THEWILL FEB. 21-27 EDITION

V O L . 1 N O. 2 • F E B R UARY 21-27, 2021

National Sports Festival: Catalogue Of Postponements

AYO ANIMASHAUN: THE

DODGY DEALS

– page 42

MAN BEHIND THE MUSIC POWERHOUSE

Price: N250

FEB 21 – FEB 27, 2021 VOL . 1 NO. 2

@ Behind The Scene: Drama-filled Burial of Dr Tosin Ajayi – page 37

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2023 LAGOS GOVERNORSHIP:

Plot to Drop Sanwo-Olu Thickens

• Gov May Not Get Second Term Ticket • Successor Being Groomed • There’s Nothing of Such - Aide

FRESH FEARS OVER DANGOTE KILLER TRUCKS ■ SEE page 7

FEBRUARY 21 - 27, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

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COVER 2023 LAGOS GOVERNORSHIP:

Plot to Drop Sanwo-Olu Thickens •Gov May Not Get Second Term Ticket •Successor Being Groomed •There’s Nothing of Such - Aide

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BY TOPE ODUNAYO

here are strong indications that the Lagos State governor, Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, might not make it as the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for the 2023 Lagos Governorship Poll as plot to drop the hardworking governor from the race gathers momentum.

PLOT AGAINST SANWO-OLU’S SECOND TERM It is two full years to the next general elections in 2023 but the powers that be in Lagos are already plotting to see Governor Sanwo-Olu’s back. The boyish and dynamic governor is everywhere and on top of every incident that has dogged his administration, right from the very first few months of his inauguration when deadly pipeline fire broke out and ravaged Lagos communities in quick succession to the first index coronavirus case in Nigeria in March 2020 and then the destructive and disastrous #EndSARS protest at the Lekki toll gate on October, 2020.

Rather than get praised for his management skills so far adjudged to be above par and be supported for rising to every trying occasion with pinpoint precision and vigour, he is believed to be getting political mileage that may put him too far ahead of the crowd and then completely fall out of line and out of control if he got a second term.

Alleged ‘Sins’ Perhaps out of zeal or probably unintended, he took an action that was perceived to be avoidable and then put himself on the firing line. According to a dependable source, trouble started for the governor when he queried the funds, or “interfered with”, as the source put it, a business oganisation linked to Seyi Tinubu, son of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC National Leader and Sanwo-Olu’s godfather. The said interference happened shortly before the November 5, 2020 Lagos Central Senatorial by-election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. Coming on the heels of allegation of corruption petitioned to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, against Alpha –Beta, AB, a tax management consultant by a former Managing Director of the organisation, Oladapo Apara, the governor’s query is said to have riled Tinubu, owner of AB. Though the governor is said to have “apologised profusely when he learnt of his mistake,” Tinubu,in his usual conciliatory attitude towards hispolitical disciples, was said to have forgiven the governor. But the political strategist that he is, Asiwaju, according to the source, has begun, in characteristic style, to plan ahead.

GROOMING A SUCCESSOR His immediate response was to start grooming a likely successor. Said the source: “Our godfather has learnt some hard lessons from the two former governors, Babatunde *Continues on Page 5

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COVER

Lagos State Governor’s office

Plot to Drop Sanwo-Olu Thickens

“

All of them are good party men until they taste the ultimate power of governorship and they begin to build on their networks.

Asiwaju has learnt his lessons

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*Continued from Page 3

Raji Fashola and Akinwunmi Ambode. Don’t forget that Asiwaju had to battle many tendencies within the party to ensure both of them got the party ticket on a platter but sooner had they got it that he began to face a backlash from stalwarts who began to point out wrong moves from both former governors, making it almost a task for him to hold the house together.”

The source illustrated his view with former Governor Fashola and the cloud that surrounded his administration towards the end of his first tenure and haunted him in his second term, which he got by dint of public popularity that trounced and checkmated party counter movements.

Fashola’s overwhelming popularity was not only trying for the party and bigwigs in the state at the time, it also led eventually to the creation of a strong tendency that has a representative in the current Deputy Governor, Dr. Babafemi Hamzat, The catch -22 situation, almost an ironical one, according to another reliable source, is that these, those who may be conveniently called ‘Tinubu Men’, are part and parcel of the system, politically and administratively, but yet always trying to fall out of line after getting the party ticket with ease.

Fashola was a Chief of Staff to Governor Tinubu for eight years; immediate past governor, Akinwumi Ambode was a Chief Accountant of the state; Governor Sanwo-Olu graduated from being a Personal Assistant to ex-deputy governor, Femi Pedro, to being a Commissioner of Special Duties, just as the current deputy governor, who was a Commissioner for Science and Technology under Fashola’s tenure. Fashola, a thorough-bred Chief of Staff to Tinubu, was literally sprung from his purely administrative job to a political one as governorship candidate over and above many politically-tested candidates, who had vied for the position in 2007 and were almost sure of getting it. Ambode, his successor, was also said to “have jumped the line” of planned successors to become governor. And Sanwo-olu got “anointed”, in the heat of a party backlash against Ambode, with an accommodation to another strong tendency in the party, represented by the Deputy Governor, Hamzat.

“All of them are good party men until they taste the ultimate power of governorship and they begin to build on their networks.

Asiwaju has learnt his lessons,” said a source.

PLAN FOR 2023 Though Tinubu is said to have forgiven Sanwo- Olu, he is not leaving anything to chance and has worked out a plan for 2023.

The plan is to groom a successor in the person of Tokunbo Abiru, who picked party ticket for the Lagos East Senatorial by-election and won. A banker by profession and still free of any tie by way of party alliance, he was sprung from the world of finance and plunged into a “four-year tutelage in politics which a tenure at the Senate would afford him,” said the source. By 2023, he would be ready in both ways, politics and finance to govern Lagos State. Though he participated in government briefly in 2011 to 2013 when he served as Commissioner for Finance during the dynamic administration of Fashola, he soon went back to the banking world at First Bank where he rose to become an Executive Director before joining Polaris Bank as Managing Director until his resignation on August

24, 2020 to contest the senatorial election on the platform of the APC. He replaced the late Senator Bayo Osinowo. Polaris Bank is allegedly owned by Tinubu.

SHIFTING ALLIANCES Giving the nature of the shifting alliances within the ruling party in the last decade despite the firm grip of the State Governing Council with the overarching dominance of the Jagaban Borgu, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, strong tendencies have been kept emerging in the party with the likelihood of several groups laying claims for control of power.

In the uncertainty created by #EndSARs protest, which brought unexpected mayhem on the economic nerve of the country, things may have to be kept in shape by forward planning and the ASIWAJU wants to remain in control by 2023.

IT’S NOT TRUE - LAGOS CPS THEWILL tried to reach out to the Media Aide to Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, Mr Tunde Rahman, for his reactions but he was beyond reach. He did not respond to calls nor did he answer a message sent to his phone.

Gboyega Akosile, Chief Press Secretary to the Lagos State governor, however thought nothing about the story. He told THEWILL that there was no iota of truth in the story.

“We can’t be talking about 2023 election now but the development of Lagos State, That is what the governor is concerned about. He is concerned about improving the living standard of Lagos people. That is also what the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is also concerned about,” Akosile said.

When reminded of the source of the trouble, he replied, “As far as I am concerned, the governor of Lagos State, Mr Babajide Sanwo-Olu, is a democrat. There is no meddling in the affairs of Lagos State by the National Leader of the APC. The relationship between them is that of a father and son relationship. As far as decisions are concerned, the governor is a democrat, so the governor could not have ruffled any feathers.”

GAC BACKS SANWO-OLU FOR SECOND TERM However, most APC leaders, especially those in the Governor Advisory Council, GAC, want him to go for a second term. This is because, Sanwo-Olu returned what former Governor Ambode took from them through the creation of Vision Scape to replace the Lagos Waste Management Authority, LAWMA, in sweeping of the streets in the state He restored the contract for the sweeping of streets through LAWMA to political leaders in the state. This has endeared him to the leaders. However, despite their support and their willingness for Sanwo-Olu to have a second term, they don’t want to come open now as they are watching the body language of their boss, Senator Ahmed Tinubu.

In the past, Tinubu used to seek the advice of the GAC concerning the choice of governorship candidate. Will he seek their opinion on Sanwo-Olu’s second term? Nobody knows for now. If he consults them, Sanwo-Olu is as good as going for second term. It was learnt that it was their rejection of Ambode that led to his humiliation at the direct primary of the party where Sanwo-Olu defeated him in 2019 • THEWILLNIGERIA

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NEWS

L-R: British Deputy High Commissioner in Lagos, Mr. Ben Llewellyn-Jones; Lagos Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr. Samuel Egube; Lagos Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu; Chief Judge of Lagos State, Justice Kazeem Alogba and Co-Chair of Ehingbeti 2021, Mr. Yemi Cardoso, during the opening of the Ehingbeti Lagos Economic Summit 2021, with the theme: ‘‘For a Greater Lagos: Setting the Tone for the Next Decade’’ at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos .

PHOTO: Peace Udugba

We Must Restructure to Ensure Survival, Says Bode George

BY DAMILOLA ESAN ormer Deputy National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Olabode George has said that Nigeria is on the brink and that there is the urgent need to restructure the Nigeria entity to ensure its survival as a nation.

George said there are so many aberrations thwarting equitable governance in Nigeria.

He said: “The Centre is too encumbered with many responsibilities. It is overburdened, stressed with unnecessary functions that ought to be devolved to the states.

“Our federation is only a federation in name. It is more of a unitary system, barking out command and control like a military hierarchy.

‘This is not how Democracies operate. This is not how true Federating units’ function.

“We must loosing the overarching power at the centre and return more responsibilities to the states”.

George said given more power to the states is the normative pattern all over the world. “And why should our own be different? We must re-evaluate and mode our structures of governance to be more representative of the will of the people”.

He said though governments are elected to guarantee the pursuit of happiness, to ensure the protection of personal liberties, to create an atmosphere where all citizens can carry out their economic livelihoods without being subjected to oppression or being savaged by the lawlessness of incendiary actors, but lamented that sadly for Nigerians they are living in an increasingly dysfunctional society where the structures of power are un-representative, skewed in unitary bias, devoid of democratic balance.

“Governance everywhere is fast losing its grip on the First Principles of protecting lives and properties. From Sokoto to Lagos, from Ebonyi to Borno, from Katsina to Ogun and from the Savannah to the rain forest, lives are daily cut down without the culprits being brought to pay for their crimes. Road users are kidnapped, brutalised, exposed to all un-imaginable kinds of cruelty and then forced to pay ransom. All over the country lives are no longer being treasured. Nothing is sacred”, he said.

George who said Nigeria must withdraw from the brink said the widening spread of banditry, the reckless shedding of innocent blood, the bitter murderous clashes between farmers and herdsmen, the loose brigandary have virtually made all corners of our society insecure, vulnerable to the rule of the cudgel and machete.

On the reopening of Lekki Toll Gate, George said the panel set up by Lagos State Government to look into the Endsars tragedy has “demonstrated an unconscionable totality in the inexplicable, hurried, greedy, selfish, inhumane, outrageous and immoral decision to re-open the Lekki Toll Gates while the blood of the Lekki martyrs are crying out for justice.

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One Arrested, Five Escape After Gun Battle With Bandits In Kogi

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ecurity agents in Kogi state have arrested an armed bandit terrorising Yagba West local government council of Kogi state, while five others escaped with bullet wounds during the operation.

It was gathered that the bandits attacked people and wanted to abduct them when they were engaged in cross fire by the security agents.

The Senior Special Assistant to the Chairman on Media and Publicity, Mr. Toba Abraham in a press statement issued on Friday, praised the Chairman of Yagba West Local Government Area, Hon. Pius Kolawole for recording another breakthrough in his fight against crime and criminality with the arrest of one of the armed robbery gang terrorizing the area by the ‘Special Security Taskforce’ set up by him.

According the statement, luck ran against the gang of the notorious armed bandits while attempting to kidnap some people along Oke-Ere road of Yagba West when one of the victims who escaped to the nearest bush alerted the Special security Taskforce of the Executive Chairman of Yagba west local government.

Kwara Shuts 10 Schools Over Hijab Controversy

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wara on Friday directed an immediate, but temporary closure of some grant-aided schools in Ilorin pending the resolution of a Hijab controversy in the schools.

Mrs Kemi Adeosun, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Education and Human Capital Development, said in a statement that affected schools are the Cherubim and Seraphim (C&S) College, Sabo Oke and St. Anthony College, Offa Road.

Others are the ECWA School, Oja Iya, Surulere Baptist Secondary School and Bishop Smith Secondary School, Agba Dam Also affected are the CAC Secondary School, Asa Dam, St. Barnabas Secondary School, Sabo Oke, St. John School, Maraba, St. Williams Secondary School, Taiwo Isale and St. James Secondary School, Maraba.

“The closure comes as a government committee comprising representatives of the Muslim and Christian communities meets on Friday to iron out the differences between the two religious communities.

“Government calls for calm and urges parents and religious leaders to avoid actions or comments that may further split the two communities,’’ Adeosun stated.

The ban on the use of Hijab in some missionary secondary schools in Kwara has dominated public discourse in the state lately. NAN

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NEWS

Deltans Kick as Government Orders Closure of ‘Miracle Centres’

BY OBARO ELELEWOR

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ome indigenes of Delta State have protested the closure of Study Centres, also known as Evening Lessons, by the State Government, describing it as untimely and a bad decision. Most respondents who craved anonymity stated that operators of the alleged Miracle Centres were persons eking out a living for themselves because of the harsh realities occasioned by COVID-19.

THEWILL recalled that the State Government had ordered the immediate closure of such centres across the state.

The State Commissioner of Basic and Secondary Education , Mr Patrick Ukah, who spoke on Wednesday in Asaba, the state capital, when members of the state Child Right Implementation Committee paid him a visit, said the closure was necessary to sanitise the educational

sector.

He noted that these centres were centres for child abuse and examinations malpractice .

These Miracles Centres , according to him, operate contrary to laid down rules and guidelines for extra moral classes in the educational sector .

While explaining that there was need to regulate their operation, Ukah stated that these extra - mural classes ought to operate exactly as evening lessons only.

“The Miracle Centres must be closed down to check examination malpractice and arrest the ugly trend of endangering the future of our children “ , he declared.

The Commissioner therefore directed the operators to visit the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education for proper documentation and regularisation .

Meanwhile, Ukah had also directed the Department

of Inspectorate and Quality Assurance to ensure strict compliance with the closure order.

He said that an Advocacy and Mentoring Department had been established to realise its terms of reference .

Mrs Oghenkevwe Agas, chairperson of the Child Right Act Committee, doubling as the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Women Affairs, told THEWILL that the Act was signed into law in 2008 whereas the Committee was inaugurated in 2020.

She noted that the Education Ministry was intent upon enforcing the Child Right Act to its letter.

The Permanent Secretary advised teachers and all education stakeholders to protect the child from all forms of abuses like rape, examination malpractice, street trading, hawking and domestic violence.

NAPPS Protests Multiple Taxation ....Says Delta Schools in Sorry State

BY OBARO ELELEWOR he Delta State chapter of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools (NAPPS) has protested what it alleged as imposition of multiple taxation on private schools in the state by the government, saying the Okowa government has done nothing to encourage Deltans and other education stakeholders to own their own schools .

Last Wednesday, the NAPPS demonstrators invaded the main gate of the Government House on Anwai Road in Asaba, the state capital, in their numbers, with placards with various inscriptions such as :”why insensitive to the plight of private schools “ ; “we say no to extortion “ ; “private schools are complementing, not competing with government “ ; “ no to annual renewal of licenses “; and “private schools owners should be encouraged, not discouraged” .

The chief protester and vice chairman of NAPPS, Comrade Austin Onodaro, who addressed journalists at the gate , called on the Okowa administration to create a conducive environment and a conducive atmosphere for private schools to thrive in the state .

He rejected the various forms of taxes being imposed or levied on school proprietors / proprietresses, describing them as obnoxious extortions.

The vice chairman maintained that private schools had been seriously over-burdened with numerous and unnecessary taxes.

Asked why they were in Government House, Comrade Onodaro said: “We are here to protest against extortions and intimidation of government and her agencies towards private schools. The government caused us to undergo the rigours of renewal of licenses.” .

Private Schools, unlike government schools, are operating a 9-3-4 system of education where pupils leave Primary 6 to gain admission to JSS1 for further studies at the secondary school.

It is often at this time that public schools in Delta State conducted examinations to extort money from the candidates .

The NAPPS chairman stated in clear terms that public schools were in sorry state because of government negligence even as the government did not have any package for private schools owners to ameliorate the harsh economic conditions consequent upon the COVID- 19 pandemic.

He declared: “During the lockdown, we lost most of our teachers because we couldn’t pay their salaries as we could not generate funds to pay. But after the lockdown was lifted, government did nothing to help us to exist. Commissioner Patrick Ukah did nothing to save us from going out of business.”

However, the commissioner condemned the protest, saying the state government had already waved away the annual license renewal payment as part of efforts to cushion the effects of the COVID -19 pandemic.

Ukah watered down the approach of the proprietors / proprietresses for rejecting evidence of payment to Chief Inspectors of Education ( CIE ) while the clearance for registration of the 2021 Cognitive / Placement Examination and the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE ) were ongoing .

He stressed the need for NAPPS to adhere strictly to education policies so as to accredit their candidates for the various examinations. The Commissioner explained that such demonstration being embarked upon by NAPPS members lacked truth and discipline and it connoted open confrontation to constituted authority .

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L-R: Ekiti State Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi; former Lagos State Governor, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu; Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, during the eighth-day Fidau for the first civilian Governor of Lagos State, the late Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande in Lagos…on Friday. photo: peace Udugba

Herders, Farmers Clash: ‘Let’s Unite to Flush Out Bad Eggs’

BY ISAAC OLAMIKAN, BENIN

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hairman of the Hausa Community in Edo State, Gbadamasi Sale, has called for the cooperation of every Nigerian to work with the security agencies in flushing out the bad eggs in their midst.

He made the call while reacting to the trending issue of calls from the southern part of the country that Fulanis should vacate that part of the country and return to their home states.

Sale stated that people should not be blinded into reacting negatively and calling for the relocation of Fulani just because some bad eggs among them have been at the centre of criminal actions.

He placed the Fulanis in three categories - those he described as the indigenous Fulanis who have lived with their hosts for a long period of time; those who travel annually down south to graze their cow every raining season and those who act as mercenaries to defend their brothers when they feel the need arises.

Going forward, he said: “When the indigenous Fulanis have any misunderstanding with their hosts they settle amicably. But the Fulanis who act to defend the interest of their brothers even without been invited to do so travel with a few cow which they use to carry exhibits.”

He called on the federal and state governments to seek for the support of leaders of the indigenous Fulanis who will not want the cordial relationship between them and their host to be destroyed.

Sale said that he was opposed to the clamour for Fulanis to vacate wherever they are in the southern part of the country and return to their home states as this could have ripple effect on southerners living in the midst of Fulanis in the north.

He also charged the security agencies to investigate how the criminal Fulanis get sophisticated weapons which they brandish openly as the poor Fulanis do not have the means to acquire such sophisticated and expensive weapons.

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FEATURES

Fresh Fears Over Dangote Killer Trucks • Accident Records Spike •Fatalities on the Rise •Victims Recount Ordeal

BY ANTHONY OKECHUKWU

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any Nigerians, including safety experts, victims of road accidents and other categories of road users have expressed fears over the rising spate of road accidents involving Dangote trucks in most parts of the country.

With Dangote trucks accident fatality figures put at 200 annually as at 2012, the figure has since increased even though the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other authorities have insisted that lack of proper training of personnel and maintenance of these vehicles are the main causes of these accidents.

Many victims who are lucky to survive these accidents tend to walk away from the intricacies of road accident investigation, leaving the case for God, while others have gone ahead to court to seek for redress. As at the moment, Dangote Group has a series of court cases due to damage of vehicles and other properties, injuries or deaths arising from accidents involving its numerous trucks.

VICTIMS RECOUNT ORDEAL Dangote truck accident victims have a lot of stories to tell. One of the bereaved, Oliver Aleogena, who Dangote truck crushed and killed his brother on the December 22, 2018 at J4 area of Shagamu, Ogun State, told THEWILL that his family has already instituted a case against Dangote Group in court and that they are patiently waiting for justice.

Mr Aleogena however, insisted that he cannot speak much on the matter, as the case is already in court.

He said “It happened on the 23rd of December, 2018 and we have instituted the case in court”.

Similarly a driver, Mr Lawal Wasiu Ayinla who is still nursing injuries sustained from an accident involving him and Dangote truck is also threatening to go to court if Dangote fails to address his situation.

According to him, his boss has already made a complaint to Dangote Group to see if the company can address the matter amicably.

Narrating his ugly experience with a Dangote driver on the January 23, 2021, Ayinla who lives at Onibukun area of Ota, Ogun State told THEWILL that he escaped death by the whiskers from a Dangote truck driver.

According to 40-year-old Ayinla, he was descending the Iju Ota River, THEWILLNIGERIA

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when a Dangote truck ran speedily and hit him right on top of the bridge, damaging his booth, bumper and other parts of his boss’s green painted Toyota Camry car.

He said: “I was on my lane on the narrow Iju Ota bridge when a Dangote truck with registration number, KANO KNC 183XA suddenly hit me from the rear damaging the rear part of the car. With the heavy impact, I hit my head and was feeling dizzy. I managed to get down from the car with the help of my boss. On getting down, I thought the reckless driver would stop to address the problem. Instead, he zoomed off and diverted onto another road connecting Love Bus-Stop along the Idiroko road.

Explaining further, Ayinla added, “I was very surprised that the truck marked KZE 01 could hit me carelessly and run away just like that, without showing any sign of remorse.

“The hit and run incident by the Dangote driver happened at 5:14 pm on top of Iju River bridge (after Canaanland), Iju, along Idiroko road, Ota, Ogun State. I was slightly injured and my car damaged. All efforts made to stop the driver proved abortive as he was not ready to stop. Instead he diverted into another road to evade arrest. Through the help of some ‘okada’ riders, we pursued the truck and were able to get his details”, Ayinla who is still nursing his wound stated.

Ten days after that ugly incident with Ayinla, another Dangote truck, at the same spot, ran into the Iju River after tumbling several times and causing multiple vehicular accidents.

The accident which occurred in the early morning of Monday, February 1, 2021 inflicted severe injuries on over 20 people, and also caused a lot of damage to about 10 vehicles.

Speaking to THEWILL, an eye witness, Chief Okanlawon Tunde who lives at Iju Ota, said the accident was very unfortunate as over 20 people were injured.

Informing that there was no fatality, Chief Okanlawon blamed the Dangote truck driver, stressing that they are fond of approaching the Iju bridge at full speed.

“This is how it happens every time on this bridge. The Dangote truck drivers don’t even help the matter. Most times, they are fond of approaching the bridge with full speed. If it is not brake failure today, it

“

The hit and run incident by the Dangote driver happened at 5:14 pm on top of Iju River bridge (after Canaanland), Iju, along Idiroko road, Ota, Ogun State. I was slightly injured and my car damaged

*Continues on Page 8

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FEATURES

Fresh Fears Over Dangote Killer Trucks *Continued from Page 7

“

will be tyre problem tomorrow”.

He called on the management of Dangote Group to ensure that their vehicles are in good condition at all times, just as he urged the company to make sure they employ stable and professional drivers.

However, it took Dangote company three working days to remove the fallen truck from the road. The truck was eventually removed on Wednesday February 3, 2021, after other motorists and road users on that axis had suffered serious traffic gridlock for some days.

But the Executive Director, Technical, Safety Beyond Borders (SBB), a road safety management outfit, Mr. Patrick Adenusi, has a different perspective to the series of accidents involving Dangote trucks.

Mr Adenusi pointed out that it is difficult to determine the cause of any accident, if one was not at the scene of the accident.

Adenusi said that he was aware that Dangote trailers and other heavy duty vehicles always find it difficult to manoeuvre and stabilize whenever there is road mishap, hence their involvement in multiple accidents.

The road safety expert said: “It is not very right to make general statements when it comes to road accidents, except you get to the scene of the accident. Sometimes, the Dangote drivers are at fault while sometimes other road users are at fault”.

According to him, 10 out of 10 accidents are not investigated in Nigeria, a case that makes people see a crash without knowing the cause of the accident.

On how to stem down the spate of accidents on the roads, Adenusi declared that there are lots of unskilled drivers who do not have the right driving ethics. He, therefore, advised that fleet managers should focus more on training and retraining of their commercial and private drivers periodically. Adenusi equally urged the authorities to endeavor to investigate any accident so as to unravel the remote cause or causes.

Dangote trucks have continued to be a nightmare for transporters and commuters on the highway in Ogun State. They have reportedly killed and sent so many innocent lives to great beyond through their carelessness and dangerous driving on both federal and state roads.

Contrary to Adenusi’s position, Dangote Group has always been blamed by passers-by, victims and even the authorities whenever an accident involves them. Their complaints range from brake failure, poor driving culture and the inability for Dangote drivers to take responsibility or wait in the course of an accident.

It is not very right to make general statements when it comes to road accidents, RENEWED WAVE In the last two years, no fewer than 200 innocent Nigerians have except you get been brutally killed through accidents involving Dangote truck drivers, to the scene of according to reports. Across the nation, the report is the same; it has always been allegations of deaths and injuries involving Dangote’s trucks.

For instance, in Kogi State, two persons were burnt to death in an the accident. accident involving Dangote trailer on the January 14, 2020. The motor Sometimes, the accident occurred at about 4 pm at Felele in Lokoja.

It was reliably gathered that the Dangote truck was coming from Dangote drivers Obajana fully loaded with bags of cement when the incident occurred.

The source further added that on getting to Felele along Lokoja-Abuja are at fault while road, as the vehicle was descending, the brake failed as it crashed to the heavy barricade at the centre of the road and then somersaulted. The sometimes, other accident led to the burning of the vehicle and the two occupants – the driver and the truck boy – were burnt beyond recognition road users are at On February 15, 2020, a Dangote truck was set ablaze after causing multiple accidents in Ota area of Ogun State. Many people lost their lives while 10 were injured during the multiple accidents involving three fault

vehicles on Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, adjacent the old Tollgate, Ota. The incident which occurred at about 11.35 pm involved a cementladen truck belonging to Dangote Group of Companies, white colour Space Wagon with number plate APP122CD and Volkswagen yellow coloured passengers’ bus with number plate LSR128XP. Six months after, another Dangote truck was again set ablaze on July 18, 2020 for killing one motorcyclist and injuring three others. The incident happened around 8 am on the Old Ibadan Roundabout Road, Ago-Iwoye, in the Ijebu-North Local Government Area of Ogun State.

The accident involved the truck and a motorcycle, said the Public Relations Officer of the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Corps, Babatunde Akinbiyi.

Akinbiyi said the truck driver lost control of the vehicle and ran over the moving motorcycle, killing the rider and injuring three others.

Akinbiyi in a statement explained that the Dangote truck driver was coming from Ago-Iwoye inbound Ijebu-Ode when the incident happened.

He said, “The driver, due to over-speeding, could not control the vehicle as it approached Ibadan roundabout and rammed over a Bajaj motorcycle rider who was trying to negotiate the roundabout at that time.

“The driver of the Dangote truck was later apprehended after making attempts to run away and was beaten to stupor by the angry mob that also set the truck on fire”.

Similarly on April 3, 2020, a Dangote Cement truck overturned on the

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Epe Bridge in Lagos, landing on a taxi and killing six of its seven passengers.

It was confirmed that the cause of the incident was a brake failure related to a mechanical fault with the truck.

On August 8, 2020, a motorist and a woman were crushed to death in another accident in Ogun. The motorist was reportedly killed by a truck belonging to Dangote Cement Company, on the Mosinmi-Sagamu Road, Sagamu in the state.

The spokesperson for the Federal Road Safety Corps in the state, Florence Okpe, confirmed the incident. Okpe in a statement said the crash occurred at about 9.30am, adding that four persons comprising three men and one woman were involved in the accident.

Again, a male adult was on November 10, 2020 crushed to death in Onitsha, Anambra State, by a truck belonging to the Dangote Group. The accident occurred around 9.55 am, near Zenith Bank, along Onitsha-Owerri road. The truck had no registration number.

According to eyewitnesses, the truck driver slipped off his lane due to excessive speeding, and crushed a pedestrian ‘who is well known in the community, hence the angry youths revenged by setting the truck ablaze when the driver was nowhere to be found’.

Up north, reports have it that scores of passengers were killed in multiple accidents which happened on March 9, 2019, along the Kaduna-Abuja expressway.

It was gathered that a fatal accident caused by a Dangote truck near the toll gate in Kaduna at the end of Abuja highway led to the crushing of many vehicles by the Dangote truck.

In Kano, a Dangote truck rammed into a bike conveying a family of five on March 8, 2020, killing four on the spot.

The fatal accident occurred at Gaida Road, linking Sharada Industrial Area with Chalawa Industrial Layout.

The man, 40-year-old Muhammad Sagir, was said to be travelling on the motorbike with his wife and three children when the truck crushed them; only one of the children survived.

2021 RECORDS In 2021 alone, and within the month of January, over 20 persons have been killed in road accidents involving Dangote trucks that would have been avoided in one way or the other.

On January 2, barely two days after two trucks belonging to Dangote Cement Company were set ablaze by an angry mob for crushing two persons to death; a Dangote truck caused yet another multiple accidents in Ogun State.

The accident which occurred at about 6.30 pm along the Abeokuta-Lagos Expressway, within the old Tollgate at Otta, on New Year Day, according to FRSC, was as a result of brake failure on the part of the Dangote truck.

In the accident, 2 persons were killed while nine others sustained various injuries.

A statement by the Ogun State Sector Commander, Clement Oladele, said a total of 10 persons were involved, comprising eight male adults and two female adults. It was gathered that six persons – four male adults and two female adults, sustained injuries in the accident involving six vehicles.

On January 4, 2021, another Dangote truck driving against traffic killed one person in Anambra State. The driver of the Dangote truck with registration number KMC 41 XR killed the victim along Owerri road by Mgbuka Market First Gate, Obosi - Onitsha.

According to reports, the victim was crossing the road when suddenly the truck appeared from the wrong direction and hit him.

On January 24, 2021, another nine people died in an accident involving a Dangote truck at the gate of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba (AAUA) in the early hours of the morning.

The accident was said to have been caused by brake failure resulting in loss of control of a Dangote truck which ran into a Suzuki mini bus (XB973KAA) and a Lexus saloon car (KWL 522 AY) conveying a total of 18 passengers.

FLASHBACK While this report centres more on recent incidents, findings by this newspaper showed that road accidents involving Dangote trucks remain a source of worry over the years as many lives have been lost and people rendered permanently disabled from such road mishaps.

Examples: In November 2015, Pastor Joan Godwin, the founder of Great Word Ministries in Asaba, Delta State, died in an accident traced to a Dangote truck in which nine others lost their lives.

A speeding Dangote truck from Benin laden with cement ran over a bus with 18 passengers in front of the NNPC Mega Filling Station, close to Asaba Airport.

A sector commander of the FRSC, Delta State, Mr Rindom Kumyen, said the three vehicles involved in the accident caught fire immediately, making rescue efforts difficult. The Dangote truck, according to eye-witness, escaped into the bush.

On June 6, 2014, former Cross River State governor, Senator Liyel Imoke, had to pull over his convoy to behold the tragic scene, in which six persons were crushed to death by a Dangote truck at Orira village, Biase local government area along the Calabar-Ikom highway.

According to reports, the truck with registration number, Enugu KEM *Continues on Page 40

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POLITICS Constitutional/ Electoral Reforms: Nigerian Women Seek Inclusion

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Arogundade

Fijabi

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BY AMOS ESELE

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The Nigerian government has been reluctant to adopt and implement laws to improve gender equality in politics and appointive positions

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igerian women have watched their political fortunes rise and dip with every administration in Nigeria and wonder if they are considered stakeholders in the Nigerian project. And as the National Assembly set to amend sections of the Constitutional and Electoral Act, they want to make a case for inclusion. Leaving nothing to chance, they are fighting from several fronts; the law courts, mobilization and lobbying and exploring the possibility of all woman party by 2023.

They indeed have a case. Beginning with the fourth republic’s first democratic government under president Olusegun Obasanjo in 1999, women got up to 20 per cent representation in appointive and elected positions. President Goodluck Jonathan raised the bar to 32 percent. That progressive climb collapsed under the President Muhammadu Buhari administration to a shocking 7 per cent. In 2015 there were 20 women representatives and 6 senators. In 2019, the number fell to 11 in both chambers in the National Assembly.

In political representation, the statistics is poor. Only 62 women amounting to 4.17 per cent, won election across the country out of 2,970 that contested in the 2019 election, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Women representation, which got a boost between 1999 and 2007 has further dipped since then.

From a paltry three senators in 1999, women representation at the Green House rose to 4 and 9 in 2003 and 2007 respectively.

But this declined in 2011, 2015 and 2019 as only 8, 7 and 11 women members got elected respectively.

On a Continental scale, the picture is bad for Nigeria’s image as the giant of Africa. Women representation in Ethiopia is 47.6 per cent; Rwanda is 61.3 per cent; S/Africa 47.7 per cent; Namibia 46 per cent; Senegal, 41.8 per cent; Uganda, 36.7 per cent, Mali, 34.4 per cent. The lowest in Africa are; Morocco 8.6 per cent; Nigeria, 8 per cent; Mauritius, 8.7 per cent and Sudan 9.5 per cent.

Yet Nigeria, like many of these countries, is a signatory to the 1995 Beijing Convention that mandated member states to

intensify efforts on women and girl child equality issues and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals that give premium to issues that would raise women participation in national affairs.

The reason for this ugly trend is that while all countries have instruments and structures in place to solve the problem only a few, as the statistics above show, are ready to legislate quotas or reserve spaces for women to occupy.

Again, Rwanda and S/ Africa represent countries that have adopted affirmative action on women parity in national affairs.

Rwandan Constitution contains provision that reserves 30 per cent of seats for women in its parliament. South Africa’s Municipal Structure Act of 1988 directs political parties to, “ensure that 50 per cent of candidates in the party list are women.”

“The Nigerian government has been reluctant to adopt and implement laws to improve gender equality in politics and appointive positions,” Mrs. Mufuliat Fijabi, Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria Women Trust Fund, a woman empowerment NGO, said in an interview.

“The Nigerian Constitution (1999) guarantees equal political rights. The National Gender Policy (2006) recommended a benchmark of 35 per cent of seats in parliament to be filled by women. Nigeria is also a signatory to international agreements.

The government ratified the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in 1985 and endorsed the 2005 Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa. There is lack of political will by both present and past leaders to rectify the international treaties on affirmative action that Nigeria is a signatory to.”

Faced with this situation, Nigeria women and relevant stakeholders are poised to make their case at the ongoing electoral reforms, amendment of the Constitutional and Electoral Act. They already have a case in court to make governments enforce the laws.

At a point last year, female politicians at a cross -party conference in Ado Ekiti, last year convened to review the outcome of the 2019 General Elections, proposed the floating of a women only political party to mitigate the growing gender imbalance in elective and appointive positions in the country Under the Reclaim Naija platform of Community Life Project (CLP), the women suggested the formation of a Nigerian Women Democratic Party (NWDP) in the belief that an only gender biased platform can advance their interest.

Dissecting the issues involved through zoom, Mrs Rhoda Tyoden, National President of International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA, said there is need to prioritize the demand for gender driven electoral reforms. She lamented through zoom that though women outnumbered men in population, they were relegated the scheme of things.

According to her government after government had a way of ignoring implementation of “constitutional provisions that prohibit gender inequality including the National gender policy (2000) which she observed is all-encompassing. So too is the Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee recommendations on gender equality and other international treaties to which Nigeria was a signatory.”

“Under International standard, women and men should enjoy equal rights particularly in political participation. Gender inequality, economic inequality and lack of political representation need to be addressed for equity”.

Speaking in the same vein at a virtual media roundtable on gender and electoral reforms, Mr Lanre Arogundade, Executive Director of the International Press Centre (IPC), Lagos-Nigeria, noted that IPC along with other European Union-Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria, EU-SDGN, partners, were interested in ensuring that the on-going electoral reform process leads to the passage of an electoral legislation that would serve as an enabling instrument to promote qualitative female participation in the electoral process while serving as mechanism that enables more women to be elected.

According to him, “Section 31 (1) of the Electoral Act need to be amended to make it mandatory for political parties to include women, persons with disabilities and youths in their list of candidates for elections and Section 87 of the Electoral Act, to make it mandatory for political parties to ensure 50 per cent inclusion of both genders as delegates in their primaries.

He also said that Section 100 of the Electoral Act should be *Continues on Page 10

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POLITICS *Continued from Page 9

Nigerian Women Seek Inclusion

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The Nigeria Women Trust Fund has gone to court over the non-acceleration of the 35 affirmative actions. We want interpretation of these conventions I spoke about earlier

amended to make it mandatory for the media to grant special advert concessions to female candidates, youths and PWDs while Section 104 needs to be amended to ensure that the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of the political parties are not of the same gender.

Mr Samson Itodo, Executive Director of YIAGA Africa, is, however, worried about the position of the politicians and federal lawmakers on vexed issue of gender inequality. He said there is a lacuna created by the constitutional provision in sections 40-42 which prohibits gender inequality, often cited by politicians to argue against making needed amendments to the Electoral Act to promote women participation.

“Section 31 of the Electoral Act says list of candidates of political parties submitted to INEC must include women, youths and persons with disabilities. The National Assembly says the Act must not be amended to give advantage to women.”

The dilemma arising from whether it is the Constitution that should be amended before the Electoral Act, he argued, must be overcome by mobilization targeting legislators, female members of the NASS and the media to ensure to the passage of the amendments that would empower women in the electoral process.

Adeteju Okunaya, a lawmaker in the Ekiti Assembly, Nomai Lasana Abel, another lawmaker from Gombe and a politician, Aisha Ali Tijanni, agree with Itodo that more action and less talk was needed to overcome serial violations of statutes and conventions by the government.

“Members of the National Assembly have practically handed

Women Should Take Part In Deciding Their Lives - FIDA President, Tyoden

Mrs Rhoda Tyoden is the National President of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA. In this interview with AMOS ESELE, she explains what the ongoing amendments and electoral reforms mean for women empowerment in Nigeria and how active women have taken up the legal battle to make government commit to the execution of local and international instruments and statutes to which the country is a signatory. Excerpts:

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on’t you think the ongoing constitutional amendments at the National Assembly and electoral reforms presents the best chance for women to actualize their long struggle to make governments execute many laws on women empowerment they have signed?

I think you will agree with me that one way of doing it is through the proposed amendments of sections of the Constitution and the Electoral Act. Another, better way is by bringing up issues of affirmative action as the Nigerian Women Trust Fund is doing.

The Beijing Declaration on women rights is over 25 years old and Nigeria was ably represented at that convention and when they came back, they tried to endorse it by domesticating some of the Act. That is why we had in 2016, the National Agenda Policy, which talked about equal participation of women in national affairs.

We also have Sections 31, 40 in the Constitution, which speaks on fundamental human rights and discrimination. Nigeria is also a signatory to the Convention on Elimination of Discrimination Against Women. So if Nigeria has signed these conventions, why fail to implement them?

That is what I want to know. What are you knowledgeable women doing about it?

The Nigeria Women Trust Fund has gone to court over the nonacceleration of the 35 affirmative actions. We want interpretation of these conventions I spoke about earlier. Even the government set up the Justice Uwais Commission some years ago to address some of these things I have earlier cited, yet there is no action. Even the National Assembly failed to pass the Gender Equality Bill.

What do you thinks is the problem in Nigeria because many African countries have domesticated similar conventions?

The patriarchal system is a major obstacle.

But many other African countries are patriarchal?

It is the patriarchal system. That is why many women here are struggling and that is why we are saying we need to have a better understanding of what is at stake. I tell you, during the hearing on the Gender Equality and Opportunity Bill, at the stage of passage, a lawmaker stood up and said it was against their religion and added that maturity is calculated on when a woman starts seeing her menstruation. So religion and cultural practices, plus politicization, like when the lawmaker objected to passage of the bill and got many supporters from his zone.

Do you honestly think women inclusion can make a difference in the current system that is driven by corruption and impunity?

Honestly, I think so. I am not saying women are perfect, but

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over so many things to political parties to decide; hence, parties have been relegating women when it comes to making important decisions in the electoral process”.

According to him, there was a dilemma as to whether it was the constitution that should be amended before the electoral act reform.

He noted that what women were indeed asking for was simply for improvement in women and youth representation in the electoral process.

He proposed that there should be mobilization targeting the legislators, female members of the National Assembly and the media to ensure the passage of the amendments that would empower women in the electoral process.

Since the lawmakers are about to engage in the process of considering the amendments clause by clause after the Committees have submitted their reports, there is the need for lobbying to change the narrative on gender inequality, Itodo concluded.

As part of the mobilization to correct wrongs of the past, National President of the Nigeria Association of Woman Journalists, NAWOJ, Mrs. Ladi Bala, suggested that the media should assist by going beyond reporting of stories but setting agenda on women issues.

That is why women need to be in power to participate in making decisions that affect their lives, said Tyoden, (see Interview.) They also need to be in the position of decision making to be able to forward more equitable policies and outcomes. Formal access to positions of authority or decision-making processes is critical for gender equity, she maintained •

Tyoden when you look at the corruption from the gender perspective, I can tell you things would become better. Just take a simple example: put something in the hands of your daughter, you will feel safe.

Talking seriously, anyway, if men are there why can’t the women?

Why not, if not? Look at the obstacles that prevent women from engaging in participation; violence, men dominated politics, monetized politics. If we pursue gender inclusion, many of these things that make people say politics is a dirty game, would reduce drastically. Women are 50 per cent of the population and yet they are not allowed to take part in making decisions that affect their lives!

Apart from going to court, are women groups also mobilizing for lobby now that the relevant National Assembly committees have submitted their reports and the lawmakers want to start clause-by clause exercise?

This is not new to us. FIDA, for example mobilized during the enactment of the Child Right Act, Violence Against Gender Act and Equality Opportunity Act. The first persons we go to are the women in the National Assembly. I was on the technical committee on the Gender Equality Opportunity Bill and we involved all the women groups. But these women in the National Assembly, how many are they?

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POLITICS Anambra Governorship: Main Contenders

BY DAMILOLA ESAN

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till basking in the euphoria of its success in the two off-season governorship elections held in Edo and Ondo states last year, the Independent National Electoral Commission has fixed the Anambra governorship election for Saturday November 6, 2021.

Anambra election is the only major election scheduled for this year and it is going to be followed by Ekiti and Osun State governorship Elections next year.

INEC which for the first time uploaded results from the polling units to its server during the Edo and Ondo elections has promised to introduce more electronic usage in the Anambra election.

As INEC is getting set and having an early preparation for the Anambra election, political parties in the state will also get busy in the coming days as INEC has equally announced that party’s primaries and resolution of disputes arising from the primaries would take place between June 10 and July 1.

On the part of governorship aspirants, they have emerged and are still emerging in high numbers. Political watchers and analysts in the state said they number up to 30.

Out of this high figure, THEWILL has shieved the contenders from the pretenders and six names come up. They are former Nigeria Central Bank of Nigeria Governor, Charles Soludo; Senator Ifeanyi Ubah ; Hon. Uche Ekwunife; Hon. Tony Nwoye ; Godwin Maduka and Dr George Moghalu.

Soludo

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CHARLES SOLUDO Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR was born on July 28, 1960 . He is an economics professor and a former governor and chairman of the board of directors of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

He is also a member of the British Department for International Development’s International Advisory Group. He obtained his three degrees and then professorship at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, Enugu State.

Soludo graduated with a First Class Honours degree in 1984, an MSc Economics in 1987, and a PhD in 1989, winning prizes for the best student at all three levels.

On September 16, 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari, appointed Soludo as a member of a newly formed 8-member Economic Advisory Council (EAC) which would report directly to the president.

Soludo has in the past made efforts to be governor of Anambra State both on the platform of the PDP and APGA with no success.

PATRICK IFEANYI UBAH Patrick Ifeanyi Ubah was born on September 3, 1971 . Ubah is a businessman, entrepreneur and currently a senator representing Anambra South Senatorial District in the Senate having won election on the platform of Young Progressive Party, (YPP) .

In 2001, he founded Capital Oil and Gas Limited. He is the founder of The Authority newspaper, a Nigerian daily newspaper and also the owner of Ifeanyi Ubah F.C., a football club in the Nigeria Premier League, In 2014, Ifeanyi Ubah lost at the 2014 Anambra gubernatorial election under the platform of the Labour Party.

Ekwunife

On the part of governorship aspirants, they have emerged and are still emerging in high numbers

UCHE EKWUNIFE Uche Lilian Ekwunife (nee Ogudebe) was born on January 12, 1970. She is a member of the 9th Nigerian Senate representing the people of Anambra Central Senatorial District and has been one of the most active female senators in the House.

Ekwunife had a career in banking where she rose to become an Area Manager. She was elected as a representative in 2007 for Anambra’s Anaocha/Njikoka/Dunukofia constituency. She was re-elected in 2011. In 2015, she was elected to the Senate but her election was challenged in court and in December 2015 her seat was declared vacant. In the 2019 senatorial elections Ekwunife won and is currently representing Anambra Central Senatorial District.

TONY NWOYE Tony Okechukwu Nwoye is a former member of the House of Representatives representing Anambra East/West constituency of Anambra State.

Nwoye is a former governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, (PDP) in the 2014 election in Anambra State and was also a gubernatorial candidate of the APC in the 2017 gubernatorial election.

He is currently a member of the All Progressives Congress; Born on September 13, 1974, Nwoye is a medical doctor GODWIN MADUKA Godwin Maduka was born in 1959. He is a Nigerian-American doctor, businessman and philanthropist. He is the founder of Las Vegas Pain Institute and Medical Centre.

Maduka has invested over $40 million in various community development projects in Umuchukwu, his place of birth.

He built houses for the poor, churches, market, schools, police station, Police Academy and College, Post Office , Magistrate Court THEWILLNIGERIA

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Moghalu and a High Court for the Anambra State government. He also built a 17-floor Multiplex Medical Research Centre in Umuchukwu.

GEORGE MOGHALU Moghalu, 58, is the former National Auditor of the APC and has contested for the governorship of Anambra State on the platform of All Peoples Party, (APP), but lost.

Currently, Moghalu is the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Nigeria National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA). He is also from Nnewi and a prominent contestant on the APC platform.

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POLITICS/ INTERVIEW

Odumakin

‘There is Consensus on Restructuring’

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People cannot sit and be looking and see their people being killed. See what happened in Ibadan, in Shasa, look at the provocation, the killing, and the response from the people

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Yinka Odumakin is the National Publicity Secretary of the Pan – Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere. In this interview with DAMILOLA ESAN, he speaks on the restructuring of the country, which has received overwhelming support of eminent Nigerians. He also speaks on the state of insecurity in the country especially in the South West. Excerpts:

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igerian across the geo political zones in the country are accepting the concept of Restructuring. But when you talk to many of them, each gives a different meaning to the term restructuring.

What actually is the position of Afenifere on restructuring?

Restructuring means nothing than let’s go back to where we started from, Federalism. When our founding fathers met in Ibadan at a conference in 1950, they agreed towards a federal Nigeria. They agreed that a multi-ethnic nation like Nigeria can only be run along federal lines. And that was why you saw that our Independence Constitution was Federal. You have the likes of Zik, Awo and Balewa, who were our founding fathers. And we were on federalism until we had the first coup.

The executive list was so thin, so lean that it was a proper federalism.

That was the best period of development for Nigeria. That was the time the UCH in Ibadan was a medical destination for the British royal family. You see what Awolowo was able to do in the Western Region. If Awolowo was to take television license from Lagos, may be we won’t have had Western Nigeria Television that is now NTA. That was the first television station in Africa. We watched that television before people in southern France watched television. What has destroyed and distorted Nigeria was the recourse to military control through centralized system of government which was the military arrangement. And that was why there had been strong call, like Awolowo said in his book, ‘Thoughts on Nigerian Constitution’ that a multi -ethnic country like Nigeria can only be run on a federal constitution. So we have been consistent on restructuring, before independence we were on federalism, and when that was distorted through unitarism, we maintained our stand on it.

So the only people that have remained insincere are the opponents of restructuring. Those who are benefitting from the status quo, who think the only way they can live a life is to sit on the neck of others and be

cheating them. And when they are cheating them that is what is fair to them. That is when they would say Nigeria is indivisible, Nigeria is indissoluble, it is one Nigeria. It is this and that, when they are taking undue advantage of others: When you are contributing one naira and you are sharing nine naira. That is the best thing they can have. That is the best country for them. And to show who they are, in 1953 after Anthony Enahoro moved the motion for independence, there were riots all over the north. They were killing people. To come back to Nigeria, they gave what they called eight- points demand. Those eight -points demand, if you look at it, essentially, was confederalism. That is what they were asking for. So those who understand confederalism in 1953, they don’t understand federalism in 2021. You can see how insincere some of our countrymen are. They are the ones saying they should use the resources from the South to be go and settling the bandits. Bandits can carry guns and the rest of that. Those are the people, who are full of deception. And for them, they believe that once you deceive an unbeliever, God understands. That is what they called Takiya.

In an interview we had with Professor Muhammad Junaid and Alhaji Tanko Yakassai, they both said you people have not sat down to harmonise positions on restructuring and that is part of what is hindering its implementation. How true is this?

They are being untruthful, that is part of what we are saying about their deception. Before the last election, Afenifere, PANDEF, Ohanaeze, Northern Elders Forum, we all sat down together and adopted Atiku Abubakar as our candidate based on his stand on restructuring. We sat down at meeting for hours. Professor Junaid was part of their intellectual, we sat together in Abuja to ruminate on

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POLITICS/ INTERVIEW

‘Consensus on Restructuring’ these things. They said they have had their own conferences, they have their position papers and so on and so forth. What do they mean to say that we have not sat down together? It is deception.

APC also set up a committee on restructuring but up till now, we haven’t seen anything.

It is all deception. You know what happened, there were elders in Yoruba land before the 2015 election who were sitting on the necks of the South West leadership of Action Congress of Nigeria, saying you are going into a wedding, what are you discussing with your suitors about Nigeria?

Chief Amos Akingba led that group. After a long time that they have been troubling the South West leaders of APC, then Alhaji Lai Mohammed first gave a document, that document contained nothing. They now say is it based on this document that contained nothing that you would go and negotiate with others. I think they went to manufacture one document at Oluwole, which they brought, that now contained restructuring Nigeria to a true federalism arrangement. That was the document they used to deceive our people. Immediately they got power, the controller of APC said they don’t know the meaning of restructuring. They started showing their true colour. After a long time, they set up the Governor Nasir elrufai committee. The el-Rufai committee went round, what do they bring back? They photocopied a few pages of the report of the 2014 National Conference and they said that was their report. Have they touched it up till today? No, because this cheating is the only thing they know. They believe this cheating arrangement is the only way to run the country and that it is the best for them. Look at what is happening now, the Fulani are killing the people all over the country. Professor Wole Soyinka said Mr. President, you have not said anything to these killings up till now.

Femi Adesina said if the president started talking about herdsmen all the time, he will become a talkative. The same President who called the governor of Benue in 2018 after Fulani killed many people in Benue and said Mr. Governor go and learn how to live in peace with everybody.

Only yesterday, I learnt they said they are trying some herdsmen, Miyetti Allah. Where? In which court? It is all deception and that is why it will be difficult to form a harmonious nation with these people because they are not sincere. Sincerity is key in any union. In Nigeria because they don’t deal in truth, they deal in deception, they deceive others. When they are sitting down with you, talking, when they say ‘A’ to you they mean ‘B’ and they think that everybody is a fool. Look at the killings their people have been doing in the South in the last five years , have you heard any Fulani said one day, we are sorry about these deaths? It is too much.

These are human beings, it is not right. Except they want to defend the killers, to defend the Miyetti Allah, that is what they do. They have not shown any empathy to the people that are killed.

Two questions from what you have said now, first you said staying harmoniously with these people will be difficult, and so what do you do? Secondly, what is the way out of these killings especially in the South West?

I hope they don’t let this get to a point that our people would have to listen to General Danjuma that they have to defend themselves. People cannot sit and be looking and see their people being killed. See what happened in Ibadan, in Shasa, look at the provocation, the killing, and the response from the people. The Northern Governors were in Ibadan yesterday (last Monday) to meet with Governor Seyi Makinde. In Ogun State, we saw the Oba of Ilaro saying we will fight for ourselves. You saw how Senator Odebiyi, spoke at the floor of the Senate, and the northern governors are in Ogun State today (last Tuesday) because we know that some of our countrymen from that part of the country know their capacity when it comes to fighting.

They pushed us to a civil war in 1967 to 70. You know those who fought the war, Alabi Isama, Alani Akinrinade , Adekunle Benjamen , Ariyo, Obasanjo , those are the people who fought the war and won the war. People like Murtala Muhammed were perishing their soldiers in the river because they had no plan. What they had was that they were taking instruction from marabouts and they perished soldiers in Rivers.

There was a war in Oshogbo in 1840, you know what happened, when the Fulani came to Oshogbo in 1840. That was a war in which Yoruba used modern warfare and traditional technology. They planted plantain that fruited the same day, ripened the same day and Fulani thought they had seen food; they were eating and they were dying. The Yoruba fought at night because they knew that the Fulani horses could not see at night.

So they can’t threaten us with any war. We are not war mongers neither are we war lovers. That is why we have been making all the appeals we have been making so that there will be no war. This is because we know what war means. War is not valentine and Yoruba would fight as a last resort. War is not the first thing for us. And that is why Yoruba would say,’ Ejo lanko a ki nkoja’ that we learn how to state our case not how to fight. If we decide to fight with Fulani today, we have every case to state. When they came to Ore and killed Fasoranti’s daughter, before we came out to say that she was killed by the Fulani, we had our facts. When THEWILLNIGERIA

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Funke’s brother, Kehinde Fasoranti, went to Ore, the police told him that the Fulani killed your sister that was what they used to do around this area. And Kehinde put it in his statement. We have challenged the police to bring out the statement, they didn’t bring out that statement.

Till date. Bola Tinubu came to Akure, he said they said Fulani people killed Funke, where are the cows? But as God’s mercy would have it and as Funke’s blood would have it when SARS arrested four killers of Funke, who were they, they were all Fulani’s, officials of Miyetti Allah.

Chief Olu Falae said recently, that people are saying nonsense that they are profiling Fulani, what is meaning of that nonsense. Is Fulani man not different from other tribes in Nigeria? If you meet Fulani man on that road, won’t you know them? You know them now? Those who are being attacked, know those who are attacking them.

Governor Akeredolu only yesterday, (Monday) said the Fulani causing problems in the Reserved Forest speak Fulfulde. Is Fulfulde an Egba dialect or Ibadan language.? We know them, it is not profiling.

And like Senator Odebiyi said, how can they be saying the Fulani attacking our people are foreigners, it is an indictment on our leadership, the leadership of our country should resign, if foreigners are coming here to kill your people and go scot free and nothing is being done.

And el-Rufai has confessed that he paid and was bribing killers who have come to revenge the killing of their cows. These are the people we are living with. Look at the governor of Bauchi, completely unfit to be governor, defending the rights of the Fulani herdsmen to carry AK 47, when even those of us who registered pump action have been asked to return it by Buhari, that we cannot carry it. Who registered AK47 for the herdsmen that the Bauchi governor is now defending them? What we are witnessing in Nigeria is what is called clash of civilization.

We recently witnessed the intervention of Chief Sunday Adeyemo popularly known as Igboho in Igangan area of Oyo State. What is your take on this?

Well, you know some of us have spoken with Igboho. We have even appealed to him openly that he should allow state actors to handle this matter. It is not that we don’t understand what he is doing. He is a genuine Yoruba fighter who has come in to fill a void. I think it was Governor Akeredolu that said he came to fill a void and the Yoruba nation appreciates persons like him. That was the void Igboho came to fill. Some people are saying now Igboho is this and that, that he is our Are Ona Kakanfo, we said no. Igboho has come to play a good role and not to take the place of Are Ona Kakanfo. We know the role that Gani Adams played as an under 30 to fight for the Yorubas, to do what he had done like a warrior. It is not an accident that today he is the Yoruba Are Ona Kankanfo, because as a warrior , he is a man of courage and knows what to do to defend his people. So we appreciate Sunday for standing up the way he stood at the time and for listening to elders when they talked to him. For instance during his altercation with Ooni, we said no no, this is beyond you and immediately he apologized to the Ooni and Ooni said he had forgiven him So what should be done to stop the killings?

It is also a challenge to our governors in the South West. Akeredolu has done well and other governors, we are appealing to them to back Akeredolu, and it is not only him that is being affected by this matter. All our states are being affected. And you can’t be playing valentine songs with those who are singing war songs. When Professor Wole Soyinka said war is already at our door, days after they went to his house in Abeokuta to show him that yes we are here. And we saw the silly things the police did in Abeokuta, saying the owner of the cows that went to Soyinka’s house is a Yorub a man. What nonsense is that? Are we saying there are no Yoruba who own cows.? I own cows but I would be insane to drive cows into another man’s house not to talk of Professor Soyinka?

“

Akeredolu has done well and other governors, we are appealing to them to back Akeredolu, and it is not only him that is being affected by this matter. All our states are being affected

How do we achieve restructuring of the country? Some people are saying the easiest way is to adopt the report of the 2014 confab but others like Alhaji Yakassai said recently that there was no consensus reached even at the conference. How true is this?

No, it is a lie. There was an agreement. The conference almost broke down only on one thing and that was revenue sharing. We did not agree on that, we said Jonathan should set up a committee to work out, how we share money. That was the only area. We agreed on almost 600 other issues. We didn’t vote on any issue, it was by consensus. But immediately Buhari came, he said he would not touch the report.

Will the report, if implemented, solve the problems bedeviling the nation now?

We have solved most of the problems, even this issue of herdsmen.

We voted for ranches, we said open grazing should be banned. If we have started ranches since 2014, we won’t have the problem we are having now •

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FEBRUARY 21 - 27, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

EDITORIAL T

The N50bn Electricity Subsidy Waste

he recent disclosure that the Federal Government had been spending a whopping N50 billion monthly to subsidise electricity in the country is quite shameful. The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, had made the disclosure of this colossal waste in a statement by his Special Adviser, Media & Communications, Aaron Artimas, last week.

According to him, the subsidy was to augment “the shortfall by the Distribution Companies who have failed to defray the cost of bulk electricity supplied to them by the Generating Companies.”

Providing further details on the subsidy, the minister said, “following a minor increase in the tariff regime, the subsidy has now decreased by half,” but he was honest enough to note that the wasteful exercise “still constitutes a serious drain on the nation’s economy.”

Unfortunately, what the Power Ministry had been doing all along with the humongous subsidy was to power Nigeria into backwardness by subsidising inefficiency. Without any iota of doubt, the power sector has remained one of the worst performing sectors in the country since the advent of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration despite its desire to rejig the sector. The massive investments into the sector in the past five years have not also yielded the expected results. It’s really been a tale of woes with the sector as the leadership of the Power Ministry itself has performed below the minimum global standards .

There is no doubt that a sector that is supposed to be the pillar of the nation’s economic development has become a big disappointment.

We are therefore not surprised that the humongous waste, under the guise of electricity subsidy, is being considered as another palliative to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians. What an achievement! The fact remains that the ministry has been subsiding darkness all along as most Nigerians live more in total darkness with the epileptic supply of electricity to most homes.

While the Distribution Companies (DisCos) have failed woefully to stabilise their operations despite the categorisation of electricity supply into various bands to enable everyone cope with the cost of electricity, the Generation Companies (GenCos) are not doing better either. It is a shame that after all the subsidies and investments over the years, electricity supply has only stabilised at a bit over 5,000 megawatts.

The DisCos are always shifting the responsibility of replacing faulty transformers, electricity poles and cables to the consumers just as they would not stop tasking ordinary Nigerians with these responsibilities before power interruptions could be restored.

The free metering scheme to stop estimated and crazy billings has not also gone down well as consumers were still being asked to pay for the meters in some instances.

Though the Federal Government had committed itself to providing over six million meters free of charge to Nigerians, only about one million of the promised quantities have been delivered for distribution so far with the DisCos still playing games with the few already delivered.

The much-flaunted power sector reforms have become a cliche instead of delivering full benefits to Nigerians. Nigerians are no doubt struggling with the

latest hike in electricity tariff as they are now paying more for services that are far below acceptable global standards. The electricity price hike came at a time the World Bank had just released a whopping $750 million to the Federal Government for the development of the power sector because of its strategic importance as the engine of development. Yet, the services and output from the sector has not, in any way, reflected the humongous amount of money that has been pumped into the sector so far by the government and the country’s development partners.

THEWILL believes that the rot in the sector and the inability of the supervising ministry to enforce guidelines and rules of engagement are all factors of the shameless and inept leadership, coupled with the arrogant display of avarice and greed by those saddled with the responsibility of steering the affairs of the ministry. The low level they have descended to, in pursuit of selfish gains, which was also busted during the 2021 budget defense at the National Assembly, is not only an insult to Nigerians but also a great disservice to the country and Nigerians as a whole.

THEWILL has always drawn the attention of Nigerians to the developments at the Ministry of Power, with Mamman as minister, as we still maintain that the ugly situation playing out in that ministry should be of great concern not only to well-meaning and patriotic Nigerians but the Federal Government as well. We therefore call on President Buhari to beam a searchlight on the ministry and put it right if his administration’s roadmap for the country’s development, which appears to have been hijacked by a clique, is to be fully achieved•

Nigeria Bureau: 36AA Remi Fani-Kayode Street, GRA, Ikeja. Lagos, Nigeria. info@thewillnigeria.com / @THEWILLNG +234 810 345 2286, +234 913 333 3888. EDITOR: Olaolu Olusina @OLUSINA PAGE 14

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OPINION Pastoralists And Farmers Conflicts In Nigeria:

Time For Fulani Capitalism, Not Herdsmen Terrorism

BY MAGNUS ONYIBE

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obel laureate, Wole Soyinka’s country home in the forest area of Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, has reportedly been invaded allegedly by herdsmen.

Although the police have denied the invasion of Soyinka’s sanctuary, he has confirmed that the peace of his abode was indeed violated by herdsmen and their cattle herd, but he successfully repelled them.

Now, if indeed the residence of the Nobel laureate was breached by cattle herd and their rearers , it would be a new inglorious crown on the ongoing tension between herders and farmers in South West Nigeria which has thrown up unlikely and accidental heroes like the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu and Sunday Igboho, the new selfacclaimed generalisimo of Yoruba nation.

Akeredolu has become an usual hero for issuing a quit order to bandits disguised as herders from the forests of Ondo State and Igboho, is also an accidental hero for giving an ultimatum to quit the forests of Oyo, where the presumed criminal elements masquerading as herders, are equally accused of unleashing mayhem on innocent indigenes of host communities.

Incidentally, the quit notices to herdsmen/bandits from the forests of Ondo and Oyo States are echoes of a similar order that had been given to bandits cloaked as herdsmen to quit Ekiti forests about five years ago by Ayodele Fayose, then Ekiti State Governor.

So, the pattern of criminality by bandits that take up abode in the forests and commit crimes in the townships and then retreat to the forests has persisted in the south west for over half a decade. Bearing in mind that in 2015, Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Federal Government, SGF and presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in 1999 was kidnapped in his farm allegedly by herdsmen, who later released him, the current reason for clearing up the forests may become clearer. Even as Olu Falae escaped with his life to tell the story, in November 2020, which is five years after, his farm was again invaded by herdsmen a second time, and the farm and crops were set on fire by the bandits.

Often, victims of the killer herdsmen don’t escape with their lives. The outcome of an encounter with bandits, for the daughter of Chief Rueben Fasoranti, a famous Yoruba political leader, was different as she did not live to tell the story.

In 2013, two years prior to Falae’s close shave with death in the hands of the outlaws, Mrs Funke FasorantiOlaokunrin was shot to death when she was traveling on Ore- Ondo express way by suspected bandits masquerading as herdsmen.

Some of the alleged murderers were arrested, but the outcome of the prosecution of the case has been woolly.

It is deeply concerning that all these dastardly acts by alleged bandits/herdsmen have been occurring in the forests of western Nigeria and indeed Nigeria as a whole for nearly a decade, yet the criminality was not nipped in the bud.

That’s simply because a clear cut decision on how to deal with the crime and the perpetrators were being politicized. It is only now that the mayhem from armed bandits disguised as herdsmen is proliferating and popping up around the country with counter and defense actions against them by the kith and kin of their victims , that the authorities seem to be scrambling to find solutions as reflected by the scurry of meetings by Northern Governors Forum and subsequently Nigerian Governors Forum.

Metaphorically, it is only after the cancer has metastasized that the doctor’s attention is being sought with a view to curing the disease.

In any case , as the saying goes, it’s never too late to act, even though the current frenzied efforts by governors may be too little, too late.

Be that as it may , one pertinent question that’s begging for an answer is: can’t it be ascertained if the banditry being committed is by the real cattle herders or by criminal elements masquerading as pastoralists?

Therein lies the dilemma and the elephant in the room.

Now, to get to the root of the crisis , should Myetti Allah, the umbrella body of cattle herders allow the criminal activities of presumably a few misguided members or criminal elements that might have infiltrated its ranks be allowed to continue to tarnish their image resulting

in genuine cattle herders becoming targets of anger and counter violence by the kith and kin of the victims of their atrocities?

Or should the umbrella body self regulate by fishing out for discipline, those giving the majority a bad name?

In my view, those are the necessary first steps towards reversing the current fast moving train of violence that our beloved country seem to have boarded and which can only lead to a train station of perdition.

To be clear, all the quit notices were issued for the same case of invasion and the take over of the forests in the western region by heavily armed men disguised as herdsmen, making the hitherto serene forests toxic.

Could the forceful occupation of bandits of forests in Yoruba land be a case of another Sambisa forest in north east Nigeria in the making in the south west?

Bearing in mind that the dreaded forest in Borno state only became the home base for terrorists, cattle rustlers and generally an ungoverned area when the outlaws were allowed to reign supreme over the vast virgin land, it is most likely that it is in the bid to prevent a similar scenario with Sambisa being reinvented in the south west, that the quit notices to the bandits were issued by the authorities in line with the conventional wisdom-a stitch in time saves nine. That’s in addition to the fact that the escalation of the hostilities has been hindering the ancestral owners of the land from engaging in farming and hunting, which are their means of livelihood and sustenance, without which they would basically be doomed. So to the owners of the invaded forests, it is a question of survival.

That this malady has persisted for over half a decade, yet not much has been demonstrably done to arrest the situation before it deteriorated to its current crisis level is very dispiriting.

This is more so as the authorities should have learnt from the horrific experiences of the good people of Benue State where there has been a harvest of deaths in the Benue troughs arising from similar invasion of farms by marauders masquerading as herders.

breath of fresh air needed in the fight against corruption without fear or favour, a development that is giving many a reason to believe that the fight is already a winwin battle.

A trained security operative with a vast experience in investigation and prosecution of Advance Fee fraud cases, official corruption, bank fraud, money laundering and other economic and financial crimes, Bawa holds a BSc in Economics and a Masters in International Affairs and Diplomacy. He is one of the pioneer EFCC cadet officers when the commission was set up in 2002. He has undergone several specialized trainings in security and investigating matters both home and abroad.

Perhaps these sterling qualities and very impressive and intimidating dossier is what is giving many of his traducers the jitters since his appointment as they have begun to run series of clandestine campaigns of calumny against him to frustrate him even before he hits the ground running as he is always wont to be.

But those who know Bawa well will tell you that he can never be intimidated or arm-stronged to bow to anyone’s whims and caprices as he remains undaunted to take his job very seriously without minding whose ox is gored.

* Bawa served under all EFCC past chairpersons, starting with Nuhu Ribadu, who recruited the first set of civilians into EFCC (including Bawa) in 2005. * The operative started work with EFCC from its Lagos office, after his recruitment in 2005. He went on to work at the headquarters in Abuja, and for a year in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. * He was educated at the Usman Danfodio University, Sokoto, where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Economics in 2001 and master’s in International Relations and Diplomacy in 2011. * He is a Deputy Chief Detective Superintendent, a position he was promoted to in 2016. * Bawa has led a number of key corruption and financial crimes investigations including the infamous case of former Petroleum Minister, Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke, the case of former Niger State governor, Muazu Babangida Aliyu and that of the Controversial crude oil swap. He was also involved in the investigation of petroleum subsidy fraud (20122015). * Bawa has headed EFCC zonal offices in Ibadan and Port Harcourt between June 2018 and December 2019. * From Port Harcourt, Bawa was posted to Abuja as head of Capacity Development Division of the EFCC Academy, Karu. * Bawa was trained by the FBI, KPMG and many other institutions in the UK, United States and Nigeria.

The coming of Bawa will definitely bring a new dawn to the long protracted fight against corruption which has defied all known measures to nip it in the bud. Bawa is set to break records if confirmed by the Nigerian Senate to lead the commission.

• Wole Arisekola, a businessman, writes from Lagos.

*Continues online at www. thewillnigeria.com

Abdulrasheed Bawa: Setting The Pace in Fight Against Corruption

BY WOLE ARISEKOLA

T

he appointment of 40-year-old Abdulrasheed Bawa by President Muhammadu Buhari as the head of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), has, no doubt, ushered in a new dawn at the anti-graft agency that has over the years been riddled with leadership crisis since its establishment many years ago during the second term of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The nomination of the youthful and very thorough security operative to replace the embattled and suspended former chairman, Ibrahim Magu, will obviously set a new pace for the commission, what with Bawa’s track record of inimitable achievement as a ground breaker.

Since the laudable appointment of Bawa, who is a Chief Detective Superintendent, mixed reactions have continued to trail his new office on account of those who dread what he can do if allowed to hold sway without any encumbrance.

As one of the earliest recruits into the commission at inception, without a police training and background, Bawa has assiduously worked in close contact with all the previous Chairmen of the commission, unblemished and diligently. His coming on board now as the chairman of EFCC comes with a varied wealth of experience in the fight against the hydra-headed monster of corruption and other financial vices.

Against the background that those before him as chairman of EFCC came from their privilege background as top police officers with insights into the workings of what goes on in high places viz-a-viz corruption, Bawa is coming in from a totally different and fresh background without being an appendage to anyone in the corridors of power, and may just be the THEWILLNIGERIA

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Here are 10 things to know about the incoming EFCC boss: * He was born in Jega, Kebbi State, 40 years ago.

This makes him the first person to be appointed to the EFCC job from anywhere in Nigeria other than the North-East zone. * Bawa is the first career operative to head the EFCC. His appointment puts to rest agitation by “core EFCC staff” to have one of their own to head the commission.

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FEBRUARY 21 - 27, 2021 www.thewillnigeria.com

Airlines In Coma As Shift To Cargo, Evacuation Records Shortfall PAGE 17

3INVEST, Houston EB5 Reaffirm Investors’ Confidence With New Project PAGE 18

Dodgy Deals At 11Plc

•Oil Giant Set to Quit Stock Exchange •Accused Of Shortchanging Stakeholders • Industry Experts Kick

BY SAM DIALA

D

“

The obvious motivation to delist, for 11 Plc, is the need to escape regulation, financial reporting and accountability to the public, especially with the likely consequence of the Finance Act, 2020 on treatment of unclaimed dividends

PAGE 16

etails have emerged how Nigeria’s major oil company, 11Plc (formerly Mobil Oil) reportedly shortchanged the minority investors and undermined the process of its planned exit from the Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) by the end of the first quarter (Q1 2021). Effective second quarter (Q2) 2021, the shares of the company shall be expunged from the daily official list of The Exchange and 11Plc will become an unlisted public liability limited.

However, shareholders and industry experts have expressed outrage over the process of the firm’s voluntary exit from the NSE after 41 years as a publicly quoted company. Insiders who spoke with THEWILL described the action of the 70-year-old oil company as anything but transparent and fair. They lament the unprofessional conduct of the company and the lethargic attitude of the regulatory authorities which emboldened the exiting firm to have its cake and eat it.

11Plc had this month disclosed plans to delist its shares from the NSE by the end of Q1 2021, in line with a resolution passed at its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in October 2021, signaling the shareholders’ nod to the deal.

The company in its regulatory filing, February 10, explained that the delisting would enable it to explore strategic opportunities, alliances and collaborations that could bolster earnings and/or provide synergised benefits with little or no regulatory obligations.

THE BEGINNING In 2017, NIPCO, a major oil marketing company, bought over the 60 per cent stake of Exxon Mobil in Mobil Oil Plc at a price of N417.12 per share in a deal worth N90 billion executed at the floor of the NSE. The deal was consummated after the requisite approvals were obtained from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the NSE. The transaction gave rise to a mandatory tender offer (MTO) based on the extant rules of the SEC, designed to protect minority investors in situations like this. It gives them the opportunity to also exit by selling at a fair price whenever there is a takeover of a listed company.

A tender offer is a public solicitation to all shareholders requesting that they tender their stock for sale at a specific price during a certain time. The investor (buyer) normally offers a higher (or reasonably acceptable) price per share than the company’s stock price, providing shareholders a greater incentive to sell their shares.

While the shareholders waited for a bountiful harvest, NIPCO, became evasive and showed no commitment towards honouring the mandatory tender offer. Insiders who spoke with THEWILL disclosed that less than five per cent of additional shares were bought from the minority shareholders under the MTO arrangement. To worsen their dilemma, the name of the company was subsequently changed to 11 Plc. “Only a paltry sum of about 3.23 per cent of additional shares were bought from all minority investors, leaving them to drown with a new Pharaoh who did not know Joseph,” a Stockbroker and Vice President at Planet Capital, Mr Paul Uzum, told THEWILL. Shareholders, who had held firmly to their shares in expectation of a “good deal” under the MTO, got the rudest shock of their lives. The new investor was not coming and the share value had begun to drop, and rapidly too. THEWILL findings showed that many stockbrokers, who had advised their clients to invest in the Mobil Oil (now 11 Plc) shares, had their fingers burnt. Some brokers who invested directly in the stock of the firm have also been counting their huge losses.

Against the rules, the majority stakeholder turned to the open market where it embarked on aggressive mop-up of the minority investors’ shares that had lost substantial market value. THEWILL learnt that, having waited for three years post-acquisition, NIPCO embarked on the systematic, aggressive mop-up to consolidate its holdings to about 80 per cent stake without considering the interest of the minority investors. This strategy empowered it to successfully have its way with Special Resolutions at EGMs/AGMs. Consequently, the firm in March 2020 announced its plans to delist from the market and buy out the shares of dissenting shareholders at terms it could easily influence. Surprisingly,

no price was stated at this period, thus worsening the fate of the minority investors.

DEEPENING PAINS In its explanatory note to shareholders issued in February 2021 via the NSE as regards the proposed delisting of a total of 360,595,262 ordinary shares of 11 Plc, the company stated that the interest of dissenting shareholders shall be bought for a consideration of N213.90 per ordinary share (as against N417.12 per share it acquired the 60 per cent stake in 2017 or 48.7 per cent depreciation) . This is the highest price at which 11 Plc shares had traded, six months preceding the notice of the AGM at which the resolution to delist was deliberated. It was in keeping with the rules of the NSE, and having mopped up the shares at the open market during three years it deliberately waited.

According to the firm, the objective of the delisting was “to enable the Company to explore strategic opportunities, alliances, and collaborations that can bolster earnings and/or provide synergised benefits with little or no regulatory requirement”.

The company stated that following the conclusion of the delisting process, 11 Plc will become an Unlisted Public Liability Company. It also stated that shareholders who disapprove of the delisting can indicate their dissent through the Registrar for appropriate consideration.

THEWILL findings revealed that at the date of the announcement, the oil company’s stock traded at N228 per share – 6 per cent above its delisting mark price.

Industry experts say it was the first time a company has shown interest in delisting by forcing minorities to sell to them at a discount to the market price, as against the conventional rule of MTO. “In preparation for this announcement of a ridiculous delisting price, the Financial Adviser to 11 Plc, crossed the shares from a price of NGN 249.5 to NGN 228 just 10 days to the announcement to make it look like they are proposing a 6 per cent discount to the market price as against 15 per cent. The stock is fairly illiquid and thus the price hardly changes in most trading sessions”, Uzum said.

JIGSAW PUZZLE Stakeholders who expressed concern over the unhealthy transaction argued that 11 Plc’s act was a deliberate attempt to circumvent SEC rule and the provisions of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) that all shareholders must be treated equally, especially in the case of acquisition.

There are also worries that the stake of a majority shareholder was valued at N417.13 while the minority investor’s was valued at N213.9. This is within only three years even when the company’s net asset per share has increased by over N50 during the period, and the fair value determined by the same Financial Advisor – Cordros Securities Limited.

Stakeholders and industry experts condemned the “strategic hidden agenda” of the company by not disclosing the price at which the minority investors’ shares were to be bought during the Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM).

“Can the EGM to delist be said to be valid where the price at which minorities’ shares are to be bought was not disclosed?” Uzum queried, adding, “Can we say the minorities of 11 Plc have been treated fairly subsequent to the takeover of Mobil

by NIPCO? Should such a ridiculous transaction succeed, would it not have set a bad precedence for other listed firms to follow – which is a strategic way to destroy investors’ value?” *Continue on Page 31

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AVIATION

Airlines In Coma As Shift To Cargo, Evacuation Records Shortfall

BY ANTHONY OKECHUKWU

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hese are not the best of times for both local and international carriers as the low passenger traffic occasioned by Covid-19 pandemic, is already dampening the cargo flow in and out of the country. At the heat of Covid-19 devastating effects, airlines resorted to survive mainly through evacuation flights and cargo operations.

For instance, EgyptAir survived the Covid-19 era by operating evacuation flights regularly. Throughout the lock down, EgyptAir operated not more than two flights monthly to Cairo. This is a sharp reduction from its previous frequencies that recorded 19 flights weekly – inclusive of daily flights from Lagos and Abuja; then 6 flights from Kano.

According to the General Manager of EgyptAir in Lagos, Muharram Abdel Rahman, the Egyptian airline never stopped flying throughout the pandemic period.

Rahman said “We did not stop flying because we cannot stop.

Actually, we operated evacuation flights because we have Egyptians working in different places. We also have Nigerian students in Cairo, Egypt. Many families were stranded and they needed to return back to their people. We operated many evacuation flights during that period”.

For Ethiopian Airlines, their timely diversification into cargo operations kept them moving all through the trying times. The airline temporarily converted 25 passenger aircraft for cargo operations which also boosted its business economically.

Speaking on the strategy, Chief Executive of Ethiopian Airlines, Tewolde Gebremariam noted that combined with Ethiopian’s uniquely strong financial performance in the region over the past decade, its “quick decision” to focus more capacity on cargo operations in the early days of the crisis, paid off.

Gebremariam said “We have a very strong cash flow. We are still managing our cash flow within our internal resources, without any bailout money and without any borrowing for liquidity purposes, or any lay-offs or salary reductions.”

At the domestic scene, the situation is quite different as both passenger and cargo movements are in an all-time low.

From all indications, operators are not leveraging on cargo options effectively, even when experts have suggested the need for airlines to focus more on cargo operations, while retaining their passengers’ services.

Shortly before the recent flight resumption in Nigeria the DirectorGeneral, Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) , Captain Musa Nuhu, advised domestic carriers, that, the current situation created

by Covis-19 pandemic, presents an excellent opportunity for cargo operations and other services for Nigerian airline operators.

Capt Nuhu explained that, since it would take time for passenger traffic to get back to the pre-Covid-19 level on resumption, the excess capacity of what they have, they should consider domestic and international cargo services.

Speaking at an industry webinar recently, Capt Nuhu said “It is very, THEWILLNIGERIA

THEWILLNG

very difficult for us with this global problem; tens of thousands aircraft have been parked, tens of thousands of employees have been laid off.

Based on the difficulty we are going through now, we should not look at the difficulty; we should see it as an opportunity to reinvent the industry both domestically and internationally.”

The NCAA helmsman pointed out that he understands the difficulties in getting permits and approvals to fly into some countries, but urged the operators to be ready to take this step, to involve the NCAA and the Ministry in their negotiations for seamless operations.

Corroborating Capt Nuhu’s position, Flight Safety Foundation (FSF), a US-based international aviation body, had equally advised that cargo operations, air traffic control, airport and ground services have become critical elements in the efforts to overcome the crisis. He stressed that emerging changes put a massive strain on the system and on generating clear business, operations and safety risks.

Despite the efforts put in by local operators to improve in cargo operations particularly, the market has not been favourable, as the carriers are forced to cut down movement due to low market demand.

Consequently, cargo flights are yet to resume full-scale operations due to the pandemic even when the lockdown in many countries have been eased off.

Due to poor passenger movement, many airlines are still continuing with their experiment of using their passenger aircraft for cargo operations which is somehow paying off for them.

Speaking on the challenges, President Association of Foreign Airlines and Representatives in Nigeria (AFARN), Mr Kingsley Nwokoma, told THEWILL that cargo airlines no longer come into Nigeria with bigger aircraft due to low activities occasioned by the pandemic. Nwokoma stated that the pandemic had significantly reduced tonnage forcing airlines to use smaller aircraft. He further revealed that most of the mega cargo carriers with under belly aircraft of 45 tonnes of cargo, no longer come into the country with their cargo aircraft.

“We still have cargo coming in from China, Asia, US and Europe; but you can never compare the volume with the normal times. We still have European airlines that refuse to come into Nigeria because they are not sure of our preparedness and our figures”, Nwokoma stated. He added that there were still low cargo activities but that with the vaccines coming out, things would improve significantly.

Nwokoma believes that it might take the industry another 10 to 15 years to see stability due to the Covid-19 impact on aviation, adding that some carriers were already returning their fleets as their projection did not meet their targets. “If you ordered an aircraft and you know it is not going to be useful to you, you can only stop that order. Aviation is the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic”.

The AFARN President however, stated that there had been a remarkable improvement of about 35 per cent increase in business as against 10 per cent when compared with 2020. “There is significant improvement in cargo coming compared to Covid-19 era; that is at least a 35 percent increase”, he said •

“

We still have cargo coming in from China, Asia, US and Europe; but you can never compare the volume with the normal times. We still have European airlines that refuse to come into Nigeria because they are not sure of our preparedness and our figures

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BUSINESS NEWS 3INVEST, Houston EB5 Reaffirm Investors’ Confidence With New Project

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INVEST, a real estate investment Group and Houston EB5 have reaffirmed investors’ confidence by introducing a sustainable new project; MODERNO Porcelain Work - the future of EB5 Investing.

Over 10 years, the Award-winning Houston EB5 has provided opportunities for over 350 immigrants to gain legal permanent residency through the EB5 visa program by creating qualified and competitive real estate investments in Texas. The EB5 Visa program is administered by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Houston EB5, which has developed over $1 billion in real estate and has completed the entire lifecycle of the program from capital investment, issuance of green cards to return of capital and profits. The newest investment offering with Moderno Porcelain Works is designed to successfully benefit from these changes.

In 2019, the United States government implemented changes to the EB-5 Investor Program as part of a comprehensive EB-5 modernization law passed by Congress. The most notable change was the increase in the minimum investment amounts from $500,000 to $900,000 for Targeted Employment Area (TEA) investments and $1 million to $1.8 million for nonTargeted Employment Area (TEA) investments.

These and many other changes have affected the way investors approach the EB5 Investment.

However, a new hope was birthed this January 2021, when the U.S President Joe Biden signed an executive order ending the travel ban on citizens from more than a dozen countries, including Nigeria.

Speaking at the Moderno Factory walkthrough in Houston with Ruth Obih, the CEO, 3INVEST, Acho Azuike, Managing Director, Houston EB5, said “By eliminating the travel ban on Nigeria and a dozen more countries, Nigerians are no longer in limbo wondering what will happen once their EB5 petitions are approved.

Since the ban was in effect, some Nigerians were sitting on the sidelines because of the uncertainty, but now can feel confident about the future of EB5.

“This is great news for African investors when it comes to EB-5 investment,” said 3Invest Chief Executive Officer, Ruth Obih. “With the travel ban lifted, this new investment opportunity allows for immediate investment, flexible investment terms, a limited number of investors, and is backed by a corporate guarantee. With the increase in the minimum EB-5 investment amount, along with political uncertainties in our countries, travel bans, and a global pandemic, people have been concerned about investing. But, for those who understand this new offering, this is a great opportunity – and the time is now.”

Speaking on the newest investment opportunity offered from Houston EB-5 – Moderno Porcelain Works, Azuike said: “In the past, we have seen major real estate developments brought about through EB-5 investment opportunities. While these types of projects have been hugely successful for us, we are offering a different type of investment opportunity for those investors not interested in large real estate development projects. Our new offering through Moderno Porcelain Works is an operational business versus a large-scale real estate project. We will have 3-4 investors for each operational center. Therefore, offering a more personalized investment opportunity and smaller capital raise to begin each project. Additionally, another

From left: Roberto Contreras IV, Head, New Markets, Houston EB5; Ruth Obih, Chief Executive, 3INVEST and Acho Azuike, Managing Director, Houston EB5, at the Moderno Factory walkthrough in Houston

attractive aspect of the new opportunity is that returns are paid yearly instead of being accrued.”

Moderno Porcelain Works is a growing fabrication and installation company specializing in large format porcelain. The company has established operational centers in industrial areas just outside the metropolitan areas that are designated TEAs. These operational centers serve as sales galleries, offices, training centers, as well as a material warehouses and state-of-the-art fabrication facilities. These types of developments do not need to be in a prime location to be an attractive real estate investment opportunity because the end-user, the customer, can live anywhere in the metropolitan area and be serviced from this location and support a successful business operation over the long term.

“It’s a no brainer to invest in Moderno”, says Obih, “with a 5-year loan term, better returns” paid yearly, capital repayment backed by a strong corporate guarantee and Maximum of 4 Investors makes it one of the safest EB5 projects available.”

This type of operational business model is the future of EB5 investing. The operational business allows for fewer investors to reach the capital investment amount resulting in a quicker project start time versus that of large real estate development.

Additionally, an operational business with strong underlying fundamentals, like Moderno Porcelain

Works, can also offer an investment payment plan to address the increase of investment requirements under the new law.

“The outcome of our elections has also had an impact on investor uncertainty,” said Azuike. “Under the new administration, there is a growing census that travel bans will be eased. However, the minimum investment amount will not change without sweeping immigration reform which is not expected in the near future. That is why we looked at our type of investment offerings and developed a new type of investment model that will address the increase and offer more security with the corporate guarantee.”

Moderno Porcelain Works currently has four operational centers in Texas, Florida, and Minneapolis.

EB-5 Houston completed the raise for three additional locations with plans to expand to a total of 60 cities by 2025.

Houston EB-5 was founded in 2010 to help international investors gain permanent United States residency in return for making a qualified real estate investment. Certified by United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) as an EB-5 Regional Center, Houston EB5 has more than 25 years of real estate experience and is currently celebrating over 10 years in the EB5 industry.

$118.50 million.

First Bank also played in the league of top banks through which investment inflow of N7.97 billion was recorded during the review period.

The NBS in its “Capital Importation Report for 2020” disclosed (under ‘Investment by Banks’) that the bulk of the investment inflow to Nigeria in 2020 came through five banks, namely Standard Chartered Bank, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Citibank, First Bank and Rand Merchant Bank.

Total inflows facilitated through the five banks stood

at $7.97 billion made up of $2.54 billion, $2.16 billion, $1.50 billion, $938 million and $821 million respectively.

This represents 82.33 per cent of $9.68 billion which is the total value of investment inflow to Nigeria in 2020.

The 2020 capital importation value dropped by $14.31 billion to $9.68 billion or 59.64 per cent compared to $23.99 billion in the corresponding period – 2019.

The five banks accounted for $17.69 billion representing 73.73 per cent of overall $23.99 in 2019 with $2.82 billion, $8.62 billion, $2.28 billion $1.05 billion and $2.92 billion respectively.

Capital Importation: First Bank Leads Tier-1 Group In 2020

BY SAM DIALA

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irst Bank of Nigeria Limited leads the esteemed Tier-1 banks in investment inflows in 2020, data published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has shown.

The five Tier-1 banks facilitated a total of $1.8 billion with First Bank recording $938.60 million of the figure, representing 50.43 per cent during the period.

Others are Access Bank $361.32 million, Zenith Bank $271 million, GT Bank $122 million and UBA

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BUSINESS NEWS Pilots, Aircraft Engineers Harp On Employee Compensation Act

BY ANTHONY OKECHUKWU

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mployers of labour in the Nigerian aviation industry, especially airline operators, have been tasked to ensure safety at work and comply with the Employee Compensation Act as this would eliminate the mistrust which usually exists between employers and employees.

This advice was conveyed in a communiqué issued at the end of the symposium organised by the National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) with the theme: ‘Labour Relations in a Pandemic: Challenges to Employer and Employee,’ in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State.

The communiqué was jointly signed by Engr.

Abednego Galadima and Comrade Olatunji Sekoni, the President and General Secretary, NAAPE, respectively.

Participants at the one-day symposium noted that social dialogue between employers and employees would go a long way to create a win-win outcome for an organisation.

The attendees further charged the governments at all levels to ensure quick mediation in labour cases within the industry and charged it to proffer stable policies that would ensure growth in the sector.

Besides, the communiqué canvassed for adequate training for aviation personnel, especially pilots and engineers, whom it described as critical workers in the

*Continued from Page 16

Dodgy Deals At 11Plc

Checks on the performance of 11 Plc showed that the company is among the most profitable firms listed on the nation’s bourse. It has, over the last five years, recorded the second highest earnings per share in the market, with over N25 per share recorded over the past four years, coming after Nestle. Industry watchers express surprise at the decision of 11 Plc to delist from the NSE. “The obvious motivation to delist, for 11 Plc, is the need to escape regulation, financial reporting and accountability to the public, especially with the likely consequence of the Finance Act, 2020 on treatment of unclaimed dividends.

“The minorities here are thousands of Nigerian retail investors, the pension funds of millions of Nigerians, and a couple of off-shore institutional investors. This is a case with strong interest from the investing public, as investors look forward to the regulators for justice, equity and fair play.

Minority rights must be protected,” Uzum protested.

The company’s Corporate Communications Manager, Taofik Lawal, did not respond to a mail sent to him and calls put across to his mobile phone were not picked. The Head of Corporate Communications, SEC, Efe Ebelo, did not respond to the mail to her. The Financial Advisers to 11 Plc, Cardros Securities, said they are not in a position to comment on the matter. “Kindly reach out to the Company (11 Plc) so that they can present a holistic response to your questions. We are not in the best position to speak on behalf of the Company”, they

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sector, adding that it behoved on the government and employers to ensure support funds, improved health care services within the airport and reduction in airport charges for workers.

The communiqué added: “Participants thanked the government for supporting airlines with palliatives and requested for more government support particularly in accessing forex, owing to the enormous losses the airlines suffered.

“Also, participants emphasised the need for employers in the aviation sector to maintain and always ensure the sanctity of all Labour Laws and the fundamental human rights of workers, especially the right to belong to a union.”

In his opening speech, Engr. Abednego Galadima, the President of NAAPE, said it was necessary to bridge the existing gaps between pilots, engineers on one hand and airline operators in the industry with the aim of promoting a harmonious relationship between the two.

Galadima stated that NAAPE, the umbrella body of pilots and engineers in the industry was working assiduously with airline operators to ensure the return of some of its members placed on ‘leave without pay’ by their employers due to the pandemic.

Galadima lauded the Federal Government for the recent palliative released to business organisations in the industry but appealed for increased interventions from the government for the sector to make it stronger.

said in a mail to THEWILL. The National Co-ordinator, Progressive Shareholders Association of Nigeria, PSAN, Mr Boniface Okezie, condemned the act of under-changing the minority investors who built the company over the years. He said the company ought to have rewarded them by obeying the MTO rule since they are not going to expect any other benefits from 11 Plc by way of dividend or capital appreciation. He blamed the regulatory authorities and the financial advisors for their failure to protect the minority shareholders.

Chairman, Ibadan Zone Shareholders Association, Mr Eric Akinduro, told THEWILL in a mail that his group was considering a legal action against the company for not protecting the interest of the minority shoulders.

Socony Vacuum Oil Company, the precursor of 11 Plc, started marketing operations in Nigeria in 1907 through the sale of Sunflower Kerosene. It transformed to a limited liability company in 1951, the same year it adopted the name Mobil Oil Nigeria Limited. In 1978, it was quoted on the NSE, assuming the identity— Mobil Oil Nigeria Plc. When contacted by telephone as a follow up, the firm’s Corporate Communications Manager, Taofik Lawal, said the company was preparing a response to the mail sent earlier

by THEWILL seeking reaction to the issues raised by the stakeholders. The response was not received at press time.

U.S. Supports Nigeria Dairy Industry To Boost Production

BY ANTHONY OKECHUKWU

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he first shipment of pregnant Jersey breeds dairy cows from the United States has arrived at the Ikun Dairy Farm in Ekiti State.

Ikun Dairy Farm – a joint venture between Promasidor Nigeria Limited and Ekiti State Government – plans to produce 10,000 liters of milk daily and will take delivery of two additional shipments of dairy cows from the United States over the next couple of weeks.

These shipments will provide a better breed of cow for the rapidly growing Nigerian dairy industry, helping to diversify the Nigerian economy.

Gerald Smith, Counselor for Agricultural Affairs at the U.S. Mission to Nigeria noted that the introduction of U.S. dairy cows will boost local milk production and contribute significantly to ensuring sustainable food security in Nigeria.

Smith explained that the successful cattle shipment was because of the strong partnership between the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Mission in Nigeria, the Ikun Dairy Farm, and senior officials of the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Agriculture, with support from the Central Bank of Nigeria.

“The United States is the leader in producing dairy cows,” Counselor for Agricultural Affairs Smith said.

“Promasidor Nigeria Limited in partnership with Ekiti State Government and with the strong support of the Central Bank of Nigeria have successfully started an integrated dairy industry in Nigeria with the acquisition of the first batch of pregnant Jersey breed dairy cows from the USA. A sustainable dairy industry requires modern genetic cows. This collaboration marks the start of increasing milk production and enhancing the dairy value chain in Nigeria,” he added.

To further support the Nigerian dairy industry, Smith noted that the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Mission is designing a two-week long training program in the United States for diverse Nigerian dairy stakeholders. The training program holding later this year will introduce participants to the unique characteristics and genetic potential of U.S. dairy cows.

“We believe these efforts will maximize the local dairy sector’s potential and help Nigeria emerge as a major player in the dairy market in the region,” Smith added.

Based at the U.S. Consulate General in Lagos, the Foreign Agricultural Service is the overseas arm of the United States Department of Agriculture. It offers a variety of services to American and Nigerian agribusiness companies, government and nongovernment entities involved in agricultural trade and development. Through a variety of programs, the service helps developing countries strengthen sustainable agricultural practices by providing capacity building opportunities.

Private Capital Critical For Infrastructure Development – Chukwu

he Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Mr. Johnson Chukwu, has said that Nigeria needs appropriate policies to attract private capital in form of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country to develop infrastructure.

Chukwu in his presentation at a virtual workshop organised by the Capital Market Correspondents Association of Nigeria (CAMCAN) themed, “Addressing Nigeria’s Fiscal Challenges – Exploring Alternative Fund Approach”, said: “Our FDI which is what goes to the private sector and infrastructural development has in the last six years (2015-2020) neared flat.

He noted that Nigeria recorded $1.44 trillion inflow of FDI in 2015 as against $1.028 trillion reported in 2020.

“It is a far cry compared to countries like Ghana whose receipts are two times what Nigeria realised and Egypt which is seven times what we received. FDI is an important source of capital funding for a country THEWILLNIGERIA

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like Nigeria. Nigeria needs to come out with appropriate policies that will attract FDI especially on foreign exchange,” he said.

He noted that for a less stable economy like Nigeria’s, assessment of social conflicts by potential investors will be a key consideration.

“Investors gear their foreign direct investments toward economies where they have the highest potential for profit and the least risk. As such, the dent of the social unrest to the image and perceived risk of long-term capital investment would mean that the country will struggle in attracting the much-desired long-term finance needed for accelerated growth and enhanced job opportunities,” he said.

“On revenue, Chukwu said: “Nigeria has a huge revenue shortfall which means we have to look for funds outside government budget. Total revenue has remained largely flat between 2015 and 2020.

“In 2015, the total revenue realised by the Federal Government stood at N3.24 trillion as against N3.47 trillion reported as of November 2020. There has been a steady growth in expenditure; as of 2015, the total expenditure stood at N4.76 trillion in contrast to N6.24 trillion recorded from January to November 2020.

“The challenge we have in this country is a revenue challenge, we don’t have the revenue size to support the type of government we run. That’s why our recurrent expenditure has been increasing while our revenue remains flat. The government needs to interrogate issues of recurrent expenditure,” he said.

On the outlook of the financial markets in 2021, Chukwu said: “We sustain our positive outlook for the Nigerian bourse in 2021 as its overall positive performance in 2020, despite the effects of COVID-19 and the accompanying economic recession.

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SHOTS OF THE WEEK

L-R: Lagos State Head of Service, Mr. Hakeem Muri-Okunola; Lagos Deputy Governor, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat; Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Special Adviser to the Governor on SDG & Lagos Global, Mrs. Solape Hammond; Commissioners for: Economic Planning and Budget, President Muhammadu Buhari (left), receives the Former Vice President Arc Nnamadi Mr. Samuel Egube and Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, during the opening Sambo in an audience at the State House, Abuja. FEB 18 2021 of the Ehingbeti Lagos Economic Summit 2021, with the theme: ‘‘For a Greater Lagos: Setting the Tone for the Next Decade’’ at the Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos 16/2/2021

From left, Governors Abdulahi Umar Ganduje (Kano); Abubakar Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi); Seyi Governor Hope Uzodima of Imo State with the Managing Director/CEO of Zenith Bank Makinde (Oyo); Sarkin Shasha, Sardaunan Yamma; Bello Mohammed Matawalle (Zamfara) Plc, Mr. Ebenezer Onyeagwu when the latter paid a working visit to Governor Uzodima and Abubakar Sanni Bello (Niger); during their visit to Sarkin Shasha Palace, Ibadan, 16/2/20 at his office in Owerri, Tuesday

From left: Gov. Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa; Gov. Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State; Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno; Gov. Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State; and Gov. Darius Ishyaku of Taraba, during the National Economic Council Meeting at the State House Conference Centre in Abuja on Thursday

L-R: Political Counsellor, FCDO Jonathan Beacon; British High Commissioner, Catriona Laing; Speaker, House of Representatives, Rep. Femi Gbajabiamila; Governance, Conflict & Social Development Team Leader, FCDO, Sam Waldock and Senior Protocol Adviser, Damilola Oyedele during British High Commissioner’s meeting with the speaker at the National Assembly in Abuja on 18th Feb.

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Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu (right) and Head of the Political Desk, British High Commission, Jonathan Beacon, discuss during the diplomat’s meeting with the lawmaker in Abuja on Thursday.

From left: Group Chief Executive Officer, Premium Steel and Mines Limited, Mr Anand Badjatya; Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Mr Olamilekan Adegbite, and Head of Sales and Marketing, Premium Steel and Mines Limited, Ujjwal Sinha, during the minister’s facilities tour of the Company in Warri, on Thursday.

PHOTOS BY PEACE UDUGBA

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ARTS Lagbaja: The Man, Mask & Music

BY MICHAEL JIMOH

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or a long time in his musical career, most Nigerians didn’t know the man behind the mask Lagbaja adopted for his stage shows. It was something of a mystery to concert goers across the length and breadth of Nigeria wherever he performed - Abuja, Asaba, Benin-City, Enugu, Jos, Kaduna, Lagos, Lekki Sun splash or Port Harcourt.

Who is he? Why does he hide his face? And then, there was the egungun-like costumes evoking masquerades in Yoruba cultural festivals. Unlike the traditional Eyo or some other masquerades common in Yoruba land wielding canes with which to discipline rascally youngsters, this one came with a saxophone with which he delighted adult audiences around the world. The world loved and appreciated it, forever engraving his name as the originator of Afrocalypso, as the man dubbed his unique musical genre.

With time, the first question was answered. They got to know his name (Bisade Ologunde) born on May 19, 1960 to middle class parents in Ibadan where he had both his primary and secondary education.

After graduating from the University of Ife, he got a plum appointment through a friend in a bank in Kano, a job offer that would have delighted many parents. He turned it down, to his parent’s dismay, and followed his passion – music – again, initially, to his parent’s dismay.

With time, also, people began to understand why he disguised himself with a mask as an entertainer. It was a masterful publicity coup that had never been done by any Nigerian artiste before him. Common sense has shown that most people are naturally curious about things they ought to know which they don’t know much of. From that first moment of hiding his identity, Lagbaja was an instant sell out to fans and plain folk alike. Still, the mystery deepened, certainly to his secret pleasure.

Even the man himself promoted it by never appearing bare-faced at any of his numerous shows, sometimes making veiled connections to the spirit beings across many African cultures. As most people assume, spirit beings are not mere mortals like the rest of us. Hands up anyone who has seen a masquerade succumbing to natural urges like hunger let alone eating in public – although one actually begged for food in one of the eastern states, as reported in a tabloid many years ago.

Going by that assumption, a journalist once asked Lagbaja if the ‘spirit’ does eat, defecate, etc. In the journalist’s estimation, and taking the mystery further, he wanted to know if Lagbaja has children and how he relates with them.

His response was as cheeky as it was evasive. “I don’t know this guy you’re talking about,” Lagbaja replied, probably with a chuckle behind his mask. “You need to go find him so that he could talk to you about himself.”

At the time of the interview, on December 26, 2009, the journalist, Entertainment Editor of Vanguard, Amadi Ogbonna, knew quite well who he was. But it was more like a joke both of them enjoyed and didn’t want to stop, like children at play pretending to be someone else, however briefly the entertainment will last.

Of course, Lagbaja soon revealed himself in the course of the interview, sharing fond memories of his growing years at school in Ibadan. ”Growing up like every Nigerian was a great experience at that time, because Nigeria was more laid back then,” he reminisced to Ogbonna. “My biggest memory was having the freedom to walk to school every day, no fear of kidnappers…you cannot imagine how much I missed that childhood experience of absolute freedom…It was a great time and I wish Nigeria can go back to those times. I lived in an environment without fences, no fears. My first experience of serious fences was when I came to Lagos.”

Like the rest of us, Lagbaja is made of flesh and blood and bones and not the mystery man behind the disguise, a point that was proved almost fatally on one occasion. He, along with two band members, had just returned from rehearsal and were approaching his home. Two or so robbers accosted them. As you may have guessed, he was without his mask and so the hard-eyed criminals didn’t know who he was. True!

Without his mask, the guy could stroll up and down any popular street in Lagos unrecognized. So, the robbers didn’t know who he was. They took him for just another fall guy they could ‘obtain’ at gun point.

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As he recalled of the incident, “they came after me shooting kpa kpa kpa…I escaped into the gorge near my home but then they took Ego and Akin into my home.”

Would the bandits have even contemplated sticking him up if he was wearing his mask? It is doubtful.

But what has not been in doubt these past years is Lagbaja’s extraordinary musical oeuvre and mesmerizing stage performance.

“Konko Below,” is one of his most popular numbers which grandmothers and even preteens enthusiastically dance to, somewhat with a suggestion of mischief, as they wriggle their waist or backside starting from the waist down to the floor. At one time in Lagos and many towns and cities in the South west, it was the number to play at weddings during which both bride and groom will really dig it down to the applause of spectators.

So did fans laud his other compositions such as “Lagbaja Nothing for You,” a subtle dig at himself for trying and failing to woo a potential partner in a duet with Ego who, for many years, was a female back-up singer until she left him to start her solo career.

For a longer time, fans didn’t even know his name. And no master of ceremonies ever introduced him by his real name at public shows or private concerts. It always went something like this: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are delighted to welcome on stage a musician you all have been waiting for tonight. I present to you La – gba - ja.”

Venues could be Maison de France on Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, when, years back, the French Cultural Centre zinged up the musical note in Lagos by bringing on stage musicians like Lagbaja or Femi Kuti in celebrating World Music Day every June. It could be a private concert at a well-appointed residence of a bank executive in Victoria Island throwing a birthday bash for his adorable teenage daughter instead of shopping in Milan or Paris. Or it could even be

“

I don’t know this guy you’re talking about,” Lagbaja replied, probably with a chuckle behind his mask.

“You need to go find him so that he could talk to you about himself

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ARTS *Continued from Page 33

the entertainment centre Lagbaja himself built and helmed right in the heart of Ikeja: Motherlan.

To be sure, Lagbaja isn’t the first musician to build a permanent place to perform and stage his shows. Highlife artistes from the Orient had their own venues, usually hotels and some such places in Aba, Enugu, Onitsha and Port Harcourt where they entertained crowds back in the sixties through the seventies. There was the Caban Bamboo in Yaba where Bobby Benson swayed highlife aficionados back in time.

Abami Eda himself, the one and only Fela Anikulapo Kuti, presided for many years at Afrika Shrine at 12, Pepple Street, Ikeja now gobbled up by Computer Village, a glancing distance from Ikeja Local Government Council.

So, when the masked one opened his entertainment joint which he called Motherlan in Opebi, pleasure seekers in Lagos were mightily delighted. They didn’t have to travel far wherever he would perform. Wives or girlfriends in tow, in the company of friends and colleagues, a rising number of the middle class and yuppies in the metropolis could set aside two or so days a week to watch their favourite artiste do what he knows best: play music and entertain them.

Like some people who have done pretty well in métier crossovers, Lagbaja didn’t start with music at first. Nigerian Afrofunk artiste, Funso Ogundipe, read law at the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in the eighties, worked in a bank for several years. He is now an accomplished musician with his own band Aiyetoro and brand of Afro jazz. Julio Iglesias, an accomplished Spanish singer, studied law in university. He was recuperating from an illness when a nurse presented him with a guitar. It was the beginning of a highly successful musical career.

As Lagbaja himself recounted several times, he had his first experience with a saxophone in a neighbour’s house. His name is John Redhead, whose father was a professor and owned a sax. Ologunde used to go for practice with the professor’s son.

He got more lessons from another neighbour who, coincidentally, lived on the same street with him: Professor Tekena Tamuno. The don was not the one he got his tutelage from. Again, it was the professor’s son, a chap named Tamuno. The sax was left untended, un-played in the university teacher’s garage gathering dust. The pair wasted no time in dusting it up, blowing and blowing until their lips swelled. It was worth the effort, considering the pedestal Lagbaja is today as far as entertainment is concerned in Nigeria.

Besides being the first Nigerian artiste to perform in a mask (Lagbaja in Yoruba means anonymous or faceless one) he also pioneered animation in musical video promos. For the first time, viewers were entertained to cartoon characters living and enacting significant historical moments in Nigeria. “Suruu lere” was sensational right from the get-go. How so?

“Suruu Lere” is one of the musician’s most definitive songs, giving a potted history of Nigeria and also depicting significant periods of the country from colonialism through the second republic to the military dictatorships up to June 12 and more. Nothing like that had been done before, at least musically and in cartoon format. It was novel. It also positioned the masked one on a special pedestal in the entertainment industry in Nigeria. More important, “Suruu Lere” preached patience in the face of the insecurity and uncertainty most Nigerians had to endure all through those years.

There was “Rock Me Gentle,” and “Coolu Temper,” which is also about the need for patience. He begins the song thus: “Oh why is it difficult for us to live in peace/ Why oh to love each other/ What exactly are you looking for/ Remember this vanity/ One day you’ll go/ Leave everything behind/ For yonder you must give account/ O ma tete coolu coolu temper/ (coolu temper)/ Ah cooolu coolu coolu temper…/ My brother let’s share together/ Why oh fight each other/ Let’s be friends/ Not be enemies.”

The man did not stop there, adding some other compositions to his repertoire such as “Show Your Colour” “Dis is Lagos,” “Africalypso,” “Baby ta Ni Ko Fe,” Former band member, Dayo Ajayi aka D’Plus, a graduate of Sociology and Anthropology from University of Ado Ekiti, who spoke to an editor of The Guardian published on July 22, 2017, recalled his working life with Lagbaja. At the time, he was the youngest member of Lagbaja’s ensemble. He began playing the wooden xylophone, then took up bass guitar and finally the talking drum, all of that on Lagbaja’s urging. According to the percussionist, they were preparing for a musical tour of Paris and there was no bass guitarist. “We didn’t have a bass guitarist in the band so I had to take it on. I didn’t really mind though. Then, he asked me to learn how to play the talking drum. I was shocked because I had never played it before.

He told me to see myself as a utility player in a football team who could play any role. As God would have it, I learnt it fast enough and he was pleased but it was very tough for me.

“He gave me so much to do. At a particular show, I was literally playing the piano, chords on one hand, bass on the other and I was still controlling the computer almost at the same time. It was tasking, yet, he would yell at me like I wasn’t doing anything. But after our last show in Paris, he gave me a pat on the back and said he was proud of my performance. It felt like I was gifted a million dollars.”

Speaking further in the interview, D’Plus said of his former band leader as “a stickler for perfection, very painstaking and tough to work with, but very wise and exposed man. I learnt the virtues of discipline and hard work from him.”

Nothing delights like commendations from colleagues, so they say. If, for instance, a colleague back-pats you, then you know you are doing well in whatever profession you are. But it is even more if a non-professional heaps accolades on you, in praise of your attitude or behavior towards others you wouldn’t ordinarily encounter in life.

So it was with an engineer, Andy Oriekose, from Agbor in Delta state, who used to service and still services the generators at Motherlan. “I have worked for Lagbaja closely as the engineer who repairs his generators,” Oriekose told this reporter recently. “He is a complete gentleman, a nice man who is not used to giving orders like the typical Nigerian big man.”

Nothing could be a better testimonial for a performer who has many years ahead of him on the musical stage in Nigeria and beyond•

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Brothers at War Over Traditional Title

BY ISAAC OLAMIKAN

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n Friday, January 8, 2021, the people of Egbema Kingdom, split between Edo and Delta states, held what they tagged an extraordinary general assembly of all sons and daughters of the kingdom in Ofunama town in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State.

The gathering was held to determine the direction the people should take on the issue of kingship of the locality, especially as an ex-militant leader, Henry Ekebilegha Binidodogha, is laying claim to the kingship of the community.

Some of the resolutions arrived at during the meeting are: That Egbema kingdom is one indivisible, indissoluble kingdom which straddles the defunct Bendel State (present day Edo and Delta States).

“That Egbema kingdom is made up of nine (9) traditional villages namely, (1) Opuama/ Polobubor, (2) Ofunama, (3) Bolou-Jamagie, (4) Abadegbene/Tu-Jamagie,(5) Ogbinbiri, (6) Ogbudugbudu, (7) Gbeoba/Gbolukanga, (8)Ajakurama and (9)Abere.

“That by the ancient traditions of the kingdom, there are four ruling houses namely; Opuama/Polobubor, Bolou-Jamagie, Ogbudugbudu and Ajakurama Ruling House/Villages.

“That the customs and traditions of Egbema kingdom are as gazetted in 1979 by the Military Administrator of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria.

“That for some time, Mr. Henry has been seen falsely parading himself as HRH, the Ojuaga 1 of Egbema Clan consisting of the seven(7) communities of Egbema Kingdom in Edo State.

“That the said Mr. Henry Binidodougha falsely claims he was installed as a traditional ruler (Ojuaga 1) of the seven(7) communities in Egbema by the Council of Chiefs at his Benin residence.

“That at no time was Mr. Henry Binidodougha who hails from Ofunama town enthroned/ installed and or crowned as a traditional ruler with any title whatsoever in Egbema kingdom.

“That the title of Ojuaga 1 is alien and repugnant to the customs and traditions of Egbema kingdom.

“That the activities of Mr. Henry Binidodougha are a direct attack on the ancient customs and traditions as well as the territorial integrity of the Egbema people, particularly as it relates to the traditional stool of the kingdom.

“The kingdom condemns in strong terms attempts by Mr. Henry Binidodougha and his cohorts to divide the kingdom and put its communities at war with each other.

“The people of Egbema further condemn attempts by Mr. Henry Binidodougha to intimidate members of the Traditional Council of Chiefs with men and officers of the Nigeria Police, Zone 5 and consequently call on the Inspector General of Police to intervene in the police cases pending at the office of the AIG , Zone 5, Benin City.

“The kingdom disowns Mr. Henry Binidodougha and his followers and hereby urges all indigenes of the kingdom to refrain from dealing with the said Mr. Henry Binidodougha.

“The kingdom reaffirms the banishment placed on Mr. Henry Binidodougha over his attempts to divide the kingdom and install himself as the Ojuaga I of the seven communities of Egbema kingdom in Edo State.

“That the general public, particularly our neighbouring kingdoms should be wary of the antics of Mr. Henry Binidodougha and his followers.

“That Mr. Henry Binidodougha was never and will never be crowned a traditional ruler as Ofunama where he hails from is not part of the ruling houses in Egbema Kingdom.

“That all the villages of Egbema kingdom in Edo State are part of one indivisible and indissoluble Egbema kingdom and governed by the Egbema customs and traditions as gazetted in 1979.

“The people of Egbema have resolved to abide by the ancient customs and traditions of one indivisible, indissoluble kingdom and have also passed a vote of confidence on Egbema Traditional Council of Chiefs chaired by High Chief David Bubor, the Toripuwei of Egbema Kingdom.

“The people of Egbema have also resolved further that we will continue to respond to any form of threat against the territorial integrity and the ancient Traditional Stool of Egbema kingdom. In this regard, the kingdom has activated all its defense mechanism against any direct or indirect attack on its territories.”

However, in his response to the resolutions of his kinsmen mostly from Delta State, Binidodogha stated: that his ascendancy of the traditional stool of his clan since March 25, 2018, was endorsed by the elders, chiefs and leaders of the seven major Egbema communities in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State namely - Ofunama, Jamagie 1 and 2, Ugbolukanga, Abere, Gbeoba and Ajakurama (from where the Ojuaga 1 title is coined).

He stated that he was just waiting for the royal blessings of the Benin monarch, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare 11, N’Ogidigan.

Binidodogha said his insistence on peaceful co-existence of his people with their neighbours was not going down well with some elements who continually blackmail and try to *Continues on Page 40

HRH Henry Ekebilegha Binidodogha THEWILLNIGERIA

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Entertainment &s o c i e t y w e e k l y Taiwo Ajai-Lycett The Actor’s Actor

INSIDE: •Sonnie Ayere, Uche Ajene’s marriage crumbles

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•Tit bits from the drama filled burial of Helen PrestAjayi’s ‘husband’

27

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e-weekly

‘Everything That Happened to Me... is a Lesson’ A lover of the arts in all its ramifications, this multiple award winning actress who has showcased her innate skills across several continents is as talented as they come. Since her career soared when she became the only black actor on the set of the popular 80s British television series, ‘Some mothers do have them’, Taiwo Ajai Lynette OON, has since added several other careers in between, ranging from business management to marketing communication, educationist, broadcaster, a life coach etc.

The very vocal and highly opinionated legend who clocked 80 on Feb 3 shares her thoughts with IVORY UKONU on how best to better position Nollywood.

Y

ou clocked 80 about three weeks ago but you don’t look anywhere near your age. Would you like to share your secret?

It is nothing really

There must be something you are doing right Nature is doing right to me. I think nature does everything, I don’t think we have power over anything. We can assist but I think we go the way we have been ordained to go and we have to accept that. We can’t take credit for anything. I can’t take credit for how I look. Yes I am at peace, I am very active, I am working and I think that is a major attribute that keeps us alive. I am enthusiastic and I do not worry about age or how I look. I am big on how I feel. I think of how to ameliorate a bad feeling. We have power over that because we are the sum total of the choices we make in life. But beyond that, I exercise; I swim, I do stretches, to make sure my joints are lubricated and get circulation going. I love to read, I love to listen to music, jazz and classical music. I consider them sensual because of their lyrics.

Speaking of sensuality, would you consider yourself romantic?

Oh yes I am very romantic and very passionate. I don’t think there is anything else in this world that we can be so engrossed in that is more important than love and romance. I am not talking about sex. Love and romance is when you actually see the divinity in another person, loosing yourself in somebody else. We are mostly consumed with ourselves but when you think about another person, it is divine. It is even biblical; love your God with all your heart and with all your soul and love your neighbor as yourself. Everything is encapsulated in this law.

Despite your contract with Multichoice sponsored soap, ‘Tinsel’ ending, you have kept busy, even busier than those far younger than you in the industry. What would you say is your staying power?

I think it is one magic of my life that I consider wonderful, to still be busy at this age. It is a great blessing. I mean in an industry that is all about beauty and glamour and I am the antithesis of it, how come I am so busy at 80 years old. That is the magic.

Beauty and glamour is what characterizes the make believe world.

Why would you be an antithesis of it?

I don’t subscribe to it because it obscures the message actors are trying to pass across to their audience. Real glamour comes with what we do. It comes with the territory. However I do not want it institutionalized as a celebrity nonsense. That clouds what we are trying to do. I think an actor is an evangelist, I think we peddle ideas. But glamorizing it and putting boobs out there and backsides shooting all over the place, ‘muddles the water’. A lot of people who do not see real thespians doing that, think that is what showbiz is all about which isn’t. I think showbiz as it is found in other parts of the world, can really play a major role in political development, in galvanizing and sensitizing people to their rights and every other thing that comes with it. I think the authenticity that actors bring helps to give

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confidence to the people, not the superficiality that you see everywhere now.

It is like me being uppity because someone recognizes me in the streets but that shouldn’t be the case. Actors must learn to respect people and give them honor and I think some of us forget that the fans are our sponsors really and so why get uppity when you see them in the street.

But actors sometimes have their bad days like every normal human being.

Then don’t go into that business. You must give whatever you do, what it takes. That you have your bad days is no reason to be uncivil. I also think that the vibes you give to people is what they respond to. So the message we send out as actors is what comes back to us. People are very sensible and intelligent and very respectful of what we do as actors. So if they like you, you will see the respect they will give to you. And I do not think it has anything to do with me, I think it is because they are getting the message I am putting across. I am an artist for my audience, expressing what the fans are not able to express. That is what the audience expects, they respect that and show you that respect. As for me, no one has ever treated me with any iota of disrespect and I thank them for that. Even when I was younger. Yes being on the screen is glamourous, but that is where it should stop. You don’t bring it to your private life and then worry that you are being treated anyhow.

Look at where I stay.

You chose to stay here, you could be living large in Lekki or Ikoyi, if you so desire Exactly my point. I am making a statement by that, that I am normal and if there is anyway you feel you can influence people, especially in Lagos, Nigeria, you don’t stay in Lekki and then look down on people who are the reason you are on screen in the first place. You behave in ways that shows *Continues on Page 38

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society weekly

BY IVORY UKONU

Behind The Scene: Drama - filled Burial of Dr Tosin Ajayi Tosin Ajayi

Helen Ajayi

O

n Thursday February 11, 61-year-old former Miss Nigeria, Helen Prest Ajayi finally buried her ‘partner of 25 years, Dr Tosin Ajayi of First Foundation Medical Centre, at Ebony Vaults, Ikoyi. This was after almost ten months of tumult and rancour between her, the late Dr Ajayi’s estranged first wife, Yemisi and Ajayi’s five older children.

Dr Ajayi died in April 2020 at St Nicholas hospital after battling kidney problem. For those who do not know who the late Ajayi was, besides being an icon in the medical field in Nigeria, it was in his hospital that Dele Giwa died in October 1986, after he was assassinated by a letter bomb. The late Ajayi tried to save Dele Giwa’s life but his efforts were in vain because of how bad the bomb had shattered Giwa’s lower body, causing him massive shock and loss of excess blood.

The genesis: Immediately they learnt of their father’s death, Dr Ajayi’s five older children (Oluwatomi, Olumide, Omolade, Oluwamayowa and Abisola) quickly petitioned the police alleging foul play in his death and requested an autopsy. The report of the autopsy ruled out any foul play. Not satisfied, they wanted his corpse transferred to a morgue of their choice where they would take over his burial arrangements and exclude Helen.

Sensing their plan, Helen wouldn’t budge and this generated into a civil case. It took the intervention of close friends and some family members to get the older children to back down and arrive at a compromise with Helen to choose a burial date.

The service of songs: At this juncture only two service of songs could suffice. Helen organized one at the Ikoyi home she shared with Dr Ajayi.

In attendance were some of her socialite friends.

Disregard for late Ajayi’s wish: The first problem about the burial ceremony was the fact that the late doctor’s wish on who should officiate at his funeral was not honoured. He had said that in the event of his death, he would prefer that a pastor from one of the Redeemed Christian Church of God parishes he worships in, on the Island, officiate at his funeral. He specifically didn’t want any minister from his estranged wife’s church, SherperdHill Baptist Church, Lagos to minister at his funeral. Alas that wasn’t to be as the presiding minister at the funeral was Israel Kristilere of SherperdHill Baptist Church. For reasons best known to him, the late Ajayi while he was alive, tried as much as possible to distance himself from the church and reportedly did not attend the weddings of two of his daughters that held at the church.

Two sets of printed brochures: To avoid any rancour, two sets of brochures were printed for the funeral.

All hell let loose during dust-to-dust rite: The presiding minister had requested that the first wife, Yemisi perform the dust-to-dust rite first, which she did. She immediately handed over the mini shovel to her children to perform their rites. This didn’t go down well with Helen who insisted that she be the next person to perform the dust-to-dust rite after the first wife and not after the late Ajayi’s five older children. Commotion ensued with the children from the first wife dragging the mini shovel for performing the rite with Helen. After a lot of scuffle and arguments, Helen eventually let go when they succeeded in dragging the shovel from her.

Helen’s apology for grave side misconduct: Following the backlash that greeted the conduct of all parties involved at the grave side, Helen was forced to issue a statement apologizing for the show of shame that happened when it should have been a celebration of his life. In a short speech, she said, “Saying our last goodbyes to my dearest kind, humble, wise, caring, loving, intellectually brilliant, generous, charming, fun loving husband. He was a doting father to our children, an icon in the medical field and a huge philanthropist. Adieu ‘Doc” dearest I ‘apolo’ for everything you have been put through, but God took control to help me THEWILLNIGERIA

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give you a befitting and honorable burial. You are heaven’s gain and have gone forth to meet our deceased children Taiwo and Oluwatosin junior Idowu Ajayi - rest on in peace my love,” Helen details trauma of burial in another piece: A day after the apology, Helen penned another piece, sharing some of the things she has had to endure since she lost her husband. She talked about his death; how she was accused of murdering him by his adult children and their mother; how she spent 42 days in St Nicholas Hospital Lagos by his bedside before he gave up the ghost; getting dragged to Panti police station, then to Coroners court and then to High court. She ended her piece by thanking God for delivering her from false accusations and for burying the late Ajayi in the manner he deserved.

Estranged wife, Yemisi pays tribute to late husband: Not to be outdone, the late Dr Ajayi’s estranged wife, Yemisi decided to pay tribute to her late estranged husband. In her piece, she stated that she met the late Ajayi in 1973 at Island Maternity Lagos, during his Housemanship and while she was doing a midwifery course. She reiterated that he was her first and only love and the only man she ever knew. She revealed in the lengthy piece that how they got married in 1974 as well as how she had to take up the financial responsibilities of their home so he could save up enough to build their first house in 1980, a house she still occupies till date. While thanking him for his friendship, his financial and other gifts to her over the years, she mentioned that he had returned home one day to inform her of the need for him to stay away from home for “security reasons”. This she said she consented to without asking too much questions. She however didn’t mention in her piece what the ‘security reasons’ were or how things turned sour between them prompting him to leave her for Helen.

Yemisi’s status with late Ajayi: They were married for over 20 years and both welcomed five children. The late Dr Ajayi left her about 35 years ago but never divorced her. Ten of those 35 years, the late Ajayi was a loner who lived more or less like a bachelor. But towards the end tail end of the ten years he was away from Yemisi, he met Helen with whom he spent the last 25 years of his life with before he died.

Helen’s status with late Ajayi: Shortly after the burial ceremony, the deceased’s children in a statement said that Helen was never married to their father. They said that Helen herself in court papers filed on her behalf by her lawyer, in Suit No. ID/7096GCMW/2020 before the Ikeja Division of the High Court of Lagos State, specifically, paragraph 4(h) of the counter-affidavit suit, that Helen herself stated that she was “his (Dr. Ajayi’s) partner and civil companion for the past 25 years prior to his death.”

In their 25 years as livein lovers, Helen bore him a daughter. She was previously married to businessman, Jimmy Davies and the union produced two daughters.

Yemisi Ajayi

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s-weekly Sonnie Ayere, Uche Ajene’s Marriage Crumbles

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Sonnie & Uche Ajene

*Continued from Page 36

he fairy tale union between popular Lagos socialite, Sonnie Ayere and sultry looking Uche Ajene has ended. It is sad that the marriage crumbled like a pack of badly arranged cards barely two years after they both tied the knot in a very classy wedding in May of 2019.

Sonnie for reasons best known to him, reportedly moved out of the swanky Ikoyi home he shared with Uche as soon as she left the country to seek medical treatment for her leg which was affected in an accident earlier in the year.

Whatever the issues were between them, Sonnie was obviously too cowardly to confront it head on while Uche was in the country, but waited until she was incapacitated and out of the country before striking.

Many Nigerians who were rooting for a happily ever after for both of them would be beyond disappointed as their marriage which in hindsight now looks like a ‘social experiment’, was their second attempt at giving love a chance.

An investment guru, Sonnie who is the Chief Executive Officer of Dunn Loren Merrified, a leading investment firm, gave his first shot at marriage but somewhere along the line, got separated from his wife. He then got into a sizzling relationship with Thisday Style editor, Ruth Osime and that further boosted his social profile as he was always seen by her side at most social events.

Many actually thought that Sonnie who looked like he was smitten with her, would make a honorable woman of her but the sleekness in Sonnie failed to be subdued as he ended things with Ruth after years of frolicking with her and went back briefly into his wife’s arms. But that itself was short lived as the marriage soon packed up and Sonnie found a reason to give marriage a second chance, with Uche Ajene, or so many thought.

Uche who used to be the Managing Director of Quadrant MSL Nigeria before she left in 2019, now runs her own thing, Stephanie John, a Public Relations and Strategic Communications agency. She also runs My Girlfriend’s Closet, a fashion outlet in Ikoyi.

Like Sonnie, Uche was equally divorced on grounds of infidelity on her part and she must have thought that since they have both learnt lessons from their previous marriages, they would strive to make a success of their second attempt. They even became live in lovers to further ‘understudy’ themselves.

But it is obvious now that it has ended, that the union was all a charade. Your guess is as good as mine as to who is having the last laugh at the moment.

So now, we patiently await their next conquests.

While they were together, both Sonnie and Uche shared six kids, three each from their previous marriages.

‘Everything That Happened to Me... is a Lesson’ that you care about them and feel what they feel and see what they see.

What are your thoughts about the movie industry as it is today, an allcomers affair?

It is something I worry about. Some people who are supposedly quite popular on social media, get paid to be on movie posters for the promotion of the movie.

Now that is also a form of advertising for these people who get paid so that men can see them and desire to be with them. That is why these set of people are rushing to be actors and the industry is becoming an all comers affair. And the bigger your bum, the more you get featured. And then they nab a man who gets them a house in Lekki, pays for a shop for them take them to Dubai and so on.

They don’t even bother about how much they get paid which isn’t much anyway, as long as they get to appear in the movie because they know that their cash will come from appearing in the movie. Do they even know about movie agents? You also have someone who has acted in two movies suddenly produces a movie and becomes a producer.

Do you work with a movie agent, in Nigeria?

Oh yes I do.

I doubt that your colleagues work with agents I don’t think so because I have been trying to sell it to them for years. I am an actor and I should face my craft as an actor and get someone to run the business aspect of acting on my behalf, someone who is trained to do that. And that is the job of an agent who is trained in show biz administration and negotiating my pay as an actor. I also have a lawyer who is versed in all things legal in showbiz. So you want me for a job, you speak to my lawyer, my manager, not to me. My job is to deliver to you the best performance I can muster and I can only deliver when I am focused on doing that rather than running after you for my pay. Your manager is entitled to at least 15 per cent to 20 per cent of what he or she negotiates for you and that encourages the manager to look for better deals for you. And everyone is happy. People call me for jobs and I tell them to talk to my agent, they don’t seem to understand it besides they prefer to rip one off than talking to a good negotiatior. But I always insist. I don’t work without my agent who ensures how I get on set, how I am being treated on set and so on and so forth. The same way I have a lawyer and an agent here, is the same way I have them in England and they all co ordinate and get things done. But unfortunately, we are not doing that here.

They prefer to keep everything to themselves when they get paid for jobs rather than being professional. It is a cultural thing that I have been trying to get them to change since I came to Nigeria in 1976. To get them to imbibe how things are done in Europe. I am member of British Equity union and in England, unless you are a member of that body, you cannot work as an actor. I am a member, I have a voting power and I enjoy all of the benefits that comes with being a member.

I tried to introduce it to them here that this is how things should be done but it all falls on deaf ears. But I can’t blame them. If you speak a foreign language to someone, they can’t understand. I am talking about having real structure and

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organization. In this life, If you want to do everything by yourself, then you are not going to do very much.

Isn’t that why there is an Actors Guild of Nigeria?

It is now that they are trying to imbibe some of those things like setting up insurance policies, health schemes etc. I am what I am today because of the providence funds British Equity Union got us to contribute and invest from the time I began acting as a young lady.

You used to run an acting school. What happened to it?

I shut it down. Actors here don’t think they need training Not many know you are beauty inclined and you attended the Christine Shaw School of Beauty Science and Cosmetology, London.

While I was working at that height at the post office, it occurred to me that I needed to be well groomed because my bosses were entertaining people from all over the world. Depending on my status, I was entitled to a holiday of between 4 and 6 weeks. So every holiday, like a proper Nigerian, I went to study something or the other including filmmaking and cosmetology at the Christine Shaw School of Beauty. Cosmetology entails knowing how to dress properly for various occasions, especially cocktails. You do not have to look like a model but you must have everything put together absolutely right, including your makeup. So I studied cosmetology to aid my work for the post office. It wasn’t that I wanted to be a makeup artist; I just wanted to understand what it meant to put yourself together. Looking good is good business. When you look good, you encourage people to tidy up themselves because when you are in the public eye, there are so many impressionable people looking at you.

At 80, what have you learnt about life?

Life has taught me that if there is anything I know, it is that I don’t know everything. I am not sure we own ourselves and so we have to go softly about life. Be humble, be civil. We are not in control of anything and so we have to be careful. I don’t take people or anything for granted.

Any regrets about life?

None but I have learnt to have courage and fortitude.

Is there anything you could have done differently looking back now?

Everything that happened to me, whether good or bad, is a lesson, an affirmation of how I should have behaved or what I should be doing or not doing.

It is what has made me to be who I am today. It has not been a bad life but it has been a difficult one. But no one promised us an easy life. We were only promised victory and what that means is that that there is no difficulty in this life we can’t overcome. If I have that as my armory, then there is nothing I won’t overcome.

I will stumble but I have to get up and rise like a phoenix and that makes me triumphant.

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s-weekly

Hon. Adekunle Akinlade’s Dilemma

BY FITZGERALD COKER

Aisha Buhari Left In The Cold On 50th Birthday

F

or run-away First Lady, Mrs. Aisha Halilu Buhari, clocking the milestone of 50 years on mother earth on February 17, 2021, would ordinarily have been celebrated with fanfare with praise singers railing her to high heavens.

However, instead of such glitz, the beautiful and charming first lady was missing in action, tucked away in a residence at the United Arab Emirates where she allegedly relocated citing insecurity as an excuse.

Though we are still in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, the big shock for her friends and admirers was that that the presidency did not even officially acknowledge nor celebrate her new age. Instead of the birthday frenzy however, newspaper advertorials, articles, social media posts from her friends helped make the day special for Mrs. Buhari, who has had a protracted battle with the President’s close relatives and associates, who clearly wield tremendous influence over her husband for her dislike.

“She should have been celebrated but for a First-lady of a country who abandoned her husband and her people by relocating to Dubai at a perilous time when; insecurity and killings are currently tearing the country apart. She has not played her role as the mother of the country.

She has abandoned Nigeria. Maybe that’s why people refused to wish her a happy 50th birthday.

The few who wished her, just did to fulfill all righteousness,” a senior politician in the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, said.

“It was her 50th birthday and nobody seemed to care about it. Unlike other former first ladies in the past who will get lots of advertisements on newspapers, lots of goodwill messages on social media and off social media with gifts thronging in like an endless flow of water, with lots of surprises. Aisha’s Birthday seems different this year. Sources disclosed that; she had a quiet celebration in Dubai devoid of Media presence.

“It will be so insensitive of her to celebrate at

F

Aisha Buhari

this time when the country is hot. She might also be trying to avoid larger gatherings due to the current pandemic.

Notwithstanding, a message from her husband’s official handle or the presidency’s should celebrate her. The President’s spokesmen, Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, did not even send her greetings. From all indications, it seems the first lady who is fond of complaining about her husband’s government and leadership style has been left in the cold.

Femi Fani-Kayode’s Antics

emi Fani-Kayode is widely known as a big mouthed politician without a political following or base that can swing an election yet he still throws himself into every shade of political discuss, controversies and fan conspiracy theories. The ex-Minister, who trained as lawyer, is never in short supply of his comical tendencies.

He likes controversies; his bag of controversy never runs dry. Like a typical political harlot, he has,

Fani-Kayode

THEWILLNIGERIA

F

rom the cradle of his political career, Abdulkabir Adekunle Akinlade, popularly called Tripple A, has displayed the attitude of a politician who has no mind of his own but rather plays a puppet to his godfather.

When his godfather and the former governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun picked him as the anointed candidate to succeed him towards the twilight of his tenure in 2019, many kicked against his candidature, perhaps, based on his antecedent.

The ‘war’ in All Progressive Congress, APC was too much and too hot to handle. He was already being addressed as Governor not knowing he was simply living in a fool’s paradise.

The election came and it was a war that Senator Amosun and his loyalists eventually lost out the primary to incumbent Dapo Abiodun due to the antics of former National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, who was forced out of office some months after the general election.

In a bid to make his ambition see the light of the day, the former member of the House of Representatives moved left the party with his followers to the relatively unknown Allied Progressives Movement, APM in a bid to defeat Abiodun in the governorship poll. However, this was the beginning of his political misfortune.

He eventually lost the governorship election to Abiodun.

But with the advice of his godfather, he contested the result of the poll up to the Supreme Court and lost. Till date the Yewa born politician is literally gnashing his teeth in anger and regret.

However, it was gathered that since his godfather won the Ogun Central senatorial election, he has left Tripple A in the cold.

“Tripple A has recoiled back into his cocoon and is staying far from all social activities. Favour seekers have deserted him. In the cause of the election, he spent his savings in pre-election and postelection battles,” a source said.

Though he has since defected back to the APC, he is being treated like a prodigal child. He has lost political relevance as the structure that was used for his election has been collapsed back into Dapo Abiodun’s political structure. According to Yoruba Parlance; The dog that will get lost will not listen to the whistle of the hunter; that is the case of Akinlade.

at various times, been a member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and the All Progressives Congress, APC going back and forth like a yoyo.

The fact is, the Osun State-born former cabinet minister is battling to remain politically relevant hence his recent romance with the ruling APC. It was widely reported that Femi recently met with Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and Governor Buni of Yobe state in Abuja, both members of the ruling APC. The motive for the meeting is still sketchy but some averred that the ‘Short Fuse’ ex-minister might be romancing his way back to the political party he swore never to affiliate with. He was also alleged to have made an unpleasant statement about Asiwaju Tinubu’s Presidential ambition. Like all politicians, he must have reversed all he said about the APC. Sources said; “Take Femi Fani-Kayode seriously at your own peril. He is never consistent.

You should not expect less from a man with an acid tongue who can’t control his utterances and anger. He is not a plus to any party he joins. I am not sure he can even win his ward not to talk of his senatorial district. He has no political clout or relevance. All he is good at is making controversial statements that will put him on the spotlight. Apart from that he is a toothless bulldog politically.’’

Governor Bello announced that he has defected back to the APC but Femi debunked the rumour, claiming he is still with the PDP. Femi reminds me of the disgraced former US President, Donald Trump. They are both unstable, erratic and would do anything to remain in the limelight at any cost.

Akinlade

Arthur Nzeribe’s ‘Haven of Peace’ Becomes Shadow of Old Self

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t age 22, Senator Francis Arthur Nzeribe hit a mega fortune, becoming a major player in the nation’s financial sector.

Providence smiled on him; he became so powerful and influential in Nigeria’s political landscape. Recall that Nzeribe, now 82 year-old, was alleged to be the promoter of the infamous Association for a Better Nigeria, an organization that was instrumental to the annulment of MKO Abiola’s June 12, 1993 presidential election.

He was later elected a Senator to represent Imo’s Orlu Senatorial District first in 1999 and then in 2003 on the platform of the then ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, spending millions of Naira in his campaign.

In November 2002, the then Senate President Anyim Pius Anyim suspended Nzeribe indefinitely over an allegation of a N22 million fraud. Also, in April 2006, the Orlu People’s Consultative Assembly, sponsored by the then Governor of Imo State, Achike Udenwa, staged what it called a “One million march” to drum support for Nzeribe’s recall from the Senate. Due to popular demand, in December 2006, he suffered a brutal defeat in the party’s 2007 senatorial primary, dusted by his closest rival, Osita Izunaso, who later emerged senator for the district.

Nzeribe

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NEWS EXTRA Newspaper Distributors Inaugurate New Exco, Seek Support For News Vendors, Agents

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he Lagos Island zone of the influential Newspapers and Magazine Distributors’ Association of Nigeria, NDAN, has called on newspaper publishers as well as government to support news agents and news vendors so that they can also benefit from the media value chain.

Newly elected chairman of the zone, Godwin Akpan in his inaugural address during the swearing in of the new executive committee last week made the call.

He said: “Media owners/government should collaborate to provide insurance cover for vendors in case of accident - Vendors and Agents are endangered species and other occupational hazards.

“Government should empower and educate distributors and vendors.

“Government should step-up effort by urgently reducing the cost of newspaper and magazines production especially newsprint so that, the cover prices could also come down for people to be able to afford it. People prefer to go through the headlines or read on the social media platforms. This is affecting newspaper business adversely.

“Newspaper distributors and vendors population runs into millions of people Nationwide. In Lagos State alone, we are approximately Two Million. No nation can afford to disenfranchise such a large group of people from participating fully in real sector of the Nations Economy.” •

Chairman of NDAN, Lagos Island, Mr. Godwin Akpan, (in black hat) with new members of the executive after their inauguration

Fresh Fears Over Dangote Killer Trucks

*Continued from Page 8

560 XC, laden with cement from the Unicem factory at Mfamosing was speeding towards Ikom when the driver lost control and ran over a Volkswagen car, swept off the road and crashed through a road-side shop trapping the owner under the truck’s tires The truck with registration number, Enugu KEM 560 XC laden with cement from the Unicem factory at Mfamosing was speeding towards Ikom when the driver lost control and ran over a Volkswagen car on its way to Calabar and was swept off the road and crashed through a coffin shop taking the coffin maker who was in the shop at the time under its tire.

The driver of the Volkswagen car and four passengers including the shop owner were killed on the spot, while the truck driver escaped.

In the same month, a Dangote Cement truck crashed

into five vehicles and a motorcycle at the Odukpani Junction, along Calabar-Ogoja expressway leaving 24 persons injured. The truck with identification Number ICT-11F-050 had no number plate.

Passengers on a Kano-Port Harcourt train, March 14, 2016, narrowly escaped death as a Dangote truck loaded with bags of cement passed an illegal crossing point, causing the rail line to shift from its normal position as the train approached.

The incident occurred in Mungedi, a highly populated suburb in the Madobi local government area of Kano state at 4.16 pm – sixteen minutes after departing from the Kano terminal.

According to reports, villagers who witnessed the incident made a concerted effort to flag down the train as it approached the section of the rail line that had been

Brothers at War Over Traditional Title *Continued from Page 34

instigate him to engage in causing mayhem in Edo State which he always disagrees with.

He affirmed that his loyalty to the Oba of Benin was never in doubt, adding that it is only living at peace with their neighbours that would enable his people to enjoy growth and development.

According to him, in the days of the old Bendel State, Ofunama Kingdom was one. But with the split of the state to Edo and Delta, they have accordingly become two separate entities.

“Our brothers in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State are fortunate to have representation in government. For over thirty years now, we in Edo State have not been that fortunate. We have been suffering underdevelopment as we have nobody to speak for us and that informed the decision of the elders of Ofunama Clan in Ovia South West Local Government Area of Edo State to install me as their traditional head.

“We don’t have any issue about the Agadagba of Egbema Kingdom. We are not against him. He should just take care of issues relating to our brothers in Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State where he is from.

“We have a large expanse of land which the government

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can allocate for mechanised farming that will act as a source of employment for the teeming youths. Being the traditional ruler of Ofunama Clan I will act as the bridge between the people and the government. We have since then been in touch with the Edo State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Governor Godwin Obaseki and His Royal Majesty, Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II.” He denied that by being loyal to the Benin monarch, he was planning to sell his kinsmen into slavery.

“The Ojuaga title is Ijaw title. I don’t have any issue with them. They should understand that what I and the elders are doing is to bring peace and development to our communities. Edo State is a peace loving-state and I have always stand by that mantra.”

Adding his voice to the argument, Endurance Eferusoa, the assistant secretary of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) in the locality stressed that he sees no reason for the split in the ranks of the leadership of the youth body on the issue.

“There is no way a king will rule in two states (Delta and Edo); so, the emergence of Binidodogha to represent the interest of Egbema Clan in Edo State is in order,” he affirmed•

damaged by the truck.

The engineer, identified as Garba Garba, managed to bring the speeding train to a halt when he noticed the warning signs by the villages, thus avoiding a derailment.

He reportedly confessed that, “it would have been very dangerous for the passengers, the crew, the coaches and the surrounding houses if the train had derailed because of the shift”.

A team of policemen were promptly mobilized by the railway authorities to the site of the accident to look for the Dangote truck driver, who had fled the scene to evade possible arrest.

On December 28, 2016, a truck belonging to Dangote Group crushed a Second Republic Senator, Mukhtar Abdulkarim to death.

Abdulkarim, according to reports, along with his brother and driver, was travelling between Kano and Zamfara states when the truck rammed into his car, killing him instantly.

THE DANGOTE COLOSSUS Group Head, Corporate Communications, Dangote Group, Mr Anthony Chiejina, would not comment on the matter. However, a reliable source in the Company told THEWILL on point of anonymity that Dangote Group is concerned about the incessant road accidents involving its trucks and that appropriate actions were being taken to redress the anomaly.

Mr Aliko Dangote, founder and Chairman, Dangote Group, is Africa’s richest man with a net worth of $17.5 billion as at 2020, according to information obtained from Bloomberg’s billionaire tracker. Dangote Group, the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent, employs more than 30,000 people.

The flagship company, Dangote Cement Plc (DCP), is the highest capitalized in the Nigerian Stock Exchange with over N4 trillion from where majority of Dangote’s fortune is derived with his 86 per cent stake in the No. 1 publicly-traded company by capitalization in Nigeria’s bourse.

Analysts express concern over the high rate of road accidents involving Dangote Group heavy duty vehicles as a company of that status should be reputed with the highest safety attitude of its motor vehicle operators •

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SportsLive

Minister of Sports, Sunday Dare

National Sports Festival: Catalogue Of Postponements

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BY JUDE OBAFEMI

n March of 2020, when the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, went on an inspection tour of the facilities at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City and proceeded to reiterate his state’s preparedness to host the National Sports Festival (NSF) tagged “Edo 2020” , little did he know what laid ahead. If someone had told him that in February 2021, the state will still not be anywhere near hosting the festival, he may have laughed in derision.

As he went around the host stadium, to personally confirm the readiness of the swimming pool, the lawn tennis courts, the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), and the power and security systems, the governor assured those ready to participate that the gymnastics complex, which is over 90 per cent complete, was to be ready within the next 10 days, ahead of the initial March 22, 2020 commencement of the different competitions.

Obaseki’s Edo State was preparing to host athletes from across the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) for the NSF that March and as the chief host, the governor was on ground to ensure everything was in place for a glitch-free, smooth-running hosting.

He checked and took note of everything, including parking arrangements to keep the flow of traffic moving and accommodation reservations to make certain there were no hiccups.

For accommodation purposes, the state secured over 11,000 spaces which they furnished with appropriate facilities and beddings, to cater for athletes coming from the length and breadth of the country. They took up free rooms from institutions around the city, with some assistance from commercial hotels contributing about 3,000 to the number.

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Meanwhile, athletes from different states in the country were upping their preparations to bring their best to Benin-City and make a mark for themselves and their states. The states themselves were getting their contingent in the best form to prosecute this challenge.

Ebonyi state, for instance, whose team qualified to represent the South-East zone in football and in the male and female cricket events, revealed that it would storm the 2020 NSF with 187 athletes and officials.

The commissioner, Charles Akpuenika, said it was an admirable milestone that the state was making a statement for itself and he had no doubt that the contingent would win in all the games.

But Obaseki was already thinking beyond Edo 2020. He made his intentions known in the days leading to the starting date of the festival.

The government took a group of senior sports editors around the facilities being prepared for the festival while outlining plans to make the festival an economic booster to the state. Led by the state’s Deputy Governor, Phillip Shaibu, who doubled as the chairman of the Local Organising Committee (LOC), the editors were educated on the plans to make Edo State the hub of sports in Nigeria.

Shaibu made it clear to the group that the festival had been planned so that money spent on the construction of facilities and organisation of the festival would be recouped through the same facilities after the games were completed. The Edo project was to make sports an economy of its own for the domestic engagement of youths, the growth of the local economy around sports and even to the trade in pitch-style grass.

Mirroring the objective of the NSF as a nursery for growing sports stars, the Edo government was proud to disclose that preparing to host the festival gave them a determination to bring back the Edo Principal’s Cup and the Governor’s Cup competitions that were a staple for the state. Furthermore, they planned to return attention to inter-house sports competitions in government schools, while rejigging the Ogbe Hard Court Tennis Championship and gymnastics, all of which were to be jointly funded in collaboration with the private sector.

Also in the plan of the government to turn Edo State into a sports hub was the planned utilisation of the 20 mini stadia across the state.

They intended to combine the push to get the Edo people into sports with education and blend the curriculum to reflect this combination so that sportsmen and women will have a certificate to fall back on if and when they decide to leave their different sports for other goals.

To this end, the government approved a state-wide based Edo State Sports Festival as an annual event to give every zone in the state the opportunity to master its area of potential and make it unbeatable.

As the date for commencement of the games drew close and health and safety worries became a subject of discourse in the public space with the news that a certain epidemic was spreading from the Wuhan Province in China, the state disclosed that it was deploying 150 medical personnel to offer essential medical services and other measures to ward off the coronavirus infection in and around the state during the games.

They had procured five scanners and infrared thermometers to be stationed at the stadium and the Benin Airport to check for the indicative presence of infection which was often a high body temperature. The government assured everyone involved that all athletes and spectators were going to be checked daily during the games. And, in the case of eventualities, two isolation centres were on ground just as sensitisation campaigns about preventive measures were ongoing.

As a general medical cover for the games, the state’s 150 medical personnel included orthopaedic surgeons, anaesthetists, physiotherapists, pharmacists, 45 paramedics, nurses and other auxiliary staff ready to provide medical services for the about 11,500 athletes and coaches as well as spectators expected. There were also 30 mobile medical units stationed at the different sporting arenas, supported with 10 ambulances with effective communication system to go around the different game centres.

The DSTV sports channel Supersport Nigeria was named the host broadcaster for the festival with the plan to have the opening and closing ceremonies, including finals of the football event for men and women and major events in track and field, including the men and women’s 100m, 4x100m and 4x400m relays, beamed live to Nigerians and the entire African continent.

Four days before the games were to begin, the honourable Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, visited the facilities to see their readiness for himself. His praised the Edo State government for the turnaround in facilities within a few months. His verdict was that they had raised the bar for hosting of sporting events in Nigeria. As he looked forward to a successful festival, the minister hoped that the competition would throw up talents for the country for future sports events.

With the start date imminent, the government, which had amended the State’s academic calendar to accommodate the games, ordered the closure of all public and private schools from Monday, March 23, 2020 to April 2, 2020, across the state to allow residents to participate in the sports fiesta.

No one knew what was about to happen.

The very next day, to contain the spread of COVID-19, President Muhammadu Buhari approved the postponement of Edo 2020, as a precautionary. It was three days to the start of the games.

The losses incurred by those who were set to begin the competition were huge as many things had to be booked before hand. But, the Federal Government was acting on the advisement of the health professionals, and as Honourable Dare explained, decided to err on the side of caution, despite the acknowledged readiness of the State to handle any medical *Continues online at www. thewillnigeria.com

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