17th June 2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 16,526

FRIDAY, 17 JUNE, 2016

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Buhari now to return on Sunday —Osinbajo —P4

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CBN hopeful Naira will stabilise at N250/dollar —P11

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Oyo strike: No consensus yet with govt —NLC •14-man committee set up on controversial education policy —P30

Local hunters take over PDP secretariat —P2

•Vow to chase Sheriff out •Rival groups in bloody clash

ISIS targetting Nigerian children through mobile apps —FG —P32

Osun hijab crisis: DSS, police, Baptist Church officials meet —P31

EFCC quizzes Dikko, Ngilari, Adamu —P37

From left, Glo Ambassador, Flavour; Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Honourable Suraju Adekunbi; Globacom’s Executive Director, Legal Services, Mrs Gladys Talabi; N5 million winner, Hammed Olatunde; Acting Managing Director, Bank of Industry (BoI), Mr Waheed Olagunju and another Glo Ambassador, John Okafor, at the formal presentation of prizes to the first set of winners of the Glo Hamma Millions Promo, in Lagos, on Tuesday.

Court adjourns suit challenging Buhari's certificate indefinitely —P6

2 news Local hunters take over PDP secretariat

•Vow to chase Sheriff out •Rival groups in bloody clash Leon Usigbe and Jacob Segun Olatunji -Abuja

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NOTHER twist was added to the crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Thursday, when scores of local hunters, in their full regalia, stormed the PDP national secretariat, armed with charms and cudgels.

The men, who chanted anti-Sheriff and proAhmed Makarfi songs, openly displayed the charms and threatened to apply them to anybody who dared them over their mission to the national secretariat of the party, which was to flush out Senator Ali Modu Sheriff and provide adequate security for the Senator Makarfi-led caretaker committee until it completes its assignment.

Security personnel comprising the Police, DSS, Civil Defence Corps and private guards manning the secretariat looked on while the display lasted.

As of press time, the hunters still occupied the frontage of the secretariat with a vow to remain there till their mission was accomplished.

Earlier, rival supporters of the Senator Makarfiled national caretaker committee of the party and claimant to the office of the national chairman, Senator Sheriff, were engaged in a bloody clash at the national secretariat, with at least one person badly injured.

The clash occurred as both groups stormed the office for the third day, brandishing posters in support of the different camps and fighting to take control of the Wadata Plaza Wuse Zone 5 edifice.

The pro-Makarfi group was the first to arrive at about 6.00 a.m., followed

by Sheriff’s supporters who arrived about an hour later.

The Sheriff group’s attempt to seize control of the main gate led to a fight with the pro-Makarfi group who resisted them.

In the process, dangerous weapons such as cudgels and sticks were deployed in the free-for-all leading to injuries on both sides.

The pro-Makarfi group, however, prevailed as Sheriff’s supporters later retreated from the premises.

Also about 10 private security men believed to have been recruited from the South-East, by a prominent party chieftain from Anambra State to protect Sheriff, remained within the premises of the office not interfering with the proceeding.

The clash followed a meeting on Wednesday night by governors of the party, its Board of Trustees (BoT) and other stakeholders towards the resolution of the lingering leadership crisis.

Speaking after the

meeting, which ended in the early hours of Thursday, at the Ondo State Governor’s Lodge, Asokoro, Abuja, Makarfi reiterated his suspicion that Sheriff was being used by some forces to attempt to destroy the opposition.

Also answering questions from reporters, Governor Ayo Fayose of Ekiti State warned against any attempt to scuttle opposition to the ruling party.

He said opposition was necessary to enable Nigerians to get value for their votes.

He said: “We must put it in the public domain that the PDP, whatever we are going through today, is a phase and very soon, the whole issue will be over.

“But we need to put it very clearly that Nigeria, as a country, needs an opposition party to make Nigerian get value for their votes. And any attempt to destroy the opposition in Nigeria is not going to be in the interest of democracy.

“We stand as a party to condemn interference,

scuttle opposition and against strategic effort to destroy the PDP in Nigeria.”

Fayose assured that the PDP was ready to give a credible opposition to the government, which, he observed, had achieved nothing so far.

He added: “We want to make it very clear that the international community, well-meaning Nigerians must take note that the party, PDP, is prepared to give credible opposition to the government in power, that has so far achieved nothing in the space of one year of assumption of office.

“What I want to say very expressly is that the efforts of the PDP to put its house in order is our business and we are doing everything possible and want to appeal to the security agencies to please operate within the ambit of law, allow the PDP to put its house in order, to support without interference, every effort to let Nigerians have a credible opposition as we move forward in Nigeria.”

FOLLOWING the controversy and protests trailing grazing reserve in Plateau State, the state government has put on hold the Federal Government’s planned national policy on grazing reserve to allow consultations with major stakeholders of the state.

The announcement of Plateau State as one of the states that had embraced

Sheriff validly removed, PDP tells Federal High Court Dapo Falade -Port Harcourt THE intrigue trailing the leadership crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) continues unabated as the party has declared that its embattled former acting national chairman, Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, was validly removed, via the national convention, held in Port Harcourt, on May 21, 2016.

This was as the party also asserted that the PDP caretaker committee, headed

by Senator Ahmed Makarfi, was duly appointed, saying the national convention was duly convened in line with the constitution of the party.

The party said the Port Harcourt convention was legally constituted, adding that the convention was convened by the PDP National Executive Committee (NEC), headed by Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, who himself participated in pre-convention events, including his participation in the screening ex-

Local hunters loyal to Senator Ahmed Makarfi at the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) secretariat, Abuja, on Thursday.

grazing reserve has been generating confusion and controversy, as well as causing tension due to the outbursts of some stakeholders over the issue.

Addressing newsmen after the state executive council meeting, the state Commissioner for Water Resources, Mr Jafaru Wuyep, said the administration was still consulting with stakeholders on the establishment of ranches

to address farmers/herders clashes.

He said the administration was consulting and the outcome of the consultation would be made known when the consultation was over and enjoined the people of the state to continue to be law-abiding.

“You will understand that grazing reserve was initiated by the Federal Government and states are expected to key into it.

The presidency said those interested should indicate interest and go back and consult with the stakeholders.

“But if you don’t indicate interest and you go ahead and consult, by the time you return, the doors may be closed,” he explained.

According to him, the state government would only take its decision based on the resolutions reached with the stakeholders.

ercise.

Counsel for the PDP, Oladejo Lamikanra, made the above submissions in an originating summons on behalf of the party before a Port Harcourt Federal High Court, presided over by Justice Abdullahi Liman, on Thursday.

“Modu Sheriff submitted himself for screening at the Port Harcourt national convention. Realising that he has lost his bid to be national chairman, Modu Sheriff alone, without consent and consultations with the National Executive Committee, claimed he postponed the convention. Modu Sheriff had no such powers to postpone a convention approved by the National Executive Committee.

“Modu Sheriff is not the chairman of PDP. He was never elected at any convention and he is subject to the extant judgment of AB Mohammed J (FCT High Court), which Modu Sheriff is curiously seeking to enforce.

N500bn social fund: Reps demand implementation framework Jaocb Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel-Abuja

Plateau govt stays action on grazing reserve Isaac Shobayo -Jos

Friday, 17 June, 2016

THE House of Representatives, on Thursday, demanded that the implementation framework of N500 billion social fund passed be included in the 2016 Appropriation Act. To this end, the House mandated its committees on Legislative Budget and Research and Poverty Alleviation to liaise with the Office of the VicePresident to provide implementation framework and details for the N500 billion social intervention programmes.

The House resolution was sequel to a motion sponsored by Honourable Abubakar Chika Adamu and Honourable Timothy Golu, entitled: “Need for the framework and details of the N500 billion Social Intervention Fund.”

The N500 billion appropriated in the 2016 by the National Assembly is meant to create job opportunities for 500,000 teachers and 100,000 artisans.

Part of the fund was also meant to provide for 5.5 million children, conditional cash transfer to the vulnerable people and an enterprise programme will

be created for 1 million market women, 400,000 artisans and 200,000 agricultural workers nationwide.

The lawmaker while moving the motion on the floor of the House said the country had introduced programmes of this nature in the past which has failed due to mismanagement and lack of a strong institutional structure.

According to him, “There is an urgent need for the Federal Government to stop the disbursement of the fund until a framework has been provided for the said disbursement”.

Supporting the motion, the House Minority Leader, Leo Ogor said it was an error on the path of the National Assembly to have passed the budget without a legal framework backing the social the intervention fund.

The was however a mild drama when the House Chairman on Appropriation, Honourable Abdulmumin Jibrin was shouted down by his colleagues when he made attempt to contribute to the motion.

The House adopted the motion after it was put to a voice vote by the Speaker, Hon. Yakubu Dogara.

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Buhari now to return on Sunday —Osinbajo Leon Usigbe -Abuja

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RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has extended his ongoing vacation to enable him have the weekend off.

This was confirmed by acting President Yemi Osinbajo, on Thursday, in a short interview with State House corespondents before the commencement of National Economic Council (NEC) meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Osinbajo revealed that the president, who was due to return to Abuja, on Wednesday, following his initial 10day vacation, would now come on Sunday, as he would now be taking the weekend off.

He, however, stressed that Buhari was in good health.

He said: “The president will be back on Sunday. I spoke with him yesterday evening and I think it is just the best that he takes the weekend off. He will certainly be back on Sunday.

“I think the most straightforward thing is when he will be back. He will be back on Sunday. There is no point rushing back on Friday or something like that.

“He will just take the

weekend off and be back on Sunday.

“He is in perfect health and ready to resume work

on Monday.

“Mr President is in good

Shola Adekola -Lagos THE United States Consulate-General, Lagos; Lagos State police command, civil society and community leaders met for an exploratory discussion to reduce violence in Lagos and encourage non-violent resolution of dispute, as well as improve opportunities for youth.

In attendance at the roundtable discussion

hosted by the United States Consul-General on June 9, were the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Obasa; the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu; Lagos Police Commissioner, Fatai Owoseni, Nigerian pop singer and Nigeria Police Force Youth Ambassador, Korede Bello and eight other civil society representatives, leaders of security agencies and leaders of road transport unions.

DAAR Communications denies sack of entire Benin staff Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare

President Muhammadu Buhari with the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu, in London, on Thursday.

There’s nothing like that —Police

OUR ERROR

Sunday.”

It will be recalled that the president left Abuja, on Monday, June 6, on a 10day vacation to London, to seek medical attention for his ailing ear.

US hosts Nigeria Police, community leaders on crime, violence prevention

We bombed NNPC pipeline —Avengers THE Niger Delta Avengers (NDA), Thursday morning, claimed to have blown up another pipeline managed by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).

However, the Commissioner of Police in Akwa Ibom State, Mr Murtala Mani, on Thursday, refuted the alleged explosion of pipelines at Ikot Osutek, in Oruk-Anam Local Government Area of the state by the NDA. According to the Avengers, who tweeted at about 7.00 a.m. on Thursday, the pipeline was blown up at 4.00 a.m.

“At 4:00am @NDAvengers blow up NNPC Pipeline in Oruk Anam Local Government Area in Akwa Ibom.”

The destruction is coming, despite the ceasefire offered by the government to ensure dialogue with the militants.

Mani, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Uyo, said the alleged vandalism was an accident caused by a

condition, he is fine, he is very well. He should take a day or two off in London and rest a bit and come back hale and hearty on Sunday and be ready for work on Monday.

“So, we expect him back on

leakage in the gas pipelines.

He said it was a technical problem and some engineers from Port Harcourt were working to rectify the leakage.

Mani said the state was safe from the activities of the militant group.

NAN reports that the gas pipelines are owned by Seven Energy Company, the operator of Ibom Gas Power

Plant, Uquo, in Esit-Eket Local Government Area of the state.

Ikot Osutek community, the location of the gas pipelines, is on Ikot Abasi-Ogoni-Port Harcourt axis of the EastWest Road in Akwa Ibom.

NAN further reported that many residents of the state were disturbed by the alleged attack, due to the revelation that the militant

group had vandalised 23 gas pipelines since February 14 when it started attacks.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) had, in a statement, advised the NDA to cease the destruction of pipelines.

MEND said this was not a solution to the crisis facing the South-South region.

THE management of DAAR Communications Plc, have denied news making round that the entire staff in the Benin station, both RayPower 105.5fm and Africa Independent Television (AIT) channel 29 UHF have been sacked, describing it as a misrepresentation of facts.

The management of the communication company in a release aimed at informing the public of its own side of the story stated that the management critically appraised the operations of both stations especially in relation to manpower capacity utilization, dedication to duty as well as productivity level and found some wanting and far below expectation.

“Their general conduct was found to be inimical to the attainment of the lofty

ideas of the organisation,” the release said.

The company’s management added that contrary to the information making rounds, out of a total of 40 operational staff strength, only 13 were laid off, adding that their professionalism and competence were not at par with that of their colleagues.

According to DAAR Communications management, the act of those laid off was adversely affecting the overall productivity and the expected capacity of both stations.

The company reiterated that both RayPower 105.5fm and Africa Independent Television (AIT) channel 29 UHF in Benin, were never off air and are still fully operational and on air, adding that at no time since the organizational audit process did any of the station shut down or was off air.

Ecstasy as ‘Glo Hamma Millions’ N5m jackpot winner, others collect prizes IT was pure joy at the Globacom headquarters, Mike Adenuga Towers, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Tuesday, June 14, as the first set of winners in the ongoing Glo Hamma Millions promo, including the winner of the jackpot prize of N5 million, received their mouth-watering cash prizes.

Leading the pack of winners was a transporter, Hameed Olatunji, who received a N5 million cheque. Others who won N100,000 each in the promo also received their

In our story “2015 presidential campaign fund: EFCC summons Ali Modu Sheriff,” Mr Nnamdi Okonkwo was referred to as sacked Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank. This was an error. We hold the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Fidelity Bank, Mr Okonkwo, in high esteem. The error is regretted. —Editor

prizes at the Lagos centre.

Simultaneously, hundreds of winners also received their N100,000 prizes in Abuja, Enugu, Benin and Port Harcourt.

Expressing his heartfelt appreciation in an emotion-laden voice, Olatunji thanked Globacom for making him a multi-millionaire overnight.

When asked what his plan for the money was, he said: “I’ll invest part of this money in my poultry business and also use part of it to purchase a truck.”

Dignitaries were also present to witness the lifechanging event. They included the Speaker, Ogun State House of Assembly, Suraju Adekunbi; Deputy Speaker, Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Wasiu Eshinlokun

Sanni; acting Managing Director of Bank of Industry, Mr Waheed Olugunju; Lagos State Coordinator of the National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Mr Fidelis Ajibogun and the Zonal Coordinator, Lagos Office, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Mr Ikechukwu Aninweke.

Globacom’s Executive Director, Legal Services, Mrs Gladys Talabi, said the promo was an initiative to reward the company’s subscribers for keeping faith with the network.

Altogether, 201 winners collected their prizes in the five locations.

Mrs Talabi stated that more winners would emerge in the days ahead, as she encouraged existing and new subscribers to

avail themselves of the opportunity to become millionaires in the promo by sending ‘GLO’ to 555 and answering a simple football question.

Also speaking at the event, Mr Waheed Olugunju thanked Globacom’s chairman, Dr Mike Adenuga Jr, for building a world-class telecoms company, which he noted could compete with any telecoms company in the world.

Speaker of Ogun State

RAMADAN MESSAGE

House of Assembly, Honourable Adekunmbi, said “Globacom has done a lot for Nigerians. It liberated Nigerians with the per second billing it introduced at inception.”

In the 100-day promo, 10 winners of N100,000 will emerge everyday, while a N5 million jackpot winner will emerge once every 20 days. In all, a total of 1000 lucky winners of N100,000 and five winners of N5million will emerge.

O you who have believed, when [the adhan] is called for the prayer on the day of Jumu’ah [Friday], then proceed to the remembrance of Allah and leave trade. That is better for you, if you only knew. And when the prayer has been concluded, disperse within the land and seek from the bounty of Allah , and remember Allah often that you may succeed.

—Surat Al-Jumu’ah verses 9-10

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6 news

Friday, 17 June, 2016

Kogi Assembly crisis: Stay away from Assembly, court orders parties Sunday Ejike -Abuja

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HE Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, ordered parties in the suit of the Kogi State House of Assembly to stay away from the assembly, pending the determination of an application challenging the judgment of the court restoring the Speaker and other principal members of the assembly.

The order, Justice Nnamdi Dimgba said, was to enable the respondents file in their response to the application seeking to set aside the judgment, pending the determination of the appeal.

The judge had, in a judgment he delivered on June 19, reinstated the impeached speaker of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Momoh Jimoh Lawal; the deputy speaker, Aliyu Akuh and seven other principal officers of the state House of Assembly, saying the pro-

cess that led to their purported impeachment on February 16 was unconsti-

tutional and illegal.

He said their removal was not in line with provisions

of sections 90, 91, 92 (2) (c), 95 (1) & (2) and 96(1) & (2) of the 1999 Constitu-

tion, as amended.

The court voided the purported election of Umar

Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, flanked by locals and officials of Maritime University, during his visit to the institution, on Thursday.

Kachikwu pays surprise visit to Maritime varsity

Institution may be renamed Nigerian National Petroleum Academy Ebenezer Adurokiya -Warri MINISTER of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, on Thursday, paid an unscheduled visit to the site of the Maritime University of Nigeria at Okerenkoko, Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.

The visit came a few hours after members of the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) claimed to have bombed another pipeline belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in Akwa Ibom State.

A prominent Gbara-

matu leader, Chief Daniel Ekpebide, was said to have led the minister to the temporary site of the institution at Kurutie, as well as the ongoing permanent site at

Okerenkoko.

It was gathered that the minister was considering a bill to the National Assembly for the conversion of the school to the Nigerian Na-

MINISTER of Power, Works and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, on Thursday, said the recent attacks on gas pipelines in the Niger Delta region by militants had made the nation’s power sector vulnerable.

The minister made this known while speaking on issues affecting the sector at the inaugural town hall forum called “The Podium,” with the theme: “Fixing Nigeria,” organised by the Kukah Centre.

He pointed out that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari could not continue to depend only on gas to provide power to Nigerians.

Fashola explained that the government had concluded plans on sustainable power development and supply

It will be recalled that the reinstatement of the university was one of the demands by militants and several other stakeholders from the region in recent times.

Court adjourns suit challenging Buhari’s certificate indefinitely Sunday Ejike -Abuja JUSTICE Adeniyi Ademola of a Federal High Court in Abuja, on Thursday, adjourned sine die (indefinitely), the suit challenging the legitibility of President Muhammadu Buhari to occupy the office of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria because of issues bordering on his West

African School Certificate (WASC), which he claimed he obtained 1961.

An Abuja-based legal practitioner, Mr Nnamdi Nwokocha-Ahaaiwe, had alleged that Buhari was unqualified to aspire to the office of the president of the country, because he did not sit for the Cambridge West African School Certificate (WASC) in

Gas pipeline vandalism made power sector vulnerable —Fashola Adetola Bademosi and Collins Nnabuife -Abuja

tional Petroleum Academy.

The bill, the source said, might come in form of an executive bill to be presented by President Muhammadu Buhari.

strategy to tackle the power crisis.

According to him, the plan had been included in the roadmap for the sector, which are in three phases, the first phase incremental, second steady power and third, uninterrupted power supply.

“Thinking is what the Kukah Centre brings, and thinking through about the apparent solution brings out a better solution.

“The optimum power we have produced in 66 years is 5,074 megawatts and that happened on February 2, 2016. It is clear that 5,000 megawatts of power is not enough for the country and that is why our first step is getting more power and that is the method of incremental power as the first phase.

“Second phase is steady

power and it means everybody gets enough power, and whether we get enough power or not, we need data and census, which is necessary in order to know what power each household needs.

“The third phase, uninterrupted power, is how we can use energy, being energy conscious we are, energy conserving we are and our lifestyle towards energy matters.

Earlier in his address, the Director of the Kukah Centre, Dr Arthur-Martins Aginam, had said the centre, founded

by Bishop Mathew Kukah, was established to assess policies of government and get a broader view of Nigerians on best solutions to address fundamental issues that could impact the living condition of Nigerians and give a sense of belonging to every citizen in the country.

1961 as he claimed.

The trial judge had, on May 26, 2016, dismissed President Buhari’s preliminary objection, wherein he (Buhari) challenged the legal right of the lawyer to institute the action against him.

Dissatisfied with the ruling of the court, Buhari, through his lawyer, filed an appeal to the Abuja division of the Court of Appeal on seven grounds, praying the appellate court to set aside the ruling of the trial court.

Buhari is praying the Court of Appeal to set aside or discharge the ex parte order granted in favour of Nnamdi Nwokocha Ahaaiwe on February 16, 2015 to serve him with the originating summons by substituted means.

The president also wanted the Appeal Court to set aside the respondent’s (Ahaaiwe) originating summons for being incompetent.

When the suit came up on May 26, Buhari, in his preliminary objection, challenged the mode of service of the originating summons on him, insisting that he ought to have been served at an address in Kaduna instead of by substituted means at the national secretariat of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Abuja.

However, Justice Ademola,

in his ruling, held that it was incompetent and upheld the service of the originating court processes on Buhari, saying that the service of the court’s processes on the president through the secretariat of the APC was proper.

When the matter came up on Thursday, Buhari, through his counsel, Kola Awodein, informed the court that a motion for stay of proceedings in the matter had been filed and that the Court of Appeal had seized of the matter.

“It is in this background that I urge your Lordship to adjourn this proceedings, pending the hearing and determination of the appeal before the appellate court,” Awodein told Justice Ademola.

Responding, the plaintiff said he needed time to to react to the affidavit that was served on him by the first respondent, saying also that he was not served with the application for stay of proceedings as claimed by the first respondent.

In his ruling, the judge held that “having listened to the submissions of counsel in this matter, this court, therefore, adjourned this matter sine die (indefinitely) as the Court of Appeal has seized of this matter.”

Imam as the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, as well as the emergence of four others; Friday Sani; Lawal A.T. Ahmed; Bello Abdullahi and John Abah as principal officers of the House.

The court held that “the continued sitting and conduct of the affairs of the Kogi State House of Assembly by the first to fifth defendants after the purported removal of the first plaintiff and other principal officers of the House and purported installation of themselves as principal officers of the Kogi State House of Assembly on the 16th day of February, 2016, is illegal having regard to section 96 (1) of the Constitution and Rule 5(1).”

It also restrained the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Director-General of the Department of State Security (DSS), Commandant of the National Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), who were seventh to eighth defendants in the suit, “from further barricading the assembly complex and preventing the plaintiffs from accessing the hallowed chambers of the Kogi State House of Assembly to conduct their legal and legitimate duties as legislators validly elected to represent their various constituencies.”

However, the defendants, not satisfied with the judgment, took the matter to the Appeal Court and filed an application before Justice Dimgba, asking the court to set aside the judgment pending the determination of the appeal.

When the matter came up for hearing on Thursday, counsel for the first to 10th plaintiffs/respondents, Emeka Etiaba told the court that they were served a further affidavit out of time and insisted that they should be given time to respond, adding there were certain allegations in the affidavit that they have to disproof.

Etiaba, while asking for the adjournment, also requested the court to grant an order restraining parties from going back to the assembly to sit.

Responding, Justice Dimgba, in a brief ruling, ordered parties in the suit to stay away from the Kogi House of Assembly, pending the hearing of the application or judgment of the Appeal Court.

He also advised parties not to do anything that would undermine the judgment of the court or peace of the state, adding that the parties as representatives of the people, must set good examples to those they represent.

The matter was then adjourned till June 28.

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Lagosmetro

Nigerian Tribune

Edited By

Lanre Adewole

olanreade@yahoo.com

0811 695 4647

8 killed, 3 injured as passenger bus rams into stationary tipper on Third Mainland bridge Opeyemi Owoaseye EIGHT people were killed in an accident after a vehicle rammed into a sand tipper on Third Mainland bridge, on Wednesday.

The fatal accident was said to have happened at about 11.30 p.m.

It was learnt that the vehicle was on a full speed when it rammed into the stationary sand tipper, with most part of the vehicle completely written off.

Scene of the accident

Bank customer, mechanic, robber shot dead in robbery cross-fire Opeyemi Owoaseye TWO persons were, on Thursday, shot by robbers, who were on the trail of a bank customer in Amukoko area.

One of the robbers was also killed by policemen, who engaged the armed bandits in a gun duel that lasted for over 20 minutes.

The deceased persons were simply identified as the bank customer, who was trailed to the scene of the incident and a mechanic,who was hit by stray bullets.

The state police command confirmed the death of the mechanic, adding that three of the robbery gang had been arrested.

The incident, which happened around Odunade Market, created panic among traders and resi-

dents of the area, who ran in different directions for safety.

It was gathered that it all

started when the unidentified bank customer came out of the bank and was accosted by the robbers.

The robbers, who operated on motorcycles, reportedly shot the bank customer and took away his money.

It was also learnt that while eight people were confirmed dead, three were rushed to the General Hospital, Gbagada for treatment.

An official of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) told Lagos Metro, who visited the scene of the accident, that it was a fatal one because the driver was on a full speed before the collision.

“The accident was a fatal one. It happened around University of Lagos waterfront on the Third Mainland bridge. The driver was on a top speed when he rammed into the stationary sand tipper.

“About 70 per cent of the vehicle was crushed, the driver and seven others died instantly while three were badly injured,” he said.

An eyewitness, who preferred to be simply called Mr Kunmi, told Lagos Metro that he forcefully opened the door of the vehicle before they could rescue the victims, adding that the accident happened around 10.00 p.m.

“The commercial bus was coming from Ajah/Lekki area. There was, however, a tipper truck that had broken down on the road. The engine

Driver diverts N16m sugar Olufunmi Iseotan A driver, Ayodele Ayodeji, has been arrested by the police for allegedly diverting four trailer-load of sugar belonging to Coca Cola Bottling Com-

New York-bound passenger arraigned for hiding 34 different currencies in luggage Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin

THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on Wednesday, arraigned a businesswoman before a Federal High Court for allegedly concealing 35 different currencies in her luggage.

Olawunmi Akinyanjuola Olatara was about boarding a flight from Nigeria to New York, at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport on January 24,

when immigration officials allegedly discovered the concealed currencies in her possession during outward clearance of passengers.

She was arrested and handed over to operatives of EFCC. The currencies allegedly retrieved from her were £26,420, $5,000, 1,320 Poland Zloty, RS 715 Brazillian real, 965,000 Korean Won, 10,000 Malaysian Ringgit, 2,920 Isreal Shekel, $13,218 American

dollars, 394 Japanese Yen, 76,550 Kenyan Shillings, 1,920 New Zeland Dollars, 27,000 Iraqi Diner, RM 392 Malaysian Ringit, 500 Norway Krone, 2,000 Thailand Baht, MAD 260 Moroccan Dirham, QR 159, Qatari Riyal, CHF 250 Swiss Franc, 1,200 Taiwan Dollar, 6,360 Indian Rupees, 3,930 Egyptian Pounds, 6410 Russian Rubble, RS20 Brazil Real, 105 Turkish Lira, LD 26,000 Libyan Dinar, 1,000 Hong Kong Dollars, $50

was still running. The bus driver, who did not know see the tipper, rammed into it.

“The passengers were hooked. We wanted to use my vehicle to pull the vehicle out from the tipper, but we couldn’t. We later stopped a truck, which assisted us. A rescue agency later brought a sledge hammer that we used to open up the vehicle and bring out nine bodies, including that of the driver, Segun.

We left the scene around 2.00 a.m. on Thursday.

“Some people were laid on the ground, crying in agony, but we cannot say if they will survive it because it was fatal. One of them had his hip torn and two others lost their hands and legs.

“In fact, the money the driver was holding glued to his hand as a result of the sudden shock from the accident.

“From the driver’s seat to the third seat of the vehicle was a complete write off,” he said.

The police spokesperson, Dolapo Badmos confirmed the accident.

General Manager of LASEMA, Michael Akindele, however, said five people died in the accident.

American Dollars, DT 250 Tunisian Lira, 18 Saudi Arabia Riyal, BD 7.5 Bahrain, Rp 158 Indonesian Rupiah, 50 Phillipine Peso, 50 Sudanese Pounds and 1,515 Pakistan Rupee.

She, however, pleaded not guilty to the one-count charge.

Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo granted the accused person bail of N5 million and two sureties in like sum, while she adjourned the matter till Octoer 18.

pany.

According to the police, the accused person was supposed to deliver the Dangote sugar worth N16 million to the company but failed to do so.

He was arrested and subsequently arraigned before an Ikeja magistrates’ court where he pleaded not guilty.

The defendant’s counsel, E.B Emmanuel, pleaded with the court to grant bail to his client on the most liberal terms.

The presiding magistrate, Aje Afunwa, granted him the bail of N1 million with two sureties in like sum, adding that one of the sureties must be a property owner in Lagos State, and also show evidence of livelihood, evidence of lagos state tax payment and a verifiable address.

The matter was adjourned till July 14.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

Only 5 states ready to access N90bn FG bailout loan

•Excess Crude Account now $2.2bn •NEC backs CBN on flexible exchange rate Leon Usigbe -Abuja

O

NLY five out of the 36 states of the federation have so far completed the process of accessing the N90 billion bond being offered by the Federal Government to enable needy states to meet their salary obligations. One state has, however, declined

the loan.

This was disclosed by the Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr Udom Emmanuel, who briefed State House corespondents on the outcome of the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting presided over by acting President Yemi Osinbajo, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.

He said the NEC approved the new foreign exchange policy announced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He, however, did not disclose the names of the states involved.

The loan announced by the Federal Government, he said, came with stringent conditions and meant

to reflate the economy and ensure succour for state and local government workers bogged down by months of unpaid salaries.

According to Mr Emmanuel, the CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, told the council that the foreign exchange policy would be determined by total interplay of market forces based on

From left, Governors Mohammed Abubakar of Bauchi; Dave Umahi of Ebonyi; Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara; Abdulfatah Ahmed of Kwara and Badaru Abubakar of Jigawa, at the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday. PHOTO: NAN.

Ex-militants issue 14-day eviction notice to oil firms in Rivers Dapo Falade -Port Harcourt MORE trouble looms ahead the nation’s oil sector as a group of former militants in the Niger Delta region, on Thursday, issued a 14-day ultimatum to oil companies operating in Ekpeyeland, Rivers State, to close shops and vacate the area or face a massive vandalism of their assets.

The grouse of the ex-militants, Ekpeye Liberation Group and who claimed to be the mastermind of the attack on Well 5 in Akara Olu, Ahoada West Local Government Area of the state, was the alleged refusal of the oil companies to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ekpeye communities.

The former militants, in a statement issued in Port Harcourt, on Thursday, said they were dissatisfied with the alleged nonchallant attitude by the oil firms to the incessant killings and kidnapping in the Ekpeyeland.

The group, in the statement signed by its spokesman, Obodo Obodo, pointed fingers at Nigerian Agip Oil Company, Shell Petroleum Development Company, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas and Niger Delta Petroleum Resources.

It added that though Total

Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) had signed one MoU with the communities, the agreement had been violated with impunity.

“The Ekpeye Liberation Group, a forum of ex-militants and freedom agitators from the Ekpeye Ethnic Nationality in Rivers State (Part of the Niger Delta), is utterly disappointed with the conduct of the oil multinational companies operating in the area.

“In the light of their nonchallant, including lukewarm attitude to the massive killings and kidnappings of our people in recent times, the Ekpeye Liberation Group has been forced to issue a Notice of Eviction to all oil companies operating in Ekpeye territory and its waters.

“They (oil companies) are required to pack out of Ekpeyeland within 14 days, starting from Thursday, June 16 or face massive vandalisation of the assets. A stitch in time saves nine,” the statement read.

They declared that their attack on oil facilities would further aggravate the nation’s already limping economy and admonished the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, to give the people of Ekpeye their due recognition.

“We also warn Dr Kachikwu, the Minister of State for Petroleum, to give the Ekpeye people their due recognition and place in

the oil economy of Nigeria, otherwise the pipeline in Ekpeyelan will explode into flames,” the statement added.

demand and supply.

He said the Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, briefed the council on the status as at Thursday, of the the Federal Government’s N90 billion budget support loan facility for states which carries 9 per cent interest rate.

“Five states have completed the process for borrowing from the budget support loan,” he added.

The governor revealed that the Minister of Finance also briefed the council on the status of the Excess Crude Account (ECA) with the fund standing at $2,261,249,976.96 as at June 15.

On the auditing of the ECA, he said the minister reported that work was ongoing as per the mandate given to the Forensic Auditors.

NEC also received an update from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the flexible foreign exchange rate introduced, including market driven exchange rate, single market structure through interbank/ autonomous window and access to Forex proceeds by non-oil exporters.

Governor Emmanuel also said that the council was briefed on the Social Investment Programme by the Special Adviser to the President on Social Protection, Maryam Uwais, on the preparation, status of the plan-

ning and responsibilities of the stakeholders towards the implementation of the programme.

According to him, she told the council that the programmes were designed to fulfill the Federal Government’s social protection role to its citizens, reduce poverty and inequality in Nigeria, among others.

He added: “The programmes engagement with beneficiaries is already in progress and pointed out the role of the key players and partnership with states very critical to the success of the programme.

“To ensure high level coordination, a National Social Safety Net Coordination office has been set up in the Presidency, Office of the Vice President, to coordinate and ensure uniform reporting platform Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E), as well as a suitable payment system (bank-led) for the cash transfers.

“Also, a Community-based Targeting Approach has been adopted in building up a National Social Register that will identify the poor and vulnerable population.”

The council also received report on improving business environment and the ease of doing business in Nigeria, presented by the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Okey Enelamah.

N5.1bn alleged fraud: Court denies former Special Assistant to Jonathan bail Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin -Lagos A Special Assistant on Domestic Affairs to former President Goodluck Jonathan, was on Thursday, denied bail by Justice Mohammed Idris of the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos.

Warpamo Owei Emmanuel Dudafa and one Iwejuo Joseph Nna were both arraigned before the court on a 23-count charge bordering on fraud and stealing on Tuesday.

They are both facing N5.1 billion fraud charges brought against them by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

The two accused persons had pleaded not guilty to all the charges and upon their pleas, the prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo, urged the court to remand them in prison custody.

At Thursday’s proceedings, the accused persons’ counsels, Gboyega Oyewole and Sunday Abumere, imformed the court

that their clients’ bail applications have been filed and had been served on the prosecution.

They urged the court to admit their clients bail on liberal terms.

However, the EFCC prosecutor, Oyedepo, admitted receiving the bail applications, but informed the court that he was not opposing the bail applications, but needed time to respond.

Upon the submissions of

both parties, Justice Idris ordered that the two accused persons be remanded in prisons custody till June 20, when the court would decide on their bail applications.

In the charge sheet signed by Oyedepo, the EFCC alleged that Dudafa and Nna, who also claimed to be Taiwo Ebenezer and Olugbenga Isaiah, had, between June 11, 2013 and June, 2015, used different companies

to fraudulently steal and launder money.

Some of the companies allegedly used in committing the alleged offences are Seagate Property Development & Investment Limited; Avalon Global Property Development Company Limited; Iwejuo Joseph Nna and Pluto LUTO Property and Investment Company Limited; Iwejuo Joseph Nna and Rotate Interlink Services Limited.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

FORTIS MICROFINANCE BANK PLC Medife House, Plot 2135, Herbert Macaulay, Way, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja ABRIDGED AUDITED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31ST DECEMBER, 2015.

FORTISMICROFINANCEBANKPLC STATEMENTOFFINANCIALPOSITION ASAT31STDECEMBER,2015

FORTISMICROFINANCEBANKPLC STATEMENTOFCOMPREHENSIVEINCOME FORTHEYEARENDED31STDECEMBER,2015 2015 N

Assets Cashandcashequivalents Loanandadvancestocustomers Investmentsecurities Property,plantandequipment Intangibleassets Otherassets NoncurrentAssetsheldforsale Totalassets

2014 N

3,587,356,870 13,918,512,155 650,000,000 191,135,150 69,793,417 880,875,654 640,000,000 19,937,673,246

2,394,295,270 11,729,356,112 699,999,947 204,110,189 62,063,698 856,135,472 640,000,000 16,585,960,688

609,876,600 10,035,684,791 1,822,000,000 4,177,722,097 318,047,746 38,433,184 252,731,496 17,254,495,914

490,943,474 9,587,379,246 1,822,000,000 1,438,005,303 742,160,345 38,485,555 367,513,334 14,486,487,257

Current Liabilities Depositsfrombanks Depositsfromcustomers Depositsforshares On-lendingfacilities Currentincometaxliabilities Deferredtax Otherliabilities Totalliabilities Equity Sharecapital Sharepremium Statutoryreserve Regulatoryriskreserve BonusReserves Totalequity Totalequityandliabilities

815,045,500

815,045,500

804,554,858 76,154,841 126,661,313 860,760,819 2,683,177,331 19,937,673,246

658,628,883 69,578,922 510,504,807 45,715,319 2,099,473,431 16,585,960,688

ThefinancialstatementwereapprovedbytheBoardofDirectoron19thApril2016and

Signedonitsbehalfby AgManagingDirector

Mr.Ugochukwu Ezeh(FRC/2016/CIBN/00000014286)

Interestincome Interestexpenses

2015 N 2,804,744,065 (1,786,419,429)

2014 N 2,498,609,279 (1,460,744,722)

Netinterestincome

1,018,324,636

1,037,864,557

Loanimpairmentcharges Netinterestincomeafterloanimpairmentcharges

(49,182,139) 969,142,498

(15,450,961) 1,022,413,596

Feeandcommissionincome Feeandcommisssionexpense Netfeecommissionincome Otheroperatingincome Otherincome

795,425,211 (10,057,939) 785,367,272 49,146,540 834,513,812

823,019,567 (9,785,150) 813,234,417 40,194,988 853,429,405

Totaloperatingincome Personnelexpenses Generalandadministrativeexpenses Depreciationandamortisation

1,803,656,310 (459,106,458) (416,862,340) (45,166,396)

1,875,843,001 (376,986,374) (384,436,721) (43,918,896)

Totalexpenses Profitbeforeincometax Incometaxexpenses

(921,135,194) 882,521,116 (298,817,216)

(805,341,991) 1,070,501,010 (395,988,264)

Profitfortheyear

583,703,900

674,512,746

Othercompreehensiveincome: Incometaxrelatingtocomponentofothercomprehensivei Othercomprehensiveincomefortheyear,netoftax -

-

Totalcomprehensiveincomefortheyear

583,703,900

Earningspershare

674,512,746

0.36 0.41

Director KunleOketikun(FRC/2013/CBN/00000004499) INDEPENDENTAUDITOR'SREPORTTOTHEMEMBERSOF FORTISMICROFINANCEBANKPLC Reportonthefinancialstatements WehaveauditedtheannualfinancialstatementsofFortisMicrofinanceBankPlc,whichcomprisethestatementoffinancialpositionasat31December2015,thestatementof comprehensiveincome,thestatementof changesinequityandstatementof cashflowfortheyearthenended,a summaryof significantaccountingpoliciesandotherexplanatorynotes, assetoutonpages22to72.

Directors'responsibilityforthefinancialstatements TheDirectorsareresponsibleforthepreparationandfairpresentationofthesefinancialstatementsinaccordancewithInternationalFinancialReportingStandards,andinthemanner requiredby theBankandOtherFinancialInstitutionsActandCompanyandAlliedMattersAct.Thisresponsibilityincludes:designing,implementingandmaintaininginternalcontrols relevanttothepreparationandfairpresentationofthefinancialstatementsthatarefreefrommaterialmis-statements,whetherduetofraudorerror;selectingandapplyingappropriate accountingpolicies;andmakingaccountingestimatesthatarereasonableinthecircumstances.

Auditor'sresponsibility Ourresponsibilityisto expressan opinionon thesefinancialstatementsbasedon ouraudit.We conductedourauditin accordancewithInternationalStandardson Auditing.Those standardsrequirethatwe complywithethicalrequirements,planandperformtheauditto obtainreasonableassurancewhetherthefinancialstatementsarefreefrommaterialmis- statements.

Anauditinvolvesperformingprocedurestoobtainauditevidenceabouttheamountsanddisclosuresinthefinancialstatements.Theproceduresselecteddependontheauditor’s judgement, includingtheassessmentoftherisksof materialmis-statementofthefinancialstatements,whetherduetofraudorerror.In makingthoseriskassessments,theauditor considersinternalcontrolsrelevanttotheentity’spreparationandfairpresentat ionofthefinancialstatementsinordertodesignauditproceduresthatareappropriateinthecircumstances, butnotforthepurposeofexpressinganopinionontheeffectivenessoftheentity’sinternalcontrol.Anauditalsoincludesevaluatingtheappropriatenessofaccountingpoliciesusedandthe reasonablenessofaccountingestimatesmadeby theDirectors,aswellasevaluatingtheoverallpresentationofthefinancialstatements.

Inouropinionthefinancialstatementsfairlypresent,inall materialaspects,thefinancialpositionof FortisMicrofinanceBankPlcasat31December2015,andofitsfinancialperformance fortheyearthenendedinaccordancewithInternationalFinancialReportingStandards,andinthemannerrequiredby BankandOtherFinancialInstitutionsActandCompanyandAllied

Date:20thApril,2016 AdajiOmedePatrickSundayFRC/2014/ICAN/00000006846 For:PKFProfessionalServices CharteredAccountants Abuja

Friday, 17 June, 2016 11 businessnews CBN hopeful naira will stabilise at N250/$ —Document

Nigerian Tribune

•As naira drops to N370/$ at parallel market Chima Nwokoji with Agency Report

N

IGERIA’S central bank is “reasonably optimistic” the naira will settle at around 250 to the U.S. dollar after an initial period of weakness following a flotation on Monday, the bank’s governor has said in a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari.

Nigeria’s central bank said on Wednesday it would begin market-driven foreign currency trading next week, abandoning the peg of 197 naira per dollar that it has supported for 16 months.

Foreign investors and economists have called for months for a devaluation as chronic foreign currency shortages choked economic growth and deterred investment.

The naira is expected to fall sharply when interbank trading begins on Monday, but the central bank said it did not have a target for the currency and the price would be “purely” market-driven. The naira was trading on the black market at around 370 to the dollar on Thursday.

Giving the first indication of a target, Governor Godwin Emefiele said in a June 3 letter to Buhari -- seen by Reuters -- that the central bank hopes the naira will eventually trade at around 250 per dollar, a level the president has “approved”.

“I must assure Your Excellency that we are indeed reasonably optimistic that at some point the rate will settle around 250 naira,” Emefiele says in the letter.

The letter, which briefs Buhari on the foreign exchange plan announced on Wednesday, says it could take three to four weeks to

clear a $4 billion backlog of foreign exchange demand.

Buhari has for months said that he does not want the naira to be devalued, but backed a more flexible exchange rate policy when the central bank outlined its plans in May, without

elaborating.

The presidency has not commented on the new regime, with Buhari’s spokesman declining to comment when Reuters called on Wednesday.

The central bank could not be immediately

THE Nigerian equities market closed positive for the second consecutive day as the NSE All Share Index (ASI) appreciated by 2.14 per cent to close at 28,489.87 points compared to the increase of 3.17 per cent or 857.91 points achieved on Wednesday to close at 27, 891.96 points.

This is predicated on investors positioning following the release of the forex policy guidelines by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) yesterday. After a prolonged wait, the CBN on Wednesday, said it will allow the naira exchange rate to be “market-driven” Market capitalisation of the NSE thus gained N205.4 billion to close at N9.784 trillion compared

a large-scale capital flight.

With a likely sharp fall for the naira, Nigerian products will become relatively cheap and imports more expensive, which should stimulate the domestic economy but also lift inflation.

Buhari has previously

From left: Director General, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), Dr Danazumi M. Ibrahim; Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu; and CEO, PZ Cussons Nigeria Plc, Mr Christos Giannopoulos, when the latter paid a courtesy visit to the ministry recently.

Why 41 items will remain excluded from forex market —CBN Chima Nwokoji-Lagos

THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has clarified why it did not reverse existing policy that excluded some imported goods and services from the list of items valid for Foreign Exchange (forex) in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Markets, despite new policy on forex.

While featuring on a television program monitored in Lagos, the Director of Financial Market, CBN, Emmanuel Ukeje, affirmed

the apex bank’s position, saying that the policy had been in place for a while and some people had started heavy investment in this line which had led to substitution in terms of those products over a period of time.

He said reversing the policy will hurt such wellmeaning Nigerians badly.

His words: “It is you also that often accuse the government or institutions of policy reversal. This policy has been there and I think we need to allow it mature

Equities market makes 2-day gain, adds 2.14% Kehinde Akinseinde-JayeobaLagos

reached for comment.

Africa’s biggest economy, which contracted by 0.4 percent in the first quarter, faces its worst crisis in decades after the decline in oil prices since 2014 and last year’s introduction of a currency peg, which prompted

to a gain of N294.6 billion recorded previously to close at N9.579 trillion.

Market Breadth closed with 32 gainers to 15 losers. Champion Breweries Plc led the day’s gainers as it appreciated by 9.87 per cent or 30 kobo to close at N3.34 per share, Unity Bank Plc increased by 8.33 per cent or nine kobo to

close at N1.17 per share, WAPCO followed with a gain of 7.29 per cent or N5.03 to close at N74.01 per share, while Wema Bank added 6.33 per cent or five kobo to close at 84 kobo per share. Nigerian Breweries advanced by 5.99 per cent or N8.01 to close at N141.76 per share.

instead of reversing it, and you will suddenly come back to say that those who are now producing these things are now put in pain.

“It was well thought through and we felt that these are goods that could be produced locally within a very short period of time and we have seen that happen.”

According to Ukeje, most of the items Nigerians earlier complained that they did not get in super markets because of the ban, are now being produced and the super markets are no longer running out of stock of such items.

“Nigerians are produc-

ing those goods and selling them. Nigerians are producing rice and other items today,” Ukeje emphasized.

The CBN last year stopped some imported goods and services from the list of items valid for forex in the Nigerian Foreign Exchange Markets.

This policy implies that those who import these items can no longer buy foreign currency from the official window to pay the overseas suppliers.

Rather, they will have to source forex from the parallel market or Bureau De Change to pay for their imports.

Airline operators laud CBN’s flexible forex policy THE Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON) has lauded the flexible foreign exchange policy unveiled by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Wednesday.

Capt. Nogie Meggison, AON President, told the

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Lagos that the move was a welcome development and a step in the right direction.

NAN reports that the new policy effectively removes

Okowa given 7 days to discontinue passenger welfare scheme tax Ebenezer Adurokiya-Warri

GOVERNOR Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State has been urged to discontinue the collection of taxes and levies imposed on commuters under the Passenger Welfare Scheme.

A legal practitioner and human rights activists, Oghenejabor Ikimi, in a petition sent to the governor and made available to

Nigerian Tribune in Warri on Wednesday, threatened to approach the courts within seven days if his advice is not heeded.

Ikimi described the levies to be collected by private consultants from commuters under the Passenger Welfare Scheme and the daily tax paid by operators of motorcycles and tricycles in the State as illegal taxes.

raised concerns about the inflationary impact that a weaker currency will have on Nigeria’s poor.

Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude exporter, has resisted devaluing its currency for more than a year despite other major oil producers, including Russia, Kazakhstan and Angola, allowing currencies to fall after crude prices collapsed.

The Naira on Thursday dropped against the United States dollar as it sold for N370 to a dollar on the parallel market.

This is even as the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) did not do any new dollar-naira trades on the interbank market on Thursday.

Reuters quoted a CBN official as revealing that the apex bank did $13.6 million of carryover trades at about the pegged rate of N197.5 to a dollar.

CBN, on Wednesday, said it would begin open-market foreign currency trading next week, abandoning its 16-month-old peg against the dollar.

Dealers said they expected no interbank currency market activity until the new trading regime starts on Monday.

Meanwhile currency dealers at the unofficial market confirmed that the new policy has had an adverse effect on the Nigerian currency already as new rates have emerged.

“With the new policy now, there are going to be fluctuations but we are sure that the CBN has done what it considers the best for the country,” a source informed.

In the same vein, Nigerian Interbank Treasury Bills True Yields (NITTY) increased across the maturities on low level of activity as yields on one month, three months, six months and 12 months rose to

He said such did not fall within the list of taxes and levies that could be collected by the state government as provided under Part II of the Schedule to the Taxes and Levies (Approved List for Collection) Act, 2004 (as amended), which prescribes the taxes and levies to be collected by the state government.

“It has come to my notice

that your office has just introduced the collection of a tax under what is called the Passenger Welfare Scheme to be paid by commuters patronizing public transport vehicles within and across Delta State’s lines and that the said tax or levy is to be collected by private tax consultants to ameliorate the suffering of victims of road accident.

controls on the naira, and is expected to increase dollar supply and help the nation’s fragile economy.

Meggison said the removal of the restriction would enable airlines have easier access to forex, which constitutes a bulk of their operational cost.

“We thank God that they finally listened to remove the restriction placed on foreign exchange.

“Foreign exchange is 70 per cent of our direct operating costs through areas like buying spare parts, insurance, training of pilots and other expenses.

“So if the government can make it more available and accessible, it is going to affect us positively and we are very glad about it.

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tribunebusiness

Friday, 17 June, 2016 time.

LECTRONIC-TAXPAY is an online self-service tax payment system which gives taxpayers the opportunity to pay their taxes through their banks’ online payment portals. It is an initiative of FIRS in collaboration with Nigerian Interbank Settlement System (NIBSS). It is meant to facilitate payments of taxes from the comfort of taxpayers’ offices or homes. Taxpayers can pay using the electronic channels provided by their banks such as the banks’ internet banking platform, branches and mobile banking platforms.

Conditions to be met by taxpayer before using e-Taxpay platform •Register and obtain your Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) •Have an account with any bank of your choice and subscribe to the internet banking function of your bank.

•Have sufficient funds in the account to cover the tax liability/transaction.

Steps to take to make payment through e-Taxpay platform Having registered and received a TIN, an active internet banking account and sufficient funds, then; •Decide the channel to use; •If you decide on internet banking channel, log on to your bank’s internet banking platform e.g. GTBank Online Banking, FirstOnline, etc; •In the case of GTBank Online Banking, select the “Payment” option in the menu; •Then select “NIBSS E-Bills payments” under the “Payment” option; •Select the account to debit from, to continue; •Once inside the NIBSS E-Bills payments, select “New Request” to start a new payment. This will take you to the NIBSS platform; •Then select “FIRS e-Taxpay” from the displayed list services that the NIBSS platform provides, in order to start the tax payment in particular; •You then enter your TIN (FIRS/JTB-TIN) or the TIN of the taxpayer you want to pay for; •Click “verify” to validate that the TIN belongs to the taxpayer making the payment; •A pop-up will appear with the TIN details. If ok, then go to the next stage; •Select the tax type (e.g. Company Income Tax, Pre-Operation Levy, Value Added Tax, etc.); •Enter the amount to be debited (tax sum being paid); •Accept service charge for the bank (if applicable); •Confirm that all the information provided are correct and valid; •Submit the request.

After a successful transaction, the system will generate an ‘e-acknowledgment’ which can be printed online, or sent to a specified e-mail address. The ‘e-acknowledgment’ is a confirmation of the transaction of payment of tax to FIRS which would be presented to FIRS field office for the issuance of statutory FIRS receipt to the taxpayer. A taxpayer should please ensure the ‘e-acknowledgment’ is submitted to the tax office of domicile to get a government tax receipt for the payment made.

Real time notifications: The platform also notifies the taxpayer and FIRS through SMS alert and real time email.

FIRS can view payment transactions and reports online, in real time.

Tax types that can be paid using the e-Taxpay channel: e-Taxpay can be used to pay all tax types and levies collected by FIRS. They include: •Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) •Education Tax (ET)

Nigerian Tribune

How does the e-tax pay solution work?

The e-tax pay solution is hosted on the internet banking platform and bank branches of commercial banks and will be available to any taxpayer who has access to the internet via PC, or handheld devices such as mobile phones. It will enable the bank customers who are registered for internet banking make their tax payments online and also via bank branches.

Will a taxpayer be charged for using the e-tax pay solution?

No, there is no additional cost to the taxpayer for using the e-tax pay internet banking solution. Only the normal bank charges such as Commission- On –Turnover agreed between the customer and the bank would apply.

What is the specific requirement of a potential taxpayer to use the e-tax pay solution?

Taxpayers that intend to use the e-tax pay solution must have registered and obtained a valid TIN (Taxpayer Identification Number) from any FIRS or JTB office and would have done their respective self-assessment in order to use the e-tax pay to pay their tax liabilities. The e-tax pay solution prompts for a valid TIN upon Login and performs a system validation with the TIN before populating with the taxpayer’s records.

Can a taxpayer use the e-tax pay to pay all FIRS taxes?

Answer:Yes, the e-tax pay can be used to pay all FIRS taxes. It has a drop down menu list showing all FIRS taxes. The taxpayer simply has to select the tax type he intends to make payment for.

Tunde Fowler, Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service

Tax payment made easy

•Companies Income Tax (CIT) •Value Added Tax (VAT) •Personal Income Tax (PAYE for residents of FCT and non-Residents) •Withholding Tax (WHT). This requires a schedule to be uploaded on the platform; •National Information Technology Development Fund Levy (NITDEF) •Capital Gains Tax (CGT) •Pre-Operation Levy (POL) •Stamp Duties (SD) and late filing penalty FAQs (Frequently asked questions) on the use of the FIRS E-Tax Pay Solution

What is the FIRS E-Tax Pay Solution?

The FIRS E-Tax Pay is an acronym for FIRS Electronic Tax Payment Solution.

What is the specific function of the E-Tax Pay? The FIRS E-Tax Pay is an electronic tax payment platform that enables individual and corporate taxpayers effect tax payments via their respective bank accounts using self- service channels provided by any Nigerian Bank. It is based on the recipient’s account and would place a debit on the recipient’s account while applying the credit to FIRS CBN’s account real-

The ‘e-acknowledgement’ is a confirmation of the transaction of payment of tax to FIRS which would be presented to FIRS field office for the issuance of statutory FIRS receipt to the taxpayer.

Would a taxpayer receive confirmation if the transaction is successful?

Yes, the taxpayer would receive a confirmation that the payment is successful and a system generated reference ID would be issued. The system would also generate an e-acknowledgement confirmation to the taxpayer which he can use to obtain his tax payment receipt/credit notes from FIRS office.

Does the e-tax pay solution send notification?

Yes, the system would send an e-notification immediately the transaction is successful. The taxpayer would also receive a debit notification via email and SMS from his bank confirming the payment.

Can taxpayers use the FIRS e-tax pay solution to make tax payments online now?

Yes. The solution has been implemented in all commercial banks. All bank customers that have their valid i-banking tokens and have registered for i-banking can access the e-tax pay under their internet banking menu under the NIBSS ‘e-billspay’ service and select FIRS e-tax pay as their tax payment channel and follow the prompts towards making the payment.

They also have to have valid TINs. What are the specific self-service payment channels under the FIRS e-tax pay solution?

The specific channels wherein a taxpayer can make payments are: internet/ online banking, mobile banking and bank branches. For internet and mobile banking platforms, a taxpayer can access these self-service channels using PCs, Laptops, notebooks, smart handheld devices and mobile phones.

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editorial

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Labour Minister’s empty threat

ORRIED by the spate of retrenchment that recently hit the banking sector, Labour and Employment Minister, Dr Chris Ngige, recently got emotive, ordered the banks to discontinue the exercise and threatened that the Federal Government would withdraw the licences of banks and other financial institutions that failed to reverse the retrenchment of their staff.

All over the world, citizens’ job loss distresses those in government for the simple reason that rising unemployment can precipitate social upheavals which no government ever wishes to experience. It is for this reason that governments at all levels try their utmost to ensure that unemployment is kept at the lowest level every time.

However, in spite of this, they never threaten to put out of business those who offer their citizens employment opportunities. But that is the route Minister Ngige said the government would travel by threatening that the licences of those banks that fail to reverse themselves on the disengagement of their staff would be withdrawn. If the government goes ahead with this threat would it improve or worsen the unemployment situation in the country?

We find it intriguing that the Labour Minister showed so much concern about retrenchment in the banking industry but has not agonized about the same exercise in other industries. According to Mr Lateef Oyelekan, President, National Union of Food, Beverage and Tobacco Employees (NUFBTE), about two million of his members lost their jobs to retrenchment between 2015 and April this year.

But Minister Ngige did not threaten fire and brimstone on those companies that let go of their employees. Is the Minister suggesting that those who work in banks are of more importance than those who work in food processing companies?

Many manufacturing companies have laid off many of their staff without the government issuing any ultimatum to them to retrace their steps or threaten to withdraw their operating licences. The Federal Government has said that the Ministry of Interior is overstaffed, when the government decides to disengage some of those staff will it also put the Ministry under lock and key? Shell recently disengaged about 25,000 of its staff globally but no government threatened to stop the company’s operations in its country.

The point here is that staff restructuring is a function of many factors. The fact that may not be too obvious to the Minister is that no company worth its salt lays off its staff whimsically. Considering the investment many of these companies put into staff development, asking them to go is usually a difficult decision to make.

Pray, would the banks have embarked on the sacking spree if they were running profitable businesses? When banks spend so much money on diesel to power their generators, would it not dip their profits? When banks are beleaguered by non-performing loans will their bottom line not be affected? When banks are bolstered by illiquidity occasioned by adverse fiscal and monetary policies, how will their operations be profitable? If the inflation rate is higher than the lending rate, how will banks not find it difficult to stay afloat? Now, when banks are running at a loss or making abysmally low profit, will they not be forced to shed operational cost? If scaling down cost results in laying off some of the workers can the banks really be crucified for that?

Minister Ngige needs to be reminded that government exists to solve problems, not compound them. Instead of issuing threats that are not worth the papers on which they are written, what the government should do is reflect on the situation that resulted in the banks turning out poor results, which forced them to downsize their workforce, and put measures in place to engender a better operational environment.

Then, those in government should be wary of being found guilty of making unguarded statements which could discourage investors. Since banks are not government agencies, we are at a loss where the Minister derived the power to instruct them on how to conduct their internal affairs from. By meddling in management issues of the banks, what kind of signal does the Minister send to those who may be considering investing their money in the country?

Will they not have another thought about putting their money in a country where government policies are at the whims and caprices of government officials?

Minister Ngige should note that governance is not about grandstanding and neither is it about playing to the gallery. The sooner the Minister gets to the real issue of governance, the less his chances of issuing threats that are less than paperweight.

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14 LETTERS TO THE

Friday, 17 June, 2016

editor

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

Of Lagos and high rents

R

ECENTLY, my residence was gutted by fire.

Though my section of the house was not affected, but the victim was in a quagmire as to what to do, and before he could even clear the debris of the fire incident, the landlady came into the fray. Pronto!

She issued everyone quit notices, citing the fire incident and need for renovation of the house.

Explanation that only a room was affected by the fire and the fact that the occupier was ready to effect necessary repairs fell on her deaf ears. It was based on this that one had to seek for another accommodation, but what I met and saw calls for urgent action and intervention by the Lagos State government in a bid to avert needless breakdown of law and order.

In the first instance, Lagos property owners have gone out of control. They fix rents arbitrarily without any recourse to rules or tenancy laws. In the course of scouting around, I met a landlord who told me categorically that his two- bedroom flat built in Surulere in 1998 is N1million per annum. Even when other houses within the same vicinity go for N500, 000,

this landlord stuck to his gun, telling me he had no apologies since he owned the house.

Another landlord told me his own three-bedroom apartment in a place close to Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) is N1.5million, when some apartments in the same vicinity go for N700, 000.

He was adamant and saw nothing wrong, even though the house in question was the old Lagos Executive Development Board (LEDB), built probably in the 1970s. The same went for a landlord who told his tenants in a block of two- bedroom flats to vacate if they were not ready to pay N800, 000 when their neighbours using the same two-bedroom flat were paying N500, 000! It is not unusual for tenants to witness the above scenarios in Lagos.

One very common category of property owners in the state are the inherited landlords/landladies.

These are people who inherited their properties from their parents or families. These landlords are so vicious that rent increment on yearly basis is not considered an issue for them.

In fact, tenants residing in houses being managed by these landlords have little

Nigeria: I see hope Though, it looks so slow to achieve the result expected by Nigerians from this current government, this is definitely as a result of rotten system inherited

by President Muhammadu Buhari, but the way forward is just for Nigerians to be patient with his government.

The truth is that the president has been having sleepless nights in his bid towards finding solutions to our problems.

He wants to restructure all the crashed sectors of our national economy, so that Nigeria can regain its lost glory, but we can only achieve all these if we are patient with government.

There is a popular saying

that “the slow and steady wins the race.”

As an individual, what I will plead for is a little more patience, as well as the cooperation of all, and I am sure that by doing this, the better days we are yearning for will surely come, as there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Meanwhile, in the area of the war on corruption, what we are witnessing now is a much better situation, which will bring about a robust economy, particularly when the retrieved loots are ploughed back into the system.

•Major Femi Ayoade (retd), tunsunny@yahoo. com

or no right as any action is met with threat of ejection.

It is in this kind of places that house owners don’t pay any bill, be it waste management, security, house maintenance, water rate and some even electricity bill. Tenants are, in most cases, consigned to all sort of illegalities and they dare not complain.

It is a common knowledge that from Surulere, Gbagada, Yaba, Jibowu, Ebutte-Metta, all the way to the Island (Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki, particularly in Lekki/Ajah axis, almost 65 per cent of the houses are unoccupied due to the high rents. The exorbitant cost of letting is shocking and unbearable to most tenants. The Lagos hinterland like Ikorodu, Ipaja, Alimosho, Ayobo, Oke-Aro, Abesan, IjaiyeOjokoro, among other areas, are not faring better.

Property owners remain king and fix rents arbitrarily without recourse to the prevailing dwin-

dling economic situation, nor control or regulation by the government. Considering that property appreciation is dependent on

government’s provision of amenities like good roads, drainages, pipe-borne water, electricity etc., why is the government quiet

when the citizenry are being fleeced so brazenly?

• Badejo Adedeji, Surulere, Lagos.

June 12: Remembering the late MKO Abiola Late Chief MKO Abiola meant different things to different people. MKO, as he was fondly called, stood for many great ideals and fought many noble causes, which were, in most instances, of direct benefit to humanity, rather than himself or his family.

In the course of the struggle for reparation, mention must be made of the huge contribution made by the late Chief Abiola, who on his own, championed the cause for reparations to Africans after the citizens of the continent suffered in the hands of the Whites, particularly through the slave trade, as well as during the colonial era. MKO travelled far and near, advocating the need for Africa to demand

reparations as victims of the White man’s slavery, colonialism and racism.

The extent to which this inhumane action destroyed the African environment cannot be quantified in monetary terms, as it is a fact that Africa lost over 130 million of its citizens for over 384 years.

Africa’s human and natural resources were unrewardingly exploited and shipped away to the Americas, while the original owners were left in the lurch, though the colonialists could have achieved anything without the connivance of the local chief, who acted foolishly with the unlimited power they commanded.

It is so unfortunate that

MKO Abiola did not become the president of Nigeria, as he would have used that position to advance the cause for which he believed in, that is, the West must pay for what it did to Africa.

Last Sunday, June 12, however, made it 23 years that Chief Abiola was denied the mandate given to him by Nigerians to rule this country, and as we remember the late businessman, we should also not forget his contributions to the development of Nigeria and Africa as a whole. It is, therefore, important that this ‘man of the people’ is officially immortalised by the Nigerian government.

•Sunday Ogunkuade, Ogbomoso,Oyo State.

opinion Keshi: Stop the crocodile tears 15

By Cosmas Odoemena

a

S soon as the death of Stephen Okechukwu Chinedu Keshi was announced, those same “people” who hated his guts were among the first people who started mourning him, saturating the air with eulogies. The same Nigerians who then had filled the blogosphere and social media with anti-Keshi sentiments have been using superlatives to describe him and shedding crocodile tears.

They cannot wait to give him a “befitting” burial. They are racking their brains on how to immortalise him. They are now “so” proud of him. They have changed their display pictures on their Smartphones to that of Keshi. Such is life!

Keshi may have died of a heart attack as widely reported, which can only be confirmed by an autopsy. But Keshi also died of another heart problem which needs no autopsy — a broken heart.

After the death of his beloved wife, he never recovered from it. But perhaps, even more than that of his wife’s, Keshi never also recovered from the way a country he loved treated him.

Love of any type, even the love of country comes from the heart. The heart is never so smart. It is afraid of getting hurt.

The country broke Keshi’s heart first when it wrongly banned him from football in 1984. His heart went on to repair, resulting in an illustrious international career, until wham! the nation broke it again. He had added in age. This time, it could not be repaired.

Wasn’t Keshi the same person who was regarded as the “problem” that was holding Nigerian football back that needed to be dispensed with quickly? Many Nigerians whom Keshi had made happy and proud by winning the coveted AFCON after a 19-year wait, when the going was no longer good, shouted: “Away with Keshi, away with Keshi!” That was the same way Jesus Christ was treated by his people, the Jews. They were hailing him and shouting “Hosanna.” But while Jesus knew that in a few days they would reject him and then kill him, poor Keshi never envisaged being rejected after performing a feat where only he and Egypt’s Mahmoud El-Gohary are the only Africans to have won the Nations Cup as a player and as a coach. If Keshi were a White man, I am dead sure he would not have been handled that way.

How should we have handled Keshi? I gave a hint of that in my article, “Keshi: The comeback kid,” when after all the time-wasting in the world, Keshi was reappointed the coach

of the Super Eagles.

As I argued then, Keshi was never the problem of Nigerian football. Only what Keshi needed from Nigeria were support, patience, and a peaceful football house. But even now, the house is at daggers drawn. How could any national team coach have won a match when FIFA’s ban was hanging on his country like the sword of Damocles? How could Keshi have performed well when his working environment was a minefield?

Whenever Keshi won, it was luck; whenever he lost, it was Keshi’s fault. Now he is dead, they are shedding crocodile tears. Enough of the hypocrisy!

How long must we continue to deceive ourselves? How long must we keep prolonging our football travails? It is what we sow that we will reap.

Stephen Keshi was a God-sent to Nigerian football; a true hero, a true legend. Other countries saw him that way. But we did not see him that way. Mind you, I am talking about a coach who was in 2014 voted the best coach in Africa and ranked 14th in the world. What else could Nigeria have asked for? Indeed, Nigeria never deserved Keshi!

Friday, 17 June, 2016

Keshi was different for football. Off it, on it. Keshi was larger than life in football affairs, that was why his detractors saw him as an obstacle. Nigeria lost the chance to consolidate on the gains of the Nations Cup glory.

When Keshi said, “Some day, I will be coach of Nigeria and then they will know they have a coach,” he never reckoned that some day, they would forget they had a coach.

If the powers that be in Nigerian football had allowed Keshi to be, he would have revolutionised coaching in Nigeria just as he did with Nigerian football.

What’s national talent when not enamoured with your country? Football laurels are not won by superhumans. They are won by a dedicated team that can believe as one, think as one, play as one. Keshi knew this. Given more time, Keshi would have given us a long lasting glory. Yes, along the way, there may be bad spells, but it was for the long haul.

We would have patiently tapped into his wisdom. Our young kids would have grown with his philosophy adapted to suit our peculiarity. Nigerian coaches would have understudied Keshi’s football philosophy, whose bedrock is the building of a team around the home-based players. A formula he had proved. A formula to be deployed by African teams if they ever hope to win the World Cup. When an ex-international who loved his wife and football loses his wife, he falls back on his other love. But Nigeria denied Keshi the companionship of his country’s football. His late wife was beautiful. Football too is the beautiful game.

The joy of showing young Nigerians the way of football, the joy of working for fatherland.

After Keshi was humiliated out, where is Nigerian football today? We didn’t qualify for two Nations Cup in a row. If we cannot qualify for a tournament in Africa that has 16 countries, what hope for qualifying for the World Cup where Africa has only five slots?

Did Nigeria truly love Keshi when he was alive? The answer is a big “No!” What we had for him was a conditional love, a fair-weather love. That is what a Nigerian hero and an African legend got from us!

Nigeria deeply hurt Keshi. But, now he is safe somewhere, and standing tall in the courtyard of history, never to be hurt

by Nigeria or anyone, again.

•Dr Odoemena is a Lagos based medical practitioner.

Towards promoting the health of newborns

By Edna Iyawe

is widespread. Breast milk is uniquely suited to infants, both in its nutritional composition and in the non-nutritive bioactive factors that promote survival and healthy development.

Breast milk contains many hundreds to thousands of distinct bioactive molecules that protect against infections and inflammation and contribute to immune maturation, organ development and healthy microbial colonisation. These bioactive molecules are lacking in infant milk formula. Mixed feeding poses risk to infants’ health.

When infant formula is not properly prepared, there are risks arising from the use of unsafe water and un-sterilised equipment or potential presence of bacteria in powdered formula.

Mixed feeding poses risk of contamination, leading to infections. It opens up the baby’s immature immune system and gastrointestinal tract to inflammation, illness and diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia, which are common childhood illness and are primary causes of child mortality worldwide.

Infants who receive mixed feeding have higher risk of HIV infections, as mixed feeding can damage their already permeable gut wall and allow the virus to be transmitted easily.

Breast milk is easily digested, compared to infant for-

mula, which increases the chances of constipation among infants who receive mixed feeding. It is also well tolerated by infants, as some formula may not be well tolerated, which can results to allergies.

Malnutrition can result from over-diluting the formula so that it will last for a longer period, as infant formulas are expensive.

Mixed feeding can cause the supply of breast milk to decrease as the baby sucks less at the breast.

There are many mothers who are not convinced about exclusive breast-feeding. There is this wide-held belief that breast milk is not sufficient for infants less than six months, especially as they approach three to four months.

There is also the belief that infants need water to quench their thirst when thirsty. It is important to point that breast milk contains the nutrient they need in the first six months. It adequately meets their nutrient requirements.

Giving water to young babies puts them at risk of diarrhea and malnutrition. Water may not be clean and may cause the baby to have infections. It may also cause the baby to take less breast milk, or stop breast-feeding early, thereby leading to malnutrition.

Nursing mothers must know that breast milk is more than 80per cent water, especially the first milk that comes with each feed. Therefore, whenever a mother feels her child is thirsty, she can breast-feed the child. This will satisfy the baby’s thirst. Babies do not need water before they are six months old, even in hot climates.

Therefore, it is necessary for nursing mothers to know that breast-feeding is one of the most important ways of promoting the health of newborns.

,

Breast-feeding is the feeding of young children with milk from a woman’s breast. Breast-feeding is an unequalled way of providing ideal food for healthy growth and development of infants. It is an integral part of reproductive process which is very important for the health of mothers. Breast milk is the natural first food for babies. It is considered the best source of nutrition for infants, as it provides all the nutrients and energy infants need for the first six months of life, and it continues to provide half or more of a child’s nutritional needs during the second half of the first year, and up to one third during the second year of life.

Exclusive breast-feeding is the practice whereby infants are given only breast milk, without mixing it with water, other liquids or foods in the first six months of life, with the exception of oral rehydration solutions or drops/syrups of vitamins, minerals or medicines.

Review of evidence has shown that exclusive breastfeeding is the optimum way of feeding infants. Thereafter, infants should receive complementary foods with continued breast-feeding up to two years of age or beyond.

To establish and sustain exclusive breast-feeding for six months, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends the initiation of breast-feeding within the first hour of life, infants only receive breast milk without additional food, or drink, not even water for six months.

It is also important that newborns are breast feed on demand, that is, as often as the child wants — day and night — and one good thing is that there is no use of bottles, teats or pacifiers.

Mixed feeding or giving other liquids and /or food together with breast milk to infants under six months of age

•Iyawe is of the University of Ibadan.

16

Friday, 17 June, 2016

A

S he prepared to leave for the UK, Obafemi mobilized all resources for his trip. Since he recovered from his business failure, the couple had purchased the rented house they lived in Oke-Ado (a part of which was later to be called OkeBola). However, he knew that he also had to make provision for the family of threefour, soon – that he was leaving behind. In his usual commitment to process, he told Hannah that it was time for her to open a bank account which she could operate while he was away. They both went to the Barclays Bank in Ibadan where he gave her twenty-pounds (20) to deposit in her new account. That sum could not be sufficient for them for all the years he would be away, since she had no other income.

Therefore, he will figure out when he got to London how to make further financial provision for them.

Unknown to Obafemi, Hannah’s mind was already working on what she would do to make money while he was away. She and three (soon to be four) kids were not going to depend on a man who would be struggling with his studies in the UK for subsistence in Nigeria. She was going to exhibit her entrepreneurial skills while he was gone. She will be so successful before he returned that he would be convinced that she should be allowed to operate a business.

With Mr. Sonoiki, Obafemi’s friend, in tow, Hannah travelled with her husband to Apapa Port, Lagos, from where he sailed to Accra, Ghana. From Accra he would sail to London.

Once he was gone, Hannah returned to Barclay’s Bank to withdraw the twenty pounds (20). That money formed the foundation of what turned out many years later to be a multi-million naira business empire called Dideolu Enterprises and Ligu (a shortened form of Liyangu) Stores. She used the twenty pounds to start a business in buying and selling. She bought some agricultural items such as tomatoes and onions from traders who brought them from the north of Nigeria.

She also bought some food items from the north and resold them. With her natural talent for business, in no time, Hannah was doing very well.

“I prospered in business”, she recalls.

“And before my husband could send us money I was buoyant enough to send him twenty pounds (20). He later told me the money reached him at a time he had no money.”

But the law student assumed that his forbearing wife had again displayed her eagerness to sacrifice everything for his success. She had saved the twenty pound he left for the family’s upkeep and mailed it to him, he thought. Hannah remembers that “He wrote to thank me thinking it was the money he left for us that I sent to him. He wondered how we would survive now that I had returned the money. But I replied that I was working and that home was alright…..”

Characteristically for a man who was a stickler for details, by the time Hannah sent money again, he started raising questions. What is the source of the money, he queried?

Hannah remembers that “Occasionally, he used to ask for the source of the money, but since he needed the money which I used to send to him from my little business, he had no choice but to keep his calm, because he was in no position to object in far-away London”.

Obafemi himself later wrote in his autobiography that “it is to record to my

With

Ebenezer Babatope

0805-500-1735 (SMS ONLY PLEASE)

Wale Adebanwi on Mama HID (8)

•Mama HID Awolowo

wife’s credit that she never made a financial demand on me throughout my stay in the United Kingdom. She always sent me good news every week about herself and the children; but when I returned home I learnt that she had passed through many anxious times with four children the oldest of whom was only five when I left home, and the youngest of whom arrived four months after my departure….”

Despite his curiosity, in far-away England, he could not know the details of the work that his wife was engaging in which

yielded such “harvest”. He knew that she had entrepreneurial skills, and therefore, could not be surprised that she was into trade in his absence. But how could she have done so well in the business to be able to take care of four children and the demands of the extended family and yet have enough left to send to him?

Hannah might have begun to be metaphorized in Obafemi’s mind at that point as a jewel. Also, he must have realized at that juncture, more than ever before, that he had found gold, the inestimable value of which will become much more apparent

The lives of Papa and Mama Awo offer beautiful lessons to humanity.

in their future together….

Exchange of letters continued between the couple in the two years and four months that Obafemi spent in London. He eagerly gave her details about his life in the UK, including the formation of a panYoruba organization, Egbe Omo Oduduwa (a Society of the Descendants of Oduduwa – Oduduwa being the popularly-acknowledged progenitor of the Yoruba) in 1945.

The members of the group, he informed his wife, included mostly Nigerian students in the UK, such as Oni Akerele, Abiodun Akerele, Akintola William and Ayotunde Rosiji. The aims of the association were to “study fully (Yorubaland’s) political problems, combat the disintegrating forces of tribalism, stamp out discrimination within the group and against minorities, and generally infuse the idea of a single nationality throughout the region; study its economic resources, ascertain its potentialities, and advise as to the wisest utilization of its wealth, so as to ensure abundance and prosperity for its people; plan for the improvement of educational facilities both content and extent, to explore the means of introducing mass education promptly and efficiently…; promote the social welfare of Yorubaland, combat the cankerworm of superstition and ignorance, spread the knowledge of medical relief….”

Before he returned to Nigeria in December 1946, Hannah had sent money to her husband four times. It was a measure of how well she was doing in her business that she could take care of four children, expand her business and yet send money to the UK. By this time, she had given birth to their fourth child, a daughter, Ayodele.

Therefore, she was bearing a heavy burden, which included not only feeding the family, but also clothing everyone and paying the fees of two of the kids in school.

In their future together, Hannah’s ability to take care of the home front not only when her husband was very busy in public life, but also when he was away (in detention or prison) would be critical not only to his psychological health and happiness, but also to the survival and stability of the family”.

PLEASE NOTE: My readers can get this book from the offices of TRIBUNE HOUSE at Ibadan. This is an interesting and fascinating book that should adorn the libraries of all who believe in the genuine struggles of the Awolowos for greatness and progress in life.

The lives of Papa and Mama Awo offer beautiful lessons to humanity. They were unique and great people.

Though they have transited, they will for long be remembered!

You Live Oh Awo!!

EBINO TOPSY – 0805-500-1735 (SMS ONLY PLEASE)

17

Friday, 17 June, 2016

eyesof islam Chief Imam of the University of Ilorin, Abdul-Ganiy Abdus Salaam Oladosu, a professor of Arabic Language Education, speaks with BIOLA AZEEZ on some essentials of Ramadan fast and addresses some nagging questions about faith.

Significance of Ramadan fasting N Surah Baqarah, there are five ayah (verses) on Ramadan fast that follow one another. Issues bordering on fasting in the holy month are addressed therein. The first verse contains an appeal to those who have faith, not the faithless. It is for those that are already faithful. Now, we already know you have faith. We want to test your faith. We want to assess the degree of that faith. Some people translate the word ‘kutibah’ in the verse to mean that fasting is prescribed for the faithful. But, to me, the word ‘prescription’ is not apt, kutibah implies compulsion. It is obligatory.

You have no choice. So, it is a divine commandment. A hadith says that faith has to be corroborated with action. Faith is in the heart but it has to be physically manifested.

So, in manifesting that faith in Allah, there is a divine commandment, in which we have no choice. And to show that it is not an innovation to fast in Ramadan, the next clause says your predecessors - the Jews, the Christians - had also been taken through the same process of fasting.

Now, the core purpose of fasting is to attain piety, that you may be conscious of Almighty Allah, that is, to attain the highest level of piety, to become righteous. It is in order to have the sense that although you may not see Almighty Allah, He sees you.

So, whatever you do, you do it as though the Eyes of the Almighty are on you.

And Ramadan fasting is not forever; it is for a short while. The lesson we deduce from this is that whatever condition we are in, it is only for a short while. It may be happiness today and sadness tomorrow. If you are happy today, you should not overdo it.

It is all for limited days. Happiness is not forever, so is sadness. Haven’t we been happy before in this country? No condition is permanent. The days of this life, years of this life are rotational. You may be rich today and be poor tomorrow. Even in our human system, a governor of a state has four years, renewable once, making eight years.

He can’t be there for life. So, it is life. You can see the essence of life and many lessons in the verses that treat Ramadan. Talking about days of our lives, too, we will not be here forever. There is another home for us all. Eventually, this one will come to an end, and we should learn from that. Ramadan is going to end. What are the lessons we are going to have after Ramadan?

I

If one is sick or on a journey God is so kind to us. For someone with one ailment or another or who is on a journey, the Qur’an says there is no problem; that you don’t have to be bothered. The holy book says you can take those days off, count the days you have taken off and repay the fast after Ramadan. Now, what is the measure of distance for a traveller to skip fast? It says 48 miles. We can all estimate that in kilometres. Experts, however, say that it is not the distance that matters but faith. You can travel more than 48 miles and still fast nowadays if you are hale and healthy. Today, you can travel thousands

Saheed Salawu yinkadejavu@yahoo.com 0811 695 4643

Allah intends for us no hardship with Ramadan fast —Unilorin Chief Imam

afford is what is recommended. All Allah wants for you is ease; He doesn’t desire any difficulty for you.

There is another aspect of Ramadan called taraweeh. The reward for fasting properly is one thing. The reward for observing Nafilat Taraweeh or keeping vigil in Ramadan is that whatever sins that have been committed earlier will be forgiven. Some people say that your fast is null and void if you do not pray taraweeh. No. Fasting has its own reward, so does nafilat. If for one reason or another you cannot observe taraweeh (asamu), your fast remains. It is ease that Almighty Allah wants for you. However, the reward of taraweeh will not be written for you. There are credits for each action.

The pre-dawn meal and iftar, breaking of fast It is part of obligation. Allah says we should wake up to eat ahead of fast. If you decide not to eat, you are on your own.

There is special barakah (reward) for taking sahur (saari). In the spiritual realm, it attracts barakah, divine favour. All these things are not in vain. They all have spiritual implications. They are things that bring you close to Allah.

Now, some would say they can do without iftar. That is your own, according to practice of Islam. It is stated in Hadith Qudsi that: The most pleasant of my servants is he who hastens to break his fast quickly [when it is time].” There shouldn’t be any delay. What Allah desires for you is ease.

Destiny and essence of prayer Our destiny had been written many years before our birth. Nothing is strange to Almighty Allah. Nothing is an accident. He has perfected everything before the record of time. What happens is that when the time comes, it is (destiny) unfolded individually and collectively. Of what essence then, if our destiny has been perfected, is prayer? There is destiny but there is also room for special prayers. If you request specifically for certain things, Allah will grant them. Look at the number of Rabana in the Qur’an. These opportunities are given to us by Almighty Allah. Also, at the end of each prayer, there is opportunity to request for our needs and aspirations and He will grant them.

of miles to the United States of America or the United Kingdom and still fast, although we have been given options. Today, you travel in luxury and enjoy even better than you do at home. The convenience is there.

What we are saying here is that the distance may not really matter nowadays. However, if the distance is not up to 48 miles but the convenience or health is not there, you can skip fasting and by so doing, you will not be committing a sin. So, it is a matter of faith.

Then you ask yourself if you are just finding

an excuse to take a day or two off from fasting. The meaning of that is that once your conscience is clear, there is no problem.

This aspect of conscience is very important because it is related to faith.

The amount of money equivalent, today, to a day’s fast You can do that considering what it will take you and then do more if you can afford it, because there is an additional reward for that. Really, the minimum that you can

The core purpose of fasting is to attain piety, that you may be conscious of Almighty Allah, that is, to attain the highest level of piety, to become righteous. It is in order to have the sense that although you may not see Almighty Allah, He sees you. So, whatever you do, you do it as though the Eyes of the Almighty are on you.

What about prayers that tend to go unanswered?

Even though you have requested for certain things and Allah hasn’t granted them, not granting your prayers is a way of granting your prayers, because He knows best.

The Qur’an says man asks for things that are detrimental to him but because we cannot see, we just ask for anything that might be detrimental to our lives in the end. So, Allah knows best. A hadith says there is no way a servant of Almighty Allah prays and Allah will not grant him one of three things. One is, yes you have prayed but you have a lot of sins that have to be cleared. So, at times, Allah uses the prayer to clear your sins.

That is one way our prayers are granted, but we won’t know. The second one is for the prayer to be granted the same way we have requested for it. Finally, there are certain things we pray for that are not good for us at the time we want them. So, Allah will delay them till when they are good for us.

And there are prayers whose answers will be delayed till Day of Resurrection, because Allah is just. So, on that day, all the prayers that didn’t go for clearance or were delayed, Allah will accept them on that day. Again, on that day, those of us whose prayers had been answered here would wish God had delayed the granting of the prayers.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

Qualify yourselves for payment of zakat, NASFAT admonishes salary earners Bola Badmus -Lagos

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USLIMS have been enjoined to observe diligently the five pillars of Islam, particularly the payment of their zakat.

This is even as salary earners were advised to design a plan for zakat as they do to build houses, own cars, train their children, among others, in order to earn more rewards from Allah.

Professor Muslih Tayo Yahya of the Department of Religious Affairs, University of Jos, made the call last weekend in Lagos in a lecture entitled “Zakat, Sadaqah and the Salary Earner in a Challenging Economic Situation: A Dis-

course,” organised by the Nasrul-Lahi-l-Fatih Society (NASFAT) as part of its 2016 Ramadan programme with the theme “21 Years of NASFAT in Dawah: Building Religious Harmony.”

Also, secretary of NASFAT Mission Board and a lecturer at the Lagos State University (LASU), Alhaji Mustapha Adebayo Bello and Zonal Missionary, NASFAT FCT, Abuja, Alhaji Sharafadeen Abdus-Salam Aliagan, who were discussants, joined in making same call.

Speaking on the significance of zakat, Professor Yahya stated that Allah places equal importance on the obligations of solat and zakat and, therefore, performing these duties

attracts beautiful rewards from God. “Zakat is as important as solat. If you cannot ignore your solat, you cannot ignore your zakat. Zakat is one of the obligatory duties in Islam,” he said.

According to the scholar, the payment of zakat, which is due on certain amount of income that one had been able to acquire legitimately and save and had no cause to touch for a period of a year, is something every Muslim should be able to afford through such plans they deployed to own a house, a fleet of cars, educate their children, perform hajj, among other things.

“We know that we plan for the things we do and

we should plan to qualify for zakat. We should make it one of our targets as we save money so that we can pay our zakat. If we don’t do that, we would be missing a lot. Allah has promised that zakat does not only purify one’s wealth, it purifies the person that is paying it.

“The implication of not paying zakat is that we will not be qualified for what Allah promises payers of zakat,” he said.

Speaking in the same vein, Alhaji Bello, who is a lecturer at LASU, enjoined income earners to obey the demands of Allah in ensuring payment of zakat, which is ultimately meant to take care of the vulnerable in the society.

Bola Badmus -Lagos

Criterion holds lecture on good family home WORRIED by the moral decadence in the society, the Criterion, an association of Muslim women in business and the professions, will hold its maiden Ramadan lecture on marriage in Islam.

A statement by the Oyo District Amirah, Alhaja Medinat Akanni, said the lecture, slated for tomorrow, will hold at the Islamic Centre, Housing, Bodija, Ibadan from 11.00 a.m.

Akanni said the National Missionary of Ansar-Uddeen Society of Nigeria, Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Ahmad, will deliver the lecture entitled “Marriage/Good Family Home: Panacea to Moral Decadence.”

She said Alhaja Sekinat Adekola, the Iya Adinni of Yorubaland, will be the mother of the day, while Justice Mistura Bolaji-Yusuf of the Court of Appeal, Enugu, is the chairperson.

‘Combine morality, piety, knowledge’ MUSLIMS have been implored to combine good behaviour, piety and knowledge in order to live a fulfilled life and qualify for paradise.

The admonition was given by a participant at an event marking the celebration of the Muslim Teachers’ Association of Nigeria (MUTAN) Week, held by the Mushin, Lagos State zone of the association.

Addressing the congregation at the grand finale of the Week, the Zonal Coordinator, Alhaji Moroof Gbadamosi, said a Muslim had to combine piety with virtuous behaviour and knowledge in order to be well-rounded.

“A Muslim without good character is an incomplete person as he or she is likely to alienate others by his bad behaviour. In the same vein, an ignorant Muslim may not be able to function well in the modern society. This is the reason behind the choice of the theme ‘Inseparable’ for the Week,” Gbadamosi disclosed.

‘See Ramadan as period of tolerance, forgiveness’ Kola Oyelere -Kano

From left, chairman, CP Forum, Oyo State, Alhaji Moshood Bayewu; Amir, Ahmadiyya Mjuslim Jamat Nigeria, Dr Moshood Fashola and Secretary-General, Ahmadiyya Nigeria, Alhaji Abbas Iromini, at the second annual Ramadan lecture of Majlis Khuddamul-Ahmadiyya, Apata Dil’a, in Ibadan, last week. Photo: Yemi Funso-Oke.

Stand against corruption, MUTAN urges Muslims MUSLIMS have been charged to use the teachings of Islam as a tool for fighting against corruption in the country.

The charge came from the theme of the Ramadan tafsir of the Muslim Teachers’ Association of Nigeria (MUTAN) held in Lagos last weekend.

Delivering the lecture entitled “Islam: Panacea to Corruption,” Alhaji Abdul Wahab Awwal attributed the current level of corruption in the country to a departure from the message of Islam as preached by Prophet Muhammad.

“In all spheres of human history, Islam has always served as an instrument of reformation,” Awwal declared.

He, therefore, charged Muslims to return to pristine values of the religion in order to eradicate corruption.

Contending that corruption is a cancer that has eaten deep into the fabric of the nation, he recom-

mended contentment as an antidote to the immoral conduct, stating that the majority of the cases of corruption in the country are caused by lack of contentment and inordinate ambition.

The MUTAN chairman, Alhaji Raheem Jimoh, based

the choice of the topic on the need for Muslim teachers to serve as the moral compass of the nation, while recalling that the association had addressed issues such as examination malpractice, insurgency and other topical issues in previous Ramadan lectures.

He urged members of the association to preach and practise the tenets of Islam in their respective stations at all times.

MUTAN comprises Muslim teachers and nonteaching members of staff in primary and secondary schools.

How to lead a decent life —Scholar

By Tolu Olamiriki NIGERIANS must be truthful and faithful in their daily endeavours if they must lead a decent life.

A scholar, Alhaji Abdul Ganiy Oladipupo, made the remark in Ibadan, Oyo State, at the 2016 Ramadan lecture, organised by Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Organisation, Apata District.

Speaking on the topic “True Faith and Sincere Prayer: Means for Sustaining a Good Community,” Alhaji Oladipupo said that

the fear of Allah is the only viable property of human beings on earth and the only instrument to ward off attacks.

He charged all and sundry to have a strong belief in Allah and raise Godfearing children for the sake of the future.

Earlier, the chairman on the occasion, Dr Moshood Fashola, the head of Ahmadiyya Jama’a Nigeria, stressed the need to always read the Holy Qur’an and imbibe its contents in order to be able to face life’s challenges.

He urged Muslims to engage in the prescribed virtuous acts do away with sinful acts as the holy month of Ramadan progresses.

In the same vein, the chairman of the Apata Dil’a of Ahmadiyya, Taofeek Hadi, said fasting is one of the fundamental pillars of Islam and it is incumbent upon all faithful to fulfil it.

According to him, Ramadan trains the moral consciousness of man just as it strengthens the individual to suppress temptation and raises the level of his spirituality.

THE chairman of Kano Municipal Local Government Area, Mukhtar Ishaq Yakasai, has called on Muslims and Christians across the country to regard Ramadan as a month for repentance and forgiveness, hence the need to be tolerant and compassionate towards one another.

Speaking with journalists in Kano, Yakasai said that Ramadan is a month for loving one another, “irrespective of where you come from or the religion you practise.”

According to him, Christianity and Islam are religions of peace as they both promote peace, harmony and tolerance.

“So, I want to believe that this Ramadan will give all of us the opportunity to forgive, ask Allah for forgiveness and repent from our wrongdoings,” he added.

The council chairman, speaking on the plans of his office for the underprivileged during the Ramadan season, stated that in addition to the 15 charity centres established by Governor Abdullahi Umaru Ganduje to assist the underprivileged during the Ramadan season, “my office created eight centres,” Yakassai said.

UMA charges Muslims on sponsorship of scholarship MUSLIMS have been implored to invest in sponsorship of scholarship in order to increase the pool of Muslims intellectuals.

The admonition was given by the chairman of the Lagos State chapter of the University of Lagos Muslim Alumni (UMA), Dr Khalid Adekoya, while presenting a list of 31 scholars awarded this year’s scholarship of the UMA at a lecture organised by the association in Lagos.

Adekoya called for the collaboration of wealthy Muslims in the sponsorship of Muslim scholars, stating that the association was constrained by limited funds to sponsor only 31 out of 50 scholars who applied for scholarship.

The scholarship scheme, which started in 2002, has benefited 124 scholars pursuing bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees.

Delivering the lecture, Professor Yusef Waghid of the Department of Education Policy Studies, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, said Islam combines compassion and reason.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

fridaytreat

Nigerian Tribune

Rotimi Ige rotimiige@yahoo.com 0811 695 4636

MUSIC BUSINESS 101

Audience insight: Secret to music business success for artistes/musicians

From N17,000 a month to a millionaire:

The amazing story of Maltina teacher, Rose Obi

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ROM an obscure Parent Teacher Association, PTA teacher on a N17, 000 monthly salary, Mrs. Rose Nkemdilim Obi, the 2015 Maltina Teacher of the Year, has revealed that the award has turned her life round for good.

Mrs. Obi, a Mathematics and Chemistry teacher at Federal Government Girls Secondary School, Onitsha, Anambra State explained that the award has elevated her to the level of a celebrity. “I never knew it would happen that way but the interesting part of it is the opportunities and the doors it has opened for me. I also have the chance to interact with my fellow teachers, organize workshop and being called to address large gathering in other to tell teachers what am doing, in terms of classroom management and teaching methodology,” she said.

Assessing the impact of the award one year after, Obi, a master’s degree holder, whose mum was also a teacher said: “I have succeeded in shifting from a traditional method of teaching to a discussion-based methodology. The strategy brings about a synergy between what happens in the classroom and what happensinreal life. It brings out analytical skills from students.

“I am following my mum’s footsteps; my mum was a teacher, and I also have passion to bring out the best in students. Give them the best training and get them prepared to enter the workforce of the country. Secondary education is very important in career development, thus my resolve to give the best to students,” she said.

Obi who started as a PTA teacher, disclosed that the remuneration was so poor compared to the effort that she put in, and maintained it was not the money but her passion for the job.

“It was the passion that kept me. You can see where it led me. The scope of the job for permanent and PTA teachers are the same. But when it came to salaries, the

PTA remuneration was very poor.

Mr. Gozie Obi, her lawyer husband, could barely contain his joy when his wife was announced winner of the Maltina Teacher of the Year award in a colourful ceremony held at the grand ballroom of the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island on Monday, 12th October 2015.

His 37-year old wife, whom he described as a combination of beauty and brains, was rewarded with N5 million for emerging the best among 19 finalists unveiled during the ceremony. She would receive the award in tranches of N1million on World Teachers Day each year for five years.

“I thank Nigerian Breweries for this mind blowing opportunity given to teachers. The Nigerian Union of Teachers (NUT) cannot thank you enough for what you have done,” Obi added.

This year’s edition of the Maltina Teacher of-the Year initiative was opened on Wednesday, 27th April, 2016 and the scope was extended to include privately owned secondary schools.

The initiative with prizes worth N50 million annually, is to reward commitment and diligence to duty by exceptional teachers across the country. It is done on the platform of NB/Felix Ohiwerei Education Trust.

Kufre Ekanem, the company’s Corporate Affairs Adviser explained that the quality of the 2015 winner gave the organizers enough impetus to believe that teachers in the nation’s public schools can match their counterparts in the private schools. “Mrs. Rose Nkemdilim Obi, the 2015 winner turned out to be a good testimony.” he said.

Ekanem added that collection of applications will last till 30th June 2016 and advised interested teachers to download application forms from the Maltina website -www.maltina-nigeria.com.

THERE will always be two categories of artistes/musicians in the music business - those in search of an audience they don’t know, and those who know who and where their audiences are and how to connect with them. Often times in the music business, artistes/musicians get too preoccupied and carried away with making music so much that they completely lose sight of the objective of why they are making the music. They often easily forget the fact that music is a two-way conversation or communication between the creator of the music and the audience for whom the music is intended. To have an effective conversation, you must have an insight into your audience; you must know and understand who you are conversing with.

Who are your core audience? What are the predominant characteristics of your audience? What is the average age range of your audience? What is the predominant religion of your audience? What is the average educational qualification of your audience? What are the major aspirations of your audience? What kind of emotional experiences or challenges are peculiar to your audience? Someone may be wondering why all these hassles over making music?

Well, your music is more than just a song; it is a product that is designed to meet and satisfy the needs or wants of a specific audience or market. If you do not possess any vital insights about the needs and wants of your audience then how do you create a product that will satisfy their needs and wants? Knowing and understanding the nature of who your audience are will help you to eliminate the dangers of communicating in the dark to no one in particular and increases your chances of writing and producing the kind of songs that your audience will readily and naturally relate with.

If your kind of music appeals more to a culturally conservative audience, you wouldn’t want to carve an image that is too foreign or out of touch or reach of your primary audience, neither would you want to use too much of foreign language influences in your music because it is out of the colloquial lingua preference of your audience. Some artistes/musicians end up making music without having a clear cut idea or picture of whom the music is meant for or the need or want that their music is designed to satisfy, so, they create their music products and brings it to the market searching for an audience that will hopefully like and buy their music without assurance.

The few artistes/musicians who gets it right at the beginning always invests in conducting a thorough research of their market/audience to know who they are and what their peculiar taste, needs and wants are. Using their custom insight and knowledge of their audience, they make the kind of music that resonates and connects with them making the audience to identify easily with the artiste in return. The ultimate goal of every artiste/musician who wants to build a successful and sustainable career in the music business is to make audience-driven music that is based on real insights about the nature, taste, needs and wants of their core audience.

Never make assumptions about who your audiences are, get to know who they are and who they are not. To be in the category of those artistes/musicians who the audience is always in search of their music, you must seek first to know and understand the unique audience whom you are making music for, and learn how to effectively engage them in conversation using relevant insights true about them that will attract their attention through your music to you the artiste/musician.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

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

fridaytreat 9ice, Hip Hop musician predicts brighter future for Fuji music THE popular Nigerian Hip Hop musician, Abolore Adegbola Adigun (a.k.a 9ice) has stated that the future of Fuji music is bright with so many opportunities for stakeholders. He therefore, advised stakeholders to remain committed to the ideals of the music.

9icce, who spoke at the maiden edition of Fuji Roundtable, powered by Goldberg Lager Beer, a product from the stable of Nigerian Breweries Plc, commended the initiative which was the first of its kind in the history of the entertainment industry in Nigeria.

Impressed by the contributions made by participants at the event held at the headquarters of the Nigerian Breweries, on Monday, 9ice applauded the quality of the audience present and their contributions at the forum towards taking Fuji to the next level. The musician said the initiative could not have come at a better time than now.

In his opening remarks at the programme, Emmanuel Agu, Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Lager and Stout brands, Nigerian Breweries Plc; said the importance of music to any country cannot be over-emphasised. According to him, the role of music in nation building is monumental as it fuels the mind and the creativity of listeners.

His words: “Music transcends all boundaries of communication. Music and its rhythm define our humanity considering the universality and essentiality beyond language barrier. I believe it is important for one to have an open mind in order to be in touch with that sense of understanding. Music cannot be separated from our sociocultural life and as such it is a social connector which has the power to suggest circumstances, moods, and moments. It has general appeal to human senses.”

Agu said that Fuji music exerts a strong influence on the social life of the Yorubas. He stated that through the music foreigners can easily feel and connect with the culture of the Yoruba people. The influence that Fuji music exerts on the social life of the Yorubas is therefore very strong irrespective of their locations.

(L-R) Sikiru Ayinde Agboola (a.k.a SK Sensation), Chairman, National Project Committee of the Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria; Emmanuel Agu, Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Lager & Stout Brands; Nigerian Breweries Plc; and Olawale Obadeyi, a notable Fuji analyst and Poet; at the maiden Fuji Roundtable, powered by Goldberg Lager Beer, an event held at the headquarters of NB in Lagos on Monday .

A 27 years old Mass Communication student of the Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Ibrahim Ishola Adeola, a.k.a. “Eriki”, has won Season 4 of the Bull Fuji Talent Hunt, organized by Intercontinental Distillers Ltd (IDL), makers of Bull Dry Gin and Bull Dark Rum among others.

At a keenly contested grand finale held at Mauve 21 Events Centre, Adeoyo Junction, Ring Road, Ibadan on Friday 3rd of June, 2016 witnessed by fuji music lovers as well as fun seekers, it was a day the fuji music generic paraded the best and talented fuji acts from Ibadan, Ijebu-Ode, Ikorodu, Oshodi, Osogbo, Akure and Ilorin cities respectively, which was also witnessed by President Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria, Alh. Moroof Ayinde Shado and his National Exco, veteran fuji artistes and FUMAN states officers in entire South-West part of Nigeria.

Bull Fuji Talent Hunt Season 4, packaged by Kingsize Entertainment, according to FUMAN President, was rated as one of the best annual fuji talent hunt in Nigeria, based on the quality of organization, method of picking qualifiers, coupled with good integrity of IDL, which powered the events.

After series of appearances, stagemanship, composition and lyrics, backup with danceable fuji vibes, contestants paraded musical skillfulness, to the admiration of audience at the show, where all the seven contestants gave good account of themselves. At the end of highly competitive hunt, all the judges eventually picked, Ishola Ade ‘Eriki’, as overall winner, while the second position went to Waheed Olateju and third position to Afolabi Ibrahim, who all went home with cash prizes ranging from N350,000, N250,000 and N150,000.

Each also got keyboards, gold plated trumpets, Bull brand drinks and T.Shirts, all courtesy IDL. Ishola Ade “Eriki” automatically won recording contract and becomes the Bull brands ambassador for the next one year.

“We aimed at promoting fuji music, which is popular among Yoruba race. Our brands, Bull Dry Gin and Bull Dark Rum has been consistent with partnering with fuji music over many years, and it has been wonderful partnership that works. More importantly, Bull brands always identify with grassroot music development, thus giving upcoming artistes platform to show case their talents, via annual Bull Fuji Talent Hunt”, said Mr. Mobolaji Alalade, Head of Marketing, IDL, in a chat.

Abass Akande Obesere, Rasheed Ayinde, Nurudeen Antenna (Winner of Season 1), Idriss Aloma (Winner of Season 2), Akeem Okiki (Runner’s up Season 2) and outgoing Bull brands ambassador, Muftau Alabi a.k.a Senior Prefect, also dspiced the finale with fuji songs.

(L-R) Emmanuel Agu, Portfolio Manager, Mainstream Lager & Stout Brands; Nigerian Breweries Plc; Abolore Adigun (9ice), a popular Hip Hop musician; Sikiru Ayinde Agboola (a.k.a SK Sensation), Chairman, National Project Committee of the Fuji Musicians Association of Nigeria; and Funso Ayeni, Senior Brand Manager, Mainstream Lager, NB; at the maiden Fuji Roundtable, powered by Goldberg Lager Beer, an event held at the headquarters of NB in Lagos on Monday Giving the rationale for the event, the Portfolio Manager said the company always strives to champion, promote and associate with the culture of its host communities. His words: “This is what Goldberg has been doing with its initiative of Fuji t’o Bam since 2012 when it

inaugurated the concept. We respect people’s cultures and values.”

He stated that the Goldberg Fuji t’o Bam initiative has successfully brought to life the twin socio-cultural tradition of companionship and celebration. “The initiative readily identifies and

Tribute to a music icon

...As Mass Comm. student wins Bull Fuji Talent Hunt Season 4

celebrates the rich musical tradition of sustaining the cultural values of the people in the region. The indigenous musical platform, which is currently in its fourth edition, had in the last three editions led to the discovery From Left, Mr. Mobolaji Alalade (Head Of Marketing, lDL); Ishola Ade Eriki (Winner Of Bull Fuji Talent Hunt Season 4); Alhaji Moroof Ayinde Shado (President, Fuji Musicians Association Of Nigeria) at the presentation of budding Fuji talents and of the dummy cheque to the winner artistes.

Airtel Trace Music Star 2: Keri Hilson set to discover Africa's next music superstar

From left: Director of Corporate Communications & CSR, Airtel Nigeria, Mr. Emeka Oparah; Brand and Media Chief Executive Officer, Trace, Olivier Laouchez; Airtel Trace Music Star 2 Mentor/Judge, Keri Hilson with Brand & Media Director, Airtel Africa, Dia Ezzaoudi; Chief Executive, Trace, Olivier Laouchez with Managing Director, Trace Nigeria, Director, Airtel Africa, Dia Ezzaoudi while answering questions from the media during the Airtel Trace Music Star 2 Sam Onyemelukwe at the Airtel Trace Music Star 2 Grand Finale Press Conference held in Ikoyi last Friday.

Grand Finale Press Conference held in Ikoyi last Friday. Photo: Sylvester Okorowa

Ojb Jezreel

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HE Nigerian music industry was again thrown into mourning on Tuesday when the death of veteran music producer, OJB Jezreel filtered in. The singer, who had a kidney failure and transplant back in July 2013, passed away in the early hours of June 14, 2016.

The music maestro’s kidney failed last week and his family had to keep him on N35, 000 dialysis daily to overcome the relapse. Sadly, the late crooner passed on a month to his 50th birthday.

He leaves behind three wives, Mabel , June ‘Ama’ and Korede and eight children; three kids with his first wife Mabel, three with his second, Ama and two with his third, Korede.

Bio

OJB Jezreel a.k.a Jigga man, was born in 1966 and was a renowned producer, writer

and executive producer for over two decades. During the phase of the birth of the new age music in the late 90′s, Ojb helped to redefine the sound to be more globally accepted with the likes of TX, Kush and Etim Eyo(Arista records) which made the likes of Leila Steinberg of Interscope records see the possibility in Nigerian music becoming international mainstream. His biggest break was with 2face‘s ‘African Queen’ setting a yet to be beaten record, not just in Nigeria but in Africa with 10 million copies sold in Nigeria alone and 8 million copies internationally. This made him the most sort after producer in Nigeria and some regions of Africa.He stamped his presence on the industry as an artiste with the club banger, ‘Pretete!’ and crowned it with a classic love song ‘Searching’. That album did 3 million copies.

Fast rising comedian, Pencil debuts his maiden comedy show, ‘Pencil Unbroken - The First Assignment’ MULTI-TALENTED comedian, and AY Open Mic Comedy Challenge winner, Ogechi Nwanevu Cyril, popularly known as Pencilis set to stage the maiden edition of his highly anticipated comedy show tagged, PENCIL UNBROKEN (The First Assignment).

The show, billed to hold on June 26, 2016 at the Muson Centre, Onikan will witness an impressive lineup of comedians and musicians whom will be thrilling guest with rib-cracking jokes and mid-blowing musical performances on the evening.

According to Pencil, “I can’t wait to reveal the surprises I have lined up for the night. Looking at the rich roster of comedians and artistes billed to thrill on the night, you can tell guests will be in for an evening of undiluted entertainment. Also don’t forget it’s my debut show, so am pulling all stops to make it the biggest comedy and music show in recent times.”

Comedians billed to thrill on what we will be an intense night of laughter include Alibaba, AY, Gordons, Ushbebe, Shakara, Teju Babyface, , Romeo, Kenny Blaq, Okey Bakkassi, Ajebo Dan d Humorous, Senator, MC Shakara, Wofai Fada, Funnybone, Seyi Law, and will be hosted by Caroline Hutchings.

The night will also witness legend-

ary Dj Jimmy Jatt on the turntables and musical performances from Iyanya, Phyno, Ice Prince, KCEE, Seyi Shay, Harrysong, Praiz, Oritsefemi, Yemi Sax, Reekado Banks, Yemi Alade, YCEE, Orezi, Vector, Mr 2kay, Humblesmith, Sean Tizzle, Tjan, Rayce, Reminisce, Bracket.

ABOUT PENCIL THE COMEDIAN Born Ogechi Nwanevu Cyril, the Abia State protégé has not ceased to crack ribs ever since he

won AY’s Open-Mic Challenge in 2010. He has graced many concerts with his witty quips both in Nigeria and abroad. His style which is simplistic and original has earned him an enviable spot among the elite class of comics.

He is on his way to making history as he has been quoted on various tabloids to be a comedian with a different approach to creating laughter, a feat that has seen him being the toast of numerous entertainment fans.

Flavour becomes Life Lager ambassador

From left, Senior Brand Manager, Regional Mainstream brands, Funso Ayeni, Corporate Affairs Adviser, Kufre Ekanem both of Nigerian Breweries Plc Brand Ambassador, Life Continental Lager beer, Chinedu Okoli (Flavour Nabania)and Portfolio Manager, Mainstream and Lager Stout, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Emmanuel Agu at a press conference to officially unveil Flavour as the brand Ambassador for Nigerian Breweries Life Continental Lager Beer held at the Company’s Head Office, Iganmu on Thursday in Lagos. Photo; Sylvester Okoruwa.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016 ’Wale Olapade 08055201323 wale11g3@gmail.com

travelpulse&m.i.c.e

Winner, NMMA, Tourism Reporter Of The Year

Tarzan sends SOS to Ambode over LASWA eviction notice on Badore, Ijede Jetties Stories By ’Wale Olapade

A

T a time when Nigeria is bent on exploring non-oil sector, in a bid to sail the troubled waters of the present economic down turn, there is a need for the drivers of the tourism industry (private sector) to be pampered for progressive growth.

Especially for those in the private sector that have taken the lead in this direction, invested greatly to not only create jobs for youth but also generate revenue for the state.

For Lagos State which is endowed with a stretch of waterways (lagoon and beaches) from Epe through adjoining Island to Badagry, is one of the most fascinating water tourism destinations in the world, with little or no attention from government, but for some hand full of private players who are striving daily to meet up with global trend.

And one of those setting the pace in the water tourism and transport business in Lagos, is the Managing Director of Tarzan Marine Enterprises and also an ardent promoter of water tourism in Nigeria, Mr Tarzan Ganiyu Balogun.

In his effort to redefine tourism and water transport business in Lagos, Tarzan has crossed numerous human and natural debacles to get to his present position as one that has brought smiles to millions of resident of different islands and water side settlements in Lagos through his boat services.

Recently, a team from LASWA visited and served Tarzan Marine Enterprises an eviction notice from some of the operational jetties allotted it by the Lagos State government.

Balogun, however, decried the manner the Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA) led by its Managing Director, Mr Abisola Kamson, threatened to evict the firm from the lease agreement it duly entered and paid the state government for a period of 25 years for the Badore, Ijede, Oke-Ira Nla and Ibeshe jetties in Lagos.

Speaking during a press briefing in Lagos

First sports bar debuts in Ibadan FIRST of its kind, a sports bar and lounge, Mingles, located at Jericho Road, Ibadan, opened recently with the screening of the UEFA Champions League final, the Madrid derby.

The centre, which runs on a video DJ style features 12 huge projected screens and provides the perfect relaxation spot for fun-seekers, and is also an ideal location for formal and informal events.

Mingles, features a variety of programmes such as comedy club, cocktails nights among others.

The grand opening is scheduled for July 7 and 9, 2016.

According to Mr Fiyinfoluwa Kehinde, a manager at the club, “the club when fully operational, will redefine leisure trend in Ibadan’s entertainment sector with affordable and quality services.”

Governor Ambode

on Thursday, Mr Balogun expressed sadness over the way he has been intimidated and harassed by the authorities of the state government over the years despite his contribution to the development of water transportation in the state.

He disclosed that the jetties which LASWA gave him notice to quit was leased to him by the administration of Bola Ahmed Tinubu for a period of 25 years at N2.1 million in 2004 which payments were made and receipt to that effect was issued and documented.

Tarzan wondered why the LASWA management led by Kamson wanted to evict him from the jetties which he has spent over N5billion to upgrade to standard jetties, despite presenting all relevant documents to back his right to the lease agreement.

“We wrote LASWA and met with the managing director, Engr. Abisola Kamson to explain all that relates to this controversial lease agreement, despite presenting all relevant documents to back our right to the lease agreement. Kamson insisted that we must vacate the structure where we have spent over N5billion to upgrade to standard jetties,” Balogun lamented.

He wondered how the government would be encouraging Private Public Partnership (PPP) investment in the state, while also driving potential investors away with its actions, stressing that with what was happening, he would find it difficult to invest his money in PPP because of the insincerity of the government.

“I wonder how the same government would be speaking from different positions and invalidating a lease agreement duly entered by its predecessor,” Balogun explained.

Balogun stated that the eviction notice was a strong sign that the Lagos State government had no regard to its claim as an investment destination.

He said apart from bringing the issue to the public court, the firm has resolved to approach the Federal High Court to determine if the directive of the state is justified in view of huge investment and sacrifice that Tarzan Marine Enterprise has made to upgrade and sustain the infrastructure in question.

“In weeks to come, our lawyers will do all in their powers to prove to the world that we have been victimised, intimidated and harassed by a government that wants to create

Mr Balogun

a land of hope and justice for all and sundry,” he said.

According to Balogun, “today is a sad day for me as an investor in the water transportation in Lagos and also as a face of private sector investment in Nigeria. In recent time, I have not only been called names, but subjected to probes and investigation simply because I chose to invest in Lagos water transportation when nobody including the state could dare to fully unlock the potential of this sector”.

Narrating how he entered the lease agreement with the state government, in 2004, the managing director of Tarzan Marine Enterprises explained that: “In 2004, we

applied to the then Lagos Ferry Services Corporation to run ferry services and provide boat services to the rural communities in Lagos. We have a pedigree and experience of 30 years in managing and running water transportation in Lagos State.

“This probably informed why the government of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, through the Commissioner for Transport, Mr Muiz Banire invited us to take over the abandoned jetties in Badore, Ijede, Oke-Ira Nla and Ibeshe.

“It should be noted that these jetties were located in unfriendly marshy and waterlogged areas of the state and no sane investor with eyes for quick returns would dare touch these infrastructure as these places could then be regarded as wild- Wild West water logged areas.”

He explained “the state literally encouraged and begged me to help revive these places and give the rural people who travel over six hours by road to get to Victoria Island and other parts of the city, a window for movement to civilisation without stress.

As a responsible and patriotic Lagosian and lover of development, Tarzan Marine Enterprises daily applied for an initial lease hold for 10 years and later upped the application to 25 years, fully paid.”

He explained further that the state government through LASWA invited him three years ago to explain certain supposed grey areas on the lease agreement, adding that the directive of the then governor, Babatunde Fashola was to investigate and if found guilty prosecute him for using state infrastructure without payment and due diligence.

However, efforts to reach the Managing Director of Lagos State Waterways Authority (LASWA), Mrs Abisola Kamso for her side of the issue proved abotive.

Also, several calls put to the Commissioner for Information was fruitless as he neither picked his calls nor replied the text message sent to him as at press time.

Lufthansa to bolster service to Nairobi COMMENCING on September 1, 2016 Lufthansa German Airlines will serve the Kenyan capital exclusively with wide body aircraft, offering passengers four weekly flights with the latest Lufthansa long haul product and dramatically increasing the available capacity on the popular Frankfurt – Nairobi route.

“Following a successful introduction to the market last October, we are thrilled to offer our customers in Nairobi and those travelling to Kenya , an upgraded product in which we have invested One million euros daily over the last three years,” said Tobias Ernst, Regional Manager for Lufthansa in East Africa during a media briefing.

The four weekly flights will initially be operated on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays by an Airbus A340-300 in a three-class configuration offering customers 18 Business Class seats, a new Premium Economy cabin seating 19, 261 Economy Class seats and a total of capacity of 298.

Commencing on October 30, Fridays will

be offered instead of Saturdays.

Already popular with passengers since the launch of service, Lufthansa will maintain the late night departure from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. With an early morning arrival in Frankfurt passengers will have access to over 200 destinations from Lufthansa’s growing raft of flights to Europe, North and South America, as well as Asia, including those of the carrier’s Asian and North American partners. As a further positive development for the route, Lufthansa’s flights to and from Nairobi will carry its Star Alliance partner United Airline’s code, offering even more seamless connections to the carrier’s US network.

“Tourism to Kenya especially from the German and US markets continues to increase and we are delighted to once again offer an additional frequency on the route commencing December 12, 2016 through January 22, 2017. It is a true testament to the popularity of this beautiful country,” noted Ernst..

23

interview

Friday, 17 June, 2016

How to save Nigerian varsities —UI VC The endowment of Harvard University in the United States is more than the budget of Nigeria. So, should it be a surprise that the Harvard University is often listed as the number one university in the world?

Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka, Vice Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, speaks with KUNLE ODEREMI on key issues in university administration and the polity. Excerpts:

A

fter six months of being in the saddle as vice chancellor, how would you rationalise your experience

so far?

My experience, over the first six months, has been very interesting and quite challenging. But we are on top of the situation and, God helping us, we are going to reposition the university as we promised.

While applying for the position of vice chancellor, we knew it was not going to be a tea party. The university is a very complex community, and the University of Ibadan was established almost 70 years ago and presently with about 30,000 students, that is, the regular students. There is another 16, 000 students under the Distance Learning Centre. So, it is quite a huge and complex community with almost 6,000 staff, comprising 1,150 academic staff and about 4,300 non-teaching staff. It is a huge community, almost the size of a local government area.

You talked about challenges, what exactly do you have in mind?

I mean, if you look at the situation over the past six months that we have been in the saddle, most of the challenges we have had, when you probe further, have to do with inadequate financial resources. That is just the summary. Like I mentioned during the parents’ stakeholders’ Forum we had on June 7, 2016—I quoted Emeritus Professor Akinkugbe when he addressed the University of Ibadan convocation in

1998, that was 18 years ago, I mean, he said central to the decay of the Nigerian university system is the issue of funding, and until the critical issue of funding has been addressed frontally, it is not likely that the situation in the Nigerian university system will ever improve.

Whether you have electricity or water; or you don’t pay lecturers adequately— I mean, it zeroes down on money, even though again if you have all the resources in this world, it may still not translate to improved fortunes in the university system. But the truth of the matter is that money has to be available one way or the other. Then, you can talk of fund management.

Someone was telling me that the endowment of Harvard University in the United States is more than the budget of Nigeria.

So, should it be a surprise that the Harvard University is often listed as the number one university in the world, in any of the major rankings, whether it is the academic ranking of all universities or tertiary education? On the other hand, they claim that no graduate of Harvard University is unemployed. So, if they have a professor that is the best in organo-metallic Chemistry in Australia, they (Harvard University) are ready to hire him or her. In any part of the world, they attract foreign students and staff. So, everything has to do with resources.

I mean if a professor is earning $10,000 somewhere and you are ready to offer him $30,000, he will come to your university.

About four years ago, I attended a work-

shop in Abuja, where I met a professor from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. In the course of our discussion, he said he realised that any time that the London School of Economics and Political Science increased their tuition fees, they observed that many more students kept applying, whereas you would have thought that the law of demand and supply is that when you increase price, demand should fall. Because of the reputation that the London School of Economics and Political Science which is one of the constituent Colleges of the University of London, has built over the years, people apply from all over the world, with the number of British students being not more than 30 or 40 per cent (I do not have the adequate statistics). So, people are ready to pay.

Why is our situation different in our environment, given the enormity of our resources-human, material and what have you- at the disposal of the country?

Our situation is different largely because we have not invested enough in our universities. You can see that even many of our young folks go to Ghana. I have met some of our Ghanaian colleagues over the past few years. They keep asking me: why is that your countrymen and women like to apply to Ghanaian universities? There was in fact a Nigerian lady who came from the United Kingdom; she was doing her Ph.D. When I looked at her curriculum vitae, I observed that she did her first de-

gree at the University of Ghana, Legon, whereas she is a native of Ibadan. Then I asked her, “How come you went to Ghana for your first degree and you didn’t apply to Ibadan, Ife or Lagos, which are federal universities around you?” In fact, the only thing she mentioned was the unstable academic calendar; the strikes by staff unions. So, the instability in the academic calendar is a critical issue, and when you probe further, it has to do with allocation of inadequate resources.

It is obvious that at UI, we have cancelled three sessions over the last 22 or 23 years out rightly: 1994/1995 and 1999/2000 and 2006/2007 were all cancelled. And as we speak now, the Senate of the university met last week Thursday to look at our revised calendar. The current academic session will not end until January 2017 because by the time students are resuming lectures on June 20, 2016 (Monday), they would have been at home effectively for eight weeks, which is almost like twothirds of a semester. So, the current academic session is already disrupted.

One of our late colleagues, Professor Kenny who retired from UI in 1999, there was a conference proceeding that I came across, where he contributed a chapter. I think he was also a co-editor of that publication. He said he spent 22 years in UI as an academic staff as at 1999, meaning that he joined the university in 1977. He said that there was no a single session that the academic calendar was not disrupted.

So, it is like there is nothing new under the sun, which is really unfortunate. But that is the reality we have to live with.

ASUU would have been cumulatively on strike for about four years over the last 24 or 25 years. What is its major grouse? It is about inadequate resources or poor funding of the university; not only the salaries of staff. Consider, for instance, the laboratories. The Federal Government undertook a needs assessment, where they said the conditions of our laboratories are not the best; the same with hostel facilities.

So, everything, as far as I am concerned, is related to allocation of inadequate resources.

Can we say there is a disconnect between our universities and the governing political elite? Don’t forget the issue of endowment you talked about and how the private sector could come in.

You mean government? Well, endowment is built over a long period of time.

Continues on pg24

24

interview

Friday, 17 June, 2016

‘Why public varsities are technically free’ ties in particular and maybe state universities, are oversubscribed.

On the other hand, the private universities are undersubscribed because of cost. In fact, I discussed with the bursar of a university from Katsina and he said their own fee is about the lowest; that they charge like N150,000 or thereabout, whereas some others charge over well over N1 million per session. Since the private universities came onboard in 1989, their calendar has been largely stable. I know for a fact that Babcock University had their convocation last weekend, meaning that they have already concluded the session, which is ultimately what we are going to conclude in February next year. But again, you can look at whether you can afford it, I mean, if you are travelling from Lagos to London and you book your flight with any airline, you can decide if you want to be in first class, cabin or economy. Both of you will still get to London at the same time, but maybe for a little extra comfort; somebody in the business class will pay more the economy, but first class will still pay more than the business class. But all of you will arrive at Heathrow Airport at the same time.

Continued from pg 23

You also know that in the context of Nigeria, the private sector, for all practical purposes, is not that strong. Most of them also depend on government; though you have a few industrialists like Aliko Dangote, or true businessmen like Mike Adenuga, the owner of Glo. But most of the other people cannot really survive without government patronage because they are largely contractors. Dunlop, about two years ago, relocated to Ghana because of poor power supply and maybe other issues; the cost of production is probably too unbearable. I mean at times, it is even cheaper to import finished goods from other countries and that also creates unemployment in our own system.

So, the private sector, as far as I can see, is not very strong. You have a few companies quoted on the Nigerian Stock exchange that are doing well: Nigerian Breweries, UNILEVER, , etc. But there is also going to be donor fatigue. There is a limit to what they can offer. At any rate, I think if you look at most of the capital projects in all the federal and state universities, polytechnics and colleges of Education, they are being supported by TETFUND, which is from the tax paid by private companies. I think two per cent of their profits are paid as tax into TETFUND of N180 billion or N200 billion every year. That is what is used largely in supporting the university. At the last count, maybe there are about 40 federal universities, also another 40 or thereabout, state universities. Besides, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education are there. So, the kind of support they can give to each university would be limited. Government also thinks we should not charge tuition fees, which I think is a reasonable thing to do.

Why do you think so, in the face of the grim reality of infrastructure decay occasioned by poor funding?

It is reasonable to the extent that if the fees are so high, many Nigerians, who are otherwise eligible, may not be able to come to the university. It is always good for us to open access because almost every year, maybe over the past two years, about 1.5 million candidates write the UMTE. But out of that lot, about 98 per cent of them want to go to the universities. So, polytechnics are not really their first choice. And a few may also opt for colleges of education. There is the issue of access and it is not there.

All the state and private universities combined, maybe, their carrying capacity is about 500,000 or even less. So, what happens to the large army of about one million candidates who are qualified? The access has to be created, to allow as many people as possible.

The quality is also important; the quality of what we are going to offer. If you have a Chemistry class and there are 2,000 in a class, you will keep wondering how the teaching can be effective. Meanwhile, you are supposed to have continuous assessment, which in reality should be continuous, as the students are supposed to be continuously assessed throughout the 15 weeks of a semester. But how will the lecturers been able to grade their tests? In the University of Ibadan, over the past five years now, we also consider the assessment each semester and the students take examination at the end of the semester and they are supposed to have their results before they move on to the second semester, which is also why our calendar is a bit elongated. And again, that is the best practice; elsewhere, when you complete a semester, within a week, you have access to the results.

For example, most universities in the United States resume by the middle of August. So, four months after, that is, in December, they have finished the first semester.

Then, they go on a four-week break-between Christmas and New Year. So, they resume late January and by the middle of May, they have ended the session. So, it is like four months of academic work; one month of break and then, four months of serious academic work: 4-1-4. That is nine months. But here in Nigeria, you find out that our session drags on for 13 months, 14 months, for some of the reasons I have alluded to. So, it not very effective, and I talked of access; that we need to open up access, then the quality, and the third important factor is the cost.

Don’t you think a reasonable increase in tuition fess can bring about improved quality, without actually undermining the access you talked about?

That’s the point I mentioned. That was why I talked of access, quality and cost because they are interrelated, be-

Let’s talk about staff salaries and general overhead of your university. How much is involved?

It is about N890 million per month. It is in that neighbourhood; it can vary, if somebody is on leave, and soon.

cause if you look at it this way; let’s say the universities in Nigeria, you can classify them into two: the public, which can be separated into federal and state universities—both are public, so they charge little or no fees. Then, you have the private. Now you now have a situation like this year now when about 40,000 candidates chose UI, out of which about 29,000 applicants scored 200 marks and above. The cut-off, as far as JAMB is concerned, is 180.

But because of the issue of quality and the large number of applicants, we have always insisted on 50 per cent, which translates to 200 out of 400.

So, for us, it is 200 and even the Registrar of JAMB mentioned that 180 is the cut off but if you are in Ibadan, Lagos, we always insist on 200. So, I was saying the public universities are technically free; they are free for the purpose of the argument. So, they are over-subscribed; we will be dealing with about 29, 000 candidates in UI this year. Ordinarily, with our relatively high standard of 200, about 29,000 applicants are eligible. Let’s say they have their result of WAEC or NECO, and we won’t admit more than 3,500 even though JAMB allows us to admit up to 7,000. But because of the quality again, and the carrying capacity like this year—I was discussing with some heads of departments, those who are involved with teaching 100-Level students, they said classes are becoming too large.

You pack 2000 students in a space meant for 500 students. In fact, there was a time when students would go to the lecture room as early as 6.30 am so that they could have vantage positions to seat. So, it is like we are punishing them. Again, if you reduce the admission quota, it means many more of our country men and women would not be admitted. So, on one hand, the federal universi-

Most universities in the United States resume by the middle of August. So, four months after, that is, in December, they have finished the first semester.

Then, how much are you able to generate internally?

Ordinarily, government has been responsible for our wage bill over the years. But over the last six months in particular, we have been having a shortfall. In December last year, the Federal Government, due to the state of the nation’s economy, decided to cut the allocations to most of the federal universities. But somehow, the University of Ibadan turned out to be the worst-hit. The cut affected virtually all the federal universities. I discussed with one of my colleagues and their own is about N60 million in terms of shortfall, whereas ours is like N100 million every month.

Then, why are you the worst-hit, if I may use your word?

I would not know the criteria they used. It varies from one university to another. But penultimate Friday, the Minister of Education invited all the vice chancellors and the pro-chancellors for a meeting in Abuja and he told us that he was aware of the shortfall and that discussions had reached an advanced stage with the Accountant-General of the Federation and that even though he didn’t give a time line—that, shortly, the issue will be resolved.

On IGR, if all our staff, like I said, almost 6,000 of them, if they receive their salaries in full, there is no discontent.

But beyond that, you still need money to run the university, which you regard as the overhead cost. Like last year, the Federal Government gave us N141 million to run the university for the whole year. Meanwhile, we need over N1 billion. In other words, we need an average of N80 million or N90 million to run the university every month.

So, the difference (for last year) was made up from our internally generated revenue.

All those monies were what we used in paying certain electricity bills, buying diesel and treating raw water –we buy alum, chlorine. Even if we use water from our upper dam, we don’t have to pay for that but we still have to treat the water before it becomes potable. Then, we fuel official vehicles, maintain internal roads, and the environment.

In fact, it costs us N12 million per month to clean and maintain the environment, which is about N144 million per annum, which is about the whole allocation from the government for running the university in a year. In other words, technically, what the government was responsible for was cleaning the university, because N12 million a month in a year is N144 million, and last year, the government gave us N141 million to run the university.

Then, what has been the coping strategy of your administration?

The coping strategy is a bit tough because since last year, there has been a modification to the policy; we now have Treasury Single Account (TSA). In the past, maybe up to the middle of last year, we used to have money kept in commercial banks. Some of those idle funds were yielding interest for the university, and part of them Continues on pg25

25

politics&policy

Friday, 17 June, 2016

V

ICE President Yemi Osinbajo got his first opportunity to act as president last February, eight months into the commencement of this administration. President Muhammadu Buhari had to proceed on a five-day vacation. It came as a surprise somewhat because a worker will be expected to have put in at least a year in his new employment before asking for a vacation. But some had suspected that it was on the card especially as reports emerged that he might be taking time off to attend to his health. This was never denied or confirmed at the time. However, his Chief of Staff (CoS), Abba Kyari’s admonition to State House staff just before the president’s departure, suggested that someone may have prematurely leaked an official memo in respect of the medical content of the trip to the media.

The Presidency’s announcement of his engagement abroad that time only said that he would be traveling to Strasbourg, France to address a special session of the European Union Commission Parliament and from there, to the United Kingdom to participate in the Support Syria and the Region Conference after which he would return to the country. An announcement followed later that he would be on vacation.

That provided Osinbajo’s his first taste of executive powers. It was celebrated by all and sundry. How did his exercise of these powers go then? Well, not much could be said about that because five days would have been too little to make any impactful presence as acting president.

I was curious though to see what happened in his days in office as the acting executive president, wondering whether the CoS for instance, would shuttle between his office and the acting president’s, clutching files for Osinbajo’s attention as he does with with Buhari. From Monday to Wednesday during the week he acted, I did not have the luck to see that. Neither did I witness the stream of political heavy weights from the ruling party redirected from the president’s office to that of the acting president except for the visit of Senate Leader, Mohammed Ali Ndume. Instead, Osinbajo was mainly engaged in his regular schedules of presiding over economic meetings

inside

aso rock WITH LEON USIGBE

08078891838 leonusigbe@ yahoo. co.uk

Osinbajo’s acting presidency and receiving delegations from the global body, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Nigeria Leadership Initiative (NLI) class of 2015, the Nigerian Institute of Legislative Studies (NILS) and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS).

But this term is a little different. Since the president left for his latest vacation in London, Osinbajo’s office has been a beehive of activities, reaching some significant milestones. Certain policy initiatives key to this government’s success have been given breath. Among these are the youth employment initiative with the flagship being N-Power, and the bold decision to de-escalate military action in that Niger Delta to pave way for negotiation with the militant Niger Delta Avengers (NDA).

Osinbajo met with governors from the region, service chiefs and other important stakeholders where that decision was reached and today, the hitherto recalcitrant militant group which had vowed to bring the nation’s crude oil production to zero level and had to a large extent achieved that sinister objective, is now amenable to negotiation. If NDA keeps to that, we should begin to see a turn around in the fortunes of the economy.

The Vice President inaugurated a task force for the production of rice and wheat in the country. It is to set targets for a comprehensive and self-evident result in the production of the two commodities and identify ways to

make the country self-sufficient in them.

Osinbajo also presided over a meeting of stakeholders to review the strategic plan for the implementation of the National Home Grown School Feeding programme. The programme is expected to provide a nutritious hot meal a 08078891838 day to over million primary school children when fully LEON WITH24 leonusigbe@ yahoo. co.uk operational and would affect about 5.5million Nigerians in the first year of its operation. It is part of the N500billion Social Investment being planned for implementation by the present administration. The ultimate objectives are to bring real change to the lives of 20 million children, creating the multiplier effect on local economies in communities where the schools are located by boosting agriculture, entrepreneurship and employment.

N-Power to recruit 500,000 unemployed graduates has fully launched during the last few days. The web portal, npower.gov.ng, receiving applications, crashed within the first few hours of launch due to traffic surge but was quickly rectified and within 36 hours, it recorded over 403,000 successful registration from applicants.

Osinbajo will feel delighted when giving briefs on his stewardship to Buhari on his return next week knowing that as constitutionally required, he had adequately provided the necessary cover in the absence of his principal.

s

aso rock

‘The challenges posed by TSA’ Continues from pg24

helped in running the university. But it is no longer so.

Also, because we were keeping relatively huge sums of money with the banks and they were giving us interest, some of those banks were in the position to even assist us as part of their corporate social responsibility. But if you are not keeping money with them, why would they want to assist? At least, one bank gave us N100 million last year, which for this argument, was out of our internally generated revenue. But if you are not keeping money with them, why would they dash you N100 million this year? So, that (IGR) also is likely to shrink a little.

Given the prestige, reputation and pioneering status of the University of Ibadan, one expects it to be comparatively self-sustaining by harnessing its huge potentials. Why has it been difficult for it to achieve that feat?

I like the word you used—difficult, not that it is impossible. Some of the commercial ventures that we have like UI Ventures, which runs the hotel, for the past few years, have not been giving dividends to the university unlike before. And that was because, instead of giving us N20 million or N30 million as dividends, they invested substantial parts of that money and if you are going from the bookshop to Ajibode, all within the campus, you will see a modern bakery on the right, it was built through their own internal resources. They could have as well given that money to the university as dividend. The project is costing them about N130 million or N140 million.

I am told by the managing director of UI Ventures that the old bakery used to handle between 17 and 23 bags of flour in a day. But the new one can handle 100 bags. In fact, he said what they are now looking for is the market for their products. The new bakery is automated; the old bakery had 12 staff, but with the new one, there is going to be less number of staff. Your volume of production is increasing, while you need a few staff and ordinarily, the profitability will increase. So, what I am trying to say is that it is a major investment, which we think that, in the coming years, will be in a position to give us even more dividends than it used to do.

Then, there is the micro finance bank we established four years ago. The capitalisation was N50 million and when I asked when it would start giving the university dividends, the management informed me that the shareholders’ fund

has grown from N50 million to N62 million, but it has to get to N75 million before they can start giving dividends to the university. I think that is the regulation by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

There is also the endowment fund. The International Conference Centre was built by the University of Ibadan endowment Fund, which was established in 1973. That project cost them about N1.5 billion and even at a stage, they had to run around for funds to complete it. We know that by the time they settle all the cost of building the complex, they will be in a position to assist the university. I have met with Dr Michael Omolayole, who was the first chairman of the Board of Trustees of the University of Ibadan Alumni Association. They were the people who set up the endowment fund with the late Deacon Gamaliel Onosode , and all others. These are some of the ventures that can assist the university because our core competence is teaching and we do research. So business, we can more or less outsource, with good management. The chairman of the UI Endowment Fund is not an internal member, but an outsider in the person of Baba Ogunlana, who succeeded Deacon Onosode. Those are the people managing the fund. But some of top functionaries are also on the Board, as well as some members of the Council.

Why has the university not invested hugely on agriculture, in which many believe you have a comparative advantage?

We did, but a lot of things went wrong. Teaching and research used to do well in the 60s and 70s. But for a very long time, the whole place was run down. So, the immediate past administration invested a lot of money there. But it is also going to take some time before we will start seeing the results. We have a fish farm, honey, animal production-these are all initiatives that were revived over the last five years, under the tenure of Professor Isaac Adewole.

What are the problems of the unit?

It is difficult to generalize. All I know is that, for a long time, it was tun down and the university has injected quite a huge sum of money over the past few years. But you cannot start a business today and start making profit tomorrow. Again, you should not wait forever. There should be a gestation period after which you expect to start having returns.

To what extent is UI tapping into the area of con-

sultancy services, where it has a huge capacity?

It is like a subsidiary of the UI ventures. It is very viable; our people offer consultancy services to various organisations in and outside Nigeria. And if any member of staff is able to bring a job under the umbrella of UI Ventures, the individual will be adequately compensated. I know that quite a number of our colleagues are doing that, either with UNICEF or FAO. How have you been able to address core issues that led to the recent closure of the universitystate of the hostels, welfare matters as a whole?

We set up a committee that looked into the conditions of the hostel. I have been to most of the hostels myself. Mellamby Hall, which is the oldest, was opened about 65 years ago because the university started at Eleyele and, two years down the line, it came to the present site. Elsewhere, that kind of hall would have outlived its usefulness. I mean a 65-year old public building and with the pressure that is exerted on the hall because of limited resources, we just have to find ways of doing some palliative measures.

But if we have all the money in this world and you want to fix the hostels, it is going to take some time.

These are very big structures.

It will not take anything less than three months to fix all the halls. And you don’t have a long vacation. We commissioned a company to look at the situation of the boreholes in all the halls, at least to assess the boreholes. We know that if the conditions of the hostels are not good, we don’t expect the students to be at their best. Again, you realize that we are able to accommodate only about 8,300 students out of a total population of 30,000, which is about 28 per cent or less than one-third.

Meanwhile there is a lot pressure bordering on demand for bed space, notwithstanding the condition of the hostels. So it is related to the issue of access, quality and cost I talked about. If we put all the five available generators on, the fuel consumption is about 1000 litres per hour. At the rate of N160 per litre of diesel, in one hour you are burning N160,000 amount of diesel.

You have almost spent N1 million which people may not even know you have done anything. We have solar, inverters in the hostel. When you look at the cost, the best you can do is to do things in phases.

26

commentary

Friday, 17 June, 2016

The hemlock we drink as LG administration

By Festus Adedayo

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hether for public or private advantage, ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar recently successfully joggled the Nigerian memory by provoking a seemingly ageless debate of restructuring of the Nigerian unitarist federal structure. Ever since the dawn coup of the Five Majors of 1966, Aguiyi Ironsi’s queer unitarisation of a hitherto federal Nigeria by, among others, centralisation of the civil service and the counter-coup of Gowon in July of same 1966, Nigeria has quaked under the powdery flakes of lopsided structures. And, like the progressive decay and sure destruction that necessarily follow a gangrenous wound, the disastrous effects of a lopsided Nigeria have since been manifesting in diverse ways: ethnic triumphalism, rentier rather than productive government, apprehension and distrusts, separatist and fissiparous advocacies like Biafra and Avengers, financial imbalance, systemic sustenance of a feudal echelon of loot-sharers, a la Odia Ofeimun and the gradual transformation of the 1914 Lord Lugard mistake into a tragic national immobilism.

Except for those who profit from the spoils of this painfully skewed pseudofederal structure, many Nigerians are agreed that the benefits of restructuring Nigeria far outweigh the liabilities of her current pretentious federalism.

Some of the benefits include getting the diverse and plural peoples of Nigeria restructured under governmental architectures that are conducive to their historical, spiritual and geographical pedigrees.

While tonnes of literature have been written on the urgent need for a restructuring of the current iniquitous structures of Nigeria, many Nigerians living who bear nostalgic testimonies to the benefits of the practice of true federalism, as well as fascinating mementoes of its practice in the First Republic, regale us with stories of how the system is a sure antidote to the current immobile and unworkable quasi-federalism. All the narratives point to the fact that no restructuring of the Nigerian nation can be maximally beneficial to the people unless it targets a redefining of the current locality administration that has unjustly and inhumanly disempowered and dispirited the people at the grassroots, fattening ill-gotten bellies of second-tier government overlords.

If Nigerians realise that an optimal performance of their local administrations will jump-start development and reverse the skyrocketing effects of urban poverty and squalor that dependence on states and federal administrations bring, it will occur to us that our governmental Eldorado is just by the helm of our garments. In other words, do Nigerians know that in local governments reside the possibility of a large chunk of their problems of existence being solved and a reduction in their lamentations of government/governed apathy?

Apart from the lofty practice of locality administration of the First Republic and its fascinating benefits, local government administration received its greatest constitutional support in the 1976 militaryinduced Reform which specifically identified it as the third tier of government. Ever since, local governance has derailed from the oeuvre of its framers, becoming today a major conduit pipe for sleazebag administrators of the second tier of government who unabashedly advertise their fief hold

over its affairs. This has ensured a traffic of dregs of society to local governments’ pilot seats as chairmen and administrators.

Through all manner of shenanigans, second tier government lords allegedly funnel huge resources meant for development of grassroots, hiding under the Joint Allocation Account Committee (JAAC) through which they butcher the resources and allocate chunks therefrom to cater for their insatiable palates. The result is that there is irrefutable squalor at the grassroots, borne by regimes of bad imitation of locality administration. Consequently, governance in councils is at a standstill, uneventful and is today a converse of the brimming interface between the people and local administrators that it was conceived to be. In a speech he delivered at the International Conference on Urban Governance and Urban Poverty on May 16, 1994, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, then Minister of Works and Housing, located the restlessness at the grassroots in poverty and poor governance.

The next wave of bastardization of locality administration is that state governments, having hijacked local government autonomy, its resource and essence, now flaunt projects traditionally and constitutionally under the purview of local governments as theirs, forcefully demanding

The local government must be made autonomous and accountable to no one but the grass-roots people themselves. JAAC has proven in recent times to be a sewer which brims maggots of under-hand dealings and broad day heists.

kudos from the people for this illicit feat.

Markets and stall construction, debris collection, sanitation and primary healthcare, which are enshrined as the essence of local government administration, are flaunted with Jihadist relish by these second-tier conquerors. Coupled with its being staffed by cronies, hirelings, grovellers, ex-bus conductors and touts, locality administration is today far from the people and men of good conscience give it a wide gap.

Onibokun A. G., then Secretary General of the Centre for African Settlement Studies and Development (CASSAD) put the tragedy in perspective: “Stories of woe are documented about virtually all our cities. Environmental degradation and decay, poor infrastructure, unreliable community/social services, inadequate housing, increasing wave of crime and juvenile delinquency, inefficient administration and general apathy… plague our municipalities.”

While maintaining that urban and grassroots poverty have a close tie to the colonial and later on, capitalist legacy of a quest to integrate colonial outposts to the global capitalist economy, Professor Akin Mabogunje, then Chairman of the National Board for Community Banks, maintained that, among other factors, because cities and towns in Africa are “cities of the informals” the structures and institutions of (local) governance are abysmally irrelevant to the needs of the overwhelming informal majority of the people.

Because of the apathy that they themselves wrought on locality administration due to their thirst for its pillage, the people now wrongly look up to state governments for remedial inputs to a surfeit of their existential problems, rather than to council administrations. The fate of the people is compounded at this period of economic recession when earnings from the centre are becoming far between. Council administrations barely pay salaries and the rogue administrators flee with remnants, persuaded that the ‘louts at the top’ had earlier inflicted greater harm on the funds through rapacious bleeding of JAAC accounts.

Twenty two years after an earlier examination of locality administration, Mabo-

gunje again looked at it in his welcome address to visiting Nnaemeka Achebe, Obi of Onitsha, who had come to Ibadan on June 11, 2016 as guest at an interaction whose thrust was to debate a reinvention of local governance and traditional community-based institutions as catalyst for socio-economic development. The professor emeritus submitted that “it is indubitable that (one) is pained and frustrated by the current crises of governance and development at all levels of government… and nowhere is the frustration and anguish likely to be felt most acutely than at the local level (with its) dysfunctional system”. The highly revered Igbo monarch had visited the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) where the professor of geography is chairman.

With the fad now for Nigeria to gravitate towards restructuring as panacea to its horde of existential crises, there is the need to focus on the parameters of bringing sanity to locality administration which at the moment is in a terrible mess in virtually all states. Local governments are unable to perform the simplest of their constitutional roles, not because there is recession in the economy but due to their excessive burdening by the iniquitous pillage of JAAC and have thus become recreation centres for the worst of society foisted on us all by second-tier lords of the manors.

Restructuring our skewed or pseudofederalism which necessarily makes governors generalissimos of local councils, who in turn inflict anguish and stasis on local governance, is an urgent national assignment. This is due basically to the fact that currently, the system at the grassroots is anti the tenets of democracy where responsibilities and responsiveness between the governed and their government is a symbiosis.

A number of suggestions have been offered. One is that traditional institutions and their heads should be brought in to partner the council administrations since they both understand the requirements of their domains. This is necessitated by the governance architecture of the First Republic where rulers like the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adesoji Aderemi and many other natural rulers performed excellent interfacing roles in governance. Good and essential as this point is, traditional institutions in operation today are a reflection of the rot that is an essential feature of our national life. No difference may be expected from their intervention except a clone of the dictatorship and divide and rule that undergird current relationship between the local government and the heads of the second tier of government.

A suggestion from any observer of the current lopsided practice would be to divorce local administration from the titular and vice fists of governors. In other words, local government must be made autonomous and accountable to no one but the grass-roots people themselves. JAAC has proven in recent times to be a sewer which brims maggots of under-hand dealings and broad day heists. In restructuring the operations of the third tier of government, this unholy matrimony must be spiked with alacrity. As a way forward, searchlight must be peered into the matrimony heretofore. In the searchlight on the sewage and purge of the dirt therein lie the redemptive capsules for the health of a people living in a time of recession like Nigerians.

Dr Adedayo is of the Faculty of Law, University of Ibadan.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

hers

Editor: Yemisi Aofolaju yemiaofolaju@yahoo.com 08055001741

challenged, how soon will these be available?

It’s state government programme as the Commissioner for Women Affairs has said. This is in the pipeline. But as a mother, I will lend a voice to see that the programme is carried out.

Wife of Kwara State governor, Mrs Omolewa Ahmed, celebrated the Children’s Day with physically challenged students in the state. The event was used to exhibit the various talents of the school children. BIOLA AZEEZ spoke with Mrs Ahmed after the programme. Excerpts:

Kwara people see you as a caring mother, philanthropist and their wife, how do you see them? (laughter) Ah! How do I see Kwara people? Kwara is home. They are my people.

You know, it is not really about where one comes from. It doesn’t matter the colour, tribe or religion. What matters is that you are a person, and that I can add value to you and you can add value to me. I see this office as a privilege, an assignment. I’m driven by the fact that I am accountable. For me, it is not really about Kwara people, but the assignment of being a governor’s wife and privilege God has given me to do the best as much as God will give me the ability.

Y

OU started a charity foundation, Life Empowered Anchors Hope (LEAH) on assumption of office.

Looking back, what have you done so far in the last five years?

When we assumed office in 2011, we normally organised Children’s Day party for the underprivileged and not for children of political office holders. It has been the norm of this office to take such get-together to rural communities in the state with all those things our children are enjoying in the city. These include bouncing castles, electric trains, fun characters to show our love and encourage them to aspire to be whatever they want to be and live a better life than how they live presently. We’ve had series of programmes for the physically-challenged in the areas of empowerment, educational sponsorship, vocational training and have equipped them with materials needed for their trade. We’ve done quite a bit for adults as we try to take them off the streets through empowerment programmes. We find out what they love doing and empower them to get formal training and equip them to be self sustainable.

From the performances at this year’s get-together, talents were exhibited by the physically-challenged and disabled school children, how do you hope to develop these talents further?

I was encouraged and carried away by the prowess of the children when they were singing. We intend to tap into some of the professionals you saw there and develop their talents. We did something like this in 2012 when we had our first edition of Reading Camp where some talents were discovered when they had command performance of Sango for the governor. He couldn’t believe they were children from public schools in the state.

With what happened on May 27, we will be working with Special Assistant to the Governor on Social Welfare because of his affiliation with Nollywood to tap the goodwill of some practitioners to develop the kids’ talents.

Can we know the number of assisted kids and how far have you gone on Child Rights Implementation Act? I can’t specifically tell how many children we have assisted. Our acronym, LEAH, is Life Empowered Anchors Hope, and our slogan is ‘touch a life positively’.

What’s the relationship between you and your predecessor, Mrs Toyin Saraki?

Mrs Toyin Saraki is my big sister. We share so much, much more beyond politics. I respect and honour her as I am always grateful to God for bringing her to my life because she’s been a source of blessing to me. I cannot forget the fact that when my husband was nominated, she took me through an orientation course, telling me her own experiences. Sometimes, I do some things and she reaches out to me, ‘Lewa, (that’s what she calls me), do you remember when we were driving to the airport or so so place, and you said so so things’. There are things she had told me that had helped to shapen my work and activities. One thing that has been outstanding to me is that the office of the wife of the governor is a call to responsibility and not a lifestyle which I have held on to.

Toyin Saraki is my big sister —Kwara Governor’s wife

We try to assist every one we come across, except we cannot afford or there’s nothing we could do about such case and which is rare. We try as much as possible not to leave you the way we met you. We’ve empowered people with deep freezers, grinding machine and sewing machines. We have set up physically-challenged people in shoe-making business.

On the issue of Child abuse and child rights act, we are already working. A committee is about to be put in place to work on violence against persons, both male and female. We are already working with the Ministry of Social Welfare in that regard. We want to embark on massive advocacy and ultimately we have a home for victims. Last year, we produced a movie, entitled, Delima, which was nominated in Ghana Movie Award in best shot film category. It talked about ills of child abuse in our society. Our next port of call is to be

committed to lots of advocacy with community and religious leaders.

How are you looking at collaboration with government on actualising your programmes?

There is so much we can do as a Non Government Organisation, but I try to collaborate with private NGOs that are into taking care of these children while also encouraging the groups to be involved with state ministries through registration so that these children can have access to whatever is coming from government.

We will advise government to accord them more priority as we’ve seen that these children have great potentials in them.

The state Commissioner for Women Affairs announced provision of mobility aids for physically

What’s your assessment of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on women affairs so far?

Nigerian women are in support of PMB’s administration as they campaigned for him to win. He’s giving women the opportunity to express themselves. He has a lot of cerebral women in his cabinet who, I believe, will not let Nigerians down. His wife, Hajia Aishat, has also been encouraging us. There are a lot of collaborations even between the governors’ wives and her office. We have a forum where we discuss our programmes, things we want to do and we encourage one another on activities that are going on in our respective states.

After your stewardship, how would you like Kwara people to remember you?

I will like to be remembered as a woman who came and really made a difference.

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interview

Friday, 17 June, 2016

Public servants should imbibe attitude of sacrifice —Ogundoyin Olufunmilayo Abiodun Ogundoyin, an educationist, counsellor, philanthropist and wife of the late business mogul and politician, Chief Adeseun Ogundoyin, speaks with KEHINDE OYETIMI on what life has been like 25 years after the passing on of her husband, what Nigeria must do to get things right and how the education sector can experience development.

Excerpts:

there were challenges but we are trying very hard to keep the legacy alive.

Usually, when a husband is generous, the wife tends to be extra generous. What are some of the philanthropic gestures you have been involved in, like your husband?

My husband was very philanthropic and I supported him within our means. Then, there were a lot of funds to play around with, but recently not as much. We are only working with what we have.

You have spoken extensively about education and you have a passion for national development. What would you advise those in government about the economy?

My message to those in government is that they should remember that they are there to serve. We have a lot of insecurity because many people in government are selfish. They feel protected at the expense of the suffering masses. Those in government must remember that the masses voted them in, whether directly or not, so they should serve the people. I’m not saying they shouldn’t be well paid because they are sacrificing their time, but they should be selfless and remember their backgrounds. Many of those in government come from a background of poverty but when they get into positions of authority, they forget the masses. They should be considerate. There is enough to go round but many people in government are greedy.

They should remember that whatever they have, has been entrusted in their God by God and the people and act as such.

W

HAT was growing up like?

I was told that I was born in Lagos. But my parents moved to the North because my father worked with the Railway Corporation as an Engineer. I started my schooling at Offa, Kwara State. Right from my early days, I admired my teachers, and the women, especially, were my role models. I was very interested in teaching so when the opportunity came for me to further my education, I went to a teachers’ training institution, which in those days we called Ransome Kuti College of Education. It used to be where Queen’s School in Ibadan is now but that name no longer exists. Later, we were merged with Olunloyo College of Education and we were being moderated by the University of Ibadan, which, at the time, conducted our examinations and awarded our certificates.

More mergers have taken place since. From there, I went into teaching until I stopped teaching in 1980.

How would you compare the standard of teaching then to what obtains now?

I can’t really compare because they are miles apart. In those days, teachers were very dedicated. I started my teaching career, as the first teacher of Biology, at Our Lady of Apostles, Odo-Ona, Ibadan. In those days, schools had to undergo inspections at least once a year. The science subjects, for instance, went through various checks to ascertain that the school was qualified to take WAEC. I can state that nobody has surpassed WAEC results in Biology since I left Our Lady of Apostles. The first time my students for Biology at WAEC, they all passed. In those days, they used to have science week, which focused on practical teaching of science subjects and featured specialists in various fields of science. It helped the students understand science subjects better. I don’t know if that exists now in many schools. The problem I see is that government is not really facing the reality of the current education sector. In some Western countries, political leaders are not allowed to register their children in private schools so they have no choice but to make the schools work. I think such can make the Nigerian education sector work better.

Can you tell us about the life and times of your late husband?

I miss him everyday. We had our differences, but my missing him overrides our

differences. I cherished him and I still cherish the time we had together. I just wish we could have had a longer time together, especially seeing the children graduate, marry, but that’s how God wants it. My husband was a very strong character, very determined and he believed nothing was impossible. I’m happy because he instilled such into me and the children. He was the kind of person who could get up at 2 a.m. and head for Lagos. I and the children imbibed it but we found that after a while, that wasn’t practical anymore.

He was the kind of man who wanted the best

Our government needs to restructure the trade schools. It is not all youths who can be in school. Even graduates are acquiring skills and government should encourage such endeavours.

for those around him. When he bought produce from local farmers, he would give them whatever price they asked. He was very passionate about education like me and he was known for that. He sponsored many people right up to the university level.

Your husband was known for his political ideologies when he was alive.

Why aren’t you so much in the frontline as it is with many politicians’ wives now?

The way politics is played now is different from the way my husband played it. There is too much bitterness in the politics of nowadays. My husband would embrace the opponent and even lend a helping hand when his opponent was in trouble. I’m not very interested in today’s politics because there is too much intrigue, tension, hypocrisy and no respect for life. I’m a woman of integrity and hate hypocrisy so I don’t think I can cope with the current style of politics.

What efforts have you put in place to ensure that your husband’s ideologies over the past 25 years remain intact?

After the demise of my husband, I supported the decision that ensured that his affairs were managed while I concentrated on the children. After about 17 years, one of my children decided that it was time to take charge of the company. When we took over,

The rate of divorce in our society now is increasing, especially for flimsy reasons, compared to what obtained in your time. What do you think is responsible for the current rise in divorce?

If people have God as everything, they will want to do what God wants. It is written that God hates divorce. Couples must learn to tolerate and focus on the good character of the spouse. Young people must know that marriage is different from courtship. There will be many challenges, but they have to prayerfully work through the challenges.

Most importantly, the woman has a major role to play. Patience and endurance are crucial. When you divorce, what legacy are you giving to your children? When people want to get married, they look at the background and you really don’t want to give your child to someone who comes from a dysfunctional home. Not only the woman, sometimes, the man also has to learn to endure. My husband wasn’t born with a silver spoon but we were able to stay together and build our lives together.

What would be your message to youths and the government in the face of our current challenges?

Youths need to be gainfully engaged to discourage idleness which could result in perpetrating vices. Youths need to be developed outside their academic work. They should be taught other skills and engage in recreational activities. For instance, our government needs to restructure the trade schools. It is not all youths who can be in school. Even graduates are acquiring skills and government should encourage such endeavours.

29

commentary

Friday, 17 June, 2016

Ondo State Governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko with his wife, Olukemi taking a ride with pupils at the launching of the free school shuttle buses for Ondo State pupils

Of June 12 and Ondo’s shuttle buses

By Kayode Akinmade

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ASHORUN MKO Abiola, Nigeria’s democracy martyr, joined his illustrious ancestors 18 years ago, but his name rings a bell still. Offering nothing but a programme to actualise the dream of Nigeria’s underprivileged to live a decent life, Abiola, or MKO as he was (and still is) fondly called, encouraged by the unprecedented pull of universal goodwill he enjoyed, plunged himself fully into the 1993 presidential project.

From North to South, and from East to West, Nigerians trooped out and chorused in unison: “MKO is our man o.”

At his first outing on the political scene in the Second Republic, he had not been of the progressive fold, but time and tide soon forged different—and oh yes, noble—circumstances and the greatest Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yoruba modern history joined up with the very people he should have started with, clothed in humility and brimming with the zeal to make a change.

His was real change anchored on a distinguished, widely travelled and exposed solid intellectualism. It was change anchored in depth of proven achievements spanning decades of excellence; a change that even the downtrodden (wo)men of the uniformed services embraced with fervour, knowing that it was bound to bring a smile.

However, the election, already clearly won by Abiola, was annulled.

Many lost their lives in the melee that ensued, but Sani Abacha, who would be named in 2004 as the fourth most corrupt leader in all of history, was to later assume office and execute the most brutal dictatorship ever in the national history.

And so the nation, today, remembers June 12 in different ways. Lectures are given and rhetoric published in the media, even by

those who aborted June 12.

In Ondo, a state run by a true disciple of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, June 12 has always been celebrated in style, not by a public holiday but through lectures and symposia and celebration of life-changing projects dedicated to the memory of MKO. For on June 12, 2012 it was that the Dr Olusegun Mimiko administration rolled out the free shuttle buses that have made schooling such a pleasure in the Sunshine State.

The shuttle buses convey primary and secondary school students to and from school, easing their transportation burden.

The scheme started with 39 buses in 2012 and, by 2013, the fleet increased to 90. It is a tribute to efficient management that, till date, all the buses are on the road in good condition. The Mimiko administration had taken bold steps to institutionalize the programme through a bill to the Ondo State House of Assembly which will ensure that the programme outlives it. That is a hall-

mark of progressivism. It has also honoured its pledge to extend the services of the buses, and shuttle boats, to the remaining local government areas in the state which were previously not enjoying it.

The Ondo youngsters get to school in time and without hassles, ready to learn, and stories of students lost to okada (motorbike) accidents have become alien to Ondo State.

Most youths in Nigeria today simply do not know Chief MKO Abiola, the progenitor of the current democratic climate. But on June 12, Mimiko reminds youths in Ondo State that the free shuttle buses they enjoy is part of the life-changing projects which MKO would have executed had he been allowed to utilise the mandate freely given to him

by Nigerians. The people-oriented scheme has indeed empowered parents and guardians as it has substantially alleviated the financial and physical burden of transporting their children to and from school daily. It is on record that its services since inception exactly three years ago have been running uninterrupted. The scheme has been civil

servant-driven since inception and this is a demonstration of the efficiency of the Ondo state civil service.

Speaking during the June 12 celebrations held at the State Cultural Centre, Adegbemile, Akure last year, Dr Mimiko had promised that “we shall continue to honour these patriots, not just in rhetorics but by seeking to actualize the noble values of good governance and democracy which many of them lived and died for.

“We shall continue to consolidate on our numerous programmes targeted at improving the livelihoods of the people and residents of our state, and focus on the governance content of June 12” Concluding, he said, “as we remember June 12, we, as critical stakeholders in the project Nigeria must continually play the game with the sole aim of deepening the country’s democratic culture and peaceful co-existence among the various political, religious, ethnic and socio-economic entities.”

•Akinmade is Ondo State’s Commissioner for Information

The people-oriented scheme has indeed empowered parents and guardians as it has substantially alleviated the financial and physical burden of transporting their children to and from school daily.

Ondo State pupils queuing to board one of the free school shuttle buses after the launching of the free school shuttle buses for Ondo State pupils by the state government to commemorate the June 12 Day celebration.

30 south-westnews

Friday, 17 June, 2016

Strike: No consensus with govt

As Oyo workers resolve to continue indefinite strike Sets up 14-man committee on controversial education policy

By Wale Akinselure

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ORKERS in Oyo State have resolved to continue their indefinite strike following the failure of the labour movement and the state government to reach a consensus at Wednesday’s meeting between the two parties.

This was the decision of the congress of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) held at labour house, Ibadan, after the labour representatives briefed its members about the outcome of their meeting with state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi.

At the meeting, the three issues that dominated discussion were the withdrawal of all trump up charges against labour leaders, the controversial education policy and the immediate payment of all outstanding salaries.

Briefing the congress, NLC Deputy Presidents, Mr Kiri Mohammed and Mr Peters Adeyemi, said there was headway in the first issue where Ajimobi assured that the charges in court against the labour leaders would be vacated.

On the controversial education policy, Ajimobi had insisted that the intention of the state government was misinterpreted, maintaining that the government did not intend to handover public schools to the private sector.

The labour movement had requested a formal document showing that the state government had rescinded its decision, but Ajimobi requested that a committee be set up to look into the issue.

Subsequently, the two parties resolved that a committee, comprising both labour and government representatives, be set up to consider how the new education policy would evolve.

In this same vein, the NUT formally presented its own proposal on the new education policy to Ajimobi which the governor promised to examine.

“On the privatisation of schools, the governor maintained that he was misinterpreted. That he never had the intention to handover public schools to private sector. So we said so as to be comfortable, we want to have a formal document to show that he had rescinded the decision, but the governor requested that a committee be set up to look at the issue. He said there has to be a committee composed of seven persons

representing labour and another seven persons representing government to look at how the new education policy is to evolve,” Kiri said.

The payment of outstanding salary turned out to be the most knotty issue at the meeting.

Initially, the labour representatives called for the immediate payment of three months of the outstanding salaries.

This, the governor declined, noting that the state did not have the capacity to grant such request.

Owing to the governor’s stand, the labour leaders had requested for an adjournment to consider the next option.

Afterwards, they reconvened to request

that two months be paid immediately, rather than their earlier three months request.

Ajimobi, again, maintained that the state did not have enough funds to venture into such payment, adding that even the payment of one month salary was challenging.

At that point, the meeting came to an end with the labour movement stating that it had to brief its members and get back to the state government.

It was gathered that Ajimobi had also restated his earlier suggestions that junior staff be paid salary before senior staff are paid or that salary be slashed which the labour movement usually rebuffed.

On why the NLC asked that

the strike should continue indefinitely, Kiri said, “We told the governor that it was difficult to ask the workers to return to work without payment of outstanding salaries. We demanded the immediate payment of three months out of the outstanding arrears.

The governor said he had no money to pay such.

Considering what he said, we requested that two months be paid. He also said that there were no funds for that.

Even, he said money was not adequate to pay for a month.

“The congress then resolved that since the governor said that funds were not adequate to pay salaries, the strike should continue until workers are paid. Workers want to eat, they can’t go to office hungry,

Obasanjo visits Akin-Deko family in Ibadan they want to pay their debts, they need transport fares to go to their offices. How can workers live perpetually on hunger and perpetually on debt? So, we decided that the strike continues indefinitely until salaries are paid. It is the obligation of the employer to pay workers salaries so he must find a way to pay the salaries. We worked for six months, we must be paid,” he said.

Meanwhile, a committee composed of seven persons each from labour and government has been set up with a mandate to seek ways out of the impasse.

With the setting up of this committee, the governor had requested that the labour movement call off the strike to allow for further negotiation.

From right, Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi; former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo and Chief Oyewole Fasawe, during a private visit by Obasanjo to the governor, at his office in Secretariat, Ibadan, on Thursday. PHOTO: ALOLADE GANIYU.

Allow peace on campus, OAU students appeal to workers THE students of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife have appealed to all aggrieved union bodies in the university to bury their hatchet and allow peace to reign on the campus over the selection process of the new vice chancellor of the university.

The Acting leadership of the SUG, Mr Ajala Michael, who spoke to newsmen on the university campus on Thursday, said that the activities of all the unions in the university have truncated the academic calendar of the institution.

It would be recalled that both the university branch of NASU and SSANU have embarked on protest since the announcement of the appointment of Professor Ayobami Salami as the Vice Chancellor of the institution by the Governing Council.

Michael, who said that students have always been

the casualty of workers’ strike, stated that they would not condone any of the school’s union antics of halting the selection process of the new VC as it had been affecting the academic activities of the students.

Michael added that, the democratic process required by each of the unions was without fault, but said that

the approach of unceasing protest employed by the unions was faulty.

He said that since the two unions have gone to court to challenge the process of selecting a new Vice Chancellor for the institution, they should be patient for the court to decide the case.

According to Michael.

“We do not have a preferred candidate among the contestants. Our concern is that we can no longer accept a situation whereby our own academic activities will be stampeded by the activities of these unions. They said that a democratic process is what they want. Fine, it is their right and we are not against it.”

around the scene to scamper to safety, with a view to avoiding being caught up in the melee.

Sources and eyewitnesses informed the Nigerian Tribune that a notorious gang of thugs at Itakogun area of Osogbo, brandishing sophisticated guns, cutlasses, axe, clubs and other dangerous weapons stormed Egbatedo Street, where they attacked other thugs in the area.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that the rampaging thugs did not spare residents of the area as they macheted and clubbed everyone on sight, while terrified residents and shop owners fled in different directions.

Some vehicles, parked along Egbatedo Street, numbering about 15, were vandalised as the thugs attacked each other with guns, cutlasses, clubs and other dangerous weapons.

Scores injured as rival gangs clash in Osun Oluwole Ige - Osogbo

THERE was pandemonium on Thursday at Egbatedo area of Osogbo, capital of Osun State, when two rival gang of thugs clashed, resulting in the severe injuries sustained by scores of people, just as vehicles were vandalised.

The bloody clash, which started around 11:00a.m. and lasted about two hours, was said to have forced residents and shop owners

Nigerian Tribune

By Nurudeen Alimi FORMER President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, on Thursday, paid a private visit to the family of late Gabriel Akin-Deko at their Bodija residence, Ibadan.

Obasanjo, who declined to be asked any question did not inform the journalists who were present during the visit, the purpose of his visit, but speaking on behalf of the family, the son of late Gabriel Akin-Deko, Akintayo Akin-Deko, said the visit was one of Obasanjo’s rare visits to the family since the demise of its patriarch in 1987.

“Baba Obasanjo and my late father were very good friends but at distance.

Baba Obasanjo was President, while my father was a local community leader.

But ever since that unfortunate accident about 13 years ago, when two of my daughters died, Baba Obasanjo has never been far from the family and our mother, Mrs Ebun AkinDeko, because he realises the strength of the loss for such a woman.

“So that was just one of those rare occasions that he had the opportunity to come and see Mama physically while she is still alive and mentally alert, so we thank God for that.” He said.

Gabriel Akinola AkinDeko, who died on November 5, 1987, was a building contractor and former regional Minister for Agriculture in the Western region of Nigeria, he was also a personal friend of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

Oyo NUJ holds 2016 Ramadan lecture tomorrow

By Tunde Ogunesan THE 2016 Ramadan lecture of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Oyo State council, comes up on Saturday, June 18, 2016 at the NUJ Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan by 11.00a.m.

According to a press statement signed by the Chairman, 2016 Ramadan Planning Committee, Alhaji Kamorudeen Abiodun Akinkunle, the theme of this year’s lecture is “Survival in a Depressed Economy, the Islamic Approach.”

Alhaji Akinkunle further informed that the guest lecturer is the Chairman of the Oyo State Pilgrims Welfare Board, Alhaji Taofeek Akeugbagold, while the special guest of honour is the Executive Governor of Oyo State, Senator Isiaq Abiola Ajimobi.

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Hijab crisis: DSS, Police, NSCDC, govt, Baptist Church officials hold crucial meeting Oluwole Ige-Osogbo

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ONCERNED about the worrisome trend the hijab issue is assuming in Osun, authorities of the Department of State Security (DSS), on Thursday, held a meeting with the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Femi Olanipekun, officials of the Baptist Church,

Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and representatives of the government.

Nigerian Tribune authoritatively gathered that the parley, which lasted several hours, was aimed at dousing the increasing tension generated over the wearing of hijab and church garments to public schools in the state.

An Osun State High Court, presided over by Justice Jide Falola had on June 3, 2016 ruled that female Muslim students in Osun public schools have rights to wear hijab to their school premises.

But, yesterday’s meeting held at the office of the state director of DSS, Mr Ike Madagwana, almost ended in a deadlock as Baptist

Church officials stormed out of the venue in a protest.

Attendees at the meeting included the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Olanipekun, representatives of the state government, who were the immediate past commissioners for Information and Strategy, Hon Sunday Akere and his counterpart in the Ministry of Justice, Mr Wale Afolabi.

From left, guest speaker, Dr M. Adetunji Babatunde; chairman on the ocassion, Professor S. Ibi-Ajayi; Professor Victor Adeyeye and Professor F.O. Nyemetu Roberts, during the Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research (NISER), Ibadan seminar series, held at NISER conference hall, Orogun, Ibadan on Tuesday. PHOTO: YEMI FUNSO-OKE

Workers’ salary: Ondo, Ogun assemblies approve access to FG loan Hakeem Gbadamosi - Akure WORKERS in Ondo State would soon heave a sigh of relief over the nonpayment of their salaries as the Ondo State House of Assembly, on Wednesday, approved that the state government access a loan of N14.16 billion from the Federal Government to enable it meet its responsibility to workers and pensioners in the state.

The lawmakers, who approved the loan during the plenary session, noted that the economic situation across the country has made payment of salaries across the nation an herculean task, adding that the loan would go a long way to alleviate the suffering of workers across the country.

While speaking on the loan, the lawmaker representing Akoko North West Constituency I, Hon Jamiu Maito, said the workers have been at the receiving end in the face of the present economic crisis and urged members to consider the request “in order to alleviate the suffering of the workers.”

Speaking on the motion, the Speaker, Jumoke Akindele, commended the Federal Government over the gesture and called for restructuring of the country’s economy, saying the gesture would further reposi-

tion the sharing formula of the economy in favour of the component states.

The motion was put into votes and was unanimously endorsed by the lawmakers.

Meanwhile, Ogun State House of Assembly has acknowledged the receipt of a request from the state governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, for an offer to participate in the Federal Government Budget Support Facility

to the tune of 14.16 billion for a tenure of 10 years with single digit interest rate.

The request was contained in a letter to the assembly June 14, 2016 and read by the Speaker, Honourable Suraju Adekunbi, seeking for the resolution of the assembly to enable the state government participate in the programme.

According to the letter, the assembly resolution

would assist the state government to secure the approval of the Federal Government for the issuance of a note for an amount not exceeding N15.5 billion by the state to the subscriber and assist to authorise the Commissioner for Finance or such other person(s) to whom the commissioner may designate the power to receive proceeds of the note issuance from the subscriber in monthly tranches.

LCDAs to be created in Oyo

By Wale Akinselure THE process of creating Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) in Oyo State has commenced.

This followed the state assembly’s adoption of a motion seeking the creation of local council development areas across the state.

Member representing Surulere/Ogo Oluwa constituency, Honourable Peter Oyetunji, who moved the motion held that the creation of two or three LCDAs from the current 33 local governments would ensure more even development in the different localities of the state.

Oyetunji argued that the present system of local government administration did not effectively bring about the desired development at the

grassroots, noting that some areas were neglected.

Adopting the motion, the assembly held that regardless the current financial challenges, the delineation into LCDAs would ensure better distribution of resources and therefore, translate to socio-economic development.

In a matter of urgent public importance, member representing Ido constituency, Honourable Adekunle Olalere, also called upon the relevant agencies of the state government to repair the damaged drainages and damaged poles along Alafaara, NIHORT Elenusonso road area of Ido Local Government.

Meanwhile, the Assembly has also urged Governor Abiola Ajimobi to appoint a new

Chief Medical Director to run the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso.

This was consequent upon the presentation of a report of an investigation into the matter by the Chairman, Adhoc Committee on the state of LAUTECH teaching hospital, Ogbomoso, Honourable Segun Ajanaku.

The Assembly, had in November 2015, constituted a committee to investigate the Chief Medical Director, Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso, Professor Oladele Sijuwola, for allegations ranging from ineffective management to negligence of duty, poor staff welfare, procurement of equipment.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that hot argument ensued between the Baptist Church officials and the heads of the security agencies when the former declared that they were not in a position to hold meeting with the security, explaining that only the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), which is the umbrella body of Christians, could attend such parley.

Commenting on the development, the state police Commissioner, Mr Olanipekun, informed journalists that “there was a peaceful meeting between the Christian body and the security agencies in the state to restore peace between Christians and Muslims in the state.”

He further explained that the Christian leaders were charged to live in harmony with Muslims in the state, assuring that very soon “we would also hold meeting with the Muslim leaders on the issue at hand.”

Ogun lecturers embark on strike over unpaid salaries Olayinka Olukoya Abeokuta

ACADEMIC staff of the Tai Solarin College of Education (TASCE), OmuIjebu, in Odogbolu Local Government Area of Ogun State, has embarked on indefinite strike over unpaid salary.

It will be recalled that students of the institution, had, on Wednesday, protested the alleged injustice meted on them by the state government, over non-payment of their salaries in the last 13 months.

The academic staff, under the umbrella body of Colleges of Education Academic Union (COEASU), directed its members to stay away from work, meetings and examinations pending the time its management fulfilled its obligations.

The body, in a letter addressed to Governor Ibikunle Amosun, dated June 13, and signed by its chairman and secretary respectively, Dr Dan Oludipe and Modupe ObaAdenuga, said the decision to stay away from work was due to the non-challant attitude of the college management towards the plight of the members.

The union said it will “Occupy TASCE” if the management failed to pay nine out of 14 months outstanding salary before June 23.”

Nigerian Tribune

NULGE, Ogun govt disagree over N9.1bn bailout fund Olayinka Olukoya Abeokuta THE leadership of the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Ogun State chapter, and the state government had disagreed over the N9.1billion bailout fund for local government workers.

Nigerian Tribune recalled that the state government got a sum of N18.9 billion from the Federal Government last year with N9.8billion set aside for state workers.

Addressing newsmen on Thursday, the President of NULGE in the state, Comrade Ayuba Olatunji, contended that the state government did not pay council workers with the bailout meant for them to offset outstanding deductions.

However, the state government through the Chairman, Local Government Service Commission, Mr Rotimi Rahman, maintained that every worker in the state employ benefited immensely from the bailout fund.

But, Olatunji flanked by the secretary of the union, Comrade Bamidele Oyeniyan and other key members of the union, insisted that no dime was given to workers in the employ of the state government.

He said that government only paid civil servants in the state with the exception of council workers.

Olatunji expressed displeasure over the method adopted by government in paying salary of workers in the state, saying the local government workforce was not inferior to the state workforce.

The NULGE president said that the state government had hijacked some of the primary responsibilities of local governments which include collection of fees such as signage, environmental sanitation fees, motorcycle permits among many others.

The union also pointed out that the large chunk of allocation accrued to local government from the federation account was being used in paying primary school teachers.

He said the ratio should be 30 per cent from the union and 70 per cent on the side of government.

Olatunji also said that council workers were yet to receive their May salary while their counterparts in the state service had been paid.

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INEC sets conditions for conduct of Kogi rerun Yinka Oladoyinbo - Lokoja

T

HE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Thursday, said only assurances of peaceful atmosphere by the

stakeholders would make it conduct the legislative election reruns in Kogi State.

The Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in the state, Mr Samuel Madaki, who said this during his maiden interactive session

Why Melaye, others are fighting me —Bello We only want sanity —Melaye Yinka Oladoyinbo - Lokoja AS the crisis of confidence between the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, continues, the state government on Thursday said the Senator Dino Melaye committee to probe the governor was set up because the arrowhead failed to meet their selfish interest.

Government said the proponents of the move were those that wanted to impose their selfish interest on the governor to be able to oil their political machinery.

The Commissioner for Information, Awwal Imam, who said this while addressing newsmen in Lokoja, the state capital, said the government did not need the distractions being introduced into the polity after the tribunal’s judgments on the petitions before it over the conduct of the governorship election that brought Bello into office.

He said it was unfortunate that leaders that contributed to the constitution of the state executive council had turned around to accuse the governor of sidelining the party structures in the scheme of things.

According to him, there was no iota of truth in the allegation that majority of the political appointees of Governor Bello were members of the PDP, saying Melaye nominated the current Secretary to the State Government, Mrs Folasade Ayoade, without input from members of the APC from his area.

He said the senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly decided to be attacking the governor because he was not allowed to nominate the caretaker chairmen from his senatorial district.

However, in his reaction to the allegations, Melaye said he was not fighting Bello, but stood against injustice and impunity as being perpetrated by the Bello-led administration.

Speaking through his special assistant on media, Gideon Ayodele, the senator noted that there was never a time he demanded or insisted that he should nominate

the chairmen from his zone.

According to him, he was only fighting anomalies in the system and wanted to ensure that things were properly done by ensuring that those to be entrusted with positions of authorities are competent and capable.

with stakeholders, held in Lokoja, said the commission was prepared to conduct a free, fair and credible election in the state.

INEC is expected to conduct a repeat of rerun election into the Kogi East senatorial seat, Idah and Ofu state constituency seats.

According to him, the national headquarters of the commission had already come up with conditions that must be met before an acceptable election could be conducted across the country.

He added that INEC had directed the RECs to review the conditions precedent, saying this also involves setting up of criteria to be met before a repeat of rerun election is conducted in areas where violence was prevalent.

He said before the election could be conducted, “the RECs are to provide an assessment report indicating that a conducive election environment exists, a written commitment by political parties and stakeholders for a violence free poll and a written guarantee of peace, order, safety of officials and materials during polls by members of the Inter Agency Consultative Committee (ICCES).”

Madaki also said that violence, sponsored by candidates and their political parties, was a major reason elections are declared inconclusive by the electoral umpire.

Madaki said the commission had directed him to come to the state to ascertain if the political atmosphere is ripe for peace-

ful election, saying INEC would go ahead with the election if it is certain that peace would be guaranteed.

The INEC REC said: “While the commission is committed to conducting free, fair and credible elections, as a responsible organisation, it will not expose its stakeholders especially voters, officials, observers, media personnel to any danger. The commission will not hesitate to suspend the exercise where there is clear danger of threat of breakdown of law and order.”

He, therefore, charged all the contestants and political parties to adhere strictly to the rule of the game by signing the peace accord resolution and ensure that violence is not introduced during the election.

(FRONT ROW) From left, Archbishop of Benin Archdiocese, Most Reverend Augustine Akubeze; President, Catholic Bishop Conference of Nigeria and Archbishop of Jos Archdiocese, Most Reverend Ignatius Kaigama; celebrant, Emeritus Archbishop of Lagos Archdiocese, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie; Archbishop of Lagos, Most Reverend Adewale Martins and the Bishop of Abeokuta Diocese, Right Reverend Peter Odetoyinbo and other Catholic bishops, during the 80th birthday and 50th priestly ordination of Cardinal Okojie, at Holy Cross Cathedral, in Lagos, on Thursday. PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA.

ISIS targeting Nigerian children through mobile apps —FG As Army uncovers Boko Haram’s tactics of evading surveillance in Borno Christian Okeke - Abuja THE Federal Government, on Thursday, alerted citizens to a newly-launched mobile application which the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) developed for propagation of Jihad in children.

It said the app teaches children Arabic alphabets with the aid of guns, military tanks and cannons.

In a statement issued in Abuja, Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said the mobile application is tagged ‘Huroof’ (Arabic alphabets or letters.)

According to him, the application utilises colourful illustrations that attract

and engage the attention of young children.

The minister urged members of the public in general and parents in particular to be vigilant and prevent their children and wards from being indoctrinated?

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Army, on Thursday, said Boko Haram terrorists now evade drones and aircraft surveillance by hiding in makeshift camps covered with shrubs.

Colonel Sani Usman, the Acting Director of Army Public Relations, revealed this new tactic in a statement in Maiduguri.

Usman said in the statement that the discovery was made during a clear-

ance operation in the North Eastern area of Kumshe in Borno.

“Troops of 7 Division Strike Group Team B, attached to 21 Brigade have braved harsh climatic conditions to clear seven villages of Boko Haram terrorists’ presence in the North East of Kumshe village.

“The villages are Mulfuta, Baibawa, Jenere, Bembem, Maksamari, Bula Kafie and Bula Bodi.

“The troops discovered that the Boko Haram terrorists have evolved new tactics of evading surveillance by drones and aircraft. They now hide in makeshift camps covered with shrubs,” said the

statement.

It added that the troops recovered some motorcycles, two Dane guns, large quantity of foodstuffs stored in a well constructed storage facility and solar panels.

It stated that the troops proceeded to Bembem, “where the suspected Boko Haram terrorists also laid an ambush for them.

“It was, however, cleared successfully although a soldier sustained gunshot wound during the clearance. He has been evacuated and receiving treatment.

“The team discovered and rescued some hostages held by the Boko Haram terrorists in the area.’’

Nigerian Tribune

Over 700 repentant insurgents have surrendered — Defence spokesman THE Director of Defence Information, Brig.-General Rabe Abubakar, has said that more than 700 repentant Boko Haram insurgents in the North-East have surrendered to the military.

Abubakar said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Bayo Onanuga, in Abuja on Thursday.

According to him, a camp will be opened where the repentant insurgents will be kept “before the government decides on what to do with them.”

The defence spokesman said the media had a very important role to play in mitigating the crisis befalling the country.

He, therefore, called for synergy between the media and the military in mobilising and informing the citizenry about the crisis.

“We have come to understand that the military cannot do it all alone.

“Mobilising the citizens, informing them about what is happening and equally sensitising them.

“The media has a very important role in mitigating the crisis that is befalling our nation.”

Jehovah’s Witnesses hold circuit assembly with branch representatives JEHOVAH’S Witnesses will hold their Circuit Assembly with branch representatives in series. One of the series will hold on June 19 at the Ibadan Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Ifatumo Village, along Ibadan/Iwo Road, Ibadan, Oyo State.

The programme will commence at 9:40am and end at 4:15pm. The theme of the event is tagged: “Imitate Their Faith.”

The one day spiritual education programme will highlight the faith of faithful servants of Jehovah of old and modern times in line with God’s righteous standard and how we can emulate their good examples.

The programme will equally address how to help others seek Jehovah’s righteous standard and the benefit from doing so.

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Nigerian Tribune

Edo 2016: Masari heads APC 7-member election primaries committee •Bamidele chairs Election Appeal Committee

By Kolawole Daniel and Banji Aluko THE All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy National Chairman (South), Dr Segun Oni, on Thursday, inaugurated a high-powered seven-member election committee and threemember election appeal committee for the 2016 Edo State governorship election primaries.

This came just as APC National Organising Secretary, Senator Osita Izunaso, announced that 2,873 delegates will elect the party’s governorship candidate for Edo State at the primaries scheduled for tomorrow in the state capital, Benin City.

The seven-member Election Committee is chaired

by Katsina State governor, Honourable Aminu Bello Masari. Other members are Honourable Andrew Uchendu (Secretary), Honourable Yusuf Maianguwa, Dr Tunde Esan, Alhaji Shuaibu Musa, Alhaji Ibrahim Soja and Mr Amara Iwuanyanwu.

The three-member Election Appeal Committee is chaired by Honourable Opeyemi Bamidele, a former member of the House of Representatives. Other members are Alhaji Mustapha Salisu and Mrs Ekwy Onyido.

Speaking at the inauguration, Chairman of the Election Committee and Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari, said the committee had no preferred candidate.

He said the committee would ensure justice and fairness to all the contestants.

Masari said: “On behalf of members of my committee, I want to assure you that we will follow the guidelines given to us by the party. I want to also assure you that we will do our best and produce the best. We hope that there will be no work for the Appeals Committee. We are going to do a thorough job. I also want to use this opportunity to assure that we will do justice to all.

“What is most important is that we have gone through this process. I have a bitter experience of this process and I know how a party can lose election through an unfair and unjust primaries. It has happened in my state and in so many states. This is a very critical and important assignment considering the number of candidates and the strength of our party and that of the opposition in the state. That will make us do what is right for the people of Edo State and for APC as a political party.

I am assuring you that what will come out of this exercise will be a result that can

stand in any court of law because you cannot rule out the possibility of somebody going on appeal.

“What is critical is peace and the cooperation of the contestants. They are 12 and they need each other. Either win or lose, they still need each other. This is a very important and critical work and I am assuring the party that we are going to do the best to ensure justice and fairness to all the contestants.”

Also speaking at the inauguration, Chairman of the Appeal Committee, Honourable Opeyemi Bamidele, expressed confidence that there will be no reason for appeal after the primaries.

“I want to thank the leadership of our party for the opportunity to also add value in our own little way. The constitution of our country is very clear and in cases that have been decided by Election Petition Tribunals, the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court are very clear that before any aspirant can come to court, you must not only explore, but must have exhausted the internal mechanism available within the party of trying to

protest or complain before coming to the court room. It is in that regard that we see the assignment given to us by the party as a very sensitive one.

•2,873 candidates for tomorrow’s primaries “It was a delight listening to the chairman of the Election Committee. As he has promised, I have no doubt that if anything goes well, that will also make our own

lives easier. We hope there will be no reason for anyone to come to appeal, but it is easier we assume. What is more important is not the complaint but if the process of selecting the candidate is

PDP ad hoc delegates’ panel submits report on Edo guber

By Jacob Segun Olatunji and Leon Usigbe

National Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Osita Izunaso (left), handing over relevant documents for the 2016 Edo State governorship election primaries to the chairman of the election committee, who is also the Katsina State governor, Aminu Bello Masari, at the party’s national secretariat, Abuja, on Thursday.

Hold political class responsible for inconclusive elections —INEC boss PDP crisis may endanger Edo, Ondo guber elections —CSO Clement Idoko - Abuja THE Chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission, Professor Mahmood Yakubu, has disclosed that electoral violence and malpractices instigated by the political class were responsible for the recent spate of inconclusive elections conducted by the commission.

He said the desperation by most politicians to win elec-

tions at all cost usually lead to massive irregularities and electoral violence with innocent citizens killed and maimed in the wake.

He spoke at one-day civil society/stakeholders roundtable on INEC and inclusive elections, held on Thursday, in Abuja, organised by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG).

Yakubu, who was represented by the Director,

Voter Education, Mr Oluwale Osaze Uzzy, however, called for a 10-year ban on politicians who are guilty of electoral offences from aspiring to any public office.

This came as the Civil Society Organisations (CSO) raised the alarm that the current leadership crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), if not urgently resolved, might endanger the forthcoming gu-

Edo APC crisis: We were fair to all —Oyinlola FORMER Osun State governor and a member of the Board of Trustees of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has declared that the peace committee he headed on the Edo governorship primaries carried out its assignment with fairness to all the groups.

Oyinlola, in a statement on Thursday, said he was shocked to read one of the aspirants, Casely OmonIraboh, quoting him in a newspaper report as endorsing one of the groups in the contest.

“Omon-Iraboh, who was quoted as declaring that he was withdrawing from the race, said my committee informed aspirants to support

transparent, it will be easier to manage.”

Meanwhile, Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has assured the governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the primaries of the party holding on Saturday, that the exercise will be free, fair and devoid of violence.

The governor said that as the Chief Security Officer of the state, every step would be taken to ensure that there is no violence “because the APC does not include violence in its method.”

the choice of Governor Adams Oshiomhole because he was the greatest governor Edo ever had. That statement was false and OmonIraboh knew it was not true.

I never uttered those words ascribed to me.

“At the meeting he spoke about, a member of the state executive committee of the party described Oshiomhole as the best governor ever in that state, given his record — and I asked that what about Samuel Ogbemudia, then many of them there said Governor Oshiomhole had performed very well. I then said, well, if you people know the governor has done so much, it means that whoever emerges as our candidate has a legacy to leverage

on. I, thereafter, appealed to all of them to give peace a chance, while assuring them that the other party would give everybody a chance to compete in a free and fair primary. We didn’t endorse anyone.

“It is unfortunate that the gentleman said all those things he said in that publication. However, I state on behalf of other members of the committee that his comment cannot remove the fact that we did the assignment truthfully and with the fear of God. We are happy the national secretariat of the party even lauded the sincerity of purpose of the committee and the integrity of its report,” Prince Oyinlola said.

bernatorial elections in Edo and Ondo states.

In a discussion paper presented by the INEC Chairman, entitled “Inconclusive Elections: The Facts and The Myths,” Yakubu, said Sections 26 and 53 of the Electoral Act empower the commission to declare an election inconclusive if there is likely to be breach of peace and over voting as a result of irregularities.”

AHEAD of Edo State governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the committee that handled the election of three Ad-Hoc delegates that would participate in the primaries submitted its report to the National Caretaker Committee of the party on Thursday.

The Chairman of the Electoral panel and former governor of Benue State, Honourable Gabriel Suswan, stated that the exercise was hitch-free in all the 192 wards of Edo State.

According to him, the three governorship aspirants in the race for PDP ticket assisted in ensuring the election of the delegates was successful by signing an agreement to abide with the outcome of the exercise.

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CHANGE OF NAME

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CONFIRMATION OF NAME I, Adegboyega, Abdul-Qudus, Okikiola, Ishola, Kolapo, Gbadeyanka am the same person as Adegboyega Qudus Ishola. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as ADEGBOYEGA QUDUS ISHOLA. All documents bearing these names refer to me and remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Adebayo Abiodun now O L A D I P U P O DAMILARE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Fasugba Oluwatoyin Bolaji now MRS. BUSARI OLUWATOYIN SAMMYAT. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Christopher Linus Gowok now CHRISTOPHER SHANGLOK GOWOK. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Isaac, Katmunpat Faith now MRS. FAITH BULUS. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Akinsanmiro Kayikunmi Elizabeth now MRS OLAKANYE KAYIKUNMI ELIZABETH. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Bello Amidu now AHMID OJO BELLO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, Famoofo Oluwayomi Seyi am the same person bearing Famoofo Oluwayomi. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as FAMOOFO OLUWAYOMI SEYI. All documents bearing these names refer to me and remain valid. LAUTECH, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, JAMB, WAEC and general public take note.

I, formerly Ojo Fatimo Omoyemi now OGUNJOBI FATIMOH OMOYEMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adefisan Adejoke Adebimpe now MRS HAMMED ADEJOKE ADEBIMPE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adeniran Aminat Abiola now MRS. OYEBANJI AMINAT ADEBUNMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Akinniranye Bosede now SOLEYE BOSE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Oladigbolu Janet Adewumi now MRS. AMAO JANET ADEWUMI. All former documents remain valid. Skye Bank Plc., First Bank Plc., The Polytechnic, Oke-Ogun and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Olatunji Ayoola/ Olatunji Ayo/Ayoola Olatunji now MR. OLATUNJI AYOOLA OLAWALE. All former documents remain valid. Skye Bank Plc., Oyo State TESCOM and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Ayanbade Sola Victoria now MRS. FADAYOMI SOLA VICTORIA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Adeyanju Abidemi Ogunleke now ADEYANJU ABIDEMI AFOLABI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ibok Nkoyo Gladys now WILLIAMS NKOYO GLADYS. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Amaka Theresa Onyejegbu now MISS UZOMA PRECIOUS ONYEJEGBU. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Akinbosede Dorcas Omolere now MRS. FALANA DORCAS OMOLERE. All former documents remain valid. Ayobami Nursery and Primary School, Adeyemo, Ibadan, Sterling Bank Plc., Access Bank Plc., and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Shotunde Bukola Jadesola Josephine who at a time was known and addressed as Mrs. Bukunola Jadesola Amoussouvi now MRS. BUKUNOLA JADESOLA KARL-AMOUSSOUVI. All former documents remain valid. University of Ibadan, OOU, Ago Iwoye, NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Kanu Chidinma Joy now MRS OGBONNA CHIDINMA JOY. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Mustapha Aliyu Mustapha now KABIR MUSTAPHA. All former documents remain valid.

United Bank for Africa Plc and general public take note.

This Box is for Sale

I, formerly Miss Wilson Ndifreke Friday now MRS ANIEKAN NDIFREKE ESSIEN. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Abdul rasheed Zainab now ABDUL FATAI ZAINAB. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Modebei Elizabeth Ogechukwu now MRS ADEKO LIZZY OGECHUKWU. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

Formerly Miss Musa Ladidi Murjanat now MRS MOHAMMED LADIDI MURJANAT. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

Formerly Miss Shakirat Mojisola Isah now MRS SHAKIRAT MOJISOLA OMILANI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Adekoya Babatunde Akinjide now ADEX MICHEAL BABATUNDE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Adeleke Kehinde Emiola Amusa Olajide now ADELEKE KEHINDE EMIOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Ogunsanya Oluwayemisi now MRS. OLOFIN OLUWAYEMISI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME Formerly Alice Monday now CLEMENT ALICE. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Nnaji Faith Adaeze now ANOSHIRI FAITH ADAEZE. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Asimi Adijat Ayoka now ASIMI ADIJAT ROMOKE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Umoelin Godday Amiolemen now UMOELIN GODDY KELVIN. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

Formerly Oke Olugbenga Micheal now OKE OLUGBENGA SEGUN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Adeseluka Aisha now ROTIMI DAMILOLA. All former documents remain valid. Skye Bank Plc., and general public take note.

I, formerly Jimoh Ganiyat Abike now MRS ADERIBIGBE GANIYAT ABIKE. All former documents remain valid. Oyo SUBEB, Oyo State Government and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Omotosho Rasidat Yetunde now MRS SALINSILE RASIDAT YETUNDE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Ayuma Blessing Ogaga now MRS BLESSING ERHUVWUN EBOJOH. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Kamanya Ogeri Oko now OGERI NNANNA OGBUAGU. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Adebiyi Adedeji now ADEBIYI ADEDEJI VICTOR. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Emeka Stella Amarachi now MRS CHINEDU STELLA AMARACHI. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

Formerly Jimoh Amudat Kiki now JIMOH AMUDAT KIKELOMO. All former documents remain valid.

GTBank Plc., and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ojogbane Arome now YAHYA IBRAHIM. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Balogun Kafayat O. now OKUFUWA KHIFAYAT O. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Umukodo Ruth Enichehoke now MRS YOHANNA RUTH ENICHEHOKE. All former documents remain valid. NNPC Medical Centre, Warri and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Oluwabukola Aderonke Aderinto now MRS OLUWABUKOLA ADERONKE DENTON. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Oketola Jonah now OKETOLA JONAH KOLAWOLE. All former documents remain valid. The Nigerian Baptist Convention (Global Missions Board) and general public take note.

I, formerly Motayo Bisola Latifat now ODUFUWA BISOLA LATIFAT. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Ogunyemi Idowu Racheal now MRS ADEOYE IDOWU RACHEAL. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Mrs Funmilola Olaore now MRS USMAN SILIFAT FUNMILOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Bello Adedola Bola now MRS. ODEDELE ADEDOLA BOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Adebayo Shakirat Opeyemi now ALABI SHAKIRAT OPEYEMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Serifat Ajoke Saibu now MRS ADEJUMO ADEJOKE RACHAEL. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Bunmi Akinola Motunrayo now MRS MUFUTAU MONSURAT MOTUNRAYO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Afolabi Fasilat Damilola now MRS AKINTARO FELICIA DAMILOLA. All former documents remain valid. FCE, Oyo (Special) and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss OgunmonaAdebola Atinuke Fatimo now MRS OGUNTADEADEBOLA ATINUKE FATIMO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

Formerly Ndudiri Uchechukwu now E M E R E N I N I U C H E C H U K W U EMMANUEL. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Adegboye Fatimah Titilope now MRS. SALAMI FATIMAH TITILOPE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Olasimbo Damilola T. now ALIU TAJUDEEN OLAKUNLE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Ayoola Gbemisola Eyanimo now MRS ACHONG GBEMISOLA AYOOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Adeoye Damilola Deborah now SOSANYA DAMILOLA DEBORAH. All former documents remain valid.

Oyo State Teaching Service Commission and general public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME I, Osuolale Oluranti Deborah am the same person bearing OSUOLALE OLURANTI FAVOUR. All documents bearing these names remain valid. First Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Anna Danjuma now MRS ANNA GONGU. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Kazeem Moibi now TAOREED KAZEEM DEHINDE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, Agoro Oyindasola Kafayat, wish to state that I am the same person as Agoro Adedayo Kafayat and now wish to be known and addressed as AGORO OYINDASOLA KAFAYAT. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Fasua Jolayemi Janet now MRS AJAYI JOLAYEMI JANET. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Ladipo Temitope Ayobami now MRS IMISIOLUWA TEMITOPE AYOBAMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Ejike Mammah now EJIKE MAMAH. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Ogunmuyiwa Olufunke Ola now OJO FUNKE OLA. All former documents remain valid.

Access Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Olusegun Oluwatoyin now MRS SAANU SHULAMMITE OLUWATOYIN. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Oluwaseun Tolulope Ogundipe now MRS. OLUWASEUN TOLULOPE ALAKA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Omotolani Abibat Balogun now MRS OMOTOLANI ABIBAT SALAMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

This Box is for Sale

35 CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Raimat Olasunbo now RAMAT LATEEF. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME Formerly Ajani Nihinlola Lateefat now OBASA NIHINLOLA MERCY. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

Friday, 17 June, 2016 CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Ayodele Funmilayo Titilayo now MRS FUNMILAYO OGAR. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Oluwashina Olanrewaju Gabriel now OYASHINA LANRE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Koleosho Damilola Latifat now MRS EFUNWOLE DAMILOLA LATIFAT. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ashake Fatima now YUSUF FATIMA. All former documents remain valid. UBA Plc and general public take note.

CORRECTION OF NAME I, Adereti Olalekan Leo, my name was mistakenly written as Adereti Olalekan Leonard instead of ADERETI OLALEKAN LEO. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME I, Omoleye Elizabeth Oluwabukola am the same person as OMOLEYE ELIZABETH OLUWATEMI. All documents bearing these names refer to me and remain valid. Banks and general public take note.

Formerly Miss Adewuyi Adesola Tawakalitu now MRS OGUNDIPE ADESOLA TESTIMONY. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Kareem Kafilat Ronke now MRS RASHEED KAFILAT RONKE. All former documents remain valid. SUBEB, Osun State and general public take note.

I, formerly Khaliphat Abubakry Wahab now WAHAB BABATUNDE ABUBAKIRI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Mr Oyelami Adewale now MR OYELAMI ADEWALE BENJAMIN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Mr Adesina Kazeem now MR SULAIMON KAZEEM ADISA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Akintunde Misitura Ayomo now ADEDIRAN MISITURA AYOMO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Taiwo Olayide Julianah now MRS SOLALU OLAYIDE JULIANAH. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Alhaja Moriliat Ibironke now ALHAJA ALUBARIKA OYINAYO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Maryanne Irekpita Safurat Sado now MRS MARYANNE IREKPITA YUSUF. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

Formerly Mr Ijaola Olaniyi now MR IJAOLA OLANIYI ALANI. All former documents remain valid. Oyo State TESCOM, Skye Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

Formerly Miss Kayode Olamide Omoyeni now MRS JIMOH OLAMIDE OMOYENI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Shade Tabbita Mobolaji Oni now MRS FOLASHADE TABBITA NEJO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Nwankwo Stephen Ikechukwu now EZE STEPHEN IKECHUKWU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Olalere Olukunle M. now OLALERE OLUKUNLE MICHAEL. All former documents remain valid. GTBank Plc, TESCOM and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Akosa Anthony now AKOSA TONY OKWUDILI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Isola Taiwo Temitope now MRS EGBETOLA TAIWO TEMITOPE HELEN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Otubaga Titilayo Adenike now MRS OJUMU TITILAYO ADENIKE. All former documents remain valid. MDCN, OAUTHC, IleIfe and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Amoo Mutairu Olatunji now OLALEYE MUTAIRU OLATUNJI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Ismail Opeyemi Zainab now MRS IBRAHEEM OPEYEMI ZAINAB ISMAIL. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Karonwi Adewole now OLAWALE TUNDE ADEWOLE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, Imoyera Monday, born on the 16th day of July, 1989, am the same person as Joseph Imoyera Monday and Umoru Imoyera Monday. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as IMOYERA MONDAY. All documents bearing these names refer to me and remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Nwokafor Chijioke Kingsley now NWOKAFOR CHIJIOKE TEMIDAYO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME Formerly Hatssan Lateef Olanrewaju now ASANI LATEEF. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Ajibola Shola Sakirat now AJEWOLE OLUWATOYIN SAKIRAT. All former documents remain valid. FCMB Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Ademola Olawale Oluwatayo now OGUNWALE OLAWALE OLUWATAYO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Sanyaolu Doyinsola Funmilola now MRS ILESANMI DOYINSOLA FUNMILOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Adeyemo Abdulrahman Akanmu now BELLO ABDULRAHMAN ADEYEMO. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Owoade Titilayo Abidemi now OSUNDINA TITILAYO ABIDEMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Latifat Ayoka Ademola now AYOKA LATIFAT. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ikinjor Anthony Brithe now IKINJOR ANTHONY BRIGHT. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Ade-Abimibade Winifred Oluseyi now BADEJO WINIFRED OLUSEYI. All former documents remain valid. Nigeria Trust Fund, Embassies especially and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Adedeji Sulaimon Adetola now DALEMO SULAIMON ADETOLA. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Adamon Idiatu Asani now ADAM IDIAT ASANI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Lasisi Sule now LASISI SULAIMON ADETAYO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Popoola Janet Oluwayemisi now MRS ADEWUYI JANET OLUWAYEMISI. All former documents remain valid.

SUBEB, Oyo State and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Okhiria Opeyemi Omonigho now MRS BABARINDE OPEYEMI OMONIGHO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Victoria Monilola Oyedapo now ADESHINA VICTORIA MONILOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adebiyi Adeola Rebecca now MRS KELANI ADEOLA REBECCA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CORRECTION OF NAME My correct name is MUSA ALBARUWA IBRAHIM not Musa A.B. Ibrahim as quoted in my BVN. All former documents remain valid. GTBank Plc, Heritage Bank Plc, Zenith Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME AND CORRECTION OF DATE OF BIRTH My name was wrongly written as Gbolagade Idowu and date of birth as 02/02/1968 and 02/02/1969. I remain GBOLAGADE IDOWU ADENIYI and date of birth is 02/02/1972.All former documents remain valid.

INEC, EcoBank Plc, Oyo High Court of Justice and general public take note.

I, formerly Mate Animot Sadiat now ADELEKE AYOMIKUN SADIAT. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Ajijala Temilade Damilola now MRS ROTIMI TEMILADE DAMILOLA. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Arilesere Badirat Taiwo now MRS MUSTAPHA BADIRAT TAIWO. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

I, Fagbemi Olasupo Smart am the same person as Fagbemi Olasupo.

Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as FAGBEMI OLASUPO SMART. All documents bearing these names refer to me and remain valid.

Osun State Polytechnic, Iree and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Alexandra Ocheche Buoro now MRS ALEXANDRA OCHECHE GRANT OJI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Omosuyi Gabriel Adewunmi now ADEWUNMI AKINBODE AYOBAMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Owolabi Fatimoh Olamide now MRS ADENIJI FATIMAH OLAMIDE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ahalonu Uche Wilfred now AHALONU OBIOMA UCHE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Akanbi Suliyat Opeyemi now MISS AGORO SULIYAT OPEYEMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Goodluck Ahwe Kowho now AHWE GOODLUCK. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Miss Doris Omajugho now MRS. DORIS MOYEGBONE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Ajadi Maalik Ifeoluwa now AJADI MUMINI OLADITI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

Formerly Miss Odusi Temitope Titilola now MRS SOKEFUN TEMITOPE TITILOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

Formerly Balogun Tawa Adegbite now BALOGUN TAWA ADENIKE. All former documents remain valid.

EcoBank Plc and general public take note.

I, formerly Adebayo Mufutau Olalekan now RAJI MUFUTAU OLALEKAN. All former documents remain valid.

Federal Polytechnic, Offa, CCE, GTBank Plc and general public take note.

I, Dare Grace Oyenihun, born on the 22nd September, 1990, am the same person as Damilare Grace Oyenihun.

Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as DARE GRACE OYENIHUN. All documents bearing these names refer to me and remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Fadairo Riike Omonike now MRS EMMANUEL RIIKE OMONIKE. All former documents remain valid.

Redeemer’s University, Ede and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Onyinyechi Gloria Agbalizu now MRS ONYINYECHI GLORIA ANAEKWE. All former documents remain valid. Tansian University, Oba, Anambra State and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Oyewole Oluwaseun now MRS KAZEEM FOLAKE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Adeoti Fatimah Adeyemi now MRS EKUNDAYO FATIMAH ADEYEMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Sammukoro Endurance now MRS. A H U E M W O N M WA N FAVOUR SAMMUKORO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Godwin Ilekperibo now GODWIN PEREBO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Showunmi Adebukola F. now SHOWUNMI ADEBUKOLA FAEDAT. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adeyemo Adejumoke Lydia now MRS OLAHANSOYE ADEJUMOKE LYDIA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Jimoh Jelili Adewale now FIPONMILE JELEEL ADEWALE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Monday Endurance Lucy now OJOMAH ENDURANCE LUCY. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Mrs Comfort Oseh Eware now MRS COMFORT EWERE OGIDAN. All former documents remain valid.

Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Borokinni Peter Adelaja now BOROKINNI AKEEM ADELAJA. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc and general public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Makinde Titilayo Esther now MRS MOMODU TITILAYO ESTHER. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Anisere Bolanle Adetumi now MRS OLADIRAN BOLANLE ADETUMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Ajayi Demilade Busayo now JAYEOLA DEMILADE BUSAYO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Durojaiye Caroline Abimbola now MRS GANIYU MORENIKEJI ARIKE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Ileleji Kenneth Odirin now ILELEJI KENNETH. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Joseph Mfon Udoh now JOSEPH LEGEND MFON. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME

I, ARIGBOWEI MONKEBIDE STEPHEN, am same person as Arigbowei Monkebide, And Stephen Monkebide.

All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Miss Akano Omolara Omowunmi now MRS AKANO OLUWAKEMI OMOLARA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

36

news

Friday, 17 June, 2016

Nigeria may experience food shortage, UNDP’s consultant warns

T

HE United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), on Thursday, warned that Nigeria might experience food shortage, if urgent interventions were not put in place to enhance food production.

Lead Consultant, UNDP project on ``Targeting Interventions to Foster Sustainable and Resilient Food Security in Nigeria”,

14,000 communities now open defecation-free in Nigeria —UNICEF THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said 14,000 Nigerian communities have attained open defecation- free status within the eight years of its intervention via the Community Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) Programme.

UNICEF’s Chief Officer in charge of Water Sanitation and Hygiene, Mr Kanaar Nadar, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, on Thursday.

He said Nigeria could achieve its target of meeting the National Roadmap of Ending Open defecation by 2030, ``if it puts policies in place to encourage behavioural change in sanitation and Hygiene.’’

Nadar said the agency had carried out a survey in some select communities, and observed that there was a gap between knowledge and attitude in hygiene promotion practice.

“Such situation could be reduced with proper hygiene promotion messages,’’ he said.

He noted that Nigeria was known for having sanitary inspectors, who carried out enforcement of hygiene practices.

“But the inspectors did not appear to have the needed encouragement; such practise should be encouraged by all, to reduce possible outbreak of preventable diseases,’’ he said.

According to him, Nigeria needs to scale up its hygiene promotion strategies to enable it become a social norm.

The UNICEF official, who said the intervention was covering 200,000 communities, stated that poor persons were 36 times more likely to defecate in the open than rich individuals ``due to the disproportionate distribution of wealth in the society.’’

He challenged stakeholders to develop simple, better and cost effective messages that would enable more Nigerians change their behaviours towards hygiene promotion.

Professor Emmanuel Oladipo gave the warning in Abuja, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

Oladipo expressed regrets that not much attention was being paid to agriculture by the three tiers of government in the country.

“There’s a general concern that if care is not taken, many parts of Nigeria will suffer from severe food insecurity.

“To ensure that food security does not add more to the problems that we al-

ready have, the Global Environment Facility is supporting Nigeria to develop and implement food security projects.

“The support is to develop and implement projects in Nigeria to foster sustainable and resilient food security systems, which means in the area of production, marketing, processing and value-chain.

“The main aim of the project was to ensure that the country’s food production system is preserved, irrespective of unforeseen

challenges.

“The project is sustainable, meaning it can continue; resilient, in the sense that it can absorb shocks and bounce back.

“So, even, if there are climatic shocks, the food production system will not be completely wiped out,” UNDP official said.

Oladipo noted that the current tomato crisis in the country could have been avoided if adequate proactive measures had been taken.

“It is unfortunate that the

tomato issue came up but it shows again that when the land is good to us, a time will come that it might be weak.

“We keep using the land the same way; every time, the same fertiliser is applied; we keep using a lot of bad, drainage water to wet the land for tomatoes.

He called for an integrated approach in proffering solutions to the tomato crisis, rather than waiting for a crisis to develop before struggling to address the problem.

Some of the 162 Nigerians that voluntarily returned from Libya, facilitated by the Libyan government, in conjunction with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, on Thursday.

162 Nigerian migrants voluntarily return home from Libya Shola Adekola, Lagos

THE Libyan Government, in conjunction with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya, on Thursday, returned 162 Nigerians who were stranded in the North African country.

Some of the returnees, the Nigerian Tribune gathered, had attempted to cross from the Arab country to Europe, but failed to accomplish their mission for various reasons.

The aircraft that brought the returnees, an Airbus 320 with registration number 5A-WAT, belonging to Ghadames Air, touched down at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Lagos, at 2:45p.m.

About three of the returnees, the Nigerian Tribune learnt, came back to the country with health issues, and were stretched out of the aircraft into a waiting ambulance with stretchers.

The returnees comprised 132 males, 27 females and three children of same parents, who entered Libya

through different means.

After going through immigration processes at the airport, the returnees were driven to the hajj and cargo terminal of the airport, where they would be given N10,000 stipends to reunite with their families.

According to a source, the returnees’ feeding and stipends were provided by the Swiss Government.

The Voluntary Returnee

and Integration Consultant with IOM in Lagos, Sara Hamo, in an interview with journalists, said the returnees were camped at Tripoli for sometime before they were returned to the country.

Hamo declared that none of the returnees was compelled to return to Nigeria, adding that they indicated their willingness to return to country

through the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.

According to the Libya IOM official, Mr Juma Hassan, this was the second time Nigerians from Libya would be returned to the country, noting that another batch of Nigerians of between 160 and 180 from the North African country, would be returning to the country in the next two months.

Suspected ritualists murder pregnant woman, remove foetus Slaughter 12-yr-old girl in Kwara Biola Azeez- Ilorin

A pregnant woman has been reportedly murdered and dismembered by suspected ritualists at Gboroko Village via Alapa in Asa Local Government Area of Kwara State.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the incident happened on Saturday, around 4:30p.m when the victim, identified as Roheemat Akata, with a 12-year-old daughter of her neighbour, were brutally murdered.

It was also gathered that the deceased, a popular patent medicine seller in the area, was reportedly

going for business transaction in the neighbouring village when the incident occurred.

It was learnt that the woman was ambushed and murdered, while her corpse was dismembered, and while her eight months foetus removed.

Another reliable source, who preferred anonymity, said a 12-year-old daughter of her neighbour who accompanied her to the village was also killed along with the woman at the same spot.

The source said the case had been reported at Alapa Divisional Police

Headquarters for further investigation, adding that the remains of the deceased had been deposited at an undisclosed mortuary in Ilorin.

During a visit to Akata’s compound at Isale-Banni Alore area, Ilorin, scores of sympathisers were seen in groups discussing the incident while parents of the deceased were mourning.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the Kwara State command, Ajayi Okasanmi, confirmed the incident, but said no arrest had been made.

Oshiomhole swears in new commissioner

EDO State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, on Thursday in Benin, charged Mr Kerry Emokpare, the new Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, to add value to the work in the ministry assigned to him.

Swearing-in the new commissioner, Oshiomhole said his government was desirous of finishing strong, and therefore saw the need for a fresh hand to inject new ideas into policy making.

The governor urged Emokpare to continue with some of the programmes and policies already initiated by his predecessor in collaboration with the State Economic Team.

He said one of such programmes was the Small, Micro and Medium Enterprise Fund designed to help people involved in small business to access fund to boost their businesses.

Oshiomhole charge the appointee to reinvigorate the Ministry of Commerce and Industry by bringing his wealth of experience in the field to bear.

Responding, Emokpare said he would do his best to ensure that the policies of government were implemented to have positive impact on the people.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the former commissioner in the ministry, Mr Abdul Oroh, was relieved of his appointment on May 23.

UNICEF engages 10,000 volunteers to identify malnourished children

THE United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has engaged 10,000 volunteers in the northern part of the country to identify malnourished children in various communities.

Communication Specialist UNICEF, Mr Geoffrey Njoku, made this known to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Kano, on Thursday.

Njoku said the volunteers after the identification, would bring them to treatment centres.

According to him, the volunteers were earlier engaged by UNICEF for the purpose of sensitising people on polio, water sanitisation and simple hygiene practice.

He said malnutrition in Nigeria contributed to the high infant mortality, hence the need to approach it holistically.

He called on media practitioners to intensify their effort on reportage of the challenge and bring an end to the development.

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Friday, 17 June, 2016

EFCC quizzes Dikko, Ngilari, Adamu Saliu Gbadamosi - Abuja

A

former Comptroller-General of Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Abdullahi Inde Dikko, on Thursday, honoured the invitation of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on whose radar he has been for sometimes over allegations of wrongdoings while superintending over the customs.

A source within the commission informed the Nigerian Tribune that Dikko arrived at the anti-corruption headquarters in Abuja, at about 10.00 a.m., to clarify certain issues related to the commission’s investigations of his alleged wrongdoings.

The source informed that

the former customs boss was grilled by operatives on various allegations.

Also, the EFCC, on Thursday, quizzed Ambassador Hassan Adamu, the Wakilin Adamawa, for the role he played in collecting and distribution of N450 million campaign fund meant for the Adamawa State during the 2015 election.

Adamu, who fulfilled his promise to appear at the agency whenever he was in the country, to explain his role in the collection and distribution of the fund,

the Nigerian Tribune gathered, arrived the Gombe zonal office of the commission at about 9.30 a.m and was quizzed by a team of investigators handling the campaign slush fund.

After being interrogated for several hours, the elder stateman was allowed to go home by the commission.

Sources disclosed that Ambassador Adamu told interrogators that the then Chief of Staff to the acting governor of the state,

Mr James Ngilari, Alhaji Hamman and the Government House accountant, Mrs Aisha Waziri, counted the money and confirmed the figure.

According to him, the duo became custodians of the fund, based on the directive of the then acting governor, adding that it was then that he left the Government House.

He was said to have further told EFCC interrogators that he was not aware of how the money was shared and did not person-

ally benefit from it.

EFCC sources also informed the Nigerian Tribune that Ngilari, who also was at the EFCC office in Gombe in connection with the N450 million presidential election fund meant for the state, told interrogators that he never authorised his former aides to take custody of the fund.

As of the time of filing this report, the Nigerian Tribune learnt that a detention order had been signed for Ngilari.

Reps threaten bench warrant against 14 railway project contractors THE House of Representatives, on Thursday, threatened to issue bench warrant against 14 companies handling rail projects in the country.

It said that the contractors failed to appear before members of its Ad hoc Committee investigating issues around the projects from 2010 to 2014.

Chairman of the ad hoc committee, Honourable Johnson Agbonayinma (PDPEdo), told newsmen in Abuja, that the companies’ refusal to appear before members of the committee after several invitations, was an affront on the lower chamber.

He said the companies included Costain West Africa Limited, handling N12.2 billion rehabilitation of Jebba-Kano Narrow Gauge and ESER Nigeria Company, awarded N19 billion contract for rehabilitation of Port Harcourt-Makurdi Narrow Gauge line.

Others are ANSALDO-A3&O Limited, A3&O Wireless Limited, Gear Holdings and ANSALDO South Africa in connection with N10 billion project for the upgrading of signalling and telecom system in the narrow gauge lines.

Agbonayinma said that it was pertinent to note that the call to investigate the rail contracts and the contractors executing them was basically to ascertain the level of performance.

According to him, the refusal of the companies to appear or respond to the ad hoc committee showed disregard to the invitation and contempt to the house.

From left, Consul General of Switzerland, Mr Yves Nicolet; Special Adviser to the President on Diaspora Matters, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa; President, Lagos State Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), Dr (Mrs) Nike Akande; Lagos State Commissioner for Commerce, Industry and Cooperatives, Mr Rotimi Ogunleye; Head of Trade and Economics at the European Union to Nigeria and West Africa, Mr Fillippo Amato and the Consul General of Germany, Mr Ingo Nicolet, during LCCI dialogue session on Nigeria International Trade Relations, in Lagos, on Thursday. PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA.

Ajaokuta capable of producing steel needed for rail network —Sole administrator Ayodele Adesanmi - Abuja THE sole administrator of Ajaokuta Steel Company Limited, Kogi State, Isah Onobere, said on Thursday, that one of the 43 plants installed in the complex was capable of producing 600, 000 metric

tonnes of steel annually.

Also the quantity of the production within same period could cover a 10, 000 kilometre of rail network across the country.

The sole administrator, who said this during a public hearing organised by the Senate and House

of Representatives Joint Committee on Privatisation, said that the steel company would start full production soon.

Onobere said that the officials had already submitted a business plan to the Federal Government to accommodate it in the

Dasuki loses bail bid at Appeal Court Sunday Ejike - Abuja THE Court of Appeal, Abuja division, has dismissed the appeal of former National Security Adviser (NSA), Colonel Muhammad Sambo Dasuki (retd), seeking order of the appellate court to compel the Federal Government to allow him to enjoy the bail granted him by an Abuja High Court.

The appellate court, in its judgment delivered by Justice Abdul Aboki, held that the appeal lacked merit and substance and consequently, dismissed it.

In an unanimous judgment of the full panel of the court, it upheld the submission of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which put Dasuki on trial, that it was not in contempt of any court order because

the re-arrest of the appellant in December last year, was not at its instance.

Justice Aboki said that from the submissions of the appellant counsel, Mr Joseph Daudu, and the EFCC counsel, Mr Rotimi Jacobs, the bail condition granted Dasuki was perfected on December 29, 2015 and that a warrant of release to that effect was served on the Comptroller of Prisons in Kuje, upon which he was released.

On his re-arrest by the operatives of the Department of the State Security Service (DSS), the Appeal Court agreed with the Abuja High Court that the re-arrest cannot be turned to a disobedience to its order on bail because the court bail was not targeted at the DSS when it was granted.

The appellate court also

said that EFCC, which put Dasuki on trial on criminal charges at the FCT High Court cannot be held responsible for the action of DSS on the ground that the two agencies are different entities established by different Acts and vested with different powers.

Justice Aboki, therefore, held that there was no violation of any court order either by DSS or EFCC in respect of the bail granted Dasuki on December 18, 2015 and his subsequent re-arrest on December 29, 2015, by DSS operatives, shortly after he perfected his bail condition and secured freedom.

Dasuki had approached the Court of Appeal praying it to set aside the ruling of an Abuja High Court which exonerated EFCC from his re-arrest shortly after he perfected his bail conditions.

Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) recently signed with the Chinese government on the construction of two major rail tracks across the country.

According to him, the Light Mill section of the plant, which needed N43billion to start working, could produce 400, 000 metric tonnes of steel per annum, adding that with an investment of the N43billion, the plant could generate an average annual income of N80billion.

He added that the Thermal plant of the firm needed N5billion to becme fully operational and would generate N18.7billion annually.

“The chairman, Senate Committee on Privatisation, Senator Ben MurrayBruce, commended the former President Shehu Shagari-led administration, for the foresight in establishing the sprawling complex, which according to him, could industrialise Nigeria, overnight.

He advised the Federal Government to involve the Ajaokuta Steel firm in its negotiations with the Chinese government which was expected to construct 8, 000 kilometres of rail network in the country, at the cost of $80billion.

Army denies online report on deduction of soldiers’ salaries Muhammad Sabiu - Kaduna THE 1 Mechanised Division, Nigerian Army, Kaduna, has denied reports by an online medium that salaries of soldiers in the division are illegally deducted by its finance department.

This was contained in a statement signed by the 1 Division deputy director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Abdul Usman and made available to newsmen in the state, on Thursday.

The statement reads in part: “The attention of 1 Division, Nigeria army, has been drawn to an online publication carried over illegal deduction of their salaries.

“In the report, it was alleged that soldiers of 1 Division of the Nigeraian army, have cried out that their monthly salaries are being deducted by 1 Division’s finance department, without explaination .

“We wish to debunk the entire allegation as contained in the publication and make some clarification on the issue.

Imbibe virtues of patriotism, selfless service, corps members told

By Gbenga Olumide PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has enjoined the newly sworn in corps members in Oyo State to imbible the virtues of patriotism and selfless service to effect the desired change in the country.

The president made the call on Wednesday while speaking at the swearing in ceremony for the 2016 Batch ‘A’ Stream II corps members deployed to the state, at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Permanent Orientation Camp, Gbakuta, Iseyin.

Represented by the state deputy governor, Chief Moses Adeyemo, the president said the current administration accorded priority to youths and corps members under the NYSC scheme which, according to him, would be used to drive the change mantra.

The president, however, promised to address the problems, urging the corps members not to be intimidated from making the desired sacrifice to serve the nation.

Earlier in her address, the state NYSC coordinator, Mrs Olufunmilayo Akin Moses, urged corps members to make optimal use of the various skills acquisition programme offered in the camp.

Friday, 17 June, 2016 38 news N1trn failed railway contracts: Reps threaten to issue warrant of arrest against NRC MD, 14 coys Jaocb Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel-Abuja

T

HE House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating alleged fraud on contracts awarded by the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) from 2010 to 2014, on Thursday, threatened to issue a bench warrant for the arrest of the acting Managing Director of NRC, Mr Fidet Okhiria and the Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of 14 companies for their failure to appear before it, despite several letters of invitation.

Addressing newsmen in Abuja, on Thursday, the chairman of the ad hoc committee, Honourable Johnson Agbonayinma, who condemned the action of the NRC MD and the affected companies, said their refusal to honour the invitation, which could have afforded them the opportunities to defend themselves in the awards of contracts running into billions, was an affront to the National Assembly.

According to him, the affected companies were Costain West Africa Ltd, which was handling N12.2

Terrorism: Court admits confessional statement against Okah A Federal High Court, Abuja, on Thursday, admitted in evidence the alleged confessional statement made by Obi Nwabueze in the ongoing trial of alleged mastermind of Abuja 2010 Independence Day bomb blast.

Obi, the second defendant, allegedly made an extra-judicial statement while in Department of State Services (DSS) linking Charles Okah to the bomb blast.

He later denied making the statement, saying it was obtained under duress.

Justice Gabriel Kolawole, while ruling in the application, held that the defendant failed to prove the involuntariness of the statement he made in the DSS custody.

Kolawole said the statement was earlier admitted in evidence during the trial of Edmond Ibiware.

He said since the case started, none of the defendants complained that they were tortured in the custody.

The judge said the allegation of torture was not only insignificant, but self serving.

“It is my decision that the extra-judicial statement made on October 18, 2010 is admissible and, hereby, marked as exhibit 2D and 2D.” The case was adjourned till July 5.

billion contract for rehabilitation of Jebba to Kano narrow gauge and ESER Nigeria Company handling N19 billion contract for rehabilitation of Port Harcourt to Makurdi narrow gauge line..

The rest were ANSALDO A3O Limited, ANSALDO South Africa, GEAR Holdings, ESER Contracting and Industry Company, ESER West Africa Limited, ESER Nigeria Contracting Company Limited and A3 & O Wireless respectively.

Citing Sections 88 and 89 of the 1999 Constitution which gives the National Assembly powers to conduct investigations and to summon any person in Nigeria in that regard, the lawmaker said after sending out invitations to the affected companies, even as the committee had severally directed the NRC to locate the contractors, the option left to it was to issue a warrant for the arrest of the NRC Acting Managing Director and

representatives of the contractors.

Agbonayinma, who lamented that a search conducted at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), revealed that some of the companies had no local addresses, disclosed that his committee had written embassies of countries which the contractors listed as their contact addresses with no success.

According to him, “the law says you are innocent

until proven guilty. We have given these companies ample opportunity to defend themselves, but they haven’t showed up.

We conducted a search at the CAC and we saw that some of the companies used addresses in India and other countries.

“We have written the embassies of the countries that these companies that were given contacts running into billions of Naira gave as their addresses. We will

issue a bench warrant in a few days, if the companies I have named do not appear before the committee.”

Speaking on why the NRC MD may be handed the same treatment with the contractors, Agbonayinma said: “It was the NRC that awarded the contracts. So they must produce these contractors, unless we are being told that they are ghosts. Nigeria is not a Kangaroo country.”

We’re investigating sexual misconduct allegation against our •I’ll clear my name —Ikon members —Namdas Jaocb Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel-Abuja

THE House of Representatives, on Thursday, said it has begun investigation into the alleged sexual misconduct of three of its members who attended an International Visitor Leadership Programme in the United States recently.

The three members of the House include: Honourable Mohammed Garba Gololo, Honourable Samuel Ikon and Honourable Mark Gbillah.

The chairman, House Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Honourable Abdulrazak Namdas, at a press briefing, confirmed the receipt of a letter from

the Ambassador of the United States to Nigeria, Mr James Entwistle to the Speaker, Yakubu Dogara, alleging the sexual misconduct of the lawmakers.

Honourable Namdas noted that, as a responsible parliament, the leadership of the House would investigate the matter.

He, however, added that

the outcome of the investigation would be made known in due time.

According to him, “We are in receipt of a letter from the ambassador from the United States to Nigeria where he alleged that there is a misconduct by some members of the National Assembly that attended a programme.

“However, as a respon-

9 million children in Nigeria suffer sexual violence annually —UNICEF Anthony Ubong-Calabar

THE United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF) has said about nine million children in Nigeria are sexually abused annually.

Representative of UNICEF, Jean Gough, who stated this in Calabar, the Cross Rivers State capital, on Thursday, during the launch of the campaign on violence against children, added that six out of every 10 children suffered from one or more forms of physical, sexual and emotional violence.

He stated that violence against children in Nigeria had impacted negatively on millions of children yearly; adding that last year, a survey carried out by the Federal Government, through the National Population Commission, showed that Nigeria was among countries of the world which recorded the highest number of violence against children.

The UNICEF representative said the survey, which was supported by UNICEF and the US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, found out that six out of every 10 children in the country suffered one more forms of these abuses because they had no one to speak for them.

Gough urged government at all levels to embark on aggressive campaigns on violence against children, in order to stem the ugly phenomenon.

On his part, the Cross Rivers State governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade, said his administration would accord priority attention to issues of child abuse and sexual violence against children.

Represented by his deputy, Professor Ivara Esu, he said, “As a responsible government, we are poised

to end the menace of violence against children and, therefore, urge you all to join in this fight to ensure

that our children are free from all forms of violence and grow up under a secured atmosphere.’’

sible parliament, the leadership has received these letters and it’s doing its own investigation and it remains an allegation.

Reacting, one of the lawmakers accused by the US embassy of involvement in sex scandal in far away United States, Hon. Samuel Ikon, in a short statement, denied the allegation, saying, he would do all within his powers to clear his name.

“I wish to state unequivocally that this is false and definitely not me,” the statement read in part.

39

Friday, 17 June, 2016 Editor: Ganiyu Salman tribunesporteditor@yahoo.com 08053789060

Women’s football needs better investment —Akide-Udoh NIGERIA soccer legend, Mercy Akide-Udoh has said women’s football worldwide, and especially on the African continent deserves greater attention and investment.

Akide-Udoh was one of the legends of the game, and the only former African woman player, invited by FIFA to attend the General Assembly in Mexico in order to help chart a new course for football, and the Nigeria super star said women have been given short shrift for too long “Girls train as hard as the men, play as hard as the men but women footballers are treated like second class citizens, especially in Africa. That needs to change,” Akide-Udoh said.

“The girls must be treated with respect, they must be paid as well as the men, and they must have proper domestic competitions to play in.

“It is very important for sponsors to invest in women’s football as many of these girls are also breadwinners for their families.

“To do that, we need to sit down, talk about what is wrong with the game and find workable ways to

make things better.”

She praised FIFA president, Gianni Infantino for

his initiatives in reshaping football “It was a good experi-

RASHIDI Yekini Foundation (RYF) has pledged total support for the Oyo State chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN).

The initiator and president of RYF, Barrister Jubril Mohammed, made this pledge on Thursday, when he paid a courtesy visit to the newly-elected Chairman of Oyo SWAN, Mr Niyi Alebiosu, a Deputy Sports Editor at the African Newspapers of Nigeria, publishers of the Tribune titles at the Tribune House, Imalefalafia, Ibadan.

Mohammed said the purpose of the visit was to show solidarity for the new executives of Oyo SWAN saying RYF has been enjoying tremendous support from SWAN since 2013.

“We could notice that this esteemed association is faced with some challenges especially your secretariat

and I believe that with everyone’s support, he will make things better.”

Super Falcons’ Evelyn Nwabuoku (right) challenged by a player of the United States of America (USA) during their group clash at the 2015 World Cup in Canada.

It’s Eagles top job or nothing —Yusuf S UPER Eagles caretaker coach, Salisu Yusuf, has maintained he has paid his dues to be named Nigeria senior national footbal team’s coach on a permanent basis and as such

he would not consider another position in the Super Eagles.

In the past one year, Yusuf, a former El-Kanemi Warriors and Ranchers Bees midfielder, has assisted Stephen Keshi,

Rashidi Yekini Foundation pledges support for Oyo SWAN

By Olawale Olaniyan

ence interacting with him.

He has some bright ideas to move football forward

and I’m assuring you that we will be of assistance in any area you need us.

“Though, I am here to felicitate with Mr Niyi Alebiosu and other executives.

I’m happy that a staff of the oldest privately-owned newspaper in Nigeria won the SWAN chairmanship election and that is why we have brought the flag of RYF to the SWAN Chairman.

“RYF is my idea and I sold it to some people, which have been yielding positive results. We held an event last year where we presented the Highest goalscorer of the Nigeria League last season, Gbolahan Salami with a special award here in Ibadan.

“Lagos and Kwara state governments have been calling to signify their intention of hosting the next Rashidi Yekini programme and we are working towards this direction. We will soon work it out as we want to continue with the Rashidi Yekini Golden Boot award.”

Sunday Oliseh and Samson Siasia in the Super Eagles.

He has also assisted Siasia on two other occasions – between 2010-11 with the Super Eagles and at the 2009 FIFA U-20 World Cup in Egypt.

Last month, he was in temporary charge of the Super Eagles’ team for two friendlies against Mali and Luxembourg last month.

“I am through with assisting any coach because I believe I can do the job now after assisting Keshi, Oliseh and Siasia,” declared the 54-year-old Yusuf, who

has received support from players and officials to be appointed the country’s next coach.

“I have a good idea of the country’s players both at home and abroad and I believe with a group of willing experienced players and youngsters we can go on to qualify for the 2018 World Cup.” Yusuf’s declaration comes against the background that the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), is reportedly in talks with three Serbian coaches in respect of the vacant Eagles top post.

Rio Olympics: Raffle

draw launched for Team Nigeria

A raffle draw jointly packaged by the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and Red Sapphire Nigeria Limited (RSNL) has been launched for Team Nigeria ahead of the 2016 Olympics.

The exclusive raffle draw is one of the core activities to attract support for Team Nigeria at Rio 2016 and has the tacit approval of the Mr Adulphous Ekpe-led-National Lottery Commission.

In a statement signed on behalf of Team Naija, Mr Patrick Okon, the Director of Media and Press Affairs, posited that the ‘30-day NOC-Rio 2016 Olympics Telethon TV raffle is one of the patriotic strategies put in place by the NOC/RSNL collaboration to ensure that Nigeria’s participation at the Rio Olympics is not left to the government alone even as the raffle template from a commercial perspective, is a win-win situation that will help the NOC grow funds to support the activities of the Olympic Movement in Nigeria as well as provide opportunities for contestants to win up to N10m.”

Recently the president of the NOC, Engineer Habu Gumel, while unveiling the campaign theme tagged: ‘We believe. We can’t at the launch of the project had declared that “We must embrace this opportunity and make our country proud.

This is a private sector initiative; and a laudable one for us all, because we have the opportunity to truly tell the world that we are good people with a rich and patriotic tradition.”

While, receiving the delegation, Alebiosu alongside Oyo SWAN assistant secretary, Alhaji Nurudeen Alimi, promised continued support for RYF on behalf of the association.

“I really appreciate this visit and I will convey your message to other members of the association, but be assured that we are behind RYF in every of your programmes.

“We all know the role the late Rashidi Yekini played towards the growth of Nigerian football and his support for SWAN. We will do everything humanly possible to support your F o u n d a t i o n , ” The Initiator of Rashidi Yekini Foundation, Barrister Jubril Mohammed (left) with the chairman, Oyo State chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Mr Niyi Alebiosu, during the visit. PHOTO: D’TOYIN Alebiosu said.

SIDELINES

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The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), through its secretary general, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, admitted that the late former Super Eagles coach, Shuaibu Amodu, was owed two-month salary like any other management staff of the football house. If one may ask, will this declaration not serve as enough warning for a foreigner to stay away from the Eagles job?

Akpeyi will be

Dream Team’s FEDERATION CUP RESULTS

Akwa United Plateau Utd Rangers Katsina Utd

1 3 1 1

Kwara Utd Dreams FC ABS MFM

first keeper at Rio Olympics —Official

0 1 0 0

Akpeyi

Foreign coach:

NFF, technical committee on collision course T HE executive board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), may be on a collision course with its technical and development committee over the choice of a substantive coach for the Super Eagles.

While the Pinnick Amaju-led board is bent on hiring a foreign (Serbian) coach, the technical committee headed by Barrister Chris Green is favourably disposed towards a local coach because there is no structure on the ground that could enable a

foreigner to perform maximally.

Only last week, Pinnick confirmed that the board has settled for a Serbian coach for the Eagles on the premise that only a manager with a good pedigree could tame the unruly behaviours of some foreign-based players in the team.

But a member of the Green-led committee, who pleaded anonymity, said they still believe a local coach is a better option given the fact that such coach knows the local terrain and should be able to monitor and build nucleus of a home-based team, where foreign-based players could be fused into.

Besides, he said, the finance is just not there for the picks and

once the federation defaults in payment of entitlements to both the foreign coach and his players, the man might walk away as has been the case in the past.

“When the board initially made a move to hire a foreign coach, we punched it by writing to the sports minister, Solomon Dalung and he saw reasons with us and asked the board to show proofs that they can pay and that we really need a foreign coach before he could give his blessings.

“The board has not been happy with us ever after. But it doesn’t matter because we are fighting a course we believe in and until they listen to a professional advice, we will not bulge.

“We have the responsibility to develop the game nationally, which includes coaches. And we are saying that we have coaches locally who can do the job and if they think they are not good enough, we can expose them to the latest rudiments of the game to be able to handle the challenges.

“But to think that a foreign coach is the right way to go, we are merely going to waste the scarce resources because foreigners can’t manage our faulty structure. We don’t have the structure to keep a foreign coach here and we should not pretend about it,” said the member of the technical committee who preferred anonymity.

SOUTH Africa-based Daniel Akpeyi will be on Nigeria squad to the Rio Olympics as one of the overage players and will be topchoice goalkeeper ahead of Emmanuel Daniel in Brazil.

It will be recalled, that Akpeyi, was in goal for the Super Eagles during the reverse fixture of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier against the Pharaohs of Egypt in Alexandria in March this year.

Akpeyi, who plays for Chippa United in South Africa, was initially not in contention for a place in the squad, as Nigeria U-23 coach, Samson Siasia had listed only outfield players as one of the possible overage players for the Games, but appears to have had a change of mind.

“Akpeyi was not on the list before but coach Siasia realises he needs an experienced goalkeeper in the squad especially after the Korea tournament.

“He (Akpeyi) is not new to Siasia and that’s why he has been selected and I can tell you that he will make the team except any last minute change like his club refusing to release him, which we don’t think will happen,” a source within the team informed.

The 29-year-old former Warri Wolves keeper is expected to resume for pre-season on July 6 with his PSL club and while he will not be with the ‘Dream Team’ all through a training camp in US later this month, he is however, expected to join them in time for the Games in Brazil.

The former Heartland goalkeeper has previously worked with Siasia and was a member of the 2005 silver-winning FIFA U-20 World Cup squad and was also part of the Dream Team squad to the Beijing 2008 Olympics also coached

by Siasia.

FIFA announces new World Cup seeds for Africa June 21

Pinnick

WORLD football governing body, FIFA has said it will release new seedings for 2018 World Cup qualifying tournament African zone on June 21 following complaints from several of the teams.

Egypt is among the coun-

tries who have complained about the seedings which put them in Pot 2 alongside Nigeria.

They have argued they should be in Pot 1 which is reserved for the top seeds.

According to a memo to the

20 teams in the final rounds of the qualifiers signed by FIFA deputy secretary general Marco Villiger, a new special rankings will be released on June 21, which is three days before the draw for the World Cup qualifiers.

The 20 teams will be drawn into five groups of four teams with the overall group winners qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

The Russia 2018 qualifiers will run from October to November 2017.

Printed and Published by the African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, Imalefalafia Street, Oke-Ado, Ibadan. E mail: editornigeriantribune@yahoo.com Website: www.tribuneonlineng.com MANAGING DIRECTOR / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: EDWARD DICKSON. EDITOR: DEBO ABDULAI. All Correspondence to P.O. Box 78, Ibadan. ISSN 2712. ABC Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 17/6/2016.