20th February 2016 by Nigerian Tribune

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER

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SATURDAY, 20 FEBRUARY, 2016

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Striking doctors have sacked themselves —Osun govt

pg44

Arms build-up scares govt pg5

Hunt for illegal weapons ordered Court okays seizure of Tompolo’s assets

Some think I’m crazy for choosing acting over medicine —Kiki Omeili

pgs2&30

I gave judge N225,000 for his dad’s burial —Ricky Tarfa pg5 Breadseller-turned model:

Mum, motherPresident Muhammadu Buhari shaking hands, in turn, with Administrative Officer to the President, Alhaji Abubakar Maikano; Commander, Guards Brigade, Brigadier General M.S. Yusuf, Assistant commissioner of Police, Mr S.K. Akande and the Deputy Director, State Security Service, Mr Ado Mu’azu, just before he departed in-law tell for Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, on Friday, for Africa Business Forum with other world leaders. PHOTO: NAN Olajumoke’s untold story 830,000 Nigerians may pg44 Kogi dep gov faces starve to death, UN warns impeachment pg5 pgs22&27

2 entertainment

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

Some think I’m

crazy for choosing acting over medicine —Kiki Omeili

Nollywood actress, Kiki Omeili, is known for her role in Blessing Egbe’s Lekki Wives, a TV series, but Lovette, as she is fondly called, has etched her name on over 17 mainstream movies, winning awards and nominations since her emergence in 2012. The Lagos University Teaching Hospital-trained physician-turned actress, in this interview with NEWTON-RAY UKWUOMA, bares it all.

EOPLE say you are always brash in your movies, how would you react to this? Well, that wouldn’t be too far from the truth. This is because my most popular roles have been that of the “seductress” or “antagonist” but that’s not always the case. See movies like Gbomo Gbomo Express if you don’t believe me. Would you agree it also played out in Couple of Days? Well, yes, sort of.

have to say about that? Yes, that’s true. Lekki Wives was a roaring success and a lot of people who know me as an actor recognise me because of that role “Lovette”. However, I don’t know if I’d go so far as to say that it was amazing because of my role. Every character was different and brought something to the table. And people loved it because they could relate to the story that was being told.

So, is it a case of typecasting? No. Not all, the roles are like the most popular ones like Lekki Wives. Tears in a Cup, Next Door to Happiness, A Dead End, the Trials of Igho, Gbomo Gbomo Express, Amiable, Same Difference, Stuck in Perfect, Jimi Bendel, Living Positive, Sting, Oblivious are all movies where the role was nothing like that. In fact, in almost all these films, my character was “the victim.”

Lovette represents a kind of woman that is the product of the society. What is your message to people who have the same disposition like Lovette? Well, nothing good comes easy. If there is a certain thing you want, you need to develop a plan of action and work to get it. As opposed to just sleeping around with men because of money, because you are greedy and want something above your reach. So, that would be my advice. And it is funny. A lot of people don’t like Lovette and a lot of people like Lovette. Most times I am like, ‘How can you love a character like that?’ Well, they say they do.

Lekki Wives was amazing because of your role. I guess, you probably earned most of your fan base because of your character. What do you

What has made you a better actor? Practice. You get better with more practice. I am a mirror actor. A lot of the times I practise in front of the mirror.

I do this to check facial expressions, intonation, etc. I constantly like to hone my skills. As you can see, I am currently at a workshop. I do things like this from time to time. I also read acting books. I am interested in things that make be better. I watch a lot of movies. I like to see how other actors interpret their characters. I like to see the choices that they make. I like to keep myself refreshed as opposed to being in a comfort zone, believing I have it all down. Method acting is a familiar term with many actors these days, what is your opinion about this concept? Truth be told, if you ask me what kind of an actor I am, I would say I am an actor that combines method acting and sense memory. Sense memory is like trying to recall a similar incident that has happened to you in the past and transporting the same emotion and reactions to a role. Method acting is basically believing that the character is you, like you are not acting it out, but being it. I think method acting is an acting concept that really works. I think a lot of actors practise method acting. I think people should do whatever makes them interpret the role better. Continues on pg30

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

social

media .com

with Doyin Adeoye

m:08058130577 e:doyinadeoye@tribuneonlineng.com t:@kreatif_ink

theWeekInReview FROM #BudgetOfCorruption, #LabourProtest, #TwitterOrubebe, #LagosMarathon, #SaveTheNaira and the likes, the past two weeks on various social media platforms have been engaging. Following the controversies surrounding the 2016 budget, from it missing to ministers publicly denying the figures in the budget, many Nigerians took to social media reacting to the issue, with the tag #BudgetOfCorruption. @RadicalYouthMan said on twitter: “Fela Anikulakpo Kuti would be laughing at Nigerians now. Only an animal in human skin can endorse #BudgetOfCorruption Banal Criminality.” Bayo onanuga (@aonanuga) said: “#BudgetOfCorruption Does a panel vet the budget before sending to NASS? Federal bureaucracy is an incredible den of financial debauchery!” “How can investors take us serious if we cannot even prepare our own budget? #BudgetofCorruption,” @ ndefiii said.

The #LagosCityMarathon had almost 15 million impressions on twitter. The Access Bank sponsored Lagos Marathon which was held on Saturday, 6 February was a total blast on social media, trending majorly with hashtags: #LagosCityMarathon, #AccessLagosCityMarathon and #RunLagos. Also, while the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) protest held across streets in the nation on Monday, 8 February, so also did it trend across various platforms on the social media. With the #Labourprotest, many shared their views on the increase in electricity tariffs, adding their voices to the many across the streets. Late music legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti’s ‘Suffering And Smiling’ also trended last week, this time, with the #SufferingAndSmiling, as many took to social media to pour out their frustrations. Now known as #TwitterOrubebe, activist, Japhet Omojuwa, made news on social media also last week.

Olajumoke Orisaguna:

From bread hawker to model And now motivational speaker?

Who will #SaveTheNaira?

IGERIANS are extremely bitter with the fall in the value of the naira as against dollar. Reacting to this @ osilama10 said on twitter handle “Give us stable light, encourage agriculture, be productive and patronise our own. Then we can #SaveTheNaira.”

@DeNigerian said “Only sound economic and monetary policies can #SaveTheNaira and our current economy managers seems to have that in short supply.” What could be responsible for this, one may wonder. @emochris said “To #SaveTheNaira, citizens must keep their appe-

tite for foreign goods in check. Especially things we produce/can produce locally. Government should create enabling environment for entrepreneurship to thrive. This will help create jobs and produce goods we need locally.”

MOST TRENDING PERSONALITY

CHELSEA’S midfielder, John Obi Mikel broke the internet this week, with his goal against PSG. The goal is the sixth for the Super Eagles’ player in Chelsea’s jersey, since he joined the club in 2006. Speaking after the match, he said “I

never speak out, I never get upset. I carry on, coming to training every day to train with the guys who are playing. This is football. In one second it changes. I’ve always believed in myself and kept doing what I was doing,” he said.

It’s Linda’s world afterall SOCIAL media took a dramatic turn in the course of the week when popular blogger, Linda Ikeji took to Instagram to share with her followers two Hermes Birkin bags she reportedly purchased for $14,000, which approximately is N4.8 million. The drama set in when some fashion connoisseur told her that both bags were fake, and the makers, also allegedly responded, making it known to her that the bags are

fake. She has, however, apologised to her fans for her rant on Instagram after she was heavily criticised for flaunting the fake luxury bags. She said on her Instagram handle: @OfficialLindaIkeji “Let me apologise to the true Linda Ikeji fans who may have been disappointed by my rant the other day! I reacted because I thought it was really a confirma-

tion from Hermes. But I later found out that Hermes would never confirm the authenticity of a bag over IG dm… But the whole drama has made me realise that the amount I spent on 2 bags could have changed a few lives if I’d invested it in them...... Anyway, I’ve decided to double the amount of money I’ll give out this year to aspiring female entrepreneurs. Been feeling a little guilty. I want to redeem myself.”

OLAJUMOKE Orisaguna has become a household name in Nigeria, one many people are proud to talk about. From endorsements to essential gifts like a luxury apartment, and scholarship for her children, it has been a true turnaround story for Jumoke. The amazing story of the bread seller turned-model is inspiring, after being discovered by photography gem, TY Bello, on the set of a photoshoot. However, things took a different turn when it was reported that she had been invited as a motivational speaker for an event in Abuja. This did not sit well with many, although, a source with the Forum said that she was only invited for a photo-

PHOTO OFTHE WEEK

shoot. @ebuka_akara said on twitter “So will Jumoke do the motivational speech in Yoruba language? Let’s take things slow please. What Is Mrs Jumoke going to talk about as a motivational speaker? How to be selling bread in strategic places?” “Olajumoke’s story could be described as a mixture of luck and destiny, but inviting her as a motivational speaker is just unnecessary,” @OgbeniDipo said. “Making her a motivational speaker is an insult to actual motivational speakers who know the art, the essence and the struggle,” @Jeloxanbregaz_ said.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

news

20 February, 2016

Arms build-up scares FG

all sold to Tompolo’s Global West Vessel Service. These HE Federal Gov- weapons are still largely ernment is wor- under the control of Tomried by the prolif- polo,” said a source on Frieration of illegal day, just as Africa Confirearms in the country and fidential, a forthnightly has ordered relevant secu- specialist publication on rity agencies to commence politics and economics in a nationwide hunt for such Africa, reported during the week that “Tompolo has weapons. Informed intelligence retained his private navy of sources told Saturday seven refitted Norwegian High-Speed Tribune that the number Hauk-class torpedo support ships.” of firearms in unauthorThe Inspector-General ised hands in the country is so great that it has become of Police, Solomon Arase, worrisome to the govern- had, on Thursday, warned ment, which is now poised members of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) to to reverse the trend. Of particular concern to reconsider their threat to the government are the begin carrying firearms. Arase noted it was crimicalibres of arms and other weapons in the South- nal for a person to have in East and the South-South his possession or under his where there have been lin- control prohibited firearms without licence or permit. gering security issues. According to him, the A security source referred to recent militant attacks force was poised to uphold on pipelines in the Niger the existing restriction on Delta, stating that the kind the use of firearms. He consequently directed of weapons displayed by the militants during those all Assistant-Inspectorsattacks showed that a big General (AIGs) and states’ security issue was at hand. commissioners of police The Independent news- to enforce the laws against paper of the United King- the use of illegal firearms dom reported last year that across the country. Also during the week, a joint investigation by the City of London’s Over- the Special Adviser to the seas Anti-Corruption Unit President on Amnesty Brigadier(OACU) and their counter- Programme, General Paul Boroh (retd), parts in Norway, Okokrim, examined how six former disclosed that the Amnesty Norwegian warships, in- programme would soon cluding missile-torpedo commence the mopping up boats (MTBs), ended up of arms in the Niger-Delta. He said the number of under the control of a former Niger Delta militant, people in possession of illegal arms in that region Tompolo. Apart from the six Hauk was becoming alarming class guided missile boats, but added that a lot of there was also a KNM these people were ready to Horten, a fast-attack craft, surrender their arms once

Chris Agbambu – Abuja

they were captured in the Amnesty programme. A security source revealed that a considerable number of unauthorised arms are in wrong hands and the government has seen the need quickly work out an action plan and arrest the situation. According to the source, security agencies are at a loss as to how the arms are

escaping being intercepted at the points of their entry into the country. The police, as part of the new gun control measures, are revalidating all existing firearms licences across the country just as it has fully automated the issuance of new ones. They have asked gun owners, on their website, to approach state police

commands after uploading online “a certified medical report obtained from any government hospital and attestation of good character from two referees who should be level 14 and above, print out the information submitted, then take the print-out to officer in charge of firearms in any police commands SCIID

FOURTEEN members of the Kogi State House of Assembly loyal to the embattled Speaker, Honourable Momoh Jomoh Lawal, on Friday, signed an impeachment notice against the state deputy governor, Mr Simeon Achuba. Achuba is to respond within 14 days in line with Section 188 of 1999 Constitution as amended. On Friday, the 14 members, during a plenary presided over by Speaker Lawal in Abuja, resolved to serve the impeachment notice on the deputy governor for allegedly causing chaos among members of the assembly and the executive arm of government, only a week after being confirmed and sworn in.

The notice, entitled “Impeachable Offences Committed By His Excellency, the Deputy Governor of Kogi State, Hon Simeon Achuba,” was signed by all the members that were present at the plenary in Abuja. His sins are said to include “undue” interference in the affairs of the state House of Assembly thereby causing friction between the executive and the legislative arms of government in the state. It was also alleged in the notice that he was instigating members of the assembly to “forcefully and unlawfully” change the leadership of the House without recourse to the rules of the House. According to the notice, “five members of the House to sit despite the proclama-

or FCIID for further directives.” Upon completion of this procedure, the police said applications would be processed through the criminal database of the force and decisions, including issuance of the certificate, if application is successful, would be conveyed to the applicant “within five working days.”

Court grants EFCC’s request to seize Tompolo’s assets Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin - Lagos JUSTICE Ibrahim Buba of a federal high court sitting in Lagos, on Friday, granted the request of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to seize all but one of the properties of former Niger Delta militant, Government Ekpemupolo, alias Tompolo. The judge gave the order after the EFCC filed an ex parte motion calling for the seizure of Tompolo’s assets. The order came after Tompolo failed to show up in court to honour a summons over a fraudulent contract. The commission has already declared him wanted following two bench warrants issued against him by the court. The anti-graft agency accused Tompolo and nine others of diverting and converting N46 billion belonging to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA).

Justice Buba granted the application to seize all the properties belonging to Tompolo except properties of Global WestVessel Specialist Ltd. Festus Keyamo, counsel for the EFCC, told the court that efforts of all security agencies to arrest Tompolo had yielded no results, as they were yet to get hold of him. “The accused Tompolo

failed to appear again and we brought an application for the seizure of all his properties as provided for by law. “If an accused continues to abscond from court and conceals himself from court after a warrant of arrest has been issued, he should be auctioned by the Federal Government. That’s what we have done and the court granted our

tion by the Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly adjourning to a later date.” They insisted that the deputy governor was performing legislative function, that is swearing in of the

Ayomide Owonibi Odekanyin -Lagos SENIOR Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Ricky Tarfa, has admitted that he gave a federal high court judge the sum of N225,000. Tarfa, however, stated that contrary to what the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) said, the money in question was not a bribe. Tarfa had filed a suit against the EFCC over his “unlawful” arrest and detention. In trying to convince the court to strike out Tarfa’s

suit, Moses Awolusi, one of the EFCC operatives who is respondent in the suit who also arrested Tarfa, stated in counter-affidavit that a check carried out into the Access Bank account of Tarfa’s law firm revealed that a sum of N225,000 was sent to Justice Mohammed Yunusa on January 7, 2014, which the EFCC claimed was a bribe. Awolusi had said, “I know from the facts revealed during investigation that the said bribe of N225,000 was accepted and acknowledged by Justice Yunusa in a text message to the ap-

“purported Speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly” in his office, contrary to the extant provisions of the House Rules and in “flagrant abuse” of the tenets of democracy and separation of powers as enshrined in

the 1999 Constitution. He was accused of generally causing disaffection by inciting certain sections of the state against each other, therefore, causing disharmony and security threat in the state.

Another female passenger dies on Port Harcourt-Lagos flight Shola Adekola - Lagos FORTY-EIGHT hours after an Abu Dhabi-bound female passenger was found dead inside the toilet at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, another female passenger on board Arik Air’s Port Harcourt-Lagos flight was confirmed dead on arrival on Friday by medical personnel at the Murtala Muhammed Airport Domestic Terminal 1, Ikeja, Lagos.

prayers to seize his properties. “We are going to separate the charge; we are going to keep his own until we get him or until we have auctioned his properties. We are just going to separate them so that he will stand alone from the other accused persons, because he is delaying the trial of the other accused persons,” Keyamo said.

I gave Justice Yunusa N225,000 —Ricky Tarfa admits

Kogi dep gov faces impeachment Ayodele Adesanmi Abuja

Saturday Tribune

The dead passenger, identified as Ijeoma Okefi, 39, and said to be pregnant, died on board the 11.00 a.m. flight despite efforts to save her by medical personnel who were also passengers on that flight. As of the time of filing this report, the remains of the deceased had been deposited at an undisclosed mortuary. Confirming the development, the spokesperson for the airline, Banji Ola

said the lady boarded the flight from Port Harcourt in company with her husband and cousin. According to him, the cause of the death was yet to be ascertained. It will be recalled that a female passenger who was billed to travel on Etihad Airways flight to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, died inside the toilet at the international wing of the Lagos airport on Wednesday.

plicant, wherein he said, ‘Thank you, my senior advocate.’ “I also know that investigations have revealed that the applicant’s law firm was in the habit of asking the Chief Registrar of the Lagos Judicial Division of the Federal High Court to assign his cases before His Lordship, Honourable Justice M. N. Yunusa in furtherance of the understanding between the applicant and the particular judge. Tarfa, in a further affidavit in response to the allegation, deposed to by the head of his chambers, John Olusegun Odubela, admitted that Tarfa, on January 7, 2014, gave the judge money but it was not bribe. He averred that the money in question was a donation from committee of friends of the judge, including him, to support the judge for the burial of his father in Maiduguri, Borno State, since they could not be there physically. Odubela stated that his principal, Tarfa, was not informed upon his arrest and detention on February 5, by the EFCC that he was arrested on the allegation of bribing the judge. He said the claim of the EFCC that the judge acknowledge the receipt of the alleged bribe by a text message which read: “Thanks my Senior Advocate,” was a lie. After listening to both parties, Justice Mohammed Idris adjourned the matter till February 29 for judgment.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

news

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

Ogun PDP chieftain lambasts Okupe over Sherrif Says party’ll sanction him

President of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote (left), discussing with the Minister of Environment, Hajia Amina Mohammed, on Friday, during a breakfast meeting, held in Abuja.

We haven’t stopped forex for school fees, medicals —CBN

HE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has said it has not banned foreign exchange for payment of school fees and medicals. CBN’s Director, Corporate Communications, Mr Mu’azu Ibrahim, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said this in an interview on Friday in Abuja. He said although the price of naira remained stable at N197 to a dollar and N284 to a pound sterling at the interbank market, it was hovering at the parallel market. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that naira changed for N373 to a dollar and N505 to pound sterling on Friday in Abuja. Ibrahim said although the CBN had not put a ban on accessing forex for school fees or medicals, it was not a priority so banks might use their discretion to allocate or not to allocate forex for such. “They should be able to use their discretion, looking at their capacity to source from the interbank and the other autonomous sources. “However, people may expect to hear about the rates; people need to understand that if banks source for forex from the interbank, the rates at which they will sell to customers will be guided by the interbank rates. “But if they source it from the autonomous sources, the rate they will sell that specific portion will be guided by the rates at which they buy from these autonomous sources. “CBN has not given any directive to banks to stop selling forex for school fees and medicals, and I can confirm to you that the CBN sells through the interbank what the banks are allowed to finance.

“There is no ban; there are no restrictions, but priorities will be given to demand for raw materials, plants and machinery,” he said. On the issue of hike in food prices since the CBN excluded importers of 41 items, including rice, processed meat, vegetables, toothpick, among others, from sourcing forex, Ibrahim said it was only temporary. “By not importing those items we are saving the forex demand on the mar-

ket and the reserve and, at the same time, boosting local production. “The ban of these products, particularly agriculture products have begun to have positive effects on the economy. “I was in Ibadan last week and was encouraged by a producer that rose from cassava farming to processing and that farmer is now producing industrial starch which is in high demand. “Some companies, large corporations that were im-

porting industrial starch are now sourcing from that company in Ibadan. “I was happy when the producer said that last year, they were able to record nine billion dollars in exports; this is encouraging. “There are many like that and once we give them time, the market will improve. “So my advice to Nigerians is to think Nigeria, act Nigeria and buy Nigeria; let us patronise made in Nigeria goods,” he said.

Psquare in court order drama Newton-Ray Ukwuoma - Lagos A huge crowed formed around the Omole Phase 1 Lagos residence of twin ace musicians, Psquare, as an attempt was made on Friday to seize one of their vehicles over a case involving a failed performance. It was gathered from an eyewitness that “court sheriffs went there this morning to enquire why they didn’t turn up in court over a matter involving a show promoter who wanted a refund of money paid to them for a show and they refused to turn up for the event. The show was years ago, though there had been court summons thrice and the twins never showed up.” “They dont live here. Relatives live in the house. The court sheriffs came early in the morning and their presence attracted a huge crowd,” an eyewitness told Saturday Tribune in front of the building named PsquareVille, on Friday evening. The source said the matter was later settled after officials tried to tow away a vehicle but that one of the twins later came and

they agreed to refund the money said to be about N8million. Meanwhile, one of the singing duo, Paul has asked their teeming fans to ignore all the speculations. He said: “Please ignore the rumours that our house

is on fire. People sha… GOD forbid, there was a situation in our neighborhood early this morning and our attention was needed and my people called me as early as 5:00am. So I had to drive from island to intervene.”

Warrant of arrest: Tope Aluko knows fate March 29 Sam Nwaoko - Ado Ekiti A chief magistrates court in Ado-Ekiti on Friday adjourned for ruling on an application on notice filed by a former secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ekiti State, Dr Tope Aluko. Dr Aluko has filed the application to challenge the order granted by the same chief magistrates court which issued warrant of arrest empowering his arrest, investigation and prosecution. Aluko was alleged to have committed the offence of perjury and the court granted a warrant to the Commissioner of Police to arrest and prosecute for the alleged offences. Counsel for the defendant, Mr Niran Owoseni, urged the court to strike out the order as, according to him,

no charge of perjury has been investigated and pending before the court. The Director of Public prosecution in the state, Mr Gbemiga Daramola, who led the team of state legal officers, represented the state as respondent application. Mr Daramola objected to the application on notice with a 13-paragraph deposed to by Lere Olayinka and attached exhibits with it. The DPP who said the ruling of the court over the allegation of perjury has a force of a judgement submitted that the court has no jurisdiction to review its judgement. Daramola said that, that a television aired the interview in Lagos will not take away the jurisdiction of court and since the suspect, Dr Tope Aluko, was resident in Ekiti State.

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Ogun State and chairman of the party in Ikenne Local Government Area, Hon. Gboyega Ogunfowokan has taken a swipe at a former Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Affairs, Dr. Doyin Okupe over his comments on the emergence of Senator Ali Modu Sheriff as national chairman of the party. In a statement he issued on Friday, Ogunfowokan said it was preposterous that “a paperweight Abuja/ Lagos-based politician like Okupe, could speak so derogatorily about our party, and a three-term senator and two-term governor who has distinguished himself in his chosen endeavours. He does his politics online, on the pages of newspapers, and on television and radio.” The statement reads in part: “Although we were not totally surprised at his outbursts since we know his penchant for stirring the hornet’s nest, we had thought that he would have learnt from the collateral damage that his usually combative posture and unguarded outbursts caused the immediate past PDP administration. But alas, it is obvious that his inordinate ambition to become the national chairman of the PDP had further beclouded his sense of reasoning and fairness. That was why he backed his former colleague, Ahmed Gulak, in his (Okupe’s) vaunted ambition to become the national chairman of the party through the backdoor. They had planned that Gulak would hand over to him after forcibly taking control of the party.”

LUTH discharges Lassa fever patient THE Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi – Araba, on Friday said that it had discharged a Lassa fever patient who had been in isolation for four weeks. A statement signed by the Information Officer of LUTH said that the patient had now tested negative to the Lassa fever virus after weeks of receiving treatment. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the first case of Lassa fever in Lagos was diagnosed at the LUTH on January 15. It was a 25-year old student of the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State, who had contracted the virus before visiting his parents at Ifako-Ijaiye area of Lagos State. He was admitted to a private hospital at Ifako-Ijaiye on Jan. 9 and was transferred to LUTH on Jan.15 on an account of developing symptoms of fever, sore throat and body ache. The medical personnel in LUTH had run a blood test on him and confirmed that he had Lassa fever. The statement said: “It is gladdening to note that the patient has fully recovered and has been discharged having tested negative for Lassa fever virus. “When the case was reported, the Lagos State and Federal Governments were intimated and they gave a quick response by providing logistic support, including providing the drug (ribavirin) for Lassa fever. “The hospital also mobilised its team of specialists including nurses, virologists and medical microbiologists. “The patient was managed in an Isolation Centre with other drugs and adequate infection control measures put in place. “These included contact tracing and monitoring,’’ it said.

news

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

Amaechi lauds shippers’ council over dry port Muhammad Sabiu - Kaduna

From left, Director, Bureau for Africa, Mr. Valentin Tapsoba; United Nations (UN) representative, Assistant High Commissioner (Protection), Mr Volker Turk and the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Friday. PHOTO: NAN.

Rumour of Oba Akinruntan’s arrest, a sacrilege —Olugbo-in-Council

HE Olugbo-inCouncil, the highest traditional body of Ugboland in Ilaje Local Government Area of Ondo State has debunked rumours of the arrest of the Olugbo of Ugboland, His Imperial Majesty Oba (Dr.) Frederick E. Obateru Akinruntan (CON). A press release signed by the Secretary of the Kingdom, High Chief I. A. Demehin and made available to Saturday Tribune said that the reported arrest

of the highly revered monarchs who is the paramount ruler and prescribed authority of Ugboland, as well as founder of the multi-billion dollar Obat Group, is completely false. According to High Chief Demehin, “the news report by an online medium, which is also being peddled by several soft sell bloggers that Kabiyesi was arrested by EFCC for money laundering, is not only laughable and false, but also a sacrilege to the traditional stool

of our land, The Olugbo is domiciled in Ugbo and Kabiyesi was dutifully attending to traditional matters as well as the needs of his subjects on February 12, 2016.” High Chief Demehin added that it is pitiful that such a popular online news platform would tell a lie against a monarch, while throwing away all ethics which place the onus on it to confirm from the palace of the Olugbo, which is always filled with throngs of people

N5.3tr pension fund not idle —PenCom DG Olatunde Dodondawa - Lagos CONTRARY to claims by some stakeholders that the N5.3 trillion Pension Fund is sitting idle with some commercial banks in Nigeria, the Director General of Pension Commission of Nigeria (PenCom), Mrs. Chinelo Anohu-Amazu, has affirmed that no such fund is with any bank but rather, the funds have been invested in some securities in accordance with the law. Addressing journalists in Lagos on Friday, AnohuAmazu explained that according to the law and other guidelines, 80 per cent of the pension is invested in risk-free securities like the Federal Government bonds, states bonds and other corporate bonds as approved by the law. She said the fund is also invested in other securities like equities, primary market instruments, secondary market instruments and private equity fund as provided by the law. She outlined the fact that the Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) are investors that invest on behalf of the pensioners, while Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs) hold pension fund and as-

sets on behalf of pensioners, as stipulated by law. According to Pension Reform Act 2014 (as amended), pension funds shall only be managed by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) licensed by the Commission (PenCom). The PFAs are licensed under the Act to open retirement savings account, invest and manage pension funds and assets in accordance with the provi-

sions of the Act. They also maintain books of account relating to pension funds managed by it and provide regular information on investment strategy, returns and other performance indicators to the Commission and employees. Meanwhile, the Act stipulates that pension funds and assets are to be held solely in custody for the PFAs by an independent

and activities which the Olugbo presides upon by himself, or cross-check its write up with the EFCC as a mark of professionalism. “I wish to advise our journalists to always cross-check their facts and stop embarrassing innocent people. “It is especially sad that any journalist would embark on a path to destroy the great image of Nigeria’s doyen of industry, who has contributed immensely to the socio-economic and human capital development of Nigeria. “Our monarch is a great father and would not join issues with any media house. “However, I think it is dutiful of any journalist that is sound to learn how to accord honour to revered traditional stools and avoid being used by disgruntled persons to tarnish the images of global icons as the billionaire monarch whose business conglomerates have transformed Ugboland and Nigeria as a whole,” he said.

Tambuwal holds low-key wedding in Kano the Mustaphas in Nasarawa Kola Oyelere - Kano

THE hopes of friends and political associates of Sokoto State governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, to enjoy a lavish wedding ceremony for his new wife, Maryam Mairo-Mustapha, were dashed on Friday after the couple’s families opted for a private ceremony to usher the bride into her new home. Tambuwal took MairoMustapha as second wife penultimate Friday in Kano, An associate, who made the trip to Kano from Yola, Adamawa State, was left bemused after he was informed that the modest

ceremony would involve only ladies and close family members.”This is not how governors wed,” the associate, a former member of the House of Representatives, said. “Even though I know situation is a bit hard in the country, I expected a ceremony befitting his status as governor. Even though we came from far for this, we will respect his wish and pray for a matrimonial bliss for his new family,” he added. Reporters in Kano had a hectic time trying to identify the venue of the wedding. When they eventually did, it was at a family home of

area of the city and devoid of ostentatious activities. Reports indicated that a small number of ‘womenonly’ IVs were sent out a few days ago for the ceremony in Kano to prepare the IT and Oil and Gas executive for the journey to her new home. “Even in Sokoto where Tambuwal is the governor, many were not aware of the Kano wedding,” a senior female civil servant, who declined to be named, said after waiting for official notification of the wedding, they gave up and decided their presence might not be needed after all.

MINISTER of Transport, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, has lauded the Nigerian Shippers’ Council ( NSC) for promoting Dry Port and Truck Transit Park ( TTP) in Kaduna State and across the country. Speaking in Kaduna on Friday at the collaborative seminar organised by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council and Inland Container Nigeria Limited ( ICNL), Amaechi said the project would provide stimulus to the economy of the state and that of the country in general. The seminar was entitled, “The Emergence of Inland Dry Port in Promoting International Trade and Enhancing Hinterland Shipping.” He said the dry port and TTP projects were conceived as part of solution to the problem of hinterland shippers’ inadequate access to seaports and frequent congestion. He added that frequent congestion at seaports had led to loss, carnage and accidents of cargo in transit on land mode. “It is pertinent to note that for this and similar projects to succeed, there must be an administrative, as well as operational collaboration with the stakeholders,” he noted.

NAPSS condemns fracas at Afe Babalola Varsity THE National Association of Peace Studies Students (NAPSS) has condemned the act of destruction perpetrated by some students of the Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, leading to disruption in academic activities in the institution on February 7. A press release signed by the national president, NAPSS, Oyewole Michael and the Secretary, Olushola Oladoja, condemned the action, which it said hindered peaceful coexistence and subsequently led to unrest. “The attitude exhibited by the students who were involved in the inglorious act violates the ethics of modern conflict resolution methods and social relationships where reaching mutual understanding should be achieved through negotiations and dialogue,” said the release. NAPSS added that the incident had the likelihood to result in a vicious circle of violence and uncontainable situations within the institution.

Manufacturers renew appeal to CBN on forex policy THE Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (NAN) has renewed its appeal to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to remove some items from the foreign exchange restriction list. The President of MAN, Mr Frank Udemba, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Friday in Abuja. Udemba said that some of the 41 items in the list were essential raw materials for many manufacturers across key sectors, and could not be presently sourced locally. He said that the affected manufacturers would soon run short of stock of those inputs and be forced to shut down with the attendant social implication of massive job loss. “Information reaching me from our members is that by the end of March, many of those companies will start closing shop, leading to massive job loss . “The 41 items involve a lot of things such that when broken down into the Customs Harmonised Service (HS) Codes, you have a total of 680 products,” he said.

Stolen vehicle A car belonging to Mrs Opakunle Bosede Wumi, a member of staff of African Newspapers of Nigeria Plc (Publishers of the Tribune titles), was snatched at gun point at Liberty Road, Ibadan on Wednesday, 6 January, 2016. Some of the items inside the car as at the time of the incident were: a handbag, Tribune ID card, ATM, drivers’ licence, Android phone, Techno phone, Bible, necklace, ball fire extinguisher and Guarapad products. The make of the vehicle is a Toyota Camry (Pencil) with registration no. JJ 110 EKY (Lagos), chassis No:4T1BG22K3VU169004, engine No:556327375, Colour: grey. If found, please contact the nearest police station, to Tribune Office or call 08056073943.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

newsmaker The new Sheriff in PDP’s town By Abiodun Awolaja

EWS that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) may lose 20 senators and 50 House of Reps members following the emergence of twoterm governor of Borno State, Ali Modu Sheriff, did not come as a surprise to most active watchers of the unfolding drama in the immediate past ruling party. Sheriff’s emergence is coming at a time when the PDP is being effectively de-marketed, almost without challenge, by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), with incredible stories of monumental sleaze daily orchestrated to serve as opium for a misgoverned populace and divert attention away from the failings of the present decisioners. Indeed, the way the narrative is structured, it appears that PDP is the only thief in town and its new Sheriff no more than a vastly experienced felon. Much of the drama has had to do with attitude to public information. In power, PDP adopted a laissez faire attitude to the management of public consciousness and allowed the opposition to pull the mat from under its feet. And so not even the handing over of radio licences to a select few towards the twilight of the last administration provided relief. Out of power, few would debate the impression that it is suffering from an overdose of docility, crippled by excessive fat, and seemingly incapable of challenging for laurels. Given that the PDP spokesman Olisah Metuh has just come out of manacles and a symbolic beard, it is unthinkable, for many, that PDP would choose a politician tainted with the Boko Haram brush to pilot its affairs in the most turbulent point so far in its chequered history. Already, rushing into the fray, some media goons are conducting predictable opinion polls on the desirability or otherwise of Sheriff’s headship of the self-confessed (until 2015, that is) “Africa’s largest political party.” The tactic, which may have the nod of the ruling party intent on a oneparty fascism, is to portray the PDP as a collection of criminals (never mind that Sheriff was until recently one of APC’s own pillars), and the most potent threat to Nigerian nationhood. Within the PDP itself, Sheriff is taking

his seat amid deafening protests. To the South-East and South-South zone which currently serves as its power base, he is persona non grata, and federal lawmakers previously looking at the ruling party with intent will find ample public support in their next move away from the PDP’s maddening crowd. Symbolically, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and apostle of bicycle transport, Chief Ojo Madueke, reportedly walked out on the party’s NEC when it became obvious that Sheriff was the choice of the party. It is clear that settlement and horse trading will occupy the coming weeks. Speaking at a rally on Wednesday, Sheriff chose to ignore his own baggage and vowed to lead the party to regain control of the Federal Government in 2019. “We will head from here and we will do it together. This my long cap is prepared to lead my colleagues and brothers to Aso Rock, Insha Allah. By the grace of Allah, nothing will deter this party from going to Aso Rock in 2019. By the time we put down our master plan, I am sure they (APC) will go back to where they came from. Insha Allah, nothing will stop us.” But he had arrived at the event late. In all the controversy, Sheriff has managed to retain the trust of the PDP governors. Hear them: “Sheriff is coming into the job with immense wealth of experience and will no doubt use his vast network to rebuild the party, restore members’ confidence and act as a counterfoil to the many antics of the present APC regime. We urge you to shun all diversionary tactics that might be thrown at you and concentrate on how to bring together all aggrieved party members as well as fashion out ways to woo new members, especially the youth.” And the national auditor of the party, Alhaji

Adewole Adeyanju, challenged anybody with concrete proof on Sheriff’s Boko Haram culpability to speak out or die in silence. He minced no words: “It is being erroneously speculated in some quarters that our new national chairman is a Boko Haram sponsor. Let those speculating this come out with concrete evidence and if they don’t have one, they should keep quiet and stop spreading such dangerous rumour.” To all intents and purposes, PDP’s choice of Sheriff is rooted in the pragmatics of politics, and the opposition stands on shaky ground while deploring his emergence. At this time of turbulence and the declaration of open war, the party certainly needs a no-nonsense grassroots mobiliser firmly implanted on the northern political soil, a terrain where real politik is firmly entrenched, and where grammar achieves nothing. On another plane Sheriff’s defenders are saying President Muhammadu Buhari was himself once nominated by Boko Haram during proposed talks with the then Federal Government. What is more, the current Senate Leader, Ali Ndume, has unfinished business in court over the same alleged sponsorship of Boko Haram for which Sheriff is being pilloried. The Sheriff case certainly illuminates the dangers of running a regime of allegations and treating suspects as convicted felons. The two-term Borno State governor, founding member of APC and experienced politician since the National Republican Convention (NRC) days certainly has much going for him politically and financially, and must meet the dictates of ruthlessness required to match the ruling party fire for fire, or he will have been no more than a sad footnote in the PDP book of death. And his predecessors ended badly.

newsfeature

interview

entertainment

I prayed that God should bless Olajumoke before she left Iree —Mum

No difference between APC, PDP —Hosea, Taraba PDP chieftain

I am hopelessly romantic —Adesua Etomi

Pp22,27

P38

Pp32

court&crime

He beats me as if he is in a contest, wife tells court Pp17&31

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

Toluwani Olamitoke 08050498504 toluwaniforever@yahoo.com

Like Oluchi,

ER meteoric rise from a mere street-to-street bread seller who lived on less than one dollar a day to a sought-after prospective supermodel is one story that confounds the wise. Within three weeks, Olajumoke Orisagunna has undergone such transformation that she herself would have thought possible only in her fecund imagination. For a 27-year-old non-literate young woman whose ambition was to earn a They possibly could have dreamt of stardom, but their humble backfew thousands before heading back to her grounds would have cast a shadow of doubt in their minds. But despeaceful polytechnic town of Ire in Osun tiny-strong and unstoppable-came to their aid. MODUPE OLAYINKA State to equip her small hairdressing salon, writes on Oluchi Onweagba-Orlandi and Olajumoke Orisagunna, the her superlative metamorphosis to a hometwo bread sellers who rose to become famous models. owner in upscale Lekki area of Lagos and the prospects of mega bucks in modelling is the stuff of Nollywood indeed. But, Olajumoke has a progenitor in this sort of life trajectory. Flashback 1998. Oluchi Onweagba, delectable, sultry and fragile-framed secondary school leaver daughter of a civil servant father and a mother who was a nurse, was raised in Ojuelegba, a Lagos suburb with her two brothers and sisters. Upon promptings from a neighbourhood aunty, she enlisted for an advertised call for contestants for then little known M Net Face of Africa contest. Like dramatic happenings in a dream, Oluchi emerged from oblivion to experience a social leap which has put her in the league of famous people on earth. Unsubstantiated sources had it that Oluchi, like Olajumoke, was also a bread hawker before she became the first winner of the maiden edition of the M-Net Face of Africa competition. Oluchi serenaded Oluchi Olajumoke the judges who unanitounding achievement but Oluchi has ruled sive success to open a modeling agency in mously pronounced her winner of the coveted crown and a the runway for seven unbroken years to the Africa to pave way for the next generation of aspiring African models. $150,000 three-year modeling contract admiration of even her worst critics. As of 2015, Oluchi was estimated to enwith Elite Model Management. From the fragile Lagos girl that she then joy a net worth of $2.5 million amassed That singular victory launched her interwas, Oluchi blossomed in beauty, poise through her modeling work, as well as her national modeling career to the skies. and elegance and then married her Italian modeling agency and hosting gig on Africa’s She consequently migrated to New York fashion designer sweetheart, Luca Orlandi Next Top Model. She does charity work in Africa with LEAP where she has been domiciled ever since. in 2005. She has since employed her masShe has traversed the world and strutted runways in New York, Paris and Milan as a first class model and one of the most photographed personalities of the 21st Century. She has worked with famous photographers, including Steven Meisel, Nick Knight, and David LaChapelle. Her astronomical rise to supermodel status was in 2002 followed by her admittance as a member of the elite Victoria’s Secret angels. Impressions in modeling circles have it that being in the Victoria’s Secret fashion show once in a lifetime is an as-

like Olajumoke

Though Olajumoke’s legend is still being scripted, a sneak preview shows a young lady who is already hugging the limelight and is poised to conquer the world. She has already clinched a couple of modeling contracts including those with Pay Porte and Stanbic IBTC.

Africa and NIPRO where she has proven resourceful enough to apply her wealth of positive public image to their campaigns free of charge She put an icing on her laurels on the runway by obtaining a Bachelor’s degree in Leadership and Management from New York University. There is no doubt that Oluchi has done so well for herself. What’s more? Oluchi has remained the wife of just one husband as her marriage of 11 years to her beau is waxing stronger with two boys between them as testimonials of their nuptial success. Olajumoke’s story is however better cast in the biblical Obededomic order owing to the fact that she was discovered from a zero pedigree background. A lack luster primary school leaver who could barely string together a sentence in English Language, she lived, with 40 others in a backwaters bakery in Sabo, Yaba, Lagos before the pentagram of her life led her to stardom. Each day, she clutched her tray of loaves which she hawked irrespective of the vagaries of the weather. On the day of her liberation, Olajumoke had photo bombed a photo shoot session by ace musician and photographer, TY Bello who eventually went down in her history as her destinyhelper. Though Olajumoke’s legend is still being scripted, a sneak preview shows a young lady who is already hugging the limelight and is poised to conquer the world given the stream of goodwill that has followed her since she debuted three weeks ago. She has already clinched a couple of modeling contracts including those with Pay Porte and Stanbic IBTC. The questions on the lips of many a cursory analyst of her upward career mobility is: will she also enjoy international acclaim like Oluchi has done? Will she dust her educational slate and pursue academic accomplishments like her career forebear? Will she remain true to Sunday, her husband of seven years and the father of Grace and Precious, her two female kids? In an interview recently in Lagos, Olajumoke sought to answer some of the questions. According to her, the fame that she has found will never be enough to quell the fire of love between her and her husband. She equally assured her admirers that she would enroll in a school to pursue a degree in Law just as she dreamt as a child. As more jobs roll in for this ‘miracle in flesh and blood’, time and providence will determine how true to her words she remains.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

With Aunty Yemi 08056834515 ojeleyeoyeyemi@yahoo.com

Will you allow your parents to choose your 1. Bakare Alliy, 15 yrs old My parents choosing my career will not help me because the one they might choose may not be my field of interest where I will be able to work toward achieving my goal and making plans for myself without any one planning my life for me. It doesn’t matter if one’s parents choose your career but I personally do not like it because they should not have a say in the matter.

2. Kasali Muhammed, 15 yrs old 4 No, because I know what I can and can’t do. For example, I love to face the crowd and argue and that is why I want to be a lawyer. I also have passion for this profession because it is so interesting. More so, I heard the story of a person whose parents chose career

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career?

Compiled by Temitayo Iliasu

for him but was later sacked because he couldn’t live to expectation. My ad3 vice to all parents is that they should allow their kids choose their career by themselves. 3. Quadri Ghalbert , 14 yrs old My parents’ choice career is not mine, so I can’t allow them to dictate to me. My choice is based on what I’m capable of doing having known my strengths and weaknesses. The problem about parents enforcing their wish on a child is that it may not be their area of interest. I would like to choose my career based on what I am capable of doing. 4. Adebiyi Aisha, 17 yrs old If I allow my parents to choose my career, it will affect me in the future. Parents choosing careers for their children is wrong and old-fashioned. What my parents will choose for me may not tally with what I want. As long as the career is not my choice, going for it by trying to please them will eventually be a waste of money and resources by the time I gain admission into the higher institution. I will like to choose my career by myself because it

Unscramble these words

2 is my future.

5. Oyewinle Esther, 13 yrs old No. This is because 6 it may not be the best I ever desire. It is better I follow my mind with the help of God and the guidance of my parents. 6. Akintunde Anuoluwapo, 12 y r s old 7 Choosing a career for me is like forcing me to eat a type of food that I dislike; it is either I suffer stomach upset or vomit after taking such food. I plead with parents not to make an occupation mandatory for their children. It will have disadvantages on us in the future. I will not allow my parents to make a choice for me. 7. Olalekan Omosalewa, 13yrs old I cannot let my parents decide on what profession I choose because I have the right to make decisions, although not in disobedience to their counsel. I have heard stories of people whose parents forced certain careers on them and at the end of the day, they still did what their hearts desire.

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3 recently. Many happy returns.

20 February, 2016

health&fitness

Saturday Tribune BLESSING EKUM

ekumblessing@gmail.com 08116954639

What to do when your wisdom tooth is infected irritated and subsequently infected. Those most predisposed to being infected Any person whose wisdom tooth has not fully erupted is predisposed to having the disease. However, some other predisposing conditions include someone who has diabetes mellitus or someone who is undergoing a stressful condition.

By Emmanuel Adeleke

OR many people, their childhood years mark the period when temporary teeth fall out and the permanent 32 teeth replace them. But for others, while they grapple with the physical and psychological challenges of adolescence and early adulthood, they are also faced with the experience of growing a tooth which usually begins to erupt at the far back of the mouth. This tooth, which is the third and last molar, is commonly known as the wisdom tooth. While a growing tooth generally presents with some discomfort, for those growing a wisdom tooth, it can not only be discomfiting but is a potential source of infection. Bisi (not real name) is a 22-year-old female and she shares her experience with an infected wisdom tooth. “When I was about 19 years old, I realised my last tooth in my left lower jaw started coming out. I didn’t think much about it because I had learnt in school about the wisdom tooth but I didn’t know anything about the possibility of it being infected. However, when I was 21 years, I woke up one morning and noticed soreness around the tooth. I didn’t take it seriously and thought it would go. After about two days, the gum was swollen and I couldn’t chew properly because the top tooth was biting on it and causing severe pain. By the next day, I couldn’t open my mouth completely. I was also having very painful sore throat and headaches. My breath was bad and I noticed pus was being discharged from the area. It was really terrible. I didn’t know what could have caused it and what to do because I couldn’t even open my mouth fully to swallow any drug. My grandma suggested I should rub some snuff (tobacco) on the area and it would immediately heal it. I was afraid to try that and eventually had to go to the hospital because the pain was unbearable. I never knew that an erupting tooth could cause so much pain and discomfort,” she said. For a number of individuals, the wisdom teeth erupt completely without issues, but for others whose wisdom tooth erupt partially or not at all, they usually share in Bisi’s experience. However, the pain and suffering could have been averted if she had taken certain factors to mind. Dr Timothy Aladelusi of the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery, University College Hospital, Ibadan, Oyo State, speaks with Saturday Tribune about this condition and how best to prevent and manage it. What it is Bisi’s condition is medically known as pericoronitis. When the third molar commonly called the wisdom tooth is not fully erupted, there is usually a flap of tissue covering it and when there is infection or inflammation of that tissue, we describe it as pericoronitis. Causes of pericoronitis

Prevention To prevent pericoronitis, the first step is in maintaining proper dental hygiene. This can be done by brushing any erupting wisdom tooth and flossing around it. This will help make sure that food and bacteria do not build up under the gums. Treatment The most important thing is to try and keep the area clean which can be done by gently irrigating under the flap. The individual can also use warm water and salt to bath the area that is inflamed and subsequently the infection should go away. However, if the infection continues or there is pain or the gum is swollen or the neck is painful or there is severe limitation/pain in opening the mouth, then the person needs to see a doctor as soon as possible for treatment with antibiotics and analgesics. There might also be a need to remove the tooth when the inflammation has resolved

Chewing tobacco or snuff or anything for that matter will not improve the response to pericoronitis. In fact, it could actually worsen it.

As explained, when the wisdom tooth, which is the last tooth in the mouth is not fully erupted into the oral cavity that means there will still be some soft tissue surrounding the top of that tooth. In a situation like that, food and debris can become trapped and this can breed microorganisms that would harbour under that soft tissue thereby causing infection. Also, there could be trauma from the opposing tooth which can cause the soft tissue to become

Must the tooth always be extracted? The tooth needs to be extracted if the inflammation is recurring, that means if pericoronitis comes back more than once. This is because if the tooth is not going to grow fully in the mouth, the flap that is covering it will not go away and since that flap is there, the chance that it is going to get infected again is still there. So, it is important to plan to remove the tooth which will be the permanent cure for the disease. The risks involved in extraction The risk involved in the extraction is such as is common to most of such interventions. However, if the procedure is carried by a certified expert, the chances of complications are minimal. Whichever way, patient should expect to have some pains and swelling after the extraction which would usually resolve after about a week or 10 days. How safe are traditional treatments such as chewing on tobacco (snuff)? Chewing tobacco or snuff or anything for that matter will not improve the response to pericoronitis. In fact, it could actually worsen it. So, it is not advisable to apply anything to the area where there is an inflammation. How reoccurrence can be forestalled Reoccurrence can be forestalled by removing the tooth.

16 healthandfitness

20 February, 2016

I am allergic to sperm I recently discovered that after making love with my husband without a condom, my body will come out in a bad rash. However, when we make love with condom and the sperm does not enter my body, I don’t have any rashes. I want to know what could be responsible for the allergy to my husband’s sperm and what to do about it since we are ready to start a family. Chinyere (by SMS) Allergy to sperm in some women is actually allergy to the protein component of the semen. In view of the potentially distressing

Dr. Wale Okediran

Sex during menopause

have even confirmed that frequents sex (2 to 3 times a week) can make a woman who is initially allergic to the husband’s sperm get over the allergy over a period of time.

Bleeding after D and C MY girlfriend had D and C on January 29, 2016. Since that day, she has been bleeding till this moment. What can we do to stop the blood? We really count on you sir. Nifemi (by SMS) The reason for your girlfriend’s continuous bleeding after the D and C could be due to infection or the remnants of the product of conception in the uterus. The best approach in this circumstance is for your girlfriend to undertake an ultrasound examination. This

waleokediran@yahoo.co.uk

08055069356 (sms only)

and dangerous state of the condition, treatment under medical supervision is usually advised. Such treatments range from the use of anti-allergy creams, tablets and injections. Scientists

KINDLY enlighten me on the issue of having sex with a woman who is already in menopause. Some people claim that the practice could harm the woman while others say it is harmless. Kindly advise Julius (by SMS)

There is nothing wrong with a menopausal woman having sex. The belief that sperm does collect in the abdomen of the post-menopausal woman is nothing but a myth. Apart from the dryness of the vagina which is more pronounced after menopause as well as the reduced libido in some menopausal women, there is usually nothing different in the sexual lives of pre and post-menopausal women.

I have gonorrhoea

I have gonorrhoea and I have used a lot of drugs with no cure. Kindly help me as I am fed up with the problem. Emeka (by SMS) will confirm or exclude the presence of any retained products in the uterus. In case of the presence of re-

OW many times have you found your partners not by your side as you wake up in the morning? No quarrel just that your spouse could not cope with the noisy night and so had to seek rest elsewhere. What God has joined together let no noisy night put asunder. Snoring, especially in the night, disturbs the bedroom partner’s sleep commonly experienced among couple which often leads to separation of rooms. A study showed that partners of millions of snorers are kept awake for two hours each night, which equates to two years’ lost sleep over the course of an average marriage. This is serious! For steps to help you enjoy your sleep as partners of snorers, come along as you read this piece. One way or other we might have snored during sleep but many ignore and blame it on tiredness. I want to please encourage us not to just ignore snoring because apart from disturbing your room partners, it can lead to certain cardiovascular disease and may herald upper airways disorders.’ What is snoring? Snoring is simply noisy breathing during sleep resulting from partial or total obstruction of upper part of the airway (wind pipe). The whole night may be so noisy as to disturb other partners in the room. Affect both male and female but commoner in elderly. Fifty percent of those with loud snoring suffer from cessation of breathing (sleep apnea) during sleep, a serious condition that needs thorough investigation. Snoring can be simple in most times or complex depending on the cause(s). Causes and risk factors of snoring Noses, ear and mouth meet at a part simply called throat. Throat is surrounded by muscular structure, soft tissues, and bone and all work together to breathe and swallow food. Any obstruction of airflow into the lung in this region results in vibration along these tissues that makes the victim snore. Most people that snore have enlargement of the surrounding structure which narrows the airway resulting in noisy breathing. There are modifiable (within control) and non modifiable (within control) causes of snoring.

Saturday Tribune

tained products, a repeat evacuation with antibiotics coverage will solve the problem.

Since you have used several medications without any cure, your best bet is to take a swap

Is this an appendix?

I recently noticed some serious pain at the right lower part of my abdomen with fever and headache. The doctor said it is an appendix and needs to be operated. Kindly let me know if this is true. I am a 25 year old married woman with one issue. Suleya (by SMS)

of the discharge from your penis for a laboratory examination. The examination will confirm the gonorrhoea as well as the appropriate drugs to use to clear the infection. It is also important for you to treat all your sexual contacts so as to avoid a re-infection.

Your presentation appears to be an Appendix. It is however important for some tests such as an ultrasound and urine test to be carried out to confirm the diagnosis since some other conditions such as ovarian cyst and urine infection could also mimic an Appendix.

Dr. Abiodun Adeoye adeoyemoshood@yahoo.com

08056564360, 08072000017 (sms only)

Snoring makes the night noisy Non-modifiable causes Age – your throat becomes narrower and muscle tone decreases as you grow old making the throat muscle floppy (too soft) and vibrate generating noise as you breathe during sleep. Heredity – all physical attributes like narrow throat, enlarged upper throat gland (adenoids) are genetically determined and can run in the family. Allergies to dust or other agents and asthma can lead to snoring that is beyond the control of the victim. Male sex predisposes to narrow air passages hence the tendency for men to snore compared with women. Modifiable causes Obesity predisposes to fatty tissue and poor muscle tone which contributes to snoring. Smoking or exposure to second-hand smoking relaxes muscle and create nasal congestion. Alcohol increases muscle relaxation leading to more snoring Sleeping posture – sleeping flat on your back allows the flesh of your throat to relax and block the airway. Health effect of snoring Poor sleep can lead to daytime fatigue, irritability and increased health problems. When the airway narrows or is obstructed, the body makes more effort in pushing the air out of the lung thereby increasing the demand on the heart. When it continues unabated it can lead to high blood pressure. Snoring itself is not a symptom of heart failure but it can worsen the state of heart failure. Making more demand on a failing heart is like flogging a dead horse. Other cardi-

ovascular diseases like stroke and heart attack are associated with snoring. Loud snorers are at a more risk of 40% than non-snorers to develop hypertension, 34% are at a greater risk of heart attack, and 67% are at a greater chance of having stroke. Loud snoring, especially when associated with sleep apnea, is associated with oxygen poor blood which can lead to stroke and heart attack. What are you to do? Snoring is very easy to treat once you identify the cause. The way you snore may reveal why you snore, kindly follow the following tips. • Snoring when mouth is closed probably signifies the problem with the tongue • When the throat tissues are affected snoring will come mouth open • Severe snoring that requires more comprehensive treatment is those associated with all sleep positions • Snoring while sleeping flat on your back is simple- improved sleep habits and lifestyle changes may bring effective cure. As a snorer, you can help yourself by observing the following lifestyle changes which include sleeping on your side, elevation of the head of your bed, avoid alcohol and illicit drugs and encourage weight loss if you are obese. To conclude, changing bedrooms is not the solution to that noisy night, the answer is help your partner out of snoring and if it persists, you have to devise means of enjoying your sleep amidst snoring. For tips on how to do this, join us next week. Till then, maintain a healthy heart.

20 February, 2016

mediascope

Saturday Tribune

WITH AKIN ADEWAKUN akadewakun@yahoo.co.uk 0805 468 3584

Despite harsh economic weather, more companies will embrace PR in 2016 —Bolaji Abimbola, MD, Indigo PR Bolaji Abimbola is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of one of the nation’s fastest growing public relations outfits, Indigo PR. In this interview with AKIN ADEWAKUN, the public relations expert shares his thoughts on the state of public relations practice today, while insisting that the future is still bright for the practice despite the air of pessimism surrounding it. Excerpts :

HAT is the experience like starting a PR firm and nurturing it to this stage? Well, it’s been the mixture of both the good, the bad and the ugly. Though I will say, it’s been very exciting. Where we are today is a function of the vision driving Indigo PR. I remember a chat I had with a lady practitioner, though deceased now, few years ago. She was asking me of my vision, and I remember telling her that my vision, in the next five years, was to lead a new generation PR company, that would revolutionise the practice of PR in Nigeria. Just like in medicine that we have preventive and proactive medicine, so also do we have this in PR. But I think what we do most of the time is reactive PR, where the client is allowed to take initiative and tell us what he wants to do. I think that is not the way to do PR. PR should see the agencies lead the client. As a matter of fact, I always say that PR is like the Airfoce to the Army, and you know if the Airforce is not first deployed to destabilse the enemy forces and prepare the Army and the Navy for the ground offensive, the war will be very difficult to win. So is it with marketing communications, where I think PR should actually lead. PR should generate the direction or give direction to every other part of marketing communication. But unfortunately, here, PR is playing more like an auxiliary role in the whole marketing communication gamut, which I find very curious. So the idea is to run a PR firm with that new thinking. I want to champion this new thought process in PR such that clients see PR as a management function, such that if you are thinking of starting any business or already in business, the first thing you think of is PR, because beyond the façade of advertising, you are more likely to sell better if you are able to achieve that mutual understanding with your target audience and which is what PR does. A lot of people believe that PR is the most ‘neglected’ out of all the components of marketing communications, sometimes it is only involved after brief process has been completed, why is this so? The answer is not far-fetched, PR is still relatively new in this part of the globe, and I will tell you why. You see PR has a lot of definitions in Nigeria and that is why at the level of PRCAN, we are trying to change that belief around PR because if you go to a lot of organisations and you check their books and their balance sheet, they would say they spend hundreds of millions on PR, but if you dig deeper, you find out that 90 per cent of that budget is spent on gratifications and not the real PR as we know it. We are coming from a place where perception on PR is wrong. The only thing in this part of the world that people always mistake for PR is media relations, but this is just but one aspect of PR. Media Relations is supposed to be the outcome, that is the end to a means.It is supposed to help you create awareness and publicity for your activities. But there is a lot to PR. Take for instance the advisory role. Besides, it must be seen as an extension of the corporate communication or marketing department of any company, so that when key decisions, involving the consumers, trade partners and others, are being taken, PR will also make an input. That is why if you find a company where the PR person is part of the management team, that company is likely to do well in PR, because it has identified and recognised PR as a management function. Besides, because PR practitioners, most times, don’t go to clients and speak from the point of knowledge and inter-

rogate the clients’ briefs, they take us for granted. But with today’s economic realities, I think the paradigm is going to shift. Organisations are cutting cost and when they are cutting cost, they are going to look inwards. Interestingly, the most cost-effective form of communication remains PR. But it’s a journey and I believe we will get there.

achieve, which must be time-bound. For instance, if you find that the top of the mind awareness for a brand is 30 percent, you can now agree to embark on some public relations activities or campaign to move that to about 60 per cent within the next six months. And when this is done, one can always measure this impact.

But how do you react to some claims that PR will continue to lag behind in Nigeria because the impact on clients’ brands can not be measured? How then can PR justify those advertising budgets? I will take it from this angle. Can you actually measure the value of peace? One can not really measure or appreciate the value of being healthy until that person is sick. You will not appreciate peace until there is chaos. You will not appreciate the value of PR until your organisation is in a reputation crisis. This is because PR is subtle, and if you put a cost to what you are spending on PR and the value you get, you don’t need anybody to tell you that PR offers far more value than any other communication means. There have been a lot of issues around our measurement metrics, but even organisations that are embarking on PR campaign, a lot of them are not willing to invest on research, because you can not evaluate anything without first understanding where you are in terms of reputation. And when you tell clients of that need to do this perception audit, they want to rely on some other marketing research that they have done, but there are public relations-specific research that you carry out to know where exactly these brands are. You also have equity rating. You get brand equity rating based on the response and reaction of people to your brand. This is also tied to how they react to some of your communications, your change in price, your new packaging and a lot of things. So PR does a lot of work and is measurable. But for you to measure, you should have client stating the objective you wish to

Indigo, your company, came at a time when the general impression was that the business weather, especially IMC, was inclement. Can you give us an insight into how this PR firm was nurtured from infancy, despite the economic turbulence? I think it’s been grace. When we started, we rolled out clearly our five-year plan and you know when you are positive and you have them written out, you will find out that those things will begin to manifest. When we started Indigo, we had no clear-cut clientele base that we were hoping to start with. We only had goodwill, besides the fact that we started it as part of the bigger Noah’s Ark Group. So that gave us some leverage on some of the businesses that Noah’s Ark was also working on, we plugged into it. And interestingly, Noah’s Ark had been sub-contracting those PR businesses to other PR companies, so when we came on board, the client became very excited about delivery. What worked for us is that Indigo is run by a team of young, dynamic people. Our speed of delivery was one of those things that attracted us to the clients. And from there we started getting referrals and to the glory of God, we are where we are today. And I can tell you that last year we did very well and every day, our client base is growing. We remain that agency that is not loud, but we want our work to speak for us. One of our focus this year is actually to break out and extend our frontiers.

You will not appreciate peace until there is chaos. You will not appreciate the value of PR until your organisation is in a reputation crisis. This is because PR is subtle

Where do you see the practice this year, in other words, what does 2016 hold for PR? For me, I’m very positive. I will like to differ from a lot of people who believe there is nothing for the practice this year, due to the harsh economic weather. For me I believe that this inclement business weather would force many companies to seek the services of PR agencies. But I think the most important thing for us, as practitioners is to position ourselves for those opportunities. We need to hone our skill too because the landscape is getting increasingly competitive, with the clients getting more demanding. But in all, I believe there are a lot of opportunities for PR practice in the new year. I see more organisations coming for PR this year than we had in previous years. For me the future of PR is very bright, but we practitioners must find a way to change the way we work. We should actually be leading this marketing mix.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

crimeandcourt

She fights, inflicts injuries on me —Husband I don’t know what he is talking about —Wife Stories by Ayomide Owonibi with Agency Reports

59-year-old man, Mr Joseph Adunwo, has sought the dissolution of his marriage to his wife, Rachael, over alleged frequent

fighting. The complaint told an Igando customary court in Lagos State that Rachael, women leader of a Redeemed Chistian Church of God Parish, had the habit of causing him public embarrassment. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the couple got married in 2006 after the demise of Joseph’s first wife. The union with Rachel is blessed with a child. Joseph said that Rachel always fought him and his older children from his first marriage. “She can fight from morning till evening if she wants to; she fights with neighbours and my children from my late wife. “Look at my body, she gave me all these injuries; is it a crime to marry someone you love? “My older children are under her constant criticism; she embarrasses me publicly. “I can’t walk freely on the street; she does not cook for me, she lacks respect for me, she does not see me as the head of the family. “I cannot tolerate this anymore. I want us to go our separate ways, I have had enough,” he said. Rachel, a 42-year old trader denied all the allegations against her. “I don’t know what he is talking about; let him bring out those he claimed that I fought to testify against me. “He said I don’t cook for him, why will I if he does not give me money to cook, he is supposed to feed me, not the other way round,” the trader said. President of the court, Adegboyega Omilola, ordered the couple to come with three members of their families each for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) on March 10. The case was adjourned till June 22 for further hearing.

He is completely irresponsible, woman tells court It’s a lie, she likes to pick issues over small things —Husband A housewife, Hefsat Shuaibu during the week asked a Lugbe Grade 1 Area court in Abuja, to dissolve her three-year-old marriage to one Adamu, on grounds of his alleged irresponsible behaviour. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), the wife told the court that her husband is “irresponsible and has fond of insulting her parents”. In the resumed hearing in the case on February 15, Shuaibu told the court that she was tired of her husband’s attitude which he refused to change over the years. According to the complainant, since she married Adamu, they always quarrel whenever it comes to the issue of providing food for the family. “Adamu is in no way responsible as he does not cater for the welfare of our child, in addition to not being responsible for the house rent. “If I complain of his irresponsibility, he would descend on me by unleashing all manners of insult on me and my parents,” Shuaibu said. She also alleged that she had been staying with her parents for long and that Adamu still talked to them rudely “as if they are his children”.

“I am tired of his waywardness because he has brought indescribable shame on me as a result of his incompetence in handling family matters. “He does not show concern, especially when it has to do with our child or when I take ill. “He has failed in his matrimonial obligations; I am totally fed up, please dissolve this marriage as I am no more interested in the marriage,” she pleaded with the court. Adamu, however, denied all the allegations and urged the court for more time to settle with his wife amicably. “I take good care of her and our child; it is just that she does not respect me and she always wants to quarrel about little things. “Please give me more time to resolve the issues with her,” he said. The president of the court, Mr Garba Ogbede, ordered the couple to provide more evidence to substantiate their claims. “Both parties are to maintain the peace at all times; any violation of the order of this court will amount to contempt with grave consequences,” he warned. Ogbede adjourned continuation of hearing in the case till March 1, for both parties to tender evidence.

I’d rather remain single than stay in this marriage —Wife Don’t listen to her ’cos I can’t do without her —Husband AFTER three years of unsuccessful marriage between Nasifat Olowolagba and her husband, Oluwasegun, an Orile-Agege customary court in Lagos State has dissolved the union over battery, threats to life and incessant fighting. President of the court, Dr Kayode Whenu, while dissolving the union, said “starting from today, you cease to be addressed as husband and wife. “You shall go your separate ways and maintain the peace. “The custody of the only child in the union remains with the mother and any contention on it is referred to Ikeja Family Court for intervention,” he said. Whenu, however, ordered Oluwasegun to be paying N5, 000 every month for the upkeep of the child through the court’s registrar. He also said that Oluwasegun must be responsible for the education and medical bills of the child. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Nasifat had approached the court on September 21, 2015, seeking the dissolution of her marriage, citing battery, threats to life and incessant fighting. Nasifat, 34, a trader who lives at 23, Atanda Akinremi Street, Orile Agege, a suburb of Lagos, had told the court that Oluwasegun had made life unbearable for her.

“I have suffered tremendous emotional and physical assault because he beats me at will, he is lazy and always wants me to work to feed him and pay house rents. “I have become completely insolvent due to his laziness and unrepentant bankruptcy because I paid all the loans he collected from the bank and the one he collected from my sister. “It will be better if I remain single than to spend the rest of my life inside an oven I call home,” she said. The mother of a two-year-old child told the court that to continue to live with Oluwasegun would amount to living in hell. “I ran away from home on August 1, 2015 and took my child along, I pray the court to dissolve the union and grant me custody of my child,” she said. However, her husband, Oluwasegun, 41, a bricklayer who lives at 28, Aige Street, Orile-Agege, denied ever beating his wife. “I am not a violent person, I have never beaten her, I am also a responsible person and I endeavoured to do my best in taking care of my wife and child. “I want the court to disregard her plea because I cannot do without her,” he said.

My greatest mistake in life is that I married him, wife tells court

She starved me of sex for one and half years —Husband “MY husband rapes and constantly beats me,” a house wife has told an Orile-Agege customary court in Lagos State and prayed for her 10-year-old marriage to be dissolved. The petitioner, Mrs Temitope Salaudeen, 32, a trader, who resides at 2, CAC Street, Agege, a suburb of Lagos, pleaded with the court

He raped my 16-year-old cousin, forcefully took my son away from me, says wife She left my house of her own volition —Husband A 31-years-old trader, Oluwaseyi Ajofoyibo, has told an Igando customary court that there was no going back on her resolved to divorce her husband, Kamoru. Oluwaseyi alleged that Kamoru raped her 16-year-old cousin and forcefully took their seven-year-old son away from her. According to the mother of two, her estranged husband was in the habit of beating and blackmailing her at the slightest provocation. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Oluwaseyi had moved out of Kamoru’s house with her children. “My cousin came to my then matrimonial home, asking me to help her appeal to her mother over a misunderstanding she had with her. “I left the house for a night. When I returned, my cousin told my neighbours that my husband tried to rape her without success.

Saturday Tribune

“But after she was probed further she confessed that my husband succeeded in raping her,” she said. The complainant said that she told her husband that she was visiting her parents in Badagry. “I told him I was going to visit my parents in Badagry, I packed my belongings and left with my sons. “I rebuffed several attempts by our families for me to return to his house. “He then came and forcefully took my son away from me, we were never legally married, he refused to pay my dowry. “He has returned my son now; I just want the court to grant me divorce, so that we can both go our different ways,” ’’ Oluwaseyi said NAN reported that at the first hearing on December 1, 2015, the president of the court referred the case to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), which was held two weeks later.

But the ADR failed to resolve the matter. The respondent, who resides at Osunba Street, Igando, however, did not deny the allegation of raping his wife’s cousin, nor forcefully taking their son away. “ We were not having any misunderstanding, she said she wanted to visit her family in Badagry, I gave her N 30, 000. “My wife told me that she would stay for two weeks, but that turned into months and into years. “Our families called a meeting, she refused to talk. She was not even moved with the tears on her mother’s face. I needed to see my son after a long stay away from me. “That’s why I took him to my brother’s place in Badagry. “I know I have made some mistakes and I’m sorry about it; I need to see my sons too,” he said. President of the court, Mr A. L Omilola, adjourned the case till April 26 for judgement.

He beats me as if he is in a contest,wife tells court

Our problem started when she began to sneak into church —Husband A 38-year-old woman, Mutiat Kilanko, has pleaded with an Orile Agege customary court, Lagos State, to dissolve her 15-year- old marriage, accusing her husband of infidelity and battery. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that the petitioner, who lives at No. 3, Pipeline Street, Ile-Epo, Abule-Egba Road, Lagos, urged the court to dissolve her marriage to Oduyemi Kilanko. According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), she told the court that her husband was not providing for the upkeep of the family but was always demanding for food. “He beats me as if he is in a contest and has extended the beating to our children. “Our first born had hearing defect for a long time as a result of her father’s incessant beating.” The mother of two girls said that her husband brought home one of his girlfriends to the house without any respect or regard for her feeling.

“I got to know that he has two wives outside and the day I asked him, he beat me up. “He drinks to stupor and has beaten me in the presence of my mother before.” She said that the matter affected her health and she had to be placed on drugs for two years. “I am tired of the relationship; I want a divorce,” she said. The respondent, a 42-year-old politician, who lives at 6 James Giwa Close, Ile-Epo, Abule- Egba Road, denied the petitioner’s claims. “Our fight started when she started sneaking to church without my consent; I was surprised when she packed out of the house because we were on good terms then. “I am not a drunkard neither am I a womaniser, but I have a girlfriend. I still love Mutiat and I want the court to assist in solving the issues we had,” he said. President of the court, Dr Kayode Whenu, admonished the couple to maintain the peace, and adjourned the case till February 25 for further hearing.

to dissolve her marriage over alleged rape, battery and threats to her life. She told the court that her husband, Alilu Saludeen, is a wife beater and treats her like a slave. “My husband rapes me anytime he feels like having sex and does not care about my feelings or my emotions. “He sold some of my jewellery without my consent and steals my money at will,” she added. Temitope said that the greatest mistake she made in life was getting married to her husband, Alilu Saludeen. “I ran away from the house sometime in November 2015 with my children because if I continued living with him, he might beat me to death one day,” she said. The mother of two pleaded with the court to dissolve the union and grant her custody of her children. However, her husband, Alilu, 39, a building contractor, denied all the allegations. “I have never beaten her before, she starved me of sex for one and half years despite the fact that we were living in the same house. “She hides her phone from me and I did not sell her jewellery neither did I steal her money,” he said. He told the court that he was still in love with his wife and not ready for the dissolution of the marriage. President of the court, Dr Kayode Whenu, told the couple to maintain the peace and adjourned the case till February 23 for further hearing.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

20 February, 2016

Saturday With

OUTH African President, Jacob Zuma, got me scamper into my library during the week. Handy on the shelf were the works of Can Themba, Alex la Guma, Ezekiel Mphalele, Mazisi Kunene, Alf Wannenburg and others who were the pull that drew this writer into the nitty-gritty of apartheid South Africa in those heady days. You saw the squalor, the harrowing pains and man’s inhumanity to man on the groove and brows of apartheid. On this windy morning, Themba’s and La Guma’s caught my attention. The news, as it has done oft-time, had sidled centerstage again that Zuma was being dragged to the Constitutional Court over allegations of corruption, the news this time around centering on complaints against his alleged spending of public funds to upgrade his rural estate homestead at Nkandla. The upgrades, valued in 2014 at 216 million rand (then $24 million) threatened to grind African National Congress (ANC) and Zuma’s government to a halt. Among the upgrade works done on the Nkandla property were a world-class swimming pool said to be a fire-fighting facility, a chicken run, a cattle enclosure, an amphitheatre and a visitors’ centre. Pictures of the palatial facility in Zuma’s country home unobtrusively captured its neighbourhood of squalor, of apparently poverty-stricken hovels and grim-provoking lack. Themba’s The Will to Die and La Guma’s The Lemon Orchard instinctively caught my attention out of the pack. Themba’s, a collection of stories about black Johannesburg in the late 1950s, situating the African problem as white rule, got banned in South Africa and the ban wasn’t lifted until 1982. La Guma’s on the other side, situated in 1962 South Africa, has five white people, including a coloured, walking down the lemon orchard on a winter night, and with words like “hotnot”, “kaffir”, “colored man”, “baas”, the narratives of apartheid and its segregation as the glue that held back the black is a strong motif. From pre-colonial Africa up till decades into the post-colony, history is frescoed with the African leadership calamity. Remove the mouthy names of an African leader from one remote jungle on the map and substitute it with another, the pest per-

Saturday Tribune

ayinla mukaiba ayinlamukaiba@yahoo.com

Zuma’s pestilence of bed bugs spective is still the same. They are narratives of the bed bug. The bed bug is one serpentine vermin that hides in remote jungles of the body of its prey, sucking his blood and bloating in an unusually rotund manner, at the expense of its victim. From Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, to Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria, the story of Zuma has always been the narrative of the African leader and substantially the narrative of the underdevelopment of Africa. A Malawian journalist, Frank Jomo, in a July 2015 article for the African Arguments website put his own Malawian tragedy in perspective. Entitled “Corruption bleeds Malawi’s wobbling economy,” Jomo succinctly painted the trajectory of the tragedy, using his country’s variant as a vivid illumination: “Such is the gravity of corruption in Malawi. An already impoverished nation will not develop due to institutionalized pilferage. The report by PricewaterhouseCoopers showed that government had made payments to different suppliers on different dates using the same cheque number... What is clear however is that corruption in government is done in a very coordinated way and in a mafia-like style.” We are all not immune from this narrative that has become African in texture. The narrative of Jomo’s Malawi, especially the current pillaging of the tiny deadlocked country, foreworded by Hastings Kamuzu Banda for about three decades, is distressingly a similitude of the refrain in Sani Abacha and may yet be the constitutive make-up of Goodluck Jonathan’s Nigeria – if ever we will get to know. The cumulative of this institutionalized pilferage is what earns Africa the moniker, the Doomed Continent, in spite of its wealth of human and natural resources. Professor Richard Joseph, at the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy conference earlier in the month, said he could not fathom how Nigeria is this distressingly rudderless, can’t even fix something as seemingly simplistic as transportation when, in virtually all continents of the world, especially in America, a Nigerian is making good as a prodigy.

That is why I cannot but hold Muhammadu Buhari guilty of the crime of sensationalism and misplacing a part as the whole, perhaps for theatre and sport. Buhari’s crime is awareness that the Sambo Dasuki sleaze is a mere macrocosm of the microcosm, as sociologists say, yet he is busy making a circus of this tiny particle of our national infamy. Those who recommend the strengthening of institutions rather than government wasting precious energy on pursuing Mephistopheles would argue that if the corruption-arresting institutions were strong, the quantum of corruption in the states and local governments where governors and council chairmen, on a monthly basis, literally upturn government coffers to the wares of local bureau de change malam at Sabo, and same cash, by some economic abracadabra, making furtive appearances in economic capitals of the West as real estate and blood-soaked investments, would have been tamed by now. That the dollar and pounds sterling have literally taken the wind off the sail of the Nigerian naira today is undoubtedly a product of this persistent, periodic and reckless sodomy of the Nigerian coffers by the clan of those who devise ingenuous thieving mechanisms of banking dollars inside soakaway pits, turning their homes into cemeteries where foreign currencies are interred from prying eyes, or ferrying them overseas using technologies as accomplices. Someday, I pray to walk up to the graves of La Guma, Kunene, Peter Abrahams, Mphalele, Themba, etc. – members of that literary cult who, in my growing up years, brainwashed me to believe that the white man was the blight of South Africa – and demand apologies. Zuma has perforated this endemic thesis.

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20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

interview Mother of bread seller-turned-model tells Saturday Tribune in Iree:

When she was leaving for Lagos, I prayed God would bring helpers to her

Olajumoke’s mother and her uncle, Isiaka Olubonku in front of their house in Iree. her and the other one is here in Iree.

She should remember the daughter of whom she is —Uncle

I took her in after my son impregnated her –Mother-in-law

An uncle to Olajumoke, Mr Isiaka Olubonku, also shares his thoughts and experience with OLUWOLE IGE.

Mrs Ramota Kamorudeen, a vegetable seller at Obada market in Iree, Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State, is the mother of Olajumoke Orisagunna, a bread seller in Lagos who recently shot to fame courtesy of ace singer and photographer, T. Y. Bello. In this interview with Saturday Tribune’s OLUWOLE IGE, Mrs Kamorudeen bares her mind on her daughter’s sudden transformation. Excerpts:

When you heard about Olajumoke’s newfound fame, how did you feel? I felt very happy when I heard about the good thing that happened to her. I saw it on Facebook. When I saw her pictures and read the news about her on Facebook, I could not tell her mother because I was not sure if it was actually my niece or another person. When I was eventually convinced that it was her, I went to meet my sister, her mother, and asked if she had heard the news of her daughter’s fortune and she said yes. I know Jumoke to be a lovely child destined for good things. My prayer is that God grant her long life because this is not the last of the good things that will come her way. In fact, this is the beginning of great things to come for her. She is going to be known worldwide. I also pray God to give her wisdom and knowledge required to sustain her new status so that she will not misbehave or jeopardise her relationship with people. She has always been a responsible girl.

OW did you receive the news of your daughter becoming a celebrity overnight? I was very happy when I heard. It is a thing of joy that my daughter has become an important person in life.

Was there previously a sign or prophecy that Olajumoke would be great in life? There was no sign and we did not receive any prophecy from a pastor or alfa that she would become famous in the future. What I have always known, however, is that only God has the power to change a person’s status from nothing to something. What did you discuss with her before she left for Lagos where fortune eventually smiled on her? I beseeched God to open the door of opportunities for her, let her make it and let anything she laid her hands on in Lagos turn to gold. I prayed God to make her meet somebody who would help her. Those were my prayers and I thank God that He has answered them.

Olajumoke Orisagunna’s mother, Mrs Ramota Kamorudeen, at her vegetable stall at Obada market, Iree, in Boripe Local Government Area of Osun State, on Wednesday. PHOTO: OLUWOLE IGE

How would you describe Olajumoke? She is a lovely child, well-behaved and easygoing. She does not do anything that can bring problem to her or others. Why did her education stop at the primary school level? After she left primary school, she told me that she wanted to learn hairdressing, so, we took her to a shop here in Iree where she started to learn the occupation. That was the reason she did not go beyond primary school. After she completed her apprenticeship a few years ago, we organised a graduation ceremony for her.

Did Olajumoke grow up in Iree?

What is your advice for Olajumoke? My advice for her is to be patient. She should remember her parents always and be mindful of her background in Iree town. She must also remember what she has passed through. She should be wary of negative advice and be good to her relations and friends.

I took her in after my son impregnated her –Mother-in-law

Olajumoke’s mother-in-law, Mrs Janet Orisagunna, also speaks with OLUWOLE IGE on her daughterin-law.

God has done something so wonderful in my life that I cannot express how joyous I am. My daughter has made me proud. God has set her feet on the path of greatness.

Now that Olajumoke’s status has changed, what is your advice for her? I know that God does things His own way but my advice for her is to allow God to lead her in everything she does and listen to the instructions of people who have helped her to become what she is today. My prayer is that as God started something great in her life, He would continue to help her so that she would rise and become successful. Has she called you since her life changed? Yes, she has called me several times. She even called me the day the good thing happened and explained everything to me. She told me about how she was discovered by the lady called T. Y. Bello. I was so excited. I danced vigorously to appreciate God for ‘remembering’ my daughter. She has not come back to Iree since that remarkable thing happened to her but we have been communicating on the telephone. We speak on the phone at least six times a day.

Olajumoke’s mother-in-law, Mrs Janet Orisagunna.

Yes, she grew up here in Iree. What do you do for a living? I am a vegetable seller. I have been doing this work for a long time. This is my stand. This is where I sell vegetables, including ewedu. Olajumoke’s siblings are in nursery and primary schools.

How do you see your daughter’s sudden fame? God has done something so wonderful in my life that I cannot express how joyous I am. My daughter has made me proud. God has set her feet on the path of greatness. What is your plan now? Do you intend to go and

How did you receive the news of Olajumoke’s fortune with her pictures in newspapers and on social media? She is my son’s wife but I treat her as my own daughter. I felt very happy when I heard the good news.

Olajumoke’s hairdressing saloon in Iree.

meet your daughter in Lagos? I want her to settle down first. I will go and meet her in Lagos later. She told me that they would soon travel. What about her husband, Sunday Orisagunna? Her husband has gone to meet her since the time she was discovered by T. Y. Bello. One of Jumoke’s children is with

Since your son, Sunday, married Olajumoke, how would you describe her attitude? She has always exhibited a good character. My son met and impregnated her when she was learning hairdressing. My son had phoned me from Lagos and said that if I heard that he impregnated a girl, it was true and he was ready to marry her. In the evening of that day, somebody brought Jumoke and mentioned Sunday as the one who put her in the family way. I said there was no problem and asked her to come and stay with me. Some weeks later, she brought her luggage and began living with me here. I soon went to meet her parents and told them that we had accepted her as our wife and daughter. Since she gave birth, I have been taking care of her. Sometime last year, she told me that she was going to Lagos to work and I gave her my blessing. She dropped her firstborn for her mother but when the child was sick, my in-law brought her to me, saying that she said he wanted to see her father (Sunday), who was then in Osogbo, where he was learning to make aluminium doors

Olakunle Orisagunna, senior brother to Olajumoke’s husband, Sunday.

and windows. Sunday came to Iree for the weekend and we took the child to the hospital and thereafter, she was okay. But when Jumoke heard that her child was sick, she said she wanted to come and take her to Lagos and I said there was no need for that. Not quite long afterwards, she came to Iree and started staying here. However, in January, this year, she told me that she was going back to Lagos and I asked about her decision to return to Lagos. This time, she took her two children to Lagos but I was not comfortable with it and I gave her husband money to go and bring back the first child so that she could continue her education in Iree. I didn’t want anything to disrupt her education because it might be difficult to find a school for her in Lagos. She later brought the child back to Iree. About a week after, she went back to Lagos and the next thing we heard in the news is that she has become a model. We did not really take the news seriously at first. Her husband called and told me that he wanted to travel to Lagos because some people took the picture of Jumoke and they were looking for her and eventually found her at the bakery where she usually bought bread in large quantities. He said they asked him to come to Lagos over the matter. I gave him the transport fare and he left for Lagos. When he got to Lagos, Sunday called me and said that it was good news and we were all happy. What is your advice for Olajumoke now? This is a thing of joy for me and Jumoke’s parents. For us in the Orisagunna family, we see it as a big success. Jumoke and her husband, my son, should continue to pray and thank God and realise that it is God who has brought them this far in life.

I also catered for her and her husband so I’m relieved at their independence –Brother-in-law

Olajumoke’s brother-in-law, Olakunle Orisagunna, in a chat with OLUWOLE IGE, equally speaks on the new status of his younger brother’s wife. What was your reaction when you heard that Olajumoke had become a model, a celebrity in Lagos? I was very happy because I was partly responsible for them. I was not far from our family house here in Iree. Jumoke was here with my mother when she had her children. I thank God that they have become independent now. If she were still here, Mama would be struggling to feed them. God, in His infinite mercies, has placed Jumoke on a level where she could not have dreamt of ever been. I have told them to pray every day and be grateful to God for His kindness and mercy. I pray God to give them long life and good health to enjoy this goodness. I thank my mother for all she has done for the two of them. If they were still here, she would be catering for the couple and their children. Wherever they may be now, I am sure they remember the role this old woman has played in their lives. Similarly, I thank T. Y. Bello for what she has done for Jumoke. From what I have read in the newspapers and online, T. Y. Bello has been very supportive of my brother and sister-in-law. She has been responsible for their upkeep since she discovered Jumoke. On Valentine’s Day, I saw pictures of Jumoke in different attires on Facebook. At events where she has signed contracts, Jumoke has worn different clothes. All these are the making of T. Y. Bello. How would you counsel Olajumoke at this point? I would admonish her not to disrespect those people who have helped her. She should persevere and be humble to her boss. She needs to be patient because people will say things. She must not listen to them so as not to give room for friction between her and T. Y. Bello.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

views.com

NAFDAC as real progressive agent of change By Martin Ikhilae

lobally, healthcare provision, development and regulation is a combination of dynamism and modernised practices and it’s as such that the responsibility of intensifying continuous search for means of improving on the sector rest squarely on its assigned managers . It is in this regard that the sector is encouraged to evolve and sustain world class scientific think tanks to persistently conduct research for the purpose of modernising operations and spearheading novel as well as dynamic inventions with a view to efficient service delivery. Expectedly, efforts of regulators in the sector are such that they are positioned to midwife a change for progress in this regard. Change as a revolutionary catalyst therefore, has a double implication on human and national development. It could be either progressive or retrogressive in nature, depending on its mode of application. When ideally embraced and implemented, the enormity of dividends is better imagined. It is not surprising that the Muhammadu Buhari-led government is embracing change as a socio-economic and political reform lubricant. The president and his team’s preference for prosperity-driven change is indeed easily comprehensible given the nation’s antecedents. In the National Agency for Foods and Drugs Control (NAFDAC) for instance, the radical departure from a primordial to a digitalised era and approach to combating the menace of drug counterfeiting in Nigeria is indeed a highly laudable change initiative. It is recorded and noted globally, that this singular bold patriotic move in the nation’s healthcare regulating sector has helped to reduce prevalence of fake drugs or pharmaceuticals from a whopping 64 per cent to a paltry three per cent or less currently. This technology based dynamism brought to bear on the agency by the Paul Orhii-led NAFDAC management, remains unprecedented in the annals of the nation’s healthcare regulation.

The wisdom in the adoption of GSM text message as a tool for anti-drug counterfeiting by the agency is to successfully conscript the teeming Nigeria mobile telephone users into the war against counterfeiters aside its maximum grass-roots effect. The practice is such that a set of numerical numbers are ascribed on pharmaceutical products/drug packs and sealed for unveiling. They are in turn expected to be efficiently copied by users at the point of purchase, then send the numerical numbers in a short message form to another NAFDAC specified set of numbers also inscribed on products. Upon receipt, NAFDAC responds swiftly to the consumer product verification code by confirming the authenticity or otherwise of the product. This action will, according to NAFDAC, help them to quickly ascertain the authenticity or otherwise of drugs before purchase. Having successfully placed certain measure of anti-counterfeiting powers in the hands of the Nigerian populace, NAFDAC expects Nigerians to be very active in this life saving crusade. They must ensure that only pharmaceuticals with NAFDAC product authentication code are patronised, while manufacturers should ensure that many, if not all of their pharmaceutical products are covered by this authentication policy. Enhancing watertight security for genuine pharmaceut-

ical products via combating drug faking and smuggling is by no means a very herculean task. There is no doubt that the responsibility of demystifying drug counterfeiters and preserving the lives of the people also rest squarely on the shoulders of products’ manufacturers. We must not be unmindful of the fact that fake drugs deny people of the right to quality medicines, while simultaneously robbing them of the requisite valued manpower, economic benefits and undermining the nation’s efforts at ensuring qualitative healthcare delivery services for the populace. Consequently, this has necessitated the clarion call by NAFDAC on the imperativeness of sustained international conventions against drug counterfeiting. We must therefore remain mindful of the agency’s achievements as its approaches in this regard are commendable. By deploying the SMS (mobile telephone short message service), Truscan (hand held device for instant detection of fake drugs), Radio Frequency Identification System (RFID) for products and documents verification, Black Eye machines (for detecting counterfeit medicines) as well as the mobile mini laboratory kits, the agency has successfully demonstrated adequate sincerity in its avowed commitment towards ensuring that Nigerians have unhindered access to qualitative and very safe medicine, an indigenous success, which incidentally can no longer be hidden as it has become a reference point and case study for the global community. Has NAFDAC lived up to the expectations of its founding fathers? The response is a resounding yes in view of its modernised dynamic and scintillating approaches. When critically considered, it could be asserted that the huge confidence reposed in NAFDAC’s incumbent leadership as it relates to the promotion and safeguarding of public health is well-placed. Imperatively therefore, drug producers and other relevant stakeholders in the sector should adequately partner with the agency with a view to ensuring that these technologies are efficiently and effectively applied particularly on highly susceptible products. Martin Ikhilae, is a Lagos based Public Affairs Analyst.

‘Girls released from Boko Haram captivity rejected by society’ Girls and women kidnapped by Nigeria’s insurgent group, Jamāat Ahl as-Sunnah lid-dawa wal-Jihād (JAS), commonly known as Boko Haram, face mistrust and persecution upon their return to society, according to new research by International Alert and UNICEF. “These findings show a pressing need to do more to re-integrate those returning from captivity by Boko Haram,” says Alert’s peacebuilding adviser in Nigeria, Kimairis Toogood. “Many of these girls already face lasting trauma of sexual violence and being separated from their families, so we must ensure they get all the support they need when they finally return.” At least 2,000 women and girls have been physically abducted by Boko Haram since 2012, including more than 200 girls in 2014 from their secondary school in Chibok local government area (LGA) in Borno state in April 2014. Many of them have experienced sexual violence or sometimes trained to fight or encouraged to become suicide bombers. Many more women have also been held hostage by Boko Haram in their own local LGAs. However, as rescue efforts continue by the Nigerian government and military, and many of the survivors are returning home, the community perceptions of them and children born out of sexual violence by Boko Haram, and their integration and relocation, are proving difficult. Communities interviewed for the report viewed returnees as “Boko Haram wives” and “annoba” (epidemics), conveying the fear they have been radicalised and, if allowed to return home, might recruit others.

At the same time, communities generally believed that over time relations could be rebuilt and the women and girls could gradually be accepted and trusted. But for this to happen, the women and girls would need to go through a more comprehensive rehabilitation process before returning home. In addition, the children of these returning women and girls, whose fathers are believed to be Boko Haram fighters, were perceived with acute suspicion. And while perceptions of women changed over time, this did not apply to children. Entrenched views among communities referred to “bad blood” transmitted to children by their biological father, placing them at risk of rejection, discrimination and potential violence in

the future. Even some of the mothers felt this way: “Initially I didn’t want to [keep the child],” said one of the women, “but when we were rescued and counselled in the camp, I decided to keep the pregnancy […] When I think of the baby that will come, it disturbs me a lot because I always ask myself this question: Will the child also behave like JAS [Boko Haram]?” The report also found that while humanitarian assistance was reaching Boko Haram survivors and returnees, it was still inadequate for the breadth and depth of the need. Many women and girls, isolated and ostracised not only by communities but also their families, faced dire poverty and some were forced into prostitution to feed their children. “There is a fear that if the needs of these survivors and returning populations are not met, these factors could add another dimension to an already complex conflict situation in northeast Nigeria,” says Toogood. The assessment was conducted in four internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Maiduguri Metropolitan Council, Borno state capital, where 95% of all IDPs are returnees from Boko Haram camps. The findings will inform a new project by Alert and UNICEF in northeast Nigeria aimed at better rehabilitating and reducing stigma against women, girls and children associated with Boko Haram, and to prepare communities for their reintegration. Source: international-alert.org.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

style

Saturday Tribune With Kate Ani 08071080888 anikate92@yahoo.com

Trending: The craze for Adidas superstar street style

Tinuola Ayanniyi tayanniyi@yahoo.com 08055069379

Do-it-yourself

Spike bracelet

Ice Prince

Joan Smalls

Khloe Kardashian

Toun Oni

Snoop Dogg Fisayo Longe Rihanna

Whizkid

UXURY sports wear giant, Adidas, known for clothing international sportsmen is gradually taking the fashion world by storm and has become an obsession among fashionistas. The highly respected luxury sportswear brand known for only the creation of sport gears has now capitalised on the ever growing world of fashion by creating dresses, tee-shirts, pants, slacks, faze caps, foot-wears. This started when the company signed stylish superstar celebrities like Kanye West, Rihanna, James Harden, and Rita Ora and in Africa, Psquare as their brand ambassador. Nigerian celebs like Ice-Prince, Wizkid, Kcee, Toolz, Mo’ Chedda, have also caught the Adidas bug!

Davido

My wristwatch costs the price of 20 cars —Davido

Davido on twitter, @ iamdavido, flaunted his ridiculously expensive Rolex wristwatch with a hashtag #newwatchalert# with a smile emoji. When a fan on twitter asked him how many Freeze watches he has, he replied saying “just 2 but cost like 20 cars, Lol. “I am so lucky sometimes, Lol.” It’s a Rolex watch but the watch doesn’t exist at Rolex like this...Davido took it to an American dealer to add diamonds on them so that it could be slightly more expensive than $80,000.

Pusha T

Celebrities with wristwatch the prize of duplex

•It is an investment —Freeze

On-air personality, Freeze shared on his instagram page, @daddyfreeze, his newly acquiured De Grisogono instrumento, and according to him, it is worth $120,000. That is close to N20million.

IMAGINE wearing a wristwatch that is almost the price of a duplex in VGC? That is the story of some mega rich Nigerians celebrities. Here is what they say as they flaunt their jaw dropping luxury wristwatches on social media.

Abisola Kola-Daisi

Socialite, Abisola KolaDaisi, one of the daughters of the Oyo State governor, Abiola Ajimobi took to Instagram @ab_kd, to show off her very expensive Chopard wrist watch that is rumoured to cost 15 million. She captioned the pic writing ‘Time for some R n R.”

20 February, 2016

outofthisworld Cities built underground I T sounds unbelievable but it’s true. Some people in the world are actually living in cities that are built underground. These

cities have also been in existence for some time. In fact, many of these cities date back to centuries with some of

Saturday Tribune WITH FEMI OSINUSI

osfem2@yahoo.com 08055069292

them based in Europe. According to oddee.com, some of these cities were built from abandoned mines and subway tunnels.

The Path in Toronto (Canada) THE Path in Toronto, Canada, features 30 kilometres of homes, shopping, services and entertainment. It links pedestrians to public transit, accommodating more than 200,000 people as well as thousands of additional tourists. Its underground location provides people with a safe haven from the winter cold, snow,

and the summer heat. It is the largest underground place with 371,600 square metres of land space. More than 50 buildings/ office towers are connected through PATH. Twenty parking garages, six subway stations, two major department stores, eight major hotels, and a railway terminal are also found there.

Wieliczka Salt Mine City, Poland WIELICZKA Salt Mine—located in the south of Poland—was built in the 13th century. The mine produced salt until 2007, making it one of the longest running salt mines in history. In addition to producing tonnes of salt, the mine was also home to a massive underground homea and complex. The mine city itself is immense—measuring 300 kilometres in length. During World War II, the mine was used by the Germans for building munitions.

Coober Pedy (Australia) COOBER Pedy is a small city that’s one of a kind — for being down under. Located in South Australia, known for being the

driest state on the driest continent on Earth, the town of Coober Pedy was established in 1915, when opal was first discovered

Underground City in Beijing (China)

The Underground City in Beijing is a Cold War era bomb shelter consisting of a network of tunnels located in Beijing, China. It has also been referred to as the Underground Great Wall since it was built for the purpose of military defence. The complex was constructed from 1969 to 1979 in anticipation of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, as Sino-Soviet relations worsened. It was officially reopened in 2000 as residential area. The tunnels of the Underground City run beneath Beijing’s city centre, covering an area of 85 square kilometres, eight to 18 metres under the surface. At one time, there were about 90 entrances. Many of the entrances have been demolished for reconstruction.

Matmata (Tunisia) in the region and miners started settling in. The temperature and weather conditions were so harsh that they began digging their homes into the hillsides. All they wanted was to find some respite from the scorching sun, but in the process, they ended up creating a small city for themselves underground. The people of Coober Pedy still prefer to live underground. Summers are harsh, with temperatures easily above 40 degrees Celsius. Air conditioning is a necessity, not a luxury. But the scenario is completely different in the underground homes of Coober Pedy. The temperature remains at a cool, constant 24 degrees and the humidity doesn’t go beyond 20 per cent. Winters can be rather cold, but people are willing to make that kind of compromise. The entire population of about 3,000 people live underground and travel through a series of intricate tunnels. The name Coober Pedy is said to have originated from the Aboriginal phrase “kupa piti,” meaning “white man’s hole in the ground.”

MATMATA is a small Berber-speaking town in southern Tunisia. Typical structures in the village were created by digging an open pit in the ground. Around the perimeter of this pit, artificial caves are used as rooms, with some homes comprising multiple pits connected by trenchlike passageways. It was not known until 1967 that there were regular settlements in

this area beside wandering nomadic tribes. That year, 22 days of hard rain inundated the homes and caused many of them to collapse. A delegation was sent to

the community centre in the town of Gabès to ask for help from the authorities. Help was provided, and the below-ground settlement of Matmâta was built.

City of Kish (Iran) This underground city is more than 2,500 years old and covers an area of 10,000 square metres. Kish is a resort island located off the coast of Iran. One of the most magnificent features of this island is a massive subterranean city covering 10,000 square metres, constructed from an ancient underground aqueduct (or “kariz”).

In 1999, local officials embarked on a project to build an underground shopping complex, which resulted in the rediscovery of the ancient kariz. Instead of demolishing it, the developers decided to incorporate the latter into the former. While the historic coral walls that surround the kariz were left alone, the tunnels were

reinforced with modern mortar and stone. This combination served to create a unique underground city. This ancient structure has been further modernised by the presence of shops and restaurants, traditional teahouses, amphitheaters, conference centres and even art galleries.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

20 February, 2016

ntertainment News

Society Gist

Saturday Tribune with Joan Omionawele and

jistwtjoan@yahoo.com Twitter:@joanbajojo 08059793705 Newton-Ray Ukwuoma 08052271251

Celebrity Interviews

Nollywood cinematographer Ohikhuare, reveals secrets of success —p32 ‘Just not married’ out next week —p32

I am hopelessly romantic —Adesua Etomi —p33

20 February, 2016

Continues from pg2

You have been in the business for how many years? I have been here for four years now. Not many people know you are a doctor, why did you leave medicine for acting? I’m an actor because of the passion and love I have for acting. Some people think I’m crazy but I’m just doing what I love to do. Back in secondary school, I was always interested in social activities, stage performances, debates, etc. I thought it was something I liked. I was a literature in English prize winner at some point. I really loved literature. But when it was time to do a course at the university, it was all about professional course at that time — so medicine was it. By the time I was done with medicine, I realised I still had the love for performing. I practised medicine for a little while, but I realised that I needed to do this because it was something I loved. I just started attending auditions and here I am.

Saturday Tribune

What I admire in men —Kiki Omeili

How many auditions did you attend before the first real job came in? I got a lead role at the first audition that I ever attended, though we shot a pilot, the project never took off. A couple of auditions later, I landed the lead role in Behind the smile. 2015 was a very busy year for you, would you say it is the most productive so far? I’ve always been pretty busy. It’s just that 2015 saw the release of great projects such as Gbomo Gbomo Express by Walter Banger and Lekki Wives 3 by Blessing Egbe, Couple of Days by Lord Tanner and Ayo Aranmuiyi. There’s Tears in a Cup, directed by Efetobore Ayeteni. There’s Living Positive directed by Toba Oduwaiye. There’s Mounds directed by Vanessa Nzediegwu. There’s Stuck in Perfect, directed by Emmanuel Akaemeh. There’s Blind, directed by Emeka Madu. There’s Jimi Bendel, directed by Ehizojie Ojesebholo and Fast Cash, directed by Okey Zubelu. All these were shot between July and December 2015 and some of them are yet to be released. So it was a very productive year also because I had so many award nominations of which I won two: Best Supporting Actress at the GIAMA awards for my work in Sting, directed by Stanlee Ohikhuare and Best actress at in short film festival for my work in Deluded, directed by Dipo Abdul. What is your opinion concerning the quality of acting and cinematography in Nigeria? There will always be good and bad actors. A lot of great actors I know do not have any training. I personally think that acting is first of all a talent you own and develop through education and training. That is why acting schools and workshops are important. A lot of actors I know don’t have any formal training. It is all about talent and continuous improvement on the talent. I think we are getting it right. African movies are known for drama. I think we do drama just right. This not to say that all actors are wonderful. And the same goes for cinematography. Not many people understand cinematography. It takes a talented cinematographer to be able to adequately tell a story, I mean to be able to get the shots that will convey the message to the viewers. I personally would like to learn about what a cinematographer does to be able to get a story done well. I think we have some mix of good and bad cinematography in Nigeria. Stanlee Ohikhuare is the best cinematographer I know. It has become known that Nigeria movies are staple movies in most African countries. However, there have been complaints that some of Nollywood movies are becoming too explicit. What do you have to say in your capacity as an actor in the industry? The truth is that producers tend to make movies that relate to people and events. However, some people may be comfortable with a particular story and its portrayal, while some others for genuine reasons might find the same story distasteful. In the end, moviemaking is about art. There are several kinds of interpretations to art. The producer is an artiste and his work must be realistic and as factual as possible. You have been attending a cinematography workshop, do you intend to become a producer? No. It is not in my plans at the moment. I am first and foremost an actor. And the workshop you are talking about is about movie production which acting is part of. I am basically an actor. Nothing more. With this busy schedule, how do you find time to unwind?

The truth is Nollywood isn’t the same as it was years ago. Things have really taken shape. We have a lot of Nigerian films you can really put your money down on without regrets. The funny thing is that the way I like to relax is the way I like to earn a living. I like watching movies. So, I go to the cinemas a lot. Just yesterday I saw two wonderful Nigerian movies. A day before that I saw an American movie. I am always at the cinema. I like to unwind by seeing movies. I also like to hang out with friends because I am a people person. So many Nigerians do not find it economical to go to the cinemas, how would you encourage them to? For me, I am always excited about some Nigerian movies when they are in the making. So when they are finally out in the cinemas, I don’t have to wait until they are mass-produced before I see them. I always want to see them at the cinemas. I want to support Nollywood. I want to support the producers. And if it is a movie I want to have for keeps, I buy the DVD. So people who are like me would always find motivations to go to the cinemas. Do you think the cinema should be affordable for low income earners? Yes. I definitely think so. I don’t think only the people at the upper and middle class should afford the cinema. I think it should be made affordable to all and sundry. Some cinemas in Nigeria do some kind of promo. There are days it is half the prize. They also have concession for students. I think they are making efforts in that direction. You and many within four years in the industry collectively form a set of young generation actors in Nollywood as against a much older set. Would you say you are holding the fort or shining better? We are where we are today because of those who came before us. They are the ones that paved the way for the younger generation. And I am sure if we didn’t admire what they did we probably would not be here now. Secondly, I think they had to deal with a lot of things. I think the movie industry is a lot better now than it was when they started. Now, the industry is a little more structured than before. I mean we have more filmmakers now. People actually have

a choice. You can decide what kind of movie you want to do. I think we are a new and better generation of actors because we have a lot of people we look up to, who have been doing this for a much longer time. With the new generation is a seemingly new industry. Do you think Nigerians are losing the thread with the new generation? There have been complaints about the anti-climax of interest in Nollywood movies. Yes. Nigerians have some kind of lost interest in Nollywood movies. It is very difficult to get anyone to see a Nollywood movie in a cinema. I was in a movie last year called Gbomo Gbomo Express. It was a fantastic cinema film. From time to time, I would go out to get people to see the movie and a lot of the times the reception was very like, “Nigerian film! No no, I don’t want to see a Nigerian film”. And it would take a lot of convincing to try to get somebody to watch Nigerian film. But I now notice that in end, the ones that eventually watch come out so impressed. There are almost always happy because they see the growth in the industry. I think the perception is gradually coming back. The truth is Nollywood isn’t the same as it was years ago. Things have really taken shape. We have a lot of Nigerian films you can really put your money down on without regrets. What are your thoughts about settling down? Marriage? It is something that will come when it will come. How would you identify him when he comes? When we see him, we will know. If I start specifying the qualities you might end up with somebody that does not have the qualities. When you see them we will know. What do you tick okay in men generally? I like intellectual men. I like God fearing and independent men. How about looks? I have told you what I admire in men. This is the month of love, what did you do on Valentine’s Day? Nothing. I am really that kind of person. See, l see love every day. Would like to share some of your Vals Day memories? I only remember spending Vals Day on duty at the hospital, while others were partying. It was painful though.

32 entertainment

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

I am hopelessly romantic —Adesua Etomi Adesua Etomi is one of Nollywood’s new shining stars. In this interview with JOAN OMIONAWELE, she talks about her career, fashion preference, among other issues.

HAT was the experience like working on the set of the movie of ‘Knocking on heaven’s door’, the movie that brought you to limelight? ‘Knocking on heaven’s door’ was like being on a roller coaster ride, emotionally and physically. It was my first film ever and so I was quite green as far as film terminologies went. All the training I had in the UK was for the theatre, so hearing things like CU, Medium shot and the like was brand new. I remember quietly pondering how we had so many takes quietly because I wasn’t about to blow this by asking rookie questions. I simply opened my eyes and ears and took in every single thing. I was a sponge on that set, determined to learn everything. So, in a nutshell, it was like going to school all over again. How did you land the lead role? During my three months visit to Lagos, I travelled to the US for a while, when I got back I heard there had been auditions for a movie that had singing. Naturally, I was sad that I had missed it, a couple of my friends had attended the auditions and even got call backs. It seemed like something that would have been perfect for me. So I decided to send Emem Isong a message on Facebook asking if I could audition and explaining why I was unavailable the first time. She said I could audition at the callbacks. She and a few other people were on the panel. I auditioned and thankfully I got the role. You played the role of a gospel singer and a victim of domestic abuse in the movie, do you think a lot is being done on behalf of women and children who are abused everyday in Africa? I think the awareness for domestic violence is improving, it isn’t perfect and there is still a stigma, but everyday speaking out is less of taboo than the day before. People are constantly creating avenues to bring attention to cases of domestic violence. Several of my colleagues like OC Ukeje, Blossom Chukwujekwu, Kiki Omeili and I were part of a photography campaign created by Mr Nigeria — Emmanuel Ikubese called Project R.A.W. We took a series of pictures in various stages of distress to shed light on violence against women. That is going to be expanded into a bigger campaign. With initiative like this and with favourable legislation, domestic violence will soon be markedly reduced. Were you initially scared of the big names before you decided to join Nollywood? No, I wasn’t afraid. I have the utmost respect for my senior colleagues and everyone who helped grow Nollywood to what it is today. Their love for the craft and their discipline is enviable. But fear? No, I do not fear. I understand you have featured in more of stage dramas than Nollywood movies, which do you prefer? I love acting and whichever way it presents itself is fine by me. An actor is an actor, be it on stage or in film. Think of actors as vessels and these platforms serve as our media. My calling is to act and if I’m contacted for a project which intrigues me, I’ll do it, be it on stage or in film. And when you love something you’ll jump at it, regardless of whatever package it is wrapped in. What other movies and series have you featured in ? Aside ‘Knocking on heavens door’, there is also ‘Brave’, ‘Gidi Up Season 2’ and ‘The Call’ which have been released. The others which will be out in the next few months are Uduak lsong’s ‘Falling’, ‘30s,’ MTV’s Shuga, ‘Las Gidi Cops’, ‘A Soldier’s Story’ and I will start shooting a film called ‘A couple of days’ in a few days. What made you want to be an actor? I don’t think it was a conscious choice. It was just something I was meant to do, something in my destiny, it chose me. It has been a passion of mine since I can remember. It is a calling and a part of my destiny. I really don’t have a

choice in the matter. I can’t do without it. It’s an endless love affair. You could have picked up a job abroad, why did you come back? I did have a job abroad, more than one in fact. The last and longest was a year. In that spell I worked at a fashion company where I was a merchandising and buying administrator. I wasn’t planning to move back to Lagos in the near future; the idea was to visit for three months because I had been restless at my job. Something was missing so I needed a break. I got on a plane to visit for three months and it has been three years since my “short vacation.” I stayed back in Lagos and decided to give Nollywood a try because after I landed my first film role, I got to see how Nollywood worked and I liked it a lot. There is, of course, room for improvement and growth and I want to be part of the people that put it on the map. I love to act and Nollywood has given me a platform which I’m grateful for. What projects have you been up to lately? I’m currently in between jobs and I’ve had a week or so to rest. At first, I was excited thinking about all the hours I’d spend doing nothing film related, but now I just want to get back on set. Thankfully I’m off to Ibadan in two days for a film shoot. I’ve never played a character like this next one, so I’m looking forward to it. You are no doubt very beautiful, how do you hope to cope with sexual advances in Nollywood? Thank you. Weirdly enough I haven’t experienced anything untoward since I got into the industry. Everyone I’ve met and worked with has been professional and respectful of my personal space. I find myself more in the middle of intellectual conversations rather than sexual ones.

I wasn’t planning to move back to Lagos in the near future; the idea was to visit for three months because I had been restless at my job.

What was growing up like? It was a well-rounded experience. Everything I am now is a result of my experiences growing up. I can appreciate life better because of what I went through. I’m grateful for everything about my childhood, the times I laughed and the times I cried. The times I was happy and the times I was not so happy. It all turned out to my benefit. What were your childhood dreams? To be an actor, above everything else this is what I really wanted to do with my life. I’m living my dream, I know people say that a lot but in my case I could not have wished for a life other than the one I have now. What’s your fashion fetish? I like shoes. I always have the urge to buy shoes, good shoes. Is Adesua a naturally romantic person? I’m hopelessly romantic. My middle name might as well be romance. I believe that in life there are too many mediocre things and if one thing should be magical it is love. I love to plan elaborate romantic scenarios for my family and friends. You don’t even need to ask for my help, the minute you mention a surprise with a hint of romance I’m on it! How do you handle advances of stubborn male fans ? The people who follow my work are really sweet and polite. I don’t think I have pushy fans; maybe it’s as a result of my

personality. I have fans that are goofy or sweet, never rude or stubborn as you say. What challenges do you face as an actress in the industry? In the early days of my career it was the challenge of being given an opportunity to show my acting chops. Thankfully with time this has gotten better. Now maybe it would be the challenge of typecasting. It’s very easy to find yourself in a box because of a previous performance. I have so much acting to give and I would love to show how diverse I can be, if given a chance. An actor lives to play different people.

What are your expectations of the new government ? I expect a functional government that serves the people. I expect changes in obvious troubled sectors like the economy and insecurity, especially the Boko Haram issue. I expect the quality of life to improve for Nigerians, especially the lower and the middle classes. I also expect that corruption will go down several notches and most importantly, an improvement in electricity generation. The power sector is crucial. But I do believe Buhari will not let us down and even though change is not instant, we expect it soon! Who are your role models in the industry ? Everyone is great. There are so many bright examples ahead of me. I watch everyone because there is always something to learn. There are a few people I absolutely love and look forward to working with one day, sooner or later. I have a wish list and RMD, Kalu Ikeagwu, Rita Dominic and Kate Henshaw are on it! Did you at any point think of doing a white collar job ? Yes I did. Originally the plan was to get a job for a little bit and save some money to finance my acting career. All the positions I applied for and worked at were temporary positions. But the money was good, so it was easy to keep postponing my entry into the acting world. One day I quit my job at that time because I felt like I was being stifled creatively and I was not doing what I was meant to do. With the money I had saved up, I decided to visit Lagos and the rest you know.

33 entertainment

Judith Audu to release ‘Just Not Married’ next week Stories by Newton-Ray Ukwuoma

OLLYWOOD actress and producer, Judith Audu is set to release her maiden feature, film titled ‘Just Not Married’ next week. The trailer of the movie released last week has been trending on social media platform, while the actor, On Air Personality and blogger readies with the actual movie for the last week of February, though actual date not specified. However, the Uduak-Obong Patrick directed movie promises lots of entertainment for movie buffs when released. Shot in Lagos last year, ‘Just Not Married’ revolves around the motif of marriage and of two brothers’ attempt to define their existence by exploiting immediate whims. The movie also attempts to present the society in its best form as a moral gauge of vice and justice, of cause and effect, sin and punishment. Written by Lani Aisida and has Fayo Segun Festus as Director of Photography, the movie features Stan Nze, Rotimi Salami, Ijeoma Agu, Obutu Roland, Brutus Richard, Gregory Ojefua, Judith Audu, Perpetua Adefemi, with special appearances by Adeniyi Johnson, Sambasa Nzeribe, Morten Foght, Bucci Franklin, Eric Nwanso, L.A.S.E, Seun Afolabi, among others.

Simi drops new single ‘Love Don’t Care’ FAST-RISING singer, Simi has just dropped a new soulful single. The single, titled, ‘Love Don’t Care’ is in the celebration of love which was done during the last Valentine ’s Day. Simi, with her unique voice serenades her fans teaching that love knows no bounds or race or status. In the track mixed and mastered by Simi with a display of rhythmic feel of the guitar by Fiokee and produced by Oscar, Simi displays her love for simple soul music. The impeccable music storyteller uses this song to argue that love is indeed beyond tribe, money, societal status, race or belief, teaching people the true meaning of Valentine and ascertaining that love can’t

be stopped from expressing its true essence. This would remind Simi’s

true fans about her soulful journey with “I do” released in 2011, which immediately became a hit. Simi wormed her way into the hearts of Nigerians with the release of her songs, “Ara-Ile” “Tiff” and “Jamb Question”. She recently released a dance video ‘Open and Close’ a polished blend of pop and fuji music. Her song “Jamb Question” got an amazing review from prominent Nigerian filmmaker and entertainment critic, Charles Novia. She recently made the YNaija/Y! Africa Magazine New Establishment List 2016, bagged three nominations at the just concluded Headies Awards and won The Most Promising Act at the NEA and City People Awards 2015.

Jigawa, Zamfara schools Get MultiChoice Digital Resource Centres MULTICHOICE Nigeria, leading provider of video entertainment services has once again demonstrated its commitment to enhancing education in Nigeria with its resource center intervention through the donation of digital learning aids to 10 schools each in Jigawa and Zamfara states. The intervention, a corporate social investment initiative dubbed the MultiChoice Resource Centre (MRC) project involves the provision of a TV set, DStv Explora decoder, satellite dish, a power generating set, uninterrupted power system (UPS), sets of chairs

and tables for the laboratory and other equipment, avails students access to educational TV channels that include Discovery, Channel ED, National Geographic, History Channel and Mindset, at no cost to the beneficiary schools. The project introduced to improve the knowledge levels and understanding of technical subject areas by students is in its twelfth year and has been launched in 363 schools in 31 states of the federation, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The 10 beneficiary schools in Jigawa State are Gov-

ernment Model Primary/ Junior Secondary School, Kudai, Government Day Secondary School, Madobi, Government Day Arabic Secondary School, Katangu, Government Day Secondary School, Andaza, School for Arabic and Islamic Studies, Dutse, Government Girls Day (Arabic) Secondary School Baure-dutse, Government Day Secondary School Marabusawa Dutse, Government Day Secondary School Gadadin Dutse, Government Day (Capital) Secondary School Dutse and Government (Commercial) Secondary School Dutse.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

Multiple award-winning Nollywood cinematographer reveals secrets of his success AFTER netting several national and international awards, including two best sound awards and award of excellence, Stanlee Ohikhuare, has revealed the secrets of his success in the movie industry. The prime Nollywood cinematographer who spoke to Saturday Tribune after a three-day practical film clinic with Stanlee Ohikhuare organised by M-Jot Studios during the week, revealed how his background in fine arts, specifically painting bears upon his perception of film production. The Edo State-born Ohikhuare, who graduated from the University of Benin with a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, highlighted the importance of colour and sound in telling believable story, while buttressing that a poor audio quality and light focus could mar an otherwise excellent film. Stanlee believes that movie production should be seen as an art, “as paintings in the mind of the viewers” instead of a skeletal capturing of the reality. “I make movies like an artist. I use the same artistic style of painting images in my making movies. This helps me see the entire production in a different light. In carrying out a movie productions, two elements that price most are lighting and sound. For me, light and sound are everything. With these two, it is possible to create much attention to even a poor story. I think cinematography is about images, either moving or static and it is about capturing the right kind of images and getting the best sound of it and the overall aim is to make a great impression in the mind of the viewer. “My style of my painting is surrealism, it’s all about the world of fantasy, of imagination, and not

necessarily the things that hit you in the face. In most of my movies you will see that a lot. There is a lot of mysticism and surrealism and imagination going on in my movies. The images are all representations of things that are hardly direct,” he said. Speaking about the sound quality of his movies, an aspect that has won him a couple of awards, Stanlee praised the use of Automated Dialogue Replacement (ADR) technique part of his success story. “For me I do ADR of all my movies. After the experience with my first movie, I do ADR of all my movies. When I finish shooting I call all the actors back to the studio. It is difficult to do, but it is the most rewarding initiative available right now. It is either you do live recording or ADR, I prefer ADR inspect of the difficulty.”

Cobhams, artistes Serenade at MTNF-MUSON pre-Valentine concert IN celebration of the season of love, an array of artistes from Music Society of Nigeria (MUSON) entertained guests with classical music and other genres at the pre-Valentine evening concert sponsored by MTN Foundation. The colour of love, red was interspersed everywhere as guests were gorgeously dressed and the yellow backdrop colour of the sponsors created a serene and lovely atmosphere that ignited artistes, performers and instrumentalists to effortlessly entertain the audience which had some captains of industry. While Bolanle and her

nine-piece band sang ‘Oro-Ife’, P h e b e a n Oluwadare, a saxophonist thrilled with Beyonce’s ‘If I Were A Boy’ as her five-piece band showed dexterity with the violinist and other strings family. Performing the afrobeat song, ‘Lady’ by Fela Kuti, the lady instrumentalist made the audience to sway their bodies. There were other performances from pi-

anist, Goodness Onouha who played Arabesque by Claude Debussy and flutists performing Fantasie by F&C Doppler.

British Council, Lagos Theatre Festival to feature 100 performances, 10 venues BRITISH Council, in collaboration with the Ministry of Art, Culture and Tourism, Lagos State will be holding its third edition of British Council Lagos Theatre Festival (BCLTF) in Lagos State. The event which has been regarded as the biggest outdoor festival in Lagos in 2016 will feature over 100 performances from local and international productions in a quest to exhibit the length of achievements of the en-

tertainment industry in the period under review. Holding from February 23 to February 28, 2016, the six-day theatre exploration will be covered in ten centres, namely Agip Recital Hall, MUSON Centre, Ayo Bankole Centre, Bogobiri, British Council, Freedom Park, Mindscapes Children Museum, National Theatre, Terra Kulture and University of Lagos where there will be

music, dance, spoken word, musical and performance theatre as well as special workshops for actors, creative writing, directors and producers. Part of the features will include works from producers such as four international productions from the UK, Comic Republic, Creative Arts Collectio, University of Lagos, Make it Happen Productions, Thespian Family Theatre, Women in Arts and many more.

20 February, 2016

The South-West Editor Wole Efunnuga | 08111813056

Community savours Obasanjo’s visit to Oluwo

Obasanjo in the midst of cheering crowd at Iwo.

February 5, 2016 would live in the memory of the people of Iwo in Osun State for a long time being the date former President Olusegun Obasanjo entered and departed the town with a loud ovation. TUNDE BUSARI reports

IS visit to the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdul Rasheed Akanbi (Telu I) was planned to be private to pay homage to the traditional ruler as Yoruba custom required of him, but former President Olusegun Obasanjo was caught unawares and found himself in what looked like an ambush. The people of Iwo showed him love as they trooped out in large number to catch a glimpse of the Balogun Owu and his entourage on arrival at the ancient town after he had paid a similar visit to the palace of the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi. Following the Oluwo’s visit to Abeokuta residence of Obasanjo, where the monarch was well received and given a copy of MY WATCH, a three-in-one updated autobiography of Obasanjo, the former president was chosen to be the chairman of his coronation held on January 16, 2016, but Obasanjo could not attend the occasion. He, however, asked a former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola to stand in for him, a role Oyinlola, a royal blood himself played to the admiration of many traditional rulers, including the socio-political heavyweights that graced the coronation. Report of the reception accorded Oyinlola reached Obasanjo and he acknowledged it at the palace of Oluwo in the presence of Chief Rasheed Gbadamosi, Otunba Oyewole Fashawe, Chief Abiola Ogundokun, Dr Femi Majekodunmi and other dignitaries that witnessed the brief event. About 1: 30 pm when the gate of the palace was opened for Obasanjo’s convoy, the palace drummers rose from their seats at the left side of the premises, gravitated to the luxury automobiles and ushered Obasanjo into the palace with heavy percussion that complemented the significance of the visit and indeed added traditional spice to it.

Operatives of Nigerian Security and Civil tunities from outside. Investors, developers Defence Corps (NSCDC) were mobilised to and other corporate personalities would control the crowd while movement of vehi- want to identify with a popular Oba rather cles and commercial motorcycles otherwise than a restrictive one. It is my belief that the called okada was brought to a halt until af- Oluwo will explore this goodwill he is enjoying ter Obasanjo’s departure. Yet, his convoy had to snake through the anxious people desperate to catch a glimpse of their former president. Obasanjo’s visit, residents opined, was an experience that reinforced the popular belief in the vision of Oba Akanbi as a catalyst that would bring desired transformation to the town. Alhaji Lukman Badru, a Kuwait-based indigene of Iwo noted with emphasis that the report of Obasanjo’s visit from his people back home is a further testimony of ft) and Oluwo of Iwo the wide acceptance of the Oluwo. Obasanjo (le to accelerate his agenda for the Badru said it is not enough for an town,” he remarked. Oba to be accepted at home alone. Oba Akanbi who is still savouring the nosThe monarch, Badru maintained, must also be accepted by the people that really talgia of the visit also enthused that the matter in Yoruba land and even outside Yo- crowd that gathered within that short time showed Iwo town is not only on the right ruba-speaking states. “This will open his domain to a lot of oppor- path but also destined to witness greater de-

Obasanjo’s visit, residents opined, was an experience that reinforced the popular belief in the vision of Oba Akanbi as a catalyst that would bring desired transformation to the town.

Saturday Tribune CREW sari n Tu de B9u3530 081275 ndare nga - Ogu Yejide G8b1e16706853 0 unesan Tunde O9g54634 08116 t:

r us; contac Got news fo bune@yahoo. ttri es hw ut so bune@ uthwesttri co.uk or so ail.com gm

velopment in his time. He said Obasanjo’s visit was more than an ordinary one because of the influence the first Nigerian to rule as Military head of state and civilian president wields in Nigeria and international community. “I think he deserves such reception as a former president of Nigeria and secondly as an illustrious son of Oduduwa whose influence is global. There is no doubt that he is a man who respects our culture and tradition and ready to project the rich heritage of Yoruba race,” Oba Akanbi remarked. Obasanjo did not disappoint while delivering his speech as he impressed his hosts and others in attendance with his renewed vigour to promote peaceful co-existence not only among the Yoruba people but also among all ethnic groups that make up Nigeria. Oba Akanbi recalled that Obasanjo expressed his satisfaction at the new development currently ongoing, especially among the traditional rulers. He stated that Obasanjo applauded the unity initiative and urged the monarchs to continue to work in harmony for the greater interest of Yoruba race. “He said something that looks like a challenge to us and also an encouragement to move Yoruba race forward in the country. I can see his passion to have a peaceful Yoruba race. And I am positive that we are going to achieve it as the process is taking shape now with the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi’s rapprochement drive. “I was part of his entourage to the Alake of Egbaland and know what that visit achieved. I urged him not to forget Iwo in terms of using his influence to bring investors to my town,” he said. Few days after Obasanjo’s visit came, secondary school students turn to host Oba Akanbi. Apparently worried by the alarming rate of students’ failure at the West African School Certificate and its danger on the socio-economic growth of the town, the monarch took time of his schedule to visit schools where he held motivational talks with the students and their teachers. The exercise is said to be unprecedented in the history of the town, but Oba Akanbi differed and stated that nothing is special in a traditional ruler checking on his younger sons and daughter with a view to firing them to success. He advised parents to shun the practice of using their children, who are preparing for exams, as hawkers on the streets, stressing that the time has come for parents to help their children coming out of exams in flying colour and becoming useful to the society. “I am fulfilled after the visit to the schools because the students showed interest in what I told them. I said their future is more important to me than to any other person because I am their father to whom they return when they become important personalities later in life. I said I don’t want to see them becoming social dregs,” he noted. To Obasanjo, the kingmakers and the people of Iwo have made a right choice in Oba Akanbi, expressing optimism that his reign would bring development, peace, unity progress and tranquility to the town.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

with Tunde Ayanda ayandaayotunde@yahoo.com 08034649018

Maureen Onigbanjo sheds mourning toga MAUREEN Onigbanjo of upscale fashion house, Maufechi, seems to have placed her pains aside as she is set to resume her business. The celebrated fashion designer was devastated by the loss of her husband and confidant, Wale in July, 2015 and since his death had confined herself to the comfort of their Lagos home. Right now, the woman of style is said to be making an attempt to reshape her life. The Maufechi boss was recently a guest at the homes of some of her friends and clients to thank them for their support and probably hint of her plans to return to business.

February wedding for

Governor Aminu Tambuwal Dapo Abiodun expands business frontiers POLITICIAN and the Chief Executive Officer of Heyden Oil, Dapo Abiodun has achieved another classy feat in the line of his business. The man who was the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for the Ogun East senatorial zone in the last election, has just opened a mega filling station in his hometown Iperu-Remo, Ogun State, in what he called part of his contribution to the development of his area. The grand opening of the mega station attracted those that matter in the state who have been spreading the good news and the images of the architectural delight.

N February 19 and 21, the cities of Kano, Abuja and Sokoto will witness one of the biggest events people will talk about in 2016 as the two days have been picked for the wedding fathia of the governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and his bride, Maryam Mustapha. According to the tales doing the rounds, the first leg of the matrimony was conducted some days ago in Kano, while the couple proceeded to Saudi Arabia to perform the lesser hajj before their return to the country for the main event. The politician was said to have met his new wife when he was the Speaker of the House of Representatives. The bride, Mairo, is an IT consultant and a niece to the first woman Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Aloma Mukhtar. She runs the Oracle Integrated Service, an IT strategy, planning and business firm.

Good news for the Ohakims Laolu Akande’s heart of gold THE joy of the family of former governor of Imo State, Ikedi Ohakim, knew no bounds a few days ago when the news filtered through that one of the politician’s daughters, Adanna, has given birth to a baby boy. Friends and family members of the Ohakims cannot forget Adanna’s wedding some years ago to her Irish husband, David Steinacker. The couple had their traditional wedding witnessed by a number of dignitaries in Imo and sealed it off with a white wedding in Dublin, Republic of Ireland. The news sparked off a mild celebration in the Abuja home of the grandparents.

LAOLU Akande who is the proprietor of the Calvary Group of Schools, Ibadan, Oyo State, is a man that understands the pains of the orphans and the underprivileged. The businessman organised a rare Valentine celebration with pupils and staffers of the school as they used the season to tour orphanages and motherless babies homes in Ibadan to celebrate and present gifts to the children.

Akande disclosed that his mission to the homes was to teach the children compassion at their early stages and to also send a signal to the people to always remember the needy. During the visit, cash gifts and toys were given by the pupils of the Calvary School, who took turns to hold hands and take photographs with the orphans. The proprietor in his words to the management of the orphanages assured them of God’s blessings and also promised to make frequent his visit to the orphanages whenever there is any special celebration or festival.

20 February, 2016

weekend cartoons

Saturday Tribune

Adeeko Olusegun adeeko.olusegun@yahoo.com 0811 695 4638

Just a Laffing Mata

Yo u mus t be dead

POLITICO

A teacher was testing the children in her Sunday school class to see if they really understood the concept of getting to heaven. She asked them, “If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would that get me into heaven?” “No!” the children answered. “If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would that get me into heaven?” Again, the answer was, “No!” Now she was smiling. Hey, they’re getting it, she thought! “Well, then, if I was kind to animals and gave biscuits to all the children, and loved my husband, would that get me into heaven?” she asked. Again, they all answered, “No!” She was just bursting with pride for them. “Well,” she continued, “then how can I get into heaven?” Segeluulu shouted out, “YOU MUST BE DEAD MA!”

A memorial

FUNOLOGY

One Sunday morning, the pastor noticed little Segeluulu was staring up at the large plaque that was hung in the foyer of the church. The plaque was covered with names, and two small Nigerian flags were mounted on either side of it. The seven-year-old had been staring at the plaque for some time, so the pastor walked up, stood beside the boy, and said quietly, “Good morning Brother Segeluulu.” “Good morning pastor,” replied the little boy, still focused on the plaque. “Pastor, what is this?” Curious Segeluulu asked. “Well, son, it’s a memorial to the men and women who died in the service.”Soberly, they stood together, staring at the large plaque. Little Segeluulu’s voice was barely audible when he asked, “Which service, the 8:45 or the 11:00? ...I mean the first service or the second service?!

Excuse me, ma!

20 February, 2016

seniorcitizen

Saturday Tribune WITH KATE ANI

anikate92@yahoo.com 08071080888

I vowed that even if at gunpoint, I would never vote for Buhari but... —APC chieftain, Prince Adefulu A lawyer, chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and a former president of the Nigeria-British Chamber of Commerce, Prince Adeyemi Adefulu (MFR), in this interview by KATE ANI, speaks on sundry national issues. Exceprts:

ONGRATULATIONS on your 70th birthday. How does it feel to reach this milestone? I wonder how 70 years have gone already because I feel as strong as ever. I give God the glory for bringing me this far. As a lawyer, how did you find yourself in the murky waters of politics which landed you in the Maximum Security Prison for 18 months? For me, politics was always a thing. Law was a means to end, not an end in itself. When I was very young, Chief Obafemi Awolowo was the source of my inspiration because the ideals he stood for brought values to the society. As the president of the student union in the University of Lagos, I wrote to him [Chief Awolowo] and asked for a meeting and he gave me audience. He was then the Federal Minister of Finance and Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council. He gave me an appointment. I was with him for about one and a half hours. It was as if he had no worry in the world. I struck a relationship with him at an early age and when politics was coming, we were on the bandwagon of the committee of friends of Awolowo in Apapa in those days, participating in policy formulation for the party on various issues. One day, Pa Awolowo noticed our contributions and asked us one day where we were playing our politics as they hadn’t unbanned political activities at that time. We told him Ilupeju and he said Ilupeju? Go home! He called Sir Olaniwun Ajayi and told him to take us back to Remo, in Ogun state. That was how my political activism started. I needed to understand law in order to understand government. When I chose to study law, it was with a view to preparing for a political career. I chose politics before law. Politics was something that appealed to me; I always wanted to help lift the society. Service was a thing for me.

From Abeokuta prison, which is directly opposite the governor’s lodge, every day, for 18 months, I looked at the same gate that swung open every time I [as commissioner] got there with my orderlies. Everything was going... It just did not matter whether you were there or not.

But not much was heard of you politically after you served as a commissioner in Ogun State, during Chief Olabisi Onabanjo’s administration… I didn’t hold any political office any further but this was not because of lack of effort. I tried to run for the Senate but I didn’t make it. The same conclave that rejected Bola Ige and had preference for Falae chose Chief Olabiyi Durojaiye from Ijebu Igbo. They also chose the deputy governor from Ijebu Igbo, which was an injustice. Did that discourage you from politics? No. I have always been in politics. I left the Alliance for Democracy (AD) in protest against the dictatorial tendencies among the leaders. They virtually threw me out almost literally though, rather than me leaving. I joined the [Peoples Democratic Party] PDP and, to an extent, was like a fish out of water. I tried to get the gubernatorial ticket but we were like the endangered species. We were Omo Awolowo (Awolowo’s followers) and there was always that suspicion. I participated in the campaign but they gave the ticket to Gbenga Daniel. That is a subject for another discussion. I was nominated for ministerial appointment three times during [the late President Umaru] Yar’Adua and [Goodluck] Jonathan’s administration but the powers that be sabotaged it. In politics, you must have critical support at a critical time. That is what that makes all the difference. In any case, the politics we grew up in has largely been disrupted. General Ibrahim Babangida did a lot of destruction. There was a time he said that we were members of the old generation. We are young but old, according to Babangida’s definition. We were banned from participating in the [Social Democratic Party] SDP and the [National Republican Convention] NRC at that time. A lot of goodwill was lost. A lot of our leaders died and it made a lot of difference. It was like a structure in which you fitted so perfectly being removed. Again, participation doesn’t necessarily mean holding office. I am an APC chieftain and I participated actively during the last general election. I also expressed my view very strongly in favour of President Muhammadu Buhari when his quality and integrity were being queried not

only nationally but also internationally. But President Buhari as military head of state in 1984 sent you to jail where you spent 18 months, why the change of heart towards him? I used to believe that even at gun point, I won’t vote for Buhari. And I never voted for him until the last presidential election. I used to joke that if they took me to a polling station, put a gun to my head and gave me the ballot paper to vote for him, I would eat up the paper. But I had a change of heart because things had become so bad in the country. Former President Jonathan took us to the lowest ebb ever. There were incredible amount of corruption and utter lack of integrity in governance. These boggled my mind. It wasn’t about your interest but the interest of the country. Did you leave the PDP and start singing Buharis praise because your ministerial nomination was sabotaged during Jonathan’s administration? Well, people can always say whatever they like but the thing is that, I cherish values. These are the things that attracted me to Chief Awolowo and the late Chief Bisi Onabanjo, one of the finest politicians Nigeria ever had. For me, governance has always been about creating values and taking the society to the next level. Life is too short. When you are in government, you must be in a hurry because you will not be there forever. As a member of the PDP, I disagreed with Jonathan on the lack of integrity and the dirty politics. We disagreed with Gbenga Daniel on the run-

ning of the party because we believed the way he did it was not the way to go. I have never been afraid to air my views, even as a commissioner in Chief Onabanjo’s government. I was the youngest member of his cabinet. I was 33 years old when I was appointed Commissioner for Health and Social Welfare, then Commissioner for Forestry and Water and towards the end of the administration, Commissioner for Local Government. I was never afraid to express my view and on one or two occasions, I almost lost my job as a commissioner. After government, we were thrown in detention. We were guilty by association and everybody who was a commissioner or a minister was jailed. What was the experience like? It was a humbling experience for me. It taught me that if you think that without you, everything would stop, nothing would stop. From Abeokuta prison, which is directly opposite the governor’s lodge, every day, for 18 months, I looked at the same gate that swung open every time I [as commissioner] got there with my orderlies. Everything was going; children were being born, marriages were being conducted and people were dying. It just did not matter whether you were there or not. One day, you will be dead and life will continue. Detention taught me that. The present Emir of Suleja, Alhaji Anwali Ibrahim, was with us then, so also was Tai Solarin, deputy governor and commissioners. I found in detention that many people you thought were strong outside were, in fact, weaklings. Some cried like babies saying ‘what am I doing here?!’

interview

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

APC, PDP are birds of a feather —Taraba PDP chieftain

Honourable Dan-Asabe Hosea is a one-time chairman of Kurumi Local Government Area of Taraba State and a former Special Adviser to former Governor Danbaba Suntai on Revenue Mobilisation, whose election to the House of Representatives in the last general election was nullified by the Court of Appeal, which then ordered a rerun scheduled to hold today in about 19 polling units. In this interview by SYLVANUS VIASHIMA, Hosea speaks on some issues of national importance. Excerpts:

HE Court of Appeal sitting in Yola, Adamawa State, nullified your election and ordered a rerun in 19 polling units, how did you receive the news? The judgement came to me as a rude shock but I leave everything to God.

If we borrow to invest in ventures that would earn us substantial income in return, that would be a great idea. But previous experiences have shown that we more or less borrow money to share around as if it were bazaar. That’s very unhealthy for the economy. I hope that this government will deviate from that.

What is your assessment of the security situation ahead of Saturday’s (today) rerun against the backdrop of recent kidnappings and other security threats in the state? We have advised our supporters to be law-abiding. The security authorities have assured us that they would mobilise enough personnel. So, hopefully there will be no problem; we will have a smooth exercise. What is your assessment of the judiciary in the country? We cannot say the judiciary is bad but, of course, there are some bad elements within who are trying to destroy the system. But that does not mean that the entire judiciary is bad. In fact, the judiciary remains the last hope of the common man. How do you view the Supreme Court’s ruling on Taraba State governorship? I was overwhelmed with joy by the ruling because it was becoming very annoying how the process of governance was being distracted unnecessarily. In the first instance, the opposition alleged irregularities that led to a rerun in some local governments. In the end, they won only in five out of the sixteen local government areas. It was obvious that the PDP won the election but they were looking for ways to steal that mandate using the instrumentality of the judiciary but thank God, the justices at the Supreme Court rose above that. What happened at the Supreme Court was really exciting and encouraging. You were at the National Assembly for a couple of months before the Appeal Court ruling. What were your achievements within the short time that you were there? Within the five months or thereabouts that I was there, I sponsored four motions, three of which have been tabled on the floor of the House and adopted. I am also working on a bill that is currently with experts who are vetting it. I sponsored the bill for the upgrading of Gashaka-Gumti National Park to international standards. I also sponsored the motion on the construction of Mambila Hydro Power Dam. The president is obviously interested in the construction of that dam but he cannot execute the project if it is not included in the budget. The House committees on power and appropriation have been mandated to include it in the 2016 budget. I sponsored another motion for the construction of Mararaba-Baissa-Abong-Ngoroje Road. Once the Mambila Hydro Power Dam comes into being, the lines would be drawn through Kurumi down to Kona where the distribution centre is designated to be. So, without a good road, it would be difficult for the vehicles hauling the construction equipment to do their work. We also have a lot of natural resources in this area. Cocoa is produced in commercial quantities. We have avocado. Rice is produced twice a year without irrigation in this area. These goods need to be moved to markets and the road will facilitate that. These are some of the motions I have moved within the few months and have been adopted. The last motion that I moved, which borders on war against indiscipline, is still pending. If you travel elsewhere, even South Africa, you would be tempted to say they are the giant of Africa and we are under them. People queue to board buses without any security personnel compelling them to do so. There is order. There is discipline. I remember that we were heading towards that during Muhammadu Buhari’s first time at the helm as military head of state. I believe that he is the person that can revive that with the necessary legislative backings. So, I came up with the motion and it is yet to be mentioned on the floor of the House. These are some of my achievements within

a short time. What is your take on the current budget proposal by the president? I may not be able to speak authoritatively about the budget because I have not set eyes on it yet. I would not want to react based on only what I have heard. I would be able to do that by the time I am back in the House. My concern, however, is, how is it possible for us to fund a budget of over N6 trillion now that the oil price is not even up to $30 per barrel when we could not fund a budget of N4 trillion last year when the prices were at some point over $100 per barrel? But the president is not new to governance. He has been there before and has spent about eight months already in the current dispensation. I think he understands the situation better, so we just have to trust him on that. I understand that we are planning on borrowing money to fund the budget. As a nation, I don’t see borrowing as a bad thing but how we invest the funds has always been a source of worry. You don’t borrow money to take care of recurrent expenditures as we have been doing. If we borrow to invest in ventures that would earn us substantial income in return, that would be a great idea. But previous experiences have shown that we more or less borrow money to share around as if it were bazaar. That’s very unhealthy for the economy. I hope that this government will deviate from that. The problem of this country is not even generation of funds but accounting for the funds. I am currently working on a bill which I would present as soon as I am back in the House. That bill proposes the setting up of the ‘National Independent Revenue Monitoring Agency.’ We are generating a lot of revenue in this country but most of it ends up in individuals’ pockets. They are not fully accounted for and remitted to the Federal Government. That is why we are having all these problems. You see, we have a monitoring unit that is embedded in the revenue-generating body. In a situation where there is compromise, which is a very common thing, do you expect the boss who may have benefited from the loot to take the report of the monitoring unit seriously? So, we need to remove monitoring units from

the authority of revenue-generating bodies so that the unit would operate independently and objectively monitor the revenue that is being generated in the country. In the banking industry, the revenue generated is properly accounted for. Records are properly kept. So, auditors come from the headquarters, outside the branch to check and ensure that the records conform to the figures declared to ensure that everything generated is accounted for and any disparity could lead to a sack. That is why in the banking system, they survive solely on generated revenue. So, why can’t we survive as a nation on our revenue? We need to diversify our economy and ensure that the revenues we generate are properly accounted for, for the good of the generality of the people and not for the good of a few persons. The oil will dry off some day but look at the palm tree that can provide so many things. Look at the fertile lands we have. There is illegal mining going on in Sardauna as we speak. Look at the game reserve. Look at the tea in Mambila, which is the best in Africa. When we are able to start harnessing all these and properly channel the income, there would be less pressure and dependence on oil and the impact of the falling price of crude on our economy would be greatly mitigated. What is your assessment of the APC-led administration? Who is APC and who is PDP? It is the same people that were in PDP that are now in APC and they APC are crying that the PDP destroyed the country. Were they not there? What change have they got to offer? The same people that are said to have ruined the country for so many years are now the same persons shouting ‘change.’ I am not against the president but the people surrounding him. He is doing well and may mean well but he can’t be everywhere. All he has to do is to delegate and the people around him whom he would delegate are the same people that are believed to have brought the country to where we it is today. What magic are they going to perform?

interview

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

Party loyalty won’t stop us from holding Ambode accountable —Oshun

Moshood Olanrewaju Oshun is the chairman, Lagos House of Assembly Committee on Public Account (State) and representative of Lagos Mainland Constituency 2. In this interview with Chukwuma Okparaocha, he says leakages in the state civil service have been reduced in the last eight months, while also saying that ‘man-know-man’ relationship between the executive and legislature will not disrupt with the way things should be done. Excerpt:

HERE are lots of corrupt practices believed to be perpetrated in the civil service, especially as it they relate to the use of public funds, as Chairman Public Account, State, how would you plug leakages in the system? Fighting corruption is a joint effort as it is not meant for one person to fight alone, not even for the House. Luckily for us, we have a state auditor general that is ready to work. She’s very honest and she really knows her job. By the time the papers come our job will be to see that what is brought by the accountant-general is correct and well adhered to. I can assure you that this House does not condone dishonesty or fraud. We have over the years set a standard in Nigeria and I can assure that we are not going to go back on that standard. So rest assured that this committee will do everything within its power to ensure that all officers that have access to public funds are held accountable, and the money collected is justifiably and judiciously spent. We will ensure that the money they will be spending will be spent according to regulation. Thus, we are always working on ourselves. The present governor has set an example, because before he came to power, how much was the internally generated revenue (IGR) of Lagos? But ever since he came into power he has been able to raise the IGR just by plugging leakages in the system. The same thing happened under [Babatunde] Fashola. The first thing he did was to downsize on the part of commissioners and the like, that is part of plugging the loopholes, because this was one of the ways money was being spent and people felt that democracy was expensive. So, we will continue to work to ensure that any loophole found is blocked, and that the ones that have been blocked never reopen. It has been speculated that members of the House have been engaged in man-know-man relationship with the executive, which often makes a lot of things to be swept under the carpet and that even members of the opposition in the House have also joined the fray. How would you react to this? Most of these things are mere assumptions which are in most cases wrong. You can go back and check what this House has been doing. This is a house that believes so much in integrity and the welfare of the people. It has nothing to do with party. What is important to us is how public fund can be judiciously spent. Even when we had the House made up of 40 lawmakers from the same party (ACN) we were still able to question some things we felt were not right, but now we have eight PDP members of the opposition in the House. Yes, we want to work with them, but that does not mean we won’t do what is right. The governor is someone that believes in the true separation of power, and this is the way things should be done. When Fashola was the governor, he would say “I won’t beg anybody,” and he ensured that he did things the right way for him not to beg. Same thing with the present governor. So let’s leave the issue of party, because we have seen a situation where respected and well known people who were trying to draw the party backward being called and questioned. This is a party that is based on honesty and integrity; this is a party whose leaders fought so hard to ensure that Nigeria moves to the next level, and I am sure that none of our leaders will want the party’s image dented or its name spoilt. As long as you are in APC you don’t have a choice but to do what is right, because apart from the electorate even our leaders are on our neck to ensure that we do the right thing. Does this explain why Governor Akinwumi Ambode against all odds, made some major changes in the setup of some ministries and agencies? He has built on the principles set by the previous administration. Look at the light up Lagos project, this is a project that is beautifying Lagos, but it is not free. He has been able to save some money which he is using to tackle certain projects. Some projects that were started by the last administration he has completed. So it is a continuous thing. For me I believe the governor and his entire team have done well so far. He couldn’t have done anything without his team which include all agencies, bodies and parastatals of government as well as the entire civil service. He wouldn’t have done well either without the support of the House and the judiciary as well. So it is a team thing. But I know the governor himself knows there’s room for improvement and he is working hard to ensure his performances keep on getting better and better. When Governor Fashola came he met the legacies left by

people to want to buckle up. Like in the Western world, you won’t see people putting on their lights anyhow. It is only in Nigeria that we put on all lights at once including in rooms which have nobody living in them. But I am sure when we start paying the right amount for what we use, we will start cutting our coat according to pur cloth. I won’t speak for the minister, but I am sure he must have seen certain things for him to have called for the increase at this time, he must have seen things not exposed to us. As a minister, they must have opened books to him. But it is sad that in Nigeria, we like free things. This is why you go to some houses and you find people using up to four power lines. All these things must stop because they are the things making life difficult for us. It is not looking any clearer that this year’s budget can perform as expected with the continuous dwindling of oil prices, what can be done to make any sense of the mess we have found ourselves? Yes, it is something quite worrisome, especially when the budget is based on oil price benchmark of $35 per barrel, now oil price is less than $27. But I am sure as time goes on, certain things will be looked at both at the state and federal levels which could involve making some changes and realignments to help us adjust well. But from my point of view, I think it will affect it.

I won’t speak for the minister, but I am sure he must have seen certain things for him to have called for the increase at this time, he must have seen things not exposed to us. the preceding governor in the person of Senator Bola Tinubu. He was able to work on that foundation to build his own legacy. So the incumbent governor does not have a choice but to complete the ‘building’ whose foundation was set by Fashola, and this he has been doing. So we have to go back to the foundation set by Tinubu, and I know for sure that Governor Ambode will do very well. Ex-governor and current Minister of Power, Housing and Works, Babatunde Fashola has been accused of being too hasty in trying to increase electricity tariff, even when the power is still poor, would you agree with this? We must recognise the fact that all over the world, there is recession. Economies are a bit on the downside now, and everybody is trying to cut his coat according to his cloth. But we must also recognise the fact that nothing is free, even in Freetown. We just have to pay for some things. Agreed, comparing the increase in tariff with what people are earning shows that it is a bit on the high side, but we must understand the fact that we just have to pay for some things. Yet, I understand that times are hard, people are unemployed, and planning on the minimum wage can be difficult. The area I think the minister should work on is the issue of prepaid meters, which are yet to go round. With prepaid meters, you are paying for what you use and this will make

Don’t you think the government is wasting too much time on fighting corruption while other areas are beginning for its attention, especially when some people are of the view that the anti-corruption crusade has been one-sided? First, the issue of corruption is very germain in the affairs of this country, and it is something that we need to tackle for us to move forward. So if people are insinuating that the government is focusing more on corruption than on issues of governance, well they must know that corruption itself is the issue of governance now, because it is part of the duty of the Federal Government to go after siphoned money. If there is no money to be spent and you have money hanging somewhere, it is part of the job of the government to go after such money. Secondly, I don’t think some people have been targeted, rather, what we have now is a situation whereby somebody has been caught with public fund and he is saying ‘it is not only me that took the money oo.’ It is an open thing. The president is not giving names to the EFCC for arrests, rather, it is the EFCC, which is an independent body, that is going after these people. It is not about the president, party chairman, or political leaders giving names of corrupt people to the EFCC, rather, it is the EFCC that is doing its job. We should not be sentimental about these things. The most important thing is fair hearing. If anybody is accused or arrested, he should be given a fair hearing. And I must say that the judiciary as a whole has been very wonderful, as we all know it will not support anybody. You just said the judiciary is doing well, but the president, seems to have a different idea, as he has berated some of the recent court rulings on some election results. He even reportedly suggested a probe of the judiciary. That’s strange to me, as I have not heard the president say any of such thing. I know we have cases of aggrieved parties questioning the decisions of courts, but as far as I know the president has not said what you said he said, because the president that I know will not want to get himself involved in any of such things. How have you been giving back to the community that believes so much in you to have once again made you a lawmaker? I have represented them to the best of my ability, I have always been relating well with them. I have two constituency offices in my constituency, so they know they can get me anytime. I pick all my calls, and my doors are always open. I have even gone out of my way to do things that are ordinarily not my duties. I have been able to give them water where water is needed. I have been able to support them with transformers where needed. Educationally, I have rehabilitated schools in my constituency, and other personal projects. For me, I think I have been able to do my best, but that doesn’t mean there’s no room for improvement.

40 feature

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

Wives become widows, homes destroyed, farmlands ravaged as cultists leave tears and sorrow in Rivers community

Following the gruesome killing, penultimate Friday, of about 25 people in Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers State, DEPUTY EDITOR, DAPO FALADE, was in the community to capture the mood of the bereaved.

ROM the adjoining villages and communities leading to Omoku in Ogba/Ogbema/ Ndoni Local Government Area (ONELGA) of Rivers State, the telltales were those of a warweary people who have been traumatised, displaced and rendered homeless by several years of violence and killings, orchestrated by unchecked acts of cultism. Due to the seemingly ceaseless ‘battles’, spanning more than a decade, littering the space in the embattled Omoku community are abandoned shops, eateries, residential and business offices and several farmlands unattended to. Ironically, there were also school children seen returning from their various schools, full of life and excitement, apparently either oblivious of the happenings around them or had become used to the violent acts, which have become an integral part of their daily lives. In fact, the young ones are not totally immune from violent acts which have come to be synonymous with the Omoku community. Speaking with Saturday Tribune, a Port Harcourt-based journalist and native of Omoku

The house in which the two Ajie brothers were killed.

Mrs Blessing Izeh, whose two sons were killed by the cultists.

The beheaded Emeka Ahiakwo was buried in front of his house. The state police spokesman, DSP Ahmad Muhammad, also, last Saturday, said two suspected cultists, Chimezie Ordu and Okwudili Wordu, had been arrested in respect of the dastardly act and are undergoing interrogation at the Rivers State Criminal Investigation Department (State CID). This was as he also assured that the situation had been brought under control by the police.

The people mourn their dead However, to ascertain the true situation of things, Saturday Tribune was in the troubled community, some three days after the unfortunate incident. Bereaved family members and other neighbours related their experience and what really transpired on Mrs Helen Ahiakwo, the widow whose that fateful day. Some were able to husband, Emeka, was beheaded. The late Elemchukwu Uge. give a first-hand information, even as they were not particular about the true identity of the people who carried out who did not want his name in print, for obvious reasons, the dastardly and gory act. While the police had played traced the roots of the cult crisis to 2001 or thereabouts down the incident and put the number of casualties at when, he said, a youth organisation was involved in a six, Saturday Tribune gathered that the figure was social activity. Far from the insinuation that the crisis nothing less than 25 persons, while the number of those was politically-motivated, he said the cult war has been beheaded was put at 10. between two groups in the community, the Icelanders Speaking with newsmen in his house at Ndoni Street, a and the Highlanders, in their fight for supremacy. distraught elderly man, Benedict Ajie, said he lost two of “The crisis started from that period, around 2001, his young nephews to the suspected cultists on that fate2002, when the two groups clashed in their quest to esful day. He gave the names of the two sons of the same tablish and affirm their supremacy. Unfortunately, howparents who lost their lives to the cultists as Nwaudo and ever, our politicians have not been helping the matter. Ahiakwo Ajie, noting that the two boys were killed at While they are not the originator of the crisis, they have around 9pm by their assailants. Pa Benedict, who is the not helped in dousing the increasing tension caused by head of the Ajie Family said there was no security presincessant clashes between the two rival cult groups in the ence while the incident lasted, adding that the Divisional community. Many people have been rendered homeless, Police Officer (DPO) from Ahoada only came at about 10 many shops and businesses dislocated and farms unatam, the following day, to condole the family. tended to, over the years”, he said. The elderly man claimed that eight people were killed by the rampaging cultists at Ndoni Street on that day as neighbouring villages, while others had continued to stay Renewal of hostilities he said, “The grandfather of those two boys killed and Reminiscent of a similar occurrence, last September, indoors, more than 12 hours after the incident occurred. my father were born by the same father and the same The suspected cultists were said to have had conducwhen some gunmen took the community by storm, leavmother. the father of the two children was my elder ing several people dead, it was another day of terror as ted a house-to-house raiding, scaring residents with their brother but he is late. After him, it is myself. All of us suspected cult members, in a commando style, struck intermittent, but deafening gunshots. As the report had ran away; we ran inside the house. Nobody knows what in Omoku, penultimate Friday. Like an episode from a it, the gunmen, in carrying out their gory act, beheaded happened; only we were hearing the sound of gun. I horror movie, the heartless gunmen killed not less than 10 of their victims, including a couple and two brothers don’t know them; I don’t know where they came from. I 25 people, 10 of whom were beheaded, including some from the same parents. Areas mostly affected in the mur- don’t know how the thing managed to happen. It was in derous act in the Omoku Community were Sabo Road, young secondary school students and a woman. the following morning that we discovered that they had The gunmen, said to be about 50, were armed with dan- Odieti Quarters, Usoniri Quarters and Obakata Quarters. killed the two children. I cannot suspect anybody.” The state police command had initially put the number gerous weapons, including cutlasses and different rifles, When Saturday Tribune got to the house on Elder such as AK-47 guns, came into the town at about 7pm, of the dead to six persons, which it said were cult mem- Samuel Osere Street, where four people were killed, shooting sporadically. In the midst of the ensuing confu- bers, even as it claimed that the violent incident was a there was nobody in the building to give information. sion, some indigenes of the area ran to nearby bushes and battle of supremacy between rival cult groups in the comContinued from pg41 munity.

Pa Benedict, who is the head of the Ajie Family said there was no security presence while the incident lasted, adding that the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) from Ahoada only came at about 10 am, the following day, to condole the family.

feature

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

‘They beheaded my younger brother who was a politician and his wife who was a trader’ Continues pg40

However, a young female neighbour, who pleaded anonymity for security reason, said four persons were killed in the building by the assailants. Among the four victims, according to her, were two boys, one of who was a JSS III student who was preparing for his Junior WAEC. Two boys, she said, were beheaded and their heads taken away. “I saw some guys who entered the house of their victims at about 11pm. Four people were killed in that house. Two of those killed were two boys who were beheaded and their heads taken away. One of the victims was a JSS III student who should be writing the Junior WAEC soon,” she said. Mr Martins Uge lives at 19, Umumeci Street and he was left to mourn the death of his 31-year-old son, Elemchukwu, who fell to the hails of bullets of the suspected cultists. The man said his daughter-in-law was however lucky as she escaped death, though also shot by the assailants. Speaking further, Mr Uge said, “What happened is that around 9:30 to 10 ‘o’ clock on Friday (last week), some unknown people, armed with guns, came here to my house. They forcibly entered the yard and, at the same time, forcibly broke all the doors and entered. I was fortunate to survive; I was not tortured in any way. “They met me. They checked round all my room, they didn’t see any other person than my wife and the children. Some climbed the ceiling; they knew what they were looking for. The only thing they asked me was, ‘where is my handset’ and I told them I don’t have a handset. But unfortunately, they collected my wife’s handset. They went to the other rooms and, according to the surviving occupants, they collected their handsets as well. “Unfortunately, they killed three people, including my son and two other tenants. My son’s name is Elemchuckwu who was 31 years old. He was a butcher, living with me; he is not a politician. They killed him in his room. The other two people, they marched outside and shot them. They also shot my daughter-in-law but she did not die. She is receiving treatment at one hospital. “In fact, because of fear, I did not bother to look at their faces because recognising them would result in another thing. How many they are, I cannot tell. I will only appeal, if it could be possible, the government should step in. And I know, if government really means it, government can stop this act. If government really comes out to stop this type of things, they can stop it. I can’t say if they were cultists, armed robbers or kidnappers.” For Bishop Elemya Ugorji, a pastor at God’s Victorious Church, Omoku, the unfortunate incident would remain indelible for the rest of his life. Though unhurt, he lost both his younger brother, Samuel and his wife, Victoria, who were shot and beheaded by the suspected cultists. Narrating his ordeal, Bishop Ugorji who lives at 11, Dr Innocent Mazi Street, said, “I am staying in the other flat. My dad, my younger brother, Samuel and his wife, with their children stayed in this flat. It was on Friday night that I started hearing gunshots, from 9pm until after 10pm or thereabout. We had been hearing the gunshots and after a while, they ceased. After some time, they smashed the windows of my flat. We tried to take cover as we didn’t know where the gunshots were coming from. Then, we started hearing bang on my door, seriously and we just kept quiet and gathered in the bedroom. “After a while, they stopped and moved over to this side and repeated the same thing. They broke the window, pulled out the burglary-proof. By then, we were inside; we did not know exactly who and who were responsible. By daybreak, we saw my younger brother and his wife, Victoria, dead outside. They beheaded my younger brother who was a politician and his wife who was a trader. My younger brother was over 40 years.” When asked if he suspected that the assailants were armed robbers, he said, “I don’t think they are armed robbers. In Rivers State actually, you all know that this politics thing had been on the ground. We talk of cultism, yes the cultists were there, but they have been lying low. But the politicians came up again and there has been an increase in their activities. When you talk about ONELGA it is a place where two political parties are really struggling to see who takes over. “But then, things were also peaceful until after the announcement of the Supreme Court. We felt that normalcy had returned until things started coming up again. The gunshots of that day were something else; everywhere

Mr Martins Uge, the father of the slain Elemchukwu, showing newsmen round his house where his son was killed.

We had just finished eating and retired inside the house. They (the assailants) came in and brought out my first son and killed him outside the house. They killed the second one inside the house. None of my two late children was into politics. They were struggling to make ends meet and they were my source of living. I have three children but now they have killed two out of the three

Pa Benedict Ajie, explaining how his two nephews, Nwuando and Ahiakwo, were killed by the suspected cultists.

was affected. I will say that about 25 people were killed and about 10 of the victims were beheaded.” Madam Blessing Izeh of 20, Umueyika Street, is an aged mother who was a pitiful sight to behold as she was left to mourn the death of her two sons, Eze (36) and Okeychukwu Ize (25). According to her, she had three children (all males) but the two late ones were her breadwinners but they were killed after eating their dinner that fateful night. She, like other respondents, was however not able to ascertain whether the killers of her sins were cultists. “We had just finished eating and retired inside the house. They (the assailants) came in and brought out my first son and killed him outside the house. They killed the second one inside the house. None of my two late children was into politics. They were struggling to make ends meet and they were my source of living. I have three children but now they have killed two out of the three,” the old woman said. The world of Mrs Helen Ahiakwo of 13, Umuchikere

Street became shattered and crumbled as her husband, Emeka, aged 42, was not only shot, but was also beheaded by his assailants. Indeed, tough times await the young widow who is a full-time housewife with six children to cater for. Mourning her late husband who has since been buried in front of his house, Helen was initially reluctant to talk but eventually caved in to persistent questioning by the newshounds. “I don’t know what happened o. They just called me and told me that my husband is dead. My husband’s name is Emeka. He worked as a fitter till he died. I was not there when he was killed. He was 42 years old. I don’t know what the government can or will do. We were married for 20 years and we have six children and I am not working,” she said. Playing politics with the dead With the community smarting and still licking its wounds, and while the bereaved are still mourning their dead, politicians in Rivers State are, expectedly, up to their usual act, politicising a very unfortunate incident that should naturally be of concern to every human. Throwing the first salvo, the state chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Davies Ikanya, fingered members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state as the masterminds of the latest gory and gruesome killings in Omoku. This was as he also accused the police of protecting the sponsors of the killings. However, his PDP counterpart, Mr Felix Obuah, countered as he called on the police to interrogate Ikanya for politicising and for being allegedly privy to the unfortunate incident. Obuah, in another statement issued on Wednesday, said Ikanya and his party chose to play the role of a judge, rather than showing concern for the acts of lawlessness perpetrated by hoodlums in some parts of the state and sympathise with the families of victims.

interview

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

How Oyo health insurance agency will help reduce poverty —Ag. Executive secretary

The acting Executive Secretary of the Oyo State Health Insurance Agency, Dr Augustus Olusola Akande, in this interview by WALE EMOSU, speaks about how the government plans to bring a new lease of life to the citizenry in the health sector. Excerpts:

HAT is the Oyo State Health Insurance Agency is all about? The Oyo State Health Insurance Agency is established, basically, to provide financial risk protection for the people of Oyo State, in terms of their health. We all know that to deliver a very qualitative, affordable and accessible healthcare is expensive and of course, a lot people take a huge sum of money out of their pockets to maintain their health. The Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, magnanimously approved the establishment of this agency, to see to it that there is a great reduction in the out-of-pocket expenditure on health and, of course, that is a major way, again, to alleviate poverty, because if you have been spending, say, N5,000 on your health per month and you are able to spend that N5,000 in a year, you will agree with me that resources will be available for you to dispense on some other things. That means that citizens will be expected to pay a certain amount of money, maybe monthly, how much are we looking at here? The truth of the matter is that health is never free. Even when we say ‘free health,’ somebody is paying for the thing, maybe the government and that is what the Oyo State government has been doing for years. But you know that government has responsibility towards some other people too; some other lives, infrastructure, education, agriculture, especially with the trend of events now in Nigeria and even globally now that the prices of crude oil keep on tumbling, then the government has to try to look for a way to generate revenue and the immediate thing is agriculture. And now you see government spend more on agriculture, spend more in some other areas that can bring in money. And of course, again, health is competing with that meagre resource and government will not be able to have as much as it has been spending on health. I am sure you are aware of Obama Care in America where the president was pushing for the care of the indigent. Of course, he faced a lot of resistance, but he was able to push through to an extent and so health insurance is not peculiar to us in Nigeria, it is a global trend in health. And the major way to reposition health and to have deliverables that the citizens will be happy and enjoy is the way of insurance. And what are we talking about? Little contributions from everybody - the poor, the rich, the average, the formal man, the informal man - we all pool resources together, government brings in some subsidy and so we all pool these resources together to be able to take care of the sick when the need arises. When we begin to roll out our programmes, we will ask citizens to contribute a little amount. We have various packages that we will bring out; we have packages for rural people, we have packages for formal sector workers, we have packages for the informal sector, packages for students, packages for transporters. So, what everybody will be paying will be different and what will determine what everybody will pay will again depend on the type of package you want to buy into. For example, a package might give you a provision to the extent that even you can go abroad for treatment. A package might not give you that type of provision, a package can say that you can do all kinds of surgery, or most types of surgery, a package can say limited type of surgery. These are the determinants of the packages and, of course, by extension, the determinants of what they will pay. But basically, if we are talking about the community, we will be looking at a range whereby an individual will be paying say, N500, N600 or a family of husband and wife and possibly two children might be paying N1,000 per month. What I can guarantee our people is that whatever you are going to pay will be worth it. This is a novel idea, definitely the personnel involved will require a kind of training, how are you going to go about this? We have started some level of informal training inhouse. This agency started full operation on the first working day of this year and the first thing we need to do for the staff deployed is to undergo one form of training or

Mismanagement of fund is an issue in this society, how are you going to guard against it? The first rule in management is transparency and accountability. The first thing we want to enshrine is transparency and accountability and by that I mean, we want to ensure as much as possible that whatsoever we do is open to all and that is why we try to build a robust ICT, because we have layers of people that we relate with. We want to build a system wherein, we will know the number of enrolees that have bought into our platforms on a daily basis and then we will be able to know how much has been paid into the pool account of the agency and we know that problems should begin to come in if those two do not tally. Number three, we have a platform through which we know how many enrolees have accessed health in a day and on the same platform, we will be able to relate what an HMO, for example, has done, in terms of enrolment, in terms of payment that particular day.

Dr Akande the other informally and again we tried to do some form of formal training, the government has been supportive, the citizens too have been supportive, we have been having encouraging calls, people are ready to come and buy into various packages, but we are telling them to take it easy because we want to build a strong institution so that when we roll out we won’t begin to have challenges. Obviously, training and retraining will have to come in. We have to train them on how to relate with patients.

sundayzest

So when are you going to hit the ground running? Not that we haven’t, probably the question should be when are we going to roll out our benefit packages. We are looking towards March/April to roll out the benefit packages. Like I said, what we are doing at present is to build a strong, virile institution. For example, next month, we will be having a stakeholders’ summit. We are bringing together all the voices in health matter - private, government labour congress, association of private hospital owners, we are bringing together HMOs and then discuss health insurance.

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20 February, 2016

Kidnapped Jonathan’s cousin found dead Austin Ebipade -Yenagoa FISHERMEN on the Otuoke Creek, in Ogbia LGA of Bayelsa State, on Friday, recovered the decomposing body of Mr. Samuel Oki, cousin of former president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, floating on the river. Armed gunmen suspected to be kidnappers had on Wednesday abducted Jonathan’s uncle, 72-year-old Chief Inegite Nitabai, but the kidnap of Oki was not immediately noticed until several hours later. It was learnt that when the news of the decomposed body filtered through the community, the family received it with anguish and

trepidation, particularly as they were yet to get any valid information concerning Chief Nitabai, thereby raising fears over his safety in the hands of kidnappers. A family member of Oki, Mr Igbogamini Paul, told Saturday Tribune that the kidnappers abducted both men on Wednesday. Paul said they heard a gunshot but never knew it was Oki that was shot by the kidnappers. He added that the death of Oki, aged 35, was painful to the family. The villagers were seen discussing the incident in hushed tones in their native Ogbia language. According to them, native

divers and local fishermen recovered the body and anchored it by the riverside to prevent the body from being carried away by water currents. The body has been deposited at a morgue in the area. Meanwhile, sympathisers have been visiting the Otuoke residence of the abducted chief located within the neighbourhood of Dr Jonathan’s home in Otuoke. The kidnappers are yet to establish any contact with the family of their hostage since Wednesday. Bayelsa Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Asinim Butswat confirmed the incident and said that the police were trailing the kidnappers.

Don’t pay above official fees for passports, Danbazzau warns Nigerians Ebenezer Adurokiya -Warri MINISTER of Interior, Abudurahman Danbazzau, has warned Nigerians interested in obtaining an international passport from the Nigerian Immigration Passport offices to refrain from paying above the official fees. The minister gave the warning on Friday during the inauguration of one of the 18 new passport offices located on the premises of the Government Office Annexe, along Roundabout - NPA road in Warri, Delta State. Danbazzau, who was responding to a question on alleged racketeering of passports by officers of the immigration service, said: “Nobody should pay a kobo above the official fees mentioned. We are open to complaints from the public. Whoever experiences such racketeering should immediately report and we will take all the necessary action to deal with the situation.” Earlier in his remarks at the event attended by representative of Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, Festus Agas,

who is the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), and ACP Muhammed Muazu, the Area Commander of Nigeria Police, Warri Area Command, the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Mr Martin Kure Abeshi, had reeled out to Nigerians what they should pay to obtain their international passports. Abeshi declared that a 64-

page passport for frequent travellers, which runs concurrently with the 32-page passport, costs N20,000, adding that for children below 18 years, they are to pay N8,750. Explaining that the official fees are age and gender sensitive, Abeshi said Nigerians between 18 and 59 years old should obtain their 32-page passport for N15,000 while those above 60 years are to pay N8,750 only.

Rivers NLC chairperson escapes assassination Dapo Falade -Port Harcourt CHAIRMAN of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Rivers State chapter, Mrs Beatrice Itubo, narrowly escaped death as some men suspected to be assassins invaded her residence, in the early hours of Friday. The suspected gunmen, numbering five, were said to have, at about 3:30am, broken into the home of the labour union leader in Rumuagholu Community in

Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state. Armed with all kinds of dangerous weapons, it was also gathered that the hoodlums shot at her gate, damaged some of the windows before gaining access into her bedroom. Saturday Tribune learnt that a young man in the house, who led the assassin to the bedroom where Itubo and her husband were sleeping, suddenly gained courage and held on to the suspect’s rifle.

FG’s TSA unacceptable —Fayose Sam Nwaoko -Ado Ekiti GOVERNOR Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State has said the Federal Government should “perish the thought of imposing the Treasury Single Account (TSA) on states.” Fayose said in a statement on Friday that “the Federal Government is not in the position to counsel or force any state to accept policies that are not working for those that introduced them.” Governor Fayose said in the statement by his Special As-

sistant on Public Communications and New Media, Lere Olayinka that “the Federal Government should rather face the dwindling economy of the country instead of going about grandstanding on a TSA policy that was already tainted with fraud. Reacting, Governor Fayose likened the Federal Government to a blind man trying to lead people who can see clearly, saying; “The same minister whose office could not prepare a simple budget should not assault the sensibilities of Nige-

rians by telling states to accept a TSA policy that is characterised with fraud.” He said up till now, the Federal Government was yet to explain the alleged N25 billion scam allegedly perpetrated in the name of the TSA, adding that “the TSA policy was aimed at enriching some individuals for doing virtually nothing and that can be seen in the discovery of N25 billion that was said to have accrued to just a single company in one month.”

Saturday Tribune

news

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

8000 security personnel deployed for Benue South election Johnson Babajide -Makurdi

From left, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi Ojaja II, with Professor Wole Soyinka, during the reception by the Ooni for African ambassadors and other countries that claim Yoruba decent, at the Cuban Embassy in Abuja, on Thursday night. PHOTO: NAN.

830,000 Nigerians in danger of starving to death —UN

HE United Nations has warned that 830,000 Nigerians, ensnared by the Boko Haram insurgency which the government says has been all but defeated, are at risk of starving to death. “We are finding it very difficult to access most parts of Borno State where the need is the highest,” Toby Lanzer, the UN’s top official in West Africa, said according to Financial Times. In these regions, he said some 54,000 people are believed to be living in a “catastrophic” situation, the highest level of food emergency in the Integrated Food Security Phase Clas-

sification (IPC) system used to classify hunger. A further 780,000 people in Borno and two neighbouring north-eastern states are in the secondhighest category of hungerrelated emergency. Some 3.9 million people in the north-east need food assistance because their livelihoods have been disrupted by the conflict. Mobile networks in the north-east have been destroyed, making the UN’s attempts to verify the extent of the crisis more difficult. It has also hindered attempts to publicise the impending disaster. Unlike in Syria, where photos of starving

residents distributed by activists sparked intervention to break the siege of Madaya, there are no photos of starving Nigerians to galvanise a response. President Muhammadu Buhari said last year that Boko Haram had been “militarily degraded” after the army won back territory and towns seized by militants in 2014. But most of the “liberated” areas are still not accessible to aid agencies because of security concerns, according to the UN. Although the army has regained control of most towns and villages, it has not secured the vast rural stretches where militants

are still moving freely, say Western diplomats and security officials. Femi Adesina, President Buhari’s spokesman, nevertheless said the government had full access to all of the territory in the north-east. The “famine-like” conditions in Nigeria had been caused by “very unfortunate circumstances” rather than a deliberate trapping of people, Mr Lanzer said. The “stuck” communities could not sustain themselves, Mr Lanzer said, because they were unable to move their cattle for grazing, farm their land or trade across northern borders as they had done for centuries.

Striking doctors have sacked themselves —Osun govt Oluwole Ige - Osogbo THE Osun State government, on Friday said for abandoning their duty posts for over six months, striking doctors in the state public health sector have automatically sacked themselves. It affirmed that it was invoking the civil service rule that says whoever shuns his or her duty post for a certain period is deemed to have resigned. Addressing a press conference on Friday, the chairman, Osun State Special Committee on Health, Dr Simeon Afolayan, contended that the doctors’ demands were higher than what the state could afford financially. Afolayan said the doctors’ positions were considered vacant because they had abandoned their duty post

for the past 11 months, adding that this meant they had resigned their appointment. “By civil service regulation, workers who absent themselves from work beyond a certain limit are deemed to have resigned their appointments.

“This rule has taken effect and those who still want to be rendering their services have been given opportunity. “The state cannot be seen to be promoting and encouraging lawlessness by a group of individuals,” he

declared. Afolayan said the state government had not sacked any of the doctors on industrial action, stressing that, however, what the doctors are asking for was impossible to grant.

Plateau by-elections: PDP urges INEC to insist on PVCs THE Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to insist that electorate must use the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) to vote in today’s by-elections in Plateau. Mr Raymond Dabo, Plateau State PDP chairman made the call in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Pankshin on Friday. The state chairman expressed confidence in the

credibility and capability of INEC to conduct the byelections in the state. “We are saying that INEC should be able to stick to its gun on the use of PVCs for these crucial by-elections and not to allow anybody to change the rules of the game. “All we know is that in Nyelleng polling unit, 1,600 voters have their PVCs while 813 voters had theirs in Pyabor polling unit,” he said. Dabo said, “Anything short or more than the ac-

tual number given by INEC at the end of the exercise will definitely not be tolerated by PDP.” He added that PDP would go to court and challenge any discrepancy, if any, in the by-elections in the two polling units. The state chairman urged members and supporters of the party not to allow anybody to use them to foment trouble, adding that they should be orderly and peaceful for the successful conduct of the elections.

NO fewer than 8,000 security personnel have been deployed for today’s rerun election in Benue South senatorial district. Of this number, 6000 police officers are from Benue State Police command. The election will be held in the nine local government areas which make up the senatorial district, between erstwhile Senate President, Senator David Mark of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and Daniel Onjeh of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The state Police Public Relations’ Officer, ASP Moses Yamu, who disclosed this said that six units of mobile police officers from the state, in addition to an undisclosed number of policemen from neighboring states like Plateau, Nasarawa, Kogi and Enugu have also been drafted to complement their effort in ensuring adequate security during the polls.

Rhythms of Love kicks off today By Seyi Sokoya TELECOMMUNICATIONS giant, MTN Nigeria, in collaboration with Emory Green Limited, will today commence “Rhythms of Love” in Ibadan at the E99 Events Centre, Oluyole Estate. The much anticipated event is initiated to celebrate and rejuvenate love between couples as well as create a platform for the brand to engage and appreciate its customers. The event, will move from Ibadan to Benin City, Edo State, on Friday, 26 February and to Calabar, Cross River State, on Sunday, 28 February. The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Emory Green Limited, Tokunbo Nasamu, said “MTN’s Rhythms of Love would be a platform for deserving couples to have an outstanding evening, rekindle their love and make their relationship better.”

Kidnapped mother of Rivers commissioner released Dapo Falade -Port Harcourt MRS Patience Tam-George, mother of the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Dr Austin Tam-George, has been released by her abductors. The 85-year-old woman was kidnapped at about 8.55 p.m., last Saturday, on her way from church at Giogioma in Okrika, Okrika Local Government Area of the state, even as the kidnappers demanded for a ransom of N30 million before they would release her. However, according to the spokesman for the State Police Command, DSP Ahmad Muhammad, she was released by her abductors on Thursday night. The police image-maker said Mrs Patience Tam-George was found around 9:00 p.m. at Buguma, the headquarters of Asari Toru Local Government Area of the state. While not confirming if any ransom was paid, he said a relative of the victim, one Sylvanus George, was the alleged mastermind of the abduction.

Unical tops 2016 inter-university secondary school debate competition By Kehinde Adio

UNIVERSITY of Calabar Secondary School, Cross River State, has emerged the overall winner of the just-concluded inter-secondary school debate competition organised between all universities’ secondary schools in the country. The competition, which was held recently at the Nasarawa State University, Lafia, Nasarawa State, involved 11 secondary schools, which qualified for the national finals at the zonal level, drawn from various universities in the country. At the end of the competition, which was the first of its kind in the history of university secondary schools in the federation, Federal University of Technology International School, Owerri, Imo State came second while Nnamdi Azikiwe University Demonstration Secondary Awka, Anambra State, finished third. National Coordinator, President’s School Debate Nigeria ( PSDN), Elder Dare Oritu, stated that the competition was organised to foster unity among secondary schools in Nigerian universities in the country.

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

20 February, 2016

Saturday Tribune

NIGERIA

PREMIER LEAGUE SPECIAL

Pillars in search of lost glory FOR four consecutive seasons, 2010 to 2014, Kano Pillars held the Nigeria Premier League by the jugular, winning the title back-toback until last season when their dominance was ended by Enyimba. Coach Mohammed Baba Ganaru who had left Pillars for Nasarawa United rejoined the ‘Sai Maisugida’ exponents midway last season but his return was a near disaster. Not only that Pillars did not lose the domestic title, which he won for the team, the Kano State-owned team also failed to pick a continental ticket having finished sixth on the log. Also, the 12-year home invincibility of Pillars was also shattered last season, as returnee, Ganaru could not stop the 1-2 loss to Nasarawa United at the Sani Abacha Stadium, Kano. Interestingly, the feat was achieved by his former assistant at Nasarawa, Kabir Suleiman Dogo. Ganaru this time will be hoping to lead Pillars to regain their lost glory as he has beefed up the team ahead of the season’s opener tomorrow against Rangers of Enugu. Pillars had a three-week pre-season playing tour of Kaduna and Ijebu Ode to perfect their strategies for the season. Ganaru, will no doubt miss the services of goalkeeper Theophilus Afelokhai, who has teamed up with Enyimba.

Foreigners invade Rangers

Clubs set for actions By Ganiyu Salman And Olawale Olaniyan

FTER three months of recess, the 2016 Nigeria Premier League season is scheduled to kick off today with a game between two of the newly-promoted sides, Plateau United and Niger Tornadoes in Jos. Perhaps, it will be the first time in recent times that the elite league in Nigeria will start without a title sponsor, following the withdrawal of Globacom. The telecommunications giant a few days ago announced its withdrawal

from the league sponsorship after committing over N8billion into the league. However, the Jos clash will precede other fixtures tomorrow. During the week, Federation Cup holders, Akwa United defeated reigning league champions, Enyimba 4-3 via penalties to capture the Charity Cup, which was introduced in 1984 and first won by the defunct Leventis United. Interestingly, lovers of domestic football will miss Warri Wolves striker

Will Sun shine under Unuanel? SUNSHINE STARS started last season on a good note under coach Kennedy Boboye, until in the last few games when it missed out any honour. After failing to be among the last four in the Federation Cup, Sunshine bungled a golden opportunity to earn a continental ticket which would have served as consolation, when in the last match of the season at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos, settled for a goalless draw with visiting Enyimba. Enyimba before the game had already emerged the league champions. Boboye later threw in the towel leaving the team being managed by the Ondo State

Football Agency (ODSFA), to look for a replacement for the former Sharks player. Tomorrow, Sunshine will file out under a new coach, Samson Unuanel against Akwa United at their traditional ground in Akure.

Tunde Adeniji, Sunshine striker.

Christian Obiozor, Enyimba hitman. who won the highest goalscorer award last season with 17 goals, Gbolahan Salami, as he has secured a deal in Finland. Also out of the country are Super Eagles defender, Azubuike Egwuekwe who has also secured a deal in Finland and the lad who netted 13 goals for Abia Warriors last season and revelation of the Super Eagles at the just-ended CHAN in Rwanda with four goals, Chisom Chikatara. He has secured a three-year deal with Wydad Casablanca of Mo-

rocco while another Warri Wolves hitman, Etebo Eghenekaro, who inspired Nigeria’s Dream Team to win the 2015 African U-23 Nations Cup in Senegal is also set for greener pastures, among others. The League Management Company(LMC) headed by Alhaji Shehu Dikko is still making efforts to get a consortium of sponsors this time to bankroll the league. To whet the apetite of Nigerian soccer fans, Tribunesport reports various clubs and their readiness for the season.

ENUGU Rangers as of the time of this report were still in search of N10million to clear their new signings for the new season. The new arrivals include Bright Esieme and Chimezie Amanfor from Enyimba, Emmanuel Olowo from Sunshine Stars and Jolly Osas from FC IfeanyiUbah, striker Ifeanyi Egwim who joins from Dolphins alongside left-back, Chidiebere Okolie and former Giwa FC striker, Ocheme Edoh, among others. The Flying Antelopes Tribunesport also gathered after their pre-season training tour of Benin, Edo State would parade four Ghanaians and one Togolese this season, while Senegalese defender, Ousmane Pape Sane has also renewed his contract. “As regards to the clearance (of players), we have not heard from the government. But we are looking forward to hear from them soon because we have quite a good number of new players now,” said Rangers general manager, Paul Chibuzor. Chibuzor is confident that the Enugu side is battle-ready for the league opener against Kano Pillars. “We now have a very formidable squad, the best ever we have got and all we pray for is to get the money to clear them. We also need money to push the boys because football is all about motivation.” “We will start on a high by recording an away win in Kano. This season will be entirely different from other seasons because for us to win the league, we have to get ready from the blast of the whistle. We cannot afford to slip for a second,” he said.

Tourists open season with El-Kanemi WIKKI Tourists in their bid to improve on their performance will be parading the majority of the players they paraded last season, as they battle with El-Kanemi Warriors in Katsina tomorrow. The Tourists which missed a continental ticket by a whisker last season, retained their technical crew headed by Abdu Mai-

kaba, while Honourable Isa Matori, a former federal lawmaker, takes over the running of the team this season. Wikki however, embarked on a strategic recruitment to strengthen the squad ahead of the 2016 soccer season. The new arrivals include two midfielders, two goalkeepers and three defend-

ers. The midfielders are Mucktari Alhassan from Al-mogan of Sudan and Yau Zakari from FC Taraba, while the goalkeepers are Ndubuisi Okoagbo from El-Kanemi Warriors and Gambo Gideon from Bayelsa United. Others are defender Ezekiel Micheal from Sharks and Shamama Iliya and Saidu

Yellow who were recalled from loan with Adamawa United and Mighty Jets respectively. Maikaba said his men are well prepared for the new season, saying that “wehave been seriously working on those weaknesses to transform them into success and that will make us have a good beginning in the season.”

Esieme, moves to Rangers.

47 sport

20 February, 2016

Can Ikhana rejuvenate 3SC?

A league action between 3SC and Enyimba last season in Ibadan.

said. The Umuahia-based side is spending its third season in the top-flight. The team’s star striker last season, Chisom Chikatara has already teamed up with Wydad Casablanca of Morocco, but the Warriors would be boosted by the return of former captain, Chima Uluocha. Coach Boboye had a good run last season with Sunshine Stars though, he failed to pick any continental ticket and pundits would expect a better Abia Warriors this season under the former Sharks player.

El-Kanemi hopeful —Jelili

Sharks coach will hope for a flying start when he takes on Lobi Stars tomorrow at the Lekan Salami Stadium, Ibadan. The Oluyole Warriors will however, miss the ser-

vices of their arguably best player last season, Tope Orelope, who has reportedly pitched tent with Rangers. The sleeky midfielder capped the season with eight goals, a feat not even

Akwa Utd won’t miss league title —Olufemi GOALKEEPER Olufemi Kayode is confident that Akwa United has what it takes to win the Nigeria Premier League title this season and even the continental shield. The Promise Keepers it will be recalled, won the Federation Cup last year and during the week defeated Enyimba 4-3 via penalties to claim the Charity Cup. The Uyo-based side also won the Super 4 tournament decided early this

Abia Warriors are battle-ready —Ndifreke ABIA Warriors midfielder, Ndifreke Effiong says the arrival of new coach, Kennedy Boboye is a morale booster to shine this season as they take on newly-promoted side, Ikorodu United at the Onikan Stadium, Lagos, tomorrow in a league opener. “We are aiming at the league title and a continental slot. We have a new manager and we have better players and a new pattern that we are getting used to. Starting from our first game on Sunday (tomorrow) against Ikorodu United, we are determined and we are going for all three points,” Ndifreke

ETERAN coach, Kadiri Ikhana, will lead Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) this season with a rich pedigree to make the team become the envy of all again. The former international remains one of the best coaches in the land given his exploits both on the local and international scenes. Coach Gbenga Ogunbote, it will be recorded, saved the team from going on relegation last season when he joined in week nine from Sharks of Port Harcourt. Ikhana’s presence is expected to transform 3SC, but he remains one coach who will not condone any acts that could make his job difficult. The former El-Kanemi Warriors, Enyimba, Kano Pillars, Sunshine Stars and

Saturday Tribune

month. “We are winning the League and the CAF Confederation Cup. We have started the new season with trophies and we won’t stop until we achieve this target. Looking at our team, we have what it takes and we are well motivated to go all the way and achieve these targets,” Olufemi said. Akwa United also last weekend in its debut in the continental championship went to dim Vita Club

de Mokanda 1-0 in PointNoire, Congo, under a new manager, Maurice Cooreman who took over from Zachary Baraje.

matched by any striker in the team. Also defender Jamiu Alimi has teamed up with Kano Pillars, as goalkeeper Akande Abiodun has hooked Sunshine Stars, while Tayo Fabiyi has signed for Nasarawa United, campaigning for honours in the CAF Confederation Cup. The new arrivals at 3SC according to Tribunesport findings include former Kano Pillars goalkeeper, Emmanuel Fabiyi, former Warri Wolves FC midfielder, Daddy Bazuaye and former Sharks player, Joseph Nathaniel.

“IfeanyiUbah is one of the best teams in the country and our mission is not only to participate but finish among the top two this season,” Lukman Abdulkareem, a former Sunshine Stars, Wikki Tourists, Plateau United and Akwa United player told Tribunesport. His team-mate, goalkeeper Laide Okanlawon said the arrival of Brazilian players is a morale booster. “Initially, it was difficult to communicate with these Brazilian players but now, they are doing well. We went to Ghana for a pre-season camping and we came back to beat MFM of Lagos, in one of the friendlies. So, we are battle-ready for the league,” said the former Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) goalkeeper.

signed a strategy that will make his game plan work out well, even enough time for training. “There’s nothing we cannot achieve this season. I look at the players we have signed, they are very committed, ready to work and there’s unity in the team. You can feel the hunger in the team. We are highly prepared. You should expect the best of El-Kanemi this season,” Jelili said.

Eguma

Rivers Utd debuts

Brazilian imports paint IfeanyiUbah red FC Ifeanyiubah appears to be the team to beat this season as it took its recruitment drive to Brazil. The Anambra team has a new coach who is also a foreigner, Mitko Dobrev while its proprietor, Dr Ifeanyi Ubah, also brought in Brazilian youngsters, to unleash this season. With a decent finish last season, the team moved its pre-season camping to Ibadan, where it engaged in a series of friendlies. Dobrev, a former Heartland coach, would no doubt bring his wealth of experience to bear on the job having mastered the dynamics of Nigerian league with his stint with Heartland. IfeanyiUbah would parade at least three Brazilian players who were outstanding during their pre-season camping in Ibadan.

EL-KANEMI Warriors defender, Jelili Akinbode is hopeful that the team could spring surprises this season. With a new manager in Ladan Bosso, the Maiduguri-based side has been playing home away from home since the outbreak of Boko Haram activities in that part of the country. The Warriors play their home games in Katsina and Bosso must have surely de-

Abdulkareem

RIVERS United will make its debut in the Nigeria Premier League against title holders, Enyimba tomorrow. The team takes over the slot of Dolphins FC which retain their slot in the topflight division last season. Rivers United, which has been approved and registered by the Shehu Dikkoled League management Company (LMC), is an amalgamation of Dolphins and Sharks which got relegated to the lower cadre last season alongside Kwara United, Bayelsa United and FC Taraba. The formation of Rivers United serves as a measure by the Rivers State government to cut cost in funding the two teams, as there is backlog of entitlements yet to be settled by the state government.

Thus, fans will be looking forward to seeing former Sharks captain, Odinga Odinga alongside Fredrick Obomate, Yusuf Jayeola, Gabriel Olalekan and goalkeeper Henry Ayodele, among others in the colours of Rivers United this season under coach Stanley Eguma. The former Heartland handler, Eguma would be hoping for a better season this time, as he also banks on Festus Austin, goalkeeper Sunday Rotimi, Ayobami Asekunowo, Joseph Douhadji, Godwin Ayalogu, Chigozie Ihunda, former Crown and Warri Wolves star, Onyekachi Okafor, Bayelsa United’s Felix Benjamin Ishida and former Gabros star, Chibueze Nwaigbo, among others to make Rivers United the revelation of the season.

NIGERIA PREMIERSHIP FIXTURES, Wk 1

NO 1139

N150

SATURDAY, 20 FEBRUARY, 2016

Saturday, February 20 Plateau United vs Niger Tornadoes Sunday, February 21 Giwa vs IfeanyiUbah Nasarawa Utd vs MFM Rivers Utd vs Enyimba

Shooting Stars vs Sunshine Stars vs Ikorodu Utd vs El-Kanemi vs Heartland vs Kano Pillars vs

Lobi Stars Akwa Utd Abia Warriors Wikki Tourists Warri Wolves Rangers

FA Cup: Chelsea vs Man City

I’m in trouble —Pellegrini

Isaac

Watford woos Isaac Success By Ganiyu Salman

PPARENTLY inspired by the five-star performance of Odion Ighalo, Watford manager, Quique Sanchez Flores has confirmed that the newlypromoted English Premier League side is interested in bringing another Nigeria forward, Isaac Success to the club. Media reports have suggested that the Granada striker would serve as a replacement for red-hot Ighalo who may be sold in the summer. Ighalo, has been a hero in the colours of the Hornets in the last two years, as he was instrumental in the promotion of the team to the EPL while, he has also banged in 14 goals so far this season in the English top-flight. However, Success who has scored four La Liga goals this season was reported to be a £9million target for Spartak Moscow last January, but the Russian Premier League side was unable to secure a deal. Flores according to the

Daily Mail acknowledged that Success is wellsuited to the Barclays Premier League. “We have been checking players for a long time because it’s necessary if we want to be right at the moment to select a player,” Flores said. “Success is a very good player, he has power, he

has the physical characteristics to play in England, but he’s younger and we need to think about the future of this player, or if we have the possibility of this player in the future.” Flores also dismissed the fear of losing Ighalo at the end of the season. “I don’t want to think like this, I am a really pos-

itive person. I understand everyone is talking about the future of some players in Watford, but for me it’s necessary to keep calm and to trust the players that you do this in Watford. “But football is football, sometimes the players need to go for other places,” he stated.

MANCHESTER City manager, Manuel Pellegrini admits he has a “very big problem” ahead of tomorrow’s FA Cup clash with Chelsea, and suggested the competition’s scheduling would have prevented his side from winning the Premier League title in his first season in England. Pellegrini says he has just 13 players available for the fifth round game at Stamford Bridge, and the City boss is likely to fill his starting line-up with youngsters from the club’s Elite Development Squad. The City boss is also annoyed about the scheduling of the clash, controversially slated for Sunday after police ruled out a Saturday fixture and the BBC had settled upon their programming, and has therefore taken the decision to prioritise next Wednesday’s Champions League game against Dynamo Kiev. Asked about the difficulty in picking a competitive squad while keeping his big names fresh for upcoming games - including next Sunday’s League Cup final against Liverpool - he admitted: “Yes, it’s a very big problem. It’s a big problem. Maybe it’s not so big if we can play on Saturday, but as we couldn’t do it, of course for Sunday it’s a major problem. “Unfortunately at this moment we have just 13 players available to play. We have to play Champions League on Wednesday, so we’ll see

Pellegrini what will be the best team we can put on the pitch for the FA Cup, which we should have played on Saturday. “I think if you want to protect the English team in the Champions League, you should play Saturday. But for different reasons, we couldn’t play that day, so we’ll see on Sunday which is the best team.” Pellegrini won the Premier League and the League Cup in the 2013-14 season, his first in English football, but missed out on a domestic treble when the Citizens were beaten by Wigan Athletic in the FA Cup quarterfinals.

We don’t need Mourinho —Inter boss INTER president, Erick Thohir has moved to quash rumours that Jose Mourinho is in talks to take over at Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. Mourinho has been linked with a return to the Nerazzurri in recent weeks, though the Portuguese also remains favourite to succeed Louis van Gaal at Manchester United. Nevertheless, Thohir has poured cold water on the reports and insisted Roberto Mancini is capable of fulfilling the club’s objectives. “I met Mourinho in Jakarta a few years ago before I

was Inter president,” Thohir told Sky Sport. “He’s a great coach, he made history with Inter, but we have Mancini now who also wrote history with this club, achieving excellent results. I firmly believe he can revive the team. “Look what’s already changed compared to Inter last year, though of course we need more time. That said, that shouldn’t be an excuse. Despite a bright start to their Serie A campaign, Inter have hit a rocky patch of late, with the most recent loss - a 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina - prompting the club to

send the players away on a training camp. “[It] was a decision made by Mancini, together with our directors,” Thohir added. “I think it’s a good thing, though it’s not very common in other countries. “It’s good for the players to have the opportunity to stay together for three or four days, calmly, to foster team spirit. “We have to win tomorrow [against Sampdoria]. We have a good team and our coach is the best for us. I think we have a competitive squad and we also strengthened in the January transfer window.”

Mourinho

Printed and Published by the African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, Imalefalafia Street, Oke-Ado, Ibadan. E mail: saturdaytribuneeditor@yahoo.com Website: www.tribuneonlineng.com MANAGING DIRECTOR / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: EDWARD DICKSON. EDITOR: LASISI OLAGUNJU. All Correspondence to P. O. Box 78, Ibadan. ISSN 2712. ABC Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 20/2/2016.