8th July 2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 16,541

FRIDAY, 8 JULY, 2016

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Nigerian Tribune

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From left, member, Senate Committee on Local and Foreign Debts, Senator Ahmed Sani Yerima; chairman, Senator Shehu Sani; DirectorGeneral, Debt Management Office (DMO), Dr Abraham Nwankwo and another member of the DMO management, after a retreat organised by the DMO for the Senate committee, in Minna, Niger State.

No secret recruitment in NNPC, FIRS, CBN —Presidency —P9

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Nigerian Tribune

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Ajimobi demands apology from teachers, students to —P33 reopen schools

PENGASSAN insists on strike

—P3

•Meeting between govt, union now to hold Monday 'Makarfi, Sheriff meeting to resolve PDP crisis' —P35

SERAP writes ICC, to prosecute govs owing workes' —P34

Dogara to ring bell at Nigerian Stock Exchange today EID FUN: Children enjoying the season at the Magic Land, Abuja, on Thursday. PHOTO: SUNDAY OSUNRAYI.

—P3

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

businessnews PENGASSAN insists on strike 3

Nigerian Tribune

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Rescheduled meeting between govt, union holds on Monday Soji-Eze Fagbemi and Tunde Dodondawa with Agency Reports

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HE Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), on Thursday, said that there was no going back on its planned strike slated to have commenced by 12 a.m on Thursday.

Mr Francis Johnson, the national President of PENGASSAN made the assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

He said that the issues had been pending for so long and that the government had not shown enough seriousness over the matters.

According to him, government is trying to apply fire brigade approach to a serious matter.

“We have discussed this matter long enough for the government to address us but it closed its ears, now the authorities are calling for dialogue.

“We are ready to work with Mr President to succeed but other agencies involved in the discussion were not showing serious concern over the matter and we don’t have any choice than to proceed on strike,’’ he said.

Johnson said that the inability of the Federal Government to honour its agreements contained in May 12, 2016 communiqué was the

reason for calling for the strike.

He said that some of the issues included lingering irregular Joint Venture Funding and Cash Call Payment arrears and lack of a clear cut direction on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

Others are forceful co-option of government agencies into the Integrated Personnel Payroll Information System (IPPIS) and the spate of redundancy and retrenchment in the industry.

The PENGASSAN president said that several efforts to engage the government to forestall the strike were frustrated.

He said that before now, the union tried to engage the gov-

ernment on May 24, 2016, which was inconclusive.

He added that the engagement was later fixed for June 23, 2016, which did not take place and again for June 30, 2016 and which was unceremoniously cancelled with no date given.

“We see this as a deliberate attempt by the government to frustrate the discussion of the myriad of issues raised in the communiqué which are critical to the survival of the oil and gas industry in the country.

“Among the burning issues raised is that of the Joint Venture Funding/Cash Call arrears, which has stalled new investments and the creation of jobs and which has

From left, Dapo Olagunju, Group Treasurer, Access Bank Plc; Herbert Wigwe, GMD/CEO, Clive Harwood, Editor, Euromoney, and Roosevelt Ogbonna, Executive Director, Commercial Banking, Access Bank during the Euromoney 2016 Awards for Excellence dinner which held on Wednesday night at the Tower of London, London, United Kingdom where Access Bank won ‘Africa’s Best Bank Transformation’ award.

Expert decries delay of BRISIN project THE delay by the Federal Government in implementing the Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN), is holding back foreign investors and the European Union in confirming their participation in the scheme.

The Head of BRISIN International team from Italy, Professor Vincenzo Naso, at a stakeholders’ meeting in Abuja, told the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, that the failure to expedite action on the project has denied Nigeria the benefit of efficient planning and rapid economic development. Prof. Naso and his team were in Nigeria for the flag off of the project which has been on the drawing board since 2007 when an agreement was signed with Dermo Impex, the solution providers.

They left for Italy with mixed feelings owing to lack of proper coordination between the Ministry and the National Bureau of Statistics.

“Delaying this project has caused Nigeria some reasonable setback in credibility and proper economic planning. It has negatively affected internally generated revenue, fiscal policy and management,

security control and migration monitor as well as provision of social welfare services.

“I have the strong opinion that the continued delay of this project is dangerous and your government cannot afford to allow other smaller African countries move ahead while you keep watching without taking the necessary steps developed countries took to get to where they are today,” Prof. Naso told the

minister.

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma, described the project as very useful to proper planning and organised development. He promised to ensure its prompt implementation as soon as he receives the report of the technical team supervised by the Statistician-General of the Federation.

Head of BRISIN implementation in Nigeria, Dr Anthony

Uwa, described the scheme as “one instrument that guarantees security, job creation, social services and welfare, justice and equity, economic monitoring and control, good fiscal policy and discipline, good governance and rapid democratic development. For me and Nigerians in Diaspora, BRISIN cannot be delayed even for one day if this government must make the change.”

Dogara to ring bell at Nigerian Stock Exchange Friday Jacob Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel - Abuja SPEAKER of the House of Representatives,Hon. Yakubu Dogara, will on Friday ring the bell at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) in Lagos.

A statement issued by the Special Adviser on Media and Public Affairs to the Speaker, Mr Turaki Hassan said that Dogara, will ring the bell to close activities on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange by 2pm on Friday.

The speaker was invited to the NSE in recognistion of his contribution and that of the House of Representatives in deepening of the

market through legislation.

The statement noted that Dogara has been championing calls for the deepening of the stock exchange as it will be recalled that he had while declaring open a conference organised by the House Committee on Capital Market and Institutions chaired by Hon. Tajuddeen Yusuf had said that the House may pass laws that will compel multinational oil, gas and telecommunications companies doing business in the country to list a certain percentage of their value on the NSE. He had stated further that large companies in the listed sectors must be compelled to list on the capital market in order to deepen the market

and make capital available for investors and create employment.

The speaker has also called for severe sanctions against fraudulent stock market players as part of measures to strengthen the country’s financial market.

The House of Representatives had initiated legislation to effectively regulate the stock market to ensure the safety of investors’ funds.

While expressing confidence that the stock market could provide the needed platform to revamp Nigeria’s economy, the speaker had also said the House of Representatives was ready to contribute its quota, to check the drift in the sector.

consequently brought about massive job losses.

“We have equally noted with great dismay that our tertiary institutions keep churning out graduates with no or very limited job placement opportunities,’’ Johnson said.

“Even for those that are fortunate to have jobs, it has been a tug-of-war getting their salaries paid as when due and are faced with redundancies on a regular basis, especially in the service sector.

“We cannot fold our hands and watch this gradual collapse of our strategic oil and gas industry and its attendant consequences on the nation’s economy.

Corroborating the national president stand on the strike, the association’s Public Relations Officer, Comrade Ojugbana said that the strike has really commenced despite the Eid-el Filtri public holiday declared by the Federal Government.

According to a statement by the PENGASSAN National Public Relations Officer, Comrade Emmanuel Ojugbana, “there is no iota of truth in the report that the strike has been called off or suspended.

“As we speak now, some of our members that are in the offshore have been withdrawn, while others who are on critical equipment have commenced gradual shutting down of such equipment before their final disengagement.

“Our members, especially those in offices and downstream sector will join tomorrow (Friday) as they resume from the Eid el Fitri holiday.”

Comrade Ojugbana has restated that the strike was to press home PENGASSAN demands for government’s attention to some critical challenges impacting the survival of the nation’s oil and gas industry.

However, the meeting between the Ministers of Labour and Petroleum with the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) on how to stave off the association’s planned strike would hold on Monday, July 11, 2016.

The meeting had earlier on been scheduled for Thursday July 7, 2016, but later shifted to Friday.

The President of the Union, Comrade Olabode Johnson who spoke on their invitation by the government and their position on the strike said the union was invited for a meeting scheduled for Friday (today) but it was impossible to hold the meeting today.

“They invited for a meeting tomorrow (today) but we told them it is not possible and was shifted for Monday,” he said.

However, the PENGASSAN president said the strike commences 12 midnight today, because nothing was done by the government on the letters they have written since April, until the eve of the strike.

Comrade Olabode said: “While we wait for the meeting, the strike will commence from midnight today because we have written to government on this situation since April and nothing was done. So, we should not be held responsible for what goes wrong in the sector.

“We are also concern with what is happening in the country which is why we issue an ultimatum that expired last week; and not until when we asked our members to shun their duty post that the government deemed it fit to hurriedly call us for a meeting. Not until we declared the strike, the government did not deem it fit to see to our plight.”

The Federal Government had failed to hold the crucial meeting earlier scheduled to hold on Thursday with PENGASSAN and NUPENG over the imminent nationwide strike by PENGASSAN. However, the Minister of Labour and Employment, Sen. Chris Ngige, appealed to the leadership of PENGASSAN to put on hold its planned strike, scheduled to commence yesterday.

Ngige, while begging the union to halt the strike, said this was necessary in view of the ongoing negotiations and in the spirit of social dialogue.

The government said the conciliation meeting failed to hold as planned yesterday due to the spirit of the season and the national holidays.

But it added that the meeting will be held today to resolve the lingering crisis.

“In consideration of the season and national holidays, the conciliation meeting has been rescheduled,” the Deputy Director (press), Ministry of Labour and Employment, Prince Samuel Olowookere said on Thursday.

He added: “The Minister of Labour and Employment Sen. Chris Nwabueze Ngige and the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources Ibe Kachikwu will now hold the crucial meeting with Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) tomorrow (today) to put a lasting solution to the lingering problems in the oil and gas sector.

“The meeting is now slated for tomorrow Friday 8th July, 2016 at Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Minister’s Board Room, 11th Floor, NNPC Towers, Abuja by 11:00am Prompt.”

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

Nigeria’s unity negotiable, IYC tells Buhari Ebenezer Adurokiya - Warri

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HE Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) worldwide has described as unacceptable, the statement credited to President Muhammadu Buhari, on Wednesday, that the country’s unity was not negotiable.

Eric Omare, spokesman of IYC, made the declaration in a press statement signed and made available to journalists, on Thursday, in Warri, Delta State.

Omare said the present realities in the country were different from the realities during the regime of former Head of State, Gen-

eral Yakubu Gowon, whom Buhari quoted in his statement to support his notion.

He said Buhari’s nonnegotiable approach to the country’s unity “is an old fashioned approach to the resolution of national problems” currently plaguing the country.

“This is more so as Presi-

dent Buhari, in making the said statement, quoted former Head of State, General Gowon’s comment in 1967 on the unity of Nigeria.

“The circumstances of the present day Nigeria demands a renegotiation of the future unity and existence of Nigeria.

“This demand is not pe-

culiar to the Niger Delta region, but cuts across all parts of the country,” the IYC image-maker noted.

Omare said the progress of the country was anchored on the need for President Buhari to wake up to the present reality that the current agitations from various ethnic na-

Alleged Mobilisation fee fraud: NYSC e-registration platform serving purpose —Group Adetola Bademosi -Abuja IN reactions to a recent suit against the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) over an alleged mobilisation fee fraud, the Coalition of Civil Society Groups (CCSG) has declared that the scheme’s online registration platform is serving the purpose.

It stated that, so far, the platform had extended the scheme’s deployment of Information Communication Technology (ICT) beyond just providing corps members with their call up information.

While addressing newsmen in Abuja, on Thursday, the group’s national president, Bassey Williams Etuk, said the group had to commend the scheme

after its assessment of the programme after some months of its introduction and in the face of condemnation from some quarters.

An Advocacy group, under the aegis of Citizens Advocacy Initiative for Accountable Leadership (CAIFAL), had recently dragged the NYSC, before a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos over alleged mobilisation fraud.

Respondents in the suit were Director-General of NYSC, Sidmach Technologies Ltd, Minister of Youths and Sports and the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).

The group, in the suit, asked the court to declare that by virtue of the provisions of the NYSC Act 1993, the first to third respondents

F-7Ni fighter aircraft strikes Boko Haram location in Borno THE Air Component of Operetion Lafiya Dole recorded another major success on Thursday in its air campaign against Boko Haram terrorists, as 2x F7Ni fighter aircraft struck a terrorists’ location in Northern Borno.

The location lies between Tumbum Rego and Malkonory and is about 25km from Kangarwa where own surface forces are currently harboured.

The location, as can be seen from the enclosed footage, according to a statement made available to the Nigerian Tribune and signed by the Director of Public Relations, Operation Lafiya Dole, Group Captain Ayodele Famuyiwa, harboured BHT makeshift structures and about four to six clusters of solar panels, which were used by the terrorists to power communications equipment and for lighting. ‘‘The latest strike is part of the air operations conducted by the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) in support of the efforts by own surface

forces and the Multi National Joint Task Force to rid the northern part of Borno State of the remnants BHTs in an operation codenamed: “Operation Gama Aiki.” ‘‘The location, prior to the strike on Thursday, had been under surveillance for sometime, but was reported active by a NAF Beechcraft aircraft on Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) mission. Thereafter, the fighter aircraft were immediately scrambled for interdiction. ‘‘The success of this operation is another major setback for the BHTs, even as the NAF intensifies air operations in the North-East against the insurgents.

More so, it is instructive to note that the mission, on Thursday, was conducted by a crew amid the Sallah celebration. This brings to fore the commitment of NAF personnel towards successfully bringing the hostility in the NorthEast to an end within the shortest possible time,’’the statement read.

had no statutory rights to demand a pre-mobilisation fee from prospective corps members.

Bassey, who stated that the CCSG had made it a point of duty to access the effectiveness of the eplatform noted that it had achieved the essence of its establishment.

He said: “Paying to process call-up letters online is totally optional. It is not compulsory. NYSC made it optional because of the realisation that not every corps member will need or can afford it and the merits outweigh any other disadvantage.”

Fielding questions from newsmen on its involvement in the whole process, Bassey said CSOs as stakeholders were involved in the introduction of the e-mobilisation when parents, members of the civil society groups, members of student bodies, and people from the universities who were not members of NANS were brought in to deliberate on the effectiveness of the platform.

“What we stood against then was the N4,000 price tag placed on it and we instantly pressured that it should be reduced to N3,000 which was agreed

upon.

“We want to say categorically that the issue of emobilisation, as far as we are concerned, is one of the best things that happened to the scheme. And we will also use this opportunity to applaud the handlers, Sidmach for it expertise.

“We want to still condemn the action of some groups who are not properly briefed on the issue of the online that they should desist from any distractions and should seek for clarification before embarking on any action against the scheme,” he said.

tionalities for true federalism, resource control, regionalism and other demands, were not a fluke.

“For Nigeria to make progress, President Buhari should face the reality of the present day situation.

“Nigerians want a renegotiated Nigeria that reflects a true federal state and allows people to grow at their own pace.

“Nigeria, as presently constituted, is suffocating and the federating ethnic nationalities can no longer bear the suffocating effect of the defective structure which hampers the development of the country,” he stated.

According to him, “It is in the interest of all Nigerians to renegotiate the future unity of Nigeria. ‘‘Nigerians want a country that is united on mutually agreed terms and not the present defective structure.”

The IYC, therefore, called on “President Buhari to wake up and face the reality of the situation and stop relying on outdated notion of Nigeria’s unity,” insisting that Nigerians demanded a renegotiation.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

Avengers strike again, hit Chevron manifolds in Warri

Close social network accounts •Bombing will soon end —NSCDC boss

By Ebenezer Adurokiya and Adelowo Oladipupo E M B E R S of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), late Wednesday blew up Chevron manifolds in a location not specifically mentioned by the group.

Conflicting reports said the attacked facilities were located at Debie or Jones Creek in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State.

The Avengers, which made the attack known on its website late Wednesday, said it blew up RMP 22, 23 and 24 all suspected to be in Warri North.

In the statement signed by its spokesperson, Brigadier General Mudoch Agbinibo, the group said: “Between the hours of 10:50pm to 11:10pm our (Niger Delta Avengers) strike team blew up Chevron Manifolds. The manifolds are RMP 22, 23 and 24.”

No security agency could confirm the attack, but a source from Chevron told the Nigerian Tribune that the said manifolds had been attacked in the recent past.

Meanwhile, the group, which wished its readers, a “Happy Eid Mubarak to our Muslim Brothers,” said it was closing all its social network accounts due to the activities of scammers and impersonators.

It denied being responsible for the alleged attack on NNPC’s pipeline at Eleme in Rivers State on Saturday, noting that other groups carrying out their heinous activities should claim responsibility instead of accusing Avengers falsely.

The group, therefore, warned the media to beware of the impostors and always follow its activities only on its website henceforth.

“This Facebook Account/ page is an impostor page that was opened by fraudster to deceive the general public.

“We are warning that any group that wants to do anything should go about their activities without tagging us (Niger Delta Avengers). Do your activities and claim responsibility.

“The NNPC pipeline in Eleme that was posted by this Facebook account yesterday wasn’t carried out by Niger Delta Avengers.

“We are calling all national dailies to take note. Niger Delta Avengers is not out to mislead the public.

“As a result, we are closing all our social network accounts and will be using our websites to pass information to the general public,” the group disclosed.

It will be recalled that the group resumed hostilities

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against the country’s oil economy last weekend, attacking oil and gas facilities belonging to NPDC, NNPC and Chevron at different locations in Warri.

Senior Media Aide to President Muhammadu Buhari, Malam Garba Shehu had, on Wednesday, in an article accused the group of killing smokers and policemen of the Federal Republic to which the militants had denied.

Meanwhile, The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) said on Thursday that the dialogue approach adopted by the Federal Government with militants would end the ongoing bombings of oil facilities in the Niger Delta.

The NSCDC Commandant General, Alhaji Abdullahi Muhammadu, gave the assurance while speaking

with journalists in Minna.

“The Federal Government has commenced negotiations with some of the aggrieved militants in the region on the need to sheath their swords and embrace peaceful resolutions of all perceived grievances that led to the bombing of oil pipelines in the region.

“To the best of my knowledge, I think the Federal Government is already ne-

gotiating with them.

“At the last meeting we had, we discussed at length and very soon all these bombings will come to an end.”

Muhammadu explained that the government chose the option of dialogue with the militant groups in order not to send a wrong signal to the international community on some of the happenings in the country.

From left, United Nations Assistant Secretary General, Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Sahel, Mr Toby Lanzer; the Wali of Borno, Alhaji Abdullahi Idris; Borno State governor, Kashim Shettima and the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, at the inauguration of a 50,000 capacity solar borehole provided by the Army, in Dikwa, Borno State, on Thursday. PHOTO: NAN.

Leave oil companies alone, Tsav tells Avengers Johnson Babajide - Makurdi AS the militant youths in the Niger Delta under the auspices of ‘Avengers’ continue their attacks on oil companies, former commissioner of police, Lagos State, Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, has called on the militants to turn their attacks on their leaders.

Tsav who spoke with newsmen yesterday, in Makurdi, Benue State capital, decried the incessant attacks on the nation’s oil

wells.

He stated that the militants were misdirecting their anger on the nation, just as he urged them to turn the guns and bombs on their leaders, saying “they should rather turn the guns and bombs on their leaders who have impoverished the region through their corrupt attitude on the guise of representing their people.”

The socio crusader explained that the nation has

been so magnanimous to the Niger Delta region with the creation of Ministry of Niger Delta “solely to cater for their needs, also is the 13 per cent derivation to states from the region in the monthly federal allocation. Unfortunately, their leaders who supposed to be fair and just in the distribution of this wealth to their people have unjustly cornered everything to themselves through corrupt attitudes.”

Nigeria is moving forward —Bishop Oyedepo THE presiding Bishop of Living Faith Church (LFC) worldwide, Dr David Oyedepo, has described Nigeria as a country that is moving forward, in spite of its present economic challenges.

In a telecast via satellite monitored in Jos, Plateau State, Oyedepo said this when he addressed both local and international assembly of the church workers in a broadcast on Thursday morning.

He told the workers that both the nation and the

church were in a period of revival and that sacrifices would have to be made.

The bishop said that the era has come for private universities, championed by the church, to set standards and right moral codes in the educational system to make it thrive better, devoid of cultism and activism.

He noted that academic calendars of private universities had been maintained, even as lecturers and their students in conventional

universities go on strike.

“Private universities are here to restore the glory of the nation; it is clear that something is brewing in Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s healing is taking place now, and the health of the nation is being restored now. We are pushing darkness back,” he said.

He enjoined Christians involved in fostering the present revival of the nation by God through their prayers and work, not to relent as they are entitled to rewards from God.

“That is why I am telling the militants not to visit the sins of their corrupt leaders on the nation, let them turn the guns and bombs on those leaders who have mercilessly embezzled what belong to the people of the Niger Delta and allow peace to reign in the country,” Tsav said.

Tsav, a federal commissioner on Public Complaints Commission in Benue State, noted that the economic crisis bedevilling the nation at present was as a result of the rot created by the previous administration.

“You can not blame Muhammadu Buhari-led administration for the present economic woes, considering the rot he inherited from the previous administration. It was glaring that all amenities had been in comatose before this regime came on board and this is due to corrupt lifestyles of the previous administration,” urging Nigerians to be patient with President Buhari “to get us out of the woods.”

Nigerian Tribune

Buratai inaugurates 50,000 litre capacity borehole for Borno IDPs THE Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Tukur Buratai, on Thursday, inaugurated a 50,000 litre capacity solar borehole provided by the Nigerian Army in Dikwa, Borno, as part of the 2016 Army Day celebrations.

Buratai, accompanied by Governor Kashim Shettima of Borno State and top brass of the Nigerian Army, performed the ceremony in Dikwa, headquarters of Dikwa Local Government Area.

He explained that the Nigerian Army provided the borehole as part of its Civil-Military Relations Programme.

Buratai said that the aim was to assist in the provision of water to the numerous Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the town.

“The Nigerian Army decided to provide the 50,000 litre capacity borehole as part of its policy of enhancing the civil-military relations in the society.

“The main target is to help the numerous IDPs returning home,’’ he said.

US companies set to establish $100m cassava factory in Kwara Biola Azeez - Ilorin TWO American-based investors, Ecotech-rab and Tranfeed Group along with their Nigerian partner, Satco Global Group, are set to establish cassava production and processing factories in Kwara State in the next 18 months.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune in Edidi, Irepodun Local Government Area of the state, site of the factories, on Thursday, the group managing director of the partnering company, Mr Femi Philips, said the factories were expected to gulp a sum of $100 million and create about 2,500 jobs when completed.

Philips, who spoke with the Nigerian Tribune shortly after paying courtesy visit to the Eledidi of Edidi land, Oba Gabriel Aboyeji, in his palace, said, “The project is expected to gulp about 5,000 hectares of land. The first phase will be about two streams of 120 tonnes per day and there will be an upgrade of 48 tonnes per day; giving us about 168 tonnes per day for a stream.

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Nigerian Tribune

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Lagosmetro Tout gets N50,000 bail for riding free on train top Opeyemi Owoaseye

An overloaded trailer with people on top. PHOTOS: SYLVESTER OKORUWA

Suspected militants sack another Lagos community, rob, shoot residents Opeyemi Owoaseye

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O fewer than three people have been injured after suspected militants attacked Fatoki community in the Egan, Igando area of Lagos State.

Lagos Metro gathered that many of the residents have deserted the community after the militants laid a three-day siege on the community.

Aside those injured, shops and houses were said to have been burgled by the hoodlums, who numbered close to 100.

It was learnt that the robbers, mostly teenagers, entered into the community through the waterways.

Lagos Metro gathered that the community was bordered by waters, which made it susceptible to attacks from the militants, who lived in the surrounding creeks.

When Lagos Metro visited the community on Thursday, some families were seen locking their houses and hurrying out with their luggage on their heads.

A resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the community had been peaceful until two months ago.

He said “a man had run out of the creek in broad

daylight, naked and scared.

He was stopped by our security men. We thought he was mad, but upon interrogation, he said he was kidnapped and the militants had just released him. We called his relatives and they confirmed his story. Since then, we had been in fear.

“Three days ago, in the morning, they stormed the community with sporadic shootings at the junction.

They injured three people and looted shops.

“They took all the hard and soft drinks they could get and robbed people of their phones and money.”

Another resident told Lagos Metro that the robbers promised to return the day after to continue the attack.

He said: “Those people returned on Tuesday around 12 noon. Some of them wore red masks and others did not. They spoke English and a few even spoke Yoruba.

They ordered everyone to lie down. They took away my money and carried away my neighbour’s generator.

“They attacked a disabled cobbler on the road and took away his money.

A man, who was washing his car was shot. They collected his three phones and N35,000.”

A woman, who claimed to have also been attacked, said she was not around when the robbers struck the

first two days.

“I was in my room with my family Wednesday evening.

We were watching a movie around 9.00 p.m, when I saw four of them enter my room with guns. They wore masks. They ransacked my house and took away my phones and other valuables. They took huge sum of money I wanted to use for my business; I am now bankrupt,” she explained.

A trader, who asked not to be named, said the men broke into her shop and stole fruit juices and herbs, adding that her refrigerator was also taken away.

A community leader lamented that although the Wednesday operation lasted about two hours, the police did not show up until the robbers had gone.

“And when they came, they only patrolled the entrance to the community; they did not get to the crisis spot,” he said.

It was learnt that the robbers, after the Wednesday raid, promised to return on Thursday to kidnap and rape women in the community.

Lagos Metro, however, saw an Armoured Personnel Carrier at the entrance of the community.

Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos confirmed the case.

She said: “The report got

to us at the early hours of today.

“The information received shows some group of men suspected to be militants are attacking the community.

“The DPO led operatives to the scene, on sighting the policemen, the militants fled but about two of them were arrested. The arrest led to recovery of ammunition.

“During the attack, two people from the commu-

nity were shot and are currently receiving treatment in the hospital.

“Presently, the command has deployed adequate security personnel and equipment to the area to forestall recurrence, while we are working on the clue we have so far to unravel the case.

“The command is also imploring members of the public to promptly alert the police of any strange movement or occurrence within their community.”

Residents leaving the community. PHOTOS: OPEYEMI OWOASEYE

A 31-year-old man, Akinwale Biola, has been arrested and charged before an Ebute Metta Court for riding on top of a moving train roof.

The defendant was said to have committed the alleged criminal act on Friday, in Oshodi area of Lagos.

The suspect was reportedly arrested by the police and was taken to Railway Area Command, Ebute Metta junction, after the incident.

Akinwale was said to have allegedly endangered the lives of the train passengers by riding on the top roof of a moving train, thereby committing an offence punishable under the criminal law of Lagos State.

He was also accused of breaching the peace of the train passengers in the cause of the alleged criminal act.

The defendant was said to have been riding on the top roof of moving train before the very day he was eventually caught and was arrested by the police.

He was charged on threecount charge.

However, the defendant pleaded not guilty.

The defence counsel, Mrs I. E. Adebambo, applied for bail for him on the basis that the defendant had no criminal record before and his family members were present in court.

She said “I humbly apply for the bail of the defendant, he does not have any criminal record before now and his family members are present in the court.”

The Magistrate, Mrs O O A Fowowe Erusiafe, however, granted the defendant a bail of N50,000, with two sureties, who must be responsible citizens with evidence of tax payment.

The case was adjourned till August 10 for mention.

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Nigerian Tribune

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Edited By Lanre Adewole

08037863902 | olanreade@yahoo.com

Ramadan day cult war claims one, leaves many injured Nobody died —Police Olalekan Olabulo

Floating boat at Leventis Marina, which needs to be removed to avoid mishap.

Hairdresser dumped dead son inside canal –Police Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin THE trial of a hairdresser, Funmilayo Odunlade, who was accused of dumping the body of her 13-year-old son, Tunde Sunmola, in a canal, has been adjourned till October 27.

According to the police, Odunlade committed the act on August 2, 2014, around 6.00 a.m. at Mowe.

Odunlade, 36, is facing a charge of misconduct relating to bodies contrary to Section 163 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

Testifying before the Ikeja

High Court, Sergeant Adebayo Lawal, said the case was transferred to his department at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Panti, Yaba, on August 7, 2014, around 5.00 p.m.

Lawal, who was the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), said: “The complainant was Mrs Wuraola Sunmola, the former mother in-law to the defendant and we summoned the defendant, who volunteered to give a written statement.”

The IPO further stated that the defendant claimed

Factory worker beats ailing wife, assaults father in-law Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin

A 29-year-old man, who denied assaultng his father in-law, was on Monday, arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court.

Adeogun Ayodeji, a factory worker, who lives at 4, Demola Abegunrin Street, Meiran, is being tried for assault.

Prosecuting Sergeant, Rafael Donny, told the court that the offence was committed at the accused person’s residence.

Donny said the accused had beaten his wife severely, but when his father in-law tried to rescue her,

the accused assaulted him as well.

“The accused beat his wife, Mrs Oluwatomisin Adeogun, on the stomach, where she just had a surgery. The stitch on the stomach was not healed at the time he beat her,” he said.

The offence contravened sections 170 and 404 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

However, the accused pleaded not guilty.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr Tajudeen Elias, granted the accused N250,000 bail, with two sureties in like sum.

The court adjourned the case till July 12 for mention.

that the deceased had called her that he was being beaten and maltreated by his father, her ex-husband, in Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State and as such, asked his mother to come and bring him to Lagos for holiday.

“She brought Tunde to Lagos and took him to her sister’s house, one Yemi Odunlade, at Mowe, to spend his holiday,” the IPO said.

The police officer said the late Tunde contracted an undisclosed ailment while at his aunt’s house.

“Tunde complained of leg pains and his mother went to Ijebu-Ode to see her former mother in-law for financial assistance in treating him. Her mother in -law gave her N3,000 cash, drugs and some foodstuffs for the deceased and she returned to Lagos,” he said.

Lawal told the court that a few days after the trip, Odunlade received news from her sister that her son had died.

“Immediately she heard the news, she made a trip to Ijebu-Ode to inform the complainant about the death of Tunde. Her mother in-law, upon receiving the news, got a bus and three men to go to Lagos with the defendant to bring Tunde’s body from Lagos.”

The trip, Lawal said was aborted on the way by the driver and the three men because of traffic.

She said the driver and the men returned to IjebuOde, leaving behind the defendant, who headed back to Mowe on her own.

The witness said when the defendant got to her sister’s home, she and her sister hired a motorcyclist to convey the body from the house.

“The motorcyclist conveyed the body of the deceased and his mother, and on the way, she told the motorcyclist to drop her and the body at an undisclosed location, where she dumped the body of her son into a canal,” she said.

The body, Lawal said, was never retrieved, adding that the defendant was charged to court and the case file sent to the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) for legal advice.

“I and my team took the defendant to Mowe to retrieve the body, but our efforts were futile, because the defendant claimed she could not remember where she dumped the body,” the witness said.

Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya adjourned the matter till October 27 for continuation of trial.

ONE person was late Wednesday killed and many others injured, as rival cult groups clashed in Ajegunle area of Lagos State.

Members of the two cult groups also took the advantage of the confusion created by the clash to rob unsuspecting innocent members of the area.

The clash created serious panic among residents, as members of the two cult groups, suspected to be ‘Eiye’ and ‘Aiye’ freely used dangerous weapons, including guns, cutlasses, broken bottles, among others.

The yet-to-be identified deceased was reportedly on his way home around 10.00 p.m. on Wednesday, when he was attacked by the cult members on the Ojoo Road.

A resident of the area, Eniloju Masorire, told Lagos Metro that the warring cult members attacked law-abiding residents of Ajeginle, who were celebrating Eid-el-Fitri.

The resident said: “These people are not serious.

Residents in the area are fathers and mothers of this crop of criminals, who believed they are cultists and the jail term for cultism is

lesser than that of a real criminal. Nigerians have to wake now.”

He also added that “there’s nothing we can do than to take serious interest in our country. We are not Americans or Europeans or Arabians. Nigerians arise and stop this nonsense.”

One of the victims of the clash, Angela, who was robbed of her money and other valuables said: “The hoodlums dispossessed me of my N120, 000 and two mobile phones.”

She added that “there was nothing I could do than to surrender the phones to him. Police should help us curb the menace of auto robbers, who usually operate on the help of their motorcycles.”

The warring cult members were later dispersed by policemen from Ajegunle divisional police station, who arrived at the scene later.

The Lagos State police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos confirmed the incident, but insisted that nobody died in the clash .

Badmos also stated that three people had been arrested in connection with the clash.

“Nobody died and three people have been arrested.

We are investigating the incident,” she said.

No Thursday market sanitation as traders enjoyed extended public holiday THE weekly sanitation exercise in markets and commercial premises in Lagos State did not hold on Thursday, as traders were still enjoying the extended Eid-elFitri public holiday.

A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited major markets in the Lagos Metropolis on Thursday, reported that traders and consumers were busy buying and selling between the hours of 7.00 a.m. and 10.00 a.m, the period of the exercise.

Mr Shola Gbenga, an official at the Ketu fruit market,

explained that the sanitation did not hold, as the market was still observing the public holiday.

“This is holiday period, so all the market officials are enjoying the Sallah celebration.

“The sanitation is not happening on a large scale because of it, but you can see that some of us are still doing some cleaning, as we normally do everyday.

“We always observe the 7.00 a.m. to 10.00 a.m. shut down for market sanitation every Thursday here in Ketu.

“Next Thursday, you will see us in action,’’ he said.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

NCPC to reduce pilgrimage fare to Israel

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XECUTIVE Secretary, Nigerian Christian Pilgrim Commission (NCPC), Reverend Tor Uja has said the commission is planning to reduce the fare for pilgrimage to Israel, citing low economic situation in the country as reason.

Uja made this known at the Conference of Pilgrimage Leaders and Managers of Nigeria, on Thursday, in Abuja.

The focus of the conference was “Pilgrimage, the Church and Nigeria”.

He said the commission was trying to ensure that cost of pilgrimage was reduced to enable Christians who would like to embark on the exercise to do without much difficulty.

“One of the reasons why we have to reduce the cost of pilgrimage is because our economy is not smiling at all.

“We do not want a burden either on individuals or the government; we want it to be cheaper for anybody who wants to embark on pilgrimage to do so without

Remain steadfast, prayerful, Gwarzo urges Nigerians KOLA OYELERE - Kano FORMER Senate Chief Whip, Senator Bello Hayatu Gwarzo has urged Nigerians to remain steadfast and prayerful in the face of daunting socioeconomic challenges.

In a statement signed by his media aide, Ibrahim Garba, Senator Gwarzo urged Muslims in the country to sustain the values and virtues which the holy month of Ramadan taught them in their day-today relationship with God and fellow humans.

He said the present challenges were surmountable “if we all realign our character and deeds in tune with the wishes of Allah,” saying the

country could only regain its lost glory when the citizenry uphold the virtues of good neighbourliness and eschew intolerance of other people’s opinion.

The statement read in part: “I also urged Nigerians who nurse one grudge or the other against the state, to seek for legitimate and peaceful means of expressing their grievances so that their position could be better understood and addressed through constructive dialogue.”

He also urged Nigerians to refrain from using violence to express their stand on issues, adding that violence only destroys and does not build.

struggle.

“We will announce it to the public; we believe that it can be made cheaper.

“We have a committee that is working on that and we intend that any unnecessary weight that can be cut down should be cut down,” he said.

Uja said the commission had invited air carriers and ground handlers to meet and decide how the fare and other reductions could be made.

“We have invited our air carriers and ground handlers for a meeting so that we can dialogue and see if we can make the flights fare cheaper.

“We are going to meet with them to see if managing of pilgrims in Israel can be made cheaper too by reducing the cost of accommodation, feeding and other local elements.

“When all that is done, definitely, the cost of travelling to Israel will come down,” he stated.

He called on the churches to take the ownership of pilgrimage in Nigeria by preaching the gospel so as to ensure reconciliation among people and nations.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

No secret recruitment in NNPC, FIRS, CBN —Presidency Leon Usigbe -Abuja

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HE Presidency has denied as inaccurate, reports of illegal recruitment in federal agencies said to have been influenced by top members of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

According to the Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the VicePresident, Laolu Akande, he said government was working on making the process more transparent.

His denial followed allegations that recruitment into agencies such as the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Prisons Service (NPS), among others, did not follow due process, as beneficiaries were those connected to officials of government.

Speaking to some reporters in an interview in Abuja, he said “some of these reports are inaccurate. What we heard is that government is working to ensure that we develop in a more transparent process.

“We are committed to going forward to ensure that some of these procedures are refined, fine tuned and made to become more transparent,” he said.

Also speaking on the various job creation initiatives by the administration, Akande noted that applications were already being received for the graduate employment scheme in a way, he maintained, was transparent and verifiable by anyone who cares to check.

“The first thing about this process is that it is transparent and that is why we are using a platform that everybody can go and check. That is the first thing.

“That is why we are insisting on applications. NDE is involved. The ministries are involved. When we have a project that cuts across ministries, we need coordination and that is what the Presidency is doing.

“So, it is for the reason of bringing about effective co-

ordination of some of these programmes that Mr President has asked the VicePresident to coordinate this

and you don’t want a situation where everybody would be going in different ways.

“The Presidency exists for

the purposes of coordinating the job of government.

So, that is why it is being coordinated,” he said.

Chima Nwokoji -Lagos

From left, Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr Godwin Emefiele; President Muhammadu Buhari and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, during Sallah homage to the president, in Abuja, on Wednesday.

Deputy Vice Chancellor, Account Research, University of Lagos (UNILAG), Professor Oluwatoyin Ogundipe; Vice Chancellor, Professor Rahamon Bello; chairman on the occasion, Mr Fola Adeola and the guest speaker, the Ooni of Ile-Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, at the annual lecture and launch of Postgraduate Trust Fund, by the Dean, School of Postgraduate Studies, UNILAG, Yaba, Lagos, on Thursday.

Ooni donates N10m to UNILAG PG school Naza Okoli -Lagos THE Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, on Thursday, donated the sum of N10 million to the Postgraduate School of the University of Lagos.

The monarch made the donation during the 2015/16 annual lecture and launch of the Postgraduate Trust

Adeboye in Ibadan on Sunday GENERAL Overseer, The Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor E. A. Adeboye, will be in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Sunday, July 10, 2016 to dedicate the stadium-like RCCG Covenant Sanctuary, opposite Zartech, Oluyole Estate, Ibadan.

Time is 8.00 a.m. Chief Host is Pastor Dele Balo-

programme to bring the ministries together.

“It is not just something that is done by one ministry

Economic activities resume after public holiday

gun, the pastor-in-charge of Region 21.

Pastor E. A. Adeboye

Fund, held at the Main Auditorium of the university.

Announcing the donation, chairman on the occasion and pioneer Managing Director of GTBank, Mr Fola Adeola, said research at the postgraduate level was a necessary ingredient in any endeavour geared towards the development of any society.

While delivering the annual lecture, entitled: “Redefining the Role of Traditional Institutions for National Development,” Oba Ogwunsi said it was time for traditional rulers to lead by example.

He said the time had passed when traditional rulers intimidated and molested their subjects, even going as far as forcefully taking women as wives and concubines.

“We, as traditional rulers,

must show the world that we can work together and make this place better. It is very important for leaders

to have compassionate feelings towards their people.

Such a leader will never be forgotten,” he said.

AFTER a three-day Eid-elFitri holiday, which lasted from Tuesday till Thursday, economic activities resume as analysts project that the economy may be entering an era of disinflation or declining rates of inflation, a hitherto unstoppable rise in headline inflation to a record high.

The two-way quote (2WQ) inter-bank foreign exchange (FX) market where the Naira exchange rate is being determined under the new Foreign Exchange regime, was closed on Monday, following the announcement of a three-day public holidays.

This is just as the naira at the parallel market traded between N345 to N350 to the dollar on Wednesday and Thursday, compared to N342/$1 on Tuesday.

While some currency traders attributed the depreciation to scarcity of the greenback as most street traders had closed business in order to prepare for the Eid-el Fitri and Salah celebrations, others attributed it to high demand for the dollar by travellers and users, who anticipated more scarcity due to closure of interbank market.

However, the closure of interbank market left the Naira exchange rate at Monday’s close of N282.02 as against N282.03 to the dollar it traded on Friday last week.

The local currency had reversed last week’s gain of N4.733 to the Pounds Sterling as it traded for N374.8062 on Monday, compared with Friday’s close of N375.4772 to the Pounds Sterling.

The Naira also closed slightly stable against the Euro as it traded at N314.3736 compared to Friday’s N314.3983 to the Euro at the interbank market.

Nigeria’s economy will bounce back —Dangote PRESIDENT of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has assured that there will be light at the end of the tunnel, with efforts being made by the Federal Government to develop other sectors of the economy long neglected in favour of oil.

The business mogul, speaking with members of business group who paid him a visit in the spirit of the Eid-el-fitri, said the situation the nation was passing through was as a result of years of over-dependence on oil to the detriment of other sectors, adding that with the crash of the oil price in the international market, the nation’s receipt also

crashed, leading to paucity of funds.

He, however, said the nation would come out strongly from the economic quagmire, given the present government’s diversification moves which would not only reposition the country as a producing nation, but also with many sources of revenue which, on the long run, would impact on the people positively.

Dangote cautioned that the turnaround could not be automatic, saying “it will take time, but surely better life will come. We just have to be patient and do our own bit because government

alone cannot do it.”

According to him, the current reality prevailing in the international oil market provided the best opportunity for the nation to diversify the economy, leveraging on the agriculture sector.

He also advised state governors to take advantage just as the Federal Government had commenced process of diversification at the national level.

“I believe this is the best period in the history of our country to actually diversify our economy, rather than seeing the current happenings from a negative perspective,” he said.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

Celebrating Eid-el-fitri

Photos: NAN, Sunday Osunrayi and Sylvester Okoruwa

Children at Fun Factory Centre, during the Eid-el-fitr celebration at Ikorodu, in Lagos, on Thursday.

Fun seekers at the Millennium Park during the Eid-el-fitr holiday celebration in Abuja, on Thursday.

Fun seekers at the Millennium Park Abuja, on Thursday.

Children having fun at Ndubuisi Kanu Park, Alausa , Lagos on Thursday.

Children having fun at Ndubuisi Kanu Park, Alausa, Lagos on Thursday in Lagos.

Children enjoying themselves at the Magic-Land Abuja.

Children at Fun Factory Centre Ikorodu, in Lagos.

Fun seekers at the Millennium Park Abuja.

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Eid-El-Fitri celebrations

Friday, 8 July, 2016

ECOWAS court committed to integration, justice for members’ citizens —Wright

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HE vice president of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Court, Justice Micah Wright, said the court was committed to ensuring justice and integration of citizens of member-states.

Wright told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, on Thursday, that the court would do all within its ambit to deliver the core mandate in its operations and sustain its value.

“The core mandate in the

From left, Special Adviser to Kogi State Governor on SDG, Alhaji AbdulMuminu Okara; the State Governor, Yahaya Bello and the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, Alhaji Ado Ibrahim at Eid-el fitri prayer in Okene on Wednesday.

From left, Chairman of the Council of Sarkin Hausawa of 17 states of South, Sardaunan Yamma Sarkin Sasa, Alhaji Haruna Maiyasin, Abdulahi Bature and the Marafa of Ibadanland, Alhaji Audu Lawal, former vice-chairman, Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board, during the Eid-el-Fitri celebrations at Sasa praying ground, Ibadan.

Oba Fatai Oyeyinka Aremu Aromire Ojora (left) with Alhaji Chief Imam Mudashir Abdul Lateef Faro, the Ojora of Ojoraland, during Alhaji Ojora’s visit to the palace, for the Eid-el-Fitr celebration, in Lagos.

Chief Imam of Ansarudeen Alhaji Biodun Balogun leading the prayer at Eid-el-Fitri 2016 held at Ansar-u-deen Central Mosque Liberty, Obafemi Awolowo Road, Oke-Ado, on Wednesday. Photo: D’Toyin.

Nigerian Tribune

operations of the court is judicial activities; it is the hearing and disposition of cases filed by aggrieved persons before the court.

“We have to ensure that we perform our core function which is to hear cases and bring justice to the citizens of West Africa.

“We must do that, if we don’t, we become irrelevant and the entire community will not achieve its mandate of integration,” he said.

According to him, the core function of the community is to integrate the people of West Africa and the role of

Container accidents: Expert calls for implementation of IMO safety code THE secretary, Port Facility Security Officers of Nigeria (PFSON), Mr Ignatius Uche, on Thursday, urged terminal officials to implement the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) code to avoid container accidents.

Uche made the plea in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), against the backdrop of a container which fell on Wednesday, along Mile 2Badagry Expressway and claimed five lives.

He said that such an accident could be avoided if the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) code, known as the ISPS Code “is appropriately implemented’’.

NAN reportedthat the ISPS code, an amendment to the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS) Convention (1974/1988) on minimum security arrangements for ships, ports and government agencies, came into force on July1, 2004.

Uche said that terminal owners should ensure that containers were properly lashed to the truck before leaving the terminals.

He said that the recurring incident of containers derailing from moving trucks had got to a stage where all stakeholders should be involved in curbing the menace.

“We cannot continue to lose lives because of the carelessness of some people.

“Every terminal has traffic officers. It is the duty of the traffic managers to ensure that such officers check the vehicles to ensure that all is well before the vehicles leave the terminals.

“They should be made to be proactive in the discharge of their functions to avoid causing havoc on the roads,’’ Uche told NAN.

According to him, most traffic officers focus attention on the stipends they collect as gate pass from the drivers and forget the security code.

He said that the IMO code covered the condition of trucks, adding that “If the standard security measures are put in place and adhered to religiously, most of the life-threatening incidents will be avoided,’’ he said.

the court involves that of integration process.

Wright said that the court had very important role because it rendered justice on issues involving citizens of the sub-region.

“If we do not do that then we have failed in our mandate and we have lost our relevance.

“So, we have to do everything possible to stick to our core mandate and function to sustain our core value,” he said.

He said that in the process of accomplishing its mandate, the court had to consider the welfare of the staff.

“We have staff and they are very important stakeholders; without the staff, we will not be able to accomplish what we are accomplishing.

“While we are in the process of delivering our mandate of hearing cases and delivering judgment, we have to be concerned about the wellbeing and welfare of our staff,” he added.

He said that a good portion of the court’s budget, between 70 per cent and 75 per cent, was expended on staff, including their salaries and benefits.

He explained that it was necessary for the court to motivate the staff so that it may not lose its relevance.

Obadare commends Buhari on anti–corruption war THE General Overseer of the World Soul Winning Evangelical Ministry (WOSEM), Pastor Paul Obadare, has commended President Muhammadu Buhari, on the anti-corruption crusade, saying that Nigerians should appreciate him, just as he called on state governors to look for ways of paying workers’ salaries so as to reduce the hardship of the workers.

Addressing journalists in Lagos, on the state of the nation, Obadare said ‘We thank God, one of the assignments of the President Buhari is to make sure that corruption in the nation is reduced considerably. Yes, we thank God, he is doing his best and we encourage him to do more because the whole nation is watching and that was key point of his campaign”.

He urged the president to continue the anti-corruption war without favouring any group, adding that God will give him the ability to eliminate injustice in the country.

He also decried a situation where some state governors failed to pay workers’ salaries, adding

that this is against the wish of God and urged the governors to look for ways of paying workers.

“There are some governors who have not pay their workers’ salaries for months. Many people are suffering and the nation is in financial struggle.”

He also urged the president to diversify and liberalise the economy, saying now that the price of crude oil has gone down the country needs to explore other areas.

“A clear warning to our leaders, is that Nigeria must not be divided on religious ground. They must give chance to everyone to practice his or her own religion If you are a Christian, be a Christian and live a Christian life, if you are a Muslim, practice your religion, whatever it is that can make you leave peacefully, do it but no leader is allowed to turn the nation to a one religion state,” he said.

Obadare called on Christian leaders, to brace up and unite, adding that with unity among Christian leaders, there would be peace in the country.

businessnews Nigeria misses out in 2.3trn Euros global factoring business —Afreximbank 12

Sanya Adejokun - Abuja

A

FRICAN ExportImport Bank (Afreximbank) has frowned at the absence of Nigeria on the global factoring business that is currently worth 2.3 trillion Euros despite its potential to boost both domestic and export trade.

A factor is a financial intermediary that purchases receivables from a company.

A factor is essentially a funding source that agrees to pay the company the value of the invoice less a discount for commission and fees.

The factor advances most of the invoiced amount to the company immediately and the balance upon receipt of funds from the invoiced party.

Ms Kanayo Awani, Managing Director, IntraAfrican Trade Initiative at Afreximbank who provided insights into Factoring at a workshop on Factoring and Model Law in Nigeria in Abuja said this is an easy way for manufacturers and other businesses to sidestep running out of cash during the intervening period between supply and payment.

According to her, an exporter or supplier sells its accounts receivable to the factor at a discount in exchange for immediate cash with which to finance continued business.

Explaining further how it works, Awani said after a buyer places order with supplier, the factor evaluates credit worthiness of buyer.

The factor then approves the buyer after which supplier ships product to buyer. Supplier invoices customer and assigns invoice to Factor who pays supplier with reserve. Factor collects fund from buyer and then pays supplier difference.

Although factoring is a relatively expensive form of financing as the factor takes a percentage of the profit, factors provide a valuable service to companies that operate in industries where it takes a long time to convert receivables to cash, and also to companies that are growing rapidly and need cash to take advantage of new business opportunities.

She observed that in Africa, most factors are relatively small in capitalisation and turnover; credit cover is offered selectively, subject to availability of insurance; services limited to purchase of debtors and sales ledger management and; due to limited credit insurance capacity, services offered by factors are limited.

Statistically, she revealed that of the 2.3 trillion Euros

Friday, 8 July, 2016

World factoring transactions recorded in 2015, Africa accounted for only 0.7 per cent while only five African countries – South Africa,

Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritius, accounted for almost all of this share.

At the workshop, a model Factoring Assignment

Act 2016 was discussed by participants, which would be submitted to relevant authorities for onward presentation to the National

Assembly for legislation even though in some countries like Britain, there is no formal laws governing factoring.

Nigerian Tribune

Recession: Mass sack rocks Grand Oak Ltd •Directors, managers affected Tola Adenubi - Lagos

From left, Marketing Assistant, Home Appliances Division, Mrs Blessing Obiesie; Product Marketing Manager, Home Appliances Division, Mr Nishant Kawoor; Product Trainer, Mr Moses Osime; Assistant Marketing Manager, Home Appliances division, Mr Choon Hung Har; and General Manager, Corporate Marketing, Mr Rajesh Agnihotri, all of LG Electronics West Africa Operations, during LG Evercool Smart Inverter Refrigerator Launch, in Lagos. Photo; Sylvester Okoruwa.

Analyst projects further dip in stocks trading Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba - Lagos

FOLLOWING the decline recorded in the indices of stocks on Monday, market Operators have predicted further lull in response to the decision of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to takeover Skye Bank.

On Monday equities trading on the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) closed on a bearish note as lead indicators, All Share Index (ASI) lost 303.34 points to close at 29,002.06 representing one per cent depreciation, while market capitalisation declined to nine trillion naira mark closing at N9.960 trillion compared to N10.064 trillion recorded as the closing figure for last week.

According to a market analyst, Rotimi Fakayejo, the bear trend would persist as the market feeds on information, which in recent times had been negative.

“Trading on Friday will definitely close flat tomorrow because the market feeds on information and when the information is negative it might step down the market. For instance, the negative news at present is that of Skye bank.”

He noted that not only banking stock would be negatively affected by the Skye bank news as others would follow suit. “It definitely will impact on the market because it’s a bandwagon effect. When it affects banking stocks

others are affected as well.

Investors will withdraw to an extent.

“On Monday we saw a sharp drop in the values of transactions traded, On Friday, we are going to see more of that as well,” he added.

He however noted that the decline might be slight if blue chip stocks record a bit of gain. “If high cap stocks suffer further lose, there will be a sharp decline, if not the decline might be between one or 1.5 per cent,” he added.

Another analyst at Gruene Capital Limited noted that the expected lull in the

market can be traced to the long unexpected sallah holiday within the week, as investors would trade cautiously on Friday.

“It’s been a long holiday; investors will trade with caution because they will not want to herald. People will have spent lot of money during the long sallah holiday, therefore a lot will be trying to take positions.”

According to Aruna Jimoh, stocks that might pick up are those intending to pay interim dividend as the financial third quarter begins because most investors would want to take the advantage.

“We are in the second half, and the first half results will soon be released. And it is best to take positions long before it happens, especially the fundamental stocks paying interim dividend.”

Earlier in the week, analyst at Vetiva Capital Management Limited had projected that with the Q2 earnings season drawing nearer mixed performances were expected.

“We do not rule out the possibility of investor positioning ahead of these releases this week. This implied that, we foresee mixed performances across stocks at week open.”

GRAND Oak Limited (GOL), marketing and Distribution Company of Lexcel Group and one of Nigeria’s leading distributors of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages company in the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector has sacked 20 of its workforce due to the prevailing harsh economic conditions rocking the nation’s economy.

According to findings, the recent sack of some highly placed workers also affected the Human Resources Manager of the group, Mr Wale Dosunmu, whose sack was converted to compulsory retirement and is expected to take effect from August, 2016. Mr Wale Dosunmu joined the group in 2004 and is yet to attain the compulsory retirement age of 60 years old.

Also among those asked to go was the Talent Manager, Alimat Aro; Safety Manager, Bolaji Thomas who works with one of GOL’s subsidiaries, Nigerian Distilleries Limited (NDL).

Other departments affected in the recent gale of sack are the Customer Care Unit and the Brands unit of the group.

The sack, further findings revealed was unconnected to the harsh economic downturn that has befallen the nation’s economy in recent months. “Many of the workers were given their letters of termination of appointment because the group profit margin has been drastically affected by the economic recession in Nigeria today.

Lafarge moves to enhance highway safety Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba - Lagos

HAVING observed reckless driving as well as bad attitudes of Nigerian drivers, especially truck drivers on the highways, Lafarge Africa has launched Logistics Academy where truck drivers will be trained and empowered with the safety culture and robust fleet management.

According to Micheal Puchercos, the Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Africa, the Lafarge Africa Logistics Academy was launched as a follow-up to Road safety Project and Drivers Academy earlier established to ensure sound safety culture,

process efficiency and good performance among truck drivers.

Speaking at launching of Lafarge Africa Logistics Academy held in Ewekoro cement plant in Ogun state, Lafarge Africa group managing director, represented by Fidelia Osime, Director, Organisation and Human Resource, declared that the Academy was launched to improve on health and safety of Lafarge Africa’s staff, contractors and Nigerians as a whole.

He said, “Road Transport Safety is one of the key focus areas of Lafarge Africa’s Health and Safety Improvement Plan in

realisation that moving our products and materials on the roadsteps without accidents or incidents, is a major challenge.

To address this, we have come up with a structured process of assessing our transporters, using tools such GPS to monitor trucks, rewarding and applying consequences to driver behaviour, while partnering with our transporters to have good maintenance and systems in place through drivers training and the Logistics Academy.

“The Lafarge Africa Logistics Academy is a demonstration of our commitment to achieving Operational Performance

Improvement as we strive for world class standards, and it is tailored towards improving process efficiency and driving a culture of performance improvement in the organisation, including classroom sessions, practical field assessment, mentoring and coaching.”

Also speaking at the event was Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State, who was represented

by Adenrele Adeshina, Commissioner for Budget and Planning, said that the multinational cement producers had taken a right step in checking bad driving habit among truck drivers which cause loss of lives on Nigerian roads.

13

editorial

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Nigeria and the lessons from Brexit

B

EYOND the uproar that greeted the recent vote

by British citizens to leave the European Union in a referendum (Brexit) is the more fundamental issue of the referendum itself representing a reflection of the British leadership’s belief and acceptance of the fact that ultimate power rests with the people and that they should make decisions on the significant issues affecting society. When the British Prime Minister, David Cameron, called for the referendum on the vexed issue of the continuing membership of the EU by Britain, he obviously thought that the majority of the British electorate shared his view on the country remaining part of the EU. But embedded in that call was also the possibility that the electorate could as well prefer an exit from the EU by a majority, which possibility eventually played out.

The point here is that Cameron did not believe that the electorate having only re-elected him last year with an increased majority in the Parliament already gave him the legitimacy to assume their position on the EU question.

And as it turned out, he was indeed right that he could not really take for granted the opinion and position of the British electorate on the issue. Here we find not just an internalisation, but also the celebration of the deep democratic value of not imposing decisions on the people, not taking their opinion for granted, and not responding to the grievances and anxieties of the people with disdain, as democracy is ultimately about the people, their concerns and interests, and not the predilection and preferences of the leaders.

Incidentally, this is not what we find in Nigeria where the people are not just taken for granted, but are treated as if they do not matter on important and fundamental issues affecting the country. Leaders in Nigeria routinely substitute themselves for the people and carry on as if they have been invested with ultimate powers apart from the people. Take the issue of the restructuring of Nigeria for example. Those in authority have, on many occasions since 1999, tended to believe that their emergence confers on them the final position on how the country is to function or whether it even needs restructuring. They are on record many times declaring magisterially that the unity of the country was not negotiable and that they were not

favourably disposed to talking to people with grievances who question whether the country should continue to exist as one.

The point, however, is that government’s preference for Nigeria’s continued existence does not preclude the right of other Nigerians to other preferences, with the implication that all Nigerians would need to have a say on such an important issue before the country could reach a decision. This should be a decision for all Nigerians as we have seen in the example from the vote in Britain on the membership of the EU and the earlier one on whether Scotland should have independent existence and not just one for the government to make. It must recognise the limitation of its own preference and not pretend that it could speak for all Nigerians authoritatively on such an issue.

The truth is that there is nothing sacrosanct about the existence of Nigeria as one entity beyond the overwhelming preference of Nigerians for such existence. Where a significant majority of Nigerians do not want such existence to continue, government would only be delaying and not stopping the inexorable march to the actualisation of such preference. In reality, the duty of the government would be to work through its activities in such a way that most Nigerians would continue to prefer the united existence of the country and not to believe that the continued existence of the country could be guaranteed through imposition.

The issues of the existence of the country and the nature of its restructuring are more fundamental than the election of a government and deserve the voice of all Nigerians before a decision could be reached.

Nigerian leaders should take a cue from the British and other democratic leaders in the world by recognising the inalienable and ultimate right of the Nigerian people to decide and determine how they should be governed. This is the major lesson that could be drawn from the Brexit vote in Britain and this lesson should be internalised by Nigerian leaders to let them realise that the existence of any country is negotiable under democratic principles and internationally guaranteed human rights as it is ultimately dependent on the wishes of the people.

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14 LETTERS TO THE

Friday, 8 July, 2016

editor

Letters to the editor should be sent to letterstribune@yahoo.com or by sms to 08054005323. It MUST be accompanied by the full name and address of the writer.

Nigeria will succeed with parliamentary system

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INCE the result of the United Kingdom referendum became known, I have been following what is happening politically in that country. Immediately after it was revealed that the British people had voted to leave the European Union, the Prime Minister, Mr David Cameron, resigned his appointment.

Here was a man who had won a general election by a landslide just over a year ago, while also convincing the Scottish people to remain part of the UK in an earlier referendum.

Unfortunately, the Brexit referendum result didn’t go his way, and he felt the country needed a leader who would lead the Brexit talks with European Union leaders.

After Cameron’s resignation came the struggle to become prime minister by members of the Conservative Party; members of the opposition labour party also began to revolt against their leader because they felt he did not do much

to persuade the people to vote to remain the in EU. In fact, communities that voted to leave the union are strong Labour party communities.

Having said this, power resides in the parliament in this system of government, unlike in the Presidential system where a man, who is the president, has all the powers.

In Parliamentary system, the Prime Minister cannot do anything without the support of the parliament, and despite possessing executive powers, the Prime Minister is also a member of parliament, who also represents a constituency, unlike what we have in a Presidential system.

The power that resides in the President is also the reason every region is always struggling to produce the president. Today, the South East is angry that it has not produced a president in the country, and this is what is fuelling the secession bid by organisations like the Movement for the Actualisation of the

Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

In any political dispensation, the Prime Minister can be toppled several times; once party members

become disenchanted with a Prime Minister, they just pass a vote of no confidence, and he will either step down, or be voted out.

If we really want to carry every region along in our democracy, then it is high

time we switched to Parliamentary system, as this will give everybody a sense of belonging. Presidential system of government will not work in a multi-ethnic society as ours, because every region will want to

produce the number one citizen.

I hope our political leaders, particularly members of the National Assembly, can set in motion for this change.

•Nelson Ekwale, Benin, Edo State.

Of Lagos and street hawking law The new street hawking law in Lagos State makes it an offence for traders to hawk on the streets; the law, therefore, proposes a fine of N90,000 to both the hawker and whoever patronises them. This law came after the state government signed a smart city agreement with the City of Dubai. The state government intends to make Lagos one of the truly developed modern cities in the world. However, it is important for our leaders to have the fear of God while proposing policies.

First, Nigeria is a peculiar place; we have millions of unemployed graduates who are hawkers or Okada riders. How do we expect

such people to survive when we take them off the streets? How many people are unemployed in Dubai? Or is the state government providing social support for those who are unemployed? Now, some people keep themselves away from crime through the little ways they earn a living, like through Okada business, or hawking. How do such people now survive with this new policy.

While not saying it is right for citizens to be hawking on the highways, as it constitute danger to them, but the truth is that the survival instinct in all of us overcome the fear of danger.

Now, until the govern-

ment has successfully provided for all unemployed youths, it has no justification to be embarking on policies that take food

away from their tables.

•Samson Tonge, Badagry, Lagos State.

Still on the bailout for states PERMIT me to use this opportunity to call on the Federal Government to disburse the salary arrears of state civil servants directly to them instead of through the governors.

When the last bailout fund was released to the states, most of the governors used it to settle the debts they were owing contractors and banks, and as a result, only a month’s salary arrears was paid to civil servants. Again, the governors have called on the Federal Government

for another bailout, and N90billion has been made available for each state to access.

However, the Federal Government should not just leave the funds in the care of state governors, as there is the possibility that such will be diverted for other purposes again. I hope the Federal Government can work with state governments to disburse the money directly to the civil servants.

•Timothy Opaleye, Osogbo, Osun State.

Attention, Kogi gov KOGI State is one of the most endowed states in the country, as the state is blessed with several mineral resources.

It is, however, unfortunate that we find the state in the financial mess it is today.

I was so happy when Alhaji Yahaya Bello became the executive governor of the state; I was happy because Alhaji Bello was a thriving businessman before joining politics, and he would use his experience to take Kogi out of the doldrums.

Since the return of democracy, the state has not really enjoyed the dividends of democracy.

Civil servants are being owed several months of salary arrears, and this is just not good enough for a state that is well-endowed.

I believe Governor Bello needs time to change the fortune of the state, and one area I want him to focus on is the extractive

sector of the economy.

From Kabba, to Olamaboro, to Dekina, to OgoriMagongo, every part of the state is blessed with one mineral resource or the other, and it is a good thing that the Federal Government has given states the permission to mine the resources in their domains.

I, therefore, hope that Alhaji Bello will capitalise on this Federal Government policy and take the state to the next level.

We have lime, gold, zinc, bauxite, among other resources in different parts of the state, and Governor Bello should set himself apart from his predecessors by establishing a company that will start mining these resources.

If this happens, I bet it that in a matter of years, Kogi will become the highest earning state in the country, surpassing Lagos State.

•Wisdom Obuseh, mailwyse@gmail.com

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opinion

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Before Post-UTME is buried

By Sunday Saanu

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versely, the university has turned out more first class graduates than before the advent of Post-UTME. This was because those who were admitted were the best as they went through meticulous and tough process. Again , when last has anyone heard of cultism in UI? Almost all the students who came in through Post UTME had no time for frivolities and cultism. They were and still are serious minded scholars because they were rigorously screened before being admitted.

Now, the Minister, with due respect, has triggered trouble in the system by insisting that the quality assurance mechanism that has brought sanity into our academic matrix must die.

However, if the Minister insists that this rigorous, quality-control measure should be buried, let it be on record that he has deliberately placed higher education in the country on a gymnastic maneuvering. The Minister has brought again the dreaded monster called policy summersault. Nigeria today wallows in the straits of horrendous backwardness as a result of consistent policy summersaults . We have become so much inured to policy inconsistency that we don’t even know what to retain and what to discard!

In more ways than we will like to admit, this attempt to cancel Post-UTME is deleterious to our educational development.

Without sarcastic hyperbole, the scrapping ministers nothing but strife, and achieves nothing but distraction. The cancellation seems to be motivated by some subterranean interests. We must therefore not yield to this visceral policy!

If the cancellation was not meant to achieve ulterior motive, why is the Minister insisting that the universities should not have a say in the quality of the candidates they are going to train? As Luke Onyekayeyah noted in his column, “there is no country in the world where all universities have the same standard. Otherwise, we would not have the Ivy-league institutions

HE Minister of Education, Adamu Adamu recently stirred the hornet’s nest when he announced the cancellation of Post-Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) in all the universities, saying the only legally recognized body to conduct university admission examination was Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB).

The Minister also cited the way some universities had turned the Post-UTME to money-making venture as part of the reasons for his position.

Adamu’s directive which was initially seen as a mere kite flying, for it carried the element of dejavu, was later reinforced with a threat by him, saying he would deal with any university which flouts the order. Since then, the issue of Post-UTME has become a subject of heated hullaballo, thus polarizing stakeholders into either supporters or opponents. As a worker in the industry, this writer feels it is not quite right to be quiet in this contentious matter, hence this write up. Let me humbly disagree with the Minister, without disrespecting his personality that, Post-UTME constitutes additional burden to candidates and drains the parents financially, thereby necessitating the need to scrap it. I respectfully disagree sir.

These are for too insignificant demerits of Post-UTME, compared to the valuable academic improvements the exercise has brought to bear on the system. I have confidence of my truth that, Post-UTME has transparently reconstructed admission template to the extent that the children of the poor who passed the quality-control test needed no assistance from anybody before being admitted.

For instance, at the University of Ibadan, once a candidate’s score was up to the cut-off mark of his or her department of choice, such a candidate got admitted automatically. Such a successful candidate required no note from any quarter before being admitted. This is the reason no one has ever complained about admission fraud in the last 10 years. No candidate has ever alleged that he was shortchanged because the process was, and still is, very transparent. Every candidate was made to understand all the stages leading to the final step of admission.

More importantly, since 2003 when the Post-UTME was introduced in UI, the rate at which matriculated students were being withdrawn from the university as a result of poor academic performance after the first year, has gone down drastically. Con-

that are world acclaimed. Setting the same cut – off mark for University of Lagos for instance and the newly established private polytechnic in one village is senseless.”

Indeed, this current attempt to bury Post-UTME is a major infraction on the universities’ autonomy. This is where Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the Committee of Vice Chancellors of Nigerian Universities should take up the gauntlet. Post-UTME represents integrity check in our academic process. And, no serious nation plays game with the demand of integrity. Certainly , the plan to cancel Post-UTME is an attempt to substitute placebo for an effective therapy. It is like taking a deadly plunge for the worst.

A few guesses may be useful here, once the only requirement to gain admission is to pass JAMB examination by scoring 180, then, lists from influential people and groups would begin to fly from Abuja to all the federal universities that these students must be admitted to study Medice, Law and other prestigious courses. The children of the poor who have nobody in Abuja are excluded from the game because they are not connected.

Last year, the cut-off mark to study medicine in UI was 74 in UI conducted Post UTME. I know many brilliant children of the farmers who passed and got admitted. Yet, I know children of the governors and ministers who could not get in because they failed the transparent post UTME. This is probably what this coming cancellation is coming to correct. Therefore, the planned cancellation of post UTME is not only a trivialization of a process which was designed to be rigorous and methodical in order to get the best, but also a coup against the children of the poor.

The Minister created an impression that he was protecting JAMB which was legally set up to distribute candidates to various universities. Again, with due respect, I beg to disagree!

JAMB was created in 1978 when Nigeria had only 13 federal universities. The vision was to ensure that no candidate secured more than one admission slot. But today, there are 40 federal universities, 41 state universities and 61 private universities totaling 142. Technically, JAMB has outlived its usefulness and relevance.

By the way, is it not the same JAMB which caused national uproar last year when it started distributing candidates to private universities the candidates never applied to? JAMB has lost its verve, relevance and seriousness over the years.

•Saanu writes from the University of Ibadan.

Amosun, the superman

By Rotimi Durojaiye

A recent investigation by an Economic Intelligence Magazine revealed that 15 states may go bankrupt as their Internally Generated Revenues (IGR) in 2015 were far below 10 percent of their Federation Account Allocations (FAA) in one year from June 2015 to May 2016.

The report further indicated that the IGR of Lagos State of N268 billion was higher than that of 32 states combined together, excluding Rivers, Delta and Ogun, whose IGRs are very impressive. The report noted that 32 other states merely generated a total of N257 billion in 2015.

The magazine had published the total allocation each state in Nigeria received from the Federation Account Allocation (FAA) between June 2015 and May 2016, which signified one year of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

The report provided shocking discovery that indicated that 15 states may go bankrupt and may not stay afloat outside the Federal Account Allocation due to lack of foresight in revenue generation drive coupled with arm-chair governance.

While Lagos State retains its number one position in IGR with a total revenue generation of N268.22 billion in the 12 months of last year, it is followed by Rivers State (N82.10 billion), Delta State (N40.80 billion), Ogun State (N34.59 billion) and Edo state (N19.11 billion).

The report showed that the IGR of the respective states can improve through aggressive diversifications of the economy to productive sectors rather than relying on the monthly Federation Account revenue that largely come from the oil sector.

It is no news that the dwindling federal allocations caused by the falling prices of crude oil at the international market have deeply affected finances of every state in the federation, Ogun State inclusive.

But for the financial engineering put in place by Governor Ibikunle Amosun, governance at both the state and local govern-

ment levels would have been grounded.

These pragmatic steps were taken to cushion the effects of the paltry N750 million monthly internally generated revenue (IGR) he inherited in 2011 and N2 billion federal allocation per month to service about N9 billion state’s monthly wage bills apart from meeting other statutory responsibilities.

Oil wealth is receding, incapable of matching fiscal policy while there is a massive pressure on our rulers to sustain the machinery of government and to meet the yearnings of those who enabled their existence in our democratic process. So our leaders and their partners in industry are expected to move with lightning speed and walk away from oil as a base for development. We must think out of the box. Doing so means generating wealth from ideas such as countries without oil are doing and moving their societies into the league of leading nations of the world, far ahead of those with oil weapon which is now proving inadequate.

Lately, we have seen this movement of idea power put to work in Ogun State. Faced with a bleak future for oil revenue and a rush of social and economic migrants from Lagos and other peripheral states, the administration of Governor Amosun has had to initiate creative strategies to raise good money to fund

gigantic projects and meet the needs of the state’s burgeoning population. He is beating a retreat from resting on the rickety base of oil economy.

Governor Amosun, had in 2014, set a target of N10 billion as the state’s monthly IGR, up from the then N6 billion.

Amosun while speaking during a town hall meeting on the 2015 budget held at Kuto, Abeokuta, explained that it was the only way the state government could survive the dwindling allocation from the Federation Account.

The Amosun administration believes strongly in participatory democracy and has always carried the people along in the process of preparing the state’s annual budget.

According to the 2014 World Bank Report on Doing Business in Nigeria, Ogun State was listed as one of the five most improved states in the country.

The same World Bank in its 2008 and 2010 reports had ranked the state as one of the lowest performers among the 36 states in Nigeria. No doubt, this is a significant progress.

To increase the revenue of the state, Governor Amosun had constituted a Revenue Committee chaired by the governor himself where issues on businesses and internally generated revenue are sorted out.

Amosun has repeatedly promised not to rest on his oars, as all hands will be on deck to ensure that he delivers on all his electoral promises and continue to spread the dividends of democracy across the State.

The positive impacts from the faithful implementation of his campaign promises have continued to receive accolades from both within and outside the shores of the country.

Ogun State has continued to witness tremendous transformations in all aspects of life, and this is due to Governor Amosun’s excellent performance.

•Durojaiye is Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to Governor Amosun.

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Friday, 8 Juy, 2016

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HOSE who are familiar with my style of writing will definitely be taken aback by the title of my essay this week. I have tried as much as possible never to be drawn into partisan political discussions on this page. What I mean to convey is that I have never allowed my membership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to becloud the views I express here in favour of my political party.

I am not claiming to be an angel but I have tried to ensure balance of views on my comments on men, matters and events of politics in Nigeria. I am compelled by circumstances of events in Nigeria today to write on Dr. Bukola Sakari and his ordeals in the hands of President Muhammadu Buhari and his party people in the All Progressives Congress (APC). I sincerely and honestly believe that some elements are attempting to dampen the political image of this youngman (Dr. Bukola Saraki) and attempt to paint him as an evil man before the world – (very unfortunate indeed).

Though I am a good friend of Bukola’s father, the ‘Oloye’ himself, the late Dr. Abubakar Olusola Saraki, I am not an enthusiast of his son, Bukola.

Although Bukola was once a fellow member of the PDP before he led some of his political comrades out of the party into the APC, I never liked the way he carried out the exercise. It is not news that Bukola and his fellow clubmates, in defection to the APC, eventually nailed the political coffin of the PDP in the 2015 elections. It was very painful and harrowing. This is for another day, particularly when we realise the fact that Bukola and his colleagues believed that they had been forced out of the PDP by the party’s leaders in government. This is now a story told.

It is historically true to equally state that the initial political stability within the APC after the 2015 elections came as a result of the decisive political actions of “Bukky” and his brother governors who had defected from the PDP into the APC. True, Bukola Saraki and his friends had outsmarted the APC in the elections to the Presidency of the Senate, the later actions of the APC leaders to destroy Saraki and his friends can never be defended in whatever way one looks at the event.

Dr. Saraki won the Presidency of the Senate election on the basis of a plot by him (Saraki) and his friends in the APC, to ally themselves with Senators of the PDP. The PDP Senators were able to turn their votes in favour of Saraki, who had refused to raise a finger against the popular choice of Ike Ekweremadu’s choice as the Deputy President of Senate.

As was to be expected, the APC senators and their colleagues immediately went into a state of frenzy as a result of the victory of Saraki and Ekweremadu.

The APC leaders outside the National Assembly were equally furious at the Saraki victory. The result has been the childish harlequinades of the APC in constantly scheming to remove Saraki as President of the Senate. It has been a laughable spectacle. We now have a situation where the APC Federal Government is now attempting to criminalise Bukola Saraki and Ekweremadu for ever having the courage to contest the National Assembly positions in the first instance.

Good men and women of Nigeria now witness silly shows of shame where attempts are being made by the APC leaders to drag Dr. Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu into a criminal charge of forgery in the way the young men emerged as President and Deputy President of the Senate. Why this silly show of shame? Why must Dr Saraki be destroyed and politically liquidated for testing his democratic rights by ever attempting to contest the Presidency of the Senate?

The APC men must realise that they have succeeded in whipping up sympathy for Dr. Saraki and his Deputy, Ekweremadu. I knew Kwara State fairly well. The Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) led by Immortal Awo had a good outing in Kwara State during the Second Republic. Despite Oloye’s dominance of Kwara politics at that time, the leader of leaders, Papa Obafemi Awolowo, was very highly-regarded in Kwara State.

The PDP in its appearance in 1999 in Kwara State was an amalgamation of the UPN and NPN of the Second Republic. The father of the current Governor of Kwara State was a strong Awolowo supporter from Shaare.

Dr. Ahmed remains fondly a strong leader of his father’s political interest in the state. He (Ahmed) was equally a member of the cabinet of Dr. Saraki during the first PDP government of the state from 1999-2003.

During the battle for the government of Kwara State

With

Ebenezer Babatope

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Dr Bukola Saraki and Nigeria

•Dr Bukola Saraki

during the Second Republic, Oloye (Dr. ‘Sola Saraki) influenced the alliance of the UPN with the NPN. The alliance produced Chief Cornelius Tunji Adebayo as the Governor of Kwara State. The Unity Party of Nigeria and the National Party of Nigeria had joined forces together in producing the Tunji Adebayo led government. This victory was also made possible by the support of Dr Olusola Saraki and Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed’s father. Dr. Bukola Saraki, Governor Ahmed and others still radiate this strong alliance. APC may be shaping itself out of existence by what is happening to Bukola Saraki within their ranks. Bukola Saraki is quite able to outsmart and outpace Buhari and his men in the politics of Kwara State. This becomes more obvious with the support Bukola is getting from Governor Ahmed.

I praise the way and style Governor Ahmed and Dr. Bukola Saraki are managing the political affairs of

I am not claiming to be an angel but I have tried to ensure balance of views on my comments on men, matters and events of politics in Nigeria.

their state. All the elements who think Kwara State cannot mobilise her people in support of justice causes will be surprised how Kwara will come together to render useless all attempts by anyone to rubbish Bukola and his brother politicians who are joined together to dismantle their opponents in Kwara State.

A 1949 book, “Cry, the beloved country,” authored by a famous anti-apartheid campaigner, Mr. Alan Paton, had pictured how a seeming disunity within the Kumalo brothers was threatening to create problem within the apartheid movement – And brother has shut out brother and from the same womb have they come”.

Just the same way as Alan Paton won the argument within the anti-apartheid struggle, so will Dr. Saraki, and the progressive leaders of Kwara win the argument against their oppressors.

At the end of the struggle, we shall all shout venceremos at the triumph of peace over political terrorism and brigandage.

The Bukola Saraki matter is a sad chapter in our national history. Those who have the powers and ability to arrest this ugly situation should do it immediately, hence we all lament in the end with Mussolini during the Second World War, “No one denies fate twice. Everyone dies the death that befits his character.”

EBINO TOPSY – 0805-500-1735 (SMS ONLY PLEASE) NEXT WEEK: OJO MADUEKWE BIDS THE WORLD GOODBYE (BOOK YOUR COPY IN ADVANCE).

17

Friday, 8 July, 2016

eyesof islam

Saheed Salawu yinkadejavu@yahoo.com 0811 695 4643

Durban: City where women were excluded from Eid prayers

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ROWING up in Durban, a coastal city in eastern South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal province, Rumana Mahomed considered Eid to be a chore.

“It was just about domestic duties … what you’re going to wear, and what you’re going to prepare for everyone to eat,” she says. But she recalls her father and brothers returning home from Eid prayers at the mosque, upbeat and enthusiastic.

That wasn’t an option for her, however, as most of the mosques in her community didn’t accommodate women.

So Mahomed was taken aback when in 1995, at the age of 23, she and a group of South African women who were studying Arabic at a university in Jordan were taken to the Eid prayer. “It was at this huge soccer field, where we prayed behind the men,” she recalls.

Mahomed felt that she had finally found the spiritual dimension to Eid. “It was spiritually uplifting and emotional,” she recalls.

She and some of her friends immediately began researching the subject and were surprised to discover that the Prophet Muhammad had encouraged women to be present at the Eid prayer.

A family Eidgah But back in Durban, things were very different. Although the city boasts several open-air Eid grounds - better known as Eidgahs - none were open to women.

Mahomed and her friends’ options were limited to the handful of mosques which accommodated them, but even those were not ideal.

“It was very difficult,” explains Fatima Seedat, Mahomed’s friend. “Sometimes to get to the women’s section, we had to walk past garbage bins. Once, we found that the women’s section was directly behind the men’s ablution facility, so we could hear men gargling ... and spitting out stuff.”

Seedat, Mahomed and a group of their peers decided to take matters into their own hands, and under the banner of an organisation they were all part of - Taking Islam to the People (TIP) - they initiated Durban’s first family Eidgah in 2003.

According to Suleman Dangor, an emeritus professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Kwazulu-Natal, the reluctance to have women attend congregational prayers is based on a saying of the Prophet Muhammad that it is better for a woman to pray at home, and the advice of Umar, a prominent companion of the prophet, that his wife pray at home. “Opponents don’t make a distinction between prohibition and discouragement,” he explains, but points out that there has been a shift in thinking in recent times. “This change is due to individuals being influenced by literature and scholars, and being exposed to what is happening in other countries.”

In Durban, mosques and communal Eid prayers have traditionally excluded women.

But that is now beginning to change. don’t attend Eid prayers by choice, either because they consider doing so to be impermissible or not crucial, others simply don’t have a choice. “Although the Prophet advised us to go and this should be the most important guiding principle, we understand that not all women have choices - sometimes the climate in the community is not conducive to women expressing their full spirituality,” she says.

The feeling of inclusion “I would love to attend,” says Nasreen Kassam, who lives in Lenasia in Gauteng. “My husband would also love to have me attend, however it isn’t acceptable in my area. There are no facilities in Lenasia for this ... I feel it should be a choice.

We are currently not given a choice. We are supposed to just stay at home.”

Sumayya Surtee of Newcastle, a town in Northern Kwazulu-Natal, faces the same dilemma. “Unfortunately we do not have ladies’ facilities,” she says. “I can only imagine

She and some of her friends immediately began researching the subject and were surprised to discover that the Prophet Muhammad had encouraged women to be present at the Eid prayer.

that Eid salaah would be an incredible way of uniting our sisters and giving us all an opportunity to meet and greet on such a celebratory day.”

Other women say they can’t attend due to domestic reT h e sponsibilities. “It’s sad because I would love to experience it. I think it would add a lot more to the Eid atmosphere,” ‘Eid prayer is waajib says Fatima, a resident of Durban. “I’m the only woman in (obligatory), according to the the family, so literally everything rests on my shoulders. I majority of scholars. The Prophet, salla guess if the family members are willing to wait a while to llahu ‘alay-hi wa-sallam, performed it consiswarm up the food after the Eid salaah [prayer] it would Women expressing their spirituality be okay, but I don’t think it would be very welcoming tently and commanded all the people to go out for Aneesa Moosa, a 49-year-old occupational therato allow my guests to wait while they are hungry.” it. pist, began attending the TIP Eidgah in its early With her husband’s support, Khadija Davids, years. “I was constantly having conversations with He, salla llahu ‘alay-hi wa-sallam, even specifically com41, was able to shift the family’s schedule around my friends about why we had to go to a mosque so that she could attend. “We were never given a manded all of the women to attend. for the Eid salaah [prayer]. I wanted to go to the choice - it was just a given that ladies stayed at Al-Bukhaari (324) and Muslim (890) narrated that Umm Eidgah. I was very frustrated and constantly uphome. My husband, who is a convert, told me laset that women were not accommodated at the ‘Atiyyah, may Allah be pleased with her, said: The Messendies can go ... I’ve been going for two years now existing Eidgahs,” she explains.

- it’s the perfect way to end Ramadan ... I love the ger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) comWhen she heard about the TIP Eidgah, she and feeling of inclusion and worshipping together as manded us to bring them (women) out on (Eid) al-Fitr and her husband decided that they would attend, ala family.” though traditionally the males in his family at(Eid) al-Adha, and to bring out adolescent girls, menstru“There needs to be a family discussion. The spirtended a large men-only Eidgah. “He recognised itual needs of females in a family ought to be given ating women and virgins, but the menstruating women that this was closest to the Sunnah [the way of life the same priority as those of males ... If a family is were to stay away from the prayer, but were to witness of the Prophet Muhammad] and that this gave us willing to enjoy the spirituality of Eid salaah [prayer] dignity as a community,” she says. goodness and the gathering of the Muslims. I said: together, they will make the necessary concessions,” Moosa vividly recalls her first Eidgah experience: “It Mahomed concludes.

“O Messenger of Allaah, what if one of us does was something that I’d dreamed of, that my family and •The situation is very different in Cape Town, not have a jilbaab?” He said: “Let her sisI are present in the same congregation in a Sunnah set-up where most mosques have women’s facilities, and with other women and children and that I could greet my ter lend her a jilbab.” the majority of open-air Eid prayers are open to husband and son after the Eid prayer.” men and women.

Moosa, who later become part of the TIP Eidgah planning committee, acknowledges that while some women Source: Al Jazeera - Fatima Asmal.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

arewa

Femi Olukunle Co-ordinating Editor 08158610216

Bida: Uneasy calm trails power tussle among bikers’ unions Oladipo Adelowo -Minna

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HERE is uneasy calm in Bida Local Government Area of Niger State following bloody clashes between two rival transport unions: Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycles Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), Bida chapter and their counterparts, Metropolitan Incorporated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Operators Association of Bida.

Trouble began on Thursday, June 2, 2016 following a face-off between the opposing groups that led to the near death of one Danladi Kafa, a 42-year-old member of the Metropolitan Incorporated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Operators Association, who was said to have been pushed down by a mob, but now on admission at a private hospital in Bida being treated for partial stroke, while others suffered varied degrees of injuries in the aftermath of the stampede.

The unhealthy situation has led to a charged atmosphere in the ancient town of Bida as residents feared reprisal attacks by the opposing motorcycles rival groups.

Arewa gathered that the crisis between the two transport unions began way back in 2012 after members of the Metropolitan Incorporated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Operators Association of Bida decided to form their own separate commercial motorcycle union as a parallel transport union within the council areas, the situation which was said to have not gone down well with the already existing ACOMORAN group.

Further checks revealed that no sooner had the crisis of confidence broken out between the two rival motorcycle transport unions in the council areas than the Metropolitan Incorporated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Operators Association of Bida approached its legal counsels, Olu Oluwole & Co., for registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission under Part A, of the Companies and Allied Matters Act. Thereafter, the request of the association was said to have been obliged by the law firm which succeeded in getting them duly registered on October 8, 2012. Appropriate authorities were reportedly notified at the council’s secretariat at the period and at the state police command among others, of the existence of the registered transport union.

Confirming this, a lawyer at Olu Oluwole & Co., Barrister Chukwuemeka Ajah, informed Arewa that the association also went ahead to seek the cooperation of the appropriate authorities as well as their support to ensure there was peace in the council areas, adding that the association operated in harmony with the already existing association known as ACOMORAN. Speaking further, he said: “In a letter dated October 22, 2012, addressed to the Area Commander, Nigeria Police Force in Bida, we explained to them and notified them that there was an association and whatever was expected of us, to make sure that members of Metropolitan Incorporated Commercial Motorcycles Owners and Operators Association of Nigeria were known to the security agencies and

Members of Metropolitan bikers’ union during their protest. whatever security procedures or protocol we needed to observe, we were ready to recognise them.”

Ajah, however, noted that despite the steps so far taken by his clients, the old association, ACOMORAN, was not comfortable with the existence of the Metropolitans, adding that ACOMORAN started causing trouble.

“Being law abiding citizens, we advised our clients, that they should not retaliate or attack the ACOMORAN members,” he said.

“Thereafter, we ran to the local government authorities and surprisingly, we observed that they were not also comfortable. They started harassing our clients, arresting them, intimidating them and at a point they were beaten by thugs and uniformed men who we do not know.

“At that stage, we had to approach the court to help us clarify if our clients or anybody in Nigeria has the right to form any association or belong to any association or withdraw his membership from any voluntary association. In view of that ,we now filed a case on November 18, 2013 at the High Court of Niger State.”

The counsel equally sought a perpetual injunction against anybody for stopping or harassing its clients. It was gathered that when judgment was delivered, Barrister Chukwuemeka explained that, “the court now said there were some rights and fundamental, those fundamental ones the local government cannot stop our clients from enjoying it. So, one of the reliefs granted was that the court declared that the applicants, i.e.

Metropolitans, were entitled to their personal rights of liberty as guaranteed under section 35 of the 1999 Constitution.

“That was what the Court declared and it went ahead to declare that the applicants were entitled to join any associations of their choice, to protect their interests and they were equally entitled to withdraw from becoming members of any association.”

But in a swift reaction, counsel to ACOMORAN, Barrister Sebastine C. Ugbogu, of S.C. Ugbogu & Co, has declared that in a well considered ruling by Justice Aliyu M. Mayaki, in the case re: Abdullahi B. Abubakar and 40 others versus Bida Local Government and 60 others in suit

number NSHC/MN/202/2013, the court had struck out the entire application.

This, according to him, was on the ground that it was baseless, while the judgment earlier delivered in same matter could not give rise to such application.

The counsel, in a letter addressed to the chairman Bida Local Government of Niger state dated May 30, 2016, a copy of which obtained by Arewa stated that the effect of the decision of the Court on May 25, 2016 was that any activity by Metropolitan Incorporated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Operators Association in Bida as regards operation without approval from Bida Local Government and the state Ministry of Transport was illegal and should be stopped with every necessary measure.

“The only recognised motorcycle union that should be operated within Bida and Niger State is ACOMORAN and no other.

Consequently, any individual who engages in commercial motorcycle business must do so under ACOMORAN,” he stated.

Kaduna declares war on rapists Muhammad Sabiu-Kaduna KADUNA State government has declared war on rapists, saying they should leave the state as there is no hiding place for them.

The governor’s spokesman, Mr Samuel Aruwa, dropped the hint in a news conference in Kaduna recently.

He said the state governor, as a father, was very much disturbed about the incessant cases of rape occurring almost

Court remands 24-yr old in prison for defiling 6yr old girl Muhammad Sabiu-Kaduna A High Court sitting in Kaduna on Thursday has remanded one Haruna Tukur in prison custody for defiling a six -year old minor.

The prosecutor, Bayero Dari, had told the court that the accused had, on 5th February, 2016, lured the minor to an uncompleted building at Malali in Kaduna North where he had unlawful sex with her.

The prosecutor further argued that

the offence committed by the accused is punishable under section 283 of the Kaduna State Law of 1999 which attracts life imprisonment for offenders.

When the charges were read to the accused, he pleaded not guilty. However, the prosecutor sought adjournment of the trial to enable him present more witnesses.

The presiding judge, justice Aliyu, granted the request of the prosecution and adjourned the case to 4th August, 2016 for hearing.

on a daily basis across the state.

According to him, as a responsible government, we cannot fold our arms and allow this menace to continue unabated.

To this end, he announced that the state government had from that day declared war on rapists, saying Kaduna would not accommodate them as there was no hiding place for them.

Aruwa disclosed that the government was ready to deal with any rapist in line with the dictate of the law. He, therefore, called on security agencies as well as judiciary to co-operate in curtailing the menace.

While soliciting the support of the media in this drive, the media aide said rigorous campaign would be carried out in the media to seek the cooperation of the people.

He also appealed to parents and guardians to monitor their wards and know who they associate with including closed relations.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

fridaytreat

Nigerian Tribune

Rotimi Ige rotimiige@yahoo.com 0811 695 4636

Wizkid:

Setting new international standards for the local industry

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IZKID is a global super star no doubt; such that even American-Nigerian rapper, Wale, raised eye brows when Wizkid was lauded as the first Nigerian to top international ratings. Wizkid was featured in ‘One Dance’, one of the songs on the Drake’s ‘Views’ album, which went on to become the number one song on BillBoard’s top 100 songs. He also recently did a song with British-Nigerian, Tinie Tempah on the latter’s latest single ‘Mamacita’.

From grabbing top spot for his feature on Drake’s album, ‘Views’, touring alongside Chris Brown on an international concert titled ‘One Hell of a Nite tour’ in Amsterdam to hanging out with the present big names on the international music front, the boy from Ojuelegba has become an African mega star. Today, Wizkid is globally acclaimed and accepted.

Taraji P. Henson, American movie star, admitted her addiction to one of Wizkid’s song via her Instagram page. The Empire star said she loved listening to ‘Caro’ and started following the Ojuelegba crooner on Instagram.

Road to fame The 25-year old Afrobeat musician hit limelight after his debut single ‘Holla at Your Boy’ was widely accepted by music lovers. Since the beginning of his career, he has been known for various hit tracks and has won several awards with 103 nominations and counting.

Bio Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun (born July 16, 1989) better known as Wizkid or Star Boy is a recording artiste, songwriter and performer. Wizkid rose to prominence with his hit song, ‘Don’t Dull’. Banky W discovered Wizkid and signed

him to his record label, ‘Empire Mates Entertainment’.

He comes from a large family and is the last of six children. He kicked off his singing career at the early age of 11 when he recorded his first song with one of Nigeria’s celebrated music icons, OJB Jezreel.

He went on to record a 7-track album, which he released in his church in Lagos, under the name of Lil’ Prinz; this was just a stint that earned him a remarkable deal of encouragement and recognition from family, his church and other artistes.

Years later in 2006, with a new stage name, and a passion for making music and God-given talent, Wizkid got back into the studio to hone his craft. He continued to develop as a singer and songwriter by working under some of Nigeria’s biggest musical names such as OJB

Jezreel, Naeto C, Ikechukwu and many others. Over the next few years, his talent as a singer and songwriter became evident and it resulted in him being prominently featured alongside some of the biggest artistes in the Nigerian music industry to much critical and commercial acclaim.

2009 would prove to be Wizkid’s break-out year, as his collaboration with M.I on ‘Fast Money, Fast Cars’ on the ‘Talk About It’ album drew major attention to his distinct voice, singing style and penchant for great songwriting. He went on to feature on Kel’s ‘Turn by Turn’, the and many other high profile projects.

He also got signed to Banky W’s Empire Mates Entertainment, and featured prominently on Banky’s ‘The W Experience’ album.

In 2010, he released his first singles, ‘Holla at your Boy’, ‘Gidi Girl’

and ‘Ori Mi’ with label mate, Skales; then there was the hit song, ‘Tease Me’ which was just a studio freestyle that got leaked online and turned into a big hit in different parts of Nigeria and among Nigerians worldwide.

From then onwards he has not looked back. Despite leaving Banky’s label and setting up his own platform under the imprint, ‘Starboy’, Wizkid, at his young age, has built a brand that has put Nigeria on the world map as regards Pop and Afrobeats evidenced by his sold out concerts all over the world. Today, playlists of Nigerian music, especially in the United Kingdom and other parts of the world would not be complete without Wizkid’s songs. With a team and managed by respected music enterprenuer, Sunday Are, Wizkid is surely on the path to greatness.

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The CEO grand premiere set for this Sunday

A

executives from across Africa who are dispatched on a 1-week leadership retreat by a multinational telecommunications firm, to determine which one to appoint as the firm’s new CEO. However, things go cockeyed when the executives are eliminated one after each

other in a sudden death circumstances, and the finger falls on the last two remaining executive as prime suspects.

‘The CEO’ features Wale Ojo, Lala Akindoju, Angelique Kidjo, Aurelie Eliam, Hilda Dokubo, Jimmy Jean Louis, Peter King, Nico Panagio, among others.

Etisalat Begins Cliqfest 2016 @ University of Uyo

‘Why beautifiers must make neatness a priority’ Mrs Adedoyin Balogun is the CEO of Thairphy Salon and Spa which just berthed in the city of Ibadan. In this interview with SEYI SOKOYA, she revealed her mission to redefine the beauty industry and why people, especially youths, must embrace vocation jobs. Excerpts: YOU just launched a beautification outfit, what was the idea behind this?

This has been my dream since when I was a teenager. I have always had this notion that if I want to have a white collar job, I would love to work in an office as a secretary and that if I want to engage in any entrepreneurship or vocational job, I wanted a salon. There were a few delays when I was about to attend the Federal Polytechnic, Ede, to be precise and as a result of this, I enrolled at the Opera Benson Beauty training institute in Lagos then. It was like the higher institution we have today because the materials were very voluminous and the setting was professional. I did my cosmetology in 1990, beauty therapy in 1991 and graduated. Afterwards, I got admitted into the higher institution. Then, I had the feeling that I was laying a foundation which would lead to a well established business that has manifested today. My parents even wanted to set up a salon for me then, but I insisted that I wanted to go to school which is helping me today.

Why did it take you so long to get it established?

It took me a while to concentrate more on this because of the fear of where to start from. Location was also one of the main concerns. But, I eventually made up my mind that Ibadan would be a right place

Babatunmise’s debut album for October 30

L-R : Michael Nwoseh, Specialist, Youth Segment, Etisalat Nigeria ; Etuk Joseph Jonathan, SUG President, University of Uyo ; Daniel Nfon Bassey, winner of Cliqfest star prize, Hyundai i10; Debo Agun, Manager, Consumer Market, and Saleh Mohammed, Retail Advisor Etisalat Experience Centre, Uyo, at Cliqfest campus activation, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom, recently.

ETISALAT Nigeria stepped up its strategic engagement with Nigerian youth, as it recently kicked off the 2016 edition of its pan-Nigeria multi-campus youth-centric initiative, Cliqfest which berthed at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

The campus activation which focuses on education, sports and entertainment began with a motivational session anchored by Niyi Adesanya who spoke on the theme: “Activate your Dreams,” as he provided the students with practical tips on how to succeed in their desired careers. The second day which was a mixt of fun and excitement featured a football tournament, dance competitions, rap battles and a music concert which featured the Alaga Ibile rapper ,Reminisce, the Egberi Papa master, Timaya and Nigerian Idol 4 and 5 winners, Evelle and

Rotimi Ige rotimiige@yahoo.com 0811 695 4636 twitter: @rotifizzle twitter: @fridaytreat

fridaytreat

trending

LL seems to be set for the general premiere of the highly anticipated movie, The CEO, from the stables of celebrated movie mongul, Kunle Afolayan. ‘The CEO’, produced and directed by Kunle Afolayan is a mystery-thriller surrounding five top

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

(L-R) Etuk Joseph Jonathan, SUG President, University of Uyo; Daniel Nfon Bassey, winner of Cliqfest star prize, Hyundai i10; Debo Agun, Manager, Consumer Segment and Michael Nwoseh, Specialist, Youth Segment both of Etisalat Nigeria at Cliqfest campus activation, University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom, recently.

K-Peace who delighted the students with wonderful renditions of their songs.

The high point of the two day activation was the emergence of Daniel Nfon Bassey, a 100 level student of Bio-Chemistry as the winner of the star prize, a brand new Hyundai i10. An elated Daniel said, “I left home this morning and joked with my mum that I will come home with the car. Words cannot explain how I feel at the moment. I want to thank Etisalat for bringing this show to the University of Uyo which has given me the opportunity to win this wonderful gift.”

Speaking on the campus initiative, Michael Nwoseh, Specialist, Youth Segment said the programme has visited over 70 tertiary institutions. “Our goal

is to motivate all-round development in our students. We want our youths to be balanced, connected and in touch with the ever-changing career turns, social trends and lifestyles, and Cliqfest connects with our core values of care and optimism expressed in an innovative, yet simple manner,” he said.

Cliqfest is powered by Etisalat’s youth package, EasyCliq, a product tailored to suit the lifestyles and communication needs of young people. The programme provides an opportunity for strategic engagement with the youth market segment and is aimed at exposing Nigerian students to business and relationship skills, encouraging them to pursue their dreams by helping them identify their passion which is crucial for long term success in a fun and relaxed atmosphere.

FAST rising gospel act, Babatunmise Agboola is surely having a good year.

Having toured campuses and churches around Nigeria in the past 10 months, he is finally set to release his debut album.

Speaking to Friday Treat, he said, “I am ready for an album because people have been demanding for it. I’ve been doing music for eight years and this is my first debut album. I’ve had my share of rejections, disappointments, challenges and all. The Bible says, “when the lord turned around the captivity of Zion, they were like them that dreamt”. The lord gave me access to meet my destiny helpers, which is the concept behind the title of the album #YES...My album will encourage so many young up and coming artistes not to give up on themselves and be all that God wants them to be. Yes, I owe it all to God”.

The 10-tracker album will be released on October 30 and features four gospel artistes in all. Also, Babatunmise will be dropping a new single, ‘Ogo Ola’, featuring Kenny Kore in a matter of days.

to set up this kind of business in other to correct the wrong impression that it is not a good or safe place to make money.

People need to change their orientation about this. I just love Ibadan. Though, I am not from Oyo State, it is glaring that the pace setter state has witnessed a tremendous development in recent time, especially in the world of entertainment and our sector needs to take a cue from this. There are a lot of people who want value for what they get and people should cultivate the habit to treat their clients with class and taste.

What stands you out among others?

Aside the fact that I love treating my body well, especially my hair and nails, I love neatness and also love to have something doing always because it keeps me fit and agile.

Having developed passion for this, I also make sure I am grounded in this field. I have worked as a masseuse,

The current situation of the country has also given a good example of the danger of the white collar jobs. Try and think of a vocational job while in school or when waiting for admission.

stylist, and manicurist and I did all these before I got admitted into the polytechnic. I felt it was time for me to make people realise that they can get good treatment of their body even within the city of Ibadan. Part of the reasons I ventured into this is to correct the mistakes of some people in this field; many are tacky and not clean in handling the business. Whoever is into this business must make neatness his or her priority. We need to realise that it is a sensitive vocation that deals in cleaning and beautifying people. One of our uniqueness is that we want people to appreciate their natural hair by giving it classy touch, compared to others who concentrate more on artificial hairs. Though, it depends on individual’s choices. Our primary aim is to give people top notch treatment.

How has it been since you started?

We just started and the experience has been awesome and encouraging. I know we will get there soon. The salon has been busy since we unveiled it. I believe we will expand in no time because my goal is beyond where we are at present, at Gbeyikomi House opposite BCOS Exhibition gate, Ibadan. I have been on this particular project since last year January. We have facilities for both sex and we have also made it a priority to put people’s body in place through massage.

Where do you want to see this project in the next five years?

By the grace of God, I want it blossom.

As it is, we have not yet explored all as far as beauty things are concern. We will not relent to follow the beauty trend and also give people a classy treatment.

We have a lot of things in the pipeline and we will begin to explore them very soon.

Now that the world is encouraging entrepreneurship, what is your advice for the youth?

I think this is important for everybody, especially the youth. We need to make entrepreneurship a priority. The current situation of the country has also given a good example of the danger of the white collar jobs. Try and think of a vocational job while in school or when waiting for admission. I am glad that it has been inculcated in the school curriculum. We must discover passion for something that will make one a boss and also put food on one’s table.

For me, it is becoming pathological when it comes to beauty, neatness and esthetics.

Why did you dump white collar job for a vocational business?

I was a secretary at the University Press. I just discovered that I was not having satisfaction any more. I felt I was becoming redundant and this is one of the things I fear most in my life.

Ordinarily I don’t have any problem with food, clothes or shelter because my husband can provide that, but I felt that life is more than that. I also need to support him in some areas and the fact that I don’t want to be idle because when you are active you don’t grow old fast.

MUSIC BUSINESS 101

22

Friday, 8 July, 2016

travelpulse&m.i.c.e

’Wale Olapade 08055201323 wale11g3@gmail.com Winner, NMMA, Tourism Reporter Of The Year

NANTA urges FG on right policies to ease tension in travel industry Stories By Wale Olapade

T

HE National Association of Nigerian Travel Agencies (NANTA), has, again called on the Federal Government to implore right and timely policies to meet the needs of critical issues affecting major sectors of the economy.

The National President, NANTA, Mr Bankole Bernard, who at a breakfast meeting with travel writers, spoke on the prevailing situations rocking the travel industry, said the policy on forex has become a clog in the neck of operators in the travel business.

Bernard explained that bad

policies of government and lack of certain parameter about the travel industry is a factor that is fuelling the present situation.

The NANTA president expressed dismay to the unbecoming activities of some airlines which have gone out of international standard to open city offices where they transact business with travellers directly, thereby depriving agents of their role as partners in the ticketing business.

The excesses of the government in area of policy (forex), which made it difficult for foreign airlines to repatriate funds, has given rooms for counter-activities ventured into by the airlines in order to measure up with the crisis fired by the government policy on forex.

Professor Ayade wins Tourism Man of the year

Governor Ayade

THE Executive Governor of Cross River State in Nigeria, Professor Ben Ayade has won the Tourism Man of the Year award for Nigeria and West Africa.

It was a four man race between him, the Minister of Tourism for Ghana, the Minister of Tourism for The Gambia and Obinna Ekezie, the Managing Director of Wakanow.

This was based on the results released on Tuesday by the award committee.

The Balafon Award committee made up of travel professionals and Journalists from Nigeria and Ghana approved the results for the best performers in travel and tourism West Africa.

The committee had earlier met and short-listed nominees for the different award categories.

The short-listed nominees were then exposed to public votes on Atqnews website and Facebook page. The online voting was done using Survey monkey software.

Atqnews Facebook page has 23,000 followers and the newsletter has a Weekly global audience of over 100,000 people. After a robust debate while analysing the results the award committee approved the results. Winners will be presented with Award Certificates at Accra Weizo event in Ghana on

He pointed that some of these bad policies, like the government foreign exchange policy among others are affecting the airlines and forcing them to leave the country.

“Bad government policies are frustrating our business. Even the new policies on foreign exchange came late when a lot of damages have been done. Even the new policies are not even clear. The airlines have now stopped selling cheaper fares to Nigerians and are now selling higher fares and is our people who are suffering the consequences,” he said.

He lamented that the most painful aspect of it is that the Federal Government is still collecting their taxes in dollars instead of collecting them in naira.

Bernard stressed the need for NANTA to engage with the government the more to understand their policies better and also educate the masses on government policies concerning the aviation industry.

He said that even the domestic airlines that would have taken advantage of the prevailing situation in the country are not leaving up to expectation at growing their businesses by playing the roles of the international carriers.

The NANTA president advocated for flag carriers in the country and not necessarily national carrier which has been in the pipeline for a long time now.

“Government cannot afford to neglect the aviation industry be-

President Buhari cause it contributes significantly to the growth of the nation’s GDP,”he said.

He added that the rate and number of passengers travelling in Nigeria have drastically reduced which has also affected the business of NANTA members.

“This situation has led to reduction in revenue generated by government and NANTA members vis-a-vis fanning the ember of joblessness and this have negatively impacted on the businesses of our members, he noted.

NANTA boss stated that even Etihad Airlines has communicated to the Association that by August 1, it will start implementing zero commission for the agencies.

He believed that good government policies are needed to change

Bernard, NANTA President the prevailing situation, adding that the new NANTA which is repositioning the affairs of members toward professionalism will put things in the right perspective for best practice and operations.

“This administration is more than willing to uphold professionalism in all its dealings .NANTA and its members are bunch of professionals .We want to set the international standards and we would ensure that our members are treated as professionals.”

Bankole disclosed that NANTA has been divided into five zones, which according to him include Lagos, Abuja, Western and Eastern and Northern zones, adding that the national body has empowered each zone to create chapters.

Ethiopian Airlines debuts with Airbus A350 in Nigeria July 15, 2016.

From the analysis it was obvious that most of the voters were from Nigeria and Ghana with few other voters from other parts of Africa.

The governor in his first year in office not only sustained the tradition of Carnival Calabar but raised the bar for the event.

His tourism achievements in 12 months in office include the opening of the first monorail in sub Sahara Africa, hosting the biggest ever street carnival in Africa last year, setting up Callywood the new movie genre that is rated to be bigger and better than Nollywood.

He is also creating new cities in the state. Cross River State prides itself as having created the first authentic international carnival in Africa with participation from Africa and other parts of the World.

He introduced the first bikers parade, the first green carnival and delivered the largest crowd ever seen since carnival began in 2014.

These achievements helped Prof.

Ayade to clinch the double award in his first Year.

Accra Weizo is hosted by La Palm Royal Beach Hotel, supported by Ethiopian Airlines, Accra city hotel and Kempinski Gold city Hotel Accra.

RECENTLY, Ethiopian Airlines made the first again with the arrival of the newest aircraft in the world Airbus A350 in Nigeria.

Lagos and Dubai are the first stations to receive Ethiopian Airlines Brand new Baby.

Ethiopian Airlines were also the first to bring Boeing B787 Dreamliner to Africa and Lagos.

However, Ethiopian Airlines has become the first airline in Africa to take delivery of Airbus A350XWB on June 28, 2016, in Toulouse, France.

Ethiopian is proud to be the first airline from Africa to take delivery of the A350 and excel in offering its passengers the ultimate travel experience on-board this aircraft ahead of other carriers.

Ethiopian A350 XWB was built for passengers comfort and wellbeing. Wider seats in both Business and Economy classes, the lowest twin engine noise level, advanced air conditioning technology and full LED mood lighting enhance passenger comfort while reducing fatigue after a long flight.

“The fact that we are ushering in another first to Africa in a span of four years is an affirmation of our continuing pioneering role in African aviation. It is also a testimony of our commitment to give our passengers the very best travel experience, with the latest industry products and services.

On behalf of all my colleagues at the Ethiopian family, I am delighted to see Ethiopia to continue

making Africa first in Aviation Technology,” said Ato Tewolde Gebremariam, Group CEO of Ethiopian Airlines.

“All seats of the A350 XWB are fitted with the latest high-definition touchscreen personal monitors and a higher selection of movies, television series and audio channels. Inflight Wi-Fi connection will be made available on this aircraft in the future.

“Passengers with smart devices can connect to the world while others can use the smart individual touch screens on their seats when the internet service goes operational.

The A350 XWB’s innovative technology also improves performance in operation.’’

23

Friday, 8 July, 2016

interview

Editor: Kehinde Oyetimi featuresdesk@yahoo.com 08111845048

Quote me, I am the owner of Yorubaland —Olugbo

The Olugbo of Ugbo Kingdom, Oba Frederick Obateru Akinruntan, is a Yoruba monarch with a difference. Currently the chairman of the Yoruba Obas Conflict Resolution Committee, his oil enterprise in particular makes him arguably the richest African king. In 2014, Forbes Magazine put Oba Akinruntan’s net worth at $300 million. Aside this, he is a talented musician, gifted with a great voice and not shying away from entertaining his guests with Ilaje dialect music. In this interview with MONICA TAIWO and TUNDE BUSARI, Oba Akinruntan bares it all on the position of Ugboland in Yoruba history. Excerpts:

K

ABIYESI, there seems to be a controversy on the history of the aboriginal inhabitants of Ile-Ife. Can you shed light on this?

There is nothing like controversy about it. There is only distortion of the history by the powers that be. But I don’t mind whatever anybody says. The truth remains unchanged. Oduduwa was not part of the Yoruba. He was not part of us. He migrated to Ile-Ife from Mecca. Look at his tribal marks. He had a foreigner’s marks on his cheeks.

He had seven children. Out of these seven, one was a female called Owu. Owu is near Ikire. It is called Orile-Owu. It was a place where slaves were assembled for sale. Some of the Owu are in Abeokuta and other parts of Yorubaland.

I don’t need to consult any book to narrate this history.

I have read about 2, 000 authorities on this subject. This history has always been there but the powers that be always make efforts to suppress it. I am not ready to hurt or fight anybody over this but I know the truth is there and nobody can do anything about it. We are the aboriginal inhabitants of Ile-Ife. It was Obamakin Osangangan, son of Oraife, who founded Ile-Ife. If you are familiar with Ifa divinity, Ugbo is mentioned in a verse where it says ‘Kutukutu oba ugbo’.

Osangangan also had many children. I will mention only two. When Oduduwa arrived, he came to Ileero, (Palace) at Iremo quarters in Ile-Ife and he was accepted because of our hospitality. Being a non-native and coming from a background where might was right, he engaged in struggles.

Oduduwa never had a successful reign in Ile-Ife. Although he first defeated Obatala, Obatala later fought back and defeated him.

Why did you leave Ile-Ife? That is a good question. My progenitors left Ile-Ife following Osanyin’s directive. Obamakin retreated and settled at Okemafuragan, near Oke-Igbo. Then, they raised 16 hefty men who regularly raided Ile-Ife, capturing women and children. The men covered their faces with masks and were believed to have descended from heaven because Ugbo people are called Ugbo atorunwo ( people awho descended from the heavens ). The people, on sighting Continues on pg24

24

interview Continued from pg23

them, would always run away from being captured. At a point, Moremi, a beautiful slave woman captured from Ile-Ife, became the wife of Oromakin at Okemafuragan.

Friday, 8 July, 2016

‘Why Ugbo crowns are unique’

How did she become Oromakin’s wife?

Oromakin could not resist her beauty. She stood out among other slaves. She was extremely beautiful. So, Oromakin separated her from others and eventually took her as a wife, oblivious of her real mission. In the end, Moremi succeeded in playing a fast one on him, which helped to demystify the masked men. To the Ilajes, unlike in Ile-Ife where she is still being celebrated, Moremi was a traitor. She betrayed us after she had seen the secret behind the masked men that invaded Ile-Ife. She leaked the secret and ended the raid. Till date, we see her act as an abomination. Ugbo people are forbidden from taking light complexioned ladies as wives. But the seven captured were given special treatment.

They were not hurt. In fact, they begged them to stay because they knew their father could return to destroy Ile-Ife. Obamakin returned to Ile-Ife to see what was happening to his people but he discovered they were given a VIP treatment. He was shocked. The Ifa oracle later instructed him not to destroy but to relocate to the shores of the Atlantic where lies the wealth of the Ugbos and generations to come. Is it not a blessing now that we are the only oil-producing town in Yorubaland?

Till date, those of us who stayed back in Ile-Ife are there. They maintain the link with us here.

In fact, they attend our functions.

Can you continue with the history?

The late Oba of Benin wrote his autobiography which he titled ‘I Remain, Sir, Your Obedient Servant’. He revealed everything in the book. Oba of Benin said, the Olugbo is the only recognised Yoruba Oba. I am the owner of Yoruba nation. Oba of Benin says Ugbo, very close to Okitipupa, is the owner of the South-West. I know many Obas would be asking ‘why is the Olugbo saying this?’ But I am only saying the truth.

We have some similarities with the Benin.

Our ancestors had something in common.

Quote me as an authority. There is a book written by Jacob Eugharera where he stated that the Benins captured 201 Yoruba towns and villages. Why they respected Ugbo was that when they were advancing, we had an Oba that was given respect equivalent to that of the Pope. The Benin had a belief that Ugbo was very strong. If you want to read the history of the Yoruba, go to Portugal because they first had contact with the Yoruba ahead of other Europeans.

Why are you here at a place under construction?

I deliberately brought you here to my ancestral home where my forefathers resided when they arrived here. You can see the space is not up to one plot. It is the space factor that made me to build my palace where it is now. My palace occupies 10 acres and it is the best that can host heads of state and other important personalities from any part of the world. I have been to the houses of so many of them and seen how they built them but my palace stands out. I have about 140 acres here but I occupy only 10 for the palace.

You are often seen with beautiful crowns that reveal you as a stylish king. Just how stylish are you?

I don’t know what you mean by that but I am one who does not compromise my

taste. I am exposed in the course of travel round the world. So, I should have a good and acceptable taste. If this reflects in my comportment and appearance as an Oba, it is complimentary. Talking of the crown, did you know that we have the first ancestral crown in Ugboland? The crown is not ordinary. Go and read books and confirm or refute what I am saying here. Our crown is the oldest in Yorubaland. We had it before Oduduwa arrived.

Kabiyesi, you freely interject this interview with music. Music must be your hobby. How true is this?

Music is not only my hobby, it is also my passion. If I hear a good music, it takes me no time to hook up with it as you can see me doing with my chiefs here. We are catching fun despite the questions you are throwing at me.

You must be a member of choir group as a pupil?

Yes I was. I even thought I would end up a musician. I love music and Ilajes love music. We have our distinct melody from which we derive a lot of pleasure and fun.

Music is good if beautifully rendered as we do here. Also, I love to dance. I dance so well.

When I was a student, people came to pick me to occasions to dance. I am so flexible on dance floor.

Have you a favourite musician on the list of the scores we have around?

Sunny Ade is my favourite musician. I love and enjoy his music.

With your busy schedule, do you have time to recreate at all, and which activity suits you most?

One of the reasons I was late before I came out for the interview is the question you just asked. I enjoy good sleep at my leisure hour. I realise that good sleep, more than anything else, has a way of refreshing body.

Recalling your school days, how do you describe your days as a pupil?

Thank God my teacher is seated here. I was not a gentle boy at school. I loved my independence and struggled for it. This is the spirit that drove me to start my business from the scratch and become whom I am today with interests at home and abroad.

How do you manage your business now that you are here and practically inactive in the corporate world?

What is important in life is to have a strong succession plan. I am such an organised person right from when I was hustling.

I introduced my children to my business from the beginning. I would take them to my filling stations and get them familiar with how work is done.

Music is not only my hobby, it is also my passion. If I hear a good music, it takes me no time to hook up with it.

Today, they are better off. My son is the Managing Director and he is doing well. He knows his onions. He is in charge. I only call when it is time to draw my salary. I ask him to pay my salary and he does. That should be the joy of a parent who appreciates the fact that the future belongs to his children.

As I am here, I have nothing to worry about on how my companies are run. Again, I believe so much in human development.

I employed and trained competent hands who are all in charge of different departments.

As the chairman of Yoruba Obas Reconciliation Committee, how far have you gone in achieving your set goals?

The assignment is a challenging one but I am happy for what we have achieved so far. One of it is the fact that you hardly see traditional rulers engaging one another on the pages of newspapers as it used to be. It is part of our effort that made them see reason why we should not desecrate the stool.

We are still working hard in other areas and we are going to achieve more success.

Secretary of the committee, the Shabiganna of Iganna, Oba Soliu Oyemola, spoke so well of your passion for the assignment. How do you assess his performance as your secretary?

Shabiganna is a committed secretary. He understands what we do and puts all his heart into it. He is experienced and intelligent. Working with him in the committee makes the job easy because he is blessed with a lot of discretion which helps in moving forward.

25

politics&policy

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Nigeria no longer a federation — Shonibare

Chief Supo Shonibare, a core apostle of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, is a legal practitioner and leader the pan-Yoruba organisation, Afenifere, in Lagos State. In this interview with KUNLE ODEREMI, he speaks on the parliamentary and presidential systems of government, the 2014 national Conference, among other issues. Excerpts:

W

ith the benefit of history, what do you think is wrong with us that we are unable to recreate the successes that were recorded in the First Republic?

It is curious that some of us still have some difficulty in analysing the challenges facing our nation and the South-West without conceding what should now be obvious to all of us, taking a cursory look back at our systems and practice of different types of political systems since 1951, that the underling fault line is our departure from regional government and an autonomous Federal system of government.

The structure and the systems practised for a majority of that period till today is incurably defective. A federal autonomous system was the basis and the foundation of the accord concordial among our founding leaders, ushering in an independent entity and accepting the notion of initially being a federation, then later a wholly autonomous Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The military, being themselves an organisation run as a cohesive, unitary outfit, facilitated a system consistent with their own life experiences. They balkanised and weakened the regions evolving them into several states formation, as well as enacting decrees which in effect took over some exclusive enumerated powers, as well as residual powers that had been vested in the regions. The Military in 1966/67 was dealing with succession of Eastern Region from the Federation. The initial creation of MidWest by the Balewa administration without creating regions from minorities in the Middle belt, or the East, was intended to reduce the support base of the opposition Action Group which had championed the creation of more regions. The creation of 12 states by the Gowon regime was both to weaken the concept of the secessionist enclave being monolithic, as well as to weaken the federating units for the emergence of a stronger centre. Although we were still continuing to call ourselves a “Federation,” in reality we are no longer a Federation.

A federation implies an agreement between several states, ethnic nationalities or settlements, intending to found a nation for their collective well-being and protection.

There was no agreement after Independence abandoning the Independence constitution. The elite and the military simply imposed a constitution on us that was not autonomous. It didn’t not derive its powers from “bottom up” or from a prior conferment of democratic legitimacy on the process by the ethnic nationalities or settlements initially determining the powers it is willing or able to cede to the centre and enumerated powers and residual powers for those federating entities or settlements. The military determined the federating units. States were simply created and more have been subsequently created by fiat.

However, it was opined upon the convening of the Constituent Assembly before the advent of the Second Republic that the presidential system of government would be better suited for the country- the military by this time having balkanised the regions into states, so the presidential system of government was accepted by all the

Shonibare political leaders at that time.

A lot of Nigerians are still nostalgic about the regional era...

Why is our most nostalgic recollections of accountability in governance and the most prudent application of our resources in a democratic dispensation the period between self government in 1951, Independence in 1960 and 1966 when the civilian government was overthrown? Was it a coincidence that the system we operated at that time were the regional governments and the Parliamentary system of government? I think not. It’s the system best suited for us. We do not have the cohesion, even development, maturity and the connectedness required for a non-homogenous group to confer powers akin to those exercised by a monarchial entity as the powers the presidential system confers on the president and governors.

The governors however do not give the local government chairpersons the leeway to exercise these powers, knowing the potentially abusive nature of such powers. A president or governor in a parliamentary system is a leader among equals- a First Minister.

In a presidential system, president or governors are kings. The American settlers introduced it because all they knew was a monarchy. They wanted a democratic monarch. We already have our traditional rulers.

There are no constitutional precautions in changing a president in a parliamentary system of government. Parliament simply votes and government continues for the tenure of that parliament with the person leading the party surviving the vote or a new Leader emerging and carrying on as new Leader and President, or a coalition of par-

ties electing a president by majority votes. It does not create a vacuum or a constitutional logjam. It will be more cost-effective for our polity. I am yet to find any attribute that the presidential system has that cannot be made to operate in a parliamentary system.

Again, while the creation of states as a level of governance has brought rapid development using another level of government closer to the people to exercise the executive and legislative functions of governance, that development could have well been achieved and even surpassed within the regional government. Indeed, there is no template that can be said to be of general application in the creation of states.

It’s this challenge that informs the everincreasing agitation for the creation of more states, whether potentially viable or not, by several homogeneous settlements and minority groups.

A federation implies an agreement between several states, ethnic nationalities or settlements, intending to found a nation for their collective well-being and protection.

How do you mean?

The dysfunction of a unitary system in a nation that is not homogeneous is that it will always ignite a fault line out of any action, omission or decision that may seem advantageous to the majority group or groups and label them- rightly or wrongly, as being unfair and discriminatory. It tends to fan instability and the embers of persistent discord, friction and disunity.

Indeed, a unitary system of governance can be said to be undemocratic as the minority groups will be perpetually unable to own ownership of the decisions that may have the greatest impact on their daily life choice issues.

They will be in perpetual opposition; unless power is ceded to them by the benevolence of the majority group or groups.

Indeed, I do not know of any country consisting of several ethic nationalities practising a unitary system of government.

They all practise a federal system of governance with the various nationalities or settlements constituting the federating units. They would determine the powers to be ceded to the centre for their collective well-being and protection.

There’s no doubt that there’s an economic advantage in our national entity, but that advantage can only be appreciated and harnessed by the solidarity of willing participants who are also able to determine their own destiny and governance in a manner that would hold those governing them solely responsible for the success or failure of policies.

As there was no template of general application for the creation of states, the six geopolitical zones are most certainly viable entities capable of being our federating units. They should be our new regions.

They are composed of the majority groups in three of these zones and the minority groups collectively in the other three zones. Each region will have it own constitution which would contain enumerated and agreed powers the various nationalities or settlements in that region have agreed to cede to the regional government while the residual powers will be exercised by the states.

What role can the report of the 2014 National Conference play in all these issues?

The present administration, maybe after it has been able to achieve some stability in addressing the economic and security challenges of our country, will find that the structure of the country itself is a major fault line and a hindrance to our achieving inclusive development and sustaining a stable nation. Although the resolutions and decisions of the National Conference of 2014 cannot be the ultimate panacea in resolving our structural and economic challenges, it’s a good beginning.

It’s a good beginning precisely because it was able to achieve the feat of adopting these resolutions which entail some degree of devolution of powers to the states by consensus. The present governmentbeing both the Presidency and the National Assembly, will be better advised to evaluate and consider these resolutions; they address some of the government’s current social and economic challenges.

26

politics&policy

Friday, 8 July, 2016

P

RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari was to have spent the first few days of Ramadan in his hometown, Daura, Katsina State. The plan changed with a nagging ear infection which he travelled out to obtain medical treatment for. Last weekend, he made it and it was a sort of triumphant homecoming. I was on the trip and witnessed the reception his people - the old, the young, men, women, boys and girls accorded him on the streets of the ancient town, the town of Bayyajida, a sojourner who came across the desert and for his bravery in slaying Sarki, the giant snake, which had prevented the people from accessing their well, their only source of water, earned himself the town’s queen, Daurama, for a wife.

Seeing him, their joy knew no bounds. The news of his ear disease and rumour of serious illness must have jolted them and now seeing him in good health, and in all his presidential glory, were certainly overwhelmed with happiness and overcome by emotions. His time as the chairman of the Petroleum Trust Fund (PTF) is arguably the best Daura has had as a town. The role PTF played in bringing development to the town is legendary. I can recall that PTF under Buhari, against assertions of unbridled favouritism, paid great attention to building Daura roads and other infrastructure. But for that, it may never have enjoyed the facilities it has today.

For me too, going to Katsina was a sort of home coming. Yet, when I received my posting there years ago by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), I thought fate had treated me cruelly and contemplated seeking redeployment. I didn’t. The decision to go there proved to be divinely inspired. I cut my journalism teeth in the state, picked up the Hausa language and met most of the people that have shaped my whole life. Katsina is much changed from when I lived there but it was a wonderful feeling to still find familiar faces many of whom played a part in moulding the individual I have become.

inside

aso rock WiTH lEON UsiGBE

08078891838 leonusigbe@ yahoo. co.uk

Buhari’s return to Katsina s

But this is about President Buhari. Though just four days, it was an extended holiday for him; a time to get some more rest and catch up with his kith and kin. On Monday, the day he arrived from Abuja, the Katsina airport welcoming ceremony led by Governor Aminu Masari was brief. Buhari alighted from 001, that is, his Nigerian Air Force presidential jet, had a handshake with the welcoming party on the tarmac and soon after boarded the presidential chopper that airlifted him to his personal residence in Daura.

The major assignment the president had in his town was the breaking of Ramadan fast with the Emir of Daura, Dr. Farouq Umar Farouq along with his chiefs and some prominent sons of the emirate. This took place on Saturday evening with Masari, his Zamfara State counterpart, Abdulaziz Yari; members of the Katsina State executive council and the leadership of the state legislature also in attendance. The breaking of fast took place in a small hall inside the emir’s palace, a historical but modest edifice whose antiquated design had deliberately been preserved even though now incongruous with its modern surroundings.

People struggled to enter the hall to have the opportunity to share dinner with their most illustrious son. Unlike everywhere else, the atmosphere was relaxed with

the usually overzealous presidential bodyguards appearing to keep their hotheaded emotions in check. They still managed to cut down on the number that could gain entry into the dining hall while tens of people including many almajarai, were left to roam unhindered just out08078891838 WiTH lEON leonusigbe@ side the door of the dinning hall.yahoo. co.uk The emir was generous with his feast. Having anticipated that there would be a surge of local crowd intent on eating or just eager for a chance of a close encounter with the president, he made an alternative arrangement for such people to be sheltered and fed a few rooms away.

There was loud grumbling from a few of them who felt shut out from the main event but most others who had to relocate to the adjourning dinning room, were happy for the chance to eat.

As he had done on each occasion of breaking of fast, Buhari spoke about the direction of his administration, trying to allay fears about observed discriminatory tendencies of his government towards sections of the country. He told his people that he would be just, fair to all and would not marginalise any parts as he has been variously accused of doing. Therefore he said, he would objectively consider anything brought to his attention before taking decisions. As a man’s word is his bond, many will hope he sticks to this solemn pledge.

aso rock

Ikpeazu and the legal faux pas

By Bisi Ezikiel IT was a rude shock to all lovers of democracy, especially indigenes and residents of Abia State, when the news broke out that the mandate freely expressed by the electorate under the rage of the sun and rain of April 11, 2015 was supposedly truncated by a Federal High Court in Abuja. His Excellency, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu, did not just emerge as a governor of Abia by inconsequential happenings. His emergence was the deliberate expression of the will of the people of the state. The people of Abia translated themselves through their fingerprints on the ballot for Okezie Ikpeazu.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) captured their figure as 248,459 votes. This choice by the Abia people empowered Governor Ikpeazu to lead the state on the path of prosperity and development. As expected by the electorate, he has proved his capacity since he came to office in spite of the various legal distractions. What could have informed such a crude joke?

Many had wondered. When the report first filtered out on the social media it was, as usual, dismissed by many. As time went by, the social media feasted even deeper on the story that was earlier dismissed by the wave of the hand by many intelligent and learnered minds. “No such judgement cannot flow from the fountain of justice,” many said in dismissals. Alas, the supposedly crude joke stood out as not just an incredible report after all. A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, has annulled the election of Governor Ikpeazu of Abia State.

The court dismissed the votes of the electorate. Votes which the people had cast for Ikpeazu on April 11, 2015 and upheld by the Supreme Court after a long legal battle that traversed the various ladders of the judiciary. What was the premise of the order? That Ikpeazu did not pay his personal tax as and when due in 2010 and 2011. The claim of malfeasance was not investigated but a mere allegation. No wonder, Mike Ozekhome (SAN) while commenting on the matter dismissed the judgement is laughable.

The court did not just stop there but stretch its wisdom further. It directed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to immediately issue a Certificate of Return to Samson Ogar who slugged it out in the party primary with Ikpeazu. Ogar lost in the primary of December 8, 2014 to Ikpeazu who scored 489 votes and became the standard-bearer of the party while Ogah trailed him by 103 votes.

Ikpeazu Ikpeazu’s popularity was further tested in the May 28 gubernatorial election in Abia where he defeated candidates of other parties to prove that Abians had him for choice as governor. He scored 248,459 votes, against Alex Otti of the All Progressive Grand Alliance and closest contestant who polled 165,406. How can a court ignore this volume of mass support for candidate on a matter of tax which it has not properly investigated?

Such judgment has drawn the irk of the public, both learned and ordinary men, who have been finding it difficult to come to terms with the judgment. No wonder, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain and former special assistant to Dr Alex Ekwueme, Mr Ben Onyechere, queried the sort of wisdom that inspired the controversial judgment which, in his view, would not stand the test of time and justice.

In his interview with the media, Onyechere said: “The case of annulment of Abia governor’s election by merely declaring that he forged tax receipts is mischievous because the governor’s records can be investigated by the EFCC to verify whether he worked and resigned from government services in which case his tax was deductible at the end of every month. The way and manner that order was made in which the judge ordered that a Certificate of Return be issued to

Ogah immediately, in flagrant disregard of the constitution, is not only curious but also an aberration of justice.”

The case being preferred against Ikpeazu held that he was guilty of tax evasion and was therefore unqualified to have contested the 2015 governorship election in the state. Even at that, does he not have the right to contest the matter at the Court of Appeal? It is the knowledge of this fact that actually probes the hurried manner with which INEC was so ordered by the Federal High Court, Abuja to issue a certificate of Return to Ogah.

Ozekhome further said: “There is what you call doctrine of lis pendens which means that once a matter has been submitted to court and the parties are aware that one of the parties is already in court or on an appeal, then the parties should refrain from taking any steps that will be detrimental tothe other party in the matter. This judgment is not going to stand for so many reasons, from what I have read in the last few days, a judge who is not a member of the Election Petition Tribunal is annulling the election of a governor after the governor has been successfully elected and after he has fought his election up to the Supreme and the Supreme Court validated his election.”

It is such enlightened view which Governor Ikpeazu and his camp know that has made the peace-loving governor to continue to calm his supporters across the state to be law abiding and await the outcome of the appeal. Already, the view of Professor Itse Sagay captures the matter appropriately when he said that “This is an unprecedented case because it has never happened in law. The only similar case was the Amaechi vs. Omehia case which was taken to the Supreme Court. At the end of the day, the Supreme Court ruled that Amaechi was the candidate of the party and should be the governor. In this case, Ogah came second during the primaries while Ikpeazu came first.

I think the courts will be ones to decide.” And Ikpeazu has approached the Court. In this case the Appeal Court.

Exploring the Electoral Act exposes the weakness of the judgment by Federal High Court. This is because the provisions of section 145 of the Electoral Act, 2015 which posits that any person against whom a decision has been handed down by the Courts or Tribunal under the Electoral Act, has a window period of 21 days within which to file an Appeal challenging the decision of the lower Court or tribunal.

Ezikiel is an Abuja based journalist

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

hers

Editor: Yemisi Aofolaju yemiaofolaju@yahoo.com 08055001741

t v o G n i ‘Life ’ e k a f s House i

with ate. In this interview St o Oy of dy la t rs Fi s been -Akala is a former ouse, and how it ha H t en m rn Mrs Oluwakemi Alao ve Go e th lues e speaks on life in le revealing those va hi w , ce offi ft YEMISI AOFOLAJU, sh le , la ka tunba Adebayo Alao-A since her husband, O and. EXCERPTS: sb hu r he to r he s ar that ende

H

ow has it been outside Government House?

Well, we have been out for a long time. I tell people that we are just regular people.

How do you mean?

I meant what I said. We are just regular people because one is going to be out one day, even if one spends 12 years. I am glad that whenever people see me now, they welcome me warmly.

What do you miss in Government House?

In fact, I don’t miss the fact that our guests were normally screened, but the fact that we have to buy diesel now to power the generating set. This is the only thing that I miss because electricity was on throughout, but now, I have to get diesel. Akala is a man of the people; we always had lots of people around us, even till date. Then, it wasn’t that I couldn’t go to the market; even now, I am still not a market person.

Security aides can really be overzealous in screening guests. How were you able to cope with their excesses?

You need to have your head properly screwed on your shoulders to be able to curb their excesses. The truth is, they could put one in trouble. There were people one would have loved to see but they denied them access, but I never encouraged this.

How did you do this?

Don’t forget that I am from Ilorin. For instance, I came down from my office on a fateful day and a lady rushed to me and when I asked what the problem was, she said she had been coming to the office for more than two weeks and had not been allowed to see me. For the mere fact that she is from Ilorin, I told her to join me in my car and we went to the Government House together. I never liked it when I am invited to an occasion for 2p.m. and the protocol kept telling me to tarry a while before coming. If you call a meeting for 2p.m, it is 2p.m by me.

Were you ever queried by the security agents for breaking protocol?

Who could have done that? All they could have done then was to grumble. There were times that events didn’t start on schedule that I would have to go back to my office because it would not have been okay for the wife of a governor to have sat in an empty hall, but most times I did not listen to the protocol. I just went ahead to be at any event

at the nick of time so that I could leave on time.

What has become of your pet project while in government?

Community Link Advancement Programme(CLAP) was born out of a grateful heart . I am so grateful to God for blessing me then with a fruit of the womb. I had my baby as a First Lady of Oyo State and I made up my mind that any group or association or any local government that came my way would benefit from the project and we tried to do what could be done to launch the project which led to fund raising that was released to the beneficiaries.

I have discovered that in politics, you have to make a lot of noise, but I don’t like this because the scripture says ‘what your right hand is doing must not be known to the left’. I love helping people. My husband and I are both givers though we don’t make noise about it. The project is still on, but I am hoping to have another opportunity to do it in a big way. With another opportunity, I will do things differently because of people’s attitude that any good gesture extended to them is from government purse, even when you are trying to help them. There was a time CLAP empowered 10 widows from each local government area, because I discovered that what most petty business women needed was a start-up of between N5,000 and N10,000 to turn their lives around. At another time, the 13 councils in Ogbomoso and Oke-Ogun were given N1million each as revolving loan. It was only one council that was coming annually to give a report of what they had done and gained from it, having told them to continue to plough the loan back into their ventures. Some three weeks ago, I empowered 14 people with N36,000 per package per head for the multi -level marketing to earn some money.

How can this attitude be dealt with?

There should be a change in our attitude.

We need re-orientation. I always tell women that we need money because we are the ones at home taking care of the household. We don’t have to wait for our husbands to give us money for Maggi. It is imperative that we use our money well in order to make more.

While you were asking God for a child, what was going on in your mind?

I had planned to have six children because I am from a family of six, and I was so sure that my case would not be different, because my brothers and sisters were having children, but I didn’t know what went wrong.

At times, I was down, but I was cheerful most of the time because most people did

Kemi Alao-Akala not know that I never had a child until I had one. I was worried once in a while, but I knew I would have a child. I got blessed with the fruit of the womb through praise. I came across some books of praise- Prison to praise, Power in Praise, Power of Praise believing that there is nothing that praise cannot do. In March 2005, I asked a few people to join me in praising God at the Government House Chapel; though they did not understand why. By February 2006, I had Olamikunle. Unlimited Praise has now become an annual event.

You never tried having another child?

Laughs... My husband is responsible for this. I had ‘Kunle just before I turned 44.

And you kept this to yourself...

No. I asked some people to beg him on my behalf, but he told them that they should allow us to be so that we can take good care of my son. At 54, I believe God can still do it. Sometimes, I tell him, ‘my dear, e je a se kini yii!’(let’s have another baby), but I know the God I serve.

How do you cope with his other wife?

My Iyale (senior) is wonderful. If I am the Iyale, I don’t think I would be that nice because there is no woman who wants to share her man. I don’t know how God arranged this. She is a mother.

How do you relate with her?

We have a beautiful relationship.

How did you meet your husband?

You should know the story by now. I had my youth service at the Police College, Ikeja in 1983.

So you met there?

Yes. But you knew he was married?

Yes. And you decided to marry him?

I don’t want to tell you the main story...

When I met him in 1983, the affair wasn’t all that serious until 1993. I went back to Ilorin after the service year because my mother felt the best profession for any woman is teaching, which I didn’t like. Moreover, I didn’t study education. I eventually got a job with the then Trade Bank and I was transferred back to Lagos in 1993.

So you renewed your relationship with him?

We didn’t renew anything. I guess that was how God wanted it.

How has your marriage to him been?

It is getting better. At 54, I’m now wiser.

Our relationship is so good now and I know how to handle men better.

If you are asked to counsel young ladies, what will you tell them?

Counselling a young lady now could be a waste of time because I had once passed through that stage of being in love. One can only make a trial. The watchword for me is patience and remaining in a place of prayer; though this could be hard. All I tell whoever cares to listen is that a lady should have 99 per cent patience. If I keep quiet, it is because I want peace. It is just normal for one to stomach a lot of things, but once the Continues pg30

28 features

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Isonyin-Ijebu elects new Saderiren 1

2

By Taiwo Olanrewaju Isonyin-Ijebu town in Ijebu North East Local Government Area of Ogun State came alive as Otunba Abdul Rasheed Cossy Salami was elected the Saderiren of Isonyin-Ijebu recently.

The Oba-elect was ushered into the town amidst fanfare by the town’s people while the Transition Chairman for Ijebu North East Local Government Area, LordBanjou Deola Tayo and members of his council, received Otunba Salami warmly.

School pupils, youths in the town, men and women, and the kingmakers, headed by Chief Kunle Taiwo, all trooped out to give the Saderiren-elect a rousing welcome.

The visibly happy and smiling Oba-elect, however, promised to do his best for his fatherland.

3

4

1. The Saderiren-elect, Otunba Abdul Rasheed Cossy Salami (2nd right) being welcomed into Isonyin-Ijebu town by the youths .

2. The transition chairman of Ijebu North East Local Government Area, LordBanjou Deola Tayo (2nd right) officially welcoming Otunba Salami into the town.

3. Head of the kingmakers, Chief Kunle Taiwo (right), raising up the hand of the Oba-elect.

4. The Oba-elect, Otunba Salami (middle), flanked by the kingmakers.

We’re deploying better methods to boost IGR —KWIRS chairman Biola Azeez, Ilorin

I

N Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, any non-indigene of the state could get a certificate of local government or state government of origin at any of business centre at the popular Post Office, Challenge or Unity areas of the town in a matter of jiffy and at negotiable price.

For instance, these ‘indigenship’ certificates are demanded from student applicants to gain admission into state-owned tertiary institutions like Kwara State Polytechnic and Kwara State University (KWASU), the College of Education, among others.

Also, many officials of different ministries, board of internal revenues have been arrested with fake receipt booklets to swindle the state government and local governments and thereby denying the government of appreciable revenue.

It was also gathered that many heads of tertiary institutions have been discovered to be under-reporting or under-declaring their revenue accounts to relevant government agencies.

While all these cases kept on going increasingly unchecked or became intractable at a point due to connivance and complicity of some top government officials, the state government was also plunged into 60 per cent reduction in statutory allocation derivable from monthly federal government allocation.

Thus, the birth of Kwara State Internal Revenue Service (KWIRS), which came into operation six months ago, with the task of blocking all leakages in revenue collection and administration, towards achieving an increased revenue generation and securing sustainable future for the state.

It is recalled that Kwara State that had hitherto been collecting an average of N2.5 billion monthly federal allocation now receives as low as N700 million monthly.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, the chairman of the state internal revenue service, Dr. Muritala Awodun,

Abdulfatah Ahmed, Kwara governor who said that the plan of the service was based on changing the method of revenue collection by deploying "new people, new process and new technology", added that the KWIRS has collected a total of N8.09 billion into the coffers of the state for the first half of 2016 alone.

He said the agency had plans to move into enforcement of tax payment beginning from July this year.

Dr. Muritala Awodun, who said the figures were higher than the total of N7.2 billion collected for the whole of 2015 by the defunct Board of Internal Revenue in the state, gave a breakdown of the figures.

Awodun said the service raked N997 million in January when it began full operations, N1.05 billion in February, N1.25 billion in March and 2.07 billion in April. It also collected a total of N1.45 billion in May and has so far in

June collected a total of N1.3 billion.

Of the total amount, Awodun said N5.002 billion was shared as state revenue while N3.097 billion was set aside as retained earnings.

He attributed the huge collection to the ability of the Service to block revenue leakages citing the example of tertiary institutions in the state that until now used to allegedly under-report their revenue while still collecting monthly subvention from government.

Awodun also explained that contrary to concerns being expressed in some quarters, the Service was not implementing any new tax law but was merely enforcing existing ones that had been either abused or left unobserved by previous administrations.

He also denied that the service had taken over the tax duties of local government areas saying the agreement between the council and the KWIRS is to collect only four out of the 21 items approved for local government by law and that even that collection would only start from July this year.

One of such items according to him is the issuance of Certificate of Origin which he noted was being abused by those in charge but which will now be issued online by the Service from July this year.

“We are doing our tax collection with a human face and that is why we engage all possible avenues for settlement rather than going to court. We have used this method effectively particularly on banks in the state but from July we shall begin serious enforcement. There is nothing like overtaxing the people; our strategy for 2016 is to block all leakages, enforce what is in the law and not charge new taxes.

“And it is yielding good result. For instance our PAYE collection has moved from N200 million to N450 million. The TSA revealed that there was under-declaration of revenue by institutions and parastatals,” he said.

He denied insinuation that popular soft drink manufacturer, Coca-Cola, relocated from the state due to high tax demand and that owners of fish ponds were being made to pay exorbitant tax for their operations.

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features

Friday, 8 July, 2016

How we handle male competition —Female keke riders

The saying that “What a man can do, a woman can do better” finds some expression on the streets of Ibadan where a number of women have taken to riding tricycles for commercial purposes. PAUL OMOROGBE tells their story.

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N the beginning, they looked like an oddity in the ancient city of Ibadan known for its conservativeness. However, today they are fast gaining recognition within the transport system in Ibadan. In a bid to make ends meet amidst economic hardship, these industrious women have taken the bull by the horn operating as tricycle riders on the busiest routes of the city.

Sighting them on the streets is rare, because they remain in the minority.

But you will be sure to see them after a while.

Mrs Fikayo Esther Ogunmokun, a mother of five, was in dire straits a while ago before she began riding commercial tricycle over a year ago. She was one of the affected traders whose shop at Orita-Challenge area of Ibadan was demolished to make way for the road expansion in the area.

“I was deep in debt at the time when it happened. So I had to take up the job of a domestic help. I was being paid N1,500 whenever I could find clothes to wash or cleaning to do in someone’s house. I was often left with N500 to take home after servicing my debt on a daily basis. This was nowhere near enough to take care of my family’s needs.

“I started thinking of what to do. I

was inspired by one elderly woman we call ‘grandma’ that I once saw riding a tricycle. I was at Orita one day and I boarded one ‘maruwa’ heading to Gate. I

Ogunmokun didn’t have anything doing there. I just wanted to talk to the driver about how he could teach me to ride the tricycle.

He laughed at me when I said it. But I insisted that I was serious. He eventually agreed, and he took me to a place in town where he taught me for one day. I paid him N3000 that day for the training. The second day, we went out again and I had to pay him again.

Mrs Ogunmokun thereafter asked people around her for who she could get a tricycle from to ride. She eventually found someone who agreed to give her one to ride and that’s how she started.

“When I began early 2015, there were just three of us women in this business,” she added.

“I go out at 7am and close at about 8.30pm daily. My husband was skeptical about my going into this kind of thing, but he eventually agreed.”

Mrs Ogunmokun said that with a daily income being sure for her, she has been able to settle her debts and support the family which already has one undergraduate in a polytechnic in Ogun State. “I used to make between N4000 and N5000 daily before the fuel hike.

But with the increase, after buying fuel and making delivery to the owner of the tricycle, I make an average of N2,500.”

How have the male counterparts reacted to these

Nobody taught me how to ride a tricycle. I decided to do it because it was a far more profitable way to survive Oluwaseun

women who have encroached on their turf? According to Mrs Ogunmokun it’s a mix of good and bad. “There was a day I had a flat tire. One male ‘keke’ driver going in opposite direction stopped to come and help me raise the tricycle to change the tire. Some of the NURTW boys who sell tickets are civil, and the police don’t disturb us. But there are some male drivers who react angrily when they see us; maybe they feel we are delving into their world, or taking their jobs.”

The reaction of passengers is also twoway traffic: “There are some passengers who say that just for the fact that I am a woman they will enter. They admire a woman taking this step to make ends meet. Some will pay and ask me to keep the change, and there are others who refuse to enter because they are not confident women can ride it safely.”

Mrs Ajoke Oluwaseun, a female tricycle rider said she began with riding an ‘okada’. “I had a dream one night that I was riding the tricycle little children play with. I used to work as a waste collector attached to one of the dump trucks of Oyo State Waste Management Authority. I gathered some money and bought an ‘okada’ which I would ride by myself to work, while carrying a few passengers on my way home.

After a while she thought to herself that she could also ride a tricycle. She found a person who gives out tricycles on hire purchase and took one. “Nobody taught me how to ride a tricycle. I decided to do it because it was a far more profitable way to survive.” Mrs Oluwaseun said that what she found to be a challenge was dealing with the union ticket sellers; otherwise she enjoyed riding the tricycle. She has hopes that one day, she would be able to pay up the N720,000 payment target and the tricycle would become hers.

What makes the women-in-commercial-tricycle-riding phenomenon even more interesting is the fact that both the young and old are in it. Aanu Bakare is a single woman in her early twenties plying the Molete-Gate route. She only began the business this year. “I trained as a fashion designer. I am doing this because I need to raise money for my ‘freedom.’”

Though Aanu rides the tricycle with dexterity and said she has no issues with the males she meets while on duty, she adds that her love for fashion designing will take her off the streets once her target is met. “I won’t do this for long because I want to go back to my previous trade. I have a partner who also rides this tricycle for business; she is a HND student.”

It has however not all been smooth sailing for this unique set of transport operators in Ibadan. Mrs Ogunmokun recounts an experience that put her out of business for over three months. “After my first tricycle, I got a new one from one microfinance bank. Unfortunately, I had an accident. I was injured on my leg.

It took me three months to recover. The bank took away the tricycle, and some sympathizers including my mother said that they told me that tricycle riding was not for women.” Undaunted by the incident, she got back on the streets saying, “There is no business without risks. For me this is far better than owning a shop with goods worth N1million, because sales are not sure every day, but with this I am sure that I will have something to take jome at the end of the day, no matter the number of passengers I convey to their destinations.”

30 hersay

Friday, 8 July, 2016

W

hen we are dealing with single parenting, the parties involved are what we will call the sole custodian parent and the children,as well as the different networks and contexts they find themselves in. This can include families on both sides, grandparents, school and neighbourhood, friends and acquaintances.

“What and whom are single parents, as individuals, as a group? What do I mean by single parenting?

They are the ones facing a new situation, reality and challenge, maybe even new physical surroundings and come drastic changes. By themselves, on their own, as the head of the house, the main/sole parent.

The single parent can be male or female and the reasons for being a single parent may vary greatly too. How they got to be single parents and the entry routes and reasons may differ, but the challenges are the same.

They are the ones effectively left with the task of sole parenting and all related roles and responsibilities. The lone caretaker and sole supporter. This is single parenting. Also, for example teenage girls who get pregnant and opt to keep the baby, not abort or marry the man responsible for the pregnancy.

Why the dual focus rewards and

Parenting The host of Straight Talk!

With Olufunke Adetuberu

08023242389

Single parenting challenges?

The challenges and rewards of single parenting are intricately interwoven. They are like flipsides of the same coin.

There are different stages in this process of becoming, living, functioning and thriving as a single parent: It starts out with a situational assessment and reality check.

Facing facts and reality: Transitioning into being a single parent Getting priorities in play and place: Structuring and organising the new family unit, circumstance and surroundings Functioning as a family: Fostering relationships and bond, trust, honesty, disciplines, roles and responsibilities etc.

Society and support: School, family, friends, dating, family management

cryonmenow@yahoo.com

Dealing with specifics: Death, Divorce, Abandonment Others depict this process as a gradually unfolding series of events in which parents must: • Master new demands •Help children cope and thrive (despite change, loss and adjustment) •Coping themselves and on their own •Moving from old to new context and reality (even uncertainty) “This is a work in progress and it will take time. Two key steps that have to be taken are: Breaking with the old on the one hand, and getting on with the new on the other. The first deals with the emotional side and the empathic responses, whilst the second deals more with direction and strategic aspects of the single parenting, road ahead.

Breaking with the old This would mean that the single parent has to at the very least take the time and efforts to .....

Address hurt and pain, loss and/or betrayal, abandonment etc.

Dealing with very real feelings and emotions like denial, anger and protect self/children from pain, trying to focus on the positive and the memories Giving each other some space to work through it in their own way Ensure self and children are emotionally ready to confront the reality (old and new) Not trying to hold on, allowing to be mourning or grieve Help wounds to heal (own and those of the children) Not feel guilty or inadequate, no blaming” Getting on with the new Accepting and embracing the new situation and life in general Reject Accommodate and understand Allow room for everyone, individually and collectively to deal with this in his/her own way Always remember that no two people are the same. Each of our journeys and paths are different. We go at it at our own pace…

Breaking with the old and getting on with the new!

‘Life in govt House is fake’ where we are present, Akala takes over as the musician stops singing the praise of the celebrant unconsciously for us. So, most times now, I ensure that I don’t join the dancing floor until I am about to leave the party.

Continued from pg27

man’s cup is full, one is bound to burst.

What was the reaction of your Iyale when you were made the First Lady?

Nothing gave me the clue to her feelings. But my husband was initially the chairman of Ogbomoso North and she was in Lagos. I started his political life with him. So, there was no doubt on who should be the first lady. I was with him in Ogbomoso and we graduated to deputy governor, then governor and we are graduating.

What have you to tell women?

As women, we need to bring up our children in the way of the Lord so that they will have the fear of God. Lack of fear of God is the source of problems in Nigeria. The bottom line is that we don’t know God. You only fear the person you know. We must also work hard while we also consider the principle of sowing and reaping. It is imperative to imbibe the culture of giving.What has endeared my husband to me is giving. Have you seen a giver who lacks? Again, confessing positively should be our watchword because there is power in the tongue.

How sociable are you?

I enjoy my company.

Will you still support your husband if he decides to have another shot at public office?

I have no choice because I have not joined the association of egbe ki loko o se! (women who call the bluff of their husbands) I tell people that my calling is to assist him in achieving whatever he sets his mind to do.

How grateful are you at 54?

I will forever be grateful to God. He has been wonderful, faithful, dependable and reliable. In fact, without him, I would have been a nobody.

What are you into now?

I am also into series of businesses ranging from telecoms, gas and oil, among others. Though I am not a fashion designer, but I have very good tailors who work for me.

Kemi Alao-Akala

Who are your clients?

Regular people like you, especially women and children.

Above all, he is a likeable man; a ladies man, but there is no vacancy.

How come your humility?

My background informed this. My father happens to be a Reverend who is very interested in the way we relate with people. He enjoins us his children to respect the elderly and greet whoever comes our way. I am equally teaching my son this.

What is life outside Government House like?

Life in the Government House is fake. There are so many people around you who don’t like you but pretend to. We are in the real world now.

What is wrong with the home these days?

Women are not doing much these days. We are too busy looking for money. I feel sad when I see the way girls dress these days and I keep wondering where the women in the homes are. We mothers have abdicated our roles. The society is the reflection of the home.

How did you cope with your husband’s women admirers when in power?

I was fond of singing the song ‘Oun to ba wu olowo lo nfi owo e se, Alao Akala fowo ko obirin jo’ because they (women) were the ones who voted for us. With me around, they could not really come around him. You know men are wired by what they see. A woman takes time to think before going into any relationship unlike a man who is easily swayed.

Even if he pretends not to see them, they will be the ones to approach him. But since I know where I am heading to, I handle every situation with maturity.

So, you have never quarrelled over this before?

Once in a while in the past, but I am guided for where I am heading. Give it to him, he ‘relaxes’ whenever he is caught.

How fashionable are you?

I am not a fashion freak. I love to dress in a simple way, nothing complicated.

What is your best colour?

Purple, and at atimes black and white.

Any beauty preference?

I have been using black soap for over 10 years. I also use Curel cream, which has proved to be wonderful on the skin.

I also make up.

Why are you in low cut?

At this point in my life, I want comfort. I prefer pouring water on my head rather than sitting under the drier for hours.

Does your husband like your new look?

He does, though he prefers the traditional weaving, but my son likes it this way. I am also a wig person. My husband is a native man to the core, but not local.

How frequent are you at socials?

I honour the invitation of our women. It is fun, but it is becoming more of a burden now because at any gathering

Where do you see yourself in the next five years?

This question excites me. In 2002, I went back to Trade Bank and I was asked to write where I would want to be in the next seven years. I did and, indeed, what I wrote came to pass as I became the First Lady exactly seven years after.

I see myself on a higher level in the next five years.

What if your husband advises you to go into active politics?

My assignment is to assist him.

Your husband contested in the last general election; what was the experience like?

The electioneering campaign went on beautifully. God is God. I thank God that my husband did not win. I am grateful that he is not a governor in this dispensation because of the global economic meltdown. He would have lost his sleep for not paying workers’ salaries. I would have had to embark on marathon fasting. But looking at it another way, I am sure that if he had won, God would have done something about the situation.

How will you describe your husband?

He is a good man. He has the fear of God, he is a man of conscience who loves the people. When he was a local government chairman, I could remember that whenever I asked him for something, he would prefer giving an outsider. I am always embarrassed when people come to me to help them appreciate him for a favour he had done.

What do you miss in his absence?

I miss his troubles whenever he is not around. Whenever he is around, there are many guests to attend to.

If given another chance, will you say ‘I do’ to him again?

Sure, I will. But now, I am wiser and I will know how to handle him better.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

At A Book Reading For A New Book, Nation as Grand Narrative:

The Nigerian Press and The Politics of Meaning by Wale Adebanwi

Mrs Bisi Fayemi and Professor Niyi Osundare on the occassion

L-R. JK Randle, Adigun Agbaje, Niyi Osundare, Jimi Agbaje, Wale Adebanwi, Bisi Fayemi and Laolu Akande.

Basorun JK Randle speaking at the event while Professor Adigun Agbaje and Professor Niyi Osundare look on.

Mr Yinka Odumakin (left) and Professor Adigun Agbaje

Mrs Bisi Fayemi and Jimi Agbaje.

From left, Adigun Agbaje, Professor Niyi Osundare, Dr Wale Adebanwi and Mr Kunle Ajibade.

Professor Agbaje (left) and Professor Osundare

Basorun JK Randle during the launching of the book.

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south-westnews

Friday, 8 July, 2016

APC, CNPP protest in Ekiti, dare Fayose to waive immunity They are ignorant —Govt Sam Nwaoko - Ado Ekiti

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HE All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, the state’s chapter of Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) and sundry anti-Fayose groups in the state took to the streets on Thursday; to protest what they claimed was the looting of the state’s commonwealth by Governor Ayodele Fayose.

The protesters, who were guarded by a large number of police officers and men and operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS), also challenged Governor Fayose to waive his immunity and pick up the gauntlet thrown down by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over allegations that he looted the state treasury.

The placard-carrying protesters, which comprise party leaders, students, youth groups, artisans and other like-minded individuals, marched from Fajuyi Park through Okeyinmi and stopped at Ijigbo area where they were addressed by leaders of each of the groups.

The protesters also passed a vote of confidence in the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari and his anti-corruption war and said that the EFCC must dig deep into the finances of the state and prosecute whoever was indicted in the looting of the state’s treasury.

Acting Chairman of APC in the state, Mrs Kemi Olaleye, expressed regret over the immunity conferred on Governor Fayose in line with section 308 of the constitution, saying this had been impeding his prosecution for alleged embezzlement of funds.

She said: “We are tired of the immunity clause. Immunity has become impunity in Ekiti. We condemn Governor Fayose’s corrupt tendencies. Things must change.

The EFCC must do its job and ensure that looters of Ekiti are brought to justice.”

The CNPP Chairman in the state, Mr Tunji Ogunlola, challenged Fayose to waive his immunity and face prosecution over alleged involvement in N4.7 billion arms deal alongside a former Minister of State for Defence, Mr Musiliu Obanikoro and PDP governorship candidate in Osun State in the last poll, Mr Iyiola Omisore.

“We also plead with the Federal Government not to release bailout for payment of salary to Governor Fayose. The Federal Ministry of Finance should pay into workers’ accounts directly, because we have lost confidence in the government.

The previous N9.6 billion bailout should be probed.

“We want to commend the Inspector General of Police, Mr Ibrahim Idris and Director General of the DSS, Mr Lawal Daura, for probing alleged political thuggery leveled against PDP government in Ekiti.

Meanwhile, Governor Fayose-led government has said that the APC protesters asking him (Fayose) to waive his immunity were doing so out of ignorance and desperation to win the state in 2018, knowing that their aim could only be achieved if Fayose was out of the way. “But it is a failed

agenda ab-initio because we are ever ready for them.

“They should know that this is 2016 and not 2006.

Their whole agenda is about 2018 and their game plans are what we are now seeing using the EFCC to concoct lies and using the media to disparage Governor Fayose, but they can’t go far.

“For now, the APC and the acolytes of President Muhammadu Buhari should not be too desperate for Fayose to defend himself against the myriads of false allegations, but rather wait till 2018 for the governor to

submit himself to EFCC as he did in 2007.

“Till now, even the political EFCC has not alleged Fayose of stealing Ekiti money and if it is concocting one, we shall meet in the court at the appropriate time.

“It is only in Nigeria under APC - led government that Chief Jide Awe, the chairman of APC in Ekiti State, standing trial for murder, will be the person who coordinated the 102 petitions written against one person.

“Jide Awe and other APC members murdered 12 people during the Fayemi ad-

ministration and not withstanding a warrant of arrest issued on these suspects by the court, the police have refused to arrest them because of “order from above.”

“It is very shameful that these protesters have not asked their boss, Dr Kayode Fayemi, to account for N852m SUBEB fund he misappropriated.

“As far as we know, no amount of harassment or intimidation or character assassination will make members of Ekiti State House of Assembly to succumb to pressures to go against the governor.”

Members of All Progressives Congress (APC) and Conference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP), guarded by security agents during their protest against Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, from Fajuyi Park through Okeyinmi to Ijigbo area of Ado-Ekiti, on Thursday. PHOTO: SAM NWAOKO.

Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose (second left), during a street walk in Ado-Ekiti, on Thursday and accompanied by his Chief of Staff, Chief Dipo Anisulowo (third left) and others.

I’ll project interest of my constituency —Ige THE lawmaker representing Ibadan South East Constituency II in the Oyo State House of Assembly, Honourable Ademola Ige, has vowed to continue to protect and project the interest of his constituency in the parliament.

To justify this stand, Ige said he has sponsored several motions which included motion against street fighting among students and the invitation of Yejide Girls Grammar School basketball team for honour and recognition having excelled at the

annual Nestle Milo basketball competition.

Ige disclosed this while rendering his account of stewardship in the last one year to the people of the area.

The lawmaker disclosed further that he visited and donated substantial sum of money to victims of fire incidents at Fidi layout, Afofura, Ode-Ige area, Odinjo, Oranyan market, Itesiwaju market and Sango.

Ige also installed street light projects worth millions of naira, comprising 66 poles

at Eleta junction/Akatapa/ Odinjo/Muslim overhead bridge with an independent generator to power it.

He said that the projects were meant to put an end to darkness and its attendant hazards on the people of the area.

The lawmaker added that he reconstructed a pedestrian bridge at Tewogbade/Agbongbon area while he also donated money towards the reconstruction of another pedestrian bridge at Opeyemi Fere area.

On education, the ex-chairman of Ibadan South East Local Government Area also paid the WAEC fees of some physically challenged students at Omoyeni/Aperin Oniyere while he promised to pay the same fees of the final year students of the victorious Yejide Girls Grammar School basketball team.

“I will also pay the N1, 000 education levy of the remaining basketball team players until they finish their secondary school education,” he stated.

Nigerian Tribune

New Pan-Yoruba group formed in Kano

By Tessy Umunakwe

A pan Yoruba socio-political association, the SouthWest Political Assembly (SWEPA) has been formed in Kano.

The group is targeted at professionals, businessmen and women and artisans spread across the 44 local government areas of Kano State.

The aims and objectives of the body, according to its founder and convener, Ibadan Support Group, Prince Armstrong Bello, are to promote and foster unity among South-West indigenes resident and visiting Kano State, to condemn and resist within the precincts of the law all forms of oppression and exploitation of South-West people resident and visiting Kano State, to advocate, defend and promote intellectual freedom, economic justice and social welfare of members with a view to ensuring peace, freedom, equity, fraternity and happiness for all the people of Nigeria.

Ogun charges forestry stakeholders on revenue generation THE Ogun State government has charged all the Divisional Forest Programme Officers (DFPO) in the state to intensify efforts on revenue generation in their respective forest ranges and ensure wood merchants play according to the rules and regulations of the operations.

The state Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, gave the charge while addressing foresters in Sagamu, Iperu, AgoIwoye and Owode Egba free area ranges in the state.

Chief Lawal said irrespective of the fact that the ranges were free zones but had not precluded them from generating more revenue, advising that they should map out strategies towards the objective of raking revenue into government coffers.

In another development, the commissioner ordered that all saw-mills yet to renew their operational licences in defiance of government directive on the payment of operational licences, should be sealed off immediately.

He, therefore, urged the DFPOs to ensure that contractors renewed their property hammers, hackney permit for felling machine and timber lorries in accordance with the rules guiding forest operations in the state.

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south-westnews

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Ajimobi places N5m bounty on Oyo lawmaker’s killers Tears as colleagues bid him farewell

By Wale Akinselure OVERNOR of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has placed a N5million bounty on the heads of the three gunmen responsible for the gruesome murder of a member of the state House of Assembly representing Oorelope state constituency, Honourable Gideon Aremu, whose body was buried on Thursday amidst sorrow and grief, with the question of whether this would be another alleged murder in which the killers are not found.

Aremu’s death in the hands of gunmen was likened to the assassination of former Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige in 2001 and that of a member representing Akinyele/Lagelu federal constituency, Honourable Olusegun Oladimeji (a.k.a Segelu) in 2007, where the culprits were yet to be brought to book.

Deputy Governor, Mr Moses Adeyemo, in his remarks, at the valedictory plenary, held at the floor of the Oyo House of Assembly, had called for such reflection over deaths which had occurred in similar manners, in the state.

Drawing inference from the scriptures, he declared that “Whoever kills by sword shall be killed by the sword. Whoever has done this might think that he or she is free, but by the grace of God, that person or persons will never have rest in life. You have brought sorrow to the family, brought sorrow to Igboho town, and Oorelope Local Government, whoever has done this will never find peace.”

Adeyemo, however assured that the state government, in collaboration with the relevant security agencies, would ensure that the perpetrators were apprehended.

Aremu, gunned down at his Alakia residence at about 9p.m. on July 1, 2016, by assailants, was survived by an aged mother, wife and four young children.

Aremu, who was set for his Ph.D graduation in October, 2016, from the University of Ilorin, was clad in his convocation gown as well as his Labour Party (LP) muffler, and buried at the cemetery of Will of God Ebenezer Apostolic Church, Igboho, Oorelope Local Government.

In their various remarks, political associates, members of Oorelope constituency, members of Labour party, family and friends were united in their call for justice, urging the state government to go beyond

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giving mere assurances to arresting the culprits.

They expressed awe at why Aremu, described as an easy going gentleman was allegedly murdered, but echoed that, “they killed his body but not his soul.”

Speaker of the Oyo House

of Assembly, Honourable Micheal Adeyemo, at the valedictory plenary, wondered why Aremu’s dedication to serving the people of his constituency was repaid with a “gruesome murder.”

“We lost a friend, brother, family, a dedicated honour-

able who was gruesomely murdered. Whoever thinks this is the best to give to Aremu’s family, his constituency will not know peace. We are sure of where you are and we pray that God Almighty be with your family. Your dream for your

family, especially your children, will be fulfilled in their lifetime and they shall be granted the long life that you (Aremu) have been denied,” Adeyemo bemoaned.

With tear-leaden eyes and intermittent sobs, Deputy Speaker, Honourable Ab-

From right, Vice Chancellor, University of Medical Science (UNIMED), Ondo State, Professor Friday Okonofua; pro-chancellor and chairman of governing council, UNIMED, Emeritus Professor Oladipo Akinkugbe; Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko; Commissioner for Education, Jide Adejuyigbe and Commissioner for Health, Dr Dayo Adeyanju, at the launch of Friends of UNIMED Fund, in Ondo, on Thursday.

Monarch’s kidnappers demand N40m ransom Hakeem Gbadamosi - Akure THREE days after the abduction of the traditional ruler of Iyasan, in Irele Local Government Area of Ondo State, Oba Abiodun Oyewumi, by unknown gunmen who invaded his palace, the kidnappers on Thursday demanded N40 million as ransom to secure the freedom of the monarch.

The monarch was kidnapped by some gunmen numbering 10, on Monday night, at his palace in Iyasan and whisked away to an unknown place.

According to a family source, the kidnappers on Wednesday night, contacted the first son of the monarch, Folarin, on Wednesday evening and opened negotiation with him, demanding N40 million as ransom.

The source said, “The abductors called Folarin and first asked the family to send a recharge card of N40,000 to enable them have enough airtime to negotiate with the family properly.

“The family sent recharge card to them, but it was not up to the amount they asked for, so shortly after the recharge card had been sent to them, they then called back and demanded for N40 million ransom.”

The source, however, said that the family could not

afford the amount, but appealed to the monarch abductors to collect N500,000 from them, saying they could not afford the N40 million requested.

“The kidnappers rejected the N500,000 offered by the family and that was the end of their negotiation as at yesterday

(Wednesday),” the source added.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, Femi Joseph, said the command was not relenting on its effort to set the monarch free, saying a search team has been put in place to nab the kidnappers and secure the release of the tra-

ditional ruler.

“We are working on it but it is a security matter so we cannot disclose the method we are using to get the kidnappers but I am very sure we will rescue the victim from the hands of the abductors,” the PPRO assured.

dulwasi Musah, said, “You possessed a rare valour typical of a military man which you truly were. You intelligently contributed to debates on the floor of this house in manners reflective of your very rich academic dexterity. Gideon joyfully executed all duties assigned him by the House of Assembly. Member representing Atiba constituency on the platform of Labour party, Honourable Gbenga Oyekola decried Honourable Aremu’s death as “one assassination too many.”

“Our solace is based on the salient fact that Honourable Aremu highly acquainted himself as a first class scholar, amiable grassroots politician and a worthy lawmaker within his course on this earth. Labour party has lost a great commander in Oyo North. Oorelope state constituency has lost a shining star and a reliable representative while the Oyo assembly has lost a hardworking and highly refined lawmaker,” Oyekola said.

A statement by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Communication and Strategy, Mr Yomi Layinka, on Thursday, announced the reward for any member of the public with credible information that might lead to the arrest of the criminals.

Ajimobi appealed to members of the public in possession of any useful information to immediately contact the following telephone numbers: 0802 343 1079, 0803 653 6581, with assurances that such tips would be treated in the utmost confidence.

Oyo schools’ reopening: Ajimobi demands apology letters from teachers, students

By Wale Akinselure OYO State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, has demanded a letter of apology from teachers of schools whose students embarked on the June 6 protest as a prerequisite for reopening public schools in the state.

Ajimobi delivered this message upon the visit of the Oyo State Chapter of the National Parents Teachers Association of Nigeria (NAPTAN) to the governor’s house, on Thursday.

It will be recalled that the state government had ordered the closure of all primary and secondary schools in the state consequent upon a wild protest by the students against the purported plan of government to privatise public schools.

Chairman, NAPTAN, Mr Abiodun Jimoh, briefing journalists, said Ajimobi in response to their appeal

for the reopening of the schools had requested that the head teachers of about four affected schools should tender a letter of apology.

Ajimobi held that the teachers were wrong to have instigated the pupils to go violent in their protest.

Assuring of meeting with the teachers’ body, Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) over this demand, Jimoh expressed optimism that the strike would soon be called off.

Speaking, Jimoh said, “We complained that the strike is affecting not just the students but also parents and teachers. We went to him to appeal to him to do all he can to make sure the strike is called off. He said that this request would be granted provided we can assure him of apology letters,

especially from the teachers of those schools whose students embarked on a protest.”

“The NUT was also asked to apologise. He said provided we do all these, he is ready to call off the strike.

Then we promised to consult the NUT. After discussing with the NUT, we will meet the teachers of the affected schools to see how we can resolve the issue. We hope to resolve all the issues over the weekend so that the strike is called off next week. He promised that once we forward the letters of apology, the strike would be called off.

Special Adviser to Governor Ajimobi on Communication and Strategy, Mr Yomi Layinka, affirmed that the governor demanded an apology not only from the teachers but also the pupils.

“Yes, he demanded an

apology from the teachers.

The governor demanded an apology not only from the teachers but also from the pupils who were so misguided. Their actions were wrong and they need to take responsibility, accept the wrongness and apologise appropriately so that they can become better citizens.

“The pupils must write their apology individually and collectively. When we were young, or offended the school or parents, we were made to write some sentences or lines which is repeated for a number of times stating certain don’ts.

It is a purgatory process, a process of decriminalising the pupils. You would see in some videos all over the internet where the pupils were acting as area boys and thugs. It is a psychological process of decriminalising those children.”

Friday, 8 July, 2016 34 news decries Unpaid Salaries: SERAP drags governors to International Criminal Court Expert delay of BRISIN

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OCIO-ECONOMIC Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has requested Mrs Fatou Bensouda, Prosecutor, International Criminal Court to “use your good offices and position to investigate allegations of collective punishment and crimes against humanity against tens of thousands of Nigerian workers as a result of non-payment of their salaries for several months.”

In the petition dated July 7, 2016 and signed by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organisation said: “We are seriously concerned that non-payment of workers’ salaries by several state governments in Nigeria has

made life impossible to live for the workers and families.

We also urge you to bring to justice anyone who is responsible for the inhumane acts committed against Nigerian workers and prohibited under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court to which Nigeria is a state party.”

The petition read in part: “SERAP contends that severe deprivation and mental or physical health challenges faced by Nigerian workers as a result of the non-payment of their salaries fulfil the requirements of this provision.

This means that individual liability may attach to governors who continue to hide under the excuse of ‘limited

allocations from Abuja’ to deny these workers the fruit of their labour.

“The state governors ought to know that their actions and/or omissions would likely to cause serious physical or mental suffering or a serious attack upon the human dignity of workers whose salaries are not paid.

“Non-payment of salaries for several months, have reduced Nigerian workers to ‘bare life’, or life not worth living, thus taking away their human dignity. The inhumanity of the non-payment of workers’ salaries is illustrated by the serious threats this poses to the workers’ physical and mental health, and family life as well as their ability to contribute

to the development of the country. The non-payment of salaries has created an environment of powerlessness for several workers and perpetuated a system of impunity in many states.

“Article 7 (1) (k) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court criminalises other inhumane acts intentionally causing great suffering, or serious injury to body or to mental or physical health. The treatment of many workers in several states reaches the level of ‘inhumane acts’ covered under this provision.

“Nigerian workers have for many years been victims of particularly heinous violations of international human rights law caused by

massive looting of public treasury and mismanagement by high-ranking public officials.”

“SERAP also contends that the gross violations of human rights and deplorable standard of living of many workers and their families in several states of Nigeria are grave and therefore suggest reasonable grounds justifying a preliminary investigation by the ICC Prosecutor.”

“Alongside investigating mass atrocity, the prosecutor should seek to investigate those crimes such as gross, systematic and widespread violations of workers’ right to timely payment of salaries that fall under the Rome Statute provision on “other inhumane acts” but remain unacknowledged as grave violations of human rights.”

NDLEA releases six-month scorecard SHOLA ADEKOLA - Lagos

From right, Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma; Head of Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN), Italy, Professor Vincenzo Naso; Head of BRISIN, Nigeria, Dr Anthony Uwa and Dr Stefano Corsetti, at a stakeholders’ meeting on the BRISIN project, in Abuja.

Dabiri-Erewa condemns killing of Nigerian teenager in London SENIOR Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Honourable Abike Dabiri-Erewa has condemned the gruesome killing by stabbing of another Nigerian teenager in London.

In a statement by her Special Assistant on Media, Abdur-Rahman Balogun in Abuja, Dabiri-Erewa said the killing of 17-year- old

Fola Orebiyi, was unacceptable to the government and people of Nigeria.

Dabiri-Erewa said the killing of Orebiyi and other extra judicial killing of Nigeria citizens in the UK was becoming worrisome.

She called for full investigation into the incident while urging the UK government to make sure that jus-

tice prevails.

While condoling with the family of the deceased boy over the incident, she prayed to God to give the bereaved family the fortitude to bear the painful loss.

She said while Nigeria would not condone crime and criminal tendencies, it took exception to the unjustifiable harassment, killing

We operate an open door policy —Niger Delta minister THE Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Mr Usani Uguru Usani, has promised to run an open door policy to bring about the desired development of the Niger Delta.

The minister, who spoke to journalists at his residence in Abuja on Thursday, assured the people of Niger Delta region that his mandate of accelerating development in the area remained sacrosanct.

“I work for all Nigerians. So, honest and people with good intentions can be sure that my doors, both in the office and at home, are open to those with useful contributions to move the affairs of the Niger Delta forward.

The minister said he preferred to work quietly, and added that the ministry had

swung into action after the signing of the budget.

“Well, I don’t work to be heard but to achieve results.

“Unfortunately, we assumed office to meet the budgeting process and the budget has just been passed, so you should expect more action now,” he said.

Commenting on the activities of militants in the Niger Delta, the minister said the continued destruction of oil pipelines was counterproductive and harmful to the environment.

He said the Muhammadu Buhari administration was determined to accelerate the development of the Niger Delta region, citing the recent effort to clean up Ogoniland as an example.

“I must say that the envi-

ronment is ours and destroying it will not do us any good.

“Imagine the Ogoni reclamation is going to take 30 years, yet we have not learnt.

“Rather than support President Muhammadu Buhari to do more, we are adding to the destruction of the environment, our ecosystem, fresh water and aquatic lives, “the minister said.

He noted that the UNEP report had not received the attention of previous administrations but just a year after his inauguration, Buhari had commenced its implementation.

“I can say that the Niger Delta region is benefiting more under the APC regime led by President Buhari than it benefited from any other regime,” he said.

and execution of her nationals abroad.

Dabiri-Erewa enjoined Nigerians to support the President Muhammadu Buhari administration in making Nigeria a better place, urging them to support the administration’s war against corruption.

A Nigerian student, Fola Orebiyi, was reportedly stabbed to death in a street clash on Sunday, July 3, in Notting Hill, London, by a gang of youths.

He was reportedly involved in a fight at a nearby estate with a gang of youths, who chased him into the busy road where he was stabbed in the neck in front of shocked passersby and tourists.

Efforts by the Police and paramedics to resuscitate him proved abortive.

The deceased’s neighbour, Osman Sahal, told the police: that “He was a nice boy and very considerate; none of us can understand how this could have happened.

Orebiyi, who completed his General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) at Holland Park in London, was studying for his A’ levels at the Chelsea Academy before his horrific death.

THE National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has released its scorecard at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) in the last six months, saying it arrested 63 suspected drug traffickers with 484.11 kilogrammes of drugs.

Releasing the scorecard, the Chairman/Chief Executive of the anti-narcotic agency, Colonel Muhammad Mustapha Abdallah (retd) promised to dismantle drug syndicate in the country.

According to Abdallah, within the period which ran through January and June 2016, suspected drug barons also abandoned 336.090 kilogrammes of the seized drugs.

While assuring that Nigeria would continue to subscribe to the principle of shared responsibility and international collaboration in dismantling drug cartels, Abdallah stated: “the Agency is maximising the benefits of Airport Communication Programme (AIRCOP), by coordinating joint international operations. We will continue to build capacity in risk analysis, drug detection methodology and tracing of illicit drug proceeds. This is aimed at identifying and dismantling criminal networks.”

The NDLEA boss stated that the agency reacted swiftly to new tactics of drug trafficking by intercepting 22.530 kilogrammes of drugs originating from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, saying: “As an intelligence-driven agency, we realised the sudden use of Dubai as a transit point for cocaine originating from South America and successfully arrested 13 suspects with 22.530 kilogrammes of cocaine coming from Dubai.”

project

THE delay by the Federal Government in implementing the Basic Registry and Information System in Nigeria (BRISIN), is holding back foreign investors and the European Union in confirming their participation in the scheme.

The Head of BRISIN International team from Italy, Professor Vincenzo Naso at a stakeholders meeting in Abuja, told the Minister of Budget and National Planning Senator Udo Udoma that the failure to expedite action on the project has denied Nigeria the benefit of efficient planning and rapid economic development.

Professor Naso and his team were in Nigeria for the flag off of the project which has been on the drawing board since 2007 when an agreement was signed with Dermo Impex, the solution providers. They left for Italy with mixed feelings owing to lack of proper coordination between the Ministry and the National Bureau of Statistics.

“Delaying this project has caused Nigeria some reasonable setback in credibility and proper economic planning. It has negatively affected internally generated revenue, fiscal policy and management, security control and migration monitor as well as provision of social welfare services.

“I have the strong opinion that the continued delay of this project is dangerous and your government cannot afford to allow other smaller African countries move ahead while you keep watching without taking the necessary steps developed countries took to get to where they are today,” Professor Naso told the Minister.

He expressed regret that prospective investors may reconsider their participation in the project unless the Federal Government shows enough commitment by releasing funds for the pilot scheme in the Federal Capital Territory.

“We are very enthusiastic and convinced on the viability of this project. Our presence at this meeting is to fast-track the release of project funds and flag off so that we can activate numerous foreign investments and international financial participation that would increase employment opportunities and allow Nigerians to start benefitting from this great system,” Professor Naso said.

Minister of Budget and National Planning, Senator Udo Udoma described the project as very useful to proper planning and organised development. He promised to ensure its prompt implementation as soon as he received the report of the technical team supervised by the Statistician-General of the Federation.

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news

Friday, 8 July, 2016

Shinkafi for burial today Saraki, Tinubu mourn

Ayodele Adesanmi - Abuja HE remains of Alhaji Umaru Shinkafi, who died on Wednesday, at a London hospital, will be interred today (Friday), after an Islamic funeral prayer to be held at the Sultan Bello Mosque in Sokoto.

A statement issued by a senior counsellor in the Caliphate and Magajin Garin Sokoto, Alhaji Hassan Danbaba, said the Janaza prayer, will be held immediately after the Jumaat prayers at the mosque located just the Sultan’s palace.

“Marafa’s remains will arrive Sokoto on Friday morning. The Janaza rites will be held after the jumaat prayers, after which he will be interred at the Hubbare here, in Sokoto.”

“This is to correct the impression that the prayer and the internment will be held outside Sokoto,” the statement added.

Shinkafi, who holds the traditional title of Marafan Sokoto, died at the Harefield Hospital, Hill End Road, Harefield, Middlesex, in the United Kingdom on Wednesday afternoon after a prolonged illness.

Meanwhile, the Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, on Thursday, said that the

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death of Shinkafi came at a time when his experience, frank disposition and wise counsel were most needed by a nation faced with several challenges.

Dr Saraki, in a statement by his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), Yusuph Olaniyonu, said that Shinkaf, who was Marafan Sokoto, was an accomplished public servant and a leading political light, who contributed greately to the political programmes that

led to the birth of the current republic, a professional, who did well as a legal icon and a former Minister of Inter Affairs and the head of the nation’s secret service, then, the Nigeria Security Organisation (NSO).

According to him “The Marafan Sokoto, was a consummate politician, who had large followership across the country. He was a bridge builder. He was revered by his supporters and opponents. A man who

will always say the truth at every point. He helped in mentoring many political office holders now occupying top positions in government at various levels. He was also a man who embodied the tradition of his people and that is why he held the important title of Marafa in the Sultan’s council.

Also, the national leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, has described Shinkafi as a patriot, who served Nigeria

well. “He was a destabilised Nigerian, who was passionate about the unity and progress of Nigeria. He was a man of great integrity and stable character as I have come to know him over decades,” he said.

“Shinkafi served as a foremost security expert helping Nigeria to establish an intelligence and security structure that serves the country up till today. His death is a great national loss,” he said.

From right, a musician, Biyi Samuel; nollywood actor, Ayo Badmus; Jamiu Abiola; Abdulmumuni Abiola; executive director, Gender and Development Action, Ms. Ada Agina Ude; president, Women Arise and Centre for Change, Dr Joe Okei-Odumakin; chairman, National Democratic Coalitions (NADECO), Real Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (retd); Darasimi Genzallo; Mr Alfred Egbegbe; Head of Finance, KIND, Rasheed Owonifari and others, during the laying of wreath ceremony, organised by the Women Arise and KIND, at M.K.O Abiola’s graveside at his residence, Ikeja, Lagos, on Thursday. PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA.

Makarfi, Sheriff meeting to resolve PDP crisis —Ojougboh From Jacob Segun Olatunji and Leon Usigbe - Abuja THE deputy national chairman of Senator Alimodu Sheriff- led Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP )faction, Dr Cairo Ojougboh, on Thursday, said that only political solution could solve the current logjam the party finds itself now, not court judgement.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, Dr Ojougboh, also faulted the statement credited to Prince Dayo Adeyeye, a member of the Ahmed Makarfi-led national caretaker committee, in charge of publicity, calling for the arrest of Senator Sheriff.

According to him, Senator Sheriff must be recognised as the chairman, adding that “no court judgment can address the crisis, but political solution”.

He, however, said that the two factions are already meeting to iron out the differences “I want to make it categorically clear that we have a judgement that is point blank judgment, that says that it is only Sheriff that will submit the names of candidates of Edo and Ondo states.

“It further says that Sheriff is the recognised

chairman of PDP. The judgement they are celebrating in Port Harcourt, of course, is the judgement of the Emperor of Ikwere.

“We have appealed it and we have also called for stay of execution. So, it is neither here nor there.

But, the chairman of PDP, Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff ,has some other subsisting judgements in his favour, and if anybody is to be arrested, it is Adeyeye ,who is making allusion that people should be arrested.

“I want to make this

point clear, the caretaker committee led by Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff-led PDP, have been discussing.

We have been looking for ways to make peace. People like Adeyeye, who want this crisis to continue, have been

talking any how, they have their own personal agenda.

“I know that Makarfi will not make such statement, he is a gentleman and not somebody given to such utterances, so, I want to excuse him. If such state-

Rice production: World Bank, AfDB to assist Jigawa govt Adamu Amadu - Dutse JIGAWA State governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Abubakar, has said that the World Bank, h as pledged to assist the state government to dredge River

Hadejia so as to improve irrigation and rice production in the state.

The governor said this while receiving the Emir of Dutse, Alhaji Nuhu Muhammad Sunusi, during a visit to the Govern-

NADECO, groups want FG to immortalise MKO Bola Badmus - Lagos

NATIONAL Democratic Coalition (NADECO) and pro-democracy groups, on Thursday, in Lagos, called on the Federal Government to immortalise the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief Moshood Abiola, for paying the supreme price for Nigeria’s democracy.

Abiola died 18 years ago, exactly on July 7, 1998, after years of military incarceration, while trying to reclaim the mandate given to him by the Nigerian people.

The leader of NADECO, Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu (re td), who spoke during the remembrance organised by

ment came from Makarfi, Ali Modu Sheriff would have known what to do, to address it properly.

Because we know that he could not make such statement, it was Adeyeye that is quoted.”

Women Arise and Kudirat Initiative for Democracy (KIND), at Abiola’s graveside ,at his residence, in Lagos, urged the Federal Government to do the needful by immortalising Abiola for the saccrifice he made to bring about the current democratic government in the country.

He also called on Nigerians to be united the way they were united for Abiola during the June 12 election.

Kanu, who contended that unity was not geography for a country that wanted to become a nation-state, said unity started from sense of belonging of different people there, adding that it was the sense of belonging that brought the unity that produced Abiola, as people

voted for him from all the nooks and crannies of the country.

Earlier, the president of Women Arise and Centre for Change, Dr Joe-Okei- Odumakin, had urged the government to set up a judicial commission of inqiury to unravel the circumstances surrounding his death by renaming a key national institution after him.

Abiola’s son, Jamiu, called on President Muhammadu Buhari, who once declared the annulment of the June 12 as a crime against Nigerians by General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime, to ensure that the perpetrators of the annulment of the credible, free and fair elections, were punished for the offence.

ment House, Dutse, the state capital, on Thursday.

The World Bank has interest in the project due to the availability of fertile land in the area, coupled with the state government’s commitment to agriculture and rice production policy,” he said.

“The World Bank in collaboration with the International Development Agency (IDA), would expand irrigation project in the state from 40, 000 hectares of land to 300,000 hectares of land.”

He said that the African Development Bank (ADB), would also assist in supporting rice production through irrigation scheme.

Governor Abubakar said that “from what we realised from the current Dangote rice production scheme, there is an indication that very soon, Jigawa State would compete favourably with other states in the country in rice production”.

Nigerian Tribune

Osun PDP condemns detention of Omisore

By Gbenga Olumide THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Osun State has raised the alarm over the plan of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), to keep the former deputy governor of the state, Senator Iyiola Omisore, in perpetual custody with bail conditions that are virtually impossible to meet.

The party, in a communique signed by its chairman, Dr Bayo Faforiji, condemned the arrest of Senator Omisore, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode and others by the commission, while prominent All progressives Congress (APC) members in similar situations are left unprosecuted. , According to the party, “We condemn in its totality, the flagrant disregard for the rule of law exhibited by agents of the EFCC in the arrest and subsequent detention of Omisore and others.”

The chairman, who expressed the party’s unflinching support for the National Caretaker Committee of the party under the chairmanship of Senator Ahmed Makarfi, maintained that, “we stand solidly behind the outcome of the May 21 national convention of our great party in Port-Harcourt, which dissolved the National Working Committee headed by the former chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff.”

The communique, however, charged Sherriff and others to accept the judgment of the High Court in Port-Harcourt, on Monday, July 4, 2016, for peace to reign in the party.

Lai Mohammed mourns Bukola Ajayi

THE Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, has described Bukola Ajayi, who died on Wednesday as an “iconic thespian”.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the minister said Ajayi was a “colossus of her time, who has left an indelible footprint in the country’s creative landscape”.

The statement signed by the Special Adviser to the Minister, Mr Segun Adeyemi, was made available to newsmen in Abuja In the statement, the minister said that in spite of Ajayi’s old age, he still received the news of the death of the veteran actress and broadcaster with shock, sense of sadness and great loss.

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communitynews

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Oorelope LG boss promises even development in communities by moses alao

The Chairman, Caretaker Committee, Oorelope Local Government Area of Oyo State, Mr Samuel Okunlade (left); the local government’s Director of Works, Mr W.A. Adeola and others, during the inspection of the ongoing drainage construction at Modeke area of Igboho, recently. PHOTO: MOSES ALAO

THE Chairman, Caretaker Committee of Oorelope Local Government Area of Oyo State, Mr Samuel Okunlade, has restated the commitment of his administration to the sustenance of peace and development in communities in the local government area.

Okunlade made the pledge recently while speaking with Community News on the development he had brought to the local government area since his administration came on board.

The council boss also commended the state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, for setting the agenda of peace and development in the last few years.

Ugborodo demands police post, naval headquarters ebenezer adurokiya-warri

P

EOPLE of Ugborodo in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State have requested the establishment of a police post in their area to curb criminality.

Ugborodo is an Itsekiri kingdom comprising five communities namely: Aruntan, Ogidigben, Madaghon, Ajudaibo and Ijala.

The communities weekend during the visit of the new acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, to the area.

Speaking on behalf of the people, the Olaraja of Ugborodo land, Chief Priest Benson Dube Omadeli, said Itsekiris had become endangered species.

He described the visit as historic, noting that Itsekiri people were not criminals.

The chief priest also appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to increase the presence of the Nigerian Navy in the area or betterstill, relocate the naval logistics headquarters from Oghara in Ethiope West Local Government Area of the state to Ugborodo.

He stated that being an area that lays the golden egg for the economic survival of the country, Ugborodo of about 150,000 people should not be left without a police post.

He added that dividends of democracy should trickle down from the

Federal Government to the area more than they are presently doing.

In his response, the acting IG promised to deploy police presence to the area

by setting up a police post, noting that he was in the area to seek partnership with the people as regards peace and security.

“We need to establish police

presence at Ugborodo. We shall ensure the development of the area.

“The more peaceful you are, the more developed you’ll be.

“We are here to bring police presence here.

“I enjoin you to ooperate with the police and support them,” Idris admonished the people.

He expressed the commitment of his administration to the building of infrastructure, disclosing that his government had embarked on the construction of drainages and channelisation of rivers in Obaago, Jakuta and Modeke areas of Igboho, among others.

Okunlade further noted that the local government area would work with all security agencies to ensure that recent developments in the town such as the death of the Alepata of Igboholand and subsequent succession moves as well as the gruesome murder of the member representing Oorelope State Constituency in the state House of Assembly, Dr Gideon Aremu, are not allowed to degenerate into disaffection and breach of peace in Igboho and environs.

According to him, “the resolve of the local government area and the people to ensure that peace reign supreme must not be broken by recent developments.”

He called on all parties involved to conduct themselves in peaceful and orderly manner and not take laws into their hands.

Eledidi woos local, foreign investors biola azeez-ilorin

THE Eledidi and traditional ruler of Edidi town in Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State, Oba Gabriel Aboyeji, has called on local and foreign investors to bring investments to the agrarian community, promising them a rewarding business experience.

Speaking when he hosted United States-based investors with interest in cassava production and processing from Ecotech-rab and Tranfeed Group and their Nigerian partner from Satco Global Group, in his palace, Oba Aboyeji said no investor would regret investing in his domain.

The investors are set to establish cassava production and processing factories in the state in the next 18 months.

The traditional ruler, who also promised the investors that there would be no hindrance to their operations, urged them to consider indigenes of the community first for employment as soon as the project com-

mences operation.

Oba Aboyeji assured the investors of his support, saying that the community is a peaceful place.

Also speaking with Community News at site of the proposed factories, the Group Managing Director of the partnering company, Engineer Femi Philips, said the factories would gulp $100 million and create about 2,500 jobs when completed.

Philips, who spoke shortly after the courtesy visit to the Eledidi said, “the project is expected to occupy about 5,000 hectares of land. The first phase will be about two streams of 120 tons per day and there will be an upgrade of 48 tons per day; giving us about 168 tons per day.

“We are going to bring our expertise into planting cassava in a manner that will allow for optimum yield. So, we are bringing our species from outside Nigeria and blending it with local species in Nigeria.

We are looking forward to working with the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture

(IITA) in this area.

“We are going to be producing starch powder, ethanol and feeds for livestock and others.

It is an agro-business, sort of.”

Also speaking the President of Ecotech-rab, Jorge de la Torre, said “we are coming with our partners to establish the agro-industrial project

in this community in order to improve the living condition and create employment for people. We intend to start these two plants before the end of 2017. We will work very hard for the successful completion of the project.

This is our target and this is what we want.”

On his part, President of Tranfeed Group, Dr. Tim

Dumah, said that “the good news is that we are going to train people on new skills. For that reason, I think it is a win-win situation for the community and us.

“Agriculture is the inthing in Nigeria now; we want to put this community on the world map through creation of jobs by the project.”

Monarch urges govt to support rural farmers THE Orokere-Amuro in Mopamuro Local Government Area of Kogi State, Oba Jacob Mejedi, has called on government at all levels to provide support for rural farmers to boost food production.

The traditional ruler made the call during the annual celebration of the New Yam Festival, on Thursday, in Mopamuro, Kogi.

He urged government to give adequate and timely support to farmers in rural areas, as they are the major sources of food production for the country.

Mejedi noted that the state government had promised to support his people with farm inputs

like fertilizer, pesticides, herbicides and others in August 2015, but failed to fulfill the promise.

He said the community was having unusually small tubers of yam this year because of inadequate rainfall and lack of farm inputs to boost farm production.

“We only heard of the Federal Government agricultural loans to farmers on radio and television but our communities have never benefited from the gesture.

“We are appealing to the federal and state governments to ensure that farmers in villages also benefit from incentives and programmes for farmers

across the federation.

“This will encourage our people to actively engage in grass-roots farming activities which will in turn boost massive production of food for local consumption and export,” Mejedi said.

The traditional ruler also urged government to make provision for storage facilities and good access roads to farmlands for easy transportation of farm produce to markets.

Amuro New Yam Festival, celebrated annually on July 7, witnessed a huge turnout of residents, visitors and indigenes of the seven communities in Amuro and people from other parts of the country.

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

foreig naffairs with seyi gesinde

08116954632 foreignnewseditor@gmail.com

Theresa May, Andrea Leadsom battle to be next British PM

Emmanuel Chidi Namdi and his partner, Chinyery, had fled Boko Haram violence in Nigeria last year. PHOTO: ALAMY

Italy migrants: Nigerian killed in

racist attack

A

man has been arrested by Italian police investigating the killing of a Nigerian immigrant which the government has condemned as a racist attack.

Police say a row broke out at Fermo on Italy’s west coast when racist abuse was hurled at the partner of Emmanuel Chidi Namdi, 36.

The violence escalated when a traffic pole was pulled from the ground. The victim later died in hospital.

BBC revealed that a local man described as a wellknown “ultra” football fan is being held.

Amedeo Mancini, 35, was arrested on Thursday on suspicion of racially aggravated manslaughter.

His lawyer said he “did not mean to kill” and that he had punched the Nigerian in self defence.

Emmanuel Chidi fled Nigeria with his partner Chinyery, 24, after their families came under attack from jihadist group Boko Haram.

Their families were killed in an attack on a Nigerian church in 2015, Italian media reported.

As the couple made their way across the Mediterranean, their baby died.

They finally arrived in Fermo last November and were taken in by a local Christian charity. They had a wedding ceremony in January, conducted by local priest Father Vinicio Albanesi, which was unofficial because they had lost their documents, Rai TV reported.

What happened on Tuesday evening is unclear. However, it is thought that the attacker subjected Chinyery to racist chanting and then grabbed her.

At that point the traffic pole was pulled out of the ground as Emmanuel Chidi and his attacker came to blows. He was taken to hospital in a coma but never recovered.

Local churches which have worked with migrants have recently been targeted by small bombs, according to Father Vinicio Albanesi.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was among many across Italy who took to social media to express disgust at the killing, using the hashtag Emmanuel.

“The government today is in Fermo with Don Vinicio and the local institutions in memory of Emmanuel.

Against hate, racism and violence,” he wrote.

Visiting the town, Interior Minister Angelino Alfano told reporters on

Thursday that the seed of racism had to be stopped before it could bear fruit. “The heart of Italy isn’t represented by those who carried out this murder.”

He also announced that Emmanuel Chidi’s partner Chinyery had been granted refugee status.

MILITARY setbacks in Iraq and Syria are having little impact on the Islamic State terror group’s ability to gain ground in cyberspace, where it has dramatically advanced both the quality and volume of its messaging, according to top law enforcement and diplomatic officials.

VOA stated that the officials, charged with beating back Islamic State’s online recruiting efforts, on Wednesday told members of the Senate Homeland Security and

other NEWS

developed nations when it comes to its rape laws.

The issue was again brought to the fore after a number of sex attacks on women in Cologne on New Year’s Eve. The vote was passed by a huge majority on Thursday in the Bundestag, where MPs stood and cheered the result, BBC reported.

The new law classifies groping as a sex crime and makes it easier to

Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee.

There had originally been five contenders to succeed Mr Cameron, with MPs voting in two rounds to get that number down to two.

The contest now moves to its final stage with the Conservative Party’s 150,000-strong membership deciding between Mrs May, a Remain campaigner

Theresa May

with a long track record in government, and Mrs Leadsom, a leading light of the Brexit campaign who has stressed her City and business background.

Speaking after the results were announced, Mrs May said she had secured support from all wings of the Conservative Party and promised to bring the Tories together.

Andrea Leadsom. PHOTO: BBC

US in ‘crisis mode’ in fight against IS online messaging

Germany rape law: No means No law passed GERMANY’S parliament has passed a new law defining rape, clarifying that “No means No”, even if a victim did not fight back.

Critics believe Germany has long lagged behind other

THERESA May and Andrea Leadsom will battle it out to become the next leader of the Conservative Party after Michael Gove was eliminated from the contest.

After the second MPs’ ballot, Home Secretary Mrs May finished with 199 votes, Energy Minister Mrs Leadsom 84 and Mr Gove, the justice secretary, 46.

Conservative members will now decide the winning candidate, with the result due on 9 September.

The winner will become the UK’s second female prime minister.

Mr Cameron resigned after finishing on the losing side in the UK’s EU referendum, in which there there was a vote to leave.

The results were announced at Westminster

by Conservative MP Graham

Governmental Affairs’ Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations that turning the tide was proving as difficult as ever, with IS operatives aggressively employing the latest technologies.

“No matter the format, the message of radicalisation spreads faster than we imagined just a few years ago,” said Michael Steinbach, FBI executive assistant director. “We may see a more dangerous world in the short term.”

IS militants executing five men whom they accuse of having spied for Britain in Syria. PHOTO: AP

prosecute assaults committed by large group.

It also makes it easier to deport migrants who commit sex offences.

Under the previous law, defined in Section 177 of the criminal code (in German), victims should have defended themselves for an act to constitute rape.

Simply saying “No” was not sufficient to find the defendant guilty, and there was no attempt to define what constituted consent.

Of greatest concern to United States officials are home grown violent extremists, people who are

ready to consume Islamic State propaganda and then use it as inspiration to carry out attacks.

FBI director defends decision in Hillary Clinton email case FBI Director James Comey defended his recommendation not to charge Hillary Clinton over her use of private email during a Congressional hearing.

Republicans said Mrs Clinton received special treatment and compromised national security.

However, Mr Comey testified that she did not break the law or mislead investigators.

According to BBC, Mrs Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, used private email servers while

secretary of state.

She said she used the email servers for convenience and said she did not send or receive classified information.

House Speaker Paul Ryan said Mr Comey’s recommendation proves Mrs Clinton is “living above the law” and questioned whether she should be briefed on classified information as a presidential candidate.

Mr Comey said he and the FBI investigated the case in a “professional and apolitical way”.

The FBI found more than 100 pieces of classified information on the servers.

Death toll from Baghdad blast rises to 281 THE death toll from a car bombing at a crowded shopping area in Iraq’s capital Baghdad last weekend has risen to 281, Health Minister Adeela Hammoud said.

DNA samples have been collected from 150 families to identify bodies charred beyond recognition, Hamoud told al-Iraqiya state TV on Thursday.

It was the country’s worst attack since the 2003 USled invasion, Al Jazeera

said.

A lorry packed with explosives blew up at about 2200 GMT on Saturday 1am local time on Sunday - in the central Karada district, a predominantly Shia neighbourhood.

At the time, families were shopping for presents for the Eid holiday at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and restaurants were crowded for the pre-dawn meal in preparation for a day of fasting.

More than 300 people were wounded and many died later in hospital.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group, which holds territory in Iraq, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Interior Minister Mohammed al-Ghabban offered to resign after the attack, saying authorities “had failed in having the different array of security forces work under a unified plan in Baghdad.”

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Friday, 8 July, 2016

Editor: Ganiyu Salman tribunesporteditor@yahoo.com 08053789060

Arsenal set to ship out Nwakali on loan

Keshi: Burial committee to be inaugurated today THE National Committee for the state funeral of the late Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi (CON) who died on June 8 is to be inaugurated today by the Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Barrister Solomon Dalung.

Dalung approved the constitution of the national burial committee which comprises family members, coaches, ex-internationals, a club owner, media, football administrators, representatives of the ministry of sports, the armed forces and paramilitary.

The committee will be headed by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mr Christian Chinyeaka Ohaa, while he will be assisted by the the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr Amaju Pinnick.

Other committee members are Ambassador Joe Keshi, Emmanuel Ado, Jennifer Keshi, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, Augustine Eguavoen, Joseph Yobo, Coach Fanny Amun, Austine Mgbolu, Mitchell Obi, Dr Mohammed Sanusi and Luka Jonathan Mangset.

Chief Tonobok Okowa will represent Delta State, while Mr Prestly Ediagbonya is from Edo State.

Prince Vincent Okumagba will stand in for the Nigeria Football Supporters Club, while BrigadierGeneral U.O. Olatoye represents the Nigerian Army. There is also Ayodele Titus from the Nigeria Civil Defence and Security Corps and a representative of the Nigeria Police.

Mrs Hauwa Kulu Akinyemi will serve as secretary of the committee.

The committee will be inaugurated at the conference room of the Youth and Sports ministry, Federal Secretariat, Abuja at 10.00am.

E

Nwakali (right)

NGLISH Premier League side, Arsenal will ship out Nigeria U-20 skipper, Kelechi Nwakali overseas on loan, AfricanFootball.com has exclusively gathered.

Nwakali turned 18 last month and he will sign a five-year professional contract with the London Gunners after he would have led the Flying Eagles to qualify for the 2017 U-20 AFCON later this month.

“Nwakali is not in (Arsene) Wenger’s immediate plans and it will take some time before his application for a work permit is processed and so it is most likely he will be sent out on loan possibly to a club in Belgium,” a top source told AfricanFootball.com.

Nwakali was the MVP when Nigeria won a record fifth FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile in November 2015.

Nigeria’s U-17 team-mate, Samuel Chukwueze’s proposed move to join Nwakali at The Emirates has fallen through.

Meanwhile, the Flying Eagles which defeated Burundi 3-1 on aggregate in the previous round must negotiate their way past the north Africans to qualify for the competition billed for Zambia in 2017.

Meanwhile, the first leg of the U-20 AFCON qualifiers against Sudan will hold on Sunday and Nwakali was among the players who departed for Omdurman on Thursday for the cliff hanger.

Full list: Goalkeepers: Akpan Udoh, Chiaha Chisom.

D e fenders: Halilu Zakari, Tobechukwu Ike, Anas Mohammed, Ikwu Ejike, Douglas Uzama, Udochukwu Anumudu, Ebuka Okoroji.

Midfielders: Kelechi Nwakali, Orji Okonkwo, Mustapha Abdullahi, Gavi Thompson, Kingsley Micheal, Agor Chukwudi.

U-20 AFCON: F/Eagles will win in Sudan —Nwakali

Keshi

FLYING Eagles skipper, Kelechi Nwakali has said the team is determined to beat hosts, Sudan when both sides clash in the U-20 AFCON qualifier on Sunday in Omdurman.

“We won’t underrate Sudan but we will take the game to them even though we believe they are a good team,” said Nwakali.

“With God and hard work, we will win.

“We hope to achieve our aim of going to

Rio Olympics: Nigerians won’t welcome us if we miss gold —Siasia NIGERIA Olympic soccer team coach, Samson Siasia has said anything short of wiining the gold in Rio in August will not be celebrated back home.

Siasia led Nigeria to play in the gold medal match at the Beijing 2008 Olympics against Argentina and that was after the country made history as the first African side to win the Olympic football tournament in 1996.

“It is not going to be a walk in the park (to win Olympic Gold). It is going to be a very difficult task. But the thing is that anything short

of Olympic gold is nothing because nobody will even come and welcome us when we come back without the gold,” he said.

“So, it is a difficult one. But we will do the best we can so far these players (confirmed foreign-based stars) are coming. We will know exactly how we are playing and what will come out from the players we have.”

African U23 champions Nigeria are drawn against European champions Sweden, Asia champions Japan and Colombia in the group phase of the Rio Olympics.

Siasia’s build-up has suffered several hitches after several of the country’s top stars were blocked by their European clubs from featuring in the competition.

The absentees include Premier League stars Odion Ighalo (Watford), Alex Iwobi (Arsenal) and Kelechi Iheanacho (Manchester City).

Siasia has also complained that the squad in training camp in Atlanta, United States of America, are not motivated as they have not received any allowances since they departed Nigeria last month.

Sudan.”

Wolfsburg-bound striker, Victor Osimhen returned to scoring ways with the winning goal in a final test game against City Strikers on Tuesday in a final build up game, while Orji Okonkwo was also on target.

Sudan qualified for the final playoffs after it won a protest against Kenya for fielding ineligible players for the first leg of their encounter, which ended in a 1-1 draw in Sudan.

Nigeria eliminated Burundi 3-1 on aggregate to reach the final qualifier.

The return match against Sudan will be staged in Nigeria in a fortnight where the overall winners will advance to the U-20 AFCON in Zambia in February.

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Euro 2016:

Crotone bids for Balotelli

What I told Bale —Ronaldo

C

RISTIANO Ronaldo has revealed what he told Gareth Bale after leading Portugal to the Euro 2016 final at the expense of Wales with a 2-0 scoreline.

The two most expensive players in the world faced off in Lyon, with Ronaldo notching a goal and an assist to secure his country’s second European Championship final in the last four tournaments.

Ronaldo walked straight over to his Real Madrid team-mate at full-time, with the pair sharing words and a hug, and the 31-year-old has now divuldged mostly what was said.

“I congratulated them on their run,” Ronaldo told reporters. “They had an amazing run. They were the shining star here, the revelation team.

“I wished them good luck and as for the rest I would rather not say.”

Ronaldo, it will be recalled, scored one of the goals in the victory over Wales, to match Michel Platini’s nine-goal Euro record.

Wales Gareth Bale (left) and Portugals’s Cristiano Ronaldo in a tete-a-tete after their Euro 2016 semi-final game.

Team Nigeria departs for Davis Cup TEAM Nigeria is scheduled to depart Lagos today for Madagascar for the 2016 Davis Cup Euro Africa Group 3.

The four-man team is made up of Shehu Lawal, Abdulmumin Babalola, Moses Michael and Sylvester Emmanuel.

Lawal is also the leader and playing captain being his 10th involvement in the Davis Cup. The three-time CBN tennis champion, Lawal will feature in the doubles alongside Babalola, himself a five-time winner of

the CBN Open, regarded as the biggest domestic tennis tournament in Nigeria.

Abuja-based duo of Michael and Emmanuel, who both featured in the recently-held 2016 CBN Tennis Championship will play in the singles.

“We are looking forward to getting promotion to group two because this is a very strong team.

“We have used some of the recent international tournaments like the ITF Tombim Open and Dayak Championship in Abuja to prepare,” declared Em-

manuel, 19, who is the youngest member of the team.

The week-long tournament serving off at the University of Antananarivo on July 11 will feature 12 countries -Nigeria, Algeria, Benin, Botswana, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Morocco, M o zambique, N a m i b i a and Rwanda.

Angola,

Awoniyi

brace up and shine in Rio. “Taiwo Awoniyi is a good player and he is gradually picking up and will soon return to his explosive form in the attack,” Siasia told Goal.

“This is a player that has proved himself from the Golden Eaglets to the Flying Eagles and now with us.

“This is a player that has helped this team when needed. I won’t forget his contribution in Zambia which got us the ticket to play in the All Africa Games.

“All he needs to do now is to be focused and work hard to get back to his real self. He is an important player that is just coming back to form and we cannot just neglect him but to encourage him.

He is really working hard in training and I am happy with what I have seen so far since we arrived here (America).”

He also claims that the duo

Umar and Ajayi are good addition to his squad ahead of the competition billed to kick off next month.

“We have enough strikers that can help this team score goals. Umar who plays for AS Roma in Italy is very sharp in front of goal as was evident in the few practice session I have seen him. So his addition to the team will surely add quality to our attack,” he stated.

“We also have junior Ajayi who is doing very well here and even for his Tunisian club. We all know what stuff Ajayi is made of and he is even sharper in front of goal.

“With hard work in the training and some few friendlies that we hope to play, our attack line should be ready for the Olympics battle”.

Balotelli

Musa to join Leicester in Austria camp

Awoniyi, Umar will shine at Rio —Siasia NIGERIA U23 coach Samson Siasia believes the form of Taiwo Awoniyi, Sadiq Umar and Junior Ajayi would boost his side ahead of Rio 2016 Olympics.

Although the Dream Team VI handler is not captivated with Awoniyi’s performance in recent games, but he feels the Liverpool forward will

Cote d’Ivoire and Libya withdrew. Teams will be drawn into four pools (AD) of three teams with the pool winners advancing to the semi-final after a round-robin matches.

Winners of Pools A and B will be drawn to play Winners of Pool C and D to determine who gains promotion to Euro Africa Group 2 in 2017.

The 11th and 12th placed teams will be relegated while the rest will remain in Euro Africa group C in 2017.

CROTONE FC president, Raffaele Vrenna has confirmed the newly-promoted Serie A side, is interested in signing Liverpool striker, Mario Balotelli.

The Italy international endured a difficult 201516 campaign on loan at AC Milan, scoring just three goals in all competitions, and he has returned to Anfield ahead of next season.

Balotelli is unlikely to play a big role in manager Jurgen Klopp’s plans, though, and Crotone are ready to offer the 25-yearold a way out.

“I made a phone call to agent Mino Raiola for Balotelli,” Vrenna told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“Crotone are the ideal environment for young talent to grow and express themselves.

“We could be the right place to revive an incredible talent like that of Balotelli, who has unfortunately just experienced a couple of difficult seasons.”

Crotone faces stiff competition for Sampdoria in the race for the flamboyant attacker, with the Genoabased side previously admitting they are also interested in signing the former Inter star.

Musa (up)

NIGERIA international, Ahmed Musa is expected to join up with the rest of the Leicester City squad at their training camp in Austria next week after he has completed his transfer from CSKA Moscow.

The Russian champions have moved quickly to replace Musa after they agreed a loan move for Ivorian giant striker, Lacina Traore.

Another Nigeria striker, Aaron Samuel, could have been his replacement at the army club, but while on loan at the Russian club he suffered a long-term knee injury, which required surgery and he will be out for close to a year.

Traore has featured for Premier League side, Everton and Monaco in France.

Musa’s transfer will be announced at the weekend after he has passed his medical.

His transfer fee is out at between 16 million and 18 million pounds and it is a club record.

SIDELINES

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FRIDAY, 8 JULY, 2016

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Besiktas eyes Onazi

Wimbledon: Serena battles Kerber for 22nd Grand Slam title

By Ganiyu Salman With Agency Report

DEFENDING champion, Serena Williams is set for another showdown with Angelique Kerber as the duo clash tomorrow at the All England Club in the women’s singles final of the Wimbledon.

The six-time Wimbledon champion on Thursday dismissed Russian Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-0 to reach her ninth final in 48 minutes.

It however, turned out to be a bad day for elder Williams, Venus as she lost to fourth-seeded German Kerber 6-4, 6-4.

The defeat aborted what would have been the 28th meeting between the Williams sisters and a fifth allWilliams final.

Unarguably, the final serves as a rematch between the 34-year-old Serena and 29-year-old Kerber who defeated the former 4–6, 6–3, 4–6 in January this year in the Australian Open final.

The 21-Grand Slam winner, Serena has lost on two occasions since winning her last Grand Slam title last December at the expense of Spain’s Garbine Muguruza.

After the January loss to Kerber, Serena also last month (June 4) lost to Muguruza in the French Open final, 7-5, 6-4.

Thus, Serena’s victory tomorrow if achieved will enable her to equal the Steffi Graf’s open era record of 22 Grand Slam singles.

The world number one after playing in what turned out to be the shortest women’s match of the tournament and the fastest Wimbledon women’s semi-final said her victory did not come on a platter of gold despite dismissing her opponent in less than an hour.

“I’m very happy. We’ve had a lot of tough matches before, especially on this surface I knew that she could really bring it to me. So I was ready.”

“It’s never easy out there and every point you have to fight for. It’s weird, I can’t believe I’m in the finals again. I’m zero and two for (grand slam finals) this year so, I want to get at least one,” said the American who is gunning for the 28th Grand Slam final of her career.

Meanwhile, Kerber believes it is going to be a fight to the finish tomorrow against Serena.

Any man, whо formally сhаngеѕ his lаѕt nаmе tо Mr Burger vіа thе Australian government’s official application, according to media reports, wіll bе granted free burgers fоr life оnсе thе restaurant receives аn e-mail to confirm the change of name.

Perhaps, is this gesture not an antidote to stealing?

By Olawale Olaniyan

B

ESIKTAS of Turkey has reportedly contacted Lazio of Italy on the possible signing of Nigeria midfielder, Ogenyi

Onazi.

The Turkish champions which already have another Nigeria international, Kenneth Omeruo, on loan for the new season, are believed to be eyeing Onazi ahead of the new season.

Media reports have also suggested Chelsea midfielder, Mikel Obi is also wanted by the Istanbul giants.

“This week, Besiktas have made an official enquiry for Onazi and it is now left to be seen if they will accept a bid for the player,” a source informed AfricanFootball.com.

It will be recalled that Onazi, two years ago extended his contract with Lazio till 2018.

The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) winner will work under former Argentina national team coach, Marcelo Bielsa in the coming season.

Lazio had a few hours ago announced

the contract of Bielsa, a former Athletic Bilbao coach who takes over from caretaker boss, Simone Inzaghi.

Bielsa, is scheduled to lead the Serie A side to its pre-season training camp in Auronzo di Cadore, Italy on Sunday.

“The club would also like to announce that, based on the communication we have received, the coach and his staff will be in Rome on Saturday July 9,” the club said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Onazi has since rejoined his Italian team after his honeymoon in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

The 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup silver medallist, who had a white wedding last month in Lagos, reportedly on Tuesday alongside team-mates undergone athletic and respiratory tests and was given a clean bill of health by the club medics.

Chilean fan plans to auction Messi’s missed penalty ball

Serena

LIONEL Messi’s last ever penalty for Argentina may have been truly catastrophic and heartbreaking, but the ball itself is still set to be auctioned off for a massive price.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner stepped up in a penalty shootout in the Copa America Centenario final against Chile, only to send it sailing over the bar as his side suffered a defeat in a tournament decider for the third consecutive time.

Having lost one final too many, with Argentina also beaten in the final of the 2014 World Cup and Copa America 2013, Messi announced his time with the national team is over, making the ball that flew over the bar and into the crowd a unique item.

And Pedro Vasquez, who caught the ball, is planning on auctioning it off and so far stands to earn €27,000.

“The truth is that if the ball becomes any more valuable, it would be a risk to have it in my house,” the Chilean said, as quoted by MARCA. “I could sell it, it would depend on the circumstances.

“It is nice to have the ball, but if it keeps rising in price, I’ll sell.”

Messi after the penaty kick drama. PHOTO: EPA

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. 8/6/2016.