31st October 2016

NIGERIA’S MOST INFORMATIVE NEWSPAPER NO 16,622 MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER, 2016 www.tribuneonlineng.com

TODAY'S SPECIAL

Health benefits of onions

ONIONS, like garlic, are members of the Allium family and both are rich in sulphur-containing compounds that are responsible for their pungent odours and for many of their health-promoting effects.

A wide variety of allyl sulphides are found in onion, including the four major diallyl sulphides: DMS (diallyl monosulphide), DDS (diallyl disulphide), DTS (diallyl trisulphide), and DTTS (diallyl tetrasulphide).

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Police arrest 20 Troops foil suicide students over bomber's attempt on school protest Bakassi IDP camp in Oyo —P33 —P6

NJC reviews code of conduct for judges, others Continues pg4

•Bans judges from joining lawyers' social groups —P2 •Restricts exchange of gifts to festive seasons •Prohibits political participation, debates •DSS clears Onnoghen as new CJN We've brought down 32-inch Effurun-Otor delivery line, militants claim —P38

No political prisoners during my administration —Jonathan —P38

31-year-old drowns during police raid in Ogun —P7

From right, Niger State governor, Abubakar Sani Bello, the new Emir of Borgu Kingdom, Alhaji Sani Haliru Dantoro and the Chief Judge of Niger State, Justice Maria Sanda Zukogi, during the installation and presentation of staff of office to the Emir, at the Parade Ground, New Bussa, on Saturday. PHOTO: WALE OJO-LANRE.

PRESIDENCY SAYS:

Buhari would never authorise inducement of any judge —P2

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Buhari would never authorise inducement of any judge —Presidency Clement Idoko -Abuja

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R E S I D E N T Muhammadu Buhari has been described as the last person that would authorise anybody to induce a judge to pervert the course of justice.

The Presidency, in a statement on Sunday, denied any link between President Buhari, judges arrested over alleged corruption and ministers said to have attempted to influence judgments to take some of the governorship elections for the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Malam Garba Shehu, who signed the statement, advised journalists

and other Nigerians to stop linking President Buhari to the legal travails of the affected judges.

It is recalled that Justice Sylvester Ngwuta of the Supreme Court, one of those arrested by the DSS earlier in the month, had alleged in a letter to the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) that “in that report, I told you my Lord that Mr (Rotimi) Amaechi said the President of Nigeria and the All Progressives Congress mandated him to inform me that they must win their election appeals in Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Abia states at all costs.”

Similar to the allegation

by Ngwuta, Justice Inyang Okoro, in his own letter, added that Amaechi had impressed it upon him that

the president was interested in the judgment of the Supreme Court going in favour of the APC. Shehu Garba, in the statement, however, said President Buhari would be the last person to authorise anybody to induce a judge to pervert the course of justice for him or the party.

He recalled that despite his personal familiarity with some

court judges, the president had never used that to seek favours from them when he was challenging the fairness of the presidential election results, from the lowest to the highest courts in the land, in 2003, 2007 and 2011.

The president’s aide also explained that as a politician, Buhari had never for once suggested to his lawyers to approach any judge for

assistance to win his cases, adding that the president lives by this principle and had never deviated from it.

On the fate of the judges facing corruption allegations, Mallam Shehu said the president did not tell the courts how to do their jobs, adding that anybody accused of corruption was protected by law to defend his innocence.

He explained that the

purpose of the law was to punish the guilty and acquit the innocent, noting that the law protected the rights of everyone.

Malam Garba Shehu said the president did not have any powers to force any court to convict anybody who was innocent, arguing that in a democratic society, that could not happen without resistance by the people.

Group condemns protest by Oyo students

By Yejide Gbenga-Ogundare

A socio-cultural group, Oyo Development Initiative, has urged the Oyo State government not to treat the recent protest by secondary schools students in the state with kid gloves, saying that strict measures should be taken to prevent future occurrence.

The organisation, in a statement signed by its coordinator, Dr Adesola Okanlawon, at the weekend, stated that corrective measures like making the affected students undergo counseling sessions in order to re-orientate them would go a long way beyond the closure of schools and apologies from the affected schools.

Okanlawon said the group condemned the actions of the students, who had turned themselves to arsonists, stressing that their parents should also be factored into whatever punishment and measures the government would take to avert future occurrence.

“It is sad that we now have touts in school uniforms.

The action of the students is rather unfortunate and all hands must be on deck to deal with the situation.

“Even, students of higher institutions rarely destroy government properties during their ‘Aluta’ days. One now wonders what students of secondary schools have turned into?

“It would be recalled that the state government asked students, teachers and the principals of the school who participated in a protest in May to officially apologise for their unwarranted actions.

The government’s statement was greeted with so much resistance with many querying why the government needed the teachers, students and principal’s apologies.

“There were arguments for and against the apology and many of those who were against the apologies were oblivious of the level of rot

in the education sector in the state. No doubt, the recent protest by some students over the no automatic promotion policy of the government has justified the decision of the government. It is now obvious that our secondary schools breed thugs in uniform,” Dr Okanlawon noted.

From left, former vice president and chieftain of All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar; Governors Mohammed Abubakar (Bauchi); Badaru Abubakar (Jigawa) and Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), at the 50th birthday celebration of the national organising secretary of APC, Senator Osita Izunaso, at International Conference Centre, Abuja, on Sunday.

NJC bans judges from lawyers’ social union, groups •Restricts exchange of gifts to festive seasons •Seeks more power for CJN •DSS clears Onnoghen as new CJN Lanre Adewole -Lagos JUDGES have been expressly banned from belonging to the same social union or group with lawyers, as the National Judicial Council (NJC) is set to combat corruption in the Bench.

Close social relations between the bar and bench has been fingered as one of the key planks promoting corruption in the justice sector.

The council has also limited exchange of goodwill by way of gifts between both parties.

About eight Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) are being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged transfer of huge cash into bank accounts of some judges being probed for alleged corruption.

Some of the senior lawyers were quizzed last week at Lagos office of the anticorruption agency, while four were reportedly pencilled in for questioning this week.

The huge transfers, according to the agency, were suspicious and being probed for allegedly being gratification and inducement to pervert the course of justice.

The lawyers have denied the allegations, with a couple saying that they were mere social gifts.

A senior advocate who is being linked to the probe

(names withheld) told the Nigerian Tribune that the money he sent to a judge was a gift to support him when he buried his mother.

He claimed that as a lawyer, he had also received such gift from judges.

Two senior lawyers had been arraigned by the anti-corruption agency for such transfers to a judge’s account.

EFCC, in a statement, said it was probing eight judges and two court registrars for alleged corruption.

NJC imposed the new ban in its Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers, signed by the outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Mahmud Mohammed and council secretary, Danladi Halilu.

In the don’ts for judicial officers nationwide, adumbrated in the new code, the council said: “A judge shall not belong to a social union or group where lawyers who appear before him or her are also members.

“A judge shall not accept gifts from a lawyer who might appear in a case before him, if the gift is not one given to judges generally at festive seasons such as Christmas or Sallah; provided always that the gift is not more than that ordinarily given or is not of pecuniary nature.

“A judge shall avoid developing excessively close relationship with frequent litigant - such as government

ministers or their officials, municipal officials, police prosecutors in any court where the judge often sits, if such relationship could reasonably create an appearance of partiality.

“A judge shall not engage in gambling as a leisure activity.”

Regarding handling of statutory duties, the code stated that: “A judicial officer shall ensure strict compliance with the provisions of the Constitution, which require that a copy of judgement of the superior court of record be given to parties in the cause within seven days of the delivery therefore.

“A judge shall not enter the political arena or participate in public debates, and must adhere strictly to political silence. The convention of political silence requires the judge concerned not to ordinarily reply to public statement. Although the right to criticise a judge is subject to the rules relating to contempt, these are not to be invoked today to suppress or punish criticism of the judiciary or of a particular judge. The better and wiser course is to ignore any scandalous attack or criticism outside the court room rather than to exacerbate the publicity by initiating proceedings”.

“A judicial officer shall not take or accept any chieftaincy title while in office.

“A judicial officer should

regulate his travels within and outside Nigeria so as not to affect his judicial duties or cause delay in the administration of justice or detrimentally affect his performance or the overall performance of the judiciary. Travels outside Nigeria should be with the permission of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, after such application has been made.”

Meanwhile, in the recentlylaunched National Judicial Policy, the council is seeking a wider power for the CJN as the new policy goes into execution mode.

“The policy recognises the importance of the office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the role of the CJN to maintain standards and coordinating efficiency of the system of justice throughout Nigeria.

“The policy considers that the important role of the Chief Justice and public perception of what role entails have not been sufficiently captured, both in the constitution and by statute. Consequently, the policy should seek a clearer and wider definition of the powers of the Chief Justice of Nigeria than hitherto.”

Nigerian Tribune can also report a growing tension within the system as Justice Mohammed holds his valedictory council meeting as NJC chairman on Wednesday and Thursday.

While the first day of the two-day meeting is usually

for appointments and other issues, the second day is reserved for consideration of sanction for judges.

NJC is probing seven judges for sundry alleged unethical conducts.

The judges are Justices I.A Kasali, M.A Savage and D.O Oluwayemi of the Lagos High Court.

Others are Justices V.N. Agbata of Anambra High Court, U. Ononogbo of Abia High Court, Nnamdi Dimgba of the Federal High Court and Umar Nasir Gumi of Zamfara High Court.

As Justice Mohammed bows out in 11 days from today, Nigerian Tribune gathered that the Department of Security Service (DSS) has cleared Justice Walter Onnoghen as the new CJN. The security clearance is crucial to his appointment.

NJC has forwarded its recommendation of him as Mohammed’s successorin-office to President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the appointing authority.

Buhari will still have to send his name to the Senate for confirmation, before his swearing-in by the president.

As of press time, the council was yet to receive any feedback from the president on either his acceptance or rejection as is customary.

It could not also be confirmed if the president had also nominated him to the Senate.

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Health benefits of onions Continued from front page

Also present are a wide variety of sulphoxides, including (+) S-methyl-L-cysteine sulphoxide (MCSO), (+)-S-(1propenyl)-L-cysteine sulphoxide (PRENCSO), S-methyll-cysteine sulphoxide, S-propyl-l-cysteine sulphoxide, and S-propenyl-l-cysteine sulphoxide. Onions are an outstanding source of polyphenols, including the flavonoid polyphenols. Within this flavonoid category, onions are a standout source of quercetin.

Cardiovascular benefits In animal studies, there is evidence that onion’s sulphur compounds may work in an anti-clotting capacity and help prevent the unwanted clumping together of blood platelet cells. There is also evidence showing that sulphur compounds in onion can lower blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides, and also improve cell membrane function in red blood cells.

In human studies, most of the cardiovascular benefits have been demonstrated in the form of overall diet.

Multiple studies show onion to be a food that provides protection for the heart and blood vessels when consumed in a diet that is rich in other vegetables and fruits — especially flavonoid-containing vegetables and fruits. The benefits of onion in this overall dietary context extend to prevention of heart attack. In virtually all of these diet-based studies, participants with the greatest intake of vegetables (including onions) gain the most protection.

Support for bone and connective tissue Human studies have shown that onion can help increase bone density and may be of special benefit to women of menopausal age who are experiencing loss of bone density. In addition, there is evidence that women who have passed the age of menopause may be able to lower their risk of hip fracture through frequent consumption of onions. “Frequent” in this context means onion consumption on a daily basis!

Anti-inflammatory benefits While onion is not as well researched as garlic in terms of specific inflammatory health problems like rheumatoid arthritis or allergic airway inflammation, this allium vegetable has nevertheless been shown to provide important anti-inflammatory benefits. Onionin A — a unique sulphur molecule in onion that is found in the bulb portion of the plant — has been shown to inhibit the activity of macrophages, specialised white blood cells that play a key role in our body’s immune defense system and one of their defense activities involves the triggering of large-scale inflammatory responses. While macrophage activity is typically a good thing, inhibition of their activity can sometimes be critical in getting chronic unwanted inflammation under control.

Cancer protection Onion has repeatedly been shown to lower risk of several cancers, even when we consume it in only moderate amounts.

“Moderate” generally means one to two times per week, even though in some studies, it has been used to mean up to five to six times per week. Colorectal cancer, laryngeal cancer, and ovarian cancer are the cancer types for which risk is reduced along with moderate amounts of dietary onion. For other cancer types, however, moderate intake of onion has not been enough to show significant risk reduction. For these cancer types — including esophageal cancer and cancers of the mouth — daily intake of onion is required before research results show significant risk reduction.

Other health benefits In animal studies, onions have shown potential for improvement of blood sugar balance, though it is not yet clear about the carry over of these benefits for humans who are seeking better blood sugar balance from their diet. Most of the animal studies have been conducted on rats and most have used onion juice or onion extract as the form of onion tested. Future research is needed to clarify onion’s potential for helping lower blood sugar and improving blood sugar control, especially in persons with blood sugar problems.

While not as well researched as garlic in terms of antibacterial benefits, onion has nevertheless been shown to help prevent bacterial infection.

Along with its sulphur-containing compounds, the flavonoid quercetin contained in onion helps provide these antibacterial benefits. We’ve seen studies showing antibacterial activity of onion in relationship to the bacteria Streptococcus mutans and Streptococcus sobrinus. (These bacteria are commonly involved in the production of tooth cavities).

Antibacterial benefits have also been shown in the area of gum (periodontal) disease bacteria, including Porphyromonas gingivalis and Prevotella intermedia. Interestingly, in one study, fresh, chopped, uncooked onion had antibacterial effects on these potentially unwanted gum bacteria, but non-fresh, uncooked onion (raw onion that was chopped and then left to sit for two days at room temperature) did not demonstrate these same antibacterial properties nor did fresh onion that was grated and then steamed for 10 minutes. www.whfoods.com

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

Metro...

Nigerian Tribune

crime, security, court Police arrest 7 suspected armed robbers, 4 kidnappers Adelowo Oladipo - Minna

Demolishing of illegal structures built on drainage at Police Barrack, Dodan Barrack, Obalende, during the monthly environmental sanitation monitoring and evaluation of areas in Lagos with environmental problems by the Lagos State Ministry of Environment, on Saturday, in Lagos. PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA.

COAS orders investigation into killing of bride’s mother in Delta Ebenezer Adurokiya - Warri

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IX months after she was hacked down by a soldier from 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army, Effurun, Delta State, the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lieutenant-General Tukur Yusuf Buratai, has ordered investigation into the extrajudicial killing of Mrs Alice Akparobi.

The investigation, according to a letter signed from the Nigerian Army Corps of Military Force, Abuja and signed by Commander K.C. Okoro, is to be carried out by the Army Special Investigation Bureau.

Akparobi, a judiciary staff in her early 50s, Metro gathered, was on her way to her eldest daughter’s house to dress up for her last daughter’s wedding on the morning of Saturday, April 30, when the tricycle she boarded was stopped.

It was learnt that she was subsequently stabbed to death by one of the soldiers manning a roadblock at Jakpa junction from the back of the commercial tricycle.

The soldiers, who were allegedly said to have been newly deployed from the North to the state at the time of the incident, accused the tricycle driver of violating the monthly

environmental sanitation exercise that was being observed that day.

The COAS, in the directive, also ordered the investigation into the shooting of one Mr Shedrack Saduwa, aged 18.

Saduwa, a carpenter, was hit in the abdomen while returning from work and was admitted at the Bryant Hospital for three months for multiple gun injuries before he was discharged as an outpatient.

The two incidents had prompted the law firm of IKIMI OGHENEJABOR & CO., located in Udu, Udu Local Government Area to petition the National Human Rights Commission to

order an investigation into the incidents.

Metro gathered that the authorities of 3 Battalion, Nigerian Army had earlier visited the family of Mrs Akparobi to commiserate with members who rejected some money they were allegedly given for the burial of the deceased.

Coordinator of the Centre for the Vulnerable and the Underprivileged (Centrep), Oghenejabor Ikimi, whose counsel for the two cases called on the COAS to ensure a thorough investigation into the incidents, with a view to bringing the trigger-happy soldiers to book to serve as a deterrent to others.

Kaduna Council cashier bags 10 years imprisonment for money laundering THE Federal High Court sitting in Kaduna, presided over by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, on Thursday, October 27, convicted one Aminu Ya’u, a former cashier of Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State for money laundering.

This was contained in a statement signed by Head, Media and Publicity,

EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, which further stated that the court found the accused guilty on two-count charge of money laundering and sentencing him to five years imprisonment on each count.

However, following the plea for mercy by his counsel, D.G. La’ah and submissions of the pros-

ecution counsel, M. S. Abubakar that the court should be guided by the recently enacted sentencing guidelines, the judge directed that the effective date of the sentence should be July 2012, when the convict was first arraigned before the court.

Ya ‘u was accused of running private business en-

terprise in the name and style of YUZAFA Global Link, through which he executed contracts in the local government area and deployed the proceeds for the acquisition of choice properties in Zaria, Kaduna State and establishment of a bakery, block industry and sachet water factory, among others.

THE police in Niger State, have confirmed the arrests of seven suspected armed robbers and four suspected kidnappers at different locations across the state within the months of August and September this year.

The command also disclosed that it had arrested and prosecuted one person for (gun-running), three suspected rapists, one suspected homosexual and four others over allegations of shop-breaking and theft within these months.

This was contained in a press statement by the command’s Public Relations Officer, DSP Bala Elkana, a copy of which was obtained over the weekend by Metro in Minna, the Niger State capital.

Elkana, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) said, one Ali, Samsu and Mubarak (surnames withheld) were arrested at Sabon Gari Rijau in Rijau Local Government Area of the state over allegation of armed robbery on October 8.

The release stated further that the suspects allegedly robbed one Mohammed and Hassan (surnames withheld) of Jagaba village within the said local government of the sum of fN500,000.00.

The statement said the police arrested the suspects following a tip-off and that they had since confessed to the crime during investigation.

The sum of 328,000 was said to have been found on the suspects.

In a related development, Elkana said police operatives attached to the command also arrested one Kabiru Lawal of Lambata village in Gurara Local Government of the state alongside one Lawal Audu, Ibrahim Rabiu and Yunusa Adamu along railway crossing nipping point on Maikunlele Road within Minna town, while travelling in a Nissan Primera with registration number AV.198ABC on September 1.

The release stated further that the police recovered one AK47 rifle loaded with six rounds of live ammunition and one Lar riffle with 11 rounds of live ammunition, respectively from the suspects among other dan-

gerous weapons and communication gadgets.

According to the police image maker, the suspects had allegedly confessed to have robbed on Beji-Zungeru Road.

On the kidnappers, he said some police operatives also intercepted a gang of kidnappers who were on arms, purchasing mission on October 22.

The statement said during gun battle between men of the command and the suspected kidnappers, one Harande was fatally wounded, while Ahmed (surnames withheld) was arrested.

It said some riffles and the sum of N1 million were recovered from the suspects.

Oyo: Police arrest 20 students over protests

By Wale Akinselure

OVER 20 suspects have been arrested in connection with last week’s violent protests against the Oyo State government’s cancellation of automatic promotion in public schools, the state police command has disclosed.

The protests were reported to have hit its height when some students of Isale-Oyo Community High School, Oyo town, reportedly torched some classrooms over mass failure in their examination.

Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, Adekunle Ajisebutu, who made this disclosure while speaking with Metro, assured that the arrested persons, instigators or sponsors, upon conviction, would be charged to court.

He added that the majority of the arrested suspects were students who had been transferred to Department of Criminal Investigation and Intelligence, Iyaganku.

“We have arrested over 20 suspects. We won’t spare their sponsors or instigators. Anyone of them indicted will be arrested and prosecuted. It is not unlikely that some individuals or group of individuals may want to disrupt academic activities in those schools,” he said.

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Nigerian Tribune

Edited By Oluwatoyin Malik

08116954633, 08078891950 e-mail: tribunecrimedesk@gmail.com

Gun duel with police claims 3 in Warri Ebenezer Adurokiya - Warri

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HREE robbery suspects fell to the superior fire power of the police during a gun duel last Sunday in Warri, Delta State.

Metro gathered that operatives of the Anti-Robbery Squad from A-Division under the Warri Area Command, received a distress call that robbers were operating somewhere on the Warri/Sapele Road.

The robbery suspects, a witness said, had earlier robbed one Ozeiro Frederick, at his Infinity Bar & Restaurant situated on No 4, Ighogbadu Road, Warri.

Ozeiro was said to have been robbed at around 2.00 p.m. before the police received a distress call at 3.30 p.m.

The sum of N300, 000, three handsets and other valuables were allegedly collected from the hotelier at gun point.

After the successful operation at the bar, the three robbery suspects, who used a tricycle for the operation, fled.

But the victim, with an unusual courage, Metro gathered, entered his ve-

Felled robbery suspects and items recovered from them.

hicle and traced them to Agbassa junction, between Warri/Sapele Road.

It was when the victim was at Agbassa junction that he was said to have alerted men of the anti-robbery squad, who gave the suspects a hot chase and a gun duel ensued, leading to the death of two, while the third escaped.

A senior police source, who declined identification

20-year-old truck driver diverts, steals N3.8m worth of beer A 20-year-old driver, Adebayo (surname withheld), who allegedly stole 10 pallets of big Stout valued at N3.8 million from Cryslad Group of Companies, a haulage company, was on Tuesday granted temporary freedom as he was granted N3.8 million bail.

An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court which gave the ruling, also granted the accused two sureties as part of the bail condition.

The Magistrate, Mr T.O. Shomade, said the sureties must be gainfully employed and also show evidence of two years’ tax payment to the Lagos State govern-

Cleric rearraigned over alleged child defilement THE police in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), on Tuesday, re-arraigned a cleric, Reverend Father Anthony Ochigbo, charged with defilement of a 10-year-old girl.

Ochigbo appeared before a FCT High Court in Maitama, where Justice Hussein Baba-Yusuf adopted the bail conditions previously given him.

The rearraignment was due to the transfer of the case to Baba-Yusuf from Justice Olukayode Adeniyi.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Ochigbo was arraigned before Adeniyi on August 30 during court vacation.

NAN also reported that Adeniyi granted the cleric bail in the sum of N2 million naira and two sureties, who must be on Grade

Level 14 and above in public service.

The prosecution counsel, Mr John Ijagbemi, submitted on Tuesday that 44-yearold Ochigbo of the Catholic Church of Assumption, Asokoro, Abuja, sexually

abused the girl on August 15.

He said that Ochigbo had unlawful sexual intercourse with the child in the church, in contravention of the provisions of Section 31(1) of the Child Rights Act, 2003, and punishable under Sections

32(2) of the Act. Ochigbo, however, pleaded not guilty.

His counsel, Chief Kanu Agabi applied for his bail and prayed the court to allow him continue on the existing bail conditions.

7 killed in Ondo road accident Hakeem Gbadamosi - Akure

NO fewer than seven people lost their lives in a road accident in Anurin village on the Akure-Owo Road in Ondo State, while 13 others were seriously injured.

The accident which involved a Peugeot J5 with registration number BKK 424XA and a truck belonging to the Nigerian Army with registration number NA 1087 BO5.

An eyewitness stated that

the accident was caused as a result of reckless driving on the part of the J5 driver who was on top speed and the driver of the truck who failed to observe the traffic rules on vehicles which broke down on the road.

He explained that the accident which occurred about 2.00 a.m. was caused by the Nigerian Army truck which broke down on the road and the J5 rammed into it in the middle of the night.

The eyewitness stated that

the seven victims died on the spot, while other surviving victims were taken to the hospital.

Confirming the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Femi Joseph, said the accident occurred as a result of reckless driving on the part of the vehicles that were involved and said that the command had not been able to know the identity of the victims involved in the accident.

because he was not authorised to speak to the media, said one cut-to-size pistol, the tricycle used by the suspects, one live cartridge and two expended cartridges were recovered from hoodlums.

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Celestina Kalu, could not be reached for confirmation as she was said to be on vacation.

Objecting, Ijagbemi submitted that the cleric was rearraigned, and the court could give fresh bail conditions.

The case had been adjourned till January 31 for substantive trial.

Joseph confirmed that the accident occurred at about 2.00 a.m. on Tuesday, saying “the army truck, driven by one Sergeant Ashima Abdullahi broke down and parked beside the road when the bus rammed into it at that midnight.”

He, however, said the remains of the victims had been deposited at the morgue of the Federal Medical Centre, Owo, while the injured were also receiving treatment at the hospital.

ment.

Adebayo, who pleaded not guilty to a two-count charge of conspiracy and stealing, resides at Agege area of Lagos.

The prosecutor, Inspector Raji Akeem, told the court that the accused and some others now at large, committed the offences on October 10 at Guinness Nigeria Plc, Ikeja.

He alleged that the accused was directed to deliver 10 pallets of big Stout to a customer, but diverted them to another location.

Akeem said when the customer did not get the beer, she called the company and was told that they had been delivered to her warehouse.

“When the company interrogated the driver, he told them that the customer told him to drop the goods at an open field close to their warehouse.

“It was later discovered that the driver had planned with some other people to steal the 10 pallets of Stout.

“The driver was apprehended and taken to the police, while his co-conspirators are still at large,” he said.

The offences contravened Sections 285 and 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Section 285 prescribes a three-year jail term for stealing, while Section 409 stipulated two years imprisonment for conspiracy.

The case was adjourned till November 14 for trial.

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DEBT MANAGEMENT OFFICE NIGERIA

Federal Government’s Medium-Term (Rolling) External Borrowing Plan (2016-2018): Correction of the Vanguard Newspaper’s Misleading Report

The front page report in the Vanguard newspaper of October 27, 2016 on the submission of the Medium-Term (Rolling) External Borrowing Plan by Mr. President to the National Assembly was mixed up with the statements in the country’s Debt Sustainability Analysis (DSA) Report, which was concluded and published since September 2016. The newspaper report is a misleading misinterpretation of the correct state of affairs.

The true position is as follows: 1. The recommendation in the DSA report was published as far back as September 2016: it was not released this October as claimed by the Vanguard newspaper.

2. The Medium-Term (Rolling) External Borrowing Plan presented to the National Assembly

by Mr. President is for 3 years (2016-2018). It is NOT the planned borrowing for only one year.

3. On the other hand, based on the sustainability analysis it was estimated that for 2017, Nigeria could borrow up to USD22 billion, mainly from relatively cheap external sources, to fund its various priority infrastructure projects, whilst still remaining below the acceptable limit for a country with our characteristics.

4. The submission to the National Assembly for a planned borrowing of USD29 billion for 3 years (2016, 2017 and 2018), which works out to an average of about USD10 billion per year, is much lower than the USD22 billion, which the DSA report established as acceptable for only one year (2017).

Therefore, the Federal Government is clearly exercising utmost caution and prudence in its borrowing plans− in spite of the obvious need to mobilise maximum resources to address the country’s longstanding huge infrastructure deficit.

Debt Management Office THE PRESIDENCY Plot 447/448 Constitution Avenue Central Business District P.M.B. 532, Garki, Abuja – Nigeria Tel.: +234-811000081-3 Email: enquiries@dmo.gov.ng Website: www.dmo.gov.ng

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businessnews

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Alleged N200bn insurance scam: Reps summon Customs DG, others •Vow to recall retired top civil servants •Contact CAC for details of companies, promoters Jacob Segun Olatunji and Kolawole Daniel -Abuja

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ETERMINED to unravel the alleged massive sharp practices by some insurance Companies handling insurance policy for Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs of the Federal Government, the House of Representatives has summoned the Controller General (CG) of the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Col Ibrahim Ali (rtd) to appear before its Ad-hoc Committee on Insurance proving the mishandling of transactions between 2013 and 2105.

The Committee headed

by Hon Adekunle Akinlade gave the order at the weekend following the failure of the NCS to furnish it with details of its insurance transactions between 2013 and 2105 despite receiving official correspondences from the Committee before the commencement of the investigation.

The Committee also sent warning signals to all the Chief Executive Officers, CEOs, of the Insurance Companies that were yet to respond to its summon to do so immediately or risk being arrested by Security Agencies in line with the provisions of the land, saying that there would be no hiding place for defaulting Companies as it was no longer business as usual under the new dispensation.

In addition, the Committee made it clear that it would recall all retired Civil servants found culpable in the insurance scam to refund every kobo traced them while those still in the service apart from making refund would be sanctioned in line with the Civil service rules to serve as deterrent to others.

The Chairman of the Committee who vowed that the Committee would leave no stone unturned to unearth the under hand deals between the MDA’S and the insurance firms during the period disclosed that he had already directed the Corporate affairs commission (CAC) to furnish the committee with vital information of all brokerage firms, and their bank accounts in other to get to the root of the matter.

Honourable Akinlade expressed the disappointment of the Committee on how insurance companies deliberately made efforts to confuse it through omission and distortion of facts in their presentations before it.

According to Akinlade, “the issue is that these companies got business con-

sistently just because some people in the MDAs are being paid, we want to know why it is them all the time that only know the job.

“Since the commencement of this investigation, we have sent invitations to the

Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) but they have refused to make submission to the Committee.

“We are summoning the CG of Customs to come and explain why he refused to honour the Committee and

why it engaged services of unlicensed brokers and agents that were over a quarter of a billion naira.

“Many of the insurance companies that have appeared deliberately gave us wrong information thinking

that we can never go to the extent of scrutinising every details in their submissions.

“Having discovered that it is not business as usual, all the Chief Executive Officers are now saying they did not know about the figures

From left, Mojisola Bakare-Asieru, Chairperson, Organizing Committee of Association of Professional Women Bankers (APWB) and General Manager, Corporate Banking Group, Sterling Bank Plc; Professsor Joseph Olusegun Ajibola, President/Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN); Alhaja Sinatu Aderoju Ojikutu, former Lagos State Deputy Governor and Jaiyeola Olaoye, Director General, Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG) at the APWB Forum/Dinner held in Lagos, on Friday.

Recession: Dangote wants govt to grant tax holidays, infrastructures to attract investments •Laments over 100 million Nigerians live below poverty line THE distressing state of the nation’s economy was brought to the fore at the weekend when the renowned business mogul, Aliko Dangote lamented that more than 100 million out of a population of 187 million Nigerians are wallowing in poverty.

Dangote, the President of the pan-African Conglomerate, the Dangote Group, told participants at the Executive Course No. 38, 2016 at the National Institute for Policy & Strategic Studies (NIPPS), Kuru , neaar Jos, Plateau state that the situation was unacceptable to him given Nigeria’s abundant resources Delivering a paper on Promotion of Local Manufacturing and Poverty Reduction In Nigeria: The Private Sector Experience and Policy Options, the foremost entrepreneur lamented “It is a curious paradox that Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer, and the largest economy on the continent, also has one of the highest levels of poverty. It is estimated that more than 100 million out of a population of 187 million Nigerians, live below the poverty line.”

Quoting a United Nations (UN) report, Dangote said youth unemployment rose to 42 percent in 2016 with many graduates combing the streets in major cities such as Lagos, Kano, Abuja and Port Harcourt in search

of often-elusive white-collar jobs while for some who are employed, their situation can best be described as that of under-employment, as they are underutilised and poorly paid.

This development, posited, no doubt, has serious security implications, as evidenced by the high rate of social ills plaguing the nation. “The spate of kidnappings, intermittent vandalism of petroleum pipelines in the Niger Delta, and the protracted insurgency in the North East, are all fuelled, to a large extent, by the high level of endemic poverty in the country.”

Dangote pointed out that the current economic recession has further worsened the situation, as the Govern-

ment continues to record dwindling revenues thus making it increasingly difficult for the Government to fulfil some of its obligations to the people.

“Coupled with this, the activities of insurgents in the North East, have also affected the level of poverty in that part of the country.

It is estimated that there are over 2.4 million Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), in the region. It will take billions of Naira to rebuild the North East and fully re-settle victims of the insurgency.

For a Government that is severely constrained in terms of funds, this, no doubt, is a daunting challenge.”

Explaining the sad state of affairs has been staring the nation in the face for a

while, he attributed the poverty most Nigerians face as a direct consequence of long enshrined inequitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, failure to diversify the economy away from oil, which is the country’s major revenue earner, and widespread corruption that affects efficient allocation of available resources, Dangote, who has advocated the disposal of unprofitable national assets to cushion the effect of the current recession identified other factors that fuel the scourge of poverty to include lack of commitment to the success of various poverty reduction programs, inaccessibility to funds, and poor state of infrastructure in the country, particularly, electricity.

quoted in their documents which the personally signed and submitted to us.

“What they want now is to give us (Committee) new figures because the earlier ones were no longer correct.

We will oblige them but in their new submissions, every cover must be accompanied by relevant documents to prove the authenticity of the new figures”.

In the course of the investigation which started last week, two Insurance companies, Guinea Insurance and Stacco were discovered to have carried out insurance transactions with unregistered broking firms.

While interrogating.

Stacco representative, Shodipe Olanipekun, it was discovered that N290m, N180m,l and N200m were paid to unregistered brokers between 2013 and 2015 as against the provisions of the Insurance Act and NICOM Act. respectively.

Also , Guinea Insurance was equally discovered to have transacted business of about N250m with unlicensed brokers in the period under review.

The CEOs of the two companies however denied being involved in the infractions and maintained that insurance companies have no power to appoint brokers for MDAs to underwrite their covers.

The CEOs also insisted that their companies were not responsible for the figures quoted by the Committee which were the commissions due the brokers.

According to them, the brokers had deducted their commissions before transferring the net sum for the cover in question.

When confronted with the penalties prescribed by law for engaging unlicensed brokers, Stacco Managing Director, Shodipe Olanipekun said it was the duty of Nigerian Insurance Commission (NICOM) to update the industry with comprehensive list of industry players periodically.

KPMG survey reveals 42% Nigerians use internet banking Olatunde Dodondawa -Lagos A leading financial consulting firm, KPMG Consulting, has revealed that 42 per cent of Nigerians uses Internet banking.

The firm revealed this in a survey titled: “KPMG Africa Banking Industry Retail Customer Satisfaction Survey.”

According to the survey, Senior Manager, Management Consulting, KPMG, Bode Abifarin, stated that

despite the fact that there exists 148million mobile telephone subscribers in the country, only 42 per cent of Nigerians still have access to online banking platforms.

“According to our survey, 77 per cent of Nigeria’s banking customers now use social media for personal reasons and 42 per cent said they use online banking platforms for one or more banking activities.

“The problem is that Nigeria’s banks have largely failed to translate this pas-

sion for the internet and social media into increased adoption of internet and mobile banking solutions, introducing these customers to alternative channels should be a top priority for Nigeria’s banks.”

She added that Nigerian banks can start improving internet and mobile banking penetration by improving customer’s experience, reinforcing trust and ensuring accessibility to online platforms.

Furthermore, Partner and

Head, Advisory Services, KPMG, Adebisi Lamikanra, revealed that some customers are still concerned with financial stability while seeking for enhanced high quality service, innovation and greater convenience.

She also explained that findings from the survey showed that the most used channels used by retail customers were the branch and indicated that the report will help to provide benchmarks for Africa’s banking executives.

12

businessnews

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Economic challenges, great opportunity for Nigerian women, says Adeosun

T

HE Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun has challenged Nigerian women to avail themselves of the immense opportunities created by the current economic challenges in the country.

The Minister, who was the keynote speaker at the launch of First Gem, the first female-focused product from First Bank Nigeria Limited, on Friday, in Lagos, said the sheer population of Nigerian women should be an asset to the country in getting out of its economic difficulties.

As the Federal Government actualises its shift of emphasis from oil to other sectors of the economy, the Minister said given the potentials of the Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises to trigger economic rebound, Nigerian women would be expected to use their population strength to take the lead in driving the new agenda.

She stated, “Women count in this economy. Fifty per-

cent of our economy is MSMEs. The majority of them are being driven by women.

Seventy per cent of MSMEs are women-owned. So it is obvious that if you want to get the economy going, you have to target the MSMEs”.

According to the Minister, the activities of small players, especially at the micro level appear quite sustainable.

“The majority of the people who work in Nigeria work for companies or employers

who employ eight persons or less”.

She stressed that entrepreneurs are incredibly important to Nigeria’s growth because they generate the jobs needed to stimulate the economy.

The Minister expressed the happiness that women have already swung into action by producing locally made goods, which used to be imported.

Speaking on the First Bank’s product offer, the

From left, Retail Cluster Head, South-West 2 of First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Limited, Mr. Victor Adejimola; Manager, Ado-Ekiti branch of the bank, Mr. Matthew Ofolue; the Lisa of Akureland, High Chief Raymond Olusoga; one of the winners at the third draws of the “FCMB Millionaire Promo Season 3’’, Mrs. Mary Ikumapayi; the Zonal Head, South-West 1 of FCMB, Mr. Alfred Amubioya, and the Zonal Head, South-West 2, Mr. Olusola Abe, during the regional draws of the promo held in Akure, Ondo State.

Maritime training: Why N3.6bn Nigeria-Turkey MoU collapsed—MAN Tola Adenubi-Lagos THE Acting Rector of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, Mr Mkpadiok N. Mkpadiok has revealed that lack of the much needed N3.6bn counterpart funding on the part of the Nigerian government for the sea-time training of cadets led to the collapse of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the country and the Reiz University in Istanbul, Turkey in 2012.

Speaking to selected maritime newsmen over the weekend in Lagos, Mr. Mkpadiok explained that with no funding in place, the dream of over 400 cadets of the academy getting sea-time training onboard Turkish vessels was dashed.

According to him, “concerning the MoU signed with the Reiz University in Turkey on the training of cadets, you know there is a popular proverb that says ‘even in Freetown, nothing is free’.

“Under the conditions of the MoU signed in 2012, Nigeria was expected to provide a counterpart fund which was about N3.6bn.

We needed over N9m per head for each cadet to embark on the training programme and we had over 400 cadets then.

“So if you multiply that N9m with over 400 cadets

then, we were looking at something around N3.6bn as counterpart funding which Nigeria was expected to provide as part of the agreement of the MoU signed. But the nation never provided that money, thus there was no way we could embarked on that training programme.

“The MoU suffered from lack of implementation because the government could not pay the N3.6bn counterpart funding needed at that time.”

It would be recalled that the former Rector of MAN, Oron, late Joshua Okpo had in 2012 initiated an MoU with the Reiz University in Turkey, where a substantial numbers of

cadets from the academy would have been trained on sea-time navigation while Turkey gets a substantial amount of Nigeria’s cargoes in return.

The MoU which was signed in 2012 and ratified at the International Mari-

time Organisation (IMO) headquarters in 2013 never saw the light of day four years since it was signed.

MAN, Oron, Nigeria’s only maritime institution has continued to churn out thousand of cadets as graduates without most of

Economic revival: Give impetus for made-in-Nigeria goods, NCRIB counsels govt Chukwuma Okparaocha -Lagos THE Insurance Brokers under the aegis of the Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB) has urged government at all levels to give greater impetus to the patronage of

made in Nigeria goods as a way of buoying the nation’s economy.

The President of the Council, Mr. Kayode Okunoren, while applauding the ongoing efforts of government to revive the economy, suggested that policy statements should be made by

Emadeb Energy expands operations, opens retail outlet in Abuja AS part of its growth strategy, Emadeb Energy Services Limited, a Petroleum Products Haulage and Petroleum Products Distribution Company, has ventured into ownership of retail outlets through which it plans to increase earnings.

The Chief Operating Officer of the company, Mrs Kike Ojo-Awosika said in a statement that one of the twenty retail outlets, which the company targeted to build nationwide in the next one to one

them getting the required sea-time training. This has forced many graduates of the academy to roam the streets in search of jobs while others have been conscripted into nefarious activities that include piracy and sea robbery.

Minister admonished women to see First Gem as an opportunity for wealth creation. According to her, ”there is a huge opportunity for import substitution. This product is therefore pushing women out of their comfort zone and must be supported.

Any programme that is going to assist women access all the available resource is important,” she said.

The Minister pointed out that the Bank of Industry (BOI) also has some facilities to assist women entrepreneurs, saying there is no barrier stopping women from accessing such facilities.

She enjoined Nigerian women to key into the N220billion Central Bank’s MSMEs fund, regretting that despite the fact that 62 per cent of the facility is for women, less than 20 per cent of it has been drawn down, as at the last count.

She also challenged women to bid for contracts in order to show their skills and to contribute to nation building. Given the sincerity of the womenfolk, the Minister stated that Nigeria would not be experiencing the problem of abandoned projects if women were given the chance because, “they take their businesses seriously.

“Women don’t steal; women have integrity; women have names to protect. So, I want to see women coming for contracts,” the Minister said.

and a half years subject to the outlook in the downstream sector, would be inaugurated in Abuja on November 4.

She said the decision to build the retail outlets, the significant percentage of which would be sited in Abuja, Lagos and some southern cities, stemmed from “our growth strategy and the commitment to taking our business to the next level, following the commissioning of our ultra modern Tank Farm in February 2014.”

According to her, “prior to now, Emadeb Energy has specialised in the importation, storage and distribution of refined petroleum products, particularly Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), which forms more than 60 percent of the total import in the sector.”

She explained that ownership of retail outlets would enable the company to enjoy economies of scale, which would, in the long run, increase turnover/margins.

top office holders at the three tiers of government urging the people to patronize Nigerian made goods.

He noted for instance, that the comatose textile industry would come to life if there was a sincere pronouncement that workers now had the latitude to wear home-made clothing materials on certain days of the week.

Okunoren who drew examples from other countries that had course to look inwards at some point, said such action would stimulate growth in the various sectors and give life to the economy.

“Definitely, insurance will also witness a boost through this step as more activities would be generated across different sections of the economy. Without an iota of doubt, demand for dollar will naturally crash when demand for local goods is intensify”, he stated.

He, however, called for sincerity on the part of gov-

ernment and the nation’s leaders towards patronizing made-in-Nigeria goods, rather than doing otherwise.

The NCRIB president also urged Nigerians to be more patient with the present administration in fixing the economy through the various prudential steps and the ongoing war against corruption.

Meanwhile, the Council, in giving further impetus to economic revival efforts, has put forth the theme “The Future Today” for its 2016 National Insurance Brokers Conference & Exhibition holding on Thursday, November 10, 2016 in Abuja.

The theme is aimed at galvanizing opinions on the shape and future of Nigerians economy and the roles of the insurance industry.

The Chairman, Organizing Committee, Dr. (Mrs.) Bola Onigbogi stated that the conference would be declared open by the Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo.

13

editorial

A

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

The growing threat to world peace

RGUABLY at no other time since the last days of the Cold War in the late 1980s has the future of the world looked more uncertain.

Today, most international intelligence experts believe that a global war is a matter of when and not if.

Their pessimism is fired by two key factors.

One is the largely uncontained threat of extremist Islam. When Osama Bin Laden was killed in May 2011

by American Special Forces, there was palpable relief across the world. Across the West and in the United States especially, hopes were high that the termination of the symbolic head of Al-Qaeda would lead to the eventual unraveling of the group and create an opening for a rapprochement between aggrieved Middle Eastern countries and the United States. There were also suggestions that the US operation to kill Bin Laden may have provided African countries like Nigeria which are plagued by terrorism with an opportunity to re-evaluate their war against terror.

As things turned out, however, such hopes were misplaced. While Al-Qaeda is no longer the menace it used to be, the bad news is that it has since been replaced by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, popularly known as ISIS. ISIS was established in 1999, but it has used the vacuum created by Bin Laden’s killing and the crisis in Iraq and Syria respectively to lay a strong claim to the affections of all manner of religious lunatics and anyone willing to pick a fight against the West, including deluded Western citizens seeking adventure.

Purporting to execute a vague Quranic mandate to unite the entire global Muslim Ummah under the aegis of a Caliphate, not only does ISIS continue to wreak havoc in parts of Iraq and Syria where it controls vast swathes of territory, it continues to launch terror attacks against western targets in Europe, Asia, and Africa. At the same time, murderous epigones of ISIS like Boko Haram (Nigeria) and Al-Shabaab (Kenya and Somalia) remain prime disturbers of regional peace, and continue to cost a fortune to contain.

Besides ISIS, a resurgent Russia is the other distinct threat to world peace, the rhetoric of violence

emanating from North Korea notwithstanding. Under the leadership of the inscrutable Vladimir Putin, Russian nationalism, tamed briefly after the debacle of socialism, has rediscovered its zing. Largely egged on by a populace apparently eager to return to the heyday of Soviet power, Putin, a former KGB operative, has acted largely as if time-worn diplomatic norms were mere suggestions. He has sought to project Russian power across Europe by striking up various dubious alliances, often with the main intent of creating destabilization in Western countries.

Naturally, Putin’s bellicosity---his ostentatious testing of the SS-18 “Satan” Missiles for one---has stirred other major powers in Europe and Asia into action.

Kremlin missile corps reportedly unleashed the new warhead which is said to be capable of hypersonic flight, carrying a nuclear payload at Yasny Launch Base in Russia, last Tuesday. A spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry said: “The test was a success.

The warhead was delivered to Kura field.” Russia’s Defence chiefs believe that the devastating Hypersonic Glider Vehicle (HGV) will be able to beat any missile defence shield in the West, and wipe out areas as big as Texas and France. Tensions have indeed escalated, and Britain is reported to have sent 800 troops, tanks and drones to the Russian border. The Baltic States-Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and Poland--have been arming themselves and looking in the general direction of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) for help. Ukraine, bereft of the Crimea since 2014 following Russian military action, remains on permanent alert.

Since the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945, the world has enjoyed a period of relative peace. The antics of Russia, coupled with the determination of ISIS to re-impose its vision of medieval life on the whole world, have now taken the world to the precipice of a global disaster. The United Nations, the African Union (AU), the European Union (EU) and other regional and multilateral organisations should step in before it’s too late. Avoiding World War III, the countries can rededicate themselves to the cause of world peace and prosperity.

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14 LETTERS TO THE

Monday, 31 October, 2016

editor

Letters to the editor should be sent to letters@tribune.com.ng or by sms to 08053412982.

It MUST be accompanied by the full name and address of the writer.

On FG’s new initiative for Niger Delta

A

FTER a lull in violence, the Niger Delta militants have resumed their attacks on the country’s oil installations. Already, the country is in a terrible shape economically today, and the continued bombing of oil pipelines is not helping matters. We may have our differences on how the country is politically, but we should not work towards ruining it by targeting its source of revenue.

We all know that Nigeria’s major source of forex supply is crude oil, and we are already grappling with the falling price of the resource in the global markets, but degrading the country’s oil export capacities has made things worse.

The Niger Delta militants may be happy that the Nigerian government is being crippled, but the truth is that the average Nigerian is suffering as a result. Despite many state governments not paying

salaries to their civil servants, the governors and other political office holders are enjoying uninterrupted payment of their salaries and allowances.

The same goes to the officers at the Federal level, so what we are experiencing is being borne only by innocent citizens.

Apart from that, the poor farmers in Niger Delta are suffering as a result of the bombings due to the degradation of the environment. As a result of this, I want to appeal to the militants in the Niger Delta region to allow reason to prevail. It is easy to say that when our son was president, a certain section of the country did not allow him enjoy his tenure with the Boko Haram attacks, but we must look past that and work towards making Nigeria great again.

It is as a result of this that I am happy that the Federal Government, under the leadership of President Muhammadu Bu-

hari, has agreed to invest massively in the region.

According to reports, the government hopes to invest about $10billion in the development of the Niger Delta. I hope this will go a long way in providing basic infrastructures that will make life more meaningful to the people. However, what is

happening in the region is not for a lack of investment by the Federal Government. Over the years, successive governments have tried their best to develop the region; in fact, the past administration established the Ministry of Niger Delta, while there is also the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), and

through these establishments, billions of dollars have flowed to the region, but what is happening is that the majority of these funds have been mismanaged.

If we should also ask, what has happened to the huge monthly allocations the Niger Delta states are receiving from the Federa-

tion Account? Everything was just mismanaged, but, it is important that the current initiative of the Federal Government is monitored so that some people will not just become overnight billionaires as a result of this initiative.

•Amadi Kingston, Asaba, Delta State.

gage expert construction firms like Julius Berger, to develop these lots according to low-cost template designs that would result in buildings that are easy to maintain and ones that would be there for a long time.

What the “federal” might can help here is ensuring that the home leasees pay their rents promptly

through deductions from sources in favour of the venture capitalists.

In the end, a win-win situation ensues; long-term low-cost houses are available for rent and the venture capitalists now have stakes in long-term real estate investments.

•Sunday Adole Jonah, Federal University of Technology, Minna.

How to solve housing crisis NIGERIA ought to have gone past the stage of highfalutin promises by now; it is a big shame that this appears not to be the case. Now, the Federal Government is promising to utilise its “federal” might to provide “Federal Housing Estates” to a very, very miniscule fraction of the population.

On the pages of newspapers, this idea looks grand and doable, but I don’t think government has the direction it will take to achieve this. Thus, this brings up the issue

of how best to implement any housing estate scheme; true, contiguous housing estate schemes are veritable slum-fixers in addition to their purpose of providing low-cost habitation over the long-term.

Now, expending resources through the mass media to make promises does anyone no good at all.

What can be done in this regard is pretty straightforward; venture capitalists should be provided large hectares of lands at prime locations in state capitals at no cost and these investors would be required to en-

For a prosperous Nigeria WE may not be where we ought to be, but there is hope for the country; we just need to chart a new course in our developmental agenda.

The current economic crisis in the country presents us with a great opportunity for us to start afresh in this country. Over the years, we relied only on crude oil, which made our people lazy. As a result, we forgot agriculture, which we built the early years of our nationhood around.

Then, we had cocoa in the West, groundnut in the North, palm oil in the East, and the economy was thriving. In fact, there was a time Nigeria was the world’s largest exporter of cocoa. The biggest mistake we made was losing focus on developing through agriculture, while diverting into crude oil. Today, that crude oil that took away agriculture from us is now a curse to us. We had overrelied on crude oil, and its crash in the global oil market has brought us nothing but economic woes.

I, however, believe that we can still retrace our steps and return to agriculture; in fact, we have no choice than to return to agriculture. It is

often said that agriculture is the largest employer of labour in the country, and it can still absorb all unemployed people in the country; so if this is the case, why don’t we reorganise this sector to our advantage. We can begin to work towards overcoming Ivory Coast and Ghana as the world’s largest exporter of cocoa; we can develop our cashew industry, thereby becoming one of the biggest cashew exporting countries in the world. The same thing goes for other agricultural produce, and we can imagine how many jobs can be created when we focus only on agriculture. What we just need are visionary leaders who are ready to direct the country and her people on the right path.

Therefore, we should not lose hope, but we should believe that with more hard work, we can achieve our dream for a better country.

We should see the opportunities in the challenges we are facing at the moment to re-strategise on the right path to follow, and to me, that right path is agriculture.

•Edwin Onome, Ikeja, Lagos.

15

opinion

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Lasisi Olagunju

O

Lasgunju@yahoo.com (08111813053)

IL companies are running out, throwing their workers overboard. Governments can’t pay salaries. Lucky doctors and other well trained professionals are on the queue to receive half pay. Their less fortunate colleagues are on the street looking for what to eat. Sitting in every verandah in every village, town and city, is an army of well trained jobless young men and women. In the idleness of their chatter, you could taste the bile of their anger at a system that is rigged against them. The depths of misery and joblessness are filled up, bursting at the seams.

Up there, the leadership eats, belches and farts. They truly do not know (and cannot know) that someone is hungry. Across the seas, a Nigerian senator unleashes his dance of joy video. He is well fed and over-blessed by the system. He does not care if there is anyone watching and cursing. It is the hater’s problem if he lacks what the senator has in excess. There can’t be moderation in celebration. In the distinguished senator, that will be a contradiction in terms. Our lawmaker’s till is filled up and it is marvellous in his eyes. The viral video clip tells the story of a nation of all possibilities. Poor market, rich palace. A rich nation controlled by poverty and misery.

The country is tragically becoming unhinged. Where is the ship destined to anchor?

A report in the Washington Post of May 4, 2016 provides a window. It speaks about an oil-rich nation that should be rich but “instead, it’s becoming a failed state.”

It talks about an oil-rich country that has been run down so much that it “can’t afford to brew its own beer, stay in its own time zone, or even have its own people show up to work more than two times a week.” How did this country get here? The report describes the tragedy as an entirely man-made catastrophe. “Economic mismanagement at a world-historical scale had barely left it with enough money to even, well, pay for printing money anymore.”

That country got here by “spending more than it had and not having as much as it should.” That is a country that thought of spending money, and did spend money that it did not earn. “You can’t redistribute oil profits if there aren’t oil profits to redistribute,” the report says the country did just that and followed it up with policies like the president replacing “people who knew what they were doing with people he knew would be loyal to him at the state-owned oil company.” That action, among others, it

Creating scapegoats, spreading misery

says, scared oil companies out.

Again, because it has foreign exchange problems, the government of that country has tried to fix this by “doling out dollars to select companies on better terms than anyone else can get them...” And the subsidised companies do what with the dollars? They “just sell their dollars in the black market for more than they can resell imported goods.” The government has also “opted for a game of whac-a-mole. It has tried to legislate inflation away by telling businesses what prices they’re allowed to sell at, and even tried to wish it away by saying it ‘does not exist.’..The result is, the government is bankrupt, the rich nation “is well past the point of worrying that its economy might collapse. It already has.” The only thing that is not failing there, the Washington Post says, is “nothing.”

The only thing the government is good at is “creating scapegoats, creating lines and creating misery.” That is the summary of the report.

You are scared? The report looks very much like an exaggerated viewpoint on Nigeria. No. It is not about Nigeria.

It is about a country called Venezuela. Venezuela mirrors Nigeria, and that is scary! That is a country that has gone “from bad to worse to horrific.” Imagine a country where millions queue daily for bread, eggs, meat — only to meet empty shelves at the end of the long wait. Inflation in that country, according to the IMF, has gone up by over 600 percent, and, by next year, it will climb to reach 1,660 percent.

The government has responded by increasing the minimum wage four times (yes, four times!) this year alone. How did

it get here? Uncontrolled huge foreign debt accumulation, incoherent policy response, a populace that relishes cutting corners, among others, conspired to wreck that country that has the world’s largest oil reserves — more than even the super rich Saudi Arabia and the United States. But it is the very latest in institutional failure. Suffering there is horrific. Whatever horror we see on the streets of that country is a warning for Nigeria. Some of the bad behaviours that landed Venezuela where it is today are with us right now.

You know them. We all do. Some of the bad deeds in Nigeria did not really start with this government. The horrible past of greed and planlessness created them. But some have the copyright imprint of the Buhari government. And one good thing about the world becoming a village is the opportunity to see and draw instant lessons from the misfortune of others. If we do not want to land where Venezuela is this moment, the only sensible thing is to stop doing what it did wrong.

Hillary Clinton and other women things This is also about women and what good and bad they are capable of doing to the world. There is something magically positive about them. They would rather charm than be charmed. They do not succumb to any malleus maleficarium. No cursed palace can mute their determined voice.

When they have to shout they shout. If tears are what is needed to get the job done, they shed tears. They are like the old bank, strong and reliable. When you put them in charge of the kitchen, the living room or “the other room,” they get the job done without whining as men often do. When their opponents “go low, they go high.”

It is one week to the making of history in the United States. A gasping pall of loss will most certainly soon fall on the arrogant world of men after the November 8 presidential election in the United States. With Hillary Clinton almost sure of making history as the first female president of America; with Angela Merkel as German Chancellor and Theresa May as Prime Minister of Britain, the world is clearly at the threshold of a revolution.

Maybe the one effective way (away from putative superstition) to save humanity, especially Nigeria, from today’s decay and certain death is to dethrone the patriarchal political elite misruling and spreading misery everywhere. Maybe putting good women in charge is that one way of halting the drift down the abyss. Maybe.

For war on corruption to succeed

By Niran Adedokun

NIGERIA has recently embarked on something which its leadership describes as a war against corruption. I do not know whether it is by design or by mere happenstance but the series of events which government and its agents fly as posters for the success of combating corruption are unworthy of what a people, having any hope for an enduring change in ethos, would give more than a token of credit to.

But Nigerians love drama and this administration, due to either its own deficient grasp of the issues or a deliberate effort at exciting the people. They have provided nothing beyond quality entertainment in the naming and shaming without repatriation that we have seen in the case of the former National Security Adviser, Sambo Dasuki. He is the alleged mainspring for most of the sleaze that characterised the immediate past administration, became a resident in one government custodial or the other for about 16 months now.

But for the isolated case of the former Managing Director of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency, Patrick Akpobolokemia, who was alleged to have funnelled N2.6bn of national resources to assorted criminal outlets and a few others, virtually everyone recently accused of complicity in corrupt practices sourced their lucre from Dasuki’s overflowing pool.

Yet, this case has gained no motion in over one year, and one of the problems we are having is the patent incapacity of investigating and prosecuting bodies. Apart from the bur-

den of insufficient funding that these bodies grapple with, there is the incessant failure to build the capacity of their officials to respond to modern challenges of economic crimes.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Mahmud Mohammed, drew attention to this when he hosted the National Electronic Fraud Forum in November 2015. Mohammed spoke about the need for investigation-led arrest and not arrest-led investigation which would assure that an agency already had a case before moving on a suspect. The CJN stressed that for anti-graft agencies to successfully nail accused persons, they must, at least, call a witness on each count in the charge.

Of course, the premeditation that the judiciary stalls the war against corruption would dispirit government from considering these suggestions, which are fundamental to the effectiveness or otherwise of the war against corruption.

Government also rushed into this war without getting to the roots of the problem. It is like tackling a problematic tree by cutting it from the top; this tree would, of course, sprout again! While corruption has always been part of human nature, its current national ubiquity is symptomatic of deeper problems part of which is the crushing level poverty in the land.

As is said of former Prime Minister of Singapore, Lee Kuan Yew, when he was confronted by extraordinary corruption, there is an overriding need to wipe out corruption from the public service, which is the engine room for the running of government and every kind of political corruption.

Any country intent on seriously fighting corruption must pay public servants fair and realistic wages benchmarked to

private sector earnings. This is the only way a society can demand the highest standards of integrity and performance from its workers. In a country where public education, health care and housing have gone to the dogs, civil servants, teachers, doctors and policemen should be well-paid and reoriented to avoid the temptation to abuse their office.

The truth is that while we are making public spectacle of those accused of political corruption, it is business as usual in institutions like the police, immigration, customs, road safety and the MDAs in the country. The story is not much different in the private sector. So, the President is in Abuja congratulating himself for a job well done but those who make the machinery of government move manipulate their ways to survival. How many of them do you hope to arrest in eight years?

The other thing is that corruption is a societal problem that cannot be fought and won by the President alone.

If the President desires to leave a Nigeria where people abhor corruption, he must win foot soldiers and convert people to his side from across the nation.

Nothing stops this government from speaking with the leaders of the other arms of government, having a meeting of minds, set up machinery to get faith based leaders, professional organisations and parents on board this war. Success would be easier were the President to make this a war owned by all Nigerians. That aloof, only-me can do it, self-righteous disposition without consensus building will only end as another fleeting initiative that no one will remember.

•Adedokun is a public affairs analyst.

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communitynews

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Poor policing endangering Ibeshe communities, lawmaker cries out chukwumaokparaocha-lagos

A

lawmaker in the Lagos State House of Assembly, Honourable Nurudeen Solaja-Saka, has called on the Federal Government to ensure more police presence in Ibeshe area of Ikorodu to end incessant killing of innocent residents by unknown assailants.

Solaja-Saka, who represents Ikorodu II in the state assembly, told newsmen in Lagos that residents of Ibeshe were losing their lives to armed miscreants who he insisted were capitalising on lack of adequate policing in the area.

The lawmaker, who recounted the gory tale of a recent murder of a whole family in the area as well as the injuries suffered by others, said there was no police station in the emerging community.

According to him, there is need for police to mount surveillance in the area to forestall further needless loss of lives.

“Security threat in Ibeshe is on regular basis. Hardly a month goes by without innocent people losing their lives and this is as a result of inadequate policing,” he said.

“We need more police presence in Ibeshe area of Igbogbo Local Council Development Area (LCDA) of Ikorodu, to protect the people.

“The place is a developing area of about 100,000 people, and there are a lot of uncompleted structures where criminals, ritualists

and cultists carry out their nefarious activities.

“Sincerely, we need a big police station in that place.

We are calling on the governor to come to our aid.

People are dying. Hoodlums are tormenting the people.

“Just last week, some

miscreants killed a pregnant woman, her husband and their daughter while some others were injured,” he said.

The lawmaker said that the only police post in the area was located at Nichemtex, stressing that the post was basically

over their children, they should not leave everything in the hands government. Government cannot do it alone,” he added.

It will be recalled that there had been cases of ritual killing, rape and kidnapping in the community in recent times.

Members of Rotary Club of Agodi and residents of Basorun, waiting to undergo medical check-up at Basorun Health Centre.

Face-off over generator: Lapeleke community appreciates stakeholders by gbenga olumide RESIDENTS of Lapeleke community in OwodeEde have commended the Osun State Coordinator of the National Environmental Standard and Regulation Enforcement Agency (NESREA), Mr Muhammad Maike, his team and the divisional

police officer attached to Pere Police Station, Ede, CSP Abdulkadir Saidu, for their intervention in the face-off between the community and a telecommunications company over the use of a generating set at the telecommunications base station in the area.

A press statement is-

Amosun launches Araya in Ogun West OGUN State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has charged indigenes and residents of Ogun West Senatorial District to take advantage of the Community Health Insurance Scheme and support gobvernment to ensure its success.

Amosun gave the charge during the launch of the programme otherwise known as Araya in Ilaro, Yewa South Local Government Area of the state.

Senator Amosun, represented by the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Honourable Suraju Adekunbi, said the programme was a fulfillment of his electoral promise to deliver qualitative healthcare to the people.

He explained that the programme would take care of children under five years and indigent pregnant women.

“The scale up programme of Araya scheme being launched today in Yewa land is meant to give fillip

put there for the security of workers of the textile industry.

“We cannot continue to lose people or allow them to live in fear. Traditional rulers and religious leaders should also do their job.

“Parents should watch

to affordable and efficient healthcare service delivery by taking it to the doorsteps of our people, particularly rural dwellers,” he said.

In his welcome address, the state Commissioner for Health, Dr. Babatunde Ipaye, disclosed that the pilot scheme of the programme was launched in 2014 by the state governor.

Ipaye noted that government had provided equipment and human resources needed to make the project a success notwithstanding the global economic recession, that accredited health management officials were available at the primary health centres and other designated places.

He applauded the state assembly for its continuous support, especially at ensuring the domestication of the National Health

Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in the state.

In his remarks, the Olu of Ilaro and Paramount Ruler of Yewaland, Oba Kehinde Olugbenle, commended the state government for the scheme and urged residents of the area to register in order to benefit from the pro-

sued and signed by the chairman and secretary of the community, Prince A. Arojojoye and Ayinde Richard, on behalf of residents, said the Federal Government must also be commended for the establishment of NESREA, which had been protecting lives by preventing environmental pollution.

gramme.

In their separate comments, Senator (Mrs) Iyabo Anisulowo and the state Commissioner for Forestry, Chief Kolawole Lawal, said the scheme would reduce child and maternal mortality and promote the overall well-being of the people.

It will be recalled that the generating set caused vibration, noise and air pollution until 2014 when an agreement was reached between the telecommunications company, NESREA and residents to the effect that the generating set will no longer be used at the station.

Nigerian Tribune gathered that the people of the area also berated the telecommunications company for not effecting repairs on the only link road to the place its mast is erected.

However, members of the community have assured that they would continue to work for the sustenance of peace and tranquility.

Rotary Club provides health services for Basorun residents by gbenga olumide THE free health services organised by the Rotary Club of Agodi, Ibadan for residents of Basorun, which took place at the Basorun Community Health Centre, OluwoNla, is aimed at enhancing the standard of living of residents of the area.

The president of the club, Rotarian Dapo Williams, made this known at the kick-off of the two-day programme of medical check-up and distribution of drugs which is part of the club’s community development initiative.

Williams said: “About a month ago, we organised Rotary Family Health Day so, what we are doing now is a continuation of the programme which is being extended to Basorun community.

For some time now, we have been partnering with Basorun Community Health Centre through donation of items such as shed, benches, medical equipment, among others to boost their operations.

“We don’t just limit ourselves to community support programme like healthcare delivery. We also organise education programmes like quiz and debate alongside donation of items to the underprivileged.”

In his remarks, the Chairman of Community Service, Rotarian Gbenga Adeleye, disclosed that the purpose of the medical check-up was to make people aware of their health status.

NGO, stakeholders to train 500 youths in Ekiti sam nwaoko-ado-ekiti AN Ekiti-based Non-Government Organisation (NGO), Divine Motivation for Positive Impact Initiative (DMPII), is to partner stakeholders in the state to train about 500 youths on good leadership.

The President of DMPII, Mr Gbenga Emiloju, who disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen in Ado-Ekiti, said stakeholders involved in the training include the National Youth Service

Corps (NYSC), religious institutions, schools and civil society organisations.

He said: “Our NGO, which is borne of the desire to positively impact on Nigerian youths, will train no few than 500 youths across the country in November. In the face of the current social, political and economic challenges in the country, our youths need to be taught how to take their destinies in their own hands.

“The 2016 Positive Impact Summit will in-

culcate in the nation’s youths, ways to take up leadership challenges that will see the country reclaiming her lost glory.

“Our youths must be aware that leadership has nothing to do with age or holding political office; one can demonstrate leadership role by impacting on his or her immediate community,” he said.

The founder and president of the NGO also said that 10 indigent but academically sound students in higher institutions

would benefit from their “Money for Educational Support” programme.

The leadership training with the theme, “Raising Godly Leaders”, is scheduled to hold on November 5 and will have at least five corps members from each of the 36 states of the federation.

Other participants are to be drawn from Afe Babalola University, AdoEkiti (ABUAD), EKiti State University (EKSU), Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti and other institutions in the state.

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Group Business Editor Sulaimon Olanrewaju | 08055001708 | lanresulaimon@yahoo.com | @lanresulaimon

money

leadership

entrepreneurship

analysis

DBN:

Empowering MSMEs to create employment Kemi Adeosun, Minister of Finance

By Sulaimon Olanrewaju

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HE nation’s unemployment rate leaves no room for cheers. It is the trauma of youths, the nightmare of parents and the stigma of the government. The figures get burgeoned yearly because, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), about 1.8 million Nigerian graduates join the labour market annually, yet the available opportunities for job placement keep shrinking.

The unemployment rate has been on a consistent and persistent spiraling over the years. According to the NBS, in 2000, it was 13.1 per cent. It rose to 13.6 per cent in 2001 and came down to 12.6 per cent in 2002. But it was a temporary breather because the rate climbed up to 14.8 per cent in 2003. It fell to 13.4 per cent in 2004 and fell further to 11.9 per cent in 2005.

However, since 2006, unemployment rate maintained an unflagging fly for a long while. In 2006, it was 12.3 per cent, moving up to 12.7 per cent in 2007 and 14.9 per cent in 2008. It was 19.7 per cent in 2009, rising to 21.1 in 2010 and 23.9 per cent in 2011. After reaching that crescendo, it came down for a while.

In the second quarter of 2015, it was 8.2 per cent. It moved up to 9.9 per cent in the third quarter and 10.4 per cent in the last quarter of the year. At the end of the first quarter of the current year, it stood at 12.1 per cent, moving up to 13.3 per cent midyear.

The bureau, in its unemployment report at the end of the second quarter of 2016, noted that the number of people that were unemployed or underemployed increased from 24.4 million as at the end of the first quarter to 26.06 million persons.

According to the report, “The number of underemployed in the labour force

(those working but doing menial jobs not commensurate with their qualifications or those not engaged in fulltime work and merely working for few hours) increased by 392,390 or 2.61 per cent resulting in an increase in the underemployment rate to 19.3 per cent in Q2 2016 from 19.1 per cent in Q1 2016.”

Although rising unemployment rate is a global phenomenon, experts are of the view that it has become the albatross of Nigeria because of the penchant of job seekers, their sponsors, as well as the government to overlook the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) for the large corporations when it comes to seeking employment.

As observed by the World Bank in one of its 2009 publications, the informal sector employs two-thirds of the global workforce.

But the current administration seems to take the issue of leveraging MSMEs to create employment opportunities seriously as it has been able to secure $1.3billion to kick start the Development Bank of Nigeria (DBN), whose responsibility will be the provision of finance for small and medium scale businesses.

Speaking about this recently, the Finance Minister, Mrs Kemi Adeosun, said as one of the takeaways from the country’s participation at the recently concluded World Bank/ IMF meetings in Washington, Nigeria was able to secure the commitment of the World Bank and its group with the pledge to release $1.3billion seed money for the take off of the bank without delay.

The minister explained that as a follow up to that commitment, the ministry was already in the process of recruiting the top management staff of the bank, adding that the bank is billed to take off early 2017.

Explaining the rationale behind the establishment of yet another specialized bank

despite the existence of the Bank of Industry and the Bank of Agriculture, the minister said, “It is very important because it is going to provide money for MSMEs and for Nigeria. That is really important because 50 per cent of our GDP is made up of small companies. These are small size companies, petty traders and other small operators. So, finding how to make money available to them is really an important way of getting out of the challenges we currently face. So getting DBN off ground is a big priority for us and we have set ourselves a very tight deadline.”

She explained that the intention of the government is to empower the existing MSMEs so that they will be able to employ more people. “We also hope to see more MSMEs come on stream to join the already existing ones.

The more of these we have, the less our worries about unemployment will be because they naturally generate employment opportunities.”

Speaking about the genesis of the bank, Adeosun said, “Although the Development Bank of Nigeria was conceived about three years ago, as good as the project is, we haven’t got anywhere. Not much was done by the previous administration with respect to getting it off the ground. So, when we got to the World Bank/IMF meeting, we said, ‘look what are the bottlenecks?’ Fortunately, we have been able to solve some of the problems and we are ready to go now.”

Speaking on the intention of the government to establish the bank, an entrepreneur, Mr. Jide Lawson, chief executive of Afdab Nig Ltd, agreed with the minister that the major hurdle that many small scale businesses find difficult to cross is finance.

“While it is true that finance is not the only problem, it is the most critical problem for them,” he said. “This is because the regular banks do not understand the peculiarities of MSMEs. In the same vein, the BoI does not

work for the small scale businesses because the conditions are too stringent. So, having a bank that is specifically targeted at MSMEs will be helpful to them and hopefully change the trend of the high mortality rate among MSMEs.” He, however, expressed the hope that the bank would provide a level playing field for those who might want to take its facilities.

“That is a major issue in this country,” he noted. “The government comes up with a good initiative but those saddled with the implementation thwart the plan through their own selfishness. The government should monitor the bank to ensure it delivers on its mandate,” he said.

Also speaking on the matter, Dr Austin Alloysius, an economist, lauded the move to establish a bank for MSMEs, adding that the country’s economic growth is directly proportional to the success rate of its MSMEs. He, however, urged the Federal Government to incorporate aspects of the National Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) into the scheme.

He explained, “The essence of the NIRP is to increase the capacity of big companies and to empower MSMEs to generate employment and create wealth.”

He added, “The idea is to move up the value chain that will increase the value and, of course, you move up in terms of your contribution to the global trade. Incorporating the NIRP in the plan to enhance the finance of small scale operators will increase their capacity to look beyond the immediate environment and aim to be global players. It will also increase their capacity to create employment opportunities. That is the next thing for us as a country and the time to start the journey is now. We need to enhance the capacity of every business operator in the country to earn foreign exchange and that will not happen until they start thinking global.”

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

Q3:2016: Diamond Bank maintains growth, records N2.05trn in assets

DIAMOND Bank, in its Q3 2016 performance scorecard on the floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), has showcased moderate growth in key financial parameters.

For the nine months under review, the group recorded a growth of 16.9 per cent in total assets, which grew from N1.753 trillion in the same period last year to N2.05 trillion. This was driven mainly by the value of the local currency and growth in customer deposits, which surged 13.6 per cent from N1.233 billion as at the end of September 2015 to N1.401 billion in the current business year, demonstrating the Bank’s strong ability and network to generate cheap deposits from the retail and middle market segments.

Also, the Bank grew its loan portfolio from N763.634 billion to N1.041 trillion, representing 36.4 per cent increase.

Commenting on the results, Chief Executive Officer, Uzoma Dozie, stated that the Bank’s modest growth in the last nine months despite the inclement operating environment, was the result of management’s focus on key strategic projections across the three core segments of retail, business and corporate banking, noting that the Bank will continue to passionately pursue its technology-driven retail strategy to optimise cost and reap predictable bountiful results in the medium to long term.

“We believe the macro conditions and other external factors will remain challenging for the rest of the year and well into 2017. However, by pursuing our technology-led retail strategy and with our focus on innovation and scalability, we believe the Bank is well-placed to benefit in the medium to long term from the favourable fundamentals in Nigeria, namely a large population, many of which remain unbanked. This strategy stands to benefit all stakeholders, including our shareholders and customers in the long run,” Dozie said.

From left, Mr Oscar Onyema, Chief Executive Officer, the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE); Rt. Hon. Zakawanu Garuba, Executive Commissioner, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC); Senator Ganiyu Olanrewaju Solomon, former Chairman, Senate Committee on Capital Markets and Mr Oluwaseyi Abe, President & Chairman of Council, Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS) at the CIS’ 20th Annual Stockbrokers’ Conference in Lagos, recently.

Stockbrokers task FG on diversification to revive economy Stories by Kehinde Akinseinde-Jayeoba - Lagos

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HE Federal Government has been urged to ensure speedy implementation of measures aimed at reviving and further development of the nation’s economy.

The President of the Chartered Institute of Stockbrokers (CIS), Mr Oluwaseyi Abe, made the call at the 20th annual conference of stockbrokers in Lagos organised by CIS. Abe, who expressed optimism in the potency of the government’s economic revival strategy, stated that growth should be equitable and inclusive for enhanced overall development of the economy. According to him, the conference theme ‘Building New Pillars, Creating New Values for Sustainable Development,’’ was of particular importance, coming at a critical time when Nigeria’s economy is in a recession, with a threat of depression lurking around.

Abe said Nigerian economy is precariously supported by a single pillar with oil as the

mainstay, accounting for 90 per cent of exports, 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and 80 per cent of government revenue. He said as a result of this, when the global oil market shakes, our economy quakes.

Abe noted that drastic change in global oil price destabilized government projections and depleted our foreign reserves because the structure of the economy is monolithic and not shock-resistant.

He, therefore, stressed the need to build

Investors laud Conoil’s N2bn dividend payout in recession SHAREHOLDERS of Conoil Plc have applauded the company’s strong financial performance despite the difficult operating environment in the country.

Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting held at the weekend in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the shareholders expressed their delight that the foremost fuel marketing company was able to de-

Sterling Bank strengthens core business in Q3 STERLING Bank Plc continued to build on the efficiency, quality and profitability of its core banking business as the latest earnings report released at the weekend showed considerable improvements in key underlying fundamentals of the commercial bank.

The nine-month report for the third quarter ended September 30, 2016 released at the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) at the weekend, showed steady growth in the core banking business, underlining the success of the lender’s core retail banking business.

Key extracts of the interim report showed that net interest margin, which measures the profitability of the core lending business, improved to 8.5 per cent in third quarter 2016 as against 7.9 per cent in comparable period of 2015.

The proportion of non-performing loans (NPL) to gross loans and advances, which indicates assets quality and the efficiency of the credit risk management, also improved significantly from 4.8 per cent December 2015 to 2.5 per cent in third quarter 2016.

This brings Sterling Bank well ahead of the 5.0 per cent industry thresholds for NPL set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The bank’s cost of funds also improved to 5.3 per cent in third quarter 2016 compared with 6.2 per cent in corresponding period of 2015.

Managing Director, Sterling Bank Plc, Mr Yemi Adeola, said the improvements in the underlying fundamentals in the third quarter, in spite of the depressing effect of the tough macroeconomic conditions on the

more pillars for variegation and fortification of the economy.

Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE), Oscar Onyema, in his remarks noted that the importance of a robust and sustainable domestic capital market cannot be overstated, adding that access to long-term finance is critical to our economic recovery and implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and other national and global agendas.

overall performance of the sector, underlined the resoluteness of the bank in building a sustainable business anchored on effective risk management and a robust retail business.

According to him, a 37.7 per cent growth in net interest income was largely due to a 12 per cent reduction in interest expense, which underpinned the 60 basis points increase in net interest margin.

“Sterling Bank has grown its active customer base by over 40 per cent year-to-date with improved penetration across all digital channels. The non-interest banking business has also witnessed significant growth in deposits and profitability by 87 per cent and 415 per cent respectively. This gives fillip to our resolve to diversify our business significantly over the coming years,” Adeola said.

clare such dividend in spite of the difficult economic challenges in the country.

The final dividend payout ratified at the meeting translates to N3.00 on every 50 kobo ordinary share for the 2015 financial year, compared to N1.00 paid the previous year.

Sir Sunny Nwosu, founder of a shareholders’ advocacy group, Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria (ISAN), expressed his appreciation to the board and management of the company for growing profit and increasing dividend payment at a time like this.

“This dividend reinforces the resilience of the company amidst the tough operating environment in the downstream sector of the petroleum industry characterised by scarce foreign exchange. It also speaks volume of the quality of the company’s management and its entire workforce,” Nwosu noted.

Another shareholder, Ambassador Olufemi Timothy, President, Renaisssance Shareholders’ Association, said he was surprised at the company’s performance in the midst of tight liquidity, rising cost of funds and the general tough operating environment in the downstream oil sector.

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune Ladi Balogun, CEO, FCMB

leadership &

management with Sulaimon Olanrewaju

m:08055001708 e:lanresulaimon@yahoo.com t:@lanresulaimon

The 60-second

business coach PAGE 24

Quote LEADERSHIP

“If you have no character to lose, people will have no faith in you.”

PAGE 22

Leaders’

forum

—Mahatma Gandhi

PAGE 22

Leaders and power of employee engagement

By Sulaimon Olanrewaju

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HE most potent force in driving organizational performance is the leader’s style. The leader’s style determines the culture of the organization; the culture dictates the tone of the workplace environment and this plays a critical role in what the bottom line turns out to be. A leader’s style can choke productivity or give vent to it. It can either stimulate creativity or stifle it. It can inflame positive passion or take the wind off employees’ sail.

The leader’s style is responsible for whether the organization remains a going concern or a sinking one. It can turn a prosperous business upside down or turn a struggling business right side up.

The reason for this is not shrouded in any mystery.

Business growth is engineered by customer loyalty.

There can’t be customer loyalty without customer

satisfaction and customer satisfaction is a function of employees’ action, which is a whole gamut that starts with quality production and ends with excellent customer service. Employees don’t act in a vacuum; their actions are a reflection of their state of mind, their perception of their worth to the organization and their satisfaction with the organization, all of which are influenced by the workplace environment created by the leader.

So, the leader can make the employees work their hearts out for the organization even when the remuneration is not the best in the industry. In the same vein, he can make the workforce contribute just a fraction of its ability despite being well remunerated. The difference is in employee engagement.

Continues on pg20

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

MANAGEMENT THE 60-SECOND business coach

BOOK

5 shortcuts to effective leadership

By Shellie Karabell

I have curated five simple pointers, gleaned from research, videos, and leaders themselves, that can assist in honing your leadership skills. Here they are.

1.

Watch where you sit.

Seating plans are de rigeur at weddings, banquets – anywhere the host wants to set the tone for an event, because since time immemorial the pecking order is defined by who sits closest to the seat of power (or the salt). Business meetings usually don’t have seating plans; you stake out your power by where you park your body.

Geoffrey James, contributing editor of Inc, says the boss takes “Seat #1,” otherwise known as the head of the table and found at the shortest dimension of the side of the table that is

farthest from the door. Allies sit closest to the boss; visitors who may have an opposing agenda sit facing the boss, and their allies sit closest to them. If you sit along the wall you are declaring yourself an observer, as you literally “don’t have a seat at the table.” This is not a good place to be if you plan to make a point during the meeting. And if you’re not the boss, for heaves sake don’t sit in his (or her) place!

2.

Leaders eat last.

This is actually a military adage, on which ethnographer and leadership expert Simon Sinek, author of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, expounds in a “99u” talk. Basically, he reminds us that, biological terms, leaders get the first pick of food and other spoils.

But there is a price to pay: when danger is present, the

group expects the leader to mitigate all threats even at the expense of his or her personal well-being. Sinek claims inspiration for the team comes when the leader steps back and lets the others precede him in the food line. Translation for the business world: give your team what they need to do their job and get out of the way.

3.

Sound like a leader.

So you have to give a speech. Or make a presentation, or preside over an important meeting. How much time do you spend on preparing the content? And then how much rehearsal time do you put in? You know, reading the speech out loud, maybe even recording it, or watching yourself in a mirror while speaking?

In her TED talk, coach Laura Sicola reminds us of research showing that audiences respond more to the way

you say something (i.e., delivery, tone of voice, body language) than the actual content or words you use. The lesson here is yes, prepare that content, but don’t try to wing the delivery!

4.

You are always leading by exaample.

The “example” is not just when you have to appear in public or before your team, or in a crisis. It is every single working day. It’s what time you show up, what you’re wearing, the mood you appear to be in, whether or not you smile.

You’re always “on,” always in public – rather like Louis XIV who lived his entire day in the public eye of his court, with ceremonies attending his morning ablutions through mealtimes and finally his bedtime preparations.

Even when you think no one is watching…they are.

5.

Say “yes” when you mean “yes”; “no” when you mean “no,” and get mad on time.

This adage was told to me by one of my first bosses, who, now that I think back on it, may have been going through analysis at the time. By keeping things current you avoid letting situations drag on, unresolved; you learn to accept your feelings or instincts or experience and translate them into decisions; your team knows where they stand (which should either boost their confidence or galvanize them to do better, depending on where it is that they stand), and you will find your work-life balance improves because work issues won’t linger as much.

Finally, never underestimate the value of getting enough sleep.

You may never be able to change the (entire) world, but a good night’s sleep will change your perspective enough so that you can at least make a difference.

Playing to Win

Leaders and power of employee engagement Continued from pg19

What is employee engagement?

The term employee engagement is used to describe an employee’s commitment to the vision, mission and essence of an organization. It is making the workforce one with the leadership of the organization. It is a strategy through which employees are turned from those whose concern is the pay packet to those who care about the company’s bottom line. Employee engagement transforms the workforce from people who only have a passing interest in an organization to those who will stop at nothing to see it succeed. Where there is engagement, energy is never in short supply and targets are regularly exceeded. Employee engagement is critical to the realization of corporate objectives.

As observed by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman in the book, First Break All the Rules, “Engagement refers to an employee’s willingness to work for the success of his or her job and organization. It consists not just of traditional notions of job satisfaction but of an active commitment to doing the job well and helping the organization achieve its goals and strategies. Engaged employees take pride in their organization and work; take ownership of their projects; talk positively about themselves, their employer and the goods and services they help deliver; view working for their organization as a career, not just a job; and, above all, perform better. A highly engaged workforce is 50 per cent more productive than an unengaged workforce and displays retention rates that are 44 per cent higher.”

Also writing about employee engagement in his book, Getting Engaged: The New Workplace Loyalty, Tim Rutledge says engaged employees are not just attracted to their work, they are also inspired by it and committed to it. According to him, engaged employees say, “I

want to do this”, “I am dedicated to the success of what I am doing” and “I love what I am doing”.

Engaged employees are not doing the work for what they stand to gain but do it because they see themselves as part of the present and the future of the organization. They are not working for the organization just to earn a pay but they work with a target to accomplish corporate goals. Thus, they are willing to make sacrifices and go beyond the call of duty to ensure that corporate objectives are accomplished.

Leaders and employee engagement A leader may have the vision to turn around the fortunes of a unit, department or even a company but he cannot accomplish this all by himself, he needs to work with people who will share his vision of actualizing the objective. To achieve his objective he needs to effectively engage employees who work with him. However, employee engagement is not automatic; it is contingent on the style of the leader. So, the leader has to be open, accessible and conduct himself in a manner that will make him earn the respect of his team members so as to really engage them.

Importance of employee engagement According to Gallup Poll, “A job has the potential to be at the heart of a great life, but only if its holder is engaged at work.” Stretching this further, The Conference Board, in 2006, noted that almost two-thirds of all employees are 33 per cent as productive as they could be because they don’t understand what they are asked to do. Similarly, Harter, J.K., Schmidt, F.L., and Hayes T.L in an article published in Psychology, posited that businesses with more engaged employees have 51 per cent higher produc-

organization.

One way to kill creativity is to micromanage. Leaders who micromanage tell their team members, implicitly, that their confidence in the team members’ ability is limited.

Communicate the vision For a leader, communication is not just for the purpose of disseminating information but an avenue to transform employees. So, he continually engages them in communication, selling the vision of the organization to them so that they can buy into it and share the aspiration of the leaders. This is not a one off thing; it has to be continuous and consistent to achieve the desired result.

Femi Otedola, Chairman Zenon Oil

Ademola Adeyemi-Bero, CEO, First E&P

tivity.

So, workforce engagement is at the heart of productivity and achieving corporate objectives. Organizations that effectively engage their staff members stand a better chance of being more profitable and making positive more social impact than those that do not.

taken advantage of. No one likes it when his person is disparaged. Nothing turns a workplace into a toxic environment faster than when employees feel their worth is not duly recognized.

Therefore, to successfully engage employees with a view to stimulating growth and engendering profitability, the leader must ensure that he creates an environment where every staff member feels appreciated; an atmosphere where no one operates with the impression that he is seen as being of lower value than others in the establishment.

When team members understand that they are valued as individuals and not seen as mere statistical figures, they go the extra mile to ensure that the organization remains sustainable. They do not see themselves as outsiders or strangers; they see themselves

How leaders engage employees Since employee engagement plays a vital role in the leader’s task of achieving corporate goals, every leader must learn how to ensure this.

Value their person The fundamental factor that determines whether an employee will be fully committed to the vision of the organization is what he perceives to be the value placed on him by the organization. Nobody enjoys being

Mitchell Elegbe, MD, Interswitch as critical stakeholders and this makes it easy for them to buy into the organization’s vision.

Value their contributions An organization is a system with different units and segments contributing different values to the actualization of corporate goals. In a properly run workplace, every staff member contributes one way or the other to the realization of the organization’s overall objective.

When employees, whether in the core operation of the organization or its ancillary, are made to know that their contributions are critical to the overall objective of the organization, they own that particular process.

They transit from being mere ‘space fillers’ or marginal contributors to invaluable contributors. They bring in their best to the job

Peter Ashade, MD, Africa Prudential Registrars Plc. and surpass expectations.

Allow freedom A free environment unleashes creativity.

Companies that produce most impactful gadgets or devices are those that have made employees’ freedom a part of their culture.

Apple, Google, Konga and Jumia are organizations that value employees’ freedom and they are some of the companies that have transformed the way we live through the innovations put forward by their employees.

When employees see their supervisors as overbearing, they become too careful and are unable to try new things. On the other hand, when they are given the free hand to explore, they give their best. Beyond that, getting them to buy into the vision of the organization becomes quite easy because they see themselves as playing a vital role in the

Build trust The leader has to earn the trust of the employees for them to be engaged. To earn the trust, they have to show that they care not just about the work but also about the worker.

The leader has to build personal relationship with his team members.

He has to show that what matters to them are of importance to him as well. He has to create opportunities for them to also accomplish their career goals and personal aspirations.

He must let them know that he is not just using them to achieve his target but will also avail them of his skills and wherewithal in their quest to move up in life. If the leader does these, he wins the employees over and buying into the vision of the organization becomes a given.

Last line Employee engagement will ensure the sustainability of any organization but the onus is on the leader to adopt the style that will make this a reality.

A.G. Lafley knows something about successful corporate strategies. As former CEO of Procter & Gamble (P&G), Lafley, with the help of strategic adviser Roger Martin, doubled P&G’s sales and quadrupled its profits. In Playing to Win, Lafley teams up with Martin, now the renowned dean of the Rotman School of Business in Toronto, to outline a step-bystep process for developing and implementing a successful strategy.

The Five Choices This process is built on a set of five integrated choices. “These choices and the relationship between them,” the authors explain, “can be understood as a reinforcing cascade, with the choices at the top of the cascade setting the context for the choices below, and the choices at the bottom influencing and refining the choices above.”

One of the first examples used in the book is P&G’s Oil of Olay product, once a floundering brand known derisively as “Oil of Old Lady.” Building on their framework, Lafley and Martin break down the cascade of strategic choices that led to the brand’s impressive turnaround.

Here are a few of them: 1. What is our winning aspiration? This choice refers to “the purpose of the enterprise,” the authors write. For Oil of Olay, it was to become a leading skin care brand again.

2. Where will we play? This second choice identifies specif-

ically where the product or company will compete. The Oil of Olay brand stayed with its mass market retailers (e.g., Target and WalMart) rather than the prestige stores (e.g., Macy’s). But it positioned itself as a “masstige” product — higher end (and higher priced) than the traditional mass market beauty product.

3. How will we win?

This question must be answered with a clear value proposition and a path to competitive advantage. Among Oil of Olay’s winning strategies was producing a better anti-aging skin care product — a product at the right price (e.g., not too low) that would entice the prestige customer base.

4. What capabilities must be in place? The task here is to define the activities and competencies that support the where-to-play and how-to-win choices. Oil of Olay, for example, was able to leverage P&G’s strengths in consumer understanding and brand building.

5. What management systems are required? Likewise, strategists must define the systems, structures and measures required to support the choices.

Oil of Olay was also able to leverage P&G’s systems as well as its channel and partner systems. This framework can be applied at all levels of the company, including the organization level, strategic group or, as in the example above, the single business unit, the authors write. Clearly, the choices need to support each other among the different levels.

A Do-It-Yourself Guide While most of the book is dedicated to the five-choice framework, Lafley and Martin offer two additional tools to support the strategic choice process. The first is a structured methodology for analyzing the company — specifically its industry, customers, relative position to competitors and the potential competitor response to your strategic choices. The authors also offer a “reverse engineering” process to test potential strategic choices.

22

leadership&management

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

TOPE POPOOLA is a Human Capital developement Consultant and Pastor. Please feel free to send questions, feedback comments on this column to

topheritage@yahoo.com or visit http//turbochargedforsuccess.blogspot.com

From time to time, rather than reinventing the wheel, I simply yield this column as I partially did last week, to other people when I see how germane their thoughts are to contemporary discourse. So today again, I am yielding space to another person.

Adenugba David is a lecturer in the Department of Physics at the Federal University of Agriculture, Akure. His write up addresses a core need of the moment in today’s Nigeria. I have significantly edited it for editorial appropriateness and contemporary relevance. Enjoy!

“DEFINED in the dictionary as lack of food, shortage of food, desire, appetite, need or wish, hunger, especially in its context of a shortage or lack of food with which this write up is concerned, is a terrible though intangible element that is experienced by all men all over the world. Hunger is no respecter of persons as both old and young get hungry even if the rate varies to certain degrees. A day old baby, just like an old person, gets hungry. Thus, hunger is not a function of age and so does not respect it.

Hunger is not gender sensitive. It is an experience shared by both men and women. It does not respect colour, race, or language. Every human being eats and is vulnerable to hunger.

The rumbling stomach may not be a sign of stomach ache, but that of hunger. Frequent yawning may not be a sign of tiredness, but of serious hunger. According to a Yoruba proverb, a hungry person has no ear for good music or nice sermons. Another well-worn aphorism says “A hungry man is an angry man”. These statements hold true all over the world.

Hunger respects no social status. It does not exempt director or his subordinates. Neither does it esteem military or paramilitary personnel, as well as students. As a matter of fact, it is said that an army marches on its belly! The fact that you are jobless does not in any way insulate you from its pangs.

In fact, you are likely to feel it more! If hunger was sensitive to your resources and your status, top executives or wealthy people who have more resources to deal with the scourge should be visited more by it! But sadly, hunger is no respecter

Hunger has no friend

of position.

He who finds himself constantly hungry without resources or food to assuage his hunger is courting trouble. Hunger without corresponding capacity to provide food can bring reproach and shame. Although there are exceptions to the rule, more often than not, this kind of hunger is common to those who refuse to be diligent in the production of value. Hunger without resources is the albatross of a lazy person; a sure partner of the indolent. According to the scriptures in Proverbs 19:15, “Laziness casts one into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger” Hunger has no friend, else it will not visit civil servants on strike, a babe who has just arrived on the earth, an invalid or aged person. But these too do get hungry. No single scientist can think rationally or undertake meaningful research with a rumbling, hunger-stricken stomach. A hungry teacher is not likely to impart quality knowledge to his students. A policeman who has vowed not to take bribe, will shamelessly stretch out his hand to receive same from both the lawful and lawless when pummelled by hunger. A hungry pastor will spend more time lambasting his congregation with words of condemnation and guilt while emotionally blackmailing them for money.

Hunger can become a collective experience when it affects a significant number of people in the collective as a result of adverse economic conditions as we are currently experiencing in Nigeria. In such a situation, survival is the primary thing on most people’s minds. Consequently, desperate and absurd measures are not unusual occurrences. Oppression indeed makes a wise man mad!

We see examples of this from the Bible. In Samaria, there was an enemy siege that provoked a great famine so severe that it turned ordinary citizens who otherwise were neighbours into cannibals cutting a deal to eat their own sons!

The pervasive hunger turned mothers into monsters driven by survival than maternal affection. Hunger could bring one before a foe to beg for food as the four lepers resolved to do during the famine.

According to Lamentations 4:9, “Those slain by the sword

are better off than those who die of hunger; for these pine away, stricken for lack of the fruits of the field” A hungry man is not fasting, he is suffering from lack of food. A hungry man can hardly pray coherently because his focus is food.

However, no matter the ferocity of hunger’s propensity, it has none to oppress among those who can produce their own food. Prudent folks tame hunger by tilling the ground.

Hunger has no servant among those who have a proper relationship with their land through cultivation. Hunger can be shamed by nursing the land with seeds. In the midst of the current challenges that Nigeria is passing through, if only families and individuals as well as governments at all levels, will embrace what God in His superior wisdom gave to man at the inception of the world and which has come to be known as man’s oldest profession, agriculture, we will forestall an impending food crisis. When a nation can produce enough food to feed its citizens, it has laid a solid foundation for its prosperity.

For now, we must move away from the deceptive media propaganda driven agriculture that seems to be the order of the day. Enough of agriculture seminars and sensitization programmes in 5-star hotels and international conference centers, largely addressed by suit-wearing ‘technocrats’ who are at best, classroom farmers. We must be prepared to go where the rubber meets the road and cut to the chase when it comes to the subject of dealing with the hunger that pervades our land. It is time to get off the theories that only seem to flourish in the media and actually start empowering people to farm. Employed, unemployed, executives, gateman, we must get involved in the pragmatic tilling of the land. If we have a significant number of the population going back to land and getting involved at various stages of the value chain, food will flood the markets and consequently the homes.

When that happens, development has a platform to grow on. In the wisdom of the Yoruba, they opine that once hunger is eliminated from the poverty chain, what remains to be dealt with is infinitesimal!”

I concur!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!

The crisis of multicoloured tunic in leadership

IN the last ten years, I have been to scores of places to speak on the decisive and significant area that is under discussion today. I am so clear in my mind that it is going to append a titanic value to you, your home and the company you lead.

Buddy, are you ready to savour the meal that I have got to hand round today? If yes, do button up your seat belt and let us have a ride into the world of knowledge.

Two months ago, I was at a meeting to speak to about 100 parents (leaders) on this crucial issue and after I stepped down from the raised area that was provided for me to speak from, many parents were able to see eye to eye with me that they unwittingly and erroneously started some avoidable crisis in their homes. How do I mean? When a father makes a ‘coat of many colours’ for just a member of the family, he is setting him or her up for hatred and envy from the rest of the family. The issue I am raising today is a very fundamental one.

Today, many families are crisis-ridden, because a family member is perceptibly loved more than others, making a ‘multicolour tunic’ for him without making for other members of the family. This parental (leadership) boo-boo has led to many deep crises in homes across planet earth. Please, understand that each time you love a member of the family you are leading and he or she is given a ‘coat of many colours’, you are actually setting him or her up for hatred and envy.

About two years ago, I was called upon to proffer a solution to and a way out of a crisis in an organization—as an effect of a ‘multi-coloured tunic’ that was made for just one employee in an organization that had 80 employees. When this happened, the entire workforce began to resent and disgust the staff in question. And beyond loathing and envying him, their level of commitment dropped, because they felt unloved by the arrow-head of the company.

What did I do to solve the crisis and predicament that did hit and slap the company? It was very simple and undemand-

ing: I made the arrow-head of the company make ‘multi-coloured tunics’ for them all! And within a few weeks, their level of commitment surged and hatred and envy gave way to love, unity and collaboration.

I have studied the history of Nigeria from the foundation to roof joist. Each time either a political or military leader emerges in Nigeria; he always makes ‘multi-coloured tunics’ for his own people—without making for folks of other tribes.

Over the years, it is an error that has caused many crises in Nigeria. When ‘multi-coloured tunics’ are made for people of a tribe without making them for people of other tribes, people of other ethnic groups will hate and envy the people that wear ‘multi-coloured tunics.’ If the current president of Nigeria wants to solve some of the major problems facing Nigeria, then he needs to ensure that he makes ‘coats of many colours’ for everyone in Nigeria and not for his people alone. If he wants to construct roads, he should make sure he spreads it across the length and breadth of the country. Whatever he wants to do, he should make sure that it touches everyone in Nigeria. This is the only way—love can take the place of envy and hatred in our beloved country.

Crisis begins in any nation where a tribe is obviously loved more than other tribes. When a president cannot afford to make ‘multi-coloured tunics’ for everyone in the country, he or she should not make for anyone under his or her leadership. Am I saying that it is not possible to love a follower more than others? Of course, it is possible, but you need to have enough leadership intelligence not to show it to others who are within your sphere of influence. If you do, you are going to shoot yourself in the foot.

I read about a man who led a big and peaceful family. The family in question continued to be peaceful until the children began to see that the arrow-head of the family loved one of them more than the rest of them. When this happened, peace gave way to hatred and envy. And where peace was reigning

and ruling began to witness the reign and rule of hatred and envy. Remember, as it is in families, so it is in corporate organizations, higher places of learning, government agencies and corridors of power.

For the umpteenth time, I am not saying that it is not possible to love a follower more than you love others who are within your sphere of influence, but you need to have enough leadership intelligence not to let others know. There are so many reasons that can make a leader love a team member more than others. It could be because of his or loyalty. And it could be because he or she consistently delivers exceptional results. But to protect the head of the follower in question, do not make a ‘multi-coloured tunic’ for him, on the condition that you cannot afford to make it for them all.

As I set in motion to coast home today, please understand me that you may not love your followers uniformly, but all of them must see that you treat them evenly. Once they start to see that you do not treat them equally in the company, different kinds of crises shall erupt and in due course, the productivity of the company shall start to nose-dive.

Are you a leader? If yes, I appeal and request that you shield the head of your star-performer personnel. Do not let others know that you love him or her more than them. You may need to find a way to discreetly and clandestinely reward him or her, but it must not be seen that you love him or her more than others on the team. If you do, you are setting him or her up for hatred and envy.

Lastly, it is an infrequent wisdom in leadership to find a way to openly treat one’s followers equally. It must be seen that they are treated evenly. And if a ‘coat of many colours’ would be made for one, make sure it is made for others too. And if you cannot afford to make it for them all, do not just single out one of them, decorating him or her with a ‘multi-coloured tunic’.

See you where great people are found!

23

Monday, 31 October, 2016

GEW 2016 officially kicks off in S/Africa

#TEFforum2016:

By Kizito Okechukwu

The sight, the sound

| Elumelu advocates for ‘structured giving’ Stories by Ruth Olurounbi

T

HIS year, more than 1,000 people gathered to celebrate selected 1,000 African entrepreneurs from the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme, as well as to motivate, train and root for them.

Among those who came to cheer the new cohort were 500 business leaders in addition to TEEP alumni, state governors, former presidents, CEOs, chairmen, policy makers as well as journalists from across Africa and the world.

Specific speakers included Dr Awele Elumelu, Chairperson, Avon Medical Services Limited; Mr Segun Awolowo, CEO, Nigerian Expoet Promotion Council (NEPC), Clement Ugorji, Public Affairs and Communications Director for Coca-Cola; Audu Maikori, founder of Chocolate City Group; Obianne Ezike, founder and Managing Director, Wakanow.com; Mark Essien, founder and

CEO, Hotels.ng; Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, a serial entrepreneur; former president Olusegun Obasanjo; former prime minister of Benin Republic, Lionel Zinsou and Clare Akanzi, Chief Operating Officer, Rwanda Development Board, among several others.

The forum, second in its seasons, celebrates the 2016 cohort of Elumelu Entrepreneurs – selected from over 45,000 applicants in 54 African countries – and their completion of the Programme’s innovative 12-week online training. On completing the programme Elumelu Entrepreneurs became members of the largest entrepreneurial alumni network in Africa.

The forum also allows entrepreneurs to share and gain knowledge, build cross border partnerships, and connect with investors and policymakers. The first day featured plenary panels, masterclasses, TED-style talks and sector specific networking opportunities, Continues on pg25

INSIDE

‘We need advocacy for entrepreneurship’ –Page 24

Cointreau supports Nigerian small businesses with €20,000 grant –Page25

Nigerian Tribune

Tony O. Elumelu, Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation; and wife, Awele Elumelu, arrive the venue

THIS November, South Africa will celebrate entrepreneurs and their innovative spirit alongside more than 160 other countries for Global Entrepreneurship Week.

South Africa will lead the world in launching the global, week-long event with a gathering of public and private leaders for a kick-off celebration in Johannesburg.

GEW South Africa will be launched by the Minister of Small Business Development Lindiwe Zulu, Deputy Minister of Tourism Tokozile Xasa, Premier of Gauteng Province David Makhura and the President of Global Entrepreneurship Network Jonathan Ortmans. South Africa’s leading chief executives, entrepreneurs, innovators and ecosystem leaders will gather at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) Auditorium in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Friday, November 11.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is the largest gathering of innovators and entrepreneurs who launch startups that bring ideas to life, drive economic growth and stimulate socio-economic development. The week is dedicated to inspire millions of people from more than 160 countries through local, national and global activities designed to help them unleash their potential as entrepreneurs and innovators. In Africa, the African Union (AU), through its blueprint for socio-economic development, Agenda 2063: the Africa We Want, encompasses the ideals of entrepreneurship and innovation through its developmental aspirations aimed at building a sustainable entrepreneurship ecosystem on the continent.

Global Entrepreneurship Week is a lead up to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC), which South Africa will host in March 2017. Building from the momentum of previous GECs and the recent Global Entrepreneurship Summit (GES) held at Silicon Valley in June 2016, the GEC will be held in Johannesburg for the first time on the African continent and will host nearly 5,000 delegates from 160 countries.

Young entrepreneurs willing to pitch are also encouraged to register to pitch their ideas at the Idea Space Fair at GEW. Winners will be selected and have the opportunity to pitch at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress (GEC) in March 2017.

Kizito is the executive head at SEA Africa, and one of the leading organizers for GEC 2017 in Johannesburg.

24

Monday, 31 October, 2016

‘We need advocacy for entrepreneurship’ Continues from pg23

while the second day was a policy-led gathering, focused on improving the enabling environment.

At the forum, which climaxed with a concert late in the night on Saturday, was an opportunity to hear from several speakers, panellists as well as the convener of the $100 million, 10-year development programme.

Charging the entrepreneurs, Folorunsho Alakija, a member of the high-level discussion, told the entrepreneurs that the road ahead was a difficult one which requires them to take several risks and fight. “The hallmark of any entrepreneur is the ability to take risks. You need to fight yourself, friends, competition and government in order to succeed.” But the world’s richest black woman said told the entrepreneurs that with help from higher power, friends and family, they will succeed. All the need is to be strategically focused.

Former President Obasanjo in response to what he thought African entrepreneurs need to succeed, said it was important to dialogue with the entrepreneurs to discover their needs and then meet them.

He said it was counterproductive to offer top-bottom solutions to the entrepreneurs, as those have over the years failed.

Obasanjo also called for accelration of infrasture development, saying this will help create enabling business environment for the entrepreneurs.

“What you say you are doing is commendable, please let us see the results.

We have to ensure that doing business in Nigeria is easy. We have to make them (investors) come to Nigeria.

We need to be able to register a company at a one-stop shop,” he added.

Former Prime Minister, Benin Republic, Lionel Zinsou, advocated for more collaborations from other billionaires in Africa to help accelerate the continent’s development. “We need advocacy for entrepreneurship. What Tony Elumelu is doing is the exception. It’s not the norm,” he said, commending Elumelu, while

also asking for expanded collaborations.

Tony Elumelu, the founder of the six-year old Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), whose brainchild is the Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP), canvassed for the “structured giving” in developing the continent.

According to him, Africans have the ultimate solutions to the African problems and they are the only ones who can develop the continent.

In the build up to the biggest gathering of entrepreneurs, policy makers, business executives and the media, Elumelu, speaking in Paris, France, called for structured philanthropy, enabling beneficiaries to become self-dependent.

“It is important that Africans increasingly embrace ‘structured giving’ because it helps us, assist worthy individuals who are not parts of our families, or neighbourhoods, but who have great need and potential,” he said at the event.

He echoed same at the forum on Saturday, saying “we need to give from the perspective of empowering the recipients, instead of making them depending on us.”

Speaking on the forum, Elumelu said: “The TEF Forum is the centrepiece of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme, and through it, we are giving from the perspective of empowering the recipient, instead of making them dependent on us. As a result, our entrepreneurs will change the face of Africa, creating a wave of dynamic African businesses, bringing wealth to their communities and countries, and driving economic growth across the whole continent.”

As forum concludes, the selected 1,000 entrepreneurs are now eligible to receive up to $10,000 seed capital to implement their business plans.

“We are proud to have established a unique platform for African entrepreneurs to forge relationships and business partnerships. In doing so, we are creating an ecosystem that fosters innovation and collaboration, on a scale few believed possible,” Parmindar Vir OBE said.

Nigerian Tribune

The build up to the forum

Empowering African Entrepreneurs...From left: Ernest Bai Koroma, President of Sierra Leone; Tony O. Elumelu, Founder, Tony Elumelu Foundation; Dr Mrs Awele Elumelu,Chairperson of Avon Healthcare Limited/CEO, Avon Medical Services Limited and Mr Segun Awolowo, CEO, Nigerian Exports Promotion Commission. PHOTO: EBUBE OKECHUKWU VIA @EBUBAY WITH 96 countries worldwide expressing interest in the $100 million Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) and entrepreneurs from 53 countries in Africa submitting applications for a chance at the $5,000 individual grants it was time the successful entrepreneurs met with their mentor, Tony Elumelu at the second edition of the TEF Entrepreneurship Forum in Nigeria.

Of 45,000 total applications from sectors such as agriculture, ICT, fashion, commerce/ retail, media and entertainment, healthcare, education and training, toursim and professional services, telcom, aviation, haulage and logistics, energy/power generation, transportation, financial services and waste management among others, 1,000 successful applicants got the chance to meet with the man many of Africa’s entrepreneurs say has given them “transforming” opportunities to scale and compete globally.

“So far, $8 million of the $100 million commitment – with $5 million going directly to entrepreneurs as seed capital the founder, has been spent in the first year of the programme, TEEP and chairman, UBA Group and Heirs Holding, Tony Elumelu said earlier in the year in a written statement.

Breakdown of the 2016 1,000 applicants by country, sector and gender: By country Of 53 out of 54 countries that applied, Nigeria led the top five countries by number

of applications with 13,276 applications (that is 30 per cent of the applications) with Kenya following with 1,000 applications, Uganda, 492 and Cameroon, 410 applications.

By gender Although the statistics of women applicants was not so encouraging - 36 per cent - some say this year’s application was a significant leap from last year’s.

With 32 per cent of the final 1,000 selected applicants as female, it is hoped that more female applicants will apply for next year’s edition of the programme.

It important to note that 15 Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Cape Verde, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Gabon, Gambia, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal, Sierra Leone and South Sudan had female-to-male ratio in the final 1,000 entries, begging the question, will Nigerian females take the lead next year?

By sector Breakdown of the 1,000 selected applicants shows that 228 entrepreneurs were selected from the agriculture sector, 93 from manufacturing, 79 from education and training, 77 from ICT, 76 from commercial retail, 59 from fashion, 44 from energy/power generation, 44 from healthcare, 41 from

transportation, 17 from consulting, eight from financial services, seven from haulage/logistics, five from oil and gas, four from telcom and two from aviation.

It will be recalled that on March 22 this year, the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF) an-

ipants he partic Some of t

nounced the newest 1,000 entrepreneurs to join the$100 million Tony Elumelu Entrepreneurship Programme (TEEP) launched in 2015.

The programme, as Entrepreneurship+ has consistently reported, is the largest

media and entertainment, 40 from waste management, 27 from construction, 26 from professional service, 23 from FMCG, 20 from tourism/hospitality, 20 from

Mrs Elumelu asks African journ husband’s development projec EARLIER on Saturday morning, Dr Awele Elumelu, Chairperson of Avon Healthcare Limited/Chief Executive Officer of Avon Medical Services Limited and wife

to the billionaire philanthropist, Tony Elumelu urged African journalists to buy into her husband’s Africapitalism philosophy.

Mrs Elumelu who has

championed a cause of sustainable health care delivery in Nigeria, and has consistently called for proper monitoring, accountability and equitable distribution of the

25

African philanthropic initiative devoted to entrepreneurship and represents a 10-year, $100 million commitment, to identify and empower 10,000 African entrepreneurs, create a million jobs and add $10 billion in revenues to Africa’s economy.

Commenting on the previous edition, Parminder Vir OBE, CEO of The Tony Elumelu Foundation, said: “We saw phenomenal success with the first cycle of TEEP – the success stories of the TEEP 2015 alumni are a testament to the transformative power of the programme we have built. Through TEEP, we are proving to the next generation of entrepreneurs that their ideas can change their communities, their countries and their continent.”

The second season of the annual TEF Entrepreneurship Forum showcased the African start-up to a global audience of entrepreneurs, incubators, business, corporations, government, investors, academia and foundations and from what the entrepreneurs told this reporter at the forum, it was time a time of engagement, networking, inspiration and more important, to hear from world renowned executives, scholars and entrepreneurs.

After successfully completing intensive online training over the course of 12 weeks, the 2016 cohort participated in the second edition of the Elumelu Entrepreneurship Forum, which is the largest annual gathering of African entrepreneurial talent.

O

N Friday, the Public Affairs Section of the U.S. Consulate General in awarded some Nigerians who are working on fields such as entrepreneurship, empowerment of women and youth, human rights, transparency in government, and freedom of media, non-government organisations (NGOs), and academic institutions.

The award ceremony, which held at the US Embassy, was in recognition and in support of Nigerian women and men who “are working to solve hugely important problems for your communities in southern Nigeria,” the U.S. Consul General, John Bray, said at the ceremony.

“By making these awards, we seek to increase the capacity of non-governmental organizations and individuals to strengthen communities – bringing more opportunity to more Nigerians through creative projects that have lasting benefits in society,” Bray added.

So far, the United States Consulate General in Lagos has awarded approximately $381,220 in Department of State funds to 36 in 2016.

Of the 23 awardees were Co-Creation Hub and six others who are helping the US Embassy to implement its Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative. The CYFI is a dynamic youthbased initiative launched in 2011 by the U.S. Consulate General, Lagos, to encourage community service by “energetic young leaders,” the consul said.

According to the consul, the awardees are empowering women and girls, including underserved women, and women living with disabilities, through “training new entrepreneurs, cleaning up the environment and recycling waste, bringing medical care to rural areas, edu-

nalists to buy into cts funds within health care system, said one of the effective ways to make impact was for African journalists to buy into her husband’s vision of developing the continent.

Nigerian Tribune

Monday, 31 October, 2016

According to her, the stories the journalists tell will have more effect if it was coming from a place of conviction, rather than from an outsider’s perspective.

US Consulate awards over $381,000 grants to Nigerian entrepreneurs, others

The award recipients in a group photograph with US Consul General, John Bray, at the ceremony, on Friday. cating hearing-impaired persons on the rights of persons with disabilities, mitigating human trafficking and reducing gender-based violence in Nigeria.”

The Co-Creation Hub, which got over $100,000 in grant, is the official partner of the U.S. Mission to Ni-

geria to set up and operate a new Priority American Space at their business incubation facility in Yaba, Lagos.

This Priority American Space, will, when ready, “be a publicly accessible space for Nigerians to access a broad range of information and materials about

the United States and our culture, take part in English language learning, learn about opportunities to study in the United States, and especially to participate in programs on technology and entrepreneurship,” the U.S. Consul General said.

It will be recalled that the

CcHub, in partnership with the US embassy, hosted the first SciTech Women Meetup in Nigeria. The quarterly event brings together women in STEM fields to discuss and share insight on issues that concern women in the Nigerian tech ecosystem.

Cointreau supports Nigerian small businesses with €20,000 grant

“PURSUE your passions, fulfil your dreams, reveal yourself!” That was the message a global drink company, La Maison Cointreau, told 10 Nigerian small business owners last week when it awarded them with €20,000 in grant.

Cointreau Creative Crew, philanthropic programme from Cointreau, launched Nigeria in April this year, seeks to encourage country’s small business owners to “dream, dare, create.”

At the unveiling of the 10 selected applicants for the €20,000 grant launched in August this year, the company said it remained committed to “helping inspire young women move beyond maintaining the status quo by motivating and supporting advancement in their chosen career fields which is only achievable through the willingness to create and explore new avenues of

self expression.”

Of the 19 businesses selected from hundreds of applications, Entrepreneurship+ learnt that 10 finalists whose businesses received the highest votes during the public voting phase to the CCC will be mentored for a two-month period before the finale event in January 2017.

The 10 finalists selected includedtTtysoon.com, Nigeria’s first retail web-to-print store; Cash Madam, a simple, innovative solution created to help women in particular, and other small and growing business owners in developing economies like Nigeria; workarena: 1850, an online platform which aims to change the way business owners find qualified apprentices and graduate apprentices for their businesses within Nigeria; Vegetable and Fruit Processing, aimed at sourcing vegetables and fruits from locally farmers scattered all over Nigeria.

Others are Introduction of Biotechnology, which helps in the production of a clean, non-explosive and an environmental friendly gas called Biogas; I-Skills 42, an empowerment project with the aim of providing ICT literacy to tens of thousands of Nigerians using MELU; and Tanabio Environmental, a start-up renewable energy production business that will convert organic waste such as animal waste and agricultural waste into cooking

fuel (bio-gas) and organic fertilizer through anaerobic digestion.

Waste to Décor, which makes creative works of art from waste products like bottles, newspapers, magazines, straws, plastic, wood, CD tapes, and the likes; Green Diamond, a project which will locally plant, grow and sell flowers in Nigeria and Nsaata Africa, a bespoke shoemaking business started in Lagos, Nigeria in 2016 were also selected.

Some of the finalists with Betty Irabor, at the ceremony lat week.

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Monday, 31 October, 2016 NIFEX as @ October 27, 2016

CBN Rates as at 10/21/2016 Currency US DOLLAR POUNDS STERLING EURO SWISS FRANC YEN CFA WAUA YUAN/RENMINBI RIYAL SDR

Buying 304.25 371.0329 331.1761 305.8711 2.9334 0.4901 418.5424 44.9699 81.1182 417.8874

Central (NGN) 304.75 371.6426 331.7204 306.3738 2.9382 0.5001 419.2303 45.0443 81.2515 418.5741

Selling (NGN) 305.25 372.2524 332.2646 306.8764 2.943 0.5101 419.9181 45.1186 81.3848 419.2609

Tenor

Rate (%)

Change (%)

Spot($/N)

318.125

0.20

NIBOR as @ October 27, 2016 Tenor

Rate (%)

Change (%)

O/N

9.6667

-2.38

1M

17.874

-0.90

3M

19.539

-0.64

6M

20.8243

-0.88

NITTY Tenor

Rate (%)

Change (%)

1M

18.0333

0.89

2M

18.6745

1.46

3M

18.7836

1.40

6M

19.3948

1.15

9M

20.9351

0.06

12M

22.6119

-0.31

with Chima Nwokoji m:08032637535 e:chimatitus@yahoo.com

From left, Deputy Managing Director, FirstBank, Mr Gbenga Shobo; Chairman, Board of Directors, FirstBank, Mrs Ibukun Awosika; Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and MD/CEO, First Bank of Nigeria Limited and Subsidiaries, Dr Adesola Adeduntan, at the launch of FirstGem, FirstBank’s new lifestyle offering for women.

Cybercrime: NeFF warns banking public against social engineering threats ‘Nigeria could lose N33 bn to e-fraud in 2016’

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HE Nigeria electronic Fraud Forum (NeFF) has warned bankers and the banking public against responding to messages that fly into their phones and e-mails on daily basis claiming to originate from Deposit Money Banks, whereas such messages were sent by criminals.

The forum, also said it is looking critically at measures that will protect the industry as a whole from the menace of social engineering attacks and will not relent in achieving major activities that it has set out to do.

This is just as it is estimated that Nigeria could lose over N33 billion to efraud in 2016 and beyond.

Speaking at the general meeting of NeFF in Lagos, over the weekend, Director, Payment System Stability at the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Dipo Fatokun said the meeting is taking place after the world has been flooded with various news on Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks targeting various internet destinations, such as Twitter, PayPal, CNN, The New York Times to mention a few.

“Particularly worrisome is the fact that devices used to spread the malware were operated with default passwords

which made it easy for the hackers to guess. This goes to show, that, increasingly attacks of this nature are becoming common-place and tactics used, more damaging to individuals and institutions alike.

“Social engineering has become rife in cybercrime attacks in Nigeria. Almost on a daily basis, a plethora of messages are sent by these criminals with the express intent to con the unsuspecting recipient using techniques that appeal to vanity, greed or authority. It is therefore important that we look critically at measures that will protect the industry as a whole from the menace of social engineering attacks, “Fatokun said.

That is why the Nigeria Electronic Fraud Forum said it will not relent in achieving major activities that we have set out to do, which include the operationalisation of a dedicated e-payment and Card Crime Unit in the Nigeria Police, which will enable a greater effort in quest to successfully investigate and bring to book through effective and efficient prosecution of cyber-criminals; A workshop on the Cybercrime Prohibition and Prevention Act, which will expand understanding of the impact, implications and responsibilities of all stakeholders, particularly those operat-

ing within the financial services sector; consistent publishing of literature that will benefit the entire payments industry and customers alike, through annual reports, the latest, which of course was officially presented among others .

He commend Sterling and Zenith Banks, for their act of support through the provision of their resources, material, thereby demonstrating in no uncertain terms their commitment to the cause of NeFF as an industry platform for collaborating on payments security and “to this we say thank you very much.”

In addition, several conferences that are focused on Cybersecurity have been scheduled to hold in the month of November. The first being the CyberXchange conference 2016, with the theme, “Security and Technology: Protecting the Nation’s Cyber Assets” which will hold on the 2nd to 3rd of November, 2016 at The Landmark Center in Lagos. Also the Electronic Payment Providers Association of Nigeria (EPPAN), will be having the 7th in the series of Payment Systems and Fraud Conferences, which is scheduled to hold on the 8th of November, 2016 by 8 am at the Civic Centre Victoria Island also in Lagos. Members are strongly encouraged to attend these conferences.

Nigerian Tribune

Money Market Review DESPITE a series of Open Market Operation (OMO) auctions, money market rates moderated last week, easing from triple/double digits recorded in recent weeks to close the week in single digit. Open Buy Back (OBB) and Overnight (O/N) rates settled at 9.7 per cent and 10.3 per cent on Friday, down 4.3 per cent points apiece week on week (W-o-W) (from penultimate Friday’s 14.0 per cent and 14.5 per cent).

Dealers at Afrinvest West Africa Limited, an investment research and securities group said the week opened with aggregate financial system liquidity in a deficit of N19.4 billion. However, OBB and O/N rates inched 4.0 per cent and 3.8 per cent points lower to close at 10.0 per cent and 10.8 per cent respectively.

This was on the back of the inflow from September Federation Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocation which improved system liquidity level, enough to offset the impact of an OMO auction by the apex bank.

N120.2 billion was mopped up at stop rates of 18.0 per cent and 18.5 per cent for the 185-days and 339days instruments. The apex bank further sold N51.5 billion and N53.8 billion worth OMO bills on Tuesday and Wednesday in a bid to mop up excess liquidity, thus OBB and O/N rates rose 67 basis points (bps) and 83bps respectively to close at 10.7 per cent and 11.6 per cent on Tuesday, eventually settling at 10.5 per cent and 11.3 per cent by midweek.

OBB and O/N rates moderated to single digit on Thursday to close at 8.8 per cent and 9.5 per cent respectively due to the impact of N144.9 billion OMO maturity on system liquidity.

Activities in the Treasury Bills market were largely bearish as average T-bills rate trended upwards on most trading days during the week on the back of the Central Bank’s aggressive activities in the primary market. Average T-bills rate rose 20bps on Monday to close at 17.2 per cent as sell sentiment trickled into the market.

Despite improved system liquidity, the sell sentiment persisted on Tuesday as average T-bills rate increase 51bps to close at 17.7 per cent as the CBN mopped up liquidity via OMO auctions at higher rates. Average Tbills rate closed the week at 17.6 per cent up 0.6 per cent W-o-W.

Foreign Exchange Market CONSISTENT with recent trend, the Naira last week remained relatively stable against the dollar at the interbank with Naira/Dollar exchange rate slightly appreciating to N304.50/US$1.00 at the end of the week (from N304.75/US$1.00 in previous week) while the CBN continued to intervene with dollar supply in some trading sessions during the week.

However, Foreign Exchange (FX) rate remained volatile in the parallel market, attributable to the apex bank’s decision to maintain status-quo on Deposit Money Banks suspension (except FBN Limited) from selling dollars to bureau-de-change operators, the restrictions on use of naira debit cards for FX transactions as well as Travelex’s inability to conveniently fulfill all US dollar demands. Thus, the Naira/Dollar exchange rate at the parallel market opened the week at N455.00/US$1.00, but depreciated to N470.00/ US$1.00 by midweek before firming up slightly to N465.00/US$1.00 on Friday.

In the futures market, the Central Bank settled $270.6 million in notional value of the maturing October 26 2016, futures instrument on Wednesday. The Apex Bank issued a new 12-month tenor instrument (OCT 25 2017) worth US$1.00 billion at N258.50/ US$1.00, to replace the maturing instrument. This is in line with the trend since introduction of the futures market.

In the interim, we expect the exchange rate at the parallel market to remain pressured due to restricted access to official windows and surge in dollar demand associated with the festive season. The CBN is yet to guide to a metric that would trigger a shift from its current peg; thus, we expect FX rate at the official market to remain stable whilst the CBN continues to intervene via spot/forward sales of the Greenback.

27

moneymarket

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigerian Tribune

Rates to inch higher as T-bills maturity of N123.0bn exerts neutral impact

T

HERE are expectations that money market rates will inch higher from current levels due to continued liquidity mop up by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). Dealers also expect that Treasury-Bills maturity of N123.0 billion expected to hit the system will have no impact on rates due to a rollover of the same net amount.

This week, “we expect the apex bank to continue mopping up liquidity through

OMO auctions and thus expect money market rates to inch higher from current levels.

There is also a scheduled T-bills maturity of N123.0 billion expected to hit the system, but its impact on liquidity levels will be neutral due to a rollover of the same net amount,” one dealer said.

The CBN sold about N51 billion ($168 million) worth of treasury bills on Friday to mop up liquidity as the overnight lending rate traded flat around 10 per cent, traders said.

The bank sold N25 billion of 174-day open market operation bills at 18 per cent and N26 billion of the 364-day paper at 18.5 percent at an auction of Friday.

That brings the total of debt sales last week to N370.67 billion as the Central Bank has been trying to remove cash from the banking system to contain annual inflation, which hit a more than 11-year high in September.

Dealers said liquidity got a lift by the

central bank’s budget allocations for government agencies on Monday and the repayment of matured treasury bills due on Thursday, just as major players were willing to lend their cash at 10 per cent for overnight lending, unchanged to Thursday.

However, another dealers’ expectation differed a little, saying, “We expect the overnight rate to remain stable around the present level next week unless the central bank sustains its cash withdrawal exercise.

Customers raise alarm about arbitrary, foolish banking practices SOME bank customers in the Lagos metropolis are not happy with what they described as arbitrary and foolish banking habits that most Deposit Money Banks refused to do away with and still claim to be new generation financial institutions.

Nigerian Tribune felt the pulse of some bank customers last week at Ejigbo, Yaba, Ikeja, Victoria Island and Oshodi all in Lagos.

A customer at Ikeja who did not want his name in print complained about the practice of insisting on regulatory ID card when all forms of identification is already with the banker.

According to him, he went to a new generation bank at Murtala Muhammed Airport Road in April to change a digit mistake in his telephone number. He was told to use edit facility on the Automated Teller Machine which he tried using but could not complete the transaction. Two months after he went back into the banking hall to sort this out once and for all, but was told to go to his other bank and apply for a change of date of birth because the age in his international passport differ from the one submitted for Bank Verification Number (BVN).

According to him, this was done and last week, he went to the bank for a different transaction and saw that the banking hall was empty. He decided to edit the telephone number so that he could be receiving alert on the account opened since 2008. On filling every form required, he presented his company’s Identity Card, having left home without International passport.

“But to my greatest amazement, I was turned away again by the customer care because I did not come with a regulatory ID Card. My surprise is that in this technology driven era when the Central Bank of Nigeria has reformed the banking space, means of identification still revolve around old practice of bring birth certificate, bring national ID Card, International passport among other physical requirement for such a simple transaction as correcting a digit mistake in my phone number,” the embittered customer lamented.

From left, Group Executive, Consumer Banking, Patrick Akinwuntan; Group Chief Executive Officer, Ade Ayeyemi, both of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI); General Manager, Ade Ashaye and Business Development Manager, Osaretin Ekhator, both of Visa West Africa Limited at an MoU signing ceremony between Ecobank and Visa West Africa Limited, held at Ecobank Head Office in Lagos. PHOTO: SYLVESTER OKORUWA

Access Bank attributes N72bn Q3 Profit growth to business efficiency ACCESS Bank Plc, has said that its impressive profit of N72 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2016, was due to enhanced business efficiency, resulting from effective execution of long-term strategy.

The Bank’s Profit Before Tax (PBT) showed an increase of 19 per cent from N60.4 billion recorded during the same period in 2015.

Profit After Tax (PAT) grew by similar margin from N48.1 billion in 2015 to N57.1 billion in 2016.

Access Bank Group’s unaudited ninemonth results released to the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, also showed Gross Earnings of N274.5 billion, up 7 per cent from N257.6 billion in the corresponding period of 2015. The growth in gross earnings was driven by 17 per cent increase in interest income on the back of continued growth in the bank’s core business.

Similarly, the bank posted 12 per cent growth in operating income to N199.3 billion from N178.1 billion in 2015. Customer Deposits grew 25 per cent to N2.10 trillion from N1.68 trillion in December 2015.

Access Bank’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (CAR) remained solid at 19 per cent as at September 2016, well above the regulatory minimum.

Commenting on the result, Group Managing Director/CEO, Herbert Wigwe said, “Access Bank’s performance in the first three quarters of this year remained strong and consistent, reflecting a stable business with the capacity to deliver sustainable returns, particularly during a period underlined by significant macro headwinds.” According to him, the group maintained stable asset quality, recording NPL and Cost of Risk Ratios (CRR) of 2.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent, respectively.

“Our capital and liquidity position remained adequately above regulatory levels, as we continued to implement a disciplined capital plan, ensuring sufficient levels of profit retention to support our growth. In addition to capital enhancement, the recently concluded $300 million senior unsecured debt issue allows us optimise and enhance our foreign currency funding capacity whilst strengthening our balance sheet,” Wigwe added.

Further breakdown of the bank’s asset quality ratios also showed improvement as the percentage of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) to total gross loans stood at 2.1 per cent compared to 1.7 per cent in December 2015.

The NPL Coverage Ratio remained strong at 209.5 per cent in the period, compared with 216.4 per cent as at December 2015. Also, the bank said Cost to Income Ratio (CIR) improved 190bps y/y to 57.7 per cent in the nine months of 2016 on the back of strong income growth during the period. Total Assets stood at N3.39 trillion, up 31 per cent compared to N2.59 trillion in December 2015.

“We remain committed to our cost containment plan, as we strive to balance operational efficiency with earnings growth in a constrained environment. The bank will remain resilient in the achievement of its strategic imperatives; maximising our strong market position and solid capital base, while leveraging digital innovation to improve service touch points as we sharpen our retail play with emphasis on cheaper funding sources,” Wigwe noted.

Stanbic IBTC disburses over N25 bn to farmers, promises more funding STANBIC IBTC, a member of Standard Bank Group, said it has disbursed over N25 billion to farmers under the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN’s) agriculture credit schemes, and established an out-grower scheme, where smallholder farmers are matched with offtakers, among other initiatives in the agriculture sector.

The bank, therefore reiterates its plans to increase fund allocation to the agricultural sector, given the importance of the sector to job creation, economic prosperity and growth.

Chief Executive of Stanbic IBTC Hold-

ings PLC, Mrs Sola David-Borha, renewed this commitment at the 2016 Stanbic IBTC Business Leadership Series in Lagos.

David-Borha said financing remains a critical component of a vibrant and sustainable agricultural sector and that the Stanbic IBTC Group will continue to help unlock opportunities that exist in the sector through its support for businesses and initiatives across the entire agriculture value chain.

“We all know that agriculture is capable of creating millions of jobs across the entire

value chain, drive export and the muchneeded foreign exchange. We intend to continue to support that sector by increasing our allocation and providing a platform for engagement. We have a defined risk appetite for agriculture and we have structured our portfolio to ensure that we manage this risk as we support farmers in primary production as well as agro-allied businesses,” David-Borha said.

She said as the next growth sector, the focus on agriculture is not misplaced and urged stakeholders in the agriculture value chain, particularly governments and

private sector players, to renew the focus through partnerships and initiatives that will maximise the sector’s potential.

Stanbic IBTC, David-Borha stated, is also committed to providing platforms like the Business Leadership Series for showcasing Nigeria’s economic potential to the world, particularly ongoing reforms in the agricultural sector, with emphasis on improvements in infrastructure, agro-industrial zones, financing and an enabling policy environment crucial to the full exploitation of the agricultural value chain and attainment of food security.

28

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Lucozade, Ribena brands to wear new look

POPULAR beverage brands, Lucozade Boost and Ribena brands may experience a repackaging as Suntory Beverage & Food Nigeria, new owners of the brands, enlarges its footprint into the Nigerian market.

Giving this hint in Lagos, while announcing the company’s commencement of full operations in Nigeria, with the two

global brands- Lucozade and Ribena, the company’s Managing Director, Mr Chinedum Okereke, stated that repackaging the products has become necessary to enable the brands reflect the identity of the new owners.

He described the development as a fall-out of the recent completion of the divestment of the drinks bottling and distribution

BRANDS &

business between GSK Consumer Nigeria Plc and Japanese global beverage company, Suntory Beverage & Food.

While expressing the belief that the company’s investment in Nigeria would yield positive results, he, however described the investment as a clear demonstration of the company’s unflinching faith in the country’s business environment.

with Akin Adewakun

MARK TING m:08054683584 e:akadewakun@yahoo.co.uk

From left, Public Affairs Manager, Northern Region, Nigerian Bottling Company Limited (NBC), Aminu Mohammed; Regional Manufacturing Director, Northern Region, (NBC), Aliyu Paiko; the Shehu of Borno, Abubakar Ibn Umar Garbai El-Kanemi and Managing Director, NBC, George Polymenakos, during a courtesy visit to the Shehu of Borno, in his palace, recently.

We will continue to boost digital TV industry with our offerings —StarTimes

S

IX years after opening its doors to business in Nigeria, leading digital TV network operator, StarTimes, says its entrance has completely changed the digital TV industry and viewing experience of Nigerian subscribers, especially the masses.

This, the pay tv network operator believes, it has achieved by ensuring price affordability, introducing for the first time in Nigeria the very mass market-friendly DTT (Antenna) Pay-TV model and a very affordable content bouquet called Nova.

In a chat with Brands &Marketing, the company’s Public Relations Manager, Israel Bolaji stated that the Pay TV platform’s partnership with Africa’s largest television network NTA and other terrestrial analogue TV stations, had helped in creating alternative options for viewers, boosting the industry, made digital TV very affordable, while rallying the masses to key into Federal Government’s digital TV switch over agenda.

Bolaji noted that the company had played a significant role in boosting the industry, while setting the pace in many areas, including affordable pricing, collaboration and innovation. ‘‘For over twenty years, digital television in Nigeria was very expensive and priced beyond the reach of the middle class and

the masses until the arrival of StarTimes in 2010. ‘’We offered more affordable option for exciting television experience. By pioneering the DTT (antenna) model, a mass market and affordable offering, we broke decades of jinx, surrounding pay TV services. Today, an average Nigerian household can afford both a decoder and monthly subscription,” he stated.

He added that the Pay TV platform’s deliberate collaboration with terrestrial

analogue TV stations and the government, through the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), marked the first and true beginning of strategic engagements involving public and private partnership towards actualization of digital TV switch over in the country.

He also expressed StarTimes’ commitment at further supporting subscribers with viewing convenience programs like door- to -door after sales services, 24-7 care phone lines, add-on channels and convenient payment models and online platforms.

How Akwa Ibom-based teacher emerged 2016 Maltina Teacher of The Year WARM personality and penchant for helping children with special needs, were some of the characteristics traits that contributed to the emergence of Imoh Essien, an Akwa Ibom-based teacher, as the 2016 Maltina Teacher of the Year, at the grand finale of the contest, held in Lagos.

Essien, a teacher from Special Education Centre for Exceptional Children, Uyo, Akwa Ibom, was rewarded with N1 million in addition to N500,000 he had earlier received as state champion from Akwa Ibom.

He will also get N1 million every year

for five years, a training program abroad and a block of six classrooms built at his school, as part of the total package of the grand prize.

The Computer and Physical Education teacher revealed that he draws his inspiration for teaching from his warm personality, a trait, he believed, had enabled him help children with special needs.

He believes his strong emotional and mental stability are always vital in the course of positively impacting children with special needs, a job, he said, he had done for twelve years.

Nigerian Tribune

“This new investment is a clear demonstration of Suntory’s confidence in the Nigerian economy. The company relies on the strong connection between the Nigerian consumers and its Lucozade and Ribena brands and is especially confident of the nation’s immense potential for economic growth and the impressive productivity level of its people.

Boff & Company unveils new corporate identity INSURANCE brokerage firm, Boff and Company Insurance Brokers Limited, has unveiled a new corporate identity as part of its recently celebrated 25 years anniversary celebration.

Unveiling the new identity in Lagos, the Chairman/CEO of Boff and Company Insurance Brokers Limited, Mr. Babajide Olatunde-Agbeja stated that in the past two and a half decades, the company had been able to fulfill its dream of operating a professional brokerage firm that would offer its clients unparalleled personalised services.

“We knew that an average person likes attention and he will stay with you if he feels that you have his interest at heart.

We set out to market private companies as most government parastatals owed premiums and were used to paying premium in arrears,” he said.

According to him, the new brand identity, which comes in purple and orange, depict two interlocking rings that show the connection between the company and its esteemed clients.

He explained that while the purple colour on the logo, signifies nobility and trust, the orange colour promotes a sense of wellness and energy.

PEFON honours top 10 female professionals FORMER first female Director-General, Nigerian/Stock Exchange (NSE), Professor (Mrs) Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, former first female Vice Chancellor, University of Benin, Professor Grace Alele -Williams, First female President of the Harvard Business School Association of Nigeria, Dr (Mrs) Onikepo Akande were among top 10 lady-professionals, honoured by the Professional Excellence Foundation of Nigeria (PEFON), in Lagos.

Speaking at the Induction and Investiture Ceremony, the Founder and Chairman of Council of the foundation, Chief Dipo Bailey, explained that the women were being honoured for being leading lights in their chosen careers by being pioneer female presidents in their professional bodies.

He added that the foundation was set up to enhance professionalism, for the nation’s economic development, by recognising professionals who have excelled in their professions, while also celebrating nonprofessionals, who have assisted, through their conglomerates, to build professionals.

While charging the younger generation to emulate the honourees, by being professional in their chosen careers, Chief Bailey stated that one of the foundation’s plans is to fraternise with the professional ladies sector of institutes, associations and societies, with a view to forming a formidable women sector of the foundation.

29

Monday, 31 October, 2016

PoliticsNews

Kunle Oderemi kunleoderemi@gmail.com 08116954635

LGs must be rescued from govs —OBJ •Says no development without LG autonomy

By Kehinde Adio

F

ORMER President Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) has reiterated the need for local governments to have an autonomous status in the country.

He spoke at the International Conference on Politics, Security and Development organised by the Department of Political Science and Administration, Babcock University, Ogun

State.

He expressed dissatisfaction with what he called the negligence of the local government system in the country over the years.

In his keynote address drawn from the theme of the conference and entitled: Forty years of local government reforms and democratic development in Nigeria: Critical perspective, the former president said until local government system

was democratised and made more responsive to development needs, the expected growth and development in the local government areas in the country would remain elusive.

He noted that state governments constituted the major obstacles to local government development by stealing their funds at source, while the tenure of local government chairmen depended on the whims and caprices of the state gover-

nors.

He added that only a few states had held local government elections, while others have carried on as if it was legal to run local government without the constitution that created them.

Worse still, he said, most governors floated the idea of appointing transition committees comprising their surrogates to oversee the affairs. This, he said, was a fraud.

He said: “Good leadership

at the state and local government levels with integrity, dedication and lack of corruption are what can make local governments work to achieve their purpose for the people. “ But to be able to do these, local governments have to be led by men and women of integrity who will understand the enormous challenges in the system and focus on primarily on issues that would enhance the living standard of the masses.

“Therefore, the local government as a third tier of

government should not be scrapped or changed to local administration.

“Rather, it should be strengthened and democratised. Officials of the local governments should always be elected and not appointed.

“While all Nigerians should come together to pray for the possibility of reviewing the constitution, local governments should engage in agricultural production. The development would go a long way to boost production in the country.”

Nwabueze heads for court over APGA leadership crisis Sunday Ejike-Abuja

Former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo (GCFR) (middle); Vice Chancellor, Babcock University, Ogun State, Professor Ademola Tayo, and distinguished participants at the first international conference organised by the Department of Political Science and Public Administration of the university, recently.

THE acting national chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ozo Nwabueze Okafor, has asked a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to stop Dr Victor Oye from parading himself as the party’s national chairman.

Oye was APGA’s national chairman until his suspension from office by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) on October 5, 2016, over alleged breach of the party’s constitution.

Withhold assent to amended CCB/CCT Act, CNPP urges Buhari

By Abiodun Awolaja

THE Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has condemned the amendment to the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) Act by the National Assembly (NASS).

Consequently, it urged President Muhammadu Buhari not to sign the amended Act. The CNPP also called on well-meaning Nigerians and civil society groups in the country, including the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), to mount pressure on the president to withhold his assent to the said amendment.

The umbrella body of all the registered political parties and associations in the country, in a statement issued on Sunday and signed by its Secretary General, Chief Willy Ezugwu, noted that the its decision was taken after a careful study of the amendment and the circumstances surrounding the controversial move.

Parts of the statement read: “We are taken aback that just months after it initially suspended the move to amend the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) and the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT)

Act, the National Assembly subtly passed the amendment Bill into law.

“When the plan by the National Assembly to amend the Act first became known to members of the public,

there was deafening outcry, which forced the lawmakers to suspend the move.

“The CNPP, just like many other Nigerians, had thought that the National Assembly’s suspension of

Be pro-active on Ondo protests, SDP tells security agencies

By Hakeem Gbadamosi

THE Ondo State chapter of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has implored security agents in the state to be more pro-active in combatting criminal activities as the 2016 governorship election draws nearer by the day.

The party made the call, following protests over the release of the final list of candidates in the election.

In a statement by the state publicity secretary of the party, Mr Remi Olayiwola, the SDP said the protests that trailed the removal of Mr Eyitayo Jegede’s name and its replacement with Mr Jimoh Ibrahim, in the

PDP had to do with the standard bearer of only one out of the 28 participating political parties in the election.

It said that, since the PDP could not put its house in order by ensuring credible primary that would be rancour-free, all the other parties and innocent citizens of the state should not be made to bear the brunt of the internal crisis in PDP. The statement wondered why anyone would embark on protests over an intraparty crisis, urging security agencies to be quick in dealing with hoodlums trying to foment trouble in the state.

“The other day, it was the APC disturbing the people of the state, today, it is the PDP. These are political parties in government at various levels in the country. So, if there’s any violence during the forthcoming governorship election, the two parties must be held responsible,” SDP said.

Advising the people of the state, especially parents, to caution their children against being used by desperate politicians to foment trouble, the party recalled that the negative effects of the 1983 political crisis in the state had not gone.

the earlier move to amend the CCT/CCB Act was a sign of good days ahead where lawmakers would respect the majority opinion of their respective constituencies.

“But the passage of the amendment Bill is an indication that the National Assembly is serving the interest of its principal officers, and not that of the Nigerian people,” the CNPP observed.

The conference also noted that “The speed with which the amendment was carried out at a time some principal officers were accused of false declaration of assets is an indication of the interest it is intended to serve.

“We therefore urge President Muhammadu Buhari to withhold his assent to the amended Act, as the circumstances surrounding the amendment shows it was done in bad faith and the action of the National Assembly amounts to taking over executive powers to the detriment of the constitutional principle of separation of powers.”

In a motion on notice, Okafar through his lawyer, Mr Godwin Ogboji, is praying the court for, “an order of interlocutory injunction restraining Dr Victor Ike Oye from further parading himself as the national chairman of All Progressives Grand Alliance during the subsistence of his suspension from the office, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit, pending before this Honourable court.

“And for such further orders as this Honourable Court may deem fit to make in the circumstance.”

In the suit No:.

M/10421/16 dated October 7, 2016, Okafor and APGA, who are the 1st and 2nd plaintiffs in the matter, hinged their application on four grounds.

They averred that Okafor was appointed recently as the acting national chairman of APGA, and, “that despite the suspension from office of the defendants, they are still illegally parading themselves as officers of the party.

“That the plaintiff/Applicant’s rights as the Acting National Chairman of APGA as a duly registered political party in Nigeria is still subsisting and this right of the plaintiff is being flagrantly violated by the acts and deeds of the defendants.

“An order of this Honourable Court is required by the plaintiff/Applicant to restrain the defendants/ respondents from further parading themselves as officers of the All Progressives Grand Alliance during the subsistence of their suspension from office.”

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politicsnews Kogi gov backs Akeredolu for Ondo election Yinka Oladoyinbo, Lokoja

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OGI State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, on Sunday, expressed his support for the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ondo State, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu (SAN), urging the state to align with the change agenda of the party.

The governor, who spoke through his director general of media and publicity, Kingsley Fanwo, said the November 26, 2016 election in Ondo would further confirm the acceptance of the APC as the party that rescued the nation from ruins and collapse.

He described Akeredolu as a “great Nigerian, seasoned administrator and a leading figure in the defence of democracy,” urging all the people “not to miss the opportunity of having Aketi at the helms of affairs in the state in order to have guaranteed development and progress.”

He said: “What we are witnessing in Nigeria in terms of economic recession was occasioned by the mismanagement of the past. But, the President is determined to face the challenge and return the nation to the path of greatness and prosperity.

“Ondo State should be in the mainstream of our national revival. The election is about hope for a greater

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Ondo State. The election is about the managerial acumen to improvise and generate new ideas for economic recovery. Akeredolu is the man for the big job.

“We stand with Akeredolu. We stand with the national leadership of our great party. Together, we shall salvage the nation.

APC is a united front and we shall continue to serve the Nigerian people.”

The governor urged the people of Ondo to defend their votes against any form

of sharp practice, expressing hope in the capacity of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and security agencies to ensure free, fair and credible poll in the state.

“We have been following the political events in the state. So far, Akeredolu has shown commitment and great capacity for leadership in a period as this. It is unfair to blame APC for the recession we are experiencing. When you change the change, you change to cor-

ruption.

“The corruption of the past has brought us to this stage. APC is working hard to rebound the nation. We lost a lot of investments to the North-East crisis. People were afraid of coming into the nation to invest.

And the people, who were saddled with the responsibility of procuring arms to prosecute the war against terrorism, shared it. They didn’t care about the lives that were lost.

“APC is not giving excus-

es but hope. The Edo people refused to change the change because they know the danger of bad leadership. Ondo State should borrow a leaf from Edo State. Change is the way to progress.”

Bello urged the youth in Ondo to shun violence in the build-up to the election, saying politics should not be played with the blood of innocent people, just as he urged all political parties to market their manifesto to the people.

Delta State governor, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa (2nd left); his wife, Dame Edith (2nd right); Senator James Manager (right), and the Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Rt Hon Leo Ogor, at the annual Harvest / Thanksgiving service of the St Micheal Anglican Church, Owa-Alero, in Ika North East Local Government Area of the state.

Bode George demands justice over Ondo PDP guber ticket Kunle Oderemi

FORMER deputy national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, on Sunday, described an inexcusable assault on justice and morality the decision of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to recognise Mr Jimoh Ibrahim as PDP candidate for next month’s governorship poll in Ondo State.

His comment on the controversy came amid the tension in the state since the commission released the list of candidates for the election and substituted the name of Mr Eyitayo Jegede with that of Jimoh Ibrahim as PDP standard bearer.

In a statement made available to Nigerian Tribune, George said the INEC action was one of the most unsavoury and disturbing interventions in the nation’s political space since the dawn of democracy, stressing that it was not only wrong, but amounted to “an inexcusable assault upon justice, fairness and morality.”

He said by all measures of equity and appropriateness,

Jimoh Ibrahim could not claim to be the bona fide candidate of the party in Ondo, because his card-carrying membership in PDP was still a subject of debate.

The PDP stalwart alleged that “Ibrahim only went to a hotel room in Oyo State and declared himself a candidate of an election that will decide who will govern Ondo State.”

George added: “Meanwhile, everyone including INEC and all the law enforcement agencies, witnessed the well-televised Ondo State gubernatorial primary which produced Barrister Eyitayo Jegede as the lawful PDP candidate. It was an event well-covered by both the print and electronic media. Even until Justice Okon Abang’s ruling, INEC had rightly listed Jegede as the legitimate candidate of PDP. “Now, why upset the apple-cart? Ondo State had been peaceful, calm, without any hitches. Campaign had been going on without rancor,” George stated.

He appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari “as an officer and a gentleman” to ensure that justice prevailed in Ondo in the interest of democracy and the

country.

Part of the statement also read: “Though the case is now before the appellate court, the body language of our president is equally important in ensuring the preservation of our democratic tenets.

“Justice must not only be done in this case; it must be carried out swiftly and smoothly to convince our people that truth and fairness are the most crucial ingredients of democracy.

“We cannot stand by and be indifferent when injus-

tice is being committed.

Someday, some character may go to Cotonou and declare himself President of Nigeria! That is exactly the danger we face now if the present madness is allowed to endure.

“Our judges must at all times refrain from arbitrary rulings that can plunge our democracy into the abyss.

Justice must prevail in Ondo state. Decency and fair play must determine the outcome of the appellate ruling.”

George, who served as

military governor of the state about 30 years ago, appealed to the incumbent governor of Ondo, Dr Olusegun Mimiko and the entire people of the state remain calm and civil in the “face of this unbridled provocation,” expressing optimism that the injustice would not endure.

“This darkness will pass.

Justice, truth and common sense will eventually triumph over arbitrariness and the brazen attempt to steal the people’s mandate,” he stated.

Emulate Buhari, Oyo APC boss tells party members Tunde Busari

THE leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Oyo State has commended Senator Abdulfatai Buhari, representing Oyo North Senatorial District, for his contributions to the development of the party through his empowerment efforts.

Addressing party members at a senatorial meeting in Iseyin, APC chairman in the state, Chief Akin Oke, observed that Buhari was truly known for upholding the party’s ideology by facilitating infrastructural development and other projects in his district as well as other parts of the state.

“We are very proud of his achievements because he has shown our people that our party is comprises men and women of honour.

To make a promise is not enough but to fulfill it. This is what Senator Buhari represents,” Oke said.

Also, the chairman of Oyo North APC, Chief Goke Oyetunji said with Buhari’s achievements in the zone, the party was setting the pace for others to follow, describing the senator as a great achiever whose record would be difficult to match.

“Senator Buhari speaks our voice at the National Assembly; he has a listening ear and he responds quickly.

Such is the kind of leader we need at the helms of affairs,” he stated.

It would be recalled that few months ago, Senator Buhari, who is also the chairman, Senate Committee on ICT and cybercrime, distributed empowerment materials worth about N150 million to his constituents at an event held in Saki.

He also facilitated ICT laboratories for various secondary schools across the region, donated boreholes, facilitated many projects and gave cash donation to support various community project across the state.

Kogi dep Speaker tasks Buhari on economy, security Yinka Oladoyinbo, Lokoja

THE deputy speaker of the Kogi state House of Assembly, Aliyu Akuh, on Sunday, urged President Muhammadu Buhari, to urgently fix the economy and address rising poverty among Nigerians.

Speaking in Lokoja, the state capital, Akuh said it was high time the Buhari administration found a lasting solution to the suffering among the people.

He said the people were tired of the government passing the buck to the

previous administration, stressing that the failure of the economy and efforts to resuscitate it were the responsibilities of the present government.

“I’ m not against his fighting corruption. It should be done within the ambit of the law. He should not jettison the economy; he should rather strive to assemble best brains and experts in economic matters to revamp the economy.

“We are not happy that more than a year in office the government of the APC does not know what to do

with the problems. The people thought that having fought for the presidency for up to 13 years, he should have a blueprint on what to do with the economy and this goes to show that the PDP had done well,” he said.

Akuh hinted that the lingering crisis in the PDP at the national level between the faction of Senator Makarfi and Ali Modu Sheriff was almost being resolved, noting that what was happening to the party was normal in every human organisation.

He called on the two lead-

ers to bury the hatchet in the overall interest of the party.

The lawmaker also advised the Kogi State governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello to hasten the ongoing screening of workers and pensioners in the state as the prolonged exercise was inflicting undue hardship on the people.

“To conduct screening to ascertain the actual and real workers of the state is a good policy decision. It should be handled in such a way that the intended benefits would not be frittered away due to hardship occasioned by the exercise.

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

11TH DIOCESAN JESUS FESTIVAL HARVEST THANKSGIVING HELD AT THE CATHEDRAL OF ST JAMES THE GREAT, OKE-BOLA, IBADAN PHOTOS: D’TOYIN

The Most Reverend Dr Joseph Olatunji Akinfenwa (left), Rt Reverend (Dr) Titus Fajemirokun (middle) with Rt Reverend (Dr Williams Aladekugbe, Bishop of Oyo at the 2016 Jesus Festival Harvest thanksgiving at St James the great, Oke-Bola, Ibadan.

Cross section of bishops’ wives led by Mrs Comfort Oluyemisi Akinfenwa.

The chairman of the occasion, Oluyin of Iyin Ekiti, Oba Ademola Ajakaiye and his wife, Olori Oluyemisi.

Mrs Victoria Iluyomade (left), Professor (Mrs) Ayotunde Ogunseyinde (middle) and Professor Chinedu Babalola.

Cross section of clergy’s wives.

Bishop Joseph Olatunji Akinfenwa (middle), Venerable Wole Ogunsehinde (right) and the Very Reverend Dr David O. Olagbaju, the Province of the Cathedral.

Bishop Akinfenwa (middle), Chief Emeka Okoli (left) and his wife, Mrs Naomi Okoli.

Some clergies on the occasion.

Cross section of bishops.

Chief Tunde Bamigbola (left), Rt Reverend Dr Williams Aladekugbe, Engr (Mrs) Olufunmilayo Ala dekugbe with The Most Reverend Dr Joseph Olatunji Akinfenwa and his wife, Comfort.

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

Yoruba Council of Elders tasks FG on recession Shola Adekola - Lagos

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HE Yoruba Council of Elders (YCE) has charged the Federal Government to quickly evolve strategies to cushion the effect of the ongoing recession on the citizenry.

The group, which gave the advice during a visit to one of its founding fathers,

Alhaji Lateef Jakande, at his Ilupeju, Lagos residence, observed that the economic meltdown has worsened poverty among the people.

Chairman of the Lagos chapter of the organisation, Mr Francis Akinnikawe, said various measures, adopted by government to end the recession, should be

harnessed for effectiveness.

Chief Aremu Akindele, a former chairman of IfakoIjaye Local Government in Lagos State, speaking on the occasion, expressed concern that youth unemployment was increasing, pointing out that conducive atmosphere needed to be created to encourage local and foreign investments.

He stressed the need for the Yoruba to take their rightful place in the scheme of things in the country.

Chief Akindele observed that if the Yoruba could unite and speak with one voice on national issues, they would resist all forms of oppression and marginalisation.

He charged governors of

the South-West states to embrace economic integration to develop the region and liberate their people from the shackles of poverty.

According to him, “a united Yoruba will overcome the incursion of armed herdsmen and any attempt to trample on the rights of the people.”

From left, Assistant State Nutrition Officer, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mrs Ekwueme Chinyere; Assistant Secretary, Civil Society Child Nutrition in Nigeria (CS-SUNN), FCT, Ngozika Ogbonna; CS-SUNN National Programmme Officer, Mr Emeka Ubah and the Coordinator, CS-SUNN, FCT, Mrs Aji Robinson, during one-day media advocacy for increase budgetary allocation for health and nutrition in Nigeria, in Abuja, on Friday. PHOTO: SUNDAY OSUNRAYI

OGUN State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has forwarded a bill to the House of Assembly to harmonise revenue and other charges collectable by all revenue generating agencies of government.

The Speaker, Honourable Suraju Adekunbi, who read the governor’s letter, dated October 27, 2016 conveying the bill to the assembly on Thursday, also renewed appeal to labour leaders in the state, to shelve their ongoing strike and engage government in dialogue as a means of settling the current industrial action.

In the same vein, the assembly had confirmed the appointment of Mr Lanre Bisiriyu, an engineer, as the new Clerk of the Assembly, through a motion moved by the Minority Leader, Honourable Olawale Alausa, seconded by Honourable Akinpelu Aina and supported by the whole house.

Bisiriyu was until his redeployment as Clerk of the House, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture.

We need stringent laws to halt fake drugs in Nigeria —Orhii, ex NAFDAC boss

Benue gov kicks off N38bn cargo airport

Past leaders caused Kogi’s backwardness —Atta Igala Yinka Oladoyinbo - Lokoja THE Atta Igala and chairman, Kogi State council of chiefs, Dr Michael Idakwo, has said the state was in terrible situation because of bad leaders that had governed it in the past, saying maladministration had robbed it of meaningful development.

He, however, charged indigenes, both at home and in diaspora, to support Governor Yahaya Bello’s initiatives to bring about Kogi that is beneficial to all.

According to him, the state was currently undergoing surgical operation due to maladministration of past leaders, adding, everyone would have cause to smile at the end of the tunnel when the wounds were healed.

The royal father said the governor was determined to build a Kogi State, where everyone would be equal, irrespective of tribe and religion.

He said, “We have passed through series of maladministration, but this is the first time we are getting the dividends of democracy, especially the traditional rulers. If the governor can maintain this pace, in few years from now, we will occupy a better position in the comity of states in Nigeria.

Johnson Babajide - Makurdi FORMER Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), Dr Paul Orhii, has called on stiffer punishment for counterfeit drug producers in the country.

Orhii, who spoke to newsmen in Makurdi, Benue State capital, at the weekend, also called for review of laws against counterfeit drugs in the country, describing it, “as too lenient.”

He lamented the danger inherent in counterfeit drugs, saying, “drug counterfeiting is a very big problem in West African sub region, particularly, Nigeria.

According to Orhii, ‘’one of the challenges bedeviling the fight against fake drugs in the country is the lapse in Nigerian drug laws and if these laws are not reviewed, drug counterfeiters would continue to go scot-free.’’

The former NAFDAC executive said maximum penalty for producing, importing and distributing

fake drugs, was a five-year jail term with an option of N500, 000 .00 fine, in the present laws.

“This amount is nothing to drug counterfeiters; rather Nigerian government needs to review the laws in order to impose a more severe punishment for offenders.”

To buttress his stand on fight against fake drugs, Orhii cited instances where fake drugs producers, who connived and brought fake drugs into Nigeria from Japan, were officially reported to Japan government.

Lamido spent N1.6bn on feeding in a year, Gov Badaru alleges Adamu Amadu - Dutse THE Jigawa State governor, Alhaji Muhammadu Badaru, has alleged that the previous administration of Sule Lamido spent N1.6 billion annually on feeding his family and himself.

The governor, stated this at the weekend, before a mammoth crowd, at the commissioning ceremony of Birnin Kudu\Buji Federal House of Representatives constituency office and scholarship presentation to indigent students of the area.

Amosun forwards bill harmonising revenue collection to assembly

Alhaji Badaru Abubakar further accused his predecessor of insensitivity by claiming to have spent N1.8 billion from the security votes allocated to the state within one year, despite the peaceful nature of the state.

According to him “It was absurd and insensitive that we have to reverse that trend by making them account for every kobo they misappropriated,” he stated.

Badaru said his administration is currently spending N500 million in feeding within the government

house while only N200 million was expended for security operations in the state.

He said the protocol department now spend only N30 million against the N370 million that the Lamido administratio spent, adding that “this prudence is the secret behind our success in sustaining payments of salaries and other activities in the state.”

The governor assured the mammoth gathering that his administration would complete all abandoned projects started by the previous

administration, adding that already over a100 kilometre span of roads have been completed within the two years of the government.

He said he inherited a huge chunk of debt owed contractors to the tune of N14 billion and had started paying.

Earlier the House of Representatives member, Alhaji Magaji Da’u Aliyu, kicked-off the disbursement of scholarships to students that secured admissions into tertiary institutions from the area and also distributed tricycles to disabled persons.

He added, “We took up the case by reporting to Japan government about the companies that produced the counterfeit drugs and connived with Nigerian importers.

“The producers were prosecuted and sentenced to death, whereas, Nigerians who imported the fake drugs went scot-free as a result of leniency in the country’s fake drugs laws.”

Dr Orhii disclosed that while serving as Director General of NAFDAC, he set up a panel to review the drugs laws, which proposed a life jail term for drug offenders.

“Personally, I had wanted death sentence because as far as I’m concerned, a drug counterfeiter is a mass murderer and should be hanged.”

He said some civil right activists drew his attention to capital punishment as archaic and no longer popular in the world.

“We also proposed that in situation where we can prove that the fake drug has caused severe body injury on the victims, some of the assets of the criminals should be confiscated and used to compensate the victims of the crime.”

Johnson Babajide - Makurdi GOVERNOR Samuel Ortom on Saturday performed the ground breaking of N38billion cargo airport at Daudu in Guma Local Government Area of the state.

The cargo airport, which is located about 28 kilometres to Makurdi, capital city, along Makurdi -Abuja highway, cited in the governor’s local government council area, was expected to be completed in 2019/2020.

The project is a partnership between state government and CDC Consortium, a Chinese and West African partnership; the state government will pay 15 per cent of the cost equity, in addition to the land it provided.

Performing the ground breaking ceremony, Governor Ortom said the project, when completed would create jobs for the teeming youths of the state, as well as help in conveying farm produce to other states and abroad.

The governor further said the airport would offer both cargo and passenger transport service.

news Boko Haram recruiting youths to supply fuel in Borno —NSCDC

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Monday, 31 October, 2016

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HE Borno command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps

(NSCDC), on Sunday, raised the alarm that youths in Maiduguri are now being recruited by Boko Haram to supply fuel in Gamboru

Ngala area of the state.

The Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr Ibrahim Abdullahi made the revelation in an interview with the

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Maiduguri.

Abdullahi said the command had intercepted a reasonable quantity of fuel

packaged in a carton of groundnut oil, bound for Gamboru Ngala Local Government Area in the state.

He said since Boko Haram

Troops foil suicide bomb attempt on Bakassi IDPs camp

By Bodunrin Kayode with Agency Reports TROOPS of Operation Lafiya Dole deployed behind Bakassi Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camp, Damboa road, Maiduguri, on Sunday, intercepted and killed a male suicide bomber.

Colonel Sani Usman, the army spokesman said in a statement that the troops, who were deployed on security duty, killed the bomber, who had attempted to sneak

through their inner parapet towards the IDP camp.

He said that the incident occured at about 9:00 a.m.

It will be recalled that suicide bombers killed some nine people close to the camp on Saturday after detonating their explosives.

“The vigilant sentry sighted the bomber and laid in wait until the suicide bomber came close.

“The sniper instantly shot and killed the terrorists as he tried to force his way to the western flank of the IDP

camp fence.

“Unfortunately, the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) vest strapped on the bomber failed to detonate.

“Consequently, a combined team of military and police Explosive Ordinance Device (EOD) have been called to safely detonate the

IED,” Usm an said.

He, however, said the situation at the camp and the general area was calm.

FG borrowed change initiative from us —Charismatic Renewal Overseer Clement Idoko - Abuja

THE General Overseer of Charismatic Renewal Ministries, Dr Cosmas Ilechukwu, has said he believes in the change campaign initiative launched by the Federal Government as part of ef-

Experts call for regulations, structure for political consultancy in Nigeria EXPERTS, at the weekend, harped on the need to structure the practice of political consultancy as one of the strategies to improve political engagements in Nigeria.

Speakers and participants at the inaugural meeting of the Africa Political Consultants Association (Nigerian Chapter), who gathered at the Oriental Hotel, Victoria Island, Lagos, agreed that Nigeria had been long overdue to had structured political consultancy to enhance the chance of politicians in elections, and also improve their performance while in offices.

Some speakers at the meeting which was attended by former Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Tokunbo Afikuyomi, the Chief Executive Officer of the RTC Advisory Limited, Opeyemi Agbaje, former Lagos State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Dele Alake, among others, explained why it was high time Nigeria embraced the services of political consultants instead of hiring foreign political consultants, who are not in tune with the Nigerian political and cultural terrains.

forts to enforce attitudinal change in the country, even as he said the initiative was borrowed from his ministry.

Ilechukwu spoke on Sunday in Abuja, at the 2016 edition of “The Change We Need in Nigeria” special service and prayers for Nigeria and political leaders.

He disclosed that the Charismatic Renewal Ministries started the change campaign initiative tagged: “The Change We Need” way back in 2009, adding that the Federal Government should pay royalty to his ministry for using the initiative.

“We started this campaign way back in 2009. Actually, the government should pay royalty to us. Since 2009, we have been talking about this change all the while.

“I’m believer in the possibility of Nigeria changing. I’m committed to it. I have been on it before this government began to talk about it because I have seen the beauty of this country in the future,” he said.

Ilechukwu noted that in spite of the current economic challenges, Nigeria would come out stronger out of the recession and grow to become one of the great countries, where even Americans and Britons, among others, would queue for visas to come into the country.

He, however, called for fervent prayers by Nigerians for the country and the leadership at all levels in order to overcome the current challenges.

He also said there was the need for Nigerians to stop all forms religious, tribal and ethnic stereotypes, which he said, have been working against the unity of the country.

He said Nigerians must believe in the country and consider the nation first at all times.

National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) officials evacuating the body of the suicide bomber in Maiduguri, on Sunday

I’ll recover diverted IDPs’ food, Ndume vows Bodunrin Kayode-Maiduguri

SENATOR representing Borno South and Majority Leader of the Senate, Mohammed Ndume, has vowed to recover grains and food items meant for internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Ndume made the vow while speaking with the Nigerian Tribune on Saturday, after witnessing another delivery of grains from the Presidency for the IDPs. The politician said he was disturbed by the very thought that some contractors hired by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, could even think of diverting food meant for such highly traumatised people in the North- East.

Senator Ndume said he was speaking for the entire legislatives in the state, who are represented in Abuja, adding that many heads would roll when he got to the bottom of the lingering diversion.

According to him, the same thieves who stole over 30 trucks during the Jonathan administration are the ones still stealing.

During the delivery of the grains by Minister of State Power, Mustapha Shehuri, the Senator said the supply of grains was a response from President Muhammadu Buhari to the food needs of the people of the North- East, which he said,

was the reason 113 tonnes of grains were allocated to Borno out of 300 tonnes in the reserve.

He commended the Presidential commitment to

the North-East, over the supply of more food, adding that his co-Senators and himself were spurred by the gesture to do more for their people.

were running out of food and other supplies, they had employed all sorts of means to replenish stock.

“The command had so far arrested a suspect, who confessed that he did not know the owner of the consignment that he was asked to deliver to the insurgents trapped in Gamboru Ngala.

“He later confessed that each of the five litres of fuel is sold at N15,000 to the insurgents.

“You will recall we raised the alarm that some agents of Boko Haram were transporting stolen cows from Mafa, Kalabalge and Bomboshe axis in the state to cattle market in Maiduguri.

“The Boko Haram usually send the cows to their agents in the city who will then sell them and repatriate either cash or fuel to the terrorists.

“We are therefore warning the people, especially drivers, not to accept or convey any form of message that looks suspicious to any one, especially along the Gamboru axis.

“We are also warning the drivers, park owners and union groups to always check their passengers and their luggage to avoid transporting bad elements that would cause havoc in the society,” he noted.

According to him, the command is working with other relevant security agencies to bring all the collaborators of terrorists to book.

news We’ll fish out Fulani leader’s killers —Gov Bello

34

Yinka Oladoyinb-Lokoja

T

HE Kogi State governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, on Sunday, said he would work with security agencies to fish out the killers of the state chairman of the Miyetti-Allah Cattle Breeders Association, Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar Jalido.

The governor, who condemned the gruesome murder of Jalido, said the perpetrators would be brought to book.

Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Petra Onyegbule, the governor said he was already working with security agencies to unravel the incident.

He, however, appealed that the prevailing calm in the wake of the unfortunate crime, should be sustained, discouraging extrajudicial reaction from any quarters.

“I received with sadness, the death of Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar today. On

Mobilise Nigerians to embrace agric, FIC Akure charges media FEDERAL Information Centre (FIC) Akure, has called on the nation’s media to deliberately intensify efforts at mobilising Nigerians, especially the unemployed youths, to embrace agriculture as panacea to our economic ill.

Speaking during a familiarisation visit to the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Akure, the new head of centre (HOC), FIC Akure, Mr Gbenga Lawal, stated that the crucial role of the media was strategic to the determination of the Federal Government to reposition the economy of Nigeria, especially, the agriculture sector, in the face of dwindling revenue from crude oil.

Lawal said agriculture, if practically embraced by the youth of this country, Nigeria would soon swing into industrial revolution with the establishment of cottage industries which would lead to creation of mass employment, food sufficiency and exportation, as well as strong naira exchange to foreign currencies.

The HOC, FIC, Akure noted that the Nigerian Press was at vantage position through creative reportage, news analyses, features, documentaries, film and drama presentation, to galvanise the populace into the inherent merits in going back to farming.

Monday, 31 October, 2016

behalf of the good people of Kogi State, I express my condolences to the Wuro Miyetti-Allah Association, over the dastardly act which claimed the life of the late Alhaji Abubakar.

“As painful as this must be, I enjoin all to be calm as government is already working with security agencies to fish out the perpetrators of this heinous crime as soon as pos-

sible, and made to face the consequences of their cowardly actions.

“May Almighty Allah grant Alhaji Ibrahim Abubakar Al-Jannah Firdaus,” Bello said.

The governor said it is important that criminals should not go unpunished, in order to send a resounding message to all and sundry that such would not be tolerated in Kogi State un-

der his watch.

It will be recalled that gunmen had, on Saturday morning, invaded Jalido’s residence in Peace community, Ganaja road, Lokoja and murdered him.

Navy arrests 2 suspected cattle rustlers, recovers 295 livestock in Kaduna THE Commandant, Nigerian Navy School of Armament Technology, Kachia, Kaduna, Commodore Timothy Dakwat, has said the command arrested two cattle rustlers and recovered 285 cows and seven sheep from them.

Dakwat made this known when he presented the suspects and the cows to newsmen in Kachia Local Government Area of Kaduna State, on Sunday.

He said the suspects were arrested on October 29, at about 1:00 a.m., following an intelligence report on the hideout of the rustlers.

“Acting on a tip off on their hideout at Maro, Gidana Auta and Rijana village, in Kachia Local Government, we mobilised our patrol team and ambushed the rustlers which led to the arrest, recovery and evacuation of the cows.”

He said there was exchange of fire between the security operatives and the rustlers before the security officers overpowered the bandits.

Dakwat, who said nobody died in the incident, stated that one of the suspects sustained injury and was taken to the hospital.

“One of the main kingpins is still at large but we will trail him and make sure that he faces the law,” he added.

He said working closely with communities in a manner called civil-military relations had yielded

results.

“Those communities had been under the spell of those cattle rustlers as they dehumanised them, raped women, extorted them and stole their animals.”

Dakwat said “with the government on our side

the arrest of the rustlers was the collective effort of the security operatives under the Kaduna State Government-coordinated security outfit, code-named “Operation Yaki.”

He said the suspects, the cows and sheep would be

handed over to the appropriate authority after investigation.

The commandant urged the public to support the security agents with useful information to curtail the activities of undesirable elements in the state.

NMA to provide free healthcare services to 17, 000 IDPs in Borno THE Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), on Sunday, said it has inaugurated an outreach to provide free medical healthcare services to 17, 000 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in Borno.

Borno Chairman of the association, Babashehu Muhammad, disclosed this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Maiduguri.

Muhammad said that the exercise would be conducted by the union`s Association of Residents Doctors (ARD), Medical Women Association of Nigeria (MWAN) and the Nigeria Dental Association, among others.

Muhammad said the union would also provide services to IDPs in five liberated local government areas in the state.

He said the councils are Bama, Dikwa, Munguno, Konduga and Kaga.

“The health needs of the people pose a very great challenge in the state, hence all hands most be

86/87 set Ibadan Poly lauds Fayose THE 1986/87 set of The Polytechnic Ibadan, have commended the Ekiti State governor, Mr Ayodele Fayose, for championing the cause of the voiceless in the country, noting that this trait had been with him since his days in the tertiary institution.

Speaking on behalf of the Association of Science Technology Students (ASTES 86/87), Komolafe Adeyemi lauded the manner Governor Fayose has been handling the menace

and support of the communities we will be able to serve the society better.

“We assured members of the pubic that our source of information will be well protected to ensure that we achieve success.”

The commandant said

of herdsmen in his state.

He added that the majority of Ekiti people appreciate and salute his doggedness in the war against oppression.

“It is as a result of this that his friends and classmates at The Polytechnic, Ibadan state categorically that we are behind him and we support his actions so far.

“We, therefore, urge him to continue to fight until all Nigerians benefit from the dividends of democracy,” Adeyemi said.

on deck to promote advancement of health in the country.

“Government must pay priority attention to the health challenges in the state.

“When we visited these IDPs and conducted our examinations, we discovered that a lot of them need prompt health care services.

“We have established five units in each of the three camps which include Teachers, Dalori 1 and Dalori 2.

“For now, we have screened about 1, 000

ROLAND

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Roland Femi Ayo, am the same person bearing Omokpia Roland.

Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as ROLAND FEMI AYO. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

OLOGUNTERE I, formerly Ologuntere Abimbola Elizabeth now ADETUNJI ABIMBOLA ELIZABETH. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

YAO

I, formerly Yao Jonas Benoit now JONAS SINLI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

OLAJIDE

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Olajide Risqoh Omoyanju am the same person bearing Olajide Risqoh Mojisola. Now, I wish to be known and addressed as OLAJIDE RISQOH OMOYANJU. All documents bearing these names remain valid. GTBank and general public take note.

ATEWOGBOLA I, formerly Miss Atewogbola Taiwo Fisola now MRS AGUNBIADE TAIWO FISOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

POPOOLA I, formerly Popoola Doyinsola Teju now MRS ADEDEJI DOYINSOLA TEJU. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

adults on various ailments. Also tests were conducted ranging from malaria, typhoid fever, HIV and hypertension in Teacher’s Village camp.

“About 250 pregnant women were given antinatal services and we donated some drugs to them by our Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) unit.

“Also minor ailments among children were treated; we administered drugs such as anti-malaria, de-worming, anti-biotic and URTI on them.

“Our dental unit also ex-

amined 60 adults, we discovered some problems and we referred them to the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital for free services.

“Our eye physicians were also able to identify about 18 adults that needed cataract surgery, drug and eye glasses.”

“We plan to partner with relevant stakeholders like SEMA, UNICEF, WHO, UNDP, UNFPA, Doctors Without Borders and the state government to achieve our desired objectives,” he said

MUHAMMED

IYILADE I, formerly Miss Iyilade Yemisi Tolu now MRS OLA YEMISI TOLU. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

GANIYAT

CORRECTION OF NAME: I, Muhammed Yemisi Olajumoke that my name was mistakenly written as Mayowa Yemisi Olajumoke henceforth, wish to be known and addressed as MUHAMMED YEMISI OLAJUMOKE. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

IPAYE-OLADOSU

I, formerly Ipaye-Oladosu Kemi now OLADOSU MONSURAT KEMI. All former documents remain valid. UBA, First Bank and general public take note.

ALIMOTU I, formerly Alimotu Moshood now ALIMOTU OMOLADE ADEWUSI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ADETUNJI

CORRECTION OF NAME: I, hereby declare that, my full name is Adetunji Rita Adedoyin, not Adetunji Adedoyin, as mistakenly written on my NECO result. Now, I wish to be known and addressed as ADETUNJI RITA ADEDOYIN. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

SANNI

I, formerly Sanni Aminat Abiodun now ADERIYE AMINAT ABIODUN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

IDOWU

I, formerly Miss Idowu Oluladun now MRS ADEYEMI MARGARET OLULADUN. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Ganiyat Abisola Abiodun now GANIYAT ABISOLA AGBEKE AJIBOYE. All former documents remain valid.

General public in Nigeria and abroad take note.

IBRAHIM

I, formerly Ibrahim Abolade Gaffari now AKINOLA GAFFARI ABOLADE. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc, Union Bank Plc and general public take note.

ONIFADE

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Onifade Oyindamola Mutiat am the same person as Onifade Bidemi Mutiat. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as ONIFADE OYINDAMOLA MUTIAT. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

35

Monday, 31 October, 2016

OYINLOLA

I, formerly Miss Oyinlola Olamide Olajumoke now MRS ODUOLA OLAMIDE OLAJUMOKE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

AZEEZ

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Azeez Ismaheel Akanfe am the same person as Azeez Ismail Akanfe.

Henceforth, I want to be known and addressed as AZEEZ ISMAHEEL AKANFE. All documents bearing these names remain valid. Zenith Bank and general public take note.

ADEKOYA

I, formerly Adekoya Modinat Iyadunni now MRS LASISI MODINAT IYADUNNI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

AJIBADE I, formerly Ajibade Patience Abosede now SANUSI PATIENCE ABOSEDE ONOSHOKHE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

RASAQ I, formerly Miss Rasaq Latifat now MRS AROWOLO LATIFAT R. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

FATIMA I, formerly Mrs Fatima Hussaini now MRS FATIMO HUSSAINI MOHAMMED. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

KAYODE I, formerly Mr Kayode Ayede now MR IBRAHIM ALIU KAYODE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

OBIGBESAN

I, formerly Obigbesan Adedayo Adekoya now OBIGBESAN ADEDAYO OLUWAFUNMILOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OLUJIDE-AJIBADE

ELE I, formerly Miss Ele Ibrahim now MRS ELE ABUBAKAR MUHKTAR. All former documents remain valid. General public take note ADEBISI

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Adebisi Olakunbi Omobolanle am the same person as Olakanbi Adebisi O. Henceforth, I want to be known and addressed as ADEBISI OLAKUNBI OMOBOLANLE. All documents bearing these names remain valid.

Osun State Polytechnic, Iree and General public take note.

OGUNDEJI I, formerly Ogundeji Aderemi Adekunle now OGUNDEJI SODIQ. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

AKINOLA

OGUNTAYO

I, formerly Miss Oguntayo Opeyemi Esther now MRS OLADELE OPEYEMI ESTHER. All former documents remain valid. O.A.U Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife and general public take note.

OBONAYA

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Amos Iramowoni refers to the same person as Ominidougha Iramowoni Richard. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as OMINIDOUGHA IRAMOWONI RICHARD. All documents bearing these names remain valid. UBA Plc., Zenith Bank Plc., and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Alade Abiola Fatimo now MRS. RAIMI ABIOLA FATIMO. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

Formerly Okoko Compound now OORE-OFE COMPOUND, Isia, Okeho, Oyo State. All former documents remain valid.

Kajola Local Government, Oyo State and general public take note.

ALADE

ADEGUN

I, formerly Miss Akinola Abiola Foluke now MRS AWOTUKASI ABIOLA FOLUKE. All former documents remain valid.

NYSC and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adegun Opeyemi Dorcas now MRS. OGUNDOKUN OPEYEMI DORCAS. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, former Miss Adetoyi Misturah Ajibola now MRS IBRAHEEM MISTURAH AJIBOLA. All former documents remain valid general public take note

SAMUEL

UMEOBI

I, formerly Miss Umeobi Fidelia Odinaka now MRS. ONUORAH FIDELIA ODINAKA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

JUBRIL

I, formerly Jubril Ishola Adisa now ADISA EMMANUEL OGABI. All former documents remain valid. First Bank of Nigeria Plc., and general public take note.

ADENIYI

OSUNHON I, formerly Osunhon Raphael Illieni now OSUNHON RAPHAEL DADD RAPH. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

AKINBOBOYE I, formerly Miss Akinboboye Oluwatosin Esther now MRS. BABATUNDE OLUWATOSIN ESTHER. All former documents remain valid. First Bank and general public take note.

OMAGHE

I, formerly Omaghe Nduka Fredrick now OMAGHE SUNDAY NDUKA. All former documents remain valid. First Bank of Nigeria and general public take note.

OKEDIJI

I, formerly Miss Adeniyi Folasade Esther now MRS. OLUWATOBI FOLASADE ESTHER. All former documents remain valid.

Oyo State Teaching Service Commission (TESCOM) and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Okediji Bolanle Deborah now MRS. OYEKOLA BOLANLE DEBORAH. All former documents remain valid.

Bowen Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adeuyi Olubunmi Hellen now MRS. IBIRONKE OLUBUNMI HELLEN. All former documents remain valid.

Local Government Service Commission and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss John Christiana Ijeoma now MRS. BANKOLE CHRISTIANA IJEOMA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Kafari Rasidat Olajumoke now MRS. ADEGOKE RASHEEDAT OLAJUMOKE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adelaja Oluwakemi Omowumi now MRS. ALPHONSO OLUWAKEMI OMOWUMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Olugbemide Folashade Tolulope now MRS DAVID FOLASHADE TOLULOPE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Oyeniyi Kafilat Oyefunke now MRS. LAWAL KAFILAT OYENIYI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Blessing Oodo now MRS. BLESSING AMEH. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Amusa Deekola Lukman Ajani am the same person bearing Adekola Lukman Ajani, Deekola Lukman, Amusa Deekola, Lukman Ajani.

Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as AMUSA DEEKOLA LUKMAN AJANI. All documents bearing these names remain valid. Heritage Bank Plc and general public take note.

I, formerly Mr. Mohammed Thompson Abiodun now MR. OKINO THOMPSON. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ALLI I, formerly Alli Serifat now AKINDURO SERIFAT ADEOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

YINUSA

I, formerly Miss Enam Dinah Yabo now NGARO DINAH YABO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ADETOYI

OLUGBEMIDE

AMUSA

ADEUYI

OYENIYI

MOHAMMED

ENAM

ADENIYI

I, formerly Miss Adeniyi Saidat Adeola now MRS. YUSUF SAIDAT ADEOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Adewuyi Opeyemi Elizabeth now MRS ADEWOYIN OPEYEMI ELIZABETH. All former documents remain valid. Ife North Local Government, Ipetumodu and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Badejo Idowu Theresa now MRS LADAPO IDOWU THERESA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Princess Iyede now PRINCESS NYEROVWO ASIN. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss BisiOgedengbe Susan Ifeoluwa now MRS OLUDOKUN SUSAN IFEOLUWA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Ajayi Sarah Oluwatoyin now MRS ADESUYI SARAH OLUWATOYIN. All former documents remain valid. Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria, LAUTECH Teaching Hospital, Ogbomoso and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Ojo Victoria Temilola now MRS OLATUNJI VICTORIA TEMILOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Sunday Banke Moromoke now ADEOYE BANKE MOROMOKE. All former documents remain valid.

State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) and general public take note.

I, formerly Sherifat Bankole Adewoyin now BANKOLE ADUNNI SHERIFAT. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Ayinde Oyeyemi Adeola now MRS AYANMAKINDE OYEYEMI ADEOLA. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Ogunkoya Joke Yetunde am the same person bearing Ogunkoya Yetunde Esther. Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as OGUNKOYA JOKE YETUNDE . All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Coker Yewande Yetunde now MRS MEGBOPE YEWANDE OMONTENI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Miss Azeez Adijat Adenike now MRS OREDOLA ADIJAT ADENIKE. All former documents remain valid. NYSC and general public take note.

COKER

OKOKO

KENNEDY

I, formerly Kennedy Jones Ayodele now EBOFUAME JONES AYODELE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Samuel Oladele Ayepola now JOHNSON SAMUEL OLADELE. My correct date of birth is 28/09/1980 and not 27/09/1976.

All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Yinusa Olayiwola Ashiru and Olayiwola Yinusa Ashir now OLAYIWOLA YINUS ASHIRU. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

JIBRIL I, formerly Jibril Adebayo now JIBRIL ADEBAYO BOLUWADURO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OLAJORIN I, formerly Miss Olajorin Abisola now MRS OLOWOYO ABISOLA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

SHERIFAT

AMOS

I, formerly Miss Obonaya Florence Ekemma now MRS. CHUKWUMA FLORENCE EKEMMA. All former documents remain valid.

EcoBank and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss OlujideAjibade Bolawa Foluke now MRS ADEREMI BOLAWA FOLUKE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

ADEWUYI

ILORI

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Mrs Ilori Selimot Moromoke am the same person as Miss Sule O. Moromoke (my maiden name). Henceforth, I wish to be known and addressed as MRS ILORI SELIMOT MOROMOKE. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

BADEJO

BISI-OGEDENGBE

OJO

AYINDE

AZEEZ

PRINCESS

AJAYI

SUNDAY

OGUNKOYA

IDOLOR

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Idolor Evelyn am the same person as Akemetubo Oyakoriabofa. All documents bearing these names remain valid. General public take note.

JOHN

BLESSING

ABESIN

I, formerly Abesin Ibironke Omowunmi now SALISU IBIRONKE OMOWUNMI. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

BROWN

I, formerly Okonbrown Patrick now BROWN PATRICK IMOH. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

ANIMASHAUN

I, formerly Miss Animashaun Damilola Easther now MRS. UDOMS NDIFREKE MFON. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OMONIGBEHIN

I, formerly Mr Oyinkanola Najeem now MR OMONIGBEHIN ADEBAYO ALANI. All documents bearing my former names should remain valid and have no effect and general public take note.

ADEKUNLE

KAFARI

OKO

I, formerly Miss Oko Grace Elumugo now MRS. NWOSA GRACE ELUMUGO. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

POPOOLA

I, formerly Popoola Oluwayemisi Esther now BABALOLA OLUWAYEMISI ESTHER. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

KUYEBI

I, formerly Miss Raifu Adepeju Elizabeth now MRS. KUYEBI ADEPEJU ELIZABETH. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

AKERA

I, formerly Miss Akera Ganiyat Ade now MRS. AKERA GANIYAT ADEGBOYEGA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

MOSHOOD

I, formerly Miss Salau Fasilat, Lagbaja Fasilat Olayemi and Moshood Fasilat Olayemi now MRS MOSHOOD FASILAT OLAYEMI. All former documents remain valid. TESCOM, Oyo State and general public take note.

SALAUDEEN

I, formerly Miss Adeojo Basirat Nike now MRS ADEKUNLE BASIRAT NIKE. All former documents remain valid. TESCOM, Oyo State and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Muibi Aminat Olawumi now MRS SALAUDEEN AMINAT OLAWUMI. All former documents remain valid.

TESCOM, Oyo State and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Omiwole Roseline Ayowumi now MRS AWOGA ROSELINE AYOWUMI. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Ajao Olusola Taju now AJAO OLUSOLA SAMUEL and my correct date of birth is 20th June, 1970. All former documents remain valid. Oyo State Local Government Service Commission and general public take note.

I, formerly Miss Asala Boluwatife now MRS AKINSHOLA BOLUWATIFE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

I, formerly Jagula Jantuku now JAGILA PATTON YADUMA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

CONFIRMATION OF NAME: I, Megbuliofor Gray Amajuoritse am the same person as Megbuliofor Amajuoritse. All documents bearing these names remain valid.

General public take note.

I, formerly Abdul Lateef Abdul Akeem now LATEEF AKEEM. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OMIWOLE

ASALA

MEGBULIOFOR

AJAO

JAGULA

ABDUL LATEEF

ADELAJA

OYERINDE

I, formerly Miss Oyerinde Temitope Jumoke now MRS. OLUKOYA TEMITOPE JUMOKE. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

ADAMO

I, formerly Adamo Saliu now LUKMAN TAIWO SALIU. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

AKEJU

I, formerly Akeju Omolara Dorcas now AKEJU OMOLARA AYINKE. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

AKOH

I, formerly Akoh Joel now ISAAC JOEL. All former documents

remain

valid.

General public take note.

OKUNADE

I, formerly Miss Madamidola Dolapo Florence now MRS OKUNADE DOLAPO FLORENCE All former documents remain valid.

TESCOM, Oyo State and general public take note.

OKWEDIMBU

I, formerly Miss Okwedimbu Awele Ijeoma now MRS ADIGUN AWELE IJEOMA. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

OJO

I, formerly Ojo Imisi now OJO OMOLARA SADE and my correct date of birth is 14/02/1974. All former documents remain valid.

General public take note.

OPATEYINBO

I, formerly Mr Opateyinbo Olusayo now MR OPATEYINBO GBOYEGA STEPHEN OLUSAYO. All former documents remain valid. First Bank Plc, TESCOM, Oyo State and general public take note.

AGU

I, formerly Agu Charity now ATANE CHARITY. All former documents remain valid. General public take note.

36

news

Monday, 31 October, 2016

Nigeria’s unity not negotiable —Prof Elaigwu Clement Idoko-Abuja

E

MERITUS Professor and President, Institute of Governance and Social Research, Isawa Elaigwu, has said Nigeria must remain united in order to overcome various challenges confronting the country.

He also condemned the activities of Avengers and other Niger Delta militants, who have taken to blowing up oil installations and destruction of gas pipelines, in the region in recent times, in an attempt to register their grievances against the Federal Government.

Elaigwu spoke at the weekend in Abuja, while presenting a paper, entitled: “Fiscal Federalism and Inter-Governmental Relations,” at the 2016 edition of The Change We Need Annual Lecture Series,” organised by the African Centre for Leadership and Charismatic Renewal Ministries.

He noted the clamour for disintegration or secession of the country was not the best option out the current Nigeria’s quagmire.

According to him, what was needed at this time was the change of attitude and values, in order to ensure change and development of the country.

He said Nigeria’s dilemma stemmed from 1970s, when the country stopped thinking about other ways of generating revenue for the development of the country, because money was there from the oil.

Elaigwu, however, noted that the Niger Delta Avengers (NDA) and other militant groups had, by their action, caused more pollution and destruction to the ecosystem in their communities, which would take several years to ameliorate.

“I can’t be annoyed and decided to cut-off my nose.

Blowing up of pipelines is

not the answer. Disintegration is not the best option. We are more interested in sharing the cake; if we don’t have the cake what do we share? While citizens of other countries talk about how to build their country, Nigerians

talk about how to disintegrate,” he said.

Professor Elaigwu further noted that Nigeria’s fiscal federalism evolved since 1954, as a result of social, political and economic influences.

He therefore, called for

tional Economic Council (NEC), a meeting of the 36 state governors with vice president as the chairman, to be equipped with an active secretariat, to enable the council to coordinate macro-economic policies and implementation.

Some of the foundation members of The Yoruba Initiative, during their inaugural meeting at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan, at the weekend.

FG approves establishment of police secondary school for North-East THE Federal Government has approved the establishment of a Police Secondary School in Bauchi, to cater for the North-East sub-region.

According to The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Rabiu Ladodo, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Force Education Officer, said this, on Sunday, in Bauchi, while inspecting Police Children Schools.

Ladodo said the force headquarters had received approval for the setting up of the school.

He explained that the North-East was the only region in the country that had no police secondary school.

He said with the approval of the Federal Government, the region would get one very soon.

Ladodo promised to ad-

dress the problem of inadequacy of teaching and non-teaching staff, as well as poor infrastructure currently facing the three police children schools in the state.

He had earlier visited the three police children schools at Yelwa and Yandoka, in Bauchi metropolis and Kafin Madaki, in Ganjuwa Local Government Area.

Abubakar Yahaya, Head

represented by his Chief of Staff , Mr Chukwuemeka Woke, during the dedication of a new church and celebration of 100 years of Saint Simon’s Anglican Church, Ugiri-Ike, Diocese of Ikeduru, Imo State, on Saturday, said, the state has continued to pay salaries, pensions and is considering to pay Christmas bonus.

He said; “We do not owe workers salaries in Rivers State, but we are considering how we will add Christ-

Teacher of Yelwa School, had complained of inadequate teaching and non- teaching staff in the schools.

Yahaya also complained, about inadequacy of classrooms and potable drinking water in all the schools.

Bala Garga, Chairman, Parents Teachers Association (PTA), Bauchi Police Children School, urged the Force Headquarters, to ac-

cord the region priority in term of education.

Garga said, the region was among the educationally disadvantaged regions, coupled with insurgency that had bedeviled the region.

He called for the introduction of PTA meetings, on a quarterly basis, to enable the stakeholders discuss challenges they were facing.

More trouble looms for FG’s planned $29bn external loan Ayodele Adesanmi-Abuja

INDICATIONS have emerged that the bid by the Federal Government to borrow $29 billion from external sources may be stalled by some institutional lapses inherent in the system.

Already, some senators have pointed out that such

We are operating a divine economy in Rivers —Wike RIVERS State governor, Nyesom Ezenwo Wike has declared that the state was operating a divine economy, which has enabled it, continue to execute projects and pay salaries, when other states falter.

The governor noted that, the economic recession that has bedeviled the country will not affect Rivers State because God has positioned the state for greater exploits.

Governor Wike, who was

revision of Legislative List in favour of states and local government as a political imperative, adding that tax powers should similarly be reviewed, in accordance with the proposed revision.

He also called for the Na-

mas bonus to workers.

“Rivers State government is not operating an economy of recession; it is operating a divine economy. That is why in Rivers State, it is either we are commissioning projects or we are flagging off construction of new projects.”

The governor lauded an indigene of Ugiri-Ike community, Mr Donald Denwigwe (SAN) for his commitment, to the promotion of the rule of law.

loans and grants from external sources must be accompanied by a confirmation report by a substantive Auditor-General of the Federation before the funds are released.

According to the lawmakers, standards set by global financial institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the African Development Bank (AfDB) required confirmation report from a substantive Auditor-General before the funds are disbursed to recipient countries.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Danjuma Goje, had, during an interactive session with the Minister of Finance, Mrs Kemi Adeosun and the Minister of Budget Planning, Senator Udoma Udo Udoma, last week Thursday, expressed doubts over the workability of the loan request.

“I just hope the Fed-

eral Government will succeed in obtaining these loans with the situation on ground,” Senator Goje had stated at the session with the ministers.

Adeosun, however, assured the Senate committee that necessary steps were being taken by the Federal Government to ensure a smooth sail for the loans.

At present, Nigeria did not have a substantive Auditor-General of the Federation since the retirement of Mr Samuel Ukura in May. The tenure of Mrs Florence Anyanwu, who is acting in that capacity, has also expired.

It will be recalled that the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) had, in May, directed the Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) to set machinery in motion for the appointment of a new AuditorGeneral of the Federation.

TYI to spearhead Yoruba progressive agenda —Osibogun A newly formed group; The Yoruba Initiative (TYI), has resolved, to serve as a strong advocacy group, with intent to change the psyche of the Yoruba and Nigerians in general towards self-development.

As a non- partisan group, TYI is to henceforth, engage primarily in social mobilisation, political awareness and education of the Yoruba race in Nigeria and in diaspora, given the outcome of its inaugural meeting, which held at the Premier Hotel, Ibadan, Oyo State, during the weekend.

The convener of the meeting, Chief Ayodeji Osibogun, dropped this hint in his opening address during the meeting.

The TYI, he said, would work for attaining the Yoruba unity as a first step, towards driving its agenda for repositioning the Yoruba nation, on advancement in economy through agriculture, education, security, foreign relations, youths, women empowerment and mutually rewarding integration, with other major ethnic groups in Nigeria.

The convener also noted, that the present state of Nigeria demands, the unity of the Yoruba nation spread over Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, Ondo, Ekiti, Osun and in Kwara, Kogi, Delta and Edo States.

He said, “Our mission is to serve as a strategic planning and advocacy platform, for all who genuinely support the building of a socio-economic, selfreliant and creatively manage, Yoruba nation comprising all local and state governments, in all the south-west states as well as in Edo, Kwara, Kogi and Delta states.”

Osibogun, said the emphasis of the group would be on security, economy, national conference, system of government, education and protection of the image of the Yoruba, in the diaspora.

He said, while it became imperative for the Southwest zone of Nigeria, to convey a security summit, to strategise on possible solution, on threats constituted by raids, on its territories, by the Niger Delta militants and Fulani herdsmen, it would be necessary for the zone, to also consider the need for a blue print, to propel the south-west’s economy.

37

Monday, 31 October, 2016

foreig naffairs

08116954632 with seyi gesinde foreignn ewseditor@gmail.com

Earthquake rocks Italy, destroys ancient buildings

A

powerful 6.6-magnitude earthquake rocked central Italy on Sunday morning, injuring at least 20 people, and destroyed ancient buildings in the strongest tremor to hit the country in more than three decades.

The earthquake follows tremors last week and comes on off the heels of a devastating quake in August, which killed nearly 300 people and flattened entire villages, CNN reports.

Residents ran onto the streets in a panic as the quake struck at 7:40 a.m. local time Sunday, and rescuers were seen soon after, helping evacuate a group of nuns from a church. They worked through aftershocks that hit every 20 minutes or so.

The town center of Amatrice was badly damaged in August’s quake and was battered again in Sunday’s tremor. PHOTO: AP

Authorities are hopeful there may be no deaths since many residents in the region had already been evacuated to emergency camps and hotel rooms paid for by the government after the Au-

gust quake and last week’s temblors, and schools had shut down in anticipation of powerful aftershocks.

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Rome thanked rescuers and vowed

to rebuild damaged villages.

“Italy has many faults, but these situations bring out the best of us,” he said, adding the country would rebuild houses, churches and shops.

Al Shabaab seizes town from Somali government THE Islamist group al Shabaab seized a town northwest of Somalia’s capital from government forces on Sunday, the latest small centre taken by the militant group trying to topple the country’s Western-backed government.

Reuters reports that Al Shabaab, which once ruled much of Somalia, has been fighting for years to impose its strict interpretation of Islam on Somalia. African Union and Somali troops have driven it from major urban strongholds and

ports, but they have often struggled to defend smaller, more remote areas from attacks.

“Many al Shabaab fighters attacked us this morning and after brief fighting we left the town for tactical reasons,” Somali army Major Hussein Edin told Reuters from the nearby town of Baidoa. One Somali soldier was killed, he said.

Goofgaduud lies about 250 km (160 miles) northwest of Mogadishu, the capital.

Al Shabaab’s military operations spokesman, Sheikh

Abdiasis Abu Musab, con- Loise Njoki Weru, who offifirmed the group had cap- cials said was held by pirates tured the settlement. He since 2015. said seven Somali soldiers were killed.

Al Shabaab’s casualty figures and those announced by officials often differ.

In a separate incident, Somali forces in the semi-autonomous Galmudug region north of Mogadishu freed President Hassan Sheikh Mohamoud a Kenyan woman,

Ivory Coast: Opposition boycots vote for new constitution VOTERS in Ivory Coast cast their ballots in a referendum on Sunday to decide whether to approve a new constitution that President Alassane Ouattara argues will guarantee peace in the wake of years of political turmoil, Reuters reports.

Under Ouattara, Ivory Coast has made an impressive recovery since a 2011 civil war capped a decadelong crisis. The International Monetary Fund projects it will be Africa’s fastest growing economy this year.

Despite five years of peace, however, Ivorians remain deeply divided along political and ethnic fault lines. And both they and the investors who are

President Alassane Ouattara

now flooding in, crave the stability that will allow the world’s top cocoa grower to cement its status as the continent’s rising star.

“It’s an opportunity but also a duty,” Ouattara said after voting in the commercial capital Abidjan. “Turning the page on the crisis born of the constitution of 2000 is essential for the future of our nation.”

Opposition parties have called for a boycott of the vote, arguing that the new text was designed to further entrench Ouattara’s political coalition. So, while the “yes” vote is heavily favored, voter participation will be key to determining whether the text has the widespread backing.

Iraqi militia groups launch operation to retake town from ISIS IRAQI Shia militia groups have launched an operation to retake the town of Tal Afar from ISIS and cut the armed groups’s supply lines from Mosul to Syria, a spokesman said.

Forces from the Popular Mobilisation Units, a paramilitary umbrella organisation dominated by Iranbacked Shia militias, had largely been on the sidelines since the operation to retake Mosul from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS)

group was launched almost two weeks ago.

“The operation aims to cut supplies between Mosul and (ISIS’s de facto capital of) Raqqa, and tighten the siege of (ISIS) in Mosul and liberate Tal Afar,” militia spokesman Ahmed al-Asadi was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

Asadi said the operation, which began on Saturday, aimed to retake the towns of Hatra and Tal Abta, as well as Tal Afar.

Clinton, Trump camps disagree over FBI director’s late email revelation

Hillary Clinton

TOP officials for the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton campaigns on Sunday dueled over the revelation that the FBI had found emails that are potentially new and related to its dormant investigation of Clinton’s use of a private email server.

John Podesta, Clinton’s campaign chairman, and Clinton’s running mate, Tim Kaine, assailed FBI director James Comey for defying convention by publicly resurrecting the specter of his agency’s investigation, without much detail and so close to election day. Campaign officials repeated the candidate’s call for more information about the content of the emails to be released.

Trailing in the polls with nine days to go until election day, the Trump campaign seized on the news as a lifeline. Campaign manager Kelly-

anne Conway told CNN on Sunday that Comey’s decision to write to congressional officials showed Clinton was “unfit to be president based on her constant flouting of the law”.

“This was an unprecedented action,” Podesta told CNN, echoing what has become the Clinton campaign’s official defense. He and Robby Mook, the campaign manager, also cited reports that said attorney general Loretta Lynch and deputy attorney general Sally Yates warned Comey not to make the new findings public, and increasing criticism from former Republican and Democratic justice officials.

“The justice department has had a longstanding tradition of not interfering with elections,” Podesta said.

Podesta added that Comey’s letter to congressional officials was “long

on innuendo and short on facts”, and cited a report by Yahoo News that the FBI, lacking a warrant, had yet to read the emails before Comey sent his letter on Friday. CNN host Jake Tapper countered that law enforcement sources had said they were familiar with the emails’ contents.

“We’re calling on Mr Comey to come forward and explain what’s at issue here,” Podesta said. “It may not even be about her server. It may not be about her at all.”

He added that Comey had “said himself, in his letter to the hill, that these emails may not be significant”.

Four senior Senate Democrats – Dianne Feinstein, Patrick Leahy, Ben Cardin and Thomas Carper – have written to Comey and Lynch, demanding a briefing on the new emails by Monday.

Donald Trump

38 news

Monday, 31 October, 2016

No political prisoners under my administration —Jonathan

F

ORMER president, Dr Goodluck Jonathan, has said all decisions he made in his four years of governance were in accordance with conscience, adding that the nation had no political prisoners and no prisoners of conscience.

He avowed his adherence, throughout his administration, to federal character, transparency, unlimited freedom for institutions and professional bodies, while ensuring that appointments were based on merit above ethno-religious interests.

Jonathan disclosed these while delivering the keynote address on the theme: “Diversity as Our Bridge to Tomorrow,” at the annual merit awards dinner of the Nigerian Lawyers Association of the United States, on Saturday.

“Diversity could remain a strength only when all interest groups in the society feel safe and secured, in their day-to-day activities.

That is why no matter what any critic said about me, I ensured that there was both freedom of speech and freedom after the speech.

“Under my watch, not a single Nigerian was sent to prison because of anything he or she wrote or said about me or about

the administration that I headed.

“Nigeria had no political prisoners under my administration and we

certainly did not have any prisoners of conscience because we ourselves ensured that we acted according to our conscience

From left, representative of the World Bank, Dr Benjamin Leovinsohn; Minister of Health, Professor Isaac Adewole and the Director, Procurement, Alhaji Gambo Muazu, at a meeting on Saving One Million Lives with the Health Commissioners in the North Central, in Abuja. PHOTO: NAN

TUC kicks against amendment of CCB, CCT Acts Olatunde Dodondawa -Lagos

THE Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has kicked against the amendment of Code of Conduct Bureau and Code of Conduct Tribunal Act by the National Assembly.

The labour union said the motive was to take control of the CCB to the advantage of the lawmakers.

In a statement by TUC president, Comrade Bobboi Bala Kaigama and the acting general secretary, Comrade Simeso Amachree, a copy of which was made available to the Nigerian Tribune on Sunday, the union said “by this, they would now take over the controlling powers of the bureau and the

tribunal from the president, to shield themselves from prosecution when they engage in acts of misconduct.”

It added that “for us at congress, allowing the president to maintain his power of appointment into

the CCB only is not enough if the war against corruption must be won.

“In the last one and a half years, the lawmakers have given the country cause to worry, to say the least. They are paid humongous wages and allowances with the tax

payers’ money for doing nothing, even at a time the wages of an average worker can barely take him or her home.”

It saluted the courage of the appeal court in its declaration on the case involving the Senate

Churches tasked to defend children against sexual assault TO address the rampant cases of molestation of children sexually, as well as other abuses, churches have been called upon to rise up in defence of the hapless children, through different activities that may be both social and spiritual.

This was part of the recommendations of the guest speaker at the

annual Dorcas Oke Hope Alive Initiative (DOHAL), Professor Dapo Folorunso Asaju, on caring for the victims of various child abuses in the society.

The programme was held in memory of Dorcas Oke, first child of the Presiding Bishop of Christ Life Church of the Sword of the Spirit Ministries, Francis

Wale Oke, at the church headquarters, Olaogun, Old Ife Road, Ibadan.

Professor Asaju, a consecrated Bishop Theologian of the Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion and the incumbent Vice Chancellor of Ajayi Crowther University (ACU), Oyo town, in Oyo State, spoke on “Domestic

We’ve brought down 32-inch Effurun-Otor delivery line, militants claim Ebenezer Adurokiya –Warri

LESS than 48 hours to the proposed meeting between President Muhammadu Buhari and the Pan Niger Delta Forum in Abuja, members of the Niger Delta Greenland Justice Mandate (NDGJM), on Sunday evening, claimed they have brought down the 32-inch Effurun-Otor delivery line.

The group said it carried out the sabotage at about 11.30 p.m. on Saturday, on the facility located in Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.

The act, it said was to further its newly launched operation, adding that it was executed by its Akuma strike team.

In a statement signed by its spokesperson, “General” Aldo Alagbaja, NDGJM further denounced the

president, Dr Bukola Saraki, on charges of false assets declaration brought against him by the Federal Government, while it warned that irrespective of status, “no one is greater than the over 170 million Nigerians.”

proposed dialogue between President Buhari and leaders of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, led by Chief Edwin Clark, slated for Abuja tomorrow.

It said it would only subscribe to a dialogue with the Federal Government

and genuine representatives from the region, which list, it said, “it was already compiling.”

Meanwhile, the delivery line, as gathered, belonged to the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), whose officials

could not be reached for reactions.

But a security source, however, claimed that the bombed delivery was an abandoned one, noting that no noise of explosion was heard at that odd hour around the area.

My philanthropic works are for humanity, not political —Seyi Makinde A chieftain of Social Democratic Party (SDP), Mr Seyi Makinde, has made it clear to the people of the state that his philanthropic works in the state and beyond are not politicallymotivated activities.

He made this remark at the commissioning of water borehole project he donated to Araromi community behind Ibadan Grammar School, Ibadan South East

Local Government Area of Oyo State, at the weekend.

He explained that his philantropic works predated his participation in active politics, while his contribution to advance the course of humanity extended beyond Oyo State, “where he plays active role in politics,” adding that all this was to give back to the society he belongs to.

Makinde reiterated that

this was not about politics and not even time to start electioneering, adding that since he lost in 2015 governorship election in the state, he had not stopped using his hard earned money to better the lot of downtrodden and the society.

In his welcome address, the chairman of the community Alhaji L A Adegoke, thanked the donor for the kind gesture.

Violence and the Challenges of African Child.”

The guest speaker lamented the failure of government in properly addressing violence against the children in the society, noting that the time had come for the church to rise to the challenge, because of the grave implication for its future.

He maintained that just like it was said that the children are the future leaders in any society, the future of any church also contains in the children of that church, hence the need to show more concern and interest in matters affecting the children.

According to the clergy and university administrator, who listed various forms of child abuses, including abortion, infant mortality, rape, street hawking, among others, “church must be involved in the protection of African Child.”

In his short exhortation, Bishop Oke, who recalled that Dorcas, who died in 2002, would have clocked 32 this year, said he mourned her for a whole year, “but, I don’t mourn again. I now talk of the sad episode with laughter, knowing fully well that she will be among the saints welcoming me home when I finish my race here.”

in all we did.

“Not only did I take a stance to allow people express their opinions without let or fear, we also enacted the Freedom of Information Act and, by that, we tore the veil of secrecy covering governance.

Nigerians deserve to know how their government functions. I am proud to say that we gave them knowledge, and that is a genie you cannot put back to the lamp. We gave institutions unlimited freedom and ensured that the Nigerian Bar Association and other professional unions, fraternities and guilds were completely devoid of any governmental influence.”

Furthermore, he warned against any attempt to cause division in the country owing to the nation’s diversities, calling on political leaders to shun uncomplimentary remarks in public and engage in discussions that would promote the nation’s unity and development.

Harping on his recognition of unity in diversity, Jonathan bemoaned that his desire to celebrate the nation’s centenary anniversary was truncated, owing to criticisms that such venture was a wasteful enterprise.

He consequently called on all Nigerians to shun pursuit of regional or narrow agenda that may not be in the overall development of the nation’s development.

“I would like to see our political leaders, chairpersons of our various political parties, irrespective of their differences, get together to discuss our unity and development instead of exchanging uncomplimentary words,” he said.

“I am also proud of my records as a democrat.

We gave the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), unconditional freedom and ensured by deliberate actions that elections were free, fair and transparent. We ensured that the transition from one government to the other was peaceful. We achieved this because, in constituting the INEC, we ensured that the appointments were not based on personal relationships. This gave the commission credibility and earned the confidence of the electorate.

“The chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega, whom I appointed, was a person I had never met in my life. The same sense of patriotism and profound desire to put my country’s interest first influenced the critical decisions I made as president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he added.

39 sport

Monday, 31 October, 2016

RemoStarsname Ogunmodedeas headCoach REMO Stars Football Club have confirmed the appointment of Daniel Ogunmodede as Nduka Ugbade’s number two after Uche Okagbue ended his two years association with the Ogun State based side.

Ogunmodede who joined the Sky Blue Stars at the start of the 2014/15 season as an assistant and youth team coach will be promoted from his current position to the head coach of the club.

“Daniel’s qualities are that he has the experience of the toplevel game,” Team manager Yinka Samuel said.

“He has managed here, he knows our football phi-

Ideye wins game for Olympiakos

N

IGERIA’S Brown Ideye was on target to hand Olympiakos a 1-0 victory over Atromitos at the Peristeri Stadium.

It was the Thrylos sixth league win and the Nigerian scored the game’s lone goal in the 53rd minute after heading in Konstantinos Fortounis cross past goalkeeper Andrey Gorbunov.

Olympiakos lead the Greek league with 18 points from 7 games.

In England, Sone Aluko grabbed two assists to inspire Fulham to a 5-0 victory over Huddersfield in their Championship fixture at the Craven Cottage.

Aluko’s assist for Lucas Piazon’s second goal in the 42nd minute and Kevin McDonald’s third goal in 66th minute provided an improved team performance for Slaviša Jokanovic’s side given some recent poor showings.

Sylvester Igboun and Kehinde Fatai scored for FK Ufa in their 2-0 away victory over Arsenal

Tula in the Russian Premier League on Sunday.

Igboun opened scoring for the visitors in first half added on time as he rose high to connect with a corner kick from Ondrej Vanek.

It was his second goal in the league this season and it comes after he scored in the midweek

Russian Cup victory over Terek Grozny.

Fatai made sure the three points were well secured in the 80th minute despite the pouring rains when he turned inside the box to shoot past the goalkeeper.

Fatai has now scored four goals in the RPL this season.

First Bank b’ballers back in training AFTER winning the FIBA Africa Zone Three championship, First bank Basketball Club will today begin preparation for the finals, which comes up in Mozambique next month.

Coach of the team, Peter Ahmedu after his team defeated Etoile Filante of Lome 68-39 in the final game stated that he wanted the players to be at their best hence the need to deny them holiday and begin preparation.

“It was good that we won this championship with a 100 per cent record, but we still need to

work extra hard to win a medal at the finals in Mozambique. The African Championship is of a higher level and we need to be at our best,” Ahmedu added.

The Elephant Girls (First Bank) finished fourth in the last to edition of the African Championship and Coach Ahmedu believes that reinforcing the player with few players will raise the level of his team.

“We are bringing in one or two players to the team so that we can be at a high level. My aim is to win a medal in Mozambique,” Ahmedu added.

Amoo linked with 3SC return It’s unfounded —Management staff NIGERIA Olympic team assistant coach Fatai Amoo is set to be announced as the new boss of Nigeria premier league side Shooting Stars.

It will be his second spell at ‘The Oluyole Warriors’ after he first took charge of the Ibadan club between 2009 and 2011.

A top official disclosed that Amoo’s appointment will be made public this week.

losophy and therefore there will be a continuity. We always want to give an advantage to people who know how we work, how we want to coach.”

Ogunmodede who will be assisting Nduka Ugbade in the Nigeria Professional Football League 2016/17 season has described his appointment as “an absolute privilege”.

“It is more than excitement, it is an absolute privilege and an honour,” Ogunmodede told RSFC Media.

“I know it requires a lot and with my wealth of experience at the club I remain positive.

“It’s a bigger stage for us in the Premier League and am keen to do my very best to ensure we have a good debut season.”

Ugbade added: “I have always felt it is important to have people around who understand what this great club is all about.”

He will replace Gbenga Ogunbote, who is on his way to securing a top post after Abdu Maikaba was considered ahead of him for the Akwa United top job.

His contract with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) ended with the recent Rio Olympics in Brazil.

Former Nigeria midfielder Amoo has previously handled Julius Berger, Sunshine Stars

and Enyimba.

However, when Tribunesport made enquiries about the news, a member of the management denied knowledge of Amoo’s impending appointment.

“This is an era where rumours of coaches and players thrive, but to the best of my knowledge, Amoo’s visit to the club house today is not on our card,”he said.

Yaya Toure

‘Guardiola taking revenge on Yaya’ YAYA Toure’s agent has unleashed a savage verbal attack against Pep Guardiola regarding the manager’s treatment of his Ivorian midfielder.

Dimitri Seluk was previously told by the Manchester City manager to apologise for an interview he gave complaining about Toure’s Champions League omission.

He told the Mirror: ‘Why should I apologise when I am guilty of nothing but telling the truth? Pep talks about respect.

But to get respect you have to show it.

‘Pep is allowing his ego to make decisions that aren’t in the best interests of Manchester City.’

Seluk thinks that the treatment of Toure is a response to the agent’s criticism following his player’s departure from Barcelona under Guardiola.

‘This is his revenge. And it is

personal, ‘If anyone not professional.’ deserves an apology ‘I think it istheYaya, plan was Sheikh to humiliManate sour Yaya and- City’s and allfans the -other fromplayPep ers Guardiola.’ who have made history for Manchester City in the last six years.

‘He has given everything to City for almost seven years. He has made history - like Hart and Nasri - and then they are treated by Pep like they are nothing.

‘Pep smiles at you. He makes you believe he is your best friend - and then he betrays you.’

Seluk claims he has attempted to contact both Guardiola and Txiki Begiristain to resolve the issue but was completely ignored by both.

The outspoken agent appears to have further diminished any chances of seeing Toure play for City again and in one final verbal barb called for Guardiola to say sorry himself.

SIDELINES

NO 16,622

N150

MONDAY, 31 OCTOBER, 2016

At the weekend, a story was told of a transporter Tukur Paul who brutalised his wife Jennifer, for accusing him of snoring. Paul, later blamed the devil and regretted his action. These days, love has cured itself of blindness. In fact, it has blessed Jennifer with a third eye and the gut to protest a mid-night disturbance even after nine years of a marriage blessed with three children.

Oshonaike reclaims African title

By Ganiyu Salman

Injury scare for Ikeme Oshonaike

By Nurudeen Alimi

N

IGERIA’S first choice in goal, Carl Ikeme, has raised concern over his availability for the country’s home game against Algeria in a Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier following a hip injury that took him out of a game on Saturday.

Ikeme sustained the injury while playing for English Championship club, Wolverhampton Wanderers against Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park on Saturday.

The injury was so serious he failed to turn up for the game in the second half.

Ikeme just hopes the injury is not that serious and tweeted:“We deserved at least a point and lads all dug in. Hopefully injury nothing to serious.Congrats

@_DaveEdwards great goal and performance,” he tweeted via @Carl_Ikeme.

Wolves’s manager, Rob Edwards also downplays the effect when he told the club’s website.www.wolves. co.uk.: “Carl was struggling around his hip area which I think came after he stretched to make a save.

“He was having it iced at half time and I don’t yet know the extent of the problem.

“Hopefully he won’t be out for too long because he is very important for us,”.

Ikeme is among 24 players listed by Nigeria’s head coach, Gernot Rohr to tackle Algeria. Ikechukwu Ezenwa and Dele Alampasu are the other goal keepers.

Other invitees are defenders: Leon Balogun; William Paul Ekong ; Kenneth Omeruo, Uche Henry Agbo; Tyrone

Ebuehi; Abdullahi Shehu, Musa Muhammed, Elderson Echiejile and Kingsley Madu The midfielders are Mikel John Obi , Ogenyi Onazi , Wilfred Ndidi ; Oghenekaro

Etebo and John Ogu. Forwards Ahmed Musa , Kelechi Iheanacho, Moses Simon, Victor Moses; Odion Ighalo, Brown Ideye Alex Iwobi complete the list.

FUNKE Oshonaike reclaimed her long lost African title at the ITTF African Senior Championships after beating Egypt’s Dina Meshref 4-2 in the final of the women’s singles.

The Egyptian has been unbeaten in the last two years, but Oshonaike pulled a convincing (7-11, 11-13, 11-5, 11-9, 7-11, 7-11) win.

A joyful Oshonaike said: I knew it was going to be tough because she has been unbeaten in the last two years.

“I just told myself to go out there and have fun and show my experience and when it started working I gained more confidence.

She also acknowledged the impact of Segun Toriola, who was her handler.

“My coach, Segun Toriola told me not to give up and I kept on going and it worked for me at last. “ This victory means a lot to me that I can still become African champion despite my age. It shows that nothing is possible regardless of age and despite the challenges of making it to Morocco,” she said.

However, Aruna Quadri’s efforts of becoming the continent champion failed as the Nigerian fell 4-3 to defending champion, Egypt’s Omar Assar in an entertaining final.

EPL Results Everton S’hapton

2 0

West Ham Chelsea

0 2

No panic over EFCC probe —NFF chief

By Dipo Ogunsola

THE Nigeria Football Federation, (NFF), has said the body is not immune to probe and as such welcomes efforts made by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) to look into its books.

Investigators from the two agencies have in recent weeks shown interest in the books of the NFF and the

League Management Company (LMC) and almost half a dozen of football chiefs have been summoned to make explanations.

A football chief who pleaded anonymity told Tribunesport that there was no panic in the football house.

‘If the judiciary is under scrutiny, then what about football,? he asked.

He explained that the investigators acted based on letters and petitions received from football-

loving Nigerians who wanted clarifications on spendings.

“In Nigeria, we have almost eight national teams which we fund on camping, trainings, medicals, kitting, apart from attending competitions. But when there are issues with the Super Eagles, many Nigerians are bound to ask where are the grants from FIFA not minding the fact that we need to fund development programmes from the youth level. As far

as we are concerned, it is no deal if our books are being looked to into,” he stated.

Senate President, Tribunesport recalls, demanded detailed auditing of sponsorship packages accrued to the NFF when Amaju Pinnick (NFF president) appeared before the National Assembly seeking bail out for a Russia 2018 World Cup qualifier in Ndola, Zambia early this month.

Nigeria eventually won the tie beating Zambia 2-1.

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