how to manage about N3 billion released to the Academy by the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

The remittance is arrears of the Academy’s statutory funds (five per cent of NIMASA’s revenue).

However, Sunday Telegraph learnt that the money which was released to the Academy in two tranches last week is threatening to cause major conflagration at the institution which had been in the news in recent times

for negative reasons.

Two Rectors of the institution recently died in controversial circumstances within a period of six months amid allegations of use of ‘juju’ by the host community. The Federal Government is yet to appoint a Rector for the Academy since the late Acting Rector, Engr. Anthony Ishiodu died in an Abuja hospital about a month ago.

Sunday Telegraph further learnt that top officials of the institution are at daggers drawn over demands for quick disbursement of the money partly for Eid Kabir celebrations when the academy is said to be have a debt burden of about N7.2 billion, arrears of staff emoluments and indebtedness to local contractors.

Sources close to the Academy disclosed that the subdued peace in the institution was reversed by a directive from the Federal Ministry of Transport, which partially embargoed spending from the N3 billion; pending when a new Rector will be appointed by the Federal Government.

Only staff salaries, feeding of cadets and purchase of diesel for electricity was exempted from the embargo. The source added that the Minister, Rotimi Amaechi had viewed these areas as urgent and that every other payment should wait for the yet to be appointed Rector.

But there is growing agitation by some groups including contractors who were allegedly informed of the release of the money by some officials of the institution, who allegedly went further to incite them that a certain top official of the institution was the one blocking the disbursement of the funds by the school management.

Barely two weeks after the burial of the late Acting Rector, Anthony Ishiodu, the Registrar, Ante Mkpandiok, who is holding fort as the Rector of the institution, does not have thepower to sign the Academy’s cheques.

Following the death of the acting Rector, the Bursar became the lone signatory to the institution’s account making access to funds solely dependent on his mandate.

They warned that Kayode may be exposing himself to another round of petition for alleged fraud if he allows the withdrawals as the Academy has become notorious as the agency with the highest frequency of petitions under the Transportation Ministry

Sources said a top official of the Academy had requested that monies be made available for staff to share for the Muslim festivities which will start tomorrow, but the Bursar, Folorunso Kayode, reportedly objected to the request insisting that monies for such celebration were not covered in the recent directive from the ministry.

Sunday Telegraph was told that while a section of the management is in support of the request for Sallah payment, another section of the school community insists the Bursar should not compromise by allowing withdrawals of such monies against the government’s directive.

They warned that Kayode may be exposing himself to another round of petition for alleged fraud if he allows the withdrawals as the Academy has become notorious as the agency with the highest frequency of petitions under the Transportation Ministry.

As at the time of writing this report, Kayode and Mkpandiok had travelled to Abuja to seek a further clarification from the ministry and clear direction before the funds are spent.

Calls to the telephone line of the Deputy Director, Press of the Federal Ministry of Transportation, CO N T I N U ED O N PAGE 44

igeria’s overnight naira interbank lending rate fell to around 15 per cent on Friday from a peak of 35 per cent on Wednesday, after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) injected cash from matured treasury bills into the banking system, traders said.

This is coming as the Lagos State Government says it will issue N60 billion this year out of a N500 billion bond programme it plans to issue over the next three to five years, Governor Akinwumi Ambode said on Friday.

The CBN repaid around N293 billion in matured bills to some commercial banks on Thursday, increasing liquidity and forcing down borrowing costs among banks.

The cost of overnight borrowing among banks had reached 35 per cent on Wednesday after liquidity dried up.

Some commercial lenders resorted to borrowing at the Central Bank discount window to help meet their immediate obligations.

Nigeria has been selling dollars in the interbank foreign exchange market to support the ailing naira, and selling treasury bills to curb speculation against the local currency.

The Central Bank sold N139.42 billion of treasury bills in open market operations on Thursday at 18.5 per cent, to reduce system liquidity. But the market cash balance remained up at 51.65 billion on Friday against an N87 billion deficit on Wednesday.

“We expect the rate to be trading around the 15 to 18 per cent level next week if the Central Bank did not sell fresh treasury bills to mop up cash from the system,” one dealer said.

The overnight lending rate had closed last week at 16 per cent but gradually climbed to 35 per cent on Wednesday, then eased marginally to 20 per cent on Thursday after the cash from matured treasury bills reached the system.

Meanwhile, Governor Ambode has said that the new bond which the state plans to issue will be channelled to infrastructure projects.

NCC shuts down Nokia-Alacatel’s office

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igerian Telecommunication Commission (NCC) has finally closed down the offices of Nokia-Alcatel for operating in the country without the necessary permit.

NCC spokesman Tony Ojobo said on Friday that the mobile telecoms equipment manufacturer had failed to obtain the N2 million ($6,349) licence required for the sale and installation of network equipment.

The head of Nokia’s Nigerian operations said the company was in talks with the NCC to secure the licence and that its offices would reopen imminently.

Nokia-Alcatel had applied for the licence about three months ago but had not completed the process, a separate NCC source said, adding that the company had operated without the permit for some time.

44

SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Business

Harvard graduate to float Nigeria’s first online bank

Eunice Stephen

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L-R: Adviser to Saudi Crown on Africa, Mr. Simon Aggey; MD/CEO, Saudi Crown, Dr. Kaher; CEO, LINC Nigeria Limited, Pat. I. Oramah; Chief Mike Enaghose and Sheikh Salim, also of Saudi Crown, when the two companies signed an international collaboration agreement in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)…recently

LINC, IPMAN sign MoU to enhance petroleum products availability

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Eunice Stephen he Federal Government’s partial deregulation of the downstream oil and gas sub-sector received a boost last week when two major players in the industry signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to forge a strategic partnership that will enhance the benefits of the exercise, especially in the area of availability of refined products.

LINC Nigeria Limited (LINC) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) signed the MoU in Abuja, following months of negotiations and feasibility assessment of the venture aimed at seamless distribution of petroleum products to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria.

LINC Nigeria Ltd is a fully indigenous corporate organisation with interest in the oil and gas and other sectors of the economy.

Giving insight into the partnership, the Chief Executive Officer of LINC Nigeria, Mr. Ifeanyi Oramah, explained that by the agreement, his company would provide tank farm facilities for the warehous-

ing of the petroleum products procured by independent petroleum marketers before distribution.

The products usually procured by IPMAN from the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC’s) subsidiaries – including the Petroleum Product Marketing Company limited (PPMC) and Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and other international sources – will be stored in the tank farms from where they will be trucked to the filling stations for dispensing.

Oramah disclosed that this collaboration would

make for easy availability of the products in the far north, south-east and south-south flanks of the country with tremendous impact on the pump prices of the products at the fuel stations.

“In the specific situation where products allocation is from the Port Harcourt refinery depot, such products shall be warehoused in LINC’s Calabar tank farm for storage,” Oramah stressed, adding that in the event that LINC’s tank farm is unable to take all the products sourced

by IPMAM, other tank farms could be engaged for storage.

It was also agreed by the parties that whenever LINC sources petroleum products on its own, “IPMAN shall enjoy the right of ‘first refusal’ to buy such products.”

The LINC-IPMAN partnership is coming on the heels of an international collaboration agreement between LINC Nigeria Ltd and Saudi Crown, a big player in the oil and other related industries, in the Middle East.

While Oramah represented LINC at the signing ceremony in the UAE, Saudi Crown team was led by the Managing Director/CEO, Dr. Kaher.

Ogun generates N12bn internal revenue

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he Ogun State Internal Revenue Service generated N12 billion in the last seven months, its Chairman, Adeosun Adekunle, has said.

Adekunle gave the figure in Abeokuta on Friday when the Ogun State Assembly Committee on Finance and Appropriation paid an oversight visit to the agency.

He noted said that the amount was more than the N11 billion generated

by the agency in the entire 2015.

The chairman attributed the increase to improvement in tax auditing and reconciliation meetings with stakeholders.

He said that the agency had also embarked on public enlightenment on tax payment in the print and electronic media to promote a culture of voluntary tax payment among residents of the state.

Adekunle said low level

of voluntary compliance and non-renewal of vehicle licences were among the major challenges encountered by the agency.

He gave the assurance that the government would continue to deliver democracy dividends to Ogun residents in spite of challenges.

The leader of the delegation, Bankole Akanbi, commended the agency for the measures it put in place to generate revenue, and urged it to intensify efforts.

N3bn NIMASA fund tears maritime academy apart CONTINUED FR O M PAGE 43

Mrs. Yetunde Sonaike to get the ministry’s official position on the matter were not answered as at the time of writing this report.

The Academy has lately been accused of ignoring due process with some members of staff directly involved in contracts awards and execution for which they seek to be paid

at the expense of many other pressing needs of the institution.

Since the death of the school’s substantive Rector, Joshua Okpo in December 2015, the academy has been through frequent unrest involving stormy management meetings, petitions against the Acting Rector, who also died recently, and a physical attack on the Bursar’s official car result-

ing to the shattering of the vehicle’s windscreen.

Ishiodu, the late Acting Rector was severally a guest of the police, Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC) and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) due to several petitions found to be baseless but very distracting to the smooth running of Nigeria’s foremost maritime

training school.

The Academy presently has a dearth of halls of residence for its cadets resulting to a good number of them sleeping in mosquito infested classrooms.

Struggle for supremacy has also caused an adverse effect on teaching and learning as there appears to be a general breakdown of regimental discipline, for which the school is known.

unde Kehinde, a graduate of Harvard Business School, is all set to float Lidya, Nigeria’s first online-only bank, in October 2016. The bank, which is being branded as Nigeria’s first digital bank, will have no branches, but will be based in Lagos.

According to Kehinde, who spoke to Bloomberg, Lidya will offer small and medium-sized businesses unsecured loans of between N152, 000 and N4.5 million.

“There are no real products catered to these customers today,” Kehinde told Bloomberg, adding that he will announce the formation of Lidya at a financial technology conference in New York. “What we’re trying to do is introduce a lot of technology, algorithms and machine learning to industrialize the credit assessment process.”

The former managing director of Jumia, popularly regarded as Nigeria’s biggest online mall, also runs Africa Courier Express, a logistics company, along with Ercin Eksin, the other founder of Lidya.

Kehinde and Eksin are majority shareholders, but they hope to bring in other shareholders and raise more than $1 million in the next few months from investors, primarily in the US. It will partner with other Nigerian banks to allow them to use it as a platform to target small businesses.

The online bank is looking to operate at a lower cost and offer financial services at such low cost to its customers.

“Because of how the banks are set up, with bricks and mortar networks, they’re more inclined to service multinationals and large government institutions,” Kehinde said.

“Their cost structure isn’t favourable to servicing small businesses. Because we’re using technology and algorithms to assess the risk, it allows them to offer financial products to these customers at a low cost.”

Charcoal Microwave Oven

LG Electronics offers 10-year warranty on products Tobiloba Adenekan

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n a bid to satisfy its teeming consumers and deliver next level convenience, LG Electronics, a leader in home appliances and consumer electronics, recently achieved unprecedented technological advancements with the core technology designed for some of its products.

Speaking on the innovation, General Manager, Home Appliances Division, LG Electronics, West Africa operations Mr. Jiung Park said the core technology breakthrough gave LG the confidence to back it up with 10-year warranty, first of its kind in home appliance category in Nigeria.

According to him, the products covered by the 10-year warranty include LG Refrigerators and Chest Freezers, with Linear and Smart Inverter Compressors, LG Washing Machines with Inverter Direct Drive Motor, LG Charcoal Lighting Heater in microwave oven and LG Cordless vacuum cleaner with Smart Inverter Motor.

“At LG, we understand that durability is just as important as strong performance. A large range of our products come backed by 10-year warranty, ensuring worry-free operation year after year. LG Electronics is the first electronic brand in Nigeria to offer a decade-long warranty of reliability on a large array of its product offerings,” he said.

These achievements, he noted, came with critical acclaim along with the patent right, especially as the company announced its latest breakthrough on charcoal microwave, which every household is looking for.

He said, “LG’s Charcoal Lighting heater Microwave with Lightwave technology offers a multi-heating system designed to cook healthier, tastier, gourmet-standard food with the minimum of fuss. By letting food retain its natural flavours, Lightwave oven makes dishes that are crispy on the outside and irresistibly juicy on the inside.

“The LG Charcoal Microwave Oven is a three-in-one easy to use kitchen appliance. This microwave oven presents you with a number of cooking options -Microwave, Grill temperature control and Active Convection. Apart from juicy meals enjoyed using LG microwaves, consumers will also enjoy the 10 year warranty it offers,” he said.

45

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY September 11, 2016

BUSINESS INTERVIEW

How would you describe your operations in the last two years?

In the last two years, our operations have improved tremendously, causing enormous changes within the aviation industry. We have made our mark. Air Peace has shown strength and reliability and the Nigerian public can depend on us.

In the last two years, Air Peace has changed the face of aviation as far as scheduled flight operations are concerned. We have been able to revolutionise the industry positively. Passengers can plan with us because we are the greatest exponent of ontime departure. We’ve caused enormous changes within the aviation industry. In the last two years, our safety record has been excellent because we have zero tolerance for unsafe practices. We value our customers and always strive to provide services that create superior value. We have proven to be the most reliable domestic scheduled carrier and our fares are affordable. In the last two years, Air Peace has airlifted over 1.5 million passengers. We’ve been able to open up so many routes and increased our frequencies to these locations. We started with 14 revenue flights, but today we are operating about 36 domestic flights daily.

We have doubled our fleet and we are still acquiring more. This is indeed a remarkable feat. In the last two years, Air Peace has been designated on the regional and international routes. We are the first Nigerian airline to be given flag carrier status to operate into China. We have given Nigerians hope and value for their money.

Two airlines recently suspended their operations, but you have rather been acquiring new aircraft and expanding your operations. Has this anything to do with the management style?

We cannot rule out management style as a major contributing factor to why airlines are failing. Yes, we know that the operating environment is very harsh and faced with prohibitive cost of running operation, multiple taxation, high cost of aviation fuel and poor airport infrastructure, but if the airlines do not have the right management policies in place, and there is misappropriation and mismanagement of funds, then sustainability becomes a problem and gradually impacts negatively on the operations which eventually may cripple the airline.

Can you share your views on why airlines fail in Nigeria?

Airlines are failing in Nigeria because of a lot of contributing factors. We are very quick to push the blame on the government, the operating environment, high prohibitive cost of running operation, multiple taxation, high cost of aviation fuel and poor airport infrastructure. No doubt these factors are contending with the survival of this industry, but what we fail to address is how these airlines are being managed by the owners and the responsible officers.

When there is no proper planning and sound corporate governance in place, the sustainability of the operation is not assured. However we cannot also rule out the technical advice from some quarters that are detrimental to the growth of this industry.

It’s however unfortunate that people say a lot of things from a misinformed position. Government is not the main cause of most failed or defunct airlines. In most cases, mismanagement of funds and bad management principles are top on the list of major factors that cripple most airlines.

Some of the defunct airlines borrowed money, leased planes from foreign vendors without any plans for repayment, making it difficult to run an effective operation and also making it extremely difficult for new entrants to have access to these facilities because the reputation of some Nigerian airlines in the international market is very discouraging and disappointing.

In Air Peace, our reputation is the most valuable thing we possess. We want to keep our services superior and never to

My success formula for running Air Peace – Olajide She may be managing the affairs of an organisation that does business in one of the toughest sectors of the Nigerian economy, but the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Air Peace, Mrs. Oluwatoyin Olajide says with the right formula in place nothing can possibly go wrong. In this interview with PAUL OGBUOKIRI, she bares her mind on why airlines fail in business, the secrets that have made her organisation a huge success in the last two years, the call for a merger of local airlines, among other issues. Excerpts; diminish on our quality of delivery. We are very careful with our decision making. Our policies hinge on integrity. We understand what our obligations are and we always strive to fulfil them as required. We fulfil our obligations to all our vendors, government agencies and regulatory authorities.

Our staff are motivated and salaries are paid on time. All of these contribute to a healthy operation. You must be very transparent and manage your finances properly to ensure you do not owe unnecessarily.

We have a maintenance reserve with the bank. In as much as the economy is very tough on the industry now, we’ve already made provisions. We have five of our aeroplanes out on comprehensive maintenance checks, which are coming to us at a huge cost, but we are able to fulfill this obligation because of proper planning and sound corporate governance. Our aeroplanes have started returning one after the other.

Do you subscribe to the views by some aviation experts that airlines in the country should merge for better flight services?

I do not subscribe to the view that airlines should merge for better flight services.

Air Peace will not merge with any airline for survival. How do you merge with another airline that does not share your vision or understand your corporate values?

We are as strong as ever and we will continue to deliver top-notch flight operation services. Our foundation is solid, we know our strength and capabilities and we do not need to merge with any airline to stay in business.

We know what our priorities are. Air Peace remains a strong airline thriving on its excellent management formula, non-discriminatory employment policy and business strategy that gives viability and sustainability a premium. We’ve laid our solid foundation on proper planning from inception and this is what is leading us.

We ensure we acquire the right aircraft for our operations. If you make the wrong decisions such as wrong choice of aircraft, using long haul aircraft for domestic operations, your operating cost will be hitting the roof faster than you can cope with. You will realise that your inflow cannot sustain your operating cost, let alone your fixed and other variable costs. How then do you break even? Hence the beginning of huge challenges with your revenue and operational sustainability.

Let me also menOlajide tion that one of the things going

for us is the main reason Air Peace was established. The Chairman, Allen Onyema came into aviation to create job opportunities for the teeming population of Nigeria.

The focus is different and the priorities are well outlined.

You recently announced the commencement of your Lagos-Benin-Lagos, AbujaBenin-Abuja and Accra, Ghana flights.

What is the attraction really?

As I earlier mentioned, Air Peace is expanding very fast. We value our customers and we are always willing to satisfy their needs. The commencement of our flight operations into Benin and Accra is one of the ways we can say thank you to our esteemed customers by giving them hope on these routes, making air travel more reliable and affordable. The attraction here is that passengers can rely on Air Peace

and be assured of very prompt, safe, reliable, sustainable and affordable flight services on these routes.

The airline industry appears not yet ready to trust women with corporate leadership. So, how have you managed to acquit yourself creditably as the Chief Operating Officer of Air Peace?

Let me start by saying that the opportunities for women in this industry are endless.

We have experienced women, who have made history in the aviation industry as pilots, engineers, businesswomen and entrepreneurs. Siza Mzimela is the first black woman CEO of an airline. She is the founder and managing director of SRS Aviation.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 48

46

SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Business News

OPS demands 5% interest rate, forex policy review

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Stanley Ihedigbo he Organised Private Sector (OPS) has called on the Federal Government to review the bank lending rate downwards to 5 per cent, saying the recent increase of the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) to 14 per cent, by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will further kill the manufacturing sector.

President of the Manufacturers’ Association of Nigeria (MAN), Dr. Frank Jacobs, made the demand at the 33rd Annual General Meeting of Oyo/ Osun/Ondo/Ekiti States Branch of MAN which held in Ibadan, Oyo State recently.

He said: “We are not happy about the current MPR. If truly we want to industrialize this country, we want the interest rate in the neighbourhood of five per cent. It is the only way we can diversify the economy”.

Jacobs also called on the federal government to review items restricted from accessing forex.

He stated that manufacturing deserved attention and therefore, further calling on the authorities to take a second look on the items on the “not valid for forex allocation” with the view of delisting the ones that are necessary that cannot be produced in the country but are necessary to the economy.

He noted that the association had engaged the Federal Government on the matter, saying the body sympathised with the government because the forex is not there.

On the proposed increase of Value Added Tax (VAT), Jacobs said this is not the time to increase taxes. He said that the country is a stage of recession, adding: “This is the time to give incentives to the people to produce.

If there are a lot of taxes, they would not be able to produce and create employment”.

In a lecture titled, ‘Fis-

cal Policy Thrust for Inclusive Growth in Nigeria Manufacturing Sector,’ the Founder/ Chief Executive Officer, International Centre for Leadership and Entrepreneurship Development (ICLED), Prof.(Mrs.) Olajumoke Familoni-Adeosun, urged government to set aside some land as industrial parks.

Familoni-Adeosun, who was the guest lecturer, said that building infrastructure, conduct value-added research and partnership are vital for industrial development.

While calling on the government inject funds into the economy, Prof. Familoni-Adeosun, said this is not the time to strangulate

the system.

“Money must circulate to the local and indigenous contractors. This is the time to borrow as much as possible. The local manufacturers must not suffer,” Familoni-Adeosun said.

She further charged manufacturers not to compromise on quality, maintaining that as government is playing its role, manufacturers must ensure quality production.

“Don’t reduce the quality of your products. You can cut in other areas that will not directly affect the consumers, but not the quality,” she said.

Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi, who was

represented by Commissioner for Trade, Industries and Cooperatives, Princess Taibat AdeyemiAdaba, said the state government was making efforts to respond to dwindling revenue and pursue policies to rescue the state economically.

He solicited data and information that would aid the government in its policy formulation.

Also speaking the Chairman, Oyo/Osun/Ondo/ Ekiti State Branch of MAN,Chief Kola Akosile, said, “In the midst of a gloomy economic climate, our members remained resolute and hopeful of a short term economic recovery

where manufacturing sector will once again operate at its full potential and contribute positively to the economy of the nation”.On his part, the Oyo State Director of Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), Engr.

Dele Ayeni, urged Nigerians to increase their patronage of made-inNigeria goods.

Ayeni reiterated the agency’s resolve to partner MAN in making Nigerian products competitive in the global market.

He urged the manufacturers to produce quality products, saying: “Nothing sells in a product better than the quality of such a product”.

NIMASA DG, Dakuku Peterside pledges support for AMJON Eunice Stephen

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he Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Dakuku Peterside has pledge his support to the Association of Maritime Journalists of Nigeria (AMJON).

Dakuku made the pledge when the executives and BoT members of the association paid him a courtesy visit in his office in Lagos on Wednesday.

He promised to convene the message of the association to the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, of a successful merger of all maritime journalists except for some few who felt uncomfortable with the merger.

He acknowledged that the maritime journalists are critical to the realization of his agenda for revamping the maritime sector noting that the media will always be part of its success story.

Dakuku said the agency would continue to advocate for unity among maritime journalists as he believed that the industry will achieve

more if the maritime media speaks with one voice.

President of AMJON, Ismail Aniemu, had earlier told the NIMASA top shot that the association is a fallout of an advise by the transport minister that all maritime journalists associations should fuse into one to strong body like the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN).

He expressed the hope that this move would engender better working relationship between the media and the maritime industry.

He made reference to other associations in the country which are under one umbrella and wondered that it’s only in maritime sector that we have diverse groups.

The DG of NIMASA, Dakuku Peterside was joined by two of his executive directors and Head of Corporate Communications, Hajia Lami Tumaka; while AMJON President, Ismail Aniemu was accompanied by amongst others, the BoT Chairman, Asu Beks and executive members of the association.

L-R: Maintenance Manager, Firstnation Airways, Mr. Ferudun Ozdemir; Deputy Cabin Services, Mrs. Barbara Dan-Asemah and Director, Flight Operation, Capt. Chimara Imediegwu, during a press conference on the activities of Airways in Lagos…yesterday.

PHOTO: TONY EGUAYE

Container ‘flying’ does not exist in Tincan Port- Customs Paul Ogbuokiri

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fficials of the Tin Can Island Port Command of Nigeria Customs Service have debunked the allegation of exiting containers without duty payment levelled against the command as untrue.

Controller of the Command, Yusuf Bashar also challenged anyone with proof of such practice under his watch to come up with it In a press statement at the weekend, the Command’s spokesman, Uche Ejesieme, the Controller reiterated his readiness to address and frontally deal with issues militating against maximum

collection of government revenue in the port.

The practice of exiting containers without duty payment, which in port parlance is called ‘container flying’, was alleged to have taken place in the port by a respondent in a recent newspaper (not New Telegraph) publication.

Bashar said the customs have devised mechanism to curb such infractions and sharp practices while it continuously improves on its service delivery in line with global best practice.

He described the allegation as a figment of the writer’s imagination without facts to back it up Bashar said: “It is instructive to note and

pertinent to reiterate for the avoidance of doubt that the various reforms being instituted have the tendency of checking all manner of sharp practices in the port.”

“It is just a figment of the writer’s imagination and no wonder he stated that his information was from a report he read from an online publication,” the CAC added.

Bashar also said: “This is a new order and a new dispensation, whereby the Service cannot afford to renege on its statutory responsibilities irrespective of circumstance. The issue of compromise in whatever form cannot be contemplated.’’

Another officer who spoke on condition of an-

onymity said, the report only revealed the writer’s ignorance about how things work in the port. ‘’All containers, according to him, have distinct identities like humans with numbers not identical with any other container anywhere in the world. ‘’If you say a container was stolen out of a port and go as far as reporting it in paper, be bold to provide facts like the container number which makes it easier for tracking to ascertain if the allegation is true or false,’’ he said.

The officer said for a national newspaper to pick up such allegation and report too is nothing different from spreading ignorance on a larger scale.

47

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY September 11, 2016

Auto beat

Recall: Ford lowers 2016 pre-tax profit forecast

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World’s first Genesis Studio opens in Hanam, South Korea

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enesis, the luxury automotive brand, opened its first dedicated brand space inside a newly built cultural complex ‘Starfield’ in Hanam, 30km east of Seoul on Friday. The Genesis Studio embodies the brand directions of Genesis and its core characteristics. Located in the high traffic area, the space is expected to attract lots of visitors, evoking their curiosity around the brand.

“We are very excited to open the Genesis brand’s first dedicated brand space, Genesis Studio. Visitors can easily drop by the studio, and get a chance to know about Genesis. This space, located in a busy area, will serve to introduce our brand, and to raise visitors’ curiosity around it. We have also developed diverse concepts of brand spaces that fit for different objectives, so you will see more exciting brand spaces to come in the near future,” said Manfred Fitzgerald, Head of the Genesis brand.

As a design-focused brand, Genesis focuses on making the space embrace the brand’s unique design directions. Located on the second floor of the complex, the Genesis Studio will host the range-topping G90 limousine, G80, and G80 Sport. In particular, visitors can have an opportunity to experience the G80 Sport ahead of its official launch scheduled later this year in Korea.

Visitors will also experience the luxury and attention to detail of the materials and technologies through hands-on exhibits.

For example, the doors of the G80 and G90 are displayed in Genesis Studio in all available combinations of exquisite exterior colours and artisan interior materials.

Moreover, the Genesis Studio provides a one-stop, stress-free customer experience where brand experience, test drives, purchases and consultation are conveniently offered to each customer.

10 reasons why you should love manual vehicle 1) Low cost of maintenance or repair.

A manual car like its rival requires continuous maintenance but unlike its rival, its cost of maintenance and repairs is significantly less. If you don’t understand, go back to your secondary school teacher and ask him/her about demand and supply.

Paul Ogbuokiri ord Motor Company has lowered its 2016 adjusted pre-tax profit forecast to $10.2 billion from the at least $10.8 billion it forecast in July because of a $640 million charge for an expanded vehicle recall, the company said on Thursday.

The recall is for side-door latches that may come unhinged while vehicles are in motion. It was expanded on Thursday by 1.5 million vehicles to 2.4 million vehicles.

“With this expanded (recall), we now expect our 2016 total company adjusted pre-tax profit to be about $10.2 billion.

We continue to expect our total company adjusted pre-tax profit in the third quarter of 2016 to be about 10 per cent of our full-year 2016 results,” Ford said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

That would suggest adjusted pre-tax profits of about $1 billion in the third quarter, down about 60 per cent from $2.7 billion a year earlier, and $2.4 billion in the fourth quarter, 10 per cent less than the year-earlier results. Last year, Ford set a company record for any third quarter’s adjusted pre-tax profit.

Ford said in July that the second half of 2016 will not be as profitable as the first half of this year, when it recorded $6.8 billion of adjusted pre-tax profit. That is part-

Motoring briefs

2) Fuel economy Cars with manual transmissions always get better fuel economy than cars with automatic. Manual cars have been known to save drivers between 5 per cent and 15 per cent on their fuel costs. The manual car is lighter and normally comes with more gears than their automatic counterparts; the aftermath is that you’ll get more kilometres out of the petrol you pump in than you would with an automatic.

Ford electric car

ly because of beneficial factors that will not reoccur in the second part of the year and the expense of the rollout of Ford’s highly profitable Super Duty large pickup trucks.

When it issued second-quarter financial results in late July, Ford said its 2016 adjusted pre-tax profit would be equal to or greater than last year’s $10.8 billion.

Ford said the new expense will show in its third-quarter results and primarily in North America, its most profitable region which has been driving record company profits recently.

The company has recalled nearly 4 million vehicles for door latch issues in six separate recalls since 2014.

Ford said the latest expansion was at the request of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after the automaker in August issued a regional recall covering 830,000 vehicles.

The recall includes the 2013-15 Ford CMAX and Ford Escape, 2012-15 Ford Focus, 2015 Ford Mustang and Lincoln MKC and 2014-16 Ford Transit Connect.

Infiniti sets new global sales record for August

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nfiniti achieved a new global sales record in August. Total sales of over 17,150 were up 2 per cent in August 2015 representing the best ever August result. From January to August, Infiniti sold almost 145,000 vehicles, an increase of 6 per cent recorded the same period in 2015. This also marks an all-time record for the company.

In addition to the global record, both August and year-to-date sales were at an all-time high level in key markets and regions such as Canada, Mexico, Western Europe, China, and Asia & Oceania (Australia, Korea, Taiwan and other markets).

From January to August, Infiniti sold close to 11,400 vehicles in Western Europe, up 169 percent from the same period last year.

This is largely driven by excellent reception of Infiniti’s all-new Q30 and QX30 compact entries by the company’s customers. 7,900 Q30 and QX30 vehicles were sold in the region so far this year.

In the Americas, Infiniti sold 11,700 vehicles in August, slightly below last year’s

August due to product availability. Yearto-date, almost 95,000 vehicles were sold, an increase of 1 per cent from the same period last year. In Asia and Oceania, almost 550 vehicles were sold by Infiniti in August, an increase of 26 per cent over the same month last year. Between January and August, Infiniti sold more than 4,400 vehicles, which is an increase of 24 per cent over the same period the previous year.

In August, Infiniti set a new record for China with more than 3,400 vehicles sold, 12 per cent up from August 2015. Year to date, Infiniti sold more than 25,000 vehicles in China, an increase of 2 per cent over the same period last year. Roland Krueger, President of Infiniti Motor Company said, “Infiniti continues on its growth path. Our new compact-size entries Q30 and QX30 have driven significant growth in Western Europe this year. As these vehicles get introduced in other markets in the second half of the year, we are confident they will be equally well received by our customers around the world.”

3) Control Automatic transmissions are designed to choose the best gear for any situation but they tend to shift to higher gears and waste engine power which doesn’t allow drivers to quickly anticipate an oncoming condition.

4) Power The transmission of a car either automatic or manual, allows the vehicle to change gears, thereby transferring power from the engine to the drive axle. This it does in the most efficient way by varying the gear ratio. Lower gears are accompanied with increased power and less speed. Higher gears, on the other hand, are accompanied with less power and increased speed and it defines how cars respond for any given situation. An automatic transmission is designed to shift in a way that doesn’t exactly use all of an engine’s power while manual transmissions tend to take advantage of more of an engine’s power thanks to more specific and exact transmission shifts.

5) Reduced distraction The manual car loves to keep her occupants engaged to avoid unnecessary distractions like staring at other girls (cars), making phone calls, snap chatting, tweeting or texting. She gives you no choice except if you are too super of a being to keep texting or tweeting while upshifting or downshifting and also stepping on and off the clutch, break or accelerator.

The same cannot be said of its rival, the automatic.

6) Keep and feel the classics If you are a lover of classic and cool cars - old but gold as I love to call it. It’s assumed you already know how to drive a manual transmission, if you don’t, well too bad they hardly came with auto tyranny.

7) Dead battery push start This is one of the unique aspects of a manual vehicle that I find thrilling all the time. It seems hilarious that you could bring a dead car back to life but in every sense it’s just amazing. So, how do you push start a car?

- Start the ignition like you normally do.

- Put the gear in neutral.

- Get two or three people to help push the car.

- Once your car is in constant motion, press down the clutch and shift to gear 2.

- Lift your foot off the clutch and step on the gas/accelerator.

Off you go, that wasn’t so hard right!

Infiniti

48

SUNDAY September 11, 2016, SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Business

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enin Airport in Edo State roared to life on Friday morning when Air Peace made its maiden flight into the facility.

The excited welcome party, including aviation workers, regulators, security personnel and Air Peace staff, drew out their phones and started snapping away at the aircraft.

A positioned truck gave the aircraft a water salute. The truck colourfully released plumes of water over the aircraft in celebration of its maiden flight to the airport.

Earlier, the chairman of Air Peace, Chief Allen Onyema, who was at the Murtala Muhammed Airport to greet passengers on the maiden Lagos-Benin-Lagos, AbujaBenin-Abuja flight shortly before departure at about 8 a.m., pledged to sustain the exceptional services of the airline.

Pleased passengers on the maiden flight to Benin pledged to advertise Air Peace’s entry into the Benin route, commending the airline for providing them an exceptional alternative.

Prince Charls Amadi of A. G. Butler Nigeria Ltd said the airline offered him an opportunity to experience efficient service with its entry into the Benin route, affirming that Air Peace Chairman, Chief Allen Onyema had been known to always do things right.

He said: “What is happening today is great. Air Peace has been doing very well.

Success Nuggets

CISLAC: Cultural practices hinder good nutrition Appolonia Adeyemi

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Air Peace Chairman, Chief Allen Onyema (left) discussing with a passenger, Prince Charls Amadi of A. G. Butler Nigeria Ltd at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos before take-off

Air Peace makes maiden trip to Benin Its coming to Benin,which I come every week, has given me an opportunity to experience efficient service.”

Mrs. Elizabeth Ohonba, an Edo indigene based in Manchester, could not conceal her satisfaction. She said her experience on Air Peace Lagos-Benin flight erased her fear of flying locally.

Air Peace’s expansion to Benin, she added, had ended the nearmonopoly air travellers contended with for years on the route.

“I was scared of taking local flights. I was, however, told that Air Peace was going to Benin with a big aircraft so I decided to give

Air Peace into the Benin route.

Urging the airline to maintain its reputation for on-time departure, he said, “I think if you keep it up, I don’t have a reason to use any other airline. An airline took advantage of the few flights on the Benin route; I need an airline to break the monopoly.”

Speaking on the maiden flight, Air Peace Benin Station Manager, Mr. Aminu Suleman commended passengers for patronising the airline on the Benin route in their numbers.

Suleman said he was grateful to his Edo people for not letting him down with their patronage.

Journey to the future

Victor Okwudiri 08037674300 (SMS only)

I

it a try. I have confirmed what I was told. The aircraft is just like a private jet. I will help advertise Air Peace once my experience is good,” she pledged.

When the aircraft eventually made a safe, smooth landing at 8.44 a.m., Mrs. Ohonba, who flew with her son, Michael, gave her verdict.She turned to Air Peace’s Corporate Communications Manager, Chris Iwarah, and his team member, Abdulazeez Kazeem, gave a thumbs-up and declared: “It’s good! The flight was good.

The pilot is good.”

On his part, Mr. Ikechukwu Ibe said he was trilled at the entry of

n the third and last week of August, I was in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, for the Nigerian Bar Association Annual General Conference. On Thursday, the 25th day of August, I took out time to Umuahia, Abia State, for a purpose. On my way back from Umuahia to Port Harcourt, I took a commercial bus that had other passengers.

In the course of the journey, an old man courageously stood up, led us in worship and prayers to God, after which he started preaching the gospel to us. In the course of his message, he made us understand that he was 84 years old! Wow! That means he’s senior to me by half a century, and has seen three generations.

When I looked at him and saw the passion with which he spoke, my heart almost melted. I can be very emotional.

I would have said I felt pity for him, just that he was not in any sorry state to warrant ‘pity’. He was just old, but he was strong.

As touched as I was that a man that old could do what he was doing, the most touching of the encounter with that man was still to come.

After his sermon, he led us in prayers.

In the course of the prayers, my brother told me that the man was crying. It was true. The old preacher was crying. Oh my God! My heart melted. I felt so sorry.

I did not shed tears, but my heart was

heavy for the rest of that day.

What could the old man be crying for?

Could it be that, as an old man who has seen it all and has come to a conclusion about the vanity of the world, he was crying for young people still going astray because they are yet to come to terms with the vanity of the world and the fact that the world is a fading glory? Or, could it be that he was crying because he wasted his youth and wished he had more time to get it right and do more of what he was doing in the bus at that moment? Whatever the truth was, I could see an old man that is daily confronted with the reality and echo of eternity. I could see an old man who has caught a glimpse of eternity. I could see an old man who knows his time here is diminishing as the days go by. I could see an old man who knows that there are many things he could have achieved before which he cannot achieve now.

As touching as the first guess could be, the second is more heartbreaking - a wasted youth. I hope it is not the case with the man.

Given how touched and ‘heartbroken’ I was, I wished I had a substantial sum of money to give to the man. I could not give him something. It later dawned on me that I could have collected his contact details and reached out to him when it is more convenient for me. That way, I would have learnt the wisdom of the aged from him and have him properly guide me in my youth to escape whatever mistakes he might have made in his life’s journey. Also, I would have been able to find out from him the reason he was crying. I missed that opportunity and pray God brings my way again that old angel adorned in the habiliments of

mortality.

It is over two weeks now I encountered the old man, but the flames of revival, sobriety and godly sorrow from that encounter still burn in my heart. I do not know why.

That old man has had his own share of life. Now, what about you and I? When that old man was as young as us, he must have had dreams that made him say “When I grow up, I will do this.

When I grow up, I will become that.” At that time, it must have looked to him as though the future is still far, but now I am sure he can remember his youth like it was yesterday. That same trick is what our minds are playing on us now. We keep thinking that there is enough time to do what ought to be done. We keep thinking that the future is many years to come. Lies! Those are subtle lies.

T.Y. Bello rightly sang that the future is here and that we are the future.

Friend, you are the future your parents talked about when they were planing on how many kids they will have. O yes!

Now you are here. What future are you still waiting for? Start living the future.

I can remember my childhood days.

I mean, it was just the other day that I was admitted into the university. Yet, age forty is beckoning already. It is almost scary how time flies. Start living your dreams. Time waits for no man.

Friend, what you call the future is the next second. That big future you are waiting and whiling away time for is made up of every second that ticks. Hear this: TODAY is the TOMORROW you talked about YESTERDAY. Think about it.

You will succeed.

Please follow me on Twitter @VictorOkwudiri

n order to tackle the burden of malnutrition in the country, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) has urged families, communities and the Nigerian society at large to combat despicable socio-cultural practices hindering good nutrition for the populace especially the most vulnerable.

Also, CISLAC has urged the three tiers of government and relevant stakeholders to ensure that vulnerable groups such as children, pregnant women and others in the society get adequate nutrition and pave the way for food security, good health care system for the provision of quality services as well as create appropriate awareness and sensitisation to combat the malnutrition burden in the country.

These are contained in a communiqué issued at the end of a one-day capacity building workshop for legislative reporters on Legislative Advocacy in Agriculture, Nutrition and Health in Nigeria organised

by CISLAC in Lagos recently.

The workshop which drew about 50 participants from various media organisation was aimed at training the reporters to understand and effectively demand accountability on Nigeria’s legislative and policy processes in agriculture, nutrition and health.

However, the participants called for behaviour change which would rather promote good nutrition for kids and adults alike.

My success formula for running Air Peace – Olajide CO NTINUED F R O M PAGE 45

On December 31, 1934, Helen Richey won a contest against eight male pilots to become a co-pilot for Central Airlines, making her the first US woman to pilot an airmail transport aircraft on a regular schedule. Janet Harmon Bragg was the first African American woman to earn a commercial pilot’s rating. She and other black students formed the Challenger Air Pilot’s Association and built their own airport near Chicago. Southwest Airlines President and COO, Colleen Barrett, is the US airline industry’s highest-ranking female.

Having said that, I understand what my roles and responsibilities are as the Chief Operating Officer of this reputable airline. The day-to-day running of Air Peace is my core responsibility and I understand the utmost importance of running a safe and reliable operation. For me, integrity, dedication, hard work, commitment and readiness to serve selflessly are part of the reasons I’ve been able to manage the airline for the last two years.

What are your projections for your airline in the next five to ten years?

In the next five to ten years, Air Peace shall be the preferred African airline for every route we serve with the most exceptional customer experience. We shall have in place a state-of-the-art maintenance hangar. We are going to acquire additional aeroplanes for both short and long hauls. We are projecting a fleet increase to 75 operating aircraft in Nigeria and 10 international destinations. In the next five to ten years, Air Peace shall be operating into more than 25 African countries and more than 10 international destinations.

49

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

NSEASI trims Week-on-Week by 0.65% …CONOIL declares NGN3.00/share

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he Nigerian Equities Market closed the week on a negative note as the NSEASI declined by 0.65% to settle the Year-to-Date (YtD) return at -3.71%.

We attribute the performance of the market during the week to mixed sentiments, as the bourse closed negative in the first two (2) trading days of the week, and appreciated in the remaining days of the week. Volume of transactions advanced by 6.08% while value traded for the week declined by 25.45%.

Market breadth settled at 0.60x, at the end of the week, representing twenty-four (24) advancers and forty (40) decliners.

The gainers’ chart featured MAYBAKER, CONOIL, CUTIX, DIAMONDBNK and UBN with respective week-on-week gains of 22.22%, 15.65%, 7.33%, 7.14% and 5.95%. Contrarily, the top decliners’ chart was populated by NEWGOLD, WEMABANK, JBERGER, UNITYBNK and PORTPAINT, with week-on-week declines of 17.73%, 12.00%, 9.73%, 9.33% and 9.09% in that order.

We do not anticipate significant investor activity given the scheduled public holidays on two out of the five trading days next week. Nonetheless, we expect to see trickles of bargain hunting activities on counters that have recently experienced substantial price declines.

This report reviews events in the current week, with emphasis on different segments of the financial market, while presenting our expectations for the coming week.

Fixed Income: Naira Closes at NGN310.64/USD Money market rates surged northward at the beginning of the week, however, following the increase in system liquidity, the OBB and OVN rates pared in the later part of the week to close at 15.83% (+2.83% WoW) and 16.42% (+1.09% WoW) respectively. Thus, the average money market rate at the close of the week settled at 16.13%.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has scheduled a Treasury bills auction worth NGN183.24bn for Wednesday, September 14, 2016. Instruments worth NGN96.55bn (91-day and 182-day instruments) will be maturing while instruments worth NGN183.24 will be sold (91-day, 182-day and 364-day instruments).

At the Interbank FX market, the Naira closed at NGN310.64/USD after gaining 1.33% in the week, representing a year-todate return of -35.84%. Contrarily, average forward quotes pegged at NGN326.25/ USD. Agric Sector: PRESCO Pares by 0.66% Bearish sentiment pervaded the agricultural sector this week, as the MERI-AGRI index declined by 0.38% WoW to settle the YtD return at +28.11%. There were two decliners, while other counters traded flat.

LIVESTOCK emerged as the lone gainer for the week, after it appreciated by 3.37% WoW to close at NGN0.92. On the other hand, PRESCO shed 0.66% to close at NGN45.00.

We attribute the sector’s performance to profit taking activities on PRESCO which had previously enjoyed strong investor sentiments year to date . Considering the dearth of news inflow, we do not anticipate significant activities on the counters in the coming week. However, we reiterate that we expect investors’ sentiment towards the sector to remain positive over the long term.

Banking Sector: Marginal WoW Loss Recorded The banking sector closed the week

sector specific news inflow in the coming week, we expect the general market mood to dictate the sector performance.

down, paring by 0.28% WoW to peg the YtD return at 13.01%, as measured by the MERI-BNK Index.

There were five (5) gainers and nine (9) decliners, pegging the sector’s breadth at 0.56x. DIAMONDBNK led the advancers, after appreciating by 7.14%. The ticker was closely followed by UBN, UBA, STANBIC and SKYEBANK which recorded respective price gains of 5.95%, 3.92%, 3.45% and 1.56%. On the flip side, the decliners’ list was populated by WEMABANK (-12.00%), UNITYBNK (-9.33%), FCMB (-6.96%), FBNH (-4.09%) and ETI (-1.71%).

We attribute the sector’s performance to the negative sentiments witnessed on some heavyweight stocks in the week. However, we anticipate bargain hunting activities on some of these counters in the coming week.

Consumer Goods Sector: Sector Returns +0.37% WoW The consumer goods sector closed the week in the positive territory for the fourth consecutive week, after appreciating by 0.37% WtD, as indicated by our Meri- CMG index, pushing the YtD return up to -3.12%.

The sector breadth stood at 0.56x implying five (5) gainers against nine (9) decliners in the week.

At the close of the week, GUINNESS (+5.65%) led the gainers’ chart, to close share price at NGN100.00, followed by HONYFLOUR (+3.82%), UNILEVER (+3.18%), 7UP (+1.07%) and NB (+0.53%) while CADBURY (-4.11%) led the laggards’ chart to close at NGN14.00. INTERBREW (-3.85%), FLOURMILL (-3.80%), CHAMPION (-2.35%) and DANGSUGAR (-1.54%) trailed behind.

Considering the dearth of market moving information, sector performance was largely driven by overall market sentiments in the week. Going forward, we expect some investors to take profit on stocks that recently witnessed rallies.

Healthcare Sector: MAYBAKER Upturns Prior Losses, Closes at NGN0.99

The MERI-HLTH index recorded a WoW return of 0.57% settling the YtD return at -43.33%. The sector breadth pegged at 2.00x representing two (2) gainers against one (1) decliner in the week.

Emerging as the top gainer in the sector WoW, MAYBAKER advanced by 22.22%, recovering from the significant price depreciation it witnessed last week (-19.80%, NGN0.81). GLAXOSMITH also advanced in the week, gaining 0.53% WoW to close at NGN19.11. FIDSON (-4.52%), on the other hand, shed some of its gains from the prior week, to close at NGN1.69.

The sector witnessed mixed sentiments earlier in the week, however, bullish sentiments eventually dominated the space at the close of trading activities for the week. We attribute this trading pattern to bargain hunting activities on MAYBAKER and GLAXOSMITH which are currently trading below their respective intrinsic values. In the absence of any news inflow, we expect the mixed sentiments to persist.

Industrial Goods: CUTIX Gains 7.33% to Lead Advancers The Industrial goods sector recorded a poor outing this week, as the MERI-IND index contracted by 1.60% WoW to drive the YtD return to -2.03%. There were two (2) gainers versus four (4) losers during the week, thus settling the sector breadth at 0.50x.

CUTIX championed the gainers’ chart after advancing by 7.33% to settle at NGN31.57. CAP followed closely as it appreciated by 1.36% to close at NGN32.00.

On the other hand, PORTPAINT led the losers’ chart, as the counter pared by -9.09% to close at NGN1.60. The counter was trailed by AFRIPAINT (-4.63%), DANGCEM (-1.71%) and WAPCO (-0.71%) accordingly.

We attribute the sector’s unimpressive WoW performance to further profit taking activities on DANGCEM. Barring any

Insurance Sector: Market Sentiments Favour AIICO The insurance sector, as measured by the NSEINS10 showed a 0.19% week on week (WoW) decline, dragging the YtD return to -9.31%. Also, the sector breadth closed at an equilibrium reflecting two (2) advancers and decliners apiece.

AIICO topped the gainers chart for the second consecutive week appreciating by 1.52% WoW to close at NGN0.67. This counter was trailed by CONTINSURE which advanced by 1.01%. On the flip side, CUSTODYINS emerged as the sector’s worst performer, having pared by 3.75% WoW to close at NGN3.85. All other counters traded flat.

We expect the sector’s performance to remain largely dependent on investors’ sentiments toward the equities market. In the absence of positive news inflow to drive investors’ appetite therefore, we anticipate that general market and insurance sector performances will remain pressured.

Oil & Gas Sector: CONOIL Releases FY2015 Scorecard The sector ended the week on a bearish note, after the NSEOILG5 index waned by 0.87% WoW, pegging the YtD return at -13.57%. There were four (4) gainers against three (3) decliners in the week, indicating a sector breadth of 1.33x.

CONOIL topped the gainer’s chart, following 15.65% WoW share price appreciation to close at NGN23.79. OANDO (+5.04% WoW), ETERNA (+2.19% WoW) and SEPLAT (+2.10% WoW) made up the gainers list. FO (-6.75% WoW), MOBIL (-0.42% WoW) and TOTAL (-0.34% WoW) were the laggards for the week.

CONOIL PLC. (CONOIL) released its FY2015 scorecard during the week, which showed a 35.40% YoY decline in revenue and impressive growths of 125.07% and 176.55% YoY in Profit-Before-Tax and Profit-After-Tax accordingly. Also, the company proposed a FY2015 final dividend of NGN3.00/share, which represents a dividend yield of 12.61%, based on today’s closing price (NGN23.79).

Crude oil prices remained volatile in the week as news of output freeze and reduced US crude inventory filtered into the market. The Brent crude price settled at USD48.80pb as at Friday 9th September 2016.

CONOIL recorded substantial gains in the week after a relatively flat month of trading. The renewed investor sentiment could be attributed to the impressive FY2015 performance scorecard and also to the attractive dividend yield of 14.58% (as at the time of announcement). We however expect the current mood to subsist in the coming week.

Services: Sector Returns -6.94% Ytd Negative sentiment was sustained in the services sector this week, as the MERI-SER index declined by 1.68% WoW to settle the YtD return at -6.94%. Three (3) stocks declined against two (2) counters that recorded share price appreciations in the week.

Other sector counters traded flat.

Spearheading the losers’ list was CAVERTON, which declined by 9.02% WoW to NGN1.21, followed by NAHCO (-6.47%) and ACADEMY (-3.64%), while TRANSEXPR and IKEJAHOTEL populated the gainers’ chart with price increases of 4.90% and 4.49% accordingly.

We do not expect the sector’s performance in the coming week to be significantly different from the current week, provided that there are no major news inflows to steer market mood.

50

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY September 11, 2016

faith

Why is Balaam among enemies

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ne day we had ordination service and many guests were invited by those to be ordained.

It was a wonderful occasion but something happened.

A guest saw a man to be given license as a Pastor and asked what business has the man to do in the church or in that occasion. He was told that the man was a Pastor in the Church and would be licensed that day.

We only ordain RevMinisters and license Pastors. The guest shouted and said every night, the minister we wanted to ordain, goes to NNPC Life Camp to party and drink with women. He wondered how come such a man would be a man of God. He left the occasion.

Meanwhile, the man had been a Pastor for our over 10 years in other places before coming to our church to Pastor.

The man could move crowd, grow churches and caused “revival”.

We were having morning

Word of Life Archbishop. Moses Kattey moseskatteyabp@yahoo.co.uk

0808 770 7486

Another Pastor was a very good preacher and could grow church. He was a very amiable and loved by many persons.

A man of substance was giving him tithe to give to the church, and also was giving money for himself but he consumed all the tithes, donations, vows amounting to millions of naira, given to the church through him

prayers every day. We discovered that for about three years he was with us, he did not sleep in his patronage for up to 20 days – he was clubbing.

He would leave very late in the night, and return before 5.00am to conduct morning prayers – every

day. It appears that evil men are more careful than others. How is he today? He was one of the very first casualties or victims of HIV in Nigeria.

There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death (Proverbs 16:25).

He died a very miserable death. His father was a very powerful and good standing man of God. HIV claimed his life, a darling Pastor of many.

Another Pastor was a very good preacher and could grow church. He was a very amiable and loved by many persons.

A man of substance was giving him tithe to give to the church, and also was giving money for himself but he consumed all the tithes, donations,

vows amounting to millions of naira, given to the church through him.

When this was discovered, he accused the General Overseer for using the money. He claimed he gave all the money to the General Overseer, but that was not true. Many persons believed him and even wanted to remove the General Overseer.

The General Overseer was known by his people and knew that he could not do so.

In fact, he lived a life of affluence. He equipped his house better than the house of the General Overseer. Where is he now?

And they slew the kings of Midian, besides the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midians: Balaam also the son of Beor the slew with the sword (Number 31:8) Balaam also the son of Beor, the soothsayer, did the children of Israel slay with the sword among them that were slain by them (Joshua 13:22).

Who, really is stinking, husband or wife?

I

got the following story from an American preacher Pastor Mark Hankins in one of his books titled “The spirit of faith.” I quote “I heard the story about a man who was asleep in his bedroom, and some friends played a joke on him. While he was sleeping, they wiped a piece of limburger cheese under his nose. Immediately, the man woke up and exclaimed, “Man, it sure stinks in here!” he walked out of his bedroom into the kitchen and said, “It stinks in here!” He went out the front door, looked up at the sky, breathed in deeply and said, “The whole world stinks!” The lesson from this story is that anytime it stinks everywhere you go, the stink is underneath your nose.

You are carrying the stink with you. Some people are negative and critical all the time and think there is something wrong with everyone else when they are the one who have the problem. Some are too critical and negative that they do not see anything good in what people say, do or suggest to them or in family meetings, church meetings, and in their place of work. They fail to look inward at themselves to see if really what others are saying is right or wrong. They just criticize destructively. This category of people thinks others are really stinky, instead of looking at themselves.

Marriage & Family Intimacy

Bishop Charles Ighele holyspiritmissioninc@yahoo.com

07066579379/09098845521 If you are in a marriage relationship and you keep seeing yourself as Mr. Right or Mrs. Right at all times while your spouse is the one who does all the wrong things between you two, you need to have a rethink and look at yourself, Psalms 9:12.

Your self-righteousness is seriously killing the relationship. You need to change your mindset and give yourself a better orientation about how to relate

Parents should watch out for their children and family members who behave like that, and start correcting them on time. Many times, parents are too self-righteous. They are like Napoleon in the book “Animal Farm” they are always right and never do anything wrong to their spouses, children and others.

They never stink any day. This is not true. We should look at ourselves.

You are likely to see many husbands and

wives that think the problem in the marriage or home is not coming from them but from their spouse. They never see anything wrong with their attitude, mannerism or behavior to their spouses but rather keep looking at the spouse as the problem. Such people like criticizing everything done by their spouse, always pointing out things that were not done properly and seeing things that would have been done in a much better way instead of the way it was done. It is so glaring that such persons will make the marriage hard and tough for their spouses. They will always watch out for areas to correct and areas to point out a fault.

If you are in a marriage relationship and you keep seeing yourself as Mr. Right or Mrs. Right at all times while your spouse is the one who does all the wrong things between you two, you need to have a rethink and look at yourself, Psalms 9:12. Your selfrighteousness is seriously killing the relationship.

You need to change your

mindset and give yourself a better orientation about how to relate.

You cannot maintain a healthy relationship if you always criticize your partner. Nobody enjoys being criticized and analyzed wrongly, Mal. 2:14. You need to put yourself in the shoes of that spouse you keep criticizing and attaching negative attributes to. When you do, you will realize that as you would not like it, so does that spouse not like it one bit. There is something actually stinking about you and not on your spouse, all you need do is acknowledge that and seek for help before you will ruin that relationship.

There are ways you will use to find out if you are actually in this category.

Check it if you are always seeing yourself as having done nothing wrong even in the heat of a crisis between you and your spouse.

But you keep attributing all the faults to your spouse.

Check it if you never see any contribution from your spouse as better than your own.

Check it if you do not accept correction of any sort from your spouse or from people. There is nothing wrong with anything you do but everything is wrong with others. You cannot just see anything right unless it was done by you.

Mystery of Anxiety Bishop John Ogbansiegbe 0803 341 6327 (SMS Only)

Sure protection is found only in God

M

any people have done many wrong things to procure security and protection all to no avail. Many have joined secret cults, gone to witch doctors, prepared charms which they wear as rings, necklaces. Many have also got themselves entangled to one demonic covenant or the other; when you ask them why they will answer; is for protection, yet these erroneous arrangements fail them in times of danger. True protection can only come from our Lord and savior Jesus Christ, who is the head of all principalities and powers.

Because the Lord is your protection millions of witches, wizards or enemies cannot hurt or harm you just trust Him, believe and depend only on Him for your security and protection.

Why is it that those who prepared bullet proof charm (Odaeshi) still die of bullets when death comes? Why is it that many witches and wizards who uses long-life charms end drinking fresh human blood to elongate their lifespans still die immediately death strikes.

This is because the true lasting protection can only come from God. Whosoever the Lord has protected is protected indeed: “Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain” –Psalm 127:15. And it is not hi that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy” - Roman 9:16.

God has never failed any of His faithful children and Jesus never fails. The bible says “For he shall give His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways, they shall bear thee up in their hands last thou dash thy foot against a stone” Psalm 91:11. God has made enough provisions for your protection and security; even when people are drying around you, because of an epidemic, civil war, massive calamity or tragedy.

You shall not be hurt, if God says you shall not die; you shall not die even if your adversaries comes against you in their tens of thousands , they shall do you no harm, for the Lord is there to protect you . He said again “A thousand shall fall by thy side and ten thousand by thy right hand; but it shall not come

night thee” Psalm 91 : 7.

In November 2006, Miss Barbara Bush, the daughter of the U.S President; George Bush, had her purse and mobile phone snatched in Argentina, during her two week vacation in the South American country, Barbara a 23 years old young lady; was reportedly robbed at a restaurant in Buenos Aires, despite heavy secret service protection . She was with her sister Jenna. Hear what the frustrated American security agents, who were supposed to keep an eagle watch over her said “ At no time were the sisters out of visual contact; and at no point was there any risk of harm “.

The important question the whole world asked was; “So if they were not out visual contact, how come she lost her mobile phone, and if there was no risk of harm, could the robber(s) who picked the phone not have caused severe harm if they had intended so? The Holy Ghost by this story is simply emphasizing to you that your safety and security is not in the hands of any government man or woman. Is it not surprising that despite the heavy security presence, the best of American presidents were all assassinated?

Like Abraham Lincoln and the Kennedy’s. This is to show you that your protection is on the hands of Him that has no beginning and has no end. He is the Alpha and Omega and “He shall neither slumber nor sleep” Psalm 121: 4. He will not suffer thy foot to be removed. This means that He will not allow any bad thing to happen to you. This same God shall be a shade to you, that is; a spiritual umbrella of protection so that the sun shall not smite thee by day nor the noon by night: This means that no weather condition can harm or hurt you , be economic weather, political weather or social weather, condition of your country or place of domicile , why ? Because he will keep and preserve you from all evil, and also preserve your soul “Psalm 121: 7 “The Lord indeed sees the evil plans of your enemies while they are planning and He will make a way of escape for you . David knew this fact and prophetically said “There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come night thy dwelling Psalm 91vs 10.

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY September 11, 2016

FAITH

The first leg of the September 10 and 11, 2016 All Bible Believers’ Summit with the theme: ‘The Second Coming Of Christ’ coordinated by the Oracles of God’s House held in Lagos yesterday.

Missionary Ewald Frank from Germany was the Guest Minister. Here are photos from the event attended by ministers and Christians from Nigeria and some other countries

L-R: Belgium-based Bro. Taty Issaia (left) and Missionary from Germany, Ewald Frank, at the summit

L-R: Member, Organising Committee, Bro. Ese Atiyota; Chief of Protocol, Bro. Paul Ojukwu; Host Pastor/Presiding Minister, Oracles of God’s House, Lagos, Bro. Frank Olomukoro and Assistant Pastor, Oracles of God’s House, Bro. Innocent Eneta

A cross-section of the Choir

Overseer, Bride Assembly, Ijesha, Lagos, Bro. Moses Alu (left) and Pastor from Benin Republic, Bro. Caleb Hodonou, leading the congregation during the opening prayer

L-R: Belgium-based Bro. Taty Issaia; Missionary from Germany, Ewald Frank; Host Pastor/ Presiding Minister, Oracles of God’s House, Lagos, Bro. Frank Olomukoro; Pastor Yao Joachim (Cote d’Ivoire); Pastor Georges Mboma; Pastor Salvi Justin (Benin Republic) and Evangelist, Christian Ministry of Reconciliation, Lagos, Deacon Wale Olaleye

A cross-section of the participants at the event

A cross-section of the congregation

Brethren singing during the praise worship

PHOTOS: TONY EGUAYE

52

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

opinion

Femi Fani-Kayode

The face-off in China

T

he other day I posted a copy of the now famous picture of President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart President Vladimir Putin where they both coldly looked into one another’s eyes without the trace of a smile.

They looked like two hardened prize fighters in their prime that were summoned into the middle of the boxing ring by the referee for the usual short pep talk just before he shouts “seconds out” and sends everyone, apart from the two boxers themselves, out of the ring.

The encounter took place in Hangzhou, China during the G20 meeting. As they say a picture is worth more than one thousand words but this particular one is worth more than ten thousand because it told the whole story.

Such was its visual power and vivid expression that CNN, Al Jazeera, Fox News, the BBC and numerous other international television networks kept airing it and it was strewn all over the internet and social media.

After posting it on my Facebook wall I wrote a short caption just above the picture which reads as follows: “It looks as if Barack Obama has finally met someone that is stronger and better and that is prepared to face him down. This is what you call an “eyeball to eyeball” encounter or a good old fashioned “squaring off”. Thank God for Vladimer Putin”.

These words and the picture itself sparked off a spirited and interesting debate on my Facebook wall which involved people that were residing in many countries all over the world including the United Kingdom, Finland, the United States, India, Dubai and China.

The topic of discussion was President Barack Obama. I was particularly impressed with the contribution of two distinguished individials and I will share their contributions in this essay together with my response to one of them.

The first was my old school friend and brother Mr. Joe Thorn. Mr. Thorn is an Englishman who has lived in Baton Rouge, Lousianna in the the United States of America for many years.

He served us with an extraordinary and factual analysis of Obama’s performance, or rather lack of it, over the last years when it came to the fortunes and economic welfare of the African American populatation in America.

Relying very much on the excellent research that was done by the respected Mr. Larry Elder and armed with facts and figures which few could dismiss, Mr. Thorn successfully put the case against Obama in an effective and clinical manner. Hear him: “What about poverty? In 2009, when Obama took office, the black poverty rate was 25.8 percent. As of 2014, according to Pew Research Center, the black poverty rate was 27.2 percent.

What about income? CNNMoney says, “Minority households’ median income fell 9 percent between 2010 and 2013, compared to a drop of only 1 percent for whites.”

The Financial Times wrote last October: “Since 2009, median non-white household income has dropped by almost a 10th to $33,000 a year, according to the U.S. Federal Reserve’s survey of consumer finances.

As a whole, median incomes fell by 5 percent. But by the more telling measure of net wealth — assets minus liabilities — the numbers offer a more troubling story.”

What about net worth and the black-white “wealth gap”? The Financial Times said: “The median non-white family today has a net worth of just $18,100 — almost a fifth lower than it was when Mr. Obama took office.

White median wealth, on the other hand, has inched up by 1 percent to $142,000. In 2009, white households were seven times richer than their black counterparts.

That gap is now eightfold. Both in relative and absolute terms, blacks are doing worse

Putin and Obama

under Mr. Obama.” Remember, these numbers apply to all “non-whites.” For blacks, it’s worse.

When looking only at “black net worth” — which is lower compared to non-whites as a whole — white households are actually 13 times wealthier than black households.

From 2010 to 2013, according to the Federal Reserve, white household median wealth increased a modest 2.4 percent, while Hispanic families’ wealth declined 14 percent, to $13,700.

But blacks’ net worth fell from $16,600 to $11,000. This is an astonishing three-year drop of 34 percent.

Investors Business Daily put it this way, “That’s a steeper decline than occurred from 2007 to 2010, when blacks’ net worth fell 13.5 percent.” The black/white “wealth-gap” has reached a 25-year high.

What about unemployment? In 2009, black unemployment was 12.7 percent, and by 2014, it had fallen to 10.1 percent.

This sounds like good news until one examines the black labor force participation rate — the percentage of blacks working or seeking work. It’s the lowest since these numbers have been recorded”.

Mr. Thorn’s contribution was very effective and he opened the eyes of those that erroneously assumed that Barack Obama had been a blessing to members of his own black American community over the last seven years. How wrong they were.

Having attended one of the best private schools in England before going to one of the best universities, Mr. Thorn certainly knows how to do his research, marshal his points and fight his corner.

Yet perhaps the most damning analysis of all.came from my brother Mr. Victor Oladokun, who is another old friend and a leading light in the Christian community both in the United States of America and Nigeria.

If Mr. Thorns’ analysis was clinical, Mr. Oladokun’s can best be described as precise, ruthless and devastating. Permit me to share it here. He wrote as follows: “We warned all of those who voted for Obama on sentimental grounds simply because he was Black. The bottom line is that he has been an unmitigated disaster on multiple levels 1. Support of radical Islamist militants to remove Gadaffi and Assad. Libya and Syria have descended into an absolute mess. Thanks to Putin and Russia, American supported Islamists would also have overthrown Assad and thrown the minority Christian community there into jeopardy.

2. The complete naïveté of Obama and Hilary Clinton’s Middle Eastern policy is incredulous.

For personal reasons he has turned Israel, America’s most stable ally in the region, into a pariah.

3. Obama’s misplaced audacity during his visit earlier this year to Africa was alarming.

He had the effrontery to lecture among others

Uhuru Kenyatta on the need to legalize and recognize gay relationships.

At a time when Africa has more pressing issues to contend with such as economic and infrastructural development, trade and investment, this was unprecedented political arrogance and a waste of American taxpayers deserved better on that trip.

4. For a Black President from whom so much was expected, his refusal to visit Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy and democracy, is an enormous lost opportunity.

For all the hate and vitriol spewed at George W. Bush by Nigerians, he did 100 times more for Africa than Obama has.

5. Obama will be judged for his unrelenting and aggressive push of late term abortions and public funding of same through Planned Parenthood, an organisation President Bush had previously defunded.

For these and other reasons, I will be glad to see Obama fade into political oblivion come November”.

Ouch! These are harsh words from a respected, temperate and patient gentleman whose opinion is taken very seriously by many.

Permit me to share my reponse to him.

“My brother, thanks for your insight. As usual you are spot on.

My only point of departure with you is that I feel that you have been far too generous to Obama. He is not just weak or naive: he is evil.

He knows exactly what he is doing, why he is doing it and who he is doing it with.

He works for the hidden hand and the dark forces that reside in the shadows.

He was specially prepared by those dark forces to turn America away from God and to bring chaos and carnage to the world.

Do you know that he has gone as far as to say that America is not a Christian nation anymore? This is despite that great countries solid Christian foundation and the efforts of its founding fathers who were all devout and practising Christians?

To Obama the age-old and time-tested words that are inscribed on the one hundred U.S. dollar notes and in the hearts and minds of every truly patriotic American which read “in God we trust”, has no meaning.

And neither do those powerful and beautiful words that, from time immemorial, have spoken of the very essence and core of old America: “one nation under God”.

Obama has effectively rejected God and espoused virtually every single anti-Christian value and philiosophy in the name of humanism and liberalism.

Worst stilll he has infused and enthroned those “new age” and essentially Luciferian values into the American state and the pysche of its people in the name and spirit of “yes we can”.

I wrote about him in 2009 not long after he was elected into office and I said he was evil.

The essay was titled ‘The Anti-Christ, The

New Age and Barack Obama’ and it caused quite a stir. Few agreed with me at the time and I was villified by many for writing it.

I wrote about him again in 2012 when he sought a second mandate from the American people in an essay titled “Can Barack Obama Be Trusted?”. In the whole of Nigeria only Mr. Sam Nda Isaiah, the owner of the respected Leadership newspaper, agreed with me.

Yet now I have been proved right. My words were prophetic. The first thing he did after being elected in 2008 was to go to Saudi Arabia and bow before the King.

He literally bowed down to the waist level with his head almost touching the floor and there was a famous picture of it which was spattered all over the internet.

After that he went to Egypt and apologised for American foreign policy in the Arab world for the previous 60 years.

Worst still he hates Nigeria and Nigerians.

Such is his disdain and contempt for us that he refused to come to our shores throughout his period in office despite the fact that we are the most populous nation on the African continent and, until President Muhammadu Buhari took over the reigns of government, the largest economy in Africa, the third fastest growing economy on the African continent and the 24th fastest growing economy in the world.

Yet his hatred for Nigeria did not begin there.

Before he became Presisent he was the only Senator in the American Senate that openly opposed debt cancellation for Nigeria when President Olusegun Obasanjo was in power.

The Obasanjo administration had done well in terms of paying back virtually all the money that our country had borrowed from the international monetary agencies over the previous thirty years.

We ran the economy in such a prudent manner and introduced such strong and disciplined fiscal policies into governance that virtually everyone in the world acknowledged it and felt that the little of the debt that we still owed those agencies ought to be written off.

Everyone agreed to support this initiative including the President George W. Bush administration and all the governments of the European Union.

In the entire American Senate only Senator Barack Obama refused to support it and indeed went out of his way to speak against it and oppose it. Needless to say even without his support we got it anyway.

Finally he is far from being a man of peace.

His drone strikes in Afghanisatan and Pakistan in his first four years alone were responsible for the deaths of eight times more innocent civilians, including women and children, in those countries than those that George W. Bush conducted in his entire eight years as President.

Obama is certainly not just a bumbling, naive and weak fool: he is a man of blood and war who has brought more carnage and butchery to the world than any other world leader since WW2.

I repeat if anyone doubts that they should just look at what is happening in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Somalia, Turkey and much of the Middle East.

He operates by deceit and guile and he pretends to be a man of peace yet the reality is that in his heart there is nothing but war. The only leader that has been able to keep him in check and call his bluff is Russia’s Vladimir Putin”.

These words may appear to be harsh but I believe that they were appropiate. My prayer is that God delivers us from the likes of Obama and that his candidate in this year’s American presidential election, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, is roundly defeated in November by Mr. Donald J. Trump.

Why do I say so? Read my essay titled ‘Nigeria and the Implications of A Donald Trump Presidency’ and find out. Shalom.

Fani-kayode was a former Aviation Minister

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Body&Soul

Word search

Think before you speak It was a sunny day, but the climate was enjoyable. Everyone in the railway station was waiting for the train to arrive. Among the crowd, there was a group of friends, youngsters who were on board for vacation.

It was a busy station with juice shop, mobile restaurants, coffee and tea stalls, newspaper shop, restaurants, etc. The announcement regarding the arrival of the train was made and everyone prepared to get into the train to their appropriate places.

The group of friends made loud noise to welcome the train as it entered the station. They ran to get their reserved seats before anyone could get into the train.

The empty seats were filled and the train whistled to move. An old man with a young boy aged around 15 years came running to catch the train. They entered the train and the train started to move. They had their seats just adjacent to the friends’ group.

The young boy was so surprised to see everything.

He acclaimed at his father, ‘Dad, the train is moving and the things are moving backwards.’

His father smiled and nodded his head.

As the train started moving fast, the young boy again screamed, ‘Dad the trees are green in colour and run backward very fast.’ His father said, ‘Yes dear’ and smiled.

Just like a kid, he was watching everything with great enthusiasm and happiness loaded with tons of surprises.

A fruit seller passed selling apples and oranges.

The young boy asked his dad, ‘I want to eat apples.’

His father bought him apples. He said, ‘Oh apple looks so sweet than it tastes’ I love this colour.’

The group was watching all the activities of this boy and asked the boy’s father ‘Is your son having any problem? Why is he behaving very differently?’

A friend from the group made fun of him and shouted, ‘His son is mad I think.’

The father of the young boy, with patience, replied to the friend-group.

‘My son was born blind. Only a few days before he was operated and got the vision. He is seeing various things in his life for the first time.’

The young friends became very quiet and apologized to his father and son.

Rhymes Tobiloba Adenekan CHILDREN! They are precious to me More than gold and diamonds to be free They are dear to me More than lover birds to be free

They are victory to me More than the greatest champion to be free They are precious,dear and victory to me Because they are the “children of my heart”

Celebration

Colour by number

Hurray! Ikwen Abraham -Dan Unimawho is 6 years old! The little man loves watching Tom and Jerry, the colour yellow, and eating fried rice and chicken.

Happy birthday darling!

54

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016 SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Sport

Ighalo: Why I can’t dump XX Watford FC Dapo Sotuminu

S

uper Eagles striker, Odion Ighalo, has said that he made up his mind to stay back in his English Premier League club, Watford FC, despite numerous attractive overtures from top clubs across the world that offered fortune changing contract fees just to take him away from the English club.

But, instead of dumping the club, Ighalo has signed another five-year deal with Watford where he emerged the club’s highest goal scorer in the EPL last season netting 15 goals in a single season.

Ighalo joined Watford on a season-long loan deal from Udinese, on July 29, 2014. He made his debut for the English club in the first round of the Football League Cup at Stevenage on August 12, and scored his first goal against Brentford on September 30 by tucking the ball home after his initial penalty was saved by David Button.

Watford turned down a £38million offer for Ighalo from Chinese club Shanghai SIPG. The Chinese club broke their transfer record week when they signed Hulk from Zenit St Petersburg for £46.1m.

“When I was approached by these various clubs for a possible move, I went to Watford FC club owner, Giampaolo Pozzo, who was instrumental to my joining the club in the first place, to let him know my plans.

After listening to me, he appealed that I should still stay back in Watford for a number of seasons as the club would improve in the coming seasons especially with the signing of a new coach whose techni-

XXXX cal prowess would help strengthen the club’s fortunes.

“Pozzo told me the new coach said he I would be in his plans for the season. It was due to this fact that, the club didn’t release me for the Rio Olympics soccer event as the coach argued that, I must be present in all the pre-season training sessions to work out the direction of the club.

“We had some argument, but I had to succumb to their position as I couldn’t force my way out. I was not happy being absent from the Dream Team at the Rio Olympics. I believe strongly that if I had played in the tournament the result would have been different. That does not mean that the team that won bronze didn’t do well. They did us proud and I really want to commend my colleagues for performing well at the Rio Olympics and picking the bronze medal. At least the team didn’t return empty handed, that is very important.

“I want to say thank you to all my fans in Nigeria and others across the world for supporting me and praying for my success, I can feel their prayers. I want to tell them that I will continue to do well in my club football and they would see more of me in the national team of Nigeria. I am staying here with Watford FC because they gave me the opportunity to play all the matches I played in the Premiership which helped me to showcase my talent. I appreciate this so much as I am better known in the foreign league compared to what it was before I joined Watford in the EPL, so I will always say thank you to the club by giving them better performances.

“I am happy the EPL season has started and I am happy we won out first game, this is good for a season opener.

The holiday is over it is business time as the league is on now.”

The former Lyn Oslo of Norway striker noted that, one of the reasons he decided not to dump Watford FC was the coming of another Nigerian to the club, Isaac Success. I was told a fellow Nigerian player would be joining us for the new season, so I was excited and knowing that, it was Isaac Success that was coming gave me joy in my heart.

“I am happy to have him playing in the attack at Watford FC with me. He is a good player, very talented, young and energetic. I hope our combination upfront would help the club finish in a respectable position at the end of the season.

“He needs me to do well in Watford FC and more so being a former player of Grenada FC of Spain gives me a bigger sentiment to want to play with him in the English Premier League.

I have the responsibility to take him through the rudiments of playing good football in the English premiership. It is not just about being talented or skillful it goes farther than that.

There are things that must be understood to fit into the pattern in England especially coming from the Spanish La Liga. They are two different leagues entirely with separate ideologies.

This must be understood to fit in properly. I know Isaac Success will succeed in England playing for Watford.”

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SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

Sport

EPL: Iheanacho happy to help City beat United S uper Eagles striker, Kelechi Iheanacho, scored a goal and assisted in another on Saturday as Manchester City beat Manchester United 2-1 at Old Trafford in the English Premier League. He thus becomes the youngest ever scorer for Manchester City in the Manchester derby.

Iheanacho’s swift reaction gave him an advantage to shoot past United goalkeeper David de Gea from close range in the 36th minute after Kevin De Bruyne’s strike hit the goal post.

The 19-year-old also assisted in City’s first goal as he flicked a header towards the onrushing De Bruyne who shot past De Gea in the United goal on the quarter hour.

Iheanacho only started the match because City’s Argentinean striker, Sergio Aguero was ineligible as a result of a three-match ban.

The City manager, Pep Guardiola was quizzed about his level of trust for Iheanacho before kick-off and he replied in the affirmative.

“He (Iheanacho) is our striker and I trust him. That is why I chose

H

aving been training vigorously for the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, the chief coach of the Nigerian team, the Flamengoes, Bala Nikyu, is very optimistic insisting that his girls are not scared of any team including Brazil.

Bala is very confident that the Flamingoes will perform excellently in the World Cup. “I know too well that we are ready, Brazil or no Brazil, we don’t have a problem. If you have 11 players and your opponent has eleven players, it’s only 90 minutes that would determine the winner, “he said.

E

sther Oyema gave Nigeria its third medal of the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio on Saturday by winning a silver medal in the power-lifting competition.

Oyema won the medal in the women’s -55 kg event of the competition after finishing second in the event.

She won with a lift of 127 kg in the nine-athlete event.

Her first attempt at 127 kg was a failed one, but she got it right

in her second attempt, while her third attempt which was at 130 kg was also unsuccessful.

Amalia Perez of Mexico was, however, successful as her 130 kg lift earned her the gold medal, as well as new Paralympic and world records in the event.

Xiao Cuijuan of China finished third with a lift of 115 kg to win the bronze medal.

Nigeria had on Friday won one gold and one silver medals in power-lifting.

Ighalo scores in Watford win

him to start against Manchester United,” Guardiola told ITV minutes before kick-off.

Iheanacho said in a post-match interview that he was very happy helping Man City to beat Manchester United with his goal and assist. For his goal, he said he didn’t anticipate that the ball would bounce back from the goal post but when it did he was in the right position to slot the ball in. He expressed his gladness for getting an assist from his team mate De

Nikyu: Flamengoes ready for Jordan 2016

Ubong Emmanuel

Rio 2016: Oyema wins power-lifting silver to increase Nigeria’s haul

He asserted that his team is preparing well for the tournament, stating that, they will be playing against local and international teams in some final friendly games to put the girls in great shape for the challenges of the World Cup. He added: “We don’t have any issues, the girls are very happy, our allowances will be paid close to the day we will be travelling and we are not bothered about that.”

The head coach expressed optimism that the team is good enough to play in the final of the tournament and anything can happen from there.

The tournament will kick-off October 30 in Jordan, with Bra-

Solution to Cross Word Puzzle

Bruyne and also providing one for Bryne to score.

Saturday’s goal against Manchester City represented Iheanacho’s first for City in all competitions this season. The Nigerian striker has now scored nine goals from just 13 attempts at goal.

Kelechi Iheanacho has started his first-ever Manchester derby, with City manager Pep Guardiola naming the young star in the line-up to face Manchester United at Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon.

EPL Results

Man Utd 1 - 2 Man City Arsenal 2 - 1 Southampson Bournemouth 1 - 0 West Brom Burnley 1 - 1 Hull City Middlebrough 1 - 2 C’ Palace Stoke City 0 - 4 Tottenham West Ham 2 - 4 Watord Lierpool 4 - 1 Leicester

Mikel: I spent over £30,000 for Dream Team VI success

J

ohn Obi Mikel has slammed the Nigeria Football Federation after he was forced to put up his own money to help his country achieve their remarkable bronze medal at Rio 2016.

The Nigeria captain organised travel, paid for meals and booked training pitches while trying to physically and tactically prepare for games.

The bronze medal, Mikel explained, was his country’s only moment of glory during the Olympics amid the troubles he had in Brazil.

“I think if we talk about the money that I put into the team I think it was more than £30,000,” Mikel revealed.

“But we just had to do it.

“I said to myself, ‘I won’t let this happen. If I can help, I’ll try to help’.

Sometimes there was no food, sometimes there was no pitch to train on, there was no bus to go to the training ground. So all of this was what me and the coach had to figure out, and get money together.

“I came to the camp. I sat down with the boys in Atlanta and I could see the frustration, the pain and the anger.

Their aim was to play in the Olympics, their goal was to play in the Olympics.

“And for me being there and seeing what they are going through, they are young boys, they want to start their career and someone in the ministry is trying to crush that dream. There was just no flight provided by the Nigerian ministry,” he added.

N

igeria striker, Odion Ighalo, was in the thick of things as Watford claimed their first win of the English Premier League season.

The Hornets were at West Ham United on Saturday and it looked like it was not going to be their day when West Ham went 2-0 ahead through a Michail Antonio brace in the 5th and 33rd minute.

Ighalo halved the deficit before

the break when he took on two West Ham defenders before slotting home with the aid of a deflection to give Watford a lifeline going into the second half.

Etienne Capoue in the 53rd minute and Jose Holebas in the 64th minute put Watford 4-2 ahead as West Ham capitulated in front of their home fans.

The 4-2 road win is also a first win for Watford manager Walter Mazzarri in the EPL.

NPLF update: Rivers go top of table, as Ikorodu United pummel Pillars

R

ivers United of Port Harcort are the new leaders of the Nigeria league after they came from behind to beat Warri Wolves 3-1, while IfeanyiUbah beat Akwa United to move to third on the table.

Rivers United with 56 points from 33 matches, are topping the table, while Enugu Rangers slipped to second place after they lost 2-1 at Shooting Stars.

It was a good day Ikorodu United who pummeled Kano Pillars 4-1 at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta. Scores was 1-1 at half time before the Oga Boys went on rampage in the second half to the delight of Dutch coach De Jong.

IfeanyiUbah extended their home invincibility after they defeated Akwa United 2-0.

They have 53 points ahead of Wikki, who are now fourth on

the log.

Two league front runners Wikki Tourists and champions Enyimba lost their games.

Wikki lost 2-1 at Nasarawa, while Enyimba fell 1-0 at Niger Tornadoes courtesy of a penalty goal by Solomon Owello.

In Ibadan, it was Shooting Stars 2-1 against Rangers. Both teams finished this game with 10 men after Rangers defender Chibuzor Madu was sent off for a professional foul and later Moses James of 3SC also saw red.

NPFL Results Sat. Sept 10 Rivers Utd 3 Warri Wolves 1 Shooting Stars 2 Rangers 1 FC IfeanyiUbah 2 Akwa Utd 0 Tornadoes 1 Enyimba 0 Nasarawa 2 Wikki 1 Sunshine 3 Plateau 1 Ikorodu 4 Pillars 1

Ndukwe: Great team spirit secret of Rangers success

T

he Enugu State Commissioner for Sports, Charles Ndukwe, has said that a great team spirit where all the players believe strongly that the club would do well this season has been the secret of Rangers International Football Club’s summit placing in the 2016 Nigeria Professional Football League.

It has been a collective effort that has taken Enugu Rangers to within four games from being crowned Nigeria champions after going without a trophy for 32 years,” he said.

Rangers are top of the league table on 54 points from 32 matches, a point ahead of closest rivals Rivers United with the possibility of win-

ning the league title after 32 years of trophyless campaigns.

He noted that Rangers position at the top of the league table was by nothing but hard work. It has been a collective effort and great team work of the technical crew and the players.

“The players are doing well because the team’s camp is very conducive. We increased the players’ salaries and got a new team bus as well as an official car for the coach. The Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium was also renovated for the comfort and safety of the fans at home games. The introduction of the Player of the Month Award was also instrumental to the excellent performance of the team.”

BUSINESS

N3bn NIMASA fund tears maritime academy apart }43

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Pastor Adeboye:

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SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2016

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Some things many people don’tknow about him

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A dog named 'Buhari': The Joe Iroko story as a sad metaphor for Nigeria’s degeneracy (Part 1) INTORDUCTION It was Sigmund Freud that stated that “every man has a right over his own life” and that majority of conflicts stem from an inordinate impulsion of a way of life over another’s. It is against this backdrop that Nigerians and indeed the world over are furious over the detention of Mr. Joe Fortemose Chinakwe, otherwise known as Joe Iroko, for christening his personal dog “Buhari.”

In writing this piece about the needless and diversionary ruckus generated by the naming of the dog, “Buhari, it is pertinent to state that I have had (still have) dogs whom I named after great men, women, places and things I admire. I had therefore, named my dogs, Gaddafi, Idi Ami, Nkurumah, Obama, Mandela, Margaret Thatcher, Justice, Lioness, Tiger, Lagos, Abuja, Prince, Princess, Alhaji, Alhaja, Mimi, Timi, Law, etc. Dogs have fascinated me even from when I was a child and as soon as I could afford owning one, I never hesitated. There is no time anyone will visit me in my home without coming across a dog with a fanciful name.

One of the things that fascinate me about dogs is their innate ability to be completely loyal to their masters and antagonistic to intruders. As Sigmund Freud also stated: “Dogs love their friends and bite their enemies, quite unlike people, who are incapable of pure love and always have to mix love and hate.”

Dogs, have been severally described as “man’s best friend”. Permit me to deviate a little to explain the origin of this phrase.

In his trilogy written in the 8th century BC, the Greek Poet, Homer, described the scene where on Odyssey’s return from the Greek war with Troy, his dog, Agros, was the only one to see beyond his disguise and instantly recognized him. Not only was Argos now over 20-years-old (since the war in Troy was fought for 10 years and Poseidon punished Odyssey for another 10 years for his arrogance towards the gods), but in his master’s absence he had been neglected and forgotten, relegated to sleep on a pile of manure. When Odysseus returned, he was heartbroken to find what was only a shell of the dog he left behind.

Because of the hoard of the unruly suitors moving in on his wife, Odysseus had to remain disguised as a beggar. While he was able to fool all of the people from his past, there was no fooling his beloved best friend. Argos had been waiting all of those years to see the safe return of his master and, when he finally did, he was too weak to stand. He did, however, manage to drop his ears and wag his tail. Odysseus, for fear of being discovered, couldn’t even greet the one true friend he had ever known. He let slip a single tear, entered his hall, and with that, Argos died.

Dogs’ popularity as companion animals, with perhaps, ability for extra-sensory perception, began growing in the 18th Century, intensified in the 19th, and finally full-blown, flourished in the 20th Century as man began to manipulate breeding to emphasize and diminish certain traits.

Over time, what man once viewed as a wild animal became his friend. But the first recorded instance of the phrase “man’s

The

Nigerian Project

MIKE OZEKHOME san, ofr mike.ozekhome@yahoo.com 08094777755 (sms only) best friend” came from King Frederick of Prussia who in 1789 was quoted as saying “dog is man’s best friend,” apparently in reference to his beloved Italian Greyhound.

In the late 19th Century, an American, named Burden had a dog named “Old Drum”. Old Drum was a black and tan Hound dog. On October 28, 1869, Old Drum wandered into a neighbour’s yard and was shot on sight. Burden heard the gunshot and called his dogs in, they all came running… all except for his favourite. He ventured next door his neighbour, Leonidas Hornsby, denied having ever seen Old Drum. After a brief search, Burden found his dog lying dead and looking as though he’d been placed by the side of a creek. Enraged that he was lied to and that his best friend in the world had been killed, Burden sued Hornsby for $100 in a case that would eventually travel all the way up to the Supreme Court. In addressing the Jury during closing submission, Burden’s Attorney, George G. Vest, stated strongly in the following words: “Gentlemen of the jury: The best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or daughter that he has reared with loving care may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith.

The money that a man has, he may lose.

It flies away from him, perhaps when he needs it the most. A man’s reputation may be sacrificed in a moment of ill-considered action. The people who are prone to fall on their knees to do us honour when success is with us may be the first to throw the stone of malice when failure settles its cloud upon our heads. The one absolutely unselfish friend that a man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him and the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous is his dog…” “…Gentlemen of the jury: A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s side. He will kiss the hand that has no food to offer, he will lick the wounds and sores that come in encounters with the roughness of the world. He guards the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince. When all other friends desert, he remains. When riches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he is as constant in his love as the sun in its journey through the heavens. If fortune drives the master forth an outcast

in the world, friendless and homeless, the faithful dog asks no higher privilege than that of accompanying him to guard against danger, to fight against his enemies, and when the last scene of all comes, and death takes the master in its embrace and his body is laid away in the cold ground, no matter if all other friends pursue their way, there by his graveside will the noble dog be found, his head between his paws, his eyes sad but open in alert watchfulness, faithful and true even to death.”

Burden won the case (the jury awarded $50 to the dog's owner) and also won its appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. A statue of the dog stands in front of the Warrensburg, Missouri, courthouse and a bust of the dog resides in the Missouri Supreme Court building in Jefferson City, Missouri.

NOW THIS Coming back home, Mr. Iroko was said to have named and hung “Buhari” over his dog within the Hausa section of Ketere market, Sango, Ogun State, on 13th of August, 2016. It was reported that this caused pandemonium within the market

leading ultimately to the swift arrest and subsequent charging of Iroko to the magisterial court by the Nigeria Police. Iroko was charged for committing an offence contrary to and punishable under section 249 of the Criminal Code of Ogun State, with the prosecutor stating that his action is an innuendo targeted to breach public peace! Is it not astounding how the Police investigate “crimes”?

AND THIS In a somewhat different version, it was also reported that Iroko’s neighbour, an Hausa man had reported him to the Police for naming his dog Buhari, after his own father Alhaji Buhari. To him, that was an innuendo targeted at him. Iroko was then swiftly arrested and taken to Sango Police Station, from where he was taken to Police Command, Eleweran, Abeokuta. He was charged to the Magistrate court and subsequently granted bail and released after cooling of his heels for a few days at the Ibara prison, Ogun State due to his initial ability to perfect his bail conditions. Sadly, the dog in question was, afterwards said to have been killed by the Hausa community within the Ketere market, Sango, while Iroko was undergoing the ordeal of detention. To be continued.

LAST LINE Are Nigerians, PMB, Executive, Judiciary, the Nigeria’s Police Force, avid readers et al, awaiting the next tranche of this sermon even as you read today’s sermon on the “Mount of Nigerian Project” by Chief Mike A.A. Ozekhome, SAN, OFR, FCIArb? • Follow me on twitter @ MikeozekhomeSAN

Cross Word Puzzle

with Olulana Kayode 08023183727 Instructions on how to play the game •With reference to the ‘clues across’ and ‘clues down’ below, you shall try to provide answers to the clues, by writing the answer in the puzzle box provided on the left side.

•The number in parenthesis indicates the total number of letters making up the solution or answer you will provide.

•Keep on answering all the questions until all the spaces in the puzzle box are completely filled up.

Good luck!

Clues Across 1 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 16 17 18 22 23 24 25 26

Dam in Oyo state, (7).

Strip of earth with grass, (3).

Take brief bite at, (3).

Indicates 'above', (3).

Saltwater food fish, (3).

Bone of human forearm, (4).

Nigerian Accountancy Body, (4).

Costa Rica, abbr. (2) Human blood type, (2).

Inflict permanent injury on, (4).

Sharp pointed tip, (4).

Nigerian bank, (3).

'Arm' in Edo language, (3).

Dung beetle, (3).

Female sheep, (3).

Gov. Jibrilla Bandowa state, (7).

Clues Down 1 2 3 4 5 6 13 14 15 19 20 21

President Obama county, (7).

LGA in Akwa Ibom state, (6).

Want to scratch, (4).

Bear hardship, (6).

Rotate quickly, (4).

Barrier controlling water flow, (3).

Gov. Abdul-Aziz Yari state, (7).

City in Jigawa state, (6).

City in Katsina state, (6).

Assistant, (4).

'One' in Hausa language, (4).

Payment for services, (3).

Turn to page 55 for solution

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