23rd August,2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 16,573 TUESDAY, 23 AUGUST, 2016 www.tribuneonlineng.com

Anti-graft: We are not fighting a selective war —AGF —P6

DSS arrests Boko Haram's spiritualist, 8 high ranking leaders

Nigerian Tribune

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Nigerian Tribune

Only 1.5 million Nigerian teachers duly certified

N150

—Teachers' Council

—P6

—P38

Improved power supply

TCN draws $7.5bn 5-year expansion plan —P11

•Targets 10,000 megawatts by 2019 •To increase capacity to 6,000 megawatts by December •FG to raise $1.5bn, World Bank, AfDB, others to contribute $3.4bn Police rescue 13 children, 15 adults chained in —P7 Lagos building FG kicks off Oyo-Ogbomoso Expressway construction, sets completion date for 2019 —P3 Apology

Deputy Managing Director, RCC, Mr Nader Yusuf (second left), making some explanations to, from third left, Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, Senator Kabiru Gaya; Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi; Senators Monsurat Sunmonu and Orida Clifford, during the kick-off of the OyoOgbomoso Expressway, in Oyo, on Monday.

WE hereby retract wholly the publication in the Sunday Tribune of 21st August, 2016, with the headline: “Buhari didn’t deserve to be President” and which was ascribed in error to Dr Oby Ezekwesili at a protest rally in Abuja recently.

We have found that the highly esteemed former Minister of Education did not make such statement and the error is deeply regretted.

We tender unreserved apologies to Dr Ezekwesili for whatever embarrassment the publication may have caused.

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Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

4 news

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Kerry meets Buhari today Media to have limited access Leon Usigbe - Abuja

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NITED States (US) Secretary of State, John Kerry, will meet with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa,

Abuja, on Tuesday.

He is expected to arrive at 3.00 p.m. for the meeting, which will take place inside the president’s office.

The meeting will not be open to the media, even though the president’s offi-

cials video and still cameramen will be allowed to take establishing shots on his arrival at the Villa at 2.55 p.m.

State House correspondents have been advised to

steer clear of the path of the US Secretary of State, who will not be granting press interview.

They have been told to avoid the corridors where

they normally hang around to wait for events at the Villa.

A meeting has also been scheduled to hold between Kerry and five unnamed

governors from the Northern states before his departure from the Presidential Villa.

Kerry is expected to visit Sokoto State afterwards.

Nigeria, Islamic Development Bank will deepen ties —Buhari Leon Usigbe - Abuja PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari has said the Federal Government will deepen its partnership with the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) to fund critical projects in health and infrastructure sector.

Receiving, Dr Ali Madani, the president of the IDB Group, at the State House, Abuja, on Monday, he commended the bank for supporting several developmental projects across the country.

The president acknowledged that the bank had funded several people-oriented projects in Osun, Kaduna, Jigawa, Niger, Katsina, Kano and Ebonyi states, demonstrating its “soft spot and robust support’’ for Nigeria.

He added: ‘‘We can’t thank you enough for the height you have achieved for the bank in 41 years. Now that you are about to retire, we thank you for the quality leadership which the world has recognised.”

President Buhari also expressed appreciation to the IDB Group and other countries for extending their assistance to Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the North-East.

Buhari assured the visiting IDB chief that Nigeria, a major financier of the bank, would meet all its obligations to the development institution within the shortest time possible.

The president highlighted

efforts of the current administration at diversifying the economy, with emphasis on agriculture, expressing optimism that Nigeria would achieve self-sufficiency in rice and sugar, and export both commodities in the next three years.

In his remarks, Dr Madani congratulated President Buhari on the positive outcomes of the war against corruption and terrorism.

He said the bank was ready to mobilise resources from Arab fund for developmental initiatives of the Nigerian government and the private sector, particularly on agriculture.

From right, President Muhammadu Buhari; President of the Islamic Development Bank Group, Dr A.M Ali-Madani; Vice-President of the bank, Dr Mansur Muhtar and the Resident Representative Country Gateway Office, Dr Abdellah Kiliaki, at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.

‘Why Awo’s legacies remain unmatched’

By Wale Akinselure CHIEF Obafemi Awolowo’s legacies and leadership style remain unmatched because they were grounded on true concern for the welfare of the people and focused on all-round development of all sectors of the economy.

Chief of Staff to Oyo State governor, Dr Gbade Ojo, made these remarks while delivering a lecture organised by a social group, ‘Wheel of Oasis Organisation’, on the topic: “Awolowo’s welfarist ideas and its benefit on national development.”

Lauding the legacies of Awolowo as so profound, which he said remained unmatched by the pres-

ent crop of politicians, Ojo further extolled Awolowo’s visionary leadership style, transversing the education, health and agriculture sectors.

Noting that Nigerians yearned for a more inwardlooking government at all levels, he enjoined today’s leaders to mimic Awolowo’s style in practice, not just in words.

“He left behind large shoes that are too difficult for his successors to fill. His legacy was not restricted to education and health alone, he equally devoted his attention to agriculture. Cocoa was the mainstay of the region’s economy then, being an agrarian society.

“What Awo did was to

Nigeria can defeat polio despite challenges —Bill Gates

By Sade Oguntola THE Microsoft co-founder and Nigeria’s benefactor, Mr Bill Gates, has expressed optimism on the capability of Nigeria to defeat polio, despite challenges of accessing the children in the most vulnerable areas for immunisation.

Gates, who spoke on the Voice of America “Africa 54” programme, last Wednesday, described as disappointing, the two new reported cases of polio in the North-Eastern Nigeria,

after so much success in polio eradication, but expressed confidence that the situation would be brought under control.

He, therefore, called for greater partnership with government in the NorthEastern region of Nigeria to tackle the situation.

“Our main challenge is that we have children, who the vaccinators have a tough time finding. Reaching them in an unsecure environment can be very complex and so, we are going to need great partnership with the state

governments in the region, particularly in Borno State,” Gates said.

Speaking on the accessibility to the endemic areas of the country despite the security challenges, the Nigerian Health Minister, Professor Isaac Adewole, in a release signed by Mrs Boade Akinola, said the troops were accompanying the health workers to the affected areas and children were being vaccinated; adding that the government had declared a polio emergency in the area.

strengthen the production of Cocoa. With an efficient marketing board, Cocoa production output improved. The cocoa building in Dugbe, Ibadan, is a living testimony. Today, where is Nigeria in terms of agricultural revolution?”

Speaking on the current state of affairs in the country, Ojo urged the Federal Government to, in its battle against corruption, also advance robust policies that would better the lot of Nigerians.

Acccording to Ojo, also an associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Ilorin, Nigerians eagerly awaited the promised change of the All Progressives Congress (APC)led government, which he said was not really felt by many Nigerians.

“It is important to note that the major thing the Federal Government is doing is war against corruption, but a meaningful war against corruption must be total, rather than mere recovery of loot that is ongoing, “As it is, contemporary public office holders should not be mere managers of the system, but should rather come up with robust public policies that could enhance the welfare of Nigerians.”

He observed that the lecture would enable students of primary, secondary and

tertiary institutions to appreciate the life and times of Chief Awolowo, especially at a time when history was being relegated to the background.

“Public perception of History as a subject and discipline is indeed warped. This may not be unconnected with the ongoing economic downturn which has even rendered core professionals to either be unemployed or under-employed,” he stated.

A close associate of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Chief Aare Oyebola, said the sage evolved a template and benchmark for good governance in the country, which for several decades after his death, remained very relevant.

Oyebola stressed the need for public office holders to do whatever was necessary to better the lives of their people, as exemplified by the leadership style of Awolowo, rather than embarking on projects that might not necessarily be beneficial to the masses.

He described Awolowo as a progressive leader, whose free education policy and other programmes remained a reference point for the nation.

Also speaking at the event, the Aare Alaasa of Ibadanland, Chief Lekan Alabi, advised government at all levels, to adopt the ideals of free education, true federalism and good governance of the former Premier of the defunct Western region.

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Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016 6 news Insurgency: DSS arrests spiritualist, 18 other high ranking terrorists Jacob Segun OlatunjiAbuja

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he Department of State Services (DSS), on Monday, announced the arrest of one “Buhari General’’ believed to be a notorious cattle rustler, a Boko Haram spiritualist and the mastermind of the 2013 massacre of the Potiskum Secondary School

students in Yobe State.

In addition, the department said it arrested 18 other high ranking terrorists, in furtherance to its ongoing tactical and counter-terrorism operations to degrade the capabilities of criminal gangs/syndicates in their hide-outs across the federation.

This was contained in a statement signed by one Tony Opuiyo, on behalf of

the service and made available to newsmen in Abuja, on Monday.

According to the statement, “following recurring attacks by cattle rustlers in Zamfara State, this service conducted series of operations, in collaboration with the military, to degrade the criminal network of one “Buhari General” in the state.

“Sequel to these opera-

tions, this service arrested one Abdullahi Haruna aka Douglas, a bread seller on August 13, 2016, at Hayin Buba area, in Gusau Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Haruna was intercepted while using the cover of his petty business to monitor security bases and movement of security agents in the state, in a bid to facilitate counterattacks against security

personnel deployed to the state.’’

It stated that "the service also arrested one Mudasiru Jibrin aka Namakele/Alarama on July 17, 2016, at Sauna quarters, Yankaba area in Kano, the spiritual leader to a newlyuncovered Boko Haram cell in Kano and which preliminary investigation so far conducted revealed that he was also the mas-

Anti-graft: We're not fighting a selective war —AGF Dapo Falade-Port Harcourt

The President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration has, again, debunked insinuations that its antigraft war is lopsided, insisting that the ongoing fight against corruption is not selective.

Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mr Abubakar Malami, made the clarification, in Port Harcourt, on Monday, while speaking at one of the sessions at the ongoing 56th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

He said the fight against corruption was not targeted at any particular individual or any political office holder, assuring that there was no sacred cow and that nobody would be spared, if found to be corrupt.

Malami further said there must be a reasonable ground for suspicion of the commission of an offence bordering on corruption before anybody can be investigated and arrested.

“On the issue of being lopsided in the fight against corruption, I think the question should be that, is there any reasonable ground for suspicion of the commission of an offence? It is not about whether they (offenders) are PDP or APC. “As lawyers, you have at your disposal the Freedom of Information Act and the right to seek for support for the prosecution of those suspected to have committed any offence,” he said.

Responding to a question on how to punish top civil servants who were found to be corrupt, the Minister of Justice said investigations were ongoing on the matter, even as he disclosed that plans were underway to set up a committee on the amendment of the Electoral Act. Former REC laments poverty level A former Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Resident Electoral Commissioner of

Edo State, Mr Mike Igini, lamented the level of poverty in the country and urged the Federal Government to tackle the economic problems facing the country while fighting corruption.

He said those elected into public offices had only a year and five months left to fulfil their promises to the electorate, maintaining that it would be difficult for elected office holders to achieve anything after 2017.

“The belief and faith in democracy is on what it can achieve. All those elected into public offices have only one year, five months to perform. The truth is that 2018 is a campaign year, while 2019 is for elections.

“So, they [elected public office holders] have till 2017 to fulfil their electoral promises. Consequently, looking at what is available, one should look at the law and see how we can tackle our economic problems while also fighting corruption," he said.

It's not right for legislature to unilaterally increase budget —Fashola The Minister of Works, Power and Housing, Mr Babatunde Fashola, has said it is not proper or appropriate for the legislative arm of government to unilaterally seek to increase the annual national budget.

Speaking at the same event on "The Role of the Legislature and the Executive in the Budgeting Process," the immediate past governor of Lagos State, however, called for collaboration between the executive arm and the legislature in the budgeting process.

While not calling for the amendment of the constitution, he pointed out that the primary duty of a parliamentarian was not to make laws but make representation, adding that the legislature should not be in any position to influence constituency projects.

The minister also stressed that the different political leanings were no longer relevant, adding that the most important and relevant thing was how elected and appointed public office holders could work together for the good of the people.

He said he found it challenging getting to the venue of the conference, but added that he was present because he was involved as "the three ministries I have responsibilities to superintend are ministries that have one role or the other over our lives.

"I will like to say that it is not appropriate for parliament to unilaterially seek to increase the budget because they do not collect taxes.

"I think there should be collaboration between the executive and the legislature in the budgeting process. In this process, clear lines should be drawn because compromise is better achieved where all parties know their rights.

"I am not making any argument for any amendment, but the point I want to make is that the more people who do more of the budgeting process are also in the executive arm of government, the better their career knowledge," he said.

Fashola also said the executive arm would be in a better stead to interpret all the process of budget development, adding that those who worked within the executive arm were better placed to give a cost to all the projects being executed.

"Let me also say that we must understand what the the primary duty of the parliamentarian is. In my view, his duty is representation and not to make laws. His duty is to represent you and me.

"I honestly cannot say that parliamentarians should not be able to influence what some call constituency projects. The point I wish to make is that the parliament cannot make appropriation over a

matter for which it has no responsibility.

"If we have constituency projects, we must make sure they are not the projects of lawmakers. Even if they (the projects) were nominated by the senator or the state lawmaker, they must be the project that the constituency owns.

"In cases where the lawmaker who started the project is not re-elected, the new person who takes over should continue the project. But this is not the case we have; what we see are new legislators coming in and starting their own projects. In my ministry, we have over 200 projects that have no parentage.

"The meaning of this is that there is no senator to push for the completion of such projects, because there are new senators in place. I have said we must finish these existing projects, but people are nominating new ones," he said.

All budgets passed by NASS since 1999 illegal —Enang Also speaking at the session, Special Adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on Legislative Matters, Senator Ita Enang, said all the budgets passed by the National Assembly since 1999 were illegal.

Enang, who spoke on "Fresh Perspective in Legislative Practice: Who Makes the Law?," however, said it was the duty of the legislator to make law, adding that the executive arm of government could, in the course of engagement, bring out any part of the law made by the legislature.

He said the entire appropriation passed since 1999 were illegal because none of them was part of the vote and proceedings of the House.

"Under the law, it is only the clerk that has powers to certify correct version of bill passed by the Senate or the House of Representatives. Unless we return to this standard practice, we will continue to have the problem.

"The duty of the legislator is to make laws...The legislature passes what ministries should use and leave the details to committees. The legislatures should pursue the details of budgeting to the end," he said.

Speaking on the vexed issue of budget padding, Enang said the word, "padding" was incongruous as it was not in the legislative lexicon, advising that the legislature should, however, revert to the best practices.

"The legislature has to return to the best practice of passing budgets by doing all the details.

"In the 2016 Appropriation, the legal department added some things that were not contained in the vote and proceedings passed by the National Assembly which ought not to be. You should correct before passage on the floor of the House," he said.

Corroborating the stand taken by Fashola on constituency projects, the former federal lawmaker said he was always consulting his constituents on their areas of need, adding however that no money was given to any legislator for constituency projects.

"I will find out from my people on what they really need for constituency projects. No money is given to the legislator as they are not involved in awarding the projects. We don't drive projects; you are only told to put in project what certain values, but the executive awards," he added.

A former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Chibudom Nwuche, also called for a collaboration between the legislature and the executive.

"I will advocate they have a joint project office to work out details on the budget, this will remove conflicts. I agree with the minister that it must be projects for the benefit of your constituency and not for personal benefit," he added.

termind of the shooting of some students at Government Secondary School (GSS), Mamudo village near Potiskum, Yobe State, in 2013.

The statement added that “following threat messages against some members of the Diplomatic Corps in Abuja and Lagos, the service responded and subsequently apprehended one Aikhoje Moses, on August 19, 2016, at Azagha Bypass, off Benin–Asaba Expressway, in Edo State.

According to it, “Before his arrest, Moses had threatened the diplomatic community in Nigeria, particularly the ConsularGenerals of Switzerland and Denmark and their embassies in Nigeria, warning them to leave the country.”

It said: “Similarly, on July 8, 2016, at Kinkinau area in Unguwar Mu’azu of Kaduna metropolis, the service arrested one Mukhtar Tijani, a notorious Boko Haram fighter and three of his accomplices namely, Isiaku Salihu Abdullahi Isah and Hindu Isah.

The four suspects were said to have been apprehended while perfecting arrangements for major coordinated attacks on selected targets and locations in Kaduna State.

According to the service, “In a related development, on August 12, 2016, in Auchi, Edo State, three members of the Ansaru terrorist group hibernating in Kogi State were apprehended.

“Usman Abdullahi, Abdulmumuni Sadio and Ahmad Salihu were arrested while making arrangements to launch attacks on some selected targets in Edo and Kogi states, before escaping to join ISIS in Libya,” it stated.

It also stated that, “On August 12, 2016, at Aliero town in Aliero Local Government Area of Kebbi State, one Hussaini Alhaji Sule aka Yellow, was apprehended by the Service and that his arrest was facilitated by an earlier operation of July 29, 2016, when one Hafizu Sani, a spy and criminal associate of “Buhari General,” was apprehended by this Service.

It explained that prior to his arrest, Sani was also spying on the movements of security agents in Zamfara State and that the same Sani, in concert with other elements, had been terrorising local communities in Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara states respectively, engaging in cattle rustling and kidnap activities.

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Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Lagosmetro

Nigerian Tribune

Edited By Lanre Adewole

0811 695 4647

Lagos warns Omo-Oniles, sponsors

Says no more room for their activities Bola Badmus

The suspect with the rescued children.

Police rescue 13 children, 15 adults chained in building Olalekan Olabulo

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WENTY eight people, who were chained and held captive in a building in Ogba area of Lagos State, were, at the weekend, rescued by the police.

The rescued victims: 13 children and 15 adults, comprising six male adults and nine female adults, were rescued.

Lagos Metro gathered that policemen from Ogba, who were acting on the directive of the state commissioner of police, Fatai Owoseni were investigating allegations that a man, Emmanuel (surname withheld) had chained a 17-year-old boy and kept him in a room at Oke Ira, Ogba.

Emmanuel had reportedly claimed to the police that he was the father of the chained boy, Toba Adedoyin and that he chained him to prevent him from going out of the house.

It was gathered that residents of the area were however surprised as the police discovered another set of people, who were equally chained and kept in different buildings in the house.

A resident of the area, who identified himself as Odetola said “We use to call him Oyinbo Jesu. He was a former OPC member and he also has a Cherubim and Seraphim Church. He had

in the past, been claiming to be healing mentally unstable people, but that I am not too sure if he still does that.”

Another resident, Christopher expressed his surprise at the claims that the rescued children were mentally unstable and urged the police to ensure proper and discreet investigations into the case.

“The man is a very popular man in this area. We don’t know if he is a juju man or a pastor. You see him in white garment and some people said he is an OPC man. I want to appeal to them to ensure that the case is properly investigated I am not too sure that the children are mad,” Christopher said.

The image maker in charge of the state police command, Dolapo Badmos, while confirming the rescue and arrest said “the command received a report through Area G command headquarters Ogba that a child was chained in a house at Oke Ira Ogba.”

“Consequently a team of policemen was mobilised to the location, where a teenage named Toba was found in a room with chains in his legs,” she added.

The Lagos police spokesperson also added that the victim was allegedly chained by one Emmanuel, who claimed to be his father in order to restrain him from going out.

Further search on the premises led to the discovery of the other people chained by the suspect. “A total number of 28 persons comprising six adult male,

nine adults female, seven female children and six male children were rescued and taken to protective custody.” the police spokesperson said.

LAGOS State government has expressed its resolve to fully enforce the Properties Protection Law recently signed by the state governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode, threatening that it would not hesitate to use the instrumentality of the law to decisively deal with anyone, including traditional rulers, who forcefully dispossessed people of their legitimate rights to land.

The state government, while saying that it was not oblivious of the fact that some of the land grabbers were being sponsored by highly placed members of the society including traditional rulers, also warned that it would not allow anyone to forcefully collect money for foundation, roofing and fencing, among others.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Adeniji Ka-

Govt approves N15.5m for student enterpreneurs Akin Adewakun LAGOS State government has announced the approval of the sum of N15.5 million grant for final year students of higher institutions that enrolled for the Ready.

Set.Work programme.

According to the state government, the N15.5 million is a seed funding and grants donated by the state government, to help prepare about 500 promising final year students, from Lagos State University (LASU), Lagos State Polytechnic (LASPOTECH), and Lagos State College of Health Technology (LASCOHET), enrolled in the various rigorous curriculum tracks in June, last year.

The Special Adviser to the Governor on Education, Obafela Bank-Olemoh, explained that the initiative was meant to provide such students in the state with the tools, knowledge, and know-how on becoming effective employees or job creators.

About 500 final year students from LASU, LASPOTECH and LASCOHET, were said to have en-

rolled in rigorous curriculum, under the scheme.

About 90 successful students that participated in the employability scheme would have the opportunity of being placed in six-month internship positions with organizations like PwC, SystemSpecs, FCMB, GTBank, Access Bank, TOTAL, Jobberman, Stutern, among others.

Obafela noted that with

the recent grant, about 80 students in the entrepreneurship track will likewise have the opportunity to partake in three to six-month entrepreneur apprenticeships, where they will have the opportunity of deepening their knowledge on how to develop processes for various business functions, and build a network of vendors, industry peers, and mentors.

zeem, gave the warning on Monday in a statement, saying the state government would enforce the law against anyone found wanting no matter how highly placed in the society.

According to Kazeem, the state government will ensure that whoever encourages or connives with Omo-Oniles or Ajagungbales “to perpetrate their illegal activities would be made to face the full wrath of the law.”

Adeniji said for the avoidance of doubt, ‘The Properties Protection Law seeks to reduce to the barest minimum the activities of persons or corporate entities who use force and intimidation to dispossess or prevent any person or entity from acquiring legitimate interest and possession of property acquired through State Government or Private transactions.

“The law will also ensure the Special Task Force on Land Grabbers set up by the Governor under my office to work with all security agencies to ensure enforcement of State Government and Private property rights in the State and ensure proper coordination of the efforts of the various agencies of government charged with enforcing the State Government’s rights over land in Lagos,’ the statement read.

Man arrested for robbing with toy gun Olalekan Olabulo A 27-year -old robber, presently in police custody, has narrated how he had, in the past, robbed people, especially women, with toy guns in Maroko area of Lagos State.

The suspect, Sunday (surname withheld), was over the weekend arrested by policemen, led by the divisional police officer in charge of Maroko, during a failed robbery attack.

The image maker in charge of the state police command, Dolapo Badmos, while con-

firming the arrest of the suspect to Lagos Metro, said that the suspect had been transferred to the Special Anti Robbery Squad of the State Police Command for onward investigations.

It was gathered that Sunday was attempting to rob a lady at Itedo Bus Stop, Lekki Phase 1, when the policemen swooped on him and arrested him.

A police source said that the suspect had claimed that he usually target female victims, especially those with hand bags.

“What he told us at the sta-

tion was that he usually robs ladies and women because he was carrying a toy gun and that he could not confront men as someone might try to confront him,” the police source said.

The state police spokesperson, while confirming the arrest said “upon his arrest, two toy guns and a knife were found on him. He confessed that he had been using the toy pistols to dispossess innocent citizens around Lekki axis of their belongings and that his victims were always scared, believing that the pistols were real.”

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Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Lady Evangelist Juliana Obey-Fabiyi:

Five years with the Lord

By Seyi Sokoya

“

...we should be remembered for the things we do. The things we do are the most important things of all. They are more important than what we say or what we look like. The things we do outlast our mortality. The things we do are like monuments that people build to honour heroes after they’ve died. They’re like the pyramids that the Egyptians built to honour the Pharaohs. Only instead of being made out of stone, they’re made out of the memories people have of you. That’s why your deeds are like your monuments built with memories instead of with stone.” R.J. Palacio.

History will continue to remember all the great men and women who contributed a lot to the advancement of the society and Christendom that have produced them. Today, August 23, will not go down without reflecting and refreshing and remembrance by the entire dynasty of the music legend, Evangelist (Prof.) Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi, Onifade family, friends, associates and the people whose lives the wife of the music icon, the late Evangelist, (Mrs) Juliana Olaide Aweni Obey-Fabiyi touched positively through her large-heartedness and evangelism.

It is exactly five years today that Mrs Juliana ObeyFabiyi bade the world goodbye for eternal rest. But her footprints remain indelible. Terry Pratchett once said: ‘Do you not know that man is not dead while his name is still spoken?’ This aptly captures the scenarid with our Saint-trimphant, Mrs Juliana Obey-Fabiyi . Despite her demise five years ago, her presence, footprints, teachings and legacies are still written boldly in the hearts of people dear to her.

J.K. Rowling’s qoute in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child said those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch. These words depict the current mood of the music icon, who is still grieving five years after the demise of his wife. The bond between Chief Ebenezer Obey and his late wife still remains fresh in his heart as he would not stop sharing her memories.

One could say that to Obey, it is not an illusion that his late wife still lives because he still reflects her commitment, loyalty, dedication and obedience to his laid down policy and principles of running the home whenever he

was away to fulfill his assignment as a musician.

The fact that the music legend refused to bend to pressures, even from his children, to make another choice after Juliana’s demise also shows the bond they sustained even when they are apart. In one of his comments, Obey described Juliana as “a caring woman. A musician needs a very peaceful home, without it, he cannot make progress. My wife has given me the entire platform for having a peaceful home.’ ‘Whenever I go out to perform, I return to a peaceful home. I am able to compose good songs as well as work harder. We were married for 48 years… She stayed with me when we used to eat ‘oku eko’. She was also by me all through my struggles and when I hit the stardom and stayed with me till she passed on.”

The relationship she also built with her children has made them to think of her as if she were alive and still playing her motherly role in the family. A recent chat with the eldest daughter, Pastor Bukky Obey-Olaiya confirmed that “the legacy and vacuum she left behind are yet to be filled as we children portray her as a rock and pillar and a true definition of motherhood. Her kindness and generosity, without

doubt, have made her a role model to many.”

Her spiritual life, which could not be exempted from what she stood for, is worthy of emulation. Her contribution to the physical and spiritual growth of the church has become a legacy for others to follow. She was a prayer warrior; her spiritual and physical gifts of hospitality are compared to none.

Lady Evangelist Juliana who passed on at the age of 67 was born into the Onifade family on March 23, 1945 and got married to Obey in 1963. She was a woman of many parts; she was a business woman and poultry farmer and also a strong pillar of her husband’s music career and evangelical ministry, Decross Gospel Mission.

It is painful I could not partake directly from the hospitality of mama due to the fact that fate was yet to connect me with the family during her life time. But her legacy and the spirit of hospitality could be described as what paved way for me to be accepted into the dynasty with a good heart. My little experience and relationship with the Chief Commander and the children confirmed that she was fundamental to the family, Christianity and society at large. I am also confident that she would have accepted me as her ‘last child’, just as the Miliki exponent treats me and always call me ‘my dear Seyi’.

I am delighted to join the family to celebrate this woman of substance today; I also miss you ma.

Above all, this day will be like no other, for us all, as it lost a compassionate woman, Evangelist (Mrs) Juliana ObeyFabiyi, as the music icon, Evangelist Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi and the entire family, who lost a woman of inestimable value, virtuous mother and the brains behind the unity of the home and secret behind Obey the evergreen will feel the hit most, a sore that God is curing everyday through divine mercies, exquisite things and exemplary life she had lived which has also made the family become a household name in Nigeria and beyond. The immediate and extended family of Mrs Juliana and well wishers through these testimonies, five years after can boldly restate Haruki Murakami’s quote: “Every one of us is losing something precious to us. Lost opportunities, lost possibilities, feelings we can never get back again. That’s part of what it means to be alive.”

•Sokoya is a journalist with the Nigerian Tribune Newspaper.

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Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

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Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

businessnews Improved power supply: TCN draws out $7.5bn 5-year expansion plan 11

Adetola Bademosi-Abuja

I

N an effort to improve the state of power supply in the country, the Transmission Company of Nigeria ( TCN) has mapped out a five-year expansion plan, which will gulp a total of $7.5billion.

It said the expansion plan was borne out of its commitment to the Presidential Roadmap on power as well as the three stages of development plan unveiled by the Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola.

This was disclosed on Monday, by the Managing Director MD/CEO, TCN, Dr. Abubakar Atiku in Abuja at a briefing on the Roadmap to wheeling 10,000MWs of power by 2019.

In his explanations, he said in order to meet up with the incremental, steady and uninterrupted power Plan announced by the Minister of Power, the 5-year expansion plan will witness the completion of 56 critical projects.

According to him, by the end of 2016, the TCN’s wheeling capacity would have increased from the present 5,500MW to 6,000MW upon completion of 22 critical projects captured in the 2016 Federal Government FG’s Budget.

He pointed out that in terms of steady Power Supply, the TCN has also mapped out strategies to boost its transmission or wheeling capability to 8200MW by the end of 2018.

He said:”this we intend to achieve with the completion of eight new projects in the year 2018.”

Atiku also stressed that the plan has also been carefully developed with the aim of realizing an uninterrupted power supply with the realization of 20,000MW by the year 2022.

“The need to meet the market participant and an important player in the electricity value chain is very much committed to the Presidential Road Map on Power and the three stage development of the power sector unveiled by the Honourable Minister of Power, Works and Housing, viz Incremental, Steady and Uninterrupted Supply of electricity to the nation.

“We have therefore planned our (5) years expansion programme to ensure that by the year 2019, we meet up with President Muhammadu Buhari‘s aspiration for achieving 10,000MW. “In the realization of

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

10,000MW as envisaged in the year 2019, our five year expansion plan has 56 projects to be completed leading to a total wheeling capacity of 11,500MW by the year 2019.” he said He, however, quickly noted that the success of projects listed in the plan, would not be realized without adequate financial resources.

While expressing hope that the FG will positively support the projects in terms of funding, he said:”The on-going and new projects to facilitate the achievement of the 5years expansion plan cannot be realized without adequate financial resources.

“TCN therefore anticipates that FG as the sole owner of the company will

positively empower and facilitate funding of the various projects.”

He quickly pointed out that apart from the FG’s appropriation, TCN is supported through funding agencies such as AFDB, AFD, World Bank and Special funds from EURO Bond, China Exim Bank and JICA. Atiku further explained

that an anticipated funding requirement from these agencies in form of concessionary loans and grant is put at $3.4BN. The FG, he said, is expected to bring in $1.5B for the five years period while the proposed investor / contractor financing initiative by TCN is expected to contribute $2.6B. “This makes an estimate

From left: Partner, Tax and Regulatory Services, Deliotte Nigeria, Yomi Olugbenro; Partner/Project leader, Tax and Regulatory Services, Deloitte Nigeria, Oluseye Arowolo; Chief Executive Officer, Deloitte Nigeria, Fatai Folarin; National President, Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (NASME), Degun Agboade and Zonal Vice-President, NASME South West, Jemi Alade, at the public presentation of tax advocacy paper aimed at Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Nigeria, held on Thursday, in Lagos. PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA.

Equities market begins week with 0.58% increase Kehinde AkinseindeJayeoba-Lagos

THE Nigerian equities market continued from Friday’s positive path with lead indicator of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); the All Share Index (ASI) gaining 0.58 per cent.

The ASI specifically gained 161.74 points to close the day at 27,812.06

points compared to 229.33 points gained last Friday to close at 27,650.32 points.

The Market Capitalization which is the total market value of all publicly quoted firms on the NSE gained N55.5 billion to close the day at N9.552 trillion compared to N78.8 billion gained in previous session when it

closed at N9.496 trillion.

Nestle Nigeria Plc led the day’s advancing stocks with a growth of N9.99 to close at N835 per share, Seplat Petroleum Plc added N5 to close at N245 per share, Nigerian Breweries Plc improved by N1.99 to close at N140 per share.

Forte Oil Plc gained N1.90 to close at N162 per share and International Brewer-

Relief for farmers as NIRSAL launches North-South agric rail transportation Sanya Adejokun-Abuja

DETERMINED to curb perennial herdsmen-farmers’ clash, job creation and reduce the cost of some food staples across the country, the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has initiated a scheme to move cattle from the north to markets in the southern part of the country by rail starting from this week.

Speaking with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday, Managing Director/CEO of NIRSAL, Mr Aliyu Abdulhameed said the scheme, which is being operated under a partnership with Connect Rail Services, a bulk freight and logistics service provider, will also

enable the transportation of tomatoes, vegetables and other perishable food items by rail within the next few months.

The scheme will also reduce pressure on foreign exchange and the depreciation of the country’s road network due to concentration of haulage activities on the road.

Under the scheme, NIRSAL in line with its mandate to fix agricultural value chains and create links between primary producers and the market aims to leverage private sector financing towards the provision of necessary state of the art equipment, storage and agric produce preservation facilities to ensure safe, efficient movement of agric produce from farms in the

north to markets in the south.

It is projected to reduce the cost of transporting agric produce from the north to the south by over 20 percent, minimize wastage and spoilage of goods in transit by over 40 percent in order to preserve value so that farmers get good price for their produce at the destination markets.

Abdulhameed recalled that as part of a test run of the historic initiative, cows were transported from Jebba to Lagos by rail within two days in a journey that takes several days by road three weeks ago.

The arrival of the cattle in much better condition than herded cattle generated excitement in Oko-Oba, Lagos.

ies Plc appreciated by 61 kobo to close at N19 per share.

The appreciation recorded in these share prices amongst 15 others stocks were responsible for the growth recorded in the market indicators, trimming the year to date losses to -2.90 per cent.

7up Plc led the days retreating stocks having dropped by N5.28 to close at N109.17 per share, ETI Plc lost 31 kobo to close at N11.19 per share, Dangote Flour Plc fell 15 kobo to close at N4 per share, Africa Prudential Registrars Plc declined by five kobo to settle at N2.64 per share, and Livestock Feeds Plc depreciated by four kobo to close at 89 kobo per share.

The total value of stocks traded on the floors of The NSE on Monday amounted to N2.83 billion, while a total of 216.2 million shares exchanged hands in 3,316 deals.

The top three traded stocks were: FBN Holdings Plc with the sale of 58.6 million shares worth N184.1 million, ACCESS Bank Plc traded 40.9 million stocks valued at N239.4 million and GUARANTY Trust Bank Plc exchanged 30.7 million stocks worth N785.5 million.

total funding requirements of $7.5B for the 5years expansion plan,” he added On the take over of the TCN’s management after the expiration of the FG’s contract with the Manitoba Hydro International Nigeria Limited, he said this was in the interest of Nigeria.

“You will recall that the Federal Government as part of the Power Sector reforms had contracted the Manitoba Hydro International Nigeria Ltd as management contractors to TCN which is the only entity not privatized out the 18 Successor Companies of PHCN. “The Management contract was for an initial period of three years as from 1st August, 2012, which upon expiration was extended by one year to 31st July, 2016.

“Let me assure Nigerians that l and my colleagues in the management team which comprised of seasoned professionals in their chosen fields were carefully selected to understudy the management contractors and are equal to the tasks in transforming the Transmission Company of Nigeria into the desired organization capable if meeting the expectations of Nigerians in the delivery of efficient and cost effective power.

“Indeed my management team has the support of the entire workforce of Transmission Company who shares the believe that – Not foreign or expatriates whose primary interest is the financial benefits deliverables from their engagement with this country.” he said Consequently, he reassured that all commitments with Transmission Company of Nigeria under the management contractor remain valid, adding that contracts entered will be executed in line with contractual obligation agreed by all parties.”

On whether termination of the management contract with Manitoba LTD would lead to withdrawal of donors, he said: “l wish to allay the fears expressed in some quarters that with termination of the management, our concessionary loans and grants by multinational – funding agencies such as World Bank will be withdrawn.

“Let me make it categorically clear that,PHCN and indeed TCN had been relating with these funding Agencies prior to the coming of the Management Contractor and will continue to relate in stronger terms with the Nigerian management in place.”

businessnews ‘Only 10% of Lagos BDCs accessed dollars from banks’ 12

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

•Apex bank directs dealers to dedicate 60% of forex purchases to manufacturers Chima Nwokoji-lagos

D

EPOSIT Money Banks (DMBs) are yet to comply with Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) directive to sell $50,000 from Diaspora remittances to bureau de change (BDCs) on weekly basis.

President, Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON) Aminu Gwadabe on Monday revealed that only 10 per cent of BDCs from the Lagos market have accessed dollar from banks since the CBN gave the directive of resumption of dollar sales nearly three weeks ago.

Gwadabe regretted that BDCs in Port Harcourt, Kano, Abuja, Onitsha, Maiduguri, Benin and Enugu are yet to get a single dollar from these banks.

He said that the BDCs are also selling the dollar between N345 and N355 to dollar, far above the interbank rate of N305 to dollar exchange yesterday. The banks, he added, are supposed to sell to the BDCs on the same day within the week, but have failed to do so. “Instead of staggering the payment, the banks should sell to the BDCs on the same week day, so that the impact will be felt in the market. We also want the CBN to licence new International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) to deepen the market.”

“Our members across the country have funded their accounts since two weeks ago but the banks are not selling to them. The BDCs that met the CBN’s policy guidelines on the disbursement and cleared by the banks have still not received a dime from the banks,” he said.

Sanya Adejokun-Abuja

The Regional Director, South-west of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited, Adelaja Adeleye (right) with one of the winners of N1million at the second draws of the ‘FCMB Millionaire Promo Season 3, Adewole Kolawole, during the cheque presentation ceremony in Ibadan, Oyo state.

Gwadabe therefore called on the CBN to outsource the dollar distribution role to independent distributor since the banks have failed in their assigned role.

“I think the banks are compromising the policy and CBN’s directive on the matter. And like I said earlier, since the banks are not co-operating, I expect the CBN to take that role from them and assign it to a reputable independent distributor,” he said.

The CBN had directed through a circular to authorised dealers that all agents to approved IMTOs sell foreign currency accruing from inward money remittances to licensed BDCs. It said the foreign currency proceeds of IMTOs sold to BDC operators shall be retailed to end users in accordance to CBN regulation. Also, only BDCs that have been cleared by

the compliance department of the banks as fully compliant with the Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement were allowed to buy. The CBN issued a follow-up circular to all the banks, asking them to sell $50,000 weekly to BDCs. The directive was meant to ensure stability of the exchange rate and encourage participation of critical stakeholders in the foreign exchange market.

The CBN said a BDC shall nominate its preferred authorised dealer, a commercial bank, and can only procure the said amount from only that bank of its choice in a week. The CBN warned that any breach of this condition will attract appropriate sanction.

Speaking further on the Diaspora remittances, Gwadabe said: “The proceed of the international money transfer fund, is not CBN money. It is not from

IBEDC ranks first among Discos THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has ranked the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) as number one among the Discos in the second quarter of 2016.

This moves the IBEDC from its previous fourth position to being the number on among the electricity service delivery companies in Nigeria.

The development made known by NERC in the presence of the Minister of Works, Power & Housing Babatunde Fashola, occurred at the monthly sectoral meeting held at Maiduguri last week.

Islamic Bank to scale up education support for Nigeria

The rankings are based on the following parametersATC&C losses reduction, Collection efficiency, Metering progress, HV faults clearance Index and Reporting Compliance.

In response to the development, the MD/CEO of IBEDC, John Donnachie, in a statement, attributed the improved performance to the commitment and pursuance of the company’s five pronged 2016 strategic business initiatives to improve overall service delivery and customer experience to its esteemed customers.

“Since inception and specifically this year we have made giant strides in up-

grading our network infrastructure, revamping our billing system, investing heavily in the capital development of our human resource, massive franchise wide metering and delivery of superior customer service,” Donnachie said.

He added that IBEDC “will not rest on its oars, as this new position has undoubtedly spurred and invigorated the entire workforce to become more committed and continuously put in their utmost to ensure, superior and efficient service delivery to our customers in line with our vision to be the best electricity distribution company in the country.”

the foreign reserves of the CBN. This is money that Nigerians in Diaspora, are sending into the economy.

Before, this money come through unofficial means, some sending through hands, and at the end of the day, the beneficiary will not even get the money”.

Meanwhile, the CBN has directed all authorised foreign exchange (forex) dealers and the general public to ensure that at least more than half, or 60 per cent of their total forex purchases from all sources (interbank inclusive) are channeled to end users strictly for the purposes of importation of manufacturing raw materials, plants and machinery.

The balance of 40 per cent CBN said, should be used to meet other trade obligations, visible and invisible transactions.

In circular to all authorized dealers obtained in the bank’s website on Monday, signed by the Acting Director, Trade and Exchange Department CBN, W.D. Gotring the apex bank said the review of returns on disbursement of foreign exchange to end users showed that only a small proportion of forex sales are being channeled towards the importation of raw materials for the manufacturing sector.

The bank also insisted that Authorized Dealers should continue to publish weekly sales of foreign exchange to end users in the National Newspapers and render statutory returns on same to the CBN promptly.

Similarly, in a separate circular titled “Transactions in ‘free funds’ by Authorized Dealers,” and signed by the same Acting

Director, the apex said it has noticed that some Authorized Dealers have continued to buy and sell forex known as “free funds,’ despite the provision of the circular referenced TED/ AD/29/2004 dated March 4, 3004 on the subject.

To this end, CBN warns that dealing in forex without appropriate documentation which includes “relevant entries, blotters, physical documents and non-disclosure to the Regulatory Authorities are a breach of extant regulations.”

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has threatened to suspend banks found involved in “free funds” and hidden transactions without its knowledge.

It should be remembered that CBN had in 2004 threatened to sanction banks that engage in ‘free funds’ transactions, brokerage activities and unorthodox use of travellers’ cheques in a manner that is against the rules guiding the foreign exchange market.

“The CBN therefore reiterates that, as provided in the laws and regulation governing dealings in foreign exchange, authorised dealers shall not sell foreign exchange without appropriate documentation and disclosure to the Regulatory Authorities irrespective of the source of such funds.

“Accordingly, authorised dealers shall deal in eligible transactions only and not to engage in any foreign exchange transactions on terms inconsistent with the extant laws and /or regulations,” The circular read in part.

RECOGNISING education as a key tool and important element in countering terrorism, Islamic Development Bank (IDB) on Monday promised to scale up financing for development of this sector in the country.

This is as the Federal Government urged the bank to work development partners to rebuild the terrorists’ devastated North-East region.

President of Islamic Development Bank Group, Dr. Ahmad Mohamed Ali who spoke during the official inauguration of the Nigeria Country Gateway Office of the bank said the organisation will give utmost support to the country’s development priorities by working with other development partners in the transformation process.

“The Nigerian government’s exemplary leadership and drive for national development through good governance and zero tolerance against corruption inspires the IDB Group and other development partners even more.

“This determination will go a long way in fast tracking the implementation of development programmes in Nigeria to benefit the most needy families and young Nigerians facing vulnerabilities of poverty and extremism”, he reasoned.

It was thus in this regard that the IDB Group “considers education sector and particularly bilingual education among its priority areas in Nigeria as a tool to counter violent extremism.”

Ali enumerated other areas, which the bank group will group will accord priority attention to include health, agriculture, infrastructure, SME and regional integration.

He observed that the Gateway Office will further enhance the status of Nigeria as the largest member of the IDB Group in Africa and that this role will be further displayed after the completion of on-going Algiers to Lagos expressway.

Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun in her speech described the current challenges faced by Nigeria and other developing countries as potentials and immense opportunities.

“With the situation in the Northeast region in Nigeria, I call on the IDB Group to work with Developing Partners in operationalizing the Recovery and Peace Building Assessment and the implementation of the recently constituted June 2016 Buhari Plan for the Revitilization of the Northeast Region.

13

editorial

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Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

FG’s ban of conference materials

eCENTLY, the Federal Government banned the procurement and distribution of conference bags, T-shirts and other souvenirs at conferences and seminars funded by federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs). The ban was in continuation of the ongoing cost-cutting and efficiency drive by the present administration in the utilisation of public funds. According to the statement issued in Abuja by the Director of Information, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mr Salisu Dambatta, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the ban following recommendations by the Efficiency Unit which he set up to review the Federal Government’s overhead expenditure, reduce wastage, promote efficiency and ensure quantifiable savings. Membership of the Unit, which identified procurement as the area to begin the execution of its mandate, included the Minister of Finance, Head of Service, AccountantGeneral of the Federation, Auditor-General and the Director, Budget Office. Alhaji Abba Kyari, Buhari’s Chief of Staff, promptly forwarded the directive to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Head of Service and the Ministers of Finance and Budget and National Planning, for implementation.

We commend the Federal Government’s insistence that, in a period of lean financial resources, it must eliminate unnecessary expenditure on overheads in order to release funds for infrastructure. While we are not unmindful of the gains of the present move by the Federal Government, we insist that eliminating wastages in public spending ought to be a permanent feature of governance.

Again, while reducing the cost of invitation cards, programmes of events, brochures, folders and note pads and banning the printing of unnecessary publications and books of short shelf life which are of no real value to the public institutions or the citizenry are steps in the right direction, particularly

in an increasingly digitalized environment, the Federal Government needs to go a step further by undertaking an overhaul of the seminars and conferences organised by the MDAs. It is an open secret that seminars and conferences have been abused over the years, being part of the ways through which civil servants callously embezzle public funds. Most times, the trainings are just used to share money. It has long been recognised that members of the top hierarchy in the service, often in collusion with politicians, simply invent seminars, conferences and on-the-job trainings whenever they feel like dipping into the till. The official files in many MDAs are thus replete with events which were either never organised or organised with significantly less expenditure than contained in the official records.

Indeed, government needs to beam its searchlight on the civil service with a view to eliminating or at least curbing theft and other insider abuses. Only in July, Governor Willie Obiano of Anambra State threatened to deal ruthlessly with the civil servants in the state who allegedly connived with revenue agents to rob the state of huge sums of money, thereby sabotaging government’s efforts to shore up the state’s internally generated revenue. Obiano, addressing permanent secretaries and directors in the state civil service at the Governor’s Lodge in Awka, regretted that the action was capable of defeating government’s objective of paying workers their salaries regularly and promptly. The truth is that Nigeria’s civil servants cannot simply be left to their own devices.

While we recognize that seminars and conferences are inevitable features of public service, we hasten to add that unnecessary foreign trips can be curbed by taking advantage of the benefits of ICT, for instance video conferencing and allied technology.

Unless and until these modern tools are explored, Nigeria’s civil service will remain in the doldrums.

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14 LETTERS TO THE

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

editor

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

Still on the restructuring of Nigeria

O

NE thing the Federal Government must know is that the demand for the restructuring of Nigeria does not mean that the country will disintegrate; rather, it will give everybody a sense of belonging so that we can all have equal say in how the country is being administered.

Politically restructuring the country will also bring an end to the agitation for secession by certain sections of the country.

What we must realise is that as a multi-ethnic country, some people will not like the manner in which certain sections are dominating their political affairs, which in turn, reflects in their personal lives. To these people, having a control over their affairs is the only way that they will be politically satisfied.

This is also what happened when the majority of the British people voted to leave the European Union

last June. The British people were not satisfied with the way in which the European Union policies were affecting them.

Consequently, the political restructuring I am talking about will pave way for regional governments to have more control over the affairs of their people.

As someone who was around when Nigeria had only four regions, I can testify that we had aggressive economic and infrastructural growth at that time. When Chief Obafemi Awolowo established the first television station in the Western region, the Eastern region also immediately set up its own. For each economic project that the Western region implemented, other regions, not wanting to be left behind, also implemented theirs.

Therefore, at that time, the Western region economy was even stronger than that of Spain. If we had continued like that, I know we would have become a developed country by now.

Even the people of the different regions were happy to be Nigerians because of the economic competition which resulted in economic prosperity for them.

Our problem started when we began to create the states, thus making

the Federal Government more powerful. Most of these states cannot stand on their own, as they were only created out of ethnic sentiments. It is then important for the Federal Government to revert to regionalism so as to pre-

vent the disintegration of the country, and also to aid massive economic development.

It is necessary that the central government does not see political restructuring, which is being clamoured for, as an op-

portunity to break the country, but as a chance to further strengthen our socio-economic ties.

•Sanmi Olopade, Ijebu Ode, Ogun State.

Economy: Let’s focus less on oil IT is a good thing that Lagos State has finally been recognised as the 13th oil-producing state in the country. The good news also is that the Centre of Excellence is the only nonNiger Delta State that has discovered oil in commercial quantities. What this means for the economy of the state is that there will be more money rolling into the purse of the government, both at the state and federal level.

We must, however, not forget that the Federal Government, through the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is also intensifying the search for crude oil in the

North. If this succeeds, then the country will have more money being generated from crude oil. But we must also not forget that crude oil is unsustainable.

This is the time we should focus less on crude oil, but look at other ways through which we can grow our economy.

While not saying that we should abandon oil altogether, we should, however, work hard towards making it contribute an insignificant percentage to our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Crude oil has been the bane of our development in Nigeria, as it has made us lazy and unproductive. Un-

til recently, it got to a stage whereby we were generating over 90 per cent of our revenues from crude oil, and at different periods in history, our over-reliance on crude oil had brought us nothing but economic woes. It has made us to neglect agriculture, which we built our pre-independence economy around.

However, the current fall in the price of crude oil is a lesson for us, as this is the reason our economy is falling of late. I hope we can refocus our attention on agriculture, which is more sustainable than crude oil.

Agriculture will also provide employment opportunities for a larger number of youths than the petroleum sector can.

What is needed is just the right policy by government at all levels towards training youths in agriculture, and providing them with the necessary back-up capital for start-up. There are countries that only rely on agriculture for their eco-

nomic advancement, and it is something we can also replicate in Nigeria.

One of the biggest benefits from taking this step will be that we will drastically reduce the price of our food imports, which runs into billions of dollars annually.

Therefore, as the Lagos State government is celebrating the discovery of oil in the state, and the Federal Government is still prospecting for the black gold in the North, we should not forget that crude oil will not help us attain economic prosperity.

Apart from just a few oilproducing countries that are stable economies, the majority of these resourcerich countries are battling economic challenges today. Nigeria must, therefore, start working towards getting to a stage where oil will be insignificant to the country’s economy.

•Odole Silas, Rayfield, Jos.

Judiciary, save Nigeria’s democracy LAST week, a court in Abuja stopped the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) convention, which was scheduled to hold in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, while another court in the Garden City gave the party the go-ahead to hold the convention. It was these conflicting judgments that aided the police in its decision to scuttle the convention of the party.

This is, therefore, the reason the National Judicial Commission (NJC) must reform the judiciary so that the law is not used to scuttle our democracy.

On two different occasions, the PDP fixed its convention, and on these two instances, the courts gave restraining orders against

the party from holding the conventions.

What is happening is that some people are using the judiciary for their own political advantage, and it is important the judiciary senses this and do the needful.

Politicians are funny people; they are only after their interests, and to achieve that, they can go to any length, including using the judiciary against their political enemies.

It is high time the judiciary realised that it is being used to destroy Nigeria’s democracy and the earlier something is done, the better.

•Wisom Ewan, Eket, Akwa Ibom State.

15

opinion

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Blessed are Nigerians in the Diaspora

J

UST about a month ago, the finance minister, Kemi Adeosun, while addressing the Senate, used the following words: “Technically, Nigeria is in recession but we should not go into definition…”

She went on and on, in a desperate attempt to allay the throbbing perturbations of average Nigerians by saying, “We should be confident about what we are doing. I want to assure Nigerians the economy is in good hands and we are absolutely doing our best. We want to assure Nigeria we are on the right path, we are on the right track.”

Sadly, however, the realities that confront the commoner are in absolute contrast with Adeosun’s wavering declarations of expertise. Wavering declarations of expertise I reiterate because without being bequeathed the gift of clairvoyance by the gods and sans any form of savvy in the technicalities of economics save from the basic secondary school scale of preference, opportunity cost definitions I crammed years ago, I was able to decipher, long before Adeosun came up with the ‘technically’ phrase, that horrendous darkness, like some spell cast from very dark magic, snuffs the nation’s economic candle. The bafflement, however, isn’t interred in the carcass of the economy, but lies in the fact that this open secret, which the illiterate market women grasped several months before last month, effectively eluded the watchful eyes of its greatest custodian and acclaimed expert. Nigeria’s economy is not only technically in recession, it is sliding towards comatose and has so been long before 21 July, 2016. We just chose to ignore the writings on the wall while preferring to collectively indulge ourselves in delusions of conquering corruption while the economy burnt like Nero was engrossed with playing with his fiddle!

Technically, like the minister said, Nigeria is in recession, but without apparently sounding recalcitrant, I cannot but go into definitions for the sake of the commoner…

A recession is a significant decline in economic activity spread across the economy, lasting more than a few months, normally visible in real GDP, real income, employment, industrial production, and wholesale-retail sales. According to economists, a recession is usually characterized by a drop in the stock market, an increase in unemployment rate and an upsurge in inflation indi-

veracity with Vera Onana

veraonana@gmail.com 08054680688

ces, and Nigeria is already experiencing all these.

As a matter of fact, four days before Adeosun’s desperate attempt of assuage at the Senate, the National Bureau of Statistics reported that the Consumer Price Index used in measuring inflation in the country had hit 16.5 per cent, the highest in the last decade. It also came after the International Monetary Fund disclosed that Nigeria’s economy has been projected to contract this year. According to figures from the National Bureau of Statistics, unemployment rate in Nigeria as at March quarter of 2016 reached 12.1 per cent, the highest ever since 2009.

Yet, Adeosun admonished Nigerians to put their lives in the hands of her office, while making light of these petrifying facts and the grim predictions of the IMF, saying “We should not be worried about IMF. We should be confident about what we are doing,” but what are we doing?

Allow me to refresh your memory with the following facts, according to statistics from NBS, the last administration handed over a $550 billion economy (largest in Africa and 26th in the world), with 7.5 per cent unemploy-

ment rate (better than European Union, France, Sweden, Belgium) a stock of reserves of $30 billion; GDP growth rate averaging 6 per cent over last 12 years; a relatively more diversified economy, with ICT penetration from 0.2 per cent to over 60 per cent, and a new contributory pension scheme now with trillions of Naira in pension fund.

Nigeria has consolidated and stronger banking system that currently finances both government debt and the private sector, with a relatively vibrant capital market.

The capitalisation of the Nigerian Stock Exchange grew from less than N1 trillion to N12 trillion as at handover.

For the first time, Nigerian economy was rated by credit rating agencies. It was also a PDP former president, Olusegun Obasanjo, who secured debt relief for Nigeria, thereby relieving Nigeria from the stranglehold of the IMF/World Bank policy conditionality.

Harrowingly today, I am drifting, like several other Nigerians in Nigeria at this precarious time, on a raft of endless uncertainties… where will the next meal come from? Will the next salary be paid in full? Will the price of Garri remain at N250 or go higher? will a graduate get a job immediately after service?While I, like the bulk of average Nigerians, stare at these fiends and even more, hapless, I must congratulate Nigerians in the Diaspora. A friend of mine living in South Africa recently said, “these are the best times to be a Nigerian in the Diaspora” and I couldn’t agree with him more. Surely, blessed are the Nigerians outside the shores of Nigeria as this recession thickens.

The South African Rand just gained an almost 100 per cent appreciation over the naira, what used to be a naira to about 13 South African Rand is today a naira to 25. My friend said “I would rather do a menial job here than come home after my post graduate degree. If I make 5000 here, it is over a hundred thousand in Nigeria.” Same was the submission of another pal in Canada… with an exchange rate of over N300, at 27 dollars per hour for 12 hours per day, in 30 days he would have made 9720 dollars and in naira? Do the calculation but the finance minister says we are on the right path and I hope she is right.

Why states must generate their electricity needs

By Tony Osborg LAGOS State has the resources, manpower and ability to generate and distribute all day long electricity to Lagosians and even neighbouring states. The only obstacle militating against this possibility is the Federal Government, and the 1999 Constitition which forbids states from generating and distributing electricity to their people!

The Niger Delta states and some Eastern states have abundant gas reserves and resources to build gas-driven power plants in their regions and offer their people uninterrupted power supply. The only obstacle also hindering this possibility is the Federal Government and the 1999 Constitution, which stop these areas from generating and distributing electricity without first connecting it to the national grid.

Niger State is a host to three dams with a combined capacity of 1,900MW of potential electricity production through hydro plants, yet the state is in darkness. The state has equally pleaded with the Federal Government to give it only 13 percent derivation in revenues from the elctricity generated from the dams, yet the government has refused and continues to deny the state a fair share of the electricity generated in its backyard. What kind of depraved system is that?

Zamfara State has abundant wind to generate electricity for some parts of its territory, but according to the 1999 Constitution, no state has the power to exclusively distribute the electricity it generates without sending this initially to the national grid.

Sokoto, Kano, Borno, Kogi, Enugu and all other states in Nigeria have their natural comparative advantages in generating and distributing electricity to their people, however federal laws have remained an obstacle to this. Which is the

main reason why Nigeria does not have enough electricity, as these states are obstructed from producing electricity in a competitive manner.

During the Goodluck Jonathan administration, some state governors wrestled with the Federal Government and demanded that they be allowed to distribute electricity to their people. The Federal Government refused, citing the said laws and some existing concession arrangements.

At a point in Lagos, the state had excess electricity which it generated for its public infrastructure and was pleading with the Federal Government to allow it distribute this surplus to private residences as a way of dealing with the shortages from the national grid, but this was not permitted, with the hindering provisions in the 1999 Constitution cited for the denial.

One can only be highly alarmed at how much resources the Federal Government has invested in power generation and distribution, and the dismal result it has been able to achieve so far.

The concept of a national grid is an outdated model for power distribution within a federal system. We must allow every state to generate and distribute its own electricity. We must even allow small and big cities and towns to generate and distribute electricity. Competition is what drives national development.

The 1999 Constitution is our number enemy in Nigeria, and Nigerians must rise up to discard it by unbundling the Federal Government and giving back the states as much political and economic powers that they deserve.

In a federal system of government, every tier of government is autonomous and ought to encounter no centralised obstacle to its development. Nigeria is not a federal republic but a retrogressive, skewed, military unitary republic that is responsible for its own underdevelopment.

If militants blow up a gas pipeline in Bayelsa State, electricity goes off in Abuja and Adamawa. What kind of system is that? Why can’t we have a system that allows every regional crisis remain as local as possible, without it affecting us directly in other regions or at the national level?

The Nigerian system of government underdevelops the South and incapacitates the North. People from both the North and South must rise up to demand for a restructured Nigeria.

The Federal Government must give up its exclusive right to electricity generation and distribution if we must have sustainable power supply in Nigeria. Anything short of that is a waste of time and resources.

•Osborg is a public affairs analyst.

16

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016 With Tommy Adegbite 0811 695 4631 tommyabijo@yahoo.com

Kwara State governor, Dr Abdulfatah Ahmed (left), receiving administrative panel’s report on alledged illegal recruitment in the state Teaching Service Commission from the chairman, Alhaji Yusuf Kawu Daibu, at the Government House, Ilorin.

President, Rotary Club of Ibadan, Akobo, Olusegun Gabriel Akanbi (second right), presenting membership certificate to the Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, Professor Abel Idowu Olayinka (second left). With them is Mr Adeniji Taiwo Ajibola (left) and Mr Abiola Ogunbanwo, during the installation ceremony of Akanbi as eighth president of Rotary Club, Akobo, Ibadan, on Sunday. PHOTO: YEMI FUNSO-OKE

Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Chief Audu Ogbeh (left) with the Kogi State Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Chief (Dr) Tim Nda Diche, during a visit of the commissioner to the ministry, in Abuja.

Participants at a photo walk in Abeokuta, Ogun State, to mark the first organised 2016 World Photography Day.

A former Head of Service, Lagos State, Sunny Akinsanya Ajose (right), presenting vulcanising machine to a beneficiary, during the Honourable Bamgbose Empowerment Programme for 530 individuals and award of recognation, held in his Badagry federal constituency 2, Lagos. With him is Honourable Joseph Bamgbose.

The groom, Dr Olaniyi Ajayi and his bride, former Miss Anuoluwa Oyekunle, flanked by bride’s parents, Mr and Mrs Sunday Oyekunle (right) and the groom’s parents, Deacon and Mrs Olaniyi, during the wedding held at Orita-Mefa Baptist Church, Total Garden, Ibadan, on Saturday. PHOTO: D’TOYIN

Elder Komolafe Esan and his family, at his 70th birthday thanksgiving held recently at CAC Oke Ayo, Mokola, Ibadan.

General Overseer, Power of Resurrection Christian Church, Pastor D. O. Adebowale and his wife, Prophetess Adebowale, flanked by pastors of the church and female ministers, during the eighth annual anniversary of the church, held last weekend.

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

17

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

agriculture

Nigerian Tribune

For enquiries, contact: 08116954637, 08039521408

Bleeding to feed the nation:

The harsh lifestyle of Kebbi farmers

For 18-year-old Usman Hassan, “farming is the only life I know.”

RUTH OLUROUNBI was on the farms of the northern Nigeria, learning farmers’ challenges and their solutions. In this report, she tells the story of dreams that seem far away and a lucrative yet challenge-prone business.

U

SMAN Hassan’s day starts with a call for prayer, three and a half hours long trek to the farm, five hours of work on the farm, a brunch, a prayer and another three and a half hours long trek back home.

Hassan is 18 years old and this has been his routine for the last 12 years. “Farming is the only life I know,” he said on a five-hectare farm he was working on, adding “I probably would want to be a lawyer,” in an answer to whether he had any other dream than being a farmer.

To become a lawyer requires going to school and his father would have no such thing. “If he goes to school, my other children will want to go too and who will help me work on the farm?” the father, Maiwake said.

Depending on the context of meaning, Maiwake could mean “beans seller” or “beans owner” and in Hassan’s father’s case, both meanings apply.

In northern Nigeria, a name is given depending on several circumstances. For instance, Dantalata could mean the name

bearer was either born on a Tuesday or he is a son to Talata, a female born on a Tuesday.

Maiwake’s given name is Isa, but because his generation farms beans since the time of his great-grandfather, the name stuck even after the family took on some other crops to farm in addition to the beans they are famously known for.

Hassan is not ready to give on his dream of being a lawyer, a dream that was birthed the day he watched one of his father’s wives bleed to death during childbirth, and he would find a way to live. It was a traumatic experience for everyone, the father and son said and they did not want to dwell on it.

The Genesis “Knock, knock”. It was a persistent sound on the other side of the door, at 4.30 on Sunday morning, July 31, 2016.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me, Balla. It’s time to go!” he called back.

Balla, the tour guide/logistics coordinator had agreed to a tour of some farms in an attempt to meet and engage with some farm-

ers in the villages of Kebbi State.

The plan was for this reporter to meet with Balla at 4.00 am, the best time to take the long walk to Tungar Zazzawagawa, 15 kilometres from Argungu town.

According to Bala, leaving at 5 am “will not be best for you because this is a long journey and we need to get to the farm before the sun is up.”

Hassan was already on the farm by 7.00 am, working by the time Balla and this reporter got to the farm.

Hassan’s family lives in Argungu, about 45 minutes from Birnin Kebbi, by road. To cover the 55 kilometres distance on foot, it takes about eight hours, through shortcuts and possibly 15 hours to a stranger embarking on the journey for the first time, Balla explained. Google Maps says walking that distance will take 11 hours and one minute.

But to “save cost and time”, Hassan’s family built a two-room house close to the farm in Tungar Zazzawaga, where a father and his three sons live. The trio routinely decide on who goes home in Argungu to bring fresh supplies and visit with the family. The few

times all the family members come together is during the harvest and after Hassan said.

The women, who lead a somewhat separate life from their men’s, are needed on the farm during the harvest and that is when “life gets more interesting,” Balla said.

“It is as if all of a sudden life bursts in jubilant colours during the harvest seasons.

Women are singing, children are running around, and the men chat heartily. Harvest seasons are usually time for celebration, especially if Allah has been kind to us to bless us with bountiful harvest,” Hassan said, agreeing with Balla.

As Nigerian Tribune heads Argungu, Balla explained why many to Northern farmers in northern Nigeria set out as early as 4.00 am, some setting out earlier. The first Morning Prayer meets some on the way or in the farm, he said. The logic behind this is to avoid the sun and get some work in before the sun rises.

“It is not sensible to go to the farm when the sun is up. That is why you see farmers Continues on pg18

18

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

agriculture ‘Our children no longer interested in farming’ One morning I woke up and met that my farm had been destroyed by the herdsmen.

More than half a million anaira investment destroyed in one fell swoop. If that is not demoralising, I don’t know what is.

Awali working on the farm.

Continued from pg17

either in the morning or late in the evening,” Bala explains.

The sun was out - with a vengeance - it seemed, by the time the bus stopped at a farm in Argungu but Audu Awali, a farmer who was busy weeding his rice farm with a hoe and his bare hands didn’t seem to notice.

Clad in a long black dress and a scarf, to this repoerter, it felt as if the Ozone layer had been lifted, but Awali insisted it was a cool day (it had rained a day before). “It’s a good day to work on the farm. It may rain later today,” he said smiling. A quick prayer for an instant rain was sent to the heavens, but the rains paid no mind.

To farm in the northern part of Nigeria is no joke, Awali, who works on 140 kilometres of rice farm he and six other farmers share said. He has been on the farm since 5.00 am, setting out at a little past 3.00 p.m and at 12.30 pm, he isn’t showing any signs of tiredness. Awali says he hopes to work till it is time for the afternoon prayer and leave after finishing his prayers.

Awali, 45, says his typical week is spent alternating between his three farms, sometimes going in the morning or sometimes in the evening.

Stopping to take a sip of water from a bottle and wipe perspiration off his brow, Awali says to him, farming process is a lot like going to a war – against the nature (rain, sun and floods), animals (mostly cow stampedes “orchestrated by the herdsmen”), buyers and other challenges such as lack of machines for mechanised farming, finances and labour intensity. These and more all contribute to deter many young people from farming, he says.

Awali has been farming since he was a boy. At almost 46, farming is the only life he knows. And despite the challenges, it is a life

he is proud to lead, saying “to farm the land, to know that thousands of people, possibly millions are eating from my farm gives me so much joy.”

At the end of the planting season, two months from now, Awali would harvest 240 bags of 75kg paddies of rice, which he would sell at N9,000 per bag to an existing market.

All things being equal, Awali hopes to make a little above N2 million from the three hectares of rice farm he is cultivating, aside

the beans and groundnut farms he owns.

“Farming is lucrative,” Balla said as Awali walked off to inspect something his 13-year-old son called his attention to. “Everyone here farms,” Balla had said on the way to the farm earlier. “It is what makes us healthy and rich,” he added.

It takes only three months to cultivate and harvest rice, he explained and “if you could plant rice three times in a year, imagine how wealthy you will be. You should leave

Nigerian Tribune’s Ruth Olurounbi with workers at Labana Rice Mills Limited, Birnin Kebbi, Kebbi State.

your journalism work and come to farm here. We have many people like you on our farms,” said laughing. “I am serious you know,” he added, furrowing his brow.

In some cases though, being a farmer doesn’t necessarily mean one is rich, he said “because with the way Nigeria is going, it is becoming more expensive to farm now,” he added with sadness in his voice.

Balla, in his late 30s, could not farm as he would have wanted to, due to a back injury that occurred while felling a tree some eight years back. After a spell at a traditional healer’s and series of physiotherapy sessions from the village’s local doctor, it was pronounced that his farming life was over.

“So now I stick to planting vegetables, which is not so bad,” he said, walking a few metres ahead and possibly wishing that the darned tree had not cut his manually intensive farming life short. Still, Balla makes a profit of N150,000 every four weeks from his four acre vegetable farm.

Argungu boasts of key crops like tobacco, peanuts, rice, millet, and sorghum and hosts an annual international fishing competition, Mallam Yusuff Gabi, Argungu LGA coordinator of the Rice Farmers’ Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), says.

According to him, the LGA has “at least” 60,000 hectares of rice and thousands of farmers who produce 80 bags of rice paddy per hectare. Apart from rice, sorghum, millet, etc, the city produces yam, sugarcane, maize and other things, for subsistence, as well as for commercial purposes, are produced in the city Gabi said.

Gabi said he believes that Tungar Zazzagawa, Gulma and Sarwa, villages that farm and produce thousands of tonnes of rice could actually produce more if the Federal Government would provide mechanised solutions to their local farming processes.

The state government seemed to agree.

19

Acting Parment Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Muhammad Lawal Sheu, said farmers need mechanised equipment to farm the land if the government’s campaign for self-sufficiency as well as food security were to be fruitful.

Although the state governor is working on making the machines available to the farmers, one cannot be sure of quickly that will be done.

The lifestyle of a farmer is not so different from the trader’s, Halidu Muhammad, a beans trader in Birnin Kebbi’s market told the Nigerian Tribune the following evening. Balla had insisted that this reporter take a tour of the market to “see for yourself where the foods we produce go to.” According to him, although a large volume of the foods produced in the north go to other parts of the country, say Lagos, Ibadan, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Aba for instance, contrary to reports in the international community, majority of the northern people are not “starving and they are not terrorists,” Balla wanted this reporter to know.

Muhammadu, who lives in Gulma village, Argungu local government area says typically, a household is made up of a father’s quarters, his wives and children’s. Depending on the family structure and personal preferences, the father’s quarters could be built close to this family’s or not at all. “But what is important to us is that our husbands provide for the family,” Hauwa Umar, third wife to a farmer in the village said.

One of the critical challenges of food production is lack of mechanised equipment to farm the land with, many farmers in the state complained and from what the chairman, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Kebbi State chapter, Yusuf Isa said while on a tour of hectares of rice farm separated River Rima, which runs thousands of kilometres from Sokoto into River Niger, the fact that many of them have to expend a lot of energy in manual labour and finances on so little gain was enough to discourage thousands for farmers from picking up hoes and cutlasses to farm.

While on the bank of River Rima, which irrigates about 10,572 hectares (26,120 acres) of farmland in the Rima floodplain between Argungu and Birnin Kebbi, according to the locals, one couldn’t help but wonder how easier and fast food production could be if machines were involved.

Millions of dollars in investment and technological advancements, yet challenges persist Despite millions of dollars in investments in the northern part of Nigeria, farmers face harshest contraints in terms of technology.

For instance, the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Kebbi State says the Central Bank of Nigeria has invested about N14 billion in food production in addition to several billions of naira investement by the Federal Government, yet the farmers wonder why, in 2016, they are still farming manually.

Musa Adamu, who relies heavily on manual labour to farm more than 150 hectares of beans, rice and groundnut, says “it daunting to have to continue to farm. Our children are getting tired of farming and our old ones are retiring. If we do not get help soon, farming will stop being attractive to our people,” he said.

Although Kebbi State is relatively safe and peaceful, some farmers complain of herdsmen who wreak havoc on their farms.

“One morning I woke up and found out

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Despite challenges, farming still lucrative

A heap of Paddy Rice at Suru market.

that my farm had been destroyed by the herdsmen. More than half a million anaira investment destroyed in one fell swoop. If that is not demoralising, I don’t know what is,” Adamu said, furious.

According to him, “the Federal Government needs to find a lasting solution to our problems.”

But a visit to Suru village and its markets revealed what makes farming worthwhile to the farmers despite daily challenges they face. Every day, on the average, 150 trucks ply the Suru rice market a few kilometres away from Birnin Kebbi, the state capital, loading about 75,000 bags of paddy rice.

Another 50 trucks load 3,000 bags of millet, and 5,000 bags of groudnuts, maize, and other crops are hauled off the market almost on a daily basis. And it is just in Suru market alone. Traders say during the harvest season, the number of trucks “almost certainly” double in size.

At the Labana Rice Mills Farms facilities, Birnin Kebbi, where Nigerian Tribune was conducted round, more than 30 trucks loaded with 500 to 1000 bags of paddy rice make delivery every day, one of the workers on the facility said. In the state, there are more than 1,000 trucks and 20 trucking companies and yet, the farmers are in search for more.

In fact, Aminu Abubakar, who currently works as a labourer, offloading the bags of rice, says he hopes that one day he would also have a haulage company. According to

It’s daunting to have to continue to farm. Our children are getting tired of farming and our old ones are retiring.

Danjuma Bisi addressing a cross section of rice farmers during their weekly cooperative society meeting. PHOTO: RUTH OLUROUNBI Abubakar, a haulage company is one of the limitless business opportunities in the agriculture sector in the state.

If farming was considered lucrative, a new programme introduced into the state is making it “a lot more creative,” Alhaji Danjuma Bisi, coordinator of farmers’ cooperative society in Suru Village told Nigerian Tribune.

Thursday, a market day in Suru also serves as the day the farmers come together to boast of their harvests and meet to discuss the way forward, as far as their cooperative society is concerned.

Bisi, who farms beans, groundnuts, sugarcane, rice and other commodities on an expanse of 250 hectares of land, says he makes more than N10 million in profits per farming season and he’s looking to make a lot more with the introduction of the Anchors Borrowers Programme in the state about eight months ago.

At the cooperative society meeting, which this reporter was allowed to be a part of, the farmers, mostly giving accounts on their farming activities, said a N210,000 single digits loan collected from the Central Bank of Nigeria via Sterling Bank of Nigeria, training on farming techniques and farm inputs such as water pump, fertilisers; they are now literally smiling to the bank, depositing a large sum of money as returns on investment.

According to Bisi, smallholder farmers in the state are becoming millionaires as well. To corroborate this claim, the Nigerian Tribune spoke with Dauda Abdul-Wahab, Branch Head, Sterling Bank, Brinin Kebbi.

According to him, if a farmer on the ABP gets N210,000 for farm an hectare, which yields a hundred or 90 75kg bags of paddy rice (which usually happens according to the farmers) sold at N10,000 per bag, that gives the farmer a return of N1 million. Now say and a smallholder farmer farms about three hectare at minimum, he is left with, give or take, N2,370,000 after repaying his loan.

On the evening of the following day, which happened to be the Nigerian Tribune’s last day in the city, during a casual stroll, Balla answering several questions on the dynamics of Kebbi’s politics as well its socioeconomic dichotomy, agreed with several farmers in the state who said from their perspective, Nigerian farmers can adequately feed the country. He said though, “everybody must be ready to want this to work. Our government must have the will-power to make it work and our people – the traders and consumers – must be willing to want to sell and consume locally-produced foods! If the government is ready but we the consumers are not ready, there is no way this can work.”

29

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

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

NLC seeks probe of HMO over missing N90million fund Urges Buhari to free NHIS from TSA

Senator Chris Nwabueze Ngige with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) officials and directors, at the Ministry of Labour and Employment, while unveiling the National Policy on Labour Migration and IEC Materials.

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has demanded for immediate investigation and probe of the Health Management Organisation (HMO) recently involved in an alleged missing N90 million fund, saying that the issue should not be swept under the carpet.

It also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to free the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) from the Treasury Single Account (TSA) because of its importance and urgency required in terms of need.

President of NLC, Comrade Ayuba Wabba, said this when the

FG unveils National Policy on Labour Migration Stories By Soji-Eze Fagbemi

T

he Federal Government has unveiled the National Policy on Labour Migration aimed at protecting migrant workers; promote their welfare and that of families left behind.

Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige, who unveiled the policy recently in Abuja, also inaugurated two committees, the Technical Working Committee and the Social Partner Advisory Committee, to ensure faithful implementation of the policy, which has been described as the first in Africa.

According to the minister, the development is another major step by the Federal Government to boost decent job opportunities and surmount the challenges of countless Nigerian illegal immigrants, many of whom lose their lives while trying to cross into Europe through the Mediterranean Sea or Sahara desert.

The event had in attendance the Chief of Mission of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), Enira Krdzalic; Deputy Head of Delegation of the European Union (EU), Richard Young; the Country Director of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Dennis Zulu; Labour Migration representatives from the Ministries of Finance, Justice, Women Affairs, National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and other relevant government agencies.

Delivering the keynote address, Senator Ngige said the risk associated with irregular migration and its impact on Nigeria’s human resources and development necessitated the development of “this coherent policy on labour migration which aims at promoting decent work and respectability of migrant workers, as they would be

accorded regular immigrant status in their countries of destination.”

He stated that the international migration ostensibly represents an opportunity for Nigerians to provide a better life for themselves and their families, pursue educational aspirations, improve their professional skills and prospects, or satisfy a desire for personal development through the adventures and challenges that come with living abroad.

However, Ngige pointed out that it be embarked on out of choice and not compulsion, adding that unfortunately, “most migration from Nigeria in the past decade has taken place because of high unemployment rates and the inability of the economy to generate adequate number of decent work to absorb the rapid new entrants into the labour force, which has actually ballooned the Army of unemployed.”

The minister regretted that as a result, many unsuspecting Nigerian migrants frequent in fall prey to human traffickers, human smugglers or even get trapped in exploitative, non-decent and abusive jobs, including forced labour.

“In recent months, several Nigerians and international news media published reports about citizens of this country who lost their lives while attempting to cross into Europe through the Mediterranean Sea in boats. Others have been reportedly lost on desert routes in the Sahara.

“This is of utmost concern to the present administration of President Muhammadu Buhari as no responsible government would sit back and watch the depletion of its country’s most critical factor of production and national development,” he said.

According to him, the objective of the policy was to promote the good governance of labour migration, protect immigrant workers as well as their welfare and optimise

the benefits of labour migration on development.

The minister said the policy conferred Regular Immigrant Status on persons in their countries of destination, saying that the policy was developed with technical and financial support of International Organisation for Migration and the International Labour Organisation.

He added that the framework for achieving the implementation of the policy included “the establishment of job centres for the placement of job seekers into genuine vacancies, notified by employers from across the country and abroad.”

“Towards this end, the Ministry of labour and Employment with technical and financial support from ILO, and IOM and funding from the European Development Fund equipped six functional job centres in Bauchi, Kaduna, Delta,

Anambra and Abuja. The job centres provide the platform for matching demand and supply in the labour market.”

Giving the internet web address of the National Electronic Exchange (NELEX), the minister further said that Migrants Resource Centres (MRCs) for the provision of migration related information has also been provided at two of the Job Centres in Lagos and Abuja.

In her remarks, the Chief of Mission, International Organisation for Migration, Ms. Enira Krdzalic said the policy was the product of the 10th European Union Development Fund project entitled, “Promoting Better Management of Migration in Nigeria,” revealing that the policy” which commenced in 2008 with technical support of IOM and the ILO through the participatory process, involving national stakeholders.

Chief Executive Secretary, (NHIS), Professor Usman Yusuf, held a crucial meeting with the leadership of the congress on how to ensure effective operations of the scheme.

At the meeting held in Labour House, Abuja, Wabba said the issue of the missing money should be looked into; and advised the NHIS leadership to invite the EFCC to investigate the matter.

The NLC President said “The issue of community health insurance should be given serious consideration. It also needs to be strengthened, because communities need to be carried along.

“We are aware of the issue of misappropriation by the Health Management Organisation (HMO) meant to provide service. We are aware of that. I don’t want the issue to be swept under the carpet.

We are aware that about N90million is involved. We urge you to forward this issue to the agencies that are saddled with the responsibility of handling investigation, especially the EFCC to serve as a deterrent.”

Comrade Wabba said the NLC will immediately write President Buhari to free the scheme from the TSA syndrome, adding, “We are also going to write to Mr President to free the NHIS from TSA, because this is a specialised fund meant to provide service to workers in terms of need. Therefore, it should not involve administrative process. There is usually no sickness that is predetermined.”

He told the NHIS board that the NLC was a foundation member of the NHIS, adding that he had also served on the board of the scheme.

TUC kicks against Communication Service Tax, urges NASS against passing the bill The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has condemned the Federal Government’s proposed imposition of Communication Service Tax (CST) as recently mooted by the Minister of Communication, Mr Adebayo Shittu.

The congress urged the National Assembly not to pass the bill into law, saying that the bill, if passed into law means that nine per cent tax would be charged on all phone calls, SMS, MMS, data package, etc.

“If we sufficiently understand the minister, we wonder how he expects such tax to be paid by any worker in a country where the national minimum wage is N18,000 and at a time when workers’ takehome pay no longer takes them home. Apart from exploiting the already impoverished masses, the policy would also discourage in-

vestment and lead to loss of jobs,” the TUC said in a statement signed by its President, Comrade Bobboi Kaigama and the Acting Secretary General, Comrade Simeso Amachree.

The Congress faulted the minister’s claim that the country would earn as much as N20 billion monthly in consequence of passage of the proposed bill, and that it would help cushion some of the country’s economic challenges and fund budget deficits.

The statement read: “While we appreciate the minister’s concern on how to fund the budget, should the government’s focus not rather be on ensuring more judicious use of revenue derived from value added tax (VAT), Pay-As-YouEarn (PAYE), stamp duties, vehicle license, passport fees, customs duty, petroleum profit tax (PPT)

and other taxes collected from the masses and companies? And would it not be more appropriate for the desired additional taxes to be imposed on the GSM operators and other players in the communications industry rather than the poor masses?

“One wonders why the common people should always be at the receiving end. The Congress and the generality of Nigerians know that most government officers rarely pay for anything, including their children’s school fees and utility bills. The cost is on us the masses.

“And now yet another burden is in the offing! The fact that the country is in economic straits and needs to generate more revenue does not mean that satanic laws that adversely affect disposable income and gross domestic product (GDP) should be promulgated.

21

politics&policy

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

I’m not surprised PDP’s convention failed —Amos Chief Olayinka Amos, is one of the leaders of PDP in Lagos State. He speaks on the ongoing crisis in the party following its failure to hold its national convention, and other issues. BOLA BADMUS brings excerpts:

T

HE PDP could not hold its national convention last Wednesday. What is your comment on this develop-

ment?

I am not really surprised about the thing not holding. I knew that it would not hold because there was no way you would expect injustice to thrive in democracy. In the situation we find ourselves, is it right now? Ali Modu Sheriff was on his own, you went and brought him in as PDP national chairman in an acting capacity. Now that you have brought him in, if you want to remove him, there is a process the thing would go through before you can do it. The PDP constitution is there. Follow what the constitution says, not that you will tell him that “you are no more our chairman.” This is not a military era. The military ruled the country for a long time and, therefore, the whole system has been militarised. It is about time we tried to see the way democracy works. We should operate the way democracy allows. This is not a jungle.

Sheriff was given a three-month mandate to serve and thereafter conduct a national convention and

he agreed to that decision. People are asking why it is difficult for him to honour the agreement.

It is difficult for him because before you can vacate a position, it is there in the PDP constitution how he will vacate. You just don’t come overnight and say “leave the place.”

In your view, is Sheriff trying to succeed himself in office by converting himself from acting capacity to the substantive chairman of the PDP? You know, the national chairmanship of PDP is not useful to Sheriff. It is just that he is a member of the party and they brought him in, in an acting capacity. That is why he is there and he didn’t go there on his own.

Once the process is put in place and the constitution is followed, he will leave the place.

He would vacate immediately.

When you look at the fortunes of PDP as an opposition party right now following what happened at Port-Harcourt, what do you think is really amiss in the party?

There is nothing amiss in the party. We

are operating a democracy. In a democracy, the majority rules, but the minority must have their say. What is going on in Nigeria now is democracy under pressure because it is new to us; we are in the learning process.

Do you think the party would be able to recover and win the 2019 poll?

Why not? You know APC has not stayed in power for long. Nigerians are already tired of them, they are tired. If they say we should do election now, PDP will beat APC. In spite of the crisis?

Forget about the crisis. Nigerians are disenchanted with APC, so how can you vote for a party you are disenchanted with? No. PDP will win, even though PDP is in crisis. Once there is election, they would unite.

What is the way out of the crisis?

Look, we are the same family, we have been in a situation worse than this before, we got over it. We are still going to get over this one, believe you me, Insha Allah.

Can we have your assessment of APC and President Muhammadu Buhari’s government, and what advice do you have for them on how to do things better?

APC has good people to manage the

Amos country. There is somebody like Babatunde Fashola. I believe so much in him, he is an achiever. If given time, he would achieve. But you know what is wrong with APC government is that President Muhammadu Buhari has a special background and he is in charge.

‘Expose me if I mismanage CBN bailout’ Continued from pg 20

It’s just that I’m lenient enough. But if the blackmail continues, I will be forced to take them to court to account for what they collected illegally and to refund such funds So, the bailout was appropriated properly and I challenge anyone who knows about any fraudulent practice concerning the bailout to come out and expose this government.

Fifteen months after the APC took over power, Nigerians are still expressing disappointment over the inability of the party to deliver its promised changed. What’s the problem? Did the APC over promise?

The problem is very clear what’s is happening. Maybe we underestimated the damage that was caused in the economy.

But you will appreciate the magnitude of the problem. When we gave promise of change, we were looking at a normal situation, not this one that we have gotten ourselves into. Everyday, you hear about individuals stealing so many billions. The unfortunate thing is that Nigerians were here and no alarm was raised. We appreciate Nigerians because they too were dissatisfied with the kind of deceit, the looting and the corruption that was going on in the previous government. That was why they all rose up in their number to effect this change.

Honestly, based on what I have seen even in my state, the level of looting and corruption that was on ground until I came on board, the same thing at the federal level, what we are trying to do now is to stabilise. Remember that to build is very difficult. It can take a minute to destroy something but, it will require you to put a lot of things together to construct it

And so, it became a problem as it’s being exhibited today through the EFCC and all that. Do you ever believe one person alone in Ekiti election could cause the Federal Government and Nigeria that much? Nobody believes it. These things were done in secret. So, some of these things, even when you give your advice, people were not ready to take them.

back. This is the challenge. But I want Nigerians to be patient. We are just slightly above one year in office. It’s like we have broken down the walls, we are starting from the foundation. Building a foundation can take time. But when the foundation is completed, building will commence and in no time, you will see that things will work out.

I appreciate the suffering. We are going through the same problem. It is not easy with anybody. Let us continue to pray and continue to also advise where necessary, and by the grace of God, we will be out of this. But the damage that was caused by past administration is too much.

People will say you were part of the last administration you now condemn. Why was it impossible to realise that there was a problem with the finances of the country in order to take necessary steps to stop the bleeding?

Even in those days, we identified some of these problems, it’s just that our voic-

PDP, for me, I will prefer to have them as the main opposition because they have nothing to offer and they cannot compete with APC.

Gov Ortom es were not heard. You remember that I was a minister of state, I was part of the government, but I also believed in leadership. When you have someone ahead of you, you can advise but if your advice is not taken, what else will you do? The truth of the matter is that for a very long time, we were talking about diversifying the economy from oil to other sectors but, we were paying lip service. You cannot tell me about anything we did, strong indication to show that we were interested in diversifying the economy. People were just interested in taking what was available. All programmes that were designed, people were just making the money for their personal needs and for their cronies, and so on.

You were a national officer of the PDP and today as we speak, the PDP is in tatters. There are suggestions that your present party, the APC is pulling the strings because it is scared of a viable opposition. What do you say?

Well, it is unfortunate; it is laughable for anybody to say that APC has a hand in it. I laugh at them when they say that it is President Muhammadu Buhari that is instigating them. Are we members of PDP? Sheriff left opposition and joined them. They should blame themselves. We are not concerned about them. All I know is that in Benue State, thousands of PDP members are decamping into the APC because PDP for 16 years, what is their scorecard? They brought us to where we are today. And Buhari and some of us are trying to correct it.

So, you cannot put that blame on us. Were we part of the convention? Are we part of the litigation that is going on in court? It is their own business. They should learn to appreciate themselves like we do in APC. Even in APC, we have our differences but we sit at the roundtable and discuss.

We are willing to face any opposition. Let them come. And PDP, for me, I will prefer to have them as the main opposition because they have nothing to offer and they cannot compete with APC.

22

features

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Residents of Okwagbe community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State are disillusioned by the bad state of roads and the non-availability of other social amenities, and are crying on the state government to come to their aid, writes EBENEZER ADUROKIYA.

O

ne major nagging headache besetting the people of Okwagbe community in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State is the issue the deplorable state of the roads.

Year in year out, residents are subjected to untold hardship occasioned by dilapidated roads which has seen motorists battling with repairs or replacements of their vehicle parts at huge cost.

The people are saddened that dividends of democracy promised by successive governments during campaigns are yet to see the light of the day in the area.

Okwagbe community boasts of a population of about 50,000 residents. With two wards to its credit, the sleepy town is still groping in the dark of gross underdevelopment, yet has remained the commercial nerve centre of Ughelli South. It is adjudged to have the biggest market in Delta Central Senatorial District.

The community’s land stretches from the ever-busy River Niger to the Udu/ECN Road and is connected by a deplorable road that leads in and out of it.

The situation in the community is particularly worse for those who are compelled by circumstances to live there. The bad roads including those of Otor-Okwagbe and Idjogun Road have been abandoned by the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

Other neglected roads in the community include the Imigbu/Erhobe Road, Orharha main Street road, Edjariovwe Street road, Ejavwe Street road, Okwagbe Inland Road and Akpor Major Road.

Of utmost significance is the Okwagbe Main Road linking other communities in Ughelli South, Udu Local Government Area, Bomadi and Burutu local government areas of the state.

Most of these communities can hardly be accessed by road users during the rainy season and this has particularly made it impossible for most traders and farmers to access the market let alone transporting their produce there for sale. It was gathered that the market that comes up every four days is now witnessing low turn out of traders.

Worried by the spate of the bad roads, the people of Okwagbe community are appealing to the Delta State governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, representing Delta Central Senatorial District, Solomon Ahwinawhi, representing Udu/Ughelli Federal Constituency and Comrade Reuben Yakubu Izeze, member representing Ughelli South Constituency in the Delta State House of Assembly to come to their aid.

They are asking them to make sure that roads that connect streets and major roads in Okwagbe community are tarred and ameliorate the suffering of the people.

Residents of the community, through selfhelp, have been responsible for the repairs and maintenance of the major road that serves Ughelli South, Burutu and Bomadi riverine communities.

Underscoring the significance of Okwagbe, motorists can access Eyakoromor, Ogodobri, Ezebri, Okuama, Omosuomo, Okwemor, Egbo-Ideh, Ophorigbala, Esaba, Otutuama, Otitiri, Iwhrogun, Ofrukama and Otegbo communities and among others, they must pass through the Okwagbe main road.

It was further learnt that before the area

The state of roads in Okwagbe

Roads: Delta govt has forgotten us, Okwagbe residents lament became populated by non-natives, the road was not motorable during rainy season due to flooding. It was gathered that residents living around the bad roads had resorted to using canoes and wooden bridges to cross from one end to the other.

But in spite of the efforts of the inhabitants to keep the roads motorable, its condition has continued to deteriorate by the day because the wooden bridges across some of the canals which were meant to be palliative measures pending government’s intervention have been submerged by flood.

Speaking on the deplorable condition of the roads, Samson Kpaive and Ogheneruemu Onovughakpor, who are councilors representing Okwagbe wards 5 and 6 respectively, said residents have been tasking themselves to fix the road in the past five years to enable vehicular movement on the major access road into and out of the community.

They disclosed that the roads are worse,

particularly during rainy season because the roads have no comprehensive drainage channels. According to them, sometime last year, the Delta State government was alerted over the deplorable condition of the roads.

They added that in the letter, the attention of the government was drawn to the constant flooding of the various streets.

They said it was regrettable that as strategic as the community was, in terms of human potentials and agricultural produce, the community was confronted with series of infrastructural challenges as a result of neglect by government.

Lamenting the situation, they said: “We have severally called on the state government to come to our aid, but no assistance has so far come our way in spite of the fact that we are part of the state. We have been abandoned in issues relating to developmental projects, but during elections, politicians will come to the community to

In most cases when there is an emergency security situation, police cannot access the scene because of the bad road

campaign and seek our votes”.

A cross section of distraught residents and community leaders who spoke on the situation, also lamented their plight as regards the road.

The anguished residents pleaded with the Delta state authorities to fix the deplorable roads in order to make life meaningful for them.

Speaking, a political leader, Olorogun Prince Okiemute Oviri Okwagbe said,“It is almost a hopeless situation because travelling on the main road has been hellish for residents, especially those who work in the city. Whenever it rains, motorists would park their cars and trek home or to Oginibo bus stop along Ukpedi road.”

He lamented further that “Even landlords are no longer finding things easy because people are not coming to rent houses here anymore.”

It was gathered that the poor condition of the road has also affected security of lives and property in the community. “In most cases when there is an emergency security situation, police cannot access the scene because of the bad road,” Okwagbe noted.

Another political leader, Olorogun Sleek Oshare, said, “We are really facing serious problems as a result of the dilapidated condition of the roads. Most transporters, especially commercial tricycle operators and commercial motorcycle riders popularly have been discouraged from plying the road and relocated to adjoining communities.”

When contacted on the issue, Chief Press Secretary to the Governor of Delta State, Mr. Charles Ehiedu Aniagwu, thanked the people of Okwagbe for voting for the PDP and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa. He said that he was happy that in spite of the bad roads, they still remained peaceful and committed to the PDP government in the state.

“As a government, we welcome people who ask for what they actually deserve; we are aware that a number of communities across the state need attention, but because of the paucity of funds available, we have not been able to reach out to them.

“If you assess properly, we have done a lot of things for communities across the state; even in Ughelli, the handiwork of government is noticeable.

“Okwagbe people should bear with us and continue to support the government until the revenue improves,” Aniagwu said.

23 thesouth-west Tunde Busari 08127593530 Yejide Gbenga - Ogundare 08116706853 Tunde Ogunesan 08116954634

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

The

South-West Editor Wole Efunnuga 08111813056

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

The front of the first storey building in Nigeria.

Begging now a thriving business

in the South West?

A foreign culture of begging for survival is silently spreading among the Yoruba. Old and young able bodied are finding a goldmine in the trade. TUNDE BUSARI writes on circumstances implications and possible ways out of the menace. Additional reports by AKIN ADEWAKUN, YINKA OLUKOYA and OLUWOLE IGE.

O

NE of the often said prayers among the Yoruba of the South-western Nigeria is a plea to their creator not to reduce them to a beggar.

In their belief system, a beggar is a nonentity and indeed a dreg of the society de-

serving no honour.

Against this backdrop, parents make it an obligation to their children to insist on hard work as only road to success.

To them, there is dignity in labour rather than wearing a weak face and prostrate about for money or food.

Even Islamic adherents among them whose faith encourage alms giving to the poor as one of the five pillars of their religion, don’t always adhere to the law unless they are sure the recipient is physically challenged.

Begging, as a trade, is, over the years,

said to be associated with physically challenged groups of people from a section of the country. These people are most often visible at public places such as markets, mosques and other high density areas Continues on pg24

Inside Osun Festival: A success despite security threat

24 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Begging as new habit?

Continued from pg23 where they sit and chorus ‘please, give me for the sake of God’.

They are also said to have constituted a burden to the aesthetic feature of the public. However, as undignified as many regard the beggars act, the Yoruba appear to have been infected, also making ends meet in the trade.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that some able bodied persons are already in what looks like a race to match and rather outdo their counterparts notorious for the acts.

At social gatherings where no restriction is imposed on free movement, these people are often seen at every available space harassing the guests with plea for money.

The modus operandi of some of them is an appeal to the guests’ emotion with spurious claim of in need of a lifeline to settle hospital bill of children or relation.

The young among them of school age usually come up with tales of being stranded after their money had been lost to either armed robber or pickpocket.

It was also learnt that some beggars trek from streets to streets on daily basis selling dummy to unsuspecting kind hearted ones.

In Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the salary situation is the reason some of them claim to have turned to beggars.

“I cannot on a good day descend this low if the government has not denied us our salary. In fact, I am not comfortable approaching you for money but I have my children back home who are not sure of where breakfast would come this morning,” a woman told this reporter in front of a popular bus stop near challenge axis of Ibadan.

Another category of the new generation beggars are so daring that they appear in good dress and go after important personalities of the society. They keep a close watch at their target as if they were paid security agents. The embarrassment they cause their target force them to throw some mints at them to have peace and enjoy the gathering.

Chairman of Oyo State Chapter of League of Veteran Journalists, Alhaji Wale Adele, recalled his encounter with a woman outside a bank.

According to Adele, the woman gently walked up to him and pleaded for money after an explanation that she had sent all she had to her daughter in school. Truth or otherwise of the claim was not important to Adele as he parted with some amount.

“I think state of the economy is responsible for this ugly trend. You know poverty knows no boundary and the way people react to it varies. But this is not saying such act should be encouraged. It tells of the integrity of the people involved,” he said.

While Ikeja prides itself as the heart of Lagos State, nothing in it suggests that individuals, who make their money through begging, are in a hurry to obey the state government’s directive not to engage in such act.

For instance, the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) axis is fast becoming a beehive for this class of people. They always claim they are doing this to save ‘relations’, purportedly down with some form of ailments at the nearby teaching hospital.

To this set of people, the teaching hospital has become the honey pot, a potent

tool to ensnare the unsuspecting Lagosians, who, out of pity, would want to lend a helping hand in saving a soul.

“I’ve been trying to raise a sum of N25, 000 to buy some pints of blood for my wife, lying critically ill after a surgery operation in this hospital,” said Anthony, a middle-aged man, who had approached the reporter for alms.

When queried further on the details of the ailment as a way of ascertaining the veracity of the claim, he drew out a very dirty hospital card, purportedly signed by a medical doctor, recommending some form of drugs, for a certain ailment the reporter would not be able to understand.

But on discovering that the person talking to him was a reporter, he simply disappeared into the thin air, asking to be left alone; since the reporter was not ready to ‘do something’ that would ameliorate his plight.

In Osun State, the population of Yorubas, begging for alms is relatively low.

Some of them are elderly persons, looking frail and unkempt, while few are young and agile individuals, who have the capacity to work, but resorted to begging out of laziness.

The young ones come up with stories of personal problems or presenting plights of relatives, in dire need of medical attention in hospitals, with a view to eliciting sympathy from the people.

At times, they were armed with medical x-rays to convince the people of the need

“I have to survive since I cannot get any job to do, I am begging for money. I use the money people give me to feed and take care of other things that I need.

Before Yoruba beggars get to this stage... to give them money to assess medical services for their so-called relations in hospitals.

It was learnt that some of Yoruba beggars have chosen begging as a profession, using the proceeds to cater for their family needs.

Our correspondent also learnt that despite portraying themselves as wretched in outlook, few of them have acquired valuable properties, hidden from the glare of the unsuspecting public.

According to a 30-year-old beggar Azeez Ilesanmi, “I have to survive since I cannot get any job to do, I am begging for money.

I use the money people give me to feed and take care of other things that I need.

Pressed further on what he could do to earn a decent living, Ilesanmi took to his heels, saying “if you cannot give me money, stop asking me unnecessary questions”.

A Psychologist, Funsho Ojewoye, argued that begging is an attitudinal problem determined by individuals. He stressed that one may find him or herself in a recession and still maintain his or her integrity; adding that begging should not be an option in such circumstance.

“For me, all these are just excuses by

these people to engage in this demeaning business. We have individuals, in worse situations that would not even contemplate taking to begging,” he said.

Chief Fakayode Faluade could not hide his aversion for Yoruba beggars saying there are so many implications attached to it, including giving money to beggars for evil intention.

“Some give alms to beggars to acquire more wealth, while some use it to transfer their problems to another fellow,” he said.

The Araba Awo of Osogbo, Chief Ifayemi Elebubon also frowned at begging but called on government to set up rehabilitation centres where beggars would be taken care of and put smile on their faces.

Alhaji Adele also appealed to government at all levels to be more purposeful in terms of creating a conducive atmosphere for working population to thrive. Under such circumstance, he said, no able bodied would have any excuse to turn to beggar.

“As I have said, we react to problems different ways but I will not encourage anyone to go into it because our culture is not in support of it. Yoruba people have pride when it comes to preserving family name.

A beggar has no honour whatsoever in Yoruba land,” he said.

Begging wasn’t our culture, we were infected —Yemi Elebuibon

Chief Ifayemi Elebuibon is the Araba Awo of Osogboland. In this interview with OLUWOLE IGE, Osogbo, he speaks about begging among some Yoruba, the cultural implications and what can be done to address the social problem. Excerpts: WHAT is your view about some Yorubas, who indulge in begging for alms Begging is alien to Yoruba culture. Historically, Yoruba people don’t beg for money.

They are shy to beg, not only for money, even for favour from people. The prayers we often offer is that God should not make us to beg before we can feed ourselves. But, the Hausa from the Northern parts of the country have somehow spread their culture of begging to some few Yoruba people. That is why you see some of our people begging for alms. A typical Yoruba person would be shy to beg for money. No matter how deprived a Yoruba parent is, he or she would find it extremely hard to take to begging. If a parent begs, some people can capitalise on it to mock his or children. They would say your mother is a beggar. Even, if a Yoruba person is blind, you would not see him going out to beg for money. He would pre-

address this societal malaise, considering the culture of Yoruba, which you claimed is alien to begging

Chief Elebuibon fer to stay indoors and people, who want to assist him would go to render help. So, begging is not common among the Yoruba.

It is the Northerners, who have shown our people that path to tow.

What do you think can be done to

The way out lies with the government.

It is very simple. Government can set up rehabilitation centres for the beggars or the vulnerable in the society. From there, government can provide what they would eat for them and also take care of their numerous immediate needs. The wealthy people in the society can also go to such rehabilitation centres to donate relief materials, such as foods, drugs, clothes and cash to the needy. If the government tackles the issue from this perspective, the problem of beggars in the society would be eradicated. Apart from that, they would be saved from inherent dangers they expose themselves to by begging on the highways and roads.

25 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Coconut: Reviving a comatose goldmine

Decades back, Badagry town was known for its great economic power as a coconut planting community that had what it takes to earn money for the south west region, things changed and it lost its envious position but the story is about to change again as farmers in the community have started working towards becoming exporters of the sought after crop. YEJIDE GBENGA-OGUNDARE reports.

A

GRICULTURE is a vast industry that has chain value and large employment opportunities as it goes beyond just the workers on the farm to those that sell seedlings, the people that sell foodstuffs, the middlemen, retailers, machinery operators and pesticides sellers among so many others.

The agricultural sector however has been suffering neglect in many of its spheres over the years while many cash crops that could be a source of revenue and sustain the economy of the region and the country as a whole have been relegated to the background.

To rectify the situation, revitalize the agricultural sector and give it a pride of place in the society as well as return it to its former glory as the sustaining power of the country’s economy, stakeholders have in recent years called for more involvement in the sector especially from the government.

There had been calls from cocoa farmers, oil palm planters as well as rubber farmers that government should come to their aid and focus on agriculture as a way out of the financial hardship the country has found itself.

Few weeks back, coconut farmers lent their voice to this agitation. The coconut farmers in Badagry local government area of Lagos State sent an appeal to the state government to come to their aid and help them extend production of coconut to an industrial scale level.

This is in contrast to importing from other West African countries when they have what it takes to produce what is needed in the South West region and even beyond.

According to them, the importation of such cash crops from other countries especially Ghana is not only killing the economy of Nigeria but also destroying the heritage of their community.

In times past, Badagry is known majorly for its exploits in planting and exporting coconut and the numerous by products acquired from the coconut tree. In fact, it was the home of coconut industry in Nigeria.

History has it that coconut was brought to Africa on Portuguese ships in the 17th century and cultivation of the crop was encouraged by the British in the 19th century though it wasn’t easy to establish as Nigerians still preferred their traditional palm tree

cultivation based on the belief that palm oil is more useful than coconut oil.

However, during the 20th century, the Nigerian coconut industry became well established in Badagry due to its coastal nature which allows the crop to thrive though there had been few plantations in the vicinity since the 1880s. After this, Badagry started exporting coconuts, copra, coir (coconut husk fibre) to Lagos and other West African countries. The community became strong not only because it was the seat of colonial power but because it started wielding economic power.

All this however stopped with time, as the discovery of oil shifted attention from agriculture and coconut farmers like their counterparts with other cash crop plantation started diminishing in number while the few remaining couldn’t sustain the business as people lost interest in what they were doing.

Nigerian Tribune learnt that aside the loss of interest in the cultivation of coconut, the few remaining farmers also had issues of poor management practices, high density plantings in groves, poor soil fertility management, lack of fertilizer, as well as poor pest and disease control procedure.

However, all this seems to be a thing of the past as coconut farmers in Badagry are set to take the lead in putting the crop back in a place of pride as a source of economic power and also make Badagry not only a tourist location but a community that produces coconut on an industrial scale and a one stop town for all coconut products.

A visit to Badagry by Nigerian Tribune revealed that the farmers are not making

The inability of farmers to keep up with demand is the reason why other West African countries are making money by importing coconut into the country.

plans on paper alone as there were many coconut plantations in the interior of the community with others also scattered in many places across town in diverse sizes. At one of the farms, attempt was made to chat with the man found working but the conversation was stilted due to language barrier.

The chat which was basically in sign language revealed that he goes by the name Hondonu, he does not speak English Language, understands only few Yoruba words and was uncomfortable relating to a stranger that he can’t conveniently understand when there was no interpreter.

It could not be ascertained whether he owns the farm or he is just a worker. But from the few minutes chat with Nigerian Tribune, Hondonu revealed that coconut farming is not more challenging than other forms of farming though he explained that it is hard work. For him however, the stress is worth it as it is a profitable business that is certain to bring profit.

According to him, incurring a loss is virtually impossible with coconut farming as there are so many uses and functions for the produce, adding that every part of the coconut has a function. He however explained that for Badagry to go back to the glory of the coconut era, government needs to support them to make it an industry that can meet the needs of the people.

This sentiment was echoed earlier by farmers in their appeal to the state government. Deji Poji, a coconut farmer explained in their appeal that Badagry being the only destination to get the crop makes it impossible to meet the high demand that is on the increase daily; adding that the inability of farmers to keep up with demand is the reason why other West African countries are making money by importing coconut into the country.

He called on government to address once and for all the challenges of coconut farmers so that they can meet up with the huge demand and reduce drastically importation of coconut which is causing Nigeria a lot of loss.

Also, Joseph Setonji, asked the government to address the issue so that the country will not continue losing money from a product it can produce. “In the early days

Nigerian Tribune

of Badagry, coconut was the major source of revenue to both government and the farmers. But now, the ancient kingdom only lives on her past glory as the major crop supposedly being produced in the community is now being imported from other West African countries, with a higher percentage coming from Ghana. The government should try to revive the coconut industry and also empower the farmers so as to stop the importation of coconut,” Setonji said.

Another farmer, Mauho Adetunji, opined that the rejuvenation of the coconut industry would create job opportunities. “Coconut is a wonder crop as it can be used to make different things like cups, mats, bags, bangles, sandals, edible oils, ear rings, among others.

A rejuvenated Badagry in the production of this crop will not only create job opportunities, it will also boost the revenue of the local government, in particular and the state, in general,” he added.

While Monday Alapo, condemned the felling of coconut trees by some individuals, adding that there are diverse challenges which the farmers are going through and some individuals are adding to it by cutting down coconut trees, an ill practice he explained is common place in Badagry.

A farmer, Cyril Ekwomadu, who is a former staff of a French founded company, Agrothropic Limited and who has from childhood had experience in coconut farming stated that most coconut in Badagry are from the seeds brought by white men, adding that Badagry is conducive for such plantations because coconut needs humidity and the inflow and outflow of the ocean makes the estuaries and delta area around the ocean fertile for the thriving of a coconut plantation.

“Also, the coconut fibre is used in carpet production and is also very medicinal. It is a very good first aid for someone that is convulsing or mistakenly ingests poison because if such individual is given coconut oil, his condition stabilizes immediately and may vomit the poison.

“Coconut farming will indeed bring wealth if it is done on a large scale. It is lucrative and with the plenty coconut plantations around Badagry, government only needs to harness resources to become an exporter of coconut produce. That will be another source of foreign exchange,’ Ekwomadu concluded.

The general consensus among the farmers is that having a coconut plantation that is industry sized will provide security for people in Badagry and its immediate environs as it will generate jobs, enhance income and the purchasing power of the people thereby alleviating poverty and boosting the economy of the state and the nation as a whole.

Also speaking with Nigerian Tribune, Benjamin Kriko, stated that coconut farming is a business that ensures that one cannot go wrong. “Coconut is a crop that produces so many things right from the tree to every part; it produces food and non food materials for high value products. And these products are all money spinners because there is no waste in coconut.

“From the coconut tree, a multitude of products can be derived from just a simple harvest – from the nut, one can get kernel, coconut milk, coconut oil, coconut water or juice and coconut meat. And from the coconut sap, we can get fresh sap, natural vinegar, natural sap sugar and coconut nectar syrup among other things.

“Aside this, there is the non food raw materials like the coire or fibre that is essential for production of many things. If coconut farming is taken seriously, it will provide substantial export and make Lagos state and the South West an economic stronghold again,” Kriko said.

Nigerian Tribune findings in Badagry town revealed that there are indeed great potentials for increasing coconut production and productivity in the South West and the development of the coconut plantation and product trade has a great tendency to bring improvement to the Nigerian almost comatose economy.

26 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

The new look bridge.

This Ogun bridge is no longer falling down Some months back the Nigerian Tribune published a story, ‘This Ogun bridge is falling down’ and in a response, the state government rehabilitated the bridge and put smile on the faces of residents. OLAYINKA OLUKOYA reports.

I

N the recent past, the people of Isale-Igbehin community in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital were full of complaints about two pedestrian bridges that were sited side by side and were both collapsing making life difficult for the residents.

The Nigerian Tribune in its South West report in a bid to highlight the peoples’ plight published a report on the state of the two pedestrian bridges at Isale-Igbein community, in Abeokuta South Local Government Area, which were on the verge of collapsing.

The caption of the piece was ‘This Ogun Bridge is falling down’, with the intention of drawing the attention of the authorities concerned and reiterate the need to act urgently on the matter, so as to avert danger that might occur if the bridges were left unattended to.

Nigerian Tribune recalls that the pedestrian bridge was one of the constituency projects of a former member of the House of Assembly in the 7th Legislature, Honourable Wilfred Allen-Taylor, to serve as a link between the communities and its environs.

After the publication, the Ogun State Government, immediately awarded the construction of a new bridge for the people in the area.

One of the community leaders, Pastor Omoniyi Ayodele, in an interview with Nigerian Tribune, could not hide his joy at the prompt intervention of the state government on the construction of a new pedestrian bridge for them and other adjoining communities.

Ayodele said that community leaders wrote a letter of appeal to the state government to draw its attention to the collapsing state of the pedestrian bridge. He also appreciated the Nigerian Tribune for the piece which, according to him, equally served a good purpose.

The community leader said, “The entire community cannot appreciate Governor Amosun enough for this gesture and the prompt intervention. The bridge is serving so many communities and more importantly the only primary school around us.

“Words enough cannot be enough to thank Mr. Governor and his team for attending to the yearning of the people. This pedestrian bridge will continue to serve its purpose and we promise to maintain it.”

For Pa Dauda Sobande, the construction of the bridge for the people by government is worth commendation.

He said the community was surprised when the contractor moved to the site and the work completed within the stipulated time.

However, Sobande, noted that the job is incomplete without the construction of what he referred to as standing back to keep the bridge from being washed away by

The bridge when it was falling down few months ago.

erosion.

“We do not want the effort of government to be in vain, hence, we are calling the attention of those concerned on the need to provide concrete on the sides of the river housing the bridge, so as to prevent erosion from damaging it.”

Words enough cannot be enough to thank Mr Governor and his team for attending to the yearning of the people.

This pedestrian bridge will continue to serve its purpose and we promise to maintain it.

Also speaking, the State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Dayo Adeneye, said that the administration would continue to provide more dividends of democracy, despite the present economic realities in the country.

He urged the people of the state to continue to support the programmes and policies of government.

Adedayo attributed communication between the government and the people as a factor that would continue to facilitate development in the state.

“This pedestrian bridge is just one of many more to be built across the length and breath of the state as the Sen. Ibikunle Amosun led administration continues its mission to rebuild Ogun state.

“We simply ask that residents and taxpayers in the state to continue to support the government in its efforts in breaking new grounds to improve the quality of life while modernising the state,” he said.

27 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Saki tremor: South-West govs plan to check effects

By Tunde Ogunesan

G

OVERNMENTS of six South-West states have resolved to take action that will mitigate the effect of likely eventuality of earth tremor in the region.

This followed reports of incidences in Saki, Saki West Local Government Area of Oyo State earlier in the year and report by experts on the likelihood of outbreak of earthquake in the region within the next four years.

It will be recalled that a team of Geologists and Seismologists of the Federal Government, through the Centre for Geodesy and Geodynamics and Geodesy (CGG), Toro, Bauchi State, led by Dr Adepelumi Adekunle Abraham, in its report tagged “preliminary assessment of earth tremor occurrence in Saki area, Saki West Local Government, Oyo State” predicted a “damaging earthquake by 2020.”

The team’s report stated that “after the Earth Tremor of 2009 in South Western Nigeria that was felt in several towns and villages in Oyo, Osun and Ogun states, a detailed short-term propabilistic earthquake prediction was carried out by our team, our findings indicate the probability of earthquake occurrence in the study area between the year 2009 and 2028 increasing from 2.8 per cent to 91.1 per cent. The result also showed that the probability of three events occurring has the highest likelihood within the predicted years.

Also, the Weibull Probability Density Model predicts a damaging earthquake (M≥ 5) before year 2020.”

The height of the team’s report was a proposal to set up a monitoring centre and installation of a monitoring device.

The team reports: “It is concluded that earthquake monitoring device called seismometer should be installed in Saki town for proper and effective monitoring of the

likely occurrence of earthquake precursors, foreshocks, main-shocks and after-shocks that may likely occur in the area in the very near future.”

This report, according to sources, did not go down well with the governors of

Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states, who, the Nigerian Tribune gathered, are not leaving any stone unturned to manage the situation.

Nigerian Tribune source, however, informed that the state governors had indicated

their interests to set up an earthquake monitoring team, centre and as well purchase a monitoring device, seismometer worth $7,000 to monitor the situation of things.

“Due to your reporting on Earth-Tremor of Saki, I’m glad to let you know that the

From left, Dr Yemi Oke; Honourable Ladi Adebutu and A former commissioner for Works, Housing and Agriculture in Ogun State, Honourable Layiwola Taiwo, at the media chat, in Abeokuta, on Sunday.

Nigerians won’t vote for parties in 2019 —Adebutu A member of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ladi Adebutu, on Sunday, said the 2019 elections would be people-based and not party-based.

Honourable Adebutu, who had interaction with journalists at the Park Inn Hotel (formerly Gateway Hotel), Abeokuta noted that Nigerians had, so far, experimented different political parties with different leadership styles and had noticed the differences.

According to him, this was the first time Nigerians would literally go abegging because of hunger which they had never witnessed.

“Now, Nigerians are hungry and they want emancipation. Don’t forget that the polilitical class is less than ten per cent of the entire

electorate and the remaining percentage are Nigerians who would take their destinies in their hands,” he added.

The National Assembly member, while reacting to a question on what he wanted in politics in spite of his background and wealth,

said “if good people run away from participating in politics, bad people will take over the affairs of the nation.”

He added, “this is why somebody with questionable character is aspiring to lead the Yoruba race where the likes of Chief Obafemi

checkmate those plotting to impose one candidate or the other, in the interest of genuine democracy within the party.

He said, there were plots by some party leaders to impose candidates after a number of aspirants had appeared for screening on August 3, arguing that, the selection of the chairmanship candidate should be done on merit and not by imposition.

“We have just uncovered a plot by some chieftains of

Awolowo; Pa Ajasin; Professor Wole Soyinka; Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and a host of others hailed from.”

He, however, called on well meaning Nigerians to come out and participate in politics so that the legacies of the nation’s forefathers would be sustained.

PDP ’ll be better positioned —Ajao Oluwole Ige - Osogbo REGARDLESS of the current crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the national level, the state secretary of the party in Osun, Prince Bola Ajao, has said the opposition party would be better positioned to record electoral victory in 2019 general

election.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune at the weekend, he maintained that the ongoing peace moves and reconciliation were capable of restoring unity and cohesion, which have eluded the party.

Ajao, who observed that it was not strange for a party like PDP to be enmeshed in

Ogun APC LG aspirant calls for free, fair election A chairmanship aspirant for Sagamu Local Government under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Adebayo Ogunmewo, has stressed the need to ensure free, fair and transparent election during the forthcoming local government polls.

Prince Ogunmewo in an interview with Nigerian Tribune, in Abeokuta, on Sunday, appealed to the Ogun State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, to use his office as party leader to

government of the Western states (Ekiti, Ondo, Oyo, Ogun, Osun and Lagos) have decided to jointly take action that would assist in thorough monitoring and mitigation of earthquakes in Yorubaland,” the source hinted.

the party in our local government to impose a candidate to run for the forthcoming local government poll, a move which may further worsen the internal party wrangling,” he said.

The United States-based politician alleged further that part of the plot was failure of the party leadership to call for regular meetings of members at the council level.

“I want to use this medium to draw the attention of our governor and leader,

Senator Amosun, to the plot and the need to call those involved to order.

“There must be a level playing field for genuine democracy to prevail within the party’, he emphasised.

Ogunmeno, a member of NADECO and PRONACO, USA chapter, said: “I will deliver purposeful leadership focus on creating employment and wealth through the provision of motorable road networks to transport good and services.”

leadership crisis, considering its largeness in terms of membership, averred that internal efforts aimed at resolving the current problems had started to yield positive results.

According to him, “you cannot rule out crisis in a big party like PDP. Even, within a family, there can be internal wrangling let alone a large party such as ours.

To me, PDP crisis, whether at national or state level, is a family issue, which would be resolved soon.

“There is no doubting the fact that the PDP would emerge stronger and greater after this storm. Nigerians have seen the difference now, having faced so much hardship, deprivation and frustration under the APC-led Federal Government and they are now yearning for us to come back to power at the national level,” he added.

Nigerian Tribune

LG chairmanship aspirant offers skills acquisition to 10,000 Lagosians Bola Badmus - Lagos A total of 10,000 women and youths have commenced training in various vocational skills, including bead making, wire works, catering, decoration, video editing, photography, hair making, barbing and catering, with the exercise scheduled to span a period of three weeks.

Local Government Chairmanship aspirant for Lagos Mainland under the platform of All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Dayo Israel, who facilitated this, disclosed this, in a chat with newsmen at the flag-off of the exercise at Ebute–Metta.

According to Israel, who is a recipient of the Young PEWA (Person Earnestly Working for Africa) Award at the office of the Mayor of London, other skills covered by the training include hat making, disinfectant and soap making, graphic design and digital marketing, cinematography among others.

Alao Akala’s son, associates defect to APC

By Wale Akinselure THE defection of followers of former Governor Adebayo Alao Akala into the All Progressives Congress (APC) has continued with a political family of Alao-Akala, called Destiny Group, being the most recent.

At the event held at Ibadan North Local Government Area of Oyo State, persons led by Dr Kola Balogun, Alhaji Audu Marafa, Alhaja Tairat Adeyemi, Alhaji Omilabu Ghandi and one of Alao-Akala’s sons, Mr Olamiju Alao-Akala brandished brooms in a symbolic show of their defection to the APC. Receiving those who defected, APC’s chairperson in the local government, Alhaja Tinu Adigun, assured them of equal opportunities for both new and old members of the party.

Adigun, speaking alongside the local government’s caretaker chairman, Mr Yinka Akinbode, added that was important was for members to stand out in their contribution and commitment to the APC. Also speaking, member representing Ibadan North II state constituency, Honourable Olusegun Olaleye, said the defection of former Governor Alao-Akala into APC was a testimony to the fact that the party had taken over the affairs of the state.

28 thesouth-west

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Osun Festival:

A success despite security threat

Despite certain fear of security breach, 2016 edition of Osun festival successfully held with thousands of culture lovers converging on the ancient town of Osogbo. TUNDE BUSARI reports.

Arugba at the 2016 edition of Osun festival.

T

WENTY-FOUR hours before the grand finale of the annual Osun festival last Friday, human and vehicular traffic had risen in the ancient town of Osogbo, the state capital, shedding pressure on the traffic patrol personnel at the popular Olaiya junction, Oke-fia roundabout and Oja-Oba. Osun festival is a synonym of Osogbo because of its historical connection with the emergence of the town in the 17th century.

It is a culture heritage which annually draws a large number of people to the town founded by Larooye and Timehin, two sojourners who migrated from an anonymous Ijesa community known as Ipole to the present Osun grove.

Regardless of low sale, lately complained by traders in the town, commercial activities too felt the impact as intra-city public transport operators and their commercial motorcycle operators counterparts worked late in the night.

While the atmosphere was in the festive mood and hotels as well as restaurants playing host to guests, a rumour indicating a plan to kidnap the Osun votary maid (Arugba) filtered in and understandably there was apprehension.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the palace of the Ataoja of Osogbo did not underrate the odd news as it swiftly responded and made useful contacts to the security agencies for necessary action aimed at nipping the plot in the bud.

The response informed the visibility of many law enforcement agents from the palace through Isale-Osun, Jameegbo and down to the grove. Nigeria Police, Department of State Security, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Vigilance Group and other voluntary organisations deployed their operatives and ensured an hitch-free festival.

Police patrol vehicles and Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) were also stationed at some strategic points as a kind of deterrence.

Members of Gani Adams-led Oodua Peoples’ Congress (OPC) were said to have equally responded to the security need as they deployed themselves into the midst of the crowd and kept an eagle eye on them.

Criminals, particularly pickpockets, usually looked forward to the festival where they feast on unsuspecting culture enthusiasts and dispossess them of their valuables.

In 2014 edition, two journalists from Newswatch Times, Lagos and NTA, Abuja fell victim while struggling to take good shots of the events.

It was learnt that the light fingers stole a mobile phone of the Newswatch Times man while the Abuja woman lost a whole bag. Such incident is said to be a regular occurrence and indeed the flip side of the entertaining cultural convergence.

But on Friday, it was a different ball game. The arrival of Arugba to Osun grove literally electrified the atmosphere followed by the entrance of the Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Jimoh Oyetunji in company with his wives to the grove.

National and Osogbo anthems were respectively sung after which chiefs, traditionalists and groups of women took turn to pay homage to the Ataoja, who appeared in a heavily embroidered native ofi fabric.

Oba Oyetunji prayed for the entire people of Osogbo, Osun State and the nation at large while extending same to the Ataoja-In-Council, a group of traditional chiefs with whom he administers the town.

Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola who

Crowd at the festival.

Ataoja of Osogbo, Oba Oyetunji

Yemi Elebuibon

was represented by his former Commissioner of Culture, Tourism and Home Affairs, Sikiru Ayedun, and admonished the federal government to explore the potential of Osun festival to improve the sick economy caused by the fall of oil price in the international market.

The Director General of National Commission for Museum and Monuments, Mr Yusuf patted the organisers in the back and gave the federal government the assurance of continued support for Osun festival and others.

Chairman of the event, Dr Michael Omotosho also explained the need why the grove should be properly maintained and upgraded to be more attractive to the tourists.

The Araba Awo of Osogbo, Ifayemi Elebubon also led Ifa priests to the grove, describing Osun festival as the heritage and pride of Osogbo.

We can still do better and I am sure we are going to make this very popular festival unattractive to criminals.

Gani Adams Similarly, the Founder of Nike Art Gallery, Chief Nike Okundaye, whose successful art career took root in Osogbo in the 60s, maintained that the prowess of Osun goddess was unquantifiable, hence the large turnout of people from all walks of life at the festival.

The National Coordinator of OPC, Otunba Gani Adams said he was always sad to read post-festival reports of criminal activities at the festival.

Against that background, he said, he challenged his members to ensure crime rate was reduced at the just concluded edition, adding that such achievement was the only means not to scare local and foreign tourists from attending the festival.

“We can still do better and I am sure we are going to make this very popular festival unattractive to criminals.

Of course, wherever we have this number of people, crime must be there, but we should not allow it to increase if we cannot reduce it.

“But with what we have achieved this year, we are going to rid the grove of criminals who come from different places to operate here,” he said.

At the OPC carnival held at Laro Middle School, Adams affirmed that Osun Osogbo festival is the heritage of Yoruba race which must not be allowed to be rubbished by criminal elements.

OPC and Olokun Festival Foundation, he assured, would stop at nothing to make the festival more attractive, especially to the foreign tourists and more corporate bodies.

30

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

with Chukwuma Okparaocha

m:08038984495 e: chukscop2005@gmail.com

Lagos reels out plans to deliver affordable housing Targets 5,000 housing units Stories by Tunde Alao

o

ne of the greatest challenges that confront Lagos as a mega city, apart from security, is the issue of accommodation.

The situation is becoming daunting as a result of the high influx of people from other parts of the country into Lagos on a daily basis, thus, stretching the existing accommodations beyond limit.

However, in realising the dangers inherent in such situation, the Lagos State Ministry for Housing, has unveiled its plans to address the issue.

Speaking recently on the matter at an event organised by the Institute of Directors, (IOD), the Commissioner for Housing in Lagos, Prince Gbolahan Lawal, stated that the duties and challenges of a government and indeed a ruling class, which include captains of industry and directors of entrepreneurial ventures, is to identify and manage certain factors of production, supply and maintenance of housing.

According to Lawal, the situation and challenges the government is facing include a continuously increasing population, limited availability of land, high prices of building materials, lack of skilled labour force and low access to finance.

To overcome these challenges, he said the government had decided to focus on certain areas which include “redevelopment of old and dilapidated housing estates to achieve effective space utilisation by going vertical, with the existing allottees to be temporarily relocated and re-accommodated in the new development on completion; promotion of the ‘live where you work’ initiative by encouraging the development of housing estates around employment centres.”

If done, this he said would enhance productivity, reduce travel time and commuting cost, as well as improve disposable income and health.

Others are redevelopment of brown field sites to take advantage of existing infrastructure such as roads, sewage, power and water, among others, which will lead to reduction in cost of construction, thereby making public housing more readily affordable.

In addition to this, the commissioner said there would also be “Transit- Oriented Development,” which he said would be geared towards encouraging development of estates along the transit corridors (Blue and Red Line Stations, BRT corridors and Ferry Terminals) in the metropolis; unlock under-utilised government land and regenerate existing slums in collaboration with other MDAs. “Deployment of system building to facilitate speedy construction and reduced cost that would be ac-

costed with another initiative that would be known as ‘Master Craftsman Project is also being considered,” he said.

He also noted that one of the identified challenges in the area of housing delivery in Nigeria was the dearth of skilled workforce in the built environment.

The master craftsman project, he said, was an initiative intended

to create a platform through which artisans and the workers in the built environment would be trained and retained to acquire 21st century skill and be certified, saying that 4,000 persons expected to benefit from it within the next four years.

The objectives, according to him are to bridge the skill and ethical gap to acceptable professional

standard; Boost market share of local craftsman and Implement qualification, certification and create remuneration structure.

However, according to the commissioner, the most ambitious among the plan is the ‘Rent–To– Own,’ which he said was the new policy introduced to make housing more readily affordable for low and middle income earners in La-

gos State.

“This policy is to ensure that more people that would not have been home owners can come on the housing ladder. It is a scheme whereby prospective home owners make a five per cent commitment fee, take possession and pay up the remaining balance as rent towards the ownership of the property over a period of 10 years at six per cent interest rate which is in response to the prevailing national economy downturn and the inclusive growth policy of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s administration on affordable homes for all, especially the income earners at the bottom of the pyramid,” he added.

Poor maintenance of infrastructure sign of wasteful governance —Expert Chukwuma Okparaocha

Some of the Lagos State government’s housing units

Developers unveil Modo Heights residential estate, commences construction A 24-month construction period has been set to deliver a unique residential haven, the Modo Heights Estate, located on the new eight-lane Mile 12 Ikorodu Town Expressway.

The project, which is being pro-

posed by CARIFOS in partnership with Imperial Homes Mortgage Bank Limited and the Lagos State Government, is aimed at building a set of ambitious and yet achievable urban mid-risers of eight floors that is befitting

Reality Points unfolds Lekki Cedar Homes project An indigenous developer, Messrs Reality Point Limited, has added another estate to where property watchers have described as the fastest growing corridor in Nigeria, which is on the Lekki axis in Eti-Osa East Local Government Area of Lagos State.

The housing project, dubbed Cedar Homes, is a brand carefully conceptualised and designed as a haven of comfort for the prospective owners, occupiers, investors and tenant-buyers, is strategically positioned in Lekki Scheme II in and Jabi District, Abuja FCT. The project which sits on approximately 22,000 square metres is aimed at delivering 168 housing units.

Speaking on the project, Reality Point Limited, Construction Project Manager, Mr Stephen Ajayi-James stated that the project was painstakingly conceived to ensures that the expectations of both the owner occupier and would-be investors are well taken care of across the different hous-

ing types available within the estate.

According to him, the estate is also conceived as an eco-friendly and environmentally sustainable gated community offering exceptional facilities and services to foster qualitative living, better health, improve communal relationship and social engagement within the most affordable and cost effective means.

According to the Managing Director of Reality Point Limited, Mr Debo Adejare, the Architect is Messrs Corporate Castles Design Associates, while the Planner is Corporate Castle Limited.

Quantity Surveyor is Messrs Tolu Olufemi and Partners, McDonstep and Structural Engineering Ltd, is the Structural Engineer, while Gold Management Associates is the financial Consultant.

Others are Homebase Mortgage Bank Ltd., as the mortgage partner and the Marketing Partners is Brokerfield Real Estate Services Limitedn among others.

of the mega city goal, by virtue of the Urban Renewal Initiative (URI) of the Lagos State government, to renew and transform the shanties on Ikorodu road.

With a proposed site of 3.8 hectares in size within a larger residential development and well located on the Mainland at Ajelogo/Akanimodo area, the project is well-served by the Ojota-Lagos Highway via the third Mainland Bridge, as well as via Ikorodu road with direct access to Ikeja municipality. It is therefore most suited to the medium income working class of Lagos State citizens.

Speaking on the project recently, Ms. Abisola Kadiku, the Project Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of OKB & Associates, hinted that “the city of Lagos has become one of the fastest growing cities of the world with a surging demand for luxury accommodation. While the Lagos State Government has put in a lot of effort to provide affordable houses particularly in the Low-income group, there is still an acute shortage of accommodation for the medium-to-high income residents.

“The State Government has therefore pursued its policy of Private Public Partnership (PPP) by providing state lands to developers for development of residential homes.”

An expert in the built environment and fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers (NIESV), Mrs Osaro Aihie, has declared that continuous neglect and non-maintenance of existing infrastructure in the country is tantamount to wasting resources.

Speaking recently on ‘The role of estate surveyors and valuers in infrastructural development,’ Mrs Aihie noted that despite a massive increase in Nigeria’s population, especially in the last two decades, no meaningful upgrade or maintenance had been carried out on many public infrastructure in the country.

“Nigeria once had a national development plan of a five yearly economic programme which was implemented between 1960 and 1980. During this period, the country had a spate of developments as a result of the oil boom and the continuous flow of oil funds from oil exportation.

“There were massive infrastructural developments such as roads, universities, hospitals, water works, dams and refineries. However, these infrastructure developments became inadequate to meet the needs of the teeming population due to the influx of people from the rural to the urban area,” she noted.

The seasoned estate surveyor opined that Nigeria should learn from other developed nations of the world who, she claimed, often jump started their economies by accelerating their infrastructure and building on it. “They attained greatness only through the entrenchment of adequate and sustainable infrastructure. The truth is that no country can be rich without good infrastructure,” she argued.

31

news

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Release detained students without bail, FUNAAB students tell police No live ammunition was used —PPRO

By Yinka Olukoya and Vera Onana

S

TUDENTS of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta (FUNAAB), on Monday, demanded the immediate release of detained students of the institution without any bail.

Speaking on behalf of the group during their protest visit to the Tribune House in Ibadan, a male student,

Emmanuel, stated that their primary mission to the Tribune House was to request for the release of the detained FUNAAB students.

He also said that students have been victims of incessant robberies for too long and nothing has been done by the Ogun State police command.

The detained students, he explained, were arrested following a peaceful protest at

the institution after a robbery that claimed the life of a student.

He stressed that the students were not violent during the protest.

Another aggrieved student, Richard, described the situation as highly devastating and inhumane on the part of the state police command.

“Students were handpicked from their various

hostels after the police flushed them out with tear gas. The Ogun State Commissioner of Police issued a warrant that 150 FUNAABITES should be arrested. 50 were arrested and detained. They were not even granted bail. However, with the help of the special adviser to the state governor on student affairs, Mr Clement, 15 students were released at a bail of N100,000

From left, head of Adegoke Adelabu dynasty, Alhaji Lateef Gbadamosi; chairman of Adegoke Adelabu Foundation (AAF), Chief Lekan Alabi and the secretary, AAF, Mr Yinka Adelabu, at a media chat on the public presentation of Honourable Adegoke Adelabu House, at Oke Oluokun, Ibadan, held at the Press Centre, Iyaganku, Ibadan, on Monday. PHOTO: TOMMY ADEGBITE.

FG kicks off N6bn Oyo/Ogbomoso Expressway construction Sets 2019 completion date

By Tunde Ogunesan THE Federal Government, on Monday, formally inaugurated the construction of N6billion Oyo/Ogbomoso expressway, and promised to ensure its completion during the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari.

The reactivation of the express road was kicked off by Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, at Elete, Atiba Local Government Area, Oyo. The ministers of Information and Tourism and his Works, Power and Housing counterpart, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and Babatunde Raji Fashola; were represented by the Director, National Orientation Agency (NOA), Oyo State, Mrs Dolapo Dosunmu and the Federal Controller of Works, Oyo State, Mr Anya Omerekpe, respectively.

Fashola assured the people of the state that the job would be done according to the specification of the ministry, noting that “the contractor will be forced to give the nation, value for

the money.”

In a speech delivered by Mrs Dosunmu, Lai Mohammed affirmed that the government of President Buhari would put adequate structure that will facilitate development on ground.

In his address, the governor of Oyo State, Senator Abiola Ajimobi, congratulated the people of the state for living to see the eventual reconstruction of the road which was first conceived 37 years ago.

According to governor Ajimobi, when completed, the road would lead to rapid economic development across states in the country.

He added that the APCled government at all levels would continue to uphold the interest of the people.

The Managing Director of the construction company, Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), represented by his deputy, Nader Yusuf, assured the Federal Government on quality of the job.

He said with over 60 years of working in Nigeria, the company is known for its quality delivery, promising

that the current job would not be an exception.

The Chairman, Senate Committee on Works, Senator Kabiru Gaya, said the road would be completed within three years.

He called on the contractor, Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), to speed up and finish the project within the stipulated time.

“I want you to work extra hard to achieve this be-

cause this is a very important road to Oyo State people and Nigeria,” he said.

In her speech, Senator Sunmonu, who said she felt indebted to her constituents because resumption of work on the road was her focal point during 2015 campaign, commended President Buhari for approving the budget for the once a death-trap road.

per student. Over 30 students are still in the police cell till this moment,” he lamented.

The students added that though the state PPRO claimed no live ammunition was used, “a student is at the Intensive Care Unit of the University Teaching College (UCH) Ibadan, fighting for his life after a bullet wound that affected his brain.

“Members of the Nigeria Police used live ammunition to attack peaceful protesters and shot at Taiwo Abisoye, who has gone through two phases of surgery, brain surgery and optical surgery.”

He, therefore, urged concerned Nigerians and human rights activists to come to the aid of the FUNAAB students and ensure their release without any bail, stressing that FUNAABITES are known to be peaceful and are not hoodlums.

He rebuffed the police claim of violence against its members saying “no member of the state’s police was molested by the students.”

Reacting to the development, the acting Police Public Relations Officer, Abimbola Oyeyemi, said the allegations of the students were far from the truth.

Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, told the Nigerian Tribune that no live ammunition was used by the police during the protest.

The image maker said the students, despite plea by the school authorities and the police, allowed what initially started as a peaceful protest to be hijacked by hoodlums.

He explained that genuine students of the university were advised on the security issues raised by them, in front of the university gate on the fateful day.

Court grants man who named dog ‘Buhari’ bail Olayinka Olukoya - Abeokuta A magistrates’ court 2, sitting in Ota Magisterial District, on Monday, granted bail to Joachim Iroko, the man who named his dog “Buhari.”

The accused person was brought before the court for conduct likely to cause breach of peace.

The Police Prosecutor, Inspector Itaita Ebibomini, in a case with suit number MOT/617c/2016, said the accused committed the offence on Saturday, August 13, 2016, at Hausa section

of Ketere Market in SangoOta, in Ado-Odo /Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Ebibomini said “the offence is punishable under Section 249 (d) of Criminal Code Laws of Ogun State of Nigeria, 2016.”

Iroko, represented by U. Michael, pleaded not guilty to the one count charge offence, while Michael prayed the court to grant him bail.

“That you Joachim Iroko a.k.a. Joe and others still at large, on Saturday, 13th day of August 2016, at

about 5:30p.m. at Ketere area, Sango, in the Ota Magisterial District, did conduct yourself in a manner likely to cause breach of peace, by writing a name ‘Buhari’ on a dog and parading same in the Hausa section of Ketere Market, Sango and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 249 (d) of Criminal Code of Laws of Ogun State of Nigeria, 2016.”

The Chief Magistrate B. J. Ojikutu granted the accused bail and adjourned the case till September 19.

Nigerian Tribune

DEBASCO reconciles APC members in Odogbolu LG AN All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain in Ogun State, Chief Babatunde Onakoya, has started reconciliatory moves by reaching out to aggrieved members of the party in order to ensure that the party records a massive victory in the forthcoming local government election in the state.

Onakoya, in a statement made available to newsmen, said he carried along Odogbolu Local Government Area chairman, Mr Jide Banjo, in the reconciliation move.

In his reaction, Mr Banjo thanked Onakoya for deeming it fit to visit him on the reconciliatory move, promising that all members of the party would work together to ensure landslide victory in the forthcoming local government election.

Other APC leaders visited

by Onakoya included Honourables Afolabi Aina, Micheal Olukoya, Oyinkasanla Cole, Muyiwa Idowu and Alhaji Sangonuga.

Abiodun Ayanniyi for burial September 30 MRS Modupe Abiodun Ayanniyi, nee Oloko, is dead. Aged 79. She died on Sunday, July 31, 2016. She will be buried on September 30, 2016 at St David’s Church, Kudeti, Ibadan, Oyo State. She is survived by children and grandchildren.

Mrs Modupe Abiodun Ayanniyi CHANGE OF NAME I, formerly Yakubu Momoh now YAKUBU MOHAMMED. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Isaac Olaoye Opeyemi now ADEWUYI OLAOYE OPEYEMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CHANGE OF NAME

I, formerly Kamorudeen Abiola Ajagbe now KAMORUDEEN ABIDOYE ABIOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

32

news

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Ondo 2016: Jegede wins PDP governorship ticket Hakeem Gbadamosi - Akure

A

HEAD of the governorship election in Ondo State, the immediate former Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General in the state, Eyitayo Jegede, on Monday, emerged as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the election.

Jegede, who defeated the former Senior Special Adviser to Governor Olusegun Mimiko on Political Matters, Honourable Saka Lawal, during the primaries, held at the International Event Centre (DOME) in Akure, polled a total of 760 votes to defeat Saka who polled 22 votes.

Accreditation of the 840 voters drawn from the 203 wards across the state commenced around 8:00a.m. while voting and counting of votes were supervised by the Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson, who declared Jegede as the winner of the contest.

While announcing the result, Dickson commended the delegates for their orderliness.

He said the result of the election showed “the unity within the party in the state which remains the strength of PDP.” Responding after his defeat, Saka assured the party leadership of his readiness

to work hand-in-hand with Jegede.

He stressed the need to bring back some of the leaders who defected to other parties.

He said “I am assuring you that Saka Lawal will remain in PDP. I will join hands with other leaders for genuine and true reconciliation. What is para-

mount before us is for the party to win the November 26 governorship election.

“I will be consulting with all my political friends and within the next one week,

Chairman, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial election panel for Ondo State and Bayelsa State governor, Seriake Dickson (left) and Ondo State governor, Dr Olusegun Mimiko (right), declaring Eyitayo Jegede the winner of the party’s gubernatorial primaries, held in Akure, on Monday.

Jegede promised to build on the legacies of Governor Mimiko.

He also promised to focus mostly on the development of the state’s economy as a way out of the present economic situation.

He said “there is no victor, and there is no vanquish. We are all winners because this is purely a family matter and we will continue to build bridges of friendship between our people.

“We will continue to open our doors for those who are genuinely interested in reconciliation. The PDP is a big party and for others who are on the other side, it is between light and darkness. PDP is the light and we have seen it in the last one year.”

Governor Mimiko, while congratulating the party and its flagbearer, said “we will not only beat All Progressives Congress (APC) in the election, but we will beat APC big in Ondo State.”

APC elders forum passes vote of confidence on Kekemeke He stands removed —SWC Hakeem Gbadamosi - Akure

FOLLOWING the removal of the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Hon-

ourable Isaac Kekemeke, by the State Working Committee (SWC), the APC Elders Forum on Monday passed a vote of confidence on him.

The elders, led by Senator

Nimbe Farunkanmi, stated this in Akure, the state capital, after its meeting at the party secretariat.

The group noted that some disgruntled elements

Aspirant meets delegates, seeks support ahead APC primaries ALL Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant in Ondo State, Akinyinka Akinnola, at the weekend met with at least 700 party delegates at his Akure home, urging them to vote for him during the primaries.

“This gathering is very unique because it marks the first time an aspirant would gather hundreds of our party members and chieftains to directly seek their support. I urge you to support me for this position because I have a lot to offer our people,” Akinnola said at the colourful event on Saturday.

“The coming election is not just about unseating a non-performing PDP government, it is about ensuring a truly credible change that all of us would be proud of. I offer myself for service,” he added, amid chorus of approvals by the delegates.

we will come up with a statement on the way forward for PDP in Ondo State. I thank you all and God bless you.”

In his acceptance speech,

Nigerian Tribune

All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship aspirant, Mr Akinyinka Akinnola (second right) with party delegates at his residence in Akure, Ondo State, recently.

within the party embarked on blackmailing Kekemeke because of their selfish interests.

The elders recalled that the national leaders of the party had assured members that a level playing field would be provided for aspirants during the primaries.

The elders expressed dissatisfaction over the action of the aggrieved members who are crucifying the state chairman for an election that would be conducted by the national secretariat of the party.

Also, the National Vice Chairman of the party in the South-West, Chief Pius Akinyelure, has declared the purported suspension of the Ondo State chairman of the party as null and void.

Akinyelure explained that it was only the national executive committee of the party that has the power to

Lack of service stalls hearing of Jimoh Ibrahim’s case Sunday Ejike - Abuja

LACK of service of court processes, on Monday, frustrated the legal efforts by Mr Jimoh Ibrahim to stop the Senator Ahmed Makarfi-led executive committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from conducting primaries for the purpose of electing candidate for the Ondo State governorship election slated for November 26, 2016.

At the resumed hearing of the suit brought before the court by Jimoh Ibrahim yesterday, his counsel, Oladele Oyelami, told the court that they were unable to serve Senator Makarfi and six other respondents with the processes of the court.

According to him, the matter was slated for hearing yesterday, but was unable to serve respondents with the originating processes and hearing notice,

even though the court considered the issue of service as germane and had ordered that they (respondents) be served.

Oyelami then begged the court for a short adjournment to enable the plaintiff do the, “needful”, but Chief Ifedayo Adedipe, who represented the seventh respondent, Alhaja Aisha Aliyu, asked the court to grant the application of the plaintiff and adjourned hearing of

the matter till any day after the court’s vacation.

In a short ruling, the trial judge, Justice Okon Abang, agreed that Justice Dimgba granted leave for the matter to be heard during vacation and that he cannot review the order, since he is a judge of a court with coordinate jurisdiction.

He then adjourned the matter till September 1, 2016 for hearing of all pending applications.

axe any erring state chairman not the state working committee.

Meanwhile, security at the party secretariat remained tight following last week shootout by supporters of the factions.

But the SWC of the party maintained yesterday that Kekemeke remained sacked and removed, saying “the committee followed due process in removing the chairman.”

Speaking through the party’s Publicity Secretary in the state, Abayomi Adesanya, the aggrieved members said the action of the SWC was in accordance with the spirits and letters of the party’s constitution (Article 21).

Adesanya quoted Article 17 of the APC Constitution (October 2014 as amended) on tenure of office; saying “Article 17(v) states that, subject to ratification by the National Convention or Congress, an officer shall be relieved of his post at any time if a vote of ‘No Confidence’ is passed on him by two-third of members of the relevant party organ” and; “Article 17(vi): pursuant to this Constitution, where a vote of ‘No Confidence’ has been passed on an officer, the relevant party organ shall appoint another person to act in his place pending ratification by the National Convention or Congress.”

33

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

34 BANK: CITIBANK NIGERIA LIMITED WEEK ENDED: AUGUST 19, 2016

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016 RETURNS ON UTILIZATION OF FUNDS SOLD TO CUSTOMERS FOR THE WEEK

SN CUSTOMER

ITEM OF IMPORT

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INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIAL FOIL OF ALUMINIUM FOR LAMINATION INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIAL FOIL OF ALUMINIUM FOR LAMINATION RAW MATERIAL FOR INDUSTRIAL USE - TINPLATE HYDRAULIC PLATTE T LIFT FOR TOBACCO INDUSTRY FORKLIFT SPARE PARTS RAW MATERIAL FLAVOURS CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS FOR ROAD, BRIDGES & BUILDINGS REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES INSULATION FOAM GANTRY HOIST- STAND FOR DISABLED PEOPLE DIARY PRODUCTS BATTERIES PARTS OF SMART AISLES SPARE AND PARTS OF STATIC CONVERTER TOOLS SPARES AND COMPRESSOR RAW MATERIALS FOR INDUSTRIAL USE RAW MATERIALS FOR INDUSTRIAL USE RAW MATERIALS FOR INDUSTRIAL USE RAW MATERIALS FOR INDUSTRIAL USE DIVIDEND PAYMENT PVA FIBRES FOR CEMENT APPLICATION NET TICKET SALES REMITTANCE LUBRICATING OIL PRINTING BLANKET ELECTRICAL PANEL ALONG WITH DRIVE CLIP PUSH, AIR BLOWER, HARDNESS TESTING KIT MEMBERSHIP DUES PERIODICALS ONLINE SERVICES SUBSCRIPTION INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY SPARES INDUSTRIAL MACHINERY AND SPARES INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIAL REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES HELICAL GEAR BOX-RATION 50:1 MODEL SCHA-250SPL MAKE MILINDIA SODIUM PALMITATE - ICOF AIR WICK VALVES AND CANS CHLORINE SODIUM PALMITATE - ICOF ESSENTIAL INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS ESSENTIAL INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS ESSENTIAL INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS ESSENTIAL INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS CHEMICALS CHEMICALS UPRIGHT SINGLE DOOR REFRIGERATED SHOWCASE MIXTURE OF ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES PLASTIC RAW MATERIAL: POLYPROPLENE RANDOM POLYMER NET TICKET SALES REMITTANCE SPARE PARTS FOR MILL TESTING MEASURING AND CHECKING INSTRUMENTS COLD RILLING MILL NOVATIS PHARMACEUTICAL PERISHABLE COLD CHAIN PRODUCTS NOVARTIS PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS NOVATIS PHARMACEUTICAL PERISHABLE COLD CHAIN PRODUCTS REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE OTC FX FUTURES TRADE REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCE COOLER 35000301120026 ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCE COOLER 35000301120026 ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCE COOLER 35000301120026 ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCE COOLER 35000301120026 ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCE COOLER 35000301120026 ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCE COOLER 35000301120026 REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES PIPELINE BULK MATERIAL VARIOUS BOLT, FLANGE, GASKET AND BALL VALVE PRINTED LAMINATE IN ROLL FORM PRINTED LAMINATE IN ROLL FORM PRINTED LAMINATE IN ROLL FORM PRINTED LAMINATE IN ROLL FORM BATTERIES BATTERIES BATTERIES ONION POWDER VP BEV 6070 MR2 D-XYLOSE INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS CONFECTIONERY PRODUCTS AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY PARTS AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY PARTS AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY PARTS REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES MIXTURE OF ODORIFEROUS SUBSTANCES PAYMENT FOR SCHOOL FEES PAYMENT FOR SCHOOL FEES PAYMENT FOR SCHOOL FEES RAW MATERIAL FOR MANUFACTURING REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES PRINTED LAMINATE IN ROLL FORM PRINTED LAMINATE IN ROLL FORM CERINOX BR - BEER RECOVERY PLANT INTEREST/LOAN REPAYMENT INTEREST/LOAN REPAYMENT INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIAL INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIAL SIXPACK HI-CONE 8063 PAYMENT FOR SCHOOL FEES INTEREST/LOAN REPAYMENT REPATRIATION OF EQUITY SALES HELICAL GEAR BOX-RATION 50:1 MODEL SCHA-250SPL MAKE MILINDIA HELICAL GEAR BOX-RATION 50:1 MODEL SCHA-250SPL MAKE MILINDIA VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS VARIOUS SUPERMARKET ITEMS PLASTIC RAW MATERIAL: POLYPROPLENE RANDOM POLYMER INTERBANK SALES INTERBANK SALES INTERBANK SALES INTEREST/LOAN REPAYMENT ESSENTIAL INDUSTRIAL RAW MATERIALS

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CCY

15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16

353.75 353.75 353.75 358.92 358.92 358.92 353.75 320.50 320.50 457.70 457.70 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 455.94 455.94 353.75 396.71 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 320.50 353.75 353.75 26.85 395.82 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 353.75 320.50 320.50 320.50 353.75 353.75 320.50 353.75 353.75 353.75 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 305.50 285.50 305.50 285.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 285.50 305.50 285.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 290.50 290.50 305.50 305.50 290.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 305.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 310.50 320.50 320.50 363.72 363.72 415.03 363.72 415.03 415.03 320.50 320.50 320.50 365.75 320.50 320.50 365.75 365.75 365.75 365.75 365.75 415.03 415.03 363.72 415.03 320.50 365.75 365.75 365.75 320.50 283.25 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 334.84 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 363.40 422.00 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.50 320.40 421.10 360.70 320.50 320.50

USD USD USD EUR EUR EUR USD USD USD GBP GBP USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD GBP GBP USD EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD ZAR EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD EUR EUR EUR EUR EUR EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD EUR EUR EUR EUR USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD CHF USD USD USD USD EUR GBP USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD GBP EUR USD USD

AMOUNT 163,383.14 52,026.93 201,850.00 38,400.00 6,368.90 49,348.00 48,475.00 232,137.29 406,530.14 68,764.00 15,731.00 75,654.07 393,932.10 20,846.24 31,427.95 16,314.00 54,148.00 14,382.40 49,485.20 74,340.00 275,000.00 308,488.00 500,000.00 3,038.40 2,256.88 5,355.00 5,764.00 73,050.00 3,495.00 9,950.00 138,287.18 68,380.16 11,774.42 6,864.00 373,150.00 67,394.70 10,700.00 73,000.00 371,476.92 27,588.00 73,000.00 22,108.00 52,480.00 48,000.00 27,200.00 7,442.80 7,442.80 9,066.95 260,761.71 210,800.00 70,000.00 4,625.00 1,715.00 1,530.00 50,378.25 36,383.78 24,600.00 90,538.07 329,175.00 117,300.00 197,505.00 212,355.00 45,900.00 353,925.00 45,900.00 212,355.00 45,900.00 344,925.00 281,160.00 45,900.00 70,290.00 334,125.00 67,320.00 33,412.50 100,237.50 166,320.00 300,712.50 166,320.00 371,250.00 166,320.00 317,625.00 108,900.00 317,625.00 20,790.00 66,825.00 86,130.00 40,260.00 129,000.00 100,237.50 166,320.00 309,375.00 353,925.00 353,925.00 94,350.00 94,350.00 309,375.00 120,609.00 120,609.00 139,500.00 113,400.00 120,600.00 139,500.00 113,400.00 103,125.00 139,500.00 139,500.00 185,625.00 139,500.00 139,500.00 139,500.00 123,750.00 61,875.00 103,125.00 144,375.00 103,125.00 103,125.00 309,375.00 61,875.00 311,850.00 113,400.00 418,500.00 133,650.00 247,500.00 100,237.50 139,500.00 200,475.00 422,651.28 31,648.16 3,705.53 12,117.56 17,383.92 42,147.72 197,729.39 56,847.62 68,357.74 35,212.94 12,830.77 46,990.93 9,398.19 3,068.29 15,341.43 10,787.22 10,787.22 62,839.08 44,640.00 67,620.00 155,902.50 24,297.81 113,989.37 52,738.00 25,000.00 25,492.00 76,484.00 71,780.14 554,880.00 15,324.30 21,270.00 21,690.83 382,402.80 107,406.79 40,483.63 258,604.35 530,000.00 46,784.49 40,654.11 13,143.75 196,230.88 412,081.00 11,835.00 12,906.07 16,912.61 95,984.00 23,296.00 19,680.00 19,051.25 234,011.73 26,922.78 14,547.50 24,828.12 42,956.14 3,374.25 16,871.25 50,814.44 137,200.00 39,000.00 7,000.00 3,500.00 2,903.87 225,000.00

35

news

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

RETURNS ON SOURCES OF FUNDS SOLD TO CUSTOMERS FOR THE WEEK BANK: CITIBANK NIGERIA LIMITED WEEK ENDED: AUGUST 19, 2016 S/N CUSTOMER 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48

CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI NY GC CORE CITI NY GC CORE CITI NY GC PRIORITY CITIBANK DUBAI MITSUBISHI SHOJI KAISHA NIG LTD. NESTLE NIGERIA PLC SAIPEM CONTRACTING NIGERIA LIMITED CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA CENTRAL BANK OF NIGERIA CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI NY GC CORE CITI NY GC PRIORITY FORD FOUNDATION WORKING FUND LENOVO TECHNOLOGIES WEST AFRICA LTD PROCTER AND GAMBLE NIGERIA LIMITED ACTIONAID INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION BAKER HUGHES COMPANY LIMITED GE INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS (NIG) NOBLE DRILLING NIGERIA LIMITED SERVICE MEDICAL INTERNATIONAL SERVICE MEDICAL INTERNATIONAL SERVICE MEDICAL INTERNATIONAL ADDAX PETROLEUM DEVELOPMENT CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI NY GC CORE CITI NY GC PRIORITY CLINTON HEALTH ACCESS INITIATIVE EMBASSY OF JAPAN ABUJA OFFICE. RBC INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A RBC INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A RBC INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A RBC INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A SEVEN-UP BOTTLING COMPANY PLC BW OFFSHORE SINGAPORE PTE. LTD CITI HK GC PLATINUM CITI NY GC CORE CITI NY GC CORE HARRIS GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS NESTLE NIGERIA PLC NESTLE NIGERIA PLC RBC INVESTOR SERVICES BANK S.A RETAIL SUPERMARKETS NIGERIA LIMITED SEVEN-UP BOTTLING COMPANY PLC

DATE OF FUND PURCHASE

EXCHANGE RATE

CCY

AMOUNT

15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 15-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 16-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 17-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 18-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16 19-Aug-16

244.92 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 357.02 353.25 285.00 305.00 290.00 310.00 246.04 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 315.50 414.70 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 365.25 243.53 243.53 245.24 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 283.25 320.00 243.48 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 320.00 283.25

AUD USD USD USD USD USD EUR USD USD USD USD USD AUD USD USD USD USD USD GBP USD USD USD USD USD USD USD AUD AUD AUD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD AUD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD USD

69,344.73 63,001.69 288,836.36 2,252.56 10,312.50 40,000.00 18,000.00 7,000,000.00 886,935.00 4,830,978.00 2,027,325.00 3,661,988.00 13,935.92 54,796.41 25,168.14 100,000.00 27,000.00 28,656.62 100,000.00 21,204.60 22,050.00 200,000.00 60,000.00 40,000.00 50,000.00 1,000,000.00 479,423.21 11,846.22 89,335.57 31,202.93 18,237.36 75,000.00 20,000.00 25,191.26 6,506.35 29,658.82 42,233.47 277,440.00 2,296,975.00 57,727.38 11,689.18 51,962.11 21,254.36 39,500.00 39,000.00 16,939.03 453,057.46 277,440.00

CCT to rule on Orubebe’s case Sept 21, Saraki, Oct 5 Sunday Ejike -Abuja

CHAIRMAN, Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT), Danladi Yakubu Umar, has approved the rescheduling of September 21 for the delivery of judgment of the case against erstwhile Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godsday Peter Orubebe.

This was contained in a notice of tribunal’s sittings scheduled for September/ October.

The notice, dated August 17, 2016, which was captioned: “Re-Notification of Tribunal Session for the Months of September and October, 2016,” was signed

by Principal Registrar I of the tribunal, Victor Isibor,

for Director Legal Services Department.

In the same vein, the case

Osinbajo wants greater African economic cooperation Leon Usigbe-Abuja

V

ICE-PRESIDENT Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday, received his visiting Liberian counterpart, Mr Joseph Nyumah Boakai in his office at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, with a call on African nations to work together to develop their economies.

He said this should be the priority for the benefit of their people, ahead of other forms of international cooperation.

According to him, “we have to help ourselves first before others come, we should look for ways we

can benefit each other.”

Osinbajo observed that there were Nigerian business people that could invest in Liberia, suggesting the creation of a bilateral economic council that could bring business interests from both countries together.

“We must engender stronger relationships between our countries, that is what Africans need,” he said, adding that Nigeria and Liberia needed to work together to develop economies.

While noting the important task for African governments to create enabling environments for agricultural

and industrial development, Professor Osinbajo said “our people depend on what government is able to do for them.”

In his own remarks, Boakai commended Nigeria, saying “you have made a lot of sacrifices to our country, including through the ECOMOG and the United Nations Mission in Liberia, UNMIL.” He acknowledged the role Nigeria was playing in the development of Liberia, pointing out that Nigerian businesses were helping the West Africa country in sectors like aviation, banking, insurance and investments.

5 injured, no death in Kano varsity Okowa partners South Africa on building collapse —VC economic diversification

DELTA State governor, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, has expressed satisfaction with the number of investors indicating interests in doing business with the state, saying Nigeria cannot meet its potentials without partnership between government and the private sector.

According to the governor, South African investors were in the process of establishing a tertiary health facility in the state, while others had come to partner

Troops kill 3 kidnappers in Bauchi TROOPS of 33 Brigade, Nigerian Army, on Sunday, carried out a fighting patrol at Dutsen Mairama and around Dogon Ruwa settlement within Lame/ Burra forest of Toro and Ningi local government areas of Bauchi State, where they killed three armed kidnappers and destroyed their camps.

The troops also recovered arms and ammunition, in-

of Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, was slated for ruling on October 5.

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo (right) with the Liberian Vice-President, Joseph Boakai, at the State House, Abuja.

cluding empty shells.

A statement from the army, signed by the acting Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Sani Usman, which confirmed this, said the troops would continue to carry out such clearance operations in all known hideouts of kidnappers and armed bandits within Bauchi and other states, to deny criminal elements freedom of action.

with the state in the area of agriculture and mining.

The governor dropped the hint on Monday, when the Consul-General, Lagos office of South African Consulate, Mr Darkey Africa, paid him a courtesy visit in Asaba.

“Greater partnership between the private sector and government will help develop our nation,” he said, adding that “we are carrying out advocacy to private investors in order to develop our state; we are happy in the involvement of South Africans in our developmental programmes.”

Earlier, Mr Africa had told the governor and members of the state executive council that he was in the state to explore areas of partnership between his country and the state, disclosing that they had experts in many fields including agriculture, energy and mining, which would be beneficial to all.

Kola Oyelere-Kano

FIVE persons, on Monday, sustained injuries, following the collapse of a section of a building at the Department of Architecture under construction at the Kano State University of Science and Technology (KSUT), Wudil.

The vice chancellor of the institution, Professor Shehu Musa, disclosed this while briefing newsmen in Kano, while he refuted the claim that 20 people were feared dead in the incident.

According to him, two of the injured persons had been discharged at the hospital, adding that “as I am talking to you now, nobody has lost his or her life because of that incident which happened around 1.00 p.m. today (Monday).

“Only one of the victims has a fracture on his hand, while the remaining two are responding to treatment.”

He said shortly after the incident, authorities of the university alerted the

fire service, excavators and security agencies, adding that “excavation work had since started and whatever the outcome will be, it will be made public. But at the moment, nobody lost his

life.”

The vice chancellor added that the school had also conducted roll call of the workers on duty at the site and all were found, including the injured.

Edo: INEC begins training of ad hoc staff Banji Aluko-Benin City

THE Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), on Monday, commenced training of ad hoc staff that would be in charge of the various polling units across 192 wards during the September 10 governorship election in Edo State.

The state Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), Sam Olumekun, said 263 supervisory presiding officers trained as ad hoc staff would undertake the task of training other categories of staff to ensure a hitch-free process.

Addressing 300 staffers

from various tertiary institutions in the state who had been shortlisted for the training, the REC observed that the training was to equip them with the innovations of the commission, to enable them to function effectively, as he assured of the commission’s readiness to conduct a credible election in the state.

On the card reader, he assured that there would not be failure, as the commission had made significant progress from experiences of past elections, adding that engineers would be available on the day of election to correct any malfunctioning.

36

news

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

Prayer critical factor in solving Nigeria’s problems —Gowon

F

By Nurudeen Alimi

ORMER head of state and Covener, Nigeria Prays, General Yakubu Gowon, has said prayer remains a critical factor in the quest to solve problems facing the country.

General Gowon said this in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, on Sunday, while addressing a congregation at a national prayer rally organised by the Nigeria Prays (South-West zone), a non-denominational religious group ,held at Victory International Church, Oluyole Estate Extension, Ibadan.

“Let us be rest assured that our prayers are not in vain. And I can say this with every authority that prayer can solve problems better and faster than generals and soldiers can do with physical weapons of war.

“I have no doubt in my heart that God will honour our collective prayer and intercession for our dear nation and assist our nation of all the challenges facing it.”

He, however, expressed gratitude to the presiding Bishop of Victory International Church, Bishop

Taiwo Adelakun, who is also the chairman, Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), his wife, Pastor Dolapo Adelakun and the entire members of the church for the hospitality accorded him and his team during the period.

“Let me also express my sincere gratitude as well as that of the of Conveners of Nigeria Prays to the Oyo

State government, for the support and involvement in the prayer rally “.

In his remarks, Governor Abiola Ajimobi, commended General Gowon for the initiative, while describing it as a mission aimed at promoting the virtues of transparency, incorruptibility, integrity and fellowship.

He, therefore, called

for attitudinal change, adding that prayer without hard work can not solve the problems facing the country.

The governor, who described General Gowon as a Godly man, said that the retired general had and is still serving humanity diligently, having piloted Nigeria through turbulent times at a young

age.

Present on the occasion were: the Bishop of Ibadan Diocese (Anglican communion), Right Rev Joseph Akinfenwa, the chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Oyo State, Pastor Benjamin Akanmu, national director, Nigeria Prays, Rev (Dr) Moses Aransiola, among others.

From left, Bishop of Ibadan Diocese (Anglican Communion), Right Reverend Joseph Akinfenwa; Dr Moses Aransiola; former head of state/Convener, Nigeria Prays, General Yakubu Gowon; Presiding Bishop of Victory International Church, Ibadan, Bishop Taiwo Adelakun; Oyo State governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi and Pastor Dolapo Adelakun, during a national prayer rally organised by the Nigeria Prays (South West zone), at Victory International Church, Oluyole Estate Extention, Ibadan, on Sunday.

Stakeholders meet on how to revitalise Ajaokuta steel firm Ayodele Adesanmi Abuja

WORRIED by what he described as unknown forces militating against the completion of Ajaokuta Steel Company in Kogi State, stakeholders from Kogi

Central senatorial district, at the National Assembly, met and deliberated on its early completion and on how to revitalise the steel company.

The convener of the

meeting and the senator representing the zone at the National Assembly, Ahmed Ogembe, said that it was unfortunate that many interests are working against the revit-

alisation of the company.

The senator queried why there is so much rush in concessioning Itakpe National Iron Ore Mining Company (NIOMCO), despite the fact that it is

Love nwa ntinti in Prof Johnbull’s Episode 6 As Mama G, Sani Danja, Bimbo Akintola thrill viewers A-list stars such as Mama G, Sani Danja and Bimbo Akintola, will join the regular cast of Professor Johnbull, the TV drama series sponsored by Globacom, to serenade viewers as Episode 6 of the sitcom is broadcast on Tuesday (today )on NTA Network, NTA International Channel 251 on DSTV and NTA on StarTimes at 8.30 p.m.

The vexed issues of dating and marriage among young women of marriageable age is the thrust of Episode 6 of Professor Johnbull entitled “Half bread and Puff-puff”.

Viewers will be told the latest meanings of “Puff-puff” and “Half bread” as well as the antics of desperate young ladies and their strategies for getting husbands in contemporary Nigeria.

Episode 6 promises to be the most interesting edition so far as the quartet of Mama G (Madam Christiana), Bim-

bo Akintola (Ufoma) , Bidemi Kosoko (Jumoke) and Sani Danja (Malik) unravel the theme in a hilarious and entertaining manner which is the hallmark of the TV drama

series, Professor Johnbull.

How is the love triangle resolved in Episode 6? What are the views of highly talented Mama G on the predicament of ladies chasing rich men and

other matters of the heart?

What will, this time round, be the conclusion of the colourful Professor Johnbull and how many polysyllabic words will he drop in this episode?

Ex-Kogi acting gov drags NHRC to court, demands N50m for defamation Yinka Oladoyinbo - Lokoja

A former acting governor of Kogi State, Chief Clarence Obafemi, has dragged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) before a Kogi State High Court sitting in Lokoja for defamation and disrespect for human right, following the commission’s inclusion of his name among electoral offenders in the country.

Obafemi, who was also a speaker of the Kogi State House of Assembly, asked the court to award N50 million against the commission for injuring his personality.

The NHRC had, penultimate week, published the name of Obafemi among those who had engaged in electoral malpractices during the 2007 general election.

The former acting governor, expressed displeasure over the development, noting that it was wrong for NHRC to publish his name after winning his case at the Appeal Court.

Speaking in Lokoja, on Sunday, counsel for the former lawmaker, Temidayo Eseyen, said his client instituted the suit because the publication was unlaw-

ful, illegal and false.

According to him, Obafemi was, at no time, found guilty of any electoral violence as he asked the court for perpetual injunction against the commission stopping it from publishing such allegation against his client again.

The suit also prayed the court for N50 million as damages, claiming that the publication was defamatory despite the fact that his client was exonerated by an appeal court after the tribunal first indicted him in 2003.

supposed to be a source of raw materials for the Ajaokuta company, adding that government needed to make Ajaokuta Steel Company work before the concession of Itakpe.

The member, representing Okehi/Adavi federal constituency, at the National Assembly, Honourable Kabiru Ajanah, said the public hearing conducted by the House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, indicated that critical stakeholders and the host community which he represent, were not carried along in the signed concession agreement with the same Indian firm.

“There is no way the Indians will come back to work in Itakpe without relating with the host community and it is in the best interest of the Federal Government and the Indian firm to carry the host community along in the signing of the agreement so as to avoid a repeat of the Niger Delta crisis in Itakpe.”

The executive secretary, African Iron and Steel Association, Dr Sanusi Mohammed, said the concession agreement carried out by the Federal Government on NIOMCO, was not in the best interest of Nigerians.

Pay workers’ salaries, NULGE boss tells Abia govt Celestine Ihejirika - Umuahia

ABIA State government has been urged to explore possible ways to offset the backlog arrears of salaries owed local government workers in the state.

The state chairman, Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Mr Ijoma Onyenaucheya, who said this last week, during an interview with the Nigeria Tribune, in Umuahia, the state capital, decried the excruciating pains being experienced by workers in the state.

He said that the situation had already brought untold hardship to the workers, adding that the current economic problem facing the nation needed pragmatic approach for the people to live meaningfully.

Another court to hear Fintiri’s application to travel abroad Sunday Ejike-Abuja

JUSTICE Okong Abang of the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, referred the application seeking permission to travel outside the country brought before his court by the former Governor of Adamawa State, Honorable Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri, to Justice Ahmed Ramat Mohammed.

The application was assigned after Mr Aliu Husenni, counsel to Fintiri, moved the application, of August 11, 2016, praying the court to grant leave for the defendant to travel outside the country.

“The substantive matter had already been assigned to Justice Mohammed, who made the order to drop his international passport and, “so, it is not in my power to grant the defendant leave to travel”.

The ex-governor was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), on afive count charge bordering on money laundering to a tune of N2 billion.

The former governor was alleged to have defrauded the state government of N970million and another $4.830 million during the three months period he managed the state as acting governor.

However, Fintiri, denied all the charges when read to him on July 2, 2016.

37

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

foreig naffairs with seyi gesinde

other NEWS Former Singapore president dead at 92 FORMER Singaporean President S R Nathan died Monday at the age of 92, according to a statement from the country’s Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong.

Former Singaporean President S R Nathan

Nathan suffered a stroke three weeks ago, according to Loong, CNN said.

Nathan, who held office from 1999 to 2011, was the longest-serving President of Singapore, according to Loong, who described him as “a warm and approachable President who endeared himself to Singaporeans.

“He impressed visitors with his knowledge of world affairs, and served with dignity and distinction.”

Russia stops use of Iran airbase for Syria strikes RUSSIA has stopped using an Iranian airbase to bomb targets in Syria, both countries have said.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said the operation was “over for now” and the planes had gone, BBC said.

Iran’s Defence Minister Hossein Deghan had earlier criticised Russia for publicising the raids last week, saying it had exhibited a “show-off” attitude.

Russia for its part has

confirmed that all of its planes used from Iran for Syria strikes are now back in Russia.

Russia. like Iran, is a key ally of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad.

Last Tuesday, Russia’s defence ministry announced that Tupolev22M3 long-range bombers and Sukhoi-34 strike fighters had used the Shahid Nojeh airbase near the eastern city of Hamedan to carry out air strikes on “terrorists” in Syria.

08116954632 foreignnewseditor@gmail.com

Donald Trump:

I’m not flip-flopping on immigration

I

T’S still undecided whether Donald Trump will continue to support forced deportation of millions of undocumented immigrants living in the US, his campaign manager said Sunday. But Trump himself insisted Monday, “I’m not flip-flopping.”

“I’m not flip flopping,” the Republican presidential nominee told Fox News on the issue Monday. “We want to come up with a fair but firm process. Fair but firm.” He did not, however, provide any specifics or elaborate on his position further.

When asked by repeated questioning by CNN correspondent on “State of the Union” on Sunday whether Trump stood behind the idea of a deportation task force, Kellyanne Conway, Trump’s new campaign manager, responded, “to be determined.”

Conway was responding to reports about what was said in a meeting Trump held on Saturday with a Hispanic advisory council. Sources in the room told BuzzFeed that Trump spoke about a “humane and efficient” way to work with undocumented

US seeks progress in deploying new UN troops to South Sudan UNITED States Secretary of State John Kerry said on Monday he and regional states were committed to giving momentum to the planned deployment of extra United Nations troops to South Sudan and said the country’s leaders needed to recommit to a peace deal.

Fierce fighting in the capital Juba last month has raised fears that the five-year-old nation could slide back into civil war.

It prompted the United Nations to authorise the deployment of 4,000 additional U.N. troops to bolster a U.N. mission there, Reuters reported.

“We need to move forward with the deployment of a regional protection force,” Kerry told a news conference in Nairobi after talks with foreign ministers from Kenya and other African states that had focused on South Sudan and Somalia’s reconstruction.

US Secretary of States, John Kerry

Conway said. “What he supports is to make sure we enforce the law, that we are respectful of those Americans who are looking for jobs, and that we are fair and humane to those who live among us.”

Bash played a clip of Trump speaking about a deportation force last fall, saying it would be done “humanely,” repeatedly asking if that was still the position of the campaign or whether Trump was backing off.

That was when Conway responded: “To be determined.”

Poll shows most Israelis, Palestinians still seek peace

Doctors removing 40 knives from man. PHOTO: CNN.

Doctors remove 40 knives from man’s stomach in India Russian fighter jet. PHOTO: REUTERS

immigrants in the country currently, which was characterized by BuzzFeed as a way to legalize some and let them stay.

That would stand in sharp contrast with a central theme of the Trump campaign since the beginning, a hardline position on immigration focused on removing people in the country illegally.

Conway disputed that Trump presented a reversal of his position in the meeting.

“So what Donald Trump said yesterday in that meeting ... varied little from what he has said publicly,”

Donald Trump

A man in India spent two months swallowing knives and had 40 of them surgically removed from his stomach, according to the doctor who led the operation.

“He had a wild urge to consume metal. Even for us, the experienced surgeons, it was frightening,” Dr Jatinder Malhotra told CNN. “We were so nervous... a small mistake could have taken the patient’s life. In my 20 years of practice, I have never seen anything like it.”

Malhotra said it took his team about two days to form a diagnosis and surgery plan.

The five-hour operation took place Friday in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, a Sikh holy city in the state of Punjab.

Malhotra said they found foldable knives, which when fully extended were about seven inches long.

“He [the patient] says he swallowed some knives folded, and some unfolded.

When we took out the knives — some were found folded, some were open, and some had even started rusting and were broken,” Malhotra said.

The patient, a 42-year-old father of two, told CNN he’s feeling much better.

A new poll of Israelis and Palestinians released on Monday found that a slim majority on both sides still favour a peace settlement establishing a Palestinian state alongside Israel, despite years of conflict and deadlock in negotiations.

The results of the joint poll may provide some small signs of encouragement when peace prospects appear bleak. The last round of negotiations broke down two years ago, and a resumption of talks, much less progress between the sides, at this point seems unlikely.

VOA stated that Tamar Hermann, an Israeli political scientist who

conducted the survey with Palestinian pollster Khalil Shikaki, said that under the current circumstances, the results were “not amazingly encouraging,’’ but also “not discouraging.’’

“It showed there is still some basis for optimism with the right leadership,’’ she said. “Right now I don’t see on the horizon a leader on either side willing or capable of using this as a springboard for intensifying the negotiations. But it’s not impossible.’’

The poll found that 51 per cent of Palestinians and 59 per cent of Israelis still support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Turkey suicide bomb victims ‘mostly children’ MOST of the victims of the bombing of a Kurdish wedding party in the Turkish city of Gaziantep on Saturday were children, media reports say.

BBC reported that twentynine victims were under the age of 18, reports said, with Sympathisers at the mass bury of victims of blast in Turkey.

one official saying 22 were under the age of 14. The death toll rose to 54 on Monday.

The suicide bomber himself was a child aged 1214, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Mr Erdogan has blamed so-called Islamic State (IS)

for the attack.

Gaziantep, near the Syrian border, is known to contain several IS cells.

One woman lost four children in the attack, the Haberturk newspaper reported. Emine Arhan told the title “if it wasn’t for my only surviving child, I would have killed myself”.

Another victim was a nineyear-old girl who had stayed on at the party to see the bride after her parents had left, according to the Vatan newspaper.

news Only 1.5 million teachers duly certified —TRCN boss

38

Tuesday, 23 August, 2016

•Council reintroduces exams for teachers Clement Idoko-Abuja

T

HE Registrar and Chief Executive of the Teachers Registration Council of Nigeria (TRCN), Professor Olusegun Ajiboye has expressed worry that only about 1.5 million teachers have been registered and certified by TRCN over the years in spite of the large number of teachers in primary and secondary

schools, universities and other tertiary institutions in the country.

He lamented that a recent study by the council has revealed that majority of Nigerian teachers are outdated in their pedagogical skills and techniques.

This factor, he said, had adversely affected the quality of teaching and learning in the country.

Ajiboye, spoke on Mon-

day in Abuja, while briefing newsmen on his plans to restore the lost glory of Nigerian teachers as well as enhance the teacher quality and professionalism.

He disclosed that from January 2017, the council would reintroduce the professional qualifying examinations for all teachers both at the basic and tertiary levels of education in the country.

He noted that modules for the professional qualifying examination had been developed and test-run on sample groups to ascertain the validity and authenticity of the test constructs.

“It serves as one of the best tools for assessing, admitting and licensing practitioners in any profession. This assertion was confirmed by the maiden edition of the examination which revealed

a lot of professional deficiencies of the Nigerian teacher.

“It showed that majority of Nigerian teachers are outdated in their pedagogical skills and techniques. As such, it became evident that they need urgent on-the-job training for necessary update,” he said.

He vowed that the council under his watch would eradicate quackery in the teaching profession, stressing that teaching must not be seen as all-comers affair.

“This figure will double in a very short time because TRCN would henceforth embark on aggressive campaign towards revamping the system for more productivity,” he said.

The new TRCN boss added that as the regulatory agency, the aim was to match teacher quality, discipline, professionalism, reward and dignity with international standards.

Adamawa govt to distribute tractors to farmers Kabeer Gwangwazo - Yola

Members of the Bring-Back-Our-Girls group and the 2,000 candidates recruited, trained and dispersed by the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), blocking the road leading to the Presidential Villa, during a protest in Abuja, on Monday. PHOTO: NAN

BBOG denied entry into villa

Suggests 3 ways to rescue missing Chibok girls Adetola Bademosi - Abuja

ON Monday, the BringBackOurGirls group (BBOG) protesters who staged a protest to the Presidential Villa in Abuja, were denied entry into the premises.

The group, however, suggested three ways through

which the missing Chibok girls could be rescued.

In a press text read by the chairperson of the strategic team of the group, Aisha Yesufu, the group suggested three ways which included the use of military force, negotiation of release or a

combination of both.

It noted that although each suggestion comes with inherent risks, the Nigerian state has all in its capabilities to assess these risks.

While urging the Federal Government to utilise information available to it in the

Nigerians need mind, not geopolitical restructuring —Ganduje Kola Oyelere - Kano

KANO State governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said the panacea for the nation’s current socio-economic woes is not geopolitical restructuring but mind restructuring of Nigerians in order to return the country to the path of progress.

The governor, who spoke on Monday during a social event organised in honour of delegates to a pre-election meeting of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, in Kano, emphasised that Nigeria should devote attention to tapping from the potential of its youths for national integration and development.

He said the United States of America is more geopolitically fragmented with more nationalities than Nigeria,

noting that, yet, it remains the strongest nation in the world.

Ganduje added that the United States attained its present status because of the ability of its leaders to harness the positive thoughts and actions of its heterogeneous population, and not by restructuring the country along geo-political divides.

Lamenting the high prevalence of corruption in Nigeria, the governor maintained that youths are the best segment of the society, who should lead the crusade against the sharp practice in view of their physical and intellectual capacity as well as their leadership potential.

Ganduje also disclosed on the occasion that his administration had put a machinery in place for constructive

engagement of the youth in the scheme of affairs, explaining that the appointment of youths into key positions in the government is a pointer to that direction.

On the forthcoming election of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, the governor advised the delegates to vote for credible leaders that would advance the cause of the association, assuring them of the support of his government.

Earlier, the acting National President of the Council, Comrade Ibukunoluwa Oluwole, commended the Ganduje administration for hosting their meeting, and requested a monthly subvention with an official accommodation for the state branch of the council to facilitate their activities.

prompt rescue of the girls, it said:”President Muhammadu Buhari cannot anymore be unclear on what decision to make on the option to pursue for their rescue.

“We reject the recurrent excuses by the Presidency that the Federal Government does not know which faction of the splintered terrorist group it should engage in negotiations. Our Federal Government must never again sound incapable of intelligence and negotiation expertise.

“We demand that our president immediately leads his military and intelligence team to make a decision and swiftly pursue the lowest risk option out of the three possibilities.

“We caution against a repeat of the bureaucratic inertia and inter-agency squabbles that have paralysed a mandatory coordinated, coherent, target, focused and sustained engagement for ending this tragedy.”

It also asked the President to immediately constitute ChibokGirls rescue operation monitoring team made up of representatives of Federal Government, parents of Chibok girls, KADA community and #BringBackOurGirls.

GOVENOR Jibrilla Bindow of Adamawa State, on Monday, said the government will distribute 50 tractors to farmers soon.

Bindow made the disclosure at the flag-off of Atiku Abubakar Way in JimetaYola.

The governor said the tractors were already on ground for distribution, adding that the gesture was to encourage agriculture in the state.

He disclosed that more farming inputs would be provided to farmers to boost agricultural growth in the state.

He urged farmers to put in more efforts with a view to ensuring that agriculture was practised as a commercial venture rather than the subsistence agriculture being currently practised.

“I enjoined all farmers in this state to adopt a more commercial oriented agriculture than what we have being practising now or in the past.

“As a responsible government, we have procured 50 tractors ready to be distributed for farmers in the state.

“I want to assure you that our administration will support you with more farming inputs and incentives as time goes on,’’ he stated.

Bindow disclosed that his administration would address the problem of road infrastructure in the state, adding that several road projects would be completed before the next Christmas.

ABUTH resident doctors start 3-day warning strike —NARD President

THE Ahmadu Bello University Teaching Hospital (ABUTH) Branch of National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), on Monday, commenced a threeday warning strike.

Its President, Dr Waziri Aliyu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Zaria that all members of NARD had complied.

“We have commenced the industrial action today, Monday, August 22, in view of the fact that the management is not ready to listen to us.

“This is just a warning strike and will terminate on Thursday August 25, after which the association will proceed on indefinite strike if our demands are not met,’’ he said.

While saluting the courage of the members for total compliance, Aliyu pleaded with them to persevere and endure the difficulties they might encounter during the period.

ABUTH Chief Medical Director (CMD), Professor Lawal Khalid, confirmed that the NARD had gone on strike, but assured that services were still on.

SSAEAC president visits IBEDC

By Taiwo Olanrewaju

THE president general of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Company (SSAEAC) Comrade Chris Okonkwo, an engineer recently visited IBEDC. Okonkwo, who led the executive officers of SSAEAC to the head office of IBEDC, at the Capital Building on Moshood Abiola Way, Ibadan, assured that his association would work in unity with the management team.

The president urged the management to encourage a two- way communication, encourage labour and share ideas before formulating policies, adding that cooperation should be embraced as business does not thrive in an uncertain environment.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune, he promised that IBEDC staff was poised for the best to realise the company’s vision of being the best power distribution company in Nigeria, if only the government would assist them by providing the needful.

Speaking on behalf of the Managing Director, Mr John Donnachie, who had to attend to other official duties, the deputy managing director, Mr John Ayodele, an engineer commended the maturity and experience of the union officials.

39

Tuesday, 23 August , 2016 Editor: Ganiyu Salman tribunesporteditor@yahoo.com 08053789060

CAF Champions League:

Enyimba will play for pride against Sundowns –Anaezemba

M

idfielder, Nzube Anaezemba says Enyimba will play for pride today at the Gowon Stadium, Port Harcourt when the team takes on Mamelodi Sundowns in a last group game of the CAF Champions League.

The match remains a formality to the People’s Elephant as Sundowns and Zamalek of Egypt have already grabbed the two semi-final slots in the group.

Sundowns with an unbeaten run in the lucrative group stage, had in the first leg in June in Pretoria clinched a 2-1 victory and a defeat by the Pitso Mosimane men today in the Garden City means little or nothing.

“We have to redeem our image.

Yes there’s nothing at stake but winning this remaining game is the least we can give our fans now.

Enyimba can’t play in the group stages and not win any match. It’s not possible. Sundowns are a very good team but if they are think-

ing of coming here to beat us, they should forget it,” he told SuperSport.com.

Anaezemba also hopes that a good result in today’s clash can be the adrenaline shot that spurs the club to a good finish this season.

“Winning (today) will help our belief. There’s nothing at stake

except our pride but remember we have our own League matches here to play. We just have to win the game because the more you win games, the more it helps your confidence as a team. Enyimba wins trophies every season and a win on Tuesday will boost us ahead of our remaining games,” he added.

Jay-Jay Okocha’s Foundation holds summer camp

By Niyi Alebuosu Nigerian ex-international footballers, Austin ‘Jay-Jay’ Okocha and his elder brother, Emmanuel

Every student must combine academics with sports —Ogundeyin

By Oluwabunmi Ajayi The principal of Aunty Joy Private and Mount Rose High schools, Ibadan, Mrs Morenike Ogundeyin, has emphasised the need for parents to encouarage their wards to combine academics with sports saying the two disciplines are inseparable.

She made the submission while speaking during the sixth interhouse sports of the schools held recently at the Lekan Salami Sta-

dium, Ibadan.

“Sporting activities help children and teenagers to develop both physically and mentally and we shouldn’t expect good educational performances from these teenagers without making them to be engaged actively in sporting activities.

“The other thing we should be mindful of is that God endowed us with different values and skills and when we discover such skills in our children as educators, we

ITTF recognises Quadri’s Rio 2016 feat The scintillating performance of Nigeria’s Aruna Quadri at the just-ended Rio 2016 Olympics has been celebrated as it becomes one of the major highlights listed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF).

In the Rio 2016 Wrap Up published last weekend on the website of the world table tennis ruling body, Aruna was described as the Africa star of Rio. “The Men’s singles event also featured fantastic performances from two players in particular: Hugo Calderano and Quadri Aruna. Calderano made full use of the home crowd advantage as the

Enyimba’s Nzube Anaezemba (front) in an aerial contest with Sundowns’ Themba Zwane during the first leg tie in Pretoria.

Brazilian negotiated the likes of Par Gerell and Tang Peng on his way to a round four finish,” ITTF said.

The body added: “Nigerian contestant Aruna Quadri caused arguably the biggest upsets in the category as the 27th seed beat Chuang Chih-Yuan (6th) and Timo Boll (10th) before eventually exiting to Ma Long in the last eight – becoming the first African to reach that stage of an Olympic Table Tennis competition.”

Quadri had declared after his feat in Rio that: “This is amazing, I don’t know what to say. My fans made me do this. Thank you for all

the Brazilian spectators for their support. They gave me so much energy. This feels so good, it is a dream come true.”

Also, the Women’s Singles tournament at Rio 2016 saw China’s Ding Ning win her first ever Olympic singles gold medal, after her victory over the London 2012 champion Li Xiaoxia (China).

Both finalists brought their ‘A’ game as two of the world’s top competitors fought it out for the ultimate prize, but there could only be one winner and it was Ding who took it in the seventh game to seal the gold (11-9, 5-11, 14-12, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7, 11-7).

always encourage parents to support them to pursue the talents.

“No one knows what the future has in store and if one downplays his talent by placing too much emphasis on education, it will be incomplete. We find out some pupils don’t do well academically but when it comes to sport, they always perform brilliantly, so we need to encourage these teenagers to combine academics with sports effectively,” Ogundeyin stated.

In his remarks on the occasion, Chief Demola Ojo, urged the Federal Government to render more support to the development of sports in the country, adding that Nigeria is blessed with a lot of talents who can become international stars in the near future if adequately motivated.

Meanwhile, Red House won the competition with 167 points as Green House finished second with 150 points, while Yellow House with 148 points and Blue House with 109 points placed third and fourth respectively at the primary school level.

Purple House won the Mount Rose meet as Red House came second, while Yellow House and Green House finished third and fourth respectively.

Okocha last month launched the ‘Jay-Jay’ Okocha foundation, a non-profit organisation aimed at using football to raise awareness on the strategic importance of Education, Peace and Unity for the economic growth of Nigeria.

In a bid to further achieve the objective of the foundation, a twoday summer camp was organised in partnership with ‘I Am The Future Nigeria’ a non-profit organisation known for their “Book A Shelf Campaign” which is aimed at ensuring schools, communities, public libraries, less priviledged students etc have access to as many books as possible.

The initiative which is a brainchild of Reene and Zara Okocha provided books as well as other educational kits for participants of the summer camp The summer camp which was organised for young and the less privileged football players took place at the Internally Displaced People (IDP)’s Camp at Kuchigoro, Abuja.

Campers received tactical soccer training, self-development training and educational training during their stay at the camp. The JayJay Okocha Foundation alongside their partners also donated materials such as food items, educational kits and sports kits to the IDP Camp.

The event was rounded off with ‘Jay-Jay’ Okocha celebrating his 43rd birthday with children at the IDP camp. The former Nigerian Skipper on his birthday engaged in a soccer game with some of the children in the camp.

SIDELINES

NO 16,573

TUESDAY, 23 AUGUST, 2016

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A 19-year-old undergraduate now in custody for allegedly stabbing his pregnant girlfriend in Ibadan, Oyo State, said he derived the idea through Google, as one of ways of getting rid of an unwanted pregnancy. But did the suspect ask Google what punishment awaits anyone who kills? Again, why couldn’t he have asked Google for options to generate legitimate income and become a responsible father, even as a student?

Members of Nigeria’s Dream Team led by Mikel Obi (right) and Williams Troost- Ekong (left) celebrate the bronze medal they won at the just-ended Rio Olympics.

NFF protests to CAF over Eaglets’ treatment in Niamey

Our gold at Sydney Olympics without national anthem painful —Udo-Obong

By Ganiyu Salman

O

LYMPICS gold medallist, Enefiok Udo-Obong, has said the inability to play the national anthem for him and three others when they won the gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympics remains a source of worry to him.

Udo-Obong, the late Sunday Bada, Jude Monye and Clement Chukwu, it will be recalled, were awarded gold medal 12 years later by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), after the United States of America which finished first in the men’s 4x400m was stripped of the medal following the late Antonio Pettigrew’s confession of having taken performance enhancing drugs at the time of the Games.

“Yes, everybody was happy that we won the gold at the end of it all, but it was

Udo-Obong

painful that our national anthem was not sung because on the podium, what we got was a silver medal before justice brought gold to us.

“So, it came with a mixed feelings, of being cheated in the first instance and being awarded the medal you deserved which is the gold, but it would have been something more satisfying if it had happened right there. Our national anthem would have been sung and you feel higher on the podium,” he said.

The former international athlete while speaking on a local television sports programme against the backdrop of Team Nigeria’s unimpressive performance at

the just-ended Rio Olympics also lamented lack of investment by the Federal Government as one of the major factors affecting the growth of sports in Nigeria.

He said the case of the Great Britain at the justended Rio 2016 was enough illustration to trace the misfortune of Nigeria on the global sports scene.

“This issue (poor Olympics performance) is beyond the leadership or the abilities of our sport federations chairmen. We have to go down and trace the root which boils down to funding. In 1996 we finished 32nd on the medal’s table with two gold, one

silver and three bronze medals while Great Britain finished 36th with only a gold medal (eight silver and six bronze medals.)

“From 1996, Great Britain invested £5million in sports annually until at Sydney 2000 Olympics when they increased it to £254 million till London 2012 annually. Between 2012 and Rio 2016, they invested £354million in sports annually and they came second on the table at Rio 2016 with 27 gold, 23 silver and 17 bronze medals. This is so because of the huge government’s investment in sports since then.

“If we have invested a lot of money too in sports even as half as that, we would have im-

proved. We were 32nd in 1996 and now 78th in 2016,” said Udo-Obong.

The 2004 Athens Olympics bronze medallist noted that the running of sports in the country leaves much to be desired.

“To me, the biggest error we are making in Nigeria is that sports is being run by the ministry which depends on the money released through the budget. Let the sport federations be answerable to the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and leave the sports ministry to face policy formulation. The system of having to rely on the ministry to run sports through the permanent secretary is not helping matters, the bureaucracy is not the best for our sports,” he said.

THE Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has lodged an official complaint to the Confederation of African Football (CAF), over the poor officiating and treatment the Golden Eaglets received during last weekend’s U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier in Niamey.

Last Saturday, the Junior Menas of Niger Republic caused a major upset in football when they eliminated five-time world champions, Nigeria’s Golden Eaglets 3-2 on aggregate to advance to the next round of the U-17 AFCON qualifiers.

NFF general secretary, Dr Mohammed Sanusi said the officiating left much to be desired and everything was done to frustrate the Nigerian team to Niamey.

“I’m personally worried and the Nigeria Football Federation is worried and we are going to lay an official complaint,” said Sanusi.

“There was more to what we saw here in Niamey from these officials. This, I believe, was why they seized our camera. Look at the penalty awarded against us by the referee; where did that come from? There was nothing close to being a penalty kick in that situation.

“Even the free kick that was given during the prolonged time-added-on time was strange. The referee was making foul calls on all the moves we made.

I have never seen this kind of humiliation and officiating.”

Pinnick should resign now —Ex-NFF chieftain FOLLOWING a growing list of failures, president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Mr Amaju Pinnick has been asked to quit or face impeachment and if all these failed, Nigerians should chase out the entire NFF executive committee.

Former NFF disciplinary committee vice-

chairman Iyke Igbokwe told AfricanFootball. com that Pinnick should resign honourably.

In March, Nigeria failed to qualify for a second straight AFCON. Last month, the country’s U-20 team, the Flying Eagles, also failed to qualify for the U20 AFCON in Zambia, before last weekend, the Golden

Eaglets crashed out of the qualifiers for the U-17 AFCON. “He should resign as NFF president by the next 24 hours. And if he failed to do so, the executive committee should impeach him and where they too fail to do so, Nigerians should rise up and chase them away.

“All our teams will not

be in action in Africa next year - the Super Eagles, the Flying Eagles and now the Golden Eaglets. He dded: “When the Flying Eagles crashed out, the first vicepresident (Seyi Akinwunmi) apologised on behalf of the board.

“Should we continue to accept apologies from these people? No. We should chase them out.”

Pinnick

Printed and Published by the African Newspapers of Nigeria PLC, Imalefalafia Street, Oke-Ado, Ibadan. E mail: editornigeriantribune@yahoo.com Website: www.tribuneonlineng.com MANAGING DIRECTOR / EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: EDWARD DICKSON. EDITOR: DEBO ABDULAI. All Correspondence to P.O. Box 78, Ibadan. ISSN 2712. ABC Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulation. 23/8/2016.