10th April 2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 2,041

SUNDAY, 10 APRIL, 2016

www.tribuneonlineng.com

PDP faces fresh crisis as many big guns plan to quit

Nigerian Tribune Pg9

@nigeriantribune

Nigerian Tribune

Elections: 7 arrested in Ife, low turnout in Abuja

N200 9 Pg8&4

2 YEARS AFTER ABDUCTION

Boko Haram demands N16bn for Chibok girls charge fees pg5

Why gospel musicians should

•As troops arrest sect’s founding leader

—Mike Abdul

Robbers lay siege to Abeokuta communities Pg51

Investment:

Buhari leads govs, 10 Pg5 ministers to China

SHARING ELECTION LARGESSE... PIC 1: Some voters sharing money... PIC 2: Food vendors and voters at a polling unit during the FCT council election, on Saturday. PHOTOS: SUNDAY OSUNRAYI/NAN

FG loses N1.5bn daily to fuel scarcity

•We’re suffering, artisans, others lament •FG saved N1trn on subsidy — Presidency 0 pgs10&5 •Situation remains same in Oyo, Kwara, Osun, parts of Lagos, Abuja, others

2

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

3

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

4

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

5

news

10 April, 2016

We’ll resort to cash calls, Panda if... —Finance Minister

By Sulaimon Olanrewaju with Agency Report

From left, Mrs Kay Ovia; Chairman, Zenith Bank Plc, Mr Jim Ovia and publisher, Vanguard newspaper, Mr Sam Amuka, during the presentation of Vanguard Businessman of the Year Award 2015 to Mr Ovia, at the Vanguard Personality of the Year Award 2015, held at Eko Hotels, Lagos, on Friday.

PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA.

Buhari, 10 ministers, govs leave for China today Leon Usigbe -Abuja

P

RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari will today, in company with 10 ministers and some state governors, leave Abuja for a week-long working visit to China.

The ministers scheduled to be on the entourage of the president are those of agriculture, water resources, transport, defence, power, works and housing, industry, trade and investment, federal capital territory, science and technology and foreign affairs, while the number and identities of state governors on the entourage could not be ascertained as of the time of filing this report.

The visit, according to the Presidency, is aimed at securing greater support from Beijing for the development of Nigeria’s infrastructure, especially in the power, roads, railways, aviation, water supply and housing sectors.

A statement issued by the Special Adviser (Media and Publicity) to the president, Femi Adesina, in Abuja, on Saturday, noted that President Buhari’s talks with President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Keqiang and the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National Peoples’ Congress, Zhang Dejiang, would also focus on strengthening bilateral cooperation in line with the Federal Government’s agenda for the rapid diversification of the Nigerian economy, with emphasis on agriculture and solid minerals development.

The statement added that it is expected that in the course of the visit, several new agreements and memoranda of understanding to boost trade and economic relations between Nigeria and China will be concluded and signed.

These agreements, Sunday Tribune learnt, in-

Sunday Tribune

clude a framework agreement between the Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment and the National Development and Reform Commission of the Peoples’ Republic of China to boost industrial activities and infrastructural development in Nigeria, a framework agreement between the Federal Ministry of Communications and the China Aerospace Science and Technology

Corporation, and a Memorandum of Understanding between Nigeria and China on Scientific and Technological Cooperation.

The statement added that in keeping with President Buhari administration’s prioritisation of economic diversification and industrialisation to boost employment, the Nigerian delegation will tour the Shanghai Free Trade Zone and the Guangzhou Eco-

nomic and Technological Development Zone to gain more useful insights and understanding of the policies that underpinned China’s astronomical economic growth in recent years.

The entourage, it was said, will also open a China-Nigeria Business/Investment Forum in Beijing and meet with members of the Nigerian community in China before returning to Abuja next weekend.

NIGERIA might use money set aside for funding joint venture projects with foreign and local oil firms to make up for any shortfall in the 2016 budget if government revenue projections are not met, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun, said on Saturday.

Nigeria has been trying to boost tax revenues and the non-oil income to fund a record $30 billion 2016 budget aimed at reviving Africa’s biggest economy hit by the slump in oil prices.

“The Plan B is around the cash calls,” Adeosun told Reuters and the Financial Times in an interview in Lagos State when asked how the budget would be funded if revenue projections fell short.

Cash calls are the government’s financial obligations to joint venture projects between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and international and local oil companies.

“If the revenue doesn’t come in we have got one trillion (naira) in the budget for cash calls. We will not fund those cash calls from the budget,” the minister said.

“We will force those cash calls out into the modified carrier arrangement and we will release that money back into the federation account.

That’s where the fiscal buffer sits,” she said.

Modified Carry Agreements are loans provided by oil majors to NNPC for investing in oil exploration and production projects.

Nigeria’s oil and gas output has been relatively stagnant as new projects have been held up by delays in government funding for its share of joint ventures with foreign and local firms.

“Initially we were looking simply at the Eurobond market but then we began to explore opportunities in the Renminbi market, so there is a possibility of issuing a Panda bond,” she said.

She added that Nigeria was expecting to post budget deficits for the next two to three years. “For 2016 the government expected a deficit of 2.2 trillion naira,” she stated.

President Muhammadu Buhari has yet not signed the 2016 record budget with a volume of $30 billion yet due to wrangling with parliament which passed it last month.

Boko Haram demands N16bn for Chibok girls •As troops arrest sect’s founding leader THE Islamic sect, Boko Haram, has demanded for $50 million (about N16 billion) ransom from the Federal Government so as to release the over 200 schoolgirls abducted in Chibok, Borno State, two years after the kidnap.

A dollar currently exchanges for N320 at the parallel market, making the total ransom demand to be N16 billion.

According to the Telegraph of the United Kingdom, the group is said to have made the demand through a secret contact it made with the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, who had repeatedly said he was ready to negotiate with the freedom of the girls who were kidnapped in April 2014.

The group’s leader, Abubakr Shekau, had previously demanded the release of his jailed comrades in exchange for the girls.

However, a deal along those lines - brokered by the Red Cross - fell through after Nigerian prison officials said that commanders on a list given to them by Boko Haram were not in their custody.

Details of the new ransom request emerged ahead of the second anniversary of the girls kidnapping on the night of April 14, 2014, when they were abducted by Boko

Haram gunmen posing as soldiers.

Despite their case receiving global attention because of the celebrity-backed #bringbackourgirls campaign on social media, diplomats and sources close to the negotiations say they are no closer to knowing the girls’ whereabouts.

The Nigerian military has made significant gains against Boko Haram in the last 18 months, raiding a number of the sect’s camps in Nigeria’s vast Sambisa forest, and freeing at least 1,000 women and children taken in other mass abductions.

Yet in none of the raids have rescued prisoners or captured fighters been able to give any convincing accounts of meeting or seeing any of the Chibok girls.

That indicates they are still being kept well away from other captives, and that their kidnappers see them as having huge symbolic value as hostages - thanks partly the publicity given to them by the social media campaign.

“I think they are probably in clusters rather than all in one place, but probably not far from each other,” said Shehu Sani, a senator and civil rights activist involved in peace attempts with Boko Haram, adding: “Boko Haram knows they are a prized catch.”

One source close to Boko Haram said that around three months ago, the group sent a message saying it would exchange the girls for a ransom of N16 billion, the equivalent of around $50 million.

“The ransom demand has split the government,” said the source: “Some think it would be worth it just to resolve the Chibok situation, but others say it will simply allow Boko Haram to hire yet more insurgent recruits.”

The same source also said that a month after the ransom demand, Boko Haram had secretly passed the government a new video tape showing 15 of the kidnapped girls.

“The girls are asked what their Christian names are and what their new Muslim names are,” he said, referring to the “conversion” that Boko Haram forces Christian prisoners to undergo.

In another development, the Department of Security Service (DSS) has arrested Mohammed Usman, widely known as Khalid Al-Barnawi, who has been linked with terrorist attacks in Nigeria Khalid Al-Barnawi was apprehended on April 1 in Lokoja, Kogi State, while hiding under a false cover and will soon be charged to court after investigation is completed. The arrest has been

desrcibed by DSS as a major milestone in its counter-terrorism fight.

“This arrest has strengthened the Service’s resolve that no matter how long and far perpetrators of crime and their sponsors may run, the Service, in collaboration with other sister security agencies, will bring them to justice,” it stated.

Khalid Al-Barnawi was involved in many terrorist attacks in the country, including places like Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Sokoto and FCT-Abuja, resulting in the killing and maiming of innocent citizens.

Al-Barnawi is also responsible for the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja on August 26, 2011; the kidnapping of two European engineers in Kebbi State in May, 2011, and

their subsequent murder in Sokoto State; the kidnap of a German engineer, Edgar Raupach in January, 2012, the kidnap and murder of seven expatriate staff of Setraco Construction Company at Jama’are, in Bauchi State in February, 2013 and the attack on Nigerian troops at Okene in Kogi State, while on transit to Abuja for an official assignment.

Al-Barnawi was a founding member of Boko Haram and later the Amir of the break-away faction, Jama’at Ansarul Muslimim Fi Biladi Sudan (JAMBS) and has been coordinating terrorist activities in Nigeria, while talent-spotting and recruiting vulnerable young and able Nigerians for terrorist training by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in North African States and the Middle-East.

Subsidy: Beneficiaries fighting Buhari on social media —Presidency THE Presidency, on Saturday, alleged that those who benefited from petroleum subsidy which the federal government has now stopped paying, are fighting back with their illgotten wealth.

A statement made available to State House correspondents in Abuja by the Senior

Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, said the Buhari administration has saved one trillion naira on account of removing subsidy, which it said was fraudulently making some cabals richer at the expense of the welfare of the people who were being shortchanged.

6

10 April, 2016

crimereports

Sunday Tribune

edited by Oluwatoyin Malik 0807 889 1950, 0811 695 4633 praiseboy01@gmail.com

I disguised as female with hijab to get free ride Says teenager who escaped being set ablaze

By Oluwatoyin Malik

S

EEING Joshua Francis dressed like a female, with kneelength skirt, hijab and eyelids darkened with eyeliner, it would be difficult for anyone to think he could be a male; save his skinny hairy legs. Even his husky voice could be mistaken for that of a lady.

For reasons best known to him, the 18-year-old boy loved to play the girl, but it boomeranged on Wednesday, March 30, when he attempted to hitchhike, dressed like a female. But for the timely intervention of a patrol team from Egbeda Division in Oyo State Police Command which was invited by a member of the public, Joshua would have been burnt to death based on the suspicion that he intended to carry out a criminal act.

According to information gathered by Crime Reports, a lady, Mrs Lawal, who is a nurse, reported that while going to Ikire in Osun State, she stopped at Iwo road to pick passengers out of sympathy for them because of the ongoing fuel scarcity.

She noticed a young lady in hijab and chose her out of the many people, with the belief that she would be harmless. But as she was about to move, Mrs Lawal was said to have scrutinised her passenger closely and noticed features that made her feel that ‘she’ was not a female.

She enquired from the passenger who said she was a lady. She asked her to remove her hijab so that she could see her hair.

She removed it slightly and the woman noticed that ‘she’ was not a female. She raised the alarm which attracted passers-by. They discovered she was not a female and descended on him before he was handed over to the police.

In an interview with

Crime Reports, Joshua Francis, an indigene of Badagry, Lagos State working with a foreign company marketing products with natural supplements at Ikire, Osun State, confirmed what he was accused of. According to him, “it is true I disguised as a lady but it was just to get a free ride.

Explaining what led to his action, the teenager said: “We went for a marketing programme at Kishi, Oyo State. I was paired with a male colleague.

After the programme, we boarded the bus on the way home but I took an excuse to urinate. Before my return, the vehicle had gone. Confused and afraid on how I would get back to Ikire, I started waving vehicles down, but they refused to help me. I went to a motor park nearby and asked for their help but they said they could not help because there was fuel

Joshua Francis in hijab scarcity.

“When I saw that there was no help coming my way in Kishi, I remembered that I had a few female clothes belonging to one of the girls working with the same company, so I turned aside and wore

His real self them because I believed that people would help a female quicker than they would assist a male. From there, it was easy for me to get a ride to Ibadan.

A woman stopped to give me a ride at Iwo Road, Ibadan, to Ikire but as I en-

tered, she noticed my legs and asked if I was a female.

I told her I was a female.

She asked me to show her my pierced ears; it was then I confessed that I was a male.

“As soon as the woman knew that I was a male, she

raised the alarm and said I wanted to attack her on the way and steal her car.

I tried to explain to her but she did not listen. She shouted at me to get out of her car. A crowd formed around us and as she explained what happened to them, the people started beating me. Before I knew it, they placed a tyre round my neck to set me ablaze but an elderly man invited the police and I was handed over to them.”

Confirming the story, the police image maker in Oyo State, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said that the teenager had been released on bail since he was found not to have intended to commit crime.

He warned youths against acts that could portray them as criminals while he urged members of the public to be vigilant so that they would not fall victims of those who might want to employ the same method to perpetrate crime.

Jigawa police parade criminal gang members Adamu Amadu - Dutse

THE Jigawa State Police Command has arrested suspected members of criminal gangs terrorising the people Dutse and other parts of Jigawa State.

Parading the suspects recently, the state Commissioner of Police, Usman Tilli, said his men on patrol intercepted two middle aged men identified as Ema Gwadal and Sylvester Gofwen along Birnin Kudu Babaldu road while conveying firearms from Plateau State to Kafin Hausa Local Government in Jigawa State.

Tilli said that the suspects met their Waterloo when the police stopped their J5 vehicle for checking and the suspects became nervous and took to their heels, leading to a hot chase before they were arrested.

According to him, while

Some of the suspects searching the vehicle, two locally-made revolver pistols and 10 rounds of live ammunition were recovered.

“When the police interrogated them, they confessed that the arms were

from one Dembo of Temper town in Kanke Local Government Area of Plateau State,” he said.

Tilli added that “unfortunately, the manufacturer of the arms is on the run; but effort is onto get him

arrested and brought to book.”

Also paraded were two members of a syndicate which specialised in trailing bank customers to snatch their cash withdrawn from the bank.

The suspects, whose names were given simply as Agwubu and Ekenna, both from Orlu Local Government Area of Imo State, reportedly snatched N1 million belonging to one Abdullahi Sani Chamo in Dutse on March 23, 2016.

The police commissioner told Crime Reports that one Emeka Ajilado, said to be the gang’s kingpin and residing in Kano, was on the run.

Tilli said the police also arrested one Haruna Iliya of Fage quarters, Kano after a Daylong brand of motorcycle with registration number QM 486 RGN belonging to one Ibrahim Umar was recovered from him.

Tilli stated that the arrests made were part of the efforts intensified to keep the state free from the activities of criminals and ensure full security of lives and property.

7

crimereports

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

I kidnapped my niece because her dad was stingy —Suspect

By Oluwatoyin Malik

A

20-year-old man, Olayinka Taiwo, who was arrested by the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of the Oyo State Police Command, has said that he decided to kidnap his three-yearold niece, Labake (not real name) because the victim’s father was not very generous whenever he asked him for money.

Taiwo, according to the police boss in the state, Leye Oyebade, kidnapped the child on March 30 from her parents’ residence at Adegbayi area of Ibadan, after which he took her to an unknown destination.

The police commissioner said that the suspect later demanded for a ransom of N500,000 from the young girl’s parents before she could be released to them. He added that his men were able to locate the hideout of the kidnappers after the case was reported, leading to Taiwo’s arrest and the rescue of the victim.

The suspect, who pleaded for forgiveness, told Crime Reports that his friend was the mastermind and executor of the kidnap plan. He said the friend took the action after he reported to him that his brother-in-law was miserly towards him.

According to him, “my brother-in-law used to tell me that he didn’t have any money to give me anytime I came back from school or visited his household. I told a friend of mine and he said he knew what to do that would make my in-law give me money. On Wednesday, March 30 my friend came home with my niece around 7.30p.m. I asked him why he went for her and he replied that I was the one who asked for money.

“My friend asked for my sister’s number and I gave him. He sent his account number to my sister.

He told me he was going to request for N200,000 but I learnt he asked for N500,000. Since my arrest, I have not been able to see him. I was warned by others to steer clear of the friend because he was released from police cell not quite long, but I usually had no one to relate with as a peer. He was the one who led to where I am but I know that God will forgive me.”

The little girl’s mother, Mrs Abdulsalam, who appeared to be in a state of discomfiture after the experience, narrated her daughter’s ordeal thus: “Taiwo is my brother. On Tuesday, around 7.00 p.m., I was looking for my daughter. When we could not find her, I was advised to report at police station.

“That night, someone called hiding his number.

He asked to speak with my husband. Later, when I was at the police station, he called again, saying that my husband was owing him N200,000. He threatened that he would not release my daughter until the money had been paid.

“He gave me until Friday but I promised to pay the following day, saying that he should send an account number. He sent it and my husband was advised to pay N50,000 into it. When he tried to withdraw the money, he could not, so he called me. I told him I didn’t know what happened.

“I pleaded with him to allow me speak with my daughter but he refused.

Instead, a young lady spoke with me and said I should look for N100,000 to pay, promising to get my back to me that same night. At 9.30p.m., they asked me to meet them with the money at Olode junction and I

went with three men. They later directed me to Adegbayi junction and asked me to turn into a street. They even told me the colour of the dress I wore.

“When I did not see them, I returned home.

They called me later and said I came to them with three men. They called me again and I went with a friend’s phone which I borrowed because my battery had gone flat. They asked me to drop the phone and walk away from the spot.

After a while, I turned back and found that the phone had been taken. I started weeping but suddenly I saw my daughter emerge from a corner.”

The suspect, Olayinka Taiwo

Guard against importation of illegal items, Customs’ boss charges officers

By Oluwatoyin Malik

THE Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Colonel Hameed Ibrahim Ali (retd), has charged officers and men of the organisation to be cautious in the discharges of their duties so that illegal items, particularly weapons and ammunition don’t find their way into the country.

Colonel Ali stated during a familiarisation tour of the Oyo/Osun Command of the Service on Wednesday, April 6, 2016. He was accompanied by the Oyo/ Osun Area Controller of

Customs, Mr Tolulope Ogunkua and other senior officials.

Speaking at the Customs base in Saki, Oyo State, the Comptroller-General said he was embarking on a nationwide tour of Customs bases, “so that I can have first hand information about what we have on ground.

“As always, I want you all to be more dedicated to your duties so that we can keep out illegal items, particularly weapons and ammunition, which are used to wreak havoc on innocent Nigerians.

“Smugglers are part of

our problems in this country, as they bring in those items that have been outlawed by the Federal Government.

“And when government says don’t bring in something, it has a reason for that; but smugglers will always look for ways to go against the government.

That is why we must work hard to beat them to their games.

“Apart from smuggling, we also have a duty to generate revenue for the Federal Government, as well as to boost trade between Nigeria and other countries,” Ali said, while call-

ing on other sister security agencies to continue to partner with the Customs.

The Comptroller-General continued with his tour on Thursday when he visited the British American Tobacco company in Ibadan where he appealed to the company and others to continue to pay duties to assist the agency in meeting its targeted revenue so as to improve on the nation’s economy.

Addressing the management of the tobacco company, Col. Ali stated that the purpose of his visit to the company and Oyo State was to remind industries of

The Comptroller-General of Customs, Colonel Hameed Ali (retd) (circled) with other Customs officers and officials of sister security agencies, in Saki, Oyo State

Civil Defence nabs 2 for diversion of fuel truck Biola Azeez - Ilorin

THE men of Kwara State command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have arrested two persons for illegal diversion of a truck load of Premius Motor Spirit (PMS) popularly known as petrol.

Parading the suspects at the command’s headquar-

ters in Ilorin on Thursday, the state commandant of the corps, Mr. Augustine Ibekwe, said the suspects were nabbed at Aboto-Oja along Afon road in Asa Local Government Area.

The commandant said the loading documents of the petroleum product stated that the fuel was actually meant for a filling

station located at Akerebiata along Sobi road in the Ilorin metropolis.

He, thereafter, directed his men and officers in the command to lead the suspects and the truck to the filling station at which the product was meant to be discharged.

Mr. Ibekwe, who said that further investigations

would be conducted on the arrest to fish out other accomplices, added that every suspect involved in the matter would be prosecuted.

He also warned other people in the act of economic sabotage like diversion or hoarding of petroleum products to desist, saying they would be severely dealt with when caught.

their responsibilities in revenue generation, appealing to them to pay their excise duties as at when due to generate more revenue into the government coffers.

The Comptroller-General said further that the NCS was ready to partner with industries and companies across the country in an effort to drive more revenue for the government, promising to provide the needed support for companies and other stakeholders across the country to thrive.

He spoke on the need to create alternative sources of revenue, as a result of the global drop in the prices of crude oil and the country’s many years of over-dependence on oil, remarking that the situation had put a lot of pressure on the NCS and the Federal Inland Revenue Service to be active drivers of the economy.

The Comptroller-General also visited the governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi in his office, where he called for the support of the state in the fight against smuggling in Oyo/Osun Area Command by educating members of the public on the dangers that smuggling could bring on the national economy.

Responding, Governor Ajimobi, stressed the need for the establishment of Customs-Community Relations groups that would provide adequate information on border activities to Customs officials which he said would help in the fight against smuggling.

8

news

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Saraki alerts public to sponsored protests against him Taiwo Adisa and Ayodele Adesanmi - Abuja

T

HE Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, has disclosed that his office has uncovered plots by some politicians to sponsor protest marches and demonstrations in which some hired people will be given placards to disturb public peace.

A statement signed by Yusuph Olaniyonu, his Special Adviser (Media and Publicity), on Saturday, stated that sponsors of the proposed protest marches were seeking “to forcefully mobilise and pollute public opinion” against him.

“As part of their plan, they are already distributing money and other materials to some faceless civil society organisations, market men

and women associations and other shadowy groups with a view to instigating demonstrations in Lagos, Abuja and Ilorin, starting from Monday, April 11.

“They believe that the on-going trial at the Code of Conduct Tribunal provides them the opportunity to stampede Dr Saraki out of office, so that their defeated objective of getting their lackey into the office

of Senate President will be realised.

“This is another desperate move by these spineless politicians to achieve through the back door what they failed to realise on the floor of the Senate.

“We are alerting members of the public to the antics of these desperate politicians, which may result into breach of public peace, order and health.

“Dr Saraki is a peaceloving and law-abiding politician. The trial at the CCT is just beginning and, while the prosecution’s witness has started giving evidence, he is yet to be cross-examined by the defence team.

“The defence has also not opened its own case. We urge members of the public to patiently wait for the

Defection: Adeyemi, Melaye in war of words T aiwo A disa - A buja

The Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase (middle) flanked by his wife, Agharese (left) and the governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, during the funeral service for late Chief Sunday Adewusi in Ogbomoso, on Friday. PHOTO: OLUWATOYIN MALIK

CBN denies using private chartered flights B y S egun A debayo THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has denied a report that its governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, now flies the top rated Canadian private jets chartered regularly by the immediate past Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke.

The apex bank explained that it only uses private and official chartered flights in making urgent travels to meet needs in remote and not-easily-accessible locations.

This was contained in a release made available to Sunday Tribune on Saturday and signed by its acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isaac Okorafor.

The release said the use of private and official chartered flights had been in place long before Mr Emefiele assumed office.

It said it was on record that the past two CBN governors actively used chartered private jet services to meet urgent national assignments.

It added that neither Eme-

conclusion of the case.

“Since the fundamental principle of our legal system is that an accused person is presumed innocent until he is found guilty, Dr Saraki will not allow any distraction to take him away from his responsibility as President of the Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly,” Olaniyonu added.

fiele nor any of the deputy governors has used the services of private chartered flights and that it has not paid a kobo for private jet services since 2015, in response to the economic downturn and the cost-cutting stance of the government.

“In recognition of this critical need in its smooth

operations, the CBN had in 1990 acquired a dedicated jet for this purpose and for urgent currency movement. This was however taken over by the military administration when there was an urgent need for it at the State House.”

The release also stated that, as against the report

that Mr Emefiele flew a private chartered flight to mother’s burial last week, the CBN governor and his family flew a commercial Arik flight from Lagos to Benin, adding that the burial was a model in costcutting and demonstration of his modest ‘made in Nigeria philosophy’.

CHAIRMAN, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Senator Dino Melaye, on Saturday, attacked his predecessor in the office, Senator Smart Adeyemi, for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying that the defection was only spiritual but not physical.

Melaye, who wrote on his Twitter handle, said that the fact that executive members of the party did not attend the event showed that they were not supporting the action.

But Senator Adeyemi, who reacted to the statement, said that he had just started a democratic process which first demands that he makes his position known to the whole world.

Melaye said, “Smart Adeyemi joined APC spiritually but yet to join physically. State chairman, local government chairman and ward chairman, [are] yet to see or get notification.

“No national, state, council or ward party exco was present in the Abuja home where he made defection.

Where is your membership

card?

“If all politics is local, why Abuja? We are ready for politics of inclusion, but when Smart Adeyemi is ready, he should come home.”

But Senator Adeyemi said he expected Melaye to understand a simple democratic process, adding that what was expected of him was to first denounce his former party before acquiring the card of the new party.

Adeyemi said: “Collection of party cards is not something you do in secret and when the time comes, we will meet the leaders of our new party and do all that is necessary.

“A man is made up of body, soul and spirit and if our body has left a party, the next thing is to follow through. The first question is: are we convinced that we want to go? Of course yes, we have and we have made our position known to the world.”

Also on Saturday, the deputy governorship candidate to the late Alhaji Abubakar Audu in the Kogi governorship poll, James Faleke, said Adeyemi was welcome in the APC.

Ife bye-election: 7 arrested over plan to snatch ballot boxes Apathy, low turnout mar election O luwole I ge - O sogbo NO fewer than seven suspects were, on Saturday, arrested by the police for attempting to snatch ballot boxes during the bye-election held to fill the vacant seat of Ife Central State Constituency.

The seat became vacant following the death of Honourable Oladejo Makinde on December 27, 2015.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the suspects were apprehended around Moore and Ilare areas of Ile-Ife. When contacted, the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Mr Kola Sodipo,

confirmed the arrest, but said he could not give details of the number of people arrested.

The development came as apathy and low turnout of voters almost marred the exercise, just as stakeholders lamented the indifferent posture of people to the election.

Though voting materials arrived at polling units as early as 8.30 a.m., with the adhoc staff of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) on ground to register voters, only a handful of eligible voters turned up for the exercise.

When Sunday Tribune visited Ward 005,

Falaju Bus Stop, unit 012, at about 8:30 a.m. there was low turnout, as the INEC officials were already seated, waiting for voters to participate in the exercise.

The same scenario played out at Ajebamidele Ward 005, Mayfair Junction, Unit 001 and Ward 006, Iremo ll, where a few people were seen waiting to perform their civic duty.

Speaking on the exercise, a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and former special adviser to Governor Rauf Aregbesola on sports and special needs, Mr Biyi Odunlade, said the electorate in Ife Central had showcased

their level of political maturity, adding that INEC had created an enabling environment for the people to exercise their rights.

He said the early arrival of electoral officers and materials at the polling centres contributed to the success of the bye-election.

Also speaking with journalists, the candidate of Accord, Olusegun Fanibe, descibed the election as history in the making, saying that people were given the opportunity to choose their preferred lawmaker.

Fanibe explained that he was not desperate, despite being a politician, adding that the people would determine “who gets what,

how, and when.”

Also, the candidate of the APC, Tilewa Sijuwade, expressed satisfaction with the process, which he described as peaceful.

He decried the low turnout of voters as unfortunnate and a bad omen for the process, as well as a call for political leaders to always intensify awareness campaign in future elections.

The candidate of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Dipo Eluwole, said the bye-election was peaceful, but raised the alarm over sudden influx of strange faces to polling units towards the end of the exercise.

9

news

10 April, 2016

More PDP big shots plan exit •As groups consolidate ahead 2019 Taiwo Adisa-Abuja

I

NDICATIONS emerged at the weekend that some top members of the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) are set to announce their defection to the ruling All Progressives Congress(APC) any moment from now due to ongoing realignments in the polity.

While some PDP chiefs are preparing to join the APC, sources also indicate that some aggrieved members births APC have also started romancing the emerging structures ahead of formal announcement of working arrangements in the near future.

Sources told the Sunday Tribune that different reasons are informing the defection of the politicians across party lines.

It was gathered that while some PDP members are defecting to get some “political protection” in the polity, others are protesting their marginalization in the scheme of things

within the former ruling party.

It was gathered that besides the issue of political protection and grievances dating back to the last general election, some of the politicians are also seeking to position themselves ahead of the expected great realignments expected to take place from late 2017.

Sources gathered that while the APC appeared the destination of many active politicians, the defecting politicians are directly wooed by different structures in the party which have started strengthening themselves ahead of the next dispensation.

Source said that the political camps in the APC are not leaving anything to chance ahead of the next general election and that the camps have started solidifying on time.

“It would appear many politicians are heading for the APC in recent times.

That is not really the work of the APC leadership. The camps in the party are woo-

ing like minds ahead of the expected showdown in the near future,” the source said, adding that the camps include that led by Senator Bola Tinubu, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar,the Congress for Progressive Congress (CPC) wing of the APC, as well as the New PDP caucus of the party led by Senate President Bukola Saraki.

It was gathered that while some PDP chiefs believed in taking their leave of the party at this time to join like minds in the different groups within the APC, some others are of the view that they can wait a bit further before they team up with other structures.

A source said that as part of the emerging trends that will dominate the 2019 politics, the different APC camps are already seeking to consolidate their advantages, such that they would have a strong platform to bargain if the differences in the ruling party become irreconcilable.

Students protest death of colleague Hakeem Gbadamosi-Akure

STUDENTS of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, on Saturday, barricaded the major road in the town protesting the killing of one of them by a tricycle rider.

The student, Daniel Ojo, who was preparing for his examination left home on Friday before he met his death.

The deceased who was using his motorcycle for commercial activity, was hit by the tricycle rider who was on high speed along IkareOwo road Ojo was rushed to the school clinic where he gave up the ghost.

Students, however, blamed the school authorities for not providing ade-

quate facilities at the institution’s health centre.

One of the students said that the Department of Economics Education student died in the school ambulance on the way to the Federal Medical Centre.

The death of the student was said to have ignited a protest by the students who were billed to sit for examination on Saturday.

During the protest, the students barricaded the Ikare-Owo Expressway, preventing vehicular movements on the highway, causing traffic gridlock for several hours, while bonfires were also set at many places on the road.

Social and economic activities were also affected as all the shops in the af-

fected areas were closed down.

It, however, took the intervention of men of the Ondo State Police Command and other security agencies to prevent a breakdown of law and order in the town.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the state police command, Femi Joseph, was not available for comments as of the time of filing the report as his telephone was switched off when a call was put across to him.

In his reaction, however, the Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr. Sola Imoru, said the students were protesting against the killing of their colleague and not against the management.

Jonathan, Modu Sheriff, Dickson pay tributes as Alamieyeseigha is buried THE remains of Chief Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the first civilian governor of Bayelsa State, have been laid to rest in Amassoma, Southern-Ijaw Local Government Area of the state.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the deceased was buried after a funeral service by the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) on Saturday.

Speaking at the burial ceremony, Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State said Alamieyeseigha’s demise was a trying time for the people of Ijaw nation.

Dickson described him

as “a bridge builder” who believed in what is right for his people.

“A bridge builder has departed in our state; We know we have lost a true hero, but we have put ourselves together and pray for his soul to rest in peace,” he said.

Former President Goodluck Jonathan described the deceased as a man of vision who brought development to the state.

Jonathan said that his legacy on education and infrastructural development would not be forgotten in the history of Bay-

elsa and Ijaw nation.

“He brought to us the Niger-Delta University (NDU). He was a man with vision and champion for peace, unity and social integration,” he said.

Alhaji Ali Modu Sheriff, the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), said Alamieyeseigha’s death was regrettable to the nation. He prayed for God’s grace and urged the deceased’s family to bear the loss.

“He was a real gem and true keeper of his people; may his soul rest in peace,” he said.

Sunday Tribune

10

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

feature Fuel crisis: Our businesses are suffering Traders, artisans, others speak on low patronage The current fuel crisis coupled with the poor run of the economy is taking its toll on traders, artisans, market men and women and small business owners. DAPO FALADE, BIOLA AZEEZ and KEHINDE AKINSEINDE-JAYEOBA, feel their pulses of citizenry across the states on the prevailing situation.

Deserted Artisan Market in Anambra

I

N recent times both small and medium scale entrepreneurs, artisans, traders and businessmen have been having a rough time due to the economic situations in the country. While the value of foreign currencies in relation to the naira has not favoured the local currency, poor power supply has also threatened to stifle small scale businesses including the bigger ones.

The current fuel scarcity has also made matters worse.

In Enugu State, many people including businessmen, are still passing through untold hardship due to hike in the price of petroleum products. Commuters, motorists and traders have ugly tales to tell.

A visit to the artisan market in Enugu on Thursday showed that market women and traders are not spared as they lamented over low turnover in their businesses. For instance, one Ifeanyi Udogba a fruit seller told Sunday Tribune that his business is experiencing its worst time.

Mazi Udogba who has been into a full scale fruit busi-

ness with his wife in Enugu for over 12 years, said “the fruit business is no longer going well as before due to the present situation of things. Before now, fruit business was moving very fast but now everybody is aware that things are hard, no money.

“Before, many know that fruits are very good food supplement and they patronise us, but now there is a big drop in our sales as 80 percent of customers do not come for fruits again.

“We do buy water melon ranging from 100 to 200 pieces and within one month we sell all of them, but now we buy just 50 pieces and it takes us the same one month to sell because the demand is low.

“Many people are complaining that there is no money.

Our suppliers are from the North. For instance a bag of orange was N1,800 but now it is N3,500. The same is for cucumber. We now buy local pineapple. A heap of pineapple was bought for N6,000, now we buy it for N10,000.

Garden egg bag was N1,500 but now it is N5,000,” Udogba said.

Lamenting the poor sales, he appealed to government to wade into the current economic situation with a view to making life meaningful.

“We want the government to look into the high cost of things properly. Can I leave the business? Where do I go?

We have resigned ourselves to fate. We pray for God’s intervention,” he said.

Another trader, a rice seller, who gave her name as Elizabeth Okoroigwe, said in an interview that she has been experiencing poor sales since the present fuel scarcity began.

“For local rice, there are three grades. For the first grade, a bushel was sold at N3,000; another for N2,800 and the third one for N3,200 but now N200 has been Continues pg 11

11

feature

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘Govt should come to my rescue’ again and few minutes in the night. Even at that, queuing for fuel during their free hours eat into their service hours. There is no rush hour for most of them again because most of their customers now trek.”

Nurudeen

Continued from pg 10 added to each of the old prices. Prices of rice vary from time to time due to high cost of fuel which has made transport fare to also increase.”

According to Mrs Okoroigwe a bag of imported rice which was sold for N8,000 before the current increase in fuel price is now sold for between N15,000 and N16,000.

Speaking further she said a brand of rice called “Mama Africa” is very scarce in the market and in a situation where it is found, it is very costly as it sells for N16,500.

Further findings showed that transporters are not left out in the effects of fuel price increase as established transport companies like Peace Mass Transit and Royal Mass Transit charge between N500 and N600 from Enugu to Nsukka and Obollo-Afor while “drop and pick motorists” charge higher fares ranging from N700 to N800 depending on commuter’s bargaining power.

From Enugu to Lagos the transport fare is N4,600 as against earlier fare of N3,200.

Curiously, intra-city transport fares are stable as many of the long buses that ply the Enugu metropolis use gas. Drivers of 508 buses in Enugu still charge N50 from Gariki to Holy Ghost and New Market.

In Kwara State, artisans and small scale business operators have continued to lament over low patronage due to persistent fuel scarcity and low power supply in recent time.

Speaking with the Sunday Tribune, small business owners like shoe makers, tailors, electricians, cyber cafe operators, phone repairers, welders, among others said they had suffered huge losses while the situation persisted.

They said that the situation was made worse by current economic crunch in the nation, prior to the fuel scarcity.

Mr. Juwon Medaiyese, who operates a cyber cafe along Murtala Mohammed Road, Ilorin lamented that he bought petrol at N300 per litre for his power generator every day in the past few weeks, the situation which he said had nearly ran him out of business.

“You could imagine, despite buying fuel at quite an expensive price. People still don’t patronise your business because of bad economy. It’s quite frustrating,” he said.

Ope Ige, a farmer said: “We are losing a lot on our farms. Our profits, right before our eyes, are being wiped out due to fuel scarcity. In the last two weeks, I have lost over N3m on eggs and vegetables.

Just three days ago, a bus that I hired to move eggs from my farm to the city ran out of fuel and to my shock, the driver told me that we would have to trek to a petrol station to buy fuel as he was not going to power the vehicle with his urine.

“He didn’t even care that our products might perish. I guess it was because he had collected his own fare and couldn’t be bothered whether we suffered any loss or not. After 8 hours, we got fuel at N230/ litre. That time waste, apart from the fact that the eggs were becoming rotten, negatively affected me as the vegetables had weazened. Nobody buys non-fresh vegetables and stale eggs. I lost almost N2m due to rotten eggs last week alone. How do I get out of this? I can’t shut down my farm because of fuel scarcity or I will lose my good hands.”

A photographer, Ade Fasheun also feeling the impact of poor economy said, “Nobody is taking pictures these days. Society events, where the big money is, are not

really happening as it used to. I should have made N450,000 from two weddings and one funeral, but the families that had promised to pay have called separately to tell me that they had postponed their events until things improve.

“Most times when I am told something like that, they hardly call back. It is only passport pictures that I now live on and nobody takes passport photographs unless they are for official use. Most days, I just come to work and waste the day because sitting at home will not do me any good.”

A vulcaniser, simply known as Nurudeen also lamented the harsh economic situation of the country. He said: “I usually fix no fewer than 10 tyres every day when there was regular fuel supply but these days, I hardly fix two tyres. How will tyres have problems if cars are not used?

Most of my customers don’t make much money again. Majority of taxi drivers now work few minutes in the morning, rest, work few minutes in the afternoon, rest

I don’t sell on credit to new customers. But, I do sell on credit to some of my old customers on request. These customers are mostly civil servants whose salaries are not regular

Sales have dropped In Osun State, the current economic and fuel scarcity situations have continued to take their toll on traders, civil servants, artisans and other categories of people.

Expectedly, the fuel crisis had affected market forces, culminating in the skyrocketing of prices of goods and commodity, just as low patronage continues to be a source of concern to traders.

When Sunday Tribune visited major markets in Osogbo, the state capital, traders lamented over poor sales and high cost of transporting their wares from Ibadan, Lagos and other urban centres, where they carry out bulk purchasing of their items.

At Olagbaju International Market in Osogbo, some of them who spoke to our correspondent said the current fuel scarcity had negatively affected their business activities in terms of cost of transportation and the increase in prices of goods and commodities.

Responding to enquiries on how they cope with the situation, bearing in mind the nature of Osun State as a civil service state, Mrs Ramota Olatunji, who sells foodstuffs stated that “it has been really difficult to survive at this particular period. Sales have dropped and the increase in prices of food items due to the fuel scarcity had driven away some of our customers.”

Asked if she sells on credit to her customers, she responded thus, “I don’t sell on credit to new customers. But, I do sell on credit to some of my old customers on request. These customers are mostly civil servants whose salaries are not regular.

They will definitely pay back when they receive their salaries.”

Another trader from Igbonna Market, Alhaja Suliat Adeyemi, who deals in textile materials lamented over the perennial fuel crisis, calling on the federal government to find lasting solution to the problem.

According to her, “things were really tight for us even before the fuel scarcity began. You know that in Osun State, we rely much on civil servants for patronage and these workers are not being owed backlog of salaries. So, how do you expect them to buy new clothing materials?

Could somebody who cannot afford to eat or feed his family think of buying clothes?

“It is precarious for us as nation to continue like this. When former President Goodluck Jonathan was there, things were not as terrible as what we are witnessing.

There was no recurrent scarcity of fuel.

The multiplying effects of fuel scarcity on socio-economic activities are immense.

This government has to wake up to its responsibilities by ending the excruciating hardship Nigerians are facing,” Adeyemi remarked.

A civil servant, who pleaded anonymity, stated that “we in the public service have been subjected to suffering over this issue of non payment of salaries before our predicament became worsened by the fuel crisis. You can imagine what we are going through now. It is really bad.”

Continues pg 12

12

feature

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘We’ve not experienced a thing like this before’

Ope Ige

Juwon Medayese

Stella Lewis

Continued from pg 11

“We now regulate the distribution of our product so as to manage the little fuel we get for transportation. We only go to our regular customers who we are sure of their patronage.”

Taiwo also complained that production had been a bit behind schedule as most of her workers came late to work with complaints of not getting public transport on time due to few buses plying the road working while others were at the petrol stations or others parked at the garage because they couldn’t get fuel to run their buses.

Stella Lewis, a hair stylist explained that she did not bother to look for fuel, because most of her customers are now opting for hairstyles that do not require the use of electricity.

“The level of patronage is still fair, just that customers who desire to do hairstyles that require the use of electricity have to change their mind to do other styles, while others go away in hopes that they will get somewhere else to get the styles they want done.

“I have not put on my generator for two months, because of fuel scarcity. My customers do not consider the situation. They still ask for reduction in price when I bill them high. So, I don’t bother to look for fuel to buy. I maintain my normal rates. I had a customer earlier today who wanted to do retouch and setting; she had to sit in the sun to set her hair. I am not ready to queue for overpriced fuel, wasting the whole of my day at the filling station.”

“Usually when they bring their gadgets and we put them in order, they come back to claim it; but this time it is difficult, it remains with us for a long time. Even the one you sell, before you sell them, sometimes it takes a very long time,” he said.

Nwakwor whose shop is also at Azikiwe area of Port Harcourt said he has been affected by electricity, fuel, transportation and even money to buy materials for his business.

“I feel that there are a lot of things that are not being put in place. Fuel is also another problem because if there is availability of fuel, transportation will be easy, but because of scarcity, there is hike in the sales of materials everywhere,” he said.

Also speaking Mr. Hope Amos, a tailor told Sunday Tribune that things have been very difficult for him.

“We are suffering; there is no light. They promised change but we have not seen anything, except that things are very difficult with us. The material we used to buy for N1,000 in the market is now going for N1,500 in most cases N2,000; so, in a nutshell, we are all suffering.

“I was just discussing with a young man before you came in. A sewing machine was about the cheapest commodity in the market, but he told me that it is now N35,000. Something I bought for N17,000 11 months ago; where will I get the money to buy it?” he asked.

Chioma Boniface, a petty trader at the Mile One market, said the people are complaining and she is not exempted. She maintained that she had never seen a breakdown in business like her current situation.

“My business has been stagnant, because there is no money flowing. We have been bearing our loss. We voted in the current administration, but today we have been forgotten by the government. They should allow the money to circulate so that market women can benefit” she said.

A meat seller at the Mile One market Port Harcourt, Mr Adeboye Olaiwola, who spoke to Sunday Tribune said his business had been affected by the downturn in the economy.

“As you can see our business has been affected. See what we have here. Up till now I have not made good sales unlike before. It cannot continue like this because I have to eat and feed my family. The government should do something”, he said.

Also speaking with Sunday Tribune, Mr Michael John, a transporter, said it has not been easy in this business where he has been for years.

“I have been in this business for about 35 years now, I have not seen a thing like this where you buy fuel for N300 per litre,” he said, adding that the situation is biting hard and that he has also increased his fares, but people have refused to patronise him.

—Additional reports by Tade Makinde, Oluwole Ige and Jude Ossai.

Mr Taye Agboola, a shoe cobbler at Alekuwodo area of Osogbo also bemoaned the failure of the government to provide fuel for people’s consumption, noting that “there has been no electricity supply to do the shoe repairs of my numerous customers. The generator that I have has become useless because I cannot get petrol to power it. I cannot afford to buy a litre of fuel for N220.”

Not Business as usual In Lagos, business owners have been lamenting what they call ‘double dose of hell’ which is fuel scarcity and poor power supply. According to Taofik Adeleke, a printer, going to his place of work on a daily basis has been put under check as the cost of transportation has become unaffordable.

Adeleke who commutes from Ishaga, Ifako/Ijaye LCDA to Ikeja where he has his workshop explained that going to work every day was no longer worth the trouble.

“I have reduced my working days to four times in a week before I spend too much on transportation and it wasn’t even worth it because there’s no electricity supply to power my printing machine. Business has really been slow because the few customers that came cannot even afford the increased cost of printing which is not under my control. If there had been light, I would have managed the old price but I buy petrol at black market price to power my generator. It’s better I don’t do business at all than to do one at a loss,” he lamented.

Cost of food stuffs has also been affected due to fuel scarcity. For example, a paint bucket of garri that was sold for N350-N400 now goes for N450-N500.

Mrs Adewusi who comes to Lagos from Ijebu every day to sell garri explained that aside from the increase in the price of cassava, bringing her wares to Lagos to sell has become challenging.

“Before, the driver that brings us collects N500 to N700, but now we pay N1,500 to bring our garri and cassava flour here that’s why we had to take it out on the price of garri. There was a day we couldn’t even get a bus to bring us because they couldn’t get petrol. We are not happy to increase prices of foodstuffs, but what do we do? We can’t sit at home because this is where we make money for our daily living.”

A manager of bottled and sachet water manufacturing company, who identified herself as Taiwo, complained that it had not been business as usual, as suppliers of raw materials had increased prices of supplies and were unable to deliver because of fuel scarcity.

She explained that they had to increase the price of bottled water from N350 per pack to N400, while sachet water is now sold at N120 per pack as against N100.

Same here in Rivers Mr Eze Nwakwor who deals in sales and repair of electronic gadgets said it has been a tough time for him because as usual people bring their bad electronic gadgets to him for repairs but due to poor cash flow, customers have stopped bringing jobs to him.

We are suffering; there is no light… The material we used to buy for N1,000 in the market is now going for N1,500, in most cases N2,000; In a nutshell, we are all suffering

13 Continued from

I

10 April, 2016 last week

am most grateful to all of you for the unqualified honour you have done me by nominating me as the presidential candidate of the Unity Party of Nigeria for the coming election in 1979. I do sincerely hope we will succeed not only at the presidential election but also at the other preceding elections.

To be elected Executive President of Nigeria at any time under the new Constitution is the greatest honour which Nigerians can confer on one of themselves. The Constitution itself, both in letter and spirit, confers on the holder of the office official halo and social eminence; it also vests in him tremendous power far superior to that which any other government functionary can essay to wield.

But to be the first executive president of this great Republic of ours is an un-paralleled honour, and an event of great historic moment. However, this high office carries with it enormous obligations and responsibilities. It is not at all an office of pleasure; nor is it one of unmixed pomp and pageantry. On the contrary, having regard to the democratic setting in which the office will be held; having regard to our present economic, political and social circumstances; having regard to the legitimate yearnings, and the crying and pressing needs of our people; and having regard to our international status and obligations, it is an office which, to make a real success of it, will, ipso facto, demand, from its incumbent, a kind of industry, self-discipline, public probity, tolerance, vision and sagacity which have no precedent here in Nigeria.

So it is clear that the Executive Presidency of Nigeria is an office which should not be adventured into lightheartedly or recklessly, or with one’s mind suffused and dominated with self-regarding, ethnocentric, or tribal prejudices, predilections, and partial affections. Governing Nigeria, at any time, is a very difficult and onerous assignment. But the assignment will be made more difficult and onerous by three important factors.

The first of these factors is that the civilian administration will be a successor to a military regime which, by October 1, 1979 would have been in the saddle for upwards of thirteen years. This fact alone, that is of firm and effective military presence in our public life for more than thirteen years, coupled with the manner of their accession to power could afflict the new civilian administration with fear, over-caution, or loss of initiative. A combination of these would engender widespread dissatisfaction on the part of the people; and this, in turn, would al-

Awo’s thoughts PATH TO NIGERIAN GREATNESS

On the campaign trail The challenges of the new Nigerian era*

most certainly provoke a return to military rule. In other words, we must bear it in mind always that the public at large, will, from the moment of civilian succession, now and again, make comparison between the achievements of the military rule that has just ended, on the one hand, and the endeavours of the civilians as well as the likely outcomes of such endeavours, on the other. Any rehash

When our people cast their votes for us, they will be doing so in the trust that their hopes and yearnings for a more contented; more enhanced,’ and happier life will be fulfilled under the auspices of the Unity Party of Nigeria

Sunday Tribune

of the style of governance of the First Republic, however seeming or disguised, might induce in the people a desire for return to military rule.

The second factor is that the economy and finances of the country are now in a state of partial paralysis. The situation worsens with every day that passes; and it doesn’t appear that anything can be done between now and 1 October, 1979 to arrest and reverse the deteriorating process.

However, to succeed and to be sustained in office, the next civilian administration must not only arrest and reverse the deterioration, but it must also re-activate, regenerate, and give a new boost to our economy and public finance.

The third factor is the historic and revolutionary magnitude of the four cardinal programmes of the Unity Party of Nigeria. When these programmes are telescoped into the constitutional time-limit of four year tenure of office, and when they are viewed against the background of the present state of our economy and finances; they assume, even to some well-meaning people, the character of a veritable wish-fulfilment dream.

I seize this opportunity once again to declare, with all the emphasis at my command that it is not. As I pointed out on a previous occasion, we have counted the cost, for instance, we know that education alone will in fiscal 1980-81 cost some-thing in the region of N3 billion.

These calculations and projections have been done for every fiscal year up to 1989-90.

These then are some of the stark realities we are going to face in 1979. And it is in full consciousness and recognition of these realities thait I am, most gratefully, availing myself of the honour you do me by nominating me your candidate for the forthcoming presidential election.

But it is an honour which carries with it a great challenge and historic call to duty for me, and for all of you.

When our people cast their votes for us, they will be doing so in the trust that their hopes and yearnings for a more contented; more enhanced, and happier life will be fulfilled under the auspices of the Unity Party of Nigeria. The UPN must not fail them, and cannot afford to fail them; because this great Party of ours is unique in raising the hopes and rekindling the yearnings of our people for new achievements as well as for better and more respectable living.

To be continued

AFRICAN NEWSPAPERS OF NIGERIA PLC Founders: CHIEF OBAFEMI AWOLOWO GCFR, SAN (1909 - 1987)

Chief (Dr) H.I.D Awolowo CON (1915 - 2015)

Chairman Rev. (Mrs) Omotola Oyediran Co-Chairman Dr. Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief Edward Dickson Controller (Business Development) Fola Oke

Ibadan Office (Advert Hot Lines): 08077227269; 08034135733 Lagos Office (Advert Hot Lines): 08055333067; 08033013177

Abuja Office: Suites G2. 05-07, PEB04 Plaza, Plot 2027, Dalaba Street, Beside NAPTIP Headquarters, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja Advert Hot Lines: 08033199716; 08078891797

South South Regional Office: No. 50 Ikwerre Rd., Mile 1, Diobu, P/Harcourt, Rivers State

Kaduna Office: AN 20, Lagos Street, by Keffi Rd., Kaduna.

Chief Accountant Oluremi Olufisayo, ACA

Ikeja Marketing Office.

Block C, First Floor, Motorways centre, Opp., 7up Alausa, Ikeja.

Snr. Manager (Advertisements) Kayode Titiloye Sales Manager Omotayo Lewis, Ph.D Consultant/Director Segun Olatunji, Ph.D

GOT NEWS?

Contact: sundaytribuneeditor@yahoo.com or call:08050498483

14

voxpop

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Is it right to wear sleeveless or skimpy clothes to church?

These days, ladies wear all sorts of dresses, including skimpy ones to church all in the name of fashion. TEMITAYO ILIASU speaks to a cross section of ladies and women on what they think of this. Excerpts: It is not right at all to wear skimpy clothes to the house of worship. But since they are selling them in the market, then people will definitely wear them to church.

Maybe if they are not being sold, then people will not be able to wear them at all. The truth is that it is not good but there are some scenarios that warrant that we wear sleeveless clothes to church. For example, if the weather is very hot like what we are experiencing now, then I will wear sleeveless clothes to church.

It is not good at all, it is written in the bible and likewise the Quran that any responsible woman should cover her body.

Both holy books emphasise the need for women to cover their bodies not only in the place of worship but everywhere they go. By exposing one’s body one is dishonouring one’s body. So it is not right at all.

Fatima Ibrahim Oyindamola Oladunjoye

Oyelaja Abibat It is abnormal to dress in skimpy and sleeveless clothes to church. Clothes that do not cover our body are not supposed to be worn to the church, which represents the presence of God. Even the Bible says that our body is the temple of God, so it shouldn’t even be exposed in the first place, not to talk of dressing indecently to the church. More so, dressing indecently is immoral and can make men to have immoral thoughts, so why destroy people’s faith with your dressing.

Wearing skimpy or sleeveless clothes to church is the beginning of promiscuity, if we are going to church let us dress in such a way that befits us as children of God

We all know that it is not good to wear skimpy clothes to church, it is against the norm.

One should know that the purpose of going to church is to worship God. Then there should be no excuse for dressing indecently. One should dress modestly.

It is not good and God does not approve of it; if one wants to worship God, then one must be prepared to worship Him even with one’s dressing. We should always give God the glory in our dressing.

Even the bible says our dressing should not be outward but we should dress in a way that befits who we are. Look at those that die as a result of pneumonia, they are all youths. They are just killing themselves because of fashion. I pray that God will help us all.

Mrs Ogidan

Mrs Adekola For me, I will say it does not make sense to wear skimpy clothes that do not cover my body to church at all. The fact that one is wearing it outside of church does not mean one has permission to wear it inside the church. Wearing skimpy or sleeveless clothes to church is the beginning of promiscuity. If we are going to church, let us dress in such a way that befits us as children of God.

Olabisi Odili I will say that it depends on the doctrine of the church one attends, there are churches that allow it and there are churches that would not allow one to wear anything like that. For example, you cannot see any member of a particular church, whose name, I won’t mention wearing clothes that are revealing. However, because others are wearing it does not make it right.

Ololade Raji

Adeyemi Ajayi I am also of the opinion that wearing skimpy clothes to church is not good. We should always dress moderately when going to church. We even have to be very careful in picking the clothes we wear to church. We need to cover up any part of our body that we think can attract the attention of the pastors to ourselves or stay clear of clothes that one thinks can contribute to the spiritual downfall of men of God.

If we are going to the presence of God then we should fear God, even if we would not fear our pastors and we should always know that our pastors are first of all men before being men of God. So If we want to dress to church we should always put them into consideration. To avoid temptation it is always good to dress moderately even to save ourselves from embarrassment. For example imagine if I am wearing strapless dress to church and then I am to bend down to do something, how am I going to do that without exposing my breasts? So I should save myself from that embarrassment.

Blessing Shittaga

15

feature

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

AutoGele: New phase of the Nigerian woman’s fashion RONKE SANYA writes on the evolution of the trend of gele-tying in Nigeria, which has resulted in the novelty called ‘automatic’ Gele.

G

ELE-tying is an integral part of the complete dressing of a typical Nigerian woman. The trend dates back to the olden days when gele speaks volume about the fashion incline and taste of the woman wearing it. In other parts of Africa like Malawi and Ghana it is referred to as duku; in Zimbawe it is known as dhuku; in Botswana it is known as tukwi, while in Nigeria it is called gele. The head tie is used as an ornamental head covering or fashion accessory by African women.

Gele tying in previous years was a norm among elderly rural women but has now become a bug that has bitten both young and elderly women. Gele-tying has evolved in recent years and has become modernised. Autogele, avant-garde gele or readymade gele are the results of this modernisation. It is an innovation whereby geles are tied in a particular prototype and ready-to-wear form that is usually worn like hats. These readymade geles are moulded in exact forms of the geles that are tied and do not need any hassles or stress of tying. It comes in various fabrics like aso oke, damask, among others.

Narrating how they conceived the idea of AutoGele to Sunday Tribune, the team of young talents who are part of the professionals who made the trend of autogele popular, Ande Oluwatoyosi and Fasasi Folusho said: “Sometime in May 2014, we were going through a particular wedding blog during one of our ‘gist’ sessions when the idea for Autogele was conceived. We believed that it was possible to have a beautiful ready-made gele that could be worn in seconds without any tying skill needed on the part of the wearer. This led us to develop different prototypes of the product that same year until we finally had a product that met the requirements we identified.

“We launched AutoGele gradually from January 2015 to enable us do our market testing on a small scale for feedback and modifications. As we marketed the product, we got a lot of positive feedback which helped develop our confidence in Gele and strengthened our decision to go all out in May 2015. We’ve been involved in the production, marketing and sales of Autogele since then.

“We wanted not just a ready-made gele but an automatic gele that is actually nice and looks natural as if it was tied the manual way. We also wanted it to last long so it was made permanently styled to be readily available for wearing in seconds.

We wanted it to leave our customers feeling like a ‘gele pro’ without any skill required on their part. All of these guided us into creating AutoGele and we still employ them as a guide in developing other variations and styles of the product,” the team added.

The AutoGele team also revealed that the innovation is not entirely new but a modification of what has existed before now.

“When we got the idea and started working on it, we took out time t o research for similar products in the market and discovered that there were some ready-made geles that had been done by other people. The ready-made gele idea isn’t a new one but we had something else in mind that wasn’t like any of the ones we saw. Even while we launched, we still discovered other ready-made gele concepts.

It isn’t a new idea but we re-invented the gele to really meet the user’s ready-made gele needs.”

Proudly representing African fashion product, the team explained further that they believe AutoGele can be marketed for sale not only in Nigeria but internationally as well.

“Working on AutoGele has exposed us to the traditional textile and fashion sector. It has helped to develop our passion for African fashion. We are basically rooting for African fashion and believe it has potentials to impact majorly on the economy.”

Mrs Esther Adamu, a businesswoman who is thrilled by the automatic gele

trend, speaking with Sunday Tribune said: “It is absolutely excellent and unique.

I gave the AutoGele people about 10 geles to tie for me and within three days it was ready and sent to me in Abuja. I like the fact that it is easy to wear and the price is affordable. I also love the fact that it can be done using various materials. I gave them different materials including silk, ankara, Aso oke and damask and they were all beautifully styled for me. Now I can wear my beautiful geles with less stress.”

Mrs Oyin Ejoor who is a busy professional said AutoGele is an answer to the prayer of a busy woman like her. “Before, I spend nothing less than one hour trying to tie the perfect gele but now within two minutes, I have a perfect gele. AutoGele saves time and it is very efficient. I will suggest that it should be exported to

Working on AutoGele has exposed us to the traditional textile and fashion sector. It has helped to develop our passion for African fashion. We are basically rooting for African fashion and believe it has potentials to impact majorly on the economy

foreign countries for Nigerian women in the diaspora to enjoy the pleasure of AutoGele and also, indirectly it will boost the economy of Nigeria. AutoGele is a time saving gele trend every woman would love to rock!”

However, due to the gradual acceptance of automatic gele by the women folk, one wonders if the makeup artistes, who tie gele professionally, are not threatened.

In reaction to this, Gloria Ihekauche, a makeup artiste, seems not threatened by the novelty of readymade gele. She said, “Autogele is really cool. It’s like making noodles on the go! Some people will still want the real thing and the some will prefer the readymade. As a professional makeup artiste, one can even buy to keep for some customers. All we have to do as makeup artistes is to get our game on.”

Miss Tunde-Yara Faith of TYF Beauty House opined that “AutoGele is a new trend alert that is gradually becoming a norm. Abeke Makeover, a reknowed Lagos based beauty expert is known to be one of those who started the avant garde gele trend. She said: “It’s a good innovation because with it, people can order for their already tied and styled choice of gele and wear it just like that. Its less stressful and easy to wear.”

Imoleayo Edwards also a make over buttressed the point that makeup artistes have to improve their standards in order for the novelty of readymade gele not to throw them into the job market. “One hs to keep upgrading. Gele tying itself is improving. One just have to upgrade, in order not to be outdated,” she said.

16

10 April, 2016

L

ATE Sunday night, I got an emergency call. A reporter was urgently needed to cover an unexpected peace parley which turned out a midnight sham between Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State and his media nemesis, Dr Tope Kolawole Aluko (TKA), which kept the invited journalists out of their beds.

After Aluko made a stunning turn from his Sunday concession speech barely 48 hours later, I decided to peep into his past. He is ex-this, ex-that, including his classroom days. It is however difficult believing that such a man once imparted knowledge or a semblance of it. After such a roller-coasting political (mis)adventure, you would expect a more circumspect fellow. With his eyes wide open, he walked into a trap. Such gullibility can only be founded on avarice. Aluko doesn’t hold the patent right to this. Men you would want to list as principled had before him, sold their “inheritance” for a pot of porridge, by not only going back to their vomit, but also licking the old foes’, alongside theirs.

The combined perks of the offices of Chief of Staff and Commissioner for Education which Aluko vainly sought, in a state of N1.3 billion monthly revenue and over N2 billion monthly wages, should not be enough compensation for the Technical Knock-Out his politics, person, family, career and generations unborn, have suffered.

The condescending attributions from Fayose at the midnight briefing should have waved the red flag at TKO, before Fayose’s shadow, Lere Olayinka came smoking.

Would anyone be dumb enough to believe the governor’s spokesperson that he sent himself on an errand that would completely crumble a peace fountain his boss was trying to build, if such peace effort was genuine? With Lere still keeping his job and Ekiti government insisting of perjury trial, it is safe to conclude Aluko was set up.

Fayose’s camp probably got Aluko so cheaply because it knows his weaknesses. The hurray in Fayose’s taunt, hewn by Lere, was down to didn’t-I-say-he-is-ten-a-dime. That is nothing unflattering said about him now that would be off-mark.

He also lost a vital ingredient of life: credibility. You may want to say how many Nigerian politicians are credible, including those setting others up.

There had been insinuations that TKO was hypnotised to switch a chummy opposition job that hitherto guaranteed him military, SSS and police security combined together (which I learnt was withdrawn after his visit to Fayose), direct access to “Abuja” and stable “operational” fund for a reconciliation which he should know was a hoax, considering the antecedents of his estranged political family.

Why not? There must be too many souls not wishing Aluko

THE land is in turmoil, no part is spared. Unease governs far and wide, nowhere is safe. Disorder skulks leaving the people in disarray. From Lagos to Kano, Calabar to Maiduguri, Benin to Makurdi, Akure to Lafia, the people boil in frustration. Agony marks most faces; anguish is the synopsis of many lives. Joy has become a stranger in the land.

Darkness rules the land, not because the Sun is on vacation but because electricity is on retreat. In our land, electricity is a mirage; it disappears when you think it is just an inch from reach. The retreat of electricity has made lock-up shops of hitherto vibrant companies; they are locked up while awaiting the return of electricity. The electricity retreat has compelled company owners to sentence their workers to long holiday; involuntary break that attracts no pay.

The retreat of electricity has emboldened illnesses.

Where darkness reigns, sicknesses dwell. Children are sick, their mothers are weak and their fathers are frail; they have fallen victim of the dark and still night filled with stale air. Unplanned vacation, devoid of victuals, undoubtedly opens the door to all manner of infirmities.

The nerves are frayed everywhere. The people’s patience has been stretched to snapping point. Otherwise calm individuals have, in the past few weeks, lost their composure at petrol stations. Those who had never raised their voices at anyone were forced to shout at gas station attendants who insisted that the pump price of a litre of petrol had been tripled. Ordinarily self-controlled women have had to fight on the queue just so that they can return home with some litres of fuel after many hours of waiting. An overstretched wait on a fuel queue would rob even the Biblical Job of his legendary patience.

If you see Mammy Water, never run away, counseled Dr Victor Uwaifo long ago. But that advice is useful as long as the Mammy Water is not dressed like a Fulani herdsman. If you come across a Fulani herdsman, don’t wait to find out whether he has come in peace or not.

Don’t bother to find out if he has in his rucksack an AK 47, a pistol, a Kalashnikov, a sub-machine gun, a sword, a knife or a bow and arrow, wisdom dictates that you vote with your feet. To delay is to risk losing your head. Fu-

0811 695 4647

olanreade@yahoo.com

Technical knockout for Aluko

well. Can all the students, including those in final year who lost all to the admission and certificate scam scandal that sent him out of Ekiti State University, ever forgive him? What about the military officers, including a General who lost their careers to his twisted testimony before the Military Tribunal that probed Ekiti election? But Aluko isn’t deficit in political loyalty. Even his enemies confirmed that, when he is with you, there are no half measures. That is why his initial battle against Fayose could be justified. The governor should have either fulfilled his promise to Aluko, or not “use” him at all.

If Aluko would be good enough to tear the door of the room where voters’ registers were kept with his legs and move them to Abuja for the primary election that produced Fayose as candidate to hold, despite strong opposition, he should be good enough for a place in the administration, maybe not in a sensitive capacity, for his background not to become an albatross.

I understand Fayose was also resolute on him being the party secretary against popular wish then. So, at what point do

With Sulaimon Olanrewaju 08055001708

lanresulaimon@yahoo.com

Trouble in the land, calmness in the sky

lani herdsmen rampage without inhibitions; they destroy without scruples; they kill without reticence.

Agatu was almost wiped out of the Nigerian map by Fulani herdsmen. The people lost their homes, their land, their money, their possessions, their lives, their heritage and almost their orientation. They are confused of their nationality. They are unsure whether they belong to the

Sunday Tribune

these erstwhile buddies start worrying about each other’s challenged past?

Aluko is completely down and flattened out. No political camp will trust him again, even for dirty jobs. He should have known that he is now a complete loser when he started begging for police security which he got without asking, when he was the sweetheart of anti-Fayose’s camp.

Taming TKO, without doubt, is a major victory for Fayose’s political family in Ekiti. But it isn’t for the governor if he is truly desirous of being the rallying point for the opposition in the country.

One, Aluko’s saga doesn’t portray him as a keeper of political IOU. Yes, politicians’ tongues are wired to make fake promises, but for someone being projected to lead almost half of the nation, against a floundering administration, his words must be bankable to a very large extent.

Trust is also key. You can’t go setting every opponent up. If you are not ready for genuine reconciliation, don’t stage-manage one. When people think twice before sitting with you and have to constantly look over their shoulders, you may still be lacking in capacity to lead. Rallying opposition forces to confront the current governance malaise would require literally sharing bed with enemies and such leader must learn to let go.

Fayose must devise other means of settling politician scores and for Aluko, it is goodnight.

IBEDC and Ijesaland crisis Weeks back, exasperated Ijesaland had to give “it” to officials of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) through some youths. The “light” provider was accused of crazy billing for darkness, monkey meter business, compromised service delivery for months and ultimately planning to bring a certain “maddening” female Business Manager from Ife. A particular story was told of a certain marketer who usually gets his colleagues in Technical department to supply electricity to a certain bar along Ilesa expressway for him to have his daily cold beer for the duration of his relaxation during work hour. The town had enough and its boys gave IBEDC enough. I spoke with the new male Business Manager for hours. I also sampled opinions across town. It is difficult to apportion blames, but it is curious that the day after the invasion, there was electricity for almost 24 hours! That is why the residents now think they have found a perfect antidote to unfavourable shedding; beat them and they will give you light. The peace on ground now isn’t total. There are mindsets on both sides. IBEDC authorities in Ibadan should do the needful. The next invasion may bring the unexpected. “Lead us not into temptation”, is always better than “forgive us our sins.”

arrangement called Nigeria or not. They can’t come to terms with the fact that they lost their all just because some cows had to graze. Imagine! It is bad enough to have to lose lives and properties, but knowing that these were lost so that some animals could eat is not only sickening but alarmingly destabilising. In Nigeria, cows are more important than human beings. In our land, spilling human blood to make way for cattle to forage seems to be clothed in the garb of state policy.

Hence, nobody is speaking for the Agatu people. And no one is condemning the act of the nomads who left their homes to devastate other people’s land. If not for international agencies, the world outside Agatu would never have known the extent of the damage visited on Agatu’s land by their compatriots. Since no one is speaking for Agatu, who will canvass for the rebuilding of the area and compensation for the people?

As the nationals’ blood is being shed, so is the economy haemorraging. The economy keeps shrinking. The budget is on hold, so everything seems to be at a standstill. State governments owe their workers several months’ salaries.

Investors are leaving the country with their money. Naira seems to be determined to lose the battle against other currencies. Finance Ministry and the Central Bank of Nigeria have tried all the tricks in the books to stabilise the economy all to no avail. Manufacturing is at an all-time low as companies cannot bring in raw materials because of paucity of foreign exchange. Employment opportunities are getting narrower by the day, while inflation is on the rise. Nigerians look for respite but there seems none from anywhere.

From electricity retreat to fuel scarcity to Agatu killings to the bleeding economy, there is trouble in the land. Perhaps the trouble in the land is what has pushed the president to the sky, where there is calmness. However, the president’s junketing may provide him some momentary respite but it is a shift of the encounter with the doomsday. The earlier he faces the issues and tackles them, the better for him and the rest of us. Problems don’t develop wings and fly away because they are ignored; problems become extinct when they are addressed and solutions proffered.

17

10 April, 2016

Omotola gives recipes for long-lasting marriages

Tilla speaks on new video, ‘Oni Reason’

Nothing wrong for gospel musicians

‘Dishonest guys have no place in my life’

to charge fees —Mike Abdul

Sunday Tribune

18

10 April, 2016

Omotola gives recipes for long-lasting marriages Stories By Segun Adebayo

O

MOTOLA Jalade Ekeinde has opened up on the secrets of her 20 years marriage.

The mother of four celebrated her 20 years marriage anniversary two weeks ago and it drew the attention of many people who have been wondering how she has managed to sustain the union.

The sexy actress dished out tips to having a successful marriage in a recent chat. According to her, the best way to have a successful marriage is for couples to always pay their tithes and stay together.

“If you want to be successfully married, they have to take time to be so close to each other that every other thing does not matter. There should never be third parties in

your marriages. It is like a wall. The minute it’s cracked and lizards start coming in, it will be hard to find the lizards and throw them out. And they will start creeping into your family. Try to always sort out the issues between you.”

She added that paying tithe also helps to put the family together.

“Pay your tithe individually. It’s a covering. This is our secret. When you don’t pay your tithe, you have not committed yourself and your home will not be put together. It is your foundation. But when you pay your tithe, God helps you take away every devourer. When that is taken care of and you are Godfearing, as darts are coming from every angle, you are already fortified. If you trust each other, tell each other the truth even if one person errs,” she said.

Korede Bello renews Woodin endorsement deal KOREDE Bello is sure having a lot of fun smiling to the bank as he becomes an ambassador for African fabric brand, Woodin, for the second year in a row.

The announcement was made via Woodin’s official Twitter page and Korede has since then retweeted and regramed the message on his social media pages.

The Managing Director, Vlisco Nigeria, Mr Erik Van der Staaij, expressed his fulfilment at the contract renewal, saying that “We look forward to a rewarding year

for our brand, Korede and most importantly, our consumers.”

Reacting to the contract renewal, Korede Bello expressed his desire to see Nigerians make Woodin fabrics into garments that can be worn every time and all occasions. “I am delighted to work another year with this amazing African brand, made by Africans for Africans. The coincidence of my achievement of one million followers on Instagram makes the occasion all more memorable.”

Sunday Tribune

FIBAN honours ‘Omije Ojumi’ BANKER turned gospel singer, Oluwabunmi Akinnanu, otherwise known as Omije Ojumi, was penultimate weekend, honoured by Freelance and Independent Broadcasters Association of Nigeria (FIBAN) for her contributions to the development of gospel music in Nigeria.

Akinnanu, who described the award as a sign of good things to come in the year, expressed her appreciation to FIBAN for recognising and appreciating her talent.

According to her, “This award is very important to me, because I understand what it means to be

recoginsed in the midst of many talents who are using their talents to praise God through music.”

The award coincided with FIBAN, Ile Ife’s 11th annual celebration held at Oduduwa Ateworo Park, Ile -Ife, Osun State.

Speaking further on what her fans should expect in the year, Akinnanu who dumped banking for music after 10 years, said though she has about four albums to her credit, her plan was to release another one before the end of the year.

She added that the good remarks she has been getting from her fans coupled with the recognition from within and outside the country, she would make her to continue giving her best to remain relevant.

Adekunle Gold is ‘Ready’ YBNL Nation act, Adekunle Gold, releases his fourth official single and his first of 2016. The track entitled: “Ready” was produced

by YBNL in-house producer, Pheelz, mixed and mastered by Simi, with guitar by Fiokee.

Ready follows the release, last December, of “Pick Up”, which garnered rave reviews from fans and critics, and was top of the Radio Top Ten charts for five weeks.

On the track, the Urban Highlife artiste sings about being single and searching for love. He adds some humour, lamenting his inability to find love through social media. Overall, Adekunle again delivers in typical style.

Adekunle Gold first burst onto the scene with his monster hit ‘Sade’, which opened the door for him to ink his deal with

YBNL Nation. It was followed by his second single, another hit titled ‘Orente’.

He is expected to release his debut album sometime this year.

All set for15th Ebira Day carnival AS the 15th edition of the annual Ebira Day comes up, planning has begun in earnest to host a grand event on May 14.

In a chat with R on Thursday, the planning committee, headed

by Ayoola Salau, said the Ebira People’s Community (EPC), would not leave any stone unturned as indigenes and members are looking forward to the day.

“It is expected of us to put up a great show and we are all eagerly looking forward to that day,” he said.

In the same vein, the chairman of the Oyo State chapter of EPC, Mr Saliu Aminu, said that “as much as we are all excited about the event, we urge all our people to support us in any way they can, especially with sponsorship.”

Put together by West Diamond Promotions and Mohammed & Mohammed (M&M), the Ebira Day will showcase the cultural heritage of the Ebira people and will feature dance, music (Ikede; Oyinmuruweyi and Echori), theatre among others.

The Secretary General of EPC, Mr Ibrahim Yakub, promised a swell time for Ebiras and that the event, scheduled for the Cultural Centre, Ibadan, will also feature artistes from Oyo state and beyond.

19

razzmatazz

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Skales marks birthday with fans, drops new video

By Seyi Sokoya MTN Pulse Ambassador, Raoul John Njeng-Njeng, popularly known as Skales, celebrated his birthday last week with some of his fans by taking them to the cinema and giving out pairs of shoes to others on social media.

Stating what prompted the development, Skales said: “Everything I have right now was given to me by God, my mother and my fans. I try my best to make sure my mom is comfortable wherever she is and now is the time to appreciate my fans for their love and support. I feel it is one of the better ways to say thank you to those who have been there for me.”

In the same vein, the pop star, on April 1, also celebrated the birthday with the release of his first official single from the yet to be released sophomore album “I Want You”, which has enjoying the airwaves across the country.

The new single, which was pro-

duced by Ghanaian super producer, DJ Breezy was shot in Ibadan, Oyo State.

R also gathered that Skales is currently working on his sophomore album after the success of his debut “Man of the Year” last year.

Banky W renews contract with Samsung

Solagbade bags Kingdom Star UK award A Lagos-based and fast-rising female gospel singer, Solagbade Sola, is currently reaping the rewards of her hard work and commitment to her craft, as she was last week honoured by Light Ministries International Outreach, United Kingdom (UK), based christian body that is committed to recognising and honouring selfless dedication to humanity.

Solagbade, whose music ministry is fast becoming a big brand in Lagos and its environs, has continued to draw more attention to her self through her style of music, which, according to her, is dedicated to bringing people closer to God, lifting their souls and reminding them of the Kingdom of God. She was particularly honoured for her continous commitment to her trade.

The event, which held at Army Church, Isolo, Lagos State, had in attendance notable gospel singers and was hosted by Dr David Adetiloye and Pastor Isaac Shofoluwe from UK. The awards were presented to Amazing Gospel Ministers and Worship Leaders who are dedicated to the call of God. Speaking on the significance of the award, Pastor Israel Adetola

said: “We are dedicated to supporting and meeting the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of those who are truly in need. We are also given to honouring organisations and individuals who are selflessly committed to supporting others in need.

“In 2014, we gave awards to individuals and heads of local charities in Bury and Bolton UK.

G

OOD news is triclking in for EME boss and singer, Banky W, as he has finally renewed his contract with mobile phone giant, Samsung Nigeria.

Banky W, who has been with Samsung for seven years, announced this via Instagram, on Friday. There had been talks about the new deal for weeks, with some people submitting that the deal may not be renewed.

With news that Banky, as he is fondly called may be walking down the aisle soon with her woman yet to go away, he said

he was happy to be renewing his deal with Samsung and would continue to use his influence to make the brand more popular.

There had been reports about Banky settling down this year and when he was aksed about

the woman in his life and when he would like take her in, Banky, who has always avoided questions on marriage, said: “I am still avoiding this question. But when the time comes, you will be the first person to know.”

Tilla speaks on new video, ‘Oni Reason’ THE movie-themed music video for the hit single, Oni Reason, by Aquila Records pop star Tilla and Sony Music International signee, Davido, has been released.

Shot on location in Lagos State

by Aquila Records’ director, Frizzle ‘N’ Bizzle, the action-packed flick sees Tilla & Davido reaching deeper into their creative selves to play the roles of randy neighbourhood watch policemen, with both acts executing their roles expertly in the humor-laced flick.

The song, Oni Reason, was produced by Kiddominant, mixed and mastered by Suka Sounds. It has steadily, since its release, become fans’ favourite both on the dance floors and radio stations across Africa.

The video is expected to make the pan-African tune even bigger on the continent, as Tilla braces up to dish out more hit tunes within the calendar year.

One of Tilla’s songs that accompanied the release of his new video is ‘Anything’. It was produced by Sammytex, mixed and mastered

by Suka Sounds.

The song is one which will further cement Tilla’s new pan-African sound. It is melodious, groovy, rhythmic and generally a great

tune.

Speaking on his plans for the year, after dropping a new video and single, Tilla said he would continue to drop new songs and shoot more videos. “I am not stopping. The movement has just begun and we will continue to drop more songs and shoot videos. You know how we do it at Aquila. So, nothing changes,” he said.

Amarachi drops new video, ‘Te Quiero’ AFTER winning the first edition of Airtel-sponsored Nigeria Got Talent, Amarachi Uyanne is back with something bigger. Over the years, Amarachi has proved that her win at the talent show was not a fluke, as she has released hit tracks and followed them up with videos.

Her latest video, Te Quiro, was shot on location in Lagos by Clarence Peters and has been enjoying airplays across the country.

Te Quiero, according to Amarachi, is a Spanish word, which means the bully. She said she was bullied by some of her friends in school when she won the talent contest. “Yes, I was bullied in school by some of my friends who could not understand how I won the contest. But we have moved beyond that level now, because most of them are my good friends now and I appreciate them so

much for their love”.

Speaking on the new video, Amarachi said she was happy to be starting off this year with Te Quiero. “I have to drop this for my fans who have been asking me for something fresh this year. I have been off the radar for sometime because I needed to concentrate on school,” With the new visuals, Amarachi now has four videos and will be dropping an album in the middle of the year.

“I have always said that I would not allow fame to stop my education, even my parents won’t allow such. So, I had to stay away and focus on school. But it is also very important that I keep the flow of my music career going. That’s why I am dropping this new video now.

My fans should also expect my album by the middle of this year,” she said.

20

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

With Segun Adebayo and Seyi Sokoya tegbollistic@yahoo.com, seyi_sky@yahoo.com 08116954644 08132577840

music professionally.

Day a Pastor stopped us from singing Fuji inside church

The Midnight Crew has been on ground for some time now, how did you come about the name?

We were in Yaba College of Technology (YABATECH). Somehow, it was difficult to just be a gospel singer, but we found a way out and anytime we gathered to minister, both Christians and Muslims would gather to listen to us. We were 11 when we started that movement. When we were done with school, we felt that this was too good to end in school, we decided to take it forward What about the name Midnight Crew We were looking for something biblical to back what we were doing and then we came across the 11 people in the Bible. In the Bible, we found a group that Gideon gathered. God called Gideon to tear down the altar of Baal, and Gideon felt he could not do it alone. So, he looked for 10 people. So Gideon joined them and they became 11. They were afraid it would not be easy to pull down what people have been worshipping for years and you want to do it alone. The Bible says though sorrow may endure for the night, joy comes in the morning. So we call that moment 11 midnight crew, the reason for going there is to look for a name.

—Mike Abdul

How do you manage your schedule that it does not clash with Midnight Crew’s since you are still together?

Yes we always find around it. We are humans and every challenge is meant to be overcome. So when it comes like that, we sit down and look at things and come to a conclusion.

Gospel singer, Mike Abdul was at the Tribune House where was engaged by a team of Tribune entertainment crew. He shed light on his music career and his relationship with the Midnight Crew. Excerpts from the interview.

Y

OU are a gospel singer but your music has this flavour of Fuji. Have you ever been embarrassed for singing fuji in church and what is your take on the infusion of Fuji and Tungba into gospel?

A church in Lekki, Lagos State, invited Midnight Crew and when it got to fuji part, I noticed that the pastor stood up and came on stage. He stood very close to me.

When I dropped one line, he would say no, I don’t like that, change it. So, I changed the line and he said that was good. When it was too much, he would say ‘common!

Don’t say that’. Although, young people were not happy because they really wanted to dance and feel free, I had to quickly round off and hand over the microphone.

So what the young people did later was to

call their pastor and expressed how embarrassed they were and told him that they should bring me back. They told him not to stand up from his seat. They urged him to sit down and enjoy the music. And the man was gracious enough, he agreed that they should bring me back and he sat down. When I finished, he came to me and said that was a good performance. I said oh thank you Jesus. Talking about introduction different genres into gospel music, there is no particular genre that gospel musicians can’t do. It does not matter whatever the genre is, as long as you have the message going, I don’t have any problem with that.

So are you saying that gospel music is not a genre?

Yes it’s really not a genre; it’s the mes-

sage that makes a gospel.

Some people say that they see gospel as their calling and others will say it is a passion, what’s your own story?

I will say it is a calling for me but what really helped me was my mum. Everything about my mum is gospel. If she wants you to come and eat, my mum will say Mike, please, come and eat for Christ sake. When it was time for me to practise music, it was not difficult choosing gospel because my mum had laid the foundation for me. Everything around me is God. When did you become a professional gospel singer?

That was in 2001 when we started…in London. That is when I can say I came into

If the Midnight crew was doing fine as you have said, why did you have to go solo and, in addition to that, would it not appear as if you are creating a backup plan in case Midnight Crew crashes?

Yes, a backup plan is good. I even like it. There is nothing wrong with having a backup plan.

So can we say your solo career is a backup plan?

Well anybody can have his or her opinion, so that could be yours right now. Midnight Crew, for us, is like a mother project; it’s like a big ground for us. We felt like, we have this plan, why can’t we create another plan out of it ?. So if you want to have Midnight Crew, it is a big deal and if you want Mike Abdul, that is another deal.

So, to say that Midnight Crew is no more is wrong because in December, we were at the Experience in Lagos. Our yearly American tour still runs. Between October and November, we will be celebrating 15 years of Midnight Crew. We are moving it closer, because of the summer and because we are celebrating it in London.

Tell us more about your solo career and how it has not been affecting your commitment to the crew?

Continues on pg 21

21 glitz

10 April, 2016

it’s gospel, we can’t play it. At the end of the day, you will say why do I even have to shoot a video of this worth? I was with one of the top guys in MTV Base, the guy sat me down and said, Michael you know the problem, you are a gospel artiste, I cannot show your stuff on this channel because what we promote is different from what you promote. He said it so bad that if 2face features you in a song, I may not play it because of what you stand for. That was what he told me. He said we can’t confuse our audience. Honestly, the guy blessed me because he was so real. So I don’t need to keep trying. What I need is to keep doing my thing. One day they will look for you.

Continued from pg 20

The truth is that every vision must have its duration. Outside the duration, there is no point stressing it. There are many solo artistes that we don’t hear about again. I believe that every vision has its season.

They don’t have any problem with me going solo. We just felt that we should respect individuality. I think it is important for every group to respect individual’s choice. You need to know that this person is an individual who has a calling apart from the corporate existence of the group he belongs to. He has an existence as himself; he has goals which your group may not be able to meet. It is fine to have individual platform for one to express what is actually inside of him without the rules.

Where do you draw the inspiration to sing and write your songs from?

What inspires me could be anything from anywhere. Inspiration comes from my solo times with God or by reading the Bible. I may be inspired to write about something you said. My new song is ‘Korede’ and it was inspired by Korede Bello.

I started liking him from when I heard the song ‘Godwin’ and I felt that was very intelligent; it was very creative. The name Godwin opened our eyes. We have always known the name Godwin, but for somebody to bring something out of it in that special way shows that he’s really talented.

I really love the song. I love the creativity behind it. It made me love the guy more.

There was a day I was on stage with the Midnight Crew to perform at someone’s birthday and then he came in. I’m sure the birthday boy invited him, because of the song and the guy came in and he just stayed in my head like that. The following day, I just found myself singing the song Korede. So, I got inspired by him.

‘Nothing wrong for gospel musicians to charge fees’

How do you manage not to sound the same on songs?

We have a management team. We have songwriters. That’s the reason I don’t sound the same. So I don’t have to write anything.

Since you started doing your solo runs, was there any time you released a song that the group feltshould have been theirs? Has there ever been a clash of interest?

We have never had any clash of interest.

I think Midnight Crew is at a stage of maturity. We don’t think it is compulsory to keep recording albums. There are different seasons in the life of an artiste; there is a season where all of you will be on the album and there are times when people want you alone. There is a time you have to be together on the stage. You have to be there for them performing here and there.

It is not even about your sound any more; it is about your image when a company will say let’s have your image to sell our product. So, in that season, it is really not about song anymore. When you call Midnight Crew, I am there to sing ‘Morire’. To me, It is still more like the same thing.

What is the idea behind your sideburns?

My hair? God gave me the hair. I can cut it if I want.

Would you?

I have been keeping it for awhile…..

It is believed that gospel videos can’t go head to head with the secular ones. Many people believe that

Sunday Tribune

the general acceptability of the videos they release are low. What do you think is the problem?

We learn every day. You know our target audiences differ. Permit me to say this, if a prostitute looks at a gospel video, she can criticise it that it’s not gospel enough. For gospel artistes, most times, your audience is actually the church. The audience is supposed to be the world but, most times, the platform is always in the church. I don’t think people would want to invite a Mike Abdul to a party where they are drinking alcohol, because they won’t want to feel bad. So, they won’t want to pay me the N3m fee those kind of platforms would pay. So, the people that give me platforms cannot afford to pay that kind of money. Now the great videos you are talking about cost a lot of money. If

I’m in that kind of platform that pays me N10m, what’s wrong if I remove N5m to shoot a video? I already know the kind of platform I can get most of the times. If I now shoot a video with N3m, it’s not going to be sustainable. So, I count the cost and apply wisdom. Of course, some of us decide that we want to step up and will go the extra mile. That’s what we still do, but we’re still not there yet. Let me shock you, in my next video, I decided that I’m going to use one of the big boys these guys use.

So, I sent my video to him and because I’m a gospel artiste, he gave me a gospel artiste idea and I was disappointed, because I wanted something urban, but he couldn’t even create it. If you are a gospel artiste, you shoot a video of N5m and you want the video on Sound City or MTV Base, by the time they listen to it, they will say, oh,

There are different seasons in the life of an artiste, there is a season where all of you will be on the album and there are times when people want you alone.

So what do you think can be done to make them patronise you?

I think what we need to do is to create our own platform. Somebody created his own and that is why it’s called platform. So I think probably we as Christians should have our own Channel O. Our own Gospel Music Chanel. Let me say this, Channel O and the like pay almost $10,000 per month to be on DSTV. You need somebody who is not looking for money to put that kind of money down for gospel musicians.

Do you really think gospel artistes should charge performance fees?

It’s not wrong to charge. By charging, what I mean is that this is what will cover my performances on your platform, my logistics. For crying out loud, there is no gospel fuel. I rent studios for rehearsals.

Check the next time I appear on your platform, I ‘m not wearing the same costume and it’s because people look up to me. I’m not wearing the same clothes I wore the last time. That’s the reason I’m different. If you don’t like the word ‘artistry’ in gospel, don’t deceive yourself, it exists. The fact remains that you are first of all an artiste, whether a gospel singer or otherwise; you are an artiste. You see, if you don’t attend to the ‘artistry’ side of your job, you will become a mediocre. That’s why you will always present mediocre stuff. If you attend to that and you want to shoot a video, young people would want to look at the screen and see their future, they don’t want to see you, that is the reason we have more viewership for secular videos, because they looks attractive. They look like what they want to look like. Now, if you have that understanding and you are ready to go all out to give them that alternative, you will need support but nobody is ready to support you, they will always tell you that we are running our on ministry. The truth is that you have to ask for your fee. It is diferent if they can’t afford it. But the Bible says, ask and it shall be given. If you don’t ask, they may not know.

So, don’t think that any church would just offer you N3m after your ministration, it does not work like that. So you don’t ask and you are thinking they are going to give you N3m. Though they are churches, men run it. The Bible says the scripture was written by men and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. So, men came first. If you don’t tell them, they won’t know. A lot of people don’t know that it’s wrong for people to come and minister and you say, you are such a blessing. Tell them, because if you don’t demand for it, it’s going to remain like that. Of course, I hail and respect people that do not charge, it’s not easy and they still try to maintain the quality and all of that, but for some of us, it’s going to be difficult for us not to tell you.

22

10 April, 2016

entartainment Honeywell launches campaign for Eko at 50 celebration

H

oneywell Flour Mills Plc has launched a campaign to support activities lined up by the Lagos State Government to celebrate the state at 50.

The campaign is part of corporate social responsibility initiatives of the company to support development of the Nigerian youth through partnership with Vision of the Child (VOTC). Honeywell was the Literary Arts sponsors of VOTC last year where it awarded cash and product gifts to the six children that emerged as winners at the dinner/gala night.

Speaking in Lagos, at the weekend, during the launch of Honeywell in Sisi Eko’s Kitchen picture contest, Managing Director, Mr Lanre Jaiyeola decribed the Lagos at 50 celebration as a significant landmark, saying it provides an opportunity to celebrate Lagos State’s past achievements and showcase its immense potentials for future growth and development to the world at large.

He said as part of the line-up of activities for the event, the Vision of The Child (VOTC)’s theme is “Sisi Eko At 50: Ageing Gracefully? or Na so-so Pancake?” while Honeywell will Honeywell will seize the opportunity provided by the event to delight its consumers and offer chances of winning exciting prizes.

While stressing the metamorphosis of Sisi Eko in the 50’s and 60’s as a mother whose primary focus and role was to take care of the family, to the present

Evergreen Music to celebrate Dele Ojo in ‘The Last of the Originals’ The Evergreen Music Company Limited will, any moment from now, celebrate Ondo Stateborn Juju maestro, Dele Ojo, in its ‘The Last of the Originals’ series, E has gathered.

Dele Ojo, a renowned Juju musician in the 70s, who introduced the base guitar in the evergreen song “Bouncing Bonnah” and also created the use of a complete band, which includes six microphones on the stage and set-

‘Pretty Boys’ organises talent show

By Seyi Sokoya A gospel musical record label, Pretty Boys is organising a talent hunt competition tagged: “Supper Sun Talents’ search”. The event which will have over 1,000 gospel musical participants will hold between July and August, 2016.

Speaking at a press conference organised for the event, the president of the label, Mr Jaesse Aimuan disclosed that the aim of the event is to source for musical talents in the Christendom with a view to help them fulfilling their destiny and also nurture them into stardom.

Speaking further, the music expert lamented the proliferation of gospel music sector with secular music.

He, therefore, said that the musical project will be used to discourage gospel musicians from venturing

into secular music because of pecuniary gain.

Highlighting the processes for the event, Aimuan said forms will be sold to participants for administration purposes.” After the sale of the forms, there will be four-week auditioning for the participants and this will hold third week in July, after which the grand finale to pick the winner and the two runner-ups of the competition, will hold at Excellence Hotel Conference Center in Lagos State

by August 27. The winner and the two runner-ups stand to benefit musical promotion as they will be signed on our company’s record label for a period of one year. “Their musical videos will also be shot by us and aired on electronic media, so as to make them enjoy the needed support that will aid their careers and consequently take

them into limelight”, he said.

The panel of judges for the events include: Nollywood actor turned Pastor, Mr Zache Orji; his wife Ngozi; Mrs Caroline King and a veteran radio presenter, D.J Expressit.

with Segun Adebayo tegbollistic@yahoo.com 08116954644

Why I performed at TVS/ACOMORAN Day —Osupa

co-bread winner in the ever demanding fast paced city life, he said Honeywell provides variety of nourishing products that are readily available and ideal for the whole family.

Explaining the mechanism of the contest, he said “we want to see the industrious, caring and discerning Sisi Eko as she shares and enjoy her meal with her child via the Honeywell in Sisi Eko’s Kitchen picture contest.”

The picture contest will show Sisi Eko and her child in her Kitchen relishing/ eating any of our consumer brands, that is, Honeywell Noodles, Honeywell Pasta or Honeywell Wheat Meal with the product packs from which the meal was prepared creatively positioned in the background.

By Moses Alao

Sunday Tribune

ting of other instruments at the back stage, will be featured in the series due to his contribution to the development of Juju highlife music, said Evergree Music’s Bimbo Esho.

Dele Ojo, who is renowned for his hit songs “Iya ni wura,” and “Terena” is rated among the foremost Juju musicians in Nigeria such as Chief Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade and others.

Born Ogundele Ojo in Ilaramokin, Ifedore Local Government Area of Ondo State, in 1938, Dele Ojo learned the music trade under Roy Chicago and later one Mr Bamijoko, beginning his professional career as a musician as a trumpeter with Dr. Victor Olaiya in 1969.

Dele Ojo, who was the first chairman of the Performing Musicians Employers Association of Nigeria (PMAN) in the South-Western States, including the present day Kwara and Kogi states, Osho said, is being celebrated “because the old stars of Juju music may be diming but their undeniable contribution to the musical heritage of Nigeria is forever evergreen.”

Fuji exponent, Saheed Osupa has explained why he performed at the first year anniversary of Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Owners and Riders Association of Nigeria (ACOMORAN), which held in Ibadan penultimate weekend at Mapo Hall, Ibadan, Oyo State.

Osupa was said to have been criticised by a section of his fans for honouring the invitation of the mototcycle riders, but the popular Fuji star said he could not have turned down the invitation because of his love for Ibadan and its people, especially the organisers.

According to him “I am always delighted to perform in Ibadan and it does not matter where the invitation is coming from. So, I am criticised for honouring the invitation, I don’t have an apology for that”.

This event which was sponsored by TVS Star Motorcycle, harped on the need for motorcycle riders to be mindful of their health as they were sensitised on the need for them to do regular check.

The riders came from every part of the South West to be part of the programme.

The Sector Commander of FRSC Oyo State Command Mr. Yusuff Salami who was the guest Speaker, educated riders on ways to prevent accident while Mr. Wole Afolabi urged them on the needs to live a healthy lifestyle.

Blast Champ releases ‘Nwayor’ Blast Champ is a new kid on the block but strong enough to compete favourably with others in the Afro pop genre of the Nigerian music industry. Having graduated from the University of Benin in 2013 with a degree in Economics, Blast Champ abandoned his degree and focused on music.

BC as Blast Champ is fondly called by his fans has been able to blend the Igbo flavor of highlife with the contemporary hip hop music. His first single Boo Boo Me was released in 2014 and was produced by Nedz Beats.

The release of his second single Nwayor shows BC has come to stamp his feet in the sand of time in the music industry. BC is a singer, rapper and a songwriter and he is working with a couple of music producers to bring out the best music to his fans.

Interestingly, like Psquare he also has his twin brother with him in his music sojourn but unlike the singing twin brothers, Psquare, Blast Champ sings while his twin brother produces most his songs under the name Nedz Beats.

At the heat of the fight in the Psquare music empire BC once said he knew the fight was not going to last long because the brothers are twins. He said he believed that the brothers will soon come to terms because they shared the same womb as twins. Just like he had predicted, the Psquare twins apologised to their fans and came back together as a group.

23

10 April, 2016

sundayzest

Sunday Tribune

With Victory Oyeleke victoryoyeleke@yahoo.com

British scientists to produce artificial blood C ANCER patients and car crash victims could soon be given life-saving transfusions of artificial blood, thanks to a breakthrough by British scientists.

They are close to making vast quantities of platelets, the microscopic cells that make blood clot, reports the Daily Mail of UK. Platelet transfusions are regularly given to car crash victims, cancer patients and to plug life threatening bleeds after surgery, but the cells have a short shelf life.

Work by the Cambridge University and NHS Blood and Transplant paves the way for a synthetic supply – generated from skin cells.

Excitingly, it may be possible to create one product that suits all patients, removing the need to match it to blood type.

And it may even be possible to supercharge the lab-made cells, meaning they are even better at clotting than the real thing.

The hope centres on stem cells – ‘blank’ cells with the ability to turn into other cell types.

Using cocktails of vitamins and chemicals, the scientists turned skin cells into stem cells. They then coaxed the stem cells into producing cells called megakaryocytes.

These normally live in the bone marrow, where they act as platelet factories.

The team’s technique is so powerful that it is possible to make 200,000 megakaryocytes from a single skin cell. The next step is to trick these factories into making vast numbers of platelets.

Researcher, Dr Cedric Ghevaert, a leading member of the team from NHS Blood and Transplant, which runs the blood transfusion service, said: “Making megakaryocytes and platelets from stem cells for transfusion

has been a long-standing challenge because of the sheer numbers we need to produce to make a single unit for transfusion.

“We have found a way to ‘rewire’ the stem cells to make them become megakaryocytes a lot faster and more efficiently.

“It is a major step forward towards our goal to one day make blood cells in the laboratory to transfuse to patients.”

The team is also looking at tweaking the production process to make an off-the-shelf supply of platelets that would suit all patients, no matter what their blood type.

Other tweaks could produce supercharged platelets, the journal, Nature Communications, reports.

The first test transfusions could be given to people by 2020 and the synthetic blood

in widespread use just eight to 10 years from now.

Unlike red blood cells, which are also used in transfusions and keep for 35 days, platelets can only be stored for a week, making managing supplies particularly tricky.

Dr Ghevaert said: “We very rarely run out of platelets but it’s always on the edge. An additional supply would be of great benefit.”

Going to the gym may be bad for your health, say scientists FROM cardio to strength training, every gym comes complete with a wealth of equipment designed to burn calories and boost fitness levels.

But, a new study in the United Kingdom warns gym goers may be getting more than they bargain for when they workout.

For it turns out that the equipment may also be exposing them to harmful bacteria.

Each time we touch the treadmill screen or even grab a free weight, we are coming into contact with bacteria that causes pneu-

monia or septicemia – and even some bugs that are resistant to antibiotics, the scientists said.

Researchers from FitRated gathered bacteria samples from 27 different pieces of gym equipment.

They found that each piece of equipment is teeming with more than one million germs per square inch.

Chelsea Freeburn, of the FitRated creative team, told Daily Mail Online: “Gym equipment is generally used by a community of people. If not wiped down thoroughly before and after use, bacterial growth can occur.

“Think of it as having long handshakes with multiple very sweaty people.”

In fact, the average exercise bike has 39 times more germs than a tray from a school cafeteria.

The typical treadmill

has 74 times more bacteria than a public bathroom faucet.

And, the typical set of free weights average 362 times more germs than a toilet seat.

All three types of equipment were also found to contain gram-positive cocci – a bacteria that commonly causes skin infections and other illnesses.

They also yield gram-negative rods – which can cause infection and resist antibiotics – and gram-positive rods, which aren’t as harmful to humans but can occasionally cause infections.

Additionally, the researchers found Bacillus – a potential cause of ear, eye and respiratory infections – on exercise bikes and free weights.

Countless people touch gym people in a facility on a given day, so the presence of bacteria on commonly used equipment is not too shocking for the average gym-goer.

However, most people are unaware of the sheer volume of bacteria lacing their go-to gear.

To avoid coming into contact with germs at the gym, the experts at FitRated recommend people always be sure to disinfect machines before and after use.

24

10 April, 2016

makeover

Rita Okonoboh 08053789087 rosarumese@gmail.com

E

VERYONE is shaped in some peculiar form and for men, just as the rules are for men, it is important to know body type before dressing. Fashion consultant, Cillian O’Connor, of FashionBeans shares the guide to finding the ultimate fit for your frame: The trapezoid You’re well-proportioned – as long as your head hasn’t doubled in size yet – and so needn’t worry much about adding to, or detracting from, particular parts of your body.

What this means is that you can try your hand at pretty much every trend, cut and seizure-inducing print and probably still look good.

The inverted triangle Men with a chest and shoulders significantly broader than their waist and hips are – although likely no strangers to a barbell and in pretty good shape – still technically off-kilter and so can benefit from a few fit fixes to bring them closer to a rrapezoid’s proportions.

Your main aim here is to add bulk to your midriff and lower body, while slimming down the size of your upper torso slightly.

Try wearing • Horizontal stripes. Particularly from the chest down, as they’ll broaden your comparatively narrow waist.

• Regular V-neck T-shirts. Extreme Vneck tees have no place in your wardrobe.

Regular V-necks narrow your chest slightly while drawing the eye down and away from the broadest part of your frame.

• Slim-fit shirts. But remember to size up – chances are you have a body you’ve worked hard for, so celebrate the fact by showing it off without screaming about it.

• Straight-leg trousers and jeans. Many slim fits will work, too, but nut-crunchingly skinny legwear only serves to accentuate your slimmer lower half, giving the appearance that you skip leg day. Even if you don’t.

• Patterned legwear. Placing the party firmly at the bottom of your look with camo shorts or checked trousers distracts from your comparatively broad upper torso.

Definitely avoid • Structured tailoring. Suit jackets and blazers with shoulder padding and wide (especially peak) lapels will only emphasise your mass up top. Steer towards unstructured silhouettes to streamline your frame instead.

• Scoop necklines, as well as prints, colour pops and/or detailing on the shoulders – all of which will focus attention on your wide shoulders and negatively skew your look’s balance.

The rectangle Usually tall and thin, rectangular body shapes have shoulders roughly the same width as their waist and hips.

Since this can often appear samey, you’ll need to create an illusion of structure – using clothing to widen the shoulders while also adding the effect of a subtle ta-

chest up.

• Jackets with structured, rather than slouchy, shoulders. The former (an overcoat, for example) will square off your frame, while the latter (a relaxed bomber) only exaggerates your already sloping shoulder line.

• Single-breasted suits. These lack the waist-centric bulk of double-breasted styles, allowing for a more relaxed, slimming fit. Also, if your triangular frame is in fact owing to extra poundage, then find tailoring that’s structured at the top but has plenty of drape (cotton, wool-blends and linen) – this kind of suiting won’t constrict around problem areas like your gut, seat and thighs.

• Brighter colour panels and detailing across the chest and shoulders. These help broaden your narrow upper torso.

For even better figure-fixing, try crew neck tees, sweats and jumpers with colour panels across the chest but a slimming darker colour like black, dark grey or navy around the mid-section.

Men:

Dressing by Photo:Yomi Casual

Sunday Tribune

shape

Photo:www.olisa.tv

Definitely avoid • Fitted polo shirts and roll necks. Both of these styles – although smart – slenderise the neck and shoulders while accentuating any roundness in the waist.

• Brighter colours and busy prints. Unless you use them as above, or work them into your outfit as accents in the form of glasses, pocket squares, socks and trainers. Bold belts will only draw attention to your hefty halfway point.

• Skinny fits and extreme tapers. Narrow legwear draws the eye to the centre of your body. Since this where you’re likely roundest, you’ll want to swap these out for straight- and wide-leg fits that better distribute size throughout your silhouette.

The oval Oval shapes appear round, particularly at the centre of the body, with shoulders and lower legs looking slimmer by comparison. To undo some of an oval shape’s negative effects, you’ll need to add structure and width to shoulders to square them off but streamline and slim down the body from the chest through to the knees.

Photos:www.fashionbeans.com

per from your top down.

Try wearing • Horizontal stripes. Especially across your upper torso (think Breton short- and long-sleeved tees), as they’ll add brawn where there likely isn’t much.

• Structured tailoring that’s tweaked to suit you. Once you’ve found structured blazers and suit jackets that add size to your shoulders, have your tailor take them in slightly at the back to emphasise your waist.

• Layered looks. A button-down shirt and fine-gauge crew neck jumper is a nofail pairing that’ll add instant bulk to your frame.

• Scarves. A neatly tied or draped scarf is an easy way to add a point of difference to your look, as well as flesh out your upper torso.

• Prints, colour pops and detailing across the chest and shoulders. Pops of brighter

colours up top or details like epaulettes will expand the dimensions of your otherwise ramrod frame.

Definitely avoid • Double-breasted jackets. Unsurprisingly, tailoring cut in the shape of a rectangle does little to nothing for rectangles.

Try a single-breasted style with plenty of structure in the shoulders instead.

The triangle Although being triangular doesn’t necessarily mean you’re in bad shape, it does mean most clothing is engineered in proportions that are virtually the exact opposite of your body’s.

Try wearing • Vertical stripes. This pattern’s streamlining effect lengthens and slims down your silhouette. Horizontal stripes, on the other hand, only help if they’re from the

Try wearing • Vertical stripes. Like a Triangle, an Oval can benefit from a vertical stripe’s slimming effects – try a shirt or pinstripe trouser.

• The right length. Pay extra attention to sleeve and trouser length as any excessive gathering of fabric will only result in shortening the limbs.

• Fitted, loosely tapered trousers. These will flatter your legs without making them appear excessively narrow or shapeless in the way skinny, tightly tapered or wide-leg styles would, respectively.

Definitely avoid • Horizontal stripes, busy prints or contrast colour pops. Unless they’re judiciously placed at – and restricted to – your narrower areas.

• Statement or coloured belts and double-breasted tailoring. See: Triangle.

• Boots, if you’re a shorter-limbed Oval.

These will make your legs appear even shorter.

25

10 April, 2016

relationships

. . . issues, family, sex

www.theknot.com

Sunday Tribune

Rita Okonoboh 08053789087 rosarumese@gmail.com

www.thetrentonline.com

Tips on how to make your wedding anniversary memorable M ARRIAGE means many things to many couples, and for those blessed enough to celebrate the first anniversary, with many beautiful years to look forward to, marking a wedding anniversary is a very important event for a couple. Whether it’s one year, five years, 10 years, 20 or even 50 years, a wedding anniversary is always a special occasion for a couple to celebrate their love.

Although, some people may not see the necessity to celebrate, marking a wedding anniversary is a way to show gratitude for how far the marriage has come, and a time to examine setbacks and learn from them, and most importantly, to chart a new positive course for the couple. Celebrating wedding anniversaries shouldn’t necessarily cost a fortune. Depending on the choice of the couple, below are some ways couples can celebrate wedding anniversaries: Re-create your wedding night No matter how many ways a couple wishes the day could have gone, a wedding night is special as it is the night that heralded the dawn of your new status as a married man/woman. Re-creating a wedding night can be a spouse’s way to surprise the significant other. The man can take time off work to surprise his wife, an action that the woman is sure to never forget. The woman can also take time out

Random Fact

to do something nice for her husband. It’s the little things that last eternity and your spouse will always be grateful. You can go a step further by re-creating your first meeting. Do something memorable that will refer to that first meeting, that first date or that first night of many as a married couple. It’s inexpensive and unique.

Go musical Everyone likes some form of music. So, a wedding anniversary may just be the time to task yourself on just how much you know your spouse. With the availability of technology, composing a playlist of your spouse’s favourite songs is sure to wow any day. You can incorporate it into a compact disc, a feature available at any nearby cyber cafe. You can also enlist the help of your technology savvy children or relatives. It’s just as affordable as it is wonderful.

Schedule a photoshoot A photograph, they say, is equal to a thousand and more words, and what better way to celebrate the day than to schedule a photoshoot. The perk of this activity is that if you can’t afford the services of a photographer, with the ready availability of smartphones and digital cameras, anyone can be a temporary professional.

However, a real professional is your best bet. You’ll look back on that day every time you look at the photographs and remem-

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. —Oprah Winfrey

ber why staying married is totally worth the effort.

Take stock No matter how busy your schedules are, or how uncomfortable the years have made sitting down together to talk about family-related issues, an anniversary is the perfect excuse to take stock and plan for the future. If it’s that family meeting you have been avoiding for months, now may just be the right time. An anniversary date helps for reference points when planning ahead as it can help you to chart progress made in the family since that date. It also helps to push the couple towards better prospects as the next anniversary is time to appreciate how far and how well you have come as a couple.

Look back at the wedding An anniversary is the time for the couple to relive old memories. Go through wed-

The anniversary may just be the time to give back to the underprivileged.

Find time to reach out to those who have no family members to celebrate anniversaries with, especially orphans

ding photos, watch the wedding video.

You will have moments of laughter and tears as well. It also helps you to appreciate your significant other’s decision to take that giant step to live the rest of their lives with you. For those who don’t have videos or photographs of their wedding day, go through photographs or videos of later events that are special to you as a couple.

It could be a naming ceremony, a child’s graduation or matriculation or even a special church event that both of you participated in.

Give fun gifts or give back Anniversary gifts are really about thought, rather than cost. So, taking five uninterrupted minutes off your ever busy schedule to hug your spouse and tell him/ her just how much he/she means to you on your fifth wedding anniversary may just be the perfect gift. You can also match it with five special messages, spread throughout the hours of the day. Give him/her an album of 10 photographs that mean the most to you as a couple is another wonderful gift for a tenth anniversary. You can also pay surprise visit to your partner at work. To take it a step further, the anniversary may just be the time to give back to the underprivileged. Find time to reach out to those who have no family members to celebrate anniversaries with, especially orphans.

Dance There is seldom a better feeling than dancing with your spouse and a good way to spend time together on your anniversary is to rock to some tunes together. It is sure to guarantee memories that will last longer than a lifetime.

26

10 April , 2016

With Akintayo Abodunrin akinjaa03@yahoo.co.uk 08111813058

I’ve always wanted to bring a big performance to Nigeria —Soji Akinkugbe, executive producer, Sister Act

The medical doctor-turned entrepreneur speaks on his interest in theatre and why he is bringing the Broadway musical, Sister Act, to Nigeria later in the year in this interview. Excerpts:

team, we are going to have understudies for all the major roles; the music director, director, choreographer and costumier. In South Africa, the industry is about 35 years old; we can’t obviously leapfrog that in one show so we’d expect that maybe over the next three years, at least by the time we have done six to 10 shows, at least the basic skills would have been transferred to competent Nigerians. There would also be opportunities for exchange programs.

W

HAT informed your interest in bringing Sister Act to Nigeria?

I grew up on the campus of the University of Ife and Lagos in the 70s and 80s and we were very well exposed to performing art. We grew up watching Duro Ladipo, Ogunde and many others so the seed was sown early. Then our life in Africa is a musical. The way we marry, the way we bury, the way we have a birthday; it’s always a story being told in some form of movement; with dancing, with drums. Over the last 10 years, I’ve had the opportunity to watch a lot of the big musicals that toured the world and a lot of these musicals are either celebrating people’s lives; like Fela that came here or successful movies that they have taken on to the stage because the theatre is a more dynamic way of encountering a performance than a film. So, I’ve always had the ambition of being able to bring one of these big performances to Nigeria but I was quite emphatic that I wanted a Nigerian cast.

Nigeria can be a challenging market to sell from the standpoint of perception and ignorance so over the last four, five years, it’s taken me to find what I will call a suitable technical partner. We do have the acting skills which can be trained but we don’t have the technical skill. We also lack all kinds of technical equipment and a proper stage in Nigeria. The two that we have in Lagos; the National Theatre and University of Lagos are in moribund conditions; these are proper theatre stages but they are not in active use. Undaunted by those challenges; I’m very motivated by the raw talent that we have here and I think Nollywood has done an enormous amount of work in terms of giving young and old an opportunity to express themselves.

Our first performance is going to be ‘Sister Act’, a very popular film by African-American actress Whoopi Goldberg. It had a very successful run in the cinema and then went into theatre and it was very well received in Nigeria so we thought that a general audience musical would be ideal to start with.

You mentioned lack of technical experience, is there anything you are putting in place to train people?

First, the team that we are working with led by Delia Sainsbury runs a premium theatre school, Waterfront Theatre Company in Cape Town; they train young people and

Talking about the script, is it going to be a Nigerian adaptation or the original script?

When you buy the rights to a show, you have to do it as it is. There is not too much room for changes though you could, say, change a city from New York to Lagos.

Is there going to be a Nigerian story after Sister Act because you sound as if this is going to go on for...

When the technical team came to Nigeria last year for the first time, they had the opportunity to see probably Nigeria’s greatest musical in the person of the late Ogunde. It was the 25th anniversary of his death; we were informed and we went to Ososa where the family was celebrating. So it [skill] was there for them to see but obviously all these skills have to be brought together and you know they [South African technical team] are there. I mean they have schools of drama, they have schools of theatre arts; they are there. The content, in terms of the resources, the human skill is there but it needs to be touched; there are other things to add to it. So, we’ve got to accept the fact that certain people have certain skills and those skills have to match what I would call international standard and I don’t think on that level we are there yet. We have our stories but to bring them onto a theatre stage for a contemporary audience, I’m not sure we are there yet.

Dr Soji Akinkugbe get them ready for the market. The reason I was very interested in working with a developmental organisation is because that’s their core business and also because this is

going to be a learning curve. But like I said, I’m very emphatic about having a Nigerian cast. Ultimately we are also going to have a Nigerian technical team. To work with this

I’m not worried so much about the fact that people will say it’s a foreign story; the fact that it’s an all Nigerian cast, I think already legitimises it as a Nigerian product.

How long do you plan for the show to run; a month, a year?

If we are able to push two weeks, we’ve done well.

People are already familiar with the movie Sister Act; do you think this musical will be well received here?

You must realise that today we live in a global world and that’s why it’s important that anything that is done in Nigeria must be of an internationally acceptable standard. I think that the show if well done, will sell itself. A live show is about the feel good factor that you can’t express in word and you just tell you friend, please you must see that show. And that’s all you do.

As you know, cinema has become very Continues p27

27 arts&culture

10 April , 2016

Legality of the salacious

A review of Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s ‘Tram 83’, winner of the 2015 Etisalat Prize for Literature by ADENIYI TAIWO KUNNU

T

HE predatory imprints of the colonial masters and rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo truly never saw this creative expression coming. I bet that Africa has other distractions when this burst forth. It is without doubt an auspicious moment and a most explicit architectural expression in words, where there are unbridled effusions with repeated musical accompaniments; and as such credence lent to those painful realities that the central African country has become and by extension her centrifugal essence.

Sex is a reprieve for the oppressed and supposedly liberated, a means of dominion and an essential ingredient of survival, an important experience in shades of jerks and thrusts without strain. Get angry because you are conservative, frown upon it as immodest, wonder if you’d keep it away from your children in their formative years, resort to it for the frivolities splattered page after another, preach against it because it is hell-bent on sending people to hell, but the verdict of our lives in actions or thoughts are inked and too late to be banned from circulating. The author has exorcised the demons of hypocrisy about sexual excesses, the ubiquity of illicit drugs, the mundanenature of man’s inanities, unrepentant gluttons for the processed hops and barley in water, while equally defying the publicized condemnable to give his world the unadulterated and fearless representation of lives that, realistically speaking, stare us in the face daily and would not go away.

On page 57, “…. Baby –chicks are girls aged twelve to fifteen who prostitute themselves in the quarries, walk in single file, and don’t hesitate to band together and alert the soldiers should a customer refuse to pay the agreed rate. The slim-jims are barely adolescent boys who toil as casual laborers: extracting, carrying and washing the gravel to separate out the diamond crystals”

This excerpt practically sums up the level of debauchery as regards the exploitation of ‘children’ who must survive or cease from survival in an ‘unfair’ world. The world that many either repress as not existing or pay lip-service to when it comes to averting the inherent evils.

‘Tram 83’ is astride two historical junctures; the first being cracks from preceding years of explorative impact and the rapacious tendencies of colonists, while the other – much more - dwells on the aftermath, albeit the present discountenances of the ravenous ‘frenemies’. It is in these current realities that ‘Tram 83’ thrives, is nurtured, fought to be protected and defines in practical terms, the entire gamut of its human space; thus, it is the microcosm of the living sphere, where deviants, devious and illicitly dexterous amongst others hold sway.

Fitson Mwanza Mujila presents the Tram as where countless ‘existing humans move to and from daily, to the point of resorting at Tram 83 every night. It is an unofficial parley of hope where one least expects to find it, plus a renewal of spiritual aspirations in which music and what society has termed debasing, to be the elixir of pleasure and fulfillment.

In 33 chapters, two main characters amongst several others drive the intertwines of a work that reveals the factional underbellies of a society, which may never recover from the stuporous impact of man’s seeming eternal inequalities. As noted in George Orwell’s ‘Animal Farm’, “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others”. The first resort to the term ‘animal’, asserts the level of little or lack of humanity that thrives in its fictive setting.

Power is never in isolation but is complemented by a combination of advantageous factors on the side of the possessor. The ‘Polygon of Hope Mine’ is one such trappings and the cash-cow for all and sundry; locals and foreigners, whose fate must be attuned to faith in the benevolence of

‘The Dissident General’, also referred to as ‘Father of the Nation’. The one without whom nobody could have access to the mine. It is however a stark irony, that the hopelessness of the mine is evidenced in the repeated deaths by those who need to eke out some means of survival and the lack of premium on their lives. In this work, the POH Mine and Tram 83 are places you’d rather be or live an eternal life of misery. By implication, see both places and die would be better than going to the South Western European country of France, particularly Paris before death.

Requiem also called the Negus leads Lucien his squatter-friend and writer in virtually every area of survival. The former’s experience in ‘the school of hard knocks’ and his near-death experience after the Ogden War as a soldier results in the street wise mode that he engages all the time. His life eventually becomes endangered when the nude pictures of the ‘Dissident General’ get to public glare, having first secured the pictures of Ferdinand Malingeau with a threat

Victor Ekpuk’s ‘Coming Home’ opens COMING Home, the first major solo exhibition of Victor Ekpuk’s work in Nigeria in over a decade opened on Saturday at the Renault Showroom, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Promoted by Arthouse – The Space, the show which runs till April 30 is supported

by Diamond Bank, Arra Vineyards, 7UP and Renault.

Happening after a four-month residency with the Arthouse Foundation in 2015, the exhibition features Ekpuk’s newest project using the city of Lagos as inspiration.

In a departure from his normative practice, Ekpuk’s works in the exhibition experiment with three-dimensional forms, adopting the human head as a symbol for the physical and psychological experiences of daily life in Lagos.

A Nigerian-born artist based in Washington, DC, Ekpuk came to prominence through his paintings and drawings which reflect indigenous African philosophies of the Nsibidi and uli art forms.

He re-imagines graphic symbols from diverse cultures to form a personal style of mark making that results in the interplay of art and writing. His work frequently explores the human condition in society,

Victor drawing upon a wide spectrum of meaning that is rooted in African and global contemporary art discourses.

The artist obtained his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria in 1989. He developed a minimalist approach of reducing form to constituent lines, a technique he explored while working as a cartoonist for Daily Times in the 1990s.

His work has been exhibited in acclaimed

international venues including the Krannert Art Museum (Illinois), the Fowler Museum (California), the Museum of Art and Design (New York), the Newark Museum (New Jersey), the Smithsonian Institution (Washington, DC), the New Museum of Contemporary Art (New York), the Dakar Biennale (Senegal) and the Johannesburg Biennial (South Africa).

Most recently, Ekpuk was featured in exhibitions at the Hood Museum at Dartmouth College and the 12th Havana Biennale in Cuba. His works are in the permanent collections of the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African Art, Newark Museum, The World Bank, Hood Museum, Krannert Art Museum, United States Art in Embassies Art Collection and the Fidelity Investment Art Collection.

During his residency with the Arthouse Foundation last year, Ekpuk participated in public programmes as he interacted with the local community. From his artist talk at the Kia Showroom to his interactive workshop with emerging artists, open studios, and Roundtable Discussion at the Goethe Institute, the art community in Lagos was able to get intimately acquainted with his unique bodies of work.

to publish same if he does not receive royalty for Lucien’s publication.

The published work however makes the duo of Lucien and Ferdinand wanted by the General, in addition to Negus, who had earlier smeared his personality. Their lives are also not complete with the former wife of Requiem-Jacqueline and the perceived wife of Lucien, whose approach to things at times reproaches common sense; in the light of the unrequited love

by Emilienne. The affection for dog meat must also not be missed, because at some point, it seemingly becomes a culinary ideology or leitmotif.

Fitson explores the themes of connotative cannibalism, parasitic alliances, political upheavals, struggle, casual sex and prospects of sexually transmitted infections, baby-chicks, baby-mamas, slim-jims, prostitution, life on the tethers tethering off tips of cliffs and deaths.

On page 181, the author repeats the word mournful 80 times, summing up gloom and distaste in which our world is enmeshed. ‘Tram 83’ is self-redemptive and salvation is neither recommended nor sought.

•Kunnu is a literature scholar and correspondent with Radio Nigeria, Lagos

‘I’ve always wanted to bring a big performance to Nigeria’ continued from pg26

successful in Nigeria but a live performance is completely different to cinema. In a musical people are able to express themselves; they are able to dance, they are able to sing, a lot of things you can’t do in cinema. Musical allows you to interact and even for the actors, the response of the audience is very important to bring out their best effort. So, I’m not worried so much about the fact that people will say it’s a foreign story; the fact that it’s an all Nigerian cast, I think already legitimises it as a Nigerian product. If it was bringing a foreign cast from America, obviously there’s no take away.

We’ve had Nigerian musicals in recent years, what are you doing differently with Sister Act? This is not to put other people’s performances on the spot. I would like to learn from the best; I am a trained medical doctor who has become many things in my entrepreneurial life but the way I’ve learnt is that I’ve learnt from people. I haven’t found what I will call a skilled person that can give me what I’m looking for here. I’ve seen those shows and I’ve seen other shows; I know what kind of show I would like to bring to the table. I think I’m more focused on what my original dream was and my dream has been long before these shows came up; it took me years to find the technical skill. It is good that these shows have come up.

How are you going to fund this project?

We haven’t quite decided what we are going to do but for our interest, we are going to be looking for a long term relationship with the corporate that have significant interest in building this industry. It’s not going to likely be a one-off; it would be what you call an ideal fit. Somebody who can see that there is value in this and that value in it, we are going to see progressively. So we start here and we grow progressively.

30

aspire

10 April, 2016

BY OLAIDE SOKOYA 0807 449 7425 (sms only)

BB pin: 290B9652

Do not eat your seeds—Oladele Abimbola Opeyemi Oladele, a graduate of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, Ondo State, is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of B.B. Arts which deals in all forms of art designs. In this interview with OLAIDE SOKOYA, he speaks on his foray into arts and craft. Excerpts:

A

T what point did you decide to establish a business of your own?

Having taken my time to observe the ongoingn on in the society, I made up my mind before leaving school to launch a business of my own immediately after school, and since then, I began to prepare mentally and ask questions from people who were already in the craft.

How easy isit managing your business?

It's very demanding and requires discipline. In fact, working for yourself could be more tasking than working for another, though we cannot take away the fact that I have my independence. I had to put a lot of pressure on myself to ensure success.

What circumstances led you into arts?

My childhood flair for creativity and beauty led me to it. I come from an average family. I learnt the craft as an apprentice when I was quite young, so then, it wasn't for sustenance or livelihood. It's just that I was attracted to the 'tricks and thrills' that the craft entails.

Then, as I grew older, I began to see it as a privilege to be financially independent and here we are today.

How did you choose the line of business you wanted to do?

Choosing this line was seemingly easy for me. Right from my pupilage, I struggled a lot with subjects like mathematics and other science-related subjects. So, I knew then and there that science is a on-go area for me, while I found art-related subjects interesting and comprehensible. As a pupil, you can be sure to meet drawings of 'boxers and warlords' at the front and back covers of my notes. Also, each time I pass the front of an art shop, I will wait for a while and stare at the daring works of the artist (that still happens till today). So, let me just say doing art is natural for me.

What were the things you had to put in place to get the business started?

I started at home initially before renting a small piece of land to make it known to people. I had to take my craft and I to the public and standardise it. So, a small piece of land was gotten that would accommodate a small structure. There are basic tools that are neccesary. These include furniture, a sign post, branded facing board, mesh, squeegee, writing and measuring tools, cutter, cardboards, some paints, brushes and other basic materials.

How profitable has the business been?

It is very lucrative, though at first you have to pay your "dues". The money won't start coming from day one. So in business, persistence, endurance, character and integrity are important. To sound simple, through the craft, I take care of my multi-faceted needs and assist young people God planted around me in my own little way. Let me say, house painting is one of the most financially rewarding aspects of my business.

All other things being equal, workmanship charge for a three-bedroom flat ranges between N100,000 and N350,000.

What does it take to be successful in business?

Be resolute even in the midst of doubts and frustration. Your motivation should be sourced from within.

Be punctual; people want to see you there everyday.

Also, be disciplined. Respect your customers, even when they act funny and annoying. Give to them warm reception. Be tender with words. Be humble too. Some of them will just press the horn of their car and expect you to run to them [laughs]. Establish a friendly link between those you met in the craft and yourself; this has many benefits. And the final shot, make the business known through all explorable channels.

What would be your advice for young entrepreneurs?

True education is what you give yourself, by yourself and for yourself. Schooling has a time-frame but learning should be seen as a life-time endeavour. Resolve to be a life-student because trends improve in all businesses. Besides, do not eat your 'seeds'. The early earnings/gains are what I call 'seeds'. It must not be mismanaged. At best, it should be invested in the business to boost it. Also, be dynamic. I mean be flexible. Don’t be rigid. Accept changes that befall your craft easily.

Don't be too big to follow-up new trends by asking questions from colleagues and do everything within your capacity to build and sustain an image of repute.

I'm talking of integrity and honesty. These are priceless and timeless virtues for entrepreneurs.

What business lessons have you learnt over the years?

In all man's endeavour, his greatest reward is not what is earned through it, but what man becomes by it.

The key word I have learnt and still learn in business is humility.

Your Life Counts

Sunday Tribune

by Tunde Jaiyebo 0803 406 2013

You and your choice Life is full of choices. Choices make life have variety.

Without choices life will be drab and boring. There is an excitement when life presents us with opportunities to make choices. Choices vary from simple ones like what to eat or wear to complicated choices like switching off or leaving a man on a life support machine.

“Everything in our lives is a choice, even doing nothing.

At any moment we have hundreds of decision making options, some significant and some seemingly insignificant.

We need to become more aware of our decision making process. Too often we operate on automatic, doing things by habit rather than by making conscious decisions. Life is a series of decisions, as we realise this we can slow the process down, recognise that what we are doing is making a conscious decision instead of falling back on habit and past poor decisions. We cannot really abdicate from making choices and decisions in our day to day lives. If we try to hand over responsibility of decision to others we are often setting up a situation where we can blame them if things don’t go our way.” Richard Riche Merriam-Webster dictionary defines choice as “the act of choosing : the act of picking or deciding between two or more possibilities : the opportunity or power to choose between two or more possibilities : the opportunity or power to make a decision.”

All of us have the power of choice which we exercise daily consciously or unconsciously.

“You always do what you want to do. This is true with every act. You may say that you had to do something, or that you were forced to, but actually, whatever you do, you do by choice. Only you have the power to choose for yourself.” W. Clement Stone In life we make choices and then our choices make us.

We are the product of our choices.

“And in life, it is all about choices we make. And how the direction of our lives comes down to the choices we choose.”

Catherine Pulsifer Choices have consequences. No choice is neutral – once we make a choice there will be consequences based on that choice.

Choices are like seeds. Making choices is planting seeds and every seed planted has the potential to produce a harvest depending on the environment it is planted and the processes taken to handle and take care of the seed as it grows.

The choices we make is a reflection of our values. It is a proof of what we regard as priority and important. The choices we discard is a proof of what we do not value. The choices we make is also a reflection of our preferences and priorities. We only choose what we think is important and useful.

Our present level of life is a reflection of the choices we made yesterday and the choices we are making today will determine our future. We can predict our future by looking at the choices we are making today.

We must hold ourselves accountable to the choices we make. Maturity and a sense of responsibility simply mean we must take ownership of our choices and bear the consequences. When we blame others for our outcomes in life we are simply blaming people for the choices we have made.

Due to the gravity of the consequences of choices we must be very careful when faced with choices.

Every choice must be critically looked at before we make them. We must project the consequences of making that choice. Will this choice enhance my dream? Will this choice move me forward in life? Will this choice slow me down?

We must never be under pressure to make choices. If we rush in we might have to rush out at a cost which need not be.

To make right choices we need to be adequately informed.

A good choice is always made when the “chooser” is well informed.

“If you don’t have the information you need to make wise choices, find someone who does.” Lori Hill.

For enquiries/comments please send email to urlifecounts@yahoo.com

31

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

thepolity The day I will never forget in my life —OGD The immediate past governor of Ogun State, Chief Gbenga Daniel, who clocked 60 years recently, speaks with journalists on the journey of his life so far, his regrets and successes as well as his dream for Nigeria. WOLE EFUNNUGA brings the excerpts:

A

T 60, what can you say about your life?

My first decision was to have a quiet birthday celebration. In fact, I didn’t want to tell people but to my surprise, people started calling me, asking me questions about how the birthday celebration would go. The truth of the matter is that even when I was not celebrating, some people were planning the celebration without telling me. So, I really don’t have much to say than to thank God. Some people say life expectancy in Africa is 40 while others say it is 45, which means that I have already lived 15 years over time.

You have experienced both political and private lives. Do you have any regret in life? If there is any, what do you think you would have done differently if you look back?

And what plans do you have for the youth coming behind you?

Talking about what plan I have for the youth, we need to go from material acquisition, which is necessary, to knowledge acquisition. That’s what I have been trying to do, mentoring and training young people. If there is anything I would have done that I didn’t do when I was in office, it would be to establish a political academy. You see many people joining politics because they are jobless. When these people find themselves in the National or State Assemblies, what do you expect from them? How do you expect these set of people to make laws that would affect lives positively. What we are saying is that now you are there, why don’t you go and spend one month in that academy, and if we can support it without charging fees to a large extent, let’s take that back to the community to impact knowledge. Those who have passed through that academy have become better citizens today. While they good things for themselves, they also understand that the essence of service is to serve the people.

What do you want God to do for you at 60?

I will ask God to open the eyes of our people to wisdom, because the Bible says that my people perish because they lack wisdom. Nigeria is perishing because we lack the knowledge to run it properly.

Those of you who are supposed to be telling those in government to do the right thing are not telling them the truth. You are not saying what you should say when you are supposed to say it, and as long as we are like this, I am afraid; we are not going to get anything right in this country.

How healthy are you now and how have you been able to manage your health?

I think at 60, I thank God for my health.

I have no ailment whatsoever. I am very strong and healthy. I have played table tennis this morning. I do this regularly

happen when people can begin to look at their potential and get things done. If you go to England today, most of the doctors they have there are Nigerians. You don’t see British doctors in British hospitals; they are either Indians or Nigerians. An average doctor in the UK performs four surgeries in a day. When they are done, they move to their homes. Nigeria is a country that I would like to see develop to its fullest capacity and it is already happening. Before now, when you go to a party, what you will listen to is Michael Jackson, but today, you have the like of Olamide, Davido and Wizkid. Nigerians have moved up in that regard. Personally, what I want to do now is to tutor people, mentor them and interact with them. If a higher assignment comes, I will take it but I am not going to be moving around looking for it.

Chief Gbenga Daniel

with my people. I have tried to look after myself to this point through the grace of God. I don’t smoke and I don’t drink, but that does not mean those who smoke or drink don’t live long. I know some people who smoke and drink, and still lived up to 100 years. I think it is the grace of God for one to live long in life.

During your growing up days, you had your high and low moments, especially when you were in government. Could you share with us the good and the bad days you will never forget and as someone who is very passionate about Nigeria, tell us about the Nigeria of your dream?

There are so many good things to remember but I am trying to remember now the one I will never forget, I think that was when I was in part three. As a part three student, you had about thirteen subjects and when you get to part four, you will now be allowed to choose eight. I remember that on that prize giving day, when our parents were seated, I think out of thirteen prizes, I won first prize in eleven. The way it was organised that time, it is the parents that will be in the front while the children would be at the back. When I was announced as the best students in mathematics, I came from the back to receive

my prize and before I made my way back to my seat, they had announced my name again as the best student in English. At a point, because I won eleven prizes, they had to give me a seat in the front while I received all the prizes. All these happened in the presence of my father. I think that day remains the day I will never forget. As human beings, there were also days that were not quite good. The worst day in my life that I will never forget was the first day I was arraigned at the court in Abeokuta after leaving office as governor. I was brought out of the vehicle and they were reading charges of the things that I didn’t do and while that one was going on, some students sponsored by the government singing outside calling me names. As they were reading out those charges of money laundering, I was just asking myself, how? when? where? And I knew it was all fiction.

I saw those students from Tai Solarin University of Eduation (TASUED), the school that I established, singing songs and calling me names. The school that I built to a world class university and the first University of Education in Nigeria, the second in Africa and the 15th in the world. It was a very bad day for me. I have actually recovered but it was a very bad day in my life.

On the Nigeria of my dream, that will

Right now, a lawyer is in the power ministry and the power situation in the country is very poor, as an engineer what advice would you give to those in charge now?

It doesn’t matter whether the Minister of Power is an engineer or a lawyer; the issue in power is not strictly an engineering issue. It is strictly management issue. When [Chief Olusegun] Obasanjo’s administration started and he offered to bring Bola Ige into the administration, we were the ones who told Bola Ige not to go to the Attorney-General’s office to start blowing grammar; that he should go and face the power problem in this country and solve it. He came to some of us, even though I was not in government then, he said he didn’t know anything about the power problem, but we told him not to worry, that we would tell him what to do. The last power plant that was built in Nigeria at that time was the Egbin Power station. It was built 30 years before that time.

Now, it is about 40 years old. The Egbin Power station, most of you may not know, is still the best power station in this country. We then told Bola Ige we needed to have more power stations, especially in this side of the country, which is consuming most of the power and I remember that I followed Bola Ige to China. The result of that trip to China was the two power stations in Olorunsogo and Omotoso.

Of course, Bola Ige died, and the Minister of State for Power, Danjuma Goje , carried on until I became the governor.

The white people came and were looking for land to put the power plant and I said I remember that I went to China with Bola Ige, so anything you want to get, just tell me where you want it, I will give you the land and that’s how we put it at Olorunsogo. Then there is one in Ondo State, because Segun Agagu became the Minister of Power and took it to Ondo. Nothing has happened again since those two power stations were installed.

32

thepolity

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Kogi State of Assemb

Count Gov Bello out of Kogi Assemb The governor is responsible for th Honourable HarunaYusuf, special adviser to the governor of Kogi State on legislative and assembly matters, speaks with YINKA OLADOYINBO, on the alleged invovlment of Governor Yahaya Bello in the crisis, rocking the state House of Assembly among others. Excerpts:

W

HAT do you think is the solution to the crisis in Kogi state House of Assembly?

The members will have to see one another as statesmen. We have more than1.3 million Kogites, and just 25 of them have been elected to represent their people. So, it means they are unique and special. They are a breed that should set examples. So their actions and inaction should be in the overall wellbeing of the state. So, whatever crisis that may have emanated out of the leadership tussle should be seen as a fight between the teeth and the tongue. If they are classified as special set of people in Kogi, it means their personal interest comes secondary. So, the leadership tussle or who becomes what in the assembly is not the essence of their being in the assembly. The speaker is only first among equals and each of them is capable of being called speaker.

To my understanding, the erstwhile speaker, Alhaji Momoh Lawal, played a very vital role before the coming on board of the current government. When we knew that the crisis would not do us any good, we picked five former house members as members of a committee to interface with the members and we met with the members, including the former speaker and he told us about the pressure from the former governor then on him to resign and pave way for another speaker from the East or any other place.

But the members met and decided that the incoming government should not inherit the leadership crisis because the issue then was that Lawal was impeached by 17 members. The then governor refused to recognise that. As that was going on, there was a meeting that was scheduled between the governor and the members as advised

by Lawal. He had structured the principal offices with names. He also nominated the current speaker. At that meeting, agreement was reached that Lawal should resign. But surprisingly, after a meeting that ended at about 2 a.m. and the house was supposed to reconvene for the speaker to resign, things began to happen.

However, before the next morning text messages were sent to members that the assembly was not going to sit. One assignment that was outstanding then was the confirmation of the deputy governor and without the house reconvening, there was no way that would be done. The house could not sit because we were told that the PDP members of the house had been summoned to their national headquarters for a meeting. So, the screening and confirmation of the deputy governor was scuttled. We later discovered that the meeting

ity of the assembly, its functionality lies with its committees. To every assignment, there is a committee handling it and it is not compulsory that the assignment must be carried out on the floor of the house.

But why in the Government House? People believe that such functions should have been undertaken somewhere else and not in the facilities of another arm of government that is being accused of sponsoring the crisis.

If you check the house rule, there is a committee on Government House, just like there are committees on works, water, security and so on. So, if you see the committee on Government House looking into the books of Government House what about it? But this is public account committee and the committee can go into any of the departments and look at their books and ask questions. Moreover, this is a committee assignment and not a plenary session. I don’t have any problem with house committee on Government House coming over to ask questions over finances. Moreover, the speaker’s lodge is an extension of the assembly.

Honourable Haruna Yusuf

agreed that the people should go back to Kogi and maintain the status quo, meaning that Lawal should continue to be speaker.

But it was he who stated from the beginning that the governor is from the central, the chief judge of the state from the central and himself, the speaker from the central.

The Lawal group does not dispute the fact that the man was ready to resign, but their contention is that the governor was dictating to them who should be the next speaker.

I disagree with that. It will be unfortunate if such a statement came from Lawal.

What is evidential in writing needs no further proof. He did a text and structured the principal posts of the assembly, with names and forwarded the text message to the governor and told him to call the members and tell them what he wanted. The governor is not a member of the assembly. So, the business of the assembly lies exclusively with the members. There is no way the governor can dictate to them who should be and who should not be. The governor has no cause to disbelieve the speaker and it was upon that presentation that the governor acted.

He was shocked when he saw that some members were objecting the position.

As a member of the executive arm of government, do you think it was

legal for five members out of 20 to sit and impeach a speaker?

I was a member of that same assembly and by the house rules, we have the provision that for you to impeach the speaker, you need a two-thirds of the assembly, and for you to sit and carry out any legislative business on the floor, you need one-third, which is nine of the 25 members. Some members claimed they did not sign for the impeachment. We leave that to court to decide because they are already in court and I would not want to discuss a matter that is lying before the court. So, in terms of whether they were five or not, the court will have a pronouncement on that.

Some members are currently carrying out legislative duties within the premises of the Government House which has made the other faction to argue that the governor is backing the G5.

I want to reiterate that the governor is not a principal officer neither is he a member of the house. So, the issue of the governor protecting or sponsoring some members must be the greatest dream of the world. The assembly is an institution, an independent body on its own that is run by rules. I also know that the house is currently on a short break and the house is to reconvene for plenary session on the 12th of April. The total-

The usage of the facilities of the executive is making people to believe that the governor is biased on the crisis.

Saying the governor is being biased is strange. My only understanding of factions in the house is based on party lines.

We have the APC and the PDP. When you are talking of the Kogi Assembly, I am sorry to say this, we have one assembly.

Are you aware that the National Assembly has ordered the taking over of the functions of the assembly by the House of Representatives with the assembly sealed off? Yet, some members are still sitting over the budget, which is one of the functions to be taken over.

Kogi is one and we have one assembly.

There are 25 members in the assembly and a member can elect not to attend sitting.

These members have different assignments on committee levels. The speaker’s lodge can be seen to be part and parcel of the assembly. So, if you see members within the place should there be a query?

The assembly building as a structure belongs to Kogi. So, there should not be any query over any property belonging to the state that is being used by the members. It was not a plenary sitting; it was a committee assignment, which can even be carried out on water or anywhere. All we should be after is the report of that committee.

33

thepolity

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

bly of crisis!

mbly crisis —Yusuf, gov’s aide on legislature he crisis —Dep majority leader The deputy majority leader of the Kogi State House of Assembly, Honourable Sunday Shigaba, speaks with YINKA OLADOYINBO, on the crisis in the assembly and Governor Yahaya Bello’s role in the matter.

W

HAT is the situation with the crisis in the Kogi Assembly?

Where we are now is a stage where the complex has been sealed off on the orders of the National Assembly.

Recall that the House of Representatives passed a resolution sealing off and taking over the functions of state assembly.

The Senate consequently concurred. That automatically means that the National Assembly has taken over the functions of the state assembly and that has been followed up by the sealing off of the complex by the police in compliance with the directive and invocation of the relevant section of the constitution that gives the National Assembly power to take over functions of an assembly that is crisis-ridden and cannot perform its legislative functions.

Is there any end in sight to this crisis?

Definitely, since there was a beginning, then the end is in sight, because the situation as it has metamorphosed into the assembly being taken over. We want to see that we do our legislative duties in no distant time. They will take steps to ensure that the crisis comes to an end and we return to office to continue our normal legislative activities. The essence of taking over is to allow nerves to calm down and ensure that parties come to terms with themselves. It is not just taking over to remain, but taking over to ensure that they take appropriate steps to make normalcy return to the assembly.

Talking about the parties coming together to dialogue, what steps are being taken to ensure that peace returns to the assembly?

For now, there has not been any concrete step that can be made reference to in that regard. But we have some lined up programmes and steps that we have designed for ourselves. However, as legislators, we have not kept far away from one another. We are also speaking on phone and at inter-personal level. We are thinking on the way forward which has not been agreed to, but when the time is ripe, we will come to an amicable resolution as to the way forward to the crisis.

But there was an allegation that the assembly was sealed off because your group was planning to foment trouble in the complex.

I see such story as a calculated attempt to mislead the public by a group which has no conscience and does not believe in truth. This is most unfortunate, because all of us all are aware that the sealing of

the legislative arm to come and operate?

Hitherto, there was no such in the history of the state. We have never had it so bad ,where the legislative arm will have to be provided accommodation by the executive arm and be doing their legislative activities therein. They should come out clearly to tell people where they are doing their budget defence, why have they migrated from the assembly to Government House if the place is not sealed? At no point will the executive say it is not accommodating, financing, and providing logistic support to the G5. What is happening in the legislative arm of government, it is a clear picture that the governor is financing everything.

Has there been any attempt by the governor to broker peace between the two factions?

I am not aware of any serious attempt at any level. I have not witnessed any attempt, because if an attempt had been made the entire public would have known.

Rather, it has been continued propagation of illegality.

Honourable Sunday Shigaba

the assembly complex was not by members, but by the police and at no point has the police said they have has re-opened it neither has the National Assembly said it has surrendered the taking over of functions of the assembly. So, no one should deceive himself. If the other group is saying there was a threat of attack and that was why they could not sit, then it is the height of deceit.

Was there anybody or troublemakers around the place other than the recalcitrant G5 members that have been sitting illegally? Where is the attack coming from at this moment, when they were smoothly sitting in flagrant disregard to the orders of the National Assembly? Who attacked them? Nobody. Is it now that the place is sealed officially that a group will now attack?

But the G5 has sat to take some decisions. What effect will such have this on the state?

Judging from the time it was pronounced that the change in leadership was null and void, it goes to say that such leadership is an illegal one following the rules and the constitution. If the law clearly states what to be done before the impeachment of either the speaker or any principal officer and such laws or rules are

not obeyed, definitely whatever comes out of it is null and void. Any leadership that emerges from such nullity is illegal, and since the leadership is illegal, every other thing committed, done or said to be done by such illegal leadership amounts to nullity too. All the activities arising from budget defence, second reading of the budget or screening, even if they had access to the assembly, is a nullity, not to talk of when they are migrating to Government House for such illegal activity that has no effect.

Any implementation with regards to those illegal activities by the executive amounts to nullity and attracts legal sanction in the course of time.

You alleged that members are carrying out legislative activities at the Government House. Are you insinuating interference from the executive in the crisis?

Basically, at no point will any executive deny knowledge of what is happening or exonerate itself from what is happening in the legislative arm of government, because it is clear to the public. If the legislative arm of government is different and separated from the executive arm, at what point and what makes the executive arm of government to provide accommodation in Government House for

There was an allegation that the whole members met and agreed with the governor on the need for a change of leadership in the assembly because of the need to ensure balance in power equation and that you were induced to carry out the change but your group reneged on the agreement.

In the first place, when you say somebody has to be induced to do certain things, the same person has to check himself. If he has no skeleton in his cupboard, why does he have to induce people who have a legitimate right to do their legitimate duty? Secondly, if we are talking of the need for change of leadership, all of us are in the agreement that leadership can change by virtue of mutual understanding that power has to be equitably shared among the senatorial districts and the political zones in the state.

All of us agreed to this. But the process of doing it is what we are querying. We said this thing should be allowed for us to do, not to be dictated to that a particular person should be this and that.

Are you saying the governor tried to dictate to the House?

Of course, that is the scenario. He said in his interview that “my speaker is sitting.” If he says I have my speaker, we know what it means. Rather, it should be the speaker of Kogi State that is sitting and not the governor’s speaker.

34

thepolity

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Osoba returning to Ogun APC as leader —Buraimo

Honourable Bukonla Buraimo is the immediate past representative of Remo Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives. In this interview with DARE ADEKANMBI at his Lagos residence, he speaks on the move to have Chief Olusegun Osoba back in the All Progressives Congress (APC), the succession battle in Ogun State, among others. Excerpts:

I

T has been a year since you lost a re-election into the House of Representatives in Remo Federal Constituency. How have things been politically?

I am actually very grateful. Of course it is painful to lose an election, but after taking a deep look into it, I have to give praise to God. Here I am today, a year after the election loss, I am wonderfully okay and I thank God every day. I am looking forward to God for what He will do for me in 2019. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served the people of Remo for four years and I am still looking for another opportunity to serve them more.

You are in the camp of former Governor Olusegun Osoba and you did join the Social Democratic Party with him. When you were moving to SDP from APC, leaving a big party for a small one, were you confident of victory?

Yes, of course. First, I will like to clarify that Chief Osoba did not persuade anybody to go to SDP with him. We joined him in the party out of our own volition.

Those of us who represented Ogun State at the National Assembly in the Seventh Assembly and moved to SDP are likeminded people. I, for one, was convinced that SDP was the right way to go because in APC then I would not brook being led by the devil. So, I went with the light. And you might say the light did not lead us to victory, but I tell you victory is not necessarily at the polls. Victory is about life.

We are victorious, because, today, we are all alive. Today, we are even better than many people who contested election with us, be it winners or losers. I didn’t regret going to SDP and collectively, we never regret taking that decision. I will do it again if the same scenario plays out.

Chief Osoba is back to APC as a result of efforts by some APC leaders, including Senator Bola Tinubu. Is it in his interest to go back to the APC which structure is firmly under the control of Governor Ibikunle Amosun?

Let me give you a narrative. You have a father who is building a house and he has almost completed the house. Then comes a call for him to go overseas and he will have to leave the house for the trip. When he leaves the house, all manner of people from different parts of the country occupy the almost completed house. They will occupy the house for as long as the owner of the house is not around. But these people are not the owners of the house. When the owner of the house finishes his business overseas and is coming back home, they will either leave peacefully or resist the comeback of the owner. In most cases, when they resist, they get pushed out and where they agree to leave peacefully, the owner find them a space in the neighborhood to co-exist.

So, this is what is going to happen as far as APC in Ogun State is concerned. The

say if the thing is usually rotated between Egba, Yewa-Awori people as a region and Ijebu and Remo as another region. Every region has a valid opinion. It is in the hand of God who becomes the next governor of Ogun State. I can only pray that God should lead us to choose the right person for the state. No particularly region, except mathematically Ogun Central, where the current governor is from, that will not likely be featuring a candidate.

What is your assessment of Amosun in the last 10 months?

So far, there haven’t been new projects.

He has said he is not planning any new project but to complete the ones that are yet to be completed. I wish to tell him to go ahead and do the best he can for the state and its people. It is whatever he does that will live after him. He will live long to see and hear what people will say after him. People are even saying it already. It is just a matter of time.

I don’t want to judge him. In Remo as a whole, we have seen a bridge, even if no vehicle plies the bridge. Maybe people will be walking on the bridge and be displaying their wares on it. Honestly, there are many governors in Nigeria today who ought not to be more than local government councilors. But, unfortunately, they are governors and we just have to live with this.

Honourable Bukonla Buraimo

real owner of Ogun APC is Chief Osoba and he is going there soon. You will recall that Chief Osoba was part of the committee that formed APC constitution. He is coming back to his party. He is coming back to take his rightful position as the leader of the party. So, if the [occupiers] there are ready to co-exist with him, they will be given some positions. If they want to resist, they will find themselves forcefully ejected and dispatched to the streets.

There has been a precedent in the state as to how a governor behaved in the manner anyone there now may be behaving and we all know how that governor ended. Chief Osoba going back to APC is a welcome idea. I am a member of APC. I registered as an APC member and I also financed the registration of party members locally in my constituency. For me, returning to APC is not like somebody joining the APC. It is an APC man going back to his party.

There will be renewal of clashes between him and Governor Amosun over who takes over from Amosun in 2019.

There won’t be any clash of interests.

The governor knows, and he has said it before that Chief Osoba is the leader of the party in the state. If truly he believes in what he said, he should take his position and allow the leader take his rightful place. And if he doesn’t mean what he has said, then, like I said earlier, the [occupier] will have to give way to the real owner of the property or get pushed out.

So, either way, APC will be APC or whoever wants to lead the party will lead it,

while whoever wants to be pushed out will be pushed out.

I don’t want to pre-empt Amosun or Chief Osoba on whether any of them has anybody in mind as the next governor. But by the word of the governor, he should cede the leadership of the party to Chief Osoba automatically. God has given Amosun eight good years. Why would he attempt to be a god by trying to put someone in? Whoever contends with God will fail. I can take a bet on that. After his eight years, Amosun should go to the mosque where he worships and thanks his God for those eight years instead of dreaming about putting a successor in place. If he brings a successor, the leaders will remain the leaders.

Where, in your own opinion, do you think the next governor should come from between Ogun East and Ogun West where contestants are already showing interest?

When you talk of succession planning, you are saying that someone already has someone he is grooming to take over from him. That is not what is happening in the state at the moment. It is a free society.

Absolutely anybody who meets the requirements stipulated in the constitution for governorship post can be governor in 2019. But if we look at which region should be producing the governor, the YewaAwori people can lay claim to the fact that they have not got a shot at the governorship of the state. And they will definitely come out to present one of their sons to be the next governor. It is a choice. The Ijebu and Remo people of Ogun East can

What do you make of the LCDAs announced by the government?

I don’t believe it. I believe it is a political move. Politicians always look for a way to fool the people. He wants to create the LCDAs because he knows people love power and positions; they love to be called executive secretaries, chairmen and so on. But these people are not likely to get a single penny to fund the new creations, especially when the existing 20 local government councils have been grounded financially.

They don’t get their monthly allocation.

The reason behind it is to create many positions for people to occupy and consequently create an army of loyalists for 2019 elections. This is obvious. If you seek from men, men will give you what they can give you. But if you seek from God, He will give unto you what He can give unto you. I want to see if, come 2019, this idea will be able to give to Amosun what he is scheming for. What is going on in the state now is disastrous. The workers went on strike. People are complaining very bitterly and there is nobody to help them. Amosun says the state IGR is N7billion, if that is true, why does he wait for the monthly federal allocation? If that is true, he ought not to owe any worker. He shouldn’t be deducting from workers’ salaries and not remitting same if truly the state IGR is N7 billion he claimed it is. There should not be any outstanding project with such a huge IGR. When another person becomes governor, he will have to scrutinise all these claims about IGR and the worth of the bridges we see all over the place.

Out of office, we will continue to do continues pg 36

35

thepolity

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

His leadership not automatic, it must be earned —Ogun APC

Mr Sola Lawal is the publicity secretary of the APC in Ogun State. He speaks with DARE ADEKANMBI on the return of Chief Segun Osoba to the party, the creation of LCDAs, among others. Excerpts:

H

OW did Ogun APC receive the news that Chief Segun Osoba has dumped his SDP for his former party?

If you have 100 people and one is added to it, it becomes 101. Politics is a game of number and election is, of course, about numerical strength of a party’s support base. In that sense, it is good for the party.

No serious party rejects people because it is people who are the strength of a party.

So, we are better off as a party.

about government with my little experience is that there is never a time when there is money in government because there will always be things to do with the money. And as long as your demand and requirements exceed your resources, you will have always say there is no money.

And I can tell you that there is no government anywhere in the world that has money for all its needs. So, if you are waiting for money to come, you will never get to do anything in government. If it is a laudable idea, the passion and the conviction and the drive will make it work. So, all stakeholders in Ogun State project can do is wish the government of Amosun well and pray for the success of the idea. But to say it will not work because there is no money is begging the issue.

How would explain the fact that neither Governor Ibikunle Amosun nor any member of the state executives of the APC attended the meeting?

Before I became the spokesperson for APC in Ogun State, I had been a reporter and editor. You will, therefore, agree with me that such a question should be directed to the governor himself who is in a better position to explain why he was not there.

Whatever I say will be speculative. I don’t know why he was not there. I am sure at a point in the discussion of the matter he will have to explain why he was not there.

Some of Chief Osoba’s lieutenants have said the former governor is coming back to lead the APC, which is currently being led by Governor Amosun…

We all agree that Chief Osoba is not an unknown quantity in the politics of Ogun and Nigeria. Having realised that, leadership is also something that has to be earned. I can tell you that it is not automatic for anybody to become a leader. Leadership was not given to [Nelson] Mandela on the platter of gold. He earned it. It was never given to Chief Obafemi Awolowo on the platter of gold; he earned it. It is the same for Chief Bola Ige. So, he must earn it. It takes the ignorant-minded to say that a person is a leader and not a follower. We should not designate anybody as a leader.

No. The same way we can’t designate anybody as a class monitor in a class of say 40 people. The class captain must emerge through sterling qualities of his. It is these qualities that distinguish such a leader from others. It is earned.

You seem to be saying that the return of Chief Osoba will not spark any crisis in the party.

Absolutely, there won’t be any crisis. We know one another. Chief Osoba himself was part of this party before. He is only walking back home. He went on political pilgrimage to pray for Ogun State and he is now back. As a leader and as a former governor of the state, he went on pilgrimage and he is now back home.

The creation of LCDAs by Governor Amosun has been dubbed a political move designed to multiply bureaucracies and loyalists and not for the development of the state as claimed by the governor.

Creation of LCDAs is not a strange thing, whether in Ogun State or elsewhere. La-

What is the thinking of the APC leadership on the succession plan for 2019? Where do you think the pendulum should swing between Ogun West and Ogun East?

It is too early to begin to talk about succession in Ogun. The current tenure of Governor Amosun won’t end until May 29, 2019 and we are just in April, 2016.

We still have three years. The government has barely done one year. But I can assure you that as a responsible led by sound and intelligent leadership, when we get to the bridge we will decide in a way that anybody in Ogun State will be happy.

Mr Sola Lawal

gos State has been operating on the basis of LCDAs at the local government since 2004 or thereabout. Some states also in the past opted for the LCDA option. I remember that as far back as 2002, Ogun State was one of the states that adopted LCDA. That was under Chief Osoba as governor of the state. Chief Bisi Akande too did same in Osun State. If you remember, the story was that the Federal Government of the PDP under Chief Olusegun Obasanjo kicked against LCDA creation because of the fear that such creation will eliminate the chances of the PDP in the South-West region. So, other states retraced their steps. But Lagos forged on with it and it has come to stay in Lagos now.

So, what that tells you is that the LCDAs now approved and created and which are about to take off under the Amosun government are not the creations of Amosun.

They were created by Chief Osoba. Amosun only went to the archives to get the documents and decided it was time to implement the policy. So, since they were created in 2002, but held in abeyance till now, it cannot be correct therefore to say they were created for political reasons. If they were considered genuine and desirable is 2002, why are they not desirable in 2016?

Chief Osoba organised a referen-

dum to get the buy in of the people of the state in the creation of LCDAs under him. How will the LCDAs survive in the face of constant dwindling revenue of government?

The point is that you don’t get to do excess things when you are overwhelmed.

This idea will of necessity have challenges in the beginning. And if it is true that you are overwhelmed by the challenges in the country, the great idea will not materialise. Now, if Lagos had buckled the way other states did at that time, the 37 LCDAs in Lagos today would not have been operating today. One thing I have found out

Chief Osoba was part of APC before. He is only walking back home.

He went on political pilgrimage to pray for Ogun State and he is now back

What do make of the last 10 months of the Amosun administration?

It has been fantastic and fantastic over a thousand times. All you need do is come to Ogun State and see things for yourself what operates everywhere in the state. Go to Otta and compare it to what it was before Amosun came on board. Go to Ijebu, Sagamu and see whether they were what they used to be five years ago. This is not to even talk of Abeokuta. It goes without saying that Amosun’s government has performed better than all past governments in the state.

If the state’s IGR is N7 billion as the government claimed before the election, why is the government having issues with payment of salaries and remittances from workers’ salaries to their cooperative societies, a development that caused the strike which ended a while ago?

Governor Amosun, I can tell you, is not owing workers. Go and check the records.

The government has issues with some deductions from some allowances and arrears. But the main salary itself, the state government does not owe workers. But I can tell you that, despite the financial crunch across the country, Ogun State has been discharging its financial responsibilities to the workers of the state creditably well, as though the financial challenge is not there. This was why it didn’t take much time for the strike to be called off as against other states where such strike has taken at least two months.

36

thepolity

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘Some governors ought not to be councillors’ continued from pg 34

what we can do for them. If the state House of Assembly members approve the LCDAs, they will have to stand by their decision and explain to the people why they did it.

The idea is more political than for development. The existing councils aren’t being funded. So, how will he get the money to fund the LCDAs? It makes absolutely no sense.

What Amosun is planning to do with this is to set up a kangaroo local government election soon and install executive secretaries or chairmen at the LCDAs and the councils. So that a lot of people will contest as chairmen and by the time they become the chairmen, they will have power to primarily serve one person—the governor. But it is just a matter of time, the bubble will burst.

What is your next move politically?

I don’t sit down and plan what I want to become. I wait on God to make me what He wants me to do. I pray to Him to give me the grace to live up to 2019 and He will direct me on what to do then. I will love to contest again and God-willing, I will become something in 2019.

Do you feel Nigerians made a mistake electing

Muhammadu Buhari as president, given the current situation in the country?

Nigerians were 100 per cent right to have voted Buhari as president. This is because with everything that has been unveiling up till now and which I believe are true, we should be grateful to God for leading Nigerians to vote for Buhari. We should look into the level of atrocities that have been committed by the PDP government in the last 16 years. The whole country would have gone completely bankrupt now if Dr Goodluck Jonathan had been allowed to continue as president. A naira would have been probably N1million to a dollar. It is unbelievable what some individuals in the PDP have done to the economy of this country by way of taking raw cash from the NNPC and the CBN. We are just looking into the Dasukigate which is just about $2.1 billion. Nobody is talking about what happened in the NNPC, MDAs and other areas. That tells you there is a serious level of decay in the country and that corruption has eaten so deep into our system that it will take a successive good government like Buhari’s to go for the next 16 to 20 years before we can say we will be out of it completely.

PMB is doing his best as far as trying to recover the loot is concerned. But he needs to focus on punishing those

who bankrupted the country. Of course, he can’t take his eyes of the issue of economy. He should try as much as possible to delegate authority. He should leave some segment of the economy to the vice president to do. While he focuses on the anti-corruption fight, the VP can focus on the economy. Meanwhile, the president will still have the final say. With the way it is, I don’t think the president can multitask. With his age, I don’t think Buhari can really do the turnaround that our economy deserves. But I still believe in his ability to run the country.

But the popularity of the APC is going down because of the suffering Nigerians are going through…

When things are going to get better, they have to be as they are in the country at the moment. The current situation is a sign that things are going to be better. It is because Nigerians were used to the old order under the PDP. We all agreed that things must change and which was why we voted for change. Nigerians should be patient with Buhari. Sometimes, when someone is doing the right thing, his idea may not be popular on the streets.

But by the time the fruits of his idea begin to show, everybody will identify with success.

opinion Nigerian leaders must take tough decisions to grow economy

By Akinwunmi Ambode

I

sincerely appreciate this initiative of the Management of The Nation Newspapers in organizing the maiden edition of National Forum on the Economy – with the theme: “National Economy, The Way Forward”.

Despite boasting the biggest economy in Africa, Nigeria’s economy remains largely undiversified with crude oil sales accounting for over 90 per cent of total revenue.

As a result, our economy is always vulnerable to volatilities in the international oil market coupled with the impact of many years of corruption and wastages. This is the reason for our present economic nightmare.

It is very unfortunate that we wasted the golden opportunity to deploy the trillions of dollars earned from our oil exports to develop the critical sectors of the economy including power, agriculture, industries, solid minerals, transportation infrastructure among others. No doubt, if we had done the right thing as some other oil producing countries did, keeping in mind that crude oil is a finite resource, we would not be experiencing the devastating effect of oil price crash on the scale we are experiencing it now.

We are now being forced to do, with pains, what we should have done with ease years ago. The task of charting a new direction for the economy is not going to be a tea party.

Various policy options must be identified and assessed on the basis of our current situation and needs. Moving our economy forward requires thinking outside the box and doing things differently. We need creativity, innovation and the courage to take difficult and tough decisions.

The leadership of the country at national and state levels must have the courage to take tough decisions and make sacrifices in the near term which will, in the long run, make our economy stronger and sustainable and, consequently result in prosperity across all regions of Nigeria.

One way to revive our economy will be to explore and expand inter-State relations, strengthen regional competitiveness by maximising economies of scale, regional optimisation of assets and endowments and mitigation of afflictions and natural disasters. Other potential areas for inter-State collaboration include transport infrastructure to facilitate market linkages, education, market development, human capacity building, security and intelligence sharing, among others.

I must stress, however, that this idea is not an entirely uncharted territory for Nigeria. Prior to the oil boom era, Agriculture was the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy and

contributed about 65% to the country’s GDP and represented close to 70 per cent of total exports. Through farming, Nigeria was able to feed its population while major cash crops were exported to earn foreign exchange.

From the cocoa and rubber plantations in the West, the groundnut pyramids and cotton in the north, to palm oil in theeast; each region was identified by its economic areas of comparative advantage which were collectively harnessed towards ensuring food security and inclusive growth across the country.

Given our current economic challenge, I believe it is time we take a cue from our old ‘playbook’ for a viable ‘game plan’ to revive our national economy. States and regions must once again begin to leverage on their respective areas of comparative advantage by establishing partnerships towards establishing inter-State or interregional commodity value chain. We must re-start interstate/regional cooperation.

It was in realisation of this that Lagos and Kebbi states signed a Memorandum of Understanding a few weeks ago. Kebbi State is the largest producer of rice in Nigeria while Lagos state, the most populous state in Africa, consumes rice, mostly imported rice, worth N135b annually.

With this partnership, which covers food production, processing and distribution, Lagos State and Kebbi State have taken steps to explore our areas of comparative advantages to achieve food security for Nigeria and save our foreign exchange. In specific terms, this collaboration will produce 70% of Nigeria’s rice demand. The multiplier effect of this collaboration will be felt in the areas of job creation, the development of ancillary industries,

the strengthening of our local currency against the Dollar and other major international currencies.

I believe more of this inter-state collaboration should be encouraged as a major driving force for the diversification of the economy. There are many more areas of collaboration to be explored in the nation. The political leadership must develop the will to make this initiative work, to achieve food security and promote backward integration for industrial growth.

I wish to state at this point that Lagos State has always embraced inter-state cooperation as a strategy to fasttrack economic growth and development. Prior to the agreement with Kebbi State in the Northwestern Nigeria, Lagos State has collaborated with States from within the western region in the areas of comparative advantage for the partner States.

Lagos State currently has 84 hectares of land in Osogbo, Osun State, out of which 20 hectares is used for palm produce, while others are used for rice farming, cassava and maize. Lagos State also acquired additional 1,000 hectares of land in Osun, 500 hectares in Ogun and Oyo each and 50 hectares in Abuja to support farming. In addition, all granites used in construction in Lagos State are being sourced from quarries located in Ogun State. These relationships have proved especially beneficial for Lagos State given its low land mass and the rapid urbanisation and industrialisation in the State.

It must, however, be noted that for regional or interstate cooperation to yield the desired result in terms of enhanced inclusive growth, we must put in place a functional modern rail and water transportation system. The movement of goods, materials and people by road is not only inefficient but fraught with risks, safety hazards and detrimental to our roads.

The Lagos/Kebbi initiative for example will involve movement of thousands of tons of paddy rice to Lagos for processing in the mills. This can only be achieved more efficiently through a modern rail system which at present remains largely undeveloped.

Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we must brace ourselves, take the tough but right decisions, individually and collectively, so that we can have a better tomorrow. Together, we can make Nigeria greater.

• Ambode, the governor of Lagos State delivered this address at the Nation’s Ist national forum on the economy at Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja, on Thursday, April 17.

37

opinion

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Open letter to President Buhari: Do not be deceived

By Obi Daramola

S

OMETIME in March, the top echelon of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, APC, met and one of the decisions reached was the endorsement of your candidature, come 2019 Presidential election, implying that if you agree to run, that is, for a second term, you have the sole ticket. I find it difficult to understand the basis of, and for, this unsolicited endorsement. President Buhari, I have no hesitations in advising you not to consider this offer. The reasons are just many. What is the possible basis for the offer? One would have thought that it was based on performance so far.

In the first instance, the time that has elapsed, one year, since you took office is, admittedly, too short for any objective evaluation. But, if one had to be made, you, being ever honest, will be the first to admit that, though you are trying your best, nothing spectacular has yet happened that meets the high expectations of the people. Indeed, you admitted as much in your address to the NEC meeting of APC, on Thursday March 24.

Then, may be the caucus based their decision on the on-going “wars” against Boko Haram as well as against corruption. If so, I hasten to say that the caucus did not look deep enough. Boko Haram had been decapitated, but that does not mark the end of the struggle. It should be realised that the war against Boko Haram is in two major phases. The first phase is the physical field war, which seems substantially won. The second is the struggle for the minds of the people. This is the more difficult, yet very important, if all the vestiges of Boko Haram are to be uprooted, so as to prevent future re-emergence. This second phase is yet to commence.

Despite the mega noise about the war against corruption, the immediate effects of the efforts remain superficial. This is clearly evidenced by the fact that, while the war is active, the budget was being «padded» in broad daylight. What a country! Honestly, my view is that reducing corruption in Nigeria, requires a well thoughtout, creative and imaginative approach, consistently applied and sustained over time, an alternative model

more rigorous than the current “catch and jail” approach which may pass away with a government And, just a digression, I have heard it, that you may need a “moderated democracy” to be able to deal more effectively with corruption. Mr President, I differ. Do not damage the ladder that you used to climb up, as you surely will need it on your return journey. If democracy were moderated, you may not be where you are today.

Besides, the situation on the socio-economic front is worrisome. Suffice to state that, while the government wobbles along undefined economic direction, moving away from fuel subsidy to dollar subsidy, fuel queues are back, youth unemployment is daily increasing, infrastructure continues to decline and decay, crime is on the increase, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening, and to the poor in particular, change seem to mean biting hardship and suffering.

The problem of the nature and structure of the federation, the aggregation and equitable distribution of its resources, the management and maintenance of peace, balance, and fairness among the various ethnic and religious components within the federation are there. For a whole year, I have not heard any of these mentioned, much less receive attention. Yet unattended, the consequences

could be worse than Boko Haram.

It is with all the foregoing background that the caucus made the endorsement. At best, the caucus is one year in a hurry. Perhaps, they should have held on another year to enable you roll out more concrete and observable achievements that impact positively, especially, on the poor. Further, I doubt as to whether the caucus considered your present age, what and how you will be in 2019, and your capacity to cope effectively with the demands of office another four years beyond 2019. If they did, I am tempted to say that they are neither honest with, nor fair to, you in their conclusions.

I am not persuaded that the caucus decision is unanimous.There is no big deal in that. We know from history that such issues and ideas, good or bad, but in most cases bad, (as in this case) are usually driven, indeed manipulated, by a few individuals who are considered powerful and influential, and/or who have hijacked power and influence, within their groups. These people are there, along and within the corridors of power, and, they are very selfish. Our history in Nigeria is replete with their examples, and their ill advice and the consequences.

Mr President, do not be deceived. Return their endorsement, thank them, face your work, and do whatever you can for Nigeria in the remaining three years ahead. I appreciate you need to make your mark, albeit, a positive one. But I believe you do not need more than four years to do this. And, with the extremely parlours situation in, and of, Nigeria today, the opportunities for you are truly tremendous. I concede you are a patriot and you love Nigeria. But on the political, social and economic problems bedevilling our country, I am troubled that I see you often not on the right paths. Thus, I think there is the need for you to always rejig the ideas and implementation strategies being placed before you. Acutely painful as it may be, I should remind you again that, 30 years ago on the same seat, you were thoroughly misunderstood by many including this writer. Providence has given you a rare second chance.

• Obi, a Civil Engineer, lives in Ilesa, Osun State.

Buhari’s first 10 months: so far, so good

By Gbadebo Adeyeye AS a young boy growing up in Ise Ekiti, my uncle would say: “Listen, we’ve been through worse, and here we are today; it will all work out.” These same words I continue to repeat to those critics who are carping the first 10 months of President Muhammadu Buhari in government. And because hope and resilienc`e are part of our very makeup, I encourage them to look back at what we passed through during the 16 years of PDP leadership in Nigeria and try to develop a rebirth of confidence in our democracy with patience.

Unlike a lame duck president, President Muhammadu Buhari has been a damn good president in his freshman year on the job. Infuriating at times, and very sleepy at others, but overall, the serious looking president is above average in performance, especially with the ongoing corruption Jihad against the most dangerous enemies of our country. But even with our country being difficult to run, there are still ways to appraise the president’s first ten months in office, and here it goes: In fighting corruption, President Buhari deserves a B+.

It is clear that the president understands that most Nigerian citizens want him to keep corruption in check. The only reason why Buhari doesn’t get a full A here is the slow start in bringing the culprits to justice. However, his indisputable war against corrupt officials in this country wins big points.

Like the corruption war, figuring out where to place millions of unemployed Nigerian youth in the economy is one of those existential questions that we simply have to solve, And I think President Buhari deserves credit for his daily focus on the urgent need to provide employment for our youth. Unlike the past administration, President Buhari has good plans and is talking a good game; but he

surely needs a lot of support from Nigerians. Nevertheless, until any of his important plans moves forward and we start seeing less university graduates selling recharge cards on the street of our cities, the president gets a C- in job creation.

More often than any other leader at any level of government, the president is the person who is called to be a voice for the people he represents. That is, if you cannot explain important national issues with good communication, you cannot lead. However, President Buhari has lost a pass mark here over his poorly explained response to questions about the faith of those 200 innocent girls abducted by Boko Haram. President Jonathan was very bad at this; and now Buhari seems to be poor at it too.

Whereas, so long as these young girls continue to remain with terrorists and the cities of our country continue to be unsafe to live, many of us can never agree with the president that Boko Haram is no longer a threat to Nigerian citizens as he claimed. Therefore, giving President

Buhari a better grade than D+ in the area of taking care of security matters in Nigeria reflects my bias for trying out new ideas to reduce crime in the society. After all, Franklin Roosevelt once said ‘it is common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.”

In some regards, running the affairs of a nation is like running a private company. If you are not constantly updating your product and the way the company runs, competitors will pass you by and investors will flee. In fairness, we must all remember that President Jonathan’s administration left behind a poorly managed economy.

Also in fairness, President Muhammadu Buhari has been fighting to hold the line on how to improve the economy since he came to office in May of 2015. But that said, Buhari has earned a C grade for doing too little to reckon with some of the Black holes that threaten to swallow up our entire economy. For example, while it is presently not clear to anyone in Nigeria how the country will meet the 21st century challenges in the global market, especially now that many of the esprit de corps policies that impeded our economy since the military regime have not been replaced, some lawmakers in Abuja are arguing that the only catalyst for Nigerian economic recovery in 21st century is to reduce importations into the country.

Whereas, the whole concept of economics is all about demand and supply; and every good student of economics 100 understands that there is no substitute for free trade economy in the modern world. That is why the president and all our lawmakers in Abuja must not take the kindness of Nigerian voters for weakness and realise quickly that the toughest and most thankless thing in government is to ignore the poverty level among citizens and cut the nation’s economy off from the rest of the world.

• Proprietor, Crown Heights College, Ibadan.

38

B

UDGET 2016 has already entered the record books as the most celebrated Nigerian budget. If that’s all for the good reasons, many would applaud. But the drama has largely been for the wrong reasons and there appears no end in sight to the ugly trend.

Last week, we witnessed two photo news events that characterised the unwholesome story around the budget.

First was the decision of the Chairman, House Committee on Appropriation, Honourable Abdumumin Jibril to personally submit the budget details to the office of the Clerk to the National Assembly, Alhaji Salisu Maikasuwa.

Jibril was also joined by his Senate counterpart, Senator Danjuma Goje and both presented the budget documents in the full glare of the media men.

That was on Wednesday. Again on Thursday, the Presidential Villa was to witness another scene involving the Senior Special Assistant to the President onNational Assembly Matters (Senate), Senator Ita Enang and his counterpart in charge of the House of Representatives, Honourable Sumaila Abdurahman Kawu present the budget details they received from the Clerk to the National Assembly to the Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Alhaji Abba Kyari.

The fact that such scenes have not been seen in the last 16 years after the restart of democracy should show that something is patently wrong with the displays. And the same is true of the way the entire budget has been treated since its presentation in December 2015.

The budget process is always clearly demarcated; just as the process of bills transmission from the legislature to the executive. There is nothing that gives room to the sort of drama we are seeing in that process and that is why such scenes were never witnessed before now.

I see an attempt to paint a situation of inaction on the part of all previous governments of Nigeria since the restart of this democracy or on the other hand, paint a picture to justify a claim that all that has been done is wrong.

That is a wrong standpoint and it is not surprising that we have been floundering the process since the All Progressives Congress (APC) took charge in May 2015.

I have read the Acts Authentication Act, which spells out the powers of the Clerk to the National Assembly in the process and passage of bills into law. I have also read the Legislative Powers and Privileges Act, which spells out the powers of the legislatures generally.

EACH time the Ekiti state governor, Ayodele Fayose opens his mouth to comment on national issues, a friend of mine always wondered why he enjoyed sticking his neck out. And she always added, “is he trying to take over the job of Olisah Mettuh?” referring to the embattled PDP spokesman. Even before Mettuh was entangled with the EFCC, Fayose had made himself the unofficial spokesman of the party, speaking up as the occasion demanded but sometimes putting his foot in it. My friend would always cap her comments in Yoruba thus “Won ma to gbe man yi o”, meaning that the security agencies would soon pick this man up for questioning.

What, I wonder, makes the man tick and why won’t he keep his mouth shut for a change? Is he so publicity hungry that he can’t but speak even when his views are obviously embarrassing; to him and to the cause he seems to be championing? Take the case of the Chibok girls for example. He did indeed put his foot in it. On Wednesday March 30, Fayose added a twist to the abduction saga when he said that the whole thing was a political strategy employed by some people to vote out former President Goodluck Jonathan. Haba!

Of course, by the following day, Thursday, Governor Fayose was on the receiving end of bombardments from his political opponents as well as ordinary Nigerians.

The senator representing Osun-West senatorial district, Isiaka Adeleke, spoke the mind of most Nigerians when he said Fayose should put himself in the shoes of the schoolgirls’ parents, adding that even former President Jonathan later admitted that the schoolgirls were kidnapped. Expectedly, the Lagos state Publicity Secretary of the APC, Joe Igbokwe said that Fayose had subjected himself to public ridicule with his comments.

The reaction I found most interesting and perhaps a bit unsettling was that of the senator representing the OsunEast senatorial district, Babajide Omoworare, who called on the country’s security agencies to invite Fayose to tell Nigerians where the kidnapped schoolchildren were.

Omoworare explained that he called for the interrogation of Fayose, because the governor appeared to have classified information on the whereabouts of the girls. Isn’t this senator turning the argument on its head? And isn’t he edging gradually towards my friend’s prediction? It

10 April, 2016

the lynxeye with Taiwo adisa

08072000046 taiadisbabatj@gmail.com

The 2016 budget and its endless drama

Nothing in those Acts grants the lawmakers the liberty to dramatise the budget process and play to the gallery.

Indeed, the decision to send the budget to the president without accompanying details is another flaw along the line.

Usually, the budget is transmitted to the president after the two segments in the National Assembly (the legislature and the Bureaucracy) are satisfied that the entire process has been actualised. Thus, when a budget or a bill is passed, the office of the Clerk to the National Assembly gets the details without fanfare. He processes the same and transmits to the President without noise. He first forwards the document to the Legal Department of the National Assembly, which will give him all clear to enable him

frontrow with Toyin Willoughby Muyi 0805 500 1769 toyeenz@yahoo.com

Fayose — dangling precariously on a precipice

looks like a case of, anything to keep this man shut.

I am not a Fayose fan, yet as loquacious as the man may be, there is something about him that makes you take note of what he says, even if you don’t agree with him or utterances which some find irritating. Like the

Sunday Tribune

transmit to the President.

The current Assembly however shot itself in the foot by playing to the gallery on a basic issue. By asking the Clerk to hurriedly send the budget highlights to the president, the lawmakers wanted it to be on record that the document got to the President before the end of March. But that step amounted to a negation of the process. The budget details which were still being worked on would also have to be certified by relevant arms of the legislative bureaucracy before it could be transmitted to the president.

By trying hard to please some forces , the lawmakers hauled themselves to the wrong side of history. Instead of receiving kudos for helping to clean the most bastardised budget of Nigeria, the President turned the issue around and heaped the blame on them for passing a “padded” budget.

Thus, rather than allowing Buhari to carry his can as far as the budget mess is concerned, the National Assembly, by trying hard to please the forces out there launched into the fray and placed themselves in the line of fire. Rather than allow the process go seamlessly as in the books, the Appropriation Committees displayed some zealousness by attempting to tell the public they were doing something extra ordinary.

It is on record that the budget as presented by President Buhari has fundamental errors. The figures did not tally when it was submitted.

The line items were scandalously repeated and many completed items were included in the document. To cap it all, the National Assembly Budget and Research Office (NABRO) published a booklet which showcased repeated or padded projects to the tune of over N500 billion. All these should have informed the lawmakers of the need to only do what the law requires as far as the budget is concerned. By patronising the executive through unnecessary shows and photo events, the lawmakers will only succeed in dry cleaning the executive of committing no wrong in the budget process.

Already, President Muhammadu Buhari had attempted to wash his hands off the budget imbroglio, when he told his audience in the United States of America by announcing that he would not sign the budget in a hurry.

No one is sure when the ongoing drama would end yet but the lesson for the National Assembly is to keep to the books in carrying out their assignments. Any undue elaboration of their duty would only lead to untoward consequences.

Ekiti man that he is, you simply cannot gag Fayose. And I was just wondering again, since it seems the PDP, which should put up a virile opposition to the government in power appears to be slumbering, or is pre-occupied with the various allegations against the bulk of its members, isn’t this man serving a purpose by keeping this government on its toes? People may deride the man Fayose, but when one examines what he says (no matter how crude it may appear), even his opponents privately agree that he makes sense.

In a situation where social activists/critics have gone to sleep, if one lone voice is brave enough to draw attention to what is going wrong in the society, we should let that voice do what it has to do. Last Thursday, a colleague and I drove round Ibadan city and at every point, we found long queues of cars at filling stations, most of them unoccupied. They were merely parked there in anticipation of the arrival of fuel. As we moved around, we wondered, where are the civil rights activists who shut us all in some years back because there was shortage of fuel? What are they doing? Why are they not threatening fire and brimstone as they did then? Why have they suddenly lost their voices?

I spoke to someone at the capital city Abuja last week and he lamented that the change mantra is not working again. He said the promises Buhari made during the campaign period to deal with the three vicious cycles of corruption, insecurity and unemployment have fallen flat on its face. “The nation is gradually grinding to a halt; we seem to be on a prolonged public holiday.” He continued, “Security is not tackled, as it should be tackled.

Corruption is not fought vigorously and there is little or no diversification of the economy to take care of unemployment”.

These are issues that civil rights activists should address. And if they are not doing it and someone finds it in himself to do it, those in power should not look for any flimsy excuse to gag him. Democracy thrives where there is a virile opposition. We cannot deny that Governor Ayodele Fayose seems to be providing that, even if we don’t like him or his style. The man is dangling precariously on a precipice; those in power should not tilt him off the edge as is being suggested by Omoworare.

39

10 April, 2016

ON THE

Sunday Tribune

With Bolanle Bolawole turnpot@gmail.com 07052631058

lord’sday OGD! Many happy returns!

S

TUNBA Justus Gbenga Daniel aka OGD, two-term governor of Ogun State (2003 – 2011) turned 60 years last Tuesday. Encomiums from family, friends, political acquaintances, and those whose lives he had touched positively in diverse ways greeted the day. When my path and OGD’s first crossed in 2005, we fought before we became friends. I had written a caustic critic of his government’s white paper on the disturbances at the state-owned Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye. In it, I described the white paper as a “whitewashed sepulchre.” My grouse was that the white paper clumsily attempted to please everyone connected with the crisis but ended up pleasing no one. I later learnt that OGD was enraged by my views and sought an audience – better still, confrontation – with the writer. Not knowing his intentions, I obliged to meet with him.

Also invited were the editors of this publication.

Getting to the Governor’s Office at Abeokuta that Monday afternoon, members of the Executive Council were meeting. Kayode Samuel, a fire-spitting columnist at the Vanguard newspapers that was a must-read for me in those days, answered the door to usher me in and we embraced. I later learnt he was the Chief of Staff. Looking around the long row of seats I could pick out Sina Ogunbambo, who had been Chief Press Secretary to my friend, General MB Marwa, one-time military administrator of Lagos state. I knew another professional colleague, Niran Malaolu, was a member of the cabinet as the Honourable Commissioner for Information but he was absent that day.

OGD wasted no time in putting me on the “hot seat.” I returned fire-for-fire as we traded tackles and the ding-dong lasted for hours. OGD narrated his yeoman’s efforts to douse the fire ignited by the crisis, restore normalcy to the institution, and prevent a repeat. He believed he had done well and it pained him that I made his efforts look like a trifle. I insisted his government’s media handling of the crisis as well as the genuflecting white paper did little credit to his efforts. We parted not as friends that day.

Later, Samuel asked that I assist a group of friends, which I later learnt were OGD associates, to turn around the fortunes of a publication. Working on the said publication brought me closer to OGD. As I prepared to undertake that assignment, OGD one day asked me to join his campaign train; I did on a few occasions. As we were filling out for one of such campaign outings one day, OGD’s deputy chief of staff said to me, “Oga said we should give you a car.” Perplexed, I asked, “Which Oga?” He replied: “His Excellency.” I asked again: “What for?” He replied: “Go and ask him” and, as he walked away, added, “When the car is ready, I will call you.” Truly, when the car was ready, he alerted me and I picked it up. Initially, I thought it was a joke or a plot that I could not fathom. So, I kept the car under wraps for months, thinking that if they said, “sorry, we made a mistake,”

I could quickly return it. But after many months of waiting, my wife registered the car. For a very long time, I kept wondering what I did to deserve that car. It never crossed my mind to charge for the “consultancy service” I rendered on the few occasions that I witnessed OGD’s campaign train and offered advice. Later I knew it was a reflection of OGD’s kind-heartedness and disposition to assisting those around him. I saw many of that subsequently.

I saw many who climbed on the back of OGD to high office but later turned round to stab him. I saw how OGD campaigned for a lady to become Senator but she later turned an implacable political foe. I saw many leaders change political alignments as if changing their briefs, not minding the feelings of those being betrayed. I also saw how easily such elements turned around to recant, eat their vomit and keep a straight face as if it was not a big deal. I saw how OGD accommodated such characters time and again. “We have to deal with all sorts,” he once said. From my interactions with leaders, OGD inclusive, I learnt that it is not everything that aides do that leaders have fore knowledge of or approve of.

Sometimes, they are taken aback by the actions of their aides but dare not publicly disown them. I know that the greatest difficulty leaders have is with those who surround them; whose thrust is always to discover and exploit the weak points of Oga to further selfish interests. Once aides discover Oga’s “template”, as a prominent player described it, they cash-in on it to manipulate him. I saw one of the adverts placed by an embattled political leader eulogising OGD at 60 and marvelled. Here is someone who had been friend and foe

many times over. How do leaders negotiate such sharp bends and sudden twists and still maintain their balance?

From my dealings with leaders, I know that the fact that you appointed someone into office does not mean he\she will be loyal to you. I also know that cut-throat rivalries and competitions thrive amongst Cabinet members who are supposed to demonstrate unity of purpose in carrying out agreed goals. I know that the fact that you put someone in office does not mean he\she will work to protect your interest or do your bidding. Many appointees turn implacable foes if they don’t get the plum office they desire or think someone else is more favoured by Oga. In government, big title does not translate into big influence or relevance. You may hold no post and still be more powerful than those who hold big posts. You may carry a big title and yet be an outsider in the same government. In government, be careful; you are not the only person that is relevant. You may not see or know the relevance of that man or woman but I tell you something: he\she may be even more important than you. Gossips thrive in government; knocking of heads too. They gossip about everyone – from top to bottom. Ogas are called all sorts of names, such as “use and dump.” Note that the person making that allegation may have just lost a very important position, such as carrying Oga’s phones or bag. But the moment he\she gets restored, the story changes and it is now “there is nobody as pleasant to work with as our Oga.” Removing Oga’s shoes after an outing is a very important job. To work in government, you need to have the spirit of discernment. Not everyone who

smiles at you is your friend. Only God saves! At many corridors of power, I saw that again and again.

Now, let me talk directly of OGD. I noticed that when he was angry or had an axe to grind, he was formal. It was “Mr. Bolawole.” One day he summoned me and the moment he began by saying “Mr. Bolawole,” I knew there were issues. It turned out that some people had told him that I had employed a lorry-load of the natives of my place of birth into the company. I told him that “information” was news to me. I summoned the admin manager to bring the nominal roll and it turned out that since my coming on board as managing director\editor-in-chief, not a single worker had been employed from the entire Ondo state where I hail from. His frozen face dissolved immediately and it became “Bola, you can see I did the right thing by taking this up with you; otherwise, we would not have known the truth.”

On another occasion, the chairman had promised, again and again, that I would be given a jeep; one day I got fed up and shut him up. OGD, of course, got to hear about it and when we met, it was “Mr Bolawole, I understand you are angry blah blah blah.”

I explained and that very day, he ensured the jeep was delivered and the relationship reverted to “Bola” again. OGD accepts his faults and makes amends. It may not be as fast as you would have wished but be sure he will do once he had said he would.

On one occasion, he said he would doublecross a cheat and he did one year after! I have seen few big men say sorry; OGD is one of those not shy to say sorry. On an occasion, he said to me “Bola, I know you will say, ‘but I told you’...” I responded that I would not. You don’t blame a man who invested confidence in others; rather, you chastise those who shamelessly betray such confidence for a mess of pottage.

OGD’s tenure in Ogun was trail-blazing, especially his first term. In his second term, foes distracted and slowed him down as they engaged him in relentless political battles. Nevertheless, he transformed Ogun from a sleepy, Civil Service state and set the tone and pace for the investment destination of choice that the state is fast becoming. To date, OGD holds the record of the best achieving governor of Ogun state. I witnessed OGD work tirelessly to make Olokola EPZ a reality. I remember the day he had to drag the Ondo State governor, Olusegun Agagu (now late), out of bed in Abuja around 1am to discuss the way forward on Olokola.

Agagu, on crutches, had to oblige because of what he described as OGD’s passion for Olokola. I can say more on OGD but space will not permit. Recently, he complained of abandonment by some of the associates he invested so much on. I saw it coming but it has not diminished OGD in any way. Ingrates - their good grief! On his 60th, I wish OGD the very best of life.

When sentiments give way to sensibilities in the search for enduring solutions to the myriad problems slaying this country, a pride of place will be found for OGD’s talents and competencies.

40

10 April, 2016

language&style

by Samson Dare 0805 500 1770 samsonadare@yahoo.co.uk

Experience that rankles…

S

AMPLE 1: “For his yeoman’s role in the war trenches, Amaechi made Wike his Chief of Staff, a position that rankled with their closeness and unity of purpose…The ultimate game plan was to consolidate on his hold on the levers of power and make pragmatic inroad in his re-election bid in 2011…Sensing trouble, Amaechi feigned to have acceded to those opposed to his stand…But rather than put an end to the hostilities, it accentuated it…In the heat of the melee a forth night ago, Amaechi publicly called his former friend, a sitting governor, a bush man, who lacks the capacity to govern.”(AmaechiVsWike: Battle for the Soul of Rivers, the Sunday Sun, March 27, 2016) The word rankled is a stranger in the following context: “Amaechi made Wike his Chief of Staff, a position that rankled with their closeness and unity of purpose.” The word is inconsistent with the idea of ‘closeness and unity of purpose’ with which it is associated in the context. To be sure, a position does not rankle. I’m certain that the reporter has no idea what the word rankle means. He must have made a blind choice, a product of either lack of care or lack of knowledge or both. If someone betrayed you and you were upset so much that any time you remember the incident, you are still upset, that betrayal is said to rankle. If an incident rankles, you remember it with anger, hurt, hate, etc.

Read the following sentences: 1) The alleged infidelity of his wife which occurred almost twenty years ago still rankles today.

2) The allegations of political betrayal traded by the Yoruba and Ibo people shortly before the Civil War still rankle.3) The lie he told against me rankled for years. 4) Any slight hurt he feels rankles for a long time. 5) The memory that her friend slept with her husband still rankles. 6) The loss of his job occasioned by the betrayal by his supposedly trusted subordinate rankled for years. 7) That my teacher punished me for an offence I did not commit still rankles almost forty years after. 8) My father’s refusal to buy me a car after coming out with a First Class, contrary to his promise, rankled for many years. 9) I was embittered by the disappointment and that experience still rankles. 10) If the pain that a person’s misbehavior causes you still rankles, is it possible for you to forgive the person?

It should be obvious now that the reporter is totally ignorant of the meaning and usage of the word rankle.

Next, we are interested in the relationship between the particle on and the verb consolidate in the following context: “The ultimate game plan was to consolidate on the levers of power.”

The problem here is that, like many Nigerians, the writer has brought in a particle (on) where no particle is required. The verb consolidate does not take any particle at all. It would appear that the writer has confused the usage of the verb build with that of consolidate. Yes, the verb build takes the particle on; but consolidate does not.

Now read the following sentences: 1) Having spent the last four years building infrastructure, the Governor has promised to spend the second term consolidating his efforts. 2) Now in control of most of the seats in the national assembly, the party plans to consolidate its lead by gaining most of the governorship seats in the country. 3) What I need now is a fairly substantial loan to consolidate my business. 4) The team scored two goals in the first half of the match and consolidated by scoring another goal within the first five minutes of the second half. 5) The newspaper spent the first five years of its existence expanding its circulation; now it is consolidating its spread. 6) It is no longer our priority to increase the number of our customers; our concern now is to consolidate---to retain and continue to gain the confidence of those customers.7) Having presented his major arguments in favour of his client, the counsel went ahead to consolidate his arguments at the next sitting. 8) The APC should now concern itself with consolidating its hold on power by providing welfare for Nigerians. 9) We are consolidating our lead-

ership position in the oil business by building fuel stations across the length and breadth of this country. 10) The Armed Forces have consolidated their hold on the captured areas by building garrisons in strategic locations.

Now read the following sentences: 1) The Governor will spend the second term building on the efforts of his first term. 2) The mobilizing agency is now building on its initial enlightenment campaign. 3) Secondary education is planned in such a way that it builds on primary education. 4) Every good teacher should know how to lay a foundation and build on it later. 5) I am not sure the lady has agreed to my proposal; but I will try and build on my earlier discussion with her. 6) In the last class, we saw how tense functions in sentences; today, we will build on that by constructing sentences illustrating tense patterns. 7) Have we built anything substantial on the foundation laid by the heroes of our independence? 8) Our spiritual lives must be built on the principles of the scriptures. 8) A nation should not be built on falsehood. 9) Do not build your hope and confidence on the promises made by man. 10)You cannot build something on nothing.

Next, let’s note the word feign which occurs in the following context: ‘feign to have acceded to those opposed to his stand.’It is quite unusual for the verb feign to be followed by the infinitive to as it is in the context under review. It is usually followed by a noun. Please read the following sentences: 1) He escaped being killed by feigning death after receiving several terrific blows.2) The Yoruba people say if you feign death you would be in a position to measure how much you are loved by noting the number of people who mourn your death. 3) President MuhammaduBuhari seems to befeigning ignorance of the level of corruption in his party. 4) He was still feigning innocence after being confronted with the overwhelming evidence of the atrocities he had committed. 5) So his love for the girl is fake; all these years he has been feigning love. 6) She has no feelings for the man; she feigns passion each time they are together. 7) Most of the men who have ruled this country do not love the country; they feign patriotism. 8) He came to the top byfeigning honesty and commitment all the way. 9) He was released from duty after feigning exhaustion. 10) He feigned sickness in order to be with the lady he was infatuated with.

Yes, as we have noted and demonstrated, the word feign is usually followed by a noun such ignorance, innocence, faith, love, etc. The relevant structure, taken from the excerpt, can be rendered as follows: “Amaechfeignedagreement with those opposed to him…”

Now, let’s note the pronoun it in the following structure: “But rather than put an end to the hostilities, it accentuated it.” The pronoun under reference here is not the first occurring one, but the second one; actually it is the one coming last in the sentence.

It is indubitable that that pronoun (it) is singular. That being so, the question is: what is its antecedent? What does it refer to?

There is no other noun to which it can refer than hostilities.

That reasoning is consistent with the grammar and logic of the structure. The next question is: Is the word hostilities singular or plural? It is plural, of course. There is obviously a contradiction here, the kind that should not be associated with the efforts of a public writer. At any rate, the pronoun them should replace it in the context in question.

Finally, we examine the lexical phenomenon, ‘forth night’ which occurs in the following structure: “In the heat of the melee a forth night ago.’ Let us note immediately that the word that the context requires is fortnight, a single word. I believe the error arises from a typographic disorder. Please note in addition, that there is no h before n in the word fortnight. The word is not a combination of forth and night. We have brought ourselves through this labour for the sake of the young minds reading our newspapers.

He must have made a blind choice, a product of either lack of care or lack of knowledge or both. If someone betrayed you and you were upset so much that any time you remember the incident, you are still upset, that betrayal is said to rankle

Sunday Tribune

line

life

with Niyi Osundare

Random Blues (Heartthrob Blues)

Get me up and standing That I may show you a sweet and precious thing Say, get me up and standing That I may show you my sweet and precious thing Look at the tracks in my busy palm And divine where my hands have never been

Incite some riot in my slumberous song Provoke my bird to its highest note Yes, incite some riot in my slumberous song Provoke my bird to its highest note Say something now with the poetry of your poise And make me fluent with your fervent quote

From your wise, warm ways The season’s chill divines its smile Yes, from your wise, warm ways The season’s chill divines its smile I seek you through the maze of howling winds And I find you without the slightest guile

The sun went home last night And the moon assumed its crown Say, the sun went home last night And the moon assumed its crown I watched the face of the open sky I never saw a single frown

Get me up and standing I have stayed supine for several seasons Say, get me up and standing I have stayed supine for several seasons Just ask why I long for your standing order And I will send you a basket of reasons

41

10 April, 2016

With Rita Okonoboh rosarumese@gmail.com 08053789087

tribunechurch

A

T over 65, one can safely say you’re older than the country. With your experience over the years, would you say Nigeria has fared well, considering the present circumstances?

It’s very difficult. Whichever way you look at it, sometimes we could say yes, and other times, we could say no. However, I want to lean on the side of believing that we have come a long way and happily, we are still together as one nation, and for that I can say we have done well, regardless of the fact that Nigeria has about 400 different ethnic nationalities, brought together in 1914 by that amalgamation. I think we have come a long way and I believe that there is still a future and great hope for us as a country.

On that note, I would say with confidence that we have not done badly. We may look at it and say that we should have done better, but given all the dynamics, the issues that we have had to contend with in the few years of our existence, I believe that we have not done too badly. I’m very optimistic that somehow, we will pull through.

From the foregoing, and your assessment of past administrations, would you say the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration is on the right track?

I would rate President Buhari high on his determination to fight corruption. People who are complaining that we haven’t seen change are living in fools’ paradise. If we had let the previous administration continue as things were at the time, we would have been flat on our bellies; we would have been worth nothing. So, people shouldn’t expect miracles. People who stole billions and literally used their positions to rape this country, are part of those singing the song, ‘where is the change?’ They are responsible for the decay and it will take time for things to get better. I think if we have the courage to march them out – the corrupt people – and deal with them decisively, things will change. Every Nigerian should support the war against corruption, no matter how highly placed such corrupt persons are. If the president or even the Senate President is found to be corrupt, let them step aside.

This country can run without such people.

In a country that has conscience, with the allegations, the senate president shouldn’t have sat on that seat one minute longer.

The problem we have is that corruption is fighting against good intentions and we must have the courage to support any fight against corruption.

Recently, you blamed the government for the failure in the education sector. You also called for the return of faith-based schools run by government to faith based organisations, noting that the available faith-based schools have become elitist. How do you reconcile such arguments?

I was very critical of faith-based establishments who run church schools and are classed among the most expensive. Now, how do we get the child of the poor person into these schools? These schools have become elitist. The Chief Obafemi Awolowo philosophy is that you can impart positive education without necessarily making it impossible for people to access that education.

That is my point. Faith-based organisations should re-invest in education so that we can redeem this country. I asked for the return because state governments have failed to

Sunday Tribune

Those who claim there’s no change live in fools’ paradise —Archbishop Stephen

Most Reverend Kehinde Stephen, the Archbishop of the Methodist Church Nigeria (MCN), Ibadan archdiocese, in this interaction with Rita Okonoboh and Olaide Sokoya, speaks on the role of the church in the provision of quality education, how religious centres are fuelling noise pollution, why he rates Buhari high on anti-corruption drive, the allegations that the Methodist prelacy is restricted to the South-West and South East, among other issues. Excerpts: blame the government. How about the attitude of students to education, the rise in technological distraction, among other issues?

For this, I would blame government because there is no clear policy, nor a genuine intention of following through. Are the materials for instruction adequately provided?

Are the teachers properly supervised? Many head teachers don’t even know their pupils.

And this talk about free education; education is not free. Rather, it is ignorance that is free. Tell an average parent to pay for something in a public school that is free and such a teacher is on the firing line, because they don’t want to give the impression that the state is not capable. And that is missing out on the Awolowo philosophy. When Chief Obafemi Awolowo introduced free education, he did not cancel mission schools.

Now that the mission schools have been taken over by government, what has really been done? Why can’t we agree? Parents should make some kind of commitment towards education. Education should be made compulsory and not free. If there are genuine cases of people who cannot afford the fees, then scholarship schemes come in.

Also, rules should be put in place that civil servants at all levels enrol their children in public schools. If we do that, the schools will be properly run and financed. We have to change our attitude. I have said many times that teachers should receive the highest salaries in Nigeria. If we focus on education, Nigeria would change for the better.

Prosperity will come back to the country.

Nigerians are very creative and the refusal to prioritise quality education is starving our country of numerous potentials.

run the schools properly. Oyo State once came 28th among states. That is abnormal.

In some of these schools, the pupils sit on the floor. Some even come to school barefoot. Teachers are not even motivated as salaries are owed for months. So, we are asking that missionary schools be returned to faith-based organisations. The government should set standards for improvement, and can also run their own public schools. Those who would task themselves to ensure the effective running of these schools may probably not pay taxes. The government can’t

Jesus’ tomb renovation to gulp $3.4m

Pg45

bear the burden anymore, so why can’t they accept relief. I am happy Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State visited a school recently to ascertain the state of things. Government doesn’t even have to visit because we can tell them what is going on, after all, our members are their teachers. We receive reports. When a child goes through a system for six years and cannot even write a correct sentence in English or Yoruba, don’t you think something is wrong?

But some people would not entirely

‘Proposed preaching licence good but... —Abidoye

Pg43

How about allegations that the prelacy of the Methodist Church Nigeria is restricted to the South-West and the South-East?

I don’t know where such allegations are from. I think a lot of things come about through speculation. To the best of my knowledge, the position of prelate is open and normally, there are usually many people qualified for this, but it is only one position. The MCN has not adopted a policy that it must follow geopolitical patterns; it is nonsense. Zoning formula is out of it. There is no policy like that as far as I am concerned Continues on pg43

Saraki’s CCT ordeal will tear Senate apart —Ayodele Pg42

42

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

With Olaide Sokoya ollydesanmi@yahoo.com 08074497425

churchnews

Saraki’s CCT ordeal will tear Senate apart —Ayodele Says ‘Obasanjo and Buhari will have misunderstandings’

By Kehinde Oyetimi

F

ounder and spiritual head of Inri Evangelical Spiritual Church with headquarters in Lagos, Primate Elijah Ayodele, has called on members of the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), to guard their ranks, particularly in the Senate as regards the ongoing trial of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT).

The cleric, who had predicted the ordeal of Saraki, including the economic throes of the nation with the fall of the naira and the scarcity of fuel, warned that the APC should close its ranks or else it would lose its presidency at the Senate to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

According to him, “It is a pity that we hardly listen to God’s prophets in this country. I had said specifically earlier as published in the media that Nigerians would buy fuel at N250 per litre under this administration. I equally predicted that the devaluation of the naira would be a serious issue.

“I had also asked our national football team to be careful not to lose the AFCON qualifier wherein I also said that they would struggle to win. All these have come to pass. I also clearly stated that Senator Bukola Saraki would have challenges at the CCT. It is happening now. All these were published in the newspapers.

“I must say it now that the ordeal of the Senate President, if not properly handled, would affect the APC’s grip at the Senate. If care is not taken, it would also lead to the PDP taking over the leadership of the Senate.

The Senate would be torn apart because of Saraki. Removal of Saraki as Senate president will cause cracks in the APC. The APC should be careful,” he cautioned.

He added that “We should pray against inferno or bomb blast in Abuja.

We should seek the face of God against water-borne disease and further petroleum crisis. PENGASSAN

and NUPENG will have issues. There will be fraud in NNPC. Some of the people that Buhari depends upon

will disappoint him. Not all the senators will finish their terms. The problem of leadership in the Senate

will extend to the House of Representatives. There will be change of hierarchy in the CBN. We should pray

against inferno at one of the major markets in Ibadan and also Alaba market that it will not be shut. For-

mer President Olusegun Obasanjo and President Buhari will have misunderstandings.”

Cleric calls for prayers over hajj exercise

The Primate of the African Church of Nigeria, Dr Emmanuel Josiah Udofia (middle), officially installing Archbishop Julius Abbe (left) at the African Church, Ebenezer Cathedral, Ibadan, Oyo State, last Saturday.

From left, Bishop Dapo Ojo; Pastor Ayodele Olusola and Pastor (Mrs) Opeyemi Olusola, during the family love feast to mark the 2016 Easter celebration, held at the church auditorium, Jesus Disciple Ministry, Challenge, Ibadan, Oyo State. PHOTO:YEMI FUNSO-OKE.

Ahead of the 2016 pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina, Prophet John Kehinde Labia has urged Nigerians, intending pilgrims and their families to pray for the smooth conduct of the exercise before, during and after the mandatory religious obligations.

Prophet Labia, Founder, Mountain of Salvation, Ibiade, Ogun State, said the spirit of God revealed what would happen, hence the need to alert Nigerians.

Prophet Labia, who spoke from his Ibiade church, in Ogun Waterside Local Government Area, said prayers were necessary to avert a repeat of the incident that occurred during the last hajj exercise.

The cleric, who said though relevant authorities had redoubled efforts at preventing a repeat of last year’s disaster, noted that only God can guarantee protection.

He said if possible, intending pilgrims should postpone their trips to avert similar occurence.

He said: “I am not saying this to scare intending pilgrims as I know the importance of this spiritual exercise, but to warn the people and bring them closer to God in prayer.”

Nigerians will overcome challenges if they obey God —Udofia

By Olaide Sokoya PRIMATE of the African Church of Nigeria, Dr Emmanuel Josiah Udofia, has told Nigerians that the only way to overcome the challenges of life, as well as the current economic situation in the country is to obey God and also live virtuous lives.

Udofia stated this during his sermon entitled: “Working in Obedience to Please God” at the inauguration and enthronement of the Archbishop of Ibadan Dio-

cese, Most Reverend Julius Abbe, held at the African Church, Ebenezer Cathedral, Ibadan, Oyo State last Saturday.

“God expects all humans to obey Him. He has sent a prophetic message to the church and that no matter what the church or any nation might be passing through today, we will enjoy bountiful restoration of life,” he said.

He further lamented that people, especially Christians, no longer make it a necessity to study the

scripture.

“The more we stay away from the word of God, the more our prayers become abominable. We all need the word of God to be embedded in our hearts, because it is God who gives direction. It is true that Nigerians are currently lamenting, but goodness and mercy will continue to follow true children of God all the days of their lives,” he added.

The venue came alive when the primate proclaimed the Ibadan, Iki-

run, Kwara, Ilorin, Ife/ Osogbo and Ijesa dioceses, as Ibadan province as well as Abbe as the archbishop of the province. The gathering also raised over N5 million targeted at developing the newly formed province.

Udofia, after the inauguration and enthronement, charged Archbishop Abbe and the provincial council and members of the Ibadan province to use the development to take the church to greater heights, as the authorities of the

church now expect more from them to spread the tentacles and most importantly, win more souls for Christ.

In his remarks, Archbishop Abbe praised dignitaries that graced the occasion and the church members on the success of the event.

“God will grant me and the provincial council the grace to achieve great results with the Ibadan province. Though we are new, we will achieve prominence in no time,” he said.

43 tribunechurch

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Kaduna gov’s proposed plan to license religious preachers good but... —Abidoye

The Spiritual Father of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church Worldwide, Most Reverend Samuel Abidoye, in an interaction with MUHAMMAD SABIU, shares his views on the recent religious bill sent to the Kaduna State House of Assembly and the situation in the country. Excerpts:

T

he headquarters of the C&S Movement Church is located in Kaduna State where a preaching licence is being proposed for religious leaders. What is your take on

this?

We should appreciate the governor for what he is trying to do, because this is how Boko Haram started and now it has become a national issue. The present military and Shi’ite crisis is a sign that the future might be dangerous.

So, to avoid these problems, it is good the governor takes the step, but relevant stakeholders should have been contacted. That’s where I feel the governor got it wrong. I read the details of the proposed bill on the pages of newspapers. I understand that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Jama’atul Nasirul Islam (JNI) were contacted to liaise with Christians and Muslims respectively. But to be candid, I have never met the leadership of CAN. I can’t remember when I received any of the leaders of CAN. And it may interest you to know that the C&S Church was established in Kaduna since 1941. Today, by the special grace of God, we can say we have one million members. So, my advice to the governor is, let him invite heads of all the churches as well as Muslim groups, including the Shi’ite and those who have their different gods. Then, we will discuss the content of the bill and the areas we feel should be amended, we will discuss that. This is necessary, considering the fact that some of the churches conduct night prayers and vigils and the bill may affect their services. If the issue is not properly handled, many churches will have no choice but to relo-

cate from the state. We are all stakeholders because, as I mentioned earlier, we have been in Kaduna for close to a century now. So we want Kaduna to stay. We want it to live for many years. If they force us to leave, we will not be happy.

With the current situation of things in the country, what would you say is the way forward?

I think the time has come for the leaders to start thinking about the poor. In this country, whatever law you make, it is the poor that suffers most of the time. With the dwindling oil prices, there is the need to pray for Nigeria.

There is no money in circulation, no electricity, no good roads. etc. We have heard talks of government recovering stolen funds. It is about time we were told how much has been recovered, and what has been done with such money. If they nothing has been done with it, Nigerians deserve to know what they intend to do with the recovered loot. It is sad that a big country like Nigeria doesn’t have a national airline. Why should government keep Nigerians in these terrible conditions? People are afraid of bad roads, insurgency, and kidnapping. The government should make us happy. The president should sign the budget immediately so that we can move forward.

This year will make it 10 years of your leadership of the C&S Movement Church. What has the experience been like?

Since 11 years ago when I left the United Kingdom to assume the ‘Aladura’ father of the church, it has not been

easy. I have gone round to see how my members are faring, and I usually travel by road. Ten years seems like yesterday. I remember the day I was ordained; I was sick.

I was not as healthy as I am today. In spite of the challenges the role brings, I thank God the church has moved forward during my leadership. From 40 districts, we now have over 80 districts. God has been performing wonders. I want to thank Him for giving me this opportunity.

He has sent us to Galilee, a town between Ogbomosho and Kwara State. That’s where the anniversary will be celebrated. We will all be in our white garments.

‘Religious leaders have encouraged noise pollution’ Continued from pg41

that exists in the MCN. All we say is that the best person for the position becomes Prelate. The MCN is a democratic church.

If there are infractions, that has nothing to do with the stated policy of the church.

You have been in the church for 45 years and a bishop for 25 years. How would you rate your experience as a bishop and is there any basis for comparing Christianity of before to what obtains now?

I have seen a landscape view of the church. When I got into the church, it wasn’t as big as it is now. The church has grown tremendously and that is something positive and that must be applauded. In my 45 years in the church, I have seen growth, hundreds of standard structures. We have moved from not being an episcopal church to being one and we have found our footing.

We made that change in 1976. New generation may not know how we operated before that time. In terms of physical infrastructure, spiritual development, the church has experienced tremendous growth. However, the church lost members as a result of new generation churches. Many members of popular pentecostal churches are from the mainline churches, MCN inclusive. In spite of this, we are happy that we have contributed significantly to the existence and stability of these churches. They cannot tell their story without us. It’s not really a loss; we have provided nurture and opportunity to these pentecostal churches, whether they give credit or not. Nowadays, they are learning to sing our hymns. That is a significant contribution to Christendom in Nigeria.

There are areas we need to be mindful of though, and we should be humble enough to admit failures where applicable. We were

a bit lackadaisical at some point and that also led to some of the challenges we had. We also had internal feud. For instance, at the MCN, we had 14 years when we had internal feud, from 1976 to 1990. After that, we came back together. We have had our setbacks, now we are advancing. Also, in the past, we didn’t create enough opportunities for youths. We had traditionalists, and in fact, sometimes, there were people who were in their sixties who still claimed to be youths, saying they were young at heart. However, we fought vigorously to ensure that no one above 30 was regarded a member of the youth. It was resisted but we stood our ground. Now there are opportunites for young people to be in charge of things. Learning to listen to young people has helped the church. Youths are actively involved in the church. There is, however, the warning that we must constantly reengage ourselves to still stay true to the gospel in spite of how the world is changing. We have worked on indigenisation of the gospel. When I look at the landscape, we

In a place like Kaduna, where there are probably more Muslims than Christians, will more licenses not go to Muslims than Christians? The philosophy is not bad. The implementation is what carries a big question mark

have made much progress. I only pray that we do not create other sets of setbacks so that our advance can be smooth.

What advice would you give to clerics?

Fellow ministers of God must hold on to the picture of Our Lord Jesus Christ. We must focus on the teachings of the Beatitudes so that our attitude can also reflect Christian virtues. Church leaders have been accused of doing crazy things, all in the name of God. I heard of a pastor who had to step on people to proclaim God’s word. These are acts of criminality. Once we get the message of Christ right, we won’t be caught in the web of doing what we shouldn’t. Christian leaders should also be humble. If we believe we have got it right with God, it must be tested out on the horizontal level. Why must a person use the name of God to exploit people?

Secondly, we should reduce the level of our noisemaking. Religious leaders have encouraged noise pollution. Many preach in the name of Christ but they are a menace to the society. There must be legislation to check noise from religious centres. It is not evangelism, it is not proclamation; it is an abuse of privilege. There is so much noise today that I think we need a little bit of silence. Let God work in the hearts of religious leaders so that we can know that silence is good as well. Noise pollution must be addressed by the leadership of the church.

Thirdly, in our society, let us work towards discouraging inciting remarks capable of making people uneasy. We must tone down our rhetoric for the sake of the peace and unity of our country. It is only when we have peace that we can enjoy religion. Let’s be right in our attitude. That’s what Christianity promotes, whether you’re a member or a leader. I also believe that’s what Islam promotes. Let’s not do anything

in the name of God that would violate the rights of other people.

So, you support the preaching licence currently proposed by the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai?

It will surprise you that the only fear I have is the proper and fair implementation of such bill. People are concerned because in a place like Kaduna, where there are probably more Muslims than Christians, will more licenses not go to Muslims than Christians?

The philosophy is not bad. The implementation is what carries a big question mark. I believe that it is better not to put it on the altar of legislation, but to encourage religious leaders to be self-restrained, and whoever falls foul of the law should be prosecuted, without recourse to partiality.

What advice would you give to government?

I have stated several times that we should have leadership by example at all levels of governance. The present arrangement of governance in Nigeria is not right. Let’s have more local governments and reduce the overbearing influence of states. It could be done in terms of looking into the constitution. If more communities are empowered at the local levels, then more communities will show better signs of development. Accountability and transparency will also be encouraged because it will become easier to hold someone directly responsible. That is the path to sanity. We all must also join the fight against corruption as it affects everybody, from the school pupil, to the graduate, civil servant, admission seekers, among others. Corruption is everywhere and ongoing. As much as we focus on the big thieves, we should also know that the millions of smaller thieves pose threat to Nigeria as well.

44 tribunechurch

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Clerics, family, associates, others honour Evangelist Ebenezer Obey @ 74 • I’ll use my remaining time to serve God, he says

By Seyi Sokoya

T

he venue of Decross Gospel Mission, Headquarters of Praise, Mulero, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos State, the ministry of Evangelist Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi, who is also the General Overseer, last Sunday, was filled to capacity with dignitaries from all walks of life, who came to felicitate with the music legend in a thanksgiving service to mark the 74th birthday celebration of the musician.

The celebration, which later became a carnival-like event, was well attended by politicians, public office holders, stakeholders in the entertainment industry, representatives of orthodox, pentecostal and white garment churches, 14 representatives from the Performing Arts Department, Olabisi Onabanjo University, among others.

The event also had the attendance of the Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, who was represented by his Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Mr Taiwo Adeoluwa; the Osile Oke Ona, Egba, Oba (Dr) Adedapo Tejuoso and his three wives; the Iyalode of Egbaland, Mrs Alaba Lawson; Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Mr Babatunde Adejare; Senator Lekan Mustapha; Chief Jide Osinubi; Prince Adeyemi Kamorudeen; Chief Olurotimi Daramola; Mr George Odeyemi; Chief Alani Obaleye; Chief Layi Akande; Mr Femi Esho; Mr Laolu Ekins, among others.

The children, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren, extended families and members of the church at large were also on ground to celebrate with Obey, also referred to as Miliki maestro.

In his address, Amosun described the

music icon as a philanthropist and a worthy icon of the Gateway State, Nigeria and beyond, stating that “Evangelist Ebenezer Obey is my father and I hold him in high esteem. Ogun State is proud of him. His impact has gone beyond the state, Nigeria and has also spread to the entire world.

His 74th birthday is a huge milestone and the state and the entertainment industry

have really benefited from his God-given talent.”

The celebrant did not hesitate to demonstrate his excitement and gratitude to God for the grace to witness the event.

Speaking with Tribune Church, Obey said: “I am really glad and overwhelmed to witness my 74th birthday and this is why I have decided to celebrate it in the

Evangelist Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi, flanked by clerics from various denominations, during the thanksgiving service to mark his 74th birthday, last Sunday.

Evangelist Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi with the Decross Gospel Mission Church Choir.

presence of God. I appreciate God for the gift of life and everyone that came from far and near to celebrate with me, because I only gave four days notice and what I am seeing today gladdens my heart. I never knew so many people would be present.

Above all, I thank everyone. God actually established my life. I don’t have more rivers to cross, especially for the worldly things. I will use my remaining time to serve God.” High points of the event were the performance of Evangelist Tope Alabi and her band; a display of the Performing Arts students of OOU; the rendition of the grandchildren of the music legend, and a short documentary of the biography of the celebrant.

The preacher at the occasion, Reverend Wilson Badejo in his sermon, noted that the occasion was accepted before God, because of the fact that Obey deemed it fit to draw people to the presence of God, just as he said that the celebration is not about the gift of life, but for a continuity of his talent even in heaven.

Badejo, however, charged youths and new generation artistes to emulate the music legend who has been bestowed with God’s grace even at his old age, adding that, “Obey is really enjoying the grace of God and an uncommon gift for the versatility, relevance and wealth of experience in the music industry. He has impacted many lives with his gift of music. I am happy he is being celebrated in his life time in sound health. I pray God will grant him more years of success.”

Apostle James Salako, Reverend Adebisi, Reverend Julius Bamidele and a host of other clerics also seized the opportunity to pray for the celebrant, while he was also presented with gifts.

Time’s most influential Catholic woman dies at 92

By Rita Okonoboh Known to millions around the world as Foundress of the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), Mother Mary Angelica, has passed on at the age of 92.

“This is a sorrow-filled day for the entire EWTN Family,” said EWTN Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Michael P. Warsaw, in a statement made available to TribuneChurch.

“Mother has always, and will always, personify EWTN, the Network which she founded. In the face of sickness and longsuffering trials, Mother’s example of joy and prayerful perseverance exemplified the Franciscan spirit she held so dear. We thank God for Mother Angelica and for the gift of her extraordinary life.”

Born Rita Antoinette Rizzo in Canton, Ohio, United States, in 1923, she entered the Poor Clares of Perpetual Adoration in Cleveland on August 15, 1944 at the age of 21. A year later, she received her religious name – Sister Mary Angelica of the Annunciation. Soon after, the Cleveland Monastery established a new foundation in Canton, and Sr. Angelica was chosen to be a member of the community there. On January 2, 1947, she made her first profession of vows and in January 1953, Sister Angelica took her solemn vows as a Poor Clare nun.

In 1956, while awaiting a delicate spinal surgery, Sister Angelica made a promise

that, if God would permit her to walk again, she would build a monastery in the South.

On May 20, 1962, Our Lady of the Angels Monastery in Irondale, was dedicated by Archbishop Thomas J. Toolen of Mobile.

Despite having only a high school education, no television experience and only $200 in the bank, Mother Angelica officially launched the Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN) on August 15, 1981 and served as the Network’s first Chairman

and Chief Executive Officer. She famously refused to air paid advertisements to fund her Network, relying solely on viewer donations, despite coming close to bankruptcy on several occasions.

More than 34 years later, EWTN is the largest Catholic media network in the world, transmitting 11 separate television channels in multiple languages, reaching more than 264 million homes in 145 countries and territories.

Before stepping down as EWTN’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer in 2000, Time Magazine described Mother Angelica as, “arguably the most influential Roman Catholic woman in America.”

Mother Angelica’s final years were prayerful and quiet, spent with her nuns at the Monastery she built in Hanceville. She died on March 27, 2016 and was buried on April 1 at the Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, Alabama.

Nigeria will soon witness new set of leaders —Prophet Iyunade President of Pentecostal Sanctuary Bible Ministries, Ijebu-Ode, Ogun State, Prophet Sunday Iyunade, has said that the current political office holders across the nation will fizzle out while a new one would emerge.

Prophet Iyunade made the statement in Ijebu-Ode at a press conference held at the church headquarters to herald the 20th anniversary and 14th convention of the church.

He said: “Serious conflict/crises await Nigeria’s political arena. It is beyond what we know now. It will bring about a serious falling apart. This is on the way. I will not say political parties, but those at the helm of affairs will derail. They will talk and will not be listened to. Their time will be wiped off.

A new team will be raised that will take over the political arena. It will give rise to a political wave cum revolution in the nation.”

Maintaining his earlier prediction last year before the general elections, Prophet Iyunade stated that the nation would face current economic hardship throughout the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.

He, however, said that there is hope that the nation would rise from its current economic crisis, saying “investors will still come as there is an existing prophecy on relocation of World Trade Centre to Africa with Nigeria as the centre of trade.

“In this season, investors will be scared and will run away. We must keep hope alive as they will come back when the trial period expires.”

The cleric, known for accurate predictions, however, declared that if the people could pray, God would have mercy on the nation.

He advised “government to promote righ-

teousness so that they can survive during this trying period.”

Prophet Iyunade charged monarchs to avoid using the media to expose the schism between them, asking them to toe the line of peaceful resolution.

“God will touch their hearts. Anybody may want to change history. They just want to change history and there is supremacy contest. I will just advise that everyone should remain in his position, irrespective of influence and connection. History can never be changed.

“Let them go back to history, if they engage in ego tripping, they will end up messing themselves up,” the cleric said.

As part of the activities, Prophet Iyunade also visited the children ward at the state hospital, Ijebu-Ode and several gift items were presented to the hopital management.

45

I

tribunechurch

T was a typical day at the shrine around what many believe is the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem’s Old City. A Greek Orthodox choir sang inside a room facing the baroque structure. But the voices were drowned out when chanting Armenian priests and monks circling the shrine raised theirs.

“Sometimes they punch each other,” Farah Atallah, a church guard wearing a fez, observed with a shrug.

Mr. Atallah is a seasoned witness to the rivalries among the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Roman Catholic communities that jealously share — and sometimes spar over — what they consider Christianity’s holiest site, inside the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

As reported by the New York Times, amid the rivalry, the unsteady 206-yearold structure, held together by a 69-yearold iron cage that honors the keystone of Christianity, the tomb from which Christians believe Jesus was resurrected, is an uncomfortable, often embarrassing symbol of Christian divisions, which have periodically erupted into tensions. In 2008, monks and priests brawled near the shrine, throwing punches and pulling one another’s hair.

But in recent weeks, scaffolding has gone up a few feet from the shrine in the gloomy shadows of the Arches of the Virgin, the first step in a rare agreement by the various Christian communities to save the dilapidated shrine, also called the Aedicule, from falling down.

The March 22 agreement calls for a $3.4 million renovation to begin next month, after Orthodox Easter celebrations. Each religious group will contribute one-third of the costs, and a Greek bank contributed

Jesus’ tomb renovation to gulp $3.4m 50,000 euros, or $57,000, for the scaffolding, in return for having its name emblazoned across the machinery.

The idea is to peel away hundreds of years of the shrine’s history, clean it and put it back together. Simple enough, but delayed for decades because of the complicated,

centuries-old rules and minute traditions — called the status quo — that define the way Jerusalem’s holy sites are governed, in which the very act of repairing something can imply ownership.

“One of the serious issues in the church is that the status quo takes place over

The unsteady 206-year-old structure, held together by a 69-year-old iron cage that honors the keystone of Christianity, the tomb from which Christians believe Jesus was resurrected, is an uncomfortable, often embarrassing symbol of Christian divisions

dawnofanewera

Sunday Tribune

Photo:New York Times

every other consideration, and it’s not a good thing,” said Athanasius Macora, a Franciscan friar. “Unity is more important than a turf war.”

Renovations at the tomb will begin in May. The inspiration for this unity was the threat of losing it altogether. Alarmed by reports that the shrine was at risk of collapse, the Israeli police barricaded it for several hours on Feb. 17, 2015, throwing out the monks who guard it and preventing hundreds of pilgrims from entering.

So, after a year of much study and negotiation, monument conservation experts plan to first remove the iron cage that Jerusalem’s colonial British rulers built in 1947 in a prior effort to keep the Aedicule from collapsing, after a 1927 earthquake and rain left the structure cracked, its marble slabs flaking.

livingword

with Most Revd J.O. Akinfenwa Bishop of Ibadan Diocese (Anglican Communion)

By Bishop David Oyedepo Call 7747546-8; or e-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

Salt and light It is another day of the Lord, and it is also another valuable opportunity to appear in His sanctuary and give Him thanks for His love and benevolence. The Psalmist says, Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are of a clean heart. Psalms 73:1 If we look well enough, we shall all recognize definite things worthy of appreciation that God has done for us.

All of such divine benevolence is evidence that God is good to us. Let us thank Him always. Let us thank Him today. Let us come into His sanctuary to worship Him with a sense of gratitude.

Why did God bless us so much? God blessed us so much so that we can become a blessing. He fills our cups to overflowing so that others may drink from the surplus.

That is what we see in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12. God said He would bless Abraham, and make Abraham a blessing; so that other nations of the earth could be blessed through him.

Our Lord also broached this topic while teaching on the Mount of Olives. He said: Matthew 5:13-16 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let

10 April, 2016

Understanding the wonders of kingdom stewardship! (2) your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Each child of God should therefore be a channel of divine blessing. Each one of us should have his/her areas of direct positive impact onthe world. Each one of us should be doing something to make the world a better place. When people encounter us, they should get a feeling, at least, that the encounter made their lives better.

These salt and light functions of the believer touch the world most emphatically through social action. Therefore, as we claim to have faith in Jesus Christ, that faith should lead us into actions and initiatives that havepositive social impact.

In Matthew 25: 31 - 46, our Lord showed us the value of doing good to others and helping the needy. Jesus Christtaught that doing good to others is sacred duty. If we help the needy, if we act as salt and light to the world, then and then only are we acting true to our calling as children of God. As you go out into the world this week, look out for ways to be a blessing to humanity. Look out for ways to help people in need. Helping others is proof that you are a member of God’s kingdom. The help you render to others may as well be the ladder you shall climb upon on your riseinto theplace of divine affirmation. Be salt and light to someone in need this week.

God bless you.

Last week, it was established that Kingdom stewardship, which means serving the interest of God’s Kingdom in all its ramifications can be categorized into practical and spiritual stewardship. Practical stewardship involves the tireless investment of time, energy and resources towards the advancement of God’s Kingdom. On the other hand, spiritual stewardship entails soul-winning, prayers, intercession for salvation of souls, and establishment of new converts in the faith, resulting in church growth. In addition, I told you that every Kingdom stewardship endeavour has rewards attached to it, but none can be compared with the rewards of soul-winning. This week, I will show you what makes soul-winning the most profitable engagement, which includes: • A redeemed soul is the most valuable treasure to God on earth: For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Matthew 16:26).

From the above scripture, we discover that a soul is worth much more than all the wealth in the world put together, in the sight God. That is why the Bible says: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16; see also Romans 8:32).

In other words, God will pay anything to anyone, who will partner with Him in reaping the harvest of souls into His Kingdom.

In addition, we understand from scriptures that heaven goes agog with jubilation and singing when a soul is saved. As

it is written:… joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance (Luke 15:7).

When we sow seeds of joy to heaven through soul-winning, we reap harvests of joy unspeakable full of glory, divine presence, a healthy, vibrant life, and an uncheckered access to revelations. No wonder the seventy returned from soul- winning with joy (Psalms 16:11; Proverbs 17:22; Isaiah 12:3; Luke 10:17; Romans 8:31).

Furthermore, it is common knowledge that no one can give what he/she does not have. Until you become born again by accepting Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, you cannot lead anyone to Christ. Why not accept Jesus and be a source of dancing and singing in heaven today. If you are ready for this new experience, please say this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner. Forgive me of my sins. Cleanse me with Your precious Blood. Deliver me from sin and satan to serve the Living God. Today, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Thank You Jesus for saving me! Now I know I am born again!”

For further reading, please get my books: Wisdom that Works, Walking in Wisdom, All you need to have all your needs met, Winning Wisdom and Excellency of Wisdom.

I invite you to come and fellowship with us at the Faith Tabernacle, Canaanland, Ota, the covenant home of Winners. We have five services on Sundays, holding at 6:00 a.m., 7:35 a.m., 9:10 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 12:20 p.m. respectively.

46

feature

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

The unending UTME controversy THE conduct of the 2016 computer-based Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board was shrouded in controversies. CLEMENT IDOKO examine some of the precipitating factorsand how the board towards can ensure smooth and seamless exercise in the future.

T

HE conduct of the 2016 computer-based Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), was marred with controversies in what many stakeholders described as antithetical to the one conducted last year. It was the second attempt by the board to go full-blown e-testing.

A combination of human elements both within the Board and outside conspired to work against the smooth conduct of the examination this year. One major challenge that confronted the Board was the issue of the Computer Based Testing Centres. It was gathered that some of the JAMB staffers who participated in the accreditation of test centres, did not do a thorough job.

According to JAMB, a total of 1,592,444 candidates registered for the 2016 UTME nationwide and in seven foreign countries.

The Registrar and Chief Executive of JAMB, Professor ‘Dibu Ojerinde, however, confirmed this level of conspiracy when he disclosed that 15 staff members of the Board were being investigated for their role in accreditation of some substandard and ill-equipped centres for examination.

Sunday Tribune gathered that in some of the centres, their owners pulled the wool over the eyes of the JAMB officials by hiring computers to equip their centres ahead of scheduled dates for accreditation visit. To meet JAMB’s requirement for accreditation, a standard centre is expected to have at least 250 functional computers. But what was later discovered on the first and second days into the 2016 UTME, was that some centres, which claimed to have had 250 to 350 computers ended up providing only 100 or 150 for the examination.

This situation led to relocation of some candidates

from such centres to more reliable places and in the process, many candidates that did not get the message in good time missed their examination. Ojerinde, however, empathised with such candidates and organised a make up test for them.

In some other instances, it was gathered that some owners of particular centres in connivance with candidates attempted to bribe the JAMB officials in order to use the centres as “miracle centres” where massive examination malpractices are perpetrated. Some of them in this category orchestrated trouble in their centres while threatening JAMB officials attached to the affected centres.

Another serious challenge was the malfunctioning of some of the systems used by the candidates for the examination. This challenge led to awards of the controversial 40 marks to some candidates who sat for the UTME on the first and second day of the examination.

When JAMB mooted the idea of migrating from Paper-Pencil-Test (PPT) to CBT about seven years ago, the proposal then elicited some level of apprehensions ostensibly for some of these issues that have begun to manifest their ugly heads against the use of the technology.

Ojerinde, had cited security challenges, high cost of producing writing materials for paper-based tests, high cost of transporting materials and curbing examining examination malpractices as some of the reasons for adoption of CBT as preferred mode.

Critics of the CBT mode have argued that most Nigerians, especially those in the rural areas, who do not have access to the use of computer, would be placed in a disadvantaged position. Some of them equally envisaged that lack of infrastructure in terms of adequate CBT centres fully equipped with computers, would pose great challenge.

Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, also expressed reservation about the CBT. Speaking during the monitoring of the examination in some of the centres in Abuja, Adamu said he was concerned about thousands of Nigerians who are not computer literate to be able to take the examination. His thinking was that the paper-pencil could be re-introduce alongside CBT until such a time more Nigerians, especially those in rural communities become computer literate.

Adamu, however, said he was satisfied with the conduct of the CBT mode of the examination so far, adding that he was glad the Board had addressed most of his concerns and other Nigerians. He said: “I seem to be very comfortable and happy with what they are doing. But my question has not been answered; that there are many people who are not computer literate, so, what do you do with them. I do not have reservation about CBT but sympathy for those who are not computer literate and there are many of them.

When asked if he was suggesting that the Board should re-introduce paper-pencil mode of examination alongside CBT, the minister said, “I think so; for some time.

But certainly the future is for computer.”

When further prodded on the relevance of the paperpencil mode of examination, two years after it was phased out, Adamu asked rhetorically, “how long do you think is a reasonable period?”

JAMB, was however, encouraged to go full-blown computer based in 2015 and 2016, when it was discovered that many candidates had preferred computer the mode. As part of experimentation, the Board had adopted three modes-the traditional Paper-Pencil, Dual Mode Continues pg 47

47

feature

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘This exam has become a war’ the examination day they were found wanting.

“This led to relocation of candidates from some of them to more suitable centres. I want to apologies to these two categories of people, but we are going put on a redress for those whose relocation affected them in missing their examination,” he said.

Ojerinde also explained that the movement of candidates from Lagos to Moro in Osun State, by the Board was done promptly to avert attacks by hoodlums based on a security report.

The JAMB boss noted that similar incident played at Uromi Centre in Edo State, where mercenaries hired to perpetrate massive examination malpractices were exposed by the JAMB official on ground.

Dibu Ojerinde, JAMB boss

Adamu Adamu, Minister for Education

Continued from pg 46

the first and second days of the examination leading to relocation of a total of 59,000 candidates to new centres and 16 states of the federation.

“I want to say it here that conducting examination is becoming a war; it is already a war. You should have seen us in the control room of the examination. When the exam was going on, I was in the war front; I was not able to leave the control room. The invaders were more than 20 well-armed men. The Nigeria Army had to mobilise their men to make it possible for us to conduct examinations in Auchi, because the mercenaries in Uromi were determined to frustrate us, but of course they frustrated them in return.

“The organisers of the protest did not do it in the interest of the candidates but it was done as a result of frustration due to their inability to perpetuate their planned acts of irregularities. Majority of these people who are frustrated collected huge sums of money from the candidates, they were the organisers of the protest, and we have adequate information to prove it. There was an episode in Kaduna where an owner of a centre decided to perpetuate malpractice, as a result he was arrested and quickly handed over to the police.

“Overall, there were about 145,000 of them. Immediately we noted this we refused to continue to release the results until the system error was corrected. When it was corrected all other people who sat for the examination from that time had no problem and now even some of them that were affected are asking for extra marks.

“In our quest to have adequate and effective centres for the 2016 exercise we approved over 500 centres. Unfortunately some of the centre operators were not sincere in providing us with the true position of their facility. They hired equipment and other necessary apparatus and on

and Computer-based Test in the conduct of the UTME between 2012 and 2014. The Dual Mode Test (DMT) involved reading the questions from the computer screen and answering on an answer sheet provided by JAMB. Compromises protests Meanwhile, there was a melodrama to the controversies that trailed the conduct of this year’s UTME. Some candidates and parents, supported by the owner of a CBT centre, organised a protest in Lagos, calling for the cancellation of CBT mode and sacking of Professor Ojerinde.

They had alleged that some candidates were awarded different versions of results and that many candidates had leakages of the questions in addition to poor organisation of the examination.

The JAMB boss, while responding to these allegations, faulted calls for cancellation of the CBT, saying this would not be in the interest of the candidates, parents and government. He said the protest in Lagos, allegedly

by UTME candidates demanding for cancellation of the results of the examination was sponsored to discredit the good work the Board is doing, in the efforts to strengthen the quality of tertiary education in the country.

Ojerinde, who noted that conducting public examination in Nigeria has become a war, alleged that the organiser of the protest, who incidentally was an owner of a centre designated for the examination, was aggrieved because he was not allowed by the JAMB officials at the centre to perpetrate examination malpractice.

He explained how a JAMB official at the Lagos Centre was threatened after rejecting a N6 million bribe offer, saying this prompted the relocation of the candidates at the centre to Moro in Osun State. He added that the owner of the centre, in the effort to justify money he collected illegally from parents and candidates organised the protest.

It was also gathered that a lady who was arrested at the centre for impersonation, confessed that she and others were paid N25,000 each to do the job. The JAMB Registrar, further disclosed that results of Uromi approved UTME Centre in Edo State, were being withheld as a result of massive irregularities and invasion of the centre by armed hoodlums.

A JAMB official in charge of the centre was said to have rejected an offer of N1 million “corporation fee” (bribe), allegedly by the owner of the centre in collaboration with some parents and candidates to allow them perpetrate examination malpractices.

Prof. Ojerinde, disclosed further that the armed invaders were more than 20 persons, adding that timely intervention of the military saved the day and that candidates in the centre were relocated to Auchi, where the remaining examinations were held with the supervision of soldiers. He admitted that there were some challenges in

Ojerinde, who noted that conducting public examination in Nigeria has become a war, alleged that the organiser of the protest… was aggrieved because he was not allowed by the JAMB officials at the centre to perpetrate examination malpractice

CBT goosd, but…

Reacting to the controversies that continued to trail the adoption of CBT by JAMB, a coalition of Nigerians overseas, under the auspices of Nigerians in Diaspora Monitoring Group (NDMG), has thrown its weight behind the board.

The group said it was in support of the adoption of computer-based testing model for students, saying the move has aligned Nigeria’s tertiary entrance examination with global best practice. A statement by the group and signed by its Publicity Secretary in the United Kingdom, Mr. David Onmeje, noted that criticisms of the flaws identified in this year’s examination were not enough grounds for JAMB to discontinue using CBT but that it should rather be treated as areas needing improvement in future examinations.

Onmje, said, “All innovations have early adopters and persistent opponents, but advancement always have to happen in the interest of mankind. Even countries with more advanced technologies still have citizens that kick against innovative concepts and express preference for older systems but societies that are determined to progress do not allow objections to hold them back”.

However, while some candidates who sat for the 2016 UTME applauded JAMB for the smooth conduct of the examination, others condemned the board for lack of adequate preparation for examination. Some even called for outright scrapping of JAMB on the argument that it has no relevance in the process of admissions into tertiary institutions as is obtainable elsewhere in the world.

A candidate, John Omeiza, who sat for the examination at Chams City, one the approved centres for examination in Abuja, commended the board for the seamless and smooth examination in a conducive environment. He said one good thing was the prompt release of the examination results. “Within two hours your result is sent to your phone,” he said. He, however, called on the board to make sure more centres are built to reduce the stress of candidates having to wait for several hours for examination.

Chukwuma Felix, one of the UTME candidates, spoke angrily to this reporter. His annoyance was that the Federal Government is through the JAMB committing unimaginable fraud against poor Nigerians. He recalled that it was his 3rd time of sitting for the UTME. The first time in 2014, he scored about 210 but could not secure admission because he was not able to make the university postUTME. Felix said: “Tell me why so much money is charged for UTME registration. This year, we spent over N7,000 to get all these things done, but at the end of the day one is not sure of admission. I understand that our institutions have only about 500,000 slots for 1.5 million candidates that sat for the examination. This is why I call it fraud.

JAMB knows from day one that it was going to make money free from about one million candidates.

“If the system is fair, what they should have done would be to allow universities and other tertiary institutions select their candidates. The institutions can screen their candidates as is currently being done in the name of post-UTME. Why subjecting young Nigerians to rigours of JAMB every year, with some ended up frustrated? It’s simple, use your calculator, if a candidate is spending above N7000 for the registration, multiply it by one million; I’m not concerned about the 500,000 that could be offered admissions.”

The controversy rages on. But one fact that is not controversial is that the country needs a credible, hitch-free admission prcess which JAMB has promised to provide in future.

48

10 April 2016

children’sarena I

N 1679, the French mathematician and physicist, Denis Papin, invented the first pressure cooker or steam digester as he called it. The story is while he was presenting his new steam digester to the Royal Society, it exploded, leading him to invent the safety valve. Three years later, he represented it to the Royal Society and gained positive reviews.

Olaide Sokoya ollydesanmi@yahoo.com 0807 449 7425

Gorilla Vs Orangutan

Brief history of pressure cooker The pressure cooker title was first seen in print in 1915. In 1927, the first pressure cookers were sold in Germany and in 1939 the world’s first commercial pressure cooker made by National Presto Industries was exhibited at the New York World’s Fair.

In the early days, there were accounts of people thinking pressure cookers were the results of witchcraft because of their continued hissing.

Sunday Tribune

Difference between gorilla and orangutan

Words From Kids

How I will

spend my holiday

Good Fortune Model School, Oke-Itunu, Ibadan, Oyo State.

• Orangutan lives in Southeast Asian islands while gorillas live in African mainland.

• Orangutan is the largest arboreal primate whereas gorilla is the largest among all the primates.

• Gorilla is black in coloration, whereas orangutan is reddish brown.

1. OGBECHE JOSEPH, JSS 3, 13 YEARS I will be travelling to my aunty’s house in Lagos where I will be spending a week with her. I will return home due to the holiday coaching class at my school for about a month. I will also go shopping for new bags, uniforms, stationery and things I will need for next term.

2. KAREEM SODIQ, JSS 1, 11 YEARS I will be travelling with my sister to Port Harcourt during this holiday. I will ask her to enroll me for lesson for two weeks and to take me to the cinema to watch educative movies. I will also ask her to take me to the zoological garden to also see wild animals. After spending three weeks with my sister, I will start revising my books for the next term.

ek d e l i w Chhe t of

1 3. OLUSOLA ABISOLA, JSS1, 11 YEARS Initially, I was planning to travel to Lagos to spend my holiday with my uncle whom I refer to as big daddy but the proprietor of my school announced that we would be attending lessons during the holiday. I was shocked when I heard the announcement that I had to call big daddy and we rescheduled the route. So, I will be spending my holiday attending lessons but I will still spend my third term holiday with big daddy.

2

4. AJEWOLE ENOCH, BASIC 5, 12 YEARS I have already planned how I will be spending my holiday so I am looking forward to it. I told my parents that I want to travel to Abuja to spend my holiday with my uncle or to Lagos to spend my holiday with my aunt.

Either way, I will be having fun whether it is Lagos or Abuja, so I am looking forward to parents’ response.

3

4

5. OGBONNA CHINEMEREM, BASIC 4, 9 YEARS I will travel to Anambra State to spend my holiday with my grandma and my brothers over there. I love travelling there because I always enjoy my stay with them. I will play with them and make sure I have fun before school resumes.

Tongue twister

• Orangutan is mostly towards arboreal species, while gorilla is mostly towards terrestrial.

• Gorilla has prominent forehead, but orangutan has a prominent face.

• Both have long arms, but orangutan has longer arms than in gorilla.

• Lifespan is considerably longer in gorillas than in orangutans.

5

How fast can you say it?

“The big bug bit the little beetle, but the little beetle bit the big bug back.”

Amir Ayomipo

OJEBOLA

Clocks

1

Many happy returns.

49

fctcouncilpolls

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

2 injured, 500 ballot papers missing in Kwali

S

OME youths in Bako Village in Kwali Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Saturday, went on the rampage, following the discovery that 500 ballot papers were missing in their polling unit.

An eyewitness told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that after accreditation and voting, the presiding officer of Dabi polling unit counted the ballot papers and discovered that instead of 3,000 ballot papers, he had 2,500.

“This led to arguments among the presiding officer, party agents and party supporters at the centre, resulting in violence that left two people injured.

“This situation was, however, brought under control by security agents attached to the centre,” Jeremiah Isaiah told NAN. As of the time of this report, the centre was deserted and pockets of youths were seen discussing in hushed tones the possible effect of the violence on voting in the area.

Also, some voters were seen milling around hopeful that the situation would be resolved soon.

“Just like a dream, the situation escalated into violence. The party supporters believe that the 500 missing ballot papers have been taken to a place where they will be thumbprinted in favour of a particular candidate.

“This can lead to outright cancellation of the voting process in Dabi,” a secu-

rity agent, who pleaded anonymity told NAN. Meanwhile, NAN reports that the four new polling centres in Kwali

attracted very little crowd compared to the seven existing polling centres.

At one of the polling units, Police Barrack Unit,

there were two registered voters while the combined team of INEC officials, security and party agents were 13.

Speaking to NAN, Mr Dahiru Abubakar, the Electoral Officer in Kwali, confirmed the incident in Dabi Villag, saying that the

Low turnout of voters, late arrival of electoral materials mar polls Clement Idoko and Sunday Ejike-Abuja THE Federal Capital Territory Council elections held on Saturday recorded low turnout of voters as the polls were conducted amid tight security.

The Area Council elections in Nyanya, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), was generally peaceful, except for the two-hour rain that slightly disrupted the exercise in the area, Sunday Tribune gathered.

The rain, which started a few minutes before 11:00a.m., ended at about 1:30 p.m., causing the officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its ad-hoc staff to seek safe areas to continue with the exercise.

All the entrance points into the capital city were barricaded by police officers and officials of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), in view of movement restriction for a

peaceful exercise.

The Abuja-Keffi expressway was blocked at the boundary checkpoint between Mararaba in Nasarawa State and Nyanya in the FCT, causing traffic gridlock and keeping commuters from that axis stranded for hours.

It was observed that elections did not commence in some polling stations until 9:30a.m. because of late arrival of materials.

A combined team of Ni-

geria Police Force and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), deployed to the polling units, arrived as early as 6:30a.m. ahead of officials of INEC. INEC officers confirmed that card readers used for the accreditation worked smoothly except few persons that were rejected and were verified manually.

When Sunday Tribune visited Polling Unit 013, Area II Road Junction, Mami Market at 9:34a.m.,

Soldiers checking offenders of movement restriction directives on the Abuja-Keffi road during the FCT area council election, in Abuja, on Saturday.

PHOTO:NAN.

APGA’s logo missing, party expresses disappointment •Only PDP and APC are contesting —INEC THE All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has expressed disappoint-

ment with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for

Peaceful process in Karu-Karshi Leon Usigbe-Abuja ACCREDITATION and voting went on peacefully at several polling centres visited at the Karu-Karshi axis of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as voters turned out in large numbers to vote for candidates of their choice in the area council elections.

The exercise started on time at Jikwoyi Phase Three polling stations but slowed down with malfunctioning card readers which was unable to recognise the thumbprint of a number of voters.

Voters complained that the exercise was too slow as they were forced to remain on queue for considerable length of time.

As of 11:00a.m., a polling unit at Jikwoyi which

violence in the centre could affect the election if the votes cast were more than the number of registered voters.

had 1,709 registered voters recorded 20 incidents of card reader failure with the presiding officer authorising the issuance of incidence forms to them to enable them exercise their franchise.

The exercise also went on smoothly at polling stations in Kpegyi which also recorded impressive turnouts.

Many of them however had hard times locating their names and photographs on the voters’ lists displayed at each of the centres.

At about 1:00p.m., many of the voters in this axis who had patiently waited on queues, were left to scamper to different directions for shelter when it started raining.

omitting its logo from the ballot paper for the 2016 FCT council election.

The APGA Councillorship standard-bearer in Kubwa ward, Mr Celestine Elechi, made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Saturday in Bwari.

He alleged that INEC was responsible for his inability to participate in the election because the commission failed to include his party’s logo in the ballot paper.

“When we came to collect our election materials at the INEC office on Friday, April 8, we were told the materials had been distributed to the various polling units.

“On getting to the polling units in Kubwa Ward, we noticed that APGA’s logo was omitted from the list of parties that were contesting for the councillorship position.

“We tried making en-

quiries at the INEC Bwari Area Office on what the problem was, but nobody has given us clear information to proffer solution,” he said.

Elechi, however, commended the conduct of the election for being free and fair, saying that it was a deviation from past elections in the council.

According to Mr Shittu

Tata, INEC Electoral Officer in-charge of Bwari Area Office, in his response,“The party was not on my list; the two parties contesting are All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). I don’t have the APGA’s logo on my list, so they are not included among the parties that are eligible to contest in the election,” Shittu said.

INEC officials and its adhoc staff were seen arranging election materials in preparation for the accreditation of voters and casting of votes.

Kuje market opens for business despite election

THE Kuje Area Council Main Market was, on Saturday, opened for business in spite of restrictions on vehicular movement and opening of shops for the conduct of FCT polls.

Some correspondents of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) monitoring the exercise reported that the market was opened for business during voting hours.

Food and other items were displayed in the market with buyers coming in to shop.

Some of the traders told NAN that they had exercised their franchise before coming to open their shops.

Mr Fidelis Okoh, a trader, attributed the opening to the fact that the market was currently without fence since it is under construction.

“Anybody can come in since the market is currently not fenced. Some of the people you see around probably had registered in their villages and cannot vote in the FCT,” he said.

Mr Musa Tanko, a tomato seller, told NAN that he had voted before coming to the market, noting that patronage was low because people were not aware that the market would be open for business.

Mrs Stella Gaza, a buyer, said the opening of the market was in the interest of residents who only shop on weekends because of busy schedules.

‘Voters’ apathy caused by inadequate enlightenment’ Saliu Gbadamosi and Ademola Adegbite-Abuja THE voters’ apathy experienced in Saturday’s area council elections in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, has been attributed to inadequate enlightenment of the electorate.

This was the view of a domestic election observer, Vincent Dania of Reclaim Nigeria, while speaking with Sunday Tribune on the elections, saying that though there were low turnouts in

previous elections in the territory, Saturday’s experience was something else.

According to Dania, “Eligible voters were not adequately enlightened on the need for them to come out and vote,” he said, adding that the turnout could have been better if enlightenment campaigns were adequate.

He, however, expressed satisfaction with the conduct of the elections by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), saying that he observed

that adequate security men, comprising the men of the Nigeria Police Force, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Nigeria Prisons Service, was provided.

Sunday Tribune noticed in some polling units visited that while elections commenced in some units, others started late, even as the voters trickled in for accreditation and voting, which were conducted simultaneously.

50

news

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

FG loses N1.55bn daily to fuel scarcity As long queues persist in several states

ranging between N170 and N180 per litre with low patronage, while there were long queues at few stations selling at official price.

Sunday Tribune, however, gathered that the situation might improve during the week, as the product was already being supplied to many filling stations.

From Olatunde Dodondawa, Moses Alao, Adetola Bademosi, Sam Nwaoko, Biola Azeez, Dapo Falade, Olayinka Olukoya and Kola Oyelere with Agency Report

T

HERE are strong indications that the Federal Government might have been losing about N1.55 billion in daily revenue to fuel scarcity that has rocked the country since February 2016 The scarcity had taken a new dimension when the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, said on the March 22 that fuel scarcity might linger till the end of May and reportedly led to panic buying, as Nigerians spent about 12 to 24 hours at filling stations to get fuel.

Investigations by Sunday Tribune has, however, revealed that apart from motorists and other Nigerians suffering from the protracted scarcity of fuel, the Federal Government has also been incurring losses to the tune over N1 billion daily.

Findings showed that the inability of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to satisfy the 40 million litres daily consumption by Nigerians led to the shortage in fuel supply, as Kachikwu had reviewed the first quarter allocation for fuel importation from 41 per cent to NNPC and 59 per cent for independent marketers to 78 per cent for NNPC and 22 per cent for the marketers.

The marketers were, however, said to have jettisoned the importation of fuel for the first quarter of 2016 following their inability to secure foreign exchange for importation, a development that reportedly created a huge gap in products importation, as the NNPC could also not meet its 78 per cent quota.

It was learnt that the NNPC could only import an equivalent of 20 million litres daily, thereby creating a huge gap in daily consumption.

At N77.6 ex-depot price per litre, the Federal Government realises an average of N3.104 billion daily in revenue (N77.6 x 40 million). But when the importation dropped to an average of 20 million litres daily, there was a revenue shortfall of N1.55 billion daily revenue for the Federal Government during the period of scarcity.

The situation, Sunday

Fuel pump price skyrockets to N250 in Awka

Fuel queue at a filling station on Airport Road, in Abuja, on Saturday. PHOTO: NAN Tribune gathered, was worsened by the fact that black market operators and dishonest marketers took advantage of the situation to engage in sharp and untoward practices by diverting fuel meant for motorists at regular filling stations to the black market operators who were selling in gallons at rates that range between N250 and N400 per litre, depending on the area of residence.

Speaking with the Sunday Tribune on telephone on Saturday, Mr. Ayodeji Ebo, Head of Research, Afrinvest Limited, stated that businesses in Nigeria are structured to depend on fuel for survival and anything that affects fuel, which is the main source of energy, will affect the denominator “and put pressure on businesses.”

He said further that “getting fuel at higher cost will add extra cost to businesses and this may threaten their continuity. Goods with elastic demand have little chance of increasing their prices.

Fuel scarcity will also add to cost of goods and services, which will have effect on inflation. March inflation rate will definitely be higher. This is a challenging time for Nigerians where cost of living is rising but wages are fixed.”

Mr. Vincent Omoamilor, a financial analyst and stockbroker with Nigerian International Securities Limited (NISL), stated that in addition to revenue shortfall, the economy was close to shutting-down if the scarcity continues.

According to him, “fuel is the engine room for the Nigerian economy, so anything that affects it will affect the economy. Manufacturers are shutting down their plants due to lack of foreign exchange to finance importation of raw materials. The small and medium scale enterprises are find-

ing difficult to power their business due to lack of electricity. The fuel they use to power their generating sets is not available.”

day, with most minor fuel stations in bold-faced fashion, have begun pasting the new pump price of N200 on their filling stations.

Passengers pay more as fuel scarcity persists across states

‘We’re tired of staying at filling stations in Ekiti’

The scourge of fuel scarcity seems to be biting harder as passengers in Abuja now pay more on transport fares due to the persistent fuel scarcity.

Though the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources had insisted that the scarcity witnessed in the country would be addressed on or before April 7, there seemed to be no improvements so far as the queues in Abuja grew longer at the weekend.

While most of the filling stations were still not selling, the few ones selling were with queues that mostly disrupted the free flow of traffic in the Federal Capital Territory.

Sunday Tribune gathered, on Saturday, that transport fares have also increased by 50 per cent due to the scarcity.

With this, passengers are left with no better choice than to adhere to the new fare hike amidst grumbling.

Motorists still spend hours at filling stations The story was the same in Ibadan at the weekend, as motorists either had to endure hours of hardship on queues at few major filling stations selling the product or take the supposedly easy ways out by buying at between N200 and N220 at filling stations or patronise black marketers who sell in kegs for around N1500 for five litres.

A filling station in Apete area of the city sold the product for N220 on Fri-

In Ekiti, Sunday Tribune reports that queues have literally disappeared at petrol filling stations, because, according to some residents, “we are tired of spending all day at the filling stations with no assurance of getting the commodity.”

Instead, the people have resorted to buying the product at N220, N230 and/or N250 per litre rather than living at the fuel stations.

Many people in the state have also wondered why there suddenly seemed to be fuel everywhere in the state, although at very high cost.

“I can see that many petrol stations in the state capital and beyond that ordinarily didn’t sell fuel before now have the commodity to sell and they are the ones that sell at higher prices,” Mr. Wale Michael told Sunday Tribune.

Meanwhile, the people have asked government “to tell Nigerians the truth about the fuel situation and leave unproductive propaganda” with Olu Adenikiju saying “propaganda has not helped us and we must now face the reality that is here with us.”

Product available but sells for N200 in Kwara In Ilorin, the product has become relatively available, but at very high price, compared to the period of its total scarcity in filling stations in Ilorin and environs, Sunday Tribune.

Investigations showed that a litre of petrol sold for between N180 and N200 at independent marketers’

filling stations, while NNPC and major marketers sold at normal price of N85 and N86.50 but with attendant chaotic queues.

Some of those who spoke with Sunday Tribune called on government to intensify efforts at making petrol readily available in the state at a normal price.

They expressed sadness over the prevailing economic situation in the country, saying the development had caused untold hardship in their daily lives.

Ray of hope in Rivers There was, however, a ray of hope for residents of Rivers State regarding the fuel situation, as there were supplies of the PMS to most of the major filling stations in the Port Harcourt metropolis.

Though some filling stations within the state capital sold fuel for as high as N250 per litre, on Thursday, a tour round the state capital at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday showed that major marketers on the popular Aba Road had opened their gates to willing buyers.

This was particularly noticeable at the Total Filling Station at the Garrison Bus Stop and Mobil, located at Water-Lines.

However, there were very long queues, as motorists and other end-users waited patiently, even when the major marketers were yet to start selling the petroleum product as of the time of filing this report.

Situation remains same in Ogun In Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the situation of long queues at different filling stations remained the same on Saturday.

Fuel stations, especially independent marketers, still sold the product for prices

Petrol pump price has continued to rise on daily basis in Anambra State in spite of all efforts by the government to make the product available at official rate.

The News Agency of Nigerian (NAN) who monitored availability of the product at different petrol stations in Awka, on Saturday, reported that the product was scarce in Awka.

NAN reported that most stations were under lock and key as a result of unavailability of the product; while few stations that opened were selling for between N200 and N250 per liter.

According to NAN, the only petrol station selling at the official pump price of N86 kobo in the city was NNPC mega station with long queue.

Some of the transporters who spoke with NAN on conditions of anonymity said that they arrived at the NNPC mega station at 6:00 a.m. after searching hard for stations selling at official pump price.

Mr Kenechukwu Ifemeje, a commuter at one of the fuel stations who purchased the product at N250 said that Nigerians were currently undergoing hardship posed by scarcity of fuel product.

Protesters accost Osinbajo on fuel crisis, economic situation Meanwhile, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo’s visit to Kano State was greeted with protests from residents who expressed displeasure at the present hardship arising from lack of fuel, electricity and unfavorable general economic situation.

The protesters displayed messages such as “APC, no fuel, no electricity, we are suffering.”

Osinbajo ran into the protesters on Court Road by Ibo road, while carrying out an inspection work on the ongoing construction of the road.

The protesters chanted “No fuel, no power, no money, we are suffering.”

51

news

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Remember death, Bishops urge leaders, citizens

Former Miss Rodiyah Aderinoye and Mr Abdulai Ajiboye during their Walmatul Nikkah, held in Ibadan, Oyo State, on Saturday.

Religious leaders back proposed preaching licence in Kaduna

By Rita Okonoboh

A

S part of reactions that have greeted the bill currently before the Kaduna State House of Assembly which calls for religious leaders to obtain preaching licences, clerics have expressed the desire to support the bill, albeit with conditions.

The Most Reverend Kehinde Stephen of the Methodist Church Nigeria, Ibadan Archdiocese, in an interview with Sunday Tribune, who stated that religious leaders have contributed to the rise in noise pollution, supported the

legislation that would check such.

According to him, “It will surprise you that the only fear I have is the proper and fair implementation of such bill. People are concerned because in a place like Kaduna, where there are probably more Muslims than Christians, will more licenses not go to Muslims than Christians?

“The philosophy is not bad. The implementation is what carries a big question mark. I believe that it is better not to put it on the altar of legislation, but to encourage religious leaders to be self-restrained,

and whoever falls foul of the law should be prosecuted, without recourse to partiality.”

The spiritual father of the Cherubim and Seraphim Church Movement Worldwide, Most Reverend Samuel Abidoye, in his reaction, appreciated the move by the Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, stating that “We should appreciate the governor for what he is trying to do, because this is how Boko Haram started and now it has become a national issue. The present military and Shi’ite crisis is a sign that the future might be dangerous.

“So, to avoid these problems, it is good the governor takes the step, but relevant stakeholders should have been contacted.

That’s where I feel the governor got it wrong. I read the details of the proposed bill on the pages of newspapers.

“I understand that the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) and Jama’atul Nasirul Islam (JNI) were contacted to liaise with Christians and Muslims respectively. But to be candid, I have never met the leadership of CAN. I can’t remember when I received any of the leaders of CAN.”

Robbers lay siege to communities in Ogun Olayinka Olukoya - Abeokuta FOUR communities around the Federal University of Agriculture, (FUNNAB), Abeokuta, in Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State, are now under the seige of armed robbers, terrorising their areas.

The affected communities are: Ilupeju, Ife-Olu, Oluwo-Keesi and Harmony, all of which are densely populated by students.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the authorities of the university had written a letter to the state Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Ali, on the incessant robbery attacks on students and other members of the communities.

It was also learnt that the Student Union body of the institution equally wrote to complain about the activities of some unscrupulous elements perpetrating crime in the areas.

With this development, Ali had ordered the immediate deployment of the

Area Commander, Abeokuta Metropolis, Assistant Commissioner of Police, Presely Dode, to lead teams of policemen to the affected communities.

Ali directed that the teams must include members of

the Anti- Robbery Squad, Anti-Robbery Team of the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department and State Intelligence Bureau.

The CP also ordered that Odeda and Obantoko Divisions should embark on

constant patrol around the areas, while the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of DCII, Mr. Shina Olukolu, had been asked to tackle the incessant robbery cases and bring the perpetrators to book.

Telecoms companies’ investment profile hits $32bn, says NCC boss

THE Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) says about $32 billion has been invested in the nation’s telecommunications industry from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and local investors.

The Executive ViceChairman of the commission, Professor Umar Danbatta, disclosed this in Lagos State, at a forum organised by the Association of Telecommunications Companies of Nigeria (ATCON).

Danbatta, who gave a keynote address entitled: “State of the Industry, A Regulator’s Perspective,” recalled that before 2001,

few people had access to telephone and the internet.

He said only about 500,000 lines were available for a population of 90 million people in Nigeria before the advent of Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM).

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration had in 2001 inaugurated GSM with the licensing of Econet and MTN. Danbatta said internet connectivity was abysmal, while investors were reluctant to come to Nigeria.

“However, the Digital

Mobile License auction of 2001 changed the story.

“Since then, over $32 billion has been invested in telecommunications industry, both from Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and local investors.

“With over 152 million active telephone lines and nearly 97 million connections to the internet, Nigeria now has 107 per cent teledensity.

“Growth of the sector is followed by massive job creation whereby several millions of Nigerians and expatriates have been gainfully employed directly and indirectly by the operators.

NIGERIAN leaders as well as the citizens have been urged to serve the nation with the fear of God, in order to earn a deserving award on earth and also get a reward in heaven.

Giving the charge on Saturday at the wake and funeral service of late Mrs Augusta Oladipo, were the former Prelate, Methodist Church of Nigeria, Dr Sunday Ola Makinde and the Presiding Bishop, Calvary Life Assembly, Bishop Ransom Bello.

Bello, who noted that the love of God facilitates excellence in service, urged those in positions of authorities to serve the nation with the consciousness that they would die and give account of their stewardship in heaven.

The Kano-based cleric, who congratulated the presiding bishop of The Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Bishop Wale Oke, on the good testimonies that were given of his mother-in-law, said, “The value of our contribution on earth is based on fear of God. “Those who are given the privilege to govern us should know that they are put there by God.

Oyo civil defence deploys 132 officers to battle illegal mining

By Oluwatoyin Malik THE Commandant of the Oyo State Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr John Adewoye, has deployed 132 personnel as solid mineral defenders. He made this known on Friday at the command’s headquarters in Ibadan.

According to a press statement, signed by the state’s spokesman, Adewoye, who warned the officers against compromise or misuse of firearms, said that any of them caught indulging in illegality or any act that could dent the image of the corps would be punished.

He added that the unit had competent officers with various academic experiences in Geology, Mining, Solid Science and local knowledge of the business that would work in concert with licensed mineral operators of the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals to tackle illegal mining activities in the state.

Buhari commends military on fight against insurgency Adelowo Oladipo -Minna PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has commended the commitment and zeal of the leadership of the Nigerian Armed Forces in tackling security issues across the country, just as he also applauded the successes of the Armed Forces in the counter insurgency operations in the North Eastern part of the country.

He gave the commendation at the inauguration of the first mega filling station of the Nigerian Army Properties Limited, located along Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe road, Western By-pass opposite the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s mega filling station in Minna, Niger State, on Friday, while assuring that his administration would continue to provide the much needed support to the Armed Forces for efficient service delivery and effective discharge of their responsibilities.

Ntel commences commercial services in Lagos, Abuja

By Bode Adewumi NTEL has announced the commencement of phased and paced commercial services on its 4G/LTE-advanced network in Lagos and Abuja beginning from Friday .

The announcement was made at a press briefing in Lagos on Friday.

Addressing newsmen, the Chief Executive Officer of the fifth mobile operator in the country, Mr Kamar Abass, said that the commencement of operations was the culmination of their journey from acquiring the old NITEL/MTEL assets to the delivery of successful milestones underlining their growing operating capability on their new fixed and mobile network infrastructure.

“With the formal commencement, commercial services will be available on ntel 4G /LTE-advanced network across key site clusters in Lagos and Abuja and subsequently to other states across multiple geo-political zones during the second half of 2016,” he said.

52

sport

10 April, 2016

Nigeria’s Kelechi Iheanacho (left) struggles for ball possession during the AFCON qualifier against Egypt.

AFCON 2017 debacle:

Dalung

Does Pinnick deserve to remain at Glass House?

PRESIDENT of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr Amaju Pinnick, has been receiving knocks from some Nigerians especially football stakeholders following the inability of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

Group Sports Editor, GANIYU SALMAN in this piece presents the views of Nigerians on the exit of the Super Eagles from the biennial African soccer fiesta.

I

NDEED, many Nigerian football stakeholders are still in shock as to the fact that the Super Eagles will be absent at the AFCON 2017.

The lone strike from Ramadan Sobhy, condemned the Eagles to a 0-1 defeat in Alexadria on March 29 and gave the Pharaohs of Egypt, a ticket to the AFCON 2017 after their absence in the past three editions.

Even with a game left in group G of the qualifying series, the fate of Nigeria has been ascertained that the Eagles will not leave Abuja when the biennial African showpiece gets underway let alone fly high at Gabon 2017.

The Eagles also handled by a stop-gap coach, Samson Siasia, had on March 25 at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium, Kaduna, bungled their 60th minute lead by Etebo Eghenekaro, as they allowed unmarked As Roma talisman, Mohammed Salah to snatch an equaliser during added time.

Nigeria, it will be recalled, will miss the AFCON final for the second consecutive time having missed the Equatorial Guinea

2015. It is also going to be the third time Nigeria will be absent in four AFCON finals since 2012.

In the 2012 edition, Nigeria missed the ticket when the Siasiapiloted team settled for a 2-2 draw in Abuja with Syli Nationale of Guinea in a last group game.

The 2015 miss under coach Stephen Keshi came as a shocker to many Nigerians, as the team had two years earlier under the same coach ruled the continent in South Africa. A 2-2 draw with Bafana Bafana at the Nest of Champions in Uyo ended the dream of Keshi and his men to successfully defend the trophy they won in 2013.

Perhaps, given the environment in which the Eagles faced Egypt this time, the fall of Nigeria did not come as a surprise to some soccer buffs.

The man who coached Nigeria to the first AFCON qualifier against Chad in Kaduna, Keshi was sacked by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), while Sunday Oliseh, another member of the 1994 golden Nigerian football generation took over and led the Eagles to a 0-0

Idah against Tanzania in Dar es Salam.

Prior to the crucial group decider against Egypt, he threw in the towel, only for Siasia to take over the team with a few days training and the rest is now history.

Oliseh cited the near-zero commitment of his employers to the cause of the Eagles’ qualification for the AFCON 2017, as one of the reasons he quit the plum job.

Since March 29 when Nigeria missed the Gabon 2017 ticket, Pinnick has been on the lips of some football stakeholders that he has no business any longer to remain in the driver’s seat.

He did not get such unsavoury remarks when the Eagles also failed to grab the 2015 AFCON slot, as many Nigerians believed that the internal wranglings in the football house then as a result of the Warri elections was largely responsible.

This time, many believe the Pinnick-led NFF board has failed the nation regardless of the atmosphere in which the Super Eagles played against the Pharaohs.

The interim coach, Siasia was instead hailed for raising a team which could stand the test of time given its awesome performance in the two-legged game.

Perhaps, the first man to bell the cat was a former international, Peterside Idah, who immediately after the final whistle in Alexandria asked Pinnick to resign.

Idah Peterside The former Nigeria goalkeeper through his twitter handle idah pee @IdahPeterside said: “The NFF must quit now. They cost us this Nations Cup. Just pay your workers and we won’t have these problems”.

A few hours later, he also wrote

Sunday Tribune

#Pinnick Resign’ #Amaju Pinnick Out’ adding “I had a long chat with Amaju and I expressed my opinion, one of the things I told him is we don’t need a foreign coach, my opinion.”

China Acheruo Also, another worried fan @Ikwerreman writes ‘Abeg if you sabi Pinnick tell am make resign waka. #Pinnick Out’. He added that ‘Hahahahaha, you saw it coming, I never gave our team a chance, Egypt were prepared from day one, NFF should resign.’

Nwankwo Kanu Former Nigeria captain, Nwankwo Kanu’s stance also supports the ouster of the NFF leadership as he told BBC that “What is happening with Nigerian football is that the top management is not what it is supposed to be, so what is below is being affected,” adding “When the head is not right, even your body won’t be right”.

Solomon Dalung The Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung, had equally lamented through his twitter handle Solomon Dalung @ SolomonDalung after the loss to Egypt.

“Nigerians cannot accept any reason for failure from anybody so we either deliver or we give way to those who can deliver success.

“I feel we owe Nigerians the explanation of what happened inside the boardrooms that eventually led to our failure.

“After this abysmal performance at AFCON qualifiers it’s important we return to the drawing board to plan the future of football in Nigeria. We have no good reason not to qualify if we had planned well and also organise ourselves rather it was crisis all the way rocking NFF. I personally apologise to Nigerians for the inability of the Super Eagles to qualify for the campaign to AFCON. We must plan better again,” he tweeted.

Dalung also noted that planlessness is one of the factors militating against the growth of Nigerian football.

“Lack of priority is one of the challenges hampering our football. A fire brigade attitude to every situation takes our sports nowhere.”

Gara Gombe A frontline football administrator, Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe nailed the NFF board as far as the AFCON 2017 issue is concerned.

“The NFA in their plan said they were going to charter a plane, later they said they will be using a scheduled flight. In fact they even bought tickets from Egypt Air and later changed again to say it is charter (flight). The flight from Abuja is to Egypt, Alexandria not Warri in Delta State, so what stops us from leaving Kaduna on the night after the game for Egypt and arrive in the morning and have a good rest the following day and begin training in the morning?

“In three matches we had three coaches, three captains and used 38 players. We put ourselves under unnecessary pressure by sacking Keshi after the game with Chad in Kaduna. We changed the technical committee chairman. NFA don’t employ coaches for development but for tournaments. We do not have substantive and well grounded technical department.

The five years development programme from Oliseh is no where to Continues on pg55

53

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Faces at Evangelist (Dr) Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi’s 74th birthday thanksgiving

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 1.

10

The celebrant, Evangelist Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi (MFR) (3rd left); the Osile of Oke Ona Egba, Oba (Dr) Adedapo Tejuoso (4th left); Secretary to the Ogun State Government (SSG) who represented Ogun State governor, Mr Taiwo Adeoluwa (2nd left); Iyalode of Egbaland, Chief (Mrs) Alaba Lawson (4th right); Professor Gabby Yaradu’a and the Oloris of Oba Tejuoso, cutting of 74th birthday cake of Evangelist Obey-Fabiyi, at Decross Gospel Mission Church, Mulero, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos, recently.

5.

From left, Prince Jide Adeniyi; Chief Kamorudeen Adeyemi; Chief Owonifari and others at the thanksgiving service.

6.

Children of the celebrant. From left, Shina, Rotimi, Alero, Tolu Obey and Pastor (Mrs) Bukky Obey-Olaiya.

7.

Reverend Folarin Obey and Evangelist Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi.

8.

Engineer Oreoluwa Obey-Fabiyi, his wife, Titilayo and Pastor Lanre Obey.

2.

Ogun SSG, Mr Adeoluwa and Lagos State Commissioner for Environment, Dr Babatunde Adejare, exchanging pleasantries.

9.

Evangelist Obey surrounded by some of his children and grandchildren.

3.

From left, Dr Adejare; Honourable Yinka Ogundimu and Elder Kayode Bushura.

4.

Dignitaries and associates cutting the birthday cake with Obey.

10. Representatives of the Performing Arts Department of the Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), where Obey doubles as a Visiting Artiste (Professor Emeritus), saluting the celebrant after a stunning display.

54

10 April, 2016

Sunday Tribune

PHOTOS: TOMMY ADEGBITE

BISHOP FRANCIS WALE OKE’S MOTHER-IN-LAW’S BURIAL IN PIX

IT WAS CELEBRATION OF LIFE FOR LATE MRS AUGUSTA FAFUNKE OLADIPO (NEE FAKOLUJO) AGED 85: 8/8/30 - 26/12/15 AT CHRIST LIFE CHURCH, GARDEN OF VICTORY (PROPOSED SITE FOR PRECIOUS CORNERSTONE UNIVERSITY), OLD IFE ROAD, IBADAN, ON SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 2016.

From left, Prelate Sunday Makinde, Bishop David Oyedepo, Right Reverend Dr Francis Wale Oke and Pastor (Dr) Johnson Adewuyi Adeniji at the funeral service for Mrs Augusta Fafunke Oladipo held at Christ Life Church, Garden of Victory, Old Ife Road, Ibadan, on Saturday.

The remains of Mrs Augusta Fafunke Oladipo being carried by the pall bearers.

From left, Mrs Omoleye Ogunpehin Adegunwa, Mrs Modupe Ojo, Reverend (Mrs) Olatokunbo Olufemi Oke and DNS Comfort Oluwatoyin Thomas. The children of late Mrs Augusta Oladipo.

From left, Bishop David Oyedepo, Right Reverend Francis Wale Oke and Pastor (Mrs) Faith Oyedepo.

From left, Prelate Makinde, Bishop Oyedepo and Right Reverend Wale Oke.

Reverend (Mrs) Olatokunbo Olufemi Oke (right), receiving the remains of her late mother, Mrs Oladipo at Old Ife Road, Ibadan.

From left, Bishop Felix Remi Adejumo, Right Reverend Jacob Ajetunmobi and Bishop Sunday Popoola.

Reverend Mrs Oke (right) and her elder sister, DNS (Mrs) Thomas.

55

sport

10 April, 2016

Omo-Osagie

Pinnick

be found. The withdrawal of Chad is a game plan of the Egyptians whether anyone agrees with me or not. Chad has a very influential member in the CAF executive committee who is their citizen, so he knows the implication of the withdrawal and in the history of football withdrawal at the stage. Chad withdrew on excuses of financial constraint don’t happen without inducements especially when the country is not at war. So the Egyptians succeeded in applying the plan B. I was in Egypt for two nights before that game, Egypt had a letter with them before they came to Kaduna that Chad have withdrawn. So planning is an important aspect of the game,” Gara said through his social media account.

The former chairman of Gombe State FA stated that the sports minister, Dalung had a share of the blame.

“The other time the minister called for a meeting between him and (Chris) Giwa he went, now we could not qualify for AFCON again, the minister is calling for another meeting why NFF? What is the minister’s business with foreign coach or no foreign coach. If there is any blame as far as our inability to qualify is concerned, Dalung should share the blame. NFF wanted to sack Oliseh, Dalung said no. Now we fail and he wants to call for a meeting,” Gombe had said prior to last Tuesday’s meeting between the NFF

Gara Gombe

I’m not a failure — Pinnick

Kanu

Continued from pg52

Sunday Tribune

leadership and Dalung in Abuja.

Patrick Omo-Osagie Professor Patrick Omo-Osagie, a sports consultant supports the exit of Pinnick from the Glass House given the state of Nigerian football.

“I am not in a position to call for the resignation of the NFF president for the failure of our Super Eagles to qualify for AFCON 2017; but I am in a better position to ask for his resignation for what he promised and has not delivered. When you assumed office almost two years ago, it looked like Nigerian football was coming into a new dawn. You had an eloquence about what you were going to do with Nigerian football,” he said through a social media platform.

Omo-Osagie, emphasised the need for a convention that would give Nigerian football a new lease of life.

“The CEO/Secretary general model is probably the way to go when it comes to modern football administration,” he begins. “An elected board hires a CEO, the CEO hires the staff of the football house. The CEO must come from corporate Nigeria, executive director cadre and must be experienced in both man and money management. With this model, you have an individual that gives the NFF the gravitas needed for big business, the individual’s ability to function in a big business is not only an asset to the NFF but to potential NFF partners.

“How we operate today, gives no corporate entity the confidence to deal with a bunch of football minded people in the NFF. The executive board model is out dated and it has no place in modern football. If you want Nigerian football to become the big business we all think it to be, then we have to move beyond a group of guys that have never managed this much money, these many people and all our football projects (teams). The time is now to completely restructure Nigerian football administration.

“To re-make Nigerian football is a task that must be done. The need to re-make our football is as urgent as the need by (President Muhammadu) Buhari to kill corruption in our system. We have no playing style or culture, we have no football curriculum or manual, yet we expect there to be some kind of football harmony on the field pf play.

There is no magic to the success of football, you must design a plan, a developmental plan and execute. I was in Belgium in 2008 for basketball, but because I love sports, I was able to find out what this small country was doing with its football development programmes. Forget Belgium’s FIFA rankings, just look at the players they are producing and the kind of football they play. This was not by accident, it was a plan put in place to tap into their new immigration population, borrow from neighbours, Dutch and Germans and come out with a style that has now put them at the top of the world.

“A football convention must insist on a youth football curriculum, the federation must develop a coaching manual for every age group, we must have coaching certification and we must re-certify all coaches regularly.

For once our minister of sports must become the minister of football; he must convene this football convention and make sure that the needed change to our football is done.

“For once our minister of sports must become the minister of football; he must convene this football convention and make sure that the needed change to our football is done. He must be remembered as the man who changed football administration and our football style for good.”

Emmanuel Attah Emmanuel Attah, a former chairman of the Football Association in FCT, believes Pinnick should have bowed out honourably after the Egypt game.

“Amaju should resign. It’s a shame. If I were him, I wouldn’t need anybody to tell me to throw in the towel after I failed for a second straight time (to qualify for AFCON),” he said.

Abass Braimah Also, a former federal lawmaker Abass Braimah says it is high time the Pinnick-led NFF board left the stage.

“Almost immediately, Amaju should also be sent packing. The honourable thing for him to do is to resign.

“Somebody has to take responsiblity because we are going to miss two consecutive Nations Cup finals and there is the need for a fundamental question. We were not at the 2015 edition in Equatorial Guinea and next year too, we will not be there. It is very sad,” Braimah said on a local radio sports programme.

Kojo Williams But a former NFF boss, Mr Anthony Kojo Williams, says Pinnick might not be the problem.

“I am not going to apportion blame to anybody but the issue is beyong coaching or no coaching. There are a lot of fundamental issues that must be addressed if we want to move the game forward in Nigeria,” Kojo declares.

Amaju Pinnick However, the man at the centre of controversy, Pinnick believes that those calling for his resignation were very unfair saying his board is a not a failure after all.

“I have heard calls by some persons asking me to resign but that is very unfair knowing the achievements this board has recorded during my tenure.

“We won the Africa Women’s Championship (AWC) in Namibia, the FIFA U-17 World Cup and we also qualified for almost all major competitions during this period.

“I was elected by the congress with a fouryear tenure and it will be very unfair for anyone to ask for my resignation,” Pinnick submitted.

SIDELINES NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER

10 APRIL, 2016

NO 2,041

www.tribuneonlineng.com

N200

With no relief in sight for the biting petroleum scarcity in the country after the expiration of the April 7 promise made by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Nigerians are now relying more on the promise made by their legs, which, they believe strongly, will not fail them, even if everything else did.

Yoruba elite: Wake up!

W

E Yoruba people of this generation have one of the strongest and most educated elite in Africa – probably in the whole world – in business, academia, politics, the sciences, technology, the arts, etc.

But, strangely, we are not getting the right amount of benefits from this wonderful strength. We are obviously doing something wrong – very wrong, and the consequences stare us in the face from all directions. What are we doing wrong? How can we make amends and change direction?

We have a proud history. In terms of fine culture, we have more to show than most other nations or peoples of the world. For almost a thousand years before the coming of the British and the making of Nigeria, we had evolved a civilization of towns and cities and urban life, highly productive agriculture, vibrant and extensive commerce, highly ordered monarchical government, sublime religion ( a religion that is expanding fast in the world today), cultured and decent inter-personal relationships, sophisticated fashions, respect for individuals’ religious choices, and a solid culture of hospitality, resulting in warm acceptance and inclusion of strangers and non-indigenes.

When European influences began to penetrate Africa in the mid-19th century, we were the most culturally ready in Black Africa to take advantage of the incoming influences. Our well-ordered cities and towns facilitated the establishment of churches and schools, with the result that by the 1860s, there were schools in many of our cities and towns. By the late 1860s, some Yoruba parents were already sending their children for higher education in Europe, and by the 1870s we began to have a growing class of university and college educated people – doctors, lawyers, writers and journalists, engineers, surveyors, educationists, pastors, etc. (In contrast, none of the other peoples of Nigeria was able to produce a university graduate until the 1930s). The first newspaper in our land began to publish in Abeokuta in 1859, and others soon followed in our other towns and cities.

The establishment of British rule in the 1890s, and the inclusion of most Yorubaland in Nigeria and of the rest in French Dahomey and German Togo, inevitably led to our loss of control and direction over our own group life, and sharp declines in

our culture of self-reliance, enterprise, and poise. However, when, in preparation for Nigeria’s independence, the British allowed indigenous literate leaders to form governments and manage much of their peoples’ affairs in the 1950s, the suppressed energies of our Yoruba nation quickly bubbled to great heights. The predominantly Yoruba Western Region of Nigeria immediately sprang forth and became “first in Africa” in almost all aspects of development, enterprise and modernization.

But, unfortunately, Yorubaland in Nigeria was not a separate sovereign country on its own; it was part of a large country in which peoples, cultures, desires, goals, and patterns of effort and conduct are widely different. In the context of this polyglot and incoherent makeshift of a country,

the kind of hostile environment in which we live in Nigeria since independence in 1960, we do not develop reasonable and sustainable responses to it. To use an imagery from the ancient Greeks: the birds of misfortune have been flying over our head as a nation since Nigeria’s independence; we obviously cannot stop them from flying over our head, but we can, at least, prevent them from settling on our head and weaving nests into our hair. Sadly, we are not preventing them from settling and weaving nests in our hair! That is what we are doing wrong.

In what ways have Nigeria’s birds of misfortune been building nests in our hair? Virtually everything of value that we created, everything we should be proud of and be building upon, has been wrecked

diranapata@yahoo.com

most of the influential non-Yoruba leaders regarded the Yoruba as too ambitious and too pushy, and generally resolved that the Yoruba must be pulled back and pushed down – in order, as many of them thought, to make it possible to keep Nigeria together and easy to control. From these dark and destructive motivations, there evolved the plot to use the considerable powers of the federal government to attack and destabilize the Western Region in 1962. The attack did succeed in pulling the Western Region down but, because the Yoruba cannot stop being resourceful and capable, the anti-Yoruba passions have remained till now in the making of the Nigerian federal establishment.

And it is at this point that we must now consider the question, “Faced with this disastrous situation, what are we Yoruba doing wrong?” What we are doing wrong is that, even though we generally know

by Nigeria. We proudly established the first programme of free primary education in Africa, and gradually extended it to include secondary education. Today, mostly in consequence of federal Nigeria’s subtle but resolute hostility to Western education, the quality of education in our schools has perished. At great expense and with great dedication, we built one of the best universities in the world; but the federal authorities took it from our hands and, because of federal hostility and neglect, it has been robbed of almost all of its proud culture of excellence. We helped our cocoa farmers to become the vanguard of prosperity among our people, the leading earners of foreign exchange for Nigeria, and the most productive African farmers on the African continent. But the federal authorities took the control over our cocoa industry from us and proceeded to destroy it.

We established a large and diversified

Iwobi’s favourite food is Eba with okra soup —Dad

By Ganiyu Salman MR Chuka Iwobi, father of Arsenal rising star, Alex Iwobi has revealed that his son loves Nigerian foods, just as he expressed surprise at the food poisoning episode in Kaduna, when the player came to play for Nigeria against Egypt last month in a 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier.

“To be honest, I’m not certain. All I can say is that he ate something that did not agree with him and that caused him a problem but thank God he was able to recover very quickly. He’ll kill me for this, but Alex’s favourite

food is eba (a staple made with cassava flour) and okra soup made by his mum. He eats all kinds of Nigerian food,” Iwobi snr told Goal.

The UK-based lawyer also revealed that his son has not been able to speak the local dialect till date but Pidgin English.

“I think it’s an indictment on my own person. My name is Chuka Iwobi, I speak Igbo, I understand Yoruba. Unfortunately for Alex, he cannot speak Igbo, but he understands Igbo and I think it’s a failing on our part because we could have done a bit more to make him understand Igbo.

“The shortcut to everything is that he has

picked up the universal language which is Pidgin English and he has made an effort talking to his team-mates. In the [Nigeria] team, you have Igbo people and Yoruba people but the universal language is Pidgin.

His first encounter with Pidgin was when he was invited to the under-23s, that’s when he picked up the language. It’s getting better now and it’s coming to a stage where he understands every word of Pidgin but then he’s struggling to put his thoughts into words. So he has a fair understanding of Pidgin and by the time he comes progressively into camp, I’m sure he’s going to get better,” Iwobi Snr added.

investment corporation (the Western Regional, now Odua, Investment Corporation), with investments in manufactures, commerce, banking, real -estate, etc – the largest aggregation of African-owned investment capital in Africa and the world.

Step by step, the federal authorities warred against it, until it was virtually all broken up and forced to sell most of its assets to non-Yoruba interests. Building upon the democratic and human rights fundamentals of our indigenous political culture, we established strong democratic politics in our Western Region in the 1950s, featuring free and fair elections and politicians of all parties respecting the voice of our people. But with federal authorities bent on determining the outcome of elections all over Nigeria since 1959, elections in our homeland in Nigeria have been turned into enormous exercises in resolute criminality – ultimately featuring federal mobilizations of armies and masked paratroopers into our land for elections.

Today, as a result of all these depredations, we Yoruba in Nigeria are living in a depth of poverty alien to our history, a depth of poverty we do not deserve. Our youths, educated at great expense, roam the streets for years without jobs – often unable to settle down and plan families of their own, ashamed to continue to depend on parents who themselves have been devastated by the Nigerian situation. On the whole, we look now like a nation without any spirit of enterprise, a disoriented majority depending on the minority of immigrant foreigners from other parts of Nigeria for a lot of our economic life.

What is seriously wrong with us is that our highly diversified, strongly educated, and massively exposed leadership is failing to find answers to all the devastations through which we have been living for many decades. We have failed, and we continue to fail, to develop any sustained and effective response to our sorry situation. In the next few weeks, I shall try to dwell on the various facets of this sorry situation. I shall do so to provoke the elite of the Yoruba nation to serious introspection and action. I shall do it because I am sure that these problems are not without solution, and that our weaknesses are not without amelioration. We can, and must, find solutions to our situation.

Results Nigeria Premier League Rangers 1

FC IfeanyiUbah 0

English Premier League West Ham

3 Arsenal

3

Aston Villa

1 Bournemouth 2

Crystal Palace

1 Norwich City

0

Southampton

3 Newcastle

1

Swansea City

1 Chelsea

0

Watford

1 Everton

1

Man City

2 West Brom

1

Pools: 09, 10, 15, 22, 32 33, 42, 46.

Today’s matches: 03, 06, 08.

Printed and Published by the African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, Imalefalafia Street, Oke-Ado, Ibadan. E mail: sundaytribuneeditor@yahoo.com Website: www.tribuneonlineng.com ABC Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 10/4/2016 MANAGING DIRECTOR/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: EDWARD DICKSON. EDITOR : SINA OLADEINDE. All Correspondence to P. O. Box 78, Ibadan. ISSN 2712.