4th March 2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 16,450

FRIDAY, 4 MARCH, 2016

Lagos schoolgirls: Abductors reduce ransom to N10m

•Give ill-health of a girl as reason for reduction •Police intensify efforts —P9

www.tribuneonlineng.com

Nigerian Tribune

$20bn lying fallow in domiciliary accounts —CBN —P16

@nigeriantribune

FG to unbundle NNPC to 30 companies next week —Kachikwu —P11

Nigerian Tribune

N150

My detention scaring away investors, Dasuki tells court —P43

Nigeria is sick, progressives must rescue it —US don —P10

•Use your PVCs wisely in 2019, Bakare tells Nigerians •Amosun, el-Rufai, Ezekwesili, others honour Awo at posthumous birthday symposium Ese: Police admit negligence

•Say she is still under their care for now —P12

Olubadan's coronation: Oyo govt declares public holiday, closes markets —P40

7 killed in Mile 12 riot From left, representative of the Ondo State governor, Mr Remi Olatubora; Dr Oby Ezekwesili; Governor Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun); Malam Nasir el-Rufai (Kaduna); keynote speaker, Professor Segun Gbadegesin; Executive Director, Obafemi Awolowo Foundation (OAF), Ambassador (Dr) Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu and Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, at the 2016 Obafemi Awolowo posthumous birthday symposium, held at the Efunyela Hall, Ikenne-Remo, Ogun State, on Thursday. PHOTO: TOMMY ADEGBITE MORE PHOTOS ON PAGES 2 AND 47

•Shehu of Borno's brother killed in UNILAG fire —Pgs 8 & 9

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2016 OBAFEMI AWOLOWO MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM

From left, Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun; keynote speaker, Professor Segun Gbadegesin; Executive Director, Obafemi Awolowo Foundation (OAF), Ambassador (Dr) Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu and Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, at the 2016 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Symposium held at Ikenne, Ogun State, on Thursday.

From left, Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu, Bishop Michael O. Akinwale of Methodist Church, Remo and the Prelate, Methodist Church Nigeria, Dr Samuel Uche.

From left, General Oladipo Diya, Alhaji Ahmed Joda and Chief Solomon Onafowokan.

PHOTOS: TOMMY ADEGBITE & D’TOYIN

From left, Pastor Tunde Bakare, Chief Ayo Adebanjo and Sir Olaniwun Ajayi.

Governor Amosun (left) with former Osun State governor, Chief Bisi Akande.

Kaduna State governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai (left) and Professor Ladipo Adamolekun.

Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe (left) and Chief Bisi Akande.

Dr Oby Ezekwesili (left) and Pastor Tunde Bakare.

A cross section of the guests.

From left, Professor A.B.O.O. Oyediran and his wife, Tola; Chief (Mrs) Alaba Oniru, Mr Asaolu Olatomiwa and Senator Biyi Durojaiye.

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Friday, 4 March, 2016

DEBT MANAGEMENT OFFICE NIGERIA

Question: What percentage of the country’s revenue did Nigeria spend on debt service in 2015?

Answer:

28.1%.

Debt Service to Revenue Ratios (2015 and 2016)

Year

Revenue (bn)

Debt Service (bn)

2015 Actual

(FGN + States) N6,315.78

(FGN + States) N1,774.81

Debt Service/Revenue Ratio (%) (FGN + States) 28.10%

2016 Appropriation Bill

(FGN only) N3,856.00

(FGN only) N1,361.88

(FGN only) 35.32%

Going Forward The strategy is to significantly reduce the ratio to about 15% over the medium term, through a number of measures, including: • Improvements in public revenue through more effective and comprehensive tax collection; deriving more public revenue from the economic growth that will result from the various economic change initiatives over the next four years; and, • Re-mixing the external and domestic debt components of the public debt stock to achieve a lower average cost of fund.

Debt Management Office THE PRESIDENCY Plot 447/448 Constitution Avenue Central Business District P.M.B. 532, Garki, Abuja – Nigeria Tel.: 09-8767121, 09-8767122 Email: enquiries@dmo.gov.ng Website: www.dmo.gov.ng

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news

Friday, 4 March, 2016 Friday, 4 March, 2016

Glo clears air over P-Square NIGERIA’S telecommunications company, Globacom, has described as untrue, the speculations in the media that the company was severing relationship with the performing twins, P-Square.

Prisons service uncovers fake recruitment syndicate Clement Idoko-Abuja

THE Nigerian Prisons Service has uncovered a syndicate group that specialises in defrauding unsuspecting job seekers of huge sums of money through fake job offer.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the fraudsters have dedicated account with a new generation bank, where applicants were asked to pay for their recruitment forms and other transactions.

Spokesman of the Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), Mr Francis Enobore, who confirmed the development, said a syndicate group, led by one Mr Balogun had opened an e-mail address and a bank account belonging to one Mr Orukpe Alfred Aramude, with a new generation Bank purportedly on behalf of the NPS for the purpose of selling recruitment form to job seekers.

He said: “We wish to inform members of the public that: “The Nigerian Prisons Service does not use agent(s), syndicate(s) or private individual(s) to carry out recruitment of personnel into the Service and does not sell recruitment form to job seekers.

“The Nigerian Prisons Service therefore disassociates itself from such illicit dealings and shall not be held liable for any such transaction with fraudsters masquerading as agents working for or on behalf of the NPS. “While efforts are being made to arrest the fraudsters, members of the public are however advised to ignore such entreaties as they do not represent the interest of the Prisons Service.

“Whoever engages in any form of business or transaction with any of such mischievous body/ bodies, individual(s) or organisation(s) does so at his or her own risk as the Service shall not in any material form be liable,” he said.

According to a statement from its head office on Thursday, Globacom said P-Square remained brand ambassadors for the telecommunications company.

The telecom company said it had only just commenced a review of its brand endorsement deals, adding that it had not sev-

ered its relationship with P-Square or any of its brand ambassadors.

“We have not disengaged P-Square or any of our other ambassadors.

We are currently in the process of reviewing our contracts with the brand ambassadors,” the statement said.

The company said P-

Square had been among its leading brand ambassadors since 2010, adding that the relationship had been mutually beneficial.

“We are proud of the role Globacom has played in the rapid upward trajectory of the musical career of these incredibly talented twin brothers,” the company said.

“Globacom has also played a similar role in the exposure and economic empowerment of all the Nigerian entertainers, and others from neighbouring countries, who worked with us as brand ambassadors,” the telecom operator stated.

“Globacom holds its brand ambassadors in the

highest esteem and has a dignified procedure of managing its relationships with its brand ambassadors.

Whenever brand ambassadors are to be engaged or disengaged, we usually follow the due process and dignify them by holding constructive discussions with them,” Globacom added.

FG to address infrastructure deficit in the country Anthony Ubong-Calabar

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IRECTOR General of Infrastructure Concession and Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Aminu Diko, on Thursday, reiterated the Federal Government’s commitment towards addressing infrastructure deficit in the country.

Diko, who stated this in Calabar during a tour of Calabar Port said when President Muhammadu Buhari took over the mantle of leadership, he was worried about high level of infrastructure deficit across the country.

He said the President was determined to ad-

dress infrastructure deficit in the country, adding that this would be achieved through Public Private Sector Partnership (PPP).

The ICRC DG said that

the team was in Calabar port in continuation of its tour port facilities across the country to ascertain the level of compliance by the concession operators.

“Our role is to ensure that these concessions are running properly.

And if there is any gap or any lapses we are going to make a report to the

Biafra: Ohanaeze to present charter of demands to Buhari Jude Ossai-Enugu

TO stem further restiveness in the Southeast geopolitical zone, the leadership of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo has resolved to visit President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, with a charter of demands.

The resolution was adopted after a meeting of some

members at the private residence of one of their members in Enugu, on Thursday.

It was learnt that among the vexed issues to present to President Buhari included the reconstruction of the Enugu-Umuahia-Port Harcourt Road, the EnuguOnitsha express road, appointment of more special

and senior special assistants or assistants of Igbo extraction.

The Igbo apex body also noted that Ndigbo are not fairly represented in the government at the centre, adding that the completion of the Second Niger Bridge would end the ongoing agitation for Biafra Republic.

Presidency for necessary action.”

He said the commission would be unbiased and transparent in the discharge of its statutory duties, adding that the ICRC does not approve or award contracts but only to ensure compliance in line with the ICRC act.

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Nigerian Tribune

Friday, 4 March, 2016

Lagosmetro 7 killed as Yoruba, Hausa clash in Mile 12 •Schools, houses, vehicles burnt •Ambode orders temporary closure of market •CP confirms arrest of 50 suspects

Bola Badmus and Olalekan Olabulo O fewer than seven people were feared killed during a bloody clash between perthe presence of policemen confirmed the clash besons of Yoruba and Hausa later died.”

The Thursday clash and soldiers. tween two groups of people ethnic origins in Mile 12 The image maker in in Agiliti area of Mile 12, area of Ketu in Lagos State. started around 10 o’clock in Goods worth millions of the morning and continued charge of the state police stating that, “a team of ponaira, over 20 vehicles, till the afternoon, despite command, Dolapo Badmus licemen from the Rapid Reshops, a car park, parts of a market, two schools and houses, including that of the Baale of Mile 12, were razed in the fire incident.

The clash, which was said to have started from a motorcycle accident, enveloped the entire Ketu, Mile 12 and Agilinti areas of Lagos State in fears.

Lagos Metro gathered that it all started on Tuesday night, when two commercial motorcyclists collided, leading to the death of one of them.

A resident of the area, who Some of the houses destroyed during the clash, on Thursday. PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA. simply identified himself as Solomon narrated that “it all started on Tuesday night, when two okada riders had a head-on collision. A Yoruba motorcyclist was riding, when a Hausa boy made an illegal u-turn and there was a fatal accident. The Yoruba people, who were there, insisted that the Yoruba okada rider must be taken to the hospital but the Hausa people declined, before the boy Police at the scene of the clash.

N

sponse Squad (RRS), Mobile Police Unit and others, led by the commissioner of police, Fatai Owoseni, restored normalcy in the

area.”

In the aftermath of the crisis, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, on Thursday, ordered the temporary closure of the market and also ordered temporary restriction of movements within the streets, adjoining the market, which include Oniyanri Street, Meidan Street, Agiliti 1 and Agiliti 2.

He urged traders, community leaders and other stakeholders to eschew violence, and also rolled out the new rules while addressing newsmen at the Lagos House in company of the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Fatai Owoseeni and the state Commissioner for Information, Mr Steve Ayorinde.

This was just as the police boss, Owoseni, disclosed that a substantial number of suspects, numbering over 50, had been arrested in connection with the clash, saying the closure of the market and restriction of movement in the areas listed by the governor would remain as long as the situation demanded.

“We have made a substantial number of arrests, over 50, and we are still counting,” Owoseeni said, even as he insisted that he did not witness any killing or saw the market burning when he visited the scene.

Son allegedly stabs mother to death for refusing to accept pregnant fiancée Gbemi Solaja

A 30-year-old man, identified as Ibrahim Oniyide, who allegedly stabbed his mother to death, has been remanded in prison.

According to the police, Ibrahim killed his mother, identified as Tawa Oniyide by stabbing her with a kitchen knife and broken bottle all over her body.

It was gathered that the suspect on the fateful day had gone to introduce a woman to his mother as his future wife, demanding that she accommodate her.

The police said the deceased disagreed with her son on the issue, refusing to

take the eight months old pregnant woman in, adding that she was not interested in her and that the suspect should have brought the woman when the pregnancy was still in the early

stage.

The police also added that Ibrahim, who thought that his mother was wrong and should have taken the pregnant woman in, got angry.

The deceased was in the

kitchen with a knife and yam which she was preparing to cook when the suspect allegedly grabbed the knife and stabbed her in different parts making sure that she was dead.

The incident happened at 3, Olubunmi Christopher Street, off Arowolo Street, Abule Egba.

Ibrahim was charged before an Ebutte Magistrates’ Court for murder and has

since been remanded in the Ikoyi Prisons.

The Magistrate, Miss M.O. Okpe Agbe, adjourned the matter till April 11 for the Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) advice.

Oshodi crisis: NURTW boss inaugurates 7-man probe panel IN his effort at ensuring that normalcy returns to Oshodi area and its environs, the Lagos State chairman of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Alhaji Tajudeen Agbede has inaugurated a 7-man fact-finding committee to find lasting solutions to incessant crises among members of

the union in the area.

Some members of the union in the area, last Wednesday, took to the streets to protest what they described as imposition of leaders. The protest led to breakdown of law and order, as some hoodlums hijacked the protest to unleash havoc on the residents.

Speaking in his office during the inauguration of the committee, Alhaji Agbede said the committee would work in the affected area for two weeks in order to get to the roots of the matter “That Wednesday incident was very unfortunate and we shall get to the root of the problem. I can as-

sure you that that type of ugly incident will not happen again in Oshodi. The committee is saddled with the responsibility of finding lasting solution to the problem.

“I am using this opportunity to tell our members in the state to go on with their normal business. The state council

will not hesitate to deal with anybody fomenting trouble.”

Agbede thanked the law enforcement agents, especially the state commissioner of police, Mr Fatai Owoseni, for their prompt intervention in the crisis which helped in stopping the mayhem from escalating.

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Nigerian Tribune

Edited By Lanre Adewole

08037863902 | olanreade@yahoo.com

Shehu of Borno’s brother killed in UNILAG fire Naza Okoli with News Agency

T

RAGEDY struck at the University of Lagos (UNILAG) Guest Houses, when a fire outbreak occurred around 2:00 a.m. on Thursday, killing a member of the delegation of the Shehu of Born0, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi, who was newly installed as the Chancellor of the University.

The monarch and his companions were at the university to attend El-Kanemi’s installation as Chancellor of the university, which had already taken place.

The spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mr Ibrahim Farinloye, confirmed the incident in a text message sent to the News Agency of Nige-

ria (NAN). The victim was said to be lodging in room A12, where he suffocated to death due to impact of the fire.

Farinloye quoted the

Zonal Coordinator of NEMA for Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states, Alhaji Suleiman Yakubu, as saying that four rooms – A12, A13, A14 and A15 – were affected by the

fire.

The deceased, who was a brother to the Shehu of Borno, will be flown to Maiduguri for burial, later today.

Microbiology graduate weeps, jailed 7 years for selling fake drug Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin

A 40-year-old woman, Clara Onah, has been sentenced to seven years imprisonment over sale of fake drugs.

The room where Shehu of Borno’s brother reportedly suffocated and died, at UNILAG Guest House, on Thursday.

Lagos schoolgirls’ abductors reduce ransom to N10m Olalekan Olabulo and Chukwuma Okparaocha

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HE abductors of the three students of Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary School have reportedly reduced the ransom on the students from N2oo million to N10 million due to the ill-health of one of the abducted girls.

A source, close to the school confirmed that the abductors had actually reduced the ransom, during their last contact. “They have reduced the ransom again and they said that they reduced it because one of the girls was sick,” the source revealed, adding that “they (the abductors) said that they did not want anything bad to happen to the children, before they are released.”

Meanwhile, investigations

by Lagos Metro revealed that detectives from the state police command are close to arresting some of the kidnappers. A police source, who pleaded anonymity, while speaking

•Abducted girl sick •Security in Lagos is poor —Assembly Speaker •Police intensify effort to arrest abductors with Lagos Metro said, “I can assure you that we will arrest the kidnappers. We are deploying technology in our investigations and possibly in no distant time, we will arrest the kidnappers.”

The Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly has, however, blasted the state of the nation’s security, describing it as ‘inadequate,’ while also insisting that security in Lagos State is particularly poor. The Speaker made this known, on Thursday, while reacting to the kidnap.

According to the Speaker, Honourable Mudashiru Obasa, in the light of this, the Lagos Assembly will again revive the agitation for the creation of state police which will be expected to help beef up security in communities in the state.

In his comments, the Majority Leader of the House, Mr Sanai Agunbiade, noted that the kidnapping

incident, which he raised under the matters of urgent public importance, was another major call for the Lagos State Government to beef up security in the state.

Agunbiade who is the lawmaker representing Ikorodu I, said it was time the state government beefed up security in Ikorodu area, which has been at the forefront of

security-related issues in recent times. He also called for more education of owners of private schools on how to secure their schools and hostels.

Sympathisers rescuing trapped victims at the scene of an accident at Abule Egba, on Thursday. NAN

The accused, a graduate of Microbiology from the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) and a postgraduate student of Mass Communication, is resident at 12, Mosalashi Street, Alagbado Lagos.

She was arraigned by the National Agency for Food, Drugs, Administration and Control (NAFDAC) on February 12, on a five count charge bordering on possession and sale of fake drugs and had pleaded guilty to the charge.

When Clara was apprehended by officials of the agency, she took a team of investigating officers from NAFDAC, on a fruitless journey in search of an alleged manufacturing company when in actual fact she was the sole manufacturer of the fake drugs.

During her mercy plea, the convict had shed tears and begged the court to afford her a second chance explaining that she was a graduate of microbiology, who emerged with a second class upper division, adding that she would never engage in such acts again if pardoned.

Following her plea, the trial judge, Justice Chuka Obiozor had ordered her remand in prison custody, and had adjourned for a review of facts.

Delivering his judgment on Wednesday, Justice Obiozor, found the accused guilty of the offence, and accordingly convicted her.

“I would have given the accused a second chance but note that all those who died as a result of the ingestion of the fake drug, had no second chance.

“The convict is to be jailed at the women wing of the Kirikiri Maximum prison, and the term of imprisonment shall run concurrently from January 26. The prosecution shall hold on to the exhibits, and destroy same after the expiration of the time for appeal,” he held.

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Nigeria is sick, progressives must rescue it —Gbadegesin, US don

•Use your PVCs wisely in 2019, Bakare tells Nigerians •Amosun, el-Rufai, Ezekwesili, others honour Awo at posthumous birthday symposium

By Dare Adekanmbi and Olayinka Olukoya

F

OR enduring progress to be made in Nigeria, its leaders must, as a matter of urgency, return the country to the path of a truly federal system, because the current pseudo-federal structure is sick and diseased.

This was the submission of a professor of Philosophy and interim Dean, College of Arts and Science, Howard University, Washington, United States, Professor Segun Gbadegesin, in a keynote address delivered at the 2016 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Symposium, organised by Obafemi Awolowo Foundation (OAF), on Thursday.

The commemorative event, with the theme: Awo, Then and Now: Politics, Economics and Education,” was held at the Efunyela Hall within the Ikenne Remo, Ogun State country home of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Professor Gbadegesin observed that had successive governments followed the principles of genuine federalism prescribed as the best for the multi-ethnic Nigeria by Chief Awolowo many decades ago, the country would not be where and what it is today.

He noted that although proponents of the subsisting unitarist political structure had resisted the imperative of a truly federal Nigeria, the current socio-political and economic realities had made a return to true federalism more compelling.

“If we had followed his (Awo’s) prescription, we would now have strong and viable states that do not depend on federal allocations to survive. No one can reasonably deny that what we have now is a sick federal system.

“For the unitarist, the nation is an indivisible and united entity and no room must be given to any divisive tendencies. On this view, federalism, which respects the component units in a multi-national or multi-ethnic union, is a contradiction in terms. It errs for allowing the sentiment of primordial attachments to prevail.

“The unitarist goal is to break and grind all the pots of ethnic nationalities into one heap of clay where even the tiniest grains of the former pots would have completely disappeared. The clay is then to be used to make a new pot which bears no resemblance to any of the old. It is an illusion but

reasonable people have entertained the prospect of its reality.

“The regions that constituted the governing structure of these nationalities were to symbolise their distinctness and uniqueness.

We thus had reason to brag about our ‘unity in diversity’.

“This means, for all intents and purposes, that we were not discarding our diversity and we were not melting the pot of our differences into a heap of uniformitarian clay.

That was our understanding of the union we were entering into.

“In the areas to which a purposive government is required to pay attention and work effectively, Nigerians have been shortchanged in the last 16 years. Surely, some very important personalities have fared a lot better than the majority of ordinary citizens.

“Some others have taken advantage of and exploited the atmosphere of lawlessness and gross indiscipline to make way for their interests. Those at the short end of the stick of insecurity and unfreedom are the hoi polloi of society; the helpless and hapless masses that a progressive government cannot ignore,” he said.

On education, he decried the sliding fortunes of the South-West region in educational attainments as exemplified by the poor performance of the students from the region in public examinations like the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE).

He noted with displeasure that the South-West that Chief Awolowo intellectually and materially sacrificed for, through the free education policy that made it the envy of other regions, had “shamefully and embarrassingly” retrogressed in the education section.

“While this should be a wake-up call for the SouthWest, there is a broader concern for the nation. Here we are not talking about record-breaking results in which students made 9 A1’s as we would with excitement 20 years ago.

“Rather we are talking about the barest minimum for university admissions.

So, nationally, we are moving backwards, and yes, the South-West has shamefully and embarrassingly receded to the back of the line of achievement.”

The professor advocated the peopling of government at various levels by thinkers like Chief Awolowo whom,

he said, achieved greatness for the Western Region and offered himself to replicate same on the national scene by thinking deeply about what the problems were and proffering the right solutions.

To redress the challenges confronting Nigeria therefore, the US don called for unity among politicians of the progressive hew, charging them to bury their political differences in the interest of the region and the country.

“The post-Awo Awoists would not even cooperate to uplift the message of their great master and leader.

How are they different then from his adversaries? And considering that they would, one day, want to resume their dinner time chats with Awo, what will be their report? How will he respond?

“I challenge each and every Awoist here today, old, young, and young at heart, to rethink and reflect on what has been lost to progressivism in the last 29 years of his passing.

“What have they collectively contributed to the progressive maturation and practicalisation of his philosophy? How will the present chaos and confusion in the camp of Awo shape the future of his ideas in Yorubaland, in Nigeria, and in Africa?

“Are they, by their inability to get together as Awoists, inadvertently contributing to the strength of his known political enemies who had predicted his political death more than 50 years ago?” he asked rhetorically.

Speaking during the symposium, the Presiding Pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly, Pastor Tunde Bakare, urged Nigerians to use the permanent voter cards (PVCs) wisely in the next general election in 2019.

“Your PVC is still available. Use it wisely next time.

When people promise us change, let us examine the package of the change they are offering us before we sign on,” he said.

The fiery cleric, after he offered prayers for the nation, was reacting to comments and observations from members of the audience who asked him to speak on the state of the nation, while he promised to communicate their submissions as contained in a communique issued at the end of the pregramme to President Muhammadu Buhari for necessary action.

Pastor Bakare said the

electorate must examine critically the package of the change the politicians offer them before they cast votes.

In his goodwill message, Governor Olusegun Mimiko, described the sage as a leader whose ideals and ideas still resonate many years after his exit.

Mimiko, represented by the state Commissioner for Technical and Higher Education, Mr Remi Olatubora, said the country must continually reflect on the ideal of Awo, particularly in the area of education.

He submitted that government at all levels must take step to democratise access to quality education.

“Let us take pratical steps to develop the ideals and ideas of Awolowo. As government in Ondo State, we have re-built all schools built by our Papa between 1955 to 1959 and all of them are ICT driven. Papa saw education as one of the most fundamental issue that good leaders must embrace,” the governor said.

Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, said Chief Obafemi Awolowo remains the grand executors of great visions in Nigeria.

While speaking as the chairman of the commemorative symposium, el-Rufai noted that Nigeria as a country is still paying for the error committed by the General Yakubu Gowon regime for not buying into the suggestion of Awolowo in providing free and qualitative education nationwide.

The former Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister said Awolowo as a leader combined mental magnitude with ability to implement his policies.

The governor submitted that his government of nine months in saddle embraced the Awolowo’s formula in education, explaining that his administration had spent N6 billion on school rehabilitation and the provision of water supply and toilets in the schools.

He lamented the condition of public primary schools put at 4,254 before he was elected into office on May 29, 2015.

“In Kaduna State, we embrace the Awo formula for education. A year ago, we campaigned against the dismal state of most of our schools, with many lacking furniture, doors, windows, roofs and water.

“After the election, the things we railed against became our problems to solve. We have 4,254 public

primary schools in Kaduna and many are in very poor shape.

“Between September 2015 and January 2016, we have spent more than N6 billion on school rehabilitation, and the provision of water and toilets to our schools. In our 2016 budget, the education sector has by far the highest allocation accounting for more than a third of the budget,” he said. el-Rufai submitted that the free education policy of Awolowo still echoed in the dynamism of professional classes and the political consciousness of the people of the West.

He also described Awolowo as a prudent manager who managed the economy of the nation well during the civil war era without debt thereafter.

One of the discussants, Dr Oby Ezekwesili, called for national economic summit to address the challenges confronting the economy.

Ezekwesili said Chief Obafemi Awolowo would be saddened by the celebration of the “glorious” past than the present.

She said Nigerians had the opportunity to create a better today than yesterday as it were, adding that people were not fair to the sage while he held sway as Minister of Finance.

“He was outstanding in fiscal prudency. He was a man given to frugality. His kind of government was that you must not spend whatever you have not earned.

Chief Awolowo engaged in investment more than funding,” she added.

Ezekwesili said Awolowo in his days knew that economic growth was the necessary prerequisite in tackling poverty.

She canvassed that each region should take its agenda to economic conference as a way forward, while advising the Foundation to emphasise a lot on his achievements as regards economic activities.

In his presentation, Professor Alade Fawole noted that Awolowo as politician was difficult to replicate, saying that most politicians in his time were low in ideas.

He said that until politicians engaged in deep thinking, they might not be able to achieve all that he (Awo) achieved in his time.

In her welcome address, the Executive Director, OAF, Dr Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu, said one of the legacies of her father centred on human develop-

ment vis a vis free education.

She said the Foundation, through its different programmes, kept on reminding Nigerians in particular and the world at large, of the outstanding performance(s) of the sage and his remarkable attitude to good governance.

The former Nigerian Ambassador to The Netherlands added that the Foundation would continue to challenge contemporary leaders to emulate the extraordinary record of her father while in office, to propel Nigeria’s development pace in the right direction and secure it a befitting place in an increasingly knowledgedriven world.

She put some posers to the gathering for answer on whether or not Awolowo, who was a passionate federalist, would endorse the nation’s current militarised and over-centralised federalism in which the states and federating units had become helplessly dependent on the centre.

She said the symposium was the first of two events being hosted by the Foundation to commemorate the 2016 posthumous birthday of Chief Awolowo.

She noted that other event is the boys’ under-10 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial and girls’ under-15, now renamed HID Awolowo Memorial, football competitions, with the finals coming up at Ajele Stadium, Lagos.

Other important dignitaries at the programme were the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun; his deputy governor, Mrs Yetunde Onanuga; Chief Bisi Akande, General Oladipo Diya, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Senator Femi Okurounmu, Chief Ahmed Joda, Senator Demola Seriki, Senators Adegbenga Kaka and Olorunnimbe Mamora.

Also at the symposium were the Group Managing Director, Odua Group of Companies, Mr Adewale Raji; Mr Folu Olamiti, Senator Olabiyi Durojaiye, Professor Bankole Okuwa, Prelate of the Methodist Church, Nigeria, His Eminence, Uche Emeka Kalu; Professor Ope Adekunle, representative of the Obi of Onitsha, Asaolu Olatomiwa, Dr Amos Akugba, Mr Yinka Odumakin, among others.

Look out for full text of Professor Gbadegesin’s keynote address on Saturday, March 5, 2016

businessnews FG to unbundle NNPC into 30 companies next week 11

Friday, 4 March, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Govt can’t unbundle NNPC without due process —Experts Olatunde Dodondawa And Ayodele Adesanmi

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HE Federal Government has announced it will unbundle the NNPC into 30 revenue generating subsidiaries next week.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Ibe Kachikwu, stated this on Thursday at the 25th Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum organised by the Society of Petroleum Engineers in Abuja.

Dr Kachikwu told the petroleum industry experts that an overhaul of the foremost government oil firm, NNPC was imminent, to ensure the return of profitability and stability in the sector.

In what the minister said would be a major overhaul of the system, the positions of Group Executive and Managing Directors would be replaced by Chief Executive Officers who will head each of the companies.

He said that the move, which would be concluded within the next seven days, would reposition the corporation to bring in huge profits which had been impossible to achieve in the past 15 years.

Meanwhile, stakeholders in the oil and gas industry have argued that the Minister cannot unbundle the NNPC without due process This is because the NNPC was established by an Act, which is NNPC Act 1977.

According to Ayodeji Ebo, Head of Research at Afrinvest, “I don’t think he intends to unbundle the NNPC, may be what he was trying to say was that he would create new units under the same NNPC that will be more efficient.

“You know the NNPC is established under the NNPC Act and before the NNPC would be unbundled, the Act must be reviewed.

“However, with the creation of smaller units, it will be very easy to subject each unit to audit, know who is responsible and accountable for the unit and eventually promote transparency and efficiency in the system.

It would be recalled that one of the aims of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is to unbundle the present NNPC into several companies. This is because the NNPC was established by an Act,” he said.

However, after unsuccessful attempts in the last 10

years to pass the PIB, a new version of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was designed to eliminate the group structure in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

The draft law has split the NNPC into two commercial entities and scrapped the office of the Group Managing Director.

Under the new draft, the NNPC will be split into a

national oil company that will be partly privatized and a petroleum assets management company that will be responsible for the management of the NNPC’s oil and gas investments in assets

(a role currently played by NAPIMS).

Each of the companies will comprise boards with non-executive chairmen, a managing director and executive directors and other

From left, Honourable Commissioner for Women Affairs, Kano State, Hajia Zubaida Damakka Abubakar; Executive Director, North, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mohammed Balarabe; Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje and Regional Bank Head, North West Bank, Fidelity Bank Plc, Mannir Ringim, at the commissioning of the Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) Hostel, Kano State, renovated and equipped by Fidelity Bank Plc.

Nigeria to increase non-oil export revenue to $25bn, says NEPC THE Nigeria Export Promotion Council (NEPC) says it has made strategies to increase the nation’s earning from the non-oil export from 2.7 billion dollars to 25 billion dollars by 2025.

This was disclosed by the Executive Director of the NEPC, Mr Olusegun Awolowo, at a one day workshop on ‘The legal aspects of export contract’ in Benin on Thursday.

Represented by the Director of the legal unit, Mr Ezra Yakusak, the NEPC boss said this would be achieved through a developed “Zero Oil Plan.”

He explained that the zero oil plan was a strategy adopted to mobilise both private and public resources to replace oil as the country’s major source of foreign exchange.

He said this had become inevitable in the face of the recent free fall of oil price in the world economy.

He stressed that the era of Nigeria depending on oil as its primary source of foreign exchange was gone.

According to him, “Our continued reliance on oil would only decrease our economic fortunes. There is therefore no better time to embark on non-oil exports than now.

“The NEPC has taken a proactive step at increasing Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings through non-oil

exports by developing the zero oil plans.

“The zero oil plan is a coherent agenda to mobilise the public and private resources towards replacing oil as our number one source of foreign exchange.

“Under the plan, Nigeria will position itself to gain

at least a five per cent share of a total value of world exports in strategic sectors over the next 10 years.

This is to ensure sufficient scale of production and prevent sudden market distortions.

“At the end of 10 years, it is hoped that our non-oil export revenue would in-

crease from 2.7 billion dollars in 2014 to 25 billion dollars in 2025.’’

Earlier in her address, the Zonal Controller of the Benin office of the NEPC, Mrs Etokowoh Moses, said the workshop would offer participants better understanding of international contracts terms.

members with many years’ experience in management positions in oil companies.

Kachikwu had in November said the government was working on splitting the NNPC that would probably be passed in sections.

The new draft bill titled, “Petroleum Industry Governance & Institutional Framework Bill 2015” is a 45-page document with 91 sections and three schedules. It has been simplified from the 2012 PIB and focuses on governing institutions with clear and separate roles for the petroleum industry.

In the proposed new bill, the oil minister may, in addition to the incorporation of the two entities, incorporate other entities to assume and manage some of the liabilities of the NNPC. The draft bill also provides for a single regulatory body that merges the DPR and PPPRA into a new Nigeria Petroleum Regulatory Commission.

The commission, according to the bill, “Shall take up the responsibilities held by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA).”

On transfer of assets and liabilities of the NNPC, the draft bill empowers the minister to require the NNPC to transfer employees, assets, liabilities, rights and obligations of the NNPC to the NPAM.

BoI boosts Gombe rural community with 24KW solar power Gbola Subair -Abuja THE Bank of Industry (BoI) has brought succour to thousands of rural dwellers in Kolwa, Kaltungo Local Government of Gombe State with the commissioning of 24KW micro-grid solar solution even as the

governor of the state, Dr Ibrahim Dankwambo, has resolved to replicate the project in other nine local governments of the state..

Prior to the installation of the solar power system, the over 250 households and small scale enterprises in the area relied on self-power

generation like other communities across the country.

The Kolwa eletrification project is a 24KW-capacity installation that covers a 6 km distribution network, capable of providing commercial ventures with electricity and was the third of the six BoI/UNDP solar

Daar Communications records profit after tax loss NIGERIA’S only publicly quoted broadcasting company and pioneer private broadcast medium, Daar Communications Plc, has recorded a profit after tax loss of N 3.4 billion, the result of the Company’s 2013 and 2014 operating years has shown.

The development and the settlement of the company’s contingent liabilities impaired profit taking and dividends for shareholders of the group.

Addressing shareholders at the joint Annual General Meetings (AGM) for the two years in Abuja, Chairman of

the Daar Communications Group, Chief Raymond Dokpesi Jnr, said though the company recorded a 33 per cent and 23 per cent growth respectively for the two years in question, tax commitment and other contentious liabilities eroded the gains of the growth.

He deplored the harsh operating climate in the country in the period under review, pointing out that it had negative impact on the company’s revenue inflow as it hampered clients’ patronage level.

Dokpesi said: “In the light of the above operating

challenges, your company recorded modest improvement in earnings in 2013 and 2014 of N5.6 billion and N6.9 billion respectively.

These achievements translated to earnings growth of 33 per cent and 23 per cent respectively over earnings recorded in their preceding years.”

He continued, “Regrettably, the company recorded loss after taxation of N3.4 billion in 2013. However, there was improvement in operation in 2014 as the loss after taxation was drastically reduced to N0.107 billion.”

power pilot project to be installed in six rural communities in the six geo-political zones of the country.

The earlier two installations were domiciled in Bisanti, in Katcha Local Government Area of Niger State, and in Onibambu, Ife-North LGA in Osun State while the remaining three located at Ogbekpen, Ikpoba in Okha LGA, Edo State, Onono, Anambra West LGA, in Anambra State and Carwa/ Cakum, Markarfi LGA, in Kano State are awaiting commissioning.

Speaking during the commissioning of the project in Kolwa, the Acting Managing Director, BoI, Mr Waheed Olagunju, stated that the N44m rural electrification project being financed by the bank in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme, would provide electricity for over 200 homes not connected to the national grid.

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Friday, 4 March, 2016

Ese’s repatriation: Police admit negligence to carry out Emir’s instruction Kola Oyelere - Kano

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HE Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) in charge of Zone 1 Kano, Mr Shuaibu Lawal Gambo, has admitted negligence on the part of the police, over failure to carry out the instruction of the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Sanusi Muhammad II, to repatriate Ese to Bayelsa State in August last year.

Let me categorically state that the IGP was never in the picture of this case until Sunday (February 28), when the matter was reported in the conventional media,” he said.

The police, however, stated that Ese was actually handed over to them by the Kano State Sharia’ah Commission last Monday.

His words: “Police ought to have followed up the case with Sharia’ah Commission to confirm whether it had resolved the matter about the repatriation of the girl to her family.”

Disclosing this on Thursday, while speaking with journalists about the issue, Mr Gambo added that the zone could not ascertain whether Ese was pregnant or not, saying the force headquarters was in a better position to explain her health status, because it was to conduct medical examination on her.

According to him, “it is evident that there was a failure of communication, as the delegation never returned with the girl for onward transportation to her family and no further report or complaint whatsoever was received in respect of the case.

“The information, as obtained from my predecessor, AIG Tambori Yabo, confirmed that His Royal Highness actually sent a delegation, made up of some members of the Sharia’ah Commission and representatives of the Emirate Council, with a letter requesting the police to take the girl

back to her parents.

“However, the delegation, in the company with the girl, arrived very late in the evening to the zone, as a result of which it was agreed by all parties to bring her back

the following day, so as to implement the request of the monarch.

“On the part of the zone, when it did not hear from the delegation, it innocently presumed that the case

might have been resolved by the Sharia’ah Commission, which as you know, is also empowered to adopt alternative dispute resolution measures in cases of this nature.”

THE Police Service Commission will not hesitate to sanction any police officer, no matter how highly placed, who is found culpable in the abduction saga of the 14-year-old Ese Oruru, who was abducted and forced into marriage in Kano State.

Head, Press and Public

earlier on the matter. Let me categorically state that the IGP was never in the picture of this case until on Sunday (February 28), when the matter was reported in the conventional media.”

Dickson receives her, calls for prosecution of abductors BAYELSA State governor, Mr Seriake Dickson, has called for a comprehensive investigation into the abduction and subsequent prosecution of culprits in the abduction saga of the 14-year-old Ese Oruru, who was abducted and forced into Islamic marriage in Kano, since August, last year.

While describing the incident as unfortunate, Dickson said the state government had directed the Ministry of Justice to collaborate effectively with the Nigeria Police, towards ensuring that Ese’s abduction case was prosecuted to a logical conclusion.

He also expressed optimism that the investigation would be extended far and wide, with a view to bringing perpetrators to book.

The governor, according to a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Daniel Iworiso-Markson, tabled the demand Thursday evening, during an interview with journalists in Yenagoa, the state capital, shortly after receiving Ese and her parents at the Government House, Yenagoa.

Dickson, who described Ese as a minor, wondered why it took so long to secure her release, adding that there were questions begging for answers, “as those who knew something about her abduction failed to say or do something to ensure Ese’s return to her parents.”

The governor said: “This matter has to do with enforcement of the laws of this state. This matter is not religious; it is not a matter that has to be swept under the carpet because of one tradition or the other. We, as a

government, is seeing this matter as one of law enforcement; the rights of a young girl, innocent childhood, her right to proper development and her right to grow up in the company with her parents and also practise for now, the faith of her parents.

A lot had happened.

“I want to use this opportunity to assure all, that the Nigeria Police is working hard and I have directed the Ministry of Justice to collaborate effectively with them, to ensure that this matter is prosecuted to a logical conclusion.

“We want to know why

Relations, Ikechukwu Ani, made this known in a press statement in Abuja, a copy of which was available to the Nigerian Tribune, saying the commission was anxiously waiting for the outcome of the ongoing investigation of some police officers on the directive of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Solomon Arase.

it took this long; we like to know those who knew what was going on, but did not say something; we like to know those, who could have saved this situation much earlier, but did not. Like I said, we are looking at this issue, not from the prism of culture, tradition or religion.

From now on, this matter has to be looked at purely and simply as a case of law enforcement and as a case of state responsibility and protection and safety of our children; in this case, a minor. I have had preliminary briefings by the Police Commissioner and his team.”

She is still in police care in Bayelsa —PPRO Austin Ebipade - Yenagoa ISSUES surrounding the abduction saga of Ese Oruru are yet to settle, though she has returned to Bayelsa State, she is still in the care of the state police command, undergoing counselling and rehabilitation, in order to reintegrate her to normal living.

However, Ese’s father, Charles Oruru and her mother, were allowed unfettered access to their daughter at the state police officers’ mess, where she is expected to be cared for until she would be allowed to face the public.

The situation is such that the media in Bayelsa State, who were also supportive in no small measure through robust reportage, were not allowed to interact with her, as was the case in Abuja, where she (Ese) spoke with journalists.

Meanwhile, Ese’s continued stay at the state police officers’ mess has fuelled suspicion that arrangement could be underway to abort her alleged six-month-old pregnancy she returned with from Kano State.

When Nigerian Tribune got to the state police officers’ mess, the area still had heavy security pres-

ence, that could not be unconnected with directive from force headquarters in Abuja.

State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Asinim Butswat, told Nigerian Tribune in Yenagoa, the state capital, that the police command was acting on instruction and that they would make her face the public at an appropriate time.

Butswat reiterated that as stated by the state Commissioner of Police, Peter Ogu-

The commission further said it would ensure that any officer, who was found to have compromised himself, either by omission or commission in the saga, would be flushed out.

It also commended the IGP for his swift action in rescuing the teenager and ensuring that she was immediately reunited with her family, promising to work

nyanwo, that the girl (Ese) was in Yenagoa in police care at the officers’ mess, where she is being counselled by the Commissioner of Police’s wife.

Attempt to get Ese’s parents (Charles and Rose Oruru) also failed, as calls made were dropped.

A source, who do not want his name in print, said Ese’s parents could have put off their mobile phones, in line with polices’ instruction not to speak to journalists.

When Nigerian Tribune visited Ese’s parents’ residence at Opolo, they were not around, but the premises and the shop were besieged by sympathisers, friends and well wishers, who were anxiously waiting to catch a glimpse of the freed Ese. However, civil society and other stakeholders are calling for the prosecution of her abductor, Yinusa, a.k.a Yellow and the need for all accomplices to be brought to justice.

...Her abductor, Yinusa, to face prosecution —IGP Banji Aluko - Benin City Claims that the alleged abductor of Ese Oruru, Yinusa, a.k.a. Yellow, did not commit any crime. has been dismissed by the InspectorGeneral of Police (IGP), Mr Solomon Arase.

Father of the alleged abductor, Alhaji Dairu Bala, had said that his son did not commit any crime by taking Ese to Kano State from Bayelsa State, saying his son “followed his heart.”

The IGP said this on Thursday, at a one-day awareness workshop on “Sexual and gender-based violence in Nigeria,” organised by the Nigeria Police,

...Police Service Commission will sanction culpable officers Chris Agbambu - Abuja

Gambo also noted that “it will be in public interest to address an unfounded argument in some quarters that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Solomon Arase ought to have acted

with the IGP to see that Nigerians, including the like of Ese, were guaranteed their freedom to life.

The commission was constitutionally mandated to exercise disciplinary action against members of the police, among other responsibilities and had the right to dismiss any erring officer found culpable in the ongoing abduction saga.

in collaboration with Ford Foundation in Benin City, the Edo State capital.

Arase, who spoke through the Gender Officer, Force Criminal Intelligence and

Investigation Department, Mrs Mairo Adebalogun, noted that Bala’s claim of innocence was irrelevant, insisting that Yinusa would be prosecuted.

We’re committed to live broadcast of NASS proceedings —Dogara Jacob Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel - Abuja SPEAKER of the House of Representatives, Honourable Yakubu Dogara, on Thursday, solicited the support of the British parliament in establishing radio and television stations in the National Assembly.

Dogara said the establishment of the media outfits in the parliament would enable Nigerians to assess and access activities of their elected representatives, as the stations, when established, would transmit proceedings live from the two chambers.

A statement issued by his spokesman, Turaki Hassan, declared that in line with the legislative agenda of the House and the commitment of the House to encourage citizens’ participation in governance.

Dogara, who spoke when

he received members of the International Development Committee of United Kingdom’s Parliament in his office on Thursday, said the outfits would encourage popular participation in governance and activities of the parliament.

The Speaker further disclosed that the House of Representatives had set up the Nigerian-British Parliamentary Friendship Group, which he said would soon visit Britain, to strenghten relationship between the two parliaments.

The Speaker also told the United Kingdom lawmakers that the House of Representatives had begun the process of amending over 130 laws of the country, to meet the contemporary realities of life, with the support of the Department For International Development (DFID).

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Friday, 4 March, 2016

40% of forex sales go into fuel importation.

Fact.

Because we do not refine petroleum products in Nigeria, we have to import over 80% of our fuel needs.

We are using our oil income to import refined products.

petroleum products? At least 40% of forex sold by the CBN today will not be necessary and the pressure will be far less.

In 2015, fuel imports took at least 40% of the forex sold by the CBN, leaving the remaining to be shared among manufacturers who need to import equipment and raw materials, as well as foreignbased students, travellers, airlines, and those seeking foreign medical treatment.

What a paradox that an oil-producing country is not benefitting from the value chain in the sector, but is instead depleting its reserves to finance fuel imports!

Imagine the situation if Nigeria was not importing

But while we have to keep importing fuel until we have the capacity to refine locally, we must reduce the pressure on our FX reserves by reducing our hunger for imported luxuries.

THINK NIGERIA. ACT NIGERIA. BUY NIGERIA.

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Friday, 4 March, 2016

41st

Kaaabiesi o o o...

Olubadan of Ibadanland

As you ascend the exalted throne of your forebears we wish you a most memorable and peaceful reign.

His Imperial Majesty,

Oba Saliu Olasupo Akanmu Adetunji, Aje Ogungunniso I

Olubadan of Ibadanland

May your years be long, glorious and marked by great achievements not only for Ibadan indigenes but for all citizens and friends of Oyo State.

K'ade o pe lori o.

Senator Abiola Ajimobi Governor, Oyo State

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Friday, 4 March, 2016 Friday, 4 March, 2016 Friday, 4 March, 2016

$20 billion lying fallow in domiciliary accounts —CBN Taiwo Adisa and Ayodele Adesanmi - Abuja

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HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said on Thursday, that over $20 billion is currently lying idle in domiciliary accounts in Nigeria, Deputy Governor of CBN (Financial System Surveillance), Dr Joseph Nnana, who represented the Governor of CBN at an interaction with the Joint Senate

and House Committees on Appropriation, said that the said funds could be responsible for the continuos slide in the value of the naira.

Nnana told the joint committee that some privileged Nigerians were the masterminds of the consistent slide in the value of the naira since according to him, they have been embarking on dollars speculation to the detriment of the Nigerian naira.

According to him, the passage of the 2016 bud-

get would put a stop to the unrestrained drop in naira value, insisting that the CBN would embark on aggressive liquidity mop-up to enable the naira regains its confidence.

He said: “The CBN will not sit down and watch the consistent fall of the naira.

After the passage of the 2016 budget, naira will begin to bounce back.

Those who speculate on dollars will have their fingers burnt.”

Edo communal clash: Community alleges threat of invasion Clement Idoko - Abuja

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HE Uneme-Ehrurhu community in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State has disclosed that some of its people were still missing as a result of the alleged invasion of the community by the OkpellaOgute community of Etsako East Local Government Area of the state.

One of the leaders of the Uneme community, Mr Aigbokhaleode Asimiafele, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune, in Abuja, said contrary to media report that only one person was killed during the clash, many Uneme people were killed with destruction of property in the area.

Asimiafele, a retired deputy director of the Federal Ministry of Culture and National Orientation, further disclosed that there were rumour of plots by the Okpella people to launch another attack on Uneme in the next few weeks, and called on the relevant authorities to secure the area.

He noted that the land in question belonged to the Uneme-Ehrurhu community and wondered why those that Uneme people had helped, had to turn around against them by killing them.

He added that the alleged newspaper report suggesting that the Unemes were tenants on their ancestral land was wrong.

“The Unemes, who are known to be great hunters and talented in metal works and iron making, were the original owners of the land. Even, the Government White Paper set up by the then Bendel State government headed

by Justice S. A. Ajuyah, never reported that the Uneme-Erhuruns are tenants,” he said.

“We have been there before them and they have been terrorising us because

our people will always tell us to leave them that we have been living together.

This is why they took it as legitimate right to intimidate us.”

“When Josiah was coming for the Second World War, they even came with yams and strong men, some of our people wanted them to sign or thumbprint that 20 people will be bringing yams yearly from their harvest for the land we gave them. But our elders said no, let them be bringing it; they don’t need to thumb-print,” he said.

He noted that the recent attack was on Sunday when they knew that we are in the church.

“On Sunday, they came to attack our people supported by the police, who were protecting them under the guise that they were coming for peace only to be burning houses and killing people.

He noted that before the creation of Akoko-Edo, one of the oldest local government areas in the in Nigeria, which was created in 1964, the Federal Government had all the demarcations, wondering why they should leave their place and came back to Uneme land.

He recalled that the recent crisis erupted when somebody wanted to build a house and went to the for-

est in Uneme’s land to cut a tree, only for the Okpella people to bring a truck carrying the woods that the tree was in their land.

He added that argument ensued and that with the connivance of the police they invaded Uneme community.

“If you are a minority, are we saying you cannot live in Nigeria? I’m bitter by this.

Anybody that is publishing anything either in the newspaper or electronic media without being objective would be regarded as malicious and taking sides with the Okpellas to destroy Uneme and we will not tolerate that from anybody.

“Some people are still missing till today. They are telling us that only one person died. Rumour has it that their invasion in the next three weeks would be disastrous,” he said.

He, however, said the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, had intervened and asked the warring groups to send 10 representations each for discussion adding that they agreed on the need to maintain peace.

He disclosed that the Commissioner of Police in the state, had also promised that the matter would be forwarded to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for lasting resolution.

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GOLD RESERVE Through Love all that is bitter will be sweet, Through Love all that is copper will be gold, Through Love all dregs will become wine, Through Love all pain will turn to medicine — Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, 13th Century Persian Poet and Sufi mystic.

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hen Hannah Idowu Dideolu Adelana married Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo on December 26, 1937, she was hoping for marital bliss in the context of perilous economic circumstances into which her new husband was being thrown. For a young lady who has never known want all her life marrying this promising young man was a gamble. At this point, Obafemi was hovering between striving and thriving. He had experienced much turbulence in his short life. Even though he started out with a lot of opportunities under the watch of a father who had invested much hope in his future, the death of his father pushed hither and thither in the course of his life until he became a man.

Despite the fact that the young Obafemi had survived the “abrupt cessation” of his schooling in 1920 – and the resultant “remorseless” dashing of “all the hopes and aspirations which (my) father had systematically and relentlessly instilled in me”, - to graduate from high school in Abeokuta and later Wesley College, Ibadan, thus becoming a journalist, clerk, money-lender, public letter-writer and now a produce buyer (in that order), his business was on the brink of collapse by the time Hannah was moving from the comfort of her home in Ikenne first to his house in Ikenne and subsequently to Ibadan.

However, the meticulous and prudent young man did not plan to bring his beautiful wife into a matrimony beset by financial worries. After abandoning money-lending, the “seamy side” of which he didn’t like, Obafemi concentrated on public letter-writing which was regulated in colonial times by “An ORDINANCE for the Protection of Illiterate Persons in the Colony of Lagos”. This became law on 15th June, 1896. It was otherwise called “The Illiterates” Protection Ordinance” and it applied to the Colony and Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.

But realizing that he could not make enough money from this to travel to England to study law, he got into motor transport business and produce buying.

The motor transport business soon “came to grief” and Obafemi concentrated on produce buying, involving commodities such as cocoa, palm kernel and cotton, which though hazardous, was bringing good profit. He formed the Progressive Economic Corporation (PEC) in which friends and some others invested. In the 1935-1936 season, the profit was good enough for his business associates to either get the profits due them or for such profit to be ploughed back into the business for further gains. Things were even better the next business season. In the 1936-1937 season, as Obafemi planned to wed Hannah, Nigeria witnessed the best cocoa boom such that it was, as Obafemi Awolowo later revealed, “all too easy to make money”. In fact, he made enough profit in this season to pay off the capital investment of his business associates in addition to profit. Now he must have considered the fiscal comfort which Hannah would enjoy after they were married.

Obafemi had enough in this season to proceed to England for his life-long ambition to study law. However, since he was already engaged to this charming lady, Hannah, whom he described as “a beautiful damsel”, and was set to marry her in December of 1937, he had to wait to conclude the ceremonies so he could take his wife along to the United Kingdom. His decision to delay his journey was made even more sensible by the forecast for the 1937-1938 cocoa season shared by most people in the business. After making lots of profits in the following year, he projected, he would sail to London with his wife to begin a new life.

Obafemi and all others engaged in the business of produce buying were terribly wrong about the forecast for the following year. Cocoa business experienced a slump and not only did he lose everything, he also became terribly indebted.

Therefore, as he exchanged vows with Hannah on Boxing Day of 1937, all he held on to was hope for a better future and a firm belief in the goodness of God…..

“MY MOTHER SAID THIS MAN is too obstinate. He was inflexible. She didn’t want me to marry a man like that”, Hannah recalls her mother’s warning against marrying Obafemi almost eighty years later.

“Even people, and others in Ikenne, were saying he was too tough, too stubborn. Will you be able to cope with this stubborn man if you marry him?” she remembers people asking her.

With

Ebenezer Babatope

0805-500-1735 (SMS ONLY PLEASE)

Wale Adebanwi on Mama HID (3)

•Mama HID Awolowo

As an only child, her mother was over-protective when it came to the choice of a spouse. She was happy that she wanted to marry an Ikenne young man so that she would not be taken too far away from her. But she wanted an easy-going and unassuming man. Not this Obafemi who was so “obstinate,” “assertive” and “troublesome”.

Even though Hannah had not met Obafemi, nor knew of him when she received his first “love letter” – as a propositional letter from a man to a woman was called in those days – his reputation preceded him. Most of those who knew him in Ikenne only knew him in his younger days. He never suffered fools gladly and was eager to pick a fight with anyone who threw down the gauntlet. As a boy, he loved wrestling.

Though his father discouraged him from getting into quarrels given his wrestling skills, but once in it with any member of his age group, his father warned against any retreat until he worsted his adversary or he himself was completely worsted.

Therefore, When he was once challenged by a boy who had lived briefly in Lagos which was reputed for producing better wrestlers than Ikenne, his attempt at flight ended when he sighted his father. He couldn’t dare to return home to his father after fleeing from the site of a challenge. He took up the challenge and floored the boy thrice. He was proclaimed a champion. His father was proud of him.

Subsequently, Obafemi confesses that he “became very tough, fearless and defiant as a boy, and acquired an Ikennewide reputation as such”. Even though his father died when he was nine, he had achieved some notoriety in Ikenne. He was also skilled in using the local catapult to launch stones at his adversaries while hiding on trees. He later left for Abeokuta to live with his grandmother, and for about one and half decades, Awolowo, whose life alternated between Abeokuta, Ibadan and Lagos, only visited Ikenne a few times. Therefore, he was known to only most people by the reputation of his father and his life as a kid in the town before he left for Abeokuta. But as he started making a little money in Ibadan, he was becoming vocal in local matters in Ikenne and took on the most prominent people in the small town. He even engaged in a public dispute with Reverend William Frederick Mellor, the English Methodist cleric who arrived in Remo in 1922 as Superintendent of the Remo circuit of the Method-

ist Church. The man had such a commitment to Remo politics – especially regarding Remo’s struggle for independence from Ijebu-Ode – that he became a close friend of Akarigbo Christopher William Adedoyin. Mellor, who was later able to speak Yoruba, was made a honourary chief of Ofin in 1937.

Notwithstanding the man’s enormous influence and respect in Remoland, Obafemi Awolowo challenged him publicly.

Therefore, most mothers would dread giving their daughters, particularly an only daughter, out in marriage to such a man.

Also, in his twenties, in the process of becoming his own man, Obafemi acquired a certain sense of self-assuredness that bordered on conceit for many people who could not fathom the basis of his self-belief. In the two years preceding his letters to Hannah seeking for a relationship, he decided that he had to take himself “seriously”. What came across to many as conceit and obstinacy in Obafemi in his youthful days, therefore, were manifestations of what he described as a resolve to exercise “Spartan control and discipline over myself (and to go about) my business independent and unafraid”.

This independent-mindedness and fearlessness morphed into a psychological and political tenacity and intense deliberateness almost unequalled in the private and public lives of any other political leader in Nigeria’s history.

Hannah was soon to experience this tenacity and deliberateness after Obafemi started taking himself “extremely seriously” from 1932….

When Hannah returned to Ikenne from Lagos in 1933, the cute 13 year-old that left the small town five years earlier, had become an attractive 18-year old young woman. She was turning heads in the small Remo town. Her beauty was complemented by her charm, modishness and cosmopolitan skills. Young men in Ikenne were in awe and not a few of the mothers of young men were eager to “snatch” this young woman for their bachelor-sons.

The following year, in 1934, she started teaching at her old school, St. Saviour’s Anglican School, which had been reopened. The people of Ikenne and the church community in their fervent embrace oloju (modernity/development) which was spreading fast across Western Nigeria had mobilized resources to improve the quality of the school. Their efforts were successful as the school – which had been shut in 1928, thus forcing Hannah to move to Lagos – was reopened.

In September of the same year that Hannah started what turned out to be a short teaching career, Obafemi took up appointment as a reporter-in-training at the Nigerian Daily Times, having resigned his job as a College Clerk at Wesley College, Ibadan after two years. Even though he found journalism to be an “unprofitable, frustrating and soul-depressing career”, one which was reserved for those he described as “the flotsam and jetsam of the flowing community of Nigerian intelligentsia”, Obafemi made himself “a reporter with a difference in a society which was riddled with vanity, snobbery, pseudo-Victorian aristocracy, and “England ladies”, while maintaining “at the very least a façade of supreme confidence”. He spent three months in Lagos as a trainee without pay before he was posted to Ibadan as a resident correspondent. He left Times after five months in Ibadan.

While Obafemi was between Lagos and Ibadan, Hannah, who had never met the former, combined her teaching career with trading. With her strong background in trading alongside her mother, her knowledge of sewing (which she inherited from her father, who was self-described as an “Englishtrained” tailor) and her experiment in importing and selling goods from Europe as a student in Lagos, she decided to become a milliner. She ordered hats from Europe.

Selling imported hats in Ikenne and the contiguous Remo towns became such a successful business for Hannah that three years after she started teaching, she resigned to concentrate on the business. Thus, from her grandmother through her mother to her, three generations of enterprising women were thriving in Ikenne at the same time….

TO BE CONTINUED: EBINO TOPSY – 0805-500-1735 (SMS ONLY PLEASE)

18 LETTERS TO THE

Friday, 4 March, 2016

editor

Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@tribune.com.ng or by sms to 08053412982.

It MUST be accompanied by the full name and address of the writer.

Why Buhari shouldn’t jettison YouWin project

I

want President Muhammadu Buhari to continue the YouWin project of the last administration. The project was matching entrepreneurs with the needed finance to set up their businesses.

In actual fact, many young Nigerians benefited from the project, and they are now employers of labour.

If the truth must be told, this project really helped in reducing unemployment, and it is, therefore,

necessary that it is not abandoned by the present government.

If the president is not satisfied with it being called YouWin again, he can order the Ministry of Finance to come up with something similar to it.

It is only small scale businesses that can provide the opportunities for millions of Nigerians to be employed. The government cannot absorb all unemployed youths into the civil service; it is because of this that a conducive atmo-

N5,000 will make youths lazy I want to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for rejecting the idea of paying N5,000 to unemployed youths in the country.

If this policy is embarked upon, it will simply make our youths lazy. A youth is at the peak of life, bursting with energy. He shoult, therefore, be able to create something out of nothing. There are many youths who have become business owners, despite not having family or governmental support.

Even with the chronic unemployment situation, it is important for Nigerian youths to be creative.

Relying on the Federal Government for N5,000

monthly will only breed youths who lack initiative.

Let us even ask ourselves again; what can we really do with N5,000 in today’s Nigeria?

If implemented, this policy will just create another avenue for criminallyminded public servants to steal from government.

Instead of the N5,000 policy, the Federal Government should make it easier for youths with business ideas to get start-up loans from banks. This willl help create a new generation of business people, thereby solving the nation’s unemployment situation.

•Idayat Kassim, Ilorin, Kwara State.

Still on the Chibok girls IT is almost two years that the Chibok girls were kidnapped, and nothing has been heard from them.

The immediate past administration did everything in its power to ensure that the girls were rescued, but its efforts were not enough.

The current administration, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, has also been trying its best.

The essence of this letter is, however, to charge the military authorities to do more so that the girls can be reunited with their families.

Two years is a long time for a victim to be with a kidnapper; a lot would

have happened to the girls.

Some would have given births, while others would have contracted different sexual diseases.

The most important thing, however, is for them to be reunited with their families.

With the promises of the President, we hope that they will be rescued soon, and when this is done, the Federal Government should take over their medical treatment; they should be provided with world-call psychologists to assist them in relieving the terrible experiences they went through.

•Jane Ekpo, Eket, Akwa Ibom State.

sphere must be created for businesses to thrive.

One of the biggest impediments to starting one’s business is the lack of capital, and this was what the YouWin project tackled when it was launched by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

I know this administra-

tion is trying its best to come up with policies that will reduce unemployment in the country, but one of the easiest ways of doing this is to support the ideas of business-minded youths.

I would, therefore, plead that even if government wants to start another

project, it should ensure that those who have payments pending in the last project should be paid.

Some have had their first batches paid, and were waiting for the other batches before Dr Jonathan lost the election. We should not see all the projects executed by the last admin-

The increase in the price of bread RECENTLY, bakers in different parts of Oyo State, particularly Ibadan, directed their members to embark on an industrial strike; the bakers were protesting the increase in prices of flour, sugar and other ingredients in the production of bread.

After the strike, the bakers had no option than to increase the prices of bread, a staple food of the common man. With this decision, we now have about 30 to 40 per cent

increment in the prices of bread.

Today, the biggest loaf of bread, which was formerly N200, now costs N250, while there is no more N50 bread.

As it is now, the tough economic situation in the country is taking away bread from the poor in the society.

It is, however, not only the price of bread that has gone up in recent time; everything is now so expensive in the country.

While not blaming the bakers for the increase, I think the Federal Government should do everything in its power to make life more comfortable for the people.

However, having said this, it is also important that the bakers, on their part, revert to the old prices in the interest of the public.

•Ola-Olaniyi Bamgbola, 53, Agbeni Quarters, Ibadan.

istration as bad because the former president really gave his best for the country. This particular YouWin project was one of the success stories of Dr Jonathan, and I hope that President Buhari will order the Minister of Finance to continue with it.

This government should look beyond the political fireworks that will be set-off once this happens, because I know the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will say the All Progressives Congress (APC) is using its policy to solve unemployment, but government should just look at those who will benefit from the project.

A project that will better the lives of people should not be jettisoned because of political differences.

•Vincent Odeh, Independence Layout, Enugu.

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editorial

I

Friday, 4 March, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

This criminal justice system

N virtually all the recent judgments pronounced on convicts of armed robbery in the country, the judges have handed down the ultimate penalty as stipulated by the law. This leaves the convicts only a faint hope regarding the prerogative of mercy which, according to the law, is at the discretion of the affected state governor. In a particular case, the allocution of the defence counsel that the convicts were penitent first offenders was waved aside by the judge who insisted that the punishment prescribed by the relevant sections of the Robbery and Firearms Act was death either by hanging or firing squad.

It is absolutely indefensible to attempt to offer any reprieve to convicts of armed robbery whose cases have been proved beyond reasonable doubt when their victims have been killed, maimed and traumatised. Not even the value of the stolen items, no matter how negligible, can douse the resentment, anger and outrage usually elicited by the violent robbery directed at honest and hardworking citizens. But why does a society that is harsh and intolerant of criminals and robbers who steal little items like phones, cash and jewellery pamper its bigger robbers who may not be directly violent against individuals but who nonetheless violently assail the very foundation of the society by truncating its values and priorities? What kind of criminal justice system discriminates in the severity of its punishment along the lines of social class?

A society that punishes crime on the basis of social status yet lays claim to being fair, just and egalitarian must be held suspect. The truth is that the criminal justice system in Nigeria gives ample room for all sorts of manoeuvres which, while not being strictly illegal, are definitely amoral. The dilemma therefore has always been how to shorten the distance between the country’s laws and the society’s values.

Against the backdrop of the recent allegations of grand larceny in the public space by many office holders, it is humanly impossible to remain inured to the implications of sentencing armed robbery convicts to death while the looters of the public till whose

pillaging had virtually truncated the realization of society’s goals negotiate their terms of release through plea bargains. There is even talk now about soft landing for treasury looters! For many, hypocrisy may never come in a more bigger dosage.

How indeed can a criminal who stole from an individual earn the death penalty while his compatriot who stole from the nation simply takes a bow at the end of the day? The abominable walk to freedom usually begins from the point of drafting charges. If the prosecution is compromised, it can easily exploit legal loopholes and draft charges with light penalties for the felon. As is well known, a judge can only pronounce on the case brought before the court, and cannot grant prayers which were not sought by the prosecution.

In some other instances, the bigger looters have the funds to secure sophisticated legal expertise, working on the technicalities of the case to see where convenient escape routes can be created and they might be let off with no more than a slap on the wrist. The impression unwittingly given is that while the country abhors the small time thieves to the point of executing them without qualms, it romances its bigger robbers who have sabotaged its collective essence. Indeed, the very fact that these bigger robbers are invariably the trend setters and heroes of the Nigerian society also means that they have a considerable following, which has damaging effects on the image and moral firmament of the country. The country is portrayed as one with an abominable stench that rises to the skies, and is consequently forced to live with international opprobrium.

Nigeria indubitably needs a reform in its criminal justice system so that equality before the law will both be entrenched and guaranteed. The system as it is right now compares favourably with the jungle where might is right. The situation is compounded by the prevalent view that the country’s judiciary is itself implicated in graft. There cannot be any meaningful change in the society if its criminal justice system remains warped, skewed and tilted in favour of the high and mighty.

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opinion

Friday, 4 March, 2016

Economic hardship: Putting NASENI to good use

By James Enejoh

A

LL right thinking and patriotic Nigerians that have weighed in on the current economic realities have consensus on one issue: that this is the best opportunity we have of breaking free of the vicious circle of a consumption heavy and import dominated economy. The truth however is that while we can easily break away from the ridiculous importation of agro-based product, finished and innovative products pose their own challenge. We must first develop the capacity to produce them.

This, fortunately, is the point where the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) comes into play. The Executive Vice Chairman of NASENI, Professor Mohammed Haruna, has done a good job at the agency and there is no better time than now to harness his wealth of experience for getting the nation out of the woods.

It is on record that Professor Haruna has been recognised severally for the impact he has made at NASENI. For instance, this is a man who has received the Fellowship Award of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) at its just concluded National Delegates Conference in Abuja in recognition of the his superintending over unprecedented technology products development feats and general transformation of NASENI since his assumption of office in 2012.

The national body of NASU summed it up nicely when it said it recognised the giant strides recorded by NASENI under the leadership of Professor Haruna towards actualising the dream of the Federal Government in the attainment of technology advancement of the country.

Such is the level of confidence he has in the quality of products churned out by NASENI that the Executive Vice Chairman had in the past repeatedly urged the Federal Government and its other agencies to adopt and patronise them. Only a man that has given his best can summon

that level of confidence. As far back as the third quarter of last year, he had predicted that the agency alone has the capacity to help the nation become strong economically.

A cursory review of what Professor Haruna has done in NASENI reveals lessons that are immediately applicable on a national scale and can be adopted by other government agencies. He has this remarkable strategy of planning and we are talking the kind of planning that integrates the private sector from scratch. This has in its own way been useful to boosting adoption rate of the products from the organisation since those in a a position to scale them up for commercialisation are carried along from inception.

The agency alone has the capacity to help the nation become strong economically.

The agency has been amply opened up to strike partnership deals with the private sector, which will explain why The other good thing he has done at NASENI was to give free hand to staff of NASENI to explore their creativity contrary to the norm where those connected to government establishment are stifled. The creative juices this flow freely yielding innovative products that are going places.

The Presidency should, therefore, give a marching order to Professor Haruna to provide a compendium of the products developed at NASENI. These should then be reviewed within the shortest possible time by a team drawn from the public and private sectors with a view to identifying the ones that can be scaled up to address Nigeria’s industrialisation needs. Another facet to the task that the Presidency must set for the NASENI Executive Vice President is that his agency must speed up its activity because of the desperate situation the country has found itself with the plunging crude oil prices.

For other agencies, it will be worth the while of their leadership to take cues from the NASENI Chief executive with a view to replicating things that have worked for him in their own organisations. Where possible, they should create avenues for him to come around and inspire the staff of their organisations.

Nigerians believe that President Muhammadu Buhari must assemble persons in the mould of Professor Haruna and add them to his change agenda to re-write the story of our nation as oil revenue dependent nation.

On his part, it is important to urge that Professor Haruna does not relent on the exceptional standard he brought on board when he resumed at the agencies. Several organisations might have honored and recognised him with awards but the greatest honour would be making it possible for NASENI to help Nigeria overcome the current challenges.

He should for the sake of us all put the agency to good use for the good of the country.

•Enejoh sent in this article from Ajaokuta.

The tragic story of a bread vendor

By Abiodun Awolaja

ONE feature that has characterised doomed societies across the ages is the conscription of logic into the advancement of decadent causes. Lucid examples are supplied by the Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian and Roman empires (consider the cage fights), but a look at the United States of America as presently constituted will bring the message closer home. From LGBT regimes of human rights perversions anchored by the fascist American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to the ravages of Big Government implanted callously into the American national fabric, it has been tales of woe. It is not just the legitimisation of bestiality, as reflected in the approval granted US soldiers to mate with horses or the bastardisation of marriage (as reflected for instance in the raging throuple systems whereby three perverts of any sexual configuration enter into a love/marital relationship) that signposts the certainty of US doom as foreseen in George Washington’s vision; it is the anti-God rage given unprecedented resonance by the US leadership, leading to the glorification of terrorists and subjugation of people inclined to religious and moral conscience, that is in fact at the centre of America’s tragedy. I prefer to die rather than live in a society where pornography is art but prayer is treason. If the US does not experience the worst conflict in its history under a Hillary Clinton presidency, then surely I am the greatest fool alive.

In Nigeria, commonsense is increasingly an anathema. In the past few weeks, the typically unreflective and pathetically unquestioning section of the media has lapped up the story of a bread vendor, one Olajumoke Orisagunna, as one powerful instantiation of grass to grace, an inspiring poem. The 27-year-old vendor, who used to live in a bakery, had been discovered by a photographer, one TY Bello, and now she owns a home in Lekki, Lagos, endorsed by a string of companies and basking in the euphoria of modelling contracts. If, in her late 70s, my mother still wakes up at 5a.m dealing heavy blows to indolence through her business, a 27-year-old earning a

living by gallivanting about in panties and bras is for me a tragic figure. How sad that a woman who was on the right path, the path of hard work, has now been transported into the path of make believe where women carry on as if they don’t use the lavatory. She will now (be forced to) parade her body before men undressing her mentally, waiting in the wings of an airbus, the back of a hall, and in the glare of jealous secretaries. “You know, what I find fascinating is your eye shadow. I was wondering if you would graciously consider handling a job for us in New York. It’s just three days and well—I’m sorry we can only afford $400,000.” That’s how the descent starts.

How sad that a hand on the plough is now a hand on powder. How sad that those who commercialize women are labelled the liberators of humanity! Is a model really an empowered woman? Which of the great women that history remembers---Efunroye Tinubu, Queen Amina, etc---was a model? Have men ever made a model of a woman whose nakedness they are not anxious to explore?

What real value does a model add to human existence? A model is a glorified prostitute created to appeal to lust, flying from one location to the other to espouse doubtful causes, and pathetically insulated from real world concerns. The point has already been made by a philosopher that beauty and wisdom hardly go together, and King Solomon had a hard time finding a wise woman among

a thousand. Certainly, no truly great woman achieves fame and reckoning by trading in her flesh. I salute the bread vendors of Ibadan, the pregnant women hawking soft drinks, the great women on Warri farms, the tested women in newsrooms working themselves to the bone, the true women working hard in textile climes, and the amazing women building the nation through bukaterias (O the glories of Mama Put, with luscious ponmo buried within folds of egusi, antagonised by classy fufu!).

Models are public mail boxes, and moneyed morons enriched through stolen funds deployed by “charity” organisations and NGOs. Can a real man actually allow his wife to be a model, giving other men the opportunity to browse his own web? I smell crass opportunism, money soon to be deployed in pursuit of other women. Models cannot run an economy; they will deploy public funds to lipstick, and a male model is certainly one of the most pathetic figures in all of creation. Any man who spends his youth looking in the mirror will never make a good husband.

A woman married to a male model is married to a baby, and she will need a lot of nappies. It is actually an advanced form of something the Yoruba call oriburuku.

I certainly have no regard for those lazy bones on Big Brother Africa, clothed like a masquerade, spotting lunatic hairstyles and behaving like zombies.

How to truly empower a bread vendor? Let her have her own bakery. If she has academic potential, get her back in school. If she has her mind on other lines of business, provide her with requisite capital. This is a warning to men: the day your wife becomes a model, know assuredly that you have given your food to a dog.

A model considers her job—entertaining the world--before anything else. She may be humble in the beginning but arrogance is only a matter of time. Call me what you like; it makes no difference. Only a fool is wiser than Wisdom.

•Awolaja is on the staff of Nigerian Tribune

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eyesof islam

Saheed Salawu yinkadejavu@yahoo.com 0811 695 4643

Islam’s ways of

dealing with epidemics

E

PIDEMICS are widespread outbreak of an infectious disease. It is a common reality today that we hear news of Lassa fever, Zika virus, Ebola, AIDS, cancer, cholera and so on and there is the need to give the Islamic view in relating with the situation.

Wisdom behind occurrence of calamities Praise be to Allah, the All-knowing, the Wise. Wisdom, which is of His attributes, is to place things in their deserving positions. Everything He created has a wisdom behind it, which is known to Him the Almighty.

“Then did you think that We created you uselessly and that to Us you would not be returned?” (23: 115) Allah’s wisdom is constantly manifested in all His character and judgement. This, however, stands as a test for the believer in this world, which could be in the form of fear, illness, calamity or loss of life, wealth, or children.

To suffer any trial for a believer could be a warning against commitment to the world, or to bring them back to the path of repentance through trials to turn to Allah.

Through that, He shows them their weakness in order to gain their trust. He shows them their faults and inability that they may rely on Him, as well as supplicate to Him in devotion and beseech Him in times of their misfortune, or difficult times.

Concerning the unbeliever, what he experiences is an invitation for him to return to his Lord as a believer. How many people who were unbelievers but Allah afflicted them with trials and they returned to Him, found a sense of faith, and the taste of peace in Islam: And We have already sent [messengers] to nations before you, [O Muhammad), then We seized them with poverty and hardship that perhaps they might humble themselves [to Us]. (Q6: 42) Allah alerts people through trials as a form of penalty, perhaps they might be conscious and repent unto Him: “And whatever strikes you of disaster, it is for what your hands have earned; but He pardons much.”

(40: 30) The consequences of the actions of men continuously produce pain, diseases, plagues, drought, deprivation of blessings, destruction of farm produce and conspicuous deprivation in all terms. If you could not grasp the reality expressed here, kindly lend your ear to the version encapsulated in the Qur’an thus: “Corruption has appeared throughout the land and sea by [reason of] what the hands of people have earned so He may let them taste part of [the consequence of] what they have done that perhaps they will return [to righteousness].” (30: 41) Let us try to position the message in this verse alongside the reality in the world and you will discover that every trial, ev-

ery tribulation that occurs befits the level of corruption perpetrated. Hence, Allah afflicts them with torment in their food, fruits, water, in physical structure and system, in the quantum that match up with their evil committed.

When sins become colossal and disbelief engulfs the earth, while transgression becomes the order of the day, except the few granted guidance to faith and obedience in Allah, in such situation, you find that the more people sink in sins and corruption, the more calamities and trials manifest among them in an unprecedented manner.

The occurrence of large numbers of deadly hurricanes, drowning floods, devastating earthquakes, scorching volcanoes, deadly diseases, extensive epidemic and raging wars portend the effects which are manifested in both humans and the earth; in the form of crops and fruits unproductiveness, inflation and other kinds of calamities and misfortunes.

Contravention of the laws of Allah makes man vulnerable in the face of affliction and only the believers with knowledge are able to comprehend the various signs and warnings.

State of believers at periods of calamities The negligent, the rebellious and the disbeliever will not consider the spiritual angle to a situation. They will rather view it with the normal disposition. They will not see it as the reward of their actions as Allah says.

They will not accept any responsibility for any sins because they believe they have done nothing sinful or deficient, why then should they be punished? Epidemics are part of events of time. In this manner of rhetoric, the mind is made insensitive and deceived to feel nothing should change.

But the believer is guided to return to Allah, resort to the Qur’an and whenever epidemics break out, he remembers the admonition.

Warning from Allah, the Lord of the universe In times of calamities, regardless of their severity, manifests the kindness of Allah.

People create problems themselves out of greed for wealth. Some companies release some viruses developed in their laboratories and commit huge amounts into the project in order to sap people’s pockets, so that they rush to purchase the vaccines and medicines. This is a trick common to folks who only believe in money even when that means destruction to humanity. Irrespective of the angle of perception, the basic fact is that it is a decree from God. Allah says: “And We will surely test you with something of fear and hunger and a loss of wealth and lives and fruits, but give good tidings to the patient, Who,

when disaster strikes them, say, ‘Indeed we belong to Allah, and indeed to Him we will return.’” (2: 155-156) People should realise that what afflicts them can be classified into two types: The first is what affects people of faith as a test from Allah to increase their good deeds and raise their grades.

The second is that which affects the unbelievers, people of immorality and disobedience. It is the penalty for their ills perhaps they might turn to Allah.

Muslim’s attitude in time of epidemic Panic is part of punishment. What then should be the attitude of a Muslim when he is afflicted with epidemic? Is it correct to give in to delusions which could result in multiplied scare and fright? Or fall into confusion as a result of this scenario? Contrastingly, a believer realises that what afflicts him could not have escaped him and what escapes him could not have touched him. A believer should also relate with this condition with repentance and supplication to God, as well as desist from blazing fear to those around him. It is forbidden for a Muslim to terrify others: “And when there comes to them information about [public] security or fear, they spread it around.” (Q4: 83.)

Also, a Muslim should relate with the situation according to what is prescribed

Contravention of the laws of Allah makes man vulnerable in the face of affliction and only the believers with knowledge are able to comprehend the various signs and warnings.

in the Qur’an and the Sunnah as employing the means or methods or procedures.

One should use relevant means and medium, because that in itself is the nucleus of trust in Allah. One should be watchful, observant and get rid of impurities.

Foods should be well-cooked to guard against any harmful content. Therefore, if a person is aware through the health sciences of any prevention, then he should embrace it. We should also strike a balance between creating awareness and not creating fear in people, a balance between taking precautions without damaging the property of people, balance between the elimination of the focus, as well as creating damage. Goodness must be demonstrated in what is slaughtered among the animals.

The Prophet, peace be upon him, said: “If you kill, kill well, and if you slaughter, do it well” [Narrated by Muslim, 1955] Islamic position on spreading contagious disease What is the Islamic position on transmitting a contagion? This issue of epidemic brings issues of belief to bear for the Muslim. What is the connection between the hadith, which says: “(There is) no ‘Adwa (no contagious disease is conveyed without Allah’s permission), nor is there any bad omen (from birds)” [Bukhari 5753 and Muslim 2220] and that which says: “Do not place a sick person with a healthy person as a precaution.” (Bukhari: 5771/ Muslim: 2221)?

What is the link between the hadith which says as well: “(There is) no ‘Adwa (no contagious disease is conveyed without Allah’s permission), nor is there any bad omen (from birds)” and that which says: “If you hear that it (plague) has broken out in a land, do not go to it; but if it breaks out in a land where you are present, do not go out escaping from it.” (Bukhari: 5728/ Muslim: 2219)?

What is meant by the negation of infection in the hadith above is not a total negation of contagion but a negation of one of the beliefs of the days of ignorance which holds that illness spreads by its own choosing, without the decree of Allah.

Culled from www.tmcng.net (To be continued next week)

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islamicnews

Amosun, others offer panacea for insurgency, moral decadence

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balanced education, combining conventional education and religious instruction, has been identified as the antidote to the problems of insurgency and moral decadence in the society.

This was the consensus of participants at a programme organised by the Muslim for Education Development and Literacy Advocacy Foundation (MEDLAF), held in Lagos.

The Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, delivering the keynote address entitled “Balanced Education: A Platform for Societal Peace,” identified

balanced education as one which incorporates formal learning and religious and moral instruction.

“In societies where education has been prioritised and moral value has been de-emphasised, devilishness and impunity take the stage, which sows the seeds of chaos and restlessness,” Amosun said while urging Muslims to add Islamic morals to their formal education.

He mentioned names of prominent Muslims who have contributed to the development of learning.

He lamented moral decadence in the society today arising from people not

adding moral to their education, saying it was ironic that crime and immoral behaviour were increasing at a time when most people had acquired formal education.

A former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqayyah Ahmed Rufai, delivering a lecture at the programme, called for a review of the curriculum to accommodate the needs of the society.

She said balanced education should go beyond reading, writing and Mathematics and include attention to the physical, psychological, health and spiritual development of the individual.

She, therefore, challenged

women’s groups to take the lead in ensuring balanced education.

The MEDLAF president, Mr Yunus Adogba, attributed the choice of the topic to the need to fight insurgency and societal ills with the instruments of education.

He also disclosed that the foundation has within the short period of its formation, in 2014, organised workshops for teachers and students, organised awards for students, collaborated with major stakeholders as well as conducted studies on challenges confronting Muslim youth education.

Friday, 4 March, 2016

500,000 copies of book correcting misconceptions of Islam to be distributed at varsities HALF a million copies of a book meant to “correct” notions attributed to Islam will be distributed to university students, Youm7, an Egyptian privately owned daily newspaper, reported Egypt’s Endowment Minister, Dr Mohamed Mokhtar Gomaa, as announcing on Wednesday.

In an open meeting with Cairo University students on Wednesday, Gomaa said his ministry will print the book and the Higher Education Ministry will distribute it.

The Endowment Ministry, Al-Azhar and Dar al-Iftaa, the three entities that have authority over the practice of Islam in Egypt, have embarked on projects to “correct” the image of Islam, refute extremist ideology and curb recruitment of youth by militant groups.

In January 2015, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi called on religious bodies in Egypt to launch a “religious revolution.”

Egyptian universities, especially Al-Azhar and Cairo universities, witnessed wide-scale pro-Muslim Brotherhood protests and sabotage during the academic years of 2013\2014 and 2014\2015 after the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi.

Islamophobic crimes on the rise in Europe, experts say

Members of the Zumuratul Islamiyya Society of Nigeria (ZISN) during their visit to the new Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Saliu Adetunji (centre), at his Popoyemoja, Ibadan residence.

Muslim group advises Olubadan AHEAD of today’s coronation of the new Olubadan of Ibadanland, the Zumuratul Islamiyya Society of Nigeria (ZISN) has advised the Olubadan-designate, Chief Saliu Adetunji, to continue to be upright and fair to all.

The advice was given when a delegation, led by the ZISN’s National President, Alhaji Tajudeen Olusi, paid homage to Chief

Adetunji at his Popoyemoja residence in Ibadan.

Olusi urged Chief Adetunji to fear Allah in all his undertakings and remember that he will be accountable to Almighty King at the end of his reign on earth as Oba. He said the group was pleased with the selection of the Ibadan high chief as the next Olubadan, saying Allah is always pleased with those who patiently

persevered.

“It was your patience, prayers, hard work and dedication to the service of mankind that have earned you this singular honour of being the Olubadan-designate.’’

He said the Islamic organisation paid the precoronation visit to Chief Adetunji as a prominent member who has contributed so much to the development of the association.

Wait on Allah to meet all needs, Imam urges Muslims

By Tunde Adegbola THE Chief Imam of Oluyole Extension, Ibadan, Oyo State, Alhaji Mudasiru Bada, has advised Muslims to wait on Almighty Allah and not look for diabolical means to acquire wealth or meet other needs, as only Allah gives to whoever He wishes.

Alhaji Bada gave the advice at the installation of Alhaji Kamorudeen Adekola, the head of personnel at a privately owned company in Ibadan, as the new Aare Musulumi of Felele-Olorunsogo-Molete

and environs by the League of Imams, Felele Muslim community and its environs, in Ibadan South-East Local Government Area of Oyo State.

At the ceremony, held at an events centre in the area, the chief imam urged the honouree to use his new position to touch lives in his community and not disappoint those who deemed him worthy of the position.

In his remarks, Alhaji Adekola thanked Allah for counting him worthy to be the first Aare Musulumi of his community and prayed Him to give him the

wisdom required to propagate Islam.

According to him, “promotion of peace, unity and harmony among our Muslim brothers in my community and Oyo State at large will be my priority. I will facilitate some programmes for our youths in the community.”

At the event, Alhaji Abdul Ganiyy Fowosere, Alhaja Salamotu Aleshinloye and Alhaja Fatimota Olaniyan were also installed as the Baba Isale Musulumi, Iya Suna Musulumi and Iya Adinni of Felele-Olorunsogo-Molete and environs, respectively.

Olusi added that Chief Adetunji’s “commitment to the deen of Allah, Islam, coupled with his loyalty and support for ZISN informed our visitation to his residence to congratulate and felicitate with his family.”

He recalled that the high chief donated a land in Ibadan in 2015 for the use of the association.

A prayer session was held in honour of Oba Adetunji, which was led

by Alhaji Bashiru Lawal, a member of the missionary board, for successful and peaceful reign on the throne.

Oba Adetunji is the Bashorun Adinni of Zumratul Islamiyyah Society of Nigeria, Lagos Island branch, while his wife is the Sanmori Adinni of the same branch.

Adetunji will be crowned by the Olubadan-inCouncil today as the 41st Olubadan of Ibadan with the presentation of staff of office by Governor Abiola Ajimobi.

He succeeds Oba Samuel Odulana, who died on January 19 at age of 101, having reigned for nine years.

THE Muslim population in Europe has not only been enduring an increase in Islamophobic hate crimes since the November terrorist attacks in Paris, France, it also suffers from legal loopholes that allow those who carry out Islamophobic attacks to go unpunished, experts told a state-run news agency in Turkey, Anadolu Agency (AA).

Discrimination against Muslims in Europe has increased since the attacks of November 13, 2015 in Paris that killed 130 people and injured hundreds more, Bekir Guneş, head of the Belgium-based think tank, Thinkout, told AA on February 19.

He said security policies in Europe were making a direct impact on the rights of Muslims.

“Our rights should not be restricted on the pretext of terrorist incidents, he said, adding that there were certain legal loopholes in Europe that did not punish people who commit Islamophobic crimes.

“In most places, you cannot open a case in person,” he said, adding that certain new legal arrangements for such crimes should be made.

Deputy Chief of the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination Unit under the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Azra Junuzovic, said that intolerance of and discrimination against Muslims were a serious problem in Europe.

Junuzovic said discrimination against Muslims is on the rise, according to recent research.

More than 40 million Muslims live in Europe, according to the United States-based Pew Research Centre.

Community holds lecture on Sunday THE Bodija Estates and Environs Muslim Community (BEEMC) will on Sunday hold its bi-monthly lecture, entitled: “This is Islam, Where are the Muslims,” which will be delivered by an Abuja-based scholar and publisher, Abdur-Rauf bin Sa’eed (Abumazeeda Khayr).

The lecture, which will be hosted by an Assistant Editor-in-Chief with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Alhaji Abdur-Rahman Balogun, to mark his birthday, is slated for 11.00 a.m. at the community’s Islamic Centre, Housing, Bodija, Ibadan.

The lecture, according to the chairman of the BEEMC Lecture Committee, Alhaji Mursiq Siyanbade, is to sensitise Muslims to their responsibilities as dictated

by Islam.

Expected to grace the lecture are members of the Board of Trustees and Board of Religious Affairs of the community, community leaders, Muslim youths and other Islamic groups based in Ibadan.

The lecture will be the second in the series in 2016.

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Friday, 4 March, 2016

Arms deal: Bello Haliru’s son played no part in diversion of N300m —Witness Sunday Ejike - Abuja

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ROSECUTION witness, on Thursday, told the Federal High Court in Abuja, that the son of former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Haliru Bello, played no part in the transfer of N300 million into his company, Bam Project and Subsidiaries’ account between October and November, 2014.

Abbah Bello and his father are standing trial before Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed for allegedly diverting the sum of N300 million meant for the purchase of arms, during the reign of President Goodluck Jonathan.

Chief priest assassinated in Benin Banji Aluko - Benin City THE Chief Priest (Ohen-Ogba) of Aruogba community, in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State, Pa Clifford Omosomwan, has been assassinated.

Pa Omosomwan was reportedly shot dead in his residence, at about 1.00 a.m. on Thursday.

The partially blind man was said to have been shot in the forehead.

The community was engulfed in crisis last year, leading to the killing of one of its leaders, Goodluck Uwumahongie, who was beheaded.

In 2014, about five people were allegedly killed in the same community, while houses and vehicles were set on fire.

Edo State police spokesman, Abiodun Osifo, said he was yet to be briefed about the incident.

The witness, Ruqayya Ibrahim, while being crossexamined by defence counsel, Joseph Daudu, said the formal National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd); his accounting officer, Yasidu Ibrahim and one S. A Salisu authorised the payments at the instance of Abbah’s father, Haliru Bello.

Ibrahim had earlier told the court that a forensic analysis of Abbah’s phone proved that his father gave the instruction for the transfer of the said N300 million allegedly diverted from funds meant for the purchase of arms by the former NSA into Abbah’s account.

Asked if she stood by her statement regarding the results of the forensic audit, Ruqayya answered in affirmative, adding also that Abbah said he had no knowledge of the said payment during the initial stage of his interrogation at the office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), but later stated his knowledge of the said sum after speaking on phone

with his father.

The witness noted that Abbah had stated during his interrogation that the money could have been paid at the instance of his father.

Addressing a controversy relating to the balance of N178 million testified as part of the sum of N478 mil-

lion transferred from three companies, to Bam Project and Subsidiaries, the witness said her testimony during examination related to the sum of N600 million and was not limited to the sum of N300 million contained in the charge.

Her explanation, however,

was considered unsatisfactory to Abbah’s counsel, Solomon Umoh, who stated that the amount mentioned in the charge did not exceed N300 million.

Ms Ibrahim further told the court that only the three defendants before Justice Mohammed had so far been

TVC wins Station of the Year at Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards NIGERIA’S first and only 24-hour pan-African news channel, Television Continental (TVC) has emerged the Station of the Year, at the recently held sixth edition of the Nigerian Broadcasters Merit Awards in Abuja.

TVC was also chosen as the Most Watched TV Channel of the Year.

The station continued its rout of the awards by winning the TV Channel with the Best News Coverage in Nigeria and Africa. The Viewers’ Choice for Best TV Community Access Programme went to “On The Street.”

The station also excelled in other categories, with

TVC News Anchor Azeezat Olaoluwa, emerging as Best Female Anchor and Dapo Aruwajoye as Nigeria’s Broadcaster of the Year.

Olayemi Ogunwole, popularly known as “Honeypot,” won the Outstanding Female TV Presenter (Entertainment/Talk Show).

Godwin Nwachukwu was chosen as Cameraman of the Year, while Oladimeji Solomon is the Best Visual Editor.

Two other arms of the Continental Broadcasting Service family also won laurels at the Awards ceremony. Continental Satellite (CONSAT) won as Best Pay Satellite/Digital TV Channel

Provider.

Radio Continental 102.3 FM won the Best Radio Station (Lagos) category. The radio programme, “Kubanji Direct,” emerged as Viewers’ Choice for Best Community Access Programme on Radio, and “Box of Goodies” was awarded Best Kiddies/Youth Programme of the Year.

Three of the station’s onair personalities also were awarded. Booboo won as Outstanding Radio Presenter (Morning Ride 5 am to 11 am); Lady O Mary took home the award for Outstanding Radio Presenter (Lunch Hour 11.00 a.m.– 4.00 p.m. and Mighty

TWO Nigerians, Aghogho Ajiyen and Ayoola Olaolu, who invented aeroplane and drone that remained afloat for almost 10 minutes in Abuja, on Thursday, said confidently that Nigeria could invent her own aircraft, even without importing both mechanism and engines.

The duo, who displayed their inventions before the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu, in Abuja, therefore, sought the Federal Government’s assistance, believing

George won as Outstanding Male Sportscaster on Radio (Lagos).

The awards ceremony attracted broadcasters from around the country.

Commenting on the avalanche of awards, CBS Chief Executive Officer, Nigel Parsons, said this justified the level of professionalism and expertise inherent in the station.

Event hosts, famous TV celebrity couple, Isaac and Nneka Moses of the Goge Africa fame, were inducted into the Nigerian Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Other inductees were veteran broadcasters, Olusesan Ekisola and Mani Onumonu.

NIS recruitment fraud: Court grants Abba Moro bail on self recognition Sunday Ejike - Abuja THE Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, granted bail to the former Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, on self recognition.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had, on Monday, arraigned Moro alongside a former Director in the Ministry, F.O. Alayebami and a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Anastasia Daniel Nwobia, on an 11-count charge bordering on complicity in a N676 million immigration recruitment scam.

The trial judge, Justice Anwuli Chikere, while ruling on Abba Moro’s bail application alongside his co-defendants, said the prosecution failed to prove that the former minister would interfere with investigation or refuse to turn up in court to face his trial if granted bail.

“The first defendant (Abba Moro) was a minister, a senior citizen and a former public servant. I am of the view that he will not intefere with investigation if granted bail.

“Accordingly, bail is granted to Abba Moro on self recognition,” justice Chikere

stated.

The judge had, at the last sitting of the court, ordered that Moro and his co-defendants be remanded at the Kuje Prisons in Abuja, pending her decision on their application for bail.

Justice Chikere granted the two other defendants bail in the sum of N100 million each and one surety each, in like sum.

The court said the surety to the former Director in the Ministry, Alayebami and former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry, Nwobia (second and third defendants) must be a public ser-

vant, not below the rank of a director.

The sureties, the court held must have landed property in any part of the country and that the documents of the property must be deposited with the court, alongside their recent passport photograph.

Justice Chikere said Abba Moro and his co-defendants must deposit their international passport with the bank as part of the conditions for their bail and slated April 27 to commence trial in the matter.

Moro and the other defendants had pleaded not guilty

Nigeria can invent own aeroplane, drone —Inventors Ademola Adegbite - Abuja

charged for the sum in the charge and maintained her earlier statement that investigations revealed that the money was diverted for election purposes by the defendants.

The case was adjourned till March 23 for continuation of trial.

that Nigeria could invent aircraft perfectly.

According to Aghogho, “I’ve really packaged everything, but one of the major supports I need now is finance, because I have put everything in place. In advanced countries, they have a way of creating a lot of activities for the younger ones, but here in Nigeria, we have limited activities.”

Aghogho explained that his plane could go within the ratio of six kilometres and 4,000 feet, and that efforts to achieve that took him about 24 years.

He stressed further that

he started the invention in 1992, but was discouraged in both 1994 and 1997, after destroying the prototype for more than 3,000 times.

He said he summoned courage by rebuilding another one in 1999 and since then, he had been redefining it until he was able to get it right with some mechanisms inside and control surfaces deflecting it to various angles.

“In my years of discovering things for myself in Nigeria, I discovered that basically some things they packaged for us just depend

on one small thing, one small principle and the moment you get that, you will be able to add the rest.

“As far as I am concerned, an aircraft engine is not something that will be difficult for our people to do, especially our Igbo brothers, if I explain how the engine should be. If I give them specifications, they can package it perfectly to work well,” he added.

On his own part, Olaolu, an inventor of drone, said he started it during his vocational period, just for fun, but as time progressed, he discovered that it might be

of good help to the country, hence, he developed interest in it.

Olaolu, who was of the view that technology was the backbone of any nation, added that Nigeria continuing to depend on foreign goods or products, was like mortgaging the future of the young generation.

Responding, the minister, Dr Onu, promised that the ministry was ready to assist and work with any Nigerian with the spirit of innovation, assuring inventors that the ministry would direct its agencies to work with them so as to accelerate the work.

before the court on Monday, when EFCC arraigned them on 11-count charge bordering on fraud in the 2014 job recruitment exercise for the Nigeria Immigration Service, which led to the death of 20 job seekers.

The accused persons were alleged to have contravened the Public Procurement Act No. 65 of 2007 in the contract awards, by not following the necessary procedures laid down by the government.

EFCC said the award of the contract to Drexel Tech Nigeria Limited had no prior advertisement, no needs assessment and a procurement plan was not carried out before the award of the contract.

The commission added that there was no budgetary provision for the exercise in the 2014 federal budget, hence, the applicants were made to bear the responsibility of funding the project without the approval of the board, contrary to Section 22(5) of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission Act, 2000.

Apart from the charges of obtaining money by false pretences, the ex-minister and others were also accused of breaching the Public Procurement Act with the manner they went about the recruitment contract allegedly awarded to Drexel.

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OSCOTECH, Esa-Oke, Osun State, NYSC, GTBank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Mr Oluwayinka Samuel Adekeye now MR DELE ADEKEYE. All former documents remain valid.

Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc and general public take note.

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ibong Godwin now JONAH GODWIN POWER. All former documents remain valid.

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I, formerly Fadipe Oluwakemi Roseline now MRS AJULO OLUWAKEMI ROSELINE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Moshood Zainab Busola now TAIWO ZAINAB BUSOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Yusuff Adewale Quadri now DAIRO OLALEKAN FESTUS. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Okoye Alloy Chukwujaku now OKOYE ALLOY IFEDILI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, Bello Hassan Yemi am the same person bearing Bello Yemi Hassan. Now, I wish to be known and addressed as BELLO HASSAN YEMI. All documents bearing these names remain valid. NYSC, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso and general public take note.

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I, formerly Miss Oguntuase Opeyemi Falilat now MRS AKINMUYISITAN OPEYEMI FALILAT. All former documents remain valid. Nigerian Prisons Service and general public take note.

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Oyo State Universal Basic Education Board, Ibadan, Local Government Education Authority, Ogbomoso South, Ogbomoso and general public take note.

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, Oyebamiji Kazeem Olaniyi am the same person bearing Asanike Kazeem Oyelere and Oyebamiji Kazeem Olaniyi. Now, I wish to be known and addressed as OYEBAMIJI KAZEEM OLANIYI. All documents bearing ASANIKE KAZEEM OYELERE remain valid and to whom it may concern.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Abodunrin Oludayo Anuoluwa now YEWANDE OLUDAYO ANUOLUWA. All former documents remain valid.

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I, EBENEZER AYODELE ADEBUSUYI am the same person bearing ADEBUSUYI EBENEZER AKINLOYE. All documents bearing these names remain valid. UBA Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Azeez Timilehin now POPOOLA OYINKAN UNICE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

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39 CHANGE OF NAME

Friday, 4 March, 2016 CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Bukola Bolu Fajinmi now MRS OLUWABUKOLA BOLU AJETOMOBI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Olowo Kehinde Theresa now MRS OWOEYE KEHINDE THERESA. All former documents remain valid. Ise/Orun Local Government, Ekiti State and general public take note.

ADDITION OF NAME I, formerly Ajayi Kehinde now AJAYI KEHINDE PAUL. All former documents remain valid.

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I, formerly Popoola Mukaila Sunday Tijani now POPOOLA MICHEAL SUNDAY. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc and general public take note.

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I, formerly Gbadebo Adesola Oluwaseun now OMOYELE OLUWASEUN ALEXANDER. All former documents remain valid.

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I, ADESINA INAOLAJI am the same person as BELLO MUNIRU ADESINA INAOLAJI. All documents bearing these names remain valid. Skye Bank Plc and general public take note.

I, OYEDEJI OLUSEYE TIMOTHY, my correct date of birth is 19th July 1985 not 19th July 1989. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME

CORRECTION OF NAME

My name was erroneously written as Adebayo Adedoyin Funke instead of Adebayo Adedoyin Funmilayo in May/ June 2003 NECO result. Henceforth, I want to be known and called ADEBAYO ADEDOYIN FUNMILAYO. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

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I, WILSON OLUWADAMILARE EMMANUEL am the same person as WILSON DAMILARE EMMANUEL. All documents bearing these names remain valid.

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CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME

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CORRECTION OF DATE OF BIRTH

I, formerly Olajire Wemimo Oke now SULAIMON SHUAIB OKE. All former documents remain valid.

Aroma Intergrated Services and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Farombi Olubanke Bolutife now MRS ADEBOWALE OLUBANKE BOLUTIFE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Akanji Oladayo now OLANREWAJU OLADAYO OLATOMIWA. All former documents remain valid. Sterling Bank Plc and general public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, Mr. Akintunde Oluwasegun Akinfisoye am the same person as Mr Akintunde Oluwasegun Akinfisoye-Owolabi.

Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as MR AKINTUNDE OLUWASEGUN AKINFISOYEOWOLABI. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

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I, formerly Mr. Mudashir Abdulgafar Olowoforipamo now MR RAJI AJAO OLOWOFORIPAMO. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

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I, formerly Yaya Rashidat Oyeyemi now ELEGBEDE RASHIDAT OYEYEMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Muritala Hamdat Olayinka now MRS M U M E E N - M U R I TA L A , HAMDAT OLAYINKA. All former documents remain valid.

Ogun State Teaching Service Commission, Abeokuta and general public take note.

I, formerly Mrs Ibrahim Adenike Taiwo now MRS OLIYIDE ADEGBUYI ADENIKE TAIWO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Omojola Titilope Omodele now MRS BECKLEY TITILOPE OMODELE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Akinterinwa Adetokunbo Adetoun now MRS OLAIDE-BELLO ADETOKUNBO ADETOUN. All former documents remain valid.

GTBank Plc and general public take note.

I, formerly Oluwatosin Adekunle Alani now OLUWATOSIN ADEKUNLE TOPE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Awopegba Ruth Abidemi now MRS KAYODE RUTH ABIDEMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Temitope Ayobami Aiyedun now MRS TEMITOPE AYOBAMI ANTHONY. All former documents remain valid. College of Medicine, Ibadan, University of Ibadan, MDCN, NYSC, General Medical Council and general public take note.

I, formerly Agunwa Cosmos Chima and Agueze Cosmas Chima now GODWIN COSMAS CHIMA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Bolarinwa Esther Oludayo now MRS OGUNTADE ESTHER OLUDAYO. All former documents remain valid. Oyo State Hospitals’ Management Board and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Alebiosu Busirat Adeola now MRS ADEYEMO BUSIRAT ADEOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Mbuotidem Anyanime Ukpong now DANIEL MBUOTIDEM ANYANIME. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Dorrin Ebeyemen Osimen now MRS DORRIN EBEYEMEN LAWAL. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Bobade Toluwanimi Adetutu now MRS BELLO TOLUWANIMI ADETUTU. All former documents remain valid.

Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

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CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Esther Adebamijo Ademoyege now MRS ESTHER ADEBAMIJO DARAMOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Osunsina Olunike Ajoke now MRS ADESANMI OLUNIKE CHRISTIANAH. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ayodeji Sunday Bolaji now FATUBARIN ADEBOWALE JULIUS. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, Okuntade Felix Ibukun am the same person bearing OKUNTADE FELIX JUDGE. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as OKUNTADE FELIX IBUKUN. All documents bearing these names remain valid.

FCMB Plc, First Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Hycent Iwumekunechukwu Reuben now ODIFONO HYCENT IWUM. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

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General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Onarinde Foluso Abiodun now MRS ODUNTAN FOLUSO ABIODUN. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Yakubu Kafayat Faith now MRS ADESANMI KAFAYAT FAITH. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Omoegun Samuel Olalekan now OKE SAMUEL OLALEKAN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

THIS BOX IS FOR SALE

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, formerly Christian Chukwu Emeka Godwin I am the same person as Christian Egbusamba. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as CHRISTIAN CHUKWU EMEKA GODWIN. All documents bearing these names remain valid. Keystone Bank Plc, Diamond Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Oruese Eloho now MRS IKUTEGBE ELOHO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Elizabeth Ilesanmi now WILIKIE PATRICIA ABIODUN. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Mr Harrison Grey now DAVID ASEDERE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CORRECTION OF NAME

My names were wrongly written in my BVN registration as Akporovwovwo Karo instead of Akpovwovwo Karo. My correct name is AKPOVWOVWO KARO. All documents remain valid.

EcoBank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Hassan Alih now ALHASSAN-ALIYU. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc and general public take note.

south-westnews Olubadan’s coronation: Oyo govt declares holiday, closes markets 40

Friday, 4 March, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Entry, exit to Olubadan palace now one way

By Wale Akinselure

O

YO State government has declared today public holiday to commemorate the coronation of Oba Saliu Adetunji as Olubadan of Ibadan.

Contained in a statement by the Head of Service, Mr Soji Eniade, the state government urged citizens and other members of the public to be present at the ceremony.

The government also reiterated the need for peaceful and orderly conduct of all and sundry within Ibadan.

In a related development, the state government has directed that all markets in the 11 local governments in Ibadan be closed in order to ensure hitch free celebration of the coronation of the new Olubadan.

The Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Communication and Strategy, Mr Yomi Layinka, said this was to ensure full participation of citizens and ease of movement.

In addition, entry road from Idi Arere to Popoyemoja, in front of the Olubadan-designate’s palace up to Epo Akara Mosque has been turned to one-way passage.

This, according to Permanent Secretary, Works and Transport, Mr Oyesola Oyedele, had become a permanent measure to ease traffic in and out of the Olubadan palace.

Meanwhile, the state gov-

ernment has chided some organisations for branding today’s coronation ceremony without due accreditation.

Citing a number of signage, banners around the city, the state government, through the Special Adviser to Governor Abiola Ajimobi on Communication and Strategy, Mr Yomi Layinka, said the organising committee of the coronation ceremony had not authorised

any organisation as sponsors of the event.

Layinka said such organisations had not made recourse to the Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA) or the committee on their intention to brand the event.

“There are rules of engagement in branding of event. The Oyo State Signage and Advertisement Agency (OYSAA) is respon-

sible for control, regulation of outdoor practice. OYSAA has not been approached by any organisation and such

remove such posters, banners. However, if they can go through due process, they are welcome.”

Rule with fear of God, Akinola urges new Olubadan

By Saheed Salawu

THE Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Dawud Akinola, has congratulated Chief Saliu Adetunji on

his ascension today to the throne of the Olubadan of Ibadanland.

Alhaji Akinola, in a release signed by Alhaji Kamorudeen Aderibigbe, also felicitated with the entire Adetunji family of Popoyemoja, Ibadan, on the elevation of their patriarch to the paramount traditional title in the land.

He described the new monarch as an accomplished family man, a devout Muslim, trader, businessman and illustrious indigene who possesses an extensive knowledge of the history of Ibadan.

The Aare Musulumi, who urged Oba Adetunji to rule with the fear of Allah, expressed confidence in the

ability of the new king to bring his sagacity to bear in presiding over the affairs of Ibadan and take the city to greater heights.

Alhaji Akinola equally expressed his conviction that as a possessor of a combination of virtues such as deep faith in God, business acumen and communal spirit, the reign of Oba Adetunji will trigger a fresh renaissance for Ibadanland.

“On behalf of my humble self, my family and the entire Muslim community in Yorubaland, I wish the king good health, long life and everlasting grace of Allah so that he can accomplish his vision and mission for Ibadan and its peoples,” the Muslim leader stated.

Folarin congratulates Oba Adetunji

Chief Wahab Popoola, the Oluwo Afobaje of Ibadanland (left) with Mr Tunji Omoworare, Oyo State Manager, Globacom, at the Olubadan coronation committee press conference, in Ibadan, on Thursday.

Adedoja commends Ajimobi on befitting arrangements OYO State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has been commended for organising a befitting coronation ceremony for the 41st Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Saliu Olasupo Adetunji, which is slated for today at the Mapo Square, Oja’Ba, Ibadan.

According to Professor Taoheed Adedoja, who heads the Olubadan Advisory Committee that is planning a grand reception for the new monarch at Ibadan Recreation Club tomorrow, his committee’s initiative is to complement the efforts of the government in giving the Olubadan a befitting reception.

He also confirmed that today’s programme is entirely financed by the Oyo State government. He,

organisations have perpetuated illegality by putting up such signage and banners. OYSAA has begun to

however, commended the Chairman of the Oyo State Coronation Committee, Dr Lekan Balogun who is the Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland as well as the Olubadan-in-Council for

the grand installation programme.

Professor Adedoja also expressed gratitude to the various sponsors of the reception programme such as MTN, Globacom, Nige-

rian Breweries and individuals.

He prayed that the reign of the new Olubadan would witness unprecedented progress and development of Ibadanland.

Adetunji came at auspicious time —Babalola

By Nurudeen Alimi

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Mr Femi Babalola (Jogor), has said that the new Olubadan, Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, is ascending the throne when Ibadan, and indeed the entire Yoruba race, need an Oba that will redefine the megacity status of Ibadan.

Babalola, in a congratulatory message to Oba Ad-

etunji, said it was time to actualise the Ibadan State, streamline the Ibadan succession process and reposition the city as the cockpit to drive total economic emancipation of the SouthWest.

Buttressing his position, Babalola explained that Ibadan was long due for a state and enjoined the new traditional ruler to achieve the dream while calling on

all Yorubas to support the monarch.

“A situation where all pre-independence regional headquarters in Nigeria and even Benin which emerged only in 1963 are now states and Ibadan is not, is to say the least, a slap on the face of the Yoruba nation,” he said.

Babalola, however, noted that Ibadan has entered a new dawn.

THE Lagunna of Ibadanland, Senator Teslim Folarin, has joined millions of Nigerians congratulating the new Olubadan of Ibadanland, Chief Saliu Akanmu Adetunji, as he will be installed as Olubadan today.

In a release made available to the Nigerian Tribune, the former Senate Leader said Oba Adetunji would be an agent of change in the state, saying Ibadan indigenes were awaiting

the creation of Ibadan State during his tenure.

He said: “We are waiting for Ibadan, which is the largest city in Africa, to become a state too and we have the amenities and resources to make Ibadan State the envy of all in no time.

“I know during his tenure, Oyo State will move forward and put an end to the crisis of Obas in the state.

I pray he will live long to see the creation of Ibadan State.”

Yoruba now recognised as official language in Benin Republic —Amb Obisakin BENIN Republic has recognised the Yoruba language as second official language in the country.

Nigeria’s Ambassador to Benin, Dr Lawrence Obisakin, who disclosed this also said Dendi, another indigenous Nigeria language, is also being recognised alongside Yoruba by the Beninoise Government, underscoring the affinity between the two countries.

The Nigerian envoy explained that based on the recognition, the Federal Government recently donated Yoruba language books to the Government of Benin.

“Just a week ago, Nigerian government gave Yoruba books to the government of

Benin to support the recognition of the language.

“We have two languages recognised, Yoruba and Dendi languages have been recognised here as national languages,’’ he said.

According to him, even the President of Benin said 70 to 80 per cent of the people are of Nigerian origin.

“From the south, you have the Egun, both in Porto Novo and Badagry. When you go northward, you begin to find the Yoruba people.

“You have also the Bariba people; you have the Batonu who we call the Borgu people. You have the Dendi people; you have the people that speak Fulani and Hausa.”

41

south-westnews

Friday, 4 March, 2016

Religious extremism claimed 18,000 Africans in 4yrs —Mimiko Lanre Adewole - Lagos

O

NDO State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko, on Thursday, disclosed that available statistics showed that 18,000 Africans were consumed by religious extremism in the last four years.

He spoke at the Lagos Business School annual conference with the theme: ‘Africa rising: Leveraging the power of a younger generation.

Relying on the empirical evidence provided by the Global Terrorism Database; a recent report by a UN panel of experts, he said worldwide recruitment into extremism increased by 71 per cent between January 2014 and March 2015 alone.

He attributed this to lack of opportunity for the youth of African countries, add-

ing that the continent must in its own interest, build the people, especially the youth.

He specifically linked the lack of opportunity for youth to radicalisation that leads to violent extremism among them.

Submitting that Africa’s greatest potential is its people, Mimiko said people are the tools needed by the continent to grow and develop.

“The mistakes of the past must be corrected. This era is rooted in a powerful truth, Africa’s most valuable resource is not its soil,

its diamonds nor its oil; it is the talent and creativity of its people. Africa must leverage on the powers of the younger generation to rise,” he said.

Governor Mimiko who was the key speaker at the conference said African youth must be mobilised and equipped to help drive Africa’s integration, peace and development agenda, maintaining that they belong to a key segment of the population and are an essential pillar without which no meaningful development can be achieved.

“Their great potential, dynamism, resourcefulness, resilience, and aspirations are invaluable social capital that the continent must not only harness but invested in and channelled towards a more sustainable future for Africa,” he said.

He advised that if Africa was to get out of the current economic doldrums, deliberate policies that would empower the youth must be fashioned out and vigorously pursued, to salvage the continent from growth and development reversal.

Giving the Ondo example,

Governor Mimiko said “in our little way, we have used the instrumentality of public office to improve the life of our people and also create avenues for the youth to blossom.

“We have deliberately designed majority of our programmes viz; agriculture, urban renewal, community development, sports and recreation, culture and tourism among others to favour the youth so that they can harness their full potential and contribute to the development of the society.”

Artisans, professionals form support for Fayose, PDP Sam Nwaoko - Ado Ekiti

THE Ayo Fayose Solidarity Forum (FSF) has intensified efforts to strengthen support for Ekiti State governor, Ayòdele Fayose, among the people at the grassroots in the state.

Following its inauguration, the group convened

by Mr Wale Ayeni, member representing Ikere Constituency 1 in the state’s House of Assembly, said it had devised a mechanism to build a bridge between the state government and the people, for them to understand the workings of the government.

The group, which would be formally launched on March 1 in Ado Ekiti, according to Ayeni, “brings together chapters of professional and vocational associations such as the Nigerian Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Grassroots Development Movement (GDM), Theatre Arts Practitioners of Nigeria (TAPAN), Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT), National Association of Tailors, National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), Nigeria Automobile and Technicians Association (NATAN), Regent Council of Ekiti, Ebira Community and Association of Motorcycles Riders among others.”

Ayeni explained that the purpose of the FSF was “to essentially bring governance closer to Ekiti people and ensure that the achievement, programmes and intentions of Governor Fayose is adequately communicated to the people at the grassroots.”

From left, Festival Committee Chairman, Chief Rasheed Raji; Resource Person, Professor Olufunmilayo Adebambo; chairman of the seminar, Chief Ronke Folarin; the Alake and Paramount Ruler of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo; Globacom Business Director, Ogun, Mr Ayo Ogunranti; CEO, Lisabi Mills, Mr Shex Ladipo; Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship, FUNAAB, Dr Olusegun Obadina and the CEO, Premier Paints, Chief Ogooluwa Bankole, at a seminar held on Thursday, at the Centenary Hall, Abeokuta, as part of activities marking the Glo-sponsored 2016 Lisabi Festival.

Ajimobi to swear in caretaker chairmen Monday

By Wale Akinselure

BARRING any last minute twist, Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, will next Monday swear in caretaker committee chairmen for the 33 local government areas in the state.

This followed the confirmation of nominees by the State House of Assembly at an emergency plenary held on Thursday.

Chairman, Committee on Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Honourable Bolaji Badmus, who rendered the report of the screening exercise, said all the nominees were found worthy for appointment as chairmen.

The House, presided over by the Speaker, Honourable Micheal Adeyemo, subsequently recommended the 33 nominees for confirmation by Ajimobi for a fourmonth period.

Adeyemo asserted belief that the state governor would set in motion the process of conducting local government election before the expiration of the fourmonth tenure of the care-

taker chairmen.

The confirmed nominees are Wasiu Olatunbosun, Ibadan North West; Opeyemi Salami, Akinyele; Idris Nojeemdeen Abass, Ibadan South East; Yekeen Popoola, Irepo; Saheed Alaran, Iseyin; Adelore Atanda, Ibarapa East; Orelope Kolawole, Oluyole, Lukman Anwo, Afijio; Okeniyi Gbolagade, Atiba; Ogundeji Olusola, Atisbo; Ademola Adewuyi,

Egbeda; Yinka Akinbode, Ibadan North; and Lekan Afuye, Ibadan North East.

Others are Rauf Folarin, Ibadan South West; Azeez Oladejo, Ibarapa Central; Tunji Omolewu, Ibarapa North; Wahab Oladejo, Ido; Niyi Adeagbo, Itesiwaju; S. M. Egunjobi, Iwajowa; Moses Babalola, Kajola; Abiodun Oladeji, Lagelu; Biodun Alade, Ogbomoso North; and Sunday Adedeji, Ogbo-

moso South.

Also found worthy for the position are Yinka Jesutoye, Ogo-Oluwa; Ogunrinde Williams, Olorunsogo; Okunlade Samuel, Oorelope; Sina Adeagbo, Ona Ara; Jacob Bamigboye, Oriire; Tirimisiyu Azeez, Oyo East; Oladeji Tajudeen, Oyo West; Moruf Salau, Saki East; Kazeem Adegoke, Saki West, and Ibrahim Gbodeniyi, Surulere.

15 burn to death in Ondo auto crash Hakeem Gbadamosi —Akure

FIFTEEN people were burnt to death while four others were seriously injured in an auto crash in Amurin, along Uso-Owo road in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State.

The accident, which occurred around 2:00p.m. involved three vehicles, a bus with registration Number FG 357 BOT, a Toyota Hiace with registration LSR 163 AAA and a Nissan Previa bus.

It was gathered that the accident was caused by reckless driving.

He explained that one of the drivers was trying to overtake at a bend when he had head on collision with an oncoming vehicle and caught fire, while the vehicle behind also rammed into the fire.

The source, however, commended the Ondo Fire Service for their prompt response saying the timely intervention of the fire servicemen saved other vehicles from ramming into the inferno.

Confirming the development, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Commander in the state,

Edward Zamba, said the accident was caused by failure of the drivers to obey traffic rules.

He noted that the accident could be avoided if the drivers of the three vehicles had maintained speed limit.

He confirmed that 15 people were burnt beyond recognition and said efforts are ongoing to determine the identity of the victims in the vehicles while those injured had been rushed to hospital.

He called on drivers to always keep to the traffic rules in order to avoid accidents.

Nigerian Tribune

Ekiti LG polls: Aspirant sues PDP for allegedly fielding underaged candidate Sam Nwaoko - Ado Ekiti

A councillorship aspirant in the December 19, 2015 local government polls in Ekiti State, Miss Ruth Olubuse, has sued the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for allegedly fielding an unqualified candidate for the election.

Olubuse and one Abajigin Olalere Victor, in suit number HCF/4/16 at the Ekiti State High Court, Efon Judicial Division, said the candidate the PDP fielded for councillorship seat in Efon Ward 06, Miss Aderonke Precious Adekanmi, was not eligible to contest on account of age.

Olubuse was an aspirant for the position, who procured nomination form from the electoral commission (SIEC) and passed through the party’s screening before being dumped for unspecified reason.

She also joined the EKSIEC which conducted the election.

In a writ of summon obtained from the court by the claimants, they averred that part of the prerequisites for qualification for counsellorship seat in the state by-law passed by the State House of Assembly was that, the candidate must have attained the age of 25 years, which they claimed the first defendant did not meet.

Next Ekiti gov must come from south —APC chief Sam Nwaoko - Ado Ekiti

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State and a former special assistant to ex-governor Kayode Fayemi, Bayo Babalotin, has urged the party to give its governorship ticket for the next poll to one of the “many qualified aspirants” from the South Senatorial District of the state.

Babalotin told newsmen in Ado Ekiti on Wednesday that since Ekiti North and Ekiti Central had produced at least two governors each in the past, and Ekiti South has never produced a governor since the creation of the state, “equity demands that the next governor should come from the South which has not had the privilege of ruling the state.”

He spoke after he formally announced his entry into the governorship race in his native town, Ise-Ekiti in Ise/Orun Local Government Area of the state. He stated that his development agenda for the state was already in place.

news Debt: Reps give Buhari ultimatum on Fiscal Responsibility Act 42

Jacob Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel - Abuja

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HE House of Representatives on Thursday called on President Muhammadu Buhari to initiate implementation of the

Friday, 4 March, 2016

Section 42 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2007 by setting overall limits for the consolidated debts of the federal, state’s and local governments in the country.

The House resolution was sequel to a motion moved

by Honourable Jones Onyereri, where the House

directed that in complying with the implementation of the section, the president should effect compliance of the law within 90 days from the lawmakers’ resolution.

According to him, “The House is aware of sub-section (3) that for the purpose of verifying compliance with

the limits specified pursuant to this section, the Commission shall, at the end of each quarter, determine the amount of the consolidated debt of each tier of government; “The House is further aware of sub-section (4)

Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, with the leader of the United Kingdom Parliament in the International Development Committee, Mr Stephen Twigg. With them are members of the committee, Mrs Frema Bruce (second right); Mrs Rachael Cox and Wendy Morton, when the members of the UK Parliament visited the Senate President in Abuja, on Thursday.

Restore sanity in petrol supply now, NLC tells Buhari Soji-Eze Fagbemi - Abuja THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) declared on Thursday that it was disturbed by the recurring scarcity of petroleum products, especially the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol; and called on President Muhammadu Buhari, to immediately restore sanity.

In a statement signed by NLC President, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, the congress said the situation had again caused long queues at some fuel stations that were selling the product, while many more closed their gates with claims of non-availability of the product.

Wabba said Nigerians were yet to be told the cause of the current scarcity; adding however that it believed the government would not allow any individual or corporate organisations to sabotage efforts to restore sanity and good governance in all facets of our society.

Wabba said it was obvious that the ongoing scarcity was a calculated sabotage by petroleum marketers to sell the products at high prices for more profits.

The NLC president said: “Petroleum products, especially petrol, are key to our economy as it is what powers commuters, including workers, offices and businesses. The delay motorists

contend with in long queues at petrol stations has led to loss of unimaginable man hours which has impacted negatively on our economy.

“We therefore call on government to strongly intervene by sending out appropriate agencies, especially the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), to enforce the sale of the products as some marketers have been reported to be hoarding the products.

“We restate our call for the speedy reactivation of local production of petroleum

products as the country will continue to be held hostage by global economic manipulations if we remain tied to importation of petroleum products even when we have the resources to produce for local consumption and export.

“While it is regrettable that bad governance, misplaced priorities and corruption has almost killed the petroleum industry, we believe a serious government can revamp the industry within one year.”

Wabba cited examples of

countries, especially neighbouring Republic of Niger, where one of the best refineries was built within a year, adding that there was nothing stopping the government from doing same.

He added: “In any case, despite their perilous states, we have it on authority that our four refineries are still some of the best in the world and can be turned around and even have their capacity upgraded; all that is required is to have effective Turn Around Maintenance conducted on them.”

Shiites hold protest in Kaduna over El-Zakzaky Group protests at Iranian Embassy

By Muhammad Sabiu and Collins Nnabuife THE Shiite held a peaceful protest in Kaduna as they called for the unconditional release of their spiritual leader, Sheikh Ibrahim ElZakzaky.

The protesters, mostly from the youth arm of the Islamic Movement, marched through the major streets of Kaduna, on Thursday, holding placards with the inscription, ‘Release El-Zakzaky.’

Speaking on behalf of the sect, the leader of the Kaduna chapter of the movement, Mikail Abdullahi, condemned the continued detention of their leader.

He maintained that government had violated all constitutional provisions by illegally detaining their leader without charging him to court.

The sect leader lamented that the government was not providing a good example by turning deaf ears to the call for the release of the leader of the movement.

It would be recalled that several members of the movement were killed last year in Zaria, when the Army attacked them after alleging that members of the movement blocked the motorcade of the Chief of Army Staff on his way to the passing out parade of the Nigerian Army Depot.

In a related development, a group, Coalition of Human Rights and National Interfaith and Religious Organisation for Peace, on Thursday, protested at the Iranian Embassy over the comments of the Iranian Ambassador to Nigeria on the Nigerian Army and Shi’ite clash in Zaria, Kaduna State.

According to a statement issued and signed by Comrade Ibrahim Abubakar and Bishop Musa Fomson, the group alleged that the comments from the Iranian Ambassador, Saeed Koozechi, could make an uninformed person believe that Nigeria was another province of Iran.

that the Commission shall publish, on a quarterly basis, a list of the governments in the Federation that have exceeded the limits of consolidated debts, indicating the amount by which the limits were exceeded,” he stated.

To this end, he said that, since the coming into force of the Fiscal Responsibility Act in 2007, no President has complied with the mandatory requirement to, within 90 days, set overall limits for the amounts of consolidated debts of the federal, states and local governments.

He added that, when the president effected the implementation, violators of the provisions would be prohibited from both internal and external borrowing sources unless for the refinancing of existing debts.

PDP chairmanship: NEC’ll determine Modu-Sheriff’s tenure Monday — National Secretary Jacob Segun Olatunji and Leon Usigbe-Abuja AS the dust raised in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the emergence of a former Borno State governor, Senator Ali Modu-Sheriff, as its National Chairman settles down, facts emerged on Thursday that the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, at its meeting fixed for next week Monday, would determine and ratify his tenure in line with the constitution of the party.

Fielding questions from newsmen in Abuja, on Thursday, on the development in the party and the activities of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) in the recent time, the National Secretary of the party, Professor Adewale Oladipo, declared that “all is now well with our party and all hands are on deck to see that our party regains its lost glory.”

According to Professor Oladipo, “now we have a substantive national chairman in place from the North-East to complete the tenure of Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu; though some aggrieved members of the party kicked against his emergence, I can say categorically that through the help of the various statutory organs of the party, we have been able to conclude that the various organs will be meeting from this Sunday and on Monday, the NEC will meet to take a definite stand on the tenure issue.”

Nigerian Tribune

Bauchi SIEC chairman resigns Isaac Shobayo - Bauchi THE Chairman of Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC), Alhaji Abdulmumini Mohammed Kundak, has resigned as chairman of the commission while Alhaji Maikano Baraya Danmasanin Dass was appointed as acting chairman of the commission.

Speaking with newsmen shortly after notifying the governor of his resignation, Kundak confirmed his resignation and declared that he had received one month salary in lieu of notice at the State Treasury and obtained receipt.

“During my meeting with the governor I asked for his forgiveness and I promise to remain loyal and dedicated and always show my respect to constituted authorities.”

He thanked the former governors of Bauchi State, Ahmed Mu’azu and Mallam Isa Yuguda, for giving him the opportunity to serve the state in different capacities and contributed his quota towards the development of the state.

Meanwhile, Governor Mohammed Abdullahi Abubakar has appointed Alhaji Maikano Baraya Danmasanin Dass as acting chairman of the Bauchi State Independent Electoral Commission.

Abia North senatorial re-run: Police warn public CelestineIhejirika-Umuahia AS Abia North Senatorial re-run election is billed for Saturday this week, the state police command had stated that restriction of movement between 8a.m. to 4p.m. be observed in areas where the re-run election would be taking place.

State commissioner of police, Mr Habila Joshak, who spoke through the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Onyeke Udeviotu, noted that the affected areas included Arochukwu, Bende, Isuikwuato, Ohafia, Isuochi, Umunneochi, Osisioma, Aba North, Ikwuano, Umuahia South and Isiala Ngwa local government areas respectively.

Consequently the police have also warned parents and guardians to caution their children and wards not to allow themselves to be recruited and used by politicians as thugs.

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Troops discover IED making factories in Kumshe

Kill top commander, 55 others in Malumfatori Chris Agbambu and James Bwala

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ROOPS of 7 Division Strike Group Team B, on Thursday, during clearance operations of the remnants of Boko Haram terrorists at Kumshe, in Borno State, discovered Improvised Explosive Device (IED) making factories replete with some equipment.

This was contained in a statement authorised by the acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Kukasheka Usman, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune, in Abuja.

He said the startling discovery of IED making factories replete with some equipment, had again shown the level of commitment and morale of the soldiers fighting the dreaded Boko Haram insurgents.

In a related development, a top commander of Boko Haram and 55 other militants were killed in a battle with the Multi-National Joint Task Force, at Malumfatori in Abadam Local Government Area of Borno State.

Reports from the local government, said the insurgents had been battling with the military since last week, over control of the area.

A military officer, who was not authorised to speak to the press, said two soldiers were killed while two others sustained injury.

A politician from Abadam, Alhaji Modu Alhaji, told the Nigerain Tribune that the northern Borno area, particularly the Chad basin area, has fish and food, which he said, had been sustaining the Boko Haram fighters.

“That is why they have been having the power to come out and fight the military, but from what we are hearing, soldiers are gradually pursuing them and closing all the food supply routes. We hope that, the soldiers are able to clear them from the area, as their presence in that area, has affected fish business,” he said.

Meanwhile, the people of Gwoza Local Government area of Borno State, have expressed appreciation to the Nigerian Army for liberating their town, and called on the military to do everything possible to clear the 11 kilometre road from Limankara to Gwoza, so that traders could bring in food to the area.

Spokesman of the traders’ association in Gwoza, Alhaji Mohammed Gadva, who spoke to the Nigerian Tribune on phone, said he had been to Gwoza to assess the situation, expressing confidence that normalcy

had returned to the onetime Caliphate of the Boko Haram.

According to him, the military is building a barrack in Gwoza, adding that the police had also hoisted their flag in Limankara. He added that an estimate of 20,000 people are currently living in Gwoza, who he said, are looking forward to a normal life.

He said there is insufficient food for the people, just as he noted that the only route through which they could easily get food is the Madagali through Limankara to Gwoza. However, he added that their major problem is the road between Limankara to Gwoza, which he said, has been a battleground between the military and the remnant of Boko Haram militants.

In another development, Petroleum and Natural Gas Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) Kaduna Zonal branch, has donated relief materials for onward distribution to the Internally Displaced Persons ( IDPs) in various resettlement camps in Borno State.

Presenting the items to the state governor, Alhaji

Kashim Shettima, at the Government House, Maiduguri, on Thursday, the vice chairman of PENGASSAN Zonal office, Kaduna branch, Comrade Abubakar Yusuf Mustapha, said they were in Borno to identify with victims of insurgency, and also to commiserate with the people and government, over the colossal loss of lives and injuries done to innocent civilians as a result of the Boko Haram crisis.

Comrade Mustapha said the gesture was to complement the effort of the government and other humanitarian organisations, that had been offering support to victims of insurgency Also, Governor Ibrahim Gaidam of Yobe State has approved the sum of N20 million for the immediate restoration of water supply to eight communities severely affected by Boko Haram attacks.

Persons affected by the Boko Haram conflict, the Nigerian Tribune lerant, have been returning on their own to these communities, as peace prevails in the areas. The communities are Gujba, Buni Gari, Wagir, Mutai, Katarko, Jamtari

and Garin Itache.

A statement from the office of the Adviser on Media to the governor, Alhaji Abdullahi Bego, said the Yobe State government was working on a comprehensive plan to help people displaced by Boko Haram terrorists to return to their homes.

“Under the Resettlement Committee set up by His Excellency Governor Gaidam under the leadership of His Excellency the deputy governor, Engr. Abubakar D. Ali, a small sub-committee has been established to administer the funds for the restoration of water supply to the eight communities.

They will start work immediately to ensure that potable water is available in the areas mentioned.”

Meanwhile, the Federal Government Inter-Ministerial Committee (FGIMC) on resettlement of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the NorthEast sub-region of the country, has set conditions for the returnees to liberated communities, after having assessed the level of stability and socio-economic activities.

The conditions according to chairman of FG-IMC, Major-General A.T Umaru, included the level of stability in liberated communities and IDPs types of activities.

Umaru disclosed this on Thursday, when the committee members paid a courtesy visit to Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State, at the Government House, Maiduguri.

He said it was high time the IDPs returned to their respective liberated communities in Borno State and the Northeast, after the committee had ascertained the conditions of return and resettlements.

“We are here as a committee that has been appointed.

It is an inter-ministerial committee convened by the Minister of Defence, Mansur Dan Ali and the Interior Ministry. We thanked God for his grace that the military has taken the war into the domain of the terrorists group called Boko Haram.

“The military has recovered and liberated a lot of places and other local government areas in the state and other five states in the Northeast that are involved in the challenge,” he said.

My detention scaring away investors, Dasuki tells court Leon Usigbe, Jacob Segun Olatunji and Sunday Ejike - Abuja

•My ordeal political persecution — Secondus

FORMER National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Sambo Dasuki (retd), on Thursday, told a Federal High Court in Abuja that investors’ confidence in the country is being negatively affected by Federal Government’s refusal to obey court orders granting him bail in the charges preferred against him.

“How will the government look like at the end of the day?

Will investors be confident in this country when court make orders but they are not obeyed?” he stated through his counsel, Joseph Daudu, when the matter came before Justice Adeniyi Ademola on Thursday.

Justice Ademola had, in November 2015, granted Dasuki bail, but he was re-arrested immediately after his release from Kuje prison by the Department of State Services (DSS) on February 16, 2016.

When the matter came up on Thursday, counsel representing DSS, Dipo Okpeseyi, told the court that the prosecution was ready to commence the trial of the former NSA, but Daudu, Dasuki’s counsel, said he was not ready to proceed with the trial, because the Federal Government was still keeping Dasuki in detention, despite an order of the court granting him bail.

“We cannot be ready for trial until the defendant enjoys his constitutional rights,”

he told Justice Ademola.

“The worst is that for about seven weeks, we do not know where he is and any of us here who proceed to defend an accused person in this circumstance may lose his license of practice,” Daudu added.

However, Okpeseyi argued that the prosecution was not stopping Dasuki from enjoying his freedom and pointed out that the accused person was not being allegedly held for the charges before the court.

He, therefore, asked the court to commence trial and reject the request for adjournment.

Both parties in the matter argued for and against Dasuki’s application for discharge with the prosecution restating its position that the accused person was being held for a different offence.

Among other requests, Dasuki asked Justice Ademola not to indulge the government any longer on the charges against him until it purges itself of contempt.

Okpeseyi, however, claimed that the bail granted the defendant did not prohibit his re-arrest in connection with any other matter.

After listening to arguments from both parties, Justice Ademola fixed ruling on the application for April 4.

In another development deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Prince Uche

Secondus, in Abuja, on Thursday, alleged that he was being persecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as part of the plan by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to dismantle the opposition.

He also alleged that a serving minister orchestrated what he said was his media trial.

Secondus was arrested and detained by the EFCC for receiving car gifts from a businessman, Jide Omokore.

The former acting national chairman of the PDP, who was released on administrative bail on Wednesday after spending eight days in detention, said at a press briefing at the national secretariat of the PDP that the cars in ques-

tion were supplied by a well known car company with a credit facility, saying he had no knowledge of any transactions Omokore had with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

Reading from a prepared text, the Rivers State-born politician said he had received several personal car gifts from Omokore over a period of 10 years during their over 20 years of friendship.

He said though he was granted bail under stringent conditions, the anti-graft body had been unable to establish any case against him, noting that it was, therefore, nothing but a witch-hunt and political persecution from the ruling APC.

DSS arrests ex-APGA chairman, Victor Umeh Jude Ossai - Enugu

THE Department of State Services (DSS) has arrested a former chairman of All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA), Sir Victor Umeh.

A source said Umeh, APGA’s candidate for the postponed Anambra Central senatorial district rerun, was picked up at his Enugu residence on Thursday afternoon.

His media aide, Mr Stan Okeke, who confirmed the arrest to journalists in Enugu, said it was sequel to

a petition by Senator Uche Ekwunife, former Governor Peter Obi and Uzu Awka.

Umeh, he said, was being accused of sponsoring the recent pro-Biafra activities of the Movement for the Actualisation of Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

He, however, said contrary to reports that Umeh was handcuffed and flown to Abuja, “they travelled by road and as I speak with you (8.25 p.m.), they are still on their way to Abuja.”

Nigerian Tribune

Osoban plans luncheon for priests May THE National Executive Committee (NEC) of OkeAre Seminary Old Boys Association of Nigeria (OSOBAN), has embarked on sensitisation visit to its branches and members nationwide, as part of preparations for luncheon for its priests.

OSOBAN is an acronym for the alumni association of St. Theresa’s Catholic Minor Seminary, Oke-Are, Ibadan.

The luncheon tagged: OSOBAN Luncheon With Our Priests, is scheduled for May this year. The programme is aimed at forging greater interactions between the two sets of graduates of the seminary, being the priests and nonpriests. The event will also help the association’s drive to support the training of Catholic priests.

The event slated to hold at St. Agnes Catholic Church, Maryland, Lagos, has the Archbishop of the Metropolitan See of Lagos as the Chief Host. It will also witness the awards and honours for Rectors of the Seminary. Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie and Most Reverend Dr Felix Alaba Job both Emeritus Bishops of Lagos and Ibadan Catholic dioceses.

Baba Adeen Onasanya celebrates 90yrs ALHAJI Aruna Olusola Onasanya a.k.a Baba Onas celebrates 90 years of Almighty Allah’s faithfulness to him and his household today. The programme is anchored by the League of Imams and Alfas in Remo and Ogun State.

Ikenne Ereke Central Mosque, the host, invites the general public to rejoice and give thanks to the Almighty for His benevolence on Giwa Adeen and the vice president of Ogun State Muslim Council today.

Thanksgiving prayer will hold between 10.a.m and midday, while entertainment of guests will follow immediately. Music will be supplied by Chief Adewale Ayuba The venue is the Recreation Centre, Obafemi Awolowo Square, Ikenne His children wish him long life with sound health and prosperity.

Alhaji Olusola Onasanya

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Senate asks FG to postpone planned N500bn intervention funds till 2017 Taiwo Adisa and Ayodele Adesanmi - Abuja

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HE Senate and House of Representatives, said on Thursday, that the Federal Government should consider postponing the planned N500 billion intervention funds contained in the 2016 budget.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, who spoke on behalf of the Committees at a joint sitting with the House Committee as well as Ministers of Finance and Budget and

National Planning, said that the programme would be easily hijacked in view of the non availability of data to determine the beneficiaries.

Also, at the meeting involving the Appropriation Committees of the National Assembly, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma said that the government was considering changing the $38 oil benchmark on which the 2016 budget was based.

The minister, who spoke at the joint sitting of the two committees, said that the government was worried at the continuous nose diving

of oil prices at the international market, adding that the $38 per barrel price on which the N6.08trillion 2016 budget is predicated, was not sancrosant.

He told the committees that if the benchmark became impracticable by mid- term, the government would subject it to a review.

He said : “The fall of the oil price has forced us to look inward and at the end of the day, it would be a blessing for the country. However, we are expecting more resources from the non oil products.

“The benchmark of $38 per barrel of price of oil is

not sancrosant because of the subsisting global environment. We consulted extensively before we arrived at the price but if at midyear there is no improvement we would come back to you for mid term review.

The review may come as quickly as June this year.

“The oil price came down over a year ago. People will not appreciate the impact of that. The cost of production has not come down. The cost of production is about $20 and what we get at the end of the day is small. This has made the budget a big challenge.

“We have been talking

with girls facing the biggest barriers.

“The gender gap is even

wider in South and West Asia, where 80 per cent out-of-school girls will nev-

er enter formal education compared to 16 per cent of out-of-school boys.

16 million girls ’ll never get basic education, UNESCO says THE United Nation’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO’s) Institute for Statistics (UIS) has said 16 million girls, below age 11, will not get basic education, compared to about eight million boys, if the current trends continue.

The UNESCO DirectorGeneral, Irina Bokova, stated this in a statement credited to a new report released on Thursday, by the organisation ahead of the run-up to International Women’s Day slated for March 8.

The report, “UNESCO eAtlas of Gender Inequality in Education’’ showed that girls were still the first to be denied the right to education, despite all the efforts and progress made in the past 20 years.

“We will never achieve any of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) without overcoming the discrimination and poverty that stunt the lives of girls and women from one generation to the next.

“We must work at all levels, from grassroots to global level, to put equity and inclusion at the heart of every policy so that all girls, whatever their circumstances, can go to school, stay in school and become empowered citizens,” the report said .

The report said gender disparities had remained the highest in the Arab world, sub-Saharan Africa as well as in South and West Asia.

It said across sub-Saharan Africa, 9.5 million girls would never set their feet in any classrooms compared to five million boys, according to UIS data.

“In total, more than 30 million children aged between six years to 11 years are out of school across the region.

“Some will start at a later age but many more will remain entirely excluded

about diversification. In the end, it will be good for the economy. When we diversify, we create jobs. We are using the fall in oil price as an opportunity to do things differently. We have taken a bold step in this budget, despite the financial challenge.

We are expecting more resources from non oil to oil revenues.”

The Minister further added that the government has plans to improve on tax collection insisting that the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) is championing that bid.

He also said that the Customs is another agency the government is looking at to generate funds.

Minister of Finance , Mrs Kemi Adeosun who also spoke before the Joint Committee. Said that the economy was struggling.

Era of failed promises gone in Rivers —Wike

RIVERS State governor, Nyesom Wike, has declared that the era of empty political promises in the political arena of the state is gone, saying that every single campaign promise he made will be fulfilled by his administration.

Speaking during the foundation laying ceremony of the Rumuwoji (Mile 1) Market Phase 2, in Port Harcourt, on Thursday, Governor Wike said he remains committed to the delivery of quality projects that will enhance the standard of living of the people.

He said that he pledged during his campaign tour to rebuild the burnt Rumuwoji Market when the Rotimi Amaechi -led administration used it to play politics. He said the groundbreaking which will be driven to completion is in fulfilment of his pledge.

“You people have done your part by voting for me as your governor. It is now my turn to fulfill my campaign promises, which we have already started.

At the completion of the market, the indigenes of Rumuwoji will be allocated a percentage of the shops”.

Abandoned babies

From left, Controller of Prisons, Oyo State command, Mr Tairudeen Ogunmola; Founder, Centre for Justice, Mercy and Reconciliation (CJMR), Pastor Hezekiah Olujobi; Assistant Commissioner of Police, Oyo State, Mr Chinedu Oko; Mr Dapo Olasoye and Mrs Victoria Olujobi, during a thanksgiving service of Fruitful Prison Ministry of Pastor Olujobi, at CJMR Half Way Home, Iyana Bodija, Ojoo Expressway, Ibadan, on Thursday. PHOTO: YEMI FUNSO-OKE.

Lassa fever claims 3 in Ebonyi, govt confirms THE Ebonyi State government, on Thursday, confirmed that the dreaded Lassa fever has claimed three lives in the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Daniel Umezurike, disclosed this to newsmen in Abakaliki,the state capital, on the out-

come of the State Government’s Rapid Response Committee meeting on the disease.

“The victims died because their cases were not reported early to the appropriate quarters and their situation degenerated before being reported.

“We have successfully treated 49 suspected cases with the drug of choice, as most of the patients had clinical symptoms of Lassa fever which turned out negative after the diagnosis.

“We have increased our surveillance across

Academic, labour, civil society groups honour Eskor Toyo •Burial tomorrow in A/Ibom Banji Aluko - Benin City

MEMBERS of the academic community, the labour movement and civil society groups, on Thursday, converged on Benin City, Edo State, to honour the achievements of the late labour leader and Marxist, Professor Eskor Toyo.

Professor Toyo, who was also an essayist and human rights activist, died on December 7, 2015 and will be buried tomorrow (Saturday) in Oron, Akwa Ibom State.

Those who spoke at the event held at the Edo State head office of the Environment Right Action (ERA), described the late Toyo as one of the finest minds, scholars and philosophers ,the nation has ever produced, regretting that the ideals he stood for did not materialise in his life.

In his remark, Professor Tony Afejuku of the Department of English, University of Benin, noted that the late Toyo did not die a happy man because those he relied on in the Nigerian

project betrayed the ideas and ideals he stood for.

A friend of Professor Toyo, Mr Jonathan Ihonde, in his address, said the late Toyo’s human rights activism spanned 75 years, remarking that the last paper delivered by Toyo was in Benin.

Ihonde, said the late activist was a nationalist, who fought against colonialism in Africa and the unity of the Nigerian nation, describing him as “a nomadic revolutionary who lectured and raised people’s consciousness.”

the state on the disease and urge the citizens to take preventive measures against it while promptly reporting suspected cases,” he said.

The Secretary to the State Government (SSG) Professor Bernard Odoh, said that the state Virology Centre, would be completed in three weeks to assist in diagnosing such diseases.

“We have to commence the project despite the Federal Government’s pledge to construct the centre in the state.

“This is due to the seriousness we attach to curbing the disease with emphasis on early diagnosis of such diseases.

“The only diagnostic centre in the South-East and South-South zones is at Irua, Edo State, as our project has reached the lintel level with construction work ongoing continuously.

Atanda Amosun

A boy of about two years plus, Atanda Amosun, was abandoned at the centre of the road, around Atanda Oladimu Street, Alagba Estate, Oyero, Ogun State, on May 13, 2015, at about 10:30 hours

Buhari Amosun

A boy of about two years old, Buhari Amosun, was found at Paseda area of Ijagba, Sagamu, Ogun State, on January 28, 2016.

Anyone with useful information about the whereabouts of their parents and relatives, should, please, contact the nearest police station or the Director, Social Welfare Services, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Oke-Mosan, Abeokuta, Ogun State,

45

Friday, 4 March, 2016

46

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Friday, 4 March, 2016

2016 Obafemi Awolowo symposium: Communique

A

communique issued at the Obafemi Awolowo Commemorative Symposium entitled “The Awo, Then and Now: Politics, Economics & Education”, held on Thursday, March 3rd, 2016 at the Efunyela Hall, Obafemi Awolowo Residence, Ikenne-Remo, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Preamble Whereas the country is currently undergoing a myriad of challenges in the political, economic, educational and social spheres, the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, as it annually does, mounted a one-day symposium in order to dissect the challenges and prospects of the Nigerian nations. Ideas and insights presented by discussants, panellists and guests revolved around the ideas and ideals of the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Observations (1) Chief Obafemi Awolowo, first Premier of the Western Nigeria and former Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council, was and still remains the benchmark for good gover-

nance even after 30 years he had passed on.

(2) Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s legacies cut across education, economy, labour, welfare, among others.

(3) There is now a reverse of the good old legacies that were put in place in the times of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

(4) There is a general tendency to imitate Awolowo’s legacies by some progressive politicians, but this has not been all-encompassing in terms of human development (5) The most stellar legacy of Obafemi Awolowo was education, which his government implemented at regional level, even though was not allowed to be replicated at the national level.

(6) There was grave existential challenges facing the country, especially in the areas of national security, human development and economic productivity (7) There is now a dearth of educational progress and the trend must be reversed, particularly in the western part of Nigeria.

(8) There is a dearth of pol-

(12) The current economic crisis is a result of over-reliance on oil, ( mono-cultural economy, which has been compounded by corruption of the extraction agents among the political elites.

(13) Nigeria’s federal structure is defective in need of reforms

Chief Obafemi Awolowo icy actions on sound recommendations that come out of intellectual gatherings such as seminars, conferences and workshops (9) Access to education has been done without sustainable funding adequate planning and sustainable findings strategies.

(10) There is a connection between educational development and economic development (11) There is a connection between state sponsored education of youths and the level of national consciousness and patriotism.

Recommendations (1) There should be fiscal prudence, geared towards economic growth and development to achieve national economic rebirth and prosperity.

(2) There is need convene National Economic conference that must involve experts and practitioners who will offer sound advice and proffer solutions to economic challenges.

(3) There is a need to tackle the malaise in the educational sector which must be urgently uprooted (4) Privatisation of education must be done hand in hand with adequate state budgetary allocation to the educational sector for both the children of the poor and the rich.

(5) There is a need to properly examine the contents and contexts of the national educational policy and carry out the necessary

reforms.

(6) There is need for self-education and personal development in order to improve on the quality of the citizens’ minds.

(7) There must be politics of progressive ideas, which must be both actionable and sustainable.

(8) Progressive politics and governance must be focused on development; and should be proactive and not retroactive.

(9) There is a need for a return to zonal orientation to carry the people along (10) There is a need to unite awoists and all progressives of all generations for ideological, political and cultural re-birth (11) Nigerians should imitate good leadership virtues and values of Obafemi Awolowo (12) There should be programmed–based political parties with clear ideas of what to do when in power.

(13) Leaders should re-examine their lifestyles and cut waste and be shining exemplary leaders.

(14) There is a need for continuous inter-generational discourse and participation in idea sharing and actionable plans.

Awolowo introduced issues-based politics to Nigeria — Awolowo-Dosumu WELCOME address by Dr Olatokunbo AwolowoDosumu, Executive Director of the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation, at the 2016 Obafemi Awolowo Birthday Commemorative Symposium, held at Efunyela Hall, Ikenne, on Thursday, March 3, 2016.

Protocols It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to this 2016 Obafemi Awolowo Birthday Commemorative Symposium which, rather unusually, is being hosted at the home of the sage and his iconic wife, Yeye Oodua H. I. D. Awolowo.

This is, however, not the first time the Obafemi Awolowo Foundation hosted an important event in this hall. In July 2011, we hosted a Special Dialogue with the theme, ‘Transformational Leadership and Good Governance: Lessons from the Awolowo Example’, at this venue. On that occasion, thanks to technology, Mama was able to follow the proceedings from the comfort of her sitting-room in the main house.

That dialogue was the precursor of the Obafemi Awolowo Prize for Leadership, an award which, by all accounts, has gained international acceptance for all the right reasons, not least of which is the stature and reputation of the personage after whom it is named, plus an impressive lineup of patriots on the Selection Committee.

In the words of Maxwell Anderson, “there are some men who lift the age they inhabit, till all men walk on higher ground in that lifetime.” Chief Obafemi Awolowo was, without a doubt, one of such men.

We cannot but continue to remind ourselves about his outstanding performance in, and remarkable attitude to governance.

We do this to constantly challenge contemporary leaders to emulate his extraordinary record in office and, thereby, propel Nigeria’s development pace in the right direction and secure a befitting place for her in an increasingly knowledge-driven world. A few reminders will suffice: Chief Awolowo, through his party, the Action Group, introduced issues-based politics to Nigeria when the party was launched in 1951.

The party promised four freedoms in its manifesto, three of which were “freedom from ignorance, freedom from disease and freedom from want’. In other words, he articulated a development agenda that put people firmly at the centre of the process.

On January 17, 1955, the epochal free primary education scheme was launched in the Western Region of Nigeria. In his budget speech in March that year, Chief Awolowo said, “Of our total expenditure of £12.45 million not less than 82.6% is devoted to services and projects which directly cater for the health, education, prosperity and general welfare of

that thrift is one of the keynotes of this government, and the general well-being of our people the supreme law.”

Let me invite you to fast-forward to the present, however. In order to focus our discussions I will here introduce a few posers: 1.

Would Chief Awolowo, a passionate federalist, have endorsed our current militarized and over-centralized federalism in which the states and federating units have become helplessly dependent on the centre?

2.

What lessons can we draw from the innovative fiscal strategies embarked upon by Chief Awolowo in the course of his seminal advent into politics at regional and national levels?

Dr Awolowo-Dosumu our people. Of this high percentage, 27.8% goes to education, 10.7% to medical services, 5.4% to agriculture…’

Indeed, on assumption of office in 1952, he enunciated three principles by which the drafting of the Region’s budget would be guided. Essentially, these principles were about spending more money on services which would enhance the welfare, health and education of the people at the expense of any expenditure that did not ‘answer to the same test’.

He went on to say in his 1955 budget speech, “from the figures I have just quoted, Honourable Members will see quite plainly

3.

One of Chief Awolowobetter known legacies centres around human development, in particular free and qualitative education. How can the nation draw upon his visionary example to revive a comatose educational sector?

4.

Are there any lessons to be drawn from the outstanding sacrificial example of the late sage in values, public morality, prudence, and the fight against corruption?

5. In an increasingly knowledge-driven world, what are the chances for Nigeria’s development, given our current dismal showing on the human

development index?

I ask you, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, to focus on these and other issues. We seek for your vibrant participation because this symposium is intended, in keeping with the tradition of the foundation, as a public event with a notable element of public input. As much as possible, the event will be interactive so that public opinion on the important issues to be discussed can be gauged and factored. As previously, a communique outlining the main suggestions and resolutions will be issued at the end of the proceedings.

This symposium is the first of two events being hosted by the Foundation to commemorate the birthday of Chief Awolowo this year. The other event is the boys’ under-10 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial and girls’ under-15, now renamed HID Awolowo Memorial, football competitions, the finals of which will be played at Ajele Stadium on Tuesday, March 8, starting at 2pm.

This year, teams from Ogun State are participating for the first time. It gives me immense joy to inform you that two girls and two boys who participated in the competition in previous years are reported to have made it into the relevant national teams.

Let me conclude by wishing you all an exciting and fruitful time at this symposium. I thank you for your attention.

Dr Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu March 3, 2016

47

Friday, 4 March, 2016

2016 OBAFEMI AWOLOWO MEMORIAL SYMPOSIUM

From left, Funke Awolowo; Executive Director, Obafemi Awolowo Foundation (OAF), Ambassador (Dr) Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu; Chairman, African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, Reverend (Mrs) Omotola Oyediran; Mrs Wemimo Anifowose and Mrs Kemi Aderemi, cutting the cake at the 2016 Obafemi Awolowo Memorial Sympoisum, held at Ikenne-Remo, Ogun State, on Thursday.

Professor Ladipo Adamolekun (moderator) receiving an award from Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu.

Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu presenting an award to Professor Ayo Olukotun.

PHOTOS: TOMMY ADEGBITE & D’TOYIN

Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu presenting an award to the guest speaker, Professor Segun Gbadegesin.

Senator Femi Okurounmu (left) receiving an award from Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu.

Professor Williams Alade Fawole receiving an award from Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu.

Representative of the Ondo State governor, Mr Remi Olatubora, receiving an award on behalf of the governor from Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu.

From left, Mr Remi Olatubora, General Oladipo Diya, Sir Olaniwun Ajayi and Mr Dare Babarinsa.

From left, Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu; Kaduna State governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai and Engineer Biodun

A cross section of bishops cutting the cake with Reverend (Mrs) Oyediran and Ambassador (Dr) Awolowo Dosumu.

SIDELINES

N150

FRIDAY, 4 MARCH, 2016

NO 16,450

A 16-year-old boy after a relative woke him up for school opened fire on four members of his family including his younger sister and 67-year-old grandmother. Now in custody, will police not make this teenager undergo psychiatric test before he acts scene two of the ‘horror film’?

AFCON qualifiers:

I want to beat Egypt home and away —Siasia

Saliu Gbadamosi - Abuja

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NTERIM head coach of the Super Eagles, Samson Siasia has expressed optimism that Nigeria has what it takes to beat the Pharaohs of Egypt both at home and away in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers later this month.

Siasia, while speaking in Abuja, after he released a 42-man squad that would face the seven-time African champions, urged Nigerians to have confidence in his team as well.

“Personally, I will give everything that I have to offer for us to win both matches. I want to passionately appeal to Nigerians, everybody, to show belief in the team and give us total support.

“I have absolute faith in the players. Nigeria is blessed with so many talented footballers across the world and I know that those we are inviting for this match will give everything for the six points in both matches. “ I t will not be easy, but if we stick together and present a united force to fight this battle, I believe we will triumph,” said the man who coached Nigeria to win silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

The returnee Eagles

Onazi

coach, it will be recalled, was in charge when Nigeria missed the 2012 AFCON ticket, while defending the 42-man list stated that only the exceptional play-

...Invites uncapped Adi, 41 others UNCAPPED Fanendo Adi is among the 42 players listed by coach Samson Siasia for the double header against Egypt.

As witnessed during the era of Sunday Oliseh, who unearth Wolverhampton Wanderers goalkeeper, Carl Ikeme, Siasia this time has seen a potential in Adi, who has been making waves in the American Major League Soccer (MLS) Adi, fired 19 goals last season for Portland Timbers which helped the side to clinch a first-ever MLS championship.

Siasia also recalled Chelsea loanee Victor Moses, striker Aaron Samuel, who recently joined Russian club CSKA Moscow on loan from China, as well as the regulars led by captain Ahmed Musa.

Twenty-two of the invited players who are from the domestic league are expected to open the camp at the Bolton White Apartments, Abuja on Sunday, March 6, before the arrival of their foreign-based

Eagles won’t miss AFCON ticket —Onazi NIGERIAN international, Ogenyi Onazi believes the Super Eagles will grab the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2017 ticket despite the hot challenge from the Pharaohs of Egypt.

The Lazio midfielder pointed out that the Eagles are no strangers to walking a tight rope during qualifying round for major tournaments.

“This time, it’s going to be a different ball game. It’s unfortunate that we are always in situation like this when we want to qualify for major competitions like the Nations Cup and World Cup. “I believe this time round we will be matured about it and we know how the emotions were when we couldn’t make it to the last edition of the Nations Cup. We will be very direct and serious about it.

“There are no unbeatable teams in the world. We can actually beat them. They are coming to our home first and victory in the match is very important for us. We have to do all we can to beat them and go top of

the group because that’s the surest way we can qualify,” the 2013 AFCON winner told Africanfootball.com.

Onazi expressed shock over the sudden resignation of Sunday Oliseh as head coach of the Super

Eagles.

“Coach Oliseh’s resignation came to me as a surprise. I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t really know what happened and how it happened, but that’s his decision, I am sure he has his reasons for doing that.

“Coach Samson Siasia is a great coach, he has achieved with various Nigeria teams. I am looking forward to working with him and have a great performance with him,” said Onazi who featured at the 2014 World Cup.

Nigeria improves in FIFA rankings

By Olawale Olaniyan NIGERIA has moved up one place in the latest rankings released on Thursday by the world soccer governing body, FIFA.

Mikel

The Super Eagles are ranked 62nd in the world and 11th in Africa.

It will be recalled, that Nigeria’s best position in FIFA rankings was in 1994 when the Super Eagles were rated fifth best in the world and first on the continent.

The three-time African champions, occupied the 63rd spot in the world and 12th in Africa for the month of January rankings.

In what appears to be the greatest leap, Cape Verde moves on top of the ladder in Africa ahead of Cote d’Ivoire.

Cape Verde according to FIFA

ers who “show ability to run and decimate the opposition” will make the team for the double header. The first leg tie holds in Kaduna on March 25.

is now the 31st best team in the world, while Cote d’Ivoire is 36th in the world, as Algeria is rated third in Africa and 37th in the world.

Ghana (41), Tunisia (47), Senegal (48), Egypt (53), Congo DR (58), Republic of Congo (59), Cameroon (61) and Nigeria (62) are rated in that order respectively.

Belgium remains the world’s best football nation, while Argentina, Spain, Germany, Chile, Brazil and Portugal followed in that order.

The trio of Colombia, England and Austria complete the top best 10 teams in the world.

colleagues from Sunday, March 20.

The squad: Goalkeepers: Carl Ikeme (Wolverhampton Wanderers/ England), Daniel Akpeyi (Chippa United/South Africa), Ikechukwu Ezenwa (Sunshine Stars), Emmanuel Daniel (Enugu Rangers), Olufemi Thomas (Enyimba).

Defenders: Ambrose Efe (Celtic/Scotland), Shehu Abdullahi (Uniao da Madeira/Portugal), Elderson Echiejile (AS Monaco/ France), Stanley Amuzie (Olhanense/Portugal), Godfrey Oboabona (Rizespor/Turkey), Kenneth Omeruo (Kasimpasa/Turkey) Orji Kalu (Enugu Rangers), Chibuzor Okonkwo (FC IfeanyiUbah), Austin Obaroakpo (Abia Warriors), Oke Ogogatewho (Warri Wolves), Sincere Seth (Supreme Court FC), Segun Oduduwa (Nath Boys), Chima Akas (Akwa United), Chris Madaki (Kano Pillars), Etim Matthew (Enugu Rangers).

Midfielders: Onazi Ogenyi (Lazio/Italy), Mikel Obi (Chelsea/ England), Azubuike Okechukwu (Yeni Malatyaspor, Turkey), Ifeanyi Mathew (Kano Pillars), Usman Mohammed (Uniao da Madeira/Portugal), Etebo Oghenekaro (Warri Wolves), Stanley Dimgba (Sunshine Stars), Yau Hassan (FC Taraba).

Forwards: Ahmed Musa, Aaron Samuel (CSKA Moscow/Russia), Moses Simon (Gent/Belgium), Victor Moses (West Ham/England), Odion Ighalo (Watford/England), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal/England), Umar Aminu (Osmalispor/Turkey), Fenando Adi (Portland Timbers/USA), Ezekiel Bassey (Enyimba), Prince Aggreh (Kano Pillars), Bright Onyedikachi (FC IfeanyiUbah), Chikatara Chisom (Wydad Casabalanca/Morocco) and Godwin Obaje (Wikki Tourists), Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City/England).

Adi

Printed and Published by the African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, Imalefalafia Street, Oke-Ado, Ibadan. E mail: editornigeriantribune@yahoo.com Website: www.tribuneonlineng.com MANAGING DIRECTOR / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: EDWARD DICKSON. EDITOR: DEBO ABDULAI. All Correspondence to P.O. Box 78, Ibadan. ISSN 2712. ABC Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 4/3/2016.