9th August 2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 16,563

TUESDAY, 9 AUGUST, 2016 www.tribuneonlineng.com

Nigerian Tribune

S/West leaders PDP leaders re-zone chairmanship to Lagos, Ogun —P4

•Set up 6-man reconciliation committee

@nigeriantribune

TribuneOnline

Nigerian Tribune

N150

Buhari relaunches WAI Brigade —P5

Budget padding: EFCC extends probe to Senate —P4

•Again, Jibrin at police hqtrs, submits more documents Militants kill 3 soldiers in Bayelsa Scene of a passenger train that rammed into a Toyota Hilux van at Woji area in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, on Monday.

—P6

Oyo lawmaker's death not politicallymotivated —CP •As police parade suspected killers —P38

Ex-gov's ADC, 3 children die in inferno —P11

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Alleged budget padding: EFCC extends probe to Senate Again, Jibrin at police hqtrs, submits more documents Chris Agbambu and Taiwo Adisa - Abuja

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HE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Monday, kicked off its investigation of the alleged padding of 2016 budget in line with allegations contained in the petition by the sacked chairman of House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin.

Jibrin was, again, at the Force Headquarters on Monday, to make additional statements on his allegation against the Speaker, Honourable Yakubu Dogara and 13 other principal officers of the House.

Informed police sources told the Nigerian Tribune that Jibrin came with bundles of documents, which he submitted to the police.

He was also said to have come with a retinue of his supporters to the Force headquarters, where they also made statements of all they knew about the alleged budget padding.

Jibrin had, in his determination to expose alleged wrongdoing in the process of the passage of the 2016 budget, petitioned the antigraft body as well as the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), alleging that over N400 billion was involved in the budget padding scandal.

The police, last week, waded into the same issue, a development said to have created a level of confusion for the EFCC, with an official saying, “we don’t know what the man really wants, by sending the same petition to different agencies.”

Sources close to the commission, however, confirmed on Monday that the EFCC had decided to launch into the allegations and get to the root of the matter.

Specifically, the source said the EFCC had launched investigations into the possible involvement of the Senate Committee on Appropriations in the alleged padding.

Some preliminary findings by the EFCC team, it was gathered, indicated that there was the need to beam searchlight into activities of the Senate appropriation committee.

The committee, according to findings, was to be investigated for alleged insertions amounting to about N5 billion in some ministries, departments and agencies

(MDAs).

Though Jibrin did not specifically refer to the Senate committee in his petitions, sources said the EFCC had decided to broaden its investigations to cover activites of the upper chamber, adding that since the budget was jointly passed by the two chambers, whatever affected one should affect the

other.

Spokesman for the EFCC, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, told the Nigerian Tribune on Monday that he was not in a position to confirm the extent of investigations on the petition submitted by Hon Jibrin.

“It is true that the lawmaker submitted a petition to the commission but I can-

not confirm how far we have gone at this moment,” Uwujaren said.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, could not be reached on Monday as he did not pick his phone or reply text messages.

Nigerian Tribune, however, gathered that

Jibrin and his associates spent over three hours with detectives, led by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police.

The source disclosed that the police was telling him to prove his case beyond all reasonable doubts, saying that was why he came to submit bundles of documents and to make addi-

From left, former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar; Olori Wuraola Ogunwusi; the couple, Seyi and Layal Tinubu; the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi; Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode and the father of the groom, Senator Bola Tinubu, during the wedding held at Iga Idugaran, Lagos Island, on Monday.

tional statements.

According to the source, “we are discussing with Jibrin, getting more information and studying the documents and will soon invite all relevant parties involved in the case.”

Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress (APC), on Monday, decried Jibrin for disregarding the party’s intervention moves.

This was contained in a statement released to newsmen in Abuja by Mr Timi Frank, the acting national publicity secretary of the party.

Frank, in the statement, said the APC deputy national chairman (North), Senator Lawal Shuaibu, had addressed a letter to Jibrin ordering him to avoid issuing public statements on the lingering budget scandal at the green chamber.

Jubrin had, in his latest tweets, accused the speaker of conniving with two serving governors and ex-lawmakers of trying to change the media narrative against him.

Frank accused Jibrin of lack of respect for the Lawal-led committee, which, it said, was working tirelessly to resolve the crisis.

South-West PDP leaders re-zone chairmanship to Lagos, Ogun •Set up 6-man reconciliation committee Hakeem Gbadamosi - Akure SOUTH-WEST Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders, on Monday, rezoned the position of national chairman to Lagos and Ogun states, in a deliberate move to avert acrimony over national offices zoned to the geopolitical zone.

A former PDP deputy national chairman of the party, Chief Olabode George and its governorship candidate in the 2015 governorship election in Lagos, Mr Jimi Agbaje, both of whom are from Lagos State, had indicated interest in the position.

Incidentally, a former Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran and another former minister, Professor Taoheed Adedoja, had also earlier announced their interest in the chairmanship position.

It was not clear if the new arrangement might settle the initial mutual suspicion that trailed the zoning of the chairmanship position to the South-West by the PDP national caretaker committee.

However, the South-West leaders set up a six-man reconciliatory committee headed by a former PDP

national vice chairman, Alhaji Yekeen Adeojo, which was mandated to speak with all the aspirants jostling for the post of national chairman.

Under the new sharing formula adopted at the end of a meeting of the PDP leaders on Monday, held in Akure, the Ondo State capital, Ondo and Ekiti states are to produce the national treasurer while Osun and Oyo states are to fill the position of national deputy publicity secretary.

Briefing newsmen on the outcome of the meeting, PDP deputy national chairman (South-West), Eddy Olafeso, gave a detailed account of the new sharing formula, which he said was meant to forge a united front by the zone ahead of the party’s national convention.

According to him, leaders drawn from all the six states in the region resolved to re-zone the chairmanship position to Lagos/ Ogun; treasurer to Ondo/ Ekiti and the national deputy publicity secretary to Oyo/Osun.

“As of this moment, the leaders zoned the chairmanship of the party to Lagos and Ogun states, and we

have mandated a six-man committee of reconciliation to speak with everybody so that the South-West zone will have a common focus at the convention coming in Port Harcourt.

“We have zoned equally the treasurer to Ekiti and Ondo axis while Osun and Oyo will pick the national publicity secretary of the party.

“The key issue is the unity among our leaders and the teeming followers of the PDP, in view of very difficult situation and for us to provide quality opposition to the APC government at the centre, so that Nigerians would not be schemed out.

“Subsequently, you will be hearing from us as we continue to ensure that the Yoruba race becomes united in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Our concern at the moment is to ensure peace and unity and come out with a candidate at the national convention in Port Harcourt,” he said.

Olafeso assured that the leaders of PDP would come out strong to speak in one voice and to reposition the party in the South-West.

But, Professor Adedoja

expressed displeasure over the outcome of the meeting and vowed to forge ahead with his aspiration, despite the decision of the leaders to zone it to Lagos and Ogun states.

Adedoja said all aspirants should be left to test their individual popularity before delegates at the convention.

Similarly, Professor Adeniran expressed his desire to contest at the convention, as he had obtained forms at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja.

His media aide, Mr Taiwo Akeju, told newsmen that his principal obtained his form in Abuja on Monday and intentionally avoided the meeting to consult with some party leaders in the North for the realisation of his aspiration.

Akeju, who is the former secretary of the party in the zone, said all the aspirants should be allowed to test their popularity rather than the consensus arrangement reached by the meeting convoked by Governor Olusegun Mimiko and his Ekiti counterpart, Mr Ayodele Fayose.

“What we are saying is that they should allow all the as-

pirants that have obtained the forms to go and test their popularity, which is democracy. We don’t want impunity again in the party,” he said.

He specifically said he would not accede to the arrangement, lamenting the impunity in the party which he pointed out had been the crux of its calamities.

“We are still battling with the Sheriff thing now, we know the consequences and we know the people that brought us to this level. But what we are saying is that we need to turn a new leaf. Let anybody that purchase form be allowed to contest.

“There is no point zoning anything, it won’t work,” he protested, reiterating that “it is not possible. You have to open up for the best material to emerge, that is our position. We want the best material to emerge at the convention.”

Akeju noted that there were a lot of factions in the South-West PDP, claiming that Senator Buruji Kashamu walked out of the meeting with a promise to announce his preferred candidate on Thursday. continues pg36

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Army has rendered Boko Haram incapacitated —Buratai Says military efforts in North-East have paid off Isaac Shobayo - Jos with Agency Reports

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HE Chief of Army Staff, LieutenantGeneral Yusuf Tukur Buratai, has emphatically declared that the Nigerian Army has rendered insurgents incapacitated, defeated and deprived from regrouping anywhere in Nigeria.

This was as he said that the efforts of the military in the North-East had paid off, as incessant bombing attacks on the public had been halted.

General Buratai, who made this assertion on Monday, during a courtesy visit to Gbong Gwom Jos, His Royal Majesty, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, in his palace, said he was in Jos on a familiarisation tour of units and formations under the 3 Division and, indeed, ‘Operation Safe Haven’ here on the Plateau.

He said the success recorded was as a result of determination of Nigerian Army to root out Boko Haram sect members from their enclaves, especially in the North-East and assured the people of Plateau that the state would never witness insurgents again.

“You can see that our efforts in the North-East has really paid off, as you can recall the incessant bombings of market places and different places of worship and populated areas had virtually stopped now.

And I can assure you and the people of Plateau State that they will never witness Boko Haram attacks as witnessed in the past.

“The Nigerian Army has not only succeeded in rooting them from their camps in the North-East, we have been able to block these criminal elements from crossing to these areas or building their camps anywhere in Nigeria,” he said.

He assured that the military would remain resolute

in the discharge of its duties, as well as commended the Gbong Gwom Jos for his moral support through wise counsel to the military, especially those in the state, to maintain law and order.

In his remarks, the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba, declared thus: “The success of the Nigerian Army over Boko Haram did not come to me as a surprise, because I know very well that the Nigerian Army historically had always distinguished itself wherever it served and today, that particular history is still very much playing itself out.

“Let me, on behalf of Plateau State, thank you and your men, whom over the years, have been paying sacrifices to work towards restoring peace, law and order, not in Plateau State alone, but all over Nigeria.

Just some months back, Nigerians were apprehensive to whether Boko Haram will consume Nigeria or Nigeria would overcome it.

“But we thank God Almighty for your efforts and that of your men, by restoring hope to Nigerians. The sacrifices you have made

have translated to almost a total end to these destructive elements.

“We noted that upon the discharge of this responsibility, you have lost some men who sacrificed their lives for peace of this country. We pray that God, in his mercy would grand them eternal rest and con-

sole their families.”

The Gbong Gwom also appealed to the military to fish out the killers of Lazarus Agai, the paramount ruler of Bokkos.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the paramount ruler was murdered by gunmen weeks ago.

Our situation will improve in the next 6 months —Ajimobi As 1,358 Oyo pilgrims participate in 2016 Hajj

By Saheed Salawu and Wale Akinselure Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, on Monday, appreciated the perseverance of the people of the state amid current economic challenges, assuring that the situation would improve in the next six months.

Speaking at the farewell ceremony for Muslim pilgrims at Hajj camp, Olodo, Ibadan, Ajimobi expressed optimism that the financial difficulties presently experienced were bound to cease.

“Oyo State will continue to progress. The financial difficulties that we are facing now due to the economic crunch will soon be over because all of us are bound to make sure that things

improve.

“I believe in the next six months, things will change.

And I thank the workers for coming back to work and everybody for supporting our government,” he said.

In his message to the 1,358 pilgrims from Oyo

Adetola Bademosi - Abuja THE Economic Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arrested a popular Nigerian blogger and political commentator, Mr Abubakar Sidiqu Usman, for an alleged online publication against the commis-

THE National Orientation Agency (NOA), has said it is working to strengthen the War Against Indiscipline (WAI) Brigade for enhanced civil intelligence gathering and toward evolving an orderly and secured society, in line with the change mantra of the present administration.

sion’s chairman, Mr Ibrahim Magu.

The blogger was reportedly picked up in the early hours of Monday at his residence in Abuja by the EFCC operatives led by one Sambo Mangana.

He is the publisher of Abusidiqu.com.

Professor Johnbull hits ‘black fuel marketers’ in Episode 4 THE kernel of the fourth episode of the high flying TV drama series, ‘Professor Johnbull’, which will run tonight on national television is on the shenanigans and brazen bravados displayed by illegal fuel attendants during any of the incessant fuel crises the nation has had to endure.

The remarkably entertaining TV drama series, powered by the grandmasters of data, Globacom, will be aired tonight on NTA Network, NTA International on DSTV, Channel 251 and NTA on StarTimes, as it focuses on the love-hate rela-

Director-General of NOA, Garba Abari, while speaking in Abuja, on the planned relaunch, said in the era of insecurity, violence and other forms of social vices, the role of the WAI Brigade in civil intelligence gathering could not be overemphasised.

He stated that government believed that WAI Brigade members across the country

Welfare Board, Muslim Wing, Alhaji Taofeek Akewugbagold enjoined the pilgrims to be prepared for a rigorous Hajj exercise, saying “Hajj is not just for people to go to Saudi Arabia to buy silver or gold teeth and return to Nigeria.”

EFCC arrests blogger over online publication against Magu

tionship between the generality of the public and fuel attendants the people regard as economic saboteurs and black fuel marketers, but might have to patronise in the heat of a severe fuel shortage.

Millions of TV viewers across the country, who have come to see the comedy series as a must-watch will see in the episode, tagged ‘Foreign Petrol’, how a few individuals, consumed by their avarice, attempted to capitalise on the severe economic situation in the country, accentuated by fuel scarcity, to enrich them-

selves to the detriment of the generality of the people.

The economic challenge affects everybody, including the shylock hotelier, Etuk, acted by Ime Bishop, who in his desperation, sits in front of his hotel to make a “public service announcement” hoping that by continuously ringing a bell, he can draw customers to the hotel.

Flash (Stephen Odimgba), who in a bid to get-richquickly, becomes an emergency “back marker.”

He is scolded by Churchill, the moralistic son of Professor Johnbull. Soon, the long arms of the law catch-

should be encouraged to redouble their vigilance in the local governments, wards and various villages, in order to contribute their quota towards building a secure society.

Abari insisted that with the ills and woes that bedeviled the country, there was need for the Brigade to help in the fight against social vices.

Also speaking, the WAI Brigade National Commander, Mustapha Muhammad commended the agency’s commitment to the change mantra of the present administration and called on members to sustain the tempo of responsibility, despite non-funding from the government for over three decades.

Buhari relaunches WAI brigade Christian Okeke - Abuja

State, Ajimobi urged the pilgrims to serve God in their character and faithfully abide by the tenets of Islam, stating that the Hajj exercise was to serve God. He prayed for journey mercies for the pilgrims.

Chairman, Oyo Pilgrims’

es Flash. Who squealed on Flash? What role did Churchill play in all these?

What is car pooling and why is Professor Johnbull recommending it to his “proximate people?” Viewers will find the answers to all these and more in the episode.

Viewers will also be amused to find out that Professor Johnbull’s bombastic expressions is rubbing off on some of his proximate neighbours like Mai Doya (Funky Mallam).

Globacom, in a statement issued in Lagos, on Monday, said that viewers “will see Professor Johnbull, acted

by Kanayo O. Kanayo, in his best element as he elucidates on the dangers of “Black Marketing” and proffers pragmatic solutions.”

The statement added: “The fourth episode of Professor Johnbull, tagged ‘Foreign Petrol’ is as entertaining, as it is educative.”

Repeat broadcast of the episode will be shown on Friday at 8.30 p.m. on NTA Network pan Nigeria, NTA International on DSTV and on StarTimes.

He has, however, been offered administrative bail and would be released to his elected sureties.

The EFCC said Mr Usman’s activities contradicted sections of the Cyber Crime Act, but that he had been granted administrative bail and would be released after successfully providing sureties.

If charged, Mr Usman would be the third blogger to be arrested under the Cyber Crime Act, which was signed by President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011.

Bloggers Seun Oloketuyi and Emmanuel Ojo were arrested in 2015 for offences that allegedly contravened the act.

In reactions to the development, Convener of the Coalition of Human Rights Defenders (COHRD) Inibehe Effiong, in a statement he issued in Abuja on Monday, condemned the arrest saying; “it was worrisome and extremely troubling that the commission will arrest a citizen of Nigeria in a manner reminiscent of the dark days of military dictatorship.”

Effiong argued that the EFCC did not have powers under the extant laws, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (Establishment) Act 2004, to investigate, arrest, detain or prosecute any person for any alleged offence except in respect of economic and financial crimes.

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

No alternative to fixing basic education in Nigeria —UBEC boss Clement Idoko -Abuja

Former Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) Registrar, Professor Dibu Ojerinde (left), presenting the hand-over note to the new JAMB registrar, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, at the JAMB headquarters, Abuja, on Monday. PHOTO: NAN.

Oloyode assumes duty as JAMB Registrar Says ‘I won’t spoil Ojerinde’s good work’ Clement Idoko -Abuja

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HE newly-appointed Registrar and Chief Executive of Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Professor Is-haq Oloyede, on Monday, assumed duty with a pledge to consolidate on the gains achieved by his predecessor, Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde.

“One thing I want to assure you is that I won’t spoil the good work you have done.

We have been very close though many people did not know that when we disagreed some years back on policy, he was doing his work as the JAMB registrar and I was doing mine as the chairman of the Association of ViceChancellors of Nigerian Universities (AVCNU),” he said.

Oloyede spoke shortly after the former JAMB Registrar, Ojerinde, handed over the mantle of leadership of the Board to him at the headquarters of JAMB in Abuja.

While noting that there was however, room to make some changes, the new JAMB boss said he would continue to implement the good policies started by Ojerinde.

He particularly commended his predecessor for introducing the Computer-Based Test (CBT) mode for conduct of the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), saying “we live in the age of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and technology exists only to make life easier.

“In this regard, we shall deepen what I once called the “trendy tradition.” When we introduced Computer-Based Test (CBT) at the University of Ilorin for the conduct of our screening exercise in 2007, we had no doubt that it was the right thing to do.

“It is gratifying that JAMB

had subsequently transited to the use of technology for the conduct of its examinations and I salute the resolve of Professor Dibu Ojerinde in that regard as well,” he said.

According to him, JAMB had a quality of superabundance manpower, which in addition to its qualities and experiences from over the years, would further develop a better and greater JAMB. Oloyede, a former vice chancellor of University of Ilorin, however, warned that he would not condone lateness to work, laziness at work, disrespect for deadlines, insubordination, which according to him, were viruses that often crippled an organisation.

He added that part of his agenda was to key into the “change” mantra of the current administration of President Muhammadu Buhari by continuing to build on the legacy left behind by “my illustrious predecessors and change whatever deserves to be changed because the biggest room in the world is

the room for improvement.”

He said: “Given my full awareness of the transiency of life and its phenomena, it is my resolve to put my best in any task before me since I fortunately won’t be doing it forever. It is even more relevant on this occasion because this work may be short, truncated or long.

“Whether my period here is short, truncated or long, what is important is to do my bit and leave the stage better than we met it, just as my predecessors have done.

Setting the stage is a collective responsibility and we all have to make this great Board even greater.

“The time is short and we need to hit the ground running, with the fervent hope that the same support you accorded my predecessors, which was instrumental to their success, will be accorded me too.

“I am inheriting a great JAMB, but there is still sufficient room for improvement so that the Board can even

be greater if we all change accordingly,” the JAMB boss added.

While stressing that he would run “a no door policy,” Oloyode said his five areas of focus included an enhanced staff welfare, discipline, improved technology, transparency and advanced networking.

The immediate past Registrar of JAMB, Professor Dibu Ojerinde, who was full of smiles throughout the ceremony acknowledged the competency of the new Registrar in working to further improve and develop JAMB. “I am sure you will make JAMB better than you found it. I am not surprised you are coming,” he said.

Ojerinde, who received various eulogies from staff for his hard work and ability to transform JAMB during his over nine years in office, urged the directors, zonal and state coordinators of JAMB to grant Oloyede the same cooperation he enjoyed while serving as their boss.

THE new Executive Secretary of Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), Dr Hameed Bobboyi, has called on state governors and other relevant stakeholders to join in the determination by the Federal Government to revamp the basic education sub-sector in the country.

Speaking on his assumption of duty as the new Executive Secretary of the commission, Bobboyi said there was no alternative to fixing the nation’s basic education sector that had suffered serious neglect in the past.

A statement by the Public Relations Officer of the commission, Mrs Helen Okoro, and made available to newsmen on Monday, in Abuja, said Bobboyi spoke after he took over the management of UBEC from the immediate past Executive Secretary, Dr Suleiman Dikko.

Bobboyi noted that for the country to achieve the needed quality education and production of critical mass of manpower to drive government’s development agenda, the foundation of basic education must first be established.

He acknowledged that there were multiple challenges confronting basic education sector in Nigeria, but

Militants kill 3 soldiers in Bayelsa Austin Ebipade -Yenagoa Again, the dreaded militant group operating in the Niger Delta region has killed three soldiers at checkpoint in Nembe Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.

It was learnt that the soldiers were securing the waterfront in Nembe, before they were shot by rampaging militant group.

However, report had it that the militants group confused the soldiers as they hid their identity, wearing a mourning,

2019: APC reviews Electoral Act for party’s strategic interest Ahead 2019 elections, the All Progressives Congress (APC), through the Progressives Governors Forum (PGF), on Monday, commenced move to review the electoral act (amendment) bill 2015, as it affected its strategic interest.

This came just as the PGF tasked the national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC) to step up in addressing the issues affecting the party.

This came to fore at PGF expert session on Electoral Act (amendment) 2015, in Abuja.

Speaking at the event, the co-chairman of PGF legislative programme and the Kastina State governor, Hon-

ourable Aminu Masari, called on the party leadership to consolidate the party.

But APC deputy national chairman, Mr. Segun Oni, who represented the national chairman, apologised on behalf of the party leadership and promised that steps were being taken to ensure frequent interaction with the lawmakers.

The governor, while asking the party leadership to step up, said, “With due respect sir (Chief Segun Oni representative of the national chairman), the problems that are coming from the management of APC as regards the National Assembly, now we are facing challenges, we are in a trying time and we

have to try to consolidate this party.

He added that, “what Professor Sam Egwu said is a reflection of what is happening. The management must solidify the party. With your experience, experience of the national chairman as a former governor and former permanent secretary, he has no reason to fail. You have credentials to succeed, if you want to exonerate yourself, put the right people in the right place. The national chairman is a former governor, you (Segun Oni) is a former governor, Lawal Shuaibu is a former senator. So, when you do good, we will say we were the ones who elected you

expressed confidence that with all relevant stakeholders working together, the much desired quality basic education would be achieved.

“We cannot get it right without properly laying a solid foundation for the growth and development of basic education. Yes, basic education is on the concurrent list, we all need to work collectively to revamp the sector. I understand that the Federal Government has done a lot through UBEC. We will sustain that and we will also meet with the state governments and relevant stakeholders in this regard,” he said.

The new UBEC boss pledged to give priority attention to the welfare of staff of the commission, while also urging them to continue to discharge their duties with utmost level of patriotism, honesty and hard work.

Former Executive Secretary of UBEC, Dr Dikko, in his remark, listed low access to the matching grant by some state governments as a major challenge of the commission.

He, however, said with the coming of the current administration, there was remarkable improvement in access of the intervention funds by some state governments.

there, but when you do bad, you are on your own.”

In his address, a member of the PGF Legislative Programme and an expert on Electoral Act amendment, Professor Egwu, said the party must be properly governed, saying “the party was properly governed before the last general election, but the table has turned around, I won’t suffer any damage for saying this.”

Citing example of Kogi State elections, Professor Egwu said, “Take Kogi for example, how can APC win election in 2019 when the late Audu has his own group, the late minister, Ocholi, has his own group and the present governor has his own.”

fatigued look before opening fire on the unsuspecting soldiers at the waterfront checkpoint in Nembe community.

The militants, it was learnt, stole two operational gunboats owned by the Joint Taskforce (JTF), Operation Delta Save, and moved it to their hideout.

Peeved by the death of the three soldiers and the stolen gunboats, re-enforcement of the Joint Military Taskforce has continued to comb the creeks of the coastal communities of Nembe, Brass and Southern Ijaw Local Government area to recover the boat laced with ammunition and to apprehend the militants group.

The coastal communities, however, came under serious fear, as soldiers were all over the town, while military aircraft have continued to bomb militant’s hideouts in creeks.

The militants, on the other hand, were also fighting back and trying to bring down the aircraft with anti-aircraft sophisticated guns.

However, prior to this attack that led to the killing of the three soldiers, the militants have continued to bomb oil pipelines and installations that has grossly reduced the production of crude oil per day, which is the nation’s major foreign income earner.

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Lagosmetro

Nigerian Tribune

Edited By

Lanre Adewole

olanreade@yahoo.com

0811 695 4647

Pregnant teenager commits suicide over rejection Opeyemi Owoaseye A 17-year-old girl, (first name withheld) Saka has died after drinking local insecticide, Sniper in Igando area of Lagos State.

Lagos Metro gathered that the victim allegedly blamed her grandma for her death in a note which she left behind.

The elderly woman was arrested after Saka’s boyfriend had reported the case at Igando division.

A source explained that Saka was taken to her grandma’s house in Mofoluwasho Close to live with her after the death of her mother because she was the only child of her parents. Saka’s mother died

when the victim was only three years old.

The source said, “She had been living with her since then. The woman is a trader in Ikotun market and that was how the girl met with a guy whom she started dating. Whenever the woman was not around, she would bring the man home and he would spend the night with her.”

Another source disclosed that the woman was not pleased with the news that Saka was pregnant so, she insisted she packed out of the house.

“The grandma insisted that she moved out of the house to her boyfriend’s house. The woman packed her luggage outside the

gate and the girl angrily left the house, took Sniper and drank it,” he said.

Residents said the victim began foaming in the mouth at her boyfriend’s house and was rushed to the Igando General Hospital where she was confirmed dead.

When the boyfriend saw the suicide note, he was said to have reported to the police.

A resident said, “The girl and the boyfriend loved each other. The man did not even reject the pregnancy. It was from the

suicide note that the boyfriend saw that the girl accused her grandma of causing her death. He reported to the police with the note in his hand.

“The Police took the suicide note and arrested the woman. She was in tears at the bus stop as she kept saying she didn’t mean her any harm. It was a sad sight,” another resident said.

A resident, who identified himself as Goddey, appealed to the government to intervene in the increasing teenage suicides in the

FOLLOWING the kidnap of the Oniba of Ibaland, Oba Goriola Oseni and his release last Saturday by his abductors, Lagos State government said it had concluded arrangements to provide security for traditional rulers and their palaces in the state. The kidnappers, who were nine in number, released him after a ransom of N15.1 million was paid to them.

Commissioner for Local Government and Community Affairs, Muslim Folami, made this known when he paid a visit on the Oba on Monday, saying the state government would now extend security to the palaces across the state.

Folami stated that government took the step in order to avoid a repeat of what happened to the Iba monarch as the security of its traditional rulers was of great important.

The commissioner, while recalling that government had provided lots of equipment for the police for effective performance, assured that the police were on top of their business to police and secure the state.

Expressing appreciation to

Olalekan Olabulo

house and hacked him to death. They cut his two legs and one of his hands.”

He added that, “he was attacked last year by members of the same cult group but he was lucky to escape with injured hands and other parts of the body.”

In a related development, some yet to be identified cult members also in the early hours of Tuesday invaded Temidire area, where another suspected cult member Shamtao was hacked to death.

Lanre, a resident of Temidire told Lagos Metro that “there have been claims that he is one of the leaders of Eiye confraternity in this area.”

“For a long period of time, they have been having clashes with the Aiye group but for more than a month now, the police have been dealing with them and there was normalcy until the latest killing,” he added The resident also stated that “today’s killing may be as part of the celebration of the 8/8 anniversary by cult members in Sango.”

A senior police officer at Sango Police Station confirmed the killings to Lagos Metro and added that the police were on the trail of the killers.

The policeman also stated that “some people have been arrested in connection with the incident.”

Efforts to get the reaction of the acting image maker in charge of the state police command, Abimbola Oyeyemi failed as calls to his mobile phones were not answered.

2 killed as cultists hold ‘anniversary’

T

My abductors’ weapons not common —Oniba

God that the monarch was released unhurt; the commissioner said government was very much concerned all through the period the monarch was kidnapped and was working with the police to ensure his timely release.

He said government was doing much to open up the rural areas by embarking on the construction of 114 rural roads across the councils in the state.

The Oniba of Ibaland, Oseni, in his response, appealed to the government to provide security at the grassroots, saying that the police post in the community for long had not been upgraded.

The monarch said he had never seen such sophisticated weapons used by the kidnappers in abducting him with any police officer, just as he lamented that many of the kidnappers were boys of between 18 and 19 years old apart from the few adult among them.

According to him, when he advised them that they ought to be in school rather than engage in such act, they told him that they did not have such money for school and that what they were interested in was how to make money through bunkering and kidnapping.

had been deposited in a mortuary. “Her corpse has been deposited at the hospital’s morgue for autopsy.

Investigation is still ongoing,” he added.

WO people were early Monday killed at Dalemo and Ajegunle areas of Sango Ota by suspected members of a rival cult group in celebration of the ‘8/8’ anniversary by the cult members.

The deceased were identified to be Eiye Fraternity and suspected to have been killed by Aiye members.

A resident of Ajegunle, who pleaded anonymity, while speaking with Lagos Metro said one of the deceased, had earlier, last year, escaped an attack from the rival group.

The resident said “he was sleeping when the cult members went to their

Kidnapping: Govt to provide security for traditional rulers Bola Badmus

community.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Dolapo Badmos, confirmed the incident.

She said Saka’s corpse

The victim’s house

Lagos importer in N116m seaport fraud scandal Tola Adenubi THE Apapa command of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) has indicted a Lagos based importer in a N116 million under-declaration fraud. This is even as 16 containers belonging to the importer had been impounded.

Disclosing this at the weekend when the Comptroller General of the NCS, Colonel Hameed Ali (retd) came visiting the command on his way from Cotonou in Benin Republic, the Customs Area Controller Apapa, Willy Egbudin explained that his command has impounded the 16 containers brought into the country by the importer and would commence criminal charges against the firm.

According to him, “my command got a tip off on July 26, 2016 that 16 containers laden with tyres at the

port were falsely declared as paper board and industrial machinery and were about to be moved. So, I immediately gave out order that the containers be impounded.

On Friday, 29th, the containers were intercepted at the gate. They were taken to enforcement while the clearing agent working for the importer took to his heels.”

The CAC further explained that the agent later came back and when investigation was done by the Customs it was discovered that all the consignments were car tyres.

“We then profiled the importer and discovered that the total number of the containers was 26, and that the importer had taken delivery of 10 falsely declared containers. The agent was thereby detained while efforts are on to track the importer,” Egdudin added.

The CAC also stated that if the containers had scaled through, a total amount of N116, 284.740 duty would have been lost by the Customs.

Cautioning agents who connive with importers to defraud the country as taking a big risk as the same punishment will be extended to them, the Customs CG warned importers who abuse the fast track facility given to them by the service to be ready to face the music as they would not escape the long arm of the law.

“Anybody in this crime will be brought to book. Once you falsely declare and we discover it, it is automatic seizure. Whoever is involved will face the law and if there is any officer that connived with the importer he will be prosecuted and the minimum jail term is five years,” the CG warned.

8

news

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Ambode congratulates new NGE president, Egbemode Bola Badmus - Lagos

L

AGOS State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, has congratulated the Managing Director, New Telegraph Newspapers, Mrs Funke Egbemode, on her confirmation as President of the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE).

Egbemode was officially confirmed as NGE President during the guild’s 12th annual conference in Port Harcourt last week.

Ambode, in a statement signed by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr Habib

Aruna, said Mrs Egbemode over the years had proved her mettle in the profession, saying that her recent appointment was thoroughly deserving and an inspiration to other women striving to make a name in the profession.

“I have no doubt in my mind that the cap fits Mrs Egbemode. She has a proven track record of excellence in journalism, which has seen her rise through the ranks to the pinnacle of the profession,” the governor said.

The governor urged Mrs Egbemode to bring her

wealth of experience to bear, not only in advancing the course of the Guild, but also the journalism profession in general.

“I urge Mrs Egbemode to see her new assignment as one that comes at a time in our national life where we need the media to be more circumspect and developmental in playing its role as the watchdog of the society,” he said.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Mary Abolanle Sonuga now MRS MARY ABOLANLE OGUNDARE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Omolara Oluwatoyin Taiwo now CATHERINE OMOLARA OLUWATOYIN FALADE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Muhammed Adamu Bala now MUHAMMAD ADAMU DANZARIA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

Nigerian Tribune

9

news

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Passengers sustain injury as train rams into Toyota Hilux van in Rivers Dapo Falade-Port Harcourt

T

HERE was palpable fear and tension as people scampered for safety when a passenger train rammed into a Toyota Hilux van at Woji area in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, early on Monday morning.

According to an eye witness, the incident happened at the RumuroluWoji Raliway line, even as many people were said to have been injured but no life was lost in the train mishap.

The eye witness claimed that the Toyota Hilux van, allegedly belonging to the police, obstructed the way of passage for the oncoming passenger train.

Confirming the incident, the spokesman of the Rivers State Police Command, DSP

Nnamdi Omoni, however, said only two persons were injured, adding that the ob-

structing van did not belong to the police but a property of a company based in Port

Harcourt, the state capital.

He also said, “Two people were injured in the accident

By Oluwatoyin Malik

there is free flow of traffic and people are going about their lawful business “The command is on top of the situation and we promise to make the state suitable for all to live in.”

Unsafe states: Edo govt flays US

President Muhammadu Buhari exchanging pleasantries with the President of Republic of Chad, Idriss Deby Itno, during the inauguration ceremony of President Deby Itno, in N’djamena, Chad, on Monday. With them is Mrs Hinda Deby Itno.

Oyebade bows out as Oyo CP, as Adegbuyi assumes office THE outgoing Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mr Leye Oyebade, has enjoined the officers and men of the state police command to give maximum support to the new Commissioner of

and are currently receiving medical attention in the hospital.

“The traffic gridlock caused by the accident between the train and the Hilux van has been cleared and

Police, Mr Sam Adegbuyi, to ensure the continuity of safety and security in the state.

Oyebade stated this on Monday, during the handing over ceremony at the command headquarters, Eleyele,

Ibadan, when the new police commissioner arrived to assume leadership of the command.

Oyebade, who assumed duties on September 1, 2015, has been transferred to Abia State

Expressing joy at what God helped his command to achieve during his tenure, Oyebade described the incoming police commissioner as a patriot and a crime fighter.

He enumerated the success of his administration to include arrest of several robbery suspects and recovery of arms, ammunition , stolen vehicles, arrest of kidnap syndicates, fraudsters, serial burglars, rapists and suspected ritual killers.

He also said that the command under his leadership was able to provide adequate security during election tribunal sittings, manage the Nigerian Labour Congress(NLC)/ state government face-off as well as the feud between indigenous farmers and Fulani herdsmen in Agbanda community in Oriire Local Government Area of the state.

As part of his last activities on Monday, he commissioned the newly constructed extension of the office of the Police Officers’ Wives Association(POWA ),a new police post at Ogungbade community in Egbeda Local Government Area and a hall constructed by the Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), at Egbeda division in Ibadan.

In his remarks, the incoming Commissioner of Police promised to continue the good works of his predecessor and even make it better to make the state safer.

He said that this would be achieved when officers and men instill the fear of God in their hearts and shun corruption.

He solicited the support of the media, promising to make himself available and accessible to work with them as a team and in synergy.

EDO State government has described as error, the listing of the state alongside 19 others as unsafe states in Nigeria by the United States government .

In a widely circulated report last week, the United States government declared Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states as no-go-area for its citizens and recommended against all but essential travel to Edo and 16 other states due to the risk of kidnappings, robberies and other armed attacks.

The categorisation, has, however, not gone down well with the state government, who on Monday, stated that the travel ban placed by the US Consulate on its citizens with respect to the state, was an error of judgment.

In a press release made available to journalists in Benin ,on Monday, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said the state government had invested much in economic infrastructure and security, adding that the action of the United States government amounted to raising false alarm.

“Barely a week ago, the Edo State governor received a delegation of the United States Consulate led by the Consul-General, John Bray and Michael Harvey, Mission Director of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), on July 26, in Benin City,when the delegation visited the Azura Power Plant to ascertain the level of progress on the $1billion investment in the power sector.

“We have new multi-national companies across the state that have helped to improve the economic well-being of the state and providing gainful employment to our youths.”

“Rather than raise false alarm about the security situation of the state, we wish to assure the US Consulate that Edo State is safe for all; residents, visitors and investors who want to carry out their legitimate businesses.

“Our security agencies have been working in partnership with the state government to sustain our commitment of eliminating all forms of criminalities across the state. It is therefore, out of place to raise false alarm for no justifiable reason.”

Nasarawa Assembly raises the alarm over emergence of ‘new Ombatse’ cult group Godwin Agwam- Lafia

THE Nasarawa State House of Assembly has raised the alarm over the emergence of a ‘New Ombatse’ cult group in Nasrawa Eggon Local Government Area of the state.

The dreaded Ombatse cult was responsible for the killing of 73 security operatives in May, 2013 according to the report of the Judicial Commission of Inquiry set up by Governor Umaru Tanko Al-makura, to probe the incident.

Speaking on the floor of the House, the member, representing Nasarawa Eggon East constituency, Honourable Mohammed Agah Muluku, informed the assembly of the reemergence of the new cult group.

He explained that “Nasarawa State is set to witness yet another round of blood bath if nothing is done to curb the reemergence of Ombatse group.”

The lawmaker noted that “it is true that all Ombatse are from the Eggon extraction but not all Eggon are members of Ombatse cult group.”

He said although, leaders in the area are holding security meeting on the issue, security agencies should redouble their effort to halt its emergence.

Also speaking, the deputy speaker of the House, Honourable Godiya Akwashiki, condemned those trying to fan the embers of violence through the new group, calling on security agencies to act with immediate effect.

On his part, the speaker of the House, who sent the assembly’s resolution to the governor, called for urgent attention to the issue.

“Never again should we allow blood letting to reign in our land, never again should people be displaced from their homes, the time to act is now”, he said.

10

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

11 news 12-hour inferno razes Sumal packaging company in Ibadan Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

By Tunde Ogunesan

O

VER 12 hours of fire incident left property worth billions of naira destroyed in one of the subsidiaries of Sumal Group of Companies, on Town Planning Road, Oluyole Industrial Estate, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Monday.

The incident, the Nigerian Tribune authoritatively gathered, started around few minutes after 10.00p.m. on Sunday.

The affected company is situated on the former premises of Sanusi Steel Industry (SSI).

When the flame was first noticed, Nigerian Tri-

bune gathered that people living around the neighbourhood assisted by putting calls through to some media houses and the Oyo State Fire Service for help, while security men on duty also alerted the appropriate quarters.

However, by Monday morning, the situation had gone bad. All the front offices of the production floor had gone up in flames, while combined forces of fire fighters from the state service and Sumal were seen battling with the inferno.

The whole neighbourhood was filled with particles which freely flew from the store area of the company’s premises.

By 8.00a.m., almost all members of staff had gathered on the premises of other subsidiaries to salvage the situation.

Some workers were directed to hurriedly remove some finished products at an open space, away from the scene of the incident.

Around the same time, four fire trucks, which content had been exhausted, were seen being refilled with water from Sumal tankers.

The entire warehouse, which rested by the side of a neighbouring gas company, at the left side of the company, was still burning. as of 12 noon.

Director of Fire Services, Oyo State, Mr Kareem Oyekunle,

while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, said they were on top of the situation, adding that with his over 40 officers, they had been able to keep the incident under control.

He promised that they would get over the disaster.

Though none of the senior staff members was ready to speak with journalists, some production workers, who pleaded anonymity, however, said the inferno had caused so much damage to the company.

One of them, who said he joined the company less than two months ago, lamented that the workers’ economy “is dead with this fire incident.’’

His words: “Bros, we don’t

Protest rocks Iwo as monarch hands over suspected kidnapper to police THERE was pandemonium in the ancient city of Iwo, in Osun State, on Monday, as aggrieved indigenes stormed the palace of the Oluwo of Iwoland, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanb, to prevent the handing over of apprehended kidnapper to the police.

Nigerian Tribune reliably gathered that the suspected female abductor was apprehended by some vigilant people in the town, while attempting to kidnap a young child.

Credible source informed our correspondent that after the suspected kidnapper was caught, the crowd, who had converged to catch a glimpse of her arrest, moved enmasse to the palace of Oba Akanbi with some irate youths who effected her arrest.

According to the source, who pleaded anonymity, the intention of the irate youths was to show the apprehended kidnapper to the traditional ruler before lynching her or carrying out their jungle justice.

However, trouble ensued when the raditional ruler chose not to release the suspected kidnapper to the enraged youths, but called the police to hand her over for proper administration of justice.

The development irked the irate youths and other protesters, who set up bonfire at the frontage of the Oluwo’s palace to prevent the police

from taking the suspected kidnapper away.

Efforts by Oba Akanbi to calm the irate youths down by explaining to them the need to hand over the suspect to the police failed to yield results as they made bonfire to barricade the main entrance to the palace, chanting war songs to denounce the action of the traditional ruler.

The police team that came

5 injured as police violates traffic rule in Abuja NO fewer than five persons were seriously injured on Monday, in an accident that occurred when a police bullion van driver broke traffic regulation.

An eyewitness told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the accident occurred on Sani Abacha Barracks Road.

He said the driver of the police bullion van, “proforce’’ number NPF 2647D, Agada Daniel of the Police FCT command, allegedly drove against the traffic.

“The driver of the bullion van decided to take one way and with the level of his speed, it rammed into an Abuja painted taxi, marked Kaduna, DKA 601XA. “As a result of the speed, the driver collided with the oncoming vehicle; another painted taxi driver,’’ he said.

He said four of the injured

to take the suspected kidnapper away could not exit the palace due to the growing crowd of protesters, a development which compelled them to call for reinforcement that came to disperse the irate youths with tear gas.

The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Femi Oyeleye, later led his men to the scene before normalcy could be restored in the town.

Yinka Oladoyinbo -Lokoja THE Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Kogi State command, on Monday, said the victims of an auto crash that occured on Lokoja-Gegu-Abuja Highway had been given a mass burial.

The command disclosed that the 16 people that were burnt in the accident were buried at Alewu village on the highway.

The state Sector Commander of the FRSC, Mr Ogochukwu Ugboma, who

Ex-gov’s ADC, 3 children die in inferno Isaac Shobayo -Jos IT was a tragedy on Monday, when an early morning inferno burnt four members of the same family, including the bread winner, in Jenta Adamu community of Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State.

A source close to the family told the Nigerian Tribune that the unfortunate incident occurred at about 1:30 a.m when the entire family of six, including the father, a retired police officer, Anthony Kwamni,

his wife and four other children, had gone to bed after watching Nigeria vs Sweden match.

The source, who said the fire incident was caused by power surge, said the fire started from the children’s room; the parents, who heard their wailing and crying, dashed into the room but were trapped in while trying to rescue the children.

It was learnt that three of the children alongside their father died in the room while the wife and one child were

that side ‘production side.’

Even, that one is also burnt.

“Just go and see the other side, walls are already falling there. This warehouse you’re seeing was just loaded. You can see our Managing Director standing there without uttering a word. I am sure he knows better in value what is going up in flames here.”

Another worker stated that the disaster was a setback to all stakeholders in the company, “most importantly at this time of economic downturn.”

were staff of Halogen security company at Area 3, FCT. According to him, driving against the traffic had become norms for the police and the military, mostly on Maraba axis.

“It is so unfortunate that the law makers are the law breakers in this country,’’ he noted.

A leader of National Emergency Management Agency(NEMA) team, on rescue mission, declined to answer questions, as he was busy evacuating the injured passengers.

All efforts by NAN to reach the force PRO proved abortive.

NAN called FCT police command spokesperson more than five times and even sent voice and text messages to him enquiring details, but there was no response from him.

Victims of Abuja-Lokoja road accident given mass burial

Scene of the fire incident at Sumal Packaging Company, Ring Road, Ibadan, on Monday. PHOTO: TUNDE OGUNESAN.

Oluwole Ige -Osogbo

need to spare words, we are in economic mess. First, some of us who engaged in weekly, monthly contributions to solve some personal things are in soup. Who do I face during this period to give me their share of contribution?

“I came here to raise money for my business. This fire is much more than what you’re seeing. I can tell you that three printing machines, gum machines and a few others have gone. The only one remaining is the one from

rescued by a group of youths within the community and other good Samaritans.

The fire killed the father, a retired ASP Anthony Kwamni, who was also a former ADC to the former governor of Plateau State, Chief Fedelis Tapgun; and the children, Theresa, Emmanuel and Kerry. The mother and the only surviving child, it was gathered were severely burnt and receiving treatment at Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Jos.

A community leader, who lived close to the scene of the incident, said they had to break some parts of the wall to gain access to the room where they were trapped before the two survivors could be rescued, adding that prompt intervention of the youth prevented the inferno from spreading to other houses within the community.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Tyopev Mathias, confirmed the incident.

disclosed this to newsmen in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital, said the bodies were accorded mass burial because of the circumstance of the death.

According to him, all the victims were burnt beyond recognition and could not be claimed by any family member.

He said the gender and identity of the victims could not be ascertained as a result of the severity of burn they sustained.

He explained that the remains of the victims were buried in a mass grave at Alewu village with the police and environmental officials from Kogi Local Government participating in the burial.

Speaking on the accident, Ugboma said only one person from the two vehicles that were involved survived with minor injury, while the remaining 16 were completely burnt.

He stated that the accident, which occurred last Friday, involved a Kano-bound Toyota Hiace passenger bus with registration number Yobe 11A – 10 YB and a Benin, Edo State-bound Nissan Xtera Jeep marked Lagos CV 516 LSD.

12

businessnews

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Naira gains N5 at parallel, 1.02% at interbank market As banks kick-start dollar sale to BDCs Chima Nwokoji -Lagos

N

igeria’s currency has strengthened by N5 against the American dollar at the parallel market. The naira according to dealers gained strength to trade at N395/$1 on Monday, August 8, after it dropped on Friday, August 4, to N400/$1.

The British pounds at the same market exchanged for N510, while the naira was sold at N420 to one Euro.

This is even as the local currency at the interbank market also gained 1.02 per cent to settle at N315.66 to the dollar compared with average of N318.41/USD which it exchanged for on Friday.

Some currency traders attributed the rebound to the sales of the greenback to Bureau De Change operators by more Deposit Money Banks. They said banks agreed to sell at the inter-bank rate plus one per cent.

Commenting on the latest development, the President of the Association of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) Alhaji Aminu Gwadabe, who had earlier expressed optimism that the naira would rebound, said two banks on Friday indicated interest to sell the proceeds of international money transfer which they were asked to sell to BDCs, but more of them joined on Monday.

On the volume sold to them he said it was $15,000 per bid maximum, adding that the bigger banks that were unable to give because

of logistics settled their obligations on Monday.

Meanwhile, Godwin Emefiele, governor, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), was quoted on Friday to have said that there is no magic

policy that can save the naira in the near term, adducing the nation’s penchant and appetite for foreign goods and services as the chief reason for the downward spiral of the value of the currency.

“It is either I do not understand economics and how exchange rates work or a vast majority of us Nigerians still don’t get how we have wrecked our country with our own curious choices.

From left: Pro-Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, University of Ibadan, Umar Musa Mustapha; former President of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo; Group Head, Agricultural Finance, Sterling Bank Plc, Mrs Bukola Awosanya; Director, Public Communication, University of Ibadan (UI), Mr Olatunji Oladejo and Protocol Officer, Mr Gboyega Badejo, at the first Eminent Business Persons’ Lecture, organised by the University of Ibadan School of Business (UISB), supported by Sterling Bank Plc, during the weekend.

Investors lose N10.6 billion in bearish trade Kehinde AkinseindeJayeoba -Lagos

The Nigerian equity market on Monday ended on a negative note with the market capitalisation dropping

by N10.6 billion to close at N9.408 trillion compared to a loss of N112 billion incurred on Friday to close at N9.419 trillion.

Also, the All-Share Index dipped 30.88 points or percent to close at 27,394.98 basis points compared to 325.48 points or 1.17 percent decline recorded in the prior

trading session to close at 27,425.86 basis points.

With market analysts attributing the market downturn to a reflection of the general weakness in the economy, Dangote Flour led the day’s 18 declining stocks with a loss of 5.25 percent or 23 kobo to close at N4.15 per share. Total Oil Plc followed with a decrease of 4.99 per cent or N12.07 to close at N229.95 per share, while MRS Plc dipped 4.98 percent or N2.13 to close at N40.60 per share.

Berger Paints Plc dropped

AfDB approves $9m equity investment for SME’s in Nigeria

The African Development Bank has approved a nine million dollar equity investment in the Fund for Agricultural Finance in Nigeria (FAFIN) to provide expansion capital to agricultural small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This is contained in a press statement issued by AFDB on Monday and published on its website: www.afdb. org.

The statement said that FAFIN is a first-generation private equity fund that provides financial, capacity-building and technical assistance to commercially viable SMEs in the Nigerian agribusiness sector.

It said that FAFIN used a unique value chain-centric approach, a combination of equity, quasi-equity and convertible loan instruments to provide loan for SME’s.

According to it, FAFIN implements its strategy and constructs its portfolio

In an article, the CBN governor said that Nigeria does not have much of an economy since it hardly produces anything for both local consumption and export.

through a bifocal lens consisting of the twin objectives of competitive financial returns and measurable positive social impact.

The Fund is jointly sponsored by the German KfW Development Bank and the Government of Nigeria, through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD).

The Fund Manager is Sahel Capital (Mauritius) Limited, a fund management firm incorporated in Mauritius in 2013.

The project is expected to deliver strong development outcomes from household benefits and employment through the creation of a large number of jobs and the provision of certain agricultural products.

It also said this would bring about positive gender and social effects through the implementation of out-grower schemes and supporting rural development and private

sector development.

It said that through alleviation of financial constraints faced by agribusinesses, this would enhance agricultural value chains.

“The project’s contribution to inclusive growth is expected to be significant, given the large numbers of jobs to be created and out -growers to be reached at the level of sub-projects.’’

Its contribution to green growth is expected to be low, because the Fund targets the agribusiness sector with some expected negative effects on the environment.

The Fund’s primary focus will be on SMEs across the agricultural value chain with crop value chain and geographic diversification.

It aims at fixing broken value chains to increase efficiencies, reduce post-harvest loss, and increase smallholder farmer incomes and SME agribusiness profitability.

4.98 per cent or 38 kobo to close at N7.25 per share and Custody and Alliance Plc lost 4.76 percent or 19 kobo to close at N3.80 per share.

Conversely, FCMB Plc topped the day’s 15 gainers with an appreciation of 5.51 per cent or 7 kobo to close at N1.34 per share, Dangote Sugar Plc followed having gained 4.96 per cent or 33 kobo to close at N6.98 per share and NPF Micro Finance bank Plc garnered 4.44 per cent or 4 kobo to close at 94 kobo per share.

AIICO Insurance Plc improved by 4.41 percent or 3 kobo to close at 71 kobo per share and Airservice Plc added 3.83 per cent or

8 kobo to close at N2.17 per share.

The volume of shares traded in the course of Monday’s session was 118.4 million worth N1.27 billion and exchanged in 2,899 deals an un-improved performance when compared to 120.84 million shares worth N1.27 billion bought and traded by investors in 3,307 deals last Friday.

FBN Holdings was the most active, accounting for 32.9 million shares worth N108.5 million, Access came second with a total of 17.1 million shares valued at N95.4 million and Fidelity third with a sale of 8.4 million shares worth N8.8 million.

Nigerian Tribune

SLA selects 10 entrepreneurs for its accelerator programme

By Ruth Olurounbi

She Leads Africa (SLA) has announced that 10 early stage businesses have been accepted into the 2016 SLA Accelerator Programme which began on July 11 in Lagos.

It will be recalled that SLA partnered with the Work in Progress! Alliance (VC4Africa and Oxfam) and Guaranty Trust Bank to create a three-month accelerator programme designed to identify, support and fund the next generation of Nigeria’s brightest female entrepreneurs.

This year, SLA said it received applications from over 120 startups from across Nigeria but 10 entrepreneurs were evaluated based on their traction and progress in the market, management team and vision to grow and scale across Africa.

Selected businesses include Fresh Direct Produce and Agro-Allied Services, an eco-friendly social enterprise that produces premium organic produce through hydroponics and community action; DeliveryBros, which helps save time and stress through pickup and drops from the market to your house or office.

VivaSante, which solves the medical industry’s procurement problem, by providing a technology enabled distribution solution resulting in transparency and simplicity and Koko’s Kitchen, an indigenous brand of confectionary dry mixes specially tailored to suit the taste buds and pocketbook of the quintessential person on the go where also on the list of selected businesses.

Importers to lose N409bn annually over Customs fast-track withdrawal Tola Adenubi -Lagos

Importers in Nigeria are set to lose about N409 billion annually to port storage charges following a decision by the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) to end its fast track cargo clearance offerings to benefitting parties.

The fast track window, otherwise called Blue Lane in Customs parlance, allows importers to carry their cargoes straightaway from the ports to their warehouses (without any form of delay) where customs processes such as examination and payment of duties are carried out instead of doing so in the ports. The system allows the importers to save port storage charges since port concessionaires charge an average of N4, 000 per

container daily for storage charges.

According to an impeccable source in the Apapa Customs Command, “a little above 40,000 containers and other cargoes are cleared daily under the fast track window. This amounts to over N160 million savings in storage charges per day and N1.12 billion for the average seven days cargo dwell time in the ports. The figure rises to over N409billion savings by importers who enjoy the fast track clearance system per annum.

“With the decision by the CG to end Customs fast track clearance offerings to benefitting importers, they (importers) are set to lose because what they usually save annually will now be spent on cargo storage pro-

cedures in the ports.”

It would be recalled that the Comptroller-General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali (rtd), had said over the weekend in Lagos that importers were abusing the fast track privileges given to them and that the service is set to stop the fast track window.

An importer, DIE HOPES had abused the fast track window by falsely declaring 16 containers containing new tyres as paper boards and machine parts The containers which were supposed to exit the port without examination since they are on fast track were stopped upon discovery through intelligence that the importer made a wrong declaration deliberately to evade payment of complete duty for the importation.

13

editorial

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Nigeria’s malnourished children

HE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recently came out with grim statistics about the state of Nigerian children whose future has been compromised on account of poor nutrition. According to it, Kaduna State is worst hit with 1.6 million malnourished children.

UNICEF’s nutrition specialist, Dr Florence Oni, disclosed this while presenting the nutrition intervention scorecard during a 2016 mid-year review meeting in Kaduna. She said that half of the children under five years who were suffering from one form of malnutrition or the other had died in the state.

“Currently, over 900,000 children representing 57 percent of children in the state are stunted, meaning six out of every 10 children in the state are stunted due to malnutrition. Also, over 750,000 children are wasted, which implies that 47 percent of the children are suffering from Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM) and are ten times more likely to die.”

These are dismal and disconcerting figures from an authoritative and professional source, showing clearly that these stunted children have a compromised future. Worse still, stunted children may not benefit from the liberal policies made to improve their lot. For instance, they are not likely to learn very quickly and well like their well fed counterparts. Care must therefore be taken to ensure that these figures do not relate directly to the number of future tramps and homeless people in the national population.

The good news is that, according to Dr Florence Oni, the Kaduna State government is already doing something about the situation, including releasing about N37 million to treat 3,060 children, while the UNICEF had equally supported the government with the same amount of money to treat an additional 3,060 children, making a total of 6,120 children to be rescued from the jaws of imminent death.

Unfortunately, this is only a drop of water on a hot

plate in terms of impact on the 1.6 million children waiting to be rescued because relief has only come to a very poor fraction of the afflicted. Sadly, vital statistics on the country like the rate of unemployment, inflation and cost of living, not to say standard of living, affirm this reprehensible trend. Arguably, the parents of these malnourished children are from the over 100 million Nigerians that are living below the poverty line amidst the obscene opulence fuelled by ill-gotten wealth of the few rich. If the UNICEF figures are right, the country is fast replacing its demography with a poorer quality of succeeding generation that may not be fit for global competition.Without doubt, an emergency intervention is called for to reverse this ugly trend.

The intervention must indeed be immediate and professional in terms of relief materials, especially the quality and quantity of food that will affect the vulnerable victims of the country’s despicable contradictions. The government must put forth a plan that will ensure an equitable distribution of relief materials amongst them so that it can measure the impact of the intervention programme. If such an intervention is sustained, the severity of the trend can actually be mitigated or reversed completely. The declaration by the UNICEF tells governments at all levels that there is a desperate need to review their policies and take the duty of improving lives more seriously.

Although the people may not fall in line on account of their fatalistic religious beliefs, government at all levels must embark on awareness campaigns and public education on the folly of siring children without being able to cater for them adequately. It seems obvious that a malnourished society is robbed of its potential for growth and development.

In nature, dynamic entities like societies are never given the option of stagnation. They either progress or retrogress and any delay in the emergency intervention is a vote for retrogression.

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14 LETTERS TO THE

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

editor

Letters to the editor should be sent to letterstribune@yahoo. com or by sms to 08054005323. It MUST be accompanied by the

How to curb rising food prices

T

HAT the cost of food prices have been rising in the country is saying what is obvious, and two things are responsible for this. First, we import the majority of the food we consume; this, therefore, isone of the reasons the naira is weakening against major world currencies.

The second reason is that the little food we produce have been reduced

with the Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen’s attacks.

Our farmers have been displaced from their lands as a result of these two issues, and we now rely majorly on food importation to keep our people from starving.

Now, since the middle of last year, food prices have been going up astronomically, thereby making more Nigerians fall deeper into poverty.

If the government must

Amnesty programme: Kudos to Buhari I want to commend President Muhammadu Buhari for his decision to continue with the amnesty programme, as this will go a long way in curbing militancy in the Niger Delta region. Apart from the monthly payment for the ex-militants, there is also the training programme for ex-militants in different skills and vocations.

As a result of this programme, many ex-militants have abandoned crime altogether and are now gainfully employed.

Some are now small aircraft and helicopter pilots, while others are now skilled welders.

Nigerians should stop seeing the amnesty programme as a project to only give ex-militants monthly stipends alone. It shouldn’t surprise us that many of these ex-militants are now graduates.

It is because of this that I wish to appreciate President Buhari for continuing with the programme, and

curb the rise, then it must first ensure that every part of the Nigerian territory is safe for habitation. While this may be a herculean task, it is something that can be achieved. When everywhere is safe in the country, then farmers who have been displaced by violence will return to their lands.

Government must now begin to encourage backyard farming; we need to utilise available spaces

around us to grow food.

Nigerians should look at the spaces beside them to grow corn, tomatoes, vegetables, bananas, among others. This will go a long way in reducing the prices households pay for food. A family that has vegetables at a backyard farm will not go to the market to buy vegetable again.

Also, a family that has corn planted at the space beside the family house can make do with cooked

corn for lunch.

The Federal Government should also encourage wealthy Nigerians to go into farming, as this set of people have the financial muscle to establish large farms that will provide food for millions of people at a time. We must begin to see ourselves as the solution to our problems.

If the truth must be told, foreign investors will not invest in any country that is facing security chal-

lenges. Our government officials should, therefore, stop wasting taxpayers’ monies by travelling all over the world in the name of trying to bring in foreign investment.

We should be able to look at what we can do for ourselves to get out of this terrible economic situation that we find ourselves in.

•Uju Nicolas, Wuse 11, Abuja.

I know that by the time more militants are drafted into the programme, then the current insurgency in the region will die down with time.

Having said this, I want the Niger Delta youths to also reciprocate the decision of the Federal Government to continue with the amnesty programme.

One thing I want our youths to understand is that the amnesty programme is not a right, but a privilege. Other regions also have the right to ask for such programmes.

Our youths in the Niger Delta should not, therefore, take the government for granted.

While we have the oil, other regions are also contributing to the development of the country, so we shouldn’t feel we are the only region prospering this country because of the oil.

•Tuope Henry, Port Harcourt.

Still on the military action in Lagos, Ogun creeks AS the military continue to bombard the creeks in Ikorodu area of Lagos State, it is important to note that there are many kidnapped victims who are yet to be located, and the military should do everything in its power to ensure that they are released unhurt.

While these militants reigned supreme in these riverside communities, they kidnapped several people, and some of these

people are still with them even till now.

We don’t want a situation whereby these kidnapped people will be victims of the bombs being rained down on the militants in the creeks. Before the Airforce pilots drop their bombs, they should be sure that kidnapped people are not in the area so that innocent people are not killed.

•Taju Alalade, Ilorin, Kwara State.

Saluting GEJ’s message of unity FORMER President Goodluck Jonathan is a good man, and he is someone who wants the progress of his country.

First, after he lost the presidency, unlike other sit-tight African leaders, Dr Jonathan willingly relinquished the position.

This singular act is a lesson for other African and future Nigerian leaders, and

since he left the presidency, he has been meeting his successor, President Muhammadu Buhari, on how to tackle the challenges facing the country, particularly the Niger Delta insurgency.

After meeting President Buhari last week, Dr Jonathan said Nigerians should unite because this is the only way to command re-

spect in the world.

He said if we should fragmentalise, then we will be forgotten by the world. In essence, Dr Jonathan said those calling for secession should forget the idea, and instead, work for the development of the country.

This is the mind of somebody who truly believes in the Nigerian dream.

Although Dr Jonathan

gave his best while he was president, a lot of factors were responsible for what happened during his presidency. One good thing now is that Nigerians can see that here was a president who truly loved his country.

•Onome George, Asaba, Delta State.

opinion Ajaokuta steel/NIOMCO and the modified concession 15

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

By Michael Jegede

W

HEN President Muhammadu Buhari promised during his electioneering campaign in Lokoja, the Kogi State capital last year January to revive the Ajaokuta Steel Company (ASCO) if elected, I was not in any way thrilled by the pledge. I was not excited because I saw it as one of those political statements that we have become used to from politicians anytime they want to get the votes of Nigerians for the purpose of winning elections.

The question I asked then was: Did we not hear a similar vow from Goodluck Ebele Jonathan before the 2011 presidential election when he came to Lokoja to canvass for votes from my people in Kogi State? Jonathan in much stronger words had said: “One thing that is dear to Nigerians is the Ajaokuta Steel Complex and until we revive that complex, we cannot talk about Vision 20:2020. This is because for you to play big globally, you must industrialize and for you to industrialize you must produce steel.

The Ajaokuta complex must be revived.”

In the four years of Jonathan as elected President, we did not see anything meaningful from his administration to bring this great national asset of ours back to life after years of total neglect. All efforts to get him to fulfill the promise he made to secure the votes of Kogites and Nigerians as a whole in 2011 did not yield any fruitful result, as he left Ajaokuta Steel almost the same way he met it.

I recall how Senator Nurudeen Abatemi-Usman, former Senator of Kogi Central Senatorial District, who brought Ajaokuta Steel matter to the front burner in the Senate then, mounted pressure on Jonathan’s administration for the resuscitation of the steel firm.

After Buhari emerged victorious in the poll, just before he was sworn in, I made it a point of duty to remind him in a piece of his covenant with Kogi people on the Ajaokua Steel posing the following questions which were on the lips of many - will the Buhari government taking off from May 29, 2015 make significant difference in the actualization of the Ajaokuta Steel dream? Is it going to be another four years of lip-service to the issue of steel development in the country? Will Buhari on his own part strive to fulfill his pledge on Ajaokuta Steel, the largest integrated steel complex in the Sub-Saharan Africa?

As one who has visited the Ajaokuta Steel Company

(ASCO)/National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), Itakpe in Kogi State, and done a lot of write-ups on the need for their revival and full operation, it is heartwarming to see that the Buhari administration has taken a very important step towards the completion of the Ajaokuta Steel project. On Monday, August 1, 2016, a renegotiated concession agreement was signed between the Federal Government (FG) and the Global Steel Holding Limited (GSHL); a development which has freed the Ajaoukuta Steel Complex from all the legal and contractual encumbrances, giving way for its revitalization.

In the new arrangement, GSHL retains NIOMCO, while FG takes full control of the Ajaokuta Steel outfit. GSHL is the Indian company the Olusegun Obasanjo administration concessioned ASCO and NIOMCO to in 2004 and 2005 respectively, after an earlier concession pact with SOLGAS of the United States of America failed to turn around the steel facility. The Indian firm equally did not live up to expectation and the government under the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was compelled to revoke the contract in April, 2008. It was alleged that the GSHL was involved in dealings that were causing more damages to the steel complex and NIOMCO. Dissatisfied with the revocation of the concession agreement by the late Yar’Adua, GSHL took the Nigerian government to the International Court of Arbitration. The case dragged on until FG opted for out of court settlement in 2013 which eventually led to the latest modified con-

cession agreement that has now paved way for the return of ASCO to the Nigerian government.

In his speech, at the brief ceremony presided over by him in the Presidential Villa, where the new concession agreement was signed, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, hailed the mediation process which led to the resolution of the impasse that had mired the operation of the two national assets for over eight years.

According to the number-two citizen, “It is one of the cases of failures. It is a tragedy of immense proportion that we have both Ajaokuta Steel Complex and NIOMCO and couldn’t get anything out of them for years.” The VP emphasized that the top priority of Buhari’s administration was to make ASCO and NIOMCO work. He implored GSHL to keep to the different timelines and conditions in the new deal in the spirit of mediation, noting that “it is important the concession works so that Ajaokuta can take off too.”

A major highpoint achieved by the government in the renewed concession agreement was a higher concession fee payable to it from 3% of turnover to 4%. Also, GSHL will ensure a guaranteed and continued supply of iron ore to Ajaokuta Steel Company as a priority customer. The renegotiated concession is expected to last for seven years as against the revoked one that was for a ten-year tenure.

Now that NIOMCO has been released to GSHL all in a bid to resolve a protracted legal tussle that has hindered its operation and prevented any major work on Ajaokuta Steel, the Nigerian government must not go to sleep. The Indian firm must be properly monitored to ensure strict adherence to the terms of the new agreement. Ordinarily, if not for the legal entanglement we found ourselves and needed to get out of it, for the sake of Ajaokuta Steel, GSHL is one company that the Nigerian government should never again engage in any business dealing with.

In any case, we must move on in our dream to actualise the Ajaokuta Steel project. Therefore, I urge our people in the host community to cooperate with the Indian company in the new arrangement that has brought them back to NIOMCO. FG, on its part, must, as a matter of necessity, keep a very close watch on the activities of the Indian firm.

•Jegede, a journalist and public affairs commentator, writes from Abuja.

Buratai did no wrong

By Ugochukwu Osuagwu

IN Nigeria, it is a common trend for people to follow the band wagon effect and give opinions even on issues they have no facts about. Many even go beyond expressing ideas to give analysis on issues they know nothing about while giving the impression that they have facts and proof at their disposal.

This common act in the Nigerian society has encouraged people to pass judgment on others and malign them based on falsehoods that have been passed off as sacred facts.

In the past few weeks, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. General Tukur Buratai, has been under the microscope and has been accused by many of being culpable in acts of corruption in the arms deal and also for having property in Dubai.

Many have turned themselves into advocates and judges in his matter without first seeking for proof of his culpability.

He has indeed been declared guilty even before a trial which is against the law of fair hearing. Many have even dragged the federal government into the issue, alleging that it is shielding the Chief of Army Staff and tagging Lt. General Buratai a sacred cow of the Federal Government.

All the people that raised the allegations have however never produced any proof that the COAS has indeed flouted any known law. I believe that for anyone to put forward a series of allegations, he must also be willing to supply proof that what he is saying is right. You cannot accuse someone and now wait for others to supply proof of allegations which came from you.

This is against the background that under the law, having declared the said property as required of him by law, Lt. General Buratai has discharged the duty placed on him by the fifth schedule of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act.

Indeed, the Code of Conduct Bureau had in a reply to inquiry into the matter clearly stated that General Buratai duly filed the said property in the name of his spouse and having so declared the said property as required of him by law, he has discharged the duty placed on him by the fifth schedule of the constitution.

And since he never made any false declaration and the said property wasn’t acquired after he became the Chief of Army Staff, nothing warrants the invocation of Section 15 (3) of the CCB Act. For those that are asking how his wife could have such and the totality of the General’s income that could help the family have such, a look at his assets declaration could give them a clue. General Buratai had in his asset declaration listed farming as another source of income.

Further, he had declared a 20 Hectares farm in Keffi and Borno which is managed by his spouse and is operated by his family members. The wife who is not a public officer and has no access to public funds also engages in other commercial activities and has made a success of the family farm.

The farm which is a successful venture produces the family with the required income to live the life they want and a calculation of the proceeds by those that are conversant with farm operations at this period will prove that the family has the required income to purchase the property as dollar at the

time the property was purchased wasn’t this expensive. The said property in Dubai purchased by the wife couple of years back was N48 Million only which is even less than what is used by private businessmen and other Nigerians to buy a three bedroom flat in Wuse, Maitama, and other posh areas in Abuja . In fact the said house in Dubai cannot even buy a Duplex in Maitama if converted and sold. So what is the noise about?

The truth is that in Nigeria or Africa you can never satisfy any person. If you are poor people will talk. If you are rich people will talk. If you declare your assets people will talk.

If you do not declare your assets people will talk. If you are short they will complain; and if you are tall they will complain. Haba!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The COAS has in many ways proved that he wants a transparent system and is solidly in support of the government’s anti corruption drive. He has indeed made history as the first Chief of Army Staff to order all army officers to declare their assets in the history of the Nigerian Army.

The continuous allusion that that General Buratai is involved in the Presidential Arms Probe scam when he was never indicted by the report of the Presidential Committee on the Audit of Defense Equipment released weeks back is a case of persecution and in bad taste.

Anyone that has details showing his culpability that others do not have need to supply such, as the burden of guilt lies on the accuser and the onus lies on people calling for the General’s head to prove their allegations. Otherwise it is tantamount to defamation of character which is actionable in court by the General if he so wishes.

•Osuagwu, a solicitor and human rights advocate, writes from London.

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

agriculture Minister threatens to shut down fertiliser plant over diversion of products Collins Nnabuife - Abuja

THE Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh, has threatened to shut down any fertiliser plant that denies local farmers access while exporting the same commodities. The minister made this known following allegations that one of the two big urea plants in Nigeria is producing for export while selling to Nigerian farmers at skyrocketed prices, making affordability and accessibility difficult.

“Two urea plants are big enough to run the Nigerian demands. We know their capacities. But where there are allegations that some people are exporting instead of putting in the Nigerian market, and prices shot to N10,000 per bag of urea, we became extremely angry with them. Thank God now, many of them have started producing and putting into the market. The price is already dropping.

“But, we are warning against the future. There can’t be any priority but the Nigerian market. If there is a surplus, they are free to export. But, unless and until there is a surplus, we can’t sit by and watch people selling fertiliser beyond the shores of Nigeria when the local farmers have nothing to buy. And we are saying the same to others. The priority is the Nigerian market,” Chief Ogbeh observed.

The minister stated further that “there is a good market. There is no reason to side-track this market and go and create difficulties for farmers, because there is hunger in the land and government is taking the blame. And we are giving every support we can to people who want to manufacture locally; and we will always give. So, we need absolute cooperation from all of them.”

Explaining what the affected firm did recently, Chief Ogbeh disclosed that “they came down some days ago, begging, because we threatened to shut them down.

GES:

Issues, controversies, way forward Collins Nnabuife - Abuja

T

HE Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme has been the major driver of the agricultural sector since its introduction in 2012 by the past administration.

This scheme has suffered many challenges ranging from payment of agro dealers, corruption and inability to capture real farmers.

When the present administration assumed office, it promised to sanitise the scheme and continue with it because it has been the best alternative to reach out to rural farmers and increase productivity in the sector.

In the 2014 GES scheme, the agro dealers were being owed about N61 billion outstanding payment, which the present administration promised to pay, and currently have paid about 35 per cent of the debt.

The 35 per cent payment according to the agro dealers was used to settle some debts of the suppliers which by implication left the agro dealers with nothing to go back to and buy inputs for the 2016 GES which will kick off soon.

Another issue is the interest that is currently accumulating in banks which the agro dealers and suppliers needs to clear before banks will agree to release loans for them to commence the 2016 GES. In as much as the government has declared its readiness to kick start the 2016 GES which is already late, various players in the GES still pointed to the outstanding payment as a major factor that will hinder the progress of the GES. In a meeting with major players in the GES, the Executive Director of the Nigerian Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), Arowosafe Jide, said that NIRSAL deals with actors across to drive and facilitate agricultural operation in Nigeria.

Speaking on the late commencement of GES this year, Jide said “Looking at the way NIRSAL is structured, to operate that way, we need to fix agricultural value chains in Nigeria. And if we have late start of the programme like this, it becomes a major issue that bothers on productivity and production, so that needs to be well taken care of from the ministry.

It will be recalled that the former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, said that if seeds are given to farmers after farming season, the farmers without storage facilities will end up eating the seeds.

Concerning the outstanding payment to agro dealers, the NIRSAL boss said the way NIRSAL operates is very simple.

“We facilitate finance, and if we have outstanding on previous transaction, then it becomes a major problem for our counter-parties and all other actors to play in the one that is being proposed for 2016.

“So we want the ministry to look at it thoroughly well in a way, give a strong level of comfort and as well try to clean up whatsoever we have for 2014 transaction.

“NIRSAL also backed the GES operation with a risk guarantee and if we have outstanding payment for 2014 even up till now, it will be hard for NIRSAL as a private sector player to convince its board to participate in the 2016 arrangement.”

Jide further said that there is need to take the discussion further with the Ministry of Agriculture so that an agreement will be reached and a good platform will be put in place for the 2016 GES to ride on.

He also explained that “Most of the counter-parties that have been involved in this transaction are into debts, the banks and agro dealers. And if we did 2014 and we are waking up to do 2016, there is still a disjoint that must be settled.

“I believe strongly that between the Ministry of Agriculture, NIRSAL and the counter-parties, we need to set up a technical team that will look

into the operational dynamics for 2016 and as well look back to what happened in 2014 and we can fix it and know how we can take every other things forward.”

He also noted that there was a strong Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed with the ministry and other players for NIRSAL to facilitate the financing of that particular operation but most of the understanding was breached by various actors.

Speaking on n the breaches, Jide said “one of the breach that we had under the 2014 GES was that before the start of the 2014 GES, the Federal Ministry of Agriculture was supposed to escrow funds in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), that never happened and that was actually the bane of the entire disruption we had under the 2014 GES. “The ministry intervention funds on the GES were supposed to be escrowed in the CBN so that we don’t have issues with the agro dealers and banks but that was never done, and good enough, NIRSAL put down its words and still went into this and it got our fingers burnt.

“Another issue was the outstanding payment to the agro dealers that was strongly delayed and it caused a distortion in the financials that was prepared between the banks and the agro dealers and that made interest to continue to grow and it got to the level that NIRSAL had to talk to banks to stop the interest charges,” he added.

On the 2016 GES, he said that a new MoU needs to be signed so that it can properly fix what happened in 2014 for it not to reoccur in the proposed 2016 GES operation.

He also said that NIRSAL will meet with the Ministry of Agriculture to agree on the better understanding for the 2016 arrangement and also discuss about the dynamics of payment that was released by various parties.

On the part of agro dealers, the National Continues on pg17

17

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

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Why there is scarcity of urea in the market —Notore

GES 2016 to start soon Continued from pg16

In this interview, COLLINS NNABUIFE speaks with the Group Head of Commercial Services of Notore Chemical Industries, Dr Innocent Okuku, on the scarcity of urea in the market and other challenges facing fertilizer production.

WHY is there scarcity of urea in the market?

Notore is one of the two producers of urea in the market. And the production capacity of these two producers can meeting the nation’s needs in terms of urea, so much that we can even export. But as for us as a company, we have been having issues with the security organisations from the beginning of the year.

For two months, that is March and April, our products could not circulate in the market because the government security operatives were trying to prevent it. They had this issue of implicating urea for use by the insurgents in North East, so they clamped down on the movement of urea.

Normally, what happens year to year is to sell and ship the products to the market, so the retailer and the dealers pile up these products before the season when the farmers would use it. But we have had eight weeks now where no product was allowed, and this was just before we got into the season where products were not allowed to get to the farmers. So that is where

the scarcity began.

So all we have been doing now since after that is basically playing catch-up, that gap of the two months’ supply. A two months supply of an average of 1,200 metric tonnes a day that we produce and supply to the market was shut. So we are talking of about 60 days multiplied by 1,200. This indicates that about 72,000 metric tonnes of products was stopped from entering the market.

We said at that time that this will be a major problem, as it will create an agriculture space for Nigerians.

Although, we understood the concerns of the security operatives at that time, we, however, put in efforts to resolve this. It took a long time to get the results; it took eight weeks before we got to a point where products can be moved to the market.

So, if you have a hole like that from the beginning of the season, there is almost nothing you can do. All one could do is play catch-up as the season comes. So that is what I believe has caused the delay in supplies.

Those who bought

Dr Innocent Okuku products back then were supplied at later dates, while those bought afterwards were also supplied at later dates. So it is like a rolling ball. Many people complain that they have paid but are yet to receive their product.

It is difficult to supply when there are others that have paid much earlier than them.

Has the issue been resolved?

What has been done is that we got a movement permit from the security operatives so we could move fertilizer.

So we get this ahead of every month. We apply for it and make them under-

stand which product we are transporting and where it is going to in the next month.

So that means you have to determine what you want to ship in the coming month, so you could ask for permit.

Otherwise, we will not be allowed to move them.

It also means that products that will be shipped in August will be products that have already been paid for this month. You cannot pay today and get the product immediately. If you pay today and I have not gotten permission from the National Security Adviser (NSA) Office to ship it to you, how do I ship it to you tomorrow?

When Africa Rice Centre trained 43 rice seed producers in Nigeria

By Wale Olapade

RICE is a staple in most parts of Nigeria; hardly do you find a family who will not consume it at least once in a given week. Owing to the high demand for rice, its importation has become brisk business for some individuals since what is produced within the country is not enough to satisfy the huge demand.

With the rise in exchange rate from dollar to naira, cost of a bag of rice in Nigeria has tripled in the last one year. Consequently, importers can no longer mop up sufficient funds to continue with flooding the market with different brands of rice from Asia.

According to the Africa

Rice Regional Representative/Coordinator and seed scientist, Dr Francis Nwilene, “the downside to this is that there is high demand, but insufficient supply and to solve this problem, Nigeria must use what we have to get what we want.

“We have arable lands good for rice production, we have youths who are unemployed, we have the technology for rice production.

With adequate funding, Nigeria is capable of producing enough rice locally that will feed her population.

“However, the approach to bridging the gap and ensuring that Nigeria attains self-sufficiency in rice production within the next three years is to encourage

seed companies to produce good quality rice seeds which will then be accessed by farmers.”

Thus, AfricaRice Regional Coodinator Dr Nwilene, Dr Abraham Shaibu and other members of the team including Dr Oyetunji Olumoye, Mr Oladejo Olajide conducted the intensive training sessions under USAID Seed Scaling project in Nigeria.

The team however organised a five-day training workshop under the USAID Seed Scaling project for seed producing companies at their Ibadan Station from May, 9th-13th of 2016.

In attendance were representatives from 10 seed companies, a serving

Youth Corps member of the institute and fresh graduates who are Agripreneurs of International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Ibadan.

A total of 43 rice technicians who actually work on the fields rather than the Chief Executive Officers of these companies were trained both in a class room setting and on the field including twelve IITA Agripreneurs trained.

According to Dr Shaibu, “he said that scientist at Africa Rice Centre has made a considerable impact in rice improvement. We now have rice varietries that are high yielding, early maturing and better adapted to different rice production ecologies.

President of Growth Enhancement Scheme Agrodealers Association of Nigeria (GESAAN), Kabiru Fara said that the agro dealers were ready for the 2016 GES. He also pointed out the issue of outstanding payments and interest rate in bank lending as their major challenges.

According to him “before we take the products to the centres, there are ingredients needed, in the past, NIRSAL takes care of some risk because as an agro dealer, I need finances and these finance houses, their interest rates is something you cannot do directly at 18 per cent or 19 per cent interest rates, it is on the high side.

“The previous arrangement is that NIRSAL and the CBN fix it at 18 per cent and NIRSAL takes care of 50 per cent and you will now only pay nine per cent, it is very reasonable for us to do business.

Explaining further on the GES, Fara said “sometimes, we don’t go to the financial houses, we go to the suppliers ones there is allocation by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture that a particular Centre belongs to a particular agro dealer.

“Some of the suppliers will collect farmers’ money and two of you will wait for the balance payment for the Federal Government, in some cases, you are even paid including your province, the supplier bears the burden waiting for the Federal Government to pay to them or domicile the balance payment to the supplier.

“Some of the suppliers will also know they need the understanding of the financial institutions because the whole system is interwoven and we are all together.

“We are ready as agro dealers to go the centres and subsequently the GES that will come in the dry season, we are really happy that some of money have been paid to us, but we urge the ministry, even now the finance houses and the suppliers are not willing to give us products.

“If we have our money, we will go and buy inputs and take it to the centres, but unfortunately the money given to us is in the average, it’s 35 per cent, there are lot of weights waiting for that money for two years now.

“So as the money comes, a lot of issues have been resolved, we don’t have enough money to go to the suppliers and say we have money, give us products to the centres, very few of us are comfortable to take any amount of products to the centres.”

The banks in their individual opinions said there was need to settle the outstanding payments before the 2016 GES will commence.

They said if not for the 35 per cent that was paid to agro dealers, most of the loans would have been provisioned which will have a negative implication on the agro dealers.

They banks also said that the payments were marred with some dynamics they didn’t understand, because some payments that was supposed to be paid to some particular banks were paid to suppliers who don’t have any business with it.

They said that the payment was meant to be paid to the agro dealers who have direct dealings with the banks, but if the agro dealers have any side deal with the suppliers, it should not affect the existing framework.

They lamented that some bank staff have been under suspension, while some staff credit approval have been withdrawn due to the outstanding payment from the GES. Responding, the Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Shehu Ahmed, said the government have pledged to pay up the outstanding payment to agro dealers.

He also said that the government have already made available the fund for the 2016 GES which will kick start soon.

“On the issue of debt, you know government is a continuum, we inherited this debt when we came in, we are very concerned about that. The government have provided money for the 2016 GES, we will kick start soon.

“We have been assured that government will pay the debts but it will be in phase by phase, we have started with the first phase and we are going to commence the second phase.”

18

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016 With Tommy Adegbite 0811 695 4631 tommyabijo@yahoo.com

From left, the Emir of Gwanara, Alhaji Abdullahi Sabi Idrees; deputy governor of Kwara State, Elder Peter Kisra; the Etsu Patigi and chairman, Kwara State Council of Chiefs, Alhaji Ibrahim Chatta Umar; Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed; the Emir of Kaiama, Alhaji Muazu Shehu Omar and the Emir ot Tsonga, Dr Yahaya Haliru Ndanusa, during a-thankyou visit to the governor at Government House, Ilorin.

From left, Producer-in-Chief, Yoshey Ventures Limited, Fadesola Adedayo; wife of Lagos State governor, Mrs Bolanle Ambode and the acting Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Waheed Olagunju, during the official inauguration of live well bia outlet of Yoshey Ventures, in Lagos.

From left, packaging consultants, Tunji Adegboye and Sola Somade; Regional Coordinator (South West), Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC), Mr Babatunde Faleke; Lead Consultant, Packaging Resources, Kofo Ojelabi and the representative of NAFDAC, Mr Godwin Akwa, examining products brought for export at an Export Packaging Clinic of NEPC, in Lagos.

Mr and Mrs Rotimi Fawole (left) and Pastor and Pastor (Mrs) Adebayo Lawal, during the burial of their father, Pa Osuolale Fawole, at the Methodist Cathedral, Elekuro, Ibadan, recently.

From left, Reverend Apostolic Mother, Mary Ogunfuye; Apostle Segun Phillips, Primate (Dr) Prophetess F.M. Gbadegun, Senior Prophetess Titilayo Adegbite and General Prophetess Juliet Popoola, during the Founder’s Day of Annointed International C & S Gospel Church, Oke Itunu, Ibadan.

From left, Pastor Kola Ajiboye of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG); Pastor Mrs Ajiboye, the celebant, Pastor and Pastor Mrs Segun Ologunowa; Pastor-in-Charge of Area, Jesus Arena, Pastor Toyin Olubadewo (first right) and Pastor Mrs Olubadewo (second right), during the eighth anniversary of RCCG, Jesus Calvary/sendforth of Pastor and Pastor (Mrs) Olugunwa, in Ibadan. PHOTO: OLAWALE OLANIYAN

From left, Chief Willy Akinlude, Mr Wole Olusanya and Mrs Akinowo Aderonke, during the consecration of Right Reverend Olusina Fape, as the Archbishop of Ecclesiastical of Lagos, held at Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, Oba Akinjobi Way, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos.

From left, Dr and Mrs Deji Ogunbayo, Mr Yinka Olanipekun, Mrs Omobola Bamiro, Mrs Bisi Olanipekun, Mrs Moji Olanipekun and Mr Femi Olanipekun, during the funeral service for Mama Mary Oyebimpe Olanipekun, at First Baptist Church, Ilora, Oyo State, recently.

For bookings, contact ’Laolu Afolabi on 08054681741 or Tommy Adegbite on 08116954631

19

politics&policy

A former Presidential Adviser on National Assembly Matters, Senator Florence Ita-Giwa, who has been in the forefront of the struggle of the Bakassi people, speaks on the issues affecting the people, in this interview with some journalists. BOLA BADMUS brings these excerpts:

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Buhari should resettle Bakassi people —Ita-Giwa

ground which is my Bakassi people, and I intend to continue to fight their course.

So, I will continue to make case for them.

It is not just about the over 4,000 refugees in Bakassi; it is also about their children and the unborn ones. We owe them this commitment and we will continue to agitate. Come to think of it! It was through peaceful agitations that we were about to get a local government from a late Head of State, General Sani Abacha. But be assured that our agitations and struggles will always remain peaceful because we cannot destroy our fatherland.

Y

OU have consistently complaint about the Bakassi issue . What is the real situation on the ground?

It is unfortunate that up till now the Bakassi people remain refugees in their country. It is unfortunate that up till now, this country has not settled the people.

But, what is giving me hope today is that President Muhammadu Buhari, is a very passionate person and as a President who is seen as a man of the people, he cannot be insensitive to the plight of the Bakassi people. So, we are counting on him to, as a matter of urgency, hearken to our cry and set up a committee that will ensure proper resettlement of the people or implement the report of the Efiok Cobham panel set up to address the issue of Bakassi under the supervision of a former Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo, as mandated by former President Goodluck Jonathan.

Now to your question, the situation in Bakassi is hopeless. There is so much suffering among the people, in spite of the fact that I and some other political leaders have devoted so much time, money and resources to their welfare. There is a limit to what an individual can do. There are no social amenities there; no water, no light, no school, no food, nothing to sustain them and they are procreating; the population of the area is increasing each day. It is not our fault that we were ceded without due process, but we have chosen to be Nigerians and our rights, which are fundamental, should be protected.

What is the relationship between the Bakassi people and their host community in Ikang?

We are so grateful to the Ikang community for hosting us this far and for allowing us soft landing. We have been living together as brothers and sisters. However, it must be noted that Ikang, in itself, has not been developed to cater for the refugees they have accommodated. So, we are appealing that social amenities should be adequately provided for them.

Second, we are predominantly fishermen and we can’t survive without water. So, the DaySpring1 and 2 where we were registered as Nigerians by INEC and where we voted and were voted for should be developed for us to be able to live happily. We are not unaware that there were many mistakes that the Federal Government made.

The ceding was haphazardly done, but as peaceful Nigerians, who love their country, we decided to live with and manage their inactions. For instance, the document that ceded us has not been domiciled for ratification in the National Assembly till today as provided for in the constitution, but we are determined to tread the path of peace, instead of having outbursts.

What role has the state government being playing to address the plight of the Bakassi people?

This time around, we are fortunate to have a governor who is so passionate about the plight of the Bakassi people.

Governor Ben Ayade is very sensitive. He feels our pulse and he has been working so hard to improve the lots of the people. But, let us not forget that the Bakassi case is a national and international matter. There is a limit to what he can do, considering

There are reports of militant groups operating in the Bakassi area now?

The people have been abandoned in the creek for so long, so it is not unexpected.

There is hunger, no facility and all forms of suffering. In such circumstance, they can resort to anything. Fortunately, these are people that do not believe in the destruction of the income of their country, but their needs should be provided. When the Federal Government does this, there will be less crime.

Ita-Giwa

If N9 billion was released, why are there still refugees? This mind-blowing figure is frightening. So, it will be interesting if government tells us what it was used for. the lean resources available to him and his administration. He is trying his best.

All Cross River oil wells have been taken, leaving it with the lean allocation coming from the Federal Government and the little Internally Generated Revenues (IGR).

So, I appeal to the Federal Government to assist the state so that they can do more and I am confident that whatever that comes to the state will be properly utilized.

However, may I add that the Bakassi issue is not a political or local issue. It is about human beings. It is about a people whose heritage was taken away; their deities, churches, shrines even place of rest of their forefathers were ceded away. Do people really appreciate the pains that Bakassi people are carrying? This is a permanent injury that has been inflicted on us and we want a permanent treatment. It is not a burden that Ayade and the Cross River government can carry. At no time are we blaming Buhari but government is a continuum. So, President Buhari as a man of the people should make life better. He has won the election and the PDP accepted his victory. By so doing, he is the father of all.

Who else are we going to cry to if not him?

A recent report said more than N9 billion was voted by previous ad-

ministrations to develop Bakassi?

If N9 billion was released, why are there still refugees? This mind-blowing figure is frightening. So, it will be interesting if government tells us what it was used for. I want to also use this medium to advise Niger Delta sons and daughters that whenever they are given political appointments, such is meant for them to develop the region but sadly, people saw it as opportunity for self aggrandizement. This is one of the reasons we are experiencing this strait. I want to also call on President Buhari to do the needful for the Deep Sea Port to take off. This will allow income into the system and alleviate the suffering of the people.

You are less visible in active politics these days. Is it because PDP is no longer in power?

I went into politics because I needed a platform to address the issue of Bakassi people and to also use that same platform to help the underprivileged; to speak for the voiceless people who are being trampled upon. I did not go into politics for the purpose of contesting and winning elections only, and I will not stop agitating until my people are properly resettled.

It is true that I have slowed down politically this period, but this is to allow me more time to face the reality on the

But, don’t you think private individuals and corporate bodies can also help with donations to ameliorate their sufferings?

Yes, I am calling on captains of industries, public officials and corporate organizations to come to our aid. No relief material is too small. They should come rebuild Bakassi and make life meaningful for us again just as other parts of the country are being rehabilitated. There are many children that need care and proper upbringing and we are trying our best as much as we can but please, let all Nigerians join us in alleviating the suffering of these children.

But, President Buhari is believed to be considering the possibility of addressing the Bakassi issue diplomatically.

Whatever that means, I want to advise President Buhari that he should not be deceived. The money and resources that is to be used in pursuing the Bakassi case diplomatically should be devoted into resettling the people. In fact, time and event have overtaken the ceding and we are not even asking for a revisit of the ruling because we know it would be an exercise in futility. All we are agitating for is that President Buhari should resettle us and posterity will judge him fairly as the President who catered for our need. This is because the Bakassi issue is too sensitive to be politicized. It is not about party politics, it is about the people and I know that President Buhari is a man of the people who feels the pulse of the common men and is always eager to make life better for them.

What is your take on calls for restructuring?

The unity of this country is not negotiable and as leaders, we should try to contribute our best in terms of playing important roles in ensuring the unity of this country. A lot of our people are aggrieved, especially the elderly women and the youth, but we are managing them, else they would have taken to the street and if care is not taken, Bakassi people may march peacefully to the mission houses and embassies of countries that were signatories to the ceding. However, as leaders, we do not want it to degenerate to that level. That is why we are suing for peace.

20

tribute

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Adekunle Fajuyi and the politics of remembrance function of poetry to show young people the world and where they stand in that world. For, for the poem to be holistically beautiful, it also has to be useful.

So, in addition to so many matters of cultural and social significance, I made sure each volume ended with poems on notable Africans: Tai Solarin, Mabel Segun, Gabriel Okara, Chinua Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Nelson Mandela, men and women of grace and gravitas whose lives and ideas I consider both admirable and emulatable.

When the manuscripts were in, a member of the editorial board wondered what such ‘heavy’ names were doing in books for children. My response: my intended readers are old enough to discern their heroes and choose their models, and I saw no sin in creating poems which pointed them in the right direction. Besides, no poem is innocent, not even the most naïve of nursery rhymes.Humpty Dumpty may spring a humbug, depending on how it isread, and by whom and to whom. I have always believed that singing and learning are not mutually exclusive activities in matters relating with lyrical verse.

Nigeria’s Heroes’ square is crowded with anti-heroes, and Nigerians need to know there are many, many positive alternatives to the crooks and scoundrels who dominate the country’s socio-economic and political space and poison the well of its values. Call it ‘Catching them young’ or showing them the way, this literary evangelism is powered by my belief that the songs we sing in our childhood days end up shaping the way we think in our adult years.

By Niyi Osundare

H

continued from Friday

UMAN life is fickle, finite; it is Memory which roots it to a certain stability and significance through its (Memory’s) dominion inthe collective consciousness and the deep structure of the syntax of being. It is Remembrance which constantly calls it forth and up to the surface, making sure it does not end up like that priceless garment which spends all its life in the locked-up wardrobe. Memory is action potential;Remembrance is action actual. To a great extent, Memory approximates the state of Being; Remembrance the process of Becoming.Memory is the giant eagle at the bottom of the iroko; Remembrance is the wing which gets it to its coveted place on the tallest branch.

If Memory is the temple, Remembrance is the priest who airs its ardent supplications.

Because Memory is so silent and Remembrance such a rare virtue, we strive to cheat Oblivion with statues, plaques, sculptures, paintings, myths, and tendentious facts. We inscribe eloquent epitaphs on the grave of the silent dead and humour their hubris with defiant elegies. But statues tumble; epitaphs fade;elegies go stale. Like their human subjects, reputations wax and wane, wane and wax.Social death frequently completes the rout begun by biological death.Some reputations glow like burnished gold across the ages; others rust like pitiable lead. Memory management has become a lucrative business in contemporary times (consider the frantic traffic in commemorations, dedications, citations andsundry souvenirs, and the ease with which the art of biography writing has degenerated into the scheme of hagiography peddling in contemporary Nigeria), but remembrance is much more difficult to control much less manipulate.

So while memory is residual, non-obtrusive, remembrance is more deliberative, more energetic, much more amenable to personal drive and the will to recall.

But in the last analysis, there comes a point at which a hard and fast distinction between these two faculties becomes academic, even frustratingly pedantic. For the two can hardly do without each other.

Remembrance needs a memory bank to draw upon; while memory can hardly do without the currency and disseminating agency of memory. To put it in the simplest terms, there cannot remembrance without memory; at the same time, memory without remembrance is like a ton of gold locked away in a dark, unaccessed vault. One of our problems in Nigeria is the low premium we place on memory, and our dangerous inability – and unwillingness – to remember. Col AdekunleFajuyi, the eminent subject of this lecture, is a prime victim of this malaise. But more on that later. . . .

Show me your hero....

You know a country by the kind of people it chooses to celebrate and valorize; you also know it by the kind it seeks todenounceand denigrate. Additionally, you know a country by the caliber of people it seeks to remember, and thetype it is anxious to forget. Show me your hero and I will tell you who you are.

Because in Nigeria our memory is so scanty and skewed, we do not only remember differently; much more frightfully, we remember defectively. Our

Fajuyi public spaces are filled with images of patent criminals; our musicians pollute the wind with praise songs for sundry scoundrels with obscenely deep pockets; countless associations mushroom (especially in our institutions of higher learning) peddling all manner of ‘prizes and awards’ to moneyed crooks on a shamefully cash-and-carry basis. The Federal Republic of Nigeria sanctions this gross devaluation of worth/integrity by the way it doles out its ‘national honours’to recipients many of whom are notorious treasury looters, election riggers and suchlike political jobbers, economic saboteurs such as the ‘round-trip’ pilgrims of the banking sector and the phantom oil-subsidy mafia, the ‘exporters, importers, and manufacturer’s representatives’ of a nation without factories. . . . . .A bizarre logic rules the purpose of the Nigerian national honours roll: the more

He could have reached for the typical Nigerian option by trading the security of his guest for his own safety and possibly some plum position in the new government that was sure to emerge from the coup.

heinous your crime against the nation, the higher the rank of your award, the more glittering your medal, the firmer the presidential handshake . . . .

So, those widely known to the people as abominable villains are decorated as national heroes. Those who should be rotting away in jail for crimes against the people are treated like ardent patriots and showered with accolades. A damned natural process, you would be right to say, in a viciouskleptocracy parading the mask of a decent democracy. Nigeria is a country with no set of positive values, a place where virtue is punished and vice is rewarded, a nation with a dwindling reservoir of positive models and mentors.

The foregoing issues were not far from the top of my mind throughout the composition of the poems in Early Birds, my three-volume book of poems for Junior Secondary. When in 2001 Chief JoopBrekhout, then owner of Spectrum Books, Ibadan, floated the idea about the necessity of appropriate poems to cater to the literary and cultural needs of students in the Junior secondary cadre, and his editorial team embraced the suggestion with contagious enthusiasm, hardly did they know they were tapping into a fervent desire I had nursed for years – to enter into dialogue with the minds of young folks through the medium of poetry, and get them to know that juvenile verse has a purpose and province richer, more socially engaging than those offered by the ‘Twinkle twinkle little star’ variety.

The poems in the three volumes covered all the essential topics and themes of poems for young readers, but they never came without a bit of ‘civics lesson’, for I have always believed that it is part of the

Fajuyi, OmoAyiye, Omoluabi Were Nigeria a country with a solvent memory bank and anfaculty of active remembrance, AdekunleFajuyi would have his statue in prominent public spaces all over the country, and the story of his gallantry told and retold from generation to generation. For when those mutineers assailed the government house in Ibadan on the night of July 29, 1966,and demanded the head of his guest, General Aguiyi-Ironsi, Nigeria’s head of state, Fajuyi, in the true spirit of Omoluabism, refused to betray his Commander-inChief who was also his guest. He stood his ground. He barred theexit of honour from his household with his own body, with his own life. It is worth noting that even in those urgent and mortal moments, Fajuyi had a choice. He could have cut and run. He could have reached for the typical Nigerian option by trading the security of his guest for his own safety and possibly some plum position in the new government that was sure to emerge from the coup. Had he struck this deal and surrendered his guest, he would have triggered a development with far-reaching personal, ethnic, and national repercussions. Perhaps that decision would also have changed the course of Nigerian history and its ethnoregional complexion as we know them today. But he stood his ground. He chose the path of honour.Over my dead body, he said, and the mutineers took him for his word.It takes one akoni (somebody with exceptional courage and valour) to recognize those virtues in another.

Continues tomorrow

•Being Professor Osundare’s Guest Lecture at the 50 years after Fajuyi celebration, organised by the Yoruba Think-Tank, July 29, 2016; International Conference Centre, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

21

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016 Editor: Kehinde Oyetimi featuresdesk@yahoo.com 08111845048

features

Homeschooling in Nigeria: A viable alternative?

Amid growing dissatisfaction with the quality of teaching in most Nigerian schools today, among other reasons, can parents explore the possibility of teaching their children at home? NAZA OKOLI writes.

M

RS Chinyere Okwu is a bead-maker who lives at Egbe (Ikotun) in Lagos. She holds a National Certificate in Education (NCE) from Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, Anambra State. But since her graduation nearly 10 years ago, she has never done any teaching, nor used the certificate to seek any employment. Her bead-making business has been slow; her husband who trades in motor parts at Mushin is even worse off.

When, therefore, only two weeks into the recently concluded school term her three children were sent home from their school (a primary school just across their street) because they had not paid their fees, Mrs Okwu decided to keep them at home and teach them herself.

“My twins are seven years old; they are in Primary II,” Okwu who declined to be photographed, said. “Their younger sister is four years old; she is in nursery school.”

Showing some of the posters she had

prepared and put on her wall, she said she had been able to teach them a lot more than she had imagined.

“They are my children; I know them more than their teachers. Even when they were in school, they would bring their assignments to me and we always did them together. In fact, sometimes it looked as if I did all the assignments myself. What they are asked to do is always too difficult for them to do by themselves, which means that they did not teach them those things. I have their textbooks here. So I know what they are supposed to be learning, and I teach them those things gradually, and they are learning fast.”

Okwu, however, said the homeschooling was not intended to continue indefinitely.

“I work from home,” she said. “I make my beads here. But because these children are here, I haven’t been doing a lot of work.

There is a new school close to Hostel Bus Stop. I know the owner of the school, and their fees are very affordable. They will start

there next term. God will provide.”

At one’s own pace One of the most notable advantages of homeschooling, experts say, is its flexibility.

I received examination by correspondence and I went to Form IV after then, and finished at Form V. that means I spent only two years.

Today, I am the National Secretary of ANCOPPS, and I have a Master’s degree.

Effectively, the student is able to control most of the factors surrounding the learning process, including timetable, vacation period, number of hours for each course, and, even more essentially, the choice of teacher.

The dean of the School of Education of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), Professor Ibrahim Salawu, who is a specialist in online and distance learning (ODL), however, said while homeschooling is a “good development,” it cannot adequately cater to all the educational needs of a child.

“Well, I think it is a good development,” he told Nigerian Tribune. “It is a means by which more access can be given to individuals who are interested in schooling.

“The only area of concern, of course, is that by the time we consider the total education of a child, we talk of three domains: cognitive, affective, and psychomotor. If a child is brought up only by his or her Continues pg22

22

features

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Life in Sambisa Forest was oppressive, unbearable

Says pregnant girl who escaped from Boko Haram insurgents

S

HE was not even 16. Boko Haram rebels abducted Hussaina Dahiru from her home in the Madagali area of Adamawa State, Nigeria, in May, 2015. Ms. Dahiru, along with 13 other girls were taken to the Sambisa Forest and forcibly married off to one of the insurgents, who already had three other wives. Soon after, she became pregnant.

“Life in the insurgent’s den was oppressive and unbearable,” recounted Dahiru, when she met with UN Women representatives in Nigeria. She had recently escaped from Boko Haram.

Food was scarce and punishments were severe. “If your husband did not go for operation, you would not be given food.” The captive women and girls were frequently beaten. Attempting escape was nearly impossible and often fatal. Those who were caught trying to escape were butchered; their butchered body parts were shown to the others.

In February 2016, heavily pregnant and unable to bear the daily terror and hunger, Ms. Dahiru took a chance and managed to escape. She ran through the night and at daybreak, a soldier found her on the Midu road in Madagali and helped her find refuge. A member of the Child Protection Network (CPN) in Adamawa state eventually introduced Ms. Dahiru to UN Women.

Hussaina Dahiru’s story doesn’t have a happy ending. Two months after her escape, on 16 April, she died during childbirth. Her child survived and is being cared for by her aunt. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs has provided food and provisions for the child and for the foster mother.

However, like most children of rape committed by Boko Haram insurgents, stigma surrounds him. The family and the community are yet to decide whether they would keep the child or give him up for adoption.

Ms. Dahiru’s story is dismally common— a 2015 report by Amnesty International

Internally displaced persons estimated that more than 2,000 women and girls had been abducted by Boko Haram and used as sex slaves [1]. The consequences of this violence extend across generations and cripple communities.

Adjaratou Fatou Ndiaye, UN Women Deputy Representative of West and Central Africa, recently met with internally displaced women and girls during a field visit. “Most of them have lost the families that they could depend on…and may have children they now have to support,” she said. “While some of them expressed their

desire for education, most pointed out that their immediate need upon returning to their respective communities is acquiring skills—such as tailoring, knitting, soapmaking, farming and entrepreneurship—so that they can make a living,” Fatou Ndiaya added.

UN Women is working with girls and women who have survived Boko Haram’s violence through the “Emergency Assistance to Internally Displaced Women/ Girls and Survivors of Boko Haram Terrorism Attacks in Nigeria” programme

funded by the Government of Japan.

The programme is being implemented in Adamawa, Bauchi and Gombe states in Nigeria, where the majority of the displaced women and returning abductees go to find refuge, and focuses on rebuilding their lives through emergency assistance, psycho-social support and economic empowerment. It tailors and strengthens the humanitarian response in Nigeria by addressing the unique needs and realities of women and girls.

Source: unwomen.org

A child can’t get the best from home —Expert Continues from pg21

parents, the possibility of mixing the affective aspects of her training will not be there, because he won’t be able to mix with other children. A child cannot get all the training he needs in life from his home.

He needs to interact.

“However, it cannot be ruled out that we have already started practising it. In most homes, especially those of the elite, you notice that they hire the services of home teachers who come to their various homes to teach their children. Some have even gone to the extent of hiring six or seven or eight teachers to take care of all the subjects.

“So, it is not something that is completely new. It may not be known to us by the nomenclature, but it is not completely strange. What is, however, common here is that pupils would go to school, come back in the evening, and be attended to by home teachers, or arrangements are made so that at weekends, home teachers would come, one after the other, to teach the children; and that is an opportunity given to the children to either complement, supplement or augment whatever their teachers must have taught them in school.”

Public exam If a major purpose of education is to obtain a certificate which would enable the holder to secure profitable employment,

what are the chances that a child who did not attend any school would be eligible to sit the necessary qualifying public examinations?

The Acting Public Affairs Officer of the West African Examinations Council (WAEC), Nigeria, Mr Demianus Ojijeogu, told Nigerian Tribune that the November/ December West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) is designed for “private candidates”.

“Yes, WAEC can issue a certificate to a person who hasn’t gone to any school provided the person registered for the WASSCE for Private Candidates,” he said.

Also speaking, the National Secretary of All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPPS), Mr Amos Adekunle Aladeseye, said while there may be no problem at the SSCE level (because of the private-candidate alternative), many public secondary schools would not admit pupils without primary school certificates.

“For the primary school, it would be difficult. If a child is studying at home, how would he register for these public examinations? You know Primary VI entrance exam is a public examination. So also are SSCE exams by WAEC, NECO, NABTEB (National Board for Technical Education), and so on. It is just the secondary school that there is an opportunity, with the private candidates’ examinations.

“Well, nobody is preventing anybody from learning entirely at home. You can have your private teachers. You can work in the morn-

Professor Salawu ing and afternoon, and receive lessons in the evening. It is done outside the country, and so it can be done here. I am a product of that kind of learning, in fact. I received examination by correspondence and I went to Form IV after then, and finished at Form V. that means I spent only two years.

“Today, I am the National Secretary of ANCOPPS, and I have a Master’s degree.

So, I think it should be encouraged. Not everybody would have the opportunity to attend conventional schools.”

Teachers endangered?

According to a survey, “about 3 per cent of

all children in the US were homeschooled in the 2011 and 2012 school year”, up from about 1.7 recorded in 1999.

Even though it is unclear whether any such surveys have been conducted in Nigeria, many say there is a growing interest in this form of learning among Nigerian parents.

Some might argue that if more and more people should opt to learn at home, teachers in conventional schools would begin to lose their jobs.

Aladeseye disagrees. “No; even right now, how many teachers do we have in school? The government is not employing. The labour market is saturated right now. So, if anything, it would even help to create more job opportunities for qualified teachers who are unemployed,” he said.

Great cost A major drawback, it would seem, is the financial burden; for, even where a parent possesses both the qualification and the willingness to teach their child on a fulltime basis, their own work and source of income would suffer significantly in the process.

Considered in this manner, it is likely that it would continue to be seen as a preserve of the rich for yet a longer time, particularly in Nigeria. As it happens, such influential parents are also able to provide an environment that would also help their children develop socially – with participation in sporting activities, local clubs, music training, and travels.

23 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

The

South-West

Tunde Busari 08127593530 Yejide Gbenga - Ogundare 08116706853 Tunde Ogunesan 08116954634

Editor Wole Efunnuga 08111813056

Got news for us; contact: southwesttribune@yahoo.co.uk or southwesttribune@gmail.com

Workers at Igbeti marble site.

A portion of Igbeti marble site evergrown with weeds.

The state of Igbeti marble, in Oke Ogun area of Oyo State, is giving those who trade in the business, as well as the residents, a cause for concern bearing in mind its booming nature in years past. TUNDE OGUNESAN who was at the once employment-driven site, reports his findings.

B

IGBETI:

to forest reserve?

EFORE now, marble, which appears to be the hallmark of Igbeti, was a project site that catered for thousands of Nigerians as far as employ-

Inside

From marble site

ment opportunity was concerned.

Today, the story has taken a different dimension as what used to be a source of revenue generation for both the government and

individuals is now in a sorry state.

The ancient town of Igbeti, in Olorunsogo Local Government Council of Oyo State, derives its Marble city catch-phrase from the

Oba Okunade Sijuwade:

Remembering a promoter of Yoruba culture one year after

large deposit of the precious stone found beneath its land surface.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the Continues on pg24

Behold, Gallery Yoruba Obas cannot resist

24 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

‘We are working towards making it revenue-driven’

Marble stones at Igbeti.

Workers at the site.

Continued from pg23 marble deposit in Igbeti is responsible for the all-year-round winter- like weather condition, which distinguishes it from other Yoruba people of the South-western Nigeria.

It was also gathered that natural resource was discovered in the town in 1976 after which an industrialist, the late Emmanuel Ashamu expressed interest in its exploration with a view to producing it in commercial quantity.

With the backing of the then Governor of Oyo State, the late Chief Bola Ige, who commissioned the marble’s project first site, Ashamu’s name became a distinct synonym of Igbeti marble for obvious reasons.

Consequently, the investment opened up Igbeti to the outsiders and also opened door of employment opportunities to its sons and daughters.

To say the site was hub of activities is to say the obvious as indigenes of some neighbouring communities freely gravitated to Igbeti for casual works.

“Over 2000 people were working at the site during the time of Ashamu’s company.

Everybody was happy. The town was living on hope of becoming a rich city with the way important people were coming from Ibadan and Lagos,” an indigene, who did not want his name in print, reminisced.

Another indigene also corroborated the above account with a submission that Ashamu era marked the turning point in the history of modern Igbeti town.

The source recalled some community services the Ashamu’s presence undertook, services which impacted positively on the life of the indigenes.

“Scholarships were given to students who are indigenes while many were sponsored to

holy pilgrimage by Ashamu,” he said.

The cheering story continued until a disagreement ensued between some families and Chief Ashamu over the marble site.

The development resulted in a legal matter, which slowed down activities at the site and eventually swept Ashamu’s feet of the land.

While some people, sympathetic to the industrialist’s interest were brimming with hope of a redress, Ashamu died in 1992 and the project entered a downturn from which it never recovered.

Buildings, vehicles and other tools of operations, including machines, are in hopeless state of disrepair and indeed now materials best for the museum.

It was learnt that after Ashamu, another investor, a ship magnate, made some efforts to revive the prospect.

But the Lagos-based man was said to have also retreated owing to an undisclosed reasons.

However, today, the two active marble sites in Igbeti; Alaguntan and Ogun road (along Igboho road) are under new operators.

These mining companies, according to sources, also engage some sub-operators working under their licence.

Surprisingly, mining exploration works

Over 2000 people were working at the site during the time of Ashamu’s company. Everybody was happy. The town was living on hope of becoming a rich city with the way important people were coming from Ibadan and Lagos

Oke Agbele tourist site at Igbeti. are being done manually with workers daily sweating it out under scorching sun.

There is no prize for guessing that the workers are not happy. Even though none of them offered to speak, their body language spoke louder than their voice, regretting their choice of work.

“Few of our children left at the sites are just there because they don’t have another job to do. Their condition is poor and there is nothing we can do because they must not take into crime.

“It is very sad to see them working so hard and returning home with peanut. Yet we see trucks carrying marble out of town to make good money,” another source also said.

It was also learnt that the sorry state of Igbeti marble project has made the town too vulnerable to illegal miners, who allegedly conspired with insiders to feed fat on the resource.

Going by the indifference to the full exploration of the marble, the first three spots,

where mineral was struck have turned to a large river servicing the entire community during the dry season.

Further investigation revealed that the site, located few meters away from the second gate along Igboho road, now serves as ‘natural water reservoir’ for the entire Igbeti town to source for water.

“The ‘marble source river’, has become three full blown rivers where tankers fetch water, commuters come to fetch water during dry seasons. But the natural endowment still fray around the riverside to testify that Igbeti sits on marble rocks,” the source said.

Regardless of the despondency the Onigbeti of Igbeti, Oba Emmanuel Oyekan Oyebisi, Afasegbejo III is optimistic of a bright future. In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Oba Oyebisi said the town is working to ensure that the marble site brings more job employment, developContinues on pg26

25 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nike Art Gallery, located both at Osogbo and Lekki, Lagos, is a gallery, though situated in Southwest Nigeria, which has played host to leaders within and outside the country. TUNDE BUSARI reports his recent experience at the two branches.

T

O the CNN crew which visited Chief (Mrs) Nike Okundaye in 2011, her Nike Arts Gallery located at Lekki, an upscale of Lagos metropolis, is the biggest privately owned gallery in the whole of Africa.

While the claim is a subject of debate, till date no one or a group has controverted it.

Accessing the gallery either from Victoria Island or Epe is an adventure that comes with fun as visitors have no reason to shed sweat. Although the gallery is sited off the ever busy expressway, the three-storey all-white structure stands out and offers an attraction to every curious eye.

To confirm or dispute the CNN’s claim is to enter the gallery and take a tour to the edifice from the ground floor through the first, second and finally third floor.

The collection of eye- catching art works could detain an enthusiast in the building possibly till the closing hour.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the former Canadian Prime Minister, Joseph Clark visited the gallery in 2010 and got hooked to the collections so much that he spent one hour as against 15 minutes he had earlier planned.

The white walls are adorned with a variety of incredulous art paintings while also different colours and designs of adire fabrics are arranged on shelves.

Nike Art Gallery is indeed a home for handcrafted pieces of furniture, sculptures and other works of African art, hence it regularly plays host to exhibitions and workshops.

When the world Tennis stars sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, visited Nigeria a few years ago, the duo made it to the gallery and even had a tea session with Okundaye and the staff of the gallery.

This, is in addition to the A-list personalities, home and abroad, including state governors and ministers who visit the gallery not only for sightseeing but also for taking home their choice works on the walls.

In May, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi was at the gallery. So also was in June, when the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdul Rasheed Akanbi had a stopover and showered enco-

Nigerian Tribune

Behold, Gallery

Yoruba Obas cannot resist

mium on Okundaye.

The inspiration behind the galley came when Okundaye was on an exhibition trip to the US and saw the significance of having a gallery to showcase her works and those of upcoming artists who would look for such opportunity in an appealing environment.

Commissioned in 2009, the gallery has captured the attention of the world biggest gallery, Smithsonia Institute Museum, Washington, US. The recognition followed the institute’s contact with only two of Okundaye’s works, which left the institute with a lasting impression and no choice than to admit Okundaye into

When the world Tennis stars sisters, Venus and Serena Williams, visited Nigeria a few years ago, the duo made it to the gallery and even had a tea session with Okundaye and the staff of the gallery.

the elite club of world respected artists.

Her very first gallery was opened in Osogbo, the Osun State capital in 1983. She has two others in Abuja and her Ogidi-Ijumu hometown where over 4000 women have so far benefited from her free training scheme as her social responsibility to empower the underprivileged.

“I realised early that giving these able bodied women money was a not a solution but a problem in itself. So, I threw the training open to them because I am sure they can also make it in life through adire making.

“Oba Elegushi is currently hosting our training in his palace, providing conducive environment to empower our Continues on pg26

26 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Igbeti: Marble site begging for govt attention Continued from pg24 ment and bear positive impact on Igbeti.

The monarch confirmed that the palace is aware of government effort and proposed plan to ensure that both the town, local government and the state get adequate revenue from their operation.

Though the Onigbeti lamented that past operations did not yield much positive result on the native of the community, he said his dream for the town would come to a reality in the long run.

He said, “If government can encourage the modern trend of operation, there will be more job creation for my people. In addition, many modern structures will spring up as a result of boom in operation and turn Igbeti to a better city.

“To this effect, I am calling on the state Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and the federal government, headed

by President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and let’s explore the opportunity of this solid mineral, especially during this time of diversification to develop Igbeti, Oyo State and Nigeria.

“If we jointly do this, Igbeti will be more known in world map than as we’re currently on the world stage.”

The Caretaker Chairman Olorunsogo Local Government, Honourable Evangelist Ogunrimi Gbenjo Williams confirmed that the operators were licensed by the government, stating that they are not illegal miners.

He said the current operators were licensed and are paying royalty in terms of tax to both the state and the Federal Government.

According to him, “government is aware of the miners operations. They are working under a licence, that means they are not illegal miners. And they pay tax to both the two arms of governments.

“At the local government level, we don’t collect any-

thing but we issue ticket to the trucks that come to load the products. That is what we get at the local government level as income as at today.”

Commenting, the Special Adviser to the Oyo State governor on Solid Mineral, Honourable Matthew Oyedokun said the state government has been working to ensure maximum benefit and operation on the mining sites in a Public Private Partnership Initiative.

Oyedokun said when government’s arrangement is finalised, it will bring commensurate opportunity to the state government, the partners and the community.

He, however, cast aspersions on some “illegal miners” who he alleged to be operating there currently.

“Every miner working within the axis of Ashamu mining area is an illegal operator because there exists an agreement between the government and Morlap Mining Limited. The site along Igboho road is currently on the licence of Morlap Mining Limited.

“Government is working to make the place better managed on a Public Private Partnership. By the time it manifests, everyone will see and appreciate the effort of the state government.”

Governor Abiola Ajimobi

Onigbeti of Igbeti, Oba Emmanuel Oyekan Oyebisi, Afasegbejo III

Inside Nike Art Gallery...

Continued from pg25 trainees. Kabiyesi is supporting and I am very impressed.

This is going to be a big relief to his subjects,” she noted with a smile of fulfillment radiating on her face.

Given her antecedent, her exploits as well as her community service, hardly has there ever been a Yoruba woman who has brought additional fame and honour to Yoruba nation in the class of the indefatigable Okundaye.

The 65-year-old is a personification of diligence. For instance, for the past five decades, she hardly misses a minimum of two hours of serious work in her studio. However tight her schedule is, she must wake in the middle of the night to do some paintings and other arts works on her list.

This routine is a lubricant of sorts consolidating her position at the front row of world notable artists.

Despite this, however, she does not compromise her duty as a wife who must take a good care of her husband at all times. She is married to a retired Commissioner of Police, Mr Reuben Okundaye, a lover of arts who is now surprisingly trying his hand in some art works.

Two personalities made a great impact in Okundaye’s life.

Her grandmother, who taught her the basic knowledge of dye and tying in Osogbo, comes first.

The second person was the late Suzan Wenger popularly known as Adunni Olorisa. The Austrian, reputed for her love for Osun Osogbo and Yoruba culture, made a lasting impact in Okundaye’s career that she adopted her as her role model because of her passion for Yoruba arts and tradition.

Adunni Olorisa died at 93 in 2009.

“If you go to Osun grove, you will appreciate mama more that what I am telling about her. The sculptor works in the grove were her creation. She taught me hard work and resilience, especially when faced with some challenges. I am happy to have had her in my career,” she stated.

Remarkably, 1982 remains evergreen in the life of Okundaye’s career. As a young artist already dazzling the world with her creative hands, she was in the United States (US), precisely in Washington when suddenly all her works were reduced to ashes following a strange inferno.

The world seemed to be falling off Okundaye’s head because of the shock that accompanied the incident. However, she picked herself together and moved on with her life only to achieve many more accomplishments in the same US and

other continents.

“The beauty of it was that I had insured all the works but notwithstanding it was a painful experience, going by the efforts going into making those works. I am happy when the FBI report indicated a cover up. This incident further taught me a lesson and opened my eyes to the complexity of human being regardless of colour,” she noted.

Even though Okundaye can hardly hurt a fly, in terms of flaunting her success but she does not hold back her words when the topic is narrowed down to government’s attitude to culture promotion. She lamented that government fails to appreciate the core value of culture in earning foreign exchange.

Drawing from her experience in empowering women who are now feeding their families through the work of arts, Okundaye said promoting culture is a panacea to unemployment in the country.

“But they like to put square peg in a round hole. That is why we are in this state. I can only advise them to show active interest in our culture to make cool money. If they know the number of foreigners who come to witness Osun Osogbo, they will understand what I am talking about,” she said.

27 thesouth-west

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Nigerian Tribune

Oba Okunade Sijuwade:

Remembering a promoter of Yoruba culture one year after OLUWOLE IGE captures the mood at Ile Ife and the dignitaries that converged on the ancient town to celebrate one year of the demise of the foremost traditional leader, the late Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade. His report.

T

HE 50th Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuwade (Olubuse 11) was A colossus and revered traditional ruler who dominated the socio-cultural landscape of Nigeria, Africa and global community when he reigned as the monarch of the ancient city of Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yorubaland between 1980 and 2015.

For the people of Ile-Ife, July 28th, 2016, which marked the first year remembrance anniversary of Oba Sijuwade would go down as a memorable day for the monarch, whose far- reaching influence, sagacity, generosity and panache were explored by many to attain greatness in public service, politics and other spheres of human endeavours.

Thus, his enduring fame and virtues compelled many prominent Nigerians, including traditional rulers, high profile politicians, captains of industries, diplomats and top government functionaries to converge on Ile-Ife in a bid to commemorate his first year anniversary of joining his ancestors after a glorious reign as a king, with distinctive style.

To underscore the love and passion people have for him, activities lined up to commemorate his posthumous anniversary were characterised by the outpouring of encomiums by great Nigerians, elites, political class and traditional rulers, who cut across the nation’s ethnic groups.

At a press conference, which heralded the celebration penultimate Tuesday, the president of Ife Development Board (IDB), Professor Muib Opeloye, who also doubled as the chairman of Local Organising Committee of the celebration said Oba Sijuwade bequeathed enduring legacies of leadership and service to humanity during his lifetime.

He maintained that the 50th Ooni of Ife carved a niche for himself by promoting the sustenance of Yoruba culture and tradition, just as he recalled that he earned international recognition for the throne of Oduduwa and the entire Yoruba race.

“What was unique about him was the new concept he created for royalty. With him, royalty had in it inherent influence used to benefit humanity. This was hallmark of a monarch , who allowed the fear of God to rule over his life”.

“He had been unjustifiably accused of interfering in partisan politics, whereas due to the influence he wielded within the society, governments were always currying his favour to give them support and in the process requested him to recommend names for political appointments.

“This was how he secured top political appointments, ambassadorial, ministerial, commissionership and other forms of appointments for the Ifes and non Ifes alike. If not for him, Ife as a community would have suffered worse political marginalization than it had experienced despite its status as the cradle of Yoruba civilization”, Opeloye remarked.

During the interdenominational service at Saint Paul Anglican Church, Aiyegbaju, Ile-Ife, the officiating clergy and former Bishop of Ife Anglican Diocese, Rev. Oluranti Odubogun described the late Ooni as a monarch who served God and his people until his last breath.

While paying tribute to the late monarch, he stated that “the late Sijuwade lived well and died well. He was a follower of Christ. I had personal relationship with him when he was alive. He was a follower of Christ. He will remove his crown, kneel down and direct all his courtiers out of the vicinity before praying to God”.

Speaking to journalists at the scene, one of the wives of the deceased monarch, Olori Odunola Sijuwade said “I miss my late husband’s style because he was a fashion man and I also miss his charisma. He was fun to be with and I miss his companionship, he was a good husband but we thank God for his life”.

In his tribute, the Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Nnemeka Achebe, who described Oba Sijuwade as a close friend said “I miss his warm friendship, advice, his counsel, fatherly care, his love, both for me and for humanity, he was a great man and there is a lot I miss about him”.

The 3-day posthumous celebration of Oba Sijuwade cli-

From right, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi; acting Vice Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Professor Anthony Elujoba and Prince Tokunbo Sijuwade, during the one year celebration of the demise of Oba Sijuwade. PHOTOS: D’ TOYIN

of too much individualism and too little sense of corporate responsibility to the race. We loathe yielding leadership to others, in the collective interest of all”.

He, however, described Oba Sijuwade as “a colossus among the Nigerian traditional rulers of his generation, even more so among Obas in Yorubaland, where the impact of his illustrious reign will reverberate for generations”.

Earlier in her speech, the Dean Faculty of Arts of OAU, Professor Gbemisola Adeoti maintained that it was quite clear that Oba Sijuwade’s horizon of culture transcended the precinct of Yoruba, to embrace the whole humanity, adding that “he was able to build bridges across primordial barriers, thus drawing associates, friends and admirers from white and black, Africa and Europe, rich and poor, men and women”.

In his remark, the chairman of the Ambassador Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu and the acting Vice Chancellor, Obafemi Awolowo University occasion, who is also the acting Vice (OAU), Professor Anthony Elujoba during the celebration.

Chancellor of OAU, Professor Anthony Adebolu Elujoba said the institution would come out of the maxed with a colloquium at the famous Oduduwa Hall wood within the next six months, just as he challenged Siof the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, where juwade’s family to join hands in assisting Ile-Ife community politicians, traditional rulers, technocrats and academics and the university. extolled the virtues of the late monarch.

He stated, “Oba Okunade Sijuwade’s reign was very imSpeaking during the event, the former chairman, Presi- pactive locally, national and internationally, he was a great dential Advisory Committee on National Conference in the achiever in both culture and intellectualism”.

2014 confab organised by ex-President Goodluck Jonathan, Speaking during the colloquium, the co-chairman of AfSenator Femi Okunrounmu, identified failure to advance rican Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, Dr Olatokunbo collective as the bane of Yoruba race.

Awolowo Dosunmu averred that “Oba Sijuwade was relentDelivering a paper entitled “The Life and Times of Oba less in pushing the agenda of the late Obafemi Awolowo Okunade Sijuwade (Olubuse 11) at the programmed or- forward. These include true federalism, restructuring of Niganised by the Institute of Cultural Studies, Obafemi geria and a truly democratic constitution”.

Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife in conjunction with SiEminent personalities at the event include former govjuwade’s family, Okurounmu said there was crucial need for ernor of Ogun State, Chief Gbenga Daniel, the Ooni of Ife, Yoruba leaders to place individual interest above the collec- Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ojaja 11), Professor Gative agenda of the race in order to achieve greatness. briel Olawoyin, the chairman of Ife Development Board Okurounmu, who is the former Secretary General of the (IDB) Professor Muib Opeloye, the Alake of Egbaland, Pan Yoruba Socio-cultural group, Afenifere affirmed that Oba Adedotun Aremu Gbadebo, the Alayemore of Ido-O“we Yoruba are specially gifted people. Intellectually, we sun, Oba Adedapo Aderemi, the co-chairman of ANN Plc, rank among the most talented people in the world. Collec- Dr Awolowo Dosunmu, the acting Vice Chancellor of OAU, tively, when it comes to protecting and advancing the inter- Professor Anthony Adebolu Elujoba, Senator Femi Okunest of the race, we rank poorly. This, in my view, is because rounmu and host of others.

28 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Blame politicians for inconclusive elections —INEC Sam Nwaoko - Ado Ekiti

T

HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has commenced the distribution of permanent voter cards (PVCs) to eligible Nigerians in Ekiti State and used the opportunity of a forum with stakeholders on this to challenge politicians on the issue of inconclusive elections in the country.

The forum held at the conference room of INEC secretariat in Ado Ekiti, was attended by registered political parties in the state, including the governing Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) led by its state chairman, Gboyega Oguntuase; and the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), which had its state publicity secretary, Taiwo Olatunbosun, among its representatives.

The forum of the political parties, security agencies and other stakeholders had been convened by INEC to announce the commencement the distribution of PVCs in the 16 local government areas of the state.

The political parties present had called on INEC to do something about the recent resurgence of inconclusive elections in parts of the country and also charged the commission to reverse the trend.

But the Administrative Secretary of INEC in Ekiti State, Dr. Muslim Omoleke explained that the laws guiding election in Nigeria stated that when there was violence or over-voting, the election should be cancelled, saying “this is to give all the stakeholders a fair representation.”

Also reacting to the political parties’ questions, the spokesperson of INEC in the state, Alhaji Taiwo Gbadegesin, explained that “inconclusive elections are not new and it is borne out of the fact that the commission wants to consolidate on the transparency and integrity of elections that have been achieved in the country.

When there are crises during an election, it is difficult to conclude such an election.”

He said: “Of what advantage is it to INEC to cancel an election after spending a fortune on it and engaging enormous manpower? What will a corps member do with the thumb-printing of ballots or of what use would a ballot box be to a true soldier or policeman out to simply monitor an election? It is the political class that induces all the crime and we must beg them to help us and help this country.

“They are the ones who

cause the violence that warrant the cancellation of elections. They are the ones who sew uniforms for fake policemen and soldiers to stuff ballot boxes. All of these are the reasons INEC cancels elections and declare them

inconclusive.

“INEC wants elections to be concluded because the commission invests so much in elections. It is not the making of INEC and in a bid to add value to whatever elections organised by the com-

mission, it is pertinent for INEC to ensure fairness to all participants in the election.

“INEC plans all elections to be concluded. It invests so much in terms of human and other resources and it is

even to the disadvantage of both the commission and the country that funds and sundry resources are sunk into conducting another election, when violence and sundry unwholesome acts cause an election to be cancelled.”

Nigerian Tribune

I have been acting in line with Gov Ambode’s instruction –Lagos LCDA boss Bola Badmus- Lagos

Former Minister of Sports, Professor Taoheed Adedoja (left) and former Senate Leader, Senator Teslim Folarin during the declaration of Professor Adedoja for National Chairmanship of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the party’s secretariat, Molete, Ibadan. PHOTO: TOMMY ADEGBITE

Nigerians should be cautious over calls for restructuring —Babalola Oluwole Ige - Osogbo AGAINST the backdrop of divergent views over the calls for the restructuring of the country, a chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC), in Osun state, Elder Peter Adebayo Baba-

lola, on Sunday urged Nigerians to be cautious in handling the persistent agitation for the restructuring of the country by some ethnic nationalities and individuals.

He expressed fear that any idea of restructuring that will lead to disintegration of

the country would not at the long run benefit groups and individuals that are calling for such move.

Speaking during a chat with the Nigerian Tribune, Babalola the APC threw his weight behind President Muhammadu Buhari’s po-

Old Boys’ Associations can’t run schools —Utomi tells Oyo govt

By Wale Akinselure RENOWNED management expert, Professor Pat Utomi has advocated for the involvement of Private Development Agencies (PDAs) like missionaries, non government organisations, private individuals, in the running of schools.

He however ruled out the involvement of old boys’ associations noting that such groups usually do not command the needed level of organisation necessary for good running of schools.

Rather, Utomi said such old boys’ associations should provide a strong support base in terms of funding projects and contributing to varied aspects of the educational development of their alma maters.

Utomi, speaking against the backdrop of the crisis that greeted the new education initiative of the Oyo State government on

the management of public schools, said allowing PDAs run schools would provide the needed discipline that would translate into improved students’ performance and better quality of education.

He allayed the fears of some stakeholders about pensions, layoffs, increased school fees, urging stakeholders to rather be interested in quality education, discipline and improved performance of their children or wards which PDAs would provide.

On the way to go, Utomi called for relevant conversations aimed at educating people on the motives and intended result of the public private partnership in education initiative.

“Education has typically been a good provided by government, private sector and the Private Development Agencies (PDAs). In these times when govern-

ment has found that it does not have enough resources, it is now under more pressure from the fact which should have driven it originally, that performance has dropped and all kinds of problems has entered the system. This is because the discipline that PDAs bring to managing their schools is harder than the nature of government. The nature of government is, ‘it belongs to all’, and, therefore, it belongs to none.”

“In this, many people of goodwill can play roles but it is not necessarily about profit. In Lagos Business School, for example, the fees are not cheap but it does not make profit for anybody. To give quality education is not cheap but the management creates opportunities for scholarship for people who cannot afford the fees but who have the appropriate competencies.

sition that what the country needs is development and not restructuring.

He contended that with the present disciplined leadership, Nigeria is on the path to fulfilling her potentials, just as he described those pushing for restructuring as the only way out of the crisis in the Niger Delta Region as “first suspects in the overt moves to sabotage economy of the country by the militants”.

According to Babalola “with my experience in the maritime sector and my understanding of politics behind call for restructuring of the country, I safely conclude that what the country needs most at the moment is leadership and that has been given to it”.

“Having got that, all we need to do now is to cooperate with the man in the saddle, President Buhari, regardless our party affiliations, background or religion. This is key because, if Buhari succeeds, Nigeria is the major beneficiary.

Should the contrary happen, major casualties will be Nigeria and her people”, the statement added.

While commenting on governance in Osun State, Babalola implored all people of goodwill to pray for the success of Governor Rauf Aregbesola for him to be able to implement all his programmes before exiting office.

AHEAD of the local government election coming up in Lagos State, crisis of confidence seems to have erupted in Iru-Victoria Island Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) as some politicians have accused the Council Sole Administrator, Princess Aderemi Adebowale, of working her way to contest the coming poll against the directive given by the state governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode.

It would be recalled that Governor Ambode, while swearing the Council Administrators for the 20LGs and 37LCDAs in the state, had charged them not to show interest in the local government poll, which date is yet to be fixed, but to focus mainly at developing their respective councils and increasing the Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR).

But Princess Adebowale, while reacting to the allegation, said there was no truth in it, even as she expressed surprise at the development, wondering where such could come from.

The Sole Administrator, while responding to questions from newsmen shortly after the Stakeholders’ Forum organised by the council, described the allegation as totally unwarranted, recalling that Governor Ambode had given a very, very clear directive that all 57 Sole Administrators that they could not contest the coming poll but should increase their IGR and prepare for smooth holding of the poll exercise “and I believe that is what I am doing.”

Princess Adebowale, who said the people had tagged her Margaret Thatcher and Mother Theresa within the few days she had been in office, however, declared that her political opponents should prepare for more of that if that was what was scaring them.

“Petition, well, I want to tell you that is totally unwarranted because His Excellency, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode gave a very clear directive to all the 57 Sole Administrators that they cannot contest election.”

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

with Soji-Eze Fagbemi m:08179047919 e:sojiezek@yahoo.co.uk

Labour condemns FG’s refusal to restore tenure policy

President of the nigeria labour congress (NLC), comrade Ayuba wabba in an hand shake with the Inspector General of Police (IGP), ibrahim Kpotun Idris and others, during a visit by the former to the IGP at the Police Headquarters on Friday, over the killings of workers in Nasarawa State.

NABDA to train 5,000 ex-militants Stories By Soji-Eze Fagbemi

T

HE National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA) has agreed to train thousands of ex-agitators under the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

The NABDA Coordinatng Director, Mr Josiah Bitrus Habu made this known at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja on Wednesday while receiving the Special Adviser to the President on Niger Delta and Coordinator of the Amnesty Programme, Brigadier General Paul Boroh (Rtd).

General Boroh who led the Presidential Amnesty Team said the primary objective of the office is to reintegrate fully the 30,000 Amnesty beneficiaries and that agriculture is the fastest and most sustainable means of doing so.

He said his findings revealed that the NABDA which uses technology and the principles of science to produce high yields in farming would be worthy partners of the programme.

General Boroh added that the Amnesty office is ready to send thousands of Amnesty beneficiaries for immediate training by the agency.

The government he said is diversifying, refocusing the attention of the country from oil

especially when the prices are not as attractive, to other areas particularly agriculture.

NABDA told General Boroh that the agency has a capacity to simultaneously train 5,000 Amnesty beneficiaries at its Odi, Bayelsa State centre in such areas like high yielding plantain and banana farming or plantation and high variety grass cutter and snail reproduction.

He said the training will be tailored towards ensuring job creation and empowerment, food security and at a serene

environment.

The NABDA Director said the amnesty ex-agitators will benefit from the use of technology and the principles of science to produce high yields in food and ensuring good health for the people.

He added that the country with its 180 million people is a ready market for all agricultural products as is the ECOWAS region.

General Boroh expressed appreciation to the agency for agreeing to train the Amnesty beneficiaries not only in its

500-capacity centre in Odi, but also at its centres in Owode, Ogun State; Isanlu, Kwara State: Ogbomosho, Oyo State, Akoko, Ondo State and Abuja.

He said that the Amnesty office was ready to send the trainees as soon as the agency is ready to receive them.

Gen Boroh later undertook an inspection of the demonstration units at the NABDA Headquarters which included an integrated feed mill which relies entirely on local products on Agriculture value chain including engine fabrication.

Staff welfare paramount to Buhari —Ngige THE Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige has assured federal civil servants that staff welfare and improved conditions of service will continue to be paramount to the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Since civil service is the engine room of policy formulation and implementation, government is therefore poised to ensure pleasant conditions of service for civil servants,” Ngige said when the Joint In-House Unions of his ministry led by its Chairman, Comrade Tommy Etim Okon

met with the minister on the cardinal objectives of the ministry.

Ngige emphasised that capacity building will be accorded priority as the 2016 budget contains provisions for training and re-training programmes which is expected to improve the quality and the well being of the staff, adding that there shall always be good rewards and motivation for dedicated officers.

Speaking further, the minister stressed that welfare packages and other entitlements like repatriation, 28 days in lieu of hotel accommodation, transportation and other benefits of

staff including all entitlements of both retired and officers who died in the active service will be settled accordingly.”

The Chairman of the Joint In -house Unions, Comrade Okon applauded the minister for his understanding and said the unions over the years have continually maintained cordial and symbiotic relationship with the management, especially in the areas of Staff welfare.

“In our efforts to appreciate and encourage our members to be more productive, we instituted a reward system to create healthy competition amongst them.”

ORGANISED labour under the auspices of Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) has condemned the Federal Government refusal to restore the single four-year tenure for Permanent Secretary and two-term of four years (eight years) tenure for Directors in the Federal Civil Service.

The ASCSN National President, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama, described as unfortunate and insensitive the alleged Government’s decision not to withdraw the offensive and provocative circular.

“We are shocked that despite public outcry against the abolition of tenure policy in the Federal Civil Service, the government has vowed never to reverse its decision on the issue.

“This is very unfortunate and portrays the government as being insensitive to the plight of thousands of civil servants and other stakeholders who have continued to urge it to rescind its decision on the matter in the interest of the public service.”

He warned that if the decision to abolish the tenure system was designed to import all manner of persons from other services including the private sector into the Federal Civil Service in order to dislodge senior civil servants who had served the nation meritoriously for two to three decades, the government would have the trade union movement to contend with because the unions would deploy all the tactics in their arsenal to resist the execution of the plot.

“Government should be seen to be fair and just and that is when it can earn the respect and trust of the people,” he stressed.

He recalled that the tenure policy was introduced in 2009 by the administration of late President Umaru Yar’Adua to create vacancies and promote senior civil servants who had suffered stagnation and frustration for years.

The ASCSN president posited that before the policy was introduced, some officers were serving as directors for upward of 16 years or more meaning that they were brought into the public service to occupy positions whey were never qualified for.

“Thus, if the government does not have a hidden agenda, why is it bent on abrogating a policy that has brought stability and opportunity for career progression in the civil service?

30

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Etisalat empowers 100 entrepreneurs with Bode Adewumi with life skills, m:08055001765 equipment e:bodekafi@yahoo.com

joining long queues, following cumbersome processes to top up various services is removed for all Nigerians by this singular card; One1Card.

Mr Femi Muka, General Manager, OneCard Nigeria, also speaking on the new IBEDC service, explained that IBEDC customers are also at liberty to top up their accounts/meters via OneCard Online Channels; MyTopUp Business and MyTopUp Nigeria or via OneCard Direct TopUp devices available at TopUp points. He said because OneCard’s services are about people and meeting their needs, the company provides multiple choices and everyone is at liberty to choose based on their needs and preferences.

ETISALAT Nigeria, in partnership with O.A. Bella Resources, has empowered 100 individuals with basic life skills and basic equipment to help them maximise their potentials through the establishment of startup businesses.

The beneficiaries were pulled from six communities in four states in the South-East and SouthSouth regions. These include Oromeruezimgbu, Rumuokuta and Awalama communities in Rivers State, Yenizuegene community in Bayelsa State, Usogun community in Auchi, Edo State and Uburu community in Ebonyi State.

Speaking during the presentation of certificates of participation and starter packs to the beneficiaries, Head, Government and Community Relations, Mr Mohammed Suleh-Yusuf, said the community Skills Set Programme is tailored towards creating entrepreneurs and setting up community-based enterprises in the beneficiary states.

“Etisalat believes in building sustainable societies and empowering communities which is what we are doing with the Community Skills Set Programme. We are complementing the vision of the respective states to empower their youth to become self-reliant and socially responsible entrepreneurs who will in turn set up community -based enterprises,” he said.

Also speaking, Mr Francis Wokoma, whose organisation, E.O. Bella Resources, conducted the training, described the initiative as heart-lifting and a timely intervention that will guarantee a future for the beneficiaries particularly in the face of instability and rising unemployment rate across the country.

One of the beneficiaries, Amaka Amadi from Rumuokuta community in Rivers State also spoke about the impact of the initiative on her, describing it as an eyeopener.

“I believe in creating useful things with my hands and not carrying my certificates about looking for someone to employ me. I do not know how others see opportunities, but when I am given one, I take it a step higher. I have been trained in soap and floor cleaner making, and I will do more research on soap and cream making.

I have been given some useful tips which I want to build on, and I am really grateful for that,” she said.

VISAFONE, MTN Nigeria’s subsidiary, has began the test-run of its Fourth Generation Long Term Evolution (4G LTE) internet technology service for smartphone users.

The launch of 4G LTE services by the merged entity of MTN and Visafone will roll-out superior high-speed internet services in major cities, empowering Nigerians with the latest mobile broadband technology, which is expected to drive broadband penetration in the country from under 10 per cent presently to the targeted 30 per

cent by 2018, in line with the Federal Government’s broadband plan and target.

According to MTN executive, Amina Oyagbola, “the company is determined to deepen broadband penetration in the country. “Our recent licence acquisition further demonstrates our faith in the future of Nigeria. We believe in supporting the positive transformation of Nigeria and we have demonstrated this belief through the level of our investment since 2001, which currently stands at approximately 16 billion,” she said.

TCON plans to facilitate migration of network providers to IPV6 Stories By Bode Adewumi

T

HE Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON) has said it will facilitate the migration of Nigerian network operators from Internet Protocol Version Four (IPV4) to Internet Protocol Version Six (IPV6).

ATCON Executive Secretary, Mr Ajibola Olude, made this known in a statement in Lagos last week.

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is essentially a postal address for each and every Internet-connected device, which allows websites to identify where to send information each time one tries to perform a search or try to access a website.

IPv6 is the most recent version of IP, the communications protocol that provides identification and location system for computers on networks and it routes traffic across the internet.

He said there was a need for network operators to migrate to IPV6 because of its attendant advantages.

Olude said the association would facilitate the migration through a four-day International workshop with the topic: ‘Internet Number Resources Management (INRM) and IPv6 Planning and Deployment.”

The training, he said, was in collaboration with the Nigeria Internet Registration Association (NiRA), University of Ibadan (UI) and the Africa Network Information Centre (AFRINIC).

“This is part of AFRINIC annual free extensive training programme for over 600 network engineers, with priority given to its members.

“Participation at the workshop is targeted at network engineers

ONE Card Nigeria, an innovative consumer goods company that provides top up solutions on multiple platforms in collaboration with FETS has added Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company(IBEDC) to its multi-purpose recharge card.

The One1Card now makes it easier for IBEDC consumers to recharge their Pre-paid or postpaid meters conveniently from their mobile phone by simply dialling the string *979*14*PIN*Acc number or Meter Number#.

Chairman, OneCard Nigeria,

PACE setting broadband service provider, Smile Communications Nigeria Limited, has been adjudged ‘The Most Innovative Broadband Service Provider of the Year. The award was one of the highpoints of ‘The Titans of Tech Awards 2016,’ which was held in Lagos at the weekend. The event had the Minister of Communication Adebayo Shittu and the majority leader of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila in attendance.

According to the organisers, the award was bestowed on Smile for its knack for innovative products and consistent provision of innovative services. The company was also commended for its massive investments in authentic 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology.

Receiving the award, an appreciative Mr Godfrey Efeurhobo, Managing Director of Smile Nigeria, dedicated it to all Smile customers in Nigeria. He reiterated the company’s commitment to the provision of best-in-class Internet services. He avowed that Smile Nigeria has been consistent in the provision of valuable products and innovative services among which are “MidNite Bundle”, “SmileVoice” which consists such variants as SmileVoice App that heralded the Lowest 4G LTE Call Rate tariff in Nigeria. The latest innovation from Smile is the UnlimitedPremium Plan that gives customers Internet freedom whereby they can download unlimited movies, watch unlimited videos, play unlimited games online, enjoy unlimited so-

From left, Communication Manager, Airtel Nigeria, Mr Erhumu Bayagbon; Head, Public Relations, Airtel Nigeria, Mr Aderemi Adeniran; Nollywood Actor, Mr Kunle Bamtefa and General Manager, Mass Market, Airtel Nigeria, Mr Oladipo Jolaosho, at the launch of Airtel Smart Connect 2.0 held in Lagos, last week. Photo:Sylvester Okoruwa. in Nigeria’s Information and Communication Technology (ICT) ecosystem, including the academics.

“Resource persons for this workshop are international ex-

perts coming from outside Nigeria,” Olude said.

He said the workshop would provide qualitative training for those engineers that managed the networks.

He added that the workshop would provide network engineers with the required knowledge to compete favourably with their counterparts in the global market.

OneCard partners IBEDC on multi-purpose recharge card Mr Tunde Odulaja, while briefing the media on this development said when the company launched its multi-purpose recharge card, it was with a promise to Nigerians that more and more services would be added to the One1Card to create a one-stop recharge solution. The addition of this new service he said is a fulfilment of that promise even as the company continues in its stride to make top up of various services easier.

He went further to say the hassle of travelling long distances,

Smile wins most Innovative Broadband Service Provider of the Year award

cial media. The plan is acclaimed as the only truly unlimited internet available to everyone in Nigeria.

Efeurhobo noted that from inception, Smile has remained consistent in the unrivalled quality of its service delivery. “Our goal is to provide Nigerian broadband internet users with speed, quality, reliability and simplicity. Our vision of becoming the broadband internet provider of choice in Nigeria has guided us in everything from selecting our people and partners to choosing the best technologies and creating innovative and relevant products and services,” he added.

As of date, the company is present in key Nigerian cities including Ibadan, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Benin, Kaduna, Asaba and Onitsha.

MTN deepens broadband services with Visafone 4G internet services

31

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

with Chukwuma Okparaocha

m:08038984495 e: chukscop2005@gmail.com

New cooperative building will boost socio-economic development —Ambode Stories by Chukwuma Okparaocha

I

NVESTMENT in properties by different sectors of the economy can help boost and engender the socioeconomic development of any nation, help create employment and ultimately close the existing poverty gap in the society.

This was the view of the Lagos State Governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, during the inauguration of the new multi-purpose building built by the Lagos State Cooperative Federation (LASCOFED) in Ogba area of the state, recently.

Mr Ambode also noted that the multi-million naira edifice would boost socio-economic development of the cooperative activities in Lagos State.

The governor, who was represented by the Commissioner for Finance, Dr Mustapha Akinkunmi, said, the building would, among other things, serve as the pivot for the re-invigoration of cooperative societies in the state, which he said had the potential of financially strengthening more people to the point that they can become house owners without having to unnecessarily depend on the government.

“The cooperative new structure would serve as a hub leading to socio-economic development of the cooperative movement and Lagos State at large,” he said.

“The building’s inauguration was specifically done to boost co-operators’ capacity in terms of delivery and to showcase government interest in cooperative movement for mutual growth and development.

“This is why this present administration saw the need to merge the Ministry of Commerce and Industry with Cooperative to showcase the partnership and contributions of co-operatives to the people of Lagos State, hence, this would enable cooperative societies take optimal advantage of resources within the ministry and focus more on a robust economic development of members especially through the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Funds which this administration had put in place to encourage bottom-top participation in the economy,” he added.

He commended the LASCOFED leadership, with Mr Oriyomi Ayeola as the president, for its foresight, transparency and dynamism, saying, “The conception and swift successful completion of the edifice before its allotted timing of 12 years through the cooperative personal funding is a testimonial reference of a focus and quality leadership

style, managerial skills and prudence in the part of the apex body.”

He assured cooperative members that his administration would continue to embark on relevant policies and laws to facilitate LASCOFED continuous contribution to the economy of Lagos State.

On his part, Ayeola described the building as comprising of four floors, with each floor meant to serve different purposes including a consumer shop with supporting offices, as well as halls for events and a pent house for rent.

He stated that the building was completed at a total sum of N296,624,820, and attributed the success to the spirit of cooperation among members.

The newly inaugurated Co-operative building in Lagos

Revive Lagos metroline project, lawmaker appeals to FG WITH the geometrical growth in the population of Lagos State, an appeal has gone to the Federal Government to help revive the state’s aborted metroline project.

Making the appeal in an in-

terview on with the media, a lawmaker in the State House of Assembly, Honourable David Setonji, said that the project was long overdue based on the transportation challenges facing the state.

Nigeria’s 0.5% mortgage loan, one of world’s lowest —Report WHEN compared to other countries, mortgage loan as a percentage of Nigeria’s GDP is currently low at 0.5 per cent, a recent report compiled by mortgage experts has indicated.

According to the report, which was made available by online business platform, Proshare, Nigeria’s mortgage loan of 0.5 per cent falls low when compared to those of the UK, US, South Africa and Botswana whose loans are 80 per cent, 77 per cent, 31 per cent and two per cent respectively. But the report gave a hope for the future, when it indicated that over the next five years, the Nigerian Mortgage Refinance Company (NMRC) hopes to increase mortgage loans as a percentage of Nigeria’s GDP to two per cent.

“Nigeria’s real estate market presents substantial opportunities as well as a number of risks for property investors. Existing problems such as poor access to credit and an underdeveloped mortgage market are areas that would need to develop in the near future in order to move this sector forward. In Q3 2015, the real estate sector grew by 2.1 per cent y/y compared with 5.9 per cent recorded in the corresponding period in 2014,” the report said.

“The sector has been known to grow at a faster rate. In the past

eight quarters, it has expanded at an average of 4.8 per cent. We attribute the sluggish movement to the current macro challenges,” it further noted The report also identified building costs in Nigeria, when compared to other countries, as being very high, saying this is usually passed on to consumers in the rental and real estate market. “The cost of building a three bedroom apartment runs up to $50,000,” compared with $36,000 in South Africa,” it said.

Setonji, who is the Chairman, House Committee on Physical Planning and Urban Development, opined that the major problem the state had was transportation due to increase in its population.

“The population of the state is over 20 million and we don’t have the commensurate transportation system.

“During the tenure of Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande as the governor of the state in the second republic, there were plans for a metroline project and the state had an agreement with a French company on this with an advanced payment.

“Unfortunately for us, in December 1983, the military government took over and truncated the project. I appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari, who was in-charge then, to help revive the project

like the recently launched rail line from Abuja to Kaduna,” he said.

The trained engineer added that the transportation burden in the state was too much for the state government to bear.

He explained that the agreement then was that if there was a breach of the contract by the state government, they would lose the deposit and still pay damages to the company.

“The money was much then, but I cannot remember the exact amount. We are appealing to the Federal Government to assist us in reviving the project or start another one.

“I am a civil engineer by profession and I know there is no problem without solution. We know that things have skyrocketed, but if the Federal Government is ready, they would do it.

Muhammadu Buhari Estate: No demolition of houses without adequate planning for residents’ relocation —Ogun govt THE Ogun State government has assured residents of the state that no house will be demolished to pave way for the much touted and state-owned Muhammadu Buhari Estate without adequate planning being made for the proper relocation of concerned residents.

Governor Ibikunle Amosun made this disclosure when handing over keys of 16 units of three-Bedroom Flats to residents of Kobape village whose houses had been identified to pave way for the President Mohammadu Buhari Estate along Kobape road, in Obafemi Owode Local overnment Area of the state, last week.

While handing over the keys to

the allottees, the governor assured that his administration would construct more of the structures for them, affirming that no house would be demolished until proper provision was made for relocation of their occupants.

Amosun during the commissioning and handling over of 16 modern buildings said all the housing units would be directly connected to enjoy electricity from President Muhammadu Buhari Estate, adding that the buildings would be replicated soon at Abule Itoku, Elewe, Itokun Egunjobi and Itoku Isale.

In her remarks, the State Commissioner for Housing, Segun

Abiodun, said owners of the building had the privilege to extend for future purposes, saying that survey plan and deed of assignment for 99 years would be part of the document that would be handed over to them with the keys.

Abiodun said work would soon start on the remaining 80 buildings as promised by the governor and pleaded with other villagers to be patient a while as the governor would fulfil his promises to all.

The Baale of the community, Chief Waheed Afolabi Ayoola, urged the governor not to relent in providing the remaining units of houses to would be beneficiaries.

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

BANK: CITIBANK NIGERIA LIMITED WEEK ENDED: AUGUST 5, 2016

PHOTOS:SYLVESTER OKORUWA

RETURNS ON UTILIZATION OF FUNDS SOLD TO CUSTOMERS FOR THE WEEK

SN CUSTOMER

ITEM OF IMPORT

1 CITI GC NBIM 2 GLAXOSMITHKLINE CONSUMER NIG. PLC 3 NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC 4 PERFETTI VAN MELLE NIGERIA LIMITED 5 PRIME PLASTICHEM NIGERIA LIMITED 6 PROCTER AND GAMBLE NIGERIA LIMITED 7 PROCTER AND GAMBLE NIGERIA LIMITED 8 PROCTER AND GAMBLE NIGERIA LIMITED 9 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 10 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 11 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 12 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 13 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 14 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 15 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 16 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 17 RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED 18 WORLDWIDE COMMERCIAL VENTURES LTD 19 CITI GC NBIM 20 CITI GC NBIM 21 CITI GC NBIM 22 CITI GC NBIM 23 GUARANTY TRUST BANK PLC 24 MAERSK NIGERIA LIMITED 25 MAERSK NIGERIA LIMITED 26 PMINTL NIGERIA LIMITED 27 PMINTL NIGERIA LIMITED 28 AFRICAN WIRE ALLIED INDUSTRIES 29 AFRICAN WIRE ALLIED INDUSTRIES 30 CITI GC NBIM 31 EMIRATES AIRLINE 32 ETIHAD AIRWAYS 33 ETIHAD AIRWAYS 34 INTERNATIONAL AIR TRANSPORT 35 MIDDLE EAST AIRLINES 36 SEVEN-UP BOTTLING COMPANY PLC 37 SEVEN-UP BOTTLING COMPANY PLC 38 SEVEN-UP BOTTLING COMPANY PLC 39 CITI GC NBIM 40 SEVEN-UP BOTTLING COMPANY PLC 41 ADDAX PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT 42 ADEGBOYEGA OLUSOLA OLOYEDE 43 CHI LIMITED 44 CITI GC NBIM 45 CITI GC NBIM 46 CITI GC NBIM 47 CITI GC NBIM 48 CITI NY GC PLATINUM 49 ESTATE OF F.B CARDOSO 50 MOHAMMAD MUDASSIR AMRAY 51 NIGERIAN BREWERIES PLC

REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES GLUCOSE SYRUP FLEXI TANK HOP CO2 EXTRACT 30 ALPHA BLOOP NEXT TOLU BBT PEARLS 25 KG LINEAR LOW DENSITY POLYETHYLENE RAW MATERIAL FOR PRODUCING PAMPERS RAW MATERIAL FOR PRODUCING PAMPERS RAW MATERIAL FOR PRODUCING PAMPERS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS ROCHE PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES INTERBANK SALES DEMURRAGE REMITTANCE DEMURRAGE REMITTANCE CIGARETTES CIGARETTES INDUSTRIAL MATERIAL: SEAMLESS TUBES FOR GAS CIRCULATION INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIAL REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF NET PROCEEDS FROM TICKET SALES REPATRIATION OF NET PROCEEDS FROM TICKET SALES REPATRIATION OF NET PROCEEDS FROM TICKET SALES REPATRIATION OF NET PROCEEDS REPATRIATION OF NET PROCEEDS FROM TICKET SALES MIXTURE OF ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES MIXTURE OF ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES MIXTURE OF ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES MIXTURE OF ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES PAYMENT OF SCHOOL FEES PAYMENT OF SCHOOL FEES RAW MATERIAL FOR MANUFACTURE REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF PROCEEDS FROM EQUITY SALES PAYMENT OF SCHOOL FEES PERSONAL HOME REMITTANCE ALU FOILS STAR 60 CL

NIKKAH BETWEEN MR ADEGBAYI ADESOYE AND FORMER MISS BIOLA USMAN, AT IKEJA COUNTRY CLUB, LAGOS

DATE OF FUND PURCHASE

EXCHANGE RATE

CCY

1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 4-Aug-16 4-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16

318.45 420.97 356.36 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.45 318.45 318.45 318.45 318.50 280.50 280.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.45 318.50 318.50 318.50 318.50 310.50 318.50 318.50 310.50 318.45 318.50 244.64 320.00 353.34 318.45 318.45 318.45 318.45 318.50 318.50 316.00 353.34

USD GBP EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD CAD USD EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD EUR

AMOUNT 4,862.31 18,813.60 299,328.00 137,066.00 100,237.50 25,732.27 26,172.14 51,464.56 118,012.52 20,457.26 8,238.82 5,732.41 16,879.71 27,662.07 20,274.52 73,851.04 21,260.46 400,000.00 127,210.29 252,855.84 163,175.07 28,638.22 675,000.00 600,000.00 1,500,000.00 150,196.00 263,460.00 45,014.24 150,000.00 10,903.08 592,505.90 250,000.00 150,000.00 94,191.52 250,000.00 70,268.51 784,717.25 250,000.00 4,686.32 652,127.19 28,834.72 19,742.50 237,862.72 16,069.28 42,350.98 44,217.71 52,903.91 1,243.46 34,396.00 34,526.15 181,591.00

The newly wedded couple, Adegbayi and Biola Adesoye.

RETURNS ON SOURCES OF FUNDS SOLD TO CUSTOMERS FOR THE WEEK

BANK: CITIBANK NIGERIA LIMITED WEEK ENDED: AUGUST 5, 2016 S/N 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36

CUSTOMER ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION CHI LIMITED CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI LN GC CORE CITI NY GC PRIORITY KANSAI PLASCON NIGERIA LIMITED RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED ROCHE PRODUCTS LTD SGS INSPECTION SERVICES (NIG) LTD. CITI LN GC PRIORITY CNOOC ENERGY SERVICES HP COMPUTING AND PRINTING NIGERIA MAERSK NIGERIA LIMITED MAERSK NIGERIA LIMITED MITSUBISHI SHOJI KAISHA NIG LTD. UNILEVER NIGERIA PLC ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI NY GC PRIORITY FIRST CITY MONUMENT BANK PLC PMINTL NIGERIA LIMITED VALLOUREC O G NIGERIA LIMITED BAYER MIDDLE AFRICA LIMITED CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI NY GC PRIORITY QCOM WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES LTD WESTERN UNION SUPPORT SERVICES CITI NY GC PRIORITY CITI NY GC PRIORITY CLINTON HEALTH ACCESS INITIATIVE MITSUBISHI SHOJI KAISHA NIG LTD. QCOM WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES LTD QCOM WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES LTD RBC INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A RBC INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A

DATE OF FUND PURCHASE 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 1-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 2-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 3-Aug-16 4-Aug-16 4-Aug-16 4-Aug-16 4-Aug-16 4-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16 5-Aug-16

EXCHANGE RATE 318.00 315.00 240.80 354.90 318.00 315.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 280.50 280.50 318.00 318.00 423.79 244.00 241.15 318.00 310.00 318.00 318.00 356.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00 318.00

CCY USD USD AUD EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD GBP USD AUD USD USD USD USD EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD

AMOUNT 40,000.00 16,229.04 711.11 2,904.91 1,088.72 60,000.00 312,343.81 400,000.00 200,000.00 572,688.68 20,000.00 300,000.00 1,500,000.00 600,000.00 15,000.00 675,075.00 20,000.00 33,959,090.00 4,286.58 7,667.85 500,000.00 2,000,000.00 182,000.00 500,000.00 1,412.81 3,280.15 20,000.00 40,670.00 5,005.62 25,079.13 300,000.00 15,000.00 20,000.00 20,000.00 50,769.06 76,153.59

The Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Adetona, flanked by the groom’s parents, Alhaji Gboyega Adesoye (left) and Alhaja Folashade Adesoye.

The bride’s parents, Alhaja Nurat and Alhaji Share Usman and the groom’s parents, Alhaja Folashade and Alhaji Gboyega Adesoye.

The newly wedded couple Biola and Adegbayi Adesoye, flanked by their bridal train.

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Nigerian Tribune

Group Business Editor Sulaimon Olanrewaju | 08055001708 | lanresulaimon@yahoo.com | @lanresulaimon

NDIC boosts depositiors’ confidence::

Pays N109.5 billion to depositors, others of closed banks in 2015 Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, promoting depositors’ confidence.

The Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) was established in 1988 to strengthen the safety and financial stability of the banking sector. Following phenomenal increase in the number of banks from 40 in 1986 to 120 in 1992, there was serious breakdown in Corporate Governance and excessive risk taking that threatened the stability of the banking system. Since then, the Corporation has evolved various strategies and initiatives in achieving success in its given mandates. These include both on-site and off-site surveillance of banks and proactively sound financial policies that safeguard both banks and its depositors. Sanya Adejokun here takes a look at some of the highlights of the 2015 Annual Report of the Corporation which further proved its resolve to strengthen public confidence in the Nigerian Banking system through regular risk assessment and reimbursing customers and investors of liquidated banks.

D

EPOSIT Insurance Scheme (DIS) has the objective of augmenting existing safety-net by protecting depositors, thereby boosting confidence of the banking public.

In Nigeria, it is an additional framework to serve as a substitute to the government support policy (implicit insurance) which was in place before the establishment of Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation in 1988. With the establishment of NDIC the pains of bank failure, inevitable in a market environment, were reduced to a minimum while moral hazard associated with direct government support was eliminated.

Although NDIC has the mandate and powers to guarantee deposits, supervise banks, undertake failure resolution in banks and liquidate banks when it becomes inevitable, to the average depositor, deposit guarantee is its most significant function.

In addition, Section 2 of the NDIC Act 2006 stipulates the functions for the Corporation to include: Insuring all deposit liabilities of licensed banks and such other financial institutions (hereinafter referred to as “insured institutions”) operating in Nigeria within the meaning of Sections 16 and 20 of this Act so as to engender confidence in the Nigerian banking system;

Giving assistance to insured institutions in the interest of depositors, in case of imminent or actual financial difficulties of banks particularly where suspension of payments is threatened, and avoiding damage to public confidence in the banking system; Guaranteeing payments to depositors, in case of imminent or actual suspension of payments by insured institutions up to the maximum as provided for in section 20 of this Act; Assisting monetary authorities in the formulation and implementation of policies so as to ensure sound banking practice and fair competition among insured institutions in the country; and pursuing any other mea-

NDIC MD/CE, Umaru Ibrahim mni, FCIB. sures necessary to achieve the functions of the Corporation provided such measures and actions are not repugnant to the objectives of the Corporation.

At the commencement of DIS scheme in Nigeria, maximum insurance limit was Continues on pg34

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How NDIC rescues depositors of failed banks tending to its responsibilities. Paying liquidation dividend simply implies that adequate provisions has been made for every deposit both insured and uninsured and shareholders are even recouping their investment in institutions that were greatly mismanaged by their representatives (management and board).

From right: NDIC Managing Director/Chief Executive, Umaru Ibrahim welcoming Julian Casal, a member of the World Bank Project Mission Team to the NDIC, on the establishment of target Deposit Insurance Fund (DIF) Ratio and NDIC Executive Director, Corporate Services, Omolola Abiola Edewor.

Continues from pg33

set at 50,000 per depositor and that was applied to insured depositors of all the 33 closed banks up to 2000. This limit has since been increased following an extensive study by the Corporation on the banking system in the country and to encourage cynical would-be depositors to embrace financial inclusion, which NDIC has promoted actively in recent years.

Deposit Guarantee According to the Corporation’s 2015 Annual Report released recently, “following a study on coverage levels conducted by the NDIC in 2015, it reviewed upwards the coverage level for depositors of PMBs from 200,000 to 500,000 in 2015. The current coverage levels of 500,000 per depositor per DMB and 200,000 per depositor per MFB were found to be adequate and so remained unchanged.” In order to encourage Nigerians to embrace mortgage facilities by enhancing confidence in primary mortgage banks, NDIC in 2006 extended insurance coverage to their depositors at N100,000. This was increased to N200,000 in 2010.

And still as a way of further enhancing inclusiveness, the report indicated that during the year under review, the Corporation extended deposit insurance coverage to subscribers of mobile money operators (MMOs) via the concept of pass-through deposit insurance up to a maximum of N500,000 per subscriber.

In line with this assurance, the NDIC has continued to pay bank customers whose banks were liquidated even after the statutory number of years when such payments should have closed.

The 2015 Annual reports indicated that NDIC made a cumulative payment of N2.86 billion to 81,328 depositors of the closed MFBs as at the end of 2015 as against N2.77 billion paid to 80,178 depositors a year earlier. Also, the Corporation made a cumulative payment of N45.05 million to 595 depositors of closed PMBs as at 31st December, 2015 as against N2.02 million paid to 30 depositors in 2014.

Aside depositors whose money falls under the purview of deposit insurance scheme who must be paid full value of their deposits as at when the banks failed, the corporation nevertheless, has over

A Cross section of participants at the NDIC 2015 FICAN organised workshop in Ilorin, Kwara State. the years, ensured that even uninsured depositors recoup their funds in liquidated banks. This has been made possible through prudent management of recovered assets.

The sum of N95.77 billion was paid as liquidation dividend to depositors of DMBs in 2015 compared to N94.74 billion as at December 31, 2014. That amount included the uninsured portion of private sector depositors of 11 out of the 13 banks closed post-bank consolidation which was funded by the CBN. Similarly, the NDIC paid liquidation dividends to creditors of DMBs-in-liquidation in 2015 while the sum of N1,728.40 million was declared as dividends to

1,308 creditors of the ten DMBs. Out of that amount, the NDIC paid the sum of N1,261.73 million to the 965 creditors who filed their claims as at 31st December, 2015 as against N1,247.77 million paid to the 889 creditors as at 31st December, 2014.

The NDIC also paid N2.41 billion as total liquidation dividends to 550 shareholders of six deposit money banks (DMBs) -in -liquidation as at 31st December, 2015 as against N2.03 billion paid to 453 shareholders of DMBs-in-liquidation as at 31st December, 2014.

Financial experts also noted that this is quite significant and underscores the effectiveness of the Corporation in at-

Although NDIC has the mandate and powers to guarantee deposits, supervise banks, undertake failure resolution in banks and liquidate banks when it becomes inevitable, to the average depositor, deposit guarantee is its most significant function.

Banks Supervision Banking supervision is an essential element of the Nigeria deposit insurance scheme as it seeks to reduce the potential risk of failure and ensures the unsafe and unsound banking practices do not go unchecked.

As a bank supervisor, NDIC supervises banks so as to protect depositors; foster monetary stability; promote an effective and efficient payment system; and promote competition and innovation in the banking system.

During the year under review according to its annual report, the NDIC, in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), conducted the routine Risk Assessment of all the 24 DMBs while the NDIC conducted risk-based examinations of 205 MFBs and 6 PMBs. The examinations were with a view to providing reliable information on their financial health particularly as it affects the quality of risk assets, adequacy of loan loss provisions, capital adequacy level of compliance with banking rules and regulations, risk appetite and adequacy of risk management frameworks.

The routine Risk Assessment of all the 24 DMBs conducted during 2015 showed that “overall, the banking industry remained stable and sound during the period under review.”

Since mid-2014 when global oil prices plummeted, Nigerian banks have suffered significantly from the shocks. In recent months, banks have been offloading staff in reaction to reduced profitability and stress occasioned by these developments.

As a way to therefore reduce apparent stress, which could trigger distress in the industry, the Corporation during the 2015 fiscal year, reduced the premium paid by banks by N9.09 billion. This was achieved as a result of the reduction of the premium base rate from 40 basis point to 35 for each DMB/NIB under the Differential Premium Assessment System (DPAS).

The NDIC 2015 annual report indicated that “the banking industry total assets grew marginally by 1.36%, total loans and advances rose by 5.56%, shareholders’ funds unimpaired by losses increased by 14.02% while capital adequacy ratio stood at 17.66%. However, total deposit liabilities declined by 2.83%, unaudited profits decreased by 2.02% while non-performing loans increased by 82.87% in 2015.”

On Capital Adequacy of deposit money banks, NDIC reported that the banking industry capital base remained strong. The capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of the banking industry was 17.66% in 2015 compared with 15.92% in 2014, but exceeded the minimum threshold of 10% and 15% for national and international banks respectively. Two (2) DMBs had CAR below the prescribed threshold of 10% in 2015.

On Asset Quality, the report noted “Total loans and advances to the Nigerian economy stood at N13.33 trillion in 2015, showing an increase of 5.56% over the N12.63 trillion reported in 2014. The non -performing loans to total loans ratio for the industry increased from 2.81% in 2014 Continues on pg35

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NDIC: Guaranteeing deposits Continues from pg34

to 4.87% in 2015, but was within the regulatory threshold of 5%.”

Commenting on Earnings and Profitability, NDIC noted that the banking industry operated profitably, though earnings and profitability deteriorated. The Corporation reported that the unaudited profit-before-tax (PBT) of the banking industry stood at N588.86 billion as at 31st December, 2015 representing a decrease of 2.02% over N601.02 billion reported as at 31st December, 2014.

Although earnings and profitability deteriorated, the annual report noted that the industry continued on the track of prudent management of liquidity during the year under review. It noted “The banking industry’s liquidity position was strong as its average liquidity ratio rose slightly from 53.65% in 2014 to 58.18% in 2015. All the individual DMBs had liquidity ratios above the prudential minimum threshold of 30% as at 31st December, 2015.”

Microfinance Banks Although the Deposit Insurance Scheme (DIS) commenced in Nigeria with the establishment of NDIC through the promulgation of Decree No. 22 of 1988 now NDIC Act No 16 of 2006 as a vital component of the safety-nets to ensure the stability of the banking system as well as the macro economy, microfinance institutions were only admitted into the DIS on January 1, 2008. The measure became necessary because of the wide-spread banking distress and failures witnessed in the past by depositors of community banks, which made many Nigerians skeptical about putting their funds in what was perceived as successor institutions. And so from January 1, 2008, it became mandatory for licensed MFBs to insure their total deposit liabilities with the NDIC with the exception of insider deposits (i.e. deposits belonging to board members, management and staff), deposits used as collaterals and such other deposits the Board of NDIC may exempt from time to time.

As at August 31, 2014, the Corporation had paid N2.756 billion to 80,059 insured depositors of 186 closed Microfinance Banks. Managing Director of NDIC, Umaru Ibrahim said then that the payment followed revocation of the operating licenses of 103 Microfinance Banks (MFBs) in 2010 At the end of 2015 according to the NDIC annual report however, paid-up capital of the MFBs had increased by 54.40% from N54.52 billion in 2014 to N84.18 billion in 2015 while their average capital adequacy ratio (CAR) had stood at 43.75% as at 31st December, 2015.

In terms of asset quality, NDIC reported that “total loans and advances of MFBs increased by 46.34 percent from N114.70 billion in 2014 to N167.85 billion in 2015.

The quality of risk assets deteriorated further as the NPL increased from 18.54% in 2014 to 23.13 percent in 2015, which exceeded the prudential maximum threshold of 5 percent”.

Concerning Earnings and Profitability, the report noted that unaudited profit before tax (PAT) decreased by 77.63 percent from N7.51 billion in 2014 to N1.68 billion in 2015 while return on assets (ROA) and return on equity (ROE) for the subsector declined from 3.39 percent and 14.70 percent in 2014 to 0.47 percent and 13.74 percent in 2015, respectively.

The liquidity position of the microfinance subsector was strong as average

An NDIC staffer paying a depositor of a closed MFB during the depositor pay-out in Markurdi, Benue State. liquidity ratio rose from 80.37 percent in 2014 to 119 percent in 2015 and compared favourably with the minimum prudential threshold of 20 percent. Overall, the performance of the MFB subsector improved compared to the previous year as they had strong capital base and liquidity.

Primary Mortgage Banks The report indicated that out of 42 PMBs in operation, a total of 14 failed to render returns to the NDIC and outstanding premiums from nine (9) PMBs amounted to N238.30 million as at December, 2015.

On Capital Adequacy, it stated that the shareholders’ funds of the PMBs increased by 93.91 percent to N138.92 billion in 2015 from N71.64 billion in 2014. Capital adequacy ratio for the subsector stood at 74.04 percent as at December 2015, which exceeded the prudential threshold of 10 percent.

“Asset Quality: Total loans and advances extended by the subsector declined significantly by 31.87% to N168.96 billion in 2015. There was a significant improvement in the quality of assets as the NPL ratio decreased from 44.14% in 2014 to 15.40% in 2015. Despite that improvement, the NPL ratio of 15.40% exceeded the prudential maximum threshold of 5%.

“Earnings & Profitability: Unaudited Profit before tax rose from N2.79 billion in 2014 to N3.31 billion in 2015 due to significant rise in interest income and non -interest income by 90.75% and 321.05% in 2015, respectively.

“Liquidity: The PMBs liquidity position was strong during the period under review as the average liquidity ratio was 72.63% in 2015 as against 80.37% in the previous year and exceeded the prudential minimum threshold of 20%.

Overall, the performance of the PMB subsector improved in almost all indices in comparison with 2014. The improvement in the operations of the PMBs was due to the recapitalisation of the sector,

enhanced compliance by PMB operators and improved supervisory oversight”, the report indicated.

Loans Recovery For years, the NDIC has insisted that slow legal processes have been a very serious impediment to the successful recovery of funds from debtors of liquidated banks.

At a point, there was a national advocacy for the establishment of special courts to deal with bank loan defaulters. According to Alhaji Umaru Ibrahim, aside excessive litigations, the Corporation also faces the problem of execution of court judgments against its assets as the liquidator of failed banks based on the misunderstanding of its role as a liquidator. In addition, lack of proper understanding of the distinction in the legal status of NDIC as a liquidator and deposit insurer by legal practitioners, courts and the general public were other constraints. There are also difficulties in recovering debts owed to failed banks due to inability to trace the debtors and lack of collaterals. It is nonetheless believed that the introduction of Bank Verification Numbers will help to remove some of these problems.

These cogs in the wheel notwithstanding, the 2015 annual report stated that

As at August 31, 2014, the Corporation had paid N2.756 billion to 80,059 insured depositors of 186 closed Microfinance Banks.

the cumulative amount of loans recovered over the years stood at N27.41 billion as at December 31, 2015 compared with N26.75 billion as at December 31, 2014. Similarly, the cumulative risk assets recovered from closed MFBs amounted to N125.61 million as at December 31, 2015 compared with N124.38 million as at December, 31, 2014 while the debt recoveries from the debtors of PMBs in-liquidation amounted to N24.73 million as at December 31, 2015.

Corporate Social Responsibility During the year under review, the NDIC sponsored several corporate and community-based projects, which were aimed at promoting its visibility and presence in the public domain. Some of these projects were education-support and community health care related. In this regard, the Corporation spent the sum of N236.15 million on eighteen (18) such projects spread across the country.

Fiscal Responsibility The Fiscal Responsibility Act 2007 mandates select government corporations and agencies to remit a percentage balance of their annual operating surplus to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation not later than one month, following the statutory deadline for publishing such corporation’s annual accounts. The Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC) in its annual reports has consistently indicted many big agencies and corporations of consistently failing to declare profits and refusing to remit excess profits to the consolidated fund. NDIC is different.

In the 2015 Annual Report, the NDIC fully complied with the provisions of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and so, remitted the sum of N24,185,762,000 to the Consolidated Revenue Fund of the Federation in 2015 as against N15.38 billion in the previous year. Overall, the NDIC’s operating surplus for 2015 stood at N30.23 billion as against N15.52 billion in 2014.

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PDP convention: Mark warns against imposition Taiwo Adisa - Abuja

F

ORMER Senate President David Mark has warned against impunity and imposition at the forthcoming national convention of the party fixed for August 17, in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

This was contained in Senator Mark’s statement signed by his Special Assistant, Paul Mumeh, and made available to newsmen on Monday.

The statement quoted Mark as telling the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leaders in his home state, Benue in Otukpo, that the

defeat of the PDP in the last general election, was a self-inflicted injury, which he said, was orchestrated by imposition of candidates and the impunity of some leaders.

According to him, it is incumbent on PDP leaders and members to allow the popular will of the people prevail at the

congresses and the convention.

Senator Mark also urged PDP members to remain steadfast with the party while frowning on cross carpeting.

He insisted that inconsistencies caused by cross carpeting neither enhance the sustenance of democratic culture nor

the integrity and credibility of politicians who decamp.

“If we must uphold the sanctity of democratic culture, we must follow the path of honour like the Democrats and Republicans in the United States of America or the Labour Party and the Conservatives in the United King-

dom who hold on tenaciously to their political ideologies no matter the odds,” he said.

The former Senate president reaffirmed that he would not leave the PDP no matter the challenges, adding that the platform had afforded him the opportunity for winning contested elections since 1999.

PDP chairmanship: Adeniran picks form, restates resolve to reposition party

By Tunde Ogunesan

FORMER Minister of Education, Professor Tunde Adeniran, on Monday, picked the nomination form to contest the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja.

Speaking after the event, the former Ambassador to Germany, said his “commitment to reposition the party towards greatness and redirect it in actualising the dreams of the founding fathers” informed his decision to seek the mandate of the delegates to the national convention.

According to him: “I want to assure all our party members and Nigerians at large that my venture into the chairmanship position of our great party has no other motive than to reposition, rebrand and put the party on the path of greatness. As a founding member, who has remained with the party in thick and thin and served in various frontline capacities, I possess the fortitude and experience to help the party achieve its objectives.”

The Professor of Political Science who picked the nomination form in the presence of party stakeholders and prominent stalwarts, including Honourable Oke Olusola Babatunde from Ekiti State, Honourable Oluwole Oke from Kwara State, Mr Chinedum Ekeh from Abia State, and Honourable Temitope Atte from Kogi State, urged the delegates and leaders of the party to entrust him with the responsibility of being the National Chairman in order to ensure its rebirth and the enthronement of good governance in the country.

Mr Jimi Agbaje (second left) amidst Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stakeholders, on Monday, during a visit to the Imo State chapter of the party, ahead the national convention of the party.

PDP not dying, BoT replies OBJ Leon Usigbe and Jacob Segun Olatunji-Abuja

IN an apparent response to the claim made by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was dying and gasping for breath, its Board of Trustees (BoT) has assured that the party was alive and kicking.

Inaugurating an 18-member reconciliation committee in Abuja on Monday, chairman of the board, Senator Walid Jibrin advised party members to ignore the assertion.

Obasanjo had made the claim last week after having been wrongly reported to have attended a meeting of the PDP at Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja.

He was at the venue for an unrelated event which happened to have coincided with the inauguration of the PDP national convention planning committee at the same venue.

Speaking at the inauguration of the reconciliation committee, Jibrin advised party faithful not to believe that the PDP was dead “as said by some

leaders,” adding that the party was doing well and was prepared to receive such leaders back to its fold.

While urging members to remain calm, the BoT chairman said: “What’s happen-

ing in PDP is normal in a democracy. They (party members) shouldn’t listen to rumour that the party is dead as said by some leaders. The party is alive and we are ready to receive them.”

He explained that the committee was set up following the BoT’s August 3, 2016 meeting which reviewed “the unpleasant situation in the party,” adding: “I’m sure very soon, the problem will be solved.”

We’ll screen the two factions of PDP —OGSIEC Olayinka OlukoyaAbeokuta

THE Ogun State Independent Electoral Commission (OGSIEC), on Monday, said it would screen the two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the ongoing screening exercise for the October 8 local government election.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune was the Commissioner III in the Commission, Mr Mutiu Agboke, who said the electoral body had received lists from the two factions.

He explained that the two factions would be screened accordingly .

Agboke added that 17 political parties would be contesting in the election, adding that the Commission was yet to receive any

direction on the issue.

“We have so many court judgments with us, they are not contradictory, they are judgment on different issues and we are not the court of appeal to decide on which judgment is superior to the other.

“We are still on the issue of PDP, INEC has not responded to our letter, no clear cut direction and that is the reason but we don’t want to be caught in the web, and that is why we are screening the two factions,” he said.

The statement also quoted the state chairman of the PDP, Mr John Ngbede, as saying the PDP in Benue was now united and working as one family for good.

He, however, observed that the party was bedeviled by cash crunch, which he said, was hindering its activities.

PDP crisis: Jerry Gana heads reconciliation committee THE Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has inaugurated an 18-man committee ,headed by former Minister of Information, Jerry Gana to reconcile aggrieved members of the party.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalled that the PDP caretaker committee proposed August 17 for its national convention in Port Harcourt.

Senator Walid Jubrin, the chairman of BoT, who inaugurated the committee, said the insinuation that the party is dead is a figment of some people’s imagination.

He urged the committee which was mandated to submit its report within seven days, to explore avenues of reaching out to all affected members and to adhere to the party’s constitutional provisions.

“We decided to set up a special committee with a view to resolving the problem. ‘’With the calibre of the people we have chosen to represent the BoT, I am very optimistic that the end of this conflict has come and that we shall all come out smiling very soon, before our convention.

“We want us to agree that this our party will rely on its constitution and if we do, we must also agree that this party is supreme, this party is above everyone,” he stated.

PDP learnt bitter lesson after 2015 elections —Dokpesi Muhammad Sabiu-Kaduna-

ONE of the chairmanship aspirants for the forthcoming Peoples Democratic Party (PDP ) national convention, Chief Raymond Dekposi has said the party has learnt a bitter lesson after the 2015 general election.

Dokpesi, who was in Kaduna State, in continuation of his national campaign tour, told Kaduna delegates that he was ready to correct the wrongs of yester years

mistakes and repackaged PDP for 2019.

“I have offered myself to rebuild this collapsed building-PDP. Our party is the only true national party in Nigeria.

“PDP is the richest party in Africa in terms of human resources, money etc. I can assure you that PDP will rise again and we will capture power back in 2019,” he said.

According to him, people of the country have learnt that

they erred in electing APC and so only an experienced politician like him can bring back the glory of the party.

He appealed to the delegates to give him the chance of steering the party in the next convention of the party slated to hold in port Harcourt.

Earlier, the state chairman of the party, Hassan Hyat said the wranglings in the party would be over, saying the party would come out stronger.

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

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Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Flood alert: We’ll demolish illegal houses, kiosks —Oyo govt

By Wale Akinselure

A

S part of measures to address the listing of Oyo State as likely to experience flood disaster this year, the state government is set to demolish houses, kiosks, shanties and other structures built on waterways, floodplains, drainages and road setbacks.

This measure, according to the state government, had become imperative because residents continued to flout building codes, thereby obstructing the free flow of drainages and mounting pressure on roads.

Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Mr Isaac Ishola, made this known on Monday, while sounding the flood alert to residents of the state as handed down by the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA).

Ishola, who noted that Ibadan, the state capital, was prone to incidence of flash flooding, due to the topographic nature of the state and its soil types, warned against indiscriminate dumping of waste in

drainages.

Noting the tendency for residents to dump refuse in drainages whenever it rained, he said government agents had been empowered to arrest anyone caught dumping refuse in drainages.

Especially, Ishola urged the people of the state to relocate from their houses whenever they observe that rain persisted for a while and avoid low, broken, submerged bridges and culverts.

He urged residents to regularly clean their drainages,

canals and shun staying under tension wires.

“The people of the state do not comply with building codes. Now, the government is ready to take decisive measure against all those who do not comply with our building codes. Many houses do not comply with our setback regulations. Where we discover that houses or structures are built on waterways, such houses or structures will be demolished. We will go tougher in terms of compliance.”

“The first stage is to alert residents and plan a strat-

egy to mitigate any impending flood disaster. We will meet with the State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) on where they will come in,” Ishola said.

He listed measures taken by the government to include rehabilitation of drainages, Eleyele multipurpose reservoir, development of Ibadan City master plan, Solid Waste Management plan and provision of early warning system.

Asides the World Bank Assisted Ibadan Urban Flood Management Programme, Ishola said that the state

was a beneficiary of grants from Global Environment Facility (GEF) and Special Climate Change Fund (SCCF) aimed at addressing the 218 flood and erosion prone areas in the state that had been identified.

On what had been done since a major flood disaster was recorded in August 2011, Coordinator, Ibadan Urban Flood Management Project, Mr Dayo Ayorinde, said that civil works had commenced at four out of the 14 priority sites that were damaged in the last incident.

Oyo commences enumeration of properties

By Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare

OYO State government, on Monday, stated that it has started to enumerate all its properties in the 33 local government areas of the state.

The Commissioner for Lands, Housing and Urban Development, Honourable Ajiboye Omodewu, made this known in a statement, adding that the enumeration would help the government to have a comprehensive Property Data Base of all commercial, educational, health institutions, industrial and residential properties.

The statement added that the government officials in the 33 local government areas would soon commence the identification and enumeration under the supervision of Ministry of Lands, Housing and Urban Development.

Omodewu further urged members of the public to cooperate with the officials, saying that the action would be beneficial to all and sundry.

Aregbesola appoints Yussuf Alli as UNIOSUN Pro-Chancellor

Accord national secretariat reinstates sacked Oyo executives

Oluwole Ige - Osogbo

By Ganiyu Salman

THE national secretariat of the Accord Party has reinstated sacked executives of the party in Oyo State, saying their removal was unconstitutional.

It also directed that the removed executives should continue in office until a congress is held with the approval of the national secretariat.

This was contained in a letter dated July 13, which was addressed to the Chairman, Oyo State Accord, Mr Bashir Aremu Lawal, entitled: Re: Dissolution of Local Government Executives in Oyo State and Appointment of Caretaker Committees and Sole Administrators, signed by the national chairman of the party, Honourable Mohammed Nalado.

The letter further reads: “We are not unaware that their tenures elapsed with the effluxion of time, and your inability to apply to the national secretariat for a conduct of congress in the state.”

The national secretariat of the party further stated that “however, the appointment of the caretaker committees and or Sole Administrators is unknown to our party’s constitution, ultra vires, illegal, null and void.”

Nigerian Tribune

From left, Director, Hospital Services, Federal Ministry of Health, Dr Wapada Balami; Provost, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Professor Tunde Salako; Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee, University College Hospital (UCH), Dr Femi Afolabi; Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole and the Chief Medical Director, UCH, Professor Temitope Alonge, at the accident and emergency unit, during an official visit of the minister to the hospital, on Monday. PHOTO: NAN.

Oyo lawmaker’s death not politically motivated —CP As police parade suspected killers

By Oluwatoyin Malik

FOUR suspects arrested in connection with the killing of a member of the Oyo State House of Assembly, late Gideon Aremu, were paraded at the police headquarters in Ibadan, with one of them, Adedeji Ayobami, confessing that he was one of the four-man gang who carried out the act.

The three other suspects, Oladapo Adeniran (31), Kareem Isiaka a.k.a. Afaa (43) and Adedeji Sodiq (20) were said to have been involved in the purchase and resale of the phone stolen from the deceased.

It will be recalled that Honourable Aremu, representing Oorelope Constituency at the state assembly, was murdered by unidentified gunmen on July 1 at Adegbayi area of Ibadan while he was about to enter his compound.

Speaking with journalists during the parade, the outgoing Commissioner of Po-

lice, Mr Leye Oyebade, said the arrest of the suspects had dispelled the insinuation that his death was politically motivated, adding that one of the major participants in the killing, Ayobami, had confessed that his gang was on robbery operation.

Oyebade disclosed that the breakthrough of the command on the case was made possible by the combined efforts of crack detectives from the command and the Special Response team of the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris.

He stated further that the confessional statement of Adeniran, after he was arrested with the late honourable’s phone, led to the arrest of other suspects.

Oyebade said that Adeniran was discovered to have bought the phone a day after the honourable’s killing, adding that the suspect could not claim ignorance that the source of the phone was suspicious, as it was his

third purchase from Afaa.

The police commissioner also added that Afaa jumped from a three-storey building naked and ran away to escape arrest but was eventually caught, saying that he had been arrested and paraded before over a criminal offence.

In his confession to the Nigerian Tribune during an interview, Ayobami admitted his involvement in the operation that led to the death of Honourable Gideon Aremu but said it was mere robbery as nobody sent his gang after the victim.

“We just went for robbery and he was unfortunate to be our victim. We saw him in his car and we stopped him. We were four in number that went for the operation. They were Abbey, Yusuff, Kola and me. We left a hemp joint at Beere area for robbery operation. All we wanted was money from him. We stopped him when he wanted to enter his compound.

“It was Abbey who brought the job and the gun we used was held by him. He was the one who shot the man. Abbey also lived at Adegbayi area where the deceased also lived. I don’t know whether Abbey killed him because he knew him. I don’t know how much we got from him but I was given N40,000 and one handset,” Ayobami said.

He confessed to being an ex-prison inmate, saying that his offence then was hemp sale. “I spent a year awaiting trial but was released by the Chief Judge of Oyo State on pardon in 2015,” Ayobami disclosed further.

He said that he did not know the residence of his gang members as they always meet at hemp joint.

Sodiq, who said he bought the phone from two of the gang members, Kola and Yusuff, revealed that he paid N12,500 but gave it to Afaa when he could not unlock it, adding that Afaa resold it for N16,000.

GOVERNOR Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State, on Monday, inaugurated members of the board of Governing Council of the University of Osun (UNIOSUN).

Inaugurating the Governing Council at the Executive Chambers of the Governor’s Office, in Osogbo, Aregbesola announced Mallam Yussuf Olaolu Alli as the new Pro-Chancellor of the university.

The newly inaugurated Governing Council also has Mallam Yusuf Alli as the chairman of the Governing Council. Other members are Professor Solomon Akinboye, Dr Abeke Omotosho, Professor Kasali Adegoke, Sir Benjamin Aladekomo, Mr Tunde Ponle and Professor Charles Abiodun Alao.

He charged the newly inaugurated council to come up with ideas on raising funds for the university without passing the burden on the students, stating that such funding could come from endowment chairs, direct funding of programmes and philanthropists to fund projects.

In his remarks, the ProChancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council, Yusuff Alli, said the enormity of work ahead of the council would not be underestimated giving the situation of the university in the last four years.

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Tuesday, 9 August , 2016 Editor: Ganiyu Salman tribunesporteditor@yahoo.com 08053789060

Pogba lands at Man U for medical with mum

P

aul Pogba on Monday landed in England ahead of his world record £110million move from Juventus to former club, Manchester United.

The France midfielder’s return to Old Trafford has been the transfer story of the summer, but is nearing completion with Pogba driven to United’s Aon Training Complex in a Chevrolet Camaro on Monday afternoon to undertake his medical after landing on a flight from Nice having been in New York. He was joined in the car by one of United’s security staff.

Pogba is moving back to United - the club he left for just £800,000 in compensation in 2012 - for a new world record fee.

United’s training base includes facilities where Pogba’s medical will be undertaken. He is expected to sign a five-year contract worth £290,000 a week once that is completed.

Pogba was joined in England by his mother, Yeo Moriba, who travelled in a different car behind her son heading for Carrington.

United confirmed last Sunday that Juventus had given permission for Pogba to take a medical with them ahead of a deal which Sportsmail understands will go beyond the £100m mark with add-ons and agents’ fees taken into account.

It means Pogba will become the world’s most expensive footballer, his move to United taking him past the estimated £86m Real Madrid paid Tottenham for Wales superstar, Gareth Bale in 2013.

Pogba’s medical is expected to be a for-

mality, with United expecting to make the signing official either today or tomorrow.

The box-to-box midfielder, still just 23, landed at Manchester Airport on Monday morning after jetting in from New York where he has been on holiday.

The Twitter account for Manchester Airport gave a clue as to his arrival by posting a picture of a private plan landing, with the caption ‘an important passenger has just touched down at the airport. Can anyone guess who it might be?’

Pogba left United for Juventus in 2012

having made just seven senior appearances in all competitions, all from the bench.

He went on to help Juventus win four Serie A titles and two Italian Cups, while he also helped them reach the 201415 Champions League final. He helped France finish runners-up at Euro 2016 this summer.

Opening up on the signing of Pogba after Sunday’s Community Shield victory over Leicester, United boss Jose Mourinho said: “United is the perfect club to bring him to the level he wants to be.”

Globacom hails Dream Team, Eaglets Nigeria’s U-23 national team, ‘Dream Team,’ has been commended for qualifying for the quarter-finals of the men’s football tournament at the ongoing Rio Olympics.

Globacom, in a press statement in Lagos on Monday commended the fighting spirit and doggedness of the team which saw them defeat Japan 5-4 and Sweden 1-0 respectively.

“The Dream Team has, so far, been outstanding in the tournament. We urge them to sustain the momentum during the last group B match against Colombia on Wednesday (tomorrow) so as to top the group and remain in the commanding position,” Globacom said.

It praised the team for making Nigeria and Africa proud and said it looked forward to seeing them progress to the final and ultimately winning the gold medal.

This feat will make them equal the record of the first Dream Team which won gold at the 1996 Olympics.

Glo also praised the Golden Eaglets, on their 1-0 victory over the Junior Menas of Niger Republic in a 2017 AFCON U-17 qualifier in Abuja last weekend.

Globacom urged the technical crew of the Eaglets to remain focused as they intensify efforts to qualify for the 2017 AFCON U-17.

Both sides meet again in Niamey in a second leg fixture.

“The team should work assiduously toward victory in Niamey. We appreciate the support given to both the Dream Team and the Golden Eaglets by Nigerians and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), in particular. We enjoin all to continue to support the teams until the ultimate victory is achieved,” Globacom concluded.

NFF to offer Rohr short-term contract

I never signed to coach Eagles —Rohr German coach, Gernot Rohr would be given a short-term contract covering only the 2018 World Cup qualifiers after which a longer deal would be given to him by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), reports AfricanFootball.com.

The 63-year-old tactician, who once coached the national teams of Gabon, Niger Republic and Burkina Faso is in line to be appointed the new Super Eagles coach after the NFF technical and development committee recommended he be hired by the executive committee last weekend.

“Paul Le Guen was offered a two-year deal, but in the case of Rohr, he will get a deal now that will only cover the World Cup qualifiers, which start in October and end in November 2017. It is only after he has qualified Nigeria for the World Cup that he will get a longer deal,” an official informed AfricanFootball.com.

The financials of the coach’s initial deal are still under wraps as officials maintained contractual negotiations are still ongoing.

Rohr, who arrived in Nigeria last weekend after meeting the technical committee of the NFF, is to be presented to the media in due course.

Meanwhile, the coach has said he is yet to sign any contract with the NFF. A football analyst, Osasu Obayiuwana through his twitter handle @osasuo disclosed this saying “This is what Gernot Rohr just said to me. minutes ago: “I didn’t sign yet [to become @NGSuperEagles Manager].”

Osasu later in another tweet said: “I have arranged to speak with Gernot Rohr before he boards a flight for home, from Abuja, tonight. Let’s see what happens.”

Rio Olympics: How Etebo broke 44-year-old record of 4 goals in a game It had been 44 years since a player last scored four goals in an Olympic football match, with West Germany’s Bernd Nickel the man responsible in a 7-0 win over USA in front of 65,000 in Munich.

Last Thursday, in the dry, difficult conditions of Manaus, 20-year-old striker Oghenekaro Etebo matched Nickel’s feat in Nigeria’s thrilling 5-4 win over Japan.

Oghenekaro translates as “God first”, so it was perhaps only fitting that, when reflecting on making Olympic history, Etebo expressed gratitude as well as pride. “Thank God it has happened, but what I’m most excited about was the victory,” he told FIFA.com. “I’m very happy because it was a great joy, although it wasn’t easy due to the stress and all that.”

“If I had scored but we lost, it’s not going to be too fantastic. I’m happy we’re topping the group, and I’m really happy about the goals. I didn’t expect it at all.

I’m not going for personal glory but team glory, which to me means [winning] gold.

Without the gold, it’s going to be painful because achieving that is important for me, for Nigerians and for my teammates.”

Goals are in Etebo’s blood. Indeed, he’s well used to making the kind of impact he has at Rio 2016. In Etebo’s first ever Nigerian Premier League match, he scored a hat-trick. He was just 18 years old. At

the end of that season, he finished as the league’s second-highest goalscorer.

“I’m not that perfect but I believe, like my coach says, once you get a chance, it’s better you convert it because you don’t know when you’re going to get another one,” he said. “I’m not a kind of special striker or fantastic goalscorer, but it’s better to be at the right place at the right time to score good goals.”

In truth, we should have seen this coming. In Senegal at the CAF U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, the qualifying tournament for Rio 2016 for the continent,

I’m not a kind of special striker or fantastic goalscorer, but it’s better to be at the right place at the right time to score good goals.

Etebo celebrates one of his goals who finished as the tournament’s top marksman? It was, of course, Oghenekaro.

“Now in Brazil, I scored four goals in the first game,” Etebo said, not able to

hold back a smile, one of disbelief mixed with delight. “When I scored those goals, I didn’t think about anything. It’s a game of football! Luck was on my side.”

Etebo showed on Thursday night in the Amazon that he has all the attributes of an elite forward: composure in the penalty area, ruthlessness in front of goal, precision and awareness from distance and clinical penalty-taking ability. But has there been another striker that has inspired him in his development?

“There’s one player that I really cherish most,” he said. “He’s playing for Manchester United and his name is Wayne Rooney. I really like him a lot from day one.”

The England captain would surely have admired the natural way Etebo scored his goals, while nonchalantly writing his name in the books of Olympic Football history in his first ever match at the Games.

“I just want to dedicate the goals to my family, friends and well wishers,” the Nigeria star said. “I really appreciate them a lot. The way we are going, I believe we are going to get it right. As long as we’re disciplined, we’re going to take advice from the coach, to listen to his instructions that he has given for every game.

“I believe we’re going to do it. I believe we’re going to get it right.”

SIDELINES

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Golden Eaglets coach, Manu Garba, has lamented that even the players he sourced from secondary school failed the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test conducted to test their ages. Well, in a country where people habitually lie about their age, where middle-aged (wo)men squeeze themselves ridiculously into khaki and participate in the NYSC scheme and where civil servants are permanently young, we certainly need MRI for more things!

Rio Olympics:

I’m not thinking about Brazil —Siasia •As Nigeria pips Sweden to earn q/final ticket

By Olawale Olaniyan

N

IGERIA’S U-23 coach, Samson Siasia has said his main preoccupation remains the last

group game against Colombia and not Brazil as likely opponents in the knockout stage.

The Dream Team in the early hours of Monday in Manaus, pipped Sweden 1-0

courtesy of Sadiq Umar’s 40th minute goal to land in the quarter-final of the men’s Rio Olympics football tournament.

Siasia while speaking at the post match conference

said he could only take one game at a time.

“I think for me and the boys all we are doing now is taking it a game at a time, we are not bothered about the team we will be playing in the quarter-finals, let’s play Colombia first and from there we will think of our opponents at that stage.

“The issue of the team I will prefer to play in the quarter-final doesn’t arise now; what is uppermost in my mind is getting my boys focused for every game,” the

former Super Eagles coach said.

The former international stated that the technical crew has been able to address the leaky defence of the reigning African champions, as reflected in the game against Sweden.

“As you all can see, my defence line didn’t concede any goal (against Sweden), yes myself and my technical crew worked very hard to correct all the lapses we noticed in our first game (against Japan) and I am

happy my boys stood their ground and kept a clean sheet today. All I can say for now is that it’s work in progress,” said the man who coached Nigeria to win silver at the Beijing 2008 Olympics.

Nigeria will face Colombia at the Arena Corinthians, Sao Paulo, tomorrow in the last group game which serves as a mere formality game for the Dream Team having booked ticket to the next stage after two previous wins.

THE Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung, has apologised to players and officials of the country’s Olympic football team for the circumstances that led to the contingent’s late arrival in Brazil for the Rio 2016.

Dalung, tendered his apology in the dressing room after the Dream Team’s 1-0 victory over Sweden at the Arena Amazonia.

After hugging and exchanging pleasantries with players and officials, Dalung said: “I want to apologise for all

the circumstances that led to your late arrival here. I apologise because I am the head and as such I must take responsibility for anything that happens under my watch.

“I’m happy you all have put the unfortunate incident behind you and have shown that you are true heroes by making the country proud with your qualification for the quarter finals. This qualification is unique as you guys are the first team to do so in the football event,” he said.

Dalung stated that: “I want to assure you that we appreci-

ate your efforts, and I want to say that it’s when a man faces challenges that his true ability is tested. I am sure we all have learnt our lessons and will take the lessons to heart going forward.”

He then assured the players and officials that all bonuses and allowances due to them will be paid, as he recalled that the team faced similar challenges on the way to winning the Africa U-23 Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Senegal last year, where the team qualified Nigeria for the Olympics.

... As Dalung apologises to Dream Team

Quadri

Beating world’s number 7 gave me more confidence —Quadri

By Oluwabunmi Ajayi AFRICAN reigning champion, Aruna Quadri, has said winning his first game against world’s number seven, Chuang Chih-Yuan, has given him more confidence to go far at the ongoing Rio Olympics.

Quadri, created an upset when he dumped Chinese Taipei’s Chih-Yuan, 4-0 (11-

6, 12-10, 11-6, 11-7 to land in the fourth round of the men’s singles of Rio 2016.

The victory made him to equal the feat achieved by Segun Toriola at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, where the former African champion made it to the same stage of the championship.

Quadri who is ranked 40 in the world and 27 at the

Rio Olympics, was able to avenge the loss he suffered early this year at the German Open to the Olympics number five seed.

“I am growing in confidence because the last time I played Chuang Chih-Yuan was earlier this year on the ITTF World Tour in Germany, I lost in four straight games, my goal today was to improve on that performance and fight to win one game!

“After I won the first game I became more confident. It is so hard playing Chuang Chih-Yuan, he is so consistent, he keeps putting the ball on the table, you must try to be positive against him and put him under pressure. Also he was clever with his services, he changes short and long. In the first game I made mistakes returning service.

Today he was below his best, he did not play well,” Quadri added, ahead of his fourth round clash with German Timo Boll, who is seeded number 10 at Rio Olympics.

RETRACTION/APOLOGY Petition of Judicial Misconduct Against Hon. Justice Mobolaji A. Ojo of The High Court of Ogun State: We hereby wholly retract the entire publication of the advertorial placed by a faction of the Ogun State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party by way of an open letter to the president contained in our Monday, 25 July, 2016 edition captioned as above.

In particular, the representations received have revealed that paragraphs 30, 31, 32 and 33 of the open letter alleging the involvement of Barrister Edwards Ayo-Odugbesan in dishonourable and unprofessional conducts are untrue and this is deeply regretted.

We tender unreserved apologies to Barrister Edwards AyoOdugbesan, who is of very high esteem for whatever embarrassment which this publication may have caused him, members of his family, his professional colleagues and associates.

Signed: Management, ANN Plc

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. 9/8/2016.