Fri 07 Feb 2014 by The Guardian Newspaper

TheGuardian Conscience, Nurtured by Truth Friday, February 7, 2014

Vol. 30, No. 12,825

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PDP’s bid to unseat five govs over defection stalled From Lemmy Ughegbe and Adamu Abuh, Abuja

• APC’s Reps may drop threat to block budget after Mbu’s removal

IVE governors who deFsivescamped to the All ProgresCongress (APC)

haji Murtala Nyako (Adamawa), Alhaji Magatakarda Wamakko (Sokoto), Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso (Kano) and Alhaji Abdulfatai Ahmed (Kwara). Besides, the members of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in the House of Representatives yesterday said that the redeployment of

yesterday stalled the hearing of a case initiated by the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) seeking to remove them from office on account of their defection. The governors are Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi (Rivers), Al-

the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mr. Joseph Mbu, to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) might make them to abandon their threat to block the debate on the 2014 budget. Last week when the PDP’s case came up, the defendants (defecting governors and the Independent National Elec-

toral Commission (INEC)) were absent, causing Justice Gabriel Kolawole to fix hearing for February 6, 2013. He directed that they be notified of the service of processes by substituted means of pasting it on the headquarters of APC and also ordered the plaintiffs to serve a hearing notice vide publications in

two national dailies, The Guardian and Thisday newspapers. But at the resumption of proceedings yesterday, five Senior Advocates assisted by nearly 100 lawyers appeared in court for the governors “in protest” against the purported service of the processes of the plaintiffs on them at the

wrong address. The senior legal practitioners on the defence included Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), Chief Akinlolu Olujinmi (SAN), Malam Yusuf Ali (SAN), Prof. Awa Kalu (SAN) and Mr. John Olusola Baiyeshea (SAN). INEC’s counsel and those of the other defendants argued that the purported service of the processes by the court’s bailiff on an address other CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Northern leaders okay confab’s modalities • Back Jonathan, Sambo for second term From Saxone Akhaine, Northern Bureau Chief EADERS across the 19 Laegis northern states under the of the Northern Elders Council (NEC) have endorsed the modalities of the national conference being planned by the Federal Government. They urged all other groups in the North to support the national dialogue on the nation’s challenges. A general assembly of representatives of elders from the northern states met at Arewa House, Kaduna yesterday, where they also endorsed the candidacy of Goodluck Jonathan/Namadi Sambo for the 2015 presidential election. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

• SSS arrests, frees Dokubo-Asari • Gambia appoints Nigerian, Fagbenle, as chief justice – Page 5

Chairman, Northern Elders Council, Tanko Yakassai (left); Governor Mukhtar Yero of Kaduna State and former Minister of Environment and Agriculture, Hassan Adamu, during the elders’ council general assembly in Kaduna… yesterday. PHOTO: NAN

IGP redeploys Mbu, other police chiefs From Mohammed Abubakar (Abuja), Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt) and Odita Sunday (Lagos) N a major redeployment exIsioners ercise that saw 23 commisand 13 deputy commissioners change positions, the Nigeria Police say they are determined to stem civil strife and ensure a more effective watch over the country. According to a statement yes-

• Govt names new heads for SURE-P, NTA, NAN, others terday from the Force Public Relations Officer, Force Headquarters, Abuja, CSP Frank E. Mba, “the posting is part of strategic efforts to reposition the Force for improved effi-

ciency and better service delivery. “The IGP enjoins the affected police chiefs to step up the fight against all forms of criminality in the country and

equally ensure sustained improvement of public safety in all facets of our national life. “He appeals to Nigerians from all walks of life to support the new police commis-

sioners and their lieutenants to enable them succeed in the discharge of their constitutional and statutory mandate.” Among the affected officers are: CP Ambrose Aisabo (Kwara, from Port Authority Police, Lagos), CP Felix O. Uyanna (Ekiti, formally Com-

TUC, firm build 100,000 houses for workers in Abuja – Page 3 22 feared killed in fresh Plateau attack – Page 6

mandant, Police College, OjiRiver), CP Johnson Ogunsakin (Rivers, from SFU, Lagos), CP Benjamin U. Onwuka (Kebbi, formally Deputy Commandant, PSC, Jos), and CP Ibrahim Maishanu (Osun, from Force Headquarters Abuja). Also redeployed were CP Adamu Ibrahim (Abia, formerly Deputy Force Secretary), CP Aderenrele Shinaba (Kano, from Force Headquarters, Abuja), CP Mbu Joseph Mbu (FCT, from Rivers), CP Umaru U. Shehu (Kaduna, CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

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Friday, February 7, 2014

Ogunshakin replaces Mbu as Rivers Commissioner of Police CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 from Nasarawa), CP A.J Abakasanga, Mni (Adamawa, formally CP Info-Tech), and CP Kalafite H. Adeyemi (Taraba, from Force Headquarters, Abuja). Others included CP Ibrahim Idris (Nasarawa, from Force Headquarters, Abuja), CP Abdulmajid Ali (Imo, from EOD), CP Sotonye H. Wankama (Counter-Terrorism Unit, from Ekiti), CP Kayode C. Aderanti (PAP Western Port, Lagos, formally Director, Peace Keeping), and CP Sylvester Umeh (Commandant, PCO, from Kebbi). There were as well CP Danladi Mshelbwala (EOD Bomb Disposal Squad, from Force Headquarters, Abuja), CP Godfrey Okeke (Deputy Commandant, PSC Jos, from Adamawa), CP Mohammed K. Mohammed (DFS Deputy Force Secretary, formally 2IC, Jigawa), CP Agboola Oshodi-

Glover (Info-Tech, from Kwara), and CP Chintua Amajor-Onu (Homicide, FHQ, from Force Headquarters, Abuja). Also, CP Salisu Fage Abdullahi (FIB, from ‘X’squad) and DCP Esosa A.M.Amadasun (‘X’ Squad (HDP), formally DC Admin, Zone 6 Headquarters, Calabar) were redeployed. Of particular interest would be the redeployment of Mr. Mbu from Rivers, where many would hope that his longdrawn era of controversies and bickering with Governor Rotimi Amaechi would now be rested. Taking over from him was the Commissioner,

Special Fraud Unit, Mr. Johnson Ogunshakin. The new Rivers’ police boss, Ogunshakin, a core investigation man, has served as chief detective at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and many other investigations unit of the Force. A police officer well respected for his attention to details and belief in international best practices in policing, he has won the IGP’s commendation several times. The Ekiti State-born CP com-

menced a forensic laboratory project at the SFU aimed at positioning the Nigeria Police as the hub of forensic investigation in West Africa. Mbu, who confirmed his redeployment to The Guardian on telephone, noted: “It is police work, I can be transferred to anywhere, anytime at the discretion of the IGP.” The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, had on at least two occasions failed to redeploy Mbu on the demand of Amaechi and his adopted All Progressives Congress (APC). That ultimately led to the APC asking its Na-

tional Assembly lawmakers to boycott executive bills, including the 2014 Budget, until the Presidency resolves the Rivers crisis. Meanwhile, the Rivers State Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, agreed with Mbu that his redeployment was “a mere routine police exercise,” irrespective of the rancour with the state government. She noted that it was too early to determine how this would affect the political situation in the state. However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Publicity Secretary in

the state, Mr. Andy Nweye, was delighted at Mbu’s redeployment, though he added that the APC would not celebrate his exit but cautiously watch what the next police boss would do. The commissioner had been accused of meddling in the political affairs of the state and taking sides with Amaechi’s opponents in the state, an allegation he has denied, maintaining that he has acted professionally, and accused Amaechi of being a dictator.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 4

Northern leaders back Jonathan, Sambo for second term CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 They agreed that the duo had performed creditably to deserve a second term in office. In his opening address, the Chairman of the NEC, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, said: “We in the council of elders appreciate the tremendous progress made in Nigeria’s match towards establishing a democratic order.” He noted that “we will work alongside all Nigerians who wish to ensure that machinations of anti-democratic forces in this country are frustrated.” Yakassai said: “We reject intimidation, threat and violence. Leaders and elders must lead by example. It is unac-

ceptable for elders to make inciting and inflammatory statements capable of breaching the peace of the nation. We say no to a war-like and belligerent posture.” He noted that the purpose of the elders council in the North, irrespective of group interests, “is to protect the socio-economic and political interest of the North and the corporate existence and stability of the Nigerian nation. “We are firm and committed believers in the Nigerian project. We recognise the significance of Nigeria’s centenary as a political entity and call on all Nigerians to serve as agents of consolidation of national unity and continued existence of our nation as one indivisible country.” Yakassai explained that the national dialogue would provide an ample opportunity for the citizens to redress the ills of the nation, stressing that “we fully support the forthcoming national dialogue and the modalities which have been adopted for selecting the delegates.” “We believe the dialogue will strengthen the bond of unity and solidarity among our people. It will additionally reinforce participatory sense in our democratic order and constitution. “The northern elders’ council applauds the excellent working relationship between President Jonathan and his deputy, Namadi Sambo; and as the political leader of the North, Sambo has shown total loyalty and dedication to the President. We urge them to continue to work

together in harmony,” he said. The Governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Mukhtar Ramalan Yero, who opened the meeting, said that it was “not only timely, but imperative to the stability of our region, especially at this crucial moment in the life of our great country.” Yero said that “as an ardent believer in the power of dialogue in building understanding among diverse people, I salute the courage of our elders in forming this eminent group and I declare my absolute support for the ideals. “As elders, it is time for you to put heads together in proffering workable solutions to the myriad of socio-political as well as economic challenges plaguing development in our country. Our elders must urgently seek ways of reviving the strong bond of unity and brotherhood that used to be the major basis of stability of the region within a peaceful and prosperous Nigeria. “The present situation where our people have been divided along ethnic and religious lines is unacceptable and inimical to sustainable growth and development. We must work together towards finding ways to stem the growing tension in the region as well as in the country. “In achieving this, we cannot underestimate the power of dialogue and all aggrieved persons must be allowed to ventilate their opinions on the way forward. This is imperative for us to quickly end the insecurity and growing level of acrimony in our region.

“We all know that it is practically impossible to make any achievement in terms of development without peace and stability and the absence of these is the major reason for the economic backwardness and stagnation of our region.” Yero continued: “It is also common knowledge that the heightened tension is directly linked to the general elections of next year. Consequently, I must urge this group of elders to engage our people towards building understanding on the need for every stakeholder to respect the sanctity of the ballot. “It is erroneous for people to always feel that the candidate they voted must be declared winner. Elections are about numbers and only the candidate with majority votes as collated by the electoral body is declared winner.” Yero also remarked that it was for the purpose of resolving contending issues in the polity that informed President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to convene a national conference, “where representatives of all segments of the country are to suggest a way forward for the country. “This move by the president is commendable as it will provide an opportunity for stakeholders to review the existing situations in the country and to agree on better ways of steering the ship of the nation. “I therefore urge this group to collaborate with other groups within the region, towards articulating a common position at the confab. As the major

component unit of the country, the North cannot afford to stay away from an opportunity to discuss the future of Nigeria”. “Our elders owe us the duty of availing the country their wealth of experience, especially on ways to return the country to the path of peace, stability and prosperity, which they enjoyed as youths. The time to rebuild Nigeria is now and we must all make sacrifices to ensure that we contribute our quota.” In a statement at the end of the elders’ meeting, read by the former chairman of Alliance for Democracy (AD), Ambassador Mamman Yusuf, the group stated that “it appreciates the tremendous progress in Nigeria’s march towards establishing a stable democratic order and will work alongside all who wish to ensure that the machinations of anti-democratic forces are thwarted.” Among those who attended the meeting were the Secretary-General of the Elders Council, Chief John Manklin, Senator Maitama Yusuf, Ambassador Ladan Shuni, Senator Mohammed Alkali, Ambassador Hassan Adamu, Chief Margaret Ichen, Ambassador Abdullahi Shinkafi, Senator Ahmed Aruwa, Alhaji Gambo Lawan, Hamisu Musa, Senator Saidu Umar Kumo, Col. Baba Mande, Mr. Bitrus Gwada, Benjamin Chafa, Alhaji Idris Haliru, Alhaji Ayinla Folorunsho, Ibrahim Biyo, Alhaji Yusuf Gumel and Senator Paul Wampana.

APC’s Reps may drop threat to block 2014 budget CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 than the national headquarters of APC situated at No 6, Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6 as specifically ordered by the court on December 13, 2013 had rendered the service invalid and ineffectual. In reaction, the plaintiffs’ legal team comprising Dr. Alex Aigbe Izinyon (SAN), Damian Dodo (SAN) and O. A. Omunuwa (SAN) said he saw no reason the defence counsel would be objecting to the substituted service when the purpose was for them to be aware of the case and come to court. Izinyon submitted: “My lord, they were not in court the last time, but by the substituted order of pasting it in their office and publishing advertorial in the two national dailies, they have become aware and have come to court today. The essence of the service is for knowledge and that has been achieved. I do not see why they should now challenge service. But should they insist, we would be asking my lord to di-

rect that we serve counsel to parties here in court or we return and serve on the same Guinea Bissau address as they have not told us even in their motion where their office is now.” The lawyers also maintained that they only appeared in protest in court based on newspaper advertisements in the two national dailies that their clients had been sued and asked the court to compel the PDP to do the right thing known to law. Earlier, the trial judge, Justice Gabriel Kolawole, had wondered aloud why defence counsel would object to service, since in his view, the essence of service is to bring a matter to the attention of the parties. But all the counsel to the governors said the instruction they had was “to protest against the service, not to accept it.” Justice Kolawole who agreed with the lawyers to the governors that the service of court summons could not be forced on them, ordered the PDP to take the summons to the ad-

dress expressly stated in the order granted in favour of the party two months ago. The judge held that the issue of service of court summons was so germane to any legal action as it affects the jurisdiction of any law court and must be properly done in line with the provisions of the law. Justice Kolawole ordered that the court summons be served on the governors along with other processes already filed by the PDP at the APC National Secretariat at No 6, Bissau Street, Wuse Zone 6. He then adjourned the case till February 24, 2014 for report of service and the reply of the PDP to the motions filed by the defendants to challenge the purported service to court summons on them at a wrong address. In an interview with The Guardian, the House Minority Leader, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, noted that his colleagues in the House of Representatives could reconsider their stance particularly on the 2014 budget with the redeployment of Mbu.

Noting that Mbu’s redeployment has vindicated the APC’s position on the need to ensure orderliness in the polity, he stated: “Now, we can debate the so-called budget. As I said earlier, extraordinary and desperate situations call for extraordinary measures. We have been vindicated that there is more than one way to skin a cat. As a party, we have adopted a less attractive but legitimate way when all else failed and it has worked. The people of Nigeria are the beneficiaries.” When the House Leader, Mulikat Adeola-Akande, moved a motion for the second reading of the 2014 budget, APC members in the House led by Mr. Emmanuel Jime (Benue) stalled the debate on the basis that there was a breach of the Fiscal Responsibility Act that stipulates that a yearly budget must be accompanied by the revenue and expenditure estimates of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and 29 other government’s corporations.

Friday, February 7, 2014 | 3

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News Mark, Suswam, Elechi extol Onaiyekan’s virtues at 70

Jonathan urges foreign envoys to boost Nigeria’s image

From Nkechi Onyedika, Abuja

From Mohammed Abubakar, Abuja

MINIENT Nigerians, E including the Senate President, David Mark, and

RESIDENT Goodluck P Jonathan yesterday in Abuja tasked foreign envoys serving in Nigeria to do their best to convey the positive realities of the country to their respective countries and the world generally. Speaking while granting an audience to the outgoing Italian Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Roberto Colamine, President Jonathan said by doing so, the envoys will help immensely in correcting current misconceptions and adverse misrepresentations of Nigeria in the international community. “The knowledge you have acquired here should be used positively to help us as you go back home,” he told the ambassador.

Baptist directs parents to shun Osun uniform talks From Tunji Omofoye, Osogbo HE Osun Baptist Conference yesterday directed parents and guardians of the Baptist High School, Iwo who were invited to a meeting by the Osun State government to discuss the issue of wearing hijab (veil) by Muslim female students in the school to shun the invitation. The directive was contained in a statement to journalists in Osogbo yesterday after the end of the executive committee meeting of the conference. The statement by the President of OBC, Rev. Paul Oluwole Oluwole, said the OBC had the support of the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the state to ask parents and teachers to shun the planned meeting and to ask Christian students to continue to wear religious garments to their schools.

Daniel’s trial to continue April 3 From Charles Coffie Gyamfi, Abeokuta

President Goodluck Jonathan (right) going through the plaque of Wuye International Market after the commissioning of the market in Abuja…yesterday.

TUC, firm build 100,000 houses for workers in Abuja From Terhemba Daka and Chuka Odittah, Abuja

• Govt will give priority to FCT, says Jonathan

ETERMINED to address the housing shortage in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) in collaboration with the Rock of Ages Properties Limited, yesterday kicked off the process for the construction of 100,000 housing units to provide accommodation relief for workers drawn from both public and private sectors in the territory. The development came as President Goodluck Jonathan assured that the Federal Government will continue to accord priority status to the development of Abuja as a city designed to showcase Nigeria to the world. Meanwhile, Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu, has pledged to deliver 20,000 housing units for federal civil servants before the end of the year. According to the TUC Presi-

dent, Comrade Bala Kaigama, the first phase of 20,000 units will be completed before the end of this year. Speaking to newsmen, Kaigama revealed that Nigerian workers have continued to suffer under the hardship of landlords. “You can imagine the workers in Abuja who are under the hardship of landlords in this town. What we are doing is to curtail the excesses of these landlords,” Kaigama stated. He lamented: “We have more than 17 million housing deficits in this country and the worst-hit people are the Nigerian workers. We have taken our destinies in our hands and we are providing affordable houses for our members. “With this developer (Rock of Ages Properties Ltd), we are targeting 100,000 housing units. But for now, we are developing 20,000 first in Abuja and this will be deliv-

ered before the end of the year. Next year, it continues. Once we get lands, we develop. “We are developing two areas in Abuja. One is along the airport road, while the other is in Dei Dei, located along Zuba road. All together, we have about 600 hectares in the two locations. “Our members are senior workers in the country and we are looking at affordability. With the mortgage scheme we are introducing, you cannot bite more than what you can chew. We are categorising them according to what people can afford.” Speaking in the same vain, former president of TUC, Peter Esele, said the intervention of TUC will further bridge the huge deficit in the housing sector in the country. “You see how majority of our members suffer after retirement. At that age, everything is at a standstill. Once you

have a roof over your head, half of your problems are solved. The Federal Mortgage Bank is supporting. We have repayment plan of up to 25 years. “What we are doing is to bridge that huge housing deficit. If the private sector, the government and other relevant agencies contribute their quota, the deficit will be reduced drastically. The government is also giving out small loans to those interested.” Executive Chairman of Chicason Group, Dr. Alexander Chika Okafor, said the project is borne out of a deep concern for the Nigerian people on the subject of housing provision. “In a bid to support the current administration’s transformation agenda of providing and making accessible, good and affordable housing to all Nigerians, an MoU was signed between Rock of Ages Properties Ltd and TUC for the provision of 100,000 housing units nationwide including the FCT.

N Abeokuta High Court yes- Health workers suspend indefinite strike, parley with govt A terday adjourned to April 3 and 4 for continuation of the trial of former Ogun State governor, Gbenga Daniel. Daniel is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on a 38count charge bordering on alleged fraudulent conversion of land and diversion of public funds for private use during his eight years in office. The former governor, however, filed a suit at the Court of Appeal, Ibadan, challenging a ruling of the lower court presided over by Justice Olanrewaju Mabekoje, which had earlier dismissed his plea to quash counts 1-13 of the 38 charges in the subsisting suit. But he lost at the Appeal Court.

From Collins Olayinka (Abuja) and Joseph Okoghenun (Lagos)

EALTH workers under the aegis of the Joint Health Sector Unions (JOHESU) have said that their planned indefinite strike, which is supposed to begin today, has been shelved pending the outcome of their meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Anyim Pius Anyim. Meanwhile, Labour movement and its allies in the country may soon organise a mass action for revival of the public education. JOHESU had embarked on a three-day warning strike two weeks ago with a threat to begin indefinite nationwide strike two weeks after, if the government, through the

• Labour plans to revive public education Federal Ministry of Health, did not implement all signed agreements and court judgments in favour of the health workers nationwide. The two weeks deadline elapses today. But a meeting scheduled in Abuja yesterday between JOHESU leaders and the SGF may be the saving grace, while the strike would not begin today. JOHESU President, Dr. Ayuba Wabba, told The Guardian on phone yesterday, shortly before the meeting began, that JOHESU was mobilising her members nationwide for the indefinite strike. “We have begun to mobilise our people (for the strike). But they (government repre-

sentatives) have called us for a meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. We are going there with open mind, hoping that they would be able to address the issues. Meanwhile, the mobilisation of our members is on,” Wabba said. JOHESU is made up of five different unions, including the Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals (NUAHP). NUAHP President and JOHESU leader, Mr. Felix Olukayode Faniran, also confirmed to The Guardian yesterday that “the strike threat is still pending and its commencement or otherwise will depend on the outcome of the meeting

between JOHESU leaders and the government”. On JOHESU’s demand, the physiotherapist said: “JOHESU presented a 10point demand to the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) for consideration since September 26, 2011 but up till now, none has been implemented fully. The demands bother on the promotion of officers from deputy director to director, under Consolidated Health Salary Structure (CONHESS) 15, implementation of Abdullahi Bello Presidential Committee on Harmony, 2008 job evaluation report, upward review of retirement age for university staff, composition of boards of hospitals to include representatives of unions and associations reasonably.

Governor Gabriel Suswam of Benue State on Wednesday night poured encomium on the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, who recently clocked 70 years, describing him as a man of God who has impacted positively on the lives of many people. At a dinner organised in his honour and also to raise funds for the building of a N3.5 billion Catholic Cathedral of the Twelve Apostles, Mark described the Cardinal as a man of peace, immense respect and honour who has brought pride to Nigeria. He observed that the wish of Cardinal Onaiyekan at his 70th birthday would be to complete the iconic edifice for the worship of God before his official retirement as a priest and promised to mobilise his friends to ensure that enough money is raised for the building of the cathedral. Also speaking, Suswam said Onaiyekan is a blessed man of God and a first class candidate who would have been anything else if he wanted but chose to use his intellectual ability to serve God and humanity. “He has propagated the good news very well and has affected many lives. He wants to leave an enduring legacy”. Suswam noted that the church has a big role to play in nation building, adding that there is need for divine intervention so that we can have good leadership in the country. The governor who urged politicians to be men of good conscience, said: “Most politicians are not men of good conscience, considering the things they do in leadership positions, we need to inculcate morality in our children so that when they become leaders, it will reflect in their conducts. What we have now is very worrisome. We pray the Cardinal lives like a Methusela to enable him continue to impact wisdom in the younger generation of priests. Ebonyi State Governor Martins Elechi described the cleric as a morally sound gifted and intelligent person who prepared himself for the position he is holding. According to Elechi, Cardinal Onaiyekan is a special gift to Nigeria and the church and is a humble man who cannot be humiliated. “The simplicity and humility he exudes is very rare in our culture. He is too deep for ordinary mortals to appreciate, I admire him as a very humble man but who cannot be humiliated,” the governor said.

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4 | NEWS Friday, February 7, 2014

APGA crisis deepens as Okwu’s NEC names Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu national leader From Ezeocha Nzeh, Abuja ECONCILIATION and unity in the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) were dealt further debilitating blow yesterday as the courtreinstated national leadership of Chief Mazi Okwu adopted Bianca Ojukwu, widow of the late APGA national leader, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, as the party’s national leader. At its National Executive Council (NEC) meeting in Abuja, the new leadership rejected the earlier appointment of Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, as the party’s national leader as earlier appointed by the Chief Victor Umeh group before the court nullified its leadership. Though it recognises Obi as a leading figure in the party, the new helmsmen insisted that their appointment of Bianca (currently Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain) as national leader was because they still regard the late Odumegwu-Ojukwu as the symbol of the party. Meanwhile, in a communiqué at the end of the meeting, which was signed by the party’s acting National Publicity Secretary, Stanley Chira, the party accepted the 2015 election time-table as recently released by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), assuring that it would participate fully in the elections. It also disclosed that a new 24-man Board of Trustees

• Party backs Jonathan for 2015 (BoT) and the national caucus of the party would be inaugurated soon in line with the provisions of Article 11 sub-section 10 (3) of the party’s constitution, adding that the NEC also approved the constitution of seven sub-committees in line with Article 15 of the party’s constitution. “NEC notes the time-table for the 2015 general election released by INEC,” the communiqué read. “We concede that INEC is constitutionally empowered to issue timetable and schedule of election activities for general election. However, the party urges INEC to maintain the old practice of consulting political parties before tak-

ing a decision. “We reconfirm and further resolve the earlier decision taken on February 16, 2013, and March 22, 2013, at the anniversary of the demise of our late leader and icon, Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, that he remains our symbol and leader, the fact that he transited to glory notwithstanding. “His wife and next of kin, Iyom Bianca OdumegwuOjukwu, is hereby adopted as the living embodiment of his ideal. She shall in his stead be acknowledged as our national leader.” Okwu added that she has dully been communicated and has accepted the offer,

stressing that she has been very supportive in their fight to reposition APGA. However, he said that Bianca’s adoption does not mean the party does not recognise Obi’s efforts as a leader. According to him, Obi was the one who urged him to return to the party and restructure it, so he would continue to respect the governor as a leader in the party. He stated APGA’s support for and willingness to participate in the proposed national conference. Nevertheless, he revealed that the party would not field any presidential candidate in the 2015 election but would rather back President Goodluck Jonathan for his second term bid in 2015, “if he decides to run.”

Governor Peter Obi

NLNG, NIMASA renew legal tussle By Joseph Onyekwere LL casualties of the recent legal battle between the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) and the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), especially users of cooking gas, may be in for more hardship as both camps yesterday renewed their feud at the Federal High Court, Lagos. Both parties, as well as the Global West Vessels Specialist, have been embroiled in a dispute over the former’s demand for the payment of three per cent of gross freight earnings from the latter. NIMASA said that NLNG failed to pay certain statutory

levies due to it. The development had earlier led to the blockade of NLNG vessels by NIMASA, while the parties reached a temporary agreement for amicable resolution of the matter. By the temporary arrangement, NLNG agreed to continue paying the said three per cent of gross freight earnings, while the legality of the demand would be contested at the court. NIMASA, in turn, agreed to lift the blockade of NLNG vessels. However, yesterday, when parties returned to the court, the second defendant, Global West Vessels Specialist, moved an application for stay

TheGuardian SUNDAY, February 9, 2014

Is PDPCapable Of Recovery, Even After Tukur?

of proceedings in the matter pending the determination of an appeal in respect of the matter at the Court of Appeal, Lagos. The motion was argued by its counsel, Abiodun Owonikoko (SAN). But NLNG’s counsel, Abiodun Layonu (SAN), objected to the motion, urging Justice Mohamed Idris to reject same. Layonu contended that up till date, his client had paid $150 million to NIMASA under the temporary arrangement, and that his client was desirous of getting to the root of the matter. He disclosed that NIMASA collects nothing less than $3 million in tax from the NLNG monthly, and that his client desperately wants to conclude its substantive matter so as to determine the legality of the request of three per cent of gross freight earnings. NLNG had sued the Attorney General of the Federation and Global West Vessels Specialist, which is an agent of NIMASA, over the blockade of its ves-

sels on grounds of non-payment of the three per cent gross freight earnings. On June 18, 2013, Justice Idris granted an ex-parte order restraining the defendants from charging, imposing, demanding or collecting the said three per cent of gross freight earnings or any other sum further to Section 15(a) of NIMASA Act 2007 on all of NLNG’s international inbound or out-bound cargo ships owned, contracted or subcontracted by it. The court had further struck out the Attorney General’s application challenging the order on the ground that it was filed outside the time permitted by court rules, while a similar one filed by Global West was dismissed on the grounds that there was no suppression of any material fact, and that the company could be sued on behalf of its principal, NIMASA. Meanwhile, ruling on the motion for stay has been reserved till February 10, 2014.

Ogunshakin replaces Mbu as Rivers’ CP Continued from Page 2

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SPECIAL REPORT

BUSINESS:

Gangsters and gangwars in Lagos, what is responsible and how to check the menace.

Four Years Of Sanusi What New Apex Bank Governor Must (Not) Do, By Bankers, Others

IBRU: Second Burial Or Fidau Prayer For The Dead ...Clerics Position On The Matter The Guardian On Sunday is new, fresher, bolder; a delight to behold and more importantly, reader-friendly! Book a copy today.

Meanwhile, President Goodluck Jonathan has appointed his former Special Adviser, Media and Publicity, Mr. Ima Niboro as the new Managing Director of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN). He is taking over from Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, whose two terms expired late last year. The president also appointed veteran broadcaster, Mr. Ladan Salihu, as the new Director-General of the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN) as well as ace broadcaster Mr. Sola Omole as the DG of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). Salihu until the new appointment was the Director of the FRCN Kaduna National Station of the Corporation. Omole was until last night the General Manager of the Musical Society of Nigeria (MUSON) Centre Lagos. He retired from the NTA in 1980s. He also worked at the Chevron Corporation in Nigeria as General Manager Government and Public Affairs. He left as Manag-

er of International Government Affairs, Chevron Headquarters in the United States of America. The positions of the Directors-General of both the FRCN and FRCN have been vacant for more than two years. In a statement in Abuja last night, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, said the appointments were in furtherance of efforts to continually strengthen his administration on all fronts. Also appointed according to the statement were Gen. Martin Luther Agwai, Chairman of Subsidy Reinvestment Programme (SURE-P); Mrs. Tanwa Olusi, Deputy Chairman of SUREP, Mrs. Fidelia Njeze, the Special Adviser to the President on New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD); and Senator Suleiman M. Ajadi, Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (NASS). Agwai was until now the Deputy Chairman and Acting Chairman of SURE-P. All the appointments are with

Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu

My challenges, by Muazu From Azimazi Momoh Jimoh, Abuja ATIONAL Chairman of N the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Mu’azu, said yesterday that one of his greatest challenges was the low morale of members that he inherited. Mu’azu who spoke when the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT), led by its Chairman, Tony Anenih, paid him a courtesy visit at the party’s national secretariat, added that he came in when the party had lost much ground. “We took over this party at a time the morale of members was actually very low, when competition would apparently be very interesting; at a time we had the opposition developing the skill of poaching. “But I tell you, all hopes are not lost. We are doing everything with our colleagues, in consultation with you our leaders, and with prayers and support, not only will we regain lost ground, we will strengthen and get back to our proper leadership position in PDP.” Mu’azu described the BoT comprising 117 members as the pillar of the nation, even as he lamented that due consultation with members, especially elders, had been lacking in the party but that the shortcomings would be addressed. Responding, Anenih said they came on a courtesy visit, noting that what they had seen since Mu’azu became chairman has given Nigerians and PDP hope, adding: “I also want to thank you for being a team player. Today, we have a National Working Committee as a team and no longer as a group.” He stated that Mu’azu has moved almost round the 36 states since coming on board, noting that such had never happened before and was not even encouraged. “Having said that, this year is an election year. We have to develop and continue what you have started on the reconciliation efforts. Everyone counts,” he said. “And when I see you moving from place to place, getting people back, I feel very soon we can sleep with our two eyes closed.”

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Friday, February 7, 2014 NEWS | 5

Dokubo-Asari released

RCCG Ikeja holds prayer conference Feb 11

From Karls Tsokar, Abuja HE Department of States T Service (DSS), which had invited leader of the defunct Niger Delta People’s Volunteer Force (NDPVF) Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, has released him after hours of interrogation. Security sources told The Guardian that Dokubo informed the security agents that he loves Nigeria, his country, but decides not to fold his hands while a section of the people decides on themselves to be threatening their brother, the President. Alhaji Dokubo insists, that his threats were only a response to those who feels that they own Nigeria. The arrest of Dokubo-Asari followed closely on the heels of last week’s arrest of Nasir el-Rufai whose comments concerning the coming elections were seen to be provocative.

Minister assures on Onitsha port From Uzoma Nzeagwu, Awka INISTER of Transport, Senator Idris A. Umar, has assured the people of Anambra State that the Onitsha River Port will soon be put into adequate economic use to boost the nation’s revenue. Speaking at the 2014 National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) stakeholders’ conference in Onitsha on Thursday, Senator Umar described the port as a multipurpose investment built to meet international standard, equipped with spacious warehouses, cargo unit, administrative department and police station to ensure security. The minister, who was represented by the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Transport, Nebolisa Emordi, an engineer, said the port would allow businessmen in Onitsha to move wares and equipment along River Niger from the Delta tributaries to Lokoja. Umar, who spoke on the theme “Putting Onitsha River Port into economic use before its concession,” however lamented that since commissioning the River Port over one year ago, commercial activities has not commenced, thus rendering the port of low economic benefit to both the federal and Anambra State Government.

Nigerians in UK hail Ajimobi on programmes IGERIANS living in the N United Kingdom (UK) have hailed Oyo State Governor, Abiola Ajimobi, over his achievements in infrastructural development, urban renewal and job creation programmes. Chairman, Central Association of Nigerians in the UK (CANUK), Chief Bimbo Folayan, gave the commendation while addressing reporters in Ibadan, Oyo State capital on the 2014 Nigerian Diaspora Direct Investments Summit scheduled for April in London. Folayan said the first thing Nigerians in the Diaspora need from government is massive development of infrastructures that will serve as the foundation for investment opportunities, for which CANUK is mobilizing citizens living abroad.

HE Redeemed Christian T Church of God (RCCG), The King’s Court Parish,

Representative of the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, and Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), Dr. Abdulsalami Nasidi (left); Vice President, Policy and Planning, Chevron Corporation, Rhoda Zygocki; Chairman, Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) Management Board, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosumu; Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Femi Olugbile, who represented the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris and Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Akin Osibogun, at the official commissioning of the first Molecular Biology Laboratory Centre worth N100 million, which is a collaborative effort between LUTH and PHOTO: CHUKWUMA MUANYA Chevron/Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Joint Venture… yesterday.

Gunmen disrupt APC registration in Rivers From Abiodun Fagbemi (Ilorin), Kelvin Ebiri (Port Harcourt), Hendrix Oliomogbe (Asaba), John Akubo (Dutse) and Emmanuel Ande (Yola) IVERS State Government R yesterday condemned gunmen attack on the All Progressives Congress (APC) registration centres in some areas of the state. The state’s Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mrs. Ibim Semenitari, said it was ridiculous that some persons would resort in violent attack to disrupt party registration exercise. “Today (Thursday), they (the attackers) have gone to old Bakana and they are pulling out APC members from their homes and beating them. There was also an attack in Tombia. Fortunately, the APC members resisted and went ahead so they could do their registration. “In Ogu-Bolo, thugs went to where people were registering and tried to steal registration materials. Chairman of Ogu-Bolo and the leadership of APC in the area had to go from unit to unit to say they would not be intimidated and denied their legitimate franchise of freedom of association,” she said. Semenitari explained that in Okrika Ward 6, thugs loyal to a party (name withheld) yesterday mercilessly beat up the councillor representing the ward and removed registration materials. And in Okrika Ward 7, she said there was also an attack, even as some people attempted to cause fracas in Ward 4 in Okrika as well. “In Obio/Akpo Ward 4, people were also attacked. I was told that even in parts of Port Harcourt Local Government Area, there was an attempt to intimidate APC members against registering.” She stated that on Wednesday, the former Chairman of Rivers State Civil Service Commission and coordinator of APC registration in Bakana, Mr. Ben Orugbani, was attacked. According to her, armed men shot at him and his house was riddled with bullets and in the process broke his glasses while escaping. Chief of Staff to Government House, Port Harcourt, Tony Okocha, said the APC targets at least 150,000 members

• Apathy in Delta, party targets .5m members in Jigawa, inaugurates interim leadership • Marginalization allegation threatens exercise in Adamawa within the next three days in Obio-Akpor Council. He stated this after monitoring the exercise in the area yesterday, adding that no amount of attacks or violence will deter party supporters from participating in the registration. Efforts to reach the state police spokesperson, Ahmad Muhammed on telephone yesterday were not successful. And in several parts of Delta State, lack of interest by the people is trailing the registration in the second day of the exercise. At the various wards and the state headquarters yesterday, there were trickles of prospective members as at midday as people went about their usual business oblivious of the membership registration exercise in the Delta State capital of Asaba, while at Kwale, Ubiaruku and environs, there were no materials for the exercise while some arrived late at about 3pm. A chieftain of the party in Ika North East Local Council, Mr. Frank Eghomien, explained in a chat with The Guardian that materials arrived late from Asaba on Wednesday, but that the problem has been resolved and everything was going on smoothly by yesterday. Another top member of the party in the state, Olorogun

Tobore Ajueshi, however, expressed optimism that the exercise would gradually pick up and record huge success at the end of the day. In Jigawa State, the APC is targeting over 500,000 members in in the registration exercise, which commenced Wednesday, while it also inaugurated its interim leadership committee. The ceremony, which took place yesterday at the Three Star Hotel, Dutse, was presided over by Deputy Chairman NorthWest Zone, Barrister Salisu Fagge on behalf of the National Chairman of the party. While inaugurating the interim leadership, Fagge said the main reason behind the merger that produced APC was to have a formidable party in Nigeria that can rescue the people from all the negative indices plaguing the country. In Adamawa State, the recent crisis settled by the former House of Representatives Speaker, Bello Masari committee may again rear its head following allegations of marginalization by some factions in the state APC. This has already slowed down the registration exercise, which kicked-off on Wednesday with some chieftains of the party alleging that

the Governor Murtala Nyako’s group, which produced the state interim chairman, Mr. Kobis Ari Thanimu was ‘running a one-man show.’ The Guardian investigations revealed that some key officials of the state interim executive representing Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) camp and Engineer Marcus Gundiri are threatening to resign from the committee next week over the marginalization allegation. When The Guardian contacted the Treasurer of the committee, Alhaji Musa Kam, who is representing the Marwa group, he told The Guardian, “We are yet to resign, but we are seriously having some misgivings over the interim committee, some of us want to see the governor before we will know the next line of action. But honestly things are not going well in the interim committee and that gave birth to the partial failure of the registration exercise on Wednesday.” The crisis manifested on the first day of the registration exercise, when all the members of the interim committee refused to follow the chairman of the committee, Mr. Kobis to register the governor and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in their various units on Wednesday.

Ikeja, Lagos Province 27 will hold its yearly prayer conference from February 11 to 16, 2014 in the church auditorium at No. 12, Oyetubo Street, off Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja, Lagos. According to the Resident Pastor, Ephraim Osunde, who also doubles as the Assistant Pastor-in-Charge of Lagos Province 27; this year’s conference’s theme is “Wait on the Lord,” with ministers expected at the prayer conference including Dr. Steve Ogan, Rev. Mosy Madugba and Pastor Funso Odesola. Osunde added that the conference was not for members of the parish only but open to all members of the public who desire to know and establish an effective relationship with God.

Gambia appoints Nigerian, Fagbenle, as chief justice RESIDENT Yahya JamP meh has appointed Emmanuel Fagbenle, a Nigerian man, as Gambia’s top judge after sacking the only woman to have held the post, his office said yesterday. Fagbenle takes the role of “acting chief justice”, according to a presidential statement, after Ghanaianborn Mabel Yamoa Agyemang was “relieved of her appointment” without explanation on Monday. The statement gave no biographical details for Fagbenle, although he has been cited by local media as presiding over many highprofile cases in recent years and was sworn in as a Court of Appeal justice five years ago, according to a government statement dated from 2009. Agyemang replaced another Nigerian, Joseph Wowo, who allegedly became mired in a bribery scandal in July last year and was jailed on a string of corruption charges in January.

Nigeria to become destination for medical tourism, says minister By Chukwuma Muanya IGERIANS will no longer N have any reason to travel abroad for specialized medical diagnosis and treatment and the country will soon become a destination for medical tourism in Africa, when the first Molecular Biology Laboratory Centre commissioned yesterday at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), IdiAraba, by the Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi Chukwu, becomes fully operational. Chukwu, yesterday at the official commissioning of the centre, a collaborative effort between LUTH and Chevron/Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said it will also enable LUTH to establish a Stem Cell Trans-

• Seeks Chevron support on Centre for Disease Control plantation Unit, a Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) laboratory, and a Nuclear Medicine facility. The minister was supported by Vice President, Policy and Planning, Chevron Corporation, Rhoda Zygocki, Chairman, LUTH Management Board, Dr. Tokunbo AwolowoDosunmu, Chief Medical Director of LUTH, Prof. Akin Osibogun, Lagos State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Jide Idris, Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr. Femi Olugbile, among others. They said the centre, worth over N100 million, which is the first of its kind in operation in West Africa, will pro-

vide preventive diagnosis of sickle cell anaemia; DNA finger printing using biologic product to identify individuals, parentage testing, screening for breast cancer gene I and II that is BRCA 1/2), and other types of molecular diagnosis. Chukwu said: “With the commissioning of the first molecular biology laboratory centre in LUTH today, the country will soon become a destination of choice for medical tourism, especially from our neighbouring countries. “The availability of this centre will have a significant impact as thousands of Nigerians who could not afford overseas medical treatment now have

access to quality and affordable healthcare services, which will be provided by this facility.” Chukwu, represented by the Project Director, Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Federal Ministry of Health (FMoH), Dr. Abdulsalami Nasidi, said facilities such as this are highly needed in Nigeria because it will make it possible for all human diseases to be linked to genes, which will ensure better diagnosis and treatment. Chukwu thanked Chevron for their commitment in improving healthcare in the country, especially in releasing additional $5 million funding for the Prevention of Mother and Child Transmission (PMTCT) of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) in Nigeria.

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6 | NEWS Friday, February 7, 2014

22 feared killed in fresh Plateau attack From Saxone Akhaine (Kaduna) and Isa Abdulsalami Ahovi (Jos)

• CAN warns against violence in the North

ARELY 48 hours after gunmen killed about 30 persons in Riyom Council Area of Plateau State, bandits yesterday unleashed violence in Mavo village in Wase Local Council Area, killing about 22 persons and razing many houses. Meanwhile, Kaduna State chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has cautioned against allowing the violence in parts of Plateau and Kaduna states to turn into genocide. A source said that the gunmen invaded the area at about 2.00 a.m., adding that a

counter-attack by youths in the community was, however, stalled by security operatives. According to a youth who gave his name as Nangak Bako, “the attackers came to the village in their hundreds and started shooting sporadically. I counted 22 bodies and over 10 burnt houses.” The Taroh and Fulani in the area have been at daggers drawn over cattle rustling for some time now. The Interim Administrator of Wase Council, Zakari Haruna, who spoke with journalists, confirmed the at-

tack, adding however, that peace has been restored to the community. He also disclosed that many houses were razed but he did not confirm the casualty figure. Also, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Deputy Superintendent Felicia Aslem, confirmed the attack, but added that she had not been fully briefed about the casualty figure. It was also gathered that people who sustained bullet wounds have been taken for treatment. The STF men were said to have been on the trail of the as-

sailants, but no arrest was reported as at the time of filing this report. The CAN stated: “Governments must not allow the unfortunate experience of Central African Republic (CAR) to happen in Nigeria. The genocide along religious and ethnicity does no good to anybody in that African nation”. Speaking at a press conference in Kaduna yesterday, Chairman of CAN in Kaduna State, Bishop George Dodo, also condemned the killing of Zaria-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Mohammed AwwalAlbani, his son, Abdallah and wife. The state CAN chairman ex-

plained that the attacks on the two local council areas of Kaura in Kaduna and Ryom in Plateau States were unacceptable, just as he expressed regrets that that the perpetrators were still at large. Dodo said: “Those that committed the atrocities in the two councils are not spirits but human beings and, therefore, something should be done to apprehend those who committed the atrocities before it gets out of hand.” “Government must wake up to their responsibilities of safeguarding the lives and property of its citizens by fishing out the perpetrators of these evil acts and punish them in accordance with the law of the land.”

Court adjourns trial of lawyer to February 27 By Joseph Onyekwere LAGOS Magistrate’s Court, A Igbosere, yesterday adjourned the trial of a lawyer accused of defrauding his client to February 27. The accused, Yilji Jibrin Mohammed (34), was arraigned before the magistrate over fraud totaling N15.5 million. Mohammed is facing a twocount charge leveled against him by the Police. Count one reads: “That you, Yilji Jibrin Mohammed, ‘M’ on August 19, 2013, at Apapa in Lagos Magisterial District obtained by pretense with intent to defraud the sum of $100,000 USD (N15,575,000) equivalent paid to your client ACCM Fabrication Limited through you, but fraudulently remitted only N9 million as claimed against HANJIM LIMA EVERGREEN Shipping Company through your bank account No. 3044640106 domiciled with First Bank and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 312(1) and (2) and punishable under Section 312 (3) of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.”

ESPITE reservations being D expressed in many quarters about the motive, timing and the possibility of the proposed National Conference addressing the major issues plaguing Nigeria, Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko has expressed optimism that the parley will help to strengthen the nation’s unity. The governor made the remark at the opening of the Ondo State mini-National Conference held the Adekunle Ajasin University, AkungbaAkoko (AAUA), which appeared to be a dress rehearsal to the main event scheduled to hold later in the year and to which the state would send representatives. The Akungba event, which was meant to deliberate on what would be the position of the state at the parley, was attended by various stakeholders in the state including traditional rulers, religious leaders and representatives of the academia, organised labour and professionals from diverse fields. Mimiko, who commended President Goodluck Jonathan for initiating the conference, said he had demonstrated compliance with the agitation to have Nigerians debate their collective future, stressing that “finally, Nigerians’

From Chido Okafor, Warri OR optimum utilisation of Fersthe Warri Port, stakeholdhave urged the Federal Government to dredge the shallow water bodies known as the “Escravos Bar” to allow bigger vessels access the port. The shallow bar, it was learnt, is one of the major hindrances limiting the maximum use of the port, as large cargo-laden vessels cannot navigate the channel into the port. To that end, the Warri Rebirth Initiative (WRI), in a communiqué issued yesterday at the end of the maiden Warri Fiesta and Symposium, advocated a mechanism to reposition the maritime sub-sector in the area to stimulate its employment and tourism potentials. The symposium, which was chaired by erstwhile Vice Chancellor of the University of Benin, Prof. Grace AleleWilliams, was hosted by Delta State Governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan and steered by former Minister of Information, Prof. Sam Oyovbaire. With the theme, “The Future of Warri and its Environs,” the symposium dealt with issues affecting Warri as a metropolitan city and proffered remedies that would create a better city.

Cross River community gets free eye treatment From Anietie Akpan, Calabar VER 700 patients across O Yakurr Local Council Area of Cross River State have

Business Manager, First Bank Plc., Ajah Branch, Thelma Ikegwuonu (left); former Commissioner for Education, Oyo State, Mrs. Adetokunbo Fayokun; Chief Executive Officer, Supreme Education Schools Magodo, Mrs. Adenike Adamolekun; Commissioner for Education, Ogun State, Mr. Segun Odubela and Managing Director, Edumark Consulting, Mrs. Yinka Ogunde, during the international schools and colleges exhibition in Lagos…yesterday PHOTO: OSENI YUSUF

Mimiko, Umoette urge support for confab From Niyi Bello, Akure

Stakeholders seek dredging of Warri River to boost port

dream of coming together to dialogue on how they should be governed has come to reality.” “It is not too pleasing to note that in our 54 years of existence as a politically independent country, only the 1960 Independence Constitution could be described as the people’s constitution because it remained the only constitution thus far, that aptly reflected the desires of Nigerians and their representatives at the constitutional conferences that produced it”, he added. The governor said the idea of Jonathan allowing Nigerians

to discuss is a right step in the right direction as the platform would allow them to dialogue and evolve a workable agreement that is geared towards the self-expression of its socially and culturally diverse peoples within the nation-state that reflects their desires. Also, a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Robert Umoette, has said that Nigerians should commend Jonathan as “a truly listening President.” In a statement, he said: “I say this as we all have asked for a national confab at one time or the other even before the

emergence of President Jonathan where we can discuss burning issues in the country as they affect us all. Most Nigerians have asked for a confab without limits on topics to be discussed and this in itself means the entity called Nigeria may not exist anymore after such a confab, which is why Mr. President in his wisdom, has set in motion a national confab where everything can be discussed except the unity of Nigeria. This has shown that the President is truly a nationalist.” Umoette, Akwa Ibom State governorship aspirant, expressed his support, noting

that Nigerians from all ethnic nationalities need to sit and agree on terms of the union and in so doing, fashion a people’s constitution based on true federalism. He recalled the declaration by Gen. Yakubu Gowon through Alhaji M.D. Yusuf in Kaduna in 2009 at a meeting of Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) that Nigeria has not evolved much beyond a mere geographic expression, just as the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo called it, neither have the entrapped nationalities within it recovered from the “mistake of 1914” as Sir Ahmadu Bello once lamented.

had their eyes restored under a free eye treatment community outreach facilitated by the Commissioner for Information, Akin Ricketts. The treatment, which included free drugs, reading and corrective glasses, as well as surgery for cataract and glaucoma patients, targeted essentially the lessprivileged and physically-impaired in the area. According to Rickets, the initiative being carried out in partnership with the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation, has provided free eye services to Cross River indigenes and beyond over the past 10 years, and is now being brought closer to those who need it most. He explained that he facilitated the programme in Yakurr Local Council following findings on the prevalence of avoidable blindness in the area.

Groups warn over threats to Delta SSG HREATS to the life and T property of the Secretary to the Delta State Government (SSG), Ovuozourie Macaulay, over the 2015 governorship election, have drawn anger and counter-threats from some groups, which warned of dire consequences if any harm is done to him. He had raised the alarm about a “very serious threat” to his life and property on Tuesday. According to him, the threats arose from an interview with journalists on Wednesday, January 15, 2014, in Asaba that

was misconstrued by political opportunists and troublemakers who do not wish the state well but want to disrupt the peace and stability. In the interview as run by The Guardian, the SSG was quoted to have said there was no power shift agreement in the state, a report which he refuted, saying he was misrepresented. Despite “my refuttal and clarification, my life and property have been threatened,” Macaulay told The Guardian yesterday in on the telephone.

“They threatened to kill me and burn my property in Asaba.” The groups include Isoko Leaders Consultative Forum, Isoko Action Group, Isoko Revolutionary Brigade and Anioma Bridge Builders. The three Isoko groups in a joint statement signed by Lion Egbaoghene and Edafe Maredhehe warned that “nobody has a monopoly of violence and the sponsors of those threatening the SSG will have to leave Asaba and Nigeria because as militants we can get them anywhere.”

They added: “They should also not unnecessarily and foolishly endanger the lives and businesses of Ibo-speaking people and traders in all nooks and crannies of Isokoland. We are aware of their plans to involve other Igbo across the Niger and in the corridors of power in Abuja to deal with the SSG or even remove him from office. We have also noted the threat implied in the 21-day ultimatum given to him by Oganihu Anioma which said he would be dealt with. This is an SSG that is partly an Anioma person by

birth. ” “A word is enough for the wise!” Anioma Bridge Builders, in a statement by Mr. Christian Chukwudi and David Emeka called for “a truce in the faceoff in the interest of our state’s peace and development since the SSG who is one of us from Delta North has clarified his interview.” The group urged a parley between Anioma and Isoko leaders to resolve the matter because “we need each other in politics, business and other fields.”

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Friday, February 7, 2014

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Friday, February 7, 2014

PHOTONEWS

Delta State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan (left); newly sworn-in State Head of Service (HOS), Paul Evuarherhe; his wife, Benedicta; Deputy Governor, Prof. Amos Utuama and out-going HOS, Okey Ofili after the swearing-in of the new HOS in Asaba.

Group Managing Director, Omatek Ventures Plc, Florence Seriki (left); Senior Technical Adviser, Performing Monitoring Team on NIPP, Valerie Agberagba; President, Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Ademola Olorunfemi and former National Chairman, Nigerian Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Ayo Fanimokun, at the courtesy visit of NSE to Omatek in Lagos.

Member, Board of Directors, Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), Prof. Olu Aina, (left); Administrator, Public Service Institute of Nigeria, Dr. Shehu Abubakar Misau; Chairman, ICPC, Barrister Ekpo Nta and Member, Board of Directors, ICPC, Dame Julie-Onum Nwariaku, during the discussion on “Leadership Development for Public Officers” in Abuja. PHOTO: LADIDI LUCY ELUKPO

Chairman, Chams, Demola Aladekomo (left); Deputy Manager, Shared Services Office, Central Bank of Nigeria, Babatunde Ajiboye; Managing Director, ChamsAccess, Funke AlomoOluwa and Financial Instant Issuance Solutions Sales Manager, Datacard Group, Paul J. Ballington, at the breakfast forum on Financial Instant Issuance (Datacard) organised by ChamsAccess in Lagos.

Donor of the borehole, Dr. Benjamin Alli (left); Principal, Saint Anne’s School, Mrs. Ibidolapo Falomo; Chairman, University Press, Dr. Lekan Are and Vicar, Anglican Church of Pentecost, Podo, Rev. Debo Adelaja at the inauguration of a borehole project in memory of old student, Dr. Mabel Alli at Saint Anne’s School, Molete, Ibadan. PHOTO: NAJEEM RAHEEM Medical coordinator, Pink Pearl Foundation, Dr. Ufuoma Okotete (left); representative of Babaloja General, Kairo Market, Alhaja Faosat Joke Adebesin and Project Executive, Pink Pearl Foundation, Ajoku Anita Tosin, at the free breast cancer programme by Pink Pearl Foundation held at Kairo Market, Oshodi, Lagos in commemoration of the World Cancer Day. PHOTO: CHARLES OKOLO

Director, Logistic, Lenovo, Shashank Sharma (left); Marketing Manager, Lenovo Africa, Monique De Klerk and General Manager, Lenovo Africa, Graham Brown, at the launch of Lenovo smart phones to the Nigerian media in Lagos. PHOTO: FEMI ADEBESIN-KUTI

Managing Director, Business Connexion, Ian McAlpine (left); Partner Sales Executive, Hosting Microsoft East and Southern Africa, Maryanne Kariuki; Managing Director, Vodacom Business Nigeria, Guy Clarke and Financial Director, NAMPAK Nigeria Limited, Mike Samson, at a forum organised by Vodacom Nigeria introducing its Software as-a-Service Solution to Enterprise Customers in Lagos.

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Friday, February 7, 2014

WorldReport Britain backs Nigeria’s unity, bid for UN permanent seat By Bola Olajuwon HE British Deputy High T Commissioner in Lagos, Mr. Peter Carter, has pledged his country’s support for Nigeria’s continued corporate existence through enduring partnership as the nation marks the 100 years of its unity after amalgamation in 1914. Carter, in his remarks yesterday as the guest of honour at Akintola Williams Annual Lecture organised by the NigeriaBritain Association in Lagos and attended by eminent Nigerians, said Britain wished Nigeria the very best of success as it begins another phase of existence for the next 100 years. As part of the commitments of Britain to Nigeria’s development as a member of the Commonwealth, the envoy mentioned that his country is working with the Federal Government in the areas of economic development, capacity-building for agencies, security and crimes prevention, terrorism, prisoners’ exchange agreement and partnership through Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). He said Britain also shared Nigeria’s ambition for a reformed United Nations (UN) where Africa is represented on the Security Council as a permanent member. The British Deputy High Commissioner also observed that Nigeria should represent Africa because of its position on the continent, contributions to the UN, population and economic size. But he noted that there is no easy solution to the debate on UN reforms because the debates over the issue are ongoing after they started a long time ago. According to him, the debates would still continue. However, he asserted that Britain wants the 2015 general elections to take place in an

• Seeks credible general elections in 2015 • Ajumogobia, others call for new partnership atmosphere of freedom, according to Nigerian electoral laws as well as through arrangement and processes being undertaken by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Stressing that Britain and its partners like United States, Canada and others, want an inclusive politics, he also underscored the need for vibrant debate and transparent results. He revealed that through the lecture, he learnt a lot about Nigeria-Britain relations during colonial era, post-colonial period and how amalgamation and colonial legacy shaped Nigeria. According to him, Britain is still influenced by its imperial history, especially in the area of responsibility for Commonwealth’s citizens, including Nigerians, who now settled in the country. He also emphasised that relations between Nigeria and Britain have made the two nations to talk to themselves frankly. He mentioned the issues of British visa bond and samesex law, which generated such frank discussions and debates. He, however, said Britain

Nigeria today presents for Britain a new opportunity for a wholesome reciprocal relationship in which Britain’s commitment and robust support for Nigeria, determined quest for growth and prosperity, will surely be worth its while.

would never take Nigeria for granted, revealing that the British are coming back to Nigeria to invest after initial lull. He commended Williams’ commitments and contributions to Nigeria and Britain relations. Meanwhile, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Odein Ajumogobia, who delivered the lecture and while tracing relations between the two countries, noted that “Nigeria today presents for Britain a new opportunity for a wholesome reciprocal relationship in which Britain’s commitment and robust support for Nigeria, determined quest for growth and prosperity, will surely be worth its while.” According to Ajumogobia, who led other speakers in calling for new partnership between the two nations, such commitment, however, requires innovation and new approaches to old paradigms, for investment in infrastructure for example, within structured commercial arrangements and through partnerships with the government and/or with the driven and creative private sector or through viable Public-Private Partnerships. “At independence, Nigeria inherited an efficient railway system from the colonial administration. Two main lines running inland from the coast: Lagos to Kano opened in 1912 and Port Harcourt to Kaduna opened in 1926. An extension network was later constructed to open up agricultural and cattle-rearing areas in the Northwest (in present Zamfara State) and Northeast (in present Yobe State). This infrastructure was built to facilitate British trade in Nigeria,” he said. He said that same paradigm

Pakistan holds landmark talks with Taliban INALLY, as the first round of Fiban’s talks aimed at ending Talbloody seven-year in-

surgency began yesterday, negotiators for Pakistan’s government and the insurgents have called for a ceasefire after meeting. Agency reports claimed that the two sides gathered in Islamabad for a preliminary meeting that lasted more than three hours to chart a “roadmap” for future discussions, amid deep scepticism over whether dialogue can yield a lasting peace deal. Reading from a joint statement following the talks, Maulana Sami-ul-Haq, the Taliban’s chief negotiator, said his side agreed with a government demand that “there should be no activity by either side which can potentially harm the peace efforts”. Irfan Siddiqui, his government counterpart, hailed the meeting — the first ever formal dialogue between the two sides — saying that the Taliban committee had “responded to us beyond our expectations”. The breakthrough came

after an abortive start to the talks Tuesday, which were called off when the government cited doubts over the Taliban negotiating team. “We are really happy that the Taliban committee has responded to us beyond our expectations and they have heard our reservations and

told us their reservations with an open heart,” Siddiqui told reporters on Thursday evening. “We share the common goal of making this country peaceful in accordance with Islamic teaching. And I thank the Taliban committee for meeting us,” Siddiqui added.

exists today in the new competition for Nigeria’s resources, and has indeed been adopted and adapted by others, for mutual consideration and benefit. Such engagement, he stressed, “obviously cannot be mutually beneficial, through aid. Neither can its purpose be to constitute Nigeria into a competitor. Rather, it must be to commit to real partnerships that will help in building an enabling environment that will expand and transform the economy, generate employment for the dynamic young population and create value in both countries. “There certainly is much scope for Britain to proactively re-engage with Nigeria in the area of infrastructure, agriculture and services in particular.” In his welcome address, Nigeria Britain Association’s President, Mr. Tunde Arogunmati, expressed the association’s readiness to create the right platform for promoting Nigeria and Britain relations in the years ahead. Arogunmati said the choice of the lecture was apt, especially now that Nigeria was preparing for a National Conference. He said that Britain would have a great role to play in “unraveling” Nigeria’s true federalism.

Eight dead, one missing in South Africa’s mine blaze HE National Union of T Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa yesterday confirmed that eight workers have been found dead deep inside a burning gold mine in the country, as rescuers raced to find one miner still missing. The bodies were discovered late Wednesday at the mine west of Johannesburg, NUM spokesman, Livhuwani Mammburu, told Agence France Presse (AFP). An earth tremor is thought to have triggered the accident at Harmony Gold’s Doornkop mine, some 1.7 kilometres

below ground. After the tremor, a resulting rock fall is thought to have damaged electric cables and started the fire that caused the most serious mining accident in South Africa since 2009. Seventeen miners had initially been trapped by the blaze. On Wednesday, eight were rescued from an underground refuge chamber, a sealed unit with compressed air and water supply. Eight more were found dead after a search that was hampered by heavy smoke and ground tremors.

IMF urges U.S. to lift debt cap to avert uncertainty HE International Monetary T Fund (IMF) has urged United States (U.S.) to strengthen economic confidence by promptly increasing its debt ceiling, as a fresh battle looms in Congress over the issue. “It’s essential to reduce uncertainty by raising the debt limit promptly and in a durable manner,” said IMF spokesman, Gerry Rice. “The U.S. economy has a lot of things going in its favor right now,” Rice said, pointing to strengthening growth and job creation, and agreement on a new budget. “The last thing the U.S. economy needs right now is another confidence shock such as a prolonged debate about

whether the US will honor its debt obligations,” he said. Despite needing to finance a deficit of more than $500 billion this year, the Treasury will not be able to increase the US debt beginning tomorrow, when a congressionally mandated cap falls into place. The Obama administration has asked for the cap to be removed or increased, warning that by the end of February the Treasury could be forced to renege on payment obligations, including debt. But Republicans in Congress are seeking to attach new conditions on government spending to any legislation that would increase the debt ceiling.

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

10 | Friday, February 7, 2014

Politics ‘South-east will support Jonathan’s re-election bid From Adamu Abuh, Abuja HIEFTAIN of the People’s Democratic Party C (PDP), Chief Chuka Odom is optimistic that the South-East geo political zone would support President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid in 2015. Odom, a leading contender for the Imo state PDP governorship tickrt stressed that the Igbos who have been yearning for development projects in the South-East zone would re-enact their 2011 voting pattern in 2015. In an interview with The Guardian, he said “The south east is still intact for Mr President. Of course there are people who feel that he has not done enough for the zone given the overwhelming support the zone gave him in 2011. My answer to those people is that they should also realize that the President is the President of the whole country and not for the South-East alone. “Even in his own zone, there are voices of dissent. That is the mark of a statesman that you don’t take advantage of your election to concentrate on a particular part of the country. In fact our records show that the North-East zone has benefited more than any other zone in this current dispensation but having said that, it is in the strategic interest of the Igbos to continue to support the presidency of Jonathan. “I have no doubt in my mind that the Igbos would still troop out in their numbers because the projects that we are expecting, the infrastructures we are expecting cannot be accomplished within four years. The president needs more time to bring these things to fruition. So to that extent I believe that every right thinking Igbo man would support the candidacy of Jonathan in 2015.” Odom ruled out the threat posed by the opposition All progressive congress (APC) to President Jonathan’s alleged re-election bid noting: “I do believe that we are making too much out of this opposition thing. The opposition parties have always been there the only difference is that now they appear to have gathered themselves under one umbrella? “But the question is that is there a seamless approach to national issues? Do they have better ideas because what has been emerging since this whole opposition brouhaha started is a people determine to go to the left when the PDP go to the right and go left if the PDP goes right. “So it is not based on any resource or intellectual contribution or administrative acumen on their part. It is just that they are doing opposition for the sake of opposition. I believe that as we go down the road of 2015, Nigerians would see that these people have nothing to offer and that all they need to do is to continue to support the PDP. “The good thing that would come out of this op-

position business is that the ruling party would now sit up and know that one way or the other there is a credible opposition but whether they would really make as much impact as they are trumpeting is seriously doubtful because they have no fresh idea.” Odom believed that he is better positioned to impact positively on the wellbeing of the people of Imo state than the incumbent Governor Rochas Okorocha. Justifying his resolve to throw his hat into the ring he said: “I am not going to discuss the calamity that has be-fallen my State. What I would do is outlined in my blueprint which I would soon launch but it is important for us to realize that the areas that we have failed woefully in the areas of infrastructure, education and re-orienting our people to utilise our human resources. “I would run a transparent government that would not award contract on the road. We would run a transparent government and a serious administration that would responsive to the yearnings of our people. So at the appropriate time we would outline most of these issues.” On the Chuka Odom foundation, he said he is already reaching out to key stakeholders in the south –east geo-political zone in a bid to reorient the youths towards achieving the desired objective urged the youths to channel their attention towards the opportunities that abounds in the housing sector of the economy. He explained the essence of the Owerri based foundation is to address the skill gap in the housing sector and curtail the involvement of unemployed youths in voilent crime in the polity. He noted: “The idea of the Chuka Odom foundation is essentially to bridge the skill gap which is so glaring in our economy. You know because of the collapse of manufacturing sector in Nigeria, over the years government and the private sector have completely neglected training and retraining programmes for our young people. The manufacturing sector today does not engage more than five or six per cent of the population of unemployed young people in Nigeria. “The biggest export Nigeria has today is oil; how many people are in the oil sector in both the upstream and downstream sector? What room does this sector create for a young graduate that has graduated from the university? So these are some of the issues and for a sector that provides almost 90 per cent or more of the income for the country not being able to absorb up to 20 per cent of our workforce is a total disconnect. But of course even if there are manufacturing concerns all over the country today, there is a complete gap in the skill sector. “The truth is that even when the power situation improves in Nigeria, we would discover we have another problem. The other problem is

Jonathan the skill gap because we would now open up our country to people from Togo, Benin, Ghana, India, Pakistan and Lebanon to come and now take up these jobs. So there is need for us to refocus our attention on bridging the skills gap. “We want to start enlightenment programme across the country to let our young people know that having a university certificate does not entitle them to a white collar job and in any case, those jobs are not available. “Housing for instance is going to be the next big thing after oil because we have a population that is very much upwardly mobile and they would definitely need accommodation. So now we need to train people in Nigeria who would now take this housing sector by storm. But first of all, we have to reorientate our young people to start seeing these jobs as good jobs and not jobs meant for people who didn’t go to school. We can have graduate who is an electrician; we can have graduate who is a plumber; a graduate who is a mason and who is certified and qualified to do these jobs. “Take a giant construction company like Julius Berger, ninety per cent of their field

workers are blacks, they are Nigerians. They trained them; they invested in them to do their bidding. So if a private company can train and retrain staffs to do the high quality jobs they are doing in Nigeria at that small scale, why wouldn’t we create a larger platform to liberalise these skills so that the average graduate you meet on the street is either a qualified plumber; a qualified electrician; a qualified tiller; and as these jobs come, we would continue to diffuse the unemployment time bomb. “The truth about the matter is that the jobs are nowhere and we must continue to work hard to focus the attention of our young people to change their attitudes for them to understand that you are a plumber does not devalue your certificate; it does not devalue your person. Odom is not new in the political landscape of the country having served as Minister of state in the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Urban development before he was redeployed as the Minister of state in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) where he served until President Umaru Musa YarÁdua passed on. “We are a growing and emerging market. We must have requisite skills. You don’t have to break a bank to build a beautiful one.

CNPP urges Ekiti to settle suit stalling council poll From Muyiwa Adeyemi (Head South West Bureau, Ado Ekiti) HE Ekiti State chapter of the ConT ference of Nigerian Political Parties (CNPP) has advised the state government and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to withdraw their case in court to pave way for the State Independent Electoral Commission (SIEC) to conduct the local government election. CNPP made the appeal in Ado Ekiti during the swearing-in of its new Executive and the harmonization of its two factions. The Chairman of the CNPP, Tunji Ogunlola said the State deserved elected officers at the local councils but this would remain impossible with the cases that were pending in court. The PDP had sued and obtained Fayemi judgment against the composition of SIÈC on the eve of the council elec- bers of the ruling party. The case is tion in 2012 claiming that its compo- currently at the Appeal Court. sition was illegal because some of its The CNPP, however, called for out of members were card-carrying mem- court settlement to pave way for the

council election. The group chided the national leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for instructing their members at the

National Assembly to block the passage of 2014 Budget. He said such threat could shut down the Government and push Nigerians into unprecedented hardship. Ogunlola, who described the threat as a “whirlwind that would blow Nigeria no good”, said, “I think the leadership of the APC must withdraw the directive, this is not good for Nigeria as a nation and the best thing is to rescind the decision”. The CNPP leader, who was re-elected for a second term, appealed to all the political parties in the State to approach the June 21, 2014 Governorship Election with utmost civility, stressing that they should place the interest of the State above partisan interests. The body charged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to prepare hard for the State Governorship Election to prevent being scuttled by unscrupulous elements in the Commission as witnessed in Anambra State. Lamenting the factionalisation of the body in the last few years due to

political differences, Ogunlola said, “All our differences have been laid to rest and there are no factions in CNPP. We have fused into one in the interest of democracy and to move Ekiti forward”. The CNPP leader , who commended Fayemi for his landmark achievements, assured that the body will continue to play advisory role to any sitting government in a more democratic manner. Ogunlola said, “we will not discriminate against any party or take side. We apologize for whatever must have been our mistake in the past”. He said, “We want to assure that the new CNPP will allow for close relationship between all political parties in our State, monitor the political and economic activities of government and ensure violencefree election. “We are going to serve as checks and balances for robust governance in our dear State. In returns, we expect the State Government to explore all possible avenues to extend hands of fellowship to opposition parties in the State”.

Friday, February 7, 2014 POLITICS 11

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‘Defection in the end will make PDP stronger’ Dr. Stella Dorgu, a member House of Representatives under the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says defection of members of the party to the All Progressives Congress (APC) would not affect the fortunes of the party. In this interview with TUNDE AKINOLA, the veteran broadcaster said the emergence of Adamu Muazu as the new PDP chairman would address the various crises in the party. HAT should the new chairman of the PDP W do to end the crises rocking the party and reposition it? The most important thing is for him to build the morale of all party members, it is not a secret that the morale has been at very low ebb. Many members were becoming frustrated by what they referred to as inactivity or inaction on the part of both the leadership and the executive in running the affairs of the party. So I think the emergence of the new chairman is a welcome development. He has a proven track record of achievements and everybody knows that he did well when he served as two-term governor of Bauchi State. He has held some other executive positions. The new chairman is seen as a leader and a bridge builder who believes in consensus. We believe his leadership will augur well for the party and the country at large. What is your view on some of your colleagues who defected to the APC? Well, for me political ideology is a personal Dorgu thing. Morality and ethics are also personal; they are borne from one background and dif- some of those that defected to return to the ferent experiences. If people feel that a relation- PDP? I do not know because I cannot read their ship is not going well for them they are free to move out. But in moving out I believe they minds. Like I said, it is an individual thing. They should not bring the roof of the house down. all went for different reasons because politics is They have moved, I doubt if their exit would all about interests and when they felt that those have any major impact on the polity or the run- interests were not being met in the PDP they defected. I do not have a crystal ball to know why ning of the PDP. Would this reduction in the PDP caucus not ad- they left and what would bring them back into versely affect the performance of your party in the fold. They are the only people that can speak for themselves. But I am sure that in the politithe National Assembly? Politics is a game of numbers, but if you read cal landscape of Nigeria, I do not believe that the newspapers lately, it seems we are back at there will be another political family that will par with the major opposition APC, still I believe be as healthy, robust and democratic like the the PDP is still the party to beat. PDP is still the PDP. largest party in Africa and we have a track record Most of the defected lawmakers already had of achievements. People would soon begin to their governors decamped to the APC, would witness massive defection from other parties you say they did this out of loyalty to their govinto the PDP. In fact that has already started ernors? In politics you have to be loyal to your party now. What circumstance in your view would make first then the leadership. In most of these states

‘Nigeria faces threat of disintegration unless we dialogue’ By Tunde Eso HE Publicity Secretary of the Yoruba Socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Yinka Odumakin, has emphasised the need for ethnic nationalities in the country to come together and dialogue before conducting the 2015 General Elections, stressing that failure to do so might portend danger to the continued unity of the country. In an interview with The Guardian, Odumakin pointed out the danger inherent in the country’s high level of instability in education, governance and security. He said, “For me if we don’t carefully address 2014 there wont be 2015, we have to address the question of nationhood in 2014. “We have moved from one crisis to another. If we hold elections the way we are without addressing some of those issues, that elections could lead to the disintegration of Nigeria. Because it is an election we are going to fight along religious and ethnics lines, today the Ijaws are adamant because they insist on a second term for President Goodluck Jonathan, the North says it wants power back.

“We have a president who has spent three years in office and has not been able to hold independence Parade outside the Presidential Villa. If President Jonathan eventually emerges as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate for the 2015 elections, would he be able to go round the North to campaign without hitches? In the same manner would the All Progressive Congress (APC) candidate be able to move round the South-South to campaign? “So they are sitting on the cradle of godfather, politicians cannot see it. Which can collapse anytime. For me the most urgent business for us is to hold a Sovereign National Conference which would address the issue of nationhood we have not address in the last 100 years. Even in Britain which put us together, next year they are going to discuss whether Scotland should continue to be part of Great Britain. If we go for elections the way we are, we can kiss Nigeria bye’’. He stressed further that the defection of some PDP Governors to APC shows the dearth of ideology in the Nigerian politics. “Virtually all the politicians are the same and this can be traced to the former Head of State, General Ibraham Badamosi Babangida’s intervention in our

politics. Before his intervention especially during the Second Republic ideology was accorded its rightful place in the country’s politics where then it would be miracle to see an NPN (National Party of Nigeria) politician to decamp to UPN (Unity Party of Nigeria), it will be unimaginable to see Chief Obafemi Awolowo hosting meeting in one NPN government house in the name of searching for new members.” “Since then politics has continued to be about grabbing power and not about ideology, they use the same power to oppress the people. Look at the APC after bringing in all manners of people who called themselves the new-PDP, yet it still says it is a progressive party. What manner of progressive is it? They should have called themselves all people’s party, where all manners of people come in. We now have the original PDP and the new PDP which is APC, who say they want to give us change, and the difference between them is that one carries umbrella, while the other carries broom. When you take that out there is no difference. It shows the depth of opportunism politics in the country”.

it seems to me, the people who defected are loyal to their governors, which in itself is not a bad thing. I am very hopeful that even if we do not have all the five governors coming back we will have maybe two or three back into the fold. Are you saying you will defect if your governor defects? It will depend on so many factors but I do not see a situation where my governor, Seriake Dickson, would defect. He will not defect anyway outside of Mr. President. We are all tied to the political umbilical cord of President Goodluck Jonathan, so there will be no defection. So what style of leadership do you expect from the new PDP chairman? He has started exhibiting it. He is a bridge builder. He has inspired a new hope and put in a new zeal in us. As I said, there was low ebb in the fortunes, so to speak, of the PDP but if

the way that he handled his first caucus meeting is anything to go by, then I believe we are going to have a very successful year and he will also have a successful tenure. People believe in him. He appears to me a very pragmatic politician. He understands politics and knows what to do. He has a great network of not only followers but of friends and associates. We just need to wait and see because hope is rising. People are now energised, we are just very happy to be members of the PDP now that he is on board. What is your view on the directive of the APC to its National Assembly members to frustrate passage of the 2014 Appropriation Bill and other Executive Bills from the Presidency? I know that they are playing opposition politics but in our kind of democracy that is still nascent, a democracy that does not have clear-cut demarcation, I think it is ill timed. It was not a good decision. Even if they wanted to rattle the camp of PDP they should have looked beyond PDP as a party and taken the overall good and development of Nigeria into consideration. In whatever situation we have to be very conscious of the kind of things we say so that we do not incite people who are gullible and vulnerable to do things that they would ordinarily not do. How would you react to a call that the 2015 polls should not take place unless a new constitution is in place? I don’t think that is a good call. However the National Assembly is working very hard on the review if the 1999 Constitution and very soon the work would be completed. We should not disrupt the electoral timetable because of the Constitution. That would be sending a wrong signal in my estimation. We must allow that timetable to continue because it has become part of our democratic timetable. The National Assembly is reviewing the 1999 Constitution while some stakeholders believe there should be an outright change of the constitution through a national conference. How do you marry these two contradicting views? I do not think one should disturb the other. We have been talking about a National Conference for a long time and the raison d’être for it is that there are so many ethnic nationalities in the country and we believe that Nigeria is an amalgam of different people and we say we have come a long way since 1914, so let us come together and talk about how and where we want to go from here. But talking should not stop the democratic work that has started. I believe very strongly that one does not disturb the other. Until we have the conference and see what the outcome will be, we cannot preempt it by as-

Don advocates regionalism for faster development By Chuka Odittah, Abuja S Nigerians await the convocation of the National Conference, a university lecturer, Professor Chikwendu Christian Ukaegbu has advocated a return to regionalism, which in his view would help to address the problem of tribalism and at the same time promote equitable development. Ukaegbu who is a senior lecturer at the Northwest University, Evanston in the United Kingdom, noted that the Conference is capable of steering the country away from disintegration if patriotically handled and if the outcomes are properly implemented. The don stated this in Abuja while delivering a paper titled ‘Leadership for Development in Post- 50 (Years) Nigeria’, hosted by the Ken Nnamani Center for Leadership and Development. He cautioned that unless Nigerian leadership could exercise vision, courage, knowledge, and imagination in tackling the challenges facing the nation, true development would continue to elude the country. The professor noted that issues of structure of government, cost of governance, unity, among other crucial matters must be brought to the dialogue table, without any precluded subject area. “The dialogue itself is a good idea. But more than that we need geo-political restructuring. We need to make the regions stronger than they are at the moment. Nigerians need to come to the dialogue with concrete resolutions. Note that there are two motives that guide the principle of geo-political restructuring. One, it reduces inter-ethnic conflicts. Secondly it accelerates development. I believe that Nigeria is a great country and can be great

again if we decide to return to the once very successful regional governance system. We need to devout more resources to the regions for development, and the center should not be as over-arching as it is currently. Lets return to the regional system. Within them, we can still have the states,” he said. In his view, the slow development process in the country is as a result of government’s inability to lead by example. “In development process, under the leadership of a developmental state, creative and physical energies are deployed to transform and diversify natural resources, and the social and economic environment for individual and national self-actualization. In actual fact, leadership and development go hand in hand. Therefore for Nigeria to be developed, transformational leadership rather than transactional leadership must be in place. Rather than leadership that seeks to maintain status quo, leadership that must lead the country to development must be proactive, charismatic, vision inspiring and lead the way for others to follow. Good leadership don’t just show the way, it also leads the way and creates room for others to follow”, he said. On Nigeria’s growing borrowing record and rising foreign debt profile, the former Head of Sociology at the University of Wyoming, USA expressed concerns that the leadership was beginning to heap avoidable debt burdens on the rest of the nation and posterity. He noted that it is an irony that Nigeria, Nigeria which under former President Olusegun Obasanjo about six years ago moved to clear its foreign debts, had returned to the same scenario through excessive borrowing.

TheGuardian

www.ngrguardiannews.com

12 | Friday, February 7, 2014

Conscience Nurtured by Truth

FOUNDER: ALEX U. IBRU (1945 – 2011) Conscience is an open wound; only truth can heal it. Uthman dan Fodio 1754-1816

Editorial Questions over dry season agric plan GAINST the backdrop of Nigeria’s desire to boost agricultural production, the approval of N14 billion by President Goodluck Jonathan for dry season farming may be worthwhile if only the money would be applied judiciously. Afterall, achieving food security is one of the critical benchmarks of good governance. What the nation intends to achieve by the huge financial commitment should, however, be clearly spelt out and diligently implemented. Otherwise, such a huge amount may amount to money up for grabs by greedy politicians, especially, in the run up to the 2015 elections. Jonathan made the disclosure of the financial outlay while launching this year’s Dry Season Farm Support Programme at the Presidential Villa in Abuja. According to him, his administration is poised to diversify the nation’s economy from over reliance on hydrocarbon resources to harnessing the potential of agriculture. And, remarkably, he noted that agriculture is the largest contributor to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the largest employer of labour. The President’s remarks merely reaffirmed what has been the official oft-repeated position on agriculture. What has been missing, however, is action. The country is not lacking in well-articulated agricultural programmes that failed to meet set targets. The initial success and the eventual failure of the Operation Feed the Nation (OFN) and Green Revolution programmes in the 70s and 80s, respectively, are common knowledge. Ever since then, feeble attempts have been made at boosting agriculture to no avail. While the Dry Season Farm Support Programme may seem attractive, its step by step design towards actualisation remains far from being well articulated. The proposal is opaque. How does this fit into the overall agricultural development strategy of the country? Given the large size of Nigeria, which area(s) would be covered by the programme? These details need to be worked out before disbursing the funds. For instance, the Minister of Agriculture, Akinwunmi Adeshina, had told journalists that the N14 billion would be used to support dry season procurement and cultivation of rice, wheat, sorghum, millet and groundnut in the North. What’s the basis for selecting these crops and leaving out others? Why are farmers in some parts of the country left out? While the dry season may be more pronounced in the North, many areas in the southern part of the country also cope with acute dry season, spanning a better part of the year. At any rate, which states in the North are being targeted? The North-East and many states in the North are currently facing debilitating insurgency and thousands of farmers have fled their homes. Are those areas included in the programme and who would make the procurements? How many farmers are involved? What are the criteria for selecting the farmers? How would the funds be disbursed? Is the money disbursed as loans or grants to the farmers? And who accounts for what? There is also the issue of water supply. Dry season farming is predicated on a well-planned and efficient irrigation programme. Is adequate irrigation water available? Crops for dry farming are usually the heat-resistant species and not the common crops used in normal times. Has this been put into consideration? Reports say the Federal Government approved the sum of N9 billion for the same dry season farming last year. What was the outcome of the huge spending? What targets were set? Were they met? What informed the increment this year? There is need to make such valuable information available to the public, otherwise, suspicion arises that money is being frittered away surreptitiously and no one is being held accountable. Major dry season farming, with its huge capital requirement is not something that should be left to illiterate farmers without strict guidance and monitoring. Without a well-defined policy on it, voting huge sums of money for a few selected crops would be no more than a frivolity. Such intervention, indeed, ought to be part of the overall agric development policy of the country. Nigeria had once approached agric food production through the River Basin Development framework and the Fadama project. In 1976, 11 river basin development authorities were created across the country by Decree No. 25. They were Sokoto Rima, Hadejia-Jamaare, Lake Chad, Upper Benue, Lower Benue and Cross River. Others are Anambra-Imo, Niger, Ogun-Oshun, Benin-Owena and Niger Delta. But rather than fulfill the purpose for which they were created, the river basins have been politicised and their operations are largely comatose. Similarly, the Fadama project, aimed at helping farmers, especially in the dry North, cultivate low lying plains underlain by shallow aquifers along river beds has not achieved any appreciable result. Despite the support received from the World Bank and other multilateral agencies, the Fadama project, now in its third phase, remains a yet-to-be-fulfilled dream. Based on these experiences, the Federal Government should be more vigorous in its planning and implementation of the Dry Season Farming Programme.

LETTERS

Not a Greek gift! Citizens of Oyo State SNewIR:woke up recently to a rare Year’s gift from the government of Abiola Ajimobi: The appropriation of a hefty 30% of the entire budget of the state to education! As this has never happened before in the recent history of the state, the news was immediately seen and understood for what it symbolizes: opening the paths to a future of all-round development solidly founded on the immovable rock of education. Expectedly, this has drawn unfeigned applause from all quarters, but chiefly from the school principals, teachers, students and their parents. Promptly the principals of public secondary schools appreciated Ajimobi, commending the Governor for the gesture. They then organized an event under the auspices of the Oyo State chapter of AllNigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools (ANCOPSS) to honour Ajimobi with the title of Grand Patron of the body. They are more positioned than others to understand what 30 per cent out of N118.9 billion would do in the sector. For instance they

are aware that if there is reasonably progressive and stable funding for the sector, such as what Ajimobi’s actions suggest, it would lead to two critically desired developments. First, the situation will halt the cyclical strikes and hiccups in the system. We shall have what I call a seamless run in the school system. Teachers, now well funded and empowered adequately as a result of suitable budgetary response to their needs and those of the learning environment, would no longer down tools to demand their rights. The arrangement, in the vision of Ajimobi, is also addressing the question of infrastructure upgrade through the provision of modern learning facilities along with conducive classrooms. We glean this from his submission on his plans for the sector. He says three model secondary schools and four model primary schools will be constructed in all the geo-political zones of Oyo in 2014. Ajimobi has a focus on the follow up to these initiatives. According to him, the government is putting in place monitor-

ing, evaluation and inspection mechanisms toward enhancing quality of education and performance of students in every examination, both internal and external. Secondly, public education in Oyo will crawl back from the grave yard where the previous government consigned it. The immediate impact will be tremendous relief for the masses who are putting up with poor standards in public schools due to their neglect as a result of near zero funding under the PDP government that came before the APC administration of Ajimobi. Only very few who can afford it have withdrawn their wards from public schools and sent them to fleecing private ones. But then, government exists to cater for both the greater poor majority and the elite minority. Indeed, if Ajimobi goes the whole hog, we in Oyo State would behold a reversal of the tide: a great number of the citizens are going to withdraw their children from the private schools to public institutions. To be sure, that is the goal of government: to cater for the good of the greatest number in the society. • Kola Oyewunmi, Ibadan, Oyo State

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Friday, February 7, 2014

Opinion Kill subsidy before it kills us! By Henry Boyo ERNARD Otti, NNPC’s Group Executive DirecB tor, Finance and Accounts, explained at a press conference in Abuja, recently that, out of the contentious unresolved net balance of $10.8bn unremitted oil revenue alleged by CBN Governor, “a total sum of $8.49bn was spent on subsidy claims, while $1.22bn was spent on management and repairs of petroleum pipelines; $0.72bn was incurred on products and crude oil losses, while another $0.37bn was expended on holding the country’s strategic product reserves”. We shall closely examine specially the inference of the sum of $8.9bn (about N1.4tn) that NNPC confirmed it legitimately retained as fuel subsidy between January 2012 and July 2013! We recall that the National Assembly approved “an additional sum of N161.6bn to augment the initial N881bn voted for subsidy in 2012; thus, total fuel subsidy approved for 2012 was reported to be about N1.05tn (i.e. more than 20 per cent of the total budgeted expenditure of N4.7tn) for that year.” Reginald Stanley, the Executive Secretary of the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), consequently, happily observed that the consolidated subsidy allocation of N1.05tn in 2012 was a major improvement on the alleged controversial 2011 total subsidy of N2.09tn! The PPPRA Secretary, nonetheless, cautioned that the consolidated 2012 subsidy value of N1.05tn did not include subsidy for kerosene; consequently, the legitimate subsidy appropriation of N1.05tn would have been inadequate, if kerosene claims were also captured! However, the recent confirmation by NNPC’s Financial Director, Bernard Otti, that the corporation also, additionally absorbed $8.9bn (N1.4tn; i.e. N75bn monthly) internally without apparent overt legislative approval, may suggest that the actual consolidated

2012 subsidy expenditure could possibly be closer to N3tn, more so, when average annual subsidy claims of over N200bn for kerosene are also captured; consequently, total subsidy outlay increased outrageously to over 60 per cent of the consolidated federal expenditure budget of N4.7tn for 2012! Thus, with potentially over N3tn outlay on subsidy and with additional interest and service charges of about N600bn on our largely unproductive borrowings, intangible and unproductive expenditure would have accounted for over 75 per cent of total budgeted spending in 2012, even when total infrastructural expenditure, including spending for health and education, was inappropriately less than 30 per cent! It is worrisome that 2012 subsidy outflow may have exceeded the seemingly fraudulent 2011 value of N2.09tn! Incidentally, fuel subsidy projections were not overtly captured in the actual text of the 2013 budget; regrettably, however, there is no reason to believe that consolidated subsidy expenditure for last year (2013) fell below the sum of N3tn expended annually in previous years! Distressingly, also, there is no reason to suggest that fuel subsidy outlay for 2014 will be any different; consequently, subsidy and projected debt service charges of about N600bn, will also exceed N3.6tn, compared with the relatively paltry projected total infrastructural expenditure of N1.5tn from a total appropriation of N4.6tn this year! Furthermore, with the naira rate of exchange currently under severe downward pressure, subsidy claims alone may actually exceed N3tn in 2014. This is because, naira exchange rate depreciation has, historically, been the real driver of domestic fuel prices and ultimately subsidies! A simple example will demonstrate this reality; “if international FOB market price of PMS is, for example, $1, then by extension, this would be equiva-

lent to N160/litre (plus about 10 per cent for freight and port charges)! On the other hand, if the naira exchange rate falls to N200=$1, while official pump price remains at N97, this would imply that the naira subsidy component must increase! “Conversely, if the naira exchange rate strengthens to N80=$1, for example, this implies that PMS would similarly sell at N80/litre plus freight and clearing charges; i.e. well below the current official price of N97/litre. Thus, the government may earn about N10/litre as a sales tax, rather than incur subsidy expenditure of over N40/litre as is currently the case!” Regrettably, no increase in number of functional refineries will change this pricing reality! (See our article “The Avoidable Oppressive Burden of Fuel Subsidy” of November 2013, at http://lesleba.com/yahoo_site_admin/assets/docs/P-18112013.32145409.doc). So, our economic management team may have inadvertently boxed itself into a catch 22 dilemma, as we seem incapable of reducing the price or volume of PMS and kerosene consumption, despite heavy leakages from massive cross border smuggling. Meanwhile, government has understandably, conversely, shied away from another confrontation with the masses, particularly after it survived the charged and volatile social tension, of the January 2012 pro-subsidy strike! Furthermore, the unyielding burden of systemic cash surplus created by CBN’s substitution of fresh naira supply for dollar revenue will guarantee that naira exchange rate will never appreciate to reduce petrol prices and ultimately also subsidy values! Consequently, we may not require a soothsayer to correctly predict, as I have consistently maintained, that economic development with rapidly enhanced social infrastructure will remain clearly unattainable, so long as debt service and fuel subsidy payments continue to account for the lion’s share of our annual budgeted expenditure! We are, therefore, forewarned that, unless we “kill” fuel subsidy, fuel subsidy payments may ul-

timately “kill” us! The choice, therefore, is, should Nigerians endure abject poverty in spite of increasing wealth for our serial economic predators or are we ready to resolutely demand that only policies that would bring about salutary mass social welfare are pursued? It is time to embrace such change with the adoption of a monetary payments strategy that will induce a stronger naira exchange rate below N97/$1 i.e. the rate of exchange that would totally eliminate subsidy as per the earlier example? Indeed, further progressive evolution of naira exchange rate upward to around N80/$1, will expectedly, not only eliminate fuel subsidy, but will also make petrol smuggling unprofitable and enable our government, just like in the UK and U.S., to earn a minimum sales tax of about 10 per cent per litre; i.e. minimum revenue of over N350m per day, in place of N40/litre subsidy for the 35 million litres of fuel allegedly consumed and smuggled from Nigeria daily! In view of the increasingly suicidal impact of fuel subsidy payments on our economic growth and social welfare, history will inevitably condemn President Jonathan and current legislatures, if they do not urgently insist on the appropriate monetary payments reform that would redeem our people from their poverty trap. This is particularly more so, when there is a real possibility that our current oil revenue inflow can induce a stronger naira and precipitate much lower fuel prices, devoid of subsidy component, if the dollars from crude oil sales are infused into the domestic economy with dollar certificates rather than the current poisonous system of creating fresh naira supplies as substitutes for distributable dollar revenue every month! Seriously, no successful economic transformation can occur without first saving the naira! • Boyo is an analyst on public and financial affairs.

NEXIM as Best Performing African DFI By Chinedu Moghalu “The current rating of NEXIM as ‘Best Performing African DFI’ from a negative rating in 2011 by AADFI is a clear testimony that the Corporate Transformation initiative we embarked upon since August 2009 has largely succeeded. The Bank is now better repositioned to deliver on its mandate through more capital injection and other institutional support from our two Shareholders – CBN and Federal Ministry of Finance – in terms of supervisory, regulatory oversight and guidance functions. This has increased our capacity to support the growth of the non-oil exports and complement the export boosting activities of commercial banks. In all, we have consistently maintained a robust strategy, efficient operations through sustenance of highly skilled and motivated personnel.” – Robert Orya. ECENTLY the Association of African Development Finance InR stitutions (AADFI) rated the Nigerian Export-Import Bank– NEXIM as ‘Best Performing African DFI.’ The decision was an outcome of the ‘2013 Annual AADFI CEOs Forum of African Development Banks and Finance Institutions’ on the theme “Strengthening African DFIs with Appropriate Standards and Guidelines: 3rd Peer Review & Rating of African DFIs” held at the Serena Beach Hotel & Spa, Mombasa Republic of Kenya from November 13-15, 2013. The Forum marked the conduct of the 3rd Peer Review of DFIs with the AADFI Prudential Standards, Guidelines and Rating System (PSGRS). In the letter conveying the message to NEXIM Bank, titled “Congratulation on your rating as best performing African DFI”, Mr. J.A. Amihere, the Secretary General of AADFI, stated, “In the light of your institution’s rating as ‘Best Performing DFI”, we are pleased, on behalf of the Chairman of the Association, to extend our warm congratulations to your Board of Directors and Management Team on this record performance, and urge you not to relent in your effort at entrenching best practices in the operations of your institution as you continue to sustain your development financing mandate.” According to AADFI, the Peer Review Exercise with the AADFI PSGRS was not a competition but an approach to evaluate DFIs in the various areas of governance, finance and operation in order to identify areas of weaknesses for self-improvement and strengths for consolidation. Suffice to state that considering NEXIM Bank was in the ‘Negative rating’ for a long time before the Roberts Orya-led management took office in August 2009, it is instructive to note that it quickly moved to ‘B’ rating in 2012, then progressed to ‘Best Performing African DFI’ in 2013. The state of affairs of NEXIM at the time Mr. Orya took charge of the then newly-constituted Executive Management on August 20, 2009 was such that the financial and operational performance of the Bank had deteriorated to a punching level, in addition to a myriad of other problems. These extended to an alarming decline in the quality of risk assets as the Bank’s total loan portfolio of N14.6 billion was non-performing by 72%. Within that category, N10.03

billion or 69.05% was classified as completely lost resulting in a decline in the bank’s income. The net effect was a depletion of the Bank’s shareholders’ funds as a result of accumulated losses, significant decrease in income and tolerance of excessive and escalating overheads. Coupled with these were the issues of non-adherence to corporate governance tenets, non-existent risk management framework, lack of strategic focus and digression from core mandate, lack of visibility of the Bank, etc. In light of the above, the Executive Team set to reverse the problems and ensure NEXIM Bank was able to contribute significantly to the economic development of Nigeria. Under the leadership of its former Board Chairman, Dr. Kingsley C. Moghalu, the Management received approval in 2010 to reposition the Bank to effectively deliver on its statutory mandate and become an ‘effective enabler of Nigeria’ economic transformation. Accordingly, a Corporate Transformation exercise was initiated centering on the key perspectives of Strategy, Risk Management and Corporate Governance, Financial Performance, Operations, Organization and People, with assistance from KPMG Professional Services. The outcome of the exercise was the Corporate Transformation Project (Project Spring) which led to the re-definition of the Bank’s Mission, Vision and Strategic Objectives targeting four sectors, namely, Manufacturing, Agro-processing, Solid Minerals & Services, which have high employment and foreign exchange earning potential in the non-oil sector of the Nigerian economy. This has become the MASS Agenda of the NEXIM Bank. Subsequently, the Management set out clear transformation implementation activities which included a 5-Year Strategic Plan marshalling out the following areas – i. clearly defined market penetration action plans with responsibilities and timelines; ii. robust corporate governance and risk management architecture/frameworks in line with international best practice; iii. brand strategy and brand engagement strategy to improve visibility and project the Bank’s image; iv. clearly defined roles and responsibilities; v. organization-wide key performance indices (KPIs) and scorecard to ensure effective monitoring of the Bank’s operations and performance by its staff and shareholders; vi. redesigned and roll out of policies, processes and procedures with documented business functional requirements for the redesigned process to ensure efficiency; vii. IT transformation project which will support the re-designed business processes with minimal approval levels, overlaps, redundancies as well as adequate controls; etc. In concrete terms, between August 2009 and December 2013, the Bank has supported Nigerian exporters, mainly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the MASS sectors, to the tune of N30.99 billion, and issued Guarantees valued at US$27.30 million. In terms of developmental impact to the Nigerian economy, the

Bank has through its funding interventions generated/sustained over 21,075 direct jobs, in addition to many indirect jobs and facilitated the generation of estimated US$250.32 million annually in foreign exchange earnings. In line with the strategic objective of building a profitable institution with a robust balance sheet, the Management has ensured an appreciable return on the equity investment of the shareholders. Accordingly, a dividend for the 2010 financial year performance was declared and paid, which was the first time since year 2003 when dividend was last paid. Dividend for 2011 has also been declared and paid, while dividend for 2012 will be paid after the approval of the accounts by the CBN. This would make it three years of unbroken profitable performance, whilst fulfilling the Bank’s role as a development finance institution. In other areas of its operation, the Bank, within the period under review, has achieved a cumulative loan recovery of N1.82 billion; designed and rolled out a robust enterprise-wide risk management framework. In terms of branding, communication and visibility, the Bank has created and sustained an amazing awareness of its objectives, products and service offerings across the local, national, and international media through its rebranding exercise. The net effect of all these is that the Bank, has through its activities, strongly supported and has continued supporting government’s policy initiatives, especially Mr. President’s Transformation Agenda, with investment and job creation in key sectors of Manufacturing, Agro-Processing, Solid Minerals and Services, including the Creative and Entertainment Industry. Relentlessly, the Bank is forging ahead with several innovative initiatives and strategic alliances including – a) deepening of intra-regional trade with the launching of ECOWAS Trade Support Facility (ETSF); b) collaboration with the Borderless Alliance (an initiative of the USAID/ West African Trade Hub) to progress the regional initiative aimed at removing non-tariff barriers; c) facilitating the establishment of a Shipping Company (The Sealink Project) to own and operate ocean going vessels within the West and Central African sub-regions; and d) development of the facility guidelines for the Nigerian Creative Arts and Entertainment Industry. Notably, the Bank has been able to leverage on its balance sheet to secure lines of credit from institutions like the African ExportImport Bank (Afrexim), the Export-Import Bank of India, the African Development Bank (AfDB) while it has collaboration arrangements with United States Export-Import Bank and other EXIM Banks. The Bank is a member of the World Economic Forum in the Global Growth Company category, and was recently admitted as a member of OECD (Organization for Economic Corporation and Development), in observer status. • Moghalu, Head, Corporate Communication Department, Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) wrote from Abuja

Friday, February 7, 2014

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Opinion Rivers’ impunity: Say the whole truth By Menes Abinami Muzan HILE the events in Rivers State within the W past one year or so may appear to many as a continuous disregard for the rule of law and constitutional sanctity, it may also seem to others, most worrisomely, as a dangerous signal for our nation’s nascent democracy. For many observers, there has been an impending reign of impunity in the polity of the state. The impending general elections next year have polarised Nigerians along ideological, religious and ethnic lines. Impunity, perceived or otherwise in the polity, remains one that cannot be easily wished away by any objective mind. What might continue to puzzle most discerning analysts is something that, curiously, goes to the genesis of the crisis: it is the question of what the true state of affairs in Rivers State really is and how it seems to have been depicted in the eyes of Nigerians? But then, what seems to be, more or less, the predominant narrative within mainstream and, to a large extent, social media, with every sense of modesty, portrays what could either be viewed as an outright concealment of the true state of these events that have recently rocked the state or at best, an unbalanced version thereof. Without casting any aspersions on the fourth estate of the realm, one might be tempted to conclude that the media reportage of the events in the state has not only been a concoction of both but also most of these events seem to have been blown beyond proportion; and merely playing to the gallery. The ultimate motive, it is believed, might be the quest by the political class in the state to whip up sentiments in the minds of the electorate and perhaps score some cheap points in the crucial ‘battleground states’ in the 2015 general elections. It is not unnoticeable that the perceived acts of impunity making headlines either in the mainstream or social media are those allegedly carried out by the state Police Commissioner, Joseph Mbu. The reign of impunity unleashed on ‘Rivers people’ by Mr. Mbu, as is alleged, has come under the instructions of his ‘Abuja conspirators’, namely the presidency in collaboration with the Minister of Education, Nyesom Wike. However, several occurrences could easily,

not only be described as instances of impunity in the state but also, these events do not have any particular connection with either Police Commissioner Mbu or his perceived political sponsors. Some of the numerous unnoticed acts of impunity that have nothing to do with the police and also the media fuss is the most flagrant abuse of the constitutional principle of separation of powers that is continuously playing itself out with the non-appointment of a substantive Chief Judge for the state. Many would recall the controversies that shrouded the elevation of Justice Ayo Salami as the then President of the Court of Appeal to the Supreme Court in August 2011. Both mainstream and social media were overwhelmed with reports, reviews and opinions castigating the position taken by the Presidency on the matter as, according to many, not only ‘a gross violation of the constitution’ but more so to others, as ‘an act of executive impunity.’ A not too different scenario has been unfolding since September 2013 with media reports and commentaries, particularly anti-Jonathan elements, within and outside the state turning a seeming blind eye or at best not alleging any constitutional concerns nor acts of impunity in what has plagued the Rivers State judiciary in recent months. What is most regrettable in this regard is that this apparent show of executive impunity bears striking similarity with the Justice Salami instance as it comes not only against both the recommendation of the National Judicial Council (NJC) but also against the recognition given by the state Judicial Service Commission. It is instructive, however, that at the time Justice Salami’s suspension was at the centre of national discourse, the Governor of Rivers State being a member of the ruling party, therefore, either directly or otherwise, could, in the mind of the opposition then, easily have passed as a beneficiary of the presidential largesse, particularly also when his chairmanship of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) was not in controversy. However, as a political platform that proposes an alternative to impunity in the polity, what the All Progressives Congress (APC) ought to have done in this instance was to persuade strict com-

pliance with NJC recommendations as regards the appointment of a substantive Chief Judge in Rivers State. This would have demonstrated a paradigm shift from the culture of impunity which, according to the APC (Action Congress of Nigeria as it then was) and its sympathisers, characterised both the Presidency and the ruling party in handling the elevation cum reinstatement of the President of the Court of Appeal. Curiously, not only is there a clear instance of executive impunity playing out, but also, the criticism by the opposition party of Justice Salami’s elevation then, could, for this reason, be seen as an attempt to score a cheap political point against the President. How about the 2014 Rivers State Appropriation Law, that was presented, passed and assented to, quite controversially and in very dramatic circumstances never before seen, not even in the darkest days of the country’s military era! Was there any lead or supporting role Police Commissioner Mbu or his alleged instructors played in that drama? Were there any political motives for not, as the Honourable House Leader put it, ‘calling on well-meaning Nigerians to intervene’ in the crisis rocking the Rivers State judiciary or ‘requesting the Inspector General of Police to redeploy’ Mr. Mbu, as was the case made with the 5/27 impeachment saga of July 2013? Does the shutdown of the third arm of government in Rivers State not necessitate the intervention of well-meaning Nigerians? Are the outburst of impunity in the mainstream media not evidently lacking? What have been the public reactions to these incidents in Rivers State on social media? Arguably, these questions, are capable of raising a moral debate on double standards, especially on the part of the opposition. While not trying to absolve Police Commissioner Mbu or any of his collaborators within or outside the state of condoning any acts of impunity whatsoever, the allegations of reigning impunity appear to be infected with some element of bad faith. Indeed, or at least slightly so, to suit a particular political purpose. Some may argue as that of the opposition. But then, even if the contrary was the position, thereby watering down the effect of the kettle

calling the pot black, can it be argued affirmatively that a classic instance of two wrongs not making a right is not on display in Rivers State? Would it not then mean impunity versus impunity? With the way things stand, it is ultimately, arguably though, very much unlikely. It, therefore, becomes noteworthy to conclude by putting in perspective the fact that at no material time in the political history of Nigeria, or even any democracy in Africa, have elections been won merely with the aid of, what is now seen as, media drama, more so by any opposition political party of any kind whatsoever. Moreover, politicians within and outside Rivers State must square up to the reality that politics is a game of ideologies and of numbers; and elections are neither won on the pages of newspapers nor through any social media forums. In any democratic experiment, either ancient or contemporary, there are and have been proper avenues through which to seek the people’s mandate, ones to channel grievances and others for mutual exchange of ideas including propaganda or for dramatising political events. Therefore, as the 2015 general elections approach, what is crucial to many is that Rivers people and indeed Nigerians should consciously remain objective in analysing events so as not to unnecessarily destabilise the polity. Similarly, and perhaps most important is that citizens, being stakeholders in the democratic process, must, in the common interest never depart from saying the truth and defending the true state of affairs as they stand. The need to question more, especially of the political class, who want to viciously polarise the people further, cannot be overemphasized. Rivers people, unlike any other, are discerning and politically conscious. There does not seem to be anything definitive in the posture of the present administration in Rivers State and, by extension, the opposition party, to suggest that the reigning impunity will soon be brought to an end. Until such a time, even at the risk of sounding more catholic than the Pope, let the whole truth be said and let those who genuinely seek equity do so with clean hands. • Menes Abinami Muzan, Esq., a legal practitioner, writes from Houston, Texas.

Wanted: War against pipeline vandals By Godson Dawodu NOWING that the Nigerian economy operates largely on oil K and gas, the success or failure of the sector is capable of making or otherwise destroying the achievements so far recorded by the administration in its transformation agenda and its direct impact on the welfare and day-to-day living of the masses. In this light, it is important that basic issues relating to the oil and gas sector such as supply and distribution network: made up of pipelines, depots and tank farms, jetties, terminals, etc. are properly managed. But for the January 2012 fuel price hike which was virulently resisted by Nigerians; and occasional warning strikes by labour unions in the sector, there has been an improved petroleum products supply and stable price regime. This is despite the daunting challenges of pipelines vandalisation across the country and poor road network for distribution of fuel to different parts of the country. The Federal Government, through the Petroleum Minister, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke as executed by the management of Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) under Haruna Momoh, has taken some steps to address the most critical of these challenges. The interventionist programmes include: the maintenance of national refineries which have been accompanied with S/D infrastructure upgrade nation-wide. The Port Harcourt-Aba product line, which until recently was not in operation due to pipeline vandalism, has now been rehabilitated and put into maximum capacity utilisation. The Warri-Benin product line has also been recovered while the Benin depot has since been re-commissioned. Pivotal to easy flow of fuel to depots is healthy pipeline maintenance and protection, on which the PPMC has been quite alert to its responsibility. Banking on the support of various security agencies, war against pipeline vandals are becoming effective steadily. Meanwhile, the Aba product depot which had been inoperative for about seven years has now been repaired and recommissioned. Likewise, the Aba-Enugu product pipeline is at various stages of completion of repairs as at late 2013. This is along with major repairs of the Atlas Cove, now revamped; petrol tanks 11 and 12, which also had been reconstructed. No doubt the working relationship between Alison-Madueke and

Momoh has been instrumental to the relief to fuel consuming Nigerian public as panic buying and long queues that often characterize Yuletide seasons have been visibly absent. In 2011, PPMC effected the reactivation of northern pipelines and pumping of petroleum products to Kano, Suleja, Jos, Minna and Gusau. Over 80 per cent availability of operating equipment nationwide was provided as it ensured a great reduction in demurrage against 2010 figures. PPMC also created the enabling environment for expansion in LPG facilities leading to growth in LPG sales of more than 66 per cent above 2010 sales figure. Discussion has reached an advanced stage on the need to engage in Private Public Partnership (PPP) arrangement with private companies to import about 10million cylinders per annum for the next five years. PPMC was able to achieve over 80 per cent reduction of in-depot losses system nationwide through the introduction of strict internal cost control. Strict cost control is an idea which ensures fiscal discipline and enhances budgetary performance; while PPMC has been pursuing cost containment strategy aggressively through tanks rehabilitation in Mosimi depot, Atlas cove Depot and Escravos terminal as well as the recovery of $27.7 million on settlement from CNL on MT Oloibiri redelivery, after a seven-year impasse. The Petroleum Ministry subsidiary has also been able to repair six out of 18 fire trucks system and purchased four new ones. This is in addition to training of 1,461 staff from a total number of 1,851 in 2011. Momoh instituted a zero demurrage policy on DPK. In addition to rehabilitating and commissioning Ibadan LPG plant, Turbo generators that supply power to Escravos terminal were rehabilitated and commissioned as well as the procurement and installation of three 33kva x 1250kva diesel generators at Ibadan depot. Contract for the rehabilitation of PPMC tank gauging system was awarded to a notable company, Messrs Rosemont, for the installation of the state of the art complete automated tank gauging system with the first phase of the works covering 10 depots. In 2013, PPMC consolidated on its repositioning projects by successfully rehabilitating various segments of the pipeline network along the Warri-Benin and Kaduna-Jos-Gombe axes and subsequent re-commissioning of the Benin and Gombe depots. The company has also commenced the process of up-

grading all loading arms from analogue to digital in Warri, Aba, Calabar, Ore, Satellite, Ilorin, Ibadan and Jos depots. To curtail the activities of vandals, PPMC had installed CCTVs in 22 strategic locations around the country, including the Calabar jetty and depot. It has also achieved 27 per cent reduction in demurrage, maintenance of national strategic reserve stock, and the total elimination of product contamination, aided by the deployment of high-tech product quality certification equipment. PPMC has commenced the rehabilitation of leaking pipes, valves, auxiliary facilities and environmental re-instatement at Atlas-cove terminal by Messrs Julius Berger Nig. Ltd (JBN) and targeting completion on schedule. Attaining this feat was mainly the resultant effects of Petroleum Minister’s innovative prowess. One of such is the electronic monitoring of petroleum products distribution, otherwise known as Project Aquila. This was recently introduced by the Minister to further encourage increased investments in the downstream sector which naturally engenders in the construction of new depots (from 44 in 2010 to 71 at present); which represents an astronomical a 62 per cent increase in the number of depots nationwide. Consequently, this development has produced more investments in the sector to the tune of about N53 billion generated from the construction of the new depots, 1000 new petrol retail outlets, and procurement of 800 new fuel delivery trucks. These actions indicate that the Petroleum Ministry is serious about tackling the fundamental issue of regular fuel supply and boosting the economic base of the country thereby. Admittedly, it is not yet uhuru in the sector. War against pipeline vandalisation must rage on if the gains of this key sector would not be allowed to filter away. Intermittent labour union face-off that often threatens the effectiveness and efficiency of the downstream sector should be checked and prevented as often as possible. The recent election of Alison-Madueke by the world body of oil producing nations may be a testimony of performance; but it is also a challenge to achieve more, particularly in arresting vandalism of the pipelines, which today constitutes probably the most daunting problem in the distribution of petroleum products across the country. • Dawodu is a journalist and analyst in the petroleum industry. s

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

BUSINESS Friday, February 7, 2014

Business BoI, GE announce $500 million support for SMEs HE Bank of Industry (BoI) T and a leading infrastructure and technology company, GE have announced plans to cooperate in creating affordable financing solutions for small and mediumsized enterprises (SMEs) in the infrastructure sector. The plan would see funding support to the tune of US$ 500 million made available to SMEs from critical sectors including healthcare, power, and transportation that meet the criteria for selection. Based on the arrangement, SMEs will have access to financing for equipment and service contracts as well as management and technical training over a period of at least five years. In a statement made available to The Guardian, the Managing Director, Bank of Industry, Ms Evelyn Oputu while speaking at a brief ceremony in Abuja, said the initiative is intended to support the establishment, modernization and expansion of infrastructure and high technology SMEs and provide the companies with a more competitive platform to recruit and retain highly skilled Nigerians currently in management and other leadership positions with leading organizations in outside CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

‘Nigeria received N855.4b from development agencies in 2011’ HE National Planning T Commission, yesterday, said development partners contributed $5.51 billion (N855.4 billion) towards supporting Nigeria’s development efforts in 2011.

This was contained in the ``2012 Performance Report on the Nigerian Economy’’ issued by the commission in Abuja. ``The last official statistics on grant was reported in 2011. The report revealed that there are

currently 18 major development partners supporting Nigeria’s development efforts. Out of the figure, seven are from the United Nations’ system, ’’ the report said. It added that a commitment

Chairman/Managing Director, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Andrew Fawthrop (left); Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State; and Member, AfricaLatin America Chevron, Kati Neigdig, during the Global Memorandum of Understanding Fair by Chevron Nigeria, held in Abuja yesterday.

Report indicts telecoms firms on service delivery By Gbenga Salau ESEARCH carried out by R Tnsrms, a Lagos-based research company, has revealed that consumers are losing about N730 billion yearly to poor call quality services provided by telecommunications companies in the country The regional director, West Africa for Digital, Technology and Telecoms, Seyi Adeoye,said there is need for telecommunications operators to deliver clear call quality and also track customers’ pulse. In its research entitled “How would the telecom market space change in 2014?”, the global market research said that what will drive the telecom market space this year is clear call quality. The report stated, “given the level of multisimming in Nigeria, which is well over 30 per cent and would be at significantly higher figure for urban areas; little wonder Mobile Number Portability is not making much of an impact. The trick remains; drive stickiness via creation of an experience to remember for your customers”. The research also disclosed that mobile money would gather more steam because it easily provides a compelling solution to the chal-

of $5.51 billion (N855.4 billion) was made during the review period. ``On the basis of the midterm assessment of the first National Implementation Plan (1st NIP) of the Nigeria’s

There have been shifts and operator strategies must be around Value Maximization for each of the target segment: Provide value as defined by the identified segment and at a profitable price tag. lenges of financial inclusion; illiteracy and a lack of awareness, a cumbersome documentation process and difficulty in proving identity or proof of address, long distances and often awkward physical access to bank branches particularly in rural and isolated locations, low income and high transaction costs. It argued that the market would be a customer-centric space as against the ‘operator centric’ scenario that held sway for a while. On using freebies to attract attention of customers, the research warned telecommunications operators to begin to understand the value perception range of the Nigerian customer segments. “There have been shifts and operator strategies must be around Value Maximization for each of the target segment: Provide value as defined by the identified segment and at a profitable price tag. “Services and products must now be delivered within the context of consumers’ realities and idiosyncrasies. Operators must explore

behavioural analytics which utilizes user’s mobile concierge of choice, simple behavioural analytics (demographics and behaviour) and contextual data (location, time) to offer users specific content and services that they are most likely to value from the long tail of available services”. The Tnsrms report stressed that aggressive competition may weaken prices and for some individual operators, it may not be optimal to offer further price reductions. Moreso, the high level of price based competition in the market is partly a reflection of a lack of non-price differentiation” Looking ahead, it said, digital natives for whom technology is second future would shape the future of the Nigerian telecommunications space: facing this digital multimedia world is a challenge and opportunity. According to the company, the Nigerian market is extremely youthful with over 80 per cent of Nigerians less than 40 years old and 41 per cent of the population less

than 14 years old. Nigeria is currently the largest online community in Africa with well over 60 million persons accessing the Internet. It therefore said that in order to future-proof their businesses, operators in Nigeria must aggressively pursue the provision of a complete host of multimedia and ICT products and services solutions to all their customers: online commerce, educational services, cloud services, mobile money, mobile advertising, gamification drive, own OTT offers, entertainment + sports services etc. It recognized that some operators are already looking in this direction. On the regulatory side, it recalled that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), has announced its plans to auction the remaining slots in the 2.3GHz spectrum – aimed at unbundling the nation’s broadband infrastructure, which it believed will boost the provision of internet access. “In addition, there is also the proposed licensing of infrastructure companies to hasten the deployment of broadband to all nooks and crannies of the country under the national broadband network deployment plan”, it added.

Vision 20:2020, the aggregate disbursement of development assistance to Nigeria stood at $2.76 billion. ``This represents a disbursement of rate of 50.09 per cent or 0.004 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP),’’ the report stated. It also said that the human capital development sector accounted for 82.02 per cent, while governance sector recorded 8.84 per cent during the period. The report said the donors’ intervention in the real/productive sector accounted for 4.57 per cent, while physical infrastructure sector recorded 1.43 per cent. It said 22 sectors benefited from the donors’ support between 2010 and 2011, adding that there was a significant increase in 11 sectors as recorded in the 1st NIP of the vision 20:2020. ``The donors committed $29.5 million to Agriculture and Rural Development sector, while the Youth Development sector accounted for $11.8 million,’’ the report said. It noted that most development partners contributed significantly to agriculture, health and governance. ``Overall assessment of disbursements, however, indicates that Nigeria is not an aid dependent economy. This given that the aid to GDP ratio was 0.004 per cent per annum during the review period,’’ the report said.

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Friday, February 7, 2014

IBM predicts 80% growth in cloud adoption in Nigeria, expands local reach By Adeyemi Adepetun NITED States of America U (USA) based multinational technology and consulting corporation, International Business Machine (IBM) has predicted that cloud technology adoption, which has reached a tipping point in Africa, is expected to double in Nigeria to about 80 per cent by 2015. Cloud technology or computing is a phrase used to describe a variety of computing concepts that involve a large number of computers connected through a realtime communication network such as the Internet. In science, cloud computing is a synonym for distributed computing over a network, and means the ability to run a program or application on many connected computers at the same time. Speaking in Lagos, yesterday, at the commissioning of new IBM innovation centre in Nigeria, the Country General

Manager, West Africa, Taiwo Otiti said the new facility is designed to accelerate innovation for the country and West African business and IT skills. Otiti explained that using the centre, clients, IT partners, developers, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics can now access enhanced cloud capabilities and extensive big data and analytics resources. According to IBM, adoption of cloud technology in Africa has reached a tipping point and in Nigeria alone, cloud usage is expected to more than double to 80 percent of businesses in the next year, adding that the growing proliferation of mobile phones and tablets is accelerating the opportunity to interpret data patterns to anticipate needs and deliver improved services. IBM noted that as the local demand for these types of technologies and skills

BoI, GE to support SMEs with $500m CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15 Nigeria. According to Ms Oputu, “GE and BOI jointly anticipate that the program will also attract additional foreign direct investments into the private infrastructure sectors”. On his part the President/CEO of GE Nigeria, Lazarus Angbazo commend-

ed the Bank of Industry for aligning with GE’s commitment to working with relevant stakeholders to address infrastructural challenges across sectors. He said this engagement was in line with GE’s countryto-company agreement with the Federal government across critical sectors of healthcare, transportation and power.

increases, Africa is quickly moving to the center of global attention as the last big emerging market of the current economic era. Already, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) informed that sub-Saharan Africa is set to be the world's second fastest growing region with projected economic growth of over six percent this year. To take advantage of this explosive growth, Otitu said the new centre will focus on providing solutions that use Big Data & Analytics and cloud technologies to solve key local challenges such as improving government services, digitising banking services and enhancing customer centricity in telecommunications. According to him, clients will be able to participate in virtual and in-person training, test out new products, network with peers from around the world, and receive mentoring and guidance from IT and business experts. For example, he said the centre would provide clients hands-on access to cloudbased industry solutions such as IBM Intelligent Operations designed to provide cities, governments and utilities with a central command center for the use of predictive analytics to enhance efficiency and manage all their operations. "Our investment in this centre is in line with our strategy to help fuel growth in Nigeria's IT sector and to sup-

port the use of advanced technology service delivery for the public sector and commercial business growth, particularly expansion in West Africa. IBM Innovation centres are

designed to help clients envisage their future, illustrated using IBM social, mobile, analytics and cloud solutions, combined with industry focused experience and

expertise. Through this centre, we will bring the reach of IBM's global capabilities and thought leadership closer to local and regional clients", Otiti stated.

Failure of 160 firms to secure contracts worries Agip From Ann Godwin, Port Harcourt HE failure of about 160 local T companies to qualify for contract awards in 2013 has become a source of worry for some stakeholders and operators. The Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC) was among the oil majors that appeared not satisfied with the development, hence, it has strategized to increase awareness programme for the Nigeria Oil and Gas Industries Content Development Act (NOGICD) to aid local contractors. The Vice Chairman and Managing Director of NAOC, Massimo Insulla, during the flag off of the awareness programme in Port Harcourt yesterday, regretted that the challenge does not only limit opportunities created by the act, but also inhibits the promotion of local content. However, to ensure adequate compliance and promotion of the act, Insulla called on the companies to move from bidding to in-country domiciliation and manufacturing of goods and services utilized in the oil and gas industry. "We believe since the main activities of the industry are performed by contractors

(not operators), there was need for opportunities awareness to be disseminated to our contractors. We recognise that Nigerian companies need to work in collaboration with the Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) for technology and skill transfer", he stated. Represented by the General Manager District, Paolo Carnevale, the Managing Director explained that the areas to address during the two -day sensitization programme include, key provisions of NOGICD act, key requirements for successful tendering and contracting process eliminating NC failures which excludes technically qualified contractors from contract awards, Nigeria Content measurement and evaluation among others. He said the selection of the key areas was mainly based on NC failures in 2013 tendering process. "Promoting local content is one of our core values because we have passion for the growth and development of the people in the environment where we operate" "I wish to state that we are not only committed to the implementation of the provi-

sions of the NOGICD act, but also ensuring success of the development of Nigerian content in the oil and gas sector" Insulla stated. He however urged the participants to devote their time and concentrate on the program in order to achieve the desired objectives which are enhancing of the act to ensure success in bidding and tendering and as well, seizing the opportunities created by the act to promote in-country domiciliation and manufacturing of goods and services. In his remarks, the Chairman, House Committee on Local Content, Honorable Asita, urged the Nigerian companies to take advantage of the provisions of the law, study it and comply with its provisions to avoid further failures on award of contracts. He said: "I am worried that Nigerian companies could not be contracted because they failed to provide the requirements of the Nigerian content, I am aware the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board organizes programmes zone by zone for the contractors but it is disheartening that the companies are not doing well yet".

Friday, February 7, 2014 17

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TheMetroSection ‘Please re-open the banks ’

• The people of Offa in Kwara State appeal to banks to re-open their branches, which were shut in the wake of armed robbery attacks in the town, as they procure vehicles for security operations

From Abiodun Fagbemi, Ilorin F transaction within the banking Iture, premises has become a risky venthen where else would serve as a veritable alternative for would be bank customers? Besides, if policemen are being mowed down right at the police station, where else is safe for the personnel of the police force to serve as operational base? These and many other posers are serving as a dilemma to the people of Offa in Offa Local Council of Kwara state, who at present cannot access any commercial bank in the ancient town, arguably described as the second largest town in the state after Ilorin, the state capital. Offa, located in the Southern part of the state was on Thursday, December 19, 2013 besieged by daredevil armed robbers, who first attacked the only police station in it, leaving dead in the process, six unsuspecting police officers before unleashing heavy assaults on four commercial banks adjoining one another, killing a Manager and three other persons suspected as customers of the banks. The dastardly act was so sudden that, days after, the people remained shocked, numb and forlorn. Perhaps the Amuludun of Offa Chief Yinusa Oyeyemi, has better words for the sad incident described as unprecedented in the history of the ancient town. Oyeyemi recalled: “Everybody ran helter skelter seeking refuge from the ceaseless barrage of firing which was done with reckless abandon by those accursed, never-to -do-well who can best be described, for lack of pungent words as enemies of progress. It threw the community into inconsolable mourning while the economy of the town suffered indescribable hemorrhage leading to its near comatose situation from which it is yet to fully recover.” Already, all the banks in the town are yet to reopen operations to customers since the sad episode. When The Guardian visited the banks on Monday, the damaged façade of the banks’ buildings were yet to be given any facelift. In the wake of this lamentation, the community consoled itself and in collaboration with the LGA through the Chairman, Segun Olanipekun, pulled their resources together to purchase three brand new Hilux vans handed over to the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) and

Ugbechie, 92, passes on HE death has occurred of T Mr. Gabriel Iwebunor Ugbechie of Isho village, Ubulu-Uku, Aniocha South Local Council of Delta State. He was aged 92. A benevolent community leader, philanthropist and devout Christian, Ugbechie died on Sunday, January 26, 2014. He is survived by 16 children, numerous grand-children and great grand-children among whom is Mr. Ken Ugbechie, Editor-in-Chief of Political Economist magazine and former editor of Daily Times and Post Express Newspapers. His burial has been fixed for April 24 and April 25, 2014 in his compound.

Lord’s Chosen begins programme HE Lord’s Chosen CharisT matic Revival Ministries will tomorrow and Sunday hold its two-day crusade tagged From Sorrow to Joy at Chosen Revival Ground, 10, Odofin Park Estate, by Ijesha Bus-stop, Lagos at 8am daily. The General Overseer, Pastor Lazarus Muoka, said the “event is designed to deal with all human problems. However, the church has made adequate arrangement to convey participants to venue of the programme from any location within Lagos State.

The security vehicles

We wish to assure the banks that various groups of this community are working round the clock to strengthen the security arrangements to guarantee their uninterrupted operations. We shall, therefore, appreciate your resumption of activities soonest to re-energize economic activities in the town MobilePolice to boost security network in the town. After the much-needed beefing up of the security in the town, the community canvassed prompt re-opening of the banks as the people of the town could no longer bear the brunt of coming to and from Ilorin, some 50 kilometres away, for transactions everyday. Oyeyemi said: “Permit me to digress a little bit to plead with the Area Offices of the commercial banks, which have understandably remained shut since the unfortunate incident of the day to please reopen so as to alleviate the hardship being experienced by

UniUyo alumni meet HE first general meeting T of University of Uyo (UniUyo) Alumni Association,

Kwara State Governor, Abdul-Fatah Ahmed their customers within and outside Offa. “We, as community, wish to assure the banks that various groups of this community are working collaboratively round the clock to strengthen the security arrangements on ground so as to guarantee their uninterrupted operations. We shall, therefore, appreciate your resumption of activities soonest to re-energize economic activities in the town.” Speaking at the presentation of the patrol vehicles, the Governor represented by the Secretary to the State

Government (SSG) Shola Gold, disclosed to the people of the town government’s plan to establish two additional police stations at strategic locations within the town to add to the existing security structure of Offa. The Council Chairman also assured that the council would continue to bankroll any ideas that could prevent crime as the price of crime prevention “is higher than that of medicine after death.” Popoola urged the state government to embark on any measure capable of securing lives and property of the people of the town.

Olakpe lauds NAN staff member for apprehending car thief HE Commissioner of Poproperty, he tactfully took mind was in our office in return to his station on Sun“He should be emulated by T lice in Plateau, Mr. Chris him (suspect) to NAN office, Jos.” day because his car develother Nigerians. I am really Olakpe, yesterday commended the efforts of Mr. Suleiman Haruna, and other members of the staff of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), for helping to recover a stolen KIA Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV). NAN learnt that the car, belonging to one Dr. Irene Omogbehin, the Chief Medical Director of Bolanle Specialists’ Hospital, Ikeja, was allegedly stolen on Monday in Lagos. Narrating how he discovered that the car was a stolen property, Haruna, who works in Bauchi Zonal Office of the agency, said he was in Abuja to see his family over the weekend, but could not

Briefs

oped faults, and had to be taken to the mechanic. “I decided to board a commercial vehicle to Bauchi, through Jos, on Tuesday, as the repairs on my car was taking too long.” “As I was standing by the roadside close to Karu International Market in Abuja, a KIA Jeep came close, looking for passengers travelling to Jos, and I boarded it.” “The driver, a young man, told me that he was coming from Lagos, where he claimed to have bought the car he was riding, and would want to sell it. He requested me to link him to a buyer, and I obliged, but told him that the person I had in

“I then requested to see the documents of the vehicle, only to discover that it was bearing the names of a Yoruba woman in Lagos, yet there was no Change of Ownership paper.” “As I was perusing the documents, the driver decided to re-fuel at a filling station, giving me the ample opportunity to pick a phone number from the document.” Haruna said as they continued the journey, he sent a text message to the number, and a response came, informing him that the car was “stolen in Lagos yesterday” (Monday). Haruna said having confirmed the car to be a stolen

Jos, under the guise of meeting the “buyer.” “On reaching our office in Jos, I arranged with other staff and got him arrested by the police,’’ he said. Reacting to the incident in a telephone interview with NAN in Bauchi, the police commissioner commended Haruna for his “high sense of patriotism and investigative instinct.” “I commend him for his wonderful investigative attribute and high sense of alertness. Any other person would have thought it was the responsibility of the police to get the person arrested, but Haruna thought otherwise and assisted us.”

proud of him and how I wish others will emulate him for our society to be better,” he said. In a separate telephone interview with NAN on Thursday, Omogbehin, the owner of the stolen car, described Haruna as “God-sent”, adding that she had lost the hope of recovering the car. “The person that stole the car is my driver. I engaged him just two months ago, and had paid him his monthly salary the same day he left with the car.” “I had communicated with the police and my people are on their way to Jos, to retrieve the car,” she said.

Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Chapter, holds tomorrow at Bush House Nigeria, adjacent Sunny Vale Homes, Lokogoma Expressway, Abuja from 10.00a.m.- For enquiries, call 08155092393.

Kobis launches Kara Burger in Lagos

OBIS Foods, a fast growing K Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) has launched ‘Kara Burger. According to the Managing Director of Kobis Foods, Mrs. Sade Imoagenene: ‘Kara is derived from Akara, the ubiquitous bean cake that is very popular across Nigeria. It is the latest and the most innovative well-thought-out burger in Nigeria today and promises to upend the burger market. It is the first burger in this part of the world that is appealing to the non-vegetarians and vegetarians.

Kingdom life Summit at New Estate Baptist Church EW Estate Baptist Church N has concluded plan to hold its 10th edition three-day yearly Kingdom Life Summit 2014, tagged: “Wonders of the Word” from Thursday, February 13 through Saturday, February 15 at 12pm, 6pm-8pm. It will feature Ministers /Leaders Conference at 10am on Friday, February 14, special Valentine Day’s at 3.00pm at 57, Adisa Bashua Street, off Adelabu Street, Surulere, Lagos.

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18 Friday, February 7, 2014

Photonews

Briefs

Night of fallen trucks in Lagos

First Bank holds yearly Strand Student Fair S normalcy gradually returns to the various universities A in Nigeria, First Bank of Nigeria Ltd, an FBN Holdings Plc company, in partnership with Strand Student Fair is bringing to Nigerian higher institutions across the country, its yearly Student Fair. It is a platform where students could visit to not only purchase goods and services at reasonable prices but also gain requisite knowledge and experience in various areas of endeavor as well as interact with one another will run from this month of February and end in November 2014. The FirstBank Strand Student Fair, which kicked off with the University of Ibadan, will also feature University of PortHarcourt for this month. In the month of March and April, the fair will move to Federal University of Technology, Owerri and the University of Lagos, while in the month of May through to July it will feature institutions such as LASU, YABATECH, LAUTECH, DELSU and OAU . The final lap of the student fair will run from August to November and will have the Universities of Uyo, Calabar and Jos as well as the Cross River University of Technology, Federal University of Technology, Akure and Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye. According to the Head Marketing and Corporate Communications, FirstBank, Mrs. Folake Ani-Mumuney, FirstBank’s Strand’s Student Fair provides students with an avenue to familiarize themselves with the various products and services the bank has to offer, increase their knowledge base from the various product producers on ground while purchasing other items at very competitive prices.

TRUCK conveying sand in the early hours of yesterday tumA bled from a bridge in Maryland, Lagos, into the Independence Tunnel below. The truck, which was removed by traffic and emergency officials before dawn reportedly veered off its lane around 2.00 am, crashing through a section of the culvert before landing on the BRT lane of the Independence Tun-

PHOTOS: AYODELE ADENIRAN

nel. No casualty was recorded from the accident. Also, a container-laden truck skidded off the road at Toyota Bus-Stop on Oshodi-Apapa Expressway while climbing the bridge towards Airport Road. The incident, which occurred at about 10pm yesterday, also recorded no casualty.

UBAA nominates Oghene for election into UNIBEN Governing Council HE University of Benin Alumni Association (UBAA) WorldT wide has nominated the President Worldwide, Dr. Clement Kayode Oghene, as its sole candidate to be elected into the institution's Governing Council. Meanwhile, a statement by the National Public Relations Officer, UBAA, Dr. Isaac Ejebe read: “Consequently, all alumni are expected at the convocation election holding on Friday, February 14 at the Akin Dekp Auditorium, Ugbowo Campus, Benin City at 10.00am.’

Abimbola Fashola to visit Vivian Fowler College HE wife of the Lagos State Governor, Mrs. Abimbola Fashola T will on Monday, February 10, 2014 at 10.00a.m. pay a visit to Vivian Fowler Memorial College for Girls, Oregun. The visit is aimed at encouraging the students to imbibe the virtues of womanhood and remain focused in their academics. The Director of the college, Mrs. Olufunke Amba, said “the visit is part of the vision of the school on the integration and promotion of womanhood into the topmost height in all aspects of human endeavour through both academic pursuit and moral discipline. Amba asserted that the college is strongly focused on raising the individual girl-child to develop attributes of academic and moral excellence.

Ibis begins Valentine promo PHOTO: NAJEEM RAHEEM

Zenith Bank gutted by fire in Ibadan...yesterday

Battery of policeman: Navy lied, says police boss By Odita Sunday HE Delta State Police ComT mand has described the reaction by the Nigerian Navy over the attack on its personnel in a Hotel at Effurun, Delta State as false. The command described the action of the naval personnel as “a show of shame” by a uniformed organization called to serve Nigerians. According to the Commissioner of Police in charge of the command, Mr. Ikechukwu Aduba: “The command read with utmost concern and misgivings the above caption, contained in the February 4th 2014 Edition of Nigeria Tribune at page 7, wherein the Naval authority in Delta State made feeble attempt to deny the show of shame exhibited by its personnel on Thursday 30th January, 2014, at Hotel Kayriott, Effurun, and state categorically that this is the height of falsehood as the simple fact which is well corroborated by evidence of eye witnesses account is that the two policemen on guard duty at the hotel, fully dressed in service uniform, were overpowered by the Naval personnel who stormed the premises of the hotel in a

Ikechukwu Aduba commando-like manner, disarmed the police personnel, battered them to stupor, before abducting them together with some officials of the hotel to the Naval Base.” “From the investigation so far conducted, the bone of contention behind this unholy act and a seemingly recurring decimal of occurrence between the Navy and the Police in the State is the payment of N9, 000.00 for pepper soup and alcoholic beverages consumed by the man who was later identified as a naval officer and two of his friends at the hotel, whereupon an argument ensued between the said Naval Officer in civilian outfit and the hotel receptionist over the non-

payment of the said N9, 000.00 for services delivered, in the course of which the naval officer slapped the receptionist causing her ears to ooze blood.” “Naturally, the Police personnel officially posted on guard duty at the hotel intervened and intended to take the matter down to the nearest police station, wherein the said naval officer called for armed reinforcement and two Hilux load of Naval ratings stormed the hotel premises, firing indiscriminately and destroying some valuable materials which include the hotel’s automated entrance door, abducted the police officers on legitimate duty and some of the hotel personnel to the Naval Base.” “The news of the incident was received by the Police Command in the course of the Command’s end of the month Officers’ Meeting in Asaba and the Command CP quickly got in touch with the Commanding Officer of NNS Delta, who regrettably attempted to put up a defense to the effect that his personnel was fired at by the Police personnel on duty at the hotel which would have been fatal, but for the bulletproof jacket being donned

by the Naval Officer. A defense that is completely at variance with the facts of the case as adumbrated above,” he said. He added: “The battered police personnel, as at the time of filing this report, is still lying critically sick and unconscious in the hospital. We want to state clearly that the Police Force still remains the symbol of Government and no profession has the act of lawlessness as part of its ethics. Hence we strongly submit that the act of carrying two Hilux loads of Naval personnel - not for the purpose of storming/fighting our common enemies – the criminals, but rather for the purpose of overpowering fellow uniformed security personnel on legitimate duty, which has occurred several times in Delta State, will certainly not augur well for the good governance of our country which is the primary purpose of government.” “In the light of the foregoing, we want to state clearly, that the actions of the naval officer hinges on the realm of criminality and the only option left to the Naval authority is to hand over the erring officer to the police for investigation and prosecution.”

HE management of Ibis Hotel, Ikeja has introduced a threeT day valentine promo for guests between February13 to February 16, 2014. A statement by the Head of Marketing, Paris Jarrett, said the three-day promo is put together to appreciate their guests during the season of love and affection. The promo attracts a pocket friendly price of N49, 500 per night. Other benefits include breakfast, lunch and a romantic candle light dinner buffet with a complimentary glass of wine and soft music at the background. It would be recalled that Ibis hotel Ikeja was opened to the public with funfair on August 23, 2013 by the Governor of Lagos, Mr. Babatunde Fashola and rated as one of the best hospitality havens in Lagos.

New five-star hotel boosts tourism in Lokoja From Kolawole Timothy, Lokoja HE hospitality and tourism business received a boost yesterday with the opening of a multi-billion naira ultra-modern five star hotel, Reverton Hotel, in Lokoja the Kogi State capital by the state governor Idris Wada. The hotel boasts of 89 rooms, six executive suites, a presidential suite, restaurant, lounge bar, pool bar, a large banquet hall with sitting capacity of 700 to 1000 persons and two conference rooms with sitting capacity of 80 to 100 persons. Other services of the hotel include outdoor catering, an ultra modern laundry and dry cleaning facility for both in house and external guests, one large swimming pool, ample car park, round the clock security coverage, unrestricted Wifi internet access and 24 hour room service. Speaking during the commissioning, the governor, who was represented by his deputy, Yomi Awoniyi, commended the promoter of the hotel for bringing the state to the world map of tourism and hospitality industry through the establishment of such a gigantic edifice in Lokoja. Wada said the government would continue to provide a conducive environment for private investors who are willing to partner with the state government in its quest to bring rapid socio-economic development to the state. The chairman of the hotel, Funsho Fayemi, a lawyer, said that the vision for the establishment of the hotel started about four years ago through the encouragement of a friend who suggested that Lokoja the Kogi State capital deserved a befitting five star hotel. According to him: “ As a frequent traveler, I am of the opinion that Lokoja deserves an international hotel but some of my friends also nurse the fear that due to the low level of business in the state the hotel may not succeed.”

Friday, February 7, 2014 19

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Weekend

Why rape victims are denied justice

Arts & Culture P. 30

Ibadanâ&#x20AC;Ś A city regaining lost literary glory

Autowheels P.43

Business Travels P.46

2014 Toyota Yaris hits Nigerian market

Technology: Gamechanging airline business models?

20 WEEKEND Friday, February 7, 2014

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How gaps in the law enable As Nigeria continues to record an unprecedented rise in rape cases, BERTRAM NWANNEKANMA, JOSEPH ONYEKWERE and YETUNDE OYEGBAMI write on the complications faced by rape victims and why they often find it difficult to get justice ANY young female rape victims in the M country are currently suffering in silence over both their traumatic experiences and the failure of the justice system to punish their assailants. In the last 10 years, several victims have demonstrated boldness in pursing justice against their attackers who, in most cases, have not been successfully prosecuted. Many more incidents are still not reported and when reports are made, the cases are compromised. In 2009, four policemen gang-raped two students of the Enugu State University, resulting in the near death of one of them. One of the victims later tested positive to the HIV virus. Despite repeated demands for justice by some Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the policemen were merely suspended and later dismissed but never prosecuted. In June 2011 at Egbeda, on the outskirts of Lagos, Miss ‘M’ (not the real name), a 16-year old girl was raped by a young man called Oyibo. She was brutally injured but she refused to report to her parents because the rapist had threatened to kill her if she told anyone. Yet, she could not hide the pains. Her father, upon discovering what happened, took her to the police station, where Oyibo was arrested but released the same day. The girl was asked to report back to the police the next day, and when she turned up, a lustful policeman, who pretended to be of assistance, sexually assaulted her several times at the station. Her father reported to the Legal Defence & Assistance Project LEDAP, an NGO, which filed a petition against the policeman, requesting the Lagos police commissioner to investigate and prosecute the culprits. This was not done and a case is currently filed at the Ikeja High court, seeking relevant orders for their prosecution. Miss ‘M’ and her father remain resolute to prosecute the men. No fewer than 100 cases of rape were recorded in Kano courts in 2013 alone, out of which only 40 offenders were convicted. According to the Kano State Commissioner for Justice, Maliki Kuliya Umar, the figure was that high because people were now familiar with reporting such cases to police, unlike before where the victims’ parents or guardians prefer to keep quiet for stigmatization reasons. Kuliya was however quick to explain that cases of rape were not peculiar to Kano or Nigeria alone. “The issue of rape is becoming problematic not only in Kano or Nigeria, but globally”, he insisted. The Lagos State Ministry of Justice last year announced that it recorded 678 cases of rape in 2012 and prosecuted only six. Similar situation exists across the country. In Anambra state, some NGOs working on sexual violence, recorded 115 incidents and complaints, but only 12 cases were taken up with the police, yet none was successfully prosecuted Some of the commonest cases recorded across the country, these days, include rape of minors, some of whom are still in diapers. Another case of incestuous rape was recently witnessed in Ekiti state, when a 21-year-old man, Akintunde Omotehinde, reportedly molested his 60-year-old mother at the Ajebamidele area of Ado Ekiti. The incident reportedly shook the area, while the Omotehinde family kept mute over the issue. This kind of rape, locals said, was not a common occurrence in the community. The man is now being prosecuted in court under Section 358 of the Criminal Code Laws of Ekiti State, 2012. A 41-year-old man, Ugochukwu Nwoke, was recently arraigned before an Ebute Meta Magistrate’s Court, for allegedly having carnal knowledge of an 11 year- old girl. The incident was said to have occurred on Obadina Street, Abule Oja, in Yaba area of Lagos State. The chairman of the Ikeja branch of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Monday Onyekachi Ubani, described the rise in rape cases in Nigeria as alarming. According to him, the reason for the increase is not unconnected with the fall in moral values in the country. He also stated that the failure of the criminal justice system to deal ruthlessly with rapists all over the country, was another reason why rapists now exhibit impunity, defiling babies,

under-age girls and old women in the country. He said: “Although, the laws are there to punish convicts, they are not applied most of the time especially by the security agencies, which are fond of advising victims and their family members to settle with the rapists, thereby making it look like a family affair or civil matter. “The issue of stigmatization of rape victims also contributes to making the application of the law unattractive. Rape victims fear stigmatization and therefore unwilling to report rape cases and even where and when they report, they are unwilling to pursue the case to a logical conclusion. Most of the rapists are not prosecuted successfully and so, the issue of enough punishment cannot be the issue.” Ubani also argued that the problem is not that of legislation, but the application of the enacted laws. “Let the enacted laws be applied judiciously in the first place and I assure you that it will deter some rapists in the country,” he said. “There are low convictions for those prosecuted because of the tedious proof of evidence in criminal trial of rape cases. One, you must prove penetration, corroboration and in most cases, expert evidence is required of those in the medical field to secure conviction. Those variables are difficult to be satisfactorily provided during trials of rape cases.” Mr. Chino Edmund Obiagwu, the National Coordinator of LEDAP told The Guardian that rape kills the body, mind and soul of the victim. He explained: “It is a homicide, a mental and spiritual homicide. Yet, most rapists are granted leniency, released on bail or outrightly asked to pay money to settle the of-

fence. That is outrageous. Rape is unpardonable, because the mental injury on the victim never heals. Our society has not yet ravenously demanded for justice for those raped. The uproar that followed the case of a young journalist, who was raped to death in India and the trial of the rapists, resonated across the globe, touching the conscience of humanity. “In Nigeria, it has over the years been debauched impunity for rapists and other sex offenders. Despite daily reports of sex crimes, little actions are taken against rapists. The rate of rape and other sexual violence is unimaginable in the communities, workplaces, homes and schools especially in the higher institutions. The wide use of social media has made more visible than before, the sexual abuse of young women and the impunity around it. Many culprits post their rape scenes on social media with bluster bravado. The ‘Abia 5’ episode in 2010 exposed the intrepid audacity of our new generation of rapists. Gang raping of women and posting the recorded video on the Internet is now the new measure of prodigal masculinity among depraved young men. If you Google ‘rape in Nigeria’ on the Internet, you will be amazed at the tons of recent YouTube postings.” Difficulty in handling rape cases Rape being a criminal offence, is consistent with the general principles stated in Section 2(4) of the Criminal Code. Principles of evidence and judicial precedents provide that the prosecution must prove the concurrence of both physical (actus reus) and mental (mens rea) elements before a conviction can be secured. The burden of proof lies squarely on the shoulders of the prosecutors, who must prove the case

Rape kills the body, mind and soul of the victim. It is a mental and spiritual homicide. Yet, most rapists are granted leniency, released on bail or outrightly asked to pay money to settle the offence. That is outrageous. Rape is unpardonable, because the mental injury on the victim never heals. Our society has not yet ravenously demanded for justice for those raped.

beyond any reasonable doubt. Proof of rape majorly relates to the physical element of the crime. Section 6 of the Code defines unlawful carnal knowledge as “carnal connection which takes place otherwise than between husband and wife.” From this definition, all other forms of carnal connection are deemed unlawful in the eyes of law, though, there’s an absence of criminal liability, except when the woman did not validly consent to it, as valid consent is the hallmark of the offence of rape. Furthermore, proof of unlawful carnal knowledge is the material element of rape and what amounts to unlawful carnal knowledge is explained in Section 6 of the Code thus: “When the term ‘carnal knowledge’ or the term ‘carnal connection’ is used in defining an offence, it is implied that the offence, so far as regards that element of it, is complete upon penetration.” Thus, before penetration is achieved, proof of unlawful carnal knowledge is impossible. It has been held in several case laws that a degree of penetration so slight and light that it didn’t cause any laceration or injury of the hymen would be sufficient in law for the offence of rape to be complete. Even if the victim is “virgo intacta” or yet to be disvirgined, the court from surrounding circumstances that satisfy it, will convict such accused person. (R v. Russen (1891) 2 QB and Jegede v. The State (2001) FWLR (Pt. 66) 72 at 73). Furthermore, the requirement of penetration as proof of “carnal knowledge” or “carnal connection” has also made it practically impossible for a woman to rape a man, since a woman possesses no such bodily appendage that may allow for penetration. There is no doubt that the intention of the draftsmen of the Code was to prescribe a stiff penalty for rape. Under Section 358 of the Code, it is punishable with life imprisonment. Even an attempt to commit it is also an offence punishable by a term of 14 years imprisonment, with or without whipping. The United Nations (UN) defines rape as;

Friday, February 7, 2014 WEEKEND 21

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rapists escape justice “Sexual intercourse without valid consent.” The World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002 defined it as; “Physically forced or otherwise coerced penetration – even if slight – of the vulva or anus, using a penis, other body parts or an object.” However, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), in its annual Uniform Crime Reports recently changed the definition of rape from “The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will.” to, “The penetration, no matter how slight, of the vagina or anus with any body part or object, or oral penetration by a sex organ of another person, without the consent of the victim.” A Lagos based lawyer, Barrister Ikechukwu Ikeji said: “For a rape case to succeed, there is actually no requirement of corroboration in law but as a matter of practice, Nigerian courts have leaned towards looking for independent testimony to corroborate the evidence of the victim. This principle is founded, partly, on a long held view that some women may be tempted to be theatric in reporting rape incidents, such that it becomes tempting to believe a woman who, in tears, paints a dramatically graphic picture of the event thereby drawing emotions that tend to becloud objectivity. “Our courts have thus developed a practice of warning themselves about the danger of convicting an accused on the uncorroborated evidence of the complainant alone. Where a court is satisfied upon the single evidence of the complainant to convict an accused, it is entitled to do so, but it must warn itself of the danger in doing that. This requirement of corroboration, even though justified in law, has caused more difficulty than solution in the efforts at addressing proper prosecution of rape cases. This is a major problem as it is difficult to imagine a situation where rape occurs in the presence of witnesses or a second party.” Lopsidedness of the definition of rape under Nigerian law Complaints of how unfair and lopsidedness the definition of rape is under the Nigerian constitution became more glaring following the news report on July 17, 2012 in Ogbadibo Local council of Benue State, when a man was allegedly raped to death by his six wives. According to the report, the deceased had upon return from a beer parlour that fateful night, headed to the room of his youngest wife to have sex with her when his other wives, armed with sticks and knives, demanded that he sleeps with all of them. According to the report, when he resisted, he was overpowered and each wife took turns with him until he died. However, under the Nigerian law, it will be impossible to charge the man’s wives for rape. They can only be charged for manslaughter. More recently, the situation took a more dramatic turn in Gusau, Zamfara State, when three women were arraigned before a Higher Sharia Court in Gusau for allegedly raping a 20 year old man. The man, Abdulrahman Sulaiman, was a Man-OWar volunteer who went to the Women Multi-Purpose Center in Gusau to help organize a preaching session organized by the state’s Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs for women during the holy month of Ramadan. According to the police prosecutors, the three women, Hannatu Ibrahim (23), Wosila Hassan (20) and Rukayya Hassan (21) conspired among themselves and serially raped Abdulrahman until he lost consciousness! But how did this happen? The prosecutors said the offenders lured him into a

corner of the Women’s Centre, where they “forced” him to make love with them in turn until poor Abdulrahman fell unconscious. It was said that he was rushed to hospital, where he was later resuscitated. But stakeholders say the interesting evidence that may be given during trial would necessitate an amendment of the law on rape, because the law, as it stands today, did not envisage a woman raping a man, unless if he is a minor and seduced by a much older woman. According to a Lagos based lawyer, Mark Ibekwe, while a man, anatomically speaking, can successfully rape a woman who is not cooperating but who goes limp at gunpoint, the same can hardly be said of the reverse case. A man who has a gun or a knife pointed at him and goes limp cannot be successfully raped, he asserted. Section 357 of the Criminal Code Act, CAP 77, LFN 1990, which defines rape thus: “Any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl, without her consent, or with her consent, if the consent is obtained by force or by means of false threats or intimidation of any kind, or by fear of harm, or by means of false or fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act, or in case of a married woman, by personating her husband, is guilty of an offence called rape”. The Penal Code also defines rapes: “A man can be held guilty of rape if he has sexual intercourse with a woman without her consent, or with her consent, if consent was unlawfully obtained”. It is therefore glaring under our laws that only a man is capable of committing the crime of rape. Section 357 of Criminal Code clear states that; “…any person who has unlawful carnal knowledge of a woman or girl…” Ibekwe captured the scenario thus: “Under the Latin phrase in statutory construction, Expressio Unius Est Exclusion Alterius, the express mention of one person, thing or consequence implies the exclusion of all others. A variation of this principle of statutory interpretation is Expressium Facit Cessare Tacitum -

Ibekwe

Obiagwu

The burden of proof lies squarely on the shoulders of the prosecution, which must prove its case beyond any reasonable doubt. Proof of rape majorly relates to the physical element of the crime. Section 6 of the (Criminal) Code defines unlawful carnal knowledge as “carnal connection which takes place otherwise than between husband and wife.” From this definition, all other forms of carnal connection are deemed unlawful in the eyes of law, though, there’s an absence of criminal liability, except when the woman did not validly consent to it, as valid consent is the hallmark of the offence of rape

what is expressed puts an end to what is implied. Simply put, where a statute or law, by its terms, is expressly limited to certain matters or persons, an interpretation or construction cannot be extended to others. “This principle presupposes that the makers of the law would not have made specific enumerations in a law or statute if the intention was not to restrict its meaning and confine its interpretation to those terms that were expressly mentioned. Thus, the absence of the mention women as possible perpetrators of rape, totally excludes them from ever committing such an offence.” Courts under fire The courts have been criticised for handing down lenient sentences and most times, applying strict, unfriendly rules of evidence that are unfavourable to the sex crime victims. Last year, a Lagos Magistrate court granted bail in the paltry sum of N20, 000 to a man who raped a 19-year old girl and posted the scene on the Internet. In 2012, a Gudu Area Court in Abuja sentenced a 45 year-old man to one-month imprisonment and giving a fine option of only N1,000, for raping an 11year old girl. The court officials told some NGO activists who protested the lenient sentence, that the girl’s family told the prosecutor that the rapist had asked for their forgiveness and had also paid them N50,000 for the medical expenses. Obiagwu believes that many more rapists are never put on trial because the families of the victims accepted money as compensation. He said that the society appears to be protecting rapists. His words: “Did you listen to commentaries from the police and Abia state public officials following the gang rape of a girl by four men in Abia State University? It was a tale of blaming the victim and offering excuses for the culprits. The social and legal order simply protects lustful men. The law and procedure of prosecuting sex crimes are lenient on the offenders. There is need for tougher laws, tougher enforcement of sex crime laws, and effective prosecution of sex offenders.” Lagos’ giant step Lagos State took a giant step in 2011 when it made rape and many other sex crimes punishable by life imprisonment in its new Criminal Law. Section 258 provides that: “(1) Any man who has unlawful sexual intercourse with a woman or girl, without her consent, is guilty of the offence of rape and liable to imprisonment for life.” Subsection (2) states: “A woman or girl does not consent to sexual intercourse if she submits to the act by reason of force, impersonation, threat or intimidation of any kind, fear of harm or false or fraudulent representation as to the nature of the act.” But Obiagwu said the new law still did not go far enough against spousal rape, which has been criminalised in many parts of the world. Subsection (3) provides that: “Sexual intercourse between a man and a woman who are married is not unlawful,” thereby permitting a husband to ‘rape’ his wife, giving wide leverage for family related sexual violence. But the law is tough on other sex crimes. Section 259 punishes non-consenting oral or anal sex, including gay sex, with life imprisonment. The section provides thus: “Any person who penetrates sexually the anus, vagina, mouth or any other opening in the body of another person with a part of his body or anything else, without the consent of the person, is guilty of a felony and liable to imprisonment for life”.

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Friday, February 7, 2014

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Friday, February 7, 2014

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BusinessRound-Up CITY LODGE ACQUIRES FULL OWNERSHIP OF KENYAN HOTELS By Nicole Cassandra Naidoo

In association with

POWER SECTOR NEEDS PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

ITY Lodge Hotels Limited has acquired C full ownership of a joint venture between it and Fairview Hotel Limited. The agreement, effective 31 January 2014, will see the South Africa-based hotel group acquire the remaining 50 per cent of the Fairview Hotel and the Country Lodge in Nairobi, following its initial 50 per cent acquisition of the two hotels in May 2012. “We have been very pleased with our strategic investment into the Kenyan hotel market and look forward to building on this foothold in the East African region,” said City Lodge’s chief executive, Clifford Ross. “We have learnt a lot about the region over the past couple of years and are optimistic about development prospects that we can pursue.” He added that it demonstrates the group’s confidence in Kenya and East Africa and provides a strong platform for further growth in the region. Completion of the sale is subject to Kenyan and South African regulatory approvals, including that of the Competition Authority of Kenya. The group, which is made up of the City Lodge, Courtyard, Town Lodge and Road Lodge hotels, recently launched a brand revamp costing it somewhere in the region of two million rand.

City Lodge Hotels has acquired full ownership of two hotels in kenya. PHOTO: GETTy IMaGEs

The project deadline for Eskom's Medupi power station has been moved to the second half of 2014.

By Nicole Cassandra Naidoo

looks a lot better if we have both the private sector and the public sector involved.” OUTH Africa’s Eskom needs to facilitate Eskom’s Medupi power station was expublic-private partnerships in the country’s pected to see its first generating unit come power sector. online in December 2013. However, due to “Eskom needs to employ damage control at labour unrest and an underperformance by the moment. We are running out of time. contractors, the project deadline has been We’re also running out of capacity. The way moved to the second half of 2014. we need to look at this is instead of reducing “We need to look at a shift in policy from Esconsumption, we should look at public-prikom’s perspective, look at facilitating Indevate partnerships where our mining compapendent Power Producers because, [from] nies can contribute to the available capacity where we stand at the moment, capacity is of the electricity grid,” Performance Customs constrained. We’re looking at renewable enand Bond Services’ Brian Africa told CNBC ergy in the form of solar power so we need Africa. to scale up on that because there is a delay, “The conversation hasn’t begun as yet but that’s the fact of the situation. It is damage from a credit risk perspective, the risk profile control that Eskom needs to do at the mo-

PHOTO: EskOM ment,” Africa explained. He added that the change in contractors is also expected to have an impact on the project delivery time. “The delays cost close to a billion for the shortterm insurance industry, which covers surety and credit insurance. Just the delays on that have caused substantial losses which is the way our reinsurers are looking at it,” Africa said “We don’t expect it to be within the revised completion date. We do expect further delays because we’ve brought in a new contractor who needs to get used to the actual project itself. [It] is going to take a few months for them to be integrated completely into the project. However we are hopeful that the units will come into use as soon as possible.”

KENYATTA TRIAL DOOMED UNLESS KENYA HELPS: ICC PROSECUTORS Kenyatta’s financial records could be crucial. “We characterise the position of the government of Kenya as one of pure obstructionism,” HE ICC has no realistic chance of successfully prosecuting Kenyan President Uhuru he said. Kenyatta due to the country’s “pure obstruc- Prosecutors are asking judges to rule that Kenya is not meeting its obligations to the tionism”. court and to adjourn the trial until it turns They told the court they needed access to Kenyatta’s financial records, which they said over further material in a case which has might show that he had indirectly paid large driven a wedge between African countries and the ICC’s Western backers. sums of money to perpetrators of a wave of Kenyatta’s lawyers, who want judges to dispost-election violence that swept Kenya six miss the case, said the prosecution was atyears ago. Kenyatta is charged with crimes against hu- tempting to abandon its case while pinning the blame for its failure on the Kenyan governmanity related to the violence in early 2008 when 1,200 died and thousands were driven ment. The trial is important to the ICC, which has sefrom their homes. He denies the charges. “It is nearly two years since we asked for this cured only one conviction and suffered a string of collapsed cases since it was set up 11 material,” said prosecution lawyer Ben Gumpert. “Of all the leads available to us, we years ago. Kenya says the court risks destabilishave exhausted all reasonable prospects. But ing east Africa if it presses on with the charges. we are under a duty to pursue our investiga- “CLIMATE OF FEAR” Western countries, while keen to back the ICC, tions... The stones that remain to be turned are also anxious to maintain relations with are getting less and less promising,” Gumpert said, explaining why access to

By Reuters

kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and President Uhuru kenyatta.

CONTINUED ON PaGE 25

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AGANGA: Perception of Nigeria in the international community is changing CNBC Africa’s Didi Akinyelure caught up with the Minister of Trade and Investment, Olusegun Aganga at the Stanbic IBTC investor conference on Tuesday and he discussed the GE partnership with the country, the changing perception of Nigeria, the automated intellectual property amongst other things. Didi: The perception of Nigeria in the international community, do you get the sense that it’s changing Aganga: I must say that I’m delighted to say, it is changing. I can look at the way Nigeria is perceived, over the last two to three years. I’ve been to about 54 different countries. If you went to Davos two weeks ago for example, you’d have seen that everyone was talking about Nigeria. Nigeria was the place to be. We had an event that evening, almost all the key investors in the world were there. What you Aganga hear about the country is beginning to change. It takes a while to change perception vantage as a country, and we need to move but we are making big progress on that front. from having that quantitative advantage to productive advantage. The only gap between Didi: Now you mentioned in your speech unemployment and Nigerians is skills, the that competiveness will revolutionise the jobs are there and so we need to focus on ineconomy. How will Nigeria stay competitive? dustrial skills that needs developing. Very similar to what Brazil did, what Singapore did, Aganga: For many many years, we did not fo- what Indonesia did and what many other cus on what will create jobs, on what will cre- countries did. That requires reform of ITF and ate economic development or diversify the of course the educational system. For the first economy, but more importantly, we did not time, we will be having a national skills gap focus on factors that will help competitivesurvey which will be five year roll forth thing ness. So even when you were producing, you which will help us identify where the gaps are were making loses. It was so hard to produce and what the minister of education, the uniin this country and so for the first time, we do versities, secondary schools need to do and have a new plan. Which is a Nigerian Indus- what are training schools need to do. Once we trial Revolution plan which is focused on the address that, we turn our quantity advantage areas where we have competitive advantage into productive advantage. We have to focus where Nigeria can be number one in Africa on issues relating to standards, making sure and top ten globally but in order to achieve that what we produce are things that Nigerithis, we must focus on the factors, the issues, ans will want to consume and what we can exthe enablers that make us competitive which port outside the country. We also have to are access to affordable finance, we have to focus on the issue of linking innovation to the address that and get that done. That is part of industries. We have never done it in this counthe NRP. We have to focus on infrastructure, try and we have many research institutes, power, making sure that our industrial insponsored paid for and universities that are dustries are supplied with power, cheap afdoing great jobs but they are not market facfordable power. We have to make sure that ing. They do not understand the mode and we have the skills, we have quantitative adwhat the industries require so for the first

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INTERVIEW join them in Nigeria here and be part of their supply chain. Now, they’ve brought ten of these people, five international, five local because the idea is for the local vendors to partner with Nigerian entrepreneurs and be part of their value chain. To support them, they are making funds available to them. Now, they’ve also signed a 350 million dollars package with Stanbic IBTC again to support power production in this country moving power production form 1 megawatts production to 20 megawatts production of power. That will help our power production in the country and our SME’s in the country if it is well targeted. They are also involved in investing in the assembly of locomotives in the country. They want to be involved in setting up diagnostic centres in the country so it’s a major country to company partnership and I must say that GE is delivering and I’m delighted that this a partnership that is working. Didi: We also hear that the government has launched an intellectual property automated system. What impact will this have on investment inflows into the country?

time, we are bringing these parties together under the triple harlix model where you are talking government, research and the private sector industries, together so that their research is market driven and of course local patronage. So for the first time, we are focused on issues that will affect our competitiveness, as a country and we must all work together to address that. Didi: Can we get some insight into the partnership with GE, we hear a 350 million dollars power financing deal has been signed. Tell us more. Aganga: Yes, I must say that GE has been a major investor and if you look at their history, GE played a major transformational role in Singapore when it started. What GE has done, they only came into this country about two years ago and the first thing they did was to sign the MOU which I signed with Jeff Imelt, the President of GE that GE will invest 1 billion dollars in the manufacturing or the assembling of turbines. So of course when you need power generation or power distribution, you need a turbine so it’s across the power value chain and they have done the ground breaking already in Calabar, last year June. What they did in addition to that, was that GE has gone round the world, talking to their global vendors encouraging them to come and

Aganga: That is again transformational, we have had our intellectual property development for more than 100 years. The first file for application for design intellectual property protection was from Lagos state in 1901 but everything up till now for more than 100 years, have been manual. When you go there, the files are there, that’s not how the world works today. So for the first time in hundred years, we have now put in the system that now brings everything online so what that means is, yes your IP is protected, you can do it online, its quicker, its faster, anyone coming to register at the IP doesn’t need to speak to anyone, just submit it, it goes online, its registered, you come back and you collect it. It makes it cheaper, faster, and far more reliable and far more transparent to register your intellectual property. That’s one thing that Nigerians need to be fully aware of how important it is, international investors are aware of how important it is, they talk about it, they want it, but the local investors have to understand that they have to protect their intellectual property, . what you have, what I have, is our intellectual property so for example, if you take a person designing in textile if you don’t protect their design, someone can take that design to china, produce that item, copy it cheaper, bring it to the country and pretend its supplied by that country. If you register your intellectual property, you can anywhere in the world, your design you can take that company to court and you can claim a per cent of that profit if not all. That’s why it’s important to register your intellectual property and that’s why it’s a land breaking thing, first time in Nigeria, in 100 years, we have computerised it.

Nigeria’s fixed income assets have become less competitive CNBC Africa’s Doyin Akinyelure also caught up with Samir Gadio, a Stanbic IBTC emerging markets strategist at the conference to discuss the negative shift in sentiments towards emerging markets, the naira going forward, the current CBN governor, Lamido Sanusi Lamido’s achievements e.t.c.

much as some of the currencies of other mainstream emerging markets, going forward, do you think that we could see CBN changing the FX stance? Samir: That’s very unlikely, I mean the central bank has always been keen to have a stable exchange rate in Nigeria, and central bank governor Sanusi clearly has achieved that of the last four years and a half, so we don’t expect the central bank to depart from that EFFEX stance in the next few months.

Didi: Samir, thanks for joining us today, now, we continue to see a negative shift in sentiments towards emerging markets, is Didi: Of course we are going to have a new CBN governor this this something that we should be worried about in Nigeria? year, what would you say has been the most significant achievement of CBN governor Sanusi? Samir: Basically, what we’ve seen with the start of QE tapering in the US, the emerging markets or the weakest fundamentals Samir: I think on the Marco economic front, definitely the stable have clearly been under pressure and so we’ve seen countries exchange rate and single digit inflation figure, which has been like South Africa, Brazil, Turkey, Russia losing ground on the FX consistent for months, and then obviously saving the banking side. Nigeria has been affected but not to the same extent and so system in 2009, I mean that would be perceived as the biggest basically, it seems that because the currency is more policy deachievement. termined in Nigeria the sale off hasn’t been that substantial so Didi: What are some of the risks that we could face when we far, however, we’ve seen some clients, international investors have somebody new? selling in their T-bills and bonds and repatriating their FX. Didi: so what is the next step for us, how do we position ourselves for all this? Samir: the problem now is that Nigeria in terms of fixed income assets have become less competitive than other emerging markets. We’ve seen yields back up in countries like Brazil, we’ve seen the exchange rate in those countries also sell off and so Nigeria hasn’t really moved that far. So it could well be that the risks to policy rates in Nigeria are now slightly to the upside because you need to be more attractive versus other emerging markets. Didi: Now, the naira continues to depreciate though not as

Gadio Samir: I mean, I would say that probably, we would be in the low 160 area throughout the year, there’ll be more volatility but we don’t expect a deepeg of this currency, the biggest risk could be a drop in the oil price, but that’s not really a core scenario for now. Didi: Now, in terms of tangible investment, where do the opportunities lie in 2014?

Samir: I think we are less constructive on bonds, on duration because well, globally first of all, people and investors are really concerned about QE tapering which in turn is putting a lot of pressure on long dated yields so we don’t see investors actuSamir: I don’t think that the next central bank governor will nec- ally buying bongs aggressively in Nigeria, having said that, if essarily want to depart from EFFEX stability stance which has rates go to 14 or 15 per cent, I mean at that point, the local penprevailed for a long time, the risk is more that we move to a sion funds will step in and start buying so this is actually a cup lower rate regime which in turn then reduces the incentive to for bong yields but we don’t see them rallying, given the curhold naira assets but that’s not really a substantial risk at this rent environment and also because the government is likely to stage as the composition of the MPC is not going to change issue more bonds towards the end of this year, because of the much so we don’t expect massive return and also when you election around the corner but with treasury bills, the yields think about the government has limited incentive to develop have also backed up, the one year is now at around 13.8 per the currency because if they do that, it makes the next elections cent, we find it very attractive, I mean if you assume that the even more challenging and competitive so we still think that ac- currency maybe loses one or two per cent this year, you are tually the naira will somehow muddle through in 2014. still largely in the money and that is really very appealing rate so I think we still recommend the current trade in Nigeria, six Didi: Now going forward, what’s the outlook for the naira? and 12 months T-bills.

THE GUARDIAN www.ngrguardiannews.com

Friday, February 7, 2014

LAGOS SET TO PROVIDE HOMES FOR FIRST TIME BUYERS By Dara Rhodes AGOS state Government launched the ‘Home Ownership Lhouses Mortgage Scheme’ (HOMS) with the aim of providing for first time home seekers.

IBM have a long history in africa.

PhoTo: IBM

NECESSITY FUELS INNOVATION IN AFRICA By Dara Rhodes Y helping both businesses and governments in Africa, IBM B is accelerating its commitment to the continent to bridge the innovation gap. In recent weeks the technology company committed 1.2 billion US dollars to the expansion of its cloud footprint and another 1 billion US dollars investment into establishing its IBM Watson Group, a new business unit focusing on bringing cloud-delivered applications and services to the market. “I think it’s a case of if you are given lemons, you make a lemonade and so what is going on in our continent is that we are beginning to, out of necessity, innovate around the circumstances that we have,” Dr Uyi Stewart, Chief scientist of the IBM Research Africa Laboratory told CNBC Africa. With a long history in Africa, IBM is taking its role as a technology leader seriously as its helping to build the continent’s people and institutions. Nonetheless, the continent does not only face infrastructural challenges but also maintenance. “What innovators are doing is what we call leapfrog, which is a systematic way to walk around infrastructural challenges that we have and that is what is driving innovation whether it’s in mobile payment, agriculture or education. That’s been the catalyst for what has been going on,” he explained. In the past five years, the company has set up additional offices in Angola, Mauritius, Tanzania, Senegal, Ghana, Nigerian and Kenya. As more and more governments are beginning to commit more funds to technology development and innovation, Stewart believes that the continent’s infrastructural development is growing. “If you look at the expectation in terms of financial investment needed over the next decade, for the continent to catch

LACTIS INVESTS IN EAST AFRICA’S LEADING TYRE DISTRIBUTOR By Farhaanah Mahomed CTIS announced a 36 per cent equity investment in AutoXpress group, East Africa’s leading tyre wholesaler and retailer. “AutoXpress is a compelling entrepreneurial business that meets a core consumer need: access to quality tyres, automotive parts and services in convenient locations. In partnership with the management team, we intend to accelerate AutoXpress’s expansion across East Africa to become the leading Pan-regional tyre and auto-parts business.’’ said Peter Schmid, head of private equity at Actis, the global emerging market investor, in a statement. Michael Tumer, Actis head of East Africa, added that the investment is in line with their emerging market strategy of backing a high class management team in a growing region and sub-sector that meets consumers’ needs with quality products and services. “I’m delighted to see Actis building on its long track record of backing high quality management teams in leading African businesses. AutoXpress’s products and services are particularly relevant to the Kenyan market, which is dominated by second hand cars. By backing the leading provider of aftermarket tyres, auto parts and services, we hope this investment will directly benefit East African consumers and businesses.” He added. AutoXpress currently operates through 20 company owned stores in Kenya and Rwanda and is the leading retailer of tyre, battery and suspension brands such as Dunlop, Pirelli and Energizer. Sandeep Shah, managing director of AutoXpress, stated that Actis is the right investor to support AutoXpress’ expansion plans for further growth in the East African market. “Actis’s proven track record, industry experience and regional insights make them the right investor to support AutoXpress in its next stage of growth in East Africa, with additional stores planned for Kenya and our imminent entry into the Tanzanian market,” said Shah.

up just from an infrastructural standing point, it’s put anything between 93 billion to 100 billion per annum which gives us about one trillion US dollars in the next decade,” he added. According to him, we are therefore spending half of the expected amount in order to bridge the gap in the infrastructural world and that is what is fuelling innovation.

COLLECTIBLE COINS A WORTHWHILE INVESTMENT By Wilhelmina Maboja OINS and medallions are C an unlikely investment but can offer far greater return than other traditional investment methods. “A lot of people are looking to get exposure into gold, and I think what’s going on internationally, and what’s going on with the world economy, gold is always going to be a good hedge investment,” South Africa Gold Coin Exchange manager of global brokerage operations Rhys Cullinan told CNBC Africa. “From a medium to long term perspective, it is where a lot or people want to put their money away. From our side of the business, we look at collectibles as well as the likes of bullion coin such as Kruger rands.” Companies such as the South African Mint Company and the South Africa Gold Coin Exchange have been servicing a demand for collectible coins for decades. They provide a range of collectible coins and medallions. Cullinan added that a lot of the company’s clientele will buy collectibles as well as the bullion, which will be kept for a five to seven year period of time. “[Coin collecting] wouldn’t form as a complete alternative to equity investments and other investment portfolios, but it would form a part. We normally suggest to our clients around about a five to 10 per cent part of their portfolio,” he explained. Coin exchange companies can release certain collectible coins in a limited number, sporadically or in commemoration of certain milestones or historical facts. The South Africa Gold Coin Exchange’s Nelson Mandela medallions are their most popular product. Similarly, the South African Mint produces not only coins for national circulation but also collectible medallions and coins. “The South African Mint makes circulation coins for South Africa, but then there is a department that makes

coins. In comparison to the gold price, the majority of products that we make at the mint are proof coins,” said Bertus Van Zyl, acting general manager of numismatics at the South African Mint. “They are numismatic coins beautifully made and designed, low mint each, [and] we charge a premium for that. Whereas bullion coins would mostly go for the investors’ public, the coins we make, we would like to think to the collectors more.” Minting coins is however a tricky trade, as minting too much will decrease the value of the coin range but minting enough is necessary for a successful sale. “If we say that we’ll make too many coins and eventually when we publish the mintage, sell very little, it looks rather silly. Quite recently, with the Union Buildings coins, we didn’t make enough, but it was sold out within days. Perhaps there’s a bit of value on the table for those who bought out once.” A one ounce mint mark was recently released, commemorating Nelson Mandela’s Rivonia Trial. Only 750 are released, and were sold out within a day. “The interest over the type of person that actually buys this is really there. We sell internationally [and] we have a retail store in the UK. Strangely a lot of collectors tend to make more money than investors. Our aim is to sell the [coins and] medallions to a collective market and people who are looking at keeping these for the medium to long term. That is part of the game,” said Cullinan.

The scheme that was launched on Monday, is in line with the state’s pledge to stimulate investment in home ownership by increased access to affordable mortgage finance at 9.5 per cent over a period of not less than 10 years. “Clearly if you go by available statistics, in Nigeria today, we have over 16 million deficits of housing stock. Lagos, has about one million and we are talking about over 21 million people living in Lagos. In that regard, if we are to house even 25 per cent of that population, we are talking about five million to 250,000 homes,” Ayo Gbeleyi, Lagos State Commissioner for Finance told CNBC Africa. Lagos HOMS plans to buy off houses from private estate developers and put them on the market for tenants with the desire to own homes. The Governor of the state, Babatunde Fashola, promised to transform the housing delivery in Lagos by providing 200 homes every month starting from March this year. “What has happened is a landmark event that has kick-started that steady march towards bridging the gap in the housing deficit in Lagos. When you flip that and you talk about affordability, as was read out in his Excellency’s speech, we are coming at this with a mortgage rate of 9.5 per cent maximum,” he explained. According to Gbeleyi, this compared to what is available in the market is granted at a very huge discount with over 50 per cent slash in the price compared to the market. “On the building itself, the government is offering 25 per cent discount on the cost of land, cost of infrastructure as well as cost of building so we have put in a lot of initiatives to make these homes affordable for the people of Lagos state,” he said. The State Government also made it clear that the project is funded with revenue generated from the tax collected in the state in the past three years. Applicants must be Lagos residents who have been residing in the state for a period of not less than 180 days and who possess proofs of payment of tax for a continuous period of five years preceding their application.

The scheme begins in March this year.

PhoTo: GeTTy IMaGes.

KENYATTA TRIAL DOOMED UNLESS KENYA HELPS CoNTINUeD FRoM PaGe 23 Kenya, seen as a key ally in the battle against militant Islamism in neighbouring Somalia. ICC prosecutors say Kenyatta orchestrated the clashes, but their case has been weakened by the withdrawal of a string of witnesses since charges were first brought four years ago. Presiding judge Kuniko Ozaki said the court would not rule on requests by the prosecution or the defence on Wednesday. The trial was postponed for a fourth time last month when prosecutors said another witness had withdrawn, and requested more time to gather evidence. They say their witnesses have been blackmailed or intimidated into withdrawing. In a January 31 court filing, prosecutors said a “climate of fear” had weakened their case and that judges should rule that Kenya was in breach of its obligation to help investigators. But a lawyer for Kenyatta said the Kenyan government had been right to withhold the financial records since they had been requested directly by prosecutors, not by the court as a whole. “The nature of the (January 31) filing is that this is an attempt to stop the case without admitting who has failed here,” said defence lawyer Stephen Kay. “It is a blame-shifting exercise onto the government of Kenya.” The case grew more controversial throughout Africa after Kenyatta, the son of his country’s founder, won a presidential election last year on a joint ticket with William Ruto, his deputy, who is on trial on similar but separate charges. Following his victory, Kenyatta used his position as leader of East Africa’s economic powerhouse to rally African Union allies in a diplomatic push to have the United Nations Security Council defer the case against him. Although that was unsuccessful, the ICC’s 122 member states did agree to change court rules to make it easier for heads of state facing charges to give evidence by video link. Prosecutors say authorities have obstructed attempts to interview police officers, and have given investigators only limited access to phone records crucial to building their case.

THE GUARDIAN

Friday, February 7, 2014

www.ngrguardiannews.com

BusinessRound-Up CITY LODGE ACQUIRES FULL OWNERSHIP OF KENYAN HOTELS By Nicole Cassandra Naidoo

In association with

POWER SECTOR NEEDS PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS

City Lodge Hotels has acquired full ownership of two hotels in kenya. PHOTO: GETTy IMaGEs

The project deadline for Eskom's Medupi power station has been moved to the second half of 2014.

By Nicole Cassandra Naidoo

By Reuters

kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and President Uhuru kenyatta.

CONTINUED ON PaGE 25

Friday, February 7, 2014 ARTS 27

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Revue

Aerial view of Ibadan...’ running splash of rust... like broken china in the sun’ (Excerpt from JP Clark’s famous poem, ‘Ibadan’)

Ibadan… A city regaining lost literary glory By Anote Ajeluorou BADAN is a city built on seven hills and ‘runIa city ning splash of rust and gold’. That was Ibadan, that so charmed JP Clark that he wrote the most admired seven-liner lyrical poem ever written on any city. With its two most famous learning educational institutions – Government College, Ibadan (GCI) and University College, Ibadan (UCI) – Ibadan proved to be the Oxford and Cambridge of a country soon to be delivered from the fetters of colonialism to independence and these two institutions were poised to play a significant part. And they did admirably. But there were also other iconic Government Colleges that would play a part besides GCI. There were the Government Colleges at Umuahia and Ughelli, which contributed their own quota of creative human capitals that would converge at UCI at a critical moment to define a country’s literary destination. Chinua Achebe, Chukwuemeka Ike, Christopher Okigbo, Elechi Amadi, all from Umuahia; JP Clark came from Ughelli and Wole Soyinka from Ibadan. Femi Osofisan would later join this creative club from GCI as well to form the second generation of eminent Nigerian writers. Right from UCI campus as students, they started showing their keen mettle, as writers when they voraciously read every book they came across. Then Mbari Club was formed, as baking ground for the literary dough that a nation’s creative imagination would later feast on; it turned out an elaborate feast not unlike the fabled imaginary mould of foofoo in Achebe’s Things Fall Apart set before in-laws who didn’t see each other until sunset when the mountainous mould had been considerably reduced. But there’s no exhausting this feast, as it has bred other bigger feasts for coming generations to savour. But gradually and as harsh economic realities began to dawn on the new nation, the cultural landscape began to shift. A court case involving members of Mbari Club led to its eventual disintegration, with Clark and Achebe also moving to Lagos to take up jobs as lecturer and broadcaster respectively in the mid-1960s. While Ibadan still retained its intellectual base, as first university city in the country, the real place for artistic and cultural engagement had changed

to Lagos, as both economic and cultural capitals. The city became merely contented as the intellectual breeding ground, with other cities also playing similar roles with the establishment of other universities in the 1970s and then the unbridled floodgate that was to follow in the preceding decades up till the present. So, Ibadan lost its pre-eminence as cultural capital, and the hiatus was to remain so for decades, as the only significant literary matters came from the now University of Ibadan long after its pioneering University College era had ceased. Not even its state chapter of Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) could do much to revive the city’s flagging fortunes. While other cities bided for and hosted the association’s yearly convention, Ibadan looked on helplessly, as it couldn’t muster the will to host, what with successive state governments that remained impervious and even hostile to artistic and cultural matters. But the creative Muse was still latent all the while. The seven hills brooded over its creative fate and bided its time. It finally announced itself in 2012, when it sprang a surprise with one of its own on the African continent. Perhaps, as a herald of things to come, Abimbola Adunni Adelakun had in 2008 brought out her iconic novel on Ibadan titled, Under the Brown Rusted Roofs, a novel that captures the mind and soul of a city so thoroughly. Then in 2012, one of its own, Rotimi Babatunde was declared winner of the Caine Prize for African Writing, Africa’s prestigious short story prize, worth US$10,000. As if not down announcing itself, it again came out in bold relief, with another Ibadan citizen again stunned the literary landscape by winning Africa’s biggest literary prize, The Nigeria Prize for Literature, worth US$100,000! But how did Ibadan get it wrong? Where did things begin to fall apart for the culturally vibrant city? And how can things get back to where they were before? Some eminent literary citizens of Ibadan lent their voices to the fluctuating cultural fortunes of their beloved city. Some of the city’s great writers have lent their voices to the transformation that has taken place in the literary life of Ibadan. First is Prof.

Femi Osofisan, who, in his University Lecture delivered in 2005, entitled The City as Muse: Ibadan and the Efflorescence of Nigerian Literature, sates as follows, “There are such writers as TM Aluko, Flora Nwapa, Niyi Osundare, Isidore Okpewho, Kole Omotoso, and Harry Garuba. So what is this other bond that unites these famous names? The answer, simple enough, is that they are all graduates of the University of Ibadan! Yes, incredible as it may sound, all these names we have mentioned, as well as several others in the field of African literature, are our products—that is, alumni and alumnae who have sat in our classrooms, slept in our halls of residence, played on our sports fields, or strutted on the boards of our Arts Theatre! Most in fact began their literary careers right on this very campus, editing or making contributions to the students’ magazines. “And then, when we step out beyond the walls of the campus, and enter into the city itself, we find that the list of ex-Ibadan residents who have achieved fame as writers and artists lengthens even more astonishingly, to include names like Cyprian Ekwensi, Amos Tutuola, the South African Ezekiel Mphalele, the Malawian Felix Mthali, the Englishman William Boyd, and so on! “The city of Ibadan, and particularly the campus of the University of Ibadan, have played a unique role in the history of Nigerian literature. Here, where we live and work, has been the place where modern Nigerian literature was born and where, until recently, it was steadily nurtured and sustained. “Furthermore, Ibadan as the capital of the turbulent Western Region, was also a place where politics had a most robust life, particularly at that period in the country’s history when the struggle for Independence was at its peak, and later, in the early ‘60s, when the first governments were trying to find their feet. The games of power played by rival politicians and political parties with their colourful paraphernalia and grandiloquent speeches and posturing were more than sufficient fodder for any literary imagination, and we will soon see the harvest in such works as Soyinka’s A Dance of the Forests [1963] or Kongi’s Harvest [1967], or TM Aluko’s Kinsman and Foreman [1966], or

Achebe’s A Man of the People [1966]. “…Thus, in addition to all the previous factors—i.e. a highly educated community of young men and women, living in an ambiance of enlightened curiosity, in an ancient and bubbling multi-cultural city, plus the strong stimulus provided by sympathetic expatriates. It was certainly a period of great excitement, especially among the educated elite of which the writers were members, and of an adventurous political drama in which some of them were direct participants. “…What followed, I regret to say, was a complete rout. Abruptly, almost as abruptly as it had begun, the Mbari club died out; its members dispersed to silence, and the Black Orpheus after some fitful gasps for life, subsided into a limbo. The reason for this debacle was, simply, the political disaster that befell the nation, and the descent to civil war or, if you prefer, the Biafran war. “Fortunately, I do not have to go into any extensive narration before this audience about the Biafran war. You all remember too well yourselves the causes as well as the consequences. The politicians, to put it very simply, had simply messed up our independence with their quarrels and their insatiable avarice”. For winner of The Nigerian Prize for Literature 2013, Mr. Ipadeola, “Ibadan is to African literature what Harlem is to African-American literature. There was the big literary ferment here in the 1960s, which was never meant to be the constant condition of Nigerian or African literature - it was for a reason and a season. At the same time it has to be said that Ibadan was never really ‘silent’ after the pioneering era of J.P Clark, Mabel Segun, Wole Soyinka, Christopher Okigbo, Elechi Amadi and Chinua Achebe. “There was the succeeding wave of Molara Ogundipe, Niyi Osundare, Femi Osofisan, Harry Garuba, Femi Fatoba and Odia Ofeimun. Then the succeeding wave of Remi Raji, Chuks Okoye, Afam Akeh, Amatoritsero Ede, Omowumi Segun, Obododinma Oha and so on. Ibadan is always bleeding talent into other cities. The city is paying a price for not consciously regarding her literary heritage. The

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28 ARTS Friday, February 7, 2014

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… Reclaiming a lost literary tradition CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27 last great governor to consciously do something for the city’s literary progress was Chief Bola Ige. “The libraries in the city are appalling at the moment; there is no major literary festival for the city and there is no vote for a museum of the city’s literary heritage. What the city has going for it is the sheer weight of literary tradition at the moment. Also a strong centre of literary gravity where writers and intellectuals like Rotimi Babatunde, Yomi Ogunsanya, Peter Akinlabi, Benson Eluma, Niran Okewole, Ayodele Olofintuade, Damilola Ajayi and Biyi Olusolape still meet for discourse. “For as long as writers still meet in Ibadan, the city will continue to birth more writers. Again, Ibadan is a state of the mind. It can be kindled once the mind is attuned to the city’s rhythms. I will rather see the literary productivity of Ibadan as a system of organic, succeeding waves. Remember that Ibadan is not just the home of writers; it is also the home of great literary critics. There are few cities here with that kind of productive tension, which keeps both creatives and critics on their toes. “So it is just a moment in the continuum. When Harry Garuba writes a poem or paper in South Africa, it is still the spirit of Ibadan on display even though it might not be immediately apparent. You can say the same about Amatoritsero in Canada or Afam Akeh in Britain. That some chose to stay within Ibadan and to write from there is just a detail. The city works in manifold ways. “Fortunately for Ibadan, there is a push among the city’s lovers and elders for a more engaged space for thinking and writing. There are quiet initiatives from people like Dr. Niran Okewole, Mallam Femi Taiwo, Dr. Akin Adesokan, Dr. Ebenezar Obadare, Dr. Wale Adebanwi, Dax Kumapayi, Molara Wood and Prof. Oka Obono and others to lead civic change within Ibadan in many ways. If only the official culture apparatus within the city-space can meet these initiatives halfway, the city’s literary ambience can acquire critical mass once again”. Also for medical doctor and politician, Dr. Wale Okediran, “Ibadan fell into literary silence for three main reasons. Since most of the literary figures in the city where in the academia, there was a big migration in the late 1970s and the whole of the 1980s of many of these scholars abroad and to other Nigerian universities. This ‘brain drain’ though largely for economic reasons was also for intellectual pursuits as some of these scholars were poached by other local and international universities to help establish some of the newer sets of Universities. “There was a sense of fulfillment among some of these literary figures who gradually withdrew from artistic and intellectual activities. In addition, some of the patrons of the art such as the British Council, the United States Information Service (USIS) and Leventis Foundation among others, withdrew from Ibadan when these organizations were downsized. Unfortunately, the political class failed to fill the resultant gap left in the city, and so, the situation deteriorated. “Also, the poor state of the economy in the ancient city, which is largely a Civil Service town did not encourage the citizens to patronize many of the artistic and intellectual activities in the city which gradually died a natural death. In addition, many of the publishing outfits which hitherto had been in the forefront of publishing literary works decided to concentrate more on the publication of textbooks which is more commercially viable. “The reawakening in literary activities which we are now seeing in recent literary awards is a result of the personal efforts of the writers in question as well as the various activities put together over the years by organizations such as the Oyo State Branch of the Association Of Nigerian Authors (ANA), Educare Trust as well as the Alliance Francoise. Apart from organizing literary and artistic activities, these bodies are also in the forefront of organizing literary and artistic competitions among writers and artists. In addition to the above bodies, the Theatre Art Department of the University of Ibadan is also playing a significant role in the resurgence of literary and artistic activities in the ancient city. “To get things going again in the city, the various bodies enumerated above can sustain their artistic and literary activities. For example, when between 1994 and 1996 I was the Chairman of the Oyo State Branch of ANA, ANA tried to revive the literary culture by fixing the monthly ANA readings in the homes of many prominent personalities in the city such as Prof. JF Ade Ajayi, the late Chief Bola Ige, Prof. Ayo Banjo, late Chief Wale Ogunyemi, Mrs. Mabel Segun, Dr. Tony Marinho (EDUCARE TRUST) among others. This way, we were able to invite a new generation of writers and artists through these eminent personalities. “In addition, apart from hosting literary readings, some of these patrons sponsored literary publications (Chief Bola Ige sponsored a compilation of writings on Ibadan called, Ibadan Mesiogo while Prof. Ayo Banjo sponsored the publication of a book of essays and poems on the late Chief Bola Ige and Dr Tony Marinho through his EDUCARE TRUST hosted many literary activities). “This tradition of using notable personalities to sponsor and host literary readings has continued till today by the Oyo ANA. In addition, the establishment of the Ebedi International Writers Residency in Iseyin, about an hour away from Ibadan in 2010, is my own humble contribution to the revival of literary and cultural activities in Oyo State and Nigeria as a whole. “It is important for the Oyo State Government at all tiers, phi-

lanthropists, corporate organization as well as publishers in Oyo State to buy in to this revival of literary and artistic activities in the state by supporting all the various bodies mentioned above. They can also assist by organizing literary competitions, book fairs and the like”. “Even the masters saw it gradually growing into decay”, so argues Mr. Kolade Mosuro, owner of Ibadan-based largest bookshop in all of Nigeria. “There was the government assault, police interventions, disruption of shows, arrests of artists and the use of thugs to interrupt shows. Following the war, there was a palpable cleavage. Some of the masters had engaged in the war and it created a polarity that weakened the artist club. “The soldiers and the oil boom brought in money, big money that tainted art. It was now praise-art. It still has not recovered. “For the artist, more than most, the night is truncated from lack of electricity. Creative work is not regulated with time. The inspiration to write, compose or carve comes at any Osofisan time. The nights are out of it with no electricity and the days can be quite as bad. Security concerns have also curtailed the nights making night shows unattractive. “However, Ibadan still remains an artist’s bedrock. The University of Ibadan remains an epicentre for all academic activities in the country. It must be on account of Ibadan’s performance and follower-ship that they have been able to have three people - Osofisan, Okediran and Raji preside over the affairs of the Association of Nigerian Authors within the past 12 years. “Ibadan has also registered a good complement of publishers than any other city in the country. Kraftgroits publishers have done very well lately with poetry and Bookcraft has done well for prose. The Booksellers Ltd has also elevated bookselling for the good of writers. Ibadan is up and running because the ‘grandchildren’ of the masters are now driving the arts in the city. These ‘grandchildren’ are the likes of Ayo Olofintuade (among the best three shortlisted for Children’s literature category in 2011), Rotimi Babatunde and Tade Ipadeola. “Mbari Club was not just book-related. They had carvers, Ipadeola musicians, actors, playwrights, academics, etc, all gathered under one roof. It was a great theatre of talents and they were determined against all odds to enjoy themselves, to bring art to the fore and display art with professionalism. The result was that revellers and admirers came in hordes. Art and the love of art grew. “It will be good if schools introduced literary hour, at least once a week, in the schools. Students can be made to just wonder wild and read anything; there should also be structured reading with the intervention of a teacher or of a guest author. They must produce plays and watch performances by other schools and professionals. “Take my case, I never visited Mbari but Mbari was brought to us. I saw Duro Ladipo on stage at Government College, Ibadan. He was fearful and awesome when he made his appearance on the stage. Through him I recognised the dignity and power of an Oba. Ogunde and his troupe also came to the school. Through him I learnt political satire. It was through him that I learnt about the bitter politics of that period. Kola Ogunmola also was on stage with us in school and I learnt tragio-comedy. Our Arts and Dramatic Society in Okediran school was therefore strong and I am therefore not surprised that it produced Osofisan, Sowande and Sofoluwe. Soyinka’s play, The Strong Breed was the first Nigerian English play we performed on stage. Such was the high level production of our plays that the Premier of the Region was always a guest on our closing night. “We just have to go back to the schools. To penetrate the schools, government must be involved. They must recognize and embrace creativity as well as champion it”. The Caine-prize winner, Babatunde, submits thus, “Ibadan remains one of the great literary cities of the world. Since the mid-20th century, writers based in the city have consistently made noteworthy contributions to world literature. So those familiar with literary life in Ibadan would disagree with the claim that the city fell into silence after the first and second generation of Nigerian writers. The Poetry Club, whose members included Harry Garuba and the late Sesan Ajayi, played a prominent role in Nigerian literature in the 1990s. And after the turn of the millennium, the creative energy is Ibadan is Adelakun famous for it persisted at other points where writers congre- Babatunde gate in the city for example Tony Marinho’s Educare and Sola Olorunyomi’s IFAnet. Ibadan Book Fair, and Writehouse’s Artmosphere reading series, “Sudden miracles don’t happen in literature. To illustrate, have sprung up in recent years. These organisations have been doing ‘Bombay’s Republic’, my story that won the Caine Prize, a fantastic job in literary programming. Nevertheless, it is important belongs to a series of historical narratives I began working on to note that from the Mbari Club years of Wole Soyinka, Ulli Beier, over a decade ago. Along the same line, many writers I know Amos Tutuola, Christopher Okigbo, Duro Ladipo and J. P. Clark to the in Ibadan, including The Nigerian Prize for Literature winner present day, literary life in Ibadan has always transcended formal Tade Ipadeola, have been diligently honing their craft for book events. years. Really, I am only surprised that it took so long for them “The American novelist Ernest Hemingway once wrote of Paris, to begin winning much-coveted literary prizes. another famous literary city: ‘There is never any ending to Paris.’ “And that trend doesn’t look set to change any time soon, Ibadan residents likewise say that ‘Ibadan lo mo, oo mo Laipo.’ because many of the most exciting creative minds of this age Roughly translated, this means: ‘You have merely encountered have Ibadan’s amala and gbegiri coursing through their veins. Ibadan, you have not yet experienced its essence.’ The essence of litThese include poets, fiction writers and theatre creatives like erary life in Ibadan is more to be found in informal gatherings that Niran Okewole, Benson Eluma, Jumoke Verissimo, Kunle hold across the city’s diversity of settings. Okesipe, Ayodele Olofintuade, Ropo Ewenla and Tosin Gbogi, “So, you are not only likely to find writers discussing the virtues of to mention a few. Even when circumstances compel the phys- Zimbabwean writer NoViolet Bulawayo’s new book, We Need New ical absence of a number of them from the city, they continue Names, at elite locations like the University of Ibadan Senior Staff to remain part of the Ibadan literary scene. Some of the Club, but you are also likely to find them elucidating on the contrasts names I mentioned, as well as many others that I didn’t, may between Russian novelists Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky at still be under the radar, relatively speaking. But cream, as they more democratic venues like the ever-lively watering holes on say, always rises to the top. Mokola Hill. Like Paris, there is also no end to Ibadan!” “Also, several initiatives, including Laipo Reads at NSIAC, the

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Film Okafor gets his groove back as AMP president Stories by Shaibu Husseini

OTABLE writer, award-winning journalist and movie producer, Mr. Zik Zulu Okafor, has a new mandate of members of Association of Movie Producers (AMP) to lead the association for another two years. The Chief Executive Officer of Zulu Films, who at a time was interim president of the association and founding President of Guild of Producers secured 44 votes and just one void vote to be returned as president at the general election held last Friday at the new AMP secretariat on Basil Ogamba street in the Surulere, Lagos. A total of 60 delegates were cleared to vote by the Emeka Ossai-led AMP Electoral Committee (AMPEC). But only 48 AMP members turned up to vote at the election that was held under very tight security. There was indeed heavy presence of men of the Nigeria Police Force at the venue of the election. The police came with over 10 fully armed men in two pick up vans ostensibly to forestall a breakdown of law and order occasioned by mounting threats by some aggrieved members of the association who seem dissatisfied with the process leading to election. A member of AMP Electoral Committee (AMPEC) said they had enlisted the police to secure the election venue ‘because of the countless broadcast text messages’ from some anonymous AMP members who had threatened to disrupt the election. One of the text messages that made the rounds even as voting was on, read: ‘the kangaroo election would not hold. We have secured a court injunction stopping the charade. If you care for your life, stay away’. But AMP members, especially those who are fee paying members (one of the conditions for seeking election and voting), didn’t take

the threat seriously as they thronged the AMP secretariat to elect their leaders. However, only Zik Zulu Okafor was cleared to run as president. There were also no opponents for the other elective offices. “We would have declared them unopposed, but we felt they should go through the process and score 50 percent of the votes to be elected or returned,” Ossai, a notable actor and producer said. It was gathered that some members of AMP who had during the build up to the election indicated interest to contest, could not meet certain provisions of the electoral guideline. A member of AMP informed that a lot of those who showed interest ‘chickened out’ because of the ‘stiff electoral guidelines set by AMPEC’. For instance, the fellow pointed to the huge cost of obtaining electoral forms as reason most AMP members didn’t contest. The AMPEC had set N200,000 as cost of electoral forms for those vying for the post of President), and “that knocked a lot of people out including Matthias Obahiagbon who wanted to challenge Zik. I hear they have obtained a court order to stop the election,” the fellow said. But Ossai said he was not aware of any court order and that the AMPEC had not received any contrary directive to suspend the election. So voting continued and ended at about 1pm after which Ossai declared Zik Zulu Okafor re-elected. He also declared Mike Nliam (Treasurer), Franklin Okoro (PrO), Chinansa Onyechere (Financial Secretary), Dan Chris Ebie (Publicity Secretary), and Forster Ojahebo (General Secretary)-elect. A visibly elated Okafor thanked members of AMP for considering the elected executives worthy of their votes. The producer of

Campaign Director, Fidelis Duker; McDon; Zik Zulu Okafor and another member of AMP before the election one of the most successful soaps on television Heavensgate promised that the new executives would consolidate on previous achievements and would work at ensuring that AMP members were not just producers in name but in practice. “Therefore, we will see how we can raise

NFC partners Spanish NGO on film production major boost to the effort to A encourage more women to be involved in film production has arrived with the recent signing of a memorandum of understanding (Mou) between Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC) and Women for Africa Foundation (WFAF), a Spanishbased non-government organization devoted to promoting the rights of women and creating opportunities to engender positive change for women in Africa. At the signing ceremony held last Thursday in Abuja, WFAF President, Ms Fernandez De la Vega, who was represented by the Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Mr. Alvaro Castillo, who explained that WFAF aims at building women capacity in film production and other skills in the sector. The organization, he said, was also set up to promote the use of film as a means for advocacy for gender equality and women’s rights. WFAF president, who is also a former Vice President of the Government of Spain, said the foundation had launched several projects in the area of education, health, and entertainment geared towards empowerment of women. De la Vega said the empowerment became necessary because of the importance of film, television and the world of images in the society. She disclosed that the foundation was already working with women involved in African cinema to share experiences and backgrounds and had also created the first African Women’s Film Festival in Spain. De la Vega also hinted that WFAF had offered scholarship to women to study courses in audiovisuals at the National Film and Television Institute in Ghana. She promised that Nigerian female film-

makers would be offered similar scholarships. Speaking shortly after the signing ceremony, Managing Director of NFC, Dr. Danjuma Dadu said the Mou would mark a new phase in the struggle for women empowerment and gender equality in Nigeria. He expressed optimism that the agreement would lead to co-productions, exchange of films, distributions, mutual technical assistance, collaborations on theatre development, training, capacity building and advocacy for women’s rights, as well as engender change of their image in the audiovisual field.

Meanwhile, the NFC boss had stressed that Nigeria’s participation at continental and international film festivals through the NFC’s platform shall henceforth be driven by the need to ensure that Nigeria and her filmmakers benefited from such attendance and participation. Dadu assured that the NFC would soon release guidelines that would assist build and promote domestic film festivals, as well as Nigerians’ participation in foreign film festivals in addition to providing Nigerian filmmakers opportunities in film production, funding, marketing and distribution.

MD, NFC, Dr. Danjuma Dadu and Spanish Ambassador, Mr. Alvaro Castillo

funds for AMP members to go back to business. We will work at establishing international synergy so that we can raise the technical standards of our films and also get our films marketed and distributed abroad,” Okafor said, shortly before he led the other elected executives to be sworn in.

Comrade Ashaolu carried shoulder high after the verdict O u r T C restores Ashaolu’s mandate to lead theatre group The court has ruled. There is just one president for the Association of N i g e r i a n Theatre Arts Practitioners (ANTP) and he is Comrade Victor Ashaolu. The court last week in Ibadan, Oyo State, put to rest the leadership crisis that had rocked the association, when it upheld the September 2010 election that produced the theatre artiste and cultural administrator as the fourth elected president of ANTP. The centre could literarily not hold for the ANTP since the 2010 election. A once united association broke into factions with two key members of the association - Comrade Ashaolu and Dele Odule - laying claim to the presidency of the association. In fact, even the veteran actor Prince Jide Kosoko who served out his tenure as president in 2010 was still being referred to as president and was representing the association at meetings and events. However, efforts by the Incorporated Trustees of ANTP to resolve the issues failed as the association continued to operate with factions even at state and local government levels. So it was to the court that the Trustees took the matter for resolution and unless the judgment by Justice Bolaji Yusuf of Oyo State

High Court 3 is set aside by another court of competent jurisdiction, it will be an offence for any other member of the ANTP to parade himself or herself as president of ANTP, which was founded in the 1980s as an umbrella body for the Yoruba speaking stage and screen practitioners. Delivering judgment on the matter, Justice Yussuf upheld the September 2010 election of Comrade Ashaolu and also restrained Prince Kosoko and Odule from conducting another election to elect new national officers for the association. Justice Yussuf ruled that the 2005 harmonized and approved constitution of the association, which was adopted in compliance with an order of a Federal High Court remains the authentic legal document of the ANTP. The High Court had in 2004 ruled that the 1996 and 2001 constitution be harmonized. Similarly, the court observed that an association like the ANTP cannot operate with several constitutions, adding that the acting chair of the Incorporated Board of Trustees, Chief Lere Paimo, acted in accordance with the harmonized constitution of the association by dissolving the National Electoral Committee and setting up another one to conduct the 2010 election.

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Sound n’ Screen

Kakadu the

musical in Davos By Benson Idonije

HE award - winning Kakadu The Musical made its international debut at the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland, in January 2014. It enjoyed a special feature at the Cultural Soiree hosted by Nigeria at the Forum on Thursday the 23rd of January. On a night themed “Nigeria Equals Opportunity”, KakaduThe Musical put on a short skit of the play as Nigeria’s offering of musical theatre. It was a showcase of the immense talent on offer in the country, with President Goodluck Jonathan and other distinguished guests from different countries of the world in attendance. The evocative blend of the music of the sixties, dramatic movements, the highlife music that has become the distinctive sound of Kakadu, and the powerful lyrics of the theme song crafted by Benneth Ogbeiwi in the metaphorical role of Lord Lugard - all played to powerful images of Nigerian history. It was an exhilarating performance that drew everyone in the audience to join the Kakadu Troupe on the dance floor to celebrate Nigeria. Three entertainment segments of the ‘Musical’ were highlighted as special showcase; and one was particularly intrigued by the multiple roles played by every individual member of the cast: As a measure of the unique production design coupled with the versatility of participants, they each found themselves dancing, singing and acting at the same time. And these roles they performed with equal proficiency and accomplishment: Take the nostalgic throwback to the 60s for the ‘twist’ phenomenon by Chubby Checker

for example. Not only did they all sing in group - vocal harmony even as they danced, but the mood, setting and costume exhibited were all representative of the culture of pre-civil war 60s when the economy was buoyant and there was life more abundant! Also at the Forum were such towering Nigerian musicians as Cobhams Asuquo who has distinguished himself as foremost jazz pianist and arranger; Timi Dakolo, the singer with a soulful voice and Omawumi, one of Nigeria’s contemporary female singing sensations. Kakadu The Musical is a play that I had always predicted would travel far and wide. The production continues to improve and grow with every live performance. Its second run in December took it to Calabar on the invitation of the Governor of Cross River State, Liyel Imoke, and then back to Lagos where it was hosted by the Governor of Lagos, Babatunde Fashola. Its journey to Davos confirms its appeal which lies in the allure of the story, a story of metaphors employed on several levels using proverbs and a balanced treatment of the watershed years of Nigerian history - hinged on the erosion of personal friendships and the pain and loss of war. Kakadu TheMusical is a story that reminds us of who we are and how it was in the beginning. It has captured the minds of both Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike. The power of Uche Nwokedi’s play and the masterful stagecraft of Kanayo Omo make Kakadu the most complete and compelling theatrical performance I have seen in this country. Simply put, it is a tour de force!

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Friday, February 7, 2014 ARTS

Literature International colloquium celebrating 48 years of solo performance art HE Department of English T Language and Literature of the Nigerian Turkish Nile University (NTNU), Abuja, Nigeria, will host an International Solo Drama Festival in honour of Nigeria’s foremost mono dramatist, Greg Mbajiorgu, who is currently on sabbatical in the university. The maverick mono dramatist and theatre scholar is an avant-garde of solo performance art in Africa and a multiple award-winning dramatist, and historically acclaimed to be the first African to publish a mono dramatic text. Mbajiorgu is also the first Nigerian dramatist to win the prestigious first prize for Arts and Humanities Research at the National Universities Research and Development Fair (NURESDEF), a biannual inter-universities’ competitive event organized by the National Universities Commission (NUC). His seminal oneactor play The Prime Minister’s Son, written, improvised and published 20 years ago, did a nation-wide tour from 1991 to 2002 and remains available in research institutes and university libraries. As highlight to this festival, the following activities have been lined up ‘keynote lectures from experts in Solo Greg Mbajiorgu (right) and staff of English Department, NTNU Performance’, ‘Solo Performance Colloquium: Orality, Solo Performance, Spoken Word, Stand Up Comedy and Contemporary African Drama’, ‘Performance by National and International Soloists’, ‘Reading Interpretation of selected Solo Title: Generations’ Power Performance texts by NTNU students Publishers: Strategic Book Publishing, Houston, 2013 of English Language and Literature’, ‘Official public presentation of the Author: Bayo Baker 20th anniversary edition of The Prime Reviewer: Bayo Ogunmupe Minister’s Son’, ‘Interactive session between the celebrant, other guest HE Book Generations’ Power (Strategic Book world might pretend with offers of help, but soloists and the Nigerian Media’, Publishing, Houston, Lagos; 2013) contains the lesson is that you should never put your ‘Presentation of our NTNU maiden success secrets that will shape you into an hopes in any one person. But that you should anthology of solo plays’ and ‘Award incurable optimist. Therein, you will also put your hopes in God, Almighty. To do otherdinner/Command Performance of The find the ladder that you can climb to overPrime Minister’s Son by artistes from come various life challenges. Written in verse wise could be disastrous. According to the author, a successful busithe National Council of Arts and by Adebayo Baker, a branding and project ness is strictly business. Love and business do Culture’. development specialist, born a Nigerian with not work together. But you may intimately Arrival to the festival is scheduled for roots from the islands of the Bahamas. May 6. The colloquium and other Generations’ Power is inspirational, enabling love your business. You must ultimately be in love with your business commitments. activities begin on May 7 and ends on you to swim the oceans of life. Giving back to the people is the theme of the same day. Departure date is May 8. It doesn’t matter if you are already successverse 27. The richest men always give back to ful, fulfilled and your life is going great, you the people. So does Bill Gates, one who was Call for abstracts and still need this book to break through your once the richest man in the world. And in comfort zone, for lifelong learning is the pre- order to be a survivor, never depend on anypapers scription for progress. This book has 210 vers- one, and never expect the loyalty of anyone. BSTRACTS are hereby invited from es, 242 pages, hardcover with glossy print. But you have one to lean on, the one everlastAuthor Baker introduced the book with scholars home and abroad on the ing father, the Almighty God. And that is your prayers. He thanked the Almighty for provid- prime survival secret. That with God all things theme ‘48 years of solo drama on the ing him with the talent to square up with his are possible. Nigerian stage: from improvisation circumstances. Baker sees writing this book to the printed text’. Abstracts and The principal motivators of life is the text of as an assignment from his Maker. papers up to 500 words for individVerse 30. Here, Mr. Baker avers that passion, Baker says there are three types of people. ual papers are to be sent to the email burning passion and patience should make Those who make things happen; those who address: j.ile@ntnu.edu.ng or you tick as a business person. He contends watch things happen and those who wonder ndimuo@hotmail.com by March 15, what is happening. He urges you to strive to 2014. Scholars can also send abstracts become the first category of those who make and papers on the following sub things happen. The fifth verse of this book themes: Orature and Contemporary exhorts you to improve your faith and focus African Drama, Aesthetics of the by surrounding yourself with people who Spoken Word, Performance and Solo will add value to your life. Another verse says Drama, Stand-up Comedy and Solo you are not a leader worth being followed if Performance Aesthetics, Solo performance, Spoken word performance you have no conscience. You should be able to tell the truth bluntly. and Performance studies, In verse 10, the author avers that you should Entrepreneurship in theatre studies; never be a cheerleader to other champions the Example of the Solo performer, all your life. You should have an exalting Audience in a One-man Show, The opinion of your future greatness, by becomSolo performers Approaches to ing your own biggest fan. But you must Theatre and Production imbibe the principle of letting things go. Management, Theatre management Because when you let go, you can expect and the burgeoning art of Solo persomething better to replace the past. formance, The Playwrights in a Solo Whatever is yours and you deserve will dramatic context, Directing a Onealways stay with yous or come back to you. man Show: The Challenge of Think create and sell ideas because developConventional Play Directors. ments always stem from ideas. And do the All papers must reach the email address below on or before March 15, right things according to your instincts. Never be bothered by what bricks others are 2014. For more information, contact throwing at you. The great man is he who has the HoD Department of English been able to use the bricks thrown at him to Language and Literature, Nigerian build bridges for his own fulfillment. Turkish Nile University, Abuja at: Verse 25 of Generations Power states that j.ile@ntnu.edu.ng or The Secretary: when you are nailed to the wall by life, the blatee101@yahoo.com

Baker’s Generations’ Power in print

that if you chose money as the main object of your endeavour, then you might fail, because money can only give you temporary satisfaction. The purpose of reading is Baker’s next preoccupation. Here, he says that the proper parameters of reading are to know, discover, improve and make positive impact on people. That through reading you can transform your life, transform others and the world at large. He admonishes you to read leisurely and seriously every day. You should also initiate a reading campaign. At verse 40, the author says it isn’t by body size, frame and might that you make it your Canaan. He says your brilliance, opportunity and your time management are the keys granting you access to making it in life. But you are irresponsible, greedy and thoughtless if you cannot share success secrets garnered over the years. With your secrets, you can inspire, empower and give for the development of the common humanity. Baker avows that the man who wins is the man who thinks he can and is determined to win. In verse 47, the author asks, what do you seek God for? He answers by saying what we should seek God for are miracles, mercies, favour, grace, happiness and longevity. Thereafter, he admonishes you to encourage no evil and do no evil. Thus, the worst things is for you to keep sitting next to the wrong people. He therefore enjoins you to choose your friends wisely. Moreover, you are urged to coin for yourself a good name. For names are your selling image. Perfect names win you fondness, opportunities, favour, clients and profits. Perception is more important than facts. Which is why your names have exponential value with other goodies following your great name. On marriage, Baker enjoins you to give a breathing space for your spouse, if you want to enjoy, improve and prolong your relationship. A friendship is desirable when it is workable, so nurture a relationship by making it mutually desirable. Stop stalking a desired friend endlessly. Otherwise you become an unwanted stalker. There are others who value and want you. Go get them and stop the tomfoolery! The author’s full names are Adebayo Baker. He is a branding and project development specialist. He makes a living as a writer and consultant. Being Internet savvy, Baker is a website designer, erudite scholar and literary critic. Baker is variously skilled in out of the box creations and planning. He is involved with Care Partnership Network, a non-profit association seeking to meet the vital needs for development, empowerment and advancement of children, youth and under-employed families. Baker is a global citizen, having been born a Nigerian with Bahanian roots.

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Theatre

Jos set for another festival of theatre By Gregory Austin Nwakunor OLICY inconsistencies, lack of focus, vision and political P will have been cited as some of the reasons culture sector has failed to make desired impact in the country. However, one artiste, Patrick-Jude Oteh, has been consistent in theatre promotion. The Fellow of John Kennedy Performing Arts Centre and holder of Master of Arts, Theatre Arts, from the University of Ibadan, has gained a lot of prominence in the last two decades because of his passion and drive to have a thriving theatre in Nigeria. Ten years after he left Ibadan, Oteh, whose first degree long essay was on Absurd Theatre, founded the Jos Repertory Theatre (JRT), in 1997. That was after his stint with Chuck Mike’s Collective Artistes and Performance Studio Workshop. Since then, the outfit has consistently promoted theatrical tradition in northern part of the country. A non-profit making, independent organisation aimed at using the theatre as a means of confronting and challenging crucial societal issues, JRT has hosted the Jos Festival of Theatre, and this year’s would be the eight outing of the yearly feast. Its fame could be attributed to its innovations and the courage to undertake big projects. For instance, it is the only private theatre group that holds a yearly theatre festival of a large scale in the North. But before the outfit began staging this feast of drama, it was involved in the cultural component of the All Africa Games (COJA-ABUJA 2003) with a presentation of Yahaya Dangana’s The Royal Chamber. According to Oteh, “since formation, the outfit has staged plays such as Ola Rotimi’s The Gods Are Not To Blame, Biyi Bandele’s adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Peter Luke’s Hadrian The Seventh, Wale Ogunyemi’s Oueen Amina of Zauzzau and Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel and Death and the King’s Horseman.” Apart from staging of plays, the repertory theatre has also taken part in other theatre related activities such as workshops in Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire, Kenya, Italy, United States of America and United Kingdom. “And having firmly established its presence as a theatre outfit to be reckoned with in Nigeria, through the successful staging of the enumerated plays and other activities within and outside the country, we began to push forward the frontiers,” he said. The festival, tagged Jos Festival of Theatre, founded in

2004, with the support of organisations such as the Ford Foundation and British Council, has been held regularly till when Jos communal crises interrupted programmes for a while. The first edition featured four plays and a dance drama including the premiere of Our House, which was part of the British Council’s Connecting Futures programme. The group subsequently toured the UK in 2005 with Our House. The second edition, which held in 2006, was more successful than the first one, as it featured the participation of the Glasgow-based Clyde Unity Theatre, as well as Project Phakama, the youth project arm of the London International Festival of Theatre (LIFT). When the Jos crisis threatened its activities, the outfit shifted base to other cities such as Abuja, where it has consistently staged both old and new plays. But remained rocked in Jos. Last year, Wale Ogunyemi’s Queen Amina of Zazzau opened the festival. This was followed by August Wilson’s Jitney, one of the plays dedicated to the yearly African-American History month. The play set in a taxi (jitney) park is the story of a father’s bitter disappointment with his son and his inability and unwillingness to forgive his son before his own death. His son had shot and killed his white girlfriend in circumstances that could have been avoided. The Audience by Vaclav Havel came next. It was in collaboration of the Czech Embassy and it is the story of life in the former Soviet Republic, when workers and neighbours were not sure of who was an agent of the police or the Soviet KGB. It

will be recalled that Vaclav Havel was the first President of former Czechoslovakia and later the Czech Republic. OR the third year running, the US Mission, Nigeria will Fformances. support the festival, which will have a full week of perTo be held at the Alliance Francaise, Jos, the theatrical feast will be a combination of plays from the Nigerian repertory, new Nigerian play and plays from the international repertory. “Apart from the support by the US Mission, Nigeria, the Embassy of Spain and that of Czech Republic will also feature plays in the festival. All the plays will be performed by talented actors with the introduction of two new directors into the festival organisation. This has followed the pattern in the last two years of the festival where we have witnessed the introduction of two new directors each in the last editions alongside an array of young and talented amateur and professional actors,” Oteh said. According to him, “this edition will open with a pre-festival play, which is Wole Soyinka’s The Lion And The Jewel on Sunday, February 22.” Other plays that will feature are as follows: Wednesday, February 26, Federico Garcia Lorca’s The Shoemaker’s Wonderful Wife. The play is being staged in collaboration of the Embassy of Spain, Nigeria. Charles Fuller’s Zooman and The Sign would follow it on Thursday, February 27. August Wilson’s Two Trains Running takes centrestage on Friday, February 28. The festival continues with Ladislav Smoljak and Zdenek Sverak’s The Conquest Of The North Pole on Saturday, March 1. The performance is with the collaboration of the Embassy of the Czech Republic, Nigeria. And Sunday, March 2 will host Akolo James Anthony’s A Toast Of Triumph. In the tradition of the previous festivals, there will also be workshops on arts management, salsa dance and directing/acting. The 2014 festival is also supported by Grand Cereals and Oil Mills Limited who have supported the festival consistently since 2004, the Jos Business School, the French Embassy, Nigeria and Julius Berger PLC alongside other corporate and individual supporters. The festival, being one of the activities of the yearly African-American History Month celebrations in Nigeria, will shift to Abuja in March and May 2014.

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VisualArts Ojeikere’s last shots of a long career By Tajudeen Sowole HEN veteran portrait and documentary W photographer, J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere (19302014) had two shows within a spate of two months last year, the art community was unaware that the renowned photo artist was showing his last shots. Now they know better. Ojeikere passed on in the afternoon of February 2, 2014 after a brief illness. Born in 1930, in Ovbiomu-Emai village, Owan-East Local Council of Edo State, Ojeikere, was trained by a local photographer, Albert Anieke, in Abakaliki, Enugu. Between mid 1950s and 1961, he was a photographer with the then Ministry of Information, Western Region and Africa’s premier television station, Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) Ibadan. After working for government, he took up another job as Chief Commercial Photographer and Head of Photographic Department at Lintas Limited (now Lowe Lintas). On leaving Lintas in 1975, he set up studio Foto Ojeikere. In his over five decades career that traversed public service, corporate employment and independent practice, Ojeikere also worked in diverse themes. In over 30 solo and group shows around the world, he exhibited the diversity of his themes. But his last two shows, Networks and Voids held at Omenka Gallery, Ikoyi, Lagos in October and Voyage Retour, at Federal Government Press building, Broad Street, in December seemed to have summarised the photographer’s adventurous lens as a parting gift to his admirers. Though the exhibitions featured other artists, the contents, thematically, were vintage Ojeikere. In the two-man show, Networks and Voids that featured American painter, Gary Stephens, the theme was headdress. Indeed, one of the most pronounced themes of Ojeikere is lady’s headdress, particularly the gele and woven African native hairstyles. While Stephens had also been painting different headdress from his Johannesburg, South Africa base, his contact with Ojeikere’s work made some other impacts. In fact, Stephens disclosed during the show’s preview that though he had been showing great interest in headdresses across the genders ahead of his first visit to Nigeria, in Lagos ladies’ styles, “I got more fascinated.” The interest, Stephens recalled, was fueled after meeting Ojeikere. “I had made quite a lot of drawings of braided hairstyles. But when I came to Lagos, it was great meeting Ojeikere and I immediately showed interest in his works of hair styles.” Also, Stephens’ all black and white display of huge size paintings at the show, he added, was a tribute to Ojeikere, whose works were always in the non-colour tones. Ojeikere’s headdress theme identity has been traced to the 1970s vogue of Onile gogoro, The photographer who was inspired by the trendy Lagos fashion scene of the 1970s recalled how he had been documenting headdresses over a decade. “My collection of hairstyles started in 1956,” he said, describing his venture into the theme then as a “sub-conscious” passion. But it was during the World Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC ’77) that he deliberately expanded his interest in the gele headdress. “As we speak, most people think I don’t do any other work apart from hairstyles,” he stated, before Networks and Voids opened. Apparently a conservative, yet futuristic, Ojeikere, whose camera documented Nigerian women’s headdresses in the past 50 years, had issues with the contemporary hair dressing of African women. He argued that ladies’ headdress devoid of the original native styles is incomplete. He was happy that he had the vision to document the old styles. “I actually lost the styles of the 1950s when Nigerian women were plaiting their hair.” But he was very alert with the trend after the 1960 independence of Nigeria, which brought wig, and replaced the native braiding. “So, when the

J.D. ‘Okhai Ojeikere 1950s style returned after independence and in 1970s, I grabbed the opportunity”. Ojeikere actually saw today, perhaps, tomorrow too. He feared that in the future, contemporaneity might push trend to a state “when women would have no hair on their head.” At the Voyage Retour, Ojeikere’s work was the star presentation. Apart from the fact that his works on display at the event were “never seen before in public space anywhere in the world,” the exhibition also provided a 30 minutes video documentary fresh from the cutting room. Produced by Tam Fiofori, the documentary, which welcomed visitors at the entrance of the new venue, captured the photographer’s over 50 years career in brief. However, of great significance was the art exhibition that marked his 80th birthday. For the exhibition, Ojeikere had a different idea of how to celebrate his birthday. It was a pleasant shock that betrayed his well known breathtaking and classic captures. The exhibits titled, J.D. Ojeikere: A Life in Pictures, Portraits of a Photographer, and held at Frameshop Extra, Yaba, Lagos were mostly about his personal life, and taken over a period of 50 years. More ‘shocking’, the works were taken by unknown photographers. Are these works on display selected from some of his self-taken shots? “Not at all; they are all taken by my colleagues,” the artist said after leading visitors through the exhibits.

Some of such works included historic pictures of post-independence, taken while in the information unit of Western Nigeria Television (WNTV); numerous studio shots done for some advertising agencies, as a freelance photographer; some series on tradi-

tional hair weaving, shot recently, should have presented the man in his known and common image. If Ojeikere was not attractive to national collection, the exhibition held in the year of Nigeria’s 50th independence anniversary was too

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One of Okeikere’s shots. During of his last two exhibitions in Lagos.During one of his exhbitions

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38 Friday, February 7, 2014

... Ojeikere’s last shots hurry,” he said. “Photography is an art which requires more than common knowledge of opcoincidental and significant to ignore. erating the camera.” Ojeikere was one of the few known living phoHe however cautioned that his generation of tographers then who worked either as a freephotographers had the advantage of “working lancer or civil servant during the build-up to with the white people who know that you canindependence of 1960. Between mid 1950s and not produce good shots in a hurry.” 1961, he was a photographer with Ministry of One of Ojeikere’s techniques or styles was capInformation, Western Region and Africa’s pre- turing his subjects from the back angle, with mier television station, Western Nigeria Televi- slight profile perspective to emphasise the sion (WNTV) Ibadan. sculptural characteristics of the hairstyle, even Other works included those mounted in in picture. medium and miniature sizes, a section of J.D. From the confine of the rigid work experience Ojeikere: A Life in Pictures, Portraits of a Photogra- in the Ministry of Information, Ojeikere freed pher, took viewers back to the artist’s beginhis skill. “I said to myself that I must not forget ning. that that is beyond what I was doing in the In an outdoor piece, Weighing Photographic Ministry of Information, the work was too moChemicals for Mixing (1954), young Ojeikere was notonous. I didn’t think I was made for just takcaptured in daylight action as the picture ing photographs of these events like birthday, showed part of photography process of that pe- wedding; they were not challenging for me.” riod. With weekly earning as a regular photograAnother archival piece was a threesome of the pher to the University College Press, Ibadan, artist and two colleagues, Testing new Camera “making between £5 to £7;” he thought there With Colleagues, (1957). was a prospect in freelancing compared to Between the generation of Ojeikere and “only £8 as photographer working for governtoday’s photographers the shift has not exactly ment.” being about analogue and digital, but more of From government employment, he got into professional orientation. ad photography, when he got a job at Lintas in “Photographers of today are always in a Lagos. The artist, Erhabor Emokpae, who was

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Ojeikere’s last shots

also working at Lintas, and later did the frieze ring of the National Theatre complex, Iganmu, Lagos was influential in encouraging him to cover the FESTAC 77 event. “He asked me to cover it. I wasn not among the official photographers of FESTAC 77, but I was always at the events to take photographs. My experience there inspired me to go into documentary photography.” From the memory of Ojeikere’s early years in documentary photography, a picture taken at his debut exhibition was displayed during his 60th birthday show. It’s a group picture taken at the venue, Nigerian Art Council, featuring other artists, including his friend, sculptor Emokpae. Still on the generational shift in photography, Ojeikere argued that new photographers are at advantage for not going through the process of taking pictures without loading films. “We never imagined that there would be a period like this. But like I always say, the creativity makes the photographer a professional, not the technology.” As one of the most exhibited African photographers, within and outside the continent, Ojeikere has been documented in J. D. Okhai Ojeikere: Photographs, a book on African hairstyles and culture authored by a French curator, Andre Magrin. He recalled how Magrin saved him from a torturous journey of over a decade search for a publisher. I was at the Contemporary Museum of Fine Art in Paris, France. That was where my book on hair styles was launched. He lamented how the culture section of the then Ministry of Information refused to assist him “They told me to give them the copyright, and I said no.” But in 1998, hope, he said appeared when Magnin came to Nigeria from France. “He was looking for a photo artist. I was lucky when Fiofori brought him to my house. The book was eventually launched in France. With this book, I know that I have scored a major landmark in Nigerian art.” Among his international outings was a tour exhibition held as Nigerian Traditional Hairstyle at Goethe Institut, Lagos, 1999 and as Hairstyles at Wedge Gallery, Toronto, Canada, 2002; Blaffer Gallery, Houston, U.S., 2005; Maison de France, Lagos 2005. The group exhibition included works of Rolf Gillhausen, Germaine Krull, Robert Lebeck, Malick Sidibé and Wolfgang Webe loaned from the Museum Folkwang’s collection in Germany. Less than 24 hours after his death, one of his sons. and photographer, Amaize Ojeikere, described his father “as a master, a great photographer, wonderful father who gave all to his children.” Amaize noted his father’s career as full of commitment of a professional who “worked seriously and precisely.” He, however, argued that Ojeikere also documented architectures as well as the more prominent women hairs styles and

the gele headdress. In 2011, Ojeikere was one of the three award recipients of Bangladeshi-organised International Festival of Photography awards. He was given a Lifetime Achievement Award. The awards, according to the organisers, were given to photographers in recognition of “outstanding contribution to photography and society.” Mexican Pedro Mayer and Bangladeshi Naib Uddin Ahmed were the other two photographers recogised at the event. Also in the same year, he was in Finland for a solo exhbition titled, Moments of Beauty, which was presented to the public by the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos as part of the ARS11 exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland. Ojeikere left an evolving dynasty of photography professionals in the Ojeikere family. Apart from Amaize, there is Iria, who runs a photography laboratory just as the children collectively operate Frameshop Extra, a framing studio. Also, one of the works on display at Ojeikere’s 80th birthday exhibition was taken by the artist’s grandson, Okhaifo Ojeikere, who was barely six years old. One of his younger colleagues, Fiofori, who said the news of Ojeikere’s death came as a surprise, disclosed that he and the deceased spoke on Tuesday “and there was no sign of illness in him.” Fiofori, who shot a 30 minutes documentary film on Ojeikere last year, said, “we made a 30 minutes documentary of him last year. And just few days ago, I was discussing with him how we could transcribe a three hours interview on him into a book.” Fiofori described the deceased photo artist as “one of Africa’s greatest photographers, who spent his career documenting African culture.” Fiofori added that though his death was a big loss, “the only consolation is that he has left a huge collection behind as unparallel legacy.” Curator and director at the Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA), Lagos, Bisi Silva, who had worked with Ojeikere on several exhibitions in Nigeria and overseas stated: “I remain in shock, though I guess, I shouldn’t be because it happened unexpectedly, though expected. We were quite close and I will miss his calls. Almost weekly, he will call to ask “when are you coming? when we go see o? All this your travel, travel na wa o!” Then we would both laugh. He was an intelligent, generous, kind and simple man. I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to meet him, work with him, have access to his incredible archive and to spend so much time talking to him. Though we are not contemporaries, I can confidently say that he was a very, very good friend. We could talk about everything and anything and we even had our arguments. The saying in Africa is that when an old person dies it is like a library burning down, but in the case of Ojeikere, he has left an incredible archive of images that will stay with us forever and forever. He has done his work. May he rest in perfect peace.” The president, Society of Nigerian Artists (SNA), Oliver Enwonwu, described Ojeikere as one of Africa’s most iconic photographers. “His contributions to the medium were immense, and some of his works including his hairstyle series were amongst the best-known in the world. Ojeikere was a committed member of the SNA, and at his age, was always present at meetings, participated in the society’s group exhibitions, and attended individual shows by other member artists. “The exhibition travelled to London last October as part of Omenka Gallery’s presentation at 1:54 Contemporary African Art Fair. It also forms part of Omenka’s presentation at this year’s edition of Art 14, London this month. “Ojeikere was a hardworking and consummate professional. He was an inspiration to us all, especially the younger generation of photographers who have tried to follow in his footsteps. The Society of Nigerian Artists and the entire Nigerian arts community mourns him. Papa will be sorely missed, but his contributions to the growth and respectability of photography as a profession in Nigeria, his mentorship, advice and kind words of encouragement to the younger generation of artists, and an iconic body of work built over six decades , remain his lasting legacy.” One of Nigeria’s new generation photographers, who is also making impressive international outing, Uche James Iroha, said that Ojeikere was one of the few, perhaps, “the only photographer in his era, who devoted his career to capturing and preserving African cultural heritage as a people.” He noted that thought his death was a loss,

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Friday, February 7, 2014 ARTS 39

Arthouse Oakfil offers Brother’s Keeper today at Silverbird Galleria

ROTHER’S Keeper, the new film from the stable of Oakfil B Productions, will premiere today, at Silverbird GALLERIA cinema, Victoria Island, Lagos. The story, which revolves around a couple whose marriage is threatened when the husband’s twin bother dies, has the signature of busy Nollywood director, Ikechukwu Onyeka. The star-studded movie features Omoni Oboli and the AMAA’s leading actor, Majid Michel. Beverly Naya, Belinda Effah, Barbara Soky, Uru Eke and Moyo Lawal are the other actors in the movie. Brother’s Keeper made its festival debut at African International Film Festival (AFRIFF) in Calabar and at Lagos International Film Festival (LIFF) where it won the grand prize.

Dead Roses for presentation at UNILAG tomorrow

NEw book, Dead Roses, written by Oluwakemu A Omowaire will be presented to the general public tomorrow, Saturday, February 8, 2014. Venue is The Board Room, Theatre Arts Department, University of Lagos. Time is 3pm.

Miss Val debuts in Nigeria

hE Nigerian edition of The Miss Val Beauty pageant T crown that arrived Nigeria on Monday, February 3, 2014 from Europe, will take place on February 18 at the Night of 25 famous couples award evening at Eko hotel and suites, V/I, starting from 6pm. Organised by Delight productions, the evening will be a glamorous entertainment one to promote family, friendship and love among couples and offer a rallying point for good entertainment.

Ugomma comes alive on stage

LL roads will on Sunday, February 23 lead to VGinis Event Centre and Eatery, Opposite wAEC building and Yabatech, Yaba, as Toms Production/wazobia Theatre house will thrill lovers with one of their classics play, Ugomma. Filled with serenading songs and dance, Ugomma centres on two youths, who fall in love at first sight. Though the boy has been a player, the girl, Ugomma, is just experiencing love for the first time. Spine tingling, the play which will be shown twice at 3pm and 6pm, would make the audience recall the first day they fell in love.

Compiled by: Florence Utor

Lola Shoneyin, Toni Kan take on sex, sexuality, morality after Val’s day By Florence Utor ASSAVA Republic authors, C award-winning poet and author of the critically acclaimed novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, Lola Shoneyin will be in conversation with Toni Kan, awardwinning author of Nights of the Creaking Bed and editor of Sunday Sun ‘Revue’ on Saturday, February 15, 2014 at Terra Kulture, Lagos. The two will be engaging with the topic ‘writing Sex, Sexuality and morality’ with emphasis on Lola Shoneyin’s book which focuses on a

polygamous household which implodes when the youngest wife’s search for a child exposes a terrible secret. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives also riffs slightly on same sex relationships, which has become a very topical issue in the wake of the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act. The evening promises to be a fitting finale to the Valentine season with two sassy, saucy and very iconoclastic writers, who have made their names writing definitively on explosive sex issues without the traditional restraint associated with sex and sexuality.

A scene from the play Closer

Promasidor partners Thomson Foundation on Quill Awards By Florence Utor NTRIES for the second edition of Promasidor Quill Awards is ongoing, and it promises to be more rewarding as the makers of Cowbell milk will be partnering with Thomson Foundation to take the awards to a new level. It’s an effort from the company to further encourage excellence in journalism in Nigeria for dedicated news reportage on industry, education, corporate social responsibility and nutrition issues all year round. with this partnership, the best overall entry for the 2014 Promasidor Quill Awards would have the opportunity of participating in a five week course in the U.K. The in-chairman Chairman of Promasidor Nigeria, Chief Keith Richards, while addressing journalists at a media briefing to announce the partnership during the week at the company’s corporate headquarters said, “The essence of the partnership is to have a champion of champions among the winners of the seven categories created by the company go for a training programme in the United Kingdom. Richards noted that the media is an important organ in the life of society and that

it plays a very important role in checking the pulse of different issues in society but most times, the practitioners are undermined. he noted, “Since we sold the first sachet of milk and grew our product brands across our dairy, beverage and food enhancement categories over the years, we have continued to enjoy and benefit from the support of the media and committed journalists who have noticed our commitment and hard work”. Richards explained that the awards tagged ‘Promasidor Quill Awards’ initially covered five categories includ-

Head, Legal and Public Relations, Mr. Andrew Enahoro; in-coming Chairman, Chief Keith Richards;Chief Executive, Thomson Foundation; Nigel Baker; in-coming MD/CEO of Promasidor Nigeria, Olivier Thiry at a media briefing on Promasidor/Thomson Foundation partnership on Quill Awards… in Lagos

tificate-awarding course at the School of Media and Communications of the Pan Atlantic University, Lagos in order to further equip them with new knowledge and skills to do more. Entries for the 2014 edition have commenced and would close by the end of April and the organization has also selected five judges for this year’s awards. Also, Mr. Nigel Baker, Chief Executive of Thomson Foundation, said they are proud to work with Promasidor Nigeria on this initiative, adding that it would open new opportunities for journalists in Nigeria. he said the beneficiary journalist would have the opportunity of participating in a five-week course in the U.K., which would put him on the cutting edge of the profession. Baker said the Thomson Foundation started 50 years ago because of the passion the founder, Roy Thomson had for the media, and remarked that over the years the foundation had worked in more than 100 countries in the world training journalists on ethical standards and quality reporting.

Osagbovo unveils brand name, Valiho By Florence Utor ENIN City-based actor, singer and perB former, Osagie Osagbovo, has rebranded. In his bid to reposition him-

Shoneyin

ing Brand Advocate of the Year, Best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report of the Year, Most Educative Report of the Year, Best Report on Nutrition and Best Photo Story of the Year. however, feedback from participants, stakeholders and consultants from the first edition made the company to increase the number of categories from five to seven in a bid to accommodate more entries. The new categories are Best Report on Children and Future writers Award for upcoming writer. winners from the maiden edition had received tools of trade as well as a six-week cer-

self artistically for the challenges ahead, he decided to settle for Valiho, a brand name he believes would take him to the next level of his career. At the new Club Novana, GRA, Benin City, where Valiho was unveiled last Sunday, also on his birthday, all the notable acts in the ancient city of the obas turned up to celebrate one of their own. The presence of Lagos-based Film director, Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen and city comic act and musician, Maleke, also added glamour to the event. Some of the acts in the house performed from their albums to the delight of the audience. Also, wine, women and other liquors flowed in typical nightclub fashion. Valiho thanked everyone who hon-

oured him, but paid particular respects to Imasuen for grooming him into what he has become as a performer. he said there would be more exceptional works from him from now on as validation of his new brand status. On his part, Imasuen congratulated Valiho for being a nice lad who heeded instructions and has matured into his own as a performer. he enjoined scouts to look beyond Lagos for talents, as they were in abundance in his Edo/Delta axis, which he said had produced the likes of Majek Fashek, Orits williki, Felix Liberty, Ras Kimono, Victor Uwaifo, now Pastor Chris Okotie, himself and many other who had set the national musical stage on fire with their talents. Imasuen, therefore, urged corporate bodies and promoters of talents to leave the comfort zone of Lagos to scout wide for genuine talents and bring them to international limelight, as the next gener-

ation of stars. he said Edo State is teeming with raw talents that are waiting for the next opportunity to explode. he charged the budding artistes in the state not to give up but to keep honing their craft while waiting for opportunity to showcase themselves, as their time would come.

Valiho

40 Friday, February 7, 2014

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ExecutiveBrief

EDITION 295

In association with TRIPPLEA ASSOCIATES LIMIED

ESV PAT UNA: Advocating for Specialization for Estate Surveyors and Valuers Una and Associates is a multi-disciplinary firm of Estate Surveyors and Valuers and Capital Market consultants, a professional practice well renowned in their markets of operation. For the past fifteen years, the firm has provided exceptional and qualitative services in all key sectors of the economic growth and development, and offers professional expertise that covers Asset Valuation for Capital market and Consortium Financing Transactions. ESV Pat Una, the Chief Executive officer of the firm is an accomplished Registered Estate Surveyor and Valuer and a Professional Manager with vast industry experience spanning three decades. Pat is an Alumnus of the Lagos Business School Owner Manager Programme (OMP1) and holds a Masters in Business Administration, specializing in Technology Management. He has attended Managerial and Leadership courses in leading institutions and belongs to several professional bodies. A Fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers; Board member, Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria; Member, Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered) and Institute of Directors. In this interview with Nnamdi Nwokolo, the recipient of News in Africa Achievers Gold Award spoke on his Focus as a CEO. You are celebrating fifteen years of corporate existence, how has the journey been? E’ve been in operations for the past fifteen years and by my assessment we’ve been able to build a tested and trusted organization in line with our corporate vision. We are putting systems and processes in place to enable this organization run seamlessly when I’m not there. We have a five year strategic plan to ensure that members of our leadership team will be part of the decision making process. We have also started continuous training for our team. The idea is to achieve global competitiveness. We are not market leaders, but we are offering professional services in our niche market. We are gradually developing a strategic plan for effective strategic management that will make delegation of authority very easy. Human resources management entails team building, team work, mentorship and delegation. We are committed to providing result oriented Estate Surveying and Valuation services with passion. Our primary objective is to provide exceptional service beyond the ordinary standard while promoting integrity in our industry.

Assessment of the Industry: The industry is growing in leaps and bounds but the major challenge of the industry is the proliferation of small firms. Everybody wants to open an office and sometimes they lack the leadership and managerial skills to run an organization successfully. I believe in specialization, we should be able to have firms with core areas of specialization. Our core competence is in the area of assets/plant and machinery valuation, where we have the capacities and expertise. We play in the marine, oil and gas sectors of the economy. What can government do differently to enhance the growth of the industry? Government should be able to address the challenge of housing in the country. From statistics, it is estimated that we have about 17 million housing deficits in the country. Government need to intervene especially in the low and middle class housing. If the new housing policy is well implemented, a lot will be achieved. Government should not leave the housing challenge to the private sector. Government should also create an environment for long term funding with one digit interest rate to enable the private sector augment government efforts. There has to be intervention for this critical sector by the government. Government has intervened in the real sector, aviation and even Nollywood, why not in the housing and construction sector? This industry has the potential of creating employment opportunities for the teeming youths as well as creates wealth and business opportunities for the manufacturers of building materials and the economy. The Lagos Home Ownership Mortgage Scheme is laudable and will go a long way in reducing the housing challenge. Government at all levels should equally be committed towards reducing this challenge.

ropes. It is not the qualification that makes you a good professional. It is on the job training and experience. I always admonish young ones to be focused, be patient and work hard. My sincere advice to up coming professionals is to believe they can do and achieve whatever they set their minds to do. They should not forget that if there are no difficulties, there will be no success. The importance of learning for personal development cannot be overemphasized because there is no limit as to what one can learn. Above all, the grace of God is what will sustain them. How do you get in touch with everybody at all levels in your organization? Talent management is key. Currently, we are doing a lot of training both in professional and business courses. We’ve designed a system that all our key staff who will eventually join the leadership team must attend the Lagos Business School to acquire managerial and leadership skills. I’ve had sessions in human resources in the past 15 years which has helped me in managing people. My style of leadership is very simple and it’s all about respect and value for my team members. This is because the people are the most important assets to any organization. What are your projections for the Organization? I believe that the industry have great potential for growth; don’t forget that there’ll always be room for improvement. For us at Una and Associates, we will be at the forefront of the emerging market because we are committed and totally dedicated towards achieving continuous improvement in customer satisfaction through a commitment to excellence in service delivery in our niche market.

As a board member of Estate Surveyors and Valuers Registration Board of Nigeria, what is the board doing to minimize the activities of quacks in the profession? Much awareness is being created through the Board’s current battle against pseudo practitioners (Quacks) in the Profession. The Board is doubling its effort in registering qualified Estate Surveyors and Valuers to practice the profession thereby reducing the activities of quacks. The Board will continue to support the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers in conducting the Mandatory Continuous Professional Development (MCPD) Seminars to ensure capacity building for our professionals. Nigerians should patronize people who are trained and qualified in the practice of Estate Surveying and Valuation for real estate services. It is a pity that in Nigeria, everybody does anything. As a fellow of the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers and a board member of ESVARBON, we are doing a lot of advocacy in this regards, educating Nigerians on the need to only patronize professionals in this field.

What were the initial challenges and how were you able to surmount them? The challenges we encountered were numerous. Success does not come easy, it comes with diverse experiences. If you don’t have the passion, drive and a persevering spirit, you’ll get frustrated along the line. You’ll encounter a lot of difficulties when it comes to team building. When we started this organization in 1999, I enrolled to do my MBA, to acquire business and managerial skills that will enable me run the firm professionally. It was a big challenge combining the roles, but determination was what saw me through. On finishing my MBA, I went to the Lagos Business School to further acquire hand-on skills for effective management. We are the pioneer set of Owner Managers Programme in 2002. What the executive course does is that it gives you a better understanding of how to manage the workforce, team building and delegation. The major challenge was building a team which we have succeeded. On the critical factors for success for Unique Selling Point: young professionI always tell people, we are niche players, we don’t want to be als: everywhere and that is what makes us different. Our vision is to For the young probe the most preferred real estate service provider most fessionals, they admired for exceptional professional services in the industry. should learn the Our ability to deliver within our clients’ time limits is our unique selling point.

Pat Una

For Advertisement and Enquiries 08025070837 08156388800, E-mail:editor.executivebrief@trippleagroup.com

Driving Force: Passion is the driving force. Professional practice is not all about material acquisition, you must have passion for professionalism. It is the passion that drives the motivation for what you are doing. How do you maintain work/life balance? I spend quality time with my family (my wife Pat and my lovely 4 kids) on weekends, give service to God on Sundays and on week days I give time to Una and Associates. The important thing is that I live up to my responsibilities both at home and in the office.

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Friday, February 7, 2014 AUTOWHEELS 43

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AutoWheels 2014 Toyota Yaris hits Nigerian market Stories by Taiwo Hassan OYOTA (Nigeria) Limited (TNL)- franchise holders of Toyota range of automobiles in Nigeria, has announced the introduction of 2014 Toyota Yaris into the nation’s automobile market. The move to bring the new Toyota Yaris, according to TNL, may not be unconnected with the success story of the previous model as demand for Yaris has been tremendous since its introduction into the Nigerian market few years back. Speaking at the presentation of the car to the public in Lagos, the Chairman of TNL, Chief Michael Ade-Ojo, said that the official introduction of another automobile invention from the stable of Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) Japan to the Nigerian automobile market spoke volume that the industry was waxing stronger, despite the approved nation’s automotive policy. He said that the new brand of car was an indication that TNL would continue to brighten the nation’s automobile industry with the latest technology in the local as well as global market place, adding that the company was starting the year on a “very positive note with the unveiling of this delightful piece of artistry. “The Toyota Yaris as you are all aware stemmed like every other Toyota model from a heritage of Toyota unrivalled and exclusive superior quality engineering. You will agree with me that this already endows this latest model with a rich of attributes common to all its siblings in our model line up. Judging from its upgraded exterior design over its imme-

diate predecessor to the beautifully enhanced interior design, the latest model of the Yaris will readily conjure a unique driving pleasure in its targets,” AdeOjo added. The Toyota Yaris is a five-seat, subcompact car available as either a three-door or five-door hatchback. Yaris touts utility, able handling and a simple design. Besides, Yaris redesign revolution began with a completely redesigned for the 2012 model year. For 2013, Yaris gets only minor changes to the lineup of standard features. The 2013 Yaris comes standard with the previously optional Tech Audio sound system, which includes a CD player, auxiliary jack, USB port, Bluetooth phone and streaming audio capability and iPod connector. Though it has seat belts for five, it’s really a four-passenger vehicle. The 2014 Yaris comes in three trims: L, LE, and SE (five-door only). The base Yaris L and the top-line, sport-tuned Yaris SE come standard with a fivespeed manual gearbox. The optional four-speed automatic transmission seems dated compared to the sixspeed automatics that come on other cars in this class. Under the hood is a 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine that makes 106 horsepower at 6000 rpm and 103 pound-feet of torque in a broad curve peaking at 4200 rpm. A 0.29 coefficient of drag helps Yaris slip through the air. Fuel economy is an EPA-estimated 30/37 mpg City/Highway with the fivespeed manual transmission, 30/36 mpg with the four-speed

2014 Toyota Yaris automatic. These numbers are average for the subcompact class. Electric power steering on the Yaris results in good road feel without losing easy low-speed maneuvering for parking in tight spaces. The suspension consists of MacPherson struts in front and torsion beam in back, for a decent ride and tighter corning. Standard wheel size on the L and LE models is 15 inches,

while the SE gets 16-inch wheels and tires. The Yaris SE is the hot rod of the lineup, with quicker steering, more expressive styling and a sportier interior. Its front disc brakes are larger, and it’s fitted with alloy wheels and wider profile P195/50/R16 tires. The 2014 Yaris has nine airbags, including four curtain airbags. The front seats are as sporty and comfortable as any we’ve found in the class.

The front seats feature Toyota’s Advanced Whiplash InjuryLessening (WIL) design, supporting the upper body from head to lower back. Like all new cars nowadays, the Yaris uses an impact-absorbing structure with high-strength steel to better distribute collision forces. As a result, the Yaris is rated four out of a possible five stars in government crash testing for both overall crash protection and total frontal-impact

protection, and five stars for total side-impact protection. 2014 Toyota Yaris gets a top rating of Good in frontal-offset, side and roof strength tests from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, which is supported by the insurance industry. The model could compete against many attractive and efficient subcompact hatchbacks, including the Chevrolet Sonic, Ford Fiesta, Honda Fit, Nissan Versa.

BMW 5 Series tops world’s most successful business automobiles HE decision by the BMW T automakers to carry out a successfully model revision of the BMW 5 Series last year, is already impacting on the market sale of the brand. According to the company, with the introduction of an extended range of engines (combined fuel consumption of 9.9–4.5 l/100 km, combined CO2 emissions: 232–119 g/km), numerous additional equipment items and the extensive BMW ConnectedDrive programme, as made the BMW 5 series the top-selling business model of 2013, as 366,992 customers worldwide opted for a BMW 5 Series Sedan, BMW 5 Series Touring or BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo. Consequently, this has once again put the BMW 5 Series well ahead of the competition. The car manufacturers of the BMW has demonstrated with the 5 Series how a new model can be optimised precisely to match market demand by means of a harmonious package of meas-

ures. The model revision selectively refreshed the exterior design of the entire BMW 5 Series family, thereby enhancing its overall presence. With its newly designed rear, the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo also offers a luggage compartment expanded by 60 litres to 500 litres. What is more, the two equipment lines luxury line and modern line along with the M Sport package allow each BMW 5 Series to be given an even more marked

touch of individual flair. The interior also presented refined premium ambience combined with enhanced functionality. The userfriendly iDrive Controller is fitted in all models as standard, while control display features a chrome trim surround. In conjunction with the professional navigation system, the iDrive T o u c h Controller increase s

operating convenience. Its integrated touchpad allowed letters for text entry - for a navigation destination, for example - to be typed simply using one finger. As of July last year, the engines are faster, more economical, cleaner

and more efficient. They cover the output range from 105 kW/143 bhp to 412 kW/560 bhp, with all engines meeting the EU6 exhaust emissions standard (M5: EU5). The BMW 518d (fuel consumption urban/extra urban/com-

bined: 5.4/4.0/4.5 l/100 km; combined CO2 emissions: 119 g/km) and 520d Sedan (fuel consumption urban/extra urban/(combined: 5.4/4.0/4.5 l/100 km; combined CO2 emissions: 119 g/km) have an output of 105 kW/143 bhp and 135 kW/184 bhp respectively, guaranteeing a hallmark brand driving experience with a fuel consumption of just 4.5 l/100 km.

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Friday, February 7, 2014

2014 Wrangler Jeep

2014 Jeep Wrangler debuts in Nigeria Stories by Taiwo Hassan ESTSTAR Associates, the general W distributors of Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge and Ram vehicles in Nigeria, along with their dealers- Sunny Motors Limited and M-B Automobile, have announced that the new 2014 Jeep Wrangler cars are now available in the country. According to the company, the compact off-road four-wheel drive, which is manufactured by American automaker, Chrysler under its Jeep brand and is currently in its third generation. The Jeep Wrangler is a sports utility vehicle (SUV) that was born to rule the trails. Since its inception in 1987, it has undergone three major design revisions, and through the changes the Wrangler legend continue to be

regarded as an adventurous car. With its fender flares, iconic sevenslot grille and 18-inch sparkle silver wheels, the 2014 Wrangler is stylishly capable without compromise, and is definitely the SUV to have. At Weststar, the attractive four-door Unlimited Wrangler Sahara comes with a rugged, but refined interior. There’s ample storage space, thoughtfully designed ergonomics and improved Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH). For protection, comfort and convenience, it has features like: Sahara embroidered heated leathertrimmed front seats, illuminated cup holders, lighting in the foot well and an auto-dimming rear-view mirror with integrated LED are part of the attractive package. Also available is the Uconnect System with entertainment features, phone,

web, Travel Link + Navigation by Garmin and Uconnect Voice Command with Bluetooth, as well as, an Audio Jack Input for mobile devices, plus Remote USB Port. The Wrangler Sahara, also available, but come with a 5-speed Automatic transmission and strikingly black 3piece Removable Hard Top. The Four-door Wrangler Rubicon version offers tunable monotube shock absorbers, which feature low speed tunable valve technology that’s firm on the rocks and relaxed at higher speeds. It’s standard dana 44 front and rear axles are equipped with Tru-Lok locking differentials and offer the ultimate in traction. The front axle sway bar disconnect allows for better articulation off-road. The two-door Wrangler Sport has full metal doors with roll-up windows,

comes with rear compartment storage space and a front stabiliser bar. Every Wrangler vehicle, including the Sahara is fortified with under body armor that protects its critical components with 2.5-mm stamped steel skid plates on its fuel tank and transfer case. Heavy-duty forged-steel dual front and single rear frame-mounted tow hooks for pulling less capable vehicles out of ditches, come standard. The 2014 High-End Luxury Wrangler has a powerful and efficient 3.6L Pentastar V6 VVT engine. The SUV was voted as one of World’s 10 best engines for 2013, this 285horsepower engine is ready to provide you with power, satisfying fuel efficiency with up to 600 km on a tank of fuel, and will deliver up to 260 pound-feet of torque. The Command-Trac 4WD system will

also help to deliver more control and more torque at the wheels to help you go virtually anywhere you point your vehicle. The Wrangler comes with a wide range of standard and available safety and security features. An example is the standard advanced multistage front airbags, which help provide occupant protection by matching airbag output to impact severity. There are also side-supplemental airbags with sensor detection, an onroad four wheel disc Antilock Brake System (ABS), Brake Assist and more. More would include Hill Descent Control which helps monitor throttle, speed and braking when travelling downhill, plus Hill Start Assist which keeps your brakes applied for a short time after you’ve removed your foot from the brake to give you time to accelerate without rollback.

ABC records hitch-free operations during the festive celebrations HE management of ABC T Transport Plc said it recorded a zero accident- free in its operations during the just concluded festive season. According to the company, the period was the most challenging operation caused by high traffic surge in both passenger and cargo operations, especially from late November 2013 to early January 2014. Group Head, Passenger

Operations & Logistics, ABC Transport Plc, Ifeanyi Izuka, who disclosed to newsmen in Lagos, said the management was satisfied with the manners in which travelers comported themselves during the peak periods. “The level of maturity and understanding exhibited by ABC customers amid all the hectic operations was very impressive,” Izuka said. He said that ABC had always striven to put in place ade-

quate measures to contain the enormous demands, which normally arise from handling passengers and cargo operations during peak periods despite the massive turnout of customers. Izuka stressed that the management had earlier injected additional coaches, minibuses, and cargo trucks into its existing fleet in preparation for the festive season. This deployment, according

to him, was carried out specifically to ensure a hitchfree service delivery, adding that there were a few isolated cases of delay departures, mostly due to environmental factors. He however said that the management commended the Federal Road Safety Corps and other paramilitary operatives for the diligence they exhibited during the peak periods, especially traffic controls, patrols and

swift response to emergencies, “all helped in no small measure to prevent numerous road-related accidents and hold-ups that usually characterize ember months.” Meanwhile, ABC Transport has commenced an integrated re-fleeting programme for the year 2014. For its haulage operations, a total of eighty trucks have been ordered. The first set of trucks, sixteen in number, have since been taken deliv-

ery of, while the remaining set of sixty-four is due for delivery before the end of the month. For passenger operations, 10 new coaches and 16 medium and mini buses are due for delivery between the first and second quarters of the year. In addition, ABC Cargo Express will get 13 new trucks to enhance its ever-expanding operations.

PAN to produce Peugeot 301, 308 vehicles locally HE new automotive development T plan aimed at developing the moribund automotive industry, has received a boost with the consolidation of technical and commercial synergy between Automobile Peugeot (AP) France and PAN Nigeria Limited (PAN) in readiness for the production of Peugeot 301 and 508 vehicles scheduled for the second quarter of 2014. PAN had entered into a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) strictly on technical and commercial agreement with AP France last year. The management of PAN has received a team of auto manufacturing experts

from AP France who came in to inspect the company’s facilities in readiness for the production of Peugeot 301 and 508 vehicles. This development is coming barely three months after the federal government approved the new automotive development plan for the industry aimed at to place Nigeria in the league of auto-producing countries. Speaking at the end of the facility tour, the experts commended the standard of the factory equipments, and expressed confidence that with what they saw on ground, PAN is ready to commence production. The Managing Director, PAN Nigeria

Limited, Ibrahim Boyi, who received the team from France, thanked the visitors for the facility tour and pledged to leverage on the new automotive development plan approved by the federal government last year, for PAN to re-establish its position as the pioneer and leading auto manufacturer in Nigeria. The company’s managing director, however, called on the government to put in place favourable policies that would protect local auto manufacturers in industry, stressing that PAN has the capacity to produce cheap and affordable cars for Nigerians at all levels.

Managing Director, PAN Nigeria, Alhaji Ibrahim Boyi (left); with members of AP France during the facility tour of PAN Nigeria production facilities, in Kaduna.

Friday, February 7, 2014 AUTOWHEELS 45

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Firm introduces 2014 three-wheeler tricycle into Nigeria By Taiwo Hasan IMBA MOTORS, a subsidiary of Simba Group of companies, has introduced the 2014 version of light cargo carrying three-wheeler vehicle popularly known as Kary-Go into the Nigerian market. According to the company, the new model had greater mileage and load bearing efficiencies, and available in 200cc and 250cc versions. It can also carry loads up to 500 Kilogramme. Speaking at the launching ceremony of the brand, Sales and Marketing Manager, Simba Motors, Juhail Kapoor, said that cargo three-wheelers, or motorised tricycles as they were sometimes called, were used across emerging markets for distribution purposes. He said that their sizes and

fuel-economies made them efficient solutions for rural transportation as well as to meet the distribution needs of companies within urban areas, where road infrastructure is poor. “We are delighted to introduce the 2014 version of the Kary-Go to the Nigerian market. The new vehicle has undergone extensive onroad testing in Nigeria over the last few months, and has been able to deliver greater operating savings to users. We have had a tremendous response from our clients so far,” he said. Kapoor commended the support the company had received from their growing dealer network, which had enabled nationwide penetration. According to him, the company also attributed their

success to their nationwide service infrastructure, which was able to cater to the needs of the users and ensure minimum downtime when maintenance is required. He stressed that the group had also invest a lot in human capacity development by training thousands of mechanics across the country, who service the vehicles, as well as for multinationals who demanded training for their drivers. “Training is at the heart of our value proposition. If our clients and their distributors are to realise the full benefit of this transportation solution, we are determined to provide the training that ensures that the vehicles are used to their maximum potential and deliver benefits to the users well into the future,” Kapoor added.

Managing Director, Lekay Solutions Enterprises Adeleke Odunkan (left); Manager, Simba Motors, Juhail Kapoor and Sales & Marketing, Lekay Solutions Enterprises, Rasak Saliu, at the launch of the 2014 Kary Go three-wheeler vehicle in Lagos.

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BUSINESSTRAVEL Friday, February 7, 2014

BusinessTravel Technology: Game-changing airline business models? ITH a wider rollout of W in-flight connectivity, air travel could see further

development as social networking tools head to the clouds. The advent of affordable in-flight connection can also open up a whole new aviation ballgame, not just in marketing but also in the enhancement of onboard services. Meanwhile, airlines and other transport operators are already using satellitebased technology, allowing broadband speeds up to ten-times faster than currently available. It could also provide an alternative means of connection on trains and coaches. Earth stations are devices, which can supply an Internet connection to passengers by linking to a ‘geostationary’ satellite. In remote locations – particularly on planes and ships – speeds have been limited by available technology. However, game-changing technology, be it in the area of aircraft such as the Boeing 787 and the Bombardier CSeries or in the area of mobile and digital information and communications can now be used to take the value

propositions of both sectors to new heights by changing the way people shop for and experience travel. While almost all airline managements acknowledge these mega-trends and their potential massive impact on the global airline industry, only a few are exploring the development and implementation of the necessary transformational changes. Most continue to believe that only incremental changes can be made and hope that they will be sufficient. There appear to be two reasons behind this philosophy. First, almost all “old world” airline managements believe (and it is a valid statement) that their hands are tied behind their backs by legacy systems ageing fleet, expensive and inflexible labour contracts, organisational structures, excessive pension liabilities, inflexible IT, obsolete bilateral agreements, constrained infrastructure, stagnating alliance benefits, and others. To show its strength in the area of in-flight entertainment backed with technology, Emirates looks to enhance its live television

Travellers using satelite based mobile phones at 40, 000 ft above sea level

offering across the fleet. More passengers will be able to catch the FIFA World Cup with Emirates’ live TV Presently, passengers travelling aboard select Boeing 777 flights can watch live events on eight channels including BBC World News in English, BBC Arabic, Euronews and Sport24. The airline has subsequently announced plans to expand the service to 20 aircraft by the end of the year. Although the offer of live television will not trigger a landslide shift in market share, entertainment is an essential investment that strengthens customer loyalty, according to Patrick Brannelly, the airline’ vicepresident of corporate communications marketing and brand product, publishing, digital and events. “Airlines invest hundreds

‘

of millions of dollars in their entertainment systems. For each plane it’s between $8 million and $15million,” Brannelly stated. Topping off these two areas of amazing technology are the enormously powerful social media networks that are giving new meaning to the marketing functions at businesses, exemplified by the emergence and implementation of Web 3.0, which enables the coupling of new technologies with changing shopping behaviour. While social media has proven to be valuable for airlines in terms of engaging with passengers in realtime, it also provides a potential opportunity to sell more tickets (and other products) while users are actually on their social networks. The social network arena may not replace current distribution channels,

The new game-changing technology promises to change the way passengers search for, buy and experience air travel and the way airlines produce and market their products/services

‘

By Wole Shadare

but it can serve as yet another vehicle to capture additional traffic. Finally, some airlines have utilised technology to enhance the customer experience on their websites by offering a virtual assistant to answer questions and direct travellers to the information that they are seeking. The new game-changing technology promises to change the way passengers search for, buy and experience air travel and the way airlines produce and market their products/services. From the viewpoint of best global business practices, however, airlines are hardly at the forefront of the deployment of technology to meet the ever-increasing expectations of their customers. Take Apple as an example of a business that appears to have capitalised on the power of advancing technology to evolve its product line - from iPod, to iTunes, to iPhone, to iPad not only to meet rapidly changing customer needs, but also to exceed their expectations. As such, Apple has a winning combination: an amazing technology paired with an amazing customer experience.

Apple has been able to integrate the product, the technology and the experience to a point of integration that provides a competitive edge. Airlines have demonstrated that they can improve their product/service (for example, the lie-flat seat and mobile check-in), yet they have barely begun to capitalise on step-changing technology to either improve their margins across cycles or to improve passengers’ need for a better customer experience. In the case of the latter, tired of inaccurate and untimely information, some travellers have taken the initiative to create their own travel information websites. Experts maintained that airlines needed to capitalise upon emerging technology to become solution providers. Solution providers can take on two different roles. The first and more obvious involves assisting passengers during irregular operations. While airlines are currently doing this, they are not doing so in a personalised and customised manner from the viewpoint of the passenger.

Friday, February 7, 2014 BUSINESSTRAVEL 47

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Virgin Atlantic’s B747-400 aircraft

Emirates to launch services to Abuja, Kano MIRATES, a global connector of E people and places, is set to expand its presence in Africa’s most populous country Nigeria, with the start of a daily linked service to Abuja and Kano from August 1, 2014. This is in addition to two daily flights the airline operates to Lagos. Kano, the capital of Kano State in northern Nigeria, is the second most populous city in Nigeria after Lagos, and has a history that goes back hundreds of years. The area is known for the production and export of groundnuts, which was a major source of Nigeria’s export earnings before the oil boom in the 1970s. Emirates SkyCargo, the freight division of the airline, introduced a scheduled freighter service to Kano in October 2013, and with Abuja joining the network, Emirates will

now fly to 26 destinations in Africa and 142 worldwide in 80 countries. Emirates launched services to Nigeria on January 2, 2004 with four flights per week from Dubai to Lagos linked with Accra in Ghana, using an A330-200 aircraft. Just over a year later Emirates increased its services from four to six flights a week, and following further demand, it became a daily operation in October 2005. On January 1, 2006, Lagos was delinked from Accra and became a direct service to Dubai. On February 1, 2009, a second daily service was introduced, and today each flight is served with a Boeing 777-300 ER. “Nigeria is experiencing strong demographic and economic growth. The country is strategic to Emirates’ global expansion, as Africa is. With our decision to start a daily

national cabin crew, gourmet cuisine and its ice entertainment system, offering hundreds of channels of on-demand audio and visual entertainment. Emirates’ customers also receive a generous baggage allowance of 50kg for First Class, 40 for Business Class and 30 for Economy Class. Emirates SkyCargo will offer over 200 tons of cargo capacity per week, with main imports expected into Abuja and Kano being personal effects, clothing material and electronics, while exports include leather, kola nuts, spices and fresh meat. Further testament to the growing importance of Nigeria as a key Emirates market, Emirates Holidays, the tour-operating arm of Emirates, last December opened a dedicated retail office and call cen-

linked service to Abuja and Kano we will now offer from three major cities in the country a very convenient and comfortable access to Dubai, and to Emirates network via Dubai, particularly the Middle East and Asia Pacific, where Emirates is flying to more than 30 destinations, including the Airbus 380 to 12 cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Sydney. The new service will also help create new opportunities for business, industry and tourism,” said Thierry Antinori, Emirates Executive Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer. The route will be serviced by an Airbus 340-500 offering a total of 258 seats in a three-class configuration – 12 in First Class, 42 in Business Class and 204 in Economy Class. Customers will experience Emirates award-winning service by its multi-

Peacock raises the bar in travel business N East London travel agency is poised to expand A on to the high street with ambitious plans to grow the business all over the United Kingdom. Peacock Travels and Tours is based in an office in Daiston but its UK manager has confirmed to the TTG that it is set to acquire an existing agency in South London, according to TTG Magazine of UK. Keith Lyold said, “We’ve been looking to buy either a start-up travel agency or an existing agencyWe’ve come across this one and we are going ahead and buying it.” “We need to be on the street, we have got to have shop front.” The deal is expected to be completed before the

end of the early part of this year but Lyold has ambitious plans for the business. He said, “We’d like to think that Peacock will expand and we ll be all over the UK at some point, but it won’t be happening overnight. We are looking to get our own airline this year as well, which at the moment we are finding difficult but we’ll get there. Alongside the retail travel agency, Peacock also runs a UK operator, which specializes in North Cyprus. Lloyd promised a big campaign with the trade and talked about expanding the division by going into wine tours and holidays in the Philippines. Peacock was started in 1997 in Nigeria and the com-

pany has offices in South Africa as well as in the UK. It employs six staff in the country and will add three more when it takes over the agency. Lloyd has high hopes for the new venture and said he would like to add “anything over and above” the business existing turnover of about 1.5 million pounds. He also spoke positively about the future of the traditional travel agent. He said, “The demise of the travel agent on the high street has always been there. It is not going to happen. It never will. I think a lot more people are now starting to book with an agency of long standing, because they can recognize the value, the tradition and the experience.”

Anxiety for Nigeria as U.S. downgrades India’s safety rating By Wole Shadare years ago, Nigeria was FoneOUR awarded the ‘elusive’ category aviation status. Yes. It was elusive because for many years, the country struggled to retain the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) highest aviation rating. For many years, the country failed not until one of the best brains in aviation in the person of a former Director-General of the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA), Dr. Harold Demuren assembled a team of professionals to achieve what has become one of the achievements of Nigeria in the field of aviation. But as Nigeria prepares for another assessment to re-evaluate whether it is in compliance with category

one rating, India has had its airlinesafety ranking downgraded by the US FAA after the South Asian nation failed to find enough officials to ensure safe operation of flights, putting it on a par in terms of air safety with Zimbabwe and Indonesia. The FAA cut the grade to Category two from Category one after a review of India’s aviation regulator revealed that its safety oversight processes doesn’t meet global standards. The launch of new carriers and billions of dollars in new aircraft orders meant the world’s secondmost populous nation couldn’t employ enough people to monitor safety. The US move could mean heightened surveillance at airports in that country for Indian flights, which

could impact airline schedules, said Kapil Kaul, the South Asia head at CAPA Centre for Aviation. “It might also affect foreign passengers’ perception about Indian safety,” Mr Kaul said. The FAA move is of “significant interest” to the European Union, though there isn’t any direct link between the EU safety list and the US programme, the European Commission said. To try and win back a better rating, Indian authorities said they will hire 75 flight operation inspectors and provide training to others. It expects to resolve concerns by March. This is where Nigeria should thread softly and do all that are necessary to ensure that the country’s airline safety ranking is not downgraded. That would be catastrophic and

would further set Nigeria behind in aviation. There are yawning gaps that need to be closed if we are to retain the rating. The Ministry of Aviation would do the country good if it allows the NCAA to do its job as there have been allegations of interference in the job of the aviation sector regulator. The incumbent DG, Captain Folayele Akinkuotu has shown a very good understanding of what it takes to sustain the aviation rating, but his job is really cut out for him and he has all what it takes to succeed. Failure to retain category one would do incalculable damage to Nigerian designated airlines(s) to the United States and cast a huge doubt on aviation safety which has come under intense scrutiny.

tre in Lagos in partnership with Tour Brokers International (TBI) Ltd, who was appointed Preferred Sales Agency (PSA) for Nigeria. Abuja will be the first stop on the linked service on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday, and Kano will be the first stop on a Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Emirates flight EK 785 will depart Dubai at 1030hrs and arrive in Abuja at 1450hrs. It will depart Abuja at 1640hrs and arrive in Kano at 1750hrs. The return flight will depart Kano at 2025hrs and arrive in Dubai at 0615hrs the next morning. Flight EK 786 will depart Dubai at 1030hrs and arrive in Kano at 1430hrs. It will depart Kano at 1625hrs and arrive in Abuja at 1735hrs. It will depart for Dubai at 2005hrs arriving at 0615hrs the next morning.

Dana boosts operations with Boeing 737 aircraft N continuation of its expansion I737-500 plans, Dana Air has added a Boeing series aircraft, to boost its fleet and entire operations. With the additional aircraft coming into service, Dana Air will now operate an aircraft fleet comprising of the Boeing MD 83 series and Boeing 737 brand of aircraft. The Boeing 737-500 aircraft, which is the first of the Boeing 737 aircraft expected to join the fleet, arrived the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos on Wednesday, February 5, 2014 after necessary inspection and certification by the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority’s (NCAA) auditors. Speaking on the introduction of the B737 aircraft in Dana Air fleet, the Chief Operating Officer/Accountable Manager of Dana Airlines, Yvan Drewinsky said that the plan to introduce the Boeing 737 fleet of aircraft had always been an integral part of the long-term business model of the airline. “Our plan was to have two B-737 aircraft join our fleet in the last quarter of 2013 but we had to reschedule the delivery date as we were undergoing an operational audit involving the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) Flight Standard Group (FSG) in conjunction with their foreign partners,” said Drewinsky. He also noted that the aircraft has undergone significant internal enhancements to ensure that Dana Airlines guests continue to enjoy the unique and outstanding on-board experience they have come to expect

Friday, February 7, 2014

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Friday, February 7, 2014 49

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FridayWorship “Surely, the religion with Allah is ISLAM,complete submission”... Qur’an 3:19

Your world as a shopping mall By Afis A. Oladosu

In the Name of the Almighty, the Beneficent the Merciful

“Know that the life of this world is only play and amusement, pomp and mutual boasting among you, and rivalry in respect of wealth and children …” (57:20) dear brethren, our world has SourUDDENLY become that of a shopping mall. Or rather, shopping malls have become a window to our world. Shopping malls, you would remember, are equally known as shopping centers or arcades. They refer to buildings forming a complex of shops with interconnecting walkways. These enable visitors to walk from unit to unit. They are the “modern,” indoor version of the traditional marketplaces. Shopping malls are said to have emerged during the medieval period in Europe. The earliest of such is the Marché des Enfants-Rouges in Paris, which opened in 1628 and still runs till today. The Oxford Covered Market in Oxford, England, was opened in 1774. Before that time, the Muslim world had had its own share of what later came to be known as malls. Such is true with reference to the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul which was said to have been built in the 15th century and is still one of the largest covered shopping centers in the world, with more than 58 streets and 4,000 shops. The Isfahan’s Grand Bazaar, which is largely covered, dates from the 10th century. It is said to cover a distance of about 10 kilometers. However, when Napoleon Bonarparte landed in Cairo in 1798 and opened Passage du Caire, shopping malls had already begun to lose, in Basseley’s fashion, “their innocence.” In other words, the emergence of shopping malls in Europe in the 19th century coincided with the period when Europeans had started to view themselves as the sun of the world. Brethren, that was the time slavery was gradually being replaced with colonialism; that was the time Europe thought it was its primordial mandate to “civilize” the world. Thus in addition to bringing railway to Cairo, European powers equally foisted the racialist idea on the world. While whites’ supremacy was being erected in Asia and Africa, Europe was building skyscrapers it called shopping malls. The resources and wealth, which accrued to Europe sequel to its exploitation of nations in distant lands, needed to be expended in style. Dear brethren, shopping malls, in my humble estimation, are metaphors of this age: an age which belongs to the rich- those who want to combine pleasure with shopping, those who want to escape the inimitable power of nature while satisfying the calling of life. During the 19th century, the rich in Europe would want to shop but not under the sun; they would want to buy and sell in complete confidence that rain would not spoil their fun. You remember the story told to us of the wife of the king who requested that her husband stop the sun from rising in the horizon. When a man finds riches and wealth by accident, he rebels against nature; he impugns the Divine. Since the 19th century, shopping malls have also become national identity symbols. The taller and bigger it is, the bigger the citizens’ sense of selfhood. Thus since the advent of the modern times, nations across the world have been competing among themselves over which city has the largest or tallest mall. The largest mall in the world is the New South China Mall in Donguan, China with a gross floor area of 9,600,000 square feet. The

world’s second-largest shopping mall is the Golden Resources Mall in Beijing, China, with a gross floor area of 7,300,000 square feet. The Megamall in the Philippines is the world’s third-largest at 5,844,600 square feet of gross floor area; the fourth largest is the SM City North EDSA in Quezon City, Philippines with a gross floor area of 5,435,000 square feet while Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, holds the record as the nation with the fifth largest mall. It occupies 5,010,000 square feet of gross floor area. Brethren, you can then imagine the enthusiasm with which my compatriots welcomed the establishment of the first mall in Lagos a couple of years back. Visit the old Cocoa House in Ibadan and you would behold a new mall teeming with shoppers. Gradually, cities across the nation are playing host to malls of varying sizes. Soon, our country would become a “malling” village. But why the interest in shopping malls in today’s sermon? It is simply because they remind me of this world and the next world. In other words, dear brethren, though the idea of the mall proceeds from the need to make shopping stress-free, pleasurable and adventurous, it nonetheless reminds me of my journey from nothingness to existence. Shopping malls remind me of my journey to this world: a journey I had to make by compulsion. Were it not for necessities of life, shopping malls would be the last on my scale of preference. Put differently, each time I arrive any mall, I remember my arrival to the world. Since my journey to the world is dated and meant to be brief, I always endeavour to make my visit to the shopping arcade equally brief. After all, malls are not residential apartments- each shopper is expected to make his choices and exit as soon as possible. Remember, you can only exit the shopping mall after you have accounted and paid for all the choices you make. Brethren, every choice the shopper makes in the mall has a price tag. This means, for me and for you, every choice we make in this life, in this world, which is like a mall, has a prize. This is the reason shopping malls are more than what they contain. Or rather, this is the reason malls image the vanity in the world we live. Brethren, at least three items are usually, in American parlance, on sale in malls: what buyers would want to buy, what shoppers may not want to buy and items shoppers cannot buy. Each time I have to visit a mall, I always remember that they are structured in such a way as to give the impression they are capable of satisfying all our desires. But, it is only the wise among us who know this: that malls, like the world, cannot satisfy the multiplexity of human desires. The only reality that is capable of doing that is death. Furthermore, all malls are incomplete until they are fitted with Close Circuit Television (CCTV) networks. This means that, contrary to legal parlance, all shoppers are deemed to be potential thieves and pilferers until they exit the malls. To deter these potential “shoplifters,” shoppers are informed of the existence of the CCTV machine. But the CCTV in malls is actually not the real one. The real CCTV is the one the Almighty has put in place to watch over our actions. These are honourable angels who neither go on strike nor commit errors in their watch. But brethren, while shoppers who commit no infraction in malls are not rewarded for being upright, the Almighty rewards the dutiful servants in two ways: for the evil that is avoided and for the good that is done. Brother, endeavour to “watch” yourself; you are being watched. (08122465111 for texts only)

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MarketReport EQUITY MARKET SUMMARY

AS AT 6-2-2014

PRIMERA AFRICA www.primera-africa.com

Friday, February 7, 2014 MARKET REPORT

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MARKET INDICATORS

AS AT 6-2-2014

PRIMERA AFRICA

Flour Mills records 28% profit in nine months By Bukky Olajide LOUR Mills of Nigeria Plc Fbillion has posted about N178.9 profit for the nine months ended 31st December, 2013. According to the company, the revenue rose from N139.2 billion to N178.9 billion, representing a growth of 28 per cent, fuelled by the volume growth in its core food business. Earning for the period after tax was N8.6 billion compared with N6.9 billion recorded during the equivalent period of 2012/13 financial year, a growth of 22 per cent. Increased production capacity and enhanced efficiency following completion of the ‘West Mills’ the Company’s latest milling facility coupled with a small decline in overheads contributed to the improved performance. Besides, the company derived some benefits of synergy arising from internal restructuring and completion of merger with two

former subsidiary companies, Niger Mills Company Limited and Nigerian Bag Manufacturing Company Plc. The Group Managing Director, Paul Gbadedo said: “The company’s outlook for the last quarter of the financial year remains positive. Management will focus attention on its innovative routes to the market and distribution network to sustain the growth momentum and deliver good value to stakeholders.” However, group’s earnings before tax for the nine months under review declined from N8.2 billion to N5.9 billion. The company said this was attributed to operational ramping up and strong competition faced by Golden Sugar Company Limited, FMN’s subsidiary, which launched its products during the first quarter of the financial year. The management said it expects contributions to the Group’s bottom line from a variety of investments that will come on stream.

Japaul Oil unfolds diversification strategy • Plans to pay dividend this year By Helen Oji APAUL oil and Maritime Jplans services Plc has unfolded to embark on strategic diversification exercise that would strengthen its operational visibility within and across the globe and increase shareholders’ value. This exercise, when completed, according to the Group Managing Director of the company, Paul Jegede, would add additional N50billion into the company. Besides, the company also disclosed that it has concluded arrangement to pay dividend to shareholders this year. Jegede, while briefing Journalists in Lagos yesterday, explained that the company is presently in discussion with a foreign company that has declared interest to inject additional capital into the company. “As I speak to now, we are in discussion with a foreign company that wants to come and merge with us and they want to do business with us and we are raising additional money in the essence of N50 billion . We have taken approval from shareholders because we want to coin out a company where this people will merge with us and after five years, they will exit. “Before the end of this year, we have about N50 billion capital injected into this company in the mixture of equity and loan with a daring ratio and by the time we have that one with our present asset, the income that would be coming from there will be able pay dividend.” Speaking further on the diversification plan, Jegede said: “We want to carry wet cargo.

We are currently doing dredging but we want to invest more on it and we would also develop our mining business but our core business is maritime, production of oil&gas but we would do more on shipping.” Explaining the reasons for the company’s inability to pay dividend in last few years, Jegede said,” After we finished raising money in 2008, we bought some old vessels and we were using it for business but in 2009 when the market crashed, the first challenge was that the vessel we bought for N18 billion crashed to less than N10 billion in terms of value and income also plunged. In 2012, a foreign company brought brand new vessels up to 125 vessels into Nigerian market and that sent all indigenous companies packing and those vessels for the past three years has not being making money because they are pushed out of the market. “But we still went ahead to acquire new vessels and two years from now, these vessels will be free to bring income to shareholders because we have paid the bank substancially and some are purchased while some are on long-term lease. By the time these assets are paid off in 3-4 years, the assets becomes ours and we have them for shareholders.” The Japaul oil boss submitted that this would reposition the company to compete favorably with foreign companies, which, according to him, has dominated the industry, adding that the company would also acquire additional 20 vessels to add to the existing eight.

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PHOTONEWSEXTRA Gov. Fashola Commissioning Ultra Modern Classrooms at Iba Housing Estate Senior Secondary School, Ojo

The ultra modern two Blocks of 12 Classrooms at Iba Housing Estate Senior Secondary School, Ojo built by the Lagos State Government and commissioned by the Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) yesterday. INSET: Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (3rd left), his Deputy, Hon. (Mrs) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire (3rd right), Secretary to the State Government, Dr (Mrs) Oluranti Adebule (left), Commissioner for Education, Mrs Olayinka Oladunjoye (right), Oba Oniba Ekun of Iba Land, Oba Yushau Goriola Oseni (2nd left) and the Chairman of Iba Local Council Development Area, Hon. Ramat Oseni-Adeyeri (2nd right) watch as Oba Onijanikin of Ijanikin, Oba Momodu Afolabi Ashafa (middle) cut the ribbon during the commissioning.

Cross section of students, community leaders, during the commissioning of ultra modern two Blocks of 12 Classrooms built by the Lagos State Government at Iba Housing Estate Senior Secondary School, Ojo yesterday

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (middle) addressing members of the residents, traditional rulers and other Stakeholders during the commissioning of Ebute-Ojo Ferry Terminal, Ebute-Ojo yesterday.

The two Lagos State Waterways Authorityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (LASWA) Armoured Patrol Boats commissioned along with the Ebute-Ojo Ferry Terminal, Ebute-Ojo by Governor Babatunde Fashola SAN yesterday INSET: Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (middle), his Deputy, Hon. (Mrs) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire (2nd right), Oba Olojo of Ojo, Oba Galibeen Adeniyi Rufai (2nd left), Oba Osolu of Osolu Kingdom, Oba Abideen Adekanbi Durosinmi (left), Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa (right), Managing Director, Lagos State Waterways Authority, Mr. Yinka Marinho (3rd left, behind) and Managing Director, Lagos Ferry Services, Mr. Babatunde Williams (2ndleft, behind).

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (left) addressing the students, community leaders, traditional rulers, residents and other stakeholders during the commissioning of ultra modern two Blocks of 12 Classrooms built by the Lagos State Government at Iba Housing Estate Senior Secondary School, Ojo, yesterday.

The Ebute-Ojo Ferry Terminal, Ebute-Ojo built by the Lagos State Government and commissioned by Governor Babatunde Fashola SAN on yesterday. INSET: Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola SAN (middle), his Deputy, Hon. (Mrs) Adejoke Orelope-Adefulire (2nd right), Oba Olojo of Ojo, Oba Galibeen Adeniyi Rufai (2nd left), Oba Osolu of Osolu Kingdom, Oba Abideen Adekanbi Durosinmi (left), Commissioner for Transportation, Mr. Kayode Opeifa (right), Managing Director, Lagos Waterways Authority, Mr. Yinka Marinho (3rd left, behind) and Managing Director, Lagos Ferry Services, Mr. Babatunde Williams (2ndleft, behind).

Gov. Peter Obi (left), being conducted round the Lux Terra Leadership Centre, Apo, Abuja by the Director of the Centre, Rev. Fr. Dr. George Ehusani (right) on Wednesday.

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Commissioner of Police, Oyo State, Muhammed Indabawa, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Administration), Adeoye Oyelola and Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone XI, David Omojola at the zonal meeting with Political leaders in Oyo, Osun and Ondo States in Ibadan PHOTO: NAJEEM RAHEEM

Govt, group, police bicker over alleged plot to rig Taraba council poll From Charles Akpeji, Jalingo GROUP, Southern Taraba A United for Democracy, has alleged that there were plans to use security operatives in the state to rig tomorrow’s primary election in Takum 1 Constituency of Takum Local Council.

The primary ahead of a byeelection to replace the late Speaker of the House of Assembly, Haruna Tsokwa, is already generating dust in the state. In a statement made available to newsmen yesterday in Jalingo, the group accused the Acting Governor, Garba Umar, of

“working tirelessly to impose candidates on the constituency.” In a swift reaction, however, the Police Commissioner, Jubril O. Adeniji, speaking through the Public Relations Officer, Joseph Kwaji, told The Guardian: “We are not politicians, our duty is

Firm sues foreign partner for tax evasion By Joseph Onyekwere NIGERIAN marine service A provider, Phoenixtide Offshore Nigeria Limited, has shown some form of patriotism by suing its foreign partner, Tidewater Marine International Incorporation, at the Federal High Court, Lagos, over alleged fraudulent activities that have robbed Nigeria of billions of naira in tax. Insisting that it wants to curb the tax evasion trend, the firm has filed a motion ex-parte praying Justice Okon Abang to order the payment of N1.595 billion and $3.366 million (about N2 billion) into the court’s account and to stop the repatriation of funds to the partner’s home country pending the determination of the suit. Apart from Tidewater Marine, other respondents are Tidex Nigeria Limited, Total E&P Nigeria Limited, Total Upstream Nigeria Limited and Total E&P Deepwater Nigeria Limited. However, Total Group (the third to fifth respondents) has jointly filed a statement of defence contending that it was not privy to the agreement between the plaintiff and the first defendant and as such, could not be held liable for any breach of pact. In an affidavit deposed to by the Managing Director of

Phoenixtide, Olutokunbo Afolabi Kuforiji, the plaintiff explained that its sister company, Phoenix Ocean Line Limited, originally co-owned Tidewater Phoenix Nigeria Limited with the first defendant (Tidewater Marine International Incorporation). According to Kuforiji, in compliance with the applicable laws that vessels on bareboat charter for cabotage trade in Nigeria must be hired to and controlled by Nigerian citizens, the first defendant and the sister company entered an agreement on September 14, 2005, to change the name of Tidewater Phoenix Nigeria Limited to Phoenixtide Offshore Nigeria Limited. The development, he said, made the shareholding of the company 100 per cent Nigeriaowned. The plaintiff, in a statement of claim filed by its counsel, Ade Oyebanji, added that it further entered into Blanket Bareboat Charter (BBC), Technical Services Agreement (TSA) and Marketing Agreement (MA) with the first defendant. By the agreement, the plaintiff stressed that the first defendant was further engaged as technical manager to take over the management and operation of all vessels bareboat hired by the plaintiff, save for certain retained local matters. However, the plaintiff averred that it required the first defen-

dant to give accurate and comprehensive information on income and revenue, taxes paid, expatriate quota and foreign staff leaving and coming into Nigeria in the name of the plaintiff, transactions on temporary importation licences and bonds issued on imported vessels with Nigeria Customs Service, but the defendant refused to supply the required information. It alleged further that in a bid to deceive the Nigerian regulatory agencies, the first defendant fraudulently represented to the Nigerian government via its agencies that it had only one member of staff. More painful, the plaintiff said, was that the first defendant has been consistently paying all the dollar portion of the time charter party revenue into its foreign nominated account and the naira portion into the account of the second defendant (Tidex Nigeria Limited) without paper trails or disclosure to the plaintiff. This eventually caused a shortfall on what the first defendant calculated and paid to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) for itself and the plaintiff as percentage income on charter contracts for cabotage vessel financing fund, which liability would be that of the plaintiff as the company recognised by the government.

to provide adequate security for the people. “We are going to provide adequate security during the primaries and afterwards. We have never been used before to rig any election and I am assuring you that we cannot be used by anybody. All that we are after is the security of Takum and the state as a whole.” Also, Umar, speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Kefas Sule, has described the allegation as

“all politics.” Sule said that Umar “is a man of principle and believes in due process, so he can never belittle himself to the level of imposing candidates on the people.” According to a statement by the group’s state coordinator, Sabo Ahamadu, “the first attempt by the crafty Umar was to ensure that contestants in the poll were denied access to buy forms. This move was roundly rebuffed by the state chairman of the party, Victor Bala, and his council members.”

It urged the National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Adamu Mu’azu, to save democracy in the state, as the acting governor has concluded plans to use security men to “rig the primaries in favour of his candidate.” The group also accused him of “monetary inducements to buy up delegates for the primaries while also getting ready to make excessive use of security forces to cow the people.”

Cleric flays U.S., others for ‘imposing’ gay culture From Chuks Collins, Awka IQUED by their negative P reaction to Nigeria’s anti same-sex law, the Anglican Bishop of Nnewi Diocese, Prof. Godwin Okpala, yesterday took a swipe at the United States (U.S.), Canada and other European countries working to force that culture on other climes. Addressing newsmen at the Bishop’s Court in Nnewi, the cleric said “the outburst of these foreign nations without taking cognizance of our cherished moral, religious and cultural idiosyncrasies has again betrayed their lack of respect for Nigeria and other developing nations’ sovereignty and independence.” He warned that international relationship, interdependence and consultation do not mean loss of a nation’s sovereignty “or invitation to unbridled external influence whatsoever,” adding: “None of these nations currently breathing down our neck ever asks us how we feel about anything they intend

The outburst of these foreign nations without taking cognizance of our cherished moral, religious and cultural idiosyncrasies has again betrayed their lack of respect for Nigeria and other developing nations’ sovereignty and independence. to do, even when such will directly affect us.” Okpala noted that all Nigerians are united on the law against homosexuals because “such negative behaviour is against the two dominant religions in Nigeria and that same-sex relationship is also against the nation’s intrinsic culture and negates reason and all known logic.” He urged President Goodluck Jonathan to ignore the threat by the U.S. and its allies to withhold support to the nation’s fight against malaria and HIV/AIDS, stressing that the country is rich enough to take care of its domestic needs. He wondered their sincerity in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS while closing eyes on ways of its spread and easy contact.

The cleric recounted that the church, led by the Anglican bishops, in 1998 voted against same-sex marriage and that their communion with the U.S. stopped when a homosexual was ordained priest in that country. He used the opportunity to correct what he saw as an erroneous impression that the church originated from the West. According to him, Africa, indeed, received Christianity before the West and Africa still has the responsibility of evangelising the West because it has lost it. On the proposed national dialogue, Okpala said there was need to allow people freely discuss all the issues bothering the nation and that the outcome should be assessed vide a referendum.

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Sports NNWL gets N8m insurance cover for players

Ahead Brazil 2014 World Cup

Agents delay NFF’s decision on Eagles’ United States camp From Ezeocha Nzeh, Abuja HE Nigeria Football T Federation (NFF) yesterday disclosed that it has not determined the US city to camp the Super Eagles for its final preparations for the Brazil 2014 World Cup because it has not received the reports of its agents on the site. Confirming that the Eagles will camp in the United States as proposed by Coach Stephen Keshi, the NFF said there has been no final decision on the city because its match agents in the US are responsible for choosing the team’s camp. NFF Assistant Director of Communications, Ademola Olajire stated yesterday in Abuja that the federation in touch with the agents, adding, however, that the federation has given them enough time to conclude all the arrangements. The Guardian gathered that US cities like Atlanta, Georgia, would likely be the choice of the federation, considering its weather

condition, which is similar to that of the Eagles’ group cities in Brazil. “We will announce the city by the end of this week. We are in touch with the agents and we expect him to finalise the arrangements by Friday,” he said. On the Eagles’ participation in the eight-nation tournament in the U.S., Olajire noted the NFF had no financial commitment in the tournament, stating that the Major League Soccer (MLS), who are the tournament organisers, had already communicated the federation on the national team’s involvement. Olajire, who noted that the Eagles were among the invited teams by virtue of being the African champions, expressed the federation’s happiness to be part of the tournament, stressing that it would add to its plans to expose the team to Grade A friendly matches, which would help them prepare well for the World Cup.

General Yusuf Squash tourney serves off S part of activities lined up A to honour a member of the Nigeria Squash Federation, Major General Shehu Yusuf, who was recently elevated from a Brigadier General, the Nigerian Squash Federation is organising a two-day tournament in Abuja. According to the President of the Federation, Adamu Erena, “we decided to honour General Yusuf for his immense contributions to the development of squash in Nigeria. ‘‘The competition will take place at the Package B of the Abuja National Stadium with about 30 players drawn from the six geo-political zones of the country. “It will hold from Friday to Saturday and we believe this will encourage not only the players, but others who are interested in the growth of the game.” Erena disclosed that the top three players would go home with prize money, while free accommodation and transport will be provided for all the players. Meanwhile, Erena has appealed to the Sports Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi and the Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Gbenga Elegbeleye, to

restore squash as one of the events to be competed for at the forthcoming National Sports Festival in Calabar. He pleaded, “we appeal to both the minister and the DG to reconsider the decision to remove squash from the National Sports Festival. Squash is one of Nigeria’s fastest growing sports, which needs to be encouraged among our kids. The festival s a good ground to develop the game, so removing it will not help our development plans. We appeal that they have a rethink so that the game can be competed for in Calabar.”

From Ezeocha Nzeh, Abuja HE board of the Nigeria T Nationwide League (NNWL) yesterday disclosed that it has

Nigeria’s Abdullahi Shehu holds off Kudakwashe Mahachi of Zimbabwe during their 2014 CAF African Nations Championships third place game at Cape Town Stadium, South Africa. The Eagles will camp in the PHOTO: MTNFOOTBALL.COM. US ahead of the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

‘NNL ready for new football season’ ITH one week to the new W kick off of the Nigeria National League (NNL), the competition’s governing body says there will be no more postponement. But it has advised all the participating clubs to complete their registration formalities to avoid heavy sanction. The 32-team second tier league of Nigerian football was earlier scheduled to start on January 25, 2014, but it was moved to February 15 at the instance of the clubs, who appealed to the NNL to lessen the huge financial burden posed by the payment of the referees’ indemnities. Club managers had appealed to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) through the NNL to take over

the payment of match indemnities to the officiating officials to prevent mass withdrawal from the league as was witnessed last year. NNL Chairman, Emeka Inyama said yesterday in Abuja that the new kick off date is sacrosanct, pointing out that the management is in touch with the NFF to ensure that the league does not suffer another postponement. “Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the league will start next week Saturday. We at the NNL have been in constant touch with the leadership of the NFF to consider the request of the clubs. I want to believe that we are on the right part,” he said, adding, “but for the complaint of the clubs over the

payment of match indemnities to officiating match officials, the national league would have commenced two weeks ago.” Meanwhile, the NNL Secretary, Lawrence Katken has advised clubs that have not completed their registration formalities to hasten the process because heavy fine awaits defaulters. “I want to state categorically that we (NNL) will not tolerate any form of infraction from any quarter. The postponement of the league by three weeks has given clubs ample time to complete their registration formalities. I believe there will not be any excuses this time around because the clubs have enough time to do the needful,” Katken stated.

signed an N8 million deal with Standard Alliance Insurance Company to provide cover for all the players in the league, beginning from the 2013/2014 league season. Disclosing this during the NNWL Congress yesterday in Abuja, chairman of the NNWL, Ahmed Muazu Kawu said the company would apart from playing the role of the league partners, also provide death insurance cover for the players, as well as those injured, among others. The NNWL boss noted that in return, all the NNWL clubs are expected to deal with the insurance company in the insurance of their players and officials, stressing that Standard Alliance Insurance considerate in partnering with the board. He, therefore, urged the clubs to ensure that they followed strictly the insurance policy, which the board has introduced with the backing of the Nigeria Football Federation. “This is the first time we are identifying with a company in the area of sponsorship and we are happy we starting from somewhere. With this, we hope to move forward and get a better sponsorship offer in the future.

NOGIG 2014: NNPC, Chevron battle for soccer gold FTER a grueling week of A tough competition, Chevron and NNPC have emerged as contenders for the gold medal in the football event of the 2014 Nigeria Oil and Gas Industry Games. The two teams overcame all oppositions to qualify for the final, which comes up on March 1 at the Legacy Pitch, National Stadium, Lagos. To reach this stage, Chevron topped Group B in the preliminaries, defeated Group A leaders NAOC 2-0 in the semi-final. Similarly, former champions, NNPC topped Group C in the preliminaries and dismissed Shell 2-0 in the semi final. The battle for bronze, which will feature NAOC against Shell will precede the final.

Ferguson ‘asked referee for favour to help Man United win 1996-97 Premiership’ tioned the penalty. She asked United faithful also exerted swimming pool. As we came Alex Ferguson used as an example. why he came tearing across massive pressure on his forSto IRsome extraordinary tactics ‘It was chucking it down with off he said, “I know we’re 3-1 the pitch at me then. The mer colleagues too. down but please call it off, we try to help Manchester rain and Fergie pulled me United win the Premiership in 1997, former top-flight referee, Dermot Gallagher has claimed. The now-retired Ferguson was never shy of having a word in a ref’s ear, and Gallagher has lifted the lid on the pressure the Scot seemed to exert on officials during his reign, citing a home clash against Middlesbrough towards the end of the 1996-97 campaign

aside and said “Do me a favour, call the game off”,’ Gallagher told Sportlobster TV. ‘I asked why and he said, “there’s nowhere else to fit this game in and the Premier League will have to extend the season. We’ll have a better chance of winning the match and we’ll win the league at Old Trafford.” ‘At half-time United were losing 3-1 and the pitch was like a

could do with a hand here.’ “They managed to pull it back to 3-3 and in the last minute Dennis Irwin ran into the box and went down in front of the Stretford End and I only gave a goal-kick. ‘‘At full-time Fergie sprinted across the pitch and shouted at me furiously. My wife said, “Fergie had a right go at you about that penalty, didn’t he”. ‘I told her he hadn’t men-

truth is he ran over and asked me if I was going out to dinner that night. I said “no” and he asked “Why are we leaving so early then?” Interestingly, recent statistics show ‘Fergie Time’ was no myth, with an average of 40 seconds less being added on at the end of United games under Ferguson’s successor David Moyes this term. But Gallagher reckons the

‘Years and years ago one of the referees had a heart monitor on during a match at Old Trafford. They were assessing it and suddenly it jumped and went through the roof,’ Gallagher added. ‘They looked at the DVD and he’d just turned down a penalty in front of the Stretford End. The pressure is immense.’

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SPORTS Friday, February 7, 2014

Heroes Of Edo-Abasi Ukpong:Still savouring lifeLiving in a military facility, the Nigeria Military School (NMS), Zaria, Edo-Abasi Ukpong fell in love with the way the military schoolboys played sports. His interest soared and he made the school his choice location to acquire secondary education. After a week at the school, he was moved to King’s College in Lagos at his father’s behest. At King’s College, Ukpong played cricket, squash racquet, hockey and did athletics. Apart from captaining the school’s athletics and hockey teams in the 1979/1980 session, his dexterity in sports earned him King’s College Best All-Round Sportsman in 1980. Ukpong, who represented Oyo State at the 1981 National Sports Festival in Edo State, also won gold medal with the University of Ife cricket team at the Nigerian University Games Association (NUGA) in Zaria in 1982. The Managing Partner of Consolex Legal Practitioners, a commercial Law firm, who was invited to the Lagos State intermediate hockey team ahead of the 1979 National Sports Festival but declined on parental ‘advice,’ told ENO-ABASI SUNDAY that a healthy, optimistic mindset as well as being able to keep many lifelong friends from his sporting days were some of the benefits he derived from sports participation. N November 2013, a new research posited that watching sportImake ing events has the capacity to enhance one’s fitness level and one fitter. In fact, it further stressed that viewing other people exercise increases heart rate and other physiological measures as if one was indulging in aerobics. The study, published in the international journal, Frontiers in Autonomic Neuroscience, showed that when watching a first person video of someone else running, heart rate, respiration, skin blood flow and sweat release all increased. The researchers, however, added that while watching other people exercise can increase the watchers heart rate, it was no substitute for one getting a workout by himself. Not bent on getting fit while another person does the workout, and long before researchers came up with their findings, EdoAbasi Ukpong, had gone from being a spectator to being an athlete himself. Even though this happened in his growing up years, Ukpong was clearly a shiny example among his peers, having moved from tossing plastic balls with chums to engaging in sporting disciplines that required more than just a passing interest. As a testament to his primus inter pares status, he won the Sir Samuel Manuwa Prize as King’s College Best All-Round Sportsman in 1980, when he was in Upper Six. Ukpong, scion of a deceased soldier, who obtained his First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) from the Zaria Army Primary School in 1973 began the narration of his sporting odyssey this way: “My father of blessed memory was a military officer in the Nigerian Army Education Corps. From 1970 to 1973, he was an instructor at the Nigerian Military School (NMS), Zaria. So I had the privilege of living in the school’s vast premises. On weekends, I could go to the well-appointed sports arena and watch the military schoolboys playing various sports. It was here I got a rudimentary introduction to other sports, other than football. These included sports like hockey, volleyball and basketball just to mention a few. “Of course I could not play with the boys and this only increased my appetite and fascination with sports especially given the competitiveness with which the military schoolboys played the sports while their nicknames rented the air,” he recalled. Despite not really being keen on taking to soldiering as a profession, Ukpong took his fascination for sports to an entirely new height by making the Nigeria Military School his first choice for secondary school. Indeed he gained admission into the facility and was in residence for one week before reluctantly heading to King’s College, on his father’s advice. He was educated here from September 1973 to 1978, at the end of which he bagged his West African School Certificate (WAEC) and thereafter the Higher School Certificate in 1980. However, at King’s College, it was “a relief when I saw the sports facilities there including a squash court, which was not available at the military school. There was also a facility for playing cricket.”

Ukpong With the array of sports facilities at King’s College, and the rich tradition of sports, freshmen in the school, better known in those days as “Fags” (new boys acting as servants for older boys in British public schools), were more likely to be regaled with the heroics of old boy-stars in sports rather than academics. Ukpong was no exception. This confession lends credence to that. “I was regaled with the exploits of the likes of Babs Kasali, a sprinter; Toyin Hunter, a footballer. It was such a thrill when I got to meet some of these greats much later in life. Parents especially in those days when sports was grouped strictly as extra curricular activities, naturally would steer you away from spending too much time on sports rather than academics and my parents were no different. In my case, my parents took a very devoted interest in my academic performances, and it was an issue of constant discussion. In truth, at that age one can get carried away with the love of sports to the detriment of the more tedious pursuit of studying. Again I was no different but it helped greatly.” Speaking on the sporting disciplines he eventually settled for, the legal practitioner, who is also the Managing Partner of Consolex Legal Practitioners, a commercial Law firm with offices in five Nigerian cities said, “I basically played everything, there was to play and there was everything. I, however, ended up representing the school in cricket, hockey, athletics and squash racquets. Instructively I made the school’s cricket team in Form 4 and the hockey team in Form 5. For obvious reasons, the norm was to make the school teams in sixth form. I ended up becoming the school’s athletics and hockey captain in the 1979/1980 session. He continued, “When I first made the school’s cricket team in 1977, we had an excellent team led by Dami Adoki, Kwesi Sagoe and Duro Oluwa. Later my other team mates included Tayo Aluko, Ese Onosode, Peter Longe, Frank Inok, Ayo Gbenusola and Kofi Sagoe to mention a few. Upon gaining admission into the University of Ife, I played cricket for the school team from 1981 to 1984. I was also a member of the Oyo State team to the National Sports Festival in 1981, tagged “Edo 81.” Afterwards, I was invited to the Lagos State intermediate hockey team, which was preparing for the 1979 National Sports Festival tagged “Oluyole 79,” but I declined based on parental advice. “At King’s College, there was a time for everything and in fact there was an enforced limit to the number of sports any student could represent the school in, which is why football took a back

seat for me. Also, I realised that outside of representing my school, my parents’ support would not be guaranteed, hence I missed out on some National Sports Festivals at that time. The key is to strike a balance, which I think we did. Of course up until he passed on a couple of years ago my father still believed that I would have been a great professor of Medicine if I had devoted less time to sports. Happily though we both have no regrets,” he explained. It is common knowledge that King’s College had very competitive inter house competitions in those days. The atmosphere during these competitions was electric, even as the events were taken very seriously by participants and officials alike as they bid to do their respective houses proud. Ukpong also had immense adrenalin surging through his system during these periods. “In fact I later got to know that I was not the only one who could not have a good night rest on the eve of those matches or races.” Before getting into his stride at King’s College, Ukpong never experienced shortage of older folks to look up to for encouragement. Hear him: “In my first year, the stars were seniors students like Jide Idris, who played cricket and was at that time a national squash player along with Sam Oshodi (Sam Black), who also played in the school hockey and cricket teams. Another cricketer was Tayo Bright. In track and field, the likes of Victor Egwu, a champion high jumper and triple jumper and the graceful Slim Okoli, whose 400m victory against favourite Ayo Lijadu in 1974 I will never forget. In football, Femi Adeniyi (Eba) was undoubtedly the superstar with other stars like Kola Awodein, Kole Aluko (of the blessed memory) and Charles Mann and Akintunde Wey amongst others. “Amongst my classmates the likes of Tayo Aluko, Sanusi Daggash, Telema Princewill, Emmanuel Umoh, Mohammed Bima, MS Ado, Mukaila Awuta and others ensured that there was no monopoly of stardom in any of the sporting disciplines…” he stated. Away from the busy internal sports schedule, Ukpong recalls that the state was also fraught with numerous sporting competitions that kept on stoking the embers of healthy rivalry. “In those days, we had well-organised inter-school sports programmes in Lagos State in most sports. I represented my school against other schools in some of these competitions. In cricket, we won the Lagos State Schools Championship in 1980 and represented the state at the National Schools Sports Festival tagged

Friday, February 7, 2014 59

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School Sports long friendships engendered by sports “KWASPO ’80” in Ilorin, Kwara State. The national competition was won by Government College Ughelli. “In hockey, I was in the team that lost in the final of the Lagos State Schools Championships narrowly to CMS Grammar School in 1978. But as champions of Lagos Island, we defeated the mainland team comprising Baptist Academy and CMS in the 1979 Lagos Sports Festival, with my humble self scoring the winning goal in our a 2-1 victory,” the legal practitioner added. Though he had loads of beautiful moments competing and being part of sporting events, the University of Ife graduate, who holds a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B) 2nd Class Upper Division (1984), and called to the Nigerian Bar as a Solicitor and Advocate of the Supreme Court in July 1985, still singles out one of them as filling him with glee. His words. “I must say that my proudest moment in school sports was leading the inter house match past in all-white sporting gear as the school athletics captain. During these times, other competitors wore their house colours of red, blue green and yellow so on. Though I was competing for Hyde Johnson’s House, which had red as their colour, as the school’s athletics captain I had to appear in white. On the other hand, “My worst moment in sports was probably the narrow loss in Hockey to CMS Grammar School in 1978, which had many of us cried that night at the National Stadium hockey pitch. Such was the intensity of competition and school pride. Ukpong was versatile in over six sporting disciplines but could not represent the school in more than three in order not to jeopardize his studies. That not withstanding, he represented his house in the ones he could not represent the school in and savoured the thrills that came with victories in the ones he could not participate. “As earlier stated, in athletics I was my school’s champion in long jump and javelin, and at the state level, I competed against the likes of Yusuf Alli of St Gregory’s College and a certain Eleyae of Igbobi College. But Alli especially was the superstar. Even though Ukpong did not represent his school in football, a football match involving the school still remains evergreen in his mind.

And he said, “By far the most memorable football match was the quarter final of Lagos Principals Cup in 1975, where we were 0-2 down to Lagos City College with three minutes left to play. We miraculously equalised before full time and won 3-2 in extra time. Femi Adeniyi was the one that pulled off that feat.” Looking back, Ukpong still recalls the stiff opposition King’s College had to put up with stressing that some schools gave his alma mater with immense opposition. “For instance, in cricket, the main rival school was St. Gregory’s College, Lagos and there were also Methodist Boys High School; Igbobi College and later Anwarul Islam School. Some of the players that made those schools great were St Gregory’s fast bowlers like Bode Karunwi and Africanus Epelle; Okpaku Madedor; Deji Balogun (now a judge) from St Gregory’s, the Elliot brothers, Ladi Thompson, and Musibau Ajayi among others. At the tertiary level, Ukpong also found time to satisfy his passion and in the process made a name for himself by winning a gold medal in cricket at the NUGA in 1982. He said, “As a member of the University of Ife cricket team, we won a gold medal at the NUGA in Zaria in 1982. On the way to defending the title in 1984, we lost in the final to the University of Lagos, in spite of our having in the team, many national players including the superstar batsman Kome Agodo. The inquiry that followed the surprise loss was inconclusive. In other words, the mystery of ascertaining whether the subsidised beer and Stout drinks at the Games venue had a bearing on this calamity, remained unresolved.” Commenting on what actually fuelled his passion and that of his peers for sports back in the day, he said, “The passion for sports in school in those days was basically driven by personal ambition to excel in an area of competitive endeavour. Also playing sports also made you popular in school. Regrettably ours was a boy’s only school, so I am unable to say whether in other schools the admiration of the opposite sex was also a factor. On a personal note, wanting my house or school to triumph in competitions drove me to be better so I could contribute my quota. On how his participation in sports early in life has impacted him, he said, “Without reservations, participating in sports has made me a better human being with an objective mindset. For one, it taught me life lessons in leadership. Personally I love to take charge, and in retrospect, this must have come from my sporting background. I have absolutely no patience for tribalism and see people as human beings of the same attributes, in spite of their origin. Also different experiences on the sporting fields have taught me that ‘it is not over until it is over.’ Because of this, I have a healthy, optimistic mindset. My biggest achievement in sports is probably being able to keep many lifelong friends from my sporting days.” A deeply concerned Ukpong stressed that, “The decline of school sports in Nigeria generally is most tragic, and unfortunately symptomatic of our national life. School sports is a key element of a nations growth in the sense that it promotes healthy competition and imbues young persons with the spirit of good sports-

Ukpong, (seated, left) with the King’s College, Lagos cricket team 1978/79.

‘

Ukpong (left) with his caddie at the Ibom Golf Club, Le Meridien Ibom Hotel and Golf Club,

manship at that crucial stage of their personal development. The decline of school sports is one of the factors that have contributed to a society prone to divisiveness and its citizens lacking leadership or sense of community. It is why we are increasingly a “do or die nation.” Sports participation teaches one to accept defeat and that is clearly lacking in our polity.” As a way out of the dire scenario, the golfer canvassed the reintroduction of competitions

Without reservations, participating in sports has made me a better human being with an objective mindset. For one, it taught me life lessons in leadership. Personally I love to take charge, and in retrospect, this must have come from my sporting background. I have absolutely no patience for tribalism and see people as human beings of the same attributes, in spite of their origin. Also different experiences on the sporting fields have taught me that ‘it is not over until it is over.’ Because of this, I have a healthy, optimistic mindset. My biggest achievement in sports is probably being able to keep many lifelong friends from my sporting days

‘

On the tee-box of Ibom Golf CLUB

amongst schools as was prevalent in the past saying, “I would suggest that governments and the private sector should get together and make sporting facilities available in schools. Any private school without sporting facilities should not be registered because in my view, it is criminal to deprive any child the opportunity of playing sports.” Born on 24th March 1962, Ukpong, who started playing golf in 1999, attested to the fact that, “sports participation definitely makes you a more sociable person and helps one to quickly learn how to deal with the ups and downs that life offers. It also helps us learn early in life, how to exercise correctly and acquire a healthier poise. For instance, at over 50 years of age, my body is still very firm and even the slight “pregnancy” is firm. Socially I have made friends and relate well to different classes of people.” Since taking to golf, Ukpong, a former assistant lecturer in the Law Faculty of the defunct University of Cross River State now University of Uyo, has won over 35 golf trophies even though none is classified as a major trophy, and his “detractors” would quickly insist that they were largely ancillary prizes, which he won mostly in his early golfing days.

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60 Friday, February 7, 2014

SchoolSports Delta Governor’s Cup 2014 edition kicks off By Gowon Akpodonor

• 456 secondary schools on parade, LOC cautions principals, games masters

FTER watching Comprehensive Secondary School, Ogwashi-Uku, cart away a cash prize of two million naira and a 30-seater Coastal bus last year, all secondary schools in Delta State have been waiting anxiously for the kick off of the 2nd edition of Delta State Governor’s Cup football competition. The moment has come. Over 25,000 school children from 200 secondary schools across the state watched last year’s final at Warri City Stadium, where Comprehensive School defeated Alegbo Secondary School Effurun 1-0 to emerge the overall champion. The enthusiasm generated in that epic final has increased the number of entries for the 2014 edition, as a total number of 456 secondary schools are now in the race. In a fixture made available to The Guardian yesterday from the office of the Commissioner for Education (Basic and Secondary), Prof. Patrick Mouboghare, showed that the battle for tickets has already commenced at local government level. Mouboghare doubles as chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) of the Governor’s Cup. According to the fixtures, intra local government matches started on Wednesday February 5 in Aniocha South Council, with Adaigbo Secondary School trading tackles with Otulu Secondary School, while AbahUnor Mixed Secondary School was paired against Nshiagu College. Other fixtures were Ngwu Mixed Secondary School vs Olloh Mixed Secondary

School, Ewulu vs Ifite, Nsukwa Grammar School Vs EjemeAniogor, Egbudu-Akah vs Adonte, Comprehensive High School vs Anthony’s Model College and Ashama Comprehensive Vs Isho Mixed Secondary School. There are matches in Ethiope-East, Bomadi, Isoko South, Okpe, Patani, UghelliSouth, Ukwuani, Warri-North and other council areas from next Wednesday. According to the organisers, schools that will compete in the zonal level will emerge from the on-going intra local government matches. Meanwhile, the LOC boss, Mouboghare has sounded a note of warning that principals and games masters of the various schools would be held responsible for any act of violence and use of mercenaries in the Governor’s Cup competition. “The enthusiasm is getting higher now and I am sure some people will want to win at all cost. But I want to say that the LOC is ready to fish out and punish anyone who has a hidden agenda for the Delta Governor’s Cup competition. “We will build on the success we recorded in the maiden edition last year and we want the cooperation of everyone, both the school authorities, parents and football fans to make this year’s edition much better,” Mouboghare said. In the LOC for the Delta Governor’s Cup are ex-internationals like Davidson Owumi, John Omughele, Victor Ikpeba, Austin Okocha and Seigha Porbeni among others.

By Olalekan Okusan S part of its fulfilment of A promises to winners of the 2013 Milo Secondary

Catch-Them-Young…. Nursery children of Rexona International School, Oghara, Delta State, taking part in sports activities during their weekly sports programme ... on Wednesday.

At Atlantic Hall sports meet, Topaz rules By Tony Nwanne ESPITE their poor start in D most of the events, Topaz House, the defending champion has once again retained its position as the overall winner at the 20th edition of the Atlantic Hall, Poka Epe inter house sports competition. Topaz House with 28 gold, 20 silver and 13 brown medals outshone Emerald house with 19 gold, 21 silver and 19 bronze

medals, alongside Sapphire House who had 13 gold, 21 silver and 18 brown medals to emerge the second and third position respectively. With excellence performance of the Sapphire House during the match past, the house won for themselves the first position trophy with 46 points, while Emerald and Topaz came out second and third position with 44 and 42 points respectively.

Indian Language School wins Blue Sea Swimming tourney NDIAN Language School has ISwimming retained the Blue Sea Sports Championship, beating Brilliant Child College and Country Swimming Club to the second and third positions respectively. The competition, which featured schools from within Lagos, was part of the

Christmas activities for the students, who also competed for the opportunity to participate in championship in Britain later this year. At the Swimming Championship organised by Blue Sea Sports Company Ltd, in partnership with Infinity Sports International Ltd, at the University of Lagos Sports

Lagos, Bayelsa schools get Nestle’s sports equipment donation

Centre, Managing Director, Infinity Sports International, Henry Nwakunor disclosed that the purpose of the championship was to catch them young and to expose “our young swimmers to international competitions so that Nigeria will produce future Olympic Swimming

Students of Indian Language School displaying their medals and trophy at the end of the Blue Sea Sports Swimming Championship held at the University of Lagos Sports Centre…recently.

Champions.’’ Some of the other schools that participated in the Swimming Championship are International School of the University of Lagos, Woman Society of Lagos Nursery and Primary School, Avi-Cena School Ikeja, Little Saints School, Ilupeju and Lagos Country Club Swimming Team. At the end the event, Seyi Abiodun, who represented Armani Auto Works Ltd, presented overall winners’ trophy to the Indian Language School. With their feat, Indian Language School, who are three times Champions of the championship, qualified to participate in Manchester/Stockpint Sports fiesta. Also based on their outstanding performance, the Indian Language School been invited to participate in the football and basketball event of the Manchester/Stockpint Sports fiesta holding from April 12 to 20 in Manchester, United Kingdom.

Meanwhile, at the competition which had in attendance, parents, students, and guardians, were on ground to cheer their wards to success, as the students were at their best on the field, displaying their prowess in different sports event competition like 200m, 100m race, long and high jump, and 4x100m relay race for both boys and girls (junior and senior). From the beginning to the end of the entire competition, Topaz house, displayed their dexterity as the audience applauded them to success to retain their first position at this year’s edition of the school sport competition. Invited schools, parents and old students were not left out of the school sports as they also competed among themselves in the relay race competition.

School Basketball Championship, Nestle will today make donation of sports equipment to International School, Lagos and Bayelsa’s St Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Amarata. Speaking at the handover ceremony to ISL on Tuesday, Category Business Manager, Nestle Nigeria, Mrs. Doja Ekeruche said for the schools to emerge champions among the over 6,000 across the country that took part in the competition is a feat worth celebrating. Her words, “we believe that champions should celebrate their victories and being the overall winners from a competition of 5,626 schools, it is certainly a feat worth celebrating.” She added that despite qualifying as best loser from the Western conference, the two-time bronze medallist International School Lagos (ISL), through sheer discipline and determination, lifted the championship trophy for the first time in 2013. She also congratulated St Jude’s Girls Secondary School, Bayelsa for having the strength of character to retain the title they won in 2012. Parents, teachers and students witnessed the occasion with other gift items given to the players and their coaches, as well as teachers and students in these schools. Receiving the gift items, ISL Captain, Obioh Edima thanked Nestlé MILO for giving the team a platform to grow and develop their skills in basketball. A proud parent of two members of team, John Faniran encouraged parents present to support their children in following their dreams. He also commended Nestlé MILO for sponsoring a basketball championship on a national level.

Head, Automation Unit, University of Lagos (UNILAG) Library, Okiki Olatokunbo (left); Principal, International School, Lagos (ISL), Adora Emily Ojo; Category Business Manager, Beverages, Nestle Nigeria, Doja Ekeruche; Chairman, ISL Management Board, Prof. Taiwo Rufus Akinyele and Brand Manager, Beverages, Nestle Nigeria, Mrs. Funmi Osineye at the handover ceremony of sports equipment donated to 2013 basketball champions by Nestle on Tuesday. The company will make another sports equipment donation to Bayelsa’s St Judes Girls Secondary in Yenogoa today.

Friday, February 7, 2014 SPORT

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Ahead Brazil 2014 World Cup

Uzoenyi, Iheanacho only players good for World Cup, says Amiesimaka By Alex Monye ORMER national team star, Adokie Amiesimaka says only the duo of home-based Ejike Uzoenyi and Kelechi Iheanacho, who excelled in the Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) and the U-17 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates respectively, are good enough for the Super Eagles’ World Cup team. Amiesiamaka said he is tipping Uzoenyi and Iheanacho for the World Cup party because both stars won the must valuable player awards in the FIFA and CAF-organised championship, adding that their outstanding contributions led Nigeria to victories when it mattered most in the

Iheanacho beats two Swedish players during the UAE 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

PHOTO: GETTYIMAGES.

HotSports’ Locker Room Extra debuts in March fans hankering for FingOOTBALL a uniquely refreshing offeron the Super Eagles and their preparation for this summer’s FIFA World Cup, Brazil 2014, are in for exciting times as the country’s leading sports media marketing and production company and the Official Media Partner of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), HotSports Nigeria Limited has concluded plans to commence transmission of HotSports Locker Room Extra: Super Eagles Samba Edition, on radio and television networks across the land. The programme, which is an upshot of HotSports’ new partnership with the NFF, offers a whole new window to football fans to become integrated into the daily lives of Nigeria’s super stars in camp for the quadrennial tournament. It is conceived of as a one-hour package on television with an

abridged 15-minute radio version, spiced up with exclusive visuals and sound bites that give detailed account of the team’s preparation for the tournament and is scheduled to broadcast on major TV and radio networks in Nigeria, including NTA, AIT and Silverbird, as well as FRCN, Brila FM, Cool FM and Raypower FM. According to CEO of HotSports, Taye Ige, beginning from the third week of March, 2014, the company will commence broadcast of exclusive, behindthe-scene visuals from the camp of the Super Eagles as they prepare for the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014 on HotSports Locker Room Extra: Super Eagles Samba Edition. He explained that HotSports’ crew would be on ground in the camp of the Super Eagles throughout their preparation for the tournament, including during friendly matches, train-

ing tours and during the tournament in Brazil to broadcast to millions of football fans across Nigeria and beyond backroom activities of the World Cup bound team not available on any other programme. “HotSports Locker Room Extra: Super Eagles Samba Edition will start as a weekly countdown programme on major TV and radio networks in Nigeria in the third week of March and become a daily programme at the commencement of the tournament on June 12, 2014. “An opportunity has thus been created for millions of ardent football fans to see some of those wonderful pre and post match camping activities they have been yearning for. The programme will feature camp and other behind-the-scene activities of the team including drilling and strategic sessions, news, interviews and mini-documentaries on the Super Eagles among others,” Ige hinted.

tournaments. Iheanacho has since joined Manchester City in the English Premier League. Amiesimaka observed that such match winning displays have been a major missing link in the Super Eagles since Stephen Keshi took over the team, adding that the inclusion of Uzoenyi and Iheanacho in the World Cup team would advertise to the world the abundant talents in the local league. “I don’t think Kelechi Iheanacho is too young to play in the World Cup because in the game of football a talented player can make positive impact any time he is given the chance. “As it stands, the Eagles don’t have natural left footed players

and Uzoenyi, I think, is the player that can play in that wing. Both players have the capacity to change the frequency of a game at any point in time,” he said. Amiesimaka acknowledged that Nigeria currently does not have superstar footballers because “most of our players are not discovered in their formative years…they are discovered when they are old. “For Keshi to get it right in Brazil, he must work very hard to fish out the best legs that would make Nigerians proud.” He implored football-loving Nigerians to back the Eagles’ technical crew in their quest to excel in the Mundial.

Table tennis: Quadri leads G. D. Toledos to retain Portuguese Cup title their route to the final started tougher challenge but we won IGERIA’S Aruna Quadri in a three straight game to when they battled G. D. N maintained a clean sheet with a qualify for semi-final. We when he led his club, G. D. Montargilense Toledos table tennis club to retain the Portuguese Cup at the weekend. The competition was competed for by the 16 teams in the Portuguese table tennis elite league took place in Azores Island of Pico in Portugal. Without dropping a match against all their opponents, G. D. Toledoes, which had won the same tournament last season repeated same feat when it defeated Sporting Club in the final 3-0 to hold on to the title. Quadri, who captained his team to retain the title, said

resounding 3-0 victory. “It was another happy weekend in Azores Island of Pico after we defeated all our opponents to retain Portuguese Cup title. We won the title in an amazing manner after none of our opponent win a game against us. In short it was all 3-0 matches against all teams as we showed brilliant performance,” he said. “In the first round of the tournament we defeated G. D. Montagilence 3-0. It was a familiar rival in second round, Juncal another tough team from Azores Island gave us a

played Benfica in semifinal and we won in the same margin. And we played Sporting Lisbon in final and won in an amazing way also 3-0. The toughest challenge came from the main rival, Sporting but we played so much more better than them and we gave a brilliant performance,” Quadri said. The All Africa Games bronze medalist added, “I started against Sporting Lisbon and I won in a surprising way. I won against Diogo Chen, a player that had played with four times now and I succeeded in all encounters.

I am not at war with NFF, says Amodu By Gowon Akpodonor ONTRARY to insinuations in some quarters that Technical Director of all the national teams, Coach Shuaibu Amodu, is on war path with the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), the man (Amodu) has said there was nothing of such. Amodu was appointed technical director in March last year after some notable Nigerians kicked against NFF’s earlier plan of appointing 39-year-old Belgian, Tom Saintfiet, to do the job. The former Eagles handler was appointed alongside James Peters, who was named assistant technical director in

Head, Corporate and Government Affairs, Cadbury West Africa, Bala Yesufu (left), CEO, HotSports Nigeria Limited, Taye Ige and Executive Producer, The Production Room Inc., Robert Paltiel, at the unveiling of HotSports as the Official Media (Non-Match) Partner of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) in Lagos… recently.

Argentine ambassador wants closer ties with NFF HE newly-appointed T Ambassador of Argentina to Nigeria, Gustavo Dzugala, yesterday paid a courtesy visit to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Maigari, proposing that Nigeria and Argentina do much more together in the football sector. Dzugala, who is only a month old in Nigeria, after serving in the same capacity in Serbia, is seeking closer ties between Nigeria and Argentina national teams, as well as clubs in both nations. “Football is more than just a game; it is becoming a very potent political tool all over

the world. Football makes the world go round beautifully, because it is the ‘beautiful game.’ “Our two countries can definitely explore more ways of collaboration and friendship in football, because both are very strong, powerful nations in the game,” Dzugala observed. Responding, Maigari wished Dzugala well in his new role, saying the NFF and Nigeria football family as a whole are open to further collaboration between Nigeria and Argentina in the game. “A former NFF board mem-

ber, Chive Kaave is the ambassador of Nigeria to Argentina, and we have also discussed several ways of further collaboration. With your coming, we will activate most of the possible areas and bring them to fruition,” Maigari said. Nigeria play Argentina in Group F of the 20th FIFA World Cup finals in Brazil this summer, with tickets for the June 25 match in Porto Alegre long sold out. In a two-match friendly in 2011, Nigeria’s Super Eagles beat Argentina 4-1 in Abuja, with the Argentines winning the second leg 3-1 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

charge of women football development and Kashimawo Laloko, who was named assistant technical director in charge of youth football development. However, several months after the pronouncement by the NFF, the appointment of Amodu and his assistants are said to be existing only on ‘pages of newspapers,’ prompting insinuations that the man may have fallen apart with the Aminu Maigari-led NFF. There were insinuations in some quarters that Amodu is angry with the NFF for allegedly refusing to pay him the $5,000 monthly salary and other agreement they reached during his appointment. He is also said to be unhappy with the soccer house for not giving him a house and official car to carry out his duty effectively. However, Amodu told The Guardian in Lagos yesterday that he was not at war with the NFF, adding, “they gave me a job to do and to the best of my knowledge, I am doing it well. Maybe, those saying that we are at war are looking at things from the angle that I am not always around the Glass House in Abuja to ask for one thing or the other. “My duty as technical adviser is to ensure that Nigeria football has a solid foundation at youth development level. I am not to direct Stephen Keshi and his assistants on how to go about

prosecuting matches. No, we are working at our level and I want people to see it from that angle.” Asked whether he has been paid his salary since his appointment, Amodu replies, “the issue of salaries is between me and the NFF. Even if I am being owed salaries, the NFF knows when and how to pay.” On how he intends to carry out his duties as consultant to Edo State on football development and technical director at the national level, Amodu said, “what I am doing in Edo State is in line with the job I am doing at national level. There is no conflict. And don’t also forget that I am just a consultant to

Amodu Shaibu.

Edo State government.” Amodu said that the performance of the Home-based Super Eagles at the recently concluded CHAN in South Africa was worth praising, just as he urged soccer loving Nigerians to support the Maigari-led NFF for better results this year, especially at the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. The NFF President, Maigari had told The Guardian during the week that the relationship with Amodu was cordial. “We don’t have any problem with Amodu at all. I just returned from South Africa with the Super Eagles and I will make enquiries as quickly as possible if there is anything of such.”

62 | Friday, February 7, 2014

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GolfWeekly Fashola to honour Adekanola, Akakasiaka, others for services to golf

First Lady of Lagos State, Dame Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola (right) attempts to chip in while erstwhile Ikeja Golf Club-based pro, Femi Olagbenro (second right) and others watch during the opening of a past edition of the Lagos State First Lady Golf Tournament at the Ikeja Golf Club Stories by Eno-Abasi Sunday OR their respective contriFment butions to golf developin the state in particular and the country overtime, First Lady of Lagos State, Emmanuella Abimbola Fashola, would next week con-

fer on some individuals and organisations, the Lagos State First Lady Outstanding Golf Awards. The awards ceremony would, however, be preceded by a tourney at the Ikeja Golf Club, where gentlemen, lady golfers and children from different

golf clubs within and outside the state would vie for honours. It would run from Wednesday February 12th to Friday 14th. According to organisers, the awardees were carefully selected based on their outstanding contributions to the

growth and development of the sport. The awards, which would be in six categories, will include that for outstanding golf professional; outstanding golf promoter; outstanding golf services and outstanding indigenous corporate organi-

No worries for Port Harcourt Club 1928 over proposed N12b new ultra-modern club, says Ikpoki hE development of an • Rivers Governor’s Cup holds next month T ultra-modern golf club in the Greater Port harcourt area of Rivers State notwithstanding, the existence of Port harcourt Club 1928 would not in anyway be challenged. In fact, the state capital, according to Captain of the club, Mr. Adokiye Ikpoki, is in dire need of more of such facilities in order to cater for the golfing needs of the city dwellers as well as allow the game percolate further. Ikpoki, in an interview with The Guardian yesterday, also said that the maiden edition of the Rivers Governor’s Cup, meant to be a Pro-Am tourney has been slated for the last week of March. “At the moment, we have two major tournaments that we are looking forward to. These are the Governor’s Cup, which would come up in the last week of March and another one, which follows soon afterwards. “The Governor’s Cup is a ProAm, which the pros would play over 72-hole while the

amateurs would have their way on the last two days of the tournament. We have sent the proposal for the tournament to Governor Rotimi Amaechi and I can tell you that the pros’ winning purse would be 25 per cent of whatever the governor approves for the event. The balance would be used for the course maintenance, organisation of the tournament among other things. “The second tournament to be powered by the Greater Port harcourt Development Authority, is meant to showcase the work the agency is doing as well as attract attention and showcase the new course, which is coming on stream,” Ikpoki stated. Speaking specifically on the new facility expected to be completed in 2016, the captain said considering the number of residents, Port harcourt was in dire need of many more golf courses that

would help develop the game. “Cape Town in South Africa has about 49 golf courses and this in part of an articulated plan to grow the game by encouraging young golfers to take to the game. This is what we think the government should do,” he advised. Continuing he said, “South African pros are making waves around the world and

part of the reason that is happening is because there are standard facilities that their young pros are making use of. Apart from Ibom Golf Club at Le Meridien Ibom hotel and Golf Resort in Akwa Ibom and the IBB Golf and Country Club, Abuja, there are hardly any internationally-rated courses that can prime our pros for what the kind of they would have playing in some great course abroad.

sation among others. Chairman of CMCL Golf Tours Limited, Olusola Adekanola, who not only plays golf, but also has been in the forefront of promoting the game in the country, is one of those to be honoured. The CMCL Open, which he has single handedly sponsored for more than a dozen times, is the longest running Pro-Am in West Africa. he has also sponsored some players to South Africa, where they actualised their dreams of playing professionally. Resident professional of Royal Valley Golf Club, Offa, Kwara State, Peter Akakasiaka, who was once the face of professional golf in the country, has also been penciled down for one of the awards. Red hot in the 1970’s and 1980’s, Akakasiaka remains the only Nigerian professional to have played in the main draw of the Open Championship. Elizade Nigeria Ltd, founded

by Michael Ade-Ojo, will also be in line for honours at the event. Ade-Ojo and Elizade have also been in the forefront of promoting golf in the country. Beside the annual Wuraola Ojo Memorial Golf Championship, which Elizade Nigeria Limited sponsors, Ade-Ojo has developed the now famous Smokin hill Golf Resort Ilara Mokin part of Ondo State. According to the lady captain of the club, Bose RansomeKuti, who also chairs the organising committee, the game of golf has evolved in the state from when the few golf clubs were playing browns to now that the state boasts four courses, some of which are in great shape. She added that the awards night to be chaired by Molade Okoya-Thomas was just a way of celebrating some of those, who have in one way or the other, contributed to this evolution.

4th DOAMF Championship gets March date hE 4th edition of the T Daniel Ogechi Akujobi Memorial Foundation

(DOAMF) Golf Tournament is scheduled to tee-off at the golf section of Ikoyi Club 1938, Lagos on March 8, 2014. The event is in memory of late Master Daniel Ogechi Akujobi, who died in a ghastly motor accident on his way back to school. As one of the leading charity golf events in the country,

funds raised during previous tournaments were committed to a number of emergency intervention projects including building an emergency ward at the Enugu State University Teaching hospital, Enugu. According to Coordinator of the Organising Committee, Pat Bassey, due to the judicious use of funds raised as well as the quality and transparent management of the

event, the profile of the championship has been on the rise. “A good number of corporate organisations that are seeking partnership opportunities to support charitable causes have found the DOAMF event a good platform,” Bassey stated adding, “This is definitely a bigger tournament in all ramifications and interest in sponsorship opportunities is v e r y

encouraging. With the feelers emerging, this year’s edition will be bigger and better “. The charity event present opportunities for participants to win laurels, whilst offering a platform to make charitable contributions towards positive interventions that are geared towards meeting critical and emergency needs of people in infrastructure-starved parts of the country.

Friday, February 7, 2014 SPORT 63

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GolfBoard wins best new product at 2014 PGA Merchandise Show OUTED as the “Major of T Golf Business,” the 2014 PGA Merchandise Show concluded January 24 with the crowning of the GolfBoard as the winner of the Best New Product for golf. “We are all very excited that the golf industry has recognised, embraced and awarded our vision in attracting new and younger golfers to the sport,” said Paul Hodge, President of SolBoards, Inc., developers of the GolfBoard. “By creating this new and fun way to surf around the golf course in a low impact way with the GolfBoard, we are positive this will be the catalyst the golf industry is looking for and needing so badly.” Don Wildman, GolfBoard Visionary and founder of Bally Total Fitness, attended the PGA Show and jumped right in, demonstrating the boards’ abilities and offering his own insight into the future of the GolfBoard. “This will do for golf what

snowboarding did for skiing,” he said, adding, “This will be the product that takes golf in a new direction.” Throughout the show, the GolfBoard booth was inundated with the likes of golfers, golf professionals, course owners, and worldwide press. Matt Ginella, on-air personality from The Golf Channel, came by several times to shoot segments touting the virtues of the GolfBoard and riding the board through the showroom floor. “If you want to make golf fun, this is it,” Ginella said in one of his segments adding, “This is the funnest thing I’ve ever seen. The time is now.” The four-wheel-drive, lithium-ion battery powered GolfBoard is made in the USA, and is available now for sale to golf courses and individuals. The 61st annual PGA Merchandise Show featured products from over 1,000 companies from every major brand in golf business today.

World Match Play returns to England for 50th anniversary HE Volvo World Match Play T Championship is to return to England this year with the 50th anniversary edition being staged at the London Golf Club on the outskirts of the capital. The $3 million event, held in Bulgaria in May last year, returns to its traditional October date and features an elite 16-man field. There will be four groups of four players in the opening round with the top two in each section going through to the knockout phase of the five-day championship that will be staged from October 15 to 19. World number three, Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, the defending champion, have already confirmed their participation. “I really enjoy the match play format and I also want to support Volvo, not only because

they are Swedish but because they have been such great supporters and sponsors of the European Tour for over 25 years,” Stenson said in a news release on Wednesday. American great Arnold Palmer won the inaugural World Match Play Championship at Wentworth on the fringes of London in 1964. Wentworth hosted the event every year until 2007. The tournament was not held in 2008 or 2010 but in 2009, 2011 and 2012 it was staged in Andalucia, Spain. Wednesday’s announcement means that England, starved of top-notch golf tournaments in recent years, will host three leading events in 2014 - the others being the British Open in Liverpool in July and the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth in May.

Furyk

Furyk returns from a long winter’s nap XCEPT for a cameo appearE ance in California, Jim Furyk has been hard to find on a golf course over the last four months. That wasn’t an accident. And it wasn’t an injury. Furyk has been talking the last few years about trying to cut back on his schedule, and he might have finally figured it out. His last meaningful competition was at East Lake in the Tour Championship on September 22. He decided not to play the HSBC Champions in Shanghai. He opted out of the McGladrey Classic when something came up with his family. He dusted off his clubs to play the World Challenge the first week in December, and that’s been it. “I’m not going all Steve Stricker on you yet,” Furyk said Wednesday, a nod to his

close friend who started playing a limited schedule last year. Stricker and Furyk are the only PGA Tour members from the top 50 in the world who have yet to play a single PGA Tour event in the new wraparound season that began in October. That’s right. Both are tied for dead last in the FedEx Cup standings. “We’re the only guys who haven’t made a cut. Is that what you’re saying?’’ he said with a smile. Furyk returns to golf this week in the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. Stricker’s debut is still a few weeks out at the Match Play Championship. Furyk hasn’t won since he captured the FedEx Cup in 2010 by winning the Tour Championship, though his

game has not been far off the last two years. He was tied for the lead with three holes remaining in the U.S. Open in 2012, when he snap-hooked a 3-wood off a forward tee at Olympic Club and made bogey. A year ago, he had a one-shot lead over Jason Dufner going into the final round of the PGA Championship and lost to Dufner’s closing 68. There was nothing left for him after the Tour Championship. He was left off the Presidents Cup team, was not interested in being an assistant captain, and instead spent the rest of the year at home in Florida. He didn’t even make it to a Pittsburgh Steelers game. “It was nice to just get some time off and be home,” he said. “I’m trying to figure out the right number of events to

where I want my game to be sharp. I want to feel like when I’m in the majors’ season that I click and my game is sharp. And in the fall, I want to be with my family. I want to make breakfast for the kids and take them to school and be involved.” But there was more that bothered him last year. Furyk said he felt grouchy “He’ll attest to that,” he said, turning to caddie Mike “Fluff Cowan - and lost patience. He wasn’t having as much as he once did. That much can be expected for a guy who just finished his 20th year on the PGA Tour. His career has been so remarkably consistent that along with 16 wins, a major and 15 consecutive national teams, only three times has he been outside the top 30 on the money list when healthy. “I think everyone after 20

years on tour goes through a time where it’s not that I don’t want to play golf, I just didn’t want to be grouchy,” he said. “I wanted to have more fun. And I needed to manage my time when I was playing golf and when I was at home, and choose my schedule better.’’ He talked to his father, the only coach he ever had. And he talked to Cowan, even asking his caddie to draw up a schedule. “The schedule he wrote out might be the one we play,” Furyk said. AT&T National at Congressional, a course he loves. But these are the hard decisions he finally learned to make. “That’s going to hurt missing Congressional,” he said. “I’ve never missed a tournament that I loved. I’ve missed some that I like, but not one that I

loved.” It event started yesterday at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am. The 156-player field includes 156 amateurs over three days at Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill and the Shore Course at Monterey Peninsula Country Club. Brandt Snedeker is the defending champion. In some respects, Graeme McDowell feels like one. McDowell also is making his 2014 debut, though he played the HSBC Champions and finished third and then played deep into the season on the European Tour. He hasn’t been to Pebble Beach since he won the 2010 U.S. Open. He figured it was pointless to return because it would be impossible to top what he achieved the last time he was here. Consider this the epilogue. McDowell is playing

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Friday, February 7, 2014

Conscience, Nurtured by Truth

By Chinedu Uche Okoye IGERIA has the potentiality to become the true and indisputable giant of Africa. Is her large landmass not arable and fertile? And, her weather conditions are equable and mild. Beneath its soil are such mineral resources as gold, tin-ore, bauxite, limestone, coal and crude oil. More so, Nigeria is a very populous country. Millions of its citizens, who are skilled and knowledgeable, are living in the Diaspora; and, they are helping their host countries to develop. These Nigerians can contribute their own quotas towards Nigeria’s development if they’re convinced to return home. But, why has greatness eluded Nigeria in spite of its abundant human and material resources? The answer can be located in the issue of inept and corrupt political leadership. Since we attained political sovereignty in 1960, Nigeria has never been led its finest and best political leaders. Politicians that ruled the country in the past emerged as national leaders through the imposition of leaders by kingmakers. The British colonial overlords laid the foundation of imposition of leaders in Nigeria when they helped Alhaji Tafawa Balewa to become Nigeria’s prime Minister in 1960. Other politicians that came to power via imposition are these: Alhaji Shehu Shagari, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, and Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. But, a leader without moral probity and leadership qualities cannot transform a backward country to a great one. More so, before 1999, the military incursions into our politics devastated our country, economically and politically. President Good-luck Jonathan’s emergence as our President is fortuitous. It was an act of divine intervention. Expressions of joy and hope greeted his ascendance to the throne. It’s the first time that a man from a minority group has occupied the highest elective post in Nigeria. He owes his occupation of that exalted political office partly to God and partly to the environmental activism of some prominent Ijaw people. He was made the Presidential running mate of Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua on the ticket of the ubiquitous ruling party, PDP, in order to placate the people of the Niger-Delta region, who felt short-changed in the Nigeria’s scheme of things. He became President after Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua died in power. But, as the President of Nigeria, is President Goodluck Jonathan living up to our expectations? Has he shown seriousness and faithfulness in tackling our multifarious national problems? The truth is, President Jonathan is overwhelmed by the enormity of our national problems. We do not dispute the fact that he inherited most of the problems besetting our country. But, is he genuinely committed to finding solutions to our national problems? It is sad that President Jonathan’s act of playing politics of retaining power for ad infinitum has

The issue of education has not been addressed holistically in our country. In 2013, our public universities were closed for five months because universities lecturers employed wildcat’s measure to agitate for improved welfare conditions. Until now, the Federal Government’s budgetary allocation for education falls short of the UNESCO’S stipulation for the funding of education. More so, most Federal roads in the country are in state of disrepair. They are rutted thoroughfares that bear striking resemblance to the ones in war-torn countries. The Lagos-Ore road and South-West road easily come to mind. Good roads facilitate economic activities, and are catalysts for the rapid industrialisation of countries. Are our leaders aware of this fact?

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A country in dire straits

taken precedence over his offering us purposeful and quality leadership. And, Nigerians are the worse for it. A nation cannot rise above the visions of its leaders. It takes a visionary leader for a country to be positively transformed. President Jonathan is an underperforming and bumbling leader based on any benchmark for assessing leaders’ performances. The issue of education has not been addressed holistically in our country. In 2013, our public universities were closed for five months because universities lecturers employed wildcat’s measure to agitate for improved welfare conditions. Until now, the Also join our on-line conversation

Federal Government’s budgetary allocation for education falls short of the UNESCO’s stipulation for the funding of education. More so, most Federal roads in the country are in state of disrepair. They are rutted thorough-fares that bear striking resemblance to the ones in war-torn countries. The Lagos-Ore road and South-West road easily come to mind. Good roads facilitate economic activities, and are catalysts for the rapid industrialisation of countries. Are our leaders aware of this fact? And, our hospitals, which used to be, in the words of Buhari when he overthrew Shehu Shagari, consulting clinics have transformed

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Again, death is now commonplace and cheap in the geographical space called Nigeria. There is insecurity of lives and property here. Kidnappers abduct people for ransom; armed robbers rob banks in broad daylight, hardly challenged. Haven’t we entered the state of anomie and anarchy? A large swathe of the North-eastern Nigerian has been overrun by Boko-Haram insurgents. Since they started their bloody campaign, thousands of people have been killed by the insurgents. Members of the bloody Boko-Haram group are fighting for the enthronement of Islamic theocracy in Nigeria. Irked by the occupation of the Presidential seat by a Christian from the minority south-south group, the Boko-Haram members have increased the tempo of their bloodletting. Their methods of killing people are blood-curdling and chilling. to mortuaries. Doctors working in government hospitals are always threatening to embark on an industrial action owing to the government’s insensitivity to their plight. While our leaders embark on health tourism and pilgrimage in foreign countries to address the issues of their health, poor Nigerians die daily of curable diseases in our ill-equipped hospitals. Again, death is now commonplace and cheap in the geographical space called Nigeria. There is insecurity of lives and property here. Kidnappers abduct people for ransom; armed robbers rob banks in broad daylight, hardly challenged. Haven’t we entered the state of anomie and anarchy? A large swathe of the North-eastern Nigerian has been overrun by Boko-Haram insurgents. Since they started their bloody campaign, thousands of people have been killed by the insurgents. Members of the bloody BokoHaram group are fighting for the enthronement of Islamic theocracy in Nigeria. Irked by the occupation of the Presidential seat by a Christian from the minority south-south group, the Boko-Haram members have increased the tempo of their bloodletting. Their methods of killing people are blood-curdling and chilling. Consequently, the Independent National Electoral Commission has hinted that it may not conduct elections in the troubled states of north-eastern Nigeria come 2015. If elections are not held there, a politician who is defeated in the Presidential election may use it as an excuse to foment trouble in the country. In addition to the intractable Boko-Haram problem, some prominent northern politicians have engaged in Saber-rattling to dissuade President Jonathan from seeking re-election in 2015. President Jonathan’s supporters are threatening us with war if their principal is prevented from contesting the presidential poll in 2015. Consequently, the political temperature in the country has risen. Meanwhile, many prominent members of the ruling PDP have defected to APC, the main opposition party in the country. But, President Jonathan is not forbidden from contesting the presidential election in 2015 by the constitution. So, instead of heating up the polity and increasing political tension in the country, President Jonathan’s political opponents should map out strategies and mobilise efforts to defeat him in the next election. Choosing the path of violence to achieve a political end is an improvident act. War does no good to anybody. • Okoye, Uruowualu-Obosi, Anambra State. 08062220654.