17th January 2016

nigeria’s most informative newspaper no 2,029

SUNday, 17 January, 2016

Asset declaration:

www.tribuneonlineng.com

Panic grips customs officials

pg47

Nigerian Tribune

@nigeriantribune

Nigerian Tribune

n200

Uneasy calm in military over probe of Generals

•Fayose cautions •Owners of hotels, yachts desperate to avoid detection Buhari on probe

pg5

Ex-militants blow up more oil facilities Severe economic crisis looms As Chevron shuts flow station

pg4

y z a r c a m a I n a c I . . . n o pers ything do an u —Ine Aj

Lassa fever claims 3 in Rivers

NOUN Best Graduating Students

•200 under observation •Ogun, Lagos intensify efforts

pgs 49&53

Buhari, 7 ministers, NSA begin 3-day visit pg8 to UAE From left, representative of the President, Professor Julius Okojie, presenting the instruments of office to the 1st Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria, the Ezema of Olo Kingdom, Ambassador Lawrence Chikezie Agubuzu and NOUN’s Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Vincent Ado Tenebe, during the 5th convocation of the NOUN at the University Village, Abuja, on Saturday.

Woman loses 3 children in fire incident •As 5 die in auto accidents in Oyo, Lagos

Revealed: How proposed 2016 Budget was ‘doctored’

•FG to clear air on 2 versions of budget during the week • Senate, Akande in war of words

pg8

pg4

2

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

life&living Atikankan: Notorious den in

the Fountain of Knowledge

Atikankan is an area in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, that is noted for unusual peculiarities of notoriety. SAM NWAOKO, who visited the neighbourhood recently, reports the strange, unenviable lifestyles of residents of the area,which is noted as one of the dark spots of the state capital.

One of the streets/alleys of the inner Atikankan. PHOTOS: Sam Nwaoko

A

TIKANKAN area of Ado Ekiti has its notable unenviable peculiarities. That the neighbourhood, in heart of the Ekiti State capital, could easily pass for the most dreaded area in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, is not in question among tens of residents of the town. Only recently, the area made an addition of ‘underage comfort women’ in the mould of young, runaway girls, to its unpopular notoriety, and this has further confirmed Atikankan as the leader among known dark spots in the state.

Approaching the centre of Atikankan from the Post Office or Ijigbo or Isato or Irona areas of Ado Ekiti leaves a visitor with mixed impressions. The roads are so very busy, with notable landmarks and scores of businesses dotting every spot of them. As a matter of fact, the head-

quarters of a very popular church and the central mosque of a legendary Islamic society, are both located at the road from the Ijigbo approach to Atikankan. Also, one of the easily recognisable achievements of the Kayode Fayemi administration in the state is the Funmi Olayinka Drive, a dual carriage way, with a roundabout, that runs through Atikankan from the Post Office end to Irona.

These landmarks drape Atikankan, and would attract visitors to the community. But, it is the belief among most residents of Ado Ekiti that the area is “the most notorious area in the state capital.” Mrs Kehinde Ajewole, when asked about Atikankan, told Sunday Tribune that “it is where you could find most of the criminals in Ado Ekiti.” Another resident of the town, Mr. Abiodun Adebayo, said “I can say it is where drug peddlers trade

their wares openly both day and night and it is also an abode for commercial sex workers.” Indeed, most of the brothels in Ado Ekiti, the Ekiti State capital, are found in that axis. Once, it is dusk, the Atikankan known to these people comes alive.

However, despite the cover of darkness, men of the Vigilante Group of Nigeria found that some young girls, the eldest among whom was 16 years, squatted with their boyfriends at Atikankan. The discovery of the girls gave a new angle to the notoriety of Atikankan. The young girls, who had absconded from home, already have been introduced to hard drugs, sex and alcohol by their boyfriends that were described by some stakeholders as “street urchins.” They have also been through abortions following Continues pg 3

3

life&living

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Like Ajegunle in Lagos, like Atikankan in Ekiti Continued from pg 2

their escapades. And the girls themselves confirmed this.

How the girls got arrested Assistant Commander of the Vigilante Group, South West zone, whose idea it was to raid the street boys’ den in search of the girls, Mr. Babatunde Owoeye, said he had sent about 30 members of his organisation into the suspected areas. He said the Vigilante Group in Ado Ekiti got report from the mother of one of the girls and acted based on their finding that some girls had been missing from home. Mr Owoeye, who led the operation to the places where the girls were found, said “we picked two of them in Atikankan area and the others in Oke Ila.” According to Owoeye, “the parents of one of the girls, named Tolu, had been searching for her for about two weeks. We eventually got a tip-off about her whereabouts from her friends around their house. We stormed the place in a notorious dark spot in Ado-Ekiti, popularly known as Atikankan and we were able to apprehend her.”

Interestingly, the efforts of the vigilance group to return the girls to normal life was nearly thwarted because they didn’t seem to understand what they were doing to themselves. “She had raised the alarm to alert some toughlooking young men in the place, who rushed out carrying cuttlasses to attack us. But when they found out that we out-numbered them, they took to their heels,” Owoeye stated.

The concerned Owoeye pointed out that his men “discovered that the girls are being camped in the hideouts, made to have marathon sex with the wild young men there who also smoke marijuana and initiate the girls into their group.” He contended that the boys with whom the girls were found were allegedly members of a group known as Seven Stars, saying “we learnt that some cult group by the name Seven Stars or so had camped the girls in their dens and turned them to sex toys for weeks.”

The girls tell their stories: It was gathered that the girls had abandoned their homes for various reasons, which range from jejune to outright foolish. One of the girls, Tobi, 15, was already smoking Marijuana, engaged in sex and had aborted pregnancy.

She narrated her experience: “I have only aborted once.

Then I was 14. I had gone to stay with a relative in a neighbouring town when I met a man who eventually impregnated me but ran away thereafter. I returned home to find out that the only option available to save my face was to abort the pregnancy and my mother helped me after she had found out the truth about it.”

Sixteen-year-old Suliya Ojo, on her part, said she ran away from home for about 9 days before she was caught

by Owoeye’s men. She said her mother had asked her to hawk wares when she said she willfully absconded from there and teamed up with two of her friends to squat at their boyfriends’ places. “I had dropped the palm oil my mother asked me to hawk at my grand mum’s place and followed my friends to visit the boys. I have a boyfriend among the boys. We had stayed with the boys till around 7pm that day and I reasoned that it was already too late.

So we passed the night with the boys and had sex with them.

“Since that first day, I was afraid to go back home. My thoughts were that my mother would beat me, so we chose to stay with my friends in their grandmother’s place. We would sleep there and in the morning, we would eat and move over to the boys’ place and be with them till late in the night. In the night, we would return to my grand mother’s place.”

Their curious stories prompted the question of what they were gaining from such escapades at such a young age. Their amorous service rendered to boyfriends, one of them volunteered, fetched them clothes, shoes and bras. “My boy friend buy clothes for me and other belongings such as shoes and bras. He also feeds me. One day, he gave me N2,500 to take care of myself.”

Indeed, she needed to take care of herself because she was already a drug addict. She explained that “my boyfriend had mixed marijuana with the spaghetti he cooked and gave me to eat. I felt high that day and since then I had been taking the stuff.”

For those who know Atikankan, the tree in this photo, at the popular roundabout there, is the hot spot for marijuana.

A back quarter hotel...one of the landmarks in interior Atikankan.

Some of the stakeholders observed that “the population of these run-away teenage girls are swelling by the day, and it is instructive to note that most of these girls are from broken homes. They have found home in the abode of drug addicts, who use them as sex slaves in exchange for drug and little cash.”

But the state’s Ministry of Women Affairs had been notified of the girls and they had received them for proper rehabilitation. The Legal Adviser to the Vigilante group, Mrs Funmi Bello, told newsmen that the group would have to hand over the girls to the Ministry of Women Af-

She had raised the alarm to alert some tough-looking young men in the place, who rushed out carrying cuttlasses to attack us. But when they found out that we outnumbered them, they took to their heels.

fairs for proper rehabilitation.

The vigilance group has promised to continue to ensure its role in ridding the community of crime, in collaboration with the police and other relevant agencies of government. Owoeye said: “I want to assure Ekiti State government that we will fish out all the culprits and flush out the bad boys in the state. We also want to urge the government of Governor Ayo Fayose to continue to support us the more.”

However, he noted that they were being hampered by the kack of patrol vehicles and sundry logistics, as well as paucity of funds. “We need patrol vehicles and even motorbikes for my men to be more effective in helping the Police and the government to curtail crimes and bring culprits to book. We also need government to encourage us with stipends so that we would be more empowered to fight insecurity among us,” he said.

There is regular police patrol of the Atikankan area. On Thursday, two police patrol vans were seen parked under a popular tree at the Atikankan roundabout, with the aim of keeping an eye on the criminals.

The Public Relations Officer of the Ekiti State police command, Mr Alberto Adeyemi, while speaking on Atikankan, on Thursday, said “we raided that area just two days ago and we arrested four people for selling illicit drugs.” According to the PPRO, “those arrested have been charged to court and they have been remanded in prison custody.” He said the raids were a “continuous exercise.”

news Ex-militants blow up more oil facilities 4

17 January, 2016

•As renewed hostilities threaten 2016 budget From Sulaimon Olanrewaju And Ebenezer Adurokiya

A

GAIN, former militants have allegedly blown up oil installations reportedly belonging to Chevron Nigeria Ltd (CNL).

Sunday Tribune gathered that CNL’s Utunama Makaraba crude oil and Olero Gas pipelines were blown up Friday night.

Amid sketchy details of the situation, it was also gathered that the former militants blew up the Abiteye Flow Station while more Chevron pipelines are being targeted.

It will be recalled that last Thursday night, crude oil and gas pipelines in Kpokpo and Shanomi creeks in Escravos, Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State, were allegedly blown up by aggrieved former militants said to be loyal to embattled former lord of the creeks, Chief Government Ekpemupolo also known as Tompolo.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the attack on Otunana, Makaraba occurred at about 10.30 p.m. on Friday, while that of Olero Gas Line was blasted at about 3 a.m. of Saturday.

The escalated attacks, it was gathered, have restricted human movement in the Escravos waterways while staff of CNL at the affected areas were said to have been restricted and confined to their camps.

They were said to have been evacuated later.

Tompolo has been fingered as the mastermind of the recent attacks on oil installations as a way to get back at the Federal Government which is prosecuting him for alleged fraud to the tune of N34 billion.

But the former militant has since denied his alleged involvement in the attacks on oil installations.

Speaking through his media aide, Paul Bebenimibo, on Friday, Tompolo said he was being framed up by those who wanted the Federal Government to jail him.

Meanwhile, have been no official responses from the Joint Task Force (JTF), the Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS DELTA) as well as CNL, as calls and text messages put through to Lt.Col. Isa Ado, JTF spokesperson and Commander, NNS DELTA, Commodore Raimi Mohammed, on Saturday, were not answered or returned as of the time of filing this report.

There were concerns in many quarters on Satur-

day that the N820 billion, which the Federal Government hopes to generate from the sale of crude oil in 2016 may not be realised as ex-militants attacked oil facilities in the Niger Delta region in resumed hostilities.

The Chevron facility, which was attacked by the militants, has reportedly been shut down.

It will be recalled that the Federal Government, working on a production estimate of 2.2million barrels of crude oil daily and a

benchmark of $38 per barrel, had projected a revenue of N820 billion from crude oil sales out of which it plans to finance the 2016 budget.

There is already a gap of N1.8 trillion in the 2016 budget with the government hoping to raise foreign and local loans to bridge the deficit.

The slide of crude oil price to $30 a barrel, as against the $38 benchmark set by the government has already put the government in a dire strait because at the current

price, the government’s projection of $83.6million daily earning from crude oil sales has been reduced by 21 per cent to $66million daily.

Therefore, any downward change in the daily production of crude will affect the government’s revenue projection, increase the deficit of the budget, put more strain on the Federal Government as it may be unable to finance some of its projects and also make life more difficult for many states as their

monthly allocations will also nosedive.

However, with the attack on oil facilities, one of which is owned by Chevron, the nation’s third largest oil producing company, the projection may miss the mark by a mile, as the attacked Chevron facility has been shut. This, in effect, means a reduction in the output of the company and a slide in the nation’s daily production of crude oil.

The ex-militants’ attack on the gas pipelines may also put spanners in the

Sunday Tribune

plan of the government to increase electricity generation in the country, because NGC is the major supplier of gas to many of the power plants spread across the country.

Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, had, while addressing journalists recently on the plan of his ministry to improve power generation in the country, said that his ministry would ensure adequate supply of gas to all power plants.

2016 budget drama: How the document was ‘doctored’ Taiwo Adisa-Abuja

THE decision of the Senate to blow the lid on the controversy dogging the 2016 Budget was informed by the need to forestall future occurrences and prevent possible national embarrassment, sources in the legislature said at the weekend.

Sources in the Senate told the Sunday Tribune that the lawmakers were more than alarmed at the revelation that the Budget document submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari grew wings shortly after its presentation and

was resubmitted through the back door.

It was gathered that the lawmakers decided to blow the matter open following suspicion that if this was condoned, similar things could happen to bills after the passage by the Assembly.

The senators at the Tuesday closed session of where the budget matter was revealed, were told that the budget was practically missing as some officials of the government were said to have quietly withdrawn the copy submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari

and replaced the same.

Sources said that a claim at the closed session indicated that there was high suspicion that the box presented to the Joint Session of the National Assembly by the President did not contain the document.

One of the speakers was said to have told the senators that it was after the presentation that two copies of the budget were presented to the Clerk of Senate and House of Representatives Committee on Appropriation.

It was gathered that if the box presented by the president contained the

document, the box would have been taken to the Office of the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), who would in turn send the copies for printing and then to the Committees on Appropriation.

But sources said at the closed session that the office of the CNA had nothing to do with the document as the budget copies were only deposited at the Appropriation Committees.

The senators were further told that it was, therefore, easy for the presidential aide to retrieve the budget from those officials and replace as he wished.

Missing budget, fallout of indiscipline in Senate —Akande •You got it wrong again —Senate Oluwole Ige-Osogbo

FORMER national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Bisi Akande, on Saturday, expressed disappointment with the leadership of the Senate over the alleged missing 2016 budget, saying such development was the fallout of the indiscipline that produced the current Senate leadership.

Speaking at his residence in Ila-Orangun during an event organised to mark his 77th birthday, Akande lamented that it was ridiculous for an important document such as Nigeria’s budget to be missing in the upper chamber of the National Assembly, noting that his party was mindful of the consequences of allowing wrong people to be at the helm of affairs, which was the reason the party wanted disciplined individuals to lead the Senate.

But in a swift reaction, the Senate said it was regrettable that a man of Akande’s status would respond to mere speculations without cross-checking his facts or worse still be eager to latch on to any opportu-

nity to bring the leadership of the Senate to disrepute because he failed to get his choice candidates elected to lead the Senate.

In a statement by its spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the Senate urged Akande to check his records properly so that he could see that “at no time did the Senate say the 2016 budget was missing”.

Rather, Abdullahi noted that the upper chamber had insisted in several official statements and press interviews by its principal officers that the budget was not missing but that two different versions are now available.

Akande had stated that “Nigeria’s budget is a huge document and one wonders how such document of that size could be missing in the Senate. The development is the fallout of indiscipline that brought the current leadership of the Senate into the position and as you know, that was not the choice of our party.”

But the Senate, in its response, said: “We have said it several times that the budget was not missing. But that two versions of the details of the budget exist and this is no longer in doubt as

the Presidency has equally admitted this.

“We expect a man of Akande’s calibre to crosscheck his facts and take us up on our words. That he decided to ignore the facts and make comments on speculations is regrettable. He is a man who had served in government. He is a leader of the party with the majority in the Senate and he has several channels of cross-checking facts as against speculations.”, Abdullahi stated.

The spokesperson said contrary to the description of what happened as indiscipline on the part of the leadership, the position of the present Senate leadership is a demonstration of the regime of openness, transparency and accountability that now reigns in the upper legislative chamber. In the past, he said, such a development would have been swept under the carpet.

He noted that the statements by Akande was another expression of the frustration that the former Governor of Osun State suffers for not being able to impose his lackeys on the Senate as leaders.

“Chief Akande is still sulking after his group’s failed attempt to impose certain individuals as the leaders of the Senate last year. So, he was in a hurry to condemn the leadership.

We want him to know that the leadership of the Senate can only emerge through the provisions of the constitution and the standing rules of the institution. As a democrat, Akande should know that once the majority has elected the leadership, all parties to the contest ought to accept the decision.

Speaking further, Akande who is a former governor of Osun State, said he remained in agreement with President Muhammadu Buhari and that he does not feel marginalised, contrary to insinuation that the Presidency was trying to edge him out.

“I’m in good agreement with President Buhari.

Therefore, I don’t feel marginalised. In fact, I was at the Presidency few days ago and there was no sign to suggest that the Presidency wants to edge me out. But I don’t know what somebody may be planning somewhere,” he remarked.

Findings at the Senate Ethics Committee, which also probed the controversy over the document, confirmed that the presidential aide was instrumental in the retrieval of the budget document from the Clerk of Senate Appropriation Committee after he had contacted the Acting Clerk to the Senate to help him reach the Clerk of Appropriation.

At the closed session, the senators were said to have preferred three courses of action, including moving a motion on the floor to alert the nation, using the Ethics Committee to probe the missing original document and asking Senate President Bukola Saraki to reach out to the president on the matter.

But it was Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe who raised the issue through a Point of Order on Wednesday, making Saraki to publicly announce that the Senate was awaiting the report of the Ethics committee.

It was gathered that the Senate Ethics Committee headed by Senator Sam Anyanwu interrogated the Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly, Senator Ita Enang, the Acting Clerk of Senate and the Clerk of the senate Appropriation Committee to get to the roots of the budget saga, leading to its verdict that Enang withdrew the document from the senate.

Investigations by Sunday Tribune, however, confirmed that the Presidency has discovered the two versions of the Budget 2016 and is set to clear the air on the matter this week.

“The Presidency has confirmed the report of the Senate that a doctored version of the budget is in circulation. The Minister of Finance and some presidential aides are to address the issue this week,” a source close to the matter told Sunday Tribune.

5

news

Sunday Tribune

17 January, 2016

Probe of military chiefs: Fayose cautions Buhari

•Says $2.1bn arms deal is a scam •As uneasy calm pervades military over probe Sam Nwaoko - Ado-Ekiti

G

OVERNOR Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has cautioned that the order given by President Muhammadu Buhari to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe 18 military generals over their involvement in the alleged $2.1 billion arms deal could be counter-productive.

Governor Fayose, who was reacting to reports that the president had given an order for the 18 serving and retired military chiefs to appear before the EFCC from Monday, said the officers ought to have been probed in accordance with the Armed Forces rules of engagement.

Fayose, who spoke through his Special Assistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka, said he supported the fight against corruption, but contended that the $2.1 billion arms deal was a scam. According to him, “all that they are doing is just to brandish figures to deceive Nigerians and demonise the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and those opposed to his dictatorship in the All Progressive Congress (APC).

Till today, the amount they have charged people for stealing is not up to N10 billion and the $2.1 billion they claimed was stolen is about N600 billion.”

Continuing, the governor said: “the president must let Nigerians see where the arms deal is in the 2015 budget and publish details of the imaginary $2.1 billion scam. Also, the president must tell Nigerians how his friend, Jafaru Isa, was able to return N100 million to the EFCC within three days because there are insinuations that the N100 money refunded came from the Presidency.”

He said it was strange for serving military generals to be interrogated by junior police officers, adding that “the president should not act in a way that he will be perceived as ridiculing the Armed Forces.

“Though I am not a military officer, I know that there is what is called orderly trial that military men, who erred in the performance of their duties, are made to go through.

It is until they are found guilty, and probably dismissed, that they are made to face court trial. In this case, how does it feel for a

serving military General to be interrogated by an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)?

“I think we should not destroy our democratic institutions, especially the judiciary and the armed forces, because we are fighting corruption. “Already, the president has ridiculed the judiciary by disobeying the courts and going on television to say that orders of the court do not hold water. He is also destroying the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by

turning it to a commission for inconclusive elections.

He should not ridicule the military, just as men of goodwill should advise the president to thread cautiously.

“Also, the international community, especially the United States, United Kingdom and the United Nations, should caution the president against actions capable of bringing down government institutions under the guise of fighting corruption.”

Meanwhile, there is un-

easy calm in the armed forces over the president’s directive to probe retired and serving Generals in the Army and the Air force.

Informed military sources disclosed to Sunday Tribune in Abuja on Saturday, that some politicians in the country want to bring the military to ridicule. According to the source, “instead of the government to go for those who were involved in arms deal, they are now extending it to anyone who has anything to do with the previous regime.”

The source disclosed that all is not well with the military because all those whose names were submitted to the EFCC were never involved in the purchase of military hardware. They see this probe as a vendetta.

Also, some military officers see it as a tacit axe grinding against their former bosses for denying them promotion and they now see this as an opportunity to take their pound of flesh.

Sunday Tribune also gathered that some officers

From left, Senate President, Dr. Abubakar Bukola Saraki; General Raji Rasaki (rtd) and his wife, Senator Fatimat Raji Rasaki; wife of the Oyo State governor, Chief (Mrs) Florence Ajimobi; Oyo State governor; Senator Abiola Ajimobi and Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Kayode Fayemi at Senator Rasaki’s 60th birthday dinner at the Civic Centre Lagos, on Saturday.

now see the probe as a war against the South-West, because most of those mentioned are from that geopolitical zone.

“These officers have bosses who give them instructions and they cannot go beyond their instructions to carry out their duties, but you are now subjecting them to EFCC probe which is ridiculous.”

A retired general said that it is wrong for President Buhari to refer a pure military affair to another organisation headed by a police officer of a junior rank.

“The officers involved in the alleged scam are either serving or retired and highranking officers. Some are former service chiefs. This is not acceptable,” he said.

“If President Buhari wants to destroy the military, good luck to him. But the military as an institution has its own rules and regulations. Because the military authorities said he had no certificate during the last elections, he now wants to fight back. President Buhari should take it easy because the international community is watching.

“The retired officers who have been supporting him are against him on this. He should refer this case to the military, because you cannot destroy the institution that made you,” he added.

Boko Haram: FG recalls former GOC Chris Agbambu - Abuja FORMER General Office Commanding, 7 Division, Nigerian Army, Maiduguri, Major General Ahmed Muhamed, has been recalled by the Federal Government.

Major General Muhammed was nearly assassinated by troops of the division in August 2014.

He had gone to address the troops on the need to confront Boko Haram terrorists after the troops lost almost 40 soldiers to Boko Haram members in an ambush laid for the troops while on their way to an operation. The killings aggravated the soldiers who decided to revolt on further directive to go on the planned operation.

The troops, therefore, refused to go for any further operation until they were provided with latest equipment to confront the terrorists.

The former GOC had gone to address the troops at

Maimaleri Barracks ,when they opened fire on him, but was able to escape. The soldiers were later charged with mutiny and attempted murder before a military courtmartial in Abuja, where some were sentenced to death, while others got

jail sentences depending on their specific roles.

General Muhammed was later posted out as the GOC, but was neither retired nor posted to any army formation.

Informed military sources told Sunday Tribune,

that the affected officer, who felt humiliated, petitioned President Mohammadu Buhari, on his travails, who, after reviewing his case, ordered the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, to reinstate him.

Soldiers who were sen-

tenced to death also had their sentences reviewed by a panel set up by General Buratai, which was headed by the GOC 1 division, Major General Adeniyi Oyebade, and their sentences reduced to 10 years imprisonment.

How Anenih spent N440m on PDP campaign Taiwo Adisa - Abuja FRESH details emerged in how the former Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih, spent N440 million in spearheading the party’s 2015 campaign.

Details of the activities of the BoT made available to the Sunday Tribune indicated that, besides paying some funds to political parties that had working arrangements with the PDP, Anenih also spearheaded and funded the nationwide tours of the Board.

Sources close to the PDP chieftain said that he had intimated the Ecomomic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of the details of several out of pocket spendings on behalf of the PDP, out of which only N260 million was refunded.

It was learnt that besides paying for chartered jets in respect of the BoT’s tour of the country ahead of the 2015 polls, Anenih also disbursed N25 million to the former Deputy Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Muktari Shagari, and N35 million to a delegation of Local Government leaders from

Katsina State.

It was gathered that Anenih’s decision to spend on behalf of the PDP was bolstered by the instructions to that effect from former President Goodluck Jonathan.

In all, Chief Anenih spent over N440 million of his personal money on the 2015 re-election bid of former President Goodluck Jonathan.

The PDP chieftain had said in a letter to the EFCC that while the expenses he incurred were on the instructions of the former president for special political assignments, only N260

million was refunded to him, leaving a balance of over N180 million.

He had also stated that though it has emerged that the refund of N260 million was made to him through the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd.), he had no personal dealings with that office as he only provided his account details to the former president on request.

He was also quoted as telling the EFCC that he was not in a position to ask the former president how he was going to be refunded and from which source.

6

17 January, 2016

crimereports

Sunday Tribune

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

After I smoked hemp, I lost reasoning —Suspected kidnapper

By Oluwatoyin Malik and Oluwabamise Ademola

“

Kazeem gave us marijuana to smoke and immediately after smoking, I lost reasoning. Before then, I had only smoked cigarette.”

This was the confession of Umoru Ibrahim, a 32-yearold indigene of Minna in Niger State, when he was arrested by the Oyo State Police Command after a failed kidnap attempt in Igangan town, Ibarapa area of Oyo State.

An ex-prison inmate, Ibrahim was reported to have been released from prison through amnesty granted him by the Chief Judge of Oyo State on November 3, 2015, before his latest criminal act on November 21, less than three weeks after his arrest.

Disclosing Ibrahim’s arrest to Crime Reports on Friday, the state Commissioner of Police, Leye Oyebade, said that the suspect and other kidnap gang members stormed the residence of one Alhaji Jafaru Abdullahi in Igangan town and kidnapped him.

“But the alarm raised by the victim while he was being taken away attracted neighbours and policemen nearby. They gave the suspects a hot chase and succeeded in arresting Ibrahim while others escaped.

A locally-made pistol was also recovered from the suspect,” Oyebade said further.

He added that one Alhaji Jodi Adamu (60) identified Ibrahim as the leader of the gang which kidnapped him on November 14, 2015, though he was able to escape from them. The police commissioner described Ibrahim as the leader of a notorious syndicate responsible for kidnap activities in many parts of Oke Ogun.

Oyebade said that the suspect had confessed to crime and would be charged to court after the conclusion of investigation, while efforts would be intensified to arrest other fleeing suspects.

The police commissioner expressed his command’s determination to provide adequate security in the state at all times.

Umoru Ibrahim had an interactive session with Crime Reports. Below are the excerpts of his confession: “I am from Minna, Niger State. I live in Igboora, Ibarapa zone of Oyo State.

There is no lie in the story that I attempted to kidnap someone. I went to a place with others to kidnap a Fulani man but we were not successful. I was commissioned to do the dirty job.

“It was one Kazeem, a Fulani, and one Gbade, a Yoruba, both of who were residents of Igangan town that asked me and others to join them in kidnapping the Fulani man, Alhaji Jafaru Abdulahi. Kazeem and Gbade were friends. I didn’t know the man; he was known by Abdulahi, Barume, DanMallam who were other gang members “Kazeem gave us N1,500 to eat. After eating, Kazeem gave us marijuana to

smoke and immediately after I smoked, I lost reasoning. Before then, I had only smoked cigarette. Kazeem gave me a gun and a live cartridge. He also gave another gun and cartridge to one of us.

“I told him I didn’t know how to shoot and he showed me how to do it, saying that I should shoot into the air immediately I must have

gotten to the to-be victim’s house, so that others could run away and thus give way for easy kidnap of the Fulani man.

“I asked how much he was going to give each of us for the job and he promised to pay us N50,000 each. As he said this, my mind ran over how I had suffered for five months to rear cattle for their owner, the reward of

Umoru Ibrahim

which was just a cow that I would sell for N35,000.

Greed got the better of me and I agreed to follow Kazeem.

“Four of us went to Igangan where we saw the Alhaji Abdulahi, while three others waited within the town. I told the man that we had been asked to pick him, and he asked why. Three others grabbed him and he fell. The man started speaking Fulfude, asking why it should be his own tribesmen who were supposed to be his sons that would come to harm him in a strange land.

“This struck my heart and I thought that our action had no approval and blessing of God. My inner eyes opened a little at that moment. The elderly man lay on the floor and refused to follow us. At that point, others ran away. I shot into the air to escape but at that moment, those living within the vicinity rushed out, saying that they would not allow the man to be taken away.

“I ran away but they came after me. I went to hide some-

where but when I came out of hiding, I didn’t know the route to take because I was not familiar with the community. As I went through a pathway which I thought would lead me out, I found myself within a compound.

Immediately I was sighted, people started shouting and descended on me.

“If not for the police that rescued me, I would have been a dead man now. The people inflicted machete cuts on my head and hands, almost chopping three of my fingers off. The Anti-Kidnapping Squad however saved two of the fingers through medical treatment given, while I lost one.”

Disclosing how he got to prison, Umoru said: “It was one Usman who asked me to join him in stealing his brother’s motorcycle. After he sold the bike, he divided the money into two and gave me my share.

“While spending the money, a friend of mine where I got money from, since he knew I was only a herdsman.

I told him how I got it and he went to tell Usman’s brothContinues on pg 7

Kwara police nab suspected robbers, cultists Biola Azeez - Ilorin

Eight suspects involved in armed robbery, cultism and unlawful possession of fire arms who were recently paraded by the Kwara State Police Command were said to be

Some of the suspects paraded by the Kwara Police command

among those who had been disturbing the peace of the state through their criminal activities.

Parading the suspects, including an ex-convict and a wanted armed robber in Ogbomoso, Oyo state, the former state po-

lice commissioner, Esosa Amadasun, said the command had resolved to weed criminality from the state, warning wouldbe criminals that they would be ruthlessly dealt with.

Among the suspects

were six armed robbery suspects, who the police commissioner said were nabbed along New Yidi Road, Ilorin at about 4:00 pm on New Year day.

Amadasun also said that the suspects were members of KK cult group, adding that they had been terrorising people in the metropolis. He further disclosed that the suspects were on a tricycle with registration No Kwara LRN 312 QW driven by Hammed Alaje (28) with six others.

Others in the tricycles, he said, included Sulyman Alabi Raji, an ex-convict, Mohammed Abdullateef, Abubakar Sulyman, Yakubu Zakariyau, Ajibola Saheed (a wanted armed robber) in Ogbomoso and Taofeek Yunusa.

Mr. Amadasun said that “when a search was con-

ducted on them, a locallymade pistol and a live cartridge were recovered.

“Investigation later revealed that they were members of the above-named cult group and were on their way to carry out an armed robbery operation at AsaDam area of the metropolis”.

He also said that three suspected cultists were arrested by a team of SARS operative on routine patrol, adding that the suspects confessed to be members of a cult group and armed robbery gang.

The police commissioner assured that investigations into the suspect’s activities were going on, adding that they would be charged to court as soon as investigations were concluded.

7

crimereports

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Self-confessed cultist who admitted killing many says •I was number six in my cult group before arrest

By Oluwatoyin Malik and Oluwabamise Ademola

T

wenty-three-yearold Kazeem Tiamiyu, a member of the Black Axe Confraternity, was not an easy adversary while he was still an active cult member. Though some of the members of his group who had terrorised Ogun State had either died during encounter with the police or were arrested and charged to court, Tiamiyu, until early this month, managed to evade arrest.

But since evil doers could only run but not hide forever, the day dawned for the Number Six man when he was arrested on January 3, 2016 by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, Ogun State Police Command.

Before his arrest, Tiamiyu and his cult members were reported to have killed so many people among rival cult members and members of the public whom they perceived as stumbling blocks to the success of their criminal outings. One of their victims was a prominent businessman in Ijebu Igbo and chairman of Ijebu North Police Community Relations Committee, Chief Tola Okuneye.

The Aye cult members believed that Chief Okuneye was the one giving the police information about their activities and so decided to eliminate him. The 69-yearold man was murdered on Sunday, April 6, 2014 inside St. Johns Anglican Church, Oke Sopin, Ijebu Igbo. Not only that, they also cut off his ear which they took away as a spoil! But Tiamiyu claimed that he was only shown the chief’s ear by the hit men, led by one Oluwafemi Alawunmi a.k.a Femi Kuti, after the chief’s murder.

Speaking on the activities of cultists in the state during the week, the police image maker in Ogun State, DSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who spoke on behalf of the state Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Ali, disclosed that Kazeem Tiamiyu (23), a strong member of Neo Black Movement of Africa Confraternity a.k.a.

Black Axe, popularly called Aye, was picked up at Oreagba Street, Ondo Road, Ijebu Ode on January 3, at about 3a.m., by SARS operatives.

“The suspect confessed his membership of the cult group and disclosed that he had been part of the killings by his cult group. He is a ‘butcher’, which makes him a major hit man of Aye Confraternity in Ijebu Ode and Ogun State generally.

“Many weapons were recovered from the suspect, including a double-barrel cut-to-size gun, a single barrel cut-to-size gun, four single-barrel short guns, seven rounds of live cartridges, expended cartridge and assorted charms, the PPRO stated.

Adejobi said that Tiamiyu had given the police useful information and would be charged to court after the conclusion of investigation.

The suspect, who was calm throughout the period of interview with Crime Reports, confessed his membership of Aye Confraternity. According to Tiamiyu, “I am from Ijebu Ode. I have killed five people with my cult group. I didn’t follow others to kill Chief Tola, but I was aware of his killing. Those who killed him cut his ear and brought it to show us as a mark of victory. They also warned us against telling anyone of their involvement.

“Those who killed him included Femi Kuti, Kazeem a.k.a. Jawando, Abbey, Akeem. The last killing was in April 2015 when my cult clashed with Eiye group.

The Eiye cultists were the ones who first killed someone from my cult group and we retaliated by killing one of them too.”

How I joined Aye cult group “I was told that we were going to a birthday party and when we got there, we

Kazeem Tiamiyu a.k.a Butcher with the guns recovered from him.

were told that it was a cult group. They drew a gun and threatened that if we should report to the police, they would kill us. That was in 2012. I was at Abraham Adesanya College of Education before I dropped out. Others are from Ijagun in Ijebu Ode. I was number six in the cult. My cult name is ‘Butcher’. We engaged in rivalry clash as a group. I was referred to as hit man but anyone of us could play this role. I didn’t know anything

about the murder of Iyaloja. I want the police to have mercy on me, as I am ready to repent.”

Saying that the police command has zero tolerance for cultism in Ogun State, the PPRO remarked: “Members of the public should get across to the police whenever there is any problem through the control room numbers which are 08081770416 and 08081770419. The PRO’s office line is 08123822910.”

‘After I smoked hemp, I lost reasoning’

Continued from pg 6 er, whose name is Mohammed. Mohammed came to me to confirm and I told him what he heard was true. He went to report to the police and Usman and I were arrested. We were charged to court and remanded in Agodi prison.

“After two years, Mohammed’s mother appealed to him to get his

brother released and Mohammed went to bail him, leaving me behind.

I spent four years before I was granted amnesty.

“I did not kidnap Alhaji Jodi. I became his enemy the day I castigated him for abandoning his three sons in prison without looking for means of getting them out.”

I was told tanks contained chemical for soap —Driver caught with 10,000 litres of PMS

By Oluwatoyin Malik and Oluwabamise Ademola

A 34-year-old truck driver, Unity Osas who was apprehended with about 10,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Ogun State Police Command, has said that the owners of the products deceived him into believing that he was conveying chemicals

Unity Osas

meant for soap manufacturing.

The Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Abdulmajid Ali, disclosed to Crime Reports that the driver was arrested on January 6 at about 3.30p.m after his white Scania truck with registration number AFZ 525 XA was intercepted by a SARS team along Sagamu-Benin expressway.

The police commission-

er, who spoke through the command’s Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, said that when the SARS operatives discovered the PMS loaded into plastic tanks, the vandals fled into the bush to evade arrest, leaving behind the driver.

According to the PPRO, “SARS got information that a truck was com-

ing out of NNPC pipeline right of way along Odogbolu-Ijebu Ode expressway and had a strong belief that some people must have vandalized the NNPC pipeline at Ibafo NNPC right of way. The SARS intercepted the truck and arrested the driver while others fled.”

He said it was in the move to prevent such occurrence that the Command set up an Anti-Pipeline Vandalism Squad.

He added that the command had been able to intercept not less than five trucks and arrested about seven vandals at different locations in Ogun State.

In an interview with Crime Reports, the driver, an indigene of Benin, Edo State, denied being part of any act of vandalism.

According to him, “I was hired by a guy called Seun. He told me to help someone carry chemical tanks from a warehouse in Ibafo, Ogun State. He said the tanks of chemical were meant for soap manufacturing.

“When I got there, I saw the tanks packed on one side of the warehouse. I reversed my truck and

parked inside the warehouse. They loaded 12 white tanks, one of which was empty. The destination was Ore in Ondo State.

“I did not suspect anything, as I believed what I was told about the contents being chemicals. As I drove along SagamuOre- Benin expressway, I was stopped by SARS operatives. I parked and they asked me to open my truck. I told them that I was conveying chemical but they insisted on seeing the content of the tanks.

“As I opened the truck, one of them peeled off the seal and opened the cover.

He perceived the smell, and lo and behold, it was Premium Motor Spirit (PMS). On seeing that the police had found out the content, the man who was asked to follow me to where I would offload the tanks ran into the bush.

“It was owner of the tanks that asked the guy to go with me. I don’t know the name of the owner; it was Seun who came to pick me at Ido Motor Park in Lagos that I knew. He was the intermediary between me and the owner.”

8

news

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Buhari, NSA, Ibe, Fashola, others for UAE visit Leon Usigbe-Abuja

P

RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari will, on Sunday, embark on a three-day official visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

A statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to

the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, in Abuja, on Saturday, said during the course of the visit, Buhari would join the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Ban Ki Moon, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed AlNahyan of Abu Dhabi and

How we received news of dad’s death —Akintola’s children •As son eyes Kakanfo title Akin Adewakun-Lagos and Tunde Busari Five decades after the gruesome assassination of the former Premier of Western Region, Chief Ladoke Akintola, memories of circumstances surrounding the ugly incident of that first military coup were again brought to life in Lagos on Saturday, as the eldest surviving daughter of the late premier, Dr (Mrs) Abimbola Akintola, has narrated how she and her other siblings heard of the murder of their father.

Speaking at the 50th anniversary programme of the passage of the late Ogbomoso-born politician, held in Lagos on Saturday, Dr Abimbola in an emotionladen tone, stated that despite the gravity of that January 15, 1966 incident, some of the children of the late politician were not aware that their breadwinner had been murdered, hours after the unfortunate incident.

According to her, she was actually preparing to go for lectures in the United Kingdom, where she was studying when she heard the news on the television.

“Unfortunately, every effort at confirming or refuting the claim was further frustrated because we couldn’t put a call home and nobody was talking to us from Nigeria. It was a traumatic period for the family, especially for my mother who had earlier lost a daughter in November of the previous year,” she stated.

While expressing the family’s gratitude to individuals, especially people from Ogbomoso for identifying with the family at that period, Dr. Abimbola re-assured that the family would always be loyal to the country and engage in activities that would further enhance its socio-economic growth.

Meanwhile, the eldest son of the late Chief Akintola and former Minister of Finance during second Republic, Ambassador Yomi Akintola has expressed his willingness to accept the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland if considered

for the post.

The former Ambassador to Hungary stated this shortly after the 50th remembrance anniversary of his father was rounded off at his family compound in Ogbomoso, Oyo State.

He said the title, contrary to certain perception, does not go against the faith of the holder, rather describing it as an honour bestowed on credible Yoruba sons.

Notable among the guests present at the lecture segment included Governor Abiola Ajimobi; Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala; former Chief Justice of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Akinjide and other notable personalities.

other participants as a special guest of honour at this year’s edition of the World Future Energy Summit.

The statement explained that the Summit, which is now in its ninth year of existence, has developed into one of the world’s most influential events dedicated to advancing future energy, energy efficiency and clean technologies.

It said in a move signal-

ling Nigeria’s re-engagement with the Middle-East region, Buhari would also lead a team of his ministers to bilateral talks with the government of the UAE. According to the statement, after the talks, a number of agreements between both countries on economic, trade and bilateral relations are expected to be signed.

It further said: “From the

visit, Nigeria also expects to get more support from the UAE for its war against terrorism and the recovery of Nigeria’s stolen funds.”

The statement also revealed that the President was scheduled to meet with leading UAE businessmen who are interested in Nigeria with a view to encouraging greater investment inflows to critical sectors such as power supply, oil,

gas and agriculture.

He will be accompanied by the ministers of Power, Works and Housing; Petroleum; Environment; Justice; Trade and Investment; Finance and Foreign Affairs, as well as the National Security Adviser.

Buhari will also meet with Nigerian professionals in the UAE before returning to Abuja on Tuesday, the statement added.

From left, event chairman and former Vice-President of Nigeria, Sir Alex Ekweume; his wife, Dr Helen; daughter of the late Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, Dr Abimbola Akintola, and guest lecturer, Prof. Akinjide Osuntokun, at a public lecture to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the passage of the former Premier of the old Western Region, Late Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, held at NIIA, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Saturday. Photo: Sylvester Okoruwa.

N100m Dasuki deal: SDP, Makinde exonerate Falae

By Tunde Ogunesan THE National Publicity Secretary of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Abdul-Ahmed Isiaq, and the former governorship candidate of the party in Oyo State, Mr Seyi Makinde, have cleared the national leader of the party, Chief Olu Falae, of any wrong doing in the alleged N100million he collected from the embattled former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd).

The duo made this submission yesterday during the state congress of the party held at the Olubadan Stadium, Iyaganku, Ibadan.

Isiaq said Alhaji “SDP actually collected N100million from PDP and it is because SDP and PDP formed political alliance.

The alliance means political SDP will not feature presidential candidate in the said election. So, we now supported PDP’s presidential candidate in the election. With that, N100million was given to all the states in the south west excluding Ogun State; all the state chapters collected, but Ogun State said they had enough that we can give to other states.

“Our national chairman, Chief Olu Falae, GCON, is a man of impeccable record,

a man of transparency, and you cannot find his name in any of such,” Isiaq said.

Stating his position, Seyi Makinde added that the parties always get support

from the superior offices, saying there is no way the party can ascertain where the support comes from.

He said: “The answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ We receive

support from time to time from the national secretariat of our party.

There is no way for us to know where the support comes from and it is normal

for political parties to have the national secretariat give support to the state, the state gives support to the local government and things like that.

5 die, 15 injured in Enugu, Oyo, Lagos •As woman loses 3 kids to fire in Bayelsa Olalekan Olabulo with Agency Report seven men sustained injuries, while three died in a lone crash that occurred yesterday on Oyo-Ogbomoso route at Ijawaya, few kilometres from Oyo, according to the FRSC. The vehicle involved was a DAF trailer and the victims were taken to the State Hospital, Oyo and mortuary.

In another development, the Enugu State Police Command has confirmed that seven people sustained injuries in a multiple auto crash at Ama Brewery Junction on

the 9th Mile-Nsukka highway in Enugu State.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the command, Mr Ebere Amaraizu, said that the incident, which happened on Friday, involved a trailer, Highlander jeep and two other cars.

“At least seven persons sustained various degrees of injuries and were rushed to different hospitals after the crash.

“The team of rescuers included the police, Federal Road Safety Commission and some members of the public,’’ he stated.

The PPRO said that the

cause of the accident was yet to be determined, noting, however, that the police had commenced investigation.

Two people were also killed and another person injured, on Saturday, as a sewage truck crashed into two vehicles in Alausa area of Lagos State.

The injured and the trapped bodies were rescued by operatives of the Rapid Respond Squad, who were assisted by officials of the Lagos State Ambulance Service .

A sewage truck , a Mercedez Benz Sports Utility Vehicle and a Honda car were

Jega advises FG on policy formulation Former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof.

Attahiru Jega, has told the Federal Government to formulate policies to make polytechnics and colleges of education attractive to students.

Jega, who gave the advice at the maiden convocation lecture of the Federal University, Dutse in Jigawa on Saturday, stressed that such policies should also address

problems of access to education.

In his lecture entitled: “Reforming the Nigerian Tertiary Education Sector: Challenges and Prospects at the Federal University, Dutse,’’ Jega noted that applicants for university education were increasing.

“The demand for polytechnics, colleges of education and mono-technics was less among applicants

of tertiary institutions compared to those that applied for universities.

“Widening access to education must be combined with policies that would make other tertiary institutions attractive.”

Jega also advocated quality and relevant education for Nigerian tertiary institutions to make them compete with similar institutions in the world.

involved in the accident .

A source at Alausa police station, who pleaded anonymity, while speaking with Sunday Tribune, confirmed the arrest of two people in connection with the accident.

Meanwhile, a fire outbreak in the Ogbia area of Bayelsa on Saturday killed the three children of one Mrs Favour Udoh at her residence,.

According to reports by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the spokesman for the Bayelsa State Police Command, Mr Asinim Butswat, who confirmed the incident, said that preliminary findings indicated that the fire at Elebele community was caused by candle light.

“On January 14, 2016 at about 23:05 hrs, policemen from Kolo Division responded to a distress call of fire outbreak, at the residence of one Mrs Favour Udoh at Elebele Community in Ogbia LGA,” he stated.

Butswa said that although the fire was extinguished, three children, namely Daniel Udoh, Saviour Udoh and Joshua Udoh died.

9

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

10

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

specialreport Lassa: Preventing the scourge at the grass roots As mixed reactions begin to trail the resurgence of Lassa fever across the country, REMI ANIFOWOSE, JUDE OSSAI, BANJI ALUKO and KOLA OYELERE write on the unhygienic conditions of some communities, prevention strategies and awareness creation at the grass roots.

aged the nation, but it was curtailed by government and we never heard anything about it again until now.’’

Suspected victims of Lassa fever on hospital bed.

H

ealth authorities in Nigeria, recently, announced the death of a 33-year old newly-married who died of Lassa fever, in the country’s capital city, Abuja. It was disclosed that the victim lived in Jos, Plateau State, but travelled to see a family member in Kubwa, because of his illness. He, however, died within 24hours of presentation at the National Hospital.

Media reports also have it that Lagos recorded four suspected cases, 15 under surveillance in Plateau, two cases in Ondo and a victim who died of the disease caused by a species of rats, at the Irrua, Specialist Teaching Hospital in Edo State.

The Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole, confirmed that the number of suspected cases of the disease had risen to 93, while the number of victims that had died had also increased to 41, saying fatality rate was 44 per cent. The Federal Government, in response to the latest outbreak since November 2015, had mandated five ministers, led by the Minister of Health, to find lasting solution to the epidemic.

This suggests that efforts are currently being made at the federal level to curtail the spread of the disease, but going by reports

of the disease being spread by rodents such as rats, which is probably the most common mouse in equatorial Africa, ubiquitous in human households and eaten as a delicacy in some areas or communities, Sunday Tribune findings, during a visit to one of the communities in Ibadan South West Local Government Area of Oyo State, known as Foko/Asaka, revealed that dirty environments aided the spread of diseases generally. And rats, which strive better in such environments, could easily infect exposed materials like pots, spoons , plates, exposed food stuff and uncovered meals through their excreta (feces and urine).

Sunday Tribune also gathered that some people at the grassroots were not even aware that such disease(Lassa) was currently ravaging the nation. When asked if they knew what Lassa fever was, a trader, Mrs Bimbo Mosood who resides and sells yams and pepper along Foko/ Asaka road, said she was unaware of any disease caused by rats. Praying that such disease wouldn’t come near her home and family, she begged Sunday Tribune to enlighten her more about the disease.

According to her, ‘’ Mi o gbo nipa Lassa fever o. Arunkarun ko ni ya ile mi o. Kilo n

tun je be. ( I’ve not heard about Lassa fever.

What is Lassa fever. Deadly diseases won’t come near my house o).’’ When Sunday Tribune took time to explain to her , she responded ‘’ E se. Mi o fi gba nkan ma n si awon oja mi sile nitori o je awon oja ti eku le je , nitorina mo ma n ko won sinu jija ni ( Thank you for the explanation. Because I sell things that rats could easily devour, I make sure I keep them very well in a hard and well-sealed sack). I don’t expose them at all. Now that I know the havoc rats could wreak in the environment, I will increase my cleanliness and make sure I reduce to the barest minimum the invasion of rats in my home and environment.’’

For Mr Abobade Olabamiji, a special assistant to Ibadan South West Local Government Chairman in Foko, ‘’Lassa fever, which is caused by rats seen everywhere in our environment, can be dangerous to people, especially in rural communities. Rats are unavoidable animals in communities across Nigeria. We could only take measures at ensuring we reduce the carriers of the virus to the barest minimum by thoroughly cleaning and sustaining cleanliness in our communities, so as to prevent infection of this disease. Lassa fever once rav-

Community-based preventive measures Olabamiji, who said the onus lied on every individual, government, community and the nation as a whole to fight the deadly disease, which has been established, could be transmitted from person to person and posed great risks to healthcare givers, said proper awareness campaigns at the grass roots level on the causes and prevention of the disease should be carried out, He said governments needed to enforce its environmental laws on proper hygiene at the grassroots for effective, lasting solutions. He also emphasised more attention on the communities and rural areas, because ‘’the communities and rural areas are where it starts. We have people who eat rats, even other rodents are in the rats family and it is important we focus on the rural communities.’’

Corroborating Olabamiji, Mrs Deborah Odeyemi, who also resides at Foko/Asaka, said health personnel should be deployed in each community/ward to train rural dwellers and illiterates for proper environmental hygiene, diseases awareness and prevention. She also emphasized the need for governments to enforce fumigation policies of environments in rural and urban communities.

Also, a community leader at Foko, Mr Ganiyu Labuta, said efforts were ongoing at making Foko environment clean and to rid the community of diseases, especially Lassa fever, ‘’because we have rats all over here.’’

He noted that community leaders in the area always call meetings every Mondays to discuss the hygiene of the area, saying the task now behooved on the community to properly create awareness to the people.

He, however, advised the government to bring enlightenment / awareness camcontinues pg 11

11

specialreport

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘Unhygienic living conditions breed Lassa fever’

Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole

A victim who died of Lassa fever being carried by health officials

Mrs Deborah Odeyemi

Mrs Bimbo Moshood

continued from pg 10

paigns against the disease to the community/ rural level, saying they were the most affected.

Lassa fever in Enugu In Enugu State, there has not been any reported case of Lassa fever so far. But there are prone areas where if adequate measures are not taken, the disease could occur. These areas include remote villages along border communities of Enugu State and Benue, Kogi, as well as Anambra states.

Mr Bobade Olabamiji

Even in Enugu metropolis, pockets of suburbs such as subways, Ama-Hausa, Obiagu jungle, Udi-Siding and Aganevu are also prone to Lassa fever because of their unkempt environment.

Sunday Tribune investigation revealed that already, the state government has commenced aggressive campaign in these suburbs and other rural areas, especially border communities sensitising the people on the need to live in a clean environment, as well as shun the consumption of rodents.

Further checks showed that prices of insecticide products used for killing rodents had increased by 100 per cent since the news of Lassa fever was reported in other states like Rivers and Taraba. For instance, A “Snipper” which was sold for N200.00 per one is now sold for N300.00.

Speaking to reporters in Enugu on how the state government is educating people on how to prevent the dreaded disease, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Samuel Ngwu, said they had stepped up campaigns in all the 17 local government areas that make up the state.

“We are telling our people to resist the urge to burn bushes which will drive rodents into people’s houses and contaminate or infect the people. They should equally avoid open defecation so as not to get infected while they stool” Dr Ngwu also said that they had heightened their surveillance and monitoring in all the local government councils in the state

Mr Ganiyu Labute

to find out and access signs and symptoms of the disease.

“The disease surveillance health educators are on their toes to record any sign or symptom of Lassa fever like body pain, bleeding from the mouth, ears, noses, among others. If cases like these emanate, our people should quickly report to the nearest healthcare facility and report to the health officer,” he added.

Lassa in Kano communities THERE are many communities in the an-

“We are telling our people to resist the urge to burn bushes which will drive rodents into people’s houses and contaminate or infect the people

cient city of Kano that are prone to diseases because of their unhygienic environment.

Most residents of these areas are of the belief that everything should be done by the state government, which is a wrong notion, and is negatively affecting their health.

A visit to some of these areas, like Sango, Dakata, PRP, Badawa, and even the heart of the town where the Sabongari is, one would see heeps of refuse dumped indiscriminately in front of houses for many days. Flies use such environments to source for food, which, unknown to residents, served as agents of spread of the diseases.

It is an open secret that these environments serve as breeding spaces for rats and mice to search for food, at the detriment of residents of such areas.

Sunday Tribune’s findings, during a visit to Sabongari in Fagge Local Government Area of the state capital, revealed that refuse were always dumped in the surroundings, and, as such, could cause sickness for the residents. It is no longer news that a rat in that area could even eat up a big cat.

It is also funny, but true, to say that these rats even compete with house owners, looking for remnants to eat, and no amount of rat killers can eradicate such rodents.

However, the unhygienic living conditions are not only peculiar to the masses of Sabongari, Dakata, Badawa, PRP, Sango, they are also synonymous with those at the rural areas of the state.

The recent outbreak of the Lassa fever could be as a result of the unhygienic environment residents of these communities have subjected themselves to.

Just recently, the Kano State Commissioner for Health, Dr Kabiru Ibrahim Getso, confirmed that two people lost their lives to Lassa fever in Dakasoye village in Garunmalam Local Government Area of Kano State.

He also confirmed that 100 out of 120 tested and suspected to be infected by the disease, were now free.

According to him, the remaining number of people were yet to complete their test, saying they were hoping they would be found Lassa fever-free.

Getso disclosed that the incubation period for the disease was 21 days and said the blood samples taken to Lagos State, indicated that they were negative.

He noted that apart from the two victims earlier infected, nobody else was found infected.

Getso, who called on the people of the state not to panic assured that necessary measures were being taken to address its spread.

He added that at the Yar-Gaya General Hospital, the hospital that was converted into Lassa fever centre in the state, all necessary drugs had been provided with other necessary facilities, including protective equipment and supporting staff, needed for any eventuality that could occur. continues pg 12

12

specialreport

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘Families should properly dispose remnants, ensure clean kitchen utensils’

Lassa fever treatment centre at ISTH, in Edo State. continued from pg 11

However, worried by the reported death of two persons in Kano and about 39 others in 11 states across the country as a result of Lassa fever, the state government has constituted a 22-man task force on Lassa fever response.

Inaugurating the fask Force, the state governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, warned that because the disease was spread by rodents as a result of poor hygienic practices, it had become imperative for the people to pay more attention to personal hygiene and environmental sanitation.

Advising the people not to allow rodents feed on their foods, the governor stressed “the need for families to properly dispose food remnants and ensure that their kitchen utensils are kept clean always.”

Governor Ganduje also urged the people

to be on the watch for symptoms of the disease and to report any suspected Lassa fever case to the nearest health facility. He said government would place emphasis on advocacy and public enlightenment to ensure that Lassa fever no longer occurred in the state.

The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Kabir Ibrahim Getso, who disclosed that the two patients who died in the state as a result of the Lassa epidemic were officially recorded in November, 2015 , said both died on December 4 of the same year.

Getso explained that the Lassa virus was carried by rats and spread to humans, adding that the disease could be spread from person to person through direct contact. He said his ministry had designated a health facility at ‘Yargaya to handle Lassa Fever cases.

The commissioner added that the state government had also set aside hotlines to

track the diseases, engaged in aggressive contact tracing of the deceased victims, as well as embarked upon vigorous public enlightenment campaigns through radio.

The disease reportedly was discovered in 1969 when two missionary nurses died in Nigeria. The virus is thus named after Lassa, a village in Borno State in the North -East where the first cases occurred.

Lassa fever in Edo communities Edo State is usually one of the states that is usually affected anytime there was an outbreak of Lassa fever in the country.

According to medical personnel, the communities around Ekpoma in the Central senatorial district of the state are regarded as endemic with tendencies of an outbreak of the deadly disease. Perhaps this explains the location of a facility inside the Irrua Specialist Hospital (ISTH), Irrua, Edo State, for the treatment of the Lassa fever and other hemorrhagic fever such as Ebola and dengue fever.

According to findings, the first reported case of Lassa fever in Edo State occurred in 1999, in a community known as Ihumudumun, a suburb of Ekpoma. According to the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of ISTH, Dr Sylvanus Okogbenin, the death of four members of one family, in quick succession in the community, shed light on the potential for an outbreak of Lassa fever in communities around Ekpoma.

“The family first lost their father and mother. Their children, one a doctor and another one, an engineer, came from Chicago to bury their parents. After the burial, they left for their destinations. The doctor here got ill and died. The one in Chicago also got ill as well. It was when they tested him that they discovered that he had Lassa fever. That was when they knew that it was Lassa that must

have killed the father, mother and brother.

Eventually, he also died of the same Lassa fever,” the CMD said about the disaster.

Dr Okogbenin disclosed that the deaths encouraged medical professionals to kickstart research into the likely outbreak of Lassa fever in Ekpoma and its environs. Expectedly, the only known cause of Lassa fever, rats, were extensively researched. The CMD pointed out that a research carried out by a laboratory scientist and former vice chancellor of Ambrose Alli University, Ekpoma, Professor Dennis Agbonlahor, showed that a significant number of rats around Ekpoma in Esan West Local Government Area, are those that are hosts and carriers of the virus that causes the Lassa fever.

He said since the discovery, efforts have been made to sensitise the people of the areas and other parts of Edo State and beyond to avoid exposing the foods and bodies to rats. He added that the hospital also embarked on sensitisation and advocacy every year because an outbreak of Lassa fever in any part of the country is usually expected.

On the current outbreak, he disclosed that nine out of the 12 people brought to the hospital so far died as they were not brought in early.

In the meantime, the Edo State government has started sensitisation programme on Lassa fever in the rural areas on how to control and prevent the disease. The state Commissioner for Health, Dr Heregie Aihanuwa, said health workers in the state had been cautioned to look out for suspected cases of the fever and report to the hospitals. She noted that all cases of Lassa fever were being treated at the isolation centre of the ISTH and that measures were being put in place to stop the further spread of this current outbreak.

Suspected Lassa fever cases are traced to communities of contact —Okogbenin What else are you doing to curtail the outbreak?

Another thing we do is research because we have found out that there are lot of things we still do not know about Lassa fever. One of the things we are trying to know is the reason why the distribution in the country is uneven. For instance you have in Edo State. We have not heard anything from the neighboring Kogi. It then jumps to Borno or Plateau states.

You ask if the rats are confined to these places alone.

We also train workers from different parts of the country on diagnosis, how to do molecular diagnosis and patient management. Another thing we do is awareness campaign and follow up or trace the contacts of victim so that we make sure that none of the people close to the patients contract the disease. We do advocacy as well because we sensitise government on what to do.

Dr Sylvanus Okogbenin is the Chief Medical Director (CMD) of Irrua Specialist Teaching Hospital (ISTH) in Edo State, in this interview with Banji Aluko, he spoke on Lassa fever, the causes, prevention, treatment and other issues surrounding the disease.

H

ow many patients have been admitted in this hospital for Lassa fever?

The figure keeps increasing. The truth is that there has been an epidemic and we are receiving blood samples from other states, as well as seeing patients from other states of the country. Our laboratory has been able to confirm cases from Taraba, Nasarawa, Bauchi, Plateau, Ondo as well as Edo State. We have also received a case from Delta State. We have had positive samples from these states.

The problem we had that was that many of them were brought quite late. Some of them even died at the Accident and Emergency unit before we had enough time to move them to the isolation ward for proper care. That is why we are trying to increase sensitisation so that patients could be brought here early. The truth is that if an infected person s brought to the hospital early, he could be treated. Right now, we have enough Ribavarin injection, which is the specific drug needed for the treatment.

We also have the renal dialysis unit that is specifically for patients who have Lassa fever because one of the causes of death is that Lassa fever virus affects the kidneys and the kidneys shut down. We have dialysis machines that help us manage them. We have the isolation ward where we keep the patients and manage them. We have protective equipment to prevent infection of the health workers. Above all, we have a team of community health physicians who do surveillance and contact choosing. This means that any confirmed pa-

tients is traced to his or her community to see whether people who have come into contact with the patients have been infected with the disease. We put them on surveillance on them and test them.

Is it possible to domesticate the drug and make it readily available to people who need it?

I know that some pharmacy shops have the drugs but the drugs are uncommon as they are not used to treat everyday ailment. The ones we have now were provided by the Federal Ministry of Health as part of the modalities of curtailing the epidemic. The ones we have now are given free of charge.

If they have to buy it is about N1,000 for one ample and a patient may need up to 200 amples. The fact is that government gives us the drug free and we are given them out free.

We have never rejected.

Why do people come from Taraba, Bauchi and other far places to this place?

We really do not have the patients but the blood samples.

When they suspect a case, they take the blood samples to us for test.

Does that mean there are no facilities to carry out the test That must be the meaning . Not many places can do the diagnosis because it is a viral infection. Carrying out the diagnosis for a viral infection requires very special used facilities and we are lucky to be one of those who have it.

How many patients have reported to ISTH Since November (2015), we have seen 12 patients. Most of our patients this time around come from the Edo North district. Previously, it used to be Ekpoma region that was quite prevalent. So, I have asked the community health team to form a team to go to the area and educate the people and do some contact tracing.

How many of the patients passed away, how many survived There are two in the wards right now. As at Monday, nine people have died since November (2015).

Dr Sylvanus Okogbenin, CMD, ISTH

13 Continued from

B

17 January, 2016

last week

UT I consider it my duty to warn that our admonition and appeal for sacrifices would sound hollow and hypocritical in the ears of the public, unless those of us who occupy a position of leadership have first of all made the highest possible sacrifices.

The Eastern Region Government is to be commended for its bold efforts in tackling its financial problem.

But it has gone about it the wrong way. It abolished Infant I, pegged its UPE scheme to Infant II and Standards I and II and raised school fees in Standards III and IV from £3 10s. od. To £5. os. Od. per pupil, and in Standards V and VI from £5. os. Od. to £8 os. od. The Action Group which has criticised these regressive and crushing measures has been accused of playing politics, and of breaking faith with the agreement reached at the National Economic Council that taxation should be taken out of the arena of politics.

In the first place, the present imposition of school fees is not taxation, because it does not conform with any of the principles of an enlightened tax system. In the second place, the agreement referred to has not been made known to the public. At all events, the Action Group and I are still to be informed of the said agreement and its precise terms. In any case, I want to assure the Eastern Government that, if an agreement is reached that taxation should be taken out of the arena of politics, they will find the Action Group a very active collaborator in implementing its terms. From the time I took office in the Western Region in 1952, I have consistently advocated this very course in vain. In vain, because the NCNC which is the party in power in the East was implacably bent on playing politics with taxation, with the unsavoury consequences which now stare all of us in the face. I am not at all happy about the present state of affairs. But I am glad that whether we are Jews or Gentiles, Greeks or Barbarians, we now see quite clearly that playing politics with rates and taxes is a most dangerous game. If the NCNC had responded to my repeated calls for unity of purpose in the matter of taxation, and if it had not had reasons to believe that its financial returns from other sources would say good perhaps the Western Region Government would not have reduced rates as substantially as it has done

Awo’s thoughts VOICE OF REASON

Call to rededication and reconstruction A statement made at the meeting of the Federal Executive Council of the Action Group of Nigeria, held at Ikeja VIP, on 18th December, 1961. with a resultant heavy financial burden on the Regional exchequer. Similarly, the Eastern Region Government would not have been pressed to the wall as it now is. In the case of the East, the answer to the problem is not increases in school fees. Indeed, I do conscientiously advocate that school fees should be abolished in Primary schools in the Eastern and Northern Regions, and that some other avenues should be explored for raising the funds required for meeting the expenses on Primary education.

This exploration should be done by all the Governments of the Federation acting in correct, and taking their respective parties into full confidence to what and what are proposed to be done. Those of us who by the Grace of God are placed in a position of leadership must be prepared right now to grasp the nettle. If we unite in doing so, and if, in addition, we set a worthy example and a marat on pace in probity, unselfishness and self-sacrifice, the people will follow, all too readily, in our footsteps. There is a short poem whose author I

Sunday Tribune

do not now remember, but which I pass on to you for its intrinsic value. It runs: ‘The Past is a story told; The Future may be written in gold.’ Animated by the sage message of this poem, we should, as we enter the New Year, resolve to make 1962 a glorious epoch in Nigeria’s history. For the year 1962, therefore: We should resolve to make democracy work in Nigeria at all levels of government activities; We should resolve to unite in combating, with all the constitutional resources at our disposal’, any attempt on the part of any Government or party in power to encroach upon and invade the liberty of the individual.’ We should resolve to exterminate the cankerworm of bribery and corruption, and to evolve effective plans to this end; We should resolve to produce a five-year development plan which will bear the stamp of the genius of Nigerian brains and patriotism, and which is designed for the speedy abolition of disease, ignorance and want, and for the introduction of a new era of abundance for all; We should, in particular, resolve to close, so far as it lies in our power and is compatible with socialist ideals, the yawning gap between the haves and the have-nots; We should resolve to raise the prestige of Nigeria as an economically self-reliant and politically dependable nation, to whom the other countries of Africa can look for succour and merited leadership; and we should resolve to rededicate ourselves for the great task ahead, and to co-operate with all those of our fellow-citizens who see the need and are determined to work for a radical reconstruction of our society.

If we are to succeed in carrying out these resolutions, we must have idealism as our impregnable armour. The idealist is not, as is erroneously believed by some, impractical. Indeed by adhering to fundamental principles, he is fully armed with unimpeachable yardsticks and criteria by means of which all practical issues are justly and equitably determined. His guiding and dominant motive in his approach to all private or public affairs is self first, self second and self last. The bane of our society is the monstrous growth in 1961 of unabased opportunism. We must resolve to destroy the monster right now, if we are to save this nation from imminent peril.

Concluded

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

17 January, 2016

If an ex offers to help out with your wedding plans, would you accept?

Weddings are usually considered very important and planning such events plays a vital role towards ensuring success. As much as gifts in cash and kind are welcome, there are certain individuals whose gifts require a rethink. OLUWATOMISIN AKINGBOLU,YETUNDE TIJANI and BAMISE ADEMOLA went to town to ask Nigerians if they would allow an ex-partner plan the wedding.

ORIAKU IYKE I will not allow such, because I don’t see any reason she should plan my wedding for me when there are many wedding planners and I have my money. So, I don’t think I need her help.

KUYORO SOLA

Sunday Tribune

I will never allow my ex to plan my wedding, because she might want to execute one evil plan that will destroy my wedding.

OLUKUNLE OPEYEMI No, I cannot. She may later blackmail me with the wedding plans and I will not want such to happen. She may even use the planning to extort money from me.

OMOTADA TAIWO

There is no problem if my ex offers to plan my wedding, though it depends on how we broke up. If he has good plans for me, I wouldn’t mind because it will save me money and stress of looking for a wedding planner.

Yes. I will accept if it’s not that we fought before we separated. If we are still on good terms, I will allow her plan my wedding.

FABANWO AYOBAMI I will never allow my ex to plan my wedding,because she might want to execute one evil plan that will destroy my wedding. I have never seen a lady that will be happy that a man did not marry her but someone else.

FAWOLE KEHINDE It’s not possible and it’s not polite too. I don’t want anything to scatter my relationship with the one I love and intend to marry. If I allowed my ex to plan my wedding she might use the opportunity to destroy my home and career.

EMMANUEL AJIBIKE My ex will not be aware of my wedding, not to talk of planning it for me. If she later finds out and offers to help, I will not agree unless I will be there with her, but that will be a waste of time since I will pay her. If she refuses to collect money, then I will monitor her activities.

TUNRAYO LUBA I will allow my ex to plan my wedding since I love the man I intend to marry. I might even tell the person I want to marry about him and he might just be God-sent.

TOYOBOH ISAAC SALAKO ABIODUN I won’t accept. For someone who left me, I will never accept.

Perhaps, her help could be to avenge or to harm me and my wife and she might even plan it in a negative way.

AWOLERI ADETAYO I am going to accept as long as I stay with her during the relationship and nothing bad happened during the time we spent together. I will accept because an adage says “a well known devil is better than a new angel”.

Never! How will my ex plan my wedding?

I can never allow him to plan it. He may want to harm me by planning my wedding.

ABIODUN ADESANYA I won’t accept; my acceptance will endanger my life. So, I should just move forward to another planner because her coming to help me plan my wedding can’t be of goodwill; her coming would spoil my day.

15

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Remi Anifowose And Seyi Sokoya oluremi_anifowose@yahoo.com seyi_sky@yahoo.com 09090402865, 08075166585

homes&interior s r

For that office space, exquisite furniture will make a classic difference

F

OR a classic and tastefully-furnished office, it is important to take into consideration the quality, durability and comfort of the chairs and desks workers would work on for effective and efficient service delivery. Office furniture come in different brands, shapes, types, styles and quality.

They also vary in comfort, efficiency and purpose.

There are chairs made of rich leather and come with adjustable mechanisms. These chairs could be very strong, durable and affordable.

There are also high quality executive office desks. These desks are meant for small office spaces or for managers

in an organisation. They can be made of pure wood and they come with two-sided attached drawers.

Quality classic office fabric chairs, especially high quality swivel chair are made of a rich fabric material. The mechanism and hydraulic is very strong. This chair is very strong, durable and affordable.

There are also office chairs that come with a very strong adjustable mechanism. This type of chairs is very strong and durable. This chair is extremely good.

It comes with an in-built back support. Most office chairs are made of pure leather and fabric. They have mechanisms that are very strong and adjustable.

There is an office desk with metal leg. This type of desk will make your office look very smart. It comes in different dimensions and colours.

The executive conference table ia s type of office furniture that is made of pure wood and its colour is mahogany. This conference table can seat 8 to 10 people and it has a very strong base. There are also different designs of conference tables.

The office managers desk are often made of pure wood. They comes with a mobile drawer and an extension. This kind of desk is very strong, durable and affordable.

Are you an interior decorator?

Advertise on our offline (page) and online platforms

16

17 January, 2016

H

OW does the above sound? Gibberishly rhythmic? Alienated alliteration? Collocating antonyms? Sweet nonsense? Maddening methodical? Sense inside senselessness? Or simply, “wah ris dis? If I still don’t make sense to you after trying all in grammar rule books, simply make your own sense out of what the above says to you. Or can we try lexicology in unravelling the world-apart headline. Dasuki in there, can only be a particular one; the prince with dollar blood.

A royalty with billion taste. In public opinion, a Dasuki with fitted prison danshiki. In the eye of Nigeria’s new law being virtually propounded by President Muhammadu Buhari, a convict who is awaiting trial. Abandoned by nearly all, including the one who allegedly sent him on the arodan (no-brainer) errand. The public waits with bated breath; not for the prince to be king, but to know which prison gate would welcome the intelligence(?) officer.

Suzuki was the king of the road in the 60s, 70s, 80s through early 90s before China conspired with illicitness to bury the brand. When real men were working their bones to earn decent living, Suzuki motorcycle had a pride of place as material possession. Fathers would ride it with huffed shoulders in a well-ironed conductor jacket, wives on the back seat, with two legs put together similar to years-gone-by photographic pose, waving at friends as the ginginrin gingin melodious noise of the “machine” smoothly ripped through streets in many contented neighbourhoods, particularly in Ilu Oke (South-Western hinterland towns). Original life went away with the original product. A roguish dawn replaced that nostalgic dusk; everyone became fake. Everywhere is saturated with fake; fake billionaires that can’t teach ABC of legitimately turning N50 to N100. Fake leaders.

Fake pastors. Fake Imams. Fake worshippers. Fake gods.

Fake politicians. Fake elder statesmen. Fake terrorists.

Fake business tycoons. Fake bankers. Fake forex policies.

Fake, fake, fake. The new environment fitted perfectly for China’s kind of business. The era of Jincheng and “chinko” began.

Growing up, I worshipped in Celestial Church of Christ.

Sutana is the worship garment. Other colours are rarity except “you are called”. It must be white in colour even when wearers’ conducts are darker than the charcoal

THIS past week, I participated in a programme where the guest lecturer praised the virtues of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the first premier of the defunct Western Region of Nigeria, to high heavens. The guest lecturer, whose theme was “Nigeria Beyond Oil: The Maritime Options,” portrayed Awolowo, popularly called Awo, as the benchmark of public service in Nigeria.

But why is Awo such a timeless leader? What is it about the man that stands him out both in life and in death? Why is it that over 56 years after leaving office as premier of Western Region he is still regarded as the benchmark in public service? Why is Awo the name that keeps opening doors of political opportunities for those who did not even have any direct interface with him?

Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), in an attempt to answer the questions, once said, “Chief Awolowo embodied in himself attributes that are very rare today. That is why he is looming larger in death than in life. His was a tradition of self-denial, hard work, integrity, reliability and competence. These are the things that define Awolowo. They are attributes that we are looking for but cannot find today, except in very few.”

While I regard Awo’s attributes mentioned by Chief Falae as the manifestation, I think the foundation for those attributes is in that Awo was a visionary. I know that these days everybody, including those whose visions do not extend beyond their being, claims to be a visionary. But Awo was a rare, indeed very rare, and visionary. His vision was a product of an elevated thought process. He realised that as a leader what he owed his people was the provision of solution to their pressing problems. He also realised that the solutions would not just pop up because he was looking for them. So, he gave himself to deep reflection. Awo was a deep thinker. Unlike many of those who occupy high offices today who are merely reflexive, Awo was reflective and meditative. This singular quality, more than any other thing, in my opinion, made him the

0811 695 4647

olanreade@yahoo.com

Dasuki, Suzuki, Sutana

black being erroneously used in portraying Lucifer. The spiritual filth oozing from the supposed symbolic garment of purity stinks to hell. I should know. I was around long enough as a young bachelor. I remember a particular prophet from Ghana by name Gogo who was on the case of my love-interest. Knowing what was on, I patiently waited for the day he would jump on one leg to my corner shouting “Jerimo yamah” (spirit emission) with an aim of delivering prophecies to me. I had my plans.

Somehow, even with eyes closed during his numerous trance-like gyrations around me, he never touched me to follow him for a message. He was fake.

If my headline is confusing, it is because we now live

With Sulaimon Olanrewaju 08055001708

lanresulaimon@yahoo.com

Awo: Missing ingredient in present day leaders

unique person that he was.

It was his ability for deep reflection that birthed the thought of introducing free primary education at a time when no one on the continent of Africa was talking about that. Awolowo must have gone into a higher plane of thought than his contemporaries were willing to attempt to realise that the key to economic freedom was education.

It was also such a deep reflection that could have

Sunday Tribune

in a befuddling nation. If my choice of combo is meaningless, it is because the mix around here is quite insensible. If you can’t link the three words above, that is exactly where we are now; nothing getting fitted into what should ordinarily be complementary. Fake budget. Fake probes. Fake arms. Fake soldiers. Fake Chibok parents.

Fake ruling class. Fake opposition. Fake economic policies. Fake criticism. Fake drugs. Fake goods. Fake telecoms probe. Fake registration fine. Fake spokespersons.

Fake projects. Fake human rights campaigners. Fake elections. Fake ethnic agitators. Fake country.

Have I lost faith in the Nigerian nation? Far from it. This land shall still fulfill God’s desire of flowing with milk and honey. But there is God’s sovereignty and human responsibilities. While God has kept His part of being merciful to this nation, preserving it even in the face of centrifugal forces, which in reduced combustion, had scattered other “stronger” nations, irresponsibilities have been the order of the day here, flowing from the leadership down to the following.

I have monitored the social media since the current government came into place. The national mindset is warped. A striking comment on the budget controversy says it. Commenting on the site of a news medium, the citizen said Buhari would never be wrong in his estimation even if glaringly wrong. To him, whoever speaks against the man he voted, is a saboteur even when his “project” isn’t delivering.

From Dasukigate, budgetgate to forexgate, nothing seems to make sense again. A Senior Advocate friend few days back, argued endlessly why all those who shared Dasuki alleged loot should be jailed as accomplices, even when it could be argued that they weren’t aware of the source of the money. But when asked what should happen to Soyinkagate, he asked if a celebrator should be hanged because someone decided to celebrate him with illicit money.

Can we for once put politics aside and jointly condemn what is obscene? Don’t we condemn pastors who receive offerings from looters even when they don’t know the source? Dasukigate stinks, budgetgate, odious.

Birthdaygate, insensate. Dasuki represents all that is wrong with us, Suzuki is our lost genuineness and Sutana, our fake spirituality. Do the three still make sense or not?

given rise to building a television station in Western Region in 1959 when France, one of the most advanced countries of the world, was not thinking along that line. Awolowo must have realised that right information would liberate the mind. The list is endless.

But I think that our inability to match or surpass the standard set by Awolowo almost six decades ago is a thing of shame for us as a people and a disservice to his memory. Would George Washington be satisfied if the benchmark he set had not been surpassed by his successors in the United States of America? Would Mahatma Ghandi be happy if India had not progressed beyond the point it was when he died? Would Louis XII be satisfied if France was still as he left it? Or would Sun Yat-sen be pleased if China had remained at the same level of development it was at the point he exited? In the same vein, Chief Obafemi Awolowo would not be happy to know that the achievements he recorded when there was no petro-dollar were still unattainable by his successors over half a century later. Awo’s place in history is assured but we owe him a duty to at least match his accomplishments.

That poses a challenge to present day leaders. What made Awo stand out was the depth of his intellectual exercise. He never sought an office he had not thoroughly prepared for. He was able to perform beyond his contemporaries as a premier because he went into office with a thoroughly thought out and well-researched programme. He had his plan for everyday he would spend in office properly mapped out.

That is a rarity today. Now, we have office holders who stumbled into office. We have those who were picked by their godfathers because of their dexterity in boot-licking. We have those who were chosen by the godfathers because they are children of cronies.

So, they get into office and inflict people with pains of planlessness yet they mouth platitudes about wanting to be like Awo. Pray, how can a person who ascends an office without adequate preparation be anything but an accident the office?

17

17 January 2016

I am a crazy person... I can do anything —Ine Aju

Wizkid, Dammy Krane fight @ Quilox Club

Why I won’t condemn

Olamide over war of words with Don Jazzy —V.J. Adams

Sunday Tribune

18

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Tade Makinde tademt2@yahoo.com 08055001753

Theft allegation:

Wizkid punches Dammy Krane I didn’t steal your song, he says It is the last straw —Dammy Krane

By Segun Adebayo

J

UST when many people are already getting over Don Jazzy and Olamide Headies drama, another trouble appears to be brewing

between two popular names in the music industry, Wizkid and Dammy Krane, with the latter accusing the former of song theft.

Wizkid and Dammy Krane took their twitter war to another level on Thursday as the duo report-

edly engaged in a physical brawl that left Krane with a bloodied mouth after he was allegedly punched by Wizkid in the face.

The ugly incident disrupted activities at the club for more than two hours when Wizkid came into the club with his friends and headed for the VIP section where Krane who was invited by Martins was already seated.

It was gathered that some minutes after the arrival of Wiz-

kid, who apparently, was filled with anger having sighted Krane inside the VIP section engaged Martins in a conversation. They were said to have been having a smooth conversation until Krane attempted to contribute to Wizkid’s discussion with Martins.

An eyewitness who begged for anonymity told R that Wizkid got angry when Krane who was sitting very close to Martins started contributing to his conversation

Day Dozie Eboh premiered movie on Nigerian girl-child

By Abiola Oyedeji AMIDST pump and ceremony, Dozie Eboh premiered his movie, “Reality”, on Thursday, just as some individuals and institutions that have contributed towards the uplifting of the Nigerian girl-child, were bestowed with the ‘Girl-Child Defenders’ awards.

Held at Greatwood Hotel, Imo State on Friday, the movie, which showcased the plight of the Nigerian girl-child, is the story of a young girl, Chioma, who left her family in a village for the city to live with an aunt.

Chioma saw this as an opportunity to make her family proud and to have a feel of the contemporary society, which she

has heard so much about, but her dream was truncated as the city turned out to be her worst nightmare.

Speaking on the movie, Eboh said: “the movie highlights the child abuse syndrome that is now rampant in the society, especially for the girl child.”

Among those honoured with the ‘Girl-child Defender’ awards were Acho Ihim and Chike Okafor. Others were Marshal Nwachukwu, Chief Osinachi Nnedu, Conac Umez and Chief Chima Anyaso.

Similarly awarded was the Journalists Alliance for the Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV (JAPIN), an initiative supported by UNICEF for safe motherhood.

with the footballer.

Wizkid was said to have got up and allegedly punched Krane.

The situation got worse as they both engaged in a physical assault that took the intervention of 2face and Timaya who were also at the scene to calm the situation.

Asked if it was true that Wizkid attempted to attack Krane with a broken bottle as alleged, the eyewitness denied such attack, but confirmed that Wizkid was the first to punch Krane.

“There was nothing like Wizkid attempting to stab krane with a broken bottle, but he was actually the first person to initiate an attack as he punched him.

Krane would have retaliated, but he was held back by Martins and others who overpowered him. It would have been a messy fight”.

It will be recalled that Krane had earlier accused Wizkid of stealing his materials, which he believes has been going on for a long time, but Wizkid never uttered a word either to deny the allegation or otherwise until Thursday evening when they both met at former Super Eagles striker, Obafemi Martins All black party, at Quilox Club, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Meanwhile, the multiple award winner, has announced plans to embark on a world tour which kicks off in Amsterdam.

25 years old Wizkid shared the news via Instagrm, saying that “the details of the tour will be revealed soon”.

The ‘Ojuelegba’ crooner also said that his much-awaited EP is ready and due for release after his holiday. “About to catch a flight to where I wanna be; first holiday in 3years.

Love you my fans. Extended Play (EP), ready when I get back.

And I start my world tour. We start off in Amsterdam.

19

razzmatazz

17 January, 2016

2Face praises Headies organisers

Emem Isong’s ‘Love Is In The Hair’ hits cinemas

By Rotimi Ogundare WITH a new movie, Love Is In The Hair, the Nigerian motion picture industry is set to record one of its major box office hits in 2016.

Love Is In The Hair, a rom-com from Emem Isong Misodi, will hit cinemas nationwide on Monday.

Written by Rita C. Onwurah and directed by Ayana Saunders, Love Is In The Hair tells the hilarious story of Jonny, a.k.a Twelve Fingers, who on a chance meeting with Doreen, a jet-setting executive, steals a piece of her hair and uses it as juju to charm her into falling in love with him. Unfortunately, Doreen's hair is an Indian attachment, and the real owner, a middle aged Indian woman,

Sunday Tribune

comes after Jonny with the craze of a charmed woman in love.

Distributed by Silverbird Film Distribution, Love Is In The Hair features Bishop Imeh Umoh, Uti Nwachukwu, Toyin Aimakhu, Okey Bakassi, and Funny Bone Chibuna. Others are Vani Vyas, Micheal Bassey, Omotu Bissong, Emem Ufot, Funky Mallam, and Obioma Beulah.

According to Isong, rather than be premiered, the film will go straight to cinemas across the country. “Yes, we are opening the New Year with a surprise package. Love Is In The Hair is a never seen kind of film in this clime. You cannot compare it to any other film. It is a comedy, quite funny and hilarious,” she said.

By Tade Makinde

D

ESPITE the controversy that trailed the recently held Headies Awards where Olamide and Don Jazzy caused a stir, 2Face has praised Ayo Animashaun for consistently doing his best with the award.

“We should learn to support people who do lofty things, not bring them down,” he said. Innocent Idibia, his real names, was recently inducted into the Headies’ Hall of Fame. Aside this, 2Baba, his new stage name, who has always spoken about his love for his fans and his constant need to deliver good music, is set to release a new single entitled ‘Coded Tinz’.

The Sarz-produced single is 2Baba’s first single for the year 2016. It is a dancehall track that features Hip Hop act, Phyno, a.k.a Eze Nnunu, and will be released exclusively online.

2face, no longer a small boy in the music industry after almost two decades, and who recently turned 4o years, has now dropped the name 2face for 2Baba on Thursday. He first hinted his plan to rebrand during the launch of his sixth album in 2014.

Sarkodie giddy about UK concert

ONE of Ghana’s biggest music icons in this generation, Sarkodie, is heading to London for a spring concert that he will headline. The Ghanaian will become the first African rapper to headline the renowned Indigo at the O2 as he celebrates Ghana’s 59th

George Michael releases ‘My God’ video FOLLOWING the recent premiere of his debut singles, “My God”, “Uwese” and “Chioma”, gospel music act, Michael George, has released the video of the single, “My God”.

The song was inspired by his late mother, Caroline Omogberha. “The song is a worship song that connects listeners to the awesomeness of God, ushering them into the worship mode of the Almighty God.” he said.

The video, directed by AJE Filmworks, shows a reflection of the wonderful artwork of God’s creation through series of scenes displayed in the background.

independence on March 11.

The BET, MTV Africa Music Award winner, and MOBO Award nominee, is one of the major driving forces of the growing popularity of Ghanaian music and Afrobeat on the international music landscape.

Sarkodie, who recently joined Fuse ODG on the last leg of his UK tour has enlisted the support of UK’s most sought after live bands, The Compozers, in effort to take his live music performance to another level. DJ Abrantee is the event host.

“The audience are in for a mega treat,” Sarkodie assured. “This concert will surely establish Sarkodie as one of the world’s most iconic African artists,” Atom, an event organiser told R.

‘Surulere’ gets release date RITA Dominic’s newly produced movie entitled ‘Surulere’ is set to hit cinemas nationwide.

Set in Lagos, the movie focuses on the character of a frustrated young graduate whose chance meeting with a woman stirs his “get rich quick” desire to solve his financial problems.

The movie features Kemi Lala Akindoju, Seun Ajayi, Tope Tedela, Beverly Naya, Linda Ejiofor, Enyinna Nwigwe and is scheduled for cinema release nationwide on February 12, 2016.

Femi Kuti slams fan AFROBEAT act, Femi Kuti, has reacted to a fan who criticised him over his deafening silence on political matters and other national issues in the country.

The four-time Grammy Award nominee, in a series of tweets, blasted the concerned fan that he doesn’t listen to his music or attend his shows at the Afrikan Shrine. “Teacher don’t teach me nonsense. u don’t know what I do/say. I am Not here to argue with gov funded people-@femiakuti”. He tweeted. Again, he said: “Since u have the solution do it. Why advice me. Mr King Alladin of Nigeria or Mecca?–@ femiakuti” The fan had labeled Femi as being “silent” and “not supportive” of his brother, Seun Kuti, who is usually vocal about national matters.

20

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune With Segun Adebayo &Seyi Sokoya tegbollistic@yahoo.com seyi_sky@yahoo.com 08116954644 08132577840

Why I won’t condemn Olamide over Headies’ war of words with Don Jazzy —VJ Adams Video jockey and ‘Soundcity’ presenter, Adams Ibrahim Adebola, a.k.a VJ Adams’ career has continued to rise since he came into limelight after he contested at the 2008 edition of Next Movie Star West Africa. In this interaction with SEYI SOKOYA, he speaks on his plans for the future. Excerpts:

A

S a stakeholder in the Nigerian entertainment industry, what is your take on the war of words between Olamide and Don Jazzy at the Headies Awards held recently

in Lagos?

I think people have begun to express themselves a little better and stand to speak up on how they sincerely feel about issues affecting them. A lot of people condemned Olamide’s conduct, but personally I did not condemn him. I only condemned the vulgar part of his conduct. I only have a little reservation about his utterance at a live event, though he has apologised. I don’t think there is any problem about what he did by expressing his dissatisfaction. Thank God the whole issue is over now. However, I am happy to be part of this growing industry, knowing that the entertainment industry is now being referred to as the benchmark for the entire continent. Honestly, it is overwhelming to be part of this industry.

It seems you also support Olamide’s conduct?

No. I am not taking sides. From the visual that I saw, Olamide spoke to the Headies. Is there anything wrong in speaking about a show? And, for Don Jazzy, he also expressed himself the way he felt was good for him. Perhaps, he thought Olamide was referring to him, but the good thing is that the beef has been quashed. I am glad that peace has been restored.

A lot of artistes have been revealing their plans for the year, what should your fans expect from you?

Definitely more music. At present, I do more music, TV and fashion. I am putting out another collection of my brand tagged: ‘VJ Adams Shirts lines’ and my TV works will start live broadcast and red carpets in a bigger way any moment from now. Though, I was a little bit quiet with my music last year, I only did two songs, but I am coming out stronger this year; I am ready, because I have a couple of songs. I just did a debut as a rapper; that was few days ago and the responses have been awesome. I have also been getting calls for collaboration. For me, it is a good start. I just toured Ibadan last week and it was thrilling. I visited media houses and places and I was treated well.

How have you been able to combine music, fashion and broadcasting?

Literally, I don’t sleep. I get three to four hours sleep everyday. I am aware that it is not a good thing health wise, but I know I am just trying to fulfill my potentials. We only have one life to live. I usually tell people that it is so funny that when you die, your so-called friends and closed ones won’t attend your burial. So, what is the point? Rather flaunt your Continues on pg21

21 glitz

17 January, 2016

‘Flaunt your potential because ...’

Continues from pg20

potential, live your dreams, inspire and empower people as much as you can because everything stops for you when you are gone. As for me, I have been able to discover and re-discover myself. I enjoy what I do and it has really shaped my life for good. The TV comes first and I can never leave it for anything. I recently had a discussion with my boss on whether I should be given a space, but I insisted and made him realise that I am enjoying, and I love what I do. This is what brought me into limelight and has helped me gain more confidence as an entertainer.

How did you find your way into the industry?

The journey became brighter when I contested at the 2008 edition of Next Movie Star West Africa, a reality TV show that had the likes of Uti, Karen, Ego and Tonto Dike among others. The show was primarily for acting, but I had done BBC certified broadcast training in Lagos before I was part of that show. I was ready to go on TV as a presenter, but the opportunity then came to me under a reality show which I did. I was supposed to pursue acting as a career immediately I finished the show, but I realised that I won’t be the number one actor and I would like to be the number one. So, I focused on TV for three years and I am grateful to God for where I am today.

How is the experience like as a TV presenter for the past three years?

It has been great and interesting. When you are talking about experience, this is the only thing anyone cannot take away from you. Even money can’t buy it. I know what this entails. I have had cause to sleep in the office, not because I had no option nor where to sleep then, but I chose to sleep at the office just to make things work. I have worked for people who were going through crisis for eight months without salaries and did not resign. However, I may say this is the part of the dues I have paid. I never got distracted nor feel dejected then. I have learnt a lot with the little experience I have garnered in the industry, because I know I will become a boss some day. I already know how it feels. I am aiming to be perfect in what I am doing because I have decided to be a reputable presenter and musician for life. I have a lot of respect for journalists. People need to realise that to sit back to research on stories and write stories for people to read, honestly, it’s a lot of work and I am grateful for everything I have been able to achieve within the space of about six years I have found myself in this industry.

How have you been able to create your style and brand in broadcasting?

The fact remains that whatever works for one person might not necessarily work for another. My fans call me the ‘king of talk’ and as a result of this, I don’t have to go weird or do anything unnecessary than to be who I am.

When I took the job, no one in this part of the world ever answered to the name VJ (Video jockey), so no one attached VJ to their names. Now, the younger generation are beginning to look up to me, especially with the connection of the name. Being a video jockey on Soundcity is a great privilege.

What were your parents’ take when they discov-

I am a very good cook. I learnt how to cook because my father does not eat outside... So, a typical day for me when I am not working or trying not to work, I would be cooking as well as play video games.

Sunday Tribune

ered that your passion for broadcasting was real?

It was the same as the typical Nigerian stories. Parents usually don’t support one doing entertainment in the beginning. All parents will always want the best for their children, so, I understood where they were coming from. My father said at first that this is what I should do on one side, and not the main thing to do for a living, but I made him realise that this is a responsible job where people get paid well and respected. It is not different from being a banker or any other professional job. It wasn’t until I convinced him before he and the entire family supported me fully.

That this has worked for me, I urge youths to also cultivate the habit of politely convincing their parents on their choice of passion.

Are you satisfied with the situation of things in the broadcasting field?

I am never satisfied. I always think that there are greater and bigger things to look forward to. There is a better way things can be done in the industry. At present, we now do live broadcast of events, especially from red carpets, which was not the case five years ago. I also think there are better ways to suit the audience than how we go about it before. We should always give room for more initiatives and innovations to make the industry more interesting.

Could you recall any nasty experience you had with any celeb in the course of engaging them at events?

I won’t say I had clash with any celeb, but I would rather say I have had encounters with them, because for me, I have always been a professional and always poised to do my work in my own unique way. I am always professional whenever I am on the red carpet and as a presenter, I work on the guests for any show, just as I research on likely people I might come across. As usual, I would find out what is going on in your life. As a presenter, one needs to study people’s mood, especially celebs, because they are not obliged to answer all questions. So, one needs to be able to manage that area very well in order to get vital information.

How would you describe yourself?

I think I have allowed broadcast to eat so much into my personal life. Everything around me is all about work. For example, I don’t know what vacation is like in my last five years because even when I have two days to rest, I would still have to write music or find something doing in my studio at home. My personal life is very simple. I am in my room and I pray when I am ready for the day, or for a shoot or a meeting. I ensure I cook whenever I am indoor because I like cooking a lot. I am a very good cook. I learnt how to cook because my father does not eat outside. I think his stomach is very sensitive, so he has to eat always at home. Being the last of five kids, there is no way I would not have a reason to be at home with my daddy, especially when my mum and my other siblings were not around and he had to eat; I do the cooking. That was how I fell in love with cooking. So, a typical day for me when I am not working or trying not to work, I would be cooking as well as play video games. I cherish these moments pretty much because I hardly sleep.

How do you get the courage and confidence in facing difficult persons in the course of discharging your duty as a presenter?

It has been through divine wisdom. I don’t have to go high or do the extraordinary to source for techniques in engaging anyone. Part of the reasons I have refused to be a drink addict is to prove a point and to correct the wrong impression about the industry.

I ask myself should I start drinking? It doesn’t make you a better presenter or a musician. Mind you, I am not judging anyone, especially those who drink, smoke and do whatever they do to be high, it is their business because at the end of the day you will be buried alone when you die and no one’s opinion will change your grave site. But personally, I don’t smoke nor drink. I don’t think it is necessary neither will it change anything.

22

17 January, 2016

entartainment

Sunday Tribune with Segun Adebayo tegbollistic@yahoo.com 08116954644

323 boss, TeeBliz signs CDQ TIWA Savage’s husband and owner 323 Entertainment outfit, TeeBlizz is starting the new year with a bang. Having welcomed the mouth-watering endorsement deal for his wife from Pampers last week, TeeBliz has also confirmed that he has signed CDQ to his outfit.

CDQ was one of the few names that took the music industry by storm last year with his hit singles which gave his huge face-lift and took him to different stages for performances.

Kiss Daniel may soon move into Lekki home

I’m not a prostitute — Victoria Kimani

K

ENYAN-BORN singer and Chocolate City artiste, Victoria Kimani has expressed sadness over the unabated negative comments she received from people daily, with most of them suggesting her to be a prostitute.

Kimani wrote a passionate appeal on her Instagram page days back where she poured out her mind on the stream of negative comments that keep trailing her music career for a long time.

The Choc City songstress has carved a niche for herself as one of the respected music stars currently doing the African continent proud with her style of music and jaw-dropping stage performances, where she usually appears in skimpy dresses.

Kimani said people need to start re-

specting female entertainers and urged them to stop assuming they are prostitutes because they are performers.

The post read:”The amount of negativity, rumors, gossip, assumptions, judgement , hypocrisy, Threats and over all EVIL EYE that is pointed towards these particular women is out of this world!

NO!! Just because I’m a female doesn’t mean I work for free!! NO! Just because I’m a business woman with standards doesn’t make me a Bi$(h .... Yes... If I want to date someone that’s A.) My business and B.) Up to my better judgement on who I want to invite into my life. C.) It’s complicated .... AND ....NO.... Just because I am singing to you in a cute outfit on stage and on your TV... Does NOT MAKE ME A PROSTITUTE “.

ANIDUGBE Oluwatobiloba Daniel, also known as Kiss Daniel is start-

Sunkanmi shines in Ibadan

By Soji Bamikarere

FAST-RISING female singer, Sunkami’s recent visit to the city of Ibadan would not be forgotten by many in a jiffy. The talented singer made history over the weekend in the city when she embarked on a media tour which took her to clubs, media houses and was wrapped up at the Film House cinemas.

The visit, which was put up by Coded Media and Scream Awards organisers was part of Sunkanmi’s plans to engage

Disclosing the news on his Instagram handle on Friday, Teebliz said he hopes to have a good year “May God help me with the success that my heart desires for this undeniable talent, CDQ as I welcome him to the 323 family”, he said.

He had promised to give his entertainment outfit a major boost this year, and with the coming on board of CDQ, it goes to show how far TeeBliz plans to go this year.

her fans and to meet with media stakeholders in the city who have contributed largely to the success she has recorded so far since she started releasing songs.

Sunkami became the first artiste ever to create massive buzz in the space of two days as the Scream Award and Nigerian Entertainment Awards nominee visited ten radio stations, top five clubs/lounges and rounded it up with the meet and greet session, aside being a special guest at a popular talent hunt show in the city.

ing the new year in a big way,according to the news coming out from his side.

Information gathered by E on Friday revealed that Daniel who broke into the music industry with his popular track, Woju may soon move into his new Lekki home anytime from now.

Daniel who survived an auto crash unhurt during the week was said to have concluded plans to move into the new apartment in a matter of days.

A very close source to the the G-Worldwide artiste, who did not give his name said “Kiss Daniel has worked very hard in the last two years to earn himself the good life he currently enjoys. It is true that he will be moving into his Lekki home anytime soon. We are all happy for him and we wish him well as he continues to grow in the industry.

This year will even be greater than the last, because what we have on ground currently is bigger than what anybody else has seen before”, the source said.

23

17 January, 2016

sundayzest

Sunday Tribune

With Victory Oyeleke victoryoyeleke@yahoo.com

For those not keeping up with the sexual madness that seems to have the world in its grasp, throuple is any combination of men and women in a relationship.

T

HROUPLE has been gaining momentum for some time now but got more exposure in 2015 as several people ditched the traditional “two is a couple” for “three is a couple” and publicly admitted to it. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are filled with videos and pictures of couples presently involved in the three-way- relationship. Though pictures do not tell the full story, majority of these couples seem genuinely happy and comfortable with each other.

For those not keeping up with the sexual madness that seems to have the world in its grasp, throuple is any combination of men and women in a relationship.

The concept is not new because throuple is just a different kind of polyamory and polyamorous relationships which are the bedrock of African marriages but throuple departs from the conventional one man two women situation to include same sex and one woman two men.

The first throuple that got the Internet buzzing was the three Massachusetts lesbians who claimed to have gotten married to each other in 2013.

Doll, Kitten and Brynn Young exchanged vows in a commitment ceremony, with all three brides wearing white and traditional wedding veils.

The women told UK Sun that, they sleep together in the same bed, and have sex as a threesome, as well as in pairs.

“We all have time together but it’s also important for each pair of people to nurture their individual relationships,” said Doll, 30 who also admits things could get steamy between the sheets.

“It sometimes gets a bit too

Throuple - The new three-way relationship

warm when you’re trying to sleep because there are three of us under the bed sheets,” she said.

Each woman has her own household role.

“I’m the breadwinner, as I work a 40-hour week and make the majority of the family’s income,” said Brynn, who had been married twice to women before tying the

knot with Kitten.

“Doll does the cooking, and Kitten does the cleaning. It works perfectly for us.”

The Thailand trio became the new sensation in 2015 after pictures of their wedding quickly went viral.

Though Thai law does not recog-

nise same-sex marriages, Joke, 29, Bell, 21, and Art, threw a symbolic ceremony under Buddhist law.

“I think we are first three-way same-sex males to have a wedding — possibly in the world,” said Bell.

“Some people may not agree and are probably amazed by our decision, but we believe many people

do understand and accept our choice. Love is love, after all.”

Also anchoring on the love is love notion is three Canadian male nurses; Shayne Curran, Adam Grant and Sebastian Tran. The trio started their relationship in 2012 and claims the relationship makes them the best people they can be. They all sleep together on a king size bed so as not to alienate anyone and are looking forward to having children using all their genetics.

Shayne’s two sisters have both offered to carry their children so the children can be as genetically close as possible.

34-year old Adam Lyons is living with his two girlfriends Brooke Shedd 26, and Jane Shalakhova, 25 in Los Angeles is another satisfied throuple. This trio also shares a king size bed and are happy to be in the relationship. Between them, they have got two children and have a system of support that seem to work for them.

Unlike traditional polygamous relationship- where the men takes the women in turns, the cardinal rule for throuple seem to be sharing of the same bed every night.

All the throuples mentioned above share king-size beds.

Throuple is about division of labour as everyone involve has a specific role. Supporters of this relationship argues that, it creates a bigger family income which is the same argument used to justify marrying many wives as there would be more hands in the field which in turn increases the family productivity and harvest.

For those of us that are conventional, throuple is just another way of eradicating monogamy but the sad truth is, how long can monogamy survive?. There are different route to companionship these days that most of us can relate to throuple more than monogamy.

Being in love with someone whilst attracted to another happens all the time and throuple gives the opportunity to ride out your fantasy without hurting any one or does it?

Tales of polygamous relations are filled with anger, jealousy, and conflicts. So, no matter how well-run a throuple is, there would always be a hurting party.

24

17 January, 2016

makeover

Sunday Tribune

Rita Okonoboh 08053789087 rosarumese@gmail.com

Mascara tips for short

eyelashes

S

HORT eyelashes, for stylish women, are sometimes considered a burden, hence eyelash extension addiction. There are, however, women who would rather work with their natural short lashes.

Beauty enthusiast, Heather Jensen, shares a few tips for applying mascara on short eyelashes: Use an eyelash curler Eyelash curlers actually will curl your eyelashes upward and make them appear longer. The trick is to use the eyelash curler before you use your mascara. Remember that!

Lengthening mascara The top mascara tip for short eyelashes is using lengthening mascara.

The right product helps lashes look beautiful and stand out. The brush alone is absolutely wonderful and gets every lash coated perfectly!

Double-up on mascara When you find that ideal mascara, it’s time to double-up! Basically, you’re going to place one coat on and before your first coat dries, you’ll go back over it and coat it again. You want to make sure that you do it before it dries, otherwise you’ll end up with spider mascara and that won’t lengthen anything!

Volumizing mascara This is absolutely the key to lengthening short eyelashes! This mascara tip for short eyelashes is all about lengthening and this mascara will keep your eyelashes curled and looking beautiful.

Brush your eyelashes If you use an eyebrow brush to comb on through your lashes before you put on your mascara, you’ll see how much of a difference it makes! Not only will you get every single lash, but your lashes will look that much better!

Curved mascara brushes The mascara brush inside the mascara absolutely matters! You want something that is going to be flexible and not pull your eyelashes down or coat them too heavy.

No dense brushes A dense brush can actually coat your lashes too much and weigh them down.

You want a brush that is curved, flexible and going to be really loose! Try it!

How to apply black

lipstick

By Oluwatomisin Akingbolu

2

016 looks like a year more ladies will embrace darker shades of lipstick. And for the more daring, black will be a statement colour. Below are five tips on how to wear the darkest lipstick: Prepare your lips This is an important first step, because dark lips can amplify the surface of your lips, and show if they are cracked and can make your lipstick look very messy. To avoid this, make use of a toothbrush over your lips to brush off dead skin, or use a lip balm on it.

Pick the right black Not all black lipsticks are created equally. So, when choosing a black lipstick, it is important to get one that you’ve heard about or seen someone use. This way, you already have an idea of what your finished lips would look like, and it prevents you from having experiences like lip stains or dryness. And if you are not in the mood for absolutely, black, there are a range of other colours

to choose from, such as dark purple. This will still give the illusion of black and will gradually make your choice of pure black a little easier.

Use a lip brush When applying dark lipstick, a lot more precision is required.

So it is better to use a lip brush when putting to avoid making mistakes and smudges on other parts of your makeup.

Set it Black lipstick can be quite elusive compared to other lip colours, so you need to give it more attention. After successful applying the lip colour, use tissue to dab it gently, then reapply to add a bit of volume. One can also apply translucent powder to give the lipstick staying power.

Keep the rest of the makeup neutral Wearing a black lip can create a lot of attention. So to avoid being an annoying distraction, keep the rest of your make up neutral and easy. Try as much as possible to avoid loud-coloured makeup on the other parts of your face.

25

17 January, 2016

relationships

. . . issues, family, sex

Sunday Tribune

Rita Okonoboh 08053789087 rosarumese@gmail.com

Maintaining a successful

no-sex

relationship

Set clear boundaries, build trust The couple should agree on just how far they are willing to go and commit themselves to the agreement. It could be holding hands, kissing, hugs – whatever works for you. What is important is to ensure that you can both determine how much control you have over the relationship. You could go as far as agreeing never to spend late hours at a partner’s place. It all depends on how much you trust your level of control.

George Martin and Scott Myers of Summit Ministries note that “If two people do not cherish sex enough to wait for a marriage commitment, how can they trust one another for fidelity? Conversely, a man

Random Fact

Photo: www.btellyouallcom

W

ITH the increased rate of sex-related music, movies, advertisements and even sermons, it may become quite difficult to maintain a no-sex relationship, especially for young couples, who feel left out in a world that seems to condone sex, and its attendant consequences.

While many may argue on various notions such as “you don’t buy a car without testing it” – it’s saddening that humans have been reduced to mere objects of fancy – or even the opinion that “having sex before marriage helps the couple to determine better compatibility” – forgetting that a person may likely sleep with over 100 people, of various shapes, sizes, and even diseases, before s/he settles for ‘the one’ - however hard it may seem, whether the couple has had sex or not, keeping the courtship aspect a strictly no-sex partnership has many benefits and can actually help the couple become stronger.

Keeping a relationship without sex, be it through sexting (having sex through chats) or the real physical activity, helps the couple with fidelity issues and even increases companionship, especially as it relates to ensuring that one is in control when the partner is away for a long period, in times of sickness, or even old age.

A few ways to keep the romance alive, without resorting to sex include:

and woman build trust and respect for one another when they both survive the struggles of self-control — each will have the confidence that the other respects them, and cherishes their intimacy.”

Work on your communication While some people may advocate staying apart or showing affection only in public places, it shouldn’t rule out spending private quality time together. With the state of the economy and the many weird things reported in the news daily, there are a million and one things to talk and laugh about. Simply bask in the comfort the partner’s presence presents and stay in charge. After all, many people have sex without necessarily being love, so why can’t one be in love without having sex.

Indulge in more surprises Surprising your significant other is a sure-fire way to show them just how much you appreciate the gift of their love. Surprises do not have to cost a fortune. It could even be as little as buying a book or a movie or even getting tickets to a show.

It’s the small things that matter.

When you trip over love, it is easy to get up. But when you fall in love, it is impossible to stand again. —Albert Einstein

Enjoy the mystery Nobody ever said sex was a ticket to living forever so it can as well be done without. As long as the relationship hasn’t translated into marriage, sex can be comfortably kept out of the question, but it is absolutely important that the couple is in agreement. Having great sex before marriage is rarely a guarantee that the marriage will be a bed of roses. What happens if there is a big break between the couple as a result of distance or health challenges?

Share hobbies From taking a walk to reading or even watching a game together, sharing hobbies helps to improve interest in your partner’s likes, which will in turn make the relationship better. It also helps to distract from sexual activities, and instead improves real connection.

If two people do not cherish sex enough to wait for a marriage commitment, how can they trust one another for fidelity?

Remember diseases, single parenthood No matter how careful a person is when it comes to taking sexual precautions, nothing beats total abstinence. Many baby mamas may not say it, but being a single parent is very hard, whether planned or not. Nothing beats the joy of raising a child as a family. Besides, the relationship may not work out.

There is no time like the present. Keeping sexual activity out of relationships is very possible, whether it has taken place or is in consideration. As they say, “better late than never.”

Create a time-out No matter how close you are, or if you feel the need to be with each other every second of each day, taking time out for the individual helps you to maintain focus and not drain the life out of the union. Too much closeness may result in sex.

26

17 January, 2016

With Akintayo Abodunrin akinjaa03@yahoo.co.uk 08111813058

I knew I was a girl at age 5

—Imanni Da Silva, Africa’s first transgender The Angolan model, artist and actress spoke at a session to explore the complex psycho-sexual issues of those whose anatomy does not match what they instinctively feel at the last Ake Arts & Book Festival in Abeokuta, Ogun State

G

IVEN its theme, ‘Engaging the Fringe’, it was no surprise that a number of lesbian, gay bisexual and transgender (LGBT) were at the last Ake Arts & Book Festival in Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Festival founder, Lola Shoneyin, had forewarned during a media briefing that the theme was specifically chosen to focus on “genres and creative endeavour that do not get the same attention as art forms considered as mainstream” and that the festival will also explore “topics about African life and living in Africa in an honest, open and constructive way.”

Though Shoneyin had hinted at what to expect, many did not foresee Africa’s first transgender, Angolan TV presenter, model, contemporary artist, actress and writer, Imanni Da Silva at the festival. But not only was she there, the ex-beauty queen who now lives and works between Luanda and London had a frank conversation with Shoneyin’s husband, Olaokun Soyinka.

Interestingly, another session which explored the status of the LGBT community in Nigeria and Africa preceded Soyinka’s conversation with Da Silva. It featured the screening of the documentary, ‘Behind the Veil’ and a discussion moderated by Bibi Bakare-Yusuf of Cassava Republic. Bisi Alimi and writer Jude Dibia were some of the discussants.

Expectedly, Soyinka and Da Silva’s conversation attracted many people who listened with rapt attention as the woman described by British magazine, HEDONIST, as Africa’s first transgender model to work in Africa frankly spoke about herself and preferences.

“I am, before anything, a human being; a transgender and I had always felt that I was a girl,” the Angolan began by way of introduction. She disclosed that she had her first crush at five and felt most comfortable in female attires and shoes. She also prefers being with females and that “I have worked hard to be able to be happy because you only have one chance to live and I have become the change I wanted to be.”

She added that she “had always felt a female inside” and has been lucky to have met people who don’t judge her but take her as she is in her foray into fashion and modern art amongst other engagements.

While some parents would have beaten the daylights out of her, the transgender who had earlier expressed appreciation to festival organisers for inviting her, said her mother and siblings supported her

Imanni Da Silva and had no qualms when she decided to have a sex change.

“Mum inspired me. She remained strong; she never judged me and neither

did my siblings. My parents always told me you can be what you want to be,” she said, adding that the sex change was just to match her feelings as a woman.

Born in Luanda, Angola in 1981, Da-Silva, who was androgynous for several years eventually transitioned into a woman five years ago when she had an operation to remove her male genitalia; replacing it with that of a female. She also had hormone injections that toned down her masculine features and enhanced her feminine ones.

“Yes, I’ve had an operation. I had it four years ago and it was a big step because there’s no way back. I have no regrets at all,” said the model who advised people interested in following her steps to read extensively and contact the right professionals before deciding to go under the knife.

She disclosed that she researched widely before having the operation in London and that she benefitted from the support of various organisations that organised counselling sessions for her before the surgery. Da Silva didn’t fail to mention the NHS for its support.

The painter who also touched on the differences between trans-sexuality and homosexuality said her decision to change her sex had no negative impact on her family. She disclosed that though she lost her father seven years ago, other members of her family remained supportive. She added that she had a religious upbringing but that she had no issues changing to a woman because it’s what she’s always wanted. “I changed to match how I feel,” she said.

Giving her take on women issues in Africa, the model admitted that women go through a lot of pain on the continent and advocated for their empowerment and emancipation.

On the reaction of the Angolan society to her decision and to other members of the LBGT community, Da Silva who represented the country at the 2012 Miss International Queen pageant organised in Thailand for the most beautiful transgender women in the world, said it is mixed.

She however disclosed that she works with an NGO that sensitizes people on this and that she also hosts a TV show where she enlightens people and let them know there is nothing abnormal in being LBGT. On how she handles male admirers, especially those that want to get intimate; Da Silva said the relationship would have reached a level where she would be comfortable to tell the guy about her past but that how the person chooses to react is left to him.

She sidestepped a follow up question on if she experiences orgasm during intimacy with a coy smile.

Though she had always felt the urge to be female, the artist who has exhibited her works in Angola and London said the thought of having a child never crossed her mind.

“It has never been part of my dreams to be a mother,” she stated matter-of-factly in response to a question about the average African woman wanting to be a mother.

27

arts&culture

17 January, 2016

The Aroma of Verses A review of Samuel Osaze’s Aroma of a Burning Bush by Femi Morgan SAMUEL Osaze’s Aroma of a Burning Bush seeks to explore national, social and popular issues in his debut collection of poetry. The book opens like an epilogue with a commentary by Reginald Ofodile.

This commentary impresses upon the reader his own postulations on the book.

In my opinion, the book leaps into several prisms of meaning that do not necessary conform to the intellectual remarks of Ofodile. This is what makes Osaze’s Aroma of a Burning Bush a splendid collection.

The poet’s style is in free verse, which serves the content and the imagery of the collection. There is no form to fire and there are different forms of fire. It is within the tensions of fire and aroma that the poet considers the environmental and socio-political as well as the emotional, sensual and philosophic verses in no strategic order. Nigeria becomes the land torched by forest fire without a face to claim responsibility. The political class convolutes into a reductionist slave-driving class that deprives their ‘animals’ of food until they can no longer bear the pain, yet protest is

caged.

For the poet, the Nigerian citizen is trudging the desert without a ‘Moses’ and without a ‘promised land’ and the imagery of selfishness is apt. Nevertheless, the people rely on flashes of hope that are packaged as lies on their necks of fantasy, while the wealthy drink from the source of thirst. The poet assumes the voice of the silence and the mummers; he hopes that words which constitute the nationhood can be used to reconstruct its ruling class.

Poems like ‘To the Slave Driver’ (10), ‘Gnashing of a Nation’s Teeth’ (20) among others are political poems that cut a trope for second and third generation poets because of despotic governments in the country.

Nevertheless, new democratic circumstances have led many into a more profound dismay. This is the reality that the poet re-invents with the apt metaphor of contrasts in the history of Nigeria. The fact remains that the people are disillusioned as leaders have not kept their campaign promises; instead they have enriched themselves with mansions overlooking shanties in places like Kaiama, in the poem, ‘Kaiama’ 2010 (27).

Aroma of a Burning Bush ‘My Pastor’ is a short poem. It envelopes the character of the emerging Pentecostalism of Nigerian hue where the words are not in tandem with the moral and spiritual principles of God’s word. Gospel is a mass manufacture of the pastor’s carbon copy.

‘BHS 1998’ (28) is an outburst of tribute to

Show Boy, Sosorakota, Serifatu and other tales A review of Dipo Kalejaiye’s Letters to the Grammarians by RUFUS KEHINDE

L

ETTERS to the Grammarians is a collection of correspondences to fellow students

by Dipo Kalejaiye, until recently a professor of English at Prince George’s Community College, Largo, Maryland, United States of America.

Kalejaiye earned a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Literature from the University of California at Berkeley, and Master’s and doctorate degrees in Theatre Arts from the San Jose State University. He earned his nickname, Wole Soyinka/Kongi, from his Ph. D dissertation titled ‘Ritual and Revolution in Selected Plays of Wole Soyinka’ Back in Nigeria after spending 35 years in the US, Kalejaiye is currently Head, Department of Performing Arts and Cultural studies at Lead City University, Ibadan.

Letters to the Grammarians is a reflection on his growing up years in a boarding house at African Church Grammar School, Apata-Ganga, Ibadan and it comprises nine letters.

The first letter, ‘A letter to Allan Parker’ contains the blood curdling incantation to the Yoruba god of trickery, mischief, disruption and the crossroads – Esu. The incantation is used to nullify the evil spell Baba Mufu, the yam farmer, cast around his farm to deter students from stealing his crop in the middle of the night.

‘A letter to Aranmsko’ recalls the students adventurous trip in the forest and how they stumble upon the activities of the Yoruba all – male secret cult, Oro. The third letter is about the author’s determination to make his school proud in

Cover page the All Secondary School Amateur Athletics Competition held at the Liberty Stadium, now known as Obafemi Awolowo Stadium, Ibadan.

Beauty and sophistication is the pre-occupation of the fourth letter. The author recalls his association with a school mate, Show Boy, who takes him to the famous Kingsway Store to eat breakfast and later takes him to Lagos At age 14, sex is a confusing topic for Kalejaiye who however finds himself in a situation where he has to make a decision about it. The fact that he has no previous experience does not help matters, especially with his friend, Sosorakota rubbing

this fact in. He has no choice than to vote with his legs from Serifatu, the beautiful 15-year- old daughter of a night club owner, who is more experienced in such matters and who tries to seduce him. The author revisits this in the fifth letter written to Sosorakota.

Kalejaiye recalls the kindness of one of his seniors at African Church Grammar School, Young Olowe, in the sixth letter in this very graphic book which attests to his ability to remember events that happened well over 50 years ago. He does not forget the names and nicknames of his school mates and writes in such a way that the reader will feel the events are happening right now.

The author’s recollection of how his Uncle and his wife at Apata got seriously injured in hot vegetable oil and getting lost in the jungle where he eventually meets Oro adherents will tug at the heartstrings of the emotional reader. The author’s vivid account is surreal!

Another strength of Letters to the Grammarians is the author’s excellent use of English which makes the work almost poetical.

However, in spite of the author’s excellent grasp of English and his ability to vividly recall past events, his over 35 years sojourn in the US is noticeable with his adoption of American spellings.

Though it touches on Kalejaiye’s past, Letters to the Grammarians is not completely biographical as it does not mention the author’s parents, background, primary school and other details.

Thankfully, this does not stop it from being a good read.

•Kehinde teaches in the Department of Theatre Arts, Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo.

comradeship as against tribalism. Other poems like ‘Punch the Air at my Coming’ (39) is a song by a persona-in-Diaspora returning home. The poem relies on trajectory of ancestry and the expectant celebration of a long lost son.

‘Head on the Anvil’ (46) and ‘Dance of the Dead’ (47) are poems of memory, while ‘When Rain Came’ (52) and ‘To A Stream at Apata, Ibadan’ (54) are poems that tell of the struggle between vegetation and concrete modernity. The poem ‘Aroma of a Burning Bush’ (42) from whence the title of the collection is derived juxtaposes the sacrifice of motherhood, the urgency of existence under deplorable infrastructure as a result of greed in continuum. It also speaks to the fundamental truths of the changing times where innocence gives way for the fire of selfishness.

This follows a tribute to the author’s late mother in ‘I heard the Knell of your Going’ (59), a poem that captures the idea of foreboding, of the inevitability of death and the conception of personal heroes in the pantheon of ancestral gods. Osaze’s poems also venture to the personal as he gives tribute to his mentors, Jahman Anikulapo, co-curator of the Lagos Book and Arts Festival (LABAF) and chair of Committee for Relevant Art (CORA); and Eriata Oribhabor, a writer and editor in ‘A Stage for the Sage’ (82), where he argues that money does not make a great man.

This poem serves as a bit of an epilogue as well as a resonance of nostalgia for the poet.

There are also romantic and sensual poems. These poems woo, they seduce, and pay homage to beauty and character.

‘What the Older Goose Knows’ (57) tells a young goose to employ the Sankofa principle; why would one fail in making hay with a young and prospective lover, when there is an older goose to show the way?

It tells the young goose to be careful for her height of pride. ‘What you Call Perfect Love’ (61) tries to define love between lovers, while ‘Slain by my Affection’ (65) conjures the emotion of a heartbreak.

‘I am the String of Your Song’ (67), ‘The Mirror’ (69), ‘Open the Gate of Heaven’ (71), ‘Fire and Water’ (72), ‘Beyond the Face’ (75), among others do not compromise the vehicle of flames and fire but enrich the oeuvre of reading the collection.

These poems are passionate ventilations, they are sensual and sometimes picturesquely lewd. They are poems that thrive from the youth of experience gained.

I would have loved to see the poems properly categorised or segmented in order for readers to navigate the verses with a sense of interpretative clarity. I would have also loved to see a more robust imagery of the fourth sense which would have given the collection a notch of praises.

Nevertheless, Osaze makes up for his shortcomings with apt words, beautiful imagery and a certain narrative signature that keeps the reader glad to have picked the book from a bookstore.

The poet has warmed my heart with a new aroma by bringing together a familiar dish of political poems, with the conversation of local spices and leaves. The poet has lent to his poem a dessert of love poems, simple delights of life that help us exist in difficult socio-political times.

•Morgan is managing partner and ED. Business Development for WriteHouse Collective

28

Sunday Tribune

Sunday Tribune

17 January, 2016

glamour

With Tayo Gesinde temiligali03@yahoo.com 09092439762

Ine Aju, known as Miss Independent, in the entertainment industry, is a multitalented singer, songwriter, model and actress, who hails from Cross River State.

The sexy pop star, who has to her credit hit songs like Sexy and Naughty and No Forming, speaks with TAYO GESINDE, on her career, fashion preferences and how she handles advances from her male fans. Excerpts:

Music business consumes a whole lot of money and without good money to give yourself a good push, you ain’t going anywhere.

G

rowing up Growing up for me was cool, but at some point it became a bit sour because mom and dad separated and my mom had to single-handedly take care of my four siblings and I, which wasn't easy at all.

Foray into the entertainment industry.

I got into the movie industry in 2007. A friend of mine introduced me to a friend of his who happened to be a director of photography in the industry and that friend of his spoke about me to a movie director he had been working with. The director auditioned me and luckily, I got a role in my first movie entitled ‘Years in Rome” in 2007, after which I did a few other movies and soap operas like: Clinic Matters, Royal Dilemma, Desire, King of Kings and so on. But things weren't going the way I wanted them to, so I switched to the other thing I love and know how to do so well, which is music. And so far, so good, I'm more about the music for now ,although I intend going back to the movies but in a bigger and better way. I want to produce my own films and star myself in my own films.

Role models My role models in the movie industry are: Genevieve Nnaji, Ramsey Nouah, Chidi Mokeme and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde. In the music industry, my role models are Beyonce, Rihanna, Nicky Minaj, and Cleo Patra.

Artistes I would like to do ‘collabo’ with The artistes I'll love to do ‘collabo’ with are Busy Signal, Beyonce, Usher, Rihanna, Pato Ranking, Phyno and Tiwa Savage.

What distinguishes my music from others What differentiates my music from others are my sound and the lyrics. My lyrics are always dope. I write the way I feel and say things the way they really are.

Challenges faced The challenges I've been facing as an upcoming artiste are more of finances. Music business consumes a whole lot of money and without good money to give yourself a good push, you ain't going anywhere.

Definition of style My definition of style is comfort. However, you do it just to make sure you are comfortable.

Beauty regimen I drink a lot of water. I work out and eat more of fruits to stay beautiful and in shape.

Choice of accessories I love good wristwatches, neck chains and anklets.

What I can’t be caught dead wearing There's nothing I won't be caught dead wearing. I'm a crazy person. I can wear or do anything depending on my mood.

I am a crazy person...I can do anything —Ine Aju

29

Opinion on toning I personally do not like people toning their skin, especially when it gives them dark knuckles, that irritates me. So if you ask me, I'll say use a cream or soap that suits your skin, one that will enhance it and not destroy it.

What I will like to change about myself There is nothing I'll like to change about myself, because I feel beautiful and very comfortable in my own skin.

My take on cosmetic surgery Cosmetic surgery to me isn’t bad. If it will make you feel beautiful and happy, do it. But be careful not to do it with a quack surgeon.

My view on provocative dressing As an entertainer, if you must dress provocatively, do it to the right places, maybe on stage, for photo shoots and to some social events, but not to church or other very serious places o.

Special treat If I want to pamper myself, I go for a massage, manicure and pedicure.

Qualities I want in a man The qualities I want in a man are: he must be hardworking and God-fearing. Every other thing will sort itself out.

How I handle advances from my male fans Advances from male fans are like a normal thing to me. I'm kind of used to them already. I talk to them politely and try to show them how much I appreciate them as friends and fans.

Favourite colour and perfume I don't have a favourite perfume or colour. I love any perfume that smells really nice and with a long lasting fragrance. For colours, I love bright colours ,because I’ve got a chocolate skin colour so I love colours that will bring my skin colour out.

Stepping up my game To step up my game in order to be a household name, I intend to be consistent and to do better songs that both old and young can relate with.

30

aspire

17 January, 2016

BY OLAIDE SOKOYA 0807 449 7425 (sms only)

ollydesanmi@yahoo.com

Looking for white collar job is like waiting for eternity—Lai-Folorunso Gbemisola Omolabake Lai-Folorunso is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of His Grace International Cakes and Confectioneries. She speaks with OLAIDE SOKOYA about her career, what has kept her and the business going and how youths can be successful, among others. Excerpts:

H

OW did His Grace Cakes and Confectionaries start?

It started as any other small business would start. It started as a result of the passion I have had for it when I was young. Each time I went to parties and I saw fine cakes, I always admired them and I would wonder how the cakes were made. During my Ordinary National Diploma (OND) days, my roommate baked and she would walk around boasting about it. I asked her to teach me how to bake, but she refused. That day, I looked into her eyes and told her that I would bake your wedding cake”. From then, I started seeking knowledge by reading books on how to bake cakes, practicing at home, making free cakes for people marking their birthdays. By the time I started my Higher National Diploma (HND), I had started baking queen cakes for sales. After my HND, I travelled to the United States of American (USA). Apart from other things that took me there, I also learnt more and perfected my baking experience. I made a wedding cake for someone, and at the reception, I was called upon to come and talk about the cake. As I was talking about the cake and its colour, to my surprise, I didn’t know my friend was in the crowd; she came from nowhere and hugged me. She said, Gbemisola, “you baked this cake?”

I said, “Yes, God helped me to bake it”. She told me her wedding was just few weeks away and she would want me to bake her cake.

Since you started, how have you been able to manage your business and home?

It has not been easy taking care of my daughter, husband, and my job. When you have passion for something, no matter how difficult or how tight it is, you will always find time for it. I hardly get tired when I am baking or in the kitchen, that is why I love to bake at night. Despite my schedule, I still create time for my passion, which is baking.

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

Getting cake materials is very expensive. Up till now, I am still getting them. I started with one dozen of queen cake pans. No matter how much I made from my cake business, I don’t spend it; I plough it back until I get what I want. I started by using pot and sand to bake, but now I have three ovens. I have not stopped, keep working on how to explore other ways of baking.

What challenges do you face in the course of running your business?

The challenges I had initially were the materials we used. Most of the people that I baked for cheaply when I

I believe that nothing good comes easy. Perseverance is the key to greatness, even those who made it big in other businesses persevered.

Lai-Folorunso was practicing now find it very difficult to pay now that I am perfect. Now, your customers will cost the baking materials for you; they will help you calculate what you will need to bake the cake and just add few money for your effort. So, I think it’s still a challenge but because it is my passion, I don’t bother. Another one is getting clients and networking; we have so many caterers now, it is left for you to link up with your clients all time.

What are the lessons you have learnt in your business?

I have learnt perseverance. I believe that nothing good comes easy. Perseverance is the key to greatness. Those who made it big in other businesses persevered. They paid the price. They also make sacrifices before getting to the top. One has to persevere and endure. There is no job or career or business without its challenges. So, if you are put off by the challenges, you won’t get to see the good sides of the job. Perseverance has always been my watchword.

What is your advice to the youth?

Looking for white collar jobs in this society is like waiting for eternity. I urge them to put their minds and give their best to anything they find their hands doing. There are many ventures that could bring money to one’s pockets. One does not have to keep waiting for the big jobs to come. There are many things they can do: bead business, liquid wash, laundry. The problem is that most of them are lazy.

Your Life Counts

Sunday Tribune

by Tunde Jaiyebo 0803 406 2013

Handling the gloomy forecast of the year (1I) LAST time we began talking about the adversity that lies ahead in this New Year. We saw that the general forecast is that it is going to be a very tough year. Things might be tougher and rougher than it was last year. We have been told to tighten our belts and get ready to make sacrifices. Sacrifices are never comfortable. All indications point to the fact that this year is a year where we will encounter adversity, face challenges and possibly run into turbulent waters.

There is hardly any great person who did not have to cross the bridge of adversity before making any appreciable impact with their lives. Strange as it may sound adversity has a lot of benefits for us.

“Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.” Josh Billings Adversity, many times, puts us under pressure, which if well managed, brings out the best in us. Adversity pushes us to the wall and forces us to look at options we would never have considered if things were rosy.

“Mishaps are like knives, that either serve us or cut us, as we grasp them by the blade or the handle.”

James Russell Lowell The way we react to adversity is a pointer to who we really are. Adversity can expose us as too sensitive, jelly-livered, weak or as strong, resilient and unshakeable.

“If you fall to pieces in a crisis, there wasn’t much to you in the first place.” Proverbs 24: 10 The Message “Watch a man in times of... adversity to discover what kind of man he is; for then at last words of truth are drawn from the depths of his heart, and the mask is torn off.” Lucretius No matter the adversity we encounter we must not allow it to stop us.

“An arrow can only be shot by pulling it backward.

When life is dragging you back with difficulties, it means it's going to launch you into something great.

So just focus, and keep aiming.” Author unknown Like they say, we must learn to turn our lime into lemonade.

“If you break your neck, if you have nothing to eat, if your house is on fire—then you got a problem. Everything else is inconvenience. Life is inconvenient.

Life is lumpy. Learn to separate the inconveniences from the real problems. You will live longer.” Sigmund Wollman Adversity is a test of the stuff we are really made of.

“You are a poor specimen if you can’t stand the pressure of adversity.” Proverbs 24;10 The Living Bible We all need a healthy dose of adversity.

“It is an undeniable fact that the greatest pressure yields the most valuable diamond. The hottest fire produces the strongest steel. Just as a star shreds the blackest night, so too will you find your way through the dense tangle of adversity and be better for it.

If all great men and women are—before greatness— strengthened by the hot kiln of adversity, then adversity must not be a thing to be avoided, but embraced. If greatness is a destination and only adversity provides a pathway to it, should we not step firmly upon that path? After all, if adversity is preparation for greatness, why shouldn’t you be prepared for something great?” Andy Andrews May the greatness locked up in the year be yours even as you make up your mind that you will be unstoppable.

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

31

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

thepolity Buhari, BBOG and the fading hope for Chibok girls

Deputy Editor, LEON USIGBE, reviews last week’s controversial meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and members of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) and notes how hopes are beginning to fade about the fate of the abducted Chibok girls.

Bring Back Our Girls protesters, during one of the protests in Abuja. With them is a former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili (right).

P

RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari was not scheduled to personally host the members of the Bring Back Our Girls (BBOG) movement and the tens of missing Chibok girls’ parents who marched to the Presidential Villa on Thursday. The visitors were unaware of that. They were under the impression that they were going to converse with Commander-in-Chief on how far he had gone with his promise to the group to locate and rescue the 219 school girls abducted by Boko Haram insurgents from their dormitories in Borno State nearly two years ago. The president’s absence immediately set the stage for confrontation between leaders of the group and government officials.

It will be recalled that similar circumstances played up during former President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. In the dying days of the Jonathan administration, BBOG initiated a similar march to the Villa but was stopped by a barrage of stern-

looking security forces at the front of the Federal Secretariat, a short distance from the first gate of the seat of power.

They were received by a few ministers led by the Minister of State for the Federal Capital Territory, Chief (Mrs) Olajumuke Akinjide, who ended up getting Dr. Oby Ezekwesili’s tonguelash. Ezekwesili, a former Minister of Education, had led the BBOG during that Ill-fated march. She was again at the head of the group in the most recent demonstration to the Villa.

The group had written to the president about their intention to come to his office and they were given the go-head for last Thursday. When they were ferried into the venue, they were bitterly disappointed to learn that Buhari would not be meeting them but instead, a delegation consisting of Minister of Women Affairs, Hajia Aisha Alhassan; Minister of Defence, Brig.

General Mansur Dan Ali; the National Security Adviser (NSA), Babangana Monguno and Chief of Defence Staff,

General Gabriel Olonishakin had been detailed to preside over the meeting.

Stand-off Alhassan gave her opening remark where she announced that the president was unable to come, because he had other engagements. She explained some of the initiatives in her ministry towards the welfare of the Chibok parents and requested Ezekwesili to brief the gathering on their mission to the Presidential Villa.

However, the former minister politely declined, explaining that having met with the president in July and he had promised to do everything to rescue the girls, they had come to hear from him what had been done so far and were willing to wait until the president was available. Chairman of the Chibok Community in Abuja, Nkeki Mutah, was more outspoken. He argued vehemently that the parents in attendance paid their way to Abuja after selling their farm produce just to have the opportunity continues

pg 35

President Muhammadu Buhari

32

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

sundayinterview Abia governorship: Why I’ll win at Supreme Court —Alex Otti

Dr. Alex Otti, contested the last governorship election in Abia State on the ticket of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and recently won the battle to unseat Governor Okezie Ikpeazu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the Appeal Court, which ruled that he should immediately be sworn in as governor. The battle has since moved on to the Supreme Court, which is the final arbiter. Otti speaks on the raging controversy and how he wants to fix Abia State if he finally becomes the state governor. BOLA BADMUS brings the excerpts:

Y

OUR victory at the Appeal Court was severely criticised by lawyers, some of them senior lawyers. Now that the case is before the Supreme Court, which is the final arbiter in this case, what are your expectations?

Well, maybe I will like to correct the impression you created in the question by saying that the decision of the Appeal Court had been criticised by senior lawyers; that is not true. Yes, there have been some hatchet men who were recruited by the present government of Abia State to go on the rampage. They started by organising the people to protest in the streets and if you recall, 48 hours after the judgment.

You would recall that the judgment was greeted with spontaneous jubilation the day it was delivered. The jubilation was across the length and breadth of Abia State and if you were in Abia like I was, there was tumultuous celebration of that judgment and it is understood why there would be such celebration, because Abia State indigenes and those who live in Abia State voted for me and I had received a lot of text messages, a lot of e-mails. And one thing that underscores those messages, particularly from Abia people, was that ‘we know who we voted for.’ Everybody knows that I won that election. So people were very happy with the verdict. But as an afterthought, 48 hours later, the PDP government that was hell-bent decided that they were going to protest the judgment and there was no lesser person to lead the street protest than the former Senate President Adolphus Wabara. I do not want to talk much about him, but the only thing that I have to say is that we know that senior citizens should live in a way that people would like to emulate them. Understandably, Adolphus Wabara has no job, he has not been doing anything in the last couple of years. So understandably, he was protesting to secure his source of livelihood. So it was an arranged protest.

Now, you may have watched a few lawyers that have also been recruited to dominate the airwaves. One of them is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria. The first thing I would like to say is that as Senior Advocate of Nigeria, I expected him to behave better. He should know better that cases are not won on TVs and on the streets, but in the law court. Given that Dr. Okezie Ikpeazu had indicated he was going to the Supreme Court and also given that PDP had filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, one expected him to conduct himself with decorum, but he didn’t.

One thing that quite surprised me is that he started his interview by saying that he hadn’t read the judgment and he went on attacking me and he said a lot of things that are false. But I don’t think this is a forum to reply him. The most important thing that I would like to say is that we expect senior lawyers to behave themselves and conduct themselves very well. So, I don’t think that those few cases qualify to now say this judgment was greeted with condemnation; it is far from it. The people that cast their votes know who they voted for and I can tell you without any fear of contradiction that Abia people voted for me; they are looking forward to the time that I would take over the leadership of that state and begin to develop the state as I promised them.

So, what are your expectations from the Supreme Court?

What do I expect from the Supreme Court? Ehn, I do not see that the Supreme Court would not uphold the decision of

Alex Otti, APGA governorship candidate, Abia State

the Appeal Court, because it was a well- grounded judgment that they gave. The major issues are very clear, if you go by the registered voters, there were about 1.3million registered voters in Abia State from 17 local governments. PDP knew they were not going to win that election. So all they did was to isolate three local governments that they used to perpetrate fraud; Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa North. On the day of election, they removed the original sheets for ward and local government collation for the three local governments and packed them in Government House, we have this on good authority. And what they did was, on the day of election, they ensured that there was maximum violence in those three local governments. They would come to a polling unit, shoot into the air and people would run away, they would carry all the materials and take off. And what they now did was to wait for the collation to start.

After the collation of the 14th local government, I was leading by 60,000 votes, and they quickly filled those original result sheets that they had taken, in collusion with some corrupt INEC officials and forced them into collation centre. That is exactly what happened. Those results from Osisioma, Obingwa and Isiala Ngwa North were fake results written in the Government House.

They forced them into the collation centre. The Returning Officer, with all the complaints that there were no elections in those places and those results were coming, quickly announced that he was cancelling the results of those three local governments.

Now, PDP with all its impunity stormed the collation centre, in a brazen manner, took the Returning Officer upstairs with the Resident Electoral Commissioner, stayed with them for about 45 minutes with a retinue of policemen and all kinds of people, intimidated them and by the time they came back, they were panicking and the Returning Officer grabbed the microphone and reversed himself. That is what happened and he collated all the results he had earlier cancelled, so that is what the issue is about in Abia State.

These people did not win election, they did not. And when you say there is going to be an election, it is for people to exercise their will and when you don’t win an election, the right thing to do is to concede to the man that won instead of using all sorts of tactics. Now having done that, they [INEC] collated the results and declared them winner. What did I do? I went to court, which is the right thing to do. At the Tribunal, the judges misunderstood the case and gave judgment in their favour and we pressed on. We didn’t call people to the streets though we have more people than PDP in Abia State; 80 per cent of the people is with us. Forget about all the things you hear. So we didn’t call people out to protest. People wanted to protest and I called and said, no; nobody should protest. The matter has now left the Tribunal and we went to the Court of Appeal where we got a positive judgment.

Continues

pg 33

33

sundayinterview

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘Looters of Abia can start returning looted funds now, before I come’ Continued from

pg 32

me, those attempts failed and they will continue to fail. I am sure you must have been aware of the one that happened in Abuja. I was in the place on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On Thursday morning, God told me to move away from there, to relocate to another town and I left. By Thursday night, over 10 gunmen stormed my residence in Abuja, killed the mobile policeman attached to me and turned the whole place upside down, but God has taken me away. He will continue to protect me. I don’t have any fear.

The Bible also says if Jehovah does not watch over a city, the men who watch do so in vain.

What we would have expected a democrat to do would have been to choose the option to go to Supreme Court rather than calling elders out to the streets to protest, block the roads, with a lot of impunity. Some people told me they were in traffic for almost a day in Aba, because people like Adielo and Wabara had taken over the streets. I don’t know if I have answered your question but I needed to paint the background properly and that may also put some clarity to some of the questions and follow-up questions that you may have had.

Finally, there is something I wanted to talk about in those local governments. People are talking today about disenfrachisement. I watched and I saw people talking about disenfranchisement and others. There are about 230,000 voters in the three local governments and that represents less than 14 per cent of the voting population in Abia State.

If PDP had allowed the cancellation to stand, at the time the Supplementary Election on the 25th April, 2015, I believe that a rerun would have happened, but because they were in power, they barged into the collation centre, forced a reversal of that cancellation and got declared.

The PDP now seems to be asking for a rerun election…

Today, they are asking for a rerun; why are they asking for a rerun? They lost the opportunity to have a rerun when they employed impunity, to force the Returning Officer to reverse himself. So, I am not too sure. They don’t even have any such request before the Tribunal. So, they cannot get the results on TV, on pages of newspapers or on the streets.

That’s the final comment I like to make before I take other questions.

There has been this issue of you picking a deputy governor from your area, giving room to the argument that sharing of political offices and largesse would not have a fair spread. What do you have to say on this?

That’s the argument PDP had been making even before the election and Abia State people ignored them and voted me. So if they didn’t win that argument before election, they can’t win it after election. What we are talking now is that election was held and somebody won, and somebody was declared winner. So when you divert attention from that issue, it is not possible; because right now, we are in court and that is not a matter before the court. That does not take away the fact that APGA won that election, do you agree with me?

Now, to answer your question;there is nothing like that.

My deputy is from Ohafia and Ohafia is not the same local government with Isiala Ngwa South where I live, where I registered, where I was born, where I voted. Ohafia is in Abia North, Isiala Ngwa is in Abia Central. But you know PDP is all about lies and propaganda, but I don’t think I should let you buy that.

The point they are raising is that my ancestral home is Arochukwu, which is very true, and I have also said that Ikpeazu’s ancestral home is situated in Epko in Akwa-Ibom State. So if we go back to ancestral homes, he shouldn’t even contest election in Abia, because he is not qualified. But our constitution is very clear, that where you live and you have lived for a certain number of years that you are allowed to vote and be voted for, that is where you belong. That is what the law says and they cannot change it. Are you satisfied?

There is this allegation by the Ikpeazu group that the composition of the panel of the judges of the Appeal Court that sat on your case was wrong, as they (judges) all came from the Lagos Division against the established rule and that there was an objection to this earlier, which was ignored. They also insinuated that the composition was done to favour you, because you had all along been based in Lagos, where you do business. What is your reaction?

Well, I saw a petition that they wrote. That petition came barely 24 hours before the panel sat and quite frankly, I don’t know what to react to. I do not know how panels are set up. I understand that it is the President of the Court of Appeal that sets up panels, maybe when you see her, you ask her. But the reality is that the Court of Appeal is the Court of Appeal, okay. If you follow a case that Governor Nyesom

Alex Otti

Wike filed that went up to the Supreme Court, I believe when that case was decided, the Supreme Court said Court of appeal is Court of Appeal irrespective of where you sit; I mean in spite of where you sit. So if they decided to sit in Abuja, Port-Harcourt or anywhere, that is the prerogative of the Court of Appeal.

My reaction is that PDP, unfortunately, is not in a position to determine the membership of the panel, neither was I in a position to do that. But then, if you want us to talk about things we have heard, we also start talking about things we have heard, but we don’t have proof of them. But I know that the chairman of the panel does not come from Lagos, except if they just transferred her to Lagos. The last time I checked she was the presiding judge in Benue Division in Makurdi. So, I don’t know what they are talking about. They know that the mandate they are using is stolen and they will like to hold on to anything to make a case. I am sure they have found out that they will not be able to do anything with the panel. In fact, when I read the petition, one thing that came to my mind, because that petition came on a Saturday before they sat on a Monday, was that it was a ploy to delay the Tribunal. Some of these cases, if you don’t handle them expeditiously, they expire. If you come a day or two days to when the panel sat and you now want them to be disbanded and a new panel constituted to start reading the files all over again, for me, I thought it was a ploy to get the case to expire without the Court of Appeal looking at it.

Since the battle for the governorship seat started, there have been reports of attempts on your life?

How true are these reports and are you not scared?

There have been, but I don’t have fear because I am a child of God. The Bible says ‘touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm.’ There have been attempts to eliminate

It is time creative people, people who have something to offer, people who have skills, who know what to do without necessarily going to Abuja cap in hand waiting for federal allocation and bringing it back to share among loyalists, took over government.

Many believe that this is not the best time to aspire to be a governor in this country, considering the state of the economy and other sundry challenges.

Why is your enthusiasm still high?

It is a good question but you have also answered it. This is the time for uncommon people to come into governance; people who have things to deliver. It is not going to be a tea party and I have come to face the challenges. I was reading an article recently and someone said he is supporting me because I can read a balance sheet. People who cannot read a balance sheet should not aspire to the position of leadership, because this is a challenging time and it is time creative people, people who have something to offer, people who have skills, who know what to do without necessarily going to Abuja cap in hand waiting for federal allocation and bringing it back to share among loyalists, took over government. It is a time for people like us to come in and salvage the situation.

I am aware of the enormous challenges and I did a study that took about a month with the consultant that I hired to do a study of Abia State and when the results came out, I was shocked at the level of rot, infrastructural decay and lack of direction that have been the lot of the state. Hospitals were in very terrible shape and they still remain in such shape; no roads. Aba is gone and Umuahia is a glorified village.

From Umuahia to Ukwa, nothing to show for the resources and people are insisting that they want to rule and by the time they finish, they bring their houseboys and drivers to succeed them so that they can still be in charge. But this is the time for people who have something to offer to come in.

If you have read about me, you will know that I thrive in such circumstances. I am blessed to create something from nothing. I do know how bad it is where oil prices are today, how federal revenues have gone down, but I do also know that my people are very creative people. All they need from government is the enabling environment for them to do their businesses and they will pay once you are able to give them good roads, water and electricity. You provide security for them, good hospitals and ensure the quality of education is in top shape. Then the place will do well, but it requires well-trained and well-skilled people to do that.

So, what will be your area of priorities if you eventually become the governor in Abia State and will you probe past governments?

As I earlier itemised, there is nothing on ground, even the Government House does not exist. It is a very bad situation.

And I will want you to pay a visit to Abia State and see things for yourself; the condition that the people of Abia live in.

So all the things I have talked about are the things I will want to tackle in the first instance. Youths are basically unemployed; nearly all of them, because all the industries that used to be in Aba have all disappeared. There used to be Golden Guinea, Modern Ceramics in Umuahia, but they are gone. You go to Aba, there used to be PZ, Textile Mill, Lever Brothers, International Glass Industry, name it. All of them are gone; they have gone elsewhere. And you wonder if there were governments when these industries and people were moving to other places and they were watching them move away with the Internally-Generated Revenue and the employment they were generating and contributions they were making to the state’s economy. It only means that those in power didn’t know what they were doing and were not prepared for leadership.

About what we are going to do when we get into office; there is a blueprint. We will probably send you my manifesto, because I have a clear blueprint on what to do.

Now, you talk about the previous governments and probing. Everybody should be accountable. I may not call it probe, but if there is evidence that somebody made away

Continues

pg 36

34

thepolity

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Anti-corruption: Buhari is giving Nigerians hope, but…

Chief Sunday Idowu, a businessman and one of the leading voices in the clamour for an indigene of Akure becoming Ondo State governor in 2016, speaks with MOSES ALAO on President Muhammadu Buhari’s anti-corruption efforts; the politics of Ondo State and the agitation of Akure District people to govern the state.

T

HE anti-corruption efforts of President Muhammadu Buhari has been generating comments across the globe; while some urge him on, others feel there is a witch-hunt of opposition party members. What is your take, since you said you are neither PDP nor APC? If there is no witch, there will be no hunting. My take on this issue is plain; for me, in fact, the Buhari government is too slow to deal with these rogues. You call yourself a politician and you still money that belongs to the health sector, leading to the deaths of children and the underprivileged. Is that not worse than manslaughter? Nigerian politicians are so criminal that they steal what they don’t even need; one person stealing billions and taking them abroad to buy houses that they won’t live in and pay taxes on those houses. The madness is much that people steal the money that belongs to the generality of Nigerians and buy private jets and hide the money where they will never get to use them; what do they even use the money for? They want to take it to hell? All these rogues, after returning their loots, should not even be taken to prisons, they should be sent to psychiatric homes.

Something is fundamentally wrong with them.

Most of us pray to God daily, thanking Him for bringing Buhari; he is giving us hope. If not for him, by now Nigeria would have sunk to the bottom of a soakaway, with maggots and cockroaches feeding on it. Most of us pray that God will give the president the good health to continue for eight years, because corruption is too entrenched in our society.

We need a strong-willed leader like Buhari to cleanse this country. Look at the National Assembly where our lawmakers have turned themselves into law dealers, appropriating diamonds and gold to themselves in acts of banditry, while the land is littered with famished children whose bones stick out of their ragged clothes.

But the president is being criticised in some quarters for the poor state of the Nigerian economy. As a businessman, what is your take on this?

There is no gainsaying the fact that the last administration ruined Nigeria economically. It is not easy to build up something destroyed; building up requires sacrifice and that is what Nigerians are going through now.

You are one of those clamouring that the Akure Division of Ondo State produces the next state governor; what exactly is the motivation?

Are you eyeing the seat?

I am not a politician. I am not an APC or PDP person; I am not a politician, I won’t be and I can’t be. But don’t forget; though I said I am not a politician, all human beings are political animals and I have to be concerned about what is happening in my

doned those things that would have made him a Yoruba leader. Let me give a personal example, when I was building this place [Jojein Hotels] and looking for funds, Governor Mimiko was so concerned, he would say ‘Idowu, when will you finish this place?’

When I wanted to clear my generating sets at the port, he even gave me financial assistance. When this place started, the governor used to give me useful advice; in fact, there was a time he even advised me on how to trim the palms. Every man has a licence to dream but it is good for such a man to realise the following day that he was dreaming and return to bed in order to see reality.

Governor Mimiko started well; he was so concerned about people’s welfare and he was loved by all. In fact, if you had insomnia then, you wouldn’t need drugs once you saw Iroko. But he abandoned those pedestals.

Do you know that he was so close to people that he would personally tell me then, ‘Idowu, I will soon do the Oba Ile road o, you cannot invest that heavy money here and the roads will be like this,’ and I would say thank you, Your Excellency.’ However, more than seven years after, the 10-kilometre road is still there uncompleted; we have lost patronage here because of dust.

As I speak with you the government owes me a substantial amount of about N50 million; I can’t pay workers’ salary as and when due or pay back bank loans.

Chief Sunday Idowu

environment and the society. To answer your question on what the motivation for the clamour for an Akure indigene becoming the next governor is, you feel pained when you are being marginalised. Though I spent most of my years in Akwa Ibom State; that is one state with people that are so nice, I came back home to Akure and saw how my people have been marginalised and relegated to the background despite being the most populated. I had to feel concerned. This is not a matter of being a tribalist or an ethnic jingoist; everyone came from somewhere. So, Akure where I am from, we have the state capital; we have the local government with the largest voting population but we are the only one of the five divisions in Ondo State that has never produced the state governor. Why? We have looked at things from all ramifications and we saw that we have been marginalised; though I can say that Akure people also marginalised themselves through our complacency. As I said earlier, we have five divisions in Ondo State and the Old Ondo Pronvince and all the other divisions have, at one time or the other, produced the governor but not Akure. Talk about ministers and other key federal appointments, I cannot remember the last time an Akure man was made minister. We have the voting strength and each time they bring governorship candidates, we support them; without us they cannot be governors. We give them our votes but we have never got anything back in return.

So, now we are saying ‘we have been

giving you people our votes all this while; for once, let us also produce the governor.’

What we are asking for is fairness.

But you have the infrastructure and government presence, what else do you need a governor of Akure extraction for?

If I take you round Akure, you will shed tears. Akure is like a glorified village; if you take three or four major roads away from the infrastructure you talked about, the remaining ones are slums. If you look at the road between here [Oba Ile Road] and Iju, you will understand what I am talking about. Go to Oda road, go to Oke Aro road, go to Isolo; you will be surprised. After the major roads that are fine, others are slums.

Is the picture of Akure you just painted not an indictment on past governors including Governor Olusegun Mimiko’s administration?

I will not describe what I said as an indictment; I have stated facts and they are there for you to verify. Now, you mentioned Dr Olusegun Mimiko and I will have to tell you some things. When he started his first term, he immediately started with laudable projects, concentrating on education and health, which have a lot of impact on the masses.

He was tarring roads in Owo and other places. But all of a sudden, he allowed himself to be cajoled into joining the feud between Senator Bola Tinubu and some Yoruba elders. That was when he derailed. He aban-

Your anger is based on your personal gains then and why did you even build a project of this magnitude here when it could have been more productive in Lagos or Abuja?

Sometimes, a man needs to think with his heart; Akure is my home. I desired to develop my state. And to answer your first question about my anger being based on personal gains, no. Not at all. But you have to consider the effects on the society. If an indigene builds something of this magnitude and it is killed because government failed to do what is necessary, how can you convince foreign investors? My positions are not made because of anger; they are words of admonition. When we were young, we listened to tales in the moonlight, which Yoruba calls aalo. There was this one about a snake that went out to look for food. A hunter saw it and wanted to kill it and the snake sang, warning the hunter that it was not a kind of snake to be killed or eaten. The hunter did not listen; he killed and cooked the snake. But the snake sang again that it was not the kind of snake to be eaten but the hunter did not listen. Those who know the story know where it ended. Seven nights is like a short time in a man’s life; a single night can turn things around. If you don’t know where you are going, you should be able to know where you are coming from. These are my admonitions for the governor, because no matter how good a swimmer is, he cannot tell his spectators where the crocodile’s lump is located until he gets to the other bank of a river.

Continues pg 35

35

thepolity

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Will Chibok girls ever be found?

Continued from

pg 31

to hear personally from the president.

Ezekwesili was to announce later that members of the movement had nothing to say until they have heard from the president.

After various explanations from each member of the government delegation, the NSA sought to end the stand-off by announcing that he would make attempt to get the president to come and address the group. Alhassan warned about confrontation while stressing the need for everyone to work together to achieve the aim of rescuing the girls. But she riled Ezekwesili for blaming the group for giving government a short notice which meant that the president could not fit the session into his already scheduled programme.

Ezekwesili, however, expressed displeasure over the Minister of Women Affairs’ apparent scolding of the group.

Visibly angered, she responded: “You have been very unfair to the movement and Nigerians. When the minister, NSA, Chief of Defence Staff spoke, their tones connected with the parents. I do not understand how you can chide these parents. When we visited July 8, we said we have implicit confidence in this administration and the president urged us to cooperate with government. We wrote to government stating that we will embark on this March. It was acknowledged. The president is the father of the nation and they want to listen to him...”

But the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Garba Shehu, interrupted her, explaining that there were procedures to be observed.

The president makes an appearance However, the president was later led into the hall by the NSA for a closed door session with the group. At the end of the meeting, Ezekwesili revealed that the Buhari had assured that despite the impression created by his statement during the last Presidential Media Chat about lack of credible intelligence on the whereabouts of the girls, he was working hard on their rescue. She also said that the president scolded the group for not appreciating the efforts of government.

She said: “What the President essentially said is that his statement during the media chat that they do not have credible intelligence that he was being truthful

Senator Aisha Jummai Alhassan, Minister of Women Affairs

in the way that he knows how to be and that he was not prepared to tell any lie, that they do not have the kind of reliable intelligence that would enable them rescue the girls as immediately as we are demanding and that therefore, we would continue to try to bear with him.”

Buhari’s assurances Buhari assured the parents of the Chibok girls that he has been doing his best and will continue to do everything possible to rescue them and re-unite them with their families. He was quoted as saying that “I assure you that I go to bed and wake up everyday with the Chibok girls on my mind,” even when he was keen to stress: “The unfortunate incident happened before this government came into being.”

The president did not give the group much to cheer about as he appeared to suggest that his administration could only do as much as the present economic realities will allow, saying: “In spite of the terrible economic condition we found ourselves in, we tried to get some resources to give to the military to reorganise and equip, retrain, deploy more troops and move more forcefully against Boko Haram. And you all know the progress we have made.

When we came in Boko Haram was in Adamawa, Yobe and Borno. Boko Haram

Former President Goodluck Jonathan

has now been reduced to areas around Lake Chad. Securing the Chibok girls is my responsibility. The service chiefs and heads of our security agencies will tell you that in spite of the dire financial straits that we found the country in, I continue to do my best to support their efforts in that regard. This is a Nigeria where we were exporting average of two million barrels per day at over 140 dollars per barrel.

Now it is down to about 27 to 30 dollars,” he lamented. He added: “You have been reading in the press how they took public funds, our funds, your funds and shared them, instead of buying weapons. That was the kind of leadership I succeeded.

That was the kind of economy I inherited.

God knows I have done my best and I will continue to do my best.”

The BBOG left the Presidential Villa forlorn, with the hope of possible rescue of the school girls looking more distant than ever. They are now asking that the report of the Gen. Sabo committee set up under Jonathan’s administration to investigate the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the girls be made public.

This, they believe, should offer some insight into what happened.

“A number of the members of that community are insisting that there are investigations that were not concluded by

Ondo 2016: ‘What Akure’ll do to produce gov’ Continued from

pg 34

Are Akure people not concerned that their agitation might sacrifice merit, as the best person for the job might not be from Akure?

We are talking about equity and fairness and justice. And tell me, where is the best man for the job from? Are you saying there are no competent people that can be governor in all the five districts of Ondo State?

So, you are saying that there were no competent people in Akure that could be governor when we supported Pa Adekunle Ajasin; Akin Omoboriowo; the late Adebayo Adefarati; the late Olusegun Agagu and now Mimiko? It is just in Akure’s nature to be magnanimous. Every time, we baked the beans and carried it on our heads and went to the village square. All the other di-

visions ate the baked beans on our heads and we took home the empty bowls. Now, we are saying they should give us opportunity to eat out of the baked beans.

You talked about projects in Akure; go round and tell me any new project. The School of Nursing, which has existed for so many years, lost its accreditation recently. Why? Because some people want it to go to their places.

All these years, we have never bothered ourselves about who becomes governor, but we cannot be serving others and they will not give us what we deserve.

How well have you involved the political parties in your agitation to produce the next governor?

Right now, Akure District people have made up their minds to be on a zero party

level. If APC picks our son, we will support the APC. If PDP picks our son, we will support the PDP. And if it is an unknown party that picks our son, that is the one we will support. Our agenda is not about any political party; we have competent people in all the parties, so any party that gives us the candidate will get our votes.

What about the governor? Akure District might need his support on this agitation…

We definitely need his support; we will plead with him to reciprocate our servitude. We don’t mind welcoming Saul to Damascus. Paul will cover the oil bowl when the flies pass by; we will all go before God and ask Him to wash our iniquities with hyssop.

the previous administration in order to unearth some of the things that happened before our Chibok girls were taken captive,” Ezekwesili said.

More worrying for the BBOG is the fact that Buhari has already declared victory over Boko Haram, going against the grain of his promise not to do so until the school girls have been returned to their families. “Our Chibok Girls are neither rescued nor have the measures the Federal Government pledged been instituted. Our disappointment was worsened recently, Mr. President, when you shocked the parents and threw them into deeper throes of agony by publicly giving the excuse ‘that there is no credible information about the girls’ whereabouts’ as the reason our Chibok girls have not been rescued,” Ezekwesili reportedly told Buhari during the meeting.

In its official review of the Villa meeting, the BBOG expressed disappointment, noting that it turned out to be a far cry of the hopes and expectations they had been given. Its leaders said in a statement: “As a movement, we are underwhelmed by today’s meeting, as it is markedly different from the last one in many ways. In the last meeting, the parents, community, and our movement left with high hopes, optimism and assurance that the president took ownership of the problem, had a sense of connection with the grieving parents, and a sense of urgency to rescue our girls. These were not felt today. In the last meeting, he (Buhari) diligently took notes and responded to each item raised. Not so this time. He had also commended our movement for holding government accountable; for our steadfastness and ‘aggression’, and so on.

Despite the unexpected outcome of today’s meeting, we stay strong in hope.”

Following the meeting, Buhari has, however, approved a fresh investigation into the circumstances surrounding the abduction. When named, the committee will seek to, among other things, unravel the remote and immediate circumstances leading the kidnap of the girls by Boko Haram terrorists as well the other events, actions and inactions that followed the incident. Before that, the BBOG, Nigerians and the whole world continue to hope and pray for the best for the abducted girls and their families.

36

sundayinterview

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

‘I respect Tinubu, but I will not defect to APC’ Continued from

pg 33

with money that does not belong to him, he would have to be called upon to give account, just like it is happening at the centre. I also believe that is one of the reasons why the so-called elite are fighting me, because they know it can no longer be business as usual. The stipend that some of them used to collect, they would not collect it anymore. I will not call it probe. You may choose to call it probe, but I will ensure that government’s funds that were frittered away would be returned to the coffer, especially given that revenue sources have continued to dry up. So, it would be a veritable source if people who took away our collective money to return it and quite frankly, they can start returning them now before I come.

Given that APGA is a minority party, would you defect to a bigger party if you eventually become governor of the state?

There is nothing requiring that everybody must be in the

opinion

same party; that is why it is democracy. And it is because of impunity that people begin to defect to the ruling party and all that. Some of these things are also constitutional.

Whatever is the federal allocation for the state must come to the state and I believe that the government at the centre must have learnt a few lessons from the collapse of PDP, because some of the things that PDP did were responsible for its loss at the election. I remember one of its leaders said in the past that they would be in government for 60 years.

I think he made a mistake. He actually meant 16 years. So, the reality is that when you rule with impunity, you dig your grave and I am sure that lessons have been learnt. I do not have any plan to defect; I don’t have any reason to do so.

I contested on the platform of APGA and my people are still in APGA. Nobody is wooing me; nobody is putting any pressure on me to defect.

How do you think you can rebuild APGA to make it stronger in its catchment area in the South-East?

I will give you an instance. What we have today as APC,

if you remember, not too long ago, it did not exist. I don’t think it existed three years ago. It started from the then AD [Alliance for Democracy]. I believe there is still AD anyway.

From AD to AC [Action Congress], then to ACN [Action Congress of Nigeria] and eventually joined others to become the ruling party today. So somebody sat down, planned from one state to another until it became a ruling party. A lot of people love to join the party when the food is done, a lot of us don’t want to contribute to the cooking of the food and that is why I have a lot of respect for somebody like Bola Tinubu. No matter what you say, I have a lot of respect for him, because he is consistent; he remained there despite the victimisation from the ruling party. If he had chickened out at that time, there would probably not be APC now and we would probably not have the opportunity to change an incompetent PDP government that was in town. So, the journey of a thousand mile starts with one step; we can also build APGA. We can build another party. It could be Labour Party, once people are consistent and they are ready to do the right thing.

Is something fundamentally wrong with Nigeria(ns)? II

By Tunji Olaopa Continued from

last Sunday

IN the first part, I began on an emotional basis with a racially-motivated article that states that if anyone wants to hide anything from Africans or black, the best place is in a book. Why? The conclusion is that Africans do not read. The said article, however, pinpointed three element of self-containment—selfishness, ignorance and greed— which are said to be necessary for keeping Africans in perpetual slavery. I agree. And the basis of my agreement is essentially that these three sociological elements are significant to our understanding of how far we have gone in terms of development. The first part was meant to shock us into awareness. It was meant to remove the local log in our collective eyes before we can legitimately and clearly see the speck in the eyes of our traducers.

In essence, I am saying, in the first part, that we are not taking ourselves and our predicament serious enough.

We have a whole lot of ‘others’ to blame for our woes: God, colonialism, the West. It is now time to take the blame for our own failures. But, I doubt whether we have been shocked enough. It is as if the curse Noah placed on Ham actually afflicts us!

I am taking the underlying principle for this second part from a cultural wisdom of the Yoruba: Arun tin se ogoji ni nse oodunrun; ohun tin se Aboyade, gbogbo oloya ninse (the sickness that afflicts forty also affects three hundred; what affects the head of the Oya cult affects all the Oya worshippers). It may be assumed that this cultural wisdom suffers from the fallacy of composition which infers that something is true of the whole because it is true of its parts. In the relationship between Africa and its states, there is actually no fallacy either of division or of composition: what is true of the whole is equally true of its parts, and vice versa. The essence of the first part of this reflection is to signpost Nigeria as the African state par excellence. Nigeria participate fully in what we can call the absence of fundamentals and the pandemic of negatives.

In this part, I am going to focus on Nigeria. And I have good reasons for this. Apart from being the country I am familiar with, Nigeria is actually a microcosm of Africa itself. When we asked whether there is anything fundamentally wrong with Africa, this question seems also more appropriate to Nigeria being the singularly most populous black nation in the world. Consciously or unconsciously, the world looks toward Nigeria for leadership in Africa. Unfortunately, however, Nigeria has been leading by negative examples—corruption, bad governance, ambivalent democracy, etc. It is also more intellectually interesting to outline the specifics of a problem rather than staying at the level of general analysis. And Nigeria provides a good point of analysis.

People have been genuinely perturbed about the lack of progress that has bedevilled Africa for ages. The same anxiety applies to the Nigerian nation. In terms of unemployment, poverty, illiteracy, greed, and elite myopia, Nigeria participates actively in the African predicament. And this is definitely not for lack of

governmental efforts to transform the living condition of Nigerians. Beginning from the immediate postindependence period, succeeding Nigerian governments, including the military administrations, have been concerned with translating the euphoria of independence into solid developmental architecture that answers to the aspirations of the citizens. The grandiosity of the first five development plans (between 1960 and 1985) internalised the desires of the government to entrench a democratic governance culture that would make Nigeria a reference on the continent. It is an unfortunate but obvious fact that these development planning have not impacted significantly on Nigeria’s governance trajectory.

Our failure to make progress may actually be the result of not appreciating the depth of our collective predicament. In other words, we seem to spend inordinate time confronting the superficialities rather than the substantives. The trouble with Nigeria goes beyond electricity, corruption, ethnicity and all those other issues we have signposted all the time in our attempt at making sense of what ails us as a people. For instance, I consider as one of our fundamental problems our inability to channel our social and national capital into a veritable framework for confronting our collective predicament.

By ‘national capital,’ I reference two dynamics: first, I am concerned about the national ethno-cultural diversity— Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, Ijaw, Kanuri, Igala, Tiv, etc.—and what their harnessed potentials means for Nigeria. And second, as a correlate of the first, I am equally bothered about Nigeria’s failure to engage with its heroes and heroines who constitute the social capital all nations require to move forward. On the contrary, Nigeria hounds, harries and persecutes them relentlessly, until they either die or are sent on exile. And we then wonder about brain drain? Our brain loss has become the brain gain of USA, UK, and Europe where Nigerians are making waves in business, government and the academics.

One of the best and fundamental books I have read recently is Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson’s Why Nations Fail (2012).This book is significant because it mounts a consistent attack on the bogeyman of culture, geography, ignorance of the right policies or even weather in order to make the singular claim that it is institutions,

political and economic, that really make the difference between progress and poverty, between development and underdevelopment. And this is essentially the source of our predicament as Nigerians: We lack democratic institutions which are established to cater for the well-being of the citizens. But we have in abundance structures of expropriation that corruptly enrich minority politicians, business people and other powerful elites at the expense of the majority which wallows in deep impoverishment.

Note the fundamental difference between institutions and structures.

I take institutions as the frameworks, physical or otherwise, that represents our ideas as a nation. And these ideas derived from our collective experience and vision of where we are going and how we intend to get there. Unfortunately, however, this is the one thing we have consistently failed to do since independence. Our political and intellectual laziness to deconstruct what Professor Peter Ekeh calls ‘migrated structures’ has remained a tragic national shame. Take three significant examples. The first is the inability of our scientific and health systems to deal with the scourge of malaria. The malaria parasite has kept mutating beyond the reach of our anti-malaria drugs, and we are barely keeping up. And yet we still keep our arrogant trust in orthodox medicine while disregarding the possibilities presented by the herbal or the traditional. What happens if and when the malaria parasites break through our last medical firewall? Now consider the larger cases of misdiagnoses and the number of needless deaths that have resulted therefrom; our hospitals as death centres; the many cases of inefficient and ignorant doctors; the total absence of what we can properly call ‘healthcare system,’ etc. The message here is: nstitutions matter.

The second example is political, and it concerns our bloated, exorbitant and unsustainable presidentialism.

A presidential system of government that generates more redundancies and less efficiency is a fundamental symptom of Nigeria’s lack of the critical sense of institutional reengineering. When HRH Lamido Sanusi blew the lid on the overheads at the National Assembly alone, that was only the tip of the iceberg. If you add the bloatedness of the civil service, you begin to understand where our infrastructural deficit is coming from. Again, institutions matter.

The third example arises from the economy, and it concerns our leadership failure manifested in the fixation with foreign economic paradigm represented by the Washington Consensus. Nigeria, as well as many other African states, is tied to the apron string of the World Bank and IMF. So, to reiterate Vladimir Lenin, what is to be done?

‘The season of failure,’ says Paramabansa Yogananda, the Indian yogi, ‘is the best time for sowing the seeds of success.’ But unlike the sower in the Bible, how best do we sow without wasting the precious seeds on the rock or among the thorns?

•Dr Olaopa, a retired Federal Permanent Secretary, writes via tolaopa2003@gmail.com

37

opinion

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

We should be fair to Anenih

By Francis Ehigiator

T

HIS piece was inspired by two recent developments with obvious particularity and implication for Edo State politics, which tempo will once more increase in the next few months because of the governorship election that is coming up in July, this year. The first development was the quick response by the Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole, to the report that N260 million was paid by the Office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.) into the account of former chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Tony Anenih. Knowing full well the political differences between the duo, it was not surprising that Oshiomhole was quoted to have said, at a political event in December last year in Edo Central, Anenih’s stronghold, that he (Anenih) should make a refund if it was true that he received the money. Perhaps, Oshiomhole had thought that the money, which may have been dubiously dubbed as part of the arms cash, was the usual political largesse that presidents and governors are wont to dish out from the security votes and other sources to political leaders. He has since discovered that this was not the case.

The second development, which led to Oshiomhole’s discovery, was the explanation reportedly given by Anenih in a letter he wrote to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) that the money was a part refund of the over N440 million of his personal money that he expended on some political assignments consequent upon the instructions of then President, Goodluck Jonathan. In the letter to the anti-graft agency, the Iyasele of Esanland, according to media reports, stated that Jonathan asked for his account details for reimbursement, which he made available to him and was therefore not in a position to know which office was going to make the payment. Interestingly, Anenih’s explanation would appear to have shut Oshiomhole up on the issue. The governor who had perhaps thought that he had another opportunity to denigrate the Uromi-born politician must have been terribly disappointed with the explanation which has, in a way, shown Anenih as a man of integrity who is consistent and unwavering in his political dealings, support and loyalty.

Anenih did not deny that N260 million was paid into his account by the Office of the former National Security Adviser, Col. Dasuki. But unlike many others who have been confronted with similar allegations and who have been unable to credibly explain how they disbursed the funds; Anenih in his letter to the EFCC gave details of the assignments the leadership of the PDP under Jonathan requested him to

carry out and the cost implications. To a group headed by elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, he gave N63 million for post-2015 election peace advocacy in the northern part; to the National Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Chief Olu Falae, he gave N100 million to enable the party mobilise support for the presidential candidature of Jonathan since SDP did not present a candidate in the 2015 presidential election; and, to the Leader of Accord party, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, he gave N100 million in the same circumstance and for a similar purpose.

Indeed, the sum of these three major disbursements has already surpassed the said N260 million paid into his account by the Office of the NSA. Importantly, the outstanding of more than N180 million by which Anenih claimed he exceeded the N260 million has become, from all reasonable indications, a bad debt. He reportedly put the outstanding sum on record in his explanation to the EFCC but nobody seems bothered about that disclosure or claim. It is now also clear that the N260 million traced to his account could not be reasonably associated with money laundering neither could it be said to be in breach of public trust, having been received as a refund of out-of-pocket expenses incurred on political assignments that would help to maintain the peace and stability of the nation during the crucial 2015 presidential election.

What Anenih has going for him in this deal that has been projected as a big mess by the governing All Progressives Congress (APC) is his trustworthiness. He disbursed to the respective beneficiaries of the fund the exact amounts he was instructed to give and the respective beneficiariesYakassai, Falae and Ladoja-have confirmed receiving the money, which they claimed was used for specified purpos-

es. Anyone who is interested in whether Anenih disbursed N260 million and how he did so should read the narratives of the trio of Yakassai, Falae and Ladoja. This is how to play clean and be prudent in politics. What if Anenih had shortchanged them, he would have, by now, been confronted with a moral dilemma of giving credible accounts. It is my humble position that we must be fair to Anenih on this issue. We must see him as an exemplar of sort; that even in our so-called dirty, cloak and dagger politics, some men like him, can still dare to be honest in matters financial.

But since Oshiomhole was the only one who was not contemplative enough by his quick reaction to the N260 million payment saga, it is hoped that he would now show a good measure of sobriety in appraising the entire drama as it continues to unfold. In fact, there should be limits to irresponsible political activism by persons holding exalted office of governor of a state. They should not play to the gallery in the guise of opposition politics and in desperate bids to gain head-starts in the jostle for or retention of power. Most importantly, they should appreciate the moral lessons in the following dicta, to wit: “those who live in glass houses do not throw stones” and “those who come to equity must come with clean hands.” It would be unfair by all standards, even if Anenih were to have been compromised, for Oshiomhole to cast a stone at him, knowing full well that in matters that have to do with election expenditures, there is no way he, as governor, can be deemed to be above board, especially in the way and manner his security vote is spent.

Or does Oshiomhole want to assume the moral high ground in this regard? Does he want to behave or pontificate like the president and leader of his APC, Muhammadu Buhari, that he is not corrupt or that the process that produced him as the candidate of his party was not corrupt? Or does he want to claim that no government fund from APCcontrolled states flowed into his campaign budget? Otherwise, can he disclose to Nigerians how his multi-billion naira electioneering was funded? Indeed, Nigerians would want to know how somebody who paid for his party nomination form with a bank loan could fund, perhaps, one of the most expensive presidential campaigns in the annals of the nation. Even if the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is too disorganised to raise these posers and sustain the tempo of this conversation, the Nigerian people should rise up to the occasion so that every participant in the political process would be fairly treated within the ambits of verifiable acts of omission or commission.

•Mr Ehigiator contributed this piece from Benin City, Edo State.

Nigeria’s ICT industry: Challenges before Shittu

By Adesola Yaqub LAWYER and Nigerian Minister of Communications, Adebayo Shittu, is noted for renowned for impeccable integrity and his corruption-free political profile. As a new year begins and the civic receptions that followed the appointment of the Saki-born politician are rounding off, it is very important to bring home some key issues about the Nigerian technology industry, highly-regulated, censured and tailored most often by industry standards and global practices, in one hand and the man manning the goal-post, in the other.

Firstly, I will like to relate this to the nation’s dwindling economy. In this critical economic situation that the nation finds itself, experts of various fields are on top of their voices on alternatives available before the government to raise funds for its policies and projects implementation, ranging from Agriculture to Solid Minerals and even Entertainment.

The Information Technology sector is one clear alternative for the government, if properly harnessed and supported.

The minister has mentioned repeatedly how he wishes to make the information and communications Technology (ICT)/Telecommunications sector a cash cow for the Federal Government. Existing policies on licensing for operators needed to be reviewed and amended if necessary. This is not only limited to GSM operators but all other players in the industry, such as interconnect exchanges, VAS providers, infrastructure and collocation providers, content and software application developers. Regulators and government agencies relating with players should get more innovative and serious on enforcements. Spectrum licensing should be handled with more transparency.

To make a mark and to earn citizens’ accolades, the min-

ister and his team will need to urgently collaborate with experts in the Nigerian IT industry to compliment the efforts of the Nigerian Armed Forces in the war against insurgency and terrorism, with technological ideas and solutions in combating and intelligence gathering. Citizens’ identity has to be urgently made uniform, centralised and easily accessible by our financial and security institutions. Very useful hardware, such as CCTV cameras, smart ID cards, card readers, access control systems, digital doors, IP surveillance, Security Network Operation Systems (SNOS), multiple scanners and the likes need to be deployed at strategic government institutions and public places, so as to curtail attacks on soft targets like women, children and the aged.

There is a lot that the ICT can help the nation to achieve in this regard and it takes the honourable minister to take the lead. The minister will achieve more and quickly on national security by collaborating with his colleagues and stakeholders in the Science and Technology, Power, education, Interior and Defense Ministries, as well as the private sector.

The ICT industry has the capacity to lift a huge burden on the government in the area of job creation and employment.

As well known, this industry is mostly driven by the private sector and numerous areas of specialisations are still crying for skillful workers to handle. The minister should put in place policies that will simplify and accelerate knowledge transfer systems and skill acquisition for young Nigerians and should as well assist IT small and medium enterprises (ITSMEs) in funding and subsidy. The economy’s robustness is hinged on the success of the micro players and the big players in the industry are very aggressively predatory to SMEs and small industry players. With this, there will not be enough jobs going round and it takes a very serious government policy to confront the ugly situation. The min-

ister should also prioritise technology incubation and research support schemes in our schools, by so doing we shall have more local content solutions to cater for e-services, e-government, e-shopping, and even in no distant future, e-voting, all at affordable cost to the benefit of Nigeria and Nigerians.

It is pertinent also to advise the minister against inconsistencies and policy summersaults. After a thorough review, laudable and worthy policies and projects should be sustained and pursued to their logical conclusions. The National Broadband Policy is a prime note here. All other government efforts to attain digital penetration into rural and underserved areas of the country should be sustained. Rural telephony should be revisited, fiber optic cable backbone for seamless termination, integration and delivery of voice, data, video and other tools of learning and research should further be deployed into our various institutions of learning, while bottlenecks surrounding Rights of Way (ROW) be addressed.

In conclusion, the honourable minister should surround himself with professionals, seek and heed advice, build a positive relationship with labour, industry players, academics, students and all stakeholders. He should also play down rigidity in enforcements and clampdowns by weighing their business angles and allowing dialogue when necessary, not those designed in bad-faith as seen in the case of MTN Nigeria. Most importantly, he should avoid the temptation of compromising the principles of integrity, accountability and transparency, the only virtue that brought him this far.

I wish the honourable minister a successful tenure and God bless Nigeria.

•Yaqub, a Systems/Networks Analyst writes via sholayaq@yahoo.com

38

B

UDGET 2016, presented to the National Assembly by President Muhammadu Buhari on December 22, 2015, was already overdue. It was the first time since the restart of the democratic journey that the Budget would be that late. Usually, legislators expect the budget late in September or early October. But they most of the time got it midNovember or early December.

Notwithstanding the discomfort the lawmakers went through in receiving the Budget late, they showed no sign of anger or displeasure as Buhari strolled into the chambers of the House of Representatives for the Joint sitting on December 22.

Recall that the lawmakers were expected to close for the year on December 17, but the president could not meet up that date to present the Budget. The National Assembly was said to have suggested an extra-ordinary sitting for Friday, December 18, but the Presidency was said to have reckoned that doing so would draw undue attention to the late presentation of the Budget. The two arms of government eventually ratified December 22 and it was all clear for Buhari.

To many, it is a Budget with ambitious projections.

Whether the ambitions would be realisable is another cup of tea. The Budget size at N6.08 trillion remains a huge dream especially with oil price plummeting by the day at the international market. In the days of oil boom, so to say, the Budget never crossed the N5 trillion mark. Its height was N4.9 trillion. The previous government had preferred to keep the excess oil money in the Foreign Reserve, Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) and Excess Crude Account (ECA).

But Buhari’s government had insisted on reflating the economy and engineering productive growth through spending. Though some had criticised the failure of the government to tap into private sector spending by encouraging Public, Private Partnerships(PPPs) in executing infrastructural projects, the government thought that by spending what it doesn’t have (through huge deficit budget), the economy can bounce back.

Whatever the projections contained in Budget 2016, no one expects the twists and turns it ran into at the National Assembly. Last week, huge embarrassing news hit the airwaves to the effect that the Budget document was missing at the Senate.

Though the House of Representatives denied the story, the firm words coming from the Senate confirmed that something was amiss. The Senators at an execu-

WE Nigerians are yet to know that God is now using our children to judge our unrighteousness. It is rather unfortunate that even pagans in their own way are still better than the so-called Pastors and Imams. These pagans have their set rules to which they strictly adhere because they are aware of the repercussions of any behaviour that is contrary to the laid down rules. What would you make of a Reverend whose mantra is ‘righteousness exalts a nation’, and who later turned round to misappropriate N650000 belonging to his friend. Apart from this, he had also fraudulently obtained the sum of N1.6m from other unsuspecting members of his congregation. It is this kind of behaviour that discourages young Christians and makes them look for succour elsewhere. This brings me to the issue of the young lady that was the subject of your column last Sunday. If the congregation is not getting answers from their spiritual leaders like Pastors and Imams, they will proffer solutions to their challenges the way they best understand.

Sesan Oyende, Somolu Lagos- O8O68546766 MY COMMENTS: I agree with you. Why would you think the young lady whom the mother described as a zealous Christian turned to another religion for that THING that was still missing in her life? And see where the search has led her and what it has turned her into - an irretrievable terrorist. Unfortunately, her young son is being indoctrinated right from age five to view the world as an enemy that must be conquered through bombs and through the barrel of the gun. It is indeed sad. If you ask me, there are many more strangers like Grace Khadijah Dare in our homes; they are just bidding their time. …………

The truth of the matter is that there is little or no parental supervision of children these days. Both parents do not spend quality time with their children and do not know what they are up to or with whom they mingle. Parents are more concerned with material acquisition rather than being concerned about the moral upbringing of their children. The result is that their children grow up into strangers whose lifestyle and activities they do not know.

Gordon Chika Nnorom, Umukabia07084644222

17 January, 2016

the lynxeye with Taiwo adisa

08072000046 taiadisbabatj@gmail.com

Lessons from the ‘missing’ budget saga

tive session, debated the matter, and a committee was set up to find out what was amiss.

Investigations by the Senate Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions headed by Senator Samuel Anyanwu confirmed that the budget was actually tampered with behind the scene.

The Senators, on Thursday, declared categorically that the budget document was doctored behind the scene and that they have noticed differences in some recurrent projections. My findings indicated that notwithstanding the discordant tune from the House of Representatives, which kept the public confused about the issue, the Senate was right with its claim.

What happened was that the presidency felt embar-

frontrow with Toyin Willoughby Muyi 0805 500 1769 toyeenz@yahoo.com

Re: Who is this stranger

MY COMMENTS: What happened to Grace Khadijah Dare is what one gets when parents abdicate their roles of nurturing their children into responsible adults. Yes, they get some of the best education but do they get the appropriate guidance and do they find in their parents the confidant that every growing child needs during adolescence? Grace Khadijah Dare announced her departure for Syria as soon as she turned eighteen, the age when she officially became an adult.

What happened to her during her pre-teen years and just before she turned 18? It does not matter which religion she changed to, the important thing is that she was a rudderless ship; and there are many of them out there. ……………………

Sunday Tribune

rassed by the revelations about recurrent expenses in the Villa, which went far higher than the period of boom. It was gathered that some Villa officials felt that the figures should be changed but the procedure remained the issue.

The simple acceptable procedure would be that the president would write the two chambers, seeking adjustment of the offensive figures and it would be taken alongside the budget consideration.

But feelers indicated that the government would want to avoid the public relations backlash that action might cause and that some officials believe that the same goal could be achieved behind the scenes. The budget document was then withdrawn from officials of the National Assembly through the back door and later replaced.

In clear terms, that could be interpreted as sabotaging the legislature, especially when the leaders of the chambers were not taken into confidence. And that is the cause of the hue and cry emanating from the Senate. Watchers of the Legislature have, however, argued that what happened to the budget may not be out of this world. Those who have watched the Assembly grow from the 4th Assembly in 1999 to the 7th in 2011 have seen instances where budget documents were quietly withdrawn once the executive noticed fundamental errors. But then how it played out is usually a mark of the relationship between the executive and the legislature. So far, the Buhari administration has treated the Legislature as outsiders in the power game and at best, necessary evil. In that kind of setting, it would be difficult for the legislators to rob the back of the executive when the chips are down.

The fact remains that the Buhari government needs to cultivate the National Assembly as an ally in the business of governance. In the past administrations, effecting minor changes to aspects of the budget didn’t attract the hullabaloo we are seeing today.

It appears that the resolve of the Buhari administration not to have a peculiar relationship with the National Assembly and its leadership can only lead to issues such as this. People who know say that there is interdependence of powers rather than separation of powers in strict sense.

This Villa had better design avenues to cultivate the lawmakers and stop seeing the lawmakers as liabilities or irritants; the Legislature does have its constitutionally assigned roles.

The arranged marriage is a testimony that even if it takes a thousand men to build an embankment, it takes just a woman to build a home. Thomas Edison, the great American inventor, knew this when he said, “My mother was the making of me”. The world may not likely know peace until homes are re-positioned to mould future leadersand the future is now. Let’s remember the Spanish saying, “an ounce of good mother is worth more than a pound of clergy”.

Dayo Oladeji, Saki, Oke Ogun- 08027278748 MY COMMENTS: Until we women accept our divine assignment as nurturers and moulders of future leaders, the world would definitely not know peace. I know that it is daunting to combine the full time work at the home with one’s career, while the man seems to have an easy life but that is the way it is. We just have to find a level ground or else one has to give way for the other. ………………………

The story told in the article was very revealing and one has many lessons to learn from it. However, I want to point out that the scrapping of moral instructions from the school curriculum in primary schools (except in some missionary schools) is responsible for the moral laxity and confusion amongst our youths. Apart from this, I think Civic education should not be optional at the secondary school level. This is a subject that not only explains the civic rights and obligations of citizens but it is also a fertile ground for patriotism as it introduces them to their civic responsibilities. The policy makers in the education sector should review the curriculum.

Lanre Oseni- 07064181043 I agree that every individual has a right to worship his or her God whichever way that person deems right as each of us has the fundamental human right as to which religious persuasion we want to follow. However, the Holy Scriptures enjoin us to teach our children in the way of the Lord when they are young, so that they would give us rest in our old age. Are we doing that?

Lekan Oladeji, Ilora- 08053049443

39

17 January, 2016

ON THE

With Bolanle Bolawole turnpot@gmail.com 07052631058

lord’sday Tales of missing budget “HAVE you heard the news? The 2016 budget presented to the National Assembly last December by President Muhammadu Buhari is missing!””Why are you always the harbinger of bad news?”

“Thank God I did not create the bad news; I only amplified what I heard” “And from where did you hear this evil news this time around?” “From the horse’s mouth; some Senators raised the alarm about the missing budget” “How can the budget be missing; a whole budget” “I wonder o! They said the thing just waka” “How can a whole budget disappear into thin air like Chibok girls?” “This is worse than Chibok.

There were less than 300 of the Chibok girls but the budget affects 170million Nigerians and generations yet unborn”“Someone must have stolen the budget; something cannot go missing unless someone steals it””Be careful not to start another Jonathan-like controversy between stealing and missing or stealing and corruption. What is missing is missing; pure and simple””But the budget is damn too important to be allowed to go missing like the Chibok girls. It has to be found at all costs and by all means””The search has begun already. The Senate where the document got missing commissioned a high-powered search party to go find it” “Good; but why only the Senate?

Wasn’t the budget also laid by the President with the House of Representatives?”

“Those ones are not complaining about any missing budget””Then I smell a rat.

Why is the same document missing in one chamber but intact in the other?””You seem not to understand where the Senate helmsman hails from””Tell me””Ilorin, of course” “And what is the matter with Ilorin?” “Ask those elders who nicknamed that ancient city ‘Ilorin mesu jamba’ or something like that” “What does that mean?” “‘Jamba’ in Yoruba means ‘deceit’; master of deceit” “I see! We must not forget, however, that when one cunning man dies, another cunning man will always be around to bury him””You are right; the Fulani is no pushover in that respect” “Interestingly, Bukola Saraki is both Fulani and Ilorin at the same time” “Then, Buhari has met his over-match this time around” “There is no cause for alarm.

The president has said he can work with anyone” “I hope so; and also that they soon find the budget” “They have found it!

The powerful committee set up by the Senate President did a marvellous job in quickly tracing the missing document” “That is cherry news; very much unlike these shores” The committee even performed beyond expectations; not only did it find the missing budget, it also unearthed another Budget” “What do you mean? Another Budget aside the allegedly missing budget?” “Exactly!” “Meaning there are now two 2016 budgets?” “That’s right; one fake budget and one original budget” “Wonders will never end! I hope another Dasukigate is not in the offing” “This is worse than Dasukigate; Dasukigate is just a measly 2.1 billion dollars while the national budget is in excess of six trillion Naira” “What is the meaning of all of this?” “The Senate President said the

budget is not missing but that a fake budget was printed and circulated to the Senators by a top Presidency official” “I don’t understand: How do you differentiate the fake from the original?” “The original budget is the one presented by the president life and direct to the joint sitting of the National Assembly and which was encased in a presidential box” “Okay; how about the fake one?” “That is the one printed by presidency officials and smuggled into the Senate through the back door” “Why would anyone do such a thing and for what purpose?” “Media reports said there were discrepancies between the fake and the original. Figures were altered” “Oh, I see! That is very much like importing wuru-wuru and jaga-jaga election principles into financial matters” “How do you mean?” “Rig the voter register and you have rigged the election. Waiting for the funds to get to any ONSA’s office before cornering it is dangerous; better if the entire budget is cornered from source!” “We may never know what the intentions of those involved were; the fake documents are said to have been withdrawn entirely from circulation” “You must be a foreigner to believe that. Some people must still have both the fake and original. At the appropriate time, the two will surface” “Playing monkey-games with the Appropriation Bill 2016 demonstrates how unserious we are in this country” “On the contrary, it is evidence of our ingenuity. Misappropriating a whole Appropriation Bill is daring” “Talking seriously, times like these are not the best to play hanky-panky with a document as important as a nation’s budget” “What is the problem with the times?” “Are you serious or are you one of them?” “One of who?”

“Looters of the country if you cannot fathom that the times are hard” “Hard times don’t last but hard people do. Luckily, Buhari is a really, really hard man””That is the problem. Have you been seeing the cartoons in the newspapers?””Cartoons?

Who reads cartoons? They are an unseri-

Sunday Tribune

ous lot” “Then you have been missing a lot! Cartoonists are some of the best commentators you can ever have, I follow them religiously””You must be careful.

Some cartoonists in Paris got themselves into trouble the other time””Cartoonists are very good and damn efficient satirists; they make informed commentaries that should not be taken lightly””Except I will start to develop some interest in them now” “Even the president reads them; the other time he told one of them his neck is not as ostrich-like as they present it in their cartoons” “Amazing that a busy president can still find time for cartoons””They make useful statements. They have told Buhari that making looters his pre-occupation while the economy suffers will do more harm than good””Every informed commentator has said a similar thing””The problem is that our leaders don’t have the stomach for much reading but can flip through and take in cartoons at a glance””I now see the point you are making; will the president set his priorities right?””I hope he does; the economy is bleeding profusely but Amaechi has said a new Dasukigate in the oil sector will soon be prised open by the government””I can bet you any probe into the oil sector will make Dasukigate a child’s play” “And by the time we are through with all the probes, maybe the Naira will exchange 100 to one US dollar” “Some people have suggested that the CBN governor be fired for incompetence” “Is it incompetence or sabotage? Was it not Jonathan who appointed the man?”

“Buhari is under no obligation to keep the man; he can get him fired” “And open a Pandora’s Box?” “What do you mean? The president has the power to hire and fire””It is not as straightforward as that. The Igbo will cry marginalization once the man is sacked” “You are right. MASSOB and IPOB will troop to the streets in protest” “You can see how difficult this country is to govern. One of the sins Jonathan paid for was firing Sanusi as CBN governor” “But we cannot continue like this. The

economy is going down the hills at a very rapid rate””What is the Economic Team doing? The CBN governor is not the only man responsible for the worsening economic climate” “I pity the vice-president who is supposed to be in charge of the economy. The man is already all grey hair just a few months on the road” “Even Barak Obama did not age as rapidly as Yemi Osinbajo” “Do you think the president has put square pegs in square holes in this respect?” “It is too early to say but I will ask the president to learn some basic truths from Bishop David Oyedepo” “The Winners man?” “Yes, the preacher said when making appointments, he first looks for who is competent before considering whether or not such a candidate is bornagain” “That sounds strange; as a bornagain preacher, his preferred qualification ought to be whether or not a candidate is born-again” “The man thinks differently; he said a born-again who is not competent will ruin the enterprise entrusted into his or her hands before you could have the opportunity to train and make him competent” “That’s right. It takes some time and effort to train people and make them competent” “He reckons, however, that a competent man who is not born-again can encounter Jesus Christ and become born-again in a jiffy” “Sound logic; you make me respect the preacher even more.

I understand he is really cerebral” “Take the example of Saul of Tarsus; within a moment, he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and became bornagain” “That’s right; even though I don’t know much of the bible I understand that lightening or something from God struck him and he became blind” “Correct. But to study the Bible and become competent did not come as easy for Paul. He spent years studying the Bible and learning at the feet of the elders” “What has that got to do with our country and economy?”

“The president once said he placed premium on people’s loyalty while constructing his Cabinet; it should have been on competence” “I see! Many competent people are outside the system pining away while loyal people are the ones playing trial-and-error with the lives and destinies of Nigerians” “The president said he felt the compelling need to reward those who stood with him through thick and thin when he was considering people for appointment” “That is right.

But come to think of it, many of those in positions are really accomplished personalities who had been successful in other areas””You are right; but note that just one weak link can ruin it all” “I don’t understand” “Consider a government or the Economic Team as an athletic relay team; a weak leg will ruin the efforts of all the others, regardless whether or not you have Usain Bolt in the team” “You are right” “Or consider it as a football team with the likes of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar and Suarez but with a very porous defence””In other words, a team must be good all-round to deliver the goods” “Correct. Until you search for and straighten out the weak links, you will not achieve your goals”.

40

17 January, 2016

language&style

by Samson Dare 0805 500 1770 samsonadare@yahoo.co.uk

Heaps of Rubbish!

W

e begin today by presenting a letter from one of our readers. He writes: Your contribution(s) to the development of understanding the rudiments of the English language cannot be overemphasized.

Kindly look at page 22 of the Sunday Tribune of 10th January, 2016 titled “TAMPAN Reads the Riot Act to Fake Members”, column 3 line 3: “…film shoot will take place in other to avoid any harassment or intimidation from any quarter or group of people.”

How would it be if “order” replaces “other” in the phrase?

Ojo-Idowu Olakunle I thank Mr Ojo-Idowu Olakunle for his kind words. The efforts here, whatever their value, would amount to nothing without avid and regular readers like you. The feedback we get, the knowledge that people are following and appreciating our little contribution to the education of Nigerians, the frequent text messages serve to enliven and bolster our enthusiasm.

Mr Olakunle wants to be sure whether the word order is not the better option in context of the report: ““…film shoot will take place in other to avoid any harassment or intimidation from any quarter or group of people.” Should we say in order to or in other to? The former (in order to) is the appropriate idiomatic option.

Some Nigerian users of English find it difficult to differentiate in pronunciation between the words order and other, thus carrying the phonological confusion into the idiomatic and syntactic usage.

Now read the following sentences: 1) The Treasury Single Account (TSA) was introduced in order to prevent public officers from exceeding their spending limits. 2) Nigerian languages and cultures are being taught in public schools in order to wean our citizens from unhealthy attachment to foreign languages and culture. 3) Regular parents-teachers meetings are held in order to foster a sustained dialogue between parents and teachers. 4) Politicians hold their meetings at night in order to prevent other people from having access to their information. 5) The pregnant woman was immediately subjected to surgery in order to prevent her from laboring too much. 6) The coach subjected his team to regular rigorous training in order to guarantee a brilliant international outing. 7) A lot of stones and cement were used in order to give the building a strong foundation. 8) He told so many lies in order to present himself as a man of integrity. 9) Many advertisements were placed in newspapers in order to generate goodwill for the organization. 10) Many more hands were employed in order to cope with the volume of production this season requires.

The word order can be used in a variety of other ways that should help highlight the difference between it and the word other. Now read the following sentences: 1) It is the constitutional duty of the police to maintain law and order.

2) People will be attended to in the order in which they arrived. 3) The order of service is contained in the pamphlets distributed to the worshippers. 4) No particular order is followed in the way doctors attended to their patients. 5) The chief executive has given an order which cannot be countermanded. 6) The restriction order in that part of the country has been lifted. 7) Since his assumption of office, the president has been trying to put things in order. 8) The machine is out of order and it will require a huge sum of money to fix it. 9) It may interest you to note that I don’t take orders from just anybody. 10) The company has placed an order for a new generator. 11) The army General ordered his men to leave the city. 12) Students were ordered to stay away from the venue of the meeting.

Next we illustrate the usage of the word other. The word can be used in a number of different senses. Read the following sentences: 1)Apart from excessive cash in circulation, there are other factors responsible for inflation. 2) Apart from Christianity and Islam, there are other important religions in the world. 3) The first gentleman seems to be more

responsible than the other two. 4) His father had other children by another wife. 5) There are many other things we need to discuss. 6) The other day he was saying something I didn’t quite understand. 7) I see no reason why the two friends should be quarrelling with each other. 8) There are many other books on the same subject. 9) There are situations other than this in which we can encounter similar challenges. 10) We live on the other side of the street. 11) The other false assumption is that life will go on forever.

12) My uncle’sother properties are in Abuja. 13) Some men discriminate against women. In other words, they feel they are superior to women. 14) Soldiers need to understand that this is a democracy and not military dictatorship. In other words, they should learn to submit themselves to civil authority. 15) Parents have a vital role to play in the moral upbringing of their children. In other words, parents should never leave the spiritual and moral destiny of their children entirely in the hands of teachers.

At any rate, the expression in order to should replace in other to in the context under consideration.

Sample 1: “Suddenly from Ajegunle to Apapa, Ketu to Ojota, Mushin to Safejo and even along Oshodi-Apapa expressway, piles of rubbish are returning in heaps…Aside appealing to the managers to do everything within their power to clean up wastes in the city and ensure a cleaner Lagos capable of attracting more investors and boosting the state’s economy, he equally urged citizens to shun the habit of disposing wastes on highways and other restricted areas…

One Festac resident who simply identified herself as Alhaja told our correspondent that she has resorted to patronizing truck-pushers in disposing her wastes because of the many disappointments in the hands of PSP operators…This she said is in spite of the fact that the government has been trying really hard to discourage patronage of the truck-pushers because of the manner they dispose the wastes which it considers malicious to the sanctity of the environment…He said they collect wastes once in two weeks which is too far between…Resultantly, he said wastes piled up and they are forced to patronize truck-pushers…He therefore prefers to patronize an elderly truck-pusher in the area who he believes dumps the wastes at a longstanding dumpsite in the area…

Alhaja Adeola told The Nation that LAWMA has become more responsive in the collection of their wastes along the express.

What’s worse is that these wastes are never well-packed…

He wondered if Lagosians do not realize that the people responsible for collecting the wastes are human beings like them…One roadside trader who said she does not live in the area but comes there to do business on a daily basis said the wastes are often cleared up every morning…She said she was sure that the residents in the area usually come and dump those refuse there behind their backs…there is a toll-free line which has been made available to operators and the general public which they can call so that alternative arrangements can be made to clear the wastes…She stressed that there are opportunities of wealth creation from the wastes we generate at home and in industries…” (Grimaces, as Heaps of Refuse Return to Lagos, The Nation on Sun Sunday, January 10, 2016) The rather bewilderingly long excerpt is intended to statistically highlight the usage of a word whose identity and presentation will be deferred till next week.

Meanwhile, there is a feature of pleonasm not dissimilar to the examples considered last week. Consider the following clause: “piles of rubbish are returning in heaps.” What is the meaning of piles? What is the meaning of heaps? What is the difference between the two? From their dictionary definitions, the two are closely related semantically, near synonyms. The point is that the two words should not occur together in a sentence as they do here.

We could say: “rubbish is returning to the streets in piles/ heaps” or: “heaps/piles of rubbish are returning to the streets.”

Other issues will be addressed next week by God’s grace.

Sunday Tribune

line

life with

Niyi Osundare

Random Blues (Blues for the ‘Dairy Queen’)

He took one look at her chest And screamed “Behold the Dairy Queen!” *Agbaga!* He took one look at her chest And shouted “Behold the Dairy Queen!”

The eyes saw first, the heart began a race Then the dream and desire and something inbetween

“A happy pair of hills Fore-goes your every step”, Say, a happy pair of hills Fore-goes your every step The spell you cast around your shadow Will surely make the monastery yelp

A happier pair of hills My eyes have never seen Ah, a sweeter pair of hills My eyes have never seen They hold the streets in awe This magic of the Dairy Queen

“I am no dairy queen”, said she “My father is not a cow” Hear? I am no dairy queen And my father is not a cow I promise such bovine bunkum Will put a scowl on your stupid brow”

41

17 January, 2016

tribunechurch

Sunday Tribune With Rita Okonoboh rosarumese@gmail.com 08053789087

Aftermath make-or-break meeting

Mixed reactions trail 3-year ban on The Episcopal Church

Church of Nigeria commends move, Welby apologises to gay community

By Rita Okonoboh

F

OR the Anglican Communion worldwide which boasts of over 80 million Christians across 165 countries, speaking over 1,000 languages, the invitation extended to 37 Primates of the Anglican Communion across the world, to a meeting to restructure the church on how to move forward, especially with the various factions beginning to spring up, as a result of open acceptance of gay relations, consecration of female bishops, among other issues was met with much enthusiasm.

The much anticipated meeting, which took place from Monday, 10th January

Adeboye visits Ibadan, Ife, declares ‘no more failures’ Pg42

to Friday, 15th January, 2015, and which many had predicted, would ultimately result in the division of the church, ended with a three-year ban placed on The Episcopal Church of the US. According to the website dedicated to the meeting, www.primates2016.org, in his announcement of the meeting in September 2015, Archbishop Justin Welby said: “I have suggested to all Primates that we need to consider recent developments but also look afresh at our ways of working as a Communion and especially as Primates, paying proper attention to developments in the past.

“The difference between our societies and cultures, as well as the speed of cultural change in much of the global north,

2016: 10 PDP senators to defect to APC

—Prophet Omale

Pg43

tempts us to divide as Christians: when the command of scripture, the prayer of Jesus, the tradition of the church and our theological understanding urges unity. A 21st-century Anglican family must have space for deep disagreement, and even mutual criticism, so long as we are faithful to the revelation of Jesus Christ, together.

“We have no Anglican Pope. Our authority as a church is dispersed, and is ultimately found in Scripture, properly interpreted. In that light, I long for us to meet together under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to seek to find a way of enabling ourselves to set a course which permits us to focus on serving and loving each other, and above all on the proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ.”

Nigeria ranks 12th worldwide as greatest persecutor of Christians Pg42

Our divisions are an obscenity, Welby tells Primates Speaking to the primates on the first day of the meeting, Welby, according to a speech published by Vanguard, noted that “We so easily take our divisions as normal; but they are in fact an obscenity, a denial of Christ’s call and equipping of the Church. Some say, it does not matter: God sees the truth of spiritual unity and the Church globally still grows. Well, it does for the moment, but the world does not see the spiritual Church but a divided and wounded body.”

He warned: “We will not find a way forward, a reconciling, either by avoiding issues or by aggression and power games.

True reconciliation is based in truth, and in peace, as Jesus sends us in peace, which means a harmony of heart, even if there is divergence in view. There has never been a time when the church was one in view, but it has often been one in heart.”

According to www.primates2016.org, the Primates, after much deliberations, Continues on pg44

42

17 January, 2016

With Olaide Sokoya ollydesanmi@yahoo.com 08074497425

churchnews

Nigeria ranks 12th worldwide as greatest persecutor of Christians

O

PEN Doors USA has released its list of countries where Christians face great persecution, with Nigeria ranking 12th.

According to the report, it was noted that persecution against Christians had reached its highest levels worldwide in 2015, even if 2014 was also stated as witnessing much persecution.

In the report, over 7,000 Christians were killed for

their faith between Nov. 1, 2014, and Oct. 31, 2015.

The California-based ministry, which works in over 60 countries, according to Christian Post, during the rollout of its 2016 World Watch List, stated

that 2015 surpassed 2014 as the deadliest year for Christians worldwide.

“The 2016 World Watch List documents an unprecedented escalation of violence against Christians, making this past year the

most violent and sustained attack on Christian faith in modern history,” Open Doors CEO, David Curry, explained last week, at a press conference introducing the report.

“This research has con-

cluded that after the brutal persecution of Christians in 2014, 2015 proved to be even worse with the persecution continuing to increase, intensify and spread across the globe.”

For the 14th year run-

CAC Victory Land, Ikeja begins 7 prophetic Saturdays THE Seven Prophetic Saturdays of Christ Apostolic Church, Victory Land, Joel Ogunnaike Street, GRA Ikeja, Lagos which began recently, will continue on January 23 at the church premises.

With the theme ‘Manifestation of Glory’, the program will hold every Saturday from 7am to 10am till February 27.

While Prophet Adewole was the guest ministerat the recent event, other clerics that will officiate in the course of the programme are Prophet Moses Olagunju, Prophet Kayode Adio, Pastor Matthew Adebayo, Prophet M.O. Ojo and Prophetess D. Francis.

The host ministers include Pastor C.S. Fasuyi, Director of Mission, CAC Worldwide; Pastor S.K. Olawoye; Pastor I.B. Ajanaku; Pastor A. Akintunde and Pastor J. Minari.

Pastor C.S. Fasuyi

From left, Evangelist Olubunmi Akande; Professor Modupe Onadeko and Princess Femi Omololu-Thomas, at the University of Ibadan Christian family fellowship 2016 Bible study, held at the University of Ibadan premises, recently. PHOTO: ALOLADE GANIYU.

Adeboye visits Ibadan, Ife, declares ‘no more failures’

By Rita Okonoboh with Agency Report THE General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor E.A. Adeboye, last week visited University of Ibadan and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, for special services.

At the sermon at the University of Ibadan, Pastor Adeboye, who quoted from John 5:29; Philippians 4:13; John 15:5; Luke 5:1-7; Daniel 2:20-21, among others noted that “when God visits, problems and failures end.”

According to him, “I have been a lecturer and a student in the university. Thus, failure is not always a function of laziness (forgive me if I use mathematical terms). I have good news for all students experiencing failure even after studying hard, and for lecturers who work hard, yet do not get expected results, that failure ends tonight.”

The event witnessed ministration by the Redeemed Christian Fellowship mass

choir, clerics, as well as an address by the vice chancellor of UI, Professor Idowu Olayinka. The event also provided an avenue for brisk business involving sale of bow ties, roast meat, soft sell publications as well as transportation services.

Meanwhile, at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, no fewer than 15 students of Obafemi Awolowo University, who were said to be cultists, sur-

rendered and renounced their membership in the course of the ministration of Pastor Adeboye.

According to a report by the blog, www.kemifilani. com, the 2016 edition of the annual University Thanksgiving Service and maiden Holy Ghost Night for the youths held yesterday at the new Crusade Ground of OAU, in which Pastor Adeboye ministered during the evening session and spoke

on the topic: “The right hand of the Lord.”

Making the altar call, Pastor Adeboye was quoted as stating that “If you have been deceived into joining a cult, now you know that there is power beyond ordinary powers and you want to say bye bye to the devil and come completely clean, I will love to pray for you tonight that any evil covenant you have entered be destroyed.”

Quality leadership should reflect Christian values —Cleric THE President of The Men of Issachar Vision Inc., Nigeria, Reverend Samson Ajetomobi, has called on leaders, both religious and political, to adopt quality leadership skills in order to reflect godly values in actions and decision making.

Speaking on the upcoming 26th edition of the leadership conference with the theme, “Much More Fruits in Life Home

and Ministry,” scheduled to take place from January 20th to January 24th, 2016, at the Leadership and Mission Centre, Olororo, Ojoo, Ibadan, at 9a.m. and 5p.m., daily, Revd. Ajetomobi noted that the conference was coming at a time when examples needed to be set regarding positive leadership qualities, which will not only reflect favour-

Sunday Tribune

ably on the homefront, but in the society and the nation.

Noting that leadership comes with challenges which can be successfully overcome by believing in God, Revd. Ajetomobi, called on leaders to “have the fear of God at heart and work towards making society better by ensuring that they do their best to put the people first.”

ning, North Korea was listed at No. 1 on the World Watch List.

Pariah states like North Korea, Sudan (No. 8) and Eritrea (No. 3) continue to stomp on the religious freedoms of Christians and others, the dramatic rise in the amount of persecution against Christians is in part due to the rise of Islamic extremist groups like the Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab.

With the continuous and rising influence of IS, which has led to the forceful eviction of thousands from their homes, as well as the movement of Christians, Iraq is listed at No. 2 on the list.

Considering that IS also has control of certain parts of Syria, Open Doors lists Syria at No. 5 on the list.

“Islamic extremist caliphates are solidified and expanding. The data shows that the Islamic State caliphate has effectively carried out genocide against Yazidis and Christians in Syria and Iraq, pushing hundreds of thousands of Christians into refugee camps in North Iraq and other countries,” Curry stated.

Although IS gets most of the global media attention for its barbarity, Curry explained that it is the Boko Haram terrorist group in Nigeria (No. 12) that has killed more Christians in 2015 than any other terrorist group.

“Boko Haram in Nigeria threatened to control large parts of Nigeria, it does control large parts of Nigeria and its extending its territory into Niger and looking into Chad, as well,” Curry said.

Another terrorist outfit that has contributed to the high death toll in Open Doors’ 2016 report, is Somalia-based al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabaab, who last April attacked Garissa University in Kenya (No. 16) and massacred about 147 Christians.

Pakistan took the 6th position in ranking, while Saudi Arabia was 14 and Egypt was at 22nd position.

43 tribunechurch

17 January, 2016

2016: 10 PDP senators to defect to APC

—Prophet Omale

Jacob Segun Olatunji - Abuja THE General Overseer, Divine Hand of God Prophetic Ministries International, Abuja, Prophet (Dr) Emmanuel Omale, has predicted that about ten Senators elected under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In a 44-point prophecy made available to TribuneChurch in Abuja, the cleric said that in 2016, there would be unprecedented crisis in the Red Chamber of the National Assembly while there would be absolute peace at the Green Chamber, as all contending issues would be amicably resolved.

According to him, “I see an unstable Senate rife with crisis but The House of Reps wax stronger with all lingering issues resolved. The Speaker should continue his fatherly role despite attempts to cause a rift between him and his Deputy that will lead to re-constitution of Committees.”

While warning against the collapse of three banks and their top management going to jail, the prophet called for improved investment in telecoms and allied services, as he said “I see many telecom billionaires emerging and displacing oil billionaires,” in the year ahead, just as he revealed that President Muhammadu Buhari would be the greatest ruler Nigeria ever produced.

Prophet Omale, in addition, urged all Nigerians to pray

ceaselessly to avert bereavement in the home of a past military ruler, while a governor from the East should also pray against bereavement.

He added that three South-South leaders should pray against heart-related deaths very close to their birthdays while Nigerians should also pray for a very prominent leader in the middle belt to avert death.

On the renewed agitation for the Republic of Biafra and the Boko Haram menace, Prophet Omale said: “Biafra will be resolved peacefully; it will achieve its objectives peacefully as President Muhammadu Buhari may implement aspects of the last confab report. Terrorist attacks will see reduced significance, but a top military boss may die in combat.”

He also warned two newly appointed ministers to be careful about a financial scandal that would see them sacked and jailed, and two serving Senators should pray against scan-

Sunday Tribune

dalous revelations which could lead to heart attack.

Other predictions include: “Nigerians winning several awards at international fora; Taraba state should pray against very serious civil unrest and violence; Kogi should pray to have steady gubernatorial tenure as I see several governors trying to be sworn in; a governor’s wife in South should be careful of a female best friend leading to terrible scandal; A former governor’s wife in the South-South should pray against bereavement and detection of terminal illness; God is very happy with Cross River, but their Governor needs continuous prayers against food poisoning; I see a strongman rising out of heavy walls to become a leader of the South-South and none in recent times ever will be as powerful as him; I see heavy flooding in Middle belt and South-South states.”

Continuing, he stated that “God says Sokoto is now the centre of peace for Nigeria and I see prominence for their leaders in national affairs; two governors from the North should avoid early morning flights from January to April; Nigerian aviation authorities should be very security conscious to avert terror attack; Nigerians should pray to prevent deadly livestock virus that may decimate a lot of livestock, thereby causing wide spread famine; Oh, Kaduna, Oh Plateau, formerly Land of Peace! All faith leaders should share a feast of love to avert imminent inter-tribal and inter-religious crisis; beg NLC to avert two crippling strikes that will shake Nigeria; a South-West governor should make genuine peace with his leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to ensure prosperity and fruitful participations in this government for the Yorubas; pray against a burning oil field in the Niger Delta that will burn for a long time if not handled carefully; I see crisis in NUPENG; all the Muslim leaders to pray against religious division, with various sectors trying to introduce a new twisted doctrine; national Eagles on the rise, but Oliseh requires co-operation from his assistants to prevent internal saboteurs; In Edo State, though the current governor means well, but he should be careful in handling an imminent party crisis around end of February; change of party leadership imminent in Ghana; pray to avert crisis in Guinea-Bissa; Mozambique President needs prayers; there will be political crisis in Congo; Mugabe and another prominent South African leader need prayers to survive in 2016; South African President, Jacob Zuma, may be involved in a financial scandal that may cost him the Presidency.”

Re: 18 Bible passages in support of lottery?

By The Ven. Samuel A.O. Osungbeju THE Nigerian Tribune, the issue of Monday, 31st August, 2015, featured an interview conducted with Mr. Adolphus Joe Ekpe, the Director-General of National Lotttery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) on pgs 37 & 38, where he was reported to have made the above claim, in response to the question on what he was doing to detach lottery from religious bias and boost people’s interest in the game – lottery.

My attempt in this article is informed by the fact that apart from Mr. Ekpe, a lot of people, even Christians, are fond of trying to justify their frivolous actions by making weak and baseless references to the scriptures – weak, because they are lacking in an in-depth understanding of the scriptures.

The best way to start is by a way of examining the meanings of lots and lottery. The Holman illustrated Bible Dictionary describes lots as object of unknown shapes and materials used to determine the divine will; a practice which had its roots in the Old Testament (OT). The practice was associated with the priests in the OT when they made difficult and significant decisions by casting lots on the ground or drawing them from a receptacle.

Although it is neither known what exactly lots looked like nor its interpretation, in both OT and NT, God had always influenced the casting of lots (Prov. 16:33). For example, in the OT, Saul was chosen as Israel’s first king through the use of lots (I Sam. 10:20-24); Joshua also used lot-casting method to share the Promised Land to the tribes of Israel (Josh. 18: 8-10), according to God’s instruction in Num. 26: 562-56. Besides, in Israel lots were usually cast to decide the choice of goat on the day of atonement (Lev. 16:7-10). The guilty Jonah was discovered by lot (Jonah 1:7). Similarly, in the NT, the early church got a replacement for Judas in Matthias by lot (Acts 1:26), which was preceded by a prayer for God’s will to be revealed through the method.

Furthermore, God also could communicate unknown knowledge to human beings through lot, like Saul who resorted to the use of lot to determine who sinned during the Israelites battle with the Philistines (1Sam. 14:41-42).

Joshua used the same approach in the case of the sin that caused defeat for Israel at Ai (Josh. 7:10- 15). The soldiers at

the execution ground of Jesus Christ also cast lots for Jesus’ garment (Matt. 27:35).

Here one may want to argue that this action technically reflects lottery. But it is not! The purpose here was to know the mind of God in order not to destroy what was on ground.

It should also be noted that lot was not designed primarily for this purpose. The soldiers just adopted it because it was neater for that situation – they simply applied common sense, otherwise they would have had to destroy the cloth and it would not have been beneficial. I am sure that those who designed the game of lottery would appeal to this practice to draw strength for their argument. Interestingly, Prov. 18:18 points to lot as the best way to decide a disputable matter or case.

Lottery, undoubtedly, is not a biblical word. Generally, lottery refers to a scheme for the distribution of prizes by lot or chance, especially a gaming scheme in which one or more tickets bearing particular numbers draw prizes, the other tickets are blanks. Figuratively, lottery refers to an affair of chance.

How then does lottery relate to the biblical lot-casting? To start with, it should be pointed out that biblical lot-casting in the OT was associated with priestly activities/service; hence it cannot be equated with lottery, which is gambling in nature. In other words, casting of lots in the Bible was concerned with oracular consultation, involving a somewhat complex process, which later developed into the Mosaic law – it was a religious practice. Early Israelites’ priests consulted God, which implied that they asked God by using object called Urim and Thummim put inside the ephod, which was a kind of apron worn by the priest when he was in the sanctuary or near the Ark of God (1Sam. 2:18; 2 Sam. 6:14).

Lot-casting was therefore used extensively throughout the OT as a decision-making guide, and even in the NT as we have earlier on mentioned. But in the NT, there is no record of any further use of lot-casting after the Pentecost.

The Church subsequently relied upon the Holy Spirit to lead them through other means. Against this background, it is quite evident that an attempt to authenticate lottery by appealing to the biblical lot-casting, which was a form

of oracular consultation, is baseless and unfounded for so many reasons.

But basically, lottery is a kind of business engagement which revolves around a game of luck and chance. In fact, this kind of game of chance cannot compare at all with the lot-casting in the Bible, which was regulated by divine law, because it was God-focused to achieve divine will for His people. Conversely, lottery is being regulated according to man’s design and the law of the land which is focused on the principle of profit maximization and economic prosperity of some people or groups in the society all in the name of giving gifts to the people.

Although, viewed critically, lottery may appear to be very appealing as a form of game, but it is an offense to connect it to the biblical method of seeking the will of God in difficult circumstances as attempted by Mr Adolphus Ekpe. There is nothing religious about lottery for anyone to attempt to draw support for it from the Christian religious point of view.

To this end, many religious belief systems see lottery as nothing but a form of gambling that should be religiously avoided. And I think the Bible neither supports nor encourages gambling or anything that stands close to it.

May God bless you as you reflect on this with a view to making a right decision on this issue in Jesus’ name.

The Ven. Osungbeju, Ph.D is a cleric with Ibadan North Diocese (Anglican Communion).

44 tribunechurch

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Bishop Olusina Fape of Remo Diocese, Ogun State, stated that “I am glad that the Anglican church is taking the right step towards that direction because the Episcopal church is part and parcel of the global Anglican communion, and as a family, we have fundamental principles that Continued from pg38 we base our toagreed to walk togetherness upon. gether in the grace The Episcopal and love of Christ, Church in Amerwhich acknowlica has violated a edges the signifikey fundamental cant distance that issue within the remains but conglobal Anglican firms their unaniCommunion mous commitment which is disreto walk together. gard for scripExcerpts of the ture. In other text of the agreewords, to them, ment, reads as folthe scripture lows: does not count “We gathered any longer; they as Anglican Prican manipulate, mates to pray and twist the scripconsider how we ture and that is may preserve our not the mind of unity in Christ God. Homosexgiven the ongoing ual relations are deep differences totally against that exist among the scripture and Primate Nicholas Okoh Archbishop Justin Welby Primate Michael Curry us concerning our we have been on understanding of Accuted because of their sexuality. this issue for over marriage. Recent developments in The Welby said facing protesters, particular- cording to a statement released by Pri- a decade. I am glad that the global AnEpiscopal Church with respect to a change ly those from Africa, was a reminder of the mate Curry, and published on The Bishop in their Canon on marriage represent a “pain and suffering of many LGBTI people of Texas blog, Curry, who thanked all for glican Communion has taken a decision, showing them that there is no way you fundamental departure from the faith and around the world”. their prayers, said: “This is not the out- can prove to be disloyal to what brings us teaching held by the majority of our Prov“For me, it’s a constant source of deep come we expected, and while we are disinces on the doctrine of marriage. Possible sadness, the number of people who are appointed, it’s important to remember together and still claim to be part of the developments in other Provinces could persecuted for their sexuality. I don’t have that the Anglican Communion is really body. I think the Anglican Church has further exacerbate this situation. All of the right to speak for everyone. I wanted not a matter of structure and organisa- moved in the right direction.” us acknowledge that these developments to take this opportunity...to say how sorry tion. The Anglican Communion is a netThey should have been banned for have caused further deep pain throughout I am for the hurt and pain, in the past and work of relationships that have been built life –Bishop Adekunle our Communion. present, the church has caused,” he stated. on mission partnerships; relationships According to the Right Reverend Sam“The traditional doctrine of the church in Asked during the press conference if the that are grounded in a common faith; view of the teaching of Scripture, upholds church’s position made it look outdated, relationships in companion diocese re- son Adekunle, Bishop of Ile Oluji Diocese, marriage as between a man and a woman Welby admitted that “It makes us look out lationships; relationships with parish to “they are within the agreement of the Anin faithful, lifelong union. The majority of of line in the US and UK, yes, but not in parish across the world; relationships that glican Church worldwide, but the church those gathered reaffirm this teaching. In many other parts of the world, no. We are are profoundly committed to serving and of North America started the practice of keeping with the consistent position of a global church and that means that there following the way of Jesus of Nazareth by homosexuality, and ordaining gay bishops. So, the ban is welcome. In fact, three previous Primates’ meetings such unilat- are different views in different places.” helping the poorest of the poor, and help- years is too small; they should be banned eral actions on a matter of doctrine withAsked about steps the church would ing this world to be a place where no child out Catholic unity is considered by many take to continue to lobby against the at- goes to bed hungry ever. That’s what the for life. It is totally against what the Bible of us as a departure from the mutual ac- titudes in these countries he said: “We Anglican Communion is, and that Com- preaches and Jesus Christ opposes such activities. It is an aberration and heresy countability and interdependence implied are not a centralised church which orders munion continues and moves forward. and the Primates’ move is commended.” through being in relationship with each people what to do and how much time to “This has been a disappointing time for For Bishop Nathaniel Ogundipe of Ifo other in the Anglican Communion. spend on doing it. I spend an extensive many, and there will be heartache and Anglican Diocese, “I think they have done “It is our unanimous desire to walk to- amount of time on this subject both with pain for many, but it’s important to regether. However given the seriousness of fellow primates and elsewhere. It is a ma- member that we are still part of the An- the right thing because, judging from all indications, the US has gone against God’s these matters we formally acknowledge jor concern.” glican Communion. We are The Episco- plan for humanity. I believe Nigeria is at this distance by requiring that for a pepal Church, and we are part of the Jesus the forefront of this issue. On that alone, I riod of three years The Episcopal Church We are still part of the Anglican Movement, and that Movement goes on, think what the Primates have done is the no longer represent us on ecumenical Communion —Primate Curry and our work goes on. And the truth is, right thing. Not only Nigeria, recently in and interfaith bodies, should not be apThe Most Reverend Michael Curry, Pre- it may be part of our vocation to help the Northern America, CANA did the same pointed or elected to an internal standing siding Bishop and Primate, The Episcopal Communion and to help many others to committee and that while participating in Church, in his reaction to the ban stated grow in a direction where we can realize thing and many more are still coming to the internal bodies of the Anglican Com- that in spite of the disappointing outcome, and live the love that God has for all of join.” munion, they will not take part in decision they church remains part of the Anglican us, and we can one day be a Church and Effects of ban on the Anglican making on any issues pertaining to doc- Communion. a Communion where all of God’s children Communion trine or polity. are fully welcomed, where this is truly a According to Bishop Adekunle, “The “We have asked the Archbishop of house of prayer for all people. And maybe Church of Nigeria welcomes it because Canterbury to appoint a Task Group to it’s a part of our vocation to help that to that has been our stand,” while Bishop maintain conversation among ourselves happen. And so we must claim that high Ogundipe doesn’t think it will affect the with the intention of restoration of rela- The Episcopal Church has calling; claim the high calling of love and Church of Nigeria “because we are on the tionship, the rebuilding of mutual trust, faith; love even for those with whom we healing the legacy of hurt, recognising the violated a key fundamental disagree, and then continue, and that we right path. Those who believe we are on God’s side will also join us. Soon, they will extent of our commonality and exploring issue within the global will do, and we will do it together. begin to see reasons they should not go our deep differences, ensuring they are Anglican Communion “We are part of the Jesus Movement, against God law and humanity, and that is held between us in the love and grace of and the cause of God’s love in this world what we stand for.” which is disregard for Christ.” can never stop and will never be defeated.

Meanwhile, Bishop Fape noted that scripture. There is no God loves you. God bless you. And you “There is no way it would not have certain Archbishop Welby apologises to keep the faith. And we move forward.” way you can prove to be far reaching effects on the global Anglican gay and lesbian community Communion. Before now, the conservative disloyal to what brings us The Archbishop of Canterbury, in a press You can’t be disloyal and claim to Anglican Communion has opposed the unconference, held on Friday, apologised to together and still claim to be part of the body –Bishop Fape godly attitude of the Episcopal Church of the gay and lesbian community for the Reacting to the development, a cross the US, which has caused some spite. We be part of the body. “hurt and pain” caused by the church. section of Anglican bishops who spoke to must work according to the direction of the According to the Belfast Telegraph, TribuneChurch commended the move, scripture. They may want to absent themWelby said it was a “constant source of describing it as a step in the right direc- selves from meetings, but this is a move in deep sadness” that people were persetion. the positive direction and it is welcome.”

‘They should have been banned for life’

45 tribunechurch

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

dawnofanewera

firmfaith:rightreason

with Most Revd J.O. Akinfenwa Bishop of Ibadan Anglican Diocese

with Bishop Emmanuel Badejo, fradebadejo@yahoo.com

Believe in God

The crying project of peace

PERFECT peace “We cry for peace, perfect peace. We long for peace in this neigbourhood...

No water can put out this fire, only love can change our lives, we cry for peace, in this neighbourhood”. Those thoughts come from Mr. Toots Hibbert, one of the greatest reggae singers of decades ago. The theme of peace has since been revisited by so many singers including the unforgettable British pop group of the 60s, The Beatles who sang the undying “All we are saying, give peace a chance”.

The theme of peace is not original to Toots, nor was it discovered in our time.

The history of mankind, according to the Bible, began peacefully and soon moved into a stage of “peace-lessness”. Toots likened that stage of being to a fire, which no water, but only love can put out. He is right. Even Saint John Paul II once wrote: “If we wish to have true peace, we must give it a soul. The soul of peace is love”. Peace is a favourite theme for all human beings. Man brought turmoil into the history of salvation and continues to perpetrate it, provoking and fuelling wars, conflict and disharmony. However even the biblical prophets predicted the advent of peace at some point to be brought about by the word of Yahweh. The prophet Micah eloquently predicted this: “He will rule over the nations and settle disputes for may peoples. They will beat their swords into ploughshares and their swords into pruning hooks. Nation will not raise sword against nation; neither will they train for war anymore. But each one will sit in peace and freedom under a fig tree or a vine of his own, for the mouth of Yahweh of hosts has spoken” (Mic. 4: 3-4) Jesus is peace Jesus Christ reiterated man’s need for perfect peace because even at his own birth, he was named the Prince of Peace (Is. 9:5). It was about him even as the suffering servant that Isaiah prophesied (Isaiah 53 :7-11).

Jesus pronounced commanding words of peace to his disciples: “Blessed are the peace makers for they shall be called children of God” (Matt 5:9). After his resurrection he assured the disciples of his power after his death when he appeared to them saying: “Peace be with you” (Jn. 21). At every Mass in the Catholic Church, a solemn period is dedicated to the expression of peace. At the call: “Let us offer each other a sign of peace”,

It is derivable that peace is not a private good for only one person or a treasure for mere personal preservation. It is an ingredient of the common good for the peace of one depends on the peace of another.

people shake hands or embrace each other and say “The peace of Christ be with you”. It is a reminder of what Christians ought to be committed to everyday.

The world day of peace The Church celebrates the first day of every year as the World Day of Peace.

Each year, the pope, addresses a particular theme in order to highlight the pursuit for peace among peoples. Pope Francis’ message for the year 2016 was entitled: “Overcome Indifference and Win Peace”.

In it, he wrote: “Indifference and lack of commitment constitute a grave dereliction of the duty whereby each of us must work in accordance with our abilities and our role in society for the promotion of the common good, and in particular for peace, which is one of mankind’s most precious goods” (N.4). From here it is derivable that peace is not a private good for only one person or a treasure for mere personal preservation.

It is an ingredient of the common good for the peace of one depends on the peace of another. That is a characteristic that makes us all the human beings we are meant to be.

The pope therefore condemns a situation where people demonstrate lack of concern for what is happening around them, especially if it does not affect them directly, preferring not to ask questions or seek answers about others’ dis-ease. The pope concludes: “In these and in other situations, indifference leads to self-absorption and a lack of commitment. It thus contributes to the absence of peace with God, with our neighbour and with the environment” (N.3).

A cardinal speaks In his Christmas message entitled “Let the Mercy of God flow”, the archbishop of Abuja, John Cardinal Onaiyekan also decries the indifference that denies mercy even to criminals who make restitution for the evil they have done. This rather unChristian desire for vengeance betrays the need to overcome our indifference to the pain of others in our country especially during this ongoing Year of Mercy. He wrote: “Too much innocent blood is flowing all over the world. In the face of all this, we have somehow not only been tempted to lose our sense of outrage, but often even approved and hailed such excesses. Our world is full of atrocities. We surely need God’s mercy”. The Cardinal’s message sits well with the theme of peace for wherever there is genuine concern for others and a disposition to mercy, there peace is bound to thrive. Pope Francis’ declaration that peace is both God’s gift and a human achievement, entrusted to all men and women who have to work to attain it, challenges us all. What have you done to contribute to peace today?

All children of God and especially Christians must enlist in the search for peace all over the world, ready to reach out of ourselves to the neighbours and the neighbourhood of our families, cities and country to wage peace against the numerous wars of violence and destruction all around. That is why it is generally agreed that peace is not made at the council tables or by treaties, but in the hearts of men and women. Peace is attainable and it is our only choice for the future of humanity.

AS we march into the new year 2016, it is important to call our attention to the importance of having faith in God. Life is full of challenges; that is true. Yet there are immense possibilities available to us if only we can believe in our God. Today, I like to ask you to think about the positive possibilities in your life this year, and decide to have faith in God more than ever before.

There is a way in which challenges of life, especially setbacks or calamities, tend to eat up, eat away or consume our faith. When things were going well for Jab, his family joined him to worship God and to enjoy the goodies. However, when trouble came, his wife nagged and nagged that he should deny God. When defeat pain, or sorrow comes our way, we tend to ask “Why?” Why did God allow this to happen to me?

In fact, Why SHOULD God allow this to happen to me?

Vet, some of those ugly or unpleasant situations are the raw materials that God needs to make our lives to glorify His name.

It is from those tests which we face that God seeks to bring out powerful testimonies that will glorify His name. That is why, when things go tough or rough, the child of God must remain steadfast in his faith. When the future looks so bleak, and you don’t even know where to put your foot for the very next step, you must learn to sing Because He lives...”: Because he lives, I can face tomorrow

Because he lives, all fear is gone Because I know, he holds my future My life is worth a living just because he lives God did not promise us that there will not be problems. See what He told us in John 16: 33, John 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

It takes absolute faith in God to remain cheerful when things are not going for us. And painfully, when we lose our peace because of our problems, we cannot do anything productive. We cannot do anything positive. Meanwhile, when you read through Hebrews 11, what you see there is that great people of old had faith in God, and they did something that demonstrated that they had faith. Hebrews 11:8-9 says of Abraham: Hebrews 11:8-9 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise The same idea can be seen in the story in Matthew chapter 14. The disciples saw a strange sight on the sea, and they became both terrified and petrified.

livingword

By Bishop David Oyedepo Call 7747546-8; or e-mail: feedback@lfcww.org

Engaging the power of sanctification for fulfilment of destiny! (3) WE began this five-part series with the understanding that God has reserved glorious destinies for every redeemed child, but without holiness, among others, we cannot actualize same. We also discovered that Jesus engaged the Spirit of Holiness to overcome sin and we can do same. As we continue this series, let’s know that the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Holiness. He is also the Spirit of Sanctification (Malachi 3: 1-4; Romans 15:16).

Furthermore, He is the purifier of sin, the refiner’s fire and He purifies us to live a sanctified life (Romans 8: 13; 1:4; John 6: 63; Acts 2: 1-3). Just as gold cannot be refined, except through fire, our golden destiny can never be realized, without the Refiner’s Fire Ministry of the Holy Ghost.

Let’s explore some reasons for sanctification.

It is required for answered prayers: The Bible says: Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear (Isaiah 59:1-2; see also Psalm 66:18). However, one interesting thing about our God is that, any time we repent of our sins, He forgives and treats us as though we never did it (Psalm 66:19-20).

It enhances our access to Revelations: Revelation is buying into the heart of God on the issues of the hour. That is why the Bible says: The secret of the LORD is with them that fear him; and he will shew them his covenant (Psalm 25:14). For instance, Joseph had access to the secrets of God and it was said of him forasmuch as God has shown you all these things, you are in another class (Genesis 41:37-40). In another verse of scripture, Joseph said, ‘But I fear God’ (Genesis 39: 7-9; 42:18). This helps us to know that access to revelation requires sanctification; otherwise, we would be limited to information that is accessible by all; instead the secrets of our heavenly father.

For Next-Levels of Anointing: Not every anointed man is impactful. It takes fresh oil to command fresh impact (Psalm 92:10; Luke 5:37-38). For instance, if we don’t change the oil in our cars, the engine will soon knock down. Similarly, it is living a sanctified life that guarantees access to fresh oil and that in turn guarantees our access to our God-ordained glorious destiny (Proverbs 1: 23; Psalm 45:7). However, without redemption, our victory over sin will remain a day dream. Redemption simply means to be born again by accepting Jesus Christ as your Saviour and Lord? If you haven’t, you can do so by saying this prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to You today. I am a sinner.

46

feature

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Osun State government vs striking health workers:

Who blinks first?

Main gate of LAUTECH hospital, Osogbo.

The industrial action embarked on by Osun State health workers is becoming more protracted with no end in sight. OLUWOLE IGE examines the situation in the state and the hardline stance of the gladiators against the background of the directive of the state governor to the striking workers to return to their duty posts or be fired.

T

he popular axiom that when two elephants fight, the grass suffers is practically playing out in Osun State, as the strike embarked on by the state chapter of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) and the Osun State Association of Medical Doctors and Dental Officers (OSAMDO) is taking serious toll on patients, seeking medical treatment.

A majority of the government-owned hospitals and clinics have been deserted as relatives of patients, who can afford high medical bills of private hospitals have been withdrawing their sick relatives from the government hospitals. But, the indigent ones, who could not bear the exorbitant bills of private hospitals, simply accepted their fate and relocated to their homes, waiting endlessly until the striking doctors suspend their industrial action.

Investigation conducted by Sunday Tribune revealed that some of the patients have lost their lives due to the bickering between the state governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola and the health workers, as none of the warring parties is ready to shift ground on their demands.

It will be recalled that medical workers in Osun, under the aegis of OSAMDO, NMA, Association of Resident Doctors (ARD) of Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH), had on September 28, 2015 embarked on industrial action to press home their demand on some issues.

Since the declaration of the industrial dispute, meetings and negotiations were held between the unions and government delegation, but efforts made to broker peace had failed to end the strike.

Sunday Tribune authoritatively gathered that some of the contending issues, which precipitated the industrial action relate to the payment of half salaries to the

doctors and medical personnel since June, 2015, non-remittance of pension deductions from the salaries of the doctors to their accounts with the Pension Funds Administrators (PFAs), among others.

But the situation worsened on Thursday, 7 January, when Governor Aregbesola, at a public function, directed the state Head of Service (HoS), Mr Sunday Owoeye, to issue sack letters to the striking doctors the following Monday if they failed to resume duties on Friday. The doctors, however, shunned the governor’s directive and continued with the strike, countering that they would not succumb to the government’s intimidation and sack threat.

The unions contended that the threat to sack the doctors would not offer any solution to the current industrial action embarked on by their members, but would rather exercabate the issue.

Reacting to the development during a telephone chat with Sunday Tribune, the Osun State chairman of the NMA, Dr Suraj Ogunyemi, said “Governor Aregbesola’s threat to sack the doctors, who are demanding for their legitimate entitlements, is a joke carried too far. It is not acceptable in any democratic setting”.

He stated, “the governor should call the striking doctors back to the negotiation table. If he carries out the threat to sack the doctors on Monday, all other doctors in the private and public sectors would join the strike.”.

Ogunyemi continued, “Aregbesola has the mindset of bringing doctors from Cuba to Osun. Doctors from all the South West states would storm Osun to picket government hospitals and health centres. We are not in a dictatorship regime. Before the end of work today, we are sending a letter to the governor, warning him to be cautious of his

utterances”.

Speaking on the development, the chairman of OSAMDO, Dr Isiaka Adekunle said his members were waiting for their sack letters: “we had already discussed this issue at the NMA level”.

According to him, “it is not new. A governor had once sacked all doctors in Osun and he also reabsorbed us at the end of the crisis. We are not moved by Aregbesola’s threat. We only told him to enter into agreement on when he would pay the balance of our half salaries. He has been pay-

Mr Rauf Aregbesola, Osun State governor

ing us half salaries since July, 2015”.

“The governor even stopped the payment of the unacceptable half salaries in October, 2015. We are not bothered at all over his threat to sack us on Monday. We have files for sack letters and recall letters with us. It is not new or strange to us”, Adekunle remarked.

But, the Osun State government, it appears, is not willing to condone the industial action further and might even carry out its threat of sacking doctors in the state government owned hospital for failing to call off their industrial action and resume duties on the 8th of January, 2016, going by the advertisement the government placed in a daily newspaper on Wednesday, 13 January. In the said advertisement, the state government calls on interested candidates from the country and in the diaspora to apply for vacant positions in the state’s health institutions.

The vacant positions advertised include Medical Officer Grade Level 12 (CONMESS 11), Senior Medical Officer, Grade 11, Grade Level 13 (CONMESS 111), Senior Medical Officer, Grade 1, Grade Level 14 (CONMESS IV) and Principal Medical Officer, Grade 11, Grade Level 15 (CONMESS V).

According to the advertisement, which was signed by the Permanent Secretary, office of the Head of Service (HoS), Mr Sunday Festus Olajide, interested candidates were enjoined to collect application for employment forms at the Osun State Hospital Management Board and return the completed forms with relevant documents not later than close of work on Friday 22nd January, 2016.

But OSAMDO, while reacting to the decision of the state government to advertise the positions of the striking doctors, said Continues on pg47

47 news

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Panic grips Customs officials over assets declaration circular •As owners of hotels, yachts fear losing assets to FG Tola Adenubi - Lagos

I

ndications are rife that the 14-day ultimatum to declare assets handed out by the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has forced many serving Customs officers who own luxurious hotels and yachts to hasten efforts towards doctoring the registration of their assets.

A statement signed by the Customs Image Maker, Wale Adeniyi, revealed that all officers and men of the Nigeria Customs Service were to make full disclosure of their assets in a new measure put in place to push transparency and compliance with the Rule of Law. The directive on assets declaration is contained in a circular, signed by the Comptroller-General of Customs, Colonel Hammed Ibrahim Ali (retd) and addressed to all Deputy ComptrollersGeneral, Zonal Coordi-

nators and Customs Area Controllers. All officers are to comply with the directive within 14 days.

According to findings, the Customs ComptrollerGeneral, apparently not satisfied that he is yet to make a scapegoat of any errant officer despite his anticorruption outburst in public functions and threats to jail corrupt officers, decided to force the rank and file of the service into an assets declaration procedure.

This is even as further findings revealed that many of the Customs officers who had acquired luxurious hotels in highbrow areas of Abuja and Lagos and yachts have started considering moves to doctor the ownership registration of these properties.

According to an impeccable source in the service, who declined not to have his name in print, “the CG desperately needs a scapegoat to justify his public rants that corrupt officers will be jailed if caught.

“His mandate here was

feature

to sanitise the Service, but he is yet to apprehend any scapegoat because everybody has become extra careful with the way they go about their duties.”

Many have devised means to evade being apprehended, and the fact that the CG is an outsider makes it the more difficult for him to apprehend any

officer.

“However, his recent decision that officers should declare their assets is definitely coming on the heels of his inability to apprehend anybody.

“He knows it would be difficult for a serving officer who is expected to live on his salary to defend how he came about owning a

five star hotel in a highbrow area in Abuja or Lagos. That is why he has called for an asset declaration.”

Investigation further revealed that many officers who own five star hotels in choice areas in Abuja now have sleepless nights since they are finding it difficult to defend how they came about such properties given

the amount of salary they receive.

“The short period of time given for officers to declare their assets has further compounded the woes of some of my colleagues who are currently running from pillar to post to see how they could disassociate themselves from these properties,” our source stated.

FUTA workersmanagement shut staff school, call for VC’s sack to disengage the teachers, saying the na- 2009, declaring that the asHakeem Gbadamosi - Akure

Following the sack of teachers of the staff primary school of the Federal University of Technology, Akure, (FUTA), the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) has called for the removal of the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Professor Adebiyi Daramola.

Members of the union have been protesting the sack of some of the teachers of the staff school while academic activities of the staff school were paralyzed, as they protested against the action of the institution’s

the workers. The protesters, who were armed with placards with inscriptions such as : ‘Daramola must go,’ Do not frustrate our children,’ ‘FUTA Staff School workers are not ghost workers,’ ‘No to disengagement,’ among others, gathered at the entrance of the staff school, chanting various songs to express their displeasure over the development.

Speaking to newsmen during the protest, the national president of SSANU, Mr Samson Ugwuoke, alleged that FUTA VC was acting on obnoxious circular calling for the sack of

tional body of the union had opened discussion with the Minister of Education, Mr Adamu Adamu on the way forward the matter.

“As we are discussing with the Minister on the way to restore peace to the system, Daramola went ahead and advertised the positions to replace our members. We learnt that he had employed his relatives to replace our members.”

He pointed out that the sack of workers by the administration of Daramola was contrary to the agreement between SSANU and the Federal Government in

sociation would not accept that.

“We want to use industrial action to protect our members and to draw the attention of the Federal Government to it because I believe President Muhamadu Buhari does not know what is going on in the matter.’’

However, the FUTA Public Relations Officer, Mr Adegbenro Adebanjo, in a statement, said the institution management followed the directive of the Federal Government in taking the decision, saying the school followed due process.

When will life return to Osun hospitals?

Continued from pg46

it was not in any way bothered by the development. In a resolution issued after an emergency meeting, to deliberate on the new development, the union resolved to press on with its industrial action. According to the resolution, which was signed by its chairman, Dr Adekunle, “medical and dental officers in the state service are members of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA). The association has negotiated for the welfare of her members in the past; the most recent was the approval of corrected CONMESS for medical and dental officers in public service.

“The strike action continues but the association is ready for meaningful dialogue. The association welcomed the decision of the government to employ more medical and dental officers to the state service that will correct the gross shortage of this cadre in the public service. However, their salary tagged to labour union and not NMA will be a discouragement.

“The association will allow her members in the Ministry of Health to continue their services for the wellbeing of the good people of the state. This is more important with the resurgence of Lassa fever in our neighbouring states”.

Dr Ogunyemi described the action of the state government as capable of worsening the crisis, contending that no doctor worth his onions would take up employment in Osun State with the present debilitating condition.

He stated that “the NMA would sanction any doctor that applies for the vacancies advertised by the state government, including any doctor that participates as members of the panel that would interview the doctors shortlisted”.

Ogunyemi further stated, “the NMA Osun State wishes to condemn in strong terms the recent request for applications for employment from qualified candidates to replace the doctors who are legitimately fighting for their rights, salaries and emoluments. The advertisement is in bad taste, provocative and cannot solve the avoidable crisis that the state health care has been subjected to in the past three months. It will only make worse a bad situation”.

“The Nigerian Medical Association will send any of her members who takes part in this ridiculous employment to

Dr Suraj Ogunyemi, Osun State NMA Chairman its disciplinary committee for appropriate sanctions. The Osun State government claimed that it cannot source for loans from the capital market to pay civil servant salaries, however the government can use the meagre allocations from the federation account to service the loans they raised from the capital market.

The government has not sacked any doctor in the government owned hospitals... it has the right to recruit medical doctors if it feels there are vacancies that need to be filled.

Dr Isiaka Adekunle, Chairman, OSAMDO “What a contradiction.We appeal to the government to do the needful and stop resorting to blackmail that they can not use all the state allocation to pay civil servants who are less than five per cent of the population.”, he remarked.

Reacting to the advertisement placed by the Osun State government, the director, Bureau of Communication and Strategy to the governor, Mr Semiu Okanlawon, said the government had not sacked any doctor in the government owned hospitals.

According to him, “the state government has the right to recruit medical doctors if it feels there are vacancies that need to be filled”.

For now, there appears to be no solution in sight to the impasse. The good people of Osun State, who are being made to suffer the consequences of the hardline postures of the two gladiators, may have to wait longer to see how things unfold, praying that the crisis would be resolved sooner than later.

48

17 January, 2016

children’sarena famous invention

Brief history of watercolour

I

N East Asia, watercolour painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese paintings, has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or brown. India, Ethiopia, and other countries have long watercolour painting traditions as well. Fingerpainting with watercolour paints originated in China.

Watercolour painting is extremely old, dating perhaps to the cave paintings of paleolithic Europe, and has been used for manuscript illustration since at least Egyptian times but especially in the European Middle Ages. However, its continuous history as an art medium begins with the Renaissance.

The German Northern Renaissance artist Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528), who painted several fine botanical, wildlife, and landscape watercolours, is generally considered among the earliest exponents of watercolour. An important school of watercolour painting in Germany was led by Hans Bol (1534–1593) as part of the Dürer Renaissance.

Sunday Tribune

Olaide Sokoya ollydesanmi@yahoo.com 0807 449 7425

PUZZLE

Despite this early start, watercolours were generally used by Baroque easel painters only for sketches, copies or cartoons (full-scale design drawings). Notable early practitioners of watercolor painting were Van Dyck (during his stay in England), Claude Lorrain, Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione, and many Dutch and Flemish artists.

Words from kids

Our expectations for 2016

Fun facts on Koala

Olaife Owoeye 13 yrs Omotayo Akere, 11 yrs

This year, I want to have a different mindset and attitude towards my work. I also want 2016 to be the year I will appreciate God the more, I want to publish my first article in a magazine or a newspaper. I also want to publish my first book which is titled “knowing the President” in the United States of America (USA) this year.

Feranmi Bibilari, 14 yrs,

I want to pass my junior WAEC and NECO exams respectively, I’m not just saying to pass but to perform excellently. I want my result to advertise the name of my school. I also want to make my school to be proud of me and likewise my mom.

My expectation for 2016 is to come out in flying colours in my junior WAEC and NECO, I want to be a glorious child to my parents and also to my school. This year, I want to be a voice because I want my results to speak for me, so help me God.

Teniola Alabi, 15 yrs

I wish to have clearer understanding of what my teachers teach me in school this year so that I will pass all my examinations with distinction. I want to be successful in life so I want to do very well in my academics by having the best WAEC results in the whole of West Africa and to also be the youngest boy to secure admission into a University.

All respondent are from Kingston College, Ibadan

• Koalas are native to Australia.

• Koalas are not bears.

• Koala fossils found in Australia have been dated as long ago as 20 million years.

• Koalas eat eucalypt leaves and almost nothing else.

• The brain size of modern koalas has reduced substantially from their ancestors, possibly as an adaptation to the low energy they get from their diets.

• The closest living relative of the koala is the wombat.

• Koalas have sharp claws which help them climb trees.

• Koalas have similar fingerprints to humans.

• Koalas have large noses that are coloured pink or black.

• Outside of breeding seasons, koalas are quiet animals.

• A baby koala is called a ‘joey’.

• Joeys live in their mother’s pouch for around six months and remain with them for another six months or so afterwards.

• Koalas cannot be kept legally as pets.

Compiled by Temitayo Iliasu

49

news

17 January, 2016

Lassa fever: Lagos shuts down hospital, allays fears

•As Ogun promises to combat any outbreak FromBolaBadmusandOlayinka Olukoya

L

agos State government on Saturday assured residents that it is doing everything possible to curtail the spread of Lassa fever, just as it ordered the closure of Ahmmadiyyah Hospital where the first case of the disease was reported.

Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, gave the assurance while addressing newsmen at the Alausa Secretariat, disclosed that, in line with international standards, 92 persons who had direct and indirect contact with the index case were currently being followed up.

He confirmed that the index case, a 25-year-old male undergraduate of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, was reported to have fallen ill after arriving in Lagos and was taken to Ahmmadiyyah Hospital, Ojokoro on January 9 with complaints of fever, sore throats and difficulty in swallowing.

Idris said the patient was subsequently placed on admission for six days and was thereafter referred by the said private hospital to the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) on January 14, 2016, owing to the fact that the fever was persistent and his condition was not improving.

According to him, the patient was confirmed as a case of Lassa fever on January 15, at LUTH, and is currently being managed to the extent that his condition is now stable.

He added that 15 inpatients who were admitted alongside the index case as well as 25 health workers who attended to them had been placed on compulsory 21 days monitoring, saying that the phone numbers and addresses of the persons in that category had also been collected for proper tracking.

Meanwhile, the Ogun State government said on Saturday that it has put all apparatus in place to combat any outbreak of the deadly disease in the state,appealing to the residents not to panic.

This assurance was given by the State Commissioner for Health, Dr.Babatunde Ipaye, at a press conference held at Governor’s office, Oke Mosan, Abeokuta.

Ipaye flanked by the his counterpart from the Ministry of Information and

Strategy, Chief Dayo Adedayo, noted that all measures to curtail the possible outbreak had been put in place by government, urging members of the public to always keep their environment clean.

The commissioner said government had mounted a surveillance since the outbreak of the disease in Bauchi in November 2015, adding that there was no case of Lassa fever in the state till date.

He said a tertiary and two secondary health institutions had been isolated for patients of the disease in case of any possible outbreak.

The health institutions are the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hos-

pital, Sagamu, General Hospital, Ijaye, Abeokuta and the General Hospital, Iberekodo.

Ipaye said the ministry had fortified the local government areas surveillance system to checkmate the disease through public health education.

He added that the ministry had equally embarked on “contact tracing” method to ensure that those caring for patients of the disease do not contact and transmit the disease.

The commissioner also said his ministry had been collaborating with the education ministry by constituting a committee that would create a work plan to engage schools on sensitisation.

Sunday Tribune

Presentation of NIPR membership certificate to OYO CP, Leye Oyebade,

by Nigerian institute of public photos: relations Oluwatoyin Malik

CP Leye Oyebade (right); Dr Rotimi Oladele (left), ACP Janet Agbede (second right); and ACP Chinedu Oko at the presentation of the NIPR membership certificate to CP Oyebade

Police, public relationship must be strong for mutual benefits —NIPR president

By Oluwatoyin Malik and Oluwabamise Ademola

The president of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Dr. Rotimi Oladele has emphasised the need for the relationship between the police and the public to be strong in order to yield reciprocal mutual benefit.

The NIPR president stated this on Friday at the office of the Commissioner of Police, Oyo State Police Command, during a courtesy visit and presentation of membership certificate to CP Leye Oyebade.

Among those who accompanied the president to the CP’s office were Mr. Willy Ogbidi, Mrs Yetunde Alagbe, Mr Temitope Oguntoye, Mr Kunle Ogedengbe, Mr Henry Adegbuyi, Mr Goke Adelakun, Mr Pinheiro Oladimeji and Mr Joseph Adeniran.

Police officers who joined the police commissioner to receive the NIPR officials include the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Administration, Asuquo Amba; the Assistant Commissioner of Police, Administration, Mrs Janet Agbede; and Assistant Commissioner of Police, Operations, Chinedu Oko. Stating that the PR brand must be seen as a necessity, especially at this time of security threats like kidnapping and Boko Haram, Dr Oladele expressed the belief that when more policemen imbibe the tenets of PR, there would be stronger relationship with all stakeholders.

Mr Oyebade was also presented some items of identification such as NIPR badge and T-Shirt as a qualified member of the

NIPR. Dr Oladele disclosed that the Oyo police boss was a participant at a Master’s class organised by the NIPR. In his welcome address, the command’s Public Relations Officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu said that Mr Oyebade’s knowledge and understanding of public relations had made the Oyo State command an outstanding one.

Speaking on the personality of the Commissioner of Police, the NIPR president described him as a humble man, saying that it was in appreciation of Oyebade’s humility and to showcase him as a model of service excellence and learning that he came to his office.

Responding, CP Adeleye said he was humbled by the gesture of the NIPR president, stating that he had been encouraged to do more with the recognition and support he received from the public relations body.

He also said he enjoyed being put in classroom to learn more about public relations.

Emphasising the importance of public relations, the police commissioner said it was a useful tool employed by him to intervene in the crisis between Fulani cattle herdsmen and farmers in Oyo State when they had constant clashes.

He likened community policing to the rebranding that Dr Oladele spoke about, saying that his activities since assumption of office in Oyo police command had been guided by the word ‘rebranding’.

The NIPR President, Dr Rotimi Oladele presenting NIPR membership certificate to CP Leye Oyebade

Deputy Commissioner of Police , Administration, Asuquo Amba presenting a plaque to the NIPR president on behalf of the police commssioner

CP Leye Oyebade (fourth right, front row) and NIPR President, Dr Rotimi Oladele (fourth left, front row) in a group photograph with police officers and NIPR officials

50

news

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Police arrest drug barons who swallowed 500g of cocaine Kola Oyelere - Kano

From left, Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Steve Oluseyi Ayorinde; Commissioner for Health, Dr Jide and the Special Adviser to the Governor on Primary Healthcare, Dr Olufemi Onanuga, at a press briefing to give update on the first case of Lassa fever in Lagos today.

Pastor donates 100 plastic kettles, prayer mats to mosque Muhammad Sabiu - Sokoto

T

HE General Overseer of Christ Evangelical Intercessory Fellowship Ministry, Sabon Tasha, Kaduna, Pastor Yohanna Burua has donated 100 plastic kettles and prayer mats to a mosque in Kaduna.

The pastor, while donating the items to the Chief Imam of the mosque on Saturday, said the gesture was aimed at promoting love among the followers of the two most populous religions in the country; Islam and Christianity.

Burua noted; “We came to donate these plastic kettles and prayer mats to the mosque because we all worship one God and we are one family.

“Churches and mosques are holy places of God. Immediately after the religious crisis in Kaduna and the post-election violence of 2011, I donated money to some Imams to re-construct their demolished mosques that were in Christians’ domain.

‘The idea was to show how

both Muslims and Christians could learn to forgive, tolerate, love and accommodate one another as well as to preach against attacking holy places.”

He said the division of Kaduna State as a result of

religious and political crises was a total setback to peace and stability in the country, considering how southern Kaduna is highly dominated

by Christian settlers, while the northern part of the state is also dominated by

Obasanjo, 2 emirs, 10,650 other students graduate from NOUN Clement Idoko - Abuja FORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo, was yesterday awarded Masters Degree (MA) in Christian Theology by the authorities of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). He graduated with 4.25 Cumulative Grade Points Average (CGPA) at Abeokuta Study Centre of the University.

A total number of 10,652 other students of the University also graduated on Saturday at its 5th Convocation ceremony held at its permanent site, Abuja, where 15 students graduated with First Class honours.

The convocation ceremony, which was full of surprises also witnessed the graduation of two emirs and

52-year-old mother of 12 and eight grandchildren, Mrs Abdullahi Amina, who came out with First Class degree in Islamic Studies. She graduated from Gulak Study Centre of the University.

This was even as President Muhammadu Buhari, said that there was no alternative to absolute diversification of the nation’s economy in view of the current dwindling oil revenue, occasioned by the fall in price of crude oil in the international market.

Buhari, who is the Visitor to the University, pledged to look into the issues of non-mobilisation of the graduates of NOUN for the compulsory one year National Youth Service Corps and rejection of NOUN Law

New Kwara CP warns criminals to relocate Biola Azeez - Ilorin THE new commissioner of Police in Kwara State, Mr. Sam Okaula has warned criminals to relocate from the state or face the full wrath of the law.

Speaking during his maiden interactive session with journalists in Ilorin at the weekend, Okaula said he was determined to rid the state of criminal ele-

Muslims.

“As a result of this, both faith now open their schools in their areas, making citizens to see one another as enemies. If this is not tackled now, it would surely cause a great damage to the

ments to sustain the reputation of ‘State of Harmony’ of the state.

Talking against the backdrop of the recent communal crisis in some parts of the state, the police boss read riot acts to those that might want to take the law into their hands, saying such act would not be tolerated any longer.

The boss, who said that he would operate intelli-

gence-led policing against old order, added that the police would be proactive over developments in all parts of the state.

Okaula, who remarked further that he had given his policy direction to officers and men of the command, stated that he would have zero tolerance for corruption, and that anyone found wanting would be shown the way out of the force.

graduates by the Nigerian Law School.

Meanwhile, the Vice Chancellor of NOUN, Professor Vincent Tenebe lamented the alleged discrimination against graduates of the university, saying “a search through the web showed that there were 59 open universities in countries of the world.

“In these countries, there was no evidence that graduates of their open universities were treated differently from graduates of their traditional regular universities.

The story is not quite the same with graduates of the National Open University of Nigeria.

“For example, the graduates of NOUN who were 30 years and below in age were not allowed to participate in the National Youth Service Corps. Also, NOUN law graduates were barred from attending the Nigerian Law School, making it impossible for them to qualify as practising lawyers.

“In the United Kingdom, a honours Bachelor of Law degree of the Open University of UK, was accredited by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and The Bar Standards Board as a Qualifying Law Degree which automatically allowed holders to practise as Solicitors or Advocates,” he said.

THE Kano State Police Command has said that members of an international gang of drug barons who swallowed up to 500 grammes of cocaine /heroine each and boarded Kingdom of Saudi Arabia bound flight have been arrested.

This was just as the command said that it had equally recovered and confiscated drugs, Indian hemp and other intoxicating substances with value of over N1.2 billion, within three months.

The State Commissioner of Police, Muhammad Musa Katsina, who disclosed this, however, added that the importers and dealers in hard drugs arrested so far constituted 90 per cent of non-indigenes, noting that this recovery was between October to December 2015.

According to him, the suspects were paid between N600,000 and N 800,000 per person for every trip, adding that they were arrested with cocaine sealing machine which they used to seal the substance with a cellophane material and turned it into capsule to ease swallowing.

The CP who spoke through the State Police Public Relation Officer(PPRO), DSP Magaji Musa Majia, noted that an operation code named ‘’Operation Gida-Gida” (Houseto-House) had been yielding more fruitful results.

According to him, ‘over 250 drugs retailers and addicts were ambushed at their various domains, arrested and charged to court for prosecution.”

Items of intoxication recovered included over 900 cartons of Tramadol tabs ,cocaine powder, 48,000kg of Indian hemp, hundreds of thousands bottles of cough syrups including Tutoline, pacmaine, codcine, among others.

Businessman threatens to sue bank over N.8m illegal charges Johnson Babajide - Makurdi A businessman based in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, Chief Isaac Akinkunmi threatened to sue a first generation bank (names withheld), over illegal charges deducted from his company’s account, amounting to N.8m.

Speaking with newsmen in his office at the weekend, Akinkunmi, the Chief Executive Officer of Tito Plastic Nigeria Limited, explained that the company was not aware of any commitment that could have warranted such illegal deductions.

He noted that the company only got wind of the deductions in the alert it received from the bank which prompted it to request for their statement of account, adding that despite the huge sum of money in the account, the bank did not honour the cheque issued to a customer which he said, “made us to lose the business.”

PDP celebrates victory in Oshiomhole’s constituency Banji Aluko - Benin City THOUSANDS of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Etsako West Constituency II in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State at the weekend marked the victory of its candidate in the Court of Appeal with a victory dance across the constituency and the Uzarue clan.

The celebration witnessed long convoy of vehicles as the people sang songs and danced through the towns and villages in the constituency, thanking the people for their support.

It will be recalled that an Appeal Court in Benin had last month invalidated the election of the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the lawmaker representing the zone, declaring Mr. Sylvester Eruaga of the PDP as the winner.

Speaking during the celebration, Vice Chairman and Edo North leader of the PDP, Henry Duke Tenebe, said by the victory, a PDP lawmaker now represents Governor Adams Oshiomhole in the Edo State House of Assembly.

He said the victory was an omen that the APC and Governor Oshiomhole would lose the state to the PDP in the forthcoming governorship election later this year, adding that it was the first step towards removing APC from power in the state.

“The judgment has further enhanced the confidence of everyone that justice is real, irrespective of party affiliations,” Tenebe remarked.

51

feature

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Untold story of UNN female hostel inferno The circumstances surrounding the inferno that gutted Jane’s Hostel, Okeke Hall of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) recently still remain a mystery. While some attributed it to power upsurge, others gave different reasons. JUDE OSSAI who visited the campus reports the inside details of the fire incident that wreaked havoc on many students.

M

ISS Jane, as she is preferred to be called, is a second year student in the Department of Economics, University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN).

Jane’s hostel, Okeke Hall, is directly opposite the Medical Centre on Nsukka Campus. During a recent fire incident in the university, which razed down the roof of the female hostel, valuable items, including books, television sets belonging to her, were destroyed.

Jane is not alone in the grief, as hundreds of her colleagues suffered the same fate. They had no premonition that the tragedy would occur when they were going to their respective homes for the Christmas break.

When SundayTribune visited the Nsukka Campus of the university, the atmosphere was calm, even as the burnt roofing sheets were still seen in the front of the building.

Some of the affected students were seen discussing their misfortune, as well as the industrial action embarked upon by the non-academic staff of the university, which they said, might slow down the processing of their documents.

Although none of the students was able to say exactly the cause of the fire, they agreed that the fire started around 7.30p.m from the last floor of the two-storey building as soon as the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) restored power to the campus.

“It was when some of the students around the hostel started shouting fire! fire!! that I jumped out from my hostel, which was close to Okeke Hostel. There was a big smoke and fire burning on the last floor of the building.

Both the students and the Chief Fire Officer in charge of the area wondered why properties were not saved from the destruction.

A student, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the most painful thing was that men of the Fire Service who came around were incapacitated, as they had no water and not even the Director of Works could do anything to curb the fire.

But Patrick Aro, the Chief Fire Officer in charge of Enu-

gu North Senatorial District, had told newsmen in Nsukka shortly after the incident how his men responded promptly to the distress call by some members of the public.

Aro, whose office was close to UNN first gate, however, said shortage of water to extinguish the raging fire made it difficult for them to save the hostel from having serious damage.

“My men tried their best as we rushed immediately we received calls that there was a fire outbreak in Okeke Hall. When we had exhausted our water, we were unable to get a refill from the two boreholes in UNN as they had no water inside them. Before we could get water in the borehole in Nsukka town, the fire had razed the last floor.”

The Public Relations Officer of the University, Okwun Omaku, said that gas cylinders and electric cookers left by the students in the hostel might have added strength to the inferno, pointing out that it was unfortunate as the university authorities had repeatedly warned students against the use of gas cookers in the hostel.

“Reports had it that gas cylinders and electric cookers were seen in the course of trying to put out the fire. Though some students said the fire started as soon as the EEDC restored light, but those cooking gadgets gave a boost to fire.”

On the accommodation problem students of the institution are facing, Omaku said the challenge, if at all, was due to the online facility the university is operating, adding that their Information Communication Technology (ICT) unit had since stepped in to save the situation.

“There is no accommodation problem right now in UNN, because our ICT unit has moved in to save the situation. We said no to analog and the whole idea is to check fraud. We have assured the displaced students in Okeke Hall that we will relocate them.”

Professor Peter Aka, the Dean of Students› Affairs in the university, in a media chat, had also said the fire incident at the hostel was an unfortunate one.

Both Professor Aka and the image maker of UNN have promised that students in the affected hostel would be taken care of when they resume this January.

“They have paid for accommodation fee and the school must provide alternative accommodations for them when they return. Though some students said the fire started when public light was restored, the university shall set up a committee to find out the real cause of the fire so as to avert future recurrence. The university will compensate all students that lost their belongings and valuables,” he added.

While corroborating the story of the fire-fighters, Professor Aka said, “When the fire fighters had exhausted their water, attempt to refill from the campus boreholes failed because there were no water inside them.

“It is unfortunate that every item in the last floor of the hostel got burnt into ashes before the fire service could get water from the boreholes in Nsukka town.”

Also speaking, Ekene Orji, the president of the Students Union Government (SUG) in UNN, said he was yet to recover from the shock caused by the incident.

Orji said the SUG would partner with the university authorities to ensure that the affected students were provided with alternative accommodations when school resumed.

“As students, this is a moment to show love to one another. SUG will do everything to reduce the suffering of the affected students, as well as ensure that they receive compensation from university management.”

SundayTribune findings, also, revealed that many of the affected students were yet to be relocated despite the promise by the university authorities that none of them would suffer any hardship in getting accommodation.

Further checks showed that some of the students that returned were paring with their friends, while some had decided to reside off-campus.

The task before the vice chancellor of the university, Professor Benjamin Chukwuma Ozurumba, is how to restore the institution back to its glory.

52

news

17 January, 2016

Russia has developed Ebola vaccine —Putin

From right, Pastor-in-charge (PIC), Redeemed Christian Chruch of God (RCCG), Region 21, Pastor Dele Balogun; his wife, Temitope and the wife of the Regional Evangelist, Pastor (Mrs) Blessing Kalejaiye, at the RCCG, Region 21, maiden Sisters Convention 2016, held at the Glory House, Covenant Sanctuary, Regional Headquarters, opposite Zartech, Oluyole Estate, Ibadan, on Saturday. PHOTO: ALOLADE GANIYU.

Mixed reactions trail LG election in Niger •As NSIEC postpones election in 2 LGAs Adelowo Oladipo-Minna

S

ATURDAy’s local government election for chairmen and councilors in the 25 local councils in Niger State was generally peaceful, but not without some pockets of violence probably due to perceived insufficient electoral materials by the state Independent Electoral Commission (NSIEC).

Registered voters’ turnout for the election, which has so far, claimed a life while scores of others were said to have been injured in Bida, was not impressive, as farmers and artisans went about their day’s businesses claiming that ‘‘the government cannot feed us.’’

Accreditation started as early as 8.00a.m in most places, but soon became rowdy in some areas when voters discovered that ballot papers provided by NSIEC were not commensurate with the number of registered voters in the affected polling units.

Notwithstanding, the election that had been due for November, 2015, but was postponed by the state government, did not take place in Suleja, one of the commercial nerve centres of Niger State, due to ‘logistics’ problems which the NSIEC had said was beyond their explanation.

Combined team of policemen and military personnel saved electoral officials on election duty apparently from mob attack, as voters discovered that ballot papers, in virtually all the polling units in Gwada, Shiroro Local Government Area, were not enough.

Some of the electorate, who spoke to newsmen on why the elections could not hold in Gwada, Shiroro Local Government Area,of the state, argued that the electoral officers came with inadequate electoral materials, as only 200 ballot papers were brought for the chairmanship and councillorship elections as against about 487 registered voters in the areas,

a claim that was also confirmed by the presiding officer, Ayuba Habila.

Though the election within Minna, the state capital, was generally without challenges, the situation in Paiko in Paikoro Local Government and Beji in Bosso Local Government was contrary, as common complaints that almost marred the entire exercise in parts of the state were that of inadequate ballot papers to serve all registered voters.

There were conflicting reports as to whether or not election took place in Bida Local Government Area of the state, which recorded a bloody faceoff between supporters of the two rival political parties; the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over election-related matters which led to loss of a life.

While a Senior Special Media Assistant to Governor Sani Bello, Mr Jide Orintunsin, said election

Police recover 2 stolen cars in Lagos, arrest suspects in Ogun

By Oluwatoyin Mlaik Police detectives attached to Ota Division of Ogun State Police Command, at the weekend, intercepted and recovered two cars reported to have been removed from where they were parked at Agege, Lagos State.

Three suspects connected with the theft of the vehicles were also arrested at JB Hotel, Abule Iroko, Ota in Ado Odo Ota Local Government of Ogun State.

The Police Public Relations Officer in Ogun State, DSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement signed by him, gave the names of the

Sunday Tribune

suspects as John Paul (28), Kola Omotosho (49) and Okechukwu Albert (37), saying that they were intercepted by the Anti-Robbery Squad of Ota Division, with the assistance of Vigilante Services of Ogun State.

During interrogation, the PPRO stated that the suspects confessed to have stolen the cars from where they were parked at Agege.

“The two recovered cars are Toyota Camry with registration number Lagos KJA 181 AT and Toyota Camry with registration number Lagos JJJ 315 BZ, and are now parked at Ota Divisional Headquar-

ters for safe keeping and subsequent release to the owners, as directed by the Commissioner of Police, Ogun State, CP Abdulmajid Ali,” Adejobi added.

Describing the activities of receivers of stolen vehicles or items as worrisome, the PPRO said the police commissioner had to go after them within and outside Ogun State, as their involvement must be checkmated without delay.

“The command, therefore, appeals to the owners of these recovered cars to come with proofs of ownership to claim their cars immediately,” the PPRO stated.

in the area was peaceful, some residents of Bida, in a telephone interview with Sunday Tribune, revealed that there was no election in the council areas, as everybody was going about their lawful activities. The people said they only noticed increased number of security personnel at strategic points on major streets in the ancient town of Nupe extraction.

Meanwhile, the Niger State Independent Electoral Commission (NISIEC) has postponed the local government election scheduled for Suleja and Bida Local Government Areas of the state.

The postponement, announced by the NSIEC Publicity Secretary, Mohammed Ali, was as a result of security situation in the two local government areas.

The election for the two council areas will hold next Saturday if the security situation in the areas improved.

It will be recalled that nine people, including a Divisional Police Officer, four policemen and four supporters of the PDP were seriously injured in a clash between supporters of the APC and the PDP last Monday.

Five vehicles, three of them belonging to the Police and two commercial vehicles were destroyed in the clash believed to have been orchestrated by thugs of the APC, and said to have been hired by a member of the House of Representatives.

Also a number of shops in the town were looted by the thugs.

In Bida, on Tuesday night, no fewer than five people, all of the PDP, were killed in a clash that followed an accident involving the vehicle of the APC which ran into a crowd of PDP supporters.

Russian president has announced vaccine for disease that has killed 11,000 in West Africa, but does not go into details about how it works or any clinical trials.

Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has claimed that his country has developed a vaccine for the Ebola virus which has killed thousands of people in West Africa.

But Putin, who is famed for his talent for headlinegrabbing announcements, did not divulge the vaccine’s name, nor did he say how it worked, who was developing it nor gave details of any trials.

“We have good news,” Putin was quoted as saying by RIA Novosti news agency.

“We have registered a drug against Ebola, which after the corresponding tests, has been shown to be highly effective, more effective than the drugs used worldwide up to now.”

To date, no approved vaccine or treatment for Ebola exists and the UN’s World Health Organisation has authorised the fast-track development of drugs.

The pharmaceutical scramble sparked by the two-year Ebola crisis, which killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa, has yielded several promising vaccine candidates, but none has yet been tested in general, non-infected populations – the gold standard for proving efficacy.

Similarly, none of the many potential treatments under investigation has been shown to work.

Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said at a government meeting with Putin that Russia had developed a vaccine that was “unique and has no equivalents in the world.”

In October 2014, Skvortsova said Russia was expected to produce three Ebola vaccines within the following six months, and that one was ready for a clinical trial.

The Ebola epidemic is due to be declared over on Thursday with Liberia expecting the all-clear.

Osun PDP zones party chairmaship to Osun East

By Moses Alao

The Osun State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has zoned the position of the state chairman of the party to Osun East senatorial district.

In a communiqué issued after a meeting of the party’s state executive committee, held at the party’s secretariat in Osogbo, on Friday, the party maintained that Osun East senatorial district would produce the next chairman of the party, while all the party positions currently in Osun West senatorial district would remain in the district.

The party further stated that party positions currently held by members from the Ife/Ijesa axis (Osun East) “will now move to Osun Central senatorial district,” charging its members across the state to be law-abiding before, during and after the congress.

NJP plans seminar on peace, nation building

By Saheed Salawu THE Nigerian Justice of the Peace (NJP) has revealed its plan to reinforce the efforts of stakeholders at restoring Nigeria to the path of recovery and prosperity through the attainment of sustainable peace.

To achieve the plan, the organisation said it was proposing a one-day seminar on “Leadership and Peace in Nation Building,” possibly for the month of March.

The NJP made the revelation on Friday, in Ibadan, Oyo State, during a visit to the African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc to solicit the support of the publishers of the Tribune titles for its proposal.

Pastor T. S. Otitoola, who spoke for the organisation during the visit, said Nigeria needed peace, especially now that it had a chance to move forward and so the goal of the seminar was to make the citizens have a better understanding of the importance of peace to nation building.

Pastor Otitoola, who presented the proposal document to the Associate Editor, Mr Wole Efunuga, who represented the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Mr Edward Dickson, however, said: “We feel that we cannot do it alone and the only solid organisation that we can enter into a relationship with is the Tribune” which, he said, had always been in the forefront and had never derailed.

In a remark, Mr Efunuga promised to relay the message of the visitors to the owners and management of the Tribune.

53

news

17 January, 2016

Lassa Fever: Rivers confirms 3 dead, 200 under observation

T

HE Commissioner for Health in Rivers State, Dr Theophilus Odagme, has confirmed that three persons have died, while more than 200 others are currently under observation, following the outbreak of Lassa Fever in the state.

Odagme made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Port Harcourt, on Saturday.

He said that up to 50 people who had contacts with the first reported two cases could be out of observation because they had not shown symptoms of the disease.

The commissioner said that the medical doctor, who died after contracting the disease, had been buried after consultations with the family.

He said the doctor died at a hospital outside Port Harcourt and that contacts he had hours before his death were among those under observation.

According to the commissioner, government has set up a special centre to manage new cases of the disease, noting that no new case has been reported.

Odagme also said that the State Government was working with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Federal Ministry of Health to tackle the disease.

“We have been working with WHO and the Federal Ministry of Health. They are with us in ensuring that their supports come on board. They are with us,” he stated.

He advised people with

symptoms of the disease to report to the nearest health

centre for test and treatment.

Burkina Faso hotel attack: 18 nationalities among dead AT least 27 people of 18 different nationalities have been killed in an attack on a hotel in the capital of Burkina Faso by alQaida-linked militants, security officials have confirmed.

Three jihadis, including an Arab and two black Africans, were also killed in the assault on the Splendid hotel and the nearby Cappuccino cafe in Ouagadougou, officials said.

A fourth extremist was killed at the Yibi hotel, which was searched by troops as part of a later raid on nearby buildings.

Burkina Faso’s president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore, said two of the attackers had been identified as women.

A witness told Agence France-Presse that a fifth attacker was seen rushing into a nearby bar before escaping.

Security forces had freed a total of 150 hostages, including at least 33 wounded, from the hotel.

Simon Compaore, the country’s security minister, told AFP the death toll could rise further as security forces continued to search for casualties.

Sunday Tribune

Wike calls for prosecution of Biafran agitators Dapo Falade-Port Harcourt GOVERNOR Wike, late Thursday night, directed security agents to arrest and prosecute Biafran agitators who were reported to have embarked upon illegal procession.

The governor gave the directive in a statement, entitled ‘Special Government Announcement’ and signed by the state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr Austin Tam-George.

It consequently directly the security operatives in the state to seeing into action and arrest and prosecute members of the separatist movement for defying the government order.

“Governor Nyesom Wike strongly condemns the acts of criminality perpetrated by Biafran agitators by whatever name, in the Oyigbo area of the state.

“The government has directed all security agencies in the state to arrest and prosecute all Biafran agitators who flout the ban on illegal separatist processions and demonstrations in Rivers State,” the statement read.

Given the urgency of the directive, Sunday Tribune went to town, to ascertain the level of compliance by the security agents with the directive by the governor.

When contacted, the Rivers Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Ahmad Muhammad, in a short sms to Sunday Tribune, simply said, “Let me not talk much but I urge you monitor our activities.”

Acting on his instruction, Sunday Tribune took a tour of some violent-prone areas, but all the places visited were devoid of security presence.

Police foil attempted jail break in Warri Ebenezer Adurokiya-Warri

Wife of Lagos State Governor, Mrs Bolanle Ambode (middle), presenting a gift to a beneficiary, Mrs Esther Ayeni (second left), during the International Women’s Society (IWS) New Year Feast for Widows, at the IWS Skill Acquisition Centre, Lekki, on Saturday. With them are from left, President, IWS, Hajiya Zainab Saleh; executive members, Mrs Izarene Aret-Adams and Mrs Funke Aurthur-Worrey.

Ajimobi assures completion of Oyo township road

By Wale Akinselure Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has assured that work on the abandoned Oyo township road would resume while another state owned media house, Atiba FM radio station would be completed by the end of the year.

He gave these assurances on Saturday at the palace of Alaafin of Oyo where he felicitated with Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III on the Alaafin’s 45th coronation ceremony.

He attributed the inability to complete the projects earlier than expected to the paucity of funds in the state.

Calling for understanding of the people, he said plans had been put in place to ensure that the state generates more money to carry out projects and keep the state running.

On the clamour to name political appointees, Aji-

mobi maintained he kept the list of Caretaker Chairmen to be appointed under wraps, though the list was ready.

Governor Abiola Ajimobi described the celebrant as a repertoire of knowledge not just about Yoruba tradition but all round.

Ajimobi called for unity among the Yoruba race,

noting that disunity and backbiting had deprived the race of remaining a strong force in the running of the nation’s economy.

In the wake of several cases of gang violence in Oyo town, Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, called for the cooperation of residents to bring about peace and security

and assured that he would continue to identify such criminally minded individuals and hand them over to security agencies.

Restating his alignment with the All Progressives Congress (APC), he warned those in the opposition to join the APC so as to be beneficiaries of government packages.

Ambode’s wife counsels widows on happiness

Wife of the Lagos State Governor, Mrs Bolanle Ambode, has identified closeness to God and a resolve to succeed, as the only path for widows to surmount the challenges of widowhood.

She spoke on Saturday at the International Women’s Society (IWS) Skills Acquisition Center, Lekki, at a New Year feast for one hundred widows.

Bolanle, who urged widows not to succumb to the many challenges that accompany widowhood, ad-

vised them to hold on to God and face the future with determination, for a happy and fulfilled life.

She said: “At the point of marriage, our heart’s desire is to stay alive with our husbands forever, if possible.

But alas! It is always never possible. Someday, later or soon, the dreaded must happen and the hard reality must dawn.

“It is only a candid acceptance of this bitter truth, that will assist us, to face the future with determination

for ultimate success.”

She further advised the widows to ensure they had a regular means of livelihood, to take care of sundry responsibilities.

Earlier, the chairperson of widows’ trust fund, Mrs Gbemi Shasore, disclosed that the IWS had been caring for widows’ plight since 1998.

Highlights of the event included the nomination of 10 widows for skill acquisition sponsored by Mrs. Ambode, and the donation of items.

A combined team of Nigerian Police and the Nigerian Army, in the early hours of Saturday, foiled an attempted jail break at Okere Prisons in Warri, Delta State.

It was learnt that the incident happened between the hours of 3:00a.m to 5:00a.m due to epileptic power supply at the prisons.

Curiously, this is barely a year after a gang of wild criminals awaiting trial at the prisons escaped.

Sunday Tribune gathered that the premises of the prisons has been in total blackout for over seven months.

A source said inmates have been sleeping in the prisons without electricity even as the diesel to power the only generating plant in the prisons has been in short or no supply.

The source also fingered the short supply of water as another reason for the attempted jail break.

The situation eventually made the inmates to go on the rampage for several hours after the attempted jail break was foiled by security personnel attached to the prisons.

Similarly, it was gathered that since January 1, 2016, there has been lack of water supply at the prisons as prisons warders escort iinmates to fetch water from nearby hours.

Balogun emerges new Oyo SDP chairman unopposed

By Tunde Ogunesan Alhaji Kola Balogun, on Saturday, emerged as the new Chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Oyo State chapter, alongside other party executives.

Balogun and others emerged unopposed at the State Congress of the party held at the Olubadan Stadium, Iyaganku, Ibadan, under the supervision of the representatives of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials.

Among others that were elected are Mr Toyin Olaniran as Vice-Chairman 1; Mr James Ayangoke as Vice-Chairman 2; Alhaji Rahmon Bello as Vice-Chairman 3 and Alhaji Rahmon Adepoju as Secretary. Others are Mr Settle Olaide as Treasurer; Mr Aderinto Adegbola as Financial Secretary and Alhaji Akeem Azeez as the party’s Publicity Secretary.

The National Publicity Secretary of the party Dr Abdul-Ahmed Isiaq, who represented the party as the Returning Officer said that the congress was conducted in accordance with the electoral act and the party’s constitution. Isiaq said that the total number of delegates for the election from the 33 local government areas of the state was 484, out of which 468 delegates were accredited and voted accordingly.

He described the congress as peaceful and returned the winners, issuing them certificate of returns within the full glare of public with the representatives of INEC.

54

17 January, 2016

sport

SUNDAY

Sunday Tribune

Editor: Ganiyu Salman tribunesporteditor@yahoo.com 08053789060

FIFA ban is absurd —Zidane

R

eal Madrid coach, Zinedine Zidane labelled a oneyear transfer ban imposed on the club by Fifa as “absurd” and insists Real’s appeal against the ban will be upheld.

Two of Zidane’s sons, who play in the Madrid academy, were among 39 players investigated by Fifa with the club eventually sanctioned for breaking the rules regarding the signing of foreign nationals under 18 in eight cases.

“It seems absurd because they (his sons) have lived their whole lives here in Madrid with family and it will be fixed,” said Zidane.

“The most important thing is that we know what has happened now. I think it will be fixed with time and next week we won’t speak of this anymore.”

Madrid has signalled its intent to take an appeal all the way to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Atletico Madrid was hit with the same ban on Thursday and has also signalled its intention to appeal. However, Barcelona’s appeal to CAS for a similar sanction in 2015 was rejected.

Under international football rules, players under 18 cannot be transferred to another country, except in limited circumstances and all transfers need the approval of a special Fifa committee.

Madrid must lodge an appeal with Fifa’s appeals committee and if unsuccessful can then take its case to CAS. “It doesn’t make sense. We will wait and see what happens next week. I am calm, it is an error and nothing more,” Zidane said.

Zidane

Why I dumped 3SC —Ogunbote

By Olawale Olaniyan COACH Gbenga Ogunbote has said he left Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) to give his career a new lease of life.

Ogunbote who was unveiled as head coach of Giwa FC, another Glo Premier League side last weekend in Jos, said he took the decision to give his career a fresh challenge.

“It was a hard decision to take but I accepted the Giwa offer so as to serve as a challenge in my career because, I have never worked in the northern part of the country since I began my

Ogunbote

coaching career. Also, I have never worked with a private club before so, these are some of the reasons I left 3SC. “I am a professional and I have to be treated as one. I enjoyed my stay in 3SC. The team has not done me any wrong, I still have a passion for the team and I believe I can handle the team again one day,” the former Sunshine Stars of Akure handler told Tribunesport by phone.

Ogunbote who joined the

Oluyole Warriors after week nine last season from Sharks of Port Harcourt, stated that he has reached an agreement with 3SC management on his outstanding entitlement.

“I know what 3SC is passing through and there is an agreement as to the settlement of my outstanding entitlement,” said the former Gateway United coach, who led Shooting Stars to a respectable finish on the Glo Premier League table from the relegation zone last season.

CHAN 2016: Rwanda in

flying start

A solitary goal by Bayisenge Emery ensured hosts Rwanda defeated the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 during their group A 2016 CAF African Nations Championship opening match at Stade Amahoro in Kigali on Saturday afternoon.

Johnny McKinstry’s men started like a house on fire, with his charges taking the game to the Ivorians and the Rwandans

Kayode savours first goal in 2016 FORMER Nigeria junior international, Olanrewaju Kayode has expressed delight after scoring his first goal this year in a pre-season friendly as Austria Wien drew 2-2 with Werder Bremen.

The 2009 FIFA U-17 World Cup silver medallist dedicated the strike to God. “I am delighted to score my first goal of the year. It is dedicated to God who has been faithful to me. It was great playing against Anthony Ujah,” Kayode, who featured for Nigeria at the FIFA U-20 World Cup finals in 2011 and 2013 said.

The former Maccabi Netanya striker scored in the 52nd minute to inspire the comeback of Austria Wien after they had gone down 2-0.

Meanwhile, Nigeria international, Sylvester Igbonu was also on the scoresheet for his Russian Premier League club, FC Ufa in a 3-0 spanking of Chinese Super League side Chungqing Lifan in Cyprus.

The former FC Midtjylland of Denmark forward opened the scoring for his team.

Igbonu, who has six caps so far for Nigeria, has scored three goals in 17 league games for Ufa this season.

Kayode

fully behind them.

However, the match was dominated by fouls in the middle of the park, with Rwanda fouling Koffi Boua, but six minutes later the Amavubi delivered a pin-point cross from the right only for goalkeeper Ali Sangare to collect easily.

In a follow-up attempt, Innocent Habyarimana unleashed a grass-cutting shot in the 15th minute which couldn’t give keeper Sangare any troubles as it went wide.

A minute later, Emery netted from a fine free kick, beating Sangare in the 16th minute to hand the hosts the lead, and the culprit Koffi Mercelin went into the referee’s book for a foul.

Meanwhile, The Panthers of Gabon and Atlas Lions of Morocco played out to a goalless draw in the second game of the day.

Rwanda tops the log in group A with three points as Gabon and Morocco stay on one point each, while Cote d’Ivoire remains with no point at the bottom.

55 sport

17 January, 2016

Sunday Tribune

Saliu Gbadamosi -Abuja

T

HE night was not only a night to celebrate hard work, perseverance and commitment to a course: football, but also one of glitz, glamour and best of entertainment.

Penultimate Thursday, January 7, 2016 to be precise, Nigeria’s telecommunication gift to Africa, and indeed the world, Globacom, brought the movers and shakers of African football, including the acting FIFA President, Alhaji Isa Hayatou, ministers, members of the National Assembly, captains in the telecommunication world, administrators, entertainers, top-notchers of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and other Football Federations across the African continent, and indeed representatives of its valuable customers to Abuja, the Nigerian capital, to celebrate excellence.

The event was the 2015 Glo-CAF Awards, with the theme, ‘Win As One’, held at the International Conference Centre in Abuja. The night was a memorable one for the football fraternity in Africa. While some smiled away that night, some other shed tears of regret and frustration.

The main event, which was beamed live to the world, began at 9pm when hosts, Robert Marawa and Juliet Ibrahim walked on stage, welcoming guests to the event. This was followed by the welcome remarks by Mrs Gladys Talabi, Globacom’s Director, Legal Services.

She congratulated the Confederation of African Football (CAF) President, Isssa Hayatou, on his appointment as the acting FIFA President, which she described as a global acknowledgement of the Cameroonian’s immense contributions to football in the last three decades, adding that, “It also signposts the faith the world football community has in your administrative prowess at the highest level.”

Speaking on the theme of the 2015 awards, Win As One, Talabi stated that it was apt and underscored how football United Africans. “There are an estimated 2,000 languages spoken in Africa, but we all speak the language of football, one which can empower the over one billion people of this great, diverse and incredibly resourceful continent to Win as One.” Given the competitive world where globalisation has made it extremely difficult for individual countries to excel alone and where powerful countries in European and elsewhere are combining forces to triumph over the vicissitudes and adversities of life, Talabi submitted that Africans would win “if we all bond together as one. Indeed, football provides our continent the distinct platform to Win as One.” She further said Globacom was proud to have sponsored the GloCAF Awards for the past 11 years, adding that the awards had been firmly established as the most colourful and the most credible celebration of the brightest stars in African football.

Her presentation was followed

by Hayatou’s remarks that the awards were programmed at the beginning of the year to make it the inaugural event of CAF’s season, adding that the 2015 edition,

Aubameyang left with Enganamouit after receiving the Glo-CAF awards in Abuja.

2015 Glo-CAF Awards:

A night of reward, glitz and glamour which marked a return to Abuja, was in line with this.

He noted that the public interest in the Glo-CAF Awards continued to grow, declaring that the nominees (players, clubs, teams, coaches and officials) whose fame transcended time and space due to their performances, individually and collectively, stood out as a proof of the development of football on he African continent.

The Most Promising Talent Awards had two Nigerian stars, Azubuike Okechukwu and Etebo Oghenekaro, contesting for honour with Malian Djigui Diarra. The award eventually went to Warri Wolves’ Oghenekaro.

The announcement of winner of the Youth Player of the Year Award, Nigerian Victor Osimhen, who emerged the highest goalscorer at the 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile, was greeted

“I worked hard and I merit the award,” an elated Aubameyang declared. with a loud applause from the guests.

Osimhen was nominated for the Youth Award with Adama Traore of Mali and Kelechi Nwakali, who captained the Golden Eaglets to the Chile 2015 U-17 World Cup. President Muhammadu Buhari at the colourful event witnessed by no fewer than five Ministers in

Nigeria was presented with the CAF Platinum Award for his exemplary commitment and support for the development of football.

The award was received on his behalf by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung.

Nigeria would have made another history but Super Falcons star, Ngozi Ebere lost the Women’s Player of the Year Award to Cameroon’s Gaelle Enganamouit, just as Bakary Papa Gassama of The Gambia clinched the Referee of the Year Award.

Anxiety was palpable in the hall before the mother of all awards on the night, which was the African Player of the Year.

When Marawa first announced four-time winner, Yaya Toure as the second best for 2015, jubilation followed the announcement. While on the podium, Toure betrayed emotion as he expressed shock at the an-

nouncement.

He was later to shed tears as he was going out after the post award press conference.

Then came the long-awaited moment. With Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Borussia Dortmund/ Gabon) and Andre Ayew (Swansea/Ghana) left on the podium, everyone was expectant like a man whose wife was in the labour room.

With the name of Aubameyang announced as the winner, there was no doubt in the hall that it was a popular decision as the majority of guests who attended the event applauded the choice.

“I thank the people of Gabon; this award is for them. I want to thank my team mates in the national team and also at Dortmund. It is their work that helps me to score goals.

“I worked hard and I merit the award,” an elated Aubameyang declared.

SIDELINES

A pastor has donated plastic kettles and praying mats to a mosque in Kaduna State. With the increased rate of religious tension in Nigeria and across the world, we pray that his coChristians and Muslims alike will take a cue from this gesture in the spirit of uniting Nigeria.

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER

no 2,016

17 January, 2016

www.tribuneonlineng.com

Eagles saved my career —Ikeme

CHAN 2016:

We have to beat Niger –Ibenegbu NIGERIA midfielder, Ikechukwu Ibenegbu has described as crucial the first match against the Menas of Niger Republic at the fourth African Nations Championship (CHAN), which kicked off on Saturday in Kigali, Rwanda.

The home-based Eagles will open their title account against West African neighbours, Niger tomorrow at the Stade Regional Nyamirambo, Kigali.

Ibenegbu said Eagles will not treat any opponent as pushovers, but will strive to win each match as it comes.

“We will treat every team as good as ours as we intend to give everything to ensure we start our CHAN campaign against Niger on Monday on a winning note.

“The first match is quite crucial in our determination to surpass past performances so, we will give Niger all the respect they deserve off and on the pitch but we know victory will not be compromised,” he said.

n200

Ganiyu Salman With Agency Report

S Ikeme

UPER EAGLES goalkeeper, Carl Ikeme has acknowledged that Nigeria saved his career from an abyss after losing the first choice shirt in Wolverhampton Wanderers at the start of the season.

Ikeme, it will be recalled made his international debut last September in the 2017 Nations Cup qualifier against Tanzania in Dar es Salaam and kept a clean sheet.

He stated that his call up to serve his fatherland came at the right time which also gave his career a boost.

“And out of all the times I have been waiting for Nigeria the opportunity came when I was out of the Wolves team,” he

Terry averts another Stamford Bridge defeat

By Mojisola Adewunmi

CAPTAIN John Terry scored a controversial 98th minute equaliser to earn Chelsea a point in a Premier League clash with Everton which produced three goals apiece.

It will be recalled that Chelsea had lost four games right at Stamford Bridge this season under sacked Portuguese manager, Jose Mourinho.

His successor, Guus Hiddink has maintained a clean sheet since he took charge the Blues and perhaps had Terry to thank for the stunning equaliser during added time on Saturday in a sixgoal thriller.

The Toffees took the lead when Terry put through his own net in the 50th minute and Ross Barkley hit a post for Everton before Kevin Mirallas put the visitors 2-0 up barely six minutes after

the curtain raiser.

Diego Costa reduced the margin in the 64th minute and Cesc Fabregas’s deflected shot made it 2-2 two minutes later.

Ramiro Funes Mori restored Everton’s lead in the 90th minute only for Terry to back-heel in from close range - although he was a yard offside.

Everton’s players were angry Terry’s goal was allowed to stand, but in a pulsating game the visitors only had themselves to blame for allowing a 2-0 lead to slip.

They appeared to be coasting to a first win in four league outings when Mirallas doubled the lead with a crisp shot after Leighton Baines’ cross.

Baines had also been instrumental in the first goal, Terry getting his feet into an awful tangle while attempting to clear his cross.

told his club’s website.

“It has been a great experience which I have enjoyed. There is no feeling like representing your country knowing you are making your family proud and trying to make a nation proud as well.

“Nigeria is such a big country and they are football fanatics.

When you win it gives you so much satisfaction.

“It came at a good time for me when I wasn’t playing for Wolves and gave me a focus to keep going and some targets to keep to.

“I have played with some top players and against some top players and it helps you realise you can play at that level.”

Ikeme, who had five caps so far said losing the first team shirt in the English Championship side to loanee from Arsenal, Emiliano Martinez, posed a big challenge to his career, just as he promised to bounce back.

“I’m hanging in there aren’t I?” he says with a smile.

“It is a part of football at times that you have to fight for your place.

“Obviously I was disappointed when I was dropped at the start of the season.

“But I always try to stay professional and do my best in training and on the pitch.

“If anyone was to say anything about me I’d like to think they would say I was a professional person around the club.

“Obviously I wasn’t happy but I didn’t sulk – you have to move on and stay professional for when your chance comes again.”

EPL resultsderland

4

Tottenham uth 3 Bournemo 3 Chelsea 4

Man City 2

Newcastle n 3 Southampto 1

Aston Villa

Terry

Sun Norwich Everton C/Palace

West Ham

West Brom Leicester

1 0 3 0 1 0 1

POOLS, 41. , 27, 29, 36 1, 3, 9, 15, 17 , 8, 28, 43.

-4 S ATCHE M ’S Y A D TO

Printed and Published by the African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, Imalefalafia Street, Oke-Ado, Ibadan. Telephone: 08165728976; 08073598322 E mail: sundaytribuneeditor@yahoo.com Website: www.tribuneonlineng.com MANAGING DIRECTOR/EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: EDWARD DICKSON EDITOR: SINA OLADEINDE. All Correspondence to P. O. Box 78, Ibadan. ISSN 2712. ABC Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 17/1/2016